Weekly 7/3
Part 1

My character, Alvari’s main flaws are that they are very fearful, and distrusting. It’s hard for them to make friends, which leads them to being an outcast, like everywhere they go. They always think someone is out to get them, and this leads them to be secluded and they hide themself away from the crowd. Alvari has lots of anxiety, and some trauma, which is definitely why they are fearful. They believe that if they keep out of other’s way, no harm will come to them. In their eyes, being isolated is for the best. They think being alone and never getting hurt is far more important than being social and risk the chance of breakup. They are headstrong in their ways, and tuck themselves into a shell away from society often. They can't seem to figure out how to break free from their restraints that they place on themselves, and that may be their biggest downfall.

(157 words for this section)

Part 2: character development

At first, Alvari is very scared (to put it lightly) when they first go to school after a traumatic experience with the one person they most trusted. they feel lost, betrayed, and vows never to trust anyone again under any circumstances. A couple of kids try to talk to her, tell her it is going to be all right, but they refuse to look at them, or even acknowledge them. Her world is a cloudy haze of blues and grays, and they can't manage to tune it back to the pleasant shade of yellow it once was. They are driven by their classwork and are straight A student, but that doesn't fill the void in their heart. Over time, they learned to stuff their feelings deep down, and not mention their past again. Her foster parents make them see a therapist, and they don't know how to cope. They don't want to talk about their feelings, they want to stuff it deep down. More and more bad things happen to Alvari, and they wonder if it was even worth it to try in the first place. The therapist is unlike anyone they have ever met though, and Alvari begins to trust her. Alvari opens up for the first time in 5 years, and lets their past self be free. Alvari is still a very cautious kid, but they don’t have the weight of the event clinging to them anymore, and they can be free.

(244 words in this section)


Part 3

Alvari just wants to be able to be loved. They won’t admit it, but part of the reason they push people away is because not only of fear of rejection, but of their “faults”. Alvari believes that it was their fault that the incident happened, that it was their fault that they were betrayed. The logical part of their brain knows that's not true, but they can't help but believe it. That's all they dream of at night, that day plays over and over in their head, and they wonder what they did wrong. They force themself into this box, and tell themselves they won't ever be adequate enough, for anyone. All they want is someone to truly see them, and they don't know if they’ll ever find someone like that, so Alvari pushes everyone away. Alvari doesn't know how to express what they want. They suffer from lots of body and gender dysphoria, so if anyone tells them that they look nice, Alvari won’t believe it. They think that everyone is out for them, to confirm the thoughts that they always have, that they aren't enough. Their view on themselves is part of the reason why they are distrustful. And the thing is, Alvari can’t find love if they can’t let anyone love them.

(215 words for this section)


Part 4


“DON'T YOU DARE!”
The voice booms across our tiny vintage apartment. I cower against the wall, phone in hand, ready to call 9-1-1. He wouldn’t hurt me, would he? He’s my dad. He couldn’t. I hear his voice, whisper quiet but filled with sickening venom.
“If you call that number, Allie, you can bet you won’t be around to hear the sirens that come.” tears trickle down my face, and I'm terrified beyond belief. Why would dad do this?
“My- my name’s Alvari.” I squeak. I inch towards the door, and take a look around the apartment. Beer bottles are strewn across the floor, and the walls are lined with old pictures of me, before I transitioned. My hair is long, and I look carefree. I told Dad to take down those photos, as it gave me severe dysphoria but he wouldn't. It’s always been dad and me. Before the sickness, before he lost grandpa. He became sullen, but I knew he still loved me. He said it. But now, the man before me, this is not my father. I don't know who he is, but my father would never threaten me like that. EVER. I pull open the door, panting furiously as I race down the steps and out to the sidewalk. The bright sunlight that greets me is warm and welcome. I dial 9-1-1 quickly, anxiously glancing up at the tall building.
“9-1-1, what's your emergency?”
“Uh, uh uh, my dad he uh is abusing me, and I don't know what to do, he threatened me and I'm just so scared. I think he’s drunk.” I stammer out.
“Okay, what’s your address, we will send first responders to your location.” I recite my address and they promise to come quickly. I wait, crying, biting my nails and peering around fearfully. That’s it. A voice in my head calls. It’s your fault, Alvari, you shouldn't have ever told him you were nonbinary. You should've stayed quiet. You don't deserve him, or love. You’ll always be inadequate. I sob faster. As sirens sound around the corner, I drop to my knees and cry quietly into them. I see flashes of what comes next. An ambulance, a firetruck and a police car pull up. The police get out of the car and ask me if I'm the girl who called. I’m too tired to protest that i’m not a girl.
“Yes.” I say. I tell them where my father is. They march up the steps. Police arrest my father, and I see him grumbling in the back of the car they put him in. I get wheeled into an ambulance and the last clear image I see is of my father, his strong arms wrapped around me, telling me I'm his entire world. I’m nothing to him now. I'm nothing. A nobody. I let out a heart wrenching sob, and the world fades to black.
Did I ever matter?
(488 words for this section)

1104 words in total

scratch was glitching and ended up double posting so ignore this <3

Weekly 01

Part 01 - creating a flawed character:

Aurora, although a bountiful and charismatic character struggles with a number of character flaws, like any other intricate character. Friendship is the thing that Aurora holds values over anything else. However, once she becomes close to someone, she often finds herself trying a little bit too hard to keep them by her side, often putting more stress into keeping the friendship than she needs to. She spends way too much fun overthinking and analyzing her friendships and finds that she experiences extreme jealousy when her friends are close with other people. She doesn't act on her jealous feelings and simply keeps them buried her heart and shoved towards the back of her mind, but these feeling still eat at her soul and she often convinces herself that her friends or going to leave her for other people and she will be left alone. These feelings of jealousy are rooted in her past traumas and experiences when she was friends with even further jealous and toxic people that left her and planted some of their feelings of doubt in her. (180 words)

Part 02 - character development

I mentioned previously how Aurora had to deal with a couple of difficult friend breakups in the past and how those affected her so I might as dive deeper into that. When Aurora was a freshman in high school she had a close-knit group of friends. The group seemed fine at first, but as time went on it became clear how toxic the friendship really was. When one of the member in the group accomplished something, the other members were jealous and cold, rather than proud and supportive. Aurora was the only one who tried to be selfless and celebrate others' achievements, desperate to keep her friend group intact, but the deep-rooted jealousy and toxicity in the friendgroup caused them to inevitably grow apart and betray each other. Aurora desperately tried to hold the group together, but her efforts were pointless. Aurora was alone for the majority of sophomore year, but at the end of sophomore and going into junior year she became friends with a group of much better people, with much better characters. However, the jealousy of her previous group passed onto her, in a slightly different manner. While she was always supportive of her friend's goals and achievements, she often found herself getting jealous when her friends priotorizted other people, afraid that she would be replaced and left alone once again. While she tries to ignore and cover these feelings, her best friend, alison starts hanging around another group significantly more often and aurora grows paniced that the past will repeat itself and in an effort to perverse their friend group and “get her best friend back” she makes some regretable decisions that only end up hurting their friendship even more and push alison even further away. In turn. Aurora lets this convince herself that she is destined for loneliness and gives up on her efforts. She pushes everyone away and tells herself she's better off alone. (320 words)

Part 03 - character motivations

I'd consider Aurora's motivation to be pretty self-explanatory. Due to past experiences and friendships, she feels threatened that her friends will inevitably choose other people and leave her alone all over again, so because of this, she puts an excessive amount of effort into guaranteeing the integrity of her friendships. During the situation with Alison, she worries that Alison, growing close to other people, means that she will replaced and abandoned. This fuels her motivation to not be left alone, and she puts almost too much energy into guaranteeing their friendship. While putting an excessive amount of energy into any friendship isn't inherently a bad thing, Aurora inevitably ended up taking things too far. She was constantly inviting Alison out to participate in various activities and whenever Alison claimed to be busy, she would take it personally and accidentally give Alison a temporary cold shoulder. Aurora would try to put herself into any conversation Alison was having with other people and steer the conversation into something only she and Alison would be able to partake in. What had been motivating Auoroa's rash behavior was the thought that if Aurora forced Alison to spend more time with her than her other friends it would prevent Alison from creating as strong bonds with these people as she already had with Aurora. However, as one would expect, Aurora's plan ends up backfiring and Alison calls Aurora out on her behavior. Still fueled by the motivation to keep her friendship with Alison, Aurora denies such behavior, which only causes Alison further annoyance, and causes Alison to later avoid and in many cases, ignore Aurora. This causes Aurora's motivations to change and now, rather than being motivated to keep her friendships and integrity as always, Aurora pulls herself away from her friends, motivated to not be hurt any further, not realizing that she was doing majority of the damage. (314 words)

Part 04 - tying it all together

Aurora sits at her and Alison's usual spot at the picnic tables, sliding her phone out of her back pocket to check the time. 7:30, seeing that she's earlier to school than accustomed to, Aurora opens her bag and pulls out her math book, figuring she should get some extra practice in before her exam second period while she waits for Alison to arrive. It had been a tradition since sophomore year for Alison and her to sit together at the picnic tables by the gym while they wait for the first bell to ring. After a couple of failed problems Aurora puts her pencil down and checks her phone, surprised to see ten minutes had already lapsed. Alison should be here by now, she things surveying the picnic tables and the surrounding patio. Still not seeing Alison, Aurora packs up with a shrug, coming to the conclusion that her friend was running late. She throws her bag onto one shoulder as the bell rings, announcing the beginning of the day. Aurora enters the school building through the gym and eases her way into the flooding halls. She's about to return to her phone when she catches a wave of bright red hair. She nudges her way forward, confirming her suspicions. Aurora catches up to the girl and taps her shoulder.
A stunning girl with curly, box-dyed red hair turns around, “Oh hey, Aurora!”
“Alison,” Aurora says with a forced smile, “I thought you were late; you weren't at our spot.”
“Nah, I decided to sit with some other friends for a change, glad you missed me though,” Alison teases, nudging me with her elbow.
“Yeah right,” Aurora bristles, “You'll sit with me tomorrow though right?”
“Well actually-” Alison starts when a girl with long blonde hair stops her, putting an arm around her shoulders.
“Hey Ali,” the girl says, playing with a lock of Alison's hair. Alison laughs and the two dissolve into comfortable conversation. Aurora glares at the ground, fighting to keep her place at Aurora's side. However, the two continue to obviously chatter and Aurora lets out a sharp huff before quickening her pace and leaving the two in the dust.

The Next Day

For the second day in a row, Aurora finds herself sitting alone at her regular spot at the picnic tables. She glares at her hands, sitting restlessly in her lap. The bell rings and Aurora stands up, swinging her bag onto her shoulder, speeding towards the building. She shoves her way into the hallway, and speedwalks towards her first period, eyes glued to the floor. She sits down and throws her bag under the desk, loudly unzipping her pencil case loudly. She looks up to see Alison entering the room and quickly looks back to her desk, not wanting to make eye contact. Alison sits down beside her obliviously, greeting Aurora with an elbow nudge, “Morning.”
“Yeah morning,” Aurora responds, without looking up.
“Whats up,” Aurora questions, concern etched onto her features.
“I thought you said you'd sit with me again this morning,” Aurora mutters, still staring at her desk, balancing a pencil on her pointer finger.
“I didn't, I was trying to tell you that, but then Willow showed up and-”
“And you ignored me for the rest of the day,” Aurora finishes, shooting her a glare.
“Hey that's not fair,” Alison protests. “You know I'm allowed to hang out with other people, right?”
“Well no *” Aurora responds with a huff, but this is the second time you abandoned me for your new friends this week, and it's Tuesday“
”I'm not abandoning you,“ Alison argues, ”again I'm allowed to have friends other than you,“
”Then sit with them,“ Aurora snaps at her.
”Fine,“ Alison says standing up abruptly, picking up her things and kicking her chair back under the desk, ”be that way." She says before storming off to sit with another group of girls.

The two continue to ignore each other for the rest of the week, turning away everytime they make accidental eye contact.

Friday Afternoon

Aurora lies in bed, seemingly in a staring contest with the sunset colored flag on her ceiling. Her mind continuously wandering to Alison, they hadn't spoken since Tuesday morning and had made a point to ignore each other for the duration of the school week. Aurora pulls out her phone and taps on Alison's contact, staring at the contact photo of the two of them arm in arm. What have I done? Aurora thinks, a tear sneaking it's way out of her eye and down her cheek. Aurora closes her eyes, as more tears gradually make their way down her skin. She sniffs as her mind wanders to a dark place, freshman year when her only friends abandoned and betrayed her. What have I done, Aurora whispers to herself, swiping at her tear-covered face. Aurora lifts her phone to her face, looking at Alison's contact again, before taking a deep breath and typing up a message… (833 words)

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i. “procrastination is truly the superior strategy to getting things done.”

⋆˚✿ critique one
"a professional's guide to perfect procrastination" by celeste . sci-fi . 613

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hiya lestie !! sooo i love this piece for it's humor and lightheartedness,, yet it still manages to get a message across to the reader !! i really only have a few critiques so- let's begin !!

first of all,, with the overall tone being so bubbly and fun, make sure you keep it consistent !! you've done a great job at balancing out the amount of actual facts with humorous examples, but there are a few spots that feel bare in terms of the same tone used throughout the rest of the piece !!

