Write a 250-500 word character study for your protagonist
268 words
Not super pleased with it but Kadmos is being Kadmos.
It was a cold winter night, and Kadmos was wandering.
The first snow had fallen a few days ago, but it had melted now, and the streets just glistened wetly under the streetlights. It wasn’t warm, though, not by a long shot, so Kadmos kept moving.
In truth, he should probably go to Berndt. He’d be welcomed in, he knew that — Berndt would even be glad he had the good sense to come. If his phone hadn’t been dead, odds were he had a text for him with an invitation, worry thinly veiled under some other excuse for him to go.
But he was fine. He couldn’t constantly rely on his friends to take care of him, and they shouldn’t have to. He’d be fine. The weather had turned mild, anyway. Tomorrow, when the library opened, he’d sneak in there and get rid of the cold creeping into his coat.
Yet, despite it all, he found his feet had carried him to Nuri’s street, and slowed down as he passed by the apartment block.
The light was on behind the balcony his eyes landed on every time.
It must be past midnight. Nuri was studying late, or lost in some sewing project, or something sillier.
Kadmos found himself pausing, imagining Nuri’s hands, much warmer than his, running some fabric through the sewing machine, his eyes focused, a strand of hair pulled loose from behind his ear.
He, too, would be happy to welcome Kadmos in.
He didn’t even have to look to find Nuri’s doorbell among the several dozen by the door.
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So, the main relationships in The light beyond are obviously the ones amongst the gang. The squad. The friends. Those being Kadmos, Nuri, Regina (who might be renamed), Berndt, Echo, and the weasel.
I was going to talk about the whole web but I guess we'll stick with Kadmos
Kadmos' relationship with the group as a whole is probably the most difficult out of all of them. He's the most recent addition, although he has been here for a few years now, and he struggled a lot to feel like he belonged. The others, especially Berndt and Nuri, made every effort to make him feel welcome, though, and eventually he allowed himself to be a little comfortable.
Kadmos looks up to Berndt as a fatherly friend (though he probably wouldn't call it that; he hasn't made great experiences with fathers) and is, in fact, least cagey about asking him for help. Berndt is always worried about him, knowing full well that Kadmos will nonetheless be hesitant to ask for help even if he needs it, and tries his best to give Kadmos excuses to ask indirectly.
Nuri, being his age, quickly becomes his best friend of the bunch though, the one he generally feels closest to and most comfortable with, and they spend a lot of time together. Nuri finds him delightful. He couldn't say why if asked, but it's something about the way he carries himself, even if Nuri, like Berndt, is constantly struggling against Kadmos' pride and other hangups in an effort to take care of him when needed. He doesn't want to lose him and so he treads carefully. Kadmos, on the other hand, very much doesn't want to be taken care of by Nuri. He wants to take care of Nuri. He's only starting to realize how much.
He admires Regina's knowledge and intelligence in her field, and she returns those feelings generously; when left alone, they're most likely to talk about magic theory or technology out of respect for the other's interest.
He's not very close with Echo, but he finds her quiet and calm manner reassuring. She rather reserved by nature, but fully categorizes him as friend.
The weasel has taken a liking to him, and what he might find patronizing from a human (in human shape, or whatever the case with the weasel may be) he finds more easily tolerable from the weasel; it's allowed to be more protective of him.
Working on magic and the different schools of using it in Never better! Fun facts:
Witchcraft uses potions etc. with various components ascribed different properties. This has been discredited by science for a while since the traditional view (since, you know, the beginnings of empirical science) is that magic comes from within humans, but with newer research on what is subsumed under "environmental magic" -- the subtler magic contained/interacting with non-human organisms and even nonliving natural formations such as minerals -- it seems there's an empirical basis for it!
