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Post by Birdy on Oct 3, 2022 20:13:47 GMT -5
Hooray! It's here! ...Even if the board is late. But yes, OCtober is upon us once again! This thread will act as the hub for OCtober on the NTWF! Feel free to chat, post your work, comment on other's work (because let's be honest, we all love those comments or even just a like), and, most importantly, torment characters have fun! But wait - "What's OCtober?" I hear you ask? It's simple! Below you will find a list of 31 prompts - one for each day in October. The idea is to create something about an Original Character (OC) of yours pertaining to the theme for that day. Interpretations of the prompt can be as literal or as loose as you want! And if you participate in this or Artober, you are eligible for the shiny October Creative Challenge badge! Can't write something every day? Want to skip around? That's okay! Write what you can, when you can. This is meant to spark ideas and just celebrate OCs and their stories. No worries. It's all good. ^_^ Previous years can be found here (with more info and such): OCtober | OCtober II | OCtober III | OCtober 2021So without further ado, the Prompt List for 2022! Prompt List: - Birthday
- Forbidden
- Space
- Mistake
- Treachery
- Quest
- School
- Hero
- Villain
- Big
- Little
- Ancient
- Grow
- Fly
- Fall
- Vacation
- Mystery
- Famous
- Tired
- Apology
- Explosion
- Rivalry
- Ruin
- Heal
- Free
- Mask
- Magic
- Terror
- Truth
- Lie
- Haunt
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Post by Moni on Oct 13, 2022 14:46:51 GMT -5
lmao I am super late to all of these. So two a day it is! 1. Birthday: featuring Khamet and Sabef "Happy birthday, by the way," said Sabef, plucking a string on an old lute. "It *is* today, right?"
"It is," replied Khamet, "but now that I think of it, I didn't do anything on the actual day of my birth. My mom did all the work. I should give her something today."
"If you say so." He shrugged. "You can't go wrong with a few baked sweets."
"I'm thinking more of a lockpick. She likes those."
Sabef plucked another string. This one was a little out-of-tune. "A lockpick? Sounds reasonable." As reasonable as anything Khamet ever did, anyways, but it didn't strike him as a good idea to feed his mother's bad habits. 13. Grow: Featuring Alex, Rahul's granddaughter (Rahul is an elf and lives uhhh longer than humans do) Alex, a 25-year-old human woman, stared at the monkeybars her grandmother had so kindly introduced into her cell--sorry, "safety chamber"--after she had issued a complaint that she wasn't getting a lot of exercise. They were installed right above the sandbox so it would break her fall in case she fell. You know, for the two inches of height between her feet and the ground.
For lack of anything better to do, Alex hung from one of the bars for a few moments, letting go when her fingers started to hurt. She didn't recall them being *this* difficult to traverse. |
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Post by Moni on Oct 13, 2022 23:57:24 GMT -5
2. Forbidden (featuring Ricardo (the BBEG of petting zoo squad) (yes his name is ricardo) (Very Important Characterization))
"Rise!" commanded Ricardo as he watched his old undead minions unceremoniously dig out his new undead minions from their graves. The zombies did their menial work dutifully; those with higher reasoning capabilities explained to the newcomers that Ricardo was their new ruler, and that they were to do anything he asked, without question.
"Ah, so he is like a king?" asked one of the "recruits."
"No, no," explained the skeleton-with-a-brain, "don't say that word. That word's forbidden."
"King?"
The word was said with enough loudness that Ricardo had noticed; he strolled along, and if the skeleton-with-a-brain had eyes, they would have shot metaphorical daggers at the new guy.
"There are no kings here," said Ricardo.
"But we say what you do without question, and you technically have absolute authority over us."
"That is because I am your elected ruler. This is a democratic society, after all."
"I didn't vote for you."
His blue eyes flared thoughtfully. "Well, this is your chance to vote for your ruler. You may vote for me, or anybody else in this room."
"I--"
"Please keep in mind that I have the power of life or death over you. That's the platform I ran on."
"Of course."
14. Fly (featuring Khamet and not my OC, Will the Incubus) (also featuring houseflies.) Will hiccupped, and a fly flew out of his mouth.
"Will," said Khamet helpfully, "you run a cafe."
"I know."
"Flies spread disease."
