15 May 2024

This poem is loosely based on a prompt I found on Tumblr through Catelyn Winona; a fantastic short story author, by the way. She wrote her own story based on it, and it got me thinking. I always like it when there’s at least one person who can see both sides.

Notes: For the sake of the meter, I considered “Family” to be 3 syllables and “general” to be 2.

“For what didst thou believe I journeyed here?

Whose fault, pray tell, that I am wrenched from home?

The beast is slain; here lies the demon felled.

And yet thou darest ask yet more of me?

My family to never see again,

Instead to aid the ones that plucked me hence?

If asked of thee, thou wouldst then hail me mad!”

The prince enraged, at first did think to duel

But blessed grace, the general intervened.

He bowed his head; “We thank you for your aid.

Please go in peace. I’ll handle matters here.”

The hero gone, the prince at once exclaimed,

“What treach’ry this? Our country could have saved,

Rebuilt, renewed, but now, the relic lost.”

The general raised a brow and waved behind.

“What’s there to see that’s left of palace yon?

How did it fall? What pow’r did that require?

In face of such, could thou a moment stand?

What fool, pray tell, would trade one foe for worse?

What’s more, he spoke the truth; canst thou deny?

Whate’er our wish, in truth we’ve done him ill.

What reason should he yield his hopes to us?”

Like fish on land, the prince gaped at the mouth.

The general clapped his back and turned. “Well, come.

There’s still much work to build our country new.”

24 April 2024

This is a poem about that Atlantis/magical girl story I started a while back. I still want to do something with it, but even with what I have here, the opening isn’t landing quite right for me. I’ll have to tweak the idea later. It’s definitely not my priority, though; Perish Song, Majesty, and Rapunzel are all higher on my list than this one. Just wanted a change of pace.

I did think the idea of how I formatted this poem was kind of cool, though. Would’ve been better if I made the fairy stanzas more consistent in line length, but that was a bit mroe trouble than it was worth, at least for a rough draft.

Come, see Atlantis, and join up in our fight!

Gawk at all our wonders, partake in each delight.

There’s a bit of danger, this I won’t deny,

But ‘tis but a smidgeon. What then is thy reply?

Thinkest me a fool?

Lying wretch, begone.

Though wonders offered,

I will not be swayed.

The prince was at a loss; he knew not what to do

Without a promised partner, the gate won’t let him through

So he huddled in her bedroom, miserable and lost

And watched the daily life of this girl whose path he’d crossed.

Pitiful rabbit

Wherefore called a prince?

A week I ponder

Should I twist the pact?

Become a reaper

Slay cosmic horrors

Both eldritch and fae

What say you to that?

When she at least agreed to meet, I thought I would rejoice

But once conditions heard, I promptly lost my voice

A reaper? Truly? But why would she wish so?

What could my kind have ever done to be considered foe?

Art thou so blind, then?

How these girls recruit?

Risk naught, asking all

How should they be judged?

20 September 2023 part 2

Redoing the magical girl scene.

…become a magical girl?”

Sarah blinked twice and tipped her hand to the side. “Why would I want to do that?”

The rabbit-thing froze, eyes fixed on Sarah. “...I was under the impression most young women your age aspired to the position. Quite fervently, in fact. Is that not the case?”

With a shrug, Sarah answered, “I’m not them. I’m me.”

The silence stretched on long enough to get awkward before the rabbit-thing replied. “I see. And the fame and fortune that come with the station don’t appeal to you, I suppose?”

“WHo in their right mind wants to be famous? I’d never get any privacy anymore. And there’s other, probably safer ways to get rich if I decide I want that.”

“Hmm.” The rabbit-thing bobbed his head and sat quietly, apparently lost in thought.

After a moment or two, Sarah asked, “Would you mind moving over a bit? You’re sitting on my homework.”

“Ah, my apologies.” The rabbit-thing hopped to the floor, but before Sarah could get back to work, he asked, “So you enjoy learning, then?”

“Well, yeah. There’s so much to see and discover, and the more you understand, the more doors it opens for you, yeah?”

“Then would you have any interest in learning the lost secrets of Atlantis, or perhaps even the technologies of my people?”

Sarah paused and glanced back down at the rabbit-thing. She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t curious, but this whole thing seemed more and more sketch the more he pushed.

19 September 2023

So… It’s been a while. And I don’t remember much. So for a bit, I’m going to post three or so times a day, and work on refining everything with author’s notes and whatnot later. I’m impressed how much of a backlog I have, actually; it’s been hard to focus for a long time now.

Sarah wasn’t expecting a familiar to show up in her bedroom that evening. To be honest, she wasn’t expecting one to show up at all. She didn’t exactly fit the “magical girl” profile. Given the choice, she preferred to keep to herself, and her outfit tended toward dark colors, only softened by her golden-blonde hair. And even that she’d dyed black for Halloween last week.

And yet, here the thing was, a weird little pseudo-bunny sitting right on top of her AP Calculus homework. They stared at each other for a minute or two, when a male voice echoed inside her head. “How would you like to become a magical girl?”

Sarah blinked a couple times then scowled. “Heck no. Why would I want to do that?”

Prince Xavian Edwist von Hescher expected this to be a fairly routine contract. The girl–Sarah Dossinger, was it? – had few friends, and one of the highest compatibility scores Xavian had ever seen. By rights, she should have jumped at the opportunity; all his siblings’ contractors had.

So when Sarah declined, Xavian was at a complete loss. What was worse, she disregarded the idea completely, as if it was too much of a hassle.

