weekly number four || 24-30 march

part one: the setting

the colors:
carriage, a dusty light brown
columbia, a slightly more regal, saturated, and warm brown
amulet gem, a more highly saturated cyan with a darker value
silver dollar, a light grey with green undertones

From the color carriage, my story will take place in a carriage on the road from one place to another. The other colors are all quite regal, lending to the carriage being very decorative and lush. From the color Columbia, one (or both) of the characters will be either coming from or going to a university. From the color silver dollar, the weather outside the carriage will be quite dreary and grey, but this won’t affect the moods of the characters very much. From the color amulet gem, the inside of the carriage will be partially decked in cyan and silver patterned silk, with other parts a rich magnolia wood, and the breed of horses that draws the carriage will be Amulets.
The world beyond this carriage, or at least the part of it that the characters interact with, is very rich and high society. They live in giant mansions in the country and only slightly smaller houses in the cities, and host and attend large and fancy parties, and the magic is just as glamorous as their lives.
The time this story takes place in is reminiscent of Victorian times, especially the higher social classes of Victorian times. There is not much tragedy in the lives of the aristocratic main characters and much of it is simply drama and gossip.

part two: the characters

the candles:
christmas eve, “traditional holiday scents of a warm hearth, sugared plums, and candied fruits,” hints of Orange, Almond, Lime, Lemon, Red Berry, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Violet, Amber, Creamy Praline, and Vanilla
the last paradise, “you’ve found paradise at last…rare and exotic notes of rainforest fruits and flowers lure you into a fragrance rainforest fruits and flowers lure you into a fragrance experience like no other,” hints of Jungle Leaf, Green Apple, Hibiscus, Osmanthus Blossom, Wild Grass, Orchid, Mimosa, Plumeria, Violet Leaf, White Musk, Moss

Christmas Eve is the mother of The Last Paradise. Her name is evelyn de Rojo. She is quite traditional and kind, but she is not afraid to berate her son about his misbehavior. She cares and loves for him, and her way of showing this is not exactly how most people would describe as motherly. Her backstory is very colorful and spicy, as the somewhat exotic undertones of the candle would imply, and she was raised comfortably wealthy, but not to the extent as she is now. She is, as I said before, de Rojo, and her fingertips are the same color as the candle, a deep but bright red, more purple than orange. Her magic is significantly stronger than her son’s, and it is related to feelings.

The Last Paradise is the son of Christmas Eve. His name is eden de Rosa. He is very laid back and carefree, as one would like to be in paradise, and he openly does not care for the policies and worry of his parents and their generation. If it were up to him, the poor folk would run the world and he would just party all day and night. He will likely never be in power. His magic, like most other de Rosas, is not very powerful nor is it particularly specialized in one field. He is good at reading people, but this does not come from his magic most of the time. His fingertips are the same color as the candle as well, a light pink with hints of yellow undertones.

part three: the first line of dialogue

“I just want a nice, easy life. What's wrong with that?”

part four: the story

A mother and a son sat in silence, watching the waves of grain undulate beyond the gold-paned windows of the carriage. They both felt pained, they both felt out of their place in the cold world.
They had only spoken once during their journey, merely the ordinary exchanges of greeting. But nothing more.
The son, eden, felt there was nothing more to say. He had said it all in his letters, had he not?
My beloved mother,
I do not wish to travel home. I have no desire in ever leaving this place. I am happy here and I hope you will recognize that. The responsibilities you wish to place upon me do not fit, nor will they ever, and I therefore hope to not have them.
Thank you kindly for your understanding and respect,
With much love from your son,
eden de Rosa
Short as it had been, and full of lies, eden thought it would do the trick. He had been horribly wrong.

“He is not ready for schooling, josef,” the mother had whispered the night before eden was sent away. “They will tear him apart.”
She loved her son very much, always putting his interests before her own and trying to protect him from the world. She did not want to see him leave, she did not want him to disappear from their world.
“He will be fine, evelyn. We both survived, didn’t we?” We both have magic, she had thought bitterly. She’d brought to mind her first attempt to teach eden, when he was eight. The same age he was supposed to leave for school, the first time she had denied him that.
He had shown no affliction for magic, not of any type that had shown up in his ancestry.

