A few bits

Howdy everyone.

Today I wanted to share with you something I did for a writing seminar about worldbuilding. Some might be connected to Mirage, but mostly they are just fun prompts that I really enjoyed. Maybe this can also be something you might want to try if you are a creative content creator.

First we had to write six word stories, pretty self explanatory, right? So here are the once I came up with:

I move, my shadow does not.

Will I ever find happiness?

Who needs a heart anyway?!

It always looks like this!

First rule: Cast „Fireball“ first.

After we upgraded to fifty words:

Dark Shadows scurry into the ruins. I shouldn’t, but I follow. Old rocks, trees and shoes scattered. All overdrawn by pale moonlight. Voices in the distance. Singing. I can’t understand them. The Shadows circle around me. This was a bad idea. I start to run. They follow close behind. Fuck!

„So all your magic was given to you by an ocean god?“ „My ex-boyfriend, yes!“ „And he makes you do all this crazy things?“ „He is petty like that…'' He shrugged. „I have to deal with him to keep my magic… so, it’s like whatever!“ Silence. „What a douche!“

Pretty fun, right? Next we had to come up with a species, at this point I didn't really know what to focus on so I closed a race that I already kinda created but never thought about too much. They are actually part of another story of mine, maybe I will share this one with you at another time. So here goes nothing:

The Agents of The Firm:

It looks human. It feels human. It even acts human. But it’s not a human. It was neither born, nor raised. It, and the rest of it’s kind were build for a purpose. And that is to serve The Firm. They are it’s Agents. Created to watch and seek and bring and kill if need be. Thousands must exist at this point. Each of them, looking like a human or whatever you would consider „normal“ in your world. They are biological, but enhanced, they are working machines of flesh. Stript of everything that would make a person „human“. You might walk past one and you would never notice. Until you are their target. In that case you wouldn’t notice either, at least not before you are lying face down in the dirt and feel their cold clasp around your neck. They adapt to their surroundings, made to blend in, but still be superior. It is not known if they even think as individuals or if a collective consciousness controls them. Travelling through worlds and doing their masters bidding. Wherever you are. Whether or not you think you’re save. Let me tell you one thing: You’re not!

The next part was about coming up with flags and currencies. At this point I heavily started to work on worldbuilding for Mirage and so I'm not going to share my writings with you in this post but rather in one about the lands and history of the world in Mirage. I hope that's not a bummer.
Now we are moving forward, we had to pick one random song and one random picture and just write whatever about it. I really really like what I wrote and especially the second one is something I would love to come back to at some point in time:

Prompt: Run boy run and A picture of a lighthouse at dark.

Their feet hurt. But that didn't keep them from running. Faster and faster. Into the dark. Without knowing if their feet would find any solid ground. The light far behind touched floating red hair, full of leaves and twigs. No, stay in the shadows. Everything hurts, but still, Willow keeped running. They wouldn't stop. They would find them. There was no more air in Willows lungs. The world darkened in a beating pulse and not because it was night. Why? No time for thinking. But why? The trees opened up and the moonlight found its way upon a meadow. The lighttower was far behind. Not far enough. Willow's head still echoed with the chants. Why?! Don't stop. They were not safe. Would they ever be? Their eyes burnt, they would have ripped them out, but somehow they know that wouldn't help. The cold night air was cut with the salt that the ocean carried. Willow was close to the cliffs. What did they do in the lighthouse? What was that… that pit? And those noises. Did they throw someone in there? The grass was wet from the rain yesterday, but it might as well have been Willows blood. In their mind dozens of masked faces turned towards them. Distorted faces. Only the eyes of the people behind, visible. Never blinking. Just. Looking. At. Them. The adrenalin slowly left their body, only to be replaced by a cutting pain on their back. Just a bit further. Just the small way down the cliffs. No one knew about the caves and those figures in the robes wouldn't fit in. Just a bit. They reached the cliffs. Cold wind hit their hot face. The ocean was calm, the sun wouldn't be up for a few hours. Down the narrow stone path, barely visible. Willow didn't dare to look over their shoulder. There was the entrance of the first cave. They ripped open their knees while climbing in. Didn't matter. Inside the tunnels that crawled all across the cliffs they were safe. There was a different kind of darkness surrounding them now. A familiar darkness. They spend so much time here. Finally they were able to breath. The cold stone under Willow's feet and hands gave them comfort, like an old friend, welcoming them home. Until they saw the eyes. Way to close. Gleaming yellow. A scream escaped their dry lips. The eyes started to speak, but not a word was said.

