ੈ✩‧₊˚ Literature Spinner ⋆.ೃ࿔

innocent - a pure, virtuous character, often one who lives in a morally corrupt world but is able to remain untouched by immorality
romance - a genre with stories focusing on romantic relationships
comfort place - somewhere the characters knew well and love, where they feel safe and at ease
foil - a character whose traits directly contrast with and emphasize another's

It was seven o’clock in the morning when my mother called me to wake up. Summer had just begun, and we had decided to take a trip to the beach house with my mom’s best friend. “Great.” I thought. I wasn’t annoyed or anything, it was just that we hadn’t seen Carol and her family in quite a while.

My mother and father got divorced almost five years ago now. I was so little back then- woah. My birthday is actually tomorrow, July 13th. I will be turning 17 years old. High school has been okay, I never really had any great friends in my life. Mom barely let me do anything and I felt like I was forced to live under a rock. When I was younger, we used to visit the beach house every summer. Those were the best of times.

Carol and Mike only have one child, Elias. He was one year older than me. We used to hang out a lot as children, although he was never really fond of me because I was a quirky child. When I look back, I think Elias was the only real good friend I ever had- and yet he didn’t even really like me. I wondered how he was now. We stopped talking after his family moved away just the year after my parents got divorced. It’s funny, our moms bestied so hard that their kids were born just the day after each other one year apart. Yeah, Elias was turning 18 after tomorrow. So I guess you could say we were gathering together once again to celebrate our birthdays.

And so my mom and I left just before noon. The car ride is not too long. I’d always thought of it as a decent road-trip length– 3 hours. Mom was so excited. I mean I would be too if I had a best friend like Carol and haven’t seen her in more than four years. It’s a strange thing, how sociable my mother is– unlike me.

We arrived at the beach house around three o’clock. As we pulled up to the driveway, I looked at the house, memories pouring back into my heart and mind. I loved this place. I really did. It was where I grew up, and I knew I could always find comfort here.

I noticed a car already parked in the garage and I knew Carol, Mike, and Elias had already arrived. Mom and I unloaded our things and went inside.

As I walked in, I closed my eyes for a second, taking in the familiar smell of the house and its warming air. I heard loud talking and stepped forwards just to see my mother and Carol hugging each other and screaming like little girls. “Eloise!!! Oh my gosh you have grown so much. Come here!” I walked over to Carol and gave her a big hug. “I missed you Carol.” I said. My mom looked at the both of us and joined in for a quick group hug.

“Okay ladies, leave some greetings for the gentlemen as well.” It was Mike. I was so excited, we were finally all back together. Mike came over and gave my mother and I quick hugs and then the parents started talking like they haven’t seen each other for years– well, they haven’t.

That’s when I spotted Elias walking towards me. I totally forgot about him for a moment. He looked so much older now. He was tall, and his wavy light brown hair was tousled in a messy way. But his face was pretty much the same. Those hazel eyes and that smirkish grin. I felt like I knew him so well. I wanted to give him a hug, but that would be very awkward and weird. Did he even like me?

“Hi Maeve.” I was still looking at him. “Elias, hi! How have you been?” I asked. We started talking and catching up on things. I soon realized that he was pretty much the same. An outgoing kid who was popular and had lots of friends in school– the cool kid.

And so the vacation had finally begun. Throughout this time, Elias and I would hang out. He would constantly make fun of me and tease me because I guess I’m just a whimsical girl. But I didn’t mind it. I was just so grateful I had someone to talk to– even if he didn’t really care or listen. Is that so bad? Although I do feel like our friendship had grown and we got closer.

One day I was reading by the pool. I loved to put my feet in the water and soak in the sun. It was great– tanning and reading. All of a sudden, Elias comes running out of the house and jumps into the pool. Yes, it was a real big splash and I was basically soaked. “Are you an idiot?!? Why would you do that? I’m literally reading.” I yelled at him. He started laughing and swam over to me.

He stopped right in front of me and said, “Sorry Maeve, but you should know I always jump in the pool.” He was right. He always did. I sighed and he started laughing again. Before I could pick my book up again, Elias grabbed my hands and pulled me into the pool.

I was very shocked and annoyed. When I came up from the water I splashed his face– a lot. He found this very amusing and grabbed my waist to stop me. We spent the next few moments staring into each other’s eyes. Elias was beautiful, that I knew.

And this very moment was when I realized that our relationship was going to be so much more.


✏ 7.15.2026 ~ Daily #15 ⛧ ~ 960 words ౨ৎ
⛱ ʙᴀᴄᴋ ᴛᴏ ꜱᴀꜰꜰʀᴏɴ'ꜱ ɴᴏᴛᴇʙᴏᴏᴋ ⋆˚࿔

weekly 2 (1709 words)

part 1: I had an everything shower and put on moisturizer and skincare after for at least half an hour <3

part 2: I went for a walk for an hour and half (I lowkey got lost and my mom had to come get me)

part 3: I made a charm necklace for my bestie for her birthday and it took around one hour (no picture because I already gave it to her )

part 4 (503 words):
Dear diary,
Today I got home from my best friend’s sleepover birthday party. It was so fun to hang out with her and a few other friends! We got to go swimming in her pool, listen to music, eat pizza, look around the bookstore, get Starbucks and chat late at night. It was so fun to do cheer stunts in the pool and fly for the first time in a while as we taught our friend how to base. I really missed flying. For her birthday, I got her some beads, one set of her favourite animal and another set of her favourite colour, along with some candy and a handmade charm necklace. The charms referenced her favourite musical artists, our inside jokes, her interests and more, so I was super proud of it and I hope she likes it. I made the charms out of clay.
A group of friends that I’ve been hanging out with this summer planned to hang out two days ago, but I had work. Then, they changed the plan to last night, but I still had plans! Now they want to hang out on Friday or Saturday, but I once again have a commitment. It’s honestly funny how I keep missing them.
This afternoon was mainly spent doing redundant, boring work trainings. Still, the trainings are important and I’m glad I got them all done on time. Now I can focus on other things and spend some more time with friends or outside. I learned that there is Epic: The Musical merch at a store near me so I will convince one of my friends to come with me so I can buy a new shirt. I am also looking forward to buying more CDs for my new CD player! So far, I have I’ll Like You by ILLIT, Ditto and OMG by NewJeans, the Mamma Mia soundtrack and the Wicked: For Good soundtrack. I love being able to listen to music in my room while I clean or work on other things without needing my computer with me.
Recently I went on a long walk. I love going on walks, whether alone or with friends, and getting some fresh air and activity. I especially like walking in places with pretty nature where I can appreciate the plants and God’s creation. Unfortunately, I walked a bit too far from home and had to get my mom to pick me up so I could make it to work on time. I think the group of friends I keep missing when we try to hang out is planning a walk together soon, so I hope I am free for that.
Overall, the past few days have been great. I’ve crafted birthday gifts, suffered through boring work training, gone for walks, hung out with friends, gone swimming and to birthday parties and listened to music. I hope I can get more writing done in the future and hang out with a friend who has been away so far this summer.

part 5 (1206 words):

