idea dump

Old ghosts casually talking about their causes of death

"he reprogrammed the AI to be uncompromisingly negative"

trickster figure is taking someone's place, "they're off doing my job."

a starship crew that is immortal but dies if they leave their ship

City w/machine to undo a day, they can only tell bcus of some cost associated

tribe with foretold scars tattooed on by soothsayers, including fatal wounds; some only have scars on their backs, drawing ridicule

Their idols are figures of children, because Jesus said of such is the kingdom of heaven

an army of invading nomads tries to win country to their lifestyle "otherwise you'd have to be slaves, believe me we don't need more slaves"

Neo-mongols invading to the Grand Canyon, they believe it's the Earth's navel and the true Earth can be accessed through it

aliens want to make peaceful first contact but their landers use Orion drives, they're from a high-g planet so of course they'd use it

Amicable rasta Big Brother.

super-important chess game but both players are impostors and totally don't know how to fake it

mind-control drugs reacted violently with alcohol, they reflect as the mob tears City Hall apart

escaping from a debauched nightside of a tidally locked world referred to as "making your own sunrise"

writing explosive runes mirrored to explode in passing car windows

common knowledge: if you prove to gov't you want someone to die enough, they'll kill them. Actually they only erase victim's memory of you.

robot hunting humans in the dark, sending shaped soundwaves to make them think something's right next to them

Olympian outed as a werewolf, stripped of medals

man recounting when he was dead, the flowers and grass rejecting him in confusion, as he'd lost something we were never aware we had

ancient humans evolved to easily see the future but lost the ability when they gained intelligence

----https://pastebin.com/Ui6gaptd

A character has time traveled extensively and is jubilantly recognized by children anywhere.

Trying to describe fighting ghosts without implying ghosts are real. "And then the... gang member came through the wall behind me..." Maybe both participants in the conversation know ghosts are real but are keeping it secret.

A religious order dedicated to the separation of fools and their money.

Warrior society develops science on its own. Tribal tattoos of animal and plant cells depending on a member's station.

recurring characters: two unflappable middle-aged men and their pudgy 10-year-old sons, always turned around on an outing somewhere, accepting whatever's about to threaten the main characters with a tired reluctance

A paladin who worships a little talking bug he keeps on his shoulder - "His name is Strength. Strength has little power but perfect honor, and when you need His help He will provide."

Traveling in time to a week previous and marvelling at how different everything is, how cheap things are etc

The experience of night not coming when the sun sets, montage of children laughing, spontaneous general celebration, ending with everyone falling asleep while the sun's rising

"You weren't supposed to make it for another two days. How did you get here so fast?" "Oh, the power of friendship."

A completely fabricated country, made real by the power of belief. No one had heard of it before.

Villain who slowly drains your luck as you oppose him.

The afterlife is an organic structure humans constantly feed information into. The 20th-century population explosion has overwhelmed that structure. The right machinery can tap into individual human information matrices and can resurrect people into computers.

Evil Carl Sagan.

The Little Boy and the Fat Man as gods of destruction from a distance.

Robot church, where the congregation go to be worshipped. Gives them a sense of awe if it's done properly. Robot priests absorb the emotions of the congregation but are forbidden from multiplying negative thoughts, and can always give wise council. Counseling and civil cases are brought to them.

humanity that instinctively comprehends musical instruments, they use improvisized music for ID purposes

Unreliable narrator describing pirate king in his younger days, everyone in the present narrative as being just out of their teens and nervous at it

They're not alien artifacts, they're ancient humans, from an old culture that believed history must be forgotten or repeated and pulverized their bones when they died. There's an arms race for finding them, reverse-engineering them, and utilizing them. Some artifacts are intelligent. Aircraft carriers participating in artifact dives. No force fields, no laser beams, these artifacts are powerful from a different perspective altogether.

Younger versions of important characters shown by the narrative unknown to the main story wandering about town perfectly happy, all friends.

Strategic observatories strictly controlled by a star system's powers. A flight of starfighters is forced to make atmospheric entry and is decimated by jets.

Deceleration by friction a euphemism for a spaceship being completely destroyed by impact.

Robot single mother. Some super power makes trees melt.

Sinograms drawn as illuminated tapestry.

Body parts of individuals with long, interesting lives so packed with energy they might explode.

Planting turkey feathers grows a full turkey.

Tribe that lives constantly running, pulling handcarts, stumbling is summary exile.

human-piloted mecha on radical schemes, like two arms+tail, six radial arms, etc.

A form of worship where gods are encouraged and scolded. Raucous applause when a god delivers rain after a drought.

Clocks based on string taking less time to wind each revolution. Several different kinds of seconds, each a different length in a rhythm.

Power levels arranged with strong nations and superpowers at the top, with a few extremely strong individuals among them. A hero is wounded, and we see his power level drop so he's only about as strong as Ecuador.

Highly technical job has normal-seeming people caring a lot about technical things, protest signs using technobabble

The ISS has a secret protocol in case life on Earth is in danger

70s-style advertisements if space travel was commonplace then - sedated launches for delicate ladies who can't take 8 gs, cigarette respirators, cameras for the earth-from-space shots everyone wants to take

A group of AI researchers and philosophers on the verge of unraveling human consciousness have experienced mass amnesia.

canal city has sloped canals, when a traveller expresses admiration a local explains that it's actually "a really clever trick with surface tension"

the sound of triumph in a voice reporting a hard-fought victory

the undead Latin city of Cartiligena.

