GAME: Hook my first line and sink her in to a paragraph!

[Nick B]

The sad melody of the guitar echoed through the corridors. The kind of song you might play if you had just broken up with your boyfriend, a refrain that pulls at your heart yet helps it to heal, to understand. This tune though, was not crafted by a heartbroken lover; this music was played by the hands of the newly dead.


My mother always told me; never play with magic.

 

[jastius]

My mother always told me; never play with magic, it might break you. I looked out at the room though the cracks on the mirror. mum was right. I told her so, and she bobbled her head in courtesy, as she settled back down upon the fruit bowl, a juicy red apple. Just then a hand snatched up mum! t'was that pig, snow white! i hope she chokes...

lt creeled a merry little tune before sneezing green fire.

 

[Boneman]

lt creeled a merry little tune before sneezing green fire. The logs in the fireplace blazed up instantly, dispelling the bitter cold damp in the room. She stroked his scaly head, and dropped the rabbit in front of its head. The dragon's jaws opened and the rabbit disappeared with a crunch. A little bit of persuasion never hurt anyone.Much better than being kicked every time you have a problem igniting.
"Bert! It's all right, the dragon heater's working again."


She clung to the rock, her hands shaking with the effort.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

She clung to the rock, her hands shaking with the effort. Just a few more meters to go, and she would be the first person to climb Nix Olympica without a powersuit. As she inched upward her environmental suit whined with the effort of providing enough heat and oxygen. Above her, the eternal night of near vacuum, dusted with rainbow stars. Below her, Bradbury Station and a thousand eyes watching on #-V. A shooting star passed overhead. An omen?

___________________________________________________________

"Time to go," the jailer said.

 

[chrispenycate]

Can you get a shooting star over Olympus Mons? I thought the peak was out of the atmosphere.

"Time to go," the jailer said. "The lava has already started flowing away from the caldera. All the prisoners except corridor three have been bussed out, all the paperwork and computers are security locked and packed, and DNA samples in freezers. Stromboli might destroy the bars, but we won't be losing any data."
"And the drug lords and enforcers on corridor three?" asked the politician overseeing the evacuation, a hint of fascination spicing the horror in his voice.
"Too dangerous to transport them together. Too many people – unprincipled people – want them free. But they won't be driving over that lava, or helicopter land through the updraft and smoke, so…"

An apparently endless stream of hairy backs flowed over the veldt.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

An apparently endless stream of hairy backs flowed over the veldt. Jael Frieder steered the nearly silent ornithopter over the center of the herd. One small white spot stood out among the sea of deep brown fur. "There's your prize, Mister Haggart," she said. "It would be easy to stun it from up here, but that's not sporting. The two of us, on foot, with hand stunners, against five thousand kilograms of muscle and sinew. All for the glory of capturing the only known albino neomammoth on Earth." She smiled. "That's what you're paying me for. It'll be fun."

________________________________________________________

"Smoke and mirrors," the old man said.

 

[jastius]

"Smoke and mirrors," the old man said... and there was no reason to disbelieve him. After all, who would dispute the word of a level fifteen thaumaturge? So the people turned away from my show without a coin in my hat to show for months of hard work. As the last one left, the aged magiker leaned down and snarled,"Go back to the hill country and starve with the rest of your clan. Not even the gods will lift that drought much less that pitifull excuse for an imp you're calling up, and there is no way i'd permit your lot competing with me here in the city.. They pay through the nose for my water spells when there's no rain." he kicked over my demon basket and marched off while i fumed.Smoke from the basket drifted at his foot then seemed to encircle him for a second. I grated a few choice commands under my breath, and the smoke turned to silver and flowed into his mouth, choking him. Overhead a clap of thunder broke. people stopped in the street astonished at the first sign of rain in two years. Maybe I couldn't raise more then an imp, but an imp could kill a thaumaturge, and a thaumaturge was a big enough soul sacrifice for the Hell King to pay to bring in the rains.


The air latch opened and the dragon fire spun out into space.

 

[Boneman]

The air latch opened and the dragon fire spun out into space. The coldest vacuum in the known universes extinguished it immediately, leaving condensation icicles spinning through the gap between the two starships, and they bounced harmlessly off the hull.
"Who's there?" drawled the captain of the vessel, not in the least concerned.



Her last request was granted and her husband was buried alive.

 

[jastius]

Her last request was granted and her husband was buried alive. Careful cryostasis preservation locked the comatose man into a sealed chamber, preserving his life indefinitely. Now number 187-6Ce would be completely cured and rejuvenated to peak physical performance. Just before we send him into the tank against the velociorapters. The ratings will be great for the season opener.



three times he said the incantation, carefully stirring the words into the pot over the flames.

 

[IsoldeJ]

Three times he said the incantation, carefully stirring the words into the pot over the flames. As each fell into the churning mess, it imploded with a dazzle, a grind, or a pop, colours exploding, a cacophony of sound and reaction. Dissatisfied, he reached for the final element, a soupcon of quicksilver, the merest hint, just to ensure it would glide into all the spots, grease the hinges, as it were, of the portal.

*****

A face peered at him through receding fog, one he recognised instantly, and with it came a memory of failure.