Modern laws require regular interviews from master sorcerers to estimate how dangerous their are. Master sorcerers are famously unwilling to have anything required of them. Lawyers are having fun
Both witchcraft and sorcery are at odds with the Church of the Eldritch Divine, the third big purveyor of magic users, for different historical reasons. The church believes magic comes from, you guessed it, the eldritch divine
My given words are obstacle, dry, shift, display, & extra. Or, like, they were. A thousand years ago. I was still on Never better when I started putting this together so I finished with it, too :,D
Tagging @revenancy, @zmwrites, @stories-by-rie, @fixaidea, and anyone else who wants to share! (As always no pressure and for the people I keep tagging, please lmk if you want me to stop XD)
Your words shall be: Garden - leap - wake - enter - weather
Obstacle
"Are you okay?" she asked, and Kadmos wasn't sure what came over him, but he burst out with, "My hands are glowing."
"Hm." The sorceress stretched out her own, took his, and looked at them. In the bright sunlight, nothing was visible at all, but for a magician of her calibre that probably was no obstacle.
Dry
There was cake left, and they all ate some for breakfast, apart from the weasel who was munching dry food.
Kadmos didn't have an appetite, which truly wasn't a common occurrence, but he was hungry after all the exitement and had gobbled down three pieces anyway before he took the time to think.
Shift
He put down the backpack that contained most of his life [...]. Then he hung up the sweater. Nuri once had given it to him under the pretext that it no longer fit him. Or it no longer fit his shifting style. But he mustn't think of Nuri.
Extra
What he had somewhat assumed was that Nuri, like Regina, repaired or decorated things or maybe altered them on occasion. He truly hadn't expected half his extravagant collection of clothes to be by his own needle.
Prompt | The last house on the left - @flashfictionfridayofficial
Planning to just write a bunch of little things for the Never better crew in preparation for November, to get to know everyone and maybe snoop around the world for an actual plot.
Could use a little word polished off here or there but I liked the final word count to much :D
The last house on the left was a ruin of a mansion, every opening and the fence surrounding it wrapped in yellow tape, large signs screaming, !!!DANGER!!! Magical cataclysm site! DO NOT ENTER!!!
At least they had, some time ago. Now several had fallen down, and the words had peeled off to a point where they felt more like a mumble, despite the blatant abuse of exclamation marks.
Kadmos had never known it to be any different, although to be fair, when he was young, he’d rarely come to this side of town. He had thrown an eye on the house for some time now - it seemed like such a perfect spot to spend the rougher nights, to avoid having to ask his friends for favours.
Of course he wasn’t a fool, and he’d spent a few hours in the library and the city archive trying to figure out what the danger might be.
But he had found nothing. Either the signs really just served to keep the homeless out, or whatever incident had occurred had been thoroughly wiped.
The street was busy day and night, having evolved from an elegant lane at the edge of town into one of the big arteries of city traffic. The mansion was the only one of its kind left; the rest of the street was lined with brutalist housing blocks and shops, half of which at any given time seemed to be permanently closed.
Kadmos had decided to give it a shot, figure out whether it would be a safe place to stay. He was sure someone would stop him if he attempted to enter the house during daytime - or else he would at least be filmed by someone hoping for the worst - so he went when enough of the light was gone he could hope to slip onto the overgrown property unnoticed.
The last streetlamp on the left had been broken for years, which helped.
He felt his phone buzz in his pocket when he climbed over the fence, but that was all that happened, so he took a moment under the old elder tree to check. Bernt had written to the group. Who’s down for brunch tomorrow? Trying to make madeleines.
For a moment he wondered whether he should tell his friends where he was going, but then, that was silly. It would be alright; he would be careful, and odds were nothing was going on here at all except an attempt to keep the likes of him out.
Would love that :D You’re a treasure.
He put the phone away, the buzz of the others’ incoming replies strangely reassuring as he walked around the house once, trying to find the best point of entry.
At the left side, crowded by the next house over - a solid wall taller than the mansion, no windows facing this side - a single window on the ground floor had lost the entirety of its glass. Tatters of yellow tape still clung to the frame, brittle with age.
Kadmos glimpsed in, using his phone flashlight carefully so it wouldn’t be seen from the street.
