It’s more the… style? Idk it was clearer to me when I was writing it XD
ooOOOh :0
:0 niceee
:0
mmM it was based off an old almost-drabbles thing I wrote on wattpad… well, at least heavily reminded me of it, though the other one included a few other characters and a different sort of tone entirely
?
oh
XD
;-;
hhhh so that’s what was going on <3 cool!
oof
XD XD
I really like Leilah
His forehead is cold on the window as rain raps against the panes. A book rests in his limp fingers as he sits in his reading nook, a blanket wrapped around his wide shoulders.
He’s fixated.
His eyes have stayed on the same spot in open courtyard below, where the pathways twist and twist around the gardens.
An hour ago, he watched Nidhii disappear on those pathways.
Poof.
Into thin air.
One moment there, and another moment not.
He doesn’t care much for her.
He’s heard the rumors.
Strange, they call her. Weird. Delusional. Speaks into thin air, presumably to the vile creatures that live on the border between this world and all the others.
He’s seen her, on occasion, around the house.
During the rare lessons, where she ignores everyone in the room, head bent over her books. In the hallways, where their eyes meet for brief instances, and hers skitter away. At the dinners, where he’d sit beside her to eat, their shoulders brushing, and she would talk to everyone but him, leaning away as far as she politely could.
He sees her in his dreams much more often. Those nights, he wakes covered in sweat, head filled with foggy thoughts of darkness and misery.
He’s made sure to stay far away.
A nameless tune starts somewhere in his chest, until his soft voice hums along, and he closes his eyes absently, drumming his hands on his thighs.
She’ll come back eventually.
Sporting a broken arm or fierce rashes, or whatever else it would be this time, though he still can’t figure out how she disappeared.
When he opens his eyes again, the courtyard is still empty, and he draws his curtains closed.
A girl held a phone up, gawking at Torian and his family.
For the third time this week, he transformed into Jade, teleported them away, and turned back.
“We can’t keep doing this.” Mom said, pulling her feet out of a mud puddle in the deserted park they’d landed in.
Prina and Len were sullen, having had to give up their phones.
Torian was glad he could make food out of pure energy for them, even heal their minds so they didn’t need to sleep in some unpleasant place, but entertainment or comfort weren’t something he could give them.
He hadn’t been able to keep a visual disguise on them for long either, and he was too scared to let his powers actually mess with their bodies.
Why did this gem choose him? It’d made his life so hard…
But they’d be dead if he didn’t have it, he reminded himself. That leviathon would have eaten them all. He had to be glad that at least they were still alive.
“Well, what else can we do?” Torian asked after a moment of silence.
He genuinely wanted an answer, but he didn’t think any of them could provide it.
“We could ask someone rich and powerful to protect us.” Brian suggested.
Torian wondered if someone like that would experiment on him- maybe they’d try to pry the gem out of his chest like that demon had.
He shuddered, but tried not to show it. His family deserved a break. He wished he could take that break with them, but even if he couldn’t, he wanted them to have it.
Torian nodded.
“Who?” he asked grimly.
There was a minute of silence as Brian thought of an answer, Mom and the twins watching him anxiously but not objecting or interjecting.
The dim sunlight peeked through clouds left behind by the rain that had apparently fallen recently. The area was completely unfamiliar. Torian longed to just wake up in the same place two nights in a row again, whatever that place was.
“Someone nice.” Brian said finally. “How about the philanthropist billionaire Bill Bucks?”
Torian looked at Mom for confirmation.
“I don’t know much about that guy. I’ve heard he donated to some big charities, but that doesn’t mean it’s safe to go to him.” Mom said.
She stared into the grey sky, brow furrowed.
“Torian could take us to another world, where nobody would know us. But… I know this is selfish of me, but I don’t want to leave the people I know in this world behind.” she said.
“As long as we live in this world, we’re going to be in danger. Even with Torian’s magic, creatures stronger than him will always be curious about us.” she said heavily. “Brian, are you sure this Bill Bucks man is a good person?”
“I mean… he donated to all those charities.” Brian said uncertainly.
“I dunno about this…” Len said.
“Well, it’s that, teleporting around every day, or running to another dimension.” Torian said.
He was just tired of being a burden to his family- he’d leave them if he thought it would help, but he was aware that they could be taken hostage just to get at him, even if he were far away.
“I mean I wouldn’t mind another dimension.” Len muttered, but Mom nodded.
“We’ll try this Bill Bucks guy. But if he looks suspicious we’re getting out of there.”
“Okay. Brian, do you know where he lives?” Torian asked, his heart racing at the thought of trusting some random rich stranger to protect him and his family.
“Um… I think I’ve seen photos of his mansion online. I know which country he lives in.” Brian said uncertainly.
Torian nodded, counting on his unbelievable powers.
“Picture it in your mind, as strongly as you can.” he said, glancing around to make sure nobody else was in the park and turning into Jade.
She instructed her powers to teleport them to the place in Brian’s mind, making sure not to let the magic actually touch and alter it. Her power was incredible- she absolutely didn’t want to see what it could do to a human brain.
They landed on a huge, perfectly trimmed lawn. There were some kind of magical wards around the place, Jade immediately noticed.
The next second she was pulled off the lawn and teleported into darkness.
Jade felt a cold wave pass through her, pinning her in place. She hadn’t realized the billionaire would have magical protection around his property, but thinking about it, it made sense. Whatever wards had been set had sensed her magic and captured her.
Jade put a hand to the side and felt a cold stone wall. Her mind flashed back. She’d been imprisoned by this stuff once before. Just like then, she couldn’t transform- except this time she was Jade.
She slid down the wall and sat down, wondering if her family was doing okay.
Now was no time to give up. The Gem powers were incredible, there must be something she could do.
She got up, feeling the wall around the corners until there were bars under her fingers.
Some kind of jail cell, then.
Jade tugged at the bars, trying to summon up her weak magic to move them. She shuddered at the wave of coldness that overwhelmed her at the attempt, backing away from the bars.
Time for a different tactic.
She backed into the center of the room and jumped, summoning up all of the weakly scattered magic inside her.
Waves of cold ran through her, chattering her bones and chilling her teeth in a violent friction.
But she’d done it. She was floating in the sky far above the mansion.
Her family was no longer on the lawn. Panic thrilled through her and she set her jaw, sending magic into her throat to amplify her voice by a hundred times.
“Give my family right now or I’ll call down lightening to scorch your mansion to the ground, Bill Bucks!” she screamed, the vibrations of her voice seeming to shake the ground far below.
She knew she couldn’t actually destroy the mansion, not with the chance that they could be inside.
A moment later, a mass of guards in suits surrounding a completely average looking older middle aged man swarmed out of the mansion, followed by her family.
The man’s mouth began moving, and all Jade had to do was focus on it to hear his voice.
“They’re right here- don’t worry, we haven’t kidnapped them. Come in and we’ll talk. I’ll have my mages disable the wards.” Bill said, gesturing to one of his guards, who ran off.
Jade noticed the curious faces of what looked like Bill’s wife and two daughters poking out of various windows and doors.
A moment later, she could feel that the wards were gone.
She swooped down and landed next to her family, glancing at them to make sure they were okay.
Prina looked overawed, Len was frowning, and Brian and Mom looked nervous but hopeful.
“Your mother tells me you guys came here to seek protection from the media and unsavory characters. I’ll be happy to provide that. You can transform out of that form, Torian,” he said, his smile holding an edge of mockery, as if it were embarrassing for Torian to be in the form of a frilly magical girl.
“I’ll stay like this, thanks.” Jade said firmly, eyes narrowed.
She remembered how powerless she’d been when she was captured in her regular form. There was really nothing wrong with living in this body until she was sure she and her family were safe.
“You’ve learned so much wariness already. And for someone your age, too.” Bill said, shaking his head with a sympathetic glance at Mom.
She shook her head back, smiling politely.
Annoying.
But Jade supposed she didn’t mind, just as long as this was a safe place for her family.
aaa bill bucks XD I just randomly was like ‘okay, time for a pun name’
:0
aww Torian must be traumatizedddd lol from last time
tw for mentions of blood/broken glass]
She blinks at the glass shards, then down at her hands, watching white sparks travel over her arms to the cuts on her fingers, sewing her skin back together with searing surges of pain.
What remained of the standing night lamp crashes to the floor beside her, and Dilna freezes in place as she works through the pain, trying not to scream.
A low hum, and Noon’s presence is suddenly right at her side. Dilna doesn’t look, fighting the tears that stream from her eyes. She must look pathetic.
The spirit floats around to see Dilna’s face.
“What happened?” Noon’s voice is low, curious, and still, Dilna doesn’t open her eyes.
“I blew up the lamp.”
“Can you float?”
“…”
“Come on,” Noon says, affecting a gentler tone in the hopes of getting the girl to unfreeze. “Your floor’s covered in glass. Lets get you to the bed.”
Noon’s sentiments aren’t lost on Dilna, who’s since become used to guessing the spirit’s emotions. She ignores her, takes steadying breaths, as she tries not to whimper. The magic is still working through her fingers, healing the broken skin.
Dilna can feel Noon hovering impatiently, can sense the lecture on the tip of the spirit’s tongue. But Noon stays quiet, waiting.
Dilna blinks through the tears, ducking her head to wipe them from her face.
“Can you float?” Noon prompts.
Dilna waves a dismissive hand.
“Should I get Ray?” Noon says, her tone betraying what she felt about that.
“I’m fine,” Dilna hisses through gritted teeth. “You can go now.”
“I’m here.”
“I know,” she sighs. “I can handle this.”
“I’ve seen how you ‘handle’ things.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means you should shut up and try to float. Should I carry you?”
Dilna almost stumbles back onto the glass to get away from Noon. “No.”
“For skies’ sakes,” Noon rolls her eyes.
A pop, and Noon’s gone.
Dilna looks around at the mess of glass on the floor. Closing her eyes, she calls for magic again, realizing she was running on empty after the energy it took to heal herself. Noon must’ve sensed it, too.
Dilna frowns, crouching to the ground and starts crawling instead, sweeping the mess out of the way with her arms, making a path out of the broken glass.
By the time she’s safe, she jolts as she finds Kyte at her open doorway, blinking down at her, his mouth pursed into a funny shape.
“It was an accident.” She says, without being prompted.
“…I’ll get Frae.”
“Please do.”
I feel sorry for her
The magic in this sounds cool
TW, this kid deserves better
“Want to eat lunch together?” a sociable girl asked as they waited in the lunch line.
Leilah gave her a weird look. This girl had never noticed Leilah’s existence before, why now?
“Sure I guess.” Leilah said, not wanting to be rude.
She’d actually been planning to dissappear for a bit during lunch, go find somewhere more interesting to eat with Diamond’s powers.
Penny had actually been babysitting her like she was supposed to since the injury, but she was on the phone with her boyfriend the whole time and didn’t give Leilah anything to do. It was unbelievably boring.
Since it had occurred to her, Leilah just wanted to use her powers to explore. She was worried that she’d lose the chance to for some reason.
The girl followed Leilah out of the cafeteria to the roof, where Leilah usually ate. She wasn’t alone in that, there were a handful of other students that preferred to eat on the roof.
“So uh, what’s your name? I’m Leilah.” Leilah said, reining in her urge to ask the girl why she’d chosen to eat with Leilah today.
Being blunt like that had driven her classmates away from her before. But when she’d tried not to say anything they said she was boring.
Leilah really wanted friends. If this girl was giving her a chance to try again she’d take it.
“I’m Milana, but my friends call me Mi.” the girl said, smiling at Leilah.
