one hundred moments || a challenge

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20 || one step at a time

Postby shortstop » Fri Mar 05, 2021 3:06 pm

20. one step at a time
featuring;; tyler and roshan
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"Damn it."
Tyler's ear flicked curiously, hearing the small outburst from his roommate in the other room.
"Ah, no. Damn."
Tyler leaned back in his computer chair, staring out into the hallway of the apartment. He could see the living room from this angle, with Roshan sitting very stiffly on the couch.
"You good?" Tyler called. There was another groan and then Roshan replied.
"Dude. I'm so bad at this."
Tyler stood up and padded down the hallway before dropping himself down on the couch next to Roshan.
"You're still trying to get through Shadow of the Colossus?" Tyler asked, raising an eyebrow. "You sure you don't wanna start with something easier?"
"No way!" Roshan was quick to respond. "I like the premise of this one. It's super dramatic. I just wish I was better at games."
"You only just started, don't be too hard on yourself," Tyler encouraged with a smile. "Take it one step at a time. I can give you some tips if it would help?"
"...that would be great, actually."
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21 || electric gold

Postby shortstop » Mon Mar 15, 2021 8:43 am

21. electric gold
featuring;; yuki, midas, and shadow
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Yuki was losing his edge. Maybe it was his age. Younger horses with flashier coats and healthier bodies definitely had an advantage, even with Yuki's over twenty years of experience. He hadn't even placed in the top five in his last halter class competition, and the wild mountain equid was beginning to grow frustrated. His plan had always been to retire a winner, not to fizzle out like this. Running out of options, Yuki needed some help.
He found it in one of the younger members of the ranch. Midas was slowly gaining a name for himself, his flashy coat and flashier personality helping him to stand out. Yuki had helped mentor the deaf stallion for a time, and the surprise was written clearly on Midas' face when Yuki approached him to ask for help. But Midas was willing to assist, and he pressed the side of his face to Yuki's neck, feeling the words as Yuki spoke them.
"You won last week, quite impressively. What would you suggest?"
Midas stepped back, nodded, smiled then frowned, then smiled again and gestured to Yuki that he would be right back. Yuki waited patiently, hopeful as he stood in the warm sun of the afternoon. It didn't take long for Midas to return, trotting in a way that made Yuki smile. The stallion looked rather proud of himself.
Something shiny swung from his mouth, and Yuki raised an eyebrow. It seemed to be some kind of halter? This was confirmed when Midas stopped in front of him, offering the halter to Yuki. It was a starkly bright yellow, a colour that Yuki had never considered wearing before. Willing to try anything, Yuki thanked Midas profusely and headed back to his stall.
-----
"Electric gold? Bold colour choice," Shadow chuckled as he watched Yuki train from the fence line. "You get that from Midas?"
"That's what this colour is?" Yuki asked, breaking from his show pose. "I had been wondering. Midas thought it might help give me the edge."
"You? An edge? Please," Shadow snorted. "You've been our best halter class performer for years now. You really need that?"
"I didn't even place last time," Yuki sighed. "I don't want to go out like that. You understand, surely?"
"I do," Shadow replied. "You get those last few wins in. Then I can finally have a retirement buddy."
Yuki huffed, returning to his show pose. He couldn't think about retiring. Not yet.
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22 || breakdown

