I do and thank you!
it was kind of inspired by the fanfiction I’ve been reading
I read a very fluffy metal sonic x werehog fanfiction XD
anyway
I’ll write more of those- I feel really writers blocked lately, but this is something I can do
I like your stories and I do usually read them, but when i’m really exhausted it’s easier to only write a flash fic
oooh XD
ohh these characters! I love their interactions
XDD
It wasn’t like lower down. Up here gravity ceased its hold and the world was washed in pale multicolored clouds reflecting the light of small planets and powerful semi sentient beings.
Ryal noticed that the growing orb of dark magic and stray dreams had nearly doubled in size since he’d last seen it.
That wasn’t good. He knew that problems like this needed to be dealt with before they got out of hand.
Ryal flinched as he approached the dark, inscrutible shiny ball of energy.
The last time he did this was all too clear in his mind.
This wasn’t the same, he told himself. It wouldn’t be as dark in this one, or as invasive. This was a collection of random ideas from various minds, not a festering mental wound that had accumulated over thousands of years.
Without further hesitation, the fluffy sky dragon dove in.
Surrounded by the magic, his mind melted into the energy. A rush of joy swept over him as he was flying high over an unfamiliar village, a rush of horror as everything he ever knew was gone (except the people in this dream were strangers to him) and a thousand faces yelled at him from a mirror.
Ryal firmly sifted through the various dreams. The strange lives and emotions no longer got to him anymore- his role hadn’t been difficult for thousands of years now. Always interesting, but he never worried he’d be overwhelmed and become part of one of these masses.
He reached the core and pressed his thoughts outward until finally the mass of energy scattered, each element floating independantly, eventually to fade into a purer form.
I read a very fluffy metal sonic x werehog fanfiction XD
anyway
I’ll write more of those- I feel really writers blocked lately, but this is something I can do
XD nice!!
I like your stories and I do usually read them, but when i’m really exhausted it’s easier to only write a flash fic
ohh, same!
Ryal
:0 you always come up with the coolest names
:00 ohhh cool!! I love the abstract stuff you write
were those his own emotions? I usually always wanna ask questions when someone responds to a prompt here but i didn’t wanna pressure you or someone else to respond back, so I usually dont’ XD
His breaths were ragged, exhaustion creeping up his limbs. The walls of the vents felt chilling to the touch, and were hard on his knees and were so cramped with smoke, he had to press low in the limited space.
His body seemed to be screeching in protest, for him to stop, to lie down, to give in to the blackness of unconsciousness, away from the pain, the strain, the struggle.
The one thought cutting through his haze of unfocused emotions was the fact that if he were to stop now, it’d be the Dhukshaths who take him. And that’s enough to keep him moving.
No.
No, he must keep going.
Something might kill him one day, but as long as he could help it, he’ll never give those monsters the chance.
Wynn and Kiana were at the wreckage, everyone else evacuating the few people left stuck in the burning rubble.
Caden was the first one who noticed.
Lux was gone.
Where was Lux?
next!
idiosyncratic
(i had to look up what that word means, but it popped into my head just now so XD)
Thanks!
and
guide to making cool names:
Step one: start with a random letter. Step two: add random syllables that don’t sound bad. this can be done by pressing random keys on the keyboard. You can also start from a common name and change some letters, or mash it together with another one. Step three: look it up to make sure it’s not a weird euphamism or something XD
then maybe just make sure it’s not too close to any of the other names in that story
thanks!
so Ryal (I JUST came up with that name, this character has existed for a long time and I’ve long since forgotten any other names he had besides ‘the sky dragon’ is a character from my old daydreams.
He was this immortal who always had some kind of vague job in the sky, which was like this huge place but wasn’t space
he was dream’s bff but dream lived on the ground and he was usually doing his vague job in the sky
one time dream did this magic spell that turned him into stone or something to protect himself, and the sky dragon had to do this other vague magic to go into his mind and sort of draw him out
it was all kind of vague magic
so anyway I had this idea that thoughts or dreams from random people across the nearby dimensions would float across the sky and collect in this cloudy sky place
the emotions Ryal feels in those are the emotions the people in the dreams had
often with these prompts there’s no more backstory, but when it’s an oc there’s sometimes a lot
this is interesting, the scene makes me wonder what’s going on
An idiosyncratic individual was sitting on the couch. I had only a split second to take in the red garment around their shoulders that was obviously a miniskirt and the crown they wore that was obviously a choker before they jumped up and enthusiastically shook my hand.
