Simple Sounding Question

She asked me a simple sounding question. 

But how to answer it without a long, complicated answer? How could I possibly tell the truth without explaining about all that came before her, all the pain and the mental scars that had developed because of it. How could I answer what she thought was a simple question honestly without baring everything that I was?

It wasn't possible. So I told her a simple sounding lie.

I sometimes think about where she might be now. I hope she's happy, truly. I'm not, obviously, but I wasn't before, so I'm used to it.

To Be The Best

"Great work team!"

As the kid put his fighting creatures back in their pocket homes, he turned to his defeated foe, still cradling their unconscious bug.

"You do realise you can have multiple fighters, right?"

The kid wasn't sure what came over them to say that, pity maybe, but they weren't prepared for the fury in the gaze they got directed at them.

"You do realise most of us have responsibilities that mean we can't travel around, nor the funds to feed a bunch of different creatures?"

The kid paused.

"Speaking of funds..."

The foe glared, reaching for his wallet.

Velvet

He came inside in a hurry, with the doorguy only letting him by since he was a regular.

'Velvet' was luckily just coming on shift, since the way he approached her, if she had been talking to anyone, they'd have been interrupted quite rudely.

"Hey Steve, how-"

"Was it genuine?"

'Velvet' blinked.

"I'm sorry?"

"Our... What we have. Had. Was it genuine?"

"Oh baby, I-"

"I need the truth. Please."

After a moment, Judy answered.

"I mean, you seem ok, but..."

He nodded, and then walked out.

After she saw the news, she was glad he accepted the truth elsewhere.

Not The Point

The Angel rubbed what I suppose was its temples.

"Ok, I think I understand how you got to Hell, and why Lucy got you to think up new punishments. But go over what happened next again."

"Sure, they gave me the remit to increase the pain generated in overall terms, ideally while also reducing expenditure. And as I explained, the fire and brimstone approach had rapidly diminishing returns, as opposed to the consistent spread of boredom and nothingness."

"Right, but then..."

"Well the lesser demons complained, they weren't having any fun.

So by switching to harvesting from them, production tripled."

Steer Clear

I had stayed alive by warning others of death.

That is, there would be a few small groups a month that would arrive on the island with grand designs to be the ones to final enter the caves and defeat the evil beneath it and claim the treasure. And I'd warn them not to. A few would listen, most wouldn't. A few would cast detection spells on me, thinking I was part of it, most didn't. But I wasn't, I avoided the caves like the plague, nothing to do with me.

I just lived off selling second hand boats, mostly.

Back

Back.

"-and you'll never-"

Jump to the left.

They shoot. They hit.

Back.

"-and you'll never-"

Jump rightwards.

They shoot, they hit.

Back.

"-and you'll never ever-"

Slide.

They shoot, they hit.

Back.

"-and you'll-"

Throw a knife.

They duck, they shoot, they hit.

Back.

"-and you'll never-"

"Can't we-"

"No."

They shoot, they hit.

Back.

"-and you'll never ever stop me, because-"

Turn to walk away.

They shoot, they miss.

I keep walking.

They shoot, they hit.

Sigh.

Back.

"-and you'll never ever stop me, because you're not the only one who can go back, you idiot!"

Wait, what?

No Problem

The Hero looked at the map and shrugged.

"Ok, so I grab the tornado and toss it out into space, easy."

The silence that filled the room was enough to pierce The Hero's self-assurance.

"What, we want it to hit the city?"

"Look, even if you can grab a-"

"Oh I can, anything I want to grab I-"

"Look, you can't just remove energy-"

"Sure I can, watch this!"

They flew off and did it before anyone could stop them.

To their credit, they did help in the clean-up after the entire weather system went haywire after they did it.

The Usual Cliches

"I never meant to hurt you, I-"

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

"Well, no, but-"

"But you want credit for not actively planning on breaking my heart. You want to be sure that since you're not the worst of the worst, that you get some degree of acceptance?"

"I... No, I'm just explaining-"

"I don't need or want an explanation. Unless you're claiming you were drugged or hypnotised or something?"

"Well...

No."

"And that pause tells me everything I had left to ask. Goodbye then."

"Wait, I-"

"This another cliche?"

His silence was all the answer needed.

Regaining Connections

He logged in and clicked on the connect button with all the enthusiasm and vest for life of a piece of roadkill spread across two lanes.

The various AIs and networks all logged in with one of the half dozen phrases they had in their databanks as cheery, personable greetings.

Except one, which just delivered a sad message about needing... Cheese?

He paused mid slurp of Indonesian energy drink and looked into it.

It was connected, data was flowing, but the message section was damaged, and all the flags were wrong.

He deleted the error messages and left it alone.

The Big Fight

For all the prophecy and foretelling about the battle between the Dark Two and the Heroes of Brilliance, none of it was about the battle itself. Admittedly, given none of it addressed the outcome either, people focused on that more than the logistics of the fight.

But of course, all the attempts to prevent or influence the fight just led to it occurring, because predeterminism is gonna predetermine.

And the result, well you're aware.

But as for the actual fight itself?

From the outside, it looked like they just stared at each other a bunch.

But actually... Pretty much that.

Sally Fire

The fire wasn't much, but it kept the worst of the cold away.

