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anip-ocs · 4 years ago

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NaNoWriMo 2021 Excerpt 1 - Pumpkin Fight

Behold, I am Writing this year!!!! Here's a lil bitty!

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“Hey, Alana? No offense, but… what are we supposed to do?” Maddi asked.

The backyard wasn’t very big at all. This was without the added burden of a vegetable garden, a stack of bricks, and a hammock. It certainly didn’t seem big enough to do any sort of training in. Not that Alana seemed to realize.

“What do you mean? We’re gonna train,” she said, quirking an eyebrow.

“Well, yeah, but I mean, there’s not much space in here. And if our energy is supposedly nuclear or whatever, I don’t wanna destroy your dad’s veggies.”

“Oh! Yeah, I guess it is kinda small for that…”

“Y'know. If our energy is nuclear, how come people aren’t disintegrating whenever we use our powers?” CJ asked.

“Uh. Y’know. I don’t--I don’t know. This is all new to all of us. Maybe the reading categorized it wrong or something. Not sure if anything like this has ever happened enough to be able to compare it to something accurately anyways, y’know?” Brian mumbled.

“Maybe if we hit someone directly they’d disintegrate?” Taylor asked.

“Let’s avoid finding out for sure.”

“Anyways! Training! What are we gonna do for training?” CJ asked.

“Well, uhm… I mean, we can practice other things! Long range attacks won’t work all the time! Like, you never see a character in a book or a movie who only uses long range attacks, right?”

“Snipers,” Brian interjected.

“None of us are snipers, Brian.”

“Alana has a good point! Heroes have to be well-balanced, be able to handle a lot of different kinds of enemies!” CJ grinned.

“Exactly! So, we can work on our short-range tactics here. Smaller attacks, hand to hand combat, stuff like that.”

“That’s a reasonable plan--we should work on that. Not like we’re all blackbelts in karate.” Ken shrugged.

“You’re a blackbelt in karate?” Taylor asked, eyes wide.

Ken shook his head. “I am not. Which is my point. Ah, I also believe we should maybe work on our team coordination--”

“Okay! Random attack from a monster, what do you do?!” Alana suddenly exclaimed.

“What are you even--hey!” CJ shouted as his foot was snagged from under him. He quickly found himself hanging upside-down in the air. Everyone else giggled at his misfortune before they were grabbed too. Alana was the only one not hanging… because it was her vines that had snagged them.

“No fair! What happened to our warning?!” Brian shouted, trying to wriggle his way out of her clutches.

“Monsters won’t give you a warning! They just do what they can to kill and survive! If we’re going to be getting in the way of their survival, they might use us as their next meal!”

“She has a point,” Ken said, letting his arms hang down even as his shirt fell over his face.

“So, now, uh, pretend that my vines are a giant octopus monster or something! Try to escape!”

“I’m having a hard time imagining the monster? It’s just you and some vines right now, where are we aiming, where’s its body at?” Maddi asked. Alana smirked, her eyes glowing green suddenly, and for a brief moment Maddi wished she hadn’t fucking asked.

“You want a monster? You’ll get one!”

“Okay, hang on a second, ‘Lana--” one of the pumpkins in the garden began to swell, quickly growing as big as a person and then even bigger. It towered over the group of teens, casting a shadow over part of the house.

Then it grew a face, and its vines ripped out of the ground and writhed about, ready to grab at them. The trees around them jerked wildly a moment as the beast moved. The rest of Alana’s team fell from her clutches as she stepped back, shaking.

“Frick.” she muttered.

“Change of heart, or is there an issue?” Ken asked, dusting himself off as he returned to his feet. “I felt that surge of energy.”

Alana shook her head, instinctively drawing near Maddi.”I-I-I, uhm, I didn’t intend for--for that…” she murmured. The pumpkin opened its Jack-O-Lantern like mouth and roared, eyes glowing like fire. Inside its mouth, strands of pumpkin brains stretched across its maw, collecting into a large mass of orange gunk.

“Well, I’ve been eaten enough times this year. I’m not letting it happen again.”

“Any helpful hints about pumpkins?” Taylor shifted into a fighting stance, sending Alana a glance.

