Text 1

Oho! I lose it again, my 3rd tooth this year, I'm old now. No more smoking and beer. I had thing in mind to do before I die. I want to be in Victoria. Scuba diving would be fun, that's what everybody says, 200 dollars would be hell lot of money, I would rather stay where I don't have to listen to my grandson cry... RABIN

So I decided to take a trip to a nearby nature reserve. Sure it has no koalas nor kangaroos, but it also has no screaming children, and that gave me pause...
When I got to the meeting point, I saw her. The sexiest sexagenarian ever. Her hair held back, glasses on a lanyard and a playful disposition. I forgot about my missing teeth and she did not seem to notice anyway, the glass lenses were pretty thick! JOAO

I came closer to get a better look at her. I was already imagining and living out our life together. The ocean walks...mountain hikes...historical cities, world's most famous museums - I'll give it all to her. To her, the most bright and hopeful woman. I smile at her and touch her hand. It's strangely cold and stiff. I blink once or twice and it all comes together - she's a store mannequin! I guess it's me who needs thicker glasses... AUSTEJA

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Text 2

She sat in the record shop, counting the change. Like she did every friday evening. She thought about that guy who had asked her where the section for romantic folk music was. Was he romantic himself? Or did he just like romantic music? She noticed that he was texting a lot. Maybe it was to a girlfriend? But the look he gave her...she wasn't sure. Suddenly a noise broke her out of her daydream. ED

It was his mobile phone ringing so loud! She hated people who had this kind of loudly ridiculous music and didn't mind bothering everyone around... Well, maybe she could see or hear if he had a girlfriend and if it was her calling. But unfortunately he turned around ... of course, she thought! He is already with someone. Guys are all the same... MARIE

But then she remembered she lived in Berlin. Everyone was in an open relationship here. Has romance fallen apart entirely, she thought? Did it matter if he was flirting with her AND had a girlfriend? All in all she decided she had spent too long thinking about this man and his imaginary girlfriend. He was probably speaking to his grandmother. At that precise moment, her rambling thoughts were interrupted by a phone call, from her girlfriend. BASTA

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Text 3

Vegas. 2048. The blizzard outside rattled the window and caked it with a white icy coating. Sam's host ordered tea and made himself comfortable, dismissing some notifications from his comunicator, before looking in his direction.
"So, did all go according to plan?"
Sam replied.
"Before I took this contract, I told you I would not shoot on any civilians."
"Yes, but that girl got in the way, she saw what shouldn't be seen."
The tea arrived. His host paused and Sam took the cup to his mouth. He sniffed it. Poison! ED

Were they so stupid they thought he will be poisoned in his tea? Sam got scared. He knows that the guys he was fighting were not the kind of people to put poison in tea... so who could that be? They may have underestimated the number of people informed about the operation they were trying to accomplish. And now Rob, his partner in crime, compromised himself by killing a civilian. The situation was not good. Sam noticed he was shaking. As soon as he sat on a comfortable armchair beside Rob, a bullet crossed the room. It came from the window. MARIE

He looked out the casino into the snowy wilderness. At least he tried. The thick layers of ice distorted his vision. The bellet had knocked the tea out of his hand. His host had run for the door, and Rob sat bleeding, motionless. Quickly, he switched his communicator to top-secret mode and pressed the button activating bulletproof webbing. He strained to see out the window and could just make out a shadow, in the distance. His gambling problem had clearly escalated too far. When he took his role he never would hove imagined he would have succesfully convinced his unit to set up base in Vegas. The girl knew, but she shouldn't have paid with her life. BASTA

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Text 4

I am reading in a swamp at the centre of Paris, who knows there were still some swamps in Paris? It is so humid there my whole book is almost like a dying banana. But I am almost at the last pages, I should continue till the end of the book. It talks about Paris itself and old unknown swamps that nobody knows...still some pages, will my book survive? MARIE

I am reading in a swamp at the centre of Paris, and truly who knew Paris contained such swamps. It is humid, saturated with the stress of rushing people, drowning in their busy lives and bustling shopping centres. I should continue, get through these last pages of my book, but I am gasping for air in this swamp of a city. Who knows if my book will survive, between the endless commitments and overwhelming noise. Is the end of this book important? BASTA

"City of Love" that's what it has been for ages. I was in Paris last December it was city of rain and striking. Nevertheless you suffer when you go wrong place at the wrong time. It was a city that is so magnificent, rich in building and its architecture and of course Eiffel tower. RABIN

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Text 5

"Three. Two. One. Go!" An explosion. A bunch of military men enter the building by rappelling. A hole on the wall.
"LZ clear. On my six". "Roger". This is "Operation Fisherman". A rescue mission by the US army. A doctor's office in Iran. The building was supposedly abandoned for ages. Or so it seemed.
"I got movement on my tango"
"Watch the tango delta-six"
"Roger"
"Over and out."
The three men go down the stairs, into the basement.
"Delta-six we have a Hotel Lima into Tango. Waiting for instructions."
"Standby Delta-five. We Mike Lima Hotel because Tango Bravo on your six. Do you copy?"
"Yes."
Suddenly, they hear a man yelling. ISAQUE

