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Rain fell from the looming sky in a relentless downpour, washing away the joy from the people who mindlessly moved from one place to another. Giant skyscrapers completely covered in neon billboards and flashy advertisements stretched seemingly forever into the night above; every screen carrying plastic feelings. The never-ending electric buzz from the flying vehicles hovering over the neon skyscrapers was almost deafened by the thunderous rain; almost, but not quite.

The city was far too bright; and not in an appealing way. Centuries ago, during the Old World’s Era - as it was called - the City was almost as equally bright, but it’s glow was organic, natural. It originated from the truest portray of love.
Whenever soulmates locked eyes with eachother, electric sparks and glowing lights would fly from one’s chest into the other’s - forming an eternal bond of pure, liquid joy. It was nothing like the fake, mechanical, never-ending, neon glow permeating the city nowadays. It numbed people’s senses, leaving them blind to love.

Ever since the advent of technology, implants were created and love destroyed. Soulmates were no more; not even fairy tales.

Nathalie walked down the familiar street like she always did every night on her way to work. The woman was decently augmented by chips and cyberwares, and with the aid of the filters on her eyes she could easily estimate how much time and how much steps it would take for her to arrive at the Caged Sparrow - the night club located on the city outskirts, where she worked as a stripper.

But instead of paying attention to the relentless rain or how long it would take for her to arrive at her destination, Nathalie directed her attention onto the endless neon billboards adorning the city’s skyscrapers. They were different these days. Most of them still displayed annoyingly bright advertisement but a few billboards warned the citizens of Neon City about a Serial Killer lurking on the outskirts of the city - courtesy of NCPD who paid no mind to it’s citizens safety and didn’t even bother trying to arrest the murderous bastard.

The Violet Burner

That’s how people were calling the psychopath. Not because they dressed in purple or something like that but because they seemed to kidnap people by using EMP blasts, frying their cyberwares and making them leak Hyasynther - a neon purple electronliquid that powered the chips, implants and cyber augments of people.

The victims were displayed all over the city as if they were works of art, each and every one of them completely drained of their Hyasynther. Most of them ended up dead, but there were a few who survived The Violet Burner - not because of luck, but because the sadistic psychopath let them - and those were the unluckiest of all. Their bodies may still be ‘living’ but they weren’t really alive, no. Their brains were all messed up and ended up fried by the lack of Hyasynther to power their cyberwares.

“Great! Another psycho in this god-forsaken city.” Nathalie sighed. “As if the megacorps and the totalitarian NCPD weren’t enough.”

She hastened her pace, paying no mind to the never-ending buzz of machinery at flight or the thunderous rain, even thought said rain turned her silky, lustrous hair into a wet clump of brown. With the curves she had she could be bald - she could have no head at all! - and she would still be the most desired girl in the Caged Sparrow Club.

Only the most perverted, depraved members of Neon City attended the club after all.

After a few more minutes walking into the glowing, rainy night, Nathalie could already hear the Club’s music. Her blood pulsing in the same rhythm. Until a lacerating pain flashed in her mind. Music quickly turned into incomprehensible noises and the street drowned in neon purple as Hyasynther leaked through her eyes.

Endless darkness and nothingness followed right after.

(evolution happens super fast on Zell, don't question the number fudge... if biology was realistic then the time passed would be way too long for the ship to still exist OR the piho would still just look like humans and story > perfect science)

Roald Dahl?

I was an Earth historian, so I was perplexed that I had been asked to investigate an archeological find on a different planet entirely. Humanity had gotten situated on this world known as Zelutov-B90 (my partner Joq kindly informed me most people here call it "Zell") and now we were spreading out our influence. In our way stand the "Piho", 9-foot-tall alien creatures. They're intelligent and no friends of ours. There have been attacks on the human settlements on Zell for as long as humans have been on Zell. I heard that when we brought a Piho's body back to Earth for scientists to analyze, it caused a massive stir: not only do the Piho look vaguely human (if you look past them being 9 feet tall and covered in thick black hair to block out UV), according to science they're so close to Earth mammals internally it all but proves the existence of a God or some other kind of intelligent designer.

Apparently the find I was to investigate was some kind of spacecraft. It didn't look like anything Earth could build and the Piho weren't advanced enough to have built it so the scientific community was pretty much sending in anyone with any credentials to try to unravel the mystery of the ship.

"First observation; it's small. Too small for Piho, they'd be bent over like we was in a house for dwarves. Second observation, this is very well kept. Why?" That was Joq. She spoke the Piho-Kan language and was our interpreter, besides that she was a scientist. We and the Piho had been able to negotiate an unstable peace but Zell rules are always have someone who knows the language, especially if you go snooping around.

I answered: "A long time ago on Earth, there were primitive tribes who saw the technology of the more advanced civilizations around them, and worshipped them as the work of gods. Maybe some alien crash-landed here and now to the Piho this is the Temple to the Sky God or something. Would explain why it's maintained as well as it is."

"I don't know. Seems far fetched." Joq looked around. "Hey, Hoz? Can you take a look at these symbols? They look like they might be writing. Can you read them?

