A Month of Prompts

[RaeTheRaven]

This is a cool idea. I used to love writing for daily prompts. I don't think I'll go through all of them, but I'll give some of them a shot. 

[Lord Gregorio he/him]

Do it. I enjoy seeing everyone's story styles. It's fun as well.

[RaeTheRaven]

10/1/2023 Sounds From The Forest

Spoiler

Silence weighs heavy in the forest. thought Hope as she watched the sunlight dapple through the canopy. The memories a forest holds must be an awesome burden. Perhaps that's why she always fills herself with so many small sounds. The scurrying of tiny feet, the rustle of leaves, the keen whistling of the wind. They're all a distraction. 

The forest had always talked to Hope, sometimes whispering secrets, sometimes bellowing her fury. Hope knew all the forest's moods and none of them frightened her. Or so she'd thought. But lately... lately it was all silence. Such heavy silence. Hope found she was afraid. 

"Talk to me." she said into the silence. The forest said nothing.

"TALK TO ME!" she bellowed, trying to drown the silence with her voice. The forest said nothing still.

"Talk to me..." she pleaded in a whisper. Hope bowed her head, her ears ringing.

Silence weighed heavy in the forest.  

 

[Little_Dagger she/her]

Alright, I am going to cheat slightly for this one, because I have already written something that fits perfectly for the promt a while ago. It is one of the first chapters from a Stormlight Archives fanfic I wrote a month ago, so STORMLIGHT SPOILERS!!! It takes place right after the Everstorm, so between the second and third books.

I would appreciate both feedback on this chapter, and the entire story (posted here) if you do not mind a longer read  There is also a pdf version available there.

1/18/23 Plant

Spoiler

The morning of the meeting with the city ardents, Juliyah woke up with the first ray of sunlight. She always did, the last few years. She could feel the cells in her body opening up to the warmth, like the dark petals of the truthberry plant perched on a tall stack of books nearby. The gentle flower looked out of place in the cold stone room of blue strata and unnatural silence. You and I both will have to grow some hard bark to adapt here, she thought to the little plant. 

The city lord's mansion was crawling with people. They had to repurpose every corner in the large castle-like building to accommodate so many people but reserved an entire wing for her and her kind. The fact that people would rather sleep on top of each other than sharing a room with someone like her was regrettable but, in current circumstances, convenient. She decided to focus on that second part.

There was no door in her room, just a long white sheet that she had hung in the doorway to play the role of one. The fabric granted some privacy but it did little to muffle the sounds of the industrious shuffling in the corridors. People were cleaning, getting water from the well or cooking the morning meal. Juliyah felt a pang of nostalgia but shooed it away like an irksome cremling. No use ruminating. Those leaves have fallen, withered, and scattered in the winds long ago.

She went through a series of morning stretches, got dressed and made her way down to one of the balconies a level below her bedroom window. The center of the terrace was covered with a layer of soil that the gardeners had spread an evening before. Juliyah slipped out of her shoes and stepped barefoot on the soft fragrant ground. Oh, how she loved that smell! Craved it the same way others enjoyed the smell of freshly baked bread or a sizzling steak. Perhaps even more so, considering how special a treat good soil was: emerald soulcasters had to regularly order it from Shinovar and make sure it contained all the necessary salts.

Juliyah stood on the terrace looking at the shambles of the city, which looked wistfully poetic in the mornings but painfully sad otherwise, until she felt that she got just enough nutrients and sunlight to get her through the day. It was hard to tell how long the ardents’ meeting would take, so she had to soulcast her daily portion of grain and register it with the new quartermaster beforehand. She wiggled her toes in the soil for the last time, walked back inside, and joined her fellows in the harvest room.

It was an unusual sight. The large elongated space was filled with clay, crem and sand collected and left here overnight. To her surprise, a good portion of it was already transformed into tallew grain. It seemed that she was not the only one who had started the day early.

“Good morning, Aillia,” Juliyah said to the piles of dirt. “I didn’t realize you are on duty today. Should I help you with tallew or start the lavis rations?”