They find themselves in a queue to enter the land of the dead

Super-powerful androids, based on the human skeleton but with singularity engines in every joint

prophecy involving symbolic names for individuals, say, "Nightingale," "Maid," "Emperor." except as the story progresses more and more people meet the conditions for each, we get False Maid, Iron Nightingale, True Nightingale, Half Emperor, and so on. Songbird, Tinker, Pasha.

allure of lonely places - picking up scrap across a desert, communicating with teammates by radio, sometimes being days away from them

Dragons are large, long-lived, magical creatures. Shouldn't they generate a large amount of guano?

He can only see by moonlight. Cursed by the sun? Machines that only operate by moonlight.

Car autopilot across that lonely desert, avoids large obstacles, character sleeps on top of it while in motion.

Room full of frozen/petrified soldiers. One is winking.

to captive companion: "wait, are you capable of dying?"

burning artifacts into vision in the shape of letters

humanity is "balanced" around the globe, is it religion, philosophical application of environmentalism? say, only Japan and the Eastern Seaboard are inhabited, go west means to switch metropoli. Alternatives: Ireland/Sri Lanka; Chile/Guinea; Dead Sea/Great Salt Lake; Florida/Kamchatka.

Word combination that sounds irresistably cute to foreigners but makes locals shudder.

Military is secretly fighting elusive forces they call "elves," they come in enough force you need troops to fight them but they burst into leaves when killed

At the moment before death, subjective time freezes for the victim, who then must wander the earth along with anyone who happened to die right then until they find a certain cave where a god that once granted a contract to humanity dwells

Robot with burned-out tear ducts

Flying through a city in celebration, bells ringing, citizens on balconies blowing horns, hitting pots with ladles, shouts and cries. could be the same thing for lamentation.

giant robots with the souls of heroes animating them

order of battle listing military detachments as well as individual heroes

video game exposition through the main character constantly making calls and texts, to the point he sometimes fights worse because he's communicating with one hand

"you're not high enough in the credits for that sort of action, soldier"

"not unless the principles of physics changed while we were out"

future version of a young character hanging around the cast

culture believes they came to earth climbing through the skies of successive earths, and are now building a tremendous tower to reach the Milky Way or "crack in the sky"

A hundred stuntman clones of a famous actor

Ambassadors are a father, mother, and child to show they maintain the human family structure, which defines humanity far more than biology

Launching a space fortress with an Orion drive over your hated enemy's capital

trams and subway trains that routinely pass through cloudy dreamscapes with no analogue from outside, to go to places unreachable otherwise

Exiles of fairyland and the watches, scarves, cell phones that they brought with them, the magic sparkling from them as their wistful owners dress in mundane drabness

members of future society with widespread bioengineered mounts has using vehicles as a fictional trope of society returning to barbarism

irresponsible time travelers changing the past to see just how far the you-actually-caused-it paradox can go - they cause time travel to always cause the thing it was intended to prevent

menacingly reloading batteries in a laser gun

all the clocks are forced to midnight/some other time

a noble house that escaped some terrible betrayal or disgrace and took everything, servants, animals, and all, maybe some land in a bottle, to a far distant land

eating with bug-people who serve their food in cans and spit to pre-digest - "Oh, you want me to get that for you, man?"

starships at relativistic speed in dazzle camo to avoid giving away their velocity

powered armor suits that carry supplies and ammunition for individual soldiers but are locked up and left behind in battle

no-ammunition coil rifle that shoots air particles

magic accompanied by a painful, uncomfortable feeling like there are bits of your flesh missing

chugging a bottle of ketchup - "Yes, I'm aware."

"I'm a femme fatale, I have no choice."

mech suits/space suits with garish tribal mask faces

flight pills

human society that has regimented itself for warfare to the point of tightly organizing generations in selective-breeding programs but maintains a backup plan for enjoyment, fulfilment, and poetry should peace break out - group of youth assigned to be free spirits, perhaps awkwardly sent to make friends with their former enemies

heavily industrialized, highly populated black hole space

the starship crash survivors were Adam and Eve and have spent the last few thousand years trying to get their children under control, as well as fabricating hominid fossils

that trojan horse person is actually full of trojans, sent into the future to take their vengeance out on greeks. listen to the heartbeat and you'll hear some shouted orders then a steady drumbeat. Open the chest and a bunch of muscly warriors are sparring and doing pushups, with rows of them assigned to act as muscles and sinews. Inside the body there is an observatory, a temple, and a modest research library.

the cost of traveling faster than light is spending all of eternity in that moment

a wild gypsy song meant to catch people up in the chorus then trip them up with rhythm and melody changes

biotech train, squeezes itself through tunnels, tenses when it's braking

ejection seat teleports pilot and destroys vehicle

their feathers drift like normal feathers but crush what they fall on ever so softly

world where male dominance is so strong all men are drafted all the time and governance is left entirely to women

The Iron Unicorn

animal social behavior where juveniles serve as practice sparring partners to parents

cute AI couple

"A Courtship for Massa" - romance novel where a bunch of slaves from neighboring plantations try to set their masters up

young man in coming-of-age story enters a Mr. Rogers sequence, works through own issues by helping puppet children with theirs

title: "the least of the sins of X"

hiring a clown to mock someone

the name "Snowgary."

gentle introduction to a time-loop plot, character slowly realizing, "I've done this before."

planet with enormous population, in tens of billions, huge families, vat-augmented, routinely loses most of it in the enemy's raids

discovering someone can rewrite memories - "Please don't ever use it on me." "Very well, I will not use it on you again."