Procrastinating is an important life skill to learn. For example, if we did everything right away like we are supposedly supposed to do, who would be there to make us remember that we have so much more time?

while you do begin transitioning into the bubbly lightness of the piece after this (and well,, might i add), it does feel odd to start your article with a thesis that is written in a completely different tone than the rest of it !! i understand that the format in which you're writing in does typically warrant an informal thesis or topic sentence(s),, but you don't need it !! however,, i must say that by keeping your thesis short and transitioning smoothly, it does feel more normal in comparison to the rest. that being said,, starting off your piece with the same tone used throughout will most likely yield the best results !! (look at me sounding like a chef or something-)

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Find something else to do, whether it may be reading a silly comic, binging your favorite Netflix shows, or earning the world record of fastest time to steal your sibling’s bright pink socks.

i love your second paragraph because of the way you implement your humor. by using unserious examples to prove your point,, the writing seems less choppy and more natural. it also gets your point across while still holding up the tone of the piece !!

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the third paragraph does feel the most bare of humor,, most likely because in the short length of the paragraph, most of the humor is bundled near the end of it, making it feel more “bottom heavy”. try balancing it with other small or direct pieces of lightheartedness !!

Secondly, understand that procrastination is often overlooked as one of the best strategies for completing your writing. While many people like to power through their writing and finish their ten thousand words early (and that’s okay! In fact, it is another highly encouraged strategy that compliments procrastination. The people working at Procrastination Inc, recommend that as well.), another thing to keep in mind is that you could be writing so many other things than writing about, for example, the section of your novel that involves YOU coming up with clever and tricky riddles for the characters to solve. Instead of facing this hurdle right away, turn around and explore other genres of writing, or instead write something silly.

also,, the introduction of the amazing and world famous pRoCrAsTiNaTiOn inc. (oh my gosh autocorrect- why- why did that happen. oh my-) does feel a little late into the piece, once again making it feel more bottom heavy in terms of the mentioning of procrastination inc.

In fact, it is another highly encouraged strategy that compliments procrastination. The people working at Procrastination Inc, recommend that as well.), another thing to keep in mind is that you could be writing so many other things than writing about, for example, the section of your novel that involves YOU coming up with clever and tricky riddles for the characters to solve.

a simpler way to incorporate it for the first time would be to replace your thesis with a slightly longer one,, using procrastination inc as your main focus !! by introducing the term early,, readers are able to better understand it in contrast to it first being used in the middle of a sentence.

Procrastinating is an important life skill to learn.

versus

Procrastination: the essential life skill used to further your goals (as coined by officials at Procrastination Inc.)!

okay- maybe not whatever the heck i wrote above but you get the point xD

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really,, the only critique i have for you next paragraph is that in your first sentence, try using (a) humorous or unserious adjective(s) to describe the term procrastination, in order to smoothly transition from understanding the importance of procrastination to PANIC PANIC PANIC CODE RED !!

Finally, the last step to procrastination is to begin working on your task right before its deadline.

andddd the rest of the paragraph is marvelous yippee (excuse moi i'm so tired)

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A truly amazing thing, procrastination is used worldwide by writers and other talented people alike. As a professional, I find that procrastination is truly the superior strategy to getting things done.

this is a great sentence to tie together any loose strings !! (ignore the fact that it's two sentences :3) i would say that the term “i” could be incorporated more commonly before this instance in order to establish a clear line of judgement as well as the type and perspective of the piece,, similarly to the usage of procrastination incorporated. “i” both shifts the perspective from third to first,, as well as the entire manner of the essay from informal to a more persuasive viewpoint (or at least somewhere in between).

While you are stealing your sibling’s bright pink socks, coming up with a TV show trailer with a fellow writer, and simply eating tiramisu, you will soon realize that procrastination has one again helped you in your writing!

great callback to the pink socks :3

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Buy a full copy of A Professional’s Guide to Perfect Procrastination at your local Costco or Target. Any complaints about procrastination are not Procrastination Inc.’s problem. All rights reserved (or something…).
Written by a professional in perfect procrastination!

and… yeah. this last paragraph is amazoing xD

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i hope this somehow helped a little !! thanks for letting me critique,, lestie :3

Weekly one: Character Development

Part 1 | Laken's Flaws | 176 words

While he may seem cool and collected on the outside, it's quite the opposite on the inside. Laken, who works on the 3rd story of his office complex struggles with his identity in more ways than one. His willpower isn't all too strong, suggesting that maybe the voices in his head could get to him easier, and rash decisions could be made. There's also a strong pulling force to autonomy, letting his fears prevent him from doing much of anything else in his life, and the way he handles things one could describe as boring. This could lead him to take measures to not face said fear, and make bad choices that spiral him into conflict. These voices, combined with the fear of commitment & breaking autonomy, along with the weak willpower and suppressed issues tend to leave Laken in a predicament no one can describe in normal words. While this may NOT be a flaw, the two voices, or personalities as Laken likes to call them, could also lead him to make bad choices.

Part 2 | Character Development | 216 words

Laken originally shunned his voices / personalities, Thinking they just had no good ideas whatsoever, what do they know? They're just voices. He just wants to remain in his autonomy, make sure that whatever happens, he's still in control. He likes the control over his body and actions, it provides a nice constant that no matter what, he's still him. His original motive being just retaining the peace. However, when his willpower crumbles, and the voices finally get to him, he quits his office job. Not the kind of stability he wanted, sure, but this throws him into the deep end and he has to find a way of making money. He's upset at these stupid voices, but tries something he thought was idiotic at the time, since he has nothing to lose. Art. He sees and hears things other people don't normally see. Learning to make the best of his delusions, bringing them to life, setting an example to others and making millions. He grows to love his “flaws” and accepts that he may not have control over every situation, and that's okay. He learns that every little thing happens for a reason, and that it's practically stupid to have a comfort zone, that his mind isn't broken, the world is just not meant for him.

Part 3 | Laken's motives | 211 words

Stability. He just wants control over himself and his life, which is difficult considering he has someone whispering in his ear 24/7 saying that he should commit evil acts or do something horrible. His original motive is to suppress those thoughts and continue on with his life like he's normal, and we all know how that ends. Something snapped in him, his willpower crumbling, and he quits his job. Now, he's at rock bottom, hoping for that same stability he had, but nothing was working. He had nothing else to lose. That's when he got an idea… If the voices had driven him this far, how about it drives him further? To achieve just a little bit of control in his life, he lets his voices talk via art. The paint eventually creating a masterpiece. Maybe… just maybe he can use this to gain stability. And that's what he did. Laken let his brush carry him through the dark, painting his way to his original stability and more, but this time, the voices weren't suppressed they were… embraced. The stability he chased for so much required the demolition of his original life, but it was so worth it. He finally had control over himself and his mind. He was free.

Part 4 | Laken suffers | 970 words

This is Laken. He works on the third floor of his tech company, C&S corporation. Automation is key to this, the small click-clacking of the keyboard, the smell of coffee and broken dreams, something about it calmed his nerves. It was slow, and subtle, like a lazy river of sorts. This is his life. He wouldn't change anything, except whispers.

Subtle suggestions, laughter… the eyes. He brushed it off as security cameras or just his co-workers. But it always struck something in him, something deep within. Of course, he never acted on these, why would he? He's living the American dream! He has a house, a job, a car, a crushing weight of existential dread, what more could you want? But… it was always whispering. Pleading for something. For trouble, Laken thought.

Laken gritted his teeth, trying to dampen the voice by covering his ears. But it was still loud and clear, the laughter, the suggestions. “Shut up…” Laken muttered, taking a deep breath. He just needed to collect himself, it doesn't matter what happens, he's just crazy. He just needs to dilute the voice. But it was so compelling. It was a smooth, manipulative tone, calming, almost. Laken calmy stood up, brushing off the invisible dust on his dress shirt. He made his way to the elevator, going up to the 15th floor, the top floor. All the way to his boss' office, as if in a moment of clarity and announced so practically entire board could hear. “I quit.”

He turned around, slamming the door behind him, back down the elevator, back to his cubicle, collecting his stuff, a small snarl on his face as he did so, everything in a small storage box in the bottom of his desk. Everything cleared, everything in the back of his car, everything collected and everything missing. The drive home was grueling, it picked at his bones and slowly broke at his patience. His hands gripped at the wheel, finally realizing what he had done. It's too late to go back now! It's useless! He pulled into his driveway, bashing his head against the wheel, a long HONK noise coming from the car. “CURSES!” Laken yelled, breathing heavily, his eyes wide with anger. “TH-THIS IS YOUR FAULT!” He yelled into the distance, as if it was an actual entity, but it was just a suggestion, just a voice, just a delusion.

He slammed the car door, not even bothering to bring his stuff inside, flopping on the couch, and practically panicking. He's unemployed. What now?! He can't become a junkie! He's a living embodiment of calm and collected! He's cool, it's cool, it's okay… NO IT'S NOT! HIS STABILITY IS GONE, HE CAN'T GET A STABLE INCOME AND IT'S ALL HIS VOICES' FAULT! IT'S ALL THEIR FAULT! He took a heavy, shaky breath, holding his knees. He can just look for another job! It's simple! There's nothing else more simple than finding another job!

He scrolled on his phone for a moment, looking for any job positions that required his skillset, which was… none. Why must every job require he speak Spanish?! He took Russian in high school! Why even have a Russian program when every job requires SPANISH?! GOD FORBID! He cursed under his breath, our of options, steaming, scared. Is this it? Is this where it all ends? Alone, afraid… regretful almost? He's going to be evicted if he doesn't do anything. He's going to be homeless, struggling. All because he couldn't- His eyes widened. An idea. A stupid idea, but it's an idea.

Using the last of the money in his wallet, he bought paint, a paint brush a canvas, primer, the entire works. He was so scared of losing his stability that he couldn't listen to the only constant in his life. This horrible, sadistic, manipulative voice. The one that was repressed for so long, unable to speak or express itself. At least not until now. He put the brush to the canvas, closing his eyes. It's been talking for so long, at least give good suggestions now. The brush slashing across the canvas, paint splattering almost everywhere, a horrifying, blood curdling picture. It was elegant in a way, beautiful almost. The subject purposely blurry, the blood a striking pink, popping out from the rest of the piece. Laken's eyes widened, almost dropping the brush in his hand. It was beautiful.

He took a quick picture of it on his phone. The world had to see this, he was surprised he did it himself. His hands cautiously hovered over the post button, what's the worst that can happen? He's already at rock bottom, in a desperate attempt for some control, he pressed the post button. Like a wildfire, his post became viral, hundreds of thousands of people liking, commenting nice things, reposts everywhere, he had never known he was this good. He could take advantage of this…

Swiftly, he picked up the brush again, the voice becoming a natural guide as another grueling piece came out, it was gut wrenching, but perfect in a way. He quickly gained a massive following, his horror artwork really installing fear and uncertainty. Letting out his anger, fears, and now, his best friend onto the canvas. Every little thing the voice said he took into consideration instead of pushing it deep down, Laken was finally free. He had control in a way he thought wasn't control at all.

Now, he still draws horror artwork, and is still a well commissioned artist. He has a messy studio, a free and loose look to himself and a brand new reason to sustain stability. He found an advantage in his disorder and learned to accept himself. In all of his delusional, horrifying beauty. Finally at peace, finally with control, with a good copilot too.

Open to critique! I know I probably didn't do too hot, and that's okay!!

Weekly one

Part 1
It took me such a short time to figure out what my character would be which is honestly insane to me but let's give it a try

I've decided to call my character Petry from the word petrify because I feel that this word perfectly reflects her personality.

One of Petry’s biggest flaws is that she lacks self-confidence. Many people would just simply brush this off as just insecurity, but this is more deeper to her. Petry is one of the strongest fairies in the land, but is unable to use her immense power to help others efficiently because she feels that she is truly weak, a burden to all. This makes her best known for cowering in fear in front of the enemy and is the main reason why her Scorefront is concerningly low compared to her Heldmates.

She often finds herself hiding from the world, trapped in her own self pity. People are often confused, yet disappointed when they see her case. Petry is an extremely gifted fairy born and raised in the Safe Clan where a Scorefront of 200 is considered normal. Her cheerfulness and creativity illuminates Strongheld Five and makes her exceedingly popular. But as soon as she steps onto a battlefield she's a completely different person. Her cunning and smooth persona disappears instantly. The leader, although closely related to Petry, believes that no amount of training or encouragement could ever help the poor girl.

Part 2
Petry Safe starts as a girl who is extremely eager to get her Scorefront high. She dismisses everyone's worry and takes what she thought was an easy mission. She fails said mission and loses the motivation to continue as an active fairy. After the kind yet mysterious words from Grand Tim, Petry vows to go back to missions and become stronger. With the help of her somewhat insane Heldmate, Frilda. She goes on her second mission. This time, instead of picking the most dangerous mission with the largest pay, she takes a simple mission from the Ttear board with a relatively low pay. After she meets her Taskmaster, she sets off to complete her mission

Deep down she fears that she's permanently lost the ability to use her magic. Willpower and a strong heart is essential to a fairy’s life. It fuels the magic with such brilliance that evil could never defect. But this time was different, she was going to change things for the better. She panics and hides a lot but surprisingly, she actually completes the mission. She does so well that the Taskmaster gives her a huge raise. When she returns to Strongheld Five, everyone is happy that she has made progress and is now less afraid of failure.

