Daily #4:
The book Far From the Tree by Robin Benway is by far one of the best books I've ever read. It talks about so many things in one book, it's almost a miracle that he could wrap them all together so well. The book talks about things like teen pregnancy, adoption, abuse, divorce, and racism. The book is from the perspective of three siblings that were separated at birth and put into the foster system. They just found out about the others, and they have to learn how to lean on their family through life’s struggles.
Grace: 16 year old Grace’s life just fell apart after getting pregnant her Junior year. After giving her baby up for adoption, she is struggling with the loss of her baby, along with dealing with her former boyfriend, and another unexpected guy, that may end up meaning something to her.
Maya: Maya is the odd one out in her adoptive family of redheads, and she is struggling with feelings like she belongs with them, especially her sister Lauren. Her and the rest of her family’s feelings boil over when her parents divorce, and her mom starts getting drunk.
Joaquin: Joaquin was the only one of the three that was never adopted, and he struggles with anger issues, while wondering if he can let anyone into his life. After everyone he let himself love abandons him, he doesn't want to trust anyone. When his current foster parents want to adopt him, he has to decide if the risk is worth the reward.
When the three siblings meet, they initially don't want to share their secrets, but as they each come out, they learn that they can lean on each other. But when Grace decides that they should try and find their real mom, Maya and Joaquin turn her down. And when they eventually convince her, they learn their mom is dead from their newfound aunt.
Far From the Tree is a beautiful story about what family is, and how strong those bonds really are.

word war time!! 3 minutes, “I told you we needed more glitter” w/ sweetcakefamily
this is some candyland inspired random thing lol
278 words

“I told you we needed more glitter!” Cupcake screamed over to Sweet Tart.
“You're right - I don't know how much longer I can hold them for!” They continued throwing glitter all over the enemies, pitch black pieces of licorice. Once the glitter was tossed upon them, they shuddered, started doing the licorice dance, and popped into a soft, squishy, pink marshmallow.
“It's okay, be just have to hold on! Once enough of them turn into marshmallows, they'll be able to fight with us!” Cupcake replied. However, it seemed that this moment wouldn't come soon enough. Cupcake was slowly but surely being surrounded by the licorice. She threw the last of her glitter in a ring around herself as a last attempt to survive. “I could use a little help here, you know!” The ring of glitter was dong well, but was slowly depleting into a thin line. Lollipop sprinted over and jumped off of a sparkly pink diving board, spraying glitter all over Cupcake's attackers.
“I've got you! Here, take another one of my glitter purses, I still have two more!”
“Oh thank you, you're a life saver!” The battle was finally looking up. The trio fought piece after piece, slowly making their way towards the castle. But then, all of a sudden, the sky turned dark, as cloudds the color of licorice poured in, raining more licorice from the sky.
“Uh oh, I think the Licorice king knows we're here! What do we do now?”
“…I dunno, I think it's about time for a retreat - No point in saving them if they're going to be melted right after!”
“You were right, we need more glitter,” Lollipop sighed,

Daily #4 (wow, I can't believe I missed the first three days, I was so busy ToT)
For people looking for some good books to read, I would recommend a book series by Will Wight called Cradle
It's about a young man who lives in a village called Sacred Valley, and everyone who lives there have magical powers called the Sacred Arts…except for him. After a few years of being known as an Unsouled, he leaves the valley and journeys with some friends and people he may work with but doesn't necessarily trust. So, he journeys across his world Cradle and masters some Sacred Arts and evolves to a greater level than most of the people in Sacred Valley, all of this to save his village from an impending disaster brought by giants known as Dreadgods, and he finally becomes strong enough to defeat them, but there are also people fighting outside the world, trying to save Cradle from a catastrophe that not even Lindon, the young boy that saves his village can fight off, leaving it to the spiritual warriors, which a couple of them he had met, but while saving his village he must also fight off some of the Monarchs, the final evolved form of a Scared Artist. This is just saying a little bit about it; it's twelve books long, but you should 100% read if you get the opportunity. It's a pretty clean series, no bad language, and Wight is a very good writer. I recommend
Let's join Lindon as he does what he can to save his own people. Go Sacred Arts.

War with 129waterfall
3 mins, prompt: “I told you we needed more glitter.”

My eyes flash across a sentence, and suddenly I'm choking up.
“I told her we needed more glitter. I love glitter, but she said she didn't want to get it everywhere, so we didn't use a lot, and a lot of it ended up blowing away somehow.”
I blink back tears and stuff the journal back into the box, closing the lid and shoving it until it slides across the room. It fall on its side, but I ignore it.
Glitter.
I don't remember the last time I really used glitter for…anything.
The last time was probably at school, before my parents pulled me out.
I used to love glitter, actually…a lot. glitter on my clothes, my favourite things, glittery eyes on my favourite toys. Off the top of my head, the last glittery things I owned were the old lampshade on my light in my old beroom, or the bedazzled, completely glittered out notebook I used to use to write made up songs in, or the dresses I had in pink and yellow gradient glitter.
It was messy, but I loved it. I even remember that one time for a hair day at school, for an exotic hairstyle, my mum sprayed glitter in my hair, and I LOVED IT. It was so much fun.
Oh Cassidy…How I miss you and your glitter.
I wish I had let her add more glitter now, but

237 words

↻ ◁ II ▷ ↺

◪ Word War 2
Wordcount: 368
Person warred: starunicorn_5
Win/Loss: Win
Prompt used: He got the feeling that maybe he shouldn't have bargained with the unicorn.
Time: 5 minutes
Cabin: Cyberpunk

He got the feeling that maybe he shouldn't have bargained with the unicorn.

