Word War
115 words, prompt “Unfortunately, I’d never learned to drive” by @violent-measures

We walked to the parking lot. “Who's driving?” Scott asked. I hoped it wasn't me. “Storm will!” Blossom replied. “Um.” I fumbled to find a way to say no. “You'll be fine.” She said pushing me into the drivers seat. Unfortunately, I'd never learned to drive. That was made clear after I started trying. In New York this not really a need to drive. One could just walk or bike every where. But this wasn't New York, it was Hove. I was swerving like crazy, and driving on the wrong side of the road. “Maybe you should pull over.” Scott suggested. I did, and Blossom took the wheel. I was never asked to drive again.

weekly one for illu-fi - 1587 words
i feel very accomplished, wrote this in 2 hours non stop xD

part 1 - 316 words
For part one, I chose the comic named ‘the secret of life’. The comic gives of a very vintage vibe, especially with the colours chosen to colour the comic. It gives off a very vintage vibe.
A big tree with hundreds of unbloomed buds stands in the middle of the ocean. One of it's buds blooms, opening slowly into a cage with a blue egg inside. A man in a small rowboat sails out to sea and stops by the tree. He takes out a saw like object and saws off every cage with the egg inside. He then sails back, with the cages behind him, covered with a cloth.
The man takes them to town to sell the cages. A girl and her mother wander nearly.
The mother examines the cages before taking a perfect size for her daughter. The child is overjoyed and the mother quickly fits it into place. The child goes on the play with another young boy, who also has a cage. They kick a ball around.
As the child gets home, the egg hactched and out came a tiny blue bird. The girl brushes her hair in front of a mirror while admiring the bird.
As the girl grows older, so does the bird. The girl, now a young woman, walks with her friend and chats, while the birds also sing to each other.
As the woman grows older and older, so does her bird. In fact, the bird grows bigger and bigger.
The woman has children, grows old, and realizes that her bird is too big for it's cage.
She hikes up a sand dune or hill with her walking stick and stands at the edge. She holds out her arm, the big and beautiful bird on it, and releases it. The bird flies away, singing a song, while the woman lies face down on the floor, seeming lifeless.

part 2 - 438 words
We were in a corridor, surrounded by nothing but darkness. Tian Jia, who insisted on being called his full name blew out a sigh.
I quickly shushed him.
Hiding in the shadows was the only way to survive the last thirty or so days of the war.
Tian Jia was a spy, and so was I, and when we met, we abandoned everything.
For the sake of our lives.
And now, hiding was the only choice.
“I'm thirsty…” I found myself saying, before hearing the shuffle of a backpack being dug through.
“Here-” Tian Jia whispered in his strange accent, the warm thermos touching my leg as he zipped the backpack up. “Be careful. It's very hot.”
I twisted the thermos open, only to smell tea.
“I don't drink tea though,” I found a voice in my head saying.
Even in the dark, I felt that Tian Jia was staring at me questionably.
“Try it. It's good. Plus, you're thirsty.”
I sipped, nearly dropping the thermos as the incredibly hot liquid hit my tongue. My lips felt scorched.
I doubled over, coughing, nearly dropping the thermos.
“There, there…” Tian Jia whispered soothing. “Be quiet.”
Eventually I got over the heat and sipped some more, the tea quenching my thirst.
“Why is it that you always have tea in your bag, not water?” I asked, sliding the thermos into Tian Jia's hand.
“I'm Chinese,” he said simply, as if it would explain everything.
“Huh?”
“I'll explain. Sit down.”
I slid down against the wall, my brain focused on the answer.
“Tea is a traditional drink in China. There are many different types, such as black, white, green, yellow, oolong, and dark tea. The type you just drank was black.”
Tian Jia paused, perhaps thinking of wat else to tell my American brain.
“Tea was enjoyed very early, by many different people from all ages. It is also dranken with small snacks such as nuts, plums, dried fruit, all of which I have in my bag.”
I bit my tongue, trying not to point out the grammar mistake he had made.
“Chinese people also use herbal tea as a type of medicine. That's about it.”
I stretched out my legs and tapped the floor. “Okay, but couldn't you just have said that tea is a traditional drink in China? No offense though, the information was interesting.”
Tian Jia suddenly burst out laughing, and so I followed.
We were soon quieted by footsteps nearby.
“Tian Jia!” I whispered franticly. “Quiet!”
He nodded, his eyes big with fear.
It was too late.
“Hands up, where-ever you are. Come with me or die.”

part 3 - 433 words
Amy had finally earned the turquoise ring she had resolved to get, and in excitement of it, she wore it to sleep. Telling her parents she would try to not be vain, her dreams were light, and happy as though she had won the lottery.
However, in the morning, it was gone.
“My ring! It's gone, I can't find it!” she had exclaimed, waking up her three sisters.
“Oh come off it Amy, it's just a ring.” Jo had mumbled grumpily, not happy that her sleep was disturbed.
“But I just earned it! I tried really hard, you know…” Amy's voice trailed off.
Marmee's head was poking through the door.
“What's wrong, girls?” she asked with a puzzled expression.
“Marmee! I wore my ring to sleep last night, but now, it's gone!”
Amy jumped out of bed and ran into Marmee's clothes, hugging her.
“Dear, calm down, we can help you find it.”
Jo grumbled and set her face to the covers, muttering that she was tried.
Mag and Beth, however, got up and squeezed Amy's hands.
“We'll help you find it.”
“Are you sure you wore it to sleep?”
Amy nodded, her face downright sad.
“And Jo?” Marmee hinted as she left the room. “Help the girls, will you.”
Meg, Beth and Amy searched the room from corner to corner. They checked Amy's blanket's, her matress, the crack between the wall and her bed, under the bed, in her pillow, and all sorts of areas.
No amount of searching really helped though.
It was silence for a while.
“What if it's really gone?” Amy whispered, her heart pounding. She had worked so hard to earn the ring.
“Why do you want it so much, Amy? Why have you set your heart on it?” Jo asked.
“I want it to be a reminder, to work harder and not think about myself so much…” Amy said, and started sobbing.
Jo suddenly felt horrible, as she though Amy had wanted the ring to be pretty.
“I'll help.”
And now the group searched even harder, as Jo was great at finding things. But still no luck.
“Breakfast time!” Marmee's voice sailed through the air.
“We'll find it afterwards, Amy, I promise.”
Amy nodded, a bit tired after running about the bed room. She slipped on her slippers… and felt something hard. She took it off and shook it upside down. Out fell her ring.
“I found it!”
Everyone looked up in surprise.
“How did it end up there?” Beth said in wonder.
Amy shrugged, just happy to have her ring back.
“Let's go eat. I'm hungry.”