Everything seemed perfectly ordinary. Lots of dust. Near the window, leaves had blown in, which was no surprise with the plants clawing their way up the outside walls. There wasn’t much furniture left, but a chandelier hung from the ceiling.
Everything seemed perfectly ordinary, and yet, Kadmos felt a shiver down his spine, felt watched.
But then, to be fair, he was currently breaking into a house.
He pondered for a moment. His phone buzzed again, as per the nature of groupchats. He looked over the room once more. Everything looked like it had been untouched for the years the house had been empty.
As if no one had attempted this before.
But then, who wanted to deal with the aftermath of a magical cataclysm?
»Hey!«
… not careful enough. Kadmos did the first thing that came to mind, swung himself up and slipped through the window.
Good evening.
Someone stood behind him, blocking him from the window, and he froze, trying not to panic, to stay rational. A ghost? But a simple ghost wouldn’t be enough to abandon an entire house like that, not with the current price of real estate.
Someone - a freezing cold hand - grabbed him by the back of the neck like a kitten.
It’s been a while.
He had been stupid. His hand scrabbled across his phone screen, trying to at least leave a message to his friends, but he still could barely move, and it slipped between his fingers, thonking onto the dust-covered floor.
He was pulled beneath the floorboards before he could scream.
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[Images: Yaselyn Perez, Alexander Andrews, Rohit Tandon]
Genre: Fantasy/cosmic horror???
Setting: A modernesque magical world with a touch of dystopia, and something older and worse
Contains: A found family of losers who aren't as good at adulting as they think they ought to be, an awakening mage and friends-to-lovers romance, potential human sacrifice
Content warning: human sacrifice, cosmic horror?
Synopsis
Kadmos, disowned by his family, has found a new home with a tight-knit group of friends, and all is as well as it can be in a world such as this. He is only starting to realize he can do magic, and may be in love with his best friend, when he is ambushed by a priest of a cult convinced he must be sacrificed to safe the world from an otherworldly threat.
In an attempt to escape, he suddenly finds himself slipping into a dimension different from anything he knew.
Returned to the world, his memory of what happened there quickly fades, but three things are certain: it was utterly terrifying, his magic powers are expanding more quickly than he can understand or control - and those demanding his sacrifice think he drew far too much attention so that the matter is now urgent.
Together with his friends, he has to figure out a way to protect each other and their world...
Characters
Kadmos was disowned by his family for being a bit too philanthropic, and has been more or less couch-homeless since. He loves to repair stuff and is particularly good with electronics, which is how he is starting to discover he may have magical abilities.
Nuri is an ACAB (assigned cursed at birth) guy who has been studying medicine for entirely too long. Has a weakness for historical costuming and also Kadmos.
Bernt has inherited a fortune he doesn't know what to do with, so he slowly squanders it away while trying to figure out what else to do with his life, and if he can improve his friends'.
Regina wanted to become a scientist but wound up a university secretary instead. Loves visible mending and general needlework. Uses a cane most of the time.
Echo has a tendency to be overlooked, which works in her favour being a small-time thief, and doesn't bother her much; in fact she is so used to it she rarely talks.
The weasel is a sapient least weasel. The leading hypothesis as to why is that it is, in fact, a cursed human, but it doesn't remember.
I have a. Hm. Working title for Never better. Still not happy with it but it is! An actual working title!
Never better is now
Das Jenseitslicht (und seine Freunde)
=
The light beyond (and his friends)
It's a little silly and goofy but that's alright. I discarded a bunch of canditates for being too grandiose and majestic, so this'll work. At least for now.
I am RAPIDLY running out of plot (as in... the plot is coming to its conclusion, not it needs to go on but I don't have ideas, which could be worked with 😬) but I still need to go like 13,000 words.
... it's okay, I'll just write post-story fluff if I run out, the characters are going to need it.
Literally right now the eldritch divine is about to breach the barrier between worlds and presumably wreak havoc on Earth! Yay!
He was no longer glowing, and he immediately remembered the mage's words.
There was nothing left.
It was coming.
