word war - March 24, 2025
5 minutes

prompt ~ “do you… really want to touch that?” - reese

~
“no, of course not silly”
“then why…”
“because I have to. I am the knight of this place, after all. it's my duty to protect our kingdom from -”
“dead raccoons? covered in slimy who knows what?”
“yeh! I gotta clean up the place. um… man its too bad latex gloves aren't invented yet.”
“WAHT are you talking about”
“well in like 800 years or something there will be this thing called plastic, and it can be hard or soft, strong or maleable-”
“what's maleable-?”
“it means you can bend it and shape it into other shapes. like dough.”
“oh okay continue”
“strong or maleable, thin or thick, and it lasts basically forever. so they made gloves out of it. doctors use them.”
“oh okay”
“anyways. do you have any… other kinds of gloves? like literally any kind at all will do. you see my full armor did not come with gloves.” the knight adjusted his helmet and showed his friend how he had metal covering every inch of his body except for his fingers. “I mean seriously what is wrong with these armor designers?”
“fine i'll get you some gloves” his friend ran off and the knight stared at the dead raccoon hoping he really wouldn't have to touch that but thinking his friend probably wouldn't be able to find any gloves and he would have

lol 226 words

daily - March 25, 2025
create a holiday

International Wheels Day!! On October 3, starting this year!

In this new, modern holiday, celebrate one of the oldest and most important inventions - the wheel! Whether you're rollerblading, go-karting, or riding your bike, participate by using wheels all day. No walking allowed! Everybody must wear skates or those wheely shoes, or ride on a skateboard, bicycle, hoverboard, scooter, motorcycle, etc, or drive a golf cart, car, truck, go-kart, etc. No matter what, your feet can't touch the ground and you must use wheels all day.

International Wheels Day is available to anyone and everyone, with stores selling their wheeled vehicles/shoes/boards/other at the discounted price of 50% off and countries all around the world joining in on the fun!

Of course, school will still be in session and work will still take place - we have to learn and make money somehow! But everybody will get to go home early. While you are there, obviously, there are some rules: you can't use cars indoors, so you've got to have some other form of wheels like skates, which are the most convenient and safe. Depending on your school or work, you may have different options available and different limitations. But you can still celebrate however you want at home! There are just some safety restrictions inside public buildings.

I repeat, no cars, trucks, vans, buses, airplanes, or any other motorized vehicle larger than whatever size you are allowed to have indoors. However, you may take your car inside at home.

Another point is, while you are on your wheels all day, there is a high chance of injuries, collisions, and other incidents. Participate in this holiday at your own risk, but it is illegal not to have wheels all day. The possibility of injury or death is a personal responsibility and the creators of International Wheels Day have no liability towards these accidents. Everybody participating must sign a waiver stating they will not sue before joining in on the celebrations, but you must remember it is a legal requirement to participate else you will either have a life sentence in jail, be banished from all nations and civilizations, or endure public humiliation for the rest of your days on this planet. No, there is no loophole for astronauts, it is just a saying so that I don't repeat the word life twice in a sentence.

So hop on down to the wheels store and buy some skates/vehicles/boards/other and partake in this insanely fun holiday, and don't kill anyone!

Here is the aesthetic set for this brand new, amazing festival of wheels.



word count: 434

silly chaotic writing

Lauryne wrote words on a paper. She erased them. She wrote more words. And erased those too. This repeated many, many times as Jess sat next to her best friend, working on an intricate shawl, until lauryne’s eraser got too small and she could not erase anymore, so she simply crossed the crooked letters out. As this point she had given up on good penmanship. Soon enough the pencil’s tip became dull yet again, and the pencil itself was far too short to be sharpened again. Lauryne tried, but the end did not reach the sharpening part of the sharpener, and she didn’t dare stick it in until it did–she wouldn’t be able to get it out. She threw it on the ground of her messy bedroom and leaned over until she could reach her desk. Lauryne picked up the nearest pen–a beautiful beetle green shade–and began to write more words.
Finally, jess couldn’t stand it anymore.
“Lauryne! What are you writing on that paper?” she cried, for her friend had also been hiding the words as she furiously scribbled them down and scratched them out.
“Nothing! Everything! It isn’t important!” Lauryne replied. There was a hint of insane in her voice.
“You can tell me,” Jess said gently.
“No I CANT”
“Why NOT”
“beCAUSE”
“beCAUSE WHY”
“hEY yOU bROKE tHE RhYTHMy rHYMY hCAIN” LAURYNE YELLED “I MEAN cHAIN SORRY THAT WAS A TYPO”
“UMMM YOU CAN’T HAVE TYPOS WHEN YOU’RE TALKING”
“YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT A TYPO IS”
“YES i DO, IT’S WHEN–”
“YOU IVE UNERJI A ROCK! yOU HAVE NOcluE WHAT IS EVEN GOING ON IN Yyour world YOU THINK that iT’S 1952 OUT THERE BUT IT’S Not! IT’S ACTALLY THE 90SSSSSS YUP THAT’S RIGHT AND IN THE 90SSSSSS WE HAVE TYPOSE BUT IN THE 1952SSSSS WE DONT1!!!”
“HOW would you KNOW UOUVE NEVER EVEN BEEN TO THE 1952”
“YEAH BUT I HEARD IT FROM YOU OLD GRANDMA”
“I’M TWO YEARS OLDER THAN YOU!!!!”
“DO I LOOK LIKE I CARE?”
“LAURYNE WHAT IS GOING ON heRE ExAcTLY??”
“I TOLD YOU IT’S NT MUCH ITS JKUST THAT YOU’RE KIND OF TURNING–OOSP ISAID TOO MAUCH REALLY SHOULDN’T HAVE SAID THAT OOH JUST LIKE HAGRDI FROM HARRY POTER DID YOU EVER EREAD THAT WHAIT I FORGOT IN THE 1952S THERE ARE NO HARRYP OTER OR HAGRID”
“JOKES ON YOU ITS ACTALLY THE 2020S AND ALSO HARYR POTTTER WASN’T EVEN RELEASED UNTIL THE LATEEEE 90S SO ERM WRONGGG”
“SO ERM ONCE AGAIN DO I LOOK LIKE I CARE”
“PLUS BACK ON TOPIC YOU SAID IM TURNING–AND THEN SAID YOU SAID TOO MUCH WHICH MEANS YOU’RE PLANNING AB IRTHDAY PARTY AWWW YOU’RE SO SWEET I LOVE YOU I MNEA AS A BESTIE OF COURSE BUT STILLLLLL OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH YOU’RE THE BEST FRIEND I COULD EVER ASK FOR EEEEE”
“AHHHAHAHAAH”
“HEHEHANHEAHA”
“WE’RE INSANE!!!!!!”
“I KNOWWWW”
“WE STILL DIN’T FIGURE OUT HOW THERE CAN BE TYPOES IN OUR TALKING”
“DO WE LOOK LIKE WE CARE??? NO!!!!” THEY BOTH FINISHED TOGETHER. THE END *BOWS*


(502 words)

daily - July 1, 2025
intro

hi there, i'm squidy, a girl who loves swords, and i'm happy to be a part of bi-fi this July. we obviously have the best pfps. I'm not doing a 1k intro this session because I don't really have the time or feel like doing it hehehe i'm going karting today so i'll be busy✨✨✨✨ anyways this is going to be my 5th time participating in swc, always as a camper. So I now present to you, as a form of an intro but slightly more interesting because I already did the random facts thing, so now i'm doing this I don't know

A DESCRIpTOIN OF SQUIDY'S SUMMER: I think what a person does over the summer can tell you a lot about their personality and interests, because it is likely that they have filled their free time with things they enjoy.

I've felt particularly artsy and crafty this summer, like I just have that creative itch and I need to be making stuff often to not go crazy! so far, i've sewed a circle skirt (with very pretty sparklesy glittery galaxy fabric), and painted a blue and orange dino (a stegosaurus), Made a mini zen garden (its adorable it has moss and tiny fake mushrooms and a bunny and a duck and a smaller duck inside a tiny tiny mug and also a couple pretty white and gray smooth round rocks eee) as well as just working on my crochet project (a scrap yarn sweater with pretty pink, dark yellow, white, mint green, and darkish sage green and so they're stripes). So as you can tell I love art and crafts of all different kinds, but mainly I draw, crochet, and sew. Recently though, my drawing has gone out the window I seriously don't know what happened like I cannot draw? Its very annoying because I kinda want to but I don't know what to draw and even if I do it doesn't look right sadly. but maybe it's a positive thing because i'm been moving towards other forms of art than just drawing. I'm usually a very positive person, and I try to see the best in everything. (i've been told I bring joy everywhere I go!)

