"Have you eaten my shit yet," I yelled into the mic on my headphones. "Did you eat it up and say, 'Yum yum, thank you for taking a shit in my mouth'?"

I spawned in a town used for nuclear weapons testing and grabbed a light machine gun fitted with two hundred rounds of ammunition in a single magazine. I saw an orange house and ran to the back garden and laid prone with my finger on the trigger of the LMG. Russian military personnel spontaneously animated in front of the barrel of my weapon, and I shot them down.

"Eat it! Eat my ass."

Another would spawn, and I'd take him down too. I'd taken down an army in seconds.

In the comfort of my simulated warzone, I was a vicious combat veteran. Well-versed in over thirty firearms and tactical maneuvers. But when my office desk started to vibrate and the door caught fire and the roof started to cave around me, I sat at my desk and hoped that whether there was a heaven or a hell or reincarnation, I just hoped I'd respawn soon.

When I woke up everything was dark. I was standing in water that reached my shoulders, and my feet slipped off the ground as I stepped. A crack in the sky formed and light pierced my eyes. My eyes adjusted, and I turned and saw nothing but white walls around me that opened to an oval sky. It was a-- Um. A bathroom?

"No. No. No! NO! NO!"

We will watch this prompt thread with great interest.

[removed]

To whatever or whoever finds this note,

That was it, I stared off in despair as the very last space ship left earth and I wasn’t on it. I was left behind, stranded with whoever didn’t make it on either. They ruined our planet just to leave us all to rot and for what? So they might repeat the same steps on another planet? I pray for whatever planet that may be. My wife, my kids, my brother and his family all made it but I was left as the outlier. Now I sit in my house, on a street that used to be filled with people and passing cars.

Be alone this long has given me time to think about life a little bit more, to enjoy what’s around me. It took a few years but I finally saw the places that I had been meaning to see for so long. The Great Wall, the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, they were all beautiful. I know there are others on this planet that probably feel the same as I do, they left a lot of us behind. So many countries that used to be packed are now so sparsely populated.

I’m in the prime of my life but I have no one to share it with, my birthday is gonna be next month, guess I’ll spend it alone. Who am I kidding? This is my curse, I wasn’t a good brother, son, or father. I should’ve been better, I could’ve been better but here I am. I have no one to blame but myself for the situation I’m in now. They aren’t coming back, if they did it wouldn’t be in my lifetime.

By that point they’d have probably built a whole new society in some distant galaxy far, far away. I’m sorry Sandra, I’m sorry Michael, I’m sorry Brad, you were all my family and I took you for granted. I can’t do anything about it now but I wish I could’ve been there for all of you. My rations are running low so I’ll have to try and scavenge for more. There’s not enough food here anymore, I’ll just starve sooner or later.

I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry

Imagine Dragons - Bones.mp3

This was incredible. Also I hate you so much lol

Thank you!

I sat there and cried as a never ending line of gradeschoolers proceeded, single file, in and out of my Mom's room. Mother f###ers.

This is one railroad of a prompt

Destructor was one of the most powerful villains on the planet. He always entered a room with his spear that could slash through mountains , and armor that could tank supernovas . No one had ever really bothered to ask though, how powerful is he without that armor . No one except me .

I dared to ask , what is he without that armor.

When he landed on my house , crushing it beneath his feet. I decided to test my theory . See , I used to go hunting with my dad . I was really good in fact. I was So good he nicknamed me “oneshot “ because I was patient enough to wait for the single perfect shot.

That’s what I did here too. I waited till destructor broke out again. As per usual no one could really harm him. Heroes like Medusa with her eye blast or the woodsman with his Axe couldn’t even break his armor . It took them three hours until they finally managed to hang up on him . In the end it wasn’t some kind of super powered finisher that beat him. It was a stupid dog pile .

If it had ended here I would’ve just let him get dragged off to jail . However while the cops cuffed him and put him in the van. Destructor pushed a cop down and grabbed his spear . You could see the look of horror on every officers and heroes face. It took all their power to beat him the first time. But this was too soon. There was no time to relax , no time to breath , no time heal , no time to - BANG!

A single shot rang out . I didn’t even look back at my target. I knew I hadn’t missed . It was the perfect shot . Right through the throat and out the base of the neck. I didn’t use any special ammo. Just a single high caliber round . I didn’t even bother with a silencer .

