Day 20: 5⎚ (Cabin Daily) (2209 words, 5⎚ for today.)
(23608 words, 136⎚ in total so far.)

Cabin Daily: Constellations (316 words, 5⎚)
July 20th is International Moon Day, and to celebrate, we're bringing back the constellation daily! Choose any constellation or celestial body, then write at least 300 words about how it came to be in the form of a story or a fictional essay. Feel free to do some research into your chosen subject and incorporate that into your writing as well! This daily will earn you 200 points, but you can get an extra 50 for sharing what you write.
Additionally, to celebrate moon day, make sure to thank Luna ( @Luna-Lovegood-LOL ), one of our hosts, and Moonlit ( @MoonlitSeas ), who helps to run the MBC!

Wormhole! - Pokespe/Pokemon Special/Pokemon Adventures, Sun and Moon, ultra dimension, unfinished oneshot (I might continue)

Ultra Wormholes weren't exactly Sun's favorite thing to wake up in the morning and spot in the sky. They weren't a good sign back when he and Moon were first fighting them, and they weren't ten years later either.

The black void hovered over the beach, around 2000 feet up. It was relatively low down for such a thing, especially since they hadn't been sighted in years. The very idea of them existing again, especially over the region he had already fought so hard to defend, made Sun's skin crawl and his blood feel ice-cold and frozen in his veins.

So, as tourists and locals alike gawked up at the void in the sky, Sun quickly pulled out his pokegear and lifted it up to his mouth.

“Uh, Moon?” he started when the call went through, “We've got a situation here.”

In less than ten minutes, his fellow dex-holder was standing beside him on the beach, looking up at the sky with him in horror. In the time it had taken her to get there, even though it was so short, the wormhole had expanded and was starting to shift closer to the beach.

“What do we do?” Moon looked over at him, worry painted on her usually calm face.

Sun shrugged, looking about nervously at all the people who had gathered, “I can clear the beach, you phone up the Professors- and Lillie, see if they can clear it out,”

Moon nodded grimly and Sun set off down the beach.

They were both expecting the worst, even if it had been years since they had last had contact with these sorts of things, both dex-holders were well accustomed to the danger they could pose and neither were very excited to experience that danger again. But, if they wanted the people of their region to be safe, they had to hurry into action despite their fears.

All my Pokespe fankids: (1893 words.)

~~Note: They are in order of oldest to youngest and the ages set are the ages they are at the time of Zunia's first birthday. Also note that their physical descriptions mostly describe them at the age of 15 or so unless there are important details that change as they grow up.

Pyrite - 12 years old - he/him
++ Parentage: PreciousMetalShipping (Silver x Gold)
— Physical Description: Pyrite has brown, bronze-toned skin with shoulder-length, feathery black hair that spikes up at the ends and in front of his face. (It is very similar to Gold's hairstyle but longer in the back.) He is not very tall and has short fingers and wide hands that come off comparably lanky arms. He has a flat, long nose that is very centered on his face. He is also relatively skinny but compact because he's not very tall. He has sort of off-gold eyes that almost seem dusty in a way, and look gray or silvery in the right lighting. He is also missing one of his teeth from an accident while playing pool, but eventually his adult teeth will grow in so it'll be fine.
— Fun facts: His design also features Lugia-style wings and tail, which he was born with in full AU. Also, Pyrite serves as a very accidental completion of an arch that me and @savebats started several years ago in a very primitive, early version of this AU. I love him.

Orange - 11 years old - she/her
++ Parentage: SpecialShipping (Red x Yellow)
— Physical Description: Orange was taller than her half siblings for most of her childhood, but she is quickly surpassed by her slightly younger half-brother, Trace. As a child, Orange is above average height but as she grows up she will not be as dramatically so- and Trace will tower over her. Orange has very pale skin with a slight pink tinge and deep orange eyes that are just barely not red. Her nose could probably described as upturned. She is mostly legs in terms of height and looks much shorter sitting down. Her hair is black and very straight but also very thick, and she usually keeps it up in a mid-height ponytail. (There are three identifiable spikes of hair near her bangs and three at the top of the ponytail as well.)
— Fun facts: She considers Red, Blue, and Yellow to all be her parents and all her half-siblings to be her full siblings.

Trace* - 11 years old - he/him
++ Parentage: OriginalShipping (Red x Blue Oak)
— Physical Description: Trace has tanner skin than Orange but is still quite pale- with an ashy, olive complexion. His nose is long and thin, and definitely not upturned. His eyes are a very dark brown that appears black. He also has reasonably dark brown hair that is mostly straight even though it's pretty fluffy, but gets a bit wavy when it's humid out and longer in length. Mostly, though, Trace keeps his hair cut pretty short (though he can never seem to get the front quite in check, as there are four rounded spikey sections that stick up.) When he was younger, Trace wasn't all that tall, but as he grows up he will be much above average height and, like his half-sister Orange, most of his height is in his legs. He is very skinny as well and likes to run.
— Fun facts: He will have to beat one of his dads in the League at some point in order to become champion briefly. Also, he's got very intense daddy issues :' D.

Lyra “Ly”* - 10 years old - she/her
++ Parentage: LazuriteShipping (Green x Crystal)
— Physical Description: Lyra is taller than the average height of girls her age, but not by much. She has strong, steady legs and arms, and always seems to have a smile on her face. She has a small-ish nose that is just barely upturned. Her skin-tone is comparable to Trace's, but slightly paler. She has light, milk-chocolate colored eyes and slightly lighter brown hair, which she keeps at shoulder-blade length and in two ponytails. (These always turn up at the ends in a gentle curve and end in a feathery, soft way.)
— Fun facts: She is a capturer, but likes setting the pokemon she catches free after taking notes.

Jade - 8 years old - she/her
++ Parentage: FeelingShipping (Blue Oak x Yellow)
— Physical Description: Jade is taller than her half-sister Orange and taller than her brother Jace even after they grow up, but she is still shorter than her half-brother Trace. So, above average height but not enough. She has relatively tan, olive skin but is paler than Pyrite. Her hair is a bit deeper brown than her skin and about down to her mid back. Usually, she likes to keep it in a half-up ponytail with the rest combed straight down (even though this style admittedly tangles very easily). Her eyes are green, but just barely because they look really, really yellow in most lightings. She has a sharp “Roman” nose.
— Fun facts: This is actually the oldest of all of these initial designs to exist as a fan-kid in my AU. She used to have a few other siblings, too other than those mentioned, but they no longer exist in the canon of this AU. (R.I.P. They were sort of replaced by Orange and Trace, in a way.)

Copper - 8 years old - he/him
++ Parentage: PreciousMetalShipping (Silver x Gold)
— Physical Description: Copper has tanned but mostly pale skin that has a pinkish undertone. He sunburns surprisingly easily, also. His hair is dark-ish but also the sort of reddish-brown that, in certain weathers, looks very red indeed. His eyes are a soft brown, and very wide. His nose, however, is like a carbon copy of his older brother's. He is, however, taller than Pyrite, but only by a little bit. Their pairs' limbs also have very different proportions as Copper's are softly proportionate and feature longer fingers and slimer hands in general. But, in bad to reasonable lighting, the pair look fairly similar in terms of their expressions and actions.
— Fun facts: I first decided to include this character because I thought Copper would be another very good name for a PreciousMetal fankid.

Brendan* - 7 years old - he/him
++ Parentage: FranticShipping (Ruby x Sapphire)
— Physical Description: Brendan is of middle height and on the light end of average weight, with long limbs and a short torso. His eyes are almost violet in color, but look brown in most lightings. His nose is very thin and pretty short, just barely upturned at the end. His hair is around shoulder length and very shaggy, but he keeps it back in a headband. The really shocking thing about his hair, though, is that it's white. Completely, all the way through. He didn't dye it either, it just started to grow in like that.
— Fun facts: For a while he had brown hair but it started to turn white when he was around six.

Gray - 7 years old - she/her
++ Parentage: AgencyShipping (Black x White)
— Physical Description: Gray has shaggy, chin-length brown hair that spikes up all around her head. It's wavy and dark brown, almost black. She has pale skin with an orangey undertone and some light freckles. Her eyes are rounded and dark gray- stormy. Her nose is rounded and yet sharp at the tip. All things considered, she's pretty tall also, with thin shoulders and slightly in-turned knees. She usually has an impish smile on her face, even when she's not really feeling it.
— Fun facts: This character was at first part of a non-canon joke with AgencyShipping and CorruptedShipping (Blake x Whi-two for those unaware) where I thought it would be funny if there were two fankids, one named Gray and one named Grey- only Gray made it through the “testing phase”, though.

Bronze - 6 years old - he/him
++ Parentage: PreciousMetalShipping (Silver x Gold)
— Physical Description: Bronze has short and spiky dark-brown hair that is significantly darker than his eyebrows, which are light brown for some odd reason. He's paler than his oldest brother but not so much as Copper and does not sunburn as easily. He is also more than a few hairs taller than his siblings and a bit more toned, with slightly visible muscles in his back. His eyes are very, very gray and stick out on his face because most of the rest of him is very warm in terms of color scheme. (For example, his hair can seem to have golden streaks in direct sunlight.) He's also got a flat, long nose and sharp ears.
— Fun facts: This character exists for the same reason as Copper, but he fills the role I initially envisioned for Pyrite's brothers much better, as I first imagined a sibling being a lot younger. Also, I made him a bit more muscular for the idea of filling out the old military character, for bronze armor. Get it?

Jace - 2 years old - he/him
++ Parentage: FeelingShipping (Blue Oak x Yellow)
— Physical Description: Jace has dirty-blonde hair that is much more stringy than his sister's but is usually in a short ponytail anyway. His eyes are much more green than hers, though, and very sharp on his face. He is also paler than her, but will tan easily. Out of his half-siblings, he's the second shortest (Orange is the shortest), and will stay that way even as he grows up. Like his sister, Jace has a very sharp, “Roman” nose. This matches him generally, though, because all his bones are very sharp in his body because he's pretty skinny.
— Fun facts: In an old version of this AU, Jace originally had a twin named Jadice who I really did like a lot. Maybe at some point she will be added to this list, but for now she's not canon anymore. (R.I.P.)

Zuina “Z” - 1 year old - she/her
++ Parentage: LaverreShipping (Xavier “X” x Yvonne “Y”)
— Physical Description: Zunia has dark brown eyes that really do look black even in direct light as well as dark, straight hair. Her hair is very thick, even though it's only shoulder length, and she usually keeps it down- but tucked behind her ears. She is reasonably tall- much taller than most girls around where she lives who are her age, and very, very lanky. She's not quite as skinny as her dad, X, but she does get cold, very, very easily even though she should be accustomed to it all things considered if that gives you an idea of her body type. She has a long, very sharp nose also, and it juts out from her face. This matches her well, too, because her jaw is very sharp and this can be easily seen from the front.
— Fun facts: My first name for this character was Zanna, and my second was Zia. Zuina is actually her third name, and I won't ever even call her it! She is Z to me.

*Trace, Lyra and technically Brendan are all characters directly from the pokemon games. By putting them on this list I am not claiming them as my own characters but simply headcanoning them in a way that fits them into my general AUs. Also consider that this design of Brendan is not canon but follows the popular old-timey headcanon that the games protagonist had long, white hair.

316+1893

Day 21: 10⎚ (Cabin Wars) (1703 words, 10⎚ for today.)
(25311 words, 146⎚ in total so far.)

Cabin Wars! (1703 words, 10⎚)

First war is from War from @PoppyWriter:
Hey myth! Cabin Wars! Write 3500 words as a cabin in the next 8 hours or lose 800 points. Extra challenge: Use three song titles in your writing! Every cabin member who does this can claim 50 points for their cabin! This applies for up to six campers (resulting in 300 points earned maximum.) Good luck, everyone!! :D

Build It Up (Explode) - Pokespe/Pokemon Special/Pokemon Adventures, drabble (that I ended up realizing I wanted to continue), vent, bad emotions, struggling with other people, Gold centric ‘cause it’s his birthday today. : )
Gold was done with this, this rolling in the deep, deep darkness of the inside of his mind. He had to get out of here, had to find his way back to the surface. Pressure like this… it made it hard for him to do even simple things.

So as he stared out at the blinking fireflies a few feet out from his camp, he let the pain boil in his gut. He let it stir inside him, let it build.

If it built high enough, maybe he would develop the courage to claw his way out of this sickening mental state. Maybe, with a bit more built up inside him, he would have the strength to confront those who made things so much worse for him- maybe he would have the right amount of fury, maybe the right amount of hate.

He might not have wanted to hate Crystal or Professor Oak, but as the years went on and the days passed, Gold realized just how much he had strayed from his initial opinions.