So far in my two weeks of being out of school, I've read… is it two, or three boooks? i'm really not sure now ahaha. I read All We Have Left by Wendy Mills, it's about 9/11, REALLY GOOD OMG GO READ IT I didn't like it much until about 15 chapters in, then it just took off and it's amazing. I also read The End by Lemony Snicket, the 13th and final book in A Series of Unfortuante Events.(Side not I also watched the tv show this summer and they did a really nice job of capturing the humor and charm that comes from reading the books, and I love the way count Olaf is portrayed as more of a funny character, the actors all did wonderfully.) I haven't read /that/ much this summer because when I was still in school we had this thing called AR where you read books and then you take a quiz on it and you get points. So of course me being the competitive person I am, wanted to not only have the most points in the entire school but get 500. which is quite a lot. so I was reading SO MUCH and I think I just really burnt out, so now i'm getting back into reading for the fun of it but I'm not reading that often. which is perfectly okay. Anyways, now I'm reading Cytonic by Brandon Sanderson, also really good, go read it as well, i'm at a part where the main character Spensa makes a very stupid mistake and gets captured by alien pirates in the nowhere. so if that sounds like a book you'd like, go read it. it's part of the skyward series. I feel like there was another book i've been reading but
OH I KNOW DUH okay so weirdly every year like each summer I get back into Harry Potter haha so um I reread them. But I skip over the boring parts. So I skipped around a little bit and found the bit where Fred and George leave Hogwarts with the swamp and the fireworks and stuff and now I was going through the sixth book just kinda flipping through and reading it but then I fOrGoT that I was doing that so it's been sitting on the floor for a week or so. but yeah, that's what i've read this summer haha!

quiiiiiick interlude ahahaa
- so I know I said I wouldn't do a 1k but I just realized i'm already at 790 words and by the time I finish telling you what sports I play i'll be almost there so it looks like change of plans we're doing a 1k! -

interlude un pauSE

Another thing I've done this summer is practice sports. Now obviously I haven't practiced /all/ my sports (and yes I know ther'es a button for actual italicized but I want to do the slashees they are fun !!) because some of them are with school or seasonal and I can't do them right now. But I'll tell you which ones I have practiced, and then the ones I can't practice. Starting with soccer because that was my first sport and I've done it for the longest and its like the og even if new cool karting is funner but be quiet karting its not your turn yet. inhales SOCCER the og is very fun very exhausting and you get to kick hard but you also have to think a lot so that's kinda cool. I typically play forward and I am going to play for my school next year but again its summer so how does that make sense well let me explain calm down okay it's preseason training so we can get good and in shape and all that before tryouts boom. okay next sport is… karting! this is a new sport for me, I literally am going to drive for the 3rd time today. But it's not like I'm complteely unexperienced; I've done a lot of indoor, but now I have my own gas kart and helmet and suit and everything. Its so fun. I love going fast. Okay, on to the next sport that I oculd be doing right now but I'm not because I didn't want my summer to be too crowded with sports and since I have soccer and my go kart I thought I'd take a break from aerial silks. Plus I'm kind of annoyed with my studio. Anyways, I absolutely love silks, I've been doing it for 3 years now and I've gotten quite good I think. My favorite drop is probably front dive double star drop (think a front flippy thing and then two rolly things) and two of my favorite poses are single ankle hang (it is what it sound slike and its reAlly FUN) as well as back balance, which is a tricky move but quite cool looking I think, but I odnt know how to eplain it your sorta just balanced over the silk behind your back? Google it if you want to see what it looks like (but make sure you put aerial silks or else it will give you somethign else there's also back balance on lyra which is a hoop you do stuff on but I don't do lyra but anyways next sport) I also do track and field and am proud to say that I have high jumped 4 feet and 6 inches twice in my lifetime. This past year at championships I got 4th place, the year before 2nd place. I also do long jump! My PR is 13 feet and 1 inch but sadly that's 2 years ago and I haven't gotten very close more recently. last years pr was 12 foot 7, this year 12 foot 9. but my overall PR is 13 1. but its okay! now my final sport is skiing and I will admit I haven't actually done ski team yet but i'm going to do it next year, and I do ski I just haven't ever done a ski race but yeah.

Anyways, that wraps up my intro, there's way more to my that you can find by comment stalking and seeing my comment with random facts which I think is way more interesting, and also other people copied chuey as well but me and chuey did it the best because we did more actual random facts instead of just whatever media whether it be music books or a show that we are currently consuming…

goodbye magnificent fellow swc'ers!!

1,464 words

daily - July 2, 2025
250 word motivational letter about somebody's goals

@AudPod's goals: write every day, become comfortable writing longer things, complete (almost) all of the dailies, reach 8k words, and consistently work on one project throughout the month

hi willow, I haven't seen you before but you seem cool <3 these are good goals to have for this month!

writing more often will be very easy if you incorporate it into a routine, just as you said in your comment. if you choose a certain time of day - maybe after lunch, maybe when you wake up, maybe before you brush your teeth, I don't know - and remind yourself to write at that same time each day, it won't be long at all before it becomes habit! and it doesn't have to be long either. it could be only 5 or 10 minutes, or it could be 45. it's really up to you. but remember that neither quality nor quantity counts here, though of course we want both really badly. the important part is to just build the routine. And there just happens to be a new writing prompt for you each day ;D you can hit two birds with one stone in this one: by doing all or most of the dailies, you will have been writing each day, and it will be part of the routine and habit to write often!! plus most of the dailies are between 200 to 500 words or something like that if I remember correctly, which should bring you to 8k words.

becoming comfortable writing longer things (hopefully I interpreted this correctly oof) can be difficult. one way you could practice is with the weeklies! I don't do them because I forget/procrastinate/run out of time/don't want to/other lame excuses/etc. but I think they could be a good stepping stone to longer work. You can also write a short story throughout July, and I know every swcer would be happy to help you with ideas or provide advice. it can be only a couple pages but it'll still be a short story! and it won't take long at all. you can plan it out (very basic as it is short - you really just need a character with a goal and an obstacle) and this would a) be great to become comfortable writing longer stuff (you can do more short stories later and make them longer each time?) and also b) it would be a continuous project to work on this session. and it'll help you get to 8k, which is a good even low number.

anyways, hopefully this helps, I believe in you!!! you got this!!! you can do it!!!!

I don't think i'm that good at motivational stuff but I think this is probably okay

~

428 words

daily (again yes i'm doing it twice) - July 2, 2025
250 word motivational letter about somebody's goals

@0lympiic's goals: to write something original and get feelings out through writing, and write something she is proud of

Hi Oly! This is a really good goal, and I can tell it's super important to you. Writing is a great way to get emotions out, but it's not easy. I really don't think I'm the best person to help you with this, but hopefully I can help you get started again. It's difficult to write after so long - I know that from experience *coughcoughyesiammentioningmyowngoalheheh* but swc is going to be super helpful, I can tell you that. I think if you complete a good handful of the dailies and maybe a weekly or two it will help you get back into the groove of creating something with words - the dailies and weeklies are just prompts, after all. I know you said you want to focus more on what writing means to you and less on being competitive but I think using these prompts to your advantage will definitely help. Then you could try to write something longer, like a short story. This is where you can do the getting feelings out thing. I really have no idea so take my words with a grain of salt (that is the expression… right?) when I say this but I think you could try to create a character with similar emotions and problems that you're experiencing but like ✨fantasy-isize it✨ or ✨sci-fi-isize it✨ or ✨whatever fictional stuff you want isize it✨ I don't know haha. Seriously, I don't know why people listen to me but uh yeah. You can do it! I know it seems big, I'm going through a similar thing with editing my novel, but just take itty bitty steps and focus on what's in front of you right now, not the big monster that's coming later. Because if you just focus on a small part of the monster without ever looking at the rest of it, you'll eventually have tackled each small part and the entire monster will fall. This is a really bad metaphor and actually terrible advice, but maybe you can imagine it as good advice ToT you know what I mean to say, right? *sigh* anyways, just know that I believe in you and the whole of swc is here for you and you got this! Write that awesome thing and be proud of it. (And usually, I find that the most emotional pieces are the best ones.) Also remember that it's not going to be perfect at first - and that's why we have multiple drafts and more importnatly critiquitaire! Last session, in March, I wrote a piece that I thought was pretty good but turned out to kinda not be. But I had multiple people critiquitaire and i fixed it and it was so much better! I really hope this helps, its awful advice and my attempts at motivation are lame but it's the thought that counts? from, squidy <33333

