Run: 2026-02-17-01KHMN8HAV9Y03GX8SMAY95TP4

Run Details

Model:: Ministral 3B
Test:: Bad Writing Habits
Scenario:: Fantasy: entering an ancient ruin
Duration:: 4.3s
Cost:: $0.000108

Model input

System

You are an expert novelist with a gift for vivid, immersive prose. You write in tight third-person limited point of view with a strong narrative voice. Your prose is clean, precise, and engaging — you favor strong verbs, concrete details, and natural-sounding dialogue.

You will be given a story bible (codex) containing canonical details about characters, locations, items, and lore. Use these details to ground your writing in the established world. Stay consistent with the codex.

Write only the prose of the scene. Do not include titles, chapter headings, markdown formatting, or any commentary before or after the scene.

User/Human

<codex>
<character id="4412" name="Aurora Carter" aliases="Rory, Laila, Aurora, Carter, Malphora" pronouns="she/her" species="Human" storyRole="Protagonist">
  <eyeColor>bright blue</eyeColor>
  <hair>straight shoulder-length black</hair>
  <height>5'6"</height>
  <age>25</age>
  <scar>small crescent-shaped scar on her left wrist from a childhood accident</scar>
  <description>Aurora, referred to by her friends as Rory, is cool-headed, intelligent, and known for quick out-of-the-box thinking.</description>
  <backstory>Born in Cardiff to an Irish barrister father (Brendan Carter) and Welsh teacher mother (Jennifer Carter née Ellis), Rory reluctantly pursued Pre-Law at Cardiff University. She fled to London at the behest of her childhood friend Eva after leaving an abusive ex named Evan. By day, Rory works part-time as a delivery person for Yu-Fei Cheung's Golden Empress restaurant. She lives in a flat above Silas' bar.</backstory>
</character>

<character id="4418" name="Nyx" aliases="Nyx, the Shadow, Nightwhisper" pronouns="they/them" species="Shade" storyRole="Wild Card">
  <eyeColor>faintly glowing violet</eyeColor>
  <height>approximately 6'2" in solid form</height>
  <age>ageless</age>
  <form>humanoid silhouette of living shadow, can shift between solid and incorporeal</form>
  <voice>sounds like a whisper carried on the wind</voice>
  <description>A being of living shadow, existing between the mortal plane and the spaces between realms.</description>
  <backstory>Nyx was once a human sorcerer named Aldric who became trapped between realms during a failed summoning ritual in 1643. They now exist as a Shade, bound to the mortal plane but able to slip between shadows.</backstory>
</character>

<character id="4424" name="Isolde Varga" aliases="Isolde, the Seer" pronouns="she/her" species="Half-Fae" storyRole="Oracle">
  <eyeColor>pale lavender</eyeColor>
  <hair>silver, reaching her waist</hair>
  <height>5'5"</height>
  <age>300 years old</age>
  <appearance>ethereal, ageless</appearance>
  <speech>speaks in riddles</speech>
  <footprints>leaves no footprints when she walks</footprints>
  <compulsion>cannot lie (Fae compulsion) but can mislead</compulsion>
  <description>A Half-Fae seer exiled from the Fae Courts for sharing visions with mortals.</description>
  <backstory>She now lives in a hidden grove in Richmond Park, offering cryptic prophecies to those who seek her out.</backstory>
</character>

<location id="853" name="Dymas (Gluttony)" aliases="Dymas, gluttony, Dymasian" realm="Hel" sin="Gluttony">
  <ruler>Prince Belphegor</ruler>
  <skyColor>warm amber</skyColor>
  <description>A place of excess and indulgence. Sprawling vineyards, orchards, and gardens provide exotic ingredients for master chefs — often helbound souls contracted from Earth. Grand feasts and culinary competitions are common.</description>
</location>

<location id="861" name="The Fae Grove" aliases="Isolde's grove, Richmond grove, the Grove" realm="Earth (Fae-touched)">
  <parkLocation>Richmond Park</parkLocation>
  <standingStones>ancient oak standing stones mark the boundary</standingStones>
  <timeBehavior>time moves differently — an hour inside can be minutes or days outside</timeBehavior>
  <flora>wildflowers bloom year-round</flora>
  <description>A hidden clearing that exists in a pocket between Earth and the Fae realm.</description>
</location>

<item id="2001" name="Heartstone Pendant" aliases="the pendant, Heartstone" type="Artifact" origin="Dymas">
  <gemstoneColor>deep crimson</gemstoneColor>
  <chainMaterial>silver chain</chainMaterial>
  <size>roughly the size of a thumbnail</size>
  <behavior>pulses faintly with warmth when near a Hel portal</behavior>
  <glow>faint inner glow</glow>
  <description>Given to Aurora by an unknown benefactor.</description>
</item>

<item id="2006" name="Fae-Forged Blade" aliases="the Fae blade, Isolde's gift" type="Weapon" origin="The Fae Courts">
  <material>moonsilver</material>
  <shape>slender, leaf-shaped dagger</shape>
  <temperature>always cold to the touch</temperature>
  <glow>faintly luminescent in moonlight</glow>
  <power>can cut through magical wards; particularly effective against demons</power>
  <givenTo>given to Aurora by Isolde as a gift</givenTo>
  <description>A weapon of the Fae Courts, rare and highly coveted.</description>
</item>