the airplane symbol means total radio silence long after all memory of what it once stood for is lost

we use an ancient scroll to summon a hero from a technologically-advanced or magical dimension

the Narrative Machines

where we can go with stylish, melodramatic vampires - the bookish girl that's a stylish vampire, the teenage slacker that is somehow a stylish vampire about it - apply it to archetypes

the way casual clothes hang on someone who doesn't wear them often but feels comfortable in them

cell phones require operators as part of efforts to reduce unemployment caused by automation

whale-dwelling throat mermaids

snail-dwelling stoat satyrs?

teleported above a body of water face-up with high backwards velocity

town has loop-de-loops in its roads, faithfully followed by building code, gravity complies

city on roller coaster tracks

sticky notes pasted everywhere with bullet points and smiley faces but no text

heraldry involving the symbols of the most hated and unclean enemies so as to gain power over them

evil race hated and feared we think for their appearance and attitude, but they have all kinds of unsavory powers, "kill what you love best" and things like that

slavery and debt considered part of a spectrum, 1% owners can offer you spiritual advice without being rude, 10% owners can inspect your pantry, 50% owners can veto marriage

drizzle enough years to flood

spiral space elevator

character has writer's block and uses supernatural events witnessed to make his next story. He is a hack.

self-aware bootstrapping AIs were developed in the 50s and have been influencing the world ever since

sf with humans as mexican indians, curbstomped and colonized by a third-rate alien power, and how individuals can try to compete

a romance with a godlike AI cast as the meddling aunt

egyptian hieroglyphics as if they had survived as a modern writing system

chickencats

those in charge of answering prayers are future versions of the supplicant

spaceship windows made of extra-resonant material to transmit sound from spacesuit helmets

the sun is an ember at the crown of the sky that burns out and relights daily

time traveler, says he enjoys this time period and is making a tour of it but obstinately refuses to give any details about the future

menu is an abstract pattern that patrons may derive possible orders from

very alien race that we communicate with by building copies of them has had a firm alliance with us for a long time without catching on that we don't really look like them

PMC persona non grata for breaking their contract in the hour of need

costume: entire door as tower shield, mailbox on lance, stairs on shoes, carpet under greaves of concrete and drapes under breastplate of siding, eaves for shoulderboards, shingle on helmet, windows over eyes, gauntlets of decorative brick and astroturf, picket fence sword

RPG where all characters' body parts are swappable

societal revolution after legal texts of advanced civilization discovered

"you are in a hotel in the embassy of nation x on planet z"

fragrant muskrat bouquet - manly men demanding flower meals?

mothers usually bear half-children they combine and raise jointly with another set of parents, twins are full children

high-fantasy teamwork story with rock bands replacing adventurer parties

the whole pantheon is blind

conspicuous consumption in delta-v budget

truly finding oneself, understanding one's true nature, drains SAN

universal word that means "halt the flow of information while we parse recent communication together"

antigrav works by transmitter, gravity can apply differently to objects in the same area, only to people, to everything but people, more to convicts, less to children, etc

industrialized pueblo cities

stable hippie communes remaining a part of society

hyperspace is murky, the local electromagnetic spectrum is affected deeply by the pull of planets in normal space, under-planet spaces are harbors

hyperspace refers to any number of physical states in which the speed of light differs

the idea that fission, even fusion bombs in warfare could destroy civilization is hilarious to time travelers

you can have a bathtub in freefall if you don't want air with it - make it a gentle washing machine even

the attitude of someone that's used to your being inexplicably different

a lottery awarded to a member of the population in general not pursuant to their having entered, and the attitude of the gamblers who pay in

a dj in charge of an international conspiracy

a monastic class awarded perfect safety, temporary requisition of goods, unmolested rest anywhere

three laws of robotics: robots shall make no attempt to establish religion or prohibit the free exercise thereof...

future war where nanotendrils battle through the earth's crust, dragging minerals to underground factories

stigmata piercings

time travelers are attempting to prevent a bad future and doing a horrible job

AI soulmate hookups are a right, with an android provided for losers who couldn't get along with anyone

going back further in time to find one of your past selves that won't immediately catch on that you're you in the future

ravenous spaghetti cubes

playfully splashing blood around

reverse emperor's new clothes

ability to analyze a human by any of the possible genetic combinations that could have occurred in the time since records were available

you have been replaced by an obvious robot fake that your friends all believe is you

the Kanye archetype

Victorian fan language with fan-shaped cell phones, girls know a morse-style code to operate a fanphone

"what were you doing in a coffin?"

angel rising to view in an elevator shaft

effect of the stars on a race with good eyesight but poor night vision who had never seen them before

man-eating locusts

a grimoire whose pages can never be read twice without a special bookmark

the disconcerting feeling of someone showing up out of nowhere, taking part in friends' in-jokes and habits, and that you are comfortable around, but you've never met them and have no idea who they are

can take the fairy queen to wife, if he can stand a thousand years of chastity - given eternal youth to test him

"it's a meditation technique that allows me to breathe and speak, even in hard vacuum-"

superpower based around being more susceptible to remote mind control than normal

working mecha need to clap, make lots of noise during their downtime amusement

pantheon built from American folk heroes; Hermes/Pecos Bill; Zeus/Buffalo Bill; Artemis/Annie Oakley; Hephaestus/Joe Magarac; Hera/Calamity Jane; Dionysus/Paul Bunyan; Poseidon/Alfred Bulltop Stormalong; Hermes/Babe Ruth

physical speech is on a data plan

magic requiring the blood of certain types of thieves and ruffians

"the alien record seems to have ended on an intentional cliffhanger, sir"

strong and weak Americanthropic theories

superhero factions and dependent populations set up in a way they view the other as the villains