So far this year, a lot has happened. I’m going to start by talking about cheer and tumbling, because it was the first thing that came to my mind where I can see clear growth. Throughout the winter and spring I have been taking tumbling lessons. Way back in January, I was preparing for my first competition of the season in mid to late February. I was working on my aerial, punch front and roundoff tuck. I had my aerial (a cartwheel with no hands) down consistently, but my punch front (front flip) was very inconsistent. I could land it sometimes, but ⅘ turns ended with me either overrotating to my feet then stomach or knees or underrotating and landing in a seated position. My roundoff tuck was in a whole different category. I had a mental block on the skill, meaning my brain wouldn’t let my body through it even though I had had the skill for years. I could only do it with a spot from my coach which was not an option at competition. I couldn’t even do it on my own into a pit of soft mats. This was very frustrating for me. As the competition drew closer, I hadn’t gotten any more consistent on my punch front and my roundoff tuck was still far in the distance. My coach made the decision a few days before competition to pull my punch front from the routine. At the time, that really discouraged me and I was frustrated with their decision, but eventually I was grateful for them preventing injury and deductions I could have incurred if I had tried to throw it at competition and had fallen. Not only was my tumbling struggling, but my stunting too. I had never done anything other than flying until this year, and now I was put into backspotting. I wanted to base instead and devoted an annoying amount of time to asking if I could switch. It felt unfair that others who were taller than me were allowed to base while I was forced to backspot their stunts. It is very hard to reach the top of a stunt when the bases are taller than you. Finally, around two days before competition, my coach let me base. Main base. Which I had never done before, as before whenever I based I would side base. Now, I had the majority of the weight of my flyer to lift above my head. It was harder than any other position I had tried. That first competition of 2026 was the worst competition I have ever endured mentally. Backstage, waiting to go on and perform, on day one, I began to cry. I didn’t think I would be able to hit all my stunts and land all my tumbling. I didn’t think I could do it, and I voiced as much by telling my base partner. She tried to talk some sense into me before we went on, making me repeat affirmations and trying to calm me down. After my routine, when I struck my ending pose, I began to cry again immediately on the mat. This time not from stress, but relief. I had hit my routine. I didn’t believe I could, but I did. I proved to myself that I could do difficult things despite the strain and stress. I didn’t have as good a performance in terms of facial expressions as usual since I devoted every ounce of my strength to hitting my routine, but I had done it nonetheless. I was absolutely drained, almost unable to stand up. It was the most tired I have ever been after a routine. I hadn’t even bent my knees much during my motions because I was too tired. On day two, I was much less stressed. I still hit my routine and even improved those aspects of my performance, but I was still less tired afterwards. This taught me how much energy stressing takes up. For my most recent competition, I had much more time to prepare my tumbling in between competitions and now that I had a consistent aerial I devoted all of my tumbling lessons to drilling as many roundoff tucks as I could. Eventually, I got it on my own. I didn’t stop repping. Over and over and over. Upside down and rightside up. Upside down and rightside up. I was also switched to a new group as a main base, and their stunt was an easier version. Going into my second competition was the most sound I have ever been mentally. During our routines, I was able to stay in the moment and make adjustments while giving it my all. Most importantly, I landed all the tumbling I had been so stressed for, including my roundoff tuck. I had never competed a tuck in my life, and it was a goal of mine ever since I started cheer. I was over the moon to have landed two, one on each day, and my tumbling coach was happy too. The juxtaposition between the two competitions taught me the importance of taking care of mental health, working at your own pace and how stressing less through conscious choices can create a happier and healthier experience overall.
Now, onto a more general overview. I will give my highs and lows from each month. For January, my high was having a lot of time off from school for Christmas break and exams. My low was having to deal with the stress of my semester-ending projects and exams. In February, my high was competing two good routines at my cheer competition. My low was that I was really stressed about my tumbling and stunting for that competition and ended up having a mentally taxing time. In March, my high was that I got to participate as a leader for the first time in my favourite SWC session to date. I also placed in the writing competition and had amazing cos and campers. My low was that I was struggling throughout Lent to stick to my commitments and truly honour the spirit of the season. In April, my high was celebrating the Easter Triduum and all related events. A secondary high was finally letting my friend convince me to watch/listen to Epic: The Musical. My life is forever changed. My low was feeling overwhelmed with school work and extracurriculars. In May, my high was competing my back tuck for the first and second times, as well as my whole second cheer competition. My low was once again being inundated with school work, as well as feeling stressed about my church’s youth group. In June, my high was doing well on all my exams as well as starting a new opportunity and just general happiness due to it being summer. My low was having tons of school work, both projects and exams, to focus on during the end of the school year.
Overall, I am proud of myself for overcoming lots of difficulties this year so far. These include stress, being overwhelmed, feeling rushed, feeling lacking, feeling anxious and more. My year is on an upward trajectory and I can’t wait to see what the next half of it brings.

Literature Spinner || Daily 15 || 790 words

Max could feel the cold spray on his face, staring at the churning sea below him. When he licked his lips he tasted salt, and the constant, heaving motion of the ship was making him feel ill. He didn’t go below to his cabin, though.
“You’ve had it rough, huh?”
He didn’t turn to see who was speaking, or reply. There were a lot of things he hated about this ship, but the person currently bothering him topped the list.
He heard the faint sounds of footsteps, and a moment later she was leaning on the railing, just far enough away he didn’t have a polite excuse to scoot away. He did anyway.
It didn’t do him any good, because she followed him. “Come on, I know you have a story. You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t.”
Did the woman never give up? He didn’t want to talk about it, but she wasn’t getting the message. Nor had she for the past two weeks.
Max was seriously considering hauling himself over the railing and taking his chances with the sea rather than listen to her constant, needle-like questions.
“Just one sentence,” she coaxed. “I know you’ve got something in you. You wouldn’t have that broody frown on your face all the time if you didn’t. And your taciturn silences? Your refusal to engage with anyone on the ship?” She paused, and added, “The scars? And they don’t look very old to me. Something’s happened to you.”
If she could tell something terrible had happened, then why on the Spiral couldn’t she realize he never wanted to think about it again, much less talk about it? Instead of answering, he pushed off the railing, intending to head below.
“Please?” she asked, still wheedling.
Max turned to meet her strange eyes. They looked as though they were supposed to be brown, but the color wasn’t quite right somehow. And right now, they flashed bloody red as they caught the last rays of the sunset.
He considered the best response.
“No,” he said finally. And went down below.

She said her name was Valerie. She said, in her own words, that she was “just here to see what happens.”
She also talked constantly. To the other passengers, to the crew, to the captain. But most of all, she seemed to have a strange and unshakeable interest in him.
Max, on his part, had no desire whatsoever to engage. He just wanted her to leave him alone, the one thing she refused to do.
Right now she was perched on a crate, red coat casually left open. He’d never seen her without it, even on sunny days. Which it wasn’t, today. The weather was miserable and drizzly.
Valerie swung her feet like an excited child. “Today’s the day! I can feel it.”
He didn’t bother responding, watching the sea instead. His seasickness was beginning to fade, but he still found it unsettling. Not just the motion, but the vastness. The knowledge of how far from home he was… or what had been home.
“Yes, you’re definitely going to say more than two words at a time today,” Valerie continued, leaning forward. “I can’t wait! Big things are changing, you know.”
He ignored her.
She propped her chin on her hand, watching him pensively. “Everyone opens up eventually, and you’re no exception. Even though I don’t even know your name,”
Then why, in the name of all the Discs, was she bothering him? What was it about him that she found so intriguing, and why was she still trying to wiggle her so-called “story” out of him, despite repeated failures?
She continued prattling for several minutes, until he finally gave up and stepped away from the railing, preparing to escape down below.
She wilted a little as he passed her, and for the first time he felt a little bad. Not very much, because she was incredibly annoying. But a little bit. Despite her cheery nature and apparent willingness to make friends, no one on the ship had responded to her advances much better than she had. No one was here to fool around and tell tales to each other.
He paused near her crate, looking straight ahead.
“Max,” he said, and kept walking.
“Huh?” she called after him.
Slowly, grudgingly, he dragged the extra words up and out of his mouth. “My name is Max.”
Behind her, he could hear her triumphant exclamation.
“I knew today was the day!”
He rolled his eyes towards the gray sky, wishing he were anywhere else. And it was a good thing she could only see his back, because he absolutely wouldn’t have wanted her to see the tiny smile tugging at his lips.
He went below.

15.07.26 ★ elements of literature
visionary | myth | surrounded by friends/allies | plot twist
602/600 words

it first started in her mythology class. rosie had slumped onto her desk, head resting on her arms, while she pitifully studied the clock tick tick ticking from where it sat on the wall ahead of her. seconds had never felt so slow… were they supposed to pause that much in between?

rosie had yawned, on the verge of falling asleep, when her eyes went fuzzy. she went to rub them, and when her vision was clear again, the hands on the clock had moved a full half an hour. what?

rosie started to jump back in her seat quickly, but then found she could not move. in fact, she wasn’t even sitting in her seat anymore. it was like she was watching her classroom from above, as if she were in the position of the clock. oh, yes - there she was - the other-rosie, still hunched over in her chair, dark brown curls falling over her face in a mess.

she tried rubbing her eyes again, but nothing changed. and then, as if it were in slow motion, rosie heard the bell ring, startling the guy sat next to other-rosie. rosie tried not to shudder as she watched the boy’s drink fall out of his hand and tip over other-rosie’s hair.

and then, as soon as it had happened, things were back to normal again, and rosie was back in her seat, staring down the clock on the wall.

the funny thing was that, eternities later, when the bell began to ring, the guy sitting next to rosie actually did end up spilling his ice cold water down rosie’s neck. rosie shuddered once more.

after that, these occurrences started happening a lot more often - and always when rosie was in a classroom, watching a clock. rosie had tried everything - going to sleep earlier so she wouldn’t be so tired at school, making more effort to pay attention in class, but no matter what it was, rosie’s drowsy eyes always managed to stray back to watch the excruciatingly slow tick tick ticking of the clock.

after a week had passed, rosie started to get seriously concerned. she confided in her best friend, nora, who - and quite rightfully - didn’t fully believe her until they were sat next to each other in math class and rosie told nora the answer to a question that would show up for them in 10 minute’s time.

“so what are we going to do?” hissed rosie one day, as they took their seats at the back of the lunch hall. she glanced around furtively. “it’s not like i have anyone to ask to see if they know what’s going on.”

“it could be that oracle thing we were learning about in mythology maybe,” offered nora, “although you were asleep during the class.” that sounded about right. “tell me more,” urged rosie. and so she did.

after nora had finished, rosie’s brows had knitted in confusion. “and… and you’re sure that the thing that’s happening to me is this?”

