Just Wanted To Pop In And Say I Like Your Art, And Your Oc Margaret! No Pressure But I'd Love To See

Recall

@flashfictionfridayofficial thanks for the prompt!

It's not my best, but I am tired and have done what editing I can.

While trying to come up with a suitable partner for the arsonists of my group, I realized that i had missed a golden opportunity and decided to capitalize on that.

Warnings for imprisonment, violence, starvation tactics, referenced abuse.

He didn’t have a proper name, at least as far as he knew. He was mostly referred to as it or thing since he’d been woken, but when the lights of the circus came on, he was Blaze the fire abomination, one of the wonders of the modern world. It took him many beatings and nights of starvation to associate with the name, but after a time he supposed it became what he was, without any memories of what he had been before, there was little choice for him.

Cold Iron poked at his side, disturbing him from his fledgling slumber. Looking up with bleary eyes at the cold disgust half heartedly focused on him did little to ignite the flame in his chest, but little by little as Blaze started breathing again he could feel the pumps in his chest turning up the heat until the metal encasing him glowed with an orange hue. Never enough to burn through the metal, they didn’t give him enough fuel for that, just enough to make a spectacle of himself.

His captor was saying something again in a frustrated tone, but Blaze wasn’t sure what he had done now, and he didn’t bother to try and understand their vulgar words anymore. When the door to his cage was indicated with another prod to his ribs, he moved towards the slowly opening gate. There was no point in rushing himself. They would just take that as an attempt to flee. As it stood, his supply of fuel was getting dangerously low, and if this persisted much longer, he wouldn’t make it through another winter. Everything was so cold already that he would be surprised if he made it to the end of the summer.

Sweat trickled down his captors face as Blaze stepped out of the metal cage, almost instantly setting the wooden boards of the stage ablaze. Grunts and exclamations of fear and confusion drove him back into the protection of his cage as he watched the fire being quickly extinguished and the boards being replaced by metal plating. It was all part of the routine. He just had to make it believable. So he mimicked the fear that they had trained him to exhibit and let out a roar of false defiance, causing members of the crowd to gasp in fear.

With a practiced motion, the end of his leash was quickly secured before his flames had a chance to properly ignite. The shackle on Blaze’s remaining arm had fused with his skin, making each tug the chain pull his wrist uncomfortably. He’d be paraded through the town again all the way to the circus grounds, and then he’d be put on display like every other town that he’d been to. To pass the time, he surveyed the crowd, making low grunts and growling sounds to elicit fear. His dull eyes flickered over the faces filled with fear and contempt until Blaze’s attention was suddenly drawn to a hooded figure exuding a strange smokey aura that stopped him dead in his tracks The sound of the busy street faded into dull echoes as the fire in his core began to roar louder than it had in years.

He took a step towards the hooded figure deftly pulling his chains along with him until he stood there instinctively straitening his twisted back until he was towering over them. At this, the figure leaned back its head, revealing a smile that made his roaring furness flicker with excitement.

‘you blaze like the sun’

A grumble of garbled words echoed from his soul as he tried to convey his admiration for this thing before him, but he’d been mute for so long he feared that the thing would fear him like all of the others. A burn scared hand shot out from under the robes, embracing his cold hands, sparking life into his withered bones.

“I accept.”

The figure let her cloak fall back to reveal a face twisted with scars, radiating a warmth that spread through him like a wild fire. The world was once more as it should be, burning in glorious flames. It was so simple, how could he have forgotten?

Introducing (drum roll) fire spirits (opposite of the forest guardians.

An Interesting Conversation

@flashfictionfridayofficial Thank you for the prompt! Also, thank you for your kind words about my drawings and writing in the past :) These prompts have been really good for getting me to write original work more regularly. Thank you so much!

Warnings: alcohol and some tension?

Summary: John runs into an unexpected figure at a lack luster party.

You were quite difficult to track down you know.”

John set down his wine, uninterested in the sparkling liquid after an initial testing. So far, this event had been a waste of his time, and speaking to another elite wasn’t going to improve his souring mood. 

“I keep to myself… Politics no longer hold any interest to me.”

