Main Cabin Daily 15: “Metaphors and symbolism are common literary devices, but they can become quite a cliche. Fire for destruction, roses for love, light for hope, some symbols can be overused to the point they seem uncreative To circumvent this cliche, visit this project (https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/756858370/), and generate a random object and a concept that that object should symbolize in your writing. The harder it is to draw a connection between your concept and object, the better! 400 words for 400 points, and an additional 100 points for sharing your writing.”

Words (I say what the thing represented at the end btw): 706

Russia felt the air flow over him, twisting through his hair and tugging on his heartstrings painfully and the guilt washed over him. How could he? How could he love? It wasn’t true, he couldn’t believe it! He brought his head to his hands, digging fingernails into messy gray strands and fighting to tear away what he found there. At least then he would feel unloveable, and the whole rush of heat in his chest would be over with. He kicked his feet, but even though he should have felt them click click clicking against the back of the inside of his desk, he felt nothing. It was like he wasn’t even in his own body, like he wasn’t even there.

Would that be better than what he was currently dealing with?

The way his heart beat beat beat against his rips, fighting to break them as its voice, mechanical in sound, told him, “Oh don’t worry old chap! I’ve got your back!” Russia’s hands shook as it spun little circles around his lungs and stared down at the letter on his desk. “It’s not a real feeling! You might need some healing!”

He reached up shakily to wipe sweat off his forehead (his face was quite hot from that odd touch of love), but found it hard to feel any change. He wasn’t fully there.

“It can’t be love! If it’s a man you only shove!”

Russia felt himself nodding, even as his heart seemed to lie to itself, overheating on the inside but preaching the same old march with its voice. He fumbled with the letter, missing the swipe to open it with his letter opener a total of two times before giving up and tearing it open instead. (Really, when was he going to need an American flag sticker? Even if the little heart on the “i” in America made his own heart flutter in response.

But it ignored itself, singing instead. “A letter? In this weather?”

Russia scoffed, shaking the letter out of the packaging and feeling the world zip back into existence around him as it tapped its way onto the hard wooden top of his desk. It hit twice, first on one of its tiny corners, and then the flat back of the thing as gravity righted its weight. But just as quickly as the ticking of the clock took over the beating of his heart, the letter flopped shyly open, and Russia sucked in a quick breath as the world was shot away once more.

The lack of sound rang like a concert for a moment, but the concert dissipated into the echoing beats of his heart. Slowly speeding up, but always fighting what it felt, it screamed in his ears. “This is HIS fault! You have to halt!”

The room seemed gigantic (or did it seem tiny?) and was tickled by an odd sort of starlight as the cloudy snow let only pinpricks through his curtains. His eyes were blown, purple irises shaking in a way that was just slightly different from each other as his breathing sped up. Was this love? Was this how every man felt when he saw his wife on the street? How every boy felt when the prettiest girl sat at the table next to him?

Russia’s hands shook as he fought the blur, struggling to pick up the paper once more. But, no matter how hard he fought, the beating of his heart took over his mind, blurring the English that was scrawled lazily on the pinkish paper. His breath was fast, shaking like his hands and eyes as he fought the drumming beat of his heart.

The letter had drawn hearts on it, some crossed with smoothly drawn cartoon arrows, and even a few that appeared to be missing pieces, blasted away with the tough work of some other unknown projectile. Russia’s face was warm, but the words were unreadable to him as his heart tugged him further and further away from reality. Why? Why now?

At the bottom of the letter was his signature, and Russia bit his lip as the rest of the letter blurred and morphed in his eyes. If nothing else, he wanted to read his name.

Thing/prompt: A heart that represents the concept of denial

Weekly #3: “The third weekly is upon us- this week, we are centering around self-care! You can find it here: https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/post/6749799/ ”

(Like none of this needed proof, and words aren’t really included in this weekly for some reason??? Like it’s actually just self care stuff??? Uh, I swear I did actually do it, there’s just barely anything to count!)

Total Words: 844
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Writing dare (454 words): “how many hours did you sleep last night? multiply that by and write that many words. If you didn't sleep last night, add 3 zeros to that and write 1000 words.” https://scratch.mit.edu/studios/32408800/comments/#comments-203384357

Note: No concrete ending because it’s world building and if I wrote more I’d be going over.

Draco's teeth flashed as he smiled across the cavern, his eyes connecting with Flicker's in a friendly (yet somewhat daring) glow. She smiled back at him, her red feathered wings flickering. (They were nearly invisible in the darkness around her, the burning of the cavern's flames distracted his night vision from really kicking in.)

She was such a pretty dragon, eyes that glowed with a red fever, and paws that appeared larger than they really were thanks to her thick fluffy coat. (To the point that even if her claws were unsheathed, he may not have been able to see them. Her fur was that fluffy.) He waved his wing back at her and was suddenly aware of his own fur. Unlike Flicker, his fur was sleek and oily black, (if somewhat messy from a lack of grooming.)

He turned his head back to his food and grinned at the squirrel he found there. Ah yes, the reason why Flicker couldn't be with him while they ate.

Not only was Flicker a vegetarian (as in, by choice), her species was also built to be herbivores, so she generally spent her feeding time in the herbivore section of the cave. (Where dragons who, for some reason, chose to collect plants would drop off their catches.) It's not like she couldn't fly over to the carnivore section, other herbivores and omnivores did so all the time (there were more dragons to hang out with in the carnivore section), but the sight of delicious meals like squirrels tended to make her upset. Draco couldn't fathom WHY it upset her, but it was fine, they were still friends.

Draco chewed his squirrel thoughtfully, shifting his tail a bit to the side to let a rusty orange dragon walk past him. He wondered when he was going to be able to provide for mealtime, and then, once he could, what would he catch the most? The reason that he'd been eating squirrels so often as of late was almost certainly because the high level hunting class had just finished their forest hunting unit. (And they were obviously itching to show off their new skills.)

He really liked squirrels, but he didn't know if he had the stealth necessary to catch one, after all, dark fur like his was only good for hunting in darkness, and once he got his markings, even that would be difficult. He flicked his ear as a fly buzzed near him. He wondered if Flicker's family had developed to be herbivores because of their brightly colored pelts. (It was kind of hard to miss a bright red dragon jumping at you if you were an animal, but not so odd if you were a cabbage.

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Mini Self Care persuasion essay. (390 words.)

Self care is important, but we always find ourselves asking ourselves what the most important part of it will be for everyone. Of course this is different for everyone, and yet still we ask, but now it is my turn to persuade you on the two I think are of the UTMOST importance. Drinking water and eating well. Why are these the most important in my eyes? Because you’d die without them, duh. *ignores the fact that not sleeping and not exercising may/will also k1ll a person*

I really hate drinking water, but the thing is that I hate soda MORE, and since I’ve been sick the past week or so, and my family doesn’t buy juice (or soda for that matter) I’ve been only drinking water. Normally I basically only drink milk, which seems to be working fine so far, by the way, highly recommended, but for now I am stuck with water if I don’t want my throat to fill with snot. Water is important to the point that most people can only live three days without it (do NOT test that at home I am serious right now), so of course it is at the top of the list.

Yes, water tastes gross, but it is extremely important to the way your body performs in literally every task that you do, so that doesn’t matter in the long run. Besides, there are things to do to water that makes it taste way better! Freeze it! Fill it with bubbles! Use flavoring on it! Put it in a bowl and drink it out of that, pretending you are a stray cat drinking the small bit of clean water you will receive in two days! Lots of fun things to do!

And as for healthy eating, it is hard to figure out what will be healthy for you, but what you definitely need to do is eat food every day. This is hard for some people, but it’s important for many reasons to make sure it does happen. For example, like water, food is necessary to do your best on things like schoolwork and sports competitions. And if you want to do good on things like that, you should probably do your best to eat your best as well.

And that’s the end of my mini persuasive essay.

Main Cabin Daily 18: “We're always creating new, fun pieces of writing for each daily and weekly. But we shouldn't neglect our other works! Today, you will write 300 words towards a preexisting project, daily, weekly, or novel to gain 100 points for your cabin.”

I WROTE FOR THE POKESPE AU THAT I POSTED HERE BEFORE! ALSO ON “AYY OH THREE” UNDER MY USERNAME AND THE TITLE “OF HEROS AND TREES.” 1096 WORDS!! (The au is Pokemon Special but they have dragons instead of Pokemon, by the way.)


The camp was simple, with only a few places to hide from the sky above (which was where every threat seemed to be coming from, ignoring the dragon that had dug up from the earth not yet an hour before), but Red was too tired to care. He hadn’t been able to help as much as he had intended to, as his hands had acted up too much to lift some of the sticks he had been assigned to, but he was happy with what he had done. He stood there, moonlight filtering down onto him as he gazed proudly around the camp.

On one side was a small lean to, pushed nicely up against an extra thick maple tree and helped along with a couple of large-ish rocks. That was where Green had decided to sleep. (Red didn’t want to sleep next to someone he didn’t trust, and it was clear she was happy on her own anyway. …Especially because the maple was one of the only non-pine trees in the area. She didn’t want to get her hair messy.)

On the other side of the clearing was a slightly bigger lean to, this one made between two pine trees with a log in the back for extra support. The beam across the top has been lifted to its place by Kitty and the armored water dragon Red had still not learned the name of, but Pika still squeaked proudly when Red turned towards it. (The little dragon had carried a couple of leaves and twigs to make the walls, but Red could see that they had already blown off. …he didn’t tell Pika that though.)

Red shook his head to clear it, feeling Pika hop off his head and flap around indignantly as he did so. That was where he and Yellow would be sleeping, and it was also the current location of their bag. (‘Current’ because he simply didn’t trust Green not to take it and run away. Sure, she hadn’t stolen it back in the cave, but she clearly could have.)

With a crunch of pine nettles, he headed in the direction of his lean to, already mentaly preparing for the sticky sap that he and Yellow had just agreed to sleep in. He had been so tired just a minute ago, and now that he needed to get in there and protect the bag he was even more set in his path. Yellow was already in there, and the soft chirping from Green’s lean to told him that she was already where she was meant to be as well. (Leaving only him and Pika out in the cold. Given of course that Kitty and the other riding dragons were meant to be curled under the shade of a large uprooted tree.)

But as he crossed to his sleeping place, already yawning and halfway through stretching his arms into the air, a shadow crossed over the clearing. He froze immediately, and Pika zipped back to his shoulder hissing quietly as the two of them looked up at the sky.

There, above them, was a beautiful dragon.

It didn’t quite block out the moon, and Red could just barely tell what its fast moving shape even looked like. He caught two bat-like wings, each shadow shining at the edges as the moon made the creature into a silhouette, as well as a long spade tipped tail. He felt his mouth fall open as it circled above them, and his arms fell heavily at his sides when it let out a screaming roar. (He swore it was in awe and not because Pika had bit his shoulder at that exact moment. He swore it!) Yellow poked a worried head into the clearing, checking if everything was alright out there, and he heard quite muttering as Green asked what that sound had been, but Red was still frozen.