I looked at the panel she was pointing at. "CONTROL" was written in an ancient script.

"Those are Roman runes. Used from the first to the 27th century, one of the longest lasting writing systems. This is definitely a human ship"

"27th century?" Joq repeated in disbelief. "That means this thing is-"

"- At least," I continued for her, "5000 years old. I can't believe it. I mean, I'd always heard stories about how people used to be able to fly in the stars eons ago but I figured it was just a myth. I mean, this is huge! This is tangible evidence of human space travel in the far past! We're going to be famous!" I excitedly began typing into my computer descriptions of the ship - its appearance, size, controls, any writing. No such ships existed on Earth; anything old and metal had long since been recycled into new things.

Joq too was stunned. "I mean I knew this thing was old but.... That means this thing is 5000 years old and kept in pristine condition - by aliens who don't even have airplanes. Maybe what you were saying is true. Maybe they do think this is a holy place. If that's the case then we would be the gods to them! But they hate us.. it makes no sense!"

"They figured out how to keep the generator working," I said as the lights came on in the ship. "Course there's no fuel so they're not going anywhere, but hey, maybe the computer works!"

"5000 years old and the computer works?"

"Hey, 27th century technology was actually better than ours. If anyone would have a 5000 year old computer work, it'd be humans 5000 years ago. Gotta give credit to these aliens, they're smart fellows."

The computer was slow to turn on, but it did in fact work. The interface was written all in the Roman runes like on the CONTROL panel. "If this is written in the language I think it is, I should be able to read it"

"Which language is that?" asked Joq. I answered her. "Standard Creole. It's a mix of 27th century English, Spanish and Chinese. Basically incomprehensible to us, but it was the language of the world back then. And...." I opened up a document on the computer "It looks like it is! This looks to be the Captain's log."

"Well, go on and tell me what it says!"

"Let's see... I haven't had to read this stuff for a while, my studies are mostly on the 20th century and earlier. 'Mi dem no go frai bak a mi dem waad' - we're not going back to our planet.... 'aas du dem no kan go sta mas" - the Earthlings can't go to space anymore." I continued reading. "It seems like whoever flew this ship had the misfortune of being on another planet at the time of the Great Collapse. Earth was a barren wasteland and sending a spaceship back would have just meant more people on that rock to suffer. So the crew of this ship were basically told to fend for themselves."

"Do we know what happened? Well actually, considering this thing is right in the middle of Piho country, I'd say they probably got killed for some 9 foot family's dinner."

"No, the logs mention no sign of sentient life. Plants, animals, but no Piho."

"Far cry from now, where if you walk 5 feet you'll trip on a Piho's sacred rock and they'll shoot you for it."

As Joq was saying this her face contorted. "Wait, can you say that last sentence in the log again? The one with "aas du?". I did. "sta...," joq pondered. "Is 'sta du dem'" correct Standard Creole?"

"Should be. Means something like space traveler if I understand the language correctly." As I was saying this I made the connection. "Wait, what do the Piho like to call humans?"

"When they don't say "yuman" they say "tagu ren". I always thought it just meant foreigner but that's why I asked about sta du! When you were reading that Creole I almost felt like I understood it. Shouldn't be possible, it's a mix of 3 5000 year old languages - but I had the crazy thought, it sounds JUST like Piho Kan - like, their language."

"So..."

"Sta du dem, tagu ren... Oh my God. How do you say person in Creole?"

"I'm rusty but I think it's pipo. From the Ancient English world peo-"

"PIHO! PIHO IS PIPO!" She was more excited now than I was when I realized what the ship was. Not just excited, terrified, almost. "Piho Kan - what is language in creole?"

"It's either Krio or Tang-"

"PIPO TANG - PIHO KAN!"

"So the language sounds similar. Maybe the Piho learned it from these guys, thought it was the divine language or something."

"No, Hoz, I think this is something much bigger than that. There were no Piho when this ship crashed. The language the Piho speak is a direct descendent of the language the stranded humans spoke - like, what you said earlier about them being stranded? 'Mi dem no go frai bak?' That's 'Mi ren n'go pre baka' in Piho. AND the Piho are SO much like earth mammals it's been used to prove Jesus is real for GOD'S SAKE DON'T YOU SEE? THE PIHO are HUMAN!"

This was too much for me. "That's insanity."

"The Piho have stories about the sky being full of "gods" just like we did. I always thought they were myths just like you thought the stories on earth were. But no! They were telling the same story, of when Earthlings could fly to space thousands of years ago! Because THEY ARE THE EARTHLINGS!"

It seemed our yelling had caught the attention of the possibly non-alien aliens. Suddenly we were surrounded by Piho, arrows in hand.

"I'll handle this." Joq began speaking in perfect Piho Kan (which I had to admit, did ring a bell to my Standard Creole). "Please understand. We are not here to pilfer. We know this is an important place to you. This was where it all began."

"Where the end began, perhaps," said one of the Piho, probably a leader of some kind. "You - you tagu, star flyers, left us here to die. All because you ruined your planet. And now you come back to us, to repeat the same mistake that left us here in the first place."

