OC-Tober Day 25: Encountering A Ghost

OC-Tober Day 25: Encountering a ghost

Prompt: Encountering a ghost

I used the OC-tober list made by @icannotreadcursive

Link here

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OCs: Len and Jake

Jake sighed as he sat down on the metal bench. His fists ached as he flexed his fingers. Maybe he should stop like Len wants. He slowly unwrapped his hands while the sounds of the crowd yelled outside the locker room. Once his hands were unwrapped, Jake tossed the wraps into his bag as he stood up and grabbed his towel. He moved for the communal showers, glad he chose to use the locker room everyone avoided.

Something, something, a ghost of a dead fighter.

Jake rolled his eyes before stifling a yawn. He didn’t care. He was tired of the stinkeyes he got when he used the communal showers in the other locker room. Reaching out, he turned the squeaky knob for the showers on as he walked by. Tossing the towel over the half wall, he tugged off his shorts and underwear in one go to throw them over the same wall. Jake just wanted to rinse off before heading home to Len.

Walking over to the shower, he ducked his head under the spray. The warm water washed over his skin, and he started to rub the dried blood out of the cracks of his skin. He was so focused on his task that the sound of a locker being slammed shut had him jolting in surprise. He looked over his shoulder with a frown. When nothing else happened, he turned back to his hands and started scratching at the dried blood again.

There was another sound closer to the showers, and he looked over his shoulder. Turning away from the shower spray, he called out, “Len?”

When he didn’t get an answer, he sighed as he turned the water off. 

“Len?” Jake was not going to be happy if Len was messing with him. With a frown on his face, he walked over to grab his towel. As Jake was wrapping it around his waist, he heard the squeaky knob turn back on. Jake stared at the locker area as he listened to the showers run behind him. He sucked in a breath before slowly letting it out.

Len may be a dragon, but he wasn’t capable of turning on water from another room.

Jake slowly looked over his shoulder only to find the showers empty. Walking back over, he turned the water off and made sure it couldn’t twist on because of a loose bolt or something. He had turned back to the locker area and hurried out while grabbing his clothes.

Stuffing the dirty clothes into his bag, he pulled out clean underwear, tugging it on under his towel. As he was pulling his pants on, he heard the sound of the showers turning on again. Then, the locker room door swung open. He stared at the empty doorway with wide eyes. A bang from behind him had him knocking everything into his bag and rushing out of the locker room with a shout. “I’m leaving!”

As soon as he was out in the hallway, the door swung shut, and Jake clutched his bag against his chest. He took a few steps back from the door when the sound of the lockers rattling and slamming echoed out of the room. After this, he would believe anything about the locker room ghost.

“Jake?”

He let out a scream and threw his bag at the voice.

Len caught the bag as he stared at a paler than normal Jake in surprise. “Is everything okay?”

Jake heard a loud sound from the locker room, and he stumbled away and up against Len. He started to shove at Len. “We’re leaving!”

“What’s wrong?”

“I’ll tell you later!”

Len stumbled down the hall, as he let the spooked Jake herd him out of the hallway into the entrance area. “At least put a shirt on.”

“Outside.” Jake looked over his shoulder back down the hall.

Len cupped the back of Jake’s head to get him to look at him. “Are you okay?”

“I…” He shivered as the cool air ran over his damp skin. “I will be. I want to go home.”

“Okay.” Len pulled a shirt out of the bag. “Put it on. You’re shivering.”

Jake snagged it and yanked it on as he headed for the door. “Home!”

“Okay. Okay.” Len looked down the hallway towards the locker room Jake came out of. He caught sight of a shadow darting along the hall, and his eyes narrowed. A low growl slipped out of him, causing the shadow to dart back down the hall. With one last growl directed at the hallway, he turned and followed after Jake. No spirit will harass his human.

A week away now!

The prompt theme for November 2023 is Ohne-vember!

I hope you'll all appreciate the German-English bilingual pun.

If you use this list, please tag me here @thepromptfoundry, I'd love to see your writing and art!

Respond to as many prompts as you want or as interest you, don't worry about missing or skipping any, take it as an alternative to NaNoWriMo if that suits you. Remember, this is supposed to be fun!

