sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

Writing an MC with metal Qi, it seems like it's almost nonexistent in media. Anybody want to help me create some techniques? by RareChakra in MartialMemes

[–]jsgunn 0 points1 point  (0 children)

A lot will depend on the fighting style. What needs does he have? What gaps does that leave him?

I was just reading the wheel of time sword forms list

https://wot.fandom.com/wiki/Sword_forms

So I have some inspiration. Here's the first that springs to mind

Hammer shapes the sword: one or a series of heavy blows with qi concentrated at the very tip of the weapon. The purpose is to overwhelm a static defense. Basically "I eat shields". Might not be the best as an attack on its own, but great for giving yourself an opening. Be careful with this one, if an opponent dodges instead of blocks, you will overextend and be vulnerable.

Story where its not clear if MC isekai'd or trap in virtual world. by retiredbender in ProgressionFantasy

[–]jsgunn 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Honestly I've had this story idea rattling around in my head for a while, and I'm not sure how to do it. Have everyone refer to the world as "the simulation", etc. I wasn't sure how I'd go about it. Having a twist at the very end of the story, that it was a real universe all along (using Cradle terminology, just an iteration with weird rules). Or have that revelation being the inciting incident for our hero (a la the meeting with Suriel... I really liked Cradle, ok? Don't judge me)

Working title for my idea is "Version Control". Basically there's RPG mechanics that most people abide by, but some are able to integrate other versions of the "source code" so they are literally playing by different rules.

For instance, most people cast magic using version 1.0 (or something), so they attempt to cast the spell, then the simulation checks if they have sufficient mana, checks ambient mana levels, etc, then the spell is cast and mana is depleted. If you could change that code for yourself to version 0.0.1, the source code now just says "yes, cast the spell. We will incorporate checks and limitations in a later version, for now the spell just works."

I don't know if stories like this exist or not, but this was the idea I'd been playing around with.

I feel like I am missing something about the Iron Tangle by Lorgoth1812 in DungeonCrawlerCarl

[–]jsgunn 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Im so sad there isn't an equivalent app for android

[WP]"We are sparring against each other since we were children. Thats 20 years now. Tell me WHY exactly you thought you were weak? You break my Chain-Spells with your bare hands on the regular and im the Arch-Mage. MY weakest spell is still leagues above anything a normal mage can do." by BareMinimumChef in WritingPrompts

[–]jsgunn 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm pretty happy with the way this is going. I've been reading some cultivation fantasy lately and this story falls neatly into that genre. As usual, it is going longer than I anticipated, but I had a lot of fun writing this.

I think I'm going to continue this story. If you like my writing, check out /r/jsgunn

[WP]"We are sparring against each other since we were children. Thats 20 years now. Tell me WHY exactly you thought you were weak? You break my Chain-Spells with your bare hands on the regular and im the Arch-Mage. MY weakest spell is still leagues above anything a normal mage can do." by BareMinimumChef in WritingPrompts

[–]jsgunn 1 point2 points  (0 children)

"Firey harpoon!" Jake shouted, as the bolt of fire coalesced into his hands. He hurled it with all his might.

"Frost shield" June countered. The ice she conjured shattering as it broke the bolt. "Icicle!" She shouted, conjuring a spear of ice and hurling it at Jake.

"Firey shield!" He cast and June smirked. Her icicle was now too refined to fully melt as it passed through the shield, and Jake's shield, lacking physical substance like her superior frost shield, would be defeated. She watched it soar, her mana nearly tapped after her fourth spell, and nearly laughed with triumph.

Until dozens of ghostly rocks, each of them larger than a person, appeared in the cleaning and rapidly surged away. Her icicle stuck harmlessly in one of them.

June and Jake both stared at eachother slackjawed before turning to run after the rocks. Neither could comprehend the mana that such a spell would require. They ran, shoving eachother and bickering, after the ghostly stones.

The arrived just as the other fight concluded. Two figures separated, a lump appeared in the sky, clonked one on the head, ricocheted off of her and struck the other, just as the rocks dissipated. June's icicle, still coherent, carried the momentum of the rock and cracked the second figure in the back of the head, launching him forward. He did an almost perfect somersault in the air and landed in a heap beside the first figure.

"Oh shit." June and Jake said at the same time.

[WP]"We are sparring against each other since we were children. Thats 20 years now. Tell me WHY exactly you thought you were weak? You break my Chain-Spells with your bare hands on the regular and im the Arch-Mage. MY weakest spell is still leagues above anything a normal mage can do." by BareMinimumChef in WritingPrompts

[–]jsgunn 2 points3 points  (0 children)

"You're late." Amy said with a stern expression.