“Mr. Jones, right? I’ve been told that people like you can cure all my mental problems.”
There’s no trace of mockery or deceit in their enthusiastic tone.
“Actually, that’s a common misconception. I can only help you… are those real cockroaches?” I say, staring at the ‘buttons’ on their shirt.
“Of course. I wear only the best you know.”
Step three: look it up to make sure it’s not a weird euphamism or something XD
XDD
he was dream’s bff but dream lived on the ground and he was usually doing his vague job in the sky
ohh
one time dream did this magic spell that turned him into stone or something to protect himself, and the sky dragon had to do this other vague magic to go into his mind and sort of draw him out
it was all kind of vague magic
:00 COOL
so anyway I had this idea that thoughts or dreams from random people across the nearby dimensions would float across the sky and collect in this cloudy sky place
the emotions Ryal feels in those are the emotions the people in the dreams had
:0 ohhh
this is interesting, the scene makes me wonder what’s going on
dhukshaths is an ollllld story of mine, about abstract monsters that exist among humans while living in a different plane of existence
some people are sympathetic towards them, but the character here, Lux, like the majority, is scared of them and hate them
“Ma’am, ma’am, please, let’s all calm down,” Sylvie says, tucking her small notebook into her pocket to hold up her hands in a surrendering gesture. “No one here is going to hurt you, we just want to ask you–”
“I told you everything I know! That monster jumped out the freaking window, Jack’s up there with his kids and wife–”
“Mm hm, mm hm,” Sylvie nods, jotting that down. “So you’re saying this unidentified being was defenestrated, and Jack and his family were at the scene of the crime, and may have been key participants in this act of violence.”
“Excuse me?”
“Thank you for trusting us with this information. We’re really gratefu–”
“I’m saying that thing crashed out their window! It was an ugly abomination–”
“Defenestrated.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“…It means the unidentified being–”
“The monster–”
“The unidentified being–”
“Just call it what it is! A monster!”
“It means the unidentified being was thrown out the window.”
“Who cares about the monster! Jack and Lilly are up there–”
“Yes, you’ve stated that before. Thank you for your time. We’ll take this investigation from here.”
The woman watches open-mouthed with rage as Sylvia smiles at her, and heads to the stairs.
“Uh, there’s a huge shadow outside,” Sonic said.
He’d gotten up during movie night to get more popcorn from the kitchen and happened to look out the window.
“What? Shadow, but huge?” Tails asked, eyes growing wide.
“No, like a huge SHADOW. It’s getting closer.”
“I can’t believe he’d interrupt movie night,” Knuckles said.
“I can believe it,” Amy said.
“No, like… forget it, I’m going to go see what it is!” Sonic rushed outside, followed closely by his friends.
It was a heavy raincloud.
“Oh, that’s… anticlimactic,” Sonic said, almost dissappointed.
“That’s what it wants you to think,” Sticks said.
The team filed inside, but she continued to stare at the dense, dark cloud over their head.
Amy reached out and pulled her inside,
“It’s not safe to be outside during a storm.”
Just as they were all inside, a massive boom of thunder struck nearby and the power went out.
“Our movie!” Knuckles whined, dismayed.
“It’s okay! We’ll just play party games instead! Who wants to play charades?” Amy asked, trying to save the situation.
“That’s how they control us,” Sticks growled.
“Now Sticks, I’m sure you’ll like it if you try it,” Amy said, her smile becoming strained.
As the two argued, Sonic opened the door and tried to step out, but the wind nearly flipped him over, gusts of rain blew into the house, and then lightening struck way too close for comfort.
He shut the door and sighed.
“It’s gonna be a long night.”
I think this is my first time trying fanfiction
it’s based on the sonic boom show
it was just the joke ‘huge shadow’ brought to mind XD
“There will be no satifying conclusion to this story, dear.”