The sound of heavy footsteps followed and a short woman with curly hair emerged from behind one of the piles. Aillia did not look like other emerald soulcasters. Like Juliyah’s, her hair was streaked with dark green vines and an occasional leaf. Her eyes were also bright green but had a thick gray ring at the edges of the irises. She was one of the rare soulcaters who could master two essences to the necessary degree of control. Her skill with topaz soulcasting added heavy solidity to her tiny figure. Stone bones decreased one’s agility, but certainly granted a significant presence in a room.

Aillia glanced over the raw material in the chamber and pointed to a mound of big rocks by the door, “Those would do best for lavis, and I think there are just enough to fulfill the quartermaster’s request. Simin and I would take care of the tallew today”.

“I can soulcast gravel to lavis as well,” Juliyah said, “It takes a little more stormlight but I think lavis is worth the effort. People enjoy it so much more”.

Aliya looked at her and sighed, “Child, you have a new leaf in your hair. If it was up to me, I would have taken the storming device away from you and given it to someone else months ago. The least I can do is have you soulcast simpler things”.

A new leaf? Juliyah thought as she absently raised a hand to probe her hair. Yes, there it was - the third one this month. She was transforming so quickly now. Faster than any of the others in the order. She tugged on the sleeve of her free hand to make sure Aillia couldn’t see her wrist lined with a mixture of blue and green veins.

“It is just another leaf,” she said out loud. “You have like a dozen of those”.

“And I have been soulcasting a decade longer than you”.

“Which means I will stick around at least that much longer to annoy you,” Juliya said and smiled. She was getting good at hiding behind a smile.

Aillia shook her head but returned to work, disappearing behind her own pile of dirt. Juliya headed to the mound of rocks, checking absently that the emeralds on the back of her hand had enough stormlight. Despite what the fabrial was doing to her, she would never give it up willingly. Like an old tree, it had roots so deep into the fiber of her soul, that pulling it out would take a chunk of soil with it.

Juliyah picked up the first stone and slipped into another world, where instead of a gray stone she held a black glassy bead in her hand.

“I need you to become a lavis ear,” she told the tiny bead, and Stem obligingly translated her Intent.

The stone, as they often did, pretended to be deaf. Juliyah poured stormlight into it and visualized the lavis ear, yellow, fresh, and juicy. The stone surrendered to her will and after putting the lavis ear aside, she picked up a small gray one next. This one did not pretend to be deaf at all. In fact, it almost deafened her.

“I don’t want to be yellow and squishy,” the stone screeched loudly. It resisted her prodding and sounded angry and abashed.

Juliyah blinked in amusement. That was new. Over the years she heard “I am a stone”, “No, I am a stone” or even “Thank you, but I am a stone” in response to her commands. Rocks were not particularly creative. Well, better than sticks… but that was a low plank to leap.

“Yellow is a beautiful color,” she found herself mumbling. “Like a gloryspren or a wildflower in bloom”.

“Or axehound’s piss,” the stone parried.

Juliyah bit off her next encouragement.

“What?” the stone continued, interpreting her silence as a nudge for an explanation. “Do you know how often one gets pissed at as a stone? Or thrown into something? Or stepped upon? It is incredibly hard to keep any semblance of dignity if you are a stone of my size. Although I suppose boulders don’t do much better. They always end up either broken into pieces by your kind or pushed around by the highstorms until stuck in one gutter or another”.

“That’s unfortunate indeed,” sympathized Juliyah, not entirely sure how to react. “Wouldn’t it be wonderful to stop being a stone and avoid such a miserable fate? Become something new? Something people enjoy and value?”.

“Right until they eat it? I can see your Intent, young lady. No, no, thank you very much.” The stone puffed a little and then added, “There is nothing worse than turning into something as silly as a plant!”.

“There is nothing wrong with being a plant!” Juliyah said, feeling strangely offended. She was always grateful to be an emerald soulcaster as opposed to, well… topaz one, like Aliyah. Turning into stone seemed morbid to her.

The stone hummed in amusement and then added half-apologetically, “I am sorry, it was not a kind thing to say to you. I truly have a heart of stone sometimes”.

“I suppose you can be forgiven for that,” Juliyah said. “Why do you dislike plants so much?”

“I am not sure it would be proper of me to justify that to someone who is half a vinebud herself”.

