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EVERYONE: Sleepless Domain One-Shots

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Hey everyone, so I'm in a Discord server for the webcomic Sleepless Domain, about an isolated city plagued by monsters at night, and defended by a legion of magical girls (the comic itself can be found at this link if you're interested, for context for the stories I'll be posting here). And part of that Discord is a regular series of writing games from the users, based on various prompts from the hosts. And I'm actually really proud of most of these, so I'm gonna be posting them to the workshop as well. I'll space the updates out a bit, so they don't flood in all at once, and then I'll just update every now and then as we do more games. Posts with stories in them will be threadmarked for easy browsing.
 
Fight With The Flamefoes
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So, the first one I'm posting is one with my own OCs for the setting, rather than any of the canon characters. But I figured it was the best one to start with since it's probably the closest one to the source material in terms of content. This one spawned from a prompt of using one of the server's bots to randomly generate a concept for a monster from the setting, and write a story about a monster you come up with based on that concept.

Fight With The Flamefoes - Starring my OCs: Team Guardian!

Artwork by https://twitter.com/lettersandpunc1
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“There they are.” Polly, also known as Magical Girl Guardian Spear pointed as they approached. Before the team stood a group of fiery human-shaped monsters, nine in total. They stood just shorter than Polly, with incredibly wide limbs.

“Well, let’s get started.” Bella, or Guardian Sword, summoned her sword and threw it towards the nearest monster. The sword then proceeded to soar straight through the monster’s head, simply parting the flames that made up its body. Bella’s face dropped. “Ohhhhhhhhhhhh, that’s not ideal.” She summoned her sword back to her hand and dropped into a ready stance as the horde turned to face them. “Any ideas?” She asked back to her team.

“W-well,” Elaine, Guardian Shield, responded “it kinda took a second for its head to come back, so maybe if we just… Hit them a lot then they won’t be able to pull back together?”

“Good a plan as any, here they come! Break and keep them off of Marilyn!” The three of Bella, Polly, and Elaine broke off in three directions, each taking the attention of three of the nine Flamefoes. Meanwhile, Marilyn, Guardian Staff, held back, flipped open her book, and attempted to locate the spell she’d skimmed over earlier. Bella slid along on her back and slashed at the ankles of the three she engaged. She then jumped back up onto her feet and began swinging away. The forms began to waver as the attacks continued, but Bella quickly found that the longer she spent close enough to attack the Flamefoes, the more and more the heat radiating from their giant, grasping hands became overpowering. “Ow… Owwww… Ow HOT HOT HOT!” Bella cried as she retreated, the forms of the Flamefoes pulling back together and stabilising now that they were no longer under attack.

“Seriously…” Elaine said, holding her enlarged shield between herself and the three Flamefoes she was facing. “I can barely stay close to them…”

“Hmm, let’s give this a shot.” Polly said, stepping back from the three Flamefoes she was fighting. She positioned her hands on her spear’s shaft and pulled on it, stretching it out. Now with some additional reach, she continued hacking at the fiery enemies, safe from their heat. Once they weakened, she dashed forward and twirled, turning the three into mere embers. “Yeah! Demolished!” She yelled, striking a victory pose.

“Uhhhhh… Guys?” Elaine called. The Flamefoes in front of her started to twist and convulse, growing additional limbs, before splitting in two, creating three new Flamefoes to replace those that were defeated.

“Aww what!?” Polly said, exasperated.

“Guys I’ve got an idea!” Marilyn called. “Just get them all in one place!” She began concentrating energy and waving her staff in the motions advised by her book.

“Hey! Over here!” Bella called, waving her arms as she backed away from the three Flamefoes still in front of her. “Come get me!” The Flamefoes lunged at her and attempted to grab her, only for her to duck further away. At the same time, Polly dashed to join Elaine, who was also stepping back towards Bella while holding her shield against the six approaching Flamefoes. As the trio’s backs touched, Polly reached an arm around Bella and Elaine’s torsos, knelt down, and leapt high into the air, landing on a nearby rooftop. With the Flamefoes all gathered together where the other three had just been, Marilyn pointed her staff towards them, an intricate snowflake formed in front of her.

“ARCTIC WIND!” She declared. The snowflake burst and a frigid gale swept the area, consuming the Flamefoes. Within moments their forms flickered and faded, consumed by the roaring cold. Marilyn halted the storm, as all 9 Flamefoes vanished. She shot a thumbs up to her teammates on the roof, returned by Bella, still in Polly’s arms.
 
The Monster Manual
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Exact same game as the last entry, randomly generate a monster and write a story using it. Decided to go with something a little different for this one, though.

