_/You can "remember" the things in my scratch pad?/_

"Yes," Jacob replied.

The team, plus Nesso in its telepresence robot, were gathered in the conference room. Meeting in an actual room was a throwback to before they knew they were characters in a story and could talk to their own author.

_/Nothing there is ready for publication/_

"Author, we've established you need a document active for us to communicate with you," Maggie said, changing topics. "For Jacob to remember anything, did you have our story and the scratch pad up at the same time?"

_/That must have been it/_

"Then, if you opened it now it's possible we'd all remember things."

_/Are you sure? Those ideas are half-baked or less/_

Nods all around the room.

_/Ok, it's open/_

A pause. "Um, I'm not remembering anything," Jacob said.

Nesso raised one of its appendages. ::I do. I meet another AI and strike up a conversation?::

Crickets.

"Well, I'm intrigued!" Jacob exclaimed.

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Challenge #04888-M139: And Having Writ, Moves On

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#WordWeavers 2026.05.18 — If your antagonist had to arrange a contest they knew they could win, what would it be?

Rainy Days is the main series antagonist who appears in most stories. She would find it pointless to arrange a contest she knew she could win. Unless she were fighting an actual enemy and winning would be the point, her philosophy being you always win wars unless losing better suits your goals; such a contest wouldn't be friendly as this question implies. Rainy Days arranges contests most often to teach one or more of her many (often unwilling) students, occasionally to test and learn something about them. She'd be overjoyed were one to beat her, ecstatic to find someone she could eventually rely on, maybe one day replace her. Most often, however, she's sparring with her pretorians, whom she inevitably beats. (There are scenes with them injured after training). She does not spar with them in expectation that they might grow able to best her. She does this so they are familiar with what she can do and thus can best protect her blind spots and vulnerabilities. They are her bodyguard, after all.

Encountering the devil-girl in the current WIP, Rainy Days'' contest would emphasize thaumaturgy. She wants the devil-girl to succeed her. Rainy Days wants her as a student as the devil-girl demonstrates a talent for the arcane that might actually exceed Rainy Days.

The devil-girl is convinced Rainy Days is evil. She will think she's going to die.

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

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