OC-Tober: Day 01 - Getting Up In The Morning

OC-Tober: Day 01 - Getting up in the morning

OCs: Rook and Wren (I have yet to figure out a last name T-T)

Prompt by @thepromptfoundry

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(What's the name of that tag... no beta we die like men lol)

Rook was normally a light sleeper, and most of his mornings could start in multiple ways. There was the waking up because the sun’s light finally moved to a proper angle, and it shone in his face through the cracks of his closed shutters. The sounds of the animals he was caring for making a commotion because he was a few minutes late waking up to feed them. And then there was his brother.

So when his door creaked open, he knew his brother was trying to sneak into his room. There was silence as he waited. He counted down the seconds.

“Hit me with that pillow and I’ll give you a reason to visit a healer.”

His brother let out an aggravated grumble as he seemed to deflate onto the bed, his arms flopping over Rook’s side. “You're no fun.”

“I want to sleep and you’re not letting me.” Wren started climbing onto his bed. “What are you doing?”

“I’m a man on a mission.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” He finally opened his mismatched eyes in time for his brother to shove open the shutters on his window. Rook hissed as bright morning sunlight spilled into his room. He squeezed his blue and green eyes closed, hiding them from the sudden bright light. Then quickly shoved his brother off his bed with his foot in retaliation. “Get out, Wren!”

There was a shout and a painful thud before Wren let out a cackle. “I think I’m stuck.”

Rook sat up to glare at his brother, only to find an almost identical sun warmed bronze face looking up at him from the space between his desk and bed. Shoulder length black hair was in a tangled mess from falling off the bed. Blue and amber eyes blinked up at him as a sheepish grin appeared. With a scoff, Rook grumbled, “Suffer.” He swung his right leg over the edge of the bed. His arms reached up over his head as he stretched out his back from being curled up on a bed that was still too short for his tall frame. Wren was making struggling sounds as Rook reached out to grab the intricately made prosthetic leg of metal and leather next to his bed.

“Rook.” There was a wheeze. “Help.”

“You can wait.” There was a huff and a grumble from Wren, and Rook could feel the way his lips curved up into a smile. He pulled the drawer next to his bed open to pull out a sock for the end of his scared leg. “You really do need to stop sneaking in here to wake me.”

“Someone has to wake you. Otherwise, you would sleep all day.”

Rook’s voice was offended as he looked up from attaching the straps of his prosthetic, and snapped, “I will not.”

“Do too.” Wren finally wiggled his way out of the space between Rook’s desk and bed. “I find you napping in the sun with the cloud kittens after your practices with Guardian Allistair.”

“That’s a nap.”

“Yeah and if left alone you would sleep until dinner time.” Rook looked up to watch as Wren flopped over onto the floor in front of him. Standing, Rook nudged his brother in the side with his foot.

“Why did you wake me?” He stepped over Wren, heading for his closet.

“Dad wants to make sure your leg is good for the Ceremony of Flight.”

“He’s at the forge?”

“Should be.”

“Out.”

“Why?”

“Out.”

Wren sighed as he rolled onto his feet. He scrubbed a hand through his hair trying to tame it. “I’ll go feed the critters.”

As soon as his door closed, Rook scrubbed a hand through his own short black hair. He took in a deep breath before letting it out slowly. Just another day. He’s just one more day closer to his goal.

Once he was more centered, he pulled the closet open and reached for clean clothes.

Stepping out of his room, he could hear Wren struggling to feed the cloud kittens. A smile slowly pulled at his lips. He made his way over to his kitchen counter to start pulling out pans for making breakfast. He was getting ready to crack an egg open when Wren walked in. “Okay, the cloud kittens are fed and your damn goats were yelling at me every time I approached their hut. So I’m not going anywhere near them. Oh and don’t start cooking, mom’s making our favorite since we’re heading over.”

Rook frowned, “And you couldn’t tell me before I pulled everything out.”

Wren made a sharp gesture at the front door, “I was fighting your clouds of doom outside.”

“Nonsense they’re sweethearts.”

The look Wren shot his brother was one of disbelief and done with him. “You're full of it.”

“Let me finish feeding the rest of the animals.” He gave Wren a mocking pat on the shoulder. “Got to make sure they won’t eat you.” Wren gave Rook a half hearted shove.

“Jerk.”

