873 words

ok i took like a fifteen minute break just because i knew that I had the time to write the remaining thousand two hundred words if i needed to, and it gave a chance for the other person to reply so i don't overwrite, because that would be the worse. in fact they actually did reply, just at the same time as me and i missed it whoops! bc they replied to themself. anyway they wrote about half as many words as I did in the time. nothing wrong with that, it's all great! so now according to my calculations, there are about a thousand words left. if they're going to write twice as slow as me, then we should divide a thousand into three and I should write two thirds of that amount and they will likely write one third. so now i am aiming for that two thirds and after that i'll start writing the five hundred for the action war. once it gets closer to the four and a half thousand deadline, then i'll check to see if they've written what i've expected them to (at least) to finish the war, and then depending if it is needed or not i'll write the last third. a third is about 333 words btw. oh no… that means i'm shooting for a pretty cursed humber of words to write hahaha. it's okay. i can write over bc i write over and i'm fast, or i can write under because there are actually less than a thousand words left to be written. and three hundred words is light work i can do if there are like ten minutes to deadline and i really don't know if the other person will pull through. then after all that is said and done i will check for any new wars, and depending on how long the war is and how i'm feeling I'll decide if and what to write. ugh ofc the one day i'm busy but am supposed to get to relax a little bit is cabin wars. alas. this is in fact what i love to do, and i usually get most of my words in during cabin wars. i especially need to get the words in here this session bc i am away and am not writing as much. speaking of i really need to update the wcg and add my words for my songwriting heh… it's okay i can do it on the drive out of here hopefully, because it is light work, not distracting to whoever's driving, and can be done with the spotty cell service around here. ahahaha multiple people have told me to get a good night's sleep but guess what i'm doing?? that isn't something to be proud of by the way. it really made me think back to zy's rant (not rant, but comments) about swc and how it's become for them, and it was something that really resonated with me when i was spewing out words for cabin wars and it just wasn't… fun. that being said right now i am having a decent time writing this and am actually finding it quite nice to journal and reflect on my time here (whoa, weekly?) as it comes to an end. here being the place i am physically at right now. lol. ok my wrist is kind of cramping the left one because i have been on the computer for many hours and typing for the last like forty minutes. ooh okay i can crack my wrist. btw one nice thing about being here is that it really just forces me to complete the self care things because we touch grass a lot here with how the campus is and how we just hang out and stuff. it's really great! also helpful for summer. like i've genuinely completed like half of the weekly without even trying by just chilling and existing in my day to day here. okay i should be approaching six hundred words right now. if you're wondering how i know it's because filling up one of these spaces that it gives you writing at the post is usually around five hundred, and I've gone like five lines beyond that so i def have at least six hundred now. i'm going to stop and add it and move on to the next! so much for completing a writing dare for points though… oh well i collected some for the eating and drinking. which honestly wasn't that healthy considering it is not a time to be eating but oh well. i probably have closer to eight hundred words by now but whatever more the merrier and something like that. okay so i just checked and ahaha i take it back okay i was like less than a hundred words of the entire war being complete whoops haha it only took like ten minutes so i'm just going to write this sentence and maybe one more to finish it by myself. yay war should be complete by now! you're actually kidding i was three words short this is actual ragebait and i would go on about it but i've absolutely completed the war by now so ha.

↻ ◁ II ▷ ↺

◪ Word War 3
Wordcount: 363
Person warred: surfdudewave
Win/Loss: Win
Prompt used: “They say home is where the heart is… Unfortunately, I left mine in our old apartment”
Time: 5 minutes
Cabin: Dystopian-Xenofi love child

“They say home is where the heart is… Unfortunately, I left mine in our old apartment!”

The joke falls flat in the room, considering that Masie was speaking to nobody at all. Every time she tried to speak to herself it was like she was about to start crying all over again. How she managed to move out of her old apartment without crying, she didn't know, because the moment she got in the taxi she had burst into tears to the concern of the driver.

It wasn't like she'd wanted to move. She'd been kicked out by the people she called her closest friends, who'd started to pile more and more responsibilities on her. The amount of chores and side quests she had to do was almost ungodly. But yet, she couldn't help but miss all her friends whom she would live with. So what if they didn't like her as much as she liked them? She would have done chores for them for the rest of her life if it meant that she could sit around the fireplace one more evening.

She still remembered the first time she'd met her roommates, gasping in surprise as the group realised that they'd all moved into the same apartment near their college. They'd had so many giggles and inside jokes, and going back to that place after a long day of classes actually felt so relieving, like it was a soft, warm blanket. But this year, as all friends do, they'd grown apart, and Masie couldn't do anything to stop it. The passive-aggressive comments, the way everybody had something to say about everyone, especially about Masie.

Being the people pleaser she was, she found herself as the scapegoat for most of the jokes or for more of the venting, letting herself be the target for whenever someone was angry and had to take it out on someone. So, a reasonable person would be quite happy to find a cheaper apartment, with a pretty view overlooking the sea, only ten minutes from her college.

But then again, Masie did not find herself reasonable as she tried to console herself, telling herself

625 words > 500 going to action war, 125 going to mystery war (because it was written after both were sent)

alright i'm back to ranting and rambling about whatever thoughts i may just so happen to have because this time i have to write five hundred words for an action war! I was about to check the extra challenge but then remembered i already did it before writing lots of words for it because it was the eating and drinking one. was it a suitable time to be eating and drinking? maybe not… but i was either way even before i went to see the ongoing wars and noticed it was an extra challenge. guys it's okay i needed to finish the food before we leave tomorrow. speaking of, that's something i forgot to put on my original to do list… taking out the trash. to be fair my roommate should do it because i took out both cans one day, and then took it out again the same day after we had more trash lol- but honestly i don't care, it's something that's super easy to do here because they have it set up so well for us, so that's great. i should also probably restock the toilet paper for whoever has this room next! I really do hope nobody reads these haha they're the randomest. But I do post them here just so that I have proof of my writing. I write rather fast in pretty crazy amounts, and truly only I could write these they're so weird and bad and crazy. It's also nice to have them so i can count all the words, because again with the wcg, i have not added my words or credits, and can now look back in the posts here to see how many words I've written and add them! I must be really far from my word goal this session haha. That's okay because it's not about the quantity! I've written some songs I'm really proud of, and it's been super building and healing in beneficial in so many ways that are difficult for me to put all into words before they fly away out of my head. Also it is about quantity for cabin wars so… anyway I need to lock in and write a bit faster because i think i told them i'd do this in ten minutes and it's been eight because I went to the bathroom and then got distracted and started looking stuff up. I also went into my messages. It's a good thing I can write fast because that is like my one saving grace in many many situations. Not just cabin wars but for in school, too. I'm a super procrastinator, which is by no means good, but being a fast typer to keep up with my thoughts a bit more and get everything done really helps. It also really helps for cabin wars not just because of completing wars, but because completing them faster means that I can get to sleep faster. Or if I'm waiting for another war to get the shield before i go to sleep, it's so that I can just get to a break faster. It's really nice! I have to decide what I'm doing next right now too btw because it looks like i have two people on for relief but idk if they're going to sleep soon or be very active. There's only like one possible war that I might miss or be too late to really finish by myself so we'll see what happens, but we seem to be moderately active. I do seem to still be carrying tho lol as always (it's ok i'm proud to though i do like my sanity so i must sleep especially because i have a crazy busy show and travel day tomorrow <3)

