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savebats
Scratcher
100+ posts

Savebats - Scratch Writing Camp July 2022 Proof

Proof of my writing for this Scratch Writing Camp. (I'm in Dystopian. >^-^<)

Here's last July's SWC: https://scratch-mit-edu.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/discuss/topic/527913/

My sister's SWCs this year:
Starthorn: https://scratch-mit-edu.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/discuss/topic/614660/
Fluffysheepwool: https://scratch-mit-edu.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/discuss/topic/614786/

Enjoy!

Last edited by savebats (July 1, 2022 20:44:21)

savebats
Scratcher
100+ posts

Savebats - Scratch Writing Camp July 2022 Proof

“In cabin daily: Write about your favorite and most memorable vacation. Minimum 350 words(proof required)”
Words: 623

I’ve had a lot of vacations that could be considered fun… and many that could be considered not-so-fun. If you know me even a little bit, you may have guessed that my favorites are the ones I spend at home, but for the sake of the question and the amount of words required to get the crowns, I will humor you.

My family goes on trips rather often (like once or twice a year, not counting ones to our grandma’s house). Most of them are around NY State (but straying away from the city because I hate it there), but some of them go to cool places. Because of this, there are two (maybe three?) vacations that really stand out at favorites AND memorable.

One of them was rather recent, just a few years ago. …My family flew over to California and basically just looked at trees for a week. (And also drove over to Colorado to visit my sister’s friend that moved there… and went to Yellowstone but that was terrifying so I won’t count it.) This one I didn’t really enjoy all that much compared to the other trip I will list- Yellowstone and the weird boiling mud place were quite scary -but it was certainly very memorable AND a lot more fun than trips where we went to Florida or something. (Too hot!)

The other one happened much further back, probably around third grade? (I’m not sure.) But again, it was my family and I going west, though this time we were in a car and going to Badlands National park. I cannot express how awesome that place is. Sure it can be really hot, and there are coyotes, rattlesnakes, and cactuses everywhere, but it’s much better than Yellowstone! (They let you climb on the stuff!) My sister (not the one with the friend in Colorado, the other one) fell down one of the things and got really scraped up but I had a water bottle so it was fine. (We didn’t even have to tell our parents! So sick!) This vacation would have been number one, but I don’t remember much of it very well so it doesn’t fit both requirements unfortunately.

…Now I suppose you want to hear about the ‘third’ thing. You see, I’m a twin, and there’s this cool thing about being a twin that not many people know about.



There’s a place in Ohio that has a festival for twins (and triplets, and quadruplets, etc) once a year and they give out FREE POPSICLES! It’s so epic! (Actually, I’m rather antisocial and overheat easily, so it’s not very fun for me or my twin, but my twin cousins love it!) There’s not much to do besides volleyball, talking, the parade thing, DNA research (which you can only do after you reach a certain age), and eating the aforementioned free popsicles, so maybe I just like it for the meme, but it’s still cool that it exists. (Each year they have a theme, and I don’t know if I’m going this year, but if anyone else wants to I think the theme is “Welcome 2 the Jungle!” this year.)

So yeah… that’s pretty much it to be honest.

But if I were to talk about vacations I didn’t like… well, no offense parents but I hate NYC and Florida. (As if we’ve gone to either place more than ten/two times respectively lol.) I know I am lucky though, to be able to travel so often, I just sorta wish the travel money for me could go to someone who actually wanted to. qwq

…Be sure to stay tuned for the Shark Wars fanfic I have coming up! /joking …but not about the Shark Wars fic.
savebats
Scratcher
100+ posts

Savebats - Scratch Writing Camp July 2022 Proof

Shark Wars???? Shark Wars :)

Words: 1,860

This doubles as a test to see if I can write Australian accents lol. ALSO, most of the character dynamics and magic stuff in this is probably not gonna make ANY sense AT ALL if you haven’t read the series. So… sorry about that lol.

TW: Blood and violence. (But a lot less extreme than the books, which, being made for fourth graders, make this totally appropriate to have on Scratch.)



Lochlan shook his fins out and sighed, floating down to the seabed as the last quickfin sped away. Next to him, Kendra glanced over, a shock of worry on her face. “Are you alright?” She whispered, her white tipped tail swiping from side to side a bit quicker than normal.

He nodded, but didn’t make any attempt to rise from the ground, he was tired. Finnivus and the Black Wave were fast approaching, Vortex and Hammer Shivers were still refusing to contact him, and Gray’s training didn’t seem to be progressing fast enough to keep him safe. What else was he, a fairly young shark and- may he remind himself- a very new leader of the shiver, meant to do in this situation? Sure, he wasn’t incapable of leading (he had always had a knack of such things), but sometimes just being good at something wasn’t enough.

He was dragged out of his thoughts as Kendra brushed her fin over his spine. “Don’t lie to me,” she said softly, “I can see that somethin's clearly wrong.” (And by her voice, he could tell she was worried about the fact that other AuzyAuzy sharks could too.)

Remembering his duty to keep his subjects encouraged, Lochlan forced himself to rise, floating back into an attention hover and instantly reveling in the clear water in his gills. (There was a current through the clearing, but it kicked up sand when you were too close to the seabed.) “-’m just tired, that's all,” he lied, “I’ve been hovering all day, I haven't even had the time to hunt.”

“I can get ya some fish,” she pointed out. Then she paused and glanced around herself, “But you’d probably have ta wait until the rest of your line’s back from the greenie.”

In her silence he heard her reasoning, “So that someone’s nearby if you get attacked.”

He shook his head and tried to look strong, “I’ll hunt for myself,” she looked at him worriedly, “But I’d let you go with me if you want.”

She flicked her tail dismissively, “No, you can go by yerself if you want, but you should still wait ‘till the rest of the line’s back.”

For what felt like the millionth time that day, he nodded. And when she grinned back at him, sharp teeth shining ever so slightly in the clear water, he let his mind drift. (Though he was sure to stay in a hover this time.)

Finnivius and the Black Wave were going to attack any day now, and though Lochlan felt that he could lead the charge, something in his belly seemed to be fighting to let him know that such an idea might not end well. …or maybe that was just him being hungry.



He hoped it was just him being hungry.

Shocking him out of his thoughts came a high pitched snicker as Jaunt (along with the others in the line) swam into the king’s room. They looked like they had been having a good time, but when Jaunt looked over at Loch (their eyes meeting and staying on each other for a moment), he couldn’t force a smile to keep that good mood going.

“Ar’ ya allrigh' Loch?” She asked, her tail speeding up slightly as she changed her pace and swam toward him. She looked worriedly for a second before Lochlan managed to force a brave face.

“Yeah, ‘m fine, just a bit hungry, that’s all.” Kendra opened her mouth to contradict him, but Loch slapped her side with his tail, (it was no use seeing your leader weak right before a battle.), “I was just gonna go hunting actually.”

“Ah! Sorry ‘bout not bringin’ you some fish!” Jaunt exclaimed, apparently not noticing (or at the very least, pretending not to notice) the interaction that Kendra and Loch had just had, “We were just huntin’, we coulda got you some.”

Xander swam up from behind Jaunt and dropped a small brown fish from his mouth. He looked sheepishly up at Lochlan. “I was gonna have this later, but you can have it if you want.”

The golden great white shook his head, “No, you can have it, I wanted to clear my head anyway.”

With that, he slapped his tail against the water and sped away. (Though he could hear Jaunt’s loud voice cut through the water with something like, “What got him so worked up?” even as the cool currents of the open ocean began to drag at his skin.) He felt bad for leaving so abruptly, but he really was hungry, and he really did need to clear his head. (If he had stayed in the war-council-room any longer, he was pretty sure his gills would’ve just ripped themselves out.)

As soon as the shimmering columns of the sunken landshark city were beginning to blur in the water, he let the electric tingles in his skull come to the forefront of his focus. Every shark had this ‘sixth sense’ but not many of them were as attuned to it as he was. (Hey, just because he had been one of Takiza’s worst students didn’t mean that he had been completely hopeless.) Using his sense, he was able to ‘see’ a large fish off to his side, and by the vague shape in his mind, it wasn’t one of the sentient ones.

Excited to eat something good, he almost let out a cheer, but quickly cut himself off as he remembered that the fish would swim away if it thought it was in danger. He let his focus go back into his eyes as quickly as he could, and turned toward the fish in a way that he hoped was stealthy. There was no greenie to hide him here, and his golden color had never really been an advantage for hiding in the open ocean. (He might have to use speed over smarts to catch this fish afterall.)

He swam forward a few tailstrokes, and instantly spotted the fish. It was swimming normally, so even though it was all by itself in a place that he wouldn’t normally expect to see that sort of fish alone, he was fairly sure it was fine to eat. He held back the urge to grind his teeth together (in anticipation of course), and instead glided forward as motionlessly and silently as he could manage.

The fish flitted about with careful flicks of its fins, and Lochlan could tell that it was fast even as he crept closer. Fortunately though (or unfortunately, if you were on the fish’s side), it didn’t notice him until it was far too late.

With a single bite, the fish was gone and Lochlan was on the prowl again. (The fish had been large-ish, but even though he was a young shark, Lochlan was still a great white and needed a bit more than one large-ish fish to feed him.)

But this time, when he extended the strange electric sense, something other than a fish fizzled into his view. Sharkkind. But not just any sharkkind, these sharks were finja, and by the speed at which they were coming towards him, he could only assume they were not on his side. He probably could have tried to fight them, but despite being a physically strong shark, he wasn’t stupid, so he turned and swam as fast as he could back the way he came.

Why had he swum this far out? He screamed at himself, eyes widening as he saw just how far away he was from the sunken city. It would have been easily reachable if he was being chased by pretty much any sharks but finja, but this class of sharks had the sort of power that Takiza hadn’t taught him. The power to control the currents. Sure, they weren’t anywhere near as good at using this power as someone like Takiza, but they certainly knew it better than Lochlan. (And he was still tired, which didn’t help much either.)

They were gaining on him.

He had to make a decision, continue trying to make the unlikely swim back to safety (and to the guards that he definitely should have brought with him) but leave his tail open to be torn off, or turn and face two to three invisible finja all by himself on an empty stomach. Neither of them sounded like good options, but as he felt the electric buzzing of a mako shark right by his tail, he decided he would rather go out kicking.

He spun around and snapped his jaws at where his tail had just been. Somehow, he actually managed to hit something, and a surprised yelp and a cloud of blood suddenly shone in the water. ‘Good,’ he thought, semi hysterically, ‘Now I’ll know where that one is when they try to tear my fins off next time,’

He let the buzzing of electricity become his focus once more, and immediately had to dive straight down to avoid a hammerhead finja taking his dorsal fin clear off. Retaliating, he spun and chased after it, trying to bite their tail and missing by an urchin spine and the mako finja rammed him from the side. He wasn’t sure why it didn’t bite, and he was pretty sure that they didn’t know either, but he lunged to bite them again anyway.

His teeth met soft flesh again, and another blush of blood tainted the water as the mako shrieked again. “Go home!” Lochlan shouted, backing up slightly to get the taste of blood out of his gills, “I don’t want to have to kill you!”

The mako must have been new to the killing job, so they only hesitated for a moment before speeding away, their invisibility flickering as they got farther away from the bloody waters. But of course the hammerhead didn’t leave, and Lochlan took a small scratch to his side as he darted just barely out of the way of what would have been a bite to the gills.

He returned the move, and got a chunk of disgusting flesh in his mouth as payback. The hammerhead did not make a sound, but clearly stuttered in their confidence for a moment as their invisibility flickered off. (No point in using the power if the blood would give them away anyway.)

Loch did not attempt to attack them again though, and instead executed a flawless run-away move as he returned to his race towards the landshark city. For a moment the hammerhead was too stunned to chase him, and that moment was all Lochlan needed to get close enough to the city for a patrol to spot his mad swim to safety.

Immediately the sharks swam toward him, at first they went slowly with confused looks on their faces. But then, probably recognizing where the all-too-potent blood smell was coming from, they sped as fast as they could. In an instant, the patrol rushed past him, and the hammerhead finja turned and raced the other way. (The current momentarily tugged at his scales a bit harder, and then was nearly still.)

There was silence for a moment.

And then Lochlan laughed.

Last edited by savebats (July 1, 2022 20:41:14)

savebats
Scratcher
100+ posts

Savebats - Scratch Writing Camp July 2022 Proof

Main Cabin Daily: “Remember when you used to ask questions to a Magic 8 Ball? Here’s a project in which you can do that! https://scratch-mit-edu.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/projects/710721692/
Today, ask the ball a plot-related question, which will be related to your prompt. The outcome will then influence what happens in the story. For example, I could ask “Will I meet aliens?” and the answer could be “Most likely”, and then I could write a scene about meeting aliens. For 500 points, write at least 400 words with this prompt, and 100 extra points if you provide proof of your writing!”

“Will the main character be a Pokemon Trainer?”
“It is certain.”
Oookayyy got it. …character study time.


This is like… unexpectedly short, but I'm feeling pretty terrible about a content creator I like (he died /srs) so… don't blame me for it.

Words: 729

-

Gold took a tentative step into the flakes of sunlight. They seemed to rain down from the treetops above him, surrounding him with warmth and brightness as he felt the music of the forest try to lift him off his feet.

Off to his left, a couple of Aipoms were chasing each other around. Their purple paws pounded against the ground as they reached towards each other with their tails. He glanced over to watch them, their giggling voices drifting over him like eighteenth notes in a symphony he could not quite read. (Maybe it was in the wrong clef or something.)

Without warning, a Murkrow swooped past on surprisingly loud wings, the loud beating of them screaming like a plane above him. (And he ducked just in time to barely avoid a second one flying a little bit lower.)

Gold watched them as they shot out of a hole in the leaf covering (and as the Aipoms scampered under a bush for cover, it was clear they had noticed the Murkrows as well). Gold wanted to follow the Pokemon, spread wings and fly after them himself, but he knew that was impossible. (He had been born a human after all.)

He shook his head and his hair flopped all over his face.

If he wanted to follow the birds, he could just call Togebo to carry him up after them, but even so, he was busy right now anyway. He had to collect berries for the daycare!

Sort of unconsciously, he rolled his eyes. Before taking a step in continuation of his walk. He was in search of the correct kind of berry, so when he passed a bush covered in blue berries with green tops, he had to ignore them. Honestly, he wasn’t even sure why he had taken this job (the berry picking, but working at the Pokemon daycare in general could also be considered a slightly odd decision on his part.), was it the fact that he got to hang out with Pokemon all day? Probably not, he got to do that in pretty much any situation. Or possibly the money? Also not that likely, there were so many other ways to gain money that he would have preferred that he couldn’t count them on his fingers.

Oh who was he kidding. He knew exactly why he took the job. It was so that he didn’t feel so incredibly useless all the time! He had always struggled with the feeling that he wasn’t doing enough, but it had strangely gotten worse after he had been appointed as a dexholder. He knew it wasn’t ALL Professor Oak’s fault, but he had to blame the man a little bit for his current mental state. (And also all the people who basically said TO HIS FACE that he was the worst of the dexholders… lets not forget them.)

He spun a little circle as his eye caught on a red spot in the forest, but was again disappointed as he saw that it was just a Sneasel. (Why get his hopes up if he wasn’t about to go home?!)

Unfocused again, he let his thoughts drift. Maybe it was partially his fault that people treated him the way he did. ‘I mean,’ he reasoned with himself, ‘It’s sort of my brand to be comically bad at things at odd times,’ …but still, he couldn’t shake the feeling that it was still wrong that he was treated the way he was.

He sighed and slouched over a little.

“Or maybe it’s just my lifestyle,” he said to no one, his voice bouncing back at him uncertainly. He did like playing games like pool, and he did like skateboarding probably a bit too much, but did that really make him that different from other people? (Plenty of people had the same interests as him.) ‘Or maybe it’s that I stick out from the other dexholders like a sore thumb,’ He thought angrily, ‘Which is a stupid thing to put someone down for in the first place,’

He stopped in his tracks and shook the thoughts away. He was supposed to be collecting supplies for the baby Pokemon, not pondering the way that the world treated him! He had time for this later. …but still, it was a bit unfair, wasn’t it?

He sighed.

Whatever.

He had to get paid somehow.

Last edited by savebats (July 3, 2022 01:04:03)

savebats
Scratcher
100+ posts

Savebats - Scratch Writing Camp July 2022 Proof

In Cabin Daily: “Put your OC in a life or death situation. What happens? Write 300 words about it ^^ (proof needed)"

Disclaimer: I don’t know anything about being a pilot, and I have never been in a glider (let alone one that lands on water!) I just binge watched 74Gear (on YT) okay???

Words: 1,111

(This is Statetalia, by the way.)

-

Alaska grit his teeth as his plane’s small engine stuttered. “No no, not now!” he hissed, watching as the ground below him dropped even farther away as the mountain dropped away. One of the tips of his glider’s wings had somehow clipped itself, and though he was incredibly lucky that he wasn’t already spiraling down to his death right now, a failing engine was no way to fix that problem. (In fact, it seemed to be a bit of an addition to the problem.)

Behind him, he could faintly hear his two passengers screaming as the plane dropped a few feet and attempted to roll to the side. (He had to wrestle his controls just to keep the wings level.) He couldn’t even try to comfort them, he thought, his hair curl drooping pathetically as he realized what a bad situation he had gotten himself into. He had to keep the plane flying, and comforting those on board was not a part of that job when the situations were this dire.

But, then again, if they did crash, he himself would most likely be fine. (He was immortal after all, and even if his heart stopped beating for a little bit, he would regain consciousness eventually. …though the wilderness that was not his birth home could be a bit of a problem.) It was the humans that really had to worry. (So maybe they deserved a bit of comforting.)

He shook his head slightly, the thoughts shaking away with the movement. What use would comfort do if they fell out of the sky first? He had to work on his priorities.

“Sorry!” he called back, refusing to take his eyes off the sky ahead of them for even a second, “We’re probably gonna have a rough landiNG-” his last words rose in volume as the engine jerked to a halt and the plane listed to the right.

The people screamed again, and he had to use all of his strength not to join them as he fought to bring them back on course. ‘I can glide, I can glide,’ he repeated to himself, his mind racing through all his years of training so fast that even a college student before an exam would have been impressed. He thought and thought, trying to find anything that would be able to help him remedy this specific situation. (Though it was a struggle, as most of his thoughts sounded a lot more like curse words, and all his focus was on keeping the humans in the back of the plane safe.)

The treeline was getting closer, and though they were still decently far away from it, he could see that there was only one clear landing spot that he thought he could get to. It was far-ish away, but he knew it was the only option. (Unless he wanted to end up impaled on a sweet smelling pine tree.) This possible savior came in the form of a vast expanse of blue somewhere off to his left, and though it was clearly darkening in the sunset, he could definitely see it was clear of boats. (This was, of course, only viable because his glider was equipped with water landing gear. He was gonna have to thank himself for that later.)

He turned the plane towards the water, and cringed as he felt it shudder and shake as the broken wing fought to stay together against the wind. His heart dropped into his stomach. He wasn’t a very religious man (that happened if you had died multiple times in the past and had no memory of a confrontation with anything remotely ‘spiritual’), but he was still somehow glad for the quiet prayers that drifted up from the passengers behind him. …though he might later take them as an insult.

The fought the wind harder, panic striking his heart and forcing his haircurl flat against his back as he saw a bolt fly off the shuddering wing. ‘How did this get past maintenance??!’ he thought, (somewhat hysterically), as the blue of the lake ahead finally made it into his front window.