“yes,” nodded nora. “absolutely sure.”

“how come?” the question had already blurted out of rosa’s mouth before she had realised the entire cafeteria was looking at the two of them.

“because,” explained nora, “i can see the future too. and so can her, and him and them, and that person over there too, and there, and there, and…” rosie watched, speechless, as nora pointed to every single person in the hall.

“visionaries, that’s what we are,” nora continues. “that’s what this school is dedicated to. and this is just the start of your initiation process.”

Daily
Leader - Fantasy - Place of study - In Media Res
695 words

The door slammed open, causing the boy behind the desk to jump. Chasm stood for a second, surveying the room while his dark cape flew out behind him in the cold wind. The boy recoiled slightly and looked down, avoiding Chasm’s eyes. Chasm walked past him without saying a word, tracking mud into the well-kept room. Chasm’s band followed behind him hesitantly.
Lekon stepped smoothly behind the desk and knocked out the boy with a swift blow to the head before rejoining Chasm. Oituith stayed behind to guard the door. Citrust, Peppermint, and Stone, followed Chasm behind the desk, down a flight of stairs, and into a room filled with shelf after shelf of records.
“Alright, it’s been long enough.,” Lekon said, grabbing Chasm’s arm to stop him from continuing on in his search. “Now tell us what happened. What are we doing here?”
Chasm sighed and turned to the rest of the group, arms crossed. “…Erscroser found a file. It mentioned something about a compound that could acidify… anything.”
“Erscroser? Isn’t she… dead?” Citrust asked, shocked.
Chasm dragged a hand across his face. “It’s complicated.”
“What do you mean, ‘It’s complicated’ ? We watched her die, Chasm.” Said Peppermint, advancing on Chasm. “When were you talking with her?”
Chasm didn’t respond for a long moment, in which Peppermint glared at him, before reluctantly answering. “Do you remember when we got separated in the tower?”
Chasm waited for Peppermint to nod before continuing. “I found a journal. Erscroser’s diary. That’s where I found out.”
“…But why was one of Erscroser’s journals in the tower?” Peppermint asked, skeptical.
“I don’t know. All I know is that it was hers.”
“Wait- let’s not forget the most important thing here.” Stone said, speaking for the first time. “A compound that acidifies things? What does that even mean?”
“It means,” Chasm started, “that if we can find this compound, we can finally have a weapon against Knoth.”
The group was silent, until Lekon spoke up.
“Okay, but none of this explains why you didn’t tell us immediately. What are you hiding?” Lekon looked Chasm in the eyes until Chasm finally looked away.
“…Erscroser also mentioned that,” Chasm took a deep breath. “That the side effect of my powers will take place twelve months after I got them.”
No one spoke. Twelve months… That left barely one and a half left.
Chasm turned, stalking down the aisles. “We need to find the compound. It should be somewhere in this room.”
When no one moved, Chasm started yelling. “I said, we need to find the compound! Find it! Now!”
They jumped into action, searching, going through file after file. None of them were sure how much time had passed, but they had searched most of the aisles and they still hadn’t found it.
Chasm was growing more desperate. He tore through file after file, frantically searching.
At first, he didn’t hear Oituith’s shout of alarm. He heard it the second time though.
“They’ve found us! Retreat! Retreat!”
Oituith ran down the steps, keeping his arrow trained on the door and calling out to his teammates. “Guys, we need to run!”
Lekon, Citrust, and Peppermint quickly joined Oituith, while Stone started to carve out an escape in the wall.
Chasm kept searching. He had to find it. Had to find it.
The sounds of fighting started to grow louder as the enemy stormed into the room, clashing with three guarding the door.
A couple more files to search. He had to find it.
“I’ve got the path!” Stone shouted, “Come on!”
Oituith, Citrust, and Peppermint shot a few more arrows at the assailants before racing down the path Stone had created.
Lekon was about to follow them, but he stopped when he noticed Chasm wasn’t coming.
“Chasm!” He hissed, “Chasm, we have to go!”
“I have to find it.” Chasm responded. “I have to find it!”
“Chasm, they’re coming! They’re going to capture you!”
Chasm didn’t bother replying this time. He stared at the file in his hands. He had found it. An arrow whizzed past his head and he was snapped to reality. Quickly, he joined Lekon, and they made their escape.

Daily July 15th
Words: 752

“You’re seriously still studying?” Cameron asked.
“You don’t get it! I have to do all these readings for university.” Julia said.
The twins who used to be so alike were now polar opposites as Cameron launched his social media career and Julia suffered through med school. Their parents, though they always pretended to support both of their children equally, had supported Julia throughout her education while hardly giving Cameron a second thought.
“Right. It’s always about university.”
“Yes, it is. Get out of my room!”
“Whatever.”
Cameron dipped his head out of her room, not even bothering to close the door, and bounded down the hallway. He heard her yell after him about leaving the door as he found it, but he didn’t turn around. After making a beeline for the kitchen, he got out his favourite chips that he had bought the day before and labelled with his name. Of course, it seemed Julia had helped herself to a generous portion. Rolling his eyes, he took the whole bag with him to the couch and put on a random show from Netflix.
“Cameron!” his mother shouted, entering the kitchen with a convenient open concept giving her a clear view of her son. “Julia wants to go to the library, get up and drive her. It’s good for you to go out.”
Cameron was about to argue, but stopped himself. It was no use when his mother had made up her mind. Instead, he grinned and said, “Why? Is she going cross-eyed from all the books and can’t drive anymore?”
“Enough of your silly jokes. Go.”
“Fine, fine. I’ll go somewhere where I’m appreciated.”
He got into the car with Julia and drove to the library.
“Have fun in your book haven,” Cameron said, starting the car again.
“You’re not coming in? Mom told me you have to.”
Cameron rolled his eyes. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. He hadn’t been to the library in ages. Maybe he could look at a book or two. Nothing close to Julia’s level. He still had to drive them home.
“Alright, then. Let’s go.”
He found a better parking spot and got out. The library loomed on the horizon, the midday sun beating down on them as they took refuge in the overly strong air conditioning. Inside, shelves and shelves of books were only broken up by desks full of overwhelmed university students.
“You’ve found your home! Everyone’s a nerd like you. I’ll just leave you here later,” Cameron whispered.
“It’s finals season. They’re all studying for exams.”
“Whatever.”
With that, Julia found a seat and Cameron began roaming around. He wandered up and down each aisle, scanning the shelves for something of interest to him. Through fiction and nonfiction, he didn’t find anything he particularly felt like picking up. He wandered through mysteries and fantasies and biographies and magazines, but nothing screamed his name. Until he found the reference books section. He found a whole collection of books on content creation. Books that explained techniques he had already studied and new ones altogether. He had struck upon a goldmine! He gathered a few of his favourites into his arms. Now that a little over an hour had passed, he was ready to bring his new books home. All he had to do was make sure Julia was ready to go.
“Julia,” he said, sitting down at her table. “Look, I found some books! I’m going to borrow them. Are you ready to go?”
“Yes, I just finished my practice test for my exam tomorrow. Let’s go!”
“Perfect.”
You may think, dear reader, that everything went smoothly from here. However, you have forgotten one thing. Cameron had not been to a library in ages. He was not aware of how they work. He walked straight out of the door with the books under his arms without checking out.
The library’s security alarm began to sound, blaring all around and disturbing the entire library of sleep-deprived university students studying for their exams.
“Cameron! You didn’t check out your books!” Julia hissed at him.
“What? Check out? I thought you just borrowed them!”
Julia dragged him back through the door and to the librarian’s desk, embarrassed and seething. All eyes in the library were on them as she checked his books out on her card, since Cameron did not have one (of course). All things sorted out, Cameron finally drove home with his new books. But he would not risk going back to the library anytime soon.

