Strawberry-Lemon
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Weekly 3 || 1565/1200 words
Part 1 || To begin your mystery, wander on over to @PoppyWriter's workshop to learn how to plot one! After you've read and internalized the information, write short, 50 word descriptions each for five major plot points in your tale. Be as creative as you like, and feel free to include some classic mystery elements as well. || 453/250 words
Evelyn lives in the small town of Terrifall, where everybody knows everybody else. That’s before the car crash. When her best friend, Willan Trevors, crashes his car off the winding cliff road, Evelyn knows that something is up, because Willan would never drive a car unless his life was at stake… and maybe it was. (55 words)
Going down to investigate the wreck of Willan’s car, Evelyn trips and almost falls all the way down the cliff. On the way she finds something in the bushes, a small black briefcase, locked. She is sure it’s part of the mystery somehow, and puts it in her backpack. When she reaches the ruins she finds the crashed car, but no body. She is secretly relieved, but as far as she knows nobody has come to investigate the scene. Is Willan d3@d after all? (85 words)
After finding many clues, Evelyn finally thinks she might know what happened to Willan. She goes to the mysterious lab a little ways out of their desert-cliff town and sneaks inside. Inside she finds w3@pons of mass destruction, weapons that could change the world. She also finds a small note with what seems to be a code in it. She stuffs it in her pocket and runs back home. When she puts the code into the briefcase, it opens. Inside is a small slip of paper with names on it. It is titled: To Get Rid Of. Willan’s name is on there, crossed out in bright red ink. She realizes that the people on this list must be the people that know about the w3@p0ns and that they don’t trust. She goes back to confront the people and it ends in a showdown where she brings her news anchor friend, Lilac, to reveal to the world what is actually going on. (163 words)
The police and other agents come and get the place destroyed and shut down. Evelyn realizes that Willan must have known they were coming for him and sent the car as a decoy without him in it. So she goes to the city to the school where they met each other, and there is Willan, hiding at a hotel near it. The two rejoice and she tells him how the entire world knows about the lab now and nobody is in danger. (82 words)
Willan, Lilac, and Evelyn manage to start their own investigation program as detectives (and Lilac as their news anchor) and spend their time tracking down different mysteries and solving cases for people around the states, with little things from missing puppies to even bigger cases… like missing people. They don’t know where their next case will take them, but they know that they will be solving it together. (68 words)
Part 2 || Now that you have introduced yourself to the world of mystery and have the basics of your story down it is time to dig deeper. If you have ever participated in host speculation you'll know how many twists and tricks add to the fun. Now create a list with 4 clues and/or red herrings consisting of at least 50 words , that you can incorporate into your story. Check out this wonderful workshop that should help you with this task: Red Herrings and Clues - have fun! || 277/200 words
Clue #1: The briefcase Evelyn finds on the scene. It is, strangely, unscathed and has no dents or scratches on it at all. It has a golden combination lock with 5 digits and 1 letter lock. There is a small engraving on the top of the (also golden) handle, but it just looks like the letter L from a distance. (58 words)
Red Herring #1: Willan’s phone was not in the car, and he had an unsent text to a number without a caller ID that says: “Get a camera to the spot we planned. Send Evelyn the letter I gave you.” There is nothing else in the text, and it had never been sent. It was simply typed into the box. Evelyn looks for the letter but finds nothing. This was actually a red herring if the lab security searched his room they thought he was planning to expose them, so they’d just assume he died and stop looking. (95 words)
Clue #2: An ad in the newspaper for workers for the laboratory, Evelyn sees a shadow that looks like Willan in the back of the picture, so she thinks that they might be something to do with his disappearance. Also, she notices that they don’t advertise what the lab does so she decides to go investigate. (54 words)
Clue #3: A picture of her and Willan that she doesn’t remember taking, of them at the hotel where they basically grew up at because they knew the owner and spent time helping customers and exploring the hallways of the older building. She realizes that somebody must have left this picture for her and goes to the hotel to perhaps find Willan hiding with the help of the owner that they knew. (70 words)
Part 3 || Greetings, wanderer - and welcome to the third part of this weekly! Find yourself a partner, and together embark upon an interview. One of you can claim the role of a witness to a crime, whereas the other can wield the power of an interviewer. Go ahead and ask the most ridiculous questions, and answer with the most unexpected responses! Once you’ve completed your interview, it’s time to jot down your conversation. To move onto the next part of this weekly, write 200 words per person for this activity. Have fun with this - after all, every witness carries a small piece of the truth ;D (This is incomplete due to the fact I have to leave early) || 201/200 words (not including telling who is speaking or any of Em’s dialogue.)
