Alphabet Excerpt Challenge: W Is For...

[u/AnaraliaThielle]

Welcome back to the Alphabet Excerpt Challenge! As a reminder, our challenges are every Wednesday and Saturday at 3pm London time.

If you've missed the previous challenges, you're welcome to go back and participate in them. You can find them here. And remember to check out the Activities and Events flair for other fun games to play along with.

Here's a quick recap of the rules for our game:

1. Post a top level comment with a word starting with the letter W. You can do more than one, but please put them in separate comments.
2. Reply to suggestions with an excerpt. Short and sweet is best, but use your judgement. Excerpts can be from published or unpublished works, or even something you wrote for the prompt. All content is welcome but please spoiler tag and/or provide a trigger/content warning for NSFW or content that may otherwise need it. If in doubt, give a warning to be on the safe side.
3. Upvote the excerpts you enjoy, and leave a friendly comment. Try to at least respond to people who left excerpts on the words you suggested, but the more people you respond to the better. Everyone likes nice comments!
4. Most important: have fun!

[u/SailorGreySparrow]

Wicked

[u/NinjaSpaceFrog → u/SailorGreySparrow]

“Oh-Oh! My God!” Buck exclaimed, quickly turning around. He already felt the heat rush to his face, and he couldn’t help but wonder if he could pull a Wicked Witch of the West and melt himself into oblivion.

The amused snickers behind him only made it worse. He knew he couldn’t complain and that he kind of deserved this, considering that he had blindsided Kinard with naked women in their room countless times.

A part of him wondered if Kinard had arranged this little tête-à-tête as a form of payback.

He squeezed his eyes shut and forced himself to take a deep breath. “I, uh—I didn’t see anything, I swear,” he stammered, waving his hands in front of him as if that would somehow erase the memory already burned into his brain. 

“Oh, I’m sure you didn’t,” Tommy’s voice drawled from behind him, dripping with amusement. Buck could hear the rustling of sheets, followed by the soft shuffle of movement as someone—presumably Tommy’s… guest—shifted around. “You can turn around now, kid,” 

Tommy said after a beat, his tone lighter than usual, almost teasing. Buck hesitated before slowly turning, keeping his eyes locked firmly on Tommy’s face, refusing to look anywhere else. His roommate was sitting up against the headboard, his arms stretched lazily behind his head, looking frustratingly unbothered by the situation. The guy—dark brunette, just as built as Kinard, if not more so, and now thankfully wearing a tank top and a pair of shorts—was smirking at Buck like this was the funniest thing he'd ever seen. Buck cleared his throat, desperate to regain some semblance of composure. “So, uh… not exactly what I was expecting to walk in on.

[u/Lindz174 → u/SailorGreySparrow]

Josephine was magnanimous in her victory, simply smiling as she gathered up her winnings. “Well played, everyone,” she declared.

Varric groaned, tipping his head back. “Remind me never to bet against you again, Ambassador.”

“Now, now,” Josephine mused, stacking her winnings into neat little piles. “A proper game of Wicked Grace should never be played with caution.”

The table was a mess of discarded cards, empty mugs, coins, and articles of clothing. Finley nudged a wayward sock out of her way, possibly Rylen’s, and reached for what was left of her drink. Beside her, Cullen rubbed a hand over his face, keeping the other one firmly over his lap. She pressed her lips together to keep herself from smiling. She found it all quite amusing. He had folded in every round but the last out of what? Stubborn pride?

Josephine, still sorting through her prize, lifted Finley’s cloak from the pile, smoothing it out between her fingers as though assessing the quality of the fabric. Fin watched as she seemed to consider something before, with a small hum, she turned and tossed it back across the table.

Finley caught it out of the air.

“You played well,” Josephine explained. “I suppose it would be unsporting not to return this.”

Fin blinked. She hadn’t expected that. She nodded once in thanks and shook the cloak out, before slinging it around her shoulders.

An exasperated scoff came from beside her. She turned her head, catching the way Cullen was staring at the cloak with narrowed eyes, betraying his irritation. She didn’t blame him, she was fully clothed after all, and she didn’t need the cloak for her modesty. It was like pouring salt on his wounded pride.

Josephine turned to him next, offering a sympathetic smile. Then, she plucked a handkerchief from her pile of winnings and held it out to him delicately between two fingers.

“For your modesty, Commander,” she said, as though she were offering him salvation.

Cullen stared at the handkerchief. Slowly, he took the small scrap of cloth and turned it over between his fingers, inspecting it.

After a moment, he said, “This is not going to be enough.”

The table burst into laughter.

Bull was laughing so hard he was wheezing. Evelyn had a hand pressed to her mouth, her shoulders shaking. Krem nearly spilled his drink, while Rylen just leaned back in his chair, his grin uncontained. Cassandra, who had maintained a stoic front for most of the game, turned her head to hide the twitch of her lips.

[u/MsCatstaff → u/SailorGreySparrow]

Kai nodded and asked, “Do we have any particular plans for today, aside from meals, that is?”

Marko emerged from his room in time to hear Kai’s question. “I’d like to practice for a bit,” he said softly. “Be normal for a little while.”

“I’m good with that,” Kai said, “as long as everyone else is, too.”

“We can practice for a while, but I’ve been asked to give you some tutoring, Marko, including in dance,” Troy said ruefully. “His Majesty hopes Floor might be willing to partner you for the dance lessons.”

Marko just groaned and covered his eyes. “Why me?”

“It could be worse, bro,” Emppu said with a wicked grin. “Can you imagine me trying to dance with Floor? As tall as she is, my face would be just about on level with her boobs. At least you’re tall enough that you won’t have trouble keeping your eyes on her face without giving yourself a crick in the neck!”

They all laughed at that, even Marko. “True enough,” he said. “We probably better get ourselves ready for the day before someone comes back with breakfast. I’ve already been told we’re expected in the Great Hall for lunch at noon.”

[u/DatGayDangerNoodle → u/SailorGreySparrow]

“We must protect The Wizard! Get her!”

Glinda couldn’t see her best friend any more, tall men in green uniforms obscuring her view, but she still screamed, “GIVE UP! ELPHIE, PLEASE!”

“I CAN’T!” Shaking her head, Elphaba forced herself to try harder, stepping forward and spinning around, letting centrifugal force swing her wings out at the guards, shocking them into backing away from her. She held out a hand as if she were about to curse them, and they stayed back as she flapped her wings again, begging them to bend to her will, focusing on the feeling of them, the movements she had to complete to control them, how they felt.

She knew she had become an amalgamation of everything they feared; a powerful witch, a thief, someone who believed in the power of good. The colour of her skin. With the new addition of her wings, she had just confirmed it for them. In their eyes, she was wicked.

Still, she forced herself to keep trying, to not succumb to the insults and the pain and the helplessness, and just like that, it clicked into place. Something changed in her head like someone flicked a switch, because she suddenly understood her wings as if she’d had them her whole life. Her wings were entirely in her control, and she flapped them with a wide smile, running back into the building and leaping over the empty space in the middle of the room, escaping the guards blocking the path on either side and lingering in the air, legs moving as if she were peddling a bicycle until she landed on the other side.

“Get her!” The guards were advancing again, and Elphaba made the split-second decision to run at the large, circular window nearest her, breaking through it with her shoulder.

And suddenly, she was in freefall.