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#writing shorts
stray-kaz · 30 days
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“Jes! Jes, did you feel it?” You excitedly asked your husband, your hand holding his larger one against your swelling belly.
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(Give me the first sentence of a fic and I have to write the next five).
“Jes! Jes, did you feel it?” you excitedly asked your husband, your hand holding his larger one against your swelling belly.
He stroked his thumb up and down, brown eyes widening in excitement.
"Yes, I felt it! She's getting big, isn't she, love?" he replied, rocking back and forth on his toes.
You nodded, grinning.
"Big and ready to meet her da, Jes."
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lastinnett-writer · 1 year
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Here’s your daily dose of cozy fantasy short fiction to warm your day.

In the dimly lit bedroom Jason snuggled next to Marie, watching dawn overtake the city skyline. 
“I wanted to spend my last Earth sunrise with you,” he said. 
“I’m going to miss you while you’re on Mars,” said Marie. 
Jason got up and dug through his pack, pulling out a sheet of plastic stars before standing on the bed.
He placed one on the ceiling and laid beside her. 
“Whenever you gaze up and see that star, know it’s me looking down and watching over you.”
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mtreebeardiles · 2 years
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Domestic Distractions (ExK)
Couldn’t sleep! Ay! So went for a discord prompt! ENJOY Also on AO3
Evvy sat on the floor of their new bedroom, surrounded by boxes that still needed unpacking. It had been overwhelming, the process of moving in: of decisions of what should go where, in what style and which colors. So much of their things were… well. Kaidan’s, really, things he’d nicked from the orchard house and what few personal items he managed to hold onto through the destruction of the SR-1 and the Reaper War.
 Everett was virtually starting from scratch.
 Again.
 He’d felt guilty, letting Kaidan shoulder most of the burden of choosing what would go into their new home. His partner hadn’t seemed to mind, but being seen as non-dependable in any capacity always sat poorly with Evvy. But this…this he was willing to admit he needed help with. 
 He’d never had an actual home before. 
 The idea that he did now, that he had a place that was indisputably theirs, caught him like a blow to the chest from time to time. It snuck up when he pulled up to the driveway, when he was putting groceries away, when he caught the melody of music muffled down the hall. A new space, a blank canvas, waiting for memories all its own, and sometimes it was all he could do to just…sit with it. Breathe through it. Remind himself that yes, this was real; yes, this was happening. That the chances of it being ripped away like so many things in his life had been were pretty slim after all the shit they’d been through. 
 We haven’t even unpacked the rest of the house, he thought in quiet admonishment to himself, but there was no real bite to it. Of all the problems to have, these were far preferable to the alternatives. 
 Behind him he heard the shower cut off and smiled a little. He closed the book he’d gotten distracted by and slid it into place on the shelf. 
 2/3rds to go. Roughly, anyway, if he could stop rearranging as he went. He needed to make sure he kept a space front and center for his favorite series, after all. 
 “You still not done with that bookcase?”
 He tilted his head back and grinned up at Kaidan, the other man looking down at him with his arms crossed over his chest and a smile he was trying to hide. His hair was damp, a bit messy from a thorough toweling, and he was bare save for the towel wrapped around his waist.
 “The books have to have a certain flow, Kaidan.”
 “Uh-huh.”
 “I was doing it by color but I don’t have enough variety for the impact I want, so I decided to go by genre, but that skews hard towards fantasy, so then…”
 Kaidan shook his head, leaning down to kiss his nose. 
 “And here I was hoping I’d be able to reward you for finishing the bookcases,” he sighed, and Everett scrunched his nose at him. 
 “What kind of reward?”
 “Oh, I don’t know. The kind where I just showered and we haven’t eaten yet…”
 Everett narrowed his eyes. 
 “…I feel like you’re trying to get me to rush this.”
 “Is it working?”
 “…yes.”
 Kaidan laughed, dodging Evvy’s swat towards his ass. “Clock’s ticking, nerd.”
 “Unbelievable.”
 But Everett was laughing as he shoved the books haphazardly onto the shelves, no rhyme or reason, and he knew he’d get sucked into rearranging them again another day — but there would be another day, another moment, another memory to make, and right then?
