21/11/2022 - Summer on Earth
Reading time: 2 min
Humans are weird. They do things, all sorts of things, believing they do them for a reason that’s simply not there.
I think the word they use for it is “delusional.”
I am curious about a social behaviour they have. It seems that they accept any emotional and physical frustration for the coldest part of an Earth’s revolution just to spend their currency laying in the hot sand, immersing themselves in the cold water of their oceans, dangerously rich in natural salts.
The sun damages their skin. The water damages their technology, and yet, they dream of such places and are willing to endure endless journeys and an uncomfortable density of population just to be here, in the places they call “beaches.”
One would think that, when the heat decreases as their planet tilts in the wrong direction relative to its star, they would abandon these places. This is correct, but my observations lead to a rate of abandonment much slower than expected.
A human companion, a young member of the dog species, leaks a mixture of water and uric acid on my leg. There’s a picture of him right at the entrance of the beach.
I try to speak to him, I ask if he’s lost, but he doesn’t reply. He just follows.
The planet is rotating away from its star’s radiation, and the temperature is falling. I ask humans why they linger despite the cold, and they all say they want to enjoy the last days of summer.
But summer is an artificial construct, like ownership of this dog. Surely they must go with the temperature, with the pleasurable and deadly feeling of heat on their skin, and yet, they put jumpers on their shoulders and look at the star’s distorted light crossing the horizon.
Beauty, they call it.
They also pet the dog. They call it puppy, because on Earth each species has a specific name for its youngsters.
He could carry any infectious disease, he could be aggressive, and yet, humans go out of their way to come and touch him. Petting him seems to give them the same pleasure the puppy experiences.
I don’t understand this concept. I don’t understand beauty. I don’t understand the length of their efforts to watch or touch a natural phenomenon.
This puppy, though—he attracts me like a magnet. He forces his head under my human-like palm. For some strange reason, I desire to bring him back with me.
He’s got a word engraved on his collar. Titus. So I call him by his name, I invite him to join me, and as if he couldn’t understand me, he runs away, and though I don’t understand why, I start running as well, chasing him down the cold sand.
About this story
Prompt:
All of these will require you to roll a 6-sided die. Don’t have one handy? There’s plenty of options online, such as https://rolladie.net/, and if you’re on the Discord server, use our handy Writer Bot (/roll d6)!
ELEMENT ONE: Choose your character!
Roll the die to find your protagonist.
1) a 13 year old child
2) a truck driver
3) an alien
4) an ancient (or medieval) warlord
5) a mythological being
6) a rambunctious puppy
ELEMENT TWO: Choose your weapon!
Roll the die to find an object that must feature prominently in your story. (It does not HAVE to be used as a weapon.)
1) 13 candles
2) an ashtray
3) an old and ornate knife
4) a rambunctious puppy (roll again if you got this result for Element One)
5) a backscratcher
6) a banana
ELEMENT THREE: Choose your stage!
Roll another die to find your setting!
1) 13 years after the apocalypse
2) Mars
3) a little town in the middle of nowhere
4) the abyss
5) a beach at the end of summer
6) the last place you drove to in a car (excluding your home - unless you want to write about your home)
OPTIONAL ELEMENT: Choose your boss battle!
Roll the die for an extra challenge.
1) 13 foreign words or phrases must make an appearance in your story. (No more, no less.)
2) 5 letters must be omitted entirely from your story. That’s right, no z’s, q’s, or whatever you choose.
3) The wordcount must be a palindrome. (121, 363, 989, etc.)
4) Your story must be a work of fanfiction.
5) Your story cannot contain any dialogue tags. (“Love this challenge,” Hydra shrieked. <- the “Hydra shrieked” is a dialogue tag. No “he said” or “they said” or anything else!)
6) DOUBLE ROLL: roll the die again. Odd number: write in 1st person. Even number: write in 2nd person.
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My Rolls: 3. an alien – 4. a rambunctious puppy – 5. a beach at the end of summer – 5. Your story cannot contain any dialogue tags.
From the official page of FFM 2022.
Notes on the challenge
Each and every story published here has been written, reviewed, polished and published in less than 90 minutes. Which means you’re going to find spelling mistakes, ugly sentences and weird structures. I still hope you’ll enjoy them!
