A Bit Old For This

Finnaly...

Normally, I wouldn't post something about my gaming, but I literally got over 3k words written because I forced myself to write something every time I died to this child...

It was a surprisingly effective method for circumventing my procrastination, but I think it is one I should use sparingly for my own sanity....

OC in three

Thanks for the tag, @renasdoodles !

Rules: Find three pictures that fit your OC! Remember to cite your sources and include image IDs to make your post more accessible to people with screen readers!

(Had to just draw my pictures because my phone decided it didn't want to cooperate with downloading images)

Kinda a botched execution, but I tried 🫠

This is for Billy, the snipper from the weird story I am working on.

Tagging: @kuebiko-writing , @davycoquette , @flurrysahin +open tag

(Just let me know if you want to be removed from the tags! Also, no pressure to use the prompt. )

The Little Things

@flashfictionfridayofficial

Um... who knows where this came from.... I'm tired and well the tired brain will make what the tired brain will make.

I hope you enjoy it!

He’d been gone for a few days, and at first, the silence had been nice. She’d enjoyed the silence in the beginning, but as the days dragged by, Lua noticed that the hearth lacked a familiar glow she’d had grown accustomed to. It surprised her how cold the house she’d lived in for so long felt with the absence of one thing. There was no food in the pantry, and the outdoor light had been left on even though the sun was shining high in the sky. Then the storm clouds had come on the fifth day, and with their arrival, Lua realized that among all of the things that were absent, she missed Aaron most of all.

The rain beat down, and lightning flashed across the night sky as Lua paced the dark halls. The dogs hadn’t returned that evening. It seemed that the light had finally died after burning for too many nights in a row. After calling for them over roaring thunder, she relented and spent a good hour trying to track them down in the rain.

Rain drenched her armor, weighing down her head and making the fir of her mask more cumbersome than usual. Following the fading traces, Lua hunted them down in irritated silence. When she finally returned with one of the dogs held firmly by the scruff of its neck, she was greeted by the cool glow of the lantern, burning just as brightly as it had almost a week ago. Without thinking, Lua released the dog and rushed to the house, flinging open the door to find Aaron standing there stunned, with two of the other dogs. He was drenched, and she could smell blood on him. It wasn’t right. Without thinking, she rushed forward and picked him up, spinning him around in unexpected excitement before pulling him close.

The tightness that had been welling up in her chest dissipated in a puff of smoke as Lua dragged the irritated human further into the house. She slowly pulled off his wet clothes as they went until finally reaching the living room where the empty hearth sat as cold as ever. It didn’t matter right now, though. Aaron was back, and soon, things would go back to the way that they should be. Wrapping them in a warm blanket, Lua held him there, soaking in the feeling of someone close once more.

“Did you have trouble while I was gone or something?”

He leaned back his head to look up at her, pressing his head against the fur of her hood.

“No trouble, it was just weird… Don’t go away for so long next time.”

He gave a small smile and lit the hearth with a flick of his wrist. The warm glow of the fire gently lulled Lua to sleep as she held Aaron close.

@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?

Desire Or Dispair

I would be much abliged if you could share a snippet of your character(s) experiencing either a moment of desire or despair.

Desires for anything from food to people and Dispair from betrayal to loss, I'm interested in how other people's characters express themselves.

Idk where this came from, but I figured it might be fun.

No pressure tagging: @renasdoodles @kuebiko-writing @wyked-ao3 @creatrackers ,

@somethingclevermahogony @laisley-writes @leahnardo-da-veggie +open tag

My own contribution below the break.

Warning for mentions of injury and medication administration.

Desire: Broken Script

Stepping forward onto the balcony with a glass of wine held lazily in his hand, Nihil examined the guests with a bored expression until his eyes landed on Alexia. The glass fell uncerimoniously from his hand as Nihil recognized the familiar robe that had somehow been fashioned into a dress.

As the glass shattered, Alexia looked up at him with a coy grin, batting her eyes in a playfully taunting gesture.

A smile played at the corner of his own lips as he considered her challenge. He'd never bothered to dip his toes in the field of romance before, but she was well on her way to changing his mind.

Despair: Blood Mage

Hati could tell that the injury on his neck was nothing to scoff at, that he might die here to a blasted Vampire after surviving all of thease years, but seeing Billy's arm being torn off so easily by the rampaging vampire made his blood run cold in a way he hadn't felt since he was burried under a mound of dirt watching his people being torn to pieces.

The hiss of pain that followed the creatures sudden retreat sent his brain into overdrive as the worst-case scenarios flooded into his terror stricken mind.

He couldn't lose his family again, not to the tech witches, and definitely not to some overgrown leech. Scrambling towards the snipper, he began babbling incoherently at the oozing injury until something cold peirced his neck, and he caught a quick glance of Owen before crumbling into Billy, panic still coursing through his veins.

