Writing Explorations: Week 85, Protection

[The Mood is Write]

My Writing Explorations series of exercises are a chance for users to explore new concepts and practice the art of raising two fingers to Writer's Block while screaming obscenities to fickle muses: to rebel against the idea that a person requires a mythical force inside them to make new and amazing things.

No. Listen well, users: there is no being inside you waiting to be let out. You are the writer, and in this exercise, you are given a place to push not only against Writer's Block, but also against the forces of stagnation. Feel trapped in your genre? Explore a new one! Stuck with a singular archetype? Do something else! In this thread, you will not be critiqued unless you request it. Should you wish it, I will happily offer my thoughts on how it might be improved, but I will not comb looking for fixes: this isn't the place: this place is for safely trying new things and indulging a love of writing.

Shake the bars of your cell block and roar, writers!

[fieldbox=How do I take part?]You can write to one or more (or none) of the prompts, the theme in the thread title, the bonuses—hell, you can even cast aside all of what I offer if you get a different idea.

The whole point is "get writing!"[/fieldbox]

Prompts:

1. He set fire to the world around him, but he never let a flame touch her.
2. This character is possessed by a demon. It doesn't control them, but it does mention that it's just there because it doesn't want to go back to hell.
3. At 15, the protagonist told their beloved that they'd always be there when they were in need. Some weaver of fate heard this declaration and made it a reality. Whenever that loved one is in need, the protagonist appears. Problem is, they broke up after dating three weeks, and now it's a decade later.

Bonus Rounds:

• Write in a random genre.
• "Because she is dead!" she screamed. "Because she is dead, and I am left with my worthless life!"
• "I came into this world kicking and screaming while covered in someone else's blood, and I have no problem with going out the same way."
• "What's a condom?"
• Include a knight's shield, but don't have a character use it properly.

 

[Doctor Jax]

He set fire to the world around him, but he never let a flame touch her. Tires popped as cars were set aflame, their gas tanks taking the heat and converting it into pressure and expansive, explosive air. The world seemed to light in that moment, and Arnette stared at him with a deadpan expression.

"Ferreal? I could have just... you know, called my buddy to come pick me up," she said, holding up her cell phone.

The boy slumped forward in dejection, pulling on his hair.

"Crap! Crap! I was busy with my party! We were in a - dagnabbit! It's a good thing Raise Dead's gotten a lot cheaper to buy, or else Abe's gonna be seriously screwed."

"You know, you're an adult now. Mommy's not gonna get mad at you if you cuss," Arnette professed dismissively, though she bit her bottom lip in slight amusement.

"What was it this time?" he sighed heavily.

"Needed a condom."

"What's a condom?"

"Okay, I know that you're really sheltered, but come on now."

"No, seriously."

"... Honey, your momma ever have a conversation about the birds and the bees with you?" Arnette asked.

The boy frowned at her.

"Mom said that bees were good for arthritis," he answered.

"Huh. Maybe for once I didn't come to you, you came to me, because wow."

 

[The Mood is Write]

@Doctor Jax
Pfft! I love it! Great job weaving in that bonus prompt, too. <3 I needed that laugh!

 

[PoetLore]

Ian had been madly in love with Jenna when he was fifteen, and he promised to always be there for her. Hearing his young lover's promise Aphrodite was charmed and granted the young man's desire to always be there whenever his lovely maiden needed him.

They dated for a few weeks and discovered that they had very little in common and that their life goals were not very compatible either. The two amicably parted ways neither being the wiser to the magic Aphrodite had granted the promise. That is until the first time Jenna felt threatened.

She was walking though the medievel wing of the museum, during a field trip planned by the drama club for its members. She couldn't see who but she felt like someone was following her. Just as someone appeared out of the shadows, Ian appeared and without thinking grabbed a shield from a suit of armor and tossed it like a frisbee at the man and ushered her away and back to the group. Once she was safe he looked at her, "Are you ok?"

"Yeah...I think..." she said as she trembled, "I didn't know you were on this trip...or even a member of the drama club."

"I wasn't..and I'm not." He then disappeared and she blinked thinking she was losing her mind, but when she went back to the other room, there was the shield on the floor. When she got home that night she called him and they discussed the situation. neither had a good explanation, so they let it drop.

