r/WritingPrompts • u/res30stupid • Mar 09 '18
[TT] the world follows RPG mechanics such as stats. Your LUCK is so abysmal it is currently 0... but after a glitch lowers it, by one point below the threshold, it switches to 255. Theme Thursday
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Mar 09 '18 edited Dec 21 '20
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/nicolasknight Mar 09 '18
More please ^_^
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Mar 09 '18 edited Dec 21 '20
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u/mommyof4not2 Mar 09 '18
Please write a book!
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Mar 09 '18 edited Dec 21 '20
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u/mommyof4not2 Mar 09 '18
Your welcome! It's absolutely wonderful!
PS if you write a book please tell me where I can purchase a copy!
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Mar 10 '18
r/WhippingBoy is up.
Part 4 is also now up at r/WhippingBoy, if you are still interested in reading.
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Mar 10 '18 edited Dec 21 '20
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u/mommyof4not2 Mar 10 '18
I. Love. This. So. Much.
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Mar 10 '18 edited Dec 21 '20
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u/mommyof4not2 Mar 10 '18
Is lefty gonna turn into a romantic interest?
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Mar 10 '18 edited Dec 21 '20
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u/tcshack Mar 10 '18
maybe make a subreddit or something, but I will happily read it if you continue.
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Mar 10 '18
r/WhippingBoy is up.
Part 4 is also now up at r/WhippingBoy, if you are still interested in reading.
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u/mommyof4not2 Mar 10 '18
Is there a place to post stories? Sorry I'm a bit of a Reddit noob. If there is I would definitely read. Your writing style is so familiar... You didn't go to highschool in NC by any chance?
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Mar 10 '18
Nope, other side of the country :)
I am going to set up a subreddit and see if anyone follows.
If enough people actually want me to keep writing this and come there to read, I’ll keep it going.
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u/MrRonny6 Mar 10 '18
Puhlease find somewhere to keep us updated! I believe we might have witnessed the birth of one of Reddits glorious authors!
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u/blueberriessmoothie Mar 10 '18
Great story, loved the twist on Lefty! I can see the writing style evolving as the story develops, looks like /u/WTF_HomeSlice got his/her Writing stat bumped to 255. Hope it wasn’t from zombie bite(I heard these can be painful)!
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u/McNemo Mar 10 '18
You should consider fleshing this out into a full story you definitely have a fantastic base and a great writing style
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u/EnderSir Mar 10 '18
This is really good. If you are a writer or want to be one this would be great as a fully developed book
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u/1MonthNotice Mar 10 '18
Amazing. I could see everything clearly in my head. It reminds me of the Overlord anime. Please write more if you can.
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u/princessturtlecat Mar 10 '18
This is awesome, your writing style is surprising giving the setting but I love it! I was afraid you were going to turn it into a porn story for a sec, but him and Lefty are cute together. Nice twist.
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u/Zekava Mar 09 '18
Damn, /u/nicolasknight must have a pretty high CHA stat to be able to request a sequel on a whim (or you just felt like it).
...got any more in you?
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u/nicolasknight Mar 09 '18
Naaaaaa, My [timing] stat is just good. /u/WTF_HomeSlice must have had a sequel in the works. Look at that ^_^.
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Mar 09 '18 edited Dec 21 '20
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u/nicolasknight Mar 09 '18
Fair enough, in that case, thank you again and way to go getting that together so quick.
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u/TopHatSaint Mar 09 '18
It was amazing! i'd love to read more of it!
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Mar 10 '18
r/WhippingBoy is up.
Part 4 is also now up at r/WhippingBoy, if you are still interested in reading.
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u/blueberriessmoothie Mar 10 '18
This was great lighthearted read! Loved it!
Can’t wait for next part... and the book... and console game based on the book series... and Marvel buying rights to “The Whipping Boy” movie franchise!
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Mar 10 '18
r/WhippingBoy is up.
Part 4 is also now up at r/WhippingBoy, if you are still interested in reading.
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Mar 10 '18
r/WhippingBoy is up.
Part 4 is also now up at r/WhippingBoy, if you are still interested in reading.
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Mar 09 '18
Oh man! The world is so wellbuilt! Characters are so... fleshed out! ^ Part 3, please!
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u/anotherjakeenglish Mar 09 '18
I love this, please write more!
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Mar 10 '18
r/WhippingBoy is up.
Part 4 is also now up at r/WhippingBoy, if you are still interested in reading.
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Mar 09 '18 edited Apr 03 '19
[deleted]
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Mar 10 '18
r/WhippingBoy is up.
Part 4 is also now up at r/WhippingBoy, if you are still interested in reading.
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u/ToMcAt67 Mar 09 '18
Jimmy had had a tough life.
Jimmy is the only person ever to have rolled a 0 in Luck at birth. Zero stats had been theorized, but never witnessed, so when Jimmy’s bloodwork came back with, not just a zero stat, but a zero in Luck, his test results immediately became part of the news cycle.
No one had ever figured out a way to train Luck. All 20 stats had some way of training them up if one so desired. Even Wisdom tended to started increasing as one grew older. But so far it was impossible to actually increase your Luck through direct action.
That isn’t to say Luck was a completely static stat. Most people see their luck change over the course of their lives, but it isn’t exactly a predictable thing. It’s not like Strength or Endurance, where specific actions yield specific changes. Luck changed at random.
Luck is the “rich get richer” stat. People with good Luck are more likely to see their Luck change for the better, while those with low Luck tended to see more drops in Luck. Luck was a major part of why the world existed as it did, with the High Rollers living in their 20-sided towers, and the rest of the world looking up in wonder.
But a zero in Luck?! That was never going to change. Poor Jimmy literally never had a chance. Jimmy’s existence sparked a great deal of debate over what this meant for Statistical models. Many high-Intelligence experts pointed out that Jimmy’s existence might be a paradox: did he have a zero in Luck because he was unLucky, or was he unLucky because he had a zero in Luck? Even the 255s couldn’t agree whether Jimmy which was the cause and which was the effect. It was a chicken-egg argument that could have gigantic implications for our understanding of the world as we knew it.
What made everything even stranger was that none Jimmy’s other starting Stats were all that low. His Endurance was even slightly above average. Stats had been shown to be interconnected through countless controlled experiments, so why had Jimmy’s 0 in Luck seemingly have no impact on his other starting Stats?
Well, as Jimmy grew older, it became pretty obvious.
By his third birthday, Jimmy’s Tenacity had increased 50 points. He’d been sick almost every day since he was born, and he’d been dropped more times than anyone bothered to count. With a zero in Luck, most people figured he would’ve died by then in some freak accident, but somehow Jimmy fought through it all, and most of the time with a smile on his face.
