Ficlet

“Alright, we’ve transited. Let’s get to surveying, shall we?”

“Uh, sir, we’re getting some unusual readings here.”

“Define unusual.”

“...music?”

It was impossible; literally impossible, at least according to every known law of physics. Yet probe after increasingly powerful probe revealed not only were every planet and sun in the system giving off radio waves, but were, in fact, producing music. Not just any music, either. The entire system was resonating in a coordinated orchestral piece. Worse, it was familiar.

“Of course I know it, Johnson! Everyone knows it! What I want to know is why every single bloody body in this system is acting like they’re an orchestra! Why is the sun acting like a bloody percussionist? Why is that moon there giving off wavelengths of a woodwind instrument? How in the hell does a celestial body even emit that?!"

"Sir, there is zero precedent for this. I don't even want to know how many physical laws this breaks. Even the black hole in the center is...I guess, pulsing? I think it's keeping time?"

"Johnson, we are on the other side of bloody universe! And we've stumbled upon a system that is, collectively, producing the entirety of the William Tell Overture in a continual loop! What the hell do you suggest the message back to the top brass ?"

"Send musicians?"

"Funny."

"I certainly thought so, sir."

Prompt for later

Note to self, remember this writing prompt for later: you acquire a house with very advanced gadgetry, the most important being an advanced AI that helps out. Only there is no AI, it's just a helpful ghost pretending.

Plot twists

Reading so many writing prompts has my mind going off in so many directions the last few days. It's been a while since I've been so creatively-minded. It's nice. But certain prompts get me thinking of plots I've seen before, and how well some of them were instituted. There have been a few prompts about fate/prophecy, some about subverting it. And all I can think about is how the show Angel turned it and used it.

A demon, centuries before, saw a prophecy written in blood about how the son of a vampire (normally an impossibility) would kill him; so naturally, he went around changing all written references to say that the Father (Angel) would kill the son. So when some major mojo goes down and Angel has a child with Darla, Wesley consults the prophecies, worries that it will happen and, along with some other demon meddling, basically betrays everyone in an attempt to keep the child safe. Not only does one of the greatest enemies of Angel end up with the child, he takes it into a hell dimension with himself, raises it as a warrior, and they eventually come back. Eventually, maybe a season later, we find out the entire backstory, and the child, Conner, does indeed end up killing the demon. But wow, the whole twist of using the prophecy to subvert its own meaning and use the heroes to defeat themselves was mind-blowing, and still one of the best I've seen. Damn, but Joss Whedon is excellent at unexpected and painful twists.

Come to think of it, the Mistborn trilogy by Sanderson has a similar editing of ancient texts to make the heroes work against themselves. But, like Oedipus, it is so often the fleeing from fate that causes it to happen. Of course, it raises the question of how things would play out had people not tried.