Leilah tried to work out if that meant she should call her Mi, or if that would be presumptuous and Milana had just told her that to indicate a nickname that could happen later in their relationship, or if maybe Milana was making it clear that they weren’t friends, or mocking her…
“Mm.” Leilah said, not sure what to say.
For the next few minutes they ate in silence.
“So… what do you like to do?” Milana asked.
Leilah swallowed her mouthful of food, this one feeling even more like a lump in her throat than the last.
“Well I like to play games and stuff.” she said.
“Like board games?” Milana asked.
“No like pretend games.” Leilah said, remembering a time when a lot of the kids around her had played those kind of games.
“Oh.” Milana said.
Her tone was off, as if what Leilah had said was weird.
Leilah took another bite of rice, almost unable to swallow it. Her mouth was dry.
“Like… the kind of pretend games children play?” Milena asked.
“…Yes?” Leilah said.
Was there something wrong with this girl? Leilah was beginning to think she didn’t want to be Milena’s friend.
Milena walked with her to class without saying another word.
When they got out of school Milena sat with her in the bus. Leilah wondered if everything was fine and they were still friends despite the weird moment earlier. Sitting with this girl she didn’t know in silence felt kind of uncomfortable.
Through the whole ride, Leilah tried to think of something to say, but she couldn’t and the silence sat with them like another person sqeezed on the seat.
“See you later?” Leilah asked.
“See you later!” Milena said, her voice sounding pinched.
Penny was standing in front of the house and she waved Leilah in.
As Penny draped herself over the couch, Leilah tried to puzzle out why Milena had talked to her. Maybe Milena just wanted to try making another friend? Leilah had thought she’d seen the girl hanging out with friends before but maybe something happened.
“Did Milena look after you?” Penny said, dropping the bomb casually.
“…What?” Leilah said, instantly feeling hurt.
It only made sense that the kids at school wouldn’t want to hang out with her for the sake of it, she reminded herself.
The ache still settled into her belly and deepened as Penny explained.
“Dad was gonna quit work to watch you, so Mom called Rylie, Milena’s mom, and basically begged her to make Milena be your school buddy. It was a big fight.” Penny said carelessly, scrolling her finger up the sleek surface of her phone.
Leilah tried to speak through the tears building in her throat, but she couldn’t form any words that would express or justify how betrayed she felt.
And quit work? Dad was freaking out too? Leilah had gone to bed before Dad had come home, so she hadn’t heard the argument. It was just like her darn family to make a big fuss out of everything.
“Screw you! Screw all of you.” Leilah muttered.
“Language.” Penny said disinterestedly.
Leilah ran into the kitchen and out the back door, ducked behind a tree, and turned into Red Diamond.
Without ever really thinking about where she was going, she found herself under a sparkling, vast night sky in a completely dark field, damp grass brushing at her ankles.
She couldn’t feel cold as Diamond, so she sat down in the grass, her quiet crying overwhelmed by the chirping of crickets.
“I don’t want to go back. I don’t want to go back.”
Leilah lay back in the grass, the blanket of darkness, the vast sparkle of stars, and the comfort of distance soothing her.
She lay like that for a while, not thinking about anything, just drinking in the sky.
Eventually the thought that her family must be looking for her, must be worrying, slowly crept back to her.
Fear crept back into her body, a leaden weight, but it was dampened by the incredibly calming peace of the night. Somehow, with a sight like this in her mind, it seemed like facing her family might be just a little bit easier.
She made herself invisible and appeared on the roof of her house. There were police cars in front of it, Dad was on the lawn despite the fact he should be at work, Penny was in the backyard calling Leilah’s name.
Leilah appeared in the branches of a thickly leafed tree and turned into her normal form.
“I’m here.” she said quietly, then repeated it louder when Penny didn’t hear her the first time.
“Leilah?” Penny said, her voice incredulous and outraged.
After two hours of lectures and screaming, in which tying her to whoever was watching her, forcing her to do volunteer work, locking her in a room until she told them who had hurt her, and other unpleasant ideas were tossed around, Leilah sat exhaustedly on the couch as Penny texted her boyfriend with sharp, angry keystrokes.
Leilah had barely managed to get out of being tied to Penny by promising, tearfully, that she wouldn’t run away again.
“Hey, Penny.” Leilah said, inspiration finally coming to her.
Penny glared sharply at her. Leilah tried to ignore how that made her feel, as if she were full of burning splinters, pressing their way up her throat, scratching her entire bloodstream.
“It was a wild animal. I tried to get close to it.” Leilah said, her voice flat after so much crying.
Penny’s eyes widened.
“You mean… the wound?”
“Yeah.”
“It could be infected! We need to check.” Penny worried immediately.
Leilah tried to resist as Penny pulled up her shirt and slowly, carefully pried up the bandage, but her sister was stronger than her.
Her sister sat in stunned silence for a moment, staring at the scar.
Leilah couldn’t let them figure it out. They’d find a way to take her powers away from her. But despite her desperation, she couldn’t think of a way to explain why the wound had healed so fast.
“I… it was bleeding so much.” Penny said.
She sat back.
“Well. I believe you. And to think, we’ve made such a big deal out of this.” Penny shook her head.
Leilah felt a swell of hope inside her. She tried to push it down, wary.
But when Mom came home and looked at her wound, exclaiming, the tension was clearly broken.
“Next time you tell us right away. You scared us half to death.” Mom reprimanded her, but compared to the lectures she usually gave it was barely a lecture at all.
“And it could have gotten infected even if it was just a scratch.” Penny supplied.
“And that! You always put disinfectant on wounds from now on.” Mom fussed.
Penny nodded, barely able to believe that the storm had blown over, not ready to trust them again.
XD XD
She should’ve just accepted Noon’s help tbh, but yeah healing magic is painful
TW, this kid deserves better
hhhh headpats
;-;
it’s probably not lol
;-;
;-;
I loooove this ;-; ;-;
How uncertain she is at school and with her family because everything that happened
Flipping through a few more pages, she sighs, flopping her head back against the bench.
“What’s up?” Noon asks, their elbows bumping, and Dilna shifts away from the spirit because of the cold emanating from her body.
Noon notices, and Dilna feels her amusement before Noon shifts closer again.
“Noon,” Dilna says, turning her gaze away from the grey skies above to the spirit beside her, whose dark curls have long since fought loose of the bun Emora no doubt styles every morning.
Unconsciously Dilna reaches out, brushing at some of loose strands.
Noon’s eyes follow the movement, watching her for a second before she grabs her wrist and Dilna yelps from the freezing chill that spreads at their touch.
“What are you doing?” Noon grins, letting go, to reach back and tug at the clip holding her curls together. Dilna’s eyes go to the sky again as Noon struggles to fix her hair.
“It looked really messy,” she says, stifling a yawn. “Do I really need to read this book?”
“Mm,” Noon hums, apparently really struggling with the hair. Dilna finally smirks, her bad mood receding for a second. She stands, and moves to sit on the back of the bench, guiding Noon’s shoulders in front of her.
“Stop-” Noon protests, but Dilna grabs the clip out of her hand, and Noon quiets as she runs her fingers through the spirit’s curls, trying to untangle it without a comb. Her hair’s a curious mixture of smooth and rough on Dilna’s hands, each strand like ice against her skin.
Her fingers go numb.
Noon picks up the notes Dilna had abandoned, flipping through some of the pages. “Yikes. This chapter was really hard to get through.”
“You read it?” Dilna raises a brow.
“I figured it’ll help me help you better if I know what you’re studying.”
“Help me help you.”
“I’m tired.”
Dilna doesn’t say anything to that, just finishes twisting Noon’s hair into a ponytail.
Noon reaches back to feel her hair. “I said I’d do it. You have to make it look like before.”
“You don’t have to look strict and boring. Loosen up a little.”
“Go tell Emora that.”
Dilna swats away Noons fingers as the spirit tries to undo the ponytail.
“Fine, I’ll fix it.”
Noon sighs, but lets her play with her hair anyway.
Now Dilna’s struggling, rubbing her fingers against her arms to rub some feeling back into them as she attempts to pull Noon’s hair into a bun. At this rate, she’ll get frostbite first.
“We could go explore the gardens?”
“Huh?” Dilna asks, pulled out of her thoughts. She looks down at Noon’s head, running over the words again in her mind though she can’t see the spirit’s face from this angle. Not that she has to, anymore. “Haven’t you seen them already?”
“Yeah. But I just sorta, floated over. Anyway, you could use a break from studying.”
“Wow. There’s something I never thought I’d hear you say.”
“Better than reading the same page over and over again for another hour.”
Dilna feels a tinge of annoyance, whether from having to read that stupid page over and over again, or from having someone point it out to her, she doesn’t know. Noon must’ve sensed it.
“How-” Dilna starts.
“You haven’t turned a page in a while, anyone could’ve guessed,” Noon says, and Dilna can tell the spirit’s rolling her eyes.
“Could’ve fooled me,” Dilna mutters. Noon shifts, and Dilna protests a little, though she’d already made her hair into the bun it was before, and Noon turns to look at her.
“If you want me to leave, you could just say so,” Noon says, patting at her hair to make sure it felt okay.
Dilna frowns, a little baffled.
“…No,” she says finally. She moves, and hops off the bench. “A walk sounds great.”
wow. it’s been a while since I’ve been able to write either dilna or noon and they’ve changed since XD
Leilah deserves better ;-;
it always ends up kind of painful when i write about lonely little girls with troubled families- the combination of making up characters who are far from perfect with using little snippits of pain I’ve felt to describe things. But I also grow kind of attached to these characters,
sounds hard to touch someone whose body is super cold all the time
I’m starting to imagine her as sort of icy textured
XD aww
I wish I could write character dynamics like this more often, though.
I seem to have been zeroing in on rivals and negative relationships, as if after Ripples from forgotten weeks (which was enemies to friends anyway!) I’d filled my permanant quota of happy friendships XD
reading this again, yeah this is pretty dark
Leilah heard a faint ringing sound as she boarded the school bus. She was tired from being kept awake longer than usual so Dad could see her healed wound for himself, but after a moment she realized that wasn’t the source of the ringing.
It was a feeling, not a sound, and it came from the gem in her chest.
Given Crystal’s reaction last time they’d met, Leilah wasn’t about to respond to her call. She hoped Crystal wouldn’t be able to actually sense where Leilah was.
Someone sat next to Leilah, and she looked up, startled.
Milana smiled tightly at her.
“Good morning.” she said.
Leilah glared back.
“I know you’re only talking to me because your mom told you to.” Leilah said.
Milana’s smile faltered, then dropped.
“Yeah? So what? She’s gonna take away my internet time if I refuse. Put yourself in my shoes.” Milana said, as if hoping for sympathy.
“Well my family has realized that…” Leilah didn’t want to talk about her wound, “I mean they’ve gotten over their super paranoia. So you don’t need to stalk me.”
“I am NOT ‘stalking’ you. And I know, they called my mother. But they still want me to stalk you.” a moment later Milana seemed to realize what she’d said.
A chuckle burst out of Leilah, and after a moment Milana laughed too.
Leilah still wasn’t okay with Milana following her around everywhere, though.
“You shouldn’t have lied to me.” Leilah said seriously.
“Well… it was easier.” Milana said, not looking away but looking slightly guilty.
Leilah glared flatly at her for a moment. She was stuck with Milana until her family decided to release her, it seemed. She sighed.
“Why are they still making you follow me?” she wondered.
“Well um, apparently you don’t have any friends.” Milena said judgementally.