part 4 - 400 words
Looking back at the comic ‘the secret of life’, I can recognize quite a few symbols and motifs.
Firstly, the comic strip seems to be about life, and how you can't hold on forever. This is shown through the example of the bird. As the person with the cage and bird grows older, the bird grows bigger. When the bird is too big to fit it's cage it is to be released, leaving the person to die. But as long as the bird is touching the person, it seems that the person can live. The bird seems to care about it's human. It also acts like a life source, which explains why every person has one and why children get it at such a young age, when they can be rough. It is essential to life in the town, just like a heart.
This shows that the bird is a motif of growth and life.
One other detail that I noticed is that the bird developed more colours as it grew. It started off as just a small turquoise egg, but as the bird got older, it developed more colours, such as different shades of blue, purple, and even small feathers of orange in the last few frames. This could be a symbol that as you get older, you get wiser and know more things, which effects life and can change you. A small but strong detail.
Lastly, one other thing I noticed is that even though the bird had hatched and grew in the it's cage, it's life hadn't begun until it was set free. For the bird's life to be lived, the human's life had to be taken. The human perhaps didn't want to die yet, but her bird had to be set free because it was too large for it's cage. The meaning of ‘for someone’s life to begin, a life must be taken could mean that it is important to cherish what you have in life and live your life to the fullest it can be.
To conclude, The secret of life can be interpreted quite differently, but it conveys one important message: the cycle of life and death, and even love. It is shown through a bird in a cage that is part of it's human's body, like a heart. The human and the bird seem to have a strong bond, right until the end.

July 9, 2023

Anyway, luckily today I am writing about my character’s sleep habits and not my own. Honestly, I haven’t given it much thought. All of my stories took place during the day and I kind of just skipped through the night, so I guess my mind did as well. I don’t really have many characters at the moment, but I decided to write about a character for a fanfic, Alexandrite. Now Alexandrite is a princess and heir to the throne, so she has a lot to learn. While the kingdom she will come to rule certainly isn’t as big as the United States or any other large country, I imagine it must be incredibly stressful to be an heir. For one, in this kingdom it is extremely custom for higher ranking cats to speak down to lower ranking ones. Higher ranking cats are expected to know a whole myriad of customs and rules, and ensure that everyone treats them with respect. Alexandrite at her core is a pretty fun character. She enjoys reading and music, but she doesn’t have much time for them due to her heir duties. When Alexandrite was young, she enjoyed playing and reading her favorite stories. She often had a bright smile on her face. When she was picked to be the heir she was ecstatic, but she quickly found that it was no easy task. Putting on a stern face and commanding respect all the time didn’t come easily to Alexandrite and her bubbly nature, making her often tired. However, Alexandrite doesn’t often have time to sleep early due to all of her duties on top of studying, causing her sleep schedule to fluctuate a lot and be less than ideal. All of this has quite the negative effect on Alexandrite, making her less bubbly and more stern. She is also tired and weary all the time. Due to her strong sense of responsibility to serve her citizens, she often doesn’t let herself sleep until something is done. All of these things continue to weigh on Alexandrite, and they snowball, making her more anxious. All in all, Alexandrite’s inconsistent and bad sleep schedule makes her anxious, tired, and lifeless to the outside viewer.

367 words

7/8 Daily
Since I fell asleep at 2AM and woke up at 11AM 11-2 = 9 and 1,200-900 = 300 here's my 315 word daily!

Beatrice is a traveler, often taking days to get from place to place and she doesn’t always make it to a tavern or inn by nightfall. Often, she has to sleep on the ground. After the first couple travels and sleeps on the ground, she got a blanket of some sorts to sleep upon.
She’s never a heavy sleeper when this happens, she never knows who’s out or what they want to do. Starting awake at the slightest sound or movement around her. During trips she’s alert despite the lack of a good night’s sleep.
Although taverns and inns are much more comfortable, she isn’t always able to find one. She never goes out of her way to find one, to not tire herself out more. If she does manage to find a comfortable bed to rest in for the night. She’s a lot more alert and a tad bit more extroverted when that happens.
She normally sleeps on her back, since she has a pair of ram horns growing out of the sides of her head and they aren’t super comfortable. Since they also curl close to her face, she has the tendency to only rest the back or front of her head on something.
Ram horns are pointy and sharp, not recommended for sleeping on. If Bea just can’t get comfortable on her back, she will put something soft between her face and the horn to fall asleep. Since Bea wears a shawl, sometimes she’ll use it as an extra blanket when it’s winter or she’s farther up north than usual.
On average she gets 8 to 9 hours of sleep when in a bed and 6 to 7 when outdoor sleeping. On especially rough nights when it’s storming. She will barely sleep, and her friends are always concerned when that happens but she seems to function perfectly normal for the most part.

daily 9(?)
i got five hours of sleep so here are 737 words on my characters' sleep habits:

Jess: her sleep habits are pretty average. She doesn't always want to admit that she's tired, but if she is, she'll be out cold in minutes. So she (accidentally) ends up spending a lot of nights awake without realizing how exhausted she is. This, of course, leads to more exhaustion later – exhaustion that she doesn't recognize, and therefore refuses to do anything about. It becomes this impossible cycle of irritability and inability to function that she has a pretty hard time breaking. After knowing her for long enough, you learn to expect this, so everyone she lives with has made it a part of their own bed time routine to make sure Jess is in bed and asleep, and they make it a top priority. No one wants to deal with her when she's annoyed, and no one understands that better than Jess herself.
Noah: he's not exactly an insomniac, but he can go ages and ages without sleep. He got used to it after living underground behind bars and under fluorescent lights for three years. Exhaustion doesn't have much of an affect on him, which is part of the reason he's the one and only “cinnamon roll” of the story. He's used to operating at full capacity on very, very minimal sleep. Is it healthy? No. He's experienced many side effects, including depression – although that may not entirely be caused by the lack of sleep.
Jason: he is a full-blown insomniac. Jason spends every single night tossing and turning, constantly worrying about anything and everything. At first glance, you'd think he'd fit the stereotype of the comic-relief character who can't wake up in the mornings, and he'd love for you to think that – but in reality, he has crazy, unmanageable anxiety. He takes every sound as an alarm, which makes him feel like he's going to vomit, which somehow makes it a little difficult for him to sleep at night. Unimaginable, I know. The problem is that he has a much harder time functioning on minimal sleep than Noah, despite the fact that they've had similar sleeping situations over the years. So on the few nights where he does manage to get a somewhat full night's sleep, everyone else notices how much happier and energetic he is.
Mia: she's not a huge part of the story, but I guess her sleep habits did end up playing a bit of a part at some points. She's a very vivid dreamer, and always makes sure to tell Jason (her brother, by the way) about them. She's a creative person with a wild imagination. She's also a deep sleeper who tends to at least do her best to get an adequate amount of sleep every night, so if she doesn't get enough sleep at any point, it's pretty obvious in the morning. She's normally a cheerful(ish) person, but can become grumpier than you could ever imagine if you interrupt her sleep schedule.

