Daily 28-29 part 1
210 words

As if carved into the kelp, a large dome was nestled beneath, growing from the ocean floor. A lot of the place seemed abandoned, with ancient and wrecked buildings, covered in dust and overgrown moss. Nonetheless, it still managed to endure strongly, as it still used to be a home towards the mermaids.

There was an eerie silence that enveloped you, as you strayed past the open brass doors of the market stand.

'They weren't kidding', you thought, while your mind reeled with evidence. ‘The tales of a different type of life, it’s all real. A-And this is nothing but proof in front of me'.

Abandoned shops, torn clock towers, broken window glass, cracks in the cement floor. The Greek statues that once stood tall were demolished, shattered into millions of pieces. It was all once a regular place were merpeople would live; almost like a town.

The walls were beautifully engraved with cryptography, sharing stories of the mermaids who had once lived there. But instead, a different species remained. Coral, seagrass, fish, wildlife. There was nothing but beauty in the way they swam in and out of every corner of the dome. They were able to bring life back from the miserable state in which it used to be.

Daily 28-29 part 2
152 words
I brainstormed with @TrellD, and we came up with the idea of a “Underwater City.” Despite having agreed that we utilized the same location and topic, our descriptions of the setting were significantly different. In Claire's writing piece, for example, the undersea metropolis is bustling and thriving, whereas in mine, it has been abandoned and completely destroyed, except for very few evidence of life (the grass, coral, fish, animals, wildlife, etc). Also, Claire used the first person (I, me), whilst I used the second (you). Despite this, there are still some commonalities. We both included Greek Mythology (to be exact, stone statues), shopping, architectural buildings, and how the main individual is taken aback by the beautiful presence of the underwater city and the magnificent surroundings. To overall conclude, the general theme was entertaining, and I thoroughly loved it!

Claire's piece : https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/post/7091496/
My piece : https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/post/7092713/

Waaaterfall's Bidailly

Part 1:
291 words
The underwater castle has been a mystery to many for years. Most don't know where it is, and only a couple photos have ever been taken - by someone or multiple anonymous someones. Some have claimed to have found it. Brave deep sea divers got a glimpse of it before. Some of them claim to see strange sea creatures and others tell of beautiful shows. But everyone who claimed to have seen it has only lasted for one day after to tell of it before they disappear. And miraculously, their photos of the castle are all blurry and dark, even though they thought they were clear and perfect. But what actually is down there? There are many legends and speculations. One of them says that it is one of the only places left on Earth with magic. The sea creatures have either adapted or lived their there whole life, but their territory has been shrunk down by fishing, hunting, and divers. They work hard to preserve it, and have many barriers making it extremely hard to find, and when people do, well… Some people think that the missing people live down there now, or they were just k!lled to protect their land. But some skeptical scientists say that it is nothing but ruins, there is extremely bad lighting for photos, and people that went missing was just a coincidence. Or, a death from some chemicals in the water, or just bad health after doing such a long and hard dive. Somehow, all diver's oxygen tanks never work down there, and they must go back to surface quickly. But what do you think? Are they all just myths, or is it really a magic preserve, one of the last in the world?

here was the other person's writing https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/562227/?page=8#post-7090435

Part 2:
150 words exactly B)
We both certainly went for a very mysterious vibe, although the other one was in second person, like most of the cabin intros. I think they were both very dark and suspicious vibes, although mine was more of a known legend and myth. I think that the main difference was mine was more magical and legend, while the other one was very dark, and mysterious. Mine was made by magic, and had magical creatures inside, unlike the other, which was man made and seemingly abandoned. They were surprisingly similar mystery underwater castle things, choosing to have them discovered and not well known or tourist destinations. (Although I guess mine could be kind of widely visited because a bunch of people do go looking for it, although don't find it. Or if they do they dissapear.) So anyways, those are the main differences in both of the stories/paragraphs/descriptions/whatevers.

Part 1 and 7.1
Winston “Wynn” Hall, he / him - Wynn is from the Left side of the map, which is the side that divided away from the rest when they grew tired of the Right controlling them. Wynn was probably one of the main catalysts of the action. However, more importantly, Wynn is a 17 year old who is tired of the conflicts. Despite being the one who wanted things to happen at first, he paid the heavy price when the Right retaliated where it hurts. First the dividing of the map, then Neil getting possessed, and now Glaw betraying him - he can’t get the break that he desperately wants. Wynn just wanted freedom.

Neil Hill, he / they - Neil is Wynn’s adopted brother, and best friend… or was, anyway. Everything changed when he was possessed by Virgil, the ruler of the Right (with Glaw’s help). He wanted freedom as much as anyone, and ended up getting the least. Before they got possessed, he was a strategist who could dish out point-precision battle strategies as easily as they could breathe and he was loyal to his friends and family to the end. Unfortunately for him, Virgil put disgusting, spiteful words in his mouth that made Wynn leave the Left. Neil doesn’t think he can ever look at Wynn the same way again.

Glaw Glines, they / he - Glaw is Virgil’s right hand man. They are also Wynn and Neil’s sibling, although no-one, including them, cares about that fact. Glaw couldn’t care less about what other people think. In their case, that’s not a good thing, because you see, this causes him to do many atrocities, like using dark magic to connect to Neil’s mind to possess it, and nearly murder his brothers during the Left-Right war many times. Glaw strictly follows their own code of honour. When Wynn came to his house, tired and obviously just stopped crying, they decided to let him stay purely out of the ability to exploit this weakness. Although, despite everything, they are beginning to care for the kid. (Wynn would deny he’s a kid, especially when Glaw is just a year older. Oh well.)

Monica Rice, she / her - Monica is, that’s right, you guessed it, Wynn and Neil’s sister. Monica is pretty much the leader of the Left side. It was her idea to form the Left, and it was her idea to off Neil when he got too out of control. (Wynn and Monica had a huge argument over that, which was one of the things that ultimately led him to leave the Left). She is 21 years old. She usually wastes no time on feelings (except when one of her brothers, minus Glaw, has been badly hurt - then she’ll absolutely unleash all rage she ever had upon the person who hurt them) and will not hesitate to go against her morals for what she thinks is right.

Finished code - 62548

Outline of scene 7:
The two make a beeline for Glaw’s house.
Neil notes that Wren was on guard duty, meaning Wynn would’ve likely escaped back by now, and Virgil is seemingly letting him follow on, meaning he likely didn’t know about this. The only person on the Right that Stanley actively contacts is Glaw (and the Left don’t particularly care about that so they let him) so it must be him.
Neil and Monica confront Glaw. There is a huge argument over this and finally, Wynn comes downstairs to see what the noise is using an invisibility potion. However, the effect wears off, making his siblings see him.
Wynn comes back home with Neil and Monica.
Part 2
It wasn’t often Neil could take back the control of their body, but he tried every second of every minute of every hour of every day. And when he found he could go where he wanted without Virgil pulling him back with enough strength to keep him away, he ensured to exploit every second of it.
Which was how he was standing in front of Monica’s door, shakily knocking on it thrice.
She nearly slammed the door in his face when she saw who it was.
“Wait! I’m leav- no, no, I am not him!”
Monica narrowed her eyes. “Neil?”
“Sort of, yes. I try to be. Can I come in? I want to help.”
He nearly stepped back under her scrutinising gaze.
Finally, Monica sighed. “Put all your items in a pile outside of the house, first.”
So, he did. Virgil’s control made him pull back every time he tried to lay a possession down but he fought through it.
Then, following his sister’s lead, came inside.
“What was so important that you decided you had to see me?”
“Where’s Wynn?”
Monica hesitated. “…I don’t know.”

Part 3
There was a pause as he processed what Monica just said.
“What do you mean you don’t know?” Neil didn’t even bother to keep their voice down. Caught up in his anger, he didn’t even notice the lack of restriction of his movement.
“That’s what I mean! I don’t know! Last time I saw him, he was going to your evil hideout or some *.”
It was like someone punctured a hole in his emotional bucket and his rage came flowing out, leaving them a dry husk.
“…Oh.”
That was when they had The Fight. Neil broke eye contact with his sister. He didn't notice that she bit back a smile.
“‘Oh’?” Monica stepped closer to him and grabbed them by their shoulders, shaking him slightly. “What do you mean, ‘oh’? Did something happen?” There was unmistakable concern in her voice, almost masked by her usual stern manner, more prominent than it usually was.
“Well… Virgil, he…” the boy almost shrunk back at her glare. “Virgil made me say things. Things that I would never say. Well. Thinking of them makes me feel sick. They were… they were terrible.”
Monica looked confused for a moment, before her gaze hardened.
“Ah. Interesting. And tell me, you couldn’t have stopped him? Like you are doing right now?”
Hold on. Was she serious? Was she actually thinking he had something to do with this? Was she really blaming him when he tried to do everything in his power to prevent the words that Virgil put in his mouth from spilling out?
This wasn't like her at all… On second thought, it was. It definitely was.
Looking her directly in the eyes, Neil practically shouted, “No!”
Scoffing, Monica rolled her eyes. “Obviously you could’ve! You’re talking to me right now, aren’t you? Or is this Virgil?”
“I’m Neil! I’m Neil, I just wasn’t back then! I tried to be as hard as possible, but all I achieved was making him stutter!” He didn’t notice that he started yelling. “Monica, you know me so much better than- than to think I could’ve done that!”
“Looks like I don’t.”
“How can I prove any of this stuff?” Neil groaned. This whole thing was obviously making her stressed, making her act less rationally. “I don’t know why I couldn’t get control then, and I don’t know how I got it now, okay? Besides, it doesn’t help us find Wynn.”
“…It doesn’t,” Monica sighed, though still glaring at Neil.

Part 4
An awkward silence set in the room.
Finally, fidgeting with his sleeves, the boy spoke up. “We should… I don’t know… ask around if anyone has seen him? Maybe Stanley or Owls can help.”
His sister cleared her throat and pushed up her glasses. “Yes. Yes, let’s do that.”
As she opened the wooden door and stepped outside into the dark, Neil felt a strange pressure, as though something didn’t want him to leave the house. Actually, no. Not a strange one, more like a familiar one, a very familiar one, that existed throughout the past month, except muted - it wasn’t as prominent as the one that forbade Neil from doing anything.
Neil swore. Loudly. Loudly enough that Monica turned around, cocking an eyebrow.
“We’re running out of time. Virgil is going to take over my body again.”
She must’ve heard the panic in his voice because she paused, as though she was figuring out the right thing to say, before responding, “Better hurry up then.”
Neil wanted to believe that she wanted to save his feelings, but he knew she was probably trying to see whether or not he was the real Neil - knowing Virgil, he would probably boast how great of an actor he was and how he fooled Monica if he actually achieved that.
Monica didn’t trust him. That was understandable.
The pressure was getting stronger. Neil stepped with one foot, then another, then walked out. It was that easy.
“We should go see Stanley first,” he noted. “He actually lives on the Left.”
“Yeah, but there is that star-crossed romance between him and Glaw.”
Neil let out a surprised snort.
“Ah yes, the canon Stanglaw,” he chuckled.
Of course, there was no romance, but it was a running joke that the two were dating. The tension between them from earlier finally ebbed away. Despite that, he flexed his fingers almost instinctively…
Those weren’t instincts. That was Virgil.
Neil grabbed his hand in another and muttered, “We should hurry up.”
“Ah. Yes, that’s- that's correct. We should.”

Part 5
Soon enough, they arrived at Stanley’s house. The house looked amazing because of its owner’s decorating skills, however it didn’t look like it could ever be warm inside whatsoever.
A few seconds after Monica knocked on the door, Stanley himself came out.
“Your Majesty? What’s the issue?”
“There is- Stanley, for the- for the last time,” she groaned. “Do not call me ‘Your Majesty’, we don’t have a ruler.”
“You’re always acting like you are,” he shrugged.
“Besides the matter. Have you seen Wynn recently?”
Stanley shifted on the spot and cocked his head to the side like a bird. “Uh, no, why?”
“We can't find him anywhere. Maybe you’ve heard something?”
“No. Sorry. I hope he’s in good hands,” he looked away, into the distance, “wherever he is.”
“Seeing as how the world has dealt with him so far, I highly doubt it,” Monica huffed.
While the two continued talking, Neil felt the pressure getting stronger. He had about… how many? Two hours? Three? Maybe so much as one. They had to do something…
Lost in his thoughts, Neil didn’t even notice that he began walking off somewhere. When they zoned back in, he was at a lake. Oh. Oh hell… this lake was almost on the borders of the sides. They sharply stopped.
This was bad. If time wasn’t infinite back then, now there wasn't much left of it at all. Neil ran back to Stanley’s house. Monica was already saying her goodbyes and leaving.
“We really have to hurry up,” he muttered.
Monica did not seem to pay attention to his words, instead picking up the pace. “Stanley’s hiding something. He knows where Wynn is,” she whispered quickly.
“What makes you think that?”
“Well, it's obvious he was lying. And if he’s a friend of Glaw, that must be connected to that…”
Neil caught on. “Wynn is on the Right.”
“Exactly.”
Part 6
“But… if Wynn is on the Right… he could be in danger,” Neil noted.
Monica seemed to not hear him for a few seconds. Then, she stopped suddenly.
“He could be getting blackmailed to blow this place to pieces,” he continued, “or tortured for some strategic secret to help them finally tip over the scales. We’re at a standstill. Wouldn’t the Right want to finally exit it?”
“You’re right. They would.” Her voice sounded almost even. Neil wished he had her confidence, to not panic like that.
Panic set over the two. Monica began fidgeting, before deciding, “Standing around in a field isn’t going to help Wynn. Let’s go.”
“Yes. Let’s.”
For some reason, the pressure didn’t restrict him to practically run towards the wall that separated the Left side from the Right. Monica climbed over with the kind of ease that comes from practising, while Neil struggled to not get scratched by the thorns of the vines that were put there as a precaution.
Instead of helping, Monica, in her very caring sisterly manner, simply laughed at him.
“It’s not my fault you made me drop all my teleportation spheres!” he shouted at her from below.
“It’s not my fault you teleported over every single time! Now look where that got you!”
“Just… help me up! Please!”
Rolling her eyes, Monica lent him a hand. “Fine.”
Once both of them were on the other side of the wall, they were met with the grinning face of Wren.
“Why hello there. Her Majesty the Queen and the little traitor Prince.” She took her sword out.
“Ye- I am not the Queen. The Left side is anarchy,” Monica sighed, before taking out her own. She also grabbed her bow and quiver of arrows and gave it to Neil. “What brings you to the Right?”
While Monica was talking / stalling, Neil wasted no time in… well. He didn’t quite know what to do. The pressure was growing stronger, restricting him, so that was an issue. Not only that, but he was great with a sword but he was not good with a bow - his aim was crappy when he was shooting out of a weapon like that and he was exceptional at breaking them. So, he did the one thing that came to his mind - hit her over the head with a bow.

Part 7.2
Monica bent over Wren and, after a moment, gave her verdict: “I think you knocked her out.”
Neil snorted. “Wow, really?”
“As in, you did not kill her.”
“Oh. That’s good, don’t want all of the Right on our tails.”
“Yeah, they'd kill us then. They're pretty strong.”
“No, they aren't.”
Neil headed straight for Glaw’s house, and Monica followed. After a few minutes, she asked,
“Why Glaw?”
“Oh, it’s simple, really,” he grinned. “Wren has guard duty, so Wynn would’ve probably escaped.” He ripped a leaf off of one of the trees he passed by and began fiddling with it. “Virgil… well, he’s letting me do what I want. That means he probably doesn’t know about this, either. And Stanley only keeps contact with Glaw, as far as I’m aware. So they’re my best guess.”
Quietly applauding, Monica nodded. “Well done.”
They reached Glaw’s house and she knocked on the door.
It was near-midnight so the owner came to the door looking as though they'd just woken up. However, once he saw them, his eyes widened in recognition. “You,” they hissed.
“Us.” Monica pointed her sword at them. “Hand over Wynn.”
“Hand over Wy- what? What are you talking about?”
“Oh, it’s simple, really. We know you’re holding him hostage.”
“What? This is such a mouse-brained ide- Why would I be holding Wynn, of all people, hostage?”
“Oh. My sibling. There are too many reasons to count.”
Multiple things happened at once. Monica slashed at Glaw, they stepped back and grabbed their own, and the two clashed together in a fight, while something grabbed Neil and pushed him to the ground.
“Why are you here?” He looked around to see who was speaking.
“Who… who are you?”
A silhouette bled into reality over him.
“Really?” it grinned. “Not recognising your own brother? That's a new low.”
As the silhouette gained detail, Neil gasped, “Wynn? Wynn!” He pushed him off. "I am so sorry, that wasn't me, those things I said, that was Virgil, I swear,“ he ranted.
”Was it?“
”Yes. Yes, I would never say any of those things. Never in my life.“
”Alright.“
”I am so- wait. You trust me?“
Wynn scoffed and rolled his eyes. ”Of course. You're my brother, after all.“
Neil sighed and nodded. ”Thank you.“ Then, he turned around and called, ”Monica? We should get out now.“


Part 8
Instead of responding, she just laughed.
”Uh… Monica? Wynn is coming back with us… we should get out.“
Wynn walked up to her and waved a hand in front of her face. ”Monica, are you losing sight with age?“ he deadpanned.
Instead of responding, she pushed him over.
”So,“ she began, paying no mind to her groaning brother, ”you've decided to betray me.“
Glaw let out a soft gasp. ”Virgil?“
”Yes.“
Oh. That's why Neil could move. Virgil wasn't possessing him anymore. Virgil was possessing his sister.
This couldn't have been real.
No. No. Neil refused to believe it.
Yet here Virgil was, now in Monica's body… his own sister's body.
”Glaw, you have been harbouring our enemy. I was not aware this has been happening. You are therefore exil-“ That was when Virgil toppled over as Wynn swept his leg.
Glaw came forward. ”I was not ‘harbouring’ him, Virge, I was holding him hostage. Why would I harbour him? He's not only your enemy, he's mine too.“
Despite being on the ground, Virgil grinned with Monica's face. ”Glad to know I still have you on my side.“
”Monica. Fight back… please…“ Neil's voice came out weaker than it should've.
Pushing himself up, Virgil laughed. ”We both know perfectly well she can't, most of all you.“
Neil briefly glanced at Wynn. His brother looked as bad as he felt, if not more. He seemed panicked and angry but also tired. Neil understood why.
After ages of practically ignoring the situation, Glaw finally spoke up.
”Virgil… Keeping these two here will not do any good. I'd kill them if that would give us anything. If anything, it would only make the host of your body murderous and ultimately push you out. Let them go. It wouldn't make sense to do anything else."
Virgil held out Monica's sword and pointed it at the two teenagers, but didn't use it. Not knowing how to get their sister, the two ran.

Part 9
They finally got back.
They finally got back, but without Monica.
One person lost, the other gained.
The two went to Neil's house for the time being. It was strange how the last time both of them were in there, one's mental state was crumbling and the other was possessed by Virgil. Now, both of their mental health states were crumbling. (Then again, that was the case before too, wasn't it?)
Neil climbed onto his ratty couch and curled up in his oversized coat. The events still seemed unreal. Sure, he was free now, but it was better for him to get possessed than Monica… How did everything go so wrong in so many ways?