 He had a different sort of memory in mind.
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rottentick · 2 years
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Short 1: Birthday
Summary: A “short” story based on events before Act 0; Zeck is enjoying his 25th birthday.
             “Hey, hey! Look at this! Apparently when the electric eel is excited, the little sign on the tank is supposed to turn on! Isn’t that neat, that the eel can control when it turns on its electricity?” Zeck rambled as he looked happily at the tank in front of him before raising his phone and taking a picture of the eel. The brunette woman next to him was staring down at her phone, typing away but let out a low hum.
            “The keepers said that they were going to feed the little guy in a few minutes! Do you wanna stay and see it, Victoria?” Zeck turned towards the woman, who still hadn’t looked up from her phone, her brows furrowed a bit.
            “Uhm, not really Zeke,” she grumbled something under her breath, “Why don’t you show me something else?”
            Zeck felt slight disappoint in the pit of his stomach, but his energy immediately bounced back as he thought of a great tank to take her next. “I know! The otter tank should be nearby, come on, come on, we might get a good spot to see them playing!” Zeck excitedly grabbed onto her hand, which she allowed as he led her off. It didn’t take too long to reach the otter tank, but much to his dismay there was a group of people rather gathered, ooo’ing and aw’ing the little critters as they played around. He could hear a disappointed noise next to him, actually seeing Victoria looking up from her phone to see the crowd with him.
            “Aw, shoot,” Zeck clicked his tongue, “Ha, guess we didn’t beat the crowd after all. Oh, maybe we can go look at the stingrays? I think we can actually touch them—”
            “Ewww, you wanna touch a stingray?”
            “Well yeah! They’re like sea puppies! Uh, flat sea puppies anyways!” Zeck smiled at Victoria, who rolled her eyes slightly, before letting out an amused huff.
            “Okay Zeke, take me to your weird flat sea dogs.”
            ----------
            Zeck watched the giant pacific octopus that sat in the tank in front of him, seeing it’s eye move a bit. Was it wondering about him, just as he was about it? How alien he must have been to the creature, and how alien it was to him…
            “I wonder how it’d be to see things from your side…” Zeck mused out loud, before he heard someone clearing their throat and had him looking up from his spot. Victoria had returned from the bathroom, after being splashed on by one of the stingrays. There was a bit of a wet spot left on her shirt, but it wasn’t really noticeable, still she didn’t see too pleased.
            “Ha ha, hey~! I guess the little guys were too excited, that was crazy though, seeing it do that little jump huh?” he chuckled a bit nervously, which caused her to let out a low groan and sit down next to him.
            “It splashed all over my favorite dress Zeke, the fish smell is gonna stay on it,” she pouted
            “Aw, it wasn’t anything personal Victoria! Besides we can just get it washed once we get home! Then we can order some food and have some of the cake I got!” Zeck said, trying to cheer her up.
            “Mhmm? Can we get sushi?” she asked, causing Zeck to pause and let out another chuckle.
            “Ha-- That’s kinda morbid considering we’re like, sitting around some fish right??? Especially in front of an octopus-- But sure! I don’t see why not, I got birthday money to blow on sushi anyways!” he said happily, which he could see caused her to smile back.
            God she’s so pretty. She’s so perfect. I’m so lucky to have her in my life. Lucky she came with me on my birthday-- 
            “Oh! Make sure to get enough for all three of us Zeke, we don’t want to leave Bailey out too,” she chimed up, halting Zeck’s thoughts.
            “Oh.” he blanked slightly, before pulling out his phone and looking excited again as he started looking through his phone’s contact list, “Yeah, yeah, of course! I wouldn’t forget him, I should text him to ask what kind of sushi he likes!” 
            Mmm, I don’t really want sushi but… They probably both do. I can’t be a bummer, it’s my birthday after all!
            … Ugh, this fucking sucks.
            Blowing a strand of black hair out of his face, he focused on texting away to Bailey who he had nicknamed ‘Bailer’ on his phone.
            [You: heyyy dude, im gonna order sushi! Do u want something?]
            [Bailer: Nah man it’s cool.]