Moving onto a completely different story with confusing character names that I can explain if anyone would like-
Nix (Alex): for most of his life, he's had to be alert at all times. That's the wonderful thing about living in a less-than-ideal household: sleep can sometimes end up being a luxury. He's spent many nights cleaning up after his family and waiting for his parents to fall asleep before letting himself do the same. Similarly to Jess, he gets pretty irritable after getting minimal sleep. He also has a tendency to fall asleep during class.
But. When he was taken away from his family, he was actually given a lot more time to sleep. In fact, they kind of forced it. This meant that Nix was much more vigilant all the time, especially compared to when he was living with his parents.
Vi (Lu): she's Nix's little sister, so she had a similar experience to him when they were living at home. However: since she was taken away, she had her memory erased, so she doesn't have that past exhaustion to compare to her newfound alertness, unlike Nix. Vi takes it for granted, whereas Nix is able to use it to his advantage.
Pango (Jo): Pretty similar to Vi, except the reason Pango was so sleep-deprived was because he had to work late shifts almost daily. He also had his memory erased, so again, he takes the energy that comes with his new sleep schedule for granted.

Part 1

A sad man sits on a log in a dark cave-like area in front of a fire. He is holding a heavy book, which he seems to look fondly at. He tears out a page and throws it into the fire. The page transitions into him as a younger man. He is journeying up a steep hill with the book. The book is seemingly now much smaller. He reaches an enlightened sage sitting under a bare, leafless tree, who teaches him. His teachings go into the book.
He then visits a man sitting on a tall rock, whose teachings also go in the book, and a woman sitting on a pile of several logs, who once again gives him some teachings. All of the words and teachings go into the book. The man flips through the pages in his book, looking happy at how much knowledge it holds in it.
Then, he gets up and struggles to pick it up. As he keeps on journeying up the hill, the book seems to become heavier and heavier and heavier, and he begins to look more and more and more tired. At last, he can’t pick it up, and sits down with his head bowed. The now heavy book rests on the ground in front of him.
It transitions back to when he was in front of the fire. The man flings more and more and more pages into the fire, and the book full of knowledge becomes lighter and lighter and lighter. At last, he has burnt all of the pages, all of the knowledge, and the book is now light, as light as when he started climbing the hill. The smoke that rises from the fire contains all of the teachings in the book, and he flies away from the campfire.

Part 2

See you tomorrow.
Yeah, I love you too.
No, I won't forget it.
I promise.

What do you mean?
She-she was fine yesterday!
You’re lying!
Get out of my house!
NO! Stay out!
Come back when she’s back!

I don’t need your pity.
Yes, I loved her.
Is that not clear?
Why did she leave?

I’m leaving.
I don’t know where I’m going.
I’m going to find her.
I don’t care if she’s dead.
Try and stop me.
Good-bye.

———————————————————————————————————

Leave me alone.
I don’t care what you think about me.
Stop laughing!

Who are you anyway?
Coffee?
Thanks, I guess.

Tomorrow?
I-I can’t come.
Just a movie?
Okay.
Fine.

Again?
Next week?
I…
Maybe.

I need to talk to you.
I know you love me.
You’re not that good at hiding it.
I can’t love you.
I’m sorry.

Why did you come back?
You wanna know why? Fine.

She was everything to me.
She.. I shouldn’t be telling you this.
You sure?
Fine.

We met at the mall.
She had spilled her tea.
I offered to pay for another one.
I just… felt drawn to her, I guess.

She laughed.
And said thanks.
And disappeared.
I wish I had been brave enough to say more.

I started noticing her.
It felt like she lived 10 different lives, all the places I saw her.
Finally, I had the courage to go up to her, and say,
Hi.

She glanced at me, and smiled.
‘Hey, I remember you!’
I couldn’t say anything.
‘How ‘bout we meet up?’
‘Pay for that tea that I owe you.’

I nodded like an idiot.
She gave me her number, and that was it.
I wonder if she felt drawn to me too.

After that, it became a movie.
A dinner.
A ‘hang at your house.’
She had the most delightful way of saying things.

It was impossible not to fall for her.
I just don’t know how she fell for me.

No, I’m not crying.
I’m allergic to all this dust.
I know we’re outside.
Moving on.

The night before she.. Left.
She made this delightful pie, a recipe she came up with.
It tasted like roses.
And love.
And I was so happy.

Then, I told her,
See you tomorrow.
‘Love you,’ she said
Yeah, I love you too.
‘Promise?’
I promise.

That’s why.
I can’t betray her.
I know that I love you.
I hate myself for it.
Easy for you to say.

I can’t move on.
Please, just leave me alone.

Good-bye.

———————————————————————————————————

I’m sorry.
I know I’m betraying you,
I love her.
I can’t help it.
I’m going to apologize to her.
I hope you can still love me.



Part 3

Motif: Red: Violence, Danger, Death

Jane crouched in the tree, hoping no one would chance to see her through the leaves. If Miss saw her like this, she was sure to be struck like a hammer against a red iron. She turned quite red herself as a boy walked under her. He whistled a tune. In one hand he carried a book. It was John. She resisted the urge to jump down onto his back. She knew it would give her a moment’s pleasure and a week worth of punishment. With a bonus of a few broken bones.
He sat down under the tree, and began to read his book. She realized he might be staying for a long time, and sighed, before stiffening. John had heard her. She watched with tension as he looked around him.
“Jane, I know you’re the-ere..” he said in a sing-song voice. “Come out, or I’ll..” he trailed off menacingly. She closed her eyes, red and orange patterns flashing across her eyelids. He had used this trick before. Tricking her into thinking she was about to be found out. About to be caught.
But he hadn’t been, she reminded herself. He was tricking Jane into revealing herself, just as he was trying to now. Opening her eyes, she crouched behind the leaves, which were in full bloom.
Glancing down at John again, she realized that she couldn’t see him anymore. She bit back a gasp of shock and glanced around. To look behind her, she shifted an inch, and winced as her boot scraped loudly against the bark.
He was on her in an instance.
She cried out as she plummeted from the tree. She landed painfully on her arm. John jumped down beside her.
“You need to have better balance,” he chided her mockingly. Jane picked herself up, wincing at the pain in her arm.
“My arm.. It’s-” she began.
“Your arm is fine. You need to toughen up, butterfly,” he said, purposefully shoving her hurt arm as he pushed past her.
Without thinking, she stuck her leg out and tripped him. “Who doesn’t have good balance now?” she snarled at him. He got up and turned around, his face red with anger (and humiliation, she thought with satisfaction.)
“You’ll regret that, butterfly,” he said, slowly walking towards her.
Jane got up and ran.
“Slowpoke!” she shouted behind her, but felt her words as John grabbed her and threw her to the ground. Her legs snagged in the roses, painfully scratching them with their thorns.
“You need to be more careful,” John said mockingly, as she pulled her legs, now red and bleeding, out of the bushes. She closed her eyes as he towered above her.
One day, this would all be over, she thought. One day she’d be strong enough to throw John to the ground.
Until then, she would wait.
———————————————————————————————————