 

[Boneman]

A face peered at him through receding fog, one he recognised instantly, and with it came a memory of failure. His history teacher, who hated him, and constantly berated him for failing to learn the dates of the battles of the Peninsular War. How that failure had driven him: made him the most emminent scientist of his age, accolades falling on him constantly, awards, approbation of his peers, financial success, fame. But try as he might, he couldn't recall the Battle of Salamanca.


Warm rain soaks just as much as cold, the captain thought, damn this planet.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Warm rain soaks just as much as cold, the captain thought, damn this planet. The ancient engines of Molly's Hope churned upstream through the thick brown waters of an unnamed river. Damn the fool that crashed here, too. Would have to leave the stupid distress signal in the middle of uncharted swamps. No nice, clean, air-conditioned flyer for this rescue team, no sir. Can't find the blasted thing from the air. Has to be this relic of a boat, thrown together from bits and pieces of slowships that barely made it to this stinking hunk of mud and steam. Captain Roker turned from the viewport and slapped his Lazarine first mate on the closest of its six arms. "Reckon this place reminds you of home, eh Sassisurrin?"

______________________________________________________

The road between Treymouth and Highminster runs through vales of unusual beauty and tranquility.

 

[Boneman]

The road between Treymouth and Highminster runs through vales of unusual beauty and tranquility. Which made the slaughtered army even more ugly. Carrion swooped and pecked at decaying flesh, trees and shrubs burnt to indignant blackened stubs, and the crimson earth sucked greedily at the dead flesh. "Someone will pay for this," the woman said to her companions.


I don't often wake before dawn, but the screams were most insistent.

 

[TitaniumTi]

I don't often wake before dawn, but the screams were most insistent. Percy, my grandmother's cockatoo, was expressing his disapproval of the mouse in the bottom of his cage. I could see his point. Mice are acceptable; green, luminous mice are not.

*

I poised myself - all thirteen stone - on the point of one slipper and began to pirouette.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

I poised myself - all thirteen stone - on the point of one slipper and began to pirouette. I may not have been the most graceful student at Countess Boronsky's Dance Academy that term, but it was generally conceded that I was the most enthusiastic. I was the Sleeping Beauty; I was the Queen of the Swans; I was the Firebird. Surrounded as I was by sweating, grunting, wide-eyed anorexics, I was subjected to no small amount of teasing. It came as a surprise, therefore, when the Countess announced, in her silken whisper, that I had been chosen to dance the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy in the Academy's annual Nutcracker. Julia Fray, my best friend and worst enemy, the thinnest and most beautiful of the students, congratulated me with kisses that tasted of poison.

______________________________________________________________

Under the cold light of the streetlamp stood an old man with a guitar.

 

[TitaniumTi]

Under the cold light of the street lamp stood an old man with a guitar. I looked at him and anger burnt like bile in my throat as I remembered that hawkish nose lifting in contempt. I heard the unyielding voice again. "Go. You are not my son. My son would not forego high office for the chance to play a fiddle." But then I heard what the voice was saying into the darkness. "Jon. I've come to bring you home."

-----

In the beginning, there was only darkness.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

In the beginning, there was only darkness. The universe was filled with black cotton, soft and choking. I tried to scream, but all that came out was a whimper. I felt my body falling slowly, as if I were drowning in warm, dry quicksand. A low buzz filled my ears. After what seemed like hours a tiny white light appeared in the distance. "Martin," a distant voice said, as if a god were speaking to me from infinity. "Are you ready to come out of the test chamber now?"

____________________________________________________________

The iceship shrieked across the wasteland.

 

[Mr Orange]

The iceship shrieked across the wasteland. Two white dragons of Naeroth screamed after it, frost clouds pattering to the snow in their wake. I, well I whimpered. The ship had been my last chance of rescue. The Empire would not send another, but at least I had a distraction. I brushed the concealing snow off my furs and stood. Hastily strapping on my Narseal bone skis, I started to trek after the ship, eyes scanning the horizon for the return of the dragons.

........

It was eleven in the morning but strangely, it was still dark.

 

[StilLearning]

It was 11 in the morning but strangely, it was still dark. At least, according to Jessica’s beeping alarm it was 11 in the morning. Broken, she thought muzzily, and switched the TV on. The BBC news channel might lull her off:

“Panic has gripped the world as astronomers confirm that, only hours after spacecraft of unknown origin have surrounded the planet, Earth has apparently been pulled out of orbit and towards interstellar space. There has been no communication with the vessels and all signals directed at them have been ignored. The US airforce has redirected it’s X37 unmanned space craft to intercept one of the aliens, and intends to ‘open communications whatever the cost’. With the Sun getting further away at an ever increasing rate temperatures continue to plummet worldwide….”

Something was wrong with the freeview box: The same sci-fi film was on all channels...

I hope that's not too much deviation from the intended format?
......

Expedition log, 14th June, 2087: We continue to hunt for our missing team, but persistent fog and rising radiation levels will force us to abandon them before noon, even if sign of their passing is found.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Expedition log, 14th June, 2087: We continue to hunt for our missing team, but persistent fog and rising radiation levels will force us to abandon them before noon, even if sign of their passing is found.

Director Van Hart snapped the vocorder shut and stared into the mist. Dull lead shafts of light penetrated the gloom here and there, revealing a landscape of mud and rocks in a thousand shades of gray. He sweated inside his survival suit. Damn this place anyway. What good was a ruined country, even if it had once been the powerful nation on Earth?

___________________________________________________________

Hidden in the chaos of antiques was a peculiar photograph.