SWC Megathread || March 2023

lizard-breath

March 8-9, 2023

Two figures slunk through the shadows, stopping before a shabby inn. A young woman sat near the front door of the inn, greeting the figures.

“There - just over in that direction! That's where you'll find what you're looking for.”

“Well, you heard the lady. We better get a move on,” the first one said. “At this rate, we won’t even make it to camp by nightfall.”

“Relax,” the second figure replied, rolling his eyes. “It's not like we’re on a time crunch or something. No one even knows that we’re out here.”

“Will you shut your mouth? You’re gonna jinx us and some bad guys will jump out and make things infinitely harder. Also, just because we’re on a time crunch doesn’t mean that we don’t need to hurry. I don’t know about you, but I prefer not to linger or loiter when making sure there’s world peace.”

“You do realize that I don’t believe you one bit when you talk about this ‘enchanted orb’ and ‘moonlight force’ stuff right? I only came along because of my mom.”

“Yes, I’m well aware of that Sebastian,” the first person remarked bitterly. “You don’t need to remind me every 30 seconds. And for your information, the enchanted orb is real. And it’s pivotal to mankind’s culture. It’s kept hidden away from most people to protect it. Also it’s ‘moonlight energy’, not ‘moonlight force’.”

"Jeez, how realistic. I don't know how you come up with these scenarios,” Sebastian remarked sarcastically. “Maybe next we can fly away from a troll on a broomstick. It’s not that I don't trust you Lyra, I’m just trying to be realistic.”

“It’s okay,” Lyra said softly. “I understand. Come’on, let’s get out of here. This place is starting to give me the creeps.”

At that Sebastian nodded, and the pair continued up the gravel path they had come from. Just as they neared the gate that marked the exit of the town, a young man, possibly in his teens, stopped them.

“Excuse me,” the man said, his voice silky smooth, “but I’ll need to incapacitate you two for a moment.”

264 words of dialogue
352 words total

violent-measures

prompts:
@Clementine_Blue:
“I hoard words & steal them away & they are mine, if only for a little while”
@_gardenia_:
“The only apology I accept is cash.”

“Well, well.” Jax stared me in the eyes, his own shadowed by the cowl of his hood. “You’ve finally come home.”
A pause.
“Yes. I have. But this time, I have certain . . . conditions . . . to my return. Conditions that you won’t find yourself refusing.”
He chuckled. “Oh, yes? And why is that?”
“Because of this.” I proffered the envelope, but kept it carefully out of his reach.
“What makes you think I can be controlled with threats?”
“Jax, everything you control, you control with threats. You must understand their power.”
He didn’t reply.
“Because you taught their power to me.”
“Ah, I’ve only myself to blame for this, is that your point?” He snapped.
“Yes. I’m glad I made it clear.”
“What do you have on me, anyway?”
With a level gaze, I slipped a knife under the envelope’s seal.
“After everything . . . ? Bea, I thought you were better than this.” Better than me, he meant.
“No. I’m not. I’m no better than you; I couldn’t be, because you made me. How could you not expect me to follow in the footsteps of the man who taught me everything? How to steal, how to lie, how to fabricate? This is how I survive, now. This is who I am. And the only apology I will accept comes in cash.”
Jax shook his head, but seemed to have gotten over his incredulity.
“Are you sure you don’t want the words?”
I paused.
“The ones that . . . that let you find me?”
Nothing.
“Of course I want them. But you said they were gone.”
He shook his head again, almost sadly, a soft smile curving his lips.
“Oh, no, Bea. I never owned the words, true, but neither did I lose them. That is a lie you let yourself believe. No words are ever truly gone. They may turn to ash, or fade in our memories . . . but there are ways . . . certain ways to find them again. And I am willing to teach you how to gather the dust of words. To form them in your mind. To . . . write them, even, if you wish. In gilded letters, words that won’t fade. Bea, I can help you learn what made you.
“I am a hoarder of words. I steal them away, and they are mine, if only for a little while. With my help . . . words can be yours, too.”
311(dialogue)/392(total)

smalltoe

first bidaily!!
643 words

tw: death

I used the dialogue “Everything is perfectly fine. It’s always been fine, remember?” (@DashingDiamonds) and
“Your grave is my favourite.” (@-faerylights)

The graveyard always looked better at night.
It was something about the atmosphere. How the dark trees silhouetted against the murky sky almost looked like the real thing, how the gravestones stretched into the distance row after row after row, how it almost looked like every single one of them was made of stone, just like in old books.
The fact that you couldn’t see the rubbish probably helped, too. The food wrappers and drink cans half-trampled into the thin grass. The city didn’t care about cleaning up its graveyards anymore. The only people that came here were the ones about to die.
The Wraiths, they called them, an old-time word meaning ghosts or glass or wind or something. The people already half-dead, wandering the streets and examining their ready-made graves, the unlucky few selected for population control. The ones the city needed to kill off.
The two boys standing above their graves were the perfect specimens of these people. Already resigned to their fate. Either forgetting or regretting the many bad decisions they had made to get themselves there. These two were only seventeen - plucked from life so early for no better reason then to become a statistic on a page.
Even kids and teenagers died in the mortal age, the articles would read. And so the city’s population control must reflect that. We must stay true to our ancestral ways.
Is picking and choosing who dies and who lives staying true to our ancestral ways? People wondered that, and those people often found themselves on the next year’s population control list.

One of the boys spoke up. “Your grave is my favourite.”
“You sure?” The other asked, looking down at his feet. Anywhere but the grave. “It looks kinda… plain. Like a grave, I guess.”
“Of course it looks like a grave. It is a grave. It’s your grave.”
The other boy winced. He didn’t like being reminded of what was to come, even though he knew it was inevitable.
“It’s a scary thought, isn’t it?” His voice was limp. It flopped to the ground at the first boy’s feet.
“What’s a scary thought?”
“That in exactly twenty-four hours, I’ll be down there. In that grave.”
“Don’t worry.” The first boy nudged the other. “I’ll be right next to you. In the next grave, of course.”
There was a pause. The sound of the wind in artificial trees.
“You know, my mother called me before.”
“How’d that go?”
“She’s disappointed. I think she knew though. She knew if I kept going down that path I’d end up in the ground.”
“Mothers always know.”
“Mmm.”
Another pause.
“What did you tell her?”
“I told her everything was fine. I told her I’d be hanging with my friend. The other Wraith. The one she never liked.”
“Not my fault that your mum has bad taste.”
A laugh that fell flat in the cold night air.
“Did you know that in the mortal age, hanging was what a way of dying was called?”
“Really?”
“Yeah. It was used for executions. The old-fashioned version of Wraiths.”
“So we’re going to be hanging?”
“Not exactly, no. Not in that way.”
“What was the way?”
“I don’t even remember. They taught us about it in school. I didn’t pay attention.”
“Of course you didn’t.”
A sudden intake of breath. One boy grabbed the other's hand.
“I don’t- I don’t want to. I don’t want to die.”
The other pulled him into a hug. “Everything’s perfectly fine. It’s always been fine, remember?”
“It’s never been fine.”
“Don’t say that.”
“What are they going to do to me? Kill me?” He was practically spitting the words. “I wonder what would happen if someone broke their twisted system.”
“They’d get on the next population control list, Ru, you know that.”
“…so there’s no hope, is there?”
“I-
“I guess not.”

(inspired by they both d1e at the end by adam silvera and scythe by neal shusterman)

Last edited by smalltoe (March 8, 2023 05:01:53)

1lMaM

I used:
KitVMH's “Put him in the closet with the rest of them.”
CherryMango17's “Um- Who are you?” and
MouseLoverr's “If you're trying to be subtle, let me tell you, you're NOT.”

“We need to move quickly and quietly. Remember the drill?”
I gulp. “Lay him on the bed. Needle in. Take him away. If he wakes up, squeeze his arm.”
“Correct,” she whispers.
My panting breath is by far the loudest sound in the hallway. I shuffle along, arms aching, terrified. I've just walked into a room, dosed a man with tranquilizer, and stuffed him in the brown sack over my shoulder. Lacy - a renowned master - dealt with the others. I've got to do one to move up from being a cadet. This is the one, and this is the important one.

Lacy's bag bounces by her side. “Okay. Ready?”
“Yes,” I murmur.

I race into the room and gently put down the sack, pulling on the opening until the man's hair spills out. As quick as I can, I pull him out and throw him onto the bed, my hands hooked under his arms.
“Give me the needle,” I whisper.
Lacy slides a needle from her bag, and I take it with pinching fingers, trying to be silent.
She chuckles. “If you're trying to be subtle, let me tell you, you're NOT.”
“Ugh. Please. I'm trying to focus.”

With a trembling hand, I poke the needle into the man's arm, glancing away. My fingers pull back. Grabbing a bandage from my front pocket, I push it into his skin. He doesn't even move. Carefully, I pick the man up and sling him onto my shoulders. Lacy holds the door, and we race into the hallway.

She pushes open a side door, camouflaged by a desk, a painting, and strategically placed decorations. On her hands and knees, she crawls in under the desk, and I follow, balancing the man on my back. We arrive in a dark, musty room. Lacy has to pull her phone out to see.

“Now hide him,” she whispers.
“Where?” Does she not know I've never been here?
She looks at me like I'm dumb. “Put him in the closet with the rest of them.”

Lacy opens the closet. It gives a loud creak, ancient and tired. I glare at her. She raises an eyebrow at me.

“Well, what am I supposed to do? Remember, I have NOT done this before,” I hiss.
“I SAID, put him in the closet like the rest of them.”

Cautiously, I peer inside. About five people are stuffed inside. I pull the man off my back and inch him in the closet, trying to be quiet. I pull him up. His head hits the door with a loud bang.

“Shh.”

I push him through the door. Bang.
I push him in with the others. Bang.
I let go. Bang.

“You are hopeless,” she mutters.

He opens his eyes.
“Um- who are you?”
I shut the door.
Bang.

468 words

Last edited by 1lMaM (March 9, 2023 06:14:49)

lokiously

raya's directory
bi-daily, march 8 and 9 | 524 words, 251 words of dialogue.
thanks @DashingDiamonds and @TWILIGHT_A!
“Okay,” whispered Leigh. “This is it.”
Leigh, Tiran, Whir, and Shiwi were standing in front of a dark cave, staring at its opening.
“All right, you know what to do,” said Tiran. “Wipe out the bats, flush out the evil.”
“Tiran, those are the same thing.” Whir rolled her eyes. Tiran made a whooshing sound, and she shushed him.
“Guys,” Shiwi whispered hoarsely. “The sooner we start, the sooner we get out of this freezing place.”
“Right. Let's go!” Tiran exclaimed.
“Shhh!”
They stalked closer. When nobody wanted to say anything, they entered the cave.
“Whoa,” voiced Tiran, gaping at the ceiling. “Look at those! They must be- they must be-”
“Stalagmites,” said Whir.
“Isn't it Stalagtites?” asked Shiwi.
“Whatever.”
They stepped forward, carefully trodding over the many bumps on the path.
“Uh…”
“What is it, Tiran?” asked Leigh.
“There's a fork!”
“A fork? What would a fork-”
“In the ROAD, Leigh. A fork in the road,” said Shiwi.
“Ah.”
“Which way do we go?” asked Tiran.
“I dunno,” said Whir. She sighed. “Leigh, where are you going?”
“I don't know!” Leigh said, marching off to the left pathway. “I just have this feeling.”
“Riiight,” said Whir. “This feeling.” They followed Leigh silently.
They came around a few bends, but no more forks came up. Tiran was beginning to complain about the soles in his shoes, when somebody laughed, its deep voice bouncing of the walls.
“Uh, guys?” Tiran said, backing away. “Usually a disembodied voice is the signal to run.” The group huddled together, backing away from the walls.
Bats were gathering around them, cackling and stalking toward the group.
The crew was trapped in the cave as bats were crowding around them, and making moves to attack.
The voice boomed out again, this time louder.
“Okay, Batty,” said Tiran. “You can stop that now.”
“Hahahaaa,” said the voice.
“Anyone here feel fear?” asked Shiwi.
“Nope,” said Leigh firmly, but still huddled with the group. “It's not working on me.”
“Fear is more powerful than you think,” the voice boomed, echoing off the cave walls.
Tiran came forward. “Well then I think your name should be in the Guinness book of world records for the dumbest and smallest brain in existence.”
The voice paused for a moment. Then it said, “Not everyone has the mindset of my kind, I know. I would not expect you, young man, to understand the challenges of leadership. Fear, you must know, is the one true way to contr-”
“But that's not the only way!” Tiran shouted back.
Bats closed them in further.
“Tiran,” Whir said quietly. She turned to the side. “Stick to the plan. We need to get everybody out.”
“You can't save everyone,” taunted the bat's voice.
“Listen,” Tiran said firmly. “I don't know what that tiny brain of yours thought we came here for, but you definitely didn't expect this.” He took out a small gadget from his pocket, with a timer.
“Well, well,” said the bat. “Looks like this is your cue, my army.” He came out from the shadows, his looming oversized body screaming ‘run’.
Tiran and the group stood firm.
“Attack.”