But right when he thought the wing was about to snap off, he managed to force the plane on track (and a sudden and aggressive spluttering from the newly awakened engine nearly made him reevaluate his relationship with religion). He could almost smell the relief in the sigh from the humans behind him, and he had to struggle not to let his haircurl perk up in pride. (The same way a self righteous puffin might puff out their chest.)

Though the engine was now on, the flight was still quite shaky (the engine was still sputtering and spitting, and the wing was quite obviously broken), so he decided that it was best to go for the close water landing rather than turning back to the lake that they had taken off from.

Still not turning back to look at them, Alaska relayed this decision to the humans in the back, and he was further encouraged when they sounded relieved rather than upset. (But maybe that was partially because of the clearly visible lake houses on the edge of the water, their lights shining like a beacon specifically for letting them know that they wouldn’t be stranded here.)

He went into a slow descent, glad to finally feel in control of the machine again as they lost air with purpose. He felt himself relax slightly as the water sped up to meet him, slowing again as he lifted the wings to glide them down. And… there it was. The comforting swsssh of his glider against the water. They slowed and slowed until they reached a stop (somewhat nearer to the shore than he had intended.).

He collapsed back into his seat and let out a breath that he had been semi aware of holding. Finally he was ready to let go of the controls as his plane floated silently in the rippling waves. Behind him however, the humans were a bit more enthusiastic. One of them began to cheer, while the other started crying. (He hoped it was more of a happy cry than one upset at his messy landing.)

Through the front window of the plane, he watched as someone ran out of the closest house. He couldn’t see their face, but based on the way they paused for a second before running down the stairs to their docked motorboat, he could guess that he was either about to get robbed or they were about to be rescued.

He slid down father in his seat, he hoped he had the money to buy another glider.
savebats
Scratcher
100+ posts

Savebats - Scratch Writing Camp July 2022 Proof

Main Cabin Daily: “Ah yes, proverbs. We all have in some way heard of these pieces of wisdom passed through short sentences. Today, we will be using them! For 400 points, write at least 300 words of a story that takes inspiration from a proverb (perhaps using it as the story's moral, perhaps incorporating it into the story somehow - it's up to you).”

Proverb used: “The best fish swim near the bottom.”

Translations for stuff that may not make sense of you haven't read these books:
Battle fin: 100 battle trained sharks.
Mosasaurus: A kind of dinosaur. Near the end of the Shark Wars Series they are attacking the main characters
Greenie: Underwater plants. Usually seaweed.
Mariners: In the context of Shark Wars, this refers to the sharks in the main parts of the armada.
Slaggernacks: A restaurant.
Hocuu: The main villain of the later Shark Wars books. He is very fast and also has magical powers.

Notes:
I guess this is an AU where Mari is still alive in the final battle I’m sobbing and crying I forgot.,..,,.,
I am aware that this proverb is not about what I wrote about. Barklay is the best fish and he is swimming near the bottom, there I said it.
This is less violent than the actual CHILDREN AIMED book series, so I assume it’s okay on Scratch.
I'm not sure if this is any good at all but honestly who's gonna read it anyway????

Tw: Implied animal death, blood, violence
Words: 2,276



-
Barklay held his tail as still as he possibly could, floating with the current so he could blend in as closely as possible with the greenie. To his side was Mari, motionless in a similar manner, and- despite their similar stillness -he could feel the electric tingle of the other ghostfins a bit behind them. (Gray had talked him into learning to focus on the skill a bit more strongly, and he had to admit it was rather helpful.)

He felt a shadow of a shark pass over them, and instinctively motioned with his fins for his group to be ready for a possible battle. But, rather unsurprisingly, the shark above them didn’t notice the ghostfins. That made Barklay proud. He had trained these sharks (some of them of species that would be more expected to be mariners) to swim stealthily under the battle. It made him proud how well his ghostfins had realized this potential, though he did have to admit a certain enjoyment in the fact that he, a dogfish, was able to get larger sharks to follow his ideas in the first place.

Suddenly though, Barklay noticed something odd about the battle. One of the mosasaurs (a real giant this one) was breaking away from the fight. But that wasn’t the problem (in fact, the less mosasaurs for the combined armada to fight, the better), but what was a problem was the rather concerning fact that it was headed straight for them.

Making a split second decision, he ficked his fins again, and Mari instantly shuffled behind him to take her place in what he called “the sea snake formation”. (Which consisted of all the sharks in a single file line, which let them go at ridiculous speeds for a formation of several sharks. Sure, there wasn’t even a battle fin worth of them, but there were still enough that without the sea snake formation, they should not be able to go as fast as they were able.)

But the sea snake wasn’t just good for swimming away, it was also good for a combined attack! The surprise of even several small sharks moving at that pace was enough to scare anyone, even a mosasaur. (Or… he hoped so, anyway.) Still he kept the sea snake in that place for a moment, hoping that the mosasaur's choice of direction would just be a coincidence… until their eyes met. He could’ve sworn it was smiling.

“Okay,” he whispered, giving a quick pep talk as the jurassic speed up the flapping of it’s clawed flippers, “It’s hide is too strong to ram, prioritize protecting each other over hurting it,” It was only about twenty tail strokes away now, “But that’s what we specialize in anyway, let’s GO!” The last word came out as a yell, and as if powered by a sudden current, the ghostfins exploded out into the open ocean.

Barklay immediately dogged around the mosasaur’s mouth, leaving what he hoped was enough room for all of his ghostfins to do the same as the two forces crashed into each other. The huge crocodile jaws snapped shu and he chanced a glance behind him, and was immediately thankful when he saw that all of his ghostfins were still there. Still in the sea snake formation, Barklay shot under the jurasic’s belly, biting at the flesh he found there. Instantly, the monster roared and attempted to grab the ghostfins, but they scattered back like a school of minnows.

Barklay cringed at the taste of the blood, it was somehow both rotten and alive at the same time. Something like the scents of the landshark trash and Slaggernacks combined. Disgusting! He fell to the end of the sea snake (letting Mari take the lead) as his fins became suddenly tired. Both because of the speed that they were going at, and the disgusting taste that miraculously meant that these things could actually be damaged. (Though he wasn’t fully convinced he hadn’t just been lucky.)

Taking in his surroundings as the group shot just in front of the mosasur’s jaws, Barklay noticed that the shark In front of him was Peen. This was a good setup for him to recover (a hammerhead breaks a lot more current than say, a dogfish… like Barklay.). But in his recovering state, he just barely managed to avoid losing his tail as the mosasaur slammed its jaws shut once more. He felt a shiver shoot down his spine. He had almost just tasted the sweet waters of the Sparkle Blue just a little bit early. (And a spanse of water just as wide as an urchin spine was all that saved him.)

They whirled around the jurassic again, confusing the slightly injured monster as they spun like a whirlpool. There weren’t quite enough of them to actually move the mosasaur, but it did the work for them as it bit at them with delayed reaction time.

All too soon though, the sea snake turned the other way (a move that Barklay was pretty sure came from an awkward doge around one of the giant clawed flippers). But Barklay was once again excited and surprised as the scent of the mosasaur’s blood stained the water for the second time that battle. Maybe they had a chance of beating this thing! Maybe his bite hadn’t just been beginner’s luck!

But as Mari got back on track, he saw something out of the corner of his eye,… something terrifying. “Pull back!” He yelled, “Turn around and follow me!” Thankfully, the ghostfins were trained well enough that they obeyed immediately, and though they lost a precious few seconds, the mosasaur was still a bit spun around from the last attack to its belly. (And therefore unable to get a good shot at the group as they raced back to the greenie.)

The sea snake shot away, Peen close at Barklay’s tail, and Velkena right after him. The quarters were tight, but Barklay had a feeling that the others had spotted… it too. The mosasaur began to chase them, but it was too late, for not a second after Mari had made it into the safety of the greenie, a ball of energy exploded the water that they had just been swimming in. Barklay was the furthest into the greenie, and even he felt a sudden rush of heat as the mosasaur (and the water around it) seemed to morph into flames.

He kept going, having to yell an order back as he upped his tail strokes from one hundred per minute to two hundred per minute. It was breakneck pace, and he was still tired from leading the charge at the start of their attack, so he had to fall to the back of the formation again as the group headed deeper into the greenie. He trusted Peen to lead the group, but if the hammerhead got tired as well, Velkena would be at the head of the sea snake… Somehow, even after all they had been through together, Barklay still couldn’t force himself to trust her.

But as he snuck a glance back (and was immediately painfully aware of the danger they were fleeing as his eyes met those of that… monster), he realized that maybe, just maybe, it didn’t matter at that specific moment in time. Peen fell to the back of the snake, still keeping his tail strokes just as fast as before, but no longer breaking the current for all of those behind him. As Velkena took the lead, Barklay felt a sudden (and rather dramatic) increase in the ghostfin’s speed. It was to be expected though, Velkena was a mako (a very fast sort of shark) and specifically wanted by the shark chasing them.

But Barklay wasn’t sure if they could do it much longer. The sea snake was fast, but Hocuu was faster. (He felt an involuntary shark run from his snout to his tail tip as he admitted to himself the name of the threat behind them.) But just as the frilled shark was about to catch up with Peen (and Barklay right after him), Velkena jerked the sea snake to the side (and into a mess of coral spires.)

Normally, a frilled shark wouldn’t have been phased by quick turns like this, but a combination of good luck and brilliant thinking was able to save the ghostfins’ collective tails as an explosion of magic shot at them from somewhere to the side.

‘Takiza!’ Barklay thought, too shocked to even care that Velkena was leading the group back out into the open ocean. ‘He saved us!’

The sea snake crossed the battlefield at record pace, Velkena falling to the back of the line and the shark in front of her soon after. The group sped into the second greenie field (this one golden and full of tall leafy spires), and stuttered to a stop. For a moment they were still on edge, watching their tails for a moment longer as they went back into award winningly tired hovers in the greenie.

And then one of them let out a sigh of relief.

As he heard the sound, Barklay felt himself relax. Nobody from the main battle seemed to have noticed their mad dash to the golden greenie, Hocuu was no longer on their tails (a use of his electricity-sensing-power proved that), and the mosasaur was long gone. -And not a single ghostfin had been lost! He heard Velkena breathing hard behind him (Peen had filtered away to a slightly browner clump of greenie), and almost forgave her. (But not yet… they still had battles yet to fight.)

Barklay sank a bit lower in the water, grinning as he let the current take him again. (Though he still cast worried eyes out to the larger battle, a disturbing shock of red tainted the water there.) The ghostfins deserved a small rest after what they had done, not just any group of ten to fifteen sharks could take out a mosasaur and live to tell the tale. (Though that was, admittedly, mostly Takiza’s doing.)

He wavered in the water like he himself was a stalk of greenie. Counting each wave back and forth until he had the pattern down to a science. He glanced back the way they had come, and was happy to see that Takiza appeared to have made it out of the fight. Sure, the betta fish was small, but he also had such an aura to him, Barklay just knew that he was still alive.

But there was more to battle than the life of one fish (no matter how powerful they happened to be), so when Mari motioned for the ghostfins to creep after her, Barklay followed. Sure, he was the leader, but Mari was one of the highest ranked among them, and besides, part of being a ghostfin was that you had to let other people take the lead when they needed to.

Unfortunately though, he soon found that the reason they were leaving in such a manor was once again, not a good one. Now it wasn’t “mosasaur charging directly at you with the intent of eating you alive” bad, but as red stained his gills, he knew that it was just the same for someone else. Beside him, he heard Velkena suck in a breath as she spotted what they were heading for. (And when he followed her gaze, he found himself doing the same.)

He couldn’t even force himself to describe it. Not even years later, when he surely should have been able to, he couldn’t get his eyes to focus on what was burned into them. Later, he wouldn’t even be able to place a fin what exactly about this specific instance that scared him so bad, but in that moment, all he knew was that the fish he had eaten that morning might just be able to see the ocean again soon.

“Oh Tyro,” he heard a younger ghostfin whisper, the small whitetip’s tail flicking excessively as they took in the sight, “What do we do?”

“We deal with it,” Mari said determinedly. (And a flick of her fins explained the plan all in one step.)

Following the orders, Barklay took the lead again. Since the sea snake had been an effective way to deal with a fight last time, they were doing it again. He took a deep breath in and the water filtered through his gills in a way that would have been calming had it not been for the lingering scent of iron in the water.

He wiggled his tail… closed his eyes… readyed his teeth… -and lurched forward at the highest speed that any self respecting dogfish would be able to. Behind him, the rest of the ghostfins followed suit, and as if they were an armada of their own, the sea snake ripped through everything in front of them. Barklay missed the first bite, but the spinner behind him got it. (And the frilled shark screeched away, blood trailing from its gills.)

He was more ready for the next one though.

It was a blur, and though somewhere in their mad race he fell to the end of the line, by the time the sea snake had had its fill, there was not a single frilled shark left in that crowd of greenie. (And there had still not been a single death among the ghostfins. Either they were having uncharacteristically good luck, or someone had slipped some of that weird glowing greenie into their lunches.)

And though it was still not over, Barklay grinned his teeth together in pride.

They were turning the tide.
savebats
Scratcher
100+ posts

Savebats - Scratch Writing Camp July 2022 Proof

Main Cabin Daily: “Do you believe in horoscopes? Today, find your sign’s horoscope at https://scratch-mit-edu.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/projects/711163750 and use it as a writing prompt! Write at least 500 words to earn 600 points for your cabin, and earn an additional 200 points for sharing proof of your writing. If you would prefer not to reveal your zodiac sign, you can choose a random horoscope. If there are other reasons you are uncomfortable with this daily, contact someone on the daily team (see bottom of description) and we’ll give you an alternative prompt.”

Horoscope result: “Don’t automatically assume that you can work out all your problems by yourself, Cancer. Just the act of talking things over with others can help shed light on a situation that was baffling you earlier. Enlist the help of others in areas where you need help. Don’t be ashamed to ask for assistance. We all have problems and issues to deal with. You aren’t alone.”

This is a ‘rewrite’ of the scene right in the beginning of the third Pokemon Adventures book.

Words: 1,561


-

Blue grit his teeth as he and Charizard struggled against the invisible wall around Saffron City. Maybe it wasn’t quite fair to himself, but he was beginning to feel slightly powerless, and he didn’t like that. He had made it through so many obstacles on the way to save his grandfather, and the second a stupid psychic attack hits him, he’s suddenly not powerful enough to continue? What kind of fairness was that?

In the back of his mind, he knew that that wasn’t a fair statement. Psychic walls were basically the strongest thing in all of the world (including the more technologically advanced regions like Gallar and Kalos). -and on top of that, he knew that fire was not the way to go about breaking them. But his only psychic Pokemon, Golduck, was not powerful enough to break a wall of this strength all by themself.

He spotted Red and his Aerodactyl flying after them, and not even a second later the power of a hyper beam exploded the world a few feet to his side. But just as he had expected, a physical attack could do nothing against the psychic wall. ‘Maybe the top?’ He wondered, glancing upward at the edge of the mostly invisible wall, ‘Maybe it’s weaker there?’

He urged the dragon upward, and the two soared upward at record pace. Unfortunately, the loud flapping of heavier wings told him that Red was doing the same thing. “Quit copying me!” He yelled, taking a second out of his focus to turn and yell at Red.

Unsurprisingly, his rival did the same, turning to him and yelling back, “Who’s copying who?!” His eyes burned with determination, and Blue didn’t like that.

He scrunched up his nose and turned his focus back to the psychic wall. He didn’t need Red’s help! That pathetic trainer was only good for one thing, leveling up Pokemon with decently challenging battles. …and maybe another thing too. He blushed and shook the thoughts away, he didn’t need distraction right now, he was trying to save his grandfather! He turned his head toward the wall, commanding Charizard’s flame attack at the exact same time that Red and Aerodactyl unleashed an attack of their own.

But again, neither attack did anything. Neither physical attack could do anything.

Suddenly getting an idea, he signaled Charizard to dive towards the ground. Instantly, the Pokemon responded, the flame on the end of his tail growing into a flare as the wind whipped past it. With a shock of a smug smile Blue noticed that Red and Aerodactyl were still hovering above them, clearly they hadn’t caught on yet.

‘There’s no way to break through this thing physically,’ He thought, once again focusing back on the task at hand. (Who knew Red could be so distracting! It only proved that Blue didn’t need anyone’s help.)

Without even thanking Charizard, Blue jumped to the ground, his feet hitting the thin grass with a rather loud ‘Thump!’ He pulled out a Pokeball and finished his thought out loud. “But not everything is physical…”

He threw the Pokeball, “Golduck!! Search the inside with Confusion!” He commanded, even as the mist from the interior of the Pokeball choked the air. While Golduck adjusted to the sudden shock of sunlight, Blue pulled out his Pokedex. Clicking on and shifting to a more experimental screen. ‘He’ll scan it from the outside, and then find the location of the trainer and the pokemon producing the barrier!’ He thought, ‘If I channel Golduck’s thoughts to appear visually on the Pokedex…’

He didn’t have to finish the thought, and just a few button clicks brought him to the correct screen just as Golduck began to use the power. At first, the Pokedex didn’t show much of anything, and Blue was afraid he had done something wrong, but then a small beeping began to come from it. At first this was no comfort, but as an image began to swim onto the screen, he released a sigh of relief. They were doing it!

“Mr. Mime!” He said, his voice much louder than he intended as he recognized the powerful psychic Pokemon, “So this is what they call ‘light screen!’” (He had never actually seen the move used in person before, but he had to admit that there were probably better times to be introduced to it.)

“They’re in front of the central building.” He muttered, scratching the back of his head in an effort to think of anything that they could actually do with that information, “So at least I know who and where the enemy is!”

Somewhere behind him, he heard Red and Aerodactyl land (which was a somewhat awkward move, given that Red had to hit the ground first), and not a second later, a yell as Red yelled a command to his Pikachu.

‘Substitute?’ Blue wondered, suddenly very aware of the fact that while he could see what was happening inside the barrier, he couldn’t actually affect anything within it. (Knowing what was going on didn’t change the fact that none of his Pokemon had any way to break past the wall.)

And with horror, he suddenly realized that Red had the ability to make it inside the wall. Pikachu was jumping through the barrier. (Or, rather, a substitute of Pikachu was jumping through the barrier. The little yellow rodent was just as physical as anyone else.) But it didn’t take him very long to realize that Red was just as stuck as him. Pika didn’t know where he was going! If they joined together though…

Blue shook his head. He didn’t need help! If he had gotten this far, he didn’t need anyone to get him farther.



He hoped.

But right then, a third voice joined their two. Green! Blue snapped around to face her (which gave him a great view of Red doing the exact same thing.)

“Oh, brilliant!!” She said sarcastically, floating toward the two of them on the gentle drift of her Jigglypuff. “Together you can win! If you keep trying to get through on your own, you can just keep score!”

Blue opened his mouth to speak, but Green held up a finger to silence him. “What do you think this is?” She asked, somewhat jokingly, “A video game?”

Blue paused, thinking about it. He wanted to do this on his own, but he had to admit that he couldn’t. He didn’t have a Pokemon that could use substitute, which was what he needed to get through the light screen. But Red did.

He turned to watch Golduck, and Red (who Blue suddenly noticed was hugging Pikachu) followed his lead. For a moment there was silence, and then Blue forced himself to speak. He snorted, unable to believe that he was saying this, but said it anyway. “It just so happens, Red, that I can tell you our foe’s exact position.”

Out of the corner of his eye, Blue could tell that Red looked annoyed, but he answered anyway. “We can’t get you in, but Pikachu and I can fight him!”