He used to respect Oak, even if he didn't say it.

He used to love Crystal, but now he wasn't so sure.

These days, everything was hard. Even waking up, even eating (even though he usually loved trying new foods). Everything was difficult and everything felt less and less like something that he even /could/ do.

The next week, as he laid flat against the kitchen floor, the ceiling spinning in and out of his view, Gold couldn't remember a time he had ever felt more lost. Even in his own home, nothing was familiar. Nothing felt warm, nothing felt safe.

Even his own mother was like a gray spot in his vision, and his pokemon only warm half of the time.

He was drowning, and he couldn't even think of a way to swim back up unless he let it build. Let it overflow.

Because if there was anything he wanted to do most in the world, perhaps second only to eventually having children, Gold wanted to blow up in the faces of the people who hurt him. He wanted, behind all his fake laughter and painful smiles, to show the others what they had done to him.

He wanted them to know that even if he went with them on roadtrip after roadtrip and mission after mission, even if they couldn't spot his mask- Gold was suffering from their actions. He didn't even mind the Rockets so much, they were easy to take out. He could uproot them, he could take out his anger there, but with the people he was supposed to thrive next to that wasn't a general possibility.

If he let himself overflow, though, would it be enough?

Would that be enough for his shell to crack, for the emotions to spill forth? For all the things he have never said to vomit themselves up from deep in his gut?

He hoped so.

He hoped there would be enough fury there that the people he exploded on would never forget it.

(511 words, extra challenge is the underlined bits!)


Gotta Know The Area - Pokespe/Pokemon Special/Pokemon Adventures, Yellow and Blue centric, set during the training chapter, a second take of mine on a pksp version of the Raticate angst headcanons. </3
I decided to re-do part of Birdi's world crawl from November (https://scratch-mit-edu.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/projects/762359450/), so….

—Write 100 words.

“Trust me,” Blue glanced over at Yellow as he poked at the fire, his face was lit with a burning orange light, “You do not want to be in Johto alone,”

Yellow squinted at him, trying to discern if the slight hop in his voice was from playfulness or leftover oddness from trying too hard to act casual. They had gotten on this topic from her asking a few questions about his own travels before she met him, and on that topic from wanting to know more about the boy they were both trying to save.

“Why not?” Yellow asked.

—Sprint until your word count reaches the next 1000.

Still poking at the fire, Blue rolled one of his shoulders back. The crack was audible over the sounds of the fire and distant insects in the desert. The light from the campfire was still flickering over Blue face and- could Yellow be imagining it- or did the look on his face darken as she asked the question?

“It doesn't matter,” he said at last, “You just don't,”

That answer just made Yellow want to know more, so she leaned in a bit closer, as if expecting that he would say more.

Blue must have seen her move because he scoffed slightly and, at last, put down the stick he had been shifting the coals around with.

Then, slowly turning towards her and stepping away from the fire, Blue reached out one arm very quietly. For a second, Yellow didn't see the pokeball in his hand and the movement confused her massively, but then she spotted it. It was… empty. Really, that confused her even more. She squinted a little harder, but as the seconds ticked by she still couldn't make sense of it. Why was he showing her it?

Blue waited a moment longer, but when her eyes traveled up to his face still confused, he sighed and dropped his arm.

“You just…” he started, then stopped and tried again, “It's not good to be in a place you don't recognize all by yourself,”

“I'd have my pokemon,” she pointed out.

He shook his head, “Still, it's not a good idea,”

Yellow could see the sense in his point, and really didn't disagree with it, but now she was curious. Even if she didn't want an argument, she wanted to know why Blue was telling her this so seriously. It was odd for him, she thought, not only to dance around a subject in this manner but to be so serious about something like this. A little flicker of curiosity inside her told her, so very seriously, that she had to know more.

“Why do you say that?” she asked, casually as a way of continuing the conversation in a relatively peaceful manner. She knew he could get defensive when questioned or even just spoken to, and she was really hoping that this wouldn't make him /get/ like that.

Surprisingly, Blue didn't look at all angry. No flare of anger, no darkness over his eyes, nothing of that sort.

But he did hesitate.

That was enough to make Yellow really curious, so she got up from where she had been sitting on her sleeping mat (it was actually his, she was just borrowing it), and reached out her arm. “Can I see the pokeball?”

Yellow could just barely see his hand clench a little harder on the rounded surface of the machine when she asked this and, ah, here was the spark of odd anger that she had anticipated. But it was gone quickly, replaced by a shake of her mentor's head and an extended arm of his own, holding the pokeball not to offer but to let her get a bit of a better look.

“This used to… have a pokemon in it,” Blue started quietly as Yellow peered at it. Now, a little closer and in better lighting, she could see thin cracks down the sides- and a scrape that had shaved off quite a bit of the opening mechanism. If it was broken like that and still empty, the pokemon must have been unable to return.

Yellow looked up at him in confusion, but a different confusion than before. His expression was hard to make out- somewhere between bitter and sorry, regretful in a particularly angry way (but she knew he wasn't angry at her).

“It… doesn't now,” Blue's arm dropped again and he looked down at his boots, “It hasn't for a long time,”

Yellow waited and eventually he went on.

“I used to have a Raticate,” he said, voice tight like he was trying to sound like something wasn't a big deal, “Like yours, but it was a little bigger, and I didn't catch it when it was a Rattata, so I didn't have to evolve it or anything,”

“It was bigger?” Yellow mused, wondering if somehow that had prevented the creature from entering the pokeball or something of that manner. Maybe the pokeball broke from something of that sort.

Blue shrugged, still looking down at the sandy ground, “A little, but that's not really noteworthy,”

If the size wasn't noteworthy, then what could have broken the pokeball?

“So, why's it not on your team anymore?” she asked, cocking her head to the side. She didn't know why he was telling her this, or what it had to do with Johto /or/ traveling alone, but she was anxious to get down to the bottom of it.

Blue stiffened at her question and for a second she worried that he was going to get angry with her.

But when he spoke, his voice was soft and oddly gentle- though sad in a way she had started to pick up on after a few weeks of training. “Raticate was killed when I was… training,” he said.

Yellow suddenly felt cold.

His pokemon died?

“Chuck was…” Blue was looking off into the distance, his eyes blurry and clearly peering somewhere past their surroundings and into his memories, “He wanted me to work on my strategy, but I wasn't fast enough with it yet,”

—Write at your own pace for 5 minutes.

Yellow didn't know what to say to that, so she just stared with her mouth slightly open.

Her thoughts spiraled, trying to imagine such a thing happening to Ratty, her own Raticate. She just couldn't seem to imagine one of her pokemon dying, let alone getting killed in battle. And in training, too? She couldn't seem to picture it, not in a way that didn't make her feel sick inside. This wasn't something that, with her little experience in the world of pokemon training, she could comprehend properly, but she knew it was nightmarish. Some freak accident like that… and to feel at blame for it, even all these years later?

And Blue had said he was seven when he started training with Chuck, right?

Yellow shivered.

Finally, Blue seemed to shake himself from his musings and memories, and looked directly at her. His eyes were disturbingly bright as the light of the fire reflected off them, and piercing in a way that made her cold all over again.

“Maybe I just don't think it's a good idea to be alone with Chuck,” he said softly.

(694 were for the war, but it was actually 1192 words in total.)

Okey I did this at a really weird time so I'm gonna stop recording for today rn and start recording for the 22nd! </3
(Bro is NOT getting the extra ingot for sleeping before 11PM today.)

Day 22: 10⎚ (Weekly) (5095 words, 10⎚ for today.)
(33894 words, 156⎚ in total so far.)

Updated PKSP fankid ages because I didn't like them:

Pyrite is still 12 years old at the time of Zuina being 1. Nothing's changed for him.

Orange is still 11 years old, nothing's changed here but I thought you should know that she's only a few weeks older than Trace. They are VERY close together in age.

Trace is still 11 years old, just like I said in the previous entry.

Lyra also has no changes in her age, she's still 10 just like last time I tried to work these out. (Also, I thought you should know- she's not actually a full year younger than Trace, but with the timing for this it's like that.)

Jade is still 8 years old because the awkwardly long gap that I'm about to create had to be at least somewhat interrupted.

Copper's age is getting changed. Last time I worked these out I said he should be 8 years old but I was just horribly wrong. That's really not the age I've ever imagined for him- it's too close in age to his other brother and really doesn't make sense. As such, Copper's age in this situation is going to get changed to 5. He's five now, yippie.

Brendan has to get dropped because Copper still needs to be older than him, so instead of 7 years old he is now also 5 years old but a few months younger than Copper.

Gray, like Brendan and Copper, is also 5 years old instead of 7, now, but she's really just had her birthday a few weeks ago and is closer to being labeled as 4 than not.

Bronze is now 3 instead of 6 years old. Yay!

Jace gets to stay 2 years old. Good for him, good for him.

Zuina is still 1 year old because that's, for some odd reason, the metric I decided on to build this all off of. Maybe I should have based it off Pyrite being 15 or something. Oh well, too late now.

Note: In the fanfic I'm about to write for the Weekly Pyrite is going to be seven and Copper's going to be just a few weeks old. Just a heads up!

(360 words.)

Weekly: Action (4608 words, 10⎚)
https://scratch-mit-edu.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/discuss/post/7382139/

Part one: planning

Main character: Gold
Other characters: Silver, Crystal, Pyrite, Copper, random Rocket Grunts, Whitney.
Plot-relevant mentioned characters: Gold's mom, Giovanni, Arianna, Crystal's mom, Pryce, Green and Lyra.

General things I want to explore in this fic: Good/protective parent! Gold, (this being because he's “The Hatcher” and is therefore good with children in the ways that matter), past Mangaquest with current PreciousMetal and mild Lazurite, actually evil Team Rocket, Better Powers AU (credit to @savebats), Pyrite as a character, the Johto trio's parents and parental experiences.

General plot background:
- Johto has been having increases in Team Rocket activity lately, and Giovanni's gone strangely missing.
- Now that he's old enough to start his own pokemon journey, Pyrite really wants to help the ‘first gen’ dex-holders.
- Gold thinks it's way too dangerous for him, and he might be right.

General plot:
- Gold wakes up feeling weird and when he checks his son's room, Pyrite's gone and so are all his pokemon.
- He obviously panics and grabs Silver, then phones up Crys.
- Apparently, Crys got a message from Whitney that there's trouble in Goldenrod with Team Rocket. Gold wonders why he didn't get this message (Silver's communicator is broken), then he realizes he doesn't have it.
- They come to the conclusion that Pyrite must have taken the band and gone to fight the Rockets.
- Everybody rushes there to help and Pyrite's in trouble. Whitney can't seem to get past the Rockets but she tells them in a panic that Pyrite went further in.
- Gold blasts through and basically saves his son.
- Story over good night.

(261 words.)

Part two: intro

Gold's eyes slid open slowly and his adjusting eyes were met with the semi-darkness of early dawn.

There was a distant memory of the dream of the previous night slowly receding from his mind, and it was paired with an odd taste on his tongue. The air felt strangely cold around him, his skin prickling in a way it really shouldn't have been inside a heated house, and Gold could just barely feel an odd fear eating at the back of his mind from the dream- even as the memory of what that had been about steadily slipped away.

Managing to pry his eyes open all the way, Gold found his gaze resting on the sleeping form of his son in the crib that had been set up only a few months back. The sleeping form of the baby resting inside looked peaceful in the darkness- the kid finally getting some sleep and not crying for food for once. And he really looked quite cute in there. The sight made Gold feel a little better, a bit of warmth spreading in his chest and briefly pushing back the cold.

But if Copper hadn't woken him up, what had?

Gold slowly sat up, eyes drifting up from Copper's crib and to the closed door of his and Silver's room. They had officially moved in here a few years back, but they had spent quite enough time here for him to know the layout of the house quite well. Across the hall and just a few feet closer to the stairwell was the room the other member of their family had picked out, and for some reason Gold felt strangely drawn to that door at the moment- even hidden behind his own closed door as it was.

He never woke up this early, especially not with the new baby (he got so little sleep these days that it was hard to get up even on a good day). Something felt wrong.

And with the slowly developing abilities he had been able to pull up from what he had already been gifted, Gold knew that if he had strange urges and worries like this coming from a parental place, he would be wrong not to check and see what was wrong. The air really did feel cold.

Making a split second decision, Gold reached over and gently shook Silver's shoulder, his eyes still trained on the door.

“Silv,” he shook his boyfriend's shoulder again when Silver only let out a soft murmur, but didn't otherwise stir, “Silv I think something's wrong,”

A few seconds passed, then Silver turned over to look at him. He was clearly struggling up from some sort of deep sleep but still focused despite this when he heard a hint of trouble. “What is it?” Silver asked, voice a whisper so as to not wake the baby.