“W-well, the top layer’s tough to prevent insects and diseases from getting in, so--so it's probably really really tough now.” Alana racked her brain, not even noticing the pumpkin beginning to advance. “And they have hundreds of seeds--oh, god, how big are those now? And--”

“Look out!” Ken seemed to practically fly at her, pinning her to the ground. An instant later, the pumpkin spat out hundreds upon hundreds of seeds like a homegrown machine gun. They just passed over their heads, and it started aiming for the others instead.

“How do we stop it?!” Brian asked frantically, ducking as the pumpkin’s fury was directed his way.

“Maybe we can smash it?” Taylor asked.

“Leave it to me!” CJ exclaimed. He held his hands out before him, the pumpkin beginning to glow blue and float into the air as he used his powers. But suddenly, the tendrils extended and grabbed him, swinging him around before throwing him into the side of the house. He didn’t smash through the walls, fortunately, but he didn’t get back up either.

“CJ?!” Maddi shouted, eyes wide.

“Holy shit!!” Taylor gaped.

“No, no, no, no, this is all my fault!!” Alana wailed.

“S-Stay calm!! It m-might smell fear…” Brian said. The pumpkin roared again, directing its attention to Maddi. “Looks like it does,”

“So clearly smashing is not the route to take. What’s our next option?” Ken helped Alana up to her feet, sending the pumpkin a glare as he tried to come up with an attack plan.

Alana squeezed his hand tight and bit her lip, pausing a moment as she felt just how cold Ken’s hand was. “Uh, uh--hard frosts! They go bad and mushy if we get a bad frost!” she held up Ken’s hand and shook it around as if to prove her point before dropping it. “O-or, if we can reach its stem--”

“Okay, frost it over, cut the stem. I can--gaah--!” Ken leaped into the air to avoid a tendril about to ram him in the side. Instead, he was grabbed around the neck by another tendril and lifted into the air, to Alana’s ever-growing horror. He tried to kick his way free, but to no avail--especially as it began constricting. His swords were in its scabbards, but his scabbards were in Alana’s sister’s bedroom, out of his reach. He couldn’t cast the spell to summon them--he could barely get any air into his lungs. He couldn’t think of another plan--black dots were already dancing along his vision, his head was spinning, he felt like his chest would explode if this kept up any longer.

Suddenly, whatever wind was left in his lungs was knocked out of him as he fell to the ground. Part of the tendril was still around his neck, but it was limp and easy to tear off even with shaking hands. Ken laid thee a moment, gasping for air as the clear blue sky burned away at the black dots.

Brian had found some garden tools, which were fortunately sharp enough to slice through the vines, while Maddi distracted the pumpkin with jets of flame. But the Jack-O-Lantern wasn’t so easily occupied--even as it shot another round of seeds at Maddi, more tendrils grew back and reached for Brian and Taylor.

“Hey! I can’t keep doing this forever!” Brian shouted, still slicing through the tendrils one by one.

Ken summoned his swords and got to his feet, sneaking his way to the backside of the pumpkin while Maddi dodged its bullets and set the grass before it on fire. As it focused its attention on Maddi and Alana, it didn’t even notice Ken until he had sliced through its main stem and pierced his sword through its back. It roared and tried to turn and face him with a hail of seeds, but Ken placed his hand on its back. Immediately, ice began to crawl around its bumpy orange skin, slowing it down. Thin at first, the layer of frost quickly thickened, until the gourd was suspended in a giant ice cube.

“Okay, that was rad.” Brian said.

“CJ!” Maddi gasped, turning around and running over to where CJ was still slumped over against the house. Everyone hurried over as Alana knelt down and put a hand to his wrist. She looked up at them with a horrified expression.

“I can’t feel anything!” she said.

“What?! Move!” Maddi took the wrist and held it a moment, before moving to put two fingers to CJ’s neck. She let out a breath. “Oh thank fucking god here it is.”

“Oh my god, Alana, you’re a healer who can’t take a fucking pulse?!” Taylor pouted.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t think I’d be having to tell if my friend was dead or not when we went over it in gym class in the fifth grade!” Alana whined.

