Daily March 1st
Hi, I’m Squeak, your local mythos nerd! I use she/her and they/them pronouns, I don’t mind which ones you use for me
I’m a huge fan of Percy Jackson, Keeper of the Lost Cities (very rusty on what I remember though, it’s been a while), and soooo many musicals. My favorite songs at the moment include Enchanté by Dirt Poor Robins, Farewell Wanderlust by The Amazing Devil, and Whatever it Takes from Hazbin Hotel.
I love hearing about other people’s stories, so if you want to ramble to someone about your world building, I’d love to hear it! I myself am currently working on a novel about a girl named Elinora Roscoe who finds herself bound to a fantastical world and learns things about herself and a seemingly random earthly classmate along the way. Other characters include Ronatia Orreales, a winged girl from the fictional country of Hynolxel who struggles with self-esteem issues regarding her appearance, and Volych Fytenni, a boy from Vyxow who talks to ghosts and has been spending the last couple years helping to raise his little sister after the loss of their father, whose ghost has been suspiciously absent.
Aside from that one story, I have so many worlds and characters that live rent free in my head. I call it the ECU irl, but since my nickname here doesn’t start with E like my actual name does, we’ll call it the SCU. I’ve actually figured out how to connect all my fantasy worlds together in ways that don’t contradict each others’ rules and allows for a possible meeting of any two characters from completely different stories. The only characters in the SCU that know about all the different worlds are the Constants, a group of people who each embody a force existing in each one. The Constants haven’t been completely finished yet, but so far there’s Time, her twin brother Space, their little sibling Matter, and the twins Life and Death, who have yet to get designs or a relation to the first three, but I’m working on it!
I am a huge theatre kid, and I’ve auditioned every school show I’ve been able to. Productions I’ve done include Really Rosie in 7th grade (Johnny/Joanie), Moana in 8th grade (Tamatoa’s left claw), Mean Girls back in December (Marymount), and the one I’m in right now, a play called Adapted and Destroyed (Bunny Friend & Fan)! I’m super excited to perform Adapted and Destroyed tomorrow, especially since it’s our entry for a competition between several different schools across the state, of which my school is hosting six others in this year’s prelims! We do this competition every year, but this is the first time we’ve hosted part of the prelims, so that’s exciting!
I’m a very artistic individual who loves drawing and songwriting as well as writing and singing/acting! The songs I write are mostly not the happiest, but they portray life as I see it, and I think they’d end up being relatable to some people. I make songs about the stories I create, the D&D campaigns I play with my friends, and some of my real experiences. One of my best ones is called Dance With the Doomed, a love song based on two characters in one of our D&D campaigns that were boyfriends, but one was fated to die and the other was so afraid to lose him that he wasn’t sure what he’d do when it finally happened. I hope to someday take these songs, make instrumentals for them, and possibly make an EP or even album and become an actual artist. Hopefully someday, I can be a musician no one needs to worry about becoming problematic like almost everyone seems to be these days. My best friend and I have been making music together ever since I wrote Dance With the Doomed, especially the character that’s meant to be singing it is played by him, and between his knowledge of music and my gift for songwriting, we actually make a great team!
I often incorporate sexualities and disorders into my stories and songs to provide representation that’s actually accurate. I have generalized anxiety disorder and my therapist suspects I have ADD, so I give those traits to my characters, especially anxiety. I’ve never read a fantasy story where the main character had anxiety, they were usually so brave and hopeful even in dark times. This contributed to me wondering if anxiety made me broken, which I hope to tell readers is not true through giving my POV character the same disorder I have. I am also aroace, with a circle of mostly queer friends, so I take information from myself and them to create characters that are queer, but not for plot convenience, simply because the sexualities and genders I choose are the ones that feel right for them, and it should be taught that to be queer is not to be different, and some people just identify differently than you while still not being annoyingly obsessed with talking about it. I know that there are stories in which people are casually not straight or disordered, but I have yet to see it in YA fantasy aside from Percy Jackson. And in my songs, I want them to be relatable to my fellow chronic people pleasers who are paranoid of not being enough, so that they could hopefully realize that you don’t have to please everyone and you should prioritize your own happiness.
Enough about everything else, let’s get to my SWC experience! This is my seventh session, and the first I’ll be spending in Fantasy even though Fantasy has been in my top three preferences every single time I’ve signed up. My first session was March 2022, spent on Thriller Island with my friend LJ leading it. Second time around was in the Thriller Rift in July 2022, followed by the Real-Fi Inn that November. 2023 consisted of the Folklore Spell Shop in March, the Script Circus in July, and Myth Cove last session in November. I’m so excited to be part of the Fantasy Knighthood this session!
1023 words!

Daily March 4th
Tense: Past (4)
POV: Third Person Omniscient (5)
Two princesses of different nations, a blonde and a brunette, sat at the end of a dock stretching out just above the lake which felt only inches below the stars on that beautiful night, their hands intertwined as the brunette rested her head on the blonde’s shoulder.
“Do you think we will live this peace forevermore, Catherine?” Asked the blonde with a wistful yet pained look in her eyes.
“My dear Adelaide, I may only hope so. But alas, the sun must set at some point,” the brunette, Catherine, replied.
“It is a shame we must keep our affections secret. If your father knew-”
Catherine cut off her lover’s panicked ‘what if’. “Do not dwell on hypotheticals, love. It is much more a shame than such a case to live in a melancholy world comprised of what never was.”
Adelaide smiled at this, the pain in her eyes growing stronger, but Catherine could not see it. If the eyes were truly the window to the soul, one would see through the panes in Adelaide’s vision a great despair as she reached into her satchel with the hand that wasn’t holding Catherine’s.
“I suppose you are correct. Your father will never know. Yet there is something I feel I must tell you,” Adelaide choked back a sob as she prepared to secure her family’s rule.
“And now, dear, what might that be?” Catherine smiled, without a clue as to what Adelaide was about to attempt.
In an instant, Adelaide had kicked her booted foot out from her kneeling position and, with the assistance of her hand no longer holding Catherine’s, shoved her lover into the shallow lake below, shattering the beautiful reflection of the stars with ripples that seemed to tear the constellations apart in the water.
“Adelaide?” Catherine asked, a fearful look in her eyes as she reached up a hand for her love to take.
“I will not assist you back up. I cannot assist you back up.”
“Whatever do you mean, Adelaide? You forget yourself!”
“I remember myself, Catherine. And I remember that your nation is at odds with mine, and if we were wed, we both know full well that the kingdoms would merge into yours. And my family is always above scum like you!”
“Adelaide, you have always known it was so. Why turn against our dreams of being wed now?” Begged Catherine, as she gave more liquid to the lake with drops falling from her eyes.
Adelaide pulled a dagger from her satchel and leaned in close to Catherine’s face. Rather than slit her lover’s throat, she whispered an explanation between tears.
“My father found out, and he will execute me if I do not do this.”
A thousand emotions ran through Catherine’s head. Worry, fear, sadness, anger, betrayal, joy, but above all, courage.
“If I must pretend to die, I will take you with me and we shall rest together,” Catherine whispered back.
“What? But-”
Before Adelaide could finish her sentence, Catherine pulled her into the lake and yanked her under the water before removing the dagger from Adelaide’s grasp and using it to cut her own forearm. Upon seeing the shocked look on Adelaide’s face, Catherine gave an apologetic smile and cut Adelaide’s forearm as well before dropping the dagger and leading her further into the lake. From her own satchel, Catherine pulled out two vials of teal liquid. She downed the first one in an instant and offered the other to Adelaide, who accepted hesitantly. In a moment, Adelaide’s need for air was somehow satiated even below the waves.
“Water breathing potions, truly one of the most useful inventions I have ever had the privilege to behold,” Catherine smiled, now perfectly audible to Adelaide.
“I- Catherine, what are we doing? Our fathers will worry for us!”
“Ah, but Adelaide, let them! They have for years kept us apart, convinced us we were enemies, and never showed a sliver of care or compassion for us. Run away with me, Adelaide! Let them think we drowned together in your failed attempt to assassinate me! Let us live our peace forevermore!”
Adelaide’s shocked expression soon softened into gratitude as she admitted, “I suppose you are correct. Let us live our peace indeed!”
And as the two swam to the opposite shore and prepared to run the fastest and the farthest they had even ran before, they knew they had never felt more liberated. Their hands intertwined once more, it felt as though those shattered constellations had finally been repaired.
754 words!

