forum Writing dump

Started September 19, 2023 by @Lucky_Coin group

tune

OK. The whole chapter is here! Do not worry, I didn't kill off any characters (I was sorely tempted to). Hope you enjoy!

Snippet 1 for Chapter 4 is here!

When Blackeye woke up the city hadn’t burnt down, thankfully, and he took this as a good sign, that Cairnove had stopped her search for them.
Be careful, Blackeye. We’re not in the clear yet, he thought. He got out of his hammock to find Dustbunny eagerly gobbling cashews from their wooden box. She looked up when he walked towards her.
“Where did you go last night?” She asked. “I woke up and you guys weren’t there. It was only Bits and PJ.”
“We went to Chuck’s Market. Sorry if we scared you.” Blackeye replied.
“You didn’t.” She said simply.
“How did you sleep?”
“Fine.”
“Glad you like those things,” Blackeye said, pointing at the cashews. Bun nodded, and their awkward conversation came to a close. Blackeye looked around the room to find Bricker’s hammock empty.
“Hey, Bunny,” He called out. “Do you know where Bricker is–”
“Said he was going to a pit. Quarters, I think it was.” Realization struck Blackeye.
Of course, he was planning on entering a tournament, wasn’t he? He wanted us to be there, and we just forgot. We just got so caught up in what happened yesterday, that we didn’t even talk about it. Crap.
“Dustbunny, We forgot about his round! Quickly, we have to get there before it starts.” Dustbunny immediately set around waking up the others, who all looked just as guilty as Blackeye felt when he explained their rude awakening.
“We need to get there, fast,” Nosedive said urgently. “What’s the time, is it light out? Quarters usually run on a late schedule, so if we run for it, we can get there in time.”

(By the way, the fight is mentioned in the new edit of Chapter 1. So, if you don't remember, don't worry. It wasn't mentioned before.)

Snippet two!

“Do we really have to go? I mean, I love stone-brained idiots fighting each other as much as the next person,” PJ said sarcastically. “But, what can I say? I’m on a tight schedule.”
“Of course, we have to go! Fighting is not something to mock, PJ!” Nosedive said furiously.
“And if unless you consider gambling all day at the snatcheries a ‘tight schedule’,” Bits said as he gave a stinkeye to PJ. “We have nothing better to do anyways, Hana.”
“Well, what if the blood serpents are there, huh? What will happen if they find Blackeye? And as crazy as Cairnove is, I’m sure she’d remember your mark, Blackye.” She said, pointing to the black birthmark over his right eye.
“Then we’ll have to risk it,” Blackeye said coldly. He hated it when people mentioned his scar.
“He said it was an important match,” Dustbunny put in. “A whole fud for whoever wins.”
Like clockwork, all four of their jaws gaped wide open when Bun said this. Blackeye had never dreamed of having so much money. If Bricker won this, they wouldn’t need any grab for a year.
“Well, What are we waiting for?” Bits exclaimed. “If he wins this, we won’t need money forever! We have to cheer him on if he could get that much for winning.”
“Besides, I’m sure you could make some bets with the audience, PJ,” Blackeye said.
PJ tried to argue against it, but Blackeye knew the bets had sold it to PJ, and soon they were heading up the street to get to Quarters.

I'm so sorry for not posting, i just had a busy schedule.
here, two combined snippets!

This pit was embedded into the walls barring the world from the commons, almost taunting the government that ruled the upper city to dare and stop them from their illegal and brutal games. Outside the arena was a cobbled square characteristic of the Commons, with a drake-like fountain in the middle. Out of its mouth poured a stream of water down below into the bowl of the fountain. The entrance was a pair of double doors that loomed fifteen feet high with a curve at the top. Four guards held off the onslaught of people trying to get in, quarterstaffs strapped on their backs in case the crowd got out of hand. At a desk next to the doors sat a woman in a red yarn jersey stamping tickets with her thumbprint. The guards were carefully filtering the mass of people towards the desk, making sure they had tickets before letting them get that far.
“Calm down, calm down, folks. You’ll all get in eventually. The fight with Bricker and Skan is starting in an hour. You’ve all got plenty of time.”
“Shit,” Nosedive muttered under her breath. “How are we gonna get in with this line? There must be more than a hundred in front of us. We’re not gonna make it in time. Besides, we don’t have any tickets!”
Blackeye glanced at the guards. They looked like pit competitors themselves, and as they busily pushed and shoved stragglers away from the main line, he knew there was no chance of bargaining with them.
“Let's stay in the queue for now guys,” he whispered. “We’ll figure out something eventually but, until then, we’ll just have to wait.”
Carefully they scooted over to the line that snaked around the square, prepared to run out at a moment's notice. The line was painfully long, though the guards and the stamper got through them vigorously. All sorts of people were in the line, from old beggars and Hide victims, to the wilder families in the commons with their fancy dress and posh accents.
With Blackeye and the others halfway down the line, a red-haired guard shouted out to the line, “15 minutes left! 15 minutes left! Hurry on people, we can’t stay here all day.”

