#Shortstories

[belicomic]

[trueknights]

A Wizards Calling, by True Lady Knights ID:

There's a roughness in my hand, I look into dark murky waters.

I do not think the magic has left me, how easily a pencil because a sword in calloused finger unused to fighting.

How keen my eyes are as they gauge the water, it's murky depths unknown to humans of this age, waiting eagerly for a pale hand to gift me Excalibur.

I listen for Merlin's words on the wisps of wind, through the tendrils of ancient tongues, gold pulsating through my veins and dancing within.

I do not think the magic has left me, dormant and siphoned though it may be.

I do not believe it has not abandoned us, it lingers amongst, it's essence clings like dust to ancient books.

What force wills your pen to write, your heart to beat and pump? What passion ignites your will, what passion drives quill.

Seize it for it is yours, seize it because it is ours. We plain clothed wizards have forgotten our spells. Yet still, we are here, living amongst the world.

[ffxivau]

He has warm skin after all.

[shriekingllama]

Two Minds

Okay so editing was a bit rough since I haven’t done it in a while but I hope you guys like it! <33

[imagine-korea]

Jooheon - Fate

MonstaX Mafia!AU: Their wife running away again

Genre: fluffy angst or angsty fluff, you be the judge

Word count: 1633

You and Jooheon met when you were still teenagers in the same school. He was part of the bad boys of your year and you were the perfect and kind a student.

One day when the teacher asked for a tutor for Jooheon as some kind of second chance, you were the only one that volentered. Not to the surprise of your teacher or classmates, but definitely to his. He had always been enthralled by you but he didn't know you were just as intrigued by him.

Though your classmates hadn't been surprised by you offering to help him, they were shocked when you two started dating. It was the typical good girl bad boy romance.

It went as far as a long distance relationship when you went to college and he started to work. And after college getting an apartment together to finally getting engaged.

Sadly fate didn't take it further than that.

"When we're you planning on telling me Jooheon!?" you yelled, luggage in hand, standing in front of your now ex-fiancé.

"Tell you what?" you could see clearly that he was trying to keep his voice calm. To think clearly and not let your raised voice get to his head. This only made you more angry.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe the fact that our WEDDING is being paid with f*cking BLOOD MONEY! I can't believe you jooheon!"

His face wasn't as steady anymore, he was clearly frustrated, pained. Yet he still did his best to keep his voice steady and low. "Just baby, drop the bag, we can talk about this."

You didn't drop your bag. You only tightened your grip. Your eyes slowly drifted from fury to regret and sadness. "I don't think we can." was the last thing you said before making your way to your car.

He wanted to stop you. More than anything in the world, he wanted to come after you. But maybe the best thing he could do for you was let you leave. Maybe in another life, maybe one day, he could let himself be happy with you. But he couldn't make you accept what he did, who he was. He couldn't make you love him.

To stop himself from going after you he decided to drown his sorrows instead. Sitting on the living room floor in the apartment you once shared. But no amount of alcohol could wipe the memories off every inch of the place. Even a years after it still reminded him of you. He didn't understand why he couldn't just relieve himself from his misery. He hadn't moved on, he couldn't get himself to move out. Sometimes, like today, "see you later, baby" still quietly rolled off his lips before closing the door on the empty apartment.

"Finally, I've been waiting for 10 minutes" Chankyun muttered when Jooheon got to his car. "Sorry, hadn't noticed that much time had passed." he muttered back. Chankyun rolled his eyes and drove off.

"We can't be late for this. I know it's a party but Shinee will be there and Shownu wants us to get along with them. We can't afford a fued with another gang. Especially of that status." Chankyun usually wasn't the one to lecture in the group but the rest had given him the clear assignment of keeping an eye on Jooheon. They couldn't afford a slip right now and Jooheon had been slipping one too many times lately.

But when they walked in, Chankyun immediately saw 'getting along' wasn't going to be an easy task.

There you stood in the middle of the room talking to none other than Shinee's Minho. Jooheon was just as enamoured by you as the first time he saw you. It didn't matter what Chankyun said, he wasn't listening.

He had to have you back. Or in the least talk to you. His feet seemed to be moving toward you out of his control. That was until he witnessed Minho's lips placed on your forehead. He was boiling inside, but on the outside he was stoic. More stoic than his group members had seen him in a while. Shownu debated going to stop him after hearing from Chankyun what was going on. In the end he decided to see how this was going to play out. Maybe it could be good closure and they could get back to work.

