Phersu's Writing Desk (Accepts Prompts/Requests/Criticism)

[Phersu]

Hello.~ My name is Phersu, but I go by Su, Kouki, Joseph, or Grimm. I'm a writer, as well as a student. Basically, I'm making this thread for a few things. First, I'll be posting some of my new shorts here. My older ones, which I don't feel like copy and pasting, can be found here http://www.crunchyroll.com/forumtopic-8 ... ile-o-junk. Any post by Phersu, basically, is mine. Well, aside from that, if anyone has any prompts for me, I'll do my best to use them. If anyone has any story requests, shorts that is, feel free to ask me. I won't charge for story requests, since I'm a nice guy. Feel free to criticize my shorts here as well, or ask me for writing advice if you need some.

Well, thanks and nice to meet you.

[Phersu]

Allegorical short.~

Guy was a rather odd man. Most would label him as insane, really. He wandered during the day, and he wandered during the night. Darkness did little to impede his progress as he continued to walk. The sun didn’t do any better in trying to blind him from his destination. It couldn’t. The reason why it couldn’t is the same reason why most people would label him as insane. Guy simply had no destination in mind as he wandered. He walked without reason or purpose, and in this sense he was indeed a wanderer. He never settled down, and he never stayed attached to other people.

This is not to say he never had companions as he wandered endlessly. He had met a great many of people, and a few even walked with him. Some stayed longer than others, as they eventually found their own places to stop and rest, but for Guy there was no rest and no stopping. There was simple the road in front of him.

Someone named Ennui traveled with Guy, separating from Guy repeatedly to only join him once again further on Guy’s journey. Ennui was an odd person as well. Ennui would oft talk to Guy and ask him why he wandered. Guy would simply look at Ennui with a blank expression as they walked and remained in silence when Ennui asked such a thing.

“Surely you want to stop, Guy. Walking is so repetitive. So boring. Why don’t you do something else? Why not run? Or dance, or skip? Perhaps at the very least you could jog?” Ennui asked Guy, pestering him as to why he only walked.

“All roads eventually lead to the same place, at different paces. Some people run, and some people dance, and others skip or jog. I walk,” Guy said in answer, his gaze unwavering as he faced forward. Another person would probably consider Ennui’s words, and perhaps even change the monotony. Perhaps they would indeed do something other than walk. Guy wasn’t such a person. He would walk, as he always had. There was no reason in Guy’s mind to change.

“That’s not very fun,” Ennui said, pouting a bit. Guy paid no mind to Ennui’s expression, and not that long after Ennui was gone, and Guy was alone once more. Guy didn’t know if Ennui would show up once more, as Ennui tended to do after leaving, and Guy didn’t care.

The next day a woman named Sphinx appeared by his side as he traveled. She was quite feminine in appearance, but she seemed to possess the strength of a lion and the grace of a bird. Occasionally she would ask Guy various questions, or pose to him different riddles. He would answer as well as he could, and Sphinx would nod and shake her head according to whether she believed him right or wrong.

“What is the answer to the mystery of life?” Sphinx asked him, her tone implying that this would be her final answer. Guy simply continued to walk as he considered the answer. Sphinx had traveled with him before, as had Ennui, and she would ask trick questions at times. Guy didn’t care if he answered correctly, but he would give them thought anyways.

“If anyone knew it wouldn’t be a mystery,” Guy said, after a long moment of reflection. Sphinx hid a small smile behind her hand, but she neither shook her head no nor nodded. Soon after his answer Sphinx left, as Ennui had the day before. Another day passed for Guy, and another. He noted mentally how many times he saw the sun, and how many times he saw the moon. He had seen them both rise and fall so many times that the numbers were currently at least six digits long. He didn’t know how he remembered these numbers, but he did, and he was fine with this knowledge.

Four days after Sphinx’s departure from Guy’s ever-continuing path, Arbiter joined Guy. Arbiter was large in size, at least nine feet tall. Arbiter loomed over Guy, who was neither tall nor short. Arbiter didn’t introduce himself to Guy, yet Guy knew his name in his head regardless. Guy didn’t introduce himself either, yet Arbiter knew who he was as well. Arbiter was more silent than Sphinx or Ennui, merely watching Guy most of the time. Arbiter didn’t talk, and neither did Guy, yet the silence wasn’t uncomfortable. They continued like this for several days, until one day Arbiter followed the pattern left by the two before, and asked Guy a question.