Pikachu nodded, and Golduck did the same. (Much to the amusement of Green. Blue was half sure she was going to fall off her Jigglypuff soon, judging by how loud her laughing sounded.)

Blue and Red made the decision at the same time. “Golduck will transmit the sensory wave it’s reading to Pikachu!” Blue yelled, waving his hand as Golduck did exactly what he had said.

Recognizing that the move had been completed, Red smiled at him, “Leave the rest to us Blue!” Blue stared at him for a moment, but his Pokedex beeped again, and he was forced to look down at it.

What he saw didn’t really surprise him.

“One foe’s on the move!” He yelled to Golduck. Glancing down at the Pokedex, he realized that he was referring to Mr. Mime, obviously. “Tell Pikachu!”

Just as soon as he had said it, Golduck held out his hand and shot the beam towards the Pikachu substitute. And a moment later, Blue saw the shadowy outline of it on his pokedex. They were close!

“Red!” He yelled, “Now!”

Red nodded, “Pikachu! Thunderbolt!” But then he stuttered as he glanced down at his Pokedex (which he had set to Golduck’s thoughts by now.)
“M- Mr, Mine is disappearing?!” He asked, clearly shocked.

Blue was unphased though, having expected this kind of trick. “Golduck! Keep at it!”

Instantly, Golduck responded, reaching out a hand and focusing to the point that even Blue was beginning to feel the psychic waves. Blue grinned at his screen, which flickered as the Pikachu substitute jumped towards the read Mr. Mime.

This time, Blue didn’t even bother letting Red know. “Now!” They both yelled, “Thunderbolt!!”

As soon the words left his mouth, Blue was blinded as his screen filled with yellow, a sure sign that Pikachu’s attack had hit his target. And if that wasn't enough, a moment later, the barrier began to melt away. He would have said something to Red, but he was suddenly reminded of why he was doing this.

‘Grandfather…’ He thought, frozen for a moment as Red celebrated behind him. But as Red’s eyes turned to him, Blue raced away. Maybe he had needed help with getting into the city, but that didn’t mean he needed help with saving Professor Oak!
savebats
Scratcher
100+ posts

Savebats - Scratch Writing Camp July 2022 Proof

Weekly #1: https://scratch-mit-edu.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/discuss/topic/615765/?page=1#post-6431262
“Hi there, campers! Welcome to the first weekly of Scratch Writing Camp’s July 2022 session.
We'll be diving into the world of fanfiction, with three excellent workshops created by some of our own leaders and activities to help you strengthen your skills. This weekly has four parts, all of which you must complete to earn points.”


Total Word Count: 4456

-

Part 1: Character consistency worksheet.
“For part 1 of the weekly, you’ll be learning how to keep a character’s personality and mannerism consistent to its fandom. The awesome Aleia has created a workshop on how to keep your characters consistent. (https://scratch-mit-edu.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/projects/710605468/)
After you complete Aleia’s workshop, you’ll be creating a character sheet for a character from a fandom and then putting that character in a scenario to see how they’d react. You can choose a scenario from the list below, or create your own scenario! There’s no word requirement for the character reference sheet, but your writing of the character in a scenario should be at least 400 words long.”

Words: 403


Name: Alfred F. Jones / The United States of America

Hetalia has no real plot to continue so this is just gonna… happen I guess.

Pronouns: He/him

Sexuality: Not important, but probably queer anyway

Species: Representation / Nation (though I have a theory he might actually represent an ideology, rather than a country.)

Strengths: Brave, cares about freedom, super strength, immortality, always has a way out of a situation, can probably fly at least a bomber plane (based on his bomber jacket in the WW2 era comics)

Weaknesses: Has a hard time reading the room, he also is heavily implied to have an eating disorder (which isn't a ‘weakness’ exactly, but it sucks to have.), he’s physically under 21 so he can’t drink (despite being 300+ years old).

General view on life: Happy go lucky… so we think /half joking

Tendencies:
Speak over friends and not pay attention to their feelings. This is probably not changing much.
The obsessive exercising I mentioned. Probably not gonna change either? I don’t have the knowledge to write about fixing it. (But it won’t be a focus of this plot.)
He’s very silly, but can be very serious about what he cares about / important things.

Situations:
Threat of a relationship: It depends on the character who is crushing on him, but I feel like America would really not want a super serious relationship. Even ignoring the fact that the only people who are really viable options are other nations, and therefore live quite far away from him, these characters fight often. And humans… Well, humans aren’t immortal like nations. But I feel like he would struggle with this, because he would totally want a relationship, he just… doesn’t know how.
Friends get hurt: If it was a nation / a not serious injury to a human, he’d probably laugh, I’m not gonna lie, but if it was a bad injury, or an especially mean way of injuring a nation, he’d most likely try to help them.
Getting lost on a random island in the middle of the ocean: You know, if you didn’t know Hetalia, you wouldn’t think this should go in a category of common occurrences. But I know Hetalia, and I know that this is an easy one to answer because it’s happened MULTIPLE TIMES. America would not really pay attention to the severity of the situation because he brought a lot of food with him. (Somehow????)

-

Situation: “Your character is the leader of a rebellion and the opposing force has them surrounded.”

There were so many example situations that would’ve made absolutely TOP TIER Hetalia fics, but this one was the first one I saw, so I guess it’s what you’re getting. …also this is sorta out of character. Most likely because I have a HUGE AU that I like a lot, and also because I kinda like semi-out-of-character Alfred??? But I’m trying qwq.
Tw: Historical Hetalia (sorta), implied death and war
Words: 838


America took a breath in. The rain pattered down around him, tapping like hundreds of hands knocking on his tent door. He breathed the breath out. His leg ached, its hidden injury burning like it was angry at him. But there was no point in worrying about it now, if his rebellion was crushed, he might cease to exist, and be able to join his human friends in the afterlife. (And if he knew anything, he knew that injuries weren’t a thing in heaven.) That wouldn’t be a good outcome, but maybe it would prove things to England, and he would get to rest…

No.

The blond nation shook his head from side to side. He couldn’t think like that, not now, not when it was most important that he put his entire heart into the fight! It wasn’t fair to all the friends (human or otherwise) that he had lost over the past few years, not when they needed him most. Not when he had so much to fight for.

“Sir?” Asked a slightly muffled voice. America turned towards it, scared for a second that someone had seen him freak out, before recognizing that it had come from outside his tent.

“Come in!” He called, furiously wiping away a few tears that he had forgotten about until that very second, “You’re welcome to come in.”

Out of the corner of his eye, America watched as one of his soldiers slipped into the tent. (The door opening and closing without a single sound.) They looked worried. That wasn’t good.

“Sir…” the man stuttered, his raggedy coat soaking wet (presumably from the rain that he had just been standing in), “The general wanted me to alert you about something.”

America grit his teeth, and immediately hoped that it didn’t look like a threat. (He wasn’t good enough at reading faces to check.) “What’s going on out there?” He asked, jumping straight to the point to save the awkwardness of the situation… and the most time possible.

Still the man paused, and even America could tell that he was on the verge of crying. “We’re… surrounded sir.”

America blinked, ‘Surrounded? I swear that yesterday they didn’t even know where we were-’ He thought, and, continuing in speech, he said, “How did they find us?”

“We don’t know,” said the soldier, brushing a bit of hair out of his face with a noticeably shaky hand, “All we know is that if we don’t get out of here fast, our supplies are going to be cut off.”

America bit his lip, thinking hard. Obviously he didn’t have the last say in what they were doing (being immortal sometimes caused rash decisions), so if the general was thinking to tell him about this… it was clear they needed his input. In any normal situation, he probably would have made a stupid joke, and then ignored the problem, but this was not a normal sitaution. Something about the threat to him, no, the threat to his people, made America’s mind go into a strange focus. Like this was what he was meant to do, or something.

And oddly, his leg didn’t hurt anymore.

“We could try to escape,” America muttered, thinking out loud, “But there are a lot of people here, so it might be risky.” ‘Still,’ he thought, ‘At least it’s not another fight.’

He turned to the nervous looking soldier, “Do we know how many there are?”

The soldier gave him a pained smile, “At least a hundred, but probably more.”

America sucked in a breath, ‘Definitely not fighting our way out then.’ he thought, mentaly flicking through all the previous battles he’d been in. There were way too many… but somehow not enough. He didn’t know how to get out of this. “We need to escape the camp.”

“Of course sir.”

“Do you know if they’ve cut off the river yet?” America asked, “We could escape that way, even if it would get our gunpowder wet.”

The soldier nodded, “I’ll relay that to the general,” he said, turning towards the door. But as Alfred began to stand (his leg burning with rekindled rage), he frantically interrupted, “-But you have to say here.”

Surprised, Alfred reacted bluntly. “Why?” He asked loudly, sounding like a child who had just been told he couldn’t have his favorite sweet at the market, “They needed my input didn’t they?”

The soldier nodded, but looked at him awkwardly, “You just gave your input,”

Alfred paused, suddenly annoyed. “But- can’t I like… tweek my answer if they bring up other stuff to worry about?” ‘Aren't I the one who knows most about what’s good for our rebellion here? Aren’t I LITERALLY the representation of it?’

The soldier shrugged, “I’ll run back if they bring up new information.”

Alfred shook his head. “No,” he said, suddenly sure, “I’m going with you.”

‘It’s the best way to protect them,’ He thought, his mind flashing through all the people he’d lost, ‘The best way to make it out of here alive.’

-

Part 2: Character voice
“In this part, we will be diving into character voices, and how to keep them consistent. The fabulous Fae has created a workshop about character voices here. (https://scratch-mit-edu.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/projects/701390524) After reading this workshop, you will work with two characters. First, you will write at least 100 words each, identifying their character voices. Then, you will write 2 passages, each at least 300 words, of the characters recounting a past event. Your word count for Part 2 should be at least 800 words. Note: The characters you use CANNOT be OCs.”

Character voices:
(Words: 316)


I just described Alfred in the last part of this weekly, but he’s loud, carefree, and has a hard time reading the room. (But he can be serious if he really wants to.) His speaking quirks are different in the Japanese vs the English version of the anime, but for the purpose of this section of the weekly, I can say that in the English version he says “dude” A LOT. (I didn’t include that in the last section because it might have taken away from the seriousness of it. …also I don’t really like the english Hetalia dub. Oddly enough.)

A second character however, is Ivan. (Or, Russia, if you prefer to use nation names… which I do.) Ivan is the type of guy who seems soft on the outside, but on the inside, is entirely different. He doesn't do it on purpose though. Most of the time, his talking patterns are soft and sweet, but if he gets annoyed, it will be different. His voice being much much deeper, and his words spoken more as a threat. A very defining trait of his character is that he hates being alone, but at the same time lives by himself and has no friends.

Also, I’m probably not gonna write from his perspective, but the third character in the thing I’m practicing for is Yao / China. He’s similar to the other Hetalia characters in the fact that he is made for comedy, so he’s not mean or anything, but he talks with a certain jokingly insulting tone that Alfred and Ivan really don’t. But that’s pretty much it, as I don’t speak Japanese and therefore can’t write his Japanese specific accent quirk. I guess I should mention though, that he (and Ivan too) do have pretty strong accents, but because I- again- watched the japanese version of the anime, I didn’t really get to hear them.

-

Perspective writing:
Russia’s perspective. (OH * I DIDN’T DO FIRST PERSON, I GUESS WE’RE WRITING CHINA AS WELL.)
Tw: Historical Hetalia (…sorta), talking about morality and death and stuff
Words: 505


Russia sighed. He was bored. His house was lonely, and now, even the whipping winds had fallen silent. (And to top it off, the wifi was being especially spotty that day, so he couldn’t even stalk America’s social media accounts. Which was, of course, a common pastime for him.) He wasn’t in the mood to read a book (he had just finished several), and he had no one to play a board game with.

So when his mind shifted towards memories of other lonely days, he could almost complain that it was a purposeful trap on the part of whatever higher power was in charge of him. …but then again, it was something to do.

He leaned back on the couch, shutting his eyes and letting the memories take him. A long time ago, this sort of loneliness wouldn’t have been odd. (And with a shock, he realized he probably wouldn’t have minded it. It might have even been welcome. Given what was going on at the time.) But a long time ago was different.

A long time ago was back when the Mongol empire still spanned the space between him and the coast. (Instead of him reaching the whole way.)

A long time ago, Russia probably would have been shocked by just the idea of a heated house like the one he was currently staying in. A long time ago, he wouldn’t have had any way to reach the other nations if something bad happened. A long time ago, he could’ve sworn that he had friends.

Russia squeezed his eyes even tighter shut, waiting a few seconds before releasing them back to what they had been. He wanted friends. He wanted someone to hang out with on cold lonely days like the one he was dealing with then.

But that was difficult for a nation.

Being immortal and all, it hurts to become friends with a human. (Someone you knew would eventually leave you, even if it was beyond their control to stay.) And nations weren’t much better! (Though the threat of being left alone was a bit more of a ‘threat’ than the simple truth of death.)

He slid down the couch, his scarf pulling uncomfortably on his neck as it got caught under his head. Gosh. He almost missed the past. (Though he knew that was stupid.) At least in the past, he was too busy worrying for his safety to worry about being alone. At least then his sisters would have been able to comfort him. At least then he wouldn’t have been given the promise of friendship (only for his boss to tear it away a second later).

It was a struggle. Being a nation and all.
But then again. No, it wasn’t a struggle being a nation. Someone who could die and live again without so much as a second glance from god. It was a struggle being a person. A person with feelings, a person who had a life to live, but no good way to live it.

America’s perspective:
This was… gonna be a ‘storage room cleaning episode’ sorta thing but instead I just… wrote about Alfred finding a mouse in his garage?????? I don’t- I dunno if I’m awake enough to finish this weekly.
Words: 616

I turned towards the source of the noise, and my eyes flicked over the boxes of stuff. ‘Was that a mouse?’ I thought to myself, somewhat excited at the thought of seeing one, ‘It’s been a while since one of those in my garage.’

I snuck forward slowly, sneaking past a towering castle of cardboard boxes, two rusty bikes I had wanted to fix when I picked them up, and a half painted cabinet that Matt had given me for my birthday. (But don’t worry, next time it was Canada day, I had a plan to get back at him.) I stepped over a guitar case, unable to remember if it actually contained a guitar or not, and then stopped. A spider hung down from the ceiling in front of me, clearly trying to backtrack up its thread as quickly as possible. I covered my hair with my hands, and ducked under it.

Finding a mouse in my garage was much more interesting than watching a spider go into a panic. In fact, it reminded me of something. The last time I’d found a mouse… in my house.

I ducked around a large refrigerator box, empty of all but spiderwebs, and scanned the floor for the mouse. Last time I’d been doing this specific set of actions, it had been when I had just bought the house. And though it was weird to say, that had been like… fifty years ago at this point. Maybe that was a good thing, I laughed out loud for a second, and then immediately stopped as a rustling sound came from somewhere to my right.

I grinned and turned towards the sound, quickly spotting a slithery tail bolting around the edge of yet another cardboard box. “Dude!” I called, knowing that if someone saw me talking to a rodent I’d probably get laughed at, “I can see you! There’s no point running around like a mad man!”

He stepped gingerly over the box, and, seeing that the mouse was cornered all of a sudden, frantically moved to catch it. I wasn’t stupid however, and remembered to pick up a box to scoop it up. (Last time I had tried to catch a mouse, I had used my hands, and it had bitten me. …not recommended.)

The mouse moved quick, but I moved quicker.

In a split second, my box was no longer empty, and I had a great view of an absolutely terrified mouse. I smiled at him. “Hey dude!” I said, realizing too late that I might be speaking a bit too loud for its poor ears, “I’m gonna have to take you outside, ‘k?”

Of course, the mouse didn’t respond. (Strangely though, the last time I had done this, the mouse had been squeaking up a storm.) “I swear I’m not gonna hurt you,” I murmured, tilting the box slightly as the mouse tried to climb up the side, “I’m just gonna take you outside.”

It didn’t understand that either, so I shrugged and headed for the garage door. Last time this had happened, I had taken the mouse directly outside, and unless this one was a descendant of that first mouse, I didn’t think there would be much harm in doing that again. I laughed. Maybe my nation status had something to do with that. My friends said it was all in the eyes.

I set the box down, tilting it slowly until the mouse tumbled out onto the grass. For a moment it was frozen, but when I backed up, waiting a second to see that it was okay, it bolted off into the woods.

I laughed again.

“Bye!” I called, “Hope you don’t come back!”

China’s perspective:
Since that last one was silly- and therefore really easy to write -I thought I’d do something similar with this one! Hetalia is a comedy after all. (Russia’s just sad I guess, lol.)
Words: 416


I smiled, memories shifting as I sifted through the books on my shelf. Many of these stories were bad memories, yes, but I always liked to look at the bright side of things. (Because, when it came down to it, that was all that was keeping me from going crazy.) Plus, being a nation was objectively kind of funny. Like, being a person… that represents an area of land and its people to the point that you would stay alive for as long as it did? That’s wild! Who does that?!

I pulled a book out from among its brothers with a flourish of dust. Yes. This was what I was looking for. It was a short book that my friend had made, based loosely on an outing that we had had to a restaurant. It was an old old book (this being my third copy of it, out of three that had ever existed.)

There were a lot of things from back then, a lot of things that weren't good to remember, and generally, friends who had met their end were among those memories, but they also deserved to be remembered nicely. (At least, that’s what I had always thought, and, being one of the oldest living nations, I was pretty sure my perspective meant something.)

I opened the cover, and a secondary flurry of dust filled my nose. (It was a good thing I wasn’t allergic.)

‘To my friend,’ the opening read, the characters old and probably unrecognizable for someone who had not been a scholar two thousand years ago, ‘A memory of the strange occurrence last night,’

I settled down among the books I had pulled from the shelf. Among all of these war documents, torn art pieces, and debunked scientific theories was the book in my hands. A memory, a legend, and one of the funniest things that had even happened to me.

I giggled, flipping through the pages before reading them (making sure that none of them were stuck together), and spotting occasional words I had forgotten the existence of. Of course, if any of the pages were stuck together, I had an online version of this book (I had made it out of photos on a very laggy google document), but the memories came back more with a paper version.

“Well,” I said, my words coming out in an odd accent as I studied the old characters (none of the pages were stuck together), “I guess it’s time to read.”

-

Part 3: Fanfic Tropes
“In this part, we will be exploring fanfic tropes. The marvelous Mayhem has created a wonderful workshop that you can find here! (https://scratch-mit-edu.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/discuss/topic/613285/?page=1#post-6446592) Once you’ve read it, we can start writing. For this activity, you will be choosing three of the tropes that Mayhem covered to include in a fanfiction. You may find it helpful to use the same characters that you used for the first two parts, but you’re not required to. Your fanfiction must be at least 700 words.”

The tropes that I am choosing are “Crossover AU”, “Crack Fic”, and “Original Character fic.” Yes, this is cringe, but I have been FROTHING AT THE MOUTH to write Statetalia fic, and because I have a huge AU that includes a LOT of crossovers (and, let’s be honest, Statetalia is already a Crack fic AND an OC fic without even adding anything), so this seemed easiest.

…I have been doing this weekly for the past three hours, and this is the last day to work on it so I can’t stop for fear I may forget and lose my possibility of getting points. Qwq

Note: I didn’t actually use my ‘crossover au’ for this, but instead decided to stick my Alaska OC in a situation with the other stereotypical Alaska OC. (Not based on anyone’s OC in particular, but if you know Statetalia, you know what I’m talking about.) …Also I guess this is kinda kidfic. Heck. I hate kidfic.

This is NOT canon to my Statetalia AU!!!!