Part 4


Symbolism: The book - the heaviness of knowledge.
Yellow - Freedom and realization
Grey - Grief

A man sits on a log. He looks sad. He is sitting in front of a fire. The area around him is a cloudy, dark gray, as if it is encasing him in his misery.
He is holding a book, a very big one, which he seems to look fondly at. He pulls out a page, and burns it in the fire. The page seems to tell a story. It shows him as a young man. His surroundings are a steep hill which he is climbing, and the sky is a light shade of yellow, almost resembling as if he is still free from his misery. In one hand he holds the book, now much smaller.
He reaches a sage sitting under a tree, who tells him words he seems to treasure. He stores them in the book. He then visits a man sitting on a rock, a woman on a pile of logs, and many others, in various places. All of their words, teachings, go into the book.
He looks at the book, then struggles to pick it up. It seems to have become heavier and heavier with knowledge. The man looks more tired and tired. The gray background returns as he struggles to hold it. He keeps on going, but as he obtains more and more knowledge, the book becomes heavier, too heavy to hold, or bear the weight of everything he has learnt. It seems to have grown in size too, becoming bigger and bigger.
The yellow background returns as he realizes that he cannot bear the weight of all the knowledge he collected in the book. The scene goes back to the man sitting on the log, who is colored yellow. He seems to have realized he cannot keep the book’s knowledge.
It is too much for anyone to bear. He flings more and more pages into the fire, all of the knowledge being burned in the fire.
The book, instead of growing again, becomes smaller and smaller and smaller. Instead of becoming heavier, it becomes lighter and lighter and lighter.
At last, the book becomes nothing but a front cover and a back cover. The fire, now ashes, releases smoke into the air, which shows the knowledge that was burned.
The gray color begins to fade away from the sky, and the man (who is colored yellow) flies away into freedom with the empty book.

Daily #9
Whooo, healthy sleep schedules
(Lol, I only got nine hours because today is sunday and I could oversleep)

Word count - 305

Sleep schedules
Raya is not a morning person. Or a night person. She’s a ‘sleep is for the weak and I can get so much more done when I’m awake’ type of person. She also takes ridiculously long to fall asleep even after she’s gotten into bed because her thoughts keep her up for hours at a time. When she finally does drift off, she’s a deep and dreamless sleeper and an occasional snorer. She only ever truly relaxes when she’s in bed, so it’s only when she’s asleep that you get to see how wound up she is most of the time. And no matter how much or how little (normally little) sleep she gets, she wakes up with the sun. This does make her cranky and irritable a lot and in a perpetual state of exhaustion that she won’t ever admit to herself. When her friends force her to sleep early, she becomes a considerably nicer person.
Zephyr technically doesn’t need sleep at all. It’s one of the perks of being immortal, lack of anything can’t kill you. Sometimes, they ‘sleep’ (lie down, close their eyes and snore theatrically) just to feel like they fit in with those around them, sometimes its to keep Raya company so she doesn’t feel weird being the only one sleeping. Sometimes though, they do get tired. And this scares them more than anything else, because they aren’t supposed to, they shouldn’t have to. On top of that, actually falling asleep isn’t exactly fun for them, given that their long years of life provided plenty of bad memories which show up as nightmares. As a side effect of not having to sleep, they don’t have a sleep schedule and can end up sleeping at any possible time of the day. Another factor for their preference of not sleeping at all.


My writing thread

7/8/2023
- i slept 10 hours: went to sleep at 5 something, woke up at 15:00.
- amount: 282

jesus christ person above me we almost wrote the same opening o.O

KATE:
Sleep? A fool’s concept! Sleep is for the weak! There are so many things to do—the day isn’t enough. It’s a horrible habit of hers she won’t ever try to stop.

She’s an aspiring fashion designer who recently inherited her parent’s bakery, and the paperwork is more than she imagined. She really doesn’t care if she stays up till sunrise to finish them, even though she does have to wake up at 9:00 sharp for work. Her head hits her desk every now and then, but she keeps on going and going until she gets another migraine. When asked by Treble on a phone call why she does this every single day Kate laughed at him and said she might be a masochist.

Kate says she has learned her lesson, but she really hasn’t. She’s had to get two new lightbulbs after using her lamp for 34 hours straight during a hurricane. And yes, she did drive to get them. In the hurricane. Running on an empty stomach. Kate fainted that day.

TREBLE:
He will have his beauty sleep even if it is the death of him.

He sleeps like an actual baby and will be immune to any sounds. His dog was barking at the top of her lungs at 3:00 once at a squirrel and he slept through it all even though both his neighbors woke.

In truth, he looks as if he’s having a nightmare unimaginable to humankind. His face will twist and contort and he’ll open his mouth wide like he’s screaming, but in reality he’s having a dream about winning competition after competition. It’s horribly strange, considering that the rest of his body will be perfectly still.

July 9th daily - 9 hours, 300 words minimum - characters from a novel im planning - 302 words:

Elara:
Elara doesn’t need much sleep to go on with her life normally. She loves the night, so she doesn’t sleep very much. She likes to stay up late and wakes up very early in the morning, normally sleeping six to seven hours a day. Usually, Elara goes to sleep from 11 P.M. to 12 P.M. and wakes up from 6 A.M. to 7 A.M. She typically goes by this schedule, unless she has to study for a test very late in the night or something dire that has to be done immediately, which are quite rare. She normally spends the night before going to bed talking with Kyana or Kendra, but if she is already asleep, Elara normally is checking her phone or reading a book.

Kyana:
Kyana sleeps late but doesn’t go to bed as late as Elara, though she wakes up sometimes before her. Normally, her sleep schedule is going to sleep at 11 P.M. and waking up at 6 A.M, but it can typically fluctuate a little bit. Her work keeps her from coming home until around 9 P.M. to 10 P.M. She uses the time between work and bedtime to talk with Elara, study, or check her phone. Kyana usually likes to wake up early for some last-minute studying before heading off to college.

Kendra:
Kendra sleeps around the same time as Elara though she regularly wakes up slightly later than her. Her typical sleep schedule is going to sleep from 11 P.M. to 12 P.M. to 7 A.M. Almost never does she move away from this schedule, unless a big test she has to study late into the night or, if she wants to, study before going to school with Elara. Before bed, Kendra likes to draw or read, and only sometimes looks at her phone.

