Writing Prompt: Midnight Musings

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Bifrost Janger
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Writing Prompt: Midnight Musings

Postby Bifrost Janger » Wed Oct 06, 2021 9:15 am

The Marc is late; the sky is dark. Maybe you can see the stars; or perhaps they are hidden by cloud.

But you're awake.

What keeps your character from sleep this night?

-----

Entries can be as long or as short as you like.

1st prize - A vegetable of your choice!
Fear is a strange soil. It grows obedience like corn, which grow in straight lines to make weeding easier. But sometimes it grows the potatoes of defiance, which flourish underground. - Terry Pratchett

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Pallas
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Re: Writing Prompt: Midnight Musings

Postby Pallas » Wed Oct 06, 2021 8:20 pm

What is the deadline?
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The joke is on the bloke who never spoke a word at all
But whose dreams lay unrevealed 'til they were rotten ...

Lindisfarne 'The Things I Should Have Said'

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Bifrost Janger
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Re: Writing Prompt: Midnight Musings

Postby Bifrost Janger » Thu Oct 07, 2021 6:42 am

Ye have till the cows come home.

I dunno. October 31st? Just to be spicy.
Fear is a strange soil. It grows obedience like corn, which grow in straight lines to make weeding easier. But sometimes it grows the potatoes of defiance, which flourish underground. - Terry Pratchett

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Blythe
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Re: Writing Prompt: Midnight Musings

Postby Blythe » Sun Oct 10, 2021 9:25 pm

Raffe can't sleep.
It is unusual since the fall of Balthzar for the Iron Commander to not sleep soundly.
So what has him up so late this turn?
Silence.
On this night, the Demon Eyes are hidden behind unnaturally dark clouds. There are no stars and no sign of Sunrifter in the sky.
Where once the distant roar of creatures, whether feral animals or ferocious monstrosities, echoed through the lands now there is silence.
It occurs to Raffe that something unspeakably terrible must be on the horizon. Some -thing - gruesome enough to scare the wilds into silence, now lurks in the darkness. He can feel it. Close and yet just out of sight.
An icy chill runs down his spine and he clings to the warmth of his blanket as if it might offer some armor against what now stalks the lands during these darkest marcs.
I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am :D
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Raffe Rychmin
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ZarockNight
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Re: Writing Prompt: Midnight Musings

Postby ZarockNight » Tue Oct 12, 2021 10:54 pm

The bed is soft, the sky is dark but the stars twinkly in the distance. A man of a dark complexion, long ebony locks, silver tinting at the temples lies on his back, arms folded under his head. Emerald green eyes looking to the heavens, watching the turning of the heavens without seeing. Lost in the maze of the mind, a dark and desolate realm, over fun with poisonous fungi and strangling ivy. One never knows around what corning will come one's demise. Will there be a demon to tear out your still beating heart? Maybe a long strangling ivy vine covered in razor sharp thorns with rip one's throat open in the blink of an eye. Or could that thump, thump, thump be coming from some unseen beast with dark leathery wings covered in claws made to rip open your chest, better to taste of your flesh and blood, a deafening shriek just before it pounces upon you tearing flesh from bone. The walls of the maze of your mind seem to close in closer and closer as you venture deeper into the maze of your own thoughts. Darkness crushing you, pressing down with the weight of all your worry, your insecurities, enough to crush the very breath of life from your lungs as you claw at your own flesh as you beg desperately for the air to fill your lungs, as a burning sets in, as the walls close in, burying you in the very maze you seek to escape as the Riffter rises, the morning comes. The dawn draws near, you sit up in a start, gasping for breath, sweat pouring from your cold clammy flesh, you look at the rising star, the heat warming you, and breath a deep sigh of release, it was just the demons of your mind tormenting you...you turn to climb from your bed..the room goes dark, red eyes look at your from the darkness as a black mass rushes at you....

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Bifrost Janger
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Re: Writing Prompt: Midnight Musings

Postby Bifrost Janger » Mon Oct 18, 2021 8:34 am

Bif was awake. Just barely. Something had landed on his face; it was tickling his nose. He snorted and twitched. It was a leaf. An autumn leaf; it had fallen down from the canopy, and landed across his gingery brow.

Bifrost lay blinking for a moment. The shock of the leaf was wearing off. Though, his addled mind still scrambled to recall his bearings. A thatch of branches above him and a clear moon. Faintly, he could feel warmth through the soles of his shoes. He lifted his head and squinted, and there, at his feet was a campfire almost burnt out.

