The Hugoverse

A pandemic "illness" sweeps across the world in which its victims all have superpowers. You don't know what yours is. [ link to post I met a strange, amazing, and wonderful man when I was 15. I changed the world at 17. I was stupid at 16. He came from another world, but knew more about my world than I did. He taught me how to speak my own words. I said “portal” without having to catch the word. He knew so many words, and he put them together in the most amazing stories about the things he’d seen and done. I loved him like a father and he talked about Jenny like a daughter. She was not his actual daughter, but he felt a deep connection to her. He told me about how proud he was of her. “Words are power here.” Regal told me while we walked through the forest. “Those words that you hunt are magic words. Somehow your people started to believe that they could not speak unless they caught the right words, and no one tries anymore. When children try to speak parents shus...

Words are like animals. In order to speak a certain word you need to hunt it first. Most people have only a small vocabulary but one day you meet an old man who knows more words than you have ever heard of. [ link to post ] “Sarah!” My mom yelled my name to get my attention. I had one foot out the door, anxious to go play. I looked at her she gestured for me to “be careful”. I nodded at her and ran off to play by the stream. Stream was my first word. My parents took me on a picnic by the side of the stream when I was five years old. My parent’s house was deep within the heart of our city, and wild words were never found around people. There were plenty for sale, but my parents could not afford any of the good ones. My mother refused to let me use any of the cheap curse words, even though my dad made a case about their flexibility in conversation. That day I sat on the side of the stream with my feet dipped in the cool running water, and something shining and sparkling with...