"Man down, I repeat, man down!"
A hand grenade had exploded, the blast hitting hard on one of the soldiers.
Delta-five runs up to Delta-six, and grabs his bleeding hand.
"I don't think I'm gonna make it."
"Don't you say that."
"I mean it. Before I go, I need to tell you..."
"No, please."
"I love you." A tear slid from Delta-five's cheek as the words fell from his lips.
"And I love you Delta-six." EVA

He then made a dramatic croaking sound and hung his head back. Delta Five then sighed and said "But I always loved Delta 8 more."
Suddenly Delta 6 sprung back up. "WHAAAT?" "You lying bastard!". He swung his lone bleeding arm hard and cracked his fist into Delta5's face.
"Wait! Wait! I can explain" but Delta 6 took out a grenade and pulled out the pin.
"To think I even didn't complain when you borrowed my Care Bear limited edition hot water bottle and never gave it back." Delta5 grabbed the grenade from Delta6's hand. "The water bottle leaked anyway." He then threw the grenade as far as he could. Unfortunately it landed two feet off the rest of the squad and exploded. ED

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Text 6

As Chip explored the corridors of the pyramid, untouched for millenia, he stepped on a loose stone.
Crracck!
Suddenly the floor tilts downward and Chip slides, his yelp echoing through the stony halls.
The fall leads him to the catacombs, and he jumps just as his slide finishes. EVA

He slams into the wall and drops his torch, it clatters and bongs, echoing into oblivion, but his descent is stopped, thank goodness. He edges across a ledge and enters a long claustrophobic room, statues lining the wall. A dim light cast eerie shadows across the floor toward him as he edges forward toward the source. He sees a stone table by the light. Could this be the ED

treasure of this young pharaoh assassinated by his uncle that noone has still found? Chip's heart was beating so fast he thought it could explode. He was hesitating, should he take a picture, touch it? It was so unreal! Ok decided him, it may be the chance of my life, I'm taking it! It got closer to the table, touched it. As soon as his shin connected with the cold marble, the ground fell under his feet... No chance this time. MARIE

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Text 7

Yevgenya sat down at the bar of the CR7 hotel in downtown Lisbon. A bunch of men yell with excitement. They are watching television.
She peers to get a look.
Cristiano Ronaldo just scored. How apt. She thought.
Holding up her hand, she signals the barkeep to pour her a drink.
She doesn't care for football any much anyway. She's here to meet a client.
"Hey."
"Fuck off", that's not the passphrase. Her stomach is turning just anticipating the passphrase. EVA

Her english wasn't the best and the bartender was super grumpy when he gave it to her. She tried again. The same response. Then she saw her client enter the bar. The crowd jump in excitement at another goal. Quick quick! She's going to look super unprofessional if she doesn't have internet whilst doing the interview. Her client stops to look at the television, distracted by the goal. She has another moment so she tries the password again, this time a different spelling. BINGO! She's in, just as her client greets her. He's much older than she anticipated but he still has all his wits about him and has an intense stare as he takes a seat. She apologises for the noisy setting and after a few polite exchanges, she begins the interview.
"So why did you decide to come clean?" ED

"Well, how did you expect me not to come?" she said, staring at him.
"hum..." ok then, "let's do a test" he decided.
He brought a test in order to see if she was drunk. She didn't know what to do. Of course she had a few drinks before. She had 2 seconds to find something to say, something to do. I just had a transfusion she said, I can't go through any test. If you want to know if I resist alcohol, let's test me with this bottle of vodka on your desk! MARIE

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Text 8

On a sunny Lisbon afternoon we meet our character on a rooftop. Holding a crispy grasshopper on one hand and a bottle of wine on the other, she thinks..."What is the point? I'm an entomologist - I studied insects all my life. And now?! Now people just eat them as snacks! Disgrace." As she looked down to the street, standing 200m above it, there was only one thought and only one way out. "Maybe I should join a circus?" AUSTEJA

The woman closes her eyes.
"Here". She steps closer to the ledge. "We". She finishes the rest of the wine in one sip, and lets go of the bottle. The bottle falls. "Go". She steps forward. Drum rolls. She hears drum rolls. The bottle finally hits the street below her, way below her.
She jumps.
Circus music.
Her hair floats violently, upwards.
A clown catches her hand.
"Ladies and gentlemen..." - an announcer speaks into a mic that no one else hears - "The fabulous, marvellous entomologist acrobaaaaat".
People cheer.
She cries.
The clown is not real. It's not human. It has the face of a grasshopper, under the face paint. She cries, yet she smiles. Her body hits the floor. ISAQUE

She lays there for what seems hours.
How long was she in this stupor?
She moves her body, but instantly closes her eyes. She's afraid.
Little by little she opens her eyelids, and looks.
If she could gasp, she would. Her arms, her legs, the whole of her body, were transformed. She was now a grasshopper, her own object of study.
A person approaches, dressed as a chef. She's lying on a plate.
Terror fills her, in her prison of exoskeleton.
The chef impales her on a stick.
She is now food herself. EVA

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