CW: This is sorta meta, ngl.

TW: Alcohol mention / implied “underage” drinking
Words: 860

Alaska smiled awkwardly. “Hello,” he said, his voice coming out oddly high pitched compared to normal, “How are you doing today?”

The other person nodded. A similarly awkward grin on her face, “Feel’n… great! How about you?”

Alaska grit his teeth, “Just chipper.” He said, his haircurl betraying his emotions as it sat flat against the back of his head, “You want some tea, or something?”

“No,” the person responded, her own haircurl bouncing up and down nervously, “But thanks for offering.”

“Great.” Said Alaska, “I don’t think I had any tea anyway.” Much to his surprise though, the small person interrupted him as she spoke again.

“But if you have any vodka, I’ll take that.”

Alaska turned and looked at her weirdly, “Aren’t you a bit too young to be having alcohol?” He asked, “I mean, I can see you’re not human, but if your body’s too young to process it..”

“I’m fine,” She said, “My dads are always drinking and letting me have some,”

“Really.” He responded, eyes wide, “Who are your dads?”

“America and Russia,”

He stared at her, “Can you- can you say that again?”

She blinked, “My dads are America and Russia,” when he simply stared at her, she rolled her eyes. “I’m ALASKA, of course they are.”

He stared at her.

She stared right back.

Oddly enough, their hair was the exact same shade.

“No,” He said finally, “I’m Alaska, YOU’RE delusional.”

Now it was her turn to give him a weird look, “That’s not true,” she snorted, “I’ve been alive since the purchase, of course I’m the real one.”

“That’s not even that long!” Alaska interrupted, suddenly annoyed (even ignoring the fact that, by all chance, this shouldn’t be possible. Russia and America hated each other, there was no way they’d take the time to adopt a child). “How do you think that shows the whole history? That’s like… sixty years!”

She rolled her eyes. “Well, how much better can you do? I know for a fact that I’ve never seen you before.”

“I’m 4000 years old,”

She stared at him.

He stared right back.

“That’s impossible,” she muttered, “I’ve lived here for my whole life and this is the first I’ve seen of you.”

“You’re in my house!” He retorted, suddenly angry.

“No! You’re in my house!” She yelled back. A moment later though, she paused, “Er, I guess Alfred actually owns it.” She said sheepishly, “It’s not actually mine.”

Alaska scoffed, “Well it’s certainly not my Alfred’s house, he lives down in New York! He doesn't give a * about me.”

She growled, her haircurl now pointing down in anger. Alaska growled back, his haircurl straight back to the point where it was pulling painfully at his scalp.

“Well, whoever’s in the wrong house has got to get home somehow.” He finally said, “Because clearly we don’t get along.”

“Agreed,” she muttered, turning away from him and beginning to stomp off in the direction of his room, “I’m going to my room.”

“No you’re not!” Alaska yelped, “And that’s my room!”

She stuck out her tongue at him, but when she opened the door, she looked surprised. Stopping right in her tracks as she stared into the room. It was a mess, with a half finished book lying upside down on the bed, and several unpacked boxes and half sewn coats strewn about the floor, but it was clearly not the mess that she was expecting.

“See?” Alaska asked, annoyed (but somehow still relieved that it was not actually him that had ended up in the wrong universe), “My room. Not yours.”

She shook her head in disbelief, “How…?”

“I dunno,” Alaska shrugged, “Maybe England’s been messing around with magic again. He likes doing that.” (Surprisingly, the small girl joined him in the last few words.)

As if trying to cover the embarrassing fact that they had just spoken in sync, the girl spoke, “What do I call you?” She asked, “I mean, I can’t call you ‘Alaska’ that’s my name!”

He ignored the fact that it was also his name, “You mean human names?”

She hissed, despite the fact that nothing that should have caused that had happened, “Yeah human names, what else?”

“I dunno.”

There was a short silence.

“Well, my human name is ‘Alice.’” the other Alaska said, looking embarrassed, “What’s yours?”

“I’ve got a few.”

She rolled her eyes again. (Dang, they must hurt by now.) “What one are you most comfortable with?”

That caught him off guard. Most comfortable with? How was he supposed to know that? He normally just went with whichever one seemed to be the easiest to pronounce for whoever he was talking to. But the one he was most comfortable with…

“Kallik,” He answered, someone awkwardly, “Or June, if that’s easier for you.”

“Kallik…” she repeated, probably painfully aware that she had said at least part of it wrong, “It’s pretty.”

“Thanks, my dad picked it for me.” (That was a lie. He had no idea who had named him.)

“You’re welcome.”

Another awkward pause.

“Well,” Alice said, “I guess it’s time to figure out how the @#$& to get me home.”

“Agreed.”

-

Part 4: SWC Fanfic
“For the final part of this weekly, we’ll be taking on an SWC favorite—writing fanfiction about Scratch Writing Camp itself! Whether you want to explore a literal camp themed like SWC, complete with cabins and hosts and campers, or your story describes the opinions the personifications of each cabin has on mangos and guitars, this activity is entirely open ended. Have fun with it!
Your piece should be at least 400 words. While not a requirement, I encourage you to use what you have learned about character consistency, character voice, and/or fanfiction tropes throughout this weekly.”


I’m in the Dystopian cabin, and I’m in the army boot camp… while my sister is in the chapel. *rubs hands together* I can probably figure something out for that.
GEN THIS IS NOTHING AGAINST YOU, I LOVE THE WORD COUNT STUDIO, I’M LOOKING AT THIS FROM A STORY POINT OF VIEW.
Words: 504


Bats shook her head, cat ear headphones flashing blue as she quietly freaked out. “What do you mean I’m in the boot camp??” She asked, “I thought we were rebelling against the king?”

Gen nodded, “We are,” she promised, “But we’re here to train to actually be able to rebel. I’m the leader of this tower, so no one will expect anything odd.”

“Ah.” Bats said, her voice oddly high pitched, “Okay, that’s great, got it.” She looked around the tower nervously, watching as people practiced their moves in pairs and trios, “Do I- do I have to do that?”

Gen looked at her oddly. “I mean, yes, that’s why you were sorted into this tower.”

“Why couldn’t I have been sorted into the chapel or something,” Bats muttered, watching as someone tripped and fell into a pit, “I bet it’s a lot calmer there.”

Gen laughed, slapping her on the back. “Yeah, the chapel’s calmer, but it’s for people who can’t handle the battlefield!”

“I can’t handle the battlefield!” Bats pointed out, “I mean, look at me! I’m wearing a Pokemon t-shirt and boys basketball shorts for a reason! I don’t wanna be on the front lines?!”

Gen’s face softened. “Neither do I,” she said, a hand on either side of Bats’ shoulders, “But sometimes you have to do things for the good of the rebellion, no matter how much you don’t want to do them.”

Bats swallowed, nodding in recognition of the words before glancing about herself again. (Off to her left, someone was getting absolutely pummeled in a practice fight, and the person who had fallen in the pit had still not emerged.) This was gonna be a looong July.

Somewhere else in the castle, Fluffy was having a similar conversation. “The chapel?” She asked, confused, “But- I can fight!” Her ears (which were those of a lamb) sat flat against her head, “What do you think these hooves are for?”

Her cabin leader smiled at her, their hair covering oddly beautiful in the light filtering through the stained glass windows. “I understand your want,” they said, their voice calming even as the organist practiced a song behind them, “But isn't prayer just as important?”

Fluffy didn’t want to agree OR disagree with that, so she simply grumbled, “But, aren’t other people more fitted for it? I mean, I can’t even kneel properly.” She held up one of her legs, which was bent in a very non-human way, “What am I supposed to do? Sit down?”

The cabin leader shrugged, “It doesn’t really matter,” they said, “If you don’t feel like praying you can probably just sit over there,” they gestured towards a row of pews that were unfilled, “There’s a typewriter if you need something to do.”

Fluffy smiled awkwardly, “I’ll- I’ll go do that.” (But even she was pretty sure that the cabin leader had a feeling that she was planning to sneak out. …Not that she was of course! Just a- an idea to help the kingdom better.)

Last edited by savebats (July 9, 2022 17:34:24)

savebats
Scratcher
100+ posts

Savebats - Scratch Writing Camp July 2022 Proof

In Cabin Daily: “Have you ever wondered what life would be like with super-powers? Write about the superpower you want the most and why in 200 words (proof not needed for this one)”
Words: 330


Ignoring the power where you can change what you look like (I can’t remember the name right now), the power I would want most would be flight. (That first power is only on the list because it could potentially give the same power but like- more customisable? Other than that there are NO superpowers that even get CLOSE to how much I want to be able to fly.) It wouldn’t even matter what sort of flying, wings, no wings, my arms, I don’t care! I just wanna fly lol.
I would prefer to have wings over not having them, but then again that wouldn’t be really a power would it? That would just be… who I was? But I like the way wings look on people, and I think people floating in the air seems too much like Creative Minecraft for me. (I think it looks silly.) And, judging by my username, you would probably think I would want bat wings, right? Well, the answer would be yes, except for the fact that bat wings connect down the sides of their legs, and that sounds… REALLY HARD to get clothing for.
But, to argue for the other side for a moment, whenever I have a flying dream, it’s always this very momentum-based wingless flying. It basically controls like a mix of Minecraft elytra (the flying part), skating on ice that the zamboni JUST went over, Sonic’s running (momentum), and Kirby’s flying (you take a deep breath and jump to start it.) So I guess, in a world where I just got these powers, I would have the most experience with this sort of flying, and therefore be able to do it already.
Yeah, as I said, this is pretty much the only power I would even want. The only one that gets close, (ignoring the transformation power, because it’s super overpowered) is the ‘invulnerability to diseases/injuries’ one. But then again, I think that might just be a human urge.
savebats
Scratcher
100+ posts

Savebats - Scratch Writing Camp July 2022 Proof

Main Cabin Daily: “July 15th is Give Something Away Day! In honor of this, comment a description of a strange object in your home that you would like to “give away” for someone else to use in a story. It could be anything, from an old newspaper clipping to a weird sculpture! Then, choose someone else’s object and write a short story where it is given some significance. Your story must be 500 words to earn 700 points, and if you share your writing, you can earn an extra 200 points!”
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Total words: 649

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Words (In the comment): 95


“I'm ‘giving away’ an old sketchbook to anyone who wants to write about it! It's full of an art style that is no longer yours, and fandoms that you forgot you ever knew the details of that deeply. It's from a time when you weren't quite sure what made you different from the people around you, but, when you look at the colors spilling in your brain, maybe it was better that way. It makes you ponder how much things changed, but also how much stayed the same. Sort of like a portal through time.”

(Link to conversation: https://scratch-mit-edu.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/studios/31668456/comments/#comments-190187903 )
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Comment used for my inspiration: “I am “giving away” a green plastic cup filled with at least a hundred marbles.” - @legocookie6
(Link to conversation: https://scratch-mit-edu.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/studios/31668456/comments/#comments-190186882 )

Words (For my story written off of that comment): 554


Silver raised his eyebrows. “You’re trying to sell… a cup full of marbles?” He asked, watching incredulously as Gold put the cup on the table right next to the other low price garage sale items. (Which, funnily enough, also included steals like an only slightly broken TV, a CD player that still mostly worked, and an unopened 12 pack of Kanto themed socks.)

“I have to get rid of it somehow,” Gold said, rolling his eyes like this perfectly explained his decision to sell a hundred marbles in a green plastic cup.

Silver shook his head, a joking sort of awe floating through him, “But,” he started, pausing for a moment as Gold struggled to lift a CooCooClock onto another table, “Who’s gonna buy them?”

Gold smirked at him, “You’d be surprised,” he said, “And if they don’t sell quickly, I can always say that they’re lucky or something.”

Silver groaned. “You’re the worst.” He muttered, face in his hands as the familiar roar of a car pulled into their driveway.

“Ah! See? Customers.” Gold said, oddly sure of himself considering the people in the car hadn’t even disembarked yet. …though when the man in the driver’s seat rolled down his window to ask a question, Silver had to admit that these people were definitely customers.

“Is this the right place for the garage sale?” Asked the man, leaning halfway out his window to reveal two awkward looking children in the backseats.

Gold grinned. “Sure is!” He said, “Wanna come check something out?”

The man nodded, “Yes we do,” he continued his sentence as he opened his car door and stepped outside (though Silver was fairly sure he was talking to his kids), “Come’on girls, time to get out.”

They did so, standing awkwardly and sorta half looking at Gold as he showed their dad around the garage sale. Silver squinted at them. Trying to gauge if they thought he was intimidating, cute, or knew him from the Dexholder tournament that he had participated in just a month ago. (…maybe it was all three of those things. Gold hadn’t won but he had, uh, put on quite the show.)

Silver blinked, watching as Gold picked up the green plastic cup, its contents clacking together threateningly with every small movement. He was selling it like a real salesman, excitedly stating how there were more than a hundred marbles included (and then frantically explaining how that was a good thing, actually), before saying that for the price that it was being sold at, that was really quite a steal.

Shockingly, the man looked interested.

Silver squinted. Trying to ignore a sudden feeling of uncomfort as at least one of the two girls suddenly cast their gaze onto him. (Yeah, they definitely knew Gold for his dexholder stuff, if they didn’t, there wouldn’t be any reason to gasp when they saw another dexholder.)

As the man checked out the cup, spinning it carefully in his hands as he looked at the marbles it contained, Gold looked over to Silver. They caught each other’s eyes, and Silver immediately regretted it when Gold stuck his tongue out at him. (As if to say, ‘I told you I could sell the stupid marble cup.’)

Silver slapped his hand to his face. Gold really had a way with people, didn’t he.

Last edited by savebats (July 15, 2022 23:46:07)

savebats
Scratcher
100+ posts

Savebats - Scratch Writing Camp July 2022 Proof

Weekly #2: “The new weekly is all about creating your very own newspaper, and details can be found at https://scratch-mit-edu.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/discuss/topic/617187/?page=1#post-6447578 ! You can complete this weekly to earn 3500 points for your cabin.
We’ve made it to the second weekly of the month! This time you’ll be creating a newspaper - throughout the activities you’ll get to write an array of segments. This weekly has four parts, all of which must be completed to earn points. Each part contains a list of options; you should choose one activity from each list to write."
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General Note: Uh… this is all for a Minecraft AU, just mentioning that before you read. ALSO. When I mention ‘Tomorrow’ I am in fact talking about the How to Train Your Dragon location! It’s a really weird AU, just… bear with me here. (Also, so it doesn’t catch you off guard, this is hybrid AU.)

Final General Note: I’m not gonna take the time to really fix the formatting in the Scratch Version. I will post this elsewhere though, and the formatting will be more correct there.
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Total words: 2568

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Part 1: Main Informational Article

Words: 865


Note: This writing very clearly has ties to real political events. And it is biased towards a side that I am not necessarily on because I was arguing something completely unconnected to the main point of the ‘article’.

I choose: “Politics — Make up some political figureheads to write a fake article about.”

President Kingsble suggests that “weapon magic should be more controlled.”

Today, March 24, 3056, President Kingsble (and his vice president Mrs. Featherfair), suggested to the court that certain forms of magic might need to be regulated more strongly. Specifically, magic that was made to copy weapons that had been previously banned. (Things like poisonous gas, firearms, and laser strikers.)

Our purposes in this article are simply to deliver the news, presenting as many sides as we can, with as little bias as possible.

As with the many other suggestions that were brought up today, there are more than two sides to this argument, however, two main sides have begun to form. The first side believes that the right to defend yourself overrides the importance of keeping spells in general safety. At first, this side may sound like it is in the wrong, but please, understand that you must hear from all sides before deciding on your stance.

To defend this side, Mr. Aleutial (representative of the Great North territory) pointed out that many of the people in his land need these spells to hunt their food. (Especially after the banning of other forms of weapons, such as firearms, that had previously been used.) He heavily implied, though, that he would be willing to have such magic regulated if the court was able to address why his people still needed to hunt for themselves.

But, as Ms. White (representative of the greater California territory) said, “Maybe need to look at all the other people in this great country, and realize that there are other ways to get food than hunting. Other ways that would allow people to be safer in everyday life.”

Mr. Aleutial, of course, was annoyed by this response. He quickly reiterated that the problem was not that his people wouldn’t use other means to get food, but simply that they couldn’t, and it was not in the place of someone in Ms. White’s position to tell him what was what. (Here is where the first silencing spell was cast. As the meeting was getting too off topic from the president’s original point.)

Other people argued in favor of keeping the laws as they were, including Mr. Austex (representative of the Deep South territory), who brought up a different point. He said that it wasn’t fair to take away the last means of protection that the government still allowed them to have. He pointed out that, “It is entirely within our right as people to be able to defend ourselves. Once we lose that right, we won’t be able to get rid of a possible facist uprising in the government.”

Mr. Aleutial, Mrs. Neva, and Mx. Flola (as well as several other notable representatives) all nodded in agreement to this point. Ms. White, Mx. Rio, and Mr. Neva (along with others) disagreed.

As Ms. White had already been silenced in punishment for getting off topic, she signaled her secondary representative (Mr. Califoma) to speak. He said that, “While the points already brought up have been surrounded in clouds of necessary discussion, it is more important when considering the issue of spell regulation.”

(It is to be noted that Mr. Aleutial, though silenced, showed clear signs of wanting to bring his point to attention again. The Great North, however, does not have a secondary representative.)

Mr. Califoma continued to explain that weapon spells were the main reason that so many horrible events have gone down recently (may we remind you of January tenth), and if the weapons those spells we based on had been banned, why should the spells not follow suit?

Here, the court immediately exploded, as the idea had been to regulate the spells. As punishment, Mr. Califoma was silenced. (With the consent of Ms. White, who looked angry about the suggestion to ban the spells entirely.)

Then, Mx. Rio took the stage. They continued what Mr. Califoma had been saying, but pointed out that the suggestion was to regulate things stronger, not to get rid of them entirely. Here, they were sure to point out that both sides could win. The ability to hunt for those in the Great North, and the safety of school children all over the country.

Once again, Mx. Rio has served as a mediator for the court, and it was clear that this was appreciated by President Kingsble Mrs. Featherfair.

“Most people, even those who do not agree with this idea of regulations, do understand why a suggestion was made,” they pointed out, “And if we cannot come to a decision now, we can always come back to it on a later date.”

It was here that the court moved onto another problem, and therefore away from the topic of the article. However, it is to be noted that the silencing spell on Mr. Aleutial was forgotten about until only fifteen minutes before the end of the meeting. Whether you agree with his side or not, you have to say that there is something strange about that, especially because he happens to be an orca hybrid by birth, which, as we all know, is a race that President Kingsble has reacted strangely towards before.

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Part 2: Main Opinion Article

I choose: “Restaurant review — Write a review of a fake or chain restaurant.”

Note: This is an actual Minecraft build I have? I might introduce the world in a YT video or something someday, idk.

Words: 835


The Chorus Fruit Cafe, Feels Like Flying

We all know the End dimension for something. Whether it be the abundance of Enderpearl shops, the giggles of Ender children zipping by on elytra wings, or even the fresh minty smell of a freshly picked chorus fruit (ready to teleport you to wherever you need to go).

What many people don’t know the end for is its restaurants. But don’t you worry, I’m here to change that.

When people go to the End dimension, most of them head straight for outer cities, ready to take any spare elytra they can get. Most of these people don’t even stop to think about the exquisite culture and interesting locations they may be skipping on this journey for flight. (Perfectly understandable of course. Elytra are a wonderful invention that everyone, big or small, should be able to access.)