            Well… One less mouth to feed.
            “Bailey didn’t want anything,” Zeck said before shoving his phone in his pocket, “So I could just get sushi for the two of us?”
            “Awww come on Zeke, at least get him something too? Even if it’s not sushi?” Victoria pleaded. Zeck could feel a slight twitch in his eye.
            “Oh yeah~! No worries, I’ll just ask him again in a bit what he may want!”
            God… Dammit.
            ----------
            So here he was at home, having ordered some fried tempura sushi and pizza for his girlfriend and roommate in their apartment, Victoria and Bailey sitting on the couch having put on a movie Zeck was nowhere near interested in, as Zeck set up his cake, pushing down a 2 and a 5 candle onto it before smiling down at his cake satisfied. It was a rather small cake he had gotten for himself as neither of his roommates had been interested in cake so he had gotten his favorite; A simple caramel turtle ice cream cake, all for himself. Sliding himself into a seat, Zeck used the matchbox to light up his candles, small lights illuminating his space in the darkened apartment.
            “Big 25… Coolio, time to make a wish,” he mumbled lowly to himself, closing his eyes for a moment.
            I wish for… Hm, happiness? No uh, maybe money??? Eh, oh, maybe a—
            “Hey man! Blowing out the candles without us?” Bailey’s voice cut through Zeck’s causing, causing him to yelp and grip onto the table, startled. Bailey laughed a bit as Zeck dug his fingers into the table, a strained smile on his face.
            “Uh—You two were busy so I at least wanted to get this out of the w—”
            “Oh sweet, is this a caramel turtle cake? Can’t wait for you to cut into it then man!” Bailey interrupted Zeck, and Zeck just stared at him, before back at the cake.
            The cake was small. For a single person.
            “Zekeee, you can’t just blow out your candles before telling us! Come on, let me at least get a picture!” Victoria came over to, phone held up, causing Zeck to nervously push his hair behind his ear.
            “Uhm, I, I don’t like pictures being taken of myself you know…?” Zeck’s quiet went softer at the end, before Victoria tsk’d him.
            “No no! That won’t do, it’s your 25th birthday Zeke! Come on, just one pic, okay?” she asked. 
            “... Okay. Fine.” Zeck resigned, shifting in his seat again, before closing his eyes and trying to focus.
            What I wish for… Big ol’ 25th wish huh? 
            … Does it even matter?
            Zeck blow out his candles, wincing slightly as the flash hit his eyes, before he lifted up his glasses to rub his eyes. He heard a low hum from Victoria. 
            “I could work with this, just gotta edit the lighting…” She mumbled, before walking off, meanwhile Bailey had gotten a knife to hand off to Zeck, which he begrudgingly took, gripping the handle a bit too hard.
             Happy birthday to me, I guess, Zeck thought, before bringing down the knife on his cake, slicing it in half.
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etchedstars · 2 years
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  tell me something you haven’t told anyone. 
can’t. i tell, like, everyone everything. (no, i tell you everything. you are the keeper of my secrets and the stars in my eyes.)
  really? there’s nothing. that can’t be true.
what - yeah! 
  come on. there’s gotta be something. anything. everyone’s got secrets, right? 
yeah, well - you go first, then. (and i want to know yours. i want to turn you inside out and memorize the spaces that have shaped you. you’ve pushed them far, far away; i can see it in the inside of your wrist and your music.)
  a secret?
yeah. you first. (and they may not be beautiful; no matter. i see the beautiful because you share it with the world. the ugly is kept much more closely guarded to the heart, and i want to be closer to yours than the worst of your unknowns.)
  sure, okay, uh - i don’t know. i feel like i have so many, but then when you ask, it’s not - there isn’t anything. i don’t have any secrets at all when it comes to you. 
that’s how it feels to me too. you’re just special, i guess. (and you are, not just to me. i want to lie in a field with you, hold your hand as the flowers that bloom so easily under your feet overtake you and me both. i can be the breeze in your hair if you want me to.)
  ha. yeah, as if. 
no, you are! really. 
  you’re just saying that. 
i’m not. have you seen the way you–? you’re just about everything to so many people. (this is code for to me. you know how to read the shifts in my seat, the slightest movement of my eyes. tell me you can. the language hasn’t changed and neither have i. tell me you know. please.)
   okay. here’s my secret. i feel like i’m not loved. 
i can’t change how you think. but you are. (i love you.)
   yeah? prove it. 
i can’t do that either. you just have to go out and look for the love. you’ll see it, i promise. (i’m right here, i promise. i’m here, and i love you.)
