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strooples · 2 years ago

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Some reviews on a handful of popular anime

This won’t be too in-depth, so basically a thoughts dump. But thinking about it, in terms of more popular anime + anime movies, I felt a bit let down seeing a few awhile back. My memories on each will vary in range, though it’s worth a shot to get down the mental notes I took.

In terms of anime, I wanted to talk about parts of “Komi Can’t Communicate” (which I was told beforehand was a story exploring a character with social anxiety) and “Horimiya”. Both did some funny things, both had new/refreshing takes. But likewise, both stories had other issues that made it a bit hard to generally enjoy. So, I’ll start with those 2.

1) Komi Can’t Communicate

In “Komi Can’t Communicate,” I felt kinda bugged how the MC was treated while Komi sort of rebounds on the impossibly-pretty-therefore-everyone-is-obsessed-with-her situation. Some of the classmates start off cold to Tadano (the MC) and very generously nice to Komi on very superficial standards. I guess I expected social anxiety to generally be explored in its alienating aspect over reverence. Though you could say that many of the classmates initially didn’t see Komi as an equal human being genuinely. The random instances of meanness towards the MC and superficial treatment towards Komi threw me off heavily because not being able to communicate to anyone and struggling to fit into a new, very judgmental schooling environment are some serious issues.

Komi and Tadano, the 2 main characters.

It was still pretty hard to see people so angry at the main character for existing, even some of the later friends of Komi. My SO who enjoyed the show more than me did tell me of Komi’s group of friends, only 1 has gone extremely far (like, beyond the brink of acceptable comedy) and even they have seen repercussions for harmful actions. But it feels weird to have things bounce back so lightly bc the ML ended up being the butt of jokes. At the same time, it’s hard to deny how the concept of a socially-phobic girl who struggles to talk and speak to those around her — yet being idolized by those same people as almost a status symbol over a human being — was still interesting overall. Also just the desire to make genuine friends, despite struggling with your anxieties around others.

Minus the yandere girl who takes things too far, there’s genuinely nice moments — Komi opening up, Komi’s wholesome family (+ etc.). And some genuinely funny characters/situations, like the blond guy (I forgot there names; it’s been awhile) who looks scary on the outside but is also nervous inwardly. Overall, it wasn’t my cup of tea even though it wasn’t bad??

2) Horimiya

*Okay, so technically I didn’t start with the anime. I read the manga but I admittedly do really like the author’s art style!

“Horimiya” also starts with a concept that could��ve been elaborated on and lead to interesting scenarios — mainly the 2 MC’s living somewhat of a different life outside of school than their schoolmates would expect. In that category, it’s sort of like a more recent rendition of a “Switch Girl”-esque romcom story. It starts with a refreshing confession that happens basically the beginning. No mishaps or drawn out tensions & dramas beforehand (which could be done well too in other stories but also super super common). However, after that the original concept of a double life gets thrown away and the story gets super super slice-of-lifey. Which isn’t bad in general (a lot of times the humor was fun). Though TBH it generally felt directionless after, and not in a relaxing way I expected from SOL but sorta just… hard to continue? I got a bit bored and struggled to keep reading.

I also had issues with some of the gags (like the girl-beating-up-the guy/basically-abusing-him-played-off-as-a-joke trope) and the relationship norms (just in general how jealousy and possessiveness seemed normalized/expected). The violence was a bit… much? The LGBT jokes like on same-sex relationships was too much also. And it was generally a bit buggy to see Miyamura constantly get physically punished by Hori for situations he didn’t understand/couldn’t have, or situations he was even right in.

The main focus/relationship was what stagnated the work. And already, it was unfortunately the relationship we were supposed to pay attention to most wasn’t ideal for Miyamura, had little chemistry (my subjective opinion here though), and sorta just dredged out. I’d much prefer a lot of the duller moments to be exchanged for other things. Some of my suggestions being on how they could’ve elaborated on characters like Shu’s sister, Sakura, Yanagi etc.

But I do feel one of the best strongpoints of the story was when Hori and Miyamura were at the Hori’s residence. The scenes were comforting and happy, seeing how the entire family and Miyamura spent time together and had dinners. I also ended up rooting for Sakura because of how grounded and down-to-earth she was. So the SOL moments in this wasn’t too bad of a thing, and there were decent aspects and a few likeable characters. It just wasn’t enough to make it great in particular.

Now, in terms of movies…..

…it’s got to be 2 that I watched awhile ago. A handful of things left me leaning towards feeling indifferent at the end of the day, and those were “A Silent Voice” and “Your Name.” Both had massive debates in online circles over which was the best anime movie of the year, but both fell a bit flat for me personally despite all the build-up. For “A Silent Voice” though, I do think the discussions it generated were pretty important because it resonated with a lot of people’s personal experiences (so it isn’t something I mean to discount & the themes it touched upon made it a bit more interesting).

3) A Silent Voice

I think “A Silent Voice” had a lot more that could be said of it, both good + unhelpful towards its prime topic of bullying. IMO, it’s interesting to have the main character be a former perpetrator-turned victim. I think we’re able to see a lot of nuance, namely how even the formerly-unsympathetic side can feel remorse, can grow up with low self-esteem, can even be a victim themselves. We see the situation flip, people change, and people with the capacity to want to be better. And we also see how fast a society/group of people are, in terms of ignoring the main problem to ostracize a scapegoat — while trying to shirk facing consequences or guilt of their own. It’s especially interesting & heart-wrenching that we go to see the life-long trauma inflicted to both Shoya and Shouko. All the while their other perpetrators are ignored (like Kazuki, who bullied both). We also see terrible people being terrible in different ways, from the more visibly terrible Ueno to the self-victimizing Kawai who will put on an innocent face — even tears — all while pretending she has no idea of horrible things she enabled/even partook in.

But where it goes very, very wrong is structuring it out to be a love story of a victim with her former bully. Though I liked the concept of the former bully try to make amends — genuinely feeling guilt and wanting to do better — writing it in that direction had very Stockholm Syndromey-vibes. They could’ve eventually become friends; they didn’t need to develop romantically and the situation honestly didn’t requisite such a relationship. You could argue that people do get Stockholm Syndrome and start feeling that way when given decent treatment by those who’ve formerly hurt them, but then it would’ve been written a bit differently. Like not really emphasizing romantic feelings, but rather a mix of situations and confusing problems, where a crush wasn’t centric to the themes presented.

The aforementioned friend group, strung together by the end of the movie. I think there was a few more but I don’t remember quite clearly?

The ending especially was very uncomfortable where Kawai was presented as a good person trying to pep-talk Shouko and all the main characters are in a now-formed friend group, sort of just mashing together. Ueno’s issues and callousness towards Shouko were never resolved, yet they were in there together. It was presented as a happy ending, but I think a lot of the characters fundamentally had issues (like did Shoya honestly feel good around all these people??? Did Kawai basically BS to look/feel like a good person while never owning up?? Is Shouko going to be re-traumatized around a horrible person like Ueno??).

All of the above combined made me leave the movie with general discomfort. Though at the time, I couldn’t put into words what was wrong? It took awhile for me to think the situation wasn’t that great for Shoya and Shouko, still.

Onto our last review dumping!

4) Your Name

“Your Name” is the last anime franchise I wanted to talk about, and I don’t deny the animation and art were pretty amazing! Like you could see the gruesome and tedious effort put into every little scene.

Seriously though, the picturesque backgrounds are where most Makoto Shinkai works shine! Though I didn’t love this movie as much as others did, it does really make me curious of his past & future works.

But as a story? I don’t think it had much depth. Which doesn’t mean it wasn’t enjoyable, because it was still fun watching. It was just lackluster for a movie that wanted to build up the emotional aspects.

Of course, it has some good build-up and somewhat of an atmosphere for the deeper emotions in the world. There was also an underlying thread about traditions vs. the modern world, what is lost vs. what we must preserve. Personally, those messages don’t resonate with me but they are things can could be worked with and built up pretty well. We see it in how Mitsuha wants to move away from her slow, mostly-rural hometown to pursue a life in the more bustling, modern city of Tokyo. Her background? Living with her primary caretaker — her grandma, the main female figure of Mitsuha’s life. Her grandma wants her to partake in the spiritual traditions of their Shinto shrine, from shrine maiden rituals to watching the grandma sew on an old loom that’s now nothing more but a loss art. And then we get the strained family relationships: How her dad abandoned his duties to the shrine for a career in politics after their mother died, while Mitsuha (now older) generally resents/dislikes his presence as an uptight bureaucrat vying for his image. Deep down, she doesn’t feel either of their lifestyles are ideal. But like her father, wants to shed aside traditions for something more modern (such as a big city life). We end up with that dichotomy, which is a strong basis to begin with.

The Shinto shrine maiden ceremony.

So with all of that, we generally expect to have insight into the family life and background of Taki (the ML). But instead, besides his school friends and work crush, we don’t even hear or see much of his dad. His home life is left an absolute blank sheet, with his character staying incomplete. He’s a blank slate with nothing but a spot for the viewers to project themselves into. He has a job. He has an oddly specific hobby of drawing detailed pictures of lots of landscapes and structures. That second one is especially interesting — like wtf, he can draw complex structures by memory?? Yet it doesn’t get elaborated upon at all. Nothing does.

So the love story follows. There’s a lot of emotional scenes, body switches, disastrous current events, memories forgotten at the end of the day before they all meet up again. But nothing quite tied me to the ML nor even Mitsuha. I did feel invested in them meeting each other. Yet as people, I wasn’t quite invested in Taki nor fond of either. Which for a love story, is bad because you’d hope to see the other half being built up with solid background and characterizations. Leaving his life stories empty felt like it meant he was someone we could project ourselves into (and perhaps that was the purpose as is in many romance genre stories?) but it made it a lot weaker and less elaborated. Being a core, fundamental detail and all.

On my end conclusions:

I really thought each of these stories had more potential. Either to be in-depth, nuanced, interesting, or better-structured (and/or needing a few character reforms). Also, I fully see why someone would enjoy a large chunk of them or feel inspired by them. Sadly, each fell flat for me.

Though of the 4, I often think of “A Silent Voice” because regardless of its flaws, such a work is important at beginning a lot of discussions — such as the hardcore school bullying in Japan or bullying in general. And for “You Name,” it really introduced me to Makoto Shinkai works and a few of his other movies, so I don’t deny the talent behind his skills and creativity in a lot of instances. It was mainly those that stuck with me?

At the end of the day, I hope I elaborated my thoughts on what I found good in each and what made me not feel as invested in them! And of course, if you felt other things were done better or ended up liking them more, that’s valid too and up for discussion!!

#thoughts #tv shows #manga #anime and manga #anime movies #komi can't communicate #horimiya #a silent voice #your name #kimi no na wa #i hope there wasn’t too many grammar mistakes or repetitive wording in this #also had this in my drafts for abt a week or so and felt like finishing it + dumping out all my thoughts at once #and figured this would work as a general opinions post #anyhow -#once again all the above are just my personal opinions #and ofc with flaws there’s also good things too #so i hope this is okay!!

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nhkamira · 4 years ago

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MY SPRING 2021 ANIME WATCHLIST🌼🌈✨

Spring is officially starting and what a marvelous season we have ahead. Full of great anime continuations and some news that I’m really looking forward to. Since I post practically every review (only Horimiya left) here I present you my Spring 2021 watchlist:

1. Boku no Hero Academia 5th Season (27/03). Can y’all hear me screaming?😭 Finally, our heroes are back and I couldn’t be more excited. Many friends told me this season would be really amazing and I can’t wait! Bones studio is still in charge of the series so we will continue having a great animation. Genres: Action, Comedy, Super Power, School, Shounen.

2. Koi to Yobu ni wa Kimochi Warui (29/03). A strange encounter spurs the meeting of Amakusa Ryou, a high spec businessman, and his high school sister's best friend, Arima Ichika. From there, he falls madly in love and tries to approach her, while she responds simply disgusted, insulting him without hesitation. Can this be a nice shoujo anime? We’ll see. Studio Nomad is doing the work, I haven’t seen their previous work but the trailer animation looks nice. Genres: Comedy, Romance.

3. Jouran: The Princess of Snow and Blood (31/03). An original and first series by Bakken Records. Set in alternate history Japan in 1931 the anime will follow the activities of "Nue," an organization of shogunate executioners who enforce the government. The dissident organization Kuchinawa strives to overthrow the administration, while the Nue of the Tokugawa regime, which was entrusted with its extermination, is in conflict. Sawa Yukimura, whose family was killed when she was young, continues to search for Janome, the executioner of the Nue. I don’t usually enjoy historical anime but hopefully, this would be good. Genres: Action, Historical, Supernatural.

4. Shaman King - 2021 (1/04). Can believe this actually got a remake, which I’m really really excited for. In a brief, Shamans are extraordinary individuals with the ability to communicate with ghosts, spirits, and gods. To life circumstances You befriends Manta due to his ability to see spirits, they set out to accomplish You's goal of becoming the next Shaman King. Studio Bridge is in charge, the ones behind my all-time favorite “Fairy Tail” ^^. Genres: Action, Adventure, Supernatural, Comedy, Shounen.

5. Mashiro no Oto (3/04). Lowkey I’m expecting this to be as good as “Kono Oto Tomare. Shin-Ei Animation is the studio behind this and they’ve worked in the Doraemon and Shin-chan movies. The story follows Sawamura Setsu, since their grandfather's death, he dropped out of high school, moved to Tokyo, and has been drifting, not knowing what to do besides playing his Shamisen. That's when his successful and rich mother, Umeko, storms into his life and tries to shape Setsu up. She enrolls him back into high school, but little does Setsu know that he is about to rediscover his passion for Shamisen. Genres: Music, Drama, School.