The Chorus Fruit Cafe is a perfectly avoidable, mostly vegan, and entirely cruelty-free restaurant just a bit down Black Soot Road. (Location? Main End island through the secondary portal on Tomorrow. ) Its beautiful array of meals (which is actually quite a wide range, especially for being home cooked in the End), is complemented further by its amazing staff. Who are always ready and willing to serve you.

Maybe the customer is not always right in other places, but I’m telling you, The Chorus Fruit Cafe won’t give you anything to be wrong about!

On top of the top tier service, a fairly easy to reach location, and widespread menu, this restaurant is also beautifully designed! Right on the edge of the Main Island, it bores into the side, taking the shape of a Chorus Fruit on the outside, and a well polished overworld diner on the inside! The walls are of well crafted tinted glass, layered with a lightly glowing lichen (daily trimmed) that gives the interior an otherworldly shine. Besides this, the room is lit with genuine handcrafted end rods, which, being handcrafted by artisans, do not have that strange electric glow that not artisan end rods may contain.

The tables are carved Nether wood, right from the same place their Hoglin pork comes from (an artisan craft in that area on its own.) They curve this way and that, leaving room for your legs to breath, as well as providing a surprisingly sturdy place to hold your food. The benches are made of hand cut blackstone, which complements the end bricks that cover some of the floor.

The bar section has swiveling stools that are part iron chain (creating an odd gravity defying effect), and part blackstone slab. This blackstone, however, is surprisingly soft, and, just like the benches, not at all dusty. (Do be warned though, as this is a cafe intended for Endermen, the stools may be a bit high, especially for any visiting children.)

Ignoring the fact that the place is admittedly a bit small, the architecture is near perfect!

This diner’s meals are a wonderful selection ranging from Chorus fruit salad (made in a way that you will only feel a tingle of teleportation), to affordably priced imported Hoglin meat, to crunchy popped Chorus fruit chips, this diner has something for everyone! (However, it has come to my attention that compared to Overworld or Nether diners, this restaurant might not sell a large selection of food. But keep in mind, most places to end in the End tend to only have two choices if that many. This one has at least five main courses.)

They also have several different beverages (which are of course refillable). For adults there is an option to buy an alcoholic drink of your choosing, and children are able to get a free kidz cup of Chorus juice should they choose (Adults can also buy this, but it will cost money). There is also an option to buy water, but you must keep in mind that it is made Endersafe, and therefore has a slightly odd thickness to it that not every non-Ender person will be very accustomed to.

All in all though, for a restaurant in the End, this Chorus Fruit Cafe is quite impressive. I myself am not from this city (and Tomorrow is quite a ways away from Location -which is my home-) but I do see myself returning someday. (The sooner the better!)

I mean, I know I’m finishing up this article in the middle of the cafe, but something about it… something is just different about this place. Maybe it’s the odd glow from the lichen, or maybe it’s the genuine friendly smiles on the staff, but something about this place radiates happiness. (A happiness that the pure blackstone road it sits on seems to be leaching a part of.)

In conclusion, the Chorus Fruit Cafe is a well managed, well built, well cooked restaurant. And the only negatives I was able to find were just subjective, so if you’re in the area (or even a bit out of it), see if you can pop by! Imagine what they could do with more space.
-
Part 3: Column


I choose: “Medicine — Discoveries and announcements in medicine and health” (I made it fictional btw)

Note: The “video” I mentioned does not actually exist, don’t worry if you don’t see it.

Words: 601

Flight Feather Fixers? Are they the future?

Transcription of the above video:
Mrs. Stormsheen (spreading her wings to properly attach a plastic feather device to the ends of either): My team and I have been developing this since January.
Video Narrator, explaining the context of the previous clip: The researchers behind the Hedgethorn project are back for another round with something that may be helpful for all sorts of people.
Mrs. Stormsheen: Now, watch the projector as I do an example flight.
Mrs. Stormsheen takes off through the window, and the video feed on the projector shows her as she circles the building before coming through the opposite window.
Mrs. Stormsheen (partially interrupted by interested oohs and aahs from the other scientists): As you can see, that flight was a bit different from a normal one.
Video Narrator, advertising a later event on the news channel: Tonight, at nine on Checker Fin News, we will show more details behind this interesting project. Read the short article below for a taste of what will be revealed tonight.


Article:

Mrs. Stormsheen (head of the department of education in the Midland territory as well as a lead scientist in the ongoing Hedgethorn research development), announced today that her team has made significant breakthroughs in the realm of flight enhancement. She showed prototypes of the suggested model, applied these prototypes to her own wings, and did a demonstration flight for the research facility.

This flight took her around the room that the research group meets, through a large opened window, around the main building, and back into the room through the other side. (She took a recording device with her so that the other scientists could see her path.) Of course, for a fully grown eagle hybrid such as herself, this is not a difficult flight, but even the non flighted people in the room could very clearly see that this was an even easier flight than normal.

Once she landed, Mrs. Stormsheen proceeded to re-explain the device (which look somewhat like odd plastic feathers, which one attaches to the end of their wings). She reiterated that they have possible applications ranging from prosthetics for burn victims, to armor in battle, to just an easier way to get around. (She argued that flight needs safer enhancements than rockets, showing examples of when such things can go wrong on her whiteboard.)

Generally, the other scientists in the room agreed with the further development of such a tool. Mr. Kingsinger (a sparrow hybrid himself) expressed that his daughter, who had been recently shredded off the tip of one of her wings, could most likely use this product while she waited for her flight feathers to grow back. Mrs. Ramwool (formerly an assigned member of the hybrid protection agency), said that such an invention could be used for bird hybrids in her previous line of work. Mr. Limespeel said that elderly bird hybrids could use such a tool to get off of the ground in a way that didn’t strain their muscles, while still leaving them in control of the exact movements. Lastly, Mrs. Barkbee expressed that with such enhancements, her wife may be able to carry her while flying again (something that the two hadn’t been able to achieve after her injury in the fall.)

All in all, the committee believes that Mrs. Stormsheen’s invention will in time be able to help a wide range of people with an even wider range of problems. They have given her and her team the go ahead to continue developing their creation, and are waiting excitedly for what comes next in updates on these ‘Flight Feather Fixers’.

-
Part 4: Other


I choose: “Advertisement (fake or real) — Advertisements for applications / inventions / sales / coupons / etc.”

Words: 267

Welcome to Location! The Perfect Place to Rest.

Just a bit south of the Great Obsidian Wall, and just a bit east of the wide 1.6 Ocean is the island of Location. Here we have delights such as Internal Forests, Firefly Gardens, and the 3056 winner of the Best Decorated Nether Portal award.

We also boast a large capital city! With underwater, air based, underground, and land based sections! (This way flighted, non flighted, water based, and cave centric peoples can all enjoy our beautiful land.) There is a center square where all four sections meet, as well as central points in each of the sections themselves.

The underwater portion of the main square takes the shape of a large pool, which is fitted in tinted glass so that anyone viewing water-based people from above will not be looking at them like spectacles. The underground portion of the main square is a giant cave right in the center, with many shops built into the sides of a well railed off pathway. The land-based section of the main square is the outer edge of this cave, with hotels all along the outside of the square, and pearl fountains dotted throughout. The air portion of the main square is an upside down copy of the land-based section, with a hole through the roof that provides easy access to the sky.

But of course, our city, our island, and our nation are not just this square, so if such a small place could pack such a high level of care, imagine what else you could find.

Explore your favored location today, and make Location your best pick.

Last edited by savebats (July 16, 2022 16:25:54)

savebats
Scratcher
100+ posts

Savebats - Scratch Writing Camp July 2022 Proof

Main Cabin Daily: “We all love SWC fanfiction (or at least I do)! Today, we’re putting a twist on SWC fanfiction: rewriting a classic fairy tale or children’s story as if it takes place at SWC. Maybe the three little pigs are campers who won’t go to bed, or the rabbit hole takes Alice to SWC! Your story must be 500 words to earn 700 points. If you share your writing, you can earn an extra 200 points!”

Note: I don’t know fairytales very well, so I used the Disney characters, hope that’s okay! Also, for Disney readers, this is a fanfiction of my Scratch Writing Camp cabin. My cabin is dystopian, and its story this year is that we are a city in the clouds that is having an uprising. Keep that in mind while reading.
And this is unironically a really interesting story set up, so I might continue this.

Words: 1,749


Rapunzel’s hair was her mother’s pride. It shimmered and sparkled and shone like the sun, and when she sang it glowed like starlight. So when her mother suddenly stopped coming to visit her, Rapunzel became worried. The only reason her mother would be gone for so long would be that she was either getting her a particularly difficult to get gift, or that she had been captured. (And because it wasn’t quite like her to get a gift out of the blue, Rapunzel could only assume that she had been captured.)

This worried her. Not just because she loved her mother, but also because she was the only way that Rapunzel could get food delivered to her. (The world was far too dangerous outside for someone like her… or at least that’s what she had been told.)

She glanced nervously towards the window, where the view was great, but the drop to the ground was even greater. In fact, if she didn’t get right up close to the window, it was hard to see anything but the blue of the sky and the white of the fluffy clouds that drifted across it. She gulped. If her mother didn’t come back soon…

She snapped her head away from the window, realizing with a jolt that she had been unconscious walking towards it. (Almost like she was meant to leave.) The thought was ridiculous! She had lived here, in this exact room, for her entire life! Besides, if there was any time to stay in place, it was now. Her mother had (presumably) been captured, and her mother had assured her that the world was too dangerous for Rapunzel. (And if she had been bested by it, she who was so much better at living in the world than Rapunzel, it didn’t exactly make her chances look good.)

But on the other hand, thanks to a party that she had thrown for her mother a couple days before, her food stores were lower than ever (and they had already been low.). She had to choose between staying until she ran out of food to bring for the journey, or leaving into a world that might be in the midst of a record high of crime.

She tapped her head awkwardly. Thinking hard in the only way she knew how.

She had always wanted to see what the outside world was like, but if she got into trouble out there… She shivered. It didn’t really bode well for her. She was small, fairly scrawny, and also had feet upon feet of hair to deal with. (Which, she figured, was definitely going to get caught on at least something out there.)

Still…

She looked around her room, her eyes passing over her bed, her bookshelf, the cooking area, and her paintings strewn across the walls. (Emblazoned with the brightness of a promise of freedom outside her tower.)

Ahw heck.

There was only really one way to do this, wasn’t there?

About fifteen minutes later, Rapunzel had gathered what she planned to take with her. Some food that wouldn’t require cooking (slightly stale bread, a few vegetables, etc), a book on wildlife in an area that she hoped was at least near to where she was, an extra dress, and the heaviest frying pan she could find. All were wrapped together in a blanket, which she slung over her shoulder like a really weird looking cloak.

Set in what she was doing, she fought to bite back the anxiety that filled her as she stepped ever closer to the window. If she went down there… there would be no way to get back up.

She closed her eyes and inhaled as deeply and slowly as she could.

She could do this.

She threw her hair over the hook, grabbed the end, and jumped.

The wind flew past her, controlled yet still shockingly cold. It ripped at her skirt, biting her ankles and calves, and disrupting her blanket blundell as she plummeted towards the ground. Moments before she hit it, she tugged at her hair. It hurt, but she stopped.

The grass was inches away from her feet.

If she had too, she could still go back now.

Her scalp prickling painfully, she glanced around herself. But there was nothing. No poisonous plants, no bears, and no people. Strangely enough, it looked just like something out of a fairytale.

She reached a toe out, and let it touch the ground. It was soft. Like fur, but strangely cold, and sort of… damp? That hadn’t been what she had expected.

She touched the other foot down, and suddenly became aware that once she let her hair fall off the hook, she wouldn’t be able to go back home. She swallowed and looked around herself once more.

The coast was still clear.

She let go of her hair.

Instantly it tumbled down around her, pulling away from the hook at the same rate that the pain faded from her scalp. She was truly in unknown territory now.

Picking a random direction to walk, she looked behind herself to see what the tower looked like from a different angle. Weirdly, it looked like there was a door in the side. How odd. She could have sworn her mother had said that the only way up was with her hair.

Oh well. She probably just hadn’t noticed it.

Still, Rapunzel couldn’t help but wonder what else her mother hadn’t been entirely truthful about.

A few hours later, she realized that it was getting dark. She probably should have picked a better time to leave the tower. She was going to have to find somewhere to spend the night. Thankfully though, she could see a light in the distance. Now she could only hope that it was close enough for her to reach before darkness fell completely.

For better or for worse, she reached the source of the light quickly.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t anywhere near close enough for her to get to.

Rapunzel had found that the forest wasn’t nearly as big as she had thought it was from up in her tower. When she had watched the landscape fall away, she had always just assumed that there was fog blocking her view, but now, as she stood on the edge of a hill, she could clearly see that it just ended.

But not just that. It ended and fell away into the sky. The sky that stretched out forever under her. And under that sky… under that sky was a whole other world. Unlike her forest, it went on forever, mountains, forests, lakes, an entire city. It was huge, it was beautiful, and it was so far down.

The light she had been drawn to… it was the moon.

She took a step back, suddenly feeling dizzy as she saw how far away that other land was. She couldn’t fly, but she certainly could fall. And if she slipped off the edge of the dew wet hill she was standing on… Well, she probably wouldn’t have to worry about the dangers that her mother had warned her of.

She shivered and turned away from the edge.

If she wanted to find a place to stay for the night, she was going to have to look for another city. Thankfully though, there was another light, and this one glowed from a place she knew she could reach. It was another city, and it was a city that she had seen from her tower. (But she could only hope she could reach it before nightfall. It was so far away that she hadn’t headed for it when she had left her tower. She was going to have to run.)

She ran along the edge of the forest, keeping a close eye on the city lights that glowed in the distance, and keeping an even closer eye on the way the ground fell away to her side. It seemed that her original path had led her fairly close to the city (compared to where she had started from) but it was still very far away.

She felt herself crying, and forced herself to speed up.

She didn’t think she had ever run this much, even when she was a bored child running around her room out of boredom. Her side hurt. Her feet hurt. Her knees hurt. Her collarbone hurt. Why did her collarbone hurt??

- - - - -

That night, she slept hard. She hadn’t been able to go any further, stopping just short of the city gates, unable to force herself to take even a single step more. Around her, the sky was darkening, the edge of the world providing a strange perspective on the way that the sun circled the giant world under her.

She curled up, crying still as she covered herself with her blanket bundle. She was too tired to unwrap it, and too tired to find herself a better place to sleep than in the roots of the tree she had fallen against.

It was just going to have to do.

She slid in and out of sleep, the people on the city gate made quite a bit of noise, and the animals in the woods made even more.

But when she finally made it to morning, she found that she had one more surprise waiting for her.

“Who are you?!” Barked a commanding voice.

“Huh-?” She asked, blearily looking around herself as she tried to find the place the voice came from.

“Who are you?!” It asked again.

“I’m- I’m Rapunzel-” she tried, finally deciding that the person speaking must be invisible, “-Where are you?”

“Behind you,” The voice answered, sounding angry, “Are you one of those filthy castle people?”

She turned around, and her eyes met the eyes of a small girl. She had choppy brown hair and a torn green dress. She looked like the definition of a rebel. “No- I’ve just come here looking for my mother,”

The girl’s eyes softened slightly, but her voice did not, “They probably took your mother if you aren’t from around here. That’s what they did with mine.”

Rapunzel looked at her, scared, as she continued, “They need all the adults they can get, because so much of their original force rebelled on them.”

“What-” Rapunzel started, getting interrupted almost the moment the word left her mouth.

“So I’m rebelling back!” The girl growled, “To get my mother back.”

She looked at Rapunzel expectantly, “Do you want to join me?”
savebats
Scratcher
100+ posts

Savebats - Scratch Writing Camp July 2022 Proof

Weekly #3: “The penultimate weekly of camp is all about fantasy - fantasy worldbuilding, magical realism and fantasy subgenres. You can complete it to earn 4000 points for your cabin. Details can be found at https://scratch-mit-edu.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/discuss/topic/618669/
Final word count: 7,976

Part 1: High Fantasy and Worldbuilding

-
Workshop: https://scratch-mit-edu.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/discuss/topic/618601/?page=1#post-6462722
Words: 2,591


Literal Worlds: Terrain and Maps
“What is the general geography of your world? Does it vary between place to place or is it largely the same?”
The Geography of the Dragons of The Caves world varies, but the main two settings are a river in the middle of the planes, and a HUGE mountain range with gigantic/ridiculously large cave systems throughout it.

“What specific parts of the geography would have the greatest impact on the story?”
The places where the main dragons of the storyline live. In the first book (the one I have actually started) that would be the caves, in the second (?) book that would be the plains.

“How does the geography affect food resources? What about building and clothing resources?”
Dragons don’t really need clothing or building resources? But for food most dragons choose to hunt a bit outside the caves. This means that the dragon species that are home to the caves are not very large, because if for some reason they need to retreat into the caves, there isn't all that much to eat.

“What is the history of the geography? Why did people originally decide to build there?”
The dragons don’t know why they originally came to the caves, and many can only assume that their specieses evolved with the mountainside. Either melding into the cave systems over time, or slowly appearing out of them.

“What impacts does geography have on the communication in the society, both in short and long distances?”
The cave society, while still fairly well off in terms of knowledgy, are undoubtedly a bit shut off from the outside world. Their predicament, however, is nothing compared to the plains dragons, who live in an area that virtually no humans ever go to. This makes it much safer, yes, (though you would generally not expect such an open place to be that way, especially compared to a cave system), but it also means they don’t have a lot of contact with other dragons, or with humans.

“How does the architecture of a society interact with the landscape?”
Uh… the closest thing to architecture that the dragons have are their caves/burrows. The dragons in the caves use already hollowed out caves, and then furnish them with large stones for doors, moss and lichen from the nearby forest, and whatever objects of interest they find in the human trash dumps. The dragons in the plains dig into the ground (or live under large bushes), and then do fairly similar things with their spaces.

Organizations
“How large is the organization? What is its purpose? Are there others similar to it, in size or purpose?”
(Note: I’m gonna be primarily talking about the cave dragons from here on out. Even though the planes (and the forest and mountain dragons… good gosh I forgot about them entirely) need worldbuilding more than the cave ones, the cave ones are the ones that I am writing about right now.) The cave dragons as a society are surprisingly fairly large. Probably this world’s dragon equivalent of like… Albany compared to the rest of Upstate New York. -They are not really an organization, but it’s the best fit without spoilers- their purpose is to (generally) live in peace. Similarly, the plains, forest, and mountain dragons have similar purposes (but very different sizes.) The plains dragons have a considerably smaller amount of people (much closer to a warrior cats clan), the forest dragons had a bit closer, and there are, in total, probably five ‘mountain dragons’. (Think Rouge Shiver from Shark Wars.)

“Who is in charge of the organization? How are they chosen?”
The leader of the cave dragons has been Great Oak for as long as anyone can remember… which also means that nobody really knows how he came to rule. (There is actually a reason for this by the way, but it’s huge spoilers I swear to everything.)

“How does the environment surrounding the organization affect its actions and beliefs?”
The environment around them affects them just like any other society (and it is now that I realize I should have gone with the villains or the mountain dragons, as they are actually organizations rather than societies.) It affects their culture, their slightly odd dialect when compared to… say, the plains dragons, and definitely how/what they eat. It also affects the way they take in the world around them. Leaving them with strange ideas about how exactly the humans view them, due to their only real interactions with them being a rather recent war.

