Prompted Story Snippets

Vials of Liquid Courage Paired With Handfuls of Arson

Arwia bobbed her head to the beat of the song threading its way through the air, wondering how long it would take for her friends to arrive. The speaker set at her side was fully charged, the bottles in her bag were still unopened, and she was completely ready to wait until sunrise.

Glancing out over the city, the bat-blood swung her legs over the edge of the bench that they'd dragged up to the rooftop a few months ago. Ishtar had hated having to sit directly on the roof, so they'd found a bench and had one heck of a time lugging it up all those stairs. 

Hearing a sound behind her, Arwia flared one bat-like wing as a greeting. She heard the rustling of scales in response, and smiled slightly. Haldita usually arrived much later, but it was refreshing to see him this early in the night.

"You're out early, Haldita. Make it out fast?" She earned a huff in response as he sat down on the bench.

"Yeah, both of them were busy with corporate meetings... or something." Haldita scrunched himself up into a ball, pulling his knees up towards his chest.

The scales dotting his face looked oddly dull, Arwia noted. Something must've really been off for him not to mention anything and still look like that.

"What 'bout you?" Arwia startled, running a hand through her shoulder-length hair with a small laugh. She twisted the top off of one of her bottles and took a gulp of the spiked lemonade.

"Nothing outside of the usual. Just wanted to get out of the house, y'know?" She shrugged, watching out of the corner of her eye as Haldita nodded. They settled into a comfortable silence, gazing out over the flickering city lights and sipping on the hard lemonade.

The oasis was always busier than normal this time of year. The massive amount of visitors combined with the harvest season made things incredibly overwhelming for everyone, even if you had no ties to either of those industries. Arwia was one of the unluckier ones, as were both of her friends. 

Arwia's parents were involved with some of the most innovative new growing techniques, and harvest was always a stressful time. Investors and farmers alike were calling at all hours, so the two of them were paying little-to-no attention to Arwia and her younger siblings.

Haldita had an even shorter stick. His parents were leaders of the tourism sectors of partenered companies, and both of the snake-bloods had no time for anyone (including each other) once the season started.

Ishtar was a complicated situation. Being older than the other two, she was usually working freelance during the harvest season writing programs for calculating stuff. There was just one major problem with her work style.

If she didn't do well during these few months, then the people she was usually involved with wouldn't support her during the rest of the year.

Arwia really hated the system. She pulled a bottle of hard strawberry lemonade out from her bag and pushed the other one (which was just hard lemonade) towards Haldita, who gave her a thankful look.

The creak of one of the rickety steps made the bat-blood glance back towards the rooftop entrance, grinning when she realized that the jackal-blood had made it after all. 

Ishtar looked exhausted, stumbling over to the bench and practically collapsing on it.

"I really hate everything right now." Her voice was muffled as she turned to bury her head in her arms, leaning over the back of the bench. Haldita sighed, pulling a blanket out of nowhere and draping it over her shoulders.

Arwia did nothing except giggle and pull out a bottle of spiked fruit punch and placing it down next to her exhausted older sister figure. She immediately snatched it up and chugged around a quarter of it, groaning in delight. 

"On a scale of one to parental figures, how much do you hate everything?"

"I'd say somewhere around waking up tomorrow, y'know?" Haldita's completely out of the blue question made the resident bat-blood fall over howling with laughter, Ishtar's quiet giggles not helping the matter.

"But seriously though, how long until we can get out of here?" Ishtar's soft query made Arwia grit her teeth and Haldita wince. 

"Do you mean burning the oasis down or getting away to one of the seaside cities?"

"I know we haven't talked about it much, but... the underground is an option." Both of the other teens turned to stare at the snake-blood in disbelief. He shrugged, sighing out, "The only reason we haven't gone there yet is because of me, but I know how to survive without sunlight. We'd be fine."

"And you're completely certain of this?" Ishtar asked, the jackal-blood's ears laid flat against her skull.

"I am."

"Can we burn down the oasis before we go?" Arwia groaned, taking a swig out of her strawberry lemonade. The alcohol burned its way down her throat, but still wasn't enough to really make her drunk.

Ishtar didn't really want to protest, but at the same time she kinda did. Haldita seemed to be in the same boat.

"We could give the lower families a warning before we do it." She suggested, picking at the rim of her hard punch.

"How about we just burn down the downtown area?" Haldita's suggestion was met with a pair of fierce grins. 

"With the infrastructure they have down there, it'd probably only singe the area." Arwia mused, finishing off her bottle of spiked strawberry lemonade. She dug around in her bag for a hot minute, pulling out a trio of clear vials.

"Perfect for sending a message." Ishtar agreed, taking one of the vials and passing the third to Haldita.

The three friends uncapped the vials and toasted each other, downing the liquid courage. Strong, but much needed.

If by the morning, a handful of the downtown highrises were on fire, the trio had nothing to do with it. 

If three separate families found goodbye notes (some later than others) and missing cash, the trio had nothing to do with it.

If the underground welcomed three new residents (who were sure to shake the foundations of the system to its core), well, the trio had nothing to do with it.