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July Writing Prompts 2020
July is here! The year has just been flying by, hasn't it? As we move into the summer, we hope that everyone continues to stay safe and healthy. A special thank you for those who've posted new entries and given some of us the opportunity for a little distraction from current events. And As always--
Disclaimer: I never close old writing prompts from previous months. People can and should be encouraged to post on old month's prompts and I highly encourage players to track these posts to catch stragglers or new people writing on old prompts.
Now. With that out of the way, onto this month's prompts.
1. "I saw this, and thought of you."
2. What holidays or anniversaries does your character celebrate, no matter what?
3. "I'm done acting like nothing's wrong. I'm going to fix this."
4. What does your character take pride in?
5. "Don't try to stop me."
Bonus image prompt:
no subject
You better not mess with Major Tom.
#3
https://soundwave-ascendant.dreamwidth.org/2174.html
5 - in which Chichi didn’t try and stop her son.
“Minoru, is something the matter?“ she asked gently, coming inside and sitting down respectfully on the bed. She was close, but gave him a little bit of space.
“No…” He looked away, suggesting the exact opposite of what he said.
“You barely touched your dinner these last few nights. I know you like katsudon…”
“Not anymore.” He pouted.
“Oh? Why not?“ she asked, non-judgmentally. Did he have a bad experience? Were some of the kids in school picking on her boys because of their lunchbox contents?
“Mama, something died to make it.”
Chichi honestly wasn’t expecting Minoru to say what he did, especially in the innocent tone in which he said it.
“Yes…” Chichi blinked, surprise making it difficult to find the next words. “That’s true. A pig did die. Does that upset you?”
Minoru nodded.
“Did anybody care?” He asked softly, very bothered by this concept in particular. “Did you care? Did the farmers care?”
Chichi wanted to tell her son, of course people cared. Farmers raised their animals with love and compassion, and feeding the world was a very, very important job. But that was definitely sugar-coating the agricultural industry and not everything the Uchiwa family purchased came from sustainable, free-range farms. That, unfortunately, just wasn’t in the budget.
“Some most likely do.” She answered honestly. But Minoru heard plenty in the long silent pause, so Chichi added. “And some… probably don’t.”
“They should.” Minoru insisted, like any wise ten-year-old would. “The people who used to live here hundreds of years ago… when THEY killed an animal to eat it, they used every part of it. They made clothes from fur and tools from bones. It meant something to them. What did the pig mean to us now?”
Those were questions Chichi definitely wasn’t expecting. But Minoru didn’t give her any time to answer.
“We just eat our little bit and don’t know what happened to the rest. It’s like the animal died for… for nothing! And… if I have to hunt and kill a pig myself just to make it mean something...” Minoru drew his legs up, burying his head against them. “I don’t… I don’t want to eat meat anymore, Mama.”
There were more than a few leaps of logic in that argument. However, Chichi decided it was better not to try and stop him. Instead, she’d give Minoru a little benefit of the doubt instead of turning this into a parent-child battle of wills. She had plenty of those to fight already - and they usually involved plucking Minoru off the ceiling. At the moment, he was definitely not on the ceiling. He was sitting quietly on the bed, using his words and thinking critically about something he learned in school. Those were things to be encouraged, not belittled.
This was a very teachable moment.
“If you don’t want to eat meat anymore, Minoru, that’s okay.” She replied, much to her child’s obvious surprise. “But…”
Chichi was quick to lay down a few ground rules.
“First, not eating meat doesn’t mean you just get to eat more sweets. Food has nutrients that make you grow big and strong, remember? If you’re not getting the nutrients from meat, we need to plan some recipes together with other healthy foods.”
Minoru nodded, a bit hesitantly. That didn’t sound too bad.
Fortunately, Chichi cooked a lot of healthy dishes as it was, so finding some favorite recipes with plant-based proteins wouldn’t be difficult. This would also be a great way to get her children more involved in the kitchen!
“And second, being a vegetarian is your choice. But other people may still want to cook and eat meat. That’s their choice, and that’s okay too. Even if you feel differently about it.”
That second rule would take a little reminding, she had the feeling. But Minoru still nodded.
“That’s it?” He finally asked.
“Mmhm.” Chichi nodded, poking her son gently on the forehead. The phase might last a few days, maybe a few weeks, she thought to herself. But Minoru would be all the better for the lessons learned. There was no harm in teaching compromise by good example. “Do you want to come look through some of my cookbooks? We can plan a special vegetarian dinner for tomorrow.”