477 words

weekly July 3 - 10, 2025
character development

part 1 - flaws (150 words)
Jess has a lot of flaws and strengths. She’s very kind and sweet but is definitely not the smartest person ever. (This isn’t to say she’s dumb, she’s just not like a genius or whatever. Pretty average intelligence I guess.) She’s very handy and good at arts and crafts, but tends to go with her gut and sometiems that’s a good thing but sometimes it’s not. She loves animals and is pretty good at focusing and being responsible for things she has to, but can get very defensive when accused of something even if its true as well as if somebody insults her it will get to her head and really mess up her emotions. And sometimes, if she does something she considers bad (she tries to be a really good person all the time and everybody makes mistakes, so when she does, she feels awful) she lets that get to her head as well. Then she can act irrationally and ultimately make things worse.
165 words

part 2 - development (200 words)
Jess's motivation changes throughout this story as she ventures on her way to get her friend a mini sword for her birthday. I'm going to have to explain a little bit of backstory that takes place in my novel for this to make sense, however.
So Lauryne and Jess had a little party. They invited some friends and family and made mini pizzas and had an ice cream cake and just kinda hung out. It was great. The thing is, Jess was a new friend of Lauryne's as she had recently come through a portal into this world. Lauryne also had two other friends at that party, however: Alicia and Eden. Eden was really nice, but Alicia is a little bit of a popular girl and she thought Jess was really weird, as well as that Lauryne was replacing her with Jess, so she absolutely hated Jess and was being kind of mean. Jess didn't like her in return, and it was just a whole thing. But don't worry, later they all made up and were friends. ;D
Now that you have the important backstory, let me explain about how Jess changes throughout this story. So in the beginning, although she doens't actually know it, her motivation for getting Lauryne a great birthday present is that she still deep down feels as if she needs to prove that she's a better friend than Alicia. It's been over a month since they all became friends and didn't hate each other anymore, but she still is having a little trouble getting over those insults. She recognizes that Alicia acts differently now, but remember it's one of her flaws that she lets stuff get to her head. And this she's just had trouble getting out of her head. But the thing is, Jess doesn't really realize this. She thinks that she wants to get Lauryne a mini sword… simply because that's what friends do, they get each other good gifts for their birthdays.
In the end of the story, however, Jess ends up making the sword herself because she couldn't find one anywhere and also nobody actually knows what they are. But she messes up a little bit - nothing major, but definitely noticeable - and somebody tells her that it doesn't really matter because Lauryne will love it anyways. And Jess understands suddenly that she's been trying to get her best friend a mini sword for all the wrong reasons. She should be giving it to Lauryne simply to make her happy. Plus, if she truly does want to give it to her just to make her happy, Jess would be the best friend Lauryne could have.
442 words

part 3 - motivation (200 words)
So I really already explained this in part 2 but I'll explain it again and just stretch it out, make it reallllll fluffy that way I get 200 words haha. So Jess wants to get Lauryne a birthday gift. That's really the main goal here in this story. But what is the reason for this goal, you ask? Or really, you don't ask, because you just read an entire three paragraphs about that. So Jess is still a little bit upset about when Alicia was mean to her sort of long ago but realistically its not actually that long ago but anyways she feels like she needs to prove to Lauryne she's better than Alicia even though she doesn't know she feels like that because its very very very deep down feeling. But then it changes and she realizes that she should just give her a mini sword solely to make her happy, its not a competition, and then she does give it to her just to make Lauryne happy. Is this two hundred words yet. Ugh 176 what else can I write. The motivation is how Jess develops throughout the story, its her character arc, so she goes from secretly wanting to give Lauryne the mini sword so that she kinda “wins” against Alicia to realizing she should do it to make Lauryne happy not to beat Alicia and then she goes to actually wanting to make Lauryne happy and not caring as much about Alicia's past mistakes OH YES I THREW A BBQ BUDDIES MENTION IN THERE HEHEHEH okay it's over 200 now yay
266 words

part 4 - short story (450 words)
A cold sensation washed over Jess as she walked through the propaganda-filled streets of the fantasy-dystopian-ish world. She’d been here before. Here was the coffee shop, behind which the door portal hid. There was the jail where they’d spent some time. There was the Enchanted Stuff Prison, where a sword had been thrown at Lauryne’s head. And there, across the street, Jess found what she was searching for: the sword store. Hopefully they sold mini swords, whatever those were. Lauryne had been talking about them for weeks because she’d heard it mentioned in a movie. She didn’t see it in a movie, she didn’t even hear an entire conversation about it. It was mentioned once. And Lauryne, being Lauryne, had thought it was the most awesome thing ever, and was talking about mini swords nonstop. Her birthday was in a couple of days, on the twelfth of December, and she was going to have a small party with Jess as well as her other friends Alicia and Eden. Hopefully it would go better than the last time they’d had a party. Jess told herself that Alicia was nice now, that she was very clearly acting different and she didn’t hate Jess. But a sick feeling stirred in her stomach. She repeated it in her head - alicia is nice now alicia has changed alicia is good alicia will not hurt your feelings again it’ll be fine now go get that mini sword.

Jess thought a mini sword would be the most perfect gift she could give her. Only, it was really a problem, because she didn’t even know what a mini sword was, or if they existed, and if they were actually real where was she supposed to buy one?

After wandering through the aisles of swords and even asking the owner of the store (who happened to have thrown a sword at Lauryne’s head one time as part of a Secret Sword Society mission, except don’t worry because he’s not bad, he didn’t really mean to throw it at Lauryne’s head he was throwing it at the glass behind her and her head just happened to be there. It was entirely coincidental.) Jess had to admit that there were no mini swords here and she would have to continue her search somewhere else.

It continued like this the rest of the day. Jess visited a pirate ship surrounded by alligators, a medieval castle with knights and horsies, and many other random places that she thought surely had swords. And they did, but none had a mini sword.

Jess went home that night feeling stupid and like a bad friend. It was only when she went to her room to go to sleep after a delicious dinner of fried rice that she saw her desk, cluttered with colored pencils and glitter glue and fabric and small polished rocks and yarn and paper and all of the tools she proudly owned as part of her little art studio. Jess smiled. It was true, mini swords did not exist no matter what made up dimension she went to. But she could make one exist. She could create her own mini sword.

The next morning she got to work researching how to make a mini sword. Mostly it looked like you had to be a blacksmith or something. Jess did not think it was a good idea to set up a forge in her bedroom, so she tried to find an alternative method. After a little while she discovered a very creative solution that seemed easy enough. It was made from a nail, and the idea was to sort of hammer and grind it into the shape of a very small sword. She would need a little bit of metal to make the hilt, and also a welder.

“Bye, mom, I’m going out to buy some stuff for making a mini sword! It’s probably not that dangerous!” she called to her mother who was sitting at the kitchen table and writing something down.

“You’re what?-” her mom asked.

“Love you, see ya later!” Jess grabbed her friendship scarf, a beautiful pink and white checkered scarf–she could still see the small scar where she’d had to fix it after Alicia had ripped it apart, but Alicia had long admitted to having done it and apologized–and walked out the door of the apartment.

Jess went to her favorite craft store, which not only sold art supplies but also had a workshop in the back where you could pay to use some of their fancier tools. (Like a grinder. Or that thing she was going to have to use to sharpen it. Why was she giving Lauryne a miniature weapon? Jess shook her head. It would all be worth it in the end.) As Jess worked, she found that it was actually quite difficult to make a mini sword. But she wouldn’t give up. Just as she neared the end, Jess accidentally made a huge notch in the edge of the sword with the grinder. Well, it wasn’t that big, but it felt like the whole planet. Jess beat herself up about it as she sanded it, so at least it would be smooth sharp not jaggedy sharp. She was pretty sure jaggedy sharp was more dangerous. She had to give Lauryne the best gift. She just had to. And now it was messed up. It didn’t look as good. The man who ran the workshop noticed that she was now just sitting there, staring at the sword, and came over to see what was wrong.

“Are you alright?” he asked. “Ah, I see, you’ve made the edge a bit wiggly. Well that’s okay!”

“It’s not, it has to be the best present Lauryne gets.” Jess said quietly.

“Ah, I’m sure she’ll love it anyways. Is she a close friend of yours?”