Weekly 4: 3509 Words
Author’s Note: I got a head cold three parts in, so a lot of it doesn’t make sense. Here’s a trigger warning because I don’t know where else to put it. There are mentions of death and kidnapping (it’s a kidnapping mystery, so if you are uncomfortable reading about kidnappings, then don’t read this). There is a ransom involved. I won’t go into more detail about the ransom or else it will spoil the story :> There is also gun violence :’)
I shouldn’t have named one person Louise and another Lola—I kept calling Louise Lola :sob:

Part 1: Creating Characters (304 words)

Lola von Eichberg - Abductee
Junior Lola von Eichberg is an overachieving girl with a pretty physique and even better grades. She has blue-gray eyes and wavy, raven-black hair. She is one of the most popular kids at her high school. So when the beloved Lola goes missing, the whole town is in shambles. Who would do such a thing? However, it’s not as simple as it seems. Sure, Lola is smart, but she comes from a rich family. The kidnapper has placed a ransom on the girl, demanding that the von Eichbergs pay them. What were the intentions behind this awful kidnapping? Will Lola return unharmed?

Detective Louise Harper - Private Investigator
Louise was hired by the von Eichbergs to find their daughter. She is a renowned detective with a reputation for success. It seems that this detective is only in it for the money, but perhaps, Louise has different intentions. Shrouded in mystery, the detective prefers to work alone—Louise has only worked with others momentarily to fuel her successes. Equipped with her trusty pistol, tool belt, and stoic personality, Louise seems ready to tackle the most difficult of mysteries. Will she be able to find Lola von Eichberg and keep Lanesworth? Or will she finally put an end to her winning streak?

Ryan Lanesworth - Partner
Ryan has always dreamed of being a detective, and he is ecstatic when he finds himself tangled in a case with Louise Harper. However, he has fallen head over heels for Lola—perhaps to the point of desperation. Was Lanesworth responsible for Lola von Eichberg’s kidnapping? Or were there darker motives at play? As Ryan follows Louise on this exciting journey, he feels more and more exposed—there’s no hiding anything from Louise, and he’s worried that his deepest, darkest secret will be exposed. As Louise gets closer to finding the von Eichberg’s daughter, Ryan can feel himself losing hold of his emotions.

Part 2: Suspenseful Event (369 words)

Lola von Eichberg stared at the yellow ceiling. Would this work? Would her parents really pay the money to rescue her? Her parents, the most well-known family in the county, loved her—they would pay, right? She sauntered over to the window, staring at the miserable, dead forest that greeted her. It was as grim as her. Lola had lost everything—her friends, her family, her whole life—and for what?
She sat in the locked room, wondering how long it would take for someone to find her. Someone would find her, right? Her parents would surely dispatch someone to look for her, in fact, they might even dispatch Detective Louise Harper.
Detective Harper had worked with her family quite a bit. She was counting on Detective Harper coming.

Detective Louise Harper sat on a very cushy armchair as she waited outside the von Eichberg’s study. What case had required such urgency? Louise had gotten a letter at 5:30 am today—the letter had asked Louise to be at the von Eichberg’s manor by 6:00 am. Miserable from her lack of sleep, Louise took a long sip from her coffee, checking her watch every ten seconds. The door creaked open.
“Ah, Detective Harper, come on in,” said a large man with a thick german accent. Louise eyed the man warily before entering the study. The man shut the door and sat down, staring at Louise for a while.
“So, it seems that there is a case you need me to solve? Or have you just brought me here at 6 o’clock in the morning to have a nice chat?” Louise snapped.
“M-my daughter! She’s missing—she’s been kidnapped!” a hysterical female voice cried. Louise turned her head quickly, realizing she had failed to note the woman’s presence.
“Dear, calm down. You’ll only confuse the detective,” the man said soothingly. It was a pitiful attempt at calming the woman down, but he tried, and Louise would give that to him. “Our daughter has been kidnapped. The kidnapper agreed to give her back—unharmed—if we pay them seven-hundred-fifty-thousand dollars.”
“And why don’t you just pay the money? I’ve heard the von Eichbergs are quite…what’s the word…wealthy?” Louise responded slyly. It wasn’t like the seven-hundred-fifty-thousand dollars was a considerable sum for the von Eichbergs to pay, so why didn’t they?
“We’d—my wife and I—would like to avoid paying such a large amount of money when we could hire a detective to find her.” Lola von Eichberg’s father responded.
“And will I be paid, or are you cheapskates planning on free labor?” Louise asked, crossing her arms.
“Of course, of course. We will pay you—just return our beloved daughter in one piece,” the man said, flushing at the mention of payment. It seemed that he had intended to use her as free labor.
This was not her first time working for the von Eichbergs, so she knew that they wouldn’t pay her unless she mentioned it. Louise scoffed, what a bunch of cheapskates.

Part 3: Adding Clues (504 words)

“My name is Walter von Eichberg, and this is my wife, Katrina,” Walter said, holding his hand out.
“It’s a bit late for pleasantries, isn’t it?” Louise said, “Do you have anywhere for me to begin this search?” Walter flushed again. Did this man even want to find his daughter? How did he expect Louise to find the girl if she had nowhere to start?
“Ask around, I’m sure you’ll find something,” Walter said in a non-reassuring way, patting Louise’s back whilst escorting her out of the room.
Great. This was great.
“I suppose I can start by asking around,” Louise muttered to herself, staring at the elaborate furnishes. Squinting, Louise saw that most of the decorations were awards—and not just any awards—awards that Lola von Eichberg had won. Looking closer, the detective realizes that all the awards are stamped with the Crestfield Academy’s emblem.
“Well, at least I have a start now,” Louise said out loud. Partially satisfied, Louise left the manor.

Lanesworth stared blankly at the cashier.
“Where’s my order? I’ve been waiting for half an hour,” he said. He impatiently tapped his foot. The cashier mumbled something about them being short-staffed before scurrying away. Even so, why the heck was it taking thirty minutes?!
“Order 186!” the cashier cried. A second later, a redheaded girl came to grab her order. She had just arrived five minutes ago, why was her order finished first? It’s not like he had ordered more than her—he had just ordered a small cup of tea.
“What do you want?” the girl snapped as she whirled around. “I can feel you glaring at the back of my head.” The girl narrowed her eyes
“I wa-” he began.
“Do you by any chance know a girl by the name of Lola von Eichberg?”

Louise stared into his very blue eyes, waiting for a response.
“Yes—I mean no—well yes-” he stammered.
“So do you know her?” Louise said, exasperated. This person was a complete waste of her time. The question itself was redundant—she already knew he knew her—he had to know her. Unless he was wearing a Crestfield Academy uniform for no reason, there was no way he hadn’t at least heard of her.
“I’ve heard of her,” he said carefully. It seems that he knew more than he gave because whenever Louise mentioned Lola’s name, he tensed up.
“If I go to your school, would I get more information?” Louise snapped.
“You could try, but they’ll all say the same thing about her. Everyone will just flatter her—you won’t get anything useful,” he said quickly.
“And you can help?” she asked. She got the hint—he wanted to join her.
“What I don’t understand is why they’d kidnap her. I mean, she has incredibly ri-”
“That’s exactly why they want to,” she interjected.
“Oh, that makes sense. She had a diary-”
“Where’s the diary?” Louise asked, interrupting him again.
“It’s in her room,” he replied.
Louise began to wonder how the student knew this. Was there something between them?

Part 4: Building Pressure (345 words)

Louise sighed—she would have to walk all the way back to the manor. Just as she was about to leave the cafe, a skinny man with a bushy beard ran into the establishment.
“Detective Harperrrr!” he screeched. “You must report to the manor immediatelyyy!” Well, he had impeccable timing. Louise ignored the man and left the cafe.
Eighteen blocks later, she could feel someone following her. Louise whirled around quickly.
“Funny how we keep meeting like this!” the person from the cafe exclaimed, holding his hands up in mock defeat.
“What do you want?” Louise asked, exasperated.
“Let’s just say I’ve always wanted to become a detective,” he said.
“Let’s just say that I work alone,” she retorted.
“Hey, without me you wouldn’t even have a lead! Plus, you’re going to need all the help you can get to help the poor girl! Might as well rescue her before she gets killed!” he exclaimed.
Louise stared at him with wide eyes. Killed? Although he seemed goofy, what he said was genuine. Walter had never told Louise that her death was a possibility. Although, the action was definitely hinted…
“How do you know this?” Louise asked suspiciously, wondering how the schoolboy managed to get that sort of information.

“Sh-” Ryan began. “Well, I heard it from somewhere. I’m sure it’s just a rumor.” The redhead did not look convinced, but she replied with a “mhmm”.
He didn’t mean to let that slip, but the faster the redhead found Lola, the better. When the redhead did find Lola, that would mean everything would fall into place. He smiled.
They would finally be able to eliminate the nosy detective from the equation. After that, there would be no choice but for the von Eichbergs to pay the ransom. It was a rather ingenious plan. Ryan nearly laughed out loud, but he held it in. He didn’t need the detective to get any more suspicious.

Louise wanted to do anything but bite her fingernails. It was a nervous habit of hers. If she failed, then Walter’s daughter would perish.

Part 5: Withholding Information (393 words)
The suspicious schoolboy followed her to the manor. She wanted to forcefully extract the information he had immediately, but she knew that violence was not always the way. Just as Louise was about to knock on the door, it swung open.
“Well, you came very quickly!” Katrina von Eichberg exclaimed before shooing them in.
“Where’s Walter?” Louise asked.
“Ohh, he’s at work,” Katrina replied. “He teaches—it’s a passion of his—it’s a passion of mine too. It’s actually how we met!”
“Do you mind if we,” she said, glaring at the schoolboy. “Search your daughter’s room?”
“Of course, of course. If it helps bring my ear Lola back-” Katrina escorted them both to her room. “Lola hasn’t cleaned her room in a while, so it’s a bit…messy.”
Messy was certainly a word Louise could use to describe the room. It was as if a mini-hurricane had taken place. This was going to be one heck of a search.
“Call me if you need anything!” Katrina yelled as she walked away.
“So. Where do you suppose we start?” Louise asked.

Ryan knew exactly where the diary was, but he couldn’t go right to it—he needed her suspicious, but not too suspicious.
“Umm, I guess we can look around,” he replied.
After half an hour of rummaging through Lola’s stuff (while avoiding the actual location of the diary), Ryan “found” it.
“I found it!” Ryan exclaimed. He handed it to the detective, afraid he may foil their plan. He watched intently as the detective flipped it open.
She muttered a few incoherent things and her eyes widened.
“A-are you sure this was Lola’s?” the redhead stammered. “She was at the top of her class—she was the smartest. I-”
“Sometimes a person is not all that they seem,” Ryan offered. Obviously, this applied to him. The detective wrinkled her nose.
“I thought that she would have much nicer handwriting…this looks like it was written hastily…” she muttered.
Everything was going according to plan.

“It says here that she hated her life, and that she didn’t want to pursue a teaching career? Lola didn’t want her parents’ careers to be forced upon her, which they obviously were. This doesn’t make sense, though? Why would this relate to her kidnapping? Unless…someone was trying to mimic her? If that’s the case, there’s bound to be fingerprints on it!” Louise exclaimed.

Part 6: Raise the Stakes (325 words)

Louise clenched her teeth. What would happen if she couldn’t find Lola? She was worried. Why did people do such terrible things?
Often, people thought Louise only accepted cases for the money, but that wasn’t all there was. Louise wanted to rid the world of evil. Knowing that even the smallest efforts helped, she aided in the capture of minor criminals.
But there was something else… Louise wanted revenge. Her parents had been murdered when she was three, leaving her to be raised by her uncle. She abhorred her uncle—he was an awful man.
Why did these people exist? Why did she dedicate her whole life to cracking down on criminals?
Louise had money and fame…but until her job was done, it would never be enough.
“It looks like Lola managed to slip a note in the diary…it looks like an address,” the boy said, snapping Louise out of her trance-like state.
“Oh yes, by the way, what’s your name?” Louise asked. She had read about a boy named Ryan in the diary. Ryan was presumably Lola’s boyfriend, and this person seemed to know a lot about Lola.
“My name is, uh, Reynold,” he said smoothly. “And you are?”

“I think you already know the answer to that question, Reynold,” the detective replied. Ryan’s heartbeat was two times faster as he tried to process what she had just said. Had she figured him out?
They needed her out of the way for the ransom to be paid…
“What was your relationship to Lola?” the detective said.
“I’m her ex,” he replied simply. Should he tell her the truth? The detective was definitely doubting Ryan.
“Oh,” she replied, staring into space. As soon as she said that, Ryan knew that he should have said something else. In the detective’s eyes, he could be the culprit. If she thought that, she wasn’t wrong. In fact, she would be spot on. He smiled as the detective looked away.

Part 7: Fast Pacing (618 words)

Event 1: How long will it take Louise to truly suspect “Reynold”? Will she even suspect him, or is her mind on other things? What are the intentions of “Reynold”? Who is commissioning him?
Event 2: Reveal the intentions from Ryan’s point of view, but Louise doesn’t know.
Event 3: (Big jump) Louise and Ryan arrive at the address that was in the diary. Louise gets knocked out by someone and wakes up to find herself tied to a chair. Lola slips Louise a sharp object and Louise cuts the ropes with it before pulling a gun on Ryan. Louise ties Ryan up but is drugged by an unknown person.
Event 4: The unknown person exchanges a brief word with Ryan. Lola contemplates how the detective failed so badly while being trapped in a room.

Ryan walked behind the detective. How long would it take for the detective to believe that he was the culprit? She looked lost in her own thoughts. So much so that she nearly walked straight into a speeding. If it weren’t for Ryan, she would be flattened.

Louise kept walking, ignoring the fact that she almost got turned into a pancake. How long had they been walking? She didn’t know. She had spent the past couple of blocks mentally degrading herself.
Suddenly, Louise was exhausted. She hadn’t eaten all day and it was nearly nightfall. This was going to be one heck of a search.

It was as if the detective had lost all passion for her job. He didn't think that this would take such a mental toll on her. Is that why she had refused his help at first?
It didn’t matter—they were almost to the location. Ryan couldn’t fail now—he was so close to finishing his part. They were so close to getting the money.
Ryan wasn’t the mastermind, but the detective might think otherwise—he counted on it. As soon as she stepped into the house, she would be knocked out. After that, Ryan would restrain her to a chair and then both of them would play their parts.

“We’re here,” Louise said. She didn’t expect it to be that easy, but she was so tired. Reynold glanced at her weirdly before entering after her.
A flash of blue passed Louise before she crumpled to the floor. Who had hit her?
Louise woke up with a start, struggling against her new restraints. Who had put them there?
“Hello there,” a familiar voice said. Was that…Reynold? “Lola, would you be a dear and tighten her restraints? And don’t try anything, you wouldn’t want your parents to cry over your dead body, would you?”
Despite Reynold’s threat, Lola slipped her a sharp object before scurrying away. Reynold didn’t notice as Louise sawed through the rope.
After ten minutes of cutting through the rope while listening to Reynold’s awful monologue, she slipped free. Louise pulled her gun out, aiming it at the traitor. Why he hadn’t removed it, she didn’t know, but she was grateful he didn’t.
She quickly swapped places with Reynold, securing him to the chair. Eyeing him, she left the room to look for Lola.
“Lola!” Louise cried. “Where are you?”
“I’m here,” a muffled voice replied. Louise traced the voice to a room. She carefully pushed the door open, but no one was there…
Suddenly, she was inhaling a sweet-smelling cloth. There must have been a different person…
“I’ll find you, Lola…”

“Well, that was easy. We’re almost there. Ryan, you did such a good job!” a cloaked figure says.
“Thanks, but you were the brains behind this…” Ryan replied, trailing off.

How did the detective fail so badly? All the clues had been laid out for her. Lola sighed, pacing the room. It was really over for her…

Part 8: Plot Twist (541 words)
**The foreshadowing has been added to the very beginning, it is 126 words!**

“You’re awake,” a voice says. A figure loomed over Louise. She squinted. It was a girl with black hair.
“What have you done to Lola!” Louise cried, more worried for the girl’s life than her own.
“Whatever do you mean, I’m right here!” the figure—Lola giggled.
“W-what?” Louise stammered.
“You didn’t realize? You never figured it out? Are you really that stupid? I didn’t realize my father was willing to pay such a dimwit!” Lola exclaimed. This was not the type of language that Louise expected to come out of the girl’s mouth.
“Why?” Louise asked. She wanted to know. She had to know. At least if she died, she wouldn’t be forever haunted by that question…
“Why? Why? Think! Oh, is it because you don’t know?” Lola cried mockingly. “I’ve always hated them, y’know. They always try to push me toward teaching. I don’t want to be a teacher. Just because they enjoy doing that, that doesn’t mean I will!”
“Lola-” Reynold began.
“Shut up, Ryan!” Lola snarled.
“Ryan..?” Louise whispered. Everything was falling into place. The whole thing was a setup.
“Yes, I think you’re figuring it out. I wasn’t kidnapped…it was just an elaborate ploy for money. You see, if they paid the ransom, I would be able to leave them. Do you know how pressuring it is to live with my parents? They always pressure me to be better…”
“But you excel at school…” Louise muttered.
“Only because of my parents.” Lola snapped.

Detective Harper was officially losing it. Was the detective really so stupid to believe that she couldn’t orchestrate a plan like this? She laughed. The detective would never have any idea of how much she went through.
The detective’s gun was in her hand. Lola aimed it at the detective’s chest.
“I thought you said we weren’t going to kill her!” Ryan exclaimed. The detective’s eyes widened.
“How else did you think this would work?” Lola deadpanned before pulling the trigger.

Searing hot pain flooded through Louise’s body. Was this how it was going to end? Her parents would never be avenged. Well, at least she tried…
Just before she slipped away, she saw Lola aim the firearm at Ryan.

“So long, Ryan,” Lola said, aiming the gun at him. What? He thought he was going to leave with her.
“What?” he said, confused.
“Did you really think I loved you? I just needed a dimwit like you to do all the dirty work…”
She pulled the trigger.


Lola grimaced at the two dead bodies. She didn’t really have to kill them, but it was best to leave no one who could testify against her. Now, all she had to do was wait for her parents to deliver the ransom.
She stared at the detective’s body. The redhead reminded her of her younger, naive self. Lola knew the detective had good intentions…she could feel it. The detective would have never killed Ryan.
She was willing to do more. Years of being forced to be good at school had Lola tired. She wanted to become an author, but her academic parents never approved…
How much more would Lola sacrifice?

swsea weekly four - 2718 total words

(part one - 323 words)

Aruna is isn’t your typical pirate – she’s an acrobat, a chef, and a champion of prisoner’s rights until the ends of her pirating days. Despite her rough profession, she’s more often than not friendly to the occasional passerby, and consistently maintains a light hearted demeanor, taking very little personally and remaining optimistic towards others. She’s a hero in the sense that she’s very observant, and usually up date on everything that comes hurling her way, but also the partner/friend in the sense that she’s instantly trustable, despite being a pirate, and often helps others solve their problems, pirate-related or not!