❥・15
Wordcount・747/600
Topic・Literature spinner
Points・700 (+150 for proof)
Cabin・Bi-fi

tw: death

I never thought I'd love someone else after what had happened with my past relationship. I never even thought I'd be able to make connections with others following that. This time, though, I knew that things would eventually work out for me and my sweet… Heather. She's beautiful, kind, funny, polite, goofy, clumsy, sweet… I could go on forever. But my heart was too scared—too scarred—to ever say anything to her about it. After what happened with Dana. I'd loved her so much, if only I could have helped her sooner. I had to forget it. I couldn't let my past love set my future one in stone. Soon the school sports festival was coming up, and luckily our classes were paired together as a team for most of the events. I pulled up the schedule on my phone to see what the pairs and small group compilations were. I almost audibly gasped and dropped my phone in the trash bin adjacent to my room's desk that I was sitting comfortably at once having finishing my homework for that night. Me and Heather were together for nearly everything: the three legged race, the relay race, rock climbing, and a few more. We'd spoken on occasion, since our classes worked with each other a lot. Sometimes we even studied together for fun. Smiling, I started counting down the days on my calender until the sports festival.
After about a week and a half, the day had finally come. Today was my chance to befriend Heather. I know it seems like I'm being quite strange and possibly slightly creepy with how I'm speaking about this girl, but if only you'd be able to meet her. You would understand me. I practically leaped out of bed, dressed in my prettiest (but functional) clothing, ate my morning toast, brushed my hair and teeth, and whisked away out the door to the bus stop. My family didn't bother to sign me up for the school bus program, so I had to take the local public transit. Luckily I was able to get a three times daily free card from school, but it was still a bit annoying to have to wait for the bus to arrive. I was a bit restless with excitement today. Luckily I brought my book with me in my bag, for time between events. This brought to help with boredom for more than just that, apparently. I grinned at the sweet relationship between the main character, Hazel, and her girlfriend, Fiona. I was getting to the climax in the book, where Fiona fell quite sad after a close family member had passed away. Little did I know that continuing to read this book would ruin my entire day of happiness with Heather. As I continued, Fiona's self esteem and previous positivity seemed to slowly wear away from her. She became distant, quiet, and overall quite sad. She reminded me of.. Dana. After what happened with Lucy. Lucy was Dana's closest friend, and Lucy had fallen extremely sick. A terribly aggresive cancer, Dana had told me. Lucy eventually passed, and I tried the hardest I could to support her. Until one day, she just couldn't. I came over to her house that night. I fell slightly worried when the she wouldn't come to the door. Then I heard… It. I'd shrieked in the shock and despair of what she'd done. And that's when I told myself I would never love anyone again. I was worse than Dana herself had been for weeks, months even. I pushed through though. I remembered what happened. The sound, the look, what had happened, her face, her eyes, her voice, her hair. Her. I remembered her. And with that, I couldn't take the pain of what I was being reminded of. Breathing heavily, eyes wide, I keeled over. I could tell that I was having a relapse. Of the spurts I used to have when it originally occurred. This time it was worse. I passed out. Faint shouts for help broke through, but apparently it had been days once I awoke. And now here I am. Having missed my day, over reading a stupid book. I looked through my few flowers and cards. I never really had many friends. I was always quite quiet and fearful. If I ever had friends, they came to me. Which was why my face practically glowed when I saw that Heather had given me a card.

Daily 15 || Literature Spinner || 853 words

Caregiver, Utopian, Between/Liminal, Backstory
(This is one of my character’s backstories sorry it doesn’t explicitly clarify that sobbinf)

Solary looked up at the huge building, which was decorated with gold and statues resembling the Ancient King. Koopas walked around her, smiling and bowing their head to her as they passed. She smiled back softly like she had trained herself to, no sign of conflict in her expression. Yet her mind was lost in thought as she walked inside. Is this really the right decision? Where would we even go?
She thought she had made up her mind, but as she went through the building, filled with shrines and decorations honoring the Ancient King and his bloodline, she started to doubt herself. She really should be honored to not just live in the Shelled Kingdom, but to be its princess. She had everything she could ever ask for, just like every other resident. Food was never scarce, everyone had the time to pursue their passions, their lifespans were long because they had easy access to the best doctors… life was perfect for Solary. And it would be perfect for her too.
Yet as Solary climbed the stairs to the observatory, she couldn't shake what the Starwhisperer had said. Her unhatched sister had been blessed by the Ancient King, and would usher in an era of expansion and exploration greater than had ever been experienced before… she'd build them a kingdom that rivaled the Ancient Empire…
A child was expected to do all of that? Solary couldn't imagine being in that role. Her whole life she had been told how perfect she was, how she reflected the values of the Ancient King through her compassion and generosity… yet she couldn't help but feel like that wasn't true at all. She looked at one of the many paintings on the side of the staircase. It was of the Ancient King standing on an island in the center of an ocean of lava. The smile on his face looked more like the smile of one who would throw his enemies into the lava rather than create peace and compromise.
Yet the Shelled Kingdom continued to worship him and compare Solary to him and tell her thousands of stories about his awesomeness.
She reached the top, looking at the nest sitting all by itself in the center of the room, the silver egg in the center exposed to the stars. The Starwhisperer had told her that it was important to let the stars warm the unhatched Koopaling, so she could ‘properly absorb her power’.
Solary shook her head softly as she sat beside the egg. “Hey, Minu,” she whispered. “I'm… I'm gonna get you out of here.” She couldn't let her sister drown in the endless worship and expectations. The Shelled Kingdom needed perfection, and despite how perfect their mother's rule was, that same perfect queen would trap her perfect daughter in this fate for her whole life.
Solary gently lifted the egg into her satchel, hiding it under the food and supplies she had brought. She felt a bit sad for doing this- it would shatter the trust the Koopas had in themselves and each other- but she had to protect her sister.

Solary ran through the forest, panting. Nobody had noticed her leaving, but the Starwhisperer would figure it out soon, and then her mother, and then they'd send the Blue Shells to bring her back. Solary did not want to find out what a perfect society would do to those who misbehaved.
She looked around, panicked. She had no idea where she was, and she wasn't able to find a single map of the world outside of the Shelled Kingdom. Nobody wanted to leave the perfect kingdom, after all.
Solary whimpered as she heard the distant sound of flapping. She pinned herself against a tree, looking up as she saw the Blue Shells zooming above her. They were way faster than she had anticipated, and she knew they'd find her soon. Her eyes welled up as she slid to the ground, hugging her bag close. “I'm sorry,” she whispered to the egg, squeezing her eyes closed.
She felt an unexpected pulse of energy, opening her eyes. She saw a green glow in her bag, peering inside to see her notebook and pencil shimmering invitingly. She slowly picked them up, opening the notebook. She squeaked when it glowed even brighter, knowing that the Blue Shells would be able to see it. Yet as her heart pumped, she couldn't close the book, feeling the harsh urge to draw a symbol on the blank page. She did so, seeing the Blue Shells land in the corner of her eye. She couldn't hear what they said as she drew an unfamiliar symbol. It glowed even brighter, and she felt herself slip out of consciousness…

Solary woke up suddenly, looking around the metal room. Next to her was her bag, and as she went through it she was relieved to see Minu's egg was still there. She looked up to see a tall creature unlike anything she'd seen before, standing beside a window that opened to billions of stars. The creature gave Solary a soft smile. “Welcome, Jadeling.”

daily 15
outcast
mystery
childhood place
pathetic fallacy

I can feel my eye pulsing—something shifting as I gaze into the distance. There’s someone standing there, hair blowing in the wind as an eerie breeze conducts around her.

I know this girl—she hung around the park regularly ever since I was a kid. Though, now that I think about it, I don’t recall ever catching her name.

It wasn’t unusual to see people standing around, we were at a park after all, but…

The only issue with that, is her body is currently laying at my feet.


I remembered my family’s disapproval becoming more and more obvious as time went on. Their mockery was directed at my right eye.

A deep dark red, ugly and unnatural. There were long nights in my rooms I spent, where my mom insisted that I needed to be cleansed—isolation became as normal as breathing.

I never really understood why my eye was so shameful until I grew.

One day, I saw a girl in the room with me. She was friendly and gave me company. I wondered why she was there. I closed my normal eye, she was still there. I closed my other eye, she was gone.

The deep dark red was the result of a running curse in my family—those born with it could see ghosts saddled with misfortune. In turn, that misfortune could spread.

The reason for isolation became increasingly clear.

With a refusal to allow myself to cause others misfortune, that isolation eventually became voluntary.


That voluntary isolation led to me finding places outside the house to be. Namely, a park with rickety swings and iron-hot slides with platforms that creaked with weight. I sat alone, with kids whispering about the uncanny aura that surrounded my person.

I took the ostrichation with glee and continued with my life.


The swings cried as they swung, crimson red staining the ground—before blue lights approached coating it blue instead.

The victim is before me, and surely I could ask then and there who did it. But who would believe me—what if opening my mouth only resulted in more sorrow and death? I was a bad omen. Unlucky. Unlucky. Unlucky.

Maybe the detective would die if I tried to give them evidence.

The ghost before me was pale, cheeks caved in as she stared with wide eyes. Ghosts looked like that—that uncanny appearance. I stared back. They raised a thin finger and pointed to a nearby girl. I could only assume that was the murderer.

They began investigating. Mari Le, 18 years old, cause of death, blunt force trauma. How’d that even happen? In such a public place, how did no one notice someone dying from something that look a prolonged amount of time?

The police and I mulled over the question alike, yet we both failed to come up with an answer. Even if I knew, what could I do? I was a curse. I shouldn’t get close to anyone. The police would drop dead somehow and then there would be two bodies to investigate. I mulled over everything once again.