Interviewer (Kiara): Well hello there. I assume you know what you are here for?
Witness (Em): I actually don't… where am I? The last thing I remember was- wait I can't say that, sorry. Is there a particular reason why you're asking me this? I'm afraid that I totally have nothing to do with whatever strange scenario has happened. *cough cough* arson *cough cough*
Interviewer (Kiara): The fire that has affected many SWC-ers was set off near where you were last known to be located. Please tell us - as it is important to finding the culprit - all that you remember of the time. All we have discovered so far is a mango, which was located near the scene of the crime.
Witness (Em): Oh, that must be our gang's symbol- I mean I have no idea what a mango is, what's a mango? I briefly recall an explosion, but that was it. I remember seeing people, and that they set the fire, and it's all the truth, I swear.
Interviewer (Kiara): Oh, so you admit you were part of the gang that set off the fire? And there was an explosion… interesting … Do you happen to know anything about why the fire was set off in the main cabin?
Witness (Em): well all I know is that I um… overheard… some people talking about a mango-powered gasoline explosion that would send the main cabin into chaos. And no, I'm not in a gang! What's a gang? There would be no reason as to why I'd be in a gang, other than being first in the leaderboard…
Interviewer (Kiara):Hm… so you know a surprising amount of information for an innocent witness. Do you happen to know any of the people involved in the explosion? And where is the supply of mangoes coming from?
Witness (Em): Well, I was just near enough to hear all of it, that's it. There's nothing suspicious about that, right? I'm not exactly sure, but I know that they were probably part of a gang, and that the mangoes were illegally traded in through a strange black market. If I give you everything I know, can I be free? I only know so much because I just /happened/ to be there when the explosion took place, if you're wondering.
Interviewer (Kiara): The information you have given me so far seems to be fairy accurate from what the rest of our team has been finding… Even if it doesn’t seem entirely complete… If you tell us everything that you know about anything that may be related to the incident, then we will conclude the interview and let you be on your way.
Part 4 || Welcome, detectives, to the final part of this splendiforous weekly! For your fourth activity, you’ll be combining everything you’ve worked on in previous parts into a longer piece. Using your plot points, red herrings, clues, and evidence from the witness interview, write a mystery scene of at least 550 words. You can go about this however you’d like: it could be a snippet of a longer work or its own self-contained story. Make it gripping, make it exciting, make it page-turning (or in this case, screen-scrolling?), and above all, make it mysterious ;D Best of luck, sleuths, and remember to have fun! (This is incomplete and not done very well, I was rushing this in thirty minutes that I had before I had to go to bed </3) || 634/550 words
When the news came from the main town, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
”Willan WHAT?” I asked, turning to my friend Lilac, who had delivered the news.
“I’m sorry, Ev. We just found his car. It looks like he was driving up the road and veered too far to the right. There was no body, but the car cr@shed at the bottom of the canyon.”
I put down my phone -where I had been looking into ars0n mangoes that had wrecked the main cabin- and started to panic.
”There is no way that Willan would be driving. Lilac, you know him as well as I do and know that he would never be caught in a car ever.”
Lilac nodded, her gentle brown waves cut into a bob bouncing on either side of her head. Her eyes were startlingly blue, and her skin was tanned with small freckles on either side of her nose. She was a reporter, or at least wanted to be one. Both of her parents were well-known news reporters, and she thought that this might be her big break, I’m pretty sure.