Weekly 1 (March 3-10)
Part One
Crossover
I couldn’t help but gasp as we entered the freshly opened academy for demigods as the first class of students to attend. Three adults, two men and a woman, stood stoically at the other end of the room, giving us small smiles. Looking at the mostly normal-looking man in the center, who had graying hair and a patch over one eye, I noticed a striking resemblance in facial structure and build to my friend Liv.
“Hey, Livvy, is that-”
Before I could finish my question, I saw Liv staring wide-eyed at the man.
“Yeah,” she answered, “That’s Odin.”
“Are you going to be alright here? ‘Cause I heard those three are the principals.”
“I mean, I’ll probably be fine. You don’t usually see principals too often.”
As the last few kids filed into the academy, the woman cleared her throat and began her welcome.
“Hello, everyone!”
A chorus of “hello”s followed in reply.
“As some of you may know, my name is Athena, and I am the principal of this institution,” she smiled, “Now, could the two of you introduce yourselves?” Athena turned to the two men.
Odin spoke first. “Hello, I’m Odin, here representing the Aesir. I see that there are some of my children attending, which should be interesting to be sure.”
The other man spoke next. He had tan skin and the head of an ibis bird. “I am Thoth, and just so no one asks, I will not answer to birdbrain.”
The deadpan way in which Thoth said the last few words of his introduction made a bunch of kids laugh, and as the laughter died down, a voice came for its own introduction, putting shock on the faces of the three divine principals.
“And my name… is Ouranos.”
294 words!

Part Two
Historical Figures in Modern Times
If you had told me that bringing home a normal-looking, albeit seemingly ancient, scrap of linen would cause one of the weirdest days of my life, I wouldn't believe you in the slightest. But here I am, journaling the day after I made that mistake.
I should probably start with what I was doing, bringing home a random scrap of old material.
You see, I was walking home from my friend’s house, and I saw something blowing in the wind right in front of me. I thought that it looked cool, and wondered how it got there, so I picked it up and started walking with it. I figured that maybe I’d put it with my rock collection, as it was pretty solid anyway.
As I placed the linen on the shelf where I had placed rocks for years before, I heard a crash behind me. Immediately turning to see what caused it, I saw a man who appeared to be in his mid-thirties just lying on the floor as if he had fallen. He had fair skin and curly reddish hair. His outfit looked ancient, yet as though it was freshly made. A purple tunic that was white in the middle, a purple cloak, and some sort of a diadem.
“Who are you?” I asked, my guard up so far that it may as well be in the stratosphere.
“I?” The man asked, surprised. “I am Alexander the Third of Macedon!”
I sighed. Clearly this man was lying.
“This is… an odd place indeed,” the man said, looking around my room, “Is that the sun?”
I looked to where he was pointing, which was just the light.
“No. You can drop the Alexander act now, and tell me who you actually are.”
The man seemed even more surprised. “What? Do you mean to tell me I am not he who conquered his way to a great empire? He who brought Greek tradition far and wide? He whose territory reached the edge of the earth itself?”
I put a hand over my face. “Alexander of Macedon didn’t speak English.”
“What is English?”
“I - okay, so you’re just crazy,” I muttered. “How did you get here?”
‘Alexander’ looked around the room and sighed. “I have no idea. I was just in Babylon, with my generals asking who would take over when I was gone. I told them it was to go to the strongest of them. And then… when I closed my eyes, I was here.”
I turned back to the piece of linen and found that it was now glowing the same purple as the man’s tunic.
“Do you know what this is?” I asked, grabbing the piece and handing it to him.
I didn’t expect that, the moment he touched it, the piece would disappear.
And I certainly didn’t expect that the moment it disappeared, a full set of linothorax armor would replace his previous outfit.
487 words!

Part Three
Retelling
The oldest of the Sea King’s daughters was never one to take risks. She would do as she pleased, swimming to the surface at least one night a fortnight after turning fifteen to see the stars and the moon as the humans did, but dipped back under the waves before the dawn or the moment one of her legged counterparts approached the beaches, never even telling her sisters that she was gone aside from the nights they would rise together..
Oh, but the eldest girl’s twenty-first year brought worry upon her and all of her sisters but the youngest. The final daughter of the Sea King was to turn fifteen overmorrow, and the other five sisters knew that this one would not be so careful as they. So, as the youngest slept the night before her fifteenth year would begin, the others voted for one to secretly follow her on her first trip to see the surface, to keep her out of trouble. The eldest was elected to take this task.
And in trouble the youngest girl got! It was not long before she discovered that humans had immortal souls, and that she would never truly die if she could only gain one. But alas, the youngest would need the love of a human for this to occur. A love so great that the human would forget his father and mother and love her with his entire soul so that a priest would join them in marriage. The youngest girl was so determined that she went on to bargain with the Sea Witch for this chance at the cost of losing her own tongue.
The eldest daughter, if not for the fear of being caught, would have wept so! She would have swam straight to her sister and hugged her and begged her not to leave, for she knew that the attempt was for naught!
But alas, the eldest was without courage, and wept every night afterwards for her sister. She was the one who proposed that the others make their own bargain, a bargain that should the youngest mermaid draw blood from her princely lover’s heart with a knife they had exchanged their hair for, the princess would be of the sea once more. And yet, the youngest refused. She died instead, and the older five sisters never knew how she had joined the daughters of the air. The eldest daughter without courage wept until she herself became the sea foam that night, and the remaining four princesses were left alone. So, child, behave and have courage, so that you may allow the daughters of the air to ascend, and save the little mermaid as the eldest without courage could not!
452 words!

Part Four
Different Versions of the Same Story
The Two Firstborns
There once lived a clever maiden with a mind of wit and cunning. The maiden sought all the knowledge of the world, but knew that there was no way she could learn it all before her life came to an end. So, she went into the land of witches and asked one, “Have you a bargain you are willing to make in which I gain the world’s knowledge?”
The witch replied, “Aye, I have a bargain for all things. But should you wish for the world’s knowledge, you must give up your child which is borne first.”
The maiden, then childless, swore that she would do so once she became a mother. When she found a husband, she took note that the man was already with a child borne by a wife now passed on, a young girl of two years. The couple were happily married not long after. It was not long before the woman found that she was expecting a child of hers and her husband’s own. The woman remembered the bargain which she had made, and when the boy was born, the witch soon came to collect her payment.
“I am terribly sorry, but the boy cannot be considered the one borne first. Surely you see the girl is older,” the woman explained.
“Then let me collect the girl.”
“Oh, but she is not my blood. The girl is of my husband, but another wife before me.”
“So let me collect the boy.”
“Oh, but do you dare suggest that the girl is not mine all the same?”
The witch, furious, shouted, “Well, if you consider them both to be yours, and both to be the first of your family, I shall take them both!”
With that, the witch disappeared, and so did both of the children. The woman who thought she had been so clever grieved for them both, and vowed to herself that she would never let anyone know her bargain. And so, her knowledge was never shared, and the woman later fell due to a broken heart.

The Woman Who Knew All Things
There once lived a woman who was cleverer than most. She could find a loophole in any situation, and use technicalities to avoid all trouble. But she wanted to know everything there was to know about the world. However, this woman knew that there was no way she could learn all of this within her lifetime, so she went into the forest of fae and asked one, “Have you a bargain we could make in which I gain knowledge of all things?”
The fae replied, “Ah, I have a bargain for anything you could imagine. In this case, in order for you to gain all knowledge, I demand in return the child which you first bear and call yours.”
The woman accepted the bargain, but she knew that she would never bear a child as she would never find a man she wanted to bear the child of. So, she adopted three children, and watched them grow up and move out. She called all of them hers, but the fae never collected any. After many years, the fae grew frustrated that he did not have his payment yet, and himself cast a spell that would make him take the form of her ideal man. He approached the woman and attempted to win her over, bringing delights he knew the woman would love. But the woman did not love him. He wondered why, until he noticed the woman talking to a friend, and upon being asked if she would ever marry, the woman replied, “I will marry not, for I cannot love under any condition. I do not forbid myself to love, no, that is not what I mean, but I find I am incapable of falling for any man or woman on earth.”
The fae realized that he had been tricked into accepting payment in the form of a child that would never exist. When he next saw the woman, he took the form of one of her adopted sons come to visit, and in the middle of the night went to the woman’s bedroom.
“If you cannot uphold your end of the bargain,” he said, “I will make sure your knowledge is never told!”
The fae took a needle to the woman’s lips and sewed until her mouth would no longer open so she would never speak a word. He cut off her thumbs and little fingers so she would never write a letter. He gave her knowledge of all things, so she would forever know what she could never tell a soul. Without use of her mouth or her thumbs and little fingers, the woman could no longer eat. She could no longer drink. From starvation, dehydration, and heartbreak, the woman soon passed away, without ever telling a soul what she knew.
816 words!

