#vss365 Two luminous spheres with dark centers floated under a pond's surface. An icy shiver trickled down my spine. The spheres were eyes, and a silhouette of what might have been a head surrounded them. The murky face disappeared. It was a #fleeting moment, and I questioned what I had seen.

#vss365 Noise and shadow occupied the underside of beds, and families of skeletons lived in the mansion's closets. Passageways experienced heavy foot traffic as ghostly weepers and wailers crisscrossed the house. There were bodies in the walls. In the #haunted house, Eerie found no place to haunt.

#vss365 Shunned by the jocks & cheerleaders, the #misfits lived in a world of dungeons & dragons. Quests took them beyond a world of chores, homework, & soccer practice. It wasn't the school kings & queens they feared, but the memory drinking vampires, cannibalistic custodians, & torture teachers.

#vss365 Sunlight sparkled in the #dewdrops beading the Elysian meadow. A line of trees fenced the shimmering prismatic carpet, the only entry point a gap between two oaks. It might have been the first dawn of the gods, and I the first to leave the caves and my ancestral roots.

#vss365 Vandal dropped into the atmosphere with the grace of a sumo wrestler dropping an opponent. The warship was a thing of beauty, its sleek lines mirrored its seductive curves & suggestive cupolas. Yet, it bristled with weaponry,& its engine sounded like a #dove to allay the fear of annihilation

‘What kind of bird is that?’ ‘That’s a mourning #dove.’ ‘What, like it comes out when the sun comes up?’ ‘No. Mourning as in grieving. The sound it makes is kinda sad.’ ‘Oh’ ‘And they mate for life.’ ‘Well, that explains why they’re sad.’ #vss365

#vss365 #Moonbeams searched the woodland looking for Leaf-Kin among Autumn's crimson-brown carpet. Roused by the luminous rays, the disheveled Leaf-Kin, people of moss & fungi, twigs & leaves, & smelling of decay, stale air, & stagnant water, gathered in the hollows & dykes, waiting on the moon.

#vss365 Severed legs hopped while detached arms dragged themselves through a timeless place of fog & leafless trees. Wizened twiglets sprouting from gnarled branches clutched at the sodden dew-drop air. In the neutral nothingness, the #phantom limbs knew neither joy nor despair.

#vss365 Huge blocks of ocean, driven by a #fury of wind, heaved against the Cliffs of Moher. Arms of sea and foam reached for the grass verge 700 feet above. It was as if the Atlantic Ocean was trying to grip the rocky edge and pull itself up, out of, and away from the storm.

#vss365 She looked at the empty expanse. "It's not as empty as it looks," a Dragon said. "The night sky is jeweled with starbursts." "I don't see them?" she replied. "They must be named to be seen." "By whom?" "You. We shall travel the cosmos & #name the stars," the dragon said, unfurling his wings

#vss365 A hush whispered among Chad's Ennedi rocks. The whispered words, as light as grain husks, were carried by sifting winds to the flame trees of Baobab, where an old king rested in shade. In a duet, the rocks & trees told tales of the king’s past glories, which made the old royal #lion roar.

#vss365 I am a hippopotamus Some say I am #dichotomous With twitchy little ears And small beady eyes My four stumpy legs Carry my enormous size Yet contradictory, not me I’ve never been two or three Always a bad One Ill-tempered-n-sassy To the bone bad Undivided And singularly gassy

#vss365 On the Sea of Tranquility plain stands the Detritus Bar. An amalgam of abandoned parts, the bar comprises pieces of NASA's #lunar landing module & the Nostromo. It is known galaxy-wide for its Facehugger cocktail rimmed with acidic salt & served by a Xenomorph mixologist with attitude.

On death's door, the #psychopomp visited me. "Fear not. I am here to guide your dead soul in the next world." I peered into his beady eyes, my grimace no match for his sanguine smile. "Fine, but whose job was it to guide my soul while it was alive, because I really coulda used the help?" #vss365

#vss365 "Mr. Anubis, the #psychopomp job is yours." "Do I get an official uniform?" Anubis asked. "The title comes with a broad gold collar, a yellow & white kilt, a wig, & a new torso." "A torso?" "Yes, we only need your jackal head, Mr. Anubis, which we will pair with a suitable human body."

#2WordPrompt She ran #until she reached the outskirts of the abandoned city, the thin, acidic air burned her lungs. Only now did she regret trading in her angelic #wings for Mercury's winged sandals. Sure, they were chic, but they couldn't provide the necessary lift & speed to reach escape velocity.