Last edited by lokiously (March 10, 2023 21:08:08)

Piper_Camps

❝Welcome to day one of this session’s first bidaily, focused on dialogue! Bidailies are like dailies, but you have two days to finish them. Before beginning, check out this workshop on dialogue by Skye: ( https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/665944/?page=1#post-7015579 )
Start by posting a line of dialogue in the comments. Then, choose two lines from others’ comments. Write 300 words of an interaction including these two lines and at least 250 words of dialogue, and gain an extra 100 points by sharing your story.❞ (The dialogue I used came from @–kitti-kat– and @mossflower29) and is bolded

707 Words

TW: Mentions of d3ath

I walked through the abandoned amusement park, officially starting to feel some creepy vibes. I hadn’t necessarily felt anything on the drive up here, not even when I had been looking around for a way to get in. My sister had told me this would be a good place/theme for my documentary that I need for film class; I was starting to have second thoughts though seeing all the creepy abandoned booths, rides and snack stands.
“Ahh!” I screamed, suddenly jumping out of my skin when my phone started ringing. I looked down and saw my sister Kalei was the one who was calling. I sighed, taking a breath to stop my beating heart and answered the phone.
“Hello?” I asked, cautiously looking around my area “What’s up Kalei?”
“Kahealani! Where the heck are you? Mom and Dad are going to be home soon and they’re gonna freak if you’re not home!”
“What do you mean ‘where are you’?” I answered, mocking my sister's voice as I did so, “I’m at the abandoned amusement park. You said I should be over here so that I can film my documentary for film class!”
“Oh my gosh..” Kalei said in a breathy, absolutely amazed voice “Wow, you actually listened to my advice, you’re officially dumber than me.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked
“‘What are you talking about?” Kalei mocked me “Why on earth would you actually go to the freakin abandoned amusement park!”
“I thought you were being serious!” I cried
“No! Kahealani you have to get out of there right now! Who knows what kind of dangerous people or things could be lurking around there!”
“Look… I’m already here… So I might as well get some shots of something I can use in my documentary.”
“No. Kahealani I am serious. You need to get home right now!”
“Why? There’s nothing dangerous around here anyway. I’m not dead yet at least.”
“Kahealani…. You need to get out of there– that place is haunted… I guarantee it is.” Kalei whispered through the phone
“Oh my gosh Kalei, stop trying to freak me out even more okay? I’m just gonna get my shots and I’ll be back home before Mom and Dad even know that I was out here. Okay?”
“No! Do you know the reason that place got shut down in the first place?”
“No… Why?” I inquired, feeling an icy breeze blow through the place and a chill go up my spine.
“There was a girl.. She was 16, your age–”
“Yes, thank you I know how old I am.”
“Shut up Kahealani, let me finish. The girl got on the showstopper of the park, a huge roller coaster… It’s probably still up..” As she said that, I spun around in a circle and I saw the one she was talking about
“What happened to her?” I asked my sister worriedly
“She kept her hands up, as one does on a rollercoaster, and due to some kind of a building oversight… Her hands caught on a piece of metal and she flew out of the ride… She died…”
“O-okay… What does that ha-have to do with anything…” I stammered, although I was quite admittedly shooken up
“Oh my goodness Kahealani! She haunts the place now! Can’t you see that! Get out of there right n-” Just as my sister was about to finish yelling at me it cut out. I looked down frantically and realized in a panic that my phone had died.
“ No, no, no, no, nooo….” I said, frantically tapping on it hoping in vain that it would turn back on.
“Hello Kahealani…” I heard a breathy voice say from behind me “No no no… Don’t turn around.” I stopped dead in my tracks as I was just about to turn around when the voice said that
“Wh-who are you?” I questioned, absolutely panicked considering I was alone with no phone and only one person knew where I was
“Don’t you know?” The voice said with a bright giggle
“What do you want?” “Let’s just say… There’s a reason they say to keep your hands inside the ride. And that reason…. is me.”
I felt someone grab my arm, and then everything went dark.

-meow-L-cat-

Part 1
Event: Wynn eats Monica’s sandwich.

Timeline 1: Monica woke up after her nap. You see, Monica tended to be quite hungry after her naps, so she got up and went to eat her sandwich.
Hold on.
Where was her sandwich?
The sandwich was gone! Who could’ve taken it?
Today, Wynn, Neil and Virgil were at her house. Wynn wouldn’t eat her sandwich, right? And Neil would not care about someone’s sandwich. That means… Virgil. Virgil ate her sandwich.
Alright. How could she solve this?
Hm… wouldn’t thievery be considered a crime?
That was how she and Virgil found themselves in court.
“Your honor, Virgil Andrews here has committed a horrifying crime - eaten my sandwich,” she said solemnly.
Virgil’s mouth fell over. He began to speak quickly, gesturing wildly. Next thing Monica knew, she was getting dragged away to prison for a crime she didn’t commit.
She would then go on to rot away in prison. Wynn would feel so guilty he’d willingly hand himself into prison, and Neil, enraged by their demise, would decide that the whole world is at fault for this and punish it for their misdoings.

Timeline 2: Hhgskl was a planet somewhere in the universe. Well, not so much of a planet, as more of an intergalactic capital where the Emperors lived, commanding their armies to join their empire. Ariejg, one of the generals who were permitted on Hhgskl, was monitoring various planets in order to see whether or not they were fit for the invasion.
That was when some person from planet GalSTn - according to their spies, its inhabitants called it Earth - made a movement that the transmitters picked up. No one knew why it was this particular movement while thousands of millions were doing the same, however it caught Ariejg’s attention. Sure enough, a GalSTng was consuming a GalSTn food, a “sandwich”. Upon scrolling back on the timeline, it appeared that another GalSTng left the sandwich to be eaten later. The insolence of the first GalSTng told Ariejig that the planet was fit for invasion.
Ariejig proceeded to send a message to their army that can be loosely translated to GalSTn of Anglish dialect: “Engage on planet GalSTn. We have found what we’re looking for.”

Timeline 3: As soon as he was finished with the sandwich, Wynn realised what he had done. The first thing he did was call Catharine.
“Pick up, pick up, pick up,” he muttered under his breath.
“Yeah?”
“Cath! I have a problem.”
“What is it?”
“I ate Monica’s sandwich.”
There was a pause as Cath processed what she just heard.
All she could say was, “Oh.”
“Yeah. Oh.”
“What do you want me to do?”
Baffled by such a reply, Wynn nearly choked. “I don’t know. Smuggle me out of the country? Frame Virgil? I need he-” He was cut off by Catharine wheezing.
“Winston,” she said between laughs, “this is Monica we’re talking about here. She would not care.”
“This is Monica’s sandwich we’re talking about.”
“Exactly.” Wynn could imagine Cath gesturing as she said that. “Monica likes you too much. Besides, she would not care about you eating a silly sandwich. Not if you ate it. Or she would, but, y’know, not enough to, like, disown you or anything.”
Wynn sighed. She was right.
“Sorry. I guess I’m just a bit on edge with everything that’s just happened.”
“Makes sense.”
Wynn sighed. “Thanks for the help, Cath.”
“No problem. See you.”
He hung up.

Part 2

Plot point 1: Xavier is getting chased.
Plot point 2: Xavier finds a ditch.
Plot point 3: Xavier jumps into said ditch to escape.
Plot point 4: Xavier finds monsters in the ditch.
Plot point 5: Xavier climbs out.

Elaboration 1:
Xavier was running for his life. Literally. The goblins broke his guitar, and he knew only a couple of spells that he could use with his voice - levitation and slow fall, and they were too weak to affect a whole crowd of goblins, and he was out of breath. So yeah. He was pretty much screwed. His legs hurt from running and he had a stitch yet he pushed through it and took a sharp turn. Unfortunately for him, said sharp turn ended in a dead end. It’s fine, Xavier assured himself mentally, surprised that he could still think. It’s just goblins. I’ll be fine.
Elaboration 2:
The axe that nearly embedded itself in his shoulder showed that he definitely was not fine. Wait, was that? His eyes widened as he saw a hole in the ground. A hole that didn’t seem that deep, but seemed to have a tunnel going below where he just came from. Luckily, he put some distance between him and the goblins and could think again as the oxygen finally got to his brain. Really, it wasn't much to think about. He simply had to jump into the hole and use his slow fall spell to break his fall and Xavier knew the goblins weren't smart enough to jump in after him. Besides, they would just splatter on the ground. They don't have anything to slow their fall down.
Elaboration 3:
The goblins were now gaining on him. Humming in what he hoped was a slow-ish pace, Xavier jumped in. Like always, he thought his spell failed for a second. He speeded towards the ground. The collision with it was near… Suddenly, he slowed down, hanging in mid-air for a fraction of a second, as he got closer towards the surface. Soon enough Xavier was standing on the ground, heart still racing. This was starting to become a pattern.
Danger probably gone, he took in his surroundings. He was in a dark, a bit damp ditch. Every step he took echoed and the air was thick with the stench of wet earth.
Elaboration 4:
Not only that, but he also heard someone else’s footsteps.
Oh gods.
He was not alone.
Xavier slowly backed away into the wall, hand going for his guitar before he remembered that the goblins broke it.
“Calm down, Starr stan.”
Sighing with relief, he relaxed. “Oh. It’s just you, August.”
“Yeah.” Xavier’s fellow member of his party stepped out into the light, smirking. That should’ve been the first red flag.
“How did you get here?” Xavier asked.
“Oh, just ran away. From the monsters, I mean. Not the party. You know, how we got separated?”
“Uh, you mean how we decided to divide in order to train more?”
“Yeah, yeah, that.”
Frowning, Xavier eyed his friend. “Are you okay? Did you hit your head or something? Like- like, uh,” he tried to think of something really quickly, “like that one time you inhaled some of the red powder that Daniella uses to power her- her automatons.”
“Oh, yeah, probably. Maybe she’ll come and get us out of here with her automatons,” August joked.
Alright. That was not August.
Elaboration 5:
Maybe Xavier could make himself float out of the tunnel using his levitation spell? The goblins would be gone by now… Or he could punch faux August in the face… no, that might end badly. Or… he crouched down to seemingly tie his shoelaces, but picked up a sharp-ish pebble instead.
In the meantime, he could find out what exactly was this faux August.
“That never happened,” Xavier muttered, standing up.
“Huh?” faux August smiled at him.
“That- that never happened,” Xavier said, a bit louder this time.
Groaning, the impostor glared at him. “You adventurers never let me have any fun!”
“Fun?”
“Yeah, y’know, breaking their mental stability slowly,” faux August shrugged, as he suddenly grew tentacles and turned into a green humanoid that was at least 7 feet tall.
Xavier threw the sharp rock at him and ran through the tunnel. The shapeshifter hissed and raced after him. Spotting an exit with a ladder going up at the end, the bard dashed towards it and got up it, not looking back until he was halfway up. The faux August was glaring at him. Oh. He couldn’t go up. That was good.

Part 3
Summary: Kid tries to prevent the time / reality rift in a random stranger's house from growing while in the space between realities / times. They talk to the past selves of a few hours ago while in the in-between to try and prevent the rift from happening. The story is from 3 AM Kid, 6 PM Kid, 9 PM Kid and 12 AM Kid's point of views.
Outline:
9 PM POV: 9 PM leaves to resume their activity, eventually becoming 12 AM and realising that the rift is unfixable and resolving to defend the residents of the house.
6 PM POV: 6 PM Kid knows that there is a reality rift opening in a random stranger's house. They go to the in-between to try and fix it. It has been open since roughly 4 AM and they panic. They only remember their 3 AM self going in.
3 AM POV: 3 AM goes in, only to see that 6 PM is there, freaking out. They ask what's wrong and it turns out there's a rift between realities in a stranger's house. Nervous, they leave.
9 PM POV: 9 PM is attempting to fix the rift from the outside, but sucks a chair in instead.
3 AM POV: 3 AM is nervous. They have no idea what to do, so they go and help out the 6 PM Kid. When they do, they’re nearly hit by a chair from the rift.
6 PM POV: 6 PM is still attempting to fix the reality rift, but ends up summoning 9 PM Kid instead. They are, too, trying to fix the rift, but end up exiting to try and fix it from their time instead. 6 PM asks 3 AM to exit and read a book, or something. 3 AM does that.
12 AM POV: 12 AM goes in and informs 6 PM that there's no way to fix the rift. However, they add that they know 6 PM will try anyway.
6 PM POV: 6 PM exits to attempt to fix the rift by exiting and working from the outside.
Part 4
The electronic clock stuck above the family’s calendar strikes 9 PM as Kid exits the In-Between. It felt like hours since when they were summoned and began working on fixing the rift from the outside of reality, but then again, time doesn’t exactly flow in the In-Between. It’s the In-Between for a reason.
They feel around on the wall for the borders of the rift and try to push them together for what feels like the millionth time. Groaning, they drag their hands through their face. This is impossible.
They won’t be able to do this.
Their 12 AM self was right. They guess they can’t change the future, either. They suppose that in three hours, they will try to convince themself from three hours ago that the rift is unfixable.
Craning their neck to look at a girl who lives here, getting an apple, Kid decides that the best thing to do right now is to help these strangers if they ever get caught up in the inter-reality crossfire.
***
It’s 6 PM and Kid doesn’t know if the rift is open yet.
The only thing they do know is that about 15 hours ago, they went into the In-Between and were informed by their 6 PM self that there’s an inter-reality rift that will open. They didn’t specify at what time, though. Kid thinks this over as they bounce their leg, sitting at the empty dinner table.
A rift can only be closed if someone in the In-Between pulls it together right after it’s opened. And Kid, once again, doesn’t know when the rift opens.
This is not good.
Oh. Wait. But they were informed by their 6 PM self. It’s 6 PM.
Cursing themself for being an idiot, Kid allows themself to get sucked into the In-Between. Sure enough, there’s a rift in the middle of the swirling, empty mass of nothingness. Kid sees it as opening out into space, with constellations twinkling from the inside, but they know it really can open up anywhere. And anyone can go through it.
So, here’s the issue - it definitely didn’t open recently. It opened, Kid would say, about…
Alright. Now was the time to begin panicking. About 14 hours ago. They missed it.
***
Kid wakes up and stretches. The clock that the family who they are staying with put up above their calendar shows 3 AM, so they are probably asleep, other than that weird one who doesn’t have a very good sleeping schedule. It is a great time to go into the In-Between and from there, visit other realities. Those Hogwarts people seemed really nice, plus they had great food. They thought Kid was a ghost, though.
As soon as Kid enters the In-Between, their own pacing self immediately catches their eye.
“What’s wr- Oh.” The next thing Kid notices is a rift between realities. A big one, at that. The rifts are about the only thing affected by time in the In-Between, and this meant that it opened a while ago in one of their timelines. It glitches between space and the kitchen of the family that Kid was staying with. It is embedded in their house. Kid curses.
“Yeah. Oh.”
“When are you from?”
“6 PM… you must be me from 3 AM. Alright. Here’s what you do,” 6 PM Kid stops pacing and walks towards them, “you go back, wait until that rift will appear, and-”
“And push it back, yeah, yeah, I know.” Despite their sarcasm, Kid is beginning to panic. They drop out.
***
It is late 8 PM - or is it 9 already? - when Kid is trying to pull the rift back together. Suddenly, the rift begins to pull everything around it in. Dodging out of the way, Kid is only able to watch as a chair gets pulled in. Good luck to that family figuring out where that went.
***
Not even an hour has passed since Kid got out of the In-Between with their 6 PM self informing them about the issue. They can’t simply not do anything. They have to help out their 6 PM self, at the very least.
As soon as they get into the In-Between, the rift spits out a chair, nearly hitting them.
“Oi!” they exclaim, dodging the chair and catching it when it gets suspended in nothingness. 6 PM Kid winces.
“You okay?” they ask.
“Yeah. Well, nearly got hit by a chair, but aside from that, I’m fine,” 3 AM Kid shrugs.
***
Kid and their 3 AM self keep working on the rift.
“Alright, you push that side, I push this,” they instruct. 3 AM Kid nods and they get to work. However, the rift does not budge. Soon enough, the two are exhausted and they resolve to try for one last time before taking a break. This time, however, something does happen - the rift begins to pulse and spits out yet another Kid.
They look around, obviously disoriented.
“6 PM and 3 AM, yes?”
“Yeah. And you?” Kid asks.
“I’m from 9 PM. I was just working on the rift inside of that reality when it pulled me in- Wait, is that the chair it sucked in?” 9 PM Kid gets up and walks towards the chair.
3 AM shrugs, flexing their hands. “Maybe. It nearly impaled me.”
Letting out a surprised laugh, 9 PM Kid says, “Yeah, I remember that.”
Kid decides that they should probably wait for the rift to open. “3 AM? You should probably go read a book or something. You’re exhausted.”
Nodding, 3 AM Kid disappears.
“I should probably help you here,” 9 PM says, stepping into 3 AM Kid’s place.
***
When Kid left their reality, it was midnight. They are not at all surprised to see their 6 PM and 9 PM selves in the In-Between, attempting to fix the rift.
“Leave it.” Both of their past selves jump at their voice. “It’s not fixable. It’s too late for it to be.”
“Another one,” Kid’s 6 PM self mutters. “Did we give up already? When are you from? Next week? Month? Another reality?” Having gone through this, Kid knows that their 6 PM self is currently forming the theory that they’re an impostor out of nothing. Oh well. Not like they can change much.
“12 AM.”
“Ah.” 6 PM Kid scowls at them, which the current Kid thinks is ridiculous, since they’re scowling at themself. “Well, nothing’s ‘not fixable’, you’re just really grim.” They turn to 9 PM. “Ignore them. They’re probably from another reality.” Funnily enough, 9 PM doesn’t seem very convinced.
“I don’t know, myself. Unlike you, I’ve worked on it for 3 hours longer… I’ve tried pretty much everything… Then again, maybe we weren’t using enough force.”
The current Kid rolls their eyes. “I know you can’t face the harsh truth. I’ll take my leave now.”
***
Well, the 12 AM Impostor left. An awkward silence stretches out across the two Kids.
Kid’s 9 PM self breaks it first. “I should probably get back to trying to close the rift from the inside.”
“Alright, you go do that.”
Some ‘time’ later, the current Kid is tired from trying to push the rift together. You know what? Maybe 9 PM had the right approach. Kid drops out of the In-Between and into the reality where the rift is embedded.