Elliana was never meant to be a pirate – a child of noble descent and a throne to inherit, there was absolutely no apparent reason for her to sail the high seas, and certainly none that she’s willing to offer up. Of course, she’s only a child… what harm could she possible cause? She’s a fierce soul, not one to give up or give in easily, nor one to follow any sort of rules. Still, she’s often willing to hope those around her – those that are willing to put up with one stubborn child, that is! All things considered, she’s not bad – a bit naive, secretive, and unmovable, but she’ll grow up to be a fantastic pirate.

Maesi a young apprentice with a grandmother’s soul. She’s compassionate towards everyone and everything around her, and will jump up at any chance to be of help to others, the ultimate friend to all. She’s quite intuitive, and a fast thinker – the girl has fantastic instincts, but for someone who had supposedly never been on a ship before Aruna’s, where in the high seas did she get them? Perhaps she’s just a true natural, or perhaps there’s more too it – for time being, she’s one Aruna keeps at her side. Whether to watch or to teach, nobody’s quite sure, but the young apprentice is undoubtedly talented.

(part two - 183 words)

“a map…” maesi murmurs, her voice low, as not to alert the rest of the crew, curiosity laced within. she picks up old paper scroll, looking around for the glass bottle it had washed up towards The Alibi in.

gone.

well, that would certainly make explaining the map’s appearance to aruna more interesting. it was no matter, maesi was always up for a bit of a debate. so long as it didn’t end in her defeat.

which was, unfortunately, quite often when it came to aruna.

but hey, she could always try! and someday aruna would listen to her without question…

someday.

maesi could always dream. yet to her, she was already living the dream. out on the ocean, she was free to live in peace of being without the outside world, instead roaming the waves atop starboard ship, watching as the seagulls flew by, their beating wings reflecting in the shimmering waters below. what that made her fantasies, she wasn’t quite sure… but now was not the time to wonder.

right now, she had a mysterious map to deliver to her capitan.

(part three - 372 words)

“maesi’s got a map,” elliana whispers, her words drifting out into the salty ocean air. interesting that she would have found a map, wasn’t it. and more interestingly enough, she’d unrolled it to read before heading upstairs, as if she’d wanted to steal its treasure before she brought it to aruna. very interesting indeed…

of course, there was absolutely no reason for the map to be any of her business. yet, that was. if maesi had a map, surely it would come around to elliana eventually, if only to attempt to stimulate memories of long ago tutors and their lessons, as if elliana, by chance, might have seen it before. it was unlikely, at best. but, in aruna’s opinion, worthwhile. and around here, it was what aruna said that went.

–

“a map,” aruna repeats, her gaze focused on maesi’s face, completely ignoring the wound up scroll in her hands. maesi can’t quite read the emotion behind her voice – is she proud? curious? worried? or genuinely unemotional?

after a moment, her capitan smiles, reaching out to take the fragile paper from her. maesi lets her, hoping she was right about it. it was a map, another map, yes, but it had been floating along the sea for anyone who came upon to find, as if someone wanted it to be found but only the more curious of people. only the most daring would wander up this particular stretch of cliff lined coasts, a place where only the best of sailors would ever have a hope of survival. which didn’t quite explain how the map came to be, but maesi was sure her capitan would pull the pieces together.

–

maesi had brought her a map. aruna wasn’t quite sure what to think of it, considering the young apprentice had handed it over with no explanation, no story behind where she found it. she was constantly finding odd things in the ship’s storage, but something told her that this softened paper she held between her thumb and index finger wasn’t one of them.

at the very least, it was worth looking into… perhaps without the company of her apprentice or guest.

“elliana!” aruna calls out to the deck, hoping the second young pirate is nearby.

(part four - 333 words)

as she wondered what it was on that map of maesi’s, elliana found her way towards the edge of the deck, stumbling as the ship began to rock from side to side. a bit uncharacteristic for The Alibi to shake its passengers, but the seas were known to be particularly along these cliffs – and dangerous.

overheard, the clouds seemed to agree with her assessment, folding together into a formidable oblivion of gray, an endless blanket across a once clear sky, as if to shield whatever was about to happen from the sun’s precious eyes. they huddle closer and closer together, concentrating their spark of life between them, still waiting, waiting waiting…

“elliana!” aruna calls out, snapping elliana out of her thoughtful daze.

hearing her capitan’s voice, elliana turned away from the now churning sea, heading across the well swabbed deck towards the captain’s quarters.

–

“welcome,” aruna says, by simply a way of greeting.

she pauses, as if not quite sure what to tell maesi and elliana. did they need to know what dangers these waters were truly rumored to hold? the map had only brought confirmation to the worst of what aruna had heard… but she couldn’t be certain until she’d seen it. and that had to be done beyond the prying eyes of the children.

“maesi has brought me a map,” she continues, stating the obvious so that they might all pretend elliana hadn’t been watching her, even as she knew she shouldn’t. no one was ever supposed to be watching the captain's quarters, but elliana was elliana. “i wish to examine it alone… truly alone. watch each other, and perhaps climb the rigging up to the crows nest. we can always use more eyes in the sky.”

maesi nods in response to her words, grabbing elliana’s hand and dragging them both out the door before promptly shutting it behind them. respectful child. but perhaps too gentle to ever be a proper pirate.

then again, the same could be said of her.

(part five - 309 words)
maesi happily obey’s aruna’s command, practically dragging the much more reluctant elliana out the door with her as she leaves the captain in peace. and of course, ever the helper, she closes the door behind them before wandering towards the rigging. aruna had told them to practice climbing it – and so she would! what elliana thought, maesi didn’t care all that much – if she wanted to be a little rebel, so it be. she already knew that nothing she said would ever make elliana cooperate, and that, unfortunate as it was, was perfectly fine with her.

the ropes were cold and a bit damp from the ever spraying ocean waters, but otherwise not to hard on her hands – or perhaps her hands had simply grown accustomed to gripping their stringy surfaces. whatever case, maesi was starting to enjoy her climbing, and of course, it brought her closer to those beautiful birds as they flew across the ocean skies. the crows nest had always been one of her favorite places to be, not only for its view, but for the peace and quite it offered… glancing at elliana, now climbing the rigging a few steps beneath her, it seemed she would be having none of that today.

–

some climbing later, both maesi and elliana were situated in the crows nest, maesi watching the seas, elliana thinking.

“why’s capitan suddenly being so secretive?” she asks, as if maesi would know the answer. honestly, elliana never knew what that girl might have been told. but she didn’t expect an answer, not from perfect, obedient maesi. that girl could never be a true pirate… but perhaps she would make a decent first mate someday. someone who would never betray her, who would always watch her back. if she could ever forgive what elliana had done and said to her. admittedly, unlikely at best.

(part six - 339 words)

“the caves,” aruna mutters, eyes running circles around the map. they had to go to the caves, the ones lining the rocky cliffs they were coasting along. it was always the caves they were looking for, always the caves that would hold what they desired most. dangerous, but worthwhile. as most things would be, at least for maesi and elliana. as long as they traveled with her, that was. well, as long as they willingly traveled with her…

aruna may not be a pirate in a conventional sense, but she certainly was a mastermind of tactics, always staying one step ahead of the game. she was always ready for anything, and always looking for something; more often than not, it was that something that she should never be allowed to have, and still more often, it was that something that she would always end up with, despite the protests of whoever stood in her way. it was something the children had certainly yet to realize, though she knew. they would see, eventually. and after that? their path was their own to choose.

just as she began to consider the thoughts of the children, somewhere in the distance, thunder began to rumble. whether it roared in defense of the young pirates or in opposition of them, aruna wasn’t quite sure, but what mattered was that they needed to get out of there, and fast. storms were never a good time to be a pirate, yet an even worse time to be a pirate, sailing the high seas, when those high seas happened to travel along the edge of a cliff. as aruna imagined it, to travel along a cliff in the middle of the stop was almost asking to be crushed into pieces, as they undoubtedly would be if they stuck along for too long…

and the kids. they were in the crow’s nest, if they had followed her orders. which maesi certainly would have…

they were in the very last place they would want to be in a storm.

could she help them, warn them, do anything to give the girls a chance against the wind? no, probably not. to try would be to risk her own safety, and to risk her own safety would be to risk everything, for all of them. neither of the girls knew how to sail a ship, nor did they know where they were – aruna had never given them a map, nor taught them how to read them. of course, elliana and her fancy tutors might… by why would anyone ever teach a girl of noble descent such a useful skill? they were, after all, nobles.

(part seven | outline - 113 words)

For the rising action of this scene of the story, maesi and elliana are going to realize that its storming around them.

One of them realizes that this is problematic because it means that they are about it be in very imminent danger if the winds pick up anymore than they already have.

During the climax, the winds pick up, just as the young pirate had feared, and they cling to each other and anything else in reach for dear life, knowing that there is very little aruna could do to help them survive.

During the falling action, they slowly find their way down the rigging together, bringing them safely to the deck.

(part seven | scene - 333 words)

“maesi!” elliana screams, hoping to be heard over the wind. in the last few minutes, it had began to pick up around their ship, the currents growing rougher will the skies grew darker. in a matter of minutes, a storm would explode from the heavens, drenching everything in sight. elliana had always liked rain, but she also knew that too much of it could be deadly at sea, as water would weigh the ship down.

of course, water would be the least of their problems, at least from the crows nest. one thing those high and mighty tutors of hers had taught her was that the higher up you were, the more dangerous the effect of the wind was, at least as it pertained to a ship. such as the one she and maesi were currently on. and there was no higher point than the crow’s nest… so it would seem, they were in the very last place they would ever want to be in a storm. should the post holding them in the air snap under their weight and the influence of the wind, there was nothing anyone would be able to do to save them.

–

clinging to the sound of elliana’s voice in the wind, maesi screamed back. “elliana!”

the wind was picking up by the moment, and they were starting to sway from side to side, as if, at any moment, they might topple over.

they needed to get out of the crows nest, and now.

now, before it was too late.

now, before… no, maesi wasn’t go there. not yet.

she reached out, grabbed elliana’s hand with one hand, reaching for the rope in the other, hoping her grip would hold steady as the rigging swung from one side to the other.

slowly, surely, the lowered them selves through the tangle of threads, holding fast to each other, hoping that they would reach the deck alive.

–

“we made it,” elliana pants, as if she hadn’t quite believed they would.

(part eight | foreshadowing - 103 words)

(part eight | scene - 318 words)

so they had survived… a problem, it was, to aruna. they were far too strong, too independent, too resourceful for her likely – to utterly able to survive without her. and in the world of manipulative, obedience, and servitude, that did not bode well for her, especially as she wished to move forward in her plans. so what would she do with them?

maesi, on her own, was trusting. she was willing to follow any order aruna threw at her, willing to climb to any new height she was told, willing to jump into the ocean to save a life. she was such a despicably good person, and arguably the best servant of a first mate aruna would ever encounter, if she wished to make it so. but would she stand for what she would have to do to elliana to make it happen.

no. no, no she would not.

and so it would be, to davy jones with them both.

–

they really had made it. made it from the crows nest down to the ground, completely unharmed. not a scratch marked elliana arms and legs, and, as far as she could she, the same held true for maesi.

maesi, despite all of elliana’s assumptions about her, was quite a survivor. she was a good listener, and rule follower, and essentially everything else that elliana could never be. so what if they were to work together? elliana had long planned for a coup, waiting for the right moment to seize power from aruna, the old, manipulative fool she was. aruna wished to sail to the caves elliana had sent her to on that map… and so she would.

she would want to explore alone, knowing what those caves were said to hold. meanwhile, she and maesi would be at perfect liberty to slip away.

slip away from aruna. and slip away, into lives that could really be their own.

(part nine - 105 words)

and so they would. aruna, as it turns out, was very quiet around both of them after the storm, keeping sail for the caves where elliana had hoped to lead her. when they arrived, she asked the girls to stay on board The Alibi, wishing to venture into the caves alone. as she did, elliana and maesi waited for her to wander out of site before quietly pulling the ship away from the cliffs and towards the open seas, maesi wishing nothing but the best for her former capitan. elliana, meanwhile, smiles with the thought that she, for once in her life, was finally free.

Bi-daily #3 - 352 words

✄ ┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

Part One - 201 words: The national park, crowded with people, has been bustling for the last summer. Families grab their phones out of pockets and snap photos of the beauty of the nature there. No one dares coming close to the geysers, hot water and steam spewing from their mouths, threatening to burn a stray hand or swallow up a bottle cap. The water below a travel group’s feet rumbles, splashing the sides of bridges on top of it, and they yelp in fear, only for them to go up in giggles after a few seconds. The little children point at bison, squealing with excitement, while they beg their parents to take pictures. The pools, reddish on the outside, fade into a deep blue in the middle, bubble and steam rises up into the air. Water bottles are scattered around the park, the victims of thirsty people who aren’t used to the sweltering North America heat. At the end of the day, the sun sets, a deep red and orange in the steamy pink sky, and the animals roam free once more, knowing that these are the only quiet moments they have. Everyone will come back tomorrow, and the park will come to life again.

✄ ┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

Part Two - 151 words: Me and Alex had quite different ideas, since I believe I wrote more about the fun of going there, and they wrote about the dangers of going there. We did, however, both come to a conclusion on how hot it was at a national park. I made a slightly more positive story-which I basically never do-, and theirs was a bit more gloomy and dark, grumbling about how hot and how dumb the character was to be at a national park in the middle of summer. We did come together on some of the problems, like the heat and burning, and described and used the pools in our description/story. They didn’t really talk about the animals at all, but for my story, I think I tried to use them as much as I could. I think those are the main differences and similarities in both of the stories/descriptions.

✄ ┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈

◦°☆ Hello, I’m Dawn! <33 ☆°◦
They/her
Artist
Dystopian - SWC Mar. 2023
#DystopianFTW!!

Bi-daily 3/28-29 - Welcome to the third (and final) bidaily of this session! Bidailies are just like dailies, with two days to complete instead of one. Today is day one of our atmosphere bidaily. First, check out the amazing Alana (@-NightGlow-)’s workshop here ( https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/post/7042744/ ). For the first part of the bi-daily you will be working with a partner. Both of you will agree upon a setting or location and describe it in at least 200 words. Afterwards, compare the differences in how the two of you interpreted the setting, and write an additional 150 words reflecting on some of the differences and similarities in your interpretations. The workshop contains more information on the activity–make sure to read it before getting started!

A crowded room - 367 total words

Red carpets line a marble tiled floor, their swirling rock reminiscent of the flow fo hundred of people milling about the room, delicate flutes of rose red champagne in hand, their sips elegantly cautious, as every word they spoke in this room would be. Perhaps the band might play from their corner of the room, but not a soul in attendance is in any mood to listen to their arcing melodies, much less to dance – not a soul could ever understand the meaning of the word “fun”. Still, they wander, heels taping along stone cold floors, reflections shimmering in the cups they carry, as if looking for something they’ll never find. Not here, certainly, and perhaps not anywhere – fascinating, considering the many tiered velvet cake sitting atop a glass platter, entirely untouched. Along the edges of the room lie dozens, hundreds, thousands of gold leaf littered rose petals, some of them crushed into wrinkled spheres, others shredded to a million pieces. The ceiling, arcing far out of reach of the solemn crowds, seems well beyond the concern of the echoing silence; it lets one final note from the band ring through the room, only to leave it guests inevitably alone once more.

While both of our interpretations of the crowded room setting involved a lot of people, as a crowded room undoubtedly would, as well as a general sense of discontentment, they were very different in terms of what the people were doing in these crowded rooms. In my crowded room, everyone was completely silent, and almost solemn in their meandering, as if something was terribly, unspeakably wrong, and no one quite knew how to address it. I did not mention a specific temperature, or any children, but considering the untouched cake, I’d assume someone is missing from the scene. On the contrary, Ava’s crowded room with filled with people making noise in some regard, and very sweaty. They also mentioned that some people had lost their children, which is an increase in missing people from the one missing person implied in my room. Overall, we both had a generally similar mood, with Ava’s interpretation being a bit more chaotic, and my interpretation being a bit quieter.

(I did “fantasy castle,” working with @Corgi3210 and her writing is here: https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/666606/?page=1#post-7094006 )

You walk along the trail through the woods, a path you’ve never been down before. Pushing past the last overhanging branch, you gasp in amazement. There’s a castle on the hill that rises in front of you, one with massive proportions! Proud parapets! Towers that dwell amidst the clouds themselves! It is a majestic sight to behold, emblazoned across the bright blue sky and rooted deeply in the heart of the earth. As you make your way closer, you see the hefty stone bricks that hold up its immense weight, and the sparkling gemstones that adorn the edges and entryways. As you gape upward in awe, a splash of water catches your attention, and you remember to look down. Good thing you didn’t go any farther, or you would’ve gone right into the moat! The water is limpid and deep, fading from a crystal azure into a dark, twilight blue of mystery and wonder. The flippered tail of some strange creature disappears into the depths. A mermaid, perhaps? Birds and fairies flit between the trees and the rooftops and flutter down into the garden, where the sweet smell of flowers drifts over to you on a clear, gentle breeze. It wraps you in tendrils of air as cozy as a blanket, and you bask in the warmth, feeling the heat of the sun caress your face. Then you step into the shade of the castle and the coolness of shadow envelops you. You lie down upon the soft blades of grass, ready to take a nap…

I like the way Nikki portrayed the cold weather interacting with the castle and used descriptive language like “Snow sparkled on the tips, light dancing off the tiles.” Our descriptions were somewhat similar in the way that we made the castles awe-inspiring and majestic. We definitely went heavy on the embedding-the-castle-in-nature stuff. However, Nikki put more focus on change over time by saying “to this day,” which implies some of the castle’s history, while I talked more about the way that a person might react if it was their first time experiencing the castle. We also differed in the depictions of animals. Mine was more brief and subtle, that little flash of magic at the corner of your eye, while Nikki’s had more animal behavior and realistic creatures rather than mythical/fantasy ones. In addition, I think it’s cool that mine was kind of warm and spring/summery, while Nikki’s has snow and a frozen lake. Overall, though, I think our castles are far closer in comparison than I expected them to be, since this was a fairly vague prompt, with a lot of room for interpretation and artistic liberty.

Weekly #4 - 4611 words

Did I speedwrite this weekly in about two days? Yes. Does it have nearly no editing? Yes. Did I enjoy writing it? Yes.

Also, it takes too much work to put all the italics in italics, so I'm not gonna bother.

Part 1
Belle Graystone is the main character of this story; ‘the detective.’ She is a 15-year-old girl who lives in Canada, likes baking, and spends much of her time hanging out with her BFF Charlotte. She’s a Highly Sensitive Person, and the fact that she notices things others do not will fit very well into her role for the story. That’s also one way she fits into the detective archetype. One way she subverts it is that she will spend much of the story trying to convince herself that nothing is wrong, even as she finds clues which probably lead toward a mystery that definitely is. Belle also likes the inside and warmth.

Charlotte is Belle’s best friend, and the two of them have been friends since they met at gymnastics class when they were eight (though neither of them do gymnastics any more). She has an adorable dog named Snowstorm, and is really into making things with her hands, like arts and crafts, or woodworking. Her goal is to get into a university with a really good program on set design in theatre. She likes the outdoors a lot more than Belle does, and is always trying to convince her to go camping, though mostly in a playful, joking way. She fits in the trope of the ‘Watson character’ because she’s the detective’s closest ally. Maybe one way she could subvert it is by actually having valid points, noticing things Belle doesn’t, unlike in other stories where the detective knows everything and the ally just watches, amazing. (Okay I’m not absolutely sure about this, but I haven’t read that much mystery.)