“What is the general opinion of the organization, by those within it? What about those outside of it? Why?”
(‘K I’m switching to the villains now, this won’t make sense as a society anymore.) The main ‘villain’ group is a mix of humans and dragons. They are led by a dynamic combo of a main human (and his few friends), and a main dragon (and her two/three besties). The dragon side of the army is generally led to believe that they are attacking the caves to right some sort of wrong that happened to them because of the cave dragons. The humans are generally led to believe that they are avenging their fallen brothers in the aforementioned war with the caves. (Or just generally getting rid of the creatures that they think are dangerous.) Both sides believe that after all of this is done, the other side of the army will be ‘dealt with’. Of course, none of this is the case, and 13 and Shiny have a completely different idea for what’s gonna happen.

“How does it interact with other organizations? How does it interact with everyday people and their lives?”
Well, I mean, it’s sorta an army? I think that about answers the question actually.

“Why might someone join this organization? How would they do so? What could make them not want to join?”

Someone might join this organization if they felt either of the reasons mentioned above was important enough. (Of course depending on whether they were a human or a dragon.)

“What are desired or honored roles within the organization? What are rejected roles?”
Desired roles are high points in the army (the closer to Shiny/13 you are, the safer you are gonna be. Even if they are a bit crazy sometimes. ). Rejected rules are… what you would expect to NOT want to be in an army? I don’t know???

“What are aspects of the society that would only be understood by those raised there?”
‘K back to the caves. The way they do school, and the way that language greatly changes between certain people. They do school in a format that I can only describe as “nearly-exactly-the-same-as-sixth-grade-where-I-live-but-with-dragons-and-in-a-cave-system”. A good example of the language thing would be what they call weekends. It greatly varies between… basically everyone? But everyone knows what everyone else is talking about, no matter what they call them. (Weekends, weekstarts, homedays, cavedays, no-cave-workdays, etc.)

Language
“What sorts of idioms are used in the society? “

I’m not sure about idioms, but I would say that things that are low quality copies of idioms from around where I live would probably fit the tone pretty well. (A recurring joke is very bad ripoffs of real words, stuff like “cavework” rather than “homework”, you get the vibe?) Some good idiom examples would be, “The early bat dragon gets the worm,” or “Hit two humans with one stone”.

“What phrases are adopted by members of the organization?”
A very popular poem in the caves reads,
““There was once a dragon named Fin,
On all the spring days he left his cave to prey,
On little helpless things,

A time before you were born, a dragon named Fin existed,
On the short summer nights,
He caused a blight to many tiny creatures,

A time ago, before the morn, there was a dragon named Fin,
He looked out of the cave on all the fall days,
And ate not a single living creature,

A long time ago in a land called Bin there was once a dragon named Fin.
He came out of his cave on the long winter days,
And ate all that tried to oppose him.”

This gets brought up a lot, so I think that tells you everything you need to know. (It is to be edited btw, I wrote this in sixth grade with virtually no editing)

“How do people generally feel about people who talk a lot? What about quiet people?”
The first main character in the caves area of the book is Fang, she’s a bit antisocial, but she isn’t generally treated any differently from someone like Shiny, who, besides being a bit of a final boss, loves to gossip. But maybe that’s because while Shiny would generally be more popular than Fang, she also likes to snack on Humans from time to time, so maybe that evens out the playing field a little bit. Mostly though, the society tries its best to be accepting, even if it sometimes misses the mark a bit.

“Is small talk normal? What about deep conversations?”
Small talk is normal during eating time, deep conversations are only really normal with the closest of friends/family. Eating time can be taken in your own cave (by yourself/with family or friends) but if you didn’t have time to hunt that day, you can also head down to the largest cavern in the big mountain, where extra food is collected for the express purpose of feeding people who can’t hunt for themselves. The punishment of going there though, is that you normally have to hang out with people who go there to talk. -on the other hand, the caves just recently went through a ‘war’ and most dragons are still not comfortable enough to have deep conversations with virtually anyone.

“What are stereotypes about those in a given organization? “
As I mentioned early, the different societies are sorta… cut off from the rest of them? So the only actual stereotypes go to age groups/different species. (A bit brutal but hey, isn’t that what happens in real life?) For example, dragons of Draco’s species are generally stereotyped as being dark and brooding, but also explosive emotionally. Dragons that don’t have the magical fur/feather/scale goo that makes you fireproof are stereotyped as being meak and soft. And dragons from outside of the caves (ie, Flameburst and Featherfire dragons) are usually seen as interesting… if a bit closed off. (This stereotype comes from the fact that many of these dragons were forced away from their homes, and are rightfully upset about that.)

Iconography
“What are commonly recognized symbols within your world? What organizations do they come from?”
Most of the humans speak through one main language, and some dragons (like Fang and Great Oak) are able to read this. The cave dragons also have their own writing system, which some humans can also read.

“What do various colors symbolize?”
Because the characters have fur painted from red to purple, and from black to white, most of them associate unique colors with cultures that come from specific species of dragons. Common colors, just as red, black, gray, and brown, are not seen as any specific culture. While something like metallic teal could remind many of ruined ocean societies, or how silvery white could remind many of the old days in the mountains.

“How can people distinguish between people of various social and economic statuses just by looking at them?”
Well, if you carry around a book, fabric, or anything musical/electronic, everyone knows that you are a really REALLY good hunter. This doesn’t necessarily mean that your class is high (someone could be able to pay in tons and tons of minnows for a sketchpad, but still live in the absolute bowels of the cave system), but it is a fairly good sign. (For reference, most dragons pay for high quality goods using food that they themselves caught. Also, being lower in the cave system doesn’t mean you are lower class, it probably just means that temperature is best for your fur or whatever. By the bowels of the cave system I meant cramped caves with no water springs or easy access to social areas.)

“What are the arts like? What about entertainment?”
The caves mainly focus on rock carvings (for writing and sculpture), but also have a surprising focus on music. Some dragons found out how to use human CD players (this might be retconned later, btw), and some were even able to create CDs of their own. Other than that, entertainment mainly takes the role of contests (story writing, who can catch the most squirrels in fifteen minutes, who can glide for the longest time without flapping their wings, and homework completion being some notable topics), and storytelling. (At eating and hunting times.) There is, admittedly, quite a bit of one-upping associated with the storytelling part.

Ma[gic
“What can be done with the magic? What cannot be done?”

What can be done with ‘magic’ depends on the dragon/person who has it. In this world, it’s not as much magic as it is a luck of the draw special card for your species. Example, dragon magic generally takes the form of ridiculous firepower abilities, healing ridiculously quickly, making parts of your body glow when most of your species is NOT bioluminescent, or memory that does not go away. However, there is some dragon magic that cannot be chalked up to things that could be considered a disorder, such as shrinking, teleporting, form shifting, talking to the dead, and moving things with your mind. Only a few dragons have the first type of magic, and even fewer have the later. Human magic is even more rare, and the most notable case of it is being able to draw in the air using blood. The main point is that not everyone has it, it has limits (though these limits are different for different people), and it is different for pretty much everyone.

“How are those with magic generally treated?”
Honestly? It’s not that big of a deal. The different dragon species already have vastly different abilities, and they can (almost) all live together just fine, so someone with superpowers is honestly not that big of a problem.

“What are the laws surrounding magic?”
Again, it’s just not a big deal.

“Where does magic come from? Is it natural or manmade?”
Natural and seemingly randomized.

“What consequences does magic have on its users?”
Well, again, it’s not really magic, just a luck of the draw on genetics. It is important to note, though, that those with superpowers might need to eat a bit more than others, just so that they catch up on the extra spent energy.

“How common is magic? How many people have the ability to use it?”
Not very many people can use ‘magic’, but again, it’s not that big of a deal, seriously.

“What is the aesthetic of the magic?”
It varies from person to person. A dragon like Blacky (who can jump through shadows), or a person like 13 (who is the guy who can draw with blood in the air), have a darker tone to their ‘magic’ than someone like Fang (who just as a really REALLY good memory), or someone like Spark (who has a power that makes him unable to breathe fire, leaving him instead with a cloud of sparks, smoke, or water. This also technically makes him disabled by the way.)
-
Facets Brainstorming AND connections.
Words for brainstorm and connections: 975


1. Some people have magic, some of them don’t, it’s eh.

2. The ‘Old War’ happened and it was a sorta big deal. Killing many humans and dragons on both sides, as well as forever splitting some of these traumatized people away from the other major group.

3. The ‘Fin’ to ‘Great Oak’ pipeline is real lol.

4. When a dragon of the species that Great Oak is a part of dies, two eggs spawn in their place.

5. Great Oak’s species are also the longest living dragon species. Living basically forever. …also no one knows how the heck they came to be. (Deity coded moment.)

6. Draco’s species start out with pure black fur, but when they get past a certain age, parts of this fur turn a bright color. (Red for guys, blue for girls.)

7. Many dragon societies have been wiped out entirely.

8. A major reason why the cave society is still going is because there are simply too many of them for any force to destroy all of them (…so far).

9. A major reason the plains dragons are still kicking is just because no one else lives in the area, especially not anyone ready to challenge them.

10. You may have noticed this, but some dragons think that they are better than humans, and some humans think that they are better than dragons.
11. This isn't actually the case. They are intellectually on the same level, and, despite what you may think, the dragons aren’t actually that overpowered because the humans also have slightly enhanced physical abilities compared to the real world.

12. On the topic of speciesism /half joke, some dragons like to eat humans that wander into the caves. This is generally frowned upon, but no one really does anything about it.

13. Just thought I should note, dragon riding isn't a thing here??? I guess unless a human and a dragon are really good friends somewhere I don’t know.

14. I don’t think this is really what I was supposed to be brainstorming about right now, but this is a daily reminder that when I make a completely emotionless aro ace character it’s because I kinda like that stereotype not gonna lie. (Also I’m aro ace so… suck it lol.)

15. There is a place in the mountains where humans and dragons used to live fairly in harmony. But that all changed when the attacked,

16. Fun fact. Both 13 and Other are from there. Other is a dragon by birth, but he (and his family) are shapeshifters.

17. Oh yeah the shapeshifters. A staple of the village was that it was a mostly ‘human’ style society. Technically though, half of the people there were dragons, they just spent a lot of time shifted into human/half dragon form instead of full dragon. This would be considered a super power if it
wasn’t for the fact that pretty much that entire species of mountain dragons could do it.

18. Horror movies exist. (Just thought I should mention lol.)

19. The ‘internet’ doesn’t really exist. (At least not in the way it does in real life.)

20.Remember when I was talking about that group of like… five dragons that live in the mountains? They all came from different destroyed societies. Some destroyed by dragons, and some destroyed by humans.

21. The forest dragons were a big group of dragons, but their society was wiped off the map without a trace.

22. Guns exist! Most cave dragons don’t really know what to think of them.

23. Because of the aforementioned guns, humans and dragons are… weirdly well matched.

24. I just realized I did all of that completely wrong. Oh well, I think the workshop part above kinda makes up for it.

The different societies in this world are fairly split, but there is minimal contact between them from time to time. However, it is important to note that many of the interactions are few and far between, and this includes violent interaction. This violent interaction is what leads to the split effect, as well as the next point. Societies just… disappear. Things like the forest dragons, the old mountain society, as well as the really old sea dragons, they’re just gone. The forest dragons were wiped out under the threat of , while the mountain society was broken by a dragon attack. Virtually no one is old enough to remember what happened to the sea dragons, but many guess that they met a similar fate.

From that point, I think it’s necessary to bring up the way that people record their history. What you must remember is that the fastest and easiest way to write something down is on paper, but what you must also remember is that the majority of the cast breathes fire. In this way, many records are lost in battle especially because the other major way of recording history is through people’s memories. And, as I’m sure you know, if no one is alive to remember something, no one is going to remember it.

On a different note though, there is a reason why these half destroyed places are so resourceful, accepting, and vibrant. These creatures, human and dragon, are resilient, and many of them will stop at nothing but keeping each other safe. That’s why societies like the cave dragons have been kicking for so long, they are quite fair to each other, and *most* of them care to keep it that way.

Those who don’t however…

Just like in real life, there are some people who just want to watch the world burn. Without bringing characters into this, let’s just say that there are bigots, and people who think that hurting people is fun. Some dragons eat humans who just wanted to hang out in an empty cave, some humans hunt dragons for sport, and some of both sides want the other -equally intelligent- group dead.

-
Short Narrative:
Words: 764


Flicker sighed and rolled over in her nest. The caves had been different, ever since the new wave had attacked. More empty, less friendly, a lot more cold. It was a strange feeling, realizing that. She had lived here her whole life, but yet, it felt like home was suddenly very very far away.

A bit behind her, she could see Draco’s tail flickering nervously. Even though he didn’t seem to see that she was awake, it was clear to her that he was. For a moment she debated ignoring the fact that they were both awake, and just continuing to suffer in silence, but thought better of it as she dragged herself to her paws.

“Can’t sleep?” She whispered, her voice so quiet it was even surprising to hear coming out of her mouth. Draco flipped onto his back and looked up at her, his spine bent awkwardly as his uneven spines scraped across the ground. He looked slightly surprised to see her awake, but he nodded.

“Yeah,” Flicker nodded, padding over to him and curling up by his side, “Me neither.”

He looked at her wordlessly, and Flicker couldn't help but momentarily wonder if she was… ah, a bit too close to him for comfort. But when he closed his eyes and curled in closer, she understood.

“It’s so weird,” she whispered, not really trying to get any reaction from him but still hoping for one all the same, “It’s like we’re in a whole different cave system all of a sudden.”

He nodded and opened his mouth, but right when he was about to say something, a sudden rumbling hiss interrupted him. Both dragons jumped, but when they turned to try and find the source of the noise, it was clear that it was just Spark. (He was dreaming about something, and by the looks of his suddenly failing wings, it wasn’t a very good dream.)

Next to him, Clawry sat bolt upright. Her ears straight up and her bleary eyes opened as far as she could force them. Being Spark’s sister, she was most likely used to this sort of thing, but it was clear that the fighting had put her on edge.

Flicker and Draco both froze, not wanting to worry Clawry by looking like they hadn’t slept at all (though that was true), but also not really wanting to pretend to be asleep. But as she looked at Spark tiredly, probably trying to process why he had just hit her with his tail, he fell still again, clearly having won whatever scuffle he was dreaming of. After a moment of very tired processing, she realized that everyone was safe and she laid back down, making an odd snuffling noise before her regular light snore resumed. (And with it a very small burst of fire every so often.)

Once she was sure that the two siblings were asleep, Flicker let out a breath.

“Everyone is so on edge,” she whispered, turning back to Draco and lying her head on her paws, “I mean, I see why, but it’s still sad.”

He nodded in agreement, “I can’t even get to bed,” he muttered, sounding slightly annoyed, “And I wouldn't normally… care about what was going on.”

Flicker nodded and tried to get comfortable, the lack of moss under her an unwelcome addition to her torment. “I guess it’s different when you’re old enough to really process what’s going on.”

Dragon sighed, and she watched as his ears drooped slightly, “I wish I was any age but this one,” He murmured, “Being a teenager is a pretty bad age for a war.”

Flicker, nodded again, feeling her own ears flop down a little bit as she took that in. “Being any younger we would be first in line to be protected, being any older we would be old enough to have properly gotten through all the fighting classes.” She added, feeling oddly comfortable in the presence of her friend. (Enough to share… actual feelings.)

“But then again, any age is a bad age for war.” Draco continued, opening one of his wings a bit and letting it stand upright in the muggy cave air, “I bet I would wish I was any other age if I was any other age.”

Flicker found herself laughing, though it was a sad laugh, “Me too,” she agreed, watching as Draco refolded his wing, “I bet most people would.”

Draco smiled at her awkwardly, and his red eyes glowed in the dark eerily. …for some reason though, that made her feel a whole lot better.

-
Part 2: Magical Realism

-
Workshop: https://scratch-mit-edu.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/discuss/topic/574551/?page=1#post-6401305
Words: 370


“How are you going to let the reader know they’re reading a magical realism story?”
Well, honestly I’m not sure if the story I’m writing actually is magical realism, but I guess the fact that pretty much the whole cast are dragons that live in a very human society might help with that a little bit. XD

“How have the characters adapted to the changes in your story?”
Honestly, there aren’t changes in magic (I assume that’s what this question is about, so there is not much to say here.

“What is possible in your world? What are the limits and how far can you push them?”
The limits of ‘magic’ depend on which sort of ‘magic’ it is. (Don’t mind the fact that that is in scare quotes, and suddenly realized that most of the magic is actually probably just… a normal thing that some dragons can do? Like how some people can get buff really easily compared to other people.) What I must say though, is that time travel is not possible and GENERALLY neither is raising the dead.

“Can my setting support surrealistic elements?”
Well, the cast are mainly dragons that live in human-like societies in VERY dragon like environments (caves, mountains, forests, etc). I think that already pretty much shows that the setting can support whatever it darn well pleases.

“If your character can use a certain magic(s), how does it feel when they’re using it?”
Again, this depends on the character, and, more importantly, what their power is. Some characters might not feel anything, some characters might feel motion sick. It really depends on the specifics. Fang (memory), Blaze (species expected- move things with mind), and Other (species expected- shapeshift) are just gonna be what they’ve always been used to. It’s not gonna be any different. (Though I suppose moving things with your mind and shape shifting might feel a bit tickley.) However, someone like Clawry (who gains five different super powers throughout her storyline) might feel a bit… odd.

“Is the magic knowledgeable in a small city or town, or is it accepted throughout the world?”
Accepted throughout the world. (Guys, I already told you like twenty times, it’s not a big deal!)

-
Questionnaire
Words: 1,401


“What kind of magic is used in your world?”
Many kinds. But I guess you could say it’s closer to just… being born with being super good at something (for most people). It’s also like, not always like that, but who cares lmao. I already explained this like eight times over, honestly. I guess the really important thing to mention is that it is SERIOUSLY. NOT. A. BIG. DEAL. Sure, you are a bit special if you can do a special thing like breathing out water instead of fire, but you’re also a bit special if you, I don’t know, can draw really well. It’s just like being ‘gifted’ in real life. …for the most part. (Though it is also important to mention that some magic is based on species. Like, almost all of the dragons in Blaze’s species can move things with their minds, as an example.)

“How is the magic in the world used in the character’s everyday lives? What are the different abilities?”
Many different dragons/humans have many different powers. Some of them were listed above, and I really have trouble remembering some of them, but here I go anyway,..,. Fang and Great Oak can remember everything. Spark ‘breathes’ out water rather than fire. Flicker (I think???) can heal herself by running at light speed. Draco can ‘breathe’ out pretty much anything but water. (Acid, fire, lava, sound waves, you name it!) Clawry has five, very different, powers. Blacky can move through shadows. Mosquito can shrink at will. Blaze can move things with his mind. 13 can draw in the air with blood. Star can make the star pattern on her paw glow so bright it is blinding. I think Void can do something special but I can’t remember it. Angel and Other can shape shift. Angel also has other unspecified fire magic. Camo can turn invisible. Mask Face might not even be classified as a dragon. Zombie is undead. And finally, Dream and Fluffy might be able to speak with dead people.

“What is the origin of your magic?”
Genetics lol. …okay but seriously, it’s genetic. Some of the people I just listed, just as Blaze, Other, and Angel have their powers from what species of dragon they are. The only reason why they are on the list is because there are no other major characters from their species/with similar powers, making them stand out just as much as someone like Draco. Other dragon species are more likely to have certain powers. Like Great Oak’s species is known for being impossibly old, so it helps that, genetically, they are made to remember pretty much everything.