The ghost pointed to the bushes—the faint sign of blood could be seen there. My eyes widened—that could explain it. No one noticed because they were lured elsewhere. There was still the question of how it took some time for the body to be noticed, but, certainly, this was a start. I glanced to the body and back at the ghost. I didn’t want to make anyone cursed by association to me. But…

Surely the worst misfortune ever to befall a ghost would be having someone escape justice when there was a way for it to happen.

I closed my eyes and took a breath.

“Check that bush over there.”

619 words

critique for vi ⋅ xxx words

───── ⋅★⋅ ─────

wip

The city was toppling.

Building after building crashed to the ground, crushing the people fleeing as fast as they could from the fighting that filled the city. Rebel groups ran through the city even as it shook, convinced that they were right, caring not who stood in their path.

Not a single person had suspected the earthquake. Not even the people who had started it.

Only a few buildings still stood and they were coming down quickly. In a room of one of these buildings, a boy was huddled in the corner.

Nine, maybe ten, the boy’s black hair was soaked in tears. He clutched his parent’s lifeless hands tightly.

Though the boy was in more than a little danger as the ground shook and the building threatened to collapse, he wouldn’t move- couldn’t move- because that would mean leaving them.

Someone found him there- a small group from the same building, and they hurriedly grabbed the kid and pulled him away. He didn’t want to go- he cried and screamed, and yet he had not the strength to fight much more.

The group protected the little boy as they tried to sneak out of the destroyed city. It wasn’t long before one of the gangs found them.

The boy survived by hiding in a crevice as he closed his eyes and plugged his ears and tried to shut out the sound of gunfire. No one had escaped that night unharmed.

In the hours, days, months following the boy would see more death than any ever should.

And yet, he survived,

He survived even as the city turned to civil war. He survived even as the borders were closed and no one was allowed to leave. He survived even as life turned to a fight for survival.

And in the years beyond, the boy would grow stronger. He took a new name for himself and he learned the ways of the world and he made the world his own by his twenty second year.

All knew his name and all feared his name. He brought order and rules and he made life better, but not by much. He took power and he kept it, never letting go. He wrestled it out of anyone’s grip who still had it. Soon, no one could oppose him,

And when he heard of the refugee camps hidden deep in the surrounding forests, he knew there was still power to seize.

2026-07-15 Critique #1: @Da_SeaWing_Artist (333 words) - Xeno-Fi
Ok first of all, this does not suck at all! In fact, WOW, I was super impressed! What really made me hooked was your vivid description. I could feel the leaves under my feet, see the beautiful scenes, and smell the smoke at the end. Definitely the highlight of the story. Also, I love how the thought process is not just a human’s brain in an animal’s body — the thoughts are more animalistic like those that a wolf would actually have. For example, the repetition of “pa1n pa1n pa1n” or “FIRE FIRE FIRE” really put me in the zone of a wild wolf. The wolf pups being adorable is also a plus.

My main thought would be your sentence structure. I think I read a lot of the same type of sentence, with a ton of different points of description and commas in it. I also get really repetitive with my sentence structure, so I totally get it. But in general I try to pay attention to alternating short and long sentences, description vs dialogue vs action or whatever else, and how many commas or punctuation marks are in the sentence. When the sentence structure is varied, it makes the writing feel a lot more natural.

For a plot point (mostly bc I want to get this to 300 words lol) one question I had is: why does she approach the human camp if she detests them so much? I would think maybe she would stay away. Is it out of curiosity? If so, maybe add that in.

Oh and another thing I liked about the xenofiction aspect is all the emotions you wrote into it! Since animals have such primal, unfiltered emotions this is the amazing part of it. From anger at the humans to love for her family to fear at the wildf1re, you imbued so much emotion into the story. It’s such strong writing. I actually like it a lot. Amazing job! Thanks for letting me critique your work!

Weekly 2!
1)
I watched Oshi no Ko with my brother for like 10 hours lol.

2)
I went on a walk on the beach with my family for 2 hours.

3)
My Mum and I made Vegetable Sambar together. It also took 2 hours.

4)
I journaled about some days I was spending at my Mum’s village recently, for 507 words.

5)
I journaled about a lot of things I am grateful for (thank you to the Polar Bears for an alternative part 5 of the weekly!! (proof: https://scratch.mit.edu/users/Strawberry-Lemon/#comments-413704250) for 528 words.

+2000 points to Bi-Fi

Weekly #2: self-care

Part 1: Self-care sunday
Chose singing along to music (mostly em beihold and olivia rodrigo)

Part 2: Wellness walk
Went to the beach earlier in the week for maybe two and a half hours? (but definitely for 30 minutes)

Part 3: Cooking and coloring and crafting, oh my!

drew and colored in a very bad drawing of something like my house… don’t really want to share it…

Part 4: Journaling jubilee
Not comfortable sharing what i did but i wrote 521 words of writing about random stuff that’s happening

Part 5: 2026
Don’t really want to share it again but i got 564 words of writing about random stuff in my life that’s similar/has changed this year

weekly 2

part one: listen to music
part two: go on walk + practiced performance thing in my backyard
part three: made some stuff I need for camp thing
part four
I had a dream last night I can somewhat remember, but there was like three different parts to it that all had no correlation to each other at all?? I mean there might have been some sort of convoluted connection but I don’t know lol.

So I was at my church group or something, I’m assuming it was at a trip? I have a trip with my church group coming up at the end of the month, so I’m assuming I dreamed about it since it’s getting closer. They told us to change to our uniforms I think so I went to my dorm at the trip to change. Usually you share your dorm with maybe 2-3 girls your age so when I went they were changing. I also changed.

For some reason the floor of the dorm was grass?? I have no idea why?? Also, one of my roommates was this girl from my school who doesn’t even go to the church group with me so idk what she was doing there.

I’m pretty sure we did something I forgot what and then I went back to my dorm and idk what I did and that segment ended there

The next segment was about Seishun I think…? (roblox school roleplay game) But for some reason it was not the actual Seishun game but more similar to a Yan Sim game I don’t know why??

It was also a Yuri version of the game because Osana was the main character and Ayano replaced Senpai.

I don’t remember where it was exactly but there was some sort of announcement for the game about them adding back the clicking minigame activity for the light music club or something.

I played the game for some reason and loaded in as Senpai and I don’t even know what I did O just walked around. I went to the library or something but it wasn’t called the library I really wish I knew what it was, and I remember there was a dialogue exchange like “the isn’t the same as the library” when I asked where it was.

I don’t remember exactly what happened whilst I was in Seishun…?

The next segment was related to Genshin. My cousin was at my house playing Genshin on the TV. He let me pull on this account and the wish thing turned red so I was like “yo why is it red??” and he said “nah that’s normal”

He got some kind of weird 5-star catalyst?? The stars looked weird, and the catalyst was like some kind of book that was red and had some funky patterns on them. He said he’d trade it and give it to me (not how the game works) and I said “Ok but I don’t have anyone to use it on”

The way to co-op was to go on some sort of website and launch yourself available for co-op on there and pray only the person you wanted to join joins. I loaded up Genshin and I saw I had Lisa and was like “oh I’ll use the weapon on Lisa”

Anyways this coop system is clearly flawed because some rando joined my world. I don’t know what they said tbh but at one point they said they’d give me free in-game currency, which, I guess bro. I declined and kicked them out of my world.

I then realized J was on my alt account and not my main since I was only level 12 or something so I logged off.

Also I’m half sure this game started off with Animal Crossing somehow but I’m not completely sure since I don’t remember how it was related.

617 words


part five
One of my favorite memories has got to be my field trip I took at the end of the last school year.

I don’t remember anything particularly remarkable we did there, but my and my friends all showed up in cosplay and it was fun having people recognize our outfits. I also think just being together was really fun.

It was a lot of fun just walking around and talking even though we didn’t do much of he activities there since they weren’t really up our alley, but just being around people I’m close with is enough to make me really happy. I laughed so much that day my stomach began to hurt, my friend would say something random and I’d burst out laughing. Having times where we just hang out together was always fun.


Another fond memory I have is from my retreat with my church group. We managed to convince the people in charge to let us all share a room, and it was really fun staying up late and talking even though I was really tired in the morning.

I remember talking to my friends after retreat that it was honestly kind of a letdown as all the planned activities were kind of boring and generic as compared to previous years, but being in the same dorms made up for it.

However, all my memories from retreat aren’t happy. On the last night, some of the younger girls in the dorm next to ours got into an argument and one of them refused to sleep in the same room as the rest of them. Since that girl was friends with our friend group, she asked to stay in our dorm.

The next hour was full of us trying to figure out what happened, how to resolve it, and if we were even allowed to let her stay in our room. The thing was, the people in charge would sometimes check the rooms late at night and ensure everyone was sleeping and hadn’t snuck out (another funny memory from this time is us staying up late and immediately pretending to sleep whenever we heard footsteps even if it was nothing). So, we were all pretty sure we would all get in trouble.

We couldn’t go out to ask since we were technically supposed to be asleep at the moment + all the people in charge were in a meeting of some sort so we couldn’t even go ask. Luckily, in the end everything got resolved.