Part Five
Mythology - Retelling
They say that the tale of Pygmalion and Galatea was just a myth.
They say that there is no way a statue can come to life.
They say that what is not made of skin and bone will never be skin and bone.
But I know better.
I myself am a statue, a statue which is granted life for just one day out of every three hundred and sixty-five.
You see, after Aphrodite saw how delighted Pygmalion was to see Galatea alive, once a year she gives life to all statues. Humans will see illusions of us existing on our pedestals, and we will walk free among them. I have always been fascinated with some of the humans and how they reacted to seeing us, and I could not wait to see how they would react to living beings that appeared exactly like the sculptures. So, when this happened for the first time just a couple years ago, I was eager to talk to the visitors of the museum I resided in. I went around and said hi to everyone, most of whom just looked at me in confusion, and giggled with delight at my freedom. I was colorful, alive, not the plain marble I was so used to being!
I walked in front of my pedestal and looked at all the people who were there to see me. One in particular, a child, tapped me on the shoulder as I wondered what they thought of the skill of my creator.
“You have the same hairstyle as the statue,” the child said in her small voice.
I laughed as I turned around to see the child, who must have been no older than ten. “I suppose I do.”
When the little girl saw my face, she gasped. “You are the statue!”
I was taken aback by how easily this girl had figured it out. “How do you figure that?”
The girl giggled and pointed at me. “Your face is the same! I think you’re even the same height.”
I smiled, which felt weird considering my expression was sculpted to be neutral. “You’re right! I guess I must be that statue indeed. What’s your name, kid?”
The girl’s expression turned sad. “I don’t have one.”
I tilted my head, confused. “I thought all humans had names.”
The girl shook her head. “I’m from a painting. We’re only allowed out of our frames on the third Wednesday of February each year.”
My eyes widened. “Oh! I did not realize the paintings were allowed life once a day just like us. What painting are you from? I’d love to visit you next year.”
The girl’s eyes lit up and she grabbed my hand and brought me to her section of the museum. Her painting was of a little girl, the little girl I was speaking to, happily playing in a stream.
“Well,” I said, “Maybe we should call you River.”
The girl appeared happier than she did even in her artwork’s gleeful setting.
“I’d like that!”
“Well then, River, it is settled.”
We had spent the rest of that day together, and since then I have always visited her painting on the day we could move, and she has always visited me on the day she could leave. I cannot wait for those days to overlap once more.
555 words!

Part Six
Folklore - Write a Story With a Moral
There once lived a girl who wanted to be perfect for everyone. She would help her friends with anything they needed, did exactly as people asked, and never prioritized her own needs over anyone else’s.
One day, the girl made a new friend. Or at least, she thought she did. This friend was outgoing and had similar interests to the girl who wanted to be perfect. The girl thought that the friend was going to be a good one.
The girl had a special power she used whenever she felt the need to: She could detect spirits and know exactly how close or far away they were. Whenever her friend was around, the girl would feel a presence about the friend, one that meant to harm the girl. The girl soon found out that her friend had felt as if being watched for months, and told the friend how to repel the spirit. Afterwards, she could still tell exactly how far away it stood. The girl thought that she was being a perfect friend. She never spoke ill about anyone behind their backs, never lied to her friends, and never told their secrets to a soul.
But the friend did not appreciate the girl. One day, when the friend thought that the girl (who was in severe panic) could not hear, the friend began to talk to a boy about the girl, saying things about how she was childish and needed to be babysat lest she panic like this again. The friend expressed sorrow for the boy, who the girl considered to be her best and closest friend of them all, and the boy was upset to hear this about his friend and did not believe that she was childish at all.
But the girl who wanted to be perfect couldn’t understand. Hadn’t she done everything right? Hadn’t she been such a good person? Why did this supposed friend feel the need to say those things to the boy? Of course, she was aware that the boy would never believe it, but she wondered if something was wrong.
The boy comforted her, told her that nothing was wrong with the girl, and that the friend had clearly never been a true one if it took so little for them to turn against her. The boy and the girl spoke until it felt true to the girl once more that she had done everything right. It was that day that the girl realized that, no matter how wonderful you are, and no matter how much you try to be a good, perfect person, you cannot please everyone.
So, children, do not try to be perfect! For there are people who will hate you no matter what. You cannot make everyone happy, so focus on yourself, and who you can please instead. You will find that you are infinitely happier.
478 words!

Total Word Count: 3082 words!

Daily March 6th
Genre: Mytho-Dystopian
As I breathed a sigh greater than any I’ve breathed in my life, I looked down at my sword covered in blood and ichor stains. This battle had been one more intense than I was prepared for, but at least we came out of it alive.
Dust swirled in the wind from the crumbled ruins surrounding us, ruins of a land once known as Rome. I looked back at our army, heroes of old that were the only ones who could start the world anew.
“This was…an interesting way to meet, I must say,” I smiled behind my mask.
“Tha…it was,” Replied Cú Chulainn, tending to a member of the Fianna while Anubis went around counting the fatalities. The Fianna’s leader, Fionn Mac Cumhaill, had an arrow sticking out of his arm and Aesclepius would not let him move a muscle until it was fully fixed. Susanoo summoned rain above what needed to be washed, and he and Aeolus brushed debris away with their winds.
Hermes ran into the area from scouting for more members of Typhon’s army, coming to a cartoonish stop as he saw the aftermath and whistled before asking, “That bad, huh?”
“Yeah, so y’know, we could use some assistance,” grumbled Odin, who was immediately face-to-face with the messenger god, the wings on his shoes fluttering so fast they seemed everywhere at once.
“Quid dixis, senex?”
“Oh, please, you wouldn’t do anything to me.”
“You’re right, I wouldn’t!” Hermes flashed a smile and made his way over to me.
“How’d everything go, Penthesilea?”
I glared at the deity and answered, “Would be a lot better if you hadn’t told that half brother of yours who we were up against. Do you know how many of my Amazons fell?”
Hermes put his hands up and shook his head. “Hey, Ares has a right to know if the Aloadae are involved. Plus, all of ‘em are either going to Elysium or Valhalla, depending on which half Odin claims, so they’ve got it pretty good either way.”
I rolled my eyes but cracked a small smile. “What, Anubis doesn’t want them?”
Hermes laughed. “Nah, it’s the other way around. I don’t think anyone here would want to go to The Field of Reeds. I mean, it’s essentially the same thing as Asphodel but it actually yields something.”
“At least our dead have purpose, Psychopompos,” Anubis growled as he shot a look Hermes’ way.
I chuckled and stared up at the full moon, our light on this visually and emotionally dark night, and smiled. The rule of Typhon and his army of monsters from all pantheons was over. The gods were back in their rightful places, and deities and heroes of all nations were united in their victory over their temporary oppressors.
We were free once more.
466 words!

Weekly 2 (March 11-17)
Part One
Flowers used: Marigold (Grief) and Asphodel (Regret)
A young woman sat on a bench in her favorite park, yet felt none of the calm she was so used to feeling when she was upon it. Her decisions haunted her every thought as she pondered why she had not gone to her friend the moment she suspected danger.
The woman’s friend, a man with a heart of gold but not the sharpest mind, had seen the good in far too many people. He had told the woman of a new friend who would be arriving to his home not long after, but some of the things he had been saying about this new friend were odd. Things like not even knowing the friend’s full first name and only knowing nicknames, having just met the person an hour ago but feeling something click instantly, and the friend being eerily happy about every situation, even smiling and giggling through talking about a murdered friend of theirs. The woman had told her friend not to trust this person, but the friend insisted that they seemed kind and wanted to give the new person a chance. The woman had asked if she should go over too, just in case anything happened, but the friend insisted that everything would be fine and didn’t feel like having more than one person over at a time at the moment. The woman didn’t completely understand that, but wanted to respect her friend’s wishes and didn’t go no matter how much she felt like she had to.
The next day, the woman woke up to the news that her friend had been murdered by this new person. Not long after, she had found herself on this bench.
The woman stood up to leave, but her regret finally caught up to her completely as she did, wrapping around her heart and making her feel as though she was compressing. The woman became thinner and shorter, until she was just three feet tall, and her body began to sprout white flowers from within. Just before the woman’s favorite spot, her regret had turned her to asphodel.
For decades afterwards, the asphodel plant would come to be surrounded by marigolds, though no one was ever quite sure why there were so many of them around this particular plant. Either way, the asphodel still stands by that bench, as a reminder to follow your instinct so as not to fall victim to regret.
Part One: 402 words!

