November 2022 -- 75 Word Writing Challenge -- VICTORY TO ANROINNULTRA!

[Christine Wheelwright]

The Angel of Chaos

With flutter of an insect’s wing
The Angel steers our history.
The Wars of the Diadochi,
Caesar across the Rubicon.
At end of day the victors sing
But seldom praise their gods for long.

We never think to wonder at
The smallest things that change the world.
A single blade of grass disturbed
Leads man to joy and ruin both.
But pious men consider that
The Angel watches us with love.

 

[Phyrebrat]

A Question of Faith

Caiaphas surveyed the Pharisees’ bland faces in The Hall of Hewn Stones. Hypocrites — charging Highest Blasphemy when they beheld Annas as if he were the Messiah.

‘Why bother with just another scripture-thumping hack from Galilee?’ he asked. ‘Why?!’

‘This is different,’ Annas replied.

Gold signet rings rattled as the Sanhedrin Council voted.

###

Later, returning home through the desiccated throats of wadis, he pressed Annas again. ‘But still, why?‘

‘Because He would not send a woman.’

 

[BT Jones]

The Question Everyone Forgets to Ask​

“Why'd I do it?”

“Why’d ya think?"
"Drafted teenagers fightin' commies in some distant jungle, pregnant girls dying in back-alley clinics, women and black people still fightin' for equal rights…”

“In the end, when you’ve given up trying to change the world for the better, if the only answer isn’t to hijack a plane, steal $ 200,000, bail out over Oregon, and live your life in anonymity, then my name’s not D.B. Cooper!”

 

[paranoid marvin]

A Question of Identity



"Who're you!?"

"I come to offer Pax Romana."

"What's that?"

"The hand of friendship."

"And if we refuse?"

"Paxo Romana."

"Which is...?"

"We knock the stuffing out of you. Which is it to be, Briton?"

"Who're you calling Briton? We're Gauls!"

"Centurion you idiot, you've sailed us to the wrong flamin' place!"

"Here, you're that Caesar bloke aren't you?"

"What of it?"

"I've a friend who's dying to meet you... Asterix!!"

Gulp...gulp...


POW!!!

 

[Bren G]

That Tricky Bard


Arthur, and the android Marvin, were finally close to discovering the Meaning of Life!

“It’s here, hidden in some old English literature,” Marvin stated flatly. Arthur, aboard the Vogon ship, turned hopeful. In seconds, the Vogons would destroy Earth – and Marvin with it! “I’ve just decoded it Arthur. It’s a mathematical formula.”

“Out with it Marvin! What is the Meaning of Life?

“2B or not 2B.”

“That’s the answer?”

“No. That is the Question.”

“Nooooooooo!”

 

[Stable]

Quiet Evil

Why did you turn down marriage to a respectable farmer like Smith?

Where is the third nipple from which your goat familiar supped?

Why did you curse Smith’s cow to kick him repeatedly in the crotch?

Why did your familiar repeatedly attack and chase Smith’s mother from your land?

How did the pumpkin soup-based potion you threw over Smith give him facial boils?



Let the record show the accused answered nothing, only laughed.

 

[mosaix]

The Influence of Alcohol.

…writing to complain regarding the events surrounding the evening of 15th of April.

Whilst touring the bridge, courtesy of Captain Smith, an inebriated crew member entered, causing mayhem. During the ensuing mêlée, the wheel was temporarily unmanned and the ship was subject to a small, but significant, change of course.

How could such a thing be allowed to happen? Unforeseen course changes can cause collisions and put ships and their passengers’ lives in peril...

 

[Pyan]

"Hyuuh! And lift..."

The giant sarsen trembles, and topples.

"Right lads, now the next stone goes in this socket - and so on, all the way around."

"So basically, we're rotating the whole henge through 15°? Why?"

"Don't ask me, ask the Druids. Something called Mercian Summer Time, apparently..."

 

[Starbeast]

Afternoon at the Patent Office With a Dragon and a Cyborg​

”You stole this. Didn’t you?”

“No.”

“Really?”

“No.”

“Really?”

“No.”

“Edison.”

“Yes! Yes! It’s true! I just don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

“Really?”

“Alright! I’m a miserable drunk who’s never had an original idea in his life.”

“Feel better?”

“No. Just give me the patent on my wireless device.”

“Who’s?”

“It belonged to Tesla. Okay?!”

“I just wanted you to admit it. Here’s your form.”

“You should be a therapist”, commented the dragon sarcastically.

 

[Elckerlyc]

Delphi (occupied Greece), 20 June 1941

“Pythia, prepare thyself! A visitor arrived.”
“I foretell… an Italian General?”
“Wrong.”
“Who than, in wartime?”
“It’s Hitler himself. He’ll probably seek assurances about his war efforts.”
“Don’t people ever have more profound questions?”
“Don’t bother yourself with that. In preparation, before taking the seat, meditate on great struggles and victory. Think Croesus.”
“What will our prophecy be?”
“That he should commence on all fronts. We want to make sure he’ll lose the war.”

