Random Prompt - Alone

He sits slumped over, head between his knees, his hands lying atop them. He is a haggard creature, long unkempt hair on his head and face. The stone wall is warm, but he does not feel its heat. He stands and leaves the bare room that was once his cell. It's not like there is anyone to guard him or even to stand in his way. There is no one. He walks the stone corridor, head still hanging. It's been months since he's seen another living being. Plenty of food though, but that doesn't count for companionship. No, as long as he wills himself to eat the stale food, he will not starve. Today he passes the much cooler stone room containing his rations, heading for the entrance to the complex. Entrance would be a better word if there was a way to access it from the outside. The path leading to it was blown away, leaving the opening intact, but no way up, or down. He leans against the wall instead a proper door frame, crosses his arms and stares out. There's not much to see. The bombing has left the forest a dismal place. Any trees are gray and lifeless. The fire spread by the attacks consumed the whole area. The attacks were what left him alone. He was a prisoner transferred to this secluded location. Escorting guards and a dozen other high security convicts exploded off the side of the mountain along with the only path out. Rope was easy enough to wear away with time, leaving him without bindings. He learned the layout of the place he had visited only once before. Back before the war had officially started, if it had ever 'officially' started, he'd been brought here as a spy. "It was meant only as a layover, to hold me somewhere until they could move me somewhere else. Of course, once they realized my allies wanted me just as dead as they wanted their enemies, did they try to put me back in this hole. I'd be secure, and safe, and where they could take their time torturing the answers they wanted out of me. They didn't realize I didn't know any secrets of my side. I'm supposed to learn of my enemies' secrets, not my own. I guess -- Shit! I'm talking to open air again!" His mind was deteriorating. Not having contact, even if it would have been torture, was making it difficult for him to cope. He pushed off the wall and reentered the complex, aiming for nowhere in particular. There hadn't even been anything to read, not even boring reports from lower officers to their higher ups. They abandoned the place when the fighting began.  They supplied rations for the prisoners, but there was little else to do or see. A niggle of weariness pulled his thoughts to the small armory below where he could end this slow crawl toward oblivion. No one was coming back, they thought the entrance destroyed. "Both the enemy and my allies. There is nothing here worth value in any case. They'd just been trying to rid the world of my existence...or maybe one of the others, since I don't know anything. Doesn't matter now, seeing as I'm fucking narrating again!" He slammed his fists and arms into the wall next to him and he could feel his bones ache from the blow. He rolled over so his back pressed against the wall and slid down to a seat. Without noticing he resumed the position he held before, head between his knees with his hands on top of them. His sobs echoed into his empty unconsciousness.

Oblivious to the Outside, Flourishing on the Inside

Can energy be destroyed over time or lose its potency? For example, I have seen many anime and video game examples of attacks that just seem to keep going unless they strike something. If this energy were fired off into space, would it continue on forever if it never struck anything, or would it lose strength over time as it gained distance from its point of origin? Would it matter what the energy was supposedly made of? Just from Pokemon, I can pull three different kinds. Hyper Beam, Ice Beam, and Solarbeam. Obviously that last one is probably made of light. Would a laser keep going or could it lose strength? I wonder because I thought about the beam attacks in several anime being shot into space, many of them devastating in strength. If they struck another planet after traveling who knows how many light years, would it still be just as strong and do damage to that planet?

Can lightning strike something that won't conduct it in the least? Such as a pole of rubber? What if the pole of rubber was the tallest thing around? Would it try to strike it and then go lower for a target it can hit? Can a lightning bolt be divided or hit multiple targets at the same time? Why is it we don't try to farm lightning for our electrical needs?

On that note, how do solar cells and solar energy work? Do hurricanes and tornadoes do anything beneficial for nature, or are they purely destructive forces? The only thing they do to benefit nature, and it's a bit cynical, is to rid the planet of humans, who do the most damage to nature. If they were to be disrupted so they don't cause damage, would that screw up some big atmospheric pattern?

On a similar note, how do back burns work? That might not be the right term, but setting a fire so it consumes a previous fire and they burn themselves out. I'm now wondering if you could do something similar to that with an earthquake. Probably not, but if you had enough warning...?