6. Hige wo Soru. Soshite Joshikousei wo Hirou (5/04). Project no.9 the studio of Jaku-chara is bringing a more dramatic story this season. Office worker Yoshida has been crushing on his coworker, Airi Gotou, for five years. Despite finally scoring a date with her, his confession is promptly rejected. Drunk and disappointed, he stumbles home, only to find a high school girl sitting on the side of the road. The girl, needing a place to stay the night, attempts to seduce Yoshida. Despite rejecting her advances, he nevertheless invites her into his apartment. Genres: Drama, Romance

7. Fruits Basket: The Final (6/04). If I started talking about this anime and how excited I am I will never stop talking. I’m ready to cry, get flustered, angry, and be happy. I’m sad but at the same time happy that the story is ending I’m dying to see the zodiac members at least feeling peaceful. Genres: Slice of Life, Drama, Romance, Shoujo, Comedy, Supernatural.

8. Shadows House (11/04). CloverWorks is doing this one and it would probably be beautifully animated. The story is about faceless shadow nobles living in a vast mansion, attended by living dolls who spend much of their time cleaning up the soot endlessly emitted by their mysterious masters. It's not horror but I like the creepy vibe. Hope is good. Genres: Slice of Life, Supernatural, Seinen.

9. Edens Zero (11/04). My Fairy Tail heart is singing of joy. J.C.Staff is animating the series so we know it would be good. Ever since the manga came out I started immediately. It’s really good so I hope people enjoy it without being too critical about the resembles of Fairy Tail. Here is a brief: At Granbell Kingdom, an abandoned amusement park, Shiki has lived his entire life among machines. But one day, Rebecca and her cat companion Happy appear at the park's front gates. Little do these newcomers know that this is the first human contact Granbell has had in a hundred years! As Shiki stumbles his way into making new friends, his former neighbors stir at an opportunity for a robo-rebellion… And when his old homeland becomes too dangerous, Shiki must join Rebecca and Happy on their spaceship and escape into the boundless cosmos. Genres: Action, Sci-Fi, Adventure, Shounen

10. Tokyo Revengers (11/04). I really don’t know what to expect from this since LIDENFILMS has done some pretty awful or uninteresting works, but the trailer looked very cool. Our mc is Takemichi Hanagaki, his life is at an all-time low. Just when he thought it couldn't get worse, he finds out that Hinata Tachibana, his ex-girlfriend, was murdered by the Tokyo Manji Gang: a group of vicious criminals that has been disturbing society's peace for quite some time. Wondering where it all went wrong, Takemichi suddenly finds himself traveling through time, ending up 12 years in the past—when he was still in a relationship with Hinata. Realizing he has a chance to save her, Takemichi resolves to infiltrate the Tokyo Manji Gang and climb the ranks in order to rewrite the future and save Hinata from her tragic fate. Genres: Action, Drama, School, Shounen.

11. Fumetsu no Anata e (12/04). I think this is the most expected new anime for this season, and one of the most visually beautiful this season. Follows the story of It, a mysterious immortal being, is sent to the Earth with no emotions nor identity. However, It is able to take the shape of those around that have a strong impetus. Acquiring the form of a boy, It sets off on a never-ending journey, in search of new experiences, places, and people. Genres: Adventure, Supernatural, Drama, Shounen.

12. Marimashita! Iruka-kun 2nd Season (17/04). Yes yes yess. So we finally are going to find out what happened to Iruma-chi at the end of the first season. I’m really excited to see everyone again ^^ if you haven’t seen season 1 I invite you to do it and you can also read my review under this anime hashtag ^^ Genres: Comedy, Demons, Supernatural, School, Fantasy.

This season looks very promising!

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macaronnya · 3 years ago

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So I just saw the announcement about the EN server shutting down or at least dicontinued (hopefully just for now) and I might just burst into tears 🥲 I want to put my thoughts or rather feelings of the journy up until now on here to come down but maybe also as some form of comfort for anyone who needs it? It's very long and might have some broken english as it's not my first language so do keep it in mind please 😅

Anyways, I started A3! last year on march 7th because I saw a youtube video of people cosplaying Sakuya and Sakyo. At taht point, I already knew of A3! somewhere in my distant memories back when it was JP only. I decided to try out the game since I was getting bored of my current mobile games and the few reviews I could find of it were relatively positive. I had no idea just what a big part of my life this game was about the become 🤧

Btw I'm listening to some A3! songs right now, specifically Sakuya's 2nd character song, and it's not helping me 😢 So at the time, lockdown just started 2 days ago, which left me with a lot of time playing it and, I kid you not, I gulfed the main story down like it was the last slice of cake at home. I have 2 siblings. I think I finished it in a week or so despite it being only unlockable through leveling up, and if my memory serves me right, you need to be around lvl 75 to unlock all 4 episodes. As one can see, I was VERY invested in the story. It was just so....nice? I don't know how to exactly describe it but I was surprised by how likable everyone was. Of course I didn't hold such strong feelings for everyone back then as I do now but I was intrigued enough back then of nearly everyone, which is kind of rather rare in such types of games, no? At least for me it is, although I haven't played terribly a lot (Love Live, MLQC, Mystic Messenger).

I really like how the story actually continues through the events and how it alternated between stories exploring certain characters more (show events) and stories focusing on just them having fun. Getting to know everyone bit by bit and seeing how everyone grows closer to each other, not only within their respective troupes but the whole theater, makes me really all warm and fuzzy and it's found family, what more could you want?

Also, I really like Izumi, our dear MC 🥰 Even though she's supposed to be our self-insert, I found myself really enjoying reading her thoughts, observing her reactions to other characters' shenanigans (like her 'I do not see' to the members plan of faking their identity to bail Citron out lol) and just....her personality. Trying not to digress here but she has a lot more personality than other MCs in these joseimuke games and it makes her interactions with others not only bearable but even enjoyable. I'm not saying that this is what a perfect MC looks like or that she's superior to bland self-inserts. After all, it depends on the story, gameplay and other things. It's just a nice bonus I'm very grateful for. I mean, I got really emotional when Izumi performed with the other staff members all of the plays the actors have put out so far for the first anniversary. Her realizing she gained a new dream for her lost one just really took my heart, broke it in thousand pieces and then mended it again.

I also love A3! songs ❤ I did wonder how they would work in this franchise since it's not about idols but actors, though I guess there was nothing to worry about. I really like the duets because it's always a different duo and hearing them singing together, harmonizing with each other, complimenting each other, just fills me with undescribable joy. Of course the songs also slap pretty much every time. Even by limiting my options to 1 troupe, I still wouldn't be able to pick only one favourite (I like the majority of Winter's song tho, like Shoutai is just 🤌 and my sibling blasted Unmasked non-stop so I can't get it outta my head anymore). Gosh, I was so excited for 'Double Solitaire' since it would complete trilogy of the Hyodosakas singing together. I was really looking forward to getting all the songs and I was even saving up for Summer Troupe's 6th play.

If I had to describe the game A3! in one word, it'd be "charming". Coming to game itself, there are so many little quirks, that on their own aren't anything groundbreaking or big but together give the game its own flair. Live 2D is pretty common to see nowdays in games because it brings the characters to life through movements like 3D models. But I think A3! is able to illustrate it just as well, if not even better with their 2D sprites. Citron moonwalked by flipping the image over and sliding across the screen, Hisoka appeared out of nowhere by coming from above the screen, they do a little jump when they're happy, they go down a bit when they're sad. And that's just things with their whole sprite. The little drops when Tsuzuru finds himself in an awkward situation or is worried, the little note when Sakuya is happy, the hearts when Kazunari is lowkey flirting with Izumi, it's so cute! Or Omi's O.O face, Taichi's crying face (the usual one, not his face when he cried out of guilt of betraying Mankai), Yuki's done expression, H O M A R E AHA! They each have at least one personalized expression and also quote. Can you hear Kazunari's Yoropiko~☆, Citron's humming, Taichi's loud ass whining and scream of terror, Tsumugi's awkawrd laugh? It's brimming with life.

But also the UI (?how it looks) is joyful. The main screen's background cascading shapes changes depending from which Troupe your current character is from, the loading screen has sakura petals and a bird, the colors are very bright and saturated fitting to the overall color palette of the whole game, the little notebook during practice showing all the necessary infomation and a little sketch by the characters. It's just really charming.

As frustrating as it was, not getting halloween Tsuzuru after 110 pulls or Valentine Omi after 120, it was my first time ever understanding why gachas are called hellholes. Through my strong connections to the characters, their cards automatically appealed to me more. But the art is also so good???? Azuma is always looking flawless obviously but Omi's unbloomed Wolf card, where he is standing in the sunset looking at his camera or Kazunari's Shinobi card, unbloomed all concentrated on his panting and bloomed all shiny smiling like the fireworks in the background? Breathtaking everytime. I also appreciate it not needing multiple copies to unlock the whole backstage story.

I think I'm slowly running out of things to say, which might be good for whoever managed to come this far. I have to say though, A3! helped me through the pandemic. Being a perfect distraction to the world's chaos and more importantly my crushing schoolwork and worries for personal future. I'm a very pessimistic person but seeing the characters overcoming their hardships through the help of their to-be "family" and just being happy doing trouble, gave me a little hope and light for a bit every day. I came to cherish everyone, even those I like the least. I haven't felt like this since Mystic Messenger, which was also a game, that helped me through a difficult time. I can only wish to a shooting star, that it's not the end for the EN Server yet. While yes, the JP server is thriving and I could just switch to reading fantranslation, through my experience, my enjoyment considerably sinks playing like that and I wish to fully enjoy A3!.

Anyways thanks for reading (maybe again). Sorry for all the possible errors on the way here. I'm writing everything directly without too much thought. If you want, you can also share your experiences in the comments. It's always nice to share good memories with others.

Edit: I accidentally posted it already but I wasn't actually done 😓 When I said I had a lot to let out, I meant A LOT

#a3!#i will never forget a3!#in the end i never managed to get halloween and groom Tsuzuru

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anactualcaseofthetruth · 4 years ago

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Friends Can Break Your Heart Too > Chapter 3 Archive Of Our Own Link

Catch Up: Chapter 2 Chapter 1

Summary: Mia Flores flees to Santo Padre for one reason and one reason only: her godfather and the man who raised her, Bishop Losa. The last thing she expects is for Angel Reyes to come into her chaotic life and just maybe be the one thing that starts to make sense.

Chapter 3:

“Pizza!” Letty calls out as she enters the house just a few steps ahead of Mia.

Immediately, all construction noises cease, the small hand tools are dropped, and they are closing in.

“Fucking finally,” Coco says as he takes the pizzas from his daughter. “I was starting to feel like we’re working in a real fucking sweatshop, like no food or breaks until you’re done, you know?”

“Dude, you take a smoke break every fucking five minutes, calm down,” Angel instructs while freeing Mia’s own hands of the small pizza and box of Styrofoam on top without a word.

“Hey! These are for me and Letty, you each got your own pizza,” Mia complains with hands out.

“What, I’m not allowed to help? Be nice?” he questions and holds the food above his head so she can’t reach.

“Fine. Thank you, now give it back!” she whines and follows him to the kitchen to join the others, jumping for it the whole way.

“No, I don’t like your attitude.”

“Angel! C’mon, I’m hungry!” Mia exclaims with hands on her hips and a frown on her face

“Apologize first,” he says, and their audience laughs.

“I’m going to slap you,” she counters grumpily.

He looks her up and down, noting her ripped jeans and a tight, white tee matched with a black jacket and black and white sneakers on her feet. “Can you even reach without heels on?”

Mia’s eyes turn to slits before tapping him in the balls. It’s not so hard to hurt him, but enough to put him into defensive mode and lower the food. “Now, was that so hard?” she asks sweetly while handing the Styrofoam off to Letty.

“You better watch your back, Flores,” he warns, ignoring the snickers around them, and reaches for his pizza.

“Oh, but you’re so much better at it than I am,” Mia teases in return.

Angel nods as he swallows. “Can’t argue that. Hey, prospect, beer?” he asks of his brother a moment later.

EZ turns from his own pizza and takes enough out of the fridge for all of them besides Letty. She gets a bottle of Coke instead.

“Wait, you guys have beer here? While you’re working? I’m doing to die in a house fire, aren’t I?” Mia sighs while looking down at her white spinach pizza.

“Nah, there was nothing wrong with the wiring, so we haven’t had to mess with it. You’re safe from house fires,” EZ assures her.

Coco, on the other hand, makes an unsure noise and shrugs. "That’s not saying the crackheads who lived here before didn’t fuck with it. So, if you do die, it wouldn’t be on our consciences."

“That is what I was worried about, how you all would feel if something happened, not about actually dying,” Mia tells him in monotone.

“Good looking out, no worries, we’d be alright,” Coco insists, and the group laughs some more.

Upon further inspection to Bishop’s rental, her godfather decided a small remodel was in order before she could move in. “Nothing huge,” he promised her, “just some paint and maybe new carpet.” Well that was a month ago, and she has yet to move in.

What he meant by ‘nothing huge’ is repainting every single room, new molding, replacing over half the light fixtures, a few new windows, and a completely redone bathroom upstairs. Then, after finding hardwood in good condition under said carpet he decided he wanted certain rooms without carpet at all which meant pulling up good carpet that wouldn’t have even needed replaced. The kitchen, luckily, was the best-looking room in the house when they started, having been redone before the last tenants moved in, so all he insisted on was a fresh coat of paint, a few new appliances, a couple tiles replaced, and a good cleaning.

Mia’s been told the upstairs is ‘almost done’ and they are finishing up the living room now.

She has also noticed new pieces of furniture showing up when she isn’t around. Which, that isn’t hard to do since she only stops by once or twice a day to feed the guys and ‘make sure they are doing their fucking work’ at Bishop’s request. A new queen-sized bed appeared two weeks ago, a dining set a few days later, and after commenting on how comfy his couch is one similar has taken residence in the garage, not that she is supposed to know about it.

Mia's done her best to not argue with Bishop about all of it. She knows he means well, however, when she looks around all she sees is her godfather silently pleading with her to stay, possibly forever, but when asked about long-term plans she avoids giving any real answer.

It’s not dependent on her, not really, it depends on whether her past catches up with her.

