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nc_ooc2021-11-01 03:47 pm
iam_senpai) wrote in nc_ooc2021-11-01 03:47 pm
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November 2021 Writing Prompts
Did you know it's the first day of November? I sure didn't until about halfway through today! But that's fine by me because it means I can continue to share with you all some of my very favorite fall images and a few hand picked prompts to keep you lovely folks inspired through another month.
We hope you enjoy them!
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. "As the nights grow cold, unfamiliar sounds carry through the mists."
2. "I wonder if they would be proud of me."
3. Your character read the directions wrong, if they read them at all. Now something's not Quite Right.
4. "...And STAY there!"
5. "Maybe we should just stay here until this blows over."
Bonus image prompt:
5 - Maybe we should stay here until this blows over.
“Bro, I know I said you’d find some common ground and stuff with the rock stars while you were doing your research study. But I think you’re taking that a bit too far.”
Isamu grumbled, his response muffled by the toilet bowl and his aching head.
The bad attempt at humor couldn’t stop Minoru, however, from thinking about Ziggy and that infamous weeks-long binge of gin and coke. This was just one night, one binge. Sure, Isamu drank. But he never drank to excess. Not like that… it was weird, and a little bit frightening.
“Seriously, though… What’s gotten into you? You are more than smart enough to know that what you did last night was the exact opposite of smart.” Minoru knelt down beside Isamu, carefully stroking his back. “Whatever it is, I promise, you can tell me. I can help. Or we can just stay here until it blows over… but you have to talk to me, Isamu.”
He lifted his head enough to shake it. “I can’t…”
“Please… when Ziggy…”
“Don’t say that name…” he slurred, coughing and gagging.
“Ziggy?”
Isamu nodded. He would have pulled away from Minoru, but he was basically trapped between brother and bathtub at this point. Their apartment was modest and the rooms were small. That, and the messy parts of the hangover definitely weren’t over yet.
“Did Ziggy say something?”
Again, Isamu nodded. Ziggy had said a lot of things, but he started with a weak, “…he called me an addict.”
Minoru cocked an eyebrow, trying to make sense of that. It made even less sense than Isamu chugging Jack Daniels laced with angel booze. But the latter had definitely happened.
“And you were trying to prove him right?” When he felt Isamu’s shoulders shudder and a whimpered sob escape his lips, he quickly softened his tone. “No, no, I didn’t mean it like that. Crap...”
But everything that Isamu had been holding in quickly came out.
“Curiosity… theoretical thought exercises… He said I was an addict… and a tyrant… just like the scientists that… that took Mister Newton… and couldn’t trust me…” his voice slurred, making contractions that were rarely, if ever, present in his normal speech pattens. “selfish, unethical… I’d hurt other beings just to get what I want… he’s telling his parents… everyone in his species, to never ever work with humans again… and it’s all my fault…”
The gentle rubbing stopped as Minoru tried to process that disjointed explanation.
The rock star study happened a while ago. Ziggy hadn’t talked about anything bad happening during it. Neither had anyone else. To the contrary, Aarne excitedly bugged him at least half a dozen times about when he would get to read it. Isamu returned to the Nexus just as excited, and had immediately set about writing it. It was currently in review with the IRIS board, or something like that. Minoru didn’t know all the procedures, just how long it usually took to get something published once his brother turned it in.
“…uh… what did you do?”
“Nothing!” He sobbed, turning to Minoru and slumping over on him instead of the toilet. “I swear, we were simply talking… About abilities… what’s normal. What’s paranormal. Everything’s normal in the end because it can be measured… even prophecy… or… or why I put Zayda to sleep… his eyes glowed…”
Minoru wrapped his arms around his brother and pulled him into his lap. If anything glowed, he knew that meant the Anthean was upset. Probably pissed off, given the context. but Tom had said before that it could happen with any strong emotion, not just anger.
“I’ve felt that before.” He shuddered. “Like a migraine…”
“No! I didn’t feel a thing!” Isamu shouted, but cringed due to the headache he had now. He could feel bile rising in his throat again, and groaned, “Just… just indignation… I… I’m a monster…”
Minoru paused, squeezing his brother tightly. His voice softened, “You’re a lot of things, but you’re not a monster.”
He was no expert on the science part, but he was pretty sure that, as far as scientists go, Isamu was doing things right. He grumbled far too often about reviews taking so long because he was eager to get started, but he also checked and even double-checked his consent forms. The background check for IRIS for the clearance he was seeking took months. He came up clean for that, and hadn’t had any issues with their security.