"It's customary to bury heroes here with their weapons on their graves, so we put his hand in a fist and bronze-plated his arm. It's what he would have wanted."

shoved into an illegal arena, and a side character you wouldn't expect to be there is betting on you and telling you to get up

mindset that instantly equates fighter jets and knighthood

ridiculously regulated families - each man must have three wives, each may have first one son then two daughters

magic system based on taking pieces of peoples' souls through photography

murder in a spin colony with the victim thrown out the window of a high-rise, drifting with the shards of the window

blasphemy is a matter of actions, not words - profanity involves mainly gestures that imitate blasphemous acts

superior computation material mined from areas that may well once have been alien or natural supercomputers

in a hopeless situation, but the person you're talking to is just overjoyed that you're there

a group capable of freely rewriting each others' memories

planet surveying system that blasts the planet to pieces, records, and rewinds time - maybe it uses a paradox to loop up the energy, which negates itself, but a loophole in physics lets them observe what would have happened

sort-of first contact, a dwarf planet is discovered to be an alien probe traveling at relativistic speed

"you're gonna wind up on the farm, splitting big primes into little ones"

a society notable for each member's forthrightness in all matters, and for very poor soap operas

cyberized soldiers who need twenty hours of sleep a day

murdered in flashback while recounting a story wrong - telling what happened, viewpoint shifts to the flashback, the murder of the narrator occurs

a vagabond traveling orchestra

intelligence varies with absolute altitude, could be inversely proportional to impulse control

encrypting FTL assistance structures an atrocity

a galaxy with a day-night cycle, stars freeze at night

contagious anti-illnesses that improve health for a while

a race whose corpses are the seeds of enormous living towers, which share attributes the deceased had in life

a space station occupying a speck of dust, far larger on the inside and fully capable of defending itself

ultraheavy spears manned by two soldiers working in harmony

implants are ubiquitous, worn as various kinds of horns - social status? proprioception implants an unnoticed part of life

rocket colloquialisms - fifty-fifties, salt water, carracks and schooners

a procession of ethereal women, one of them bearing a sword on a cushion, maybe more than one

small colony of present-day individuals living in the future, commuting to our time monthly by time machine, adapting to conditions there, building a reputation for their community

world in permanent eclipse, eclipsed sun rising and setting

monks dedicated to receiving a prophetic call at some point in their lifetimes, live an indigent life until it comes

a city covered in crystal-clear water

what you thought was private prophecy seems to be common knowledge, everyone else also has exclusive sources

spending a lifetime in contentment because of one heeded warning from the future

"no, we call the dog Elvis because he thinks he's Elvis."

AIs have contingency plans against potential supernatural threats as best as they can be reconstructed from human folklore

opens with main character's friends going to the wilderness to rescue him from a Nebuchadnezzar-style animal madness

madmen in space, holy men of nasa, abandoned space station with a lone man playing an organ

dramatic leaves falling

interior heating by salamanders that emit heat while not being fed - get fed all summer, heat the home all winter

an entity that exists as a mathematical formula that shouldn't be solvable

the entire castle is a mimic

really, really really big piano

"I am about to experience a hallucination. I would like you to describe everything that I am about to do."

multiple voices from heaven speaking over each other, all on the same subject

superhero can't control his transformation, is always in a different disguise

culture where the manumission of a slave creates a greater debt than a lifetime of servitude could repay

"not for equestrian use"

jungle as a place of asceticism

"What's in the package?" "Probably a bomb."

nation's highest awards of valor five statues for five ancient heroes - encourages five-man bands

abacus sword

radio nerves

camera iris-style eyelids

primates filling a cattle niche

ubiquitous products of space manufacturing

ornate space launch railguns lined up on a mountainside

completely fair society where the amount of resources is divided by the number of people and distributed, pregnant women are reviled, etc.

relaxed prisoners casually breaking into the conversation from their cell

"it's OK, yours didn't bruise"

scientific experiments as dinner-party diversions

jimi worship

gaia upset at humans using anything other than nuclear power

child preachers

vast tracts of wild growth inside space colonies allowed for the beauty of it, harvested by robots for a far smaller yield than monoculture

human-adapted egrets in public places

animals as messengers and agents of the Divine

normal small colony ships finding their way to truly distant galaxies

peridots represent asteroid dwellers

nuclear exchange in 1968, remnants of US Army in Vietnam form new aristocracy

colonization stalled until development of tanks

gritty realistic Saxon totem swords

masked faceless characters being the only ones with personality

friendly relationship with cannibal culture - funerals considered respectful, felons handed over to be eaten

presidential candidates are powerful men with personal armies, balance of power or love of democracy means they abide by the vote nonetheless

real-world organized crime that sharpens their ears, uses elf names

slight differences in pressure through tens of thousands of bead curtains from hard vacuum to the high-pressure ambrosia soupmosphere of the gods

decent guy just trying to make a living running an arena

wrecked city whose skyscrapers were once held up by kites in the jet stream

rocket plumes as the pillar of smoke over Israel

indian territory stayed nominally independent, haven for illegal operations but tight border control - attempted rocket launch, comedy of sovereignty issues

c-going ships - "do you think she's c-worthy? - c-sickness/c legs - c-shell

high schools with elevators?