“Yeah, her birthday’s… wait a second, this whole time… oh, I feel just awful now.” The words she’ll love it anyways echoed in Jess’s mind.

alicia is nice now alicia has become good alicia is not mean

it’s not a competition

she’ll love it anyways

give lauryne the mini sword to make her happy, not to be better than alicia.

She stopped at her favorite sandwich place on the way back and got chicken and bacon sandwich with sourdough bread, pickles, and tomato. It was delicious. Once home again, Jess did the part of the project she knew how to do: the handle. She used a piece of a woodchip that she’d grabbed from the playground on her way and wrapped a very small piece of fabric around it. Using lots of glue, she secured the multiple layers of black fabric and then, after it dried, attatched the handle to the sword with more glue. It wasn’t perfect, but Jess knew it would be fine. She had put tons of hard work and love into the tiny weapon, and that made it an amazing gift.

She was right. A couple of days later, it was finally the twelfth. Lauryne was very, very, very happy about the mini sword, and Alicia was perfectly nice, and Eden was her normal sweet, quiet self, and it was a wonderful party.

The end
1,206 words

✨✨✨✨✨
total word count: 2076

daily - July 6, 2025
150 word spoof on a famous book

now presenting…
The Protector of the Misplaced Large Towns!

(minor spoilers guys if you can even figure it out past the crazy names)

Sapphire Flostore was very special. She could hear people's insults that they didn't say out loud, as well as their secrets and all kinds of things. One day a guy with blue-green eyes whose name was Ritz Cracker (yes.) came up to her and said, “YoU'rE nOt HuMaN” and they traveled on a beam of light allllll the way to a sparkly city where Sapphy (her nickname; short for Sapphire) found other people who were also not humans, and the extra old ones had pointy ears. Except, they all had varying shades of blue eyes and Sapphy had brown eyes which made everybody think that she actually was a human but they saw her ✨special powers✨ and believed that she was in fact not human. Actually, her special powers were extra strong and although she didn't have any training, Sapphy was way more powerful than any of the fancy people. So then she moved there and went to a school called Gloweymushroom where she learned lots of boring things like about outer space and plants and a sciencey potiony type stuff where sometimes stuff explodes, but also exciting things like how to control her powers. She also made lots of new friends like Beef, Necks, Ritz's sister Tiana, (also Ritz himself) and Lamb and Tin, and Larella, Stinkya, Aroocka, Why-lee, and the Fork Man who is not her friend but the leader of the Darkly Colored Goose which is the enemy of the Not Ever Looked At, and the Fork Man is also Magnet Le Toe and he is also Sir Ash Tin. And how could I forget the wonderful person who fixes Sapphy's never ending injuries, Eelwind! He's so great. So then basically Sapphy does a bunch of increasingly crazy and dangerous and irrational stuff to try to defeat the Not Ever Looked At who are evil and gets in trouble but then is allowed to do more! Oh and she gets bodyguards too! Sandy Door, Bowtie, New Bee Teeth, Flooree, and later on Row Row Row Your Boat who used to be Beef's bodyguard but he ran off. Oh Sapphy also has another bodyguard named Tar Hyena but she's not barely ever mentioned. Actual come to think of it same with New Bee Teeth. Anyways, then a bunch of crazy stuff happens with other characters too that I didn't even mention because it's a lot of work to come up with that many silly names for pretend people and it's really good and you should probably go read it if you can figure it out! Which you most likely can!
The end!

434 words

daily - July 7, 2025
forgive a villian

mcgonagal: go ahead now, do it.
harry: are you absolutly one hundred percent positive i have to?
mcgonagal: do itttttttt
harry:
mcgonagal: ill give you whatever you want. well… realistivcly. would you like a whole tin of biscuits for this, potter? becausw i can make that happen. oh, i can–
harry: (sighs and reluctantly knocks)
umridge: (inside her office) come in!
harry: ugh (slowly opens the door and, dragging his feet, enters the room staring at the ground the entire time)
mcgonagal: you got this! remember, whole tin of biscuits!
harry: (turns around to see that mcgonagal is still in the hallway) what, your not coming, proffesor? and–and i dont care about the buscuits!
umbrdige: (smiling that sickly sweet smile of hers) potter, you must learn to be polite to your elders and respect your teachers. -15 points to gryfindor and no complaining or i will make it more. now, what is it you need from me?
harry: (scowling) i dont neeeeeeed anything. im s'posed to –(glances at mcgonagal in the hallway, who is watching and trying to hide a smile) im supposed to paologize to you for being…
mcgonagal: (mouths the word “rude” she knows harry wants to say “truthful”)
harry: for beung rude
mcgonagal: (mouths “disrespectung you and also i forgive you for beung so awful” then nods and smiles)
harry: what? i cant lip read that well!
mcgonagal: (sighs and slowly mouths “forgive”)
harry: ohhhhh. uh, professor umbridge, i ffffooooorrrrrrgggggiiiiivvvvveeeee you
umbridge: (skeptical)
mcgonagal: (frustratwd to the point where she just speaks out loud) potter! i did it slowly so you could lip read it, i didnt want you to say it slowly!!
umbridge: i knrw it. you must not tell lies, harry: it wasnt even my idea! i was forced to!
umbridge: another month of detention, then, and -100 points to gryffindor.
mcgonagal: (still in the hallway, silently laughing uncontrolably) come along now, harry

a few minutes later, in mcgonagals office

mcgonagal: HARRY THAT WAS THE BEST ENTERTAINMENT IVR HAD IN A LOOOOONGGGG TIME. +200 POINTS TO GRYFFINDOR, ILL GIVE YOU FAKE DETENTION SO YOU DONT HAVR TO DO UMBRIDGRS AND ALSO TAKE THWSE THRITY TINS OF BISCUITS HAHAHA
harry: what just hapoened

367 words

daily - July 8, 2025
300 words without using a certain letter

I need to write a story wihtout using a certain letter even once. The issue is, i can’t tell you which letter i’m not allowed to use because then i would be using it. So i’ll give you some hints. there are lots of words that begin with this letter - that i cannot have in this story, of course - such as certain birds who cannot fly, as well as another bird who can fly very, very, very quickly. I cannot mention a fluffy, soft, flat breakfast treat commonly eaten with sweetened tree juice, which sounds strange, but it’s quite a normal thing to eat. We just never think about it like that. (i was forced to say “sweetened tree juice” because the actual name of the liquid contains the letter i’m not allowed to use. In fact, there’s another word that would have also been more clear than what i have said but i had to use “juice” instead because the other word had this letter at the end.) there are more foods and objects and words taht begin with (or contain, but i think beginning with is more fun) this letter such as one snack often eaten at the movie theater, made from adding heat to kernels of corn. I’ve just realized that i used this forbidden letter about seven times, and now i have to go delete them and use different words. This is sad. I guess it’s harder than i thoguht it’d be. Thankfully, it was fairly easy to revise seeing as many of the words i needed to delete had some good synonyms. I wonder how many words i have now? I need to get to three hundred. Let me just use wordcounter.org to find out.
Oh my goodness, it was exactly 299! What a funny coincidence. Well, it looks like i’m finished now! actually I turned out changing one ssentence so you'd have to guess what letter it was instead of me just telling you, since i'd said “it's in between letters __ and __” but I didn't want it to be that easy so now you have to guess but the thing is it's not exactly 299 anymore which makes me sad but I still wanted that to stay so uh yeah anyways now i'm done for real, any guesses as to what letter it was? oh and look now I have 400 words ahahahah

403 words

Barbie: the apocalypse
my dream house is burning down but it's okay because I have a backup dream house in my suitcase! for now, Ken picked me up and threw me into the pool and gave me a lemonade, so now i'm just relaxing in safety on this unicorn floatie in the pool and waiting out the fire!! I wonder who did it! we should give them cupcakes! I wanted a remodel anyways! YAY!!!!"
Barbie flips her hair and sips her lemonade. It is yellow, bright neon yellow, like the sun on a burning hot summer day, and it makes me sick as I watch from the trees near her house. She has so many pristine fruit orchards, perfectly symmetrical trees lined up in rows straighter than the spine of a book. They’re all dotted with evenly spaced, spherical fruit–shiny apples, not a single spot a different shade of red. Ripe peaches coated with a skin of sunsets and soft velvet. Smooth bell shaped pears, untouched by pests or birds or rodents. Beyond the orchards there was an entire waterpark usually full of laughter and splashing and twisting, turning slides. And next to that, next to that there was a carnival and circus who were permantently in town. It included acrobats, rolelr coasters, merry-go-rounds, fried food, cotton candy, all the good stuff. More amazing things only very rich people own surrounded the mansion, which was now a towering pink half melted plastic (yes it stunk badly) embellished box that had gone up in flames!
I grinned. This was the happiest day of my life. And barbie wasn’t even doing anything about it! Had she really not realized that I’d stolen all of her back-up dreamhouses and burned those, too? Man, I loved arson. Wait, when did this switch to past tense? Ha ha ha I am so silly.

