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Post by Thorn on Oct 12, 2019 5:15:26 GMT -5
12. ObsessKinda cheated on this one. This is the easiest thing for me to write ever at this stage- my foolish character is infatuated with my friend's supposedly less foolish character (in reality, River is the one failing all the wisdom checks against monsters trying to charm him...and he is a ranger. What even is???) Do not be alarmed at the quality- he gets all his expectations from cheap novels. It was difficult not to think about him all the time when he was right there on the ship. Zazz spent a fair number of daylight hours hiding from the sun, but whenever River walked into the room it was as if the sun had waltzed in with him- but in a nicer way than the literal sense, with less frying of the retinas.
Everything about River was perfect: those dark soulful eyes, delicately pointed ears, those small soft smiles when Zazz said the right things. Zazz wanted to stroke his cheek and wrap his arms around him, to feel River warm and near as he kissed him over and over again.
Heck, even just how freaking strong River was made him all fluttery. When the genasi was fully armored, you could only imagine how he looked underneath it all. But when he appeared in simpler attire, it was never a let-down. His upper arm was the size of Zazz’s thigh- River could surely sweep him up in the most powerful, yet tender, embrace. Or alternately, put a strong warm arm around him on a cold winter’s night and maybe lend him his jacket (which would be too large, but in a way that looked super cute) as one of them walked the other home from a pleasant evening out.
(Zazz didn’t really have a home, so to speak, so maybe he could walk River home? Or maybe he could stay with River. But like, he would be a gentleman, and they wouldn’t rush into things, and he could sleep on his floor or maybe on his couch. Or maybe in his attic! It would stay nice and dark.)
(Unless River had a skylight...)
“Argh, no fantasising!” he exclaimed in Undercommon, curling up and covering his face. “Bad Izazdin! Stop it or actually talk to him- it’s one of the two.”
But he couldn’t confess his feelings to River until they were back on land and Zazz had actually bathed and had nicer clothes and was generally More Presentable. So for now, ignoring River and his stupid beautiful blue smirk it was.
(for the two whole consecutive minutes he could manage that, anyway.)
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Post by June Scarlet on Oct 12, 2019 20:50:26 GMT -5
Before Evelyn was Ronjono's supervisor, she was a Defender with ghost powers. Orig the Great is not an OC, but a Defender Lupe: bookofages.jellyneo.net/characters/420/Obsess "He's obsessed with you, you know." "Who?" asked the Red Xweetok. "Baron Von Evil. He's like, really obsessed with you." "Aren't most supervillains obsessed with their arch-rivals?" replied Evelyn, flipping a page of the magazine she was reading. "So you're saying you two are arch-rivals now?" The Red Xweetok put down her magazine. "I mean, it seems that way, doesn't it? He specifically singles me out when he makes threats, he seems to show up at an awful lot of my calls, and you know, when he goes robs a bank or something, they usually send me to capture him, because I know him so well. I think that kind of makes us arch-rivals, don't you?" The Green Lupe she was talking to leaned back and grimaced. "Isn't that, kind of unhealthy, though? For him to be so obsessive over you?" Evelyn snorted. "Duh. He's a villain, they're not known for their mental well-being." "I suppose," said Orig. "But maybe you should talk to Judge Hog about getting someone else to deal with him. Just to be safe." "Ah," said Evelyn with a laugh, "Where's the fun in that? Besides, so long as I'm The Ghost, he can't touch me." *** (This comic here explains what happened some time after this conversation: www.neopets.com/~Ronjono#dcpt2 fav.me/daiz65d ) |
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Post by Blueysicle on Oct 12, 2019 20:55:17 GMT -5
For the record, I think it goes without saying that Lampyri's strategy of pretending that everything is okay even though she's hurting is not at all healthy. Unfortunately, she has yet to admit that she needs help, so she's still at the point where she thinks the best thing to do is shoulder everything by herself and put on a brave face.
Day 12: Obsess
Somewhere out there, there was a vital piece of information about The Engineer. A flaw, a weakness... something that would lead to her ultimate defeat. Lampyri hadn't found it yet, nor did she have an inkling of what it could possibly be. But there had to be something. There just had to be. And she would find it.
At least that was what she told herself to keep going. Though she had a room in Lumin's apartment, she rarely stayed there for long periods of time. If there was nothing Lampyri could do to defeat The Engineer, she could at least gather intel on her. Thus, she spent most of her time wandering around Moltara looking for as much information as she could.
And what did she have to show for it? Little more than a mess of notes strewn around her room.
Be it the bed stand, drawers, or desk, every flat surface was covered by pieces of parchment. When room began to run out on those, Lampyri began stacking her notes in towers on the floor, but they soon began to tip over and carpet the floor.
Lampyri picked up a few pieces and scanned their contents. Every one of them, every last one, were accounts of The Engineer's cruelty, be they from victims or witnesses. The burning pain as their bodies twisted into their new forms and the unending terror that came with the memory...
