WEEKLY #2 CHARACTER

Name: Ells
Age: 102
Species: Dwarf

Personality and Traits (200): Ells is strong and confident in themself. They believe that being a century old makes them better than others because they have more life experience, though much of it was spent in the same place. A lot of their confidence is actually a facade because they’re not fully sure of their strength. They tend to be logical and down to earth because they have experience dealing with real threats and they realize that there’s no time to just be throwing out ideas that could never work. They try to avoid doing things just for fun and in today’s world would probably be a target for plenty of “Loosen up!” laughs their direction. They prefer to work alone because they find that sometimes it’s pointless to try to trust someone else; this is connected to something that happened in their past. When it comes to situations where brawn is necessary they’re quite capable even though they’re often doubted by people for their height of 4’2. They have a temper that they are not afraid to let loose on anyone if something is messed up, especially when the people who made the mistakes are in positions of authority and should know better.

Wants, Hopes, and Strengths (202): If they could have it their way, Ells would live alone and underground in a stony area where they’re able to mine and build. They don’t have very much family and they were never close, but a part of them hopes that they could get a chance to reconcile or at least make sure their family apologizes for their toxicity. They want to get things done without questions asked and they’d like to just live their life. They’re really strong and good at lifting. They enjoy mining and finding precious metals, especially because those can be sold to humans at high prices. They’re very good at those things and will study stone on sight no matter what. They wish that they could just study and work with rocks but they have to do other things so that they can support themself. While they’re very strong both physically and mentally, they have very little agility and they’re more based on endurance and stamina if in a fight. They want to be taken seriously as a dwarf especially because most people disrespecting them are many years younger (considering that they’re over a century old!) They would really like to grow a few inches too.

Dislikes and Fears (107): Ells can’t stand people who challenge their authority. If they say they want to do something they want to do it and if they ask other people to get something done it’s final. As a dwarf, they are often looked down on or not taken seriously because they’re shorter than most people they work with. This annoys them to no end and they will be happy to fight anyone who ridicules them in that regard. They’re afraid of being incapable; not because they overvalue their strength, but because the moment they stop being able to do the heavy lifting or difficult hammering they’re useless as a dwarf.

character for weekly 2

Jay, 16, human, he/they

jay age 16 human he/they

Personality and Traits: Jay is unmotivated for most things, including school work. He doesn’t want to work towards a future that he’s unsure about, and he doesn’t see the point in doing tedious assignments when he could be learning things he actually enjoys. They do like learning about things and read a lot of books about the topics they’re interested in, but those aren’t the topics they’re learning about in school. He doesn’t enjoy planning too far ahead either - he knows that he’ll be forced to make decisions that will impact him for life, and he doesn’t want that. They figure that they’ll make those choices when they need to, and until then, they’ll keep working towards what they’re interested in.
Jay also cares a lot about those around them. They’re often willing to pay attention to things that they’re not interested in if it will help their friends, and they’re very attentive to what their friends say. He participates in a lot of clubs dedicated to helping people, and wants to help people become interested in the topics that he is interested in. Helping others is one of the things that he manages to dedicate time to without becoming distracted with reading a book. They make a point to be in tune with their family’s emotions, and try to be there for them.

Wants, Hopes, and Strengths: Jay’s main goal in life is to get to study something he’s interested in with other people interested in it. He doesn’t get to do that at school because his interests (namely geology, but also a few other topics) aren’t taught in classes. They enjoy talking about the topics they’re interested in with others who are also interested in it. He’s not sure how he wants to get there yet - Does he want to go to college? Or simply find friends who are interested in the topic in another way? - much less what he would want to do to get to any possible option, but he does know that this is what would make him happy. He thinks he would be good at any job involving this - he loves talking about his interests and he’s good at leading discussions about them.
They’re also good at collecting information - they take notes when reading, and memorize a lot of the things they read so that they can recall them later in a discussion. They have a fantastic memory. This comes in very handy in school - even though they don’t particularly enjoy it, they usually don’t have a hard time with keeping up.

Dislikes and Fears: They really do not like school. They hate that they have to spend time learning about things they’re not interested in. They would rather spend that time on learning about things they think are useful or interesting. They’ve gotten used to not being able to do that, but it still annoys them.
He is scared that school, and someday work, is going to get in the way of him learning about the things he wants to learn about. He feels like those are a waste of time, but he knows he will have to prioritize them at some point. Not being able to spend time on his interests might also separate him and his friends, so he’s scared about that as well.

Cabin Wars!
500 words in verse

A tiny seed falls to the ground
And falls asleep, safe and sound
Within the warm embrace
Of Mother Earth.
Someday it'll face
A cruel test of worth.
But for now it slumbers on and on
Without care for the time that's gone.
One day, you'll see, it'll grow up tall
Above the soil below
And its leaves will fall
Or fly to where the river flows.

The years will go just as they come,
Each one a battle that has been won
By the seed as it pushes through
The trials of life.
Just as strong as me or you;
Just as forced to deal with strife.
But what is that, if not a chance
To give the seed the choice to dance
Rather than to run away
From each and every fear
Each and every day?
Soon those days become a year

And the seed is a seed no more.
It has faced its trials and waged its war
On the harsh truth of nature.
We all know that truth hurts,
But every truth, minor or major
Merely lives on the outskirts
Of unfairness.
The plant gains awareness
Of its surroundings, and its roots
Deep in the soil.
Someday it'll bear fruits
And those fruits will spoil.

Such is the truth of life itself.
At least acceptance can be wealth.
For to be rich in knowledge
Or understanding
Is to be build a college
Of pure demanding
Of the luxury of truth.
Whereby no lie will soothe
The hurt and the pain
That accompanies us in this world.
But at least we shall gain
A peace that can be hurled

From one person to another
And from sister to brother.
For to pass it on simply is not enough.
To try and be gentle
Instead of truthful and rough
Is to be experimental
With the outcome.
And when all is said and done
You realise that being accepting
Must come from within
Only then does reflecting
Those thoughts come in.

The plant now barely resembles a tree
But at least now it feels more free.
Nonetheless it continues to grow
Higher than before
And as it does the more it'll know
About the wage of death and war.
The seasons prove a challenge
And sometimes the tree will scavenge
For the nutrients it needs.
Some seasons are kind
And provides that on which it feeds.
Others prove a fiend,

Set on making life hard.
They give little regard
To the tree, and the challenges it's faced;
Or the hardships along the way.
But those things cannot be traced
For just as night follows day
Without a sound,
The smallest trace cannot be found.
Even so, life goes on
And the tree starts to grow tall
There are many battles it's won
As there are many that caused it to fall.

But it continues to grow, standing proud
With its roots firmly in the ground.
When the wind rustles, you hear a sound
Yet only the smallest trace can be found.

A trace of what, you ask?
To discover that is your task.


514 words

~March 12th~
Proof for Cabin Wars Post
Word count: 1016
Main thread: https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/582424/?page=12#post-6081187
Extra challenge?: Yes, two characters

“You could say that.”
“It’s nice to finally meet you in person.” I said.
He grinned. “It’s very nice to meet you as well.”
He passed me a plate of what looked like turkey legs, and I took one politely.
Mauro then asked me. “You have bionic hands, what’s the story there?”
I rolled my eyes and refused to answer.
“Well, not much of a talker, aren’t you?”
“Unless I have vital information apparently.” I replied.
Mauro chuckled. “I guess you could say that.” He grabbed a plate of fruit and passed it over to me.
I grabbed a strawberry off of it and a few grapes.
He looked at me and raised an eyebrow. “You don’t seem very hungry.”
“Not really.” I said, resolving in myself to never say that I was starving.
“Are you sure? Were you fed well in prison?”
“I guess.” I replied, taking a bite of the turkey leg.
“What about when you were a senator?”
“I don’t talk about that time, Mauro.”
“Ah, alright. I will comply.”
“You should.” I whispered, popping a few grapes into my mouth.
“Did you say something?” He looked at me again.
“Nothing.” I said, my eyes roaming to my plate.
Mauro sighed. “Are you sure you’re alright? Are you a bit shaken, perhaps, or more tired? I’m willing to fulfill your needs, Udaya. Whatever you ask of in my court will be given to you.”
“I don’t need anything right now besides perhaps a few moments to think to myself.” I half snapped-half mumbled.
“Ah, alright. Sorry to intrude.” He assumed a cold, regal air and turned away from me, grabbing a piece of toasted bread.

The feast, thankfully, was over soon after that. Mauro himself showed me to my room and bid me a good night. Truth be told, I was extremely tired and was still quite hungry. I walked into a little pod shaped room, slowly looking around myself for any threats. There were none and I sat down on the beautiful, ornate bedspread. The bed was gigantic, and the lace on the sheets was done by skilled hands. The pod was much bigger on the inside than the inside. There, on the ceiling, I saw three beads that glowed three different colors to cast down a beautiful glow. I had one of these in my old room.
I snapped my fingers thrice and the orbs glowed a sage green, my favorite color. The light bathed the room, and I felt a lot more relaxed. Maybe I could actually live here.
I could survive.

I heard a knock at the pod’s door in the morning. I looked at the clock in the corner of the room. 9:19am. I got up and got dressed in some of the clothes that were inside the drawers on the other side of the room. I only had three sets of casual clothes, just different colors of tunics and pants that match up perfectly. Everything else was just a bunch of fancy dresses. To be honest, however, they were quite pretty and I had to admit that I would love to wear them some other day. I picked the dark blush pink tunic and paired it with the same color pants. They were soft, flexible and quite comfortable.
I walked to the door and opened it. Mauro stood in front of me. His dark brown hair was left down, curly and slightly unkempt. He wore casual clothes as well. However, his tunic was embroidered with ornate designs and his outfit was a coal gray pallet. He grinned at me.
“Good morning. How did you sleep?” He asked.
I shrugged. “I sleep well.”

It was the best sleep of my life.

Mauro smiled. “Great. Would you please come with me?”
I nodded and followed him. I wondered where he was taking me.

I followed the Remen king through twisting halls, walking past stone sculptures and skillful paintings.
Mauro led me to what looked like the throne room. He walked towards the throne, but instead of sitting on it, he sat at the base of it. He looked at me and his eyes seemed to be asking me to sit. I sat on a lower step and Mauro began to talk.
“You’re probably wondering why we saved you.”
I nodded my head, hoping that I could get some answers.
“Well…” He began. “We came in primarily to save you, but…”
“Oh come on, just talk already.” I snapped. I didn’t care if he was king.
Mauro grinned. “I like the way you hold yourself, Udaya. I’m extremely grateful for what you’ve done for my nation. Seriously, it means a lot. We came in knowing we could save you, but we also came in to try to… get rid of someone, if you understand what you mean.”
I nodded again.
“Well, we were not successful in completing the other mission, but we were able to obtain you.”
I raised an eyebrow. “I sound like a valuable artifact.”
Mauro laughed nervously. “That’s not what I mean. I’m saying that you’re a valuable asset to us in the war.”
“That’s literally the same thing.” I said, frowning.
Mauro chuckled and shook his head. “It’s not. I was hoping to promote you as an official in my government. That’s the main purpose of why I’m talking to you now. What do you think of that?”
I pondered it, then I answered. “Well, I’ve already held a government position before, so it shouldn’t be too difficult.”
Mauro grinned. “Great! I can appoint you to a position as soon as possible.”
He paused and said. “On a side note, do you happen to have any other crucial information that could help us?”
“I’ll have to think.” I replied.
“Well, let me know if you think of anything.”
“I will.” I said. I cracked a smile and said. “I would like to go get some food now, do you know where I can get some?”
“The Common should have breakfast.” Mauro said.
I nodded, stood up and left. Here’s hoping this was a good idea.