The surprising thing was the fact the heroes were too shocked to respond. Warpspeed is fast enough to create speed portal behind her , yet she didn’t even move to my location. It’s not even as if they couldn’t find me. the chronicler’s ability to map any location meant that I should’ve been caught instantly .

Yet nothing. I took apart my rifle , cleaned up my hiding spot and walked away . In the news the next morning they said a rookie cop took the shot . They said he had no choice . This was apparently a better alternative than “mysterious sniper”. Which in my humble opinion I’m fine with.

To be completely honest . No one would know it was me if it wasn’t for the fact that the the Phantom Order put a bounty in my head . Now I have to defend myself . Last time I killed it was revenge . This time it’s self defense .

Although , rigging the family farm to burst into uncontrollable flames all while mowing down anyone who gets close with a shot gun, doesn’t seem like self defense. However my lawyer says that the people I killed were trained assassins. I had no choice.

Anyway, I’m posting this here on the hero helpline message board to ask for asistance . Is there any way to take out robots without super strength . I know that an emp works but if I did that I’d fry the power for the entire city. Is there like a trick to beating these things. Because shooting them isn’t really effective.

This brought tears to my eyes. Thank you for writing it.

I'm getting more Worm vibes. It literally has a speech about heroes and villains being a big game of cops and robbers.

John Oldman goes full dictator

It likes that.

It gains power from that.

[removed]

Had it been two months already? She hoped that Serel and Gertie and everyone else were doing well, that they had enough sense to keep their heads down and their non-human bits hidden deep until those battle-crazy fools had left, making sure that her “evil siren influence” had been fully purged from the populace before they left.

She did understand it, though. If she really were a proper siren, and really had enchanted the people of the territory, these two months were necessary. Otherwise, someone still under her influence might do something silly, like try to free her. It was already considered mercy that they let something they saw as so dangerous live.

A commotion came from below. Odd. It wasn’t time yet for the silent jailor to deliver the daily meal that couldn’t really be called a “meal.”

“EH?” she thought she heard Serel’s voice shriek. “You mean you bloody sods put her in here?” How odd. She must be hallucinating. Elenor settled further from the broken roof, from the patch of grey, cloudy sky she could see out the hole. Maybe it wouldn’t be the starvation or the exposure that would kill her first. Maybe it would be the loneliness.

The commotion drew closer, seemed to stop outside her door. Something jingled, rattled.

The door to her tower cell flew open.

“Eh?” It was Serel. Really, truly Serel.

“My lady!” she cried. She rushed in, worried, a little haggard, hands reaching out to check every inch of Elenor for injuries. “Are you all right?”

“As well as I can be,” Elenor replied, pushing the hands away. “But why are you here? Aren’t you being babysit by those… those…”

“Yeah, it was a pain in the rear end to have to watch our step for two months. But then finally, Gertie and I and some others couldn’t take it anymore and gave them a piece of our mind. The imbeciles even tried to convince us we were still under your thrall, but after laying out the facts, they realized how ridiculous that was. We then coerced—eh hem.” Serel coughed, looking away. “We then asked them nicely to show us where they’d stashed you. I’ll be the first to admit I’m an excellent secretary, but it’s a mite hard to run a territory without a good lord.”

Suddenly, Elenor felt herself lifted into the air.

“Cave Fish, aren’t you lighter than when I saw you last?” Her head swiveled. Minotaur. Rozz.

“You, they said you were dead!”

Rozz nodded. “They thought I was dead. Turns out they underestimated the sturdiness of us mutants quite a bit. So I played dead, and when Gertie came around to check on the ‘body,’ she figured out I still had a pulse and secreted me away in the kitchen.”

Elenor’s breath hitched. If Rozz was alive, maybe… But she couldn’t hope. It would be all the worse after she’d already grieved their passing. “And the others? What were the casualties?”

“None,” Rozz whispered. Elenor clutched her cloak, vision blurring. “Everyone who might have died remembered what you said. Dying isn’t worth it. So we hid or vanished or fled or played dead. Gallae was the worst off, that mage of theirs lobbed a fire spell her way right as she was about to flee. That tree trunk was unconscious and still smoldering when Gertie found her.”

Elenor laughed. It was harder to see now. The tears were coming faster. “All of you?”