Gold looked down at him, and with his slowly adjusting eyes was just barely able to make out Silver's features in the dim light of the morning. Gold hesitated, then squeezed Silver's shoulder lightly, whispering back, “I'm not sure, but something's… up,” It was hard to put into words exactly what the instinctual gut-feelings he got when it came to his children were like, but he was steadily becoming sure that it wasn't just leftover fear from a nightmare the more he woke up.

Gold's chest was tight as he started to get up, “I'm gonna go check on Pyrite, you stay here.”

Silver whispered something that was probably a worried question of some sort, but Gold was already out of range and his words weren't quite clear enough to make out. Usually he would have asked Silver to repeat the question, but he was already starting to feel worried adrenaline seeping into his veins and only had one thought on his mind: checking on his son.

So, careful and quiet to not wake Copper, Gold opened the door and slipped out into the hallway.

Hurriedly he made his way to Pyrite's door. It was shut tight.

Gold hesitated, hand hovering over the door knob. He was almost scared of what he might find, parental paranoia bringing back dread and worries he had experienced in the past. But he knew he couldn't stand there forever, so Gold tried to ignore his painfully beating heart and gently opened the door. Peeking inside, he squinted in the darkness of this room. The windows here pointed away from the sunrise, and it was even darker than his own room at the moment.

Maybe that was why it took him so long to realize what was wrong.

(771 words.)

Part three: conflict

Then his blood ran cold.

Gold slammed the door all the way open, his heart rising into his throat as he violently flicked the light on.

His son wasn't there.

“'Rite?” he called shakily, but there was no response. The room was empty- even of the pokemon that usually occupied it alongside his seven year old. He tried again, voice a little higher pitched, “Pyrite?”

But no one answered.

Gold felt his breaths shortening, eyes wide as he ripped back the covers to check under them. His throat hurt as he called out again and peered under the bed, but there was no movement there either.

Then, as he was about to check on the bed again, Gold felt a hand on his shoulder.

He whipped around to face Silver, who looked concerned at his boyfriend's erratic behavior but still not quite sure what was going on.

“He's gone!” Gold exclaimed, his voice breathy with disbelief and fear.

Silver had seemed to notice this fact just as Gold pointed it out, going a little paler than normal as his eyes widened, “Gone?” he whispered back.

Gold nodded, turning back and gesturing at the empty bed. He felt panic rising in his throat, cold all over and filled with the reality of the fears that had woken him. Shakily, he looked back at his boyfriend and opened his mouth, but he couldn't think of anything helpful to say other than, simply: “gone”.

The pair stared around the empty room for a moment longer, uncomprehending and filled with dread, before Gold finally managed to shake himself out of the momentary trance and pull together enough strength to turn back to Silver and steel himself for the worst. “You check downstairs,” he directed, voice surprisingly steady through his dread, “I'll contact Crys,”

Silver nodded and immediately rushed out to check in all the other potential hiding spots in the rest of the house.

For Gold's part, he took one more look around the room and then quickly crossed the hall back into his and Silver's. The sight of Copper still sleeping so peacefully only gave him a little bit of relief as he stumbled over the carpet and stopped in front of the bedside table. His head was spinning. Strange. He usually left his Pokegear out, and he could have sworn he did the previous night.

Maybe he had put it in the drawer last night- he had been really tired, after all.

Gold pried open the drawer and reached around inside blindly for a moment. But, even after a bit of searching, he came up empty-handed. Gold's heart felt like it was in his throat; he was starting to piece together some sort of explanation for what had happened. But, just to be sure, he crossed the room again and checked through the pockets of his clothes from the previous day.

Still, there was no sign of his Pokegear.

So, feeling a bit light-headed, Gold headed out of the room again (still making sure to be quiet enough not to wake Copper).

He met Silver on the stairs and, unfortunately, Silver looked even more worried than before and pointedly did not have their missing son with him. “Couldn't find ‘im,” Silver muttered, jaw set and eyebrows knit together.

“Yeah, well,” Gold’s chest was starting to hurt, head still spinning, “I couldn't find my Pokegear- and I /know/ I left it out last night,”

“On the nightstand?” Silver asked.

Gold nodded.

For a moment longer, they both stood in silence. Then, Silver spoke up, sounding very concerned indeed. “Do you think he took it?”

Feeling helpless, Gold shrugged. What Silver said was a possibility, and had been what he was starting to think, too. Their son wasn't yet legal trainer age, but he had grown up alongside very active dex-holders his whole life and already had a full pokemon team. For a year or so now, he had been getting pushy with joining in on missions and battles- even when Gold insisted that it was way too dangerous for a seven year old (even one who had grown up around pokemon his whole life).

“Rocket's been picking up lately,” Silver said it like it had just dawned on him, the realization crossing his face and turning him even paler, “Do you think…?”

Gold didn't want to imagine their son going out to battle a Rocket invasion without telling either of his dads. “Could he have even taken it without waking Copper up?” Gold tried to reason against it, but it was half-hearted. He was almost positive that Pyrite had taken his Pokegear and gone to battle some Rockets at the first alert he saw.

“Mine hasn't been working,” Silver muttered, going over the facts again, “We wouldn't have woken up with the alert…”

Groaning, Gold turned back to their room, “Has your dex been working with the texting feature?”

Silver nodded, walking in stride with him as they re-entered their room, “I'll contact Crys, see if she got anything,”

And as Silver went over to his side of the bed and retrieved his pokedex, Gold went over to the edge of Copper's crib and looked down. He felt all fuzzy inside, full of fear and uncertainty. They would have to go after Pyrite if he really had gone to take on a Rocket invasion, but at least in that case they would know his whereabouts. Still, though, he hated to imagine his son in such a dangerous situation.

Since Giovanni's disappearance, Team Rocket had been getting more and more violent and Gold wasn't particularly fond of the idea of his son engaging with the new sorts of battles their grunts were waging.

At least his baby's sleeping face still looked peaceful in the gentle light of dawn.

—

“So what did the alert say?” Gold called into the receiver of his pokedex, clutching hard to it with one hand as he held onto Exbo's fur with his other hand, squinting as he helped his pokemon weave through the trees that covered so much of their shortcut. Above the trees, Silver and Murkrow streaked on, getting an aerial view of Goldenrod City.

“I don't remember, exactly- /oh!/” Crystal voice crackled through, cut off with a shout and a few sounds of collision before she came back a little too close to the microphone, “But we haven't been able to get very far in; Whitney's Gym was taken over when she got there to open up this morning,”

Gold furrowed his brow, ducking low against his pokemon's back as a branch whipped by overhead, “Any Executives?”

“None so far,” Crystal said, “But a-” she was cut off again with a shout, “-a /whole lot/ of grunts, how close are you?”

“Not far,” Gold squinted up the path ahead, “But we had to drop Copper off at my mom's…”

She grunted in acknowledgement, and Gold suddenly felt another wave of cold.

“Oh god,” he grunted, feeling dread seeping up through his skin as he knotted his hand harder into Exbo's warm fur, “/Something's/ happening with Pyrite- have you seen him?”

Crystal sounded worried, humming before starting to either ask a question or answer- but she was cut off as a beep alerted them of Silver joining the call.

“Heads up Gold,” his voice crackled through, “You've got a group of grunts running up on your right side,”

Gold groaned and grabbed the pokedex between his teeth, knotting his other hand into Exbo's fur and leaning down flat against the pokemon's back. He leaned to the left and Exbo veered with him. At the angle, Gold was able to catch sight of the group- three grunts holding on tightly to the necks of their Ekans' as they slithered along at record pace.

Growling through the pokedex, Gold pressed himself flat against Exbo and urged the creature to go faster.

He could just barely make out Silver's voice urging him to run faster, alerting of a ravine ahead that they would have to jump. Exbo leapt it easily, and then landed on the other side and kept racing. When Gold glanced back, he saw that the grunts had stopped at the edge of the ravine. One of them seemed to be talking into a communicator. They might have been calling for backup, but Gold didn't care.

Soon enough, they were out of view and Gold was able to unknot his hand from Exbo's fur and pull the pokedex out of his mouth once more.

“Good job,” Silver breathed, his voice crackling and relived in Gold's ear.

“They're gone?” Crystal asked, sounding out of breath.

Gold's chest felt tight, “I think I lost them,”

Silver mumbled something in agreement that was too garbled to make out, then spoke up, “I can see the city now, Crys,”

“About time!” she called through the mic, and she was cut off once again with vague sounds of bashing before returning to the call, “We're really struggling over here,”

Gold felt anger well up in his chest, even though she hadn't really said anything wrong. He had to bite his own tongue to hold back a /comment/ about the fact that his son was probably in the thick of it right at that moment, and managed to power through and keep his voice steady enough to ask, “How many grunts would you say? As an estimate,”

“Dunno,” Crystal said, and the sounds of battle dimmed- she was pulling back, “I'd say over fifty out here, maybe a hundred- and we haven't made it into the Gym yet,”

Silver groaned and Gold felt his heart sink too. With that many people and that much violence, it was very likely that their son was in horrible danger- far worse than just taking on a grunt or two. This was exactly what he had feared happening if Pyrite were to involve himself in one of these Rocket skirmishes; it just wasn't safe. Even /he/ didn't really want to have to face that many grunts at once, though he knew it was a requirement as both a dex-holder and as a parent.

But, soon enough, Gold and Exbo burst out of the treeline and over some poor citizen's fence. From here, he couldn't see any Rockets, but he did see plenty of civilians in a panic.

They shouted encouragingly as he raced by- always happy to be saved by a powerful trainer.

“Oh wow,” Silver's voice sounded somewhat disgusted as it came through the pokedex. That was right. From his vantage point, Silver could easily see the invasion in full.

Gold hadn't been able to Fly because Togebo had gotten injured in a skirmish a few weeks before, and his other flying pokemon just weren't good ideas for long distance. All things considered, though, an hour and a half was very good time to make while crossing practically the whole region- especially on foot. (Exbo had been forced to use a modified form of Quick Attack plenty of times to make the journey faster.)

“It's bad, huh?” Crystal agreed.

Silver hesitated, then skipped over her comment, “I'll drop on top of the Gym, see if we can take a bunch out with Hydro Cannon,”

“It's surrounded right?” Gold asked and then, before waiting for an answer, continued, “I can torch people from the outside, see if we can clear them out,”

“Good ideas,” Crystal said, sounding very relieved to finally have backup.

(1904 words.)

Part four: climax

Then, Silver clicked the line closed and Gold slipped his pokedex back into his pocket. He hadn't mentioned it again on the call because he didn't want to scare Silver, but his heart was hammering in his chest in a way that it only did when one of the ‘links’ that came with his position as a pokedex holder was pointing to danger. Wherever Pyrite was in that mess, it wasn't good. He just hoped firepower would be enough to blast into the gym.

Finally, Exbo rounded a corner and rushed into the main area of the Gym. There, behind an overturned, scorched truck, Crystal was frantically healing up her Arcanine. And a bit away from there, Whitney and her Miltank were fighting for their lives against a triple fighting-type trio. There were some other Ace Trainers here and there, but it seemed like lower-level trainers had (thankfully) kept away for the most part. Even if they could use help, it was best not to put inexperienced people in the middle of something like this.

Exbo skidded to a halt by Crystal and began to sniff at the injured pokemon splayed out near the grass-type trainer. Seeing the wound, Gold jumped off his pokemon's back and bent down to assess the damage. In the distance, he could hear the tell-tale signs of Feraligatr's Hydro Cannon.

“It's not too bad,” Crystal tried to push him away, “You have to go help them!”

“You're sure?” Gold bit his lip. The injury looked pretty severe to him.

“You have to go make sure Pyrite's safe, right?” she asked, sounding somewhat exasperated.

That was true.

In a second, Gold was back on Exbo's back and racing towards Whitney. Even with her ace out, she looked exhausted- and Miltank looked just about ready to give out as well. After all, these Rockets had chosen the only type of pokemon that her team was weak to.

With a shout of ‘get down!’, Gold ducked low over Exbo's back and, as they leapt right over Whitney, Exbo fired a Blast Burn directly at the Rockets and their pokemon. When the smoke cleared, they all lay completely still and smoking on the scorched, blackened pavement. Gold whipped around to face Whitney.

“Thank you!” Whitney called, having her exhausted Miltank take out a Hitmontop as it Rapid Spun a little too close to Gold for comfort.

“No problem!” Gold shouted back, but he was starting to feel so antsy with worry over his son that being on the outside of this chaos was making it hard to focus, “Have you seen Pyrite?”