I can’t really pick out anything bad in particular if you asked me to, but I’d say one thing that affected my mental health a bit during the year was dealing with my inferiority complex.

I’ve always had one, and the best way I can describe it is with the lyric, “I feel like I’m the worst so I always act like I’m the best”. Essentially, I feel so far inferior to everyone that to compensate I act somewhat arrogant.

A lot of the beginning of the year had me feeling far inferior to my friends. In particular, I have one friend whom I’m very close to. I’ve known them since elementary school, and he always considered them to be my best friend due to the length of how long we’ve known each other + how much we did together.

I started feeling intense inferiority to another friend of mine who it felt as if they became far closer to that mutual friend than I ever would be in such a short span of time. I drowned in my inferiority for some time and withdrawn from both friends somewhat. Luckily, I’ve somewhat gotten my inferiority complex under control now.

614 words

ੈ✩‧₊˚ Self Care ⋆.ೃ࿔

Part 1: Self-Care Sunday

I crocheted for 45 minutes while listening to music! I was working on my matching skirt and top set which hopefully I will find more motivation to finish soon.

Part 2: Wellness Walk

I went on a 3 mile run with my cousin, which took a while :’) I hate running. But I also made a lot of chalk drawings on my driveway which I did for around 40 minutes! A few things I drew: a jellyfish, a colorful star, and random fruits like cherries and a slice of watermelon

Part 3: Cooking and Coloring and Crafting, Oh My!

Ok I did more crocheting! I spent over an hour speed crocheting very random items haha. I made a hanging plant, a bow, a butterfly, a sunflower, and like random keychain things I attached a picture of my creations below <3



Part 4: Journaling Jubilee

YAY JOURNALING! I did traditional journaling for this part. I wrote 653 words which I hope I don’t have to share because it got kinda personal? But I wrote about my day, hanging out with my cousins, visiting my family, and maybe a bit of family drama *sigh*

Part 5: 2026

Wow, oh my gosh I really can’t believe that it is already July 2026. Just over six months of this year have passed, and in that time so much has happened. I finally made it through junior year of high school, and boy was that a long and tiring ride! I did well on finals, thank God. One of my favorite memories from this year was from my Easter Break. My dad got us tickets to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child on Broadway– and oh my gosh it was soooo good. The production, cast, and music were all so amazing, I would definitely recommend it to others. I also just really love whenever my family goes to New York City, I love walking around and shopping hehe. Another one of my favorite moments from this year so far was going to junior prom. It was such a fun experience and I think it’s so lovely when everyone is dressed up. One thing I struggled through this year was AP Chemistry class :’) During the time it seemed almost like a horror movie I’m not gonna lie. But, I officially finished the class, took the AP exam, and managed to decently pass! Whoo. AP classes were such a rollercoaster this year, I guess because it was my first time taking them, but I still made it haha. I recently went to go visit my family in California, so that’s another highlight of this year so far. It is really nice because I get to see my cousins and hang out with them. One accomplishment that I am very proud of this year is that I scored a perfect score on my AP Lang exam! I got a 5! I was so happy when I opened up that College Board link omg. Anyways, going into this second half of the year, I would really like to get more involved in volunteering and working towards my college application because I have to worry about my future starting now haha. I hope that I can start being more serious about these things while still being able to maintain the same amount of fun I have been enjoying in my life. I’ve struggled through many ups and downs this year, involving family drama and other issues. I hope that I can learn from my mistakes and try to be a better person even when those around me do not do the same. I would also like to spend the next few months left in 2026 to grow my relationship with God. In all of the situations I faced I didn’t have anyone to turn to, and it was very hard to seek comfort. So I’m going to try and pray more because I think that it will not only help me, but it is a goal that I would really like to try and achieve. And lastly, I just want to say that joining SWC this year was one of the best things of my 2026 so far. My first session was this past March, and the amount of friendships I have made since then– I am eternally grateful for. Everyone is so kind and welcoming, and I couldn’t have had my first session be any other way. <3 (545 words)


✏ 7.16.2026 ~ Weekly #2 ⛧ ~ 1,198 words total ౨ৎ
⛱ ʙᴀᴄᴋ ᴛᴏ ꜱᴀꜰꜰʀᴏɴ'ꜱ ɴᴏᴛᴇʙᴏᴏᴋ ⋆˚࿔

ੈ✩‧₊˚ Gothic vs. Fantasy ⋆.ೃ࿔ ~ ᴡᴏʀᴅ ᴡᴀʀ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴀᴘʀɪʟ! @April_XP ~ 5 ᴍɪɴᴜᴛᴇꜱ

✐ ᴘʀᴏᴍᴘᴛ: “… ɪ ᴏᴡᴇ ʏᴏᴜ ᴀɴ ᴇxᴘʟᴀɴᴀᴛɪᴏɴ, ᴅᴏɴ'ᴛ ɪ?” ✏

It was another fine morning in the house. I woke up, got dressed, and went downstairs to make breakfast. I figured my sisters had already woken up earlier because their rooms were empty. The moment I stepped into the kitchen, I knew something was wrong. Not because the house was on fire. Not because someone was crying. Because it was quiet. With three younger sisters, silence was the first warning sign of impending disaster. I followed the suspicious lack of noise into the living room, where all three of them stood in a perfect triangle around the coffee table. Nobody moved. On the table lay the victim. A glitter dumpling squishy. Popped. Its sparkly filling had escaped through a tiny tear and now resembled glittery mashed potatoes. My youngest sister, Ivy, gasped dramatically when she saw me. “She's here!” Immediately, every pair of eyes landed on me. “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?” I exclaimed. Nobody answered. Finally, my middle sister, Nora, pointed accusingly at our sister Lucy. “She did it.” Lucy crossed her arms. “I absolutely did not.” “You sat on it!” “I sat on the couch.” “The squishy was on the couch!” “How was I supposed to know that?” I looked between them and then down at the poor glitter dumpling. It had once had an adorable smiling face. Now it looked emotionally exhausted. I picked it up carefully. There was a tiny hiss as more glitter squeezed out. “…I owe you an explanation, don't I?” Lucy sighed. The room fell silent. She rubbed the back of her neck “Okay… technically, I may have been reaching for the TV remote.” “Mhm.” “And technically, I may have launched myself backward without looking.” “Mhm.” “And… technically…” She pointed at the squishy. “…the dumpling lost.” Ivy clutched a throw pillow like she'd witnessed a tragedy. “You flattened him.” “I preferred the term ‘compressed,’” and we all burst into laughter.

✏ 7.16.2026 ~ word war #4 ⛧ ~ 316 words ౨ৎ
⛱ ʙᴀᴄᴋ ᴛᴏ ꜱᴀꜰꜰʀᴏɴ'ꜱ ɴᴏᴛᴇʙᴏᴏᴋ ⋆˚࿔

I took a walk for about half an hour down a high street. And also went to some shops. Mainly to exercise since I often neglect that aspect of self care.





I met my amazing irls who I have not seen for a year and a half!





I made dinner with my mother! I had 红烧肉 with some other things and it was really tasty.





This one is too personal to share but I journalled about meeting my irls for the first time in a year and a half!





The first six months of 2026 have been an absolutely insane ride for me. There’s been so many ups and downs, tears of joy and frustration, and many hours spent pouring over my A Level exams. 2026 has definitely been such a fun year for me, and we’re only halfway through so here’s to making more amazing memories when I start university in September.

I think my lowest lows happened towards the start of the year: I had terrible mental health, and the pressure of school was just too much for me. I’m so glad I didn’t just shut down though, as I somehow pulled myself through Christmas and into February followed by my mocks. I felt constantly overwhelmed with the amount of work I had to put in for my A Levels and I was struggling to study well at home. It wasn’t as bad as things were in 2025, but it was still quite bad. But I pulled through and now I’m here!

One of the best things that I decided to do in 2026 was get baptised! It took me a while from making a decision to setting a date due to family things, but I’m so glad that my friends were able to come and I was able to finally do something that I’ve always felt like I could never get to the point of doing. Also, so many of my other friends also got baptised this year and that was so amazing to see!

Other amazing things that happened in 2026 were also some stunning choir concerts I got to do! We sang War Requiem which was absolutely amazing in the venue we were performing in. The acoustics were stunning and the piece as a whole is absolutely amazing - all the digital recordings just don’t do this song justice. Then, I also got to sing a Wicked medley for a spring concert and I also had my last ever school choir performance recently. I really loved being able to sing out in a chapel with my school choir, and also questioning why all my choir friends are sopranos when I usually wind up in the alto section. (I’m a second sop who can’t sing very high, rest in pieces to my voice) I loved some of the repertoire I got to perform this year and I’ll always treasure it in my heart as I go forward to the next chapter of my life: university!