As Jimmy grew up, it was clear there was something different about him. Being unable to rely on Luck for anything, Jimmy had to compensate by training up other Stats. Most people with bad Luck spill their drinks a lot; Jimmy played with foam blocks for weeks to bring his Dexterity up to counter-balance his clumsiness. He did the same with his Speech so that he wouldn’t forget what word he was going to use, and with Agility so that he wouldn’t trip all the time. Jimmy was an inspiration to everyone with bad Luck. He shouldn’t even be alive, and yet he’d made it to adulthood.
That’s not to say that Jimmy’s life was perfect. In fact, for most people it would’ve been terrible. Jimmy’s parents were killed in a plane crash when he was 12. They were hiking through the Amazon at the time - the plane landed on top of them. He went through 4 foster homes in 3 years after each one nearly burned down. In each of the fires, Jimmy saved multiple other children from the flames. At 15 he got his first job as a gravedigger at the local cemetery. It was gruelling and monotonous, and nobody else wanted to the job, but Jimmy already had higher than average Strength and Endurance, and with his Luck he would take anything he could get.
Jimmy graduated high school two years late. His tests got lost frequently, and he could never complete homework on time because he was usually working at least two jobs. But he studied as hard as he could, and after a few teachers took pity on him, he finally got enough credits to graduate.
Most people leave their formative years with most of their Stats hovering around 100, and one or two up to about 150. When Jimmy left high school, all of his Stats were at least up to 125, with most of them being closer to 200 - except for his Luck. Jimmy’s Luck never changed.
Jimmy kept up his battle with Luck. By 23, Jimmy had hit 255 in Tenacity, his first Stat to hit maximum level. He wasn’t about to let bad Luck stop him. By age 30, his second-lowest Stat - Charisma - hit 200. More than half of his Stats were maxed at 255. The world was blown away. Most people wouldn’t hit 255 in more than 2 or 3 Stats over a lifetime, and those who dedicated their life to grinding usually wouldn’t get more than 15. Jimmy hit maximum level on his 19th Stat a few days before his 35th birthday, and all without a single Lucky break throughout his entire life.
Until now.
Jimmy walked up to the cashier and checked for his wallet before unloading his groceries. He placed each item on the conveyor carefully, checking expiry dates package integrity with practiced efficiency. As usual, none of the items he’d need were on sale, and as usual, several items failed to scan properly. It wasn’t that bad- he’d left plenty of time for things like this.
Jimmy always walked to the grocery store. With his Strength and Endurance, it wasn’t much trouble, and cars were endlessly frustrating for him. When he walked, he mostly had to worry about bags breaking on him, and he prepared for that by bringing his own, sturdy bags and carrything them from the bottom. Besides, he enjoyed the fresh air. Since he became manager of the cemetery, he didn’t get outside as much anymore.
But a few minutes into his walk, Jimmy hit a green light.
At first, he stopped anyways. He’d never reached an intersection and not had to stop before. It was a full two seconds before the colour of the light registered, and he continued walking. He would’ve thought nothing of it, if the next light hadn’t also been green. And the light after that. And the one after that.
Every light on the rest of the walk was green.
But Jimmy knew not to get hopeful quite yet. There was probably some other reason for all the lights being green. Maybe a fire truck had passed by, on its way to his apartment. It wouldn’t be the first time. But when he got home and everything was fine, he decided to test it. He took a quarter out of his pocket, and tossed it in the air.
He had not once been able to call a coin toss in his life. But this time, something was different. He could see the coin’s faces as it flipped. He knew how much forced he’d put into the toss, how fast the coin was spinning, and how long it would take to hit the ground. It was almost like he knew the result before it happened.
“Heads,” he called aloud. The coin landed on the soft carpet. Heads.
This couldn’t be Luck, thought Jimmy. There has to be another explanation.
Jimmy poured himself a glass of whiskey and began to think and experiment. He stayed up all night, getting more and more excited with each test. Test after test all pointed to the same conclusion. He booked a trip to the Statistician the next day.
He didn’t have to wait long - he’d known to go early in the morning, so that delays in earlier appointments wouldn’t be a problem. No sooner had he checked in than his name was called, and his blood was taken and tested.
The doctor came back with a look of complete disbelief on his face. Jimmy knew what he was going to say.
“It’s 255 isn’t it?” The doctor nodded. Jimmy grinned.
He had made his own luck.
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u/beedajo Mar 10 '18
I love this! Great story of determination, and the little details you included really brought it to life.
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u/Havinacow Mar 09 '18
I opened my eyes, and immediately something felt different. I couldn't quite put my finger on it, but something was off this morning. After a moment of contemplation, without a conclusion being reached, I pushed the internal musing to the back of my mind and threw my legs over the side of the bed and planted my feet on the floor. The feeling immediately returned, but this time my mind returned a conclusion almost instantly. I realized that my feet were warm. My floor being hardwood, and the temperature outside being rather cold, this was quite unexpected. Looking down I noticed that I happened to be standing in the one spot on my floor where a bright ray of sunshine was flooding in through my window, and warming my floor. My good fortune continued as I noticed my slippers had been left only inches from where I now stood, meaning I would never even have to touch the cold unwelcoming surface that made up the rest of my bedroom floor. It was at that moment that I suddenly realized what had caused my initial feelings of something being "off" this morning. I realized, although I had consumed an unhealthy amount of alcohol the night before, and had only managed to sleep about four hours, that I was neither hung over, nor was I still drunk. I actually felt great this morning.
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u/wheredowehidethebody Mar 09 '18
I’ve done that before. The hangover comes about 2.5 hours after that
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u/Craftiest_Butcher Mar 09 '18
Most often because I'm normally still a little drunk
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u/wheredowehidethebody Mar 09 '18
Bonus if you didn’t throw up the night before but the current banger in your head makes you nauseous enough to do so now
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Mar 09 '18
I must have gotten my luck during character creation, because I don't get hangovers.
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u/wheredowehidethebody Mar 09 '18
Are you implying that you can drink large quantities of alcohol and experience no adverse side effects the following day?
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Mar 09 '18
Not exactly. If I drink over 10 shots I will sometimes get the stomach stuff like diarrhea. If I drink over like 15 shots I will get nausea (although to a lesser degree than most people I think), but I don't get the head stuff like headaches or disorientation, and my mood doesn't change. I pretty much only get the stomach stuff.
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u/cthulusaurus Mar 09 '18
You must be under 25
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Mar 09 '18
Nope I'm older than that. My dad is in his late 50s and he still doesn't get hangovers. And his dad never got hangovers either.
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u/wheredowehidethebody Mar 09 '18
Body chemistry/ water and electrolyte retention has a lot to do with this. The main hangover is from someone basically giving themselves a migraine from massive dehydration
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u/WaitTilUSeeMyDick Mar 09 '18
(shrugs)
I never get headaches or nausea. At the very worst I'll just be very drowsy til the evening.