Ooh were doing a fifty headed hyrda guys that means 500 words in 5 minutes crazy right well we dont have to actually do it to get the points just attempt heahahehah i am scared kinda ive never actually tried to do this before and i ckinda dont wknow what to write about but like i have done cabin wars wait mono i mean waorfd wars fr 5 minutes bet tahts differnet becasue i wasnt trying to get 500 words i was just trying to get like 350 or something idk whatever i end up getting except i think i might fail ain fact i know i will probably fail but thats no reason to not rtry but i dont know what to write and its messing me up becasue also i ausalyl write like stories and stuff even wrod wars i use the prmopts and write a lil story its fun i like to see where it will go thats why i usually do proof for word wars simply to wse what the aother person does with the same prompt because i also think that is wo interesting oops i meant always not also ha ha ha this coutns for words hey look im not even hafl way and im getting qute a lot of wrods i think this might actually end really well yay ok so its halfway ish now yep its halfway and i look like i have a lot of words by i i mean it lke as in my paragraph and i mean its like a good chunkc of text i might actually be able to do the fifty headed hydrea wouldnt that be amazing i mean 25 poitns isnt that much ubut lik itd be cool to be able to say like oooh yeah, ive done 500 words in 5 miutes before yayyy ok so waht should i write aout next how about the pretty sweater or wait wahat else am i sitting on my bed next to uh my phone two sloth squishies ime an stuffyies liek stufeed animals im just not edelted words when i type the wrong word because my brain is weird because i owant the more words and like yeah also dont mind the typoes ahah oh i know i also have a fuzzy pblaknnet a bfuzy pillow two squishamlows one octoups and one some sort of unknown desert and then a pillow i sewd and a pillowe my ex best freined seed and then a pillow that came witht the comforter as awel as my actual comforter hey this looks like a lot of workd i also have my phone next to me and i have a book oh the book smells like laundry detergent for somet reason its so weird uh yeah

465 wordsss

flower daily!!! i dont wanna format this but anyways i wrote a poem idk if its any good but here

i walk through the garden,
my fingers gently brushing the petals,
soft round bits of color.
the storm's just ended.
raindrops fall no more
but they leave behind a refreshing scent
that fills my nose. and i smile.
the flowers, too, i can smell.
they are lovely.
as i walk past each plant,
i remember what they mean.
a clump of simple, pretty daisies
they stand for innocence.
i stare at the daisies
they smirk at me in their white and yellow clothes
without thinking, i rip the daisies out of the dirt
i tear every last part of them away
i yank the roots from their cozy underground homes
i pull the petals and leaves off of the green stem
then i snap that stem in half
and i throw everything on thr ground
and i stomp on it
then i sigh
i breathe
i close my eyes and count to ten
i open them
i walk forward
and i see my next victim.
a hyacinth. for rashness.
and a buttercup. childishness.
i scowl and destory those too
then i leave the garden
and i sob.
then i look out the window
and, of all things
i see a xanthium
i barely even have to think to know
that this flower means rudeness
i groan
and i wonder when the fairies will finally
let me go
i wish i could leave this cottage
it's beautiful, sure
a small white house with a chimney of stones
and a bright red tile roof
ivy creeps up the walls, but not too much
the garden is filled with flowers and fruit trees
it has carrots and potatoes in the ground
cucumbers and tomatoes above, and beans too
and it is so cozy and adorable inside the house
which, by the way, sits in a solitary meadow
on the edge of a forest
surrounded by mountains
on windy days i can hear the long grass dancing
the fairies took me.
they stole me away
when i was only a child
and they raised me and taught me their language.
the language of flowers.
it was too late when i realized i'd never go home
i begged and pleaded
i tried to smash
and break
and shatter
this awful, perfect, dreamy house
they fixed everything with a snap
and a handful of glitter as well, of course
i understood that i would never win
but i would also never give up
i look outside once more
i see that the xanthium has been replaced,
replaced by a pristine meadowsweet
i tilt my head back and laugh
uselessness. uselessness, of all things!
i shake my head, forcing my grin away
as i find a piece of paper and a pen
there i draw a tansy and, snickering,
fold it into a paper airplane which i throw outside
and i kick the wall for good measure
i giggle madly and knock over all the furniture
a tansy is good and snarky and sarcastic
a tansy is almost as good as that meadowsweet.
a tansy says,
i declare against you.

513 wordsies

critique for lune!

first of all, you did a lovely job and it was really fun to read. i do have a couple notes, though.

The flowers are waiting for me when I step out of the door. I know they are. But somehow, I still hope they aren’t.
I glance out the window at the porch. Nothing. It’s always nothing, until I go outside. But I still hope that maybe today it’ll still be nothing, even when I’m no longer trapped in my house.

this is a really good start to this mini story! its just a tiny bit confusing because it seems out of chronological order. you begin with saying you are stepping out the door, but then you say you are still inside and looking out the window. i actually didnt catch this until the second or third time i read it but i think changing it to make more sense would make the whole thing flow better and be easier to read. also - and i didnt catch this one until copy and pasting everythung into forums, ahah - the last bit about being trapped in the house is confusing as well.

I push open the door. Without looking at the ground, I start to walk. But I know what I’ll hear even before my foot hits the pavement.
Crunch.
I sigh. ‘Nothing’ is no longer.
Zinnias this time. They used to be my favorite.
I pick them up, trying to recall what they mean. After one whiff of the disgusting sickly sweet smell, I remember.
Thoughts of absent friends. Ha! Absent indeed.
I shake my head bitterly and kick the flowers aside, frustrated when they appear right back where I found them.

its confusing how the flowers appear out od nowhere and, especially, move around and stuff. i assumed it was by magic, its sort of implied, but probably make it more clear how or why they can just go poof :'D

I know if I kick them again, the same thing will happen. But I can’t resist. I thrust my foot forward.
This time, they appear in my hands. The bright orange petals seem to amplify the voices in my head, saying, “She’s not coming back. You’ll never see her again. It’s all your fault.”
“ARGH!” I shout, throwing them as far as I can away from me. Before they can come back, I start walking again.
I haven’t gotten far, just barely out of my yard, when I hear it beneath my foot.
Crunch.
I look down. Not only are the zinnias there, still taunting me, but now there are also amaranths.
Immortality. To some, this might be sweet, but I know what it really means.
This is forever.
You cannot escape.
Before I can stop them, my hands reach down and grasp their stems.
Once again my nose is plagued by their stench, but now it’s heightened, for there are more.
I throw them to the ground in disgust and keep walking.
“She’s not coming back.”
The voices again.
“You’ll never feel her embrace again.”
I shake my head and try to block out the thoughts. But the more I try, the louder they get.
“She never loved you anyways. She just pretended to.”
“She only went because you begged her to. And then you couldn’t save her.”

i love the sarcasm and emotion here, well done! (help idk what to put here but just kjow its good lol)
oh also the repetition of the crunch noise earlier is good ahaha

And then, as if to add insult to injury, suddenly I smell something sickly sweet, and when I look down, I am holding a bouquet of the flowers, with the new addition of periwinkle.
Memory. I know exactly what this means, too. And it’s not any better than the last two.
The memories will never fade.
You will always remember what you did to her.
And she’ll always remember too.
You know who’s fault it is that she’s gone.
You will always know.
No matter what you do.

maybe a bit of background information would be nice? (hehe this is giving me flashbacks to my flower daily last session that i put in the critoqoejdbdj a bunch of times amd entered in thr writing comp, you can scroll through my writing thread and find it if you want haha) it doesnt feel absolutely neccesary like it was in mine lol but it would definitely be cool. like what happened what did she do? leaving it a mystery is fine as well but uh yeah
also this is a really good ending like i love the… the… wordy things… idk the italicized part help its good
like this whole ending is so poetic and good job!
-
other notes: i really like the story and you did a wonderful job with repetition and showing emotion and all those italicized bits throughout the story, whatever that would be called. i think you could also add a bit more descroption so we can really see the image your imagining as you writr this, you've done nicely describing smells but id love to see the scene as well! i cant thunk of much else to add, great job lune!