attempt 1 448 words

okay so now what's going on is i'm going to attempt somewhere around one to three fifty headed hydras just to help them out with the mystery war and then i'm probably going to go to sleep. I could make the activity right now but to be perfectly honest I'm pretty exhausted and want to sleep right now for some reason. it was a long day with dress rehearsal, it takes a lot of energy for me to perform and be energetic and in that kind of mode. I also have so much faith in the other people that are online right now, it's only three thousand five hundred words, so I'll write as much as I feel like, capping out at probably like half of the war, and then I'll just add my words in the word count group to keep track of, despite the fact that I am absolutely not updating the description tonight. It's good to keep track and stuff like that. I wish things like notes counted for words. I get why they don't but it would motivate me more to do my notes. I just had a thought like oh maybe they should make it so notes are worth half the points, which then got me thinking about the new change they implemented this session, and how now it works so that words count for half as much as they used to. One word counts for a half point, not a full point. Also I think the word count strategy of deflating your word goal should be studied. I usually stick with a good honest amount because guilt affects me so much, way more than it probably should. However I feel like that totally could be exploited! Same with pen pals though honestly, you could write in a format so that you are point farming, but it's not a good thing to do and feels dishonest. Though I do think there was at least one person last session who I saw doing that. Oh no there is only one minute left and I feel like I am not even close to getting the five hundred words in that time just based on where my lines are at right now. Though honestly that might be a good thing, because then it will motivate me to try another one to see if I can get it and then I will write like four hundred and something more words! If I even get to four hundred. The downside is that I am running out of things to say. Though I guess I am always thinking so i will never completely run out of things to write

attempt 2 480 words

okay let's try this again because I was so close last time! I really was right about that motivating me to do another one. Though I do think I was going to try to do at least two either way. This way I might do three though. Maybe even four if I'm still feeling up for it. I don't know if i will be by then though. These spelling mistakes are really killing me because I am going back to fix them and it takes so much time because of how I do it. Oftentimes I have moved pretty far on by the time I go back to fix my spelling mistake. Not like missing a space or something simple, but it's far by then. And then I hold the delete key and wait a long time for it to go back to where the mistake was. I actually just forgot the i in missing earlier but have decided not to go back because I was in the flow of thoughts but not typing. There was something else I wanted to say before along this line but I forgot what it was. That's the worst, I really hate when it happens. Again I am kind of running out of things to talk about so that also slows me down. Oh and even more slowing me downa re these nails. They cause some of the mistakes and overall feel weird and sometimes make me pick them up. Obviously holding my hands a bit differently for the sake of the nails will make me slower. They're not super long, I don't have any press ons or acrylics on, but I just haven't cut them in a while because I've been away at camp and haven't cut them. There hasn't been a need to because thankfully I haven't been playing as many instruments! I think this run of the hydra was going well but I keep making more and more spelling mistakes. A sign of being tired. My fingers physically hurt right now from typing this fast and everything so right now I do think I"m going to call t after two, even if it means I don't get a successful hydra right now. That's really weird because I had so many successful ones over and over last session I did this. Must be the nails in my opinion I really feel them making a difference. I honestly kind of want to stop typing even though I have like thirty five seconds left. I'm tired but I just have to push through. I'm running out of ideas but I just have to push through. I just made about ten spelling mistakes, not even including all that I'm fixing right now, but again, I just have to push through. Thank goodness for parallel structure to keep me writing. Wow that made no sense.

Dear Hope,

I got your last letter! Unfortunately I am now rapidly typing this letter up for cabin wars because WHAT DO YOU MEAN I BASICALLY HAVE TO SOLO TWO WARS BECAUSE I’M THE ONLY PERSON AWAKE. We got hit with the 4.5k, which I’m trying to get done before I leave for skating, and the 4k war which I can do after I get back home. Luckily I don’t have to sneak out and grab my computer since I can type really really fast on my phone. My mobile WPM is something to be feared so FEAR ME. Ah, turns out that I am not quite soloing this war as much as I thought I was so here we are! But I’ve written this diabolically long letter to hopefully fill in the gaps.

Anyway, new computer!! I absolutely love my new computer but it is still really really weird having it. It’s a 14” ASUS Zenbook, and I love it! It’s also touchscreen as a bonus, but I really only chose it because it had the RAM and storage I needed and had one of the two recommended processors I needed (I have an Intel Ultra 9) and it’s pretty lightweight. It’s not actually that thin because I HAVE PORTS I have USB C ports and I think I have some USB A ports and some other ports on it and HDMI cables and all that jazz. I have unfortunately not obtained any games yet since I was too nervous to press buy on Steam but they will come on sale again and I will get those games then! I haven’t done anything ridiculously taxing on it, the most I’ve done is get it to run some pretty simple code. It is really weird having a huge screen with a keyboard attached, after five years of only mobile devices I am still not used to using a computer. I’ll adapt! Also this means I can use the Scratch vector edition again now since Scratch vector editor on mobile is a genuine pain. But now I can do stuff and I’m really excited to do the said stuff!

As for actually buying the video games - I can’t wait to get into playing Cities Skylines. My computer’s integrated graphics card can actually dedicate up to 16GB of system RAM for visual RAM which is great so I can play low end games that don’t require a graphics card and Cities Skylines should run smoothly when I get it but I have not worked up the courage yet. I decided that I was finally going to write my CV and get a job this summer so I’ve applied to a few retail places and I’m still searching for other opportunities. Mainly clothing stores since I don’t want to be stacking shelves at a supermarket or something since I don’t like the cold aisles. But hopefully I hear back from those guys soon and soon I shall be employed with cash to spare!! I’m very excited for this prospect, and I’ve also finished applying for student finance so I know they’re only giving me 5k a year in maintenance and MY RENT IS A GRAND HIGHER THAN THAT. Like, seriously, the cheapest accommodation block at the university I’ve firmed? 6k a year. So I need a job! (Or my parents to help out but I’d like to get a job first!)

As for other preparing for university things, I’ve been learning how to cook! I’ll probably compile a list of recipes before I go off to uni in my own little recipe book, but it will be great being someone who can actually cook in my flat. Some of the things I’ve successfully cooked so far with my mother are 葱油饼, 红烧肉, and of course dumplings. Oh, and 花卷 which I’m not sure if you’ve heard of before? It might just be a thing where my mother comes from. ALSO WHY DOES LITERALLY EVERY SINGLE TRANSLATION OF 葱油饼 and 花卷 INVOLVE SCALLION THEYRE MADE OUT OF SPRING ONIONS. Sigh. So yeah, I can cook now and it’ll be super helpful at university… but we all know I’m going to get a rice cooker and use the rice cooker much more than I’m going to use the pots and pans I’ve brought along, especially if it’s busy. How’s your post GCSEs summer going though? I hope you’re having lots of fun and enjoying the extra long summer break. I’m so glad we didn’t have to sit exams in the heatwave.

