We’ve fixed a bunch of bugs and made a few other quality-of-life improvements. If any of these bugs don’t seem fixed, or you know of any others that remain unfixed, please let us know in the comments below.

Performance Improvement: Stream

Some optimizations have been made to improve the stream (home screen) loading time. In most cases, it was taking far too long to load posts from authors you follow.

UI Improvement: Message/Block Buttons

New message/block buttons have been added to user profiles. These buttons appear both on desktop and mobile versions of the website in the upper right, near the profile picture.

Improvement: Challenge Browsing

We removed the filter that, when browsing challenges, hid most challenges by authors you do not follow. You will now see all challenges when browsing. This is experimental. If it ends up swamping you with challenges, let us know and we'll revert the change.

Bug Fix: User Swapping

A bug that previously caused profile pictures, comments, posts, messages, and other things to appear as though they were created by the wrong user has been fixed. This bug was particularly common when posting new comments and sending new messages.

Bug Fix: Liking/Reposting

A bug preventing likes and reposts from registering properly has been fixed. This affected posts that were part of a concluded challenges. Affected posts have been modified to reflect the correct like/repost counts.

Bug Fix: Challenge Resolutions

A bug that prevented challenges from properly resolving upon reaching their deadline has been fixed. This prevented winners from being notified when their post was selected, and challenge creators from being notified when it was time to pick a winner. Both issues have been fixed.

Bug Fix: Usernames with Hyphens

Hyphens were never intended to be allowed in usernames. All usernames that previously included a hyphen have had that hyphen replaced with an underscore. New usernames will not allow hyphens.

Bug Fix: Autoscrolling in Messages

A bug that prevented the message window from scrolling to the bottom when opening a conversation has been fixed. The window should now properly scroll to the bottom of a conversation when a message window is opened.

Bug Fix: Attach Portal

The “Attach Portal” button is now properly greyed out when editing a post. In the future, we will likely allow for posts without portals to be retroactively added to a portal.

In the heat of the crucible

Where flesh and soul melts 'way

Suffering; the head instructor

Yield; my heart to fray

Set to trial by fire

My body; bones and sinew

Lest I suffer always

Of sorrows' residue

The traffic roars behind me

Headlights rushing past

Shining brightly in the corners of my eyes

For brief seconds

Before disappearing into nothingness

The distant city lights

Hover over the gently rolling tides

Illuminating the blackness

Like sweet innocent fairies

Drowning in a sea of darkness

Still alive but with little hopes of survival

The black waves try to swallow the lights whole

But every time the lights dart away

At the last moment

Fluttering against the water

The moon glimmers brightly tonight

Full and awake

A big glaring eye judging the world from amongst the clouds

I lean against the bridge’s railing weakly

Feeling the cool midnight breeze kiss my ragged cheeks

My body quivers from the soft touch of the wind

Recoiling away like a demon from the light

Oh God, I feel so tired and exhausted tonight!

My mind feels murky

My vision blurs

Too many thoughts racing through my head

All at once

A bullet train with no station

Endlessly charging down the tracks

Rest my head against my hand

Close my eyes

Desperately try to bear the emotions

That relentlessly torture my poor heart

Smell the awful sent of alcohol on my leather jacket

It’s so strong it’s suffocating

It makes me want to vomit

And oh, how much my stomach burns!