“So how much longer until you guys are finally done with this place?” Letty asks as she eats her chicken fingers. “I can’t wait to have a sleepover.”

Mia smiles at the younger girl and pushes all thoughts of her ex away. Over the past month the two of them have formed a close bond. She sees a piece of herself in Leticia—being one of the few Mayan daughters, having mothers who barely cared, and men who aren’t quite their fathers as their sole parent. Coco is actually Letty’s dad, but she didn’t know that until a couple months ago, so it’s still ‘completely weird’ according to her.

She hopes to be the female figure she needed when she was stupid teenager for Letty. Growing up around these guys isn’t easy. It’s certainly never dull, but Mia remembers how kids at school used to look at her, with that mixture of fear and pity, of jealousy and hate. She remembers what boys thought of her, that because of how women are around the MC that she would be both easy to sleep with and manipulate.

That last part wasn’t entirely wrong, but she wants it to be different for Letty.

“Well, Prez is supposed to have a walk-through in a day or two. If he doesn’t see anything else wrong with it, hopefully next week,” Gilly says when no one speaks up.

Mia likes Gilly, she likes all the guys, but these four are a package deal. Angel is the ringleader, EZ his sounding board, Coco the one who challenges him when necessary, and Gilly is the silent partner. He only really speaks when spoken to, but is always listening, and is very much a protector.

“You guys said that last week,” Letty reminds them.

“Girl, you know we had the Vegas run and it set us back. Stop pushing,” Coco warns her. “It ain’t even your house.”

“No, but we’re going to have a sleepover the weekend she moves in,” Letty tells him like its common knowledge. And honestly, she’s been talking about it so much it practically is.

“Really?" Angel questions with a playful look towards Mia, never one to pass up an opportunity to give her shit, or flirt with her. Sometimes both happen in the same sentence. "Anyone else invited to this sleepover?”

As always, she decides to play along. “Why? You need a facial? We can buy extra masks.”

“It’d be nice to be thought of, that’s all,” he insists. “Besides, it’s not me that needs the facial. EZ’s skin is shit compared to mine.”

“Hey,” his little brother speaks up and it sounds so pitiful Mia can’t help but laugh.

“Shoulda seen his face in junior high. Pimple fuckin’ city,” Angel goes on. “Our mom had to buy him special cream and everything.”

“Can we stop? Like, that’s the point of this?” EZ asks as he turns just a little red.

“The point is mine was clear and yours wasn’t,” Angel responds.

“And when we were kids you were fat and I wasn’t,” EZ says with arms crossed. “So, shut up.”

Everyone laughs as they eat, but Mia is practically jumping up and down with joy. “Oh, my God, please tell me you have pictures. I want to see pictures of little chunky Angel,” she pleads.

“Stop, it wasn’t that I was fat exactly,” Angel tries to stop her giggles. “I wasn’t! I was a little late to puberty, alright?”

“Dude, you were definitely chunky,” EZ states. “Accept it.”

“No, I just didn’t grow for, like, a year, that’s all,” Angel argues. “You, quit laughing,” he demands while staring Mia down. “I’m serious, I was pretty much the same height for a year. Ezekiel was almost as fuckin’ tall as me, and he’s two years younger than me. Then, I shot up, like, six fuckin’ inches.”

“And you lost all your baby fat?” Mia asks, still snickering.

“As a matter of fact, yes, I did, and now look, all muscle, baby,” Angel says and lifts his shirt to show the abs that he knows she’s fond of. And, sadly, she’s not allowed to touch them because no one knows they are sleeping together.

“Damn,” they all hear Letty mumble and Mia can’t stop the laugh from bubbling up her throat. She would have said the same thing if she hadn’t seen them before.

“Alright, put that shit away, I got a kid here,” Coco urges and throws a napkin at Angel’s chest.

“What, this shit?” EZ asks while lifting his shirt too.

“Hold on, I gotta get a picture of this,” Letty says, her phone already in her hands.

Coco smacks it away. “Stop, they are like your uncles.”

“No, they definitely aren’t,” she counters, making the brothers laugh while dropping their shirts.

Mia gives Letty a pointed look that the girl ignores. She knows all about the younger girl’s crush on EZ, and she also knows how completely unattainable and stupid it is. Letty will grow out of it eventually, probably when she gets a crush her own age. At least, her next crush better be someone her own age.

“You’re real funny. You get that shit you needed for school?” Coco questions as he stands having eaten his whole pizza save three slices. Letty nods with her mouth full. “Good, we should get going. You got school in the morning and I got my own shit to do.”

“Yeah, what’s her name?” Angel asks innocently while picking up another slice.

“Ew,” Letty mutters as the others laugh. “Let’s go before this conversation continues. Is your car unlocked, Mia? The stuff for my project is still in it.”

“Yeah, it’s open, help yourself.”

“I’m going to head out too. I told Pop I’d stop by before he went to sleep,” EZ mentions.

“Let me know if there’s anything good on the history channel,” Angel jokes.

“Don’t worry, I know how you feel about a good Vietnam documentary,” EZ assures him and the brothers share a laugh.

Everyone starts getting up and throwing away their paper plates and saying their goodbyes. For now, anyways, since most of them will meet up back at the clubhouse before the night is over.

Mia’s just finishing up putting all the leftover pizza slices into one box for the boys to fight over tomorrow before she brings over their lunch when Angel comes back into the kitchen.

“I locked your car,” he says, and she jumps about a foot in the air. “I know it’s a piece, but you still shouldn’t leave it unlocked like that.”

She turns with a hand over her heart. “Don’t do that, I thought you were leaving,” she scolds him.

“When did I say that?” he questions with a crinkle to his eyebrows.

Mia rolls her eyes. “I don’t know, maybe when everyone said they were leaving, and you walked out with them?”

“I never said I was leaving. Besides,” he starts while approaching her and sets his hands on her hips, “I can’t say goodbye before I get a proper hello.”

“Oh, a proper hello?” Mia asks as his head dips in closer to hers. “What would that entail, exactly?”

“This,” he says and lifts her onto the island, their lips already connected and tongues threatening to meet.

His beard brushes against her chin and she reaches up to lightly scratch at it. “Mm, scruffy,” she murmurs, having admitted her liking his beard to him before. He does, in fact, use a special beard shampoo and pomade in it.

He smiles at her and lifts his chin so she can have better access. “I swear, if I was a dog this shit would make me do that kicking leg thing,” he mutters with his eyes closed.

“Hm, you’re cute,” she tells him as his chin practically sits in her hands, his face the picture of peace.

She’s not ashamed to admit that Angel quickly has become her best friend, not only in Santo Padre, but in general. Of course, she’s never been one to have many friends. Growing up other kids were weary of her, of Bishop rolling up in a Harley to pick her up from school, and their parents only saw the kutte on his back.

When it came to the club, there weren’t many other Mayan kids. Most of them, like Coco with his other two that aren’t Letty, pay for them but aren’t really involved in raising them. Sometimes, when it was a son, they’d come back around during their teen years, want to be like their biker dad, and prospect once they hit eighteen.

Her best friend was Marcus Alverez’s son Esai, but she hasn’t spoken to him since she left Oakland when her and Bishop had their big blowout. Cutting the club out of her life included Esai, and no matter how much he tried to claw his way back in she didn’t let him. That’s a bridge she hasn’t repaired yet.

“You look tired, osito,” she whispers and his eyes pop open.

Angel smiles lazily. “Is that what I am to you, huh? A teddy bear?”

“My teddy bear,” she corrects.

“Let’s keep that between us, huh?” he murmurs when his eyes slide closed again as she continues to scratch at his chin. “Wouldn’t want the guys to know how sweet I am on ya.”

Mia holds back a laugh. “As far as they're concerned the only thing you’re sweet on is my ass.”

“Ain’t no hiding that, querida,” he agrees. After a few minutes Angel’s eyes open and his face breaks out into a smile. “I have a surprise for you.”

“Is it shiny or is it chocolate?” she immediately asks, making him laugh and lift his chin from her hands.

“Neither it’s upstairs,” he replies and turns around to signal for her to jump onto his back, and she does, happily.

Mia tightens her hold around his shoulders. “Ooh, a sex swing? I’m in, but Bishop might be pissed."

Angel's laugh in return is loud and boisterous. “Nah, not that, but I can always add one later if you want,” he says and begins making his way up the steps. “Remember last week when Bishop told you to think about colors for the house? And you weren’t sure about what you wanted to paint your bedroom?”

“Uh, yes,” Mia confirms as they reach the top. “But Bishop said I had time to choose, that painting was the last thing you guys were going to do and I had colors for all the other rooms so you guys could get started.”

“It is, but” Angel stops at the master bedroom and lets her slide down his back until her feet touch the ground. “I got an idea. If you hate it, I can fix it, make it whatever you want, I just,” he sighs, his nerves obvious.

“Hey,” Mia says and grabs his hands so both of them are intertwined, “I’m sure I’ll love it, whatever it is, just because you did it,” she assures him. “Unless it’s just plain white, then that’s kinda lame and I’ll probably laugh.”

Angel chuckles and shakes his head at her. “It’s not white, promise.” He opens the door hesitantly with an unsteady breath. “Just… don’t lie if you don’t like it, okay?”

“Promise,” she echoes back to him and he flicks the lights on before ushering her inside.

Mia finds the room painted a pink-orange shade, the kind in a sunset, but it’s the ceiling that makes her gasp. It’s blue, dark blue, with slashes of different shades throughout to resemble the night sky, along with some yellow and gold. It’s very Van Gogh, but of course not Van Gogh.

“Oh, my God,” she whispers with hands over her mouth.

“And, uh, there’s this too,” Angel tells her before slapping the lights off and the ceiling lights up. There are glow in the dark stars on it. Not enough to be childish or make the room bright, but just enough to look like stars faraway in the sky.

“Angel,” Mia sniffs.

“I remembered how much you liked looking at the stars when you first moved here,” he explains. “And I woke up last week to some stupid infomercial on the TV in the middle of the night. They were selling some Starry Night knockoffs and the idea came to me. I hope you don’t mind or, I don’t know, if you don’t like it I can—”

“Stop,” she insists with a hand on his chest as she looks up. “It’s… it’s—I don’t even know what to say, Angel.”

“You like it?” he asks, and his voice is so soft, so vulnerable Mia’s heart tightens.

For a moment all she can do is nod. “I love it,” she finally manages and blinks to stop the tears from forming. “I’ve never had anyone go out of their way for me like this except Bishop, at least, not unless it was some sort of apology from a boyfriend at the time.” The lights come back on and Mia turns to face him, but Angel is looking anywhere but her. “Did you do this yourself?”

He nods and looks up at the artwork, still avoiding eye contact. “Yeah.”

“How did you—I mean, how?” she asks with a knot in her throat.

“I used to paint when I was a kid, and into high school. I, uh, stopped when my mom died,” he confesses with his eyes now on his hands as he plays with his rings. “I was rusty as fuck, but I don’t know, I think it turned out pretty good.”

“Hey,” Mia urges and lifts his chin until their eyes meet. “I love it.”

Angel nods and licks his bottom lip. “Really?”

“I absolutely adore it,” she promises, her voice low and gets on her tip toes while wrapping an arm around his neck to pull until their foreheads are touching. “And the fact that you did it yourself? That makes it so much better. You’re very talented, mi osito.”

“Again, with the teddy bear? You’re gonna fuck up my rep, querida,” he teases.

“Well, the rep you have with me is being almost too good in bed and possibly the sweetest man I know, so,” she stops with a shrug and starts backing him up until he hits the bed half-covered in plastic.

Angel falls on the bed with a laugh and shoves at the plastic covering until it hits the floor. “Almost too good? Damn, gotta step up my game then.”

Mia moves to straddle him. “Please don’t,” she replies with her hands on his chest. “I would end up ugly crying, like, all the time.”

“Ugly crying, huh?” he asks and removes her hands from underneath his shirt where she had been trying to push it up. “Now I know what the goal is.”

“I am serious, Angel Reyes, do not,” she warns and starts fighting for control of her hands so she can continue to undress him. “Let me go! I want to make it up to you,” she insists as they begin to wrestle.

Angel rolls them over and pins her hands above her bed. She tries extremely hard not to get turned on, but fails miserably. “I don’t want you to make it up to me,” he tells her once she stops struggling. “I did this out of the goodness of my heart and making it up to me implies that I did it for something in return.”

Warmth spreads from Mia’s chest down to her toes. “Okay, then, can we fuck just because I’m horny then? It has nothing to do with me being incredibly grateful for what you’ve done.”

“You sure?” he questions and tightens his hold when she begins to resist again.

“Nothing at all,” she confirms as she squirms. “I just realized why you’re so good with your hands and I want to feel them all over me.”

“Alright then,” Angel lets go and sits back on his haunches. “Strip, everything off.”

“You’re sitting on me,” Mia reminds him with a raised eyebrow.

“I’ll help with the bottom stuff, but I think you can handle the top,” he tells her while pulling his own shirt off. “Hurry up, I wanna see if I can get you to do that ugly crying thing.”

Mia glares at him once the top is over her head. “Do not. This mascara is not waterproof.”

“Not my problem. I’m always prepared,” he replies while flashing a condom in front of her face, “it’s time you start to be too.”

She rolls her eyes while undoing her bra. “I can’t believe you’re about to get laid after saying that.”

Angel grins and starts to take off her pants. “I’ve gotten laid after saying tons of dumb shit. It’s the pretty face that gets the panties to drop,” he says before sliding her cheeky lace underwear down. “What my mouth can do helps though. So, get up, you’re gonna sit on my face.”

“Geez, bossy,” she mumbles but readily slips out from underneath him and onto her knees.

“You’re into it,” he murmurs before pressing his lips against hers as his hands slide down her bare sides.

“Only when your mouth or dick are involved,” Mia says, breathless, when they pull away.

Angel grins as his hand slides between her legs. “We’ll see about that.”

About an hour later, Mia makes her way downstairs looking for Angel. Guys have it so much easier, she thinks. All they gotta do after sex is get dressed. Being the handsy motherfucker her boy is, Mia looks like she’s been through a tornado after they’re done, and needs put together, not to mention a moment to pee. He just throws away the condom and zips up before sauntering off.