Right, back to answering questions from your letter!! I’ve already mentioned that part of my plans this summer involve getting a job and learning to cook among other university prep things, but I’m also learning how to code (python is… coming back to me!) since I need to know how to do that for my course. They said they were going to teach it to us but I wanted to teach it to myself since there’s someone in the house I can bug for any and all coding help. Also, we’re fixing my Chinese. I’ve slacked off due to the heatwave and I’ve found that in extreme heat all I really want to do is nap? I’ve found myself napping a lot in recent days - I took a nap after lunch yesterday and on Thursday I’ve taken several naps, so I’m not a stranger to napping. We’re not actually going anywhere this summer since I wanted to get a job and I have now applied! I’m really hoping that I’ll be accepted and they can start paying me but I have no idea if they’ll accept an inexperienced seventeen year old over someone else. They’ll probably give me training though, so that’s good.

Artfight and SWC! I’ve been so tired and uninspired lately that I haven’t been doing much for SWC, but I’ve gone back down one of my YouTube spirals again and now I have ideas. I’m hoping I can write a decent chunk of words today, of which this letter will be a part of! Sorry that it’s super duper long, ahaha, but I need to get the words in because why am I soloing some wars right now? I don’t know. My deadline for this war is 08:02 so I have an hour or so to magic up words. Which I think I’m doing by writing this letter and yapping to you. Anyway, Artfight is a come and go. I struggle with motivation and sometimes my hand just decides not to draw. I’ve done another two attacks already so hopefully this will make my battle ratio a bit less diabolical. I also have a hit list that I need to get around to but I’ve started another attack yesterday and hopefully I can finish colouring it in and shading it today - it’s a multi character attack so it’ll get me lots of points. For SWC I thought I was going to write basically every day but I’ve been so unmotivated that I just broke that on the second day. It’s okay, I have inspiration again now, but so much of my writing is slowly moving into more mature topics and themes which means I probably can’t share proof for it. I’m also trying to plan out a writing competition entry, but I think for that one I’ll just write a bunch of things and see what comes out the other side.

PROJECT SEKAI!! Thank you so much! Tiering for Leo/need World Link was not fun and absolutely diabolical. I was so unmotivated after I hit Hona that I didn’t even want to tier Ichika but I had to. So I tiered Ichika! And I finished t10k for all of them, which I think is pretty respectable for a first time tierer! I haven’t actually tiered a non-World Link event but I do think that World Link events may be easier to tier despite their lengths? As long as you work your way up to tiering in the same section for each character it’s kind of one big grind split over several smaller grinds for each character and so your overall ranking goes up as a result anyways. That said, playing hours of Project Sekai consistently for over thirteen days straight is a bit diabolical and I can understand why tiering is not fun now. The next event I have my sights set on is Our Golden Days mainly because I really liked the story because I read the translated version of it on Sekaipedia and I really want to tier for it. Also because Saki has an awesome untrained card that I really want to get. I’m currently levelling up my characters MANUALLY!! in preparation for potentially tiering MMJ World Link 2, but I’m not sure yet. I’m levelling up 3 stars and 4 star characters so my scores are really low right now but it does mean that I have guaranteed crystals when I come back with a strong high-talent team and I can get crazy support team bonuses. I know I did get some crazy support team bonuses when I tiered Leo/need because I had so many of their cards and I ended up getting S rank on a few songs! I do want to tier songs that are not Hitorinbo Envy so I was instead grinding Sympathy, Gunjou Sanka, and one or two others that decided to give me an S rank. I’m hoping that I don’t have to use too many resources training up MMJ characters and I can level them all up manually (to a certain point) so I can save my practice scores for when I need them! Also movie songs, while not the best for tiering, are short, so I’ve also been using them when tiering. Mainly I’ve been playing SToRY over and over again on Master. I’m also still not over my absolutely crazy Bloomfes gacha pull the other day when I got a whole bunch of four stars and Bloomfes Ena. Bloomfes Ena is a card I’m gonna proudly display since it came as such a shock to me. But she’s maxed out with her levels right now, all I need to do is save enough wish pieces to level her up!

I have to say, VBS is slowly growing on me! I now have favourite songs from all the groups but I rarely play with the virtual singers so I barely touch the virtual singer songs. Unless the song name is Tell Your World and I’m trying to FC it on APD. APD levels are fun. I like them. Gunjou Sanka is currently the only APD 29 I can clear and I’m nowhere near a consistent master FC on it, probably because I’m really bad at certain spam notes. But I can consistently hold a high combo for it which is good! Anyway, back to the music. I’m super excited for the arrival of Surges and 08.31 to global, I really love those songs and want to play their charts. Also I’m super excited for Toumei na Palette to be added to global at the next Leo/need event - it’s such a fun summer song to yell to and I love it so much. I barely listen to any WxS songs, mainly because Tsukasa is a bit much. I get why people like WxS, but I just can’t handle Tsukasa, I’m sorry. Which is funny because my favourite character is Saki. But oh well. I do mainly listen to comm songs over cover songs, mainly because I just like the comms more. For VBS, I especially like Macchi and Kashika, but to be honest if I’m playing a VBS song it’ll probably be Daybreak Frontline because that song is so EVERYTHING. I’m trying to Master FC it but it has a really annoying spammy note section where I KEEP LOSING MY FC. I honestly have too many Leo/need favourites to name them all and I do love N25. Empurple is a great song and I also like their image songs. I’m not sure if liking image songs is just a me thing, but I really do like the N25, L/n, and MMJ image songs (both of them, but I do have my opinions). I honestly listen to Sekai versions more than vocaloid versions but I do quite like the Orangestar vocaloid versions.

I’m also super glad you got to see MCR live! Unfortunately, I’ve never seen any sort of band perform live before but I have done worship team in church before and that’s super fun! I sang last Sunday when I was doing the worship team and it’s super fun. Turns out I just have to relax more and then I’ll hit the high notes. And I hit them! I was so worried about them I was just moving my jaw in awkward ways to loosen it up before the service.

Anyway, this is probably a long enough yap fest for you, so I’m signing off now!

Skylar

Shazarxi in Wonderland

River is Alice. Their characters are both defined by curiosity. They have a vivid imagination, but also tend to take a logical approach to situations. They’re independent, yet happy to interact with others. They tend to speak their mind. They like to explore and can get carried away with it. The blue/white color palette of Alice’s dress matches the palette of River’s feathers.

Chaos is the Cheshire Cat. These characters like to mess with people, their “guidance” revealing both wisdom and a slightly twisted sense of humor. While Chaos can’t disappear like the Cheshire Cat, she can shapeshift, which is similar in some ways. They’re unashamed of their own weirdness and are also able to point out the weirdness of their larger societies. Both characters have a very toothy grin.

Parsnip is the Hatter. They are silly, sometimes dramatically so, but they also have a certain way of doing things that doesn’t make much sense to anyone who doesn’t know them. The Hatter is stuck at teatime, while Parsnip gets trapped in a box for long enough to warp his perception of time. They’re both known for their characteristic hats, and their riddles don’t necessarily have answers.

Eclipse is the White Rabbit. They’re both eternally nervous about something, though in Eclipse’s case, it’s more about social anxiety and existential dread than it is about running late. They tend to get distracted a lot, and sometimes overlook really obvious things because they’re too busy hyperfixating on something else.

