daily 24 - 455/400 words
hobbit hole
As the sun shines brightly overhead, I begin the trek back to my hobbit-hole with an armload of freshly-baked bread and a basket of tangy blackberries. The long grass surrounding the hill my hole's built into the side of waves gently in the breeze, rippling in smooth patterns as far as the eye can see.
I enter my hole, pulling the circular wooden door shut behind me, careful not to scratch the light yellow paint, and shrug off my sweater onto the coat rack. I leave the bread in a bowl in the storage room, where it's surrounded by a wide variety of other dry goods. The blackberries I wash and dry with a hand towel, and then I quickly whip up some croissant dough before rolling the berries in the dough and sticking the tray of unbaked croissants in the oven. I wipe my hands off and leave the kitchen.
My living room houses my favorite chairs, including the recliner I sit in often with a good book. As I look in the doorway of the room, I notice a stack of unorganized books. I put them into their place in the tall bookshelves that line the walls of this room and stuff the various blankets that are lying out into a wicker basket.
I walk down my long hall, enjoying the feel of the smooth and cool wood floor beneath my bare feet, until I arrive at my bedroom. It's the biggest room in my hole after the living room, and it's probably my favorite. Along one wall is my bed, a huge and soft thing with tons of blankets piled on top. Along the other wall are more bookshelves. It's here in my bedroom that I keep my favorite books, the ones I read over and over and never tire of. I glance through the titles as I walk into my room and select one that I haven't read in a while before flopping on my bed on my stomach to read it.
I smell the blackberry croissants before long and I mark my page and then walk back to the kitchen to take them out of the oven. They're perfectly browned and juicy berries are practically dripping out of the edges. I set them on the counter to cool, turn off the oven, and step outside for a breath of fresh air. While I have plenty of windows in my hole, they're all on one side (because it's laid out along the side of a hill), so there's not great air circulation. As I stand just outside my back door, I pick a bright yellow flower from beside the path and breathe in the scent. This place is perfect for me.

WEEKLY FOUR (2204/1200)

P1 - PLOT POINTS (296/250)
(59) Rainy's going to the main cabin in the morning to talk to people and get motivation to write, but she discovers that the stash of motivation mangoes has been replaced with procrastination potatoes! With time ticking down until the weekly's due, she knows that she needs to get the motivation mangoes back so that everyone can finish their weeklies.
(60) She decides to go around the different cabins and see if she can find any clues or if anyone knows what's happened. As she walks around, she finds three clues and one red herring throughout the morning, but she still can’t yet come to a definite conclusion because she’s been moving around all morning and hasn’t thought about it yet.
(51) She sits down in the main cabin and thinks for a while while snacking on some (regular not motivational) dried mango slices, and suddenly she realizes that the poetry and thriller cabins must have teamed up to steal the motivation mangoes for themselves to stay in the top of the leaderboard!
(63) She goes to thriller and poetry with some of her cabinmates to question them about the mangoes, but they continue to deny the theft. However, as one of her cabinmates interrogate them, Rainy notices that there's a group of thriller and poetry campers sneaking mangoes out the back door when a mango falls and rolls near her foot! Sci-fi campers confront that group.
(63) The group gives themselves up, apologizing and saying that they were planning on returning them just as soon as the weekly was over. They had wanted to keep their places in top two, but they were afraid that other cabins would pass them by submitting weeklies. The mangoes are returned to the main cabin and everyone rejoices with the restitution of the mangoes!

P2 - CLUES/RED HERRINGS (236/200)
(51) clue - rainy notices that campers from thriller and poetry are acting really friendly with each other - talking lots, eating snacks and meals together, and hanging out with each other, even though their cabins are in first and second place respectively and are both competing for the first place spot on the leaderboard.
(57) red herring - rainy finds a fresh mango leaf near the fairy tale cabin. it's so fresh that it still smells like an actual mango, so it couldn't have been dropped long ago. the only type of fresh mango allowed in the camp is of the motivation variety, so it also couldn't have been just brought in from home by a camper.
(55) clue - as rainy paces between the cabins and the main cabin, trying to figure out this mystery, she notices a few poetry campers acting weirdly. they're whispering between their hands and have shifty-looking eyes. when she goes up to talk to them, they're not unfriendly, but for the most part they give short or monosyllabic responses.
(73) clue - rainy asks one of her fellow sci-fi cabinmates if she's noticed or found out anything about the missing motivation mangoes. lily tells her that she saw some mangoes in front of the thriller cabin a while ago, but when she went back past the cabin a little later, they were gone again. she also noticed the poetry campers acting weirdly, and she says she hasn't seen any big groups of thriller campers together.