The notes told Lampyri nothing that she wasn't already all too familiar with.
Where is The Engineer from? How old is she? How did she get how powers? Are there any weak points or blind spots to her abilities? What is her actual name? For all the research Lampyri had done up until that point, she couldn't answer a single one of those questions.
Lampyri began to clench her fists, causing her claws to puncture the parchment. All she was able to accomplish thus far was to create a physical reminder off how untouchable The Engineer was.
Through the pieces of parchment, Lampyri could practically hear The Engineer's laughter – that mocking laughter that was seared into her mind. It would echo in her head and spread like an infestation. There was no escape. No peace, no silence. Nothing she could do. It was always there. Every second, minute, hour, and day. Whether she screamed or cried, ripped and teared and clawed and smashed...
Lampyri quickly gasped. Her breaths then became deep, but slow, and her thoughts stilled. She was the only one in the apartment and not a word escaped her lips, but the space somehow became quieter all of a sudden. Her eyes lowered to her hands to find the parchment halfway ripped down the middle.
Inhale, exhale... It did a little good, though she could still feel her body shake.
She set her sight on the patchwork map of Upper and Central Moltara pinned on her wall. On it she had marked the location of every sighting of The Engineer. Though the marks were mostly spread out, there were clusters in places such as the City of Lights.
Lampyri searched the map for a gap in the records and took a mental note of it. She would go there next. Perhaps that would be the place where she'd finally find answers. Yes, that was how she needed to approach it. Always remain positive, and always push forward. Never think that it's all futile, and never lose sight of her goal.
Then, she remembered the half-torn parchment in her trembling hands, and the numerous other pieces scattered about the room. The smile she tried to force upon herself quivered and turned to a grimace. Try as she might, Lampyri couldn't picture what the room would look like tidied up and organized. There was once a time when she felt at ease by default, but she could no longer imagine it; not when every one of her thoughts and actions led back to The Engineer.
Her smile returned and she began to chuckle to herself.
There was no need to worry. It would all be over someday. All she needed to do was to ignore her pain and spend every waking moment working to ensure that happy ending would finally come. It was that simple, right? |
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Post by Thorn on Oct 13, 2019 6:00:16 GMT -5
13. WaitingQuick, very short piece with Ivellios waiting for someone. =) Ivy was requested by Liou! The sun was just starting to filter through the trees. Ivellios stretched, the light glinting off the sheath at her hip. Tally would be there again today, just as she had been the past few mornings. Some of her companions had started gossiping about why exactly Ivellios watched the drow so intently, why she went to Tally at the end of every performance, and the saevoryn did nothing to stop them. Let them talk. It gave them something to do, after all, and they were so insufferable when they were bored.
“Ivellios, I can see her.”
The voice was soft, teasing. Ivellios resisted the urge to whip around and glower at its owner. She forced herself to remain still, silent, patient, when she felt like precisely none of those things. She pictured Tally’s fluffy white mop bobbing amongst the trees, her staff held loosely at her side, and only turned when Ivellios heard her voice as she murmured a greeting to somebody in the marketplace.
The drow’s eyes gleamed in the final notes of nighttime, more brightly than those of Ivellios and her like, and the wood-elf wondered why poets spent so much more time comparing these eyes to fiends and beasts than to stars.
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Post by Liou on Oct 13, 2019 13:14:43 GMT -5
*casually drops A Few comments and slinks back to cheer from the sidelines* BlueysicleI've wanted to dive into your 'verse for a long while and these snippets and the character bios are really helping me ease in despite the massive reading backlog I still need to go through. ;u; I'm especially impressed by 7. Tender, and how you gave it this tense atmosphere of unseen danger and worry and spun that right into affection. The way this change occurred in the conversation revealed so much about each of the characters. Moni6. Bitter This was painful in a good and extremely relatable way.
Somehow, through subtle clues, it is clear that Cepith was affected by something supernatural - perhaps the way he reads, as one would expect a mage to read out incantations, the way the importance of the notebook seems blocked just beyond his memory, the dust and reference to necromancy.
The dissociation from one's past self and presumed achivements is relatable outside any supernatural context though. 12. Obsess: Moni, I hope you realise that you've just made Cepith into a Disney prince. Thorn5. Lost OK I am scared for the boy and even gladder for the resolution he got but wow, way to take the pleasant feelings of a lazy swim in the sea and flip that right into creepy land! 7. Tender Now I'm picturing Percywolf and Florenwolf somehow agreeing on how to position themselves for either a cute or an embarrassing awakening. 13. Waiting Hwee, glad to know Ivy was feeling as fuzzy as I did during those scenes. x3 So she is a bit of a poet while keeping it cool. |
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Post by Thorn on Oct 13, 2019 15:58:38 GMT -5
LiouAww, thanks bae! <3 I wasn't expecting to get feedback, this is such a nice surprise.