“Angel?” she calls after not seeing him in the living room or upon entering the kitchen.

“Outside!” she hears and notices the back door slightly ajar.

Mia finds him outside on a lawn chair, the kind people lay out on next to a pool, apparently something else she has inherited from Bishop’s previous tenants. Angel is holding a beer in one hand, a cigarette in the other. “Room for me?”

Angel tilts his head back to look at her before parting his legs. “Always for you.” She lifts a leg of her own and swings it around to straddle his hips. “Beer?”

She nods and takes a sip before handing it back. “So,” she starts and stares at him expectantly.

“Sooo?” he echoes while taking a swig.

“So, you paint?”

Suddenly, the beer becomes interesting, as it’s all he can look at now. “I did.”

“Osito, you just pulled a Michelangelo on my bedroom ceiling. You paint, present tense,” Mia insists.

“I… relapsed,” he attempts to joke, but Mia shakes her head and lifts his chin.

“You know you can talk to me, right? We don’t just have sex, at least, that’s not all this is for me,” she admits with a tint of pink in her cheeks. “You’re like my best friend and I don’t say that easily. I’m not really one for friends.”

“I don’t believe that shit for a second,” Angel immediately disagrees with one last puff of his cigarette before flicking the cherry off the tip and turning his head so the gray smoke doesn’t hit her face. “But, if you gotta know, and I know you won’t shut the fuck up until I tell you,” he goes on and she grins in triumph, “my mom liked to paint. It was her thing. It was mainly religious shit, you know,” he says with a shrug, “but she was really good. She even has a piece hanging in the church we went to growing up.” He stops to smile, and Mia can’t help but mirror it, the genuine happiness coming from him infectious. “I remember when it first got displayed, my dad told everyone his wife painted it. I swear, he worked it into every single fucking conversation somehow.”

“And she passed it on to you?”

Angel puts the beer bottle down and wraps his arms around her waist, his hands resting on her ass. “Not really, I mean, not intentionally, I guess. I was an angry kid, it started in junior high, back when I was a chubby fuck. I punched a few holes in the walls, and every time they made me fix it, but that just made me angrier,” he says and looks passed her head. “I don’t know, I guess it pissed me off that they made me patch them up without really asking what was wrong? My mom tried, but—” he stops and shakes his head, “she wasn’t the one I wanted to open up to.”

“You wanted your dad,” Mia states and Angel nods, his eyes meeting hers again.

“One day I got sent home from school for fighting and my mom had to come get me. Pop wouldn’t leave the shop, said it wouldn’t matter if he did, that I wouldn’t listen to him anyway,” he continued, “maybe he was right, I don’t know.”

Mia slips her hands under his shirt, her fingers drawing endless loops and shapes on his bare skin. “What was the fight about, do you remember?”

Angel nods slowly. “They used to call EZ Kodak because of his memory. Some asshole cornered him in the bathroom, had a friend hold him down while he pushed some sleazy magazine in his face and told him to remember it because it would be the only naked girl he ever saw or some shit. I was chubby, but EZ was as thin as a fucking rail. That kid’s metabolism is no joke,” he comments with a faraway look in his eyes, like he’s reliving the memory. “I found out and took the fucker down. I remember being pulled off him and looking at EZ, he was so embarrassed. Before they took me away, he asked me not to tell, so I didn’t. I didn’t tell what the kid did to him, and the little dick didn’t fess up to what he did either, so all they knew was that I held him down and kicked his ass.”

“That… sucks. It definitely made you look bad,” Mia points out with a stink face. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I’m his big brother, I do what I gotta do,” Angel says easily, and she knows without a second thought he would do it again. “I expected to come home and go straight to my room or have a list of shit to do around the house. Instead, Mom brought me outside to the patio. There was this big, white canvas and a bunch of paint. She told me to paint my feelings. I thought it was stupid as fuck.”

Mia smiles, picturing little Angel looking at his mom with his ‘the fuck is this?’ expression and it’s definitely a funny image. “But you started painting?”

“I did it to just get it over with so I could go to my room, but I don’t know, it helped me get aggression out,” he admits. “My mom did religious realism, but I was super into abstract. I was throwing fucking paint around so fast my chubby ass worked up a sweat,” he chuckles at the memory. “It didn’t turn into anything, just a big shit colored blur, but it was better than punching a hole in the wall I had to fix the next day. Every time I got angry my mom had a canvas for me. I learned, I developed my own style, and I started taking classes at school. Sometimes I even watched my mom, asked her questions, and helped her a little bit. It became our thing.”

“That’s sweet,” Mia comments, her fingers now scratching at his happy trail as they often do.

Angel’s lips slowly stretch into a wistful smile. “I got real into charcoal for a while. Fuck, everything was covered in it. EZ hated it since we shared a room. My mom was annoyed because of the laundry, but she never said anything. Eventually, I settled on acrylic as my main medium. I would have so many fucking layers that it would take so fucking long to dry. I kept stealing her hair dryer to make it dry faster. She got so annoyed she bought me my own.”

“What did you do with all your work? I would like to see them, but I don’t think there is anything hanging at your place, or the clubhouse, or—”

“When she died, I quit,” Angel cuts her off. “It was our thing, and without her…” he trails off with a shake of his head, “I didn’t want to do it anymore, or be reminded of it. I stashed all my shit in the basement, it’s still there unless Pop tossed it.”

“What about her stuff?”

“It’s at the house, Pop still has a few displayed, has all her supplies exactly where she left them. I swear he turned parts of the house into a shrine. I could barely go in there right after she died and—” he falters, his voice deep and his Adam’s apple bobbing. “Um, I kept what she made for me in my old bedroom. I couldn’t look at it every day, I still can’t,” he admits. “I don’t know how Pop does it.”

Mia’s hands move to rest on his chest, rubbing softly to comfort him. “It’s okay that it still hurts, osito,” she assures him, and he drops his head while nodding. “The more you bury it, the more it hurts when it come out,” she whispers and kisses his head, her hands framing his face now.

“I didn’t—” Angel stammers and coughs to clear the knot in his throat. “EZ and I weren’t as close when we were teenagers, we had different shit going on in our lives, but I always had my ma. Sometimes I told her shit she didn’t even wanna hear, you know,” he chokes out and keeps shaking his head, but Mia keeps her hands firm. “We were closer than they know. Pop and EZ had each other, they talked all the time, but she was the person I talked to. With her gone…”

“I know,” she murmurs and kisses his forehead, his temple, anything she can while he refuses to look at her. “I’m here, mi angelito, I’m right here and I’m not going anywhere,” she promises over and over, her voice soft and hopefully soothing to him. She knows he’s settled a bit when he takes one of her hands in his and opens it to kiss the palm, a silent thank you she accepts. “Did your dad or EZ ever mention anything about it? About you not painting anymore?”

Angel shrugs nonchalantly and picks his head up. His eyes are glassy, and his cheeks flushed with embarrassment, but she simply kisses each one chastely to let him know it’s okay. “EZ mentioned it a few times, but I told him to shut the fuck up and he did. I told him to shut the fuck up a lot when she died. He learned to stop pushing and I stopped giving a fuck about pretty much everything.”

“Is that why he went after the person who killed her, and you didn’t?” Mia asks, and instantly regrets it, but Angel doesn’t move or retreat into himself, even if he does tense up considerably.

His hands find her ass again, a way of comforting himself, she thinks. “EZ kept wanting it to be more than a robbery, more than just a senseless murder. It was like he couldn’t see anyone wanting to do wrong by her because she was like a saint.”

“But you could?”

Angel looks her in the eye now. “There’s a lot of evil people in the world. Our mother wasn’t spared because she was a good person. Good people get the shit end of the stick all the time. Ezekiel is the smartest person I know, but he couldn’t wrap his head around that. It ate at him. Sometimes I think if I didn’t push him away I could have helped him, stopped him, something. But I was too busy doing anything I could to not think about it, about her, what happened, that my little brother had to be the one to find her, that my father got his heart broken, and how fucking lonely I was with her gone.”

“Hey, everyone deals with shit in their own way,” Mia assures him. “EZ wanted to fix it, bring her killer to justice. You tried to ignore it because you couldn’t deal with the pain. What happened isn’t your fault, it’s not your brother’s either. And EZ doing what he did… he’s too headstrong to have let it go. It probably still would have gone down, but instead of your dad losing one son to the prison system, he would have lost two.”

Angel chuckles and licks his lips. “He lost me a long time ago. Ever since EZ was a toddler I lived in his shadow. He was the golden boy, the sports star, he was supposed to get out of here, be someone important. There were no aspirations for me, no dream to follow, it was all on EZ. He and Pop were always close, always reading shit, having these meaningful conversations that would stop as soon as I walked into the room. When EZ got locked up it was like Pop had nothing left because not only was his wife gone, but his best friend was too.”

“Angel—”

“It was the loneliest fucking year of my life until the club came to town,” he cuts her off, his hands pulling her closer. “I started to prospect as soon as possible. It’s a family, and I hadn’t had one since my mom died, and fuck, I needed something, anything, to hold on to. It wasn’t what my mom would have wanted, but I had to stop pretending things were gonna be different between me and Pop. I’m never gonna be like EZ and he never tried to understand me, even after EZ went away. Every Sunday I went to the house for dinner and we barely said five words to each other that weren’t about sports. Every holiday was a letdown. I’d stop at the shop a few times a week to check in, just to make sure he was okay. He’d give me meat and send me away.”

“What about now that EZ’s home?”

He sighs. “It’s better, I guess. He has his buddy back. Sunday dinners are more lively. He accepts the club a bit more now that EZ’s a prospect, but it’s still the same with me and him.”

“But now you have your brother back,” Mia insists, her voice hopeful.

At that, Angel smiles, and it’s real. “I do. I forgot how much I missed him, how much I love him. The MC kept me busy, but having him back, and prospecting? Sometimes I feel like we’ve never been closer.”

“At least you have that. Only child over here, remember?” she reminds him. “Bishop’s done so much for me that I can never thank him enough, but having a sibling is different. I would be in a room full of people and still feel completely alone. There’s just stuff you can’t tell your dad.”

“I asked Bishop what happened to your dad, to Valentino,” Angel confesses, and Mia’s eyebrows raise. “All he said was that he was shot.”

Mia looks down at their laps and nods. “He was. Eleven times.”

“Damn.”

She peers back up and shrugs. “The risk comes with the life, and my dad wanted to be part of the Mayans ever since Tio started it, Bishop too.”

“Wait, you call Marcus Alvarez Tio?” Angel asks, his face almost comical.

Mia can’t help but smile, even with their topic of conversation being what it is. “Yeah, I know you guys all see him as your beloved Padrino, but to me, he’s the guy who did something completely over the top at every single birthday of mine until I was, like, sixteen,” she explains, her lips still curved upwards. “I mean, when I was eight, he brought a pony to my party. A fucking pony. When I turned eleven, he got me a trampoline and put it at the clubhouse. It was broken before I turned twelve, but it was fun while it lasted.”

“Well, now I know what to ask him for my birthday,” Angel comments and she barks out a laugh. “Your pop was from Oakland?”

“Yep, born and raised. He and Bop grew up together, and what Bishop wanted my dad wanted too. They had similar backgrounds—immigrant parents, hard home lives, just not an easy upbringing. They came up together and quickly became part of Tio’s inner circle once they were patched in.”

“What happened?”

Mia moves her hands his chest and starts wringing them together. “There was some new MC trying to make a name for themselves,” she starts, and Angel’s hands make their way to hers, linking them together. “I guess they figured what better way to do that than to take out the president of the mother chapter of the Mayans?”

“Dumb fucks,” Angel swears with a shake of his head. “That shit doesn’t make you legit, it starts fucking wars.”

“Yeah,” Mia murmurs. “They were in Oakland doing business and my dad saw the windows go down. He pushed Tio to the ground and pulled out his gun. He took most of the hit. Bishop took one in the arm himself. My dad was dead within a few minutes, before the police even got there, or so I’m told.”

“I’m sorry,” Angel says quietly. “You were five, right?”

She nods. “Bishop insisted on being the one to tell me and my mom. I remember her screaming and falling to the ground, then Bishop coming over to me,” she recalls, blinking to keep her eyes clear. “He told me, and I refused to believe him. I started hitting him actually, and he had just gotten shot so even though I was five it had to of fucking hurt. Eventually he just bear hugged me until I started crying.”

“And then he stepped up for your dad.”

Mia nods. “After the funeral, I wouldn’t let Bishop leave my sight. I would throw the biggest tantrum if he left. And my tantrums weren’t just screaming and crying like other kids. I went fucking postal. I threw shit, broke whatever was in my way. I would get so worked up I made myself sick. Tio gave Bop some time off from club stuff to help me and my mom, to spend time with me so I wouldn’t turn into the Tasmanian Devil every time he left the room.”

“You know, I’ve heard you talk about Bishop raising you, what you remember about your dad, but this is the most I’ve heard about your mom,” Angel mentions. “There a reason for that?”

“There isn’t much to know about her. Personally, I think it should take more than giving birth to make you a mother, because she gave birth to me, but that’s all she ever did. She’s no mother,” Mia states.

“It was like that even before your dad died?”

“She was there? I don’t know, I mean, Bishop says she was involved, but I have no memories of it. Maybe I held onto what I remember of my dad because I knew I wouldn’t be able to make more memories. But after he died, she just spiraled. Started drinking a lot, when that stopped doing the trick she turned to pills, and then graduated to heroin by the time I was ten.”

“She never got with anyone else?” he questions, his fingers playing with hers.

“Oh, she got with plenty,” Mia assures him. “Whatever she had to do to get her fix, she did.”

“I meant, not another Mayan?” he corrects.