Tipsy,

Breaths come out heavy

Leaning so far onto my hand

That eventually it surrenders to gravity

Head smashes against the railing

Too exhausted to move

Stare mindlessly into the abyss of rolling darkness below

The waves dance slowly

Back and forth

Keeping in time with the rhythm of the universe

This awful, filthy reality

Laughter escapes my lips

Maniacal and bitter

Disgusting as it pierces through the calm air

A hideous melody

Awful

Terrible

…Just like me…

Laughter turns to laments

Harsh tears burn my cheeks

Cutting my face

Dropping into the bottomless pit below

Which engulfs the teardrops whole

The thoughts slowly rise up

Fighting against my will power

They grow and grow and grow

Restless like a caged animal

The detonation blows

And my sanity shatters to pieces

…Terrible…

…Hideous…

…Hopeless…

…Meaningless…

…Monster…

Random words

Shouting in the emptiness of my mind

Painting the blank slate black

Random words

Tearing apart the jigsaw puzzle

Rationality loses to chaos

Random words

Anarchy

Self-destruction

A bloody war

Sanity dies

Evil reigns

…I can’t do this anymore…

The abyss of darkness calls to me

Inviting

A long-awaited lover

Arms outstretched

I lean forward

So close

So close

So close…

Brush my lover’s soft fingertips

In the dying lamplight

Almost there

Just a little more

So close

So close

So close…

Body surrenders to gravity

Eternally falling

A hideous monster

Disappearing from the light

Nowhere to be found

As the waves reach to devour me

Gone

Gone

Gone forever…

And no one will ever remember…

I thought, until a powerful grip

Grabs hold of my sleeve

I hang from the bridge

Swaying with the midnight breeze

As it breathes into the world

I gaze up through my strands of hair

At the young man holding my forearm

Large muscles tensed

His eyes shine bright

Face struggling as he pulls me up

Over the railing and onto the sidewalk

I collapse, hands over chest

Tears sting my cheeks

Jacket lopsided

Hair tossled and unkempt

"Why, kid?! Why?!"

I breath through clenched teeth.

"Why save a monster like me?"

He gave me a forgiving smile

Sweet and innocent

Carefree as adolescents are

"'Cause every one deserves a second chance

Even monsters, as you say you are.

How do you know

That time won't erode the darkness

Of a monster's soul?

Come now, dear human brother

Let us go have some dinner together."

Spring brings with it a certain lilt, a harmonious sense of purpose and wonderment. Spring brings back life in the flowers ever delicate with their rosey reds, deep purples, ever brighter yellows, and the softness of pink.

There floats around us a certain air, a vibrant scent of life returning back to the fold. And just when you are first amazed at this life-transition of nature, it takes on another look, perhaps only a vision behind the mind’s eye, perhaps that quiet decadence, when sunlight spreads its warmth and comfort to each place where beauty returns.

A field of poppies and daffodils, a rose garden, trees repopulate their green shaded leaves, or even the hint of a spring lake rising up to breathe in; nature at her finest brings new resolve to us all, giving purpose for the long-awaited season that beckons us to till our soil and plant new beauty.

Spring is and always has been, a sensual journey into the colors that surround our lives.

Come, walk with me and breathe in what nature gives us. It doesn’t get any better than this.

It was dawn, the usual crimson sky now gave a dark despair. Violent streams of memories clenched Vanir’s mind. He could hear hordes of men roaring within his mind, with utmost vengeance.

Vanir took a heavy gasp.

“How long has it been, Richard”

“Almost an year, young sir. Almost an year” , the old butler revered.

As they both stood on the Castle’s balcony, staring down at it’s massive backyard leading

to the forest.

It was almost an year since Vanir fell asleep, being his dearest Richard took care of

Vanir’s mortal vessel until this present day.

Vanir sat down on his study and is trying to recollect what’s left of his memory.

“Ah, what day is this Richard?”

“It’s Monday sir, 25th August 1997, time 06:23.”

“It’s been almost 30 minutes, and your tea has gone cold sir. Should i have it boiled again

for you, sir.”

Vanir stared at Richard for a brief moment. Richard was paralyzed in an instant, as if a

thousand blades had struck his feeble heart.

Seconds passed...

With a smile as that of an heavenly light set to free one’s burden, “It would be fine, old

friend. I’d like to have my tea cold for now.”

“Take your leave now, and be back in an hour Richard. I’d like to have some deep roasted

bacon, a couple of omelettes, a tender loaf of bread and a pint of our old red wine for

breakfast.”

“I’ll have them served to you in an hour, sir. Served in the most elegant of manner...”

“Leave, Richard”

“Right away, young sir, humbly i shall”

Richard took slow steps out of the room, trying to hear the words between Vanir’s silence and his ulterior motives.

Vanir took the tea right away.

Reviving the Unhearkened Reminiscence

Left undisturbed Vanir emptied his awareness, gathered all his past memories. Fragments of his memories were projected unto his mind’s eye. Wavering through his memories, Vanir took a brief pause and grasped all he could with utmost focus.

September 26th, 1996, The Lunar Eclipse

It was almost midnight, Vanir’s Knights of five set onto the castle’s backyard. The Knights were all cousins of Vanir, men of his age group.