Ataraxea

Weekly 1: 3017 Words

**TW: Contains unaliving via impaling and sharp objects**

Part 1: 828 Words
Event: Aretta accidentally re-awakens Lyre’s memories

“I’m sick of this!” Lyre exclaimed, throwing her hands up in the air. “How long do you want us to keep this up? Until one of us dies?”
“I…” Aretta said, trailing off.
“See! You don’t even know…” Lyre snapped. Lyre shook her head and made her way toward the door. Suddenly, Aretta blocked the door with her affinity. Lyre turned around, glaring at her. “You can’t keep me here forever!”
Without warning, Lyre attacked Aretta. Aretta didn’t expect it—since when would Lyre do something irrational like this? Sighing, she trapped the girl in a formation of ice. She didn’t want to, but there was no way to restrain Lyre.
“Let me go!” Lyre shouted angrily. Aretta knew that Lyre’s struggles were futile—barely anyone could escape her affinity if trapped by it. To Aretta’s dismay, that did not stop Lyre from trying. The girl gave herself all sorts of bruises in scratches in her struggle to escape. Aretta lifted a hand, sending a spear of ice shooting upwards. She only meant to impale Lyre’s arm, she really did. Whether by misjudgment of character or miscalculation, Aretta missed Lyre’s arm. Instead, she ended up impaling Lyre’s abdomen.
The impaled girl gasped. Aretta stood frozen, shocked that she made such an error. Lyre lay still, but suddenly, she was engulfed in a brilliant lilac.
“The things you kept from me…You could have told me, at the very least!” Lyre shouted. Aretta knew that Lyre could not control her power.
“You can’t—you don’t know how to use it!” Aretta cried. Lyre gave her a dead look.
“Are you sure?”

Outcome 1: Lyre dies from the fatal wound, causing Aretta to cause a calamity

Lyre’s hands flared with darkness. Aretta was surprised. A pale lilac had always symbolized Lyre’s affinity. Was this an indication that Lyre really did regain her memories? Aretta sighed, she knew that the amnesia wouldn’t last—she knew she couldn’t maintain this facade.
It was too late. Lyre engulfed the room in darkness. But that darkness flickered and then went out completely. Aretta could hear Lyre’s wet gasps—her nose and abdomen were bleeding. It was too much blood, Aretta thought, she wouldn’t make it.
“I’m sorry,” Aretta said.
“But you caused this.” the dying girl replied simply. Lyre lay limp in Aretta’s arms. Aretta didn’t mean for it to happen. She was angry and grief-stricken. It was possibly the worst combination of feelings she had ever felt.
Furious at herself, her affinity spiraled out of control. It was too much power. Unknowingly, Aretta had coated the whole city in a thick sheet of ice.

“Breaking news. An unknown Resistance member has coated the eastern part of Sector 18 in ice. Are they really helping? Or have they turned against us?”

Outcome 2: Lyre accidentally kills Aretta. Stricken with grief, she starts a mass murder.

Aretta thought Lyre had no control over her affinity. The thought alone was absurd. Aretta had no idea how much time Lyre had practiced her affinity—secretly—in the labs. With her memories back, she should be able to control her affinity as she once did.
Darkness filled the room. Lyre was well aware of her injury, she knew that one wrong move would cause her end.
Aretta attempted to approach Lyre.
“No! Stay away!” Lyre cried, hands up defensively. The girl didn’t listen—she never did. And perhaps Lyre should have known that. Then perhaps, the events that followed would never have happened.
Lyre wanted to stop Aretta. She used the darkness to reach for Aretta’s neck. A dreadful crack filled the room. Lyre looked at Aretta, eyes wide. It wasn’t her fault that Aretta died, was it? She warned Aretta to stop. If only people listened. If only this world were clear of sin, then maybe none of this would be happening to Lyre.
She smiled, walking away from Aretta’s body. The sinners would pay for this—Lyre would ensure it.

“W-who are you?” a bearded man stammered, holding up a knife.
“You killed your family,” Lyre said.
“W-what a-are you t-talking about?” the man stammered.
“It wasn’t a question,” Lyre replied. Her eyes were completely dead as she ended the man. She was one step closer to a sin-free world.

“Someone has been going around murdering people.” a voice exclaimed. “We should leave while we still have time.”
“I guess. But why are they doing this?” another voice replied.
“I dunno, but we should scram,” a third said.
“Because,” Lyre started. “I intend to create a world without evil.”

Outcome 3: Aretta apologizes to Lyre

“I’m sorry!” Aretta cried. “I didn’t mean to…” Aretta lifted her hand over the wound, encrusting it in ice. “I shouldn’t have taken that away from you, but I wanted to protect you from the memories.”
“Protect me?” Lyre gasped weakly. “I can handle my own memories. You shouldn’t have locked them away from me. Were you perhaps too afraid that I would surpass you in power? It’s too late for that now. You wanted a world empty of evil…”
“Yes, I did—I do,” Aretta whispered.
“Then you have to get rid of the root of the problem,” Lyre said. “And that starts with us.”
Part 2: 517 Words

Plot Point 1: Kylie finds herself in a dark room (exposition, rising action)
- Kylie rushes down the hallway in an attempt to escape her pursuers (bullies). The hallway ends abruptly and the only option is to go into a room on the left. (Her pursuers have not yet turned the corner). Kyle enters the room and shuts the door behind her. There is no light switch and it is almost completely dark. By some error, she drops her glasses and can not find them. She feels the floor for them, but instead of finding her glasses, she feels something strangely furry. Kylie yelps, alerting the bullies. The bullies demand that she open the door.

Plot Point 2: The furry thing (a cat) reveals itself and starts talking (rising action, building to climax)
- The furry thing starts to meow, but it abruptly (and unexpectedly) starts speaking English. Kylie screams, feeling frantically for her glasses. She finally finds them. Putting them on, she realizes that the furry thing was a cat. She is both amazed and terrified of the talking, gaping cat. The cat switches back to meowing, and it does so frantically. Meanwhile, the bullies outside have started banging on the door. There is a metallic clang that comes from outside—Kylie’s pursuers were trying to break into the room! Kylie wonders what the cat is doing here, but she also wonders how she will escape.

Plot Point 3: The cat offers a deal (climax)
- The cat, speaking English again, offers to help Kylie out of the room. Kylie is skeptical at first and does not want an undesirable outcome. She thinks about it—she does need to escape… Another loud clang rings from outside. Kylie, afraid she will be caught, accepts the offer. The cat starts muttering incantations and Kylie grows increasingly worried. Suddenly, the lock clicks. The people outside must have picked the lock. She looks around for something to defend herself. The moment the door opens is when the cat finishes muttering its incantations. Without warning, the world blips out, the bullies vanishing.

Plot Point 4: The cat has whisked them to a forest (falling action)
- When the world comes back into view, Kylie finds herself in a magical forest. There were purple trees and overgrown mushrooms. Kylie asks the cat where they are. (She has become accustomed to the talking, gaping cat.) The cat explains to Kylie they are in a secret land and that the cat wasn’t supposed to bring her here. Kylie asks why the cat wasn’t supposed to bring her here. He explains that there was once a war between humans and the people from this hidden world. After the humans won the war, the humans started to forget that this place existed. It was a crime to reintroduce humans to this tranquil world.

Plot Point 5: The cat sipes Kylie’s memories (conclusion)
- The cat apologizes before erasing Kylie’s memories. Kylie, for some odd reason, does not object to this. Since Kylie allowed for her memories to be wiped, the council of talking cats allowed her to stay with the cat that had rescued her. Kylie and the cat live together for many years. However, Kylie is human (the cats have a much longer lifespan), and she soon passes away due to old age. The cat who rescued her is devastated and is angry at the council for allowing him to feel this emotion. He starts a cult and attempts to get revenge for Kylie.
Part 3: 422 Words

Summary (63 Words): Lyre struggles to cope with her solitary confinement in the facility. Unbeknownst to Lyre, it is the same facility where she had been raised. She attempts to escape the facility. 10 years ago, a six-year-old Lyric is in the same facility. She was raised in this facility. Lyric is sick of the inhuman testing they are forced to go through in the facility.

Outline:
- Final Scene: Both girls fail and falter as they are nearly out of the facility, allowing them both to be captured. They both contemplate why they are here. Both of them are visited by the Scientist who reveals something.
- Lyre wanders the facility’s halls, wondering why this place is so familiar. Lyre, who is not supposed to be out of her room/cell, is spotted by a guard. She unalives the guard with ease and laughs. She is sedated and brought to a testing room.
- Lyric lingers outside the testing room, afraid to enter. Scared to go, she suddenly sprints away from the testing room. Unfortunately, Lyric is caught by two guards. Lyric lashes out at them, screaming. The metal band on her neck shocks her. They drag her into the testing room where she is met by the Scientist.
- Lyre wakes up abruptly, finding herself restrained to a metal table. There is a metal collar on her neck. A much older Scientist walks in and smiles. The Scientist is surprised to see Lyre.
- The Scientist draws blood from Lyric, who had to be held down.
- Both girls plan to escape the next day.
- Lyre wakes up early and breaks the reinforced glass wall in her cell/room. She runs down the hallway but she is chased by a group of guards with guns. She enters a room.
- Lyric is being escorted by two guards, but suddenly she bolts the other way. The two guards chase after her, but Lyric ducked into a room.
- Both girls find something horrifying in their respective rooms.
- Some of her memories come back. Lyre escapes the building by unaliving all the guards.
- Lyric is stunned by what she sees. She runs out of the room and leaves the building by squeezing through the guards.
- The girls are met by the Scientist and a few guards. They are both sedated and brought to a highly enforced room.
- The first scene plays out:
- Lyric is forced by the Scientist to unalive a guard. She refuses, stating that she can’t.
- Lyre wants/tries to unalive the Scientist, but her past self tells her that she can’t.
Part 4: 1250 words

Lyre stared at the daunting metal gates surrounding the facility. There were no guards outside. She hesitated. A sharp projectile found its mark on her neck. Lyre gasped and she could feel herself lose consciousness.
Lyre opens her eyes, squinting at the bright light. She was back in her cell. A figure in a white lab coat stood outside the room.
“You made the same mistake ten years ago,” an icy voice called from behind Lyre. Lyre paused, turning around slowly. “It’s a shame, really. You were so close.” The Scientist's unfeeling eyes met Lyre’s.