“Why do you not complain, Wanderer Guy? Does not the red weigh heavy upon your hands? Does not the breath that is life burden your shoulders? Why do you keep your head held so high, when others have been forced to keep theirs buried in the dirt under such weight?” Arbiter asked Guy, the words as heavy as lead in the air. Guy did as he had done before with his previous companions when they asked questions, and that was continue to walk. A time passed, then another time as well as a dividing of a time before he finally answered.

“Aye, the red does weigh heavy upon my hands, and the breath that you call life does burden my shoulders, but I must keep my head high despite such weight. If I don’t look up, I will not know where I go, and if these burdens were lifted from me then I would not know where I had been. One is lost if one does not know where they are going, or where they have been. I am not lost, the Judge named Arbiter, nor do I plan to become lost. So I shall continue regardless of that which hampers my path, and I shall never forget. As long as I can do this, I am content, and have no reason to complain,” Guy said. Arbiter raised a giant’s hand and patted Guy on the shoulder as they walked together, and then left as the others had before.

It had been some time since Guy had begun walking, but he finally reached the end of his path. He didn’t know why, but he knew this was the end regardless. Ennui, Sphinx, and Arbiter were gone, but a person stood in front of him. He felt as if this person was an old friend, and so he walked his left steps to the person and held out his hand. The person shook the hand, and smiled.

“It has been a long time, Guy, but your journey is at an end now. Your traveling companions shall find another to travel with, and they will continue to do so for a long time until the time to rest comes for them as it has for you. So close your eyes, and sleep, Guy, sleep for a time. You will awake again when the time comes,” the person said. This person moved closer to Guy, enclosing him in a hug. Guy nodded and closed his eyes, allowing his body to relax. The person held him up, and slowly lowered him until he was laying upon the ground.

“Can I lay my burdens down for a time now, Mortifer?” Guy asked the person. The person, Mortifer, nodded. Guy didn’t open his eyes, but he knew the answer, and so he did as Mortifer instructed, and he slept for a time.

[Phersu]

Now for a bit of a romance short. Well, sort of. I'm only posting the beginning for now.



The Zero Confidence Man/The Zero Luck Woman


Let me start by saying that I have no confidence. I can truthfully claim to be a man with no confidence in myself. Of course, there a lot of people like that out there who don't believe in themselves, right? Except I literally have no confidence at all. Neither in myself, or other people.

Well, it's not like something tragic happened to me in the past. Rather, I have had a normal childhood. Completely, totally, unnervingly ordinary. My ascent to adulthood had some bumps, but that is normal too. A past that had no trauma or tragedy aside from the average for everyone, such as a death of a pet or a distantly related family member you don't even remember.

Yeah. So average. My whole life has been like that. My entire existence is like that. Normal. Common. Ordinary.

Average grades, average looks, average strength, average luck. No particular skills or abilities. Nothing out of the status quo. Nothing to be proud of. Nothing to be confident in.

Except, of course, the moment when I met her. Someone so completely unordinary. An opposite of me, who was nothing but normal. It was the summer of my twentieth year when I met her.

The Zero Luck Woman.

[Phersu]

Well, someone wanted me to write a dark romance story. Here's what I actually wrote.


Twisted Choice.

If you had to kill the person you loved to save somebody, would you?

Probably not, right? I mean, you don't care about this other random person.

What if you had to kill her to save more than one person? Say two? How about three? Not enough? Four. Six. Nine. Thirteen.

An entire city.

How about then?

Bullet in the chamber. Finger on the trigger. Sweat in your eyes. Heart pounding.

Pull the trigger.



There are some people who won't. Who can't. There are some who wish they couldn't.

I'm the latter.

Bullet in the chamber. Finger on the trigger. Sweat in my eyes. Heart pounding. Standing in front of me. Waiting. Smiling. Arms spread out like she's expecting a hug. She knows I can't pull the trigger. Knows it. Just waiting for me to drop my arm and the gun. Come up to me and embrace me, whispering sweet nothings in my ear and telling me what a brave man I was. How smart I was to listen to her. To allow her this monstrosity.