Watching the many debutantes fluttering across the dimly lit ballroom with their sparkling capes and glistening helms had only contributed to the perpetual headache that had recently been plaguing him. He thought he might at least get to meet with someone interesting, but the older participants who might have been good for a story or two were all focused on the dance floor, assessing potential seeds to develop with even less subtlety than a child in a candy store. After two hours of this nonsense, he had little hope that any conversation here would be worth his time. 

“Yet you always hold such sway over the tides of history… I remember reading about your exploits on Teris 7, the carnage that you wrecked… It was inspiring.”

John turned his head slowly, his eyes fixed on the towering figure just to his left. A simple red cape held in place by two golden fasteners caught his attention before the coiling cables draping past her ceremonial helmet snaked into view. She was quite the figure to be appearing here.

“Such high praise, Admiral Krom, but you seem to have me confused with someone, don’t you? I may seem tarnished, but my time does not span further than your father’s.”

He noticed the flinch, turning his body towards the drink he’d laid aside. It seemed more palatable now that the conversation had shifted to such a useless topic. 

Before he could reach for it, his hand was intercepted, the music beginning to swell as bachelors flooded the dancefloor to have their promised turn with a rising star. 

“Humor me?”

With another half hour before the doors would reopen, he accepted her advance, swaying along to the tune until her moves began to shift, turning to a much older step that his body instinctively fell into. 

“The Dying Constellation… banned by the mad emperor after the death of his beloved wife, and nearly lost to time… not the type of thing one’s body forgets, is it?”

John’s shoulders hunched. She was a persistent pup. One who seemed to have done her research.

“What do you want?”

His words were flat, and he wasn’t sold on the conversation, but for her to have learned that dance at such a young age… she deserved a modicum of engagement at least. At the height of the echoing music, Krom dipped him back, pulling his waist towards her with a tense grip and closing the distance between them in an instant. 

“The empire is rotting John. I just want you to do what you do best and remind everyone just how small our bluster is in the face of real monsters.”

Her words rang out like music, causing the husk to stir with excitement in a way he hadn’t felt since encountering the first emperor. Her ambition was palpable, and borderline, desperate, hidden behind a thin facade of calm that was threatening to break with every word she spoke. 

“He was already proud of you, Elodie, and revenge can’t revive the dead.”

He pulled away from her gently, the strength gone from her hands as he picked up his wine, downing the liquid in an attempt to quiet the beating of their hearts. What use would there be in getting excited now? 

“No… But you can, or at least the husk could manage it, right?”

He froze, a spark of interest finally starting to unravel the ball of apathy packed tightly in his chest. Perhaps this party wouldn’t be a total waste of an evening after all.

Beautiful Things

@flashfictionfridayofficial prompt

Summary: A snippet of lore for the story I have been attempting to write. Pulling back from a crazy world, is it any suprise that the universe could be just as odd?

He’d watched over the small egg for millennia, protecting it from harm. It hadn’t been the only one. It was just the one that had yet to hatch. As the centuries passed and the number of guardians slowly dwindled, *** had chosen to stay. They had warned him that if the little one could not break its shell, then it could not last in the expanse, that its light was not worth protecting. *** had stayed silent and watched the other newborns hatch one by one, following the guardians into the expanse of space to learn of the universe and their place in it.

Guardians labeled him foolish while retreating, but *** waited for the child to form. He could hear the growing heartbeat through the shell getting slightly louder with every passing century until it was just as strong as the others who had hatched before it. Then he could feel its will and knew the child should have been strong enough to break its prison, but still, it did not act. After waiting for a century more, *** pressed his conscious forward to question the child. He asked if it required help breaking the shell.

While guardians were forbidden to interfere with the hatching, *** had been helped as a newborn, and he would not let this newborn rot because of tradition. Even through the shell *** could feel that despite what the others had said, this little one’s light would be something truly beautiful.

{I don’t want to go… I love these creatures too much to destroy them.}

Its voice was stronger than he had expected, but *** understood the newborn’s conviction. The creatures that lived on the surface of its egg were fragile beings that would not survive the hatching process. He’d watched countless species destroyed that way as he sat among the dying husks of empires.

Reaching out again, *** warned the newborn that if it did not hatch after developing, then it would surely parish. Then, after rotting, it would lead to the death of the creatures that it cared so deeply for. They had good lives, and they had been given millennia to grow and experience so much. *** explained that this was simply the conclusion of their natural existence, but he could feel that the newborn’s conviction did not waver.