Part Two
Once upon a time, the twins Night and Day got in an argument over Time. Night wanted Time to make the winters longer, so he would be present more. Day wanted Time to make the summers longer, so she would be present more. Time did not want to give either their request, as she had already ensured that over the entire year, they had equal share, so she remained indifferent to the situation. Day did not want to push, so she learned to be content with her share of the year, but Night got upset. He decided that the only way to get more time than Day was to overthrow his sister. So, he got War and Creation to make him a scepter just like most of the other Constants had, a powerful staff with a full moon atop it. Day did not yet have one of her own, so when Night attacked, she had no equal defense. However, Day was clever, and asked Space for help on defending herself from her brother. Day pretended to surrender in the battle, so that nighttime would fall. In his assumed triumph, Night did not realize that they were not only in his domain, but Space’s as well. Space snatched the scepter and threw it into the sky, out of the borders of the world and into a place where there was not Day nor Night, only Time and Space. When Night attempted to take it back, he could only grab a crescent-shaped piece of it. He threw it back into the sky and tried to take it back again, but only got a half piece. He threw the piece once more, and the next time he tried, he only was able to gain the majority of it, but a crescent remained. Night tried eight times to take back the scepter, but the closest he ever got was taking just the moon decoration. After all these attempts, when the scepter only had half its moon, Space got bored and transformed the scepter into a constellation. He did, however, create a moon which changed shape between eight phases, so that Day and Night would always know that they must split their time.
Part Two: 368 words!

Part Three
Constellation Part Aesthetic
Part Three: Five images!

Part Four
Squeak was running out of things to do before she stopped procrastinating on the weekly. There was one more day, why do it now? She looked over at the bulletin board for the camp, which still displayed Fantasy as the bottom cabin. Squeak sighed and wondered if she would ever be part of a winning cabin. She had been so close once, when the Thriller Rift came in third place back in July 2022. She remembered what had happened in the Rift, that month where she and the other campers were trapped in a dreamscape they could only escape should they complete the cabin’s challenges. As a reward once they escaped, the campers would be able to return to the Rift as much as they liked.
Suddenly, an idea struck Squeak. A new thing to do while she procrastinated!
Squeak ran to her bunk bed in the Fantasy cabin and quickly got under the covers, centering all her thoughts on the Rift. After just moments, she found herself falling just as she had twenty-three months before.
When Squeak finally landed, she looked around the Rift and instantly felt a sense of calm. She hadn’t been here in so long, but it was still like a home. She inhaled the air of the dreamscape, admiring all the shades of deep violet that had helped found her love of the color purple. She began to wander throughout the area, seeing all the doors she had worked with her cabinmates to get through. She summoned her time machine from July 2023 and went to November 2022, when she was trapped in the Real-Fi Inn. Why was she always trapped in these cabins? Squeak figured she would never know. The hallways were empty with cabin members all in the entryway getting introduced to the cabin. Suddenly, Squeak heard footsteps coming from the staircase as LJ began to show the rest of the cabin members to their rooms. Immediately, Squeak got back in the time machine and went to April 2023. Right after she had left The Folklore Apothecary. Squeak’s spell scrolls were all laid out, from the first one she cast, Gem of Character, to the final one she created herself, Opened Gateways. Laid out were jars and boxes, all empty as they had been used, which had labels such as “Amber”, “Basil”, and “Lemongrass”. Squeak smiled as she remembered the ways the spells had come to life in the air before liquefying into the jars they would be sealed in until they could be used.
Squeak picked up the one spell she had created, Opened Gateways, and uncorked the bottle. She measured a small amount, and drank it just to see if it would work.
Squeak felt herself being yanked through time and space, into a plain of pure violet. It was not the same shades as the Rift she had been in just ten minutes ago, but a lighter and more dark pinkish shade. The pond in the center of the plain swirled with its purple mystery, and the few trees’ magenta leaves swayed in the wind. In the distance, characters ran around and played in the long grass, giggling as they went on with their game. Squeak grinned with pride at the fact that she had created this wonderful place.
Before she could approach the characters she was so fascinated with, Squeak felt someone shake her awake.
“Squeak!” her cabin’s leader, Eevee, yelled. “You’ve been asleep all day! Come on, you need to finish the weekly!”
Squeak immediately sat up, nearly hitting her head on the ceiling above her before darting into the writing room.
After all, she had a weekly to finish.
612 words!

Totals: 1382 words and five images!

Daily March 17th
Lyric: “A soul that's born in cold and rain / Knows sunlight, sunlight, sunlight.” - Sunlight
In the middle of the worst storm the town had seen so far that year, there was a boy shivering in a forest.
He knew not where he had come from, nor where or who he was. He almost knew not that he was even alive.
The stars shone bright above the boy, though he could not see them through the dark gray clouds between them.
The boy was young, around eight years old, yet had not lived a single day thus far. He was brand new to this world and to any world that may be out there. He had hair as white as the purest snow, and eyes as dark as night itself.
As he trembled in the freezing rain, the boy looked at his surroundings for any clue what was going on. What was this feeling of having a body on a terrestrial setting?
As the boy wondered what could possibly be happening, a woman with eyes red as fire approached him. At first, he was scared, but the woman created a shield of red light above the two of them so that the rain would fall upon them no longer. She spoke in a tongue that belonged not to this world, yet the boy could understand flawlessly.
“Star child, have you a name or a home?”
The boy shook his head, not sure how he understood but somehow knowing that a ‘star child’ was exactly what he was.
The woman knelt down to the boy’s eye level and smiled. “Would you mind if I provided you such things?”
The boy’s dark eyes lit up with wonder. “You can give me a home?”
The woman nodded. “I have always wanted children, but alas, adoption requires legal documents and I would never want to bear one myself. I am sure that a child of the stars like myself would be the perfect match, if you would so allow me to take you in.”
The boy smiled and nodded so intensely it was a wonder his head didn’t fly off.
“It is settled then. Come on, young boy, I shall take you as my son. And if you would so allow me to, I think it would fit just fine to call you Aster.”
From that day on, the boy and his new mother lived a life of joy. While the two had their rough patches, and arguments in the boy’s teenage years that involved phrases such as ‘you’re not even my real mom’, the two enjoyed each other’s company and came to view each other as a true mother and son pair. The boy who had been created under the cold of a storm now lived a life of light.
452 words!

Weekly 3 (March 18-25)
Part One
While taking a walk one chilly autumn afternoon, Penelope Tellman finds herself face to face with a door that seemed to appear out of nowhere. It is in the center of an otherwise empty field, and seemed to lead nowhere. Just for fun, Penelope opens the door and a group of spirits exit in a flurry, claiming that they had all been murdered and trapped in an alternate dimension behind the door by the same individual but had not a clue who it was. They convince Penelope to help solve their murders.

Penelope begins to have dreams in which she sees a silhouette holding an ax that drips with blood. Each time has such a dream, a new clue appears at the mysterious door like a package. Three stick out as the most important. The first is a painting on a cloth, rough around the edges and only showing a mother and her little daughter. The next is an intricate key, with an oceanic design carved into it. The final clue is a box of broken wedding rings with the name “Iphigenia” carved onto the box.

Penelope asks the ghosts who Iphigenia is, and one comes forward. He holds sadness in his eyes as he explains that Iphegenia was a little girl, daughter of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon back in the days of Greece, who was sacrificed to Artemis so that the ships set for the Trojan War would be able to set sail. The words “Trojan War” make something click in Penelope’s mind. Suddenly, she sees visions of two women hugging each other tightly upon both their husbands leaving for war. She sees these two getting closer over the years they are without their spouses, and one slowly growing nearly insane. She sees the women each embracing their husbands once more when they return, but the insane one has a certain look in her eyes as she slyly looks towards an ax hanging on the wall. She sees a scene of the two embracing as spirits, their bond so strong that one might mistake them for lovers, and their souls merge. When the two come together, Penelope feels a sense of familiarity with the new soul, and panicked at this association, puts the key into the door. Rather than showing wherever the spirits had come from, there is just a hallway with a large mirror at the end. When she looks in the mirror, she sees the merged souls together live a human life once more, a life in which the insane part of the soul kills who are now the spirits while the sane one is peacefully unaware. She sees that life die, and another come of the same soul. Penelope is shocked to see that it is her. The moment she speaks in words that she killed the spirits, they all disappear as their final burden has been solved.