Lilac is Belle’s mother. She loves Belle dearly, but often finds it hard to show her affection for her daughter, as she’s never fully healed from the wound of Belle’s father’s (Matthew) death ten years before the story begins. She has a mostly happy life, but sometimes she holds emotions in, only letting them out at night when she thinks Belle can’t hear her cry. (Spoiler alert: Belle often does hear it.) She fits into the trope of the ‘parent who isn’t competent enough to be part of the story and disrupt their kid’s adventures,’ and she subverts it by wanting to be involved more, but just not knowing how.

Part 2
For years, Belle and Lilac have accepted that Matthew died falling into the river at his father’s cottage during the storm when he disappeared; that’s what the police concluded when they closed their investigation after a year of finding no further evidence. But one day, Lilac approaches Belle after school to tell her that a new piece of evidence has just turned up. The police are going to Belle’s grandpa’s cottage to check it out, but Lilac says she doesn’t know much more and doesn’t want to explain everything until she knows more. Belle feels a little upset at this, but doesn’t really argue. A few days later, Belle finds an email that her mom accidentally forwarded to her (something that happens pretty often). It says that the police just found the remains of a body in the forest by the river - but it’s not her father’s. They don’t know whose it is. For once, Belle doesn’t tell her mother about the accidental email, keeping the disturbing information to herself. But she notices Lilac acting strange, extra distracted and anxious. And who did Lilac mean to forward the email to? Spurred to action by Charlotte, Belle finds herself searching for more hints, finding more disturbing things; and as she goes, wanting more and more for everything to be okay. And that’s why she keeps going - because she’s convinced there must be some piece of information she’s missing, some clue that everything is okay, that her mother isn’t hiding anything, that Charlotte’s worries for Belle’s family aren’t true.

Part 3
Belle thought back to last week, after her mother had told her about the new evidence related to her father’s death - and not told her what it was. Bella had forced herself to take deep, calming breaths. It was going to be okay. It was probably just further info about the particulars of what happened. Dad had died ten years ago - nothing was going to change.
But now she couldn’t breathe. All she did was stare at the email, at the words on her laptop screen.
Her mom had accidentally forwarded her this email - something which often happened, since, if Belle was being honest, her mother was a bit scatterbrained. But normally it wasn’t a problem, and she would just let her mom know so that she could forward it to a coworker or whoever it was supposed to be. But this…
It was about the police investigation. Most of it is complicated mumbo jumbo that didn’t seem actually important. One line stuck out to her.

Our last piece of new evidence led us to the discovery of a decaying
skeleton in Ellerlly Forest, very near to where your husband’s death
took place. We have determined that it is not Matthew Graystone’s body,
and are doing further investigation to try and determine how old the body
is, and whether the incidents are related.

She couldn’t formulate thoughts. What - why… She felt chilled. Scared. This couldn’t be real. This was supposed to be over. She had accepted what years before. But a body had been found in the forest behind Grandpa’s old cottage. After Belle’s dad’s death, he hadn’t gone there much. It brought back too many painful feelings for him, and he didn’t like being sad and angry. But Belle and her mother had gone last year, because Mom had decided it might give her some closure. And Belle wanted to see the place where her dad spent all his childhood summer, a place she herself hadn’t visited since age five. Everything had seemed perfectly normal. Though it had hurt, she’d explored every inch of that woods. Climbed every tree with low hanging branches. And there was nothing. Her father had fallen in the river, been pulled off by the current and drowned, disappearing somewhere far away. A body was never found; he left nothing behind other than a heartbroken wife and child, and a father who was never the same.
And what was this original piece of evidence the email mentioned? The one her mom wouldn’t tell her about? Who had her mom meant to forward such awful information to? She was usually more careful with who she sent emails that she wouldn’t want Belle to see.
Her thoughts spiraled, repeating things over and over, getting nowhere. She didn’t know how long she sat there, but it was only her mom calling her down for dinner that got her attention. Taking a breath, she stumbled downstairs. She didn’t know how she could tell her mom about this. Once she got downstairs, it seemed impossible.
Mom was distracted, spilling pasta and misplacing her phone. When they were finally seated at the table, eating, she accidentally got pasta sauce on her hair.
“Mom, are you all?” Belle asked, wondering if this was because of the email.
“Yes, darling, just, a bit tired.”
Belle nodded, looked down at her food. “Mom… would you be able to tell me yet about the new information the police found?”
She stared, then shook her head, less a response and more as if to clear it. “Things are complicated right now, honey. It’s not something I want to get you involved in, to worry about before we know everything. When it’s all said and done, I’ll let you know.”
Her expression told Belle that she thought the conversation was over. And Belle supposed it was. But nothing felt right to her anymore. What was there that had to be ‘said and done?’ Dad passed away a decade ago. What more could there be?

Part 4
The next day at school, Belle knew that Charlotte, her best friend, saw that something was up. And indeed, by lunchtime she was pulling Belle to the corner of the room.
“What’s up, Bee? You seem really stressed?”
“It’s nothing, just too much homework. It’s overwhelming.”
“It’s true we have too much homework, but that’s not it.”
Belle found she didn’t want to hold it in any longer. “Fine. Can you come over after school?”
“I have to watch my brother. How important is it? Could you come over to my place?”
“Yeah, that’s probably better…” Belle mumbled.
And that’s how she found herself in Charlotte’s room, trying to avoid her best friend’s interrogative stare. Allegedly they were doing homework, but Charlotte’s parents weren’t currently home to police that.
“You know that new piece of evidence my mom told me about last week?”
“Yeah. You said it was nothing. I said you should be careful not to hold in your emotions just because you want things to stay exactly as they are.”
Belle nodded, almost smiling at Charlotte’s slight sarcasm and the way she so evidently cared about her. That, along with the dull ache in her chest, made her finally spill. A few minutes later, they sat in silence again.
Finally, Charlotte spoke. “So you’re just going to wait for your mom to tell you more?”
Belle nodded. “What else is there to do?”
“You could ask her.” When Belle shook her head, Charlotte continued quickly but hesitantly. “Don’t you think maybe you deserve to know what’s going on?”
“I don’t want anything to be going on!” Belle exclaimed, half-sobbing. “I just want her to tell me things are normal again. I want it to be nothing. So I’m not going to mention the email, I’m not going to look at hers. I’m just going to wait.”
Charlotte moved across the room to wrap her friend in her arms. Belle took quick breaths, willing her eyes not to tear up.
“Okay. I support you. I just hope she tells you soon.”
But she didn’t - not that day, or that week, or the next. Every night at dinner, Belle waited for her mom to say something, for anything to happen. But she seemed barely more focused than before, while still trying to act like nothing was happening. Belle wished she could believe that. She went on trying to get through her homework, worrying that things weren’t alright, and wondering if she’d want her mom to tell her if they weren’t.

Part 5 (I think it starts here, but it might be a bit later)
One morning Belle found her mom sorting through a pile of old papers. She froze when she recognized her dad’s handwriting.
“Are those letters?” she asked her mom tentatively, peaking over her shoulder.
“Hmm? Oh, yes. I’m just… looking for anything that might help the police with their investigation. Your dad’s writing from the time of the accident,” Mom explained, subtly moving her arm to block Belle’s view of the letters, but not before Belle saw a letter dated over twenty years ago. Her mom was lying to her. why?
But she kept going, went to the kitchen to work on a collage she was making, since she had most of her homework finished. She worked on it until lunchtime, at which point her mom went for a walk. Leaving her papers out on the dining room table.
Belle couldn’t help it - she’d never seen anything like this from her father, writing from so long ago. She looked at the top paper, something that must have been written when he was in his late teens, or maybe early twenties, when her parents were still dating. It was a letter he’d written to her mom, who had apparently at the time been doing a summer job in the city, while he spent the summer at the cottage with his family. It talked about how he missed her, about what all their friends had been doing for the past few months. But then at the end, there was a sentence which sent chills down her spine.
There’s been more whispers from Ellerly Forest. Truthfully, I don’t want to think about what it could mean. But I’ve been exploring anyway, despite my Dad’s warnings, and I think it’s getting dangerous. I’ll need you, if I’m going to speak to them.
‘Them?’ Who was her father referring to?
Just then she heard the door open. Before she could think, her mom was coming into the dining room.
(Start of Part 6, I think?) “Sorry, I realized I forgot my earphones…” she trailed off, staring at Belle, and then the papers. Suddenly she rushed forward and scooped all the letters into her arms. “Belle! What are you doing, looking through my stuff?”
“I…” Belle mumbled, looking down. “I saw it was letters from Dad’s childhood at Grandpa’s cottage. I just wanted… to know him better. And to know what’s going on.”
“Did you consider that perhaps these aren’t things for you to know?” Mom replied, voice frustrated.
“I’m really sorry, mom. I didn’t think. It’s just… Dad knew there was something dangerous about the forest, even back then! Please, Mom, just tell me what's going on. Please.”
Lilac looked at her daughter, her expression a mixture of frustration and guilt, anger and fear. Finally, she spoke, softly and carefully.
“Your father and I explored that forest every year as children. We both spent our summers in the same village. We biked, we swam, we climbed trees, and eventually we fell in love.
“But there were dark things lurking, too. Something we sensed about the forest - a wrongness. And when we were nineteen… Our friend, Kathy…” she paused, trying to keep back tears. “It was a warning from them.”
“Who?” Belle asked in a whisper.
“Dark creatures, a consciousness that roams the forest, wanting everything for itself. Our village had old stories that no one but small children believed; they called them ‘orphan-makers.’ The creatures call themselves… Alderals.”
-Belle let this sink in. “Are you lying?” she asked. It was a dumb way to ask it, especially because if it was a lie, why would her mother admit to that? But despite all that Lilac had been hiding from her recently… Belle still trusted her. So when her mother shook her head, Belle continued.
“This is why you’ve been acting so scared?”
Her mom grimaced. “I tried not to let it show. I didn’t want to worry you. I wanted to deal with it myself.”
“I just don’t understand… How could something like this be real? The body the police found in the forest… was that the Alderals’ doing?”
“You know about that?”
“You accidentally forwarded the email to me.”
Lilac cursed quietly, then dropped her papers and pulled her daughter into a hug. “I meant to send it to your Grandpa, in case he wanted to go and talk to the investigators, or to steer clear of the place altogether. I didn’t want him to get upset learning it from someone other than me. I’m so sorry I got you involved in this,” she said, voice full of anguish. “But if you want, I’ll tell you the full story, as long as you promise not to do anything without my permission.”
“Okay. I want to know.” That wasn’t completely true. She didn’t want to know all this… But now that she knew some of it, she had to have the full picture.
Lilac guided Belle to a chair. “Sit. This will be a lot. Nature, life, has always had some form of sentience. Before humans, it was a vague intelligence that connected the natural world together. After humans came about, that intelligence learned to take different forms. As it interacted with humans, it took on their traits. Care, regret… but also greed. For whatever reason, the negative traits were the ones that held. All over the world, cultures have myths about things like evil nature spirits, and this is what they’re based on. But much of the time, Alderals do keep to themselves. They particularly like Ellerly Forest. But in the past hundred or so years, with the village springing up, and summer houses like your dad’s cottage… They got angry. They wanted the place to themselves. Scary stories spread, and some children steered clear of the forest. Others, like your father and I, explored it all the more. It made your Granpda think I was a bad influence on your dad,” she added, laughing a little.
“We felt them, Belle. We noticed the Alderals’ presence, and befriended them. We talked and assured them that nothing would ever happen to take their forest from them. And we thought that was true. But then developers came and bought large sections of the forest, tore down the trees to build what they wanted.
“And the Alderals blamed us. Your father noticed they were angry, the summer when he wrote that letter you saw. But I didn’t come back until the next one, and by then, it was too late. After we lost Kathy, things went downhill. We eventually found closure to our grief, yes. We got married and had you. But I wanted to go far away from the old cottage. I didn’t want to deal with the mess we had a hand in creating. Your Grandpa began to think I was trying to keep you away from him, though after your dad’s death we figured things out. Back then, your father disagreed, and said we should do what we could about the Alderals.”
“Mom…” Belle’s hands trembled in her lap. “Is that how he…”
“That’s what I’ve always believed.”
They were both silent for a moment. Then Lilac continued in a whisper. “I took you to the nearest town, to buy a new swimsuit. Your father said he’d take a walk in the forest. The weather was supposed to be clear skies all day. But when we got back…”
“The storm had come,” Belle finished for her. “And he was gone.”
She nodded. “That’s why we’ve never been back to the cottage. I was hurting too badly, blaming myself. And I thought that the Alderals had had their vengeance. I was wrong. The new clue the police found were old traps in the forest. That worried me. The Alderals can influence people to do all kinds of bad things… but then when I heard about the body in the forest… I think taking your father was only a short term solution for them, Belle. I think they want to destroy us, and I think they have the power to ravage the world.”

Part 7
Event #1: The question that gets posed here is what to do next. More importantly, what Belle will do next. Her mom feels it’s her responsibility to go to Ellerly Forest and try to bargain for peace with the Alderals. Lilac doesn’t want her to come with.
Event #2: Belle confesses everything to Charlotte, and asks her best friend what she should do. Charlotte, who’s doing her best to believe the impossible, says that she can’t make the decision Belle. So she continues pondering her emotions and what she wants to do as her mother prepares to go.
Event 3: As her mother packs up the car to go, and Belle prepares to stay over at Charlotte’s house while she’s gone, Belle approaches her mother and demands to come with. She needs to encounter the force that caused her father’s death; she needs closure. It turns into an argument, but eventually Lilac gives in.
Event #4: On the long drive to the cottage, Lilac and Belle formulate a plan. They discuss the Alderals, how best to speak and interact with them. It answers the question of What To Do Next. They also discuss Belle’s father in a more heartfelt way than ever before.

Belle sat before her mother, not sure what to think. So many questions thundered through her mind. Finally, one found its way to the surface. “So what do we do?”
Lilac ran her hand over her face, looked at her daughter, and looked away again. “I - I don’t quite know. I’ve decided to go to Ellerly, to try and speak to them and bargain for peace. I think I have to, after all that’s happened that I’ve done nothing to stop.”
“It’s not all your fault,” Belle tried to console her. “And I can help. I just want things to go back to normal again.”
Lilac smiled a little. “I appreciate that, but I’m going to have you stay at Charlotte’s for the week.”
“Oh….But I’ll worry about you.”
“I know. But I need to keep you safe.”

“But that means she thinks she won’t be safe,” Belle exclaimed to Charlotte. She’d just told her everything, right up to the end of her conversation with her mother. Her best friend was wide eyed, and hadn’t spoken in a while.
“I just don’t know what to do,” Belle finished, looking at Charlotte imploringly.
Finally, the other girl seemed to recover the ability to speak. “Belle, you have to understand, this is all very hard to believe. But - “ she raised a hand before Belle could speak, “I trust you, so I’m trying my best. The thing is, I can’t decide for you. I don’t know what you morally should do, or any of it. I know I want you to be safe. But you make your own choices.”
“I just wish things could go back to normal,” Belle said. Charlotte nodded.

For the next few days, Belle thought, a lot. The Alderals wanted revenge, because her mother and father had made promises they couldn't keep, promises that weren’t really theirs to give. And now Lilac wanted to make up for that. Belle also thought, as she watched her mother pack, that maybe she also wanted to make it up to Belle for the loss of her father.
And it struck Belle that her dad’s death had been partially her mother’s fault.
If she didn’t go with her mother now, and something happened to her, wouldn’t she be doing the same thing? Wouldn’t it be her fault? And wouldn’t she be stuck wondering if she could've done something to stop it?

Belle shoved a shirt into her backpack, then paused. With sudden surety, she went downstairs and out to the driveway, where her mom was packing up the car.
“I’m not going to Charlotte’s.”
Lilac looked up. “What?”
“I’m coming with you.”
“No, you’re not. It isn’t safe.”
“I don’t care! I need to come and stop anything like this from happening again. And you know, if something ends up happening to you because the Alderals are still angry, I’d rather have been there, to know I at least tried to stop it.”
“That’s not your job,” Lilac replied, trying to be firm.
“Isn’t it what you wish had happened with Dad? That you had been there? Can you really deny that from me?! You can let me stay with Grandpa. I just want to be there.”
Lilac’s expression melted, and she turned her face away. “Fine. But you are not going to leave your grandfather’s house.”
Having reached a consensus, they packed up their things and were soon on their way.
“So what are we going to do when we get there?” Belle asked her mom. “Do you have a plan?
“To talk with Alderals, we must be strong. You have to be careful not to let their darkness infiltrate your mind. But also remember that their hate was given to them by humans, and it can be taken away. I think that maybe if we act kindly and reasonably to them, they will do so to us.”

Part 8
They arrived at the cottage late in the evening. Things were empty, quiet as they pulled their travel bags through the creaking front door. Belle nearly jumped out of her skin when a voice rang out.
“Who’s there?”
“Grandpa?”
An elderly man came into the front hall, scooping Belle into his arms. “Lilac, I had no idea you two were coming.”
“I could say the same to you,” Belle’s mother replied.
“I just heard about the case and wanted to come help,” he replied.
“Have they been letting you do much?”
“Actually, yes.” He led the way to the sitting room. “I’ve always had a sort of… special connection, let’s say, to the forest.”
“I thought you didn’t like going there, after Dad died,” Belle said, confused at quite a few things he’d said.
“I’ve found it’s actually quite nice,” he replied. “I finally see what this place has to offer. You know I feel angry sometimes. Well, here I can let it out.”
“There are healthier ways to do so,” her mom said, eyebrows drawn together. “Maybe someone to talk to - “
“No. I have everyone that I need to listen, out there.”
“Grandpa,” Belle asked suddenly, a startling thought coming to mind. “Why are you actually here?”
“The same reason you are,” he smiled, but not in a completely friendly way. “To see the Alderals.”
(part 9)“What?” Lilac breathed. “You know about them - oh. Is that why you always told me and Matthew not to go into the forest?”
Grandpa’s smile grew wider. “I was wrong. I knew about them, of course. And when Matt died, I told myself I’d always known something would happen. I walked to the site of his death many times, hoping to find him. But it was only when I stopped fighting the Alderals, and let them in, that I found true vengeance.”
Vengeance. Belle’s mind reeled. Before she could form coherent thoughts, Lilac was pushing her daughter to her feet.
“Go outside,” she murmured, “while I talk to him.”
“No, don’t go.” This time his smile was truly frightening. “Things have only just begun.”
“Harold,” Belle’s mom said calmly, “how long have you been like this?”
“Ever since I realized it was you who caused my dear Matt’s death. You who led him into the Forest, you who abandoned him when things got hard. And now, you’ll pay the price.”
“Belle, run,” Lilac said calmly, pushing her towards the door when she didn’t move. “The Alderals have taken hold of him. His emotions pulled him to them, and now they’re in control. Run! I’ll try to slow him down.”
It was all finally making sense. The traps, the body - it had all been forms of Grandpa’s revenge, manifestations of his lasting hurt. But Belle wasn’t leaving. She’d decided, without a shadow of a doubt, what she was going to do.
She approached her grandfather. “Grandpa, you’re angry. I know how that feels.”
“You’ve never lost a child,” he laughed. Belle tried to ignore the hurt it caused in her stomach. This wasn’t him.
“It doesn’t matter, Grandpa. Because I love you. I love you so much.”
His maniacal smile faltered. “I love you and I’m not leaving, because we both loved my Dad, your Matt, and he wouldn’t want us to do this. It would break his heart.”
Grandpa seemed to shrink. “He broke mine.”
“I know,” Belle replied, voice cracking. She pulled her grandpa into a hug. “But broken things can heal, if you let them.”
All of a sudden, like magic, a black vapor filled the room. It was dark, fuzzy, and suddenly sad. The next instant, it was gone, and Grandpa was crying on Belle’s shoulder, and Lilac was pulling them both into her arms, and they stood for a long time in one big hug.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Grandpa whispered to them. “I love you both. I was just so angry.”
“We understand,” Lilac whispered. “But you didn’t lose yourself completely. And Belle - my brave Belle - was able to pull you out and banish the Alderals for good.”

part one https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/post/7092579/

total 376 <3

Daily part 2 woah

Unlike @RLove10, my cottage gave off a more eerie, mysterious vibe, while theirs gave off a comfy, subtle vibe. Mine was something strange and eerie, meant to be something dark and mysterious, and to set up a sort of game. It was full of cold drafts and cobwebs, while theirs was full of secluded comfort.