Kai sleeps
I love sleeping!!
I love bed!!!
I sleep because I scared of dark (
-
So Kai sleeps at like 8pm and wakes up at like 10 am lmao. Also, his favorite thing is bed.
Then he eats a lot he's just a little baby deer boy :00 needs to sleep and eat lmao
He's homeschooled and deer/human hybrids usually start survival skills class at 10.
He's 5 so…
Kai would learn to recognize edible plants at this age, so the minute he finishes his breakfast it's class. He would also start to learn how to recognize if that animal is a friend or if it's an animal that would gladly gobble you up.
In the evening, he would play with his other friends, but the minute the clock strikes 8 he's dead asleep.

Aera
Total opposite of this Kai. Sleep?! What are you talking about there's no such word…
Don't sleep, instead, go do some things that only happen at night like clubbing (jk)
Aera is a tattoo artist. She opens her at 10, but the fact that Aera slept at 3am and that her tattoo place is a few miles away and that she wakes up at like 9-
Let's just say she's reaaallly productive.
In 1 hour, Aera has to eat, change and open her at 10.
Can she do it?
All the time.
She gets a break at 1-2pm for lunch, but she usually just gets coffee and a Subway sandwich to eat.
After she closes her business, it's already dinner and because the barman knows her she goes there almost every night to flirt with the men even if she's lesbian.
Sometimes, if there are still open cafes before her partying, Aera would get breakfast from that cafe even if the food is horrid.

(306 words)

i have this character whose name is Slitzer and they have this absolutely terrible sleep schedule which is kind of based off of me not really, it's more like my sibs.
so she visits this really warm place every so often and i don't know where that is right now, but there she sleeps a good 10 hours there, but she does live in a cold place and there she sleeps at like 2 or 3 AM and wakes up at 3 or 4 AM. Her sibs are much better at sleeping and usually sleep a good 10 to 11 hours and go to bed at around 9 PM, but she refuses to because she just wants to be this way, but apparently it is enough sleep for her. Her sibs disagree, but she wants to say that she can live off of that much sleep. Then sometimes she just falls asleep randomly because she sleeps so less. She falls asleep in the worst places and can not be woken back up unless she is slapped like really hard, but everyone is scared to slap her because she becomes all scary when she is woken up. Otherwise she will sleep for about 20 hours or so.


+206 words

daily july 9th

Astrid: Okay so Astrid despite being very young is a very empathetic soul and she always works herself to the bone to make sure her siblings are alright and she;s always worried about them. She does not sleep well at all and the slightest thing can wake her up because her siblings might be hurt or something else might be wrong. She really needs more sleep and the stress overload is way too much for her probably gonna cause some major issues.

Saskia: Saskia is the kind of person who stays up till ungodly hours of the night and doesn’t seem tired at all but as soon as her head hits the pillow she is asleep but like bonus points if she has somebody to cuddle but she won’t admit it. She very rarely uses blankets when she sleeps.

Selene: Selene is basically nocturnal I mean come on the best time for creativity is night and whenever she tries to sleep her head is just exploding with ideas for art. She has to take melatonin to sleep normally and when she doesn’t she falls asleep in class.

Vesper: Vesper sleeps with one eye opened, usually somewhere very gross. Sure she stays at the boarding house and shares a lumpy bed with her older brother Bastian because that’s all they can afford, but a lot of the time she ends up having to spend the night somewhere else. She constantly has to be on guard because in this city anyone could try to k*ll you but at the end of the day she accepts that she needs sleep but she certainly doesn’t sleep much. She likes whispering the names of the people who she wants to get revenge on to help herself fall asleep.

Bellamy: Bellamy Keo works tirelessly day and night as he wants very much to be put on the council as soon as he is old enough and he’s pretty much a natural born leader this causes him to not sleep very much and he is practically addicted to coffee. Bellamy absolutely hates sleeping without least two blankets and also he talks in his sleep usually mumbling stuff from his lessons or just random stuff. It’s kind of funny to be honest.

David: David absolutely hates sleeping and with obvious reason I mean he’s literally constantly plagued with nightmares or visions or stepping into someone else’s dreams or memories. To him sleeping is hardly rest, sleeping is a mission, a quest, something to defeat or find out. The stress of it is very overwhelming and sometimes he is just barely hanging on. Around the end of the series he does get a boyfriend and they often cuddle together when they go to sleep and that helps a lot, but before that David has to go through a ton of training so that these dreams don’t control him.

