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Been a hot minute since I participated in this, I'm In with a prompt.
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Jan 12, 2022 13:51
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| # ¿ May 16, 2024 09:23 |
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Prompt: A young wizard learns the value of honesty in high school. Word count: 1094 Royce at the end of the world Royce had been called into the principals office. It wasn't the first time but he hoped it would be the last. The principal, Aaron Grundwisser, was a hot shot young wizard only in his 30's yet he had somehow gotten this post in a rural wizarding high school. Royce had come to know him due to his near constant visits to the office, but it wasn't as if Royce was bad. Just clumsy. And this time he had clumsily skated into the girls locker room after some bullies had turned his shoes into ice. "It wasn't my fault!" Royce cried as he sat down. The principal hadn't even managed to reply before another teacher asked to speak with him outside. Royce stood up to stretch his back and wondered how they had managed to hit him so well with the ice spell. He tried it out himself and managed to slip again and he felt like half the room fell with him to the floor. In a panic Royce started to arrange things back the way he remembered them, hoping no one had heard anything but there was a problem. The flaming chalice was no longer flaming on its pedestal. Gingerly picking up the chalice Royce felt a crackle of power as he lit it up with a simple fire spell and sat down. Shortly thereafter the principal entered the room, seemingly none the wiser. "Listen Royce, I've seen you in here more than enough times and given you the boiler plate whenever you got bullied and here's the deal: I used to be like you when I was your age until I stood up for myself." "What do you mean?" "Make them regret loving with you. Nothing permanent of course, and you never heard this from me." "But can't you do something about it?" "Not really, we've been held back from doing anything for as long as I've been here. Now get back to class and I'll have a talk with the other boys." As Royce walked back to class he ran across the bullies. "Hey it's the pervert!" One of them said loudly "Royce the perv!" Royce kept looking at the floor and just walked past them. Back in class he thought to himself "I wish a troll or something would just rip those fuckers apart." A slight bit later and there was a lot of noise and screaming outside the classroom. The principal slammed open the classroom door and pointed at Royce. "You, get the gently caress out here right now!" Royce followed the principal who was walking fast. "What's going on?" he asked. "How the gently caress did you do it?" "Do what?" They rounded a corner and before them was the corpse of a troll and some things Royce couldn't identify, but there was a lot of blood. "That." The principal finished his thought. School staff were standing around, some nursing wounds from the fight with the troll but Royce managed to identify the parts of his bullies. "But I didn't do anything! I was in class!" Royce protested. "So a troll just happened to appear in the middle of the drat school and rip your bullies apart?" "I'm not the only one they bullied! And I don't even know how to summon a troll, maybe a bee at most!" "We're going to figure this out. You're suspended until then, go back to your room and stay there!" Back in his room Royce was fuming, this was all so unfair. It wasn’t his fault the bullies had died. He wished the entire town and everyone in it would just disappear into the void or something, rid this world of this miserable place with these miserable people. There was a knock at the door and the principal entered, speaking in a calm voice. “Royce, when you were alone in my room did anything happen?” “No.” Royce lied. “Royce, this is very important. Did anything happen?” The principal continued with a forced calmness. Royce could tell the principal was angry. He closed his eyes and wished he wasn’t in his room anymore. Opening his eyes again to answer the accusations Royce discovered he was outside the dorms. It was beginning to dawn on him that he might have something to do with things as he looked up at the black sky. The principal came running out of the dorm. “You need to stop!” The principal shouted. “Stop? I don’t know what I’m doing!” “You did something in my room, didn’t you!” “No! Well I kind of accidentally knocked over some stuff but I put it all back! You didn’t even notice, it’s fine!” The principal pointed at the black sky. “That is not fine! The troll was not fine! Now calm down! What exactly did you do?” “Well there was this weird pedestal with a flaming chalice, I noticed the flame went out when it fell so I re-lit it. But that’s it!” “YOU RE-LIT THE CHALICE?” “Is that what’s causing all the problems? I wish that chalice didn’t exist! I didn’t mean to do anything!” “Wait no! Wish us back into the world!” “What?” “The chalice is a very powerful artifact I was supposed to safeguard, it’s bound to you through the flame you lit! Now wish this town back into the world!” Royce tried to wish them back but nothing happened. They walked back into the principals office and the chalice was gone. “gently caress.” The principal breathed out. “Why were you keeping this thing in here where students are constantly coming in and out?” Royce asked, trying to deflect blame. “I figured I should keep an eye on it, yet I didn’t even notice the flame had changed to someone else.” The principal spoke in a monotone voice now. “How do we get back into the real world?” “I don’t know, maybe we just don’t. I can’t show my face anywhere after this fiasco.” “At least the chalice doesn’t need guarding anymore?” Suddenly the principal showed a bit more emotion. “Go the gently caress back to your room.” Royce thought he heard the hint of a laugh behind those words. For Royce, life significantly improved even in this hopeless void. No more bullies to bother him and the school staff had decided to not reveal that he was the cause for them being in the void now. Maybe some day someone would figure out a way to return them or maybe the outside world would discover them but until then everyone would try to keep going on with their lives as usual.
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Jan 16, 2022 15:35
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The previous prompt ruined me (yes I'm deflecting blame!), hoping I can redeem myself by being in again.