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sylvies-kablooie · 2 months
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i do unironically think the best artists of our generation are posting to get 20 notes and 3 reblogs btw. that fanfic with like 45 kudos is some of the best stuff ever written. those OCs you carry around have some of the richest backstories and worldbuilding someone has ever seen. please do not think that reaching only a few people when you post means your art isn't worth celebrating.
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sing-you-fools · 7 months
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me: this is a background character who's in one scene, has two lines, and is completely irrelevant to the rest of the story. i am going to stop obsessing over what to name him and use the random name generator on behindthename.com. i am going to accept the first thing it gives me and move the fuck on.
behindthename.com:
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strangelittlestories · 3 months
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After the occupation, the princess was confined to the palace.
Once a month she'd be taken on a walk around the city, heavily guarded of course, to show the people that she still lived. It also served, of course, as a reminder of what they stood to lose if they made trouble. The princess did her best go wave and smile and give the people what encouragement she could.
The rest of the time, her life was spent in musty rooms and dusty towers. She filled most of her time scouring the castle for materials which she would sew into more and more elaborate outfits, which she would show off on the days when she was allowed outside.
Indeed, the public loved their princess and her dresses so much they'd often sketch or paint them along the route and pass the images on so that all could see the princess at least was well.
This pleased the occupiers for two reasons. First: it kept the princess out of trouble. Second: it gave them a reason to sneer and they did love a good sneer.
"What a vain creature she is!" They would remark.
"Doesn't even care we murdered her brothers so long as she gets enough satin to make her little dresses!" They squawked.
This was unfair, of course, for to call her creations "little dresses" was to call Queen Murderfun the Needlessly Genocidal "a tad piquey". Her dresses were gravity-defying wonders lace and pearl. They were thunderstorms captured in velvet and waterfalls summoned in silk. She was a wizard with silk.
Still, she bore their mockery with a tight smile and careful deference.
"Please, good sirs, my home, my people and my city now belong to you. Let me keep, at least, this one last joy."
And they sneered and they crowed most unpleasantly, but they let her keep her sewing room.
Of course, they would have known their mockery to be doubly unfair had they realised the true purpose of the princess's elaborate designs. For hidden in the intricate embroiderings across her gowns, jackets and fans, the princess had encoded secret (and very detailed) messages. When she would go on her monthly walk, the city's loyalists would line the route, sketching down the patterns to decode later.
Thus did the princess transmit all the occupiers' secrets (unearthed while supposedly 'searching the castle for old fabrics') to the city and thus did she build her resistance.
On the day the revolution finally came, she girded herself in armour of thick spider silk and whale bone. She cut a fine figure with a lacy handkerchief in her top pocket and a razor sharp knitting needle keeping her hair up.
As she waltzed through the castle to open the door for her army, the Usurper King tried to stop her and she simply unfolded her handkerchief and showed it to him.
Upon seeing the impossible arcane pattern emblazoned across it, he fell to the floor with blood streaming from his eyes.
She always had been a wizard with silk.
---
Thank you for reading. If you'd like to support my writing, you can do so at https://ko-fi.com/strangelittlestories
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kithj · 7 months
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good games i've played on itchio lately:
please tell me you love me - chat with your guild members for the last time before the game's servers are shut down
GIRLKILLER (covet) - there is a girl who looks like you, and today you're going to kill her
cover me in leaves - stuck in your small hometown, you get your first tattoo. and then a few more, and more, and more
don't rock the boat - play through the different perspectives of a women's crew team as they are stalked by something in the water
GUTLESS - you are the captain of a deep sea vessel. your mission doesn't go well
so, about last night... - you wake up sick and weirdly hungry after hooking up with someone at a party. you spend the next night trying to find her.
close the window, my love - short bitsy poem about closing the window. sound on! this creator has a lot of short bitsy works i recommend.
there is a beautiful star - just a short, cute side scroller. lots of short, lighthearted games from them, definitely recommend for a mood booster.