The dragon was beautiful, and as it circled one last time, he swore he saw an eye glint at him. (Something that could be all but confirmed by a sudden shock of electricity that Pika sent through him, clearly jealous of the attention that the other dragon was getting from him.)

“Red?” Asked Yellow, her worried voice prompting Red to turn to her, “Are you alright? I heard a weird noise?” Red glanced back up at the sky as he was jolted back towards the direction of the lean to, but he wasn’t lucky enough to spot the creature again. Just as it had appeared, it was gone.

“Yeah,” he laughed, climbing into the shelter when Yellow scooted back to make room for him, “Just saw a cool looking dragon, that’s all.” Pika hopped off his shoulder and immediately began to nuzzle noses with Chu Chu.

Yellow looked alarmed. “A cool dragon?” She asked, and Red suddenly wondered if she had heard what it had been saying, “Cool like the one back in the cave?”

Red shook his head, suddenly aware of a blanket stretched on the ground under them as he lay down. “No, that one was mean,” he waved his hand at Yellow, pushing away an interruption she was about to give him (he had gotten good at spotting them over the years), “This one was really cool.”

Yellow laughed, laying down as well, her head only coming up to his chest as they both stretched their legs out all the way. (Red noticed how dark it was in the lean to, the moon didn’t really make it in here, after all.) “Alright,” she said, “He didn’t seem to be yelling about being hungry or anything, so I believe you.”

She didn’t flinch when ChuChu hopped onto her chest, even though Red struggled not to cough when Pika jumped onto his.

“You understood the roar? What was he saying?”

He heard the blanket shift as she looked up at him.

“Well, they weren’t really words…” She murmured, clearly struggling to explain how her ‘understanding dragons’ thing worked, “More like… thoughts.”

He raised his eyebrows. He’d known her for many years and she had not once told him that she could read dragon’s minds. “You can read dragon’s minds?” He asked, making sure he had heard her right.

“Well, that’s not quite right either,” she didn’t really sound convinced, but she sure did sound confused, “It’s kinda more like they let me read their minds, and then I understand what they’re saying also.”

“Ah,” Red smiled, his tone joking as he continued, “That really clears things up, thank you Yellow.”

She laughed and smacked him lightly.

Main Cabin Daily 19: “Today, the Main Cabin is a Bestselling Bookstore! Why not take a look around and browse some books? And surely you want your own works on the shelves? Write 50 words describing your book in the Main Cabin for 100 points. Then, take a look around. If you see another book you'd be interested in buying, say so in a reply to that comment!”

Words: 91

When you selected the bookshelf to check if the puzzle ended there, you spotted a book instead. It was black and red, with rusted iron twirling to bind it shut like a sketchbook. Confused, you flick mindlessly through its pages. It IS a sketchbook! (If old and already filled with art.) You trace a drawing of a Pokemon character with your finger and try to ignore the mess of red ink on the opposite page. Who would make something like this? Your fingers tingle. Maybe it could help with the puzzle?

Weekly #4: “It’s time for our final weekly! The Absurdy Birdy Wordy Crawl is based around the classic format of the traditional word crawl, a themed set of writing challenges meant to encourage the writer to complete a long piece of fiction. (With that in mind, we recommend you write a continuous piece as you work through the ABWC.) Click here to begin: ( https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/762359450/ )”

Total Words: 6,396

Note: The WPM I was using for this was 75-ish. (Every time I take the test it varies WILDLY.)

Notes for story: I mixed up events a little bit because I haven’t read this part of the series in a while, sorry.
Also it ends REALLY abruptly and weirdly, but it's because this was written for the weekly and there was a weird prompt right at the end and I couldn't write any more because of the rules.
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Thing 1: “Write 100 words to begin your adventure.”
Words: 104

Green felt the edge of her mouth twitch into a frown as the constant clatter of the hideout burst through her ears, beating against her skull and trying to worm its way into her brain. She squeezed her eyes shut, but it didn't make much of a difference. The hideout was dark on its own, both in its emotions and its actual lighting situation, and it definitely didn't need her help to be any darker. She fought the urge to cry. What would the Mask of Ice do if he saw her crying? He was trying to raise her to be strong, not wimpy!

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Thing 2: “(Horror) Activity: Write for five minutes at your own pace.”
Words: 235

She sucked down her tears. And just in time, too, because there was a knock at the door not even a moment later. “Just a moment!” Green called, fumbling for her mask, surprising herself with how calm her voice sounded, it was like she hadn’t even been crying. “I haven't got my mask on!”
There was a small shuffle at the door that Green took as acceptance of what she needed to do. (Whoever was on the other side must have been in a good mood then, the masked children weren’t ever meant to remove their masks. Especially not in the daytime.)

But even when she was aware of this, Green’s hands still shook as she lifted the mask to her face. No matter how smooth and pearly white the outside seemed, the smudged tears that she knew covered the inside made it a horrible sight. She knew she was just a little girl, but something about these masks (and all the rules that came with them) made her feel a bit off. How was it right for six children, taken from their parents at various ages (though all far too young), to grow up in complete darkness? Eyes covered by the only partially see through mesh of an icey mask.

But she slipped it over her head anyway, ignoring the tug at her hair as the band got momentarily stuck in the brown strands.

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Thing 3: “(Adventure) Activity: Sprint until your word count reaches the next 1000.”
Words: 665

She had gotten used to the treatment. How could she not have? It was all she'd ever known, after all. She sighed and leaned her head against the chair behind her, bracing herself for the argument she was sure to have. (It's all she'd been having recently. The two oldest masked children had taken a special liking to starting arguments with her whenever they could, and knocking on her door and politely waiting just to start a fight with her was exactly the kind of thing that they would do.)

Once she felt sufficiently prepared, Green pushed herself back into a sitting position and turned towards the door. (She heard the knob rattle slightly as the person on the other side began to grow impatient.) “Come in?” She called, her words a question as the shadow of her mask blurred her vision. “Unless the door's locked or something-,”

The squeak of the door opening cut her off. (A girl like her didn't need to speak if the suggestion had already answered itself, did she.) For a moment no words were passed between the two of them, but Green's eyes widened under her mask as she saw that the shadow in the door was none other than the Mask of Ice himself.

Panicking slightly, she hurriedly bowed, dropping her head in what she hoped was a sufficiently grateful looking greeting. (The Mask had never actually hurt her for being rude before, but she was smarter than to leave such a horrible person without the treatment of respect that they assumed they deserved. Even if they were wrong. Even if the only thing she wanted to do was rip that stupid mask off his face right in front of him.) What else COULD she do?

“Ah, Green.” His voice was gravely as he spoke.

She looked up at him, caught off guard by the use of her name, and her hands shook as she saw the way his icy body towered far above her. “Mask of Ice,” she greeted him, trying to keep the shaking out of her voice, and ultimately failing fairly badly, “Are you doing well?”

He raised one of his hands, and Green flinched back. (She had told the Mask of Ice himself that she hadn't been wearing her mask. Was she blameable for fearing the worst?) But instead of hurting her, he only waved his hand dismissively. “Enough with the pleasantries,” his voice sounded like it was coming from all around her, rather than from his mouth, “I have a mission to ask of you.”

She raised her eyebrow, and even though he couldn't see her reaction he seemed to sense her interest. (Missions ranged far in what they included, but Green was absolutely itching to do something, ANYTHING that wasn't studying Pokemon evolution textbooks until her fingernails began to pick themselves off.) “…What kind of mission?” she asked, noticing a distinct blur in her voice as her mask slipped. She reached up to touch it, but was reassured to feel that it had stayed in the same place.

Seeming not to notice, or at least ignoring the check she performed, the Mask of Ice laughed. It was a loud laugh, and as his name suggested, it was ever so cold. Green tilted her head to the side. It had been a serious question, but now worry was pricking on the back of her neck. If this evil creature was reacting like THAT to her wanting to do something, there was absolutely no reason why she should want to do it, was there? (Or at least, the reason for going was going to be heavily overshadowed by something far too dangerous for even a resourceful girl like herself to deal with. Such a thing had happened before, and just being young didn't make her naive, she knew that lightning could strike twice.)

“What kind of mission?” She asked again, taking half a step forward before thinking better of it and stepping back again.

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Thing 4: “(Real Fi) Activity: Write for 5 minutes and if you didn’t write WPM x5, sprint for ten more minutes.”
Words: 600

The Mask of Ice smiled, or, at least, his voice sounded like he was smiling. (Green couldn't see his face, obviously.) “I believe that we've spoken about this particular mission before?”

Green's mind began to race. She'd performed plenty of missions for the Mask of Ice, and at the end of nearly every one they seemed to have a conversation about a mission that nobody ever went on. (But which one?) She remembered a particular situation. The first mission she'd been on, and at the same time the first time she had stolen. A situation where Green had just managed to take an ice stone from the home at the bottom of Evolution Mountain. The Mask had been proud of her, and she had felt an odd sort of pride in that. Her hands had itched with cold, ice stones were cold, apparently, but she had smiled as she handed it over anyway. He had sounded proud of her as he praised her, and at the time that had felt good.

Green knew better than to view him as a father now. (But she couldn't lie and say that she didn't miss the odd kindness of that particular interaction. It really had made her feel that she had a parent, if just for a moment.)

Evolution mountain had been a long trip from wherever their current location was (whenever they went in and out of the compound, the Mask of Ice made sure everyone's eyes were entirely covered, so she had no clue were they were), and the long trip had made her think. Especially on the way back, after she had stolen her stone. He'd let her hold it on the way back, and she'd spent that time flipping it over and over in her hand, watching as the frozen looking edges seemed to frost under her touch. Freezing and unfreezing but never changing its composition.

It was then that she had really realized what had happened to her.

Tears had dripped from her eyes, but they'd been caught by her mask, sending them back up at her in a humiliating display that only she could see. She had tried not to be heard by the others, but she could feel eyes on her the whole way home. (She hadn't known who at the time, but she now had the suspicion that it may have been the Mask of Ice himself, watching hungrily as his experiments were affected by their situation and actions for the first time.)

When they had gotten back to the base (and after the bandana had been untied from her head), he had confronted her. He towered over her as he did now, non-human limbs poking like icicles out from under his cloak and icey hair wavering like anything but human hair in the breeze. He had reached a hand to her, seeming to smile under his mask as she cowered from him, the bandana still half on her head.

“There's no reason to be afraid, child,” he had whispered, his voice as scratchy as it was now, “I'm simply asking for you to return the ice stone.”

She knew that that was a lie. (How could you return a stolen object to someone that you didn't even steal it from?) But she handed it across anyway. He had positively grinned as he slipped it under his cloak, dropping down to his knees to bring that horrible mask eye to eye with hers.