And me and Willan have been cheering her on for forever on her dreams. My only qualm was that she was going to make her big break off of the end of Willan.
”Do you want to get your recording stuff out? I’m sure if we cover this story quickly enough you can get the story out to your parent’s networks before any other news.”
Lilac looked at me like I was crazy. “Are you kidding? Our friend just d!ed, and you are asking if I want my recording equipment?”
I looked away, trying to hide the tears that were threatening to come spilling out. “You don’t know that. There’s a possibility that he’s still out there. That the car was a ploy for… something.”
Willan wasn’t a thrill seeker, or an attention seeker either. He seemed just like a… regular teenage boy. Athletic, competitive, funny, kind, smart… he was everything. He was our best friend. Now he’s…
I shook my head, hard, to clear my brain of intrusive thoughts. There was no way that Willan was d3@d. That wasn’t him. He valued life too much.
There had to be some other explanation, I thought desperately, trying to keep breathing. In and out. In and out.
I turned to Lilac, swallowing hard. “Looks like we might have a mystery to solve.”
”But what leads do we have? As far as I know there is nothing.”
I thought for a moment. “Do you know where his car cr@shed? We could go down there and see if there is anything. And then we could go to his parents…” A thought dawned on me, “Do they know?”
”I informed the police. I assume they’ve told the two of them by now.”
No… oh no… I loved Willan’s parents, they were some of my favorite people. But this was going to crush them.
I tucked my phone into my pocket, promising to deal with ars0n mangoes another time, and grabbed my backpack and a coat and headed out the door, but not before stopping to tell my parents I was going down to the canyon. I trust they hadn’t heard about Willan yet, and I wasn’t going to tell them now.
I met up with Lilac outside and we got in her car and she drove us to where Willan had cr@shed. We stumbled down the hill, and I felt my ankle get caught and I tripped and fell down the hill, running into things and getting twigs caught in my hair. When I finally stopped, I ran into a briefcase that was lying on the ground. I took it, my eyes looking over it.
Part 1 || To begin your mystery, wander on over to @PoppyWriter's workshop to learn how to plot one! After you've read and internalized the information, write short, 50 word descriptions each for five major plot points in your tale. Be as creative as you like, and feel free to include some classic mystery elements as well. || 453/250 words
Evelyn lives in the small town of Terrifall, where everybody knows everybody else. That’s before the car crash. When her best friend, Willan Trevors, crashes his car off the winding cliff road, Evelyn knows that something is up, because Willan would never drive a car unless his life was at stake… and maybe it was. (55 words)
Going down to investigate the wreck of Willan’s car, Evelyn trips and almost falls all the way down the cliff. On the way she finds something in the bushes, a small black briefcase, locked. She is sure it’s part of the mystery somehow, and puts it in her backpack. When she reaches the ruins she finds the crashed car, but no body. She is secretly relieved, but as far as she knows nobody has come to investigate the scene. Is Willan d3@d after all? (85 words)
After finding many clues, Evelyn finally thinks she might know what happened to Willan. She goes to the mysterious lab a little ways out of their desert-cliff town and sneaks inside. Inside she finds w3@pons of mass destruction, weapons that could change the world. She also finds a small note with what seems to be a code in it. She stuffs it in her pocket and runs back home. When she puts the code into the briefcase, it opens. Inside is a small slip of paper with names on it. It is titled: To Get Rid Of. Willan’s name is on there, crossed out in bright red ink. She realizes that the people on this list must be the people that know about the w3@p0ns and that they don’t trust. She goes back to confront the people and it ends in a showdown where she brings her news anchor friend, Lilac, to reveal to the world what is actually going on. (163 words)
The police and other agents come and get the place destroyed and shut down. Evelyn realizes that Willan must have known they were coming for him and sent the car as a decoy without him in it. So she goes to the city to the school where they met each other, and there is Willan, hiding at a hotel near it. The two rejoice and she tells him how the entire world knows about the lab now and nobody is in danger. (82 words)