Lost- I am glad you found it suitably creepy! I really enjoyed playing him and his Motivation. Dylan just wants to be a Person and get to do Normal Person Things, dangit!
Tender- haha now that I think about it, letting your hoomin wake up in a gutter is kinda mean! xD I can partly justify it by saying that they don't know exactly when they'll change (there's a couple minutes variation there), but also, wriggling around in a gutter in the rain is very much a YES, GOOD thing Florenwolf would do to annoy its hoomin...because that creature is not very nice.
Percywolf, on the other hand, was probably in the gutter because it was trying to drag its irritating companion back up onto the curb.
(this also got me thinking about the fact that they must have to explain this every. single. time they go to a new town to investigate werewolves. "Ya I mean we are also werewolves but...wait no hear me out!")
Waiting- aww, glad you liked! <3 Although I am 100% sure she only bought Tally that drink initially because our nice drowgirl was standing there looking all sad, she definitely likes Tally a whole lot! And she was super impressed by Tally's martial arts skills, cool spinnystaff, and occasional elemental tricks!!!
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Post by PFA on Oct 13, 2019 16:39:59 GMT -5
HI GUYS, so I did an OCtober prompt! I wrote this for Obsess, but I accidentally a full-length short story, so it's a bit late. It still works for Waiting though, so I'll pretend it was on purpose. Featuring one of the villains of my "it's definitely coming eventually" magical girl series, Niji Chikara. Don't do brain-warping Darkness; it's bad for you. 12-13: Obsess/WaitingTeinei Takushubi was not who he seemed to be.
Most of the time, he lived his life as your typical family man, working a steady job to support his wife and daughter. But ever since he'd been granted explosive dark powers from a mysterious source, he developed a taste for destruction that he'd never had before. So he'd taken up a secret second life, where he would don a mask and cause havoc as one of the city's most feared supervillains, Masked Malice.
It was surprisingly easy to hide—every morning, before work, he would leave home early and take some time to perform his evil deeds. There was a small coffee shop near where he worked, so he'd told his wife that he liked to stop there to grab some breakfast. He did, in fact, often stop there for a light breakfast, so no one could suspect anything amiss.
It was a perfect routine... most of the time.
"Teinei, honey? It's time to wake up."
"Huh...?" He blinked away his grogginess to be met with the sight of his wife, Kietsu, standing at his bedside. "What time is it?"
"It's time to go to work," she told him.
"What?" He grabbed his phone to check the time, and quickly realized the issue—apparently he'd forgotten to charge the phone's battery, and it had died overnight, meaning his alarm did not go off as intended. Turning instead to the wall clock, he confirmed that, indeed, he needed to hurry or he would be late for work. The shock chased away his sleepiness, and he promptly jumped out of bed to start getting dressed.
"I'm sorry for not waking you sooner, but you seemed so exhausted. I thought I'd let you sleep in," Kietsu explained.
"No, it's alright, thank you," was what he told her. In his mind, though, he knew this meant he didn't have time for his usual villainy. It wasn't like he had to do it every morning, but it was something he always looked forward to, so it was a little disappointing. But oh well, there was no time to worry about that now.
"I left some coffee and toast for you on the kitchen table," Kietsu said as he finished getting dressed. "So you don't have to skip breakfast."
"Oh, thank you. You're the best." He smiled warmly, giving her a kiss. "I have to go. I love you."
"I love you, too."
And with that, he went on his way.
---
At first, he was fine. Getting to the office and settling into his work kept him busy, which was enough to distract him from his other thoughts. As the work day dragged on, however, he realized that he couldn't stop thinking about it.
He was really upset that he missed his villain time.
It really shouldn't have been a problem. Again, it wasn't as though he had to do it every morning. But it just kept eating away at him, leaving him feeling restless and irritable. Like there was dark energy building up inside of him, and he needed to let it out.
I can't believe I forgot to charge my phone, he thought to himself, glancing at his phone which was now plugged into the charger by his desk. If I hadn't have forgotten, I would have woken up on time, and I would have...
No, he needed to stop thinking about it. He returned his attention to the report he'd been working on, forcing himself to focus on that. Regardless of how much he may have felt like causing some mayhem, it wasn't as though he could just walk away from his job whenever he wanted. He had work to do.
Maybe I could take off during lunch break, he thought, absentmindedly glancing at the wall clock. Lunch break was just a few minutes away; surely he could hold out until then. It would have been a bit short, perhaps, but it was better than nothing, right?
He was really beginning to like this idea. He would tell his coworkers he was going out to eat, he would take a few minutes to let out his destructive urges, and then he would return to work with no one suspecting a thing. Holding onto this thought motivated him, keeping the frustration from building further.
It did not, however, help him to focus on his report. He would often type only a few words before his mind wandered, thinking about how he would accomplish this little excursion. He didn't have to go far—in fact, there was that tacky strip mall nearby that he wouldn't mind demolishing...