There were another pair of boots too; alongside his own. Human-sized. Not humanoid. Not small, Gremlin feet - Sometimes Bif nested with the Gremlins, back in the Hollowed Tree. But, no. Not tonight. These boots belonged to the Carpenter. The intiate. Bif knew from the pull of his breath that the other lad was still asleep. And a quick glance at his face confirmed it; peaceful and still. Likewise, a few leaves lay in his rumpled hair. Bif had the notion to remove them, but then thought better of it and decided to leave them be.

Instead, he quietly got up and went to pee in the bushes. When he returned, he fed a couple more logs to the fire. Then, he settled himself back down on the ground, beside the Carpenter. He'd spread an old cloak out on the forest floor earlier; to fend off the damp while they sat by the fire. So, Bif wasn't laying on the forest floor proper; but he could still feel the bumps of stones and twigs poking through the material and into his back.

His shoulder hovered about an inch from touching the other lad's. Bif crossed his legs at the ankles, and knitted this skinny fingers across his chest. How the ruddy heck had he managed to fall asleep here earlier?

It had probably been on account of the warm cider. But now he was awake awake, and inevitably, his restless mind began running circles. He thought about his studies, and his deadlines. Geology. Places. Shopping lists. Bif's mental checklist was always long. But no matter what he pondered, his mind always strayed back. It strayed back to here. Now. This very forest clearing. The campfire. And namely, the lad at his side.

The two of us. They had toasted it. They had drank to their sameness earlier that night. It got Bif to thinking back to when their wasn't two; only one. He had been the one. The lone number. He had cried about it. In a blink of his eye he was assailed by the memory; snivelling into Raffe's shirt. The older man had held him and permitted him to cry. He could still remember the feel of his fingers, sifting through his hair. Raffe's warmth had surprised him that turn. How easily he had held him. Lots of men took discomfort with tears; especially those of another man. But the Iron Commander hadn't. Lots of men took discomfort in the thought of embracing another man; but the Iron Commander hadn't. Raffe was made from better stock than that.

Though, as faint embarrassment knotted itself around Bif's insides, it was tempered with feelings of tenderness and gratitude. It had been many turns since he'd last run into Raffe, but Bif quietly hoped that wherever the Shining Commander was this night, that he was contented, and well. It was more than he deserved for all that he did.

---

Bif lay awake for sometime longer. He could feel the faint warmth emanating from his bedfellow's shoulder. Though, he did not shift any closer. It wasn't that he was unpleasant. On the contrary, Bif found the manner of the Carpenter to always be amicable and easy. He had a snickering laugh that fell easy from this lips. He was often prone to smile. And it wasn't that he wasn't handsome, either. He was very fair in his face.

It was something else. Something that Bif couldn't quite put his finger on. It fell in-between doubt and fear. Mayhaps a smidge of stubbornness on his own part. After all, Bif was very used to being alone by now. He was prone to wander and rove, and vanish off whenever the notion took him. Had he grown to perhaps like it, even?

Fall Fest was coming up, and surely a few old faces would be showing back up in the coming turns. Mayhaps a few of the others, you know - like them. Maybe, the Carpenter would prefer their company to his anyhow.

Bif laid for a moment and considered this. A procession of faces drifted through his mind's eye, each arm in arm with the Carpenter in turn. Some of them looked rather well together, he mused. Maybe it would be for the best that way. Maybe that then, he could be safe and live vicariously through them.

Bif turned his head, and looked for a moment at the sleeping face of the other lad; unrumpled, and seemingly without worry. It was going to be okay, he thought. Whatever did happen, Bif knew that he had found himself a firm friend. It was going to be okay.

**
Fear is a strange soil. It grows obedience like corn, which grow in straight lines to make weeding easier. But sometimes it grows the potatoes of defiance, which flourish underground. - Terry Pratchett

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Re: Writing Prompt: Midnight Musings

Postby Topaz » Tue Oct 19, 2021 7:46 pm

Night Watch Song

I watch alone beneath the midnight sky,
and glimpse your face within the lantern light.
'Tis but a vision; would that you were nigh!
I watch alone beneath the midnight sky.

Beneath what stars, O lover, do you lie?
Are you awake or dreaming in the night?
I watch alone beneath the midnight sky,
and glimpse your face within the lantern light.

