[Hiroko]

Yey writing contestt o v o The story can be about anything, so long as it is under 2,000 words.
This plumerian has eyes and feathers that appear to bubble.

Code: Select all

Username;;
Name;;
Gender;;
Plumerian's favorite quote;;
Story;; (Word limit: 2,000)

No extras; ends on the 26th.
Prettying up is fine.

[bullie]

Username;;
Name;;
Gender;;
Plumerian's favorite quote;;
Story;; (Word limit: 2,000)]

[wingz.]

dropping out
while I love this design I am sure there are other people out there who love it more <3
good luck everyone!

[rem sleep]

Username ;; Trollish

Name ;; Dionysus "Grape" Souda

Dionysus, the God of wine, is Grape's namesake. While his parents may have given him the noble name of a greek God in charge of creating, distributing and overall drinking wine- he goes more by Grape than anything else. The 'Grape Soda' nickname started from his bullying classmates, who always mocked him for his purple pelt and silly last name- 'Souda'. Together, Grape Soda was born- and ironically enough it was a nickname Dionysus decided to keep. More often than not he goes by Grape, and it's a safe assumption to make that his real name isn't his preference.

Gender ;; Male

Plumerian's Favorite Quote ;; “Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.” ― Albert Camus

Story ;;

This story doesn't really have a beginning, middle or an end. I know they always tell us to write our stories that way and Miss Onna I'm sorry in advance for the awful introduction. I really couldn't think of a good hook, but perhaps I have your attention now?

I never really… fit in... with the other kids at school. Often times they'd bully me for my ears, and the purple pigment of my fur despite my gender. In our small village, everyone is very narrow minded… native superstition is worshipped like God and anything that strays from the norm they know and love is outcast and shunned for being different. Needless to say, my ears are a bit different, wouldn't you agree? The only real friend I had in school was an odd kid named Satchel. He's completely obsessed with storms, and when he grows up he wants to be a storm chaser. He's really clever- though he only really retains information about either storms or the whether. To be honest I approached him at first because we were both lonely, and we were both outcasts- but once I got to know him, Satchel was a fantastic friend. I could write a whole essay about what a great friend he is, but that wasn't the prompt this time. Maybe next time, though.

I had a really tough time focusing because of this, and even though it made my parents really mad; occasionally I'd sneak away to the museum near the edge of the village. Far away from the troubles of school life. The museum was a towering structure, old and dated. It used to be the mansion of what the townsfolk called 'Ogami', which are priests who ward off the 'evil spirits'. I never really believed in that sort of thing, and I still don't- but the Ogami were long since forgotten, and the mansion was instead used as a museum to showcase the town's success and history, along with it's mythos.

The museum was almost never visited. Probably because the man who ran the joint was a little bit loopy. It was known by all the townsfolk that the guy was… potentially a bit dangerous, and odd to say the least. I won't say they're wrong about him, because he is just that. He only rarely spoke, most of the time he just left you to read his eyes- or he'd pass you small business cards with his words scripted onto them in neat, legible handwriting. He always carried a katana around in his mouth, though he insisted it was completely fake and only used to scare people off at night when he caught them inside the museum. Though despite saying it was for night duty, he always carried it with him. He also never told me his name, though I overheard it through passing conversation. Hibiki, they'd called him. Quite frankly I saw why he'd avoid the name- it was, like everything else about him very strange.

One day when I'd come to hide away in the confines of the museum, I overheard a discussion in the hallway. I won't transcript in, simply for the sake of personal secrecy. After all I wouldn't want any discussion of mine written up on a middle schooler's essay. In short, they were discussing something in the basement. Something hidden. Something secret. Apparently securing it was really dangerous… and I could've sworn I'd heard some myth about it before, though I couldn't place my finger on it at the time.

I slipped away quickly before I was caught, and receded into the orderly rows upon rows of bookshelves housed in one of the many storage rooms. I sifted through the books, hoping to find something to hint at the suspicious 'hidden cave' they'd been discussing. After quite some time of searching, skimming and tossing books aside I finally found what I was looking for…

…an old, rugged book with several torn pages. It looked as if it were assembled only from pieces of paper, crayon and some string- almost as if a child had made it. There were several sloppy crayola words scrawled across the pages. "Do not go into the catacombs!" The first page stated in abrupt, jagged handwriting. "The spirits of the village will not be happy if you do..." The second page continued, and with a flip of the next page I was worried the first might just come tumbling out! "But. If you do..." Another page turned, "Then be wary. All those before you have perished. Likely all those after you shall as well." I hadn't noticed it right away, but the paper on which the writing sat was getting progressively darker and darker; now it was almost black. "If you value your life..." The final page was pitch black, and on it there was only one sentence- scribbled in with white crayon. "Don't go into the catacombs." Upon closing the book and glancing at the final page, I noticed that the author was none other than Hibiki himself! It must've been when he was rather young… thinking about the ferocious katana-weilding museum guard making such a thing at his age was… a bit silly, to say the least.

Now you may be wondering, how does this fit your prompt? Well you're about to hear the interesting part. I talked with Satchel that day at school, and we agreed that late at night, when Hibiki was off patrolling upstairs, we were to sneak into the basement and find the hidden cave. We wanted to have an adventure- and perhaps part of me wanted to prove the superstitions that'd bound me my whole life- just one- to be wrong. And maybe Satchel wanted that too. And so we went. One foot in front of the other, descending the stairs into the basement's dark embrace.

