Cool story, it's funny

"Captain what's this on the fruit knife? "

"Oh heavens, I forgot to wash it, that's my blood of course. "

"Why is it glowing?"

"What are you on about, that's what it always does, wouldn't be blood without the glow would it"

The crewmate shifted his eyes back and forth between the captain and the glowing fruit knife.

"Your blood glows? CHRIST it's floating now! That's not normal! I shouldn't have to be the first to tell you that blood doesn't look like bloody molten metal!"

"Of course it looks bloody it's my blood after all."

By this point the glowing fruit knife had started to drip "blood" upwards.

"Right, so walk me through this."

"Yep"

"Your blood is metallic, drips upward, and glows?"

"All blood does."

"Right you're off your rocker. You even human Captain?"

"Of course I'm human, I get cut by fruit knives just the same and bleed just the same as you."

"Hell , if that's normal I must be the king of Mars. No sense figuring you out, I'm going to go figure out the bottom of a bottle instead."

As the crewmate walks off a faint " I swear if this is the third "deity" I meet this week I'm ejecting my dorm module...."

The captain, simply enjoyed his oranges alone in the mess hall.

[removed]

Dhennos Whitevayne thanked the gods. At long last he'd found somewhere to break his fast.

The previous night had been the worst. Chronic pain had chosen to reassert its hateful dominance, thus keeping the former warrior up for veritable hours at an end.

(Translated from Greek). "{Barely three hours of sleep, two pulled muscles, including a hamstring, and the gods-damned fatigue...}.

The coffee shop was small by city standards. Unlike similar establishments, there wasn't much of a queue this early in the morning.

"{It shouldn't take long to order something light before starting the day in earnest.
Thank God for small mercies, I suppose...}."

Barely six or seven minutes went by before Dhennos reached the counter. No sooner did he make to speak when he noticed something amiss about the employees.

"{The auras around them... the scent of their blood...}."

He had to investigate. Nevertheless, the confrontation would have to wait till after the breakfast rush. Determined to keep up appearances, Whitevayne ordered a triple chai latte and a ham, cheese and egg sandwich. Having paid for his order, the former warrior addressed one of the employees nearby.

"Excuse me... I would like to speak with the owner."

"Is something wrong, Sir?"

"No, it has nothing to do with my order. He's a friend of mine from back in the day, and I'd like to swing by and catch up on old times."

"Then I guess you're in luck. Mr. Halarios should be coming by tonight after closing time."

"Good to know; I'll be back later, then...

With that, Dhennos broke his fast and headed out...

Later that night...

The moment of truth had arrived. As soon as the last customers stepped out, Whitevayne reentered the shop through the front door. Much to his relief, the one he sought happened to be right in front of him.

"{It's him, alright: olive skin, African hair, brown eyes... flawless disguise, if I say so myself}."

"We're closed for the night. Come back tomorrow."

The man had spoken with a slight Greek accent similar to that of Dhennos. The former warrior didn't budge. The younger male carried on with cleaning for some four or five minutes before a stern Whitevayne spoke.

"That won't work, boy. You can't scare me away with the silent treatment."

The owner wasn't amused in the slightest.

"Boy!? I'm as old as you!"

"Give or take a coupla thousand years, Mr. Halarios..."

"Is there a purpose behind your visit, or did you just come here to bend my ear out of shape?"

"You already know the answer to that... Asclepios."

The owner stopped what he was doing. Having called on another employee and instructed her to continue, Asclepios signaled for Dhennos to join him at an alleyway outside. Once they were alone, the owner turned to the former warrior.

"Why are you here? Are you keeping tabs on me, making sure I won't misbehave?"

"Not at all. I came by this morning and noticed something odd about your employees. Good to know these senses of mine are just as keen now as they were over six-thousand years ago."

"You sensed they were sang maudits, didn't you?"

"Don't be too hard on them. They're young, still learning. You know it's impossible to give me the slip for long."

"You still haven't answered my question. Why have you come here?"

Dhennos sighed.

"Are we alone? May we speak in our true guise, uninterrupted?"

Asclepios nodded. In less than a breath, the pair shed their human disguises, revealing their true forms as anthropomorphic dragons. Though Asclepios stood a rough seven feet, Whitevayne still towered above him.

"Four luminous reptile eyes, the color of sapphire and amber... it's you, alright, new body notwithstanding."

"You are really testing my patience, Aristion. Why did you seek me out?"

Aristion sighed.

"There it is... that same old hostility. I don't blame you for feeling that way, though.
Look... I've been thinking long and hard since our latest encounter. I have come to realize I owe you an apology... several, as a matter of fact."

