Cyborgs Don't Sleep

"Boring body got you blue? Are your meat parts falling apart? Dial 1-800-NEW-BODY to schedule a free consultation!"

The televised advertisement shouts these words as I sit at the bar, draining the now-warm contents of the glass in front of me. I had been lost in thought for the past hour, wondering how my life had become this fucked up.

Two weeks ago, I lost my job. Thanks to the Affordable Augmentation Act, hordes of newly synthesized men and women had flooded the American job market. A normal person like myself simply could not compete. 

Auggies, while appearing to be ordinary humans, are actually nano-engineered molecular masterpieces, whole body systems replaced by self-repairing nano-bots that can mimic human skin, dragon scales, or stainless steel. Auggies don't sleep, they don't eat, and they don't make mistakes. Their minds have been upgraded and linked into the Integrated Information Service which constantly monitors and enhances cognitive abilities. In short, they are better. I hate them. Trading their humanity for smoother skin and longer lives...pathetic.

Reddit Writing Prompt #17

You're a powerful telekinetic with extreme road rage. Describe your morning commute.

There's a reason it's called a white-knuckle grip. When you are driving down the freeway at seventy-five miles per hour and some jackass cuts you off, you grip that leathery radial like a ship-wrecked survivor clinging to a life-line. Your blood vessels constrict, cutting off the flow of that crimson juice. The color in your fingers and hands fades as your mind races with thoughts of violent revenge.

Well, in my case, I took it one step further. You see, ever since I was a kid, I've had this gift. I've never told anyone about it, I've never seen anyone else with the same gift, and I sure as hell have never shown anyone what I can do.

Reddit Writing Prompt #16

In a post-apocalyptic future where humanity has been stripped of most scientific knowledge, internet culture of old has become the basis for myths, religion, and other supernatural beliefs.

On the fields of Old Boston, thousands of men and women laid dead and dying. Some were still gripping their blades, others were climbing into the flaming wrecks of mangled vehicles. Blood trickled and pooled, settling into streams and ponds which reflected the light of the setting sun.

Reddit Writing Prompt #15

Humans who have managed to time travel back in time appear to visit us - their secret is that they are actually aliens whose goal is to infiltrate and dominate our species.

Do I remember where I was when they arrived? Yeah, I remember. Of course I remember. I was a very important man. In fact, I was so important that I got to have a front seat to the greatest show on Earth. As the 45th President of the United States of America, I was able to stand back and watch as our country, our planet, and our bodies were taken from us.

When their ship first appeared over D.C., everyone assumed they were aliens. Who could blame them? It was a damn flying saucer! Jets were scrambled, but their weapons had no effect. By the time we realized that, the ship had already touched down on the White House lawn. The news crews were on the scene in minutes. The tin-foil hat wearers world-wide were probably shouting at their television sets, "We knew it! They're finally here!". I barely had time to issue a statement to the general public before our visitors had arrived.

Reddit Writing Prompt #14

Tonight is the last stand of a bad man who does good things.

The lawmen are coming. I can hear the sounds of their crowd-dispersal horns as they make their way through the clusters of cripples and refugees, looking for me. They mean to kill me. I stole money and gave it to the poor, the hungry, the desperate. I helped people, when everyone else refused to help them. Sure, I killed people too, but I did what I had to do. And right now, I will do what I have to do. To survive. Failing that, to take some of these corrupt bastards with me.

Reddit Writing Prompt #13

A man gets to redo his previous life while keeping all previous knowledge. But the wife he loved does not exist this time.

It was an amazing opportunity. The scientists at the Institute for Memory and Cognition offered it to me. The basis for the procedure was a phenomenon known as Iterative Neuro-Chronological Displacement. By manipulating the laws of quantum mechanics, human minds could be sent back to their first moments of consciousness.

In effect, an adult mind could be sent back in time to carry out another iteration of their life. A do-over, in a manner of speaking.

So the IMC reached out to the public. Putting ads in papers, on popular websites, and even on television. I first heard about the IMC when I was sitting on my couch, as I often did in those days, watching reruns as I slowly drank myself into a stupor. Meredith had been dead four years and the grief had not subsided. I missed her every day. Thirty years of love, happiness, and laughter, brought to a sudden end by a drunk driver.

Reddit Writing Prompt #12

Two alien species have been at war for hundreds of years. Humanity finds the two species and are forced to take a side.

We used to wonder if we were alone in the universe. Now we wish we were. Everything has gone downhill since we discovered the Aquarians. Joining an interstellar war, the forced conscription of billions of men and women, and the total erasure of human rights were just a few of the consequences of our discovery of Aquarian artifacts on Mars.

My name is Jarrod Binas, I used to be an exo-archaeologist with the Inter-Planetary Science Foundation. I was there when we uncovered the first Aquarian vaults. Massive chambers two-hundred meters below the Martian surface containing Aquarian artifacts. Alien technology. We were astounded. Our most advanced dating techniques told us that these vaults were constructed eleven-thousand years ago, when the Aquarians arrived in our solar system. We learned so much about them in those days, but we didn't learn the truth. If only we had known then....