You stare at me half asleep, only able to see me with your eyes between realities.
I see the exact moment your body shifts and you lose me. You get up, click your phone screen on to check the time, and hurry to get dressed for work.
I’m pulled behind you, drifting lightly as if I’d blow away on a strong breeze, yet tethered to you like iron.
Perhaps I wouldn’t care for you one bit if I wasn’t there for grief, triumph and happy moment in your life. But as it is, it feels like you’re my own child.
Except if you really were my child, we would have had some time together. I would have been able to tell you that it’s never the right choice to do what you’re doing. I know how this ends.
“There will be no satisfying conclusion to this story, dear,” I whisper, but you don’t even twitch, and you’ve already forgotten the half dream you had.
I can never touch your story or change it, yet I’ll be forced to watch as thing play out just like they did for me.
context: being isekai'd into a villainess story type of thing XD I'm sure I got the titles wrong, and the historical context XDD but most manga ignore those anyway
The morning was too hot, much too hot for the contraption she was wearing.
Adella hated her dress with all her living being, but that morning, when the maids had strapped it on her like they were prepping her with armor for an important battle, she’d been so distracted by her own pretty face in the mirror that she’d let it pass. Around her, ladies were chatting amicably, a few trying to engage in conversation with her, but Adella’s own responses had been so lackluster that they’d stopped bothering.
The greenhouse garden was pretty today. The girls around her were gorgeous. Their dresses seemed like they were plucked right out of fairytales, delicate fabrics from vague daydreams she could hardly remember.
Adella was dazed by all of it, wondering if she could let herself get swept along with it all, if she could come to enjoy this life. Grow used to it, even.
Speaking of, the cake on her plate was delicious, even as sweat beads on her skin, in places she wasn’t sure sweat should gather at. Her dress was sweltering hot, like it was burning up, and whatever the corset was doing to her gut had her sitting ramrod straight in her seat. Did everyone feel like this?
“Miss Marina,” the girl at her elbow says, smiling gently. “Are you feeling alright?”
“Peachy,” Adella smiles.
“Pardon?” The girl says, quirking an eyebrow, still smiling in that faintly-gentle way in her lemon yellow dress.
“What was your name again?” Adella asks.
“I see your sense of humour has improved since our last meeting,” she giggles.
“I aim to impress,” Adella smiles, tight-lipped. “What about you? Done anything new or fun recently?”
“Oh…” The girl says. There’s a pause, and then. “I’ve been learning fencing with my brother as of late. Marina, are you really alright?”
“Fencing,” Adella sucks in a breath. “Tell me more.”
Adella forces her way through the conversation, if only because she was genuinely curious what noble ladies were like.
At some point, the ladies around her all stand, and Adella, confused, looks around at them. Following their gaze, she looks behind her, and finds Prince Sien talking to a few girls at the entrance.
“You didn’t tell us the Prince would be coming, Marina,” the girl at her left basically squeals, touching her elbow.
Adella struggles to stand. “I… didn’t know he was coming.”
“Oh, how romantic,” someone croons. “So he decided to drop in a surprise visit, just for you!”
Adella grimaces at that visibly, and a few girls look confused.
When the Prince approaches and everyone bows, Adella does the same.
“Please, ladies, there’s no need for such formalities. Marina’s friends are my friends,” Sien’s honey-sweet voice comes, and Adella cringes. Ugh. He always tried so hard to be a suck-up in front of other people. Her parents said he was ‘charming.’
They straighten, and Adella makes a sour expression at the Prince as he approaches her.
“My lady, what a face to make at your Prince,” he smiles, taking her hand and kissing the back of it. Adella frowns.
“What are you talking about? This is how I always look around you.”
He laughs as if she’d said something funny, and looks to the girl she’d been talking to.
“Lady Vivian! How lovely to see you keeping Marina company. I hope she hasn’t been too much of a bother. She’s been feeling a little under the weather since her illness, and isn’t herself.”
“I understand completely, Prince.” Vivian smiles. “Dare I remind you, I am Marina’s friend before I am yours.”