“We can work on that later, guys, what matters is CJ is alive! And unconscious in an ant bed,” Brian huffed as he scuffed his shoes in the grass. “We need to move him.”

Ken snapped his fingers, and a cool gust of wind set out the flames in the grass. “We need to get rid of this monster and clean up before Alana’s father gets back.”

“And how do we do that?” Taylor asked.

“...we will need a lot of rope.”

“I have some at my place! Be right back!” Brian exclaimed, running back into the house and out onto the street.

“So, what are you wanting to do with it then? Drop it into the Pacific Ocean?” Alana asked with a short laugh.

Location: Somewhere Above the Pacific Ocean

Time: Friday, October 18th, 4:30 PM

“I didn’t expect you to take me seriously!” Alana exclaimed.

Ken let out a chuckle, even as he fumbled with the ropes and bungee cords. “I’m aware. This was actually my intention the entire time,” he let out a groan as the weight of the ice got to the best of him, and he struggled to keep it upright. Who knew a giant pumpkin in a giant ice cube could be so heavy? It was hard to stay flying with this ting weighing him down, especially when holding it by some ropes and bungee cords alone. If he lost his grip, it might fall onto something. And that would be disastrous.

“Need some help?” CJ offered, speeding up a bit to float alongside the 8th grader. When his friend let out a strained nod, he took a few of the ropes in his own hands and suddenly understood why he was struggling so much. But at least, together, each of their loads were just a little bit lighter. Even if it was a bit difficult--Ken was flying so fast. Alana shifted from a sparrow to an eagle and still struggled to keep up.

“So, Alana, what have we learned today?”

“Not to make giant monsters for training sessions?” she said sheepishly.

“How about ‘don’t make giant monsters,’ period! That was almost your Frankenstein!” CJ exclaimed.

“Actually, Frankenstein is the name of the scientist. The monster is never named, he’s just ‘Frankenstein’s Monster.’ Unless we’re considering Doctor Frankenstein to be the true monster of the tale, and the monster a victim.” Ken said. His two companions sent him a look. “Th-that’s besides the point! CJ’s point still stands, you can’t just put yourself in danger like that, little fledgeling.”

“I’ve noticed. Where are we going to drop this thing off at?” Alana asked.

“I’m hoping to get it far enough from the shore that the waves won’t just push it back. We also need to make sure no one sees us, either.”

“So just a bit farther--I can’t imagine any fishing boats going out much further than this.” CJ said. “Granted, I don’t know too much about fishing boats, but--well, y’know. It’s getting late.”

“It’s literally not. It’s not even five yet, I don’t think.” Alana said.

“Either way, I’m hoping to set it down soon. I don’t know how much longer we can carry this.” Ken said.

“Well, at that note, we just passed the last few boats that are around down here.” Alana said.

“Great. Let’s drop down a bit,” Ken and CJ let the weight of the ice lower them down until they hovered just above the water, Alana flying circles around them. “Help me untie the ropes please?”

Alana landed on top of the ice cube and began untying as Ken and CJ held the ice steady. Within a few minutes, she held a tangle of ropes and bungee cords, standing atop a precariously-rocking iceberg. CJ took the ropes, and Alana shifted back into a bird. The three watched as the pumpkin-berg bobbed around on the waves, not sinking any further.

“You do realize that at least a little bit of that is going to stay sticking out of the water, right?” Alana said.

“What?” Ken blinked, turning to look at her.

“Yeah. when you see an iceberg, some of it is always above the water.”

“Right…”

“Well, this one has a giant pumpkin inside. Maybe it’ll sink all the way?” CJ suggested.

“Hopefully? I’m too tired to care. Let’s head home so I can show you guys around the house.” Alana sighed.

“Sweet!”

Ken smiled a bit. “Yeah, let’s head back to Kihiro.”

“Last one there’s a rotten egg!” Alana laughed, shooting off into the sky with a flurry of wing beats. Ken grinned and flew after her. For a second, CJ could have sworn he saw black wings, but when he blinked and rubbed his eyes he just saw the black jet trails Ken always left when he flew. With a shrug, he rushed to catch up, using his powers yet again to stay afloat.

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Tag List!

