April Writing Prompts 2022

[labrathor]

April is here! Though you wouldn't necessarily know it by looking outside... but the internet cares for no weather, so it's not going to stop us, is it? And As always--

Disclaimer: I never close old writing prompts from previous months. People can and should be encouraged to post on old month's prompts and I highly encourage players to track these posts to catch stragglers or new people writing on old prompts.

Now. With that out of the way, onto this month's prompts.

April's Writing Prompts

1. A practical joke gone wrong.

2. "And you're absolutely sure that's what you heard?"

3. The first nice weather of the year.

4. So much to do, so little time...

5. "What are you, twelve?! And April Fools was yesterday!"

Bonus image prompt:

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2 - “And you're absolutely sure that's what you heard?"

[itmeanstruth]

Minoru walked into the apartment, surprised to find Isamu sitting at the table. His laptop was open, pages upon pages of notes were scattered around. Mister Newton’s voice was playing from the recording ball, and Isamu seemed equal parts fascinated and troubled by all of these things.

“Did you even go to sleep, Bro?” He set down his bag (now with an omamori and a Norse amulet tied on for safe keeping), and pulled a container of fresh berries out of the fridge for a snack. There were three mugs on the table, all of which clearly once contained coffee.

“Do you know what this is?” He looked up at Minoru, the bloodshot look in his eyes answering the actual question so Isamu didn’t need to.

“Better question - do you know what TIME it is?”

“No, Minoru, listen! The gift, from Ziggy and his family. Do you know what it is? It is an in-depth chronological history of why Antheans fear humans. That is what it is.”

“…uh, are you absolutely sure that’s what you heard?” He asked with his mouth full.

“I have only made it through the first six hours, and one of the voices is rather difficult to follow, but I do believe I have heard more than enough by which to draw that conclusion, yes.”

“Bro, I’m sure that Ziggy meant…” Minoru tried to smooth things over, but was quickly interrupted by his brother’s exasperation.

“And damn it all, they’re right!”

Minoru’s attempt, along with his jaw, fell flat. Those were definitely not the words he expected to hear coming out of Isamu’s mouth.

“Uh…”

“I have spent the better part of the weekend running various statistical analyses on the Ministry data Damien provided. The traits that they were selectively breeding for - the faster reflexes, the enhanced senses, the immunity to the plague we were inoculated against - are not naturally occurring mutations in the human population.” Isamu continued, speaking faster and taking far fewer breaths in between. “The combined values are even outside the evolutionary projections of homo sapiens, unless you account for some degree of interbreeding with another similar species.”

“You mean Damien… isn’t human?”

“Oh, he is still mostly human. About 85% human, with about a 3% margin of error. But that is not important. Minoru, I widened the query to include other humanoid species, and the non-human portions of genetic code bear an unmistakable resemblance to IRIS data on Antheans! Just… just see for yourself!”

He turned his laptop around, scrolling through the digital readout of the genetic code. Minoru just stared, having absolutely no idea what he was looking at. To him, it was just one long string of letters with various sections overlayed in red.

A few keystrokes, and Isamu brought up the genetic averages for Antheans - all red, obviously. Then he brought up the data model for hybrids. The overlay was roughly 50%, not counting unpaired chromosomes. It was a limited data set, so it didn’t have the sheer amount of variations accounted for in the human model, or even the Anthean model.

“Do you realize what this means?!” He shouted over Newton’s voice, which was still playing in the background.

Minoru stared at the laptop, and then looked back up at Isamu. “…You mean Damien is a hybrid? Like Ziggy?”

“To a very limited degree. The prevalence of Anthean DNA in his line of breeding is approximately 15%.”

“So… he had an Anthean ancestor, way back when?” Minoru scratched his head.

“I would have come to that conclusion myself had some of the sequences found within the unpaired chromosomes of both Antheans and hybrids not clearly been, dare I say it, inserted into the human chromosomes. Some of the human chromosomal pairs are larger than normal. For multiple generations.” He countered. “Which means the Ministry is most likely working with a small portion of the genetic code their scientists have been able to isolate and successfully manipulate. Artificial hybrids, inbreeding...”

He stopped the ball, rewound it and replayed an earlier part of the chapter again. Newton was speaking candidly about his time in captivity - specifically on what they did to his eyes.

“Everything Ziggy fears… I think… Minoru, it happened… I think it happened in that world.” He flipped through papers. “There are references to an earlier study. The same reference numbers appear again and again. I do not actually HAVE that study, so I cannot say with absolute certainty, but it leads me to believe they had an Anthean in captivity at one time. It could have been that world’s version of Mister Newton or a hybrid like Ziggy… They never bred them, or never had the chance to breed them. They only have samples of…”

Minoru reached over, and turned the recording ball off.

“Isamu, Bro… you haven’t slept in, like a day and a half. You’ve had that ball going for six straight hours.”

“Nine. I rewound portions...”

“Okay, you’ve basically had it going since I left for my shift. Definitely time to shut it off for a while.” This time, he reached over Isamu’s shoulder and shut the laptop. “Go to bed. Then look at the data later.”

“Minoru…”

“Bed.” He pointed toward his brother’s room, but kept one hand firmly on the laptop, just in case Isamu planned on taking it with him.

With a long sigh, Isamu did finally acquiesce. He stumbled back toward his room, still muttering to himself about how part of the genes controlling eye color must have been within one of those other sections. After all, it was hardly a trait the Ministry would have researched on its own…

Eventually, the door shut.

Minoru, meanwhile, glanced down at the notes. Some were printed copies of what Damien must have provided. A lot were in Isamu’s own handwriting. He shook his head, popping another berry into his mouth before heading over to plop himself down on the couch.

Jack had been in Ministry custody for a while, but Minoru didn’t necessarily want to think about that fact right now. Especially if Jack was truly a future Ziggy. Did Jack even know he was half Anthean? Did Damien have an inkling he wasn’t fully human? And more importantly, if not, how on earth did Isamu plan to tell him?

Oh boy… No doubt about it. This was about to get really crazy.