“Yes. We’re all fine. Just waiting to fetch you back. Can you walk?”

“I doubt it.”

“Well I suppose my muscles have to be good for something. Hold on, Cave Fish.”

It made for a very strange sight that day, as a tall, burly minotaur gently carried a laughing, sobbing siren out from a tower prison, followed closely by a short human. As the minotaur and his passenger walked away, the human paused by a group of three “heroes” who hovered awkwardly at the edges of the scene.

“Your cooperation was appreciated. Now, considering the damage you’ve done to our territory and its people, we’ll have to kindly ask you to leave.”

“Miss Serel,” a woman at the front with a sword protested.

Serel’s gaze turned sharp. “I know you still think they’re monsters, that she’s a tyrant. But actions speak louder than words, don’t they? You may not believe me, but she is the best lord we’ve had in ages. So I want you to watch as she grows this place into something truly amazing, as she proves that you’re wrong about her, that you’re wrong about everything. Now. Let me ask you to leave once more, and then I will no longer be asking.”

The woman with the sword hesitated. “Very well.”

As a party of three “heroes” left towards the territory border, another party of three "monsters" moved in the opposite direction.

They had work to do, after all.

r/chanceofwords

For the first time in a long time, Elenor could see the night sky. How long had it last been since the work of running a territory hadn’t kept her up far into the night and sent her crashing into bed like a log as soon as she could tear herself away? It was beautiful, patches of dark and constellations of light painted across the void, just like she remembered it. Just like it was when Rozz first showed it to her.

The lump reformed in her throat. She buried her face deep in her knees, in the tattered remains of her cloak. “Stupid minotaur,” she muttered. “I told you it wasn’t worth your life. Any of you.”

She curled deeper into the corner of the cold tower. “Why did no one listen?”

The sky stole her gaze again. The legends said that the stars were the eyes of the dead watching over the living. That the brighter you lived, the brighter your eyes would be when you died. Were they already up there, watching?

If they were, they had to be the brightest stars in the sky.

“We were supposed to grow old, and then follow each other up like dominos after we were done with our work.” She laughed a little, grinning at the sky. “Although I suppose if I stay locked up in this prison, I won’t be long either. Bets on if it’ll be starvation or exposure?”

She reached up, trying and failing to touch the stars, to reach the dead that were beyond her grasp. “Yeah, my vote’s on starvation, too. That fish blood means I’m far too hardy to die of something like exposure. Keep an eye on me until then, will you? Sorry I couldn’t finish making the place we always wanted. Just wait for me. Surely some enterprising soul will share our dream and then all six of us can bless them.” The stars blurred before her eyes. “The blessings of six half-powered mutants who died too early should be worth something, right? And then there will finally be someplace where no one will call the people like us monsters…”

She knew she was dreaming. She had done this frantic search before, knew now that her mother’s amulet, the Protection of the Sea, the one thing that could have made everything end differently, was under the desk. But she couldn’t do anything, couldn’t change the series of events even as she lived through them again.

The doors to her office burst open to admit a group of three. She whirled, hand going to the sword at her side. It was only the second floor, and her office had a window. She could fight them off, find an opening, and then leap out the window when she got a chance. There was no shame in running. Besides, she’d told everyone else to do that, too. Penelope might have wanted to finish the fight, but she’d hammered it into that hard-headed harpy that fighting was bad if it meant dying. The person at the front of the group spoke.

“Your generals are dead, Siren. It’s time to end your tyranny, once and for all.”

Siren.

The word stung, even after all these years. She wasn’t a siren, not even close. Her mother’s family had been very clear about that. Even a drop of human blood was enough to dilute siren magic into near unusability. And worse. She was a full half human. As they liked to remind her, for all that she looked and sounded like a daughter of the sea, she was little more than a waste.

And her “generals.” Did they mean her friends? Were they…? Her eyes fell on the weapons carried by the group. Blood coated the edge. She… she could smell it.

That blood. It belonged to them.

Her mind blanked.

“We’ve sealed the powers of your voice, Siren!” She jolted back to consciousness at the words of the magician in the back. “Your greatest weapon is useless, and after two months, the innocent people will be free from your monstrous influence! If you surrender without a fight, no one else has to die!”