“W-what do you mean?” he pushed. “Magical girls are granted access to magics and technologies beyond your wildest dreams! What’s more, they are afforded fame and fortune both here and among the Atlanteans. Why would you not desire that?”

To Xavian’s shock, the girl’s scowl deepened. “What person in their right mind wants to be famous? I have to deal with people way too much as it is. As for the rest, well. You know what they say. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Besides, I’ve got a pretty cozy life right now, anyway.”

Xavian couldn’t find words to reply to that. After several minutes where he gasped like a fish out of water, Sarah asked, “Could you move, please? You’re sitting on my homework.”

He hopped down to the floor, and the girl proceeded to ignore him to work on solving integrals and the like. After another several minutes, Sarah asked, “WHy are you still here? Don’t you have other people to bother? More contracts to make?”

“I… No, I don’t. I can’t, actually.”

That made Sarah pause. She pulled back to look at Xavian. “What do you mean, you can’t?”

Xavian flinched. “I, er… Well, it takes a lot to materialize an avatar and send our consciousness to this realm. Without the energy from a contract, it’ll take a while to save up the energy to go back.”

Sarah glared at him, making him shrink even smaller. “How long?”

“Er, it’s… a-about a week.”

“A week.” Sarah’s voice was flat.

“...Yes.”

After a moment, Sarah groaned and rubbed her temples. She muttered to herself, “Mina keeps rabbits, right? Maybe I can pass it off to her for the week.”

Xavian froze. “D-do you really plan on foisting me off like a common rabbit!?”

Sarah raised an eyebrow. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I? You’re the one who showed up unannounced. Why should that be my problem?”

Xavian’s fur bristled. “Don’t you know who I am?”

“Not a clue. Not that I care. You skipped straight to your crappy sales pitch, and skipped right over introductions.”

Xavian finally realized how badly he’d botched this whole thing. He did his best to draw himself up regally and bowed his head. “My apologies. I am Prince Xavian Edwist von Hescher, of the Arcadian royal family.”

The look Sarah gave him was filled with disdain, but before Xavian could protest, she just shook her head and turned back to her work. “Yeah, I really dodged a bullet there.”

“Eh?”

“You said Arcadia, right? The fae aren’t exactly known for making fair deals. They’re all about half-truths and twisted words; more like Kyubey in Madoka Magica.” She shot a glance. “Not that you seem very capable of that.”

26 April 2023

This was fun. I think I do intend to do more with these characters at some point in the future. That said, I would like to focus more on Hanako and Majesty for the time being…

There are definitely some spots I’d tweak in this scene, though. The biggest one is that I’d like to have Kyra have a bit more banter with the cultists; give her a chance to actually confirm things are what they look like, and make it a more ironic twist for them before she kills them in some way. Also, without knowing the rest of the story (both Kyra’s past and where the story goes after this), it’s hard to set timelines, so all that may change.

Notes

Brinja (pronounced brin-ya) trembled in fear on the altar. She struggled against her bindings, but the ropes were too tight for her to break free. With tears in her eyes, she watched as the cultist raised a dagger to plunge into her heart.

Just before it fell, there was a sharp crack, and the seal on the great evil split. An eerie red light beamed from it, and the seal crumbled to pieces, revealing the figure of an eight-foot-tall humanoid monstrosity with horns on its head.

“My lord!” All the cultists, including the one holding the dagger, turned and knelt before the figure. 

For a long moment, the demon didn’t move. Then, slowly, it tipped forward, landing face down on the floor, and slowly disintegrated into dust.

From behind it, a tall red-headed woman in scarred leather armor stretched. “Oh, it’s good to be out of there. I hope Fera won’t mind that I went ahead and killed the thing… if she’s even around anymore, I guess.”

It was at that point she and Brinja made eye contact. There was something fierce in the woman’s eyes, and Brinja trembled even harder.

The woman’s gaze flickered over the cultists around her, drinking in the scene. Before she moved, the lead cultist gathered their wits and shuffled toward her, head bowed. “My, my Lady! Long have we awaited your return!”

With narrowed eyes, the woman simply said, “Have you now?” With a motion so smooth Brinja almost missed it, she spun one of the axes from her belt into her hand. A moment later, the axe-head blazed with an infernal violet flame. “Then I’d better give you the reward you bastards deserve.”

She launched herself toward the cultist, bringing the axe back, and Brinja squeezed her eyes shut. She had no way to block her ears, however, so she heard every thud of the axe, every scream and shout, every interrupted spell the cultists tried to cast before they were cut down.

Things were quiet for several moments before Brinja felt warm, rough hands working on her bindings. When she opened her eyes, she was surprised to see the woman tenderly untying her.

“Even who knows how many decades–maybe centuries–later,” the woman muttered, “and crap like this is still happening?”

Soon, she’d released Brinja, and the young girl stood shakily on her feet.

“Are you alright? Any injuries?” The woman looked over Brinja with concern.

With a shake of her head, Brinja replied, “No, I-I’ll be alright. Thank you!” She bit herr lower lip, then asked, “U-um, I hope you don’t mind, but… W-who are you?”

The woman relaxed. “I’m Kyra. What’s your name?”

Brinja’s head went blank. Kyra? The Kyra? The goddess of battle that sealed herself off with the demon lord to keep him from escaping [three hundred years ago]? A little awed, somehow Brinja managed to spit out, “It… it’s Brinja.”

“Right. Good to meet you, Brinja. And, er… Sorry if this seems strange, but by any chance, could you tell me what year it is?”