I described mine as sort of a trap for travelers–something that lured them in without their knowledge–but @RLove10 described it as more of something quaint, something calm and serene. Theirs was something that was hardly noticed, while mine was something all who passed by were sure to notice. Theirs was kind and gentle, while mine was harsh and dark. Theirs was safe, mine seemed dangerous, threatening rather than loving.

Mine was something luring and daunting.

Theirs was something quiet yet warm.

I loved their interpretation of the prompt, and, though I adore comfortable cottages, I chose a darker turn inspired by Camp So-And-So by Mary McCoy (which you should totally read!)

Here's my (admittedly long) weekly! 4138 words i hope i did it right–

((a note: I usually write in first person so there might be a few tense and POV shifting I did this in chunks and found myself changing POV after a lot of the breaks (i fixed what I caught) oh and it's not the best story/plot and it iiiis a bit rushed at the end but–here it is!))
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hero: Aspen Byrd (100 words)
Aspen is good with visual puzzles but struggles to do things in her head, which is why she is terrible at mental math. She is an artist, and a good one at that, and tends to use her artistic skills to solve problems. However, she would rather sit at home with a book then solve mysteries, and doesn’t enjoy using her art to help her solve problems. She avoids it as much as she can. She is an introvert, very suspicious of people, (especially people whose intentions she is unsure of,) and will only trust her longtime best friend, Greyling.

The friend: Greyling Rye (106 words)
The only person judgmental, untrusting Aspen trusts. A fiery, spirited girl who is extroverted, with a hot temper and quick wit. She is not someone to mess with. People often wonder how she and Aspen became friends–the two of them are polar opposites, but they get along so well. Grey’s trust is notoriously hard to earn but if she decides to trust someone, they are to be trusted. She carries a gun hidden on her person and knows how to use it well, although she doesn’t mention it. She is a brawny girl who can do just about anything that involves physical activity, or complex machines.

The ally: Melody Green (103 words)
Melody is a genius but she’s going insane. She knows that, of course, but she tries to hide it. She doesn’t talk about it much, but every day is a struggle. She is the key to doors that have long been locked, the answer to so many mysteries. She knows so much. But with the invisible disease plaguing her, she sees things that aren’t there and believes things that aren’t real. Reality is a distant dream for her, and she has long ago given up hope for recovery. She has decided her mind is destroyed beyond repair. She was so much more before.

Suspenseful Event: (Aspen’s POV, 154 words)
Aspen knew as soon as she stepped into the house something was wrong. She didn’t know what, but something felt… off. Cautiously, she made her way through the house, immediately noticing things out of place, things tipped over, drawers half open, and their meticulously organized contents in disarray or dumped out on the floor. She made her way upstairs and opened her siblings’ bedroom door. They had a cold, so they were on bed rest. “Pip?” she asked as she pushed open the door, “How are y–oh no.” She broke off when she saw that the room was empty. Pip had been kidnapped. “Oh no no no no no!” Aspen groaned, twirling her hair around her finger. That girl had been right. Pip was in danger. She had assumed she had been crazy when she told her, not giving it a second thought. But the girl had been telling the truth. Pip was gone.

Foreshadowing for part 8: (103 words)
She remembered the day the girl had told her Pip was in danger clearly, since it had only been a few days ago. They had been walking home from an outing when the girl stopped them and started rambling about the sky and the stars and how the pup was in danger, how the wolves would come for her. The girl was using the wrong pronouns for Pip, but Aspen could figure out what she was trying to say. She had pulled Pip past the girl with an air of disgust and they had gone home. She hadn’t thought about their encounter since.

Adding Clues: (368 words)
Her hands started shaking and she searched the room, trying to find something–anything! That would lead her to them. She frantically checked every nook and cranny, spent hours looking, and was rewarded with a whole lot of nothing. Defeated, she sank to the floor, leaning against the door. Then she saw it. She frantically crawled over to the desk, where a paper had been shoved under it. She fished it out. It was a symbol of a wolf howling at the moon. She folded it in quarters and slipped it into my pocket. She had searched the room and come up almost empty-handed, but I had one more lead. She headed determinedly out of the house, her strides long and purposeful. She reached the nearby town and wandered around. She never knew where this girl would be.
Aspen heard singing echoing from around the corner and she sped up. She found the girl sitting in a tree, leaning back, softly singing. “Hey!” She called up, startling her. The girl peered down at Aspen. “Hello! What brings you to my frosty kingdom?” Oh great, Aspen mentally grumbled, this is one of her bad days. “Hello, Melody.” She said, peering up at her. Melody peered down. “How is Squeak?” For some reason, she insisted on calling Pip that. It always made them laugh. “Pip is gone,” Aspen said hesitantly, wondering if she should keep from saying things that could cause a big reaction. Melody didn’t seem surprised. “Squeak is in danger, the dark will come for them,” was all she said before she continued singing. “Melody!” The word came out sharper than Aspen intended. Melody stopped singing. “Focus. Do you know who took Pip? Or what this symbol means?” She pulled the paper from her pocket and unfolded it. Melody stiffened. “Wolves. Danger, there’s danger in the air. The sky is bleeding. Squeak isn’t safe. Don’t let them come for them, don’t let Squeak go away. Wolves of darkness are coming fast. We are not ready.” Aspen blinked, processing. “What the hack is THAT supposed to mean?” She exclaimed angrily, even though she knew she wouldn’t get an answer. Melody was losing her mind. She wouldn’t be able to help.

Building Pressure: (319 words)
Aspen turned to walk away. “Wait.” She turned back to Melody, who was sitting up straight now, looking at her with a startling intensity. “We must find the cub.” Aspen blinked. “Is… Pip the cub?” Melody nodded. “We have to find the cub before it’s too late, before the wolves howl.” Aspen sighed. She knew she was getting somewhere, but it wasn’t fast enough. She ran a hand through her hair. “Melody. Please. Tell me what you mean, without the metaphors.” Melody curled up into a ball in the tree, and for a second Aspen wondered if she would fall. She didn’t. “It’s… hard to speak as if I was not broken,” Melody said softly, barely even a whisper. Aspen didn’t answer, instead sat down beneath the tree and looked up at her. Melody had closed her eyes, her chest rising and falling evenly. Aspen could tell she was doing her best to focus, but the wait was agonizing. Every second she spent waiting for the insane girl to piece together a thought that made sense to someone other than her was a painful stab, a reminder that the longer she took to find Pip the less time they had, the less likely it was that they would be seriously injured. But she didn’t know where to start, and this girl might hold the answer. If she was only… normal. “The wolves.” Aspen blinked at the words Melody had mumbled. “Your cub has been taken by the wolves. Their pack is dangerous. But it is possible to save your cub.” Aspen stood. “Who are the wolves? I said no more metaphors!” Melody released a breath and replied, “It’s not. They call themselves wolves, yet they are men. Wolves are mighty and loyal and true, they are not. Wolves are so much better than they are.” Aspen took a calming breath before asking, “And how do we save… my cub?”

Withholding Information: (Melody’s POV, 445 words)
Melody gave a soft moan, her knees pressing harder into her forehead. This girl–Aspen, she reminded herself–wanted information. Someone close to her had been taken, and she was upset. She wanted the information Melody knew–she needed it. But it was so HARD to take her scattered thoughts and line them up like soldiers, sort through them and process them and make them clear and make them make sense because no one seemed to understand what she said when she said it as it truly was. No one understood how destroyed her mind was. A headache was beginning to pound in her head, matching every heartbeat. “Melody?” Aspen’s voice cut through her turmoiled thoughts. “Did you hear me?” Melody thought for a second and remembered–she’s asked how to save her cub. “Cub can be saved if one holds the key to the bloodred door,” She mumbled. Even she didn’t know what she meant. It had just… popped into her mind, slipping out of her lips. She thought about Aspen’s cub. The one the wolves had taken. How to save them? The real answer tickled the back of her consciousness, but she couldn’t seem to grasp it, to pull it into her fragmented reality. She opened her eyes to see that the tree had grown over her, her body made of wood and covered in bark. She couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. She was a girl made of wood. Stop it, she told herself, it’s just an illusion. Her eyes and muscles refused to accept. She stared at a knot in the bark that was her skin now and noticed how it was vaguely in the shape of a wolf. As she watched, it turned into a wolf, stretching. It looked up at her with hungry eyes, eyes that we familiar, too familiar… The answer to Aspen’s question hit her hard, making her gasp. The bark faded away, letting her move again. “…Meoldy?” Aspen’s hesitant voice rose up to her ears. “Are you alright?” Melody nodded. She was human again, flesh and blood and bone. And she had her answer. She was alright. She took another moment to organize her thoughts, forcing them into cooperation before she finally answered Aspen’s question. “The wolves live in their den. There is a back way in. If we are shadows, scentless and stealthy, we can sneak in and find the cub. We can save the cub. The secret door needs a key. I can open the door. If we are caught, we’re dead. It’s very risky.” Her thoughts were disorganized and chaotic, but she felt satisfied. She had answered her question the best she could. Now it was up to Aspen.

Raise the Stakes: (Aspen’s POV, 310 words)
It took Aspen a minute to process Melody’s chaotic jumble of words. She took a sketchbook out of her pocket and, after a moment’s hesitation, pulled out a pencil and began to draw the problems. First, she drew the symbol. Then, a group of naked men with ‘the order of the pack’ written below it. A key with Melody’s face. A wolf den. A back door. Two shadows. Pip. “Um, Aspen? What are you doing?” Aspen jumped and turned to see Greyling standing a few feet away. Aspen took a very deep breath and told Greyling every detail. When she finished, her friend was silent, but the expression on her face said that she was puzzling out the mystery. Aspen waited. Finally, Greyling snapped her fingers. “Pip was kidnapped by the wolves. They take the whole “wolves” thing seriously, so their hideout is their “den”. She told us that it was extremely dangerous but she can get us inside, which means she knows where their “den” is. She also said we’ll need to be quiet and disguise our scent. And she said that we can save Pip.” Aspen smiled gratefully at her friend. She would’ve never figured that out on her own. There was a thump beside her, and she turned to see that Melody had jumped down from the tree. “We must move quickly, my pack. The sacrifice is at midnight.” Aspen blinked. “What?” It was Grey who said, “Are you saying that they’re going to kill Pip at midnight tonight… as a sacrifice?” Melody nodded. The gesture was small, but it shook Aspen’s world. She checked the time. It was 8:32 in the evening. They had less than four hours to save her sibling. And the only lead they had was an insane girl who was probably unreliable. If Melody couldn’t pull herself together, Pip was doomed.

Fast Pacing Outline: (143 words)
Event #1: A time skip to the climax of the novel, in Melody’s perspective. She is leading them to the back door of the den, and her illusions are threatening to take over.
Event #2: They sneak through the den. It’s suspenseful but slow, and Melody has more illusions. The preparation they did is mentioned in a bit more detail.
Event #3: The climax. They find Pip but someone’s waiting for them. They are separated–Pip and Melody escape deeper into the den, while Aspen and Grey are taken prisoner. Melody must pull herself together and try to be the girl she was before to save them. The two of them sneak back and Melody, who knows she’d be useless helping them escape, creates a distraction as Pip frees Aspen and Grey
Event #4: Melody makes it outside and meets up with the others

Fast Pacing: (Melody’s POV, 1148 words)
The back door loomed ahead of us, an unsuspicious door in a dark alley. The shadows were shifting, and she saw a ferocious scarred wolf lurking in the darkness. Bugs crawled everywhere, slipping under everyone’s skin. Or at least, that’s what Melody saw. She knew from her companions’ calmness that none of it was real. It still felt real. She touched the electronic panel next to the door and it lit up and flashed green. The door opened. Aspen said something but she didn’t hear it. Couldn’t hear it, over the sound of falling water. There was no water, of course. It wasn’t really there. But her eyes told me it was. They entered the building silently. she glanced back and saw Aspen checking her watch. She saw the time as she lowered her arm, which was 10:57. They had spent nearly three hours gathering supplies and then there was the mind-numbing wait until the door was unguarded, which happened five minutes before every hour. After too long of being idle, her damaged mind was acting up even worse than usual. Right then, the walls were warm and sticky and wet, and the liquid dripping down them was dark red. She flinched away from the wall, a sour taste in her mouth. Her hallucinations were getting worse. They crept through the hallways. Every step felt like an eternity. Melody had nothing to do but follow Grey, who was leading them. Spiders were crawling all over Grey. Melody watched as a centipede went into her eye and came out of her ear. She averted her eyes. All around her, horrifying hallucinations were happening. The little bit of sanity she had left could be crumbling, she couldn’t tell. Finally, they rounded a corner, but spiders had crawled over her eyes and she couldn’t see. The sound of a gunshot snapped her back into reality, the illusions fading. Two men stood in front of a cell with Pip inside. One of them had a smoking gun. I reached down and picked a rock up off of the ground. “Is this real?” I whispered to Grey. She looked at my hand and nodded. I threw it at the man with the gun. It hit him in the temple and he crumpled to the ground, unconscious. Grey ran at the second man and started a fistfight. Melody winced and looked away, but when she looked back it was not Grey who had lost the fight, but rather the man. The three of them quickly made about picking the lock and Pip was free. They came out of their cell and then Melody felt something hard and cold pressed into her back. She didn’t move, telling herself that it was another hallucination, but the look on Pip’s face told her otherwise. She inwardly groaned. Glancing at the others, they also had guns pointed at their backs. The fear of a real weapon pointing at her, the feel of it against her spine, the adrenaline pumping through her veins… her mind cleared. Her thoughts were clearer than they had been for years. She quickly figured out a plan and threw her elbow back with as much force as she could muster, at the same time spinning and sweeping her leg. Her attacker fell. The other two trained their guns on her, and she heard the click of the safeties releasing. Aspen and Grey distracted them with an attack, but the men grabbed them and shoved both of them into the cell. “Run!” Grey shouted as they were shoved in and the door slammed shut. Melody listened, grabbing Pip’s arm and dragging them through the building. They outran their attackers, but by the time they stopped running, the hallucinations were crowding Melody’s consciousness, clawing, fighting, and attacking her. Someone was shaking her arm. Or was it just another illusion? Melody didn’t know. She was freezing from the inside out, becoming a girl of winter and frozen thought. Soon her eyes froze over and she was forced to shut them, the hallucinations stopping because she could no longer see them or feel them. She was a girl of ice, she couldn’t move. A sudden pain flashed across her cheek, and the ice cracked, shattering into a million pieces that dug into her skin and burrowed and cut and–“SNAP OUT OF IT!” Her eyes focused on the person in front of her, who had just smacked her again. The cub, her brain told her. The one that they were rescuing. Annoyance burned in their eyes as they raised their hand to smack her again. Melody stopped their arm before they could move it toward her. “I’m here.” The cub cocked their head, suspicious. “Are you sure?” Melody shrugged helplessly. “Yes. No. I don’t know.” The cub groaned painfully. “My sister and her best friend are the prisoners of a psychopathic group of–of–I don’t even know what they are! And I’m stuck here, hiding with no plan and an insane girl. I’m scared and alone and I don’t know what to do and I don’t want to be taken prisoner again!” They broke off, trembling. Melody closed her eyes briefly and took a deep breath. “Okay. Let’s come up with a plan.” The cub raised their head, fleeting hope in their eyes. “We need to get them out of that cell,” Melody said, speaking quicker as her moment of clarity was slipping away. “The code to their cell is 378324 I’ll create a distraction so-you-can-get-them-out-of-there-and-I’ll-meet-you-outside.” Her last 13 words were run together and rushed. The cub nodded. “Let’s do this.”
They made their way back to the cell. Melody took a deep breath and started singing. The men came to investigate the noise and she ran, her voice carrying clearly through the den. The men were in hot pursuit. She hoped. Her feet hit the ground one after the other, gaining speed. She looped around the building and found a door. Fumbling with the lock, she spent what seemed like an eternity trying to open it. Finally, it clicked open and she dashed outside. She was a few blocks away from where the others would be. She started the walk, trying to ignore the hallucinations that we back in full. She dodged a tree’s branches as they reached down to grab her and sped up as the tree pulled its roots out of the ground and gave chase. She closed her eyes and waited, but the tree never grabbed her. Glancing back, she saw the tree back in its original position. She huffed. Stupid broken brain of hers. She spotted the others not far ahead and broke into another run, finally catching up. “I’m here!” Relief crosses the cub’s face when they see her. She did a quick headcount just to double check and confirmed that everyone is safe. They had all made it out of the den. But they were not safe, not yet.

Plot twist: (307 words)
She followed them as they headed back to Aspen’s house, trailing a few feet behind them, struggling to ignore the hallucinations surrounding her. Well, that was where she assumed they were going. It was in the general direction, at least. It wasn’t a far walk but it seemed to stretch on for eterity. She glanced at the time. 11:46. Fourteen minutes until the cub was safe. Fourteen eternities. They came closer to the cub’s house, she knew because it came into view when they rounded the corner. She saw Aspen’s shoulders relax. Lucky Aspen. She could relax. She didn’t know. They walked through a puddle and she felt the water saturate her shoes and made her footsteps squish with every step.
When hands wrapped around her mouth, coming out of a dark shadow, she didn’t struggle. She’d been expecting them. She quietly let them drag her away. They had always been coming for her, after all. She couldn’t run anymore. She didn’t offer resistance as they dragged her back into the den, entering the front door this time, and led her through the hallways she knew too well. She counted the turns and hallways as they went deeper into the den. The further they went, the more her mind cleared. The hallucinations that had surrounded her for the last year and a half faded as she was dragged to the heart of the den. They reached what was obviously a throne room and rough hands forced her on her knees in a bow before the leader of the pack, who was wearing a snarling wolf mask that was quite ugly. She almost whished her hallucinations would return just to see what they would do. “Looks like the pup has returned,” he said, his voice cold and hard. I heard a definite sneer in his tone when he added, “How did she enjoy her… freedom? Or is it really freedom, when one is trapped by her own mind?”