"You, apologize? What for, pray? Which one among your countless sins is keeping you up at night?"

"Don't be like that. Asclepios... I have wronged you... I have sinned against you in the worst possible way. I... I blamed you for what happened to Alexandros. You were telling the truth all along: his death was not your doing. The Dread Emperor and his forces are to blame. I sort of knew it already, yet I was much too angry and bitter to admit I'd been wrong."

"And what's your point? You want my forgiveness?"

"That would be nice... but I don't deserve it. I'm well aware of that. Asclepios... I blamed you for so many things you didn't do, things that were beyond your control. I... I made your life a living hell for so long, all for nothing."

Asclepios scowled.

"Don't give me that. I was far from innocent myself. I performed dark magic, needlessly slaughtered countless fellow sang maudits for all the wrong reasons... the Dark Holy Sword was right to forsake me. All this time... I thought the lad hated me. ... he did it... to save me... so I wouldn't follow in the fiend's steps. I can still see it, Aristion: the mangled bodies, reeking of blood, already dead or about to breathe their last. beloved... she bought him some time, but it wasn't enough. And then I found him... near-death. He told me I was the world's last hope, that I had to complete the ritual lest all should be lost. The way he looked upon me, the way he spoke: 'You have to, Papa. Please... don't let him hurt anyone else.' He... he was so scared, yet he still... and I... I..."

Asclepios wept. Aristion seized his opportunity.

"I know it hurts. You still carry guilt over it. We both know what it's like to lose a son, to lose someone we love. Asclepios... you mustn't blame yourself. Ibrahim was right: if you hadn't completed the sword, there would have been no way to stop him. The nations of the world would all have fallen; billions would have perished. Your son realized that. I... I am as much to blame as the Emperor, if not more so. He... he used me, and I... I blamed you for it."

"None of that; that is his sin to bear, not ours. Defeating him, killing him again and again... that was my life for millennia. I... I stole the lives, the futures of so many, reduced them to pawns to fight an endless war. My rage, my revenge... I nearly lost everything to it."

"You and the Enclave have saved this world countless times. What's more, he saved you. The boy is good... just like his father..."

Asclepios sighed.

"There's still lots of work to be done before we close. I don't have to come in tomorrow night. What say you we continue our talk over supper? I wish to introduce you to my beloved and our hatchlings."

Dhennos smiled.

"That would be wonderful."

"Good; you already know where I live."

"Same here."

The pair shook hands.

"Until tomorrow, Manuel Galerios."

"Until tomorrow, Asclepios Mavrós."

[removed]

[removed]

Right, like how ya gonna make the intern go in, lol

James walked into the coffee shop, getting away from all the city noise. Walking up to the counter he fondly looked back on the quiet days of his youth, so many thousands of years ago.

"I'll have a large spiced chai latte, with almond milk please."

The barista, who James hadn't really looked at, just stood there silent. It was at that moment he finally saw who was taking his order, Antoninus Crassius.

"I thought you died on the Isonzo front!" A flabbergasted Jaymes blurted out, luckily there were only a couple of obviously stoned teens in the store.

"That is absolutely ridiculous, we're immortal and can't really die. Also we don't have chai lattes."

"What? But it's right there on the me-" looking up at the menu for the first time, James notices that there is only coffee on it. "Scheißa! Well, I guess I'll just go somewhere else for my chai latte."

As James started towards the door Antoninus called out, "Have a wonderful day." And with that James stepped back out into the noisy street looking for another coffee shop on his phone, grumbling in thirty different languages.

The joker is one dude that probably is still prepared for what's comming

The coffee shop looked pretty typical from the outside. Opening the door however, it had a spicy fug that took me back to the bazaars of Samarkand in it's heyday. The sent of coffee and rich tea blends had me recalling a happier time of exploring and sampling the many vendors with my wife. They bore me now as to the counter, my feet barely touching the ground as I drifted forward. It was like going home.

I suppose the cashier he asked for my order but my brain long and far away must have responded in Avestan because he was shoved aside and there she was. And there went my mood.

"Hi" I tried. "Nice place you got." The shop was dingy and the furniture worn but damn it, now I really could do with a drink.

"Don't 'nice place' me, you have some gall coming in here. What do you want." She glared at me.

So many ways this could go if only I could find the words to connect the 'now' to the backstreets of 'then'. I'd like to say her ire abated, that we sat, drank soma and reminisced. Or that I said something witty but as she would say, that would require wit.