A flash of fearful, apologetic worry passed over Whitney's face. “I… I think I saw him slip in the main doors a bit ago- I'm sorry, they've been targeting me, I couldn't keep him back..!”

Gold very narrowly ducked an Ice Punch as he and Exbo wheeled back around to face the gym. Horror was filling him. “Do you think he made it inside? He'd been completely overtaken!”

“I don't know!” Whitney wrung her hands. Her Miltank crushed a Heracross' shell between its arms.

Even though he felt like panicking, Gold knew he had to keep his head. He had tried, his whole life, to be liked by other people. Now, as a parent, he had tried the whole time to keep his babies safe. He wanted Pyrite to love him, because he loved his son so much- because he was inspired by his own mother. But if he couldn't keep the boy safe from harm, what sort of Hatcher was he anyway?

Gold threw Sunbo's pokeball into the fray, shouting with it “Sunny Day!!”

Immediately as the pokemon burst forth from the ball it's petals unfurled with a blinding light and a scream, the air grew uncomfortably warm and painfully bright. Then, as Sunbo dove out of the way, Exbo geared up for a second Blast Burn and fired.

The flames tore completely through the nearest couple of pokemon, frying some Rockets on the spot and half-melting a nearby brick wall. Without a second thought, Exbo and Gold dove directly into the fray, shouting for the way to be cleared. And now that they saw the sheer power of that move, the grunts did dive out of the way- some horribly burned and some just barely unscathed. Only a few trainers were brave enough to get in their way and these, too, were dealt with quickly.

Gold didn't care that he wasn't battling within the rules of a typical pokemon battle. All he cared about was getting to his son.

There were too many people he knew who had grown up with bad parents. Gold's mom was wonderful, but she wasn't the best at actually keeping her son safe. Gold's father… Gold didn't talk about him. Silver's parents were litteral Mafia Bosses- and he had barely ever been in contact with them because of the whole kidnapping deal when he was young. Crystal had never met her father, and her mother was… difficult. Really, Gold just wanted to give the next generation a better chance at life.

In a moment, Exbo had blasted through the front door of the Gym and tackled the Rocket grunts who had been supposed to be guarding it to the ground. Water from past Hydro Cannons swept into the room and soaked Gold's sneakers as he jumped down from his pokemon's back and splashed onto the ground.

Everyone in the room froze, all turning in disbelieving shock to see who had managed to get into the building. There were less grunts inside, but they were more organized and all seemed to be facing towards a small figure in the center of the room. The figure had a mop of messy black hair, silvery yellow eyes, and a familiar, deep skin tone that matched Gold's own nearly perfectly. There was blood seeping out of a cut on his head and only one pokemon left standing that seemed to be protecting him rather than attacking.

“Pyrite!” Gold screamed, and barreled forward- chucking his remaining pokeballs out to his sides.

The grunts seemed too surprised to even attack him properly- all shouting and directing their pokemon too late to do any real damage- as Exbo swept them back with Flamethrower after Ember after Flamethrower and as the others dove into battle.

Soon he was at his son's side, and Pyrite looked up at him through blood and scorch marks almost uncomprehendingly.

“I h-had them…!” Pyrite groaned as his dad cradled him in his lap, Gold hugged him fiercely before pulling back and getting a better look at the sustained injuries that covered his son's body.

As Exbo waged war on the Rockets around them, Gold scolded, “Don't EVER do that again!” He fished a Burn Heal out of his sweatshirt pocket and sprayed it over the worst looking burn across Pyrite's side- where his shirt was burned away and crumbling, “You know how dangerous it is- and so far away, too!” Pyrite winced in pain as the Item did its work, but the situation was dire enough and the adrenaline was strong enough that Gold couldn't spare to pay attention to such things. Instead, he sprayed a Potion over the dripping wound on his son's head.

Soon enough, Pyrite seemed to be in at least manageable condition, and Gold had to hold back the urge to use another Item. As helpful as these powerful healing items could be, there was a point when too much usage could start to cause harm rather than help heal injuries. So, dialing back his overprotective worries, Gold looked down at his son.

He looked exhausted and angry- but still happy to see his dad.

A Rocket grunt screamed as Exbo shook her back and forth, crunched between his teeth. Somewhere in the distance, Gold could hear Silver, Crystal, and Whitney rushing into the room- their teams blazing just as his was.

Gold squeezed him tight and pressed a kiss against his forehead (which Pyrite certainly would have batted away had he really been angry). Gold's heart was still hammering, but the relief that flooded his body as he held his son was palpable. The worst had been avoided. His baby was safe.

(1374 words.)

Part five: conclusion

—

“'Rite!” Gold called from the living room.

“In a sec!” Pyrite shouted down from upstairs.

Gold rolled his eyes and looked over at Silver, smirking. “Kid's gonna miss starter day,”

“So sad,” Silver sipped his coffee, eyes still trained on the Proteam Omega comics in the newspaper.

Gold smiled, then dropped it and looked back up at the staircase, scowling as he shouted up, “/Pyrite!/”

There was a dramatic groan, and a moment or so later their son came tripping down the staircase, his arms stuffed full with clothes and an open bag, his five pokemon trailing after him.

“Arceus, dad,” Pyrite scowled at Gold, “You act like I'm gonna get lost on the way there,”

“I just want you to get there safely,” Gold rolled his eyes, they held out a paper bag, “I packed you breakfast and some snacks, come back later today, okay?”

Pyrite snatched the bag and nodded enthusiastically. A pair of running shorts slipped out of his grasp and flopped onto the floor. “I will! You'll need to meet whoever I add to my team-” he looked down at the pokemon crowding around his legs, “Right guys?”

Gold smiled, reaching up and taking the filled water bottle Aibo had been trying to hand to him. This he traded off to Pyrite. “Better hurry then,” Gold advised his son, “so you can see who's the best!”

Grinning, Pyrite grabbed the shorts and stuffed them back in his bag, nodding sharply before turning and hurrying to the door. At the last second, he turned back and waved to his dads, smile wide. “Bye!” he called.

Silver smiled and waved after him. “Bye!” Gold waved too, laughing as he leaned over the counter.

Then, Pyrite was gone. But this time, Gold trusted him to be safe.

(298 words.)

Challenge (127 words)
Extra challenge: Ask any other swc-er for a writing dare, and complete it! The dares given out should be able to be completed within a short time frame; any dares that set a word goal over 500 or a time goal over 15 minutes are ineligible. Every cabin member who does this can claim 25 points for their cabin! This applies for up to six campers (resulting in 150 points earned maximum.)
Challenge from @-BrokenMelody-: “Write about chickenmonster that terrifies children”

She hadn't wanted to instill fear in this way, but Clucky realized over time that the children who ran screaming from her were not simply playing around. They weren't happy and playful as she had always assumed- they were scared of her.

Even though her emotions weren't very complicated, Clucky knew enough about feelings to know that this made her very, very sad.

Sure, her wings were long and scraggly and covered in thin, graying skin… but her eyes were so wide and cute! Couldn't they focus on that instead of the fanged beak? Couldn't they try to see her for her cheerful attitude and loveable personality instead of the seven inch talons on the ends of her scaley feet?

Clucky felt very sad about it indeed.

—Note that some of these things were written for cabin wars! these included:
“Cabin Wars! Write 4500 words as a cabin in the next 7 hours, or else lose 700 points. Extra : Ask any other swc-er for a writing dare, and complete it! The dares given out should be able to be completed within a short time frame; any dares that set a word goal over 500 or a time goal over 15 minutes are ineligible. Every cabin member who does this can claim 50 points for their cabin! This applies for up to six campers (resulting in 300 points earned maximum.) Good luck!!” (from @syrozenne)

“'Cabin Wars! Write 4000 words as a cabin in the next 9 hours or lose 900 points.' andd ‘Extra challenge: Write 200 words in an archaic or old-fashioned style! Every cabin member who does this can claim 50 points for their cabin. This applies for up to six campers (resulting in 300 points max).’ you guys have been warring everybody >:0 /nm” (from @ForestPanther)

360+4608+127

Alrighty.

So I messed up my addition somewhere, so I had to re-add all the total words. Now it's this:

1366+2882+260+2235+217+2109+4012+1142+1895+257+130+1601+2314+405+2097+1162+382+0+421+2209+1703+5095.

That all adds up to 33894 words in total as of the 22nd day.

I think I must have typoed a thousand or something in a few places when adding the totals up the first time, but this seems to be accurate. I'm so sorry for all the trouble. ToT

Day 23: 5⎚ (Daily) 871 words, 5⎚ for today.)
(34765 words, 161⎚ in total so far.)

Cabin Daily: Work on other stuff (871 words, 5⎚)
We've had a lot of fun participating in the past few dailies, but we're giving everyone time today to work on any pre-existing writing projects you have. Whether that's a novel or working on the weekly, make use of this day to work on some writing! Write 400 words to earn 300 points for your cabin.

I did this daily working on an original story I've been putting off for a long time, which I can not post here because I may one day want to publish it and I want it to be clear that it's not, in fact, stolen from a random Scratch user. In any case, this was a very helpful daily, thank you for it!

Day 24: 5⎚ (Daily) 100 words, 5⎚ for today.)
(34865 words, 166⎚ in total so far.)

Cabin Daily: blurb (100 words, 5⎚)
Welcome to Bestselling Bookstore! Write a blurb for your favourite or most recent writing project in 100 words, and share it with us in the main cabin comments. Then shop the comments, and make sure to comment on your favourite blurbs so they know you'd buy their book! Completing this daily will win you 200 points for your cabin.

I did mine on the Miraculous Ladybug fic I wrote earlier this year- All That Is Disconsolate Is Without You

Marinette's a teenage superhero in the wake of past crushes. Chloe's a rich teen girl who's in love with the superhero form of a girl she used to bully. When Chloe finds out the identity of the girl she's crushing on, she sends a glitter gel-pen apology. When Marinette receives it, she can't believe it's true.

But Mariette supposes they can build trust in order to forgive. Just to give it a try, right? She didn't start the conflict in the first place, so if Chloe now wants it all to end… what's so bad about trying a new angle?

I also just Planned Out a Choose Your Own Adventure (PKMN themed) and it took me over 2 hours but there's only 34 actual words. I am still counting the 34 words because that was hard work. : |

100+34

Day 25: (339 words, 0⎚ for today.)
(35204 words, 166⎚ in total so far.)

Some image descriptions for a meme blog I help run: (339 words.)

Id: A textpost meme about Blake from Pokemon Special. It shows a Tumblr post by the user mellawithapenguin which reads: “hey sorry but i put your boyfriend in a poll and no one voted for him. Yeah he got like one percent of the votes. the people in the tags are laughing at him. sorry” An arrow points up from the words “your boyfriend” to point at an image of Blake looking slightly dejected as he smiles. /End Id
Id: A Tumblr post by the user mellawithapenguin which reads: “hey sorry but i put your boyfriend in a poll and no one voted for him. Yeah he got like one percent of the votes. the people in the tags are laughing at him. sorry” /End Id
Id: A cropped panel of Blake from Pokemon Special. He is pale with dark, choppy hair that sticks out over a cap. He is shown from the shoulders up and is smiling, looking a bit dejected even with the smile. /End id

(Image description in ALT text, original images below the cut!)

Id: A textpost meme about Hareta and Piplup from Pokemon DPA. It shows an cropped panel of these two looking very awkward in an oversized suit (for Hareta) and an extremely oversized top-hat (for Piplup). This is over a screenshot of some tags that read “#he’s trying his best #but most of his eras are flop eras” /End Id
Id: A screenshot of some Tumblr tags that read “#he’s trying his best #but most of his eras are flop eras” /End Id
Id: A cropped panel of Hareta and Piplup from the Pokemon DPA manga. It shows the two standing next to each other wearing oversized outfits. Piplup looks extremely dejected and sad, a balloon is tied to his flipper and his hat is way too large for his head. Above him, the sound effects read: “doom”. Hareta is attempting to comfort Piplup, looking very awkward as he wears a black suit jacket and baggy, oversized gray dress pants. /End Id

Day 26: 5⎚ (Cabin daily) (1237 words, 5⎚ for today.)
(36441 words, 171⎚ in total so far.)

Cabin Daily: switch styles (401 words, 5⎚)
Ever wanted to write like the showstopping and starstrucking @Stariqe? Jealous of @Alocasia's unbeleafable writing skills? Or maybe you want to learn how to cook up sweet creamy stories like @caramelize. Well, this bidaily is the one just for you! Everybody's got a distinct style, and we'll be playing a style swap. In the comments, post a writing piece that best represents your style (if you don't have a distinct style, pick your best or more recent piece). Then, claim somebody else's piece and try mimicking their style by writing a different 400 word piece. Pay close attention to sentence structures, perspectives, imagery, and characterization. Completing this bidaily will earn you 600 points! Sharing your writing is required.
I tried to replicate @savebats' style! I don't think it went very well, but I tried. : /

There was something strange here. Red could feel it in the air, something off. Pika sniffed the air from where he perched on Red's shoulder. He growled low, leaning down over his trainer's shoulder as his fur bristled. That wasn't good.

