Unsent Letter

Travel Buddies

Thanks for the tag, @literally-just-zay

I'm picking my main WIP for this one.

1. Doing mad research for an affordable place for everyone to stay

Tori-, as the leader of this rag-tag group of fighters and by far the most sane of the bunch, the responsibility of accommodations often falls to him.

2. Hoping to try all the new food they can.

MA - Ever eager to try what the world has to offer past pain and suffering. MA will often try anything at least once, baring things that will directly harm those around her.

3. Wants to stay inside and sleep through the whole vacation.

Billy - He isn’t one for merriment and prefers to tend to plants or read books in his spare time.

4. Believes no vacation is complete without certain activities (going to the beach, swimming, skiing, sightseeing, hiking, ect, whatever they’re passionate about.

Hati - The resident mechanic is a staunch believer in doing things in the way that he believes is ‘objectively’ correct. If he gets the opportunity, he will drag others along with him willing or not.

5. Is annoyed that certain people are in the same travel group as them.

Billy and Ember - They tolerate each other for the sake of the whole, but with one being a pyromaniac far to willing to burn anything in her wake, and the other being a forest guardian, their personalities tend to mix like water and oil.

6. Buying souvenirs for everyone back home

Ma/Owen/Hati/Ember/Tori/ Billy - In that order. While some of them might be more stoic in their expressions of affection, everyone on the crew is fairly close besides Ember and Billy. While some of them don’t lean towards sentimentality, none of them can resist the urge to pick up bobbles that remind them of their squad mates.

7. Is about to turn this trip into a business trip.

Billy all the way. If he finds a target, his rifle is never far out of reach, and he will abruptly split off the group to do some “Gardening” if he sees someone that crosses his bottom line.

No pressure tagging: @kuebiko-writing @renasdoodles @flurrysahin @davycoquette ,

@literally-just-zay @creatrackers @somethingclevermahogony +open tag

Hope that you had a good Christmas!

4. What was your favorite line that you wrote this year?

Thank you for the ask <3

Admittedly, I have a few candidates for this one, and here's one of them (it comes from the start of A Pawn for a Greater Cause)

"You're but a glorified guard to her, a pretty knife at her disposal. Have you ever dreamt of freedom?"

— Unnamed Helindian minister

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. 

Writing prompt, because why not:

Don't shoot the squirrels.

Poem Writing challenge

Thanks for tag @renasdoodles

I don't write poetry much, but this was fun! Thanks for sharing the prompt.

Waiting

Staring at a wall of clocks,

He timed the tics, counted the tocs.

He waited in her favorite chair,

Sitting with a quiet stare.

Till suddenly with grave despair,

He saw her spirit floating there.

It smiled in a simple way,

As her visage faded into grey.

Staring at a wall of clocks,

He couldn't hear their muffled knocks.

He stood up from her favorite chair,

Left with nothing but despair.

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

(if you would like to be removed from the tag list, please let me know!)

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.

A Bit Old For This

@flashfictionfridayofficial

Where did this come from? I don't know... I woke up at 6:10 am. and saw the prompt. This story just kinda came knocking on my brain without notice.

Story Warning: breif thoughts of death, violence, abduction, mentions of unstable mental state, and isolation.

Aaron woke up scowling to the sound of his alarm. 4:30 am. flashed brightly on the small LED screen. He’d overslept again.

Not bothering to snooze, Arron slowly sat up in bed and attempted to fight his growing desire to pitch himself over the balcony of his fifth story apartment. Imagining the complications in the event of his failure he discarded the unproductive thoughts turning his attention to the bathroom instead.

Pictures and Phil and Rachel in their uniforms hung on the mirror taunting him with their smiles, a constant reminder of his failure.

Blasted psyche test. Weren't people like him the very kind that the military were looking for?

Aaron's scowl deepened as he tried to push down a rising sense of nausea, he really needed to take down those pictures before he…

A loud boom sounded from the living room and his failures were replaced by a sudden and unshakable dread.

He'd been anxious and angry in equal measure for most of his life, so Aaron was familiar with voids in his gut, but this dread seemed to be emanating from the back of his head telling him to run.

His brain didn't even process the command that had been instinctively issued before his body was moving calmly towards the bathroom window.

Unhooking the latched he ducked out to the fire escape and began to descend the stairs as quietly as possible while his heartbeat began to accelerate with each successive boom.

The wind began to pick up as he heard a low growl from above. He didn’t dare stop, didn't dare to look up and see what might have invaded his home. What would have happened had he hit snooze one more time? It was then that his anxiety caught up with the dread and a pit formed in his already weakened stomach threatening him with a putrid bile that crept into the back of his throat.

Aaron stopped just long enough to force the bile back down into his stomach. Unfortunately It was a moment too long, for even as he took several deep breaths after finally forcing the caustic mixture down his aching throat, he felt icy fingers gently wrapping around the back of his neck.

The back of his mind began to scream as his body froze in place. He wanted to move, needed to continue fleeing but it was as though his body had been frozen by those fingers which dug into the back of his neck.

"Are you sure this one will do?"

Aaron closed his eyes before he could see the person he heard them stepping closer. It was like his brain knew something worse than the eternal sleep he dreamed of would be forced on him if he made eye contact with whatever it was.

"The Professor was very clear in his description, and I can feel radiance even if it’s faint. I am a bit surprised he made it this long without being discovered."