“And what if I don’t want any?” Leilah countered.
She did really, but maybe if her ‘friends’ were going to be judging her and lying to her all the time…
Milana shrugged, and they sat for the rest of the ride in silence.
Later that day in the lunch line Milana asked,
“So like, I told my friends I was being forced to watch you, but maybe you can make this easier for me and eat lunch with us?”
Leilah remembered the way the popular kids had treated her- smirks, jokes at her expense, an oppressive atmosphere of Leilah being the ‘weird’ kid.
“No.” Leilah said.
Milana glared at her.
She was probably dying to hang out with her friends. Despite herself, Leilah felt bad for her.
“Tell you what, if you want to eat lunch with them instead I’ll tell everyone you were with me.” Leilah offered.
“That won’t work. Everyone will see me.” Milana said, slightly mollified, “Why don’t you wanna eat with them anyway?”
“I heard you get great grades. The teachers are always saying it. Maybe you can figure out why I might not like being around you and your friends.” Leilah muttered.
Really, she didn’t quite have the the words to explain the atmosphere Milana and her friends built up. The way they always made Leilah feel small and odd. She was afraid if she tried to say something about it it would sound silly.
Milana just looked at her. Puzzled? Condescending, disgusted, amused? Bored? Leilah had no idea what she was thinking.
They got their lunches.
“Last chance. You can always eat in the bathroom instead of with me. Nobody will know and I’ll cover for you.” Leilah said, only like a quarter joking- maybe less than that actually.
Milana followed her to the roof without saying anything.
Somehow not saying anything felt like the most annoying reply. It didn’t give Leilah anything to latch onto and fight back against.
“You should eat more greens.” Milana said, after they’d eaten most of their food.
“Why?” Leilah asked.
“Because I don’t feel like finishing mine.” she replied, forking some onto Leilah’s plate before she could object.
“Oh.” Leilah said.
She’d expected some kind of health based explanation, but if she was just finishing Milana’s she didn’t mind. She didn’t hate spinach.
“My mom is always telling me I should eat more, but it’s gross. All cold and clammy.” Milana said, then glanced at Leilah again- “I mean, it’s really good, all nutrutious and green and stuff, but I just think you should eat it.”
Leilah laughed around her mouthful of spinach.
They finished their meals and went back to the cafeteria to throw out their plastic dishes. One of Milana’s friends, some loud guy, waved to her and said,
“See you after school! We miss you!” cheerily.
Milana waved back,
“I know, right?” she said, a faint overlay of desperatation in her voice.
Neither of them so much as glanced at Leilah. She reminded herself that Milana wasn’t her real friend, she was just hanging out with Leilah because she had to. Still, she felt like she’d been tossed aside like garbage. Suddenly she didn’t want anything to do with Milana anymore- she wished she could teleport somewhere beautiful and far away to eat lunch instead.
Leilah didn’t look at Milana during lessons, and on the bus she got to the seats first and looked out the window instead of at Milana.
“You’re ignoring me.” Milana said, souding hurt.
“Am not. And why does it matter anyway? You’re just hanging out with me because you have to.” Leilah said.
“Can’t we get along?” Milana said.
Her tone was annoying like a whine to Leilah.
“I’m not good at small talk.” Leilah said, wanting an excuse to ignore her.
“You’re mad at me.” Milana nagged, leaning in close enough to literally be breathing down Leilah’s neck.
Leilah shoved her away and glared at her.
“I don’t like being made to feel like I’m disposable.” she said, regretting being baited into talking about her feelings right after the words exited her mouth.
“What are you talking about? I’ve never treated you like you were disposable or anything like that!” Milana yelled.
Leilah was uncomfortably aware that everyone could hear them and was listening closely, ready to hate Leilah even more than they did already.
“Sorry.” she said insincerely, trying not to get in trouble with the crowd.
She didn’t need the snide remarks at school to ramp up to something more actively aggressive.
“Don’t accuse me of things I didn’t do.” Milana said, not talking to Leilah for the rest of the ride.
Well, Leilah had gotten her to not talk to her. But she felt bad about it- Milana had sounded genuinely angry, and Leilah couldn’t justify her feelings. It seemed like Milena was in the right, but Leilah didn’t feel like forgiving her.
As before the injury, Penny wasn’t home, and probably wasn’t going to come home anytime soon.
Leilah turned into Diamond and teleported somewhere calming.
This time it was a dark blue sky, nearly night or just coming out of it, with tall, even grass swishing under Leilah’s feet. The air was cool, but it seemed to slide right off Diamond’s skin.
“I really wanted to be Milana’s friend.” Leilah said, Diamond’s voice making the statement sound more mature than Leilah felt.
A light breeze swished the grass.
“But that could never happen. She’s already got friends, she wouldn’t want another one. Plus I’m pretty sure she hates me.”
Wanting to get her mind off it so she wouldn’t cry, Leilah teleported to a volcano to see if her barriers could stand up to lava.
The lava was beautiful in a deadly way. With a barrier around her Leilah could almost enter the lava without it breaking- but as the lava closed around it she started to feel the pressure on her barrier, and she immediately floated up and away, her heart beating faster at the danger she’d just put herself in.
It didn’t really feel that dangerous with Diamond’s powers, Leilah tried to justify it to herself.
I could honestly go on here but I’ll save it for another chapter XD
;-;
saame, most of the emotional stuff from my characters that are slice-of-life-ish are usually based on some corner of my life (cough dilna cough) which is why I get so attached
XD
XD
mittens and banana thooo <3
aaand darius and caroline!
aw <3
I sense the beginning of an awesome friendship
lol I can relate
hhh sends Leilah virtual hugs
I just love reading slice of life and that was nice TvT
…what does this have to do with the prompt? absolutely nothing.
I just couldn’t fit in “key” in there.
Noon floats after the girl through the bookshelves, skimming the titles they pass.
Literature has changed in the centuries she’s spent away from humans. There’s so much reading to catch up on. It’s honestly a little exciting.
Dilna drops her bag and textbooks at a table, and pulls out a chair. Noon decides to explore a little since they’re here, and leaves the girl to float up some bookshelves.
The spirit pulls out a title at random, flipping through the book and admiring the texture of words on paper as she turns them, the edges crisp and sharp against her fingertips, the sweet smell of fragile paper and ink lingering in the air.
It’s been so long since she’s enjoyed these sensations, and the experience brings her sudden nostalgia.
She senses the familiar weight of Dilna’s gaze, and looks over.
Their eyes meet, and even from the height of these darkened bookshelves, she can make out the amused smile twitching at the girl’s lips.
‘What?’ Noon asks, more curious than anything.
Dilna shakes her head, the smile falling off, and looks back at her notes again, tapping her pen against paper.
Noon shakes her head slightly, unsure of what to make of the human, and turns her attention back to the book in her hands. After skimming over a few words, she figures it’s a geological study, and tucks the book into her arms. It’s perfect. Her eyes take in the titles around her, a little greedily, but she floats down the bookshelf to pull out the chair on Dilna’s other side.
She sets the book on the table gently, and settles cross-legged as she moves the book to her lap to curl up and read.
Some time passes like that, the library quiet around them except for the occasional echo of receding footsteps or hushed voices. Dilna’s pen taps against her notebook as she writes, sometimes the taps sounding out in even measures but often speeding up, and other times pausing entirely as Dilna chooses to flip through a reference book or other. Her emotions brush against Noon because of their proximity, reassuring Noon that the girl is properly focused on the work at hand.
It all becomes background noise for the spirit, whose head is more filled with the formation of shield volcanoes and studies exploring oceanic plates.
A few chapters in, Dilna stands beside her, and Noon glances up, blinking in a daze, realizing the focus she’d felt off of Dilna had long since turned into a claustrophobic frustration.
The girl walks off with no further warning, and Noon sighs, used to her dramatic mood swings.
She glances at the page number and sets her book down, floating after her reluctantly.
Dilna turns a little to look at her. “I’m fine.”
Noon shrugs.
“I am.” The girl grounds out. “I’m only taking a break. You don’t have to follow me everywhere.”
Noon decides against shrugging again, though she can sense Dilna would just snap at her either way.
“How’s your progress on the paper?”
“Fine,” Dilna snaps.
They round the corner and Dilna shoves open the tall doors with unnecessary force, and the smell of rain and damp earth and birdsong hits them all at once. There are some people milling around under the afternoon light, their muted voices filling the air.
“I’m just checking up on where you are.”
“I hate all of it,” Dilna growls, walking past them all. “What’s the point of studying all of this, even?”
Her raised voice attracts the attention of a few passerby.
“The pursuit of knowledge?”
“I’m never going to use any of this in real life. None of this even matters, but I’m supposed to spend hours and hours on useless work like this everyday?”
“It’s not useless,” Noon sighs.
“Forget it. I’m never going to catch up to the others. Why are we trying so hard? I don’t want to do any of this. But I can’t even tell Amma that without her going, ‘You just have to do as you’re told.’”
“Dilna.”
Dilna’s realized she’s attracting attention, and she pulls up her hood to avoid being recognized, though she’s wiping at her eyes.
“Let’s go get some food,” Noon says.
“I don’t want–” Dilna sighs angrily. “I told you to stay back. You don’t have to put up with me taking it out on you. You make it so easy because you’re always around. Just go back to reading about rocks or whatever else you were doing. I’m fine, and I’ll be back after I cool my head off.”
“Fine.” Noon snaps, unable to help herself. It’s their fate, for their emotions to influence each other’s, and the air’s tense between Dilna’s frustration and Noon’s growing annoyance.
She pauses, but the girl keeps walking, and Noon huffs and turns into the wind.
She shows up at the library again, settling on the chair, arms folded across her chest as she waits for the emotions to subside.
They don’t.
It’s become such a tiring routine, putting up with Dilna these days.
Noon’s eyes flick over the papers scrawled with Dilna’s measured writing, and she picks one up, crinkling the paper with her force.
Her eyes skip over the words, and her frustration only grows when she’s done reading.
Hollow, Nidhii mused, as lukewarm water swirled lazily around her ankles.
Yes.
That perfectly described how she was feeling right now.
Hollow, as she stood in the small stream, smooth pebbles shifting between her toes as she reached down to roll up her already-soaked pant legs. The chill breeze bites at her exposed skin, even as the waters provide a warm relief.
There was some cry of laughter, and she looked up, to stare at Neil and Arrossa, who were having a grand time, it seemed, a little farther downstream. Arrossa’s yellow summer dress whipped around her legs in a sudden wind, as water dripped from her bare shoulders, Neil holding the bucket that had probably drenched her.
Nidhii had been sure Neil’s laughter would die off, become a rare, coveted thing. She’d thought she’d never hear it again. But ever since he met Arrossa, Nidhii heard the sound often.
Arrossa ducked her head, a hand on her sunhat, probably concealing a blush. Nidhiii watched her back away from the other boy, who only stepped forwards with a wicked grin.
She watched them for a bit, frown twitching, before her eyes dropped away from them and she made herself focus on the trees.
The three stood in a flowing stream nestled between two sloping grounds, the faint autumn sun drowning in a sea of clouds over their heads. One side of the stream was edged with trees that loom ominously into the grey skies, while over the other, you could make out the faint rooftops of their houses in the distance.
The air was wet with the chirp of insects and rustling branches, where faint voices went in and out of focus, voices Nidhii really didn’t want to hear, and voices there’s no way the other two heard.
There was a heavy dread that had settled in Nidhii’s chest, and it sat on top of the hollowness with something even more unpleasant.
This is difficult for her.
She dearly wished the other two would understand that.
