#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.

Thank you. Sometimes the magic happens and I appreciate your response.

#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.