But this wasn’t about the details of one experiment or another, even though Isamu might think it was. This wasn’t about ethics either. This was about emotion - something that Ziggy had an abundance of and Isamu, honestly, didn’t.
“Bro, can you speak Norwegian?”
The question was absurd enough that it actually made Isamu stop crying just to answer it.
“I… I don’t understand the relevance…”
“Can you?” He asked again. “Like, can you understand everything Vars says?”
“No?” He asked in place of an answer. “I mean, he does have some fluency in English, which we both speak. Although his is bro…”
“Don’t say broken.” Minoru cut in. That was definitely not the point he wanted to make.
“Then, what…”
“What I’m trying to say is Antheans use emotion as a part of their language. So there’s a disconnect there if you don’t speak it. And probably just as much of a disconnect if you do and the other doesn’t. You’re not a monster if you can’t speak Norwegian. So you shouldn’t here either.”
Isamu looked at Minoru, confused, his mind rapidly cataloging everything that Ziggy said. Unfortunately, he didn’t make it through the list before burying his aching head back against his brother’s shoulder. There was too much light, and trying to focus on anything just made his head spin.
“Think about it… I know how hyper-focused you get when you want to figure something out. But I don’t know what that comes across in Anthean. You think before you feel. Literally. And sometimes, to a human anyway, that comes off as cold. I don’t know what that comes across in Anthean either. But if you put those two together, it could be something really scary. Newton was held captive by scientists, you know. They experimented on him, tortured him, because he wasn’t human. If Ziggy was outed as an alien there, it wouldn’t be IRIS he’d be dealing with. There wouldn’t be consent forms.”
Minoru felt Isamu nod against him.
“Most people would feel some kind of physical or emotional discomfort long before anything started glowing, so there’s a lot that didn’t translate to a language you could speak either. You couldn’t feel his fear.” Minoru explained. “I think you both just really, really misunderstood each other.”
“I scared him…”
“Yeah. You really really scared him.” Minoru nodded. “But it’ll be okay… I’ve misunderstood him too, remember? It took us a while to figure it all out. And we still make mistakes too.”
“But your mind…”
“Isn’t any better at speaking Norwegian than yours, Bro.” Minoru sighed, laughing nervously. “I mean, I was texting with Rekker a few days ago, and everything I said to try to cheer him up just ended up making things worse. And when he said how selfish it was for anyone to expect someone to love them when they can’t reciprocate what they need intimately… It made me feel kind of like a monster too. Because those are things that I don’t feel… and Ziggy… you know…”
“But you talked it over and…” isamu whimpered, but Minoru cut him off.
“Not really…” he whispered. “I kinda told him I had to go study. Which was the truth. I’d been putting it off and I’m not really looking forward to seeing grades come back tomorrow... But yeah, I’m… kind of afraid to bring it up again…”
“You?”
“Yeah. I speak depression about as well as you speak Anthean.” He nudged Isamu gently. “Except I’m not the one trying to out-drink a rock star to hide it.”
That got a small chuckle, followed by an immediate groan.
“Tell you what, once you’ve recovered from your hangover, let’s apologize together. To both people. I’ve got your back, and you’ve got mine. Okay?”
It took a few moments of silence for Isamu to finally nod. “…okay.”
3. Your character read the directions wrong,if they read them at all.Now something's not Quite Right
Escape from L.A
no subject
#2 I wonder if they would be proud of me.
2 - Do you think they’d be proud of me?
“Mama’s curry? Did I forget about some special occasion?” He scratched his head. His normally unruly hair was even more unruly having just crawled out of bed.
“Grades are in, are they not?” Isamu replied, his attention still mostly on making sure the vegetables didn’t overcook. “That is certainly a special occasion in my book.”
“I honestly haven’t checked.” He shrugged. Hell, he’d been glad just to finish with the final exams. This semester felt so much harder than the first one, and was downright exhausting - to the point that even the days off spent in Ziggy’s world involved more sleeping than concert-watching or after-partying. “Wait, how do you even know that they are?”
“Because as you so often put it, I know everything about everything.” He added matter-of-factly. “including the rituals of academic schedules, and how much time it takes to grade exams and process routine paperwork.”
“I left my PINpoint on the counter again, didn’t I.”
“I happened to glance down at the notification that rang this morning.” Isamu confided. “I did not open it, of course. That would be a violation of your privacy. But I am on pins and needles waiting, so if you would be so kind as to check your email, I can serve up some curry and we can begin a well-deserved celebration.”