Arrossa squeaked as Neil pulled her towards him, and she stumbled through the water. He caught her, and they stood like that for a few moments, inhaling and exhaling, just standing against each other, before she started giggling. She wanted to be exasperated, but when she looked at him, she knew she couldn’t be. Not with his face inches from her own, his hands wrapped under her arms, his wet shirt clinging to her skin, where she could still feel his warmth through the chill.
His breath misted on her mouth, and they just looked at each other, smiles frozen. She tried to take it all in before she’d have to pull away, the soft way he looked at her, the way his lips twisted just slightly upwards at the edges.
Neil did not smile often.
But when he did, it was small, reluctant, as if he carried some guilt with expressing his happiness that Arrossa couldn’t understand.
That’s why moments like these meant everything to her.
The right timing to step away casually ticked by them, and yet, neither moved.
It would be absolutely perfect.
A page ripped right out of a fairytale.
If not for Nidhii, who Arrossa could tell was watching the scene with the driest, most unamused expression on her face from somewhere not far off.
The very existence of other girl has always vexed Arrossa beyond any reason she could understand.
And maybe when she closed the distance between Neil’s lips and her own, she felt some satisfaction in knowing Nidhii wouldn’t be watching anymore.
Neil’s eyes widen a fraction, not having expected the kiss.
But it feels right, and when she tries to step away, he cups her face to keep her close.
The world froze for Nidhii, who stood rooted to the spot, some morbid fascination stopping her from looking away, keeping her breath trapped in her throat.
Ah.
They’re kissing.
Right in front of her.
Whatever melancholy had a hold on her had long since blown away, and she couldn’t think.
Finally, she forced her legs to move, to turn her away.
She put her freezing fingers into her pockets, letting out a long breath.
I realized that even when I wasn’t trying to my main characters ended up acting like me in one way or another- there was the protaginist of ‘the princess story’ which was my first monthly prompt story. The protaginist was this practical princess who came off as very asexual even though I didn’t intend her to be. I thought she didn’t have enough personality, but maybe the problem was that her and the main ‘love interest’ were too similar. XD
Rexorax was arrogant, (I have a lot to draw from there,) I have my fair share of deadpan sarcastic protaginists who are just reacting to a ridiculous situation that nobody else seems to find ridiculous, and so on. I’ve been all of those people at one time or another, I just have to dial it up to eleven and I have an interesting protaginist XD
true! I should write more of that XD
I hope they can get there!
I will interpret this to have key in it XD
a book is the ‘key’ to her being happy right now XD okay that was bad
I love the use of words like a smile ‘falling off-’ that’s really how it feels sometimes.
this sounds like a really nice place
living with people is hard!
;-;
Summary
Deep under the ground, deeper than anyone cared to burrow, there was a colorless, airless hollow in the rock. A red haired girl sat weightlessly on a ragged shard of unformed boulder.
Leilah hadn’t known a place like this existed. Fractured and broken, wild shapes showed up in the consciously bright glow of Diamond’s gem shards.
It felt like no human, no living creature, was meant to see this place.
Leilah was kind of impressed and kind of freaked out. She’d just wondered what kinds of things were deep under the ground, and she’d appeared here.
She took one more look at the senseless, sharp forms of rock around her that seemed freakier in the still, dead air.
Leilah shuddered and teleported back into the open dawn air somewhere near her city, taking a moment to breathe it in and watch the sun slowly lighting up the sky.
Then she turned invisible just in case and just like that she was in bed again, ready to get a bit more sleep before she started the day.
“Sorry I got mad at you yesterday and didn’t accept your apology. I’ve been thinking about it.” Milana said on the schoolbus.
“It’s okay.” Leilah said.
She really shouldn’t have said anything about how she felt. How had she expected Milana to react?
“I shouldn’t have dismissed your feelings like that and I’ll try to pay more attention to how I treat you from now on.” Milana promised seriously.
Leilah wasn’t sure how to react.
“No, I mean it’s my fault for accusing you of something you didn’t do.” she said awkwardly.
“I’m trying to apologize here.” Milana said, annoyed.
“I know?” Leilah said.
Was she supposed to have just said ‘okay’ or something? She’d thought she was giving the right kind of answer.
Milana huffed.
“You’re annoying.” she said, but not overly seriously.
“Well I think you are too.” Leilah shot back.
At lunch Milana asked her to hang out with her friends again, and Leilah refused.
“Why not?” Milana yelled as she got her food.
“I don’t like them!” Leilah blurted.
She flushed red as she realized one of Milana’s friends was right behind her. He frowned at her.
“Anyway I’m going to the roof now! Don’t follow me!” Leilah said.
Milana followed her.
“You should apologize to Derek.” she said as they headed to the roof.
“I don’t want to.” Leilah said, trying to climb the stairs fast enough to leave her behind.
“You’re being mean.” Milana said.
Leilah sat down against the wall next to the door onto the roof, turned away from Milana. She knew she was being mean.
The pressure built as she tried to eat lunch, pushing her food around more than she swallowed it.
“Fine, I’ll apologize.” she said.
She supposed she should give Milana’s friends another chance. She tugged at her hair, carrying her plate of mostly uneaten food back to the cafeteria with Milana trotting behind her.
Milana’s friends all looked at Leilah when she approached their table. She felt the words stick in her throat as she looked at them- all perfectly put together, confident kids staring at her with varying levels of hostility.
“Sorry I said I didn’t like you.” Leilah managed, the words quiet and slow like a parade of snails.
There was a moment of silence, and their eyes burned holes in Leilah’s skin.
“Well I guess I’ll be going now.” she said.
“No, eat lunch with us.” one of the kids said.
Derek frowned, but didn’t say anything. The other girl’s expression was neutral, but Leilah thought it looked slighly hostile.
Before Leilah could think of an excuse to leave, Milana pulled her a chair and practically shoved her into it.
“I’m Jaziah.” the kid who’d invited her to sit with them said.
Okay I’ve run out of steam for this. Maybe I’ll continue this chapter later, or maybe I’ll timeskip at some point to some point.
Amethyst tugged at her frilly dress, examining the design. After the novelty of being a superpowerful girly humanoid wore off, she found herself wondering why the dresses looked the way they did.
Despite the variation in the people the gems had attached themselves to, there was a sameness to the body type and general fashion sense of each girl.
“YOU got your hands on those powers?” a deep, velvety voice asked.
Amethyst turned back into Neris, seeing no point in denying that it was them. The demon who’d asked the question was a friend who lived in a nearby tunnel that visited sometimes. He was generally not an ambitious guy, so Neris was only slightly worried he’d go after Amethyst’s gem.
“You hit the nail on the head, Ve. Through a scheme of great cunning and wit, I got my hands on the power of the gods.” Neris said, making a grand gesture.
They paused to see if Ve would believe them.
“What did you do?” Ve said.
“Oh you know.” Neris said, hoping for more of a response.
“Cool. What are you going to do with your powers?” Ve asked, picking bits of earthworm out of his teeth.
“You’re going to have try harder than that if you want me to tell you!” Neris said in mock anger.
Ve shrugged.
“You’re too dramatic for me. If you don’t want to tell me, sure, it’s none of my business.” he said, pretending to turn and walk away.
At least Neris thought he was pretending.
“Fine, fine. In reality, I didn’t do a thing to get these powers. They were dropped in my lap, delivered on a silver platter, served with a cherry on top.” Neris said, throwing their hands up in defeat.
“What, really? I want someone to just give me godlike powers.” Ve said.
“Looks like you got unlucky, didn’t you? If these powers had just turned a little to avoid, say, some nasty bugs that happened to be in their way, they might have landed in the next cave over.”
“Bugs are tasty.” Ve said.
“I prefer humans myself.” Neris said, shrugging.
Leilah felt cheerier than usual that night. Sadie and Derek had made some comments about her, but Jaziah and even sometimes Milana had discouraged it.
She didn’t feel like visiting somewhere really dangerous or scary that night.
As she sat on her soft bed in her fluffy pajamas in the slightly chilly air, she thought about somewhere she’d like to go. Somewhere bright and pretty like a treasure hoard. Maybe a bit cozy.
She was glad she could float dirt off her in Diamond’s form. It meant she didn’t need to change out of her pajamas and she’d be just as clean when she got back.
She sent her gem into the air, the red glow of the shards cutting bright auras of light in the darkness.
She teleported, floating in the air over the ground because she didn’t feel like standing.
Leilah found herself in a cave with long, glowing crystals in a variety of gentle shades hanging from the ceiling.
There was a purple haired demon facing away from Leilah and toward a beautiful pool, staring into its depths.
Leilah’s heart lurched.
She didn’t sense any hostility from the demon, but these things ate people and the Gem Squad had met some with some kind of scary powers.
The magical girls were usually way more powerful than them, but Leilah hadn’t really trusted her own powers since her shield had broken under Amber’s sword.
“Friend of yours?” a low voice from a tunnel Leilah hadn’t noticed asked.
She hung in the air, frozen, as the demon at the pool turned around and noticed her and the demon who’d just arrived.
The purple haired demon’s bright red eyes widened.
“You’re the grumpy one!” they said.
“Um, what?” Leilah said, wanting to teleport away but curious.
There was a charged pause.
“I’ve seen you on the TV. Us demons do love our TV.” purple hair said.
“Oh… you mean in the Gem Squad.” Leilah said.
She hadn’t known there were that many clips of the magical girls talking out there.
She supposed it was pretty accurate to say she was the grumpy one, though- she hadn’t known how to be polite when Quartz was always yelling about murdering everything, Crystal was arguing with her, and Amethyst was siding against whoever seemed more riled up. Actually she usually just sided against everybody. While Quartz seemed more angry, Amethyst just seemed to want to make everyone else mad.
Maybe it was a good thing Leilah couldn’t go back.
“You haven’t been on the TV lately.” purple hair said. “Decided you got your fill of blowing up demons?” they asked, sounding more condescending than threatened.
“I mean… um…” Leilah looked at them awkwardly.
Should she apologize? An apology wouldn’t really work here, would it? The Gem Squad and she herself had killed a lot of demons.
Purple hair watched her squirm, a smirk that revealed the edge of sharp teeth settled on their face.
“I think I’m done killing demons. Unless they attack me or something.” Leilah said, not sure what purple hair was feeling.
“That’s a relief.” the other demon commented.
“Ah, such a pity. Quartz and Crystal simply hated having you around.” purple hair said.
The tone of their voice was incredibly familiar, as was the sentiment they expressed.
“…Amethyst?” Leilah asked, not quite believing her intuition.
“I’m sure she loved having you around.” the demon said, unphased.
Then again, if they were Amethyst, would they react?
“What’s your name?” Leilah asked, wanting more information about this strange, incredibly familiar demon.
None of the other demons she’d met had talked like this. Nobody she’d met had quite this aura except Amethyst.
“I’m Neris. And how about you?” the demon asked, smiling wider in a display of perfectly sharp teeth.
Leilah shuddered and teleported away.
It took her a moment to realize she hadn’t teleported to her bedroom but to a wide lake in the wilderness somewhere in the mid afternoon.
Even though she could float any dirt off her, she dove into the water, landing on the mud floor with her clothing floating weightlessly around her.
Her eyes didn’t sting under the water and she didn’t need to breathe. It was an incredible feeling, as if she were some life form other than a human.
She imagined a shark swimming up with sharp teeth like Neris’.
She shot out of the water before realizing that sharks didn’t swim in lakes.
Floating the water and dirt off her and teleporting back to her own soft bed, Leilah resolved to get some sleep.