Penelope stares in horror at her reflection, which has turned into one of the women, the sane one, embracing her husband. She sees and hears the sane woman sob, “I thought you’d never come back, Odysseus.” as her husband shushes her and says “Cry not, Penelope. I’m home.” After Penelope processes that she shares her name with this woman, the scene changes to the woman Penelope had seen in her dreams, standing in the light. It is the insane woman, about to be killed by her two remaining children, crying, “THE WORLD WILL REMEMBER THE NAME CLYTEMNESTRA!” The mirror turns back to Penelope’s reflection as she sees she has the features of both the sane and insane woman. Processing this information, Penelope’s insane side begins to show as well as she goes into a bout of madness.

Penelope’s madness is that she wishes to kill whoever wronged her most, whoever she could blame for her insanity surfacing. But when she realizes that the insanity was brought on by visions of herself and the woman who had lived such a nice life, the Clytemnestra half has only herself to blame aside from the spirits and the door. So, Penelope finds a hemlock plant, crushes it and places it in water, returns to the door, and consumes the plant while inside. As her final action, she takes her ax and breaks the door so she can never leave and kill someone again.
721 words!

Part Two
Clue: The design on the door is of a doe, a symbol of Artemis. The doe is golden with silver antlers and hooves, standing in a lush forest and watching over a baby deer of the same appearance as it tries to stand up. Silver and gold colors will also be used to spell “Iphigenia”.

Red Herring: The spirits don’t know that the woman who killed them was Penelope/Clytemnestra reborn. They believe it was just some psycho who killed them just decades ago, so all the mythology symbolism will contrast with the spirits’ claims of being murdered much more recently than not soon after the Trojan War.

Clue: There will be a single horse that lives in the field, which slowly appears to look more wooden as time goes on. This is a reference to the Trojan Horse, not just for sticking with the theme, but because it symbolizes Penelope, as she is sweet on the outside yet secretly a murderer.

Red Herring: The box of broken wedding rings (there are fifty) do not contain any owned by the forty-five spirits. None recognize the rings, and all acknowledge that they look newer than their case, as if freshly made and immediately broken. There is, in reality, one ring for each of Peneleope’s suitors that were killed at the hands of Odysseus for his reunion with Penelope.
221 words!

Part Three
https://scratch.mit.edu/users/SqueakyBird520/#comments-320561477
262 words!

Part Four
Through the piercing chill of early autumn’s air, a teenage girl walked, almost home.
The girl, Penelope Tellman, turned on to her rural street and passed by the empty field just beside her house. But on that day, the field was not empty.
In the field was a brown horse, but more noticeable was a door with a silver and gold doe painted on it. The doe was in a forest, tending to a much younger one that looked the same.
Penelope looked at the door curiously, and approached it to see if there was anything supporting it. She noticed that there were hinges, and there was indeed a frame around it, but it seemed as though it was never part of a wall. Just for the fun of it, Penelope opened the door.
As the door opened, Penelope leaped backwards in shock as forty-five ghosts exited the door in a flurry. Penelope looked through the opened door and saw pure indigo on the other side, yet knew that there was no other side to the door.
One of the spirits spoke.
“Hello,” he said in a raspy voice, “we need your assistance.”
“In what?” The scared girl asked.
A second ghost came forward.
“A few decades ago, we were all murdered. Different days, sometimes different years, but all killed by the same individual.”
“Who?” Penelope inquired.
“That’s the thing. We don’t know. But we do know that they trapped us all behind that door, never to escape until it opened again.”
Penelope was shocked. “Do you have any clue as to who it was?”
The first ghost shook his head. “No, but as the one who freed us from there, it is the best we can do to figure it out to ask you for help.”
Penelope nodded, not processing any of this and not even entirely sure it was real. After she gave the ghosts her word that she would do her best to solve their murders, she went home.
That night, Penelope was plagued by visions. She saw a silhouette of a woman, the same woman every time, standing over various bodies with an ax that dripped with blood. She saw the woman looking at herself in the mirror, but the reflection’s hair appeared more unkempt than the silhouette herself. She saw the woman embracing her husband, who was just arriving home, but had the feeling this was a different time period entirely from the other scenes.
The next day, Penelope returned to the door, wondering if her dreams were a clue. As she arrived, she noticed that there was something lying at the foot of the door.
It was a painting on a piece of cloth, one that looked ancient yet brand new, that was clearly torn. The piece showed a woman, one with the same shape as the woman in Penelope’s dreams, with a young girl. But neither were wearing the attire of the time period in which the spirits died.
Penelope searched every site she could think of for who this woman might be, asked if any of the spirits could identify her, but nothing came up. Apparently, the woman’s features weren’t even entirely the same as the murderer’s. On that night, Penelope had another dream.
This time, there was a silhouette of the same woman, but living a different life. This woman did normal things, such as go to the grocery store to pick up more eggs or head over to a friend’s house for dinner. But in the third scene, once more, the woman was different. She took on a different appearance, the silhouette changing into someone else entirely, as she embraced a different husband. This embrace was filled with much more affection than the previous night’s.
When Penelope returned to the door the next morning, she discovered a key with an oceanic design in the same place the cloth painting had been the day before. She compared the key and the lock on the door’s knob, and they seemed to fit, but no matter what, something kept the key from going in.
The final sequence of dreams Penelope had before discovering who was behind the murder was of the woman once more, but a time before she was a murderer. She saw the woman playing a dice game with the woman from the previous night. She saw both of them bringing their young sons to play with each other, and sitting down for a chat while the boys had their fun. She saw them part ways, and somehow knew that this was the last time the two women would see each other in their lives.
On the third morning, Penelope found a box of fifty broken wedding rings at the mystery door. The box was plain, except for the single word “Iphigenia” painted on the lid in the same gold and silver as the doe on the door.
“Are any of these rings yours?”
Each spirit went up to investigate the rings, but it seemed none belonged to any of them. Wondering if “Iphigenia” was a clue, Penelope asked what the word meant.
The second ghost from the first day stepped forward.
“Iphigenia was the daughter of Clytemnestra and Agammemnon, the mythical figures. She was sacrificed to Artemis so that the ships could set sail for the Trojan War.”
Upon hearing the words “Trojan War”, something clicked inside Penelope’s mind.
She saw the two women she had been dreaming about over the last few nights, in full color rather than dark silhouettes. She saw them each watch their husbands leave for war, praying they would be back soon. She saw them bond while their husbands were away, drawing closer and closer. She saw one woman, the one from the first night, slowly going more and more insane, but the other woman did not care. Once more, she saw each woman embrace their husbands when they returned. With the first woman, she embraced her husband and, when he wasn’t looking, let her eyes wander to an ax on the wall. She saw the second woman embrace her husband, saying “I thought you’d never come back, Odysseus.” She saw him respond, “Shush, Penelope, worry not. I’m home.”
Suddenly, Penelope saw the first woman, the insane one, again, confronted by her two remaining children. As she was about to be struck by her own blood, she cried, “THE WORLD WILL REMEMBER THE NAME CLYTEMNESTRA!”
Not knowing how she could see this or why, Penelope (who was also still trying to process having the same name as the sane woman) tried once more to insert the oceanic key into the lock on the door.
This time, it worked, and when she opened the door, it was not the indigo place. Instead, there was a long hallway with a large mirror at the end.
Penelope was scared, but she approached the mirror. Within it, she saw the women again.
Penelope and Clytemnestra.
They were embracing once more, this time as spirits, their bond so strong that the two might as well be sisters. So strong that their souls began to merge upon their reunion.
Penelope (the investigating one) watched as the merged soul was born again, into a new woman. This woman had noticeable features from both women, and held an ax that dripped with blood.
The woman had a sinister smile, and looked Penelope right in the eyes. Then, the murderess seemed to evaporate, before her soul was born again.
As Penelope.
Penelope turned back to see the ghosts, shocked.
“I… I killed you.”
The ghosts finally disappeared, as their murder had finally been solved.
1270 words!

Total: 2464 words!

Weekly 4 (March 26-31)
Part One: Outline
Andromeda Giles finds a note for her with an address on her dresser. It has a strange symbol on the back.

Andromeda discovers that her friend, Owen Vix, got the same note, so she brings him when she goes to wherever the address was. When they find the address, a seemingly abandoned one-story house, the doorknob has the same strange symbol.

On the inside, the building is a huge, thriving city of apartment building-like spaces. Balconies look out into a main courtyard in each structure, which has the same symbol painted on the ground. Behind the entrance is a normal-looking living room, with a cozy fireplace and a comfortable couch.
A young man approaches Andromeda and Owen, wearing a green cloak. He introduces himself as Spade, and welcomes the pair to the “Urbs Arcanem”, a refuge for magical and/or inhuman entities to hone their abilities.