Juliyah blushed but did her best to ignore the jab. “Quite the opposite. I am sure your thoughts would be very helpful. As you have wisely noticed, my duties as an ardent slowly transform my body into one of the soulcasting essences. If you can prove that being a stone is much preferable to being a plant, perhaps I can change the essence of my focus and turn to stone soulcasting instead.”

Anything to keep you talking, Juliyah thought to herself, fumbling in her pocket for a pen and notebook. Encountering a soul of a stone so developed was extraordinary and would make a sensation among her order. Storms, it could completely transform their understanding of inanimate souls.

“Alright”, the stone agreed, eager. “If you require counsel, I will of course provide it. In the past, stones often provided advice to mortals in need”.

“Then let’s honor this famous tradition,” she said, hoping it couldn’t hear the amusement in her voice. It didn’t.

“First,” the stone proclaimed, “Plants are rooted in one place. The poor creatures have to spend their entire life staring at exactly the same view. Can you imagine the boredom? That’s why going crazy is synonymous with going nuts or bananas or some other plant nonsense!”

“Second, they don’t have time for any deep thoughts of philosophical nature because they constantly have to worry about getting enough water, sunlight, or fertilizer. Despite what most believe, hunger makes very poor thinkers! Being constantly preoccupied with your own wellbeing leads to a very narrow and narcissistic view of life”.

“Third, they are fragile and can be destroyed by literally everything. If it is too hot, or cold, or dry, or humid, or…”

The list of reasons continued. On and on and on.

 

Edited January 18, 2023 by Yuliya

[Medium he/they]

Todays prompt:

Stars Keep Secrets

[Lord Gregorio he/him]

The prompts got a little mixed up (For me at least) so I'm just gonna say Plant is my 1/18 as well.

1/18/23 - Plant

Spoiler

"So...what? Because your dad disappeared and we saw a few rabid wolves you think a fantasy demon-undead person is going to become real? There's got to be some explanation for those monstrous wolves," said Jared. He gave Mark a bowl of soup. Mark ate carefully. It must have been hard to eat. Had his lips been cut?

"How else would wolves like that have be possible. Their fur was terrible. The skin had holes in it. What else would explain it?"

"I don't know, maybe they got in a fight with each other," Jared rolled his eyes, "Come on Mark. There's no such things as fairies and necromancers."

"Maybe not, but something similar could be out there. Some mad scientist bringing wolves back to life."

"Wolves aren't that aggressive, not normally. Maybe they have a parasite. Like moose," Jared sat for a moment as Mark ate his soup. Mark hunched over the bowl and avoided looking at Jared. What scientist would want to raise wolves from the dead? What use could it have? Would it be like in the books where they wanted to some one of their loved ones? Some idiotic mad scientist experimenting. Jared peeked out the front door. It was dark outside. Jared shivered. There better not be any more wolves out there.

"Got anymore of that soup?" asked Mark. Jared went back to the stove, where they were able to boil soup on top. He filled another bowl and traded Mark for his empty one. 

"So what were you planning on doing? Looking for your dad?" Jared sat.

"Maybe. I don't know. I saw the opportunity to build a town up here, and decided I might as well."

"Why couldn't you have just waited?"

"They're building a road up to here. So there's a path for the construction machines. They wanted some log cabins up here as soon as possible. There's a rich dude looking for something up here. I don't understand it all, but here we are. I'd heard about animals going nuts, but I hadn't seen any of them till now."

"Right. So you decided you wanted the beautiful experience of checking these animals out," Jared smirked.

Mark sighed, "It sounds crazy. I thought I could impress some school with some scientific discovery. Get an easy in."

"By finding some rabid, beat up wolves?"

"Sure, and whatever's making them rabid," Mark set down his bowl and lay his head down, turning away from Jared, "I'm going to sleep awhile."

Jared stood and moved to the cupboard where he took out his bow and set it near Mark. Might as well. He took Mark's quiver and set it next to the bow. Jared grabbed the blanket from his sleeping bag and rolled it out next to Mark. It only took him fifteen minutes to fall asleep.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

It took a couple days for Mark to recover enough to stand. Jared spent the time setting traps and chopping wood. Jared wasn't going to take the risk of hunting for hours. So he only spent thirty minutes to an hour outside at a time. He'd inspected the wolves' bodies, taken a sample for Mark. One night the bodies disappeared. It hadn't snowed that night. Something had eaten them. There was probably another wolf out there. Or a hundred raccoons. What else would have eaten that many wolves? Birds maybe.