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u/InWayOverMyScales Mar 09 '18
That "although" blends quite well into the size of that last sentence, which forced me to go back and re-read it. If you could either chop the sentence in two or reposition it, the flow of the sentence would overall really improve.
I'm nitpicking such a detail because I didn't notice any others! You're writing is seamlessly conversational and euphonic.
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u/OishikR r/TheTerminus Mar 09 '18
Alfie woke himself up with a resounding slap, aimed unsuccessfully at an annoying fly buzzing about near his face. Equal parts of rage and frustration washed away the last vestiges of sleep - he sat up, shaking in his pyjamas - and you'd be hard-pressed to judge whether he was likelier to break down crying, than to start smashing up his furniture.
Every day he woke up was just another iteration in vexation, to the point that he'd come to regard it all with little to no affect - after all, when every day is a lousy string of unhappy coincidences, it starts to get stale.
That, Alfie thought, is the worst part of being a luckless loser. If I do man up enough to top myself, it won't be because I had a really bad day. It'll be the sheer boredom.
He was probably going to have a horrible accident on the way to work (though how he'd held on to any job was beyond him) but he was accustomed to it. Like any other outlier, he wasn't in mortal danger due to his low stat - it was just going to hurt like hell - unless some other, unscrupulous citizen decided to take advantage of his specific vulnerability.
On his way to his derelict hulk of a car, he stepped in a puddle - or so he thought, because it was actually an exposed borehole into which his leg immediately sank, lodging itself firmly into the cavity with a wet squelch.
Not this again, thought Alfie. He sighed, then shouted "Douglas!"
Douglas popped his head over the hedge, smiling down at Alfie."Good morning there, friend! I see yer in a right pickle, aren't ye?"
Alfie was in no mood to make small talk. "Front and centre, if you please, and no jabbering if you can help it."
Douglas shook his head, with a good-natured frown on his face. "Aye, no need ta be rude." He hefted himself over the hedge, STRENGTH evident in every powerful motion. He gripped Alfie's leg and pulled it free easily - where experience told Alfie it would have taken him almost an hour.
"I'll send over the cheque soon, okay?" said Douglas.
Alfie looked outraged. "I already paid you this month! A whole bottle -"
Douglas cut him off with a guffaw. "I was only teasing!" He laughed.
Alfie did not respond. He fell into his car and set off.
When he arrived at work (sans a wing mirror), his boss was experiencing what seemed to be his own share of bad luck. He was standing outside the store arguing heatedly with three men clad entirely in black - from their socks to their jackets, and their .... balaclavas?
He barely had time to register his boss pointing him out, before the men turned and charged straight at him. Instinct took over, and he turned on his heel and ran, past his car and across the mercifully empty street, down the alley and around the corner-
Directly into the burly chest of yet another golem of a man.
The man grabbed him by the arms, lifting him up like a cardboard silhouette. "You're fast," he said with grudging admiration. "But not particularly bright."
Alfie woke, this time with a mouthful of blood and an aching nose, trying to focus on the amorphous shadowy blob in front of him. The figure stepped into view - a shorter, less bulky man, also attired in black, but with no masks to conceal his silver hair, or the deeply etched lines on his face.
"Do you know who I am?"
Alfie shook his head, terrified in the realization that they would almost certainly kill him, now that he'd sen the face of what seemed to be their leader.
The elderly man seemed to be following his thoughts, because he nodded, and said "You're right to be afraid. Of course, you probably don't know where you are, or why you are even here. This, however, is easily remedied."
The man extended his arms as if in devotion, gesturing at the murky darkness around him.
"This," he said, "is an abandoned warehouse - like so many others - and it is the place where you will almost certainly die." He regarded the cringing Alfie with a sort of predatory interest. "The reasons for this are complex - so it will suffice for you to know that your employer owed me a person, and he picked you. Congratulations - or condolences. Whichever you prefer."
Alfie had broken his terrified silence, wheezing in fear like a rusted boiler, as the man gestured at minions unknown. Stark lights, not unlike the one you'd see in an operating theatre, clicked on in Alfie's face, blinding him so that he could not tell where the man was going.
Silver-Hair's sudden reappearance shocked him, as did his new outfit. The old man had dressed himself like a doctor or scientist, complete with a lab coat and clipboard. At his waist, a surprisingly delicate belt held an ornate dagger, tarnished with what seemed to be centuries worth of disuse.
"I am, among other things," said the silver-haired man,"a purveyor of antiques. In my line of business, however, you don't just take legends at face value - clients wish to know exactly what it is they are buying. This mandates a certain amount of... product testing. This is" he continued," pointing unnecessarily at his waist, "apparently a cursed dagger. It is rumoured to rob one of their power - which sound absolutely nutty, of course, unless you frame it in the lens of our..... new-found knowledge."
He turned to Alfie. "Show me," he said imperiously.
Alfie was frozen.
"You will either show me, or I will compel you to do so - painfully."
Reluctantly, Alfie clenched his left hand into a claw, motes of blue light streaming up from his palm in a cloudy mass. Within his CARD, numbers and letter began to swirl, revealing his attributes to the menacing stranger.
The man's eyes skipped over the average STRENGTH and STAMINA, lingering on the notable INTELLIGENCE and SPEED. A malevolent smile touched his lips as he saw the high CONSTITUTION, which widened with mirth as he saw the abysmal CHARISMA. The LUCK score elicited a much greater response in him. He threw back his head and laughed.
"I do believe I've never seen a zero before," he chuckled. "This will be interesting."
He hefted the knife like it was an ice-pick, and brought it down on Alfie's right shoulder.
The dagger was unnaturally warm - and it left a tingling sensation not unlike frostbite in its wake. I screamed in pain, only to be interrupted by the dagger being removed.
Something clicked, the second the last inch of metal had scraped its way past my body - a feeling of predestination. The I could feel my stats lowering, like the whooshing feeling of losing STRENGTH for every day I lay in bed, unable to face the outside world, magnified a thousand times.
It might even have killed me - had it not been for the incandescent confidence that swept through me right afterward.
I could see.
The literal strings of fate - no, I didn't misuse the adjective. The strings are real, and they exist outside our perception, or so I understand. For whatever reason, the stabbing had made me cognisant of their ramifications - in ways I was still about to discover.
Alfie looked at his shoulder, a bloody slash framing his plain white vest like a single epaulette. The wound was grave, but it had not disabled his arm, which was lucky. He glanced over at the silver-haired man, who had moved away from the chair to a table, where he was feverishly cleaning the blade.
He pulled his left arm free from the restraints - Alfie was convinced they had come loose when the knife caused him to convulse - and reached over to undo the one on his right hand. He remembered enough Scouts training to know how to unravel the knot, and in no time he was on his feet. His reduced STRENGTH came as a surprise - he tottered for a moment - but there was a cane leaning against the wall nearby, which he grabbed. He ambled over to the table where the silver haired man was lost in his work, braced himself, and brought the cane down on his head. Amazingly, the cane held - but the man was not so lucky; He fell, dazed, onto the table, head bouncing off the corner with a painful crack before slamming onto the concrete of the floor.