i think it was 362 words but i already forgot

yep its 362

short story :>

note: i originally had very amusing titles for mini chapters that made me smile and i really liked them but i got rid of them because this was originally about 2.8k words and obviously to enter it in the writing comp i had to make it at most 2k words, so i removed the mini chapter titles and replaced them with little dashes to separate each part. but, for the sake of me really liking them, i'm going to put them here!
i. the throwing of the sword
ii. the sword store investigation
iii. the ambulance's arrival for the injured origami
iv. the arresting, done by the police
v. the discovery of who threw the sword
oh and another note: yes, the title of this piece is in fact sword. ;D

sword
by squidy

Lauryne ducked as the double-edged sword sailed towards her. It crashed into the delicate display behind her, shattering the smooth, curved glass and releasing a tsunami of literal literary creatures. Animals of all sorts—from hedgehogs to dragons—created from carefully folded pages of ink-covered things ran everywhere. She stood up in shock. Jess asked if she was alright, to which Lauryne responded she was fine, albeit a bit traumatized. The sword clattered to the ground, where a Russian-newspaper monkey snatched it up and scurried away. A rush of security guards stomped into the room, loud as the sci-fi elephants escaping their prison. They ran around shouting things, seeming not to have expected this situation.

“The terrarium, it’s broken!”

“Who would do such a thing?”

“Round up those animals!”

“They’re dangerous and about to go extinct! We need them behind the safety of the glass for everyone's protection!” This was the most absurd, seeing as they were made of paper. The worst they could do was give everybody papercuts.

Lauryne brushed a few haiku ladybugs out of her hair and tried to see where the sword had even come from. The weapon itself was long gone, and all that remained of the scene were the chaotic origami and the shards of glass on the ground. They were glittering stars on the plain tile floor. She weaved through the commotion, leading Jess towards the glowing neon green exit sign.

-

The bright sun made her squint as she stepped outside, the air as crispy as a potato chip. Lauryne was glad to be out of the Enchanted Stuff Prison; it had been interesting earlier to see all of the magical exhibits, but now she understood it was simply cruel to make imagination—what powered magic—illegal. She wanted to go find another world to explore, but she was too curious about who had thrown that sword at her head. Across the street was a little store with a very big sign. The sign said, SWORD STORE. In the window was an advertisement for a buy 100,000 get 1 free deal.

“What a deal! Let’s go there!” Lauryne said. “And maybe we’ll find the sword guy.”

“Hold on. First: Who's the sword guy? Second: Why are we looking for him? Third: Why would we find him at the sword store? Fourth: I can’t remember, and fifth—that is a terrible deal!”

“First: Obviously, the person who threw the sword. Second: We're looking for him because he's created a lot of chaos and I’m curious about his intentions. Plus, he almost killed me. That’s the main reason why. Third: ‘Cause now he probably needs a new sword. Fourth: I forgot too, then. And fifth: don’t be silly, Jess. It’s a wonderful deal; stop this nonsense.”

“But just saying, I don’t think he’ll be there. Wouldn’t you leave the area as soon as you could if you were him?”

“No. I’d get another sword. Priorities,” Lauryne insisted.

“Well, nobody should listen to you. Anyways, I think the sword guy wouldn’t want to get in trouble, so he’d try to run away instead. It’s logical.”

“But it’s more logical he’d get a new sword.”

“It's not!”

“…can we still go?”

“Fiiiiine.”

“YES!”

As they crossed the street, the two were attacked by various origami animals and given stinging papercuts. Lauryne insulted them as revenge.

A small bell dinged as they limped into the little store, and there was an oily, woody, metallic scent. Lauryne thought it seemed dangerous; all she could see was row after row of swords ranging in shape and length and color. To the left was a counter and a short man standing behind it, wearing the same gray clothing everybody else here seemed to own but with a sword-store-logo-embellished hat.

“Hello,” Lauryne said.

“Hi and welcome to the Sword Store,” the man replied. “How can I help you?”

“We were wondering if anybody suspicious had come running in here,” Lauryne explained.

“A sword was thrown at the paper animals display in the Enchanted Stuff Prison across the street,” Jess added.

“It went straight towards my head. Thankfully I was able to dodge it.”

“And the glass broke, and the animals went everywhere. Also, they're giving people papercuts.”

“Wow,” the man said. He seemed relatively unconcerned.

“Aren’t you surprised? Or shocked, or scared?” Jess asked.

“I wouldn’t say I am.”

“Huh.”

“Well, anyways,” Lauryne said, “did you see anybody come running in here? I want to find out who threw the sword at me. And the glass.”

“I wouldn’t say I did.”

“Oh. Thanks for your help anyways.”

“Lauryne, there’s a tiny frog, look!”

“What?” Lauryne looked down and, seeing the frog clinging onto the hem of her jeans, reached down to pick it up. The frog, alarmed, leaped away from her fingers—and straight onto the end of a thin, sharp sword.

-

The man called the hospital. Within seconds the wailing ambulance pulled up to the curb outside, and they ran out to meet it. Everywhere they could see various people with Band-Aids covering over half of their skin.

“How did you arrive so quickly?” Jess asked the ambulance people.

“Everybody has paper cuts around here, so we’ve just been slowly driving up and down the road until we see somebody who needs a Band-Aid. We almost ran out. Especially because one guy had so many paper cuts, he almost bled out.” one of them answered.

Another, a doctor based on his clothing (still boring and gray, but he had a small doctor badge and doctor accessories.) asked to know their emergency.

“It’s this frog, it was impaled!” Lauryne said.

“I see. It’s okay, though—I’m a doctor. I’ll just fix this little guy right up.” From his pocket the doctor produced something small, orange, and cylindrical. It was a glue stick. Lauryne almost laughed but didn’t—these were serious matters. She handed the sword and frog to the doctor, who carefully pulled the creature off of the sword where a thin, pale liquid was left. Paper frog blood.
The doctor gently glued the sides of the large gash and held them together. He waited. Lauryne waited. Jess waited. The man from the store waited. Even the frog was waiting. Finally, after what seemed like ages, it was dry.

-

They were just finishing up when a voice barked, “You there! You’re under arrest!”

“What? How come?” Jess asked.

“Who?“ Lauryne asked.

The man from the sword store slowly returned to the store. Nobody even noticed his absence, they were so distracted.

“All of you! You’re under arrest for assisting a magical creature. Wow, look at how he hops… Ohhh, he’s adorable! Was he injured? Ah, you fixed him up with a glue stick! Very clever, Doctor. Now, I really do apologize but you'll have to come with me. Come on, get in.” The policeman gestured towards his car, and they squeezed into the back seat. Lauryne thought the frog must have escaped. They drove down a few anti-magic-propaganda-filled streets until reaching a gray brick building.

It was cold in the jail cell. There were no windows, and the only furniture was a set of bunk beds against one wall. Lauryne claimed the top and quickly climbed the ladder. Once she'd settled into a semi-comfortable position on the thin mattress and scratchy blanket, she remembered where she was and sighed.

“It was breakfast for dinner tonight,” Lauryne said.

“That’s okay. Jail food probably isn’t that bad.”

“I can’t believe we got arrested, Jess. How did this happen?” Lauryne asked. She bit her cheek to avoid crying. “Jail is where bad people go. Are we bad?”

“No, of course we aren’t. This place has silly rules. It’s not our fault.”

Lauryne stared at a small patch of missing paint on the ceiling and they sat in silence. Then there was an odd noise. It was awfully loud, and hurt Lauryne’s ears, and sounded awfully familiar. As the noise grew closer Lauryne realized it was a herd of elephants. Sci-fi-novel elephants to be exact. The rumbling grew louder. Then there was a thump—Jess told Lauryne to get down from the bunk bed—then more thumps and some cracking. Finally the wall crumbled to pieces. Lauryne coughed; the dust tasted like misfortune and the tragedy of the illegality of original thought. It tasted like bricks too.

-

After the jail wall crashed down, it was absurdly movie-like and dramatic. Where the wall used to be there were the silhouettes of four sci-fi elephants and a girl with swoopy hair sitting atop the middle one. Their rescuers.
Lauryne stepped to the side a little bit so the beam of sunlight was no longer blinding her and she could see the girl more easily. Her lavender hair contrasted her caramel-colored skin, and she wore a jacket with a logo Lauryne recognized from earlier.

“Oh, do you work at the sword store?” she asked. Jess elbowed her. ”What?“

“Thank you for breaking us out of jail,” Jess said. “Who are you?”