Now she knew why that was. He wasn’t a member of a true Familia. Eden was de Rosa, his fingertips a pale pink that greatly contrasted the dark colors of his parents. De Rosa was the Familia of royalty and art, but their magic was noticeably weaker than that of every other Familia.
Evelyn glanced over at her son, wondering what was going on behind his eyes, between his ears. It was a thing that she often pondered, the happenings of his head. None of his actions made sense to her.
She had spent her life chasing power, status, and wealth. When she had discovered she was de Rojo, she had not let the meek reputation of her Familia stop her. She’d constantly topped in her classes, she’d never passed up an opportunity to advance her studies or reputation.
When she married, she married a de Morado, and not just any de Morado. One of the most influential and affluent sages of their time, josef de Morado.
But their one child, it seemed, was destined for things greater than magic. If only he felt the same way.

“I just want a nice, easy life,” was the first thing to be said in the carriage, followed closely by, “What is so wrong about that?”
Smoothing her cyan dress and avoiding looking at eden, evelyn formed a response. It was not one eden would like one bit.
“You are not meant for an ‘easy life.’ This, eden, is what you are meant for.” She waved her hand, giving him a vision of a future where he was a military general, and another where he was lord of a grand country.
He gaped at the images, drawn aback. “Mother, I cannot be that man. He hates fun. He hates love. He hates everything about me.”

Eden remembered his first day at Operly, the school from which he had just been expelled. But evelyn did not know that yet.
His first day, he had been full of fear. His mother had told him stories of the de Nada, whose fingertips remained blank forever and had warned him what a sad fate that would be for him.
He had stared down at his fingertips that day, praying that when he stepped into the grand hall they would change color. And they did, and it had been enough.
Being de Rosa was enough for him.

It would never be enough for his mother.
“You can be that man. I raised you to be that man!” An edge of anger rose in her voice and the tips of her ears reddened. “I did not raise you to play around with servants and sing love ballads to— to those people.”
“Mother!” eden exclaimed. “Those people are more family to me than my Familia! They’re more family to me than you! At least they are still here for me—”
“You will not speak to me that way. I do not care if it is how the heretics you associate with talk, you will not use it in my pres—”
“Mother, I was expelled.”

The night before his expulsion, eden had written a letter that would never be sent. He had addressed it to grey de Azul, a striking young enby who had stolen eden’s heart.
He wrote a letter longer than any he had written before, one of love and confession. One that would get him expelled and all but banished from magic.
And grey would never read the letter.
To the one with the off-putting green eyes, the beautiful light laughter, the smile like warm sunshine in the summertime,
To grey, the loveliest sage any could ever hope to meet,
This is strange, what I feel for you. I have felt it only once before, a wonder and want, a—
Only this much of the letter could be recovered. Only this much of the letter could be read. But it was enough.
The next day eden was expelled from Operly for breaking his engagement, one he did not even know he had.

A mother and a son once more sat in silence, the tension between them visible and electric. The world beyond the carriage had not changed, the trot of the horses and the wind in the trees had not changed.
But something between this duo, something long stretched, had snapped.
Something had broken beyond repair.

TonksNotNymphadora wrote:

Cae's awesome writing

This is probably going to be my last critique this session I loved the wording you used, and the story was fascinating! I really felt every single line you wrote, and it had me clutching my heart desperately. The only issue I have with this is that the format got a bit confusing at times, and it was kind of hard to keep up, but the positives in this outweigh the negatives by a ton! Basically, this is your best piece of writing yet. Anyway, Thanks a lot for co-leading this cabin, Cae! I had a great time, and I hope I see you next session!

thank you notes || 31 march

ahh this is my first time doing this, sorry if it’s long and repetitive

Icy - Ahh thank you so much for hosting all of the sessions I’ve been a part of. You are so kind and smart, and you’re an icon. We’ve never really talked, but you are such an inspiration and I don’t know what SWC will be like without you. Thanks for everything you’ve done to make this session amazing <33
Alba - Alba! You are so cool, talented, and such a great leader! We didn’t really interact much, but when we did you were always so kind and funny. Thank you so very much for everything you do to make camp possible!! <33
Li & Sini - I don’t really know either of you super well, but I know enough that I can tell that you are super cool and talented! Thanks for co- and g- hosting this session!!

Bakie & Honey - Congratulations on being co hosts!! I don’t really know either of you very well, but I do know that you are talented, welcoming, and super cool, and you will both be wonderful co hosts.
Birdi - Wow you are so talented and cool and mature and honestly a little intimidating :00 Congrats on hosting! You will be so good at it! Thanks for running the memory book and being an all around awesome and helpful person <33
Kat - zsdfgfghb where to even start?? I was so honored when you asked me to be your co and getting to know you over the course of the last few months has been so wonderful I probably can’t put it in words. Not only are you superbly talented at what seems like everything, but you are super funny and the best leader I could ever ask for <333 You’re strategizing and encouragement and everything you have done to make this session the absolute best has been fantastic, and you are going to be such an amazing co-host!!
Soft - Being cos with you has been such fun! When you were my leader back in July I could not believe how such an awesome person like you could exist, and with every interaction I have with you I wonder it more. Thank you so much for being cool and being a co with me <33
All of the other leaders and co-leaders - If I had the time, I would write each of you a personal thank you, telling you all of the reasons why you are epic and amazing and talented and have made this session truly incredible in every way. But I don’t have the time, so I’ll just say this: without you, this session of SWC would not be as truly great as it was. Thank you for everything you’ve done this session to make it the best it can be!!