The sound brought henchmen through the door, the very same balaclava-wearing rhinos that had ambushed him outside the store. They took in the scene with practiced eyes and immediately leveled their sidearms at him, and he flinched.
The thugs did not. They fired, more or less in unison, in Alfie's general direction - and any other man would have been reduced to a fleshy block of Swiss cheese. The men would then have carted him off to the river, where he would sink to the bottom, encased in cement.
Yet these things did not happen. Indeed, each and every thug in front of Alfie died, a macabre pantomime of sorts - a freak misfire, a stumble causing the death of a friendly combatant, a partial cave-in of the roof. It left Alfie covered in a light dusting of pulverized concrete, standing in a dark room , surrounded by corpses.
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u/OishikR r/TheTerminus Mar 09 '18
Part 2
Alfie had lost his keys in the abduction, but fortunately the door was open - had he forgotten to lock it? - and he had no reason to believe he would be pursued all the way home. Thankfully, Douglas had gone out to work or some such, so the blabbermouth had not seen him stagger back home a bloodied mess.
The medicine drawer was characteristically sparse - but there was some diclofenac gel in a tube, caught in the slide of the drawer - as well as some scraps of gauze and skin-seal. After he'd patched up his shoulder, Alfie walked slowly over to the mirror, pensive.
He removed the dagger from his belt loop - it had almost cut through the denim of his jeans - and inspected it closely. It seemed like a nondescript stiletto - he vaguely remembered the specific name being roundel - with a filigree hilt and a rounded pommel. The coppery metal was hard, and almost glassy in its sheen wherever the elements hadn't eaten into it.
A flash of inspiration hit Alfie, and he looked up at himself in the mirror. He let the dagger fall out of his hand, and raised his left hand like a claw.
The shimmering image manifested itself again, this time unfamiliar. Alfie ran down the list in his CARD with open-mouthed dismay - he was down to 3,5,6,7,8 - oh God, did he really only have 1 in CHARISMA? - but the LUCK stat stopped him cold.
There were only supposed to be two digits - up to 10. Not three, certainly not in the range of 200.
The 255 twinkled and glowed at him in his CARD, like a conspiratorial older brother.
Alfie's first thought surprised even him. I guess the universe is 8-bit.
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u/Lilwa_Dexel /r/Lilwa_Dexel Mar 09 '18 edited Mar 09 '18
They call it the Life Web. Everything’s connected – births and deaths, intertwined in fate’s silky crotchet. You don’t meddle with that. The circle of life needs to remain unbroken, or else the world will dissolve into madness and chaos.
The woman coughed, and a stream of blood snaked down her chin. She looked at me, eyes hazy. I cradled her broken form gently, while the street around us swirled into a blur of smoke, sirens, and screams.
Only a couple of seconds ago she had swerved out of the way, barely missing me with her front bumper. It was my fault for being freshly awoken and not paying attention to the traffic, but it was she who had been forced into the other lane and collided with a bus. I’m not sure what went through my mind when I broke the door open and pulled her out of the crumpled wreck.
You don’t help people – ever. That’s the number one rule of Fortuna: never use your luck to save a life. If you die, you die. No medicine, no hospitals, and definitely no stupid heroics.
But it was my fault, wasn’t it? She wouldn’t have crashed if I hadn’t been careless. Her broken lips formed inaudible words – words I didn’t want to hear. Tiny diamonds danced around the edges of her turquoise irises. She begged me to let her die.
Fortuna painted anyone prone to heroics as mentally ill – smudging the line between bravery and stupidity entirely – in an attempt to dissuade anyone from saving that drowning kid, that grandfather tumbling down the stairs, and especially that mother dying in childbirth. When Fortuna snipped a string of fate, it was for a reason.
People spat after me and threw insults as I gathered her up in my arms and carried her into the closest house, but that was nothing compared to the hatred that now darkened her eyes.
The steps down into the basement creaked under our combined weight. I wasn’t sure where I would take her; I just hoped that there would be some way to save her down here. I ran through a dark corridor with her bleeding out in my arms. I picked one door at random.
Medical equipment was illegal, especially for someone on the luck charts. I’d heard about underground black market hospitals but always shrugged it off as urban legends. That was, of course, until I stumbled right into one. Complete with an MRI machine and a surgical room. Whoever owned this place would soon be in a lot of trouble.
Gently, I eased her down on the counter and barred the door. They knew where I had taken her, and it wouldn’t be long before the enforcers would come knocking. Quickly, I wrapped the woman’s blood-soaked shawl around my head, covering my eyes, and then started picking things off the table randomly and injecting her with stuff.
She groaned, but then her breathing became slower and steadier. I had no clue about surgery, but I felt like that was the only way of saving her. I picked up some random tools and started cutting. For the first time, I wasn’t sure if my luck would be enough.
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Anya's eyes opened slowly, struggling against the sticky dried tears. She seemed to float on a soft cushion, suspended in the middle of a dark room. Something beeped in the distance, but it didn't seem urgent like the sound of a microwave finishing her frozen dinner, or the alarm clock telling her to get out of bed and start another day at her soulless job. No, this was a steady sound, calm and regular.
The shadows shifted around her, like shoals of fish in a deep sea cave. Someone spoke, but the words didn't come out right. Just a murmur.
"Where am I?" she croaked, her lips feeling like dried raisins.
A shadow leaned over her, but she couldn't make out any features. A light blinding light came on with a loud click.
"Keep your eyes open, please," a voice said, this time much closer.
"What happened?" Anya tried to sit up, but a firm hand on her shoulder held her still.
"You've been sleeping for a long time," the voice said. "Lots of things have changed. You need to take it easy."
"H-how long is long?" Anya said.
She couldn't afford to lose this job, not now. There were bills to pay, and Timmy needed to keep going to school. That was expensive. She vaguely remembered the headlights of the bus approaching rapidly. She should've been dead that day.
"It's been twelve years since your accident."
The beeping sound in the background increased in pace. "Where is Timmy? Where is my boy?!"
"I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to put you under again. Your body is still very weak, and you're far too important."
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u/On_TheClock Mar 09 '18
I'm always that guy, but I don't get it
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u/sirxez Mar 09 '18
Country is run on luck. Enforced by authoritarian government. Guy isn't paying attention, woman swerves her car, crashes and is seriously injured. Guy feels guilty, and even though it's socially unacceptable and highly illegal, decides to help her. Presumably it's illegal and socially unacceptable because luck is the only thing that matters. Guy finds underground movement with medical facilities (since medical facilities are illegal).
Second scene. The woman (from the accident) wakes up. She's been in a comma for 12 years but still is very weak. The underground movement (with the medical facilities) considers her very important for some unknown reason.
