Prompt 3: Home Is Where the Heart Is (closed)

[waffle02]

~ Mabel Ann ~

(747 words)

The cold tight hallways of the ancient building always welcomed Mabel Ann with a warmth unlike most places in her life. While the dreary establishment often brought terror to those around her she was in awe of the all fascinating noises and smells that lurked in those halls. It was only a few years ago she remembered being one of the terrified newbies lost in the maze that was this building, being ushered around like a herd of cattle. Now the memories fill her with happiness whenever she decided to visit her old abode. Even though the McFields Science Building was a place of dread for many students on campus, for Mabel it was a second home.

While she had graduated with her degree in biology over a year ago she still frequented the building to catch up with old professors and to work on her graduate research in the plant research. Mabel Ann always dreamed of being a botanist and it was this school that helped her get on the right track on towards that dream. While she loved every room in the dusty old science building, even the smelly organic chemistry lab with its dangerous chemicals, her favorite place was the green house. For a relatively small university the greenhouse were she did her research was absolutely splendid! Every time she burst through the beautiful glass pane doors she was welcomed with the sweetest of smells. The entire room was a giant rectangle that was covered wall to wall in plant life. Towards the front of the room were the smaller plants, needing more attention and needing to not get lost behind the more massive plants that grew towards the back. She often worked with many cutting from small succulents in order to grow new plants for their annual student plant sale to raise money for the greenhouse. Trays of dirt were lined up in the sun with small leaf cuttings just starting to root into new plants. As she walked further into the greenhouse she would have to duck past the hanging plants, such as long grown ivies and string of pearl succulents. She would eventually walk past all the raised racks and reach the large garden at the end of the greenhouse. Here was were Mabel Ann truly belonged. Due to her fascination with edible plants she did most of her research in the big garden, especially relating to bananas. Throughout the back of the complex were dozens of large banana trees growing as tall as they could reach under the glass roof. Mabel Ann researches to create the next line of banana plants. If you didn't know, each banana we have is a "clone" of an original line of bananas, but because of this they are highly susceptible to disease, which is why currently we are on our second line of bananas (which is why the banana flavoring doesn't taste like the bananas we have today). Mabel Ann dreams of creating the next line of bananas, so she works daily to create the best flavor and disease proofed as possible.

After spending her day working in the greenhouse garden and working on writing her thesis paper she meets up with all her friends at their favorite dumpling shop. Saren's Dumplings is their daily hang out place, especially since Kavik works there every night. The shop isn't very large, only enough seating for maybe twenty people at the most, but the atmosphere is great and they provide free games for customers to play. Most nights they stay up until Kavik's shift ends by playing rounds of darts or Apples to Apples. Afterwards the gang would often wander off to the docks on the edge of the big city. Mabel always noticed Kavik looking out from the docks with a sort of sad longing, but she never wanted to pry since he was already very closed off and quiet. From there she would walk back to her small apartment. She liked the quaint feel of her place, though walking up to the 4th floor everyday was a hassle, especially when the elevator seemed to always be broken. The pale yellow walls always brought her a calm feeling after long days, and her wall of plants never failed to bring a smile to her face. In general since moving to the city for college Mabel Ann has really left her heart in lots of places, and she really enjoys calling all of them her homes.

[✦ nemuri]

calla's eyes softened at the question, humming gently to herself. "hmm, i wonder? my home is a long way off, to be honest, but i haven't been able to stop thinking about it since the day i set off."

it was difficult to explain her circumstances, and so, calla sat back and laced her fingers together. she thought about the little cottage that bordered a cursed forest. she thought about the cursed forest where she met that wren, her best friend. she thought about the lilies that decorated her, no, their home, blooming beautifully and swaying happily in the sun.

she thought about the lonely spirits she sometimes encountered while trying to exorcize the malicious energies within the forest. she thought about how the forest had been home to a large massacre, a battlefield of tragedies. she thought about how she lost her friends, her family, her girlfriend.

she thought about how she turned her girlfriend into the wren that was now her best friend, five whole years ago, in the very forest that her girlfriend had died in.

"uhm, i guess you could say that i have a lot of memories and thoughts regarding my home," calla started again tentatively, after noticing just how long she had stayed quiet. "it hadn't meant much to me at first, to be honest. for a while, i was an amnesiac who'd woken up in my home with no past memories whatsoever aside from performing magic and going through the basic motions of living.

"however, i met my best friend again, and together, we worked to build my memories back. i discovered that i loved her before, but now, the love i have for her shines a little differently. regardless, my heart belongs to my home, and my home is her." calla laughed, smiling sheepishly as she rubbed at the back of her neck. "sorry, was that too cheesy? ah, i'll leave you to your own devices now, then ..."