You need to finish the report, Teinei, he scolded himself, forcing himself again to focus on the report. His new boss was much more lenient than his previous one, but that still wasn't an excuse for sloppy work. He had a paycheck to earn.
It was too bad he couldn't get a paycheck for villainy. Technically, bank robbing was an option, one some of the other villains were no stranger to, but Teinei had always considered it too risky. Trying to support his family with illegitimate money would have required far too much effort to—
Focus!
Struggling to reign in his wandering mind, he forced himself to focus on the report, casting glances a bit too frequently at the clock as he worked. He only had to focus for just a bit longer, and then...
Finally, the designated lunch time arrived. He shot out of his chair as soon as possible, trying not to appear too eager as he made a beeline for the exit. This was his chance, just so long as he could pull off the correct level of discreetness...
"Hey, Takushubi!"
Teinei jumped, forcing a smile as he turned to face the group of coworkers who had approached him on the way out. "Oh, hey," he said hastily. "I was just thinking of, uh, going out for lunch today."
"Yeah, us too!" came the cheerful reply. "There's this great burger joint just down the road. You should come with us!"
"Oh! That's, uh..." Teinei hesitated, mind racing for a response. Then, before he could stop himself, "That sounds great."
"Great! Let's go, then."
Teinei kicked himself internally. This was not what he wanted at all, but it was too late to back out now. He would have to forego his plans and instead grab a burger with his coworkers. They were silly, last-minute plans, anyway. Surely they could wait a bit longer, right?
---
The rest of the day was agony.
The burger he ate for lunch was indeed delicious, and the conversation with his coworkers pleasant. But the growing aggravation he felt was now too much to ignore, and was becoming increasingly difficult to hide.
Twice now he had been denied the chance to indulge his evil side. Denied by his own neglect, his own idiocy. And because of that, he was losing his mind.
He didn't know why it mattered so much to him. At the moment, he didn't care. He should have charged that stupid phone. He shouldn't have agreed to go out with his idiotic coworkers. This was all his own fault, and now he was forced to deal with the consequences.
I'm so sick of consequences, he thought crossly. I'm Masked Malice. Why should I have to worry about consequences?
He knew the answer, of course. Consequences were no problem for Masked Malice, but they were a problem for Teinei Takushubi. As much as we wished he could just ditch work and go on a rampage, it was far too risky. Any excuse he could come up with would be easily disproven, and he'd get in trouble, lose his job, or worse.
But that didn't stop him from being angry about it.
I want to destroy something. His eyes darted around the room. It was silly, but maybe if he found something minor to break, it would help distract him without getting him in trouble. There was plenty of paper on his desk, but those were legal documents too important to destroy. There was a potted plant in the corner, but that would be too messy. There was a pencil sitting beside him on the desk, with more of them in the drawer.
Perfect.
He picked up the pencil, weighing in his hand for a moment. And then, grasping it in both hands, he snapped it clean in half. A smirk spread across his face. That felt good.
It wasn't enough, though. He opened the drawer, dropping the two pencil halves into it, and pulling out another, unbroken one. He snapped that one in half, too, repeating the process with each and every pencil in the drawer.
"Hey, Takushubi," came the voice of his boss, distracting him from this task. Teinei startled, the pencil he was holding clattering to the floor. "Are you finished with that report yet?"
"Ah, yes, just about," Teinei replied hastily, returning his attention to his work. How did he let himself get so distracted? "I'll have it for you right away, sir."
"Thank you." The boss frowned, looking at Teinei with concerned eyes. "Uh, is everything okay? You seem a little on edge today."
"No, it's just, uh..." Teinei smoothed down his hair as he worked through his response. "I have a lot to do today. It's a little stressful."
"Want to talk about it?"
"No." The response was immediate, and probably more forceful than necessary. Reeling himself back, he sheepishly added, "N-no, it's uh, it's really nothing important. Don't worry about it."
"...If you say so." His boss didn't sound entirely convinced, but didn't press the point. "Well, just get me that report as soon as you can. If you need anything, let me know."
"I'll be fine. I'll get it to you shortly." Teinei frowned as his boss walked away. This was bad; he was usually much better at lying than this. He really needed to get his act together or people were going to get suspicious.
And so, with as much brainpower as he could possibly muster, he returned his focus to his work.
---
Finally, after some very mentally exhausting hours, the work day was finally over. Teinei, feeling like his head was about to explode, retreated to an area where none of his coworkers could hear him, and whipped out his now fully charged phone to make a phone call.
"Hello?" It was his wife's voice. "Teinei?"
"Hi, honey," Teinei replied, struggling to keep his tone level. "I'm going to be late coming home today; there's a lot of extra work here at the office."
It was a bold lie. A risky lie, easily disproven by any one of his coworkers. At the moment, though, he didn't care. He couldn't wait any longer.
"Oh, okay, dear," came Kietsu's reply. "Stay safe, okay? The villains tend to show up this time of day."
"I'll do my best." He smiled thinly, a gesture that she thankfully couldn't see over the phone. "See you later. I love you."