"I know."
"Have you tried putting a net over your mouth? It's like a hairnet, but for your mouth."
"I wear a mask in the kitchen."
"But is it a mouthnet? I feel like that would work better."
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Post by Moni on Oct 15, 2022 0:46:06 GMT -5
3. Space (feat. Christian Vu)
Christian stared into the vastness of outer space. Technically speaking, the empty vastness was the most common thing in the universe, so it was not very interesting. The stars were comparatively more interesting, and without the light pollution of earth, they littered the otherwise-empty void as far as the eye could see.
The machines hummed--not very interesting, because, well, computers were everywhere nowadays. They even had smart toilets now--in fact, this spaceship came with one, and it had tried to convince him on many occasions that he would turn into a wolf. This was nonsense, let alone a very uninteresting story. Mashing together a wolf and a human? Two very common things? It didn't strike him as being creative.
Although, he thought, maybe wolves and humans were more interesting in space than they were on planet Earth. After all, here, life wasn't very common. He pondered upon this fact, and made some adjustments to his interestingness calculations.
15. Fall (featuring edgelad and writing advice) Cepith had very little talent for the arts, and he knew this. His tastes far, far outstripped his abilities--so much so that he could say that, in limit, he may have had no skill at all. He glared at the sheet of paper as though trying to intimidate it into spontaneously generating a touching love poem.
I can't believe I do this, he thought. Something is wrong with me.
Outside, the desert was as dry as ever. But elsewhere, this time of year, it was autumn. Cepith had only ever heard of the season in books and paintings and Khamet's descriptions, but it was supposed to be beautiful and fiery and chilly, but not unpleasantly so, like an oasis, perhaps.
Autumn... falling leaves... something about falling in love, maybe? he thought, and scribbled something down before he could forget. Khamet would enjoy receiving these anyways, and as much as he was loathe to admit it, there was something nice about writing them It didn't matter if they were good, he wasn't going to publish them in an anthology. Besides, it was better to try and produce something than be hamstrung by self-embarrassment; certainly he wouldn't let it get in the way. |
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Post by Moni on Oct 19, 2022 2:46:00 GMT -5
4. Mistake (feat. Edgelad) "Sir, I asked for five copper."
"This is five copper," insisted Cepith.
"No, it isn't. This is nine copper." The merchant took out his abacus and, one-by-one, laid every copper he was given on the table, incrementing the beads with each iteration. "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine."
"Oh, of course... I must be tired today." 5. Treachery (feat. Bird) Bird was betrayed!
His gray human friend had lured him with the most special, delectable seed--and while he was busy eating it, he found himself transported to a tiny cage, and taken away! Then, the next thing he knew, he was forced to come face-to-face with his arch-nemesis!
The human-bird! A bird with wings and a beak, but with legs and hands like a human! He was the worst. He would poke at him and prod at him and his calls were very ugly, something like "Your bird appears healthy--that's always good! Be sure to bring him next year for a checkup!" What an awful creature! 6. Quest (feat. Lady of the Lake) The Lady of the Lake rose from the water. From her house she felt familiarly unfamiliar footsteps in the grass--goblin footsteps--but footsteps made heavy by the weight of newfound responsibility--and, of course, a makeshift bronze crown. The crown was probably going to be heavier than the responsibility, but she was open to surprises.
When she finally saw him, she spread her wings to make herself seem more regal and imposing, and then wrapped them around the small, green creature. "Welcome... I hereby crown you the new Meep. I have a quest for you..." 7. School (feat Khamet, and not my OC, Solstriana) Khamet had always wanted to go to school; he knew Amani hated it, but he was told he had an inquisitive mind (sometimes *too* inquisitive, and he loved learning. So he asked Master Solstriana if he could sit in on a few introductory courses at the Institute of the Third Eye.
"I admire your initiative, Khamet, but it would seem perhaps you are not magically-gifted. It would be better for you to find another school."
"Do you think I should try going to music school?"
Solstriana grinned internally, envisioning Khamet giving Jane a run for her money, for once. "I believe Jane once made an offer for you to attend, did she not? It might be good to ask her." 16. Vacation (feat Khamet) Clemenberg was a strange little place, Khamet thought. It was a sail away from Akhetra, but it was small and kept to itself. Before coming here, he had only the foggiest idea of what it was like--now that he had spent a few days here, he learned a lot more about it, but there was still so much to explore, and that was fine by him. His journal was still so empty, and there were still so many people with so many questions to ask of them. 17. Mystery (feat Cadmia) "What are you reading?"