The Monster Manual
An illustrated guide to observed monsters within The City
187th Edition

Elaine opened the tome in front of her and flipped to a random page, predictably greeted by a photograph of one of the many monsters that roamed the streets at night. This specific beast looked humanoid…ish, but it clearly towered over the photographer as it bent down with its long, spindly limbs, reaching for something out of frame. It appeared somewhat feline, as indicated by its fangs, ears, and the long tail trailing behind it, but also bore a number of aquatic features, such as the jet black fins lining its face and scales covering its body. Across the page was the text for the entry.

Name: Panthersnatch
Rarity: Very Rare (Previously Extremely Rare)
Special conditions: Tall buildings
Special abilities: Tranquilising claws
Observed behaviours: Panthersnatches always appear in groups of three. Unusually, Panthersnatches show no signs of aggression towards buildings or other structures, and simply wander the streets where they appear until they encounter a Magical Girl. Once they locate a girl, they do not attack in the traditional sense, but instead attempt to pick her up in their hands. Once they have a girl in their grip, they will dig their claws into her body, instantly sedating her. As soon as one Panthersnatch has claimed a victim, all three will flee the scene, using the tall buildings to obscure their forms, and weaving their paths in and around each other, presumably to cause their pursuers to lose track of which Panthersnatch has the girl. If the girl is not retrieved within a few minutes, all three Panthersnatches will vanish behind buildings, along with the girl. No girl lost in this manner has ever been found.


Elaine sighed and closed the book. This was the kind of thing she’d have to fight if she went out at night? How did other girls manage?
 
The Time Is Now 2AM
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After a bit of a delay, the next story I'm adding to the collection is from a prompt to depict the lives of normal, unpowered people living in The City the comic is set in. How does the average person live in this city of Magical Girls defending everybody from the monsters in the night? My first story from the prompt did still center on somebody very close to one of the girls though.

The time is now 2AM


“The time is now 2AM. The inner barrier will deactivate shortly. Please make sure the streets are clear of monsters, and be careful on your way home.” The nightly announcement played over the speakers set up throughout the streets. It was meant for the girls, of course, out there fighting to defend the city, but Michael heard it just the same. He simply lay there awake in his bed, watching the ring of light around his window fade as the barrier receded. He rolled onto his side, no closer to sleep than before.

Time passed in pure silence. He didn’t go to sleep, or even attempt to. His mind was far too preoccupied. He rolled back over and glanced at the clock sitting next to his bed. 2:30. This was longer than usual. Had something happened? Did she end the night farther away from home than usual? Was she just spending some extra time chatting with her teammates before heading home? Had things gone poorly? Was she lying face down on the pavement next to the others somewhere, bleeding out, or worse, already dead? He lay there, motionless, his mind racing with the terrifying possibilities. Minutes passed that felt like hours, until he was jarred out of his thoughts by a light jingling at the front door. He finally let out a sigh of relief as the sounds of light footsteps came down the hall, followed by the quiet closing of the door next to his. She always tried not to wake him. Michael rolled over one last time and closed his eyes, finally content in the knowledge that Bella had come home safe for another night, and drifted off to sleep.
 
Just Like Her
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The second story from the Lives Of The Unpowered game. This one really just came from the desire to make something cute and sweet.

Just Like Her

Young Thomas sat in his seat in the salon’s waiting area. Well, perhaps ‘sit’ was a generous term, given how excitedly he was bouncing up and down. He’d finally grown his hair out to the right length, and it was finally time to get the dye job done.
“Thomas?” The stylist said as she stepped into the waiting area.
“YES!” Thomas shouted, standing straight up and raising his hand. “THAT’S ME!” The stylist chuckled.
“Alright then. Just come with me and we’ll get started.”

Hours passed as he sat in the stylist’s chair, somewhat longer than he should have taken, given how frequently he bounced around and generally made the stylist’s life difficult. Though, to her credit, she took it incredibly well. Finally, after a few hours, the work was done and Thomas looked at himself in the mirror in front of him, a wide smile breaking out upon his face. His new dark red hair, shifting lighter towards the tips, combined with the long, flowing red and orange clothes he was wearing. He looked just like her. His hero: Melty Flame.
 
Hi there! A bit short on time tonight, and I’ve been meaning to reading your stuff anyway because I think you’re pretty cool.

Full disclosure: I’m pretty fandom blind. However, I was able to pick up a little bit reading this: we seem to have a sort of RPG-esque world where people go around battling monsters. It seems like a very fun world to explore, and these snippets help give me a glimpse into what this world is like. I’m very endeared by your OCs. They seem like a very fun group of friends. Very good stuff.

