This is my writing for this session!

Dystopian is cool, we'll win :}

edit: ignore that we're far behind. we'll make a comeback

Dailies:

11/2/2021
Dear chocolate,

Are you simply a dessert? I eat you at all times of day, providing I have access to you. Of course, you’re mostly sugar, so perhaps that makes you a dessert, I do not know the exact criteria. Maybe you’re only a dessert if you’re eaten after dinner? It’s a puzzling question, I shall turn to the search engine. “The sweet course eaten after a meal,” so you aren’t always a dessert, only if I eat you after a meal.

I profoundly love it when I eat you after a meal or even for a snack. For example, when you have nuts in you it just sometimes makes everything better! Especially caramel, it hits the spot at times. But even though things are added to you, sometimes all I need is plain chocolate, typically milk chocolate, but dark chocolate can be good too. I don’t like your white variety much, I don’t know why; never really liked it much.

When Halloween rolls around - coincidentally, it just did - I get a full bag of you and it’s the highlight of my year (no offense towards any other holidays), why wouldn’t it be? It means free candy (at the expense of others, but I can be rather selfish when it comes to my chocolate (or any candy, minus almond joys, I rather despise those)).

How do stores price you so differently? Some of you are quite cheap, while others are extremely expensive. I love when I find a bag of high-quality chocolate that’s still cheap enough that I don’t have to spend too much (or my parents don’t have to spend too much, I don’t buy much chocolate with money of my own). Does making some chocolate take longer and require more labor than others? That’s a logical thought, but the market is rarely logical, I’ve found.

307 words

—

Dailies to be continued

Weeklies:

Week of 11/2/2021-11/8/2021

Part One (209 words of dialogue, plus the character descriptions for a total of 351):

One of my characters is shy and keeps most of her thoughts to herself. She likes to have a book with her at all times and speaks only when someone speaks to her and it's actually important. If she speaks, it's soft and often people have to ask for her to repeat herself, which could make her come off as antisocial. If she speaks, it's in proper grammar, but still as quick of a sentence as she can muster.

The other character is more of an ambivert, sometimes starting conversations but mostly just contributing to them. Normally, they have a couple of friends by them and speak informally when with friends, but much more formal when speaking to another adult. They seem to have multiple different behaviors based on whoever they're talking to, sometimes reserved and quiet, but otherwise loud and boisterous.


Their face turned sour as they looked at Mia. “Dumbo! I don't care about Leo and Matthew; a Story of Starcrossed Lovers - you'll never have a love life like that! You're simply too pathetic and weak. What's wrong with you? I said WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU? Speak up, loser, nobody can hear you whine!”

Mia quivered against her locker. She was just trying to grab her math folder and not get bullied by them for the seventh time today, even if it was a bit of a joke. They weren't that rude, usually, they must've taken… their thing… earlier today. It usually made them cranky. “Sorry for any trouble I caused. I was just trying for my math folder, I never mentioned my current book.”

“It's all cool, Mia, I'm sorry. My meds must be screwing with me today - mood swings stink more than usual when my ADHD meds are active. Everyone in eighth grade knows that though; I didn't do anything to hurt you, sugar, did I?” they smiled towards Mia.

Mia shook her head. “No, you didn't. Please don't hurt anyone, you're better than that. I'm begging you.”

“I would never hurt anyone, and besides, it certainly wouldn't be you, dearest. You're far too cute to hurt.”


Part Two (636 total words, 503 of which are the motivation scene):

My aforementioned first character, who I named Mia, seeks people who will accept her for who she really is; accept that she's shy and quiet. Mia's motivation is to seek acceptance, so when she meets the to-be-created “villain” of the story, she'd betray the other protagonist if the villain legitimately accepted her as who she was. She can easily tell when someone pretends to accept her for who she is, which is why she would need genuine acceptance if she were to betray the other protagonist.

The other character, who's name we do not yet know, wants to do something that will matter in the future, so they seek some praise. If someone compliments them several times for the same thing over a period of time, they'd be likely to respect that person.


“It's dangerous!” Mia called after her friend.

“Does it look like I care?” they called back, trying to make a point, one would imagine.