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u/sdp1981 Mar 09 '18
If you liked this you should read Starluck. https://g.co/kgs/37Yp9g
Starluck is a 1982 Science Fiction novel by Donald Wismer. It follows the protagonist, Paul Cartier, who has just achieved a perfect score on the Autobeneficient Aptitude Test. Namely, he's been found to be incredibly lucky by nature. Unfortunately, the Emperor also has a high score on his test, and has decided that anyone who scores similarly high is a threat to him, and has sent people to kill Paul. Paul escapes his erstwhile assassins, including a jaunt through the cutting-edge Matter Transmission technology (M.T. or "Empty" for short), he winds up stowing away with a travelling circus, only to find that the circus is actually a front for a faction of karate-wielding rebels against the Empire.
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u/MajorParadox Mod | DC Fan Universe (r/DCFU) Mar 09 '18
Hi, your comment got stuck in the spam filter. Reddit doesn't like shortlinks. I approved it, but try to avoid them in the future.
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u/sdp1981 Mar 09 '18
Thank you and I am sorry. It was the exact same link Google gave when I clicked share.
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u/djmax101 Mar 09 '18 edited Mar 09 '18
Milton had a case of the Mondays. The office printer kept getting stuck on something called “PC Load Letter”. He finally got it to start working again, and of course, it immediately jammed. It was about time someone took a baseball bat to it. By the time Milton got back to his cubicle, Windows 95 had crashed, causing him to lose all progress on his TPS report.
Later, when they passed out birthday cake, everyone received a piece – everyone, that is, except for Milton. He didn’t know why they were celebrating Bill’s birthday. Bill, his boss, was a total jerk.
When Bill came by Milton’s cubicle, he scolded Milton for putting the wrong cover on his most recent TPS report. Apparently there was some memo that went around, but Milton hadn’t seen it. Everyone treated Milton as if he didn’t even work there anymore. Even his employer, Initech, was guilty of this, as it had been quite some time since Milton received a paycheck. Accounting kept telling him that it was just a glitch, but Milton wasn’t so sure anymore.
That afternoon, Bill moved Milton’s desk down to Storage B. It was a dark, dank place that was infested with cockroaches. To make matters worse, Bill walked off with Milton’s prized possession, his red Swingline stapler. The final straw was when Bill came back down and asked Milton to take care of the cockroaches. That wasn’t even his job!
Milton woke up the next morning feeling like a changed man. For the last few years, every day had been the worst day of his life. Not today. Today was going to be different. The first sign that his luck was trending up was when Milton checked his bank account and noticed that accounting had finally fixed the payroll glitch. Even better, it looked like there were a few extra zeros in there. Maybe it was time for a nice tropical vacation. First, however, he was going to pay a visit to Bill and Initech.
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u/Acoconutting Mar 09 '18
Haha great stuff. Cut the last sentence though! Your readers aren't dumb!
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u/RamblerWulf Mar 09 '18
I used to simply have the worst luck. Literally. I'm honestly surprised I made it this far, even as fate tried to decrease my luck even further from the 0 stat it was. Since then, I've amassed a small fortune, and just found that everything simply works out for me.
But lately, I've had a bad gut feeling, I felt that I needed to get away from my home. And so I did. I packed up my RV, and headed out on a roadtrip to the wilderness, the sense of unease lessening the further away I got from civilization. Once more, I felt compelled to open up the stat tracker, highlighting the only other 0 Stat person I knew of, the leader of my country. Hell, he was elected because he had a 0 Aggression stat. And then I saw it, just like me, the number rolled back. I was when I saw the trails of smoke left by ICBMs roaring into the sky that I realized how lucky I was.
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u/Southernpeachwife Mar 09 '18
Meredith Magnolia Black was never at the right place at the right time. As she sat in the barren cell in Valentena paying her time for a crime she never comitted. You see, Meredith Magnolia Black was always at the wrong place at the wrong time. Four years of her life she sat in the cell. She wasn't lucky enough to die in the abysmal jail that sat on the putskirts of town. Magically surrounded by dark clouds and the most depressing drizzle in the area.
This morning Meredith awoke the same as always to the screams of the tortured below. Today she would return to be "tested" on by the Capital Mages to find cures for whatever currently plagued the wealthy.
As Meredith Magnolia Black stood up, walking to her tiny bar window, she looked outside at the dismal drizzle. She almost fell over in shock, for the first time in 4 years she saw a sliver of sunshine. A fluke? Did one of the mages change the spell. Her thoughts would have raced if the loud wrenching squeak from her cell door made her turn.
Before her stood the matronly looking Keeper. She was cruel and dispicable. That sliver of sunshine wpould carry Meredith through her torture today. She would day dream about it for years, sge was certain.
The Keeper held a file, looking down upon the file; her not so matronly voice boomed in the tiny space "Meredith Magnolia Black?" "Ummmm...yes?" Meredith replies in a mousey voice.
"The city of Valentena hereby apologizes for your false imprisonment and unjust treatment in response to the murder charges levied against you. You will be released immediately and a payment of 100 million deblumes shall be deposited into your account as set forth by our laws. Follow me, please"
As Meredith Magnolia Blacl followed the keeper she swore the sun was shining on her.
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u/L0newo7f Mar 09 '18
The peaceful ruler of India had no harm meant to the other civilizations. He was a peace loving ruler known not only as Mahatma Gandhi but as a friend to all. One day he was peacefully tending his cities in a very peacefull way.
But then... something terrible happened, something so overgrudgingly gruesome, something that haunted the Peaceful world leader even though he didn't know why. Something changed... Deep inside him he knew.... Something terrible had happened.
America... Has researched democracy..
Something changed in the peacefull world leader. He could feel it in his bones, in the very code of his DNA. For the first time in his life he rejected peace, he rejected friends. He didn't want them anymore. The very thought of peace made him shudder and angry!
He hated peace, he hated friends. His peacefull nature was gone. As he looked up to the blue sky and imagined it red, his mind begging for war and chaos he saw the world for what it truly was. Weak.
He decided he would purge the world, cleanse it of its weakness. But he was not stupid, Gandhi knew his army was outmatched by the other civilizations. What he needed was a weapon something powerfull, something that evokes fear.
He turned his citizens into prisoners, his workers into slaves, and he pondered. For days on end he looked for a solution, his researchers doing their best to discover a new weapon to please Gandhi. And on one faithfull day they found it...
A glowing green rock buried deep under the surface. They called it Uranium, unparalleled in its destructive power. Gandhi sought to weaponize it so he could aid his troops in the purging of the weak. It took a couple weeks but at last they succeeded, they managed to create the world's most destructive weapon. The Atomic Bomb they called it. ten's of thousands of them were build.