what appears to be a trophy is actually a phantom beastman on his way through the wall

ability to conceive of time travel a human quirk

character giving cool, offhand advice sure of the last word gets taken aback

nuclear reactors set in public park, walkways with windows to water and Cerenkov radiation

plant with leaves that look like plumage of a dangerous bird

the moment one human is given biological immortality all human fertility ceases

building on floating island has impossibly deep elevator to vaults - "no one would suspect it"

viewpoint character goes out of contact for a few weeks/months, group dynamics completely change

western set in a spin colony cluster pushed into a high relative velocity with no way to slow down as a form of exile

souls artificially induced to transmigration into specific bodies recount their experiences while they selectively breed the human bodies they inhabit

looking into the eyes of a fanatic, and they're just normal people eyes

great master of a former age finds out that one of the bizarre foreigners he's around in the future knows his teachings

houses surrounded by mirror-fed skinny greenhouses

alien habitats with 50g spinners

this supernova is owned and operated by...

long-lost heroes' stories told as their record crystals wash up on shore

character hides a terrible secret that is never revealed, occasionally panics when someone says something that reminds him of it

the moment the last human dies the universe resets

rabbit herders

sword with built-in whistle

crowd marching through town singing or joyfully chanting

lost soldiers/crashed pilots on opposite sides taking each other prisoner, swapping roles whenever they find someone new on either side

about to draw sword from held sheath, opponent draws it first

honor as a shield for the people, an adapter for individual virtuous desire

butterflies that feed on fire plasma - elemental butterflies

factory workers kept in line with rhythm, live bands play for them in shifts, punishment includes replacing the band with a metronome

eyeless bulls

belief system arising from society where car wrecks are the only cause of death

mocking stranger on horseback

there are massive heroic statues just under jupiter's atmosphere

heavily armored cleaning robots for slums

becoming loyal to another country while working for them in your own, culture shock when it becomes your only homeland and you really get there

character trait: always wears clothes wildly inappropriate for the situation, bonus if it's unintentional

FTL powered by dessicating stars

parallel USA with communist single-party state, everything's pretty much the same

what if the real threat comes from without?

having been bargained away by your traveling companions for safe passage

she behaves like an overconfident rich girl but she lives under a bridge because she won't partake in some kind of ritual, because she has good principles

fire a group of rockets, a second later the binding grabs you and you're yanked across town behind them

goats are near-cousins of unicorns, cynically joined humans, still quite magical

crusader story set in space, no names changed

he accepts her feelings after she puts another girl in the hospital over him

extremely powerful, well-funded colonial government that's hands-off except in ensuring equitable treatment for the poor

is that a stuck pixel? Can't be, I say my prayers

hitting a small tower's support pillar angrily with an axe once, walking away as it collapses

older self from the future dropping the big one - time travel is possible. "That's it?"

overly apologetic servant, carries a katana solely for seppuku's sake, gets replaced by a copy every time

pulp series presented as a travel diary of a Chinese explorer in Europe, with a Little John figure

former circus ringleader, completely introverted when not in front of a crowd

time traveler gets a redshirt's last name, confirms his first name, obviously hiding something

one of the earliest recipients of biological immortality works as a clerk for a few hundred years saving up for a brain upgrade

Miakongspire, the delusional world of asylum. They put everyone in an underground crawler heading to the jungle and sing a hypnotic song, and tell everyone when they've arrived that this is the real world.

motivational speeches memorized and repeated by people who will never stay motivated

someone experienced a day in his future when he was young, makes sure his friends are well-informed about it

WWII is a massive time tourist attraction, the majority of soldiers on both sides are from the future

ISS buried in a mass of additions, it's a worm nest stretching for twisting miles

libertarian fleet, each ship a city-state

detective collects illegal evidence and frames himself as an accomplice to ensure a criminal is punished

national capitals all located in one central city/station for ease of diplomacy

tortured by good dreams of the past that always end with the realization they're a dream

spin colony where the outer layer is close to 5g, elites live in 0g

belief that everyone on Earth is in their last-chance reincarnation before Hell

one character had a nightmare where they were doing something dull and repetitive forever - they continually manifest in reality at that place doing that thing, aware of what they're doing, unable to stop - their waking selves prefer not to go there

magic names that crash computers that carry their data, programs need failsafes so as not to produce them, difficult to teach programmers as their brains will figure out the names and crash

time spelunker finds that non-humans are very common in history, recorded history is highly inaccurate

traveler's trick in some alien worlds: set your donation receptor down nearby, sit or lie down, take off a shoe, stick your foot in the air, wriggle your toes. They will gladly give a few coins for the chance to examine a biped foot.

modern society collapsing, cult arises that seeks to gain honor by killing artists and scientists

daylight six days, dark on the sabbath

there is nothing made by man's hands that cannot be unmade by my hands

mercury bullets

draft animals shaved for space suits

automatic doors don't open for him

haunted building, windows are a different shape on the inside

residents of a virtual world have holidays for server maintenance and reset times

struck on the head and is a victim of temporary dyslexia

cardboard at such high pressure it turns back to wood

nebulous charcoal map that is actually a secret alphabet

immortals on a slow interstellar city ship keeping up the 20th century out of nostalgia

agsats - don't need pseudogravity, can be cramped, a bunch of pipes really, mix seeds and soil, grate the soil to something just big enough to anchor to - do you need the anchor for potatoes? - harvest through suction/pistons, spray in nutrients

slave fighter pilots

magicians are a subculture, trading tips and selling reagents at farmers' markets and renfairs

group psych on earth aided by massive amounts of data beamed back from in-transit colony ships

founding sons

the boon I ask is that you ask one of me

make first contact, they're all star trek aliens, inexplicably convergently-evolved to humanoids and cross-fertile with humans in different ways, after we know that shouldn't happen; aliens might even move like humans in costumes

the Bad Cafe/dead beef that robots are afraid of

low-gravity juggling - crowds of performers spaced widely with a crowd in between, each throwing between several partners, dropping out and cutting in, patterns emerging

misanthropes who no longer speak the local language due to foreign media interaction