No one else would die? Did that mean they’d spare her secretary, Serel, who was bitten by a vampire when she was ten? Did that mean Gertie, the doppelganger running the kitchen who just wanted to be a world-class chef would be safe?

The sword-bearing woman at the front rolled her eyes. “Shut up, Varg! Do you really think that would make the evil tyrant surrender so easily… huh?”

Elenor unbuckled her sword belt, let it fall to the ground. Tried to choke back the tears that were suffocating her. Rozz, Ilt, Keffer, Penelope, Gallae, and who knows who else were dead, but no one else would be. She raised her hands.

It was an easy choice, wasn’t it?

She awoke, and was soaking wet. She turned her face upwards, the little impacts of raindrops pattering across her cheeks. She had fallen asleep under the stars again last night, talking to her friends. It was a silly way to deal with grief, wasn’t it? Reminiscing like they were right there next to her, like they could ruffle her hair again, laugh, and drag her outside, joking that if she didn’t get out more, people would start to think she was descended from cave fish instead of sirens.

Elenor wrapped the sodden cloak around her more securely and edged under a section of the roof that was actually intact. Being wet wouldn’t necessarily make her sick, but the rain depressed her.

It meant she wouldn’t be able to see the stars tonight.

I used to look up to the stars on clear summer nights. Out in the countryside, you could look up and see those beautiful stars without the lights of the city ruining the view. I had always wondered if there were other worlds out there, worlds filled with their own people, nations, beasts, land, and needs.

Tonight was really the first time the skies had been clear since I started my journey. Perhaps it was this night that really made this all real. The stars were nothing like the stars of Earth. No constellations I could recognize, no planets that I could remember, and two moons with an amber hue reinforced the otherworldly feel of this place.

“Cecilia!” A masculine voice called out to me. I didn’t answer. “Cecilia! Where are you at?” A glimmer of fire rose from the man’s fingers to light up the area. He didn’t seem too concerned, so I offered a little wave of my hand in response.

“Just over here. Looking up at the sky.” He wandered over to me and extinguished the light in his hand.

“Oh yeah? Is the sky on your home world different from ours?” Rilec took a seat beside me and joined me for a few moments. “I have heard that every world is a little different. The stars aren’t in the same places, and the moons are always unique too.” In the dark, the man looked unremarkable. But in proper lighting, his elven appearance was a shock, to say the least. Reminded me of playing too many video games as a kid.

“Yeah. Those moons? On my world, we’ve got only one. And it’s usually a pure white color.” What was his deal, anyway? You’d think my little handler from the Republic’s government would be a bit more…educated on the ways of my world? I know I’m far from the only person they’ve summoned across space and time. So…how much do they really know about me?

“Oh, by the way. Were you hungry?” Rilec smiled and gestured over to the campfire. A couple other members of my adventuring team were already gathered around it. “I think the stew’s just about ready.” My stomach growled. It did smell pretty good…

“Yeah, I’ll have some…” A piercing howl filled the air. I froze on my little patch of dirt.

Rilec’s eyes went wide. “That’s…that’s not good at all. Dire wolves, by the sound of things.”

I gulped. Great. We’ll be dead within a week of starting our journey. I didn’t even have a weapon to defend myself. “Can you fend them off? None of us are armed yet!”

He looked at me for a moment, then looked over to the campfire. “Amelia, Ricardo,” He paused to look at me. “Cecilia. What weapons would you like to use?” My fellow outlanders looked bewildered. No doubt they had barely even thought about acquiring a weapon. After all, what are we going to do with weapons? We’ve never even used them before!

I choked out the first response. “Give me a sword.”

Amelia answered next. “Some sort of spear or lance?”

Ricardo shrugged. “A bow and a quiver full of arrows, I guess. What are you even getting at here?”

Rilec nodded. “I had hoped to not deploy such a valuable tool so early, but I’m afraid we won’t make it out of here if I don’t use it.” He pulled out a little satchel filled with small, glowing orbs. He held them out to us with concern filling his eyes. Another howl filled the quiet air, but this one was much closer. “I can’t explain everything in detail, but here’s the deal: There are powerful tools that we call Wishes. They allow you to manifest your heart’s desire and protect the ones you care about. And if the gods find your wish acceptable, they will grant you a boon. Think about the weapons you wish to own. Then crush these Wishes in your hands and they will be replaced by the weapons you need. Weapons far more powerful than anything our blacksmiths can forge. They won’t last long, but they might give us the strength we need to survive.”