“How about another mission?” He said. His voice was gravelly against her ears, “Another chance for my little thief to prove herself?”

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Thing 5: “(Poetry) Activity: Multiply your WPM by 10 and sprint for that many seconds.”
Words: 462

Green dragged her thoughts away from the past. (It didn’t matter now, in the present.) And just in time too, because it was only a second later that the mask of ice finally answered her question.

“I want you do find me another child to take care of,”

Green stared at him, her hands immediately beginning to shake with the suggestion of those words. Another child? Did that mean that the Mask of Ice was thinking about having more people? More people like her? Stolen away from their parents far too young? What would he even do now, repeat the ages? There were no more children two years apart from the oldest here. And he wanted her to find one to steal?

“E- excuse me?” She asked, her voice sounding indignant and confused when she finally spoke, “You want ME to kidnap someone?”

The Mask tutted dismissively, waving the words away like they were a bad smell in the air. “Kidnap is the wrong word my dear, I want you to add another worker to our ranks.”

“But the ice sculpture…” Green murmured, weakly. (An outdated art piece was the least of her worries if the Mask of Ice himself had asked her to steal children from their families. How would she even go about doing that? Even outside of the moral reasons actually HOW?)

The Mask of Ice stood up suddenly, “If you don’t want to do the mission that’s alright,” he said. (He sounded like he was thinking better of it himself.) “It was only an idea,” he turned for the door, but right as his hand was about to close around the knob, he stopped. “Still,” he said, his voice muffled by the distance between them, “I would’ve thought that a student as loyal as yourself would jump at the chance.”

Green froze, her hands continuing to shake. Of course it was a test! Since when hasn't such a question been a test? The Mask had been saying for the longest time that they had enough children here as it was, he didn’t need more. Shakily, she answered his taunting. “Of course I would sir,” she said, her voice quiet enough that she had to worry if he could hear her clearly, “I was just worried about the logistics of what they would do to your age experiment, that’s all.”

Seemingly reassured, the Mask laughed. “Of course you were my dear! Nothing better to be expected from such a great student!” And with a swipe of his cloak and a shuttering crash of the closing door, he was gone.

For a moment Green’s chest swelled with pride, but she shook the feelings away with horror. What was she doing? Those emotions weren’t what she was meant to be feeling!

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Thing 6: “(Mystery) Activity: Sprint for five minutes.”
Words: 160

Green stared at the door, now closed nicely in its frame. What was she thinking? She’d realized long ago that she was alone here. (Or, she and Silver were alone here. That poor kid needed her.) What was it in her business to feel pride when the Mask of Ice complimented her? Exactly, such a thing should make her feel bad, such an embarrassing not-quite-human shouldn’t be able to make her feel anything but rage.

She stood up, and was distantly surprised to feel her legs shaking like slightly warm jell-o. (She hadn’t realized that the encounter had scared her so much! What was going on these days?) In an attempt to calm herself down, she took in a deep breath. Whatever was going on here, she wanted out. She didn’t know HOW she was going to get out, but she would be stupid to stay here any longer.

She and Silver needed to get away from this horrible man.

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Thing 7: “(Bi Fi) Activity: Roll a die and multiply that number by 100, write that many words.”
Words: 201

That night, Green began to try and figure out the best path out of the compound, but she struggled to find much luck in the activity. No matter how many times she tried to make it to the one and only exit, there was always some sort of guard in the way. Whether it be the silent threat of an ice sculpture (ready to get up and move at any time), one of the older children, or a horrifying moment where the Mask of Ice himself walked past her. (Somehow, he looked much shorter than he ever had in daylight.)

It got to the point that when she slipped back into her bed, she was half expecting to find a Swinub or a Froslass waiting for her. (But of course there was no such thing, no one had seen her. If they had she would be sitting in front of the Mask of Ice right now, giving her case as to why she should be allowed to live on. He wouldn't kill her, but the last time she'd been caught outside of her room she had been sent to work in the basement for the next month.)

She froze. The basement!

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Thing 8: “(Real Fi) Activity: Continue writing your story for ten minutes.”
Words: 477

Why hadn’t she thought of it before? The basement was the perfect way out of here! She knew how to get in there, and it especially helped that people occasionally got sent down there for misbehaving, so if someone saw her walking in there in the night, nothing would seem off! There were air ducts in the ceiling (she knew because she’d seen a Spinerack fall out of one before), and she knew for a fact that she could fit into them. It would be a bit hard to find which one went where, but she trusted herself in her idea!

But then again…

Green glanced around the upper portions of her room. There were no air ducts there, at least not ones big enough for her to fit in. She had never seen air ducts like that anywhere but the basement before, and besides, that was where the Mask spent most of his time, going in there for that reason would just be a bad idea.

Still though, there were other reasons why one would want to go to the basement. For instance, the feathers that sat on the Mask of Ice’s desk. One rainbow and soft, and the other silver and oily, they glowed with an important air. Plus, he cared a lot about them. (And she would be lying if she said she didn’t want to get back at such an evil man. Taking something that he loved wouldn’t make up for what he had done to hers and other’s parents, but it would certainly be a start.)

She rolled over in her bed, staring across the room to where she knew Silver lay. He breathed slowly and steadily as he slept, red hair falling in waves over his still masked face. She felt a sudden shock of anger fill her as she watched him. In a normal life, they may never have met, but even that sadness would be worth it for the small boy not to feel the pain that she knew filled him. He didn’t deserve this. She didn’t deserve this. They needed to get out!

Green flopped back onto her back, eyes trained strongly on the ceiling above her. She didn’t know when they would get out, but she knew it had to happen soon. Yes, she was only a small girl, and her only Pokemon was a not-so-high-level Jigglypuff, but she had to do it. For Silver.

She fiddled with the edge of her blanket as she attempted to calm her heart.

To break out of here, she needed a better plan. (And the only way she could get a good plan would be to first go to sleep. Brains worked better with more rest.)

So that’s what she did, tired eyes closing as she began to fight her awakeness. (And thankfully, this night only took a little while.)

-

Thing 9: “(Sci Fi) Activity: Handwrite a scene in your story and then type it out.”
Words: 379

When the artificial light of morning filtered its way into her eyes, Green was rested and ready to start her day. Sure, she wasn’t exactly sure what to do with her PLAN yet, but she was quite ready for her day. At some point in her falling asleep thinking, she had come up with the idea of checking out the layout of the compound as she went about her day. Of course she had it memorized, but there was no harm in trying to figure out the best path to run in the daylight rather than the night, was there?

She swung her legs over the side of her bed and felt a grin spread across her still masked face as Jigglypuff floated up from the corner. Good! She was healed. (The last training session with her Pokemon partner had featured an especially mean attack, leaving her out of commission for the past three days. But Green hadn’t been worried. Jigglypuff had always bounced right back before.)

“How are you doing?” She asked, laughing as the Pokemon chirped and swirled around her, floating just as easily as Green could walk, “Much better?”

The Pokemon laughed and nodded, practically throwing herself at Green in an ultra soft hug. For a moment they stayed like that, girl and Pokemon caught in an unbreakable hug, but it had to end eventually.

Green pulled back, still holding her Pokemon’s little hands as she grinned at her. “I’ve got a plan!” she whispered, not even bothering to check if Silver was still in the room, kid was either asleep, training or crying in the bathroom, “A plan to get us out of here!” Jigglypuff trilled and grinned back at her, but Green couldn’t help but catch a bit of doubt in her eyes.

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, but this time it’s different!” She laughed, fighting back a shiver as she remembered the past few times she’d tried to run away (she’d never gotten very far before), “I promise you I really think this’ll work!” Jigglypuff laughed, but Green wasn’t lying. Deep in her heart, she could feel the tug of adventure. (A tug she hadn’t felt since her last thief mission.) Something about this time was different. Something about this time was real.

-

Thing 10: “(Thriller) Activity: Use a random number generator to find your word count for the next five paragraphs.” (WARNING, I DID THIS WRONG! I GENERATED 397 AND MADE THAT FOR THE NEXT FIVE INSTEAD OF GENERATING THEM INDIVIDUALLY! SORRY!)
Words: 397

Green headed for the door, slinging a string bag full of evolution textbooks over her shoulder as she went. She didn't exactly want to go about her training, but step one to every plan was making sure she could start step two, and there was no escaping if the Mask of Ice or the other children thought she was acting odd. (Her eyes traced over Silver's bed for only a moment. He wasn't there, she'd have to tell him her plan later.) She pushed open the door, and her gloved hands slipped over the smooth gray surface without a second thought. The day had begun, she had to get to work.

Green stared out into the hallway, checking both ways before finally deciding that it was safe to go. She didn't really have a reason WHY she was acting so scared, but she certainly didn't have reason not to. Moving smoothly, she chuckled at her own sense of humor as she and Jigglypuff made their way out into the hallway. (No matter how many times she had seen it, Green couldn't help but cringe as she looked at the sharp triangular edges of the walls. It was just so empty here.) Little pieces of art decorated the otherwise bland hall, but she would be a fool to think that a sculpture or a painting here and there was a replacement for a happy and full environment.

Still, Green moved on, stretching casually as she walked in front of a fake plant pot that she knew had a camera in it. (She'd seen the lens herself, back when she was still curious about what lay in the depths of the compound.) Jigglypuff followed her movements, and she couldn't help but laugh when she looked back at her. It wasn't her fault! Jigglypuff looked rather ridiculous doing something meant for humans, and carrying out a serious mission made no change to that truth.

“Jigglypuff,” she laughed, walking backwards as she talked to her Pokemon, “Are you feeling tired or something?”

The Pokemon trilled and circled around her as if to tell her that she was completely fine. (But Green could see it in her eyes. She was definitely tired.) “You've never been very good at lying,” she pointed out, turning back to face forward and swinging her arms a little more than was strictly necessary, “You know that, right?”

-

Thing 11: “(Script) Activity: Sprint for four minutes.”
Words: 223

Her Pokemon giggled sheepishly, deflating slightly and floating just a bit closer to her. She wasn’t a good liar, and both of them clearly knew that.

“Oh that’s all right Jigglypuff,” Green laughed, patting the soft pink Pokemon on the head as she floated down to her. (Eventually landing on her back like she herself was part of the string backpack that Green had slung over her back.) “We all have our bad traits,” she felt a smirk pass over her face, invisible under her mask, “Except for me of course, I have no flaws.”

She felt a dull smack on the back of her head as Jigglypuff wacked her. She laughed, reaching back to rub her now aching skull. “Alright, I deserve that one,” she murmured, patting her Pokemon again as her footsteps slowed slightly. (Something about the hallway didn’t feel quite right.)

