Writing Prompt Viillian suddenly gaining empathy

Representing_Tromba

Representing_Tromba

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As the title suggests, write a short story between 500 and 2000 words about a villian suddenly gaining empathy upon receiving a concussion from the hero. The villian retains their memories. Anything goes as long as it is within the rules of the SHF. If you struggle to come up with ideas. I will allow you to quote and build off of others writings.

Note: I will close the contest on August 8th.
 
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Representing_Tromba

Representing_Tromba

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Paul_Michaels said:
What do we get if we win? :blob_reach: :blob_gift:
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Pride, honor, and the most coveted of prizes, bragging rights. I will also leave a 5 star, professional level review on one story of the winners choosing. Winner will be decided by most :love: & :ROFLMAO: reactions. Tie breaker will be decided by me.
 
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The Vampire Queen's Empathy​

The heroine stared at the vampire queen. She could have easily killed the queen while she was out. The heroine could have ended the war. It would have saved so many lives.

But the vampire queen's gaze seemed different now. Her eyes had once portrayed the evil and might of the vampire queen's legacy, but none of that remained. Tears flowed from her eyes. They stared distantly into the heroine's own. The mighty queen's bottom lip quivered. Her fangs pressed into them, drawing blood.

The heroine narrowed her eyes at the poor creature she held in her arms. Her face scrunched up in disgust. Before she could utter words of hatred, the vampire placed a cold hand on the heroine’s cheek.

“Please, kill me,” the crimson queen said.

The heroine shook her head, clenching her eyes shut. Why should I cry for a wretched being like this?

“Please, kill me.”

The words echoed, and the dam broke. Droplets poured out of the heroine’s eyes and into the face of the noble vampire.

The vampire’s other cold hand touched the heroine’s other cheek. “Why do you cry?”

The heroine shook her head.

“Don’t you hate me?” The queen asked.

“I do.” The heroine reached for her sword in the snow. Her silver sword had been made for this. She’d end the vampire queen’s tyranny with its shining blade. The heroine grabbed the hilt.

The vampire smiled at her, her face lightening.

“No,” The heroine said.

“No?”

“I won’t do it.” She flung her sword even further away, casting it into the wreckage of a broken tower—a remnant of the chaos the vampire had caused.

“You really are kind.”

“No,” the heroine said, “if I was kind, I’d have ended you.”

“You know me better than most,” the vampire said. “If you know everything, then why don’t you kill me? I can only think you are kind or stupid.”

The heroine smiled, lifting the vampire queen into her arms. She stood there holding her enemy in a princess carry. In the middle of a burnt down city, the hero of humanity held the most evil being.

“What are you going to do?”

The heroine bit back her remaining tears, choking them down with the remaining blood in her mouth.

“I no longer feel it,” the heroine said.

“What?”

“I no longer see a reason for this to go on. I can’t kill you like this, let alone fight you.”

The queen scrunched her brows, glaring at the heroine. “Are you stupid? Do you know…Do you know everything I did?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know how much my heart aches?”

The heroine nodded. “I can see that clearly. A veil has lifted over your heart.”

“I never had a veil! Everything I did was of my own volition!”

“I know.”

“Then why won’t you kill me? Free me from this pain.”

The heroine pressed a finger against the vampire’s lips. She stared into the crimson eyes of her mortal enemy.

“Because…If I killed you, it would all be over.”
 
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Succubiome

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An opening!

I struck her in the head with the pommel of my sword, just as the prophecy foretold, and the circlet around her forehead shattered.

She stumbled backwards, and looked past me with utter hopelessness, before falling to the floor, not even trying to catch herself.

Tears started to roll down her face. "All this suffering... I've caused so much of it...." She was genuinely sobbing, and her crying was super ugly. I was forced to look away.

I almost felt bad for her-- despite everything she had done, she seemed to be genuinely remorseful and hurting with the pain of everyone still left living after her warcrimes. But by following the prophecy, I had prevented the other prophecy, that the villainess would destroy the world. It was worth it.

"Do you want me to end your life?" My life to the woman who had burned down my village was gentler than I had expected.

"I... and the suffering I've caused on this continent compared to all the suffering that happens on this world... it's just a small fraction... how does anyone bear this terrible existence?" The villainess took a deep, shuddering breath.

She pushed herself up off the floor into a kneeling position, and looking up at me. "No, I can't die yet... I need to fix everything. Thank you for waking me up." She slowly climbed to her feet. "It was cruel of me to want to destroy the world."