PART TWO OF THE WEEKLY

Character Name: Brooklyn Mills
Character Age: 17
Character Species: Human

Personality and Traits:
Brooklyn is a naturally calm person for the most part, although she does have a bit of a perfectionist personality to her. She works well with children, and loves spending time with them. She has a very maternal-like instinct. Brooklyn also likes to have things in order. She tries to be patient with others when they are having an argument or a discussion, but sometimes she has a bit of a problem with that, especially when the people she is trying to be patient with don’t let her add anything to the conversation. She loves listening to music, and plays an instrument of her own. She also really loves singing, though she’s very shy about both her voice and about playing her instrument, so she doesn’t like to show other people that she plays music or sings. Brooklyn is a loyal friend, and she will always be there to listen to anybody who needs to talk, and she’s always willing to give the best advice that she possibly can based on the situation that the person is going through. It is very hard for Brooklyn to ask for help, she thinks that she should be able to handle everything that she goes through all by herself, without having to talk to anybody else about any of her problems, which causes more problems in itself.

Wants, Hopes and Strengths:
One thing that Brooklyn really wants to have in her life, is to find a good partner that she loves and who loves her, who will treat her well. She wants to be able to be a good mother to her children that she’ll have at some point in her future. She hopes to be able to have at least two children sometime in the future, and she hopes that she’ll be able to be the best mother that she can be for those kids. Those are some of her biggest wants and dreams for her future, and she really hopes that she will be able to get them in her life sometime. Brooklyn hopes that her life will be stable and normal in the future, she doesn’t really want anything remarkable to happen because she knows that might lead to problems later on in life, and that doesn’t help with her hope for a stable future, she doesn’t want anything too big to happen. She just wants to have a stable life with a happy family with nothing big, or eventful happening that might change that. Brooklyn is very good at working on a set project, and finishing it quickly, however sometimes she piles too much on her plate and stresses herself out a whole lot, especially considering everything about her school life.

Dislikes and Fears:
Brooklyn can’t stand people who are unorganized or who don’t plan anything. She’s also much of a perfectionist and so when people do something that she thinks wasn’t something someone had given one hundred percent on, it really annoys her. She also hates working on group projects in school because she is such a perfectionist and she really hates how most of her classmates procrastinate on all the projects they have to work on together. Most of the time, she considers just doing the entire thing by herself, though usually her parents or friends talk her out of it. One of Brooklyn’s biggest fears was the fear of failing, or having her grades drop, because she fears that people will think she’s stup!d or a burden, and that they won’t like her anymore.

setting for weekly 2

The story will happen at a bridge that crosses over a canyon. The bridge is cobalt blue, and the canyon is so deep that you can’t see the bottom. Cars and pedestrians can cross over the canyon here, but the bridge is about three miles long and has a terrifying view into the canyon, so most people don’t walk over it. The story starts in the middle of the bridge. It’s winter, but the canyon is in a place with a similar climate to central California so there isn’t any exciting weather like snow or rain; it’s just cold and windy. It takes place in 2018. There are a few clouds in the sky, but the sun is shining. It is not warm though. It feels like you should be able to get by with just a light sweater, but if you try to do that, you will probably be cold.
The bridge has tall pillars on the sides that reach up far above a human’s head when they walk on the bridge. It is hard to imagine how this bridge was built, given how deep the canyon is and how tall it is even if you only count the parts above the edge of the canyon. On one end of the bridge is a redwood forest and on the other side is a beach, and then the ocean. You can smell the salty ocean air even from the center of the bridge and it is foggy. You can’t see the horizon through it. The bridge is slippery from the fog too. The bridge is mostly sleek, but there are a few parts that shake in the wind, just a bit, as you cross over. There are handrails that most people crossing the bridge on foot hold onto tightly, and at those parts, they cling to them with both hands. Despite the nauseating shaking, deaths are extremely rare. There are nets below the bridge to catch people who do happen to fall so they don’t fall thousands of feet into the canyon, but they rarely see any use. They’re just a precaution, and they help people feel more comfortable crossing the bridge on rainy days especially. Rain is not unheard of, but it’s usually just foggy. There are signs along the bridge reminding people to stop and steady themselves if they feel nauseous and informing them of the safety precautions.

CABIN WARS 3/12
COMPLETED
WORD COUNT: 1007
PROMPT: Only two people
Redirect back to main page
(Continued from the story I wrote for Horror!)

My eyebrows raise, intrigued.

I'm in no rush to reach the end of the seemingly endless corridor, but my curiosity still burns bright.

I approach the book. It's- like everything else in this place -new. Not new in the sense that It could have been made yesterday, but new in the sense that it was touched. No dust at all.

“Who came here and touched it?” I ask wisp.

No reply. What was I expecting? The creature had been unresponsive for any questions about this place, so I would have to find them myself.

Upon closer examination, the book was brilliant blue with gold corners. Or, steel with gold painted on it, for reinforcement.

I let out a huff of frustration. The title was encrypted in code. The same runes on the walls. It was like graffiti. Could the runes be magic that kept everything clean? I did not know but wished I did.

Behind the table is wall full of bookshelves, it's not a very big study, but it sure is open.

The books are not color coordinated; i'm sure they're arranged by title or importance, but I can't bide my time in this place learning a whole new language.

An intrusive thought enters my mind. Who am I? What's my name? What do I look like. There's a sort of strange realization I have at that moment. Back at the reflective water, I didn't even see myself.

I glance down at my hands, which, thankfully are real. They're the color of caramel, whatever that is. I feel my hair. It's tied in a high pony tail, secured by a black hair tie. My hair is a shade of dark brown, and it's slightly curled.

I'm wearing an easy to run in, thin, pale green pair of hiking shorts. My top is dark gray and has a pocket on it. I look like I should be in the wild, not exploring a monster of a mansion. My clothes seem much too dreary for the likes of this world. For a moment, I even feel self conscious.

Immediately the feeling is gone.

“Wisp, who am I?” I ask philosophically.

Not a sound.

“Are you mute?” I ask half as a joke, half as a question.

“No. hehe.” It responds, the first words it has said in an hour now.

“Can you play me a song? This place is quiet for how much work was put into it.”

“Ok. Wisp will play songs. hehe.”

The curious floating blue orb spun around me, dipping up and down.

The wisp doesn't even have eyes.

It plays a tune that i've never heard before, not that i've even heard much in this place to begin with. It sounds like a tinkling noise, like the wisp is playing an instrument, but as I look over, it's as if the wisp itself is a jukebox. The sound is one hundred percent coming from there, but it's quite unnoticeable.

I finally open the book, wondering why I didn't do it earlier.

Ah, yes. Runes. You've got to be kidding me! How come these masters of genius have colossal castles, but not runes in a different language. An understandable one!

Although it would make sense if the book was important and it was runes for that reason…

I scope the rest of the books, they all have runes on their spines. I groan like the annoyance that I am. No one's here to correct my manners, I guess.

My legs are very sore. I pull out the chair behind the desk, cringing as it makes a noise similar to nails on a chalkboard.

What is a chalkboard?

What are nails?

I sit down and flop on the table, wondering if I should just rip all of these stupid books. It would be a waste and I would probably lose potentially valuable information, but at least I would be a little less delusional.

While I'm flopped over the table, my stomach hits something hard jutting out. It's a doorknob. I open the drawer with one ear covered because of that stupid scratching noise, and it doesn't help dull that one bit.

There's a book inside. No, a journal. It's smaller than most of the books, and has an intricately woven pattern on the front. The pattern is recognizably the castle itself, and english words stitched on the front. They read:

Callomel.

I infer that it must be the name of the place.

Wait. It could also be the name of the person who owns the journal? I flip open to the first page. It's blank.

I curse silently under my breath and stuff it in my satchel. This is the only thing in the whole area with something that kind of screams “Human.” and I'm still determined to find out what it is.

Now I'm running. In the middle of the corridor is a grand staircase, complete with a red velvet carpet. I make another ponder on how they even get these materials in the first place.

The stairs take a sudden curve, going in both directions, leading to the same area.

How many floors does this hunk of crystal have???

More grand windows are scattered through the walls. They're exact replicas of the ones below. The floor is similar to the crystals I saw outside of the castle, but it looks more refined link it was touched by a blacksmith.

Do they have blacksmiths in this world?

Why the heck am I asking so many questions to myself that I know that I can't answer because it's myself-

I all of a sudden have an urge to outrun wisp. An experiment of sorts. I take a mad dash out of the stairs, turning my head back every few seconds to see if it follows. It does.

Maybe it's attached to me? That would explain why it's always following me around. It's a fair conclusion to make, I decide to myself.

I continue to run, not for the experiment, but just because I can. My energy must have really picked up since sitting in the chair, come to think of it.

I turn the corner, and there's a new room.

I scream.

doing this out of order but oh well
march 9-16 weekly
part three: setting
words: 1111

