Extra Terrestrials

Writober 2025: Day Twenty-nine Other-worldly>Response Post

🔗Links in the Table of Contents are Jump links to my responses to each of the challenges
🐦‍⬛This is original work created by Maria L. Berg and this post counts as copyright. All rights reserved.

🎃OctPoWriMo 🦇Writober Flash Fiction 👻Halloween Photography Challenge

Today’s Theme: Extra Terrestrials

These are my responses to the prompt post for Day 29 of Writober: Other-worldly Monsters

OctPoWriMo

Codependency

What good is gravity when
at any time a bright light
be it blue, eerie green, or white
can shine down from over our beds
or through the trees in a dark wood
or over a lonely mountain road
and it, gravity, has no power at all
to hold our bodies to the earth
doesn’t put up a bit of fight
against the beam of light
collapses in awe of the other-worldly
and lets it, the beam, suck us up into the hull
of some far-traveling, hovering object
semi-disguised as a cumulus cloud
until it reveals itself and strikes?
And why so rude, really, these travelers
completely disrespecting our gravity
that perhaps we take for granted
but in a cozy, familiar, loving way
most of the time: I mean, we need it
like we need clean water . . .
Well, maybe not the best example
Probably why the travelers come:
they either want our water, or want
to warn us that polluting our water
is leading to global destruction. Either way
they’re going to be disappointed.
Seems like a waste of time and resources
to travel to distant planets and disrespect
their planetary forces to abduct and scold
random people. But it does beg the question:
Is this relationship with gravity misplaced energy
that will only lead to heartbreak?

Writober Flash Fiction Challenge

Gravity’s Mistress

At this point Sharon wished she had never created an anti-gravity machine. The university had sold it to the highest bidder which was a tech giant that sold it as a mass-market gizmo: a toy for the rich and famous. And of course, with all the money from the sale, the university now attracted the brats of the rich and famous. Without fail, during her office hours she would end up floating around her office with her books and papers fluttering about mid-air while some snickering undergrad with gravity boots looked up her skirt. Why did she keep wearing dresses to work? They called to her when she shopped. She liked lace and frills. She liked to feel pretty. And shopping was about the only thing that kept her mind off of her regrets.

Halloween Photography Challenge

For today’s photos I started out thinking about the exquisite corpse game and making filters that could intertwine, but ended up thinking about what might evolve on other planets and came up with these other-worldly ideas.