:0 i wonder if my characters come off as asexual… Lol, they probably do. Unless I’ve consciously introduced a love interest, but even then lol
me XD
ooOOh
Same! I’ve been all my characters at one time or another
XDD I tried to include key in there SOMEhow, lol, but I will take that interpretation.
;-;
i love making noon hate dilna because dilna has been sooooo bad to noon in older versions. Not that Noon hasn’t been equally bad to her, but I tend to at least justify dilna while Noon was left to fend for themselves… needless to say, if Dilna is miserable, there may always be a part of me that goes ‘she kinda deserves it tho’
wipes single tear they grow up so fast
:0
Leilah. gives headpats to confused insecure child.
I hope you know you’re my favorite character now.
I see.
you know what. You’re growing on me, too.
I see.
neris!
aw
gotta love those should-hate-them-but-love-them characters
Lux tackles his suitcase with all the strength his scrawny frame could muster, grunting when it still refuses to close.
He gets up, and jumps on it.
The door squeaks open and Caden walks into the scene, flinching when Lux looks up to meet his eyes.
“What the—“
Lux scowls, and Caden takes a second to understand the situation. “…Lux.”
The taller boy doesn’t reply, just goes back to bouncing on the suitcase.
“LUX.”
“What?” He doesn’t look up, angry scowl fixed on the gap between the suitcase’s zippers.
“You’re going to break it!”
Lux stands up, and kicks at his suitcase, which certainly doesn’t help and just sends it sliding into the wall.
“Geez,” Caden mutters, crossing the room and grabbing Lux’s shoulders before the other boy can keep bullying the poor suitcase. “What did your luggage ever do to you?”
Lux just shoves him off, which is— not surprising, but it still ticks Caden off.
Caden sighs, crossing his arms as Lux walks purposely over to the suitcase just to start attacking it again.
“Why. Won’t. It. Close.”
“Lux.”
“What?”
“Chill out.”
“I am chill.”
“Really? That’s not what it looks like from here.” CRACK.
Lux pauses, staring at the thing.
He looks up at Caden.
“Don’t look at me,” Caden sighs, deciding this was just one of those moments where he should leave Lux alone to let him get back to his senses.
Caden flops down on the bed at the other end of the room, his legs hanging off the edge, as Lux stands frozen, working his jaw as he stares at the suitcase.
“Garbage bags are better anyway,” he finally sighs, to which Caden doesn’t respond.
———
several times I’ve specifically written romance stories. The first time they came off as asexual. The next time I tried really hard.
I looked up adjectives to describe attractive people (but how do you describe an attractive guy who doesn’t have a six pack and startlingly colored eyes or an attractive girl who doesn’t have flowing locks and a supermodel figure), the bodily reaction things like hearts skipping a beat (but that can’t come off as 'they’re just really nervous or scared around each other XD) and all that. I think the girl still came off as asexual XD
And the next romance story I did I just said screw it and made it platonic and it still came off as way more romantic because they stared into each other’s eyes and described each other’s more conventionally attractive faces.
XD
XD ahh
awww XD
awwww XD
I feel like most of my stories have a character like this- they’re kind of evil, but they’re just so happy all the time that I have to love them
I wonder if my current WIP, etherial fire,'s mc comes off as likable, hatable, not having a consistant personality, or what… I’m trying to write an evil character who develops into a good one (partially for the wrong reasons since she just wants to distance herself from her creator/original) and I’m at that stage of just worrying that the whole story is slow and unreadable.
XD
probably not true, but XD
This matches the prompt well! Moving out is very finality
Summary
There was an old rail around the top of the abandoned building. Quartz put her hand on it and shoved, and the rusty piece broke off with a loud groaning.
“Seems another one of you was too weak to do their job.” Quartz observed.
“This is volunteer work. It’s each individual’s choice whether they come to these meetings or not.” Crystal said tightly.
It was late enough that they could be fairly sure Diamond wasn’t coming. And of course Jade no longer showed up, and Amber hadn’t even stayed for one session.
“I saw Diamond just yesterday, actually.” Amethyst said, smiling her annoying smile.
Quartz was completely fed up with the uppity little girl. She felt an overwhelming desire to punch her in the face. With a lot of magic power behind it, of course.
“Was she doing okay?” Crystal asked, a note of concern in her voice.
Crystal’s obsession with being concerned about everyone and everything like she was their weak hearted mother was irritating, though slightly more tolerable than Amethyst’s cheery carelessness.
“No, she was dripping blood and guts.” Amethyst said.
Crystal stared evenly at her like she was waiting for a child to spill a confession.
Quartz wished Amethyst was dripping blood and guts as well.
“I’m tired of watching you argue about silly things. Who cares if that rude girl is dead. The three of us are enough to defeat any enemy we encounter, so why don’t we get going before moss grows on our pretty little toes.” Quartz said flatly.
“No. Answer me, Amethyst. When you saw Diamond, how was she doing?” Crystal asked.
“I think.” Amethyst said, leaning forward and smiling innocently.
“You think what?” Crystal said, her clenched fists betraying her impatience.
“I think it really bothers you not knowing. Am I telling the truth, or was she perfectly fine?” Amethyst said, her grin widening.
Crystal closed her eyes, taking a deep breath, and Amethyst broke into high, annoying laughter.
Quartz wondered if she could speak directly into Crystal’s mind without Amethyst hearing.
“She’s fine. I can feel a link to her.” Crystal said, her voice clouded with uncertainty like she was worried that Diamond was seriously injured.
Quartz had wanted to kick Diamond into submission quite frequently, but she supposed the blow to their fighting force was concerning.
A large part of her wanted to try to convince Crystal to off Amethyst with Quartz’s help, but with an effort she reined it in. They needed as much power as possible to fight the monsters they fought, even if that power came in the form of an insufferable, hyperactive, petty girl.
“Let’s go.” Crystal said curtly, teleporting them all into a room where masked men held tied hostages at gunpoint.
The Gem Squad acted with no cohesion, not used to hostage situations. Quartz put a hard barrier around the hostages and another one around herself, Crystal made some kind of soft barrier around the hostages- probably to avoid bouncing bullets, and Amethyst-
Amethyst just moved to the side of the room with a barrier around herself.
Leaving defending the hostages to Crystal who was clearly better at it, Quartz ignored the rain of bullets and snapped her fingers.
The men went down easily in a spray of blood and other insides.
“Those were humans!” Crystal said incredulously, her voice close to breaking.
Talking over her, Quartz said,
“You were certainly helpful, Amethyst. I’m beginning to think we don’t need you in the group, or even alive. Does anyone need you alive?”
Amethyst seemed not only to not be stressed out, she seemed happy that Crystal and Quartz were. Amethyst smiled widely, the expression on her delicate mouth making her look like a little girl who just received a stuffed toy for her birthday.
“Are you going to attack me, oh great defender of justice?” Amethyst asked.
“You- LOOK AT ME! YOU JUST KILLED A BUNCH OF PEOPLE!” Crystal screamed, her magically enhanced voice echoing through the room.
Quartz looked at her, disgusted at her outburst. Crystal was the leader of the Gem Squad and she was acting like a child.
“And frankly, I don’t care. They had hostages. Do you think they were deserving of mercy?” Quartz said rhetorically.
“And yes, Amethyst,” she continued icily. “You’re insufferable and I don’t care that you’re helping us. You deserve to die.”
In a flash of blue light, Quartz found herself on some random empty piece of farmland.
She realized what this meant- Crystal was discontinuing meetings. Desperately, she clawed at her link to Crystal, but she couldn’t find it, let alone trace it.
Quartz screamed in rage, her delicate voice fraying and breaking at the edges.
They could have destroyed so much evil together! Done so much for the world!
And it was broken up by a petty argument.
“I shouldn’t have gotten mad at Amethyst.” Quartz said, her frayed voice no longer perfect. “But she made it so easy! She deserved it. Crystal should have let me kill her. She should have helped me.”
Quartz screamed in rage again.
She’d continue to fight evil by herself, of course. Just because the other magical girls were too cowardly to rise to the duty that great power gave them didn’t mean she had to be.
XD
I think rather than physical descriptions that seem attractive, I feel like it’s more about their chemistry? Like, some sorta banter usually is how people write chemistry. Or some sort of emotional comfort? idk. There have just been a lot of recent books on wattpad I’ve been reading where the other person is honestly the opposite of attractive XD but the romance is still… well I mean, in one of them it was intentionally very obsessive, and in another, idk I thought they were friends because to me, it felt platonic (uh, friends who very much got distracted in taking in each other’s appearances, though one of the two is described as ‘features that don’t really go well together all smushed into an angular face.’ But right after they started falling for each other, it was like ‘she’s cute anyway’ XD ). OOh, in another one, they didn’t have either the banter or the physical appreciation, they kinda just had these heated moments where they found each other when they were vulnerable, and somehow always ended up staring at each other’s lips.
the bodily reaction things like hearts skipping a beat (but that can’t come off as 'they’re just really nervous or scared around each other XD) and all that. I think the girl still came off as asexual XD
XD
ooOh!
I haven’t written romance yet, not really so I really don’t know how I’d write it XD
XD
:00 that sounds super cool!
relatable
: D
:0
XD
XDD
omg neris XD be kinder to your self-appointed weak hearted mother
:0
:0
:0
It’s cool how Quartz of all people identifies Crystal as the leader
Speaking of romance, I just really want to write a break-up set in a world with these supers, sort of, so I’m practicing, lol. They break the fourth wall discreetly a ton and they were supposed to be dating, but by the time I finished, I figured they were old friends who just started going out:
looooong
Ry had just about enough with his work.
It was tiring, it was draining, and it was endless.
He’d been screaming into his pillow when he hears someone typing in his apartment code and the door opens-- Ry freezes, about to fling said pillow at stranger. Remus glances at him on the way to the kitchen, and drops the bags at the table.
“Get out,” is the only thing that ends up coming out of Ry’s mouth. Remus walks over and plops down on the couch next to him, biting into an apple.
“Love you too,” He snorts, picking up one of the scattered notebooks.
“I mean it, Remus. This is not–”
“Let’s go on a date.”
This pulls Ry short, and he blinks angrily at the other boy. “I have a midterm coming up tomorrow.”
“I wanted to watch a movie with you, or chill,” Remus says, dropping the notebook again. “But the situation looks worse than I thought.”
Ry sighs angrily, dragging a hand over his eyes. “This isn’t the time.”
“We could play video games? Come on, you know you want to.”
Ry stifles a sob, and quickly covers his face when it escapes anyway.
Remus’s eyes widen-- “Shit. Shit, sorry, I can–”
“If you leave now, I’ll kill you,” Ry says, and his voice is soft.
Uncertain, Remus watches him for a second, and takes a hesitant bite out of his apple. “You been painting?”
“…no?”
“You should paint. It’s like when I mess around coding apps whenever my brother comes over.”
Ry gets exactly what he means, but he shakes his head. “I’m sorry. I know you came over, but-- and, don’t-- Don’t you have midterms, too?”
“Yeah. I finished studying for all of them.”
“I hate it when I remember that you’re smart.”
Remus blinks, and slowly smirks. “What can I say? I’m naturally talented.”
“What’s in the groceries, anyway?” Ry snorts, glancing over Remus’s shoulder, rubbing self-consciously at his eyes, feeling a little stupid that he’d cried. Skimping on sleep the past three days could not have helped his mental health.
“Mmm,” Remus hums. “Fruits, vegetables, uh, a bunch of other stuff? I know you do that weird ‘listening to the produce’s soul’ thing when you pick stuff out, but I did my best.”
