Cormac McCarthy Sucks || writing dump

[kinglykingstone]

[align=left][font=andale mono]just a place for me to dump my writing. Feel free to chat/request/whatever.

[kinglykingstone]

[align=left][font=andale mono]”I love You”s
Characters;; Tyler Ethan
Date Started;; 1/24/18
Finished?;; probably
Words;; 170
Notes;; Not meant to be long, just a little drabble.

    For Tyler, there was two first I love you’s when it came to Ethan. The first, an accident, a slip of the tongue that sent fear through him. A silly fear that made no sense.
Ethan had made some god awful joke that despite how bad it was, had Tyler doubled over in laughter. The “god, I love you” had been paired with a chuckle and an eye roll. Fear had struck instantly but, Ethan had simply smiled and said “you too, Ty!” Before going back to his jokes.

    The second time was not too soon after they officially together. They laid curled in bed, Ethan’s cold feet pressed against Tyler’s calves. The words once more tumbled out, barely above a breath. His quiet “I love you” was there for all the world to hear, paired with no shame or fear. He wasn’t even sure Ethan had heard until Tyler felt the arms wrapped around his waist tighten and heard “I love you too, Ty” be whispered into his back.

[kinglykingstone]

[align=left][font=andale mono]The Life Of Arika
Characters;; several characters from a tabletop game
Date Started;; 1/24/18
Finished?;; nope!
Words;; 4097
Notes;; I intend to turn this into a published book so this will be deleted later.
This is the character from the tabletop campaign I’m in. This goes from the beginning of her life to the end.
Unedited, written in 24 hours
I put it in a spoiler because it’s so long
Trigger Warnings;; Violence, self harm in the form of blood magic, nightmares, murder.

Arika Lanphear was not born with that name, not in the slightest. Arika was born Eric Chapman, a name that at times she forgets existed. She never really had a dad figure growing up, her father gone without a trace since before she could remember. She always wondered what her father may have looked like, based on how radically different she looked from her mother. Despite Arika’s dark skin and brown hair, her mother is pale skinned with straight blond hair. The two couldn’t be more different; where Arika was caring and hands-on, her mother was cold and aloof.

Where other kids were having hand packed lunches and little notes from parents, Arika was scavenging for change to but her lunch because her mother had once again forgotten to give her lunch money. She did all her homework and projects on her own or with help from the Lanphears.

To Arika, her mother never acted as a mother and, instead, it was always the mother of her best friend. Andy Lanphear was Arika’s best friend and the one that helped her figure out just who she was. Andy’s mother, Makaylynn(but went by Makkie), treated Arika like her own child, knowing that Arika was her daughter not son before even Arika knew.

Makkie was the one to buy Arika more feminine clothes, though Arika did love her overalls and flannels and jeans. She would wear the occasional skirt or dress and both Makkie and Andy would be there telling her how pretty she looked and walking with her through the streets.

Makkie helped Arika discover and channel her powers, as the Lanphear’s were a family of witches. By the time Arika was 16 she spent more time at Andy’s home then her own, only going home about once a week. Her own mother wasn’t home enough to notice or care.
There was a point in time that Makkie offered to adopt Arika but she turned her down, completely content with her situation. She had intentions to cut off ties with her mother soon enough anyways not there were many there anyways.

Makkie has been the one to discover that Arika did in fact have magic in her, perhaps from her father, and helped her grow it. It hadn’t been strong magic, simple things such as picking locks or hot wiring cars, though sometimes random premonitions and dark thoughts would trickle into her mind.

On Arika’s seventeenth birthday, she was as happy as could be, having gone out to dinner with the family that had practically adopted her. Her mother had been invited but never showed up, not that Arika really cared.

But, within hours everything would change. The trio were strolling down the street, Arika and Andy’s arms linked just because they could. In the small town they lived in, magic users were common so to them, sitting there sending sparks back and forth with magic was a completely normal thing to do. That is, until he showed up. A tall man, who’s features she could never make out, had followed them without them knowing, stalking them until they got to the darker part of town. When he attacked, he drew a gun and instantly put a bullet in Makkie’s head before any of the three could blink.

Arika instantly put herself between the man and Andy but, Andy was having none of that. When the man attacked, Andy pushed Arika do the ground.

The man attempted to shoot the pair but failed, wasting his few bullets. It truly seemed like the man didn’t care, he just simply wanted the three dead, for reasons that weren’t obvious to them until they heard him scream about witches and fire and stakes, and would do anything to make it happen. Arika can’t remember what happened next, all she remembers is Andy laying dead between her and the man and running, injured. At some point, some how, she had gained an injury across her chest, nothing deep or life threatening if it was taken care of but something that would definitely scar. Despite the injury she ran for god knows how long, stumbling upon a car abandoned on the side of the road. After breaking in and got wiring it, she found that it had barely any gas, the owner perhaps getting picked up by someone else. She didn’t know and she didn’t care, she just had to get away. She drove and drove, the car taking her a good 40 minutes away before sputtering out of gas just outside of a little town names River Dance.

