Prompt: Character's room

Not sure if I should post this in the games thread or in the character bunkhouse but since no one is actually roleplaying I've decided to stick it here.

I was thinking about things to get me inspired, writing and thinking about my plot and characters and wondered if writing prompts might be a fun way to get started (especially with July so quickly approaching!) So with that, let's get started.

Here's the first prompt:

Describe a character by what’s in his/her room. Pay special attention to the quality of his/her stuff.

- stolen from http://yeahwrite.co/post/102051304359

I've decided to pick out Maerwynn for this.

Her room has windows with shutters and light blue curtains. The floor is made out of darkened wood and a rug lies just beside her bed. Her bed is a two person bed and made with freshly cleaned lines. At the foot end of the bed stands a chest with warm woollen blankets for cold days and clean bedding. Next to her bed stands a small table with an oillamp and some books. At the other end of the room, opposite to her bed stand stacked chests for her clothing and and other linens. Beside this is a dressing table with a small chair. On the dressing table stands a small bouquet of wildflowers. The furniture is well made and looks it will last many years. However, if you were wondering if it was ornate, it is not. Though there are minor decorations, the furniture is humble and there to serve a practical purpose.

Elowen-Astrid wrote:I've decided to pick out Maerwynn for this.

Her room has windows with shutters and light blue curtains. The floor is made out of darkened wood and a rug lies just beside her bed. Her bed is a two person bed and made with freshly cleaned lines. At the foot end of the bed stands a chest with warm woollen blankets for cold days and clean bedding. Next to her bed stands a small table with an oillamp and some books. At the other end of the room, opposite to her bed stand stacked chests for her clothing and and other linens. Beside this is a dressing table with a small chair. On the dressing table stands a small bouquet of wildflowers. The furniture is well made and looks it will last many years. However, if you were wondering if it was ornate, it is not. Though there are minor decorations, the furniture is humble and there to serve a practical purpose.

I like this! I get the feeling that she's a pragmatic person - her room is very no-nonsense and everything is there to be used. I get the sense that she doesn't spend a lot of time in her room and she would prefer to be somewhere else.

What the hell I wrote so much. I definitely got carried away with this prompt. Anyway, here we go.

Above the Great Wizard’s workspace, the kitchen and the library was the observatory. Or it had been an observatory until it was converted into a small bedroom for his young apprentice, Thomothy.

It was a little cramped, and there was still left-over astronomy equipment stacked against the wall, but it was in no way like the disorganised chaos of the Great Wizard’s room at the base of the tower. Thomothy felt that it was comfortably filled: a single bed, a bookcase, a desk, a chest for clothes. There were two large windows on opposing walls and strung up between them was a length of twine. Attached to it with an assortment of pegs were drawings on sheets of parchment - mostly of people, none of them very good. On the desk there were more sketches, none of those being very good either.

Above that there was a wooden contraption that rotated differently sized spheres around a golden globe of light in its centre. Thomothy assumed it was Nevazar: the galaxy. There was Anea, he thought, embodied by a small blue marble, with Floth, a ringed planet moving closer past the representation of the sun. There were other planets too but Thomothy had forgotten most of their names. Between the rotating rings, hung stars... although now that Thomothy had a closer look at them, they appeared to be Grust balls painted white. And most of the planets were actually constructed from, he was pretty sure, various bits of sporting equipment.

There were also a great deal many books here. In fact there are towers of them: some open on the desk, others beneath the bed (along with a pot for unmentionable things), most falling out of the much too full bookshelves. Although the Great Wizard had an extensive library on the third floor, it was almost impossible to access any of the reading materials contained therein. Not because they were locked or hidden away. On the contrary, the Great Wizard had rows and rows of bookshelves containing doubly as many books, all available for perusal. The problem was with the books themselves.

Every time he’d tried to pull one out of the shelf it had protested that Thomothy was not permitted and had proceeded to torment him with spells like ‘seislek’ (give someone a paper cut between the index finger and thumb) that were more annoying than dangerous. That was of course unless he’d picked out one of the more aggressive books. Then it would literally lunge at him, attaching itself to his face until he’d either passed out or managed to pry the thing off him. He’d soon given up on the library after finding himself lying on the stone floor with the Great Wizard standing over him - who, instead of helping him, had elected to give him a temporary, magical moustache in his state of unconsciousness.

Instead he found it easier to “borrow” books from the Momusan Public Library and “forget” to ever return them. He’d had a hard enough time just being a wizard apprentice as it was dealing with all the without being assaulted by disgruntled literature and inconsiderate guardians.

While his bedroom may have been the smallest in the tower, he didn’t mind - in contrast, he actually liked the small space. It was private; far away from the prying eyes of the others and the hijinks of his mentor (well, almost far away; he was sick of being judged by the enchanted handle on the trapdoor to his room - who was extremely mouthy for something that didn’t have any discernible mouth - but he’d taken to covering it with a rug when not in use and that seemed to be working so far).

Up here, far above everything else, he could look out across the cityscape, houses like tiny thatched matchboxes, and know that the best place to be in all of Momus was right here in his tower room. It was his place of quiet solace, where he could lie on his creaking bed frame and gaze up at the fake stars and planets, dreaming of something better. Something bigger than this small room, and this small town. Something just the tiniest bit interesting.

I did not come up with much,

The soft bedding was delightful, Melia thought as she leaned back and looked at the canopy. The rich green canopy was not really something she liked but the draping fabric was useful since the single large window faced east. The window also doubled as an exit if she was willing to climb, in order to get some fresh air. Turning over Melia frowned and glanced around the room once more.
From the small wash stand in the corner to the wardrobe everything looked as it was new, or at least unused. There was not much in the room to start with but the center of attention was the desk that was supposed to be for her studies. But that too was clear of anything since she spent most of her time in the practice tower where anything was to backfire or explode, it would not take out half of the keep.
The tower was another thing, that room was crowed and clutter littered every surface there was available; and there was a lot of places to put things. Several bookshelves as well as three tables and a large desk. Between her brother and herself, the maids believed that it was useless to try to keep up with the growing mess. She smiled at that thought. There was something that annoyed her mother to no end.

Sophie wrote:I like this! I get the feeling that she's a pragmatic person - her room is very no-nonsense and everything is there to be used. I get the sense that she doesn't spend a lot of time in her room and she would prefer to be somewhere else.

I suppose she is, and I think that she likes to keep her room tidy since everything else tends to become messy or cluttered when she is making potions, drying herbs etc. She also spends a great deal of time outside, collecting herbs, delivering potions, helping people, tending to her garden.