"I love you, too."
And with that, he hung up, and went on his way. |
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Post by Blueysicle on Oct 13, 2019 19:57:12 GMT -5
Liou : I'm glad that you're enjoying the prompts! I've personally been treating them more like writing exercises than stand-alone stories, so I've tried to keep relevant context as concise as I can and not have to rely on mounds of backstory to get the larger points across. However, I have been getting concerned that I've been making them too concise, and thus inaccessible to people that haven't read the saga, so I'm very happy that they've been easing you in to the larger story.  Romance is something I'm very much not acquainted with writing, so I'm relieved to hear that prompt was able to stick the landing. :3 Like I said in the post, I'd love to do more scenes like that in the future, even if not for the Neopian Times.
Thank you very much for the feedback!
(And I love getting new readers and am very flattered that you're interested in looking at the rest of the saga! I do realize how dauntingly long it is though, so I don't want to pressure you.  ) So after just talking about the accessibility of these prompts, today I'd like to post one that takes place right in the middle of a twelve-part series! Specifically, this prompt refers to a small part of a conversation in the seventh part of The Sisters of Pillar Grove. I guess you could call it a deleted scene, even though I just wrote this a few hours ago. :B I wouldn't say it's necessary to read that series to get the point of this prompt, though; said point being that Flicker can sometimes be a bit of a brat.
Day 13: Waiting On Pillar Grove's ground level, there was a furious battle unfolding, waged between King Zircon and his allies, and the robot piloted by a traitorous scientist. Ordinarily, such a thing would be hard to miss, but the destruction of nearly all the lights in the city cloaked the entire cave in darkness. The dimly-lit, temporary lanterns could only do so much, thus the only read anyone on the higher levels could get on the situation were from the tremors and bangs the robot made as it moved around.
Flicker lolled his head as he sat in place. At every burst of activity that reached his ear holes, he anxiously swung his legs as they hung over the edge of the walkway. He understood his orders: to remain out of sight until the moment they could take their foes in the robot by surprise. But that didn't mean he had to be happy about them.
Far, far below, he spotted a stream of green light as the robot unleashed a beam of earth magic. Flicker jumped onto his feet. “Can we go now?”
“No. You heard Zircon. We wait until his signal,” Lampyri calmly replied without budging an inch.
With a moan, Flicker plopped back into place. He rested his head in his hand and idly tapped his hammer against the metal railings.
Later, the robot jumped onto a nearby pillar and sent shock waves spreading throughout the whole tree. Flicker could feel the vibrations in his hands as he gripped the railing, bracing himself until it ceased.
“How about now?”
“No.”
Flicker threw his head back and loudly groaned, “This bites! All we've done this whole trip is wait!”
Maybe that was a little bit of an exaggeration. But between the several hours spent in a carriage, a day sitting in a dungeon cell, and however long it took a round trip through a featureless tunnel, Flicker sure felt like his current existence was sedentary. Right below him was a battle full of the kind of action and excitement he could only dream of, and he couldn't even take part in it.
Lampyri returned a groan, though it was not at all in agreement with him. She pressed the side of her hand against her forehead and said sharply, “Patience is a virtue, you know. And it's something that would do you a lot of good to learn about. So you're just going to sit tight for now and wait for the signal. Got it?”
Her short tone left Flicker without a reply. He crossed his arms and looked away. When he was certain that she couldn't see his face, he snorted and mumbled under his breath, “Yeah, you don't sound like you know that much about patience either...”
“What did you just say?!”
“G-Got it!”
Flicker sat absolutely motionless, unwilling to even turn his head to get a glimpse of how incensed Lampyri must have looked. Even then, he could practically feel the sharp pins from her stabbing glare boring into his exoskeleton.
As time went on, the air between Flicker and Lampyri became less tense. But the restlessness soon returned, and before long Flicker found himself gripping at the edges of his hood. The cloak he wore kept his glow from being noticed by their enemies, and there was nothing Flicker looked forward to more than the moment he could throw it off.
Eventually, something happened in the middle of the tree's main trunk. All of a sudden, there was a bizarre sensation that rippled through the cave. Flicker didn't know how to put it into words that made sense, but it almost felt like the tree was... escaping.
It still wasn't their signal, though. But the itch within Flicker grew and grew, until he just couldn't take it anymore.
“I'm going down there!”
“Darn it, Flicker! STAY PUT!”
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Post by Moni on Oct 13, 2019 20:27:25 GMT -5
*casually drops A Few comments and slinks back to cheer from the sidelines* Moni6. Bitter This was painful in a good and extremely relatable way.
Somehow, through subtle clues, it is clear that Cepith was affected by something supernatural - perhaps the way he reads, as one would expect a mage to read out incantations, the way the importance of the notebook seems blocked just beyond his memory, the dust and reference to necromancy.