Mia makes a face. “The thing about my mom is, well, she’s a user. She liked being with someone in the club, the respect you got from the girls who weren’t, the looks on the street when someone knew you were an old lady. My parents don’t have this big romantic love story like yours,” she goes on. “My mom was going back and forth between my dad and Bishop before she got pregnant. She would fight with my dad then get with Bishop, when that went south she’d go back to my dad. When she got pregnant she actually didn’t know who the father was.”

“Oh.”

Mia smiles a little. “Bop used to joke that I was one of the luckiest girls in the world because most guys bail in that situation, but they fought over me. They both wanted me, and they both wanted her too. Eventually, they got a test and Valentino Flores was crowned lucky winner of the sperm race. They got married when she was six months pregnant.”

“Bish didn’t want her after?”

“He did, actually,” she answers. “But the heroin got in the way. It turns out that is my mom’s one true love, not my dad, not Bishop, and certainly not me. Bishop refused to make her his old lady until she got clean and was able to take care of me. And, with her and Bop’s history, not to mention my dad’s, no other Mayan would get with her out of respect. It kinda pissed her off because she liked being a kept woman, you know.”

“She’s still not clean now, I’m gathering,” Angel pieces together.

“Nah. She never is. The longest she’s made it is six months. Every couple years or so she comes around wanting to be with Bishop, wanting to get clean, wanting to be together ‘as a family’. He falls for it every time, but I know better. I hate it because he get his hopes up, wastes so much money putting her through rehab, getting her everything she wants when she says she’s clean, then a few weeks later she’s gone and takes everything she can with her. His cash, whatever valuables she could get her hands on. She even sold one of his guns once, one of the .45s that had the Mayan insignia on it and shit.”

“Damn,” Angel swears. “Pop and I were never close, but he was still there. I knew no matter what happened he’d bail me out of whatever jam I got myself into, that I’d always have somewhere to go, a warm meal to eat,” he goes on with a shake of his head. “I couldn’t imagine not being close with my ma. That sucks, I’m sorry.”

Mia shrugs and leans against his chest, her arms snuggled between them. “My mom needs to be the center of attention, something she stopped being when I was born. The only thing she loves as much as heroin, is herself. I was never more than dollar signs to her, the Mayans supported her because of me, and she knew it,” she exhales, content as his large, warm hands rub up and down her back. “I’ve never known different. It was Bishop who made sure I stayed in school, got me into dance classes when I wanted them, signed me up for kickboxing because he wanted me to be able to protect myself. He’s the reason I’m alive,” she admits. “Well, him and Esai.”

“Esai Alvarez Esai?” Angel asks, pulling away enough to look her in the eye.

Mia nods with a ghost of a smile on her face. “Yeah, we were raised together. I think they wanted us to be like brother and sister. I mean, we have pictures of us in the bath when we were little, but that’s not the way it went.”

“You and Esai Alvarez?” he questions, his expression dumbfounded.

“Do you know another one?” she wonders in a giggle.

“No, I just—he, I mean, he’s fucking married to the club. He’s gonna be king, you know,” he comments and pulls her back against his chest. “I’ve never seen him with the same girl for more than a couple hours.”

“That was one of our problems. I couldn’t,” she stops and sighs, “I get there are rules. What happens on a run stays on a run, he could get his dick sucked whenever I wasn’t around, that shit happens but I—I never got right with it. It’s why we were on and off for about seven years. He’d go on a run and he’d come home looking so fucking guilty and would deny it up and down, but I knew. He’d admit it, we’d break up, he’d fight to win me back, and eventually I would give in,” she goes on and shakes her head. “He was my first everything, I couldn’t let go, I wouldn’t at the time. I had only two people I truly let in my life that I knew would love me no matter what, and he was one of them.”

“Wait,” Angel says, his mind churning. “La que se escapo,” he whispers to himself.

“Oh, fuck,” Mia groans.

“You’re the tattoo on his arm, the one that got away,” he continues. “Gilly asked once, he told him to fuck off.”

“Sounds about right,” she laughs. “He got the tattoo for my birthday. My birthday, his tattoo, fucked up, right? But he didn’t get ‘the one that got away’ until we broke up for the final time. I was pissed, but—he had to do something with it. I covered mine up.”

“You had one? Of him, I mean?”

“Kind of, I had the, uh, the old lady tattoo on my arm,” she answers as she shifts to reveal her skull tattoo to him, the one that got them talking in the first place. “I covered it with the tattoo for my dads. I’d always wanted something for them, and a guy I knew said he’d be able to cover it easily enough,” she says and pulls her jacket back up. “Fuck, that pissed him off. To Sai, that meant we were really over. He refused to cover his, did that instead,” she goes on. “Told me that I would be the only woman he would ever marry, so if it wasn’t me, it wouldn’t be anyone, and so there was no reason to get rid of the tat. I’m sure he’ll get someone knocked up one day and she’ll be his old lady, and she’ll be able to accept the shit I wasn’t able to.”

“Not the life for you, huh?” Angel asks with an eyebrow raised.

“It could be,” Mia insists. “I understand being in the club, loving it, putting it above most of the things in your life, but I need to be the one thing that it’s more important than. Not that I would ever make him choose, I respect the MC too much for that, but—I need to know that I’m number one. Sai couldn’t do that, no matter how hard he tried. I realized I was trying making him into someone he wasn’t, and I loved him too much to do that,” she explains. “He really tried the last two years. He’d opt out of runs, spend every spare moment he had with me, was completely transparent, but—he would get so angry sometimes. It made him feel like I was keeping him from the club, but I wasn’t, not intentionally, I just didn’t trust him. He had too curious of a dick.”

“I can’t believe I didn’t piece this together sooner. Of course, you knew E, why wouldn’t you? And that tattoo, it’s really you,” Angel mutters more to himself than her. “I feel like a fucking idiot.”

“He got it when I turned eighteen and he asked me to be his old lady. I was so happy, I thought that things would be different, and they were for a little. Bishop was pissed off because I moved in with him, but I was eighteen, he couldn’t stop me. Of course, I was back and forth between break-ups,” she mentions as an afterthought.

“This relationship, it sounds great, by the way,” he teases.

Mia laughs a little. “When it was great, it really fucking was. When it wasn’t, we were toxic, and I didn’t see it until later. He never hit me or shit like that, Bishop would have killed him if he did, but I saw what he did as cheating, and he didn’t. It made me feel like I wasn’t enough even though he swore up and down it wasn’t about me,” she continues. “And, like you said, he’s gonna be king. There is nothing he would choose over the club, and even though I would never ask, I needed to know I meant more, but I never would. When I finally accepted that I ended it. There were a few hiccups, and it was one of the hardest things I ever did. He was my best friend, he knew every single piece of me, you know?”

Angel shakes his head. “No, I don’t. I’ve never been with anyone like that.”

“You’ve never had a serious girlfriend?” Mia asks, biting her lip when Angel’s hands roam across her ribs, his fingers brushing against her bra. “I don’t believe that.”

“I’ve had girlfriends, but never like you’re talking about. The most serious one was in high school, which sounds fucked up when you’re thirty-one,” he says, a hint of a chuckle in his voice. “But I also haven’t been looking for anything serious.”

“What happened to her?”

“Her name was Adelita. I knew her from school, we were in the same year, but I guess you could say we met at church. Mom made us go every Sunday, rain or shine, sick or healthy,” he states, but then rethinks it. “Well, if we were, like, projectile vomiting or some shit we got out of it, but that meant she had to stay home too, and we knew how much church meant to her.”

“You were pickin’ up girls at church, Reyes?” Mia teases with a rock of her hips.

“Querida, I can pick up girls anywhere,” he answers with a knowing smile. “Anyways, she helped out a lot at church, and my mom would always guilt me and EZ into helping with whatever fundraiser or cause they were involved in every few months. We were working a booth together during the end of summer carnival and I was doing more flirting than working—”

“What? I do not believe that for a second. You have to be lying—ah!” Mia stops in a squeak when Angel tickles her sides.

“It’s my love language, mi dulce, literally,” he jokes. “One minute we’re working the booth, the next my mom is there and inviting her to dinner. It just kind of escalated from there. She wasn’t my first girlfriend, but she was the first I think I actually loved.”

“You think?”

“Looking back, I think I was trying so hard to be someone I wasn’t for her. I tried to be into the things she was, I wanted to care as much as she did about everything she did, but—I think I just wanted my mom to be proud of me for something, to have something for her to gush about to her friends what was about me for once and not EZ,” he admits.

“I didn’t know your mom,” Mia states the obvious, “but I know she had things to be proud of you for. It’s easy to see how much you loved your mother, how you would do anything for her, you even shared a hobby with her. So, I know damn well she gushed about you, Angel Reyes, so you shush right now.”

Angel smiles and presses a soft kiss to her lips. “Thank you.”

“What happened? With Adelita?” she asks.

“Just didn’t work out. We really didn’t have all that much in common. I mean, I like helping people, I still donate to the church and to causes and shit, but spending every waking hour asking people for money, going door to door to give out pamphlets and shit? Man, I felt like I couldn’t fuck my girlfriend without getting money from someone else first,” he says, and Mia can’t help but laugh. “Besides, she went into the Peace Corps after high school and I knew that shit was not for me. We ended with no hard feelings.”

“And nothing since? No one serious?” Mia asks.

“After Mom died, I didn’t want serious. I just picked up girls to fuck ‘em. And ever since I’ve been in the club, I’ve been happy to sleep with whatever hang around was paying attention,” he answers honestly. “Besides, it takes a lot to be with someone in the club, you gotta deal with more than the average bullshit a guy puts you through.”

“Oh, I know,” she confirms.

“You also don’t know who actually wants you for you or because of the leather,” he adds on. “Like your mom, being an old lady is all some chicks want, it doesn’t matter who gets them the title.”

“So many girls hated me when I was with Esai, even after we broke up because they knew how much we still meant to each other. None of the girls understood, to them I had everything. If Esai was going to be king, I would have been queen, but being an old lady wasn’t my end goal. Being with Esai was. This one particular puta, Bianca, fuck, every time she could she was tryin’ to get her nails in him. When we broke up, she thought it was like open season. I was in more than one fight with that bitch,” she says with a vengeful look in her eye.

“I would pay to see that shit,” Angel insists, and Mia pushes on his shoulder as he laughs. “What? I know you can fight, Bishop’s gone on about it, how many matches you won when you were in kickboxing.”

“Yeah, that’s why they guys were always quick to hold me back, they knew I could do some serious damage,” she mutters grimly. “All I wanted was five minutes alone with her, still do. She was all talk and I hate that.”

“You’re still close with E, then?”

Mia looks down, mostly out of shame. “I was. When Bop and I had our falling out I wanted away from all things having to do with the MC. I was so sick of him bailing out my mom and never taking my side with her. Esai tries to stay out of shit when it comes to my mom. He fucking hates her, but he respects Bop’s feelings about her, so he didn’t back me up. I cut him out too and haven’t had the lady balls to reach back out. This is the longest we’ve gone without talking since we broke up. I needed time away from him then to get over him, you know. That, and every time we hung out right after we ended up fucking.”

“I don’t know if I want to be in love like that,” Angel admits and starts to light another cigarette.

“Like me and E?”

“Maybe, I guess, more like my parents,” he answers before inhaling. “I saw what happens when it ends. My dad still isn’t the same, almost ten years later.”

“That’s where we differ—you don’t know if you want it, but I don’t know if I’m capable of it,” Mia confesses.

“I don’t know if I believe that,” Angel comments.

Mia’s eyebrows raise as she makes a face at him. “I loved Esai, but—I never trusted him so I never completely let myself go with him. I trust him with my life, but my heart? I barely trust myself with that shit,” she stops and shakes her head in shame. “The relationship I ended when I came out here…” she trails off and holds her face in her hands so he can't see her shame.

“Hey,” Angel pulls on her wrists softly, but they don’t budge. “Hey, talk to me, baby,” he pleads quietly. “You’re my best friend too, you never have to be afraid to tell me shit.”

“It was bad,” she confesses, her voice barely above a whisper. “It didn’t start that way, and—fuck,” she swears while trying to hold back tears, hating herself for getting so upset. “When Bishop and I had our falling out, he was brought into the fight.”

“Your ex?” he questions while finally removing her palms from her cheeks.

“Yeah, his name’s Jay—Jason, actually,” she corrects herself. “We had just started dating when my mom OD’ed, again, and we weren’t serious, but,” she stops and shakes her head, “I mentioned it when we got into it, how the guy I was dating was a normal law-abiding citizen and being there, trying to figure out what detox program to get my mom in, it shouldn’t have to be my normal, his either.”

“What did Bish say?”

“That it didn’t matter, she’s family and you do what you have to for family,” Mia recites from memory. “I said that she wasn’t my family, and she didn’t give a shit about him, and until she decided to get help herself nothing he did would matter,” she pauses to wipe at the corners of her eyes in an attempt to rid the pool of tears. “And he said he raised me better than to not care about my own mother and he was ashamed of me.”

“Hey, hey, hey,” Angel coos when tears start to fall. “It’s alright, c’mere,” he murmurs while pulling her into a hug.

“He’d never said that before, that he was ashamed of me,” she manages to get out in between shaky breaths. “I’d been arrested, kept in holding cells, tried drugs I told him I never would, made so many bad decisions he found about after the fact, but he’d never said he was ashamed of me.”

“He wasn’t, he’s not,” he assures her. “You don’t hear the way he talks about you when you’re not around, the joy in his eyes, how excited her gets. He loves you more than anything, mi dulce, please believe that.”

Mia nods against his chest, sniffling. “It hurt. What he said hurt, it hurt that it felt like he kept choosing her over me hurt, that he continued to believe her and not even listen to me, it really hurt. And I wanted to make him hurt too, so I said that I was done with it all—her, him, the MC, and that I would be better off with my cookie-cutter new boyfriend who would be able to give me a normal life.”

“It was a fight, everyone says shit during fights,” Angel responds in an attempt to console her.