Conclusion: (Aspen’s POV, 433 words)
Aspen arrived on her front porch and glanced back, seeing Pip’s grateful face and Grey’s satisfied smirk. And Melody… she was gone. Aspen pretended nothing was wrong, and as they stepped inside she asked Grey to put Pip in bed and slipped back outside after the two of them had gone upstairs. She backtracked and finally found the puddle they had walked through. Four sets of footprints led from it, but around ten feet from the puddle, one set veered to the side, into the shadows. She flicked on her flashlight and followed the footprints. They led to another door, which, to her astoundment, hadn’t shut properly. She slipped inside and followed the water on the floor through the maze like hallways of what she realized was the den. They stopped at a door. She peered through the window to see two men forcing Melody to bow before a man in a snarling wolf mask. Words were exchanged, but she couldn't hear them. Then they all left, leaving her alone. Aspen was confused, but glad she had a chance to rescue her. She pushed open the unlocked door. Melody looked up ad panic flashed across her expression. “Aspen! You shouldn’t be here.” Aspen took a step forward. “I came to find you.” Melody huffed and got to her feet so she could face her. “I gathered.” Aspen shifter her weight. “Come on, let’s get out of here before they come back.” Melody shook her head. “I can’t. I can’t leave. They won’t let me.” “But–” Aspen said, “We fixed everything. We saved Pip. You escaped before, we can do it again now!” Melody shook her head. “Pip is a victory. I’m worth nothing. Please. Leave me. Save yourself when you still can.” “I-I don’t understand!” Melody closed her eyes. “Pip… shouldn’t have been taken. They were a mistake, their kidnapping a misunderstanding. They were searching for their pup, not the cub. You won’t get any more trouble from the pack.” She turned away. “Wait,” Aspen said, “You’re talking like a normal person!” Melody winced. “The pack’s alpha was the one who cursed me when I ran away. Now that I’m back, the curse is gone. If I leave again, I lose my entire sanity. I can’t go, Aspen. Please just leave me.” Aspen finally nodded and turned to go. “Melody?” Melody looked back and their gazes met. “Could you send me signs so I… know you’re okay?” Melody nodded and turned, leaving out the door the others left through. Aspen stared at it for a second longer and then turned around and left.

Waterfall's Final Weekly of this session </3
JEEZ NINE PARTS?!
well Im probably not finishing-
oh also I would like to thank the daily team for extending this for a day, otherwise I only would've gotten one part of the weekly done xD

aaand this entire thing is… (not including this sentence,) 4178 words!

Part 1:
Character description
324 words total

113 words
1a) Raven is the protagonist, main character, solving the mystery. She was orphaned and has been in a spy agency since she was a little girl. Her parents were spies that went missing. She is sneaky, and a perfect spy, best in hand to hand combat, (but also good with a gvn.) Her biggest weakness is her family. She doesn't like anyone talking about them, and has a soft spot for them, because she has always wanted a family. She's kind of a generic spy and is very good at picking up clues and little details. She knows to trust no one, but that is both a strength and a big weakness of hers.

102 words
1b) Jake is Raven's sidekick, partner in crime, and best friend. He is also training to be a spy, but obviously isn't as good as Raven. His strengths in combat are projectiles, and he prefers a gvn or bow with deadly arrows to hand to hand combat. He has parents, but they were not in the spy business. Jake was recruited in a test to see who would be a good spy. His parents don't know that he was a spy. But that's what is told. Jake seems to be hiding a big secret, too. But what is it? What's his secret?

109 words
1c) Agent X is a mysterious agent who disappeared. Raven has no information as to why. She doesn't know if he was abducted, he quit, or something even darker happened to him. Maybe he was even a double agent the whole time. Raven decides to investigate him. But there is only one person who knows everything about Agent X ad his disappearance. Agent X himself. He only ever used the code name, and that itself is already suspicious to Raven. Sure, for spy purposes it is more ideal, but turns out to be very suspicious. He was one of the best spies when he was still at the agency.

Part 2:
Show Mystery
347 words

Raven crept into Agent X's abandoned office. The shelves were empty. Careful not to make a sound, Raven crept across the floor and quietly opened the drawers. Looking up at Jake, she motioned for him to come into the room.
“Watch out, the floor creaks a little over there,” She pointed to the corner of the carpet.
“Wait, how do you know?” Raven put her finger to her lips.
“Shhh - and I used to be his assistant, remember?” Jake nodded silently. “Okay, so we have to go through the drawers. There's a good chance they're empty, though.” They quietly opened and closed the numerous drawers. They were all empty - except one. “Hey, I found something!” Jake looked over at the folder in Raven's hand.
“What's in there?” Raven looked over at him with a smirk on her face.
“I guess we'll find out, won't we?” She opened up the folder. Inside was a thick packet that read, Operation Black. A mysterious name for a just as mysterious mission. When she turned to the next page, most of the words were blurred out with the ink. “I can't read it!” Raven said frustratedly.
“Okay, but what is Operation Black?”
“I don't know, but that's our new mission,” she said confidently.
“Are you sure about this?” Jake said doubtfully.
“What, are you going to refuse such a good mission?” Raven raised her eyebrows.
“I guess not…”
“Wait.” Raven held up her hand.
“What?”
“I don't know, something just seems… off. You know?”a
“Well, this whole thing is off and mysterious.”
“Yeah, but… I don't know, the entire office being empty except for this folder. Almost like he wanted us to find it. Or someone else did. He could have been taken against his will, and he left a trail of clues. Or someone else wants to lure us into their trap. It all seems too… planned.” Raven crossed her arms on her chest and eyed the folder.
“Well then I guess we'll just have to figure it out,” Jake said.
“Mhm.” Raven was already thinking about the possibilities.

whoops I added a major clue in that section oh well I guess I'll give them more clues xD

Part 3:
Give Clues
371 words

Jake and Raven went back to Raven's house, where she had a secret office hidden for her job. They took the folder, careful not to get fingerprints on it and started looking through.
“Doesn't it seem really staged, though?”
“Yes, it does. I just can't figure out who would want to stage it.” Jake agreed, pondering the thought.
“Here, let's write a list.” Raven took out a piece of paper and a pencil. “Alright. First, we have Agent X. Motives could be… because he wanted us to find him, and he was abducted. Or, he's a part of this organization and wanted to lure us in. We have to be careful of that. Who else?”
“Well, Operation Black might have another head who wants to lure us in. He or she could have wanted to lure us in. X could be with them, or they could be luring us in to kidnap us too.”
“Right, another risk. So we have to be very careful when solving this.”
“Well who else could have planted it there?”
“I don't know, but I have a feeling more people will surface as we keep researching.” Raven sighed and placed down her pencil. “Well, we better get looking through the folder, and I can search through the FBI and CIA records for any evidence of this operation. But I'm not sure it's a government operation, considering how shady it all looks. But for now, let's start digging through this.”
“Right.” They were silent for a minute, looking through the folder and trying to make sense of the words and letters blotted out. Raven pushed her finger onto the page.
“There!”
“What?” Jake turned his head over to where Raven was reading. “Beverly Hills, Hollywood.” His eyes widened. “Oh and look, there's an address!”
“Yup.” Raven smiled. “Looks like we're going to LA.” Raven and Jake went back to the Agency to go take a jet. “We're not getting clearance for this one - people will ask too many questions and get suspicious. We don't want to alert the enemy. Or whoever, maybe they're not the enemy.” They took a jet, and soon, they were piloting themselves towards LA, following their fresh lead. Hopefully, they weren't too late.

Part 4:a
Create a deadline/sense of urgency/dreadful wait
307 words

Jake and Raven arrived in LA. They landed their jet, and Raven rented a car for them. “Let's go with white - it's one of the most common colors, isn't really suspicious. Most people associate black cars with organizations like the FBI and CIA, or some suspicous car. Don't ask me why, it's something that movies have commercialized.” Raven got in the drivers seat. “You can keep looking through the folder.”
“Hey, I found something,” Jake poked Raven.
“Don't poke me, I'm driving!- What?”
“Don't freak out, but…”
“But what?!”
“Here, it says something that's blurred out, strike, and then something else that's blurred out, and then April 1st, 2023.”
“And?”
“You know what! It's basically saying that they intend to attack someone or something on April 1st! We only have two days to stop them! I'm assuming they're not on our side from that.”
“Okay… Strike who?”
“I don't know, I'm looking. I don't see anything…” Jake said, scanning the page.
“Well we need to find out - we could be in danger! When we get to the address, keep your gvn out. We don't know who could be there or what traps they've set for intruders. From all of this, they seem to be a strong organization, although not a very good one.”
“I know, I know - I'll keep looking!”
“You could even try to read some of the blurred out words, maybe you can see some of the words from under the blotchy ink. There's no way those words weren't crossed out on purpose.”
“Yup.” He continued to leaf through the pages.
“Oh, and look for codes within the blotched words. You'd think they'd just shred the whole thing, or cover the entire thing. It looks intentional. Again, super super staged.But we're going to be there soon, so get ready. Who knows what we might find.”

Part 5:
Conceal something until the end
525 words


“Alright, let's go silent from here. Only whisper if you have to. And be on the lookout!” Jake nodded to Raven, and Raven fiddled with the lock on the door until it opened. come on, Raven motioned. They crept in, and Raven whispered “Get your gvn out! There could easily be fifty people here watching us, and are ready to attack. Remember, it all could very likely be a set up.” They both walked around the library, getting anxious at every turn. Each bookshelf seemed to hold secrets, but they were just regular books. Soon, they reached the end.
“Are you sure this is the right address?” Jake whispered, as his shoulders relaxed, relived he didn't have to fight anybody.
“Of course I'm sure, it really couldn't have been more specific!” Raven swiveled her gvn around as the wall creaked, although there was nobody there.
“Well then, you must have missed something!”
"We must have missed something,“ She looked at Jake. ”Look around for anything suspicious. If it comes down to it, we might have to look inside the books.“
”Wha- but- but Raven, there's got to be at least a thousand!“
”Well this is the right place. If it were a real library, why wouldn't they be open? It's Friday at noon. So there's something here that we both missed,“ she said firmly. They both walked around, until Raven saw a book that really couldn't be sitting the way that it was. There was something off.
”Jake!“ Raven called through the book shelves. ”Jake, I see something!“ Jake quietly tiptoed over to her.
”What is it?“
”Look at this book - it really doesn't make sense for it to be sitting that way, because of gravity! Look at the way it's tilted.“
”Secret door?“
”I don't know, pull it out!“ Jake cautiously touched the book and gently pulled on it.
”It… It won't come out.“
”Okay then…“ Raven pushed it with the tip of her finger. The bookshelf creaked away, revealing a set of stairs. ”We've got a decision to make - do we not go in, and miss whatever's in there, both go in, and possibly get locked in, or split up, which is typically never a good idea?“
”We've both got to go in. We need to find what's in there, but there's only two of us, so we can't risk splitting up.“ They walked down, and thankfully, the bookshelf did not close behind them. At the bottom, was another folder.
”I really don't like this - let's just take it and go.“
”Yeah… I agree,“ said Raven. They quickly got the folder, ran out of the shelf, closed it up, and went back to the car. ”So it was empty the whole time… but there's no way there weren't any cameras. Although it seemed abandoned. Maybe it wasn't, though. Maybe they were watching us the whole time. It's very possible that there were more secret rooms - but that place was giving me the creeps. I really don't like this.“
”Yeah, let's go back to the headquarters, and then we can look at this." They headed back with the new folder, feeling uneasy.

Part 6:
Drastically raise stakes
315 words

Raven and Jake sat in her office, as Jake anxiously looked out the window. They didn't know what to do - they only had today and the next, before their deadline. The thing is, deadlines are much scarier when you don't know exactly what is going to happen if you don't finish, but you know that it is going to be bad. Jake pulled out the folder and placed it on the desk with a smack.
“Alright, here we go,” sighed Raven. She opened the folder, and they began to read the once again blotted out pages of the folder. “Operation Black… Strike… FBI…- Wait, FBI? Are they going to strike us?”
“Just keep reading,” said Jake.
“Project thor… nuclear- oh this isn't good.” Raven slammed it shut. “It looks like they've found a way to combine the effects of project Thor and nuclear fusion to create a weapon, and they're going to be testing it on an FBI headquarters on April 1st. So basically, we might get hit with a super powered nuke, which wouldn't just wipe out the headquarters, but probably a good chunk of the country, not to mention the ocean, which will get polluted and kill a lot of wildlife.”
“Right okay… so we gotta do something.”
“Yeah that's an understatement. You can keep skimming through this.”
“Okay, it says something about X here.. and.. oh, it seems like he's apparently located in an apartment building… right near us! It seems like he wasn't kidnapped. Kind of weird for him to be hiding in such plain sight, though.” He frowned. “It's super close though, and it's the best thing we have right now. I say we go check it out, because it's our closest clue on not destroying a nice chunk of the world.”
“Right, let's go!” Raven got herself out of the chair and they both speed walked to the car.

Part 7:
Outlining and Writing a Scene
1024 words total

7a)
207 words

Event #1
They go to the apartment building, and they have to find which room he's in. They ask the person at the front who gives them a book of rooms and which people are in them. The only problem is, they don't know Agent X's real name, or the possibly fake one he used for the room. It's still rather unsettling, because it feels like a trap, and it was almost too easy.

Event #2
They figure out which room he's in because it's the letters in agent x scrambled, (explanation for the events in event 1) and they take the elevator up, and find his room.

Event #3
They bust in the door to the room in true FBI fashion (even though they don't really have a warrant but we'll overlook that haha) and then they see Agent X inside. Raven points her gvn at him while Jake scans the room for other people or suspicious things and like points his gvn around the room, other movie like stuff.

Event #4
Agent X explains it all (not writing the spoiler here because that feels wrong) but he explains what happened, and it's a happy ending, yay. Hopefully I didn't end my story too early-

edit: whoops okay just kidding that's not the resolution I'll have to add a plot twist after and change what I was going to write here, thank goodness I looked ahead before just ending my story xD

7b)
817 words

As Raven and Jake arrived at the apartment building, it seemed like a normal place. It had people walking in and out - Agent X was really hiding in plain sight while blending in as much as possible. It was actually pretty smart - and very suspicious, because he clearly wanted to hide so much. He sent them all the way to LA to get them away from where he was, while actually being near them to keep tabs on them the entire time. It was eerily the plot of an evil mastermind.
“You ready?” asked Raven.
“Yup,” said Jake. “Well, ready as I'll ever be.”
They walked into the apartment building and went up to the front. The person operating the front desk looked up at them as they approached.
“Hi, my name is Stacy, can I help you?” Raven stepped forward.
“Uh, yes. We're looking for someone in this building, is there any chance you could help us find them?”
“Unfortunately, we aren't allowed to disclose information about customers. Are they family or friends? You can always call them and ask them which room they're in, or if you have a specific name I can call the room and ask them if they would like to see you.” Jake frowned.
“Yeah, about that…” Raven cut in.
“We're FBI, and we're looking for someone in this building.” Raven held up her FBI badge and so did Jake. “We don't know what fake name they're using for the apartment, so we'd appreciate it if you had a list of who's staying here and in what room.” She smiled. The receptionist looked slightly flustered.
“Well, in that case, we keep a record of them in this book, but please give it back when you've found who you're looking for.” Stacy handed them a book.
“Thank you,” Raven said, and sat down with Jake on a couch.
They looked through the book, and Jake sighed and crossed his arms, leaning back on the couch.
“Ugh, this is useless! We don't even know what name he used, or even his real name, so how are we supposed to find him in here? We might as well just knock on every door!”
“Jeez, calm down! Just look for clues - it might be easier for me because I knew him.” They continued scanning the pages. “Look, here! Someone listed under ‘E. Tang!’”
“And what does that mean?”
“E. Tang unscrambles to AGENT! Room 321, let's go.” They rode the elevator up into the third floor, but Raven was still suspicious. “Still, I don't get it. Why would someone make it so their name unscrambles to agent? That's just being obvious. Shouldn't he have put in something like, Joe Smith? It all seems way too much like a trap - just a very elaborate one.”
“You're overthinking it,” said Jake.
“Right, you're probably right.” Raven bit her lip. The elevator door dinged, and they stepped out. They walked up to room 321, and Jake knocked on the door.
“Hello, is anybody there?” He called.
“Guess not,” Raven said under her breath. “He gets one warning.” She raised her gvn and knocked again. “This is the FBI, and if you don't open the door in ten seconds, we will open it for you.” She waited, gvn at the door. Nobody answered. “Okay then… time for the hard way,” she said to herself, and looked at Jake.“Ready?”
“Yeah.” They both kicked down the door and pointed their gvns around the room, until they landed on a man… Agent X. Agent X immediately put up his hands.
“Raven, don't shoot me, I can explain.” Raven continued pointing her gvn at him. “Okay then. This was a test, but also a cry for help. I left out a trail of clues, hoping that someone would find them. The good news is, you are ready to go up a rank up as an agent. You found me, and you followed the clues well, even though they were rather planned. The bad news is, I would've given you a normal test, but unfortunately, Operation Black is in fact real. They are actually trying to mix nuclear weapons and project Thor to create the ultimate weapon. I was assigned to their case, but they found out, and I had to go in hiding. Of course, I still had to watch you, and test you for this. I hoped that you would find the clues, solve them, and find me, so that you could not only go up in ranking, but also be my partner on this case, because Operation Black is very powerful.” Raven slowly put her gvn down.
“That's why it all seemed so planned out, like a trick, or like someone wanted us to find them. Because you did.”
“Mhm,” said Agent X. “Now, we've got to get to work on stopping Operation Black. I'll fill you in on the details.”

Part 8
pLot tWiSt :00
561 words total

8a)
adding foreshadowing to the plot twist >
184 words

This part is supposed to go right after they're looking through agent x's office and they find the folder:
Raven left the room to go get the jet. However, Jake stayed behind, lingering in the room. After Raven had certainly disappeared, Jake started opening all of the other drawers. Jake looked down the hallway to make sure Raven didn't come back for him, and looked around the room for secret rooms, or anything else he could find in Agent X's old office. Jake then took a fingerprint sample, DNA sample, and multiple photos of the room. He opened his phone and sent them to someone. But who? And why? Jake slid his phone back in his pocket, and started down the hallway. Raven came back, as she had realized he wasn't there.
“Where were you?”she asked.
“I thought I saw another folder in one of the drawers - but apparently not. We should be on the lookout for more evidence, though.” As they passed an open window on the garage, Jake threw the phone into the river, destroying any evidence that he ever had it.