She paused, really focusing on that feeling. (And on her back, Jigglypuff froze, her ears twitching as she searched for any sort of oddness in the air.) The air felt cold on her skin, and Green couldn’t help but wonder if she had somehow wandered into one of the many ‘forbidden’ areas of the compound. (She wasn’t sure why such areas were easily accessible by the masked children, but then again, nothing the Mask of Ice did made sense.)

-

Thing 12: “(Fan Fi) Activity: Write for ten minutes. If you don’t reach 200 words, write 100 more.”
Words: 455

“Oh where am I?” Green breathed, his voice a squeak against the sudden silence of the dark hall around her. She’d lived in this horrible place for nearly as long as she could remember, but something about right here was wrong. Had she taken a wrong turn somewhere?

Jigglypuff trilled uncomfortably, lifting delicately into the air and pulling gently on the back of Green’s mask in an effort to make her turn back around. (And after a creak sounded from somewhere in the shadows in front of her, Green didn’t need to be told twice.) In fact, she nearly tripped over herself as she practically ran back the way she had come. Wherever she was, it was not a part of her escape plan.

It took only a few minutes to get back to a place she recognized, but her mind was busy the whole run back. Mentaly mapping out the compound and telling herself that that direction, wherever she had just gone, was certainly off limits for an escape into the world. (It was no use getting more lost if she was planning to become un-lost.) Once she was back to the ‘safety’ of the normal gray though, she was able to recover.

She looked over her shoulder as a shiver passed through her. Maybe a bit of evolution studying was a good idea after all.

…

The day continued that way, blurs of fear whenever she would take a break and stumble down some previously unknown hall (either the compound was getting bigger by the day or she had not explored as much as she thought she had). So by the time she had stumbled back into her room, her entire body aching from a tough battle session, she just barely remembered that she had wanted to tell Silver her plan for escape.

But when she looked at him, already collapsed and half asleep in his bed, she couldn’t bring herself to say the words out loud. (How could she? What if they ended up being a lie?) She shook her head, readjusting her mask slightly as he plopped down into her bed, Jigglypuff floating dizzily after her. That wasn’t it. She had to stay strong! She wasn’t telling him because she wanted it to be a surprise for him, not because she didn’t think it would work. (And if that wasn’t true, then she just had to keep telling herself that until it was true.)

That night Green didn’t sleep well, and when she woke in the morning she woke to the banging of metal as the older children bashed into her and Silver’s room. Confused, she shot up, her hair a mess from forgetting to braid it the night before. “What-?”

-

Thing 13: “(Fantasy) Activity: Free writing! Go write 250 more words.”
Words: 264

“Wake up lazy pants!” Laughed one of the children, his masked face and smooth black hair just barely blurring into her eyes as she struggled out of her bed, “The Masked Man wants to speak with you!”

And just like that, Green was awake as a shock of terror shot through her body. “Uh, did he say why?” She asked, hoping to sound at least slightly casual and not like she was about to soil her skirt, “And did you NEED to wake us up like that?”

The older child laughed, and the tall one next to him struck a pose. (Green thought that her skirt looked tacky with her hair style.) “Of course we do!” She said, her voice sounded sing songey, “After all, you spent quite enough time yesterday wandering around, you need someone to smack you back into shape!”

So that's what this was about.

Green groaned as she tugged on her boots. “Great,” she muttered, grabbing her bag with one hand and pushing a path between the two trainers with the other, “Just what I needed at eight o'clock in the morning.”

The shorter one laughed, but the anger-inducing sound was quickly muffled as Green made her way out into the hallway. (The door sliding softly shut behind her.) But the moment she was out of the older children's view, she began to panic. If they knew that she had been walking around yesterday, and the Mask of Ice wanted to speak to her, there was a high chance that she might be in trouble for wanting to get away!

-

Thing 14: “(Folklore) Activity: Slow writing time! Write 250 words taking as much time as you’d like.”
Words: 250

But even with her fear, Green sucked it up. (It was what she was used to doing, how could you blame her for it?) She shook her head once, checked that her mask was secured on her face, and began to trek down to the Masked Man's study.

Once she got there however, after what felt like miles of nearly empty halls, her hands still shook at the door. There was no knob, just the regular motion sensor, but she still froze as it slowly slid open. Her heart was in her throat, her thoughts were rushing too hard to read any of them, and her legs felt like jelly in a bowl too big for them. Thankfully though, the Mask didn't give her very long to boil in her terror. (In fact, she was so scared that she hardly registered that the lights in the study were off.)

“Ah, Green,” came the familiar voice, emotionless from somewhere in the darkness ahead of her, “Do come in, we have much to discuss.”

She gulped, but though her feet threatened to stay stuck in place she managed to tear herself forward. (It really was quite a struggle to move, what with the terror burning like a disease in her bones.) “Masked Man,” she said, her voice shaking slightly as she spoke, “Why do you call me down here?”

There was a dry laugh in the darkness, and with a click of some lightswitch, Green was blinded as the lights flicked on.

-

Thing 15: “(Non Fi) Activity: Deep thinking time! Write for 26 minutes.”
Words: 782

“I called you down here to talk,” he said, his voice flat and gravely from behind his mask. (Green's eyes could barely make him out, momentarily blinded as she was.) “To talk about your recent behavior.”

She swallowed heavily, “Uh, what behavior?” she asked, playing dumb to her best ability. She tilted her head to the side and felt her hair slip off her shoulder and down her side. “I’ve been doing just the same as always.”

The Mask of Ice stared at her for a moment, clearly trying to find a lie in her statement. (As far as he knew, she had been acting like this for a while, he never paid much attention to the children.) “Your exploration of the base,” he hissed, “You are meant to use your free time for training.”
He looked her up and down, and even though she was wearing a mask and he couldn’t see her face, she smiled reassuringly. “I finished my books and training,” she realized she was nearly pleading and had to catch herself, “But if you want me to spend more time I can do that instead, I didn’t know I was doing anything wrong, honest!”

He stared for a little bit longer, lifting an icy hand and then lowering it again, as if thinking better about what he had been about to do. “Yes,” he murmured, his voice strangely muffled behind his mask (strange because he never sounded muffled), “That sounds like a good plan, and,” he reached behind himself, his face somehow never turning away from her as he grabbed another textbook, “This is the next level of your curriculum, be sure to read it thoroughly this time,”

Green bowed politely, reaching forward and taking the book from him. (It was rather heavy in her small arms.) “Thank you,” she smiled, keeping the quiver out of her voice for just a moment longer (she couldn’t believe her little fib had worked, he must be in a rather good mood), “I will.”

The Mask of Ice waved his hand dismissively, and Green quickly scurried back the way she came. He shoved the book into her bag with shaking hands, and once the door had closed behind her, she immediately relaxed. (And then quickly thought better of it, there was probably a camera watching her.)

“Jigglypuff!” she called, as if just then realizing that her Pokemon had not followed her into the study, “Where are you?” She looked around the hall, once again cursing the small eye holes in her mask as she struggled to find her puffy pink Pokemon.

“I’m heading back to the study room,” she called, giving up as an effect of her shaking body, “Feel free to catch up with me!”

…

Later that night, after Green had found Jigglypuff and read at least the first chapter of her new book, she finally found it in herself to talk to Silver. (The day was long, but Green had long since realized that they had to get out of there. Now. The Mask knew that she wasn’t acting right, and he was sure to realize her lie sooner or later.)

“Silver,” she whispered, shaking him (and consequently his Sneasel) awake, “Wake up buddy!”

With a groan, he rolled over, his voice tired as he asked her, “What? Why?”

It was a fair question, but Green ignored his confusion and dragged him to his feet. “We have to get out of here!” She hissed, shaking him again as he rubbed a hand over his mask (seeming to forget that he was wearing one), “And we’ve only got tonight to do it!”

He looked at her for a moment, frozen in confusion. His Sneazle squeaked, offended, but as Green looked worriedly to the door, Silver’s loyalty came through. “Okay,” he said, his voice tired and small as he readjusted his coat (and it was with mild horror that Green saw that he had worn his boots to bed), “I’m ready.”

Green grinned at him, and Jigglypuff trilled, excited. “Then let’s go!”

They slunk through the halls as quietly as they could, but Silver was so small and tired that he couldn’t really hide the way Green could, so it was unfortunately not a surprise when they were spotted.

“Run Silver!” Green yelped, feeling the eyes of the older child on her as the other hit the alarm next to them, “Run!” But Silver was frozen, and Green found herself having to drag him after her as they pelted towards a hiding place. There was a psychic barrier around this place, and Green knew she had to hurry, but getting out of the older trainer’s sight was more important now.

-

Thing 16: “(Dystopian) Activity: Ask the main cabin for a story starter and incorporate it into your story.”
Prompt (by @IvyCreations): “Ahafgh ;-; uhhh,, what about,,, someone finds?? a cat and it's got?? stripes and it's really cute and that's it the end”
(Link: https://scratch.mit.edu/studios/32140121/comments/#comments-204167826)
Words: 636

The run was terrifying, a blur of searchlights as the two burst out the door and into the courtyard, lights flashing after them as they ducked between torn up training fields and stunted trees. Green was breathing hard, but she held onto Silver’s wrist with the strength of a mama Ursaring as she tugged him after her.

But just as soon as it had started, it was over, and Green and Silver were tucked ‘safe’ behind another building. Her breath came in gasps, but she found herself speaking anyway. (Whispering of course, any louder might end badly.) “Are you alright, Silver?” She asked, feeling him collapse over her legs as he struggled to breath.

He nodded under his mask, and Green watched as his Sneasel pulled him to more of a crouching position. “Today is the only day we can make our escape,” she murmured, glancing around the edge of the building to check if the coast was clear before she asked the most crazy question yet.

“Let’s pull off our masks before we break out of here,” she breathed, not at all surprised when Silver turned to her, confused, “You know, as a bit of pre-celebration,” she grinned, still struggling to catch her breath as she looked over at him, “It’ll be one awesome ‘heck you’ to the Masked Man.”

Silver nodded, and without another word, he placed his hands on the edge of Green’s mask. She grinned and turned to him, putting her fingers under the edge of his as she began to count. “One,” she said, bracing herself.

“Two,” Silver muttered, his voice soft.

“Three!” They both yelped, yanking the masks away as they fell backwards into the bushes. (Masks were near impossible to take off in the vicinity of another person, so the fact that they came off at all was nearly a miracle.)

“Just as I thought,” Green laughed, looking down at Silver’s mask that rested in her hands. “He’s weak today!” She turned to Silver, and tried not to be surprised by the face she saw. She had expected the red hair of course, she’d been seeing it for what felt like forever, but his Silver eyes were a shock to her. They made sense of course, I mean, why name your child Silver if they didn’t have silver eyes to go with it, but it was still a surprise.

Sill, she smiled at him, reaching out to touch his tired looking face. “So that’s what you look like!” she exclaimed, already mentaly checking over her map of the basement tunnels as she struggled to her feet. But it was useless, the excitement of the moment had pushed her plan away from her.