When Minho left your side his place was quick occupied by Jooheon. For a split second you seemed surprised. If Jooheon wasn't taking in every curve of your face, he would have missed it.

"Jooheon." you nodded in his direction.

"You don't seem that surprised to see me." his smile, or smirk even, reminded you of your first meeting as well.

"I figured this would be your scene." you looked around at the men in suits, many with beautiful women on their arms, ignoring the loud music as if it was part of another party.

"Maybe you wanted to see me." he said cockily. You looked at him with raised eyebrow, yet your look soffened when you took in his features. Yes, his smirk said he was confident but his eyes told you another story. You knew those eyes, not from your first meeting, but your last. Those were the eyes of a broken man, a man with regrets, man you wanted to console. You restrained yourself, looking at your feet rather than his eyes.

He had noticed you averting your gaze and knew exactly why. You knew him through and through, even now, but he could read you just as well.

"Do you regret how things ended between us?" he blurted out,though he looked like he knew exactly what he asked. It took you a moment to answer, as if you still needed to build the courage to form the firm "No." that finally left your lips.

"Just grant me a dance then. Prove it, that you have no regrets, no feelings. We can take it fast or slow. Just dance with me tonight and we'll let fate decide." he stretched out his hand to you and you hesitated.

"One dance and you'll let me go after that?" When he promised with a simple nod you took his hand and he led you to where few people were actually dancing. Lucky for you, a slower song was playing. It was almost sensual. Jooheon had agonizing timing.

He wrapped your hands around his neck, almost like he was teaching you how to dance. In that you could actually use the lesson. You had forgotten everything but him in that moment. You fought the urge to pinch your eyes closed and physically shake the thought from your head. You swore to yourself you wouldn't fall for his charm again.

But when his hands met your hips, your body seemed to disagree. From the spot where he touched you, shivers ran up your sides and down your legs. You had the unholy thoughts of good times once spent from entering your mind. How could he still have that effect on you.

"You seem deep in thought, baby." before he knew it, the word had slipped and seeing by your reaction, it had been a mistake.

Your hands shot from his neck back to your sides, taking a step back. His face for the first time that night showed what he was truly feeling. Worry.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean..." he tried to explain himself, but you interrupted him. "Just, let me go." tears brimmed your eyes and you ran off. He couldn't let you go, not like this, not again.

"What do you think you're doing?" an angry Minho was now blocking him from going after you.

"Look, I'm not looking for any trouble. I just need to talk to Y/N. We know each other." he tried to explain himself without causing trouble with who he assumed was your current boyfriend.

"I know who you are." oh shit "you broke her heart, I'm not going to let you do it again."

No matter how much Shownu wanted MonstaX and Shinee to become allies, they stood behind Jooheon as soon as they noticed trouble. "neither will I" Jooheon answered Minho, pushing passed him. Minho meanwhile being stopped by Shownu.

"Let this play out. You knew what you were getting into when you brought her here."

Lucky for Jooheon, you hadn't gone far. You were instead walking in circles around the fountain nearby, staring at your reflection in the water until his joined it. You faced him, not knowing what you wanted to tell him, even when your heart was screaming it.

"I can't let you go." he whispered "if I let you go again, I might not survive it."

You didn't have to say it for him to know you felt the same way.

Why?

Because as soon as he said it your lips connected with his in a hungry kiss. A kiss that told him how deprived you had felt in those few years apart. And he responded with just as much feeling.

When you broke apart it took a moment of staring into eachother's eyes for the both of you to catch your breaths and get back to reality. Jooheon pinched his eyes closed, creating a pained expression.

"What about your boyfriend?" he asked, honestly wanting you to be happy and worried of the trouble the kiss could bring you. Especially in these circles.

"I never really started dating again after you." you cheepishly admitted.

"Then Minho..."

"is my brother." you finished, not all that surprised by his assumption. But the truth shocked him more.

"I thought you wanted nothing to do with... My kind of people." he didn't want to say it. Like he was ashamed of it.

"I was born into it, I tried to escape it but instead ran straight back into it with you. I've realized now it's not something I can escape." you gave him another deep kiss "and now I don't think I want to anymore."

♥ Thanks for reading!  ♥

Wife running away again mafia!AU: Part1, Hyungwon

masterlist

[ecofortebraccio]

ti racconto una piccola storia

lo faccio lentamente

così che accada mentre l’ascolti.

(video e parole @ecofortebraccio)

[amax65]

Mysterious Bookstore, Fantasy Audiobook(Ep.1-20End)

Continue listening on YouTube.