“Can I?” He bounced to his feet and right off the bed. The energy was back, and so was his usual grin.
“I think it would be a great idea.”
…
The ‘phase’ that Chichi thought might last a few weeks was a lifestyle. Minoru was still a vegetarian, still following both the same set of values his mother wisely chose not to discourage that night and the rules that she laid out.
He continuously made a serious habit of preparing nutritious food with plant-based protein sources, something that was doubly important for an athlete. He also respected everyone’s personal preferences, never imposing his dietary restrictions on anyone else. He and Isamu shared a kitchen, after all, and did so with mutual respect.
However, it was an entire fifteen years before Minoru ever encountered the exact situation that inspired his desire to forgo eating meat in the first place.
At the viking party, he witnessed an animal’s life being humanely taken by the same group of hands that prepared and served it. He felt genuine care and respect for a creature that gave its life in honor of a goddess of youth and health. From the blood Mikkel and Aarne adorned their fellow worshippers with to the careful way Victor and Vars skinned the animal, not a single part of the ritual was lacking in honor or significance. Even the whipped cream on the accompanying desserts came from goat milk.
The goat meant something. To all of them.
Out of similar mutual respect, no one offered the vegetarian a piece of goat that night. But had they, after everything he witnessed, this might just have been the only time that Minoru wouldn’t have declined.
Image Prompt - Standing Up to Fear - Ziggyverse AU
“What’s stronger? Your dream or your fear?”
It was a line he’d used so many times over the last couple of months, he expected his fiancé to start rolling his eyes. But Dee clung to those words even harder. And in a moment of sheer bravery, he whispered, “my dream…”
“That’s right. And I’m so very, very proud of you right now.”
Dee may never be comfortable around doctors, but Kuro was going to tour with the Ziggy Stardust entourage. And that meant he was going to be subject to the same weekly medical checks as everyone else. And despite being a registered nurse, Jay wasn’t always going to be the one doing them. Tom had already started researching hospitals in the cities they’d be in during Dee’s infusion days, booking both the appointment and the resources needed to get him there. Which was one of the reasons why he was in a hospital bed right now, being prepped for surgery.
He was going to have a port installed for the tour.
“My dream is stronger…” he whispered again, shaking in Jay’s arms.
“The port will make the infusions easier. And go faster.” Jay encouraged. “And they won’t have to stick you in the arm if you need IV fluids after a show.”
How well Dee’s body would handle the demands of a massive world tour was impossible to predict. He was barely making it through the longest days of rehearsals and studio slots. Making it through a live show, even with the ‘throne’ they were building for him to sit in, still seemed like a lofty goal. But Dee was determined.
“Or when they need to draw blood to make sure everything’s still good...”
That was another concern, one that the doctors brought up when encouraging Dee to start physical therapy. While necessary for regaining strength and improving mobility, exercise did still damage muscles on a cellular level. By pushing himself too hard and too quickly, Dee might start to push the limits of what the treatment was correcting - stalling or even hurting his progress.
“And stop the rumors…” Dee whispered.
Unfortunately, Dee had already gotten a crash course on what being in the spotlight meant. Not even a day after the announcement of Kuro joining the tour, multiple tabloids had taken the band’s photo, zoomed in on his arms and insisted the track marks were proof of the lead singer’s long-standing drug addiction. One said heroin. Another said cocaine. Sensational stories about, ironically, a man who hated drugs to the point he was literally freaking out about being sedated for a surgical procedure.
“Those rumors, at least...” Dee clarified. There would probably be more. Just give the press and the public time.
Jay nodded. “Tom said he’d help straighten it all out if we need him too. But yeah, having a port means less needle sticks, and less needle sticks should help quell the rumors. Yeah.”
He pulled back slightly as he felt the tears through his shirt. Dee’s breath hitched. The monitors started beeping about his elevated heart rate.
“Dee?”
“I… I’m sorry… I can’t… I can’t do it…” Dee panicked. Footsteps in the hallway seemed to echo that panic. “I can’t… I want to go home…”
In one swift movement, Jay released the latch on the bed and lowered the guardrail. Before Dee could even think of tearing out the IV, he climbed up onto the bed with him and pulled him into his lap.
“You can. You can and you will.” He held him tightly, reassuring him while an equally panicked nurse yanked the curtain open. Metal rings jangled. The nurse stopped in her tracks, stunned and silent. “If your fear is stronger than your dream, then focus on the one thing that’s even stronger than that.”