Or maybe, he should have bargained more. Cause he was pretty sure giving up 4000 dollars that could have gone towards his student loan was not worth paying for one potion of magical galaxy crossing juice.

“And you're sure this isn't a fake?” Fred looked at the bottle suspiciously.

“How could you say that?!” The unicorn gasped with outrage, swishing it's magical rainbow hair in a very nonchalant fashion (yes go king) “Why would I ever betray the unicorn constitution?”

“First of all…” Fred started, already feeling an aneurysm coming up. “Why on earth would I know anything written in the unicorn constitution?”

“Well, I don't know, why wouldn't you?”

“Because I'm not a unicorn.”

“Anyways,” the Unicron seemed to have gotten bored explaining it to him. “In the preamble it is said that if a unicorn ever lies, it's horn has to be cut off.”

There was a very pregnant silence as Fred started at the unicorns head, which was very clearly hornless. The only thing there was a stub that wasn't a very good look either.

“What are you staring at?” The unicorn snapped defensively.

“Why is your horn cut off?”

“That's for personal reasons okay!” The Unicron ran off on the Mario kart rainbow road with a lot of chalance before Fred could protest. He sighed and looked at the rainbow solution in the rainbow shimmied bottle with a rainbow glass stopped and a rainbow name tag. On the rainbow name tag, someone, or rather, some unicorn, had scribbled down in rainbow pen color (you know, the pen colors that have all seven colors in them and the ones which do NOT scam you into believing it's all colors at the same time but it turns out it's just the colors set different in the ink cartridge so you have to wait sadly for the next color to appear) anyways, what was Fred even saying? Ah yes. With rainbow ink, some unicorn had scribbled down, “galaxy jumping potion.”

Now, honestly, Fred was kind of a Star wars nerd. Jumping galaxies sounded pretty legit, especially since it came from a unicorn. After learning that it's horn had gotten cut off, it wasn't really very comforting anymore.

Tilly's Daily 4 - World Book Day review

Happy world book day For this wonderful occasion, this is a review on a series I've never seen anyone else talk about :'0
The Starlore Legacy by Chuck Black! It's an ongoing series, there's 7 books out so far and marketing for the 8th book recenlty begun (and I'm really excited for it!). I started reading this around 2022, and I was HOOKED.
It's a Christian allegory set to span the entire Bible from the story of Moses to Revelation, but it's Sci-Fi and set on futuristic planets with immense worldbuilding, and characters inspired by major figures in the Bible but really unique!
The first book, Nova, starts with Daeson Lockridge, a prince and the second most skilled cadet at a Starcraft academy, behind his cousin and heir Linden Lockridge. He represents Moses in this first part of the allegory, and from this book to the 4th is his journey freeing the Rayleans as Moses did the Israelites in the Bible.
From the epilogue of the 4th book up to the first half of the 7th book, we follow Daeson's daughter, who I won't say too much on because spoilers, but she is part of the allegory of Jesus' birth, d3ath and resurrection on earth, and there's a little enemies-to-lovers side plot between her and a pilot, Rhett Stryker, but there's so much more that you'll just have to read because I don't want to spoil it
OH, and I can't forget—my favourite character was probably Raviel. She appeared from the 1st book, she's Daeson's daughter's mother, and in that first book she's this lowly Starcraft mechanic at the academy before her and Daeson's paths cross and intertwine, and more is revealed about her, but again I don't want to spoil, so I'll just say it was really entertaining!
This has been my first time reading a YA sci-fi series, especially of this size, and every year I've been anticipating the next book to release! (There will be 12 in total, so still 4 years until the series is complete :'0)
I will say, though, recently the marketing for the books (the last one released and this year's upcoming one) has involved AI images of scenes and stuff, which I wasn't too happy to see, but I 100% recommend this to fellow Christians or anyone who wants a clean, high-action, entertaining sci-fi series to binge read <3

404 words

about time I do the daily!
march 5th, book review
358 words

The Glass Castle is a book I read recently for English class. It was kind of a side homework assignment while we worked on other stuff in class, but I realized that it was a genuinely interesting memoir! It's strikingly similar to Educated, a similar memoir I read about a year ago. Honestly, every time you think the main character's life can't get worse and crazier, it does. What really stands out about this book is it makes you think about where the lines are in morally gray area, because this family is constantly toeing it. What turns making sure your children are self sufficient into being a neglectful parent? How loosely can you live while still surviving? One really big moral issue in this story is about homelessness. Her parents choes to be nomadic, finding it an exciting and fulfilling life. It's not that they couldn't get out of their situation - the mother owns land worth millions she refuses to sell, kept a diamond ring instead of selling it while they were starving in what you could barely call a house, and as the children grew up to be successful, they've offered meaningful help, only to be declined every time. Some people, believe it or not, can be homeless because they choose to be. This begs the question about giving aid to people, especially if they might not use it as intended. For example, whenever her father actually had any money, that being more than enough to eat at all, he would spend it on beverages. It shows the result of the american economy, and how life can be vastly different from what most people experience in concentrated urban, or even suburban areas. It also dives into very deep and complicated interpersonal relationships in their dysfunctional family, because they still care for each other, but grew up to have very different perspectives. Sometimes they lash out at each other because of it, and other times they agree to disagree, ending up going their separate ways. It's a very interesting memoir that really makes you think by showing a unique perspective on life that most people don't experience!