She finds the courage to take more of these simple missions, developing her skills further. Throughout her journey, she had made new friends and even fans. People loved her mindset and spirit.

Part 3
In the story, Petry begins as an extremely talented girl who values her Clan’s teachings and beliefs. When it is her time, she joins Strongheld Five. Despite warnings and concerns from her fellow Heldmates, she goes on a mission from the Atear board - a board that contains dangerous jobs for more high classed fairies. At first, all was going well; the area was stunning and the travel was quick and quite relaxing. But unfortunately, due to her still being new to fairy life and missions, she ultimately failed the mission. She was so injured that another of her Heldmates had to take her to the medical centre and later back home. Although the Safe clan were mad at her, they were relieved that she was alive and safe.

Petry was humiliated. So humiliated that after she had recovered, she didn't dare go back to the Strongheld. For a while, she would just wander around her house aimlessly, trying to avoid confronting her obvious emotional pain. Later in the month she was visited by her worst nightmare at the time, Grand Tim, the leader of Strongheld Five. Petry panicked. She had only been in the Strongheld for a week and she was already being dropped? But Grand Tim didn't drop her, or even yell; he just sat down next to her in complete silence.

After a few gruesome minutes of awkward silence, Petry burst into tears. She sobbed and shook violently, rambling on about how stupid she had been and how sorry she was. But Grand Tim still did say a word. They sat in this awkward silence with Petry quietly sniffing. Grand Tim then said the words that changed her. “What do you aspire to achieve in the Strongheld?” Petry stopped sniffing. She didn't know. She had just joined because she needed to. After a Safe completed their Merziura, they joined a Strongheld. That unwritten rule was sacred. Grand Tim stood up, “Get back to the Strongheld when you’ve figured it out” He said with a croaking voice. And he left. Petry spent the rest of the day in bed, feeling lifeless and tired. What do I want to do? Why did I even join? She asked herself.

“So you really went to her house huh” Drasil said. “Someone had to help the girl,” Grand Tim replied softly. The Strongheld had been really quiet since Petry had gone. A lot of people liked her energy and felt sorry for her as it was obvious that she was hurting.

The next day, the Strongheld was still in a mood when a bird came into the building slowly. No one was surprised as it was a Jesil, a common messenger bird. ”How interesting,” Grand Tim mumbled. “I don't think i’m expecting anything today”. He opened the letter and realised it was a PVM, a projection video message. The letter must have come from real money. The PVM started, it was Petry donning a determined face.

“Dear Sir Grand Tim,” she began. “I really thought about your question and I've decided that after you have been so kind to me, you deserve the answer. I want to become a strong and reliable person. Someone who could someday take the Atear missions with no struggle. For a while, I asked myself why I wanted to change and now I know the answer. I want to do this all to protect the Safe Clan. I realise that by acting recklessly, I have tainted the Safe Clan's image. After everything they’ve done for me and I repaid them with that? It's not okay. After everything, they didn't even scold me that harshly. But I could see it, their worry.” Petry paused. “I could hear their whispers about how they were struggling to fix my mess. Sylvester was the one who completed the mission in the end. Madria had to take more missions to pay back the Taskmaster. That's when I decided that I was going to rebuild the Safe Clan’s reputation and never cause them such pain and anguish ever again. They deserve more than what I've given. I want to repay them in ways that they would never imagine. I also want to improve myself, so that I can finally be proud of myself. That is my aspiration. I will be returning tomorrow to begin to fulfill it. Thank you.” Everyone was shocked. Her voice was laced with a heavy coat of authority, determination and confidence that they had never seen before. Grand Tim chuckled to himself. “She’s almost there,” he whispered quietly.

Part 4
When Petry first started at Strongheld Five she was a different person she was bold she was brave she was kind every single person in the held either loved or admired her. Her head was always held high and she was always ready to help others. After a week of introductions it was finally time for her to go and do her first mission. Everyone had advised her to go for something simple and easy as it was her first time but Petry reminded them that she was a Safe and that “Safes go for the big and bold”. That made everyone worry but they decided that it would be best to just let her go. So she went off into the wild to meet the Taskmaster, strangely a small child, who gave her her very first mission: catch a balloon. Petry paused.

Catch a balloon? For 100,000 Howdrins?

But that's too easy..

Those were the thoughts that endlessly circled her mind. But she never thought to ask the child why they needed to get the balloon. Why was it so special? Instead she agreed and took her Borrotime. She took a train all the way to the city of Louries, a city popular for its ancient history in magic. It was one of her dreams to go to the city and explore but she had no time for that; she had to complete her first mission. However, she promised herself that if she completed this mission successfully she would spend a few days sightseeing.

Using her Borrotime, she bought a few nights at a cheap hotel in the Lakeside town Ligin. By now the sun was setting and the moon had invited itself to the top of the skies. Although Petry was very excited to begin her mission she was also tired from carrying her huge suitcase around the city. She hopped into the shower and daydreamed about her mission; how she would make everyone proud and be the example to the rest of the Safe Clan and Strongheld Five. She was full of confidence and excitement.
That night she went to bed peacefully, blissfully unaware of what was to come tomorrow.

She woke up bright and early at 2:00 a.m. And got ready to start her mission. Louries is also known for being one of the most popular night cities in the land where a bustling city at 3 a.m. was considered normal. She took time getting ready, washing her face deeply, anointing her hair with oils and getting dressed in her specially fitted Safe Clan Merizth. Petry was ready for anything or so she thought. She looked at herself in the paranormal glass mirror and paused. This was her very first mission, failing it would tank her Clan's reputation. She had to succeed. She straightened out her dark green fleece and headed out the door.

Petry was instantly hit by the immense artificial light of the town. Majestic streetlights that hummed angelic songs stood tall at the edge of the pathways. The town was filled with noise; the laughing of children, the clinking of glass and the soft murmur of its people. Petry stood still, watching in awe. She had never seen anything like this place. Sure Druinate was somewhat lively, but Ligin was on another level, Petry couldn't help staring at the town’s beauty. After a few minutes of admiration, Petry got on the bus.

She was on the way to Lumini Castle, as the letter commanded. She had to find the balloon “above, below or around the castles, where the fairies unite in song”. Petry had no idea what the last bit meant but she thought she could just get it done in no time and she'd understand along the way. Around an hour later the wheels began to slow down and the bus finally stopped. Everyone departed the bus slowly, taking in the new scenery. It was like they had travelled to a different World completely. Lumini Castle was majestic. Although it was now 4am, the sky was an azure blue. The sun bellowed the land with its sharp rays. Despite the perfect weather, a gentle thick mist loomed over the area as if it was protecting it. She practically sprinted into the building. As soon as she was in, the doors closed swiftly and quietly. But Petry wasn't fazed. They weren't as important, she had a mission to complete.

The inside of the castle heavily contrasted its surrounding area. The inside was a dull grey colour, with a smell so strong that it could kill. Particles of dust floated around comfortably. The air felt heavy and musty. She put her mask on and ventured deeper into the castle quickly.

That's when something happened, suddenly Petry found herself on the ground, writhing in pain. she held her leg which oozed with blood. “Hello? Who’s there?” she said, panic rising in her every second. She got up slowly, trying to look for her attacker. Nothing. Then out of nowhere, a barrage of darts came flying towards her. She was barely able to defend herself with her magic. Now, she was truly afraid. She stood there alone, shaking violently, sweat running down her face while her head darted around frantically. Despite her shakened mind, she prepared her magic carefully. Molding magic. A difficult magic that allowed its user to mold particles into objects of their choice. Petry used the dust to create bullets. She sent them flying, hoping to hit her attacker. But for some reason, none of her bullets would hit anything or anyone.

After 5 minutes of this she gave up. Usually the user would dispel the objects after they were of no use but Petry’s objects didn't disappear. The bullets froze. Then turned direction. Then raced towards her. None of the bullets pierced her body.

The next thing she would remember is her laying on the floor fading in and out of consciousness.

She could barely see what was now approaching her.

Blue Jacket, brown and white hair.

The figure stood over her.

It was a girl with a red balloon.





Words
Part 1: 191/150
Part 2: 244/200
Part 3: 758/200
Part 4: 1022/450

Total: 2271/100

✧ 07/03/2025 · weekly #1 · burnout, boundaries, and becoming (character development) · 2592 words · 2000 points ✧

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【 ⟡ part one: character flaws ⟡ 】 ⁎ 465 words

she carries herself like stability—like she has it all together. her notes are color-coded, her tasks mapped weeks in advance. she’s the first to offer help, the last to ask for it. you wouldn’t look at her twice—she doesn’t need you to. she’s already looking at herself a hundred times over, wondering what you might need, and how she can provide it perfectly.

she’s composed. helpful. functional. but it’s a performance—a curated mask made of perfectionism, fear, and a quiet desperation to be needed. her smile doesn’t reach her eyes, but no one asks why. she’s too busy making sure everything looks fine.

her perfectionism isn’t about pride or vanity—it’s survival. every flaw feels like evidence she’s not enough. so she rewrites entire paragraphs no one will read twice. triple-checks things that already passed inspection. she overprepares, overdelivers, overworks. her self-worth is tangled in productivity. when she makes a mistake, she doesn’t just apologize—she unravels. spirals.

she’s a people pleaser to the bone. she measures her value by how useful she is, and would rather disappoint herself than risk disappointing someone else. she offers help while drowning. says “no worries” while worrying all night. she burns quietly, just so others can feel warm.

her temper isn’t loud—it’s clenched jaws, bitten nails, silent tears behind closed doors. anger comes out sideways: sarcasm, withdrawal, apologizing too quickly for feeling anything at all. she doesn't believe she can be angry and still be loved. so she holds it in until it knots in her stomach, or erupts in ways that hurt her more than anyone else.

at her core, there’s self-destructiveness dressed as dedication. she skips meals. ignores pain. sacrifices rest for tasks no one asked her to complete. she doesn’t ask for help—she believes she shouldn’t need it. and even when she finishes something impossible, she doesn’t celebrate. she critiques. she picks herself apart in a mirror no one else sees.

she tells herself this is who she is. but it’s not. it’s who she became to survive rooms that didn’t let her be messy. she’s not falling apart—yet. but the perfection is cracking. and every fracture lets in a truth she’s spent years trying not to feel.

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【 ⟡ part two: character development ⟡ 】 ⁎

at the start of the story, she is a masterclass in composure. everything about her is intentional—her words are measured, her tone calm, her posture impossibly upright. she takes notes in perfect penmanship during meetings, nods at the right moments, never interrupts, never falters. she anticipates needs before they're spoken, offering water before someone realizes they’re thirsty, fixing mistakes no one else noticed, smoothing tension with practiced diplomacy. she’s helpful to a fault, constantly pouring herself out until there’s nothing left.

but no one sees the cost.

behind the polished exterior is exhaustion with no name. a quiet unraveling, burnout that wears a mask of polite smiles and perfect attendance. she’s efficient, reliable, “so put together”—but under the surface, she’s fraying thread by thread. her calendar is full. her inbox is organized. her emotions are buried.

the catalyst isn’t a catastrophe. it’s gentle. small. but jarring.

maybe she forgets something—something minor, but out of character. a deadline slips. a detail gets lost. or maybe someone close to her—someone whose opinion she values—says softly, “you know… you don’t have to do everything.”

and she freezes.

not because the words are cruel, but because they are true in a way that disorients her. she’s spent so long being the one who holds everything together, she doesn’t know how to respond to the idea that she could let go of even one thing. a crack forms in her carefully constructed image, and for once, she doesn’t immediately rush to patch it.

someone notices. someone sees the pause, the hesitation—and instead of glossing over it, they stay. they don’t let her deflect. they don’t let her retreat behind the usual “i’m fine.” and for the first time in a long time, she lets another person help her carry something—however small.

that moment opens a door.

as the story unfolds, she begins to experiment with honesty—not just factual honesty, but emotional honesty. she speaks truths that tremble on her tongue. she says no to something she would’ve silently accepted before. she sets a boundary, even though her stomach knots with guilt. she takes an afternoon off, not because she’s finished everything, but because she’s tired. the rest feels foreign, like wearing someone else’s clothes—but a tiny part of her exhales.

she still struggles. she still spirals. she still wakes up some mornings with panic gripping her ribs, convinced she has to earn her place in every room. she still catches herself apologizing for existing too loudly, for needing too much. guilt clings to her like a second skin. but she’s learning. slowly, quietly, she’s beginning to understand that her worth isn’t defined by her usefulness.

then comes the setback.

maybe someone pushes back against her new boundaries—calls her distant, selfish, changed. maybe she slips up—raises her voice, says something sharp, something she regrets. and because she still carries the blueprint of perfectionism in her bones, she believes it. she retreats. overcommits. cancels her plans to rest. tries to make herself small again. the old pattern tries to reclaim her.

but this time, something’s different.

this time, she notices what’s happening. she watches the spiral start, and instead of letting it consume her, she pauses. she breathes. she tells someone the truth—not just what she did, but how she feels about it. she gives herself grace, even if it doesn’t feel entirely earned.

and slowly, she starts reclaiming herself.

not just the curated, high-functioning version—the polished mask—but the whole version. the one who laughs too loud. the one who cries when she’s tired. the one who messes up, admits it, and tries again. she discovers the strange, tender joy of letting someone see her in the middle of the mess—and being loved anyway.

she still has days where she doubts everything. where she checks and re-checks. where she wakes up convinced she has to prove her worth all over again. but now, those days are just days—not her whole life. there are also moments of clarity. of rest. of saying, “i need help,” and letting someone show up for her.

by the end, she’s still imperfect. still growing. still carrying scars that shaped her. but she’s no longer performing. she’s present. she’s real. she still helps people—but not to prove something. not to be needed. she helps because it brings her joy, and because now, she knows how to help herself too.

her flaws haven’t disappeared, but they no longer define her.

she’s learning that being loved doesn’t require perfection. and she’s finally—finally—letting herself be messy.