The dissociation from one's past self and presumed achivements is relatable outside any supernatural context though. 12. Obsess: Moni, I hope you realise that you've just made Cepith into a Disney prince. i was not expecting your thoughts on these! i'm glad you found the "bitter" prompt relatable; it's not really often that i try to be srs with my prose and sometimes i'm actually a bit afraid of posting it, because, idk, it feels weird i guess! i tried to communicate a lot about his character in a relatively short amount of time. and yes, cepith is now a disney prince. an extremely murderous disney prince. but one nonetheless. |
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Post by June Scarlet on Oct 13, 2019 21:28:25 GMT -5
I love putting Jane and Yibit together in comics and such, like this one: fav.me/d9dhord I consider them my classic duo, they bounce off each other so nicely. Yibit loves giving away cookies to people, but she has to make them at some point too. Waiting
The hardest part of baking cookies was waiting.
Making the cookies wasn't that hard. Eating them was easy. And sharing them was fun.
Yeah, the hardest part had to be waiting for them to bake.
Yibit stared at the balls of cookie dough through the oven window, willing them to turn into cookies faster. She'd mixed the dough herself, with a little help from Jane, who measured the ingredients and handled the oven. Jane put a hand to Yibit's shoulder. "Yibit, dear, what are you doing?"
"Waiting for the cookies to bake. But it's taking forever."
"You know what they say, 'A watched pot never boils.'"
Yibit turned to look up at Jane. "But we're not boiling anything."
Jane smiled. "It's just a saying. It means, well," Jane stopped to think. "Well, I guess it means focusing on something while you're waiting for it to happen just makes it take long, or at least it seems to take longer."
Just then, the timer went off. "Yay!" said Yibit, grabbing the oven mitts and handing them to Jane.
"See?" said Jane, pulling the cookies out of the oven. "Just had to stop waiting for them, and they were ready."
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Post by Moni on Oct 14, 2019 1:45:12 GMT -5
raia and babykhamet day 14: play
Khamet had been trying to feed a fly a breadcrumb to see how it would eat when a hand tapped his shoulder and a voice declared, "Tag! You're it!"
From here until sometime in the indefinite future, possibly forevermore, Khamet was "it." But Khamet continued chasing the fly and throwing breadcrumbs in its general direction. It was mostly a futile effort, because the crumbs looked remarkably like grains of sand. He couldn't tell whether the fly could eat the light-brownish-yellowish thing it landed on.
Eventually he decided that that fly must have also been confused as to whether the small object in question was a breadcrumb or a grain of sand. He gave up eventually and went to properly eat his own lunch, but when he approached a bench, all the other kids ran away.
"Guys?" he asked the giggling gaggle of similarly small children. "Why are we running away?"
"Because you're it!" piped Tumfolep.
"But I want to talk to people!"
"Well, whoever's 'it' can always jump on an unspecific person." Khamet was quite sure that Tumfolep did not mean to say "unspecific," but he didn't know what word was appropriate, either. "And besides, all you do is talk about dumb things, no one really likes you."
"You're dumb!"
But Tumfolep was one of the most popular kids around, and as long as Khamet was "it," the other kids avoided him like he could spread the plague. "It" was the most terrible curse somebody of less-than-a-decade's age could bear, it seemed like. All rooms were barricaded against his presence, all playgroups watched him with most suspicion, and the unpopular kids, finally having an excuse to ostracize someone else for once, threw pebbles at him.
In the end, Khamet found a nice secluded spot where nobody could be afraid of him anymore.
He was "it," he thought, and he couldn't get rid of his "it" status without also transferring it to another kid, who would also be burdened by the weight of being "it." He couldn't do that to anybody else. Not even that jerk Tumfolep. Especially not him. He was solely nourished, Khamet was sure, off of the approbation of others, and without that, he would starve to death.
A cat stepped out from underneath an overhang. Water dripped from his wet fur.. He hissed at the child who invaded his territory.
Holding back tears, Khamet shooed it away. "I'm it! Everything is over! You cannot come near me!"
The cat hesitated at this declaration and scurried off once the shadow of an adult came over Khamet. It didn't feel like a shadow, not really; the sunlight around him dimmed and turned slightly pink.
"What is wrong, Khamet?" the figure asked.
Khamet sniffed and loudly wailed her name, "Raia!" He started crying. "You cannot believe the day I've had! I am 'it' and nobody wants to talk to me! Tumfolep said nobody liked me anyways! And the losers threw this at me!"
He presented a pebble to her. Raia inspected it thoughtfully as she queried, "You're... it?"
"Yes! I've been tagged! And I will be tagged now and forever!"
"Why don't you just tag someone else?"
"That would be mean!"
Raia sighed. "This is true. It seems like your... peers... take this tagging thing quite seriously indeed. Would you like me to talk to them? I could--"
"--no! That would be embarrassing, and Tumfolep would call me a mama's boy again!"