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Jan 18, 2022 11:03
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Prompt was: golden oldie who was once the most famous musician in all the land but they are being HUNTED, oh no! The unmaking of the song 1 198 words There was a lot of commotion around Gustavo as his senses returned to him. A crossbow bolt was sticking out of his shoulder and it looked like a poisoned tip. He had been performing the one hit he had "My last love" and though he knew some didn't like it a crossbow bolt was uncalled for. In the commotion and fights breaking out, no one had come to check on him, so he escaped out the back to his horse and just started riding home. "My last love" felt like the only song he ever performed anymore and he had done it for over thirthy years at this point. Nothing else of his material had stuck, but this was an ear worm many loved and many hated, most of all Gustavo himself. Some would say it was the song that had made him, but he would say it destroyed him. After riding non stop for three days, Gustavos body was numb from the poison. He hadn't dared remove the bolt fearing it would further spread the poison. He had finally reached the house his father had built. Carefully he slid of the horse, led it to the stable and saw it was fed and watered. He removed the saddlebags and stumbled inside. He took a slab of fire wood and with only one good hand tried to shave off some of it with an axe for tinder. It felt like it took an eternity before he finally had the start of a fire built. He checked that the flue was closed and lit the fire. "I TOLD YOU SONSOFBITCHES IF YOU DON'T OPEN THE FLUE WE'RE ALL GOING TO CHOKE TO DEATH IN OUR SLEEP!" "Hey dad." Gustavo muttered. Abel, his father, had been the first to light the fireplace in the house and after his passing became the house spirit. The easiest way to summon him was to do something that would anger him. "You being the old village healer, can you tell me how to cure this poison?" The spirit tasted the poison and thought for a bit, "Vhoacka frog from down south. Slow way to die, but not the worst. Diluted Vhoacka poison is a very good pain killer and muscle relaxant. You would know this if you hadn't become some stupid... Bard." That was his fathers way of talking, even when trying to help there had to be an insult or complaint thrown in. "Just shame it out, you do remember how to shame poison?" Gustavo considered the origin of frogs. The frog spawns in water, the domain of the sea serpent. He started to conjure up a song: "Oh poison that courses through my veins, to you I do proclaim, made for survival, now used for hate, leave or the serpent will decide your fate." Shamed, the poison sprayed out of the wound. The spirit looked down at Gustavo disapprovingly. "Clumsy, I would have thought a bard could do better." Without the numbing effect of the poison the pain of the bolt and the long ride slowly seeped into the bones. Gustavo keeled over on his good shoulder and gasped. "How do I deal with the bolt?" he managed to bleat out. "Well son, what's the bolt made of?" "The tip is steel." "And it being steel made for killing it can't be shamed, but only the shaft is in you now." "Which comes from the mother of all roots who promised protection and warmth." Gustavo was starting to recall some of the lessons from before he left and drew in a deep breath and started to sing: "Oh wood so hatefully lodged in my shoulder, promise me you'll soon smolder, burn my flesh, seal my wound, or I betray you to the mother of wood." The shaft of the bolt was incinerated in a white hot flame. Abel was frowning in disappointment at the rhymes. Gustavo spent the night eating dried meat and bread while drinking an unwise amount of wine to dull the pain. Waking up the next day he felt like his hangover was worse than the bolt through the shoulder ever was. Walking out to the main room he found a woman in her thirties sitting and chatting with Abel. There was a crossbow and a sword on the table. The woman noticed Gustavo. "So this is the Great Gustavo Abelsson? I was hoping the poison would slow you down more than it did." For a killer she seemed remarkably calm. "What do you want with me?" Gustavo asked, trying to think of an escape route. "I was cursed to hear your 'Song' until you died. I can't take it anymore. It's so saccharine, repetitive, juvenile it's just garbage and I can't stop hearing it!" "Dad, do you have any input on this? You used to be a healer." "And you should have followed in my footsteps boy! I've discussed the issue with Agatha here and the curse can only be lifted by the death of the song or the singer." "How do you kill a song?" Gustavo asked while eyeing the sword. "It's not easy, you need to shame yourself into forgetting the song. I convinced Agatha to give it a try rather than kill you." Gustavo lunged for the sword on the table. He didn't get far before Agatha had slashed him with a dagger she'd kept hidden. "Too slow, old man. How did you think this would play out?" The wound wasn't deep but it was painful, "Death or shame, make your choice" she continued while Gustavo was gripping the wound. "I suppose we can try the shaming." Abel threw him a wineskin. "Drink up, boy." Gustavo began drinking but the taste was horrible, "Great Mother what is this?" "Just drink it up son." He finished the drink and things suddenly got strange as if he could feel what objects around him could feel. The world was dissolving around him. Suddenly Abel and Agatha came running at him from nowhere. "Put him in the oven!" Abel shouted. "In the oven!" Agatha agreed. Gustavo tried to fight back but was too weak. They dragged him for what felt like miles until they shoved him in the oven. Something compelled him to crawl deeper. "Sing the song!" Abels voice called from outside. "Yeah the sing the song!" Agatha shouted. Gustavo took a deep breath of the hot air, feeling it singe his lungs but he had to sing. "My love runs deep, but it can not keep, on the table no meat, buy honey so sweet... Wait how did it go?" The fire was burning him badly. "Keep singing!" Abel called out. "I have to leave, find bread and mead..." But the words were gone. "SING!" Agatha commanded. "I can't! I don't know the words!" Gustavo could feel himself succumbing to the flames. "SING OR YOU DIE!" Abel shouted. But Gustavo couldn't sing anymore. He lost consciousness. Waking up was a surprise to Gustavo as he was convinced he had died. Agatha had left, curse lifted. With the song dead, Gustavo had to find a new career and so he started to train healers with his fathers help.
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Jan 23, 2022 17:00
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