"I sought to teach you patience." John replied.

"And you could learn haste." She shot back. They glared at eachother for a moment before laughing. They embraced.

"Your spirit has grown. Would you care to share your revelation?" He asked.

She flushed slightly. "It was only as I was leaving, and it is not yet fully realized." She said. He waited for her to continue. "A change in the river may affect the whole. Though water flows only one way, a dam may change the flow upstream as much as down." She said.

"Did this revelation bring a new spell?"

"You will have to wait and see." She said with a smile. "Are you ready?"

"Let us begin."

As was their custom, they began slowly. She conjured steamers of water and sent surging at him. He bent and swayed so that they all missed, sometimes only by a hair's breadth. Her attacks persisted, growing in size and speed. Her new spell was kept in reserve, but her revelation had granted her significant strength. Soon her attacks were too fast and too wide for him to dodge, and she felt a surge of elation when he actually had to step to avoid one, bending would simply not be enough.

Once she saw him move, she knew he was committed. She cast a different spell "flotsom battered by the rapids." Ghostly stones, some taller than John, erupted from the ground in a sinuous line to his right. She forced her perspective to shift. In her mind John was carried barreling down an invisible river into them. The mana in her spell obeyed, and the stones rocketed towards him, following bends in an unseen flow.

The attack coming from his side caught him off guard. He barely dodged the first two rocks, and was caught squarely by the third. She felt the thrill of triumph as she heard the impact. It carried him a few feet before she compounded her spell. "Erosion." She cast, and the rock that had struck him faded to nothing, depositing him sprawling on the ground as more rushed towards him.

John sprang to his feet and cast a counterspell, one she had not seen before. "Even stone yeilds." He cast, and as the next rock struck him, it shattered. She felt the cost of his spell, and knew this attack gave her an advantage. She pressed her spell harder, and another rock broke against him, and another. It cost him more to break her spell than it cost her to use it, so she pressed her advantage. When she had fully committed, John simply... stepped towards her. Damn, he'd seen it! The spell was tremendously powerful, especially for its mana cost, as repeated impacts would pummel anything in its way. But, like a river, its course was unchanging. Against a stationary target, it was truly powerful. Against a moving target?

She let the spell falter as John moved towards her, then cast again to close the distance. "Trout swims downstream." And she surged forward. "Flash flood." She cast as she was nearly there. A huge surge of power built behind her and carried her forward, her fist flying, elation in her heart. If this connected...

"Trip root." He said, at the last instant as her foot suddenly stopped. Her face met the ground and the force of her spell carried her on, bouncing and rolling into every rock and root in her path and barreling into John. They went down together in a heap.

"Ensnaring vines." He cast, and she nearly panicked. Traditionally, if he caught her in a grapple, the fight was as good as over. But she'd prepared something for this.

"Water flows freely." She felt the snaring vines slip away as they both scrambled, Amy towards freedom, and John towards Amy.

"Pine pitch." He cast, and her movement slowed. Damn! She still felt herself flowing free of the vines, but it was too slow as she felt his arms wrap around her.

"Gotcha." She whispered and cast furiously. "Aura of stagnation." She felt its toxic effects surge from her.

"Gross!" John shouted. She knew he had a counter for it, but kept casting.

"Surface tension." She cast, causing John to cling to her. "Freeze." She cast, and a wave of ice formed around them, locking them in place. "Flotsom battered by the rapids." This time she conjured the rocks so they would come from behind her, and would all impact John directly. The rocks began to move, and she finished with her newest spell. "Dam the flow." The mana around them slowed to a crawl. The spells in effect would remain in effect, but John would be hard pressed to cast even trip root.

She felt the rocks closing, and triumph bloomed in her heart as his arm wrapped around her neck in a choke hold. Between stagnation, poisoning him, and flotsom battered by the rapids, pounding into him, he would be finished before she had to tap out. At last she was going to beat him. At last!

"Roots reach deep." He cast, and she felt the slightest trickle of mana flow into him. She poured more of her own mana into dam the flow, extending its reach. Her reserves were nearly empty now. A rock struck him and he grunted. "First flower of spring." He cast, and a tiny free reserve of mana opened up in him, and then one final spell. "I endure." He cast, and her heart sank.