Ry laughs a little, and Remus grins.
“…I’ll make you something,” Ry says, standing. Remus catches his sleeve as he walks by–
“You sure? You look like you’ll fall over any second.”
“I’m fine, Re,” Ry says, pausing.
He smiles, a little painfully, as he prods the space between Remus’s brows, which had been scrunched together in uncharacteristic worry. “You don’t have to take care of me like this.”
Remus stares up at him for a second, and lets go of Ry’s sleeve, shaking his head slightly. “Forget that. I can stay if you want, but I think you need some rest–”
“Don’t leave,” Ry says, almost immediately.
When Remus looks at him curiously, and Ry refuses to elaborate, he nods, his eyes moving away, as he takes another bite of his apple. “So… what are you gonna make?”
Ry releases a breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding, and strides past him, picking up a few plastic bags to look inside. “Maybe some lasagna? I’ve been craving cheese.”
“Oooh!” Remus grins, sitting up. “I’ve been thinking.”
“No.”
“Hear me out–” Remus stops, looking at Ry as if he’d expected to get cut off again.
“…What is it?” Ry says, rubbing the back his head, looking away. Geez. Right. They were boyfriends now. He had to keep reminding himself to be nice. Remus wasn’t like Dez. Remus wasn’t like anyone he’d ever dated before.
“Cheese. Apples. Chocolate.”
“Huh?” Ry blinks, having zoned out a second.
“Haven’t you ever thought cheese and apples and chocolate go well together?”
“No?”
“Well they could! What if you added them to lasagna and took out the sauce!”
Ry had to bite back from snapping ‘No,’ again, and he looks at Remus, not sure what else he’d say. Remus looks back like he knew exactly what Ry was thinking.
And suddenly, Ry barks out a laugh. “I guess you’re cute. Sometimes.”
Remus blinks, and clutches his heart. “OMG, Ry. Was that a surprise attack? It was weak.”
“Shut up,” Ry rolls his eyes, as he sifts through the ingredients.
“Ry approached the goal and tried his best, he kicks the ball, and he-- misses. Darn.”
Ry laughs again. “Shut up. How can I score any good-boyfriend points when you’re doing all the heavy-lifting?”
“A relationship isn’t like a sports match,” Remus says, and Ry can almost hear him rolling his eyes.
“I know,” Ry says, hauling the groceries to the fridge. “…I just. I’m reminding myself so much of your exes right now.”
“My exes never cooked me food~”
That makes Ry smile again. “…I guess not. Except that one guy–”
“We agreed we’d never talk about him again.”
“What did he make? Stir-fry noodles? Did he romantically scoop you up onto the kitchen counter?”
“Ryyy.”
“Ah, can’t forget the other one, too. I think he made you soup? And pasta. You guys even danced in the kitchen.”
“Ry.”
“Hey, the teasing comes with the package.”
When he closes the fridge door, Ry jumps, not having expected Remus standing right behind it.
“GEEZ-- How-”
“Hey,” Remus says, and Ry stops, as Remus grabs his hand. Ry blinks and he intertwines their fingers.
“What-” Ry’s mutters, face heating up as Remus takes a step towards him. Well. This was new-
“Don’t think I forgot how easy it is to make you blush,” Remus says, smirking.
That’s enough to snap Ry out of it, though he can’t help the blush at their proximity, even as he’s angry. “Dude. That’s not cool.”
“You said I’m unpredictable, remember?” Remus grins, just as Ry kicks his foot out, and it catches on Remus’s shins.
“And you said I’m too competitive,” Ry breathes, as Remus hops back, laughing as he clutches where Ry had kicked him. “Do you like getting yelled at?”
“No,” Remus laughs. “I just like it when you’re honest.”
“That wasn’t cool.”
“Neither was you bringing up Andy and Pat.”
Ry realizes Remus isn’t smiling anymore.
“Pro tip. Don’t try so hard to be a jackass,” Remus mutters, turning around and walking out.
Ugh. He’d messed up again? How is it so difficult to do anything right in this relationship?
Ry thinks Remus is about to leave, but Remus just plops back down on the couch.
Remus pulls out his phone and picks out his latest obsession-- a platformer game with pretty nice graphics, starting to intensely regret his actions. He’d never gotten mad at his boyfriends before. Well, even if he had, he’d just swallow the emotions back down.
He’d been working on his temper, and his boyfriends were the last people he’d have allowed himself to lose his cool against.
He sighs shortly. It does get taxing, holding back expressing his anger. Most of the people he’d dated were fragile, and one push in the wrong direction would’ve sent them disintegrating into the winds, and Remus would hate himself forever.
But Ry’s different…right? They get ticked off each other all the time.
Well.
Mostly it was Ry getting ticked off at him.
But that was back when they were still friends, and everything Ry said or did didn’t affect him to this intensity. And Ry has a temper anyway, Remus knew that long before they started going out.
He’s not sure if he should go apologize, since again, he’s never blown up at his boyfriends before.
Maybe he should take Ry on that date after all. As an apology? To make him forget-
“…Hey.”
His head snaps up to look at Ry, who stands in front of him, coral pink hood up and hands in his pockets as he stares at a point over Remus’s shoulder.
“Yeah?” Remus says, his palms slightly sweaty.
“Are you still up for that date?” Ry asks, looking down at him.
“…Didn’t you have work to do?” Remus smiles, and Ry blinks, groans a little, and rubs a hand across his face, probably thought he was being laughed at.
“I meant,” Ry says, before Remus can comment that they’d had the same thought-- “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be-- like that. Sorry.”
Remus lets out a breath. Huh. “Uh.”
What would he usually do around now? Grab their hand and twirl them around? Kiss them? Um. No, that all seems out of place for Ry. Or, right now, anyway… He’d never really been apologized to.
Ry chuckles drily, breaking into his thoughts. “You should see your face.”
i mean! Their relationship was me like exploring some ideas, so it looks abrupt at some points idk. I’m gonna work on it lol
edit:
omggggggggg this is so cringeyyyyy it’s alright, I never even pictured these characters dating but for my new story, I was like ‘hey, they’ve been friends, but what might they look as lovers?’ and ahhhhhhhhh. I can definitely work on their dynamic.
edit 2:
;-; i just
so cringe
i wanna delete this, but then again, I-
aaaaaaaaaaaaaa
edit 3:
okay so I deleted half of it lol
staring at each other for a long time or excessively describing another person’s appearance is a good way to make it romantic! I think in the princess story they came off as distant aquaintances with no chemistry who decided to get married because the princess needed to and ran out of time, (not a very good start to a relationship, looking back on it XD) in Mysterious romance they came off as friends, one of whom was attracted to the other and the other just decided to go along with it, and then Ripples came off as mutually romantic.
I don’t know how good I am at banter. The princess story was a comedy, Mysterious romance was kind of them helping each other and hanging out after getting over their intitial gripe, and Ripples was also them helping each other after getting over their initial gripe, though the focus was much more on Vayne’s issues.
The princess story was really intended to be a comedy and not a romance XD Mysterious romance was me being like ‘I wanna try a new genre, how about this one that seems like it’d be really hard for me?’ especially because it’s in the modern world.
it’s because she has the power to call the other members or visit them in dreams
that sounds interesting!
XD I love this kind of indirect communication, though
yeah no kidding
awww
XD
this banter is good I guess part of my problem is that I never write slice of life scenes like this, all my stuff is ‘structured’ as my sister puts it, or a little too rigidly plot focused even in stories where banter like this would really make it have a much bigger emotional punch.
I feel like the stuff the author says is cringy is often the most fun to read XD or that’s always how it is with my sister’s stories, and this was good.
good luck! I definitely need to do… something about the relationships in my stories. I’m not even sure how to start getting more loose scenes in there. No matter how much I think ‘okay, we’ll put some slice of life in the middle here’ so far my stories have been too constrictively structured for it to work.
See this is what I mean by getting inspired- it just sort of makes me think ‘how could I do more of this kind of thing?’ XD
okay, I’m gonna take a small break from Sparkly since this brings to mind one of my older daydream characters…
(this takes place in the past of my world. I only very vaguely remember daydreaming this part)
“I’m so angry. It seems like our world down here is so small, and I want… I want to see more. I know that’s probably impossible.
I’ve heard what Light creatures do to Dark creatures like us.
That other immortal- the winged snake- told me that there was a huge war, and finally we, the refugees running to this dimension, settled underground.
I know this is the only place my kind can stay safe, but there’s been so much infighting among the other tribes. Ours won’t stay safe forever either.
I want to at least see daylight.”
I listen to the giant black wolf talk to me. My back is leaned against the earth wall of the cave, but I’m made of misery and darkness, a swirling mist in the vague shape of a human underneath my cloak. I can’t feel the wall.
In the beginning, all the immortals had neutral lifeforce. But as we lived life, we each developed into our own people. The structured ones’ life force became Light, and those of us that were ruled by emotion became Dark.
It has been thousands of years since I was able to touch anything without tainting it.
“I don’t think Dark life force didn’t exist in this world before the demons came here. I think it was just less common.” I say. “Us and the Light and Neutral creatures… There’s nothing that inherently says we can’t get along. And it’s been so generations since I saw daylight either. Who knows what the world outside this place looks like now.”
I’ve been hated for my lifeforce as well, but all it took was a few times when my power went out of control for people to fear me and leave me alone. I’m a powerful mage, but it’s my misery that drives people mad. I chose to move underground with the Dark mortal creatures. I figured I should go somewhere that suits the thing I’ve become, and somewhere away from the larger population so I’d hurt fewer people.
“I think we should try to find the surface. Maybe Vivana and Melix will come with me.” the black wolf says, uncertanty and excitement mixing in his voice.
I nod. Apprehension swims in me, though. It’s been too long since I saw the light, but… I’m a dangerous being. I’ll have to be careful. Keep my thoughts tight in my mind, keep a physical distance from other people. Things I’ve already been doing down here.
The black dog trots away to make these plans that are going to start the next phase of my life.
I stare at the gloves covering my hands.
Underneath them is a mass of darkness and deep misery in physical form, containing some kind of wild dark magic and holding my soul, somewhere inside me.
I remember when I was a more normal creature. It seems like so, so long ago. I can hardly grasp what that meant in my mind anymore.
okay that was more boring than it sounded in my head- ah well, I’m too tired to do better.
ughhhh noooo
romance outside of the cute moments sounds so painful to write
I tried to write romance for that purpose once.
In order to avoid writing the romance bits though, I added more and more side characters and friendship drama and in the end, never got around to the romance XD It’s just painful for me to write, lol. Reading is fine if it’s good writing, but when I’m writing, ughhhh
yeah!
XDD
ohhh
See I have no plot lol. I don’t start out with a plan, more than I want to just like, hang out with my characters lol. So I jut end up having all these slice-of-life scenes that don’t really lead anywhere, and in the end I’m like… ‘So where’s the plot?’
Ohhh
:0
Sparkly?
Is that the magical-girls story?
;-;
:0 oooOooOh?
:00
so they weren’t forced underground?
:0 ohhh I like this trope! The powerful character who’s so so careful because they’re afraid of accidentally letting their power loose
:0
ahhh so dramatic/poetic! I love it! That’s an interesting world, too!
mM. I’m low on inspiration for a new story, so I’m thinking of coming up with short responses to the open novella context and expanding on them if I really like the story XD I’ve always been notoriously bad coming up with plots, so I thought this would help me.
It’s 6:23 AM.