Lyric ran as fast as she could. She couldn’t go back, she couldn’t. All she had to do was walk through the gates, then, she would be free. A small part of her knew that no one would accept her for who she was. But it had to be better, right? It couldn’t be worse than this place. She stepped through the gate.
An electric shock ran through her body. Lyric screamed. It was the collar. She forgot about the collar. Blood dripped onto the snow. She fainted.
“A pitiful attempt. I thought you were smarter than this, Lyric,” the Scientist said as Lyric regained consciousness. “If you’d listened, you wouldn’t have seen what you did.” The Scientist put her gloved hands on Lyric’s forehead, caressing it.
“Do you want to forget?” the Scientist asked quietly. Lyric shook her head. “Okay. It’ll be our little secret.”

Lyre phased through the reinforced glass divider. She looked around, ensuring the coast was clear. Lyre wanders the hall, running her hands along the wall. Why did this place feel so familiar to her? Had she been here before?
“Hey! You’re not supposed to be here!” a guard shouts. Lyre turns around, eyes gleaming with malice. The guard lifts his weapon. Lyre tackles the guard, reaching for the concealed knife in his boot. She pulled the knife out.
A look of surprise washed over the guard’s face. Lyre supposed that she wasn’t supposed to know the knife was there. She throws the knife at his chest. An awful gurgling sound fills the hall. Lyre walks up to the man, removing the blade from his chest before impaling him again. Lyre smiled, laughing as she repeated the action.
She felt a needle at her neck. The corners of her vision darkened, but she continued to laugh.

Lyric’s hand hovered over the doorknob. Her hand shook. She was afraid. Suddenly, she turned around and bolted away. Turning the corner, she runs into two guards. The two guards quickly restrained her, but it wasn’t without struggle. Lyric lashed out at them, calling upon her affinity. Without warning, the collar around her neck came alive with electricity. She screamed.
Lyric saw another child in the corner of her eye. “Help” she mouthed, but the child walked away.
The guards dragged her to the testing room. The Scientist stands by the door, as if she were waiting for Lyric the whole time.
“You don’t have to run,” the Scientist says in a sickly sweet voice. The Scientist stroked Lyric’s hair. “It’ll be okay.”

Lyre woke up, gasping. She tried to stand up, but her legs would not comply. Lyre crumpled to a heap on the floor. Her neck felt strange—it was as if there was a cool metal collar attached to it. Lyre felt her neck. It seems that unfortunately, she was right.
A woman in a white lab coat stops in front of Lyre’s cell, as if she were shocked to see Lyre.
“I didn’t think I’d ever see you again,” the woman said. “I assume you do not remember me, judging by your response. I am the Scientist.”

Lyric whimpers as the Scientist touches her face.
“We only need your blood,” the Scientist said, “Hold her down.” Lyric struggled against the guards who pinned her in place.
“Stop moving, it’ll hurt less.” the Scientist added in that honey-sweet voice. Lyric felt the needle go into her neck. The Scientist took her time drawing the blood.
“We’re done with her. Take her back to her room.”

Lyre was done with this. The Scientist… Who did she think she was?

Lyric stares at the ceiling, not bothering to move. Why her?

Lyre wakes up. This time, instead of merely phasing through the reinforced glass, she shattered. However, the action was not without its repercussions. The metal collar must have had some sort of anti-affinity mechanism that stunned the user every time they tried to use it. She winced, rubbing her neck.
Lyre sprints down the hall. Behind her, she can hear the rhythmic clatter of the guards’ boots. She reaches the end of the hallway. The only option aside from killing the guards would be to go into the room. Without hesitating, she opened the door and stepped inside.

Two guards flanked Lyric, escorting her to the testing room. Without warning, Lyric made a run for it. She could hear the guards' cries, but she did not relent. However, she must have made a wrong turn because the hallway ended abruptly. She ducked into the nearby room.

The room was filled with papers—plastered on the walls were images of a dark-haired, yellow-orange-eyed girl. There were also data tables on the wall. Looking at the desk, she gasped. Where the heck did they get a picture of her? And why was it in here? Lyre found it strange that there was an image of her in a room filled with pictures of someone else.
Suddenly, a wave of unbalance hit Lyre. She saw a girl—the same girl from the photos—playing in the snow. She also saw the Scientist.

What was this? Lyric clasped her hand to her mouth, trying not to gag. A strong smell had come from this room, and she had no choice but to enter it. Horrified, Lyric looked around the room. Could this even be described as a room? Dozens of children were restrained in liquid-filled cylinders. Of these children, one of them, a dark-haired boy, was attached to some sort of machine. Scanning the displays, Lyric could see that over half of them were dead. She ran out of the room, gagging.

Lyre kicked the door open. She made her way quickly down the hall. If there was a guard, she took care of them swiftly. She did not stop until she was at the facility’s gates.

Disoriented by the awful sight, Lyric ran. She had a bad feeling about her stay there. She was not powerful enough to take on such a great number of guards, instead, she just ran past them.

Lyre stepped through the gates, confident that she would escape. An electric shock took over her body, leaving her paralyzed and twitching on the floor. She felt a prick and the darkness quickly took over. There was no escaping, was there?

As Lyric reached the facility’s exit, she was grabbed and restrained by two guards. They sedated her. As her consciousness slipped, she could see that she was going to a different section of the facility.

“Kill him,” the Scientist said, gesturing at the tied-up man.
“I-I can’t,” Lyric said, whimpering.
“You’re weak.”

Lyre looks around. Where was she? Where was this place? A woman in a white lab coat stood inside the area where Lyre was. Angry at her confinement, she plucked the pen from the woman’s hand and held it up to the woman’s throat.
Lyre hesitated. You can’t kill her. Don’t do this. Please.

Last edited by Ataraxea (March 8, 2023 22:11:27)

CookieRun_Kat

Bi-Daily, 440 Words (252/440 Dialogue)

It all started with a fuzzy flashback.

“No… Wake up, please wake up… I can’t lose you now. Not again.” The only words that repeated in my mind. This nightmare would not stop coming back. I woke up in a cold sweat again.
“He’s still here, I’m fine-. It’s fine.” I’m still panicking, but I sit up and take long, deep breaths. I eventually calmed down after all of this…

“Is everything alright?” I hear as I turn my head around to face him. “I wanna make sure you’re-“

I run over and hug him. “Mhm.” I nod. “Just, promise me this.” I clear my throat and blink a couple times. I place my hands on his shoulders and stare straight into his eyes.

“Promise me that you are never going to leave me again. Not again, not ever. I can’t stand to lose you in the same way I did before. I just can’t, I-“

He seems shocked by my words as he places a hand over my mouth. Maybe I upsetted him over bringing everything up. I want to apologize, but he starts speaking, clearly and confidently before I can get a word out. “I’ve said it a million times before, but I’ll say it again. I promise… I promise. I’ll promise it as many times as I need to, alright? I. Promise. I can’t lose you either, alright?”

“Are you telling the truth-…?” I ask in a hushed voice.

“Look. Of course I’m telling the truth! I’d never, ever lie to you… Do you think I’d lie to you after everything we’ve gone through together? No. Never. I’m not the type of person to lie. You’ve known me for years.”

“Well, you’re still the same as you were then. Pretty much-.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” His tone of voice has shifted slightly, and I can tell he’s just messing with me-

“Eh. With slight changes, fine, I’ll admit it-. Still, basically the same.” I shrug and smile. “But that doesn’t matter. That was the past, before all of this stuff happened. The past is irrelevant, I’m telling you.”

“I couldn’t have said it better myself. Anyways, I’ll be right back.”

“Okay, just talk to me if you need help with anything!” I call out to him. He turns his head back around.

“Oh please-. You think I need saving?” Now, he’s just teasing again-. He walks out of the room, shutting the door behind himself.

I whisper to myself. “Hahah- ‘You think I need saving?’ Never gets old-. Hey, I mean… If he’s the ‘damsel in distress’, I guess that makes me the godd*mn prince-.”

criminal-intent

BI-DAILY MARCH 8
-

“love, your bluebird is singing this morning” @-faerylights “I always thought you had the most beautiful eyes” @aqua-vibes

-

“Love, your bluebird is singing this morning. It’s been a while since I’ve heard your song. Since I’ve steeled myself for tears.”

She smiled into the mirror, but her own face didn’t stare back. Instead, the glass was entirely blank. Like it had been ever since he’d left.

“I couldn’t make my breakfast this morning, couldn’t even check on the bird. Instead, I just stood there, tears streaming down my face.”

She laughed icily.

“I don’t even know why I cry. I doubt you cry where you are . . . but I hope you do. Somehow, that would make it better, more bearable.”

The bird’s song rang in her ears.

“If you can keep singing, I don’t think that you cry.

“I’ve told you this, but I still haven’t sung since you’ve left. Not a single note. Out of spite or out of grief, I don’t know. Something keeps me from that joy that once came so easy . . . when you were here.”

The song transformed into words, human words.

“I’m sorry, my love.
I don’t regret what I did,
but I do regret your pain.”

With the words, the bird alighted on the windowsill, and the woman turned to look.

“I don’t know why you come to me anymore. I don’t know why I return here, why I don’t leave you behind, or why I won’t forget. I should hate you. . . .

“Part of me does.”

She stepped towards the window, her back to the mirror.

“But then there’s the other part that loves you all the more now that you’re gone. Now you’ll never come to say I love you when I want to be alone. You’ll never not say it when I need to hear it. You’ll never coax me into a song when all I need is silence. Now . . . now you’ll never lie to me again. You can still hurt me, though, even from where you are.”

She kneeled, resting her head on the windowsill, staring at the bird, into its eyes.

Tears poured from hers . . . mingling with the dust on the sill.

The bird broke into song, but this time it was a new song. This time the words came immediately.

“I always thought you had the most beautiful eyes. Don’t waste them weeping for me.”

377 total / 264 dialogue

Last edited by criminal-intent (March 8, 2023 22:27:28)

Piper_Camps

Weekly #1 - TIMELINES: Hello there, everybody - welcome to the first weekly! This week, we’re going to be focusing on timelines & time travel. We hope you learn the basics of plotting timelines and time travel mechanics through these workshops <3 Huge thanks to the workshop creators and daily team. Let's dive right in!

Total of 3,857 Words

Part One: Before we start writing the next Interstellar, we’ll be starting off with some basics! Check out this super yummy workshop by the golden Cara on the mechanics of time travel. Now that you’ve basked in Carcrash’s awesomeness, here’s your first activity: exploring the butterfly effect! Write about a singular event, and then branch off into three different outcomes that stem from that event.

870 Words

EVENT (151 Words):
Seventeen year old Zaina sat at her desk, clicking through her calendar on her computer. She was checking her schedule for the coming week to see if there was anything important she needed to remember. Suddenly her heart dropped as she saw something on the calendar for tomorrow that she had completely forgotten about. There, from 9am-1pm was a big block of time titled “Zaina - SAT Test”
She had completely forgotten that she had signed up to take the SAT tomorrow. She had studied a bit the previous week but then she had gotten caught up in other things and she hadn’t studied nearly enough! She stared at the screen in shock, not sure what she was going to do. There didn’t seem like there was much she could do… What exactly were her options? She thought about it, trying to think of how she could fix this mistake of hers.

OUTCOME ONE (207 Words):
Zaina decided the only thing that she can do without angering her parents is to cram as much as she possibly can before she goes to bed and then take the SAT tomorrow as she had originally planned to. She stays up until about 1:30 in the morning, cramming as much information from SAT prep sites and textbooks before she eventually falls asleep at her desk.
She wakes up with a start as her alarm goes off and nervously gets ready before going to the testing center and sitting for the SAT. She doesn’t know many of the answers and many of her answers are guesses.
She comes home feeling awful about how she did on the test, but she doesn't say anything to her parents because she doesn’t want to admit that she had forgotten to study. Later on, when she gets her results back; they’re not great, just as she had expected. Her parents are disappointed and ask her what could have happened.
Finally she comes clean, and her parents are livid, though not just because she didn’t study but because she didn’t tell them that day. She ends up being grounded for about a month and her parents make her retake the SAT.

OUTCOME TWO (344 Words):
Zaina decides that rather than cram for the exam and spend hours staying up late, preventing her from getting a good night's sleep, she would get some sleep and wake up an hour earlier than she had planned so she could cram them. She also planned to cram during breakfast and on the way to the testing center; she planned to brush it off to her parents as simply being nervous and wanting to go over things.
Zaina goes to sleep and wakes up earlier than she had planned, at 6am, and immediately gets dressed and then grabs her textbooks, sitting at her desk and cramming for about 2 hours. Her mom comes in to check on her and when she asks why she’s still studying, Zaina simply lies and says she is nervous and wants to get in a bit of extra studying. Her mother nods and says nothing as Zaina continues to cram throughout breakfast as well as on the way to the center.
Since she did not have enough time to go through everything in her books, Zaina goes in with just a little bit more knowledge than she would have had without studying at all. She takes the test, guessing on quite a few but also feeling confident in several of her answers.
She goes home feeling decently about how her test had gone, and she tells her parents as much. A while later, when she gets her test back her results are decent however nowhere near as high as any of her practice tests had been. Her parents know this and ask her what she thinks could have caused her score to go down so much from practice tests.
Zaina lies and says that she simply stayed up late the night before talking to her friends. Her parents are upset, but don’t ground her and decide to let bygones be bygones. They say if Zaina wants to retake the test,s he would have to pay the fee herself since it was her fault she didn’t do very well.

OUTCOME THREE (168 Words):
Not wanting to have to take the SAT unprepared, Zaina immediately went to her parents and told them what had happened. Understandably, her parents were furious that she had slacked off. They grounded her for three weeks, however they did allow her to reschedule her SAT so that she would have more time to study and would be able to take the test feeling as well prepared as she possibly could.
A month later, Zaina has been studying non-stop (although in a healthy manner) and walks into the SAT feeling extremely well-prepared. During the test, she only has to guess on a handful of questions and most of her answers she is very confident in.
Later on, when she gets her results, they are better than she and her parents could have expected. She’s grateful that she had waited and even though her parents had been mad in the beginning, she knew that it was worth it in the end as soon as she got back her results.

