Author Topic: Weekly Writing Challenge Thread the First  (Read 474170 times)

Affinity

  • hoho
  • ... but I have promises to keep.
Re: Weekly Writing Challenge! - Endings
« Reply #990 on: June 03, 2012, 08:35:22 AM »
All of a sudden, sometime in summer, a strange restlessness suddenly began taking hold of Mokou, seeping into her interactions like slow poison.  Gradually, her answers became more terse and half-hearted, sometimes to the point where she would cut off the conversation in an irritated manner and leave without a word.  Occasionally, she would suddenly flare up at the smallest things and say hurtful things to me, and quickly I would grow wary around her.  Awkward silences were abound as I struggled to find anything non-offensive to say, and all in all, talking with her became a much less pleasant experience than it used to be.

When I at last raised my fears to her over tea, however, she seemed a bit nervous, and then quickly reassured me, with a sheepish chuckle and a slightly more tender tone of voice, that I was not at fault for all that had happened recently.  This frank admission of affection rather startled me, like a soothing remedy that dissolved all my pent-up pain, but what seemed to be a spark of the old Mokou disappeared the moment I inquired questioningly about her ongoing feud with Kaguya and how it had been affecting her; her face contorted into a flickering grimace almost instantly as she turned away, darkly muttering that she was over that issue.  Neither of us resumed the dangling conversation, and when she took her leave there was only a burning hatred in her eyes as she intoned the words that shook me to no end.

?We should never meet ever again.?

Immediately, as if ashamed, she stumbled out of the entrance with heavy steps before I could summon up the composure to say anything; the mistake that I had made replayed in my mind to no end as I saw her disappear into the trees, amidst the falling leaves, the image of her back burned softly into my mind.  In this laughable way our tea-time friendship came to an apparent end.

The tea on the table was still warm, the shadow of the situation hanging over me like a guillotine? and I could do nothing but calmly sip my cup of hot tea, swallowing back my tears.  Everything at first seemed absurd and inexplicable, a product of the wayward meanderings of the heart, and in this way, perhaps to distract myself from my feelings, I started thinking about the issue which had no precedent, instinctively attempting to overcome my shock by casting it into a mold of cause and effect I was familiar with.  Hurriedly, I summoned up the images from the past, trying to piece them together into some logical continuation of facts as I did in my study of history, and little did I realize that, by breaking up Mokou into a series of factoids and events, I had already lost faith in her as a friend,

She did talk disturbingly about suicide, for one, and then there were a few instances where dark passions would suddenly possess her while talking about Kaguya.  There were rumors that she was becoming rude, brash, and disturbing among the travelers she escorted recently, and very soon these isolated events started to coalesce together with the painful memories of the past month; the intruding inquiries into her situation, the suggestion for her to spend her time on some new hobby, the attacks on her useless fixation on revenge and how it seemed to be eating her up from the inside? I winced at how trite and overbearing I was, and in this sort of fever I reconstructed her motivations and character from scratch, linking it to the coldness she showed towards me, the web of connections leading inexorably towards the end I had feared the most.   By this point, the process I thought so meticulous decayed into the sham of making up of reasons for a foregone conclusion, and even the partially reassuring words she had said to me began to seem more fake than real in memory, as if she was trying to lead in politely to those devastating words,   A feeling of quiet despair seized me so, and the more I wallowed in the past, the more my thought processes seemed to crumble into a mass of memories, hopes, and fears? how could I forget the long nights spent watching the moon together, and the boring and yet engaging conversations?  How much I enjoyed those mundane moments? how inwardly glad I was that I finally had someone who could see me as a friend rather than as a person merely to be respected?

? how sad that all of that had already come to an end, in the most trivial of ways.  Already, before I had realized it, the end of a season had already come; the autumn leaves now buried beneath the winter snow, in the long and painful wait for the coming of spring.    Depressingly, I imagined that one day, I would soon be able to lose myself in my work and forget my troubles, letting my memories crystallize into bittersweet gems from long time?s past for the occasional viewing, but for now, I could do nothing but succumb to that wave of sorrow building up from within me for so long.  In a cradle of tears and memories; the good and happy times, I staggered onto my futon and fell into a restless sleep, my heart bound up in pain and agony.