Minoru looked down at the PINpoint, and then back up at Isamu as he turned down the fire. “You’re sure it’s going to be worth celebrating?”
“Why would it not be?”
“My grades…” He stared at the device, still not picking it up. “Bro, those classes kicked my butt. I’m gonna be lucky to get a B in any of them.”
“You won’t know for certain until you look.” Isamu leaned against the table, still staring expectantly. There was no getting out of this one.
Minoru eventually sighed. “All right, all right.”
He opened the message and logged into the portal. It took an excruciatingly long minute to load, and even longer to read through it all silently.
Anatomy and Physiology II - C
Introduction to Kinesiology - B
Fundamentals of Disease - C
Growth and Development - C+
PTA Techniques - A-
“…Well?”
“Three C’s, a B and an A. I actually got an A.” The corners of his lips turned up a little as he said that. “Well, technically it’s an A-. But that still counts, right?”
“Of course!” Isamu nodded supportively, and immediately started plating the curry - the promised reward for Minoru’s job well done. “We will need to call Mama and Papa before it gets too late, and share with them the results of your latest semester!”
“Compared to every single one of your straight A semesters, it’s not exactly something to write home about.”
Isamu, after all, was valedictorian three times, including high school. He once got an A-, but it turned out to be a clerical error and was corrected a few weeks later. Minoru, on the other hand, struggled in the classroom. He was smart enough to pass, but never hit the same marks as his brother. This set of grades wasn’t even all that great compared to the first semester of the PTA program, where he finished with a more respectable 3 Bs and a C.
“You do not believe they would be proud of your accomplishments?” Isamu asked as he set down two bowls.
“…Do you think they’d be proud of me?”
“Minoru, considering that you have done something which I never did - successfully juggling a difficult course load with a full time job, American Ninja Warrior training and a romantic relationship, I would say that yes, they would be very proud of what you have done.“
The scent of curry, topped to the brim with winter squashes and other seasonal vegetables, made the whole apartment feel warm and inviting. The bright colors were uplifting. It almost made a hard-earned C feel very much like an A.
“Mama, especially.” Isamu smiled.
“Thanks, Bro.” Minoru smiled back, digging in.
5 - Until this Blows Over (Ziggyverse AU)
"Anything else you need?" He whispered. As an orderly, this felt all too natural to Minoru. Sometimes, it was all about meeting a patient where they are, not where you want them to be.
"Just... tell Choko I'm sorry... please?" Deep down he did want to be a person she could look up to, but he knew he already ruined that. And just about everything else too, apparently.
"Okay. No problem." Minoru nodded. "Anything else?"
Dee timidly shook his head. Maybe he could just stay back here until all of this blew over.
After Minoru left, Dee laid there in bed for a while. The events of the last couple hours replayed themselves in his head like an unrelenting stampede. Panic rose like bile in his throat. He reached out for Jay's arm, tugging on it until his partner finally woke up.
It took about half a second to go from groggy to alert when he saw Dee shakily sobbing next to him.
"What the..." he immediately pulled his fiancé into him. "It's okay... it's okay... did you have a nightmare?"
"I... I think I just got us all fired..." he choked on the words.
"Okay, yeah, that would definitely qualify as a nightmare." He held Dee close, stroking him soothingly. "But it's over now. Everything's okay. Breathe with me..."
"It's not a... a nightmare... you can wake up from..." he sobbed. "I... I think it really IS over..."
Jay pulled back in complete confusion. "...what?"
Dee was serious. He was crying, shaking like a leaf, damn near hyperventilating. "I tried.. t..to... to use Choko's chair... I panicked... and Damien... and our music... The Ministry... kick us off the tour... If I say anything... about it... and I can't drink the tea... I won't let them drug me..."
Unfortunately, the more he tried to explain, the more confused Jay was. "...are you sure you weren't dreaming?"
"It's REAL!" Dee clung to Jay with whatever strength he still had left. "You can ask Minoru... the PT guy... he was there... he... stopped us... I can't... We can't... the whole security team... We're everything bad that ever happened to them... on stage... every time we play..."
None of this was logical, but suddenly the strange looks on the faces of the Dogs started to make sense. The security team always did seem a bit uneasy, almost on edge, during all their shows. They watched the Prophet like a hawk, but Jay had heard enough horror stories from other bands to reason they were just being vigilant.
"It's probably just a big misunderstanding." Jay whispered, pulling Dee in close again.
"I... I can't even run away..."
Jay still had no idea what actually happened. But he did know one thing. This was going to be a very, very long day.