The girl, tired and afraid stumbled from the car, her chest feeling like it was on fire. Thankfully the wound wasn’t deep at all, and at this point barely bleeding. She’s need help soon though, and thankfully help was coming even if she didn’t know it.

Just as she was collapsing on the side of the road, a vehicle rolled up beside her and she heard the door open and close.
Lacking the energy to stand or move, she just sat there and awaited whatever was coming.

Arika heard a man’s voice say “what the h-e-c-k” and yes, he did spell it out. She slowly lifted her head and saw an older man looking down at her worriedly before she passed out.

When she next awoke, she was lying in an familiar bed, bandages wrapped around her wounded chest and her torn shirt replaced with one she didn’t recognize. Not having the energy or will power to sit up, she simply laid there. Surely whoever had brought her there had to be kind, they’d taken care of her wound for her after all.

She wasn’t sure how long she laid there, whether it be minutes or hours, until the door opened and an older man ducked his head in. “Oh good you’re awake!” He would say, walking into the room. Stopping at the foot of bed, as to give her her space, he introduced himself as Doctor Warren Hayseed and that was how Arika met the one and man she truly trusts in the town. She’d stay with the man for some time as her chest healed and she searched for a place to stay. She couldn’t go back to her hometown, not now. She was too afraid, afraid of that man and what would happen to those that inhabited the town she grew up in. Fear keeps her trapped.

She’d been exploring the town, getting to know the place, when far back in the woods she found a small abandoned cabin. According to the doctor, nobody have lived there for years. With much determination, the witch would rebuild the cabin, making it her home. Of course, she’d still visit the doctor, as she’d grown quite fond of the old man, viewing him as a grandpa figure of sorts, not that she’d ever had one before.

She would frequent the small diner in the town, which is where she met the one the locals called a nut. This nut was a silly conspiracy theorist Nicole and, within months, they hit it off. It was nearly a year into their relationship when Arika offered to have Nicole move in with her. By now, Arika has met Ari, the young girl who led the biker gang that had once been her brothers and was searching for revenge.

Maggie would come later, the small child that Arika would take under her wing. When they met, Maggie had promised her that he had a home, a place to stay. But, he had lied and she discovered this fact late one night when she found him out on the street. She took the kid in, making him stay with her. She was too afraid of him getting hurt by what she knew.

And she knew oh so much. In the months separating her arrival in the town of River Dance and when she began to meet the members of her rag tag group, Arika would have found something odd, mystical, and life changing.

She found what appeared to be a cave and curiosity got the best of her, plunging into the darkness. What she had found hadn’t been what she expected. She found herself in a room where curtains lined every wall, where the roof seemed infinite and the floor appeared to be a giant checkerboard.

She would spend many undefined moments exploring the room, finding no entrance or exit other than the one she had taken. While she was exploring, she could sense the presence of many other beings that she just couldn’t see. The presences grew suddenly stronger and she turned to find a man, y’all and handsome, staring down at her with a hand that glowed red like a branding iron. Next to this man was another, perfectly pristine white gloves covering their hands.
The Man With The Red Hand reached towards her, as if preparing to attack but the white gloved man paused him with a hand. She watched them having a conversation that was both instant and took forever. The two offered her a deal, offering her more powers than she already had.

The Man with The White Gloves promised that there would be one time that he would be there for her, though she wouldn’t know when or how until the moment it happens. The Man With The Red Hand promised that there would be one day where he required something from her, a sacrifice of her.

Arika accepted the deal, deciding that these powers could benefit her in protecting those she cares about. After Arika accepted the deals, her powers would grow stronger but it would take her some time to figure out how to use her newfound abilities.

She discovered how after many hours of struggling before remembering the Man With The Red Hand’s words. A sacrifice, she needed a sacrifice. Going out on a whim, she would pull a knife from her pocket and cut a thin line on her palm. She found that it caused her magic to actually work but the spells she used would require more than a tiny cut on her palm. Some would require large gashes or simple cuts on the arm. She found herself researching for hours, carving shapes and tunes into her arms to better channel her powers.

She would turn to the Doctor for her, telling him what she knew and trusting him her secrets. He’s the only person in the town that knows her secrets and where she comes from, treating her cuts when they grow too big or too deep, teaching her to care for them when he realized he couldn’t convince her to drop it all.

She would spend many months learning about The Man With The Red Hand, bonding over it with Ari and hiding everything about him from Nicole. She couldn’t risk Nicole finding out.

