Writing prompt #17: New Years Resolutions

[Crystal Dragon]

NEW YEARS! It's 20XX and everyone is celebrating in their own way. But some of us had written up resolutions or made promises to fulfill for this fresh brand new year. What do you think your characters new year resolutions might be? Do you think they will be able to fulfill them? If so/not, why?

^{Many pardons for the lengthy break, lots happening at home that's had me quite busy.}

 

Crys made a few promises to fulfill this year, most importantly to be more direct with the people she cares about, and finishing her work with rebuilding the Scions Keep on the Ouroboros Islet that she had claimed for her den and home. The latter part is taking longer than expected but she's presuming that construction will be complete in another month to two.

She does have a promise that might be too hard to fulfill. She gave her word to her adopted daughter Kami, to help "fix" an issue that was purely accidentally created by Kami after a late night study session. Trouble is, she doesn't know if her whelps, or herself have the power to "fix" the problem, but she has high hopes that the Well of Furies can assist in some manner to resolve the problem. Whether it does or not, is another matter entirely.

[Greycat]

Pri:

"New years resolution? ... Heck is that? You know I've barely had any new years to begin with, right... "

 

Rez:

"To continue not being scared of Ghost. No, not ghosts. Ghost. Capital G. Oh, look, resolution achieved."

 

Cat:

- Use more transparencies.

[Placta]

Becky's sister Eve was a superhero for a few days before turning up dead. Their mother was also a superhero who died in the line of duty. Being a superhero herself has strained Becky's relationship with her father, who doesn't want to lose what family he has left. Things have been complicated by the appearance of the Praetorian Eve, the sole survivor in her family of a terrorist attack. Becky hasn't mentioned Praetorian-Eve to her father, and now she's scared she's waited too long and when the truth inevitably comes out (and she's seen enough Arrow to know it will, in the worst possible way) it'll ruin her relationships with both of them.

Still, she's resolved that this is the year.

 

On a lighter note, Vanessa's determined to release one of her inventions to the world. Maybe she actually gets something up to her standards, or maybe she just accepts that something's useful enough that the .01% chance it has of becoming sentient and trying to subjugate humanity is worth the risk.

[chase]

Tabitha sat on a rooftop watching the fireworks go off above Peregrine Island, unfazed by her feet dangling over the edge, many stories up.   A well-worn journal was open on her lap as she chewed on her pen.

She read from the latest page:

 

"This year everything changes.  No more waiting for a cure from someone else.  FIND A WAY TO CHANGE BACK.  Don't be afraid to try.  Get this over with so you can live the life you want, do what you want, and be who you want to be.  Do not let your life be "on hold."  Make it happen."

 

Fireworks in the city were far more elaborate than the ones her backwoods county would set off and she only ever saw them from a distance across the lake.  Here, from her dangerously-close viewpoint, she could feel the shockwave on her fur- the best ones even rippled through her, forcing a little air out of her lungs.  Their sounds were deafening.  She'd seen a lot this year and been dangerously close to explosions bigger than these, but she could still lose herself in them.

 

In contrast, looking at the journal deflated her.   What she read was last years' resolution. Yet here she was.  Unchanged... or more accurately, still changed.   She flipped back further until she found the resolution from the year before that.   Pretty much the same thing.

 

In a fit of frustration, she threw the journal from the rooftop, immediately regretted that decision, and started after it down a parkour path that any "american ninja warrior" contestant would "nope" out of.   Friction-braking down the side of a building to a balcony, then leaping across a road onto a parking garage, to another roof, then across an awning clearly not meant to hold much weight, then diving off a pier to pull her book from the water.

 

It was soaked.  Many of the pages smeared and unreadable, but the very last page, where she'd started writing this years' resolution, had 3 words perfectly clear, "Make it happen."

 

She flipped through the journal, watching memories she logged fade from view, wondering why she ever tried to preserve them.  "It's enough."
 

Soaked and shivering in the cool sea breeze, she watched the fireworks finale.
  

"This year....  one way or another, whichever way *it* goes- it will happen."