{No… I have heard their song and it is too beautiful to be lost, so I will give them what time I can until my end comes.}

*** frowned and reached out a finger boring deep into the surface of the egg. If the newborn felt so strongly, then there was another way, but it would have to commit to a lesser form until it had seen the terrifying nature of the song that it longed to protect.

Pulling back, *** caught a glimpse of the newborn’s light through the opening he had formed and knew he could no longer watch the child if he wanted to respect its wishes. Without him, the newborn would be alone for the first time in its existence, and *** shed tears, which fell like stars smoldering in their dissent. *** knew its light would have been the most precious to behold, but its memory would have to be his alone.

{Thank you}

LATE NIGHT INSPIRATION

(I have no idea where this came from)

I was watching a show and just started sketching. To my dismay, the scketch sparked a new story idea into my head, but I have too many things I'm working on at the moment to give it the proper attention it needs.

Not being able to fully finish most of the stories I start has always been a problem for me and it frustrates me to no end, but I liked the art for this one, so I figured that I might as well post the sketches.

Quick plot synopsis because brains really do go off the edge when tired: the knight was about to take a bath after being on the road for three months, and the robot pirate was raiding. Just as they were about to reach their goals, both of them were abducted by aliens trying to collect data. The two of them break out of containment and meet up, deciding to put aside their differences so they can escape the alien planet.

Spark of Progress

Thanks for the prompt @flashfictionfridayofficial !

Warning: minor science and bugs. Picture has mutated body parts displayed in the background.

Word Count: 395

Story: original snippet, apocalyptic

Cells danced across the lit slide, quickly overtaking the benign tissue and effortlessly mutating the sample. Carl attempted to focus in on the process for any notable variation in its pattern, but after sixteen hours, his dancing vision was persistant enough that he probably wouldn’t catch anything of note even if it bit his face anyway. 

“Sleep, or I’m gonna break that piece of junk.” Pulling away instinctivly, Carl clutched his microscope protectively. 

“Touch it and we all go up in smoke.” His baby-sitter shrugged and picked up the pile of papers that he’d haphazardly arranged for collection. These brutes had their uses but they were far too blunt for his purpouses most days. 

“See anything interesting today?” He shrugged.

“Nothing significant, the infection has been resistant to everything I’ve thrown at it.” Feeling less insecure about the safety of his equipment, Carl leaned back a bit in his chair and raised his coffee to take a drink before he caught sight of something floating along the surface. Pulling it away from his mouth, he set the ceramic mug onto the table and eyed the strange insect floating belly up on the surface. It was obviously infected, nothing that would cause significant damage by itself, but how had a dead infected bug gotten in his cup? 

“You okay?” Carl’s guard was already by his side, checking him for any signs of injury. He knew he wasn’t turning, He’d run enough test to know what turning felt like, at least what people documented it feeling like. Pushing past her, he grabbed a pair of forceps from a loose pile of tools and picked up the bug quickly dragging it over to his work station. Despite his earlier exhaustion a sence of urgency had driven the sleep from his eyes. Quickly preparing a tray, he slid the pieces into place and engaged the magnification. 

Silence settled over the room as he watched the aggressive cells shrivel up and flake apart when contacting the coffee residue. After all this time… Shaking his head, Carl pulled away to grab another sample, he’d have to isolate the cause, figure out what exactly was triggering the reaction. His fingers shook with excitement forcing him to slow down his work for the sake of accuracy. Every moment crawled by in agonizing silence, but If he was right… humanity could finally be saved. 

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Termination

Thanks for the prompt @flashfictionfridayofficial

Lan decides to make a move after learning that his deal with the council has been voided.

Warnings: Violence and death

“I heard an interesting rumor.”

Ripples cascaded across the wine soaked floor as council members looked up from their drunken revilry.

“It was such a silly little thing, but I knew that it was the perfect tale to end things on.” Water droplets danced around Lan as he took another step forward, once more disrupting the wine underfoot. “Besides, I just know you’d be interested to hear it.”

Several of the more grounded members began to stir, reaching for their stupid little bells with shouts of panic that only grew more desperate as the metal melted into puddles of burning liquid.