"I'm not your mother," Raia pointed out. She extended a hand to Khamet, who refused on account that taking her hand would tag her as "it." Instead he pulled himself off the ground. Tear-stained sand was stuck to his pants.
"Then he would call me a sister's boy! Or a Raia-boy! That is no fun."
She crossed her arms. "Then what would you suggest to get yourself out of this situation? Can't you tag Tomfooler--I mean, Tumfolep? I think he would be deserving of such a fate."
He shook his head "no" and kicked the sand a little bit. Then an idea hit him. "I have to end 'it,' Raia. I could tag somebody who is... not a kid!"
"Somebody outside your social circle?"
"Yes! Somebody outside my celery circle!" asserted Khamet. "Then they will leave, and nobody will be 'it' ever again!"
"That is not altogether a horrible plan," said Raia, "but I think we can improve it somewhat. What if, instead of tagging just anybody outside your circle of friends, you tagged somebody that would apprciate the privacy?" She tilted her head past Khamet as though inviting somebody else into the conversation.
The cat emerged again.
"Somebody who," she continued, "would like nothing else than to not have water dumped on him by children. What say you, cat?"
"I think it is not a bad idea," he said, licking his paw. "How does one become 'it,' exactly?"
"You must be tagged by the current holder of the title of 'it,'" replied Raia matter-of-factly. "But the other children must see Khamet--this child over here--tag you. I propose this: You shall pretend to run away from Khamet in full view of the others, and when he touches you, you must exclaim your newfound 'it' status."
Even Khamet had to admit this plan was good. It involved the help of a cat, sure, but it was for the greater good, to end the curse of "it" once and for all!
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Post by Thorn on Oct 14, 2019 2:06:07 GMT -5
For Day 14- Play, I worked through some stuff for EuroAtlantis. Which I can't share because it was Worldbuilding Stuff. It was fun though!
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Post by June Scarlet on Oct 14, 2019 21:23:27 GMT -5
Jill Scarlet, Dorothy Scarlet, and Yibit Scarlet are all sisters. This must mean more sibling good times, right? Play
"Hey, Dorothy, you wanna play a game?" said the Rainbow Cybunny.
"Nah," said the Pink Kacheek, "I'd rather draw, Jill."
"Oh... I guess we can do that," said Jill, trying not to look at the game console by the Neovision screen.
So they set up on the coffee table with crayons and sheets of paper. Dorothy started drawing Faerieland, while Jill looked around for inspiration. Just then, Yibit skipped into the room. "Whacha doin'?"
"Nothing," said Dorothy quickly. "We were just finishing up and were about to play a game. It's one-player; you can't play."
"Oh..." said Yibit dejectedly.
"You could watch, though," said Jill helpfully. Dorothy shot Jill a look, to which Jill shrugged. "She wouldn't bother us, would you, Yibit?"
"No! I'll be nice and quiet!" said Yibit.
"Fine," mumbled Dorothy.
So Jill turned on the console, and set up the game, one of her favorites, Assignment 53. It was this awesome platformer about Alien Aishas traveling through space to rescue scientists. She picked up the controller, already imagining the moves she'd make to get past the first few levels. She heard there was a secret room you could access in the second to last level, maybe she could get there this time, get a high score. She glanced over at Dorothy, who was looking at her expectantly. No, she was looking at the controller expectantly. Jill handed it over, to watch Dorothy die on the first level by running into enemy plants too many times.
"Meh, this is a stupid game," said Dorothy.
"It is kind of stupid," agreed Jill. "Mind if I give it a try?"
So Dorothy handed Jill the controller. Jill raced through the first level, and on to the second. She dodged and jumped at all the right places, avoiding enemies, collecting stars.
"Wow," said Yibit, "You're so good at this game!"
Jill basked in the complement while trying to keep her concentration.
"You," said Dorothy, rounding on Yibit, "said you were going to be quiet. I'm telling Jane!"
Jill tried to ignore them the best she could.
"Then I'll tell Jane that you won't share the game."
She was so close to the next checkpoint.
"It's a one-player game! You can't share! That's the whole point!"
Jill reached the little stand that marked the checkpoint, then set down the controller and said, "If you tell Jane, then no one will get to play this game, understand? And we'll all get in trouble too. Just let me finish this game, okay? And then Yibit can have a turn. We can share."
Or at least that's what she thought about saying. Instead she said, "Yeah."
Yibit crossed her arms. "I'm playing my own one-player game, then. And I'm not sharing either!" Then she stormed off.
Dorothy grinned. Jill didn't.
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Post by Blueysicle on Oct 15, 2019 19:28:16 GMT -5
Couldn't find any motivation yesterday, and now I'm a day behind. =_= I can't imagine myself getting today's prompt done before the end of the day, so it looks like I'm going to have to catch up some other time. I feel like even if it wasn't a matter of stage fright, an audition involving Flicker probably would not have gone very smoothly, since he'd likely consider "screaming his lines very loudly" to be good acting. (Much like I did when I was in school plays as a kid. ) Day 14: Play
Sometimes, when Flicker was bored or at a loss of how to spend the day, he would head over to Dimitri's workshop where there was no shortage of mechanical novelties and gadgets to amaze him. That day was no different, as the first thing he noticed when he walked in was a large contraption made in the image of a three-headed petpet.