@poore-choice-of-words @dreamswithadashofspice @ejmcmoon

#writing sneak peeks #writing sneak peek #anipwrites disillusions #disillusions anipwrites #Alana Ritroso #Ken Shinigami #Brian Hodges #Taylor Wakes #Maddi #CJ Smithson #anipwrites art #anipwritesart #anip writing #Disillusions #Disillusions Book 1: In the Beginning #Draft 3 Writing #idk if I've posted this bit before but I have changed some things between draft 2 and draft 3 #i dont even want to try and remember what draft 1 was like good god #I Want To Talk About This Series So Much But I Feel Too Awkward Doing It #also ps if anyone wants to hang out in an art server I have DM me if we're moots #mutuals. moots. yknow.#Also let it be known the entire time I was writing this I was listening to the Cody Fry mix of Eleanor Rigby. dont ask why.#it doesnt fit the scene but I've been looping it for like 2 hours now and did more writing in this 12-2am sitting than I have since like.#SINCE SEPTEMBER

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anip-ocs · 6 years ago

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A Visit

Short fic below!

TW: Parent death, mild suicide ideation

The sun hung low in the sky, streaks of pink and orange beginning to paint their way across the sky. Darkened silhouettes of large trees blocked out parts of the sky, old branches hanging, craggly with time, above rows and rows of tombstones. The field was silent, save for the quiet footsteps of a visitor. His dark cloak hung around him, dark as if made from the shadows themselves, tattered red converse scuffing against the grass. Across his back, a bow and a quiver of arrows glowed, pulsing with a gentle orange light. Had anyone else been present in the graveyard, they would have easily recognized the hero, Shadow. Though, at the moment, his hood was off, and he didn’t look all too heroic cradling a bouquet of flowers to his chest. Of course, none can be too heroic standing amongst the remnants of the dead. And though he wore his hero attire, Shane Parker wasn’t here to be a hero. He was here to be alone. But not quite alone, all the same.

As he approached his destination, he took a breath, the plastic wrap around the flowers crinkling as he shifted his arms a bit. “Hey, Mom.” he said, his voice so shaky and quiet he himself could barely hear it. He could feel he was about to cry if he stayed a moment longer, but if there was ever a place to cry this was certainly it. “I was in the area, so I thought I’d drop by.” a bit louder this time. He lifted his gaze to look at his mother’s gravestone head on, lifting an arm to wipe at his tears as he tried to smile. “I brought your favorites.” he kneeled down and set the pink and white carnations before the grave, before taking a seat next to it. He wasn’t too embarrassed to admit the grass where he sat was worn away a bit.

A moment of silence hung in the air, as he tried to get a grip on the stuttering in his chest. This was a one-sided conversation between him and the two month old corpse of his mother, and the tiniest part of him felt stupid for almost expecting her to say something, expecting her to sit up and hug him to her and promise everything would be okay. Hell, his mother hadn’t been able to sit up in almost a year now, let alone hug anyone. Now was not the time to be craving something impossible to get.

“...everything seems so weird now, with you gone.” Shane said quietly. “Before, I could… I could keep going because I thought you’d get better someday, and we could be a normal family again, y’know? I think we all were hoping for that. Or maybe I was just naive. But now… its so hard. I mean, i-its always been hard, but everything feels like its piling on.”

He sighed, glancing at the grave, at the stems of the flowers he’d brought. Pink and white.

“...Alice got kicked out of ballet, and it's all my fault. I know you really wanted her to do ballet, and she loves it so much, I just… I couldn’t afford it. Haven’t been able to pay the studio in almost a year now, and they’d let it slide, but…” but enough had been enough, he supposed. But they didn’t have to be so cruel about it, did they?

~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~

“I-I’m sorry, I can’t pay this month, but I promise--” he stammered out, quiet and weak under the glare of the receptionist.

“What, you ‘promise’ to pay next month? You’ve been singing this song and dance for a year now, and I’m having a hard time believing you!” she said, tapping her pen against the record book with a scowl.

“I know, and I’m sorry, I just--I’m working as hard as I can, but--”

“If you can’t afford dance lessons, then don’t come get dance lessons!”