You are going to die in these tunnels, Willow Darkstin.

“Who are you?!” Why? Did it matter? Silence. Then, an answer as the eyes creeped closer. But nothing was spoken.

I am your destiny, Willow Darkstin.

There was stone behind them. No way back.

I am going to die in these tunnels.

 

Prompt 2: Living Dead and road trip:

 

The moon had turned red an hour ago. Tracy still explained how this was a natural occurrence and blahblahblah. Darren just had turned the radio up. The red light made the canyons left and right of the street look pretty cool tho. Almost everything looked either as covered in blood or part of a red light district. Pretty metal. “So, are we just not gonna talk about this?” Urgh, of course Josh was the one to break their perfect shield of pretending. I opened the window on my side and let the dry wind blow between the space of my fingers. “Why are we here?”, he kept talking. “Because Darren couldn’t just let this fucking idea go and we, as his fucking friends, suport his fucking ideas, even if they are bullshit.” Nobody had anything to say against my perfect summary of this situation. None of us really wanted to be here. But Darren… well it was hard to say no to him. Darren Puppy-Eye Collins. I gave him that name, when we first met. My brother from another mother. Runaway, street criminal and general asshole. So we had a lot in common. Don't remember when we met Josh, but he was running his parents store at the time and Tracy was a student at some university, we met her here. She never told us how she got to this place. “Got the beer?” First time Darren opened his mouth on our little trip to the big gates. “Sure do.” Because of the fucking box I couldn’t stretch out my feet. “I don't miss the taste of beer one bit.” No one asked you, Tracy. I didn't say that, I'm trying to be nicer to Tracy, she is a good girl. “I still think this is a bad idea!” Josh pushed his face between the seats. The red moonlight flickered over his always slightly twitching eyes and the scar on his neck. Wonder if this is what got him here. I still carry my ticket all the time, the last syringe I wanted to take before getting clean. When I think about it this way, Darren still wore the old leather jacket with the shooting holes. I guess we all hold on to the past in one way or another. We passed the sign that said: "Leaving Deadland, please turn around." But our car wouldn't turn around tonight. Fuck signs. Fuck the authoritys . But still. “So...you really wanna do this, Collins?” Darren noded. Urgh, it's so annoying when he stopped talking like this. “What exactly are you missing? The impending doom of global warming? The injustice of a corrupt government or maybe just shity parents that kick you out if you no longer fit into their perfect view of the world?” He just glanced over. With this specific look. “I'm just saying that life is a shitshow, man. We can be happy that we are done with it.” Tracy began biting her nails. She does that a lot when other people are fighting or she feels uncomfortable. “But, hey, if you want to visit the old mortal coil, that's cool. Just don't get your hopes up. Like a very wise woman once said: Nobody dies a virgin, life fucks us all.” In the backseat Josh started to nervously laugh. “Pretty sure that is not a common saying… but Charlotte has a point, life… is nothing but sorrow.” Hate when she calls me that, it's Charlie, never Charlotte. Well, Darren didn't seem too happy with her words, his grip around the wheel tightened. “You just don't get what I'm trying here. Look around!” We looked around. Canyons and desert as far as you could see. Dead City wasn't the nicest place I've been to, but it beat this view any day. Everything seemed so… dead. Ha, good one. “I don't want to end like this, I don't want to stay like this for the rest of my ...” “Life?” Good one as well. Who knew that Tracy had a side that could tell jokes. “Forget it! We are almost there...” He wasn't wrong. The red horizon was cut through by the giant wall that surrounded this area of the afterlife. The only way in and out: The giant fucking gate, guarded by a giant fucking monster. When the sun was up, all kinds of people constantly came through so Dareens brilliant idea was: If people come in, people have to be able to go out. And that's why we are all sitting in his shitty car and driving towards our possible impending doom, whatever that could mean for someone who has already died.

That’s it for today, there was some more stuff I left out, like food, heroes, villains and all those juicy details :3 wouldn’t want to spoil you too much. All in time my sweet children and until then… read you later ^^