“Yeah, but I made good on it. I stopped going to the clubhouse, I ignored Esai’s calls and texts, I didn’t check in with Bop the way I used to. I dug my heels in, and so did he,” she sniffs. “I fucked up. I made Jay out to be like Captain America and he wasn’t, I was just so angry, and so I tried everything to make it work to prove I was right. I gave in way too much, let him make me feel like I was crazy, isolate me, and control everything, and I mean everything,” she stops as her eyes well up again. “Fuck.”

Angel holds her tighter and presses kisses against her hair, shoulders, anywhere he has access to. “I’m right here, baby, I’m not going anywhere,” he promises.

“If Bishop knew what happened between me and Jay,” Mia says while wiping her cheeks, “he would be ashamed of me, it wouldn’t just be words.”

“Why do you say that?” Angel asks after a silent moment, his voice firm, cautious.

Mia shakes her head. “Never mind, forget I said anything,” she says and makes a move to get up, but he holds her down.

“No, I ain’t forgetting shit,” he tells her. “Talk to me.”

“It doesn’t matter, okay?” Mia insists and pulls free from his hold. “I got out of it, that’s what’s important. I’m here and made things right with Bishop and, and,” she falters and looks him in the eye, “I met you. My best friend.”

“I know you want me to let this shit go, babe, but—”

“No, no buts,” she cuts him off. “I need you to trust me when I say I handled it.”

Angel takes in a deep breath and stands with her. “Alright.”

“That’s it?” Mia asks, surprised.

“We’re best friends, right? If you say you handled it, then I believe you. That’s what best friends do,” he answers. “Especially ones that sleep together.”

“See, this is why we’re perfect for each other,” she insists while wrapping arms around his middle. “We’re best friends, we trust each other, and you don’t want to fall in love while I don’t think I ever truly can. We get the fun without the responsibilities of the relationship.”

Angel smiles softly before kissing her. “Well, when you put it that way…” he trails off and kisses her again.

They are interrupted by Angel’s phone buzzing in his pocket. He tugs it out and answers it immediately after looking at the caller. The conversation is quick, one she’s heard too many times before, but understands all the same. He’s needed at the clubhouse.

“I gotta go,” he sighs, but makes no move to let her go. “Thanks.”

“For what?” Mia asks, her chin resting on his chest as she looks up at him.

“Thanks for listening,” he whispers before kissing her gently. “I haven’t—I don’t talk about my mom, it’s just something I avoid, but it felt good talking about her with you.”

“Any time,” Mia says and pushes her lips against his in a barely-there kiss. “Me and Bop talk about my dad all the time. It was hard at first, but it makes it easier, I think. It helps keep your memories too.”

He nods. “Noted. You coming to the clubhouse?” he asks as they start to make their way back through the house and to their vehicles.

She shakes her head while leaning against her car. “Nah. If you got called in that means you guys are gonna be in templo for a bit and I’m tired. I was running around with Letty all day, remember?”

Angel puts his helmet on as he nods. “That girl does tire you out. Her mouth alone never stops moving.”

“Shut up, she loves you guys,” Mia scolds him with a smack to his chest.

“I never said she ain’t family, she’s just a teenage girl. I stopped being interested in them once I hit twenty,” he replies.

“Coming from your current sex partner, that’s good to know,” she jokes in return.

“Ooh, sex partner, I love it when you talk dirty. Say it again,” Angel instructs.

“Sex partner,” Mia says in a sultry tone.

They start to move closer to kiss again, but his phone goes off. “Fuckin’ Boy Scout,” he swears and pulls his phone out and declines his brother’s phone all. “Such a fuckin’ pissant.”

“You love him. Go, they’ll start to wonder where you are,” she encourages. “Thank you, again, for my ceiling.”

Angel’s leg swings over his bike and with a kick the engine roars to life. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I just made the call to get it done when you asked, remember?” he says with a wink.

Mia nods with a knowing smile and watches him pull away while berating herself for even bringing up Jay, let alone talking about what their relationship was like with Angel.

She makes a mental note. It will never happen again.

CHAPTER 4

TAG LIST:

@joalsglasses @mrsamaroevans @justahopelessssromantic @mrsjaxtellerfan @claytoncardenasbabymama @starrynite7114

#mayans mc #fanfiction #friends can break your heart too #Angel Reyes #angel reyes x oc #clayton cardenas #mayans m.c.#ao3 link

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bookaddict24-7 · 4 years ago

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I said at the beginning of the year that I would share my reviews more on my blog instead of just on Instagram and Goodreads. I’ve been reading a lot so far this year, so my reviews will be delayed on here. I’ll hopefully post five (mini-ish) reviews per week!

Friend me on Goodreads here to read my reviews in real-time!

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21. Sweat & Soap Volume 1 by Kintetsu Yamada--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“This was...a unique experience LOL. It was kind of weird, but in a really interesting way. What a unique way of writing a slice of life manga. Especially if you like your manga with some spice that isn’t over the top. I was a fan of the artwork! Also, this relationship is already off to a great start because communication is encouraged between the couple AND his support for her is the cutest thing. The MC is hella relatable with her insecurities. I can’t wait to read more about these two!”

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22. Crownchasers by Rebecca Coffindaffer--⭐️⭐️⭐️

“I think my biggest issue with this book is that I went in with ridiculously high expectations. That’s on me. This isn’t a bad book, I can see how so many loved it. The adventure, the quest, the relationships—I totally get it. I didn’t enjoy this as much as everyone else because I was sort of...bored? I feel like there were points where I didn’t fully understand what was happening and I kept zoning out. I remember feeling apathetic about this book when it first came out and then being excited when I heard that the MC is pan. While that representation was great, it wasn’t enough for me to absolutely love this book. Don’t get me wrong, the friendships were awesome and I felt for our MC every time there was a strong emotional moment, but the plot just felt...like it could have done more? I don’t know. It honestly just feels like a blur, aha. If you love treasure hunt-type of books (because they’re racing to find something) and if you like space adventures with strong female protagonists, then you’ll probably enjoy this one! I will say though that the ending was pretty bad ass.”

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23. The Weight of it All by N.R. Walker--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“This book was so wholesome!!! I loved that the main conflict was solved by the characters communicating—literally miscommunication is one of my biggest pet peeves with romance books. Also, the messages in this book about self love are amazing. The MC’s growth as a character after his breakup was great to watch, and seeing him find someone who treated him like gold and only sought to help him become a better person (for himself) was the cutest thing ever. Ah, this was just so cute!!! Also, there was some spicy moments, too—not the spiciest I’ve read, but a nice level of spice!”

___

24. A Very Henry Christmas by N.R. Walker--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“Ah, these two!! I’m so happy we finally got to see Henry through Reed’s eyes, even if it was a very brief glance!”

___

25. Memento by Amie Kaufman & JK--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“It’s been a long time since I read this series so it took me a while to remember what was happening, but when I did I remember how much I loved this murderous AI. If you haven’t read the ILLUMINAE series, you’re seriously missing out.”

___

Have you read any of these? Would you recommend them?

___

Happy reading!

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joshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh · 4 years ago

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Okay, so Higurashi episode 1 came out and I quite liked it. I said before that I’m not actually familiar with this series beyond the knowledge that it’s cute girls and horror shit, and also I think I’ve seen the screenshot of the one girl being crucified or something. Past that though, everything in here was new to me.

Now the show doesn’t waste any time in establishing itself as horror, with the tried and true trope of having cute girls be brutally murdered in the opening. Though I feel like having your everyman MC murder the cute girls isn’t really the norm, I’d expect yandere cute girls killing him or something. So yeah we’ve already established this mystery of what could possibly have happened to prompt him to do this?

The main thing that the show seems to set up is that this town that MC’s new to has something of a history of murdering people, and it looks like everyone’s working to cover it up.

So we can get shots like this when it looks like our MC is starting to learn the truth. On one hand if we kill him instantly, then we can’t really reach the point that happened in my first screenshot.

But then blue drops these eyes so maybe she’s gonna step in in some way? Or maybe she won’t and instead because this is a visual novel originally, I think, maybe, it’ll have weird timeline bullshit. Who knows.

Anyway let’s talk about the cute girls!!!

Rena is cute as fuck, she does that one sort of moe thing where she’ll like explode into a really happy squealing blush when MC is accidentally romantic or gets pet or something, she’s adorable, I love her design too, fascinating to know that she seems ready to murder at any moment.

Rika is also cute as fuck and is voiced by Yukari Tamura so I popped off for that, she’s got sneaky trickster moments despite her otherwise kind demeanour and I respect that.

Satoko’s the only girl who doesn’t get like an “I’m obviously a fucked up murderer hiding a conspiracy” moment, but then she also lines the classroom door handle thing with drawing pins so she’s a bit fucked in the head I’d say. Oh well, she’s also cute as all fucking hell.

And then Mion is big pretty responsible one, but also still covering up a murder and stuff. I like her, she’s got good energy and provides a nice bit of variety in the character designs by uh, not being a loli.

They’re all cute, I love the art style a lot, watching them do slice of life stuff for a bit was entertaining, I quite enjoyed the music, and yeah there’s definitely a lot of intrigue in terms of the actual plot and worldbuilding and whatnot. I know that people actually like and respect Higurashi too so this probably won’t just be edgy bullshit for the sake of edgy bullshit.

Fun start, looking forward to more.

#higurashi #1.10.20

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ask-the-wordsmith · 4 years ago

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On Ending Fanfic/Short Stories

Ending a personal project can be pretty hard. Shows, I think, are the hardest to end, because there’s so much material that need to be wrapped up in a satisfying manner. But luckily, ending a fanfiction (or short story, for that matter) doesn’t necessarily have to be the same frustrating ordeal. After years of writing fanfic, I’ve found a few types of endings that work pretty well universally— “stock” endings, if you will, like molds that you can melt different metals into over and over again.

So without any further ado, here are Five Ways To End Your Fanfic (#3 and #5 will not shock you at all! You’ve almost definitely heard of them!)

#1: Dialogue.

Somehow, I feel like most people forget that this is okay. If you happen to have a great line said by one of your MCs, why not end on it? You don’t necessarily need your omniscient narrator to comment on the situation. I find this particularly helpful when you know you’ve reached the end of your story, but feel stuck in the middle of a conversation and don’t know how to wrap it up. Reread every line of dialogue in that last conversation, and see if there isn’t a good place to cut it off.

Sample ending (from Car Crash, a hurt/comfort oneshot):

“And you’re the best minion, Bear Trap,” he said softly back.

He couldn’t see it, but he could feel her smile against his chest. “You say that to all your minions.”

Giovanni rocked her gently, more as a motion of comfort for himself than for her. “Yeah, I know.” Then he pulled slightly back and shot her a teasing smile.

“But with you, I mean it.”

#2: Beginning/End Parallels

This is actually how you’re supposed to end a show or movie, just in miniature. Because of that, it works best for long fanfics, particularly multi-chapters. First, read the intro paragraphs to your story— if you’ve written a good beginning, the material you’re looking for will be in the first paragraph, preferably the first SENTENCE— and pick out the “defining snapshot.” What does your MC’s life look like in that moment? Whether intentionally or not, if your fanfic at all resembles a movie or show (again, usually those of considerable length), your ending snapshot should be the opposite of that.

If you really know your stuff, you can even take the first sentence word-for-word and then turn it on it’s head to make the last sentence! That one will emotionally destroy all your long-time readers, guaranteed.

Sample ending (from SDLPC, a 32-chapter “slice of afterlife”):

(First line:) It seems like I never had company when I was alive. [...] In short, I was used to being alone.

(Last line:) I had all the company I could wish for. And the rest of eternity was only beginning.

#3: Using The Same Sentence To Start And End Your Fic (TM)

You know this one. What you probably didn’t realize is that it’s just option #2, but the opposite! This is because for shorter works like oneshots, what you’re usually doing is capturing just a snapshot of the characters’ lives. You don’t have an “opening/ending snapshot” because your fic IS the snapshot. If you can use the same exact sentence word-for-word, that’s great; otherwise, a tweaked version will work just as well. This ending is ideal for either pure fluff or pure angst!

Sample ending (from Peace and Quiet, a fluff oneshot):

(First line:) The silence for the past half-hour had only been broken by the snap-crackle-pop of the fire and the occasional swiff of smooth paper being turned.

(Last line:) Until Thomas called everyone in for dinner, the silence was only broken by the snap-crackle-pop of the fire and the occasional swiff of smooth paper being turned.

#4: MC’s Observations

This one’s a bit tricker to do right, I think. But sometimes, particularly in poetic/atmospheric drabbles, I resort to ending my fic by stating the MC’s thoughts on the current situation, be they good or bad. However, the technique works for regular prose, too, as in the example I’ll show!

Sample ending (from To Build A Home, a 6k adoption fic):

She noted, vaguely, that Percy smelled really nice, in a way very different from her mom. She also had a sudden memory of how her mom used to card her hands through her hair when they slept together. It always soothed her right to sleep.

But Percy’s hands lay gentle on her back, almost as if they were holding something fragile of great worth, and that felt nice, too, in a different way.

And it was such that these were the last things Molly was cognizant of before drifting off into a (finally peaceful) sleep.

#5: Including The Title Of Your Fic (TM)

You also already know this one. The classic using-the-title-of-your-fic in the last sentence, which if I’m not mistaken has a reputation for being either REALLY GOOD or REALLY BAD. I personally think it can be mediocre, even as in my own example. Still, if you’ve got a particularly witty or memorable title, it’ll ensure people remember it (which is helpful if they’re talking about it to their friends and don’t have to go “oh, I read this one great fic but don’t remember what it was called...”)!

Sample ending (from Cure for the Common Heartache):

Then again, in Jikochuu standards, who but a sibling would be dumb enough to freely share a recipe of the cure for the common heartache?

———

...And that’s it! Five molds that tend to make for pretty good endings. These are by no means the ONLY ways to end a fic, but I hope they can come in handy if you’re at a loss for a satisfying conclusion!