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swamp-chicken · 19 days
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mountain man etho confirmed
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stray-kaz · 1 month
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For the fic meme: “Jesper, sweetheart, are…are those new suspenders?” You asked as you and your husband were readying for bed.
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(Give me the first sentence of a fic and I have to write the next five).
“Jesper, sweetheart, are…are those new suspenders?” you asked as you and your husband were readying for bed.
He glanced across the bed at you, looking down from the deep pink suspenders and then up again to your eager eyes and flushed cheeks. Your smile was shy as he rounded the bed to reach you, lifting your hands from where they rested on your stomach and placing them instead on the articles in question, gently curling your fingers around them with a smile of his own and a kiss pressed to your forehead.
"Why, yes, they are new; something you want to do with them?" he murmured, eyebrows arching perfectly.
You nodded and stepped onto the toes of his boots to kiss him, whispering words against his lips.
"Can I take 'em off?"
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i love the Smiling Critters as a cartoon concept and if it ever developed like mlp or something like that I can absolutely see something comical like this happening djkfskf
lesson at the end would probably be something about getting a healthy amount of sleep and staying on a good schedule jfhskf
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reidiot · 9 months
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don't fucking interrupt me when i'm reading my x reader fics it's rude
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”oh so how did you get into writing?-“ no, writing got into me. Actually it infiltrated my brain, starting with the slow takeover of my room with books to the extremely fast claiming of my notes app and now there’s no way to stop it and no way for me to stop.
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thestuffedalligator · 10 months
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The goblin looked at the orc. The orc looked at the goblin. They both looked down at the crumpled shape of the Overlord, His Unholy Majesty, in his obsidian armor.
His final spasms had been mesmerizingly acrobatic. The fall down the steps leading up to his iron throne had pretzelled his body quite impressively, both arms folded behind his back and one leg bent at a jaunty angle.
The goblin looked at the orc. The orc looked at the goblin.
"Shit," said the goblin.
"Shit," said the orc.
"We're likely to get blamed for this," the goblin said. She walked over to the head of the glittering mangled heap and started pulling the helmet off.
"It's not our fault," the orc said. "It's hard to help someone choking when they wear two-hundred pounds of spiked armor at all times."
"Yeah, well," the goblin grunted. The helmet came free, and the bald head of the Overlord bounced on the stone with a hollow, coconut noise. "You know how it is in this bloody country - thieves get their heads cut off so they can't think about thieving, and all that." She fished in the Overlord's mouth with a finger and pulled out the obstructing olive on the end of her claw.
She popped it into her mouth and chewed. "What do you reckon they do for a regicide?" she said.
"We should run," the orc said. She had started bouncing her leg. "I hear that there's some places in the Alliance where they just kill you and let you stay dead. That's got to be nicer than what'll happen if we stay here."
The goblin started to nod - and then her gaze fell on the helmet.
It looked like a pineapple designed by a deranged blacksmith. It was all thorns and spikes and hard edges, as though the maker had been very determined to not let pigeons roost on it. The only bits that weren't solid iron were eyeholes. Nobody had ever seen the Overlord's face.
She held up the helmet and squinted from it to the orc. One of the thorns had been bent badly in the fall.
Nobody had ever seen the Overlord's face...
"Right," she muttered. "Right. Could work - or."
The orc had a sudden vision of the immediate future. "No," she said.
"I mean you're about his height-"
"No."
"It would just be for a-"
"Absolutely not."
"Just hear me out," the goblin said. "Outside of this room are two-thousand men and orcs and goblins who are absolutely gonzo about this man, and there's a whole country of them outside of the castle, and at any moment someone's going to walk in that door and see one dead tit in black armor and two unbelievably dead idiots next to him.
"Or." She tossed the helmet up like a basketball to the orc, who fumbled and tried to find somewhere to hold it that wasn't a knife's edge. "We chuck him out the window now, walk out the door in the armor, and ditch the armor as soon as nobody sees us."