[shabdforwriting]

नूतन काव्य प्रभा by प्रभा मिश्रा 'नूतन'

किताब के बारे में... नूतन काव्य प्रभा नामक यह काव्य संग्रह प्रसिद्ध कवयित्री प्रभा मिश्रा 'नूतन' द्वारा रचित है, जो समाजिक मुद्दों और मानवीय भावनाओं को केंद्र में रखकर कविताओं की रचना करती हैं। इस संग्रह में कवयित्री ने सामाजिक विषमताओं, संघर्षों, और मानवीय संवेदनाओं को सहज और प्रभावी भाषा में व्यक्त किया है।

यदि आप इस पुस्तक के बारे में अधिक जानकारी प्राप्त करना चाहते हैं तो नीचे दिए गए लिंक से इस पुस्तक को पढ़ें या नीचे दिए गए दूसरे लिंक से हमारी वेबसाइट पर जाएँ!

[zennore]

Who's that pretty lady that works in B12? Miao likes. XDDDDD

This was drawn a while back and has inaccuracies now. Dr. Dienoss' name is spelt differently, Red didn't have her glasses back then, and has a different kind of personality.

[paulsemel]

I admit it: Sometimes I have trouble keeping sci-fi genres straight. It's why I appreciation such genre-specific anthologies as "Bioluminscent: A Lunarpunk Anthology." In my exclusive interview with its editor, Justine Norton-Kertson, they explain lunarpunk, its relation to solarpunk, and what went into assembling this anthology. 📖🌑🌙

[belicomic]

Let's spread good vibes and make the world a better place!

Follow my YOUTUBE for new video:

https://www.youtube.com/@belicomic

[yujo-nishimura]

Tsukuba

This is a short novella.

Warning: age gap, female character is 30, male character is 65, this story was originally written in German and I translated it for international readers. - Not proof-read.

This is for @pu-tse , I thought you would like this.

I wanted to leave his house and stood at the entrance. Shoes on my feet, I have already said my goodbyes. The terrible ikebana on the white table opposite seems to be mocking me. I used to like ikebana, but ever since I found out that a woman made it for him, I found it repulsive.

He was standing at the stairs, his gray hair shining in the afternoon sun light, wrinkles around his eyes. "You're leaving now." "Yes, I'm leaving now." He took my hand, placed it on his cheek, on his thin lips, and tenderly kissed the inside. As I took a deep breath, a shiver coursed through my body. "You're leaving now," he whispered into my hand, and his gray eyes looked directly into my soul. "Yes, I'm leaving now," I trembled a bit as I said it. He put his other arm around me, pulled me close to him, and placed my hand on his shoulder. My face was right in front of his. His gaze was still cold and piercing. I felt his lower body pressing against mine, my breasts pushing against his chest through our clothes. He leaned towards my ear and whispered, sending shivers through my body and making me tense up immediately. "You're leaving now?" It was a question. "Nnnh…" I couldn't answer. He looked at me again directly, and then he pressed his thin lips onto mine. I sighed into his mouth; he tasted as good as grape sugar and lavender. He held me tightly, but I also had my arms around his shoulders. It was no longer necessary to hold me, I would not leave anymore.

We paused the kiss briefly to catch our breath. I felt so warm and comfortable, yet simultaneously panic-stricken and aroused. Did I need to tell him that I wanted it too, or would he come to me and feel it himself? "I…" , my voice broke. "You wanted to leave," he let go of me, and I felt a terrible horror rising within me, an emptiness I had felt before, when he left me for the first time. He didn't move an inch away from me, and his gaze was still cold. He judged me. He despised me. I grabbed him between his legs and pulled him back towards me with my other hand. Now it was me who wouldn't let go. I kissed him, more breathless than before, and he immediately responded. I felt his breath quicken. "I want to leave. I've wanted to leave for three years!" I shrieked hysterically, interrupting the kiss, and pushed him backward. He was so surprised that he almost fell, and for a moment, his gaze returned to normal, human, fearful. He reached behind him to find support and knocked over the ikebana; it crashed loudly to the floor. With even more force, I kissed him now, pressing him against the ikebana display, undoing the first buttons of his shirt and tearing it open. He gasped in shock.

"I think of you, I dream of you, even though I destroyed all your photos, even though I'm not even searching for you – you still find me. You're there every time I lie alone in my bed, touching myself, you're there when I cry and moan. You're there when I'm drunk. Why are you still here? I left three years ago!" I had pressed myself against him but had stopped kissing him. I realized that I had gone too far, so I let go and stepped back. He breathed a sigh of relief, straightened himself up, futilely fiddled with his shirt. Water droplets fell slowly from the ikebana installation, dripping onto the white tiles.

