I laugh as I sit in a wooden cabin holding a cup of hot chocolate with a hubristic smile. I mock death, saying it’ll be beneath me now I’m immune, immortal. I was free of fears, I’ve done things people only dreamt of. I loved the life of dreams, but ofc it all had to come an end.

I hear a knock on my door, I didn’t think anyone was enough of a fool to come out here especially during the time of winter, but nevertheless I opened the door and saw my favorite person: the grim reaper. The big man himself. I honestly wanted to slam the door on his face, open it and then laugh at him but I felt nice and allowed him in.

his Eire presence should be enough to strike fear into even the most powerful men but I just had a smirk, a hubristic smirk. His face was covered like always, rolling my eyes I asked.

”so death what did you come here for? You just be obsessed with getting beat by me over and over again.”

death stayed silent, I rolled my eyes again and looked at him.

”your going to say something or what?”

”….your soul is withering.”

I sigh and repeat death with a mocking tone.

”uh huh yea once that happens give me the coin and I’ll get another life back.”

”you only live because your soul still exist, once it’s gone. So are you and the coin won’t be able to bring you back.”

I take this as just death pitiful attempt to scare me into giving up and finally accepting my place beyond the physical world. Ofc I just laugh, crying a bit from laughing so hard.

”omg! Good joke! Good joke death, idk why you ain’t a clown you got the jokes for jt.”

death then showed me my soul, and it was broken. Pieces of it gone and it twitching. I immediately got scared.

”make peace with yourself, for you will be seeing me for eternity by the end of the day.”

(The end….

I thought a poem would be nicer for this topic than prose, and I think it turned out quite well :D

Better left unsaid

This is beautiful. (⁠~⁠￣⁠³⁠￣⁠)⁠~

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The end of the world as we know it indeed

[poem]

This plane has been ravaged by spells and by storms.

To this day we scavenge to rebuild our forms.

The world is rebuilding from its deadly last age,

The mountains reform with a flip of the page.

Survivors have written in their diaries

Of the horrors they wrought that brought life to its knees.

Generations to come should act better, they say

Lest we get a repeat of the horrid Last Day.

From dragons to faeries, we all slowly healed

And ventured outside to recall how it feels.

The infinite chasms that were marring the lands

Are slowly refilled with all our helping hands.

The manticore sat next to mortals in peace

Only once they’re all fixed will it continue its feasts.

The phoenix has risen, and so too shall the earth

To continue its cycle, from demise to rebirth.

Ah, I see what you mean now. Thank you for clarifying!

What I tried to do was have other people mention how she is violent -- I don't think a person needs to commit the acts themselves to be violent. Classic example is that one Austrian leader of Germany in WW2; as far as I'm aware, he didn't kill anybody himself, but few would claim he was non-violent.

(e.g., "even the birds knew not to sing. She wasn't in a vengeful mood but how could they know that?, "The family had kept the power to themselves" (brought up by the mention of voting -- in the West, a lack of voting is generally equivalent to a dictatorship and rarely a peaceful one), Calidan knowing that the Queen would be head him if he tried to retire, the group in the pub referring to her as a violent and a tyrant, etc.)

With this explanatory comment, does the story make more sense, or should more direct details still be added?

Oh, he is definitely desensitized. However... I got the impression that while he knows what he means by "water the daisies", I wasn't sure that she did. (Perhaps the euphemisms had been set up by her parents and no-one had ever explained them to her). So she starts telling this knight about a problem, and he just wants to go gardening. Of course she gets upset! But she angrily tells him to go water the daisies anyway, because someone needs to care for the garden.

When she mentions this village again later, he'll tell her that he already took care of it, and she'll accept that. She never hears of trouble from a place that he already took care of.

One day, she's going to figure out that he doesn't exactly leave smiling, happy villages behind him.

Can you say more? Evidently I did not make a strong enough case that Calidan has become desensitized to the violence that the Queen demands -- or maybe I made it so obvious that he was desensitized to it that it made him seem like the violent one?

I'd like to hear your thoughts!

Great Job! This was interesting!

More pls

"Oh hi, Beatrice. What did me in this time?"

Death's face is impassive, but I still got the impression she is glowering at me. She didn't say a thing, but reached out and handed me The Coin^TM .

I remember the first time I was handed The Coin^TM. The encounter was not what I expected. I thought I was supposed to take the coin in my mouth and give it to a ferry man who would carry me into the underworld. I guessed the stories were wrong.

She explained that if I could flip the coin and guess what side it would land on, I could go back in a healthy body with an age of my choosing. It was pure luck that first time. I was honestly surprised that there was not some trick to it, but somehow I won, and I woke up afresh at the age I was imagining.