I really didn't expect her to go that far, even with the change of heart. Perhaps it was the circlet that was evil, not her.

"Rather, I should destroy it." The villainess was still trembling, but wiped away her tears as she rose to her feet.

...wait, what?

She looked me in the eyes with a sadness that bordered on love. "You're suffering, because you think this is your fault. That this is a bad thing. I will remove this suffering from you." She smiled slightly as her own sword flickered into existence. "I always thought that the prophecy that I'd destroy the world made no sense. Now I finally understand it."

I hestitated just for an instant-- I didn't have a concrete plan after fulfilling the prophecy, so I didn't know the right step to take.

What if I could convince her that destroying the world was wrong? It could be she was only feeling the suffering of others, and that they felt joy too.

What if I could use one of the other esoteric sword styles I had studied to throw her off guard for one fatal blow?

But even an instant of hesitation was too long, she was already past me, the light of her sword flickering across the great hall.

A pain shocked my heart that was more than the pain of remorse.

Blood rose to my lips.

I fell to the floor, and hitting it didn't even hurt compared to what was going through my body.

But it was become more distant.

Everything was becoming more distant.

"I'll join you in oblivion soon." Her voice was sweeter than I had ever heard her speak before, but I could barely hear it.

My pain, like everything, faded into nothingness.
 
AstreiaNyx

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I don’t usually do writing prompts, but reading this reminded me of a TV show I love. This is a fan fiction.

Grey
​
The world was a dull painting, always had been. The only colour he felt came from the screams of his victims. The louder they cried, the better he felt, a twisted joy stronger than anything else.


Alive. Truly, terribly alive.


Then, everything changed. Vibrant colours exploded around him, blinding. Then came the pain. A searing agony unlike anything he'd ever known.


The screams he'd forced from others now ripped from his own throat. This pain, it wasn't his own, but the burden of the torments he had inflicted.


He blinked, his vision refocusing. Buffy. Not the innocent girl he remembered and loved. But now, she was a radiant young woman, just as captivating as ever.


And utterly out of reach.


"Buffy?" Angel’s voice cracked, “What’s going on?”


Buffy’s hazel eyes widened, hope ignited, then died as quickly as it came. Disbelief settled in, battling with a well of despair. A single tear escaped, tracing down her cheek.


"Shh," she whispered. "It's okay."


Her voice, soft and clear yet holding a sorrow deeper than any ocean, pierced through his soul.


His…soul? Understanding slammed into him. The agony in her eyes – his doing. A wave of dread washed over him, so suffocating he wished for death. He wanted to scream, to beg for forgiveness.

Her forgiveness.

Instead, a rasp escaped his lips, "I love you." A coward's confession.


Their lips met, and colour swirled in his vision, vivid and vibrant. He didn't deserve this, hope. Yet, by her side, it bloomed.

Maybe, just maybe...

Then, A flash of steel, the sword sliced through him, a wet squelch. But the physical pain was nothing compared to the despair in him as he watched her. He wasn't worthy.

Not of her. Not of this world.


She pushed the sword deeper, a final act of love and a terrible sacrifice. She chose the world. And he, in his brokenness, welcomed it.


The world faded grey again. Darkness consumed him. One thought echoed: her whispered apology, a final crushing blow.

Perhaps, in the end, death was a mercy.
 
Sikuati

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Missing Pieces


Under the glow of the full silver moon, the living nightmare in a fluttering black dress stood at the top of the country's tallest mountain. She lifted her chin, smirking, and gazed down at the nation's last ray of hope, the hero.

"I hope you entertain me a bit." She counted on her fingers. "You're the 100th hero, and all the ones before you were pathetic." She clicked her tongue, shaking her head. "And I've been bored. I even slay my followers because of the hollow feeling I can't figure out. Maybe, I shall poke the other demon lords to fill it."

The hero breathed in and out, gripping his sword tight.

The villainess tilted her head. "You're spacing out now? You're monologuing again?" She sighed. She crouched and rested her palm under her chin. "Alright, I'm waiting. Let me witness that epic of yours. You are all the same."

"Unlike the heroes who were summoned, I'm different." The hero contorted his face. "Because I was born here!" He pointed down, stabbing the dreary air. "I have lived for all of my life witnessing everything you did against us! I have lived on how you reaped us!"

"You killed my mother! My father! My whole family! My PEOPLE!" His veins popped. His voice turned hoarse. The wrinkles in his face could be permanent.

"Look! Look what you did! Look!!!" He pointed in all directions. "You turn this fertile land and that abundant sea into hell! You're turning this world into an uninhabitable home! And you're HAPPY?!! You're elated that you took our ambitions to build a better place?!!"