"Do you still love me?" He asked it like a teacher asking a student a question.

"I don't know," I answered like that student.

"You want me."

"More than anyone else."

"You miss me."

"And I don't know why."

"Let's continue." But with a hint of hesitation. "I'm not that young anymore, you know."

He took my hand and asked me to follow him upstairs. Past the broken ikebana, he stepped carefully over it, and of course, I stepped right into it, my sock immediately getting wet, and I knew there was no more unpleasant feeling than this in the world. We slowly climbed the white staircase, without a handrail; they would have never approved that in Germany, I thought. A smooth, steep staircase leading straight up, with no chance of holding on, directly into his bedroom. Everything was darkened, satin sheets, a Western bed. That's how I remembered it, that's how it still looked. Not Japanese. Maybe he was too old to sleep on the floor.

He made no attempt to turn on the light as we both sat on his unyielding and hard bed, the perfect bed for the perfect fundamentalist, I thought.

"Why did you leave me?" he asked.

"But aren't we back together now?" I replied.

"I don't want to be together anymore." The words slipped out without thought, but they had to be true.

"You hurt me. You wounded me," he said.

"Because I called you a stubborn old fool? Was that enough to hurt you? I thought you were above such things," I retorted.

"I have the right to choose who I associate with and who I distance myself from. Your comment was hurtful. I needed space."

"I think you're afraid. I struck a nerve, and you were so wounded that you couldn't even admit it. You let me get too close, and then you regretted it. You saw in me the same inspiration that I sought in you. And then I had to hurt you. Your muse. Despite loving you so much, I couldn't bear it when you spread falsehoods."

He inhaled sharply at the mention of "falsehoods," but I didn't give him a chance to speak. He had blocked and ignored me for three years. Today, he had to listen.

"You spread something that can be hurtful and discriminatory to others. You shared something without thinking, something that excludes and disadvantages certain groups of people. You claim not to be someone who does such things, but you did it and refused to be educated. And it only got worse, even when I couldn't see it anymore. Messages of hate. Misinformation. Lies. Dangerous diets, false beliefs, and twisted worldviews."

He fell silent.

"I loved you. I wanted to protect you and the people around you from believing nonsense. That wasn't the H. I once knew. What you wrote back then was the opinion of an old, confused, and fearful man who desperately tried to make sense of the world to avoid accepting why those around him of the same age were dying."

I took a deep breath. My voice trembled because I felt that this was exactly what I had wanted to say for the past three years. This was my personal breaking point. I knew I wouldn't feel any better once it was finally said. It was despairing.

"You can't find truth with fear and uncertainty. You can only find it by being brave and embracing the unknown and the inexplainable."

In that moment, he began to cry. I had never seen him cry before. Always serious, always composed. I rarely saw him smile. Emotions seemed foreign to him, and now he seemed to collapse completely within himself, weeping bitterly. I thought of what the Icelandic author Halldor Laxness wrote in his novel "World Light": "No one who has ever heard an old man cry could ever forget it."

I remained still. Everything within me resisted the urge to comfort or appease him. He needed to cry. He needed to experience these emotions, and he had to do it all by himself. I had suffered for three years. He would only have to endure it for one evening.

[justicekiy]

Then Call Me The Joker 🃏

I sat alone in the dark, blazing my sorrows. Was this the fourth joint? Or maybe the fifth ? I should slow down. I felt cautious enough to go out my room and get some water in the dark. I wore only a big T labeled “I can’t Breathe” and white satin panties. I walked freely through the room because it was summer. That meant my roommate left for home. School was over.

When I stumbled past the living room, I almost jumped outta my skin. I saw him sitting near my small dining room table. He was dressed in all black with low 1s. His tattoos were scattered like monumental pieces from like neck and the way down to his exposed arms. He looked leaner… cleaner since the last time we saw each other. His scars healed over and his amber eyes were in full view of me.

He was perfectly still. Quiet. Like he was studying me. He held something in his hand. I couldn’t see it clearly through the rapid heart beating in my chest.

“What-How are you here?”

He still eyes me slowly. Starting to feel a little more exposed than I like, I tried to go back and find my pants. As soon as I opened the room door, he placed his hand on top of mine to pull it shut. I turn around slowly. He brings his lengthy arm from behind me and creates a bridge for our faces to meet. His fingers tapping against the cheap wooden door was too loud for me to relax.