Postby shortstop » Thu Mar 18, 2021 5:18 am

22. breakdown
featuring;; wolf and augustine
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He had been so, so wrong. So very wrong, and it made Wolf sink to his knees.
He had stormed out of the rescue team base with the big idea that he would take on a rescue mission by himself. Once he succeeded, he could finally qualify to lead the team should the situation ever arise for it. Wolf wanted that more than anything, wanted to prove he could be useful to the team as more than just support.
But Wolf had taken several huge hits, both to his ego and his health. Overwhelmed by more enemies than he could count, he had taken refuge behind some rocks and collapsed. Wolf was going to die here. He knew that deep in his heart as he buried his face in his hands. He didn't look up until he felt a brush of fur against his legs.
"Stay behind me."
The massive shield in front of him was Augustine, the mother figure of Wolf's rescue team. Wolf felt himself getting smaller. This was truly humiliating. Augustine pushed through the swarm of Zubat, letting off an Air Slash attack to cut a path that she and Wolf could escape through. Wolf pushed himself to his feet and followed Augustine out of the dungeon in a daze. They eventually made it out, and Augustine finally turned to Wolf.
"It's alright," she said, placing a paw on his shoulder. The simple action was enough to send Wolf over the edge, and tears immediately started to roll down his face. Augustine offered the Lucario and Gengar hybrid a supportive smile.
"Let's get you home. We can always try again another day."
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23 || vulnerability < stone cold

Postby shortstop » Sun Mar 21, 2021 11:56 am

23. vulnerability < stone cold
featuring;; kade, ren, and hawk
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"So how's the new job?" Kade asked as Ren set his things down. Ren sighed, taking off his jacket and throwing it over the back of the couch.
"I mean, it's fine," he started, making Kade tilt his head. "But the bouncer is damn terrifying."
"Isn't that the point of a bouncer?" Kade asked bluntly.
"This is different. I feel like if I look at this guy the wrong way he's gonna kill me."
Kade frowned.
"Oh, well...I'm sure he's not all that bad. I bet he's actually really nice, just like a normal dude?" Kade tried to assure his friend.
"His name is Hawk and my coworker told me he once led the mob," Ren shot back, fear flickering across his gaze.
"...oh."
Kade paused, trying to come up with another idea.
"Maybe just talk to him?" Kade finally suggested. "I don't think you really know anyone until you have a conversation with them."
"...that's fair," Ren said quietly. "Alright; I'll try it."
-----
"How was your shift?" Kade asked, looking up from his homework. Ren slammed his things down.
"I don't know why I keep taking advice from you," he sighed. "I talked to Hawk. He's still terrifying."
"Really?"
"Yeah! I did the whole 'let's introduce each other' thing and not only did he give really short answers, but he also said that if I try and be that friendly with everyone that I'm probably gonna get myself killed. He said this line of work requires us to be cold."
"You're a bartender," Kade said, eyebrow raised. "You're not part of the mob."
"I might as well be!" Ren threw up his hands. "Do you think I really shouldn't be that friendly with people?"
"You literally just said you don't want my advice anymore."
"C'mon, dude!"
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24 || fire away

Postby shortstop » Mon Mar 22, 2021 10:12 am

24. fire away
featuring;; tori, zin, ominus, illyia, and hakim.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Tori snuck a glance at his phone in between customers at the register.
'Can you come over after work? Got something cool to show you.'
Tori smiled to himself, slipping his phone back into his pocket. Zin never lied about the coolness of new things he got.
-----
"So what kind of axe did you get this time?" Tori called into his friend's house as he shut the door behind him.
"Not an axe!" Zin shouted back from somewhere further away. "Come out back!"
Tori quickly checked the time, knowing he had to pick his kids up from school later. He had about an hour, so he joined Zin in the yard.
"That's a cannon," he said bluntly, pausing his movement. "Why do you have a cannon? Is that thing real?!"
He had never been more glad that Zin's house was on several acres of land.
Zin snorted, patting the cannon in much the same way a car salesman would pat the hood of a used vehicle.
"This baby is a replica, but it packs all the punch of the real thing," Zin explained excitedly. "It's on the way to the city museum, but they wanted me to film a video that can play as part of the exhibit."
"Are you gonna fire it?" Tori asked, eyes sparkling.
"You're damn right I am," Zin grinned. "Just hope we're far enough away from the windows."
Tori glanced back and shrugged.
"Should be fine. What do you need me to do?"
"Would you mind mannin' the camera?" Zin asked. "Shouldn't take long. I just have to say my spiel and then fire the thing."
"Can do," Tori replied with a nod, walking over to the camera on the tripod and crouching down behind it. Once he had it all set up, he gave Zin a thumbs up and hit the record button.
Zin's spiel was very informative, and Tori found that he was actually learning something.
"...with all of today's modern weaponry, it can be easy to forget the weapons of yesteryear. But weapons like this Flemish giant are just as impressive."
Then Zin stepped to the back of the cannon and Tori zoomed out the camera before covering his ears with his hands.
"Fire!"
The sound was huge. Tori was caught off guard even though he knew what was coming, and he had to stop himself from making any noise and ruining the recording. The stone ball that had been loaded into the cannon went flying somewhere far away from them, and Tori waited until it was well out of sight before he stopped the recording and stood up.
"That...was amazing," Tori said loudly, his ears still ringing from the noise. Zin started laughing, obviously proud of himself.
"Hope the recordin' was good; I don't think the windows will handle me doin' that a second time," he chuckled. "Thanks for your help!"
-----
It was about a month later that Tori took his family to the city museum. They of course ended up at the 15th century exhibit, after Ominus had begged and whined to see the cannon. Tori immediately spotted the informational video that was playing behind it, and he grinned.
"Your dad helped film that, y'know," he pointed out to his three kids. Illyia snorted.
"Liar. You're not that cool."
Tori's husband Hakim immediately doubled over in hysterical laughter. Tori sighed.
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25 || on the edge of the world