“Oh… Not interested then?” Streams of water began running from the ceiling, twisting together to form thin serpentine constructs.  “I guess there really isn’t a need to go over things.”

The serpents began to slither down the large pillars of the hall, quickly gliding towards their prey. Lan continued to advance, walking just slowly enough for his constructs to begin feasting. The council desperately struggled, arms harmlessly passing through the serpents' bodies, only serving to further entangle them. It was a wasted effort. Their fates had already been set in stone the moment they broke their word.

“Such a pity, Rue would have enjoyed this.” But the love birds would be busy, wouldn’t they? 

Half smiling, Lan stepped onto the platform, reaching out to one of the feasting serpents. It raised it’s head and quickly abandoned the others to gently offer up a gilded skulls it had collected. Blinking in surprise at the already smooth surface, Lan couldn’t hold back a chuckled. Even for pigs, their hides had been softer than he expected. 

@kuebiko-writing Thanks for the tag! I'm not sure if I'm doing this right, but here we go.

My favorite books to read are about messed up people trying to be better for either themselves or for someone important to them, while everyone expects the worst of them, and the world just decides that it has no intention of giving them a break.

My favorite books as a writer (that I attempt to write)....

Honestly, it's hard to boil what I like to write down to a favorite, but I do enjoy writing stories about people who have been dragged into bad situations and try to keep their lives and sanity intact with varying levels of success. Not everything works out for them, but sometimes I give them nice things.

I have a question for everyone who would like to answer:

What are your favorite books as a reader and what are your favorite books as a writer?

Writing share tag 

Thanks for the Tag @wyked-ao3 ! I haven't gotten to the stage of editing yet, but here's a little something that I was able to get written a couple of weeks ago.

Blood Mage: council meeting 

No one enjoyed these meetings, but unless the fairies or vampires picked a fight with Luis there was usually no cause for concern. At a subtle gesture towards Marie’s seat, Susian’s face went pale. The witches were fairly peaceful these days, why would they go and pick a fight with Luis of all people?

As Susan decided the best way to word such a question to the already dozing representative, she was interrupted by a loud boom accompanied by an explosion of plaster and metal crashing down from the ceiling above. 

“What is the meaning of this?”

A cry came from the indigent Fairy King now covered in a layer of dust and red crystal fragments, his ever-faithful guard having taken the brunt of the explosion’s force shielding him. 

“Shut up bug. I have no time to prattle with insects.”

Susan and the others froze at the vitriol in Luis’ tone, sure he never got along with the king, but that voice wasn’t one that he used on anyone unless he had a mind to end them. The eyes of everyone drifted to the enraged bloodmage now standing several feet from the table, carefully trying to gauge how to react. Red lines covered his skin, pulsing with an unnatural glow, threatening to split him at the seams if he let himself slip even minutely. Her mouth went dry as Susian realized he had entered a frenzied state, and even the Fairy King made no move to speak now.

“I came to inform the council of my formal intent to eradicate the Witches.”

His words felt like a hot iron being slammed into Susan’s gut. Her predecessors and colleagues had long wondered what to do if such an eventuality came to be, but to hear it now drove her mind to despair. What had they done to offend him to this degree? Why in their right minds would the witches have picked such a foolish fight? Now everyone would be dragged into this insanity, and more than anything that meant she wouldn’t be getting her time off again, no one in the Order would. 

No pressure Tags: @renasdoodles @kuebiko-writing @laisley-writes @leahnardo-da-veggie ,

@creatrackers @somethingclevermahogony +Open tag

Choices

@flashfictionfridayofficial prompt

Summary: Tori, a loyal soldier, has his alegences tested and finds that his loyalty to his country isn't as strong as he first believed.

Finally, a Tori Story. We're getting the perspective of another in the rag-tag squad of my WIP.

Chapter warning: referenced violence, violence, killing, referenced torture, and the picture at the end shows violence and injury.

Tori had been raised like all of the other able bodied children in his village to be loyal soldiers. He killed and maimed without regret, without hesitation because the people that he was sent after were the enemies, and if he wanted to keep himself and others safe, they needed to die. He wasn’t a sociopath, they’d tested him for that. Tori was just someone who had long ago reconciled that he could live with himself. He could wait for regret if he ever made it to retirement.