The story will take place in a collection of small villages in a seemingly-deserted wasteland with magical properties. These villages are protected from the magical effects of the wasteland by a circle of runes that surrounds each village. Every person in the villages knows that the runic circles were a gift from some sort of god or powerful mage that was unaffected by the effects, and also knows that if the circle is disrupted the spell will no longer be of any help to them. There are certain families that basically run the villages, having a larger-than-average amount of control over one or two of the following things: protection trinkets, buildings, weapons, farms, stores, miners, or the government. Protection trinkets are small items bestowed with a small amount of power similar to that of the spells that surround and protect the villages. While the large ones can protect the target for hundreds of centuries, the small ones only last for a day or two and need the same amount of time. Protection trinkets are typically used for building new villages, and due to the cooldown period builders have to stagger turns outside of the village. As the circles of runes only surround the village, whenever the village’s population starts to rise above its capacity the village becomes in need of both protection trinkets and workers to copy down the circles or build the new buildings. The families all own the largest or best buildings in the village, and depending on who wants to move to the new one there will be a varying amount of empty buildings in a village at all times. These villages are quickly bought up by families looking to secure a future retirement home better than their current one, vendors seeking a higher-quality booth or store, the small number of mages who want a larger home for cheaper cost, and blacksmiths who need more room. On occasion, while building a village, the workers may be attacked by humanoid monsters that were once humans that stayed outside without protection for too long. To help the workers fight off these creatures, they are supplied with weapons that vary from crossbows to axes depending on the worker’s skill set and abilities. Each village has at least two farms that are the main food producers, and the average villager’s diet is more balanced than expected for a village in a magical wasteland. The currency of the villages is known as “risx” and is pronounced like “risks” since the system of risx was initially created as a currency with more value for the workers who risk their lives outside of the village to build the future of the world. Now, everyone in the villages uses it and the old system of coins has been discontinued, but the tradition of paying people whose jobs are to go outside more risx is still continuing. Linguistics experts are at loggerheads as to whether risx can be used as plural and singular or just one, but nobody really cares that much because nobody has invented a singular term for risx yet. One risx is small, metallic, and shaped like a v-shaped block that snaps together with other risx to make a line. One risx is typically worth two thousand-page books, though some villages may suffer from inflation more than others and as such what one risx can get you typically ranges from one thousand-page book to five. What one risx can get you is often determined by the government of the village. The government of the story’s setting depends on which village you are in, but most villages are ruled by a council of representatives. These representatives are elected based on a vote taken by those with the job that the representative will be representing. For example, the miners will vote on which miner they want to represent them and so on and so forth. The councils are reelected once every three months, though for those three months the representatives will be the most well-known inhabitant of the village they represent. Some councils have cross-village meetings that are typically held once a month to keep the villages connected to each other and aware of problems that other villages may be having. The magical wasteland is said to be created by a mage who wanted to wipe out an invading nation but used the wrong ratio of ingredients and so destroyed the whole world. Those who think this also believe that there is a sea somewhere to the north on the planet- too far north to reach with a protection trinket- that houses the only city that survived the apocalypse and was protected by the seas. They call that city the “Last History Storage” and believe that it is the key to saving the world and/or returning it back to what it was before. Those who believe in the “Last History Storage” always move to the northmost village when a new village is built, and if they got a representative onto the council of that village would push for more northward expansion in the belief that doing so would get them closer to the last surviving city. The city is rumored to be an island with lush green forests and mountains taller than any that remain. According to legend, the people there have no fear of magic and are immune to its effects. The believers want to dissect or at least study the people in the “Last History Bank” and figure out how they are different from the others, but they don’t have enough support in the villages to accomplish their goal. While the sky is smothered in clouds, the villagers can tell the time by looking to the south. When it is day, a magical sandstorm appears just south of the southmost village, discouraging southern expansion. While it is night, the sandstorm settles down. Some other events are the yearly “golden rain”- a day once a year when the clouds part and the sky seems to rain sunlight. Everyone in the villages can see the golden rain, and the day when there are no clouds is host to many festivals. For many villagers, the golden rain symbolizes the hope that they can one day get the planet back to how it was before the magical accident. After the festivities are over, the village goes back to being quiet and “normal”. During the “golden rain”, all building projects and expeditions are delayed, as are schools, which all take the day of the “golden rain” off in order to allow students and teachers alike to celebrate and participate in whichever festivals the students plan on going to.

premise for weekly 2

Your character is seeing things. Specifically butterflies. The butterflies of all shapes, sizes, and colors land on all their belongings, their home, and even on their arms. But when they go to brush them off, they disappear. When they go to the library, they dig through dusty, forgotten shelves in the back. They find a book that informs them of a curse that causes a person to see butterflies everywhere. The book is mostly falling apart and several pages are missing, but they learn that they must journey to find a wizard who can cure the curse. However, your character decides that there has to be a simpler way to cure it. They go to talk to their friend and bring them the book. The friend gives them advice about what to do if they are not going to find a wizard, and then they set off on a quest together.

PART THREE OF THE WEEKLY

The story will take place in a bustling urban, highly populated city somewhere in the United States of America, at least, that’s what it used to be. But then the Dark Days fell upon the United States, and now this place is dilapidated and mostly crumbling and essentially falling apart. Most of the stores all around the city had been raided and ransacked by scavengers in the early days of the apocalypse, so there’s nearly nothing left in any of the stores.
People are living in whatever buildings they can find that are safe enough to live in, this is somewhat difficult, as a lot of the once towering, impressive buildings are now crumbling and dangerous to enter. Society is trying to rebuild itself and go back to normal, but it’s a slow process that is going to take a very long time.
This city is where most people who are still left in the United States gravitate to, because there are so many other people there and people really wanted to have a community that they could join, or at least another group of people that they could grow into a community like the one they had in the past before the apocalypse. People were desperate for community, because that’s something people can’t really live without. Mostly, there are people whose families are either d3ad from the destruction of the US, or they were separated from their family either during the destruction or on their way to the city. There are very few families who are still together when they arrive, however there are some people who have found members of their family after they arrived if their family arrived before them.
Surprisingly, the majority of people in the city are actually children under the age of 18, and there are only a handful of adults who made it to the city. Some people think it’s because of the nature of the apocalypse, something that people think might be easier for children to survive than adults. Most of these children arrive at the city alone, though some arrive with their parents or siblings. And even some that arrive with other random children they found along the way to the city.
The first thing that the society is trying to focus on is reopening schools for the remaining children of the area, so that the future generations of the city will understand the world around them, what had happened in the past, and what they could do to make sure that it never ever happened again. The story starts on the first day of when schools for high school students are starting to reopen. Schools for middle and high school students had opened in the weeks prior. The reason that the high school was opening after the middle and elementary schools was because the people who were trying to open it were having trouble finding a building that was large enough to hold all the kids who were the right age for high schools, there were a lot of them.

3/12/22 - Beware the Cookiepocalypse!
Every year, in late February or early March, comes the Cookiepocalypse. Maybe you’re one of the lucky ones, who doesn’t have to deal with such a glorious nightmare. Maybe you, like me, are in the thick of it right now, as we speak. I, for one, have dealt with this most curious and exciting occurrence every year since I turned six. The Cookiepocalypse is a built-in hazard if you’re a Girl Scout, a hazard that is only exacerbated if your mother is a Girl Scout leader. I’m one of the lucky ones - I’m both!
Cookiepocalypse starts like all great things in life do: With a U-haul trailer. Jennifer, the bona fide Cookie Mom, rents a U-haul trailer and goes to the cookie pick up location. She takes my mom, who is her certified helper in all these endeavors, with her. Possibly for moral support. They take the cookies to Jennifer’s house and begin to sort.
You may not know the intricacies of Girl Scout Cookies. That is all fine and good, I will explain it to you.
In January and early February, the cookies are ordered. This is done door-to-door, with a paper order form, and online, with a website. Early March, the cookies are ready for pick up. Girl Scout cookies come in boxes, and the boxes are in cases. Twelve boxes to a case, five dollars a box. It makes sense when you think about it. Sort of.
My mom takes the cases that my sister (a veritable cookie-selling machine) and I sold, stacks them up in her navy-blue minivan, and drives home. It’s my sister’s, my dad’s, and my job to take the cookies from her car and move them to our living room. We carry two cases at a time.
Once in the living room, the Cookiepocalypse can truly begin.
We organize the cookie cases by which type they are: Thin Mints, Samoas, Do-Si-Dos, Tagalongs, Toffee-Tastics, Lemon-Ups, Adventurefuls, Girl Scout S’Mores, and Trefoils. Then, we get packing.
A few weeks ago, my mom took the time to order Girl Scout Cookie order cards off Etsy. We use the order forms and printed spreadsheets from the website to fill out the cards: The buyer’s name, how many cookies they bought and which kind, how much money they owe, and if they donated any to the local food pantry. Then, we staple each cardstock order card to its own white paper bag. The size of the paper bag depends on how many cookies were ordered - the smallest bag is for two boxes or lower, the next bag is three to six boxes, the biggest is six to nine. Orders of ten boxes and above just go in an empty case; it’s easier that way.
After the boxes are stapled, we begin the mad rush of putting the correct boxes in each bag. Our living room floor is taken over by a Cookiepocalyptic wasteland of bags, damaged boxes that we set aside (don’t give damaged products to your customers), and empty cases. The empty cases are in a jumbled heap in the corner, to deal with later. We normally use our leftover cases three ways: Some go to holding large orders, most go to the animal shelter to make litter boxes for cats, and a lucky few go to my destructive dog.
We sort and sort until my knees and back ache from sitting on the carpet, standing up to get more cookies, bending down to pick them up, and sitting again. Repeat a few thousand times and you have a very tired teenager. My sister works on writing thank you letters to those who donated cookies or had them shipped directly, so once I’ve finished, I help load her boxes.
There’s still much more work to be done. But to avoid early arthritis from cookie-lifting, I take a break, get some water, and record my story. Hopefully it will prevent the same Cookiepocalypse from happening to future Girl Scouts like me.
Word count: 663
New total: 12215

3/12/22 - Verse writing for cabin wars:
(fyi the hyphens indicate different poems)
-
Outside the snow
Blows and howls
I don’t know
How long it’ll last
We cannot go
I cannot stay here
The future’s coming
The past is past

I try to remember
I want to forget
The snowy weather
Makes memories wet
What’s gone is gone
I must go on
I cannot stay here
For very long

But if I go?
What happens then?
Trials? Sadness?
A bitter end?
I’ll face my fears
Forge through this winter
And maybe, someday,
I’ll meet a friend

Don’t know where I’m going
Forgotten where I’ve been
But somewhere
Someday
I’ll be home again
-

Who are you?
How are you?
Where did you go?
I’ve lost my way
In this great snow
I tumble and twirl
Looking for home
No place to go
So longer I roam

I search and I search
But can’t find what I seek
The night is coming
The sunset a streak
Now quickly! Quickly!
Time is running out
No time for tears
Or worries, or doubt

If you’re going to come
If you don’t want to stay
You must understand
That I don’t know the way
We’re all at the mercy
Of the sun and the rain
But we’ll find our place
All just the same
-
The sky is blue
Your eyes are green
Stand out in a crowd
You can’t be seen
The time is now
If you want to escape
But hurry!
Move quickly!
Or you’ll meet your fate

I long for the days
When things could come easy
It was warm or cool
Not boiling or freezing
But those days are gone
There’s no looking back
Just a man on the run
With a load on his back
-
Sometimes
At the end of the day
I wonder, what happens
When we all go away?
Is there some great purpose?
Or something to miss?
Or are we just left
In the great abyss?

Quite depressing,
If I do say so myself
I have a bad habit
That I need to shelve
Of bringing others down
With my wondrous musings
About losing and winning
And winning and losing

But why should they care
What I do, what I say?
In the grand scheme of things
It doesn’t matter, anyway.
We live our small lives
And die lonely deaths
And repeat a few times
Is there ever an end?
-
I sit here
And wait
Waiting forever
Waiting for what?
Waiting for never?
They say good things in life
Come to the ones who wait
But I’ve waited so long
And so far nothing great…

Has happened.
Nope, nothing
Not one measly sign
That someone is watching
Someone who’s benign
And kind, or benevolent
Whatever they say,
They don’t seem to care
That I’ve waited all day

If I sit here and stare
Maybe something will come?
Something good, something grand
Even something hum-drum
Something, anything
Get me out of this state
This stasis, this longing
Instead I’ll just wait
-
Too calm.
Too quiet.
A storm must be coming.
You can smell in the air
You can hear a low drumming
Whatever it is
You must be prepared.
You can’t be trembling
You can’t be scared.
Be ready, always ready
For whatever happens next.
This calm, simple quiet
Must turn to complex
Word count: 541
New total: 13416

PART FOUR

Your character is woken up in the middle of the night by their cell phone loudly beeping (Similar to the sound that phones make in the United States when an Amber Alert is being sent out if you know what that is), and when they pick it up to see what’s going on they find three words running across their screen over and over and over again, along with the alarm blaring. The three words are “You should run.” There is nothing else. No other words, no context, no nothing. Your character is extremely confused and rightly terrified because they have no idea what is going on. As soon as they see the message, the alarm stops and their phone goes back to normal. They start to receive messages from their friends saying that they had also gotten alarms with the same message. Your character and their friends then receive emails directing them to a spot in a local area, saying that if they don’t reach that spot within thirty minutes, there will be consequences. The characters don’t know this, but if they follow the instructions they will get a new set of instructions to another place even further from home, again and again. Your character must now try and figure out what’s happening and how to escape the cycle of these messages and instructions.