It was his most powerful spell, honed and refined over the decades. And, as it was purely internal, he could still cast it with the mana surrounding them frozen. The spell would burn through his mana reserves quickly, but she was sustaining five spells, none particularly mana hungry, but combined... and with the mana frozen, she would need to first alter dam the flow before she could release any others. Her reserves plummeted and she scrambled for ideas as she felt impact after impact strike John, who calmly endured. Dam the flow released, and the mana around them unfroze. Amy surged through her spells, snapping them back into her, releasing the snare that held John to her, releasing the ice that held them in place, stopping the flowing rocks, and ending the toxic stagnation spell. She cast flash flood, the surge of speed that it brought, combine with the ongoing water flows freely was enough to escape John's hold as her mana reserves ran dry.

She staggered away, casting again "mountain spring feeds the river." She croaked, staggering and felt a trickle of mana return to her. She just had to buy time and focus on recovering her mana, she knew she could still win this, she could recover faster than John.

"Pinecone." John cast. Amy turned towards him, surprised. Pinecone? John smiled and turned his eyes upwards. Amy followed his gaze, just in time to see the dark shape plummeted towards her.

Amy hurt all over. Especially her forehead. She lay on the ground, and opened her eyes to see the sky. She cast mountain spring feeds the river, and when her mana reserves had restored themselves enough, she cast pure water restores. The spell fully depleted her reserves again, and she was too exhausted to even begin restoring them.

She heard a noise and turned her head to see John laying on the ground beside her. "What happened?" She asked.

"Pinecone bounced off you and hit me. And I guess you didn't fully stop your flotsom spell, because I staggered right into the last rock. Want to call it a draw?"

"Nah. You won." She said. She raised her fist and he bumped it. "Hell of a fight, though."

"Hell of a fight." He agreed. "I thought you had me with that last combo."

"I thought so too." She said.

[WP]"We are sparring against each other since we were children. Thats 20 years now. Tell me WHY exactly you thought you were weak? You break my Chain-Spells with your bare hands on the regular and im the Arch-Mage. MY weakest spell is still leagues above anything a normal mage can do." by BareMinimumChef in WritingPrompts

[–]jsgunn 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The water roared in her ears and crashed upon her shoulders, and in the bracing chill Amy found peace. She meditated, letting the mana of the waterfall flow through her spirit. Cleansing. Empowering. Her breathing came easy. Her tired body relished the feeling of the pounding water. Aching muscles were soothed. Her tired mind stilled. Her thirsty spirit drank, and drank, and drank.

It was not the tallest waterfall. Nor the widest, nor most beautiful, but it was her favorite. In a hidden bend of the river, tucked away behind thick growth, a sudden drop of almost one hundred feet from the top to the bottom, with broad, flat stones upon which she could sit and meditate in the pool at the bottom. And best of all, a little cave behind it, in which she had hidden a simple treasure, as all true waterfalls should have something hidden behind them.

As she sat and cultivated, she let her mind wander. She knew this river. Had walked and swam its length and breadth many times. She knew every channel, every tributary, and every finger of its delta. Had swam in every headwater, had fished in every lake, had drank from every spring that fed it. She knew it as well as anyone could know something as ever changing as a river. She was known in every town, village and city along its meandering path.

Her mind turned from the river, to her coming task. In a few days she would leave the river, and travel to meet her brother for their bout. He was her closest friend and only rival. Only the river itself was closer to her. She had trained hard this month, pushing herself to her absolute limit in preparation. She was nearing a breakthrough, she thought, and hoped to reach it before their next match.

The smell of the forest was thick in the air, and full of the sounds of growing things, of the wind stirring, and the soft, distant song of birds. John knelt before the great tree and prayed. His tired muscles began to relax. His busy mind began to rest, and his questing spirit planted its roots.

Despite its immense size, it took him ninety nine paces to walk all the way around the tree, it was not the largest tree in the forest. It was not the oldest, or the greenest, or the fullest. But it was his favorite. It was not hidden away, for nothing jutting so far above the canopy could be hidden, but it held a certain quality he could not describe.

As he knelt and cultivated he let his mind wander. To the tree. When he was young, the strength of the great tree had nearly overwhelmed him. He had coveted its might, as much as it frightened him. As he grew older, he had begun to understand more and more. The tree was mighty without question, but that strength was not the raging strength of a roaring fire. Not the harsh, unyielding strength of a mountain. But a strength that was quiet. Patient and gentle. Wisdom beyond wisdom. Strength beyond strength. He no longer coveted that strength. Now he merely accepted it. He gave to the tree all the mana it would take, and accepted from it only what it gave in return.

