Worldbuilding

Sometimes I work with friends to build new worlds. It goes something like this: 

R: Aliens create a soap opera/gladiator arena like the Hunger Games with "lesser beings" and make them fight, survive, and multiply for the entertainment of the masses. 

J: Like Survivor, only better.

And more violent.

Sometimes.

R: *nods*

J: "And if you're entertaining enough, then we won't destroy your planet."

"You won't?"

"Correct. We'll keep you alive for entertainment."

R: Should entertainment be the sole determining value of your species' survival? Does winning matter, if you're boring?

J:  If you're boring, I don't think you'd win. Challenges must be completed in order to gin points. Audience input (American Idol style voting) can sway the game and influence challenges to a certain degree.

R: Actually...maybe that's what the "Queen" of each team can service. Long-term players can continually advance their 'tribe' by gradually creating hybrid super-species. If a player is 'captured' and re-born one season, in the next they'll be playing for another team...

J: Once a Player, always a Player?

R: More or less.

J: Maybe if you survive 3 consecutive games you can retire.

R: I like that idea. :) It's both a motivation factor, and a balancing mechanic! If a player gets too strong, they'll start winning, and then they'll be made to get out!

This isn't the end of the conversation, to be sure, but if you guys are interested in this sort of story (dubbed the "Rebirth Arena") I might share more of it as it develops. :)

Pet

You've been called by a friend, who says that someone abandoned a pet near their house, and could you take it to the shelter while they're at work? You're a nice person, so of course you agree, but when you arrive, the abandoned pet isn't what you expected.

---

"What's the problem? Is that really the question you're asking right now?" I look up at the sky as though I'll find the answers there. Nothing but clouds, but at least it's not the box. There's a sigh on the other end of the line and I lower my gaze as Carol's voice crackles in my ear.

"I can't keep it, and I'm at work until 6. The shelter closes at 4:30. Please, Rick, do me this favor?"

"You failed to mention that the pet in question is the size of a small horse!" The box is easily large enough to hold an adult, or maybe a couple kids. "Horse-sized" is an exaggeration, but the snuffling sounds from the other side of the wood planks are making me nervous.

Resumes

You're accepting resumes for a new villain in your novel. What are you looking for?
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As the latest applicant's cloak whipped dramatically around the corner after him and the door closed on his maniacal laughter, Etta rested her face in her hands. She'd interviewed three of them already, and was deeply regretting her choice to offer "On the Spot" interviews for this position. Villains. She wished one of them would freeze her in stasis and hold her for ransom just to simplify things. They might even get the job that way.