[76heart]

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ＬＹＲＥ  ＥＬＩＤＩ  ＣＹＭＢＥＬＩＮＥ  ＳＥＬÛＮＥ
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76heart ● lyre ● nebra ● 1,076 words
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nebra is used with lavender towns' permission <3

This land was not Laamrian, nor any other realm of gods that she had entered. This land was of an earthly realm, one of mortals. She was not Lyre here, she was Amelithe, a High Priestess of her pantheon traveling to see more of the world and what there was for her to find. She could not reveal who she was here. Still, she trusted the kalon, and her soul yearned to help him find his place, his home. Though she could not reveal she lived in the realm of the gods of Erast directly, she could at least describe it, and as they were alone with naught but each other and the sweet creature and the sky, she could also unveil her face. If he ever happened to discover who she was, it would be after she was long gone, and by then, she had hope he would find his home, the place that sparked his soul, where his heart belonged.

Slowly, she raised her paws and allowed the hood of her cloak to fall to her shoulders, revealing her soft features and white, pupil-less eyes. Lyre fixed him with a warm, gentle smile, and then cast her gaze toward the sky where her mother and father were keeping the worlds safe, and began, her melodious voice sweet, and serene, carrying the same tranquil air as a softly babbling brook. "My home is a place of Gods." All her homes were, in truth, but there was only one she could share the nature of how that was; the temple where she worked as a priestess in Ai Saiden, the capital of Erast. "It is many temples, with polished white columns decorated with intricate carvings of tales and stories winding around their bases at each of their ends. It is tall, looming statues of all who are worshipped by those of Erast, their tales and history written in books placed upon pedestals unique to each one at their feet. It is accents of gold swirling throughout, its veins creeping here and there, and details of marble colored gray, white, and black. It is stone cold and chilling in shadow, but warm and welcoming in the sun." She spoke slowly so he could copy her words if he wished to write them, and slowly let her gaze drift back to him. She could imagine the voices of the other priestesses echoing throughout the tall, hallowed rooms, bouncing off the statues as they spoke of their days and laughed at moments deemed humorous or absurd. She could hear the Head Priestess chastising poor souls that managed to displease her, the cruelty in her eyes as she walked passed, but even more so, she could picture the halls she knew so well, and the statues, their intricate carvings not yet worn with time, and polished carefully by delicate hands filled wth a reverence for the beings for which the statues stood.

She shifted, her blank eyes turning once more to the sky, to where her godly home would be high above the clouds in its hidden realm. Her eyes closed, and she took a pause to picture the home she knew so well, where she had grown and gone through and experienced so much. It was her first home, unlike the temple which was her second, a chosen one. This home was not one she ever could have chosen, it was what she was born to, the one she knew best. It was the home of her many siblings, and her parents' friends, and of her own. It was the home of many a creature, and the sweetest music she had ever heard. It was where her lyre and her pan flute lay, it was her home. "It is the greenest grass you will ever see, and soft rays of sunlight warming your fur as you walk through the grounds, passing by trees and through shadows dappled with light as the sun shines his light through the rustling leaves. It is the cooling breeze gently blowing your mane, and rippling your clothes as it passes by, wrapping around you like an old friend. It is a river quietly trickling by, its water as clear as it can possibly be, with the sun causing it to glisten. It is serenity, and tranquility brought to life in a place of prosperity. It is the patter and friendly chitter of all manner of creatures known only to that land."

Next she spoke of both, of what they shared as she drifted between. "It is white cloaks, chants, hymns, gossip, chatter. It is music carried upon the wind. It is songs, chimes, laughter. It is a band of instruments playing gently, their tune one you have never before heard, but still know as if you had always known its careful notes. It is a feel of familiarity, of comfort, of a place you feel as if you had always known but may have never stepped foot into before." Her eyes opened at last, and she gave a fond smile, one filled with nothing but love, as her words turned to the home she had found by chance, one she shared with her love.

"My home is also a lone temple upon a mountain, shrouded in darkness and mist, with only a dim light as a guide. It is an unexpected beginning, but a most happy end. It is the feel of my love’s fur as he holds me close, his hair splaying down our backs and shoulders and tangling with mine. It is the stars painted across an ebony and blue sky, and verdant shadows of mountains and trees in the distance just barely glimpsed in the dark. It is a forest walked through by a diligent god, with a task to free his lands of the cursed fog. It is a smell of freshly fallen rain, of pine and cedar. It is the glow of fireflies breaking through the mist, and the dim sign of lanterns peeking through an eternal mist." It was his realm, and his temple, one she had happened upon by mistake, but it was her home, no less so than her others, if not more so, because it held him, and he was her most treasured home.

"I suppose it’s actually several homes, rather than just one, but it is- or they all are- what I call mine. I do hope that you can find yours."