Basic Info
Name: Emrys Bright
Preferred Name: Emrys
Aliases: Laurissa Becker, Lauren Taylor, Agent X, Eridainus
Age: 24
Gender: Female
Occupation: Secret agent, ERIS

Appearance
Civillian
As a civilian and as herself, Emrys can be seen in nothing less formal than a shirt and jeans. She’ll usually wear a denim jacket over the top, or a raincoat if it’s wet. Her hair is usually down and a bit messy, but she does do it up in a few other simple styles too. She has dark brown hair and brown eyes.

Laurissa Becker / Eridainus
Laurissa Becker is Emrys’s primary alias that she goes by whenever she’s doing work for ERIS while Eridainus is her codename, though around the HQ she does go by Emrys. As such, her regular outfit as Laurissa involves a black combat suit that contains a jacket, trousers, black combat boots, and a utility belt and harness. Emrys also has grappling hooks attached to her wrist along with fingerless black gloves. Her primary weapons are a pair of guns. She normally uses one or the other in combat, rarely dual wielding. She has two because she also really really likes redundancies. (And believes in redundancies!) Emrys tends to do somewhat elaborate hairstyles as Laurissa, though they usually end up being a mix of french braids and her hair almost completely down. She also has a black mask which covers the lower half of her face, though as to whether she wears it depends on her mood. She normally has it off around the HQ, and wears it on missions, though she isn’t strict about its use. It does contain a voice modulator, which she doesn’t normally use since she doesn’t mind her civilian identity being linked to Laurissa’s identity though something about ERIS policy or whatnot (she didn’t read the fine print she has no attention span) meant that she had to adopt a primary alias for dealings with law enforcement and she cannot do different voices to save her life.

Lauren Taylor / Agent X
Lauren Taylor, better known as the superhero Agent X, is the identity Emrys takes on when she’s working with the government funded superhero team in Aurora Bay, Stellar Force. As Lauren, Emrys keeps her black combat suit, but swaps out her guns for an electroshock staff and her fingerless gloves for proper gloves. Emrys also swaps out her half mask for a mask that covers three quarters of her face, leaving her right eye open. It has a really neat heads-up display, but she rarely uses it, and a voice modulator, which is always on. (Emrys does not like the fact she’s been forced into doing this and will do anything to avoid linking her identity as Agent X / Lauren Taylor to Laurissa Becker / Eridainus) She also tends to wear her hair up.

Personality
Emrys is generally known to be a chaotic person. She has a propensity for leaping off of tall buildings when on missions, and somehow still landing alright. Emrys does tend to keep a hard outer shell around her and it can be hard to get her to open up. Emrys is also incredibly observant and calculating (she has to be, she’s a spy) although she does show off her chaotic side sometimes by leaping off buildings because underneath it all, she’s kind of just someone who didn’t get to have much of a childhood.

When she’s off duty or as a civilian, Emrys will talk in a casual style, and she’s usually pretty chaotic about things. She tends to be more relaxed when at the main ERIS building as well, and she’s usually found building various things or dragging Aspen into doing things with her.

When she’s on duty or as Laurissa, Emrys changes her speech pattern and her personality to be more formal and less of her chaotic personality leaks through but it still does, mainly in the fact she… jumps off of very tall buildings and lands safely. (Yes, she is for all intents and purposes, a bit of a cat.) She has a tendency to leap in and defenestrate the plan, and usually winging it works out well for her, so she couldn’t say she hasn’t reached her objectives.

As Lauren Taylor, Emrys takes on a secretive and somewhat paranoid persona. In all honesty, Emrys thinks the idea of having a superhero team to protect Aurora Bay is a bit of a silly idea since a lot of what the superhero team does is really just police the streets and protect the citizens from dangerous threats, which is… kind of her job, and she’s doing her best to not interact with her teammates if possible. She’s very slow to open up, and would also kind of like it to not come out that she’s part of something she hates. (Basically, she got told to do this.) She rarely talks more than necessary.

Relationships
Aspen Winters (aliases: Amber Payton, Starlight): Aspen is Emrys’s closest friend within ERIS and her primary mission partner. Aspen and Emrys are incredibly close, and the two tend to banter a lot. Both have a tendency to wing things, and they’re quite similar in personality, though Aspen tends to be the one to leash Emrys in. She puts up with some of Emrys’s crazy ideas.

Deputy Director Agent Alayna Hope (aliases: Alyssa Torres, Pacific): Alayna is one of Emrys’s close friends who is also the spymaster and deputy director of ERIS. Alayna’s calm, analytical, and I-absolutely-hate-paperwork mindset contrasts with Emrys’s

The Stellar Force: Emrys has cordial relationships with the Stellar Force. She likes them as people, but she’s not really close to them. Emrys recognises that yes, they have talent and wouldn’t have been chosen otherwise, but also she has to maintain her identity of Lauren. (The Stellar Force members are as of yet undeveloped so you can go and make up your own!)

Backstory
Emrys was recruited as a 14-year-old teenager, along with most of the people currently in ERIS. Aspen, her closest friend, was 15, and Alayna was 16. She’d lived a normal life before then, and did her best to maintain a somewhat normal life after being recruited, but let’s just say getting through school was a bit of a struggle.