 

[Ashleyne]

INCINERATION OF THE FAMILY TREE

“Brentwood?”

“No”, he answered. His tears blurred the flicker of Hopkins’ torch. “She’s my daughter.”

Hopkins said, “You’ve heard her multiply four-digit numbers like 1,392 and 5,698-”

“7,931,616”, said Brentwood’s daughter.

“-instantaneously”, continued Hopkins. “Your daughter must burn.”

“I’ve torched my wife”, said Brentwood. “I can’t burn my daughter.”

“So be it.” Hopkins ignited the stake’s pyre. Brentwood’s daughter screamed, metal melting beneath her synthetic skin.

Hours later, Brentwood succumbed to self-immolation.

 

[reiver33]

Bosworth, Redux

Richard III spoke under his breath. “But if I do slay Henry Tudor, voice in my head, will this be for the better of England, or worse? Speak plain!

“It will alter your future, my past, that is all I can say. But the abbey at Litchfield must store the parchment I described, so that I know to contact you, regardless.”

“Enough, devil!” The king drew his sword. “Sod this for a game of soldiers.”

 

[BigJ]

Empathy; Doubt; Defiance

The doubts were small, at first.

Are they so different? Are we so cruel?

But it escalated, and the doubts became dissent.

How can I remain complicit? How can I not resist?

An old family heirloom, a tiny occult orb, said to trap a soul in an eternal Sisyphean nightmare.

A leader set to visit.

I glanced at the sign on my way in; Arbeit macht frei.

I wondered if Himmler would appreciate the irony.

 

[johnnyjet]

Questions for Amelia

The world spun beneath her Lockheed Model 10-E Electra. For a moment she blacked out.

"Fred? Where are we?"

She was alone.

"Is that Howland Island?"

The land mass was too large. She was back at New Guinea.

"Am I dreaming?"

Fuel was getting low. She had to land,

She saw lights, a runway.

"Am I cleared to land?"

Static. "Who is this?"

She answered.

Silence.

Then, "Impossible. Amelia Earhart has already landed."

 

[Venusian Broon]

La Danza de la Muerte

Montezuma had ordered the dead demon to submit to the buoyant court.

Beside him, a high priest sneered, “You were right to kill such a rapacious and evil man. We will do the same to all his peoples.”

The Emperor was less sure. The omens were bad. He dreamt of seas full of eastern men, pestilence and blood.

Montezuma continued doubting, as the boy wearing the flayed skin of Cortez danced.

 

[Hugh]

​

If only…

On the day John Lennon died,
the 9th October 2040…

500 million people worldwide lit candles while singing “Give Peace a Chance”.

700 policemen disguised as walruses climbed the Eiffel Tower.

Schools everywhere served double helpings of semolina and custard.

The Presidents of the USA, USSR and China began a week-long ‘Bed-in’ together, chanting “All You Need Is Love”.

John was exactly 100 years old.

Did he change the world?

You bet he did!​

 

[Ursa major]

​

Boxing Day, 932
(Based on Duke Wenceslas’s Secret Diaries)
​

The door opens... onto chaos.​

​

“Is this Hell?” I ask.​

​

“The Great Wen, actually,” she replies.​

​

“But aren’t those devils?”​

​

“They’re humans. Hoosiers, in fact. Visitors, like you.”​

​

“Like me?” I give her a withering look. “Wearing those?”​

​

“Their team’s colours.”​

​

I glance up. The sky’s dark, but it’s brighter than daylight below. “How’s this possible?” ​

​

“Lots of low-wattage LEDs.”​

​

“Witchcraft!”​

​

“No, Your Grace. Electricity and wires. Science and knowledge.”​

​

“Who are you?”​

​

“Yes.”​

​

​

 

[Daysman]

and the band plays on

We're fed before each performance.
We sleep afterwards, before we port to the next venue.
It's been decades.
Countless cities and worlds.
Still human, but ageless.
Like everyone, chipped with local languages, customs, skill sets…
Venues provide instruments and costumes.
Each set lasts half a terrestrial day or thereabouts.
We five? Rescued.
A doomed ocean liner.
The Greys. They opened a portal as we lept from the deck.
Well, better than freezing to death.
Someday.

 

[Heijan Xavier]

The Ninth Test

I wish to hold her.
To comfort her.
To forgive.
To apologize.
To weep in the shelter of her embrace.

Yet I will not, for the forked tongue can only utter words of deceit.
To comfort her would be to lie.
To forgive would be to lie.
To apologize would be to lie.
I will weep, yet only in the shelter of my Lord’s embrace.
I will not live a lie.

“Hagar, Ismael. It’s time.”

 

[Parson]

Faith or Fortune?

Mohammed read the fragment of papyrus again.

A minor priest, Saul, had written his wife: “Forget that we saw that heretic, Joshua of Nazareth, yesterday. Caiaphas promises to kill any priest and his family who testifies to Joshua’s resurrection.”

Those two lines could probably make him rich. But Christians would use them for proof of a resurrection which hadn’t happened.

He couldn’t do it. He struck a match. A 2000-year-old papyrus was reduced to ash.