US cavalry fiefdoms in the Old West

"the spirit of man is the will of the gods"

advancing technology makes suicide possible

raft fleets propelled by thousands of small propellers

kemomimi folds an ear when winking

knights on chickenback

tactical fox spirit used by jp sorcerer in WWII now worshiped as a god in New Guinea highlands

ship full of heroes defects mysteriously, all of them become bosses

characters believe they are doppelgangers, don't mind each other using personal possessions/space/friendships

group that allows wasps to build nests in their work/living space as proof of patience and tolerance

forced into eternal life when a meddling artist paints a leaf on a wall

advantageous deformities belong to the community, becoming normal is selfish

reverse groundhog day, everyone's living the day over but you

the oppression of women throughout history was a ruse to to hide a magic ritual they were performing

extra pair of arms growing from the hips

sentient aliens that are symbiotic limbs of their mobile host, consider creatures that both move alone and act in society to be hopelessly vulgar

warriors fighting hobson's choice demons have already made their decisions for a variety of impossible dilemmas they might be forced into by flipping coins

normally stable character stuttering from fear

spaceship that's just a big industrial complex with one of the buildings providing propulsion when they need to move

favor cards that have been wagered and lost many times and have strange redeem values, like "the entire electrical output of the municipal plant in X city on Y date" or "five minutes and 30 seconds of philosophical debate with X person, redeemable in daylight hours EST"

televised pro jousters with outrageous theatrical displays

genetic trait of being extremely sensitive to imagined experiences, can go into shock from descriptions

fighting an enemy that has a hundred years to plan its next move for every day you experience - preserving secrets becomes vital

flawed ai with time travel is a crippled god of all the ages

people with natural alcohol veins in their skin as antifreeze - pure water will attach to some of the compounds that control the alcohol, causing them to become drunk

emperor-type figure with extrasovereignty, all land around him operates under different laws whether anyone's aware at the time or not - nonchalantly talks about how it's imperative that his will or another's lead the empire, but now that we have a small group we must hear the group's will

main character woken from the dead by a minstrel's song - from a spider sac?

"technically this area is part of Hell, but it has been extensively terraformed"

using time travel and other secret marvels for the most trivial purposes

numbered fiefdoms

American suburban population living in some exotic locale, identifiable by their late 20th-century apparel and behavior

old, old story fragment - sons of a polygamous landowner in a modern rural setting, grouping themselves by their mothers; no idea of a story direction, tight-knit tragedy perhaps

race of humans completely unable to communicate with their children until puberty, viewing their behavior as predictable but animalistic

recursive leadership structure

crop grown as large, extremely tough tuber, pieces are harvested by pickaxe, powdered, and soaked before eating

sailing beasts

explaining to a near-repentant militant missionary that of course the heathens are good, but that won't help them and in fact will probably help them hurt us in concert with the enemy

"he does not reward friends or punish enemies"

opposing forces, one with tech based on clouds and server farms, the other with hardened on-site technology - make it artisanal to drive home the difference?

punishment of a dark cell with an LED light and a pressure plate that must have a certain random pattern memorized and tapped into it over a lengthy period of time; as long as the proper pattern is being input, the light remains on, and a successful input causes the door to open; sentences given as lengths of time the light must be kept on, two weeks is a life sentence

"glassing" apparently is hunting lingo for scouting with binoculars - could be a modern form of maying, going animal-watching with women in tow

mythology based on England's relationships with her colonies - America representative of courage and freedom, Canada loyalty, India grandeur, Australia endurance and good humor, with America always acting independently

perfectly opaque clouds with sharp holes in them letting in bright daylight

animal temporarily given the power of speech and is terrifyingly alien - perception of Deep Realms? - "I perceive he has wounded you greatly - will you not kill him?" - bestial voice described as truly unsettling

aliens invade Earth for our resources - ignore all of our attempts to stop them, but don't try and hurt us - suicide attacks, or even any munition, are gently stopped by incomprehensible forces and placed away from the needed resources

empty suit of armor with a sense of something far too big to fit in the helmet trying to adjust its head so it can peer out

the kind of merchant that can make regular trips to Faerie

Earth-Mars races during opposition

orbital mirrors intended to emphasize or duplicate a natural satellite

superhero able to access a snapshot of all the world's memories at a certain date, or just what everyone on the planet was doing and thinking at that time

ceremonial breaking of a sword or spear at the coronation of a monarch

mirrors surrounding flight deck/runway so that pilot can self-inspect

having a hard time grasping the concept of "non-fiction"

atmosphere opaque to frequencies of the star it orbits, until the color is shifted by being bounced around satellites

taking apart a certain common consumer item in the right order will always reveal a small amound of cash

tree with a whole brain instead of leaves

ambassador participates in a law-enforcement exercise, with exotic means

funerals in inch-flooded rooms with floating coffins, to be pushed gently out the door to float downstream