“If it were just for me, then I’d do it, but it's for Alice, I have to, she--”

“Well, then.” the receptionist’s voice suddenly went cold, her glare icy through her dark-framed glasses. She stood from her desk, the pen clattering to the floor. “I’m officially terminating her lessons with Miss Anne. Starting now.”

It felt like his heart skipped a beat, and for a moment he was frozen as the receptionist came around the other end of the desk and marched for the practice rooms. Then his brain kicked back into gear as he realized what she was about to do. “W-Wait, you can’t!! She has a recital in two weeks, she’s worked so hard, please--!!”

“Oh, the big recital?! Swan Lake?! In order to participate she’d need a new tutu, new slippers, new tights, a new leotard in order to match the other dancers, and you, sir, can’t even afford for her to be here! There’s certainly no way she’s going to ruin the big recital, especially if she should’ve been out of here a year ago!”

“M-Miss Greenwich, please, you have to believe I’m trying--”

Before he could try and get another word in, the receptionist threw open the door to the practice room, three dozen little faces stopping what they were doing to turn and see what was going on one by one. Forcing her way through the sea of children, she picked out a frizzy-haired little girl and grabbed her by the arm. Alice let out a shout as her nails scratched at her arm and she was yanked out of the room.

“What’s going on here, we’re in the middle of--” the ballet instructor began, pausing the music and turning to address the receptionist.

“Alice Parker hasn’t been paying the studio fees in almost a year now, Miss Anne, so her time in this class is over. Hopefully she didn’t have too big of a part, though I can’t imagine she would.” Miss Greenwich barely even turned her head as she continued her way across the room, grabbing Shane by his sleeve and dragging them both out of the dance studio entirely, practically tossing the two onto the sidewalk.

“Miss Greenwich, please--” Shane began, only to be cut off once more.

“You’re lucky I’m not calling the authorities! Your girl’s not welcome in here ever again until you can actually afford tuition, and to repay twelve months of it too! Now get off of our property before I do call the authorities, cheapskate!” and then she slammed the door in their faces, her form walking off through the frosted glass. Shane felt like time had frozen for a moment, his brain still trying to process that that had just happened, until he heard Alice start to cry beside him. He picked her up, and she wrapped her arms around his neck as he carried her back to their beat down pickup truck, her tears beginning to wet his shoulder.

“I’m sorry, Alice.” he mumbled, hugging her tight a moment as a heavy weight bore onto his shoulders.

~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~

He pulled at the sleeve of his cloak, just thinking about what happened made him feel incredibly… small. “She was heartbroken. But honestly, the only thing worse is that now she feels like she has to worry.” he let out a sigh. “She stopped using the lunch money I gave her… she stopped eating lunch for two weeks before I found out, she said she didn’t want to use up money we need for something else. It’s taken me forever to even convince her that it's okay for her to eat, I don’t know what to do anymore! I’m working as many jobs as I can, but with Disillusions I... “

He laid back in the grass, the bow and arrow fading into sparks of light. “Its… selfish of me, isn’t it. I could be working so much more, but I have to take off to fight villains and monsters and go to team meetings… one of my jobs even threatened to fire me if I took another unauthorized break. I can’t blame them, but I just… Disillusions is one of the only other places I feel like I’m doing something. I could stop, but… I guess I just don’t want to.” he sighed. “Stupid, right?”

Of course, he could get help through Disillusions. Ken was rich, loaded rich--his father owned one of the largest technological corporations on the globe, and sent him $500 allowances that the boy barely used. All he had to do was tell him just how bad the situation really was and Ken was near-guaranteed to throw enough money at the problem to make it not a problem anymore. He’d helped Maddi a ton already, paying to rebuild her entire treehouse home when it was destroyed in a storm and even buying her groceries every other week.

But… he was too afraid to ask. Maybe he was just too prideful to admit that he was struggling, especially to someone who’d been raised in opulent captivity for so long he barely understood what middle class even looked like. Yet… that wasn’t quite it. Honestly? He was just kind of scared of Ken.