Clearly, I couldn't let the second time to be chance..., but it was too. Those times were brutal, and I quickly died again.

The third time though... my eyes were open, the stories the priests told us were all wrong. I knew that now, but they could perform miracles, right? If they were lying about the stories, maybe they were lying about those miracles too. I had to find out. I had to learn their tricks. I joined the temple of Apollo as a devout. I gained their trust. I rose in the ranks. I devoted my self to the task, because I knew that as much as I hated this way of living, if I could learn what I needed, I would have all the time in the world.

And I learned. I learned how to make stones float and move by boiling water and using the steam that rose from it. I learned how to make things appear and disappear with my hands and by drawing people's attention toward the wrong things. But no one knew the secret I needed, how to predict a coin flip.

But I had this whole new vocabulary now, so I bent my mind to the task in private. This one trick had to be just for me. Eventually, I stumbled on the secret. A way to throw a coin aloft so that it wobbled just right to appear as if it was spinning, but to never actually switching sides. Once I could fool my own eyes, I tested on people. I even bet my own life once or twice. I was ready.

So, the third time and all the subsequent ones? They always came up the way I wanted. I make sure to alternate sides, but I always know.

I eventually asked death his name only to learn he was a she. At first she was amused, and we would chat for a bit before I flipped The Coin^TM , but I think she suspects. She just doesn't know how. That's how convincing my "flip" is. We don't argue about it anymore though. When I first stumbled upon the new mathematical concept of statistics I made sure to understand it. When she said what I did was impossible, I learned to say, "no, it is extremely unlikely, but each flip has the same 50/50 chance. Unlikely does not mean impossible." I eventually added, "you know some day, I'm sure my coin will come up too."

And it will. I don't think I'll want to live forever. But I am still not bored of living.

"Beatrice, before I flip, could we have some tea? I know that my luck irks you, but I hate to admit, you are the only constant I have left, and well, I value your friendship."

Oh man the mid 2000s American pennies always land on tails for some odd reason.

Bravo!!!

Now write the flipside from Death’s perspective!

Does death watch all his lives, or only after a few successful coins guesses? What happens when people choose not to play?

Cat

• 🥺

Thanks!

I like this

BROTHERS

"Heads again! What in Hades's Magnificent underpants are you using to keep winning this?"

"I'm starting to think this is rigged, when the hell can I be done with this shit and why is the upper limit of age 33,do you know the pain of living to 90 twice?"

"Then just lose once you bastard"

"Whats a loss? I, John" the great" Johnson do not know loss"

"Also could you please stop humming that shark thing song every day on your deathbed? I've had my internal ear replaced seven times on your account alone"

"do-do-do-"

"Just shut up and get back in there"

My now much younger visage was unceremoniously thrown back into earth. I was certainly young now, far too young?

"You didn't let me choose the age you asshole!"

"Sucks to suck. Your time ran out, enjoy your diapers"

“You can’t keep doing this forever, you know.”

“Heads, 27.”

“Look, I still have to say the words.”

“Do what you gotta do. Heads. 27.”

“Just… Ok, listen. I’m not supposed to do this, but if time worked like you think it works, then we’ve been doing this for literally two centuries.“

“It’s not enough. I’ve given it a lot of thought, going heads this time. 27 years old. April, 2003.”

“Alex, I need you to actually listen to me. She won’t remember you. She never does. All those other lives, the ones that keep you up at night, those are yours. Not hers. Each time you reset, she’s still the same. That glioblastoma is already forming in her brain. It’ll still bring me to her on the same schedule, 12 years into your marriage. Then she gets a coin toss, same as you.”

“I don’t need your therapy, I need you to flip that quarter in your stupid skeleton hand. Heads. 27.”

“Al, this isn’t right. Do you know how many universes you’re spinning off every time we do this?”

“Good. If there’s an infinite number of universes, then there’s one out there where she lives.”

“… I’m pretty sure that’s not how this works.”

“And even if she doesn’t, we still get another run. Last time we made it to Australia, got to dive the Great Barrier Reef. She saw a whale shark in the wild. This time I want to finally knock hang gliding off her list.”

“Al, Ellie is scared of heights. In every universe.”

“Which is why it’s on there, she wants to overcome it. But I wouldn’t expect you to know anything about fear.”

“I think it’s safe to say I know more about fear than any being that’s ever existed. Fear, and hope.”

“Ok, that’s fair.”

“But you’re still going through with this. Again.”

“Why, do you have a date? Let’s get on with it, flip the coin.”

“Whatever makes you happy.”

“Her. She makes me happy. Heads, 27.”

“Heh.”

“What?”

“That’s almost exactly what she said about you.”

Hell yeaa

...it's not the Queen who's the violent one, is it?

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