A set of 5 circles were made inwardly with a protective pentagram as its centre. The

outermost circle was of 40 metre, and 10 metre less for each successive circle drawn inwards. Ancient unknown symbols were inscribed on the inner curve of the final circle. The five knights took stand on 5 cardinal points of the pentagam. The entire ritual scheme was setup under Vanir’s command.

The midnight bell toll, the five wore their robes which too was marked with unknown

symbolism.

Their incantations began.

“Un wa tere mak yaruvigaan jreyuvaka karyath”

They stopped upon the sight of the moon’s penumbra, the crew took their athame(a ritual

dagger of some sort) and slit their palms and trickled their blood upon their chalices, as

they laid it in front of them.

The piercing light of the penumbra struck the chalices, energizing the ritual.

“The physical work has been done, it’s time for the internal work”

“Through our blood, we shall open the gates through us.” Vanir commanded.

It was by then, the local populace from the village came to end this menace. Vanir and the

knights were too obsessed to even notice the thundering noise of the mass.

Vanir and his knights worked their way out through the soul plane, and upon the guidance of the four gate -keepers of all four directions, the gates were finally opened.

Vanir took the first step through the gat, and was floating upon the infinite pools of clusters of floating energy clumps of bright blue and green luminous.

At his sight, a powerful stream of endless energy, it was large and long, with Vanir not

even able to see nor the starting or ending of it.

Bedazzled at what Vanir saw, he could see himself eradicating all his worldly attachments.

All the strings cut, all the burdens gone, all the wounds healed and all scars faded.

“This Vanir, runs beneath all existence, beneath all realms. Beneath all that is alive.”

“This is the river of life, immensify yourself in its essence and be unbounded as the universe that you are”

“This is as far as i can bring you, young one. The rest of the steps are yours to make.”

a powerful voice murmured.

Vanir floated across to dive into this immense stream of life.

“AAAAAAAAARRRRGH, VANIR”

“RUN AWAY”

“NOW” “SAVE US”

The two worlds collided. Vanir now, could see both the worlds at the same time.

The raging crowd slayed all his knights. Vanir outside the bounds of sanity reached for the stream, regardless of his Knights death. He could see both the river and a blood tainted blade infront of him. As he reached for the river, the blade reached for him. The more he thrusted his will to reach the river, the more longer it took for the blade to slash him through.

With his hands almost set onto making the final touch, time stopped and endless torrents of energy flooded through Vanir’s soul and body into the physical world slashing through all forms of life, annihilating even the tiniest forms of existence.

It lasted only an half of a second, before he floated away.

With the entire populace decimated, blood drenched all the five circles.

Vanir returned to his vessel, unable to bear such extremity, he hit the ground unconscious.

UNTIL NOW, THE PRESENT 25TH AUGUST 1997, TIME 07:30

A gentle knock on the door,

“May i get in, sir”

“Please come in, Richard”

“Aww, my breakfast. Take a seat, we shall eat together”

Both of them had a quality time. Despite the evil that Vanir caused, Richard still loved him.

“Tell me, Richard Falter. The last son of the butler family of Falter’s.”

“Why was my tea poisoned?”

“I mean you did have almost an year of time, you could easily killed me. But why, now?”

A brief silence echoed through the walls.

“Master Vanir, you are the last heir of this family. I loved you as much this life let me. But, I've... I never wanted you to die, young one. But I cannot live with myself, not knowing what more evil that you would cause.”

“But then, why did you take the poison yourself, my eyes can see your life withering away”

“There’s not much choice left for me, i cannot live with you being alive as much as you are dead. Henceth it’s best for this old soul to depart alongside you, Vanir. My services are for you, be it life or death.”

“I shall carry out your cremation myself. You shall have a respected depart, Richard”

“I too love you”

“What do you mean?” ... Richard gasped.

“That day, Richard. I died that day. Now, i’m beyond the bounds of life and death. You should not have taken the poison, you never asked me anything when you make decisions, you always have made decisions purely out of love and emotions. when i chose to walk the path of practicality.”

“You’ve suffered enough, old friend. Even though it pains me to see you leave, i’m content that you are free atlast.”

They hugged each other with immense love and respect. With little advices of the path of the righteous Richard bid goodbye.