How are forest fires fought? They always seem (at least where I live) to be in really hard areas to get vehicles and even to climb on foot, especially with all the gear a firefighter would need to wear just to stay alive. The planes and helicopters dropping chemicals and water on the fires just seems inefficient. I just wonder if there could be a better way to do it. Of course, my idea involves hercules beetle mechs armed with cannons firing mud and water and a chainsaw horn designed to cut through trees that have fallen over, or to remove fuel from the path of a fire. The horn can also grasp, able to pick up and move trees that may have gotten in the way. Six legs help it keep balance even on steep slopes, while the pilots are safe inside the armored cockpit. The biggest problem I see is energy concerns, and then of course, having water to fuel the cannons and create the mud. You'd need pretty big tanks just to carry that. I'd like to know if there were a way to steal energy from the fire you'd be facing and turn that into fuel for the beetles, but I'd have no idea how to accomplish that. Would the beetles be able to move quickly enough to actually fight the fire, or would they end up having to be used to contain the fire at areas fire trucks and other vehicles can't reach?

Another idea I had for resisting forest fires involves merely protecting the homes and buildings threatened by the blazes. Would there be a way to magnetize dirt and have it rise into the air to create a wall of dirt and earth, blocking the progress of flames? The reason I suggest just for protecting buildings is that the energy costs would probably be fairly high. If that weren't a concern, perhaps you could circle an ongoing fire with the dirt, activate it so the fire doesn't spread, and then you have the fire just burn itself out. Acres of forest and habitats for people and animals could be saved with something like that. Alternately, if we could figure out force fields and not just have them be science fiction, you could probably use those instead. I'd just be worried about a spark escaping through something most forms of media suggest can only hinder physical forms. The dirt would be scorched, but it couldn't catch on fire either.

So much I want to learn, and all of this the result of a few thoughts driving home from work.

My Imagination, My Own Worst Enemy

So...I have no need for outside interference to terrify myself. I'm perfectly capable of doing that on my own. Just bring in a windy night, preferably an autumn night so the leaves can rattle, and let me go for a walk. My imagination has a habit of seeing things that aren't there, or attributing creepiness to things that don't need it. While I'm on the walk, throw in a set of wind chimes to jingle just as I walk by, they'll set me on edge even faster. It doesn't help that I'm either receiving a message telling me to call someone when I get said message, or I'm sending it but interrupting myself before I find out who its recipient is. This is the second time that it has happened. The same message, typed out three times in a row. Both occurrences happened while on a walk late at night.

Call me when you get this message.
Call me when you get this message.
Call me when you get this message.

Three times, in an outgoing text message. Sure it's a template on the phone, and I'm sure it was just my keys pushing some buttons. But really, three times, on two separate occasions? Sets my mind to searching every shadow for an assailant, or every rustling leaf an approaching footstep. Tonight's walk also had the pleasure of being graced by a creature of the night. I don't know for sure what it was. One moment I'm walking down a sidewalk, and then I see a blocky figure where the sidewalk ends. I get a strange feeling from it and go to move to one side of it, but for some reason I convince myself to stay on my path. Surely it's just one of those electric pole box things, right? But no. About ten feet from it, it bolts across the road into some heavy shrubbery. The next thing I find? On a sign behind the creature is a Lost Cat poster. It's such a weird coincidence that it sort of sets my entire mood for the rest of the walk. Tinny sounds echo down the deserted street as the wind brushes up against metal signs on pole and ropes on a flag staff. The music playing in my headphones is no longer comforting, but a barrier to sounds I should be listening for. The short distance through a shadowless expanse of sidewalk, buried in the void between street lamps, is tense and I wait for something to rush me. Even mostly closed curtains on houses I walk by have a hidden threat, vigilant eyes watching me as I go. I complete my walk, still spinning every so often, hoping to catch a glimpse of the pursuer I'm sure is there. The door unlocks with some effort, and while most of the house is dark, I sigh in relief that I had left my soft lights on in my room to welcome me home for the night.