Character Profile Tag: Billy

Thanks for the tag @creatrackers I had a lot of fun with this one. Sorry I'm so late getting it finished.

Full name: Billy, Shepard of the Blue Moon

Age: 4045 yrs

Gender: male

Species: Forest Guardian

Appearance: Standing at around 5'10 when fully upright, Billy is a mass of foliage and wood in the shape of a man, he appears to have a large beard made of ferns and wears a bone mask over the top of his face showing a pair of deep purple eyes.

Occupation: (Formerly) Shepard of the Blue Moon Valley. (Current) An initially reluctant member of a certain rogue squad of misfits.

Family: Forest guardian's are formed when a prior guardian is about to die or reaches their 4th millennia. In the first and much rarer case, when a forest guardian is about to die through unnatural means, they can split their core and send it into the ground for a 100 years to preserve the natural power. After the time elapses another forest guardian is formed from the core which has by this point re-fused. In Billy's case his predecessors' core did not fuze back and formed two separate Forest Guardian's. So he has one sibling named Jade, but they had their own paths and did not meet often after reaching adulthood. As for found family he has been adopted into the main squad by MA who isn't one to take no for an answer when it comes to strays.

Best friend: He gets along with most of the main squad fairly well (baring Ember), but he has a stronger connection to Hati since the mechanic was instrumental in making his more effective means of re-vitalizing nature. In turn he helps to keep Hati's unstable inventions from falling apart.

Pets: He has no pets and he prefers the company of plants.

Describe their room: (Former) A thick forest with lush foliage and a balanced echo system, it was his pride and joy. (Current) The back of a 6 passenger roofless (Stollen) military vehicle that is one bump away from falling to pieces, the one perk being a flood light that he can use to help get some 'sun' on the smog covered battlefields.

Items in their bag/purse: Assorted seeds and a copy of a half burned political thriller that he picked up somewhere along the road.

Hobbies: horticulture, reading, and hunting down particularly noteworthy offenders to the natural order.

Favorite sport: shooting

Abilities/talents/powers: As a forest guardian he has the ability to accelerate the natural progression and evolution of plants and animals. He is also able to levi an amount of control over natural things even partially extending to the human body unlike most of his species that mainly have this power over plants or animals. He is a skilled marksmen, and amateur engineer thanks to his friendship with Hati.

Relationships: He isn't and has not been in a romantic relationship before. As a Forest Guardian he doesn't particularly have any dive for connection. He does enjoy his friendships with most of the squad more than he had expected he would, but never felt the need to pursue anything further.

Fears: burning alive, watching his forests burn, fire, not being a worthy predecessor, and his squad dying unnaturally.

Faults: He is Stubborn, and doesn't tell people about his problems usually leading to avoidable consequences.

Good points: He is loyal and considerate.

What they want more than anything else: To re-establish the forests that were devastated and to watch over his squad so that they can live full and happy lives (Even Ember).

No pressure tagging:

@renasdoodles @kuebiko-writing @davycoquette ,

@wyked-ao3 @somethingclevermahogony @boomiburst @lyutenw ,

+Open Tag

Questions to copy:

Full name: Age: Gender: Species: Appearance: Occupation: Family: Best friend: Pets: Describe their room: Items in their bag/purse: Hobbies: Favourite sport: Abilities/talents/powers: Relationships: Fears: Faults: Good points: What they want more than anything else:

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.

Prompt from @flashfictionfridayofficial

Well, I haven’t touched this story in years, but it was fun to get back to.

Summary: In the universe of a certain author who likes switching stories, there was born a character who was sickly. His entire purpose was to be one of the faceless beings that was saved by a hero’s benevolence. Not even his own family noticed him outside of the story, and he lived most of his early miserable life trying to figure out what was going on. One day he finds a crack in the universe left by conflicting story ideas, peering inside he learns that he is part of a fictional world and decides to take advantage of the illogical nature of things to propel his life forward.

Abandoned

Nihil stretched out a clawed hand and did his best interpretation of a yawn.

It was early morning and he had work to get to before the horrid sun rose and decided once more that he was to have an unlucky day. Damn author favoring the day time so much, if it weren’t for the implications of working at night, and the stories that went along with it, he would have been turned into a night owl.

No, the pre-dawn mornings were special in that none of the little pest’s were out and about causing mischief yet. They were all sleeping or training their fingers to the bone. Sure it might be impressive the diligence that they had, but even covered in sweat and bleeding they would become stronger than any being had the right to with three times their training, no matter how sloppy their technique.

Stepping down to the kitchen, Nihil began preparing something simple to eat when he heard the sound of a sword swinging powerfully outside the window. Raising his attention he mimicked a frown, the knight was no longer bond by the author’s methods yet still she trained like this, there were better ways, ways that both of them were quite familiar with at this point. Still it showed a dedication that he supposed was admirable. Changing his plans, Nihil began mixing up some hot cake batter and quickly flipped the dial igniting the stove top.

