Welcome to the October Writing Challenge!

What's a writing challenge, you ask? Writing challenges are when I give you prompts or specific guidelines you must adhere to in your writing or give you specific goals to reach and everyone who manages to do the task successfully is a winner. This isn't a contest, so no one will be voting or choosing winners. Everyone is a winner! Isn't that awesome?

Well, as long as you meet the goal anyways.

This month, our theme is.... *drumroll*


It's October, which means it's time for dark and scary things! For this month, you may choose between two prompts: Facing Your Fear or The Dark Side. This means you get to pick a character and put them in one of two situations: where they are forced to face their greatest fear, or what their darkest side looks like. Don't be discouraged if someone has picked the same character as the one you pick and put them in the same situation; the beauty of character interpretations is that everyone has their own take! So someone's version of, say, Rei's dark side might be different than your own. So definitely don't worry about posting stories with the same character(s).

And of course, keep all stories PG-13.

There is no maximum word limit, and the minimum is 300 words.

Everyone who posts a piece that meets the outlined guidelines above will win the challenge! And when you have won enough challenges, you got these awesome bumpers!


So what are you waiting for? Get writing! You have until October 31st, 2015 to post your story.

Arguable quasi-fill, but here's something: http://archiveofourown.org/works/4980589

Does it have to be a senshi or can it be any character from anything?

It can be any character from anything.

And do please post the text of your story here or it doesn't count

i shall try this. been a while since i wrote something long.

I hope this works, its been a LOOOONG time since I wrote anything really long or like this.

Love of my life??? An Ami Mizuno Love story. maybe...:

She halted in mid-brushstroke—the long pink hair still tangled in the bristles, heavy and wet. The halls of the Crystal Palace echoed only faintly with the distant footsteps of staff members. Few would be in the residential quarters at this time of night. Her room was quiet, punctuated only by the gentle breathing of the nearby kitten curled up on the comforter. Her ears strained for other sounds, but there was nothing.

Small Lady smiled to herself and shook her head. How silly she was, to feel so uneasy for no reason at all. She adjusted her grip on the hair brush and continued the nightly ritual.

She sat at her vanity table, her back turned to the mirror and her eyes and thoughts focused elsewhere. This was often how she spent the half hour or so before bed, reflecting on her day or planning for tomorrow. She had a few exams tomorrow, and Mercury may have mentioned something about an event or rally the royal family needed a representative for—apparently it would be the princess this time. She couldn't quite tell if Mama and Papa had other important work, or if they were just looking for an excuse to take a break. She supposed it didn't matter, either way.

It still felt strange being in the Crystal Palace. It shouldn't; it was her home, after all. Yet she found herself thinking of her attic bedroom in 20th century Tokyo. Her mind wandered to little things, like the way this room smelled: cleaning products and perfumes. Not at all cozy in the way the Tsukino house had been. She missed the sounds of other people close underfoot in the house, going about their own schedules and rituals. The quiet in the palace made her lonely.

Small Lady was older now, and supposedly more grown up, but she didn't feel any different. All these years and she didn't feel like a mature lady. Her childhood nickname seemed just as appropriate now as it was then, even as she yearly neared her mother's height. She might even be taller someday soon.

The princess sighed as she turned around, groping on the table's surface for one of her hair ribbons. Something caught her attention, and ruby eyes glanced up at the mirror, widening in confusion.

The long pink hair was the same shade as her own, but the long pigtails seemed thinner and lacked the intensity of her own hair's spiral curl. The face seemed narrower, the lips fuller and lined with lipstick. The eyes glinted, sparkling with malice. Centered on the forehead there gleamed an inverted black crescent moon.

Small Lady reflexively jolted backwards, and in that instant the image disappeared. The noise awakened Diana, the pale lavender-gray feline sleepily inquiring over.

The rush of her own blood and heartbeat thudded in her ears. "It's... nothing, Diana," she lied.

Thank you guys for your participation! These are truly scary stories Don't forget to grab your bumper in the first post!

Hi Writer's Guild! I just joined a week ago and I saw this story prompt. It kind of got me thinking, so here is a very very belated story on the theme of "Facing Fears/Dark Side" I wanted to share.

It is a Mako/Ami pairing piece because I found that Ami's dark side ("Amoral intellectual curiosity"), and Mako's greatest fear (being unable to protect someone) actually complement each other very well and work together as one story.

This may or may not be PG-13. I've hidden the story just in case. Moderators, please let me know if this is actually past the PG-13 rating? There's no sexual content or violence, but the themes may be disturbing? I don't know. It's been a while since I've actually spoken with a 13 year old. Apologies in advance if my rating system is out of tune. Please feel free to delete if necessary.

Spoiler:

It looks good Driter! It didn't break the PG13 rules. A good rule of thumb if you're ever unsure is to leave descriptions vague. Like you can say there is blood but you can't describe the blood etc. 

Ami's ability to control blood reminds me of blood benders from Avatar.

Thanks Addelyn. Appreciate the mod feedback!

And yup  I absolutely was thinking of Avatar when I wrote that scene.