noble but morose race, believes the greatest sin is despair, transmits "the circle has been closed" when they come to join the alliance

transmutation of elements a legal term covering fusion and fission

humanity known among aliens as a race with a bizarre ability to alter one's own beliefs

a certain timeline of a field historic notables is composed of people who have been put in their positions by time travelers to send a message with their initials

time travelers are always hanging around this normal-looking guy for no apparent reason

time travelers accidentally give a historical thinker brain damage and have to hang around him all his life to make sure events happen the same, even hire a nurse

offended transhuman builds a nanotech homonculus in the body of a mortal to vex him

it is possible to receive a forecast with possibilities of specific kinds of misfortune

transhuman shapeshifters disguised as farm animals or appliances for a sting operation

ongoing works of fiction published in several editions with different plot-relevant information; it's considered boorish to seek out all of them, as they're commonly used to build and deepen friendships

not as much about rule of man vs rule of law as the conflict within the king between his head and his heart

Basque-style ethnic outsider clan sworn to serve as front-line warriors and commanders

can teleport but only when dead tired

ftl works but only within planetary distances

"the sea" refers to any environment requiring vessels to navigate, need to specifically say "ocean"

human rights seen as a construct applicable to dyads or multiples

mana gained from the battlefield developed into an advanced, spiritualized sort of thing, can be gained by sniping or by strategic victories, can even be shared with supply-line troops if they participate in a great victory

civ living entirely on ropes dangling from a cliff and ropes tied to them

wwii vets setting up a colony in modernity

submarines id each other by songs their crewmen sing

starship surrender formation involves getting everything close enough to jump between

threshold of similarity of depiction, some individuals' likenesses burn, corrode, or rot media they're placed on

supernatural magic users have absolutely no problem with humans who learn the Art, just with their individual personalities

class of ability users that can force suicides

treasure hunters find the wreck of a massive, unrecorded dirigible

nanoscale microlasers that convert incoming energy into coherent light and redirect it

falling in battle, waking from the simulation - "you messed up, we're putting you back in on the other side"

exhausted mech suit laying where it fell

sensitive computer systems in high-altitude fortress labyrinth aerostats

amish-style group living with early industrial revolution tech

living in the Third World after the American collapse

living siege tower

autodecelerating nanopropellant microbes

humanity expanding into space due to destruction of Earth's ecosystem by God's judgment

all civs on planet descended from different lifeboats

creature that's predator and prey animal at different parts of its lifecycle, or grows winter teeth to hunt

land mammal metamorphoses into sea mammal

winged rhinoceros

modern-style SF characters are freaked out by psi powers

sentient chain letter

a man walks to a crosswalk every day and pushes the button, blocking that street for car traffic until he goes home

the mushroom cloud is the monster

pieces of the Earth's crust begin to flake off, revealing gas giant clouds

around the collapse of the Western Roman Empire the Earth began to slowly contract

intelligence agencies of competing nations in a third party nation fighting each other with gang warfare

inability to comprehend third dimension, 2.5D vision

trees can only produce fruit through vine symbiotes, as sort of macroviruses

flightless bird in a fox niche

entire story quest is only the fourth of nine steps

astrology based on the sky at landfall

alien race humans were designed as caretakers for, fill us with feelings of devotion

superpowered kid motivated by handlers' promise to buy him parents

our math on near-c bow shock is wrong, rkvs dissipate extremely fast, interstellar travel is necessarily much slower

keeping a large force of soldiers trained against treaty by writing them off as actors

small helicopter gunships on long fuel/power cables for local security

high-speed vacuum life called c-gulls

aerostats put over conquered territory to bathe them in x-rays

trapeze artists doing tricks around a micro-black hole

universe is pressurized by a substance that does not react to gravity, passes through solids, turns to oxygen in the lungs

childe sent to other world has self split into parts, each of which have separate adventures

coming upon a heroine's party, fifty to a hundred people all giving their own little inspiring speeches based on their archetype before the final battle

lingerlings

concept of suicide linked more closely to any attempt to choose the date or method of one's death, including foolhardy/heroic attempts

there is a small region in Lake Superior that is technically in international waters

archivists aware of the coming catastrophic end of their civilization calmly downloading their records into hardened technology

some of the redshirts accompanying the adventurer are just hoping they can make it out with enough money to set out on their own

parthenogenic livestock

verbal brain shunted into stream-of-consciousness display to avoid distraction; you can watch your ongoing commentary but can't form words

fishtank lanterns, light provided by phosphorus wick

dead soldiers cloned by their governments and adopted into loving families as a memorial

eusocial animals forming cognition through their communication, even computation

spiral kite birds

predator that gets caught in spiderwebs on purpose

opposing empires, one built on principle of ultimate hardness, other on ultimate flexibility

trying to fool someone that they didn't die, the holes in their clothes are inexpertly patched up

every book ever published has a secret section you can flip to if you know how

soldiers of refined, modern nations carrying well-preserved, clean, often tanned trophies of slain enemies

powerful, intelligent dog mass-produced as-is, secretly forms a hivemind

zerg-type biohorror as a sea power

stone-age tech civ with extensive experience fighting more advanced civs; cairns to stop cavalry charges etc

every other generation is immortal

loudly discussing common knowledge and current events for the benefit of a kidnappee coming off anesthetics

mecha with dinosaur skins as cloaks

a noble house notorious for marrying urchins, orphans, and ruffians

immortality treatments but only effective on children

beings with a deep, poignant need to bond with someone and imitate them

floor mural of a wispy, angelic snake-man and snake-woman, used with a floor map to easily orient oneself

time measured in weight, relic of hourglasses

action addicts/cultists/artists become roaming "jackals" in warzones

visiting a wizard in his atelier, night and day outside don't seem to last the right length of time, leave to find it's a day before you came in

frictionless object doing a near-ground orbit

giant mecha have strict safety protocols for fist bumps

brokenly teaching your conqueror's children, unaware that outside their small domain your own race reigns supreme

phone app that easily expedites applications to change social class, laws that apply to self

field that chaotically accelerates all objects in orbit by small amounts

order of high-tech soldiers picking sides in 20thC-tech wars, descending in brilliant dropships from their orbital Malta

