Reterraform

The first terraforming ships arrived and got the planet ready with the basics. A breathable atmosphere, livable temperatures, in a clear space to set up the fabricators. The second round adjusted the landscape to Support growing adapted crops. The third brought the humans and they experimented and adjusted the plants and introduced a few animals. They hoped could further improve the biosphere. Working their way up from bacteria to fish and insects and eventually some birds and lizards and small rodents. That’s when the imperial rodaniii terraforming ship arrived, wiped the planet clean, and prepared it for their own species..

Weekly Challenge #1071 – Office

The next topic is Brain surgery

RICHARD

Home Run
‘Honey, I’m home!’
He looked at her; she looked at me; I looked at him; he looked at me in surprise.
‘And, who the hell is this?’
‘Oh, this is that guy from the office. The one I was telling you about. You remember? The ‘porn star’’
The ground still resolutely refused to open up beneath me. Having no other option, I gave smiled weakly.
‘Hi.’
‘He doesn’t look like a porn star’ he thundered, striding down the hallway.
Seizing my chance, I made a break for it, sliding past him on my knees, reaching for the door, and freedom!

LIZZIE

Step into my office, my lovely. Join us, join us… join us… join… The words lulled her mind. His voice softer and softer, almost a whisper. His office was the table by the window at the local diner. Somehow, he had found the most remote community in the middle of the desert. Nothing but dust and lizards. Oh, and the things too, a half-breed of zombified entities the aliens had left behind. They are lizards, he said, right before the lulling echo. She protested. Lizards or zombies? The last thing she heard was… we have died and so will you.

LISA

WFH
Things have changed since covid. I used to have a long commute: taxi, train and a bit of a walk to get to work; now some days I don’t even get up from my bed.
In the office I wore a suit. My home’s a warm place and I run hot so I tend to work in just my underwear. Working from home has made me a lot more efficient: long meetings I sit on the toilet and just make sure my microphone’s muted.
My boss rang and asked if I’d start coming into work again. He’s worried about productivity.

NORVAL JOE

“What’s going on?” Billbert asked.

“Joan,” his father shouted, pacing around the room. “I was at the office when central command called. They need your mother in DC right away.”

Mrs. Weinerheimer hurried into the room, Sabrina right behind.

“Good. Joan,” his father said. “We have a flight to Sacramento at 8 am. They said to pack for an extended stay.”

Billbert looked at the Speedway tickets on the end table. “What about the NASCAR race on Saturday. We have to be there.”

“Sorry, Billbert,” his dad shook his head. “That will have to wait. This is of national importance.”

SERENDIPIDY

I always fancied having a big office.
You know the sort: ornate mahogany desk, and an expensive tooled leather chair, in front of a large window with views across the city, silhouetting me nicely.
And not forgetting the big red button under the desk.
The one that flips open the trapdoor and drops you into the shark tank below.
Ah well, one can dream.
The reality is a cubicle under flickering fluorescent lights and a frayed old swivel chair with a wobbly castor.
No big red button.
No trap door.
No shark tank.
This job will still kill you though.

TOM

Bitter as an empty glass 2

The office door of the Wavery swung wide. Jordan Stein exited with $5 Havana stogie dropping ash of the stage floor. “Where’s god damn choir line?” I pipe up there are on break, remember the union? “Let the union pound sand. I got a show to run. Let’s see some legs flying. I says I’ll check in the alley. In those days everyone smoked, and dancers where no exception. Mary had bummed a fag off Jimmy the understudy. The rim light from the alley gave her a merle oberon glow. “Showtime kids, breaks over.” Mary tossed her cigarette over her shoulder.

PLANET Z

People ask me what the grim reaper carried before farming implements were invented. And I guess it all depends on whether the site was invented before or after the ox plow. Although considering how slow oxen are when plowing, you could get a fair bit of distance between you and them if you saw them coming. And before that, the guy in the robe was smacking people with tree branches or bashing them with rocks. Which wasn’t all that convenient when there weren’t any trees or rocks around. So he’d just punched the Neanderthal really hard. Get the job done.

Cat swag

Every company I join has a branded product store where you can buy tumblers and jackets and backpacks and other things with the company logo on it. I’ve already got plenty of these things without the branding on it and I don’t need any of them. But they always insist on a welcome package with something in it and this new company is sending out a backpack, which will go on the floor and become a cat bed. And I’ll stuff it with the pullover another company sent as a cushion. I work from home, so they won’t see this.

Bend to your will

Harvey knew how to bend anyone to as well. It was just figuring out the right combination of joints, angles, and tension. He took extensive notes and found that most people needed their own set of parameters to break. Through his research, he developed a three-dimensional alphabet of torture. And when he hired a linguist to help him decipher the code, she had him arrested. He never went to trial. They found him in his cell, twisted into a bizarre shape with a broken neck. The linguist told the judge, I think that means he’s sorry. She was right.