everyone except vesper is from the path of nightmares

July 9th daily || 7 hours of sleep = 500 words (I don't know if I had 7 or 8 hours of sleep though, so I went with the safe route and said 7) || 568 words
~~~~~
Mango is very much a night person. However, they’re the type of person who waits until at least 11pm where most of the household is asleep to start making Kirby noises, if that’s a type of person. Not only do they make random noises at night for the sole reason that it’s fun, but they usually stay up until 3am, listening to (video game) music while drawing. They usually just sit at their small desk from bedtime until as late as they can, headphones on, lamp on, listening to some good music, occasionally humming along or making sound effects that go with the song, and just drawing in their scrapbook. They find it most enjoyable to spend their night instead of simply sleeping. Unfortunately, they also happen to sleep in. Their brother Maverick is commonly the one who wakes them up, whether it be at 6:30 in the morning to get to school or noon time because Mango can’t just sleep the whole day. They’ve honestly just gotten used to their sleep schedule, so they usually don’t feel the suffering of being “tired”. It doesn’t affect their schedule anymore, since their schedule is mostly based off of their sleep ‘schedule’. Why do you think they spend most of their time playing games?
Maverick, however, has a more normal sleep schedule. He was originally in a family that was very strict about sleep schedules, as in “be in bed before the sun goes down” kind of strict. So, even when he met the insane night owl, Mango, he still kept a somewhat normal sleep schedule. He tends to fall asleep before midnight, and wake up at a decent time, even though the time’s never really consistent. Because of this, he tends to have a bit more of an active lifestyle than Mango. He is definitely more energetic, especially about adventures, probably because of his 10 hours of sleep a night.
Now, since the last time I had done this daily, there’s one other OC I didn’t write about, I don’t have too much info about, but I need more words: Cedar. Cedar is an interesting character, there’s not too much known about them, and they’ve never been seen sleeping. When they were younger, back when they were better known as a babysitter in the normal world, they did have a normal sleep schedule. They had to if they wanted to take care of children in a healthy condition. Of course, there were exceptions when they needed to stay up later to take care of children. Other than that, there was absolutely nothing stopping them from getting to sleep at the latest, 10pm, and waking up nice and early, 7am at the latest. Of course, when they quit their job as a babysitter, and became a mysterious teleporter in a magical world, they… don’t seem to sleep at all. No one really knows if they sleep, or even if they do need sleep. They’re so mysterious, nobody knows. Nobody even really knows if they’re even human (disclaimer: They very much are). However, they do sleep. But, it’s strange. Instead of sleeping for a specific time each day, they simply take a break from the world on the days they don’t do their… job(?), meaning they sleep for a full 2 days straight to re-collect their energy. Definitely a strange and unhealthy way to sleep, but whatever works, I guess…

Minimum 200 words
Words total - 218

Cassandra -
(She/her) Constantly worried about her sister, the rebellion, and being found out by the bad guy. Bad living quarters due to having to run away and not sleep in the same place twice (Bad guys). So not very good sleep, maybe 4 punctured hours of sleep a day.

Ann -
(She/her) Okay sleep, sleeps better than her sister, (Cassandra), often utterly exhausted from being on the run. Often gets either incredibly hot or incredibly cold at night, and has terrifying nightmares. Wakes up in the middle of the night screaming. Sleeps 4-6 hours of sleep a day.

June -
(She/her) Sleeps better and deeper than both Cassandra and Ann so often takes watch duty during the night. Even though she sleeps deeply she is easy to wake. Due to this, she gets about 5-6 hours of extremely refreshing and deep sleep.

Saturn -
(he/him) Sleeps around June’s time with an average of 5-6 hours of sleep. Although he often wakes up at the slightest of sounds. Also, the one who usually comforts Ann after her nightmares.

April -
(She/her) Loves to take watch duty due to her deep sleep that is nearly impossible to wake her out of, only sleeps when they are absolutely certain that they are safe. On average gets 3-5 hours of sleep.


They're all terrible sleepers.

Name: Ava
Cabin: Lyric
Word count- 215/200
Topic: Write words about your charactr depending on the hours you slept
Content: July 9th Daily

LET'S GET IT

The caps was 10 hours and I slept 12 hours- So I have to write 200 words

Ava - Ava is the main protagonist of my story (yes again, but this time it's a good one I promise!) and she is based on my sleep cycle- ✨ confused ✨
Most of the time, she gets six hours of sleep, sometimes she gets four hours of sleep and on some rare occasions, she doesn't wake up with the noise of her family and gets to sleep for a whole twelve hours. This doesn't help her sleep cycle though- it only screws it up more.

Itsumi - Itsumi is one of the main protagonist's best friends. She has a normal sleep cycle- almost. Like most kids, she gets around eight to nine hours of sleep on a daily basis, unless there was a part last night. Once, Itsumi overslept till three o'clock in the afternoon, and nobody even noticed.

Niko - Niko is one of those kids who are just having a bad time. He doesn't have a sleep cycle - if he does get any sleep at all. Most of the sleep Niko gets is by lying down on the tendrils of misery in the Droquet and thinking. He is highly influenced by bats - there are rare sightings of people spotting their Prince hanging upside down and whispering to the winged mammals.

.

YOU KNOW I WANT THAT HOoOoOoOoooOME~
YOU KNOW YOU GOT THAT HOOoOooOOoOOOOoME~

I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to go to sleep. The sun’s barely gone down, but the gangs will be out before long. Better to get home before you find your pockets empty. I had a measly dinner of one potato, but it’s more than I get sometimes. My stomach’s still rumbling, waiting for more. It won’t get more. Not unless I sneak out.
No. I can’t sneak out. Not unless I want the police to find me.
With my eyes still squished closed, I cling to my possessions like they’re my lifeline. The gangs don’t usually break in, and even if someone did, they wouldn’t dare wake me up. I’m hanging onto my eleven dollars and twenty cents, my necklace, and a few other things I wouldn’t want to lose – things I can’t lose. I try to organise my thoughts, trying to drift into sleep…
…I can’t remember how long it was since I first shut my eyes… the gangs are probably out…
My mind flings momentarily into a state of chaos and what-ifs and strange sounds. My path to sleep is thrown away, replaced by disorder… the peace returns… now I just have to go to sleep… it can’t be that difficult, can it?
Sleep… just sleep… it’s not hard… just block everything and calm down… easy… go to sleep… surely it hasn’t been that long since I first shut my eyes? If I had a watch, I would know…
…but I’m too poor to have a watch… will I always be too poor to have a watch?
Sleep… dark… night… dreams…
Light streams through the gaps in my bedroom wall.
—–
Rats. It’s 9:30 already. I’ve got to go to sleep now. Part of me wants to watch television forever. Another part knows I need rest and need to turn off the remote. Just until this show finishes… it can’t be that long.
I glance around for the remote, looking at my watch. Rats. 10pm. That show went way longer than I was intending. I finally find the remote and press the power button. Dragging my feet up the stairs, I head to my bedroom, barely able to move from my fatigue. Rats. I’ll never get to school on time tomorrow.
Staring at the ceiling, I try to relax in bed. It’s got to be more comfortable than what the people in the shanty town sleep in, but I’m not even getting closer to sleep despite my luxuries. I’ve got two assignments and an exam this week, and I’ll never get them done like this. Rats. So much for straight A’s.
I just need to get to sleep.
Sleep… eyes closed… relax… it’ll be okay…
Light streams through the window. My eyes fling open.
Rats. My exam’s tomorrow. I can’t keep doing this.
(465 words)

Weekly pt 1
:: A lone tree flourished on a small, uninhabited island. Its long branches spread out, from which hung small, delicate white flowers. One of the flowers’ tiny petals began to curl upwards. Slowly, petal by petal, flower by flower, the whole tree now had yellow pods. The pods suddenly split, revealing blue eggs. The eggs were cradled in the frame of the pods, nestled gently at the bottom.
