unpromptly

a collection of writing prompts and advice, posted with varying degrees of frequency.

[unpromptly]

no. 302

"I'm going to kill you."

"Get in line."

"Oh, I already talked to the line. It was very long, but they all agreed my claim was best. In fact, they're holding off your guards for me."

[unpromptly]

no. 301

"Have you come for my head?"

"In a manner of speaking. I've come for your hand, first. Then I'll win your heart. I'm sure the head will fall into line eventually."

[unpromptly]

no. 300

"I've mourned you for ten years. What am I supposed to do with you, now that you're back from the dead? Pick up where we left off?"

"You could start by asking me where the hell I've been."

[unpromptly]

no. 299

"Do you trust me?"

"Not a whisker."

That earned an exasperated look. "Why are you here, then?"

"Entertainment value."

[unpromptly]

no. 298

"The blood runs strong in you."

They scoffed. "How can it? I'm a nobody. Bastard born from who knows where."

"The blood of this land does not run in your veins, but in your mind. Your heart. Your actions."

[unpromptly]

no. 297

"How much am I going to regret this?"

"Quite a bit, I think."

"You're supposed to lie."

[unpromptly]

no. 296

"We've learned that one of the assassins is a short, dark haired man," the advisor said neutrally.

"Not my new suitor!" the queen said indignantly. She had liked him. She frowned worriedly at the advisor. "No, perish the thought. Might you be overly suspicious?"

The advisor shrugged. "It's my job to be paranoid, your majesty."

[unpromptly]

no. 295

“And what if I told you their child would grow up to be a monster? Would you kill them then, to save hundreds of thousands of future lives?” 

“Well, thanks to you, I’ll still be around in this awful future of yours. I’ll take care of it then. If I need to.”  

[unpromptly]

no. 268

“You’ve tread water in this toxic dump for so long. All by yourself. Let me help me, your majesty.”

The queen’s smile was bleak. “I watched the last person who asked me that sink. To the bottom.”

[rifcharacters]

She was born with a prophecy. The type that didn’t promise glory and honour. The kind that spelled out disaster. Tragedy for her people, hardships and poverty running around creating famine and feeding a war. A fate against which she tried to fight but found herself cornered into.

“It is alright to sleep,” he told her, voice soothing and deep like she had come to known him for. That voice that used to be so shrill and weak, the one belonging to that scrawny boy she had picked up from the streets and brought with her. The start of the chain she wanted to stop so desperately.

“I know,” was her weary answer. “I know,” she repeated with a sigh as she slumped in her throne, showing the vulnerability she didn’t dare to show anyone else. Her eyes burned as she closed them and she could feel cool fingers covering them.

Rest was coming for her. She knew that. He knew that. One whose eyes had slowly lost its light. Another who had seen the price chipping away at her weary soul begging for a different outcome.

“Is it my turn to finally drown?” she asks, and the magician loomed over her. The one she had watched surpass her in height and talent. The one who had watched her turn into a woman as he became a man. The one who started her off as a queen and the one she wanted to safe.

That man kissed her hair in a fleeting gesture as she felt herself plunge into a depth in which she could only dream of all her memories, the good and the bad tormenting her in an endless loop like the loop in which she had been stuck for so long.

It was a cruel gift from her lifelong companion. But one she rather took than watch him drown again.

[unpromptly]

ooo, I like the sense of greater, tragic story behind this scene! 

[unpromptly]

no. 294

“What do you call a king without a throne?” 

The king without a throne did not like the man’s suggestively twisted grin. “Ah... that depends, I suppose, on--” 

The man laughed. “On how many guards you have? Well, your majesty, seems it’s just you and me. And from my point of view, you look just like every other man I’ve killed.” 

[unpromptly]

no. 293

“If I discover a new planet, I’m naming it after myself.”

“If you discover a new planet, you’re naming it after me. I’m the one financing your interstellar suicide mission, after all.”

“But I’m taking all the risks!” 

[unpromptly]

no. 292

“Do I know you?” 

“You saved my life!” 

“Oh, that explains it,” the hero said. “I don’t start remembering people til they save mine.” 

[unpromptly]

no. 291

"You want me to marry you and then murder you? What am I supposed to get out of this?"

His lips twisted. She was struck with the realization that this was his real smile, when he was truly amused, not the broad, false one he flashed so convincingly.

"Money and freedom," he said.

[unpromptly]

no. 290

They frowned deeply. "So, I'm supposed to pay you a bunch of money and then you fuck off and do whatever you want? How is that fair?"

The would-be assassin beamed. "It's called a bribe, Your Highness. I don't think they're meant to be fair."

[unpromptly]

no. 289

"Is this worth your life? Are they worth your life?"

They shrugged. "Probably not. Gotta try anyway, yeah? We made a deal."

[unpromptly]

no. 288

"What do you want for this? And so help me, if you say 'your soul', I'm out."

"Oh, nothing so old school as that. I only want your worst memories."

“What are you going to do them?” 

“The usual.”

[unpromptly]

no. 287

"What can I offer you? What will convince you to work for me? Ask me for anything."

"I'm done with this business." They laughed bitterly. "You'd have to be able to raise the dead."

She slid a contract across the desk. "I did say anything."