Incapable of feeling happiness

TotallyHuman

It's good to be home.
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write a story of around 30~160 words about a person who suddenly lost the ability to feel happiness
 

Dieter

the Writer
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de ja vu. I just wrote a chapter on someone who lost their ability to feel happiness.
 

TrashyCat

Active member
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"What's wrong Argu? You've been off since morning." Argu's friend, Turm said to him.

"I'm... not sure either." Argu responded.

Since the early morning when he awoke, Argu had felt something clearly different with himself. At first, he didn't think much of it and began to commit to his daily tasks, but as time went on, he realized something was truly wrong.

Upon deep inspection, he eventually found what it was. He could no longer feel 'happiness'.

He was an average villager within a small but proud Horunboar tribe, and while he failed to become one of the prided hunters, he enjoyed hearing their hunting stories, yearning such an experience for himself.

But today, while listening to Ermuga, a hunter he had grown close with, he suddenly realized couldn't quite feel that joy.

It was a concerning matter, but he knew he couldn't bother his friends over his own problems, so he calmly assured them.

Yet as day after day passed, his inability to feel joy began to truly affect him. He fell into a deep depression, as he could only feel nothing but staleness, enveloped in a growing hopelessness.

It also began to affect him physically, as he slowly lost weight. Even the simplest chores became strenuous to carry out.

His changes greatly alarmed the rest of his kin, as they deeply worried for him, yet he knew he could do nothing about it.

One night, in his deep despair, he left the village while the others were fast asleep, armed with the last strand of hope that his very being contained.

Determined to either find and fix his problem, or die trying.



[To be continued... maybe, more likely not]

Extra Note: Horunboar
- One of the many races of Demons living in the Alkanorz continent. As large as Orcs, but thy had the head of a boar.

PS - I swear I wasn't trying to copy your username, mine was based around my profile pic
 

georgelee5786

2024 Shovel Duel Champion
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Octavian sat down. He overlooked a Mike worth of green grass swaying in the wind and basking in the sun. Such a sight normally moved it. Now, it did nothing.

His eyes passed over it without a blind or hint of interest. He reflected for a moment. He thought of the great war he had helped prosecute across the continent. A grand endeavor that had earned him glory unquantitifiable, but at the cost of everything.

He hadn't felt happiness in a year. Every moment of peace made him mourn all the men who died under his command even more. They deserved to enjoy that peace, not to be rotting under the earth. But because of Octavian, they had been robbed of that. He hardly felt human any more.
--
I'm bad at endings
 

TheEldritchGod

A Cloud Of Pure Spite And Eyes
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"Attention please."


The duke's daughter stood up on her chair at the banquet being held in her honor. This drew everyone's attention. It was a joke enough that she showed up at the event in a dress uniform, instead of a dress, but this was without precedent. Everyone knew things had changed since the curse had been lifted. Some were scrambling to get back into her good graces, others wanted to get rid of the new threat.

The lady hit the side of her glass with a fork a few more times, "Everyone? Yes? Good." She bend down to put both the glass and fork carefully back into place at her seat, than straightened back up, "As you all know, the curse has recently been lifted, judging by my face."

She had looked like a hideous troll up until now. However, with the lifting of the curse she looked like a beautiful, young lady with perfect, ice like features and silvery hair. She was clearly beautiful beyond compare.

"I objected to this pointless dinner, but the prince insisted on it anyways, but clearly not everyone knows what happened." This caused some murmurs. On the surface, that sounded like an insult to the crown.

"The truth is, the curse is not lifted. It is worded so that I will look ugly on the outside, until I stop being emotional. The moment I stopped caring, I stopped feeling... anything. The moment I allowed the ice to enter into my heart, my beauty was restored and the power of my bloodline-" She conjured up a spike of ice with no effort and held it daintily in her off hand, "Was mine to command. I suspsect it is some sort of failsafe. A way to make sure this power never falls into the hands of someone who is ruled by emotions. As long as I am ruled by logic, the power is mine."

The crowd gasped as she stabbed her other hand with the spike.

No blood came out.

She looked at the shard of ice impaled through her hand with detached fascination, "I'm completely dead inside."

She made a fist and the ice shard shattered, leaving a hole in her hand that she looked through at the now horrified prince, "So you can see, the curse is still in effect." She dropped her hand, "I know you would love to win my heart and marry me. Yes, logically, I would be an excellent choice for queen." She flexed her hand and frost built up in the hole. The frost then melted away and her hand was healed, whole, flawless.

"So for those of you worried that I might hold a grudge about how you treated me, don't." A faint smile appeared on her face, "I don't care. About anything. No hate. No love. No Joy. No Sorrow. No Happiness. No... nothing." She thought for a second, "Well, that's untrue I feel... A sense of satisfaction. I am... comfortably numb." She nodded once to herself, "Yes. That's it. I am... comfortable."