Postby shortstop » Wed Mar 24, 2021 2:42 pm

25. on the edge of the world
featuring;; shadow
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Shadow's world had gradually grown smaller over the years. From a wild horse roaming the open lands, to a show horse travelling the local scene, to a retired stallion who never really left the ranch anymore. Shadow had made a lot of changes. He found himself unable to regret any of it. Choosing domestic life had been the best thing he had ever done.
One of Shadow's favorite things to do these days was to walk the borders of the ranch that he had helped found. The route took him through open paddocks, thick forests, and eventually ended at the top of a cliff that overlooked the massive cove that the ranch was built on. No matter the weather or time of day, Shadow found the view impressive. Today was no exception. It was warm with a pleasant ocean breeze, and Shadow closed his eyes as he leaned into it. A thought suddenly hit him, and he was overcome with an emotion that he found he could not describe.
This place, this view, in all its glory. This was the edge of Shadow's world now.
He found peace in it.
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26 || as we knew it

Postby shortstop » Mon Mar 29, 2021 9:55 am

26. as we knew it
featuring;; talion
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The land was recovering. As his hooves flattened the newly grown grass, Talion realized that he had never seen the valley in this state. The last time he was here, he had stampeded across bare ground around huge hole that had been blasted by bombs. The rest of the army had charged around him, kicking up dust and destroying any life that remained.
For years he had only known destruction. As the army advanced, they had only one goal. They were to keep going until they reached the coast. It hadn't really mattered what they did on the way. Looking back now, Talion saw that they had only brought destruction. It made him tense.
They hadn't even made it to the coast.
Ambushed halfway through the mountains, Talion had watched his fellow soldiers be cut down all around him. Their battalion dispersed, never to reunite. Talion found himself alone for the first time, wounded and unsure how he would survive.
It had taken some time, but Talion had healed just as the land had done. And much like the land, Talion often didn't recognize himself. He enjoyed solitude and the serenity of nature now. It was wildly different from the bustling society of the barracks, but the thought of going back made his stomach turn. His whole life as he knew it had changed, seemingly for the better.
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27 || deep

Postby shortstop » Mon Apr 05, 2021 10:56 am

27. deep
featuring;; bali
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
"Keep your feelings deep; deep down inside of you..."
There was that whispering voice again, the one that Bali had heard in the rustling of the gardens since her banishment to the Grey. When she finally came to her senses, Bali found herself under the service of Anodyne, the deity of moral neutrality.
"Since you're here, you might as well whip the gardens into shape," Anodyne had said flatly.
Bali tried to be angry, but the atmosphere in the air had grown suddenly heavy and she found herself unable to move or speak. The entirety of the Grey was shrouded in some kind of magic that suppressed any kind of strong emotion. As time went on, the nature goddess found herself becoming placid and boring, and the plants on her body had begun to wilt. It got worse each time she felt greatly sad or afraid. It filled Bali with a unique sense of terror.
"Don't lose yourself, keep them safe inside of you..."
Bali wasn't going to become another mellowed victim of the Grey. She was determined. She just had to bide her time; Kaoz would surely come for her.
She just had to keep waiting.
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28 || "do it."