Ian is now twenty five and is in the process of studying for the bar exam, having completed college and law school. Jenna is working as a stylist in an upscale spa. Their lives never intersect unless Jenna is in need, a flat tire, a bad breakup, or the like. Jenna has come to rely on the fact that Ian will always be there, and Ian has grudgingly realized it will be so.

until today, Jenna's needs had never interfered too terribly with the natural progression and advancement of Ian's life, so he helped her and then whooshed away. Today however, in the middle of his bar exam, he was whisked away to Jenna's side and he was beside himself when he arrived. "OH NO NO NO NO....not NOW Jenna please....NOT NOW!"

Jenna had never heard Ian raise his voice and she winced at his anger and tears misted in her eyes.

Ian hadn't even looked at WHY he was there, he'd been lamenting being taken away from the exam. But when he saw her his eyes widened and he realized his little tirade had stolen the moment he could have helped her. The truck had pinned her to the side of the building. If he'd arrived and grabbed her as he normally would have, she would be fine. He watched she struggled for air. He reached for her hand, "I'm so sorry Jenna...Please...don't give up..."

Jenna's eyes were soft, "You kept your promise," she said, "Always here...now...be free..."

Ian watched as she slumped over and was gone. For the first time he was not whisked away and back to where he'd come from, but remained there holding her hand remembering that promise he made so many years ago.

 

[The Mood is Write]

@PoetLore
My HEART. My god, that hurt in such a good way! <3

 

[noodle]

(This is actually something I've written in some shape or form before, so this was fun to do again!)

Luna knew it was over the second she saw the bomb drop. Her eyes landed on Alex from across the battlefield. He had stopped in the middle of battle, screaming her name, his eyes wide in horror. The apocalypse continued around her, but all she saw was him at this moment.

The dragon turned on a dime and charged for him, her huge paws crunching bots beneath them. She raced death, hoping and praying that she could outrun it. She couldn't fly anymore, she knew....but she could run. Bots tackled her, their metal fingers scraping at her sides and wings, slowly dragging her to a stop with them. She screeched, flailing and bucking, trying to run. But it was no use. The bomb hit the ground not three feet away from her, and then fire was all she knew. She was tossed up and jerked around in the air as it exploded, its flames engulfing everything within reach. She couldn't feel it on her scales.....but metal slammed into her, leaving gashes and cuts, and her body convulsed and slammed back down into a pile of ash and twisted metal.

She had already been injured, and this was the end. The girl knew there was no saving her. So she simply shifted to human form, the world tilting around her sprawled out, heavily bleeding body. She couldn't feel most of the injuries, as her adrenaline was numbing her, but she knew she wouldn't be able to move- there were pieces of metal stabbed through her legs and stuck in her gut, after all.

As she waited for the cold embrace of death, she remembered the past. She remembered meeting Alex on that cold night, both of them kids afraid of themselves. She remembered fighting together, saving each other time after time. Dancing on the rooftop. The proposal. Their three kids, a girl, and twin boys, waiting back at the safe house for their parents to come home. Every happy day in their thirty years of marriage that ever existed, and all the sad ones as well. She was so, so grateful for it all.

Her eyes were still open and she was clinging to life, hoping for one last moment with Alex before she was gone. She could hear him shouting dimly in the distance, could hear the bots being destroyed as he ran for her. And then...there he was, standing over her, dropping to his knees and gathering her broken body in his arms. Robots were on their way toward them again, their twisted metal bodies stumbling forward and disturbing their peace.

They still had time.

Just a little, but it was time.

Luna offered him a small, shaky smile. The blood in her mouth pooled over and ran down her chin. "Alex." Her voice was small and almost pleading.

"You're going to be okay, alright? I promise you're going to be okay, I-" his voice cracked. Even the usually hopelessly optimistic one knew it was over as he saw her metallic eyes dimming.

Slowly, carefully, the dragon girl lifted a shaking hand and placed a finger on his lips as her silver eyes met his green ones. "Take care of them." Through ringing ears, she could hear her voice getting softer as the pain in her body started to dull.

"I will. I will, I promise. You...you're going to be alright. You'll help me, yeah?" Alex forced himself to his feet, cradling her to his chest. "I'm taking you back. Xander can heal you. You're...you..."

"Alex." She repeated his name, but she couldn't hear her own voice now as blackness tugged at the corners of her mind.

"Just hold on!" He was almost yelling now, his voice desperate as he started to run. She flinched, the jostling sending the first jolts of pain through the wounds...but it wasn't for long. Her body started going numb and she relaxed, her head lolling back.

"I love..." Luna never got to finish her words, because her life left her seconds after the unfinished phrase ended.