It wasn’t hard to be. With his dark black eyes and icy demeanor, most people shied away upon seeing him. Seeing him dressed in a cloak, big angel wings out for all to see, grinning as he sliced the head off the thirtieth little monster that day only solidified the fear. Ken was typically so stoic, it was hard to tell how he felt about… almost anyone. Shane wasn’t even sure if Ken liked him--he didn’t want to ask for help from someone who possibly hated him.

But he did need help. And soon.

“If we could just join the city’s program, that’d make things so much easier, but we can’t. The Independence program only allows one person per home, and Alice is still too young to apply for her own little place through the program. If we want to stay together, we’d have to go to the orphanage… I don’t think I want to do that.” he sighed.

“...I think I’m cursed. Well, I know I’m cursed, but I think it's reaching farther than I thought.” he rested an arm over his eyes and let out yet another sigh. The curse. He’d been cursed with immortality, which gave him an interesting sideset of powers but came with the weight of knowing he’d outlive everyone he’d ever cared for. He’d never imagined he’d lose his mother so soon, but she’d gotten ill and never improved. Only declined. It had started about a year after he’d been cursed in the first place, almost to the day. Since then? It had all gone downhill, until now Shane was struggling to pay utilities on the apartment and everything around him was falling apart.

A fresh set of tears welled up in him, and he wiped at his eyes. “I don’t know if I can do this, Mom…” someone his age was never meant to go through all of this alone--hell, he felt like no one should have to go through all of this at all, let alone on their own. Everything was piling up, and it was a guarantee that the problems would keep piling on his chest as everyone fell around him until he was alone carrying the weight of lifetimes of issues. Part of him wanted to just lay there beside his mother’s grave for eternity, through wind and rain, heat or cold, let himself be buried alongside her until he didn’t have to worry about anything anymore. The life of the dead (or lack thereof) seemed rather peaceful, after all.

But he couldn’t. He had to keep going, if for nothing else, for Alice. He was all she had left, and she desperately needed him to keep going so she could even dare hope for a future of her own. He’d sworn to himself that, if nothing else kept him going, that he’d keep going for his little sister. Even if it meant running on fumes, on bare remnants of energy and self. As long as she stayed happy, he could be a bit happy too.

But he still missed his mother, desperately. It was a constant ache in his chest, like a hand was squeezing at his heart. It sucked the life, the joy out of… everything. The burning determination he felt to care for his sister and those he cared about was nearly swallowed up by a dark void of nothingness. Sometimes he wanted to just fall backwards into it, watch everything fade to black and--

No. He couldn’t think like that. Shane sat up, biting his lip, gripping the grass in hands tight. He had to stick around. He had to. He could grieve, yes, but he had to keep living. Not because he didn’t have much choice, but because he had his reasons to want to. He felt a fire burn in his heart, and knew he could find the strength, the means to go on. His fingertips glowed, orange and hot. If he was strong enough and capable enough to fight hordes of giant monsters, he could find a way out of this mess they were in.

He fought monsters with a team, didn’t he? Maybe what he needed here was a team too. He just had to ask for help. Even if it meant facing down Ken Shinigami himself, he’d do what it takes.

He stood up, turning to face the gravestone again. Aziza Parker, it read, 1978--2019. The doctors had sworn to him that she’d never stopped fighting her illness for even an instant. His mother was headstrong and determined, had been as long as he remembered, and he couldn’t help but feel like she’d just shared a bit of that strength with him. He managed the smallest of smiles, took a deep breath. “Thank you, Mom. I’ll make you proud.”

Then he teleported, vanishing in a flash of orange sparks, bright against the dying light of the sun as the stars began their reign over the sky.

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Tag list!

@ravenpuffwriter @dreamswithadashofspice @ejmcmoon

If you want to join or leave the list for any of my projects, let me know!

#writing sneak peeks #anipwrites disillusions #Shane Parker #anipwritesart #anipwrites art #anip writing #Disillusions #disillusions universe #one shot writing #honestly a scene like this would happen later in the series but yknow #I drew the art first and then wrote the story #i hope you like at least one of the two #*dabs wildly*#my partner said they cried when they read this and I simultaneously feel horrible and triumphant #anyways yeah #haven't written anything else in a hot minute so I figured I need to share SOMETHING soon #here y'all go have fun

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