She looked down at the prince, "So while I agreed to attend to this banquet, please stop your advances towards me. You are only interested in me because I am now heartbreakingly beautiful. If you ever did succeed in winning my heart, I'd become the hideous beast you made fun of just a year ago," She tilted her head slightly, "In a way, if you ever won, you'd lose."

She hopped down, pulled in her chair and sat down, "Now that I got that out of the way, we can all go back to this meal and go through the motions, pretending that this isn't awkward." She picked up her napkin and put it in her lap, "So please, stop saying your sorry, stop trying to make things up to me, stop with the proposals, and stop trying to befriend me."

She folded her hands in her lap and looked around with a well practiced smile. It was the final piece of the mask that now slid into place forever sealing away her heart forever more. She knew that from that moment forward, she would remain ever youthful, forever young, and she would never die.

"Because I just don't care."
 

LunaSoltaer

Spicy Transbian
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I am no longer happy.

I am so no longer happy that I cannot bring it in myself to write more than the bare minimum.

I have no idea why.
 

TheEldritchGod

A Cloud Of Pure Spite And Eyes
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Many years later, the duke's daughter had taken over the kingdom. She was cold and without mercy, but fair. There was no art, no joy, no dances, no banquets. The ice queen had removed everything that could be a distraction. Her kingdom was prosperous and peaceful, but they were a dour people. Still, they were rich and successful. Her empire grew every year.

There was no corruption, no waste. Everything was maximized for efficiency. An empire run like clockwork. Lands she could conquer with diplomacy, she did. When force was needed, it was lightning fast and brutal. Better a swift war, then one drawn out. Over all, less death that way.

She was a model queen.

One day the faerie that cursed her returned. The faerie was horrified at what had happened. The forests she one played in were cut down and repurposed for better use. There were no songs. Children played in their homes and never on the street where they might be seen.

The faerie sought out the queen, "What have you done?"

The queen looked up from her desk, "Who? Ah. I remember you. The faerie who cursed me as a child. Returned to see the results?"

The faerie was horrified, "You were a selfish little brat! You tortured your servants and family! The curse was to teach you empathy! To make your outside the same as your inside!"

"And it worked. I learned your lesson well. I will bring peace to this world. I thank you for your gift." The queen seemed puzzled by the faeries' reaction, "You taught me emotions were evil."

The faerie looked quite sad, "Oh no. That wasn't the lesson at all. It's the type of emotions that matter. Not every emotion is evil!" She started to fly in circles, "What have I done? I am so sorry. I never meant to do this to you!" She turned to the queen, "Don't worry. I can fix this."

The queen then stabbed the faerie though the heart with a spear of ice.

"Don't worry about it."

The faerie reached out with a tiny trembling hand and struggled to utter a spell, but only managed to have a bubble of blood pop on her lips.

The queen stepped closer, grabbed the little faerie, then tore off her head, "I know I don't."

She dropped the corpse on the floor then walked over to her desk. She found a handkerchief that had been given to her by the old prince so long ago and wiped the blood from her hands with it, then tossed it over the tiny body on the floor.

She sat down to resume her work, only pausing long enough to ring for a servant to clean up the mess.
 

Aiyoki

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is 30~160 the limitation here for this prompt? :blob_blank:
 

Aiyoki

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Dec 14, 2022
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Alright I'm giving it a go:


Pulling with both hands, the hero freed the final shovel full of dirt and dumped it over the pile he’d created. Eyes bloodshot and cheeks stained with unending tears, the hero sullenly turned to the sacks laid out before the hole he’d dug. His heart wrenched in agony to see them in this state, their forms disfigured beyond recognition, stuffed into sacks because he couldn’t carry their malleable bodies the normal way.

Picking up the first and larger of the two sacks, the hero briefly paused with it in his arms. Choking up with emotions, he embraced the sack for a moment before gently lowering it into the hole. He sobbed deeply when it came time for the second sack to be lowered into the makeshift grave near his home.

The hero had come out victorious in the final fight against the demon king, ridding the world of the sinister evil once and for all. It’d been his greatest success and at the same time, his biggest mistake…

With his dying breath a sinister smile crossed the demon king’s features and he’d praised the hero. “You have killed me hero and with my passing I happily bestow upon you a curse. From this moment on, all whom you love and hold close shall perish, twisted and torn asunder by the looming shadows of death. Your joy shall be turned to sorrow and the bonds you create will be destroyed by your own hands, all the while I will be smiling over you from beyond the grave.”

Stabbing the shovel into the pile of dirt, the hero proceeded to bury his wife and child…
 
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