Part Two:The next activity you’ll be doing for this weekly is plotting timelines! This is something that can be incredibly helpful in telling a wide range of stories. Check out this workshop on plotting timelines by the amazing Sandy to learn about how you’re going to do this. After you’re finished reading, try your hand at plotting some timelines of your own!
To complete this part of the weekly, create a linear timeline in any medium you can share on scratch, with at least five major plot points, displayed either as in-story time or plot stages. Elaborate on each point for 100 words. That’s a minimum of 500 words total.

679 Words

TW: Kidnapping and Teen Parenting

Plot Point One (24 Words): We meet our main characters, Kathy Alisha. We also learn a bit more about their town and some of the people who live there (Exposition)
Plot Point Two (29 Words): One day, Kathy goes to Alisha’s school to pick her up, but can’t find her and finds out nobody has seen her all day since she was dropped off. (Rising action/suspense)
Plot Point Three (20 Words): Kathy freaks out and calls the police to report Alisha missing, running around town to see if she wandered off. (Suspense)
Plot Point Four (17 Words): Kathy finds a letter at her house claiming Alisha has been kidnapped and won’t be returning home. (Climax)
Plot Point Five: Kathy brings the letter to police, but they fail to track down the sender (Climax 2)

Elaboration on One (122 Words): We get to meet our main characters in the story. The first of whom is Kathy Meyers, a nineteen year old single teen mom who has a five year old daughter. Her daughter, Alisha Meyers, is our other main character. Alisha goes to a public school and is in kindergarten. She stays at the school’s after school program where she stays until 4:30 when her mom gets off of work and can come and pick her up. The two live in a very small town where Alisha and Kathy are often shunned due to Kathy being a young mom. The only one who doesn’t seem to care is Kathy’s next door neighbor, an elderly woman whose name is Mrs. Miranda Reyes.

Elaboration on Two (103 Words): After work on a regular Wednesday, Kathy goes to Alisha’s after school program to pick her up like she usually does. She finds out that the people who run the after school program hadn’t seen Alisha and had been told that her uncle had come to pick her up early from school. Kathy is horrified and confused because Alisha doesn’t have an uncle (Kathy has no brothers, and no siblings that live in town at all). She goes to the office and she talks to her daughter’s teachers and is livid because there was no uncle listed on the authorized lick up list.

Elaboration on Three (107 Words): Absolutely freaking out now that she knows her daughter has been picked up by a random man claiming to be her Uncle, the next natural step that she takes is that she calls the police. They take down some basic information from her and then ask her to come into the station so that they can get a more detailed report from her and have her file the Missing Person’s report for Alisha. She goes and does that and eventually the police tell her that the only thing she can do for right now is go home and wait for them to contact her with more information.

Elaboration on Four (124 Words): When Kathy returns home nothing is out of the ordinary, although she is obviously distraught from the disappearance of her daughter. Four days go by without anything from the police or any sign of her daughter, Kathy finds a note nailed to the front door of her house when she comes home from work. The note claims to be from the man that had taken Alisha from school and claims that Alisha would not be coming for a long time; unless Kathy was able to pay $10,00 dollars and leave it behind the church. Kathy obviously does not have that kind of money and has no idea what she is going to do, although she does turn the letter over to the police.

Elaboration on Five (119 Words): The police appreciate the letter that Kathy turns into them and they tell her that they will do their very best to try and match the handwriting to anybody in their database, as well as scan the paper for fingerprints or DNA. However, two days later Kathy gets a call that the police working on the case were unable to gather anything useful from the case. They had gotten a small amount of DNA, however it didn’t match anybody they had in their database. So, without a suspect they would be unable to match the DNA that they were able to find to anybody. Kathy is now beginning to lose hope that she will ever see her daughter again.

Part Three: Onward to the unknown! In this part, we’ll be combining aspects of the previous two activities and workshops as well as preparing for the fourth activity by plotting a non-linear timeline that you’ll use for the final piece. It’s up to you what your story is about, though it should include time travel.

First, write 50 words to roughly summarize what will happen in your story. A quick roadmap — even before you start on a more detailed outline — is key to keep track of story threads.

Then, in 200 words or more, outline the story in detail, making sure to highlight important story beats and distinguish timelines from one another. Don’t worry about grammar or complete sentences for this.

308 Words

TW: Kidnapping and Teen Parenting

Summary (55 Words):
Nineteen year old Kathy is a teen mom with a five year old daughter named Alisha. When Kathy learns that Alisha has been taken by someone, she is contacted by someone claiming to have time travel powers who offers to take Kathy back in time to try and save her daughter from ever being taken.

Outline (253 Words)
- Kathy finds out her daughter is missing
- Calls the police
- Goes to station and reports her daughter as missing
- After taking more information, the police tell her to go home and wait for more information
- Goes through more of her days, grieving the possible loss of Alisha
- She begins to believe she will never see her daughter again and becomes quite depressed
- Receives a visit from her neighbor (Miranda Reyes)
- Miranda is a woman (late 50s) who lives next to Kathy
- Miranda tells Kathy that she had time travel powers and offers to take Kathy with her back in time so that she could keep Alisha from ever being taken
- Kathy is obviously skeptical about what Miranda is telling her, but when Miranda takes her back in time a few hours and proves it, Kathy is convinced.
- Miranda takes them back to the present and asks Kathy again if she wants to save her daughter
- Kathy agrees and Miranda takes her back about a week to the day when Alisha was taken, a few hours before kathy would originally go get her
- They run to Alisha’s school, but find that Alisha is already gone. They learn from a teacher that she was taken out of school right after 9am
- Kathy realizes this is only 30 minutes after she dropped of her daughter
- Miranda takes them further back in time
- They take Alisha as soon as Kathy drops her off and takes her home.
- When they return to the present, Alisha is finally safe.

Part Four: Lastly, let's bring together everything you've learned from these activities into one final story!

Before starting, consider the effects of time travel and how it could affect the future. Then, going off of one of the timelines you've plotted (either linear or non-linear, it's your choice!) and the butterfly effect activity, write a grand story with time travel elements incorporated into it Make sure to check for plot holes and be careful to stay within the boundaries set by the mechanics of time travel in your world! You must write a minimum of 750 words.

TW: Kidnapping and Teen Parenting

2000 Words

Nineteen year old Kathy Meyers woke up, feeling around her bedside table until she found her phone and shut off the alarm. She sat up and rubbed her eyes, trying to get rid of the sleepy feeling. It was 5am, very early for a normal person. Kathy however was up at this time nearly every day. She had chosen to awake so early so she could have a bit of time for herself before her five year old daughter, Alisha, was up and running around, demanding all of Kathy’s attention. Kathy stood up and went to the restroom, turning on the shower and taking a quick shower to wake herself up. After that she got dressed, brushed her teeth and hair and got ready for the day. She packed her daughter’s lunch, making sure to include a treat for her daughter.
She took a bit of time to go outside on the back porch and watch the early morning sky. She tried to do this every day as it really gave her a sense of calm to start her day off by staring at nature. She did her daily gratitude, thinking of five things she was thankful for. This was something she had started when she found out she was pregnant with her daughter at 14. Back then it had been impossible for her to think about the positive when all she could think about was how different her life was going to be now that she had a child. Now though, it was much easier for her to think of five things. She had grown to love her daughter more than anything else in the world and she couldn’t imagine what her world would be like without her little ray of sunshine.
After she had finished her morning time outside she grabbed her laptop and took the time until 7am to work on some of her online homework. She was currently taking an online program to earn her bachelor's degree in Social Work so that she could get a better job to provide more for her daughter and herself. Currently Kathy and her daughter were living off of government aid, including food stamps they received, which paid for most of their meals. Kathy tried her hardest to work so that she could provide, but it was hard when she was a single mom with a little girl. She pushed the thoughts from her mind and continued her homework until it was time to wake her daughter and get her ready for school.
She woke her daughter and got her ready for school, dressing her and making sure she had her lunch and backpack with her. Then the two of them get in the car and drive to school, listening to Disney music on the way there. Alisha is singing her heart out as the drive, belting along to Idina Menzel's voice as “Into the Unknown” from Frozen.
When they arrive at Alisha’s school, Kathy parks the car and then goes to unbuckle her daughter from her carseat. She helps her daughter out and hands her her small backpack that holds her lunch. She takes her daughter's hand and walks her into school and into her classroom. The teacher nods to let Kathy know that she sees Alisha, however she says nothing. This is not new to Kathy; many of the people in the small town she lives in don’t like to interact with her. She’s judged by the very religious people for having had her daughter so young. She tries not to let it bother her and waves goodbye to her daughter before walking out of the school and getting into her car, heading to work.
…
Come 4:30 in the afternoon that day, Kathy clocks out of work and heads to her car. She gets in and drives back to Alisha’s school to pick up her daughter from the after-school program just like she does every day. She listens to some Christian Worship on the way there, enjoying the peaceful feeling it brings to her as she drives.
When she gets to the school, Kathy parks and walks into the after-school area. She walks over to the woman running it, pulling out her ID card as she did so.
“Hello, I’m here to pick up my daughter Alisha.”
“Oh! Kathy, what are you doing here?” The woman asked her
“What do you mean? I’m here to pick up Alsiha?” Kathy responded, confused by the woman’s question. What else would she be here to do?
“Oh no, they told me Alisha got picked up earlier by her uncle.”
“What do you mean? I don’t have anyone authorized to pick up Alsiha except for me.”
“Well, I was told that Alsiha wouldn’t be in the aftercare program since her uncle picked her up earlier today. I don’t know much about it, but you can go and talk to the office if you have any questions.”
Immediately Kathy ran to the office, her heart pounding and her mind racing. The scariest thing about this was not just that Alisha had been picked up without her knowing; but Alisha didn’t have an uncle. Kathy had no brothers, only sisters and even they didn’t live anywhere near here and none of them were married.
She ran into the office and demanded to speak to whoever checked out the kids early. The woman, Mrs. Jones, looked at Kathy with almost a bored look in her eyes; like she didn’t want to be here.
“Who checked out Alisha Meyers today?” Kathy demanded, sitting in front of the woman’s desk.
“Who wants to know?” Mrs. Jones asked suspiciously
“My name is Kathy Meyers and Alisha is my daughter. Here’s my ID if you need it. "Kathy placed the card on the table and the woman looked at it for a few minutes before nodding and typing something on her computer to check.
“It says here she was picked up by Daniel Meyers, relation to the child being her uncle. Is there a problem with that?”
“Why would you let a man take her when he is not on the authorized pick up list. I know for a fact there was no Daniel Meyers on that list.”
“Ma’am… Her uncle came in with ID and the girl didn’t seem bothered. If you have any problems you should contact your brother and ask him.”
Infuriated, Kathy ran out of the school and drove home, intending to call the police as soon as she got there and was able to process everything that had happened. When she gets home, she’s met at her front door by her next door neighbor, Miranda Reyes.
“Kathy, come with me, I can help you find Alisha.” The woman said
“How do you know about Alisha?” Kathy asked, horrified as he thought maybe the woman might have had something to do with her daughter’s disappearance.
“Trust me, I can’t explain outside. Let me inside and I will tell you everything and help you get your daughter back.”
Kathy was extremely skeptical, however she didn’t see any better options and so she allowed Miranda to come inside her house and shut the door behind them. Miranda sat on Kathy’s sofa and motioned for Kathy to take a seat across from her. Once she did, Kathy immediately started asking questions
“How did you know Alisha was missing? Do you know what happened to her? Where is she? Who took her?”
“Kathy, honey I need you to calm down and let me explain what I know and how I’m going to help you get your daughter back.”
“Okay..” Kathy said, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes for a moment before looking at Miranda “What can you do to help me?”
“I’m a time traveler and I can take you back in time to when your daughter was taken so you can bring her back to the present with you.”
“Miranda! I don’t have time for jokes right now, I need you to tell me what you actually know that can help me find my daughter! She’s missing, some random man took her and I don’t know what he’s planning to do with my baby!”
“Kathy, I assure you I would not joke about such a delicate topic. If you’d like I can prove to you that I am legitimately telling the truth.”
“Fine, if you can time travel. Take me back to December 4th, 2012. That would be my 8th birthday party. It was here in this house.”
“It’s done.” The woman said, snapping her fingers and grabbing Kathy’s hand. There was a warm gust of wind and Kathy closed her eyes, letting the feel encompass her and suddenly she found herself plopping down onto the ground. …
“Come this way.” Miranda dragged her behind a wall and they two poked their heads out. Kathy was shocked as she saw her 8 year old self running around with her friends.
“Have you seen enough to be convinced?”
“Yup..” Kathy said in a breathless, amazed voice. Miranda grabbed her hands and snapped her fingers and once the warm feeling had once again come over Kathy and suddenly vanished, they were back in Kathy’s living room just as they had been before. “WHAT WAS THAT?” She screamed
“I told you I was a time traveler. Now, do you want to help your daughter or would you rather leave her in some man’s hands to do whatever his plan was?”
“Okay.. Okay… Take me back to 12:30 this afternoon, she’ll be having lunch about that time and we can grab her then.”
“Perfect. Let’s go.” Miranda said, taking Kathy’s arm and snapping her fingers.
Kathy was enveloped by the warm feeling again and she closed her eyes, finally feeling like she might be able to get her daughter back, albeit through extremely weird circumstances that she was sure she would come to question later on.
…
Once they were back in time, confirmed by the time on Kathy’s phone, Kathy and Miranda jumped into Kathy's car and drove quickly to Alisha’s school. They ran into the office and Kathy saw Mrs. Jones sitting there. Kathy composed herself and sat down in front of the woman, pulling out her ID as she spoke.
“Hello, I’m here to pick up my daughter, Alisha Meyers. My name is Kathy Meyers.”
“I’m sorry, Alisha was already picked up by her uncle this morning.” Mrs. Jones replied “Around 10am”
“O-okay.. Thank you.” Kathy said, walking out of the office and grabbing Miranda’s hand as soon as they were out of sight, “Take me back to 9:30 this morning, that’s half an hour before he took Alisha.”
“Alright dear.” Miranda said, snapping her fingers and taking her back to that time.
…
They ran into the office and this time they were able to get Alisha pciekd up and Kathy hugged her daughter tightly before carrying her to the car.
“Mama! I can walk by myself!” Alisha cried, surprised by her mother picking her up
“I know darling… Just let me carry you to the car, alright?” Kathy said, holding her daughter close
“Okay…” Her daughter shrugged, not noticing how concerned her mother was.
…
Once they got home, Kathy called Alisha’s school to tell them Alisha would be out of school for the next week due to a family emergency. Truthfully, she just wanted Alisha to be safe for the next week and not have the chance of the man coming to get her another day.
Kathy and Alisha spend the rest of the day playing games, watching movies and spending lots of time together, which Alisha absolutely loved. Kathy loved it as well, grateful to God that Miranda had been able to help save her daughter.
Even if the methods of saving Alisha had been odd, Kathy was just glad that God had allowed it to happen and that her daughter was back at home safe with her Mama.

