Are your Caryl feels withering with the incoming heat? Do you need a kickstart during the hiatus to rev your Caryl engine back to full capacity again?

Well, you’re in luck because the June challenge, and beginning of the Summer Survival Series, is coming in hot!

Each challenge will be posted at the beginning of the month to give you plenty of time to work on your entry.

Your first challenge, should you choose to accept, is "Summer Escapades�.

Take Caryl on a road trip, send them to summer camp, offer them a romantic movie at a drive in or show us their first date at the local carnival.

Your options are not limited to the above, you can craft a fic based around anything that prompts all those lovely summer feels to bloom bright. So get creative or pick from the list below and whisk us all away to a slower, more simple time where all that matters is the sound of the breeze through the trees, the smell of new flowers and Caryl love.

Some suggestions to get you started:

Camping Trip
Water Park
Drive-in
Carnival
Farmer’s Market
Road Trip
On A Boat

Big thanks to TheRealSonia for offering some of these lovely suggestions to add to our selection of summer prompts!

Now for the Rules:

Challenge Dates - Submission date is June 24; Posting date is June 25.

Open to - Fan Fiction, Fan Art (Caryl and McReedus)

The Prompt - Pick a summer prompt (or two or three) from the list provided to use in/inspire your fanfiction piece, or use your own inspiration based on the overall topic.

The Deadline - All submissions must be turned in by midnight on June 24 Pacific Standard Time (PST).

Send a PM to silversundown, the-space-between1013, or alannastara on the Nine Lives site that you want to enter the challenge. Even if you're not sure you'll have anything ready in time - let us know you're planning on it. *YOU MUST DO THIS TO BE INCLUDED.*

For FANFICTION:

WRITE! Stories must be at least 100 words.

Multiple entries are allowed (and so veryyyy welcome)!

Do not upload it yet! Wait until June 24th to upload your fic – just like in challenges past, we will be suspending automatic validation for that day for all authors who enter the challenge. (This is one of the main reasons why you need to let an admin know you'll be participating.)

Submission Day is June 24th – post your fic. It will not appear on the archive, but will enter our validation queue. Make sure you submit it under the Nine Lives Challenge category!

Publication Day is June 25th – We will post the master list and all of the challenges entries so everything shows up at once. That way, we’re all surprised by what we get to read!

Any challenge fics posted before June 24th will be deleted. IF FOR SOME REASON you are unable to post on the 24th, please send a PM to one of the challenge mod - we will work with you.

Any questions? Post here or privately to one of the challenge mods. Happy ficcing!