“No,” she muttered, looking around herself in an effort to wake herself to her memory, “No I knew it just a moment ago-,” Silver was looking at her, confusion lighting his eyes as he watched her snap her head this way and that, trying to find something. She couldn’t forget now, not when they were so close to being free, not when Silver’s mask was grasped in her hand. Green’s hands shook and her breathing came hard. Not now! Please, not now!

Suddenly, out of the corner of her eye, she spotted an animal.

It was a cat.

She tilted her head to the side, his worries suddenly quelled as the rare animal sat casually by a collection of bushes. What was it doing here? She slunk a little closer, and she felt Jigglypuff float up after her, just as confused as she was. If a cat was in the compound, that meant it had to have found a way in. And, her eyes widened, that meant it had a way out!

“Silver!” She hissed, suddenly remembering the way out (the cat had reminded her), “Follow me!”

-

Thing 15: “Write a hundred final words.”
Words: 105
…

Green smiled, her mind itching as the memory pushed itself away from her. It was like an old friend, interesting to none but her and Silver. The story of two children, their Pokemon, and a very lucky cat. The story of freedom, the story of life beginning.

Of course there was more to it, but Green found that all memories were the best when they ended on the best (and totally not at all embellished) parts of them. She snickered and sat up, watching as Jiggly (her Jigglypuff had a name now) floated a few inches above her coffee table. What a memory it was.

-
Final Save Code: Your Journey: horror, option #2, adventure, option #3, hifi, option #2, poetry, option #3, mystery, option #3, bifi, option #2, realfi, option #3, scifi, option #2, thriller, option #2, script, option #2, fanfi, option #2, fantasy, option #3, folklore, option #2, nonfi, option #2, dystopian, option #2

Word war with @RLove10. I lost

Words: 363

Gold felt a drip of sweat fall down his chin as he stared off into the darkness. (Where was he? He didn't know. The only thing that he knew was that he was definitely lost.) Scared, he looked over his shoulder, feeling the weight of the man he carried on his back pushing him further and further into the rotting forest ground. Of course it was none of the man's fault, but he seemed to be getting heavier and heavier by the second.

Gold felt his breath come in heavy gasps as he struggled to make a few steps forward. How had he gotten himself into this mess? It was like that time when he was younger, back when the mask of ice was still a powerful force that they had to fight against. (But also back when he didn't even know who the mask of ice was.) He felt his hands shake. What had happened that time? The man he carried had been possessed rather horrifically, that's what.

He felt a nervous shiver run down his spin as his grip on the man lessened slightly. He sure hoped that wasn't what was happening now. (I mean, it was very unlikely, as wild Gastley's didn't just take over bodies for no reason. At least not most of the time.) But he still feared it. That occurrence was admittedly pretty low on the list of terrifying things that he had dealt with, but it had still been horrifying. This mark of terror helped along by the fact that it was one of the first REALLY BAD things to happen to him.

At least really bad things that were related to region politics/the life of humanity in general, and not just him.

If he was counting all that, Gold would have a lot more to be scared of.

He gulped down a gasp of air, somewhat shocked he had made it this far. (Even if the trees did nothing but bear down on him, and the mud only got closer and closer with each step.) But hey, one only had their accomplishments to be proud of, and this certainly counted as an accomplishment, right?

Main Cabin Daily 21: “Have you heard the famous phrase ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’? Today, we ask you to find a picture on onceuponapicture.co.uk (if you don't have access to the site, you can choose a picture from this project: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/764339470/ ), take a look at the questions associated with it, and write a story based on the picture. If there are prompts, you are welcome to use them if you wish, but you do not have to. Make sure to answer some of the questions about it in your writing. The final piece should be at least 400 words for 400 points. (If you want to honor the adage, you can write 1k words as well, but you will not receive extra points for that) Also, Cabin Wars are tomorrow!”

Picture picked: https://www.onceuponapicture.co.uk/portfolio_page/can-not-replay/

Total Words: 662

Words for story.: 444

The man’s hands drifted over the keys of the piano, hardly hearing what they played as the glowing light of time kept his fingers in motion. His hair was in his eyes, but he didn’t dare pause to move it, not with the endless ticking of time and timeless march of his music. (Though the sheetmusic to his madness had long since been lost.) His piano, black, sleek, and new, would not be so beautiful once his time was up, but he fought not to dwell on it.

He only had one chance to play, one shot at making a piece of music strong enough to make wings glide over him. (Enveloping him in their cold, feathery embrace.)

He let out a breath, hands moving at a breakneck pace over controlled staccatos and fortes, smoothly shifting through slurs into a beautiful pianissimo, before climbing back to a screaming fortissimo. (It threatened to break the ticking of time around him, so beautiful and horrible it was, crashing through his ears and stabbing clean through his skull. He was lucky that it didn’t destroy his ability to play, sharp and stabbing as it was.)

The man bit his lip, his arm suddenly shocked to freeze as the pain of a wrong note shot up his arm. It hurt like poisoned blood, darkening the veins under his skin like the stain of a broken pen, ink spilling like oil into an ocean. But one wrong note was not a problem, he told himself, knowing it to be true, the problem would be continuing to mess up. Continuing to ruin the paper, continuing to spoil the ocean with wave upon wave of blackness.

He focused, his own breath hot on his arms as his fingers resumed their dance, tripping over themselves only once more before getting back into their correct shoes. (And it wasn’t even a bad slip up this time, hardly halting the clock that ticked ever so close over his head.) He smiled and closed his eyes, letting the path of the song take him once more, combing his hair back and tucking his shirt back in as he settled into the professional march that his music had taken on.

He let himself play. Dancing across keys and doubling back on himself, like his fingers were chasing each other around in some sort of vicious hunt. (But lacking the expert scent of a bloodhound, he didn’t have access to such luxuries when his time was almost up.) He only had one shot at this.

One shot at greatness.

One shot at freedom.

(And what good was missing if it didn’t even land you among the stars?)

-

Words for answers: 218

1. What is this person doing?
They are playing the piano, possibly for an audience. (Judging by their clothing and the cogs in the background. I, at least, am under the impression that they are a representation of time.)

2. Are the piano and the cogs in the background connected?
Not physically, but they certainly mean a lot to the piece.

3. Why is the person glowing?
He seems to be lit by some sort of light, possibly a spotlight, or maybe a representation of how he is feeling? I don’t know, I never put representation in art.

4. What do you think the title means? What if the title was ‘You Can Replay’? How does ‘not’ change the meaning? Why is ‘not’ in brackets?
I think that the title, going off the idea that this person is playing for a crowd of some sort (as suggested by his professional clothing and the clockwork in the background), means that you can try again, but only to a point. You can only reply when you are practicing, and every musician knows that you can’t practice forever. Not changes the meaning by showing this, telling the (honest truth) that there is a point when you can’t replay any more. Not is in brackets to show this change, or otherwise to make the truth less flat and more artistic.

5. How could you link this picture and its title to the idea of life and death?
Oh I didn’t even think of that. Um, the concert he is giving could be life, and the cogs now go on to represent the ticking of life in general, rather than just the concert.

6. Do you know of any other books or films about a piano?
Not really. At least not like this.

More of the Jun x Hareta wing au thingy. Not quite done yet but we're getting there.

Words: 954

“Okay,” hissed Jun, stretching his arm as far as he possibly could as he beat his wings, “Reach for it!” Hareta did just that, giving one last swing as he lept off of the Drifloon and into Jun’s arms.

For a second they were falling, but it was a warm feeling.
Jun was caught off guard and off balance by the sudden weight in his arms (a bit of a warning would have been appreciated), but he caught himself quickly. His wings worked the air, and with half closed eyes the two watched as the glowing shape changed, morphing into a much larger (and much more topheavy) ball of light.

Hareta was shaking slightly, and Jun could see the slightest hint of fluffed feathers on his wings, even under the oil that all Piplups had there. (And when Jun snuck a glance down at his hands, they seemed to be burned, red skin peeling slightly in the reddest places. Which explained the shaking.) And, well, he was so distracted by Hareta’s well-being that when he looked back up at the Pokemon, it wasn’t a Drifloon anymore.

“You did it!” Hareta cheered, swinging forward and tugging Jun through the air a little bit as he congratulated his Pokemon friend. Catching Jun off balance once more, “You did it!”

The Drifblim (because that’s what it was, a Drifblim) twirled in the air, its new tendrils swirling around itself as it chirped happily! (And seeing how much the two of them were enjoying each other’s company, it almost didn’t hurt that Hareta had forgotten to thank Jun for catching him.)

“That’s really cool Hareta,” Jun smiled, watching as his friend somehow scrambled onto the top of the Pokemon (he had literally jumped out of his arms), “I’m happy for you.”

There was an awkward silence as the two humans remembered the conversation that they had been having before the Drifblim’s evolution had interrupted them. “Well,” Jun said, his face suddenly red as he backed away, “I’ll just, happily await our meetup-” He turned, beginning to fly away but stopping in his tracks as Hareta’s voice followed him.

“Are you leaving?” Asked Hareta, surprised as he took a moment away from patting the Drifblim’s head, “We’ve hardly done anything yet!”

Jun shrugged, looking back over his shoulder and forcing himself to ignore the dark flashes on his own wings across his vision. “You seem like you want to hang out with your friend right now,” he smirked, turning a bit more towards him and winking, “But we can hang out later if you want.”

Hareta’s face flushed red, and Jun took that as his cew to leave, diving away as quickly as possible and leaving his friend to eat his dust as he dove under the tree cover.

As soon as he was out of view though, Jun let out a whoop of happiness, punching his fist into the air as he staggered through his landing. (A nearby Lass gave him a dirty look, but he didn’t care about what her or her Jigglypuff thought of him. He was far too excited for that sort of thing.) He spun a happy little circle.

It hadn’t really hit him until now, but even though he had just landed, he felt the most weightless and free that he had ever felt. (As if the brown Staravia wings on his back were nothing more than decoration.)

Confident in his walk, he headed down the route, knowing that the nearest Pokemon center would serve well to rest him for the day. (Or, at least, until Hareta showed up looking for him. …or more likely until Jun went looking for him, given that Hareta probably hadn’t seen quite where he went.)

Speaking of Hareta, Jun was right.

He was extremely confused, and Drifblim seemed no less so as the two of them watched Jun expertly weave down into the trees. (It was almost like the branches weren’t even there, letting his wings swipe right through without a second thought.) And like a needle thrown into a stack of hay, he was gone. And with him went Hareta’s composure, as his stomach fought to put on a sudden gymnastics show in his gut as he realized what had just happened.