Red squinted into the darkness, just trying to see a few feet in front of himself. Still though, the darkness was impermeable. Whatever Pika saw, Red's eyes weren't good enough to make it out. “What is it Pika?” he breathed, still squinting. Pika clicked his teeth together. The nervous chatter made Red nervous, too.

He didn't like this at all.

As far as Red was concerned, both he and Pika were in danger but he couldn't see what they were in danger of. Was it a wild pokemon? A flood (though he should have been able to hear that)? Or was it something worse? Could it be a trainer, slowly creeping up on him? Red's body felt cold suddenly. He didn't like the idea of being snuck up on. He had already had far too many close calls.

So he called out to the hypothetical person standing past the light of his campfire. “Hello?” When no one responded, and Pika still bristled, Red put one hand on Snorlax's pokeball. Continuing to squint, he tried to make out any potential threat but he still couldn't see a thing. Whatever was out there, and Pika seemed sure there was something, Red didn't want to be surprised by it.

“Get ready Pika,” he murmured to his pokemon, just starting to detect slight signs of movement in the darkness. Something was out there for sure, and he felt cold all over.

Then, it jumped out into the light.

Red froze. Instead of a powerful wild pokemon or a creep a small, completely unthreatening bird was staring up at him. It was probably about the size of his hand. It wasn't even a pokemon, just some regular animal. Those weren't very common around here.

“Oh wow,” Red breathed, feeling his blood start to return to a normal temperature. On his shoulder, Pika looked surprised too. “It fooled us, buddy,” he managed to laugh. Now that the cold was starting to go away, Red could feel how fast his heart had been beating. He loosened his grip on Snorlax's pokeball.

“It's just a normal animal,” he said, staring at the bird, “Guess you were wrong, Pika!”

Dex-Holder Better Powers AU - All Powers Listed (836 words.)
(Credit to @savebats for the AU and the base ideas for a lot of these powers)

Red
- Super-strength

Green
- Evolving/De-evolving pokemon with touch
- Evolving/De-evolving pokemon with her mind
- Mega evolving pokemon without a mega-stone

Blue
- Controlling other people's actions with words
- Mild influence over the emotions of other people depending on how much emotion he puts into his voice
- Commanding pokemon to use moves they don't know

Yellow
- Move small objects with her mind
- Understand the thoughts/emotions of pokemon
- Heal pokemon and people with her mind
- Raise her pokemon's levels with her emotions

Ash
- Slow damage/HP drain to people and pokemon around him
- Can read and influence other people's auras
- Can ‘see’ with aura
- Can control aura in general

Gold
- Can encourage new pokemon species into existence if he is emotional around pokemon eggs
- Understands children and young pokemon very well
- Has a sort of ‘mental link’ to his own children
- Is a beta. Don't ask.
- Can reveal other people's true thoughts about children to them if he is nervous
- Appears very parental. Like. Visibly so. Which is weird because he doesn't really act like it.

Silver
- Can swap his position with someone else if he touches them
- Can swap two people or pokemon's positions if he touches both of them at the same time

Crystal
- Can create pokeballs out of ‘thin air’ by doing an underhand throwing motion

Ruby
- Has a sort of ‘love potion’ infatuation effect on people around him
- Can weaken people over time by sapping their strength through infatuation

Sapphire
- Exudes intense dread and fear on the people and pokemon around her
- Can scare some people into fainting depending on how angry she is

Platinum
- Can understand/read all human languages
- Can learn other languages far easier than most people
- Can understand the true intentions behind speech of her own native language

Diamond
- Can feel the emotions of people around him (experiences them himself)

Pearl
- Can anticipate what move a pokemon will use before it's directed
- To explore this further, he can also anticipate certain events if they are sudden or violent
- Can often guess what people will say

Hareta
- Similarly to Ruby or Sapphire, he exudes a feeling on the people and pokemon around him. It's friendship.
- He can make friends very easily, even with people who supposedly don't like him

Mitsumi
- Joint power with Jun.
- Each day they can choose to ‘flip a coin’- if they do, one of them will be very lucky and the other will be very unlucky

Jun
- Joint power with Mitsumi.

Koya
- If he wants to, he can sprout certain Growlithe features such as: tail, claws, fangs, ears.
- He can also create fire if he is in this half-dog form
- This fire can be used like a real pokemon attack

Black
- Joint power with White.
- Can choose to see each other's ‘shared’ thoughts
- Choice to share dreams each night
- Can enter each other's dreams or wake each other up
- In a way, this constant presence is almost like having a soul-link

White
- Joint power with Black.

Blake
- Semi joint power with Whi-two.
- Can create unbreakable chains from thin air (they literally can't be broken)
- These can link to himself or between other people or objects

Whi-two
- Semi joint power with Blake.
- Can destroy the chains Blake creates.
- If one of them dies, all the chains will disappear and will no longer be able to be creatable. After all, you have to destroy matter if you create it! (Totally how that works.)

Cheren
- Can speak into other people's minds as long as they are in his line of sight
- They can't communicate back

Bianca
- Each day she can choose another dex-holder's power
- Her usage of these powers is weaker than the natural user, for example if she dream-shares with White and Black she will have noticeably ‘bad connection’

X
- Can become either partially or fully invisible

Y
- Can grow wings out of her arms (imagine a harpy)
- With these, she can fly

Trevor
- He can ‘decide’ something about himself or a pokemon for a short period of time. With this he can:
- Can change a pokemon's type for a brief time
- Give himself weak powers of flight, mind reading, strength, etc
- Allow a pokemon to live past damage they should be knocked out by
- And so forth

Shauna
- Each day she can create a small object ‘out of thin air’
- If she doesn't put a lot of effort into sustaining this object, it will eventually begin to dissolve into nothingness in the following days

Tierno
- Can physically move very quickly

Sun
- Knows what deals and coupons are available in any market without checking
- May even be able to tell you the location of coupons (if one fell on the street nearby, etc)
- Can sense scams just by seeing them (without even checking them out)

Moon
- In short, she's venomous
- Can create venom that flows from either her teeth or her nails
- Depending on where she's producing this venom from, she will grow either fangs or long claws
- The venom can be easily made into medication (by her, anyway)

Day 27: 5⎚ (Cabin daily) 1⎚ (Sleep before 11PM) (9 words, 6⎚ for today.)
(36450 words, 177⎚ in total so far.)

Daily: sentences (9 words, 5⎚)
A classic SWC daily! Comment three words in the main cabin to start a sentence (e.g. mangoes and pirates) or reply to someone else's comment with three more words that continue their sentence (e.g. are so delicious) to create stories with your fellow SWCer's. Get creative with this and enjoy creating a collaborative masterpiece!

Also, due to a low number of entries the writing competition is opening back up! You have until 11:59 pm utc on the 30th to submit an entry if you haven't already.
OH MY GOSH I LOVE THIS ONE

First thread: https://scratch-mit-edu.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/studios/33415323/comments/#comments-229898482
So far:

alicorn10
i am dora

27coding_crazy
and you shall

Starthorn
swipe no more!

27coding_crazy
Perish, peasant, at

Starthorn
this hour, today.

—

Second thread:
So far:

extrovertedd
like i said

alicorn10
you're a mango

extrovertedd
with superpowers like

alicorn10
eating crunchy *poem*granates

Starthorn
which is sus

Day 28: 5⎚ (Cabin daily) 5⎚ (Word War) (_ words, 10⎚ for today.)
(37543 words, 187⎚ in total so far.)

Cabin Daily: others (670 words, 5⎚)
There are no dailies from the daily team today— instead, you'll be coming up with your own daily! Come up with a daily in the comments that has a 300 word requisite. Then, choose and complete somebody else's daily to earn 400 points!

I used @ap0l0's daily: “pick any piece of media that you felt was unfinished (movie, book, tv show, etc) and finish it in 300 words!” …except I used more than 300 words.
Then, I particularly used Agatha's plotline from Pokemon Special. They just… never finished it. (I contemplated doing Sird's plot ‘cause the same thing happened to her, but I don’t particularly like Sird as a character and it was too complicated so I decided on Agatha.)

Agatha grew up in the tiny town of Pallet. Well, it could hardly even be called a town. Back then, they were excited when the census came around and they finally had two hundred people.

In those days, the town didn't even have a Pokemon Center or an official Pokemart. There was no Xanadu Nursery, and certainly no Oak Laboratory. Just the local library, the all-ages school, the town hall, the historical center, and a few farmer's markets and bait shops here and there. There was a motel back then, too, but it was half-broken down and pretty much only ever got used by Fishermen coming off of Route 21. Agatha didn't spend much time around there.

What she did spend time around was the Oak family house. Sure, she lived a bit down the road and closer to the town's center and the Xanadu's farmhouse was right across the road, but she had never gotten along with them much. She much preferred to hang out by the edge of the 21 Woods, which just so happened to be right beyond the Oak family's yard. Though she had never had so much of a connection with one of the two boys, Sampson (who would soon move away to be with his biological mother in Alola anyway), the other boy, Samuel, quickly fascinated her.

They had known each other since birth, as all children in Pallet Town seemed to, and became fast rivals. Not friends, exactly, but they were inseparable.

Even when Sampson stayed back in the house, Agatha and Samuel always ended up in the woods. Charting the area, makin it ‘theirs’. Watching and fighting the wild pokemon, sketching and tasting plants they didn't know the names of (looking back, it wasn't very smart, but in the moment she had fun). And always competing. Always.

(305 words.)

My daily idea:

Would you look at that! The 28th already. For this daily, write 28 words of the beginning of a story and put them in the main cabin's comment section. Then, use someone else's words to write a total of 300 words.

*Because probably only one person is gonna do this (if any), instead of pasting the words into the comment section- contact me directly so I can give you 28 words and you can give me yours! That way it still gets done. : )

(83 words.)

@fc_ghshsh chose to do my daily so here's my half:

The bookstore down the street had a nice collection of stories, old and new, but she wasn't interested in those. Instead, she wanted something a bit more like

(28 words.)

The prompt I got is in italics.

The girl's fingers were quick and nimble. She would soon be done with her ‘project’. She'd certainly be the fastest in the class. She just knew that much.

Little did her teacher know that the ‘project’ the girl was working on was very different from the one the rest of the class was, and very different from the teaching plan that had been so carefully explained a few weeks before. The truth was that she had finished the academic, true project the first day it had been assigned (yes, she was that fast). That freed up time and for the past few weeks, her focus had been on a different goal.

Science was fascinating to her, it always had been, and working side by side with her classmates under the careful (but not careful enough, apparently) watch of her lab instructor was invigorating.

She was certain that today would be the day she finished this project. It had to be, anyway, because the class would soon go back to normal work and regular scheduling in a few days- since the assignment time was nearly up. She didn't have the right supplies at home, so this had to be done as quickly and as well as possible (there would be no redos).

The power sources available in this lab were far greater and more powerful than any of those she had stored away at home, and it was these power sources that made this invention possible. So, carefully connecting two wires together, she watched as the little device she had created buzzed softly. With a few more finishing touches, it would be done.

As long as her sketching and meticulous calculations were right, this device would grant her an ability that she had always lacked: fight. Just a few more connection panels and she could fly away from this place- forever.

(282 words.)

Word War with @Sandy-Dunes (423 words, 5⎚.)

He wasn't who he thought he was.

And she wasn't the sort of girl that she had always imagined for herself. In this lifetime, things changed easier like that and, really, it was quiet distracting in a variety of ways. She should have just done things simply, and he should have gone right along side her.

But the world didn't work like that, in the end.

And, in the end, it wasn't possible to be what she wanted to be. Even after all these years, nothing seemed to be going in her favor. He was a different person than she first thought he was, and she wasn't compatible with that sort of man- but if they were married anyway, she couldn't just drop him off somewhere and hope things would turn out fine.

No, they were in this for the long haul.

She didn't want to be in it for the long haul.

But she didn't have a choice.

Now, he didn't think this was the best situation ever, but he had never understood quite how much his wife raved about it. After all, they could just be friends. Sure, they weren't perfect for each other, but if they could just both own up to the mistake… where was the harm? They could go on with their lives just as roommates or unlikely friends.

Perhaps friends who lived together, and as friends who didn't really want to do so- but had to none the less.