Mark had started breaking branches off trees and trying to make arrows from them. He didn't have any tips for them. The best he could do was carve the tips into points. He'd catch a couple pheasants every now and then for fletchings. He was trash at making arrows for now, hopefully he could learn. He found an box of helpful books for survivalists. There was an herbalist book and he found some that would help Mark with his pain. 

Jared couldn't tell if it helped Mark any, but it kept him busy while Mark tried to move around the cabin. Mark occasionally tried his hand on the arrows. Or watched when Jared was working on them. Mark was a quick learner, but less of an outdoors man than Jared. He was more interested in science and things.

Jared gave up after a few days on continuing to build the cabin. There was too much snow anyway. He had too much to do. Helping Mark, hunting, and gathering supplies took too much time. He didn't want to spend hours outside either. He was terrified that something would come to kill him.

Winter better pass soon.

[Medium he/they]

1/19/23

Stars Keep Secrets

Spoiler

She breathed in deeply, looking up at the stars, which shone crisper than ever in the cold mountain air.

"Did you know that stars keep secrets?" She asked, not tearing her eyes away from the infinite.

I looked up at the stars as well. The Milky Way was arching above us, beautifully marbled with the vast, sparkling beauty of space.

"No," I said, "But I know they know our secrets."

"That's deep," She muttered, and I chuckled. "But the secrets of the stars are much more vast than our little secrets."

I nodded, contemplating. "Yeah," I said, "I wonder, are their secrets about us, or about themselves?"

"I think both," She said, rolling onto her side to look at me, "I think they keep our secrets for us, next to the ones they keep about themselves. I think that we keep some of their secrets next to our own."

I looked at her, then scooted closer.

"Do you trust the stars to keep a secret?" I whispered.

"Yeah," She replied, "Do I get to know the secret?"

I smiled, rolling onto my side as well. "You are the secret."

I leaned in and kissed her, and I trusted the stars to keep our secret.

 

[Lord Gregorio he/him]

1/19/23 - Stars Keep Secrets

I didn't want to struggle to reach for something for my story, it goes along with my story, just not for the current protags. (I got a bit of inspiration from Calano's SU.)

Spoiler

ET #426

*Static*

"Experimental Trial 426."

"I attempted to bond the subject with a standard test procedure and it resulted in a chemical fizz. I think I'm getting somewhere with this. This is the first result since ET #341."

"The subject has grown strange growths around it in my containing room. Unknown plants. Colors we've never seen before on plants." 

"Not that we've seen any plants like these."

"I'll put the foliage information in the info file, but not much interesting has happened today aside from the ET."

*Click

Spoiler

VR Day 1503

"Day 1503"

"The snow started falling today. Winter's coming fast and results aren't. I don't know how long the subject will last in the cold. It isn't used to this place."

"Things are going to change around here. I'll find out what is going on, but for today, I need to chop some wood."

"ET 1674 went well, but I'm still far behind. As Edison said, 'The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time.'

*Click

(The voice of these recordings is an old man.) (VR stands for Vlog record)

Edited January 25, 2023 by Gregorio

[Little_Dagger she/her]

@CalanoCorvus Yay, we got some romance in the thread! Very cute

@Gregorio Interesting idea with the recordings, immediately increases the level of curiosity about what is going on. 

Here is mine for today: I think I am getting better at keeping things short, haha

1/19/23 - Stars Keep Secrets

Spoiler

She lived alone. She lived far away. She lived because dying would inconvenience those who will have to collect her body from this color-bleached land. 

She didn’t mind living a little longer. For the unknown ‘them’ and for herself. Here, where the earth, the air, and even the distant stars were frozen in eternal silence, the knot of burning pain in her heart got slowly - so, so slowly - covered with a thick layer of hoarfrost too. The pain still burned through the icicles sometimes, but on most days… on most days she could now breathe without searing her lungs on that ball of fire. 

That flame in her chest was fed by guilt for so many centuries, guilt as ancient and primal as the surrounding frost. Guilt so strong, it outlived her memory, because the truth was, after all this time, she did not remember why she was sent here, what she had done. 

