The following is my submission to a prompt from the r/WritingPrompts subreddit. The full Reddit post can be seen here.
Prompt: Your family member has been abducted and replaced by an alien who is really bad at their job of pretending to be them. However, you don't complain because the alien is still a vast improvement over the original.
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“Ricky, what the hell are you doing?” I yelled in frustration. The alien, a crude replica of the brother I once knew, stared back at me as he picked each onion up, one by one, and dropped them on the supermarket floor.
“Who is Ricky?” the alien replied.
“I can’t believe this, IGDOS gave me a Replaceable that can’t even remember its own name,” I said with exasperation. A woman stared at us.
Grabbing the alien by the arm, I pulled it over to my shopping cart. It asked, “What is IGDOS?”
“We’ve been over this before,” I answered, “IGDOS is the Inter-Galactic Department of Safety. When my brother,” I paused for a moment, choosing my words wisely, “when my brother did you know what, they detained him and gave you to me as his Replaceable. How many more times am I going to have to explain this to you?”
The alien, unconcerned and unbothered, started knocking Cheez-It boxes off the shelves.
“Will you quit it?” I snapped, frantically collecting the boxes and putting them back on the shelves. “Listen, if we’re going to make this work, then I need you to at least try to act like a human. I know you didn’t want this either, but we have to make it work, at least until my brother stands trial before the Council. You’re well aware that it's your duty as an IGDOS agent to ensure no humans become aware that my brother is missing.”
“Whatever you say,” the alien said with a shrug, wandering off into another aisle.
I stared into my shopping cart, examining the groceries I had collected. An overwhelming wave of stress washed over me. How did it get this bad?
I had a flashback to childhood. Ricky was always a genius, capable of things that nobody in my family understood. Yet we never knew that it would come to this, that he would use his intelligence for evil.
The alien peered its head around the corner of the aisle, “Hey, I’m gonna go check out what’s in the back.” I stood there, feeling defeated, as I watched the fake Ricky saunter into a room with a clear ‘Employees Only’ sign on the door.
“That’s it, I’ve had enough” I fumed, making a beeline for the door to collect the Replaceable. I barged into the room, surprised at what I found.
“Gotcha!” the alien shouted when I entered the room.
I quickly looked around the staff break room, yet there was nobody else there. A warped green portal glowed on the far wall of the room.
“Look, I’ve been messing with you,” the alien said. “I know how to act exactly like Ricky. I went through an intensive 12-month training process to make sure I could mimic him with perfect precision. IGDOS doesn’t mess around with this sort of thing. But to tell you the truth, I don’t want to act like Ricky. And if you step into this portal with me, I can show you why.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” I answered with confusion. “They told me I shouldn’t go anywhere with you that I wouldn’t normally go with Ricky and that you had strict instructions to follow.”
“I get it, but I know you miss him. It’s important that I show you this. Just follow me,” the alien insisted, grabbing my hand.
Unsure of what other options I had, I nervously stepped forward, consumed by the brilliant green light of the portal…
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The following is my submission to a prompt from the r/WritingPrompts subreddit. The full Reddit post can be seen here.
Prompt: Your family member has been abducted and replaced by an alien who is really bad at their job of pretending to be them. However, you don't complain because the alien is still a vast improvement over the original.
____________________________________________________________________________
“Ricky, what the hell are you doing?” I yelled in frustration. The alien, a crude replica of the brother I once knew, stared back at me as he picked each onion up, one by one, and dropped them on the supermarket floor.
“Who is Ricky?” the alien replied.
“I can’t believe this, IGDOS gave me a Replaceable that can’t even remember its own name,” I said with exasperation. A woman stared at us.
Grabbing the alien by the arm, I pulled it over to my shopping cart. It asked, “What is IGDOS?”
“We’ve been over this before,” I answered, “IGDOS is the Inter-Galactic Department of Safety. When my brother,” I paused for a moment, choosing my words wisely, “when my brother did you know what, they detained him and gave you to me as his Replaceable. How many more times am I going to have to explain this to you?”
The alien, unconcerned and unbothered, started knocking Cheez-It boxes off the shelves.
“Will you quit it?” I snapped, frantically collecting the boxes and putting them back on the shelves. “Listen, if we’re going to make this work, then I need you to at least try to act like a human. I know you didn’t want this either, but we have to make it work, at least until my brother stands trial before the Council. You’re well aware that it's your duty as an IGDOS agent to ensure no humans become aware that my brother is missing.”
“Whatever you say,” the alien said with a shrug, wandering off into another aisle.
I stared into my shopping cart, examining the groceries I had collected. An overwhelming wave of stress washed over me. How did it get this bad?
I had a flashback to childhood. Ricky was always a genius, capable of things that nobody in my family understood. Yet we never knew that it would come to this, that he would use his intelligence for evil.
The alien peered its head around the corner of the aisle, “Hey, I’m gonna go check out what’s in the back.” I stood there, feeling defeated, as I watched the fake Ricky saunter into a room with a clear ‘Employees Only’ sign on the door.
“That’s it, I’ve had enough” I fumed, making a beeline for the door to collect the Replaceable. I barged into the room, surprised at what I found.
“Gotcha!” the alien shouted when I entered the room.
I quickly looked around the staff break room, yet there was nobody else there. A warped green portal glowed on the far wall of the room.
“Look, I’ve been messing with you,” the alien said. “I know how to act exactly like Ricky. I went through an intensive 12-month training process to make sure I could mimic him with perfect precision. IGDOS doesn’t mess around with this sort of thing. But to tell you the truth, I don’t want to act like Ricky. And if you step into this portal with me, I can show you why.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” I answered with confusion. “They told me I shouldn’t go anywhere with you that I wouldn’t normally go with Ricky and that you had strict instructions to follow.”
“I get it, but I know you miss him. It’s important that I show you this. Just follow me,” the alien insisted, grabbing my hand.
Unsure of what other options I had, I nervously stepped forward, consumed by the brilliant green light of the portal…