Arika was surprised to find out that her younger cousin, Donnie, went to the local college and it amused her that Donnie looked more like her mother than she did.

She grew to know and distrust the Sheriff, finding his temper was too high to be tolerable. She showed him no fear, not afraid to let him know she didn’t trust him. She even took a few chances to intimidate him.

Arika lives by a certain few mottos and ways of living. She cares for her friends and the odd family she’s built, she refuses to forget about the family that had taken her in when she was young, even taking on their last name. She believes that if she laughs at something, shows it no fear, it’s harder for it to hurt her. She is willing to die if it means saving someone she loves, never wanting to lose someone again. She keeps a small Polaroid of herself, Makkie, and Andy on her at all times. When she enters a dangerous situation she’ll say “May Luck, ever present, turn her back on my foes.”

Arika Lanphear is a brave woman who’s gone through a lot of shit and came out braver and stronger for it.

Arika had been eating breakfast with her girlfriend when a man she recognized as a member of the barracudas. Despite the man being a blubbering mess, she could pick out a few of his phrases and they terrified her. He spoke of Bobby being dead and his throat being cleanly sliced.

Arika would rush to stand, telling Nicole that they needed to go see. As she would move to leave the diner, she would be hit with a premonition. She was a cloudy vision of a man with his hands in his pockets. As he pulled his hand from his pocket it glowed red.

She knew, of course, what this meant and pushed forward, pulling a military grade walkie talkie from her pocket. When Nicole had first started making her and Maggie both carry one, she’d been against it but now she was grateful.

Like a panicked mother, Arika would yell through it to Maggie, wanting to know where he was. Not that she could tell him but, she had a strong feeling that the red hand was up to no good again and she didn’t want Maggie getting hurt.

Maggie would tell her that he was near the murder scene and she’s telling him to stay there, that she was on her way. When she arrived on scene, she was instantly faced with the Sheriff telling her to back away. She got in the mans face, telling him to back off and that she was looking for her son. To the surprise to those around her, the temperamental Sheriff backed off, telling one of the deputies to deal with her. After a few minutes Maggie would come from the woods and cling onto her and she’d refuse to let go.

She then turned to find her cousin lying prone on the ground with the Sheriff walking away from him and rushed over. She yelled for the help of the nearby paramedics but they refused to help when the sheriff drove away telling them not to. Arika called one of the deputies over, the deputy saying he’d take Donnie to the doctor’s office. He told her to come and she did after sending Maggie and Ari with Nicole. While they were on their way to the hospital, Donnie handed her an old skeleton key.

When they arrived to the small hospital in town, the deputy left them on their own. While they waited in the waiting room Arika decided to explore. She headed down the one hallway that she could see which had a few doctors room, a bathroom, and at the hall there was the morgue. As she saw the sheriff exit the morgue she ducked into the bathroom. After waiting a few moments she would exit the bathroom and head down the hall. Coming to the door of the morgue, she cracked it open and peaked in, seeing the doctor and one of the deputies. She used a small hex to break a jar that held a human brain and gain the attention of the two in the room. The doctor went to inspect the broken jar while the deputy turned his back to the door.

While the two were looking away, she slipped into the room and hid herself under the Gurney that held the dead body of Bobby Barrow. She remained there for a moment until the deputy left. She then popped up from under the table, resting her arms on the table and her chin on her arms. She gave Doctor Hayseed a fright but all in all he wasn’t that surprised to find her there. He probably would have appreciated a less sneaky way for her to get in but she was already there. The two looked over the body, where she saw a red hand mark similar to a burn on his face. After they finished examine the body, she asked the Doctor to fix up her cousin.

The doctor fixed up her cousin before sending them on their way. Arika took her cousin and dropped him off at his dorms before heading off to the chess room to do a bit of snooping around. She pushed her way into the chess room, despite its attempts to keep her out. The room caused her some mental damage as she entered but she pushed through. She watched them for a moment as they played chess but then she questioned them on the key’s ownership. The Man With The Red Hand admitted it was his and demanded she give it back. When she refused he offered her a deal. She could keep the key but it would cost her. With both fear and stubbornness she accepted the offer. After the deal was made he asked her “do you really think I’d leave something so important on the lying around?” before returning to the game. She would take a moment to study their game of chess to see if she could determine a winner. While the game was an even match, she could tell their playing styles. Where the Man With The Red Hand played a game of risk and was reckless, The Man With White gloves was more careful and balanced with his plays.

Nearly as soon as she exited the chess room, she was hit with with a premonition. This one was much more clear than the one before. In her premonition she was staring into a room that appeared to be a jail cell where someone sits covering their head as their back is bludgeoned ruthlessly by the town’s sheriff. As if he knew he was being watched, the sheriff turned his head to look at her.

