forum Writing Prompt #1 (For a warmup)

Started January 16, 2018 by Mio

tune

A thrift store filled to the brim but void of people. What would your character do?

Mine:
"Why are we here again?" Nikki asks, scrolling thru a gaming group chat on her phone.
Mia holds her face in her hands, her eyes sparkling as she exclaims, "To look for prom dresses!" She links arms with Nikki and their other friend, Kam. "Everyone will be wearing brand new, flashy dresses that show way too much skin. Not us! We are going to revive something old and make it our own!"
"Yes!" Kam shouts.
"We aren't going to look like sluts!" Mia continues.
"No, we aren't!" Kam confirms.
"We are going to be beautiful and unique!" Mia shouts a final time.
"Exactly!" Kam adds.
"I hate dresses…" Nikki says, sighing.
"Let's go!" Mia exclaims, dragging her friends to another aisle, much to Nikki's protest.

That's actually really good!
this is mine I hope you like it :)
Matti and Dawson walked into the thrift store with one mission. Grab Micah's scarf and get out. Matti sighed. Dawson turned around and glared back at him, "Don't start getting an attitude with me now mister. We wouldn't even be in this mess if it weren't for you!". Matti looked at his feet and shrugged. "Ugh, dude I'm kidding your fine," Dawson reassured him as she lightly pushed him on the shoulder, sending him toppling into a rack of clothes. "OMG are you ok?!" Dawson screeched as she rushed to help him out of the mess. Matti shook her off and shoved something in her face. "Matti you found it!" she beamed and hugged him a little too tight. Oh dear lord, thought Matti, I gotta get new friends.

@childoftheuniverse
Yours is good as well. That last comment is great. XD

Thanks :)

@isabel @childoftheuniverse I love both of yours, omg

The store is dark and crowded with everything someone could possibly need and more than a few things they would never. Barred windows block out most of the midday sun and, despite it being the middle of summer, it's cold as ice inside. Roul strolls through it, past the oddly-taxidermied deer bust and several tiny porcelain dolls grouped together on an old organ with half the keys missing.

It's quiet, his footsteps the only sound he can hear, and that's perfectly alright with him. Shards of a broken mirror outlined in gold catch his reflection as he passes, and for a brief moment he swears there's two shadows behind him. Which is silly. There's not enough light for shadows, let alone two of them. An old jack-in-the-box sits forlornly next to what he assumes is a Lambchop, but really looks more like someone tried to make one out of a rag and a prayer. Black button eyes blink up at him.

Roul picks them both up. After all, they'd make great gifts.

(partly inspired by the antique shop/thrift store in an old jail a street away from me, whoops)

@FantaPop Oh my gosh, I love yours. It's a different take than what we took, and I felt like I was there.

Julia crept into the thrift store through the half-open dusty doors, dragging Amanda by the wrist behind her. She peeked around the tall racks of clothing for any people. There were none, not even at the register.
"See?" Julia said happily. "I told you it would be empty."
"A-are you sure?" Amanda asked cautiously. "I don't think I want to do this." Her fingers twitched endlessly, a sign of her nervousness.
Julia saw this and softened. She took Amanda's hands in her own and kissed them softly like she did when they played Princess years ago. The warmth of her lips soothed Amanda to the point that she was able to breathe again.
"I-i-… Can you check for me?" Amanda stuttered.
"Sure," Julia said. In a moment she was off, bounding soundlessly through the store. She took a few steps toward a tower of fuzzy jackets on the wall, touching each of the likely fake fibers that made them so soft.
Amanda cringed as a deafening crash was heard and, peeking around the thick dusty jackets, she saw Julia in a heap on the other side of the glass countertop. She paused, waited for Julia to get up and laugh, for her to pop up and yell 'gotcha!'.
It must've been over a minute, but Amanda was frozen in fear. If she went over, would Julia scare her? It would probably give her an awful anxiety attack and she'd break down.
But then the rest of her memories flooded her thoughts. Julia creeping closer, speaking in a voice as calm as the ocean waves while Amanda stood on the concrete barrier on Suicide Bridge. When Amanda was harassed on the subway and Julia sacrificed a promising job interview to come take her home. No, she had to trust Julia enough.
She raced over, her boots pounding on the old wooden floor. She jumped over the counter, cutting her palm on a shard of glass but not feeling the pain. Her hands levitated over Julia's chest, trying to recall any of her CPR training she had so many years ago.