“I guess you could say I work there,” she replied. “In a way. And you're welcome. And I'm Freya. Come on, we have to get you out of here. Hop onto an elephant and let’s go.”

“What about the doctor? He’s next door.” Lauryne informed Freya.

“He’s not as important as you. Plus, he deserves to be here. He made the choice to help that frog. You’re not even from here.”

“What? How did you know? Are you spies?”

“Lauryne, they aren’t—”

“We aren’t an organization solely of spies, but yes, we do have a few information gathering agents.”

“Told you so.” Lauryne said.

“Now is not told-you-so time!” Jess said.

“I don’t trust her. She has spies. And your name doesn’t mean anything—you could be anybody. And you have spies. And… you're part of some organization who has elephants and can break us out of jail… wait, how did you get those elephants?” Lauryne asked.

“Get on first.” Freya said.

“Fine, but I don’t trust you.”

“You don’t really have to, you only have to get on the elephant so we can take you safely to the door.” Freya pleaded.

“Lauryne, just get on the elephant.” Jess also pleaded.

Laurnye and Jess got on the elephants, careful to avoid paper cuts. They sat on soft woven saddles with vibrant patterns, a nice change from what they'd seen all day.

“Would she be bad if she broke us out of jail?”

“Maybe.“

As they rode away, Freya explained that the sword store was a cover up for the Secret Sword Society, which was a rebel group.

“The ridiculous deal advertisement is a secret code. If somebody tried to buy 100,000 swords and get 1 free, we'd know there was somebody coming who we needed to hide from. It’s such an outrageous deal, see.”

Apparently the sword throwing was a secret mission to free the animals, the “sword guy” was the shopkeeper, and the sword itself had gone towards Lauryne’s head completely by accident. He hadn’t been trying to kill her at all.

“Hey, I thought it was a good deal! But what does… Why did you free them? What does that do?”

"The Enchanted Stuff Prison is a prized possession—particularly those origami creatures. Freeing them would be a great act of rebellion.”

“And why did you break us out of jail?” Lauryne asked.

“Because we felt bad. It was our fault.”

Jess winked at Lauryne. “See?”

“I have the right to be angry at you for putting us into this situation, Freya.”

“You also have the right to be grateful she did the right thing and got us out of this situation.”

“You guys are so silly,” Freya said.

Freya guided the elephants around a corner and then stopped near a bakery Lauryne remembered. The sweet, buttery smell of fresh muffins danced through the warm afternoon air. Jess and Lauryne said goodbye and slipped down the alley and through the door-portal. Then they each (including Freya) returned to their respective homes and dreamed about swords that night.

2,000 words

also humongous thank you to snowy for helping me cut over 800 words so i could make the 2k limit <333

possible weekly idk if i'll do it but i'm writing down the stuff here just in case:

cabin wars - symbolism
forums being down - new conflict
strike chaos - breaking the 4th wall (hello lemony snicket, thank you for the inspiration i'm gonna use your books to inspire my writingggg)
kev*n - open ending
swcorld war 1 - genre swap

hehe guys im not doing the weekly

Cool.

critique for snowy
and i'm not doing formats on these anymore that's too much work lol
~
i'm actually dreading doing this because I know that all of your work, snowy, is amazing and brilliant and basically perfection. how does one critique p e r f e c t i o n n n n n n ? also it is poetry which I don't know much about but you said you just wanted to know if the story made sense so that makes it easier probably… wish me luck reader :000
aaaand I'll add that i'm doing this as I go so I might say something is confusing when it gets explained later so if you know that something gets explained later don't ‘fix’ it haha

left on diamonds as reminders to the worlds we promised our posterity,

I want to start by saying this first chunk of text (like before the spot where you pressed enter) feels really big and powerful. also, snowy, you made me Google two definitions. anyways, this line in particular felt confusing and I had to reread it (and find out what posterity meant but even if I knew what I meant it still would have been a liiiittle bit confusing) and just the way its worded doesn't feel right. then again I know next to nothing of poetry and I also… also I forgot what I was going to type here ToT
I think it was just that this isn't a big deal and you don't have to change it or something idk
don't worry about this one I just thought i'd point it out
and so far it makes sense

our souls must have been harder than diamond,
rougher than stones,

I like the reference to the first paragraphy thing (wait aren't they called stanzas in poetry)

we hated this place for so long, & we carried the weight of it
for ages. maybe parts of it were beautiful, but, my love, even atlas
grew tired from carrying the heavens for centuries on end, & we are
neither gods nor goddesses

this as well as the rest of the first poem - that I just didn't want to copy and paste here so I picked a small part - is soooo good its really pretty and I love it. it is a bit of a mystery what's going on but I think it's definitely clear enough. and it feels like something that's going to be made even more clear later on. or maybe not.
now I'm getting rambley and stuff so just take away this: its a mystery but feels like in a good way

& you know, it’s like,
you’re reaching for an object in the midst of an ocean, or—
no, you’ve been dropped in the middle of the sea—
no, the mariana trench & you
are trying so hard to swim to the surface, only the water is
pushing against you &
you cannot find your way back from the challenger deep.
like, there’s no survivable way to reach it but you just can’t stop trying
to get there anyway, it’s just instinct.

I LOVE THIS SO MUCH the way you used the dashes and the repetition of “no,” and the way you broke the sentences in the middle of the line gives it such a good feel idk how to explain it unforuntaely but this is really good

so yes, i apologize if when the universe was speaking to me, whether
through fate or the simplicity of a nonanswer, i did not hear,
for i was still fully submerged & straining for the sun when even i
knew better than to try.

what is going on? again might just be me being stupid (I'm starting to see a pattern and it feels verrrrryyyy familiar *coughcough when I critiqued pepper's really good werewolf poem last session*) but I don't understand why the universe is speaking to the narrator
also I think you should switch “when” and “even” that's probably just a typo or little mistake but I thought i'd let you know
and the last line is sosososo good

we learned the language of desolation before our own names, &
our first words were not in english but rather in dialects
of the darkness caged behind our ribs in
place of the things we should have felt.
we watched, not so much heartbroken as shocked, as
our homes caught fire & went up in smoke.

WHAT HOW DO YOU WRITE THIS STUFF
and the next paragraph stanza thing too is really really amazing

i suppose i should tell you that when i said
fire stole our hearts,
what i meant to say was not that we have been broken.
i promise you, it’s not that we were
breaking instant by instant, little by little, the way you think we were,
it’s just that we never had really
been whole in the first place.

in my brain “fire stole our hearts” doesn't directly translate to “we have been broken” it translates more to “our souls are gone” which then can be translated to “we have been broken” but it just doesn't feel like a direct line to me. I love the rest of this bit though!

two alter egos that became us. & oh, beloved, you have known me

I think i'd maybe remove the ambersand but its not neccesary
actually now that I'm thinking about it I think its fine
I don't know
(loving the metaphor here tho)

when it is light out, i will not deny the fact that there must be a
grave somewhere out there for me, but, honestly, i think sometimes
that i am surely invincible, so ask me again in the evening,
& i will give you a different answer.

WAIT IS THE NARRAOTR DEAD?? either this is a major plot twist or its a metaphor I took literally

(sprawled across the floor & waiting so desperately.
like an idiot, i thought i could fix myself through open heart surgery
& sewing up my broken dreams),

LOVE THIS SO MUCHH

i searched for someone to blame, because
it really was easier to believe that it wasn’t me, just the cold of winter &
the hatred of the world.
i blamed everything inanimate for
my struggles, so, look, i blame bitter cold for changing me
into someone even i no longer recognize, & i blame my unending
homesickness for the confusion of who i am, & i blame icarus,
because, so foolishly, i believed i could fly the way he did not, & i say
it is every fault of the world, & it’s simply bad luck i was born like this, but
i am the one who carries the brunt of the guilt, because in my ignorance,
i have so easily forgotten that hades
was never the torturer, only the keeper.
i am trying hard not to blame myself for it, for my
chemical deficiency, but it’s still no less
my problem.

I really really like this! i'm just a bit not understanding what's wrong with the narrator? because in here its continuously saying things like “bad luck I was born like this” and “my chemical deficiency”
and what are they blaming things for exactly? I mean i'd assume its the fact that there was war and it was hard to survive and all that but you're talking about something being wrong with the narrator

of a mortal who waged war on her heart only to discover
she no longer knew whether she stood with her soul or her mind.

wait is the war we're talking about this entiiiiire time actually mental health difficulties? if I'm right that is very smart and explains my confusing about the quote above the quote right here. if not that makes it more confusing maybe.

dearest, look in the mirror.
look me in the eye. we are one & the same, &
if you know me at all, you’ll understand that i always begin
with the bad news, never the good.
so here is the rest of the truth: you are
stronger than you know, & saying it is easy would be a lie, but
you will find your way out. i can’t say when, but for better or for worse,
even eternity does not last forever.
i know that much.