He unsheathed his sword and pointed its tip up to the squatting demoness. "You! I have to end you right here! You shouldn't exist!"

The villainess slapped her knee and let out an infectious laugh that soon turned into a wheezing kettle. She held her stomach.

The hero gnashed his teeth so much that he didn't bother to care anymore. His sword could be set free at any moment.

"See? See?! You are all the same! No matter where you are born!" The villainess shrugged her hands. "Go on, I'm waiting. Stop rambling and do something." She squinted and grinned. "Ha! Do you just stand there? Are you chickening out? Come on, come at me, coward!"

The hero fell from the provocation of the demoness. He took a stance, holding his sword, and burst forth. The air whistled from his blade aiming to behead his enemy. His shockwaves blasted everything nearby.

"So sluggish. You're surprisingly slower than the previous heroes. You think you can win with that speed?" The villainess stood up and raised her hand to cast her magic. "Though, you're going faster every hundredth of a second. I applaud you for that."

However, she got tripped off. A loose rock under her heel sabotaged her standing. She lost her focus. "Wah?!"

Instead of the blade slashing her neck in half, the knee of the hero hit her face. Although it did not hurt her in the slightest, she was sent flying at a great distance and soon landed her back on a large boulder.

She fell on her knees and stood on all fours. "Huh?!" She stared at the ground that had been inundated by the blood of her victims. "What? What?!" Bamboozled. Remorse raided her, making her claw her heart. "What are these?! Did I do this?! Huh?!"

A rumble came louder. It alerted her. She stood up, and a silhouette behind the obscuring dust zoomed into her sight. In a heartbeat, the figure wielding the sword appeared right in front of her face after the dust cleared out. Even under the lifeless night, the blade flashed like that of a twinkling star.

"Wait!" She ducked down, evading the sharpness of the blade even though her body could withstand being sliced in half. However, another misfortune struck her; she misstepped her foot and fell towards the man's groin.

Both fell.

The villainess's face was boiling. Behind these pants hid the hero's love cannon. For the first time in her life, she blushed, and her heart throbbed lively. The warmth tricked her into being comfortable, so this was not the right place to settle down.

"Pervert!" The hero kicked the head of the molester, but his kick did not do anything for him, so he backed off instead. "You made yourself even worse than the worst!" He chortled. "Ha! I guess being shameful is what you live for! You're worth less than rotten wood. What a waste of space."

The villainess gasped. Such taunts would never work for her, but somehow, her heart ached. A slut? A rotten wood worth more than her? Wasting the air? Her dignity shattered. How come she felt insulted?

"No. No!" She stood up and shook her hands. "I didn't mean it! I just tripped on my feet!" She lowered her voice. "And I know I made you suffer, but you don't have to say that. It hurts."

A sonic boom blew up. The moment she blinked, the hero flashed in front of her with the sword seeking to impale her beating heart. With the tip of her finger, she blocked the lancing blade.

The hero gritted his teeth, pushing more of his strength. "Just die! You vile demon!" His sword sparked and flared brighter the harder he pressed his weapon. His face reddened from his effort to kill this living nightmare of unfairness.

"Just how can you be this invincible, huh?! You really should not exist!" He pushed more to the point he bled his hand from gripping the hilt so tightly. "AAAH! Come on! Just! Grrr!"

He made progress from screaming. Almost there. However, the slender finger that hindered him from advancing freed his sword, which caused him to stab his enemy. His great momentum also made him kiss the demoness's soft lips. His world stopped for a while.

"For all this time… a beating heart is the way to experience pain." The villainess coughed and crimson blood poured out from her mouth. "And this kiss… so this is how… to be loved?" She softened her gaze. "Ah… I get it. These must be the hollow feelings I couldn't figure out… my missing pieces."

"Ewwww! Pwe! Pwe!" The hero spat out everything that was not his. He grimaced so much that he wanted to disappear right now, but as soon as he was about to back off in an instant, the demoness held his hand, preventing him from taking out his sword. "Huh?! Get the hell off!"

"Please, be gentle when pulling out your sword." The villainess slowly cast a smile. "Hero, thank you. I don't know what you did, but I feel complete."

Her request was not approved, so the blade in her chest was withdrawn without a care. She coughed more of her blood out. "You're rough. That hurt so much, you know?"

"What the hell?!" The hero spat more. "That was gross! Urgh!" He thrusted his sword on the ground. "But, how are you not killed?! You let go of your finger on purpose, but how are you still standing?!"