Also another amazing music thing I got to do this year was do youth band at church and be a part of the worship team! I absolutely loved singing and leading the congregation the second time I did it and I really enjoyed shouting my praise out through music. It was such an amazing experience and I also got to play with an amazing band! I hope I get to do more of this stuff in the future, since it’ll be a nice way to keep music going in my life even if I can’t get into one at university.

Speaking of which: university! I can’t believe that this year is going to be the year I actually go? I was having such a bad career crisis during December of last year when I finally submitted my UCAS, and I wasn’t even sure I was going to go this year. I remember feeling so scared about missing my grades and yet here I am, having somewhat successfully pulled my grades around and I’m now probably either getting at or way better than my predicted grades (especially for Physics and Maths I put so much work into those) and I truly hope I’ve done enough work to get into my firm. So much of my mind has changed about going to university - I got into a good one, and although it’s not the dream university I was hoping for, it’s probably one that suits me a lot more. And it’s a lot better graduating with a first from a university where the course suits me better than a third from a more prestigious university but one where I struggled with the course a lot more. I’m not sure what I’m going to do if I end up missing the grades to go to my current firm though, but I’ll figure something out!

So that’s been my 2026 so far. I still can’t believe I’m done with formal schooling forever and that I’ll be a student! Here’s to the next six months of 2026 and that results day will go well! (I’ve had some dreams about this recently oh my goddess-)

PART 1: Self-Care Sunday

(I worked on organizing my room. Organization, I believe, might be my favorite form of exercise—moving boxes and arranging furniture provides a physical workout, while sorting objects and optimizing storage space are tasks akin to solving puzzles, thus giving me a mental workout, too. Having a tidier living environment is supposed to decrease stress and improve productivity, as well! It’s very satisfying to see the progress I’ve made. I think I spent 3 or 4 hours on this.)

PART 2: Wellness Walk

(I went for a walk—two walks, actually, since I got back from the first one and saw that it hadn’t been a full 30 minutes yet. I stopped to pet George, the friendliest cat in the neighborhood. I walked with my mom, and we played I Spy With My Everything Eye.)

PART 3: Cooking and Coloring and Crafting, Oh My!

(I spent almost 45 consecutive minutes coloring. No extra challenge, though; I love digital coloring far more than traditional. Also, this activity served a dual purpose for me—it was both relaxing and a way of working on my Art Fight card, which I’m almost done with now! …Halfway through the month, but better late than never, right?)

PART 4: Journaling

Yesterday, I went on an airplane for the first time in over a decade. My mom and I are visiting my grandpa in Oregon, which we haven’t done since I was seven, aside from a short encounter last year when we happened to be passing through the area.
The night before the plane ride, I stayed up late getting everything ready. The actual packing didn’t take that long—my mom handled all the clothing and toiletry stuff—but I had other things to get in order before I left. My dad is staying in my room with Raven while I’m gone, so I had to make sure my room was accessible for him and that I had hidden away anything the cat isn’t supposed to mess with.
I also wrapped up some personal business—told friends that I’d be inactive for the next few weeks, sorted my SWC document so that all my writing was in one easy-to-access location, and closed out a bunch of tabs that I wouldn’t need during my trip. Weirdly, there was a sense of melancholy that hung over everything I did. Maybe it felt like I was preparing for an ending, even though I’d only be away until the end of July. Maybe I was subconsciously thinking about how this might be the last time I travel here. Or maybe my brain was just so busy getting everything in order that it didn’t bother maintaining the “neutral” emotional state that I’m normally stuck in.
In any case, I went to bed so that I’d be rested for the journey the next day. Then I woke up, packed the last few things, and got in my dad’s car so he could drive my mom and I to the airport. I was expecting it to be crowded, but it actually wasn’t too bad. My mom asked the person at the desk for directions, and we found where we were supposed to go, no problem. The security check was way smoother than I thought it would be; they just ran our stuff through a scanner, and ran us through a different scanner, and that was it. They didn’t open our luggage or anything.
While waiting to board, I did my Trainwreck Labs daily games. I was planning on simply breaking my streaks, but since there was free wifi and not much else to do, I kept my streaks alive. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to do the SWC daily for that day, though. Since then, I’ve thought it over, and I think I’ll step back from SWC for the rest of this session. I’ll still try to do the weeklies—obviously, since here I am right now—but I’ll probably skip most of the dailies. Sorry, Fantasy cabin, but I don’t want writing to get in the way of spending time with my family on this trip.
Anyway, the actual plane ride was rather short. I was in the window seat, and I watched the ground below pretty much the whole time. They served complimentary snacks; I got a bag of pretzel sticks and a cup of cranberry juice. The landscape beneath me was beautiful—mostly rolling foothills, some covered in forests, with a glimpse of the ocean in the distance during the first half of the ride. The land was dry at first, but gave way to more greenery as we went north.
Normally, most of my time is spent in urban and suburban areas, and even when travelling, the view is just what can be seen from the road. This was a nice reminder that the world is so much bigger than that, that there’s far more out there than what the highways cut through. It felt like scrolling on Google Maps in real life.
When we arrived, we gathered our luggage and got off at the Oregon airport. This one had a lot more displays, including large duck statues and a decorative window full of herbs and spices. In contrast, the California one focused more heavily on stores, restaurants, and tech.
My mom and I found my grandpa waiting for us, and we went out to his car, which he had bought specifically for this purpose, as his normal car only seats two. The parking lot was a bit tricky to get out of, but eventually, we made it out.
It feels really good to be here again. The weather is nicer, albeit still too hot. The yard is full of life. There are so many new sounds, and yet, in terms of human activity, it’s much quieter. I’m looking forward to my stay here; I know the time will go all too quickly.

PART 5: 2026

Sometimes it seems like I’m made of contradictions. Change is one of those situations—am I changing constantly, or not at all? On one hand, being alive means being in a perpetual state of fluctuations: temperature, metabolism, cells dividing, mood changing, memories forming and being forgotten. On the other hand, I still have a lot of the same interests I had when I was a little kid. My habits and tendencies haven’t shifted much. My personality hasn’t evolved drastically, nor have my values. In fact, it often seems like I change at a far slower rate than my peers.
To be honest, I’m not quite sure what to make of the whole “change” thing. I don’t tend to analyze it too much because it’s either too common to be worth mentioning, or too gradual to notice. I have Half-Canon swapping out every few hours or so, causing me to act differently within just one day. Yet my ambition to tell my characters’ stories has been unwavering for, what, 12 years? More? I think I wanted to do this before I even had the words to describe what it was.
I guess it’s easier to focus on the outside world, then. I have a terrible memory for time, so I don’t always remember when major events happened, both in my own life and in the wider world. I remember them happening; I just can’t place when they happened. Still, I’ll try my best to recall the first half of 2026.
In January, I was starting my second semester of college. I was taking Introduction to Electron Microscopy, Graphic Arts 2A, Graphic Arts 3A, Native American Studies, and Computer Science. I tried to do the #metazooaart challenge but gave up halfway through the month. Before quitting, I created some pretty good pieces, though; I’m particularly fond of the groundhog.
My IRL birthday was in February. It was good, but nothing exceptional. I turned 19. It’s gonna be crazy having a number that starts with 2 next year; it’ll probably take me a while to get used to that.
In March, I went on an overnight field trip to several college campuses. It was fun getting to tour them, but it was even more fun when I got to go to Medieval Times for dinner. The show was impressive, and I took so many pictures.
For April Fools’ Day, I edited an icon to have a false notification alert, specifically to annoy my friend Catto. They acknowledged my efforts—sweet, sweet validation, heheh. Later in April, I went to a live show called Dinosaur World, which involved huge, lifelike dinosaur puppets, most of them operated by several people. The show had a lot of audience interaction, and though I wasn’t chosen to volunteer for any of the parts, I did get to pet one of the dinosaur puppets at the end. It was awesome.
In May, I went to Dinosaur Days at Sierra College. It was ankylosaur themed, which is my dad’s favorite type of dinosaur. I did crafts and played with dinosaurs and checked out the college museum. I really enjoyed being there, although it was very crowded in some places. Also in May, Canvas got hacked right before finals, which was stressful for some people and a blessing to others. Me, I was just hanging out with my metaphorical popcorn. Maybe I shouldn’t find that sort of thing funny, but I do—sometimes you just gotta appreciate when things go wrong. At the end of the month, I went to an IRL friend’s high school graduation.
Finally, in June, my family went on vacation to Tahoe. It was my first time going there, and I have a lot to say about it, but I’d rather do so in a separate journal entry since I really ought to wrap this weekly up. I also went on another field trip, this time to a couple of museums.
If someone is reading this and wondering why I’m ending with June instead of July, it’s because I figure that, between the previous part of this weekly and the July 1st letter to my Future Self, I’ve already written enough. I don’t like repeating myself too often. However, I do want to give this written reflection a sense of closure, so how about I end with a glance to the future?
In the fall semester, I’ll be taking Web Animation, Graphic Arts 1A, Anatomy, and either English Literature or an EM class, depending on whether they cancel the EM class or not. I’m planning to make a small animation/PMV later in 2026, which I intend to finish my mid-2027. I intend to participate in November's SWC session. And at the end of December, I’ll be drawing my new ref sheet, like I do every year. It won’t have any major changes, but it’ll still show my art style’s development… Both changing and not-changing, just like me. :3

Weekly #2
7/12-16/2026
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Part 1:
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I took some time to catch up and message some of my friends and it was quite lovely as we hadn't talked in a few days. The entire group chat was active and I love talking to them so much. It was nice to be able to joke around and to discuss some interesting topics haha-

Part 2:
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Part 3:
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I cross-stitched while at a watch party AND afterwards! I'm not quite sure how long I've spent on it so far, but definitely at least 3 hours and I'm nowhere close to being finished yet. Working on an Avengers logo! Spent at least 30 minutes just cross-stitching and listening to Hadestown as well.