===

Amidst my restless throes and frequent awakenings, the scene that appeared before me reminded me of the night I met Mokou for the first time, while making my rounds around the human village.  She seemed injured as she staggered out of the bamboo forest, her shirt and pants stained with blood.  But when I rushed to help her, she did not say that she was fine in her characteristically nonchalant way, but instead, lashed out at me and shouted at me to leave her alone, shooting an amulet bullet at me to drive me away. Taken aback, I felt an overwhelming pressure to avoid getting hurt by her any further, to selfishly forget my worries and to walk on as if nothing happened...

? but under the gentle moonshine, as I saw her bodily wounds recover, the blood on her shirt being absorbed back into her body, somehow the idea came to me that perhaps the injuries inflicted on her soul, hidden for many years, were now at their breaking point.  The everlasting flame of the phoenix, having far outstripped the limits of her human heart, seemed to burn her from the inside out, and how pitifully she writhed and how painfully she laughed, but her eyes seemed to plead with me to trust that she would be able to sort this out by herself and perhaps have those tea-time conversations with me again.  One day.

The ⑨th Zentillion

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Re: Weekly Writing Challenge! - Endings
« Reply #991 on: June 03, 2012, 09:24:29 PM »
Maidens of the Kaleidoscope Weekly Writing Challenge
Subject: Endings

Tenure
By Jason ?Zentillion? Winter


So, the time?s finally come for me to make my exit from the occupation I had worked and lived through for nearly seven decades. An occupation that has put me through plenty of good times, almost as many bad times, and quite a lot of the in-between. The occupation that has garnered me personally and my place of work and simultaneous residence conflicting things; praise and ire, friends and enemies, fame and infamy; things I wouldn?t have any other way.

Well, at least now, anyway. When I was younger, during the earlier years, effort was something I usually avoided unless there was a threat, mysterious goings-on, or a challenge from someone else - anything that actually piqued my interest or just simply annoyed me enough that I would go out to put a stop to it and get some peace and quiet. Funnily, this usually would only happen several times a year so I was usually lulled back into complacency until the next time. But as I grew older and learned more about myself, I suppose my priorities changed a bit. I began working harder.

My late teens and twenties were only the start of my long road to furthering myself, I eventually was able to summon gods with relative ease, though it wasn?t until my early thirties when I had completely mastered it, and let me tell you, that took actual effort. If I had stayed the way I had when I was younger, I?d still just be resolving things whenever the mood struck me instead of truly fulfilling my duties and learning all of my powers to prepare the next in line.

The problem with that was, well, in all that time I shrugged off love and romance to relax or to train, usually once you hit your mid to late thirties around here (well, when you?re a human at least) you can pretty much only come to terms that you?re going to wind up an old maid, a metaphorical cake beyond its holiday of origin. Then again, with my job, I suppose having children by blood should have been out of the question. But then, I met him.

I?ll spare you the details, I?m sure you don?t want to deal with me talking on and on about every little intricacy of my love life, so I?ll just get to the barebones. I have my first child at 42, but what do you know it?s a boy. He, of course grows up to be a wonderful young man, no doubt about that, and I love him no less because of it. But he?s not, at least? traditionally going to wind up a shrine maiden. Besides, something about our power can only be passed on to a female in the family, which is kind of unfortunate, it would be interesting to have a priest for this shrine. Heh, instead, as a small bit of irony, he took after my best friend instead and became a magician under her tutelage.

At 47, that second child comes, and, there she is, the one destined to take the reins. She grows up to be beautiful, smart, faithful, and strong, just like me. Unlike me, however, she winds up actually taking things in a serious manner right at the start. She?s already summoning minor gods when I was only flying by my own power just before that incident with the scarlet mist that happened so long ago. I remember one thing clearly about it - it was annoying and I went off to stop it at the source. That?s all that had mattered to me then, because it was an inconvenience.

Would I have done things in a different way if I had all of my current knowledge and power back then? Probably not. I still would have gone to that mansion and stopped that mist before it became an environmental hazard. My friends agree with this whole-hearted and with confidence. In fact, most of the things I did in my younger years, I doubt I would have done them differently - well maybe by a few small margins, but that would have been it.

But, moving on, she was going to be the perfect successor. She even winds up with a daughter of her own at 19, and my granddaughter pretty much continues the pattern of beauty, smarts, and skill. I didn?t think I?d see when she went through the ritual to become the next in line. That was, until her mother, my daughter was killed by a youkai when my granddaughter was just two. I, her father, our son and son in law, my friends, all of us devastated by the news. Devastation became anger, and anger became revenge. When we found that youkai, we were going to do the sort of extermination that we didn?t actually call ?extermination,? there would be no returning later for it. This was going to be permanent.