#writeblr #writing advice #writing endings #ending a fanfic #ending a short story #[ smithing tips - writing advice ]#[ titanium - long post ]

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bangtan-madi · 5 years ago

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546 Days Without You — One: Negative 41

Pairing — Seokjin x Reader

Tags — boyfriend!Seokjin, older brother!Yoongi, producer/songwriter!MC, military au (ish), idol au (ish)

Genre — fluff, angst

Word Count — 3.1k

Summary — Kim Seokjin is your entire world, and that world falls apart the moment he and your older brother Yoongi are conscripted into the South Korean military.

Part — 1 / 15

A/N — Hey lovelies! This is the first chapter of an estimated 15 part series. Feedback is always welcome! I anticipate a chapter of this story going up every weekend, either Saturday or Sunday. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy!!

(gif not mine. credit to original creator.)

Previous — Next

Not every great love story starts with a chance encounter, and not every beautiful relationship blossoms from love at first sight. Sometimes the universe has a sense of humor as she tosses two unlikely people at each other just to see what could happen.

Sometimes it's not love, but annoyance at first sight.

"All right, again, from the top," you state into the microphone at your desk. "This time, try to nail that middle note. I know you got it in you, Kook."

Jungkook glances up from the sheets of music that line his podium in the recording studio. From behind the glass, he gives you a big thumbs up and boyish grin.

"That's producer-speak for, 'Again...but with passion!"

You don't have to turn to know who's sneaked up behind you, speaking over your shoulder and into the mic so Jungkook can hear.

The youngest member snickers, replying, "Aish, I got it, Hyung. Go back to your own room."

"I finished recording mine!" Seokjin retorts, causing you to finally glance over your shoulder at him. "My vocals were flawless so it didn't take nearly as long as the rest of you."

Without thinking, you pop your elbow back just hard enough to hit Seokjin in the ribs. Being the dramatic fool that he is, Seokjin jumps back, cradling his rib cage as if he's just been shot. The look on his face only causes you to roll your eyes.

"Oh, you're fine," you murmur. "What were you recording anyway? You didn't say."

He shrugs. "Mostly just practice, nothing specific."

"Well, if you're done being secretive, can you go be annoying somewhere else, just for a few minutes so JK can finish his session?"

"What do I get out of it?"

You tap your chin for a moment, pretending to think it over. "My undying gratitude?"

Seokjin scoffs. "I already have that, Jagiya."

"C'mon, Jin," Jungkook intervenes. "Leave [Y/n] noona alone."

"Five minutes? Then I'm off the clock and all yours. Until then, maybe go bug my brother. I know that makes you happy."

At the mention of Min Yoongi, Seokjin's face spreads into a wide smile. He leans down, presses a quick kiss to your cheek, and says, "Okay, okay, I get it. I'll go bug Yoongi until you're done. Then I'm holding you to your word."

Attempting to hide the happiness that simple gesture brings you is hopeless, so you settle for saying, "See you in a minute!"

Seokjin flashes a wink as he reaches for the doorknob. "Don't you dare be late."

Once the oldest member has left the room, you turn back to Jungkook with a grin and wave of your hand. "You heard the man: Again, but with passion!"

After wrapping up at the studio—a task that takes closer to an hour than five minutes, like you initially promised—you turn off the lights and lock the door on your way out. Jungkook had really sung his heart and soul today, and you couldn't help the proud smile that stays on your face on the bike ride home.

You're lucky. Of this, you're very much aware. Not only are you involved in one of the most lucrative businesses in South Korea but the particular company you've dedicated yourself to for the past eight years is truly one of a kind. Big Hit has given you so many opportunities, just like all of the other five-hundred-ish employees. Your CEO, Bang Si-Hyuk who is often referred to as either Hitman Bang or Bang PD, is one of the most passionate and empathetic humans you've ever met. If it weren't for him, there's not a change Big Hit would be where it is today. The co-CEO, Lenzo Yoon, is also a talented man, but he came into the picture far later than Bang PD, around March of last year.

But your luck doesn't just stop with the company or its leaders. Your specific job is one you've always wanted. Not only do you get to manage some of the best music coming out of your country, but you get to produce and write it alongside the biggest band in the world. This is a group that includes some of the most important people to you, including your older brother by two years Yoongi, your boyfriend of four years Seokjin, and your best friends of almost eight years which make up the rest of the group.

You don't like to think of your life as fate or destiny, but hard work and a little luck paying off after years of struggling.

There's no greater example of your success than what you get to come home to. Some people might see the nice apartment in downtown Seoul and think that's what you mean by success. Nice things, nice home, nice location just down the street from Big Hit HQ. But what you mean when you say success is the person, or people, you get to come home to.

On most days, the entire band is at the dormitories a few blocks away, but a couple years ago, you and Seokjin decided to get a place to yourself so you could have some space as a couple. This is where you spend most nights, but Seokjin still splits his time between the two locations. Lately, you've noticed him spending more and more time at your shared apartment, and your heart sinks when you remember why.

The word feels like venom in your mouth, and your hands grip the handlebars tighter as you pull the bike through the front door of the apartment.

Enlistment.

Everyone knew this was coming. It doesn't make it any easier to accept. Big Hit's had lawyers fighting against the boys' conscription for years. They've tried every argument they could think of: their impact on the South Korean economy, the fact that the Idol projects were started by and are still majority funded by the government and thus they've already served, the Hwagwan Order of Cultural Merit they were awarded by President Moon Jae-in himself.

So far, nothing has worked, but they swore they would keep trying until the very last day.

A string of uttered curse words brings you out of your thoughts and back to your surroundings. The beautiful apartment, simple and elegant as well as lived-in and homey, gives you an immense sense of comfort. As you park your bike in the interior walkway, you hear even angrier muttering from the kitchen.

In the kitchen, Seokjin stands over a set of sizzling pans. Several ingredients are strewn across the counters, and the heavenly scent of traditional Korean food fills your nose. Soft instrumental music plays in the background.

The sight wouldn't be unusual if it weren't for Seokjin cursing at the pan that's holding what should have been mildly brazened vegetables. However, the greens are charred beyond recognition, and Seokjin's palm is clutched to his chest.

"Wow, that radish must have seriously pissed you off."

Seokjin jumps and lets out a yelp. Knowing how easily scared he is, the sight makes you giggle, much to his dismay.

A scowl quickly replaces the fearful expression. "It's not nice to sneak up on an unsuspecting boyfriend, you know!"

"You'll live," you reply, teasingly popping a small slice of carrot into your mouth. You gesture for him to extend his hand. "Let me see?"

The brunet offers his hand, and you examine his palm. There's a small burn there, nothing too nasty, but it does look like it hurt a few moments ago. You bring the palm to your lips and kiss it tenderly before moving towards the pan of burnt vegetables.

"Burning the food and then yourself. Are you feeling okay, Jinnie? It's not like you to be so careless in the kitchen. I'd expect this sorta thing from Joon, but not you." Lifting your eyes to meet his, you add, "Something on your mind?"

Seokjin's smile tugs at the corner of his mouth, but not in the way it usually does. It's not playful or teasing, nor is it caring or empathetic. It's a little sweet, a little sad, and a little bit too revealing of what's going on underneath.

"Honestly? I just wanted to have a nice night with my Jagiya. No talk of the album or tour, no one or several of the guys interrupting, no one but us. And I wanted to impress you by making your favorite meal!" He runs his un-burned hand through his hair, messing with the long black ends absentmindedly. "I guess I have a lot on my mind, and it distracted me."

You remove the pan of ruined food and place it quietly in the sink. "You wanna talk about it?"

"You probably already know, Jagi."

You do. Of course, you do. What else could make the happiest person you know this distracted and frustrated?

It's just like a few years ago, and you feel your chest tighten at the thought of the friend you lost. You felt a similar sense of impending doom just before he left for the military, too. After all these years, you thought you'd forgotten that feeling, only to have it return ten-fold with Seokjin.

Shaking your head, you turn on a different playlist—something more upbeat, and turn back to Seokjin with a grin. "C'mon. I'm hungry, and you need a sous chef."

Seokjin's somber expression melts away. Reaching into the cupboard nearest him, he pulls out two chef's hats that belonged to a couple's costume set you'd worn for Halloween a few years back. Being the goofball he is, Seokjin kept both hats and forces you to wear them whenever you cook together.

Placing the item on your head, tucking your hair behind your ears, he gives his signature windshield wiper laugh at your eye roll.

"You can be my little chef!"

The reference to the animated movie Ratatouille, which you both adore, causes you to chuckle along with him.

"So does that mean if I yank on your hair, you'll do what I want?"

Seokjin's laugh becomes outrageous and uncontrolled. Realizing how your words might've sounded, a deep heat rises in your face, and you pull your sweater collar up to cover your cheeks.

Your boyfriend claps his hands, thoroughly entertained by your reaction. "Well, you can give it a try, Jagi! I think that jus—"

"—Shut up or I'll stab you."

The laughter didn't stop for another few minutes, and the teasing didn't cease the entire night. If you're honest with yourself, you wouldn't have it any other way.

Seokjin was right; it's nice for once just to be alone together. Not that you don't adore the boys—hell, one of them is your brother—but it is nice to have a quiet night in, filled with good food and great company. Despite it just being the two of you, nights like these are never dull. You doubt there's ever been a dull moment in the man's entire life.

After the meal is finished, you decide to do your usual wind-down routine: shower, skincare, dancing on dangerously damp floors to the sound of your favorite playlist. The usual.

When you are finished, you exit the bathroom and enter immediately into the adjacent master bedroom. What you should've seen is something simple: a few pieces of furniture, various personal items, and a large mattress in the center. However, it seems as if Seokjin's taken the opportunity while you're in the shower to redecorate.

All the pillows are on the floor, in front of the mattress. Several duvets cover the floor. Throw blankets line the space, and curtains are strewn in the air above it, creating a sort of carnival-esque tent. Fairy lights are strung from the ceiling down to the interior of the space. BT21 character pillows line the exterior, creating a walkway of sorts. The whole space looks cozy and enchanting and well thought out.

He's gone way out of his way to make tonight special, you think to yourself.

You grab a notebook from your nightstand before nestling down into the pillow fort. You're unsure of where Seokjin has sneaked off to but are fairly certain he'll be back any moment. Until then, you hum gently a recently crafted melody to yourself, repeating it over and over, until you get it just right. Once nailed, you sketch the notes onto the blank music sheets inside your notebook, knowing that if you don't write it down you'll forget.

Yoongi's notification pings from your cellphone. Placing your notebook on your lap, you read the text before swiping to respond, all the while continuing to hum the newly created melody.

"You can sing like an angel and yet you still refuse to do vocals for us." Your eyes lift to meet Seokjin's as he stands in the door. "Do you like holding out on us or something?"

After seeing Yoongi respond with a smiley face emoji and a thumbs up, you turn off your cell and drop it onto the pillows. "How long have you been standing there?"

He shrugs. "Long enough."

"And...why are you staring at me?"

"So I can have a better picture of you in my mind."

You toss your notebook aside with an exasperated groan, only causing Seokjin to laugh. "You're so cheesy, my god."

His playful smile doesn't fade as he approaches the pillow fort. "Worldwide cheesy is my second nickname, you know."

"I am not calling you that. And I do not sing like an angel. So...no. Not holding out on anyone."

"But you do write your own lyrics and melodies. You don't share most of that with us, either. Except maybe with Yoongi, but that's not fair."

Seokjin plops down on top of you, his weight causing an "Oof," to slip from your lips. He nuzzles his face into the crook of your neck and slips his arms under the small of your back.

"Are you seriously pouting because I tell my brother, my producer and songwriter brother, about my shitty drafts?"

A muffled, "Yes," comes from your boyfriend's mouth.

Rolling your eyes, you relax into the comforters and relish in the cozy and intimate atmosphere. One of your hands tangles in Seokjin's dark hair, playing absent-mindedly with his long hair. The other rests against his broad shoulders; your fingers dance along the edges of his ocean-blue sweater, the one you often steal for yourself.

"Tonight was really sweet," you whisper after a few minutes of silence. "You didn't have to go out of your way like that."

"I wanted to. We haven't spent a long of alone time together since we started pre-production on the next album. And before that, there was the tour for Seven. I feel like 2020 has been a year we've spent more apart than together, and it shouldn't be like that..."

His sentence trails off, and you know what his somber tone is implying. It's 41 days until his twenty-eighth birthday. What should be a day of celebration will most definitely be a day of mourning.

"There's still hope," you mumble, pulling him tighter to you. "The lawyers haven't given up yet. They're still working on getting you and everyone else an exemption."

"Yeah...you're right."

"Hold on, can you say that again? I didn't quite catch it."

Seokjin nips gently at your throat, earning a surprised giggle from you. "Watch it, Jagi."

After your laughter settles down, the peace of the evening returns along with the blissful quiet. It's not often that Seokjin is still or silent, but over the years, you both have found a rhythm that works for you. You have your obnoxious, loud, exciting times, and then there are the serene, still, hushed moments like these. Both are beautiful in their own way, but after a full day of work, this is exactly what you needed.

"I wish every day could be like today," you murmur, half to yourself.

Your brunet boyfriend moves slightly, resting his head on the pillow beside yours. He shifts you so you're curled up against his side, arms and legs tangled under the covers he pulls over you both. A yawn slips out, despite you trying to fight the signs of sleepiness. Your eyelids become droopy, and his fingers rubbing circles on your ribs doesn't help.

When a second yawn escapes, Seokjin chuckles and presses his lips to your forehead. "You can sleep, [Y/n]. I'll be here when you wake up."

Loving nothing more than to spend more time with him, you know he's right. It's been a long day, and you have another one ahead of you tomorrow. Instead of fighting him and slumber, you curl closer, pressing a brief kiss to his lips, then tuck yourself under his chin and wrap your arms around his small waist.

"Promise?"

As if to show you, Seokjin holds you tighter as he continues to run his fingers along your rib cage and spine.

"I promise."

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adverb-slut · 5 years ago

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Empty Wallets and Empty Stomachs (Fanfiction)

Hiiiii, another AO3 repost from me, mainly ‘cause I’m trying to spread out my stuff on both platforms. This is a short four-chapter story that I’m going to post all in one go (that’s why it’s so long) since I think it’s hard to navigate between different chapters on Tumblr. If you’d like to read this story on AO3, click here. I apologize in advance for the really bad title; I just couldn’t think of anything better at the time.

