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[writing-ceiling]

Mist cloaked the trees, wrapped around them like a lover, caressing the branches, bending the leaves to their will. It closed in, like a wolf stalking the jeep, circling around and around until Ron was dizzy just looking at it. He tried to keep his eyes ahead, trained on the road in front of him, but as the mist grew thicker and thicker, engulfing him, he found no real place to look at, no place on which to train his focus. He grew nervous, heart inching its way up to his throat. 

He heard a noise coming from the forest. He couldn’t distinguish it, and his mind began making up wild theories and strange accusations. 

It was a branch cracking. It was a man with a gun. It was an invisible woman with a crossbow aimed at his head. It was the trees, whispering and crackling and conniving. It was thousands and thousands of eyes, doing nothing except watching. It was a tree, bending and bursting under the weight of the mist. 

Ron stared out into the white up ahead of him. He realized that the windows were open, broken, maybe. He realized that the mist was making its way into his car. That scared him more than he thought it would. 

He had always thought that the end would be quick, always thought that it would be merciful. It wasn’t that he wanted it, but he had always told himself that it was going to be a release. It was going to be a breath of fresh air after a life in a strangling society. But as the mist moved forward, inward, wrapped its soft, gentle hands around its throat and began to squeeze, he wanted to take it all back. The end wasn’t a release. The end was a tightening, a constricting, contracting snake that would squeeze you until you burst. 

But at least his friends were there with him at the end, he told himself, turning to his side to look at Beacon, watch the life flood from her eyes. 

It was with a start that he realized she wasn’t there. His heart jumped as he discovered that he was completely alone. 

He didn't know if that scared him less or more. His crew wasn’t beside him, wasn’t dying along with him. Did that mean they had abandoned him, moved on to someone and something better? Or did that mean he had made sure they stayed behind, because he knew this was going to be dangerous?

Had they left him, or had he saved them?

Did it really matter? Because he was going to die alone either way. 

He never made a decision as to whether or not that was a good thing, but when he woke up and saw Beacon lying beside him, he felt a wave of relief pour over him, washing away the clenching mist. 

He watched her chest rise up and down, and he found that he could breathe again.  

leo thomas

[writing-ceiling]

Summer 2023 Shorts #1

Neo Shorts #1

Title: Loki Has A Couple Of Uncharacteristically Philosophical Realizations

POV: Loki

Context: This short takes place somewhere between Loki joining the crew and them rescuing Maiju

Loki was in the back of the jeep (as per usual; this crew certainly spent a lot of time in their jeep. To be fair, though, it was a good jeep). He was leaning against the window and the door, which vibrated against him, but he’d learned to get used to it. Besides, what was he going to do, not lean against the door? He certainly didn’t have good enough posture for that. 

Pixel sat next to him, behind Ron in the driver’s seat. Beacon was in front of him, in the passenger’s seat. It struck him then: the silence. It wasn’t like the silences he normally knew, the tension that normally permeated what he knew as silence was notably absent. Instead, there was a calmness, like an anesthetic kicking in, or sunset on the beach of an abandoned planet. There was a serenity, a comfort that he didn’t know if he recognized. 

He contemplated it for a minute, which was difficult, because Loki wasn’t very good at contemplating, but it seemed to pay off, because after that minute, he realized what it was about the silence that seemed so unfamiliar. This crew, these people… they were different from everyone he’d met at the Federation: everyone always trying to scale their way bare-handed to the top, or knock it down from the bottom like a goddamn lumberjack. No, these people were certainly different. Neogalactic Vagrant Crew 47-K were at home with each other. They knew a peace so rare Loki could probably sell it on the black market for more money than he needed to make this plan work out (which was saying a lot, because that was a lot of money.) Still, even if he could bottle up this extraordinary interpersonal peace, find some way to quantify and distribute it, he didn’t think that he would. This crew was something special. They’d built what they had: whether intentionally or not, and Loki had a feeling that it had something to do with Maiju: the crew member he’d never met, but probably knew the most about. 

Her impact was profound, and Loki found himself in awe. 

As he observed the serenity, he found himself wanting, for the first time in his life, more than just the lofty goal of taking down the Federation and changing the world for the good. No matter how off-puttingly bratty and selfish he came off as, this was the first time that he truly wanted for himself. 

Which was probably why he found himself doing what he did next more easily, less hindered. An object in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force, and Loki was living on a frictionless plane. He pulled out his phone from his pocket, and texted the girl. 