They could really exaggerate the money situation, right? It wasn't that far off from the truth; he didn't think they had enough between the two of them to buy a second house. And sure, they were stuck for life, but couldn't she just be a little nicer about it>

She didn't want to be nicer about it.

Sure she had proposed, sure, she was the one who had bought their rings and signed first, sure she was the one who had come up with the idea in the first place… but she hated it more. Sometimes, she thought her husband's gossip to her at night was exaggerated. Sometimes it felt like he didn't really hate her.

Was that a weird thing to be offended by? The idea that someone actually liked you after all?

Maybe it was just that after all these years of thinking they were at odds; she didn't want her reality flipped upside down like that. Maybe they were better the way they were, even if she was miserable and he said he was miserable.

Starthorn wrote:

Day 28: 5⎚ (Cabin daily) (_ words, _⎚ for today.)
(36450+_ words, 177+_⎚ in total so far.)

Cabin Daily: others (___ words, 5)
There are no dailies from the daily team today— instead, you'll be coming up with your own daily! Come up with a daily in the comments that has a 300 word requisite. Then, choose and complete somebody else's daily to earn 400 points!

I used @ap0l0's daily: “pick any piece of media that you felt was unfinished (movie, book, tv show, etc) and finish it in 300 words!” …except I used more than 300 words.
Then, I particularly used Agatha's plotline from Pokemon Special. They just… never finished it. (I contemplated doing Sird's plot ‘cause the same thing happened to her, but I don’t particularly like Sird as a character and it was too complicated so I decided on Agatha.)

Agatha grew up in the tiny town of Pallet. Well, it could hardly even be called a town. Back then, they were excited when the census came around and they finally had two hundred people.

In those days, the town didn't even have a Pokemon Center or an official Pokemart. There was no Xanadu Nursery, and certainly no Oak Laboratory. Just the local library, the town hall, the historical center, and a few farmer's markets and bait shops here and there. There was a motel back then, too, but it was half-broken down and pretty much only ever got used by Fishermen coming off of Route 21. Agatha didn't spend much time there.

What she did spend time around was the Oak family house. Sure, she lived a bit down the road and closer to the town's center and the Xanadu's farmhouse was right across the road, but she had never gotten along with them much. She much preferred to hang out by the edge of the 21 Woods, which just so happened to be right beyond the Oak family's yard. Though she had never had so much of a connection with one of the two boys, Sampson (who would soon move away to be with his biological mother in Alola anyway), the other boy quickly fascinated her.

They had known each other since birth, as all children in Pallet Town seemed to,

(___ words.)

My daily idea:

Would you look at that! The 28th already. For this daily, write 28 words of the beginning of a story and put them in the main cabin's comment section. Then, use someone else's words to write a total of 300 words.

*Because probably only one person is gonna do this (if any), instead of pasting the words into the comment section- contact me directly so I can give you 28 words and you can give me yours! That way it still gets done. : )

(83 words.)

@fc_ghshsh chose to do my daily so here's my half:

The bookstore down the street had a nice collection of stories, old and new, but she wasn't interested in those. Instead, she wanted something a bit more like

(28 words.)

The prompt I got is in italics.

The girl's fingers were quick and nimble. She would soon be done with her ‘project’. She'd certainly be the fastest in the class. She just knew that much.

Little did her teacher know that the ‘project’ the girl was working on was very different from the one the rest of the class was, and very different from the teaching plan that had been so carefully explained a few weeks before. The truth was that she had finished the academic, true project the first day it had been assigned (yes, she was that fast). That freed up time and for the past few weeks, her focus had been on a different goal.

Science was fascinating to her, it always had been, and working side by side with her classmates under the careful (but not careful enough, apparently) watch of her lab instructor was invigorating.

She was certain that today would be the day she finished this project. It had to be, anyway, because the class would soon go back to normal work and regular scheduling in a few days- since the assignment time was nearly up. She didn't have the right supplies at home, so this had to be done as quickly and as well as possible (there would be no redos).

The power sources available in this lab were far greater and more powerful than any of those she had stored away at home, and it was these power sources that made this invention possible. So, carefully connecting two wires together, she watched as the little device she had created buzzed softly. With a few more finishing touches, it would be done.

As long as her sketching and meticulous calculations were right, this device would grant her an ability that she had always lacked: fight. Just a few more connection panels and she could fly away from this place- forever.

(282 words.)

Oh my goodness this is so good

Oh my goodness this is so good

Thank you so much! : D

Day 29: 5⎚ (Cabin daily) -15⎚ (for using the icon creator) +50⎚ (Completing the monthly challenge!) (2919 words, 40⎚ for today.)
(40487 words, 227⎚ in total so far.)

Daily: lasagna (2834 words, 5⎚)
In a galaxy far far away, a meowing polar bear is… STARVING. What an unfortunate result of climate change. Today, your mission is to bake a lasagna in order to feed the starving polar bears. But first, you'll need ingredients! In the comments, write 1 aspect of worldbuilding, 1 antagonist, 1 lesson, 1 line of dialogue, and 1 turning point. Then, claim one of each from five different people so that you have the five layers of your lasagna story. Make sure to write at least 300 words (you don't want undercooked lasagna, do you?) to earn 300 points! (Brownie points if you feed a polar bear on the daily team lasagna :3)

—My ideas:

Worldbuilding: Each person has some sort of wings. Some people have robin wings, others have California condors. Some people are bat-like, some people more comparable to flying fish- although those aren't true wings. Try to envision a society where this is normal.

Antagonist: An old friend, someone who you have almost forgotten- and all the features you remember are still there. Something just… changed in them.

Lesson: There's always a way.

Dialogue: “I told you, this was a bad idea! See?”

Turning Point: Falling through the sky, his eyes dry from the air, a thought bubbled up into his mind. It didn't have to end like this, did it?

(109 words.)

—Planning/Interpretation:
Worldbuilding from @MoonlitSeas : magic system that involves some form of projection of emotions
Antagonist from @TheBibliophile7 : the main character, but they don't know it yet
Second Antagonist from @AmazaEevee : MC's child
Lesson from @silverlynx- : never be afraid to look back on your past
Second Lesson from @wilde-gray : people change, albeit slowly
Dialogue from @-SimplyWatermelon- : “It’s not like I saw it coming… but I should have. So I did.”
Turning Point from @PixelDucko : a friend to the protagonist gets a moral crisis

I'm going to take the worldbuilding in relation to @savebat's (and my) Better Powers AU, and I'm going to use Blue's secondary possible use of his power. (Which is to say, messing with other people's emotions accidentally when he's emotional.) I believe this will make for very interesting arguments and such.

The two antagonists are also the two main characters because really they're both a problem. (Though Blue is more so.) Maybe it's obvious that Trace is going to show up in this. He's not really wrong in any way, but he is a very unpleasant for Blue of things (which is not Trace's fault just fyi). I think them both being a issue will again make for some very interesting conversations, arguments or not.

The lessons are very interesting for this story, because each one is sort of for each character. I think the first lesson will be more relevant to Blue, although he does have real reasons to be scared of his past- particularly in this AU (which I won't be going in depth in because this is a ~children's coding website~). Trace is more related to the second one, just as he watches his father change over time- go through phases and such.

The dialogue will probably be altered slightly, but it will mostly be the same. It'll probably be Blue talking to Trace about his past.

The ‘friend of the protagonist’ in the turning point will be Red (which is really kind of silly in this fic particularly because, you know, he's Trace's dad too). In any case, the whole deal is a moral crisis. Good luck man, you're an antagonist too. None of these characters are good people.

(283 words.)

—Writing:

Emotional, Emotional - Pokespe/Pokemon Special/Pokemon Adventures, Better Powers AU, Blue centric, Trace and Blue, I'm actually really scared of the power we gave Blue so I decided to explore that. 0.o

Blue knew he had some sort of problem.

Looking at people who had never hurt him shouldn't have elicited such a terrified, traumatized response. Especially if those people were his own children.

His heartbeat should have stayed consistent, his head shouldn't get foggy. He should stay strong, superior and powerful. So why did he sweat? Why did his heart race? Why did it scare him to see such a small child- someone who didn't have the strength to cause him physical harm? Why did it scare him to think about what would happen to this boy his mind was so convinced to hate?

Blue growled under his breath, and he could feel the burst of frustration pour out into the air around him. He froze. Oh no.

Next to him, Red stirred a little in his sleep, grumbling and turning over where he lay.

Swallowing, Blue waited silently as Red slowly went still again. He /really/ didn't want to wake his rival. They had already argued enough recently, and Blue especially didn't want to have to talk about /this/ topic again. It was bad enough with simple things like training tenancies or who should take Trace for the day and who should deal with the League's new drama, and Blue really didn't want to get into whatever was wrong with him.

It was just… personal.

Even if he trusted Red more than anyone else in the world (except for maybe Yellow), and even if Trace was their own son, Blue didn't know if what he needed to say was… right. He didn't know if Red would even want to hear it. Last time he'd tried to bring it up, well, it hadn't gone well. Blue didn't want to have to go through that again.

But he had to talk. He had to say /something/, even if not to anyone.

In his early life, Blue was talkative. Dare he say it- he was loud. Self-absorbed, and absolutely always talking. In his training with Chuck that had started to fade away. Just like everything else that made Blue… him. And as his memory gained new holes and his voice got quieter and emptier, as he thought through his each and every word, he changed.

He stopped talking so much and focused on thinking. No one in his new life seemed to care much for what he said anyway. If ‘please’ didn't work half the time and if ‘no’ didn't even phase people, what was the point of talking anyway?

And with the trauma, it was like he gained the right to be the person he was in the modern day. It was like the trauma was what earned him his trainer class: Pokedex Holder.

And with that ranking, he started to develop something new- but in the early days, it wasn't so obvious.

Alongside other Dex-Holders (as they were called as well), Blue found himself growing up in violence and stress and the need to save the world over and over and over again. That sort of stress was bound to have negative effects on him and others eventually, and it would soon become obvious just how much it had deteriorated his relationship with Red over time.

'No' still didn't work, even as he grew more powerful.

When Trace was born, or rather cut out of him, Blue didn't immediately latch on. He didn't feel nothingless either, but it was blank in a different way.

Because the only thing he did feel was hate.

Hate for a person he had spent so long waiting for, hate for a person he had never even spoken to.

Blue shut the world out for a bit.

And he got stronger.

The power that had started to grow when he was seven had been building inside him ever since. Like all the other true Pokedex Holders, it was earned. He had fought for his life, and when he survived what the world threw at him, it- or whatever being was truly behind the world as they knew it- decided he deserved an ability.

It was a cruel ability, given the context of what had happened over and over again in his childhood, but Blue knew he had to come to terms with it.

Green had gained the ability to evolve her pokemon at will, replacing her old childhood fear of failure in the face of her kidnapper's cruel training. It was something that could have helped her back in the day. Red was similar. He slowly grew aware of a superhuman strength that rippled under his skin- something that could have saved him from pain again and again in his childhood. In terms of Blue, his words gained a certain controlling power that he had struggled with when he was young and in need of control in his words.

It was a pattern, really.

It made sense that Blue's old habits came back to haunt him with the same strength that the power represented what he couldn't do in the moment.

But he still didn't want to talk. Somehow, it scared him. But his power /was/ talking and as it grew inside him, Blue found that it grew harder and harder to fight it.

It was like his childhood self was possessing him again, trying to force words up out of his silence and scream to the world how badly he had been hurt. But Blue didn't want to be pitied.

What did saying ‘no’ do now? Those events had already happened, and he couldn't go back in time.

And yet, Blue knew he had to work with what had been so cruelly gifted to him or he would never move past it.

As soon as he put his mind to embracing it, it grew in power.

No longer was the power limited to control of action. No longer was it just about commanding people to move or talk or stop talking, it was personal. No longer was his only difficulty with the power being oddly bad at lying.

Because no sooner had he decided to work on it, he discovered a new facet of the ability.

Emotions were important to each and every one of the Dex-Holder's powers. Gold, for example, could unlock an entirely different angle of his power if he was nervous enough and tap into /other/ people's perspectives on his personal ability. Ruby and Sapphire (as well as many others) grew stronger in general.

In Blue's case, emotions had always heightened the strength of his power, but now they became a /part/ of the power as well.

If he was angry, Blue discovered that he could put that anger into his words and- if intended- he put the anger into whoever he was directing the words at. Essentially, he could change what people felt without their own input. For only as long as they were surprised or couldn't fight their control back, but still. It was… frightening to him.

Somehow, it was eerily similar to his own loss of control.

Plus, there was a new side effect.

The stronger he grew, the harder it was to stay silent. No longer could he be cold and calculating. His younger self, or the power itself, wanted to crawl up and out of his throat.