Rain is the Caterpillar. They often come off as rude, and have a habit of forcing others to confront difficult questions about themselves. They probably could be helpful, but if they don’t take a liking to you, they probably won’t be. The manifestation of Rain’s existence shifts throughout the course of their story, which is a fitting comparison to an insect that is known for its distinct transformation.

Sagebrush is the Gryphon. She may be a turtle, but in terms of personality, she’s much closer to the Gryphon than the Mock Turtle. Like the Gryphon, she is confident in herself and her knowledge of the world, but can be a bit too demanding of other characters who do not share her resolute nature or privileged insight. They can both be dismissive of other characters’ emotions. They take an interest in history and attempt to explain things to others, though they don’t always succeed in communicating clearly.

Silence is similar to the concept of Wonderland itself. There are contradictions and confusion, and the whole thing is a bit like a maze. It’s interesting to explore, as nothing ever seems to be quite what you’d expect it to be. It’s easy to get lost in. Even though there’s so much nonsense, there isn’t a sense that anything’s wrong—that’s just the way it is, and it’s best to simply accept that.

── ⋆ ༺ ⚔ ༻ ⋆ ──
·｡ ☠ Links:
⁀જ➣ Dailies and Weeklies Thread ➯ https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/891109/?page=4#post-9268003
⁀જ➣ Word Adding Thread ➯ you're here
⁀જ➣ Cabin Wars Archive 11/07/26 ➯ https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/891109/?page=18#post-9285112
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──── °‧ ꩜ ·｡ ────

Vicky's Word Adding Thread
── ⋆ ༺ ⚔ ༻ ⋆ ──
date // words // activity // proof? // added to trackbear

11 // 3245 // all cabin wars words // https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/891109/?page=18#post-9285112 // added to trackbear
13 // 325 // starting daily proof //
── ⋆ ༺ ⚔ ༻ ⋆ ──
Total: 7046 / 50,000 (last updated: 11)
words written / word goal: 14%

──── °‧ ꩜ ·｡ ────

── ⋆ ༺ ⚔ ༻ ⋆ ──
·｡ ☠ Links:
⁀જ➣ Dailies and Weeklies Thread ➯ https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/891109/?page=4#post-9268003
⁀જ➣ Word Adding Thread ➯ https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/891109/?page=18#post-9285109
⁀જ➣ Cabin Wars Archive 11/07/26 ➯ you're here
── ⋆ ༺ ⚔ ༻ ⋆ ──

──── °‧ ꩜ ·｡ ────

Vicky's Cabin Wars Archive ꩜ 11/07/2026
── ⋆ ༺ ⚔ ༻ ⋆ ──
word count // activity // challenge/no challenge // cabin who wared // added to trackbear, wcg and thread
988 words // starting critique + archive making // mystery //
66 words // writing critique // fantasy //
262 words // part of penpal letter i deleted // action
325 // rant // mystery //
704 words // halfway through penpal letter // mystery
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Total: 2345

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Critique for Liv

White streaked white tipped white rings of bubbles floating in the water reaching toward the ceiling with the hope to make it reach what they dream about but does the bubble want to rise to the surface or would they prefer to sink they don’t get a choice only the air does only the air and the water and the swimming giants who breathe out the rings of white bubble the beautiful lonely creature who live in a eternal back and forth and breathes the same air we do are we eternal or are we only alone in this world if those giants don’t get a choice if the eternal gods do not get a choice why should we is free will real or is it only an illusion bestowed upon us so that we believe that we can change the predetermined if they break the cycle will we be loved if they break the cycle will you live if they break the cycle are they still gods or are they only whales

The improper use of grammar is really nice and gives a sort of ranting “sensation” (?) that builds up pace when reading it. Despite that, personally i think you still could have included a little bit of punctuation as it would make it a little more readable and easier to understand. if you're really going for like a rambling just talking incoherently sort of effect then you could leave it as it is, however after reading it a few times over i find the content actually really nice so it would be nice for the reader to be able to absorb and understand the words properly the first time they read it rather than not really being able to process the words by sort of running over them: by adding a few commas and semi colons etc. here and there.


For the most part, we can make sense out of the words and sort of imagine where the punctuation would be like here “White streaked white tipped white rings of bubbles floating in the water reaching toward the ceiling with the hope to make it reach what they dream about but does the bubble want to rise to the surface or would they prefer to sink they don’t get a choice” which has a nice flow and it's readability is not too bad. However, in this part:

rings of white bubble the beautiful lonely creature who live in a eternal back and forth and breathes the same air we do

i found it quite hard to understand and a bit confusing as the “sentences” sort of run over each other and you kind of lose track of what is being referred to. it could help if you clarify and maybe add a stray comma or just something there to make more sense out of the “sentence(s)”
Aside from that i don't have any specific references for where punctuation should go, but if you do end up putting one where i referenced you could add like a few more to even it out yk.

also i think: “if they break the cycle will we be loved if they break the cycle will you live if they break the cycle are they still gods or are they only whales” is very nicely done without grammar to increase pacing *chefs kiss*

i lurveee the blackout poetry element, it's a super cool idea! took me a while to know why the colours where there so maybe clarify in like the starting not or smth. and also it would be cool to have an extra thingy with the blackout poetry written out as it took me a while to read it properly, as is not actually like blacked out.

overall:
yeah, a very short critique, i was honestly trying so hard to find more cuz cabin wars, but you're writing is unfinished and the part that aren't are close enough to perfect :starstruck:
i love the way you structured this and everything about like the layout is honestly so cool.
i'd love to critique this when it's finished, and until then happy writing - this is gonna be so epic i can just feel it!

707 words

↻ ◁ II ▷ ↺

◪ Critique 2
Wordcount: 372
Person critiqued: dragons_and_fire
Their work: Word War
Cabin: Dystopian-XenoFi love child

The frogs sat by the pond, twiddling their toes in the murky greenish water.

It's giving Roald Dahl, and I love it so much omg, now I can just envision some frogs with really really horrible posture sitting by the pond with horsetail reeds in their mouth like it is some elderly getaway. The frogs also have very rotund bellies; yes, that part is very important indeed.

After all, it felt kind of bad for the fly and it didn't want to get up from where it was.

PROVING MY POINT FOR ROUND BELLIES!

“Nah. I'm just chilling right now,” the frog replied.

Mood, I wish I were the frog

“Well, idk just swimming around and napping and-” here the frog paused and glanced over at the fly guiltily. “-And eating some of your siblings. I actually have one of their wings with me.”

man, don't you just HATE it when someone accidentally eats your sibling </3

The frog pulled a torn wing out of its imaginary pocket and gave it to the fly.

Once again, I am imagining a small flap in the frog's rotund belly, which completely blends in until the frog pushes his slimy little hand in to get out the mini wing. Also, which frog keeps a wing after eating its prey? This one must be a souvenir collector!

Suddenly, the fly gasped and cried, “CALEB?!”

NOOOOOOOOO CALEB NOOOOOOO

“Caleb?! You ate CALEB?! Dude that's my cousin's husband's mother's sister's in-law nephew. The fam's gonna be devastated! What the heck, man!”

okay.. now hold on a second…

cousin's husband,
now that cousin's husband's mother would be your aunt-in-law ish
The mother's sister would also be you aunt-in-law ish
The nephew would be the cousin's husband's brother

so that means caleb is this fly's cousin's brother-in-law!!

