#vss365 Dennis planned to quit in spectacular, flamboyant fashion and chose to #defenestrate through the picture window in his office 25 floors up. For added panache, he ran Naruto-style. Failing to account for the strength of the tempered glass window, he hit the pane like a bug on a windshield.

#vss365 An error in a black hole recipe left Ruth with another #batch of gravastars. A costly failure. She tried to recoup her loss by selling the cosmic bubbles as the next boba. Sadly, consumers of the Gravastar boba were ripped apart at the molecular level. Fizzing away as raw energy.

#vss365 Dark Speed galactic liners were designed for leisurely voyages through space. The ship's crew encouraged travelers to stop and smell the redshift. To #putter aimlessly around the decks without purpose or destination. Loitering was urged, and seizing the day could earn one time in the brig.

#vss365 It was a simple braided cord laced with pinpricks of primordial fire. At one end of the cord was a metal ring. The other end of the cord disappeared into the cosmos. Attached to the ring was a tag: Pull To #Undo The Universe. Stella slipped a finger through the ring and tugged.

#vss365 After an interminable struggle, Betty stood by a table, hacksaw in hand, smiling. It was a #victory of sorts. The beheaded victim lay on the table, flat, convex discs spilling from its neck. She picked up two of the discs and swallowed them. "Childproof cap my ass," said Betty.

#vss365 Lightning seared the dark, while a torrent of rain impeded Stormy & Night, who were carrying a #Midnight Hour over the Cheviot Hills toward Chillingham Castle. 100+ ghosts at the castle waited for Stormy & Night to arrive because haunting is prohibited when the Dead of Night is absent.

#vss365 A troubadour emptied a flask of #primitive fire on a stack of wood, and as flames licked & curled around the kindling, creatures & humankind flared. "Tell us about what we see," said the folk around the bonfire, & the troubadour revealed the #wonderous stories cast in smoke & flame.

#vss365 It was a map of an unknown world, a continent of mashed potato and various orange & green vegetable islands in a thin film of congealed gravy for an ocean, the #remnants of last night's meal. The pleasant aroma of the meal now a stagnant flat odor, Palatability Lost, Milton might have said.

#vss365 He sought purification in the Ganges. Chalice Well offered no spiritual healing. Every time he rose from the water, the souls of millions who died in his slaughterhouses awaited him with torments. #Immersion in the Jordan, Lake Titicaca, & the Sacred Cenote couldn't wash away his evil crime.

#vss365 My life felt as threadbare as my favorite aged tee, soft, comfortable, & as sheer as frosted glass. The threads #tethering my soul are as taut as a bowstring, where even the waft of a butterfly wing might snap them. And as I walk into the shadows, my bones have acquired an unfamiliar weight.

#vss365 The Count's kiss #lingered in the form of two puncture wounds on her neck, along with the bliss of perforation, which was going to make her next date with the Count less agreeable. The wooden stake strapped to her thigh irritated her skin, & soon she'd use it to irritate the Count's heart.

#vss365 At the first sip, Margo felt #betrayed. The anemic, straw-colored brew summoned disappointment. She raged at the cup, believing a show of anger might provoke the leaves to release their flavor. But the bottom-dwelling Lipton leaves didn't have the mettle to go all-out Yorkshire tea.

#vss365 Jakob lived on the wrong side of the Milky Way's Hyper Track. He often sat on the Tarantula Nebula dock & used a scope to view distant planets. It was his #intent to hop a star freighter & cross the Hyper Track to the planets with their glass towers, which created colored arcs in the sky.

#vss365 They caravaned into town in their gaily painted mobile homes pulled by drays. Although shunned, the townsfolk visited the campfires of the cinnamon-skinned visitors by night, enjoying their aromatic fare & wonderous stories of kings & battles, & #feral fire-breathing winged creatures.

#vss365 Florence cast a cobweb with the skill of a fisherman casting a net. It fell upon a #luminous Will-o'-the-wisp. After oiling her hands, she pulled the glowing fairy from the web & put it in a lantern attached to a stick. "Stay close," she said to a rambler. "I'll guide you out of the marsh."

#vss365 An undead vapor draped the #barren Urra Moor—an army of phantoms bound to the mortal world with unresolved grief & anger. They searched the heath & broom in search of stray fell walkers, & moor dwellers to consume them, believing that by eating flesh they would again become flesh.

#vss365 Inside a jail cell, a darkness churned with a primal desire for revenge. The disembodied voices of the victims hit the killer with the force of a pickaxe. "You showed no mercy," the dead chorused. "Expect no #forgiveness." "It wasn't personal," their slayer replied. "You were just in my way"

#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."