"Lu?" Alex stopped, staring down at his wife's face with that hopeless expression that can only be found in someone that had seen too much death too soon. He dropped to his knees again and hugged her still warm body close, sobbing into her blood matted black hair. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry," All he could do was repeat the same phrase over and over, rocking back and forth as his wails filled the air. He was gripping her so tightly his knuckles turned white, but he knew she couldn't feel his breath on her face anymore.

She wouldn't be able to ever again.

That was the realization that broke him fully.

The fire flared out of his body, his anger and grief consuming every enemy that came remotely close. He set fire to the world around him, but he never let a flame touch her. Finally, the ash settled, and the broken man was left with nothing but a body. He stood.

Alex didn't return to the safe house that night. Instead, he walked, always carrying her, leaving a trail of melted metal and flames behind. He walked, until, when the stars arched over the black sky, he found his destination. The hill where he'd proposed, where a twisted old tree still held their initials- one of the few places in this god-forsaken world to not be burned yet.

There he knelt, and he let the fire consume her. He watched silently as she burned, and stared into the night where her ashes were whisked away by the wind. And then he whispered the words that she never got to finish, a bittersweet taste on his lips as he did so. "I love you."

Finally, as the sun began to rise over a shattered earth, he turned and began walking back to the safe house, numb and with a fractured heart.

It was time to finish this.

 

[ArgentAconit]

Everything was roaring, bending, buckling, crying and blistering around them. Light touched every corner, every stone, every wooden beam except for where it did not. Deep shadows licked at these places in hunger, taking a reprieve in the accumulating smoke that danced across the ceiling and twirled through the heat waves that met it anxiously above their heads. The world was on fire around them and yet, they remained untouched- if a little sooty. Serren's green eyes, alight with magic, stared holes into the young princess standing in front of him. She shouldn't be there, and yet frightened blue stared back at him as she took a step toward him.

Jade flame arched back from the point of her silken slipper, afraid to touch the royal that continued her way closer. A path was made to guide her forward and despite his best attempts, those flames softly caressed her arms with heat that didn't scorch or burn. They tested her for him, they made sure that the object of his mission was safe and whole in front of his eyes. "We need to leave," He could hear the words leaving his lips as soon as she was within arms reach.

"My family-" She rasped, expression shifting from fright to mourning as tears gathered in the corners of her eyes. The pyromancer shook his head and took her arm into his calloused paw, "Serren please, they have to still be here! I can't go without them!" She was panicking and Serren knew too well how she felt about the benevolent king and queen of their realm. He couldn't bring himself to say that they had demanded he rescue the princess... alone. "Please..."

"I'm sure they've already fled from here princess. We need to leave. If they've made it to the safe house you'll see them there," He regretted giving her false hope, but at this time he had no other choice if he wanted to pull her from the carnage alive. She collapsed into his chest with a sob- whether it was out of relief or anguish, he couldn't tell. Serren swept her into his arms like a limp doll and brushed through the doorway.

Angry red flames were swallowed by greens and blues as he moved, fading into ash behind him as his magic left each hall coated in soot and smoke. It was draining, trying to protect the woman held to his chest, and snuffing out the flames that would have otherwise grown back into the raging hellscape that had become the castle. He missed his armor- even the chainmail that ripped at his hair and pinched at his bare arms. People had called him a fool for wearing a sleeveless shirt under the metal loops but the other option always left him too warm and heavy for battle.

The ragged bandage around his center reminded him of why he had been divested of all protection, and even why he had been stripped of his title as Knight of Mirasalor. He clutched the lavender-haired elf closer to his torso and strode faster to the nearest exit as the image of her betraying fiance flashed across his thoughts. The man would pay for all that he's done to the princess- Serren would make certain of that.

The air outside of the castle wasn't any better than it had been inside. The courtyard was filled with smoke and the smell of burning oil, flesh, and wood. The hand gripping his shoulder tightened as he felt her face turning into his chest to block out what had become of her home. What had once been a modest and beautiful castle was nothing more than a husk, windows lit by what fires they had missed. Trees withered under the heat of flame and bushes long gone to the appetite of fire.

"I'll keep you safe, princess," He vowed, looking down at the crown of her head, seeing the tarnished silver of plum blossom accessories clinging to her hair. She shook against him even still as he took her to the stables where a horse had been pawing nervously at the wet ground beneath him. Serren had to set her on her feet to climb onto the horse before hauling her into the saddle in front of him, caging her small frame with his arms to take hold of the reigns. The horse took off at a slow trot that quickly morphed into a full-on gallop, only slowing when they met the dense tree line outside of the walls.