Willan, Lilac, and Evelyn manage to start their own investigation program as detectives (and Lilac as their news anchor) and spend their time tracking down different mysteries and solving cases for people around the states, with little things from missing puppies to even bigger cases… like missing people. They don’t know where their next case will take them, but they know that they will be solving it together. (68 words)
Part 2 || Now that you have introduced yourself to the world of mystery and have the basics of your story down it is time to dig deeper. If you have ever participated in host speculation you'll know how many twists and tricks add to the fun. Now create a list with 4 clues and/or red herrings consisting of at least 50 words , that you can incorporate into your story. Check out this wonderful workshop that should help you with this task: Red Herrings and Clues - have fun! || 277/200 words
Clue #1: The briefcase Evelyn finds on the scene. It is, strangely, unscathed and has no dents or scratches on it at all. It has a golden combination lock with 5 digits and 1 letter lock. There is a small engraving on the top of the (also golden) handle, but it just looks like the letter L from a distance. (58 words)
Red Herring #1: Willan’s phone was not in the car, and he had an unsent text to a number without a caller ID that says: “Get a camera to the spot we planned. Send Evelyn the letter I gave you.” There is nothing else in the text, and it had never been sent. It was simply typed into the box. Evelyn looks for the letter but finds nothing. This was actually a red herring if the lab security searched his room they thought he was planning to expose them, so they’d just assume he died and stop looking. (95 words)
Clue #2: An ad in the newspaper for workers for the laboratory, Evelyn sees a shadow that looks like Willan in the back of the picture, so she thinks that they might be something to do with his disappearance. Also, she notices that they don’t advertise what the lab does so she decides to go investigate. (54 words)
Clue #3: A picture of her and Willan that she doesn’t remember taking, of them at the hotel where they basically grew up at because they knew the owner and spent time helping customers and exploring the hallways of the older building. She realizes that somebody must have left this picture for her and goes to the hotel to perhaps find Willan hiding with the help of the owner that they knew. (70 words)
Part 3 || Greetings, wanderer - and welcome to the third part of this weekly! Find yourself a partner, and together embark upon an interview. One of you can claim the role of a witness to a crime, whereas the other can wield the power of an interviewer. Go ahead and ask the most ridiculous questions, and answer with the most unexpected responses! Once you’ve completed your interview, it’s time to jot down your conversation. To move onto the next part of this weekly, write 200 words per person for this activity. Have fun with this - after all, every witness carries a small piece of the truth ;D (This is incomplete due to the fact I have to leave early) || 201/200 words (not including telling who is speaking or any of Em’s dialogue.)
Interviewer (Kiara): Well hello there. I assume you know what you are here for?
Witness (Em): I actually don't… where am I? The last thing I remember was- wait I can't say that, sorry. Is there a particular reason why you're asking me this? I'm afraid that I totally have nothing to do with whatever strange scenario has happened. *cough cough* arson *cough cough*
Interviewer (Kiara): The fire that has affected many SWC-ers was set off near where you were last known to be located. Please tell us - as it is important to finding the culprit - all that you remember of the time. All we have discovered so far is a mango, which was located near the scene of the crime.
Witness (Em): Oh, that must be our gang's symbol- I mean I have no idea what a mango is, what's a mango? I briefly recall an explosion, but that was it. I remember seeing people, and that they set the fire, and it's all the truth, I swear.
Interviewer (Kiara): Oh, so you admit you were part of the gang that set off the fire? And there was an explosion… interesting … Do you happen to know anything about why the fire was set off in the main cabin?
Witness (Em): well all I know is that I um… overheard… some people talking about a mango-powered gasoline explosion that would send the main cabin into chaos. And no, I'm not in a gang! What's a gang? There would be no reason as to why I'd be in a gang, other than being first in the leaderboard…
Interviewer (Kiara):Hm… so you know a surprising amount of information for an innocent witness. Do you happen to know any of the people involved in the explosion? And where is the supply of mangoes coming from?