@fizzylizzy235 Wow, that was amazing. I got to know your characters some too. I applaud you. claps

The first thing I saw when I walked in to the the thrift store was a locket, and for the strangest reason it looked familiar. I picked it up and opened it, it started flashing! dropping the darn thing with a clank I began to panic then everything stopped the sound of my labored breaths echoed through the desolate store. I began to pick the locket up. when it was in my hands I opened it again but this time I saw something, something I wasn't expecting; my name engraved in gold littering 'Abel' it had a beautiful picture of a woman I assume was my mother but I couldn't be sure she had the same eyes and the hair was similar, but mine was more unruly then the long locks of black-red she had.
My musings were interrupted by a man with a old bakers hat and a raggedy old jacket that was possibly originally red but had faded.
"May I help you with anything Sir" he had what seemed to be a smile but I think he was failing at it.
'money grubber'
"No but I would like to purchase this locket," I said with a small smile slightly resembling a sneer.
"Sorry but its not for sale for just anyone, it's enchanted it has to except you first."
"How do I go about doing that?" I was now contemplating if he was mad and taping my foot in impatience.
"Just put it on you will know if you are able to purchase it or not" he said
I looked at him trying to decide if I should, in the end I thought to just go for it, I'm immortal any way. Slipping the locket over my head I felt absolutely nothing and after a minuet or so of nothing the strange man told me I could purchase it and grumbled about people burning and disappointments.
He led me over to the counter to purchase the item which was twenty dollars, I left the store with one of the few items that were my parent's even if I felt nothing towards the people who abandoned me.
ladder I melted it down to make a candle stick holder.

THE END

@RaeOfSunshine Oh… An unexpected twist. It was very interesting. claps

The thrift store was completely abandoned. It was in the Lost Zone, where the infection had managed to lose control. This was one of the most dangerous areas an Evolution could go into, and here I was, Creed being dragged into a Hot Topic by me, looking for some mystical Resistance that probably didn't exist (or was wiped out an hour ago. Those bodies looked fresh)

I set him down against a rack that held POP! Figures, and he grinned at the tall rack. He was delirious: that fucking tumor was getting to him, and if I didn't find these people, he was going to be eaten from the inside out by it.

I start rummaging through the store, looking for any kind of clue where the secret entrance could be. It was a suspiciously large store, larger than most Hot Topics I've seen, and I remembered the pass code:

"Look for the man eaters inside the Topic."

What the hell did that one person mean about "Man Eaters?" I was expecting Hunters, or terribly mutated humans, or SOMETHING. Hell with it, a Hydra would work. They eat people, don't they? Or do they eat cars? I know hellhounds LOVE to eat people.

I quickly start to tear apart the store, with Creed remaining silent. He´s probably tapped into the Hivemind, and listening to all the things people are thinking, all that they´re saying. It must be very easy to get lost in there, forever silent and frozen.

Finally, I come across a rack of shirts of a dude with white hair and a black eye with a red iris´. He had strange red tentacle thingies coming out of his back, and black nails. He often had his thumb over his pointer finger. ¨Whats 1000 minus 7¨ read one of the shirts. Another just had a name: ¨Toyko Ghoul.¨

I´ve heard of this show. It was an anime about these people called ´Ghouls´ that had to eat human flesh to survive and it follows the story of a human-turned-ghoul named Kanike Ken. This rack is full of man eaters (or a man eater. I don´t know.) The rack is up against a wall, bolted, actually, so that´s another good thing.

I start searching the metal parts of the rack, until I come across a shelf that´s loose. I grin. Found it. I press down, applying force until it dips down in a lever-like fashion. The rack suddenly folds into itself, sending the shirts across the floor, and the wall suddenly slides to the side. Behind the wall is a dark entryway with concrete stairs leading down.

It just might be able to save Creed yet. Ive found where Human´s Hope hides.

@AvengingKillcow Interesting and different. Nice. claps

@isabel thank you! :)

