May / June 100 Word Anonymous Challenge

[elvet]

Firebird


I'm not actually classed as an immortal, you know. That fire strike with which I go out would kill anything with the slightest claim to life, and sterilise the remains. It's just that…

Death can be impressive, even spectacular, but being dead's a drag. You know everything, everywhere, and can't do anything about it. Is it any wonder I go for immediate rebirth? The world is infested with evil I can eliminate, if I am alive to recognise it. And rewatching isn't quite as painful as mammalian re-entry into the system.

Poof, termination over.

Overall, a good heroic compromise.

 

[elvet]

Tithonus, I​

Of course I'm still around - where else could I be?
Ten thousand years of decrepitude, three quarters of a million summer evenings spent chirping my admiration to nymphs, goddesses, or even the occasional pretty human.
Recounting the same boring stories that were old in my youth, telling the same jokes that weren't funny then, and haven't improved over the millennia. Worse than the pub know-it-all.
Those born immortal have largely faded into dreams by now, unlike those receiving it as a gift. Empires have passed, gods forgotten.
Don't ask gods for favours, particularly, beware of Greeks' gifts.

 

[elvet]

Contact

42,731 days ago, the plague claimed its final victim on Nova Terra. That was the day my existence became much lonelier. That space bug wiped out everyone in the colony, except me.

For reasons still unknown, it made me unkillable. I only started to suspect it after 30 years without aging. After several failed suicides I knew for sure.

Contact among the various human worlds also died in that plague. I still don't know if any others survived. I sit by the radio daily, hoping for an answer.

"Nova Terra, this is Terra Prima. Come in Nova Terra."

 

[elvet]

What does it mean to die?

Marigold sat beside José on the roof of the old firehouse, same as every night. He liked to rearrange the cityscape to match the stars.

"How's your mom," he asked.

"Worse. The doctor says she won't be around much longer."

A skyscraper blinked, mimicking Corvus. "Where will she go?"

Marigold shrugged. "I don't understand, either. I picked through her head when the nurses weren't looking, but I couldn't make sense of what I saw." Bewildered, she began to blubber. "They told me she's going to die! What does it mean to die?"

The whole city went dark. "I don't know."

 

[elvet]

Charade

The air was heavy with the sounds of grief and rain yet to come. My eyes drifted lazily across the church I just entered, across the elaborate stained glass and the elegant pews. They landed on the casket at the end of the aisle.
"Was this whole charade really necessary?" I asked, my steps echoing in the empty sanctuary.
"What can I say? I enjoy the attention." A dark haired woman popped up from the velvet lined casket. Her crimson lips curved upward ever so slightly. "Is that a crime?"
"Faking your own death? It is a crime, actually."

 

[elvet]

Planck’s variable

At the end of the universe Kromos and Iastenes floated in space counting the seconds until the last quark cooled and time ground to a halt.

Finally, Kromos inarticulated. "That's it."

Iastenes clapped, “I enjoyed that one!”

“Me, too.”

“Particularly doughnuts. I’ll miss those most of all!”

“Hmm.”

After a pause of indeterminate space Iastenes broke the emptiness, “How about 6.62607016 × 10-34?”

“Hmm?”

“You asked.”

“Not yet.”

“Oh, drat! Was I too early? I’m never doing that.” Iastenes sighed, “I‘ll have trouble with causality.”

“Probably.”

The void settled again.

At distance, Kromos unspoke, “So, what’s next?”

 

[elvet]

The Afterlife just ain’t what it used to be.

The Engineer pulled the memory stick from the computer and the room was flooded with the sound of ten thousand GPU fans whirring up then dying down.

“So, it’s a con?” said the apprentice.

“Over-promise. Under-deliver. Whatever brings in the cash.”

“They’re not really… alive?”

“Gawd, no.”

The apprentice held the stick. 2.5 Petabytes to a human soul and a half million years in the seconds it took the network to run a simulation.

“So what does it do the rest of the time?”

“Mine Bitcoin, what else?”

 

[elvet]

Happy Ending?

“Perhaps we could move in together?” she says with a coy but uncertain smile.

I know she’s been waiting for me to suggest it. Subtle hints, unfinished sentences left hanging. I know she has a vision of us building a home, raising a family, growing old together.

I’m lonely, I yearn to say yes. I want someone to care for, someone to care for me. I want a family. And I love her so much. But growing old together?

Do I hurt her now or later? Walk away now or later? Or will she understand and take the risk?

“Look…”

 

[elvet]

Our Turn

The janitor was giving an impassioned close to his presentation.

“The creatures of the Anthropocene epoch will make their bid for immortality in the rock strata, like the trilobites, archosaurs, ammonites and dinosaurs before them. What record will humanity leave behind itself? A layer of compressed plastic forming a new power source? A jumbled collection of fossils, perhaps? Material evidence of a civilisation?

”A stronger warning than that is needed. I suggest high levels of gamma radiation.”

The landlord sighed. ”Agreed. Trigger the nuclear holocaust. Sorry, I’ll just have to be more careful next time. What a waste!”

 

[elvet]

The Challenge is now closed. The Poll is open, and will remain so for 5 days.