No answer came in. He clicked his tongue and sighed. "You know what? I don't want to think anymore. I'm tired. You're unfair. You have amazing magic, but you abuse it in the wrong way. What a waste."

He looked up at the night sky shrouded with misery. "How should I kill you? Seriously, I mean it. How? Can you tell me? How to bypass that insane regeneration?"

He snorted when the demoness put a finger on her chin. "Ha! Even if you tell me how exactly, you can't be slain. In the end, my efforts don't matter. You're unfair."

"You're surrendering now?"

"How else?" The hero furrowed his brows. "I'll die with stained honor if I keep going on, but you'll prevail anyway. There's no point." He raised his hands. "I declare. We lost. You win. I disappointed my nation to secure victory over you." He bowed and clasped his hands. "I'm sorry my motherland, I failed you."

The villainess kneeled. "Hero, I'm sorry."

In an instant, the hero gaped at the demoness. "Sorry? Sorry?! SORRY?!!" He went furious. His veins went nuts. "Did I hear that right?! Sorry?! A demon that has devoured the souls of the people?! And she said, 'Sorry?!' S O R R Y ? ! !"

"Hmm." The villainess nodded. "I'm sorry for what I did against you. I made you all suffer." Her face narrowed. "I'm not playing anything. I'm serious. Whether I'm that insane girl before or now, I'm true to my words."

The hero clenched and held his sword. "You! Do you have any idea how much this sword weighs? Do you?!"

The villainess shook her head.

"This sword!" The hero plunged his sword into the ground multiple times. "This very sword! It was smithed with the cries and hopes of my people! This very sword! Was meant to slay you down! But!" He gnashed his teeth. "I failed. You were too strong. You were unfair. We already lost before even meeting you."

The villainess clawed on the ground, sobbing. The dry soil that had been bathed by the blood of her victims became moist again, but this time, it was her tears soaking it.

She tried to silence her cries, but with the amount of regret she shouldered, she had trouble breathing from suppressing her weeps. Her guilt wanted to claw out of her chest, causing her to drown from it.

She gulped and wiped the tears that kept falling from her eyes. "Hero, please, I want to prove myself. Give me a chance to change."

"Why are you asking me if you possess power that allows you to do anything?"

"No, it's not about that." The villainess shook her hands. "It's about acceptance. You're a hero. I'm looking for your approval."

She clasped her hands. "Please, will you? I'll fix this country to get back to its former glory. I want to experience love. What is it like to have a family? If I achieve that, then it's time to kill me and you will win."

"This sudden change of heart of yours is reeling up my mind. It's beyond my expectations." The hero rubbed his sweaty forehead so hard that it heated from the friction. "Who do you want to be with then? There are no demons around aside from you. I killed them all."

"You."

"Huh?"
 
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The Wizard lowers his hand, dark purple energy swirling between his fingertips slowly fading away into nothingness as he balls his fist at his side.

How could he have been so certain, so researched, and so talented, and yet so very blind? A question he probably should've pondered before now.

At the very least, he should've at least had an answer ready in case the girl laying in the middle of his many intricate ritual circles asked him. What would the answer have even been?

Hubris? He'd not have lived this long if he believed himself better than his enemies.

Selfishness or greed? Perhaps, but he'd like to think it wouldn't have gone this far, wouldn't have come to this, if he were only blinded by pursuit of wealth and power. He's had one or the other at multiple points along the way to get here.

Stupidity? No, it can't be that. None of the actions the Wizard has taken to get here would've worked if it was all some idiotically poor planning. His plans worked, they would be working now if he hadn't seen it.

Ignorance? Likely. The Wizard can see his blindness stemming from simply not knowing to look for the truth, a statement he'd so pompously touted to others that refused to dabble with the same dark arts that brought him to this point.

So he was ignorant. To what? Looking down at his palms, left stained with specks of dried blood and right with chalk dust and coal powder caking in the creases, the Wizard sighs and puts his hands together in a prayer gesture, and simply listens for a moment to the sounds of his tower, of his body, and of the world he inhabits.

At some point in that silent meditation of his place in the world, the Wizard managed to not only close his eyes, but to also find tears in them, that he refuses to wipe away out of desire to not get chalk and coal in his eyes, but also to remember what exactly crying felt like, to perhaps figure out why he's doing it.

What feels like eons pass by in the Wizard's mind, yet when he pulls his hands apart and drops them to his side, opening his eyes as he does so, the full red moon hanging in the sky above his laboratory hasn't moved an inch from his perspective.