Genevieve cocked an eyebrow questioningly, looking at the dark-thing across from her with a mixture of unattainable dignity and disgust.
"What are you?" she asked the dark-thing, her voice rising just a little bit. It was a dark night, with shadows creeping from and into everywhere, and a weird-winged-black-thing that looked like it was about to feed on her soul just wasn't helping her anxiety that much. Especially in an alleyway. A really scary alleyway.
A rumble emanated from the thing, and Gen jumped. Regaining herself, she smoothed her dress in a display of utter composure. Something like amusement seemed to emanate from the thing. Genevieve wanted to scream.
"IIIII ammm Azzzzraellll." said the thing, with a voice that sounded almost human, but distorted, as if there was a glass wall between them.
Azrael, Gen thought. That was my father's name.
She took a step forward.
Azrael rustled his wings irritably.
"What are you doing here, Azrael?" Before her sentence was even finished, Azrael had spread his wings and flown directly towards her; Gen could now see that he had verdantly magenta eyes. Shivering slightly, Gen sidestepped to avoid his flying figure, which made him stop abruptly in mid-air.
"IIIII cannottt accessss youuu. Wwwwhhhyyy?"
Access me? Gen thought wildly. What does that mean?
Azrael lowered himself to the floor, tsking mildly, as if Genevieve was no more than a child who had broken her grandmother's favourite china. Fixing her with a darkly crimson glare, the angel–for that was what Gen had decided he was–screwed his mouth up in what seemed like disgust. Insulted, and without realising what she was doing, Gen did the same in his direction.
"Yyoouuu aaaarrrree oonnneee oooff tthheemmm, aarreenn'tt yoouu?"
Gen had no time to process what the dark angel just asked, because that was when pain took over her, and everything went black.

What do you Notebookers think of this??

@@SlightlyZazzedPanda I think it's very interesting and believe you could expand upon it if you wanted. It really is cool.

"Alright, seriously. Are you going to tell my why we're here?" Nate scowled as he ducked to slip under an antique chandelier that had been hung off of a dilapidated coat closet. He frowned up at it, brow twitching in confusion, before turning back to find Alex. His eyes widened for a moment when he realized his companion was missing, but then he struggled not to show the relief he felt when uncontrollable giggles suddenly came from above him. Alex grinned from the top of a hollow archway, her legs swinging freely.

"Isn't it wonderful?" Her voice lilted over the piles of furniture and her eyes wandered away from Nate as she thought happily of all the hidden treasures. "I've always wanted to come here, but my brothers would never let me. They always said it's too dangerous." Her face twisted into a mocking sneer before she rolled her eyes.

Nate hummed noncommittally and crossed his arms, glancing around at the mess surrounding them. "Well, they might have the right idea. It's certainly not safe, but nothing's too dangerous if you know what you're doing." He could agree with them on one thing, he definitely didn't like the idea of Alex in here on her own.

Alex snorted and jumped down from the archway, glaring at Nate when he reached out to try to steady her. "Great, now you sound like Coryne. I can take care of myself, why is it so hard for you overprotective idiots to learn that?" She shook him off and slipped into one of the piles, through a hole too small for Nate to follow. Nate groaned and ran a hand through his hair, knowing it would take a while for his girlfriend to cool down and talk to him now.

@Allie Beth I like that one. It's adorable and understandable. I relate to it a lot actually. Good job.

@@SlightlyZazzedPanda I think it's very interesting and believe you could expand upon it if you wanted. It really is cool.

Thank you so much, Isabel! It just kind of popped into my head..wonder if I'll start a project on it
@AllieBeth, also, great job! Love the sarcasm.

(this is going to be particularly fun for me because i'm writing a fantasy/dystopia)

What shocked Tasper most was the extravagance. This much of anything in one place seemed like a dream –surreal, intangible. The clothing shelves, lined with items of all colors and sizes, nearly blinded him. And shoes? Shoes made for warm weather, cold weather, and everything in between? He was almost afraid to reach out and touch it.

Mitsig and Sacia had no such concerns. Delight leapt like flames in Sacia's eyes. She clapped her hands together, her mouth stretched in a grin. "Do you…are you seeing this?"

"I see it," Mitsig squealed, flapping his hands in excitement. "It's all c –colored! And so sof –soft." He reached out and stroked a pastel sweater, smiling at the sensation.

Tasper twisted his mouth. "It's too much. It's almost sick. We need this stuff."

"Yeah, exactly," Sacia fired back, "so grab what you can and let's bring it back home."

He tugged at the ends of his twists, still indecisive. Mitsig's little smile turned towards him, and he waved. "Come –come on! It's so soft, so soft, Tassy."

Rubbing at the back of his neck, he considered. Sacia and Mitsig's joy was contagious. He couldn't help himself. Wrapping his hand around the sleeve of the pastel sweater, he shrugged one shoulder. "Yeah. It's soft." He smiled. "Let's get this stuff back home."

Thanks @isabel, @@SlightlyZazzedPanda!! It's been a while since I've written anything for fun, so I'm glad ya'll liked it! And great job @writelikeyourerunningoutoftime! Mitsig is absolutely adorable!!!

@writelikeyourerunningoutoftime That was cute, and I relate. Colors and soft things. sighs in content

@ThatscoolbcIdidntwanttoanyway @ Isabel thanks!