ʚ cabin wars writing ɞ
go back to my main post
1556 words:

How Royale High's players and community could become more popular
128 words

Royale high is a pretty popular game on the platform, ROBLOX. But there is many different and varying ways to how it could become even more popular. Perhaps, it could even become more popular than the infamous Adopt me! and Brookhaven. Here are several different ways and strategies that Royale High developers and creators could and should use to their advantage to make Royale High more popular that they don't already use to their advantage.

Accepting more concepts.
Many social media platforms have Royale High communities. For example, the Royale High Twitter Community, “RHSC”, is very large. Many Royale High fans and players alike post concepts, which are either modeled online in a platform like Blender or the ROBLOX Studio, or posted in different ways. Drawing concepts are popular, whether they're digital art or traditional art that was posted in a photo taken of it. There are also people on Twitter that post real life clothing items and accessories and suggest them to Royale High developers to recreate them and upload them to the game. There is definitely plenty of these to go around. There are also new waves of concepts every season, and on the off season. Players come up with set ideas, item ideas, hair patterns, clothing patterns, clothing designs, faces, custom faces, new updates and new hairs. Royale High of course already accepts hair designs and clothing patterns frequently enough, every season to be even more exact, as well as hairs, faces, and custom faces. Every now and then a set idea or item concepts or even hair concepts are modeled online and brought into the game. The concept creators are always credited for their designs when they are uploaded in the game, so bravo to Royale High for doing that! But, for the majority, Royale High has its developers uploading, creating and designing new sets, items and updates. Even when beautiful concepts that were worked on for hours by people of the Royale High concept creating community are posted constantly. Many people love these concepts and wish for them to be added to the game. Halo concepts can get very popular though of late they have not been added to the game. Royale High needs to accept more concepts from their community. This would grow the popularity of the game by an increased amount, because Royale High would be adding updates and items that the players actually wanted.

More exciting things to do for long term players.
Royale High does usually add frequent holiday updates. But, these updates usually come with reused things from previous years' updates. The new Dewdrop showers update has no new items; all of them are from previous year updates. This leaves the pro players that have been playing for quite a while now, just plainly bored. They have nothing to do. Especially since now a lot of diamond spots have been removed from the map. This leaves farmers that used to have a consistent technique with not much to do. These updates may be interesting to newer players but not at all to older players. Royale High old players keep quitting, finding the game even more boring each day.

2: A welcoming house.
1,028 words
(a continuation of this story)
But to Lacy's surprise, he didn't. He walked up the stairs and gestured for her to follow. She followed him up and they talked along the way.
“So where are you from? And why were you out there?”
Lacy gulped. She didn't like lying but she knew she couldn't tell the truth. She'd be out in the dust again sooner than she could actually say the word dust.
“Oh, it's okay, I get it.” He nodded. “Did you run away?”
Lacy was surprised at him thinking she ran away, wondering if she looked like someone who would do that. She quickly masked it, being thankful that he hadn't seen her surprised expression because he had gotten to the top of the stairwell.
“Well, heres your room.”
“Dinner in ten minutes!” Elizabeth's voice called from downstairs.
“Oh, and theres the restroom.” Lucas gestured to a room with an open door.
“Thank you.” Lacy said.
“See you down in ten, Lana.” He said, and walked down the stairs.
She shook her head at him calling her “Lana”, and walked toward the bathroom. She decided it was probably for the best that she got ready for dinner.
She walked into the bathroom and found a hair brush. She combed out her hair, noting that it didn't look too bad. She felt a pang of homesickness and worry for her brother. She washed her hands and hurried down the stairs for dinner. To her surprise, at the dinner table was six people. The two younger kids she had seen playing in the room she had passed by earlier, Lucas, Elizabeth, her husband that had answered the door, and another girl that must have been Lucas's and the younger kids' sister. She was a bit older than them, about fifteen or sixteen, was what Lacy estimated.
She quickly spotted an open seat and sat down, next to the other girl. The ate more bread similar to that of the loaf she had eaten earlier. Then they passed around bowls of stew. It had vegetables in it that Lacy had never seen before, but they didn't look odd to Lacy's hungry stomach. Elizabeth's cooking was no doubt delicious and it of course tasted even more tasty to a hungry stomach.
“Already done?” Lucas joked and laughed.
Lacy looked excitedly to the second course. It was potatoes and green beans. At least something she recognized from her home. Or at least, she though.
“You enjoying the golden sparkle roots and and green markers?” Lucas asked her.
Lacy was drinking water and almost spit it out.
“The what?” She asked, very much confused.
Lucas looked like she had asked the most obvious question in the world.
“Oh Lucas, give her a break. She's not from around here.” The older girl said, as she took a sip of her water
“Wait, what did you call it?” Lacy asked, taking a second glance at her “potatoes” and “green beans”.
“Well, that over there is golden sparkle root,” Lucas informed her, pointing to what looked like potatoes, “And that, over there, is green markers.” He said, talking about the “green beans”.
Lacy tilted her head a bit. Green beans were known as green markers here? And potatoes were known around here as golden sparkle root? That name struck more confusion across her mind than the other one. She pushed her plate away, polite enough to not upset Elizabeth.
Suddenly the door was struck open by a strong wind and dust was blowing in as a figure stood in the dust storm. All the wind entered the house and everything went everywhere. Lacy was somehow already at the door; she didn't remember even getting there. She found the courage to walk straight up to the door frame and announce to the figure in the dark, “What do you want.” It was more of a statement than a question, and her confidence shined like a burning star in a sea of darkness. The family that lived in the house was shocked and her quick defensive stance. She was not going to let whatever magical bad luck she was having infect the lives of these good people that had taken her in.
“Guys, go upstairs,” Lacy instructed, without turning her face around from the figure in the darkness. Elizabeth and her husband quickly hurried all their children upstairs.
It had only darkened since she came in, and the land outside looked even more scary in the dark and with no light to expose it, and what hid in it, behind the rocks and leafless bushes.
The figure started walking toward her. She was frozen; her eyes couldn't take in what was going on fast enough. Then, a potted plant that looked oddly strange to Lacy's eye dropped down from the sky above. Lacy just stared at what happened in shock. When the potted plant made contact with the shadowy figure, it flattened it like paper. The weirdest thing was, the pot that the plant was in didn't crack. It just stayed on the ground, upright, plant undamaged and the figure was gone.
She peeked outside the front door and looked up, surprised to see not a hole in the sky, (she had seen to many things that day to be surprised anymore) but the older girl was there, peeking out of a window that must have been from an upstairs room. She looked like she was just as surprised as Lacy, and Lacy thought she must have thrown the pot herself.
“Sorry,” The girl said nervously.
“I was trying to help-” The girl tried to explain, but Lacy appeared upstairs next to her and gave her a big hug.
“You saved my life,” Lacy said, gratefully.
“Oh and, whats your name?” Lacy asked, embarrassed that she hadn't known before.
“Lucy. Lucas already told me you're Lana.”
“Lan- I mean, yup.” Lacy hoped that Lucy wouldn't notice her confusion at the start of her sentence. She hadn't seemed to notice that Lacy had just appeared there; she had probably been too overwhelmed with the shock of what happened to even notice. The rest of the family came in.
“What happened?” The father asked.

Today's daily!)) I adjusted my uniform and waited by the grand entrance of the school, the front was made out of marble and it looked like a museum. I sat down on a nearby bench, and my hair fell in my face. I pushed away the long, dark brown hair and saw you. I immediately stood up and tried to look professional. “*name*! Hello, I'm Corinne(Not my real name). I'm your tour guide today!” I said, smiling. I took you up the steps and pushed open the huge wooden doors. “Welcome to the Real-Fi academy!” I said. There was an explosion of colors, as you could see the dark floor and the red walls. Colorful balloons were everywhere. I lead you to the nearest door. I opened it, and a library was revealed. “This is the library…perfect for quiet or typing up a book report just because.” I said, with a proud look on my face. Your's just looked confused. “What? I like to get my thoughts down on paper.”. I lead you through more doors, until we reached a huge set of stairs. “To the dorms!!” I yelled, charging up the stairs. My dark blue eyes shined with excitement. I opened the door to dorm 5. There was a sign on the door: “Residence of Corinne Danvers, *Your name*, *another name*.” I jumped on 1 of 3 beds. “Welcome to your dorm!” I said. The room was huge. There was 3 massive beds - and each bed had a personalized cover. Mine was light blue with clouds on it. There was a kitchenette on one side of the room, complete with a fridge and a oven. The other side had a few beanbags and a TV with a video game system connected to it. The room itself was made out of marble, with a dark floor. The furniture complimented the rest of the room. “Feel free to do anything!” I said. (321 words)

Weekly #2 ~

Part One:

@FrogandChick: I opened my locker, checking to make sure I had all the books I needed, before I went home. My eyes focused on something that wasn't there before. A small, handwritten note. I recognized immediately that it was my own handwriting, but it was written in purple. I never wrote in purple, I didn't even have a purple pen.

Me: ‘What the heck?’ I thought to myself. ‘Where did this come from?’ I picked up the note and looked at the folded piece of paper, and saw that it was addressed to me. It said: “To Brooklyn” but there was nothing noting who it was from. After some consideration, I opened the note and saw the message written on the inside “Brooklyn, meet me in Central Park at 8PM tonight. Bring nobody. This is important. Trust me.”

@FrogandChick: Meeting alone at night, with no more information than a note from an unknown sender? Probably not the safest idea. But then again, the note had my exact handwriting. Down to the tiniest of details. Could I really ignore a note from… myself? I made the decision, I would go. When I got home, I told my parents that I was just meeting with some friends, hoping they wouldn't notice my nervousness. To my relief, they just smiled and agreed. I left with nothing but the note.

Me: I started walking through the streets of New York City in my sweater with nothing on me but the note in my pocket. The sun was just starting to set, and that was making me a bit nervous. I didn't normally like to be out after dark because it wasn't exactly safe to be walking alone at night. When I arrived at Central Park, I realized that I had no idea where in the park I was supposed to go. The place was huge. ‘Where the heck am I supposed to be going?’

@FrogandChick: I walked around aimlessly for a while, noticing nothing but normal people, when a thought occurred to me. "I've been sent the note from myself, so which would be the place I would meet at, if I couldn't give the other person any directions? Strange how I was already considering the mysterious sender of the note to be myself, which was nonsensical, by normal logic.

Me: Finally, I noticed a person coming towards me. And what immediately struck her was that it looked exactly like me when I was a few years younger. It terrified me and I took a step backwards, thinking that I was probably going crazy! “Who…. Who are you?” I exclaimed. The person didn't answer and just continued walking towards me.