Plain text list below the cut:

1) Without light 2) Without sound 3) Without context 4) Without death 5) Without stopping 6) Without a friend 7) Without a plan 8) Without support 9) Without pain 10) Without fear 11) Without air 12) Without water 13) Without people 14) Without clothes 15) Without memory 16) Without speech 17) Without touch 18) Without love 19) Without hate 20) Without anything to do 21) Without modern technology 22) Without regret 23) Without a way back 24) Without supervision 25) Without heat 26) Without shame 27) Without waiting 28) Without hiding 29) Without a clue 30) Without rules

Oc tober day 26 “writing a letter”

Prompts by @icannotreadcursive @thepromptfoundry

“Dear Mother

I am sorry for not writing to you for such a long period of time, It was not my intention but I had a run in with some bad men who took me as their captive wishing to use my abilities as a witch to make them some quick money. Do not worry I am alright now, I was rescued and offered a home by my rescuer and his brother, a pair of princes.

They are very very strange but sincerely kind to me I believe I will be safe and happy here and wish to happily lend them my services; they really need it.

I do so hope you will come and visit as soon as you are able

Your Loving Daughter Rosalie”

OC-tober Day 24: Kisser being cared for by someone he loves

Recently, I’ve been working on a Star Wars fic with a higher than usual number of OCs. The fic isn’t posted yet, but I thought I might put a few of these out there.

Banger after banger for prompts, this is also under a cut for length

The original post is here by @icannotreadcursive.

Day 1

~+~

Vode didn’t get sick. Any faulty units which were regularly susceptible to things like colds or fevers were decommissioned. 

RT-1010 had managed to only get a cold once, before he was old enough to know he couldn’t. Fortunately, none of his batchmates had caught it. He didn’t allow it to become a pattern, after an older Vod warned him.

Now, though his head felt stuffed full of fluff, he suppressed the urge to cough and spoke clearly when spoken to–cutting the feed to his comm when he couldn’t resist clearing his throat. He was lucky, really. He only had flash training and chores today. Flash training was easy–barely involved talking at all, though the test would be a nightmare for future him–and he was on…well, Melt would remind him what chore shift he had. Hopefully something mindless. 

He didn’t nod off during flash training, so he was doing great.

When they were dismissed, Melt grabbed his arm to steer him presumably to his chores.

He barely figured out they were headed to medical by the time they got there. 

One of the Vode medics in training greeted them. He didn’t introduce himself. Or maybe he did and RT-1010 hadn’t noticed.

“He’s not sick,” Melt told the medic cadet firmly, “He just needs to cool off, so I figured you could practice on him.”

The medic squinted at her, then turned to the Medic Trainer who was absorbed in their PADD. “Can I practice doing a non-invasive physical on him?”

“His chore shift isn’t for another half hour,” Melt added.

“Sure,” the Trainer said without looking up. “Go nuts.”

Kisser held his breath to suppress a coughing fit. It made him a bit dizzy.

The medic cadet led them to one of the further exam spaces, closing the door behind them.

“Helmet and chestplate off,” they said.

Kisser cleared his throat softly before engaging his external comm, “I should keep the helmet on.”

The medic rolled their eyes, turning to Melt. “I need the helmet off.”

“Door’s closed, tenten,” Melt said soothingly, “Just a couple minutes.”

RT-1010 hesitated, but pulled his helmet off.

He must’ve looked like hell, because the medic swore before even doing a basic temperature check.

Melt reached out to hold his hand. RT-1010 tried not to squeeze too tightly, despite it feeling like a lifeline.

“What shift is he on?” the medic asked grimly.

“Cleaning the sonics,” Melt said. “I can find someone to swap with him.”

“Something sitting–not flash training. Worst case, put him on laundry. It’ll be too hot by half, but convince them to let him do mending. He needs to be supervised regardless.”

“Best case?” Melt pressed, squeezing RT-1010’s hand reassuringly.

The medic grimaced. “Depends on who’s supervising, but backup on comms or security. Something where if he nods off, it won’t be a problem.”

“I can do that,” Melt assured them both. “Anything else?”

“Hang on,” the medic said. RT-1010 put on his helmet as the medic moved toward the door.

Melt rubbed soothing circles along the back of his hand. RT-1010 lost focus at that point, time seeming to blur.

The medic came back, with pills and instructions. Melt listened carefully, then got RT-1010 to take one. 

Later, Kisser couldn’t say what chore shift Melt had gotten him. All he remembered was Melt keeping him safe.