Hey. 

She responded in a few minutes. Supposedly she was leaning against her own door in her own new crew’s car (which certainly couldn’t be better than this jeep.), and supposedly, she didn’t give a shit about him. But also, supposedly, she gave enough of a shit about him to send him threatening text messages when all he wanted to do was get close to her. 

They had been close before, but Loki didn’t know what had happened. She’d turned cold (well, she’d always been cold, but she’d turned cold towards him, too). There was a time when they had been a dynamic duo, inseparable and always acing every assignment. He annoyed the hell out of her, he knew, but there was a part of her that loved him, too, he trusted. But one day, it was like that part of her had evaporated, and she left him in the dust. Her devotion to the Federation had become less being-manipulated-by-a-huge-government-like-corporation-into-doing-their-bidding-because-she-was-vulnerable-and-they-took-her-in-to-make-her-basically-a-child-soldier and more this-was-a-cult-and-she-was-trying-to-be-God’s-loyalest-disciple-for-some-sort-of-cosmic-gold-star-sticker. 

And no matter how bad she got, she was still Loki’s first real friend, and he wasn’t the kind of person who let go of things like that. He wanted her back, and that probably wasn’t smart, because she would rip him to shreds (definitely metaphorically, and maybe also literally), but he wanted her back anyway. He wanted to build what this crew had, but with her. 

In short, he was down bad (but, like, platonically. (Probably)).

But apparently, Thorn either didn’t understand that or didn’t care, and she was definitely mad at him about the whole helping-the-people-who-wanted-to-get-back-their-crewmate-who-murdered-a-federation-officer thing, because her text back was disturbingly threatening. 

You don’t seem to realize this yet

But I will find you 

sooner or later

and when I do, it won’t be pretty.

Author’s Note: I used this quote from pinterest as inspiration, which I had saved on my Thornki board:

(Yes, it also applies to that one snail)

[writing-ceiling]

the first two are shorts for longer things that i’m not currently working on (and loki is not mcu loki or god loki he’s an oc), and the second one is a poem

[writing-ceiling]

Terminal Velocity And The Physics Of Freefall

You can’t assume I won’t slip into another illusion

You can’t expect stability from a knife balancing on its edge

(We’re going to fall

One way or another,

We’re going to fall)

Grab me by my hands, hold me in your arms

Do you want that to mean I’ll stay upright?

No, I’ll topple from this wire and I’ll take you with me!

We cascade like a waterfall of ping pong balls

Each one hits the ground with a different musical note

Forming a symphony of shattering plastic as they bounce and crack from the acceleration

But when we hit the ground, we don’t bounce

And we don’t crack

We go straight through the concrete, straight through the stone

The bedrock bends against our shape.

We go down until we’re going upwards again

And we circle the center of the earth until we finally settle in the core

A fall from that high, you’re not supposed to survive

But we made it, and our molten hearts combine.

[writing-ceiling]

Terminal Velocity And The Physics Of Freefall

You can’t assume I won’t slip into another illusion

You can’t expect stability from a knife balancing on its edge

(We’re going to fall

One way or another,

We’re going to fall)

Grab me by my hands, hold me in your arms

Do you want that to mean I’ll stay upright?

No, I’ll topple from this wire and I’ll take you with me!

We cascade like a waterfall of ping pong balls

Each one hits the ground with a different musical note

Forming a symphony of shattering plastic as they bounce and crack from the acceleration

But when we hit the ground, we don’t bounce

And we don’t crack

We go straight through the concrete, straight through the stone

The bedrock bends against our shape.

We go down until we’re going upwards again

And we circle the center of the earth until we finally settle in the core

A fall from that high, you’re not supposed to survive

But we made it, and our molten hearts combine.

[writing-ceiling]

(the second one is called "Loki Has A Couple Of Uncharacteristically Philosophical Realizations") but it didn't fit in the poll

Whichever one wins, I will post in the morning. Thanks to my two (2) followers for the support :)

[writing-ceiling]

intro post

heyo! im sparrow (minor, they/them or any pronouns), an amateur writer recovering from severe burnout and an awful relationship with writing! wahoo!

i'm trying to get back into writing again but HEALTHILY this time. So here's where I'll post some of my shorts & poetry and maybe chapters of stuff if I decide to work on a longer project this summer.

hope you enjoy! <3

my main is @sparrow-ceiling!