1. Nothing says ‘I love you’ quite like destroying a national monument, but on the whole she was beginning to regret dating someone who’s superpowers focused on expansion instead of compression… diamonds might be cheesy, but at least they were portable.

2. Old age wasn’t anything to look forward to– at least before scientists perfected Artificial Reincarnation(tm).

3. Being alone isn’t the same thing as being lonely, but over the centuries he’s gotten tired of explaining the difference. So now when mortals look at him with condescending pity when he tells them who and what he is, he just pretends to suffer and everyone’s happy.

4. They’ll build the new world on the ashes of the old– more literally than was pleasant, but they had to make concrete from something…

5. If anyone asks, they’ll just say they found it when they were looking for the ruins. The locals aren’t as familiar with the old technology and chances are good none of them can tell alien tech from human tech anymore…

These story prompts are released into the wild per Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License, so sayth their author Martha McMahon Bechtel.

Technotari Tags: Writing Prompts

“If you stop to think about it, we’re never going to get this done.”

Lorcan gave Neda a measured look, “And that’s a bad thing?” But he kept coiling the rope, counting out the knots in his head. “There might be another way.”

“We don’t have time,” Neda had gotten to fifty before him and was already lashing the rope to her pack. “If Bethany and the others think of something, they’ll take care of it. But for now,” she tugged on the straps to test the hold, “we’re the only chance they have of escaping the stormfront.”

“But we’ll be dead.”

Neda stopped, turning to give him her full attention. Lorcan didn’t look up from his counting, but he tensed in anticipation of the blow, eyes carefully averted. He hadn’t meant to say it, but the closer they got to the eye of the storm the looser his hold became.

There was a long silence and Lorcan cursed his lack of control. Neda wasn’t as bad as her father or her father’s father, but the Vocina temper bred true; thirty generations of dilution had done little to calm that fury. When she finally spoke, he braced himself against the expected pain.

“I rescind your oath.” Formal words, spoken in a language he’s assumed long dead, and he stumbled backwards in shock, feeling the collar crack. “I unbind your service.” The magic rose around them, cutting storm winds into a whirling vortex. “I release you, do as you will.”

And with that, six hundred years of servitude ended.

These snippits are copyright Martha McMahon Bechtel and may not be reproduced or distributed without express permission. All rights reserved.

Technotari Tags: Fiction, Fantasy

1. Other than the lack of air, the planet was actually quite pleasant.

2. Possibly one of the stupider things he’d attempted in his youth, still Yavn was quite proud of the pair of Usslik tusks that adorned the entryway.

3. Quicker than the eye could follow –which wasn’t hard considering the eyes belong to turtles who weren’t paying that much attention to start with– she was gone.

4. Rather than spend the rest of the day arguing, she relented and let him continue on in the belief that nothing rhymed with orange.

5. This is how the world ends… except it had already ended twice this week and the chance that it was going to stay ended were pretty much slim to none. The universe was notoriously bad at knowing when to thrown in the towel.

These story prompts are released into the wild per Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License, so sayth their author Martha McMahon Bechtel.

Technotari Tags: Writing Prompts