Rook chuckled as he stepped away to start packing up the food while Wren worked on putting out the fire in the stove. “Do I need to bring my sword with me?”

Wren looked up at the ceiling as he thought about it, “Mmm, wouldn’t hurt to bring it.”

“Alright. Animals and we can leave.”

Wren stood up brushing his soot covered hands on his pants and closed the hatch on the oven. “I’ll be swinging by to see Haward about my bow. I gave it to him to make sure it’s capable of surviving the Ceremony of Flight.”

Reaching for his coat to pull on over his loose tunic, he finally said, “Might be time to get a new one.”

He was wrapping his sword belt around his waist as Wren gave a scandalized gasp. “How dare you suggest that?”

Rook attached his sheathed sword to his belt while he looked at his brother with a blank face. “How long have you had that bow?”

“Yeah and? Bows have a long life. I take good care of that bow.”

Rook waved off the pout Wren was directing him. “Just don’t want you stranded without a way to defend yourself.”

“You worry too much. I got this.”

“Fine.” He motioned to the now open door. “Let’s go. I still need to feed the animals.” Rook followed after his brother, closing and locking the door as Wren jumped off the steps to the path leading to the animals. With a sigh, Rook followed down the stairs. “I’ll need to find someone to look over the animals while I’m gone.”

“Mom has offered. So has Elara, said she can swing by here on her way to finding herbs.”

Rook made a face as he scooped up a bucket by the fence, and headed for a small building. “I’ll talk to Elara. Mom has enough on her plate with the festival for the ceremony drawing close.” Wren made sure to stay far enough away as Rook opened the small hatch door on the side. He walked around to the back of the building to open a wooden bin to scoop out some grains, before walking around in time to see the very round and small winged goats run at Wren who yelled as he ran off. Rook whistled and rattled the bucket. Ten large eyed heads turned to look at him, and he tossed a handful of grains on the ground. With an amused grin at Wren who was now sitting on a fence glaring at the small winged goats as they waddled over to eat the grains off the ground. “You sure you're ready for the Ceremony of Flight. You do know you're bonding with an animal right?”

Wren gave a huff before crossing his arms. “I’m pretty sure it’s only your animals that want to kill me. I have no problems when I’m by myself in the woods.”

Rook tossed more grains on the ground until the bucket was empty and passed it to Wren, “Go feed Rocky. He at least likes you.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Wren took the bucket and headed for a large stable. There was a loud bellow as Wren laughed. “Rocky, buddy, your poor fluff was trimmed.”

Rook rolled his eyes as he headed for the large roost in the back. Two heads poked out of windows, beaks clicking. “Yes, food. I’m getting it.” He walked behind the roost after he opened the door to let the large birds out. They trilled at him before bumping their heads against his. He chuckled as he opened a bin to pull food out. Large beaks tried to pull the feed from his arms, and he swiftly dodged them. “You can wait.” Rook dumped the feed into a large trough and pushed it around as the large birds jammed their heads past him to crunch down on the leafy greens. He ran a hand over both of the large heads and checked over their wings. “You two are almost ready for flying. Remi will be happy. You two scared him you know.”

He got trills and one of them fluffed up their feathers.

“I’ll be right back to give you lunch. Be good.”

Wren approached as Rook stepped away from checking over the white and gray flight feathers. “How are they?”

“They’ll be fine. Should be ready to help Remi transport his goods to the festival. Snow harpies are hardy and large.” He felt a beak nudge him in the back and he chuckled. Gently pushing the head away he added, “They just needed some extra time for their wings to grow in properly. And a little help.”

“Well, I’ll let Remi know since I’m heading that way.”

“Okay.” He huffed when another head nudged him. “Did you get the cloud kittens back in their hutch? They’re still learning how to properly move about without floating too high.”

“Yeah.” Wren started to head towards the front of the house. “It was a struggle just to keep them in the hutch while I fed them. Their mom was not pleased I put them back.”

Rook chuckled as he followed after Wren. “Marshy is ready for them to go off on their own. I’ll see if anyone in town is looking for new pets.” He made sure the gate was closed, before turning to Wren. Tossing an arm around Wren’s shoulders, he tugged him along. “Come on we should head out.” The two headed off for the town. The sun’s golden light slowly spilling over the small island they live on. A slow life but one that they enjoy.

oc-tober day 2: going out on the town

( prompt list credit: @thepromptfoundry )

Prompts that go bump in the night day 2 A whisper in the dark

A story for @thepromptfoundry event Prompts that go bump in the night day 2 a whisper in the dark.