For one thing, Drifblim had finally evolved (and did that make it his Pokemon now? Wasn’t that what they had agreed on?), and for another, Jun had just asked him out on a date and then dipped not even fifteen minutes later! Not even an explanation of when and where said date was going to be! Hareta planted his hands firmly on Drifblim’s head and craned his neck now to the ground, hoping to somehow catch a glimpse of Jun through the leafy green cover.

But he would’ve been stupid to expect to see him. (He couldn’t see through trees, that would be really weird!) Ah whatever. He would worry about what was going to happen later, he had a Pokemon to congratulate! But as he cheered for his friend (and spun in the air as it twirled happily), he found himself unable to focus entirely on the task at hand.

His mind would just not leave Jun! It was like being asked out had broken the floodgates open and allowed all his feelings and thoughts to flood through the nearest town. And of course, he happened to be the only person in said town. The incoming tsunami of feelings threatened to drown him as he struggled to fight his way above them. (Which was weird, considering he was normally very good at swimming.)

Maybe he just wasn’t good at feelings.

Yeah, that was probably the case.

(Who was he kidding? That was obvious.)

Part of a Shark Wars fic because I need to help with some word wars.

AU background: This takes place after the final battle, making Gray a very popular shark across most of the Big Blue, but Mari and Gray have never met. Mari was injured in the same place that she died in canon, but in this AU she didn’t die. So now she works at Slaggernacks, knowing Trank from who knows where.

Words: 775

Mari flicked her tail to the beat of the song. Whoever this new band was, they were good. Of course, that’s what she expected from a group hired specifically by Trank. He understood the place in a way no one but his boss did, and now that his boss was busy elsewhere (she’d heard whispers of a rare greenie smuggling going on in the Indi Ocean), Trank was in charge of the place, and boy was he good at it.

Being alright friends with her (at least, as much of friends as a Mako Shark and a Stonefish were ever going to be in a place worked mostly by other dwellers), Trank had allowed her to take the job, and she was thankful for that. She didn’t really need a job, so it wasn’t like he had changed her entire world or anything, but she had been in need of a bit of extra fish, so it certainly didn’t hurt. (And after her injury in the battle, hunting was pretty much off the table for the foreseeable future.)

She would have preferred to work pretty much anywhere else. (Heck, she would have endured the teasing and rudeness of the Seazarian’s court to this. Though she had heard it had gotten better after a Dogfish had taken over the previous Megladons.) But she would’ve been lying to say that the place hadn’t grown on her at least a little bit.

Being run mostly (or entirely, depending on who you asked) by dwellers, it was one of the most accepting places she’d ever been, even if fights and shady business were just as common as a delicious meal. Which, trust her on this, were very common in a place with cooks as amazing as Slaggernacks’.

She let her brain come back to the present, feeling a slight warmth cross her face as she realized that she hadn’t been paying attention to her job. She turned a quick circle, but was glad to see that none of the tables seemed to need her help at the moment. (She’d been lucky with her daydream timing, she supposed.)

She gave the water one slap of her quick mako tail and glided back to the bar area. (It was called a bar just as much because it had been constructed out of a railing from some sunken land shark boat as what they served there. Being one of the two or three sharks on the list of employees, she had been one of the people assigned to moving the rail, that’s how new it was.) She had to get back to work quickly, because judging by the placement in the song that the whales sang, the current fish manning the bar had been due to take a break a few minutes ago.

She slid through the water effortlessly, dodging a passing tigershark (he still had the remains of a half eaten tuna fish hanging out of his mouth) and a crackling electric eel with relative ease. She hardly even noticed the soft pause in conversation as a newcomer made his way through the door, his flanks getting momentarily stuck in the skinny cave opening. Finally though, she managed to get to where she was meant to be.

“Sorry,” she murmured, nodding apologetically to the pufferfish behind the counter, “I got a little bit sidetracked, I’ll take over now.”

Thankfully for her and her not-yet-poisoned blood, the yellow and black fish didn’t seem all that annoyed, nodding back to her and swimming away with a burst of bubbles. She looked out across the restaurant, checking to see if anything bad was happening. (There hadn’t been trouble for pretty much the whole day, and if the eel and tigershark were anything to prove it, they were just about due for their fair share of trouble.)

But when she looked out at the customers, passing over each other without a care in the world, the only thing that caught her eye was the newcomer she had barely seen early. She felt one of her fins twitch involuntarily as he was led to a free table. ‘Is that a megalodon?’ she wondered, her mouth flopping open embarrassingly as she watched his tail nearly knock over a table, ‘If so, does that mean that he-,’

She shook her head, dismissing her thoughts of the megalodon commander of the winning side of the war. She had to get back to work, this was no time to be staring at random customers! That’s the kind of behavior that got people into fights, and if her missing fin tip was any indication, she wasn’t really ready for a fight.

More Shark Wars!

1102 words!

But as she continued to work, taking orders from the customers back to the cooks in the back caves and mixing various sharks soupy messes of greenie bits, she couldn’t drag her mind off of the newcomer. (But strangely enough, she didn’t seem to be the only one busy thinking about him, as he was quickly getting surrounded by other customers. She would have called for people to split them up, but when she’d taken a quick peek over at him, it became clear that he was smiling as he talked with the others.) Somehow, it seemed like he knew the other sharks, and in the back of her mind, an electric tingle buzzed.

Had she been right when she had thought of the former general, and former Seazarian, of the Big Blue? She’d heard a lot about that shark, of how he’d given up his position to his dogfish friend, about how he was skilled in the ancient skills of Takiza, and of course she’d heard of his incredible plans back in the war. She had been in the fight with him, after all. Even if she actually ended up as a part of the ghostfins, there was no escaping the stories of Gray, the youngest general the Big Blue had ever seen.

She gave her tail a quick flick and sent herself gliding a bit closer to the throng that was quickly forming around the newcomer. (There was no harm in that, right? The other employees, mainly those camouflaged among the rocks and greenie patches on the ground, were doing just the same thing. And besides, no one was coming up to the bar, they were all busy seeing what was going on as well.)

Mari strained to hear what was happening, but nothing sounded off or especially interesting. Just a bunch of friends meeting up for the first time in what seemed to be forever. And when the group began to disperse a few minutes later, leaving her to deal with customers once more, she could only assume that that was all that had happened. A meetup of friends who had met up by accident, pulled together by a shared love of seasoned fish.

But when she saw who her next customer was, she nearly snapped a month’s worth of teeth clean out of her jaws.

It was the newcomer, and she was absolutely sure of his identity now. From the cut in his dorsal fin to the way he carried himself, he was unmistakable. Yep, there was no doubt about it, this was Gray, the renowned general and former Seazarian of the Big Blue. (And Mari felt her skin turn an awkward shade of pink as he swam in front of her, checking out the menu.)

“Uh,” she stuttered, feeling nothing like herself as she struggled through her words, “What would you like to order, um-,”

“Gray,” he grinned, giving her a stained tooth smile as he nodded politely (but Mari doubted a mistake in her ears when she heard an awkwardness to his voice), “I’d like the golden greenie shake, if that’s possible.”

She nodded, swimming somewhat shakily as she made her way to the supply cave for the golden greenie, “Anything else?” she called over her shoulder, “We have seasoned sea bass for half price today.”

He sounded interested as he responded. “What kind of seasoning?” he asked, and when she turned around with the golden greenie, he had produced a small stack of nondescript brown fish and a couple of tuna from Tyro knows where, “I usually like the spicy fish.”

She smiled and got to chewing up the greenie as she nodded, “You’re in luck,” she said between bites, “We just got a supply of rare Indi spices just this week,” (she did not mention the fact that these spices were very possibly smuggled in illegally), “And I hear that they’ve cracked out the box of pepper from the nearby landshark sinking.”

Gray looked even more interested, thought about it for a moment, and then nodded, dropping his fish down onto the railing (they floated a small bit upwards before Mari was able to grab them). “Will this be enough?” he asked, politely, catching the fish she hadn’t managed to grab with a spare fin, “I could go get more if it’s not-”

“No this is plenty,” said Mari, her voice muffled as much by the fish in her mouth as by a sudden shock of embarrassment as she caught her mind wandering. (She couldn’t even force herself to repeat what it had said to her.) She turned to the payment cave and put the fish down, “I believe your golden greenie is done, by the way,” she said, trying to cover for her mind’s momentary slip in focus, “Would you like a rock slap with it or are you fine with collecting it yourself?”

She gestured with her tail to the mix of greenie that floated in a glob between them. Most people just slurped up their shakes at the bar, but some rathered to bring them back to their tables, and a small rock was the best way they had figured out so far, as it kept most of the greenie from getting out into the water, while not looking too ridiculous at the same time.

Gray appeared to think about it (just enough time for her to shout the order down to the cooking cave), but just nodded before opening his jaws and swallowing the clump of greenie whole.

It wasn’t an unknown approach, but as Mari’s fin twitched involuntarily and a warm blush filled her skin, she couldn’t help but feel that there was something impressive about the way he had done it. (At least, she had to make herself think that, because if not there was absolutely no excuse for the sudden feeling that filled her.) I mean, really who gets a crush on someone because they ate a random mash of greenie quickly?

Mari shook the thoughts away, feeling the water grow warm around her as she swam back into the current that ran through the place. Gray was grinning, and she felt her heart beat faster as nodded approvingly. “You’re good at making those!” he said, but there wasn’t a hint of surprise in his voice, it was like he had expected her to be good, “It really felt like a shake, and not just a glob of greenie.”

Mari laughed. That’s all it was really, a glob of greenie mixed with just a hint of flavoring. (But she was happy to hear that someone thought otherwise.)

Random Pokespe list!

Words: 2,189

What all Pokemon Special dexholders (not all characters, I'm not that crazy) would do best in school, a comprehensive list. Minus Shilly and Sou because I haven't read Sword and Shield yet, but plus the Pokemon Diamond and Pearl Adventure characters (Jun, Mitsumi, Hareta, and Koya) because I care about them a whole lot. Also this might be really out of character, but if it is I don't even care because I NEED TO FINISH MY CABIN WAR PLEASE I'M CRYING SO HARD. (Not really crying don't worry.)

Red: I think that Red would do the best in gym class. He wouldn't do badly in other classes or anything, he'd just be much better at a physical activity class like gym. He would probably have a bit of trouble with certain activities (like the ones that have him using his hands more than his wrists are ready to handle), but he'd generally be very good at the class. He's the type of guy to be picked first or almost first by the other students whenever they have the chance too, but he's just as much the type of person to be a team leader. His momentary struggles with his hands do nothing to change this, he's just very good.

Blue (male): Blue would be good at every class from gym to general music to chemistry and back again. I think he'd be the best at classes that are more centered on working on his own than with a group, but he isn't much better at any one subject than all the others. He just trains himself to be better, that's all. (Besides, he's good at focusing on his training, and he's just as athletic as any other dexholder, which immediately makes him good at school in my eyes.)