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【 ⟡ part three: character motivation ⟡ 】 ⁎ 507 words

her need for control didn’t come out of nowhere. it was shaped by years of quiet survival. growing up, she lived in a house full of tension—tight smiles, unspoken rules, love that depended on performance. she was the responsible one, the quiet one, the child who didn’t cause problems. she watched her older sibling melt down and get labeled dramatic. watched her father sigh when she asked too many questions. watched her mother shut down when things got too emotional.

so she learned. learned to make herself small. to be the child who didn’t take up space. she cleaned her room before anyone could ask. answered questions perfectly. never cried in public. she became “so mature for her age”—and no one questioned why she never got upset.

she remembers being eight, working on a school project late into the night. she was tired, frustrated, and her glue stick broke. she burst into tears. her parent walked in, looked at the mess, and said, “is this really worth crying about?” she dried her tears in silence. apologized the next morning. decided she’d never let emotions interfere again.

now, as a teenager, her life runs on that same quiet pressure. her calendar is full. her grades are good. her reputation is flawless. people describe her as capable, organized, helpful—but no one sees how desperately she’s holding it all together.

her motivation looks like perfectionism. ambition. dedication. but underneath, it’s fear. she’s afraid of being seen as difficult. afraid of letting someone down. afraid that if she stops performing, everyone will leave.

a deeper layer? she wants to be needed. wants to be valuable. it’s not about ego—it’s about safety. she believes that being helpful is how she earns love. her trauma taught her that expressing emotion meant losing connection, so she buried her feelings and built a persona that people praise but don’t truly know.

through the story, this motivation starts to shift. someone tells her she doesn’t have to do it all. another person asks her what she wants—and waits for a real answer. she starts experimenting with honesty. starts recognizing the panic behind her productivity. starts questioning the belief that rest is laziness and boundaries are selfish.

there’s resistance. part of her still craves approval more than peace. she still volunteers even when she’s exhausted. still apologizes for saying no. still wakes up with dread on days when nothing is planned—because without something to “earn,” she feels unmoored.

but change begins. quietly. steadily. she starts showing up for herself, not just others. she realizes she wants connection that doesn’t come with conditions. she learns that being useful isn’t the same as being loved.

her motivation evolves. she still wants to help people—but now, not to prove her worth. not to keep everyone happy. she helps because it’s part of who she is. and because now, she’s learning to help herself too.

in the end, her deepest motivation is healing. not fixing herself into perfection. not erasing her flaws. but letting herself exist fully—angry, soft, tired, joyful, real.

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【 ⟡ part four: tying it all together ⟡ 】 ⁎

she arrives early. again.

not because she’s excited. not because she’s productive. because anxiety always whispers that arriving late is a crack in the mask. and she can’t afford cracks.

her hands shake as she unlocks the door. the hallway lights are cold and too bright, and everything smells like yesterday’s coffee and overcommitment. she sets her bag down with precision, unpacks her laptop, opens the document she’s been avoiding.

the cursor blinks. waiting. mocking.

it’s a simple task. nothing dramatic. a write-up she knows how to do. but her chest is tight and her thoughts feel sharp. her hands hover over the keyboard. she types three words, deletes two. starts again. deletes again.

she blames her perfectionism, but it’s more than that. she’s exhausted. physically, emotionally. today feels like walking through shards of glass, like every breath takes effort, and productivity feels like betrayal. she wants to rest. but she hasn’t earned it yet. she hasn’t finished. she hasn’t done enough.

someone knocks.

she flinches. then breathes.

her coworker steps in gently. not loud. not nosy. just present.

“you okay?”

she almost says the words she always says: i’m fine. i’ve got this. no worries.

but something inside her says no.

“i’m… not doing great,” she admits, voice quiet, almost ashamed. “i’m stuck. i keep starting and deleting. i feel ridiculous. it’s just one small task.”

they nod. don’t dismiss. don’t fix.

“want me to sit with you while you work?”

she hesitates. that feels strange. unnecessary. but maybe necessary in a different way.

“yeah. please.”

they pull up a chair. don’t speak. don’t hover. just exist beside her.

and something inside her unknots—just slightly.

she types. slowly. the words aren’t perfect, but they’re enough. she doesn’t reread. doesn’t revise. she lets them live.

she sends it off. closes her laptop. her heart still thuds, but it doesn’t scream. she sips tea. lets herself settle into silence.

a soft win.

later, she gets an email reply. simple. approving. no edits.

no critique. no shame.

her body feels lighter. not light. but lighter.

that evening, someone invites her out. casual gathering. low-pressure. she says yes automatically, then pauses.

she’s tired. and not just surface tired—soul-tired. the kind that no performance can mask.

“actually,” she says, “i think i need a quiet night.”

her friend nods with a soft smile. “of course. take care of yourself.”

she blinks. doesn’t cry. but wants to.

she orders food she likes, not food that checks wellness boxes. puts on fuzzy socks. watches something soft. she doesn’t multitask. doesn’t prep for tomorrow. she just… breathes. she exists, and takes up space. and that feels okay.

halfway through the movie, she remembers last year—when rest felt like guilt. when every second not spent doing was shame.

tonight, it feels like grace.

the next day, she makes a mistake. forgets something. panic rises fast, like muscle memory. she almost apologizes for existing. almost throws herself into overcompensation.

but instead, she pauses.

she messages someone she trusts. says, “i’m spiraling. i feel like i messed everything up.”

they reply simply.

“you’re allowed to make mistakes. it doesn’t mean you’re unworthy.”

her breath catches. her fingers tremble.

she rereads the message five times.

and then she says, “thank you.”

it’s the first time she lets that truth stay without arguing with it.

a week later, she faces confrontation.

someone criticizes her boundaries. says she’s changed. says she used to be “easier.”

her throat tightens. her body remembers the days when conflict meant silence. when defending herself felt selfish.

but now?

she breathes. speaks clearly. doesn’t justify. doesn’t shrink.

“i’m learning how to take care of myself,” she says. “it doesn’t mean i care less. it just means i’m being honest.”

they don’t love the answer. but they hear it. and that’s enough.

that night, she lets herself cry. not in secret. not behind locked doors. just… cries. full-face, full-heart. like her body needed to spill out everything it held for years.

she doesn’t hide it. doesn’t apologize.

it feels like release.

by the end of the month, she starts noticing things she didn’t before.

how often she used to say yes out of fear. how silence used to be her shield. how she used to track compliments like proof she was doing okay.

now, she says yes when she wants to. says no when she needs to. lets people praise her without needing it to patch a wound.

she helps people. still. because she loves to. not because it defines her.

and she helps herself.

she sleeps more. not just naps—real rest. she eats without spreadsheets. writes messily. laughs loudly. lets herself have joy she doesn’t earn.

she tells herself, “i don’t need permission to exist fully.”

and for the first time, she believes it.

her flaws didn’t vanish. she’s still learning. still slips into old patterns. still wakes up some days with tight lungs and checklists blinking through her brain.

but now, she catches the spiral early. interrupts it with breath. with truth. with kindness.

she’s not performing anymore.

she’s present.

the girl who used to survive with stability is now building peace—not from perfection, but from softness.

she drinks her tea slowly.

forgets the list.

and smiles.

juliathecaesar wrote:

✧ 07/03/2025 · weekly the first · 2592 words total · 2000 points ✧

And I thought mine was long. It's awesome, man.

↻ ◁ II ▷ ↺

◪ Weekly 1
Points earned: 2000
Cabin: Dystopian

Characters aren't realistic or relatable without their own flaws, and sometimes these weaknesses end up creating a more intriguing story. To begin this weekly, figure out an idea of your character's flaws–their negative traits that might drive them to make poor decisions. Summarize the flaws you've come up with in at least 150 words to complete your first part!

Wordcount: 212/150

Xavi will never trust anybody. Though later on in future books he does slowly open up, in the first book he is majorly closed off. He is one of the sons of Droquet, the King of the Underworld, and was never treated right as a child. He was constantly compared to his younger brother, thus also leading to huge self-confidence issues. These flaws lead him to try and make brash decisions on his own- even if he was held at the edge of a cliff, he would rather jump than open up about his feelings or his problems. To him, he doesn't need anybody else. He's fine by himself, just like he was ever since he was a mere child. These two flaws will obviously and eventually lead to detachment- causing more problems with his quest mates. Often times he disappears into the night and comes back multiple hours later, not bothering to answer anybody's questions, since they should “mind their own businesses”. He himself doesn't find anything wrong with his behavior. He thinks that it's justified and the fact that anybody is questioning him gets on his nerves. To him, people trying to question his motives ticks him off more than anything else, because they'll never go through what he did.

For the next part, you will outline how your character will grow and change throughout the story. Continue by thinking about who your character is at

the beginning—what are their strengths, weaknesses, fears, and goals? Then, consider what experiences or events will challenge them. How will they react to these challenges? Will they succeed, fail, or struggle along the way? By the end of the story, your character should be different in some way—maybe even more flawed ;D Enjoy crafting your character, and ensure that you write at least 200 words to move on to the next part!

Wordcount: 245/200

The entire plot twist is that Xavi has actually split his existence into three parts to help all three quest groups to find their respective sacred jewelry, and the reader only finds this out in around the fourth book. Before that, Xavi feels extreme exhaustion due to the physical labor of splitting his soul and mind. He has to look through three pairs of eyes continuously, even while sleeping, because his counterpart might still be awake.

He accidentally blurts this out to Lionald at the middle of the second book during an interlude. This gives him severe embarrassment and fear that he would be reported or discovered, as splitting your existence is strictly prohibited and is class one dark magic. However, even though Lionald is one of the people who gets on Xavi's nerves the most, he is surprisingly understanding. This leads to Xavi slowly telling Lionald's group (Alexei, Ava and Arche) as well, though he doesn't dare mention it to the other two parties. All four of them help protect his secret, saving him from positions where he would have surely been thrown in a cell if they weren't there, somehow making him open up a little more each time. At first he was hesitant- after all, he was reprimanded harshly for ever speaking up or out of turn in Droquet. With them, it seemed that the more he said, the more they grew closer and closer to a family than he ever had.

Now that you've figured out your characters' development, you'll focus on their motivations. A character's motivation is very important to make sure their decisions and what they do remain consistent and make sense for that character. Motivations can come from a character's past, things they care about, and goals. For example, in the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, one of Katniss' main motivations is to protect her sister, which leads to her volunteering for her sister and contributes to the reasoning behind many of her decisions in the rebellion to continue protecting her family. Now write 200 words explaining the motivation behind the character. Have fun!

Wordcount: 401/200

Xavi's father is perhaps one of the main antagonists in the story. Originally, the underworld was supposed to be ruled by Droquet himself- but after Demitri figured out how to reduce the god's weakness, he placed himself King of Droquet. All spirits, all demons and all monsters were to answer to him and only to him.

Droquet is far kinder than he seems. Though he has a twisted sense of humor and doesn't even realize when whatever he makes his human puppets do is almost close to torture, he does wish the best for all his demons and sprits. The lowest pits of hell are only for those who deserve eternal punishment- spirits who did nothing to harm others too much but were still subjected to hell because of Lunova's judgement, were left in the retribution fields.

Xavi, though never telling his father and that wretched pet snake of his, was visited by Droquet multiple times in his mind when asleep. He used to think that Droquet was some sort of twisted guardian spirit, because whenever Xavi used to ask him who he was, he would simply laugh and continue telling him stories. It was only the day that he figured out who the god was that he stopped revisiting his dreams.

In his slumber, Droquet would tell him about times when the Underworld was not discriminated so- where demons and spirits were also allowed inside councils and meetings. Where their needs were also put at the same level as others. Where they weren't seen as pests and vermin.

Xavi swore to overthrow his father one day and return power to the original god, by collecting mana and building his mindspace.

