Poe's Poems Pwn Posers

[Pancapples]

"This is shit," he mumbled to himself, "...ab-so-lute shit."

Gary Kwan continued from Mad Dewey Dash

Every stroke of his pen, every glob of white-out representing another sin against literature. He shook his head, beginning another ill-fated stanza.

"Back to the sun bark, no trust in Joshua. Plant hands in the dust, jagged stones cut hotter than magma lava."

He placed his chin is hand hand, staring daggers at the paper. "The fuck does that even mean..." He turned to his partner, letting out a sigh. "You're a good writer, how are you doing on your lines?"

[Pippi]

"Um... I... I don't, uhm, actually know."

((Bryony Adams continued from The Funny Thing Is, I Keep On Returning Over and Over))

Bryony lifted her glasses up so she could rub her eyes, as if that would change what she'd written down so far. Or, to be more precise, actually write down something for her. This was, probably, the worst possible time to get serious writer's block. Middle of English class, high expectations of her from her teacher and peers, and what happened? She had attempted to rhyme 'cactus' with 'actors. That was... more than a little terrible.

"My mind just feels, um, completely blank right now."

At least she got to work with Gary. He was quiet, but not in the same way that Bryony was quiet. Bryony stayed out of the way like a nervous kitten. Gary was... almost intimidating in his silent mannerisms and attitude. She hadn't even wanted to talk to him for a good while because of it, but sod's law was a thing, and classes happened, and she'd been forced to work with him one fateful day.

Fortunately, as luck would have it, Gary's bark seemed to be a lot worse than his bite. He was always nice whenever he talked with Bryony, almost... protective, in a way. Whatever. The important thing is that she always enjoyed hanging out with him. And that was good.

What was not good was that her paper was still more white than words. The white expanse stretched out in front of her like the ocean, white as the wing of a dove.

Of course she was able to think of poetic stuff that had absolutely nothing to do with the freaking desert.

"Do you think it'd be a problem if I write about, um, the South Pole instead? I mean... it's technically a desert, right?"

Bryony gave a small smile at Gary, forgetting her glasses were still resting atop her head.

[Espi]

((Blair Moore continued from Barely Dead))

Hmm. This was going pretty good for once.

Blair's enjoyment of her English class experience was affected by two important facts; she hated the readings, and loved the writings. Today, they were writing poems in pairs, which was pretty fuckin' sweet since Blair wrote poetry all the time! There couldn't be a better topic for her. And better yet, it was supposed to be about a desert, something her scientific knowledge would make easy!

Blair already had a really great idea. She was going to write about Antarctica; after all, the frozen wasteland was technically a desert due to lack of precipitation, so it fit the qualifications but was less...familiar. Ugh, stupid Kingsman. Why was it the middle of fucking Arizona of all places? Nobody likes Arizona! If only she'd been born in Europe...

Wait, what did that quiet chick Bryony just say?

"Hey! You can't copy my idea! I was doing Antarctica already."

[Pancapples]

Gary shrugged, cracking a small grin at Bryony. Nobody seemed to get him to smile quite like she could.

"That's a good idea. I doubt they expected us to do that, it'd be a good way to stick it to them for choosing such a bad pr-" He immediately turned around, glaring at the source of the disruption.

Blair Moore, pale and sickly, obnoxious and abrasive. "The fuck is her problem?" He thought to himself. "No. Don't be rude, try to be reasonable. You were having a good day." Shaking his head, he sighed and softened his gaze. Finally, he opened his mouth to speak.

"Blair, we can both do Antarctica. It's not like there's a monopoly on the south pole." That might have come off a bit more hostile than he anticipated, but this wasn't the first time that's happened. Certainly wouldn't be the last. He took another breath.

"Calm, calm, calm."

[Pippi]

For a brief moment, Bryony felt warm and happy inside, as she did whenever she got complimented on something, a feeling that was only intensified when it came from someone she was close with or wanted to impress. She didn't agree with the sentiment that the prompt was totally awful, but she was having an awful lot of trouble with doing it the 'correct' way. Hopefully her teacher wouldn't mark her down for 'getting smart' with the prompt or something.

It seemed, however, that Bryony was destined for no more than a brief second of happiness before something came crashing down to obliterate it. The offender this time was the abrasive voice coming from the neighbouring table. Bryony had flinched the second she heard someone raising their voice, but as soon as she realised that it had been directed at her, she wished the ground would open up beneath her.

Bryony turned to look at who the voice actually belonged to, and was greeted with Blair Moore's visage. Bryony tried her very best not to associate with Blair, for this reason entirely. The other girl had a reputation for being volatile and standoffish, and Bryony wanted nothing more than to avoid being caught up in that sort of thing.

Gary was trying to explain the scenario in a fair, calm manner, but all Bryony wanted to do was defuse it and step as far away from any potential arguments as possible.

"It's okay..." Bryony mumbled. "I'm sorry, I'm... I'll do something else..."

[Espi]

As soon as Blair spoke, Bryony seemed to wilt in her chair. Blair would've been satisfied with that, but of course Gary had to be some knight in shining armor and start something with her. Well Blair wasn't going to back down. Blair really wanted to write this now, and if someone else did the same thing it'd just make her look bad.

"Hey, shut it. This has nothing to do with you, Gary." Blair said quietly, wanting to avoid the attention of the teacher. She felt a bit of gunk in her throat, but it was manageable, and she was going to finish this quickly enough.

She smiled as Bryony further gave in. God, she was such a wallflower. People who couldn't stand up for themselves barely had a chance to get anywhere in life. Blair got what she wanted because she took initiative and worked for it. If Bryony didn't know that, she'd need to learn.

"Yeah, that's what I thought. Thanks." With that Blair started to turn around and sit back down. She needed to get to work so she could finish in time.

[Espi]

Dry ice clings
to the ground in sheets
of frigid-

Silent sun rises
the months of the days
passing slowly-

Icy wind
snowless cold
-

Ugh this sucked. Blair had no clue what to write, and to make matters worse, she felt the oncoming of a coughing fit. Raising her hand, Blair gathered up her stuff and made her way to the bathroom to clear out her airways. She supposed Bryony would be getting her way this time. Damn.

From inside the classroom, one could hear Blair's hacking as she stumbled down the hallway.


((Blair Moore concluded in Lostlorn))

[Pippi]

It was hard to concentrate on your writing when you felt like you were going to burst into tears at a moment's notice. Blair's attitude had completely ruined Bryony's good mood. Gary hadn't even been able to help her in that situation; Blair had just brushed him off like he was nothing.

And what was worst, was that Bryony felt like nothing more than a useless speck of dirt for letting that happen. Gary had tried to stand up for her, like he always did, tried to help her do the prompt she had been wanting to do in the first place, tried to stand up to someone who was picking on Bryony for being shy and quiet, and what had she done? She'd let her get completely away with it. What was the point in having people to stick up for you, to be your friend, if you always let them down? Stupid.

She was so stupid.

She was so useless.

Blair's exit went unnoticed by Bryony, as did any attempt by Gary to create small talk or idle chatter. She scrawled a few lines down, until the bell rang to signal the end of class, before she threw her notebook and pencil case in her bag. She was the first to leave, doing her best to ignore any friendly wave or gesture.

Bryony squeezed her way into the crowd of students in the corridor and disappeared into the throng.

((Bryony Adams continued in You Can't Roller Skate In A Buffalo Herd))