@FrogandChick: She smiled, “No need to be so afraid, and yes, you are seeing me for real. Who am I? Well, that's a little hard to explain. We'll get to that in a minute, have patience.” Her voice sounded so strange, yet familiar, like listening to a recording of yourself. “What are you doing here? How did you get here?” I asked frantically.

Me: The younger girl smiled again, but not in a threatening way. It was more in a calming, friendly way, like the way friends would smile at each other “Calm down, it's alright. No need to fear me. I'm you. If you haven't already figured that out.” The girl laughed, a soft laugh “I don't actually know how I got here. One minute I was walking through my front door, the next I'm here. Five years in the future.”
(308 words)

Part Two:
Character Name: Brooklyn Mills
Character Age: 17
Character Species: Human

Personality and Traits:
Brooklyn is a naturally calm person for the most part, although she does have a bit of a perfectionist personality to her. She works well with children, and loves spending time with them. She has a very maternal-like instinct. Brooklyn also likes to have things in order. She tries to be patient with others when they are having an argument or a discussion, but sometimes she has a bit of a problem with that, especially when the people she is trying to be patient with don’t let her add anything to the conversation. She loves listening to music, and plays an instrument of her own. She also really loves singing, though she’s very shy about both her voice and about playing her instrument, so she doesn’t like to show other people that she plays music or sings. Brooklyn is a loyal friend, and she will always be there to listen to anybody who needs to talk, and she’s always willing to give the best advice that she possibly can based on the situation that the person is going through. It is very hard for Brooklyn to ask for help, she thinks that she should be able to handle everything that she goes through all by herself, without having to talk to anybody else about any of her problems, which causes more problems in itself.
(224 Words)


Wants, Hopes and Strengths:
One thing that Brooklyn really wants to have in her life, is to find a good partner that she loves and who loves her, who will treat her well. She wants to be able to be a good mother to her children that she’ll have at some point in her future. She hopes to be able to have at least two children sometime in the future, and she hopes that she’ll be able to be the best mother that she can be for those kids. Those are some of her biggest wants and dreams for her future, and she really hopes that she will be able to get them in her life sometime. Brooklyn hopes that her life will be stable and normal in the future, she doesn’t really want anything remarkable to happen because she knows that might lead to problems later on in life, and that doesn’t help with her hope for a stable future, she doesn’t want anything too big to happen. She just wants to have a stable life with a happy family with nothing big, or eventful happening that might change that. Brooklyn is very good at working on a set project, and finishing it quickly, however sometimes she piles too much on her plate and stresses herself out a whole lot, especially considering everything about her school life.
(224 Words)

Dislikes and Fears:
Brooklyn can’t stand people who are unorganized or who don’t plan anything. She’s also much of a perfectionist and so when people do something that she thinks wasn’t something someone had given one hundred percent on, it really annoys her. She also hates working on group projects in school because she is such a perfectionist and she really hates how most of her classmates procrastinate on all the projects they have to work on together. Most of the time, she considers just doing the entire thing by herself, though usually her parents or friends talk her out of it. One of Brooklyn’s biggest fears was the fear of failing, or having her grades drop, because she fears that people will think she’s stup!d or a burden, and that they won’t like her anymore.
(134 Words) (Total of: 582 words for Part Two)

Part Three:
The story will take place in a bustling urban, highly populated city somewhere in the United States of America, at least, that’s what it used to be. But then the Dark Days fell upon the United States, and now this place is dilapidated and mostly crumbling and essentially falling apart. Most of the stores all around the city had been raided and ransacked by scavengers in the early days of the apocalypse, so there’s nearly nothing left in any of the stores.
People are living in whatever buildings they can find that are safe enough to live in, this is somewhat difficult, as a lot of the once towering, impressive buildings are now crumbling and dangerous to enter. Society is trying to rebuild itself and go back to normal, but it’s a slow process that is going to take a very long time.
This city is where most people who are still left in the United States gravitate to, because there are so many other people there and people really wanted to have a community that they could join, or at least another group of people that they could grow into a community like the one they had in the past before the apocalypse. People were desperate for community, because that’s something people can’t really live without. Mostly, there are people whose families are either d3ad from the destruction of the US, or they were separated from their family either during the destruction or on their way to the city. There are very few families who are still together when they arrive, however there are some people who have found members of their family after they arrived if their family arrived before them.
Surprisingly, the majority of people in the city are actually children under the age of 18, and there are only a handful of adults who made it to the city. Some people think it’s because of the nature of the apocalypse, something that people think might be easier for children to survive than adults. Most of these children arrive at the city alone, though some arrive with their parents or siblings. And even some that arrive with other random children they found along the way to the city.
The first thing that the society is trying to focus on is reopening schools for the remaining children of the area, so that the future generations of the city will understand the world around them, what had happened in the past, and what they could do to make sure that it never ever happened again. The story starts on the first day of when schools for high school students are starting to reopen. Schools for middle and high school students had opened in the weeks prior. The reason that the high school was opening after the middle and elementary schools was because the people who were trying to open it were having trouble finding a building that was large enough to hold all the kids who were the right age for high schools, there were a lot of them.
(510 Words)

Part Four:
Your character is woken up in the middle of the night by their cell phone loudly beeping (Similar to the sound that phones make in the United States when an Amber Alert is being sent out if you know what that is), and when they pick it up to see what’s going on they find three words running across their screen over and over and over again, along with the alarm blaring. The three words are “You should run.” There is nothing else. No other words, no context, no nothing. Your character is extremely confused and rightly terrified because they have no idea what is going on. As soon as they see the message, the alarm stops and their phone goes back to normal. They start to receive messages from their friends saying that they had also gotten alarms with the same message. Your character and their friends then receive emails directing them to a spot in a local area, saying that if they don’t reach that spot within thirty minutes, there will be consequences. The characters don’t know this, but if they follow the instructions they will get a new set of instructions to another place even further from home, again and again. Your character must now try and figure out what’s happening and how to escape the cycle of these messages and instructions.
(225 words)


PART FIVE:
I used the following pieces for my final story -
@Stormy_Brook’s character: https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/582424/?page=65#post-6111421
@pitau’s setting: https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/582424/?page=65#post-6111487
@Bellevue91’s premise: https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/582424/?page=63#post-6110522

Fifteen year old Sarah Green walked out of her house to start her walk to school, also consequently escaping her parents, who were fighting again. No real surprise there.
“Bye Mum, bye Dad!” Sarah called behind her as she walked through her front door, knowing full well that neither of her parents were actually listening to her, and so when neither of them responded it didn’t surprise her too much.
Bye Sarah! Love you! Have a great day at school! Sarah thought to herself, imagining the response that she wished her parents would give her. She did this a lot, especially when she needed advice from her parents and they were fighting too much to listen to her. In those situations, she gave herself her own advice in her head, and usually it was fairly solid advice.
Once she was about fifteen minutes away from her house, only about twenty more minutes to reach her school, she came across her friend Annalise. Her friend was dressed completely in black, and looked somber and her eyes were downcast.
“Woah! What’s wrong?” Sarah inquired, running over to her sad looking friend.
“What do you mean?” Annalise looked at Sarah like she was crazy “Don’t you know?”
“What are you talking about?” Sarah asked, furrowing her brow. She was confused. She felt like she had missed something extremely important. She was also a bit scared that there was something she should be doing, something she would have to go home to fix.
“The Queen, Sarah! Of course I’m talking about the Queen! Didn’t your parents tell you what happened last night?” Annalise exclaimed, seemingly shocked that Sarah was asking such a thing. Immediately, Sarah knew that her suspicions were right. She had missed something extremely important. Something had happened to the Queen. Something that she obviously should have been aware of or told by her parents. Although, her parents had probably been too busy fighting to remember to tell her anything. Even if it had been extremely important.
“No…. Um… They didn’t tell me anything…. They were uh… They were kind of arguing last night.” Sarah murmured, rubbing the back of her neck. She didn’t really like to talk to people about her parents arguing
“Oh… Well… The Queen… She… She d!ed last night..” Annalise answered, taking a deep breath, obviously a bit distraught by the whole thing.
“What!?” Sarah cried, looking at her friend incredulously “She d!ed last night!?”
“Yes.” Annalise responded, looking down at the ground in a sad way
“Oh gosh! Oh gosh! I have to go home, I should be wearing black and all that!” Sarah exclaimed
“Yes! Go home and change! I’ll cover for you at school! Okay?” Annalise nodded, waving her hand in the direction of Sarah's home. Without another word, Sarah dashed back off towards her home, not stopping for anything. She ducked and weaved between all the adults that she came across, all of them also dressed in black. Sarah felt extremely out of place in her normal day clothes.
Finally, after about ten minutes of running she finally came across her house and she ran inside, finding her parents were still fighting over the same thing they had been when she left. Deciding to ignore this, Sarah ran upstairs and into her bedroom. She grabbed a black dress and changed into it, tying her hair up into a tight bun and changing her makeup to something a little less dramatic. Then she changed her shoes and then she ran back out through the house and into the street. And even though she didn’t want to be late for school, Sarah knew she should be running right now, and so she just walked as fast as she possibly could, throwing her messenger bag containing all her school books and such over her shoulder.
About fifteen minutes later, just as she was nearing the area where she’d met up with Annalise the first time, somebody grabbed Sarah’s arm and jerked her to a stop. The girl whipped her head around to see who was there. It was a young woman, maybe in her early twenties? The woman wasn’t dressed in black, but she had a hood draped over her head.
“Who the heck are you?!” Sarah exclaimed, jerking her arm out of the woman’s grasp.
“Give me the book!” The woman exclaimed, reaching for Sarah’s school bag
“What are you talking about? What book?” Sarah exclaimed, pulling her bag away from the woman's grasping hands “All I have in here is school books! I have no idea what you’re talking about!”
“The book! The royal purple, velvet cover book!” The woman growled, taking a step closer to Sarah. As soon as the woman described the book she was looking for, it was a book that her father had brought home from work one day. She had no idea what was in it because she had never bothered to read it, she had assumed that it was some kind of boring book that her father had bought or borrowed from a work friend. She had also never asked about it, mostly because her dad was usually too busy arguing with her mother to have any time to talk to Sarah at all.
“I don’t have that book! It’s at my house!” Sarah cried, panicked “Why do you want it?!”
“It’s important! I can’t tell you anything else! But I need this book! Give it to me! Otherwise I swear to you little girl, your family and friends will suffer for your stubbornness!” The woman lunged towards Sarah, again grasping at her book bag.
“I! DON’T! HAVE! IT!” Sarah screamed, kicking the woman’s shin and slapping her face before running away, getting as far away from the crazy woman and towards her school. But when she was still in earshot, she heard the woman yell at her
“I know where you live! You better give me that book when I show up!”
As Sarah ran, she was terrified by the woman’s threat, and she knew that as soon as that woman showed up at her home, that she was going to give her that book, if only to protect herself and her family and friends from whatever this crazy was going to do.
(1,047 Words)

Total Words for the Weekly: 2,672 Words

Weekly > #2 (WIP)

Part 1

https://scratch.mit.edu/users/doglover_73/#comments-192869748

332 words on my part

Character

Name: Tamar
Age: 16
Species: Half robot

Personality and traits
Tamar is a responsible and committed person, she isn't afraid to do what she thinks is right even when everyone else considers it weird. She often comes off as suspicious of new people and acts dependent on friends and other people who know her well. She also acts a bit childish at times even though she's mainly mature as heck. Tamar is extroverted and relationship oriented, she puts her relationships with people (like staying friends with someone) before most other components when making a decision. She has a fear of missing out and so is put in between making honorable commitments and leaving room for last minute opportunities and decisions. Again, she's a social person so she's almost automatically a good team player. She wants to always stay optimistic even if that means lying to herself, she likes when people communicate what they need to while remaining lighthearted and optimistic. She's excited by trying out new ideas and new experiences, as well as meeting and interacting with people. She's stressed out by too much useless schedules, not being around people for a long time and negativity from the outside world. Overall, Tamar is a responsible, people-oriented, optimistic, committed and anxious person.