Oh, she remembered it was terrible. She remembered how she had approved, how she had begged for her own imprisonment. But now, she also made sure to remember how long she had suffered. How much she had paid for her crime. How much she had given.

And so, in a place, where the earth, the air, and even the distant stars were frozen in eternal silence, she didn’t mind living a little longer. For herself.

It was a secret she would not admit, would not share with another.

But she lived alone. And she lived far away. So she told her secret to the stars and hoped they would keep it.

 

Edited January 20, 2023 by Yuliya

[Wittles he/him]

1/19/2023

Stars have secrets

Spoiler

Eris sprinted through the forest, clutching something in his fist. The trees blocked his view of the sky, and blocked the sky's view of him. His breathing became heavy and labored, but he could not stop. Branches and leaves snapped underneath his feet as he ran. 

He saw a clearing ahead of him and ran harder in that direction. As he ran, another set of footsteps sounded behind him. Eris was nearly to the clearing, but his foot caught on a root growing out of the ground, he stumbled. The thing behind him took this opportunity to strike. Eris dodged out of the way just in the nick of time. Eris barely regained his footing and nearly fell again, which would have sealed his fate, but the stars looked kindly upon him tonight.

Eris stopped in the middle of the clearing. He turned expecting it to be right behind him, but it had stopped at the edge of the clearing. The pale moonlight cast a dim glow on it, to his surprise, Eris saw a man standing there. The clothes he wore were tattered, and there was an evil glint in his eyes. 

Eris stood there in the middle of the clearing. Fear showed in his voice and face as he said, "Who are you? Why do you want this so bad!" He held out what he had held clenched in his fist. It was an amulet, intricate patterns swirled around the centerpiece which was a dark blue gem.

The man gave an almost inhuman growl, "You found that in my forest, it is rightfully mine."

Eris looked relieved at the thought that he might be able to come out of this situation after all. "I'm sorry, I was sent to retrieve it, I'll just give it back."

The man looked skeptical, and he didn't look like he had completely given up on the idea of killing Eris. "Who sent you? Don't think of lying, I'll kill you in an instant if you dare lie to me."

Fear crept back into Eris' features, "I-it was a man who called himself Vardel. I swear, I don't know anything else."

The man's expression darkened, he pulled out a dagger at the mere mention of the name. Before Eris could react, he had dashed forward, letting out a bloodcurdling scream of fury and plunged the dagger into Eris' stomach. "That man," He managed to speak through his rage, "Has caused me no end of suffering. You would have been better off lying boy." At the last word he spat on his face and shoved him to the ground, amulet in hand. He stalked away, leaving a trail in the tall grass.

Eris lay on the ground, blood staining the grass beneath him. He coughed up a few drops of blood. His eyes stared at the stars above, they seemed to shine brighter as he stared at them. He knew he was dying, he could feel the life draining out of him. He began to whisper what he knew were to be his last words. He spoke them to the stars.

"You see me, when I am gone and forgotten, will you remember me? Will you keep my secret with you?" At the last sentence, his breath left him. His eyes gazed sightlessly into the stars forevermore. The stars held his secret, and his memory.

This one was kind of hard for me to do, I hope you guys like it though!  

Feel free to give any critiques.

[The Wandering Wizard he/him]

Here's another one world prompt! Because I have no time

Insanity

[InfiniteInsanity she/her]

4 minutes ago, The Wandering Wizard said:

Here's another one world prompt! Because I have no time

Insanity

Ha! I can to this one.

Spoiler

Once upon a time there was a girl who had no caffeine tolerance. At a show choir competition she drank a Mountain Dew forgetting that it had caffeine in it. All of her friends freaked out because they knew that she most definitely did not have a caffeine tolerance even though they had never seen her have any caffeine. It was too late for them to stop her though. She was way high on caffeine and it made her even more insane than normal. She ran around wild at a random school stealing peoples things, getting lost, and somehow managing to run way faster than everyone else. Something she is still proud of to this day, cause she was wearing heels.

True story.

[Medium he/they]

Ohhhh i'm gonna write something so diabolically powerful and sad and cruel >:)

oh and before i begin;

@InfiniteInsanity are you sure you're not just a double of my girlfriend? this is just- that is something she has probably done.

anyways.