He continued to absently watch her training as he cooked until her expression suddenly shifted turning to him. He’d finally been caught. It sent a trill of excitement through him as he reveled in the feeling of being recognized in something so simple as the plain clothes he was wearing.

“Morning Nihil, did you sleep well?”

A smile bloomed on her face as the knight stepped through the open door to the kitchen. To even remember his name… He mimicked a smile back at her and raised a pile of hot cakes towards her direction.

“Seems there was another break in at Facility B, but other than that I slept fairly well. Tell me you at least let yourself get some sleep?”

She had the bad habit of using all the tricks for the wrong reasons, and while Nihil was familiar with the desire to improve his understanding of this messed up world no matter the cost to his health, there was just no true replacement for sleep long term.

The knight shrugged and accepted the hotcakes adding on some berries and syrup for good measure. She skipped the butter again, but he didn’t blame her, after the recent shortages he barely used any on his own breakfast.

Deactivating the stove, he prepared his own hot cakes and quickly followed her lead to the table where they both ate in happy silence.

Looking at his companion from time to time with a mimicked grin, Nihil didn’t feel as bad about the years of research that had been burnt to ash during the night. With all the knowledge and power he’d gained over the years, Nihil couldn’t have wished for such a simple thing as eating breakfast with someone he was comfortable around until he’d met the Knight. It brought him some comfort that at least not everything that that blasted author mucked up was completely rotten.

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Write between 100-1000 words. It can be any genre, in any text format and 18+ is fine by us, just please tag accordingly.

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[#FFF 263 In The Meadows]

This prompt has been brought to you by someone who wishes to remain anonymous, thank you so much! What can we find lurking in the meadows? Perhaps it's somewhere that was and is no more? Are their flowers? Have they all but died? Is it a picnic? Or dandelions blowing in the wind? Whatever it is don't let it escape; write!

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The Collective <3

It’s all in the eyes 

Thank you for the prompt @flashfictionfridayofficial

No warnings

Word Count: 608

It was the final day of the grand celebration and Rue was late. Tapping his finger against the table, Kaliyah scanned the crowd again. It wasn’t like her to be this late. Normally it wouldn’t have been of much concern to him, but he had been itching to discuss the latest reports with her since they had come in with the afternoon meal. He’d managed to intercept most of the interesting tidbits today, but the information would only be good for so long. Once the council got wind of it, their advantage would be wasted, and he could already tell that one report would be of particular interest to many at the event. Rue’s keen sense of their cohabitants was vital to finding the best buyer, and they were running out of time.  

A crack of thunder suddenly split the sky, startling the attendants and drawing their attention. Vibrant blues and greens filled the night air overhead, as a flurry of water droplets began to cascade towards them, suspending just above the heads of the guests. Kaliyah’s hand relaxed on the hilt of his blade as recognition dawned on him. Of course it would be him. Scowling Kaliyah continued to silently scan the crowd for any devilry as the other attendants watched small constructs form from the water droplets with complete devotion. Kaliyah even found himself glancing at the intricate constructs dancing across the sky in an elaborate dance despite his irritation. 

As the performance was reaching its height of action, a great serpent of water rose up consuming the constructs, rolling itself into a sphere that quickly shrunk into a solid form and landed at the feet of the council, refined into a shining pearl of the sea. The crowd erupted into applause as one of the council servants rushed forward to present the stone to the council head, who inspected it with greedy eyes.

The disrespectful undertone of the performance and its conclusion seemed to have been ignored by the participants,  who seemed content with the grandeur of the performance, but Kaliyah shuddered to think what such a statement could mean. That man didn’t make such boisterous plays mindlessly. Looking towards the door, Kaliyah watched Lan silently step into the courtyard, towering over everyone as usual, in a very unusually flashy dress. The crooked smile plastered on his face painted him as the picture of geniality, but Kaliyah didn’t miss the flash of darkness that passed through his eyes as he bowed to the council. When the noise from the crowd finally died down as they returned to their revelry, an air of excitement still lingered from the performance. Lan never disappointed. 

Growing uneasy at his unexpected appearance, Kaliyah made ready to sneak away from the party, but as he was approaching the exit he caught sight of Rue. She looked beautiful, adorned in a simple dress and practically glowing as she quietly offered Lan a beverage. Kaliyah almost reached out to her, but having no desire to intrude, he swallowed his pride, turning to leave. If she had chosen Lan then he would respect her decision. 

‘Come now Capitan, don’t keep Mrs. Rue waiting.’

Turning suddenly Kaliyah caught sight of a small water construct in the shape of a snake that seemed to smile at him mischievously before dissipating.Turning towards Lan, half fuming, he caught Rue’s gaze and stood in shock as a light blush spread over her cheeks. Had they not come together? Catching Lan’s expression, Kaliyah felt his ears burn slightly at the hint of mirth filling his cold eyes. The old snake had definitely planned this.