“How can your world’s magic aid character development?“
Quite a bit of the major plot is about the main five characters and their abilities. All of their powers are important, but only Spark and Clawry’s really impact the character development. (Spark’s much less so.) Spark, for lack of a better description, doesn’t know why he can’t breathe fire, so finding out that the problem is that he breathes out water which quenches it serves as a nice wrap up to that. Clawry, on the other hand, has an entire plot point about how she gets her powers (and what they are). She is, quite honestly, the only character where the magic is in any way ‘weird’.

“How common is magic, and are all characters aware they possess it?”
‘Magic’ as in powers that can’t really be explained away, is probably pretty rare, but the more common ones are, not surprisingly, more common. Of course, it’s still uncommon, but it’s not unheard of to be able to run real fast and heal super quick. Most characters are not aware they possess anything special until they either 1. realize that other people can’t do that cool thing they can do, or 2. realize that they can do a cool thing that other people can’t do.

“How can you ensure the magic in your story is realistic, and is written as a normalized part of your world?”
By making it clear that this is just a part of being someone that exists. It’s not the same, of course, as being good at drawing, but the effect on the people around you is the same. It’s like doing a handstand in first grade, everyone instantly flocks over to see how you did it, but it doesn’t make you a god or anything. Another thing I could probably do would be just… making it clear that it’s not really a wizard spell? It’s okay if it’s unbalanced, because that’s just how genetics and life are sometimes! That’s just how the world works, and it’s not a plothole if I am purposely making that clear.

“What are the limitations of your world’s magic?”
Genearly, it’s whatever the limiationations of the character are. But, again, the actual final limitation is that time travel is NOT a possible power up. There are a few reasons for this. One, it is incredibly hard for me to write. Two, it’s super hecking boring to read. Three, it’s honestly… sort of triggering???? Four, it would sort of break any plot twists that could possibly exist. And finally, five, it is WAAAAAAYYY too overpowered. Even in a world where characters can fly around and spit fire at each other if they so choose, time travel is just off the plate. -The only other thing that is off the plate is resurrection. Yes, I technically have an undead character, but the thing with him is that nobody knows why he’s alive… again. And, it will not happen again.

“How is magic viewed in your world (ie. as a boring normal, as a fascinating element of their life, or as a curse on society etc.)?”
Oh my goodness gracious I feel like a BROKEN RECORD. HOW, in the LORD’S NAME am I meant to drag this answer out for yet ANOTHER eighty words?!?! I swear, literally just read the other answers. There is no change. LIke, actually no change. It’s normal. No one cares. But it’s also cool, and important. Just like… pretty much anything else. This is not yet eight words. I sure hope no one is reading this right now. (Please take pity on me, it’s four in the morning and I’ve been up since eight.)

“Describe the popular infrastructure in your world.”
How do I drag out ‘they live in a cave system’ for eighty words? Oh! The cave dragons live in a massive cave system, with huge tunnels and even more gigantic caverns. This is made possible by big mountains. The plains dragons live in burrows in the ground! They dig them with their cute paws. Forest dragons live… in the forest! Probably in trees or under bushes. The old mountain societies live in a human-like village (sorta like one that you would see in REAL upstate new york), and the new mountain dragons huddle together for warmth with *checks notes* no place to call home.

“How is the education system in your world? What do your characters learn (or hypothetically would learn)?”
This is not connected to magic lol. Basically the school system (in the caves) runs on a block schedule that is fairly identical to my sixth grade year of school. The difference, though, is what classes they take. Stuff like “flying and fighting”, and “hunting” and “reading and writing,” and “algebra.” (okay maybe those last two were a little normal.) Basically they learn a large variety of things that are helpful to them in common life. These things are what keep them fed, and what keep them interesting.

“Does magic affect the government of your world? If so, how?”
Girl. I swear to god. NO. NO IT DOESN'T. The leader of the caves has a magic power, but that doesn’t matter because no one cares. The leader of the plains doesn't have a magic power, but that doesn’t matter because no one cares. The two major leaders of the are Shiny and 13. 13 has a magic power, Shiny does not. No one cares about this. What they care about is that Shiny is a dragon and 13 is a human. This is not a magical conflict. It is, quite honestly, a racial conflict (that I didn’t really mean to make while I was originally writing) that uses magic as a plot point. That is it.

-

Part 3: Joint Workshop
Workshop: https://scratch-mit-edu.ezproxy.canberra.edu.au/discuss/topic/489378/?page=1#post-4942459
Note: I’m moving away from Dragons of the Caves now. Thanks for at least scrolling past my original work world building, I’m very normal about them. I’m gonna be doing world building for my Minecraft AU now lol. This is a very fun, yet very stressful weekly to do at midnight to five in the morning.

-
Genre number 1: Dystopian Fantasy (Written about the hybrid AU part of my Minecraft AU. The main character is a fly hybrid named El, it’s not really important, I’m just obsessed with insect characters for some reason. Also it ends really really abruptly. I am very tired. Also it’s really bad in general too. Keep that in mind lol.)
Words: 1,153

El shivered against the back wall of her house. It was cold here. She didn’t even know it could be cold here. (Maybe the reason for that was because she always spent all her time inside, fighting to avoid the terrifying city that awaited her outside.) But now, after an explosion had snapped all her windows in on themselves, sending tiny sharks all over her room and effectively trapping her in the corner, she was cold. It also smelled… really bad.

She had forgotten it smelled like that.

Outside her broken windows, she watched as several flighted hybrids flew across the sky, clearly fleeing something. A couple songbirds, a brown bat, and finally a dragonfly. She shuffled her own wings. Realizing, as if for the first time, that whatever caused the explosion that broke her windows also might have started a fire.

Nervously, she stood up. Her feet were protected in diamond coating, but she would be lying if she said she wasn’t at least a little scared of a glass shard getting in one of the cracks of her boots. She glanced around herself to check if there was anything of worth that she would want to get out of the way of a fire, and was immediately saddened when the few things she owned were already stored away in her inventory.

She sighed and flickered her wings, lifting off the ground and flying out of the way of some of the glass. At the actual window though, she opted to fold her wings as tightly to her back as possible. She would brave cuts on her hands and knees, but not on the wings that were her only way out of a possible fire.

At the window, (with glass digging painfully into her palms) she looked around. Unsurprised when she spotted a fire in a building a bit down the block. There were a couple of blaze hybrids who were clearly trying to put it out (the fire and heat simply didn’t get to them), but not enough to do anything of value against it. Out of the window, she watched as some of the flighted blazes floated into the air, clearly struggling to find a balance between flying and setting everything on fire as they struggled to save those in upper windows.

Reminded of what she was doing, she flicked her wings again. They buzzed reassuringly. (But just in case, she reached through her inventory and chugged a fire resistance potion.)

With that, she hopped up onto the windowsill, and jumped. She waited a second before opening her wings, making absolutely sure that she had cleared the window before watching herself. When she opened them though, she could not force herself to fly away from the fire.

In the highest window of the burning building, she watched as a cat hybrid hysterically cried. She was holding a baby, and clearly didn’t have elytra to glide out of the building herself. Around El, hundreds of flighted and elytra owning people were speeding away from the blaze. Many without a single glance at the people in the upper floors (who the blazes were clearly unable to reach.)

El growled, her hands twitching slightly as a dragon hybrid swept past her. Causing her to spin. A dragon hybrid. Someone who could fly and also resist the heat. She could fly, yes, but she wasn’t really sure if going into a burning building with bug wings was a very good idea. Of course, there were some flighted people helping those in the building, but no one had gotten to the cat hybrid, and the fire was creeping steadily up the floors, punching out the windows as it went.

She shook her head aggressively. It didn’t matter if the fire got her, she had fire resistance on. (And besides, she would most likely respawn anyway. Which was something she couldn’t say about the other people in this part of the city.)

She sped towards the window, and the decision was immediately made worth it as the mother cat hybrid looked at her. The expression wasn’t really of a good emotion, but it was certainly a reaction, and she did look incredibly glad.

The window was already open, so, with flames licking at her feet, El held out her arms to the mother. Instead of handing herself over though, she offered her baby, “You’re a fly hybrid,” she said, clearly trying not to cry any more than she already was, “Your wings probably aren't strong enough to hold me.”

El did see the point in this, but she hadn’t taken on a job transporting things over far distances for nothing. (And thanks to that practice, her wings were a lot stronger than most other insect hybrids.) “Ridiculous,” she said, holding out her hand to the woman (though the baby was now safely nuzzled into her other arm, “I’m not ready to have a child, you’re coming with me too.”

The mom took a deep breath, the tears on her face falling once more as the fire reached El’s knees. “Okay,” she whispered, reaching out a hand to her, “Okay.”

El grabbed the hand, handing the baby back to the woman as she flew a little closer, basically pressed against the wall as she grabbed the cat hybrid. (Marriage style, so as not to get in the way of her wings.)

As soon as her weight was off the windowsill, and into her arms though, El immediately dropped a few feet. Not a gigantic deal, the fire was only about up to her waist, but the woman screamed as her tail touched the flames.

Seeing this, El sputtered to the side, losing height with every second but getting clear of the fire just as the floor they had just been on crumbled through the others. Around her, other flighted people were carrying other formerly trapped people, all in varying states of disrepair. As she began to drop more severely, she noticed a gast hybrid with one child in each tentacle, and another two in their arms. (They were struggling to keep in the air just as much as she was.)

Another flighted person dropped right out of the air next to her. Worriedly she noted their hummingbird wings, realizing that she was going to be doing the same fall any second now. (Thankfuly for her, and the hummingbird, they weren’t very far from the ground now.)

Just as she had expected, a few more seconds were all she could manage, and her wings gave out about five feet off the ground. It wasn’t a terrible fall, but she still tried to get on the bottom of the pile (with the baby miraculously on top.)

On the ground, the cat mom laughed. She was okay, the baby was okay, whoever this random fly hybrid was was okay. They were safe and she couldn’t be more glad about it.

-

Genre number 2: Hidden Worlds (Written about GK999)
Words: 393

Gameknight thundered down the stairs, vaulting around a pile of clothes and a few empty soda cans as he made his way to the digitizer. He was out of school for the summer, and his dad said he could celebrate by spending a whole day in Minecraft if he wanted to. Normally parents wouldn't let their child spend twelve to twenty four hours on a computer, but in a computer was entirely different! (He could get quite a bit of exercise in there.)

Behind him he heard his sister Jenny following, she would be digitizing herself too, and with a rush, Tommy noticed the slamming of the door that only his friend Shawny could make. “We should wait for Shawn,” he said to his sister, grabbing her wrist as she went for the digitizer, “So we can all get digitized at once.”

She pouted at him, but drew her hand back, her foot impatiently tapping as Shawny practically fell down the stairs. “My mom said I could sleep over,” he said, near breathless from what Gameknight could only assume had been a run across the neighborhood, “She’s gonna pick me up at noon tomorrow.”

Gameknight nodded, a grin plastered on his face. “I’ll set it for nine hours then, so we have time to do other stuff when we get sent back.”

Shawny nodded and grinned at him. “Great idea.”

Seeing that they had decided on a time, Jenny reached for the digitizer impatiently, clearly wanting to be the one that actually zapped them. Gameknight squatted down on the ground, and Shawn plopped down next to him. They waited for a few seconds before Jenny followed their move, lying down on her back as the digitizer counted down from ten.

Gameknight was buzzing with excitement, and it was all he could do to lay down himself. (Shawny quickly followed his move, getting his head safely on the ground with only two seconds to spare on the timer. Apparently neither boy had originally thought to make sure their heads didn’t hit the ground when they were transported into the digital world.

One.

Two…

Flash! Gameknight’s vision was all zeros and ones for a moment, but after just a second, the familiar blocky treeline came into view. He smiled and looked down at his strangely angular fingers. Yes. This was were he felt at home.

-

Genre number 3: Science Fantasy (Written about redstone in Minecraft AU lol. This is an advertisement outside a store if that was going to confuse you.)
Words: 329


!! Big Deals at Red Glow - Buy one get one free and other deals !!

- In addition to adding a new wing to our store, Red Glow has decided to use its tenth anniversary to give out products at dramatically reduced prices! For one redstone lamp you can (for a limited time only) pay diamond shards that weigh into a gram. (They will be used for testing of new redstone inventions.)

- Ever run out of the redstone dust itself? Well now you can pay for two stacks for the price of one! And look at the amount of the dust, we have NOT reduced the size of the original stack. (Unlike some of our competitors.)

- We will also be selling our premium redstone torches for one diamond per stack. (Our usual price is two diamonds and three normal torches.) These torches are able to push a signal farther, can keep away mobs in a five block radius, and do not make the same electric buzzing that some other store’s variations create.

- Check out behind the store and press the button! You will be assigned a coupon to a random item in our store! Due to our up to date redstone, you can only pick one coupon per day, but inside there are tutorials of how to make this invention yourself, so don’t get too upset.

- In honor of the tenth anniversary on Saturday, we at Red Glow will also be putting on a dance for anyone with a membership to the store. There will be exclusive inventions being sold by genuine craft makers, music played by only the most high quality noteblocks, drinks (including alcohol and endersafe water), and other refreshments. Come inside today and buy a membership if you don’t already have one! They offer exclusive perks like lower prices, earlier access to goods, and socials like the one this saturday. So be sure to stop by at Red Glow this Saturday! For more information, check the website. (Accessible inside.)

Last edited by savebats (July 23, 2022 17:30:24)

savebats
Scratcher
100+ posts

Savebats - Scratch Writing Camp July 2022 Proof

Main Cabin Daily: “In life, our perception of the world comes from the five senses: seeing, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. Using these is what helps to bring our writing to life! Write a descriptive poem that incorporates at least four of the senses in a minimum of 100 words to earn 200 points.”
Words: 148


Is it fair to spell it out…?
That way you wouldn’t have to hear…
it off my face in a pout….
From here, the scent of the news is fear…

Birds flutter and mutter,
Feathers flow and glow,
Sunlight tastes of butter,
Moonlight shines slow.

It is not fair, in this drought…
It blows through my ear….
Screaming in a loud shout…
What are you doing here?

Fish splutter and mutter
Gills billow and flow
Water smells of better
Sulfur dissolves slow

In the end it doesn’t matter.
I’m not rhyming now,
Not when it doesn’t matter.
Not when they do not allow….

-All the scents of the air to be my weather.
-My man
-My woman
-My child
-My son
-My life
-My death
-My tears
-My fears

That’s all there is then.
I guess that’s how it works.
This is when-
The ‘end ‘no longer lurks
savebats
Scratcher
100+ posts

Savebats - Scratch Writing Camp July 2022 Proof

Main Cabin Daily: “Cabins are one of the most important parts of SWC - and thanks to the amazing leaders and co-leaders, all fifteen have unique themes reflecting the genre. In most cabins, you’ll see an introduction at the top of the studio description establishing this theme! Now, it’s your turn - come up with a theme for any SWC cabin (real or conceptual!) and write an intro for it. Your intro should be at least 100 words but fewer than 200 words for 400 points.”

Cabin Idea: Ocean setting (CLEARLY inspired by Shark Wars)

Words: 200


“Hello!” Called someone.

You turn to find out who spoke, and are shocked to see two sharks swimming toward you. Understandably, you swim a few tail strokes back, but their expressions stop you.

“H-Hello,” you stutter, your fins flicking anxiously as you watch for the two shark’s reactions.

“Sorry for scaring you,” the female sharks says, looking worried, “We saw that you were alone and wanted to invite you to our shiver,”

“Shiver?” You ask, mentally looking yourself up and down, “But I’m not a shark…?”

“Oh it’s a mixed shiver,” she says excitedly, “Come’on! I’ll show you the way to our homewaters.” (The male bull shark next to her grinds his teeth together, but for some reason, you decide to follow the two.)

On the way to their homewaters, the two explain to you their shiver. (Which seems to be a lot different than the other shivers you’d heard of in the past.) They were using coral (⭓) as currency, and their line included four sharks rather than six (*cabin-leader*, *word-counter1*, *word-counter2*, and *word-counter3*.) You were encouraged to ask them about any questions that you had.

Settling into your new home, you smiled. This was gonna be an adventure.

Last edited by savebats (July 25, 2022 23:58:18)

savebats
Scratcher
100+ posts

Savebats - Scratch Writing Camp July 2022 Proof

In Cabin Daily: “Try writing in a genre you've never written before, whether that's mystery, romance, fantasy, etc. 400 words minimum, and you need proof ^”

Genre chosen: Chick Lit. I have never written this genre, so of course I made it ‘easy’ for myself and wrote Shark Wars “Chick Lit”. I don’t even know if that’s possible, given that the series is primarily for what I can only assume are 4th grade boys with really good taste. But I tried!!!

Note: I guess this is an AU where Mari doesn’t die??? Also she’s fairly out of character, but if that’s what I have to do to do the daily right it will be that way.

Tw: Heavily implied past animal death

Words: 1,628


Mari flipped her tail. The effervescent green water that surrounded her felt warm against her scales. She knashed her teeth together happily. It was good to be home. But she felt a heaviness in her chest as she looked around at the familiar coral spires of her home. Many of her friends weren't able to feel that warmth, at least not without a twinge of multicolored sparkles courtesy of death.

So many amazing fins and flippers had been lost in the battle… So many wonderful fish she would never know the names of. So many wonderful fish that would never see their homes again. She felt water rush through her gills. To make it worse, Barklay had stayed behind in the Atlantis, appointed leader by the shark that was swimming right next to her. Barklay had been a good friend, and even though he had promised to come visit whenever he could, Coral Shiver was simply so far away from the Atlantis.

At least she had Gray.

The young megalodon was around her age, but you wouldn’t guess that just by looking at him. His blue flanks stretched on for at least double her own body length, and his tail wasn’t even included in that equation! But despite this, Gray was her friend …and nothing more. (Even if she sometimes wondered if they could be.)

She flicked her tail in an annoyed sort of way. Trying (and failing) to push the embarrassing thoughts away. Thankfully her face wasn’t all that red, so when Gray looked back at her in confusion, she didn’t seem all that suspicious. She smiled at him somewhat awkwardly, fighting to keep the blush off her face. “Just got a bit of greenie tangled in my fins,” she lied, “That’s all.”

Gray glanced around them, clearly not seeing any of the mysterious greenie that she spoke of, but took her answer anyway. “We can swim up a bit if you want,” he offered, lifting a tailstroke upward, “The greenie probably wouldn’t be a problem that way.”

Mari stared at him, not sure if him going along with her very obvious lie was worse or better than what would have happened if he had caught her on it. “Uh..” she said, flicking her fins to join him, “Sure. Thank you.”

Gray grinned and turned away from her, his gills rippled. “You’re welcome,” He said, “That’s what friends are for, right?”

“Yep!” She said, fighting for her very life to drag her eyes away from the sharpness of his teeth and the piercing blue of his eyes, “For sure!”

Gray laughed at that, and she found herself giggling along as well. In fact, this momentary joy carried her on light fins all the way back to the center of the Coral Shiver homewaters. Distracted by the new -yet familiar- sight of the telltale coral spires and short blue greenie, she gasped.

“I thought Hocuu destroyed this area?!” She exclaimed, shooting her gaze around herself in instinctive worry, “How-?”

“How’s it all here?” Gray echoed, looking around in the same way she was, “I guess the spell wore off after he died…”

Mari found herself smiling, reminded again of how that terrible frilled shark had failed out of their lives forever. (Privately, she hoped that he was somewhere in the Sparkle Blue, getting beat up by Takiza all over again.) Of course, the memory of what he did was horrific, but the fact that he was really gone made it a bit better.

“When we get to the Sparkle Blue,” she said absentmindedly, oblivious to the confusion that adorned Gray’s face at the suggestion of their deaths, “Will you help be chase Hocuu into whatever darkness exists there?”

