_{Ehhh, sorry if it's a bit incoherent ^^' been busy with exams but I hope it's okay c:}

Zeke stood back and looked at his creation. Glinting in the afternoon sunlight was a pocket watch, plated with black chrome metal and carved into it were beautiful swirling designs with a heart nested in the middle of the swirls. He smiled at his handiwork, and pressed the switch at the top to open the cover. He wound the clock, turning the hands back, further and further. The world around Zeke started to blur, the sun and moon flashing across the window, again and again and again. The watch stopped turning and the daylight cycle slowed down through the window.
Zeke stepped through the door, and picked up the newspaper, noticing the date; two weeks prior. He strolled down the sidewalk towards the parts shop, where, standing there in all her beauty, was Illaria. Her smile was glowing, as Zeke walked through the doors. Her porcelain skin, unbroken and perfect. Three women burst through the shop door, revolvers palmed and aimed at Illaria. Swallowing, Zeke stood in a corner, just out of sight. One pulled the trigger, bullet whizzing through the air, inaudible due to the large bang from the gun. The bullet nested itself in Illarias forehead, as she fell back from the momentum. Zeke winced, having to actually see the moments before her death; but this time, he knew how he could stop it. Turning the little knob atop the pocket watch he crafted, the hunters moved backwards and left, and the sun set again back to night, until it was in the early hours of the day. Time to get to work. I sat down with my compact screwdriver, and went to the back to pick up some scraps. Zeke picked a few of the cogs up, and inspected them. Perfect.
It took the better part of the morning to set up, just in time before Illaria opened up the shop for the day. She was surprised to find her lover there already, but didnt complain. They worked together to set up the shop, and afterward, Zeke stayed behind the counter helping her bring items from stock to various customers, all the meanwhile glancing at the pocket watch every so often. They were about to arrive.
Exactly in the same manner as he had witnessed earlier, they flung open the door, but this time, he was ready. Just as the trigger was pulled, the mechanical device Zeke placed whirred into action. A sheet of titanium deployed from the ceiling, creating a suitable bullet proof shield, just long enough to stop the bullets and distract them, as another piece of my handiwork kicked in. The torch sconce embedded in the wall popped out, and dropped on the floor by the intruders. They looked in horror as they realised they stepping in a puddle of gasoline. The flames roared, engulfing them. Illaria looked on with utter shock, the fire reflecting in her eyes, as flesh melted. Zeke grabbed her wrist and pulled at her, to escape through the back, but her eyes were still focussed on their screams.
They ran to the coffee shop around the corner, stopping every so often to ask someone to alert the constable of the fire. They picked a seat and Zeke ordered her a hot drink, to help calm her nerves. She was shaking, but smiled warily at him as she took a sip of her drink. She enquired how he knew what was about to happen. He shrugged and simply said to always be prepared. They spent the rest of the day around the city, looking at various different shops and taking their mind off the recent tragedy. Zeke knew no one was going to ask about the cause of the fire, such things were impossible to them. He would help her rebuild her shop, now they were finally out of danger.

ILLARIA
In the middle of the night, I made my way to the coffee shop, and flicked a switch, which, with a mechanical whirr, sprung a trapdoor to life. I carefully stepped down the stairs, towards the darkened basement. At the floor, a voice spoke.
Well? Was it worth sacrificing my three grunts? it spoke.
Indeed. I do believe he has the Time-Stone. He wouldnt tell me how he knew they were coming, but when we got back to his house and I gave him some whiskey, he told me. He harnessed its power in a pocket watch. I replied.
Where is this watch? Enquired the invisible speaker.
He gave it to me as a present. I revealed the watch, swirling designs on the watch shifting, as its power grew stronger in His presence. The whorls were shifting around, distorting the heart in the middle. A particular swirl caught my attention, it went right through the middle of watch, splitting the heart in half.

((Ack, sorry about that! x//x;

I originally went with the 743 prompt, but then my computer restarted and I didn't save it, so I went with the unpopular sci-fi/steampunk crossover, or at least what I could write of it aha.))

-----

"Captain, we're now in orbit of Omega Algirae 3."
"Do we have a green-light to deploy the reconnaissance team?"
"Yes, Captain. Their beamed location will be within range of a friendly civilization."
"Recon team -- do you copy?"

Connis and Terra stood up from the seating area in the teleporter room. "Yes, Captain," they responded in unison, walking onto a glass-windowed platform in the middle of the room.

"Alright, you know the drill. Get some intel and bring it back. Shouldn't be too hard. They're a bit primitive compared to us."

"Ready to deploy," Connis stated, standing firm on the platform.

"Activating teleporter in T-minus 5, 4, 3, 2..."