1/20/23

Insanity

Spoiler

If you've never heard the screams,

If you've never heard the cries of the living damned,

Then you've never felt true sympathy,

You've never felt true hopelessness, leaking out their mouths.

Insanity isn't a just the term itself.

Insanity isn't just losing one's sanity.

It's losing oneself.

It's losing you.

Insanity is losing all emotions, all love.

Insanity is losing everything you thought you were, everything you thought you felt.

Being there to hear the existentially dreadful screams and cries of those burdened with this condition,

Is awful.

I pray you never hear it.

 

[The Wandering Wizard he/him]

1 minute ago, CalanoCorvus said:

Ohhhh i'm gonna write something so diabolically powerful and sad and cruel >:)

 

You're welcome!

[InfiniteInsanity she/her]

2 hours ago, CalanoCorvus said:

@InfiniteInsanity are you sure you're not just a double of my girlfriend?

I wish I knew her irl. Because I far as I can tell she has so much chaotic energy! And those are the best people to be around.

[Medium he/they]

3 minutes ago, InfiniteInsanity said:

I wish I knew her irl. Because I far as I can tell she has so much chaotic energy! And those are the best people to be around.

yessss bro why do you think i love her :DD

[Lord Gregorio he/him]

1/20/23 - Insanity

Spoiler

ET #2

*Panting breath*

"Experimental...Trial 2."

*Pause and more breathing*

"Subject infected Dr. Carsen. I don't know what went wrong, but she began scraping her skin off. After I'd stopped her from hurting herself, she began screaming. Her bonds seem to be holding her for now."

"Her mouth has begun frothing. I didn't recognize her anymore. I...I don't know what to do."

"She was integral to our research. There's got to be a way to help her."

"I tried some basic healing drugs on her. Antibiotics and such. It hasn't seemed to do much. I was able to get her to sleep with melatonin."

"Day one of finding a cure for Dr. Carsen."

Short one for today, but I didn't want to try to shove Insanity into Jared and Mark's thing. I ain't doin' Mark like that , yet.

[Edema Rue she/her]

Oooh more prompts showed up while I was gone!!! I don’t have time to write for all of them, so naturally I’m going to combine them all.

Insanity, plants, stars have secrets:

Spoiler

 Aella smiled in satisfaction as she walked into the room. It wasn’t a normal room, at least, not by your definition of normal. (Unless, of course, you consider living inside a giant tree normal, in which case you may need to reconsider your life’s choices). To her, it was home. She was surprised to see a young man in a cloak inside, though not terribly frightened. She greeted Une, Doss, and Trey before turning to him. “And who might you be?”

He looked at her curiously. “I’m Haiw, from the University? I sent a message saying I was coming…”

She rounded on Une. “Why didn’t you tell me he was here?” The head, of course, didn’t answer. Aella sighed and shook her head. “I’m terribly sorry. Une does all my mail. He’s supposed to tell me about things like this.” She gave the disembodied head a significant look. 

Haiw, looking bored, cleared his throat and said, “Right. Will you stop faking?”

Aella looked at him, confused. “Faking?”

Haiw rolled his eyes. “Look, Star, I’m here to settle a debate on whether you’re feigning insanity. I’ll read your mind, and then we’ll know for good.”

Aella froze. Mimicking his tone, she said. “Look, human. I wouldn’t feign insanity, and I will not allow you into my mind.”

He gave her a flat look. “So you’re telling me you think these heads are living humans? Your friends?” Condescension dripped from his tone, so tangible Aella felt she could eat it.

She closed her eyes and took a breath, then another. When she opened them again, her eyes were a brilliant silver. They glowed, and Haiw could see the power that this woman could harness. His own telepathy suddenly seemed like child’s play in comparison. I am no pretender, Aella said into his mind. Or at least, not the way you think. I can hide myself by being something innocent, something…naive. 

Haiw scoffed. “You haven’t been acting naive.”

“No?” Aella asked. “Look in my mind, mortal. Look, and see the secrets a star can hide.”

