Daily 01.11.23 - Introduction

Hi everyone! My name is Lunar, I use she/they pronouns and I’ve just travelled here from Dystopian. My goals for this session are to write more for my personal stories ‘Alferion’ and ‘The Count Down’, get involved in my cabin more and to become a better writer in general but mainly when it comes to realistic dialogue. I’m very excited for this session and I hope to have lots of fun <3

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Daily 02.11.23 - Letter

Dear future me,


I remember last time I sent you one of these it was Remembrance day, today is a few days before Guy Fawkes day and I am currently writing this at a craft show. When you open this later in the session you still won't have gone to comic con yet, but the cosplay should be finished and I really hope you are happy with it.

In a few days, I'm having a sleepover and though you will know everything that happened, don't tell me just yet! I'm really looking forward to it and I hope you enjoyed it.

I know you didn't carry on horse riding, but please don't beat yourself up about it. Remember, you weren't enjoying it at all by the end. Don't gaslight yourself into missing it, please.

My goals for this session are to write more for your story, Alferion. I know it is - however accidentally - inspired by something else but I hope it has taken on a life of its own by now. My favourite character that I haven't introduced yet is Ced (Cereadir) and I think you could give him character development from the comic relief character that I intend to present him as at the beginning, to whatever you wish. I have ideas, and I'm sure you know what those are.

Obviously, you don't just want to read about what's already happened so I'll do my best to make this bit interesting. Look around, tell me what you see. You've got a new bed, the room should be more organised. If it's messy, please tidy it a little bit. I know you put things off if people ask you to do something, but I hope you will listen to yourself.

Something else important I need you to remember - it's okay to get stressed, that's purely a result of the environment and situation you're in. Protect your earsss, please. Get some earplugs, headphones, I don't care. You're inherently sensitive to light and noise, as we are both well aware. That's not going to change any time soon, so never feel bad for struggling with things your friends aren't struggling with, even though you are similar to them.

Look after yourself,

Lunar x

371 words

Daily 03.11.23 - CHARACTER DYNAMICS

“How do you know him, anyway?” asked Kaia, lying on the ground and squinting into the sky, exhausted.
“We grew up together. He was the son of the knight and his wife I used to work for.”
Faerwyn watched as a lonely leaf descended from the sky, swaying this way and that, finally coming to rest in her outstretched hand. There weren't many left to fall - winter was slowly but surely drawing nearer.
“You must have been… how young?” Kaia pressed on. She wasn't an awful liar - most of the time - but it was plain that she was only asking for politeness. She already knew the answer.
Out of pure courtesy, Faerwyn gave the answer. “I was 8.”
Silence filled the cold, misty, late autumn air. Kaia knew she had taken being born into wealth lightly as a child, but she had thought she'd learnt to appreciate it as she got older. Only recently at the grand age of 16 had she come to realise just how lucky she'd been.
It didn't matter anymore, though. Just a week back Kaia’s whole world had crumbled into dust around her. What was meant to be a kingdom she would one day inherit was now a fortress of evil, ruled by her brother Ciaran, who had turned against both Kaia and his father, the late King Hadrion. Hadrion had been murdered in cold blood, and Kaia had barely managed to make it out alive. Lying there, neither of them had truly accepted Ciaran's betrayal of trust even though Alferion lay in ruins just 20 leagues south. But they didn't want to keep thinking about that now. They couldn't do anything about it right now.

It had been a stroke of good fortune that they had needed to sneak back within the city's walls one last time, stolen two royal horses, and found one drunk, very disorientated Cereadir in Phineas Norgad's house in a terrible state, only too happy to escape. Since then, he hadn't been of much use to Kaia. He'd almost got them killed twice, and drunk again even though he'd sworn to Kaia he hadn't touched anything. At least he had been a source of comfort to Faerwyn. Kaia had seen them laughing together, chatting away easily with so many shared memories. Kaia appreciated that Ced made Faerwyn happy, but she couldn't ignore the sweet pains of jealousy that lingered whenever she watched them together. They were so awfully perfect, Faery and Ced. Ced and Faery. Childhood best friends, strangers, acquaintances, lovers. Kaia missed the endless hours where Faerwyn would be at her side at the castle, even only as her maidservant. She missed joking around, just the two of them.
Three's a crowd, Kaia had thought spitefully.
Now, though, with time to think and a little more wisdom at her disposal, she was beginning to wonder if she was the crowd.

481 words

Daily 04.11.23 - CONSTELLATIONS

CANON DEVIANCE CAUSE ROGER WAS WRONGED AND LEE WAS WRONGED EVEN MORE

“He's a little scary sometimes, you have to admit…” muttered Roger, sweeping his sandy hair to one side. One eye on the panserbjørn, he shifted himself to the edge of the balloon where a hare began sniffing at his hand.
“Oi, Hester, leave the poor boy alone!” Lee Scoresby called, walking over to scoop up his dæmon from the floor, “Careful, kiddo, we're landing soon and even with this beast of a- sorry Iorek- even with Iorek's magnificent weight I doubt it'll be anything but a bumpy ride from now on.”