Lark - Larklarklark!! Thank you so so much for being an amazing camper and friend this session! Talking with you is always such a joy and even though we were both quite busy this month and therefore didn’t talk as much, I’m really really glad you chose to be in sci-fi. And also you came up with matching pfps, which are now such a trend, look forward to being credited in future cabins . Anyways, thank you thank you thank you!! <33
Minty - Your encouragement throughout the session has been so, well, encouraging, and I am so glad to get to know you this month. You’re so talented! Thank you for being a camper in sci-fi!
Kel - How have you named every single baby star?? Because you are an icon, that’s how. You are so epic and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed getting to know you better this month. Thanks so much for being in sci-fi with me!
Lax - Your username says it best: you are awesome :00 I’m so glad to have had you in my cabin and to have received your wonderful critiques. Thank you thank you for being your awesome self!
Air - AIR OH MY GOSH READING YOUR SCI-FI STORIES HAS BEEN SUCH A JOY ALL MONTH!! As has been getting to know you— you are such a fantastic person and very fun to talk with.
Lyra - As of my writing this, you have 211 baby stars, which is such dedication and determination :00 you are a very cool person too, and I wish I’d talked to you more. I hope to see you next session!
Sun - I feel like most of my interactions with you have been yelling about procrastination on weeklies (and longishusername) but nevertheless they have been outstanding. You are so awesome and your writing is too! Thank you so much for being a spacewalker this session!!
Skye - I haven’t gotten to interact with you nearly as much as I’d like to, but you are so cool and how you organized the collab song was super cool too! Thank you for being an amazing sci-fi camper!! <3
LongishUsername - You better be reading this! Anyways, it was poggers to be chasing after your identity for a good amount of this session and before that. Now I want to know who you are!! >:00
All of the other campers - I really wish I could write every one of you a lengthy letter about how absolutely amazing you are and how you have truly made this session the best. Thank you for your critiques and your creativity. Thank you for your motivation and your energy. Thank you all so much for being great campers and for putting up with my craziness. MAY THE CRIES OF YOUR ENEMIES BE SILENCED BY SPACE’S VOID!! <33

Sorters - I have been saying this a lot, but seriously, truly camp would not exist without you and your willingness to commit your time to the hard work of sorting. So thank you for that!
Memory book committee - Woah— the memory book looks so good! :0 You’re all so talented and SWC would not be the same without you and the work you put into the memory book <3

Everyone - Thank you thank you thank you all so much for making this session possible, and for making it the best that it could possibly be. I hope I’ll see you all next session!!

the final words || 31 march

The dome around you bustles with bittersweet goodbyes and thank yous. A few of your fellow spacewalkers have left for home already, and a few, like you, are on their way out. You smile and laugh with the friends you’ve made and hold back tears as they tell you all you’ve meant to them and as you do the same to them.
You’re going to miss this place.
The final goodbye is possibly the most emotional. All three of the overseers have gathered in truth rather than their holographic forms. You can see tears in each of their eyes.
“We’re so glad to have had you,” says the first.
“You’ve made this session truly memorable,” continues the second.
The third pauses for a moment, her words on the tip of her tongue. “We hope you enjoyed your stay at the Sci-Fi Colony,” she says finally.
All three of them truly mean it.
You climb into your pod and turn back to look at the colony. You smile and wave at the friends you’ve made. You think of all of the things you’ve written. You know that you are not alone, that everyone is just a quick holo chat away. You are filled with a bittersweet joy as your star climber smoothly exits orbit and delivers you safely home.
And you can’t wait until next session.

Throughout this session, you’ve seen war. You’ve tasted defeat, but more so you’ve tasted victory. You’ve made unbreakable bonds and realized things about yourself you never before knew.
Your overseers have too, and so have each of your fellow spacewalkers.
You’ve all grown together, everyone of you, and you’ve grown into a family.
When the next session comes, even if you are in entirely different colonies with entirely different themes, overseers, and allies, you will still be tied together by this experience.

Thank you for a wonderful session! <33

ohhhh Cae this is beautiful i love it