Emrys became highly skilled in hand to hand combat and reconnaissance missions, and had a strong preference for them. She didn’t particularly like going undercover - she preferred spying from the rooftops instead. As a part of her recruitment and training, she became increasingly more analytical and started unleashing her chaotic side as a bit of a coping mechanism. She also chose the primary alias Laurissa Becker and the codename Eridainus, which she has since used when dealing with law enforcement, allowing her to keep her civilian and secret agent lives separate.

Six months ago, Emrys was also asked to join the Stellar Force as its fifth member, and she would have the role of keeping an eye on them as well as being the “liaison” between the Stellar Force and ERIS, although in practice the role is more fulfilled by Alayna. Emrys made a new identity of Lauren Taylor to undertake this role, since she doesn’t want her identities to be linked (because she's actually living a triple life and also doing missions for ERIS as Laurissa Becker.) Emrys instead tends to act as a sort of mentor figure (although she really doesn’t like her job description.) She’s rarely seen on camera and tends to be reclusive.







City rooftops - This represents Emrys’s city life, and also the fact she really likes jumping off of tall buildings. It also represents her preference for reconnaissance missions as opposed to infiltration and other types of missions.

Spy gear/outfits - This represents how Emrys normally dresses when on duty, and she prefers wearing black outfits that aren’t too form-fitting. She also desires flexibility, so doesn’t usually wear body armour.

Classified data - Emrys’s job, really. She doesn’t like doing the paperwork involved in her job and would rather not do it, thank you very much. Alas, she must. She hates paperwork with a passion, mainly because it’s a boring job.

Glass board/computer - represents Emrys’s more analytical/observant side to being a secret agent.

Cityscape - represents Emrys’s life in the city, and also captures some of how Aurora Bay looks and a bit of what goes on in her civilian life. The answer is: nothing much really, she’s probably recuperating in her apartment or something.





Asher smiled as he saw the next group of children nervously step onto the ice for their group lesson as the last group he taught headed towards the edge of the rink. Asher had been skating since he was quite young, and had a strong passion for the ice. His next class was a beginner class - one of his favourites to teach.

He skated over to the entrance to the rink, standing to the side. He let the slightly more experienced children through to find their teachers. There was a young girl left once everyone had filed onto the ice, and Asher decided to ask if she knew where she was going.

“Hey,” Asher said, bending down to reach the girl’s level. “What’s your name? My name’s Asher.”

The child looked up at Asher and replied, “Lisette,” she said, her bright blue eyes meeting Asher’s.

“Okay, Lisette,” Asher said, “do you know who’s class you’re in?” Asher thought the name was familiar from his quick glance at the register earlier, but he wanted to check.

“Um. I think I’m in yours?” The girl asked.

“Alright,” Asher said. “Is this your first time on the ice?”

The girl nodded. “Yes.”

“Do you want me to help you get on the ice?” Asher asked.

Lisette nodded, and Asher held out his hand. Lisette grabbed onto his hand and he helped gently guide her foot over the barrier. Lisette stepped onto the ice, but she caught her toe pick in the ice and she threw her weight forwards, almost falling over. Asher caught her, helping her stand back up. “You almost set a new record for how fast I’ve seen someone fall over on their first lesson,” Asher joked, hoping to lighten the mood.

“But I didn’t!” Lisette said, proud of herself.

“No, you didn’t,” Asher smiled. “Make sure you keep your weight over the heel of your foot, otherwise you’ll go splat,” he advised.

Lisette smiled. “I won’t go splat!” She insisted.

“I’m sure you won’t,” Asher replied. “Can you put your feet together in a little ‘v’ shape like this?” Asher demonstrated the move, moving his skates into a ‘v’ position. Lisette enthusiastically copied him, putting her rental skates in the same position that Asher demonstrated.

“Okay, and we’re going to pick one leg up at a time, and we’re going to do some forward marches like this,” Asher explained, picking up one of his legs at a time and stepping forwards slowly on the ice. The girl enthusiastically copied him, stumbling a few times.

“Hey, it’s okay to fall,” Asher reassured the girl as she stumbled again. “You’re doing really well for your first time.”

Lisette smiled at the praise.

“We’re going to go over to where the other members of our group are waiting,” Asher explained, gently guiding Lisette to the other three waiting children in a corner of the rink. “Let’s go learn how to skate, okay?”

“Yeah,” Lisette replied, seeming excited about the prospect. “I’m excited.”

“I bet you are.” Asher smiled.





The ice rink was on fire.

It was five forty five in the morning and the ice rink was on fire. There was a raging, burning fire that had enveloped the entire building.

Asher’s practice started at six. He was not going to get any practice done today. Or any other day in the foreseeable future, considering the raging inferno that was quickly engulfing one of his favourite places.

There seemed to be no-one there. Asher took a look around, hoping to find someone. He thankfully did, seeing one of the front desk workers at the ice rink staring at the burning building.

“Hey, Asher,” the receptionist asked. “how are you doing?”

“I… the ice rink,” was all he said in reply as he watched what felt like his entire life burn to the ground. He struggled to find the words as he felt tears slowly streaming down his face. What was he going to do?