ButterflyWings22

✤ date: march 8th weekly
✤ topic: timelines
✤ word count: 2767
✤ more writing this session

part one - 802 words

event - 118 words
Sage was strolling through some fields when she saw a daisy. It was small and delicate and beautiful. It was the only daisy around and anyone who saw it would surely have too much compassion, too much love for the flowers to step on it. But Sage was a careless person, and she didn’t even notice the puny flower. It was crushed, smashed, trampled under her tennis shoe. No sympathy, no regret. Sage continued walking as if she’d never stepped on anything at all. The daisy lay there in the dirt below the grass. The petals were a dismay and the stem was snapped. It was just one flower in the world of flowers. It really was nothing. (118 words)

outcome 1 - 302 words
Alice lay down. Tears streamed from her eyes. She’d lost something of great value. It was too much, she was just too sad. This was the worst thing that had happened to her. Her daisy had been trampled. Her small and lonely precious daisy. She helped plant it and water it, and after she was gone for only half an hour. Someone crushed her flower, which also crushed all her hopes and dreams. She stared at it sadly again. Then she couldn’t help but notice a light footprint in the dirt. And there were more footprints leading away. Alice seized her chance. She was going to get that criminal, that flower murderer. She closely followed the footprints. They seemed to lead straight, so she started running to go faster, staring at the marks. But they took a sharp turn suddenly, and before she could stop, she tripped and fell. Straight into a hole that she couldn’t even see the bottom of.
Alice shrieked as she fell, non-stop, for a good 30 seconds. Until finally, she hit the ground. She expected death, or at least serious injury, but for some reason, something broke her fall and she got up without even a bruise. All she could see was a large box in front of her, mysterious and secret. So she opened it. What else would she do?
And she suddenly shot up and out of the hole. She found herself standing in a large field with a bag of many, many seeds. For so many daisies to plant. And of course, Alice just had to get to work right away. So approximately 3 weeks later, Alice was relaxing in a huge house with thousands and thousands of daisies surrounding her. If anyone stepped on a single daily, they would be breaking the law.

outcome 2 - 188 words
Sage had a friend along with her. He was younger than her, a small boy the age of 10, and as he saw her crushed daisy, he simply laughed and began to stomp on it harder. The daisy was, however, damaged even more by this. Henry stopped laughing when he felt the ground shake. The daisy shivered and shuddered and rumbled and slowly crawled back into a standing position. And it began to slice through the ground, coming at Sage and Henry. Desperately, Henry stomped on it again, but the daisy, alive and terrifying, only used it’s petals to grab his foot.
“Henry!” Sage calls, and grasps his hand as Henry is dragged into the ground. Sage felt herself slipping, but held on tight as she started being pulled through the dirt as well. She suddenly had no trouble moving and slid straight through. Underground was a small home, with food and a nice look. The daisy bowed slightly and continued to the surface. Sage suddenly got the message and realized the daisy had just given the friends a home to live in. She jumped around in excitement.

outcome 3 - 194 words
Piper was going along her daily stroll when she noticed the daisy had been knocked down. Piper bent down and tried lifting it back up, but it was no use.
Piper sighed and went along with her walk. But something was wrong with her hands—they stung. They stung and felt painful and… they were glowing. Her hands were emitting green light. She stumbled and fell down to the ground in shock, and her hands spread roots all through the dirt. She had plant powers, or something like that, all because she attempted helping a plant.
She imagined all the things she could do. The things she might conquer… Conquer! That’s it! Piper would be the first to conquer the world—with plants!
Piper set multiple seeds in the ground at record speed, and watched vines spurt from the soil and spread everywhere. They destroyed houses and cars and roads. It was the end of the world… but it was also the end of herself. The plants were out of control. She wasn’t looking behind her and her body slumped down as a spiked vine hit upon her, and she was betrayed by her own creations.

part two - 633 words

point 1 - 105 words
Violet’s feet ached. She’d been trudging uphill for too long, and the burning sun wasn’t very helpful either. She looked into the woods, which not only went downhill, but also offered shade. She’d took a shortcut through them before, and given herself a note not to ever do it again. But right now, Violet couldn’t see the harm. Was the woods really that bad? She could barely even remember. So she stepped into the woods. There wasn’t a trail, but it wasn’t so thick she had nowhere to walk. She could step where there was space. So she carefully picked her way through the woods.

point 2 - 104 words
Violet started to realize something was wrong soon enough. After walking for half an hour, she realized either she’d done something horribly wrong or this was no shortcut. And she figured it was the first option. She thought she was hiking straight, but you tend to lose sense of direction when you don’t know where you are. Violet started to panic. Just a tiny bit—well, maybe a lot. She was completely lost at this point and she didn’t know what to do. So she sat down to rest. The girl took out the one piece of food she had: a crushed up candy cane.

point 3 - 137 words
As Violet crunched into the sad broken candy cane, she couldn’t help but be extra aware of her surroundings, as if her senses suddenly became supernatural. Every single rustle of a leaf, every insect crawling or flying, she could hear all of it. And she could see, too. And at that moment, her sharp eyes were hooked onto something, something terrifying. It was a shadow, an outline in the fog. Violet had not a clue what it could be, but she was already on edge. This wasn’t good. She realized how dark it was, and how long she’d been gone. The figure didn’t move an inch. She could just hear strange screeches coming from it, and they seemed to be getting louder as if it was getting closer. Violet was frozen in terror at this strange creature.

point 4 - 182 words
Violet kept staring, until suddenly, she felt less afraid. The figure didn’t move, and the screeches were getting more distant. Feeling a little bolder, she stood up and decided to get closer to it, investigate it. Leaves crunched under her heavy boots and the mist around her seemed to thicken, just a little bit. She trembled as she walked, but she had to do this, or else she wouldn’t get any rest staring at it. She sighed, today really, really wasn’t the best day for her to forget to bring her phone to school. She would’ve remembered, she almost always did, but there’s always that one day… anyway, Violet focused on what was ahead of her. She was very close now… she crept just a little closer, and opened her mouth. “Hello?” There was no response. Violet then realized why the figure never moved as she tapped on it. It was rock, pure rock, that just happened to be shaped like a person. And the screeching? That came from the bats and other animals in the woods. It all made sense now.

point 5 - 105 words
Unfortunately, only a few moments after she’d discovered her stupid mistake, that she’d stared in fear at a rock for almost thirty minutes, she was faced with real danger. A twig snapped noisily nearby, and she instantly knew she wasn’t the only one here. Someone else was watching her, she could tell, and goosebumps ran along down her body as her muscles tensed, heart beating wildly. But it dropped dead when cold fingers gripped her shoulder from behind and she was yanked around— face-to-face with a masked figure dressed in dark who certainly did not look friendly. Violet, not knowing what else to do, shrieked.

part three - 359 words

summary - 51 words
A young dragon named Amber who is still learning about her world discovers a hidden crystal one day and she carelessly decides to use it, unlocking extreme power to her, who is still a child. She doesn’t realize this fast enough, and when tragic consequences follow, she realizes her mistake.

outline - 359 words
3 • Amber is holding the gleaming, purple crystal in her claws. An odd sensation has come over her and she feels light, and she starts flying around in joy, not noticing dark clouds beginning to form around her, rumbling. The crystal makes her feel warm and sunny as if nothing is wrong.
2 • Amber is running past the tall rocks and into the area with thorns, the area everyone said was dangerous. She feels sad, though, and she wants her privacy. But suddenly she sees something glowing that sticks out of the ground. She curiously inspects it, and takes it into her hand. She suddenly feels something warm and tight electrifying her body.
4 • Suddenly she realizes she is flying very high, and her parents can see her. Someone screeches at her and she feels something grab her arm, but the crystal sends out a shot of tingles down her arm, and whatever was there is instantly shoved off by the crystal alone. Amber looks down at her hand and sees it’s turning dark purple.
5 • She hears her mother’s voice and sudden anger and violence takes over her and she realizes she’s much more powerful than ever before and she has to be careful. But it’s too late. Amber screams, burning purple flames erupting from her throat straight at her mother, who falls from the sky in pain. Amber can’t do anything but watch the consequences of her own self.
1 • Amber is living a pretty normal dragon life, and all she knows is how to breathe fire a certain way that makes food cook in 2 seconds, and also that the tall rocks surrounding her community are dangerous and she should never go beyond them, but one day, she burns the food for breakfast and her mother screams at her. This makes her sad and she suddenly starts running.

part four - 973 words
final story
Amber’s eyes gleamed. She breathed lightly, as if she didn’t want even a dust particle—let alone her hot, firey breath—to touch the precious purple treasure in her claws. She felt strange after picking the crystal up. As if, somehow, being in contact with it gave her something important. She felt light and warm, and powerful. But most importantly of all, she felt happy. Just a few moments ago, she had been close to burning tears, which did not feel good on scales at all, even if the entire purpose of dragons was that they’re supposed to be fire-resistant. Amber was so strangely happy, in fact, she opened up her wings, something she was certainly not supposed to do, something she was warned to only do in emergencies. She expected her first flight in a while to be wobbly, but she soared straight up in glee and wonder. She was so unexpectedly perfect, her surprise almost dropped her out of balance. But when she got the hang of it, she began to spin around in the sky and laugh small flames. Caught up in the moment, Amber somehow wasn’t able to tell that her fire was purple, and that dark, angry purple clouds were beginning to form above her and follow her around. She somehow just continued flying, innocently and sunnily, seeing the world as it was.

Amber’s eyes burned—literally, dragon tears actually burn you, no surprise there. She felt hurt and ashamed. She couldn’t believe she’d actually messed this up so badly. She wasn’t sure where to go, but she needed to be alone. Right now. So she made a hasty emotional desicion: run away. And she knew exactly where to go. Her heavy feet pounded onto the rocky ground as she panted, galloping. She heard screeches behind her, but she didn’t turn around. Quickly, she reached the tall, red rocks, the ones she’d been warned to many, oh so many times, not to cross. And of course, Amber wasn’t going to listen to them this time. She squeezed through a crack she knew that travelled through the rocks to the other side, and just like that, she was gone from view. Now that she was alone, she took in her surroundings. She wiped off a stinging tear, but she was still blurry-eyed. But even through tears, she could see the amythest-like glint in the sand. She stumbled towards it to get a closer view. Amber wiped her eyes to see it vividly. It was violet and clear as glass. It looked delicate, the small crystal stuck among the dirty rocks. She picked it up, without thinking, and abruptly a surge went through her, electrifying, tight, and yet warm.

Amber glided and swept through the air, making perfect loops and turns and swoops. Flying was amazing. Why didn’t she do this more often? She looked up and then saw the bright, blazing sun, and felt blinded. Then she came to her senses and realized she was flying way, way too high. She was miles and miles above the surface. But she could see her mother and father, staring up at her, tiny dots now. Suddenly, something gripped her leg and she shrieked. Before she could see what cold claws were digging into her scales, the crystal in her claws did it’s job. Amber felt a powerful source pulse straight up her leg and push the claws off with full force. She felt dizzy, but then everything went back to normal. Except she noticed the sky was dark and purple, and it didn’t seem so happy. She glanced down at where the crystal was, and she noticed her fine green scales were no longer green. They were stained purple around the crystal, and it was spreading. She screamed.

And almost at the same moment, her mother’s anxious screech was audible from behind her. She looked down and saw her mother, breaking her own rules, flying at full speed towards her. But in fear and anger and… for some reason, hatred… Amber tried to avoid her mother. The crystal sent out pumps of energy and force and anger into her, and she opened her mouth wide. No! She couldn’t do this— this was her mother— what was she doing? What was the crystal doing? And then it hit her. The crystal was giving her not happiness, but a deadly power. Something that was dangerous. It wasn’t just some innocent crystal. And she couldn’t control herself anymore. Her mouth was opening and it was pointed straight at her mother. NO! Deep purple flames erupted from her throat. Her mouth was burning. Her wings were slowing. Her mother was screaming. Her last move was swiping the deadly gem out of Amber’s claws before they both plummeted to the ground— their ultimate doom.

It was a normal day for Amber. She was helping her mother cook the roast for today’s breakfast. Her mother would tell her when to use her breath to heat it up and when to stop, and she was doing it perfectly, as she always did, with the perfect temperature, and the perfect time. They were a good cooking duo. But as Amber was cooking, she started to get distracted. She was thinking about hanging out with her friend Dahlia, and she wasn’t paying attention to how much force she was putting into the flames— so for one of her blasts, she put too much force and burned the entire thing, right there and then. Her mother almost dropped it, suddenly no longer smiling, furious. Amber shrank back in utter embarrassment, and then realized what kind of punishments she might get. In fear and shame, she bolted out of the large kitchen and made a run for it, panicked. Little did she know everything that would happen next—if only she knew. If only she knew.

total weekly words - 2767

Last edited by ButterflyWings22 (March 9, 2023 01:31:02)

-vanillamochabear-

PART ONE: Time Travel Mechanics (written by Lulu)

Before we start writing the next Interstellar, we’ll be starting off with some basics! Check out this super yummy workshop by the golden Cara on the mechanics of time travel. Now that you’ve basked in Carcrash’s awesomeness, here’s your first activity: exploring the butterfly effect! Write about a singular event, and then branch off into three different outcomes that stem from that event.