[Peppermint Mist]

Joe

[cervidae]

a rather drab girl spun among the wildflowers, her dress billowing in the wind, and with every passing dance her hair, once so delicately pinned up, fell loose in cascading waves. the basket she kept to her chest.. it was strange, handmade. she hiked up her skirt, and trudged through the grasses - making her way home.

patchouli was an herbalist by trade, her cottage teeming with unfamiliar plants, flowers and herbs, fungi and strange shrubbery, and although you were almost certain the wisteria creeping along her walls was wild and untended to, it framed the structure so perfectly it almost seemed purposefully placed. Every lick of lavender, every strand of vine, it all seemed so intentional.
An overgrown path of cobblestone was the only suggestion of an entrance to the structure, as any other door, any other path was obstructed by the hill the house sat upon. a stone fence, mossy and worn seemed to keep the overflowing flora in place.

the door was fashioned of an old plank of wood, lampposts framing the entrance with warm light, and as her hands gripped the doorknob so familiarly, that same glow presided through the entire establishment.
thyme and delphinium springing from pots, plumes of lavender adorning the walls, glass orbs filled with foreign succulents, and a strange sprout that seemed to stare at you with all the viciousness of a bear. Edelweiss in soft bundles decorated the corners, wreathes of poppies and vibrant grasses hung upon every doorframe. by each window seemed a grove of something new, every beam of light accompanied by a pond of water-borne plants, the only thing spared from her touch was a quaint table carved of dogwood, quartz, bundles of sage, and her wand so neatly placed. sighing, and waving the bees that had nested within her walls away, patchouli placed her basket on this table, and sat to write. Her customers next-town over had placed quite the large order of elderberries, and although she enjoyed her job so very much, the paperwork involved was not to her liking. her familiar flew from a sprout of honeysuckle, and rest upon her hat so delicately. The night was coming, and she had much work to do.


[369]

[carpe]

Melissa

[f1owercrown]

[ bro i just wanna say that i started typing and I didn't stop typing and I realized my story did not have any flow so I'm breaking it down into tinier chunks lol I wordbarfed a whole world-building ]

━━━━━━━ On her world, in general ━━━━━━━

Melli was a second-year student at the University of Witchcraft, the oldest educational establishment built to hone the magic skills of those gifted enough to have such power. She was the daughter of a wizard and a non-magical woman of the magic ministry, and thus tagged as a half-witch in-training (although she would argue that 'half-witch' was discriminatory, for magic was a dominant gene and it didn't matter whether one or both parents had passed it on to you).

━━━━━━━ On schedules and what not ━━━━━━━

Every day except weekends were for studies: classes from 8 AM to 5 PM, with an hour of lunch in the middle and several smaller, 15-minute breaks between classes to walk to the next room. Subjects did not span a whole semester; it took probably half a semester to finish each of them, so their subjects were clumped into two sections, section A for the first four subjects, and section B for the second four subjects. Melli was part of section B, so she took the second four subject during the first half of the semester. So far, her absolute favorite was Potions II. She was a top-notcher for that subject matter, including it's precursor Potions I in first year.

Asides from the regular classes and projects were the annual work, and since their first year the magic students were tasked to do a mini-thesis during the Halloween season. One could delve into creation of spells or potions, assessing magic battle plans, studying physics to polish new broomsticks, and others. Melli specifically chose potions since her first year, and each year tried polishing potions to lessen side effects and enhance their main effect. She was good in her craft and learned from one of her seniors, Lucy, who was training in one of the newer fields of magical sciences.

━━━━━━━ On buildings, trees, and rooms ━━━━━━━

The university was quite old and musty, but was kept clean all the times. Renovations were sometimes necessary here and there (no one wanted the most prestigious university to be crumbling), although they did keep many important structures as well. What Melli absolutely loved the most in the university, ever since she moved, was the open windows. The university took great importance in this structure for many reasons, ranging from "Let's not isolate the children from the outside world," to needing a gas escape every time someone did their magic or potions wrong. Whatever reason weighted more important, Melli did not feel confined inside the classroom alone, and would take short mental breaks looking outside when her mind was overloaded during class.

During the weekends she would spend most of her time out on the university field, watching her roommates practice casting spells on each other. Melli liked to read a good book at times, or even do homework out on their field before sunset. She enjoyed the care the university gave towards plants and trees, and she would rest beneath a familiar sycamore tree that had been planted there for ages.

Once the day was done, she would retreat to her room with her friends. Often times Melli did not clean her side of the room, so her desk was in a mess, potion bottles, pens, and notes strewn everywhere. The only cleaning she ever did was fold her blanket and fix her bed, always stacking bed items in this order from bottom to top: blanket, pillow one, pillow two, stuffed toy. Her stuffed toy was a black cat with a cute heart print on its chest. She also loved to take care of small plants, and kept two succulents by the windowsill for her to water every week.

[sobble]

Jack has many homes. <3

[Vanillasaur]

not 2 be cheesy but the "bro u are my world" memes are all talking about Teleai and his husband Tsekani

[dreamyEnding]

Opia