“Friendship before blood,” Sien sighs, as if it were a tragedy. “You wound me, my Lady.”
Vivian laughs at that, as Adella blinks at her. Oh, shoot. Who was Vivian?
“I hope you’ve been kind to my aunt,” the Prince says, giving her a parsing look, before moving on to talk to a few of the other ladies around them.
Translation: I hope you didn’t say anything stupid to her.
Adella looks at Vivian, who is sitting back down, arranging her skirts carefully.
Wave away the black water, wave away the green sand.
Cold air won’t bother, fog won’t help you land.
Work on pretending until there’s nothing left, and you’re still here,
Nature needs no mending in this rift and there’s nothing to fear.
Waterfalls of tears run down my face as I crawl under a waterfall of light pink fabric.
The room beyond it is filled with memories, fewest of them clear ones, all of them happy.
I put my hand through one and it dissolves, unsatisfyingly bright and empty.
Yes, they never really happened, but they’re mine. I’m here for myself, not for the real world.
I dance, twirling among the bright sparks, shoving aside pink waterfalls that feel endlessly soft and silky on my tireless arms.
I can’t even dance like this out there. I think there’s no point in leaving if it’s just to become weak and unhappy again, but there’s another room behind this one.
I shove aside another curtain, this one made of grey rocks that weigh me down as I move through it.
This one is more solid. Echoes of my real pains keep me down here, the weight crushingly real.
Yet I always go in here.
It’s less mine than the other room, yet I feel it’s only right to take ownership of it too, in a different way.
I can’t lift the rock ceiling, but I can lie down on the floor and feel awful here. The rock is cold and hard, but I want to look down from the ceiling of this room someday.
Noon runs her fingers through her hair distractedly, her fidgeting giving away her anxiety.
The hall had high ceilings, light and air flowing in through tall columns, the grumbling grey clouds drifting above their heads. Conversation flows and ebbs around the room, and Noon smells rain in the air.
“You’re doing that thing I hate,” Fai says, taking her hand and pulling it away from her hair.
“Hm?” Noon flashes him a grim smile, biting her lip distractedly.
“Noon, please,” Fai says, his expression turning from playful to serious. “You’re in public. Carry yourself like you’re aware of it.”
“Fai.” Noon says, smile turning genuine, as she pats his cheek. “Relax. Everyone’s just trying to have some fun here. If you wear yourself away with worry, who’ll babysit me then?”
Fai’s unimpressed expression says it all.
Cailyn had found a way up the columns.
She could see the whole party below her, she could see Noon.
Sometimes, she felt she was some type of vigilante in this world, with what she’s learned of it through Roake and the libraries. She knows things she shouldn’t know, of a world where she doesn’t belong.
What must the world outside their walls be like, in the heads of the aristocrats below her? They so often saw it all as a game. Maybe their age had worsened their apathies, maybe then she could understand every sick thing Noon had done over the years.
She sighs, anger sizzling, then dying, in her veins.
She just wanted to go home.
“Sit still pumpkin,” Amy said, fixing Stick’s disguise as the badger fidgeted.
“Woah, did you just make a joke?” The Tails-pumpkin asked.
Amy grinned slightly.
“So let me get this straight, we’re supposed to sit still in these things for the entire party?” Sonic asked, resisting the urge to itch his squashed quills.
“Yep! Or until Eggman attacks.” Amy said.
“At least we’re exquisitely gorgeous pumpkins,” Knuckles said, popping his head out to cast an appreciating eye on the other pumpkins.
“So why are we here again?” Tails asked.
“Can we pleeassee come to the party? Promise we’ll be good,” Sonic begged the mayor.
Behind him, Knuckles, Tails and Eggman added their puppydog eyes to the effort.
“No.”
“We’re afraid Eggman will retaliate so we’re providing free security,” Amy said, smiling.
“And why are you not a pumpkin again?” Sonic asked, eyes half lidded.
“Because I,” she pulled a fancy golden letter from her pocket and twirled it in her hand, “was invited.”
It was going well until the snacks table was brought out. A nose poked out of the top of a pumpkin, and the Knuckles pumpkin started inching toward the snack table. Sonic and Sticks followed the example, while Tails failed to notice.