As Tomie the night guard did her rounds of checking prisoners in this Japanese women prison, she hear a woman voice from behind her said in a whisper in her ear, "Let me out!" and Tomie turn around and shine her flashlight, seeing that there is no one there to her shock. Tomie become scared as she look around to seen who whisper to her.

I've decided to participate in @thepromptfoundry's OC-tober this year! I probably won't write everyday but I will try my best :)

Day 1: Getting up in the morning

The sound of Graves walking down the bunker hallway is becoming more familiar to Mariposa.

Her new wolf ears, a result of her recent inheritance, act as her inner alarm clock; they never fail to wake her up in her new home, Burrow Enclosure #81799, a place where she's learning to adapt to her new gifts.

“His keys are singing to me…” she somnolently exclaims after letting out a huge yawn.

Mariposa rolls over in bed. Her eyes are heavy and start to flicker shut. The last thing she sees is her sun chaser deity, Skoll. She doesn’t understand why she had to inherit Skoll.

Mariposa knows the deity won’t appreciate her animal skull collection and mini shrine to Fenrir.

The enclosure starts to get increasingly hotter. Mariposa starts to pick up the sound of the crackling of fire?

“OH MY LORD!” Mariposa shrieked, her voice trembling with fear. Skoll’s flames are engulfing her field of vision, casting a terrifying glow.

Mariposa is glued to the wall. She can’t seem to take her gaze off the beautiful brown wolf.

A loud click of the enclosure’s lock pulls Mariposa back to reality. She has a couple of seconds to gather herself. Today has to be a good day!

Graves hears a thump behind the door before it slides open. He looked down to see Mariposa on her knees with both hands behind her back. She beamed and said, “Good morning, Lord!”

This event sounds fun, is there an AO3 collection?

Not at this time!

Inktober & OC-tober: October 1st, 2024 (Romance The Backrooms)

Hey everyone!

So, this year, I have decided to participate in Inktober’s, well, Inktober event, and OC-tober, the latter specifically with @icannotreadcursive / @thepromptfoundry ‘s prompt list.  Basically, how it works is that I will do a drawing & a story adhering to the prompts.

For the first half of the month, I will be doing these for the characters of my story Romance The Backrooms, a liminal space otome with 5 main love interests.  For the second half of the month, I will be doing them for the characters of my IF Comp game Yancy At The End Of The World!, mainly to promote Yancy!’s Kickstarter, which launches at the beginning of November.

Today’s Prompts: Getting up in the morning & Backpack

Characters: Carla

Other Info: This is Part 1 of what will be a series of stories dealing with Carla trying to come to terms with her grandmother’s death.  Please know that this is primarily what the story is about and treat accordingly.

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Carla woke up and sat up in bed, blinking as she tried to remember where she was.  Then she remembered: she had rented a cottage in the woods for the next two weeks.  Right.

It had been her father’s idea to do so, and she didn’t usually listen to what he had to say, but for once, it was good advice.  Even broken clocks are right twice a day.  And in this case, her father was correct: she needed a retreat from normal life to really deal with her grandmother’s death.

. . . Even thinking about it that way seemed wrong.  Like the fact that her grandmother was actually dead was inconceivable.  But Carla had seen the body herself, gone through the funeral and everything.  The woman who had basically raised her was gone.  That was the truth.

Carla got out of bed, and her eyes landed on her bags: she had a backpack for her hikes, which was mostly empty for right now, and next to it was her suitcase, full of clothes & supplies. 

One of the many items in the suitcase was the box: the last gift her grandmother had given her.  She had not yet opened it, but knew she had to eventually.  That was partially what this trip was for—to give her the space and time to finally open that box.  Hopefully, she would get the courage to do it.

For now though, Carla got her toiletries and a pair of clothes from her suitcase, then went to the bathroom.  After she showered and brushed her teeth, she was ready to go.

Carla went back to her suitcase and put some supplies inside: binoculars, snacks, water.  As she picked up her sunscreen, she found The Gift underneath it, and paused for a moment, staring at it. Then, she put the sunscreen in her backpack, closed the suitcase, and stood up.

Maybe there was a nice place in the nearby town where she could get breakfast. . .