But she sees my eyes, and she doesn't know anymore. Her smile falters. Her expression sours. Fear creeps into her eyes, matching the grief in mine.

Pull the trigger.



Now all my senses but sight fail me. I can't feel the heat off the muzzle of the gun, or the shockwave vibrating my left arm. Can't smell the smoke of the gunfire, or hear the ringing in my ears. Can't taste the sweat dripping down my face. For a second, for a moment, for an eternity. All I can do is see.

How I wish that would fail me too. Deprive me of the sight I am forced to watch. I just want the lights to turn off, and for it all fade to dark.
Can't feel my arm moving, bringing the barrel of the gun around. Can't smell the smoke. Can't taste the sweat. Can't hear the ringing.

Soon, I won't be able to see.

[Phersu]

Sci-fi short.

"My completely secret space diary, entry 187. This will be my final entry. We.....I am currently in an unknown star system. Weapon systems are un-operational. Worm-hole drive is currently in the process of activating. Life support is failing. Oxygen is limited. There are no longer any fires in the lower decks, as there is no longer any oxygen to burn down there.

"Communications are knocked down, but a distress beacon was managed to be sent beforehand. All escape pods have been jettisoned, and the majority of the crew has managed to escape. The current crew is I, the Captain Xavier, and the deliciously deceased corpse of my dear friend Doctor Cluck. Which I am eating," Xavier said. He was dining in the bridge of his spaceship, a table placed in front of him. A single plate was on the table, filled with grilled chicken, next to a glass of wine.

"Our current destination is the warship directly in front of us. Since we have no functioning weapons left, I have decided to ram our ship into a larger ship in a game of galactic chicken. A-ahem. I'm sorry, Doctor Cluck. I'm so...so sorry. But you're delicious," He said, tears starting to drip down his face as he continued eating. The spaceship that was growing in size on the screen of the bridge was less of a spaceship and more of a moon that could move and had a weapons system. The much, much smaller ship Xavier was manning wouldn't do more than dent it.

"Here's to you, The Wind. Always kind of figured it would end this way. After all, there isn't any wind in space, now is there? You know why I named you that? I used to hear stories about Earth, back before either you or me were alive. Back when wind blew on the Earth. Nobody could be as free as the wind. Nothing could chain it down, or hold it back forever. In the end, the wind was always free. I....always wanted to be as free as the wind," Xavier said. He reached for his glass of wine, but he missed it as the whole ship shook and it clattered to the ground. Another hit from the mass that was firing upon them. The same mass he was moving towards.

"Maybe in another life. For the last time, this is Captain Xavier of The Wind. I died free. On my terms," He said, shutting off the recording. The Wind shook as it collided into the larger ship. It certainly left a dent, but the much bigger ship would continue on.

The shuttles that had escaped from the dying spaceship watched with melancholy as their home was crashing and burning in front of them.

Dark light burst from The Wind as the wormhole drive activated, creating a slip in space for the ship to move through. This was the plan of their captain, their former captain, Xavier.

The dark light died away, and with it The Wind vanished.

Now the much bigger ship was crippled and vulnerable, with a portion of it ripped away.

Not all who were as free as the wind had to die.

[Phersu]

Getting kind of lonely. Here's another unfinished.



Yume no Sekai


A baby girl dreams.

There exist a place, a world, in which we all visit at some point. A world that exists merely because humanity wills it to be. A world without limits or boundaries. Endless. Nothing isn't possible here.

A young girl dreams.

It mirrors and reflects those who created it, showing them for what they truly are. A world divided from our own, and yet still connected in a way. Magic still fills this world that reflects an existence which does not.
A teenager dreams.

And this world, so far from ours and so close, sometimes leaks into our world. Slowly blurring lines of reality. Eating away at the boundaries that separate them. Coming ever so closer and closer.

A woman dreams.

The limits that bind humans fray, and the limit of the sky is pushed higher away. The stone that bears impossibility is worn away at, and reality quakes. That which is real, and that which is unreal become blurry and merge.