--

Ever since mankind on Earth achieved advanced technology and space travel, expanding into numerous star fleets, it was the Earthlings' prerogative to find intelligence across the stars. Space exploration was a wonder for those who were employed into it. Among every 1000 stars, they found 100 planets with hospitable conditions, and of those 100 planets, only 10 would have signs of life. And of every 10 planets, there was a chance that one of them was home to a species intelligent enough to communicate with humans.

Connis and Terra traveled in their space shuttle for several months, a contrast to years that their predecessors traveled, thanks to advances in warp tech. They wore nanotech-enhanced jumpsuits and helmets that could emulate the look and fashion of any other species to blend into the natives on other worlds, and carried a bag of compact-sized weaponry, first-aid kits, and rations for surviving up to 3 months without contact with their ship. They were the reconnaissance team that would touch down and inspect the planet's sentient life, gauge their progress in technology, and gather proof that they may be worth contacting by humankind. It was an important job that required them to go completely unnoticed, or else they would disturb the natural tendencies of the species they went to observe.

--

The recon team's bodies materialized on a dusty, sandy, and rocky ground. They seemed to have landed in a desert climate, not too harrowing to overheat the microcomputers on their suits, but not the spitting image of hospitable land with life.

"Recon team to Voyager-X, do you copy?" Connis said into the built-in communication system in his helmet.

"We hear you, Connis. Did you land safely?"

"Affirmative." Connis looked around him. He saw Terra checking her gear, making sure the teleporter didn't mess up rematerializing their supplies. His teammate's white jumpsuit contrasted the yellow sandy background around them. "Are you sure we're within reach of civilization?"

"Yes. There should be a sizable town due west of your location."

Terra and Connis looked westward. In the far distance was the figure of a few buildings.

"...We'll approach that destination now. Over and out." Shutting off his mic, Connis sighed audibly. His teammate could hear it through the local connection.

"Sure wish they got us closer," Terra chuckled. "Would've saved us the trouble."

"Hundreds of years of software updates and they still can't get us within a few meters of a town." He dragged his gloved palm down over the visor of his helmet in a sort of facepalm. "Well, let's get going."

--

They walked for minutes upon minutes, absently talking about various topics or browsing the universe-wide-web on their helmet interfaces. The duo worked together for several years already as a reconnaissance team for the Voyager-X, having experience in exploring and gathering data on a handful of previous planets. Between them, there wasn't much that they haven't spoken about.

"So, how's the wife and kids?" Terra began.
"Fine. Jim's going to space school and Alex is finishing up primary."
"Ooh, lil' Jim's gonna follow in his dad's footsteps? Sail across the stars and bring peace, glory, and unity to mankind?"
Connis sighed. "Whatever he wants to do."

A few minutes later, a sensor within their helmets went off. With magnified vision, they saw a moving vehicle in the distance with a cloud of dust trailing it.

"Recon video log 1," Connis said, starting to record video of what he saw. "We see a vehicle moving from the west towards the east, in our direction."

"Looks like...a big carriage." Terra tilted her head as she tried to sharpen her view. "You know, those horse-drawn carriages in the Western movies?"

As the vehicle got closer, the team was able to discern details from it. It seemed like the carriage was pulled by two horses, but the horses didn't emit heat or usual carbon signals. They weren't live horses, but based on their readings, the horses were made of some sort of metal. With X-ray vision, they could look into the carriage and get a rough image of its passengers.

"They look...relatively humanoid. And ooh, looks like they're wearing fancy outfits," Terra said giddily. "I spy a corset and some up-dos with fancy hats."

Connis sighed. "Stay professional, Terra. Let's get our disguise ready and see if we can grab their attention."

From afar, their helmets scanned the passengers' outfits, running the outfits through a database of fashion emulators, then their jumpsuits whirred to life, projecting new clothes onto their bodies. Terra looked like she wore a leather corset, a flowing, tiered skirt, a series of belts accessorizing her limbs and waist, and a small tophat. Connis wore a simple leather tailcoat with formal pants and shoes with a matching hat as well.

The carriage drew near and slowed as it approached them, as if it changed its course once Terra and Connis came into view. When it stopped, a lady walked out with a light parasol to shade her eyes from the sun. Upon closer inspection, she wore a red flowing dress with a tiered skirt and a black corset, complete with leather gloves and a hat adorned with gears and a black decorative feather.

"Well 'ello there," the lady said with an accent that seemed like a cross between Earth American-Midwest and British. "What's got you walkin' around in these parts? Got stranded?"

Connis was about to talk, but Terra spoke up. "Yea, mate, our cart got ambushed by robbers, an' we had no choice but walk back to town!"