Okay, chapter 4 is here!

Enjoy!

TW
SWEAR WORDS

Snippet 1 for chapter 5!

As they sat back down on their wooden chairs, there was an uncomfortable silence. For some reason, Blackeye was blushing like a plum, and he didn’t know how to stop it. He could see that PJ and Nosidive were just as embarrassed. Bits was the first to break the ice.
“Why did he do that? His actual reason, I mean.” Bits said. “He wouldn’t have done that for nothing.”
“Yeah,” Nosedive mumbled.
“Uh-huh” PJ agreed, staring into the distance. Bits slapped his hand into his face.
“Come on guys! What’s wrong with you today?” Bun shouted. Immediately, they snapped out of it. They weren’t going to let Bunny think that there was anything wrong with them for a second.
“I don’t know, honestly, Bun. My guess is that he was being nice. But we can’t think about that right now.” Blackeye said.
Almost immediately after that, a loud bell sounded to quieten the crowd. A booming voice roared out over the arena, making the last remnants of the people’s chatter die out.
“WE ARE HERE TODAY TO WITNESS A HISTORICAL EVENT.” The voice rumbled. “THE CLASH OF TWO STORMS THAT HAVE RAVAGED THE PITS FOR AN AGE OR LONGER.” The crowd oohed.
“THESE TWO FORCES MANY OF YOU KNOW WELL. THOUGH YOU MAY DIFFER ON YOUR OPINIONS ON THEIR STRENGTHS,” At these words, PJ hopped out of her seat to start placing bets on Bricker and his competitor.
“IT IS UNDENIABLE THAT THEY ARE EXTRAORDINARY IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE.” The crowd screamed and cheered like their lives depended on it.

You know what time it is, It's time to die from lack of sleep, as I try to do a 1000 words a day. RIP, lucky coin. NaNoWriMo is up, and I'm working twice as hard on this. Sorry for not posting yesterday, I was procrastinating on whether to actually participate in the writing challenge. So, here's snippet 2!

TW SWEAR WORDS AND BLOOD.

“ON THE LEFT, WE HAVE THE LEAN SPEED MACHINE, THE PACKED PUNCH OF POISON, ITS … .” The commentator made the crowd drum roll for effect. “SCORPION SCORPISKAN!” the crowd booed and screamed their delight and disapproval. A man walked out from one side of the pits, where a pair of double doors had been closed. Striding through the Pit in a confident manner was a man with green daggers and black robes. He blew air kisses to the crowd as he walked to the centre.
“THIS VENOMOUS INSECT IS FAMOUS FOR HIS KNOCKOUT PUNCHES, SO FAST AND SO STRONG YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT HIT YA. BUT WHAT HE’S REALLY FAMOUS FOR, IS THE POISON DAGGERS HE USES TO MAKE THOSE PUNCHES EVEN MORE DEADLY!” When the audience calmed down, he continued,
“ON THE RIGHT, WE HAVE THE UPCOMING STAR, THE BEAST, THE BRICK-BREAKING GLADIATOR. EVERYONE, WELCOME TO THE STAGE. . .” Again he paused.
“BRICKER!”
Again the crowd erupted, but this time with more booing than praise. Bricker dove through his corner and sprinted towards the centre like a charging bull. In his hand was a great hammer that he dragged along the sand. Skan lifted his hands over his face, obviously scared, to stop the coming rampage. But, at the last moment, Bricker swerved off and stopped with a flurry of red sand right next to Skan, who was coughing from the dust particles that now filled the air. Skan hissed.
“Go Bricker,” Blackeye heard PJ whisper.
“BRICKER IS KNOWN FOR HIS MUSCULATURE, SAID TO CRUMBLE BRICKS IN HIS HANDS. HE CARRIES A GREAT HAMMER TO MAKE QUICK WORK OF HIS ENEMIES' SKULLS.” The commentator bellowed.
That’s clever, Blackeye realized. He used his speed to frighten Skan, to make him more skittish, while also making it seem like his battle strategy was simple brute strength. How did he come up with that?
“ALRIGHT EVERYBODY, IT IS THE MOMENT YOU’VE BEEN WAITING FOR. It's TIME, FOR THE FIGHT.” The people screamed their hearts out once again.
“GO TO YOUR CORNERS COMPETITORS.” Skan and Bricker obeyed, moving to their respective regions.
“ON MY MARK.” The commentator shouted.
“READY. SET. GO!”
The fight was off.