The sound of sirens caused Asher to turn around to see the fire engines arriving on the road behind them, pulling themselves right up to the edge of the rink building. Asher moved aside, hoping that they’d at least save a little bit of the rink, and that it wouldn’t take too long to repair. The ice was his absolute passion, and he had no idea what he’d do without it for the weeks and possibly months that the rink would be out of service. Sure, there were other rinks in the city, but by the stars this was his rink and there wasn’t really another place that felt quite like this one.

Asher watched in silence as the fire trucks began laying down water and whatever other chemicals they would use to fight the fire, hoping that it would be put out soon. Asher didn’t think it was possible for an ice rink to burn, but apparently it was. It had been such a constant in his life that not having it there anymore was unthinkable. It had always been there.

“And that’s the third time this week,” he heard someone mutter in the distance, though their voice came out… weird. Huh. Asher ignored it as he felt someone else come up behind him - another of the resident rink coaches.

“… third time?” Asher wondered aloud. “What is going on?”

“Oh, you haven’t heard?” One of the coaches asked. “There’s been a string of arson attacks recently.”

“Huh?” Asher asked. He usually didn’t listen or follow what went on with the news, but that was… concerning. “But… but why… why the ice rink?”

“And that,” said a strange voice behind them, “is what I am currently trying to figure out.”

Asher turned to see a figure dressed in all black standing with their arms crossed behind them. She - Asher was pretty sure the person was a woman - was softly lit by the glowing flames of the fire behind them, the weapons on her person clearly visible along with a mask covering her mouth and nose. Everything about her seemed almost unreal. “My apologies if I scared you,” the woman said, holding out one of her gloved hands. “Agent Becker. I work for the intelligence services.”

“Asher Lieke,” Asher replied, tentatively taking it and shaking her hand.

“A pleasure to meet you,” Agent Becker replied, “though I wish it could have been under more favourable circumstances.”

Asher smiled nervously, not sure what to do at the woman’s somewhat intimidating presence. Someone else from behind him asked, “What do you know about this fire that we don’t?”

Asher thought Agent Becker was giving the person a hard glare. “That, unfortunately, is classified information.” Agent Becker replied. “Much of it will likely be declassified in due course, due to the rather public nature of the investigation.”

“So it is to do with the serial arsonist!” The same person, who Asher now identified as the receptionist exclaimed.

“You will not be able to use the rink for the next few weeks at the very least, so I suggest you go home,” Agent Becker said. Asher wasn’t sure if she just wanted them gone or what. It confirmed Asher’s suspicions, but still. There was something in watching the place burn that caused him to keep his eyes fixed on the ice rink instead of turning around and heading home, as the other people began heading home.

“Mr Lieke?” Agent Becker asked, when Asher was the only one left gazing at the raging inferno.

“Yes?” Asher responded, unsure of what the agent was going to ask.

“Why are you still here?” She enquired. Asher thought that wasn’t such a bad question out of the ones she probably could have asked.

“I don’t know,” Asher admitted timidly. He didn’t know what kept him rooted to the spot, watching the place filled with happy memories for him burn to the ground. He hoped that whatever Agent Becker was doing, at the end of it all, would come to something good for the ice rink as the two stood in silence, the only sound being the fire in front of them.

“I told you we needed more glitter!” Emrys sighed as she watched the remains of their rather chaotic glitter bomb go off in the lab once more, to no avail. “That’ll barely make a mark when we do the training exercise later this month.”

Aspen sighed. “You’re right. I would love to drag Alayna into this, but she’s busy.”

“Erin?” Emrys asked. “She likes this sort of thing, if I remember correctly.”

“Only slightly,” Aspen replied. “She prefers the actual fighting part to… this.”

“Eva would love this sort of thing. Right?” Emrys said. “She does have a propensity for using a lot of knockout gas though. If we’re not careful, she's going to fill these with a lot of things we don't want.”

“Eva’s out on a mission though,” Aspen replied. “Undercover doing something or whatnot with the Stellar Force.”

Emrys sighed. “Okay. So, I guess we go back to basics and figure this thing out again.”

“I mean. There’s always Sasha.” Aspen suggested. “She’s probably hanging around somewhere doing stuff. But she wouldn’t mind being dragged into this at all, I don’t think.”

“Oh, absolutely not. We should go get her,” Emrys said, as she started gathering up her communicator and a few other items. “Let’s go.”

“Emrys, I mean, I think this is a bit sudden-”

“It’ll be okay! She’ll love it!” Emrys smiled. “Honestly, aren’t we all a bit chaotic here?”

“By chaotic you mean yourself and Eva. Considering you have a propensity for backflipping off of the seventy third floor of really tall skyscrapers.” Aspen shot back. “But sure. Sasha’s a whizz with engineering stuff, so let’s try her, I guess.”

“Perfect!” Emrys smiled, bounding out of the corridor, leaving the lab unlocked. No-one was going to come in, considering there was a TOP SECRET!!! sign written above it, and most people knew not to approach anything that vaguely said classified or top secret…

The two friends walked their way down to Sasha’s office, opening the door to find her staring at… paperwork.

“Hey, Sasha, want to come build some glitter bombs with us?” Emrys smirked.

“I mean, we know you’re busy, so we can come back if you’d like, but-” Aspen began, before being promptly cut off.

“Sure,” Sasha replied. “I would love to do that. Give me a second.” Sasha quickly gathered up a few of her things such as a tablet, pencil, and lots of paper. “Okay, let’s head to the labs and you can t ell me what the heck is going on with you guys.”