She dreams.

~~~~~~~~~~~

It is a familiar sight for her as she closes her eyes and slips into the darkness that waits for her. She visits this place almost every night. An odd land, to be sure, filled with a countless number of oddities. It can be a scary place that she visits, but rarely does she fear it. Because here, she can fly.

As her mortal body slumbers, her mind soars free into the realm in which dreams wait. Here, she is boundless. She soars through the multicolored skies, painted by those who dream with her. It is an exhilarating feeling, she finds, to be able to enjoy the sensation that birds experience every day.

But today is different. She doesn't know why, but something feels off about her dream tonight. Soon, she notices something new. Down below her, on the ground, stands a giant in the shape of a human. A colossus, who appears to be some combination of demon and angel.

Wings spread out of his back, so beautiful that they would make even the highest of birds envious. Crimson wings. Bloody wings. Feathers fall from wings like drops of blood, staining the ground underneath the behemoth.
Black horns curve forward from the temple of the humanoid, like those of a ram. Sound emanates from the horns, so sharp that they cut the air that blow past them.

Below these instruments of murder lies an imitation of the face of a man, as hard as granite and as cold as steel. The eyes that adorn this mockery of a human burn like smoldering coals, speaking of a fire that could scorch your very soul should it be unleashed.

The body the head is attached to is no more pleasant to gaze upon. A scarred body, belonging to that of the most seasoned warrior. It is nigh impossible to find a stretch of the pale skin that isn't matted with scarred tissue. The legs of the giant are covered with bloody armor that appears to be growing from its skin, completely covering the lower half of it like scabs.

She stops as this colossus appears below her, the horns that jut forward almost high enough to reach her in the clouds. For the first time as she dreams, she fears.

And it roars.

The world is filled with a sound so vile, so hideous, so completely and totally wrong that it seems to violate the air itself. She is filled with a terror so deep, so strong, so old, that it banishes any other feeling. She is left feeling cold and numb, as well as somehow incomplete.

The world itself is twisted to the whims of this behemoth. The sky turns a sickly color, as if somehow the very atmosphere became diseased. The land below her visibly dies before her eyes, every spot of greenery wilting and fading away.

It laughs.

Such a horrible sound, that one would prefer the dying screams of cats over it. She quakes in the sky she once loved so much, fear dominating her.

Her eyes close.

[Phersu]

A Normal Kind of Man.


One of my favorite characters in fiction is Misogi Kumagawa from Medaka Box. Why? Because he is a self-described loser, who never wins anything. He agrees that he isn't smart, strong, handsome, cute, lucky or pretty, and yet he wants to beat people like that. He has two abilities, one to reduce anything to nothing, and one to bring anyone down to his level.

I can get behind those abilities. I'd love them. You see, because I'm not handsome, smart, strong, cute, fast, lucky or pretty. I'm none of those things, and the world can be a harsh place for people without something like that. I'd love to be able make people come down to my level. A level where nobody is special. We're all equally normal.

I'm an exceptionally normal person, you know. Everything about me is either normal, average, common, or slightly above/below average. I have no special talents. No real strengths. No real weaknesses. I'm like a jack of all trades. Nothing I'm really bad at, true. But nothing I'm really good at either.

It is an odd place. There isn't much excess of praise or blame, because you're not noticeable enough for that kind of stuff. Women don't chase after you, or show any interest in you. Neither do men, really. I mean, why would they? You aren't special or curious or abnormal or different. You might as well be a carbon copy of a normal man.
Place people like me in a crowd, you'll never find us again. We will literally blend in with all the other people. Not because we're sneaky, or good at hiding, but because we're just so unassuming. We don't stand out. We blend in. We don't even need to try to blend it. We just do it naturally.

My kind of personality isn't much better. I go with the flow, like what most people say they like, do what most people say they do. Chameleons when it comes to personality. We just change colors to blend in with the people around us subconsciously.

Nothing to see here, keep moving. Just a completely average man.

[AbhorrentFear]

Hmm, just to tell you, I've been reading up your stuff here for a little while and I quite like your style. Not sure how to describe it, but it's certainly intriguing in my opinion.

Out of what you've posted up here so far I've got to say Twisted Choice and A Normal Kind of Man are my favorite. Twisted Choice simply because even though it's so fragmented, it certainly says quite a lot. Or maybe it's because I just like pieces about mind games in general... xD

A Normal Kind of Man just strikes me as something quite relatable, even if I've never watched Medaka Box.

Nonetheless, unfortunately I don't have much to say critique wise since I already seem to be fond of your writing in general. My only iffy point is a mere typo in Twisted Choice: instead of trigger, you wrote tringer, at one point. Unless tringer is a word and I'm completely delusional... But anyways, great job, and good luck with any future pieces you plan on putting out for everyone.

P.S: Perhaps I'll throw you a prompt? How about writing something based off of this sentence, 'They were made for each other. Literally.' I'm interested to see what you come up with if it strikes you as something you'd like to write about.

[Phersu]

'I was made for him,
He for me,
But life ain't so sweet,
To leave us be.'

Let's start from the top. Girl meets boy. Or boy meets girl. Doesn't really matter who meets who first. They fall in love. Ah, love at first sight, because they are literally made for each other. Boy and girl stick together through the next parts. School. More school. Adulthood. Career. Marriage. True love trumps all.

That's right. It does trump all. But do you have any idea how rare it is? Pretty freaking rare. Now, let's start back from the top. This time, let's change a few things to fit reality.

Girl doesn't meet boy. Boy doesn't meet girl. They don't fall in love. They don't stick together through life. Boy meets a different girl, who he isn't made for. Who isn't made for him. Same happens to first girl. Except with a different boy, unless she was secretly in the closet.

Boy suffers through a dead end job and a pointless marriage, forcing on a smile for his children who he hopes to God don't end up like him. Life loses its color for boy, who's now man. His wife isn't much happier. They suffer through it until one of them dies, or both of them die, or one off's themselves. The other pretends to cry, secretly glad to be done with 'em.

Now girl, the first girl, isn't much better. Maybe she ends up with a deadbeat. Maybe he's a drunkard. Maybe he's abusive. Maybe he's a nitwit. Maybe he has an Oedipus complex. Who knows? Either way, girl isn't happy with him. She fools around, trying to find that missing piece from her life.

Girl thinks she finds it, in boy three. Third time the charm? Wrong, since she never met the first. So second time's the charm. Except nobody says.

Boy three falls in love with girl one. Find's out about the deadbeat husband. Girl won't leave him. Boy three offs boy two, getting thrown in jail. Girl one is now a widow. She spends the rest of her days drifting through life, having to latch onto her children to survive like a parasite.

Sorry. Did you want a happy ending?

[Phersu]

Just a little intro.