Dee shuddered, and Jay kissed him on the temple.
“How much I love you.” He insisted. “No matter what you decide to do, I’m here for you. I’ll pull off all the electrodes, disconnect the IV and carry you out of here right now if that’s what you really want… If you want to leave, we’ll leave.”
He glanced up at the group of worried nurses now gathering by the bedside, vehemently shaking their heads. One had her radio ready. Jay glared at her and shook his head in return.
He turned his attention back to Dee. “Is that what you really want?“
“I don’t… I don’t want to live like that… ever again…”
“Breathe with me, okay? In. Out.” Jay encouraged, until he felt Dee begin to relax in his arms. “Tell me what you DO want. Your dream…”
“I… I want to… to tour with Ziggy Stardust…” he whispered shakily.
“Good. Good, and?”
“Make music… and perform on stage… to share it with the whole world…”
“That’s right…”
“And walk down the aisle… right into your arms…”
“Okay, that’s my favorite part. But I might be a little biased.”
“I… I want to get a port put in… so I can do all those things… easier…”
Jay kissed him on the temple again, and fought to keep his own tears at bay. Just hearing Dee talk about walking down the aisle always seemed to choke him up.
“But I’m scared…”
“I know you’re still scared. It’ll be just like your first infusion. Over and done with before you even know it.”
“You’ll be there… the whole time?” Dee’s voice cracked.
“If you want me to… I will.” He replied without hesitation. “They’ll have to pull me off the bed or put a port in me too.”
He could feel the nurses glaring daggers in his back at the impossible promise, but he didn’t care. All he cared about was the soft chuckle that finally escaped Dee’s lips and the monitors falling back into a steady rhythm.
“Is it all right for them to start the drip?” Jay glanced up at the nurses, looking for the one who had the actual medicine. Fortunately, she got the hint. If they started it now, by the time they reached the door, Dee wouldn’t remember a single moment not in his arms.
“…okay.” Dee nervously gave his consent.
Jay, meanwhile, painstakingly committed everything about this position to memory so he could recreate it an hour later before the sedation fully wore off.
Dee wasn’t stupid. Jay knew he wouldn’t believe the surgeons allowed him to stay there the whole time. But it was the meaning behind it that mattered. Jay was there. Dee was safe. His dream was stronger than his fear. And their love was stronger still.
(Well, until he fervently refused to take any pain meds whatsoever after they got home. One step at a time, though. One step at a time.)
Part 2
“I wasn’t asleep…” he groaned, the pain in his voice was unmistakable. It hurt Jay to hear it. Not only because his fiancé was in pain - that part was obvious - but because of how terrified he probably was on top of that.
The first infusion, while coupled with just as much anxiety, was a walk in the park compared to the port placement surgery. The spot on his chest was still red, still swollen, and everything was still bruised. Dee was propped up in bed in the most comfortable position they could both manage, shirtless, so that nothing would irritate it.
“Do you want me to get you another ice pack?” He whispered, reaching out to gently stroke Dee’s cheek.
“Mmhm.” Dee whimpered. Jay felt him nod. That wasn’t all he felt, though. His cheek was wet. Jay’s heart broke.
“Dee, sweetheart… how much pain are you in?” He asked softly, slipping into nurse mode. When he got no answer, which wasn’t entirely unexpected, he added, “Between one and ten, how much pain?”
“…two.” Dee squeaked as Jay turned the lamp on.
Dee closed his eyes tightly. Tears literally rolled down his cheeks.
“You’re crying… You can barely talk to me. That’s not a two.”
Jay sat up, putting a hand on Dee’s forehead. He didn’t seem to have a fever. The sutures were still in place and the wound wasn’t bleeding. While it was still swollen (and would be for another day or so), it didn’t look like it was infected. From everything the doctors had told him, and from his own experience handling patients, this was just post-surgical pain. It was to be expected, and could be intense, especially for someone as thin as Dee was. Which is why they prescribed him narcotic pain medicine.
Which, obviously, Dee had absolutely refused to take.
He claimed it didn’t hurt that much, and at the time, he probably wasn’t lying. But now, if he even tried to deny it, he’d be lying through gritted teeth.
“I got your prescription filled…”
“No.” He could barely talk, but he still hissed that out easily enough. “…sss’fine…”
They never did and never would share the same definition of what constituted ‘fine.’ Unable to pull him into a hug, he grabbed Dee’s hand instead. “Dee, you had surgery. The medicine is to help take the pain away… and help you sleep…”
Nnn… make… const…pated…” he spat between quickening breaths. It took a couple of tries for Jay to understand exactly what he said. Narcotics could make you constipated, which was why the pharmacist also sent him home with a gentle laxative, just in case.