Cadmia glanced at her father without moving a muscle. "A mystery book. Someone got murdered in it."
"Any idea who could have done it?"
"It could be the servant," said Cadmia. "But it's too obvious; from the description, I think the detective did it." 18. Famous (featuring not my OC, amani, and not my OC, Riptide) "Riptide? How did you know my name?" asked Khamet
"Well, I am the leader of a gang, and thus I know all what goes on in Peninsula West. But you are also famous in Cai Shaan."
"We--we are?" Amani blinked, seemingly pulled out of their peace. "I mean, I don't know if we're famous..."
"You're acquainted with Lord Lyrelle, and also saved our town from a giant squid monster, *and* that house burning down in the beach is the talk of the city..."
"Yeah, but I always thought we were discreet about that stuff."
"Sweetie," said Riptide, "you are anything but discreet." 19. Tired (feat Khamet (again)) "Grandpa, I have a question," asked Khamet.
His great-great-grandpa nodded sagely. "Of course."
"If elves don't sleep, how are you ever tired?"
"Well, we can sleep, just not very often," he explained. "For us, when you're *really* tired, that's when you sleep." |
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Post by Moni on Oct 20, 2022 2:18:59 GMT -5
8. Hero (featuring Nalariel lmao, the BBEG of group B, oh and also his main motivation is attaining immortality so uh tw for death things (no death happens, this is a sort of """"afterlife"""" situation)) The great monk walks through the Shadowfell.
His name was Li Bo, the firstborn son of a peasant family, given away to a life of asceticism just after he was born. Growing up, he longed to know them, and never managed to find them. Nobody but him and his master knew his real name. Identity was but a cage, an illusion, to the monks of Cathshi, and so they pretended to have none.
In history he would be known as the one to defeat "Nathaniel," disappearing just as enigmatically as he appeared. Nobody remembers him, not the real man, anyways.
Perhaps that's what he wanted, thinks Nalariel as they once again stepped into the chilling realm of the Shadowfell. The great monk--Li Bo--turns toward him, face distorted in shadow, melting off into inky blackness, as is the fate of all Selves.
Normally this would inspire a sense of triumph, but Nalariel stares at him, almost for too long, imagining their own face slowly disappear from existence. With dread they blink away, leaving the great monk to his journey once more.
20. Apology (featuring Nee the cat and Cheo, Raia's gf) Cheo sighed. "Did you do this?"
"No," said Nee, who was actively chewing on the mouthful of salmon she had yoinked from the table.
"Mm-hm."
"Okay! Fine! It was me! But it was so tasty, and I am a cat: you cannot expect me not to try taking some!"
"You have a point," replied Cheo with a shrug. "But what do we do when we do something wrong? Do we hide it?"
"No, we apologize."
"Yes."
"I'm sorry." |
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Post by Moni on Oct 21, 2022 2:02:01 GMT -5
Catching up! 9. Villain (feat. a farmer idk)
At the end of every harvest season, Old Man Jones would condemn his old scarecrows to oblivion by tying them to the train tracks, but not before drawing the faces of people he hated on them.
His granddaughter, Millie, watched him dust off his hands and twirl his old, frizzy mustache. "Grandpa," she asked, pointing to one face she'd seen last year. "Who is that?"
"That's Tyler."
"Oh. Was he another farmer?"
"Classmate from elementary school, when I was your age," he clarified. "Still hate him."
21. Explosion (feat. smol Raia)
"Your child exploded," said the priestess calmly, dragging said child by the hand. Her parents stared at her; she was still perfectly intact, so it didn't *look* like she'd exploded.
"Right, clarification," she continued. "Your child is an aasimar. You know that. Sometimes, if they get worked up in righteous anger enough, their eyes will flare up. Sometimes, it can cause some serious damage. I need you to take her home."
"Righteous anger? What happened?"
"Miss Raia over here supposes it is unfair that adults get the fancy cushion seats," clarified the priestess.
Raia stomped her foot and her cheeks ballooned. "It isn't fair!"