It wanted to mess with people' emotions, it wanted to change their thoughts- it wanted control.

And when Blue got too scared of the sheer power that was realized, he once again ran from what scared him. Unfortunately, the only way to run was back to what he had initially fled.

He had to face Red and Trace again, focus on them instead of just floating in the space they occupied.

In their shared bed, Blue sat up. Just a few feet down the hall, Trace occupied the room that had once been Red's. In a few months, he would be ready to go on his own pokemon journey and who knew it he would ever come home?

Blue's throat felt like it was closing.

He didn't hate his son anymore.

No, he had confronted that long ago and realized that the true feeling he felt was fear. He was scared of Trace, and he was scared for him. It was only natural, when so much horror had gone down in Blue's own childhood, that he would fear the same happening to his child.

Because Trace was remarkably like his childhood self.

He didn't pick and choose his words, he just talked. And, in the end, they didn't have power.

That lack of power in his son scared Blue just as much as the excess he personally possessed.

Blue stood up from the bed, staring at the closed door. It was late, he knew, but he wanted to talk to Trace. He could hear the boy shifting around anyway, he wouldn't be waking him. (And they still hadn't had a proper talk.)

Right then, the words were threatening to spill from Blue's tightly closed lips. A pathetic whimper that he once never would have thought of was pulling at the back of his throat. He felt horrible, and his power was trying to spill the vile emotion into the air.

He couldn't, though, it would wake Red for sure.

But, second by second, it grew harder to contain. He would have to spit out the words that were forming somewhere, spill out the emotion on /someone/.

So Blue flashed across the room and pulled open the door, dashing into the dark hallway.

Trace was older now. Blue had decided a few months back to come back to this world consciously, and now that he had run back to what he had once fled, he realized just how broken he had left the world. Sure, Red loved Trace- sure he was capable, but Trace, like any child, wanted connection to both of his parents. Even if he had pretended for so long that he didn't care.

(Some part of Blue, now fearful rather than hateful, felt regret. His parents had died when he was young, and Red's had left at a similar age. They had both grown up abandoned in some way- and here Blue was, abandoning his own son.)

So Blue knocked on Trace's door and waited.

The emotion was still pulling at his tightly sealed lips- waiting to have someone to spill onto. Blue didn't really want to dump /all that/ on his son, but he didn't have time to re-think his choices because, a moment later, the door cracked open.

Trace looked confused as he looked up at his father, then as Blue nodded into the room, lowered his eyebrows. He understood Blue wanted to talk to him, but didn't know why.

A moment later, he opened the door and let his father enter.

Now Trace stood before him and, as Blue faced him properly and prepared to lay bare what had kept him away, he was brave. Tall. And so similar to the child Blue had once been.

Had it really been that long?

“Hey,” Blue started, and without meaning to he let just a little bit of sorrow slip out into the surrounding air.

Trace flinched as the emotion hit him.

Blue felt a pang of regret, “Sorry,” he shook his head, this time just barely able to keep the emotions out of his voice as Trace glared up at him.

“What do you want?” his son finally asked.

Blue sighed.

“It's, like, midnight,” Trace added, squinting suspiciously up at his father.

“I know,” Blue sighed again, “But I couldn't stop… thinking,”

Trace went a little still. Even if he didn't show it, Blue knew the boy was pretty conscious of his parents' extremely rocky relationship. (Even putting it like that felt too light.) Blue knew that Trace probably did a lot of his own thinking, probably wondering what he had done wrong or what, indeed, was wrong with his parents.

As if to confirm his suspicions, Trace raised an eyebrow, “Funny coincidence, then.”

Blue swallowed.

”Yeah,“ he murmured, trying his hardest to keep the sudden spark of worry out of his voice so it didn't infect Trace too.

Words were trying to fight their way up and out of Blue's mouth, but he wanted to let Trace talk first. He tried his best to communicate with his eyes that he was waiting for Trace to talk, but the poor kid still seemed to be getting over the wave of sorrow.

(Yeah, Blue felt pretty bad for that. This was exactly why he had gotten scared off of developing his power more.)

”Okay, I'll go first, then,“ Blue said, looking down at the floor. He had found that his power significantly lessened in control if he didn't hold eye-contact. Sure this was traditionally considered to be rude, but it was surely better than temporarily possessing someone's will and ability to think straight.

”I'm sorry,“ he managed at last, and he hoped the genuine regret in his voice was obvious without being transferred over.

Trace had an excellent poker face when he wanted to, but a bit of surprise still managed to peek through. ”Huh?“ he asked.

Blue swallowed, ”You're nearly… an adult in the eyes of the law,“ (Even after all these years, that felt so strange to say about a nine year old. How that could be the state of their system, Blue didn't know. And after all, he was an exact example of the harm it could cause.) ”I just feel like I've not been here, at all,“

Trace nodded, still looking reserved, ”You haven't.“ he concluded.

It shouldn't have hurt because Blue agreed, in the end, and had also thought he hated this boy for so long, but the words still stung coming directly from his son. Somehow, the pain didn't show on his face (still a little in control of his stoic nature after all), and Blue nodded.

The more he focused on keeping the emotion out of his words, the more his head spun- and yet he felt more in control.

”I'm sorry for that,“ Blue said, his throat dry, ”And I thought I could try to clear things up, too, if that's…?“

He left the question open, trying to keep all the control he had gained out. Trace could make his own decisions, even if Blue was terrified for him.

Trace raised an eyebrow and when his father didn't go on, he jutted his jaw out and nodded sharply up, trying to regain eye-contact, “Go on, then,“ he said.

It took a moment, but soon Blue found the words tumbling out of his mouth- just like the power always wanted him to.

(2442 words.)

I might edit this at some point soon, but prolly not during SWC. I like it a lot, but I'm tired.

Playing Truth or Dare with @FoxtheRed
I got dared to “Omg so sorry for late reply my computer died on me :( anyways! I dare you to not type with your pointer finger or thumb for three minutes.”

her oroblem wasn't exactly the situation, but the struggles that it caused in her daaily life.

Everyone knew that these sorts of things were supposed to get better with time, but in her expirence it wasn't so easy. Things were just more complicated than that. Especially these days (since things had started to go so dark in her world and around her).

It was hard.

She felt incapable of the so-called ‘easy’ things that she had once spent her time on and oh so useless.

(85 words.)
(completely unedited lol)

Monthly challenge:
Used the Icon Creator: https://scratch-mit-edu.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/projects/878463951/
Do 15 dailys
Do 2 weeklies
Sleep before 11PM 5 times in a row
Participate in 2 Cabin Wars
Participated in an activity in the European Confederation: https://scratch-mit-edu.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/studios/33426378/comments/#comments-230087397

Day 30: 5⎚ (Cabin daily) 10⎚ (Weekly) (3112 words, 15⎚ for today.)
(43599 words, 263⎚ in total so far.)

Note: I hit my word goal, that's why there's 15 extra ingots.

Weekly: Eras (2630 words, 10⎚)
https://scratch-mit-edu.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/projects/876854533/

Fic: Parental Fears - Pokespe/Pokemon Special/Pokemon Adventures, FranticShipping (Ruby x Sapphire) with Brendan as their son, Sapphire centric, Norman bashing, angst, fears, delta pokemon, mild Better Powers AU, a focus on Hoenn’s interest in fate.
—Present day:

Have you heard of the butterfly effect? We go through day to day life often without understanding the consequences of our actions. If you are working on a longer story, write 500 words where a main or side character makes a trivial choice that ends in disaster.

Sapphire supposed that the proper start of this chapter of her life was saying ‘yes’ to Ruby when he asked her to marry him. And they were happy, of course, as a married couple. In fact, those first few months were probably the happiest of her entire life.

It was like their friends said: they belonged together.

And with the intertwining of their fates and their shared side-effects from the battles against Team Aqua and Team Magma, it was only right that they decided to spend the rest of their lives together. After all, even if they /tried/ to separate they wouldn’t get far. Life would always bring them back together- it had shown them that before.

After a few years of marriage, they took the next purposeful step.

Brendan was born only a few months after Silver and Gold had their second child, and as such Ruby was sure to get the kids to socialize. After all, Sapphire and Gold were good friends because of their shared starter-ground and the same was true to Ruby and Silver. In the end, life was going well for a long time.

Brendan had dark hair like Ruby, but deep brown eyes that did not glow, unlike both of his parents who had held the Orbs during the fight with Aqua and Magma. Really, he was shocking… normal. He was of an average height, was meeting all his milestones at average times, seemed to like average pokemon, everything about him was normal.

Honestly, Sapphire appreciated the change of pace. Her husband and her both were very polarizing people. Even though Brendan was his own complicated, beautiful person, he wasn’t quite as volatile as Ruby or as seemingly backwards as Sapphire. She liked the change. It felt like, after all this time, he was what brought them together in a perfect, neutral balance.

But then things started to get weird.

See, Ruby had been insistent on keeping their son away from his father the whole time. He had even, over time, started to distance himself from his father entirely (a step Sapphire full-heartedly supported given what Norman had done to Ruby and his mother over the years). So it was a little surprising when Brendan started to show interest in Norman’s pokemon, specifically.

The boy had always liked normal types, so it wasn’t exactly out of his ordinary, but Sapphire thought it was a little weird.

Then, once Brendan was properly old enough to start going out and catching his first pokemon, his interests changed again… and everything went wrong.

He became obsessed with an entirely new sort of pokemon and, before Sapphire and Ruby could even catch up to what was really going on, Brendan fell into what must have been planned for him all along. Just like his parents, just like Emerald, just like Wally. He fell into the trap that the universe had woven for him and, Arceus, it was frightening.

The attack happened when Brendan was out in the woods, looking for new pokemon to learn about. He was only six, so not old enough for his starter or his journey yet, but old enough to start to learn how to be a trainer. After all, with two incredibly good battlers for parents, he should have been safe.

Should have.

(550 words.)

—Distant past:

Write a tragic ending for your most beloved original character in 500 words. Don't worry, you don't have to make it canon!

It was when Sapphire was supposed to be watching Brendan, trailing a little behind the boy as he observed the wild pokemon in the area, that things went wrong. Maybe that was why it was so easy for her to blame herself for what happened next.

He had been acting a bit strange this whole trip, promising her that he had finally found the pokemon he wanted. That it was really special. At first, Sapphire thought it was going to be a shiny, or something like that, but she was wrong.

Brendan stopped in the middle of a clearing and raised his arms. That was weird, but at first she thought he was just stretching. Then, she caught something out of the corner of her eye.

Sapphire screamed, trying to alert her son of the flash of movement that burst out of the woods towards him. She tried to dive in the way, in that moment forgetting any idea of self-preservation and just wanting to protect her baby, but she was too slow.

Before she knew it, her son was lifted up into the air by a grayish-violet pokemon. Sapphire recognized what it was just as she threw her pokeball. It was a Shuppet, but something was wrong with it.

It had arms, first of all.

She would have to worry about that later. Sapphire pointed up at the Shuppet and began to shout an attack to her pokemon, but Brendan shook his head.

“Don't worry mom!" Brendan called down to her. He was grinning, looking completely satisfied with the situation, “This is the pokemon I want, he's friendly!“

But the way the Shuppet was looking at him didn't look friendly. Still, trying to get a hit in would be dangerous with Brendan in such close proximity.

Sapphire growled up at the creature and, now that it was still, she could get a better look at it. It was definitely a Shuppet, but it was also definitely not a regular one. Not only did the odd creature have arms, but its eyes were all wrong. If she squinted she could tell that they were brown, but the irises and pupils were so small that it was hard to tell.

She got the feeling, all of a sudden, that her perfectly normal son had found something much rarer than a shiny.

”Mom, I'm fine, I promise,“ Brendan said.

Though still apprehensive, Sapphire lifted a hand to pacify her Blaziken. “Wait,” she murmured, then strode forward towards the Shuppet, trying to come across as non-threatening in her slow movements.

When she stood directly below her son and the pokemon, Sapphire stretched her arms up. “Let him down now,” she tried to order the pokemon directly- wishing that she had brought some pokeballs of her own today.

But instead of doing that, the Shuppet grinned down at her. It was a ghoulish smile and, suddenly as their eyes met, Sapphire was shoved into a vision of sorts.

She saw a possible future.

Brendan lying broken on the ground, a team of regular pokemon strewn about him. It was a terrifying vision, but Sapphire knew that it wasn't an impossible one. In fact, she had seen similar things in her own nightmares before.

Sapphire felt cold all over, just barely conscious of herself stumbling as she could still only see the vision that Shuppet had put in her head. Somewhere about her, Brendan shouted in concern.

As Sapphire fell to her knees, the Shuppet pulled the vision away from her.