The orc had started bouncing her leg again. "They'll know something's up the second I walk out of the room."
"No worries," said the goblin. "Leave that to me."
---
It had been a very strange year for the Empire.
Change had rolled across the land as slow and inevitable as a glacier. Roads and bridges carved the gray, blasted wildlands, and a number of social reforms had made the country a place where you could be miserable, yes, but miserable in comfort and safety, and that was an improvement.
Barely anyone got boiled alive in molten metal, and even if the disgusted sun never rose to light the Empire, at least you had a roof over your head to protect yourself from the acid rain.
"Your empire flourishes, Your Unholy Majesty," the magician said over her wine glass. She looked down from the tower's balcony over the gleaming stone battlements. Some work had been done to line the castle and surrounding city with sizzling, crackling alchemical lights at night. The whole thing glowed like something dangerously radioactive.
The suit of armor waved a languid, glittering gauntlet over to the goblin, who bowed.
"His Abominable Gloriousness Thanks You," the goblin recited. "The Prosperity Of His Empire Can Only Be Achieved Through The Prosperity Of His People."
"If I may be so bold, I am quite pleased that you had chosen to take my counsel under consideration," said the magician. "We have accomplished many things together."
Another wave. Another bow. "The Overlord, May His Presence Swallow The Sun And Stars, Thanks You As Well."
"It was quite gratifying to see you change your mind, after so many centuries of denial." The wine was swirled. "Tell me, what was it that finally gave you cause to listen to me?"
There was the slightest hesitation. The goblin's eyes flicked to the armor, then to the magician. She puffed out her chest. "Do you question the wisdom of His Austere Lugubriousness?" she asked.
The magician looked at the goblin. She looked at the armor. She tipped her head back and drank the wine too quickly.
She looked back at the armor. "I know you're the orc, you moron," she said.
The room went deathly still. An alchemical light fizzled.
The orc pulled off the helmet, sending long, untied hair down tangling, and said: "How could you possibly-"
"Because you're both idiots!" the magician said. The goblin jumped. The orc jumped with a noise like a dropped stove. "What kind of a plan was this?! If it wasn't for me, you would have been turned into fertilizer months ago."
She closed her eyes. She took a long, dramatic breath. She set the wine glass down on the balcony rail.
"How did the Overlord die?" she asked when she seemed like she had gotten a hold over herself.
"Choked on an olive," said the goblin.
"Threw his body out the window," said the orc.
"You don't have to mention the window," said the goblin.
"Right," said the orc. "Sorry."
The magician looked out over the city, hand curled thoughtfully under her nose. "Who knows about this?"
"Just us. And, uh. You. Apparently."
"And why did you accept my counsel?"
The orc blinked. "Sorry?"
"Why did you accept my counsel?" the magician repeated.
"Well," the orc said. "Well - you seemed like you had good ideas-"
"Great ideas!" the goblin said with an edge of desperation. "Don't know why the old bastard didn't listen to you!"
"Right - right," said the orc. "And when we figured we were stuck doing this - well, it just made sense, really."
The magician seemed to absorb this. She nodded. "All right," she said, striding between the two and grabbing the crystal decanter.
"Um," said the orc. "Sorry. What happens now?"
"What happens is that you two will continue to serve as Overlord," said the magician. "You will continue to take my counsel. We will continue to reform this bloody country, and gods willing, we will turn it into the crown jewel of the world by next Midwinter."
The orc looked at the goblin. The goblin looked at the orc.
"Really?" the goblin asked.
"Oh yes," said the magician. "I've worked hard to be counsel to the Overlord, and I have no reason to stop now. And besides-"
She looked the orc up and down with a deliberate slowness, poring over every microscopic detail, eyes tracing over every jagged line, and grinned like a panther.
"You look much better in the armor than he ever did," she said. Dark robes swirled like a becleavaged thundercloud, and she strode out through the high iron doors, decanter in hand.
The goblin looked at the orc. The orc looked at the goblin.
"Shit," said the goblin.
"Shit," said the orc.
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and-corn · 7 months
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