You press your hands together anxiously, biting your lip as you stare at the inbox. Your knee bounces against your swivel chair, early morning sunlight slipping through the gaps in your blinds and falling across your cluttered work table.
Just seven more minutes.
At 6:30, every Friday morning, like clockwork, he always sends you the response to your last email. It’s the reason you get up every morning, it’s the reason you can get through work the entire week. You look forward to hearing back from him, and he’s the truest friend you’ve ever had.
But he missed last Friday.
At first, you reloaded the page a couple times, and then, figuring he might’ve slept in that day, checked again a few hours later. And every day after that.
You don’t want to come off as clingy, but you’ve sent two emails since then, one sent the same day, asking in a playful tone:
Hey. Did you get kidnapped by the gnomes?
Inside joke. Irrelevant.
And then, another one, the following day:
Terry? Are you okay?
Still. No reply.
You’ve wracked your mind for every possibility.
Is he really busy this week?
Maybe. Still, how long does it take to send a ‘Yes, I’m fine,’ your way?
Did his wifi get cut off?
Possibly. You’re not sure exactly where he lives, just that he lives in the same country, in a busy city somewhere where the snow looks dazzling every morning on his commute to work. But you also know there are McDonald’s and Starbucks around every corner near his block, and if his wifi really did get cut off, he’d still have ways of contacting you, even excluding his work place.
Maybe he’s avoiding you?
Definitely not. You’ve had your share of online friends that often disappear on you, but Terry? Terry would never do that.
Or. The worst possibility.
Is he in danger?
No, no, you’re jumping to conclusions, you’ve told yourself.
Trapped under a building on his way to work, that suddenly collapsed on his head. Stabbed in a dark alley somewhere on a trip to a corner store. Choked to death on a chicken bone while alone at home.
The what-if’s are endless, and your mind won’t stop generating them.
You’ve almost called the cops to report a missing person three times the past week.
But you told yourself you would wait until the next Friday before doing anything irreversible.
Work has never crawled by so slowly.
And now, here you are, exactly 6 days, 23 hours, and 58 minutes later.
Two more minutes.
You want to cry.
And then a new email slides onto the screen, your phone chimes with the little bell notification that you have set up, and your heart stills, as a familiar name pops up:
Caityn Terry.
Yes.
You’ve never clicked on an e-mail so quickly in your life.
Yes.
You see the long body of text and you let out an audible breath, sinking into your arms as you register Terry’s usual cheerful tone. You blink at your wall, wiping at your dry eyes. Yes. He’s fine. He’s fine.
Once your breaths steady, and your heart no longer feels like a rock in your chest, you let yourself look at the email.
You skim over the words, looking for any explanation for the past week, and instead, you find yourself more and more confused.
You double-check the email address.
It… is Terry. But…
You re-read the email.
Um…
No, it can’t be Terry. It’s Terry, but… not Terry.
You re-check the email address, notice the timestamp next to it. You let out a breathy chuckle because you think you read wrong, then you reload the page.
You’re furrowing your brows now.
…Um?
Gmail clearly has a glitch in their system? The timestamp is dated to a century from now.
You laugh again, at the ridiculousness of it all.
An email that makes no sense, and a timestamp that makes even less so?
You shake your head, and you want to shut the computer down, maybe all this worry is getting to your head. Maybe it’s an elaborate joke Terry somehow cooked up, even though Terry’s not the type to do such a thing.
Then you pull your chair closer to the screen, roll your sleeves up, and re-read the email line by line.
XD ahhh
I think my characters have had a habit of staring into each other’s eyes before it was supposed to be romantic. I noticed this in one of my oldest stories, the MC just has this really good friend and she stares into her eyes during an emotional moment. (or what was supposed to be an emotional moment, my writing sucked XD)
XD
ohh
I think I like writing close friendships, but when it starts getting touchy I feel like I’m writing about aliens XD and then when it comes to romantically touching or kissing, I just can’t. I start cringing really hard XD
XD aww
yep. I’ve been copy and pasting it into my flash fiction document under that name. Mittens was ‘cat’ since that was the name of the first flash fiction.
Dark (the name of that character at that time, he’s Dream now and before he was Dark he was just ‘the wizard’ or, at one point, Xyaze. his name has changed a ridiculous amount) wasn’t forced, since he’s a superpowerful mage immortal.
The rest of them were being killed too much by the other creatures or something like that, so they had to go where they could to get away.
yeah!
That character’s whole plotarc where he finally lets go his tragic past was super fun to daydream about as well, but I can’t for the life of me think of how I’d write that without it being super cringy. And the magic system I was using then doesn’t match how my world turned out, so I’d have to figure out what the heck is going on there… it kind of feels like the ‘forest lands’ and the part of the world that noviergn is in are entirely seperate universes, but I’ve been treating them like they’re the same lately. Which doesn’t quite work out since they started with different magic and now there are things that were totally easy in one world and took a huge complicated sacrifice in the other, in my past daydreams at least XD
thanks!
The world was very interesting… I think if I removed it from teh same universe (and because of that, magic system) as noviergn (that’s the town most of my daydream characters live in) I would be able to fully explore the random magic stuff I came up with it as a child, but the thing is, writing out my old daydreams would be super cringy XD aaaaa
Maybe I wouldn’t have to remove it actually- the rules of reality could be different since it’s a different place. The questions that come up when it comes to characters moving between the two worlds are many, though. And history and stuff…
second person!
ooh, time travel!
That’s interesting!
Crystal’s heart beat hard, fluttering with stress.
She untied the hostages with telikineses, trying not to look at the mess on the floor that had been humans.
“I’m sorry.” she said, knowing she wasn’t responsible for Quartz’s actions, but feeling the need to apoligize anyway.
The hostages, of various ages and genders, looked at her wide eyed.
She teleported back to her own living room, where Darius was sitting on the couch with a laptop in his lap. His hands were angled awkwardly over it, eyes fixed on the screen, and he pecked at keys.
He’d been sleeping on Caroline’s couch while they tried to find him a job. Caroline had decided he should at least learn to type, so he’d been practicing that.
Crystal called her gems back to her and dropped to the floor, exhausted.
At the thump of her weight hitting the floor, Darius looked up.
“Are you okay?” he said, alarmed.
Caroline realized she was covered in blood. She quickly transformed back, floated the blood into the kitchen and down the sink, and resumed her real form.
“I’m okay. I’m okay.” Caroline reminded herself.
Darius looked at her, concerned.
“Quartz… she’s a murderer. She’s not going to defend justice. She’s going to hurt a lot of people. And Amethyst…” Caroline felt tears welling up in her eyes at the crumbling of what she’d tried so hard to keep together. She sat heavily on the couch.
“Amethyst is a monster. I can’t help them. I can’t even stop Quartz from killing people. The most I can do is discontinue the Gem Squad.
This never should have started.”
Darius sat next to her, his eyebrows drawn together.
Even though he wasn’t involved in the Gem Squad business and couldn’t be, Caroline was glad there was someone she could tell about this.
“I thought when I got this power that I’d have so much more of an ability to help people. And when the others started showing up in my dreams, and I realized I could call them, I thought they’d want to do whatever they could to help the world as well.
I was so, so naive.”
Caroline paused, her mind drifting back, trying to figure out how she’d ever thought the people in the Gem Squad could be goodhearted, or good enough.
“Quartz was first. I thought she was just a bit overeager to defend justice. But over time, there were more disagreements between me and her and between her and every other member. Diamond’s attitude was bad, but she wasn’t trying to murder people. If I’d known she was a child… and Jade, too. Jade was the only reasonable person there, and she was just a teenager. I can’t believe I dragged them into those situations.”
“It’s not like it was your fault.” Darius tried to console her.
Caroline shook her head.
“I should have considered it. With the way Diamond talked, it should have at least crossed my mind. And I should have considered that Quartz and Amethyst might not use their powers for good. From the start, I was way too optimistic.”
“Would have, should have. I’m not looking back and you shouldn’t either.” Darius said.
Caroline lifted her head and wiped her eyes.
“You’re right. I need to think about what I should do next.” Caroline said, her mind fixed on Quartz’s casual slaughter.
Who knew what she’d do next? And on what scale? What if she decided an entire country was evil or something?
“Leave them to their own devices and go on with your life?” Darius suggested.
Crystal felt a flare of anger, then it died and she sighed heavily. He just didn’t understand.
“I have to make sure that Quartz doesn’t commit a massacre for her brand of ‘justice’, and that Amethyst doesn’t do something similar for her own amusement. The problem is, I have no idea who either of them are. And I don’t know how I can learn that.”
“Can’t you visit people with gems in their dreams?” Darius asked.
“They appear in their gem forms, and I can’t trace them either. Still… maybe that’s a place to start.” Caroline said, putting a hand on her chin in thought.
RIGHT??? aaaaa
And everyone who was into roleplaying on discord wanted romance! They started it without my consent with my characters every time, and it usually felt like my character was hiiiiighly uncomfortable and didn’t wanna be involved in this at all. but they also expected me to lead the romance, so that led to some very weird dates that would honestly not have been considered dates if they weren’t dubbed that (…my characters just sorta dragged them places and did the most random stuff. Like taking them to the beach and building a tunnel in the sand. Trying on clothes at the mall without buying them. Drawing on walls with chalk. on the bright side, it was fun hanging out liek that? XD), and kiss scenes that are kinda cute but also like. forced? And if anyone ever indicated they wanted more than kiss scenes [anything beyond the description ‘they kissed them’], I would do everything in my power to never ever write past that. omggg there were some gross places where the other person led the romance, so my characters were like. Scooped onto their laps, or someone put an arm around their shoulder, and I honestly felt very, very, very, veeeery much like making my characters physically harm them. (also why I leave servers often XD)
otherwise I don’t write romance XDD
XD
ohh I kinda remember that character!!
ohh
relatable
:0 that sounds cool!
ohh
XDD I’m curious now
ohhh
The prompt was in second person, and before I knew it, I was writing in second person XD
I don’t usually read second-person stuff, but I read a really cool wattpad book recently, that may have helped it flow (I don’t really write second person, like ever)
yeah! That was the prompt!
“You and your loved one regularly correspond by mail, and one day, the mail comes late and it’s dated to 100 years in the future” or something
aaa
XDD
I like the detail!
hhh
;-;
for some reason, Caroline reminds me of you? XDD
aww he’s there for her in a way
ohhh so she started it
:0
XD
At first when I met them, Jade was saying something about Crystal being the only decent one there, but that Crystal was too weak-willed to leave… now I’m starting to understand Crystal was more central than just the one who’s able to communicate with all of them at the same time
^^
:0
:00
context: You can see someone’s future when you look into their eyes, and if you tell them about what you see, it doesn’t happen.
You discover the power when you’re still young.
When you look into your sister’s eyes, you see her fall into cyan waters, where she fights and kicks and screams.
You start crying, loudly and uncontrollably, and your sister joins in, your wails mixing together until your mother runs around to your room and fusses over the both of you, stressed.
And then the next day, your sister almost drowns in your neighbor’s pool.
You cry then, too.
You start seeing other things.
Like your mom filling out some papers, your dad patting your dog, even though neither of them are doing any of those things.
The visions come around suddenly, taking over all your senses for a few short seconds at a time that stretch on for much longer inside your head. And you start avoiding looking at people without knowing why. You start looking at the ground as you walk, even if it means walking into things and the discomfort of not knowing where you’re going. You start staring at people’s feet when they’re speaking to you.
You don’t realize why you do it, just that the visions come on much less. It’s better that way.
When you tell your mom about them, she doesn’t understand what you’re taking about, and when you confide in your sister, she laughs.
