part 3/3. Sometimes an image pops into my mind, so vivid that I can write entire paragraphs of the detail. This is one such pair of prompts that gave me that kind of image. Also makes me wish I could draw a lot better, but that's besides the point. You'll likely see a lot of these, along with the 2nd person perspective. I often like writing in these styles.

Prompts: Passage, Bones

Lists: a-chaotically-small-lunta's list, mallinora's list

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A scene, in a dungeon that’s black and white in the dark. There is a path heading forward with bones piled up on either side. Some destroyed, some intact, some nothing more than dust. The air is cool and damp, and the lack of light implies the scenery and temperature won’t be changing any time soon. Ahead there are pendulums swinging back and forth from wall to wall. They have great curved blades at the end of them, and those blades hang from sturdy metal attached to the ceiling in ball-and-socket joints. Their rhythmic swinging is almost like clockwork.

One, two, three, go! Wait… two, three, four, one, two, three, go! 

Welcome to the first day! Happy October everyone! This first bit of writing I'm pretty proud of. I've always loved bits of folklore like this. Though disclaimer, this isn't an actual bit of folklore. Any similarities are coincidence. Would be funny if I predicted a new cryptid, though. Anyway, I hope you enjoy 💜.

Prompts: Gargoyle, Mountain, Legend

Lists: Official list, kniftykat's list, a-chaotically-small-lunta's list

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There is a village in the mountains west of here. I’ve visited it before. It’s a beautiful place, especially in autumn when the trees are painted gold and orange and crimson. Its people are equally as beautiful and diverse, too. Though, I’ve found the best people for travelers like me to talk to are the ones who love to share their stories to those who would lend an ear. Barkeeps, friendly and long-time residents, staff at the museum or the tourist center, and people who just look like they’ve lived a lot of life. Their stories are always interesting, but one sticks out to me above the rest. Everytime, it’s mentioned at least once. This village has it’s own legend.

    The legend always starts out the same. “Have you heard of the Gothwind Gargoyle?” Most times, the answer for me is yes, but I’m not one to turn down hearing a retelling. They often proceed to provide a basic explanation. Early in the town’s history, there was a rather famous cathedral that people from around the area would visit. On this cathedral’s roof sat four gargoyles, one for each corner outlooking the rest of the town, and one major one at the base of the tallest spire. It’s this major one that was particularly ornamented. Lion’s mane, talons, bat-like wings, draped in robes and with rubies for eyes. It’s this same one that disappeared in a particularly bad storm in the late 1800s. Now of course to skeptics, it was known that it had likely just fallen and broke into pieces that were later cleaned up. The roof was never subject to much repair and refurbishment, apparently. However, to those more superstitious folks, this wasn’t just a disappearance. This was a case of storm-brought animation! Thus started a search for this gargoyle and where it had gone. Though unfortunately besides a few false leads nothing much had come of the search, and after a year the event had lost its spark.

    Fast forward to a group of young adults in the 80s who had come to stay at the village inn. One night on their visit, they had decided to go out ghost hunting. Y’know, as you do when you’re young and in a town with a lot of history. And what better place to start than the surrounding forest and mountains? At the least, it would be a nice walk. Though what they experienced was a bit more than just a walk. In fact, it was a flight. They had been messing around, not being that serious, when a huge figure came rustling out of some trees on the upper side of the mountain they were hiking on. In a moment they all had witnessed a large, winged, bipedal creature soaring over them and into more forest below and ahead. A moment of mutual silence agreed that it was time to run back to the car. After that, the group asked around the village the next day and found out about the disappearance of the statue over a hundred years earlier. The story was soon shared, and once again the village buzzed with talk of the gargoyle and the Gothwind Cathedral it came from.

Part 1/2. Today was a bit rough, but after some self-care I think I feel much better. It was definitely enough to help me write, at least. This one was actually something I came up with pretty quickly, even before I started writing anything. I had this image pop into my head as I was planning everything out, so it's another of those scenery ones like Passage + Bones. Also, fair warning, you may wanna skip this one if the thought of bugs makes you uncomfortable. Especially fiery ones.

Prompts: Nest, Spiral, Fire

Lists: Official list, a-chaotically-small-lunta's list, mallinora's list

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Part 1/1. I had a sudden spark of motivation today, so we definitely take those. It definitely helps that I woke up early, but I also woke up due to nightmares sooooo. Give and take I suppose? Anyway, I figured I'd try my hand at dialogue this time. I also had a prompt of "Word Generator". So I went to one, and hit it a bunch of times with my eyes closed until I stopped and it landed on "glamorize". Pretty fun word! I hope you enjoy this small interaction. I'd love to play this version of chess, tbh.

Prompts: Match, Bear, Werewolf, Chess, Word Generator (Glamorize)

Lists: Official list, kniftykat's list, thainaaraujo's list, november-joy's list, a-chaotically-small-lunta's list

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“Wait a moment, what do you mean my king is in check?” A werebear sits across a werewolf, in between them a table with a game of chess set on it with quite a few more black pieces on the board. The werebear, clearly bewildered, is unfortunately playing white.

“I said what I said, your king is in check.” The werewolf says this with a sly, casual grin on his face. He looks over the board and finds the bear’s reaction all too amusing.

“Okay, there has to be a better way to do this for me. Clearly regular chess isn’t working to be a match for you.”

“Alright, what do you have in mind? Chess is just chess, really. I don’t see how you can add anything to it.”

“Easy. We glamourize it.” The wolf looks on in confusion, having no idea what this implies.

“I said what I said. We add new rules and twists, skew the existing rules, and make nonsense of it until I can win against you. Let’s start with a d20.” The bear gets up and goes over to a bookshelf the two roommates share. He picks up a huge coin bag, opens it, and rifles around for a favorite purple d20. He then sets the bag down, goes over to a bin with playing cards in it, and picks out a standard deck. He then looks the shelf over for a moment, claws on his chin in thought, and suddenly perks up at the sight of Clue. He draws out the box, carries all the items over to the table, and sets them down. The wolf, naturally, is still confused as hell.

“Here’s my thought. This d20 is used as an attack roll for any chess piece against another chess piece. The AC and attack bonus is based on the point value for each piece. Then, if it’s a tie, we play War with the cards. Alternatively with the cards, we could each get half the deck and flip over one card from the top to add that amount to the roll or the AC. Now, for Clue, I suggest we both pick a location, a weapon, and a person. In order to kill each other’s kings, we have to guess who did it, with what, and where. Every piece one person knocks out, one thing must be ruled out. Sound good?”

The werewolf sits there for a moment, gears turning as he processes the sheer amount of wild information thrown at him. He then slowly returns that sly smile to his face.