An additional thing to mention would also be that when he was finally sneaking out of the underworld, he was bitten by his father's enormous snake. With the amount of venom that snake had, she had left him good for dead, sneaking away, but Xavi quickly grabbed one of the forbidden yellow apples from his father's trees and ate it for their healing abilities. He clearly took too big of a bite, because now he knew the entire unfortunate fate of the world, and how the upcoming war in mere days would ruin anything he wanted to work for.

So, sidequest of splitting his soul in three parts to save the planet of Shayakh from combusting in on itself :3

Throughout this weekly, we've taken a closer look at what motivates our characters to take on what they do, as well as how they develop and change as their story progresses, responding to the world around them. So, what's next? We're glad you asked—now that you've created your (im)perfect (;D) character, it's time to tie it all together and place them in a tale of your very own. For the final part of this weekly, write a short story in a minimum of 450 words incorporating your flawed character, focusing on character development and their motives as we've explored throughout the past week. Best of luck!

Wordcount: 521/450

Nine thousand three hundred and five
Nine thousand three hundred and six
Nine thousand three hundred and seven
Nine thousand three hundred and eight

Counting helped. Counting always helped. Count and count until you run out of numbers or your run out of memories.

Sitting on night-lookout was always the most peaceful part about being part of the first quest group. Since they took a ship, he could stay up at night on the mast as an excuse to watch for danger. It wasn't necessary- he could always send a mana crow to look out for him using shadows instead of staying awake.

But sleeping was hard.
Sleeping was tiring.

Getting one-third of your soul to fall asleep while controlling the other two was harder than manipulating all three of them at the same time.

Nine thousand three hundred and nineteen
Nine thousand three hundred and twenty

But counting was okay.

Counting grounded some of him down while he closed his eyes, focusing on navigating the second group through the Plonysiane forests and the third through Xbalanque temple. It was unfortunately still day for them due to the time zone difference, so there wasn't ever a time where all three parts of his mind could rest. One was always moving, giving him an aneurysm. Whenever he ever dared to zone out and try to focus his attention on that careless third group from getting them killed, somebody would have the audacity to ask him to snap out of it. For him to pay attention because there was an important quest, and that he was their only hope for the arcane symbols.

As if he didn't know that.

Nine thousand three hundred and thirty seven
Nine thousand three hundred and thirty eight
Nine thousand three hundred and thirty nine
Nine thousand three hundred and forty
Nine thousand three hundred and forty one

But counting was okay.

At night, his eyes didn't have to remain open. At night, he could count by seconds and hours and half hours and quarter hours and milliseconds and seconds and seconds and seconds.
At night, he could breathe again. At night he didn't have to blink and pretend he was listening to someone when he already knew the outcome- when he already knew what that decision would lead to and he didn't have to scream that his only job was to make sure that he pushed them in the right way, so that the barriers didn't fall even worse. At night he didn't have to pretend he didn't already know the result of the very conversation he was having, how it would fall out, who would get mad, who would slam there door in exactly 18 seconds, who would agree. Who would cry. Who would look at him as if he was a genius and who would look at him like he scraps from the underworld because he was and he knew they knew but they never knew. They never knew as much as he knew and how much he had to know for the sake of the entire world.

But counting was okay.

Counting was okay.

Part 1 – Flaws

While his name isn’t exactly public knowledge, he supposes he can give you something to call him for the time being. How about Hemlock, for now?

Hemlock is polite and rather charming. To those he likes, anyhow. To any unfortunate soul who happens to get on his bad side, though? They aren’t as lucky. He can become a jerk if he doesn’t like you. Snippy comments and remarks and being over all highly passive aggressive. Call him exclusive, or whatever. He doesn’t really care. He has his favorite customers and people, and he has people he dislikes in the extreme.

Perhaps a side effect of that is that he’s spiteful. Ask or tell him to do something, even in the most polite fashion, and he’ll do the complete opposite. Or, perhaps do it wrong, just to watch the horror or annoyance on your face. Yeah, yeah, how do you think he feels, huh? Why do you think he’s doing this in the first place? Because he’s a jerk? Why, he would never! That’s just absurd, really.

Part 2 – Development
(So, the goal is for him to go from huge jerk to less of a jerk with some loyalty to those he likes. Not a huge improvement, but an improvement nonetheless.)

If he’s being honest (which he is, despite everything, he doesn’t lie) his motivation for being such a jerk is because he doesn’t want people getting to close to him. So, in order to keep people from getting close to him in the first place, he’ll push them away. It’s a foolproof method, if you ask him.
But, in the reverse, what about the people he (seems to) like? Well, he’s not trying to truly get close to them, either. If anything, he’s just trying to learn things about them. their fears, their motivations. Their goals and weaknesses, their hopes and dreams. Anything that could possibly aid him in the future when they inevitably betray him.

… but, despite all of that.

He desperately wants a friend. Someone he can actually genuinely trust not to betray him.
And while the main character isn’t that friend, she at least helps him realize that… maybe being a jerk isn’t the answer to everything. She doesn’t try to befriend him, but she doesn’t go out of her way to be rude to him either. They’re simply positive acquaintances. Though, they do become friends of sorts, eventually.

Part 3 – Motivation

Hemlock’s motivation is a selfish one. He only wants to keep himself safe and unharmed. No one else matters. He’s been hurt before, when he was younger. And because he had no one to support him, he wasn’t able to heal in a healthy fashion. Instead having to bandage, tape, and sew the broken pieces of himself back together.

Though, after having a few friends that are there to support him and help him, his motivations change a little. While, yes, he still wants to protect himself, he realizes that it’s not exactly healthy when he does it his way. He just… isn’t exactly sure how to do it properly. He’s still figuring that out, and thus becomes a little more cautious and unsure in his behavior and dialogue.

The whole “loyal jerk” bit will probably be noted by the main character. Even if it’s in passing. But it’s definitely there. Once he’s figured out the whole “oh people don’t always want to betray me? Woah that’s so weird” he’ll have undying loyalty to his friends. And, yeah, he’ll still be a bit of a jerk to strangers, he won’t do it unprovoked. Or, as often, anyways. He’s still working on that.

Part 4 – Story

Hemlock had been taking stock of what he had in his cabinets when he heard the bell above the door ring. He sighed softly, setting down the book and pen he had been holding. Great, who was it now? After giving himself a moment to have a customer service smile, he made his way to the front of his shop.

Archer glanced up, and gave him a smile in return. “Hey,” she greeted before holding up a bag. “Got what you wanted.”

His smile became less strained. He was thankful that it was someone he knew wasn’t going to betray him eventually. “Heya,” he greeted in return before moving over to the counter. He patted it. “Rabbits, yeah?”

“Mhm,” she set the bag down. “Seven or so, I think,” she hummed. “One’s pretty small, though.”

“Ah, that’s alright,” he said, waving a hand in a dismissive gesture. “I got a few other small ones as well.”

“Aw,” Archer said. “What, you have other customers besides me?” she grinned as she said it. As serious as she usually was, if the opportunity for a joke was present, she’d take it.

He snorted softly. “Of course I do, Arc,” he said. “That’s just how a business works. But, if it helps, you’re definitely one of the best.” He said grabbing the bag. “At least you actually try your best to give me high quality furs,” he couldn’t help but add a barb after a long moment of hesitation.
“That’s very kind of you,” she said. “I try my best.”

He nodded, “One moment,” he said, going to the back and storing the bag away. Hurriedly, he rummaged through boxes and crates of cleaned furs and pelts and blankets. He let out a soft “aha!” when he found the one he was looking for.

“I finished this, by the way,” he said as he re-entered the main room where Archer was still standing. She had been leaning on the counter, looking a little zoned out. She smiled faintly when he held up the blanket. “I didn’t mean for it to take so long, for the record,” he passed the blanket to her. “But I was struggling to get enough pelts for it That last batch you brought me seriously helped.”

She folded the blanket over her arms. “Of course,” she said, smile widening into a grin. “I try my best to get you the pelts you need.” She paused. “Speaking of pelts, are you in need of anything specific?” she asked. “Or just whatever I can catch?”

“Maybe a few stoats, if you could,” he said after a moment of consideration. “But anything will do.”

“Gotcha,” she said. “Well, see you next week,” she said, waving as she started to leave.

“Alrighty,” he said, raising a hand in farewell. “Can’t wait to see my favorite customer.”

She snorted, dipped her head, and then disappeared through the door.

… maybe not all of his customers were annoying, he decided, as he moved to the back again. He grabbed the book and pen again. Maybe because some of them were what he considered friends.

willow's writing threads
0 words … last updated 07.010.2025

hello i'm willow, and i go by she/he pronouns/any.

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dailies
july 5 • random object ┊418 words
july 6 • going into the forest ┊365 words
july 7 • darkstalker redemption ┊749 words
july 8 • skzverse lore ┊1,230 words
july 9 • lyric story ┊296 words
july 11 • art rant ┊1,230


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weeklies
week 1 • character development: rhea┊2,381 words
week 2 • fairytale learning ┊word count
week 3 • title + link ┊word count
week 4 • title + link ┊word count

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word wars
sunny • unprompted ,, july 8 ┊1,185 words in 15 minutes
leopard • maybe jumping off a cliff was a bad idea ,, july 12 ┊277 words in 5 minutes

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critiques
plot/storyline critique • link ┊482 words
title • link ┊word count

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miscellaneous
title • link ┊word count
title • link ┊word count

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]more sections may be added

Jealous
I'm trying to work
but my cat saunters past
careless, free.
Frolicking.
She doesn't need to work.
I'm jealous of my cat.

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

INVESTIGATION FILE #1

◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

◇ PART ONE ◇

Characters aren't realistic or relatable without their own flaws, and sometimes these weaknesses end up creating a more intriguing story. To begin this weekly, figure out an idea of your character's flaws–their negative traits that might drive them to make poor decisions. Summarize the flaws you've come up with in at least 150 words to complete your first part!

Celeste always puts others before herself. Most would think this is a perfectly fine way of living, a good one if you will. However, her selflessness has its drawbacks. She’s always helping others, making sure all their needs are met, yet she never meets her own. She’ll give others everything they want, but she’ll never give herself anything. She’s too busy taking care of others, she forgets she needs to take care of herself.

She neglects her own needs, mental or physical, in the favor of others. If you were to ask her to do anything, she would do it for you even if it meant she would die doing it. Boundaries don’t exist for her, you could do anything to her and she’d accept it.

Celeste exists to please others. She only knows how to serve others, but never herself.

She automatically equates taking care of herself as selfishness, as others need help more than she does. She only gives to others, yet never takes, because in eyes she is being selfish. She doesn’t know how to say no, she wants to help even if it means hurting herself negatively.

She never gets angry, never lashes out. She never lets herself see emotions as a coping mechanism, or something required for survival, she only sees them as emotions. She sees sadness, anger, anything of the sort bad, while happiness is good. She thinks she only burdens others by feeling emotions, only burdens others by talking about her issues.

Selflessness to the point of self-destruction is a part of who she is.

On paper, she seems like a perfect girl. She’s selfless and well-tempered, who wouldn’t think those were good traits to have? But you know what they say, too much of something good is, in reality, something terrible.

♖ | 299 words


◆ PART TWO ◆

Continue by thinking about who your character is at the beginning—what are their strengths, weaknesses, fears, and goals? Then, consider what experiences or events will challenge them. How will they react to these challenges? Will they succeed, fail, or struggle along the way? By the end of the story, your character should be different in some way—maybe even more flawed ;D Enjoy crafting your character, and ensure that you write at least 200 words to move on to the next part!

In the beginning, Celeste believes that she exists solely to serve others. She believes that it is selfish to take care of herself because in that time she believes she could’ve spent it for others. Her beliefs are set to believe that even spending just a bit of time for herself is selfish. She thinks that it is morally wrong to do something for herself.

Celeste never thinking of herself first paints her as a perfect girl in the eyes of others, no one around her realizes that her selflessness is hurting herself. They say that she’s selfless, and immediately think that her being selfless is a good thing. They don’t realize her selflessness is crossing the line of being self-destructive.

It only takes so long for her physical and mental health to deteriorate, her not realizing that it’s okay to think of yourself every once in a while. She’s always been told that being selfless was good, and she clung onto that belief like a lifeline. She never realized that it didn’t mean to completely disregard yourself.

But things finally take a toll on her health, when she’s finally so exhausted from serving others, but she’s finally hit her limit, she’s not able to continue anymore.

When she’s finally exhausted, and she finally can’t take it anymore, she can’t do anything anymore. Celeste realizes that she can’t help people when she’s in this state.

Since she hasn’t taken care of herself, she’s now incapable of helping others. Her health has deteriorated, and she can no longer help others due to herself now being weak.

She finally puts herself before others for once in her life, finally taking care of herself. She still feels a lingering feeling of guilt for it, but it eventually fades. Who is she to help others if she can’t even help herself?

When she finally nurses herself back to health, others ask for her help again. She finally puts herself first for once, and says no. When further pressed, she lashes out. She never did that before, but it feels right.

People didn’t view her as a perfect girl anymore, but Celeste found she was okay with that.

♜ | 363 words


◇ PART THREE ◇

Now that you've figured out your characters' development, you'll focus on their motivations. A character's motivation is very important to make sure their decisions and what they do remain consistent and make sense for that character. Motivations can come from a character's past, things they care about, and goals. For example, in the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, one of Katniss' main motivations is to protect her sister, which leads to her volunteering for her sister and contributes to the reasoning behind many of her decisions in the rebellion to continue protecting her family. Now write 200 words explaining the motivation behind the character. Have fun!

