Glass Half Full

This was a strange piece, that was me testing out omnipotent narrator because I felt I had too many first person stories, and then I inadvertently made them more god like, but if god was a scientist running at live simulation model. It has more than a little judgment on our current society. What can I say, the education system is more than a little skewed.


Humans were a strange sort. A mess of contradictions, pack animals longing for independent validation.

They even knew it, and created proverbs to warn others of the coming peril. “Be careful what you wish for” and “may you live in interesting times”. Both about getting the things they wanted, but with the understanding that what they wanted, they would not truly enjoy it.

Most animals lived far simpler existences, even those such as dolphins which were no less intelligent that the humans. More so actually, but humans didn’t know that, as there was a limit to what dolphins could actually demonstrate on a human test of intelligence.

What was it that the humans said “If you judge a fish by how well it climbs a tree it will spend it’s entire life believing it is stupid”. Thats the strangest bit about them, that they came up with such profound and interesting sayings, and on the whole completely ignored them. This is why they thought they were smarter than dolphins.

Also its why they measured intelligence using a paper test, which only measures a specific type of intelligence, and even that not very well as a huge part of the test is, inadvertently, reading comprehension. It is true people with very high reading comprehension are intelligent, but if you haven’t learned how to read, you are not inherently stupid, youjust have lived with very different circumstances. This of course extends to standardizes testing as well, which is odd, because they don’t actually let the teachers hold the children back to actually learn the materia,l and be what they consider to be successful, no they simply push them along and then marvel at how they scored even lower the following year

The wise thing to do, would be to change the system so that it was more accommodating to actual learning, and not based on some outdated theories, but alas, it would be very difficult and one thing I had learned in my time, was that most humans were lazy.

Watching the dawn of human civilization was entertaining, they learned so quickly, and grew faster than I could have imagined. I admit to having to do a little fast thinking when I realized the the crafty buggers had managed to figure out how to escape their tiny habitat, and carefully relocated their little biodome into a large enclosure, where the other planets weren’t just a careful projection that they saw when they looked up at the sky.

I admit to going a little overboard. I actually put them somewhere so large, that if they managed it, they would be able to get to other “galaxies” and build entire colonies. I, of course, recorded everything, in case I missed something key, but each night I still had to go to bed, and sleep even if it did feel like I was at the most interesting part of their development yet.

The day I came out and saw them all, barely visible through the pollution they had created, I was more than a little surprised. The model was indicating overheating, somehow, while I was sleeping, they had managed to destroy their own planet. They were smart enough to realize that they had screwed up, and some of them were even trying to fix it. On the whole though, they were ignoring it, and then being mocked for doing so. I ran the projections, and knew it didn’t matter either way. They weren’t going to be able to fix this.

I looked at the now, excessive space that I had made for them, and hoped, desperately that they would be able to explore a fraction of it before they were gone. Or, that whatever evolved on the planet after them was far smarter. Maybe my sister was right, and I really should have stuck with the dinosaurs. They were pretty neat.

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Marked

This dark little piece is a continuation of last weeks story about the witch and her vengeance. It was inspired by the six-sentence-story prompt HARMONY, by girlontheedge, and a few comments that were made on last weeks story concerning revenge.


She scraped a slash across the four lines, and felt a pang of regret as she looked at the scratches that decorated the bulk of her cauldron.
She could remember like it was yesterday, when she had stepped into the pool of harmony to join the order, and the water of purification had turned jet black.
Apologies had been made as she was ushered to the door, and it had taken weeks of crying, begging, before someone would finally tell her why she would never be welcome, why the others would not so much as look at her.
The water had turned because her soul bore a stain, a mark of her her own making, telling all who could see that she had used the gifts she had been given for ill purpose, and nothing she could do would ever remove it, would ever make her what she was before, worthy.
She had gone home and carved the first scratch into the side of her cauldron, making a vow, then and there, if she could not be of harmony, then she would be of vengeance, and as she ran a hand across the hashed pattern on the cauldron, she realized that she had kept that promise far too well…

Sincerely Me

I actually haven’t watched Dear Evan Hansen, but the song sincerely me has been stuck in my head. I wrote this entirely based on the song and my interpretation of what was happened, but from the POV of his Mother. It is a little odd, but, well, this is what I assumed would happen, based on a single song.


The letter was ridiculous and obviously made up. The entire exchange bordered on the surreal, and the idea that this was supposed to be actual correspondence was laughable.

As she looked at his face, pleading and desperate, she realized how important it was to him for her to believe this. She wanted him to have friends, real friends, but she didn’t want to be one more burden that made him feel even more worthless than he seemed to.

So she smiled. “That’s great. I am so glad to hear that you reconnected with your friend. I have lost touch with so many people over the years, its good that you aren’t letting that happen.” She could see a flash of guilt, and she wanted to confront him, but then he just looked so relieved that she let it go.

She didn’t bring up friends again, and instead focused on making sure he was doing things he liked. She made sure that he ate well, and did well in school, and exercised, and was healthy and as happy as he could be.

Then it happened. He came home happy, bouncy, her boy again. She didn’t pry, and was happy for it, when she saw how much happier that made him. A week later he walked in and introduced her to his new friend, Evan, who just moved there. They were on a project together, and were going to work on that, and maybe play video games, and could they order pizza for dinner. Could Evan stay for dinner?

She felt a weight lift off her shoulders. He had a friend, finally, and not one he had to make up. So yes, Evan could stay for dinner, and they could order pizza. She would have ordered surf and turf if it would have gotten her son a friend, but pizza would have to do.

Vindicta

This incredibly dark little monster was inspired by the six sentence word prompt ingredient by girlontheedge. I immediately went to potion, but I don’t know when it went from potion to this little fic of revenge that is disturbing even to me….


The thorns dug into the soft flesh of her palm as she squeezed the stem of the rose, the final ingredient, a little too hard as she tried to decide if she was really going to do this.

It was overkill on her part, and she knew it, but the memory of his face as he mocked her in front of the crowd of onlookers, pretending as if their relationship had meant nothing to him, that she was just another notch in his bed post, it still made her blood boil.

She tossed the rose into the cauldron, regretting it even as she let it go, but it was too late now, the potion was made, and a small smirk crossed her face as the rising vapour turned to a thick cloud, forming shapes, sharp teeth and claws in the shadows before they skittered out the window.

There was no use in regret, it would change nothing, and James had made his bed, that bright sunny afternoon in the quad when he called her a-, well, he was not undeserving in this.

It wasn’t her fault, as she had learned far too late that with James, even saying no wouldn’t have stopped him, and if what the others had said was true, he was far worse when you didn’t go along with him.

She was pulled from her musings by the sounds of sirens, red lights flashing into the otherwise dark room, and she knew it was over, she wasn’t his first, but she had made sure, she would be his last.