I smiled bemusedly and ordered a chai latte. Maybe next time.

Agreed

I like this story but the ending feels rushed

Thank you for your submission; it has scored 13 points!

Xarlix looked at the puny human in the cantine queue as always stuck in his suit.

"So what's up Tom ? Still in your big giant walking Condom ?"

Whatever a condom was - something human did not like to be compared to... The human immediately changed his camouflage, becoming a nice shade of red. A few smirk were seen outside, a few feelers curling. Bullying the human was so fun.

"It is named a biological separation suit! I told you hundred of times ! I am sick and tired of this cultural exchange program..."

Xarlix laughed openly now. Tom seemed distracted now taking his food from some sort of dispenser. Xarlix let discretely one of his lower pedipalp on the way of the stupid human-animal. The human fell down over. The whole room started to laugh loudly.

Xarlix looked at Tom and exclaimed "Still have not found your 'leg' on this ship, huh ?"

Everybody by now was clacking their mandible, some other rolling their tentacle.

"I broke my suit, you idiot".

The human was spreading now a cleaning tissue over a leaking red substance... What was it ?

Xarlix looked at the substance slowly dropping from the break in the suit, smirking.... Then his smirk stopped.

Xarlix looked nearer. Sniffing.

"gee got a scratch now" and started to clumsily close the suit, swipe a cleaning cloth over the opening.

The cloth now was covered by a ruby like substance.

The room suddenly went silent.

Xarlixs' Occeli were now trembling, recognizing in the spectra of the substances...

Recognizing...

This compound in the carmine liquid... It was...

Tom dropped the smeared cloth in the trash.

It was traces of Iron.

Lorvas the biologist asked with a trembling voice "I think your suit is leaking some thermal liquid..."

Tom looked at him and answered immediately "thermal liquid ? No this is my blood".

Lorvas tentacle were shaking a little bit. "surely you are joking Tom ?"

Tom looked surprised at the first time the Alien doc spoke to him using his name , rather than any other mocking monikers like "mammal". He shrugged , removed part of the broken suit and showed his arm.

"see : this is my blood , I just got a scratch".

Lorvas looked at the blood, then at Tom, and whispered "that can't be ... Do ... do you have iron in your blood ? Is it .... Accidental poisonning ?"

Tom looked puzzled. "No this is haemoglobin, our blood is based on cells containing iron to transport oxygen".

The silence in the room was deafening.

Then one after the other, the alien lowered their thorax, their body, their cephalothorax.... And stayed silent.

The days of the Galactic union were now ended. The human divine empire started on an obscure cargo ship.

Edited: thanks for the feedback

I enter the coffe shop and, as I stare at the balcony, I see someone I haven't seen in a very, very long time, and it brings me some bad memories. But time passes, and I'm not the type of guy to hold any grudges.

"Good morning. Can I have a Chai latte, please?"

"You..."

"I know, right? That battle 336 years ago... it's in the past. Let's just move on, Ok?"

"But how could I forget that?"

"I didn't forget that either... yet here I am, just ordering a Chai latte, as if nothing happened"

"Indeed... I did some wrong things... it's for the best if we keep these things in the past" He says after thinking for some seconds, while preparing the coffee.

"So... how has life been after all this time?"

"Well... I have a wife now. Some kids... Even though I will see them getting really old, it's nice having a family."

"Good. Glad to know that." Thinking about what Aarix just said, he really moved on. 336 years later, and I'm here, still alone. Considering this immortality as if it was a damnation, yet I could really do something to make it more like a blessing. I was supposed to be the hero at that time, yet now I'm more like the renegade. Yeah... tables turn.

"Here's your Chai latte. Enjoy it!"

"Thank you."

Oh that's good!

I'm a little confused. What actually happened here?

My bad

CH3 is not short for C2H6, it means something entirely different (usually it's the formula for a methyl carbocation, when written as CH3^+ ). Chemical formulae are not just ratios of elements, they also have information about possible structure and charge of the species involved.

Well, clearly it needs to be the One-Eyed, One-Horned, Flying Purple-People Eater.

Not to be confused with the One-Eyed, One-Horned, Flying, Purple People-Eater.

One comes in a variety of colors and eats Purple People, while the other is purple but is not picky about the color of its food.

Aww, that's sweet! The other guys suck anyway lmao.

[removed]

Gaia: "Of course I know talking to yourself can get lonely at times. I'm glad to have someone new here."

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A mind isn't made to change consciousnesses. Though he retains all memory and awareness as a man, his wolf mind is under stress to do so. Even she doesn't fully understand what she's doing