“We need more glitter,” Emrys replied. “They’re not making a good solid glitter mark when we’ve been testing them on the manneqins.”

Emrys pushed the door open to the lab they had been working in. “We don’t know how to not get it to flake off.”

“And you chose to use glitter bombs because…?” Sasha asked. “You could have just used paint, but okay.”

“Glitter bombs are more fun.” Aspen replied. “Also, I had a bunch of glitter at home that I wasn’t going to use.”

“Okay,” Sasha said, grabbing a pair of safety glasses and putting them on, inspecting the glitter bomb design. “Not

Daily 5

Happy World Book Day! Today we'll be writing reviews and offering book recommendations to our fellow SWCers in the comments! Connect with other passionate readers and share the ups and downs of recent books you've read, or maybe discover a new love of reading you didn't realize you had? You can collect 350 points (plus 50 more for proof!) by writing 300 words worth of book reviews! Have fun celebrating World Book Day!

So recently I read this graphic novel called My Sister the Werebeast (by Alina Tysoe), where sisters Rose and Mira are waiting for their parents to get home, while something… weird is going on with their younger sister Peanut. It was very very good. Honestly just the kind of cute, silly, fantasy, wonderfully sweet, (with a tiny pinch of gayness) story that I enjoy. So if you like that kind of book, I’d highly recommend it! Other book I read recently was On a Wing and Tear (By Cynthia Leitich Smith) which was about some native american kids and their Grandpa returning a bat to play in a special ball game. It was very good as well and perhaps you should read. So, another book I read recently was The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl (By Shannon Hale and Dale Hale) which was about like, backstory for Squirrel Girl (aka the best super hero). So that was funny and good too. There’s also Lumberjanes, a graphic novel series, about 5 girls who go to a camp for hardcore lady types, and then find magic stuff, and then hijinks ensue. Another good graphic novel series is The Tea Dragon Society (by K. O’Neill), which is about Greta, who is learning how to be a blacksmith, then learns about Tea Dragons, who are little pet dragons with tea leaves growing from them. It’s a very cute, sweet little book and I definitely recommend it.
Anyway, here’s a rant about a book I read, so if you like, go ahead and skip this :’)
So I read this graphic novel called Amulet (by Kazu Kibuishi), which was about this family goes to live in the mom’s Grandpa’s old house after their dad dies, and then the main character Emily finds a magic amulet, then a monster kidnaps their mom and they have to go to a different world to save her, and then some other stuff happens. It was good and fine, BUT it ended on a cliff hanger, and apparently there’s at least 8 books in the series?? Which, like, it’s good, but not THAT good. I read the second one and got enough of a conclusion that I don’t think I’m going to read the rest of them.
Anyway, that’s the end of my little rant :’)
And that’s all the book reviews and such I have to say at the moment, goodbye.

398 words

Hello! For those of you who don’t know, I am actually not that much of a reader anymore (fanfiction is eating all my time, also my book tastes are… incredibly specific) but I am here to write about one of my favourite book series of all time that genuinely doesn’t get discussed as much from what I’ve seen and that book series is the Old Kingdom by Garth Nix.

I absolutely love this book series because it ticks a lot of the boxes of something I would write - mainly in the fact that while there is a romance going on in the first book between two of the characters, the nine year old me reading this for the first time barely noticed it and I read the text as if it wasn’t there. (I also hate English literature because I literally never knew what was going on with the literary analysis of anything but poems which is probably why I missed and still do miss a lot of sub text) I also really liked the writing style as well and it has a fair amount of throwing exposition at you, but I really liked that, since it was done in well timed places and was also relevant to the story. In addition, I also really liked how the main female protagonists were written as equals to the men in the society of the Old Kingdom, and there wasn’t any knight in shining armour to save the female protagonist and be her love interest. Like yes, okay, there is a love interest with the male protagonist, but he’s honestly more like a travelling companion than anything else and I read him as such.

I also loved the book series because of the setting - it’s set in the Old Kingdom, which has a type of magic called charter magic that runs throughout the land. It’s a very fantasy type setting, minus the horses. There are barely any horses for the most part, mostly just boats and magic. The Old Kingdom is also set on the premise that things made by machines fall apart north of the Wall, which divides the Old Kingdom from Ancelstirre which I’m pretty sure is a 1920s/1930s style version of England in a sense and that magic can’t penetrate south of the wall.

My favourite book out of the main trilogy would probably be the third book, Abhorsen, since it involves everything coming together and the conclusion of the main story, which honestly isn’t unusual for me to favour third books for trilogies. I would also say the first book, Sabriel, comes in at a close second, since it’s done really well as an introduction to the world. I also have lots of favourite moments from this book, mainly from the opening few sections and the ending sections. My absolute favourite in this series would be the fifth book, Goldenhand. I love this book since it follows on from the aftermath of the main trilogy and we get to see how things have progressed since the end of that book. I have so many favourite moments in this book as well!

This book series is always one of my go-to fantasy and YA recommendations, and while it’s over 25 years since the book was first published and about seven years since I first read it, this book series has a special place in my heart and it never ages. I would definitely recommend this book series for anyone looking for an epic fantasy adventure with magic, and for anyone who’s looking for strong female leads whose male lead counterparts aren’t there to be the knights in shining armour. It’s honestly way more of a female lead saves herself story, and that’s one of the reasons I absolutely love it. Also there are some great moments in there, especially in the fifth book which holds some of my favourite scenes. Go read it guys!