EVENT: Cass's crooked mind leads her to an (attempt) to poison Brooke
-
Cass's thoughts have been nagging her to poison her best friend for days. And strangely enough, she was more than happy to comply. She'd thought it over for days. First off, the why. Well, that was easy. Brooke had never been a good friend to her, always using her for answers and excuses. She was pretty sure the “best friend” thing was a bribe. Second, the aftermath. Cass would surely be better off without Brooke. At this point, she'd convinced herself that no one would care, if she disguised it well enough. There was no one to blame except the unseen forces if she said Brooke had fallen down the stairs… And third, if Cass were to get caught.
There was only one way to find out, right? She tipped the vial into one of the glasses of lemonade, a cold smile on her face, just as the doorbell rang.

OUTCOME 1: Brooke dies and her death is classified as natural.
-
“Would you like anything to drink?” Cass asked sweetly, after they finished doing each other's nails. “We have lemonade in the fridge, if that's what you'd like.”
“Actually, do you guys have popcorn?” Brooke asked.
“Yeah, of course!” she responded, an alternate plan forming in her mind. She rushed down the stairs, quickly preparing a batch of buttered popcorn. She grabbed the lemonade out of the fridge anyway, making a mental note to herself that the left glass was the one poisoned. The microwave beeped, and Cass generously seasoned it with the rest of the salt left. Coming back upstairs, she placed the two lemonades on the dresser, setting the popcorn bowl between her and Brooke. She ate some to make them comfortable, bracing for the salt. Meanwhile, Brooke grabbed a handful, and just as she hoped, spat it all out.
“Goodness, that's salty.” they said, laughing. “On second thought, hand me the lemonade.”
Cass chuckled too, although it was empty and hollow. “Must be a factory error,” she said, handing her so-called “friend” the left glass. Brooke took a good sip, before the poison hit her. She passed out on the ground.
“Goodbye,” Cass said, an unusual rush of excitement flowing into her body.
She poured some of her lemonade into the half-empty glass, then placed them both back onto the dresser to make them appear untouched. Finally, the finishing touch of her plan…
“HELP!” she cried, forcing a sob up her throat.
(A lot proceeds to happen over the course of a week. Cass attends Brooke's funeral, cleverly making herself appear depressed and traumatized. She is offered therapy, and agrees in order to make herself look even more innocent. Remembering the rush that filled when Brooke fell at her feet, Cass grows up to become a famous, anonymous killer.)

OUTCOME 2: It doesn't work out.
-
“Is there anything to drink?” Brooke asked.
“Yes!” Cass exclaimed, a little too enthusiastically. “Um, I mean, of course. Let me grab you something.” she heads over to the fridge, grabbing the two lemonades. The one on the left is set down in front of Brooke, and Cass takes a quick sip of her own.
“Wow, this looks great!” they exclaim, admiring the Pokémon ball shaped ice cubes. They stirred the drink, which pleased Cass because it allowed for the poison to mix in well. Brooke's lips touch the straw, while Cass's fingers are crossed under the table. To her confusion, Brooke snaps back.
“What's wrong?” she asked as gently as possible.
They sighed. “Uh, I forgot, I'm allergic to lemons. I just discovered that recently, actually, and it took me a while to remember…”
“No worries!” Cass said. “I can grab you something else. Apple juice, perhaps?” They nodded.
She walked over to the counter, filling a new glass with bottled apple juice. Making sure her “friend” wasn't looking, she reached for the extra vial in her pocket - an extra. She tipped it in.
“What's taking so long?” Brooke asked curiously, glancing over at her. And consequently, catching her right in the act. Cass tried to shove the bottle back in her pocket, but it was too late. Brooke jumped up.
“Are you trying to poison me?” she asked, hurt filling her voice.
“No…?”
(An investigation is held, and it is indeed poison. The two are obviously no longer friends, and Cass faces harsh punishment.)

OUTCOME 3: Uno reverse :sparkles:
-
Brooke and Cass sit together on the front porch, after an exhausting ride through the neighborhood. They had parked their bikes by the driveway, and were now taking a quick breath before Brooke had to go home.
“How about some lemonade to drink?” Cass suggested.
Brooke plastered a fake smile onto their face. “That sounds lovely. Thank you.” As she headed inside to “prepare” the drinks, they had a mini panic attack. Her friend hadn't seemed right the entire time they'd been hanging out. It was almost like she was planning something… something not very pleasant, at that. Because they were leaving soon, they assumed that whatever Cass was doing, it had to do with the lemonade
The door creaked, and out came Cass - carrying a luxurious tray of drinks and snacks. A plan began to form in Brooke's mind, filling them with delight. They just had to find a way to distract Cass…
She slid into her seat, setting the tray down. There were now not one, but two teens with murderous intentions seated at one table. Brooke quietly noted the absence of straws.
“Hey Cass?”
“Yeah?”
“Could you go grab me a straw real quick? I'd hate to dirty your gorgeous glasses.” they said, filling their eyes with false concern.
She almost argued, but decided to comply due to the fact that Brooke would be dead really soon, anyway. “Yeah, okay.”
Once she was gone, they quickly swapped the glasses, trusting that Cass had a set method of distributing them. Then they sat back, pretending to be busy on their phone. It was the oldest trick in the book, yet surely, it would work.
Cass thought she'd heard some movement from outside while she was in the kitchen, but decided not to think much of it. She came back and placed striped white straws in each cup, handing the left one to Brooke.
Meanwhile, Brooke silently cheered, as it appeared that Cass didn't lift the cups to smell them or anything. Still, they took false sips as a precaution, pushing down their rising anticipation.
And just as they'd hoped, Cass fell to the floor, dead.
They set their glass back on the table with satisfaction.
“Thanks for doing the hard bit. Goodbye, you little egg.”
(Their story goes viral, and Brooke is viewed as a hero despite her actions. The praise causes her to become a killer.)

PART TWO: Plotting Timelines (written by Soki)

The next activity you’ll be doing for this weekly is plotting timelines! This is something that can be incredibly helpful in telling a wide range of stories. Check out this workshop on plotting timelines by the amazing Sandy to learn about how you’re going to do this. After you’re finished reading, try your hand at plotting some timelines of your own!
To complete this part of the weekly, create a linear timeline in any medium you can share on scratch, with at least five major plot points, displayed either as in-story time or plot stages. Elaborate on each point for 100 words. That’s a minimum of 500 words total.

1: July 17th, afternoon / oh no the water
Marie watched Willow stand by the shore, nervously eyeing the waves. She was already knee-deep in, and didn't really understand why her friend thought it was cold, but decided to keep it to herself.
“You good, Willow?” she asked.
“Yeah…” she shrugged, not sounding very confident.
Marie flicked a couple of droplets in her friend's direction, enough to notice but not enough to hurt. It made her smile a little, which was always nice to see.
“Come on,” she urged, trying to sound as encouraging as possible. After taking a deep breath, Willow dove full on in, which was something she had taught her last summer. Almost immediately, she broke through the surface and gasped, shaking and laughing at the same time.
“I'm sorry it's–”
“Hey, don't be sorry! How about we try again after lunch? Maybe the sun will warm the water by then.”
“Yeah,” Willow replied, walking back onto shore. Out of the corner of her eye, Marie saw Jamie follow her. Her crush and her alone, what could go wrong? She smiled to herself and silently wished her best friend good luck.

2: July 17th, afternoon / announcement
Jamie and Willow were chilling on a single picnic blanket, sitting together and watching the rest of their friends enjoy the beach. Willow had deemed the water way too cold, and was shivering despite the towel tightly wrapped around her. Seeing one of his closest friends alone, Jamie decided he wanted to come and comfort her.
“Need anything else, Wills?” he asked.
She giggled. “I'm good.” she took a shaky breath and lay flat on her back, staring up at the empty blue sky. “Ugh, I wish I could just enjoy it here without being a baby.”
“Hey, don't say that,” Jamie responded softly. Willow stared into his eyes, momentarily feeling dreamy and far away. She sighed, and looked away.
“I have something to confess,” she said shyly, lacing her fingers awkwardly.
Jamie smiled sadly. “Me too.”
“Really?” Willow said excitedly. “I mean, you go first!”
“It's bad news.” Jamie looked down. “So… I'm moving.” Willow's heart sank, and she had a feeling it wouldn't ever resurface. Surely she'd heard wrong… maybe it was a joke…
“Oh.” she managed.
Her confession wasn't important anymore, anyway.

3: July 24th, evening / packing
Willow knocked on his door. They were slow and spaced out, like her mood at the moment. And either of those things were ever like that. She'd seen the humongous moving truck parked outside - and that was enough to convince her that the present situation was real. Very, very real. Jamie answered the door, cutely smiling despite being a sweating mess.
“Oh, hi.” he said casually.
“Hi.” she answered, trying not to blush. Glancing around the doorframe, she saw that his house was a maze of boxes. An excuse clicked its way into her mind. “Uhm, I was hoping if I could help you guys with packing and all?”
Jamie's face brightened. “I'm sure my parents would love that. Come on in.”

4: August 2nd, morning / airport
Willow's family had offered to drive Jamie's family to the airport. It was super convenient, with them being family friends, living within easy walking distance, and having a huge van. It was 7:00 in the morning, on a summer Saturday, but she had convinced herself to get up to bid farewell to the childhood friend she'd known since, well, childhood. Right now, she was helping him wheel his suitcase out of his room, which was stripped bare.
“Hey, I'll be in the state next door.” Jamie said, noticing her gloomy expression. “We can always drive over to see you guys. And we probably will, anyway.” The words were probably meant to be comforting, but Willow just about had an internal panic attack.
“Yeah, but an entirely different state…” she whined. She took a deep breath, mentally preparing herself for the big moment. “So remember when I said I had to confess something at the beach, a couple weeks ago?”
“Yes?”
“I like you. Like, like like.” Willow said really fast.
Jamie blinked a couple of times.
He leaned in and gave her a hug. Willow might have teared up a bit. She reached into her pocket and handed him a delicate seashell necklace that she'd made.
“A farewell gift.” she said softly.

5: a year later
Willow and Jamie were officially dating. It was like a dream come true. Her life had become a sweet fairy tale, and she was more than fine with that. She brushed her hair, smiling at herself in the mirror. She'd be seeing him today.
She remembered last year, when she'd been so broken about him leaving. He had been a part of her, and she had felt empty and alone at school.
Now, she wished she had the chance to comfort her former self. The chance to hug her and tell her that everything would be okay, the chance to excitedly explain their situation now.
She fingered her own seashell necklace, turning to leave the bathroom.

PART THREE: Outlining a Non-Linear Storyline Draft (written by Lio)

Onward to the unknown! In this part, we’ll be combining aspects of the previous two activities and workshops as well as preparing for the fourth activity by plotting a non-linear timeline that you’ll use for the final piece. It’s up to you what your story is about, though it should include time travel.

First, write 50 words to roughly summarize what will happen in your story. A quick roadmap — even before you start on a more detailed outline — is key to keep track of story threads.

Then, in 200 words or more, outline the story in detail, making sure to highlight important story beats and distinguish timelines from one another. Don’t worry about grammar or complete sentences for this.

Jess is an orphan still overcoming her parent's loss. One fateful night at the orphanage, Jess dreams of a way to time travel, a mysterious force guiding her through the process. In her lucid dream, she is able to visit her home the night it burned down. When she wakes up, she finds a letter on her bedside, warning her to not save her parents.

We see a bunch of Jess's personal thoughts as she gets ready for bed, most of them are depressing and sad.
- She can't fall asleep, which is a totally original idea. SO she tosses and turns a bunch, et cetera
- Eventually she does fall asleep because hey we need this plot to move along
- Ancient Greece “greetings time traveler”
- Poor Jess has a meltdown and thinks this is real (even though it is hmm)
- After exploring a bit, she is even more frightened, knowing she could destroy the future literally now
- goes to a random uninhabited island
- It's cool and Jess gets distracted for a paragraph or two
- 1960s America, she explores it for a while because it's among her interests
- The chilling supernatural voice comes on on the overhead speakers again, frightening Jess
- “We're going home now lol”
- It's idea of home was not the orphanage, which relieves her then frightens her again because dang this thing knows her location
- Watches her big happy family eating dinner, it breaks her heart to know that they were all going to burn to death in a few hours
- She goes to inform them, but is dramatically yanked out of her dream
- wakes up in cold sweat
- There is a letter explaining a bunch of nerdy stuff.