201 words

Strengths, hopes and wants
Tamar wants to lead a normal human life without noticing the robot part of her. Generally, she wants to be fulfilled and happy in life. She tries to achieve this by searching for joy in anything that comes her way, even the not so good things. She tries to rationalize her negative feelings away by backing up the good things with facts and “credible” information. Her strengths are being productive, cooperative and empathetic. She can remain optimistic in almost any situation. She can think things through both thoroughly and quickly which is an incredibly useful skill. She has superb people skills and can easily understand and feel other people's emotions, putting herself in their shoes. She's an accepting person which is probably why she made amazing life-long friends. She genuinely cares about others but is also independent and self-sufficient which makes her even more likeable. She's organized and absolutely will not relax until something is done and done well/right. She is the type of person that doesn't like to stay idle and would rather do something productive like clean up unlike a lot of other people. Overall she hopes to be happy and fulfilled in life, her main strengths are cooperation, productivity and empathy.

205 words

Dislikes and fears
Tamar fears missing out on a fun opportunity and is generally afraid of failure. She dislikes people who guilt trip since she's usually someone to fall for that. She hates the scientists who “helped” her, because they act almost inhuman, disconnected and unreadable. She also utterly despises and can't stand conflict, Tamar'd probably leave a room if she notices an argument breaking out. She's also really afraid of suffering, death and more things related to that. Tamar is irrationally afraid of bugs and a lot of other outdoorsy stuff due to her living in a clean lab place for all she remembers. Overall she dislikes unemotional people and conflict, she's afraid of failure and suffering.

115 words

Setting

The story takes place in a professional artist's sketchbook which is filled with drawings of so many different backgrounds from beautiful landscapes to dystopian towns. Different characters live on different pages and to get to another page they need to take part in the painful process of being erased and redrawn. Being redrawn however, comes with a lot of risks like being redrawn incorrectly and coming back unrecognizable or not being completely erased and having a mindless, slightly faded look-alike of you walking around in your world. Being erased also hurts and you have to stay conscious while parts of your body are slowly and partially disappearing. Due to the story taking place in a sketchbook the worlds look black and white, sometimes even a bit smudgy or unfinished. The worlds of course extend way further than the limits of the pages but characters can only be erased when they're in the small part of the world that can be seen on the page. In a separate place: the easel, there is a large finished drawing of a beautiful castle done with paints. It's the only one of the worlds that's actually coloured so obviously it would be every character's dream to go there! To visit the castle, the character has to have never before been erased and has to sign that they understand that they will never ever be able to return to their original world because they will be changed from pencil to paint. The artist who made all these worlds knows all the characters personally but doesn't get near enough time to continue the worlds leaving the characters to relive their lives over and over and over again. There are characters known as between world managers who choose the characters who get to go to the castle world. The rest of the other characters have their lives in the hands of the artist and the between world managers. If the artist gets bored of them, they get erased forever and replaced by a fresh, new, different character. All of the worlds look different, some have small village brick houses and some have towering sky scrapers, some have lots of grass and flowers and some have loads of metal junk. They all share some of the same element, the same artist drew them after all. No one except the artist knows about this secret world but if someone finds out, it can wreak havoc.

406 words

Premise

Your main character comes home from another one of their boring days at . As they put their stuff away they see a mysterious note that they definitely didn't write on their note board. It said that can give them everything they have ever strived towards but first, they must commit a horrible crime (whether that be k1lling someone, sabotaging a mission or stealing an incredibly valuable object) and obviously get away with it (or else they'd be in jail and be unable to receive their rewars). The character is really stranded in between doing it and perhaps facing terrible consequences or not doing it and growing up to be an old person filled with regret. But then they get fired from their job/expelled from their school causing them to consider their choices and finally decide to call the person from the note to find out the details. What happens next?

156 words

Story

https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/post/6082761/
https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/659162819/
https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/post/6108439/

Hi everyone!
This is my school assignment to create ref notes
word count: +4,621 characters.

THE VEDIC PERIOD-REFERENCE NOTES
Meanings
Vedas :Sacred literary texts of the Hindus.
Jana: Term used to describe Aryan tribes .
Dasa : Also known as Dasyus ; described as enemies of Aryas; later
on, the term was used for slaves.
Yajna : A sacrifice; involved offerings - of ghee, grain, or even animals - being made into fire.
Ashvamedha: Horse sacrifice.
Varna s: Groups into which Aryan society was classified according
to rules laid by priests.
Brahmins : Priests who conducted rituals or sacrifices; they
enjoyed highest status in the society.
Kshatriyas : Rulers; assigned the task of fighting battles and
providing protection to the people; ranked lower than Brahmanas.
Vaishyas or vish : Farmers, herders, and traders; ranked lower
than Kshatriyas.
Shudras : Considered inferior to Brahmanas, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas, and excepted to serve them; could not perform any rituals
or learn Vedas
Untouchables : groups considered by priests to be too ‘lowly’ to be
included in the caste system.
Ashramas : Stage of Life; Prescribed by Brakmanas.
Ascetic : A person who renounced the world to attain Salvation.
Renounce : Give up.
Megaliths : Large blocks of stone to mark burial sites 3000 years
ago.
Family Graves : Burials where family are buried together.
Black and red ware : Pottery found in Megalithic burials.

Question & Answers.
Q1. Who were Aryans? Where did they come from?
Ans:
After the Harappans, the northwest parts of the Indian subcontinent were inhabited by people who described themselves as Aryas.
Historians refer to these people as Aryans. The generally accepted theory is that the Aryans originally inhabited areas between Southern Russia and Central Asia. Max Muller has identified Central Asia as the original home of the Aryans. However, other historians believe that the Aryans were original inhabitants of India and may have descended from the Harappans

Q2. There are many sources which tell us about Aryans .Can you describe them?
Ans:
The primary sources of information about the Aryans are the Vedas. Apart from the Vedas, the Brahmanas, Aranyanakas, and the Upanishads also shed light on the Aryan age. Religious epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata, also give us an idea of the lives of the Aryan people, their occupations, clothes, food habits, etc.

Q3. What were the four varnas? Which sources tell us about them? Was the varna system followed everywhere?
Ans:
The four varnas were – Brahmanas or priests, Kshatrayas or warriors , Vaishyas or the common people , and Shudras. The Brahmanas learned and imparted the teachings of the Vedas. The Kshatriyas fought battles and provided protection to the people.
The Vaishyas included farmers, traders etc. The Shudras served the other three groups. The Vedas tell us about the varna system. The varna system was not followed in all parts of the Indian Subcontinent, especially in areas such as the northeast. Sometimes , even kings who considered themselves superior to priests opposed the varna system.

Q4. What was the Ashrama system? How did it
develop?
Ans:
The Brahmanas developed the ashrama system as a response to rising criticism against them, the Vedas and the varna system.
Under the new system man’s life was divided into four stages of ashramas – brahmacharya, grihastha, vanaprastha, and sanyasa The brahmacharya stage involved the early years of men’s lives, at this stage, men were expected to concentrate on their studies and learn the Vedas. The grihastha ashrama involved marriage and leading a family life. In the vanaprastha stage, men were expected to withdraw from worldly life and meditate in the forest. The last stage, sannyasa ashrama, required them to become ascetics.

Q5. What are megaliths? When and where were
they constructed? What do you tell us about the
lives of people?
Ans:
Megaliths are large blocks of stone that were used to mark burial sites. They were constructed about 3000 years ago in the South, Deccan, Northeast, and Kashmir. Some burials have a large number of ornaments, pottery, etc compared to others. This implies social distinctions existed in society during the period. The fact that objects were buried with the dead indicates the people believed in life after death. The discovery of skeletons of horses shows the animals were commonly used. Archaeologists have also found iron tools at the sites.

Q6. What are vedas? How many Vedas are
there? Can you describe them?
Ans:
The word Veda means ‘knowledge’. The vedas
are sacred literary texts of the Hindus. There are four vedas:
Rig Veda: It is the oldest of all 4 four vedas. It was composed 3500 years ago. It contains 1028 hymns, mostly in praise of gods.
Sama Veda: It contains Rigvedic hymns for public worship.
Yajur Veda: It contains hymns for priests performing sacrifices.
Atharva Veda: It contains magical spells and charms.
Sama veda, Yajur veda, Atharva veda werecomposed between 1000 BC and 600 BC, i.e, in the Later vedic period

Q7. Describe the two phases of the Aryan
settlement.
Ans:
a. Early Vedic Period (1500 BC to 1000 BC):
The Aryans initially settled down in territories around the Indus and its tributaries which is known as Sapta Sindhu. This period of settlement corresponds with the composition of Rig Veda and is therefore known as the Early Vedic Period. Some historians say the Aryans had to fight with the original inhabitants of the land, who have been described as Dasyus in Rig Veda.

b. Later Vedic Period (1000 BC to 600 BC):
Sama Veda, Yajur Veda, Atharva Veda were composed between 1000 BC to 600 BC, referred to as Later Vedic period. In this period Aryans moved from the northwest towards Indo-Gangetic plains. They cut down the trees and cleared forests for settlement and cultivation. They controlled the land between the Ganga and Yamuna valleys (eastern UP and Bihar).

Q8. Describe the Religious life of Aryas.
Ans:
The hymns in the Rig veda have been composed in the praise of Gods and Goddess, three gods were praised in High regard- Agni, God of fire; Indra, a warrior God; and soma, a plant from which an intoxicating drink was made. The Aryans also performed yajnas which involved offerings- of ghee, grain, or even animals. The Brahmanas influence grew more, so the rituals and animal sacrifices became more and more elaborate. The Brahmanas were paid handsomely for their services.

Q9. Describe the Political Life under the Aryas.
Ans:
The Aryans comprised groups of tribes. Initially, each tribe was headed by a raja. The raja was not a ruler by birth, instead were
chosen by the common people. The rajas took decisions with the help of a council comprising the elder member of the tribe, known as the sabha, and a general assembly comprising all tribe members known as samiti. The early rajas didn’t collect taxes. Most of the
wealth was obtained through battles. However, as time passed, the power of rajas increased so the kingship became hereditary.
They began to perform yajnas to increase their domain and power.

Q10. How did the use of Iron grow?
Ans:
The Aryas began to use Iron around 3,000 years ago, i.e, around 1000 BC. Archaeologists have also found tools made of
iron like axes and daggers in Uttar pradesh. With the use of Iron, agriculture began more
important and widespread.