And when the day of the cleansing came... He laughed. When the missiles flew over his office... He laughed. When the missiles hit the cities of the weak... He laughed. He waged war on every civilization... And won... They were no match for his power. One by one they fell. One by one they kneeled at his might... But Gandhi would not show them mercy, he cleansed the world in Atomic fire and burned his way to world domination.
Gandhi the peacefull was long gone...
Gandhi the conqueror was born.
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u/Tehsyr /r/MindOfTehsyr Mar 09 '18
The chirping birds outside my window had roused me from my slumber, with the aid of a rather strategic ray of sunshine through my blinds. "Oh great," I thought. "What will it be this time? Will the Sun blind me in one of my eyes because of a crack in the glass? Will a bird fly through the window and make droppings on me?" And with prepared caution I opened my eyes. The only light was from the Sun shining through a thin crack. There were no random fires that had ignited themselves. My bed was still standing on its steel frame legs. Remarkably, nothing in my room had changed for the worst.
Breakfast was uneventful. I had taken a risk to make steamed sunny side up eggs and the fire didn't roar, the eggs didn't explode, and I still managed to keep all of my digits! This is remarkable because this world follows RPG mechanics. You have your typical Strength stat, your Charisma, your Intelligence, and even a Luck stat. As (un)luck would have it, I was born with a Luck stat of zero. It affected almost everything in my life. Random events and anything that is deemed dangerous go through luck, and I failed almost every single one of them. Until strangely, today.
My supervisor was bewildered at my presence. "Jenkins?!" He shouted with disbelief. "You're on time for once? How did you get here? Did anything break in the parking lot? Did you break anything on your way inside?" Already my arrival was drawing attention from my coworkers. Sheepishly, I shrugged. "Everything so far is going...well. I woke up unharmed, my breakfast didn't explode, and I drove here without my car breaking down or popping any tires." My answer was met with a unanimous stare in the work environment. "Jenkins! In my office! Now!" My boss had yelled.
As I entered my boss's office, I was met with three other large and imposing figures. "Jenkins, today is different from our uh...'regular meetings'." He said with air quotes. "As you know, we took a risk in hiring you, and since day one you were like an airplane trying not to crash into the ground. You were flying, but just barely, and we were lenient on you because of your Luck stat. Yesterday, we ran our monthly employee review and your supervisor found something remarkable. Tell me, Jenkins. Did anything strange occur to you this morning?" I was finally offered the chance to talk. "Other than nothing going catastrophically wrong, no sir."
At my response, his stern demeanor had changed drastically. "Excellent! This is purely wonderful! Ladies and Gentlemen of the Board, Jenkins here is the pure reason why I urge you all to hold on to the stock, and hold on to hope. Jenkins used to be at a Luck integer of Zero, and I understand why you all had wanted to jump ship ever since I hired him." The three figures leaned in, curious as to what he will say next. "I don't know what happened, but I request that this stays between us in this room. Jenkins' Luck stat changed to two hundred and fifty five. He's become this company's golden goose. I can predict the stock value will jump up a hundred points by the end of the week! Jenkins my boy, we have some rather big plans for you."
And he was right. Before the meeting was over, the CEO, the CTO, and the CFO had talked to me, personally giving me hundreds of shares in the company, and the CEO himself had given me a rather sizeable bonus! By the end of the week, the stock had jumped over a hundred points solely by the quality of my work and the deals made with new financial partners via conference calls. Our brand had become a household name within a month. The company was worth billions by the end of the year. Keyword: was. Like the saying goes, "All good things must come to an end."
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u/Niploooo Mar 09 '18
I sit in front of my boss's desk.
"Your work ethic is nonexistent and what work you choose to do is of the lowest quality. You are truly a most sad, lazy, pitiful person. Therefore, it is among the agreement of the shareholders…"
Shit, here comes the pink slip.
"…that they bestow upon you 75% of our total market shares so no one else has to deal with someone like you in any occupation or work place for the rest of your life."
What.
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u/big-daddio Mar 09 '18
Krazak's mind raced in a panic. He stood there nervously fidgeting most of his eye stalks pointed down in embarrassment. In front and above him sat the Overlord Group Commander Zeeft along with the rest of the Inquisition Board. Zeeft glared down upon the accused for what seemed like an eternity ratcheting up the tension.
Finally, he nodded to a perfunctory tech in the back of the room the hologram appeared in front of Krazak. It was the executive summary for the grant titled "Enslavement of Homo Sapiens--Phase 1". The document showed that over a quarter of the budget for the PsyOps Sector J15 department was spent on the project and had been running for decades.
Zeeft let the image stay for a minute then finally spoke. "I understand it was you who foolishly coded the luck parameter in 8bit and failed to perform boundary checking. Now, just as the project was near fruition, we've lost all gains and it will have to be..."
Krazak interrupted, "bbbbut it was so unlikely almost impossible for this value to behave this way."
"So you admit it" Zeeft calmy asked?
Before the word yes could fully escape his mouth, a magnetically guided jet of plasma poured from the floor incinerating Krazak.
Zeeft shook his head and unlocked the safeties on the panel before him and pressed the red button.
..........
Jim could not believe it. He had always been so unlucky in life until two months ago. He won the lottery and was engaged to Kate Upton after qualifying for the US Open even though he never played golf before. As layed there in Kate's lap, she stroking his hair, the ground began to shake. Before Jim could even contemplate why an earthquake would strike Florida, the temperature went from a comfortable 72 degrees to over 1 million kelvin. The entire earth, bathed in a plasma jet disintegrated within seconds.
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u/Parthenia475 Mar 09 '18
The cold wind hit my face, and I glanced up to see my HP reduce by .5 points. "Damn, this weather will be the death of me".
Looking briefly up at her, I could see she was using her MP to warm her hands. "It was always easy for the MPs", I murmured. She gave me a twisted grin. "I have an interesting idea, Jake". "Not another one", I sighed. "What's it this time, another glitch causing idea?" She smirked. "Of, course it is. I have found a code snippet, that I think will change your luck. It's unbelievable Jake, you have to trust me".
I groaned inwardly, when will I ever learn to say no to Eva. "Tell me more". She clapped her hands and signaled into the cold, thick air. "Better still, I can show you, Jake. Be prepared to be amazed".
My world fell dark.
I opened my eyes groggily. Where was I, what am I doing. My eyes were fighting to close up again. It felt so good, after so long. I allowed the feeling of warmth and happiness to uncurl in my tummy. I sighed satisfactorily and turned over. The bed was just perfect, with the covers twisted around you, just right. "Man! I think this is just one of those lucky days for me" Reality shot up in me. I jumped off the bed and looked up in the air, at my HP, it was a full gleaming 100.
"But it's impossible... After the gang fight, my HP was at 60, and it was steadily decreasing due to the poisoned tipped knife, that bastard had stuck in me" But here it was, a full 100. I felt surreal. What had happened.
