#garthia project

[mavriarchwriting]

Wordtober - Day 7

Prompt: Steal

(From this list)

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“Maybe you’re right. Maybe you are not strong enough to continue this mission.” Iris felt her chest tighten. Suddenly, she felt a hand on top of her own, and she finally looked away from the sea to stare at Prometheus’ hand.

“But I want you there either way. If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be here. Neither would most of us. You’re the one who got me back. You’re the one who saved our asses countless times. Even if you can’t help us in the fight itself, I want you there. So that I have a reminder of what I have to lose.”

Iris finally looked up at Prometheus. He was staring at both their hands on top of the railing. She felt his thumb stroke the back of her hand. Warmth started spreading through her body, despite the cold, slightly easing away the weight in her chest.

After a moment of silent, Prometheus finally crossed eyes with her. The intensity in his eyes stole her breath away.

“I can’t do it without you.”

Iris sensed something behind those words. The weight in her chest exploded into butterflies. It took all her self-control to mask her emotions, to control the little gust of air that formed around her, reflecting the sudden lightness in her chest.

The silence continued. Iris didn’t know how to reply. Prometheus didn’t act either, waiting for her reply.

“Do you mean that?” Her voice was barely audible over the waves of the sea and the cold wind.

Prometheus squeezed her hand and turned his whole body to her.

“I care about you” He moved to intertwine their finger and Iris let him. Prometheus took a deep breath before continuing “I care about you a lot.”

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Was in a romantic mood, I guess

[mavriarchwriting]

Wordtober: Ancient (Day 23)

I wrote this during lunch break and now I’m too lazy to finish it. Here, have it.

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The giant rock arms framed the door like an embrace. Sand gathered at the bottom of the doors in waves, but it didn’t stop the massive doors from drifting open when they felt the spell engraved on the staff. 

A gust of wind pushed a wave of sand into the temple, making the grey dust inside to run further inside the dark entrance hallway. Said dust covered every surface; nook, cranny and crack. It floated lazily in the air, attempting to invade the lungs of unexpected visitors. 

The group kept their mouths covered as they stepped the threshold and walked down the hallway.

[mavriarchwriting]

Wordtober: Ghosts (Day 22)

Yesterday, I decided to not do the challenge again. So today I made up for yesterday and hit the 750 word mark. That’s a lot!

I’ve technically written this scenario years ago, but today I decided to go deep on the scene and write the very beginning.

Unedited. I need my beauty sleep.

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A weak purplish blue started to bleed into the darkness around her. White balls joined in soon after. The colors became more and more defined, going from mixed colored clouds to blurry shaped and more defined until she could see her surroundings clearly.

The way the ceiling above her ended in a pointy skylight was unmistakable: she was clearly in some area of the City of the Dead. However, instead of a bright blue sky, the scenery beyond was of an unbreakable black. Whatever hall she was in, didn’t have the familiar warm colors. Instead, it was cold and washed out. The golds and coppers had been switched to blue and purplish grey stone. The only lights were the torches, burning with blue flames that didn’t help the vibes of the place.

She sat up from the cold grey floor and found herself surrounded by people, pale and in washed out colors, almost blending with the place. They all kept a good distance from her. In the floors above, more people watched her. She was surrounded by, easily, a couple of thousands. There were all types of people, from children to old people; all sorts of Garthian races, most of them with older styles of clothing, that Iris recognized from books and paintings throughout the palace.

No one moved from their spot. They all stared at all, some with surprise, some with curiosity, but most held no expression.

Her heart picked up and she took in a shaky breath. She felt like she had fallen unannounced on the Colosseum all over again. She took in another breath, hoping some fresh air entering her lungs could help her heart calm down a bit, but she felt… nothing. She took in another one. Nothing.

She patted the tiled floor around her, trying to find her footing to get up, but she froze as she realized the cold hard floor was just… hard. She didn’t feel the cold, nor did she feel heat. Her touch was reduced to some tingling when she touched something.

She was still sitting on the floor when she noticed some movement in the crowd, getting closer to the edge, closer to her. Soon, a hand peaked through, pushed an old lady gently to the side, and a woman came through. A woman with long hair, neatly styled in large curls that bounced as she moved. A woman with a thin face and sharp eyes, just like the ones Iris saw in the mirror every day. A woman with the same hazel eyes as her uncle, which filled with tears at the sight of her, just like her uncle’s had when they recognized his sister in Iris’ face.

“…Mom?”

The word tumbled from her lips before Iris could stop it. The woman stumbled towards Iris until her legs gave up and she fell on her knees in front of wide-eyed Iris. The woman started sobbing, as she reluctantly reached for Iris.

“What are you doing here, Iris?!” The woman cried, hands inches from her arms, as if waiting for authorization to touch Iris. Iris didn’t reply or react, her mind unable to catch up with the situation. She just kept staring at the woman, drinking in her face.