“He is magnificent though, isn't he Roger? You shouldn't be scared- I trust him with my life.” Lyra smiled, huddling between Pantalaimon and Roger. Salcilia curled up in Roger's lap and he was visibly relaxed by her presence.

“Brace yourselves!” called Lee as the balloon grinded to a halt on the rocky ground. The sky outside the aeronaut's balloon was jet-black, glistening with stars. The two children and their dæmons, Lee, Hester and Iorek exited the balloon. Iorek had to exit last, because the only thing keeping the balloon steady was his weight. He wasn't fussed about it, he was proud to be a panserbjørn, and what an amazing one he was, for he was king of the bears in the North.

Lyra and Pan settled themselves on a soft patch of snow outside, lying down and staring up at the sky to gaze at the stars, marvelling at how many they could see. Here there was no light pollution from late night fires from locals, no Aurora Borealis - they weren't far enough north for that - so every star could be seen as clear as anything. Lee began to explain to the kids about constellations, pointing out the Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Orion and his belt, and everything from Mars to Jupiter.

“There are still thousands of unnamed constellations, look.” He guided Lyra's hand to a group of 6 stars on the horizon. “The big one is Vera. The others don't matter as much. It's not yet named. The panserbjørn usually have the authority to name constellations, but given that Iorek named you Silvertongue I think it apt that you should name this one, don't you think?”

“No. Pantalaimon should.”

“In which case…” Lee addressed the arctic fox.

“It should be named Lyra.” said Pan, matter-of-factly.

“Lyra.”

403 words

Bi-daily 07.11.23 - DIALOGUE

“I don't know what she sees in you. That's all.” said Kaia flatly. She had remained distant for the last few days, leaving Cereadir and Faerwyn to their own devices. Taken to exploring the woods alone, Kaia had begun to practice her skills with a sword to pass the time. The trees had incidentally born the most of her brunt as a good number of them had been rendered slightly unstable by the hacking of a sharp object with considerable force into their trunks at a coincidentally consistent height about the waist.

“Well, I hope you mean no offence by it?” Cereadir fired a piercing glaze in Kaia’s direction but quickly relaxed his face into a comforting grin when she looked over.

A wave of realisation drowned Kaia’s expression as she tried to quickly rectify her error of tone, “Oh god, no, I didn't mean -”

“It's fine.” Cereadir interrupted, “Really. I know you only want what's best for her.”

“I would die for her.” Kaia confirmed, taken aback for a moment by her own words. Cereadir was looking at her with a strange expression - half pain, half concern. Kaia didn't know what was worse, and this was a part of her she did not wish to discuss.

Cereadir Devereux wasn't one for deep conversation. He was a man of few words in nature, but that was what everyone loved him for. Prone to getting drunk at the tavern and picking a fight he couldn't win was usually his style.

With Faerwyn, everything was different. The two seemed to be able to read each others thoughts, mimic each others actions, and predict each others movements. He was kind, gentle, chivalrous, and charismatic. So much so that even Kaia had to agree he was everything Faerwyn deserved… and more. Yet with her maidservant hanging off the arm of a man that Kaia barely knew, she felt more alone than ever, like a piece of her soul had been painfully removed from her body and locked away where she would never find it again.

Cereadir’s troubled expression still lingering on his face, he considered Kaia strangely. He didn't know her well either and had had no cause to until recently. She was a princess and he was the youngest son of a Knight of Alferion, subject of the king. He had never been within the citadel walls where Kaia had been residing her whole life. At some point between Faerwyn coming to work in his father's house and being offered the position in the Royal household he had realised he didn't want Faery to leave. He wanted to be by her side forever and whilst he longed for what he could not have, he never loved another. Never could, never would… and he wouldn't change it for the world.

Love was not a foreign emotion to Cereadir. He had loved and been loved and counted himself lucky. He now knew that others might be less fortunate. He had watched and noticed whilst Kaia pretended she was happy and pretended she was whole when all the while, she had just been lying through her teeth to let the two of them be together, however much it tortured her to do so. Maybe he would talk to Faerwyn. Maybe she felt the same. Maybe he could let them be happy. He wanted to comfort Kaia, to tell her that he understood, but all that he could get out was a rather quiet:

“I know.”