Mia ran after them into the cave. “Hey, listen, I’ve known you for a long time and you’ve never acted like this before. What’s up?” Mia’s voice turned softer as she faced her friend of 7 years.

The words fell heavy on the rocks underneath. “My grandma disowned me.”

Mia took a step back. “AJ, I’m so, so, sorry. I don’t know what I’d do if my family disowned me.”

“She’s not my legal guardian, you know,” AJ reassures Mia. “I still have supportive dads. Of course, she doesn’t support either of them, but… I’ve told her anything. I didn’t expect her to react in such a way.”

Mia stood there awkwardly. “Thank you, AJ, for always being there for me.” Her hair whipped back from the wind deeper in the cave. “You’re the one person in life that truly accepts me for who I am, even without me telling you everything. Every person has secrets, and I think you’re the only person in my life that understands that.”

AJ grabbed hold of Mia’s hands. “Because you’re the only person that matters so much to me.”

Tears streamed down Mia’s face. “I don’t know what I’d do without you, because… I love you, AJ.”

AJ smiled, but it wasn’t a completely happy smile. Taking their hands out of Mia’s, they strode out of the cave, walking to the cliff’s edge.

Mia’s brown braids had come undone in the wind. “Don’t do it…”

AJ ran back towards Mia, grabbing her into a hug. “I have to, Mia. I can’t live in this world any longer, there’s too much pain.”

“Do you understand how much pain others will be in if you do it?”

“I know you will remember me forever… because of this.”

AJ connected their lips to Mia’s, which shocked Mia, but she had been in love with AJ for 5 years… back before they came out to her. Mia enjoyed every minuscule moment of the kiss… before AJ turned back towards the cliff and ran towards it as if they were about to jump… and they did.

Mia stood over the cliff, looking down at AJ’s body as it landed on the ocean below. Grabbing her phone, she tried to call 911, but there was no service because of how remote of a location it was.

“AJ… I will save you. By myself.” Mia screamed into the wind, and maybe it was a figment of her imagination, but it seemed to carry her down to AJ. As if it wanted her to save them.

Mia, who had never swum in her life, suddenly knew what to do with an extra body while swimming. How to position it on herself and how to properly drag it out of the water. How… that puzzled Mia, but she didn’t have time to think. AJ was in danger - but not dead yet.


Part Three (78 words):

My villain is a force, not exactly a person. The force of guilt lays down on Mia, because she thinks it’s her fault that AJ jumped, she wishes she could have done something more.

AJ’s pushed by the same force. They’re guilty because they think it’s their fault that Mia is so grief-stricken and depressed as of late.

Neither of them want to face the other, because both blame themselves for the grief and guilt of the other.


Part Four (1003 words):

Mia sighed. It had been two weeks since AJ ended up in the hospital, and it was all her fault. She should have done something to stop them from jumping! Their parents assured her that it wasn’t her fault, that they had probably been thinking thoughts that they shouldn’t have been thinking for weeks or months. Mia knew otherwise, they always told her everything, so why wouldn’t they have told her this? Yeah, maybe because she didn’t always tell them everything, but she thought that they would understand - but clearly they didn’t.

It must have been a spur-of-the-moment decision to jump and to freak Mia out, but Mia tried not to let that bother her.

—

AJ tossed and turned in their sleep. They tried to convince themselves that it wasn’t their fault that Mia was so depressed as of late, but they knew otherwise. Why else would Mia have been depressed other than that AJ had tried to jump. Maybe if they just gave into the guilt, everything would be better for everyone they’d harmed. Mia. Mom. Dad. Leo. Addy. Everyone they knew… they had harmed.

—

“Hey, AJ,” a soft voice whispered in their ear. “Wake up.”

“Mia, I don’t want to hurt you more,” was AJ’s first response. “Leave me alone. It’s all my fault.”


“It’s not, I promise,” Mia reassured him. “It’s mostly mine. I couldn’t stop you.”

“You wouldn’t have been able to anyway, I’d made a plan a long time ago. I just don’t understand why that didn’t do it for me.”

“Because it wasn’t your time to go,” Mia smiled, but there was obvious pain behind that smile. “AJ, the environment didn’t want you to go.”