Green (female): I am of the belief that Green is much smarter than the lets on, even in the later parts of canon when she starts to drop her mask. (Both literally and figuratively, thanks to the Mask of Ice situation.) But I think that the class that she would really excel in would be health and sewing. She seems like the type of person who would be good at health, thanks to surviving on her own for quite a while, and she canonically likes sewing. (And besides, the image of Green sewing and getting graded well on it makes me really happy.

Yellow: Given that Yellow is the series' biggest artist, I think that it is only fair to make her the best at art class out of everything she is taking. Sure, it would be awesome if I could say that she was the best at math, or writing, or something funny like that, but it would be a lie. I mean, her improvement through the series (otherwise seen as her several different art styles) show a ‘mastery’ of art that none of the other characters have.

Gold: I invite anyone who disagrees with me on this to fight behind the nearest Pokemon Gym, but Gold would be the best at the types of classes where you learn how to take care of children. He would for sure pretend that he prefers other classes, but no matter how much he loves gym class, he is the best and (and enjoys) child care class the most. He would even do the ‘take a robot baby / an egg home’ assignment more than once, if he could.

Crystal: Like Red (grass types stick together, I guess), I think that Crystal would enjoy gym class the most. But unlike Red, it is a close tie between science and gym. Something like Biology or Earth Science (but admittedly not Chemistry or Physics) seems to be her style. She loves catching animals for data, so dissecting a frog or learning about different kinds of rocks in the earth sounds right up her alley.

Silver: I don't think Silver would like school very much. And though I could end his note right here, I think it's fair to mention that I think he would like art class more than most would expect. Sure, he's not very good at it (though he excels in every math class he gets), but it makes him happy, and isn't that all that matters? Plus, I bet he and Gold share art class, and Silver isn't exactly as upset about that as he pretends to be.

Emerald: Emerald would like the classes that he shares with Crystal, but I don't think he'd like science class the same way she does. Honestly, I don't think he'd prefer one subject over another, only basing his favorite classes on who is in the class with him and who is the poor soul teaching him. Hed sarcastically say that his favorite class was recess, even though he doesn't even have it anymore.

Ruby: Ruby would like the same class as Green, if you ignore the health class on that list. He'd like sewing, interior design, arts and crafts, cooking, all of the sorts of things that the specific class I'm talking about tends to have. (I honestly don't know what it's called though, maybe home something?) He also likes being the center of attention, and being good at things in a class tends to get you that, and I am of the belief that he would be impressively good at at least most of the things that that sort of class would be aiming to teach. (The only thing that he would like more would be a makeup class, but as far as I know that doesn't exist.)

Sapphire: Sapphire likes gym class well enough, and she likes science also, but mostly she likes lunch. (Which is so valid to be honest.) Even if she forgot to bring a lunch and is forced to buy from the lunch ladies (a travesty to be sure), she enjoys it. She likes talking to Ruby, and because I think she would be unlucky enough not to be in a single class with him, this is her only chance to.

Wally: Wally would be good at Health class, because he's a caring boy and also has a lot of his own health problems to worry about, leaving him fairly well informed on the subject, but he wouldn't necessarily enjoy it. There'd be too many “jokesters” in his class (you absolutely know the ones I'm talking about if you've ever been to a high school health class, heck, even a middle school one will do it), and he'd find it hard to focus on what the teacher was telling him. But at the same time, there isn't really a class that he likes more.

Diamond: Diamond likes the same class as Ruby! Or, rather, he likes cooking class. (Which is an advanced form of Ruby's favorite class, kind of.) He also enjoys public speaking class, but even since he and Pearl were separated in said class, it lost most of its charm, leaving him with the former tied class to be the undisputed favorite. He's good at cooking, he enjoys eating (what a valid little guy), and the teacher always gives him something new and interesting to try.

Pearl: Pearl, even after being split up from Diamond (you don't even want to KNOW what trouble the two of them stirred up before hand), still has public speaking as his favorite class. He also likes the few music classes he takes, but for him, nothing quite captures the charm of the horribly awkward public speaking room. (Especially because he easily steals the show, every single time, without fail.)

Platinum: Platinum is good at pretty much every class she takes, much like Blue, but she gravitates heavily towards language classes. In fact, she even took a special plan from her guidance counselor to get her into ALL of the language classes. She's learning Kalosian (“French”), Unovian (“German”), Galarian (“English”), and has her eyes set on the new one as well. (“Spanish”).

Black: Black doesn't pay much attention to what is actually happening in the classes he takes, therefore not really having a favorite, but because he's so good at setting his mind to things (and wanting to be the best he possibly can), he ends of being good at pretty much everything. Unfortunately though, his loudness doesn't exactly make him a favorite among the teachers, and he mostly ends up in trouble, even if he is truly good at the subject. (Which, of course, he almost always is.) Because of this, his favorite has to be gy class, because kids are sort of meant to be loud in gym class, at least some of the time.

White: White doesn't much like any specific class, but she sure does enjoy the drama club! In fact, she started the school's drama club, quickly forcing two younger students (Blake and Whi two) to join along with her. She doesn't act all that often, but she serves as a great club manager, even if she's not a teacher.

Blake: Blake doesn't share this sort of information with anyone, and depending on the person asking (and even what the setting is), his answer will change. He does have an odd draw to talking to girls in the hallway though…

Whi two: She likes the baby class along with Gold, but she would really rather if it was about small animals instead of babies. She liked history too, which nobody expected, until they got into a unit that spoke about cults and she was forced to confront a little more about herself that she was really ready for at the moment. But once they get out of that unit, she's fairly sure that it will replace the child class as her favorite once more. (There's only so long a class shared with Gold can stay your favorite.)

X: X wouldn't like school, so I think it's only fair to discuss his least favorite class rather than his favorite one. (His favorite one is whatever one has the least amount of presentation work, he just can't seem to make himself do it.) I think that his least favorite class, like many other high schoolers, would be public speaking. He wouldn't be BAD at it, at least not worse that the other people in the class with him, but for a required class, it sure is bad for people with obvious anxiety and people related trauma disorders.

Y: Y, like X, wouldn't like school all that much. She likes the concept, she likes hanging out with friends, but she just can't seem to find a subject that really peaks her interest. Plus, getting bullied is never fun, and the one time Y was shown at school in canon (which is, humorously enough, a lot more than pretty much any other character) she was getting bullied. I would hope the trend not to continue in this AU, but sometimes there's nothing you can do about it.

Sun: Sun would probably like personal financing class the best, and he (this is totally off topic but I need to say it) would probably be the first person in a personal financing club. He may no longer NEED to collect the ridiculous amount of money that he was in canon, but who knows, maybe his years and years of nearly non-stop working ignited something in him. Though he doesn't really seem like the type of person to like school in general, so maybe it's a reach.

Moon: Being ridiculously smart, Moon would be good at pretty much every class she has to go to, but I think she'd be the best at the science (specifically chemistry) classes. Why? Well, if you know anything about Moon, you'll know that she is very very into medical things, and for a high school (not sure if it was clear, but that's where I've been basing most of this list) chemistry is about the best you're gonna get.

Mitsumi: Mitsumi likes the sorts of classes where she can relax and focus on her studies. Unfortunately, her former favorite class (Band) is no longer fun, not ever since the conductor changed and the only other Bassoon player left for Trombone.

Jun: Jun likes whatever class that he can show off to Mitsumi in. It literally does not matter the subject.

Hareta: Hareta doesn't like the controllingness of school, and even though he's really nice to all of his teachers and fellow students, he spends so much time in detention that it has become a favorite class of sorts for him. (He doesn't understand what about it is supposed to be a punishment, really.) He liked gym, until it set in that they weren't going to do anything fun or difficult for him, any even though he still likes it (he likes every class well enough), it's not longer a favorite.

Koya: He's too secretive to know for sure, but I think he'd probably like classes that are generally considered difficult. Physics, Trigonometry, Chemistry, AP language, those sorts of things.

Word war with @TWILIGHT_A . I won, by one word.

https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/719946544/#comments-302038234

Words: 293

Red gasped for breath as he tossed the Pokeball, watching the arch it took as it soared over the makeshift battlefield in front of him. He had been climbing this mountain for what felt like days, and with his aching ankles and wrists, he wasn't having a very fun time of it. By his side, Blue's Charizard flared his wings protectively, obviously trying to make himself look bigger and more threatening to the wild Pokemon he had encountered. (Though in any normal location, a Charizard wouldn't just have to APPEAR to look larger and more threatening than most wild Pokemon, but Mt. Silver was an entirely different beast.)

“Thank Char,” Red murmured, using his own nickname for Blue's Pokemon (for some reason his rival didn't like to nickname them), “But I think Saur's got this one.”

Saur was his own Pokemon, a big strong Venusaur that had been by his side for the second longest out of his Pokemon team. (It really was impossible to beat Poli's score, they'd been together almost since birth. Or, hatching, as the case may be.) He loved Charizard, and by extension Green's Blastoise, which sat heavily in a Pokeball at his waist, and he was very thankful that they had been lended to him, but he always fought better with his own Pokemon.

Sure enough, as the explosion of dust and sleep powder from the inside of Saur's Pokeball cleared, Red could see that his Pokemon looked very determined. Red (whose hands still shook horribly), watched as his friend roared, wiping his vines this way and that, and effectively clearing the snow.

The opposing Pokemon looked scared, and Red could see that it no longer wanted to battle. But it was too late, it was stuck now.

Main Cabin Daily 23: “Documenting the little things that you appreciate in life is a great way to show gratitude and boost your mood! Today, write at least 100 words about either something good that happened today or a goal that you have for today. You will receive 50 points for completing this task and you can receive an additional 50 if you share your happy moment or goal with the main cabin.”

Words: 226

Okay, I know this might not be big for anyone else, but I re-found a song I really like! It was lost for a while but I finally remembered the title again! (Which I, unfortunately, don’t think I can say on Scratch, sorry about that! Just know that it’s by Waterparks and it’s from their FANDOM album. Kinda short too. I honestly don’t know how I forgot the title, it’s literally in the lyrics but okay.) It’s a rather sad song, if you think about it, but because of it’s beat and the fact that it’s plot with never ever relate to me (I’m asexual, there’s another clue on the song in question), It’s really calming!

It makes me happy, and it reminds me of SEVERAL Pokemon characters, and honestly isn’t that all you ever need? A song that makes you happy, absolutely cannot be listened to near your parents, and reminds you of Pokemon? (That’s most of the songs I like, so take a guess on what’s important to me. Music style or Pokemon relatability.)

But yeah, I pretty much just woke up so that’s all I have to say really. I also won a word war by one word but I feel more bad about that then anything else so it doesn’t count as a good thing. (But finding the song helps with that.)

I wrote 242 words!