My husband and my son in law found the youkai first, but they were not holy men nor magicians and were cut down with the same overwhelming hatred and fury our child and his wife had been. You can bet my son and I hunted it down, and joined by my best friend and his mentor, put an end to them. We were horrified that it had to come to this, but that?s how it wound up being. We promised ourselves to make sure something like that would never happen again.  We made sure the orphaned girl would still have us.

We taught her magician?s magic along with the magic she would learn by tradition. Like her mother and unlike I, she?s completely into her studies, and considering she?s putting work into two schools of power and not one, it?s nothing short of amazing how dedicated she is. Perhaps part of it is also because we didn?t skirt around what happened to her parents. The only secrets we keep are those about what she?s going to learn later in her training.

Finally, it?s come to this point. We?ve set up the ritual just as it has been set up for every one in line before, to transfer my soul?s connection to the Great Barrier over to her own. It?s a huge responsibility, but she says she?s ready, and I can tell she?s completely truthful. Her brother and my friend help, having a magician along is help enough but with two, things are even easier. Her body and mine glow, strands of power and spirit weaving between us. Outside, the Barrier ripples just the littlest bit as it?s prone to do with the ritual.

Finally, all those strands have pulled over to her and are absorbed. The tenure of I, Reimu Hakurei, as the Hakurei Shrine maiden has come to its end after so much joy and pain, more the former than the latter, thank goodness.
Did you bring a light?
...No...


Smash the Fash; The far right belongs in the TRASH.

Re: Re: Weekly Writing Challenge! - Endings
« Reply #992 on: June 03, 2012, 11:23:16 PM »
I see a lot of interesting stories here, so I decided to try something for fun, and as a challenge: write a coherent story, or at least scene, in two sentences. It's much more challenging than it seems.

Quote
Despite her seeming composure, anxiety writhed inside of Kanako, twisting her thoughts with hesitation and fear.

When she saw Sanae in pure white, nervous but so happy, she realized that everything was fine after all.

AnonymousPondScum

Re: Weekly Writing Challenge! - Endings
« Reply #993 on: June 04, 2012, 02:55:34 AM »
Aaaargh. :ohdear:

I was gonna write something for this week but the muse is thwacking me in bursts and every time it thwacks me I have this urge to rewrite things in a different manner.

That and I half-forgot about the whole thing until today and it's late and I don't want to rush it, much less sacrifice sleep for it.

I have a very rough draft but Hell if I'm printing it because it's a long rambly wall of text and zero actual dialogue. Now I want to do it in a totally different style. Bluh bluh bluh.

That much said, when I DO get it done, should I paste it here belatedly or in its own topic?
« Last Edit: June 04, 2012, 02:59:32 AM by AnonymousPondScum »

Iced Fairy

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Re: Weekly Writing Challenge! - Endings
« Reply #994 on: June 04, 2012, 03:05:49 AM »
I have a very rough draft but Hell if I'm printing it because it's a long rambly wall of text and zero actual dialogue. Now I want to do it in a totally different style. Bluh bluh bluh.

That much said, when I DO get it done, should I paste it here belatedly or in its own topic?
You should put it in it's own topic.  Or perhaps save it for later....

nintendonut888

  • So those that live now, pledge on your fists and souls
  • Leave a sign of your life, no matter how small...
Re: Weekly Writing Challenge! - Endings
« Reply #995 on: June 04, 2012, 06:57:01 AM »
Posting close to the deadlines? Two sentence-long WWC entries? Sure, why not? 8D

Ahem. Credit to Rou for his half of the story, slightly edited for the contest.

NSFW warning!

---

<Sakana> No. You are NOT posting NSFW stuff out in the open, warning or not. Even moreso stuff that's half by another person when that person has seemingly not agreed to it. Go back and read the Library-rules.

Here, this is how you do it:


[nsfw]http://pastebin.com/wDrfcMBv[/nsfw]



---

Thank you, and good night.
« Last Edit: June 04, 2012, 07:11:40 AM by Tunasatomimi no Miko »
nintendonut888: Hey Baity. I beat the high score for Sanae B hard on the score.dat you sent me. X3
Baity: For a moment, I thought you broke 1.1billion. Upon looking at my score.dat, I can assume that you destroyed the score that is my failed (first!) 1cc attempt on my first day of playing. Congratulations.