Witness (Em): Well, I was just near enough to hear all of it, that's it. There's nothing suspicious about that, right? I'm not exactly sure, but I know that they were probably part of a gang, and that the mangoes were illegally traded in through a strange black market. If I give you everything I know, can I be free? I only know so much because I just /happened/ to be there when the explosion took place, if you're wondering.
Interviewer (Kiara): The information you have given me so far seems to be fairy accurate from what the rest of our team has been finding… Even if it doesn’t seem entirely complete… If you tell us everything that you know about anything that may be related to the incident, then we will conclude the interview and let you be on your way.
Part 4 || Welcome, detectives, to the final part of this splendiforous weekly! For your fourth activity, you’ll be combining everything you’ve worked on in previous parts into a longer piece. Using your plot points, red herrings, clues, and evidence from the witness interview, write a mystery scene of at least 550 words. You can go about this however you’d like: it could be a snippet of a longer work or its own self-contained story. Make it gripping, make it exciting, make it page-turning (or in this case, screen-scrolling?), and above all, make it mysterious ;D Best of luck, sleuths, and remember to have fun! (This is incomplete and not done very well, I was rushing this in thirty minutes that I had before I had to go to bed </3) || 634/550 words
When the news came from the main town, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
”Willan WHAT?” I asked, turning to my friend Lilac, who had delivered the news.
“I’m sorry, Ev. We just found his car. It looks like he was driving up the road and veered too far to the right. There was no body, but the car cr@shed at the bottom of the canyon.”
I put down my phone -where I had been looking into ars0n mangoes that had wrecked the main cabin- and started to panic.
”There is no way that Willan would be driving. Lilac, you know him as well as I do and know that he would never be caught in a car ever.”
Lilac nodded, her gentle brown waves cut into a bob bouncing on either side of her head. Her eyes were startlingly blue, and her skin was tanned with small freckles on either side of her nose. She was a reporter, or at least wanted to be one. Both of her parents were well-known news reporters, and she thought that this might be her big break, I’m pretty sure.
And me and Willan have been cheering her on for forever on her dreams. My only qualm was that she was going to make her big break off of the end of Willan.
”Do you want to get your recording stuff out? I’m sure if we cover this story quickly enough you can get the story out to your parent’s networks before any other news.”
Lilac looked at me like I was crazy. “Are you kidding? Our friend just d!ed, and you are asking if I want my recording equipment?”
I looked away, trying to hide the tears that were threatening to come spilling out. “You don’t know that. There’s a possibility that he’s still out there. That the car was a ploy for… something.”
Willan wasn’t a thrill seeker, or an attention seeker either. He seemed just like a… regular teenage boy. Athletic, competitive, funny, kind, smart… he was everything. He was our best friend. Now he’s…
I shook my head, hard, to clear my brain of intrusive thoughts. There was no way that Willan was d3@d. That wasn’t him. He valued life too much.
There had to be some other explanation, I thought desperately, trying to keep breathing. In and out. In and out.
I turned to Lilac, swallowing hard. “Looks like we might have a mystery to solve.”
”But what leads do we have? As far as I know there is nothing.”
I thought for a moment. “Do you know where his car cr@shed? We could go down there and see if there is anything. And then we could go to his parents…” A thought dawned on me, “Do they know?”
”I informed the police. I assume they’ve told the two of them by now.”
No… oh no… I loved Willan’s parents, they were some of my favorite people. But this was going to crush them.
I tucked my phone into my pocket, promising to deal with ars0n mangoes another time, and grabbed my backpack and a coat and headed out the door, but not before stopping to tell my parents I was going down to the canyon. I trust they hadn’t heard about Willan yet, and I wasn’t going to tell them now.
I met up with Lilac outside and we got in her car and she drove us to where Willan had cr@shed. We stumbled down the hill, and I felt my ankle get caught and I tripped and fell down the hill, running into things and getting twigs caught in my hair. When I finally stopped, I ran into a briefcase that was lying on the ground. I took it, my eyes looking over it.