the wip machine

Frequent Tags

#ark writing tips: advice about everything writing

#ark writing resources: circulating writing resources, because real writers don't gatekeep

#ark.txt: random thoughts, events and life updates

#ark writes: pieces of writing by me

#ark draws: pieces of art by me

#diary of a suffering writer: where i talk about my experience with writing

#diary of a suffering artist: where i talk about my experience with art

#ark reblogs: anything that gets reblogged from others, you can find here

#ark originals: any and all talk about my original works goes here

#ark replies: when i get asks, here you'll find the replies

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#flash fiction: Flash Fiction Friday entries

Wip Intros

Revolve

the universe is crumbling. the Void slips into every crack in the Edges. the Realms' only chance is to find the Ashen Gods and convince them to help. it's a 50/50 chance, but it's all they have. it would be easier if everyone could collaborate, but history has the unfortunate tendency to get in the way

wip status ✵ drafting genre ✵ low fantasy subgenre ✵ grimdark target audience ✵ new adult tag ✵ #ark revolve other ✵ queer fiction, not a lot of romance, political & social intrigue ✵ see more ✵ get on the taglist

Unearthly

Zeno comes from a family of spirit hunters, but he's the only one his grandpa won't trust to become one full time. so he trains harder than anyone. kills more spirits than anyone else. it becomes a problem when his best friend turns out to be a medium

wip status ⛧ planning genre ⛧ urban fantasy subgenre ⛧grimdark target audience ⛧ new adult tag ⛧ #ark unearthly other ⛧ queer fiction, romance, superheroes ⛧ see more ⛧ get on the taglist

The Mortal God

Aren would be happier if there wasn't a prophecy about him, because the hunters never believe him when he says he's trying to control his powers and not to kill the king

wip status ⚙ planning genre ⚙ gaslamp fantasy subgenre ⚙ epic target audience ⚙ young adult tag ⚙ #ark mortal god other ⚙ queer fiction, no romance, found family ⚙ see more ⚙ get on the taglist

The Lost Sea Symphony

Talia is a monster in human skin running for safety across the glitching servers, and the voice only she can hear is saying that she'll find safety in the sea

Illis doesn't want to be here. Yes, Jialee's farm is nearby, and it's nice and warm and do much better than being at home, and Sarine and Tedo and Azai aren't mean about his eyes or the talking to plants and animals, but those are the problem. The plants are really really really quiet. Like they're scared. The animals too. There's only Jialee's cows around, in the fence. The dog never comes this far, and he can't hear mice or crikets.

But Jialee and Sarine and Tedo and Azai are still following the ball they're playing with. They keep kicking it more and more far, and the farm is getting too far and the woods are getting too close. The bushes are taller and taller and Illis can't see over them, and he's pretty sure he heard mama say there's a bog here somewhere. You're not supposed to go near bogs. They take people and don't let them go back.

And then Sarine throws the ball too hard, and it flies right over the bushes and into the dark. Azai yelps. "My ball! Sari, you meanie."

"I didn't mean to throw it like that!"

Tedo, who is way taller than the rest of them, tries to look over the bush, but he's still too short. "We can probably get it back. It can't be that far." He makes to go through the bush, but Illis and Jialee both rush to take his arms.

"No no no, you can't do that. There could be the bog," Jialee says really fast, because she's smart. Illis nods along her.

Sarine tries to peek under the bush, then in the gaps at the sides, and turns to him. "Is there a bog?"

Illis shrugs, and steps a little behind Tedo. "I don't know. Everything is really quiet, I don't like it."

"But there isn't a bog?"

"Why would I know that?"

"You do kind of always know when something's weird with the fields," Tedo says, and shrugs when Illis throws him a betrayed look.

Azai crosses his arms. "Well we have to do something. My nana made that ball. I'm not going home without it. Can we get it with a stick?"

Sarine shakes her head. "The bush is too thick. I can't even see through it."

"We should tell a grown-up," Illis says. Still holding onto Tedo, he looks over at Jialee. Her parents are nice. Really nice. They don't yell, and they listen when she talks, and he's seen her spill a glass and not get in trouble. "Jia, your dad would help, right?"

Jialee blinks, and her eyes go sorry. "He would, but he's not home. He's at the market in Parfalls."

Tedo sniffs. "I'm going."

"No," Illis and Jialee both yell, holding onto him stronger. "It isn't safe," he adds.

Sarine steps away from the bush, and looks at him. "You'd be safest, right? The plants can warn you."

Illis's heart beats really loud, and his hands go sticky. "I mean, I guess."

"Oh, we can make a people chain," Jialee yells. She steps away and puts Tedo's hand in his before taking Tedo's other one. "Here, you hold on to Te because he's strongest, and I hold on to Te, and Sari holds on to me and Azai holds onto her!"

Illis squirms. "I don't know. I really don't like it here, it feels bad."

"Oh pleeeease, Illis," Azai says, and his eyes are big and shiny. "I need the ball back. My mama will get angry if I don't."

Illis flinches. He can't say no. Not if Azai's mum will get angry. He takes a deep breath and clings to Tedo's hand. "Okay. Make sure to hold me?"

Tedo nods, and his hold is way stronger. Illis breathes out and pushes a branch of the bush to the side. It's strong, but the plant doesn't say anything, and Illis doesn't like it. But he gets through the edge of the bush, and the ground becomes messy with roots and small plants and tall grass, and he can't see the ball. He steps careful and slow, and glances back every few steps.

