TRIGGER WARNING: THIS PIECE INCLUDES A PLANE CRASH AND MENTIONS OF DEATH AND IS GENERALLY DEPRESSING.

You were walking home from after a long day of work. As you were walking down the bustling streets, there was a loud boom sound. When you looked into the direction of the sound, you see a giant smoke cloud that was likely from a bomb. Even if it is not a bomb, it still hit the city. People were screaming, running in the opposite direction of the sound.

You suddenly stop, watching more and more people run. I guess you may not be able to go home. Someone screamed, telling you to run. What do you do? 1) Listen to the person and run off. 2) Stand still, still watching more. 3) Walk towards the affected area, curious of what happened.

Prompt by @strange_skies

You and your friends are hanging out when you come across a warehouse. you hear a chilling scream from inside the warehouse, and you all look at each other, frightened. do you? a) go inside and see what produced the scream, b) run the opposite direction, or c) yell out and see if you get a response from someone (or something) inside

“Hello?” I call, grabbing onto my friend's arm when she tries to shrink away.

All I can hear is the wind rustling through the leaves and the echo of my own voice spinning back at me.

Hello
Hello
Hello
Hello.

I freeze. That last greeting wasn't my voice. It was very distinct- different. Higher, and with a slight accent from somewhere I couldn't quite pinpoint. I let go of my friend's sleeve, and I hear her footsteps and she shrinks back into the forest to join the rest of the group, whispering my name under her breath. I could join her- but I've always been told I was too curious for my own good. I figure just once in my life I should do something really worthwhile- really thrilling. So I wave them away, keeping everything but my hand dead still and calling out again.

“Hello?”

This time, there is no echo. A shadow falls on me, and it's as if the dark figure is muffling all noise but the beating of blood in my ears. “Hello.” she repeats, stepping forward. All at once it becomes apparent that she is not casting the shadow, but is the shadow herself. I try to move, but all I can do is blink. The rustle of my friends in the forest behind be as completely stopped- I don't know if they're still there, or trapped in place like me.

“What brings you here, little explorer? This is my home, not yours. In a single rush she races towards me, spinning upwards at the last moment and letting out a rough laugh. ”Though, I do love visitors…

the fog is dark and gloomy. it looms overhead like a thick, floating curtain. as you run, it becomes harder and harder to breathe. you become more aware of the aches in your legs, the sound of your feet thumping on the cracked pavement in your worn out sneakers. you pant, taking deep, gasping breaths through the frigid, weighty air. you need to stop. you need a break. but if you stop… it'll catch you. you dont know how long you have been running all you know is the direction youre going is a w a y. you can feel your body becoming unable to keep up. do you a) keep going, despite the signs of wear on your body. b) stop to take a break, though the danger is lurking closer and closer, or do you c) stop and fight whatever creeps behind you, though the only thing you have is a steakn1fe and your bare hands. - lunhwa

When Iris stepped into the coffee shop, she was instantly assaulted by the silence.

She had never seen the man before, but he rose at her approach, hand extended for her to shake.

“Dr. Zaman,” she introduced herself.

Their voices didn’t echo at all in this corner, a trick of acoustic engineering to provide them with privacy for the meeting. The noiselessness made it feel as though they were in a very small room, rather than the large open space.

Alexsander didn’t speak more immediately, instead opening a leather bag that he’d set on the unnaturally white floor. That bag must have been expensive, the leather certainly looked real. Iris didn’t know if she’d ever owned anything that expensive. From inside, he retrieved a dossier. It was rare to see paper at all these days, much less paper this high quality. Though leather was still rarer.

The door behind the counter—leading into the kitchen, Iris guessed—swung open, the buzz of machinery filleding the room for a moment before being abruptly cut off as the barista shut the door behind him.

He carried a coffee cup, steaming to the counter.

Iris hadn’t realized how sterile the room smelled until the coffee was brought out. The room transformed by its rich, sharp scent. It still felt strangely empty, though, like the smell wasn’t quite enough to fill the space.

Aleksander made no move to rise, and the man stood there awkwardly. A, arms stiff at his sides as he stared at Aleksander, as if willing him to come get his drink.

Clap, clap, clap, all the way to the register.

violent-measures wrote:

For critique!

nya didn’t look up as kai sat down next to her.

he let his legs hang over the side of the dock, so close she wanted to claw him back from the edge. her own legs were tucked under her, away. she would not let them carry her to the edge. he noticed, she knew. that’s one of the things she was relearning: how well he knew her. even after all this.

‘i don’t like it, either.’ a non-sequitur if it had been anyone else (but he knew her too well). ‘i guess you know that,’ he laughed. the sound was empty.

silence, for a moment. he took a deep breath, not looking at her but out over the sea, where moonlight danced on the waves. beautiful and cold.

he looked down at his hands. one of his fingers worried at his thumb. ‘but . . . as much as i’m afraid of it . . . as much as i hated it for taking you away from me. i couldn’t help but love it, too.’ he met her gaze, then. ‘it was the last thing i had left.’

nya nodded. they were both afraid of the sea, she knew. but he did not understand. he could not. she was afraid, yes—but mostly she was afraid of herself. because the ocean was beautiful and endless and it promised her power and safety and surety and she had never doubted before she remembered, had she?