"Well back then, there was no us and you - you were all human."

"There was an us and a them the moment that Earth told us we were no longer welcome. You are lucky we did not kill every one of you on sight. We only agreed not to fight in the hopes you might come to understand"

"We didn't even know who you were."

"You forgot us. It's easier to forget your evils than to confront the reality. We never forgot. For thousands of years we have told the tale of the men in the sky who left us to rot and how we persevered (Joq told me that the phrase he used, "awa kaweha ee" means "keep your head up") and turned this world into our own. It is not yours for the taking. You already took it over, just that you became us."

"We will need to tell our leaders about this discovery. Will you come with us to prove it to them?"

"I will - on the one condition that humans leave Mundus Nova forever."

As the ships of men left Zell over the following months, the Piho gave Joq and I permission to fully document the ship and its history for our knowledge. As we left for Earth, one thought came to mind - a harrowing one. "How many other planets do you think there are like this?"

"Like?"

"Places we abandoned our brothers in the 2600s, like the Piho."

"Oh, I don't want to think about it."

Alien furbabies.

I love how her just adopted lucius, and how the punishment would for him to decide on how to deal with them

Pratchett wouldn't have written those books.

Wow, I didn’t expected this ending

[removed]

[removed]

A great prompt and a great response! I want to read more from this world building :)

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My minions had done well. I sent them away with a well earned bonus, leaving me alone with two new victims. They had been affixed to a pair of stone slabs, iron bands locked around their limbs. I reached out to break the enchantment laid upon them, allowing their minds to return to consciousness.

With arms crossed I watched them stir. They tried to stretch, finding the bindings I had let them in. It was so good, watching the panic rise on their faces. I stayed quiet, as they looked to each other.

"Raspun?"

"Foela? Are you ok?"

"Where are we? What's happening?!"

The woman's voice was shrill. I winced, shaking my head. To think she had produced such mighty progeny. I clicked my fingers, causing the slabs to tilt upwards. I glowered at them, inwardly pleased at the horror on their faces.

"You are his parents? I was hoping for more. How pathetic."

Raspun stared at my shadow cloaked form, squinting. He spoke with trembling words, yet still understandable.

"W-who are you?"

I rolled my eyes, letting the purple flames crawl out. With that the recognition was obvious. He uttered the name he knew for me, utterly horrified.

"The Abysswalker?"

I grinned.

"So you aren't completely thick. Just mostly."

I began to pace around them, letting the slabs rotate to face me at all times.

"I admit, I am not a nice person. I have killed, robbed and ruined the lives of an uncountable number of people. Towns burn in my name, lives cut short at but a word I speak. Yet even I have not stooped to the depths you embrace."

Foela shook her head, her shrill tongue scratching my ears.

"Why are you doing this to us?!"

I stopped, glaring at her.

"For Lucius."

The name struck them both like a hammer. Raspun's pale cheeks filled with colour, anger slicing through his fear.

"What did that boy tell you? He is a liar."

I raised a hand, clawing it. Purple mist swirled around my fingers, as his body began to seize.

"He told me nothing. His memories however, they spoke of it all. How you starved him. Beat him. Used him like a slave. Did you know who he is? Did it cross your mind, as you spilt his blood, that he was the prophesied hero?"

I clenched tighter, getting a scream of agony in return. I saw the sweat dripping down his forehead, running through the lines on his contorted face. With a scoff I relaxed my grip, making him drop limply.

"It didn't. I know it didn't. You had one of the most important people in the world at your fingertips, and you chose to grind him down."

Retrieving a blue carved stone from my pockets, I set my thoughts on the boy I had taken in.

"Lucius, dear boy. I have something for you."

His soft way of speaking once made me smile, but now it made my heart ache. I knew the reason for it, and I could only feel sorrow for him.

"What do you have for me?"

I shot a smirk at his parents, as they hung there.

"A gift. The one I had promised you all those nights ago."

There was a long silence on his end, before he spoke with a level tone.

"Thank you. I will be with you in a moment."

Nodding, I gave him the cell number we were in. He ended our talk, and I looked back to his parents.

"I can think of many things I would like to do to you. But it is not my place to decide you punishment this time. It is his."

I chuckled as terror filled them. The one they had hurt. The one they had broken down, would be their judge. It was only fitting.

[removed]

The man is a menace to society.

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That's so smart. I would give you a million smart awards if I could afford it.

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

Reminders:

>* 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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This was awesome

"SEE? WE KNEW YOU WOULD TURN THIS INTO SOMETHING EVIL!"

"If you knew anything about time travel, you'd know you can INFLUENCE the past, but not CHANGE it. My point? I wouldn't have expanded the way I did on my own, but I made a deal with a company so they could keep you lot away from me!"

All that... for a dad joke?

Alien furbabies

That was a twist

and thus the shop is forced to turn into a ruthless megacorporation because you need the money to hire people and develop technologies to fend off and survive the constant stream of assassination attempts

'If a dollar was a chicken, would a chicken be evil?'

-- Samuel L. Jackson