“No way…”

It was impossible, but her own mother was right in front of her eyes. There was no doubt, it was the same face that rested inside her beloved necklace. Iris held it without thinking.

“You… you’re my mother, aren’t you?” Iris couldn’t help but ask. The woman smiled through her tears and nodded vigorously.

“Yes, Iris… Yes…”

Iris didn’t know what to do, what to do. She had no idea what was happening. She noticed her mom lean in; arms open. Immediately, Iris followed the motion and hugged her mother, whose body shook with uncontained sobs. Iris felt the tears fall on her shoulder, and for the first time since she had woken up, she felt cold where the tears seeped into her shirt.

“You shouldn’t be here… you shouldn’t be here…” She heard her mom choke into her neck. Iris slowly pulled away from the hug and kept herself at arm’s length, hands on her mother’s shoulders.

“Where am I?” Iris asked, looking into her mother’s red eyes “This is the City of the Dead, right?” Her mother’s eyes flooded with a new wave of tears.

“Yes… But you’re on the Other Side.” Iris tilted the head at the answer. Her mother swallowed hard before continuing:

“Iris… Baby, you’re dead!”

[mavriarchwriting]

Wordtober: Snow (Day 11)

Technically, it's day 12 already. But what better time to write something quick at 2AM after going out for drinks after 9 his of working at a register?

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She watched the write dots fall down on her, not like the delicate, slow depictions she'd seen, but still gracious in it's own way. Occasional pins of cold stabbed her cheeks, only to melt away into her heated skin.

Iris looked at her hands. Her eyes carefully followed the snowflakes that landed on her dark gloves. She could see, on detail, against the dark wool, the beautiful patterns of the little dots, elegant and ethereal like she'd never seen.

Realizing she didn't have the luxury of time, she broke out her hypnotized stare from the snow and picked up her place to not fall back from the group. But she couldn't help but focus on the sensation of the snow crushing under her feet, the silence, the beauty of such cold mantle of pure white. Soon, she hold herself looking at the snowflakes melt on her hand again.

"Are you okay, Iris?" Amanda asked, an amused expression on her face. "You look like you have never seen snow in your life!"

She felt the flame on her cheeks grow at the teasing tone. She looked at her boots, burying into the snow with each step.

"That's because... I haven't..."

[mavriarchwriting]

Wortober: Enchanted (Day 7)

I need sleep. Have an enchanted armor in an underdeveloped (and, therefore, shitty) setting I decided to try and use for most of this challenge.

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Against all odds, the shield held up against the wave of flaming darkness. She could feel the group putting all their energy into the shield, and she tried to give away some of her own, as much as she could without breaking her concentration from the sigil.

“Iris! Hurry!”

Riley’s pressure didn’t help, and Iris hesitated for a second, before putting her energy into building the sigil again. She felt the shield weaken behind her. The giant armor groaned, disliking the touch of the flames that crossed the upper edge of the shield.

Just as the last lines of the sigil were about to close, Iris felt the telltale feeling of glass shards running down the inside of her spine, as the shield shattered. Time seemed to slow almost to a stop. She saw her friends stumbling back, from the corner of her eye, dark flames licking at the edge of her vision, trying to raze anything in its path.

A twinge of regret, for not finishing the awakening sigil earlier, twisted her heart into knots as darkness took over her world.

It was peaceful, warm, with no pain. Fitting to die in the City of the Dead, she thought, resigning herself to her fate.

But instead of silence and nothingness, her body shook with the deafening sound of pounds of metal breaking through stone. It made her jump and open her eyes. Instead of dark flames licking at her skin, she found a complete symbol of awakening carved into the stone throne, which was now empty.

“Oh, my Goddess, you did it!” She heard Daniel scream, followed by some victory cheers from the others. Behind her, the colossal armor of the Guardian was kneeling, it’s back turned to her, empty helmet now alive with blue flames. It held it’s shield steady, half buried on the ground and immovable as a wall. The dark flames could still be seen a few feet around them, kept at bay by the Guardian’s magic.

“I so glad you have good timing…” Amanda said, as she helped Iris back to her feet.

“Yeah…” Iris looked up at the armor, not believing she’d been the one to awaken such beast. “Me too…”

[mavriarchwriting]

Wordtober: Build (Day 5)

Let's do something quick and fall asleep, she said. Right...

Not reviewed. I thought of the concept of building a friendship, and then grabbed the story from the first 2 days. If you see the #Garthia Project tag on a story, this is the story.

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Both of them sat in awkward silence under the stars. Iris prayed someone would wake up and join them on the balcony, snap the tense thread that connected them and make it vanish. That, or come up with something to say.

She looked back up at the sky, and tried to search for the few constellations she could recognize, only to realize, after a few minutes, that none existed. It confused her for a while until she remembered: Garthia is *actually a different planet, on a different part of the universe*.

She had been told this many times, but only now did the true height of it fall on her shoulders.

"Oh..."