"What a shame," the lady replied, nodding with a tip of her parasol. "Well, we're not far from town. Would you like me to drop y'all off?"

"Sure!" Terra's voice was excited to ride the mechanical horse-drawn carriage. "We're in your debt!"

"Come along then." The lady giggled as she boarded the carriage, Terra following behind. Connis stared at the equine machines, noticing they looked somewhat like horses from Earth, but patched together with scrap metal, spinning gears, and brass tubing with steam puffing out at the rate of a heartbeat. After enough staring for his video log recording, he boarded the carriage and shut the door behind them.

--

'Terra, what were you thinking?' Connis said, scolding his teammate telepathically through their local comms system. Despite looking like regular humans wearing hats, they still wore the white jumpsuits and white helmets in reality, just that the lady couldn't tell that it was a projected illusion.

'I really wanted to try out my Western!' Terra replied, her tone guilty but still excited. 'Come on. The desert, we're going to a town in the Wild West, the carriage, the outfits. This is totally like in a movie!'

'Remember the stories of other recon teams going to other planets that had booby traps in temples and hostile tribes?? Do you think THOSE teams felt like they're reliving Indiana Jones movies?'

'Ohhh, Indiana Jones...what a 1990s classic!'

Connis heaved a loud sigh in his head, still audible through their comms system.

In the meantime, right in front of them was the lady that picked them up, pouring herself a cup of tea. Behind her was another compartment for what seemed to be the driver's seat, where a male driver was steering the mechanical horses and keeping track of multiple gauges on a dashboard.
"Tea?" the lady asked.

"No thank you," the team replied.

"Very well." The lady sipped on her tea with a gloved pink pointed outward, eerily similar to traditional human practices. "By the way, my name is Victoria Fayette. And yours are?"

"Terra Sanders, and this is Connis James," Terra said for the both of them, hoping their names sounded normal enough for this world.

"...Interesting names. Quite unique. Where did you two come from?"

"Uhhh..." Terra was at a loss for words.

"The east, we came from the eastern region. We're traveling the country and doing some sightseeing," Connis replied quickly.

"Yeah!" Terra picked back up on the conversation. "We didn't expect bandits to ambush us and take our cart," she sighed. "This is the first we've seen a carriage like this, actually!"

"Oh...really?" Victoria arched a brow. "I could've sworn there were mechanical carriage services in the east. My cousin said that he used carriages to travel all around the east for business."

Connis mentally growled at Terra, afraid that they'd sound like aliens now.

"...But," Victoria continued with a smirk, leaning back in her seat, "I suppose that it's only in the West that you see steam-powered animals. Especially the brass ponies." She giggled, motioning to the front where they could see the mechanical animals gallop as they pulled the carriage. "500 horsepower, wastes less than 10% of the gasoline fuel, and looks a bit nicer for those who like the authentic feeling of a horse-drawn carriage."

Terra giggled. "It's amazing sight! And compliments to the driver!"

The driver in the compartment ahead tipped his hat in acknowledgement.

Connis quietly sat back as he let his helmet record the conversations between Terra and Victoria. Their own modern advances were thousands of years ahead of Victoria's steam-powered technology, but it was only natural that every intelligent species progress at their own rate. Such mechanical equines seemed ancient compared to hovering cars that ran on carbon dioxide and electricity, traveling at speeds that couldn't even be measured in horsepower. And that's if humans on his world preferred traveling vehicles over instantaneous teleportation pods that spanned all over their cities and towns.

"It looks like we're here," Victoria said as she looked out the window. The carriage decelerated and stopped in the middle of the dirt road.

"Thanks for the ride, Victoria!" Terra blew her new acquaintance a kiss, which Victoria seemed to receive favorably, and exited the carriage.

"Thank you for your kindness, Miss Victoria," Connis added as he left the carriage. "We wish you a safe trip to wherever you were headed. We're sorry to have interrupted any prior engagements you had.

"It's no bother to me," Victoria said with a smile. She folded her legs and winked at Connis. "Enjoy your trip. Welcome to the 'West."

As the two hopped off to the side of the road, they waved goodbye to Victoria's carriage as it rode out into the desert again. They turned to the town to embrace their surroundings:

Everyone seemed to wear leather belts, hats with ornaments and brass accessories. Mechanical animals similar to the steam-powered horses they saw before stood next to the buildings, quietly waiting for their owners. Electricity poles and wires spanned the long road that split the town down the middle, and the sound of whirring gears and whistling steam provided the background to the chatter of lively townsfolk.

"Recon team, recon team." The voice of their captain rung through their helmets. "We see that you got to your destination point. What's your status?"

