“Tepig rammed into Graham and instantly ended his short life.”
I'm helping!
"I've just now decided that being annoying and slightly rude to Team Evil is very cool and good, and I should do it as much as possible."
I somehow forgot how much I loved this line.
Trouble Cube continues to be a general-purpose forum for those who desire such a thing.
The one and only AstralCat
From my Pokémon Sword playthrough journal: "Bede was registering, and I can honestly say he's in over his head."
Thousand Dreamers, Watashi wa Saikyo, and Believe slap so hard.
The World's Least Powerful Man
"The Study of Ants. An anthill is a tiny city-state with a rich history no less epic than our own. They're fascinating little creatures. Each one is a mindless vermin driven by instinct, but together they form a functioning city. The idea of a Hive Queen is a myth perpetuated by popular culture. Nothing tells an ant 'we need more guys in tunnel 36,' no. It, and about a hundred others, decide their hive needs another tunnel one day, and they go dig one. Nobody really knows how they all know this. It's no different than a bar's worth of people deciding to go build a road for no good reason-and actually sticking to it when they sober up.
"Speaking of which, they have bars as well. Aphid dew. Gets them drunk off their abdomens."
"Sounds like you really like ants..."
Edited by dvorak on Jan 9th 2021 at 11:44:22 AM
Now everyone pat me on the back and tell me how clever I am!
(That Guy You Met Once)
^ That's really good. Where's it from? (Also, the "beatworthy" quote from the last page is great too.)
—-
Long, but this passage I wrote yesterday is probably my favorite character monologue in my current WIP.
Context: It's an Urban Fantasy that takes place in a the Land of Faerie after it was colonized, industrialized, and turned into a dystopia. Protagonist is a Cute Monster Girl harpy who used to be a housekeeper at a five-star hotel, and after learning alchemy and making a lot of money as a Fantastic Drug cook, is now a guest there with her Unfazed Everyman human boyfriend.
—
"Of course, it's ninety-nine percent iron."
"Since so many of them stay here, management's anal about making sure there's nothing ferrous in the building but the beams and pipes. If so much as a screw fell out, we were supposed to call maintenance and report a 'code S.'
"So, a month into my working here, this aos si girl, about six or whatever that is in faerie years, comes to the front desk screaming like she's been interfered with. The ma storms in after her, grabs the brat's hand, thrusts it in the concierge's face, and it's all red and swollen like she'd put it on a stove. Says she let her daughter wander off for five minutes and she came back like this. So now we have the kid screaming and the ma screaming over her about being from some noble family who could have The Armsmen raid us if we don't sweep the whole building for iron contamination.
"The general manager has to get down on his knees and say the Promenade's now indebted to the House Eóghainn, 'this humble staff will do everything in our power to earn the Autumn Court's forgiveness,' all that ritual wank. And we all have to stay three hours overtime searching every inch of the common areas to make sure some assassin hasn't been hiding daggers around the place. Till eventually, someone looks under a shrub in the patisserie and finds a spoon. A spoon.
"Of course it wasn't the hotel's, ours are silver. So after interrogating everyone in food service, management pieces it together: Aust Wolvgar, dwarven mining billionaire and famous germaphobe, was staying in the penthouse suite, he'd brought his own to make sure it was sanitized twice before he ate off it, then just dropped it in a plant pot on his way out."
Faris's mouth hung open. "Ho-ly shit. And I thought rich humans were bad."
"I don't even think it's the money," she said. "You'll never meet a more neurotic lot than the high fae. This whole country's built on their narcissism. I guess, without the magic and the mystery, it's all they have left."
Edited by Wheezy on Sep 23rd 2021 at 1:38:00 PM
Project progress: The Adroan (102k words), The Pigeon Witch, (40k). Done but in need of reworking: Yume Hime, (50k)
Those are some great quotes. My favorites are:
"Sometimes it feels like I’m following a script when I’m around Mom, like there are things I’m supposed to say and if I get it wrong, someone will yell “Cut!” and restart the scene."
"Yes, Nico, I know you tried. But trying to protect someone like Jason is like trying to protect the ozone from the heat. It'd be much better if we could, but it's pointless."
"At some point in the last 6 months, that girl died, and it was this new me left behind. This girl who isn’t Andrea, but isn’t Andie either. I’m not sure who she is, and I’m not sure that I like her."
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
Wrote this about a week ago and I'm pretty proud of it.
Patricia grinned and tore off the wrapper, ready to get her fortune.
"A new voyage will fill your life with untold memories," Read KT. "Hey, neat!"
Her sister's wasn't as fitting. "Fortune favors the brave. Oh, great. I'm out of luck, then."
Eddie snickered. "They don't mean anything, anyway."
"Okay then, mister future-vision," Patricia said, rolling her eyes. "What's yours say?"
"Generosity and Perfection are your everlasting goals. See? What I tell you. Total trash. Funny, though. You're up, Yacker."
She crushed the small cookie and pulled out the paper. "Opportunity will soon be knocking at your door. Yeah, well-"
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Everyone went silent at the banging on the door, until KT spoke up. "Okay, that's freaky."
"I'll get it," Eddie said. "Dude probably just wants a bigger tip." Patricia peered over the couch to look as he opened the door. "Hey, what's...uh, Yacker? I think your opportunity's here!"