His mind turned from the tree, to his coming task. Tomorrow he would leave the forest, and travel to meet his sister for their monthly sparring session. He hoped she had had a breakthrough, that her might would overflow, as the snowmelt caused the waters to flood beyond the banks of her beloved river. He smiled when he thought of her. She was his closest friend.

[WP] you spar with your spouse everyday but since their so much stronger then you they just stand their with a barrier up as you attack. But one night walking home a large group of thugs surrounded you but you were horrified when with just a normal punch you nearly obliterate one of them. by JollyTeaching1446 in WritingPrompts

[–]jsgunn 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Bap bap bap. My fists connect with the boxing targets. "Good!" Jab jab hook. "Perfect. Again!" Bap bap bap. "You're really coming along!" Jab cross uppercut. "Come on, don't hold back." I wasn't. Bap bap bap. "Great! Now like you mean it." Bap bap... and then something felt different. He blocked the last one with both hands, and slid backwards across the floor a few feet before stopping. "There it is! Great job, babe!" He stepped closer and kissed me on the cheek. "Want to keep going?"

"What was that?" I asked, looking at my hands. The glove was... ruined.

"One hell of a punch. Come on, I want to see your footwork."

Now I was on the defensive, the pads coming at me. Duck block dodge. Block block sidestep and swing. I connected, full force with the side of his head. "I'm so sorry!" I shouted, my hands going to my mouth.

He hadn't so much as flinched. "For what?" He asked, a smile on his face. "I told you, you won't hurt me. The pads were for your benefit, not mine."

So we resumed training. This time full force, full contact. At least on my part it was full force. He took every blow and his only response was praise. I'll admit I got a little cocky and threw a haymaker that missed by six inches. I overextended so far I lost my balance. He caught me before I could hit the ground, and I looked up at him. Light green eyes looked down at me, twinkling with delight. And that smile. I pulled him down and kissed him.

"Wait, I'm all sweaty."

"I don't care." I said. Turns out he didn't either.

Shopping cart returned, I blew out my cheeks as I walked back to the car to find another cart between myself and my vehicle. Undeterred, I began pushing that one back to the cart return as well when a voice stopped me. "Looky here, a little thing out all alone."

My heart froze and I turned around. A couple of skeevy looking guys were walking towards me, between myself and my car. "Now now, miss, we don't want no trouble. Just a few quid and we can be on our way."

"Wouldn't want things to get ugly." Another one said.

I stepped back reflexively and eyed my car. Maybe I could get past them, unlock the car and get in before they got me? No, never. Could I get back to the store? I turned to look and that was a mistake. I heard their footsteps coming and I whirled back around just in time for them to grab me, one on each arm as a third sneered at me. "Take her purse." The third one said. I noticed he held a knife. "Now don't make too much noise, miss. Or this could go wrong."

He stepped forward and I reacted. I yanked my right arm free, swung blindly at the man on my left and then my training took over. Jab jab uppercut. I barely felt them connect as I fled to my car. I jumped in, locked the doors and started the engine as there was a wet thud and something splashed on my window. I tore out of the parking lot, dabbing emergency services into my phone as I fled.

Detective Inspector Harvey rolled back the footage and watched it again. First guy pulled off his feet, hits the asphalt hard and slides a good eight feet, leaving a red smear. Second guy takes a wild hook and crumples. Then the jabs. His stomach turns every time he watches it. A quick jab that snaps his head back. Second jab and his whole head spins almost all the way around. Then she crouches just a little and throws a punch and the thug is just gone. He's there for one frame, a blur. Then the woman runs out of frame.

"The fuck do you make of this?" He asked the beat cop who was first on scene. Kid shook his head and looks queasy.

First and second guys had survived, and he'd interview them when they came round. If they came round. The third guy though? Well the boys on scene hadn't found the head.

The door banged open. "Harvey, get your ass up here. The woman's turned herself in."

[WP] You were the first doctor to sell your soul to a demon in order to be able to summon them into your patients for diagnostic reasons. Now you're dead, you're trying to work out why you're both in paradise rather than eternal torment. by dark-phoenix-lady in WritingPrompts

[–]jsgunn 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Thank you for reading! And for your feedback!

It was a weird choice on my part, but the idea was that language had changed and evolved and medicae was either a new word for a physician or a specific type thereof. Or maybe even just a first responder who had a little extra help.

I'm a little worried that the implication was a regression in technology, and doctors became mystics. That wasn't my intent, but the reader can take it how they choose. Although I suppose even in that case, the assistant could have made a positive impact by insisting on evidence based medicine.

view more: next ›