With a gleaming dagger in each hand, Skan came zigzagging towards Bricker’s square, a malevolent glare plastered on his face from the humiliating entrance a few minutes before.
Bricker widened his stance, feet dug into the ground like hooks, while both hands clutched his great hammer. Even from the bleachers, he could tell the Bricker was nervous. Blackeye knew that this was Bricker’s first minor final, and although it wasn’t as high-paying as a major league fight, the reward was still huge.
Seeing that Bricker wasn’t attacking, Skan quickly changed to a head-on charge, probably to gain enough momentum to get a stab powerful enough to knock him out. This change of tactics seemed to have startled Bricker, but he was soon back to his body-wall position.
Blackeye casts nervous looks at the others. Each of them looked as scared as he did. Those daggers. . . Were powerful.
Come on Bricker! Do something clever, get out of the way!, Blackeye thought. But Bricker did none of those. He just waited and waited for that dagger to cut a deep hole into his skin.
Some of the crowd were worried, perturbed and confused, but the majority were cheering for Bricker’s loss. If this got to Bricker, Blackeye couldn’t tell, for his eyes were just as stone-cold and without emotion as the human wall Bricker had become.
“Come on, Bricker, I’ve got twenty bets on you! That's more than 3 decka’s worth if you win. If you lose, well. . .” PJ said unceremoniously.
“Beat the shit out of that dude, Bricker!” Nosedive hollered.
By some miracle, Bricker heard them. Turning his head slightly, he looked directly into Blackeye’s eyes, a grin spread across his face. Blackeye knew that he saw them. Hopefully, that would give him enough encouragement to win. Bricker went back to looking at Skan.
Like an immovable boulder, he crouched lower and dug his feet deeper into the sand. Skan was gaining momentum. Faster. Faster. And faster.
“Move out of the way, Bricker!” Bits yelled.
“You big idiot!” PJ screamed.
Oh, shit. Blackeye thought. He’s not actually thinking of hitting head-on, is he? Oh, gods.
Skan was moving faster than an arrow, darting left and right like a gel ball. His feet were a furious blur, making a whirl of sand behind him. Blackeye was sure that Bricker would move, or block or. . . something, at least. But he didn’t. He just stood there.
Skan was a foot away from him when he leapt into the air with daggers outstretched, looking like a psychopath. Blackeye braced for the impact, but it never came. In a movement faster than Blackeye could imagine Bricker capable of, he jumped to the left, His hammer outstretched to knock Skan flat. The noise of the crowd muffled the thud that followed, but Blackeye could tell that Bricker connected. Skan fell into the sand head first. The audience screamed in delight.
“Yes!” screamed Nosedive.
“Beat his arse!” Bun yelled.
Quickly, Skan jumped back up, before Bricker could land another blow like the first. Bricker took two steps back and gripped both of his hands tight over his hammer. A furious look went over his face as he turned around, but his frown quickly changed to a grin.
“Why is he smiling?” Nosedive asked agitatedly.
In the blink of an eye, Skan grabbed a fistful of sand from the floor and threw it into Bricker’s face. Bricker sputtered and blinked as he tried to spit out the sand in his mouth. Blackeye knew what was going to happen before it started. His heart dropped to his kidneys.
As the attack distracted Bricker’s attention, Skan leaped forward and planted four lightning fast punches to Bricker’s stomach. Bricker doubled back, and threw up a mouthful of blood as his shoulders sagged. Skan was laughing at the sorry sight of Bricker, who stumbled back and gasped for breath.