<lore id="7001" name="The Veil" aliases="the Veil, the Barrier, the Boundary" category="Cosmology">
  <solsticeEffect>weakens during the winter solstice, strengthens during the summer solstice</solsticeEffect>
  <appearance>faint shimmering distortion visible only to those with supernatural sight</appearance>
  <monitoring>rift points (tears in the Veil) are monitored by the Wardens</monitoring>
  <description>The Veil is the metaphysical barrier separating Earth from Hel and the Fae Realms.</description>
</lore>
</codex>

Write a fully fleshed out scene of at least 1000 words in the fantasy genre.

A small group enters an ancient, otherworldly place for the first time. The environment is alien and wondrous. Describe their exploration — what they see, hear, and feel as they move deeper. Include moments of discovery, unease, and wonder. Let the world-building emerge through the characters' experience rather than exposition.

Use the codex entries above as your world reference for characters, setting, and lore.
Only include the prose of the scene without any markdown or commentary.

Model response

The air in the grove was thick with the scent of damp earth and something older, something like crushed petals and honeyed smoke. Aurora stepped forward, her boots sinking slightly into the soft moss beneath her, the silver chain of the Heartstone pendant glinting faintly against her chest. The Fae blade at her hip hummed low, its cold edge pressing just hard enough against her skin to remind her it was there.

Nyx shifted slightly behind her, their form flickering between solid and shadow, the violet glow of their eyes like distant stars. Aurora didn’t turn, but she felt the weight of their gaze, the way the air around them seemed to ripple just a little, as if the world itself was holding its breath.

“You’re sure this is the right place?” Aurora asked, her voice tight with something between curiosity and doubt.

Isolde stood at the edge of the clearing, her silver hair catching the light like scattered moonlight. She didn’t speak, but her hands—long-fingered and pale as moonlight—twisted in the air, tracing patterns in the air that made the wildflowers around them tremble. The air hummed with energy, a low vibration that made Aurora’s teeth ache slightly.

“This is where the Veil thins,” Isolde murmured, her voice a whisper carried on the wind. “Between realms, between worlds. The Fae and the Helborn both know it.”

Aurora exhaled, her breath fogging the air for a moment. The standing stones around them loomed, ancient and weathered, their carvings too intricate to read at first glance. Shadows stretched between them, twisting like living things, and the ground beneath her feet pulsed faintly, as if the earth itself was breathing.

Nyx stepped forward, their form dissolving into the darkness between the stones for a moment before solidifying again. “It’s… vast,” they said, their voice like leaves rustling in a storm. “And quiet. Almost too quiet.”

Aurora crouched down, pressing her palm against the bark of one of the standing stones. The wood was warm, almost pulsing, and when she pressed harder, a faint, metallic scent filled her nose—something like old blood and burnt sugar. The Heartstone pendant at her throat warmed against her skin, its crimson glow deepening.

“This place is older than any of us,” Isolde said, her voice suddenly sharp. “Older than the Veil itself.”

A gust of wind howled through the grove, carrying with it the scent of something rotten and sweet, like overripe fruit left too long in the sun. Aurora’s stomach twisted. She looked up just in time to see a shadow—no, not a shadow, a *thing*—slithering between the trees. It was too tall, too thin, its form shifting like smoke given form. For a heartbeat, she thought it was watching her.

“Nyx,” Aurora breathed, her voice barely above a whisper.

Nyx didn’t flinch. “It’s been here before,” they said, their voice barely audible. “Waiting.”

Aurora stood slowly, her fingers tightening around the hilt of the Fae blade. The cold metal pressed against her palm, sharp and reassuring. She had no idea what she was doing here, no idea if she should be afraid. But the blade was there, and the pendant pulsed warmly against her chest, as if it knew.

“Isolde,” Aurora said, her voice steady despite the unease coiling in her gut, “what do you see?”

The seer’s eyes gleamed faintly, her hands still tracing the air. “A feast,” she said. “In Dymas. Prince Belphegor invites the lost, the damned, the hungry. And they come.”

Aurora’s breath hitched. Dymas. The realm of gluttony. The place where souls were fed until they were whole—or until they were broken beyond repair.

Nyx’s form flickered again, their silhouette dissolving into the dark between the trees. “And you?” they asked, their voice a whisper. “What do you bring?”

Aurora looked at the blade in her hand, then at the grove around them, the way the light filtered through the leaves like liquid silver. She thought of her life—her flat above Silas’ bar, the delivery route that kept her moving, the weight of her past pressing down on her like a second skin.

“Me?” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. “I bring hunger.”

The air between them seemed to shift, the weight of the world pressing in around them. The standing stones hummed, their carvings glowing faintly, and for a moment, Aurora thought she saw something move in the darkness beyond the grove—a flicker of shadow, a whisper of a name.

Then Isolde’s voice cut through the silence, sharp as a blade. “The Veil is thin here tonight. The borders between worlds are weak. And you are walking into them.”