"Stable," Connis replied. "We'll start gathering reconnaissance intel on this town now and contact you in 2 hours."

"Copy that."

Connis sighed as he shut off the communication channel with the space shuttle, turning to Terra. Terra looked back at him with a grin.

"Looks like we got lots of ground to cover."

????
Did something happen that I am not aware of?

Nothing happened :P

Not that I mean to rush, but why is it taking longer than expected?

I am writing the critique right now, also because it was super hard to choose.

Oh my goodnessssssss! The prompt is so hard to choose for me! They all endear to me and I will just have to take a couple days to figure out which one... or two... or three... UGH THIS IS SO HARD.

In other words, reserving this post.


Okay! I have finally decided!

The piece of writing you are about to read or hear is another short story; a story of two siblings of opposites: one is on the side of life, cold, and ice, and the other is on the side of death, warmth, and fire. Interesting how that plays out, isn't it?

Midnight. The dark, cold power of the wintry night air coursed through her veins. The light of the moon made her black eyes darker, made the dark play on the tips of her fingers. The cold sheet of ice that leered from the ground was serene and glittered darkly in the moonlight. The silence was deep, and she drew strength from its emptiness. The wind picked up, and for a small moment, the whispers reached her ears, swirled through her dark hair. The whispers dreams. The strange, twisted language was playful and dark, mysterious and mischievous. Nothing would disturb the nightfall.

She looked in through the frosty window of the stone house. All lights were extinguished, but a fire blazed in the hearth. Six were gathered around it, laughing, talking, enjoying the fire's warmth. A smile crept onto her lips, dripping with hostility. How stupid they were, forgetting that fire liked to dance. No, it could not be contained. She could not be contained. She would dance across the earth until it was perfect. Her eyes sparked dangerously as she thought about the world in her image; ashes and embers, flames burning restlessly in an endless dance. Yes, warmth was all life needed. Fiery, blazing death. She did not sense her twin near her, did not feel her looming presence. She gazed warmly at the family around the family, though the fire in her eyes was like ice. She would become the eternal flame.

The dark twins head snapped up and her black eyes narrowed. She was here. Gwendolyn was here. She called the dark forth and disappeared.

Gwendolyn felt icy breath on the back of her neck, and she spun around, sneering. "Hygria," she hissed. "You know very well what happens when fire meets ice."
Hygria's dark glare was enough to make her step back, right into the stone wall of the house. "And you know very well what happened last time it met," she growled. She stepped closer to her twin and whispered, "I suggest you leave these people alone, and never play with fire again."
An unnaturally warm breeze wound itself through Gwendolyn's golden hair. "Oh, but, I wouldn't want them to freeze to death," she said, and the flames in the fireplace began to climb the inner walls. She smiled sweetly, her eyes embers. "After all, life is much too cold."
She gripped Hygrias wrist, and her twins scream joined those inside, chorusing in a twisted duet. She knew the fire would be too much for Hygria, and she smiled brightly, her face sinister. But the smile began to fade as the dark twin wrapped her burning fingers around Gwendolyn's own wrist. Black spider-webbed across her skin at the cold touch and the darkness began to overtake the flames eating hungrily at the walls of the dwelling.
"Can a little candle like you stop frostbite?" Hygria whispered, her dark eyes piercing the smoldering flames in Gwendolyn's. A sardonic smile played at the lips on her pale, gaunt face. "You're lucky, though," said Hygria as the black began to work its way up the light twins neck. She gritted her teeth through the pain of Gwendolyn's red-hot hand. "Candles last longer than matches."
Hygria finally released Gwendolyn, and she erupted in a column of flames, disappearing with a flurry of sparks. The fire inside of the small home had gone out, the ashes black, empty of embers.
The dark twin closed her eyes and turned her face up to the night sky. Its power ran through her, spreading icily through her veins, giving her strength once again. No matter how terrible Gwendolyn was, she could never kill her sister. Doing so would make her colder than her fiery twin, colder than her heart of ice. Hygria opened her eyes enough to see the dark again, the cold, mysterious dark that was so much like her. The silence of midnight settled once again, and she fell away into the shadows.

Right? I've recently subbed to a subreddit with cute poems and a certain style/convention, and I'd love to write the end of the world theme with that poem style~

On the other hand, the other two prompts are pretty good too. I remember awhile back, I was liking utopia/dystopia stuffs, but I can't remember the exact world I had in mind for it....and the fire/ice one reminds me of an earlier piece I did that I could possibly make a sequel for!

Oh the possibilities. LOL I honestly have a habit of trying to write whatever prompt wasn't chosen if I was so indecisive, as they all call out to me equally lol.