Spade leads Andromeda and Owen to a hearth in the center of the city, and some people walking around take notice that there are newcomers approaching the hearth. Spade tells each to place their hand over the fire, and it will turn a certain color. When Andromeda puts her hand over, the fire is purple. When Owen does, the fire is blue.

Spade explains that purple relates to spirits and souls, and blue relates to the weather and water. He takes the two to a shop to get a cloak for each of them, showing that they knew what color their magic was.

Spade assigns each of the two a mentor, and Andromeda ends up with a woman named Sali Ramha. Sali leads Andromeda to a library with a purple color scheme, and tells her that this is where she will learn all there is to know about what she can do. This includes one of her most useful abilities: The ability to take the form of her soul. She explains that souls have different forms than the people who embody them, and if Andromeda could take that alternate form, it might come in handy.

While Andromeda studies, absorbed in ancient-looking books of information, a signal goes out through the city saying that Spade has gone missing, and of course people start turning eyes to the two newcomers. Owen is able to negotiate on both of their behalf, and the two are allowed to study, but not interact with others in the city, until they could prove it wasn’t them by solving his disappearance.

Sali begins to visit Andromeda’s home night after night, bringing books and teaching her what she may need to figure out what happened to Spade. Owen’s mentor begins to visit him as well.

Owen gets a lead from his mentor as to where Spade went. Unfortunately, it seems to be in a city in the sky. Andromeda remembers what Sali told her about taking the form of her soul, and has the idea that it may help. Owen is surprised to see that yes, it does help, as Andromeda’s soul form has large, gray wings.

When Owen and Andromeda figure out the location of the sky city, they make their way up there and see Spade, about to be executed in the center of the town. He tries to escape his fate, but unfortunately, his earth-related abilities have hardly any use in a civilization that lives among the clouds.

Owen decides to try using his water abilities, and they work, as clouds are nothing but water vapor. The town itself isn’t made of water vapor, but the clouds above it do end up causing flooding in the streets. Spade, being able to use earth in the presence of liquid water, creates a small island-like spot floating atop the water, which he, Andromeda, and Owen get on. Andromeda uses her soul form once more, but this time in getting the patch of earth to the ground safely, which Spade assists in.

Andromeda and Owen have their punishments repealed, and everyone is glad to welcome Spade home. However, he keeps talking about the sky people trying any method they could to get information on Urbs Arcanem from him, and they had already been searching for its location…
695 words!

Part Two: Exposition
‘Three consecutive tests’ was already a horrible motive to wake up that Friday. Though, I feel like ‘mysterious note waiting when you get home’ wouldn’t be much better.
As I set my backpack down on the floor of my room, I saw a note drift from the top of my dresser to the floor in front of where I stood.
Curious, I picked it up. It seemed like… a business card, almost. Except all it had was an address and the name of the person it was for.
Andromeda Giles.
Me.
Quickly, I flipped the note to the back, to see if there was any more information. But there was not, and instead there was only a strange symbol.
“Screw it”, I sighed to myself, “Might as well get kidnapped. At least I’d get out of biology for a bit.”
140 words!

Part Three: Making the Stew
Ingredients chosen: Foreshadowing, Cliffhanger, Symbol, New Character, Epistolary
June 26th, 2023, 7:43 PM
I haven’t written in this journal for a long while, but the events that happened today were interesting, to say the least. So I feel a bit obligated to write them down.
It started when I got home today from sleeping over at Owen’s house, and dropped my bag on the floor of my room. As it hit the ground, the thud it produced sent something on my dresser floating to the ground. When I checked, it was a piece of paper. Specifically, one that appeared to be a business card. On the side that faced up, there was just an address, and a name.
Andromeda Giles.
Me.
I flipped it over to the other side, just in case there was more information, but there was simply a drawing of a dahlia flower. I had to research that one to figure out which flower it was, but it was a really detailed drawing, to the point where I almost thought it was a picture.
I called Owen as soon as I was able. And… he said that he had been left something similar. All the details the same, just his name instead of mine. Owen Vix.
I think I’ll go with him there tomorrow to see what’s going on. I mean, if I get kidnapped or killed, it’s better than taking physics when school starts back up.

June 27th, 2023, 8:26 PM
So… the address was certainly a place.
Owen and I went, and ended up at this old one-story house that looked abandoned. There were leaves and vines growing all over it, and most of the windows were cracked, but it had an intricate carving of a dahlia on the doorknob, so it had to be the right place.
I was the one to turn the doorknob, and when it opened, it opened into something neither of us ever would have expected.
Instead of a worn-out, dusty front room, there was a whole sprawling city of apartment buildings that each had a courtyard in the middle. From what I could see, all the courtyards had dahlias as well. I looked back, just to see if there was still a door, and there was a whole cozy living room now behind us. How could such a place be real?
As Owen and I looked around, a young man, who couldn’t have been more than nineteen, approached us. He had a green cloak, hazel eyes, dark brown hair, and tan skin.
“Hey!” He greeted us, “I’m Spade, and welcome to the Urbs Arcanem!”
I take Latin in school, so I knew that urbs arcanem meant hidden city.
We introduced ourselves to Spade, and he told us that we should have gotten one of the cards with the dahlia on the back, or else we shouldn’t be there. We clarified that yes, we had gotten the cards and they’d been addressed to us, so we knew that this was somewhere we were supposed to be.
“Why do you use so many dahlias?” I asked, curious about the frequent use of this symbolism.
“It’s a symbol of discovery, and this place is all about discovering what you can do. In fact, the Urbs Arcanem is a place all magical and inhuman entities can come to hone their abilities! We’ve got entrances all over the world, and all of ‘em lead to this spot! Pretty cool, huh?”
Owen and I looked at each other.
“Uh… magical entities? And inhuman?” Owen asked.
“Yeah!” Spade gestured to his cloak. “I’ve got green magic, which means I’ve got control over most things earth!”
I nodded, pretending that wasn’t the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard.
“Anyways, we should probably get to figuring out what colors you guys have!”
Owen tilted his head to the side at this.
“Like… how you have green? We have colors?” He asked.
“Well, of course, everyone here has one! Come on, let’s figure yours out so you can get to practicing!”
With that, Spade kinda just… led us to this place. It looked like most of the courtyards in the city, but this one had a hearth-like blaze burning in it. It didn’t really look like anything special, but Spade was acting all excited over it, and passers-by were taking note of our approach there.
“This… is where you get to figure out what you are!” Spade exclaimed, in an oddly excitable tone.
“Okay, but… how?” I asked.
Spade grinned widely and told Owen to place his hand over the fire. Not close enough to burn, just so much that he could feel its heat.
The moment Owen’s hand went over the flame, the blaze turned a deep blue.
“Blue magic! That’s sooooooo cool, I used to hope to have that when I was younger!”
Owen smiled awkwardly and explained that he had no idea what that entailed.
According to Spade, it entailed water and weather stuff.
When I placed my own hand over the fire, the moment I felt the heat on my palm, the flame turned purple.
“Oh, that’s a fun one! Purple means your magic relates to souls and spirits!”
I stared bewildered at Spade, wondering how any of this was even real. Maybe this was all just an elaborate prank?
Before I could ask any of this, Spade grabbed my arm with one hand and Owen’s with the other, and began to pull us towards this small shop nearby. He grabbed a blue cloak and a purple one, made us try them on for size, and excitedly purchased them for us once he figured out which ones fit.
“Now, everyone will know what colors you have! Come on, let’s head to the libraries. I have friends there that’ll gladly mentor you two!”
I swear, that man’s energy could probably power the entire Urbs Arcanem for a week.
Anyway, he took us to the violet library first, knocked on the door, and waited for a purple-cloaked woman with dark skin and black hair tied in a bun to come out. He introduced the woman as Sali, and once he got her approval, told me that she could mentor me in violet magic. She allowed me inside the library immediately, and Owen and Spade went off to the blue library.
The violet library looked like something straight out of a pin board. High, wooden walls, decorations of all shades of purple ranging from light lavender to deep aubergine, and lights that floated in the air, casting a dim glow upon the building.
Of course, the very first thing I did was ask where I could start.
Sali picked a book off of a nearby shelf and explained that this would be an important one, but she wanted to show me a far more important trick first.
“This is one that may prove to be the most useful,” she explained, removing a different book from her large cloak pocket and flipping to a page near the middle. She turned the book to face me.
“Soul Form?” I asked, reading the name.
“It’s essentially exactly what it sounds like. Here, I’ll write down a copy of it for you so you can take it home while you read through that.”
While Sali wrote, I looked over the description of the ability. ‘The ability to take the form of one’s soul, which almost never appears exactly the same as its body. By practicing the following steps regularly, you will eventually be able to unlock your true appearance.’
If I had read that excerpt yesterday, I’d have thought whoever showed me it was crazy.
As Sali handed me the slip of paper she had copied the instructions onto, I picked up the book she had taken off the shelf earlier.
“I’ll be dusting the shelves, but let me know if you need anything,” Sali smiled.
I grinned and began flipping through the book. What felt like minutes, but was more realistically an hour or so, later, a signal went out through the Urbs Arcanem.
“Attention: Spade Everbright has been reported missing. I repeat: Spade Everbright has been reported missing.”
Panicked and worried about Spade, I ran to put the book back and went out into the town, where people were staring at me. I tried to get back to the hearth, but someone stopped me along the way.
“You know”, he growled, “I think it’s a bit odd that Spade disappears the very day we get newcomers… and we don’t get newbies often. So… we might just have to revoke your powers.” He held up a terrifying contraption that I don’t think anyone would want to fall victim to.
My eyes went wide with fear as I saw Owen in a similar situation. We made eye contact for a moment, before he came up with an idea.
“Wait! If we can find him, can we keep our abilities? And… not get whatever else you’re trying to do?”
If that stupid idea hadn’t worked, maybe we’d have laughed about it later.
And if we hadn’t gone to that place, maybe there wouldn’t be a bird outside my windowsill garden pecking at a sprout that definitely wasn’t there yesterday.