The Parker Sister

Well, the Parker Brothers spent their time in the basement coming up with new board games, their sister Judith came up with games of her own. She’d drug her dates and took them out to the shed, where she’d tie them up, put a ball gag in their mouth, and when they woke up, she’d cover them with spiders or cockroaches or tickle them with feathers. She tried tickling the spiders and cockroaches with feathers, but those critters never reacted. It was when she used snakes that was her downfall. One turned out to be venomous. And the games stopped.

Terrence bit his nails

Terrence bit his nails. He always bitten his nails. The child psychologist said it was a self-destructive behavior. A therapist said it was an oral fixation. His mother smacked him and yelled at him to stop. Which fueled his anxiety and made him bite his nails more. Bloody ragged edges. He put bandages on his fingertips. It made it hard for him to hold a pan or pencil or type. Then he started wearing nitrile gloves. They stopped his habit. Sure he looks strange. But he put on a surgical mask and claimed his immune system was compromised badly..

Harvey the weird ghost

Harvey was a weird ghost. Since he could pass through walls and gravity didn’t affect him, why should he orientate himself that he appeared like he was floating or walking along the floor. Sometimes he’d come in through the wall on the ceiling. Other times he’d come in oriented at some strange angle and approach in an unusual trajectory. Or he just appear and vanish. As for how he could move things or even make sounds, since he couldn’t vibrate, physical vocal cords, he never quite understood that. Or that there was a chill in the air when he approached.

Bill‘s Dentist

Bill‘s Dentist warned him about plaque and tartar buildup. Bill brushed and floss every day and rinsed with the rinse that his dentist recommended but every time the dentist would warn him about the buildup. One day Bill woke up with his head encased in a block of plaque and tartar. It was hard for him to breathe. He bashed his head against the wall, a few times, loosening up enough so he could breathe freely, but he still couldn’t see early fumbled for his phone, but had to rely on voice commands to call the Dentist. Who wasn’t available.

Weekly Challenge #1070 – PICK TWO

The next topic is Office

TOM

Bitter as an empty glass

The bartender looks at me, then posed this question, “An empty glass is often a beginning of someone’s sad story. If you’re willing to talk, I’m willing to listen.” Since the Jack Daniels had been drained a good 20 minutes ago, this was my cue to share the bitter tale of Mary Jane Spanner. All Mary Jane wanted to do is dance on Broadway. Not a big role, just being one of the gypsies. I’d been working lighting at Waverly, she wasn’t that talented nor a real good looker, but the kid and a fire that lite up the stage.

NORVAL JOE

Mrs. Weinerheimer went to the kitchen and, pulling an empty glass from the dishwasher, she filled it with ice water and followed Sabrina.

Mandi sat on the couch next to Billbert and said, “That girl is such a drama queen.”

Billbert raised an eyebrow. “You don’t think she had a horrible experience in that basement?”

Mandi shrugged. “Maybe. I think she’s just bitter that you want me to join you on your mission and not replace me with Bobbie.”

Mr. Weinerheimer charged into the house. “Where’s your mother? Sorry Billbert, but you’ll be on your own for a few days.”

SERENDIPIDY

It’s on nights like this, bitter cold, when frost covers the ground that you’ll find me about my business.
Even the freshly dug soil is hard as iron, and it’s difficult, exhausting work to dig down the full six feet.
It warms me up nicely in no time though.
Why not wait for warmer nights, you may ask, when the soil is soft and the digging easy?
But that, my friend, shows just how little you know.
It needs to be cold, as cold as ice. The ground frozen almost solid.
Because that way, the bodies stay fresh, and tasty.

LIZZIE

He slumped into a rusty chair someone left by the outside wall. He was the epitome of an empty glass. No car, no house, no pet, no marriage, no kids… in this order. “Believe in yourself,” someone told him. Oh, he believed, alright, because his wife sold the house, kept the car, took the cat, asked for a divorce, and told the kids he had died. Just because the car was more important to him than the kids. Frosty, she called him, frosty. Imagine that. Then, the lighthouse spun its light across the horizon, and the chair collapsed under him.

RICHARD

Greatest Hits
The old man drained his drink and looked meaningfully across the table at me.
‘Can’t abide an empty glass” he muttered, “mine’s a pint of bitter’.
I made my way to the bar, ordered, and smiled at the barmaid expertly pulling his pint, she smiled back icily, frost in her eyes.
‘That’ll be four eighty, luv’.
This better be worth it. My music journalism career had hardly been stellar so far. I returned to the table.
‘So, tell me what it was like being a mod, back in the day!’
‘Mod? I was never a mod! Way after my time!’

There were a lot of Jeff

There were a lot of Jeff’s in my class. Some of them spell their name differently, but they were all pronounced Jeff. Every one. At first, the teacher tried to go by their last names, but their parents complained. And all the other classes had at least one Jeff. So, the teacher quit and pursued their musical ambitions, joined the band and they signed a Record deal and tour and made it pretty big. They almost won a Grammy for one of their albums. In their liner notes, they dedicate their first album to all the Jeffs in the world..