‘sometimes,’ she whispered, so low she half-hoped he could not hear, ‘i’m afraid i’m going to lose myself again. that i cannot hold on. that…however much i love you…i will forget it…and then does it mean anything? does it mean anything if it’s wiped clean, in the end? does who i am even matter if i stop being myself?’ she hated herself for asking that more than anything; wasn’t she better than that? at one point, she’d known who she was with certainty. she’d refused to let anyone take it from her. but now—now, now, now. (she was chiding herself like a child. in some ways she felt like one. she’d been born two weeks ago when she’d left the sea behind.)

she’d died a year ago when she’d given herself up. the worst of it, or maybe the best of it, was she knew she’d do it again. she’d save her family, if she could. what was she worth, anyway, if she had all but forgotten already?

he looked at her, eyes blazing like they did in battle. like she was the enemy. she couldn’t quite figure out what he was going to say, and maybe he didn’t know either, because he just stared at her for a long moment without opening his mouth. then, finally, hoarsely, but with conviction, he spoke. (kai had a way of speaking where it seemed he was absolutely certain what he was saying was true. nya thought maybe she used to speak like that, too. she couldn’t remember.)

‘you’re the strongest person i know, nya,’ he said.

no vague, unfounded assurance that she would not forget. not an ‘i love you’ that meant please don’t forget it.

oh, how she wanted to believe him.

she blinked away tears, too afraid to let them fall. she hated the wetness, the memory of it. water was supposed to forget. to forgive. wash away sand and stone and pain. why did she remember all the things she did not want to and forget all the things she most needed to keep?

nya gripped his arm like it was an anchor. like she was drowning. she could remember a time when drowning had not felt a threat. she could remember it. she memorized the set of his jaw, the blaze in his eyes, the warmth of him beside her. she memorized the way her heart felt when it beat inside her chest. she did not think it possible to forget this.

On November 3, Chuey (@ChueyTheCat) attempted to eat Zy’s (@Zyzeryko’s) toes. This led to a battle surrounding toes, fingernails, and small businesses.
The November 3 daily instructed campers to strike up a conversation with a cabinmate they didn’t know, and then use a line from the cabinmate’s bio as a prompt for a story. Chuey saw people talking about changing their bios to include song lyrics, which inspired her to change her own bio to “something super ridiculous.” “I changed the bio to ‘i eat toes’ and the wiwo to ‘om nom nom’,” said Chuey, a fantasy co-leader, “and then commented in the main cabin telling people to go look at my shiny new bio.”
Not everyone wanted to let Chuey have their toes. Mystery leader Zy refused to give his up, and he and Chuey struck a deal: instead of giving her his own toes, Zy could give Chuey 10 toes from anyone (and they didn’t all have to match).
Zy asked in the main cabin for toe donations, and received many more than he’d expected—67 and 1/58 in total.
Zy’s Toe Business wasn’t the only new business in the main cabin. Finley (@essayist), also known as Fini, soon set up shop with the Fingernail Seasoning Business, also known as Finley’s Fingernail Factory (FFF). Finley, co-leader of Paranormal, asked people to donate their fingernails in exchange for money and mangoes.
Finley also kidnapped Zy, and forced him to work for her. Zy accused her of kidnapping and child labor.
A few smaller businesses also sprung up. Ayla’s Cat Hair sells hair gently harvested from the four pet cats of Ayla (@FairyAyla), while Maia (@wolfiebear-) and Alex (@hamilchaos) started a company selling “illicit brainrot merch.” Many people also chose neutrality, choosing not to pick a side between Zy’s Toe Business and Finley’s Fingernail Factory.
“I personally did not like that FFF ended up with more supporters than me,” Zy told the press in an interview. “I found it very insulting that my close friends would give up all morality just to support Finley and her child labor. Yes, some people helped me (shoutout to Ayla and Luna!) but most chose to support Fini, even making her a website where Lora publicly disses the toe business.”
The website, swcfingernailseasoningbusiness.wordpress.com, was created by Lora (@Coco_animator), a camper in Apocalyptic. The website describes Zy’s Toe Business as “The Tainted and Worthless Revolution.” “The revolution- also known as Zy’s Toe Business- involves taking toes from people,” says the website. “Unlike fingernails, toes will never heal if they are cut off- ever. Do you really want to sentence your legs to this fate? Hear this, YOU WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO WALK AGAIN!”
“Lora has picked her side very firmly, and as the judge assigned to my case (i broke the law by speaking out against child labor), who sentenced me to child labor,” said Zy, adding that Lora “continues to support Finley to this day.” “People even made up lies about me, saying I was stealing toes when in reality they were all donations.”
Zy is no longer trapped working for FFF. “At the end of our drama she agreed to free me because of how much I publicly shamed her for child labor,” he explained.
How did Chuey feel about causing all this? “I thought it was amazing haha - SWC wars are really funny,” she said in an interview. “Plus, I love chaos.” When asked if she was surprised by how things went, she said, “I was mildly surprised by how far the war went but not at the war itself; I've been in SWC long enough to know that campers love mayhem (and mangoes).”