The story of the old man ended.

Vanir was left with an empty mind.

#challengeofthemonthfebruary

#evil

#darkritual

#life

#horror

#spirituality

Happy November Writers and Readers;

Fall is a time of change, a time of ponderance, preparation, and preservation. And with the final month of fall comes our first $100 Challenge of the Month, wherein we explore the bright colors and darkening skies of autumn. Not only will the winner receive the $100 purse, we’ll also be sharing all outstanding submissions with our publishing partners and contacts. When you’re ready to get started, you’ll find the prompt here: https://theprose.com/challenge/7775. Best of luck!

With the arrival of our monthly challenge, we thought we’d shed a little light on how we’ll be judging your entries (and how we’ve been judging your entries in the Challenge of the Week). In particular we look for: creativity, fire, memorability, coherence, proper grammar, and linguistic mastery. Let’s take a closer look.

The First Paragraph

We read a lot of your writing, and usually don’t have the time to give every word and sentence the attention they deserve. As such, we will commonly eliminate entries immediately if the first couple of paragraphs are rife with spelling or grammatical errors, don’t read clearly, or don’t intrigue. Our advice - make your first paragraph your best paragraph. Make it captivating and irresistable. Make it shine. More advice on how to do so below.

Creativity

Written creativity can take many forms, and pervades every category along which we judge. It could take the form of compelling characters, exotic settings, unusual word choice, unique story arcs, and everything in-between. We want to think “wow, I would never have expected/conceived of/realized that.”

Fire

Fire is passion. We want to see your love for the craft of composition shine through. Whether a controlled burn, or a raging blaze, we want to see your dedication to the story, the characters, the poetry, and the craft. Some of the best writing reads as though the author agonized over every syllable.

Memorability

This is related to creativity, but somewhat different. It hinges a bit more specifically on the author’s ability to clearly convey that creativity. As we’re reading challenge entries, we keep a list of the pieces that catch our eye. When we’re done, we go back over that list of top contenders and choose the winner(s). More often than not, we’ll choose the stories we remember most vividly. In addition to compelling characters and themes, little details can go a long way towards making a piece more memorable. A perfectly crafted sentence. A witty title. A surprising interaction.

Coherence

Your writing should be lucid and coherent. If it’s hard to follow the plot, be it theater or thesis, it’ll be difficult to win. Avoid rambling, over-description, and muddled thoughts. Read your work back to yourself as though you hadn’t written it. Ask yourself, “what am I trying to communicate? Did I do so clearly? Is any of this hard to follow?” If we find ourselves lost or unsure of what’s going on anymore, we usually move along.

Spelling & Grammar

Do not underestimate the importance of proper spelling and grammar. Here at Prose, we respect, if not revere, the King’s English. While we forgive the rogue missing letter or misplaced comma (it happens to the best of us), repeated offenses and gross negligence are to be avoided at all costs. You are of course free to make stylistic choices like omitting capitalization; but unless it’s in the service of some artistic vision it’ll generally be frowned upon.

Linguistic Mastery

This is the x-factor, and the thing that sets great writing apart from good writing. This is proper useage of metaphor, descriptive language, imagery, word choice, alliteration, sentence/paragraph composition, overall flow, finesse, nuance, restraint, and everything in-between. For examples of “linguistic mastery,” please read some of the winning entries from our Challenge of the Week. The winners typically demonstrate a high degree of mastery in their work. To further illustrate what we mean, consider the following two sentences:

“The crows’ calls blared through the quiet like a siren, a dreadful cacophony that rose and fell like the tide, under the chilling, pale light of the full moon.”

“The shrieking of the crows sliced the silence, an unholy symphony beneath a cold, ghostly moon.”

Both are more interesting than “The crows were cawing loudly in the moonlight.” But the first exhibits a sort of scattershot approach, calls upon multiple disjointed metaphors, and betrays a lack of restraint. The second, by contrast, by surgical use of words like “sliced,” “unholy,” and “ghostly,” evokes a certain eeriness. It feels more intentional, and reads more clearly.

These are just a few of the things we look for, and we urge you not to think of them as some sort of “checklist” or “rubric.” Hopefully this has been informative, and will be of aid to you as your craft your entries.

Happy writes,

Prose.