~+~

Day 25

OC-tober Day 22: Kisser having a difficult conversation

Recently, I’ve been working on a Star Wars fic with a higher than usual number of OCs. The fic isn’t posted yet, but I thought I might put a few of these out there.

Once again under a cut, what can I say

The original post is here by @icannotreadcursive.

Day 1

~+~

“Oh vod’iiiiikaaaa,” Kisser sing-songed in the manner of annoying older brothers everywhere.

“What.” Melt snapped. Her voice was muffled by the pillow she was attempting to smother herself with.

“Is that any way to talk to your favorite batchmate?” Kisser clicked his tongue in faux disappointment.

“Go. Away.”

Kisser would have continued to pester her, but instead his gaze caught a PADD on the floor, clearly flung in a fit of pique. He picked it up to find it unlocked and opened to a dense bit of legalese. He sat on the bunk, dangerously within kicking range.

“Do you want to tell me about it and keep your place on the page or let me figure it out on my own and lose it?” he asked.

Melt grumbled, “It’s not even about that. You won’t get it.”

“Fair enough,” Kisser settled in, locking the PADD and setting it aside. “I still want to help.”

Melt threw the pillow at him, but sat up. She scowled, but her eyes were tellingly red-rimmed.

“How is it,” she bit out, “that there are seven sisters in the 501st, but somehow I’m the only one in the fucking 212th?” 

Kisser winced. “Bad luck?”

Melt scowled at him, but accepted it. “Intellectually, I know that.”

“But it doesn’t feel fair.”

“Nope.”

They sat in silence for a moment. Before Kisser could figure out what to say, Melt spoke again.

“It’s like…I hear stories about other sisters who came out and because they were visible, other sisters realized what was up with themselves or finally felt like there was a word for it and they found each other. That happened for like…four of the 501st’s? But here, I’m the only one as far as I know, and it gets lonely, cause none of the rest of you can really relate and I don’t have anyone I can talk to who just gets it without me needing to explain.”

Kisser frowned. “Sounds like it blows.”

Melt snorted, nudging his back with her knee. “Yeah, it blows.”

“You can’t even punch the problem,” he said.

That got a bark of laughter. “I dunno,” she mused, “punching a Kaminoan might make me feel better.”

“I can draw one on the punching bag at the gym?” Kisser offered.

Melt properly giggled at that. “I’d love to see you explain that to the Commander.”

“If it lasts long enough for the Commander to see it, you aren’t punching hard enough.”

They didn’t go to the gym, though. Instead, Melt picked the PADD back up off the desk. “Did you know the legal requirements for a species’ eligibility for citizenship–besides, you know, approval by two thirds of the Senate–are sentience and sapience?”

Kisser desperately reoriented himself to the new conversational track. “Nope.”

“Do you even know the difference?” Melt teased, slightly too sharp but not hurtful–to Kisser, at least.

“Nope.”

“Sentience is about having sensations and emotions, sentience is about thinking and learning, basically. That’s the short version, anyway.” Melt highlighted a portion of the legalese as she spoke, like that was going to help Kisser any. Maybe it was just to have something to do with her hands.

“Makes sense,” Kisser said, mostly just to confirm he was listening.

“But that means they have to test for these things without being obviously specist,” Melt handed over the PADD, which Kisser politely pretended to skim. “So one of the tests is about extant socio-cultural structures and the capacity to interrogate them–not whether it’s punished to the point where no one does, that actually helps to prove it’s possible but gets into Sophont Rights issues.”

Kisser blinked, “Is that why the Kaminoans are so convinced we’re not sentient? They think we can’t philosophize?”

Melt laughed, “Kind of seems that way, doesn’t it? Anyway, an example given of this type of interrogation is ‘individuals assigned socio-cultural roles questioning, rejecting, and/or otherwise changing their assigned designations.’”

Something clicked into place. “Like gender?”

“Like gender.”

“So, by their own rules, we’re sophonts. And you’re literally proof.”

“Yup,” she popped the ‘p,’ “Like, we both already knew, it’s not a surprise to literally any Vode ever, but–proof positive. I could be Exhibit A. Me!”

“Damn,” Kisser breathed. “I see why you got mad.”

“Yeah.”

~+~

Day 23

Day 26: Writing a letter

Max formally telling their friend they burnt their brownies

Prompt list by @icannotreadcursive