“The pumpkins you brought are moving,” the mayor informed Amy.
“Oh, haha! They’re supposed to do that! It’s very in fashion, very chic, very-” she whipped her head and around and whispered to the pumpkins, “you stop that now or you’re going to be pumpkin pie soon,” she brandished her hammer.
“Why does she have that with her at a party?” Sonic whispered in Knuckles’ direction.
Amy waved it in his direction with a toothy smile before being distracted by a particularly nice cupcake on the refreshment stand.
Sonic’s eye peered out of the pumpkin,
“This isn’t fair,” he grumbled.
He was even less happy when she gave Sticks one.
“She needs the energy,” she explained.
“Who are you talking to?” a haughty villager asked.
“No one! Or that is, uh…” Amy flashed a wide, awkward smile.
The lady stared at her for a moment. Then she kept walking without saying anything.
Sonic snickered, and Amy kicked the pumpkin.
i thought at first ‘pumpkin’ was a term of endearment in the opening sentence
She was hiding beneath the garden leaves when she saw them pass by.
Her mom and her aunt were talking in low voices, their laughs carrying over the grass. Nidhii winces, pushing back farther into the bushes.
“…the dress was such a lovely green. Her daughters always had the keenest eyes for fashion.”
“Don’t discount Sandy’s skills, either, when it comes to these sorts of things…”
Something nudges her knee, and Nidhii covers her horrified gasp, looking down.
Green glows from near her hand.
“Boo.” Raju’s feline eyes glow up at her, his tail flicking in the air.
Nidhii’s so relieved, she almost laughs, but she glares at the cat. “You can’t sneak up on me like that!”
“Are you whispering because they’re here?” Raju asks, padding around her, his paws silent in the grass. “They’re so far away, those hags probably can’t hear if you yelled into their faces.”
Nidhii makes a face at him. “That’s my mom and aunt.”
“…Apologies.”
“So this is some kind of training camp for horrid anthros?” a beaver with deep bags under their eyes stumbles forward as a stony tiger herds them to the rest of the group of teens.
“We’re not horrid, just misguided! We’re here to have a good time and learn how to be better people!” a strange looking squirrel says.
Her fur is a strange mix of colors fading from brown to blonde to pink due to a botched dyeing job.
The beaver gives her an unimpressed look.
“!@#$ learning to be a ‘better person,’” a black and white dog says, snapping at an adult who tries to herd him forward.
“Gasp! Language!” The squirrel says, putting a hand over her mouth.
“Did you just say, ‘gasp?’” the beaver says, quirking an eyebrow.
“Yes? Should I say no?” she says.
“Shut up,” the dog’s loud, rough growl is intimidating despite his younger face.
“You shut up,” a ragged aqua fox crowds into his space and the adults have to pull them apart as they start fighting.
“Is everyone here crazy?” the beaver wonders.
“No just you,” the fox snaps, her eyes threatening.
“People have called me crazy before!” the squirrel cuts in.
“Good for you,” the dog says, rolling his eyes.
“And you know they’re not going to let you off like this—Calli, shut up— and if you cared about any of what we’ve built—“
“They’ve got us cornered, Jay, we can’t just–”
“This concerns me just as much as the rest of you!” Calli yells, cutting off Ur.
There’s silence for a few seconds, their breathing ragged, the air tense.
Jay moves first, his steps darting across the dusty wooden floor as he closes the space to Calli and grabs her shoulder, yanking her over to the door.
Ur wouldn’t meet their eyes, was staring resolutely out the window.
“Jay! You’re hurting me!” Calli snaps. “Let go!"
Jay shoves her out the door, and the cold night air bites into her skin.
“Isn’t it past your bedtime?” Jay snaps, and she’ll never forget his eyes, so alight with fury, she couldn’t help but admit she was afraid. He slams the door in her face.
Calli stands there long enough to pick up their rising voices again, the sound of the argument going strong. Angry tears prick her eyes, and she swings her foot at the door, as hard as she can, and grunts because the impact blinds her with pain for a second. Not waiting for their reaction, she hops over the railing down the stairs, taking them two at a time, though she could barely see in the dark, unravelling her fluffy scarf out from her deep raincoat pockets to wrap around her neck to stave off the cold.