Unless I messed up somewhere in there </3

The fly wasn't letting the situation go though. It was furious.

I understand, fly, I would be mad if my cousin's brother-in-law was killed too. Don't worry :disappointment:

“Oh, so I'm just a number to you now?” The fly sniffled indignantly. “I thought we had something going for us. A connection. An understanding. I thought we could even be friends! I was gonna invite you over for tea after this!”

Aw man, I really relate to this fly sometimes… I don't think thats a good sign is it </3

“Really?” it asked shyly.

WHEN DID THIS TURN INTO A BL

“Me?! You?!” It stuttered. “I would never! Fly, you're the best friend I've ever had. Nothing can make me forget you. Not even hunger.”

Historians would call them roomates :sadness:

The fly, unable to take those insults, turned around and flew back to the log.

YEA TELL HIM GARY

“Alright, I'm sorry,” the frog said to the fly. Then it put its head down and said to its stomach: “You hear that, Caleb? I'm sorry.”

You don't know how funny this is when I'm imagining this in my head

A beat passed as the fly thought about the frog's question, then answered, “Yeah, I guess. It happens, man. Sometimes I can't even tell my own nieces and nephews apart! They look identical!”

I can't believe racism made it all the way to SWC omg /hj

“See ya!” The fly buzzed, taking off into the lazy sunny afternoon to prepare for the tea party.

Ah yes, the common experience of forgiving somebody for eating your cousin's brother in law and then cheerily showing up to their house for some mean lily jam, I remember the good old days…

No but all jokes aside, this made me giggle so bad you don't even understand :sob: The whole line of the cousin's husband's mother's sister's nephew bit really caught me off guard and I audibly laughed for a few seconds, this was so funny! Thankyou so much for lifting my spirits <3 The unexpected BL also made my giggle a bit more, I may have to draw a fly x frog fanfiction art </3

Critique for taylorsversion–
329 words

distantly, cinderella heard a harsh grating sound come from behind her.

This part was a bit confusing and wasn't explained or maybe I just missed it: What was the harsh grating sound? Was it her step-mother’s voice, was it her step-mother dragging the chair, or was it something else?

cinderella asked as she got up quickly and smoothed out her rags. there was no reply, though, because she quickly laid eyes on the dreadful scene cerise her.

What is the setting of this story? Because it seems as if Cinderella wakes up, hearing her step-mothers voice distantly, then gets up and sees her stepmother. Does she need to walk down/up stairs to get there, or does she sleep in the livingroom/whateverroom? It might be nice to make the setting more clear.

obediently, cinderella scurried to smooth out and rub the foot cream in, smirk dropping instantly. she wasn’t sure what was worse, the bumpy, sticky texture of the cream that left her hands itching, or the putrid smell of her step-mother’s knobbly feet, hideously covered in blisters and blemishes. what even was in this?

This is a really good description, it kind of made me want to throw up to be honest. You did a good job of making me/the readers feel what Cinderella must’ve been feeling.

cinderella barely had time to wash the cream off f her hands when drizella pushed her down the steps to the dark cellar. she was about to slam the trapdoor shut when anastasia

This part is a bit unclear, when I was first reading this I wasn’t sure if it was Drizella or Cinderella who was about to slam the trapdoor. Maybe just switch it out with Drizella’s name.

was prince charming. her prince charming. she peeked through a gap in the trapdoor, and there he was, with her shoe. yes. that self-conceited man had taken her shoe. and now he was passing it around the village, and her step-mother was trying it on.

Here, she says that prince charming is ‘her prince charming’, but in that same paragraph she refers to him as a ‘self-conceited man’. Does she like the prince at this point? Or has she always not liked him, even before she saw him in daylight?

the prince nodded in understanding, and turned to cinderella, smiling patronisingly. “in this kingdom, we treat everyone fairly. so go on,” he said, with a tone that you would use on a child, “you can try on the glass slipper.”

The way that you characterize the prince here is really good, I like seeing this little bit and understanding his annoying personality. Well done.

“oh, um.. maybe not. yes, i don’t think that i’m the girl you seek after all,” mumbled cinderella, wrinkling her nose. now that it was the day and she could see properly, prince charming wasn’t really the man she had thought he was.

In this part, it might be nice to have some sort of description beforehand so we can get a feel for why Cinderella doesn't like him. Perhaps a short description when she comes out of the cellar, and she surveys the scene.

“i can take care of the house in the meanwhile,” said cinderella happily, and, with great satisfaction, she slammed the great oak door on them.

This is a great moment, but it feels a little abrupt. It might be nice to have a bit of build-up, either of her thinking about how she wishes she could kick her step-relatives out or of her realizing that this was the perfect chance to be free, or something else- up to you.


————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Overall, I really liked the story! I thought it was funny and a really great twist on the story. Your descriptions were awesome <3

801 words

okay here i find myself again ranting and rambling about all sorts of things to speedrun some words for a cabin war! It's due in like an hour or so and we need two thousand words, but I have to go to rehearse in less than ten minutes. My goal is to maybe get about eight hundred words? I don't know if I can do it because i am typing really slowly right now. I swear it's these dang nails! They make me such a slow typer. It's also a bit distracting because I'm in the common room right now and people are talking and singing. They're great singers I know them, the issue is that I'm trying to lock in and type but am struggling. Omg wait hopefully they don't hear my super loud clicky typing and wonder what the heck I'm doing haha. What's good about this is at least it looks like I'm doing some knd of work. Ooh this girl just walked in with this super tea outfit. It's the typical white shirt and tie but she has like a short black tie and the white shirt is more fitted and has ribbing, so it's not just straight down and boxy. Oh I also just noticed an interesting installation above the fireplace. It looks almost incomplete? It's this white poster board with two sculpted hands sticking out of it, and the one on the right has lots of string tied around the fingers, and the other one (idk possibly unintentionally) has one string hanging down like it's puppeting something. The hand on the left is in control, the hand on the right is breaking free- or at least attempting to. Oh my goodness I have to leave in like five minutes and I have like maybe three hundred words done which is not great. I really want to help them out as much as possible right now because it seems like there is only one person online and things need to be finished. I also have to send some things to chocolate for a surprise thing and I've just been putting it off. I also have to share the project. It's okay because I am taking priority on us getting through cabin wars. This is the first war I am not completely confident we will finish. It's not that many words but with it comes little time, and for some reason nobody is online when people absolutely usually would be. I have to go rehearse but maybe after that I'll have some time? Oh I'm not bringing my computer though. I can try to type on my phone but I am just not nearly as good on it. I am speedy on a computer, not so much on the phone. Should I attempt a hydra? Oh it's kind of late I don't really have the time for it. Maybe if I do a three minute one? Then I'll get to around eight hundred words. I'm cutting it close to get to this next rehearsal but it's honestly like super informal and I doubt other people will show up very on time. They'll show up decently on time but me being one minute late won't be too bad. And hopefully the rehearsal goes well and after that I can go to the store to get some sour patch watermelon. There's also a new strawberry flavor I've been wanting to try but I don't think they have it. The watermelon are very different from the regular ones but I think they're good. They almost remind me of bubblegum whihc is weird because I really dont like bubblegum, but the sour patch watermelon are still good. They have a quite chewy texture. Anyway sour patch are usually good for your voice, no idea why, so I'm sure it won't hurt. Plus I love sweet things it'll be my concert treat yay. I'm actually considering not finishing this three minute hydra (three headed hydra?) so I have time to do other things because I'm bored but like what else would I do? Oh I wanted to search up why sour patch are good for your voice. Yeah I really do wonder. But there's less than a minute left so i figure i might as well. I'll be like one minute late to the other thing. Or I could just count and stop now and see if I'm almost at eight hundred words because honestly I should be at like seven hundred something by now. WOw I was right on the dot at like seven hundred fifty words so I'll just write a bit more to get to that next hundred and then I'll be on my way! How great how quaint how… I'm running out of things to say ok timer.

critique for silky!