“Whoa... What's this?” Flicker asked in as many words as he could manage while his breath was scarce.
Dimitri fluttered down from the machine's back and said, “A prop that I'm making for the theater division. Watch this.”
At the turn of a crank on the machine's side, the heads bobbed back and forth. All the while, the jaws snapped at the air and filled it with the sound of clashing metal. Even if it wasn't a living creature, it still exuded the sense of danger that the real thing would – much to Flicker's delight.
“The script in the play they're doing calls for a giant Hydruplit to menace a some gladiators and wizards, so they commissioned me to make this. Looks a lot scarier that a bunch of people in a costume, doesn't it?” Dimitri further explained with a grin.
As much as Flicker agreed, there was one word that Dimitri said that stuck out to him. “What's a 'play?'”
Dimitri gave Flicker a bewildered look. “You... you don't know what a play is?”
Flicker shook his head.
There was a flash of awkwardness in Dimitri's face, but it quickly vanished as he told Flicker, “Uh, well... it's when a group of people get up on a stage and act out a story. They wear costumes to make them look like their role, and they decorate the stage to make it look like real life too.”
“So a bunch of people are going to dress up like gladiators and wizards and pretend to fight monsters?!” Flicker exclaimed as the volume and excitement in his voice increased with each word.
“Well, a play could be about anything, really,” Dimitri replied with a laugh as he climbed back onto the machine and resumed working.
“Still! It sounds so cool!”
Dimitri paused for a moment of thought. When that moment was up, he gestured at Flicker with his wrench and said, “Y'know, I think I heard that they still need to fill some extra roles. Maybe you ought to think about auditioning.”
“Really?” Flicker said, taken aback for a second. “You think I could do it?”
It didn't seem to matter how much he looked around the city for his calling, Flicker was unable to find anything that particularly grabbed his interest. But acting sounded fun. Once he began to consider Dimitri's suggestion, he found himself turning his body for the door without even realizing it at first. Maybe this was it. And if it was, then he needed to seize the chance as soon as possible.
“Sure! And hey, if you got lots of experience and land a bunch of roles, you could get tons of people flocking to watch you,” Dimitri added casually.
Flicker immediately froze in place. “Wait... what you mean 'watch?'”
Dimitri raised his eyebrow at Flicker. “I mean, that's kind of the whole point of a play. Acting doesn't do much good if nobody comes to see you... well, act.”
With each passing second, more and more of the enthusiasm Flicker had over the idea of acting fled from his mind, until he barely had any memory of it at all. “Uh... how many people would watch?”
“Oh geez, I don't know. Depends on the theater and the play. A few dozen, a couple hundred... Actually, I think the biggest theaters can hold thousands of people.”
In the span of no more than an instant, Flicker's eyes widened and his jaw loosened. It was all at nothing less than the word, “thousand.”
Just the very thought of it... thousands of people, twice as many eyes, all fixed on him as he held their complete and undivided attention. Watching every minute move, listening to the slightest syllable, and judging every aspect of his existence.
Dimitri made a slight intake of breath as he started to say something, which was all it took for Flicker to snap out of his cold daze. “Oh... Are you the kind of guy that gets stage fright?”
Flicker wasn't familiar with the term itself, but he recognized the emotion behind it and gave a moan in response.
“Yeah... I guess I wouldn't recommend acting, in that case,” Dimitri stated with a sigh. “Can't say I blame you though. That's why it doesn't thrill me much. I was in a play when I was a little kid. Had a bit role, only one line.”
Dimitri slackened his posture and grimaced to himself. “I froze up and forgot it.”
Flicker flinched and jerked his shoulders upwards. It was all too easy to imagine himself doing the same exact thing. Either way, it seemed that he'd have to keep looking. |
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Post by June Scarlet on Oct 15, 2019 20:54:25 GMT -5
Wanmei is an adventuring Striped Meerca, you can see her in the thumbnail here (and read one of her adventures as well): www.neopets.com/ntimes/index.phtml?section=546934&week=577Scream
"It's the Idol of a Thousand Screams, at last!"
Wanmei reached out to grab the totem, but her short Meerca body couldn't reach the pedestal it stood on. "Hrmph," she grumbled.
She stepped back, and took a running leap at the pedestal, her tail streaming behind her like a long ribbon. She snatched the idol in midair, tucking into a graceful roll as hit the ground, the totem safe in her arms. She tipped her hat at an imaginary companion. "That's how it's done."
The pedestal made a slight grating sound as it rose up an inch. Wanmei sighed, but didn't even bother to duck as arrows shot across the chamber. They whizzed a couple feet above her head.
There were certain advantages to being only knee-high.
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