579 words

Daily 12.11.23 - TONGUE TWISTERS

“Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager managing an imaginary menagerie” - 27coding_crazy

Be aware that any spelling mistakes are intentional, to create a feeling of surrealism

The avid buzz of all sorts of live creatures filled the Magicale Menagerie in the bustling crowds of Diagon Alley. Kneazles, crups, owls, cats, bottles of this and that, green vials of something or another, wild magic clouding the senses of customers. It was chaos. It was the sort of chaos Maeri liked. For years she had dreamed of running a place like this - she was obsessed with the works of one Newton Scamander, who is moste famous for his magizoologist works of ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ and similar works. He was a renowned student of Hogwarts School of Witchcrafte and Wizardry, of the esteemed Hufflepuffe house. She welcomed many both foreigne and local witches and wizards to her shop, and they marvelled at the sorts of creatures that she sold. In fact, some of the animals around had a story of their own and Maeri had overtime become quite attached to them.

Buddy was a young crup Maeri had found wandering around the streets of London. Obviously the previous owner had cast incredible glamours on the extra tail to make it seem as if he was a normal jack russell terrier, enough to fool even the moste superstitious of muggles but certainly not a former Ravenclawe who recieved Outstandings' in both Charms and Care of Magicale Creatures years back. Maeri had found the owner nearby, a witch of impeccable muggle fashion sense, who had tolde her the pup could consider himself and survive and that her new muggle life could not support a magicale creature along with her current lifestyle. Maeri had all sorts of animal licenses (thunderbird, demiguise, occamy and so on) that were a standard for Ministry approved Magizoologists. Willingly adopting the young pup, Buddy was now happily roaming free around the Menagerie, teasing little witches and wizards that came in with their parents.

Another of Maeri's travels had seen her tasked with the recapture of a particularly elusive demiguise, who the head of the Departmente for the Regulation and Control of Magicale Creatures was concerned for the health and welfare of the beaste and wished it to be helped. On discovering its place of concealment, Maeri had kindly persuaded it to show itself before casting various healing enchantments on the wounds of the beaste. There was nothing particularly scary about it, though Maeri had not expected the locating of one such Demiguise to be more difficult than securing contact with the late Mr N. Scamander some ten years past.

He was a friendly man of sorts. Still in daily contact with Mr A. P. W. B. Dumbledore, the moste recent of the Headwarts Hogmasters (or something of such) who Maeri had seemingly not got along with so well as that of the author of one ‘Fantastic Beasts’ due to past experiences at the school. To address the former, Newton had written daily correspondence to her residence above the Menagerie of topics of less frequente discussion such as that of important werewolfe legislation (for whom he would not mention) and other half-beaste rights like those of the centaurs. Maeri had stressed to him that the centaurs did not wish to be classed as half-beaste in his most recent works, but that they wished to be classed as beaste, and dangerous ones at that. Maeri had imagined Newton chuckling upon receiving that particular letter. Later she had realised she may have made a few extra things up in her mind, including not only the letters, but the demiguise and the crup and the menagerie itself.

Maeri sat up, nose still in the book and still wishing her mind away. She did not want to stop. She did not want to be nothing more than an ordinary person in an ordinary school with an ordinary life.

630 words

Daily 18.11.23 - SIDEKICKS

“Why are you late?”

Arthur rounded on Merlin, who had just entered the chamber carrying all of Arthur's freshly polished armour. Having had little to no sleep due to spending most of it cleaning, Merlin muttered without thinking, “Well, sire, try being in my shoes for a day, maybe you'd do a better job than me.”

Arthur had his head in a fresh shirt, and a muffled ‘heard that’ came from within the depths of the material. Once he got his head through the hole and pulled the red cotton over his chest, he confronted his servant about his whereabouts the day before. “I still haven't had an answer about yesterday.”

“Didn't Gaius tell you where I was?” asked Merlin, trying to look as innocent as possible.

“He said you were in the tavern.” replied Arthur, sticking his arms out ready for Merlin to dress him. “Tell me, Merlin, what is it - exactly - that you do?”

“Besides being an enormous prat?”

“Yes.”

“Put up with you.”

“Very funny.”

“I mean, if you really think my job is so easy, why don't we switch for the day? Might knock you down a peg or two.” taunted Merlin. But surprisingly, Arthur lowered his arms and considered.

“I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that last bit, but if it's what I need to do to prove to you that I pay you too much for the amount of work you do, then so be it.”

“What?” laughed Merlin in disbelief.

“Go on, what do I need to do?”

“Seriously??”

“Seriously. Before I change my mind.”

“Unbelievable.”

Arthur raised his eyebrows.

Merlin continued, “Um… you can start by getting me dressed in your - well - my armour. Then you need to go back to Gaius, and he'll give you errands to run, come back to serve lunch, organise the knight's training session, and clean my armour and boots again. That's just the morning.”

“You just gave me an order.”

“Yes, sire.”

“How was it?”

“Not unpleasant, sire.”

“You enjoyed it.”

“I did, sire.”

339 words