Hello hello silky! I really enjoyed reading this, and it was such a fun, slightly mischevious take on the ‘toxic friends’ trope.

The writing style here feels very personal to the character— between informal and formal, in a way. It sometimes feels a bit jarring, but definitely not in a bad way! It's heavy in description, but less in surroundings and much more in feelings, which I like.

The style has a bit of an old-fashioned tone to it, especially in the vocabulary, but something about it also feels very true to the age.

All in all, I really enjoyed the writing style and the slightly nefarious tones of the story— good job on that!

My next bits are much more nitpicky— feel free to ignore these.

I can't tell what to think about the ‘little miss saki’ bit— it feels kind of mocking to the character in a way that most of the story is not, but many other parts of the writing include sarcastic-y phrasings such as this, so it's really your choice on whether or not to keep those.

Some of the double exclamation points seem to contradict the old-fashioned tones to the writing, so perhaps exclude those! They don't much matter in the long run, though, so don't worry to much about that.

Her realization of why they're talking without her feels a bit too sudden; maybe make the beginning longer and add hints of this throughout that part? Or just drag out this part a bit. Either works!

The ‘that’ll' bit seems like it'd flow better with ‘that’d' or ‘that would,’ as the story's in past tense.

Only three other grammar bits stuck out to me— ‘document’ in one of the last lines should be plural, and ‘that they done’ should be ‘that they had done’ (or, if you'd like to be more descriptive, perhaps some variation of ‘that they had bombarded her with over the years’?), and ‘harasements’ should be ‘harassments’.

And finally, the last part feels a tad unclear on what she exactly did— did she post them on social media, show them to the principal, or what? Maybe specify that!

Overall, great job :> I really enjoyed the writing style, and the story was such a fun read. Thanks for letting me critique it! I'm not sure my advice was the most helpful, as I don't tend to read or write in this style, but I hope I helped a bit <3

Word war
Cabin: mustery
Time: 3 min
Words: 178
Status: won

Why did I have to be like this. why did I have to be a monster? Why did I have to have had every curse in the book placed on me, on me and on nobody else. Perhaps i was made to be this pity party, the one absorbing all the misery in the world so that others were able to live a better life. I do not knownif this is how fate works, but it certainly seemed like it. Come to think of it, the others were not exactly flowering either, but what can i do? Perhaps if i wasn't such a monster they would have had more sufferings. I touched my wings, they were hot as fire, that meant that i was in anger. It was dangerous, my rage could drive me to hurt myself or others, and that would leave them hating me even more. I tried to build up my kindness, to built up my tolerance to the world and to make them at least, not afraid of me. Not that they tried to

Greetings, Pywife!

Unfortunately my speediness cannot be maintained for long, since I literally don’t have any free time between 9am and 9pm for Saturday and Sunday. Yay! Thank you for your eye-opening advice though, Elder Pywife of the six-member council.

For applications, in year 13 you apply to a specific course for each university you apply to. It’s a bit different here — you can’t really choose majors and minors separately, you get one course which you do for your entire degree (usually. Sometimes you can switch into other courses, but they’re usually really similarly related, like switching from maths to maths and stats). You also don’t really get to choose each class you do — in some years there are optional modules, where you choose a certain amount of credits from the offered classes, but they’re still related to whatever degree you’re studying for. If I’ve understood correctly (I probably haven’t), in the USA you do a bunch of different classes that don’t have to be specifically for your degree course? Something like that? I don’t know, it confuses me.

Hey, at least you went to Chinese school. My parents tried to teach me and my sibling and I think they ragequit after I was stuck on year 2 vocabulary for about 5 years (I think that’s the Chinese equivalent to second grade?). The rest of my family all live in China, so it gets a little hairy when I visit them and have no idea how to speak, lol.

Verb conjugation might be more of an Indo-European thing, although I’m pretty sure Arabic also has it, and I think they’re Afroasiatic, or whatever the term was again. I forgot. It’s also possible that Chinese is just an outlier, I wouldn’t be surprised.

Don’t worry, you didn’t need to clarify that the middle school you went to was for nerds. I could already tell by the fact you had to study Latin . Oh my god declensions. I think I’m too English-pilled, because dealing with any declensions just makes my brain fry. I think I ragequit German just because of the declensions and conjugations :joy: (I know technically English has declensions on pronouns? I think? But they don’t count okay, shhh). I look forward to the next bit of Latin grammar in your letter! Is grammar something you enjoy studying?

I wish I could reciprocate with some Chinese grammar, but I don’t really know any of the rules. It’s a bit like English — I know (most) of the rules, but because I’ve never studied it, I don’t know what any of it is called, I’m just used to it. Chinese was technically my first language, although that hasn’t done me much good seeing as I pretty much forgot it all.

I will definitely listen to your recommendations! Perhaps not now, because I have to go in a couple of minutes, but definitely soon. Okay now I’m back and continuing the letter

Those are probably some of my favourite songs from the albums too, haha. I think Videotape was in my top 10 songs of 2025, or something like that. And yes, I get what you mean by it being trippy! I kind of forgot the album starts with 15 Step, which is literally in 5/4 time. And it has a kind of dreamy sound throughout.

My favourite Radiohead albums are Hail to the Thief and A Moon Shaped Pool. Hail to the Thief is quite long though, and to be honest the flow of the album isn’t the best, but it’s still really amazing.

Ooh, fishing. I kind of hate it, so I’ll leave it to you, lol. I can do grinding for wood though! Maybe next week though — I’m not really sure how I’d fit Minecraft into my schedule for this weekend. Cries.

Woahhh I will hopefully check out some of those books! Fingers crossed my library has some of them. I will report back once I’ve read/started reading them.

RIP to your leisure time. You’ve got this, though. When do you get the summer break?

Don’t apologise about the interview questions! I enjoyed answering them, even if some of my answers were very vague. You were asking questions I hadn’t even considered before, lol.

Okay, Latin poetry??? That’s crazy. Not the fact that Latin has poetry, obviously, but the fact that you can understand poetry in Latin as well. I can’t even understand it in English, as you could probably tell from my advice on your English essay. English Literature unseen poetry comparison genuinely took years off my lifespan. Honestly, people who can analyse poetry are literally magicians to me (perhaps like the sigma magician fors pyrite wall…) and I hope one day I will be knowledgeable enough to actually understand and interpret poems. Do you have any tips, great sensei?