Postby shortstop » Wed Apr 14, 2021 1:23 am

28. "do it."
featuring;; meir, ita, and ember
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The sound of Ita's voice behind him made Meir jump like a startled cat. He swung his head around, eyes wide.
"You're silent and that's terrifying," he breathed. Ita snorted.
"I'm not silent. You're just too focused on staring at the new guy," she shot back. Meir immediately blushed.
"I am not staring!"
"You wouldn't have to stare if you'd just go and introduce yourself," Ita said with a smirk as she laid down next to Meir.
"But-"
"Do it."
Meir let out a grumble but did indeed push himself to his feet. Ita could be incredibly convincing when she wanted to be, and she was right that Meir should just go and introduce himself. Meir had been admiring Ember from a distance for a while now. They didn't often work together as Ember preferred being alone, but Meir was determined to get to know the other Beaumont Collie. So he sidled right up to Ember and started to speak.
"Hey Ember!" he greeted. "Would you like to train together?"
Ember tilted his head and took a step back.
"Is that why you were staring?" Ember asked, and Meir withered a little.
"I wasn't staring," Meir replied. Ember raised an eyebrow.
"Ok. I'm busy right now though, sorry."
With that, Ember trotted away, occasionally throwing Meir a strange look over his shoulder. Meir sagged.
From back on the hill, he swore he could hear Ita chuckling.
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29 || cyan

Postby shortstop » Wed Apr 14, 2021 6:04 am

29. cyan
featuring;; tori, hakim, eivan, illyia, ominus
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Tori settled next to Hakim on the couch, eyeing his three kids with great curiosity. They'd come to him and his husband earlier in the day, asking if they could present their upcoming school project. Tori was happy to say yes, of course. He could watch his kids' creative activities for hours, and he knew Hakim felt the same (and had a hand in the project. Hakim was very smart, Tori thought with a nod).
Eivan, Illyia, and Ominus filed into the room in that order, each carrying a different thing. Eivan carried a small wooden table, which he placed in the center of the living room in front of the couch. Illyia walked up to the table and placed a small plastic stand onto it. Finally, Ominus passed out three pieces of coloured plexiglass so that each of the siblings had one. Tori sat up straight and waited patiently for them to begin, noticing the smile that had formed on Hakim's face.
"Our science show and tell today is about how printers use three colours to make all the other colours," Illyia started off. Tori and Hakim nodded along seriously, and Tori had to hide a smile at Hakim's comically furrowed brow.
"We have three blocks here, that uh-" Eivan trailed off, and Tori made a hand motion to encourage his son to keep going.
"That, um, are three different colours. That's cyan, yellow, and magent...o."
"Magenta!" Ominus was quick to correct his brother, and he placed his magenta block into the plastic stand.
"This is cyan," Illyia went next, placing her block in the stand.
"And yellow!" Eivan finished up, placing his block before stepping back.
Tori grinned. A full-colour picture of the three kids was now visible in the plastic stand.
"This is how printers work," Illyia picked back up. "They use these three colours-"
"And black!" Ominus cut in.
"-and black to make all the images you can print out. The end!"
At once, the three kids took a bow. Tori and Hakim started clapping loudly.
"That was really good, you guys," Tori said with a smile.
"I definitely learned something," Hakim added with a nod.
"No you didn't!" Eivan protested. "You're the one who taught us this!"
Tori snorted.
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