MOTIONS OF THE EARTH-REFERENCE NOTES
Meanings
Rotation: Movement of the Earth on its own axis.
Axis: An imaginary line running from north to South across the center of the Earth.
Circle of Illumination: An imaginary circle that divides the half of the Earth that experiences day from which experiences night .
Dawn: Time of the day when the sun is not visible and yet there is some light.
Sunrise: The time when the Sun appears on the eastern horizon.
Noon: Also known as mid-day; time of the day when the sun is directly overhead a place.
Sunset: The time when the sun appears to go down on the western horizon.
Dusk: Also known as twilight; time of the day when a place gets diffused light from the sun before it gets completely dark.
Revolution: Movement of the Earth around the Sun on its orbit.
Perihelion: When distance between the Earth and sun is minimum.
Aphelion: When distance between the Earth and Sun is maximum.
Leap year: A year that 366 days; occurs every four years.
Orbital plane: An imaginary plane formed by the Earth’s orbit.
Season: Refers to a period of the year when general weather conditions remain the same.
Solstice: Refers to that time when the Sun is directly overhead in one of the tropics.
Equinox: Refers to the time of year when days and Nights are equal duration throughout the world.

Question & Answers.

Q1. How does the Earth’s rotation lead to day and night?
Ans:
The Earth rotates from west to east, consider X a point on Earth’s surface. Thus the point X will at some time move east to R, this time of the day is called dawn. In time ,X will reach P and experiences sunrise. When X reaches N , it will directly face the Sun and experiences noon. At E, the Sun will appear to go down on the western horizon ,this is the time of sunset.
At G, X will receive some diffused light,this time of the day is called dusk. At H, X will be in complete darkness, this time is called midnight,as the Earth spins on its axis ,these positions keep repeating every 24 hours.

Q2. Describe the annual motion of the Earth.
Ans:
Revolution can be defined as the movement of the Earth on its orbit around the Sun. It takes around 365 days and 6 hours to complete one revolution around the Sun. The Earth revolves around the Sun on a fixed orbit. As this orbit is elliptical, the Earth is closer to the Sun at points and far from the Sun at some points. The Earth is said to be perihelion when its distance from the Sun is minimum, the Earth is said to be aphelion when its distance from the Sun is maximum.

Q3. What is the reason behind unequal length of days and night? Discuss with the help of a neatly labeled diagram.
Ans:
The inclination of the Earth’s axis is responsible for the variation in the length of days and nights. When the North Pole is tilted towards the Sun, the Northern Hemisphere experiences summer while the Southern Hemisphere experiences winter. At the Equator, the length of the illuminated and dark parts of the circle is equal. That means any point on the equator has almost equal length of the day and night all year through. As we go North, the length of the illuminated part increases. This means days become longer and nights become shorter as we move towards the north pole. When the South Pole is tilted towards the sun, the southern hemisphere experiences summer while the northern hemisphere experiences winter. At this time, the northern hemisphere has longer Nights and shorter days.

Q4. Summers are hot and winters are cold. Can you give a reason why?
Ans:
Summers are hot and winters are cold because the hemisphere facing the Sun receives more direct rays of the Sun. While the hemisphere facing away receives more slanting rays of the Sun. Direct rays have more heating capacity than slanting rays.
This is because vertical rays get concentrated on a smaller area whereas slanting rays get spread over a wider area.


Q5. What brings about a change in season? With the help of a diagram, discuss the position of the Earth on:
Ans:
The change in the position of the Earth as it moves around the Sun brings about the change in season.
(a) June 21: The North Pole is tilted towards the Sun. The Sun’s rays fall vertically on the Tropic of Cancer. This position is called ‘summer solstice’ in the Northern Hemisphere and ‘winter solstice’ in the Southern Hemisphere.
(b) December 22: The South Pole is tilted towards the Sun. The Sun’s rays fall vertically on the Tropic of Capricorn. This position is called ‘winter solstice’ in the Northern Hemisphere and ‘summer solstice’ in the Southern Hemisphere.
© March 21 and September 23: Neither of the poles is inclined towards the Sun. The Sun’s rays fall vertically over the Equator. As a result, on these days, days and nights are of equal duration throughout the world. This is called Equinox. There is spring in one hemisphere and autumn in the other.

Q6. What is a Leap year?
Ans:
The Earth completes one revolution in 365 days and 6 hours. For our convenience, we consider one year to have 365 days and ignore the 6 hours. After 4 years, the 6 hours adds up to 24 hours, thus, one day. The extra day is added up to the month of February. Therefore, every 4 years, February has 29 days. So every fourth year has 366 days and such a year is known as a Leap year.

Q7. Explain Rotation of the Earth.
Ans:
The Movement of the Earth on its own axis is called Rotation. The Earth rotates from west to east. The Earth’s Rotation causes Day and Night for the planet. The circle of Illumination is a line which divides half of the Earth which experiences day from that which experiences night.

THE MAURYAN EMPIRE-REFERENCE NOTES

Meanings
Empire: Comprise a large number of Kingdoms and states governed by a single ruler.
Emperor: Ruler of an empire.
Dynasty: Family whose members succeeded each other to the throne.
Tribute: Gifts made by people, more or less at their will; not collected regularly.
Toll: A type of tax.
Ahimsa: Non-violence.
Devanampriya: The beloved of Gods.
Dhamma: Religious responsibility.
Dhamma Mahamatta: Officer appointed by Ashoka to spread his message of Dhamma.
Edicts: Official orders or instruction.
Mantri Parishad: Council of ministers.

Question & Answers.

Q1. How did Chandragupta establish his empire in the Indian subcontinent?
Ans:
In 327 BC, the Greek king Alexander invaded India from the north west. After 2 years, He managed to capture many important cities but his soldiers were tired because of fighting in the wars so Alexander had to go back to Greece. Alexander died on his way back to Greece. Chandragupta Maurya took advantage of the confusion in Paurava(Punjab) after Alexander’s departure to seize power and lay the foundations of the Mauryan empire. By 321 BC, Chandragupta had added Magadha to his empire after defeating the last Nanda king Dhana Nanda. By 305 BC, he had managed to defeat Selecus Nicator, one of Alexander’s generals. Thus, Chandragupta came to rule over a vast empire.

Q2. Describe the society and revenue system under the Mauryas?
Ans:
The Mauryan empire had four main castes- Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras. The Brahmanas enjoyed the highest status in the society. Besides these castes, there were also groups of ‘untouchables’ and hunter-gatherers. The Mauryans collected revenue in the form of taxes and tributes. Tributes were gifts made by the people to the king. Land revenue was the main source of income for the empire. Besides, farmers taxes were collected from artisans, miners and traders.

Q3. Why did Ashoka attack Kalinga? What was the outcome of the war?
Ans:
Ashoka decided to attack Kalinga because when he took over the throne it was the only state in the east not under the domain of the Mauryan Empire. Ashoka attacked the state with full force. In the fierce battle, thousands of men were killed, wounded or taken as prisoners. The suffering caused to the people gave Ashoka much grief. Even his wife Durdha let him, who was a Buddhist.
He was filled with remorse and abandoned the policy of conquest through war. After the Battle of Kalinga, he embraced Buddhism, adopted the policy of non-violence and came to be known as devanampriya.

Q4. What was Ashoka’s dhamma? How did he propagate it?
Ans:
The word ‘Dhamma’ is a prakrit word which means religious responsibility Ashoka’s dhamma did not involve worship of gods, rituals and sacrifices. It sought to spread tolerance and non-violence. It also emphasised compassion towards animals. Ashoka took many steps to propagate dhamma: He built stupas and monasteries. He inscribed edicts on rocks and pillars. He appointed special officers known as Dhamma mahamattas to spread his message. He sent missionaries to other countries, such as Syria, Egypt, Greece, Sri Lanka, Burma, Nepal, Tibet, China and Japan to spread the message of Dhamma. He is believed to sent his Son Mahendra and Daughter Sanghamitra to Sri lanka to spread Buddhism

Q5. Give reasons for the fall of the Maurya Empire. Ans:
Several reasons have been cited for the fall of the Mauryas:
Weak Successors: Ashoka’s successors were unable to bear the responsibility of controlling such a large empire. They could not stop the forces of disintegration.
Anti–brahmana policies: Ashoka’s criticism of rituals and sacrifices turned Brahmanas against him and the Mauryas.
Financial crisis: The enormous expenditure on the army, administrative officials, and large grants made to Buddhist monks by Ashoka gradually emptied the royal treasury.

Q6. What is an empire? How is it different from a Kingdom?
Ans:
Empires Comprise a number of Kingdoms or states governed by a single ruler. They are much larger than kingdoms. The rulers of Empires are known as Emperors. Apart form size, empires were quite different from kingdoms because-Their emperors had to maintain a much larger army in order to protect their territories. The emperors required more resources than kings of Kingdoms to run the empire.They also appoint a large number of officials to govern the empire and perform administrative tasks like collection of Tax and revenue.


Q7. Who was Seleucus Nicator?
Ans:
Before Alexander set out on his way back to Greece, He appointed a general in The Northwest of India named ‘Seleucus Nicator’.
In 305 BC, Chandragupta Maurya defeated Selecus Nicator and signed a peace treaty with him. Seleucus Nicator also married his Daughter to Chnadragupta Maurya.

Q8. Who was Chanakya?
Ans:
Chanakya or Kautilya’s real name was Vishnugupta. He was the guide, advisor, and mentor to Chandragupta Maurya. It is said that,When Chanakya went to Magadha for a job, He was insulted by The Nanda Kings so he made a vow on destroying them.
He had his revenge, Chnadragupta defeated the Last Nanda Kings, Dhana Nanda and took over Magada. Chanakya is the Author of Arthashastra, which is a valuable source of information about life, society, and administration under the Mauryas.

Q9. How did Chanakya meet Chandragupta?
Ans:
Chankya was teaching at Takshashila university at the time of Alexander’s invasion. After he was insulted by the Nanda Kings, on his way back to his hometown. He came across a little boy named Chandragupta Maurya playing with his friends and was struck by his sense of Justice. He was playing the game where he was playing the role of a King and one of his friends as a criminal who had brought before him for Judgment. Chandragupta gave the judgment which showed Chanakya Chandragupta's kindness and willingness to help others. Chankaya was impressed with Chandragupta so he met his mother to know more about him. He took Chandragupta to the king and told about his intelligence. Chandragupta solved all the puzzles given by the King and impressed the King. Thus, Chnadragupta Maurya was enrolled in the Best university, The Vishvavidyalaya of Taxila.

Q10. Who was Bindusara?
Ans:
Chandragupta was succeeded by ‘Bindusara’. Bindusara took over the throne in 297 BC and ruled till 273 BC over the Mauryan Empire. Bindusara was also known as Amitraghata, meaning ‘slayer of foes.’ Ambassadors from different countries as far as Syria, Egypt were part of Bundusara’s court. After his Death, He was succeeded by Ashoka.

Q11. Write a short note on The Mauryan Empire.
Ans:
The First empire recorded in the Indian History is the Mauryan Empire. It was established by Chandragupta Maurya in the 4th century BC. It stretched from Magadha in the east, Kandahar in the west, to Mysore in the south.

Q12. Write a short note on Sanchi Stupa.
Ans:
The stupa was the most important element of the Mauryan architecture. Its design was derived from the ancient funeral mounds made by earth and brick that preserved the remains of Monks. The stupa at Sanchi is known as the Great stupa, and is the most famous of the structures.