As far as critiques go, I really only have a few, minor grammatical things:
“There they are.” Polly, also known as Magical Girl Guardian Spear pointed as they approached.
You’ll want a comma after “Spear”
“Well, let’s get started.” Bella, or Guardian Sword, summoned her sword and threw it towards the nearest monster. The sword then proceeded to soar straight through the monster’s head, simply parting the flames that made up its body. Bella’s face dropped. “Ohhhhhhhhhhhh, that’s not ideal.” She summoned her sword back to her hand and dropped into a ready stance as the horde turned to face them. “Any ideas?” She asked back to her team.
Part of me kind of thinks that there should be some buildup here to the Flamefoes noticing the attack, because here they seem like they don’t really notice. Maybe something as small as a “it turned its head to the party”
“Yeah! Demolished!” She yelled, striking a victory pose.
“ARCTIC WIND!” She declared.
“She” in both cases here should be decapitalized

Wasn’t able to get to all the the stories as I planned, but I’ll be sure to return!
 
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Full disclosure: I’m pretty fandom blind. However, I was able to pick up a little bit reading this: we seem to have a sort of RPG-esque world where people go around battling monsters. It seems like a very fun world to explore, and these snippets help give me a glimpse into what this world is like.
Honestly I feel like any more RPG-like traits you're picking up may have come from my own additions. The original text is largely standard magical girl vibes.
I’m very endeared by your OCs. They seem like a very fun group of friends. Very good stuff.
Thanks so much! At the risk of promising something that may not come to pass for quite some time, I do plan on eventually writing a full story for these characters and fleshing them out more. Given my general pace on First Steps though I do feel like it's gonna be a while before I'm comfortable getting started on that.
Part of me kind of thinks that there should be some buildup here to the Flamefoes noticing the attack, because here they seem like they don’t really notice. Maybe something as small as a “it turned its head to the party”
Yeah, I can see that feeling kinda rushed. It's possible I was rubbing up against the word limit for the writing game? But yeah I can see what you're saying.
 
Yo LG! Time for me to read your stuff. Forget how long we go back on the Bulbagarden Discord, but you're cool so I figured I read some your stuff.

Now like Torchic above, I'm a bit fandom blind myself and while I would love to read the webcomic, I don't really have the time at the moment to so I'm going to remain blind. But let's do it anyways.

I also kinda see it RPG-like, I see it more as a genre blending version of Dungeons & Dragons of all things. Due to characters that wouldn't really fit together working together to slay monsters. I originally view it as sci-fi, despite the visual reference not really going along with it somehow but I still kinda see it. Maybe a bit of Power Rangers/Super Sentai in there, I mean they have the colors of Ranger Team and they do dramatic victory poses (I know they do this in magical girl series too and Sentai is a sister show to Pretty Cure, seriously a Red Ranger call one Pretty Cure Senpai). I also kinda see a bit of Generator Rex in there of all things thinking about the barriers, though I know that isn't correct. It's a strange blend and it works really well for some reason.

My only complaint: THEY'RE SHORT!! THESE ARE SHORT ONE-SHOTS!! I WANT MORE!! MOAR!!

Seriously, I enjoyed these. Love trying to read out of my comfort zone and see if I like it or not. I actually enjoy a lot of magical girl series funnily enough (Princess Tutu is actually one of my favorite anime of all time ironically) so I love how the genre is change from writer to writer.

This review is short, but if you write more, I will keep coming back. Thanks for the good read LG.
 
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I also kinda see it RPG-like, I see it more as a genre blending version of Dungeons & Dragons of all things. Due to characters that wouldn't really fit together working together to slay monsters.
This is truly fascinating. I can see what you're saying about how you got that impression, but it truly is fascinating how I so effectively gave this completely unintended vibe to two different people.
My only complaint: THEY'RE SHORT!! THESE ARE SHORT ONE-SHOTS!! I WANT MORE!! MOAR!!
I'm sorry! The limits on these games are 3 submissions of 300 words! I'd have more but I've been in poor writing form for a while and most of the themes for the games have been really bad for sparking ideas in my head. I guess there are some other shorts from these games that I haven't posted here yet (mostly because I just kinda forgot for a while) but they're also either completely unrelated to the comic or based on the idea of twisting canonical events into a new direction (and also not actually a one-shot because it's actually 3 different shorts that form a larger story). Though I guess I could still post them, even if they don't entirely fit in this thread. So perhaps stay tuned as I sort out exactly where to place these assorted shorts?
 
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