Jialee is fully on this side of the bush before he sees a speck of blue of the ball. It's in a flat area that's brown and grey, with roots and old leaves and tree bark but no new plants. Illis doesn't like this, but still, "I think I see it. It's, uhm, five steps, but I think it's stuck."

"I see it too," Tedo says. They look at each other and nod. Slower, Illis takes a step. Then another, and the forest is way too quiet. He looks around and takes a third step, already reaching out with his hand. It's too far. He takes a fourth step.

Crack

Illis yells as his hand slips. Someone calls his name but they're too far. The rumble of dead roots coming down around him deafens the world.

❊

Zeno can't focus. He should be. It's important that he does so. So much so in fact, that his phone is in the drawer of the nightstand, on the opposite side of the room, and he muted the notifications from the computer. Even his headphones are unplugged, though he's still wearing them.

He should focus. Miss Bellone's tests are insane enough as is, and with how often she's name-dropped the interference spectrum the past couple of days it can't be anything but a hint. He's sure of it. Which means he needs to practice it, which means he needs to find exercises on it somewhere, because their book has close to none, and if he'll find them anywhere it'll be in the vastness of the internet. Which means he needs to focus.

But.

Grandpa's words ring a lythany in the back of his mind, echoed by the open tabs of research and news and the powerpoint he made with Andrea and Marti. It niggles at the back of his head, and then it drills. Like a physical fucking pressure. Or an itch that begs scratching. The cursor hovers over a news article.

Four weeks ago, a system malfunction in Lancetti blocked passante. Three weeks ago, a new spirit was stalking the technical cabin in Lancetti. And the spirit in San Siro only appeared, again, after the game.

Two is a coincidence. Two is still no rhyme or reason to how the spirits appear, and grandpa is right. But three would be a pattern.

No. He should focus.

…But there's that spirit they've been spotting all over, always running, always so fast they can barely notice it. But is it all over? Zeno has seen it ten times over the week, and it was always in the same areas, going in the same directions. If he can figure out why it's doing that, then they can know where to ambush it.

No. No, no, no, he needs to focus. Already last week Miss Bellone had looked at him over her glasses when he forgot to do the entire list of assigned exercises and tried to cram them into the break, and the shame still curls around his neck and burns. He can't fuck up this test. He opens up a new tab. Three minutes later he notices it's a maps tab, and that he's pinning locations on the streets of Milan, and he freezes. His fists clench so hard the nails dig into his palm, and the mouse almost creaks in his hand.

He forces a deep breath in, then one out. Then again. A desperate glance at the clock reveals it's still only half past five. He has time. Fifteen minutes won't hurt. Hell, maybe even twenty.

He sets a timer on the computer, then gets back to his pins. One near Duomo, one by Porta Venezia. Then into Sempione and City Life, and Ste mentioned seeing it by Lampugnano, running around the park. Not in it. And then again, and again, and again. Like a circuit. A long circuit. A race, not a jog. And going off the hint of the other two spirits, a big one.

Wasn't there that marathon Sara went to recently? Was that before or after the spirit popped up? New tab, new search — what was that race called? Oh, found it — and it confirms it was barely a day before the first sighting.

The timer goes off, and Zeno silences it without a glance. He just needs to get to the bottom of this. Five minutes. No more than five minutes.

The race's route isn't hard to find. Side by side with the map full of pins, it isn't hard to compare. There's empty areas, places they don't go to and so without pins. But for every pin he has… they track perfectly down to the route of the race. So many people, so many high emotions. Who won, who lost, who got hurt.

Two's a coincidence. Three's a pattern. A pattern that grandpa won't listen to, if he knows the man at all.

Frustration bubbles up his throat, and he breathes it out. There's no use in getting worked up. He shakes his hands out, working out the energy sizzling in his wrists. His eyes fall on the powerpoint, so easily accessible and with the full list of spirits Marti, Andrea and him have analyzed already. He just needs a couple more points of reference. Expand the dataset, as Marti would say. It shouldn't take long.

He clicks on the powerpoint tab, and starts going through the list.

Who's there that's similar to Lancetti and to the stadium? A protest near Loreto is followed by an angry spirit, leaving broken bins and cracked tree branches in its wake. Garibaldi got practically infested after the trains got delayed by hours. A park with a music festival had a spirit jumping about and singing for weeks. Someone knocks on the door, and he replies on autopilot, halfway down a rabbit hole on events in Navigli, and what might have caused the stroboscopic spirit. A new construction site in a residential area got a spirit that rattled the ground and split the night with screams. And then another, and another.

The deeper he goes, the more he finds, and these are only the ones they'd grouped together under category two. He'd probably find more looking at the other three categories, though probably different. The spirit in Porta Genova was different from all the other station spirits. What changed? he could probably find some–

A knock to the window pulls him out of his thoughts. He blinks away from the screen, and his eyes ache. When he looks over, he finds Diana on the balcony, pale against the night and still in hunter clothes. Oh. Oh no. He glances at the clock as he gets up, and stumbles on a dizzy spell. Two in the morning greets him back with a dry throat and hunger pangs. He smiles above them as he opens the window. «Everything okay?» he asks before Dia can even say hi.

His sister presses her lips together. «Okay. How long have you been there?»

«I was just about to go to sleep,» he says.

Dia gives him that look of 'I know exactly what you're doing, but I'll pretend I don't'. «Make sure you do that.»

Zeno watches her hop onto her balcony and go into her room, then turns off the computer and lights. His heart jumps at the desk. He forgot physics.

❊