Part 4:
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I should probably be packing or working on summer coursework or brushing up on math before I take a placement test, but I frankly don't feel like doing any of those three, so instead I am attempting to help out my SWC cabin by doing some journalling.
Honestly, the packing isn't too bad, but the mess that it creates is messing with my head. Especially because this move is way different from the ones we have done in the past. We're not up and leaving our life behind; we're just moving 15 minutes away. Somehow, that difference makes all the difference. Our lives are not drastically changing. We're doing a small move, and, thus, we're packing not for a few weeks of displacement, but like we should keep everything normal. It's messing with my brain and we don't even have a clean area or a truck that we're putting all of our stuff in. I think the fact that this is the longest we've ever been in one place is also affecting things. We've accumulated so much stuff over the years, which has definitely been affected by not having to downsize every few years for another big move. Ugh, I will have to work on that soon, but not now.
Summer coursework is. It's fine. Most of it is pretty simple. There are just a few specific assignments that I am required to do before moving on that requires jut a bit more energy out of me than I would like to exert at the moment. I think it's the same for the placement test. I think I need to go into town, away from the house, and just spend a few hours just in the zone. I can't get in the zone in the cluttered house and family chattering all around me. Just not working with me. I also get how some of the assignments are supposed to set me up for success later on, but I just know that the methods they're making me implement and utilize for these assignments are actively going against my brain, especially where we are in the timeline. Like, I'm likely to do something similar, but after trial and error, not before I have even tested the waters and have this omniscient view on what I will like in the future. Obviously, this is an extreme take on it, but it just does not make me feel good when I have to do something that I know I'll have to scrap later.
Honestly, I do wish that I would have participated more in SWC and half of it is already gone and that is crazy to me. I knew that I would not be the most active this session and aside from cabin wars, I feel like my activity has accurately affected that, but I could have made more of an effort to do even a few dailies. There were some that I would have liked to do, but didn't get around to. I should also add my words… Ugh, this summer is so busy. I told xxx that I want to write more fanfic and she said that she'd read it which is very sweet of her. I don't know whether I'll write Clintasha or Clois next though… I have done some Clintasha poetry, which I would like to do more of. I think at least a haiku and revise the one poem I have so far, at least before I send it off to Aster… I just want to create more in general I think. I don't know. Summer is always a weird time and right now I don't have the physical space to be able to create journal spreads or the time to write out anything. I'm sure I could if I actively made the time and space for those things, but I am kind of just so low energy right now. I don't know, something to think about.

Part 5:
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Honestly, can I even fully remember what happened this year? I know that the past month or so has definitely been very impactful on me in terms of mindset and outlook on life, but let's recount. I don't really have like a month by month breakdown of everything that happened, but I do know of some standout events that I would like to capture.
Joined Ao3 and posted my first fic, which was kind of in conjunction with joining a fandom community, which was a lot of fun and a step that took me a while to do!! But because I did this, I have been able to interact with so many people I looked up to in fandom and just recently a Natasha fan artist that I adore kudosed my fic and that is kind of insane to me- I was also able to participate in Clintasha con, which was so much fun and just got to be able to interact within a fandom community on a more personal level. It's led to having some people of support in areas of my life where I don't know.
Getting closer with my friends. I feel like there are several layers to this, but I've been able to get super close with online and irl friends in ways that make me just so happy. I'm beyond blessed with these friendships that the way that I am able to interact with them and how they uplift me and support me through everything. They continue to bring a light to my life and I wouldn't have it any other way <3
Connecting more with my culture and religion. It's both due to retreat and to family reunion and the small moments in between, but just being able to connect to my roots was a life changing experience and I mean this genuinely. It shifted my perspective and has given me a better appreciation for my life and my parents. I think the way I view my dad especially has been major in my mindset. Regarding religion, that's been something of a work in progress for a while and I am so glad that this retreat helped to make everything click. There were so many relationships, both new and old, that guided me and showed me love along the way and it's led me to a place where I am more certain in my faith.
There's a lot I know that will be waiting for me in this second half of the year and I don't want to give too much away on Scratch, but I am so excited for what lies ahead. There is a lot for me to grow into and learn. Even just the three things I've mentioned here already are things that I know will be changing and shifting in the coming months and I am looking forward to where the path I am on is leading me. I feel a lot more optimistic about life than I have in a little while, and, while there is a lot of uncertainty, there is also a lot of room for opportunity and blessings. 

Weekly 2 - Self Care
this calls forrr-
play => “self-love” metro boomin' (from the movie: Spider-Man Across the Spiderverse)

Part 1: Self-Care Sunday
I chose to do skincare! I sort of combined a few days that i took my time doing skincare on purpose into 30 mins <3

Part 2: Wellness Walk
Today was sports day at skl so i did a few activities and touched grass ig-

Part 3: Cooking and Colouring and Crafting, Oh My!
well well. i have been doing a lot of cooking and colouring tbh!
for picture proof i did technically craft when junk journaling (shown below) but im making DIY gifts for all my friends, bookmarks, keychains, random crochet stuff and more! (i would share a picture but im not done yet T^T)
I also fed my family the biryaini which i made for the first time!

Part 4: Journaling Jubilee
I did some junk journaling! (and gave up at the end LOL) i was inspired by Ava to do an anime theme, then i remembered im leading an anime cabin so i did an underrated characters from One Piece thingy! (guys i did robin so DIRTY im SORRYYYY) but it got a bit rushed at the end so i quit T-T i had two characters left but oh well. I then converted to “Dear Diary” then waffled, lol.


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Part 5: 2026

2026 has been… Quite the year! it's literally gone past SO FRICKING FAST like i swear it was just november yseterdayyyy TOT and now it's july and the summer holidays start tmrw =OOO So it's crazy because I'll be so honest i genuinely don't remember what happened this year. I remember coming into the year with real /friends/ (omg i sound like a loner i promise its not what it sounds like) but lots of insecurities. I had MAJOR trust issues and felt as though i was scarred for life and wouldn't be able to ever fully trust anyone. I was at the unhealed trauma phase and it felt like i was never going to heal but i did. I learnt to feel comfortable around my friends, to trust them, to love them and know that they love me back. thats not something i'd trade for an easy freindship because it strengthened our bond and made me really value our friendship. I got so close to some of the people in our friend group, especially “my twin” and “son in-law” and “the mandem” and i will always remember this year for being a turning point in that sort of way: i'd never had this sort of special relationship with basically anyone before. (i feel like i need to explain that, but i won't) But, nothing good lasts forever => our friend group is splitting up </3 around June time, after nearly all of us except two decided to move schools due to the standard of the school dropping massively we're gonna be separated. I am (HOPEFULLY HOPEFULLY PRAYING CRYING SCREAMING) going to the same school as three of my other friends (the said mentioned before in quotation marks) although two of them have got in alrdy but me and my other friend are on the waiting list. Anyways, I'm sidetracking. I'd definitely say I've improved religious wise this year, although not in the obvious ways but internally. I feel like i;ve built a special connection with my lord that i can distinguish this year for so that's nice. I'm very dissapointed in how Ramadhan went => because of exams i couldnt focus on my religion and i got like a totaal of 20 hours sleep in the whole month :skull:. but hopefully next year will be better and exam season will be at a different time. This year also marks me getting accepted as leader for the first time so thats really nice! The experience has been… woahhhh- good woah and “yo that was rocky” woah at the same time XD. and the craziest thing that is happening this year: IM GOING ON A THREE WEEK HOLIAY TO NIGERIA IN AUGUST IM SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!! my parents were born in nigeria but moved to the UK when they were like late teens or early 20's so I'm ethnically nigerian, meaning that i've always wanted to go to nigeria because ive heard so much about it! so i;m definitely happy about this being my first year visiting there and will never forget this <3 Overall, i'd say this month for me has been very healing, im a much more stable and mentally healthy person than last year and im dealing with lifes ups and lows very nicely! <3

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