Woah, snowboarding sounds so fun! Is it difficult? Where do you like to snowboard? Also the Mahjong Soul grind is real, I need to actually play and get better. I think I also prefer playing games with other people — I have a lot of solo games which I also really enjoy, but if I had to choose between that or a game with my friends, I would almost always choose to play with my friends, on Minecraft/Roblox/REPO/Clocktower etc. I’m not sure if that’s because I prefer multiplayer or if I prefer to play with my friends — probably a mix of both.

I think straight relationships are just portrayed as so unpassionate and boring in media. Not a diss to actual straight people by the way, but oh my god almost every straight relationship I’ve read or watched does not even feel like a real relationship. It’s as if the writers/directors/whatever have never seen a real relationship before. And then anything else is literally golden in comparison.

I don’t know if you mean condiments as in just sauces, or a more broad definition of them. I do really, really, really like Polish pickled gherkins. I actually ate an entire 800g jar of them in one day once. Let’s not talk about that. In terms of sauces, I don’t use them often, but I quite like this burger sauce we got ages ago from the supermarket. That might also be because it contains pickled gherkins.

A perfect day? Hmm. I think it would be very relaxed — I’d do some art, practice piano, practice clarinet, read a bit, and play some video games. Maybe I’d actually pick up my guitar for once because I have been neglecting that for almost a year and I still do not know anything more than a couple of basic chords.

Just having hoodies and jeans is so real. My wardrobe is entirely made up of hoodies from various school shows and trips, and jeans. I really need to fix my fashion sense, although I think part of the reason why it is so dreadful is because I just wear school uniform every weekday, so I never really get the opportunity to make outfits for myself.

I don’t really know many Pokemon because I’m a terrible larper, but I have a Jigglypuff plushie, if that counts? So maybe Jigglypuff. Wait, but I don’t want to like Jigglypuff if that means I’ll like Denial… Yeah, I don’t really have a story because that’s pretty much the only Pokemon I know. Maybe you can recommend some ways to get into Pokemon more.

My room is not well decorated at all. I have a couple of posters that have been on my wall for ages — a massive map of the night sky from a National Geographic magazine, and some other posters available on the NASA websites that I printed out a while ago. Then there’s some postcards from various museums, and one of the (de facto) Welsh national anthem. And then above my bed is the a Radiohead poster from their recent Europe tour. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see them, but I still snagged a poster whilst I could, of course. Oh, I’ve also got the LEGO Milky Way set. I’m so happy I got that set, and I definitely don’t need any more LEGO perhaps ever now. Apart from the posters, I have a corkboard which is only half full at the moment but I am working on making it look nice and busy! And finally loads of the LEGO flower sets in various glass bottles and charity shop vases. As you can probably tell, I had a phase where I really loved LEGO. I’d like to decorate my room more and perhaps paint the walls a different colour, but I don’t think that’s happening any time soon.

I Do Not touch grass enough to answer this next question unfortunately. I guess I quite like forests. I usually don’t like how it’s really cold and gloomy inside of one, but in the summer it’s not bad. I like how it’s cooler inside of a forest, but there’s still some light through the branches. (I just want it to be cooler what do you mean 14 degrees higher than average help meeee) I also unironically read so much of LOTM whilst in the small forest areas behind my house. They’re probably too small to be classed as a forest but it gives off the same vibes. I would just sit down on a log but whenever I heard someone pass through I would get too embarrassed and get up and leave because the log is kind of close to the path and a little bit in the way.

Hmm, your last question is very interesting. I’ll probably send you an answer later, both because I need some time to think about it, and I also don’t want Scratch filterbot to flip at me.

Question time for you!

What’s an uncommon interest that you have?
Do you play any sports?
Do you sing or play any instruments?
What does your daily routine look like?
What is something that you’ve always wanted to do but have never got around to?
What was a random childhood dream of yours?
And talk about whatever you want here Something you’ve done recently, something that’s been on your mind, something you’ve been enjoying

Your husband and fellow member of the Church of the Evernight Goddess,

Hope

(1719 words)

My word war: 5 min, 187 words
“But I just wanted to hang out with the octopus!!!”
I could hear the four year old boy's protesting shrieks from far away, pulling a very small and distressed octopus out of his mother's hands.
“Where did you find that?” His mother asked.
“In the water. Bobby needs a friend!”
“You named the octopus? This is ridiculous?”
“Ridiculous? Look at how lonely he is!”
The mother patted the four year old's back. “It's all right. He can get a new octopus friend.”
The boy looked up at his mother in protest. Then he ngot mad.
“NOOOOOOOO” he yelled. “THIS OCTOPUS IS MINE!”
The mother is clearly frustrated now. “This octopus is not your pet. He is part of the ocean. He can't survive out of the water.” The mother said, trying to convince him with facts.
Then the octopus squirmed. “It's all right, really. Theo just wanted to be my friend. He can hang out with me.” it said.
The mother stared at Bobby the octopus in shock. “You can TALK?” she said incredulously.
“Yes, I can.” Bobby said.
“See?” Theo said. "The octopus is my friend!

Weekly 2 - Part 4: Reflection in a Journal

Dear Diary,

I'm so tired but in a very good way, mentally and physically! Okay so I basically did my weekly in 1 day, because I could, but it feels great! Today in the morning after my first session of violin practice, I went to tennis with my family, learnt a few things & practiced them. My serve very surprisingly was really good, I hit them all in the middle of the racquet and it was so satisfying and felt so strong, which is like once in a lifetime (yeah serves are not my strong thing).

After tennis I had lunch (which was so good I begged Mum for cheese and she actually gave it to me). And then I practiced more violin (2 sessions whew), I think that counts for part 3 and of course no screens with Mum watching. We went to the beach after!!!!!!!!!!! With our dog Chewie, we walked along the beach and found some interesting history carved about a boat. Of course for safety reasons I can't talk about it specifically but it was super interesting. Chewie was so tired after and for a four month old puppy he should be haha, and he's right now eating the piece of honeydew melon we gave him.

Overall today was very productive & fun! I'm really grateful SWC has dedicated a weekly to calming down (even though cabin wars are literally happening in the same week) and doing something good for ourselves. <33

♡ A bit of gratitude journaling now ♡

I'm grateful that my family is into & introduced me to tennis, it's such a good sport and safe for my fingers (typical violinist being too careful).
I'm grateful that we live near enough to the beach to go for walks. It's so beautiful and there's nothing like the feeling the sand under my feet.
I'm grateful that my parents pushed me into violin and I practiced, it's such a nice thing to hopefully get a future in.
I'm grateful that Wimbledon is on!!! COME ON ZVEREV YOU'VE GOT THIS AND YOU TOO MUCHOVAAA oh and Sinner to I'd like him to win…
I'm grateful school is starting soon - okay just realised how weird that sounds, but hey school is interesting & fun for me!!!

*Finishing this the next morning*

Ahh no Muchova lost! Come on Zverev, it's on you now!! <3

Today is going to be a bit of a day, with cabin wars going on XD but you've gotta love the SWC spirit!!! Annnnd tomorrow is school! Yay!!!!

Last night by the way I finally got the best sleep ever which was probably thanks to all that exercise, time to go again todayy!

I've got a list of things I'm going to try to do:
- Finish this, for one thing
- Draw a PFP
- write a letter to my penpal
- And just try to spend as much time I can on SWC!!!