I like thiissss its like some positivity after all that (powerful and amazing) sadness.

so i hope you will sing in the rain at the top of your lungs &
breathe at the summit of the mountains, every exhale a testament
to the fact that you have conquered the altitude.
i hope you will run in the rain, bare feet against the wet asphalt, &
every step will be a defiance, because you are still here.

I love this even moreee <333 omg seriously snowy the description and imagery and figurative language here is so incredible

& i’m hoping that in spite of all the wars i’ve fought & lost,
you will emerge victorious.
because i think you’ll find
that past all the destruction, the world is no longer
so heavy, & more than that,

it’s actually
quite
beautiful.

perfect. this could not be a better or more beautiful ending.
so this is really interesting. throughout the entire thing I was understanding enough of the plot to know what's going on but also I had no clue what was going on if that makes sense - like, I wanted to get answers and know the backstory. I knew there was a war and stuff and I kept trying to figure it out and I was ready to put a note here at the end of the critique saying something along the lines of I'd like an explanation of what actually happened BUT once I finished reading it I realized what you're doing you silly smarty pants snowy. (at least here's my interpretation of your work.) its not about the story its about the message ;D {I wrote a whole thing right here about what I thought the message was and then deleted it hehehe}

overall i'm really glad you made me read it and I know I didn't have much to say because anything confusing was, in fact, not wrapped up at the end but instead I was told it didn't matter or at least that's how I saw it xD and I know this is probably hardly helpful at all which I do feel bad about but. snowy. never stop writing. please. I aspire to be as good as you are some day and I think that's not quite gonna happen because we have very different writing styles and its just different but like sTILL i'd love to be able to write poetry as wonderful as you've done here <333 go win that writing comp please ahhh

~
892 words

wordcounter.net says its at the reading level of a college graduate????
why is it that my most informal and chaotic writing full of emojis and acronyms and no punctuation and no big hard difficult vocabulary words at all always ends up being rated college student or graduate by wordcounter.net

thank you notes!!

kiara - thank you so much for the wonderful, magical expeirence in bi-fi this session. you were such a good leader and the theme of this cabin was really cool! i didn't really participate in the activities but i saw some of them and they were awesome as well. thanks a bunch for working so hard for us <333 (imagine a cartoon of a banana here or someting - get it? bunch? ;D yes i know that was not the best pun haha)

clev - clev! you're so cool and amazing and you brought so much to bi-fi this july. i'm really excited to have gotten to know you better. bi-fi was a really fun cabin to be in and thank you so much for being a fantastic co-leader! <333 (do you want a pun too? i have to think of one first. give me second… *googles thank you puns* i a-peach-iate you!)

sophia - ahh you're so kind and talented i'm really grateful to have been in bi-fi with you this session, i've said this probably a hundred times but THE PFPS HELP i really really love mine and you're such a good artist and you've contributed so much to this amazing cabin this july and im really gratefull (here's your pun - imagine some cheese being grated ;D) to be in a cabin with you co-leading for the second time! <333

rose - i really really loved leading defenestration with you (and yapping about f1 xD) but seriousy, it was incredible to be able to have the experience of sorta leading a cabin and understand what it's like to plan activities and write the storyline and all that, but without the pressure of it being real haha! and i'm sorry i stopped contributing to the activities, nobody had been doing them so i thought nobody would do them so i didn't check the projects and stuff ToT but it was fun collaborating with you either way and you brought so many good ideas to the table! thank you <33 (your pun is this: a thank you note of appreciation. imagine a music note picture here!)

snowy - hii snowyyy! you are such an amazing talented writer i seriously cannot i mean hOW do you do it??? you work is always so poetic, whether its actually a poem or not, and you always have the loveliest symbolism and the most emotional stories <3 i've had lots of fun chatting with you, we always had the most interesting conversations! and thank you a billion for helping me cut over 800 words of my short story so i could enter it in the writing comp. that's probably a piece that i'm second most proud of (after my novel of course!) and i was so excited to get to put it in the writing comp and you helped me do that! like you didn't have to agree to read something 2.8k words long but you did and i really appreciate it. oh, and not to mention helping me write that introduction paragraph for my essay! you have no idea how much i was struggling, i just had no clue what to write xD you get a pun too! its… ready… thank you snow(y) much!!

charlie - yeehaw yeehaw yeehaw, howdy giddy up yeehaw, yeehaw, howdy howdy yeehaw giddy up hay ther good fellah yeehaw ah luv ayleeins. no i will not translate. no it does not translate to anything specific. yes it is a form of thanks. also the bi-fi-reworks were so fun.

eva - hi! i haven't seen you around before until this session but you were super nice and friendly and i'm glad to have met you! i had so much fun exploding!

lune - same as eva, i haven't see you before but i'm glad to have met you and you're super cool! again, i had fun exploding haha

chocolate - you're such a kind person and i had fun with you in bi-fi this session! idk what else to write here but thank you!!

bi-fi in general - you guys did so amazing during cabin wars seriously and this cabin had such a fun amazing atmosphere, thank you so much!! <33

hosties and other (co)leaders - thank you guys for all the hard work you do to make this camp so marvelously mindblowingly wonderful!

rest of swc - thanks for all the chaos and silliness!

730 words!

whoa this is the first time i've actually written real thank you notes :0 well last time i did a couple comments but this is real thank you notes

nov 2 flower daily!! bit Speedrun bc i'm busy today

Tansy always liked her name. It was a flower name, not a boring one like Rose or Daisy or Lily, not a stupid one like Sunflower or Tulip or Apple Blossom, not a ridiculously unique one like Forsythia or Begonia, but a cool flower name. She thought the flower itself was quite beautiful, too.
Beyond that, Tansy had a sister who was really passionate about two things. One of them was flowers and gardening. The other was sorcery and witchcraft. Her name was Nightshade, which Tansy thought was definitely a stupid flower name. Nightshade grew flowers and then used her crystals and candles and things and tried to set spells. And for Nightshade’s fourteenth birthday, she got a book that was all about the secret meanings of different flowers, from Victorian times when they used to send messages with differently arrange bouquets. Nightshade loved the thing, of course, and Tansy loved it too, because she found out what her name meant. While her sister was away at the store, trying to buy a specific type of crystal Tansy couldn’t remember the name of, she snuck into Nightshade’s room and immediately found the book sitting on her indigo and plum colored bedspread. Tansy lifted open the front cover, and slowly flipped through the smooth, waxy pages. The flowers were in alphabetical order, naturally, and she found her sister’s name before her own. Tansy snorted and cackled as she turned the page to the one that said ‘Nightshade.’ It meant sorcery and dark thoughts! What a brilliantly perfect name for her sister. Tansy cackled some more, and then she kept turning the pages until she came to her own name. She stared at the shiny paper for a moment, at the drawing of the yellow flower and the swirly font in which it said ‘Tansy.’ And she stared at the words typed below, the ones that said that her name meant ‘I declare against you.’ And then Tansy giggled again, just as she had for her sister’s. She gleefully flipped through the pages again, just skimming, until she found something interesting. Xanthiums significiecd rudeness. Tansy grinned, placed the book back carefully on the purple bed, and skipped out of the room.
Later, when Nightshade returned from her witchy shopping trip, Tansy discovered that the crystals she was looking for were amethysts. And she needed them because she was attempting to create a small creature. A blob of jelly, sort of, but living. Tansy was really excited then, and she asked Nightsahade if she could help. An idea was slowly forming in Tansy’s mind, an idea naturally declaring against somebody else. She wasn’t quite sure who she was declaring against —her parents, maybe? Her sister, likely., Perhaps she was declaring against the blob of jelly, who she decided would be named Xanthium. Tansy told her sister that she wanted the name it Xanthium, maybe Xanthie for short, and thankfully Nightshade agreed. Together they set up the spell: a circle of candles, crystals arranged between them, and a few leaves of nightshade and tansy sprinkled around. They set the jelly, which they’d already made, in the center, and soon a very rude little Xanthie was born.

532 words

nightshade - sorcery/dark thoughts
xanthium -rudeness
tansy -i declare against you