#vss365 "You might be a more successful reaper if you look less grim," said a newly dead. Reaper tilted his head & shrugged. "I don't have to be a cool #cat. It's not as if scything souls requires a sense of fashion, & I doubt a pure silk Milano suit would make the living choose an earlier exit."

#2WordPrompt "The Cosmos is more expansive than the Celestial Creator Team suggested," said the leader of the Interplanetary Home Owners Association. "Expansion is the nature of our Universe," chorused the Creationists. "We're not going to #argue. We rescind permission for this #entire project."

#vss365 We touched down on the banks of the Delta Quadrant and collected our #fishing gear. Standing at the Quadrant's rim, I threaded my Stardust Reeler while my friend prepped his Galaxy Caster. Together, we looked over the ribbon of stars flowing by for the telltale ripples of star floaters.

#vss365 Goddess Selene called the Astera star choir to Tycho's rim, and they sang together as the Earth rose over the crater's impact ejecta. Their haunting harmonization traveled between the moon and Earth, summoning #wolves to canyon ridges and open woodland for a night of unearthly hymns.

#vss365 It was difficult to breathe on Vov U2L, the air was thick with insects drawn by the intense, foul odor of a decomposing species with a life span of hours. The multi-limbed beings chiseled their relief, and we unveiled our eyes to look upon the sculpted wonder of the #jade-stone carvings.

#vss365 Tales about a gold city under the North Sea, compelled the Norsemen to crew a dragon ship & follow the whale paths #undersea. They sailed by longship storm wrecks on the seabed, & encountered the colossus — it had bones like the shafts of oak trunks, and a tail that swept away all before it.

#vss365 The kingdom falls when the ravens leave the Tower of London. "I clipped your wings," the Ravenmaster said to the last raven. "We thieved a tourist's smartphone and ordered Forum Novelties Raven Wings, Black, One Size, from the Amazon website. You clipped fake wings." "Such #trickery."

#vss365 Preparing for the coronation, Westminster Abbey opened the tombs of royalty & flooded the abbey with the dry, musty smell of authenticity that reeked of past glories bathed in golden hues. Dressed in ethereal purple & ermine, the spectral monarchs stood with guests for the #investiture.

#vss365 At the shoreline, she removed her clothes and picked up reams of #seafoam to use as a sari. Lustrous moonlight refracting through the foam sari gave it a silvery luster that shimmered with rainbow colors as she moved. The irridescent queen waited for Neptune in his seahorse-drawn chariot.

#vss365 Using tongs, she pulled a luminous sphere of hot plasma & gas out of a furnace and held it to an anvil's face. With a cross-peen #hammer, she beat the sphere into a sombrero-shaped galaxy. Sparks the size of stars flew. Placing a black hole at its heart, she flung the galaxy into space.

#vss365 The Babblers told stories in every tongue throughout the galaxy. Their wondrous tales captivated whole planets, leaving their listeners speechless — for the babblers were lexis-miners, stealing the complete vocabularies of every nation and tribe, and the galaxy became #wordless and silent.

#vss365 Knitting needles tapped out an easing rhythm as a woman knit a féileadh mòr from a strand of sunlight with stitch & purl #loops. Knit one, purl one she said as she rocked in her Orkney chair. With deftness of hand, she wove the floral scent of Highland heather into the thread of sunlight.

#vss365 She perished reading the #letter. The author's script was so elegant and artistic. Each word was a single wavy line with spirals and twists, the writer's pen nib always in contact with the paper until the next word. Her mind arrested by the ornate scrollwork, she forgot to eat and drink.

#vss365 "Back in the day, I was quite formidable," a chunk of ice said to a passing kayak. "Now you look like you would be more comfortable in a whisky glass," the kayak said. "I was once an iceberg," the ice replied. "I met an ocean liner in open #water, and our clash led to its #sinking."

#2WordPrompt She put on overalls, gloves, a sturdy hat, & rubber boots, & grabbed a pail of starry spiral #blooms. As she walked through the cosmos, she scattered the blooms as if scattering seed. "Those #galaxies look like the spiral moonflowers you grow in your garden," her assistant remarked.

#scififri The #experiment was simple: Examine. Stay Alive. In locked cases, airtight containers vibrated with offworld pathogens. Alien virus bubbled and frothed in test tubes housed in containment areas. Gaston was terrified. Between him and an unimaginable exotic death was a thin skin of PPE.

#vss365 With nimble footwork, she danced between Sol's scintillating beams, which seared the air until it hissed like steam escaping from a pipe. Reflective dust synchronized its movement to join her in the sunlit dance. And together they did #sing: "Trip it as ye go, On the light fantastick toe."