P3 - INTERVIEW (251/200)
// my answers for @stvriii’s questions
On March 22nd at around 8:37pm, I was out taking a walk when it began to rain. Then something weird happened. You know the rest, I guess - I was delivering a package to a/your house, one that I found on the ground out in the woods. I found it by a strange stone, a very smooth one, almost like someone had carefully tumbled it- and it had a carving of a twisting snake on it. I’m not sure why, but when I saw it, I just felt compelled to deliver it to them/you, even in the pouring rain.
No, I don’t think so. Wait, actually, I think I saw something similar on the side of a McDonalds Happy Meal once! That’s probably unrelated, though. So, no.
Again, no. I hadn’t even seen the journal before I delivered it to her, just the outer wrapping on the package - something told me not to open it and to just give it away. Maybe my conscience, maybe something else entirely. Either way I’m glad I listened so I wasn’t mixed up in this more than I already am. Weird symbols, though, seriously.
Yes, I am very sure. I was careful to keep it tightly closed. Maybe those were from someone before me?
This was me. I was curious what was going to happen, so I went there to check it out. However, once I realized they were really going to sacrifice people, I left. She must have gotten there right then.

P4 - STORY (1421/550)
Rainy walks down the long path to the main cabin, yawning as she slowly wakes up. It's the last day of the weekly and she knows that she'll need motivation mangoes to complete it. As she nears the entrance, she realizes that there's a lot of commotion going on inside. She enters the main cabin and asks the nearest leader what's happened.
“The motivation mangoes have all been stolen overnight!” the leader exclaims. “We're never going to be able to finish the weekly without motivation mangoes! Our leaderboard place…”
Rainy wakes up fully at this news. She knows what she has to do. Leaving the leader to their sad leaderboard musings, Rainy leaves the main cabin to see if there might be any clues as to where the mangoes have all gone.
As she walks between two cabins, she notices something on the ground up ahead. She speeds up her pace and once she reaches it, she realizes it's a fresh mango leaf. Rainy picks it up and smells it. It still smells just like a mango; that scent hasn't left it and turned it into a plain old leaf-smelling leaf. It must be very fresh. She looks up at the cabin in front of her. Fairy Tales. Have the Fairy Tales campers stolen the mangoes?
Rainy doesn't want to make any accusations without enough evidence, so she files this though away in her mind and continues searching for clues. As she passes by the Poetry cabin, she notices that a few Thriller campers have come over to talk and have snacks, which is strange because their cabins should be in competition for first place. While inter-cabin friendships are common (and great!), usually competition between two cabins puts friendships on a pause - cabin comes first for the most part. However, these campers are having a great time hanging out, which is weird.
She shrugs it off, but as she continues on past Poetry, she sees a few Poetry campers acting weirdly. They're sitting together in the shade at a picnic table, but instead of eating, making conversation, and cracking jokes, they're speaking in hushed tones. They fall silent as she walks up.
“Hi guys!” Rainy says, trying to start up a conversation. “So, weird how the motivation mangoes are all gone, right?”
One of them nods. “Yeah, pretty strange.”
The other smiles. “I hope we get them back soon!”
“Have you guys seen any of them anywhere?” Rainy asks. “I'm trying to figure out where they all went.”
“Nope,” they say together. They still have on friendly smiles, but it's pretty clear that they don't want to talk about this anymore.
“Well, I'll see you around, I guess,” Rainy says, waving. They say bye.
Back at Sci-Fi cabin, Rainy decides to ask around to see if anyone's heard or seen anything weird about the motivation mangoes. She goes up to ask CD or Zion, but they're both trying to write and seem pretty stressed without the motivation mangoes, so she leaves the two leaders alone. The only other person she sees in the cabin who isn't writing or trying to catch up on sleep after cabin wars is Lily, so she asks her.
“So, you've seen how all the motivation mangoes are gone, right?” Rainy inquires in a low tone, trying not to disturb her cabinmates. “Have you seen any left anywhere?”
Lily says that she realized they were all gone, but later when she was leaving Sci-Fi cabin to go to the main cabin, she saw some mangoes on the front porch of Poetry cabin. However, there definitely weren't enough to be all the missing mangoes, and when she was coming back, they were gone.