His instructions were quite simple, in truth. Easy, really. I followed them to the letter and felt a surge of wind in my hand where the Wish once sat. A sword filled my hands. The blade gleamed with the beauty of a blade that had never been swung. My comrades’ weapons manifested as well through this strange system. Perfect. Now we’d…

I heard a snarl behind me. Oh no. I turned around to see a massive wolf, perhaps twice my size, staring me down with murderous intent. In the dim moonlight night, I could see little save for its glowing red eyes. I held my sword steady (it was shockingly light) and pointed at the wolf with a threatening gesture. “Stay away from us!” I shouted, and somehow a gust of air shot forth from the blade towards the direwolf!

“The Antlia Pneumatica!” Rilec gasped. “Incredible. I’ve never seen someone summon that sword before!” Despite Rilec’s surprise, the dire wolf seemed to only be angrier now that I had broken its approach. More snarls surrounded us on all sides. Perhaps eight beasts in total. Crap. I held the sword firm. I would need more than gusts of wind to fend them off.

“First one to four kills wins twenty bucks?” Ricardo spoke up with a grin. His bow was glowing with a fiery light. He took aim and began to shoot. I really don’t think that’s such a good…

“You’re on!” Amelia chimed in with an amused laugh. Her lance had some sort of ice crystals growing on the surface, and she launched a few icicles towards the beasts.

I couldn’t pay attention much longer though. A dire wolf leaped at me, hoping to rip out my neck while I was distracted. Rilec stood back, apparently unable to fight, and somehow I managed to hold the beast back with my sword. I swung at the beast with a rapid, unsteady twirl, and somehow the beast was beaten back with every swing. “This is incredible!” I couldn’t help but exclaim.

These massive wolves were no match for our team with these weapons. I managed to slay another one of the wolves and took out a third for good measure. A lunge, a slash, and a thrust were all it took to take them down. I knew no sword techniques, but somehow, the blade guided my hands right where they needed to go.

The brief battle was soon over, and I looked down at the blade to gaze at it further. If I had a blade like this…I could…I paused right in my tracks. The blade had a little inscription on the surface. I couldn’t make it out until the weapon began to glow. Rilec offered some helpful commentary. “It looks like they’re being reclaimed by the gods now that you’ve won. But there’s no doubt in my mind. The gods have chosen you all to do great things.”

As the sword began to disintegrate, I was able to make out the inscription. “Made in China”.

At first, my brain didn’t register what that was supposed to mean. “Made in China?” I asked out loud, prompting my fellow outlanders to stare at me in confusion.

“What?” Ricardo asked out loud first.

“The sword, it said it was ‘Made in China’.”

“No way.”

Rilec offered an impassive shrug. “All Wishes are Made in China. I don’t know what it means, but it’s always been that way.”

This makes me think of that M. Night Shyamalan movie...

The Village!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Village_(2004_film)

Punisher kills the Marvel universe as well

I read this twice before I realized the word 'phoenix' isn't actually anywhere in it. It's cool that you managed to imply it so strongly.

Also chaparral is a really fun word.

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Villains, heroes, where even was the line?

More importantly, did it even matter?

Sure, they make a good show of “saving the civilians”, but in reality?

How many had died? Not the big showy rescues obviously, the smiles and waves for the camera, the over the top sobbing gratitude.

That’s the ones the media, the government, the heroes, ffs even the villains wanted you to remember.

The car that was torn in two by the hero in pursuit of the speedster villain, the roof collapsed on a family when a flyer was knocked out of the sky.

Not me. No tragic story for me. But I saw them. I lived my life quiet and watched…and the things I saw. The broken families, shattered lives.

Now…not every super is bullet proof.

It had just never occurred to anyone to even try.

Tired of seeing the broken, knowing I wouldn’t be missed, why not me?

I’d lived a quiet life and acquiring what I needed was easy. The rest was ridiculously simple. Heroes love to grandstand and it makes them…well, easy targets.

It wasn’t my intention to start a revolution.

That was a couple years ago.

You don’t see supers on the news anymore, villains either. Not unless we manage to intercept one anyway. They’re mostly hiding. That’s okay. We won’t stop til they’re gone.

[removed]

This prompt reads like it was written by a Civ player