After a moment of pondering the question, Gray finally spoke (and she was glad when a laugh bit at the edges of his words), “Of course! Maybe we can have a makeshift Tuna Run… with him as the tuna!”

She whipped around to see him, previously unaware of the possibility of the idea. (She did have to admit that it sounded quite good though.) Gray only laughed, clearly encouraged by the expression on the mako’s face. “Or maybe we could make him into our royal food seasoner…”

Now it was her turn to laugh. “Gray,” she asked, “Why would you need a royal food seasoner in the Sparkle Blue? And what makes you think that he wouldn’t take the chance to poison us?”

“Why not?” Gray asked giggling like a pup, “If we’re lucky it will be a while before we even know what the Sparkle Blue is like. Why not fantasize about embarrassing Hocuu?”

She had to agree with that, but slapped him with the back of her tail anyway. Just like a megalodon, that idea right there. (She didn’t say the words out loud, but for some reason, she felt like Gray knew what she was thinking. Panicked for a moment, she wondered if mind reading was among the powers that Takiza had taught him, before she remembered that it most certainly was NOT and she was totally fine.)

She flicked her tail and sped a bit ahead of him, shaking off the worry with a breath of fresh seawater. “Let’s race to the blue greenie!” She yelled, looking back over her fin at his slightly surprised face. But as his eyes shifted from confused to determined, she felt her heart beat an urchin’s spine faster, “It’ll be fun!” She added, trying to mask the expression that she was sure was on her face, “On the count of three?” She paused, silently asking if that was okay.

Gray nodded and swam to match her. “One,” he said, staring at the blue greenie with a little bit too much concentration.

“Two,” Mari echoed, flipping her fins a few times to stretch them.

“Three!” They said together, speeding off in the direction of the blue greenie. Mako sharks were very fast without even trying, so Mari was surprised when Gray began to plow ahead of her. (And yes it was ‘plowing’, you don’t get to have that thick of a tail and not be accused of plowing through the water.)

She grit her teeth and sped up her tail strokes, fighting to pull ahead of Gray against the current which she (only now) realized was against her. (Gray was a bigger shark, so it didn’t affect him as much.) In no time at all though, she was ahead of him, speeding at nearly ten tail strokes per second towards the “finish line”.

She reached it in no time at all, and immediately had to pull upward so as not to get tangled in the greenie as soon as she touched it. Flipping over in the water, she watched as Gray reached the greenie, crashing right though it and scarring more than one colorful fish into the ocean around them.

Ignoring the fact that her gills were definitely working harder than normal, Mari laughed. “Slow as always, huh Gray?” She teased, swimming over to him and running her tail along his spine (sort of like the way a mother shark would).

Gray spat some sand out of his mouth and wheeled around to look at her. He was grinning (sharp teeth shining in a way that sent a shiver down Mari’s own spine). “Not as slow as you!” He said, clearly ignoring the fact that he had lost. …but not by very much, “I really scared you when I pulled ahead!”

Mari rolled her eyes and swam a few tail strokes away. “Sure,” she responded playfully, “And that greenie really scared you when you swam nose first into the sand.”

Gray swam after her and Mari was shocked to note that the distance that had taken her three tailstokes only took him one. “Well, I guess the real winner here is the greenie then.” He said, jokingly, “Because if I scared you, and it scared me, that makes it the scariest.”

“We were going for the fastest,” she laughed, “And the greenie is definitely the loser there.”

Gray nodded seriously, as if this was in any way a conversation that deserved such a reaction. “And that makes you second place.” he said, and Mari didn’t even care that the sarcasm wasn’t very evident. (Something about his voice was just… very pretty there.) But Gray looked a little bit sad about his joke, and before she could even say anything back, he added, “And me in third.”

“Doesn’t that just put me in first then?” She laughed, swimming back towards the center of the coral circle, “If you're in third and the greenie’s in last?”

“Well-” Gray started, cutting himself off with a giggle, “I didn’t want you to be in first, and I didn’t win, so you’re in second place.”

Mari rolled her eyes and tried to ignore the way that Gray was making her heart soar. “That’s just like a megalon,” she said, out loud this time.

Gray laughed, “And it’s just like a mako to beat me in a race,” he paused for a moment, before continuing with an even softer voice than he had been speaking with originally, “I am quite fast for a shark as, uh, big cartilage as I am.”

She felt her heart soar as she grinned, “I believe that! You really did get ahead of me for a moment there.”

As he continued to joke, Mari felt her focus waning. She wanted to listen, she really did, but that was sometimes hard when her best friend was also one that she wanted to rule a Shiver with. Not as a royal line, but as a combined leading force. Together. For as long as the Big Blue would let them, she wanted to be together.
savebats
Scratcher
100+ posts

Savebats - Scratch Writing Camp July 2022 Proof

Main Cabin Daily: “We all love spending time convincing others of the best cabin in SWC, don’t we? Our own, of course. But today we’re putting a twist on the classic “My cabin is the best” and for the daily you must write 300 words of an argumentative piece about how one of your enemy or neutral cabins (not allies!) is the best cabin to earn 600 points.”

Words: 406


Why Fairy Tales is actually the best Scratch Writing Camp cabin. An Argumentative Essay from one of their enemies.

‘Bats,’ you ask, ‘Why are you encouraging one of Dystopian’s greatest enemies when the Dystopian cabin is STILL in last place?’

I shush you and smile evilly. ‘Because’ I say, ‘We need points and this is the daily.’

As we all know, the setting and theme of a cabin can be a great inspiration for why the people in said cabin write the way that they do. Fairy Tales, is, as far as I know from my limited glances at their Studio, an engaging, well organized, and well written cabin. You (a person who is definitely in the Fairy Tales studio) switch between word counting groups mid month! That’s inventive, interesting, and would require you to be at least decently involved. (Which is something that I cannot say that I have been for this entire month.)

Beyond this, the Fairy Tales studios also have a very nice color scheme this year! Black and red! Which, if you have scrolled through my map part studio for a bit more than a few seconds, you will see is my favorite color combination. This alone should make it clear how this is clearly the best cabin, but it is still not all that I have to say!

Fairy Tails, as a genre, are nearly always quite interesting, and are ALWAYS widespread. So how, pray tell, do you turn this gigantic and terrifyingly old genre into a few hundred words in a Scratch Studio??? Well, don’t ask me, but whatever the organizers of the cabin were doing this year DEFINITELY worked. I mean, the stories they used aren’t even connected in their original forms! Incredible!

Furthermore, Fairy Tales is the best Scratch Writing Camp this year because the way it is written in the Dystopian cabin is “F*iry Tal*s” and I just think that is very silly. (Also they call us “DystoPAIN” and that’s rather sweet of them. At the very least it’s revenge for us calling the ‘Hairy Tails’ and ‘Fairy Fails’.)

So, as you can clearly see from my one hundred percent organized, read through, and edited “argumentative essay” Fairy Tales is by FAR the best Scratch Writing Camp cabin of July 2020. This is totally not because one of my sisters is in that cabin.

Thank you for reading my “essay” and have a good night!
savebats
Scratcher
100+ posts

Savebats - Scratch Writing Camp July 2022 Proof

Word War with @puffyfish moment. (I lost qwq)

Words: 243

Gold shuffled his feet, embarrassed as Green stared at him. “Uh…” He stuttered, hiding as much as he could behind his hair, “I just kinda… messed up a little bit.”

Green raised her eyebrow at him, clearly not convinced of what he was saying. “You messed up?!” She yelled, and Gold cringed back at the tone in her voice, “Team Rocket has the control of all of our Pokemon and you're excusing it as you messing up!?”

Gold took a small step backward, trying not to hyperventilate too hard as all the dexholders stared at him, their eyes judging and their faces unkind. “Well, it's not all my fault-” he tried, immediately getting cut off as Crystal raised her hand in front of his face. He flinched, but she didn't slap him… this time.

“What do you mean it's not your fault?” She asked, her voice somehow even more aggressive and unforgiving than Green's had been, “You were the only one in there! The only chance we had to get our Pokemon back!”

Gold felt a rage boil deep in his gut, but on the outside, all he felt was shame. “Well, I mean,” he tried, “Nobody else was there to cover for me-”

Now Crystal really did slap him, and Gold felt tears well up in his eyes as she screamed at him. It wasn't like the Pokemon he had lost weren't also his, did they think he'd done this on purpose?
savebats
Scratcher
100+ posts

Savebats - Scratch Writing Camp July 2022 Proof

Another word war! This one with @fluffyjujunicorn

I won this one btw

Words: 167

Gold shrugged against the ice that held him, struggling to keep his joking persona alive as the Mask of Ice breathed down his neck. His breath was so cold. It was like he was really an ice type himself… (But Gold knew that couldn't be true, people and Pokemon were connected, but people didn't have Pokemon types… they just wasn't a thing that happened.)

“Still trying to get free, huh?” The Mask of Ice teased, running his fake icey fingers through Gold's hair, “You must realize by now that that is impossible.”

Gold stuck his tongue out, and though his teeth chattered a bit, he retorted, “Nah, I'm not trying to get free,” he said, struggling to keep his voice as light as possible, “Just checking to see if you're really as gullible as I think you are.”

The Mask of Ice laughed, but it was not a nice laugh. “You needn't joke,” he said, his voice an evil smile, “Not when all your friends are gone.”

Last edited by savebats (July 29, 2022 00:40:41)

savebats
Scratcher
100+ posts

Savebats - Scratch Writing Camp July 2022 Proof

I'm Careless When I Wear My Rebel Clothes (Title from ‘Nico and The Niners’ by Twenty One Pilots)


Notes:
Historical divergence???? Is that a thing? Anyway this is set in the Revolutionary war. (Kind of, not really, I think it’s far off enough of history to not be breaking the rules.)
Okay, without joking. Though this is a revolutionary war INSPIRED AU, this fic is entirely fiction, and, beyond the basic inspiration, is not based on any specific historical events.
Oh my GOSH they are out of character. Sorry, I got back into Pokespe and apparently lost my grip on these guys.
Sorry for all the perspective shifts too. I had a solid idea for this, kept NOT writing it, forgot the idea, and rushed this in time for Scratch Writing Camp.
Honestly this is more of a proof of concept than an actual fic.

Words: 2,154

Tws: War, obviously. (It’s kinda vague, but it is DEFINITELY there.)

Prompt: Memories/Historical

-
Russia brushed his hair out of his eyes. He had to try a bit harder than he would like to admit to decipher the English on the note he had been handed. “Hm,” he murmured, re reading the note for the fifth time, “Hm.”

A moment later, he finally placed it down in front of him. (The orange paper looked strangely helpless against the dark woodgrain of his desk.) Russia looked up at the man next to him, who was standing oddly still, “This man… America, he’s asking for my help?”

The messenger nodded, picking the note up from the desk and stuffing it back in his pocket. “Yes sir,” he said, “Would you like to agree to his terms?”

Russia frowned and scanned the man’s face. He wasn’t sure what to do, and this was certainly not the type of situation where he could just… pick an option without thinking about it. (So obviously the next best thing would be to scan a human’s face for any indication of what side they were on, duh.) Unfortunately for him though, the man was as blank and emotionless as ever, and not a clue was thrown his way.

Again he asked, “Should we agree to his terms?” Hearing the repetitive question, Russia found himself struggling to keep an upset hiss in his throat. He was being forced to pick an answer before he was ready to.

Russia held up his hand in a gesture that he hoped meant, ‘Give me a second, I’m being an idiot,’ and plunged as deeply into thought as he could make himself go. There was nothing to gain from helping this man. (Unless, of course, he moved the colonies from Britain’s rule to his own rule. But if this man was ready to send notes to people that he didn’t know, practically threatening them to help him gain independence, that didn’t sound like a great plan.)

On the other hand, why did he even need to gain anything from helping another country? Especially one that was trying to throw off Britain’s rule? Russia wanted to see that superpower with his face in the dirt, not constantly climbing higher on stairs made out of pure gold. …or maybe seeing Britain loose was the thing to gain? He wasn’t quite sure.

‘Besides…’ He stared at the spot where the note had been, ‘This America guy sounds like a good friend.’ He thought, feeling an oddly potent ache in his chest when he thought about the prospect of having a friend from war.

Out of the corner of his eye, Russia asked as the clearly impatient man opened his mouth to ask again, (Geeze. You would think his life depended on this one answer.) but Russia interrupted him. “Let’s help him!” He blurted out, standing up abruptly and knocking one of his legs painfully on his desk in his rush.

The man blinked, and for a moment Russia thought he saw a look of shock chase it’s way across his face, but if it was ever there, it was gone by the time he answered. “Of course sir,” the man bowed, “I’ll tell the general right away.”

Russia watched him as he left the room, feeling his leg throb slightly from where he was pretty sure it was bruising. Suddenly, he wished he could read the note again. Had he made the right decision?

——

China stared at the note, squinting as he struggled with both the messy handwriting, and the unfamiliar language. (He had just started learning English a year or two ago! This wasn’t fair! An important diplomatic exchange that he was struggling to read… it didn’t really bode very well for his decision making process.)

He was so tired.

“What should I tell the general?” Asked a voice that he knew came from the man next to him. (Who, China was sure to notice, was slouched oddly casually. Especially considering he was talking to a man who was more than three thousand years older than him. …But China didn’t blame him. It was really quite late.)

“Uh…” he said, stalling as he reread the note again, “Are there any more details we have on the circumstances of this note?”

The man paused for a moment, clearly struggling to remember if there were, before nodding. “Yes,” he said awkwardly, “The man sending this note is a physical representation of Britain’s thirteen colonies, I’m sure you’ve heard of them…?”

China nodded absentmindedly, not fully paying attention as the man continued, “He wants to become a free nation, and he’s asking you for help in doing that.”

China felt his eyes widen, but he wasn’t sure if it was out of surprise or of an effort to stay awake. “So he sent me a note on a piece of torn up paper? He didn’t send over a messenger or anything?”

The man shook his head, and China fought the urge to laugh. “Not that I know of,” the man said, reaching out a hand for permission to take the note.

China handed it over. “And you need to know if I want to help this random man I’ve never heard of before?” He asked, “Because if so, I’m surprised my boss is letting me choose.”

The man nodded.

China frowned, suddenly pushed back into thought, ‘I mean, what will we gain from helping him?’ He wondered, ‘Or is that even something that I need to worry about here? Is he just hoping I do this out of the goodness of my heart?’

The man coughed, and China jumped slightly.

“I have to get your answer to the general before midnight,” he said, sounding slightly pained, “So it would be rather helpful if you answered before that.”

China smiled, and, on an impulse he didn’t know was there, nodded. “I think we should help him,” he said, staring at the note that was now clutched in the messenger’s hand, “It sounds like it could be in our interests, especially if we win.”

The messenger nodded and sped away wordlessly, somehow though, China felt encouraged by this. He could do this. If he couldn’t do this, someone would have told him… wouldn’t they?

——

America leaded against the tree, sighing loudly as his body creaked like an old floorboard. He had sent those notes out of desperation, yes, but he had also sent them out of curiosity. Out of the curiosity that came with finding out that there were, in fact, other people like you out there. Other people that experienced the world the way you did. Other people that just… didn’t die.

Of course, he had always known that Britain was the same, but a burning in his chest made it hard to believe that it was actually true. A burning that came from losing a friend to the darkness of their own mind.

A few feet away, he watched as one of his men plopped down into the grass. Laying back at a speed that America was sure definitely caused him to hit his head. (But at least the deep inhale that the man took afterward proved to America that he was okay. …at least physically.)

He growled and balled his hands into fists, crumpling the hem of his shirt between shaking fingers. He needed those nations to show up, and fast, he was losing this war.

——

The trip across the ocean was surprisingly easy, especially when Russia let himself give in to the rocking of the boat. (Letting the waves translate into a dreamlike dance as he walked across the deck.) But even though the journey wasn’t that tough, Russia still felt consumed by dread. What if this new nation didn’t want to be his friend either? What would he do then? (Somehow, he had convinced himself to take up this journey purely so that he could have a new friend, a realization he had come to after going through what he was planning to gain from this mission as a nation… and finding nothing.)

But it wouldn’t be very far now. He was sure of it.

——

Similarly, China was also wondering why he had taken this “Alfred” guy up on the offer. There was pretty much nothing to gain from this, but still, he somehow felt… drawn by the mere presence of the guy. Who knew, maybe something deep within him related to this ‘new nation’s’ predicament, or, more likely, something about the man himself drew his curiosity. (Apparently quite strongly, if it was able to pull him across an entire ocean or two to get to him.)

He leaned into the rocking of the boat. Sighing and shutting his eyes as he imagined a different time, he smiled.

——

It had been a few months since he had sent those notes, and though America knew that was just how things worked, he was beginning to get impatient. He was surrounded. He was running out of supplies. He was half dead, but he still wasn’t quite ready to give up yet. Maybe because the life he had always known was entirely dependent on his win here, or maybe because of who had promised the ocean to come save him.

Maybe it was a naive belief, but Alfred found it hard to believe that a nation that had that pull would be unable to save him. He thought about it often. He had sent those notes to those specific nations because when he had heard of them, when he had seen them visiting his continent, there had been something about them that was special. Normally he would attribute a surge of attraction to one nation to the level of power that that particular nation held, but something about this was different.

Something about it was a little bit odd.

Queer, even.

——

Russia had reached the shore weeks ago, and met up with the soldiers he would be fighting with months ago, but only today did he meet the man he was fighting for. And honestly, he didn’t regret his decision at all.

Not even when bullets and fire rained down around them.

Not even when soldiers fell like flies smacked down by God’s biggest flyswatter.

Around this man, this man with the glowing blue eyes…

He felt strange. He felt odd. He felt adventurous and delinquent.

But was any of that all that bad?

——

They had won! They had actually won! But even with the relief of finally being able to go home, the joy of seeing a man who was finally free, and the resigned peace as all those fallen were sent off, China felt like screaming. He didn’t want to go home, he didn’t want to lose these people (because, no matter what was up above, it definitely knew that he’d already lost far too many).

So here he was, standing in complete silence as the world erupted around him. He saw soldiers returning home to their wives. He saw streams that no longer ran red with blood. He saw Russia, the other nation called to help with this war, smiling from the sidelines. And he saw America, that blond man who set his scars on fire, dancing with one of the townspeople in a somewhat alcohol induced high. (For some reason, China felt an odd urge to push that woman out of the way.)

Well, it wasn’t that much of a mystery anymore.

He just wished he had realized it earlier.

Realized it before the boats were already docked to take him and his company home.

Realized it before that final battle, that final battle where he had seen too much.

He shut his eyes, trying his best to block out the memory, but only succeeding in bringing it further to the surface. There they were. Standing over a fallen body of the nation they had been trying to kill all this time.

The man with the oddly thick eyebrows, and the dirty blond hair that was now stained an ugly pink with his own blood. But nevermind him. What distrubed China about this memory was not the way he lay oddly still on the ground, or even the way that the war still raged around them, but what was happening beyond that.

For that blond man, the one with the glowing blue eyes, the one with the dream worth fighting for, the one that entranced China beyond what any man had ever done before? Why, he wasn’t paying attention to the battle! He wasn’t paying attention to anything other than the way that Russia’s face felt against him. (And, yuck, the way that the purple eyed nation’s saliva tasted.)

China snapped his eyes open. Focused once more on America as the young nation continued to dance with the townspeople. Really, it wasn’t the sight that he minded so much, but the fact that it hadn’t been him. The fact that it hadn’t been him, kissing this odd man over a corpse.

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