“I picked up something for that too…”
No sooner had he said those words, he saw a fire in Dee’s eyes that made his blood run cold. If it wasn’t four in the morning and he hadn’t been half asleep, he would have seen the spiraling set of triggers for what they were. He would have stopped himself before he said it so casually.
A drug counteracting the side effect of another drug… the vicious cycle he had to forcibly crawl his way out of once. Something Dee literally feared more than death itself.
“Shit…”
Dee lost whatever semblance of control he still had. If he wasn’t in so much pain, he probably would have been using every ounce of his strength to flee like a panicked, wounded animal. But just trying to sit up sent him falling right back against the pillows. He was crying in big, ugly sobs now, shaking to the point of convulsing, gasping for breath and still managing to choke out, “…NOT! …AGAIN! I… I won’t!! You… can’t… MAKE me… Rather… DIE!!”
Jay knew he wasn’t kidding.
But he also knew if he didn’t do something quickly, Dee was probably going to thrash hard enough tear out his sutures, and everything would get a lot worse - very, very quickly.
He let go of his fiancé’s hand to grab the weighted blanket that they kept at the foot of the bed. Before Dee could get up, he threw it on him like a net. He dropped down with it, pinning him at his waist with his left arm - well below the port, of course, but high enough that both of his arms were caught beneath the blanket.
“I won’t make you… I promise, I won’t…” Jay was starting to cry now too, burying his chin against Dee’s left shoulder. “It’s okay… you’re okay… I shouldn’t have said that.. breathe with me. Please… just breathe…”
“…never… again…”
As weak as Dee’s muscles were, the weight of the blanket was probably enough to keep him from thrashing. But Jay wrapped a leg over Dee’s, just in case.
“Breathe with me, okay? In… Out…” he pulled him closer. “No medicine… unless you want to take it… I promise… But you need to calm down… breathe with me…”
Every second felt like an eternity, but eventually the panic attack did start to subside. Dee was still shaking, still sniffling… but exhausted enough that he might actually sleep despite the pain now. Jay, on the other hand, was now very, very much awake.
So much for standing up to fear.
“Did I… br..break it?” Dee whimpered.
Jay very carefully sat up. To his relief, there was no bleeding from the incision. It looked like they hadn’t ruptured anything.
“I don’t think so. It looks like everything’s still where it belongs.” He replied.
“…okay.”
“Are you okay? …with that?”
Dee’s nod gave Jay a glimmer of hope. He wasn’t second guessing the port itself. He wasn’t second guessing everything they went through earlier today. Jay hadn’t lost his fiancé’s trust.
Still, he added as he stroked Dee’s cheek, “You know I won’t ever force you to do any treatments you don’t want to do. You know that, right? It’s always, always up to you.”
Dee nodded again. It was shaky, but still obvious.
“Which is why I’m telling you,” he repeated, “only TELLING you, I promise. The painkillers are on the counter in the kitchen. We have them, if you change your mind. If you do decide later, or in the morning, or whenever, that you want to take one…”
“I don’t…. want to take one…” Dee whimpered. “Ever.”
Jay acquiesced, and kissed him gently. He could taste Dee’s tears on his lips. If he really did have the Mystic’s magic powers, he thought to himself, he’d snap his fingers and Dee would never be in pain again. But that was only a stage name, and it was probably going to be another day or so before the worst of the pain subsided.
“Is it okay if I go get an ice pack?” He asked gently. “Just an ice pack, I promise.”
He knew better than to come back with even a glass of water. Anything that could have medication slipped in it, this soon after a panic attack, would only rile him back up again. Dee never admitted to it, but Jay suspected someone close to him had done that. Or at the very least, threatened to.
“Please…”
“Okay.”
…
Jay: well, he’s finally asleep. That was a long night.
Gloria: Lord, it’s 5 a.m. Did he finally agree to take something?
Jay: Don’t even ask.
Apparently, I keep having ideas, so… Part 3
He knew the root of Dee’s mistrust in pharmaceuticals. He’d never heard the whole story at once, of course. But over the years they’d been together, bits and pieces came out in panic-filled bursts and off-hand remarks.