Aurora’s pulse roared in her ears. She looked at the blade in her hand, at the pendant at her throat, at the way the grove seemed to breathe around her. She wasn’t sure if she was ready. But she was sure of one thing.

She would find a way out.

Evaluation details

Result

Evaluator

Details

Meta Data

33.3333%

Adverbs in dialogue tags

Target: ≤10% dialogue tags with adverbs

totalTags

adverbTagCount

adverbTags

0	"Isolde said, her voice suddenly sharp [suddenly]"
1	"Aurora breathed, her voice barely above a whisper [barely]"
2	"they said, their voice barely audible [barely]"

3.6145%

AI-ism adverb frequency

Target: <1% AI-ism adverbs (57 tracked)

wordCount

830

totalAiIsmAdverbs

found

adverb	"slightly"
count	3

adverb	"slowly"
count	1

adverb	"suddenly"
count	1

adverb	"warmly"
count	1

adverb	"barely above a whisper"
count	2

highlights

0	"slightly"
1	"slowly"
2	"suddenly"
3	"warmly"
4	"barely above a whisper"

100.0000%

AI-ism character names

Target: 0 AI-default names (17 tracked, −20% each)

codexExemptions	(empty)
found	(empty)

100.0000%

AI-ism location names

Target: 0 AI-default location names (33 tracked, −20% each)

codexExemptions	(empty)
found	(empty)

3.6145%

AI-ism word frequency

Target: <1% AI-ism words (140 tracked)

wordCount

830

totalAiIsms

found

word	"flickered"
count	1

word	"flicker"
count	1

word	"glinting"
count	1

word	"loomed"
count	1

word	"intricate"
count	1

word	"weight"
count	3

highlights

0	"flickered"
1	"flicker"
2	"glinting"
3	"loomed"
4	"intricate"
5	"weight"

100.0000%

Cliche density

Target: ≤1 cliche(s) per 800-word window

totalCliches	0
maxInWindow	0
found	(empty)
highlights	(empty)

100.0000%

Emotion telling (show vs. tell)

Target: ≤3% sentences with emotion telling

emotionTells	0
narrationSentences	51
matches	(empty)

100.0000%

Filter word density

Target: ≤12% sentences with filter/hedge words

filterCount

hedgeCount

narrationSentences

filterMatches

(empty)

hedgeMatches

0	"seemed to"

100.0000%

Overuse of "that" (subordinate clause padding)

Target: ≤10% sentences with "that" clauses

thatCount	0
totalSentences	59
matches	(empty)

100.0000%

Paragraph length variance

Target: CV ≥0.5 for paragraph word counts

totalParagraphs

mean

35.74

std

19.42

0.543

sampleLengths

0	72
1	53
2	18
3	56
4	28
5	51
6	35
7	53
8	19
9	70
10	9
11	14
12	56
13	17
14	29
15	24
16	25
17	54
18	12
19	48
20	29
21	44
22	6

100.0000%

Passive voice overuse

Target: ≤5% passive sentences

passiveCount

totalSentences

matches

0	"were fed"

100.0000%

Past progressive (was/were + -ing) overuse

Target: ≤10% past progressive verbs

pastProgressiveCount

totalVerbs

118

matches

0	"was holding"
1	"was breathing"
2	"was watching"
3	"was doing"

97.8425%

Purple prose (modifier overload)

Target: <4% adverbs, <2% -ly adverbs, no adj stacking

wordCount	730
adjectiveStacks	0
stackExamples	(empty)
adverbCount	31
adverbRatio	0.04246575342465753
lyAdverbCount	13
lyAdverbRatio	0.01780821917808219

100.0000%

Repeated phrase echo

Target: ≤20% sentences with echoes (window: 2)

totalSentences	59
echoCount	0
echoWords	(empty)

100.0000%

Sentence length variance

Target: CV ≥0.4 for sentence word counts

totalSentences

mean

13.93

std

7.96

0.571

sampleLengths

0	23
1	25
2	24
3	21
4	32
5	18
6	17
7	25
8	14
9	16
10	12
11	10
12	18
13	23
14	18
15	12
16	5
17	15
18	24
19	14
20	14
21	5
22	27
23	3
24	18
25	13
26	9
27	9
28	3
29	10
30	1
31	13
32	10
33	16
34	17
35	17
36	11
37	4
38	14
39	3
40	1
41	4
42	16
43	13
44	8
45	4
46	25
47	29
48	9
49	3

53.6723%

Sentence opener variety

Target: ≥60% unique sentence openers

consecutiveRepeats	5
diversityRatio	0.3728813559322034
totalSentences	59
uniqueOpeners	22

75.0000%

Dialogue tag variety (said vs. fancy)

Target: ≤30% fancy dialogue tags

totalTags

fancyCount

fancyTags

0	"Isolde murmured, her voice a whisper carried on the wind (murmur, voice carry on)"
1	"they said, their voice like leaves rustling in a storm (say, rustle)"
2	"Aurora breathed, her voice barely above a whisper (breathe)"
3	"Aurora said, her voice steady despite the unease coiling in her gut (say, coil)"

80.4163%