“Really?” Rainy asks, intrigued. “Hm, maybe they just had some left over from cabin wars. Have you talked to anyone in Thriller or Poetry lately?”
Lily replies that she's talked to a few campers from poetry, but they were acting pretty weird. She hasn't seen many Thriller campers around, but when she did, there were only one or two of them - never a bigger group.
Rainy thanks Lily for letting her ask so many questions and then she goes back to the main cabin to sit down and think about the information she's gotten throughout the morning.
Inside the main cabin, most of the crowd about the empty motivation mango dispenser has dissipated, but there's a few people still sitting nearby, talking about it. Rainy picks up some dried mango slices that unfortunately aren't of the motivation variety and sits down to mull over her clues.
As she snacks on the dried mango, she suddenly has a realization. Poetry and Thriller must have teamed up to steal the motivation mangoes for themselves so that they could dominate the top of the leaderboard!
Rainy quickly wolfs down the rest of her snack and leaves. She stops by Sci-Fi to get a couple cabinmates to come with her and question Thriller and Poetry, but everyone's so excited that she ends up bringing the entire cabin. They all enter the Thriller cabin after they see a bunch of Poetry campers enter.
“Hello…?” one of the Thriller leaders half-greets, half-asks.
“Hi there,” Zion says, their hands on their hips. He has a determined look on. “We have reason to believe that your cabin and Poetry have teamed up to steal the camp's motivational mangoes.
CD nods beside him, also wearing a defiant look on their face. ”Yep. You guys are acting wayyy too suspicious.“
”What?“ A thriller campers comes up next to their leader. ”Us, stealing the motivational mangoes? How could you accuse us of that?“
Finley steps in from where they had been lagging behind (they'd been trying to save their weekly in their writing software). ”Because you guys have been acting suspicious, your campers have been hanging out together when they should be in competition, and one of our campers saw a bunch of motivational mangoes on your front porch a while ago.“
One of the Poetry campers in the back of the group that's gathered in the front part of Thriller cabin curses quietly.
”You're pulling up evidence that means nothing,“ a Poetry leader says, stepping forward. ”We've done nothing wrong!“
As the leaders argue, Rainy sees a flash of something yellow and red by her feet. She looks down and sees that it's a fresh motivational mango! A few of the other Sci-Fi campers see it too and a commotion starts as everyone starts pointing and yelling at once. In the back of Thriller cabin, a group of Thriller and Poetry campers are carefully dragging out heavy-looking lumpy bundles.
”Hey! You guys in the back! What've you got there?“ Rainy shouts. They freeze and look at their leaders for guidance.
The Thriller and Poetry leaders exchange a look, and their shoulders drop. ”Alright, alright, you've caught us,“ the Poetry leader says. ”We're sorry.“
”But… why would you steal the mangoes?“ Zion asks, his eyebrows drawn together in confusion.
The Thriller leader speaks this time. ”We just wanted to keep our places in the top two spots of the leaderboard. We were worried that other cabins would pass us as their campers submitted weeklies, so we stole the motivation mangoes so that most people would run out of motivation and not be able to do their weeklies.“
A Thriller co-leader pipes up. ”We were planning on returning them to the main cabin tonight, once the weekly was over, we promise! But I guess it really isn't fair to the other cabins.“
The guilty campers begin to nod, agreeing. A general chorus of ”sorry“ emanates from the crowd.
”Well, it's okay now, I guess,“ Finley says, a smile forming on their face. ”But you'll have to lug them all the way back to the main cabin.
The Thriller and Poetry leaders nod, looking ashamed of themselves. “We will, don't worry.”
A few groups of campers split off from the crowd to gather the motivation mangoes up.
About an hour later, the motivation mangoes are back in place in the dispenser, and campers from all cabins rejoice in restitution of their beloved mangoes. It doesn't take long for them to forgive the Poetry and Thriller campers, and soon everyone's working on the weekly in the main cabin, together, with friends from all cabins.
Rainy smiles as she opens up her writing program to put the last touches on her weekly, a plate of freshly-sliced motivation mango by her side. It had all turned out well in the end.