If you don’t know what story cubes are, see the introduction to the story cubes series.
To see the original roll of the story cubes, see yesterday’s post.
An extremely wise race of aliens make contact with Earth. They unlock the secrets of their technologies, many of which are beyond anything humans thought would ever be possible. Cancer is cured, tornadoes and hurricanes are stopped with the flick of a finger, customer service hold music is made tolerable.
And yet, despite these wonders, human happiness is still only raised to an upper-meh level because even an advanced race can’t figure out how to eliminate the need for 142 different streaming services. In frustration at their inability to solve the problem, the aliens decide to go back to their home planet for 10,000 years to work on it. (Way to go, NBC. You ruined it for all humanity.)
As they prepare to leave, they tell the humans they can ask their final questions. Frantically, the humans shout, “What is the key to happiness? What is the reason for our existence? What can we do to make the most of our lives?”
The wisest of the wise aliens replies, “Snooze peacefully by a campfire in the woods on a brisk autumn night.”
The humans say, “Is that where the answer will be revealed to us, O wise ones?”
“No, that is the answer.”
“You’ve got to tell us more! You came 12 parsecs across space and shared your vast knowledge with us. Please tell us more about why we’re supposed to do that! We don’t understand.”
“Because if you did it in summer, there would be too many bugs. Farewell.”
After the roll, I straighten up the cubes to figure out what I’ve got to work with before I start thinking of an idea. When I did that this week, I noticed that the ones on the other edge would have made a great story.
Too bad those aren’t what came up, and I have too much integrity to act like a Hollywood studio and take the lazy, “alternate universe” route. Besides, I’m happy with how this week’s story came out. I like endings like this week’s.
The comments section is the perfect place for what you came up with. I’m sure you did better than I did this week!
I'd love to hear from you!