“You don’t know how long I’ve been looking for you.” When he finally answered, a grin creeped up slightly.

“I wasn’t hiding,” I fired back. “I just wanted to be left alone.”

He looks slightly left and see how small my apartment really is. “Clearly.”

“Are you going to stand here forever or let me go?”

His laughs vibrates the door we both are leaning on. “Careful. That mouth of yours got you into some serious trouble before…” His orange burnt eyes had sunken into my view before he asked, “Hadn’t it?”

I move away from him completely and make my way into the kitchen. I wasn’t trying to rehash the past. And as far as I knew, he was my entire past. I look for that bottle of Pinot Noir I stashed before. Fuck the water now. I ignored his obvious stares as my ass bend down to snag it on the bottom shelf.

“Giving me a show already?” I heard him say.

I rolled my eyes as I watched him lick his lips while propping his head on the counter. His eyes were dead locked on my breasts now. I poured my glass and raised it up. “You can go to hell.”

“Shit ma, you already know that. Problem is… do I bring you with me?”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Then stop dodging. Why the hell are you in my house?”

“Why else?” He throws a set of keys my way. “To get you out of it. We got work to do.”

I didn’t skip a beat and waved one hand in his face. “No. I’m not going there. Or anywhere else with you. Ever again.”

“That’s too bad,” he comes around the counter and stands behind me. His breathing lifts hairs off my ears. Then he whispers, lips barely pressed to them. “Should I let your sister know you ended her life then?”

I blinked and almost choked on my drink. “You’re such an ass. I told you, it was one job and I was done. I was done when she was bleeding in my arms. I was done when I had to make the call. This is shit I gotta live with. But I’ll be a fool to ever get back in business with you.. ever again.”

“Then call me the joker and quit complaining. There’s loose ends. And I need them handled yesterday. So you’re doing this….” His hand grabbed my waist and trailed my thigh. He keeps caressing my leg up and down, making an electrifying pattern in his path. When he gets to my ass, he squeezed it with two hands. I tried to cover up the gasp but it was no use. I know he heard it. “Whether I gotta make you scream yes is on you.”

[shriekingllama]

She was his oxygen when he was dying to breathe

[austin-friars]

I'm about to slice this up and make it a nice mood board but omg, the prologue for my new wip

[alpaca-clouds]

Solarpunk Review: Once Upon a Time in a World by Antonio Luiz M. C. Costa

Preface: I am continuing with my reviews for the short stories in the book "Solarpunk: Ecological and Fantastical Stories from a Sustainable World". Once again: This book was published in 2012, so it is expected that in many regards it does not mirror modern Solarpunk sentiments. I am sorry those reviews were on hold for a while. As I said: I was quite sick, physically.

Summary

Pagu is a young journalist working for an independent anarchist news network in the future she is living in. Right now people are discussion the morality and sense of sending a couple astronauts to Mars while airing their mission - turning it into a some sort of reality TV. However, while this and the newest developments in renewable energies are what is mostly on Pagu's mind, a group of fascists plan a coup.

General Review

I think my main issue with this story was, that it had too much going on. While it kinda made sense given tit was mostly written fron the PoV of a journalist, so of course she would get to see quite a lot of what is happening in the world. Still, while the three different aspects of the story (astronauts, green energy, and fascist coup) were loosely connected, it was really loosely. In the end it was three different storylines that happened within a story that was just about 30 pages in length. And I think that was just a bit too much, making the events feel rather fast paced.

Still, I think I did enjoy this story quite a bit more than some of the other stories in this book. Mostly because I actually did like Pagu as a protagonist. She was a well defined character, I liked her stubbornness, and how she actually did self-actualize within the story.

The Solarpunk Factor

This might have been in fact the most Solarpunk story from this book so far. At least it weirdly checked a lot of my checkboxes. While there was a violent conflict, this was a conflict against fucking fascists, who were undoubtedly in the wrong. Otherwise we see conflict in the society, but that conflict is between different schools and interpretations of anarchism, as the world we see is explicitly anarchist. While the short story does not have enough time to go into details, we do see that there are anarchist systems in place to get it to work. And the characters discuss different styles of anarchism.

Something I really enjoyed especially compared towards the other stories was, that this story actually just casually had some queerness in there, and also ends with a character becoming disabled, showing us how the society deals with disabled characters. And spoiler: Yeah, other than all the other stories so far it was good. The character needed a wheelchair and they got a wheelchair, while they got also told that they no longer needed to pay for transport fares at all. That was a little tidbit that was nice!