He knew Dee kept his hair long because at one point, it was falling out in clumps. He knew Dee didn’t drink because the lethargic feeling was more terrifying than pleasurable. He’d heard Dee call his teenage self everything from a worthless zombie to a bloated festering corpse, and from his tone of voice, those things went beyond being merely metaphors. But none of that even touched on the relationship he had with his parents - the people that, as he put it, proudly put him through Hell. Tapering off so many medications and enduring whatever withdrawal came with it would have been hard for anyone. Dee did it while living in his car, two thousand miles from every possible bridge he burned. Seven months of sheer determination hardened that resolve into an impenetrable wall.
All these years later, Dee still saw almost any medical intervention as a threat, first and foremost. The more someone “wanted what was best for him,” the more they bargained, cajoled, manipulated or demanded, the faster Dee would completely and totally shut them all down. Jay was pretty sure Dee’s relationship with his parents ended in a literal, physical fight - quite possibly after one of them tried to (dear God, he hoped only tried to) drug him without his knowledge or consent.
Jay sighed, arranging the English muffins and sliced peaches on a large platter. If everyone was eating from the same plate, that would be one less thing Dee might get anxious about.
Honestly, if all that had happened to him, on top of trying to navigate a chronic illness, Jay wasn’t sure how he would have managed it. He just wanted Dee to feel loved, to feel safe.
But to feel safe, Dee wanted - no, Dee absolutely needed - to be in control of his body and what happened to it. At all times. It didn’t matter if it was ultimately self-destructive or debilitating in the long run. It didn’t matter if it might actually kill him. He needed to be in control.
But being in pain doesn’t mean you’re in control. It just means you’re in pain.
Even more than that - lying there in agony, unable to walk to the bathroom on his own, unable to even sit up on his own… that was literally everything Dee was terrified of becoming. He was alive, but not living. And it wasn’t his parents or anyone else putting him through Hell this time. It was just him. He was literally doing it to himself! Couldn’t he see that?
By the time he carried the tray into the bedroom, Gloria had finally managed to breech the topic of painkillers. Dee was so tense, he could snap.
That was when Jay suddenly realized, maybe the only way to get Dee to face his fear was to remind him what he was really afraid of.
4 - What Minoru Takes Pride In
But on the second obstacle of Stage 3, just as the first ball of the Slam Dunk hit its cradle, Minoru's hands came loose. The crowd gasped right along with the announcers as the Fan Man hit the water with a splash. Total victory had eluded him. This year's American Ninja Warrior run, at least for Minoru, was over.
"Did you see that, Nick?! The Fan Man is down! I repeat, the Fan Man is down!!"
"The Slam Dunk has taken out its second ninja this year, Johnny. It's proving to be quite the challenge..."
All cameras were pointed at Minoru as the stagehands helped pull him out of the pool and pass him a much-needed towel. But he barely had a moment to wipe his face before a microphone was thrust into it.
"Minoru? Minoru, how do you feel about your run tonight?"
He caught a glimpse of his family and friends already making their way down the sidelines, and let out a chuckle.
"Still the most fun in the world. Every year, 10 out of 10!" He grinned as he tried to dry his hair out a little.
"Are you disappointed? By your finish here tonight?"
"Why would I be disappointed?! Man, I'm thrilled just to be here! Getting to run that course is my favorite thing in the whole world!"
"I know a lot of people were hoping to see you take on the rope climb again." She pressed. "You said before the show that a lot of the physical therapy patients you're working with for your clinical practicum are here in the audience, and that you were eager to show them what Total Victory looked like."
"Yup." Minoru nodded, pointing out to the set of bleachers that Tom had bought out. He waved and smiled.
When the show was broadcast, they'd all probably get a chance to see themselves in the crowd.
"Total Victory is about getting up, getting active, pushing yourself and your body to do something amazing. Sometimes that's scaling Mount Midoriyama. And sometimes, it's falling, getting back up, and trying again next time." He smiled. "So yeah, not disappointed at all."
That, more than anything else, was what he thought about when he worked with his patients on the tour. Especially someone like Dee or Choko, who couldn't even climb the bleachers. That was what he most wanted his patients to know, and why he wanted to be a PTA in the first place.
"Spoken with a true ninja spirit, Fan Man."
"Now, next year." He pointed Mount Midoriyama tower at the other end of the strip. "I'll be back. I promise!"
The cameras turned away, leaving Minoru to his friends, his family and his coach. While three hopefuls made it to Stage 4, none of them made it up the 75 foot rope within the 30 second mark. Given where he fell, Minoru finished in seventh. Still a remarkable achievement in and of itself.