At the end of a long, winding hallway we found it. A small slab of stone covered the entrance, but Satchel and I hauled it aside after several trials and errors. We could hear it- Hibiki's rushed footsteps thundering down the stairs. In that split second adrenaline forced us into the cave below.

The stone wobbled back into place above us, and just as soon as it had came- the light was gone. We couldn't see a thing, and we blindly stumbled for some time until Satchel found a wall, and guided me to it so we could follow it. Hopefully it would lead somewhere else. Somewhere safe. We could feel the sloshing of water under our feet, though it wasn't deep at all- it was beginning to bother me. I could hear our nails clicking on the stone floor and the echo ringing all around us.

When we finally found ourselves somewhere other than blackness, I could finally see Satchel's face again. His eyes were wide and twinkling- as it turned out up ahead were a series of brilliant glowing crystals. I recall Satchel said they reminded him of striking lightning, and our footsteps and echoes were just like thunder.

It wasn't long before we saw it.

It, of course, being the door.

There were several of them, each leading to small, dug out rooms that housed either gravestones or various storage goods. Any traces of a civilization that could've been here was gone, though it seemed to be exactly what Hibiki had said. Catacombs, I thought silently to myself, underground cemeteries, huh..? Carefully we padded forwards, throughly feeling our fur stand on end.

Satchel noticed the glowing crystals would stop if we went ahead any further and insisted there must be another way. I could tell he wasn't comfortable leaving his 'lightning' behind, and I wasn't all too keen of giving up the idea of bright light either. This whole situation… I found myself wondering… what if those legends were really true all this time? What if Satchel and I were trapped here forever- doomed to die by our own naïvety? The thought made me shudder, and from a glance at Satchel I could tell we felt the same way.

We wandered for a couple hours before we found something of interest. A ladder, positioned up against the wall. It'd been tied down firmly with rope and neither Satchel nor I could free it. We tried once together to yank it free; though it only ended with two sprawled bodies on the dusty cave floor. Hesitantly we stood, and set off knowing we'd need to find something to free it with. Not that we even knew where we'd use it, or how we'd carry it.

Right about here is when the freaky stuff starts to happen.

Satchel and I notice shadows moving, things shifting- it's only slight at first, but Satchel's keen eye catches it. Did I ever tell you Satchel's a total brainiac when he wants to be? Because he is. He caught on faster than I did, and when I pulled it to his attention all he had to respond with was a slight knowing nod of his head.

After a lot of wandering and dodging the stray, fleeting shadows we came across a large circle of light. It was in the middle of the water pool, probably the same one we'd fallen in through. It looked like a well, though maybe it was just the same entrance with the stone slab moved aside. Regardless, we now had a use for the ladder.

We noticed figures. Silhouettes. In the distance of the cave, shadowed dramatically by the now ominous crystals illuminating the area. We quickly scrambled into hiding spots when we saw these- nothing good could come of them. We hid for several hours at a time before coming out again, simply for fear the silhouette wasn't yet gone.

I found it. While hiding from that wretched silhouette that'd been chasing us for so long now- I'd found a small shard of pottery to cut the ladder free. Satchel and I carefully made our way over to the other side of the cave, shimmying along with me in front and him watching my back.

It was comforting having him there; but shock hit us both like a semi truck when we noticed that the ladder was gone. We could only assume it was the work of that silhouette we kept seeing. All we could do was hide.

Again that silhouette confronted us, and again we scurried to hide; this time in a large closet together. Our bodies tensed when we heard it. The clicking of nails on the stone floor. Had he heard us? Everything was still for a whole ten minutes, and then…

…the closet doors creaked slowly open.

A set of bright glowing eyes, and a terrifyingly sharp blade greeted us; I shrieked and Satchel stood in front of me defensively. Though, as light fell on the stranger's face, Satchel stood aside.

It was… Hibiki! He set the fake katana down and held us both close to his chest, hugging us tightly. He didn't say a thing, but the fat tears rolling down his cheeks said he was happy to see us in one piece. He released us, and we followed him back to the circle of light, where he'd since placed the ladder. Together we ascended and made it out alright; in fact we headed back to the museum and had cookies.

As for the shadows, they weren't Hibiki's. He told us when he got us that he'd come down only a half hour earlier, not soon enough to have tormented us. Perhaps we found the spirits after all…?

You may wonder how this serves the prompt you gave us. After all, it's a scary story about a silly adventure; not a tale about friendship and the best present they've ever given you. Well... Hibiki and Satchel are my closest friends, and this is how they changed my life. They made me feel included, safe and accepted. And that's the greatest gift I could ask of anyone.

[ 2000 / 2000 words ]

[Ravendarus]

Rooting for a friend <33

[Snowseph]

Dropping out, sorry! Good luck everyone. c:

[jcqll]

what a beauty. ;o;
not trying, but good luck to you all!
and person that I've tlked to previously before, pm me!
if you need coding help, I got'chu.

[LeavingCSgoodbye]

;-; I want to but I got nothing to write.

[DelightfulMelon]

Username;;
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Plumerian's favorite quote;;
Story;; (Word limit: 2,000)

RES

[eli ayase]

Username;;
Name;;
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Plumerian's favorite quote;;
Story;; (Word limit: 2,000)

resss