His brow furrowed as Aaron tried to make sense of what was happening. What did they mean radiance? The feeling in the back of his head flared once more with the urgent desire to escape these things, but he was still firmly rooted in place as a bony finger pressed into the side of his face as warm blood pooled under the sharp nail.

The sting of torn skin was enough to convince the last sane shred of his mind that this wasn't another of his insane dreams, he'd always wake up when he was injured and less had drawn him from his wanderings. The icy grip around his throat tightened, and his vision blotched to blackness.

....

"Simon, wake up!"

His eyes snapped open at the unfamiliar voice. He was in a plain white room filled with sleeping figures. From a cursory glance he was probably the oldest by about fifteen years. Among them only about a fourth seemed to be awake, and half of those were staring at the walls in a daze.

He didn’t have much time to linger on his confusion as a familiar boom filled the room and his eyes were drawn to a wolf-like creature that stood towering over one child that was still sleeping. The creature's maw dripped with red as it didn't hesitate to bring its jaws down on the sleeping boy's shoulder before blinking out of existence with another boom, taking the boy with it.

Cries rang out from nearby children as they began to scramble away from any of the sleeping kids as more booms filled the room in rapid succession, always a sleeping child, and always there for less than a moment more than necessary. The teen near him continued to shake her unconscious friend while calling out his name as another boom sounded and knocked her away from the defenseless teen.

Aaron wasn't sure if it was that strange new part of his brain , or the well of frustration the had been brewing in his gut which caused him to leap at the wolf, but in the end the result was the same. Without an ounce of hesitation he pounced on the focused beast like a coiled spring which had finally been released.

Its body was lighter than the wolves he'd dealt with in the past, and as he pinned its throat to the ground with his knee, he reached to his belt finding his knife had been left unchecked.

His fingers gingerly gripped around the handle pulling it free as the creature seemed to catch up with its current situation and attempted to claw at him while snarling.

He was struck by the pathetically weak nature of this thing as his blade was buried in the creature's throat, tearing it cleanly with more ease than should have been possible. As the blade broke free of the creature it burst into a cloud of thick purple smoke and rapidly funneled into his mouth and nose suffocating him for a brief moment.

When the swirl was gone he looked down at his hands with patchy vision and tried to focus on the strange fog that he could now feel slowly making its way through his lungs.

"Congratulations!"

A little old man appeared not far away smiling from ear to ear.

"The first dream wolf has been absorbed so all survivors are now eligible dream Arbiter candidates!"

Little bursts of confetti sprayed over the room as the children and Aaron looked at the man in confusion.

It was at this point that the sleeping victims all started to wake up and look around them in confusion before happily reuniting with their peers and crying tears of what he assumed were relief.

For his part, all Aaron could manage to do was put away his suddenly clean knife, hoping the old man would suddenly decide it wasn't something that an abducted adult should be allowed to have.

Thanks for the prompt, @flashfictionfridayofficial !

6936

Another random story based solely on the prompt. I hope you enjoy.

Warnings: Referenced Infidelity and Gaslighting

The flowers bloomed too early that spring, and an unexpected chill froze the golden buds even as they swelled with life.

Trudy stepped through frozen blades of grass, her bare feet blue from the cold. She didn't notice, couldn't feel her blood turning to ice with every step she took. 

The house behind her cast a looming shadow in the half light of morning. It had made her happy once, knowing that the old building cared for her. It cared for him more, though, concealing him protectively as he ripped her heart out over and over again. 

She had awakened twenty years ago, her power a simple enhancement of the senses, so trivial that she had been embarrassed to mention it to anyone. Too embarrassed to mention it to him. Trudy now wished that she had, he might not have brought so many mortals to their bed while she carefully tended to their garden if he had known. 

She'd done her best to ignore it at first, thrown all of her love on him, because she had loved him dearly, but with every self satisfied look cast towards her by departing mortals, a piece of Trudy’s love had been chipped away. 

"They are on quests, dear. I'm sharing my wisdom, allowing them a place to rest. I couldn't stand if these weak creatures were without guidance like your brother."

He always used her brother, always trying to make her feel like she was overreacting. It had worked before her awakening, but after she learned of his betrayal, it just made her bitterness grow.  

Stepping to the edge of the shadow, Trudy breathed deeply and stepped into the light. Her skin cracked under direct exposure. Even today, he had asked her to tend to the flowers, even today he had defiled their wedding bed. The finality of the action tipped the scales in her heart, emptying the last slivers of love from her soul.

Trudy bent down and picked a small bud, half opened and covered in frost. She'd watched this bud grow from a seedling, nurtured it through every stage of growth. It had been so full of life yesterday that she had already planned where in the house she would place it. Now, it would rest in her hair. 

With one last look towards behind her, the ice in Trudy’s veins turned to fire as a manic joy flooded every fiber of her being. Trudy had come to the property line six-thousand nine-hundred and thirty-five times before this one, but some sliver of affection had always held her at bay. 

Today, she skipped over the line gleefully. Disappearing from the home she had known for almost fifty years, with a long dead sense of wonder now burning in her chest. 

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....

Out of Context Tag Game

@kuebiko-writing , thank you for the tag!

Groggily coming back to his senses, Owen was confronted once more with the shattering realization that his squad was still missing. At least he wasn't Impaled anymore, so small mercies. A good sleep had a hand in that he'd bet, ma always said it did. Looking out at the marred earth surrounding the crash site, Owen stared blankly at the neat piles of immaculately clean bones carefully arranged into rows in place of his fellow passengers. He'd eaten them, hadn't he?

Tagging- open tag