(That Guy You Met Once)
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Just had to say how much I like the concept of a scene where characters sit around and use their fortune cookies as foreshadowing.
—
Same character, different novel, her last appearance on leaving all the drugs and money to her friends and fleeing the Day of the Jackboot. Guillemets are a conlang Translation Convention.
Edited by Wheezy on Apr 16th 2021 at 1:53:24 PM
Project progress: The Adroan (102k words), The Pigeon Witch, (40k). Done but in need of reworking: Yume Hime, (50k)
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
Thanks! Yeah, I wanted to tie their Chinese Takeout dinner into the story somehow and that's where I decided to take it. ![[lol]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lol2v12_4863.png "[lol]"){kind=small}
SOUL KING BROOK
for context, the narrator/1st person character is a character of mine named Daniel who just arrived in hell, and the one who asks what brings him there is The Showman (a demon general) who whisked him away to his demon-run talk-show, The Showman Show. It Makes Sense in Context. Probably.
“So,” He assumed a more attentive posture. “What brings you here, my friend?” A grin spreads across my face. “Well, long term, plenty a’ things. Arson, cannibalism, murder, a few broken global peace agreements… Directly, though, it was a few well-placed bullets to the face.”
YOHOHO!
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
Nice line. Also, I appreciate the HABIT avatar.
SOUL KING BROOK
BRO NO ONE EVER RECOGNIZES IT im following you we're friends now you don't have a choice. i need someone to talk slenderverse with.
YOHOHO!
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
Lmao, I got my own HABIT avatar fam, check my gallery.
Anyway, this is a derail. Resume posting your favorite lines everyone.
That there is a seal.
"Before they went into the next room, Max examined the door. It seemed to be in all ways a regular door. Wooden, rectangular, door-like. It was the sort of thing that people walk through."
Data is imaginary. This burrito is real.
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
Ha, that one got a laugh out of me.
SOUL KING BROOK
a lil thing from a script i wrote
Natasha: screw you
Daniel: sure, which position?
YOHOHO!
Another that was fun but ultimately cut.
She turned to Koyel and said, "Mortimer, however, declined to go to [the corporate propaganda event]. It seems he had tickets for a live show by a musical group called — and I swear before Soqaxil's judgment, this is an accurate translation — 'Barbed Wire Sodomy'." She looked askance at Mortimer and added, "having heard something of what this man boldly names 'music', I assure you, the name is apt."
Edited by KillerClowns on Mar 24th 2021 at 6:18:02 AM
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
Here's a moment that made me laugh, where a character is doing something super dang petty just for the giggles:
For context, this occurs in a flashback of a Warhammer 40K fic I wrote, with the viewpoint character for the scene talking about one of her first missions in the field. I don't know what about this section in particular stands out to me, but it just... clicks, for lack of a better term.
Fair warning, there's a death ahead.
Rachel staggered back, her bolter tumbling from her hands as she reached for her throat. Crimson blood spilled across her hands and chin, the Sister trying and failing to stop her severed jugular from bleeding further. Rachel sank to her knees, gasping as she choked on her own blood, her eyes drifting to Judith before she toppled over and fell still, her hands falling limp as blood pooled in a macabre halo around her head. Judith choked, tears welling in her eyes as she watched her Sister die.
"R-Rachel..."
You Could Use some Imagination
Hopefully these someday won’t be my favorite lines but for now it is.
Also
And
And finally
Context is overrated.
"Hope for our world, tragedy for another."
The World's Least Powerful Man
"I remember the Bad Old Days, when we settled our differences on the field of battle and a King or a Prince was a real challenge. Now it's just fat old dotards sitting there nodding at whatever their Prime Minister says, and that's after a week of sending my demands through parliment first! And that's if- IF! they have a King at all, rather than a 'President' or 'First Citizen' instead."
The resident Evil Overlord laments the rise of democracy and diplomacy after his ressurrection in modern times.
Edited by dvorak on Apr 14th 2021 at 10:45:24 AM
Now everyone pat me on the back and tell me how clever I am!
Swordofknowledge
-said by a werewolf villain who transformed a Noble Demon vampire's human servants into werewolves and set them after him, forcing him to kill them. Being A Father to His Men, this is greatly upsetting.
Edited by Swordofknowledge on Apr 21st 2021 at 5:29:33 AM
"Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake." —Edgar Wallace
"The entire field is pre-sighted. Once they cross these three layers of barbed wire and minefields, they'll have a mile of No-Man's Land to cover under heavy shelling from the castle's bastions. After that, they'll have to deal with constant attack from the trench network. This consists of a layer of soldiers, backed up by a network of machine gun nests, itself further reinforced by mortar batteries. If they can cross that, they have the moat to cross. This isn't a ditch filled with water, it's a 200-foot sheer drop onto impaling spikes, and is 100 feet accross. Then they still have to take the fortress itself.
"We call this strategy Defense-In-Depth. Multiple layers of ever-increasing defenses, each a nusiance appart, but together, they become insurmountable."
Edited by dvorak on Dec 19th 2020 at 11:07:55 AM
Now everyone pat me on the back and tell me how clever I am!