[19:42] <Sapz> I think that's the only time I've ever seen a suicide bullet shoot its own suicide bullet

PX

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Re: Re: Weekly Writing Challenge! - Endings
« Reply #996 on: June 04, 2012, 07:01:37 AM »
I... finally did it.

The girl lied in the ruins of the city, spent of all her energy. The sky held no vision of hope, only the clouds of despair. The tears she had held for eternity finally fell from the heavens as she finally tasted victory.

Her thoughts wandered to the beginning of her journey. She remembered the six months she had spent in the hospital. Her first conversation with her.

"You have a great name, so you should act cool to match it!"

Back to the first time she was attacked. She had looked so cool when she saved her. Her first friend. When she had looked at her corpse, she brought this curse upon herself to help her out however she could.

She remembered when she had made the promise that gave her a direction, and when she had to kill her best friend.

"..ra-chan!"

Her mind was brought back into the present as she saw a pink haired girl running towards her. Along side her was a strange white animal running on four legs.

"Ma...doka...."

"Homura-chan! Amazing! You defeated the Walpurgisnacht all by yourself! Homura-chan? Are you all right?!"

"I'm fine.... Mado-!"

Homura started writhing in pain.

"Homura-chan! Kyubey, what's happening to her!"

The strange animal started speaking. "She spent up all her power on defeating the witch. All that's left is for her to turn into a witch more powerful than the one she defeated."

"No! Homura-chan! Kyubey, isn't there anything we can do?"

"You can become a magical girl and use your wish to replenish her soul gem. All you have to do is make the contract."

"No! Madoka! You can't! That'll be wasting all of my effort to stop you from becoming a magical girl. Ugh."

"Homura-chan! Stop talking. I'll start looking for the grief seed rig-"

"It's too late Madoka. Madoka.... I have one last wish. And only you can help me fulfill it."

"What is it Homura-chan?"

"I'm tired of fighting.... I've been fighting for as long as I can remember. I don't want to turn into a witch and fight anymore. So please, Madoka, destroy my soul gem."

"But Homura-chan!"

Homura reached into her shield and pulled out a pistol. The same pistol that she had once used to destroy Madoka's soul gem.

"Please... do this for me. As my best friend...."

"Homura-chan...."

As a circle of blue opened up in the center of the sea of black clouds, a single gunshot could be heard along with the sound of a girl crying.



Bonus: Kawashite yo kusoku wasure naiyo ne...~
« Last Edit: June 04, 2012, 07:04:13 AM by PX »

Iced Fairy

  • So like if you try to hurt alkaza
  • *
  • I will set you on fire k'?
    • Daisukima Dan Blog
Re: Weekly Writing Challenge! - Endings
« Reply #997 on: June 04, 2012, 07:04:52 AM »
Hammered

Judging will commence now.  But wait!  A new thread is approaching fast!

Tomorrow the final champion of this thread shall be chosen, and they shall hold their title for all of June!  But there are new battles in the future.

Fight on writers, for everlasting glory!

Iced Fairy

  • So like if you try to hurt alkaza
  • *
  • I will set you on fire k'?
    • Daisukima Dan Blog
Re: Weekly Writing Challenge! - Endings
« Reply #998 on: June 07, 2012, 01:00:26 AM »
Alright, it took the judges a bit of time but I think we've reached something of a consensus.

Sect, I thought you did passingly well with small space.  Similarly Donut's work was coherent, if not entirely properly placed.  Capth, Your story was solid, but also a bit short and not quite fitting with the theme.  Still I laughed.

As for our longer entrants, Logos I'm afraid your story just got lost in itself.  There was nothing solid to end.  PX, I was interested in seeing a Madoka entry, but you didn't really do much with it.  I think some body would have improved it a lot, or at least a

Everyone else I can say had solid ideas, but unfortunately all of you lost flow at some point.  Santora, you needed to bridge the gap between the old and new parties a little better, and could have used a little more body.  Affinity, your wordiness worked against you.  Long entrances and paragraphs for dreams and hallucination, shorter sentences for everyday impact.  Zent, you were a little to clinical when you reached the twist in your story.  If you'd had strong emotion there I think you'd have won.  Which leads us to....

Nobu : While the connections between the two deities could have been described a little better, and you should avoid explanatory authors notes like the plague, your story did what it set out to do in a neat manner, and your ending was an interesting one.  So congratulations Nobu, you are the winner.