Until years later, when your mom is telling you to have more confidence in yourself and meet other people’s eyes when you speak to them, to stop slouching and be more like your sister. What you thought to be confused daydreams, become something more.
When you realize what they are, you cry a little, because you thought you were crazy.
But with this knowledge, you feel a little more secure, a little more powerful.
You’re special.
The thought gives you some reassurance, lifts some of the weight on your chest, and you lean into it.
ooOOOh this is a LOT like this one story I really looooved. A lot! There were interesting nuances the other author used though, that made their writing actually perfect <3
I might write something off of this.
maaaybe.
I mean, I have nothing else to go off of at the moment? XDD
oofff, this is when you have to put your foot down and be like ‘I’m not comfortable writing this. stahp.’
aaaaaaaaaaa XD
but perhaps someday I’ll be able to write it.
In my current story there’s this immortal character who unexpectly slept for hundreds of years while absorbing this magical power. I feel like this kind of over the top sad situation is a big step closer to the daydreams I used to have.
oooh
Second person is weird for me because I end up thinking about who the first person is? With first person the story is being told by the character, with third person it’s being told by a storyteller (or it feels like that to me) but with second person I end up thinking about the implied ‘I’ who has a connection to ‘you’
ohh
she’s based, very loosely, on an OC I had when I was little. I didn’t want to give her a personality that clashed too much with the vague way I pictured her, so I gave her the reasonable, nice person personality XD
she’s just basically the most goodhearted member of the group- I feel a connection to villanous characters like Amethyst or Quartz, but I’m not even remotely that heartless XD and Leilah feels much more of an obligation to and liking for people than I do.
Torian is reasonable, but he doesn’t feel much of an obligation to help people in general, just his family.
I’m not sure what I’d do in these character’s situation- I’d probably feel compelled to use the power for good like Caroline, but I’d want to go see pretty things and goof off, and the pressure would tear me apart. yeah, I’m probably more like caroline than anyone else. XD but she’s mentally stronger, or has less things that naturally really stress her out.
it could technically have gone on without her, the others would just have had to communicate more. But when the members were Amethyst, Quartz and Diamond, it probably would have fallen apart XD
aww
oooh, that sounds exciting!
Summary
“So do you like looking like that?” Lotta Bucks, Bill’s younger daughter, said.
Her face was wrinkled up in what she probably thought was an expression of polite disgust but in reality was extremely rude.
Jade was tired of trying to set people straight.
“Sure.” she said, rolling her eyes.
“That’s really weird if you don’t mind me saying so.” Lotta said.
Jade reminded herself that they needed to stay on the Bucks family’s good side. She held herself back from making some kind of comment on Lotta’s tastelessly posh appearance.
At least Bill didn’t feel the need to dress fancy to show his status.
“If you don’t mind, I’m going to see what the others are doing.” Jade said, floating to the door.
“They’re fine. We still haven’t turned into mother-eating bogeymen.” Lotta said mockingly.
Jade teleported through the door.
She could use all her magic as long as she didn’t go onto the grounds, where the wards had been put back up.
Jade quickly checked all of the many main rooms until she found Prina sitting at the foot of a flight of lush red carpeted stairs. She was playing a game on a borrowed phone.
“Where’s Len?” Jade asked.
“I don’t know. She’s so pessimistic. Like, can it really be that hard to enjoy what we have here?” Prina complained.
It took a lot of teleporting for Jade to find Len, but eventually she appeared behind her and Brian in a long corridor lined with expensive looking art in large frames.
“She’s not under any illusions about the hospitality being offered here. She’s just doing the best she can to stay on the family’s good side. That’s why she’s hanging onto Prissy Bucks like that.” Brian said.
“But what about Prina?” Len asked.
“She’s just enjoying the mansion and the perks of a rich life. Let kids be kids. And Len, you’re also a kid, you should relax too.” Brian said, ruffling her hair.
Len grumbled and leaned moodily against the wall, noticing Jade as she turned.
Len took a breath to start yelling at her, but Jade teleported away before she could.
Everyone was really getting fed up with the way Jade kept checking in on them. Len had said it was creepy how she always teleported everywhere.
Jade knew that at least Len and Mom wanted to corner her and insist that she transform back, but she made sure to teleport away before they could lecture her about it.
She liked to be able to talk to her family, but maybe she should be invisible more.
She turned invisible and teleported to Prissy Bucks’ sitting room, where her and Mom often hung out. This time she made sure to appear lying against the ceiling, so nobody could bump into her.
Prissy, the older daughter Precious, and Mom were sitting on the couch doing their nails. Prissy and Precious were on their phones.
“Absolutely not. I agree that his actions are mischevious, but he has a right to control over what happens to his body.” Mom’s mouth clenched as if she wanted to say more.
“Are you really okay with your son having that kind of power? He’s a teenager. Teenagers have no impulse control and don’t even know what they want most of the time.” Prissy said.
“Oh, he’ll be alright.” Mom said, waving a pink nailed hand.
“Trust me, you want to nip this kind of… behaviour… in the bud. You want to be able to control your children. I’m offering you, right now, your chance to stop this from getting out of control.” Prissy pressured Mom.
“Right, forced experimentation on a child. Real cool mom.” Precious said, pecking at her phone distractedly.
“Precious, don’t be smart with me.” Prissy threatened.
“Yeah, okay.” Precious said, double tapping her phone.
Yikes. This family had real issues- and more importantly it sounded like they wanted to pry Jade’s gem out of her, or figure out how to remove her power.
Just a few weeks ago Jade had wanted that too, but she’d changed her mind.
She’d had a lot of time to reflect on what had happened so far. She’s been attacked on the street by a demon, and her family had been attacked by a leviathon. Pure chance, but it made her realize these things could happen to anyone.
Getting rid of the power to defend herself in pursuit of a normal life- it was a naive dream.
Jade never felt safe in this form, let alone the puny human form she hadn’t gone back to in weeks.
Staying in the mansion was stressful. The boredom, the lack of any change of scenery, and the underlying tension with the Bucks family. Even though Jade never got tired, she felt constantly tense and worried for her family.
It seemed like it would be safer to keep herself invisible for a while, even if it meant she couldn’t talk to anyone.
It seemed like the conversation was over, with Mom putting on a weak smile and everyone painting their nails in silence, so Jade teleported to the Bucks family private library.
She sat in the dust on top of one of the heavy wood bookshelves and swung her feet, glad for her impervious lungs.
She liked being Jade, if she was being honest. As Jade she could float around, teleport, turn invisible. And she felt safer. She could make barriers, she posed a big threat to anyone who tried to hurt her.
“I guess they just say it’s silly for a boy to look like a girl because they’re jealous of my powers.” Jade muttered.
“Torian?” an unfamiliar male voice asked.
Jade realized one of the magicians was standing in the shadows to the side of the bookshelf she was perched on top of.
Shoot, she’d expected to be alone here.
“Doing research for those spells of yours?” she said, jumping to the opposite side of the bookshelf, making herself visible, and walking around it.
She wasn’t comfortable with showing off her invisibility too much. The Bucks might decide to use some kind of magic to find her.
Jade didn’t know how their magic measured against hers, and with how powerful the magic nullifying rock was she wasn’t interested in finding out if at all possible.
The magician wore a black suit and was thumbing through a heavy brown book with strange patterns drawn on the cover.
“Yes.” he said, eyeing her warily.
She let him go back to his book, examining the bookshelf and choosing a book at random.
She checked to make sure it was in the language she could read, and teleported to the bedroom that had been assigned to her with it.
There was a maid cleaning, but Jade ignored her.
Everyone in the mansion seemed to dislike Jade. She understood that she seemed paranoid to them, but the conversation between Prissy and Mom had proven that she was right to be worried for her own safety, and judging by the tension between them, she had reason to be worried for her family’s safety.
Jade sighed, putting her head in her hands for a moment.
“You doing alright?” the maid asked.
Jade wondered if anything she said to the maid would make its way back to the Bucks. Still, it was nice to be reminded that another human could care about how she felt. Expressing concern for her instead of trying to get a rise out of her.
“Thank you.” she said, but didn’t explain the endless stress she felt, the bleak uncertainty about her and her family’s future, the boredom.
The book was a dull read. It seemed to be explaining how to build complicated systems of magic runes, but the writing was impossibly dense and filled with terms Jade didn’t recognize.
Hours later, she lay back on the bed, wishing desperately that she could fall asleep. She knew she technically could in this form, but she didn’t want to.
She didn’t ever want to wake up with chains around her wrists again.
aaaand I have no idea where their story is going again XD
I didn’t wanna be weird about itttt, I wanted to pretend it didn’t bother me at all, but yea, I should’ve done that!
:0
ohh?
:0 for me, I kinda, experience stories?
Third person, I’m looking down on the characters, watching them from afar,
First person, I feel like I’m inside someone’s head looking at the world they see it,
Second is kinda like first, but the little I’ve written of it, it feels like I’m doing the actions and someone is describing to me what I’m doing
ohhh
ohh
aaaa
that’s true, that kinda pressure is a lot.
ohh
right?? XD
mmMM
I WAS gonna do it
but I haven’t yet XDD
:0 XDD
is polite disgust not rude?? XDD
XDD omg Lotta, no one asked.
these names tho XD
:0 you could write a book about just their misadventures in this mansion XD
this is so interesting though!
you haven’t slept in weeks?? I understand the trauma but like, you’re definitely gonna burn out like that
it’s so interesting!! Torian’s and Leilah’s everyday life moments in the unique positions they’re put in because of their powers! Also Caroline and Darius aaaaaaa
“Okay, I think that’s enough, Remus-”
“Nonsense,” Remus says, speaking over him. “Pretend you’re at a spa.”
“Dude-”
“Shhh.”
Remus pulls his hands away from the sand to press his forefinger to Ry’s mouth. Ry resists the temptation to bite. Remus’s hand is still covered in sand, after all.
“BEL!” Ry starts shouting, to which Remus glances over to the sea, looking very unimpressed. “HE’S TRYING TO BURY ME ALIVE!”
Remus snorts as he stands up, dusting his hands off. “Relax. I left your face exposed.”
“I’m murdering you when I get out of here.”
Remus puts a foot on the mountain of sand on top of Ry, grinning as he leans over him. “I’d like to see you try~”
“BELLL,” Ry tries again. “I’M GONNA DIE AS A MUMMY. IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT FOR YOUR BROTHER? I THOUGHT WE HAD MORE THAN THAT!”
“They’ll find your bones inside a cute little sand burrito! I wonder what they’ll think.”
“You should be nicer to me!”
“Mmm,” Remus says, pretending to think. He grins. “No. Where’s the fun in that?”
Ry’s futile wiggling intensifies. “I was gonna cook barbecue tonight, and guess who’s not allowed a single bite?”
Remus pauses, and crouches by the sand, poking his boyfriend’s face. “Aw, don’t be petty, Ry. Food is sacred, and me burying you in the sand shouldn’t deny me my rights to your grilled chicken.”
“I’ll eat most of it, and hand the rest out to the neighbors.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Try me.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“I would.”
They stare at each other for a few seconds, until Remus stands up, and sits squarely on the sand covering Ry.
“I guess some sacrifices have to be made to enjoy watching you struggle out of that thing.”
“Remus.”
He cackles, pulling out his phone.
Bel comes by ten minutes later, finding Ry still grouching at Remus, who sings over him as he plays some music from his phone. Bel pretends not to see them and just goes to sit on the beach chairs, ignoring the gazes of curious passerby on the loud pair.