As he sat warming his hands, a figure approached from the other side of the flames.

"You the Marshall?"

He stared at the figure as he moved a hand closer to the fire.

"Who's asking?"

The figure moved a little closer, so the Marshall could see their face, and the gun.

"The woman you've been searching for."

"Only to get information about-"

"I ain't seen him in years, you know."

The fire crackled, and the real target behind him almost managed to hide his footstep underneath it.

Intelligent

I woke up lying on part of the ship's hull, floating just off the coast of an island.

As my memories came into focus and I remembered the storm, I suddenly felt something pushing against the wood.

I looked down into the water and saw dolphins, taking turns to push me towards the shore.

By the time I was awake enough to think through what was happening, I saw the figure on the beach, and I was happy.

Until I saw the look in his eyes, and the basket of raw meat in his hand that looked like a reward...

Write Down

"And in the room with Mr Francis is Detective Sergeant Peter Garten and Corporal Robin Michaelson. Now, for the tape, you have been informed of your right to a lawyer and are waiving that right?"

"Well, we're just chatting, right?"

"That's correct! We just want to get a grip on what happened, is all. So why don't you start at the beginning?"

"Ok, well, for the last few years I've been working in the Stonecutter building-"

"On 42nd Street?"

"Yeah, right below the Police Commissioner's offices, and-"

[Note: At this point, the tape malfunctions until after the subject's medical episode.]

Power Ratings

As Glory threw Greyscale into the cell, Entropy (as they'd come to call the cosmic entity) asked a question of her.

"Why do you not swap locations?"

Glory paused as she was reaching for the paperwork.

"What?"

"These enemies you fight here in Los Fransisco, you are evenly matched. If you were in Night City, you could easily overpower those enemies."

"That's Solanaceae's territory."

"But-"

"And this is my home. I don't want to fight somewhere else just because it's easier."

Entropy seemed to consider this while she filled out the paperwork.

She should have glanced at her power scanner.

¶

He opened the door to find the two women he'd been dating standing side by side, looking angry.

In the following twenty minutes, he said fifteen words, eight of them at the start as he began to try to placate them.

The next four were all 'No', said with decreasing confidence as they both asked him pointed questions about his motives.

The next one was pnly technically a word, as it was more of a grunt as he acquiesced to their stated plans.

The final two were simply "I'm sorry", which didn't solve anything, but did prevent further words spoken.

Loophole

The Demon appeared in a burst of flame.

"Who dare summon... Elica?"

The woman was much older than when he signed the contract to cure her disease, but he recognised his love even in his new form.

"Hello, my love. I summoned you, I drew the circle of protection."

He fought against the evil in his body as he looked down at the salt and chalk.

"My darling, it's good, but reversed, I'm protected, not you, not the others."

"Oh I know. It's the only way."

He didn't understand until she began casting the spell to destroy all demons, everywhere.

Post Apocalypse Contact

I walked in after a long day tending the potato field and switched on the computer. After loading things up, they sent me a message.

"Hey man! How you doing?"

After I wiped away some dirt from my hands, I typed out my question slowly.

"Are you real?"

The reply was quick.

"What? Why do you ask?"

I noted they didn't answer as I typed out my explanation.

"Because after the plague, just as I was giving up and was about to off myself, I finally made contact with another living person."

The reply was simple.

"Don't think about it."

Die On Your Feet

The Rebel General was dragged up the steps to where the Prince was waiting, as the Prince held his sword out to be sharpened.

"Kneel."

The Rebel General remained on his feet.

"My troops may be in chains, but they are still behind me. So I will not yield, especially to the likes of you."

The Prince smirked as the blade was to his satisfaction.

"So you'd prefer to die on your feet?"

"If that's my fate."

"Well, you're half right."

The Prince made a big show of laughing, hugging the Rebel General, and walking them inside.

Rumor grew fast.

Ensuring Survival

The ship, one of the last launched before Earth became uninhabitable, had an AI to watch over the cryopods with the humans, since it would take millions of years to arrive at its destination.

But, the designers understood that the AI might not be able to handle every possible situation. So, if needed, it would wake up a couple to handle a crisis, then live out their years and breed, raise their children, and then freeze them.

And indeed, millions of years later, the ship arrived and colonised a new world.

Just by a race not technically human any more.

Management Decision

The hack was a couple minutes in, and I was just getting somewhere when my computer went dead.

I looked up to my boss, looking very pleased with himself, holding the power cord to my computer.

"Hack dealt with."

I slammed a piece of paper in front of him and grabbed the power cord.

"Write down what you just did."

He happily did so, and signed it when I asked him to once I'd finished.

Not that it helped much dealing with the aftermath of losing all that data, but him getting fired did make me feel a bit better.

Market Stalling

"Excuse me, how much is this doll?"

I turned around and looked around, needing a moment before I looked down over my stall to see the young girl with a doll I didn't recognise from my stock.

"I'll need to see it, Miss."

She politely handed it over and quickly looked it over. I couldn't find a price label on it anywhere.

"Umm... Five dollars."

"Oh I can't afford that, sorry."

She walked away.

Now, I would argue that doesn't constitute a legal transfer of property, but the ghosts inside it clearly don't actually care about legal definitions of words.