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Re: Writing Prompt: Midnight Musings

Postby Lavender » Wed Oct 20, 2021 4:35 pm

Leaves and limbs rustle over head, a breeze drifts through rocking her hammock gently, carefully Lavender rolls around to look up at the leaves and the night sky above. So many thoughts occupy her this night, thoughts that haven't haunted her in a while now, but are not new to her ever self condemning mind. Worry now over her own fears, she sighs and shifts her weight in her hammock rolling to look about the room of her guild hall. Her thoughts continue: Will she inevitably chase away the fellow she has fallen for, like she has chased away every other man in her life? Was it because her own father never cared or even really acknowledged her existence? Was this curse placed upon her going to strip her of happiness again? Was there even a curse? She scoffs at herself, huffing at her thoughts. Curses like that don't truly exists!... Do they? Sighing she rolls over again, agitatedly adjusting her quilt around her as her movements caused it to slip this time. She continues to think, unable to sleep now that her mind seems determined to torment her with every bad thing she has been through, yet again. Her life growing up with expectations of being a proper lady no proper encouragement only discipline and correction, her forced engagement to a madman, her arrival in Valorn, every man she's liked or loved, and lost because she could not control her own insecurities. Every promise made and broken, causing her more doubt in herself then she shows the world. Frustrated she growls at herself, and tosses her quilt aside and sits up in her hammock. Groaning her words "Gods, not again. Will this ever end?" she runs a hand through her hair, then burying her face in her hands and sighs and thinks... It is going to be a LONG night...
Last edited by Lavender on Thu Oct 21, 2021 4:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Lavender
Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this
is the beginning of wisdom. –Theodore Issac Rubin.
It takes courage to be kind. - Maya Angelou.

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Re: Writing Prompt: Midnight Musings

Postby Cody F » Thu Oct 21, 2021 1:27 am

Its the middle of the night, and it's quiet in the barracks...aside from the occasional snore from the Shiny Commander. Despite this, Cody can't seem to fall asleep, tossing and turning in his bed for what seemed like endless marcs. This is nothing new, he can't recall the last time he had a full nights rest. The problem wasn't lack of tiredness, some turns he felt so tired he could feel it in his bones, the problem was his brain. Thoughts flit through his brain, despite his best attempts to stop them and all his attempts to smother the sounds by stuffing a pillow over his head. Is she alive? Is she okay? Has there been a moment where I cross her mind at all? Why did she have to leave?
Annoyed, Cody throws himself onto his back, staring up at the ceiling blankly, memories and emotions flashing through his mind, some bringing a smile to his face, others causing him to sigh sadly. It's been cycles, and still she fills his thoughts, lives so deeply in his heart, and while he knows this won't change, he wishes yet again he could feel this during the day and find rest at night.
Countless marcs pass by before he drags himself into a sitting position, running his fingers through his spikes and pulling out a parchment. Pondering what to say for a moment he settles for I hope you are okay and that wherever your journey has taken you, you are at peace and we find a way to meet again some turn. I miss you. With a soft sigh and shake of his head, he sends the message off, hoping that it will find her, wherever it is she may be. Only after he is sure the message is gone, does he slip back under the covers and close his eyes, letting happier memories drift through his mind, hopefully easing him off to sleep.

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Re: Writing Prompt: Midnight Musings

Postby Lavender » Thu Oct 21, 2021 4:39 pm

.
Rosaline rolls around in her bed, kicks her covers off, then feeling the chilly air pulls them back up to her chin and looks to the empty spot where her bondmate should be. She sighs and wonders to herself "Where is he? Is he okay? Is he getting enough to eat? When will he be back from visiting his sister?" her mind restless and her heart aching as she speaks to herself in her own head "I want him home." she frowns and run her hand over his pillow, decides to grab it and pulls it to herself, snuggling with it. His lingering scent calming her mind, she buries her face in it and drifts off again to dreamless sleep.
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Lavender
Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this
is the beginning of wisdom. –Theodore Issac Rubin.
It takes courage to be kind. - Maya Angelou.

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Bifrost Janger
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Re: Writing Prompt: Midnight Musings

Postby Bifrost Janger » Sun Oct 31, 2021 11:59 am

Thank you everybody for your wonderful entries! I do love a good nose into the inner workings of your characters.

The winner is Zarock! I liked his spooky vibes. Zarock, the vegetable prize is yours!
Fear is a strange soil. It grows obedience like corn, which grow in straight lines to make weeding easier. But sometimes it grows the potatoes of defiance, which flourish underground. - Terry Pratchett

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ZarockNight
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Re: Writing Prompt: Midnight Musings

Postby ZarockNight » Sun Oct 31, 2021 6:34 pm

Thank you so much, I did enjoy this very much


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