“I don’t understand,” AJ whispered. “I thought I made deals with each overlord to not save my life, but clearly they did anyway.” They raised their voice, “It’s my fault I made you so depressed.”

“I’m depressed because it’s my fault you jumped,” Mia raised her voice as she said that, standing up suddenly.

“It’s nobody’s fault,” AJ’s mom said as she burst into the room. “Stop blaming yourselves, it’s not your fault.”

“Sorry, mom,” AJ replied at the same time as Mia said, “sorry, ma’am.”

“Mia, you’re a wonderfully talented girl - and very close to my AJ, might I add, but if you couldn’t do anything, then nobody could. And AJ, you seemed so lively, I wonder why you would have jumped. But it’s in the past, and feeling guilty about it does nothing, it’s better to just accept that it happened and move on.”

“That makes sense, even though it’s hard to do,” Mia sighed as she walked out of the room. “I’ll see you, AJ.”

—

A couple years later, Mia was still depressed. It was so obvious that it was her fault that AJ jumped, why couldn’t anyone see that. She should have recognized the signs earlier, but she was too incompetent to do so. Yes, it wasn’t totally her fault, but it was partially her fault.

In recent weeks, AJ had been acting more odd than usual, especially ever since “the accident,” which, granted, was roughly 2 years ago, but ever since then, they’d been significantly more strange. It’s as if another force had taken over their body and made them do some stupid stuff. Yes, they’d done stupid stuff before, but never anything quite this stupid. Not dangerously stupid, don’t get the wrong idea, they just did some stuff that was immature and most people who were 16 would have figured out that it was a bad idea, but clearly not AJ.

For example, they may have put gum on someone’s shoe. An extremely immature and stupid thing to do, but not one that was terribly dangerous or was going to get them or someone else killed.

—

“Alex Jo Petersen!” AJ’s mom screamed from the kitchen. “It’s breakfast and I’ve been calling you for an hour so you’re going to be late!”

AJ groaned as they got out of bed, really not wanting to go to school. The long-term substitute for English - since Mrs Hanson was out on maternity leave - was extremely transphobic and instead of calling them AJ, which wasn’t hard, it could have easily been seen as a nickname, called them Alexandra, their deadname; because AJ wasn’t a “proper woman’s name.”

“I don’t feel good…” AJ tried, and they had tried that every day of every week ever since Mrs Hanson had left.

“You feel fine, and I know you’re just pouting because you don’t want to go to English with the discriminatory long-term sub, but trust me, some people in life will be like that, and you just have to deal with them.”

“No mom,” AJ snapped back, “you don’t understand. You aren’t agender and you don’t have to deal with people who think that you don’t exist.”

10 minutes later, AJ was on the bus. “I hate my life. You know that, right, Mia?”

“Yes, I do,” Mia said, rolling her eyes. “You’ve said it every day for years, I’ve heard you. And I was there when you let your hatred swallow you and you almost ended that life of yours. But, you know, that was also one of the best days of my life…”

Mia was referring to the kiss that AJ didn’t remember. They didn’t remember anything from that day, it was extremely traumatizing and their brain pretty much erased it from memory.

“Why?” AJ asked incredulously. “I almost ended my life. And you, the love of my life, was there, watching. Why was that one of the best days of your life?”

“Because of something you did before you jumped… you probably don’t remember and it’s worthless now, but it was a show of teenage love.”

“What happened?” AJ questioned, their voice raising in question.

“You kissed me. My first kiss.” Mia blushed a ton, her face lighting up probably the reddest AJ had ever seen it, and they’d seen it pretty red.


TOTAL WORDS: 2068, but only 1715 of them were required

WRITING COMP ENTRY!!

This is titled Evacuation

A note: if you have something homophobic to say in regards to this, don't say it. Yes, Astra has gay dads, why does it concern you, this is a work of fiction. In addition, if you have anything negative to say, don't say it, please. Constructive criticism is, of course, always welcome, providing you aren't rude.


Astra Jones raced downstairs as soon as she heard The World Leader speaking over her family’s holo-comm system.

Astra bowed her head slightly. “Your Leadership? What pleasure do we owe to this surprise call?”

“Go get your father, quickly,” they instructed.