#gothicforthewin <3

writing dare proof
words: 673

The chili was sitting unattended on the table, steaming hot and even more spicy. It had been sitting there for at least an hour, but the steam hadn’t finished cascading from the red bean paste. This particular chili contained lots of hidden veggies and cream, and it was made with the finest of beans.
The person who made it had crafted it with care and two special, secret ingredients. First, love. The cliche secret ingredient had deepened the red colour and burning fire of the chili, keeping it warm and delicious. Secondly, magic. This is what really kept it warm on the table, with an endless supply of steam and spice.
She had been training in chili magic for a long time, and only now had she mastered the recipe. Finally she had made the perfect chili. Anyone who tried it would love it, even if it wasn’t charmed to make it so. She was so proud of herself and wanted to invite someone in to try it, so she had unlocked her door and left the chili unattended in the window. A makeshift Goldilocks situation to get an unknowing taste tester.
She sat in her tree, watching the chili with great attention and waiting for someone to approach her conveniently unlocked door. She had been waiting as long as the chili had been sitting. She loosened her control on the coursing magic to allow the chili to cool down. That way, it wouldn’t burn the mouth of her taste tester.
Finally, someone approached the door. Cautiously, at first, came the young prince, but his strides grew bolder as he approached the house and knocked on the door. When no one replied, he glanced around as though looking for the owner. Shrouded in magic shadows, the witch was safe from detection. Her magic had attracted the perfect victim, the prince of the nearby kingdom. He had often been meddling with her monsters and needlessly saving the village as a false hero. He deserved to be taught a lesson.
Seeing no one, he swallowed hard and took the letter he seemingly had to deliver in his hand. He pushed open the door and seemed surprised when it opened easily. He stepped inside and the witch closed her eyes to magically see what was going on within her house.
She watched the prince enter the sitting room, calling for the owner to come and receive the letter. When no one came once again, he gave up and left it on the table. That’s when his gaze caught on the chili and the witch tightened her magical pull.
He wasn’t strong enough to resist, instead taking a seat in the wooden chair next to her endless trinkets, cauldrons and woodland decor. He picked up the carved wooden spoon from its place beside the bowl, and began to eat.
Spoonful after spoonful poured into his mouth in a frenzy and he was barely allowed a moment to breathe. The chili, though it had begun to cool, burned his mouth but he did not seem to care. He shoveled more and more into his mouth, his fingers beginning to blue.
Finally, he scraped together the last mouthful and placed it in his mouth. That’s when the magic wore off and he recoiled back in horror. It was too late.
His face began to blue as he clawed at his throat, helpless. Unable to contain her glee, the witch smiled to herself and opened her eyes to begin watching him through the window. His eyes were wide as he tried to scream but found that he couldn’t open his mouth.
Just as he was about to collapse, the witch released her disguise magic and allowed him to meet her gaze from within the house. What fun is killing if your victims won’t have a story to tell in hell? His eyes filled with knowledge and quiet acceptance as they closed and he fell to meet his destiny.
No more princes to save the village. Now only monsters will reign.

Word War 3
vs @coder63892

“Oh come on, I just wanted to hang out with the octopus!” Maya sighed as her mum pulled her across to a corner.
“Maya, I told you, never ever touch a sea animal. They are disgusting and filthy, and i also don't know why you would ‘hand out’ with one.” Her mum scolded her.
“Because he's cool, and trust me Mum, he can speak. Okay fine with that look you probably think I'm going crazy, but believe it or not, it's true.” Maya replied defiantly.
“Oh please May, everyone will think you're crazy and you're just embarrassing yourself, stop this nonsense before I send you to a doctor.” Her mum half joked, half seriously said.

After a lot of begging and a whole persuasive presentation, Maya managed to convince her mother to take her to the place she has always wanted to go, since she was five, the aquarium. In their town, it was famous for tourists to come to see this place. It was filled with the most bizzare or beautiful sea creatures, and sometimes, they would put on a mermaid show, where people would dress up very realistically and pretend to be mermaids. They also had to hold their breath for a long time.

“Well at least I got to talk to him, he was so interesting,” Maya grumbled. “Oh look! It's a starfish aquarium!”
Maya dagged her mum over and snatched her camera to take pictures.
"I think you're crazy beca —

Chapter Four: Critter Conglomerate - July 11th, 2026 - 725 words

This afternoon, my parents came home from work quite early to inform us of “dinner plans”they had made. This would be completely fine if the dinner plans were not made with a two hour advance, at a restaurant 30 minutes into town, with five of their “coworkers”. My father said I could borrow one of his button downs, so I grabbed a navy blue one from his closet and pulled it on over a black t-shirt. My hair is in that awkward stage where it’s not short, but just long enough to be nearly impossible to style. I ran a brush through it before scrunching in some gel, and left it at that. By the time I left my room it was nearly 5:00. My little brother threw on a coffee colored sweatshirt with a collar underneath, and his short-ish hair spiked up a little at the front. It always amazes me how well he can clean up. By the time we arrived everyone else was already there, so we quietly took our seats. The thing about company dinners is there’s always at least twelve people there, talking about boring things, while eating overpriced food, and I just have to sit there and nod along like I actually care about the conversation. I’m also at that age where people assume I have a valid input on things. One time, some guy who had to be at least 60 asked me what the GDP of Ecuador was, since I accidentally mentioned a school project I did on them. An upside of these dinners of course, is that I’ve learned quite well how to avoid answering questions. Usually I’ll pretend to speak to my brother, before excusing myself to the bathroom. Works like a charm.

I could tell that no one at our table actually wanted to be there. Some lady named Karen kept checking her phone like she was waiting for God himself to call her and bail her out of here. Another man who I sorta recognized kept looking for a waiter, but when one would come over he’d just smile and tell them that we were “fine”. We most definitely were not fine. By the time we finally left the restaurant, my mother gave me an earful about “ignoring Mr. Olsen’s questions”. I guess Mr. Olsen was the guy who asked me about Ecuador, but to be fair, I don’t think I answered anyone’s question that whole dinner, so it could’ve also been anybody else. I attempted to make the excuse that I had no idea the Gross Domestic Product of Ecuador, and informing him of that would make a fool out of us all. She didn’t seem to care. I tuned her argument out about halfway through and just stared out the window. One of my favorite times of day is dusk, when the sky is still a dark shade of blue, yet the city lights can still be seen from afar. I don’t know why I’m mentioning this. It wasn’t even dusk out. Actually, it was nearly 7:00pm, and pitch black outside. Maybe I just wanted it to be dusk. Sometimes I don’t even know what I want.

When we got home, my little brother and I were told to go to bed early tonight. Apparently tomorrow’s my parents’ day off, so they decided to take us to the movies. Obviously I’m not one to complain about the only chain in America that still has semi-reasonable pricing for a semi-reasonable experience, though the idea of going to a movie theater at 10:00am made me want to drink rat poison. I am in fact, not a morning person. I am also not an afternoon person, nor an evening person. Now that I think about it, I am not a night person as well. The only plausible explanation to this is that obviously, I am simply not a person. It makes sense.

By the time I was laying in bed, it was around 10:30. My room was weirdly silent. There was no hum from the AC, or cars rushing by the window. I couldn’t hear the TV from my parents room, or my little brother’s white noise machine through the walls. I believe this is what most people would describe as “peaceful”. I, of course, am not a person.