The message engrained in children’s heads, at assemblies, in class, and posters on the walls, is to be kind. They were taught being nice was good, and being mean was and. Celeste took this message to heart, and ultimately decided to be nothing but kind to her classmates, and everyone around her. When adults would praise her for her kindness, she only had more resolve to remain that way.

She read books as a kid, the main character was always a selfless hero while the villain was a selfish, greedy person who did things only for themselves. Celeste got her selflessness from these books, as there she learned that it was what you were supposed to do.

This bled through her entire life all the way to highschool. Whenever someone asked for help with anything, she always said yes, because that was the ‘kind’ thing to do. She thought it’d be selfish if she said no. She became known as the kind, selfless upperclassman, people had always thanked her, and praised her for being so selfless.

This fed into her belief that this was the way things should be, more and more people asked for help, she couldn’t help but say ‘yes’. In all honesty, she didn’t particularly want to say yes, but it felt like an obligation. At times, her kindness felt like a mask, she felt as if she was kind because she had to be, not because she wanted to. But she figured that it was what was ‘right’, and that was all that mattered to her.

She doesn’t want to be a bad person, and when she’s taught being selfless is good, that’s what she does, be selfless.

She never makes time for herself, because doing things for herself was bad, because it would be selfish of her. If she wasn’t going to put others before herself, she was a terrible person. It was the belief that made her who she was.

She suppresses her emotions, because she grew up being taught that anger was something to avoid, that crying only caused issues for others.

She remembers being scolded for raising her voice, told to stop being difficult when she began to cry. Sadness was bad, and so was anger, and being a bad person was bad.

She only gave, never taking. She was scared of asking others for things, because she was inconveniencing them by doing that. Inconveniencing others for her own gain seemed selfish to her, so she never asked for things, even if she really needed it.

She didn’t want to be a bad person, and she was told that selfishness was bad, emotions other than happy ones were bad. She wanted to be kind, so she tried to be as selfless as she could, she always put others before herself, she served others before herself, no matter what.

With the way she had been raised, with all that she had been taught as a kid, she physically couldn’t bring herself to do things for herself. Even if she really wanted to, even if it really was what he desired, an unbearable guilt would overwhelm her, screaming at her that she was terrible, screaming that she was selfish.

Even if she tried, something inside her would tell her that she shouldn’t take care of herself, that she should go ahead and help others, that she needed to continue helping others before herself, because that was what she grew up thinking was right.

♖ | 579 words


◆ PART FOUR ◆

Now that you've created your (im)perfect (;D) character, it's time to tie it all together and place them in a tale of your very own. For the final part of this weekly, write a short story in a minimum of 450 words incorporating your flawed character, focusing on character development and their motives as we've explored throughout the past week. Best of luck!

I am Celeste Maurelle. I am not a selfish person.

My classmates say I’ll help with anything, and my teachers praise me for being so selfless. Selflessness is good, it is what someone should be like. I’m glad things are this way. Good people are selfless, bad people are selfish. Putting myself before others would be a bad thing to do then.

Asking for things will only waste the precious time of others, they will need to spend time out of their day to do something for me. Asking for things is selfish, for I am asking for someone to spend their time for my own gain. That is what it means to be selfish.

I am not a selfish person.


So when I woke up that morning with a pounding headache, runny nose, sore throat, and a fever that I couldn’t bother to check the temperature of, I promptly decided to ignore it. I’ve gotten sick without telling anyone before, this time wouldn’t be any different. My body’s immune system dealt with it before. Sure, the symptoms were worse this time around, but it wasn’t a big deal. I shouldn’t bother someone else with it.

I walked to the front door, not so much as touching my breakfast. (food always felt queasy when I was sick.) I didn’t look in the mirror, that was a waste of time. Apparently I looked bad enough for my mother to stare at me for about 3 minutes before telling me to have a good day. I went to school anyway.

Pushing open the door to school, I was met with the hustle and bustle of my school. Immediately the sound assaulted my eardrums, pounding against my skull like it was a drum. I never even had an issue with sound before, I didn’t get why it bothered me so much.

I made my way to homeroom, bumping into people twice and apologizing, waving to whoever waved at me back to be polite. I don’t even know who that person was. I knew the moment I got to homeroom, people would start asking me for homework help, or a study session after school. I should probably clear up my schedule then, it’s not like I had anything important to do. It hurt to do anything, but if other people needed help, I should help. That’s what good people do.

I didn’t even make it halfway there before passing out.

—

I opened my eyes, forgetting where I even was. Lights, bright and disorienting, covered my vision—I closed my eyes immediately. This certainly wasn’t homeroom.

I never remembered making it to homeroom, so I guess I didn’t. People there probably needed—

I sat upright. The type of sit where your head hurts after sitting up. I needed to get to homeroom. I stood up, or at least tried to, since I immediately toppled into the wall. A door opened.

“Sit down,” The woman spoke, soft and light. I listened. She was the school nurse from what I remembered. She sat in a chair next to me, looking at me with something akin to anger, yet still kind. I didn’t think that was possible.

“Care to explain to me why you decided to come to school with a 104 degree fever?”

I didn’t have an answer for her. I didn’t really know why I came.

“It felt like an obligation to come…” I landed on saying, it felt the most correct.

The nurse sighed, handing me a bottle of medicine and sending a call home. My mom arrived a few minutes later. I stumbled to the door and turned the handle. The nurse called out to me before I left, kindly.

“Make sure to take care of yourself dear!”

I froze—snapped out of it just as quickly and told her I would. I walked to the front, though her words were still lingering in my thoughts. I had always been told to be selfless, that it was good to be selfless. Yet, I was just told to take care of myself, that would mean putting myself before others. That didn’t make sense.

I got into my mom’s car, leaned on the window, and zoned out. I tuned out what my mom was saying. I felt a bit guilty, that was kind of rude, but it felt okay. She was probably just fussing over me anyway.

I immediately went to bed, passing out the moment my body hit the bed. I woke up to a bowl of soup next to my bed. My mom had to spend time making the food for me. I winced, I was inconveniencing her.

I paused.

The whole reason I was inconveniencing her in the first place was because I was sick…I was sick because I wasn’t taking care of myself…

Was I being selfish by not taking care of myself?

Guilt swelled up in my chest, I was being selfish this whole time!

I ate my soup, slowly, I could feel the warm liquid running down my throat. I figured I could wash my dish, a little ‘I’m sorry!’ for inconveniencing my mom. I stumbled to the kitchen, and dropped my bowl in the sink.

It shattered.
Guilt overwhelmed me. My mom would have to replace that dish.

I threw out the broken shards and hoped my mom wouldn’t notice.


I was only inconveniencing my mom more by being sick, which was caused by me not taking care of myself.
Cause and effect, the cause was me focusing on others too much and not myself, the effect was that I inconvenienced others.
So, was me being selfless, selfish?

It didn’t make sense, but I still sort of understood.

I felt guilty when I went to sleep ignoring all the texts who asked me for homework help.

——

It took three days for me to feel good enough to go to school again. I didn’t respond to any texts asking for homework help. I put myself first for once, and guilt didn’t knaw at me like it usually had. It felt nice.

I came back to school and sat down in homeroom. Someone already approached me, asking for a study session after school. I wanted to finally have a me-day.

“Sorry, I’m planning to do something after school.”

They pressed harder, and I yelled I didn’t want to. I was about to apologize, but I didn’t. It felt right. No one asked me for anything after that.

I went home and watched movies on my parent’s Netflix account. I ate food and drank water. It felt nice.

I wasn’t the ‘selfless, kind upperclassman’ anymore, but I was alright with that, strangely enough.

♜ | 1109 words

Weekly 1 pt. 1:
To start off, they can be reckless and prone to rushing into things, leading them into risky situations and causing them to need help more often as they tend to not think things through. Due to this, they also often have their head in the clouds, causing them to sometimes not notice how much danger they’ve caused themselves by not having a plan or thinking through what they’re doing before just blindly rushing in. Another one of their flaws is that they are used to always getting their way and find it hard to compromise, leading to a struggle for them to get the help they need. To conclude, in the end they end up needing help and they struggle to find it and now they’ve gotten themselves into a dangerous situation that they can’t handle on their own which isn’t good.

152 words (i think)

character development: rhea
2,381 words … last updated 07.04.2025

Rhea, the vengeful manipulator.

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PART ONE

Characters aren't realistic or relatable without their own flaws, and sometimes these weaknesses end up creating a more intriguing story. To begin this weekly, figure out an idea of your character's flaws–their negative traits that might drive them to make poor decisions. Summarize the flaws you've come up with in at least 150 words to complete your first part!

Rhea is selfish, typically always thinking of herself first before others. If she sees something she “needs”, she's not afraid to take it. However, she's not the type to do it out in the open. Instead, she'll manipulate others into giving her what she wants. This can lead her to blackmail and gaslight others, even her friends, leading to ruined friendships and many enemies.

She’s a skilled manipulator—but she uses that talent for harm. Rhea can be vengeful, and will go out of her way to seek revenge on those who have caused harm to her. She will find out a person's secrets and expose them, or use it to get something from them. This often backfires, pulling her into endless revenge cycles and leaving her constantly calculating her next move.. Some days she won't be able to focus on the present, and be lost in thought planning her next step.

Rhea is very proud, and overconfident in herself. She's built herself a little secret network of others at her school that help carry out her plans. This can obviously lead to problems for her. She believes that she can calculate every situation to go as she wants. But this can cause her to end up being too careless and getting caught by others in her act. Of course she will deny what she has done, but in the end she will be frustrated because she was exposed. Rhea may skip school for a few days, and sulk in her bedroom, humiliated by what happened.

Her pride also results in believing she can do everything by herself. She believes that her little minions shouldn't help her in planning, because she is so great at pulling off her stunts. Naturally, this is also prone to flaws. Rhea, more often than not, ends up being obsessed over one possible outcome or person, that she ignores everything else. This can cause her to mess up, and once again, feeling ashamed and upset. Thankfully, her followers are able to help her out in this case.

456 words

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PART TWO

Continue by thinking about who your character is at the beginning—what are their strengths, weaknesses, fears, and goals? Then, consider what experiences or events will challenge them. How will they react to these challenges? Will they succeed, fail, or struggle along the way? By the end of the story, your character should be different in some way—maybe even more flawed ;D Enjoy crafting your character, and ensure that you write at least 200 words to move on to the next part!

The whole idea for Rhea is she goes to the same school as Wren (main character in my story.) She is really good at manipulating and blackmailing people, and never got caught during her time there. She is intelligent, observant, adaptable, and charismatic. However, she can be manipulative, vengeful, proud, and tunnel visioned (as in can be too focused on one thing and unaware of other problems that may arise), which will eventually lead to her downfall.

She fears failure and being caught. Both will get her into huge trouble, and will heavily impact her. She built a huge empire with her at the top of it all. Rhea would not like to lose her power, because she will have to start all over again. In the past, before being a manipulative person, she too was bullied by others. Embarrassed herself in front of everyone, all of her secrets were spilled. Until she transferred schools, and realized how easy it was to exploit people and use them for her benefit. She knows that she can't go through that painful experience ever again. Her goals are to achieve power, and even though she already has, she still strives for more of it. Rhea wants to take revenge on those who betrayed and hurt her. Even though she's not in touch with those from her old school, she still wants to find them and punish them for what they did to her.

Eventually, Rhea gets caught while attempting to manipulate Wren. Instead of doing the same to her back, Wren forgives her after confronting her in secret, not exposing her. Rhea is shocked, and is also confused. She realizes that maybe forgiving isn't so bad. Yet, it's hard for her to step down her throne and humble herself in front of everyone. She becomes conflicted, and isn't sure what to do. She wants to ask Wren for help, but fear still lingers in her that she might tell everyone about her scheme. However, the longer she waits to act, people start to notice the subtle changes in Rhea. She makes small blunders, that don't affect her plans, but are still there. She's more spaced out than usual. In the end, she finally goes to Wren, and even though it was hard, stops her evil ways and ends up asking her former victims for forgiveness.

Wren also becomes one of her close friends, along with the rest of the friend group. Rhea can still be proud at times, but quit her old ways. She's also still good at observing others and figuring out secrets, but now keeps it to herself or uses the information for good. Now she has new flaws: she tries to redeem herself, but can be too hard on herself at times. Thankfully, Wren helps her out here. Of course, people may still not trust her, and while to us that's understandable, to her she may get impatient. Her old aggression hasn't disappeared, just in a different form. She's quick to snap at people, especially when they bring up her past. Finally, she's still afraid of losing control, just only of situations and not people.