Astra nodded her head in response and rushed to the garage. “Father, The World Leader wishes to speak with you on the holo-comm in the den.”

His head perked up at this. “Of course, tell them I’ll be right there.”

But her father made it there before she did - his new teleportation device must finally be working.

Ever since she was younger, Astra had been told to never eavesdrop on anyone’s conversation; especially if it was an important call via the holo-comm, which didn’t stop her, it never had. Thus, she was found crouched at the base of the stairs, listening in on her father’s conversation. What she heard, however, shocked her. She had no idea there was a war and that had been going on for the past 100 years, and that the humans had just lost to the… Mages? Mages were just a fairy-tale legend from the before times; they didn’t exist, magic wasn’t real.

“Evacuate, Charles, please,” they pleaded to Astra’s father. “For Astra’s safety; she’s the one that must stay alive. She can’t know that she’s the one who can save us all.”

“Astra’s 14, what do you think she can do as a 14-year-old?! She’s not even old enough to fly a hover-transport.”

“I’m just telling you what the prophets said. Something’s different about her. Trust me, Charles.”

Astra’s father just slammed the “disconnect” button and stormed upstairs, in such a frenzy that he didn’t even notice Astra crouched there. Astra slowly stood up, but her dad noticed she’d been crouched there and wasn’t happy.

“Why would you eavesdrop?! For all you know, it could’ve been something important.” he screeched at her.

“Don’t tell me you didn’t hear it?” Astra incredulously asked. “I thought you’d listen to what your husband was talking to the leader of the world about - had it been that private, they would’ve called father’s holo-comm, not the one in the den. All they talked about was me… and how I’m so-called destined to save the world according to some illegal prophets.”

He just smiled, but it almost looked like a grimace. “You weren’t supposed to know until you were 18.”

“Well, I know and I’m not 18,” Astra twirled a lock of her stick-straight brown hair around her finger. “What are you going to do about that?”

“Evacuate you, and me, of course,” he smiled. “Your father won’t do it, says he doesn’t believe in magic, and certainly not a warning from some prophets that aren’t even supposed to exist. In fact, I would bet that he doesn’t believe that The World Leader got it from prophets. I would bet that he thinks that it’s a pile of lies.”

—

Astra stepped down from the hover-transport her dad had driven her and himself in. The “safe-house” appeared to be a small hut on a hill, but the year was 3028, so of course, it was more than it looked to be.

“This is very spacious, why don’t we live here all the time?” Astra asked in disbelief after she’d poked her head into the doorway.

“Because it’s completely off-grid, there’s no cell service here. Do you want to live with that all the time?” her dad chuckled as he unloaded stuff from the hover-transport. “Can you bring these inside? You should figure out who’s room is who’s pretty quickly.”

“There’s 100G cell service everywhere in the world,” Astra rolled her eyes, surely her dad was kidding. “We don’t live in 2020 where 5G was just coming out; we’re not back in the time of the United States of America.”

“There’s no service here, look for yourself,” he insisted.

Astra pulled out her iPhone 1020 and was shocked to discover that, yes, she had a signal but it was LTE, which she could’ve sworn had been gone since 2030 - nearly 1000 years ago. LTE was so slow, they’d done a simulation in Tech History class in 6th grade or so.

“Didn’t they get rid of the LTE towers in 2030?” Astra asked in disbelief. “Because I have an LTE signal.”

“You even have an LTE signal? I don’t even have a signal?” her dad asked, ignoring the fact that LTE towers should certainly not be around.

“A weak one, but yeah, I have an LTE signal.”

“RUN!” her dad, pretty randomly, yelled, trying to shove her into the house.

Astra turned around and screamed. A giant flying car was headed straight for their house so she did what her instincts told her to do. Fight. Her flight response had never existed. She splayed her arms out and the car just vanished.

“What. The. Heck.” each word was much longer than it needed to be, plus “heck” was a word that hadn’t been used since sometime in the 2100s. So why that was the first word that came out of her mouth was unbeknownst to her.

“Astra are you- oh. Yeah, I probably should’ve said something sooner.”

“You knew?!” Astra screamed at him. “Why didn’t you tell me?!”

———————–

885 words :}