“My friends had families,” Cyan commented, looking into the larger eyes of the bird person, “it always seemed so complicated to me- they yearn for their acceptance, yet struggle to break free of the need for it, they treasure their support, but push back when it gets too stifling. And the big question overshadows it all, ‘would they still be on my side if they knew everything?’”
“You sure know a lot about families for someone who didn’t have one,” Zephyr said.
A cloud eclipsed the sunlight in the other’s eyes.
“Yeah, well… you think about it sometimes,” a meloncholy look passed through the human’s eyes, “I had my planet of origin. They sent me orders, and I knew there was a whole lot of people just like me there. They’d probably want to reestablish contact if they knew I was still alive.”
“Are you going to… leave?” Zephyr was forced to face the thought, the sinking feeling in his chest telling him nothing would feel the same as it did before he met the strange alien.
“I don’t want to.”
They sat in silence for a moment before Cyan looked back at him.
“Once we get this whole werewolf thing sorted out…”
The question hung in the air. Would Zephyr still want to be around him? The stranger, the alien, the inconvenience or even razor sharp pickaxe to the life he lived.
The bird stared at him as the night grew closer, completely of two minds.
Neil never liked the fame.
Being the oldest son of the Khan’s Clan head made sure everyone knew his name. They whispered it when he walked by, limp from exhaustion from his powers. His family treated him like a fragile object, to be kept and maintained meticulously. Outsiders… Outsiders, he’d found out, had quite a different idea about him. He’d call it a ‘delirious dream,’ for lack of a better phrase.
In the early days of being at Celestia, he’d decided one day to take a stroll around on his own, without Arrossa, without Mags or Sool.
The sky had been a pristine blue, Celestia’s towers making for a beautiful skyline. He was wearing his school uniform, watching the rain pool into the drains as he sits under a café awning, a bit dazed from all the information that were flooding his senses. There were so many people around everywhere here. He couldn’t stand it, so many bodies pressed together into every gap in the city, it felt like. Every time he thinks he’s alone, someone shows up around the corner, or out from one of the doors lining the narrow streets. The air was cool, and a headache throbs dully at his temples. Wherever he went, there were eyes. He feels them like physical forces, prodding him, judging him, picking him apart.
Cool rivulets suddenly drip down his fingers, and he flinches, realizes the ice cream cone in his hand is melting.
He’s giving it an evaluating look, trying to figure out what he’s supposed to do about that, when a few people sit at the table next to him.
He sighs at the chatter of their voices, rubbing at his headache with his free hand. Please. He just wanted one moment alone.
“-- transferred in a few weeks ago.”
“Have you seen them? They look so posh.”
“Did you get to see him?”
“Who?”
“Who else! Neil Khan!”
Neil jumps slightly at the sound of his name, swinging his gaze somewhere over them, but he didn’t want to acknowledge them, for fear they’d make him talk to them, so he looks away again.
“I heard he was pretty cute!”
“Cute? No way! It’s more like ‘mysterious,’ right? He has that hot, brooding vibe.”
“I saw him at a lecture once, and the dark circles are no joke, it’s like he never sleeps. His eyes though? I felt like I could melt in them.”
A few of them laugh, teasing, and they continue on.
Neil was staring at the water swishing into the drain again, trying to turn over their words in his head into something that makes sense. None of the ways they were describing him felt all that familiar. He was afraid that if he moved a single muscle, the group would look over, notice him. The thought freezes him in place in a steady sense of dawning horror.
What would they say about him then?
The ice cream slips from his hand, splatters on the ground.
“Woah! Are you okay?” The girl closest to him pushes her chair back, leaning over to look at him.
Neil makes eye contact with her, and the confusion in her eyes turns to recognition. She looks away immediately, the other girls already distracted by another topic. Neil doesn’t want to see what would happen after that.
He jumps to his feet and scurries out of there as quickly as he could without looking like he was running away, his face burning hot.