He had never questioned orders, been a faithful dog, and he had planned to remain like that until the evening when he received a new set of orders. This time, he wouldn’t be hunting down a traitor or ripping the life from a target. This time, he was capturing something. He’d never been ordered to capture something alive. He’d never had reason to.

The creature in question was suspected to be some type of extra-terrestrial, an invader to their planet. He didn’t need to question his orders, and he’d never had reason to up until he laid eyes on the creature. The moment it had looked up at him with eyes that seemed to contain galaxies, everything became complicated. Then it had saved him. That was the only reason they had managed to apprehend it, and now he was haunted by the low bellows of its pained cries.

The creature never spoke, but its voice rang through the minds of its captors. The other’s in charge of watching the creature found the sound to be soothing or funny, but he couldn’t help but feel a hollow pang in his guts as the underground facility was flooded with the creature’s cries for help.

He couldn’t understand what the sounds were at first, but the more time he spent focused on them, the more clearly he could hear it calling out for something, begging for its freedom. When they had found the creature it had been hiding among a pack of wolves, peacefully living out a life of serenity, and now it was being poked and prodded by the deft hands of his own people, all in the name of some strange advancement that made no sense to him no matter what argument they gave to convince him.

Tori was off duty when the storm struck, when the sirens blared so loud that he was woken from his drug induced sleep. A sharp pain throbbed behind his eyes as he slowly rose to his feet, mind instantly turning to the creature. Had it escaped? A part of him hoped that it had, but then a sickening feeling crossed through him as he thought of what means the other guards might use to contain the creature.

If it were in better shape, but the creature was kept on the brink of life and death to avoid such situations. Gripping his gun tightly, Tori rushed out of his room, an idea springing so suddenly into his mind that he wondered if it had been planted there.

He could get the creature out of here, he could rectify his mistake.

His heart tightened at the idea. If he had a chance to free it, then Tori already knew what he would do. He had been far too deeply influenced by its song and eaten by newfound guilt to choose any other option.

The sound of a struggling guard rang out from the main lab as he approached, and Tori hesitated before carefully peaking around the door frame. Two hulking figures near the shattered containment cell instantly turned towards him. An operation? No, they were wearing POW uniforms or what was left of them, not only that they were quite battered as well. So why were they here?

The female POW tightened her chokehold on a guard, and Tori watched as the man suddenly went limp. Raising his gun, he wasn’t so foolish to enter the room with the POW’s even if he was armed. Catching sight of the creature that he had been so concerned for held gently in the male POW’s arm, Tori felt his heart hitch. They had come to free it?

The sudden realization hit him like a bullet. They were here to do the job he hadn’t been able to. Even if he could have made it out with the creature, he couldn’t protect it after what he had done. Even with his mind made up, every ounce of his training fought against him as he lowered his gun and moved to the side.

“Go down this path, and you can reach an exit outside the camp.”

He wasn’t wearing his proper uniform at the moment, but they could likely tell what he was, so there was no reason for them to listen to his words, but he had to try.

The POW holding the creature over his shoulder straightened up and smiled broadly. It was a stupid grin that lacked the usual grit that he so often seen in the eyes of soldiers.

“You got it boss man.”

He winked suddenly, and Tori was so confused by the gesture that he barely noticed the woman glancing between them before a look of realization seemed to dawn on her.

“So no more killing?”

She seemed disappointed by that, but the male POW patted her shoulder gently.

“It’s okay Ember, boss man called the shot, you couldn’t have burned them with all this water anyway.”

It seemed to satisfy the woman who released her final victim and followed the man past Tori with a matching nod of recognition.

Standing for a moment in silence after they had left, Tori tried to make sense of what had just happened. Their behavior was far too strange, too irrational, but he supposed all that mattered was that the creature was safe. He would miss it’s presence, but if it would no longer have to cry in pain like that anymore, then He had done was required of him. As the song of its voice faded from his mind, Tori felt a sadness sink into his bones as he settled back onto his cot. He wouldn’t allow himself to be sad knowing that the creature’s cries had finally been quieted. With a strange peace that didn’t feel deserved, Tori fell back into a dreamless sleep for the first time since the cries had begun.