Consequences. That's what he'd forgot.

He'd forgotten that more than his evil actions resulting in heroes come to purge him in holy flame, vengeful apparitions come to make him suffer as they had, and kingdoms putting out ever larger bounties on his name, he was supposed to feel bad about doing bad things. A childish notion, he probably had thought all those years ago, if he'd even thought about it at all.

No longer.

His research works. He proved it. If he'd remained blind for just a few seconds longer, he'd have done it, ultimate power would've been his and all else would be lost. With a glance at the slumped form in the middle of his ritual circle, the Wizard summons all the resolve he can.

With a swiftness, he bandies about his hands for a moment in gestures of arcane and esoteric meaning, utterances of ancient languages and forgotten knowledge on his lips as he weaves a tapestry of magic bent into the shape of a spell and bound by his will to the mortal realm, then released. In an instant, the laboratory room at the top of his tower is filled with a blue glow and the pounding sounds of a celestial heartbeat, the light scorching away all of his research materials and even the very magic circles engraved into the floor and filled with blood, coal, and chalk even as the rhythmic, oppressive drumbeat shakes the ground beneath his feet.

And then it stops. The Wizard blinks.

The Wizard stands there in silence for a moment. He hadn't expected to survive doing that. His tower is crumbling now. He can feel the enchantments supporting its impossible proportions crumbling beneath him, but again, he didn't expect to still be here to feel that. He surges forward the moment he fully comprehends why that must be, scooping up his once-sacrifice now-revived charge with both arms and fleeing for the balcony.

Still holding the girl in his arms, the Wizard wonders if he'll still be able to cast the spell necessary to survive the fall with both of his hands occupied, but knows that there isn't much of a choice involved with trying. The newborn god in his arms would obviously be fine, it's only him that might not be.

And he's ok with that.

--

That prompt was a lot of fun. Took a little while though. I don't usually do villain redemptions.
 
Representing_Tromba

Representing_Tromba

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RepresentingEnvy said:
The Vampire Queen's Empathy​

The heroine stared at the vampire queen. She could have easily killed the queen while she was out. The heroine could have ended the war. It would have saved so many lives.

But the vampire queen's gaze seemed different now. Her eyes had once portrayed the evil and might of the vampire queen's legacy, but none of that remained. Tears flowed from her eyes. They stared distantly into the heroine's own. The mighty queen's bottom lip quivered. Her fangs pressed into them, drawing blood.

The heroine narrowed her eyes at the poor creature she held in her arms. Her face scrunched up in disgust. Before she could utter words of hatred, the vampire placed a cold hand on the heroine’s cheek.

“Please, kill me,” the crimson queen said.

The heroine shook her head, clenching her eyes shut. Why should I cry for a wretched being like this?

“Please, kill me.”

The words echoed, and the dam broke. Droplets poured out of the heroine’s eyes and into the face of the noble vampire.

The vampire’s other cold hand touched the heroine’s other cheek. “Why do you cry?”

The heroine shook her head.

“Don’t you hate me?” The queen asked.

“I do.” The heroine reached for her sword in the snow. Her silver sword had been made for this. She’d end the vampire queen’s tyranny with its shining blade. The heroine grabbed the hilt.

The vampire smiled at her, her face lightening.

“No,” The heroine said.

“No?”

“I won’t do it.” She flung her sword even further away, casting it into the wreckage of a broken tower—a remnant of the chaos the vampire had caused.

“You really are kind.”

“No,” the heroine said, “if I was kind, I’d have ended you.”

“You know me better than most,” the vampire said. “If you know everything, then why don’t you kill me? I can only think you are kind or stupid.”

The heroine smiled, lifting the vampire queen into her arms. She stood there holding her enemy in a princess carry. In the middle of a burnt down city, the hero of humanity held the most evil being.

“What are you going to do?”

The heroine bit back her remaining tears, choking them down with the remaining blood in her mouth.

“I no longer feel it,” the heroine said.

“What?”

“I no longer see a reason for this to go on. I can’t kill you like this, let alone fight you.”

The queen scrunched her brows, glaring at the heroine. “Are you stupid? Do you know…Do you know everything I did?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know how much my heart aches?”

The heroine nodded. “I can see that clearly. A veil has lifted over your heart.”

“I never had a veil! Everything I did was of my own volition!”

“I know.”

“Then why won’t you kill me? Free me from this pain.”

The heroine pressed a finger against the vampire’s lips. She stared into the crimson eyes of her mortal enemy.

“Because…If I killed you, it would all be over.”
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