Arika was headed for the library when she saw Ari being lead into the police station by an angry looking sheriff. Arika took a glance around the building, seeing the side entrance and the glass front door. She attempted to sneak up to the front door but the sheriff saw her and quickly rushed Ari to the back. In an attempt to cast a hex for someone to break someone, she failed and broke the front glass door herself. She took of sprinting around one side of the building before the sheriff could catch her. She tugged on the side door and found it locked, so she kept running until she ran head first into the sheriff. Thankfully he accepted of her excuse of looking for her kids and didn’t think it was she who broke the front glass door.

As he walked away she would give a relieved sigh and move to the back entrance of the building. Finding the door locked, she would attempt to manipulate the lock into unlocking only to melt the lock shut. Now nobody would be able to get in or out of that door. Irritated with her shitty luck she would sneak back around to the side door and attempt once more to use magic to make the door open. This time she was successful, though it took her longer than she would have liked. When she opened the door she saw the sheriff standing in the door with his cattle prod raised and ready to bludgeon an already bloodied Ari, who was next to two barracuda members. Anger filled the witch and she snuck forward, slipping her knife from its sheath on her hip. Almost without thinking she sank her knife into his back, causing him to whirl around with the cattle prod and strike her across the shoulder.
In this moment time seemed to freeze and her vision was blocked by the face of the man with the white glove. “You do not need mortal weapons, open your eyes” she heard him say(double check this with Kullman.) She felt something change and shift in her. As the wounds on her arms from previous spells still bled, she had the thought that she wished he would just back off and sit in the corner or something. And… he did? He seemed just as confused as she was and she then realized what The Man With The White Gloves had meant. She didn’t need mortal weapons when it seemed she could put thoughts into their minds and maybe more.

As he backs away to sit, he pulls the knife out and causes himself more harm. As he sits clutching his back she says “You’re supposed to leave the knife in, dumbass” before turning to help Ari. Once she’s sure the girl is stabilized she takes a second to lean back and fully access the situation. She hears movement behind her and turns to see the sheriff standing. Before she can react, he’s stricken her across the chest with the cattle prod. Gritting her teeth, she cast a hex that caused him to roll his ankle, forcing him to fall to the ground, clutching his back and his ankle.

Breathing heavily, Arika lunged for the cattle prod that had fallen between them but he had done the same. He caught her wrist, punching her in the face. She makes another attempt at the telepathy-like powers, forcing him to take a few steps back. She Picked up the cattle prod from the ground and moved towards him, striking him in the chest.The man, like the idiot she knew him to be, grabbed at the cattle prod and pulled it towards himself. He shocked himself with it, falling backwards to the ground and knocking himself unconscious when he his head hit the concrete.

As she stood there panting and about to pass out herself, she watched one of the two barracuda look at her in fear and take off running. Turning to look at the other man, she asked for his help. He offers to help her as long as she’ll drop the cattle prod. The witch dropped it, seeing as she had reason not to trust him. The man helped her wrap the still bleeding gouges on her arm in a piece of torn shirt before she sends him to go help Ari. As she falls to her knees in pain, she mentally calls out for the doctor; oh how she hoped that it would work like that.

One of the deputies comes, searching for the sheriff, and sees the scene laid out before him. When he asks what happened, Arika simply responds with “Dirty sheriff” from where she sat.

The deputy winces and says “I knew he had a temper but he… he went berserk”. The deputy helped Arika stand, carefully walking her to the main waiting room of the police station, followed by the barracuda man helping Ari.

They were just in time as Doctor Warren Hayseed himself entered through the broken door, Opening the door despite it being nothing but the frame itself. Trying her best to make it not a seem like a life or death situation, Arika gave a very shaky “h-hey Warren” despite fact that her face was partially swollen from the sheriff’s punch and that her arm was wrapped in shirt and all her other intense injuries. With worry evident on his face, the doctor checked over the two girls and stabilized them for the time being. Telling, not asking, them that they would be staying at his house at least overnight so he could care for them and heal them.

After convincing the deputy to let the shaken barracuda member go home, Warren loaded Arika and Ari into his car and drove them to his home. He would set them up in the room that he’d put Arika all those years ago when she’d first arrived. As her exhaustion hit her and she felt truly relaxed for the first time since that morning, and oh how that morning felt like it had been so long ago, she drifted off into a fitful sleep.

As nightmares plagued her, they were interrupted by a premonition. The premonition was clearer than any dream her mind could make out.

In the premonition, her view was from above the forests just a little south-west of the horseless horse farm. As her view zoomed in, she saw The Man With The Red Hand sanding there, slitting the throat of some poor helpless soul.

And that’s where she woke up, breathing heavy with her face wet with her tears. She sat up slowly and carefully, wincing as she did so. Somewhere off in the distance, she heard an owl hoot a single “who”