Edited February 16, 2022 by chase

[White Cobra]

((New Year’s Eve 8 years ago))

Emily sat in the darkness with baby Jessica suckling her breast.

Outside her window a cacophony of New Year celebrations filled the air and a cascade of fireworks illuminated the sky. She lifted a hand to her cheekbone, swollen and throbbing, and felt a tear rolling down her face from the eye that wasn’t starting to close.

The evening had started well. William was in a fine and celebratory mood and entertaining their guests. But as glass after glass after glass of Amarone went down only to make room for subsequent sizeable quanta of brandy and champagne Emily started to worry that the atmosphere of idyllic bliss wasn’t going to hold.

It ended up being Jessica’s crying that set him off. He had turned the music up much too loud and no wonder it woke her. Unsurprisingly, William’s cold rage and aggression would not listen to reason or be appeased, but Emily had not expected him to violently backhand her while she was cradling Jessie in her arms.

From the corridor Emily had heard William explain to their guests how she had been stricken by a sudden migraine and forced to retreat to her room to lie down. They must have heard the blow and known that he was lying, but none of them dared to say.

And there she sat in the darkness, nursing Jessica, and feeling more tears starting to come. As a particularly spectacular and beautiful battery of fireworks illuminated the sky with stars in all colors imaginable, she made a resolution that this time she was going to do it, she really was, even if it meant taking baby Jessica away from her father.

Yes, she really was going to do it, she promised herself again. She couldn’t take the abuse and degradation any more. Wouldn’t. William had raised his hand to her for the final time.

As the first day of the new year started to dawn with all the promise following in its wake Emily’s tears had dried up and been replaced by resolve as she still cradled the now sleeping Jessie in her arms.

She was going to leave William. She really was.

[White Cobra]

((This New Year’s Eve.))

Rei Mizuni took a sip of her champagne, mindful that alcohol didn’t really agree with her, although she adamantly claimed to be only very sparsely affected by it to any unfortunate soul listening.

She stood in a corner watching the other guests, trying to ignore the actor’s hand on her behind. He was doing a fine job pretending to be her companion but his hands seemed to be taking the assignment a bit too seriously. Perhaps he was hoping for a bonus. In any event, Rei had to endure the transgression for now in order not to break the very expensive illusion that she was romantically affiliated.

She watched Takuma Nakayima surrounded by a crowd of young women all looking like fashion models and scowled. Whatever they saw in him she didn’t know.

Next to them stood Anni Nakayima and William Chang. Anni was trying to hold her reluctant partner’s hand and looked at him with apparent genuine affection, but Chang-sama’s eyes were empty and seemed affixed on something far away.

Rei looked at her mother next, hand in hand with Anderson Jake, true love reflected in both pairs of eyes. She marveled at the sight of them but her soul still sighed from fear that similar reciprocated love and romantic affection might never befall her.

Nakayima-san smiled sheepishly and waved to her from behind his female entourage and Rei returned the gesture with a furious scowl.

The actor’s hands were now getting a bit too adventurous for comfort and Rei sent him a warning glance. She looked at her watch. 5 minutes to midnight. 5 minutes and this dreadful charade would be over, and she could go home. If the actor controlled himself, he might stand a chance of surviving the evening with his fingers unbroken and intact.

There! Midnight! Finally! Rei opened the clutch to retrieve her phone and instruct the limo driver to pick them up, but suddenly stopped and gasped as she noticed a young man smiling to her from across the room. A strange quiver in her stomach made her rethink the initial impulse to send him a scowl. Why were her knees trembling like this? What was wrong with her?

Rei gathered herself and mustered the originally contemplated scowl and then headed for the limo hand in hand with the actor.

But she couldn’t quite forget the young man, and as she entered her Mizuni Towers penthouse alone, she felt herself making a strange promise.

This year she was going to do it. Even if only to have her hopes shattered and confirm that true love was something she just wasn’t destined for. But yes, she promised herself again, she really was going to give actual romance a chance.

Edited February 16, 2022 by White Cobra

[DRoddo]

Aegis Thrain: New year's resolution? I resolve to not drinking again.....HAH