How did Skan do that? His punches can’t be strong enough to make Bricker throw up, Blackeye wondered. Looking down again, Blackeye saw that blood had started spewing from Bricker’s stomach in huge jets.
“Shit. He used the daggers. I don’t think Bricker can handle that.” Blackeye said.
Nosedive turned to him, shocked. “THAT'S FUCKING FOUL PLAY, YOU BASTARD!” Nosedive yelled. Around him, Blackeye could see the crowd was equally distressed.
“Please be alive, please stay alive,” PJ whispered, her arms wrapped around her legs. Blackeye noticed she was crying. Bunny buried her face into PJ’s torso. She was crying too.
Come on Bricker. Get back up.
Skan was bowing to the crowd already, like he had already won. A smile was plastered on his face as he bent down on his knees and flicked Bricker’s nose. Using his middle finger, he slowly pushed against Bricker’s nose to push his head back slowly.
He’s taunting him, Blackeye realized.
“FUCK YOU!” Nosedive shouted.
“Come on, Bricker, get up. You can’t let this scumbag win. Stay strong.” Bits said.
Astoundingly, Bricker raised a foot from the ground. He pushed up. On both legs, he looked up to Skan in rage. Skan’s jaw dropped like it weighed a hundred pounds, shocked to the bones. With blood dripping from his lip, Bricker delivered an uppercut to the chin, his great hammer forgotten in the sand. Skan was lifted off his feet from the blow, and went flying into the sand. Skan jumped up in a flash, blood rushing to his head like flies to sweat.
Blackeye sighed in relief. The people in the stand blew up.
They always like the underdogs, Blackeye thought amusedly.
“Oh, thank goodness,” PJ said, then started to comfort Bun.
“Take that you-” Nosedive yelled before Bits cupped his hand to her mouth to stop her from swearing.
“Not in front of the commoners,” Bits muttered, although Blackeye could tell he was just as jubiliant. Nosedive frowned.
Bricker panted for a few seconds, as he relieved himself from the pain, the entire time staring at Skan’s face. A roar exited his mouth as he rushed forward. Skan quickly dodged, then tried the same trick again, throwing sand to land more fast attacks. But Bricker didn’t fall for it a second time. Jumping back five steps, he reached down for his hammer and glaring intently. Skan was ready for this though, and launched forward to start running circles around Bricker. Literally. A blur of a circle started to form, until Blackeye couldn’t distinguish where Skan ended and where he started.
“What’s he doing?” Bunny asked anxiously.
“Skan’s trying to trick Bricker into getting dizzy, so that while he’s disoriented, he can attack.” Blackeye replied. He tried to act confident, but on the inside he had his doubts.
How can Bricker get out of this one? Blackeye worried. Quickly, Blackeye looked back down at the Pit to see if he had got out of the trap that Skan had set.
Bricker was obviously sweating, nervous and coughing as he fought the poison. The scared expression that had encroached his face was gone in an instant as he switched it for a determined one. Moving his grip to the closer end, Bricker started spinning around and around, until his hammer lifted from the sand. Gaining momentum, he started to turn it around as fast Skan was sprinting. Together they looked like they were in the middle of a deadly ballerina recital.
“Yes Bricker! Beat that peice of shit! Kill him!” Nosedive roared.
“Oh, so when Bricker does something ‘bad’ in front of Bun its heroic,” Bits muttered. “but when I do, it’s a bad behaviour.” Blackeye smirked. He knew Bits was jealous.
“Oh don’t be a sour butt, Bits. We don’t treat you as bad all that.” PJ said, looking excited from the exciting battle happening below. Bits grumbled. “Now shut up and cheer Bricker on.”
Suddenly, Skan stopped moving. Standing in place, he threw both of his daggers directly at Bricker’s face.
Fuck. That was his plan all along.

