Board Thread:Writer's Workshop/@comment-33904527-20190324003408

Guxon softly chewed his lip, waiting for inspiration to strike him. A few minutes passed, but still, there were no metaphoric lightbulbs to be seen floating above his head. The computer in front of him hummed softly, anticipating his touch. It was 8:30 on a school night, and for his computer sciences project tomorrow, he had to create an entire solar system. Of course, he had left it until the last few hours of the last day. Surely it couldn’t be that difficult: the teachers had given the class an entire program to use that was dedicated to the project.

He considered consulting the internet for ideas but knew that it would only end up with even more time lost procrastinating. Sighing, he opened the program and stared at the black space on the screen. It was a clean slate, but the instructions were quite specific: eight planets, with a single star for them to orbit around. No vulgar names, no black holes or supernovas. And there had to be intelligent life on at least one. Sizes could vary, and special features could be added, but the planets had to exist in harmony with each other.

Cracking his knuckles, Guxon finally got to work. Within the hour, he had crudely constructed a watery planet with some patches of land spread across the blue. A few meteorites, comets, and asteroids later, there were gas giants, stars, smaller, rockier planets with craters and mountains, moons, icy cold atmospheres, and more. Every planet orbited around a much bigger star in the centre, some of them orbiting closer or at differing speeds than others. Taking a moment to look back open his work, a sense of pride washed over Guxon’s body. Now he would establish an entire living world on the planet he had started off with, naming it Earth in the process.

Eventually, Guxon finished with the planet, deciding the creatures inhabiting it would be known as ‘humans’. He added animals and plants next, gazing out of his second-story window for inspiration. Soon enough, he was finished, having carefully constructed the planet’s heritage from scratch. Guxon saw all he had made, and it was very good. The clock struck half-past ten, and he sent the solar system to his school computer before going to sleep for the night, expecting a change of face from his usual C- or D+ grade.

-

In almost no time at all, it was the next day, and Guxon sat quietly at his school computer, making a few small tweaks to his work. Mr Kleff, the computing teacher, crouched down next to him, peering at the array of spheres set out on the screen.

“Morning, Guxon. What’s yours called?”

“Huh?”

“Your solar system. The name of your solar system.”

“Oh, uh…I don’t really have one. I never really thought about it.”

“Well, clearly we’re off to a good start,” Mr Kleff muttered, rolling his eyes.

“Why’s that one got a ring around it? That planet there?”

Guxon shrugged.

“Why not?”

“Fair enough,” Mr Kleff replied unenthusiastically. “But you had to do eight planets, not nine.”

“There are only eight. That one doesn’t count.” Guxon gestured to the small brownish-whitish orb floating in the back, labelled ‘Pluto’.

“Looks like a planet to me. And you can’t have profanity in any of the planet names, either, Guxon.”

“What do you mean?”

“That one there’s literally called ‘your anus’. Very funny.”

“No, sir, it’s pronounced yer-run-us. It’s not-”

“Do any of these planets even have life on them?”

“Uh, this one does, sir.”

Guxon zoomed in onto Earth, where a large city could be seen bustling with cars and people. He smiled pridefully at the little people he had created, like ants running through the roads.

“Hmmm,” Mr Kleff murmured, taking a minute to examine the civilization.

“This is just our society with less advanced technology. Half of the animals and plants are the same as ours. They speak the same languages as us, share some of the same history as us, have the same natural disasters we used to have; it all just looks a little different.”

“But sir, the people are different! They have less fingers and more nostrils and these reproductive organ thingies called ‘penises’ and ‘vaginas’. And there’s tons of history that isn’t ours, and things like diseases, and philosophy, and music, and – look! Look! They even landed on their moon! There’s a little flag there and-”

“Disappointing, Guxon.” Mr Kleff tutted.

“But-but they’re like real people! There’s billions of them! And they all have their all opinions and feelings just like in real life! Isn’t that worth a good grade?”

“Perhaps, but I’ve seen much better. This is just wasted potential. You had an entire week. Kandren made a communication relay between him and his creatures, Phoriel’s entire solar system was in a constant rebirth cycle. Grav’ot had a planet made entirely of Sasauntium, for crying out loud.”

“But-”

“No more buts. You’re staying here after school to re-do the whole thing. Just get rid of this one first.”

Before Guxon could say another word, Mr Kleff had already turned to the next student. Filled with frustration, Guxon sent a giant meteor hurtling at Earth with the click of the mouse button, damning all of its inhabitants to a fiery death. 