8b)
377 words

Suddenly, Jake stopped looking around the room and put his gvn to Agent X's head.
“Jake, it's okay. His story seems very reliable and true.” Jake looked Raven in the eye, and said,
“You wouldn't understand.” Jake then sh0t Agent X, and started running out of the room. Raven's eyes widened in shock, and she sh0t at Jake, but through her shock, she missed. Jake sh0t back, but also missed. He escaped out of the room, and the elevator doors closed before Raven could follow him. In a panic, Raven rapidly pressed the elevator buttons. She saw the stairs at the end of the hallway, and thought about taking those. But Raven ran back to the room, and looked at Agent X.
“Agent X, what's going on? Are you okay? We need to get you to a hospital.” Raven whipped out her phone and dialed 9 1 1. “Come on Agent X, talk to me! Stay awake, whatever you do!” Raven stared at her phone, waiting for 9 1 1 to pick up. “Come on, come on! Just stay awake, okay? You're going to be fine, you're going to live.” Raven examined Agent X's arm. “You've been shot where it just pierced the skin, not any muscles. You're going to be okay. I just have no idea why Jake would do that… He might be part of Operation Black!” Raven's eyes got even wider. “He's going to live, he's going to live Raven, he'll be okay, he'll live.” Raven said to herself, over and over. “Hello, is this 9 1 1? … Oh thank goodness! … I'm an FBI agent, and I'm with another agent who just got shot in the shoulder. It looks like it just pierced his skin, not anything super important, but there's still a lot of blood loss and he's obviously in pain… yes, I think he's awake … Agent X, just stay awake! … I've bandaged it, but he needs help… yes, an ambulance would be great… thank you so much.”

The sound of sirens rang in Raven's ear as she sat by Agent X's hospital bed. He was going to be okay, but he was still in a lot of pain. Raven, however, couldn't get over the betrayal from her best friend and fellow agent.

Part 9 Finally :0
(I left more than a small plot thread hanging, it was more of a giant one, but I really wanted to end on a cliffhanger xD)
concluding the story :O (might I actually finish in time??)
163 words

A week went by, and Raven spent nearly all of it sitting by Agent X, when she wasn't working on the case at the headquarters. The FBI now had a whole team dedicated to stopping Operation Black. She had learned that the April 1st deadline wasn't the real deadline, and she had one month until Agent X suspected they would attack. Raven tried to find Jake, but she couldn't. She thought about what he said about his parents… they were killed by an agent on a mission who misfired… he claimed he didn't know who it was, but Raven thinks he did. It was Agent X. So now, he was with Operation Black to get revenge. But Raven still couldn't believe he had betrayed her like that. But today was when Agent X was fully recovered and could become an agent again. Today, they set out to infiltrate what they thought was the Operation Black headquarters. Finally, justice was going to be served.

NO WAY I FINISHED *BOWS*
also I think I met my word goal

Daily 30
138 words

Script Stage
You pull open the door and step into the bustling theatre. On one side, rows of soft audience chairs stretch up into the darkness. Above them in the tech box, crew members are testing out the lights and sounds. On the other side, heavy red curtains are parted to reveal a wide stage clustered with half-painted set pieces and actors practicing their lines. Your eyes fall on a chair in front of the stage, where a girl with curly brown hair is calling out blocking directions. She looks at you and waves you over.
“You must be the new actor!” she exclaims, and you nod. “I'm Starry, the director of this show.” Starry hands you a script. “Opening night is in a few weeks. You should memorize your lines, songs, and choreo by then. Better get to work!”

March 30, 2023

Here’s my cabin intro for Literary Nonfiction! I’m not sure if it counts as a genre but I thought it was interesting so I did it In SWC it would probably be abbreviated to Lit-Fi or Lit-Non-Fi which I find really humorous xD

You casually stroll across the rocky area. It was half sand and half stone. A small population of trees covered the small island. You stop and catch your breath, fanning yourself.

The sun beats down on your back as you sit under a tree and rest. You hear a rustling in the trees, and turn around expectantly.

“Hi! You must be one of the new campers!” a voice cheerfully calls. A girl had emerged from the trees. “Welcome to the Lit-Fi Lagoon! Pretty, isn’t it? Careful getting sunburnt, though.” The girl laughed. “Come’on, let me show you around.”

You get up and follow the girl through the array of trees. She seems to know her way around very well. “We’ve been trying to investigate a mysterious creature who has been destroying our supplies. Maybe you can help us find out what’s going on!”

143 words

okay so maybe it's based off of Caraval a little bit <3
wc exactly 200 bc D E S C RI P T IO N


Cards dance and magic swirls as you enter the opening gala, holding your admittance ticket. You can smell treats and hear jolly music. All around you are banners and posters advertising the event you’ve come to participate in–but all eyes are on the three well-dressed observers watching from a balcony. Each wears a different color, and each wears a different mask; their clothes are extravagant.

“They say they’re immortal.” Someone whispers next to you. “But no one really knows.” They turn back to the observers, one of whom is holding up a glass in toast.

All the guests hold up their glasses, so you quickly grab one from a tray and do the same.

“Welcome, everyone!” Cries the observer who proposed the toast. “As you all know, I’m Jasper-” she takes a bow- “Empress of Insanity.”

The one to her left introduces themself as well. “I am the ____ of _____.” They take a bow, and the last one takes the stage.

“I am the _____ of _______.” They say, and look back to the Empress.

“Welcome to Mirabilis, and may you have an ever-so-exciting time!” She cries, followed by a laugh. “But just remember- it’s all just a game.”

back to main post

March 30th Daily
This is a Touhou fanfiction

You are walking into a ruin of a wonderful and beautiful land at the far east. The land is now gone. Gensokyo is gone. You walked past the Hakurei Shrine, which was now destroyed, which caused the Hakurei barrier to shatter and allowing the meteor showers to invade Gensokyo. You wanted to go visit the shrine on the mountain, but the roads were closed by the Tengu to prevent any more passer-bys to perish on their way up the mountain as kappas had suddenly became evil due to the heat of the meteors destroying their lakes. You sighed as you saw the two main shrine maidens of Gensokyo ordering every creature, human or youkai, to escape. However, you saw a group of people trying to save the land. You walked up to them, “Hey, what are you three doing?” You asked. The person who appeared to be the leader stood up, “I am {name}, and these are my subordinates, {name} and {name}. We're trying to save this land to prevent it to become a wasteland. Will you help us?” The leader took out his hand, you were raising your hand about to shake it in agreement.

196 words

Final Weekly // 4132 words

Activity 1: Characters
~Zaffelite~Detective~110 words~Design Credit: @AnimatingDragon
Zaffelite is an anthropomorphic dragon who spends his life as a cartographer, mapping and recording the vast world he resides in. He is very clever and knows a large amount of facts, making him good at putting clues together and being a good detective in those terms. He is quiet and tends to be a loner, having little to no clue on how to lead a group of people, rather watching from the background. Although he may be placed in the hero role, any companions he may find himself with may not immediately turn to rely on him to lead, as his great size can only get him so far.

~Celior~Partner~115 words~Design Credit: @SaltPaqets
Celior is a mysterious anthro cat-moth who has little mental maturity yet a lot of mental ability. Despite not revealing much about its past, as it theoretically knows nothing about its origins, or the rest of its kind, it is quick to gain Zaffelite’s trust. The young creature is incredibly skilled at solving puzzles and discovering the most hidden of clues, which gives it an edge that the partner archetype might not normally have. Outside of its intelligence, it’s very warm and friendly, and loves to give hugs and emotional support to absolutely anyone. This makes Celior a beloved being to all, although this innocent behavior may lead to it being kidnapped by the ‘culprit’…

~Klumptern~Suspect~118 words~Design Credit: @–Primrose–
Klumptern is an anthro butterfly who is highly athletic and agile. He can be a bit teasing to others, but has a warm heart and means no harm. He also is quick to obey orders, as he’s used to listening to entities like his coach and teachers. One of the primary reasons he’s seen as a suspect is just how awkward he is in the shadows, like he’s preparing to use the darkness to cover him as he proceeds with malicious intents, and he won’t admit why, only getting sweatier and more awkward when pressed about it. The truth is, he’s scared of the dark, and doesn’t want the others to make fun of him because of that.

~Vluff~Suspect~101 words~Design Credit: @Frilled_Shark
Vluff, an anthro rabbit-moth, can be a bit of a nuisance. Although he is shy and gentle around unfamiliar or intimidating people, as they begin to find comfort, he becomes more likely to pull a prank or snatch an object, which can cause suspicion in a tense environment. Once they find out that he’s seen as a suspect, they retreat back into his shell, which is shown as a sign of innocence to some yet enhances suspicions to others. Vluff finds themself bond with Celior, his fellow moth hybrid, which puts them in the path of disaster when Celior goes missing…

~Bubblitz~Suspect~112 words~Design Credit: @SkechIndeed
Bubblitz is a sweet cat just trying to find her way in the world. Probably the one most affected by the situation, she finds herself scared of everyone, worried that she will find a dreadful fate from the culprit. This anxiety troubles the others, leaving them to think that she could be behind the situation. The student is great when it comes to errands, usually being the first one sent into a dark tunnel to scout, and has pretty good combat skills compared to everyone else. All of these abilities go to waste when Celior vanishes, leaving her to just cower in fear as the others begin accusing each other even more…

~Cordia~Suspect~100 words~Design Credit: @_-FenFren-_
Cordia, Bubblitz’s best friend, is a cat unafraid to speak her mind. Although they try to support Bubblitz, the rising suspicion that she’s the culprit begins pulling them apart as Bubblitz starts doubting her own bestie. Cordia’s rebellious tendencies lead to them being the prime suspect in Zaffelite’s eyes, and when a clue is planted on her, they find herself targeted by nearly everyone, even though they know that she’s innocent… Forced to hide, they take it upon herself to solve the mystery, which leads them to run right into the culprit and be the second one to mysteriously disappear…

~Porcelain~Suspect~102 words~Design Credit: @MeadowFoot_ToPH
Porcelain is no stranger to having to deal with rowdy children, being a mother herself. She places herself in the leadership role, which is slightly unusual for a suspect, but Zaffelite wouldn’t do it and everyone else is slightly… less qualified. Her consistent calmness is very effective, but she isn’t fully trusted by all. Zaffelite sees her as another possible culprit, Cordia tends to avoid listening to her if she has her own ideas, and Void acts like she’s the leader when the older cat isn’t looking. Despite this, Porcelain’s leadership is very appreciated, and she’s a key part of the group.

~Void~Suspect~107 words~Design Credit: @SkechIndeed
Void is yet another cat trapped in this mess. She is quick to assume, leading her to accuse people left and right without evidence and attempt to take a leader role when Porcelain isn’t there. She thinks that she’s the only one qualified to be the hero, and believes that Zaffelite’s the most suspicious out of all of them, even though he’s the most useful. In her attempts to help, she attracts more attention to herself, which leads up to her even accusing Celior of being the culprit when it vanishes. Luckily, she knows when to stop talking, and that is what saved her from Cordia’s fate.

~Symphowit~Partner of Culprit~119 words~Design Credit: @_-FenFren-_
Symphowit has a very troubled past that led them down the wrong road when it comes to this story. The culprit asks for the anthro cat’s help in exchange for trying to cure them of whatever causes them to flicker in between life and death. The thought of being free from the ghosts begging for them to send messages to the living world fuels them to accept the deal, even if that means adding to the mound of bad things they’ve done in their life. The others see them as troubled, too caught up in the mess of music and ghosts and memories in their head to be a suspect, which allows them to get away with a lot…

~Flogg~Culprit~142 words~Design Credit: @wingsoffirehybrid
Flogg is a dragon who has convinced himself that Zaffelite is one of the Dragonborns who cursed his homeland, and is trying to get revenge, which differs from the traditional culprit as he isn’t doing it for any inherently bad reasons, only to try and restore his home. He didn’t want to drag so many others into it, but that does seem to distract them and allow him to get around easily without being caught. Overcomplicating the situation, he makes it seem like he’s an evil mastermind with the group in his grasp, although he only has a few tricks, and Symphowit, up his sleeve. Outside of his attempts for revenge, he’s a generally reasonable, although stubborn, dragon, and has a handful of friends who discouraged his revenge attempt against someone who actually didn’t do anything to him on the first place.

Activity 2: Suspenseful Event~215 words
The group of curious individuals wandered into the cave system, each with a different reason as to why they were there at that specific point in time. The sign had said that there was all sorts of interesting knowledge contained within the cave, even though it had looked a little shady.
With a loud clang, the large iron doors closed behind them, taking the nine creatures by surprise as they turned to look. One of them, a young black and white cat, ran to the doors and started tugging on them in an attempt to keep them open as a distorted voice came from the speakers.
“Hello, friends! You are now in my territory… and may soon meet an…unfortunate fate. You may all meet me, in the end. There are only…eight of you, and one of me! I will be finished with you all in a few days, and those of you who I find no use for may leave then.”
They looked at each other, a black and red cat counting her companions. “There’s nine of us though-?” they said, confused. “That must mean that one of us set up this trap,” the cat at the door hissed. The tallest, a blue-green caped dragon, watched the group’s tension grow as they observed each other…

Activity 3: Adding Clues~367 words
Zaffelite began observing the area they were in as Porcelain, the yellow and blue cat, began an attempt to diffuse the tension with an icebreaker. Muttering to himself, the dragon ran a talon along the walls, accidentally activating a switch. A set of lights began turning on, illuminating the cavern, and revealing a book on the ground that appeared to have been dropped. Before Zaffelite could move, Void, the black and white cat, rushed over to it, observing it. “Hey, does any one of you study ‘Dragonborn Behavior’?” she called out, prompting the others to come over and look at it as well. “Aren’t you a Dragonborn?” Klumptern, the black and orange butterfly, asked Zaffelite. “No,” he replied, kneeling down to get a closer look at the book, before noticing the paw prints on it. Looking around, he saw that the group consisted of mostly cats, with the exception of himself, Klumptern, and Celior, the young gray and blue cat-moth who seemed to have developed an interest in Zaffelite. He was calmed by the knowledge that the little creature was probably innocent, but it didn’t help their mystery much in the long run. He reached out to take it, but it was quickly snatched away by Cordia, the black and red cat, who began reading it herself. As the others tried to crowd around them in order to see the book, Zaffelite and Celior moved further down the cave, the bubbly hybrid humming to itself. Celior suddenly ran to a wall, and the anthropomorphic dragon turned to see what it had found. There was a blob of moss just plastered on the wall, which was an odd yellowish color and smelt sweet, like honey. Celior grabbed a bit of the moss and shoved it into its mouth, allowing Zaffelite to notice something carved into the wall behind it. Brushing it aside, he revealed a chain of numbers: 76591. Not sure what that meant, he attempted to memorize the numbers, just in case he wasn’t able to see them again later. He then sat down, pondering what had been revealed so far, what they meant, and who out of the group was most likely to have done it.

Activity 4: Building Pressure~315 words (+35 words of foreshadowing, marked by ||this||)
It had been an hour within the cave now, and the group was waiting for Bubblitz, a multi-hued pink cat, to come back from a long, dark tunnel. Every time someone thought they had heard her from the depths, everyone would perk up and stare into the seemingly infinite hallway. “What if she’s the imposter,” Void said, “and she never comes back, leaving us to rot here for eternity?” “I’m pretty sure that getting up and walking away is an option,” growled Cordia, “And who are you to accuse my best friend of such a thing?!” “Oh, be quiet,” Porcelain sighed as she licked her paws. “We could always send someone after her.” She was the only one who didn’t seem worried about the entire situation. “What if you’re the imposter,” Void growled, just getting a glare from the older cat. Zaffelite looked up from the Dragonborn book, taking note of their behavior. He was trying to keep himself calm while surrounded by the tense creatures, not doing well in crowds. Meanwhile, Celior was staring into the abyss, eerily quiet. Vluff, a rabbit-moth, gently nudged it, but it didn’t move. After a few seconds, everyone was staring at it, disturbed by how perfectly still it was, as if it sensed something they didn’t. || “Dragon…” it whispered, its tail swishing behind it. “It’s dragon…” The group wasn’t sure how to feel, looking at the only dragon, Zaffelite. He gently stroked his companion, trying to discern what was going on. || As the tension became near unbearable, a click came from the tunnel, quiet and distant, yet it caused everyone to jump. They went silent, staring into the cave, before a light turned on at the end, revealing the silhouette of their cat companion. One by one, lamps flickered to life, their glow approaching the entrance of the tunnel. After a moment of silence, the group let out sighs of relief, running down the hall towards Bubblitz. Celior blinked, breaking out of its trance. Zaffelite looked at his partner for a moment as it turned to smile at him. What had it seen…?

Activity 5: Withholding Info~311 words (+80 words of foreshadowing, marked by ||this||)
At the end of the long, eerie tunnel, there was a large room containing a large pile of the same yellow sweet-scented moss that had covered up the numbers Zaffelite and Celior had found. There was also a stack of boxes, which were proved to be empty, with the exception of an intense honey smell and moss residue, after Klumptern and Cordia quickly looked through them. ||There was some odd yellow and white mush in the corner, and after Klumptern poked at it for some time they decided that it was useless. Void claimed that she had learned about it, and that it was part of the frill of a special breed of near-extinct dragons, but nobody believed her, or they simply did not want something else to think about.|| “Foods!” Celior chirped, running over to the pile as Zaffelite stepped back into a corner to continue flipping through the book. Celior began trying to convince his companions that the moss was edible, and its playful innocence lightened the situation a bit. Zaffelite’s talons turned over the pages he was skimming, his eyes occasionally darting around the room to make sure that everyone was still there, nobody was fighting, and that nothing was out of the ordinary. ||He also thought about Celior’s odd behavior, and the frill stuff, but couldn’t piece it together.|| He didn’t see Vluff eyeing the book as the rabbit-moth shoved some of the moss in his mouth. After some thought, they suddenly flew onto Zaffelite, startling him enough so that the bunny-moth could snatch the book. “My turn!” he giggled triumphantly, hopping off his back and scuttling off towards another corner. Not paying attention to where they were going, he ran into Symphowit, a black and brown anthropomorphic cat who had been pacing back and forth with their paws over their ears. Vluff dropped the book with a squeak, dashing away from the troubled creature, who took no notice of the disturbance they had caused. Zaffelite came over, bending down and picking it up, a small picture dropping out of it. The dragon’s eyes widened from what he saw, and the commotion caused everyone else to also observe. The image seemed to be of Zaffelite, and it had been taken from a distance. To top it off, there was a bright red x drawn over his figure.

Activity 6: Raise the Stakes~324 words
Suddenly, with a click, the lights went out. Pandemonium ensued, everyone scrambling to find the lights. Someone let out a loud scream, which did not help at all. After a bit of this, Zaffelite found his way to the light switch, turning it back on. He whipped around to look at everyone as they all went silent. Vluff was wearing a box on their head, Bubblitz was crying, Porcelain’s fur was on end as she sat at the back of the room, Void had been scratching at the wall, Symphowit’s head was buried in the moss, and in the center of it all, Cordia was on top of a mortified Klumptern, her claws dangerously close to where they could’ve seriously hurt him. “He attacked me first,” she hissed, before going to comfort Bubblitz. “…Where’s Celior-?!” Zaffelite shouted, looking around frantically for their friend. “That person must’ve gotten it…” Bubblitz mumbled, trembling even more. “And the book and the picture are gone too,” Klumptern noticed, still recovering from his attack. Zaffelite furiously stormed over to the wall, where a note was taped to the wall. “You’ll never find your friend unless you find me,” he read, his voice dripping with anger, “and you will never find me. But I’ll find you…” Smoke rose from his nostrils as he huffed, triggered by the loss of the joyful ball on fluff. “Don’t destroy the note,” Porcelain said kindly, more worried about him then scared of her own fate. “It might help you find who did this.” Zaffelite turned away, very upset. Vluff hid in his box, Bubblitz cried more, Klumptern was trembling in the corner… only a minute of darkness, and everyone had been affected. “We have to find the culprit, and soon,” Zaffelite announced, his fists clenched. “Otherwise, we may never see Celior again, or get out of this nightmare.” The others wearily agreed, making their way out of the room and it’s sickening sweet smell.