When she looked up, the expression on its face was hard to read. It looked, almost, like it was urging her to understand something. And then she did understand it.

(620 words.)

—Distant future:

Clocks are a common symbol in steampunk. If you are currently working on an extended story, introduce a clock within the next 400 words. The appearance of the clock should symbolise something- what that something might be is up to you.

It was like there was a clock ticking in the back of her mind.

The pokemon was showing her was /could/ be. Not what necessarily would be, but what might happen if exactly the right steps were not taken. She understood now. It wanted to protect her son, it wanted to help him.

She raised her hand, struggling back to her feet and looking back up at her son. Behind her, Blaziken extinguished the flames that had burst out over it as its trainer fell.

“Just put him down,” she set her jaw, “I understand.”

She didn't know if Brendan knew the extent of what the Shuppet was doing, or even how he had found it in the first place, but she knew that there wasn't a choice. If she wanted Brendan to be safe, this would have to be his pokemon.

It was already attached to him, and she knew from years and years of research and just… /life/ in the wild that these pokemon were drawn to people for a reason. Often times, they went with people who wanted vengeance.

But what could Brendan want vengeance against?

The pokemon set her son down on the ground, floating in the air next to him and staring down with its strange, bright eyes. It was intelligent for sure, and seemed to still be urging Sapphire to understand.

“It's a fighting-type, mom!” the boy grinned up at her, his arms wrapped about her in a big hug, “Fighting-Ghost!”

Sapphire stared down at him almost uncomprehendingly. A Delta species? In Hoenn?

The Shuppet made a happy noise, twirling around in the air, its little arms flexing joyously.

“I got it to beat Norman!”

Sapphire stared down at him. To beat Norman? But they had specifically tried to keep Brendan away from the trauma that Norman could cause his whole life… why would he be thinking about that?

Suddenly, Brendan's expression turned serious. “He was mean to dad, and that's not right. I thought if… I had a pokemon he couldn't hit then I could win,”

Sapphire's mouth fell open slightly, ”That was why you were so interested in his pokemon?“

Brendan nodded harshly, finally letting her go from the hug, ”I want to beat him!“

She let that sink in for a second long, looking up at the odd pokemon that was zipping around them. It wanted to join in on vengeance. He wanted to put himself back in the life of a dangerous man. It made sense that, somehow, it wanted to protect him.

And what a pokemon to do so.

(438 words.)

—Ancient Times:

Fate is a common motif in many mythological stories. If you're currently working on a story, have your main characters learn some lesson relating to uncontrollable fate (that is left up to the gods). This should be achieved in at least 400 words!

—-
When they got home, the odd, incredibly rare pokemon in tow, Sapphire pulled Ruby aside to tell him what she had learned.

They were both victims of fate. It was a common theme with the Hoenn region's Pokedex Holders and, though Sapphire had hoped and even prayed that no such thing would land on her son's shoulders, she feared that he was close enough to those who walked with fate to be effected by it.

Once Ruby got over the shock of what pokemon Brendan had decided to latch onto as his true starter, Sapphire explained what the Shuppet had shown her.

Ruby was silent for a long time.

“He wants to fight my father?”

Sapphire nodded, careful to keep her voice low because Brendan was playing in the other room. “He wants revenge, or somethin'. That's how he found the Shuppet. They like revenge,”

Ruby looked deeply distressed by this news, “Why- what? But we've kept him away from Norman!”

“I know,” Sapphire shook her head, “I think he's picked up on how you feel about ‘im, though, ya know?”

That looked like it made Ruby feel even more distressed. “He does know he can battle the Unofficial Leaders instead, right?”

“He really wants to fight Norman,” Sapphire shrugged, “I think he’d do it even if he didn't have that Shuppet,”

Ruby seemed to let that run through his mind.

“So we have to let him, then,”

Feeling a little hopeless, too, Sapphire sighed. “If what the pokemon showed me was right…”

“Yeah,” Ruby sat down heavily in one of the kitchen chairs, looking up at the ceiling. His red eyes were bright in the dark room, reflecting bright pink off his eyelashes.

They knew they couldn't fight fate. What was destined was destined and, though there were different endings, they both knew that if things didn't go exactly as they needed to- it was possible that their son would fall to the possible future that the Shuppet had seen.

Fate was weird like that.

It was ordained, but it wasn't permanent. Somehow, there were different angles that could be taken for a different future, and yet it couldn't be fought. Hoenn knew this well.

The region was the constant victim of natural disasters ranging from earthquakes to the sinking of their land, and fate controlled their future. It was tradition.

Like Emerald was destined to be linked with the wish pokemon and Hoopa, and like Sapphire and Ruby would be forever linked to their legendaries, or how Wally was with Rayquaza, it seemed that Brendan was tied to this. He would either skirt around this possible fate or not.

And Sapphire hoped he could get around it and find another.

(463 words.)

—The End: (TW DEREALIZATION. This is real, just a description of how I experience sleep, this isn’t fiction. Lol, weird, right?)

Write a 250-word narrative where you woke up, and it was all a dream.

I opened my eyes. The dream from last night was slipping away quickly.

What was it that my mind had been filled with for all that time? What was the life I had lived in those few short hours?

Why did it escape me now that I was back to my potential reality?

Why was it that these things were so easy to forget when I was the sole creator of the world that I had joined in my dreams? I didn't like waking up.

In dreams, I'm conscious of the fact that it isn't real, and yet it feels real. There are layers of reality, and I can half-control the narrative, but not fully. Nightmares are entertainment until I lose control, and two dreams can happen at once.

Once, I remembered bits and pieces of a dream that truly did not add up.

It kept bouncing between locations.

And then I realized that the dream took place at the exact same time as another dream. There were two levels. I was in two places at once.

But when I am awake, I can't even hope to comprehend that feeling.

Why is it that my subconscious can create this controlling, powerful being out of my own soul? Why is it that I can experience living in two places at once? Why is it that dreams are so different?

Why is it that I have to wake?

Sometimes I don't want to get up. Reality isn't as fun. I don't want to see it.

Sometimes I wish I would never wake up.

(261 words.)

Song:

—Prompt 1: Take a popular nursery rhyme and twist the concept to write the first verse of your song. Your verse should be at least 50 words long, and consist of at least four lines.
(Inspired by “London Bridge Is Falling Down”.)

You and I are falling down
falling down, falling down
You and I are falling down,
falling down, down down…
Build us up and tear us down,
tear us down, tear us down!
Build us up and tear us down,
tear us down, down down.
Use iron or gold and a silver frown
silver frown, silver frown
Because you're my fair lady…

(62 words.)

—Prompt 2: Repetition is used commonly in lyrics; write a pre chorus for your song which repeats a phrase or line at least three times. This pre chorus should be at least 25 words long, and consist of at least two lines!

My lady and I are falling down
and we're stuck in this cycle of
down and down
down and down
down and down!
We're sinking fast and falling down
falling down
and falling down
my fairest lady.

(37 words words.)

—Prompt 3: Pick an idiom around which to base your chorus. Make it catchy! Your chorus should be at least 50 words long, and consist of at least four lines.

Together we might see the light
but as things are now I'm not so bright
Together we could see things right
but you aren't always so nice
Maybe it's my problem when we fight
or maybe you're messing with my sights
Messed up, lets fess up,
like the time you got me all dressed up
in that iron and gold and those fake fake smiles

(65 words.)

—Prompt 4: Google a list of the most famous songs and find a title that you haven't heard of; without listening or reading the lyrics, write a bridge based off this title. Your bridge should be at least 60 words long, and consist of at least four lines.
(Inspired by “So Viel Stern' Am Himmel Stehen”.)

We're falling down side by side
our hands are nearly touching as we dive
and nothing's right and we're not quite alive,
but we can look back to see what's wrong.
Let's look in the sky over our collapsing bridge
so beautiful as we sit on this ridge
so many stars even as we're
falling down, falling down,
and still looking up to catch a sight of-

(67 words.)

—Prompt 5: Your song is coming to an end, so it's time to repeat the chorus- except this time, change up the wording! Introduce some nature imagery into your chorus, which should remain at least 50 words long, in at least four lines.

Together we will see that light
but we won't heal with the way things are, right?
Together we can only see our spite
and we aren't always so nice
Maybe it's our problem when we fight
or I'm just messing with your sights
Let's fess up all messed up
like the time we both got dressed up
in that iron and gold and those fake fake smiles

(67 words.)

Full code: | Path 1: DAY, Prompt 2 | Path 2: PAST, Prompt 1 | Path 3: FUTURE, Prompt 3 | Path 4: ANCIENT, Prompt 3 |

Daily: Thank yous <3 (482 words, 5⎚.)

General SWC ty:

Thank you to all the wonderfull organizers and admins of Scratch Writing Camp. I know this is a very difficult but also very fun job to do, especially with all the studio updates of the last few seasons and the trouble they caused.

I hope that it is rewarding too.

So, in that way, I also want to thank all the other participants of this event! I guess, without everybody here, this couldn't be possible. Even if we only wrote a little, or barely engaged in the lore (guilty as charaged), we still participated!

I had a really fun time this season, thank you to EVERYONE for making that possible. <3

General Myth ty:

You guys are so awesome!!! I'm not so great at being social in Scratch Writing Camp, and even less so this time than normal for some reason, but I really liked the vibe our cabin had. Thanks for an awesome season, I really hope I run into some of you in future events!

And also thank you for the awesome lore! I mostly forgot to engage in it (rip) but I really liked watching from the sidelines. This was one of the more fun cabins I've been in in terms of storyline, and you guys really pulled it off.

Again, thank you for a great SWC. I hope you all have great days. <3

Major General ty:

I also just wanna give a BIGGGG thank you to our Major Generals this season! You guys worked so hard. Thank you for making this enjoyable and, even, at all possible. <3 You did great.

Personal tys:
@krizpii

Thank you for being such an awesome Major General and Word-Counter. You saved me from so many mistakes in my total words and ingots this season that it's not even funny. ToT (Okay, maybe it's a /little/ bit funny.)

Thank you for putting up with me and letting this all happen! You were really awesome, I hope I'm in another cabin with you sometime in the future.

@PoppyWriter

Even if you betrayed our cabin (</3 sooooo heartbroken /j), I still wanna thank you! We didn't really interact much but the critique you gave me was super helpful and I also quite enjoyed reading your writing! I hope I see you in SWC again.

(Also, your PFP is really pretty, I like it a lot. : D)

@jingyuans__

It's thank you note time, so I have one for you!!

It was really fun to talk to you about Pokemon, and I'm glad you could get your Pokemon fanfiction fix from me, lol x D. That's always nice when that happens!

I don't often really talk to people in SWC ‘cause I get so caught up in, you know, actually writing- but this was really nice! I hope we’re in the same cabin again if you do SWC in the future. Maybe I'll drop by some other time to tell you about more PKMN I wrote. : ) /hj

Planning Regrets - Pokespe/Pokemon Special/Pokemon Adventures, Agatha centric, character exploration, worldbuilding, past/toxic ExpertShipping (Professor Oak x Agatha)
(The part I wrote on the 28th is in italics.)

Agatha grew up in the tiny town of Pallet. Well, it could hardly even be called a town. Back then, they were excited when the census came around and they finally had two hundred people.

In those days, the town didn't even have a Pokemon Center or an official Pokemart. There was no Xanadu Nursery, and certainly no Oak Laboratory. Just the local library, the all-ages school, the town hall, the historical center, and a few farmer's markets and bait shops here and there. There was a motel back then, too, but it was half-broken down and pretty much only ever got used by Fishermen coming off of Route 21. Agatha didn't spend much time around there.

What she did spend time around was the Oak family house. Sure, she lived a bit down the road and closer to the town's center and the Xanadu's farmhouse was right across the road, but she had never gotten along with them much. She much preferred to hang out by the edge of the 21 Woods, which just so happened to be right beyond the Oak family's yard. Though she had never had so much of a connection with one of the two boys, Sampson (who would soon move away to be with his biological mother in Alola anyway), the other boy, Samuel, quickly fascinated her.

They had known each other since birth, as all children in Pallet Town seemed to, and became fast rivals. Not friends, exactly, but they were inseparable.

Even when Sampson stayed back in the house, Agatha and Samuel always ended up in the woods. Charting the area, makin it ‘theirs’. Watching and fighting the wild pokemon, sketching and tasting plants they didn't know the names of (looking back, it wasn't very smart, but in the moment she had fun). And always competing. Always.

edit: didn't finish that lol

2630+482

Okay, bye bye!

We got second. <3

—
-Starthorn / Star || (she/her)

Let's go Romans and Greeks! Perhaps, we shall be equals and together shall win. (SWC)