Q13. Write a short note on the pillars constructed by Ashoka.
Ans:
Pillars usually had a capital with beautifully carved animal figures. The famous pillar at Sarnath has a bell shaped capital with four capitals with four lions sitting back to back. This design is featured in our National flag and is the seal of our government.
At the base, There is an engraving wheel with 24 strokes in The Indian National Flag, which stands for laws of the Buddha. At Rampurva, there is another stunning Bull shaped capital.

Q14. How was the Administration under the Mauryas?
Ans:
The Mauryas administered in 4 levels- central, provincial, District and village:
Central Administration: The King had absolute authority. He was assisted by a council of ministers known as ‘Mantri Parishad’ and many other officials.
Provincial Administration: There are 4 Provinces in the Mauryan empire: Tosali(east), Ujjain(west),Taxila(North),Suvarnagiri(South). The king’s representatives in these provinces were known as Kumara. He was assisted by mahamattyas and council of ministers.
District administration: Each province was further divided into several Districts. Pradeshta was the head, he was assisted by rajukas and yuktas.
Village administration: Each district was further divided into Villages. The village headman took care of the Village.



Q15. How was the army under the Mauryas?
Ans:
The Mauryas had a large army comprising horsemen(cavalry) and foot soldiers(infantry). They also had elephants in the army.
The Mauryas, also had well developed royal spies who gave information about everything happening within and outside the Kingdom.

Q16. Who was Ashoka?
Ans:
Ashoka was born in 302 BC. During Bindusara's rule he was the governor of Taxila and Ujjain. He ascended the throne in 272 BC but his coronation took much later in 268 BC. Ashoka was one of the Famous rulers all over India.

JUBILEE HILLS PUBLIC SCHOOL- 2021-2022 RISE OF KINGDOMS-REFERENCE NOTES

Meanings
Janapadas: Territorial states which came into being 3000 years ago.
Mahajanapadas: Large states that came into being 2500 years ago; originally janapadas(small states), they had become more important than others with the passage of time .
Bhaga: 1/6th of a farmer’s produce that was given as tax to the king.
Ploughshare: A cutting blade that is fixed to a plough.
Transplantation: Process of growing saplings and then planting them into fields.
Kammakaras: Landless farm laborers.
Monarchy : A state governed by a king.
Republic: A state in which the supreme is held by the people and their elected representatives; there is an elected or nominated president, rather than a king..
Gana: A group comprising many members.
Sangha: An organisation or association.
Shernis: Associations of traders or craft persons.

Question & Answers.

Q1. Describe the rise of janapadas and mahajanapadas.
Ans:
The Aryans originally came to the Indian subcontinent as a group of tribes. The use of iron tools and implements helped them to produce surplus food. Gradually, arts and crafts emerged. Trade and commerce also developed. As a result, Aryan tribes began to settle down in permanent places. Soon, the earlier tribal set up gave way to the territorial states called Janapadas, ie, about 500 BC, some large states arose in the subcontinent. These were originally Janapadas, which had become more important than others with the passage of time. They were called the Mahajanapadas.

Q2. Write a short note on the different types of governments in the Mahajanapadas.
Ans:
Depending on their system of governance, Mahajanapadas were of two types- kingdoms and Republics. Mahajanapadas that were ruled by a king were known as kingdoms or monarchies. Their king enjoyed absolute power. He was not chosen by the people. Succession to the throne was hereditary, ie. kings were succeeded by their sons. Most of the mahajanapadas in the 6th Century BC were monarchies. However, there were some mahajanapadas such as Vajji and Malla which followed the Republican system. In such mahajanapadas, the common people chose a group of representatives who took important decisions on their behalf. The representatives usually arrived at their decisions through discussions and debates.

Q3. Magadha emerged as an important mahajanapada. How and why?
Ans:
Magadha emerged as an important mahajanapada due to its favourable geographical location and powerful rulers:
a) Its first capital, Rajagriha, was surrounded by hills which made it difficult to be conquered. Its later capital, Pataliputra, was situated at the confluence of the Ganga, Gandhak and Son.
b) It controlled vast, fertile plains.
c) Rivers flowing through Magadha helped trade flourish and supplied it with ample water.
d) Magadha controlled vast forests, which supplied wood and animals.
e) It had vast deposits of copper and iron ore used to make advanced farming equipment and weapons.
f) It had efficient rulers such as Bimbisara and large armies.

Q4. The kings of Magadha collected many kinds of taxes. Describe their taxation system.
Ans:
The rulers of Magadha collected the following types of taxes:
a) Tax on farmers: Farmers were required to give a part of their produce or bhaga as tax. The bhaga was usually fixed at 1/6th of the total produce.
b) Tax on crafts persons: This was probably paid in kind.
c) Tax on herders: Herders had to give animals or some of their produce as tax.
d) Tax on Hunters gatherers: Hunter gatherers had to give a part of the forest produce to the king.
e) Tax on trade: Taxes were also imposed on buying and selling of the goods. Traders had to pay the taxes on sales.

Q5. Write short notes on:
a) Farming practices in Magadha:
Around the time Magadha flourished, vast tracts of land were brought under cultivation to ensure high production to support a growing population. Thus, many changes were introduced in the agricultural techniques. Some changes some of the changes include:
Use of iron ploughshares: Farmers began using ploughshares made of iron, which were more effective in turning soil than traditional wooden ploughshares.
Crop transplantation: Farmers also began to grow and plant saplings, rather than seeds in their field. The process known as transplantation and showed more plants survived and therefore the production of crops increased. Transplantation work was usually done by farm labourers or slaves.

b) Trade in Magadha:
Trade flourished in Magadha both via land as well as sea. People began using coins to pay for goods instead of bartering(exchanging) goods. Merchants and traders in the cities organised themselves into shrenis or guilds. These shrenis even served as banks, which invested the money deposited by people.

c) Society in Magadha:
In Magadha, people were mostly engaged in farming. Other important occupations included cattle rearing and crafts. In Magadhan society, the varna system became very rigid. The brahmanas enjoyed the highest status in the society. They performed all important rituals and sacrifices. Gradually there emerged a strong movement against the elaborate rituals and practices described by the brahmanas.

Q6. Describe Janapadas.
Ans:
Janapadas are territorial states which means a place where the jana(tribe) set foot and stayed on. Later on, The Aryans had expanded their control over areas between the Ganga, and Yamuna valleys, eastern Uttar Pradesh, and even Bihar. They cleared large tracts of land in the area by burning forests or with the help of iron implements like axes.

Q7. What did the new rulers do to demonstrate power?
Ans:
Unlike the early rajas, they kept regular armies. They build forts, huge walls of wood, stone, or brick all around their capital cities for ease of administration, demonstrate their power and protect themselves from attacks from other kings

Character
back to weekly

Ref: Demon Slayer

Name: Alex
Age: 21
Species: Demon

Personality and Traits:

Alex is a very strong and brave demon, he also prioritize hygiene because Alex can't stand being dirty. Alex is also very easily angered but can contain it as much as he prioritize cleanliness, but many demons always ignore this weakness of Alex. However, humans don't understand about Alex since he's a demon that haunts many people, they don't treat him as well as the other demons. Before Alex turned into a demon, his life was always going down hill. Alex lost his wife, business was bad because of him, causing the boss to fire Alex, Alex got brain cancer and was sent to the hospital. Just before he died, Alex heard a conversation between the nurse and the doctor discussing about turning him into a creature but their sentence weren't finish when Alex knew he had no more time left to live. After some time which he did not know, Alex woke up and he was in the afterlife, but Alex refused to die, he still wanted to live, even though his life had been tragic. The Gods then agreed that Alex will roam on Earth as a demon, living to help others as Alex was very kind, but humans do not agree with this and wants to kill him.

211 words

Wants, Hopes, and Strengths:

Every year, demons will fight against each other to the death until one survives, this one demon will be crowned as a member of the Twelve Kizuki which is a place for the most powerful demons. The ranks are Lower six, five, four, three, two and one while the higher ranks are Upper six, five, four, three, two and one. The ruler of demons however, treats the Lower ranks as slaves, since they're weaker than the Upper moons, their roles are often changed because they are often killed by humans and the ruler isn't proud of this. Instead of treating the Upper moons like slaves, the ruler treats them as children, childish, mindless children that don't know anything about the world. The roles of Upper moons often remain unchanged, in fact the Upper moons haven't change in a 100 years. Currently, Alex is at Lower four, and he wants to rise because he doesn't want to be tortured by their ruthless leader, who kills the lower moons like cattle. Alex had been trying hard to reach the Upper moon level to be spared by their ruler. Demons have blood demon arts whenever they haunt enough humans, these blood demon art makes them stronger to fight in combat. Alex has only one blood demon art so far, which is Sticking Blood, this technique can help Alex immobilized the opponent. If the opponent managed to make Alex lose blood, the blood that Alex lose will become sticky and make the opponent stuck to it, this leaves Alex for the kill. This strategy made Alex become a lower rank four, but Alex doesn't want to have an even lower rank.

277 words

Dislikes and Fear:

Alex is a very clean person, he hates getting dirty all over and especially getting splashed on. This usually happens whenever he's in combat, the enemy splashes him with water or mud which Alex hates so much. Another thing that Alex hates is being called a coward. Even though Alex is very tough and strong, the reason why he's so popular among demons is because of his bravery. If someone calls him a coward, Alex gets really angry as he is one of the bravest demons in history. Lastly, Alex hates being last, because of his ranking being lower four, Alex doesn't want a lower rank or he'll suffer more from his cruel leader. The only thing that Alex fears is sunlight since he's a demon. If demons are exposed to the sun, they will burn away and die. This is why whenever the sun was about the rise during dawn he runs away and often being called as a coward, which is what he hates so much.

168 words

656 words

play sound [coding is life] until done

Hi, this is my in-cabin, Part-2

Hi, I am a girl who likes to study and exercise everyday. I exercised for 30 minutes today and 30 minutes made me feel relaxed.
I usually do, meditation first, then yoga. In yoga, my favorite asanas are- Padmasana , Surya Namaskar and another two asanas which I don't remember names. I usually, do other asanans but my favorite is these asnas. Then I do exercises. During exercises, I practice movement of neck as it is a very exercise for me as a dancer. After all my exercises, I practice some dance postures to make sure the fitness of my legs and hands. I go outside and jog for sometime. I usually jog for 2.5 KM. Due to the Pandemic, I a jogging at home by taking 10 rounds. I also march sometime, just for fun but it is also important.

After all this is done, it is time to relax. I feel relaxed and I get a satisfaction that I am fit and healthy. Before doing exercises, I used to feel a little bit too lazy but once I started my routine of exercises, I started to feel relaxed and happy to be fit and healthy.
So what are you waiting for start exercises right now and get a nice healthy and a fit life.

I also increase my concentration levels by doing exercises. Exercises also helps us to fight Covid-19 which has become a pandemic all over the world. When I went to a hilly region, in that place the air was fresh and all the people exercise every single day which makes them strong, boost their immunity and make them healthy. There was not even a single case all these 2 years of covid-19 or any disease.

After I saw these villager/people, I made up my mind to exercise every single day. What are you waiting for? start now?