Hesitant, Haiw looked. Or tried to. Her mind was complicated, nothing like he’d ever seen before. And then it hit him. Anguish, raw and real. It burned and froze. It was cold as ice and yet hotter than magma, all at once. Looking into her eyes, Haiw saw the power again, but now he saw the insanity too. Stars were immortals, people who channeled the power of the real stars, in the sky. They could do incredible things with it. He’d seen them before, seen their incredible feats, but now…this was different. Though human in form, this creature in front of him was anything but that. She was older, more primal. Such power! How could he have accused her of lying? He emerged from her mind, gasping. 

Her mouth twisted into a dark smirk. “You see now, do you not? I can force it down. I can keep it at bay, and the world is safer for it.” Haiw nodded inarticulately, glancing at the heads. Aella followed his gaze. “Oh, I kill the odd person now and then. It’s a small sacrifice. No one bothers me, and your planet, your universe, it lives on.”

Haiw finally got a sound out. “You’re insane,” he croaked.

She laughed. “Finally figured it out, have you?” She leaned forward, and he felt himself trapped in her gaze. Oh, her eyes. They glowed silver. It was impossible not to feel dwarfed. “Yes, I’m insane.” She grinned, showing teeth that looked vaguely pointed. “And one day, I’ll lose control. And do you know what happens then?” She started to cackle, and her hair began to glow nearly as brightly as her eyes. “That’s when your planet is gone.” She snapped her finger, and a nearby book burst into flames.  Haiw shied back. What did he say to that? Then Aella closed her eyes, and breathed in deeply. When she opened her eyes, they were a dull gray. 

She smiled, looking so young and innocent he wondered if he’d imagined the whole thing. “I’ve always thought I’d be a good actress,” she said, giggling. Actually giggling! Then she frowned. “Now, I’m sorry about this, but you see, I want you to be my friend.”

“Your—your friend?” Haiw asked, wondering how he’d gotten into this. He shouldn’t have made such a dumb bet.

“Of course!” She said, smiling broadly. Then a dagger was at his throat. “Thanks for coming! We’ve been getting a little lonely here.” She winked in a way that could almost be called flirtatious. “I’ll call you Kuat.”

That was fun. 

[Wittles he/him]

I thought it would be fun to come up with a prompt so here it is

Depth of the sea

 

[The cheeseman Sola Scriptora]

Depth of the sea.

Spoiler

What do men fear?

That question has often been a part of life; knowing what permeates the minds of humanity with raw, primal terror. Fear is something that all feel, some more some less. Some things feared are mundane, some things feared truly are terrifying.

I fear one of those things.

The sea.

As a sailor by trade, it makes one wonder why I live and work on the very thing that terrifies me. But it's not the sea itself, but rather it's enormity. The ship I just left on operates on the Haal'iyian Coast, a few leagues south of the city of Amondë. So usually, I can see land. Recently, our captain took us way, way east, where there is no land for leagues upon leagues. That was the first time I had been in a bluewater sea, as the older sailors call it.

Light above and flames below, that was. . . horrifying. When the coast left our sight, I realized that if we started to sink, no help would come. There would be no one to save us.

I became sea-sick for the first time in my life, expunging everything I had eaten in the past day.

For at that moment I knew, there was nothing between my life and the watery depths of the sea save for a few layers of oak. Nothing between me and choking on the very thing that gives us life but some bolted together planks.

We didn't sink, but after that, I singed onto a fishing vessel that harvested the waters between the island-nation of Thalann and the Neldoan remnant on the Haal'iyian coast.

Never again will I leave sight of land, but never shall I leave the sea I love so.

 

Edited January 22, 2023 by phillycheesesteak
Fixed some errors

[The cheeseman Sola Scriptora]

Hm. I think I'll do one of the earlier prompts.

Stars Have Secrets.

Spoiler

Daedalus 3 to ICRF Jupiter, final approach for docking, Daedalus 3 to ICRF Jupiter. How copy, starship Jupiter? Over.

The radio crackled into Li's headset as he slurped on some ramen. Swallowing, he flicked the switch to unmute his mic. "ICRF Jupiter to starship Daedalus 3, reading you loud and clear Daedalus. Over." Well, the clear part was a bit subjective. Li had never thought a static-filed mumble was clear.

Roger that, Jupiter. Beginning dock sequence in T-minus thirty seconds. Over.