June 30th, 2023, 4:17 PM
A dahlia has been growing abnormally quickly in the windowsill garden. And there’s always a bird there when I check its progress. Odd.
Sali’s been coming to see me, and teaching me more about violet magic while I can’t enter the library. Owen’s mentor, Flynn, has been teaching him too. I’ve been trying the Soul Form trick daily, and I think I’m almost there.
Flynn says that it seems like Spade is in a city in the sky. Never heard of something like that, but apparently there is one. And apparently they’ve got something against the Urbs Arcanem, from what I’ve gathered.

July 1st, 2023, 6:48 PM
Today was… something. I know I probably say this a lot, but I don’t know how else to describe these things.
I mean, we found Spade, but it wasn’t the best reunion.
To sum it up, I finally unlocked my Soul Form, which has functional wings. So, I was able to fly us up to the sky city. Once we were there, we saw Spade, being brought to a spot where he would be executed, trying to fight back with his earth powers but to no avail, since earth doesn’t have much power in the air.
Thanks to some quick thinking from Owen, though, he managed to turn the clouds above back into water. Flynn’s taught him well.
Anyway, the city ended up flooding, which was interesting to see, and Spade was apparently able to use his earth magic in the presence of water, since they go together so well. He made a small floating island just large enough for he and Owen to stand on, while I got behind it and tried to push it back to the ground. Because I may have been able to carry Owen, but Spade as well? No chance. Better off pushing them.
Well, everything seemed fine when we returned. We were allowed back into the libraries, Spade’s family was relieved, blah blah blah.
But…
While we were on our way back, Spade looked shaken.
He decided to confide in us what was wrong.
The sky citizens had been looking for the Urbs Arcanem, and were ready to go to any lengths to find its location and destroy it.
1908 words!

Part Four: Critique
Story Critiqued: @rocksalmon800's weekly
It may be the fact that I am writing this at two in the morning, but I have almost no words for this story. Well, almost no words of criticism, that is.
Let’s get that out of the way first. I don’t really understand the ending. I know the ending involves the reader dying, but the repetition of “not her” and the whole thing about the reader being the one shouting “not her” while also being the person the string represents, and also being hinted to not be the person the string represents? It may have been deliberate, to leave the ending more up to interpretation, or maybe I’m just sleep deprived, but it was kinda confusing.
Aside from that, I loved this!!! I genuinely think that if you entered this in the writing comp, it would get a shoutout in the results one way or another. This is a weekly?? Very impressive, bravo.
I love how the little girl and the young boy are connected by their name, and the letter intended for the little Ryan ended up falling into the hands of the Ryan that needed such a letter. I also love the different colors of the strings! The boy’s being threadbare and brown was a nice nod to how he lived, and I like the pure white string representing a little girl who still has her innocence!
All in all, I loved this story. Keep up the great work!
242 words!

Story After Editing
June 26th, 2023, 7:43 PM
I haven’t written in this journal for a long while, but the events that happened today were interesting, to say the least. So I feel a bit obligated to write them down.
It started when I got home today from sleeping over at Owen’s house, and dropped my bag on the floor of my room. As it hit the ground, the thud it produced sent something on my dresser floating to the ground. When I checked, it was a piece of paper. Specifically, one that appeared to be a business card. On the side that faced up, there was just an address, and a name.
Andromeda Giles.
Me.
I flipped it over to the other side, just in case there was more information, but there was simply a drawing of a dahlia flower. I had to research that one to figure out which flower it was, but it was a really detailed drawing, to the point where I almost thought it was a picture.
I called Owen as soon as I was able. And… he said that he had been left something similar. All the details the same, just his name instead of mine. Owen Vix.
I think I’ll go with him there tomorrow to see what’s going on. I mean, if I get kidnapped or killed, it’s better than taking physics when school starts back up.

June 27th, 2023, 8:26 PM
So… the address was certainly a place.
Owen and I went, and ended up at this old one-story house that looked abandoned. There were leaves and vines growing all over it, and most of the windows were cracked, but it had an intricate carving of a dahlia on the doorknob, so it had to be the right place.
I was the one to turn the doorknob, and when it opened, it opened into something neither of us ever would have expected.
Instead of a worn-out, dusty front room, there was a whole sprawling city of apartment buildings that each had a courtyard in the middle. From what I could see, all the courtyards had dahlias as well. I looked back, just to see if there was still a door, and there was a whole cozy living room now behind us. How could such a place be real?
As Owen and I looked around, a young man, who couldn’t have been more than nineteen, approached us. He had a green cloak, hazel eyes, dark brown hair, and tan skin.
“Hey!” He greeted us, “I’m Spade, and welcome to the Urbs Arcanem!”
I take Latin in school, so I knew that urbs arcanem meant hidden city.
We introduced ourselves to Spade, and he told us that we should have gotten one of the cards with the dahlia on the back, or else we shouldn’t be there. We clarified that yes, we had gotten the cards and they’d been addressed to us, so we knew that this was somewhere we were supposed to be.
“Why do you use so many dahlias?” I asked, curious about the frequent use of this symbolism.
“It’s a symbol of discovery, and this place is all about discovering what you can do. In fact, the Urbs Arcanem is a place all magical and inhuman entities can come to hone their abilities! We’ve got entrances all over the world, and all of ‘em lead to this spot! Pretty cool, huh?”
Owen and I looked at each other.
“Uh… magical entities? And inhuman?” Owen asked.
“Yeah!” Spade gestured to his cloak. “I’ve got green magic, which means I’ve got control over most things earth!”
I nodded, pretending that wasn’t the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard.
“Anyways, we should probably get to figuring out what colors you guys have!”
Owen tilted his head to the side at this.
“Like… how you have green? We have colors?” He asked.
“Well, of course, everyone here has one! Come on, let’s figure yours out so you can get to practicing!”
With that, Spade kinda just… led us to this place. It looked like most of the courtyards in the city, but this one had a hearth-like blaze burning in it. It didn’t really look like anything special, but Spade was acting all excited over it, and passers-by were taking note of our approach there.
“This… is where you get to figure out what you are!” Spade exclaimed, in an oddly excitable tone.
“Okay, but… how?” I asked.
Spade grinned widely and told Owen to place his hand over the fire. Not close enough to burn, just so much that he could feel its heat.
The moment Owen’s hand went over the flame, the blaze turned a deep blue.
“Blue magic! That’s sooooooo cool, I used to hope to have that when I was younger!”
Owen smiled awkwardly and explained that he had no idea what that entailed.
According to Spade, it entailed water and weather stuff.
When I placed my own hand over the fire, the moment I felt the heat on my palm, the flame turned purple.
“Oh, that’s a fun one! Purple means your magic relates to souls and spirits!”
I stared bewildered at Spade, wondering how any of this was even real. Maybe this was all just an elaborate prank?
Before I could ask any of this, Spade grabbed my arm with one hand and Owen’s with the other, and began to pull us towards this small shop nearby. He grabbed a blue cloak and a purple one, made us try them on for size, and excitedly purchased them for us once he figured out which ones fit.
“Now, everyone will know what colors you have! Come on, let’s head to the libraries. I have friends there that’ll gladly mentor you two!”
I swear, that man’s energy could probably power the entire Urbs Arcanem for a week.
Anyway, he took us to the violet library first, knocked on the door, and waited for a purple-cloaked woman with dark skin and black hair tied in a bun to come out. He introduced the woman as Sali, and once he got her approval, told me that she could mentor me in violet magic. She allowed me inside the library immediately, and Owen and Spade went off to the blue library.
The violet library looked like something straight out of a pin board. High, wooden walls, decorations of all shades of purple ranging from light lavender to deep aubergine, and lights that floated in the air, casting a dim glow upon the building.
Of course, the very first thing I did was ask where I could start.
Sali picked a book off of a nearby shelf and explained that this would be an important one, but she wanted to show me a far more important trick first.
“This is one that may prove to be the most useful,” she explained, removing a different book from her large cloak pocket and flipping to a page near the middle. She turned the book to face me.
“Soul Form?” I asked, reading the name.
“It’s essentially exactly what it sounds like. Here, I’ll write down a copy of it for you so you can take it home while you read through that.”
While Sali wrote, I looked over the description of the ability. ‘The ability to take the form of one’s soul, which almost never appears exactly the same as its body. By practicing the following steps regularly, you will eventually be able to unlock your true appearance.’
If I had read that excerpt yesterday, I’d have thought whoever showed me it was crazy.
As Sali handed me the slip of paper she had copied the instructions onto, I picked up the book she had taken off the shelf earlier.
“I’ll be dusting the shelves, but let me know if you need anything,” Sali smiled.
I grinned and began flipping through the book. What felt like minutes, but was more realistically an hour or so, later, a signal went out through the Urbs Arcanem.
“Attention: Spade Everbright has been reported missing. I repeat: Spade Everbright has been reported missing.”
Panicked and worried about Spade, I ran to put the book back and went out into the town, where people were staring at me. I tried to get back to the hearth, but someone stopped me along the way.
“You know”, he growled, “I think it’s a bit odd that Spade disappears the very day we get newcomers… and we don’t get newbies often. So… we might just have to revoke your powers.” He held up a terrifying contraption that I don’t think anyone would want to fall victim to.
My eyes went wide with fear as I saw Owen in a similar situation. We made eye contact for a moment, before he came up with an idea.
“Wait! If we can find him, can we keep our abilities? And… not get whatever else you’re trying to do?”
If that stupid idea hadn’t worked, maybe we’d have laughed about it later.
And if we hadn’t gone to that place, maybe there wouldn’t be a bird outside my windowsill garden pecking at a sprout that definitely wasn’t there yesterday.