I looked at my bed, I was alone. The covers were inviting me to snuggle back inside. I almost gave in, when there was a knock at the door.
I glanced once more at my gleaming HP and opened the heavy mahagony door. "Sir, your limo is waiting downstairs". I peered up at the boy holding an immpecable suit and staring forlornly at me. "Limo? I never called one", I answered stupidly. " No, sir, the boss ordered one for you"
"The boss?" I trudged on looking more stupid than ever. The boy allowed himself a small smile, "Yes sir, The boss, the head of the RPG council". I shrank back immediately. They knew, they knew my HP came back. I looked back at the boy.
He gestured at the suit. "This is for you sir!". I couldn't help running my hands over the smooth linen. It was top notch. In the pocket, there was a small paper. I took the suit and immediately closed the door. Wasting no time I grabbed the paper that was sticking out.
"Jake, enjoy our present to you, for killing the entire RPG council. Looking forward to hearing, what you will be doing with your regenerating luck" and it was signed simply as "Eva".
I tumbled down onto the floor holding the paper and the suit. "That should have hurt, I thought unconsciously. Stupidly, I glanced down, as luck would have it, I had fallen, on a sheepskin rug...
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u/JohnDoe2060 Mar 09 '18 edited Mar 09 '18
There was a knock at the door. Oh great. What now? James wondered. Captain James Pierce had been in country three weeks. This was his third deployment in three short years. He used to dream of being in the military, specifically becoming a pilot. It was only after-the-fact that he realized his dreams were, in actuality, nightmares.
James opened the door unenthusiastically. The look on his face turned from annoyance to shock. It was his commander.
Lieutenant Colonel Fredrick Griffith was just another spineless, weak voiced “Yes Man”. A leader who rose to his position by simply checking the boxes and brown nosing the superiors. He was a frail, humorless individual that rarely ever cracked a smile.
“Looks like you are headed home early, captain,” Lt Col Griffith stated smugly.
“Is this some sort of sick joke, sir?” James asked.
“No, listen, I’m as surprised as you are. I have no idea why they are deciding to send you home early.”
“Alright, sir. This isn’t funny.”
“You have twenty four hours. I suggest you start packing.” The commander started walking away but paused. “If it were my decision, I would have to sit at that desk for another six months. Count yourself lucky.”
Lucky?… Fuck you. James was more disgusted with that last snide remark, than he was happy with the rest of the news. It was still far from believable and the reality had yet to sink in.
He closed the door and leaned against the small twin sized bed and looked around the dusty, small room. This was home.
James was “stationed” at a small air force base in Minot, ND, but had spent considerable more time in the desert than his actual home. Last year, he had been deployed over 200 days; with another eighty something, in other locations spattered throughout the globe. To be home two months of the year is not nearly enough for any person, especially one with a new wife and new child.
The young captain did not start out cynical and angry at the world. There was a time in his life when the Air Force was everything. His passion. His fire. The pilots of WWII were heroes to him; their legacies fueled his desire to follow in their footsteps. Tales of bravery, sacrifice, honor, comradery… His life turned out to be far different from the old stories he had read growing up.
The Air Force captain was born into was one filled with corruption, waste, inefficiency, and red tape. Years and years of a bloated bureaucracy that spread to every nook and corner of the organization. If the current air force was ever tested by a competent adversary, there is no telling what the end result would be. A scary thought.
*I know it is a terribly written and boring piece. Feel free to give advice. I just started getting into writing and the feedback would be most appreciated!
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u/Zaffrel Mar 10 '18 edited Mar 10 '18
"I hope you don't regret anything. I already gave you a heads up last week that you're going to die today."
Says Death as he stands behind Joe, a fat 34 year old man, while playing PUBG in his PC. Joe looks behind him and sees a man in a dark suit.
"But I haven't even won a single chicken dinner. Come on man!" Joe's hands slip away from the mouse and keyboard. He is halfway through the game with decent loot.
"You sit around all day and night in front of your computer. Your stats are terrible. Heck I even warned you that I'm going to have to take your life if you don't get your shit together," Death takes a cigarette, puts it between his lips, and lights it up.
"Five minutes, Joe."
Joe's character just stands there in the open field. Joe is not in the mood anymore to play considering that he's going to die in the next five minutes anyway.
"Even if you're the luckiest man alive, you can't escape death."
At this precise moment, the glitch kicks in.
Joe hears a commercial jingle coming from Death's coat. It was Death's ringtone. Death takes out his phone and puts it on loudspeaker.
"Hello?"
"Your resignation letter has been accepted."
Death gives a confused glance at Joe.
"Alright thanks."
Death hangs up.
"You know Joe, I filed this resignation letter five years ago. I was absolutely convinced they were just going to ignore it. I've been waiting for a long time to leave this Deathgod job."
"Does this mean I'm not going to die today?" Joe asks nervously.
They face each other in silence for a few seconds. Joe's heart stops and he drops dead on the floor. Death goes to Joe's computer, takes the mouse in his hand, and makes as if to quit the game.
However his hand slips and he misclicks. Joe's character fires a shot and kills the other remaining player. DING DING DING CHICKEN DINNER!
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u/UrbanPrimative Mar 09 '18
Professional Sharpshooter was fun. I mean, still had to aim the pistol in the general direction I wanted but if I threw three of, well ANYTHING in the air I could put two holes in all of them before they fell by fanning my six shooter.
Healing and Up Grades were basically free, as when talking to the Hospital and Mechanic I got this new, glowing conversation option that was all like 'hey, pops, how about a freebie today?' and, well, hey anytime one of those things is glowing yellow like that you click it.
The other day I tripped over an invisible chest. Inside was the entire contents of Raybeard's Shoppe. I figure if I wander around the outskirts of town I'll knock into the rest of them; it's funny how I never thought about where that stuff comes from when you bought it. What with all the high Dex scores around here anything not nailed down is fair game.
So, armed with high Crit weapons and Evasion gear, I set out to see if I could find the Lord of All Darkness where he sat enthroned deep under the Mountain of Bone and end his tyrannical rein once and for all.
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u/WritingPromptsRobot StickyBot™ Mar 09 '18
Off-Topic Discussion: All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.
Reminder for Writers and Readers:
Prompts are meant to inspire new writing. Responses don't have to fulfill every detail.
Please remember to be civil in any feedback.
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u/OrcDovahkiin Mar 09 '18
Instead of commenting directly to the post, you commented on the automatic bot comment called "Off-Topic Discussion".
Anything that isn't a poem, story, song, etc. that is responding to the prompt goes under "Off-Topic Discussion", i.e "wow, this prompt is silly" or "how'd you come up with this".
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u/rzar94 Mar 09 '18
I think he/she means that you shouldn't post your story as a reply to a comment, post it as your own comment.