A small canoe pulled in, coming to a stop on the island. Its passenger, a man in an orange robe and hat, sat with a large sack behind him. The man got off, inspecting the eggs carefully. He took out his sickle. Soon, the canoe was returning to the mainland with many eggs. In the city, he set up shop, laying all the eggs on a mat.
As he waited, he looked around. The adults were doing their daily work, while the children were playing and laughing. But the children only had legs and upper body. This was due to the fact that that generation's souls were represented by birds, and the empty space was for the cage.
A young mother stopped by, with her daughter. Happily, they bought an egg and it became the daughter’s. The girl grew up slowly with it, playing with a boy, combing her hair. Eventually, she was a beautiful young woman, and she and the boy were happily married, both their eggs hatched into beautiful peacocks. The girl wore fine clothes and had a flower blossoming in her long brown hair.
Years slowly passed. They had children. The peacock grew.
Time truly flies. Before she knew it, she was an old woman. One day she climbed a cliff. She let the fully grown peacock perch on her hand. As she breathed her very last, the peacock flew away.
************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Weekly pt 2
A small group of orphans sat on the pavement, waiting eagerly for what was to come. Today was a music festival, and they watched the procession go by. They heard whispers that a plane with Ukrainian orphaned refugees was arriving at the airport in Sicily. Curious, they walked over to the airport. Unfortunately for them, they were not allowed to enter. Feeling sorry for them, the staff allowed one child to go in. They were in a dilemma.
The only child who could read and navigate well enough to go in was Miliana. But, she was also the strongest in the group. If they were attacked or kidnapped while she went in, they would suffer.
Miliana did not mind staying, but the children insisted she go. It was the only way to find out why, and maybe get some food at the same time. She stepped through the door, in a white turtle neck sweater and black cargo pants.
Shyly, almost tenatively, she walked up to the information counter and asked about the flight. She found out the gate and headed in that direction. Along the way, she saw a sign that said ‘Truffle farm’. She averted her gave but longed to go and buy truffles. Before she was orphaned, she enjoyed eating truffles. The few euros in her pocket was to buy food for the others.
When she reached the gate, she saw many people gathered there.
“What is everyone here for?” she asked a woman.
“You mean you don’t know, child? There are children from Ukraine who were evacuated here from orphanages there.” The woman replied.
“So you are here to adopt them?”
“Yes.” Then her voice softened. “You belong to the group of children who are on the street nearby, right?”
She continued. “Here is some money. Take it and buy food for yourselves. I would love to take you all in, but I am going to adopt one of those children.” She pointed to the group of children alighting from the plane.
Pressing a note and a box into Miliana’s hand, she walked off. Miliana gasped. It was a twenty-euro note! Upon opening the box, she discovered truffles! Happily she bought food and jackets, and headed back outside to the others.
“Miliana! You’re back!”
“What’s all this?”
“A lady at the airport gave me money and truffles! By the way, the children were evacuated because of a war.”
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Weekly Pt 3
☼Note that I have read Little Women , and the following is simply an adaptation of the ending.
“… …and no longer acts like a little goose.”
“Oh father, we’re so glad to have you back.”
“Beth!” Marmee hissed.
But it was too late. The door burst open, and joy put strength into feeble limbs. Beth sprang onto her father in delight, her scarlet fever gone, forgotten in that moment, she was so overjoyed.
The whole group of them went and sat at the dining table, Beth and Mr March having soup, laughing together for the first time in a year. The light reflected off the turquoise ring, making it sparkle brilliantly, twinkling like Amy’s laughter.
“Just think,” Jo said. “Last Christmas we were all down in the dumps, and now father is back, and we are a family again.”
“It was a rather bittersweet year, though, don’t you agree?” Meg asked.
“I do, but now father is back, and Beth is still alive, and I have no need to stay at Aunt March’s, I think it ended sweetly, like honey.” Amy replied.
Meg simply stared off, recalling the whole year.
“Meg? Meg!”
“Sorry, I was just thinking about the year.”
“It's been a pretty eventful year, I feel. But now grandfather is much gentler with me.” Laurie added.
The Christmas dinner ended, and the Marches went to bed.
Three years later, in the morning, Amy woke up, puzzled as to why she did not hear Hannah and Beth dusting. She suddenly heard a cry of anguish. Not even bothering to put on a dressing gown, she flew to Beth's room.
A million possibilities raced through Amy's mind, all unimaginable.
Oh no.
No, no, no!
She ran in only to see Hannah kneeling over Beth's stiff, motionless body.
Cold.
Emotionless.
Deadpan.
Gone.
Forever.
Jo, Meg, Marmee and Mr March dashed into the room. The whole family burst into tears and cried for Beth. After the funeral, Amy announcedto her sisters, “One of us must marry well to help the others with money. Meg didn’t, Jo won’t and Beth couldn’t, so I will and help us all.”
A few days after, Aunt March told Amy, “You know about that trip with Florence I wanted to send your sister Jo on? I have decided to send you instead. Here is a letter to pass to your mother.”
Amy gasped, thanked Aunt March and flew home to Marmee and Jo.
“Marmee! Aunt March wants me to go to Europe with Florence!”
Jo looked up, puzzled.
“I thought I was to go?”
“You were, but she decided to send me instead.”
“What a shame! I was looking forward to the adventure.”
“I'm afraid it's partly your own fault, dear. When Aunt spoke to me the other day, she regretted your blunt manners and too independent spirit, and here she writes, as if quoting something you had said—'I planned at first to ask Jo, but as ‘favors burden her’, and she ‘hates French’, I think I won't venture to invite her. Amy is more docile, will make a good companion for Flo, and receive gratefully any help the trip may give her.”
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Weekly pt 4
A lone tree flourished on a small, uninhabited island. Its long branches spread out, from which hung small, delicate white flowers. One of the flowers’ tiny petals began to curl upwards. Slowly, petal by petal, flower by flower, the whole tree was adorned with little yellow pods. The pods suddenly split, revealing blue eggs. The eggs were cradled in the frame of the pods, nestled gently at the bottom.
A small canoe pulled in, coming to a stop on the island. Its passenger, a man in an orange robe and hat, sat with a large sack behind him. The man got off, inspecting the eggs carefully. He took out his sickle and began harvesting the sky-blue eggs. Soon, the canoe was returning to the mainland with many eggs. In the city, he set up shop, laying all the eggs on a mat.
As he waited, he looked around. The adults were doing their daily work, while the children were playing and laughing. But the children only had legs and upper body. This was due to the fact that that generation's souls were represented by birds, and the empty space was for the cage.
A young mother stopped by, with her daughter. The girl jumped up and down in excitement as her mother chose an egg for her. The mother took out a few gold coins and dropped them into the man’s hand. As they fell through the air, they clinked as they touched the man’s hand, signifying that the deal had been made and could never be reversed. The girl grew up slowly with it, playing with a boy, combing her hair. Her personality developed much faster than before she had the egg. Eventually, she was a beautiful young woman, and she and the boy were happily married, both their eggs hatched into beautiful peacocks. The girl wore fine clothes and had a flower blossoming in her long brown hair.
Years slowly passed. They had children. The peacock grew.
Time truly flies. Before she knew it, she was an old woman. One day she climbed a cliff, knowing that it would be one of the last things she did. At the summit, she took in her surroundings for one last time, let the fully grown peacock perch on her hand. As she breathed her very last, the peacock flew away, free, chirping and flying, bringing her soul to a better place.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1612 words