part 4

jess tossed over to her bedside and tapped her phone’s screen. 1:20…pm. everyone except her was alseep. she’d reached 980 sheep. she desperately wished to fall into sleep’s arms and feel their peaceful comfort once again.
she hadn’t ever had a good night since the fire. her thoughts usually kept her up into unholy hours of the night.
“it’s your fault.”
“you.”
of course she felt a sense of relief as she vaguely felt herself drifting into unconsciousness, into another night of flashbacks and nightmares…
-
It took much time for the girl to fall asleep. It was early morning by the time I felt her presence. Her cloudy thoughts flooded into mine, blending together.
Yes, I had faith in this one.
my warmest greetings, young time traveler.
-
jess was startled, confused on why it was morning so suddenly. bright white light blinded her eyes.
except it wasn’t morning. the sun was halfway through the sky, and she was sprawled in a bed of fresh grass. a white-marble city loomed in the distance, not looking like anything she’d ever seen.
seen in person, anyway.
a piece of paper floated from the heavens.
in neat cursive, in golden ink, it read: greetings, dear time traveler.
and below that: ancient greece.
ancient greece?
jess was fairly certain that was in the past. a civilization of long ago, fallen to rubble. time travel…
-
i pushed myself upward, examining my hands.
i had bent time?
i wandered toward the city in the distance, beginning to hear the melodious singing, the chatter.
it dawned on me that anything i did could affect the entire timeline. what if i wanted to kill someone? someone important?
by being here, i had the power to destroy the past, the present, and the future. the realization brought me back to the ground.
-
when jess rose again, she was somewhere entirely different. it was still afternoon, but the surroundings had melted into a soft paradise of turquoise waves, white sand, and looming palm trees. a slip of paper fell from the sky once again, this time reading 1632.
the year didn’t seem to matter, because the island looked uninhabited and undiscovered. it’s surface was blessed by nature, covered in hundreds of shades of green. in was covered with leaves of so much variety, that each individual one seemed unique.
she glanced back at the water, admiring the glints of rainbow beneath the surface. she knelt down to run her hands through the sand. was she meant to find anything here?
-
after a few hours, i began to panic a little. and by a little, i meant generous amounts of screaming at the heavens. why did it have to be me? why was my fate always so trashy?
“take me to present day.” i shouted. “take me home!”
i stepped toward the water, letting the water run over my feet.
then my world started to spin, sending me off balance into an empty void.
-
I saw that my chosen was adjusting well. Or, better than the others, anyway. A bit of screaming was understandable, and so was being overwhelmed.
I was grateful that she hadn’t tried to kill herself yet. Many wouldn’t know that it was fully possible to die in a dream.
It would be a shame to lose another one.
home, you say? let’s take you home indeed.
The final test.
-
jess found herself on the lawn of her old house, dropped into the bushes in her backyard. she had a great view of the dining room, where she and her family were having a nice peaceful dinner. when she saw what she was wearing, her heart felt like it had been iced over.
she didn’t need the paper to tell her that it was the october 17th.
the day of the fire that snatched her life from her, right under her feet…
-
i panicked. i was here now, all over again. for real. i had a chance to warn my parents, to warn myself. anything for them to be far, far away from their home.
when i looked up, mini me was staring into my eyes, her eyes wide with surprise.
and when i opened my mouth, i awoke in cold sweat.
-
we were having dinner, when i spotted a girl in our yard. she kind of looked like myself, which frightened me.
“mommy, there’s a girl out the window.”
she laughed. “none of that nonsense. eat your veggies, darling.”
i dreamed of her that night, before waking up and seeing nothing but red.
-
jess felt relieved. so it really was another of her nightmares. she took deep breaths, calming herself.
that was, until the paper floated into her hand. just like in her dream…
in the same gold ink. that was real.

Last edited by -vanillamochabear- (March 8, 2023 23:57:46)

aIoe-there

turned out to be a sort of vent ? idk. 232 words

I cried so hard that night. And I couldn't stop, only to be yelled at by neighbors to be quiet. I couldn't get over it, at all. It felt like my whole heart was shattering into pieces. And you know what? I bet it was. I hated it so much, but I knew my situation wasnt that bad. And I was overreacting. I bet I was, like i always do, because I'm the worst. Hands down. And I'm so stupid. For crying like a baby? Like an idiot? I couldn't believe it at all, and that thought made me cry even more. I was weak. Even though I was in taekwondo I was weak. and I just couldn't stop, because I was weak. I should've never been put in taekwondo, because I was weak all together. And I couldn't stop saying it. I knew you always had to be positive, but negativity blanketed over me, it seemed so attracted to me. Hence why I was crying over a stupid reason. And I knew it was stupid, yet I still cried. And I didn't want anyone to see me, so I hid my tears whenever someone came into my room. Trying to make it look like i never cried. I was good at hiding my emotions. Extremely good, and nobody could tell if I was sad, mad, I don't know. Sometimes it showed –

CookieRun_Kat

Word War. 223 Words

The next thing I knew, the kitchen was on fire. I stared at the burnt pan and pastries. Well, that was a waste of food. Hahah… That really sucks, why did I decide to stay up until 1 in the morning to do this? I have a major headache from all of this. Or is it the light-? Either way, my pan is burnt and there are pastries on fire. I dump them in the trash can and place the pan on the counter top. I rest my hands on it, placing my head on them.

“Oh my gosh, this is why you shouldn’t bake pastries at 1 in the freaking morning.” My roommate walks in, yawning and stretching still.

“I know. I burnt the dang pan…” I mutter, insanely tired. “I was running on four hours of sleep, okay?” I add.

“Four hours.” He stares at me, seeming slightly upset. “You got four hours of sleep and thought it was a good idea to bake pastries… Oh my gosh, what has gotten into you lately?”

I shrug. “I don’t knooooow… I’m tired.” I yawn as well. “Just… Ugh, whatever. I’m going to sleep, I’ll deal with the pan later.”

“Okay then,” And then he went back to sleep. I just stared and smirked.

“I’m not going to sleep any time soon, hahah!”

-Midnight--Moon-

Weekly Two
757 words

Part One
112 words
For my break, I decided to make some tea and read some books while drinking it. It was so relaxing and made me feel very calm. Even better, my cats decided to read with me too. I also put some lofi music on because it’s something that makes me very calm. I don't usually do these kinds of things, so it was fun to think about what would help me feel the most relaxation. After the break, I felt very motivated and happy. This mood continued for rest of the day, which was great! I think these breaks can really improve my mental health and I look forward to trying this again.

Part Two
I reflected on one of my younger self's favorite songs, Shake It Off by Taylor Swift :)
120 words

So, first of all, I had so much fun listening to this song. There was so much nostalgia with every single verse. It reminded me of when I was around 7 years old when I always put this song on and danced to it with my friends whenever they visited my house for a sleepover. I used to think this was a song about having fun and dancing, but now I realize what the lyrics mean. It's about how the world has lots of bad people, but you can just shake it off and still be happy. Listening to it now, I can really relate to the singer and how she just wants to brush off every single bad feeling.

Part Three
525 words

I groan as I check the time on my computer. 12:28 PM. Did I really spend over 4 hours doing homework, only to barely finish half of it? My heart sinks, tears welling up in my eyes. I can't do this anymore. I had to drop out or do something. There was no way I'd survive high school without losing my mind or failing. Part of my mind screams, “No, you can't just stop! You'll fail! Everyone will think you're stupid!”

I finally give in and break down into tears, falling onto my bed. I clutch a pillow, squeezing it tightly as if I needed it to survive. After a few minutes of crying, I felt a little more energized, but my head was still spinning and my heart was still sad. I stood up and went outside of my room, going downstairs to the kitchen.

I put some water inside a kettle and start to boil some water. While I wait for it to boil, I get a mug and a tea bag. I go back upstairs to find my phone and come back downstairs to put some lofi music on. This was starting to become fun. The water finished boiling, so I took the kettle and put some inside the mug, spilling a little bit of water onto the counter while doing so. I put the teabag inside the mug, then find some paper towels to clean up the water. Once it's done, I take the mug and head to the balcony.

I set down the mug on a table and then get my phone and put it on the table as well. I look at my work, still feeling like something was missing. I thought about it was a moment before realizing what it was. Books! I sprint upstairs and take a few of my favorite novels and then rush back to the balcony. I sit down on a chair and sip the tea while reading, the lofi music in the background.

⊱ ────── {⋅. ♪ .⋅} ────── ⊰

About and hour flew by, the lofi music repeating many times and two of the novels finished. I stood up and cleaned all of the items, then decided to dance. I didn't know where this urge came from, but I felt like loosening up and just dancing. I went on my phone to search for a good song to dance to. I was scrolling when I found a recommendation. It was the song Shake It Off by Taylor Swift. I smile as I hit the play button and set my phone down.

The lyrics immediately make me smile as I remember all of the fun I had years ago. I dance and dance and dance until my neighbor knocks on my door to tell me that I’m being too loud. I laugh as I apologize, turning the music off.

Then, I realize how tired I am. I check the time, and I almost gasp when I realize it’s almost 4 AM. I decide to go back to sleep, going back up the stairs and into my room. I leap into my bed and close my eyes, ready to sleep again.

Last edited by -Midnight--Moon- (March 12, 2023 06:50:58)

theawesomemarbler

return to main post

March 8th + 9th Bidaily

Dialogues:
“I lived my whole life subconsciously”
“I lost my brain in the closet”

The story takes place in the events of the game “Urban Legend in Limbo”

The children were screaming, there were many crying. Of course, this was a work of another youkai, Reimu thought. She sets to fly to the human village, shocked to find a youkai who would never come aboveground, as she was found wandering alone in the human village. Besides her, there was no one else. “Koishi Komeiji! What are you doing?” Reimu bellowed, pointing towards the carefree youkai. “Oh my, it doesn't feel nice to be noticed. After all, I lived my whole life subconsciously.” She replied, but something was wrong with her. “I know you had done this, you started this incident of urban legends so youkai can scare kids easier. Besides, your power is the manipulation of subconscious, so surely when the kids are in a subconscious state you can then attack them with your urban legends!” Reimu deduced, sure that Koishi was the culprit. Koishi laughed, “Oh no, I just got these powers of the urban legends. I don't even know how they work. But let's test it on you!” Koishi then disappeared and Reimu heard a foreign sound, “What's that ringing sound…” A voice that seemed to be from far away whispered in her ear, “Hello, I'm Mary. And I'm right behind you!” Suddenly, Koishi appeared with a knife, preparing to stab Reimu. Reimu hadn't noticed, as she had never used a phone before. It was all over, until it happened. “Well, I had lost my brain in the closet, through the gaps!” Reimu then used the power of an urban legend, “The Girl in the Gap”. Reimu teleported through her barrier power alongside with the power of the urban legend, successfully defeating the little youkai. “Ouch! Hey, that's not fair, I wasn't ready!” Koishi complained, rubbing her closed third eye, as she was a satori, a hated youkai that can read minds, which was why she closed it. Reimu then concluded her investigation, “The power of the urban legends also work on humans? This is really dangerous…” Reimu knew at that moment, the culprit wasn't in Gensokyo. It was in the outside world, where we are living in.

352 words

Last edited by theawesomemarbler (March 9, 2023 08:44:14)

icebunny11

Nickname- Ava
Content- March 8+9th Daily
Word Count- 300/300
Topic - Write dialogues with two sentences claimed from the main cabin
Cabin - Horror

LET'S GET STARTED

“No. Amanda, just no. Put it down.' Carly says.
'But why?'
'It's DANGEROUS.'
Amanda is running around with something in her hand and a spoon in the other hand.
”I swear to god, you can't just run around with a blowtorch dude, and PLEASE put the spoon down because you're NOT melting that-“
”But it's for a SCIENCE project.“
”I'm pretty sure that if I call up your teacher, she will disown you.“
Carly was the older girl in their friendship by two years. She forever cared for Amanda and ensured she didn't accidentally kill herself.
”Listen, Amanda,“ Carly said, suddenly stopping Amanda and grabbing the blowtorch from her. ”If you don't stop this, we're not doing movie night.“
Amanda pouted. ”Fine, can we at least go to the cliffs?“
”Alright.“

”I'm a wingless beast. Longing for the skies, eternally bound to the ground.“
”No you're not Amanda, you're just asking to trip off the cliff.“
The cliffs were their go-to spot to relax.
”Come on, don't you want to fly sometimes?“
”If humans could fly, they would think of it as exercise and never do it.“
”That made no sense.“
”I know.“
The sea breeze blew in from the waves below.
”I have an impulsive thought.“ Amanda suddenly said.
”Oh no. What is it?“
”What would happen if I jumped off this cliff?“
”You would not have any intrusive thoughts anymore.“
”How?“
”You wouldn't have anything left of you to think anymore.“
”Ouch.“
”I'm just saying what you asked me to say.“
They sat for a bit, enjoying the cry of seagulls.
”Wanna catch ice cream after this?“ Amanda asked.
”And what have you done to deserve the pocket money I sneaked out?“
”We'll buy vanilla with toppings.“
”And what else?“
”I'll never touch a blowtorch ever again.“
”Deal."

phuchung6v3

I jusst be

:
Oh i think make a save code is difficult than i jusst think

just a little

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quidditcfan33

Hey, it's Quid! This is my first session so idrk how to use the megathread, apologies! Hopefully I'm doing this right?
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Weekly #2~ 284 words~ 500 points~Bi-Fi~Quid
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“Laaaaaaauraaaaaaaaaa!!” Millie sang, “We’re going on a picnic- right now!”

“I think you’ve got me confused with your Earth Science binder, but whatever, I’ll take it!” Laura exclaimed from the other room.

“I- what are you talking about?” Millie said confused.

Laura emerged from the room, her phone pressed against her cheek. “Oh- nevermind!” Millie said, embarrassed, “didn’t realize you were on the phone.”

“Yeah sure! Alright, bye!” Laura hung up, “Alright, picnic time- and I know just the place.” She tapped her fingers together under her chin and fixed Millie with a fake evil grin.

“That’s… ominous. But yes let’s go! I’ll make the sandwiches, you get the fruit,” Millie was suddenly business-like.

“Right,” Laura said, solemnly, “and I’ll grab the basket and blanket; be right back!”

As Laura came rushing back in, Millie fretted “where’s the bread?! We can’t ake sandwiches without breaaaaaad!!!”

“Oh no…I forgot to buy some last time I went to the store… Sorry!” Laura apologized.

“Argh! It’s ok- what else do we have to bring?”

“Well… we have Lunchables?” Laura suggested.

“Yeah that’ll work,” Millie agreed.
Once they finally got all their food in order and folded the blanket into a little square, they drove. And drove. And drove. And drove a little bit more until they eventually reached the destination Laura had in mind.

“It's so perfect! It's kind of a shame that it's only located on the third-largest cliff in the natural world, but– it'll be fine!” Laura exclaimed.

“WOAH! This is incredible!” Millie excitedly.

“Right?!” Laura agreed. They sat down and unpacked their Lunchables, chatting all the while. Once they were finished, they cleaned up their trash and looked at the view. All was well.

Last edited by quidditcfan33 (March 9, 2023 15:45:17)

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