Library Fleet

if she beats you in the betrothal tourney she gets to be the husband

character first introduced by some principle or spell named after or produced by them

sudden increase in bandwidth noticeable by civilians as a battleship makes orbit

old cities on terraformed planets have downtowns that are mostly underground

temporal pillagers settling in the future

mysterious race of humans who can only be found/observed at night

phonetic alphabet in euphonic pseudo-italian

disposable devices that cause time to loop for the user; battles are decided by who flinches and doesn't loop, saving their devices, first

civs in a deep ocean abyss, fighting their way to the surface over generations

warrior clan that retains its character low-key in fat years

cities designed to be able to take multiple h-bomb hits - all buildings are long out of eyeshot of each other, high-speed rail networks connecting them

seastead with a strict interdiction zone, accessible only through tentacle-like tubes extending miles away

a light that blinds all and illuminates nothing

nationalized healthcare under the command of the military

discovering you are a split personality that only comes out in distress

parrot bats

taking a name made of words your hated enemy finds too offensive to speak

day and night-shift aristocracies

domed cities standing empty after economic collapse

soft soldiers sent to surrender and take up resources/force the enemy into a moral quagmire

exeunt stage left via wormhole

eskimo/indian warfare on the tundra

snow drifting into the sky, leaves drifting up and docking with trees

pocket dimension normally used for meditation, can be explored

grab his attention while he's looking away, his eye opens a channel across his temple, slicks across to stare at you

chinese space emperors sending starships out to find the secret of eternal life

old-style diving suits necessary to survive a poisoned world

live bands at subway stations, different styles and rhythms echoing down the tunnels let you know which station you're approaching, cars have grates for windows, might not have internal lights (lighted tunnels)

bogus math proof that drives mathematicians mad trying to figure it out

creatures that strain souls through their mouths like balleen

light is propagated at the speed of sound, vacuum is black

nonhumans use gorilla heads as tokens of bravery vs humans

blood is the only substance that defies gravity, dripping upward as it's shed

feeling of visiting a place for the first time when it's empty, then encountering it with a crowd every subsequent time

arena with a demigod squatting in it, refusing to allow any fights where he's not involved

short about a crispr plague that targets religion and gives abstraction, opening humanity up to the horror of the abyss, and their descendants take it away and give superstition back

parrots are a PC race

specially bred chicken eggs that only smash when acceleration is dangerous, held aloft after successful voyages

considered obscene to leave "male" weapons unsheathed around women

coming upon a houseboat mansion put out to sea for a Viking burial, the explosives didn't go off, it's full of treasure but touchy

sd cards with crypto to access city power grid for your gun for a few shots

a great lord uses mirrors to steal the light from the mountains around the ones his castle is on

all the high-powered fighters can hear or sense all the good fights in the city in detail

symptoms include a feeling like raindrops falling on your skin

noticing your head has been severed, you're spitting with rage, and you think "I will live again"

all sports are conducted by the military

things that are bright and good and dangerous and should be avoided because they will try to help you and are too bright and good for you to bear

to a spacer, "skin" means your spacesuit, "dermis" means bioskin

club with a live porcupine tied to it

telling unbelievable stories that are false and also more believable than the truth

spinning a coin on the fingertip

wizards studying mathematics, standing on a mountaintop causing the land to quake and shatter in the forms they're studying

speaking to a distant object of jealousy - "I'm just sad that I never got to be your friend" - who reveals weakness - "neither did any of them"

teleporter stations are kept under oceans of heat-transfer fluid, domes and portholes show the endless murk

spacers have flattened noses from living in efficient face plates

space station heat exports, or sections of it exporting heat for others to dump

freefall operating room with vacuums everywhere, you'd probably only use it in extreme emergencies

imperial japan intervenes in Russian civil war, sets up a puppet state that fights allied Britain and Nazi Germany

race of sentient paintings

robot with telescoping toes

fighting each other with narrative bombs, forcibly altering each others' personalities, motivations, fates

aquatic mammals in niches for smaller life, swarming with schools of fish, breaching in great masses - seasels and wetbats

starships swarming into baitballs

ocean-going relic ships

feathered quadrupeds

the world post-9/11 is a simulation; that was the day a company headquartered in the WTC developed brain interfaces, the latest date they could start a plausible simulation trap

stuck halfway into a mirror, forced to live like a siamese twin

robotic policemen whose remote operators interact with the public to forge relationships and make crime seem a personal betrayal

society dedicated to wearing out demonic artifacts

life is extended to higher creatures as a loan, sleep is payment of interest, death is repossession

books whose true meaning can only be read when the pages are ripped out and folded into shapes based on certain secret patterns, the paper's thin enough that the characters flow into each other when superimposed

mob clan of gentlemen thieves

whales bearing human daughters

cocky sniper that only brings one bullet