June 30th, 2023, 4:17 PM
A dahlia has been growing abnormally quickly in the windowsill garden. And there’s always a bird there when I check its progress. Odd.
Sali’s been coming to see me, and teaching me more about violet magic while I can’t enter the library. Owen’s mentor, Flynn, has been teaching him too. I’ve been trying the Soul Form trick daily, and I think I’m almost there.
Flynn says that it seems like Spade is in a city in the sky. Never heard of something like that, but apparently there is one. And apparently they’ve got something against the Urbs Arcanem, from what I’ve gathered.
Today, they asked how we met, which makes sense considering that we’re total opposites of each other. We kind of just stared at each other, because the thing is, we don’t entirely know. I kinda just wanted to be friends with the kid back in seventh grade, because I’d seen some of his drawings and thought he looked cool and wanted to approach him, but my anxiety would never let me. A week into the school year, he’d found some friends, and I thought that I’d just be alone for the whole year. I still wanted to get to know Owen, though, and an opportunity came when his friends suddenly said that they didn’t want him around anymore in the middle of a class where I sat right behind the group.
I explained that I had seen Owen was upset, and so I went up to him after class and asked if he was okay. Back in that year, we stayed with our homeroom the entire day, so I kept checking in periodically throughout the rest of that day. Over time, we kind of just started talking more and more, and one thing led to another to the point where he and I became best friends.
It’s weird, thinking about how I met Owen. I mean, what would happen if things hadn’t lined up the way they did? Would we have never grown this close? If the seating chart in that one class had been even a little different, would we be friends? If he ignored me rather than answered my check-ins, would we have ever talked?
Much to think about.
Anyway, I have to go to a doctor’s appointment now, so that’ll be it for this entry.

July 1st, 2023, 10:48 PM
Today was… something. I know I probably say this a lot, but I don’t know how else to describe these things.
I mean, we found Spade, but it wasn’t the best reunion.
To sum it up, it was a lot.
In a bit more detail, here’s what happened:
Sali and I met up again today, and we were meeting with Flynn and Owen as well so we could practice together. I tried the steps to unlocking the Soul Form, which has been feeling extremely close to coming out up until today, and it actually worked this time!
The form looks almost exactly like I do, but with large, silvery wings. Maybe that’s why I’ve been seeing birds so often.
I made some attempts to fly around with them, and to my surprise, I was actually able to get myself off the ground. I was even able to pick up Owen and pull him through the air after a couple of hours.
After some more practice, the time being around three in the afternoon by this point, Flynn was struck with an idea. His cobalt eyes widened with the revelation, and his auburn hair bounced as he stood up to declare it.
“Hold on, Andromeda has the perfect Soul Form to get up to where Spade is!”
All eyes in the small group turned to me.
“Well… I don’t know if I can go that far, is the thing. What if I fall?”
Sali smiled. “Souls are much stronger than bodies. Your wings should be able to hold up, and all you have to do is focus on keeping Owen in your grasp. Can you do that?”
I thought for a moment. “I… I think so.”
The flight was rough, and stressful, with Owen being about as easy to carry as a wrangling cat, but I managed to hold on until we saw structures rising into view from a spot among the clouds.
The city was huge, not quite as big as the Urbs Arcanem but pretty close from what I could see. The buildings gleamed with shining shades and tints, ranging from pure white to stormy gray. They were tall and thin, reaching up into the higher layers of clouds that were in the sky earlier today. Citizens draped in silvery blues gathered in the center of the city, where an elevated patch of cloudlike ground stood. On this elevated platform, a woman dressed in black stood, brandishing an ax that appeared to be made of sharpened hailstones. A man, also in black, was standing next to Spade, leading him with his hands behind his back to the platform where the woman was waiting. Spade fought back against the man’s grasp, his hands glowing with green but only for moments at a time before disappearing. Clearly, earth magic had no power where there was no earth.
An execution.
I turned to Owen, without a clue what we could do about such a situation. Of course, we couldn’t just let Spade meet the end of that ax, but how were we supposed to get him out of there?
As I looked over at Owen, I noticed that he was staring at the clouds above us. Before I could ask him what he thought he was doing, and tell him that this was no time for looking at clouds, he lifted his hand towards the air as it glowed blue.
Suddenly, the clouds all moved together and condensed at a point just above where Owen was pointing, and on his command, fell to the ground in the form of liquid water.
Despite appearing as though made of clouds, the ground of the city somehow held. As for the rest of it, the water splashed around the citizens’ waists and even torsos, the platform being hit worst of all by the waves.
In shock, the man that was meant to bring our friend to his doom let go of Spade. With his hands finally free, Spade’s hands glowed green once more as he pointed to the spot next to where Owen and I were flying above the flood. As he swam over and hauled himself onto the small patch of land his spell had created, he smiled at Owen and breathlessly said, “Thanks, water was all I needed to actually get something going, but these guys knew that and made sure to keep me away.”
I dropped Owen onto the patch of land and asked, “So, what do we do now?”
Spade bit the inside of his cheek and replied, “…would you be able to push us back to the ground?”
I sighed in fake annoyance, and agreed to try my best. Surprisingly, the patch Spade had created was extremely light, and pushing down was far easier than it would be to push up. Really, I was just letting gravity do most of the work while I made sure they didn’t plummet to the ground.
And then, well, everything seemed fine when we returned. We were allowed back into our studies, Spade’s family was relieved, blah blah blah.
But…
While we were on our way back, Spade looked shaken.
He decided to confide in us what was wrong.
The sky citizens had been looking for the Urbs Arcanem, and were ready to go to any lengths to find its location and destroy it.
Words Added By Editing: 913!

Total Word Count: 3898 words! (Don't worry, I didn't count repeats)