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03.05.26 - daily
413/300 words ;; 300 pts


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Hey! I really don't reveal my book interests on this website. I am very interested in books, though! I'm super picky, so if I like one, I LOVE it. The book series I'll be discussing is very generic and popular on Scratch since the beginning of time. Warriors, Book #1, Into the Wild by Erin Hunter!

It starts with a character named Rusty, and his life as a domestic cat. He loves his housefolk, his friends, and his house in general. He starts to have dreams about going out to the forest nearby, which has been rumored to be dangerous, full of aggressive wildcats who attack everyone on sight. These dreams happened so much that Rusty eventually gave in to them. Rusty felt he had to go, so after saying goodbye to his friends, he set off.

I think this beginning part of the book is well-made and well-thought out. I’m glad he doesn’t have a rushed backstory, instead having one that explains how Rusty came to the forest, leaving everything behind.

The next part of the book is him actually going into the forest. Although nervous, he comes ready to face any threats. He was well-prepared, because he was attacked by another cat.

This cat’s name is Graypaw. He’s about the same age as Rusty. Startled, Rusty fights back. The battle doesn’t last very long, though, as Graypaw did this for fun. It turns out.. Maybe the rumors weren’t so true. Graypaw stops fighting abruptly and introduces himself. He tells Rusty about the warrior Clans. Although taken aback, Rusty listens.

There are four warrior Clans. ThunderClan, the one Rusty encountered, WindClan, RiverClan, and ShadowClan. He tells him about the relationship between ThunderClan and the others. As Graypaw continues to explain, two cats approach.

These two cats are Bluestar and Lionheart. They both have high ranks in ThunderClan, Lionheart being an experienced warrior, and Bluestar being the highest rank, the leader. Bluestar makes an offer.

“We’re low on warriors, and you are very brave. I do not make this offer lightly. Join our Clan, and have the protection of ThunderClan always with you. But if you accept, you’ll have to leave your soft life behind.”

Rusty takes this offer into account. Will he accept it? Will he decline? Will he even be welcomed? You’ll have to read the book!

That was my little summary of this book, and hopefully the plot is good enough for you to read it. Happy writing !

Well I haven’t read many new books willingly, outside of some for school. However, my friend has been making me read her favorite series, so I suppose I can go over that one!

One book (or book series(es. Multiple series. Series but plural. They’re both connected to each other) that I’ve been reading lately has been the Melderblood Chronicles by E. A. Winters. I have finished the first two books of the series, Melderblood and Shadowcaste respectively, and I’m about to start the third one: Wraithweaver. But, since I finished Shadowcaste more recently, I suppose I can talk about that one.

The series is very beautifully written. The descriptions are lovely and I adore the character interactions! The villains of the story have logical motivations, and a lot of depth (in my unhumble opinion) and the plot surrounding them and their arcs were very interesting.

But uh… this book has made me discover that I don’t particularly like romance as a genre. I wish there was more of a focu son the worldbuilding because it’s so cool! The magic system is amazing and so, so interesting!! Let me know more! But, uh… no sorry, let’s have the main character think about the love interest and how beautiful their eyes are every three seconds instead!

(I hate reading eye descriptions. I hate writing eye descriptions. Please can we move onto something else?)

But despite all that I do think the book is very good, I just… I don’t like romance, apparently. Which is good to know for future me, I guess! But that still won’t stop me from finishing this series, I am curious to figure out the ending, even if I have to get through all the sappy romantic bits first.

Overall, 4.5 stars out of 5 for me, and I’d definitely recommend it to anyone (so long as they like romance!)

➵ Quest the Fifth: Book Recommendations ⊹ ₊

Okay! I know you’d probably get sick of me ranting on about things that you’ve probably heard before so I thought I’d try to find some of my favorites that aren’t Percy Jackson sigh

That’s Not My Name by Megan Lally:

That’s Not My Name by Megan Lally is a mystery thriller with a dual point of view. A girl wakes up on the side of the road, shivering, bruised, and definitely concussed. She doesn’t remember her name or anything about herself. An officer finds her on the side of the road and takes her to the police station where they work on finding out who her parents are and where they are from. Eventually, a man comes looking for his daughter and she is released into the custody of this man. Our second point of view is a young man named Drew who is suspected to have killed his missing girlfriend. He doesn’t care about proving his innocence, he just wants her to come home.

Content and Trigger Warnings:
- Kidnapping
- Murd3r
- Violence
- Child Abuse (technically falls under our violence category)
- Stalking
- Amnesia
- Profanity
It might sound bad but I don’t remember it being that bad. There were tons of profanities in Drew’s perspective so warning for that!

My personal thoughts: There was a big plot twist towards the end that I kinda guessed but I wouldn’t say it’s that predictable! It was frustrating at times because you felt like it was getting good from one point of view and then it switched to the other and made me mad. If you like mud3r mysteries, you should definitely read it! It was probably one of my favorites from January this year. There are some lovable characters, some I hated with my entire being, and a few changes of heart lol. Overall, this book was amazing and once again, READ IT

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daily march 5: book recommendations ;D 318 words!!

Book recommendations, you say? Well, I’ve got plenty of those!