I feel like this chapter has rough edges, so feel free to comment.

Alright, here's version one of the first rough draft for chapter 5!

OKAY.
SO.
I, as you can obviously see, either had the worst case of writer's block in history. Or, I was being lazy, and completely slumped NaNoWriMo. Whichever it was, I haven't updated this in three weeks, and I'm really sorry.
So, Snippet 1 for chapter 6 is out!

Blackeye slumped back into his chair.
Oh, thank gods. A first round knockout, well done Bricker!
“Yes Bricker! You stupid idiot!” Nosedive yelled, Her face redder than a tomato. PJ jumped out of her seat with a leather pouch in her hands.
“Calm down, Hana. You’ll faint from all that screaming.” Bits said condescendingly. There were tears in his eyes.
“Are you crying?” Blackeye said smugly. Bits blushed and covered his face with his shirt.
“No.” Came his muffled reply.
“Ha. My luck pays off once again.” PJ’s voice called out. As she hopped back into her seat, she held out the leather pouch with pride written over her face. The pouch was now stuffed with jingling coins.
Suddenly, the crowd gasped in horror. Blackeye whirled around to see the arena again. There in the pit was Bricker on his back, coughing up blood that seeped into the monotonous red sand. Quickly, three meds jumped out from a trapdoor hidden in the sand, and started taking emergency medicine out of their kits to begin reviving Bricker. A woman in the stands on the left of Blackeye was quickly muttering an incantation, her eyes shut tight in hopeful prayer.
She must be a supporter. I didn’t know he was that popular in The Pits. Gods, Bricker’s in a lot of trouble.
“We need to get him out of there.” PJ said suddenly. Bits shook his head, and stood up on the top of his chair, obviously trying to get a better look.
“Nah, those people are Miredians, or at least partly; see the long ears? Not a more trained healer in the world who could do better than them.” He replied, his eyes still fixed on Bricker’s body. Surely enough, each med had the characteristic long ears and slim, slightly blueish body of the people of Mired.
PJ shook her head furiously. “No, we have to go. It-its the feeling.” She said softly. Her skin turned a pale walnut brown and her legs started shaking like bowstrings. Everyone knew what that meant.

Okay, we have snippet 2!
Enjoy!

“Nosedive, jump over the fence with me. Bits, keep these two safe.” Blackeye ordered. Bits nodded just in time for Blackeye to see him before Nosedive and Blackeye raced down the aisle.
Closer up, the fence was 10 feet tall, with barbed wire at the top. The chances of him and Nosedive reaching Bricker in time were slim, but they had to try. With a running head start, Blackeye lunged for the chicken wire fencing and latched a hold, scaling it as fast as he could. Of course, Nosedive was twice as fast and was already on the other side, racing to get to Bricker.
After climbing the wall, Blackeye took a huge a leap and sprinted towards Bricker as well. Nosedive was in a vivid argument with the three meds, trying to pull Bricker off the ground while screaming at them.
“I’m sorry, young lady, but if you want your friend to stay alive, he must stay with us.”
“I don’t care what you think, he needs to get out of here!” Nosedive shouted, clearly trying to contain her anger.
“Nothing doing, ma’am.” One of the meds said, stubbornly folding her arms.
“Oh, you wanna fight, huh? I’ll give you a fi-” Blackeye stopped Nosedive abruptly with a hand to her mouth.
“Excuse my friend, she acts rashly.” Blackeye apologized. He glanced at Nosedive, who looked like a smoke bomb about to explode, then whispered, “let's just grab him.” Nosedive nodded.
With a swift movement, Nosedive outstretched her leg and tripped all three of them in one fell swoop. Blackeye pulled Bricker up to his feet and pulled him over his back, his feet quivering from exertion.
“Stop toying with them and get over here!” Blackeye yelled to Nosedive behind him, who was laughing as the three meds tried to get back up. Suddenly she stopped.
“Uh, Blackeye? We’ve got some trouble. Five built-like-bulls guards coming straight at us.”
“Well, get a move on, then!” said Blackeye, panting from Bricker’s weight.
“Okay, okay.”
The weight of Bricker’s body became more bearable as Nosedive took the left of Bricker’s body.
“Oy, you. Come back here!” A voice from behind them yelled.
“Run.” Nosedive shouted. With as much speed as they could muster, the two of them sprinted, to the wall.