I knew I couldn’t follow through on my threat, but I stared him down, eyes watering.
The red eyed goat stared back, his long white fur waving in the gentle wind.
I dropped my eyes to the dirt in which beaten down tufts of ground struggled to regrow, telling a story of many paws, hooves and feet walking this ground.
“Please. Please don’t do this.”
My voice was a raw whisper.
He closed his eyes, taking a shaky breath that told me everything I needed to know.
I lunged for the rift in reality as he stretched his hand toward it, but I hesitated, unable to walk through as it shuddered and warped, the land on the other side growing more distant and grey.
I couldn’t choose. How could I choose? My very soul was grounded on both sides and it was as if I was torn apart as the path to my other half disappeared.
A part of me couldn’t believe it. I expected it to still be there, as I stumbled through the spot I had walked so many times before.
And ended up merely one step further in the same clearing, in the same world.
Stunned, my throat closed and my mind not working, I stood there.
A firm hand landed on my shoulder.
“Come with me. I bear no ill will toward you, you know. I understand why you did what you did.”
The goat that tore away half of my existence led me to a local restraunt and bought me dinner.
Everything was a reminder. I ordered a synthetic mealworms inspired by the frequent interdimensional tourists this restraunt recieved. I’d had this on the other side.
I stared at the familiar dish but couldn’t bring myself to eat.
“What are you going to do now, Tuft?” the goat said intensely, and I raised my eyes to meet the eyes fixed on them.
“Take that trip I was planning to go on. Go see the Rainbow Dragons. Maybe I can get Callie to go with me. She’s got to be as affected by this.”
The goat who’d been my enemy for what felt like forever nodded, satisfied.
“By the way, I never got your name,” I said.
“It’s Dean. I work as a janitor in the school down the street.”
Such a normal job. It never occurred to me that he was a normal guy.
Seeing my eyes widen, he chuckled.
“What did you think I did?”
“I thought you might be a goverment agent, or the leader of some sort of secret society, or…”
“Nope, I never had anyone helping me. Just doing what needed to be done. What nobody else wanted to do.”
“You’re one of us. You must have had friends on the other side,” I said, wanting desperately to understand.
He gave a small, tired nod, and I saw the same loss in his eyes.
“I wish them the best,” he said, his eyes watering.
“It’s a choice! You’re making a choice to hurt me!”
“It’s not hurting you, it’s literally just words! Grow a skin!”
“!@#$ you! It’s not words! It brings back bad memories! If you !@#$%^& understood that- are you too stupid to understand? It hurts me!”
“And now you’re calling ME names. Do words hurt or do they not?”
“DO they?”
“I didn’t even say it on purpose but you made it into this big thing like I’m the bad guy!”
“I didn’t know you didn’t say it on purpose. How am I supposed to do when you act like that? All you had to do was apologize but you made it into this big thing!”
“Well look I’m sorry! Okay? Happy?”
“Hhgh… tthhhhank you for apologizing. Not thank you for telling me what hurts me and what doesn’t. It’s ignorant and sucky and it hurts me.”
“I’m sorry.”
I scream, the sound tearing my throat as though it’s on fire. Dark magic explodes out of me and through the air around me, the unfocused, angry chaotic energy threatening any living being close by.
I can sense their fear and it feeds the pain, the despair, the anger. There was never any other path, any other option, anything that could have led me to a better place.
These people hated me before I was born, this fear was in the air the moment they knew I existed, and nothing I could have done would have changed that.
I will never return here. I never want to look at these filthy people’s faces again.
I fly, still surrounded by a ball of raging purple flames, and I reach the edge of the Cloud and dive over, falling, the air tearing at me as I gather speed, plummeting away from it.
How did she find out where I work?
“You’re fired… from existing!”
I lazily dodge the laser eye beam. I’ve done this a thousand times, you’d think she’d have upgraded.
“First of all, you’re not my boss. Second of all, are you trying to make me cringe so hard I’ll let down my guard?”
The robot that I’ve always found strangely cute tilts her head.
“Is it working?”
“No. You’re gonna have to try harder than that.”
i thought at first ‘pumpkin’ was a term of endearment in the opening sentence