It was barely a whisper, but it was enough to break the silence. She felt Prometheus move and could sense his eyes on her, curious about her exclamation. She looked at her lap, hair falling like a heavy curtain, hiding her pain from the world.

"What's wrong?" Iris jumped, not expecting Prometheus to speak, much less show any hint of concern, genuine or not.

"I just..." She tried to come up with a easy way to say it without spilling her heart to him. "...I can't see any of the constellations I'm used to here."

"Yeah, you're on a different part of the universe, what were you expecting?" Prometheus replied, tone as unmoving as ever. Iris felt her heart clench, not happy with the harsh reminder. She curled onto herself. A sigh broke the (now even more awkward) silence.

"... That was rude of me..."

Iris looked at the prince, eyes wide as saucers. Even if his face seemed as emotionless as usual, Iris could see a tiny hint of bashfulness, as if he actually regretted his choice of words. Seeing him admit to it was... Uncanny.

"It's okay... I think..."

If awkwardness had weight, it would make their beings collapse into themselves and create 2 dark holes to take over the universe. Honestly, disappear into one was perhaps preferable to living through this moment. Hoping for a way out, Iris got up from her chair and headed back inside, hoping to join the rest of the group and sleep, for once.

"I can show you some."

She stopped right outside the balcony windows. Prometheus was looking back to the sky when she turned to him again.

"What?"

Prometheus turns his head, just enough to see her from the corner of his eye.

"I can show you the constellations here." He turned back into the night sky again. "Searching for them is always relaxing. Helps a lot when I can't sleep."

Iris had no words. Prince Prometheus, the same that had been nothing but rude and snarky since Iris had fallen into Garthia was being... Nice?

She looked back inside. Everyone was in a deep sleep, none could witness this... Whatever it was.

She has no idea how long she stood on the same spot, considering the offer, but it must have been a while because she had broken out of the thoughts by a "Are you gonna stand there all night?" from the prince.

"No." She answered. Iris walked back to her seat by Prometheus and started at him in silence until he finally looked back at her.l

"Please, show me."

And for her surprise, he actually smiled. Not a smirk, an actual, genuine (even if small) smile.

They spent the next couple of hours together under the stars, Iris mostly in silence, while Prometheus pointed out, one by one, the most interesting and his favorite constellations including legends and stories connected to some.

As interesting as it was, the best part was the atmosphere between the two. It wasn't awkward or hostile. For once, Iris felt a connection to the prince, instead of annoyance.

For good or for worst, this was the beginning of a new friendship between them.

[mavriarchwriting]

Wordtober: Day 2 (Mindless)

Okay, I may or may not be taking this challenge as a chance to sketch hypothetical scenes for this one story concept I haven't written yet.

Yes, it's the same Prometheus from yesterday. Yes, I did name a character Prometheus. No, he's not the actual Prometheus.

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His eyes were empty, with no hint of a will of his own. It was uncanny to Iris, as she was used to always seeing something in then: boredom, annoyance, cockiness, disdain, amusement, something! For someone so straight faced, his eyes always gave it away. So, seeing them with no emotion whatsoever wasn't just concerning, it was downright terrifying. All she could find in him was the mindless intention of defeating the enemy, to bring victory to his master. And Iris was the one in his sights.

While the height of her heart poured into her sword, growing heavier by the second, she didn't hesitate to raise it at Prometheus, bracing herself for the most painful part of the battle.

[mavriarchwriting]

Worbtober: Day 1 (Ring)

1st day at my new work. Little free time, but was able to pump this out, based on a story I’ve been planning for years.

The Wordtober concept was thought by @momo-de-avis, here, basically it’s a warm up to Nanowrimo.

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Brenton stumbled back with a shake off his head, eyes quickly jumping between the ring and his friend. Prometheus rolled his eyes and shook the jewel in his direction.

"C'mon! We need you out there! Take the ring!"

"No, Theus! You know I can't! I'll hurry you!"

Prometheus stepped forward, too quick for Brenton to step away. Prometheus grabbed his arm and held the ring at eye level.

"Listen, if you don't take the Guardian Ring, my aunt will get it and it's anger Temple in her grasp. Then, she'll destroy the temple with everyone in it! We will die! Our friends will die! Riley will die! Garthia will be closer to destruction! Is that what you want?!"

Brenton started at the ring, right into the depths of its bright red stone, hoping to find answers inside the swirling flames contained in the crystal.

"I don't think I can do it..." He whispered, defeated. Prometheus have him a reassuring smile and released Brendon’s arm to pat him in the shoulder.

"Brendon," Prometheus' smile widened "I wouldn't be offering it if I didn't know you could do it."

Brendon felt his shoulders relax but doubts still ran through his mind.

"No, I can't do it..." Prometheus was about to throw another angry rant when Brendon took the ring from him, the flames of the ring reflected in his eyes and firing up his soul.

"…But hell, if I won't try!"