640 words

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PART THREE

Now that you've figured out your characters' development, you'll focus on their motivations. A character's motivation is very important to make sure their decisions and what they do remain consistent and make sense for that character. Motivations can come from a character's past, things they care about, and goals. For example, in the Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, one of Katniss' main motivations is to protect her sister, which leads to her volunteering for her sister and contributes to the reasoning behind many of her decisions in the rebellion to continue protecting her family. Now write 200 words explaining the motivation behind the character. Have fun

Rhea's motivation changes throughout the story. At first, her goal is to get back at those who harmed her in her previous school, and to obtain power at her new one. This is the reasoning behind her schemes and wrong-doings that happen to the students. In the end, after being given a second chance by Wren, her motivation is to fix her past mistakes, and be forgiven by others.

In the beginning, her motivation leads her to excel in the skills that aren't really great morally nor for her victims. She blackmails, stalks, and exposes just to get her way. Online, she can be seen at times trying to find the accounts for her former classmates (at her old schools) to get back at them for bullying her. She can spend hours going down rabbit holes and accidentally exposing a 74 year old man instead. She spends her money on classes and lessons to improve her knowledge on psychology, and learned how to read people.

In the end, her motivation leads her to genuinely ask people for forgiveness. She ends her kingdom of manipulation, and took off her crown. She strives for friends now, and to be forgiven. She wants to correct herself, and now goes to therapy and seeks advice from Wren. She does good in the world, not just in front of people, but also in secret. Rhea is humbling herself in hopes of gaining attention not by doing wrong deeds, but by being a good friend and classmate to others.

406 words

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PART FOUR

So, what's next? We're glad you asked—now that you've created your (im)perfect (;D) character, it's time to tie it all together and place them in a tale of your very own. For the final part of this weekly, write a short story in a minimum of 450 words incorporating your flawed character, focusing on character development and their motives as we've explored throughout the past week. Best of luck!

Rhea grumbled as she paced around in her room, deep in thought. Papers and pens were scattered all over the stained carpet floor. Everything was going all wrong, and yet she didn't know why. Slamming her hands on her messy desk, she noticed something out of the corner of her eye. A list of all of the people who were part of her little network she had. Picking it up, one of the names stuck out. Cairo. That name made Rhea's eyes go wide. First out of realization, then out of fury. Out of rage.

How had she not noticed before? The signs were so obvious. She tore up the paper into small pieces, all flying out of her hand as a high-pitched scream escaped her mouth. Tears were flailing everywhere, thoughts racing as she pieced things together. It was so obvious how he betrayed her. No wonder why he acted so nervous around her. How he asked too many questions. How he stayed around her too closely, even if he explained that he was “obtaining intel.” It was so obvious, yet it slipped past her. If only she wasn't so obsessed over exposing her, perhaps she could've realized. If only she was more cautious.

In the middle of her ranting in her mind, a knock on the locked door suddenly came. Rhea panicked, shoving everything into her drawers and scrambled to organize her desk as quick as possible. Then the question came. Who could be knocking at her door?

She nervously grabbed her key and shoved it into the doorknob's hole, a smile that was a tad bit to big plastered on her face. “Hello-” she began, and her face fell when she realized who it was. It was her.

Thousands of thoughts raced across her mind.

Had she come to yell at her?
Had she come to arrest her?
Had she come to spill her secrets?

And yet, she looked so calm, no police, and empty-handed.

The girl opened her mouth, “Rhea, we need to talk.” She strutted her way into Rhea's room, and sat on a chair.

“Yes, Wren?” She asked with a grin, trying to maintain her composure. She looked at Wren innocently, as if she had no idea for the reason why she was here. Maybe she was here for something else. Maybe Cairo didn't betray her.

Wren let out a sigh laced with disappointment. “Honestly Rhea, I expected better from you.” She began. Despite being younger than the latter, she started to lecture her. Rhea was confused. Rather than fury, Wren was…disappointed in her? And for some reason, this had a worse impact on her. This time, she felt guilty for exposing someone. She expected relief, rather than shame.

“I forgive you, you made a mistake, and hopefully you stop making the same one in the future.” She finished, standing up to leave. There was no trace of anger in her voice, just forgiveness and a drop of sadness.

Rhea was still frozen in her place. What had just happened? She couldn't focus anymore, and had to clutch the desk to maintain her balance. The weight of Wren's words were greater than any accusation. No, this was different. She couldn't just brush it off or have one of her followers fix it for her. This was a problem that she had to face, alone. Forgiveness shone light on her faults, so that she could see it for herself. But why? She's always been fine about blackmailing and manipulating, so why only now has she realized that she was wrong?

Wren paused by the door, hand resting on the handle, and looked over her shoulder.
“You’re not the villain, Rhea. But you could become one if you keep pretending you’ve done nothing wrong.”

Then she left, just like that—no slammed doors, no dramatic glances. Just absence.

And silence.

A silence louder than anything else in that chaos of a room.

879 words

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am i proud of this weekly? no, probably not. but i literally didn't know what else to do

Part 1
He was spoiled as a child. His parents were well-meaning, but they were also over-indulgent and wanted to make sure every single one of Jules’ wants were addressed immediately. As a result he often feels particularly entitled. Well, it’s not that he believes himself to be better than others, per se, but more a feeling that he expects himself to get anything he wants quickly and easily.
Linked to this, he’s rather lazy, and is disinclined to put in more work for anything. He values his comfort and rest, but perhaps a little too much. Jules is notorious for dodging his responsibilities, and you’ll never find him volunteering for any extra work.
He can be ungrateful at times, especially when it comes to the small details of life. He’s never one to say thank you when somebody holds the door open for him, and often takes things for granted. Sometimes he just doesn’t realise that others are going out of their way to make his life easier, or that not everyone is lucky enough to share his way of life.

Part 2
At the beginning of the story, Jules is living in relative comfort, with a friend, Alex. They have developed their own routine of doing things, which mainly is for the benefit of Jules.
Jules is a student at University College Sunshine Bay, whilst Alex is studying at Sunshine Bay Medical College.
Alex graduates and gets a job at the Hazelmarsh Community practice. They decide to move out of their shared flat with Jules, as they are going to move to their sister’s house in Hazelmarsh.
Once Alex has moved out, Jules is lonelier than ever.
He realises he needs to learn how to live independently — because as embarrassing as it may sound, it turns out keeping an entire flat tidy and working properly is harder work than expected. He hadn’t realised just how much Alex had been doing for him.
It’s hard work. He loses count of the number of times he’s set fire to his dinner, or breaks the coffee machine, and it frustrates him to no end. But he does manage to learn, and the proud feeling he experiences when he learns something new is something he decides he enjoys.
At the end of it all, he’d still rather relax than put in some extra effort. But he’s also realised the benefits that can come from hard work and the things he can achieve, and he’s much less averse to the notion of working for something.

Part 3
Jules is motivated by many different factors, but one major factor is his pride. Perhaps it wasn’t the best thing to be motivated by, but he didn’t want Alex to worry that he wasn’t able to take care of the responsibilities they once held. Eventually though, this turned out to be a good motivator.
He also wanted to prove himself. His parents had sometimes remarked on his laziness, though never in a malicious way. He was aware of that negative aspect of his character, but he’d never had any motivation to try and change his ways until then. Perhaps it was that there had never been any drastic consequences for him, or maybe he just decided that he wanted to change.
The more he learned, the more motivation he had to continue to change his ways, from the intense feeling of achievement. He’d never really felt that before — sure, he’d achieved lots, but he’d never needed to work as hard for those achievements as he had for these.
And this motivation spread to all parts of his life. He started volunteering in the local charity shop, and joined other groups and clubs that he had been interested in but hadn’t been willing to join previously.

Part 4
“Bye, Alex.”

They’re just outside the flat, and a car idles beside the curb, where boxes of clothes and other various belongings have been stacked in the boot. It’s time for them to go, and Jules knows that, but he tries to make the most of the time he has now. Even though it’s not like they’ll never see each other again. They’ve already planned to meet up every month at their favourite cafe.

“Bye, Jules.”

***

Jules finds the next few weeks incredibly lonely. He realises just how much he talked to Alex before, in his absence. And not only that — but just how comforting it was to have someone there.

He finds the silence uncomfortable, but also refreshing in an odd way. He doesn’t know how to feel about it.

***

The acrid stench of burnt food hits Jules in the face as he grabs the pan off the stove and scoops its contents into the closest plate. The bottom of the pan is blackened and crusted with some congealed substance formed of his attempted spaghetti bolognese. He sighs.

He leaves the pan in the sink to soak, letting the cold water from the tap rush over his hands and into the pan. He hopes it won’t be as difficult to clean as the last time he burned something. The memory of scrubbing for what seemed like hours is still fresh in his mind. He’d had to throw that pan away, in the end.

Once the pan is soaking, he turns back to the spaghetti. It doesn't look too bad… With a tentative hand he twirls a few strands around his fork and takes a bite.

He’s pleasantly surprised. It doesn't taste bad — in fact, it's almost… nice? As long as you bite around the charred edges.

He eats the entire plate right there, standing in the kitchen.

***

A month has passed, and Jules finds himself at his favourite table in his favourite cafe, face to face with his favourite person.

“How have you been?” Alex asks.

Jules gives him a brief summary of his past month, although nothing interesting really happened. It’s just been business as usual.

“That's enough about me though,” he finishes. “Let's hear about you. How’s the new job?”

Alex looks pleasantly surprised at the conversation change, but wastes no time in describing their new life, the challenges and the irritating colleagues, but also the new restaurant they discovered when he took a wrong turn back home, or the neighbour who cooks dinner for them and their sister every Friday evening.

“I’ve missed you,” Alex says.

Jules sighs. “I’ve missed you too.”

***

The sun is setting by the time Jules closes up the charity shop. He’s not alone — joined by two other volunteers, who finish sorting the money and moving uncollected items back into storage.

It’s been a long day, and he’s certainly tired, can't wait to get back and relax with a hot shower. But it’s also been rewarding, in a sense. The feeling of accomplishment when he sorts out another bag of donations or when he’s able to find the exact thing a customer has been looking for is new. And it’s not a bad feeling. In fact, Jules thinks he actually quite likes it, a good trade-off for the hours he spends in the shop.

He wonders how it is he has got into this position. He doesn't think it’s a bad change at all, though.

Weekly i … Layla's character development … 2000 words

part 1
Some negative traits Layla has:
-Paranoia
-Irritable/short-tempered
-Grudging
-Self-centered
-Stubborn

Layla’s pessimism leads her to always look for the worst in situations. While she likes to call this “being prepared,” she’s always so attuned to the bad side that she has a hard time grasping that not everything has a downside, and she often finds herself incapable of letting herself have a good time, even when things are going her way; in the back of her mind, she’s always certain disaster is right around the corner, lurking as it waits to pounce and ruin everything yet again. Layla is suspicious, certain that everyone is out to get her and no one is truly her ally. She’s paranoid, constantly on the lookout for danger, ready to brandish her knife in a moment’s notice. She thinks that the only reason any would have to get close to her is to exploit her and take advantage of her in some way, if not to do her outright physical harm, and the few relationships she had in the past have been destroyed by this philosophy as she relentlessly drove away everyone, even those who genuinely wanted to help her and had no ulterior motives.
Never one to have an angelic temperament, Layla is easily irritated and hates working with others because they so often rub her the wrong way. It’s hard for her to look beyond others’ mistakes, especially when they cost her something, and she doesn’t hesitate to lash out when something incites her anger. She rarely takes the time to stop and consider her own reaction, asking if she, perhaps, is misbehaving as well; in her eyes, her anger is always justified.
Paired with this is her long memory and grudging manner. She hardly ever forgets a misstep and will often bring up past fumbles and hurl them in her opponent’s face during arguments. She grew up believing that forgiveness was nothing more than an idealistic dream – you could talk about it all you wanted, but surely you had to be lying or blind. No one could truly have forgiven anyone, not in a world where survival was the only rule. What she can’t see is that not everyone lives in her world, and part of her plight has been caused by her own hard-heartedness. She’s walled herself into a corner by stubbornly believing in the reality of a harsh life so hard that her life has, indeed, become a harsh one.
Finally, although she would laugh if anyone suggested it, Layla is selfish, looking out only for herself and her own desires. She doesn’t spare a thought for anyone else in her quest for revenge, and if confronted about this, she would claim that she has to look out for herself because no one else will. In setting herself up against the world, she has isolated herself, become so wrapped up in her own feelings and goals that she can’t see beyond her needs to consider anyone else. Now she skulks by herself, a lone wolf without a pack, with a heart iced over by fear and fury.

part 2
Beginning
Layla has been on the run for years, plotting her revenge. Ten years ago, the Assassin’s Guild destroyed her life. Now she’s going to destroy them. She’s been preparing every day of her life ever since she stumbled away from the smoking ruins of her home and family, and she’s thirsting for the day she bleeds them dry. She’s strong and determined. When she’s finished with the Guild, there won’t be anything left but ashes.
However, she’s also haunted by fear. It stalks every footstep, meets her around every corner. Layla is certain that just as she has been hunting the Guild, they must have been hunting her, and every heartbeat draws her a moment closer to a knife being buried in her spine from the shadows. She is racing against time to bring them down before they end her quest, and she never lets herself forget it.