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Post by Moni on Oct 25, 2022 0:38:24 GMT -5
10. Big The dragon refused to move out of its childhood cave, no matter how big it got; why should it have to relinquish its childhood wonders just because its body was growing 40 times its original size?
"But sir," the adventurer said, "you are going to cause structural damage to the mountain."
"I don't care."
"You'll get stuck there and die."
"Hm. I might care a little." 11. Little (Khamet) "We should make ants very big."
"Why should we?" asked his mom.
"Well, think about it. They can carry so much for their little size. If we can make them bigger, they would carry so many things for us!" 12. Ancient (feat. the Prismatic Healer, not my OC.) The Prismatic Healer had one very important piece of wisdom: always get a good night's sleep, and, whenever possible, do not disrupt his.
Sleep was vital to the preservation of healthy, luscious skin and sparkling rainbow fur. Did these mortals know anything about keeping their hides all sparkly? No, no they did not. That's why they died so quickly. 22. Rivalry (featuring Hatar) Hatar listened intently at Khamet's description of the "fiery horse" that came along with the "fiery lady."
Even though he was a horse, he understood that these were completely unoriginal, idiotic descriptions. Still, he wished he had a mane of fire, so that he could burn his enemies as he rushed past them, and provided comfortable warmth to his allies (Joy). He decided to find this "fiery horse," and decreed in his hear that they shall duel to the death! 23. Ruin (featuring Marg) (very important character) "Man, look at those mountains. They're all pyramids and stuff. Wicked."
"Marg," said the professor. "That is the site of an ancient temple."
"Has stuff growing on it."
"That's because it's a ruin!" 24. Heal (featuring Khamet and Raia) "Khamet, I'm going to need you to not eat glass."
"Why not? You can heal me."
"Khamet... next time, I'm not going to heal you. So you'd better stop eating it."
"Aww..." |
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Post by Moni on Oct 27, 2022 23:25:32 GMT -5
25. Free (featuring Khametmom) Khamet's great-grandfather rubbed his temples. "Sweetie, where did you get this from?"
"I got it for free."
"I saw it was for 5 silver on the market stand."
"Everything's for free if you're fast enough." 26. Mask (featuring Cadmia and Al) Cadmia wiped the paint off her fingers. This was it, she thought. Her masterpiece.
The mask she had just created was in the image of a cute kitten. Al seemed to like them, and she needed to get him a mask for the harvest celebration--so she figured, why not combine the two? 27. Magic (featuring Khamet, Edgy and Shape Water (TM)) "You say you can get any amount of water and freeze it at will?"
"Yeah!" Khamet grabbed a block of ice from a completely liquid glass of water to demonstrate. "So, I'm thinking we freeze a whole lot of holy water and drop it on random fiends. First, they get crushed by the sheer weight, and only a little bit of holy water would be used at a time. It's very efficient."
"Huh. You're right," replied Cepith. What a brilliant man! 28. Terror (featuring Cheo) Cheo raised a spear to the monster from the kitchen.
The mass of glutinous soup and chicken wrung its way out of the cooking pot and onto the floor. It crawled towards the door with barely-formed limbs, all the while tortured noises shuddered from its mouth.
She loved Raia very much, but next time, she was barred from cooking anything ever. |
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Post by Moni on Oct 30, 2022 3:54:03 GMT -5
29. Truth (featuring Fareigh, the ferry fairy) Because fey couldn't lie, they had to be careful with telling the truth, too.
It was simple, really. Suppose that whenever you told the truth, you were direct about it; then the moment you were indirect, anybody with half a brain could guess you had something to hide, a reason not to say the whole truth.
Other fairies understood this, and in fact played games trying to extend simple conversations to ludicrously absurd lengths. But mortals found this tendency somewhat troubling.
"What do you mean? Will this ship sink or not?" they would ask.
Fareigh, frustrated, would reply: "Whether or not the ship sinks is entirely dependent on its construction, my skill in piloting it, and luck. It is perhaps advisable to ride this ship, for it is maybe one of the methods of traversing to Cathshi."
This obviously meant "no," but this seemed to scare people away for some reason. Eventually, Fareigh forced themselves to be more direct with them.