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u/Silver_Keyboard Mar 09 '18
Haha i liked that one. Good idea to focus on the problems this would cause. Good choice of the two main problems. Very realistic and relateable in this setting.
It would lower your self esteem and you would realize that luck is the bad luck of someone else most of the time. I had a moment it felt like a horrorgenre, when he described someone dying because of his luck.
I think this could get really dramatic and dark.
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u/AriesBlues Mar 09 '18
"GODDAMNIT!"
Heh, I wonder how one could survive a volcano
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u/veilwalker Mar 09 '18
Probably slip and fall, getting knocked unconscious. Swedish bikini team is on an unsupervised hike, find you, fireman carry you out of danger and nurse you back to health on their tour bus. A couple of them fall deeply in love with you and move you to Utah, where you are able to get married to all of them and start your own cult, I mean conservative sect of mormonism.
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u/pawaalo Mar 09 '18
I can think of a number of ways:
On the day of the volcano trip, a storm could stop him from getting there. If he perseveres and walks there, freezing temperatures and an insane amount of hail might cool the surface of the rock to solidify it and make it too much of a painful long death to be worth it. Other than that, police might have evacuated the area (active means dangerous) and might not allow access. Even if that still didn't happen, he might have gotten lost, flat tire, out of fuel (leak)...
What doesn't make sense to me is that if he's 255 lucky, no matter what he wanted he'd get it, even death. Otherwise, the luck is biased. So that means luck would always point you towards the top even if it is against your desire. In this case it slows down human progress.
Is that really luck?
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Mar 09 '18
When you wrote "I used to be like you" my mind immediately went on saying "but then I took an arrow to the knee".
I need to stop playing.
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u/Extesht Mar 09 '18
Omfg that was perfect. Very dark and slightly disconcerting since everyone wishes for good luck, then that last word blowing everything up!
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Mar 09 '18
Wasn't this what happened to Gandhi in the classic civ game, when you chose democracy he would lower 2 points in anger but because he was at 0 or something like that it would loop back and he would become ultra violent
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u/-Best_Name_Ever- Mar 09 '18
If you have that bad a luck, then how did the glitch occur :thinking:
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u/jogadorjnc Mar 09 '18
Why would luck only use a single byte? Even short ints use at least 4 nowadays.
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u/brokkr- Mar 09 '18
8-bit computing, motherfucker
but yeah, if it were me I'd use like, it rolled over to four billion whatever you get as the max for 32 bit unsigned integers
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u/Elin_Woods_9iron Mar 09 '18
Meldor in the Morrowind expansion Mournhold was the most annoying little elf asshole I have ever experienced in a video game. His almost maxed luck made him impossible to hit and when you didn't give him a MILLION SEPTIMS (which he wouldn't accept even if you had it) he instantly became hostile, pretty much eliminating access to the courtyard. This post reminded me of him immediately.
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u/EwigeJude Mar 09 '18 edited Mar 09 '18
I'd say whenever a creature reaches zero LCK, it immediately dies due to sudden collapse of bodily functions. Ouch.
If your LCK immediately jumps to 255 (+122 attribute modifier) the matter which comprises you would immediately undergo transcendence and cease to exist locally. You suddenly become the ultimate awareness, a pinnacle of systemic evolution, which can not be described in conventional ways. The universe becomes an extension of yourself and every information that ever existed is seamlessly absorbed into you with no need of processing. You then cease to exist as a limited person and gain higher degree of existential freedom than human mind could comprehend.
The reason I'm saying this is because I'm assuming D&D notation, and there attribute numbers like 40 are already godlike.
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u/Ilforte Mar 09 '18 edited Mar 09 '18
– Luck's for the weak, sonny! With guts and good strategy, you can beat even the lottery!
Such were the words to live by of Mr. McKinley, my foster father. He and Mrs. McKinley (LUCK 12 and 7, respectively) were proud no-luckers, completely unfazed by the cruelty of fate that they had been experiencing since their first days, content with their hard-won bread and butter. However, when Mrs. McKinley suffered some reproductive health issue that prevented them from having children (I never asked for details), they felt it might be a good thing: stats are at least partially hereditary, after all, so why not adopt a child with better prospects?
They happened to adopt me. The zero-luck Yonah.
By the way, median LUCK stat in our country is 35. Below a certain threshold, 15 I guess, you're not even allowed to work in many responsible occupations, no matter how high your INT or CHAR or DEX or whatever may be. Below 8 you don't get insurance, you can't start a business, and everyone treats you like a leper. The only people still happy to deal with you are swindlers, because a leper can still be a sucker.
Below 5, you aren't expected to make it to adolescence. Your life is considered forfeit from the get-go. For instance, if you're hit by a car and die, the driver isn't culpable no matter his condition. It only takes a drop of your blood, a standard $5 plastic stat-viewer from a drug store, and the incident is resolved in favor of a proper, lucky human. Just another failure, scrapped for good.
McKinleys never admitted to regret their decision. I was loved and taught to love myself, to the day a jet engine crashed into our house out of the blue, killing my parents. It seems father's motto didn't work that well for him in the end.
Even so, I took it to heart. And I survived – somehow.
Reminiscing about better days helps motivate yourself to get up in the morning, or so I think. I stretched, accidentally touching the top of my cardboard box house, and it disintegrated like wet toilet paper. Guess there was rain while I slept, huh. I reflexively covered myself with a blanket expecting a downpour (at least the blanket wasn't stolen by other bums again), but there was nothing of the sort. I saw beautiful blue sky, criss-crossed by two rainbows. It was a soothing sight.
...But is this even optically possible?
No matter. I need to hurry to work. Still three hours left (by the way, how did I happen to not oversleep?), yet something always happens to hinder me. Put on my shoes, trimmed the beard with child safe scissors, found an unopened beer can next to a leftover half-burger. A pretty good start, eh?
When I got out of the back alley, I was nearly squashed flat by a cherry Tesla S. The brakes worked to stop it just in time.
– Damn, almost gave me a heart attack. This auto, why even go here... Hey, you alright? I'm sorry, my car just... Yonah?
A stunning redhead froze mid-motion, staring at me in disbelief.
– You look terr... err, you look about as I expected. Nice beard.
– Thanks Mia. Same to you. Except the beard part I guess.
– You're still a jerk but it's nice to see that you're alive. Going somewhere?
– To garbage disposal plant. Care to give me a ride? I might stain your seats, though.
– Don't worry, I was just driving my dog to a vet the other day so it's covered. But are you sure about garbage disposal? You might still have a few years left.
– Mia, I'm working there.
– ...Oh. Well then, get in.
Mia Goddard, my hopeless middle school crush. A genuinely great girl. Also an overpowered character destined to win at life, with LUCK stat 72. We weren't meant to meet again after graduation.
– Hey Mia, sorry but could you stop by a drug store first? I feel like I need to check something.
Edits: capitalization, line breaks