Critique for @violent-measures. Conversation link: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/762993599/#comments-302101464

Link to their writing: https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/638246/?page=47#post-6773024

First off: I don't really know how to critique things, (and sorry for taking so long to get back to you on this), so tell me if I'm doing this wrong. :) Thank you for your critique! (Seen here: https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/638246/?page=49#post-6777948 ) Also I really liked your story! It was creative and well written. >^-^<

-

“Cars rush by far below, people racing to get in some last-minute Christmas shopping or heading to the airport to spend the holidays on the beach somewhere under the sun’s warm rays.”
I don't know if this would fit your writing, but I don't think that “last-minute” needs the “-” between the words.

“There, perhaps?”
I believe that this doesn't need the comma. (But I'm sort of known for using commas wrong so you can probably take that with a grain of salt.)

“Blue flashes in his vision; a man in a blue cap and matching jacket, racing down the road.”
I think that this doesn't need the comma in it either.

“Glancing at the clock, Scott nearly jumped out of his skin. It was 8:57. He was most certainly going to be late.”
This is personal preference, but I would have but an exclamation point somewhere in this. (Most likely after the “8:57”.)

“One story, two stories, three stories—he nearly tripped at least five times on his way down, skipping every other stair to the best of his ability, though in the end his eagerness might have slowed him down.”
You may want to split this into more than one sentence, but I'm no one to talk about run ons like they aren't half of my writing.

“With a poof! and a burst of dust, a large, open book appeared in the man’s warm brown hands.”
The exclamation point seems to say an end to a sentence, though there doesn't actually seem to be one.

“But the longer he studied the loom, he more a sense of heavy foreboding overcame all else.”
Simple typo, you put a “he” instead of a “the.” About midway through the sentence.


Notes that were not as specific:

I think that it would be a bit easier to read if there were a few more paragraphs/splits in the writing, but that might just be Scratch forums messing with me. (Specifically in the “Various sprint activities amounting to 12 minutes total writing time,” section.)

I think that you might use the “-” things a bit more than most writers do, but it's cool looking so I don't think this is a NEGATIVE critique or anything.

I really like the story! I know you didn't ask for commenting on the plot, but I think it actually flowed really well! Great job!

Words war with @Luna-Lovegood-LOL. Conversation link: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/719946544/#comments-302442137

I lost qwq

310 words.

Red stared off across the field, taking in the shimmer of the sunset that reflected on the corn that grew there. Pallet town was known for their farming, but the corn was a new edition. Usually they focused on berries (for several different uses with Pokemon, though there was also the occasional Blueberry or Gooseberry bush as well), and rice, which was simply a staple of the location's eating habits.

Red smiled as he looked on, patting Poli gently on his round blue head. He was happy to live in a farming community, it made not having a home a whole lot easier. (Though it certainly did feel bad to steal the farmer's output for himself, with the exception of the Oak family, Pallet Town wasn't exactly rich.)

He looked over his shoulder, as if feeling a sudden chill. (But no, it was just the ocean breeze, struggling its way through the pine treeline the coated the coast and surrounded Pallet Town.) There was also the option of fish, of course, but since he didn't really have a way to cook them, it wasn't the best option. (He had never quite figured out how to safely prepare raw fish, unfortunately.)

But still Red loved it here, even if he was restricted to uncooked vegetables and berries from the fields and the occasional donation from the local eateries and restaurants. Why did he love it here?

Well, being a good Pokemon trainer had its perks, after all!

He laughed loudly, snapping his head back forward and watching as the light of the sunset came down. If he was any other child, he would probably be being led indoors by a parent right now, but not him! He didn't have a parent or a house to worry about! (And he and Poli were just fine on their own, thank you very much.)

More Shark Wars! It's done!

Words: 1034

I counted the last sentence I counted last time because of editing I did in the original writing that made up to more than it.

Mari laughed. That’s all it was really, a glob of greenie mixed with just a hint of flavoring. (But she was happy to hear that someone thought otherwise.) “Thank you,” she grinned, “I gave it my best shot.”

Gray smirked at her, and her gills gave a tiny stutter. “How long have you been working here?” he asked (And was it her imagination or did she catch a flicker of nervousness in his voice? The kind of nervousness an awkward teenager who was just putting on a big front would display?)

He swam a bit closer, until his snout was clean past the rusty railing. “Because I feel like I’ve seen you somewhere before…?”

Mari flushed and swam backward slightly, waving her fins as she excused herself. “I’ve only been working here a little while,” she admitted, swishing her tail a few extra times than was strictly necessary as she headed towards the storage cave, “I got into a bit of trouble in the big war and-,” she disappeared, and when she appeared she had a hunk of greenie in her mouth, muffling her speech, “-it never was really the same for me.”

She lifted her injured fin, and Gray’s eyes widened as he saw the damage across it. (The Indi Shiver doctor that had treated her had told her it was lucky that she was able to keep upright at all, and based on Gray’s expresion, it was clear that he was having a similar thought process.)

“It’s not all bad though,” she reassured him between chomps of the greenie and spices, “I got my chance to defend the ocean, and now I’m working at a really interesting joint.”

Gray laughed, and Mari’s smile turned ever so slightly upward when she heard him. “You can say that again!” he grinned, backing up slightly (probably to get a better current through his gills), “I could count all my teeth and still not have enough for the number of fights I’ve seen happen in here!” He grinned, and then his face fell, as if realizing something. “Not to be rude of course,” he hurried, ”And I was exaggerating.”

Now it was Mari’s turn to laugh, and she spit the mash of greenie out into the water around them (a preparation for a next customer… and an excuse to keep talking), “No no,” she reassured him, feeling her odd urge to blush growing ever more as he spilled more and more of a clumsy personality to her, “I know. I grew up way away from here, and I swear it’s like every five minutes there’s a new thing to worry about.”

He smiled, but it was suddenly distant, as if he was remembering something that he wanted to bring up to her. “I grew up in Coral Shiver,” he admitted, and Mari felt a shock of surprise (for one thing, announcing where you lived was not a regular thing to do in a place like Slaggernacks, and for two, Grat was a much larger shark than those expected from the comfy shiver of Coral), “But I had to, uh, take some time away.”

He looked embarrassed, and as she swept the greenie shake out of the way and into the collection cave, she tilted her head, intrigued. “Why? What happened?” she asked, hoping she wasn’t prying too hard (but she would be lying if she didn’t say she wanted to know everything she could about this odd shark.)

“I got kicked out,” he admitted, suddenly sheepish, “Me and my friend Barklay.”

The name was familiar, and Mari was suddenly reminded of the fact that the shark in front of her seemed to be a Megladon of some kind. (And that he bore a striking resemblance to the general of the collective armada that had fought against Hoccu not too many months before.)

But out loud she only asked, “Kicked out? How?!”

He shook his head, as if dismissing an embarrassing memory, “That doesn’t matter,” she muttered, “And it’s stupid anyway.”

Mari looked at him, but her mouth curved up and into a grin anyway. She understood that feeling. As a little shark, there were lots of stupid things that she had done, why would this beautiful, odd stranger be any different.

There was a pause, and Mari could see a very ‘dizzy’ looking Whitetip swimming his way over to the bar. “Well,” she said, feeling an odd ache in her chest as the conversation with Gray was forced to an end, “I guess I have to keep working now,” Gray looked the direction she was looking, and an unreadable (yet highly possibly blushing) expression crossed his thick blue snout.

He didn’t want to leave her either.

Right as she was about to swim off though, he turned to her, fast as if this was the last chance he would get to get his message across. “Can you meet me later?” he asked, and, ignoring the way she froze in her tracks, he continued, “At the sunken ship near here?”

She looked at him, surprised. (But she couldn’t help but feel the stutter in her gills as her heart raced.) “At what time?” she breathed, surprising even herself with her tone.

“As soon as your shift lets out,” Gray was practically pleading, “I- I have a lot of things that I want to talk about with you.”

Normally it would be strictly against protocol for a worker at Slaggernacks to accept an invitation like this. Normally it would be dangerous to accept an invitation like this. But somehow, Mari knew she could trust this shark. Maybe it was the presence he carried himself with, maybe it was the fact that, despite his size, he was just as young of a shark as she was, maybe it was the odd suspicion that she had that he had been a very influential figure in the past for who knows how long.

So she gave him one toothy grin, slapped her tail on the water as she turned away from him, and wiggled her fins. “I'll get let out as soon as the next band comes on,” she called over her shoulder, “I’ll meet you as soon as I can.”

One last word war! (With @i_like_kotlc) Conversation link: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/719946544/#comments-302710957

Quick DPA fic lol. 332 words.

Hareta laughed as he ran through the tree lined forest path. Mitsumi had encouraged him to take a break (though he suspected that the break was more for her crunchy knees than anything else) and he couldn't have been happier to finally get some time to exercise. Yeah, he'd been walking for pretty much the whole day, but that was BORING. He wanted some time to run and play, and if the excited chirping of a couple of nearby Pokemon was any indication, they had already sensed that he wasn't out for a battle.

He had visited this forest once before, when Professor Rowan had taken him on a research trip, and he'd gotten lost. (He always seemed to get lost when there was a beautiful green forest for him to explore. …it totally wasn't on purpose.) Immediately he had headed for the tall grass and bushes, poking around in search of some new friends.

Yeah, many people considered randomly poking around in Pokemon's habitats a pretty bad idea, but Hareta had never run into any trouble with them. (And besides, if they wanted him to leave, they could just TELL him. He had no idea why other people didn't just listen to the Pokemon's voices. If they did they probably wouldn't run into so much trouble with them. They really were naturally kind creatures. …for the most part.)

Hareta giggled as he remembered the memory, thinking about the look of pure shock of Professor Rowan's face when he had finally found him. Laying in the middle of a circle of Onix and playing with a baby of the species as the adults laughed around him. It had been like a small pile of living rocks, and the egg shells (while had looked quite like a bunch of flint that someone had unceremoniously shattered on the ground) were still visible.

He wondered if Mitsumi would have a similar reaction if she found him in the same situation.He grinned. Yeah, she probably would.

Alright, I think that's everything that I want to count (though it's far from everything I wrote, sometimes things are too… DIFFERENT to count. ) but I just wanted to say one final thank you to my cabin! Thriller! You were amazing. I would say more, but I was so busy writing that I didn't have time to get to know anyone. qwq (As always, lol)

I especially thank @theleapingleopard for being an incredible word counter. >^-^< The roaring Riptides was definitely the best riptide I've ever gotten trapped in. (Studio link: https://scratch.mit.edu/studios/32127433 )

I'll put one more post on here when the final standings come out, but I guess this is goodbye? Sorry about the couple of fics that I started on here but you aren't going to be able to complete reading unless you follow me on other sites. (Btw, do not go looking for me if you are the average scratch age, I don't post anything BAD, it's just that you shouldn't be on some of the sites a highschooler can be on if you are eight. But if you are the correct age, “eyy oh three” is where you can find me.)