4 Years Trapped in My Mind Palace by Johan Twiss
This book is magical, incredible, joyous, heartbreaking, and loving all at once. It’s about a teenager named Aaron who’s in a coma at Restwood Suites, a home for the elderly, but is aware of everything going on around him. He soon gets a roommate, Solomon Felsher, who’s a retired jazz musician with dementia. Turns out, Solomon can read Aaron’s thoughts, and the two become quick friend, along with Solomon’s granddaughter, Sarah. Aaron goes through a journey of grief and joy has he finds himself and his recovery, making for a magical story that you’ll read over and over again.

The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Although perhaps not as famous as it’s thriller counterpart, The Inheritance Games, The Naturals is a series that hooked me right from the beginning. Following Cassie and other ‘Natural’ young FBI agents as they race to find the murderer(s) before more bodies are found, it’s terrifying, hilarious, heartwrenching, chock full of plot twists, and wonderful in ways that continue to awe me every time I read one of the books. With a chilling perspective from the villain every few chapters, The Naturals will leave you either heartwarmed, laughing, slightly terrified, or all three.

The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Jennifer Lynn Barnes strikes again! The Inheritance Games is wonderful. Just wonderful. The characters are all so delightfully quirky and alluring, the absolute best being Libby, Xander, and Max in no particular order. The plot is also wonderful; Avery is an unlikely surprise heiress that inherited billions of dollars from a rich old man she had never met and finds herself in a tangled web of secrets, puzzles, and lies. If you crave plot twists, puzzles, romance, laughter, or really any type of good book, look no further than The Inheritance Games.

Daily March 5th
Words: 340

Recently, I have been reading The Wicked King. It is the second book of a series, The Folk of the Air series by Holly Black. I am not finished yet, but regardless I am in love! The worldbuilding, built off of preexisting myths, is rich and layered. I feel like I am stepping into a whole new world when I read it, transported by the politics, species, rich characters, beautiful writing and deeper layers hiding within. There is not just a surface level world, everything feels developed. Despite references to the “mortal world” and its differences that could come off as cheesy, it is executed well and I feel how truly different and magical the Faerie world is, with its culture, norms, complicated politics and different species. I love picking out bits of foreshadowing and guessing what will happen next in an ever-compelling narrative. I feel like I’m putting my writer’s cap on whenever I pick up this book to learn more and get lost in the story. The only aspect I am not too big a fan of is the romance. When I am reading fantasy, I do not mind a bit of romance, especially when it is tasteful and makes sense for the characters. In this case, I find it makes sense for the characters, but it is a bit too prevalent for my tastes. I would prefer it to be mentioned less, or less intense than it has been. Sometimes, I don’t think it is tasteful or necessary to the degree it has been included, but maybe if I was a romance reader I’d feel differently. Regardless, I think it moves the plot forward in some instances even when in others it feels like it could have been cut. I am still a fan overall, the fantasy pulls me back into the book. I look forward to continuing the series. A Cruel Prince was also a great book, so I have high hopes for the other installments in the series and the one I am currently reading!

word war proof || 235 words
warning: this kind of makes no sense cough my word wars rarely do

“can we stay like this a little bit longer?”
he turned to look at her, brow furrowing. “hm?”
she said nothing, just leaned back and looked up at the stars. he didn’t protest, leaning back with her. it was a nice evening out, and the sky was already dark. the winds were cool and carried the promise of rain later.
it had been a long day, and she still wasn’t sure what she wanted to do about some things but it was nice to just lay here with him and wait for the storm to break.
she bent her head, crushing the grass underneath, thinking about things as the sweet scent rose up. it was nice to just lay here, she reflected dreamily. nice to dream without reality to come crushing in and ruin it all, nice to have nothing to do and nowhere to be. here she could truly be nobody, and no one cared. here she was free and could remain free for as long as she stayed. it was nice feeling. more than nice. she wanted to stay here forever and never leave, drink in the light and the rain and the dark and the shadows. she sighed, closing her eyes as the first drops began to fall. he said nothing, and neither did she. it was enough to just be there together.
it hadn’t always been like this. she used to
(i ran out of time here LOL)

Daily 5: Book Recommendation
word count - 328 words

A Wish In the Dark
I'm going to start this off by saying that I haven't read a book in ages. At least by choice, that is. Sure, for school there'll be one mandatory text that we get assigned for English but for some reason, I've found myself growing farther and farther away from reading (which is honestly so weird to me because I used to literally be addicted to books). Anyways, when seeing this daily at first I had no clue which book to choose because while I'll always still remember the “vibes” a certain book gave me while I was reading it, the plot tends to leave my mind, especially if it's been a bit.

However, all this aside, A Wish in the Dark is a book that I keep coming back to. It's essentially a reimagined version of Les Miserables accept it's catered to a more Thai-fantasy storyline. The story explores a dystopian world where “light” is a priviledge, not meant to be shared that those that are deemed less or unfit. Pong, the main character in the story is the son of a criminal - although his mother ends up dying in prison, he is forced to remains in a prison for children, Namwon Prison. Though not understanding what he did to deserve such cruel punishment from the world, Pong always remained truthful to himself.

His character growth as he explores both the inequalities and priviledges he takes for granted is very inspirational and eye opening. In general, I find that the book is written in such a way where light as a symbol is so applicable and relevant to the way struggles are approached in the real world today. In such a way, watching Pong's journey is one that will surely leave you in tears by the end. Obviously, this is like Grade 7 Alana talking, but I'm sure your emotions will be wild regardless. Enjoy!

placeholder for the 4th's word wars if I forgot to do this already