End
In the beginning, Layla shunned companionship and lashed out at anyone who stirred her anger. She refused to consider anyone other than herself and shut her eyes to ideas at odds with her own.
But over the course of her journey, she’s had to come to terms with some difficult truths. Not everyone is out to get her. Not everyone is piling up every wrong she’s ever done, ready to unleash them in a condemning current that will sweep her away. Forgiveness isn’t just a pretty fairytale: it’s real. And her isolation is all her own doing. She hasn’t been fighting the Guild, her past, or even the world. She’s been fighting herself. The people that offered to help really did want to help, and her quest for revenge was completely one-sided – the Guild doesn’t even know her name, and years of paranoia were for nothing. She was never in danger, at least not from them. The anger she unleashed was pointless and only served to drive others away, and in the end, the only one she can blame is herself.
She hasn’t come to terms with all of this yet. She’s still resisting the implications of what it all means. But when someone she refused to call a friend earlier in her journey falls, she stops. Considers. And offers him a hand to help him up.
It isn’t perfect. She has a long journey ahead of her, one that doesn’t end in revenge but in reconciliation. But she’s taken the first step or ten, and with time, she can traverse it to its end.

part 3
Layla’s main motivation stems from her desire to take revenge upon the Assassin’s Guild for murdering her family. She wants them to suffer for their crimes, but what she refuses to acknowledge, even to herself, is that she really wants them to feel sorry for what they did. She wants to show them what a bad idea it was for them to come after her family, because even though they were defenseless at the time, now they have an avenger in the form of the sole survivor. Her motivation starts out as being completely self-centered in the beginning; she doesn’t consider what effect the Guild has had on others at all. She is taking revenge for herself and herself alone, without factoring anyone else into her equations. Why should she? Although she wouldn’t put it this way, the only person Layla can reasonably believe has suffered is herself. Everyone else, while they may have had their problems in the past, can’t possibly have had as bitter of an experience.
Her motivation has three layers: first, revenge on her family’s killers, which is the goal she acknowledges and accepts. Second, her desire to make the Guild feel sorry for what they did to her. And third, the layer hidden deepest, her need to know why they did it at all. Why target her family? Why ruin her life?

part 4
Rain drummed into the ground in a steady downpour, soaking the world in gray. Layla’s cloak was wet through – it had been storming for hours by now, and showed no signs of relenting – but she didn’t slow as she jogged through the forest, boots squelching in wet leaf litter.
She’d tracked down this connection so far, and now sweet victory was dangling in front of her, fueling every soggy step. Finally, a real lead. A real chance. She let a smile creep onto her face for a brief moment before it flickered out as she scolded herself. She couldn’t lose her grip on herself. She had a job here, a mission to complete. A quest to finish.
There was something a few feet ahead, a signpost. She paused underneath it to read the faded letters flaking off the wood.
Elmwood Inn – 1.3 miles West
So close. She was so close.
She didn’t bother wringing the moisture from her clothes as she picked up the pace again. It was still coming down so hard she couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of her; anything she wrung out would be replaced instantly.
It would be the perfect time to sneak up on someone, she reflected. The storm would obscure any sound. The darkness would cover them. Chills slithered down her spine, or maybe that was just the water dripping down her back.
Shaking herself, she let herself run a little harder. Maybe it was silly, but she hadn’t survived for this long without a healthy dollop of caution. The only wonder was that anyone had.
She emerged from the trees a short time later and bolted for the shelter of the inn, not from fear of the woods but because she was tired of being out in the storm. A warm blast of air met her as the door swung open, and several guests huddled around the fire shouted for her to close it before the rain blew in. Layla huffed and slammed it closed, tugging her cowl further down over her face. It wasn’t as though she was going to leave it swinging open while she danced in the doorway.
Although she was kind of tempted to now, just to teach them a lesson.
She made her way to a corner of the room close enough to the fire to start drying her dripping clothes, but far enough from the crowd already clustered around it that she didn’t have to interact with him. Huddled there in her cloak, she eyed the door while nursing a cup of hot tea. The innkeeper’s wife had taken one look at her after she came and bustled to the kitchen, emerging a few minutes later with a steaming mug. She hadn’t even charged for it, and from the taste of it, she’d stirred in an especially big spoonful of honey.
Layla had silently accepted the cup, but she was grateful for its cozy warmth. As she tilted her head back to drain the last drops, a flicker of motion caught her eye, and she carefully set the cup aside, eyes on the door as it opened and admitted another dripping customer.
He was here, finally.
Now it was time to wait.
***
Night fell. The inn was crowded, but Layla didn’t push the innkeeper for a room. Although his wife had a worried crinkle between her brows and Layla had heard her murmur in an aside to her husband that “she was such a little bit of a girl, she was, and it would be real cruel to make her sleep on the floor,” the inn was bursting at its seams that night, and when Layla offered to spend it on a pallet in the main area he didn’t bother objecting. That suited her just fine; she had business to conduct tonight.
It was far into the night by the time the crowd has dissipated – rowdy shouts of merriment had defied the storm without, and Layla imagined they might have gone on shouting into the morning if a fight hadn’t broken out and the innkeeper’s wife whapped the offenders over the head with a broom and then shooed them off to bed. They went meekly, with many backward glances at the broom she still wielded threateningly in one hand. “There’ll be no such tomfoolery in my inn, no, not while I have a word to say about it,” she declared, face ruddy from exertion. And there wasn’t.
But even she had gone to bed, after sweeping up the mess the fight left behind, and the innkeeper was snoring over his register. Layla stiffened as soft steps approached the main area, and she dared to crack an eye open. Just as she’d thought: it was the person she’d had her eye on. She knew his trail wouldn’t lead to a dead end. The door creaked as he carefully let himself out into the night, and Layla waited and held her breath for one, two, three heartbeats before cautiously following him into the dark.

Weekly 1
Total of 1253 words

1 - Flaws (306 words)

Friele is someone who constantly tries to get his own wants, and struggles to understand that sometimes people can’t give him what he wants, for whatever their reasons. (he sounds like such a meanie D: I promise he’s not guys-)
He also grew up rather sheltered, so he struggles with viewing and seeing things from others perspectives and can grow rather insistent towards his own views being correct. He is willing to learn though, so that is something he is working on (mainly for Avis, his loverrrr)
Yet another flaw is his shortsightedness. And I mean this quite literally. Typically elves have perfect eyesight, so him being unable to see far away is something they brushed away and ignored, and its slowly getting worse haha. (I think it’s beautifully ironic how he's also dating a permanently and completely blind person)
Another of his flaws is his determination, this could be seen as good or bad, but when he sets his mind on something, there's no going back. This ultimately led to his demise because he would have waited forever for Avis, but he didn’t have forever available to him.
He also struggles with expectations, and hates when someone assumes him to be something due to his upbringing. He’s tired, and in pain, and sick of having to deal with everything others want him to be.
And another flaw which led him to his demise, Elven HeartAche; an issue elves can come across if they don’t feel like their affection has been or will be returned. If it gets too bad it can cause heart issues and has led elves to death in the past, and plays a major part in his death. The funny thing is, if he had told Avis about this, he would not have died. Perhaps the real issue here is his pride.

Part 2 - Development (219 words)

In the beginning, Friele is at his home, writing letters to Avis, believing he’s on top of the world, and showing that off to others. But in his heart he doesn’t want to be in his room writing letters, he wants to be out of his stuffy life. He wants to be living with Avis.
So eventually, he does get out, and he runs away to go find Avis and be with her. And upon meeting with Avis, he learns how important it is that she can say no. And he begins to develop more understanding on who he is now he’s out of his old home and working and living with himself, and without expectations.
Towards the end, he’s become a hard working person, who despite living amongst humans, has never commanded one of them. He's developed who he is to be who he wants Avis to be with, but he's also suffering from Elven HeartAche the whole time, because his motivation has never changed, he still wants to be with Avis.
So he accepts his fate, knowing he would never take the choice of saying no from her and passes away from his sickness.
He’s developed from wanting what he wants to doing his best to help others with what they need, right up until his death.

3 - Motivations (220 words)

Friele’s motivations at the beginning are to be with Avis. He wants to be able to love her as he wishes. He wants to be with someone who sees him as he is. He wants her and he’ll do a lot of things to make that happen.
Then he discovers her inability to say no, and his motivation changes. He still wants Avis, but now he wants to protect her choice, and protect her. And even if he can’t protect her in the way he wants, he gets what he wants, but he wants her to have her wants more. So he’s patient, and over time, his patience changes his motivations.
Towards the end, he feels motivated to help other humans. He still wants Avis to be safe with him, but he’s learnt to respect others' wishes and understand them. He's learning to understand Avis through being around other humans. And while he was around other humans he discovered all the ways to help them. So now that is his main motivation, to not make humans do anything. To give them a choice.
And that is also how he dies, because while he promised himself he wouldn’t command humans, his main motivation is still Avis, so he asked them not to tell her that he was dying.
Then he died.

4 - Story (486 words)

Friele blinked at the sun, exiting out of the inn to the late morning air, Elenor had let him have a late start today, knowing his heart was especially bad yesterday. His pride told him to show up early, but he had dutifully accepted the day, knowing that he would not be able to get up as early as usual. Not after he spent the day hunched over his bench in pain, coughing until he saw stars.

He wrote to Avis again last night, needing to remind himself that she didn’t hate him, and it was actually an issue with her ‘keeper.’ Her ‘keeper’ that he wanted to make regret his decisions. How dare He keep him from Avis. And even more, how dare he take her choices away from her.

He wandered down the street, peaceful it was. With the sound of children laughing and the beginnings of the market opening for the day. After yesterday, Elenor had insisted that he run the stall today, knowing that the townspeople would be happy to help him if anything happened, and knowing that he was less likely to fall onto his half-made sword.

Having reached the market he began the routine of setting the stall up. It wasn’t too hard to do, and quite a relief to his body after all that happened yesterday. A few people came up to say hello and offer small points of aid. It was a small town, and word spread quickly, they all knew that he had another episode yesterday and were giving him small ailments of honey and herbs.
He leant down to let a child touch his pointed ears and run their hands down his horns. He’s the only elf here, so he was used to the curiosity of the human children, and loved to entertain them with his stories and by wiggling his ears, to their delight. He did that now, and the child giggled before running off to where someone, likely one of their friends, was calling their name.

It was truly a peaceful life, but how he wished Avis was here. Especially when the human girls would wrangle the town around for evening fires. She would love being a part of something like this. But she wasn’t. Because of Him. Oh how Friele hated Him.

People continued to trickle around, talking with him and marveling at the jewellery and daggers on display. He had lived here for almost 46 moon cycles, and while they were apprehensive at first, they quickly began to accept him after he told them his story. Especially after the first time his HeartAche began, they all helped him through that first time, and have been helping him ever since.

On that note, he began to feel a little pain in his chest.
Avis. He thought.
As the world continued around him. But the towns folk helped him.
You gave me a family.

- Liv <3

word war proof (303 words, also this is so silly help)

There was no moon in the sky and i knew why it was because something had drunk it again and i cried because i hated when they did this because it was such a very silly thing to do and no one should drink the moon that often because it is not good to drink and also it is not good to eat and also it is not made of cheese and they were very silly people and i wish i could run to the stars and eat them with a fork and wonder about the universe in the sky and the fork is not in the moon and the moon in is the sky and i wonder why sometimes but i never stop to think very often because that would be very silly because thinking can be hard something and i know it is but still i wonder about it all and wonder what is up there in the sky and i know it is there but it seems so high up and i don't know how it could ever ever ever ever end and i know that there are no turtles in the sky which is strange but i don't know maybe they like living here better than up there which would make sense after all and this is probably a mess and i need to type faster because these ideas are very silly after all and i know i'm not doing them right all the time but i must go faster because i can can and i don't know what happened there some words are hard to type when i'm going very fast but i don't know why all the time and i wonder when it will be done because my fingers keep slipping i've got to warm to them

Word War 1
With @–kitti-kat–

314 words in five minutes!! <3

GUYS PLEASE DONT READ THIS THE TYPOS OML-

No prompt word war!! Lets see how this goes I want to win this so that I can get points so uTopina can win ehhe. Also please ignore any mistakes or typos I make because this is definisly unedited loll I love writing so muc heheh. I also love my cbain this session is going so well omg I think it might be one of the best ones so far. And I love being super competitive hehe, although I may not be doing very good on the trackbear, at least I’m having fun you know? And i don;t want to write to much because then like I’ll get burnout halfway throught the session and I want to focus on qanitiy over quality haha. Because thats what SWC is for right? Improving your writing and find a community like you. I love it so os muc . ever since I discovered it a few years ago, and even in my inactive period, its still something I love that I can do. And Its taught me so much, its been pretty much my whole life for a while haah. I don’t know where I’d be without it, but it ceratintly wouldn’t be here, writing right now. Honestly SWC is something that is so important to me, and I don’t want it to leave my life? You know? Um I love Utopian so much although we’re benig nicknamed ‘the jellyfish cabin’ apparently loll. Also please ignore my spelling I can’t spell we know this loll. I would be dead without spell shek hahahahah.
Anyway I don’t think I’ve talk ed to you before. Whats your anem? I was going to say what cabin are you in but you’re in Gothic right? Which SWC is this for you? 1st or like 4? This is my sixth!! Which sounds like loads woah :00 I swear I’m not that old.