#vss365 Joan recoiled with pain when she thrust her hand into the sun and grabbed a handful of sunlight. Falling back to Earth like a shooting star, she engaged an army of man-eating cyclopes and stood between the One-Eyes and extinction. She opened her hand, and #blinded them with sunlight.

#2WordPrompt Earthers #shouted obscenities #toward the sun after the star's coronal mass ejection disrupted the planet's power grids. Unable to recharge their electronic gods, and the endless stream of banality disrupted, they were now faced with the awfulness of IRL social interactions.

#vss365 A river swollen with rainwater burst its #bank. It excitedly gurgled through a field of grain. Swished feverishly over paths of dirt and paving. Homeowners were less than happy to see the wayward river coursing down their streets and hastily erected sandbag banks to divert the floodwater.

#SciFanSat #vss365 A quill sprouted from a school desk inkwell. Its owner would soon sit at the desk for the afternoon's art class. The Artist's assignment was to render a planet in #ink from her rough sketch. With a touch of wit, she put 71% of the planet's surface under water and called it Earth.

#vss365 Squid wore a charcoal suit paired with a crisp white shirt & a power tie. With 10 appendages, his fashion style was overkill, but it believed presence as a debt collector to be important. And he didn't drown debtors in red #ink. The ink's color was not as important as collecting the debt.

#vss365 A grandfather clock's brass #hands dealt out time like a casino croupier pitching cards across a table. The numerals slid effortlessly over the green felt table top. The minutes and seconds chaotically piled up before each player, each seeking to win a little more time for themselves.

#vss365 Time harvesters sifted the Chronos desert for the finest grains of #sand for use in trad hourglass timers. Throughout most of the galaxy, sentients measured Time by the duration it took to boil an egg. Chickens were deities, and their acolytes never asked their gods why they crossed roads.

#SciFanSat A freshly dug grave burped out a coffin. "No more," it yelled. "It's your purpose," a clergyman replied. "The Earth receives our dead." "Too many contaminants," Earth shot back. "Plastic &metal parts. Pharmaceutical toxins. Botox & batteries. Only unpolluted bodies are accepted now."

#vss365 With sword raised, Sauron was about to cleave in two the cowering Isildur. At that moment, the #Ring of Power notified its owner, Sauron: "Power Low. Recharge." Sauron sighed. Turning to his army of Orcs and Trolls, he asked: "Does anyone have a USB cable and a portable recharge port?"

#vss365 Her #pen nib was always in contact with a document when signing. A single flowing line of decorative turns, her signature snaked across forms & checks. It was considered a work of art by those who watched—performative authorizing identification. There was the obligatory book-and-world tour.

#SciFiFri We waited under a black sky studded with stars for Earth to #rise over Tycho's cratered rim. The sight of the blue orb always #lifted our spirits &sent them nosediving too. Earthrise meant the working day had begun—indentured laborers mining minerals for a world our skin had never touched.

#vss365 A #sprite flew between the early snowdrops & late bluebells as she made her way to an oak. Stopping by a seeded dandelion, she plucked 3 hours & blew upon them. The hours cartwheeled into the air like kites caught in a crosswind, after which they descended over the croakers on lily pads.

She flung open her chest, and let loose her heart, a #sprite skimming and spinning on the water, an object of desire, flitting easily between boats and men with their wild nets. As dusk descends, she follows the midnight sun beneath the lake and its somber depths. #vss365

#vss365 Exiting the underwater nursery, a #sprite skimmed a pond's surface, keeping company with the newly emerged mayflies for safety from hungry fish. She waited for the morning sun to dry her wings & ignite her body with inner radiance, before taking to the air like a fluffy dandelion pappus.

#vss365 Morning misbuttons itself, one sleeve longer   than the day. A sprite palms an hour's bone,  folds it   into a light‑crease. clocks blink past a missing hand. toasters pop unstamped bread. time hobbles heavy with absence, wearing a gap   it won’t ever admit. #sprite

#2WordPrompt Two teams took the field at Wembley #Stadium, with a soccer ball fitted with cortical nodes, ocular devices, & neural processors. In the teams vs. ball #encounter, players had to avoid being assimilated by the football & becoming its drones. The team with fewer player assimilations won.

#vss365 #vss365 Ewan Scott promises to almost but not quite find the Loch Ness monster. No one wants to find Nessie, but people do want to believe it exists. So Ewan carries out half-assed searches, provides unfocused photos, & questionable sonar video to maintain Nessie's #illusive existence.