30. Lie (featuring Khamet and Sabef)
"Fiends don't feel pain," said Khamet. "I don't really think their last moments can be agonizing."
"Uh," started Sabef, about to correct his friend, but the last time he did so, he had a 5-hour mental crisis about his ex-girlfriend, Panamora. So perhaps it was best to simply not correct him. "Well, if they did, it would certainly not be a good idea to torment them for no reason."
"You should stick to old reliable: tormenting your older siblings."
Sabef nodded sagely. "I agree."
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Post by Moni on Oct 31, 2022 0:24:25 GMT -5
31. Haunt: 2 things, 1 recycled (something that was originally inspired by the prompt but written like in the middle of the month), 1 hot-off-the-presses originale Originale: feat: Cad and Al (again) "Where are we going?" signed Al.
Cadmia was skipping to ahead of him under the full moon, clouds of sand puffing up under her sandals. Her mother, rightfully suspicious of a former deathlock, trailed behind. "Where do you think?"
Al did not know, and he told her that.
"You're not supposed to! It's a surprise! Just keep following me, come on!"
He followed her to a crypt at the end of the road, a large, limestone building that looked like it had been erected for centuries. Carved figures swathed the outside; smoke came out of the entrance. It smelled heavily of insense, but Al couldn't smell it.
"This place is haunted," said Cadmia, nodding wisely.
"Haunted?"
"Mm hm! I've been thinking, you need more friends than the undead servants at the temple, you know? And this place--well, there's some zombies, some ghosts... all sorts of interesting characters! But there's one thing about it..."
Al stopped at the precipice of the entrance. Before he could ask any more questions, he felt two small hands shove him a few steps into the crypt.
"It's an undead-only event!"
He saw Cadmia nod encouragingly. "You should go! Mom told all the crypt ghosts about you. Right, mom?"
"In...deed," her mother signed badly. She handed him a piece of papyrus paper. "This... is invite. Show. I come after midnight. Cadmia need sleep."
"Bye, Al!"
Al gave them a wave, and went to see what the undead-only event was about. It turned out to be a very polite meet-and-greet, and for some reason involved political organizing. He did not know for what, but he enjoyed his time meeting others like him. Good idea. recycled (featuring edgelad, haunted by hunger apparently. as always, edgy is the worst and you should never feel bad for him. laugh at his pain. i guess uhhh misophonia warning.) Sometimes Cepith heard the hounds scuttering outside and eating. He couldn't stand the eating. With every sound of chewing and smacking and sniffling and ripping apart, his mouth watered. He would cover his ears and focus on the raw smell and on the pulsating walls of his cell.
Pangs of unnatural hunger pulled on his neck like a leash: join them, they said.
Certainly the hounds were undignified. Certainly they were mindless. Certainly nothing drove them except gluttonous hunger, empty hunger without purpose, hunger that could never die and return its contents to nature. Hunger here did not make his stomach growl, did not make him feel weak; it did not even evoke memories of happy seaside lunches or homecooked meals.
But it weathered at him, begging to be satisfied anyways.
How long do I expect to keep this up?
Until I die. Or until someone comes for me. Khamet. The name came quietly, hoping to evade his other thoughts. It has to be Khamet. She wouldn't have posed as him for nothing.
He left me.
Only for a time.
To breeze around the world. Do you think he hasn't found somebody a million times better than a shattered abacus? A paladin who could not defend himself against fiends? A paladin who owns nothing, not even his mind?
He wouldn't betray me, wouldn't leave me.
It happened to mother. Do I think it wouldn't happen to me? Or am I better than her?
No. It had nothing to do with her; father is treacherous, cruel. Despises me, still despises me. Fickle. Useless.
He's good to Cadmia.
He is, isn't he?
Good for her. She inspired him to change.
But why didn't I inspire him to change?
That’s in the past.
Maybe there's a good reason for it, after all. What did he know about my nature, about mother's nature? If he knew...
Did he know?
Doesn't matter if he knew or didn't know anything, a voice of clarity spat back. He's my father. I'm his son. I deserved--I--
Deserved what?
I don't know.
Now his stomach started to growl, and his body began to feel weak. He thought of the scent of warm, sweet starch pudding, the one he learned to make for his mother, the one he'd made for Cadmia, once, on a cold winter's night. |
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