Li rolled his eyes at the monitor. Fleet protocol required at minimum a one-minute warning before docking was initiated, but scientists never seemed to care for procedure unless it was directly related to a project or some other science-y thing. "Copy, Daedalus. Switching your frequency to bay control. Fleet coordination over and out." He flicked his mic off again, then picked his cup of ramen up from where it sat next to his equipment.

*  *  *

"Doctor Hunt, will you please sit still?" Elaine sat at the desk, her hands folded atop her field notes.

Doctor Nathan Hunt, PhD, paced back and forth in the small lab, his chin pointed down. "How can you sit still at a time like this? Our first sign of extraterrestrial life and you just want to sit there and look over your notes again. For the fifth time."

"Third."

"Fifth, I've been counting." Hunt stopped pacing long enough to look Elaine in the eyes. "Dear, do you realize the significance of our discovery?"

"Do you realize, Nathan, that instead of continuing on our grand voyage of discovery, we were ordered by Fleet command to rendezvous with their largest warship? I think the military is hiding something; something we," she gestured to the air between the two of them, "discovered."

Her husband snorted a laugh. "You think the military discovered aliens before we did, and they want to hide it? Why would they do that? Governments and militaries only want power and glory." He said dramatically.

"They would want to do it because they're afraid. What did that one old author say? Arthur C. Clarke?" Elaine wasn't the reader, she relied on Nathan to read three-hundred-year-old novels.

His brow furrowed together, his eyes unfocusing. "Two possibilities exist; either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying."

"Don't you understand? They want to make sure there's nothing dangerous, which for them means more advanced, in our discoveries before letting us release our notes and footage to the worlds."

Nathan's eyes stayed unfocused. "What we found is unequivocally and objectively dangerous, Elaine. Those were missile silos, not launch sites. And they are far older than any nuclear silo on Earth. Therefore, that alien civilization," he pointed out the window to the planet in the distance, an orb of orange and beige, "if they still exist, is far, far more advanced than we are."

Elaine deflated slightly. "I know. I just needed someone else to sat it. But I think the public should know the full story, not just what we're told we can release." She opened her computer and sifted through the various media recorded on the surface. "This planet is around three-quarters the size of Mars, but there's no indication of civilian presence. Just missile silos, wrecked starships, and a crater the size of Europe."

"And the massive amounts of radiation. Enough to kill every human currently alive." He turned to look at the planet, designated Messier-21. It was, as Elaine said, a little smaller than Mars. From the information gathered, it had served as a sort of forward operating base for an alien civilization's navy. A dusty mass of deserts and empty ocean basins, all the signs said it had once bore life. And yet, there it hung, spinning silently, a massive chunk of the planet torn out near it's equator spoke of untold destructive power, kept secret from the humans who now walked the stars.

*  *  *

Twenty Years Later

A man stared at a news billboard, watching a planet die from the inside out. Those little gray specks orbiting it would be Fleet dreadnoughts, and those white beams, belching from their bows, flecked with the colors of a rainbow, the anti-matter beams. Those hideous weapons that brought death and ruin on a scale never before seen. Whatever that beam touched simply. . . ceased to exist. Stone, metal, even oxygen.

Gone. Reduced to their barest components.

This, he thought, is how mankind ends. This is how we all burn, in the dying of the light.

I should never have revealed the secrets of the stars to these barbarians.

 

Edited January 23, 2023 by phillycheesesteak
Grammar

[Lord Gregorio he/him]

1/21/23 - Depth of the sea

Spoiler

What is below in

Deep darkness smothering death

Expanse of blue black.

Aight. I missed Saturday. So here 'tis. I couldn't match this with my story, so I'm going to write something random. Yep it's short.

[The cheeseman Sola Scriptora]

@Gregorio it's a haiku, right?

[Lord Gregorio he/him]

8 minutes ago, phillycheesesteak said:

@Gregorio it's a haiku, right?

indeed

[Wittles he/him]

2 hours ago, Gregorio said:

1/21/23 - Depth of the sea

  Reveal hidden contents

What is below in

Deep darkness smothering death

Expanse of blue black.

Aight. I missed Saturday. So here 'tis. I couldn't match this with my story, so I'm going to write something random. Yep it's short.

That's a cool haiku