Name: Ly
Cabin: Contemp
Topic: Write words about your character depending on the hours you slept
Content: July 9th Daily
Firefox ~A protagonist in my story and a sequel I wrote, Firefox is elemental animan (animal x human) . Being a hybrid due to the experiment in her main story, she needs as much sleep as a fox, about 10 hours a day. However, in her main story she lives in captivity as a slave/experiment, thus she only gets around 8 hours usually. This makes her easily tired and her work often suffers because of it. Fortunately, one of her slave masters likes her and allows her to sleep more and eat better, so she gets around 9.5 hours now, similar to when she was fully human, making her stronger and more pleasant to be with, resulting in more favour from her masters. Though she pines for her deceased friend who was almost like a sister to her, she is very introverted yet confident and diplomatic.

Tessie ( a.k.a Chemiss cauculation ) ~In her early life ( birth to 9 years old) , she got an average of 10 hours, which made her energetic and caused her powers to develop far earlier than most. After, she was in stasis/ suspended animation/ cryogenic sleep for quite some time, but that doesn't really count as sleep. Following that, she slept for 7 hours a day due to her espionage training, not making much difference as her mathematical sense trained her to save her energy for missions. After getting captured by S.H.E.I.L.D (yes, I know, that's marvel, but this is a fanfiction of the ultimate spider man cartoon), she got more sleep after moving in with Spidey (a.k.a Peter Parker) and Aunt May. She originally wanted to stay with White Tiger when she moved in but White Tiger moved to the S.H.E.I.L.D tri-carrier. This makes her a very pleasant person and extraverted despite her espionage trainers being ruthless people.
~302 words

Silvi's Writing Thread

I was meant to write 500 words, but instead I wrote 946. Be ready…
Daily 9th July
This is quite coincidental, as I had a sleepover last night, so I only got 7 hours sleep (and I had to go back up to my own room as my air bed deflated )

Dylan was fast asleep in bed, his snoring keeping his friend Mila awake. He made a sudden yell. His forehead had beads of sweat racing down it competitively, and his legs thrashed. Dylan’s eyes snapped open, and he breathed heavily. He saw his friend looking at him anxiously. Memories of his nightmare returned to him and he rolled over in bed, trying to think of his happiest moments, still shivering from his nightmare.

Dylan was a noisy sleeper. He talked and yelled and writhed in his dreams, which were always very vivid, clear as a summer sky. Usually when he woke up, he found his pillow wet from his freezing sweat that always trickled down from his dark hair to his chin. When he was younger, he never got to sleep. His personality was quite soft and sweet, he never realised that some people thought that he was silly, but he always meant well. Dylan had a determined streak to him, he wouldn’t stop, no matter what people thought of him. When he went to sleep, he never had any problem getting to it, he had problems of staying with it. He was too hot in the summer, too cold in the winter, the rain of the spring and autumn sometimes lulled him to sleep, like stories do to little children, or it would keep him awake, hammering powerfully on the roof, all of its strength above his head. There was no right time of year. Sometimes though, when he had had a good day, no teasing or bullying, he could just think of when he was younger, playing in the smooth, sparkling seas of France and Greece and Spain. He knew that he was privileged, but sometimes, people made him feel like he was the one who was poor and stupid. Sometimes Dylan just wanted some peace. Peace was something that he had always dreamed of, and when he did go on holiday, slept in cool, white beds, he could reach it through the dreams of his restless sleep.

Mila lay in her bed, listening to her friend Dylan’s unusually contented snoring. She looked at the ceiling and saw birds fluttering and chirping happily, butterflies sucking pollen from the blooming flowers. This was obviously just the wallpaper, but she liked to pretend that they were real, to get her into the darkness of her mind. This did not happen often. She just lay in bed, sighing, and waiting for the first hopeful lights of dawn to spill through the curtains. Her mind was full of the happenings of the previous day. Racing away from the gnashing jaws of the tractor, screaming as it came closer, closer. She shuddered. What was she doing to herself, especially all alone in the night. Torturing herself.

Mila was unlike Dylan, the absolute opposite in fact. She was strong, brave and sometimes quite scornful ,but she had a kind heart. In class, she would often daydream of what it would be like with her parents, not an orphan, just living in the forest happily without a care in the world. She protected these precious thoughts fiercely, and only shared them with Dylan, who had been the one to find her, all alone. She was rebellious, and often tried to run away, but it never worked. Ever. One time she just stayed by a tinkling stream in a little abandoned cottage, another time in the park of the city, a couple of miles away. But she always came back or was found. This personality in her made Mila have many sleepless nights, full of ideas and plans for her final escape. She never actually wanted to do it though, and leave this life behind. When she was with the other orphans, most of them slept with the tranquillity of precious sleep. But some of her other friends in the secret orphanage stayed awake like her, and they would talk into the deep depths of night. She loved this familiar routine, but sometimes she longed for normal sleep. It was her dream.

Lottie felt the moss beneath her in her dreams. She was smiling in her sleep, on her ninth hour of it, and was so happy, she just couldn't describe it. She was with her family, her sisters and brothers, all together and happy, at the beach, lying on the soft, silky sand. It was just like all of her other dreams, so wonderful and happy. Lottie felt very lucky to have this sleep, she was different, that was how she got it, unique in a way so strange that even Lottie herself found it hard to explain.

Lottie was a clone. A simple clone. She couldn’t believe it when she found out. This gave her very long sleeps. She was cloned by someone called Lotta, and she was Lottie. But when Lotta ran away, and got killed by an accidental gunshot, Lottie received her personality. Calm, gentle, but sometimes quite reckless. Lottie got amazing sleeps, had dreams about Lotta’s parents, Lotta’s hopes, Lotta’s friends. It was so weird and fantastical. She lived with Lotta’s cousins, who had taken care of her for many years, but she liked to sleep outside, on their mossy ground. Hearing the birdsong in the early morning, the bees buzzing in the evening was like heaven, like glorious warmth after being stuck in the cold for ages. She loved it and would never ask anyone to take it away.

Daily 09/07/2023 - Write a story with the amount of words according to how much you slept.
10 hours = 200 words

Long car journeys had never been my favourite, but unfortunately, my family loved to go on them. Sometimes they were just 2 hours. At most, they were 13 hours. Today, I jumped into the car without a first idea of where we were going or how long it would take us.

As we departed from our driveway, I stuck my headphones over my ears and let the world of music drown out my family's mindless road games.

An hour passed and still no sign of stopping. Then two hours, then four. I felt as if this journey was going to go on forever. Yanking off my headphones, I called out to my mum over the blasting radio, “Are we nearly there yet?”
A classic line from every kid in the world.
“Yes, darling! Only twenty minutes to go now! You're going to love where we're going!”
Satisfied, I returned to my headphones and trusted dad to drive us to the right place.

I stared out of the window at the admirable greenery standing tall in the warm, spring sun. All of a sudden, the trees were interrupted by the rails of a bridge. We slowly crossed it, stuck behind heaps of traffic. It wasn't until we reached the middle of the bridge that it started to creak. I didn't think much of it until there was a snap and the bridge split in half.

One side went down and the other up. Time seemed to slow right down as the car slid backwards. I stared at the murky, uninviting water below and braced myself for my quickly approaching death.

There was a scream and then no more.

With a jump, I awoke from my nightmare and I could never go on a bridge again.

-294 words