Activity 7: Fast Pacing
Outline~103 words
Event 1: ‘Which one of the suspects is the culprit?’ Zaffelite takes time to think about the characters and what he has seen of them so far.
Event 2: Zaffelite walks around the cave, investigating each and every suspect, taking more mental notes. He finds that his strongest suspects are Void and Cordia.
Event 3: He finds a piece of Celior’s fur on Cordia. Everyone gangs up on her, and they make a break for it. Somehow, she manages to escape, and everyone’s upset about that.
Event 4: As the group looks around for Cordia, Zaffelite catches Symphowit burying the picture under moss, realizing that he had gotten it all wrong.

Scene~769 words
“Which one of these suspects is the culprit…” Zaffelite muttered to himself, sitting on a rock. “Klumptern is a bit sketchy in the dark, but he seems genuine otherwise…he also couldn’t have been involved with the book, as he doesn’t have paws…Vluff…seems like a bit of a nuisance…and he was getting close with Celior…but would someone who could trap us in here be so scared of Symphowit? …It couldn’t have been Symphowit as they’re struggling too much in their head to be able to do such a thing…Bubblitz is genuinely upset over all of this…Cordia…seemed to be taking out Klumptern…did he really start it or did she…? And Void tends to increase the tension… Porcelain…she is very calm…and took a leader role…she could lead us to our fates…” After pondering this some more, Zaffelite began to walk around the cave, stopping by each of his companions. Porcelain was eating a lizard she had caught, waving to Zaffelite as he approached. He watched the fluffy cat consume her snack, before asking “Where did you get that from?”, gesturing to the large scar on her back. “Ah…I had a nasty fight with a dragon once, after getting in their way. I was able to escape, but not without, well, that,” she replied solemnly. Zaffelite nodded. She seemed honest, and wasn’t anxious at all about it. He then moved on to Vluff, who was telling Klumptern jokes, while the other watched on quietly. “Hiiiii,” Vluff chirped, grinning at the dragon. “Whatchu doinggggg?” “I’m observing everyone, to find out who took Celior.” Vluff was surprised, shying away from him a bit. “I didn’t do it…” he whispered. Klumptern didn’t understand the sudden change of behavior. Not wanting to bother them more, Zaffelite moved on, feeling like neither was really a valid suspect. He took a moment to take pity on Symphowit, who had just sat down in a corner with their paws over their ears, before going over to Void. The cat had made moss sculptures of everyone and was dramatically pointing at them with a stick as she talked to herself. “What if it was actually Celior,” she said, knowing that someone was behind her but unsure as to who. “It’s smarter than it looks, after a-“ Zaffelite hissed, causing her to jump and turn around. “It would never do that to us, I’m sure of it!” The disgrace to his friend caused his suspicions of Void to go up quite a bit. He knew that he couldn’t jump to conclusions like she did, which was the only thing that kept him from lashing out at her, instead turning and storming off. He paused for a bit, taking deep breaths and regaining his composure, before turning to the final two suspects, Bubblitz and Cordia. He was confident that Bubblitz was not the culprit, but found Cordia very suspicious. He sat nearby, and when Cordia glared at him, he glared back. Bubblitz trembled, laying on the floor hopelessly as Cordia swept their bushy tail in front of her. Zaffelite’s eyes widened. “Hey!” he called out, coming over and snatching a piece of familiar gray fur from Cordia’s tail. “Where’d you get this from-?!” Everyone looked up as Cordia stood, hissing at him. “I don’t know, now back off.” Bubblitz skittered away, now even more scared than she had been before. “What did you do with Celior-?!” Zaffelite growled, stepping closer to the cat as the others began approaching, wanting to know the same thing. Knowing that they were outnumbered, Cordia made a run for it, followed by Zaffelite and most of the others. They dashed through the seemingly endless cavern, jumping over rocks and avoiding various animals as they chased her. Out of the corner of his eye, Klumptern caught Cordia ducking into a shadowy tunnel. He pointed it out and the rest of the group ran in. After dashing down the narrow hallway, they found a dead end, and Cordia was surprisingly nowhere in sight. Zaffelite yelled out in anger, turning around and storming back out, looking for any clues as to where they were. After a few minutes of no success, the group made their way back to where they had started. Thinking he had seen something, Zaffelite paused, looking towards a large boulder that had blocked his view. He went over to it silently, peeking behind it. He gasped as he saw Symphowit, still the trembly, distressed cat they were, burying the picture of Zaffelite under a pile of honey moss. With a whimper, Symphowit turned to look at the dragon as he loomed over them, calling the others over.

Activity 8: Plot Twists~313 words
The group had been attacking Symphowit with questions for almost an hour now, but they were not able to explain why they were trapped there, where Celior was, and what Zaffelite had to do with anything. Void began to doubt that Symphowit was the culprit. “I don’t think anyone in that state could do anything about this,” she pointed out, “and Cordia seemed a lot more suspicious than they did. Maybe they just wanted to forget about the picture and don’t respect that it’s a piece of evidence.” “Well, the next person on Zaffelite’s suspect list is you,” Porcelain told her, causing her to go quiet. Zaffelite was thinking hard. The paw prints on the book made sense, and they seemed so out of it that they would’ve been able to easily trouble the group, but… he remembered that Symphowit was not by the light switch when the cave went dark. And what about that strange moment where Celior was staring into space and talking about dragons? And Void did say something about that weird goop… As he was pondering, they heard a yell. “HEY GUYS I FOUND SOMETHING!” They recognized the voice as Cordia’s, turning to see the cat next to one of the many dark tunnels in the cavern. They looked at each other for a bit, deciding on whether or not they should trust her, before Porcelain directed herself, Zaffelite, and Void over to them. She had found a panel in the wall of the tunnel, where a code could be put in. Instantly knowing, Zaffelite put in ‘76591’. With a whir, a secret door opened, and the four peeped in to see a mysterious gold and brown dragon in the back of a large room filled with Dragonborn books and pictures of each of the group. The dragon turned to look at them, his eyes widening in total surprise.

Activity 9: Conclusion~174 words
This dragon was a lot easier to get talking than Symphowit was, and he revealed everything. His name was Flogg, and he was a Dustick, the very breed of dragon that Void had told them about (She was very annoying about how she was right after this). He had watched his home be cursed by Dragonborns, and he had lost a lot of his family, so he had wanted to get revenge on them, and had mistaken Zaffelite for a Dragonborn. Therefore, with the help of Symphowit, he had set up this trap so that he could deal with him, but after accidentally dragging the others into it, he turned it into a game of mistrust to make the ‘Dragonborn’ regret ever messing with his kind. He was very guilty when he realized that he had obsessed himself over the complete wrong guy, and quickly let the others free, including Celior, who clung to Zaffelite the entire walk out. He paused at the exit, turning to Flogg. “Hey, what’s up with that weird moss-?”

I would like to start off this batch of thank-you notes with an apology because I was not able to be as active as I had hoped to be this session. From buses breaking down to emergency dental work, I experienced a lot of unexpected interruptions that impacted my participation in this session. However, I still had a whole lot of fun, and there's a bunch of amazing people who deserve thanks for that.

I've gone about these notes in a probably not very intelligent way, which means that a bunch of people are mentioned more than once, so if you see your name inna paragraph, it's still probably a good idea to check the other paragraphs as well <3

My fellow daily team members, Starr, Moss, Alia, Rea, Luna, and Lio – I had a blast working with you. All of you are so creative and humorous and fun and overall just fantastic people even though a certain malfunctioning bus caused me to cause you all troubles with the third weekly (sorry again for all that), I still had a lot of fun coming up with wacky dailies and epic weeklies. You're the best pirate friends any SWC-er could ask for.

My fellow Fantasy leaders, Lio and River – I'm so glad I got the chance to work with you even if my activity was limited. You're both really creative people and I greatly enjoyed getting to know you. I hope we can continue to be friends outside of this session as well <3

My amazing amazing Fantasy campers who are equally amazing as friends, Celes, Maia, Peggy, and Katie – you're all such wonderful, kind, creative, thoughtful people. I'm incredibly grateful to have you all as friends, and having you as my campers has been a welcome addition. Thanks for being so wonderful, I love you all <3

The rest of the Fantasians – unfortunately I wasn't able to get to know too many of you this session, but you're all such a wonderful, creative, supportive, and hilarious group. I'm glad I got the chance to co-lead a cabin with all you lovely people in it, and I hope I get another chance to become friends with all of you.

My nonlinear time co-conspirators, Rani and Zaine – thanks for putting up with random philosophical questions

My The Greatest Showman fangirl squad, Jas and Cami (the original Cami) – thanks for making me very happy and for endless Hamilton references in more than seventy replies. The Greatest Showman is the best movie ever and you two are some of the best synesthete friends ever <3

Stingray, Luna, and Skye for listening to me rant about probably the most mindblowing day of my entire life, two thirds of you without context.

Luna, Eevee, Lio, Jas, and Paige for giving me interesting perspectives on how you interpret my existence.

Hopspen for Florence Pugh, Greta Thunberg, and Sabine Wren, for Sci-Fi nostalgia and for putting up with me not talking to you nearly as often as I should.

Cami and Eevee (or Eevee and Cami), thanks for stanning each other and me and letting me stan you. Thanks for switching names so I could finally get my revenge on someone who's tormented me with palindromes for over a year

Cami and Zaine and Paige for telling me to go to bed

Luna and Stingray for letting me rant about how hard it is to irl sometimes and giving me valuable advice

Elfie for being Elvis and Selfie and Tiger Elfin and also very eloquent <3

Aqua for becoming a hamilfan

Luna for Raising Dion, finally losing a word war, and other part sister part business partner chaos

Stingray for letting Jas and me give you birthday equivalents because we love you

Jas again, for Matilda the Musical and for singing in teal

Nat, Stingray, Paige (@Telianar), Paige (@xc-egg), Cami, Raya, and Luna (@luna724) for Hamilton chaos to an amazing degree

Re for thoughtful conversations about The Bad Batch

Katie for five really cool random words

Everyone on the leader team and memory book committee for being epic and making this session so cool

Finally, my beloved High Republic Gang who's been there with me through everything for nearly two years now, Aqua, Stingray, Paige, Rani, and Luna – I love all of you infinitely and then some <33

wc: 1144 words

Thank you for making an amazing session for me, everyone. Yes, that means you, and even you, enemy cabin. Yall have made my (first!) stay here amazing. I'll definitely be coming back soon.

I first discovered SWC 2 years ago; but I was so scared and frightened that I would be such a bad writer. Now I realize how cozy it makes me feel, how delighted I feel when I log on to my computer to see so many messages from SWCers. Y'all are amazing, and I've never felt more connected to any person(s) online. And this I mean.

And even though SWC is Scratch Writing Camp, it's also Sleep-deprived Weird Creatures, or Super Wacky Children. Anything. It's not even about the writing; it's about how much fun I experienced. And I felt myself relaxed, not tense up on skipping dailies and weeklies and such. It made me feel.. good.

I find myself trying new things; canva, for the memory book contest, blackout poetry, and more. Even though I'm not as experienced as some of the og writers, I still feel good about my work. And I love the little plant puns I've sprouted throughout the session. I'll definitely sign up next thyme ;D

But I'd like to give a special thanks to Zaine, Moss, And Inky. Yall are spectacular human beings, who kept up with my endless questions, my weird plant puns (which I love vera much) and so much more. You guys are so funny to be around, and y'all must be the greatest leaders of all time, because, I don't know who else can compete. Thriller's storyline was so fun and interactive, the clues, the games, the puzzles. It felt thrilling. And this session has been thrilling, overall. Loved it! And by the way, to all the wandering SWCers that were gushing at our cabin, we are the best. Period. So thanks for speaking true facts hehe

I'd like to thank all of the thriller campers for chatting with me and keeping me busy. Before SWC I've been so stressed but I really feel like all this positivity around me has impacted me. I love the endless conversations, the “Way to go!” when someone completes the writing collab challenge or just for meeting their word goal.. it makes me feel thrilled. Which is what thriller is for. And I love all of you amazing, splendid thrillerians. It was so fun meeting all of you.

Ayid - I remember when I thought you were popular on scratch. In fact, I thought a lot of people were popular on scratch due to seeing them everywhere. I was so excited thinking you were famous, but regardless, you are a vera cool person. But, don't apologise for being inactive! We have lives. <3

Kenzie - We've met before in JWC and FWC, but I feel we were close in SWC. Your jokes were really funny, and you made me actually laugh from time to time. Like how you're the “Ghost that haunts Zaine” or your obsession with lasagna. You are amazing <3

Kit - Although I haven't talked to you a lot in the cabin, you seem really chill. You are pretty active around the cabin(I just now realized that you were siblings with Ayla xD)

Lucy - I haven't talked to you around the cabin but I'm sure you are a very nice person nonetheless (PS: I love your pfp)

Bella - Same with Lucy, I haven't talked with you much. But you were pretty active around the cabin!

Gannet - You really brought the t h r i l l to thriller this session. Especially pre-session, when we were playing games and just getting to know each other. You really are a thrilling person, must say. And I'm glad you were in thriller <3 You sparked energy in me that I didn't know I had, even though we haven't talked often.

Iri: You. Are. FIRE! How you manage to write so much in a month is insane! 65k? I mean, I could never xD Maybe it's the lack of essays I'm writing.. but hey, I'm not complaining! But seriously, dang. You're amazing.

Aruna - I remember in the beginning of SWC you were killing those puzzles. Though after that you weren't very active. You're really smart. I only did a part and I quit at them, but you were doing them so fast.

Lizzy - You were also speedy at those puzzles and super encouraging. I loved having you around the cabin, you helped me get off my bed and do something, anything. Thank you. (And you really helped during cabin wars)

Ayla - I loved that joke-banner-thing you made with the tea party with all the sticker packs we provided. The bear and the skull, it's just, I love it. It's honestly beautiful.

Creame, Zara, Shu, Misty, El, and Westy - I haven't talked to you much, and haven't seen you around the cabin throughout SWC, though y'all seem like beautiful human beings.

Everyone who has responded to my weird comments in the main cabin. Anything can spark a new conversation; chocolate, ibexes, mangoes, your sleep-deprivedness! And the convos are always so fun, you can always just retreat into one of them and just tap tap tap away with your keys. It's a good stress reliever to just calm down and chat. Sometimes I find myself smiling at a comment.

Everyone who has hosted, led, and helped form SWC, props to you. You made a dazzling community and an amazing opportunity for all writers, beginner or skilled. You've made a place many scratchers can just relax in and have a chill convo. (Obviously, competitiveness is fun too, but.. let's keep that aside xD). There are so many fun activities; I just feel at ease here. The community is amazing.. it's lovely how you adapted such a blessing. A blessing for me to participate in. A blessing that all scratchers, regardless of writing experience, could feel.

And all the leaders that answered my questions. You guys have been a big help and have clarified many, many things for me. It's amazing how you can keep up. It saves my life when I'm speedrunning a daily or weekly. It could be “How many more hours till the weekly?” or a silly question, like “Cookies or cake?” Y'all quickly reply to me and you guys are SO active, as well as the campers. I LOVE THIS COMMUNITY. And I'll say it again and again. Thank you, everyone, who has been there for me. At any time.

This has been a life-changing and fun experience for me. I'm sad it has ended, though it's an experience I'll never forget. I will definitely come back. I'm so glad I found this again 3 months ago. Thank you, all of you. I loved meeting you all.

“Don't be sad because it's over; smile because it happened.” -Dr. Suess

disclaimer: i wrote this at night and i was pretty tired while doing so abdsnjnj so these are very brief + aren’t the best - but thank y’all for yet another amazing session!! march went by so fast </3


Thank-yous! This session went so, so fast :sob: I feel like it only just started?? Honestly, this session just sped by and it was amazing - dystopian’s pie revolution, all the kidnapping going on with horror (I can’t even remember if Reese has her veins back or not at this point), our amazing Six of Crows cabin… it was just such a great session, and there were so many people that brought it to life -

Firstly, hosts and cohosts! Robin, Birdi, Luna, Sun, Starr - the best sky tyrants <33 You are the heart of swc, you’re who keep us going. There are so many things you do for us and I know I speak for everyone in swc when I say we’re all so grateful for everything you’ve done to run this silly little online writing camp <33 you put so much time and effort into everything you do, and it really pays off D round of applause everyone!!

Leaders and coleaders - you all put so much work into your cabins, and they’ve all turned out absolutely amazing <3 Thank you so, so much for all your time, effort, and hard work to make your cabins the best they can possibly be - your campers appreciate all that you do, and so does everyone in swc cabins are such a big part of the swc community, and you’re the ones who put in all the hard work to make them as amazing as they are <33

Daily team - I’ve loved the dailies and weeklys so much this session! You’re all so iconic and, of course, so is Smarlls you and the workshop creators (thank you workshop creators too!!) put in so much effort to give us amazing enjoyable dailies and weeklys, so thank you so much for that!

Writing competition judges - yall put in SO MUCH time judging the writing competition and reading everyone’s entries - thank you so much for all the time and effort you put into this, we all appreciate it, you’re amazing <33

MBC - you guys are amazing, I could never make a memory book as pretty and unique as you all do every. single. session xD thank you so much for all the work you do!

Dystopian -

Moonlit - MOONLIT! Phenomenal leader and amazing friend, I’m so glad I got to be in your cabin again <33 you always put so much hard work into everything you do, you’re super enthusiastic and encouraging and kind and I honestly couldn’t wish for a better leader (and mother ) and I’m just overall so glad I know you Dystopian really has the coolest cabin theme everrr- I actually think I remember you saying somewhere a while ago that you wanted to make a six of crows cabin and YOU DID IT and it turned out SO COOL ahaha <3
I’m so glad I got to be in it, and to be in your cabin for another session, you’re amazing in every way and campering in dystopian has been a blast

Reese - sister and coleader!! <33 It’s been so cool meeting you this session, and I really hope I can get to know you better in sessions to come you obviously put so much effort and dedication into leading dystopian and it really paid off <33 i love love LOVED being in your cabin this session and I hope we can do it again sometime D you’re the best crow <3

And to all the campers in dystopian - the cabin vibe was honestly so cool this session D I had so much fun being in yalls cabin this session, I had so much fun <33

And to you. Every swc camper, past and present, active or inactive - no matter whether you did every daily and weekly or if you just popped in every now and then to add words and say hi, you’re all a part of this awesome community <33 swc is honestly the most kind, welcoming and fun (and ever so slightly chaotic) community I’ve found on the internet, and I’ve loved getting to know you all on our little corner of scratch <33

finishing here because i’m literally so tired ahah </3 it’s been a blast, i’ve loved every second of this session <33 let’s do it all again in july