~~~~~~~

Born in Darkness,
Wreathed in Shadows,
Cradled by the Night.

Prelude I - The Silent

My name is Simon the Silent. My first memory is of a dark room. The only light was from the moon, filtered through the dirty glass of a window. I made no noise as I came to. I was a silent child, ever since my birth. Yes, I was a quiet boy. A good boy. I did not talk, as I was not supposed to.

I served my birthmother faithfully. I did not question her, or doubt her. I was obedient, like all good children. I only ever used my voice once, when the men came with fire and steel. I begged them to spare her. They cut out my tongue and beat me, left me for dead in the room of my first memory. It was no longer dark, the fire that consumed it banishing the darkness away.

With the loss of my tongue, sound left me. I never needed to speak before, but now I couldn't speak at all. I became a truly silent boy then. My steps which served to drive further from my burning home bore no sound. I thought they were merely consumed by the roar of the fire, but the noise didn't return when the fire was too far away to hear.

I tried to scream. I couldn't even hear the air passing violently from my lungs. I stomped on the leaves on the ground, snapped the fallen twigs, bashed my fists against bark. Nothing I did made sound.

So they couldn't hear me.

I followed their trail, sticking to the dark shadows cast from the trees. I only needed to worry about them seeing me, which they never did. A good child knows how to hide himself when he is not wanted.

Eventually they stopped to camp, building a fire and joking around it. One by one, they slipped off until only the night watch was awake. His back was to me, and the fire in front of him. My shadow never crossed his vision as I pulled out his knife from his belt. No sound escaped his lips when he tried to scream. No sound escaped when he started choking on his own blood.

Now the sound had left him too. I realized that, somewhere deep inside myself. But my rage, my fear, my pain, my sadness had consumed me too much for me to recognize it at the time. I tried to scream. This time in victory, but still nothing came out from my mouth.

I turned towards the ones asleep. They never even woke up.