Title:

Empty Wallets and Empty Stomachs

Summary:

No summary, really. Just chilling with Mammon and Beel and MC and being dumb. Mostly just MC and Mammon go shoppin’ and you cook with Beel. Other shenanigans ensue.

Genre:

Humor/Fluff/Slice of Life

Rating:

Word Count:

6645

Additional Note:

Sorry to take too much of your time up with the super long stores, but again, on AO3, this is formatted and was originally meant to be a four-chapter story! :)

Chapter 1

“ … and that, class, is the true nature of the Twin Paradox. As you can see—” Your professor, a gangly demon with round glasses and a haircut that reminds you vaguely of the Backstreet Boys, is promptly interrupted by the low gong of the school bell, signaling that class is over.

Upon hearing this, you whip out your D.D.D and make your way to the door as your teacher calls, “Don’t forget to read Chapter Seven, Section Nine through Twelve of your Physics IV: Mind Over Matter textbook for class on Wednesday!”

You scroll through the messages on your Chat app, doing your best to keep one eye on your D.D.D and one eye on the sea of demons bustling to get to their next class.

Lucky for you, Physics is your last class of the day. As you make your way to the House of Lamentation, you notice that you have a missed call dating back an hour ago from Mammon.

Feeling it’s too late to call back, you decide to send a text instead.

Mammon MC: You called?

MC: What’s up?

You see an ellipse bubble pop up immediately, indicating that Mammon is typing.

Mammon: MC HOW DARE YOU MISS MY CALL

Mammon: You can miss everyone else’s calls, but not *mine*, got it?

Mammon: I have important things to say, y’know!

You feel a smile grow on your face and shake your head.

MC: Important things? Like what?

Mammon: WELL, it just so happens that I get paid today!

You stare at the message in confusion. Paid? Before you can question his statement, you remember that Mammon frequently did various modeling jobs to make cash. It was supposed to be a way to earn a little spending money and pay off his debts, but unfortunately for his creditors, the latter very rarely happened.

However, you are still unsure as to why Mammon is telling you this. You send a confused-looking sticker.

Mammon, surprisingly, doesn’t respond right away. You close out of the Chat app and begin to put your D.D.D away. As you fumble around for a pocket to put it in, you crash headfirst into someone.

Oh, crap, you think. The demons at R.A.D normally don’t bother you, but that’s because you usually don’t headbutt them accidentally.

“I’m so sorry—” you start, but your apology is cut short as the demon turns around. “Beel! I apologize; I didn’t see you there!”

Beelzebub pivots to face you. “Oh, hi, MC,” he says, greeting you with a melancholy nod.

You cock your head curiously. The sixth-born demon’s face is set into a sorrowful frown, and the five-pound bag of Scummy Bears that he’s holding is only half empty. “Is something wrong?”

He looks down and shakes his head. “Nothing you need to worry about.” Beel looks back at you. “Are you going back to the House of Lamentation?”

You want to ask him some more questions, but at the same time, don’t want to pry. “Yep!”

“Let’s walk together, then.” He flashes you an unconvincing smile as the two of you begin to make your way down the R.A.D halls.

Unsure of what to say, you keep silent, smiling internally as Beel walks slower than his usual long strides so that you can keep up with him. By now, most students have either gone to their dorms or have made it to their last few classes; the only sounds that echo through the hallway are you and Beel’s footsteps.

You keep your silence until the two of you near a trash can in the hall, where Beel dumps what remains of his bag of Scummy Bears into the garbage.

You gasp and your eyes widen. What in the Devildom just happened?

Beel puts a hand over his taut stomach in response to your astonished look. He peers at his feet as he explains, “My stomach feels queasy. I can’t eat right now.”

In the few months that you have known Beel, you can hardly remember a time where he has turned down food, let alone thrown it in the trash. Whatever problem Beel is facing, you wager it has to be serious.

Beel turns away and continues to walk down the corridor. You want to grab his hand and get him to stop, but knowing Beel’s strength, you know that there’s no way that you could physically do that. Instead, you run in front of him and put your hands out, causing him to halt and tilt his head in confusion.

Furrowing your brow, you poke Beel in the chest. “Tell me what’s bothering you, Beel. It’s not good to keep things bottled up.”

Beelzebub still won’t meet your eyes. “I know.” He sighs, as he glances up and notices that you still haven’t left his path. “I’ll tell you later.”

You don’t want to push the soft-spoken demon and step to the side. “I hope you do.”

As before, you and Beel continue to the House of Lamentation in silence. Once you two arrive, Beel heads directly to him and Belphegor's room without his usual stop to the kitchen. You shake your head and make your way over to your own room.

Dumping your backpack onto the floor, you head over to your downy bed, breathing in the floral scent of jasmine and roses. Only Asmodeus uses that scent of detergent, so he must be on laundry duty this week. You mentally thank him for using such a pleasant scent, unlike the strange musk of the sandalwood and papyrus fabric softener that Satan had used two weeks earlier.

Your laundry-related musings are interrupted by rapid, deafening knocking on your door. You hope it is Beel, finally ready to talk about whatever is bothering him, but you know better than that. Beel, for all his muscled glory, has a very quiet, almost timid knock. The only demon in the House of Lamentation that has a knock so boisterous, so cacophonous, so incessant is …

“How come you’re not dressed yet?” Mammon demands, walking straight into your room as soon as you open the door. “Didn’t you get my messages?”

“I haven’t checked my D.D.D in a bit,” you admit, pulling the device out of the pocket of your uniform. You open the Chat app, noticing that you indeed have some message notifications from Mammon.

Mammon Mammon: HUH? How’re you confused by *that*?

Mammon: Getting paid means I’m going shopping! And you’re comin’ with me!

Mammon: Be dressed by the time I get home from *barf* tutoring!

Mammon: Curse Lucifer and Satan for making me go to that crap, by the way.

Mammon: I mean, who *cares* if I have a D- in Statistics?

“I don’t think I can go shopping today, Mammon,” you sigh. Grabbing your backpack from off the ground, you begin to rifle through it until you find your Physics IV textbook. “I have a lot of homework due soon.”

“Homework, shmomework,” Mammon chides, yanking the book from your hands. “There ain’ t nothing wrong with not doing it once in a while.”

You give him a look. No wonder he has a D- in Statistics.

Mammon grabs your hand, leads you off the bed, and pushes you over to the closet. “Tell ya what, if you come with me, I’ll be super generous and buy you anything you want from the store—only something super cheap, though, but still!”

You want to protest, but figure Mammon won’t let this go. Instead, you get dressed into something more casual than your uniform and step out of your closet.

The second-born, who was absentmindedly flipping through your Physics textbook as you changed, immediately sits erect once as you appear. “I swear that I wasn’t going through your things,” he claims. “Much.” He gives your outfit a once-over and two thumbs-up. “I always forget how nice you clean up for a human, MC! You’re officially fashionable enough to stand by my side!”

You blush ever so slightly, but before Mammon can notice, you busy yourself by emptying your backpack of any school-related content. That way, you have an empty bag to carry as you go shopping. “And if I don’t want to stand by your side, Mammon?” you tease.

The demon’s face flushes with a blush even deeper than yours. “O—of course, you want to be by my side! I’m the Great Mammon, don’t you forget that!”

You smile as you take out your last notebook from your bag. “Okay, I’m ready to go shopping with you,” you say, putting your backpack on. “Let’s go.”

“Say it with a little more enthusiasm, will ya?” Mammon complains as he opens the door to let you through.

You shake your head, smile, and decide to tease him some more. “Fine. Let's go!”

“That’s not the part I said to be more enthusiastic about!”

Chapter 2

“Are you serious, Mammon?” Leviathan growls. “I already checked ahead—the Ruri-chan figurine, if you buy it in the Majolish collectibles department, is only four hundred and fifty thousand Grimm. I’m not paying you a cent more.”

Mammon waves his hand nonchalantly. “And if I ain’t mistaken, Levi, ya want this figure today, right?”

Levi grinds his teeth. “Right.”

“Well, then! Ya want me to go buy it for you today, you pay me my two hundred and twenty-five thousand Grimm labor fee!”

“I’m not paying you that much Grimm extra.”

“Then go buy it yourself!”

“I can’t. I have to finish this gaming campaign today. I already put it off long enough, and it’s not my fault that the Ruri-chan neko maid figure releases today, too! It's gonna sell out, fast!”

“Then pay me my damn labor fee!”

“You just made that up, and I already told you—I’m not paying you that much, you ass!”

And on they go.

You’ve been listening to the two brothers argue for the past fifteen minutes. You had thought by now maybe Mammon and you would have gotten a start on his shopping, but no, he had insisted on barging into Levi’s room to see if he could make a little extra Grimm off of his younger brother before the two of you left.

“You’re scum, Mammon, you know that?” Levi growls. He turns to you, pouting. “What about you, MC? Will you buy my precious Ruri-chan figurine for me?”

You sigh. “Give me the money, Levi. If I see the figure, I’ll buy it.”

The third-born demon grins. “Thanks! I knew I could count on you.”

He rummages through the pocket of his coat and begins to count out the right amount of Grimm. Once he has enough bills, he hands the stack to you, but before you can grab it, the money is intercepted by Mammon.

“I’ll hold onto that for you, MC,” Mammon assures, a coy smile lighting his face. “You don’t have any pockets in that sweatshirt.”

You smile sardonically and pull Levi’s money back. You know better than to trust Mammon, the Avatar of Greed with money of all things. Secrets? Maybe. Schemes? Definitely. Being a tsundere idiot? There was no one more capable. But money? You’d be rivaling him in idiocy if you did that.

“It’s fine; I got it,” you promise, sliding the money into the deepest pocket in your backpack.

Levi scowls at Mammon as you two leave. “Please die.”

“Here we are, MC!” Mammon grins, waving his hand for you to take in all the scenery. “The most expensive shopping district in all of the Devildom!”

You look around at your surroundings; it was a horribly gaudy site. There are huge building complexes, studded with stores selling items from the most famous brands in the world. What really brings out the garishness of the location is that every store seems to be covered in gold.

There’s a gilded Ralph Goren shop, a Chanhell showroom that sparkles with a yellow brighter than the sun, and even a Burbury emporium that glitters with a fine flaxen coating.

“Why … why does everything look like this?” you can’t help but ask.

Mammon, who had been staring lovingly at the lurid buildings, looks over at you, pulled out of his reverie. “What? Oh, the gold? It’s just to show how expensive everything is.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, MC,” Mammon explains, suddenly grabbing your hand as he leads you further into the shining abyss. “All this stuff—” He gestures toward all the name-brand stores. “You can find in any of the regular couture shopping districts in the Devildom. However, the stuff sold here specifically—the very same stuff in all the other stores—is more expensive. The buildings are all covered in gold to represent that. It’s great, huh?”

You dig your heels in the ground. “Wait … you mean … you’re only shopping here … because it’s expensive?”

“Duh! Things that cost more make ya look cool.” He yanks your hand harder to get you moving again. “Not that I need help looking cool or anythin.’”

“Of course.”

Wow, you realize. He really lives up to his title of the Avatar of Greed.

“Oh! Look over there! Silver-plated spurs! Let’s go see if they have ‘em in bronze or somethin’—silver kinda clashes with my look, y’know? And holy crap, they’re selling diamond insoles for your slippers in that store! Can’t imagine they’d be comfortable, but still, why wouldn’t you want ‘em?”

Before you know it, you and Mammon are standing in line for the register at Versucky, with the second-born demon holding at least seven or eight different, high-end items, all of which you wonder if he has any use for.

“I know what you’re thinking, MC,” Mammon says, looking at your confused expression. “How much money does the Great Mammon make from modeling if he can afford to buy this much stuff?”

You want to point out that that was not in fact, what you were wondering, but he barrels on ahead.

“Well, a lot, of course, ‘cause y’know, I got all this.” He gestures toward his body sensuously. “But still, even if it’s not enough, I got my beloved Goldie!” Mammon shuffles all his desired items to one hand, and with the other, whips out a shiny black credit card from his pocket.

Your eyes widen. “Didn’t Lucifer confiscate that from you two days ago?”

“Yeah,” Mammon admits. “But I found it. He left it in one of the oysters in Levi’s aquarium—don’t ask how I figured it out.”

You shake your head and can’t help but smile at his rebelliousness. You wonder how Lucifer is going to punish Mammon for his craftiness this time.

As you and he reach the front of the line, Mammon suddenly drops everything he’s holding. “Oh, crap.”

You reach to pick up all the items that had tumbled to the ground. “What?”

“Well … “ Mammon scratches the back of his neck, a slight blush coming over his tan skin. “I just realized that I promised I’d buy ya somethin’ if you came with me, and heh, here you are.”

“It’s okay, Mammon; you don't need to get me anything,” you reassure him. You hadn’t really expected him to keep his end of the bargain, and honestly, you didn’t really care. You hadn’t actually needed anything from the store, and in fact, the only reason you had tagged along was, well, for the company … and the fact that Mammon wouldn’t have shut up if you hadn’t.

“No, it’s not,” he says. He grabs your wrist and leads you out of Versucky. “I said I’d buy ya somethin’ and that’s what I’m gonna do. Here, we’ll buy whatever you want first, so then I’ll know how much Grimm I have left to spend.”

“But you don’t have to worry about how much money you can spend,” you remind him. “You have Goldie.”

Mammon’s blush deepens. “W—well, yeah, I know!” He looks down, grinding his heel into the ground. “But I just remembered that Lucifer put a control lock on her that notifies him every time she’s being used, and then he’ll know I took her back.” His head whips up immediately. “And just so y’know, it ain’t like I’m afraid of him, or anythin;’ I just figured not using her would be the smarter thing to do, that’s all!”

You smile at his display. “If you say so.”

“Wh—what! Ya don’t believe me?”

“No, no, of course, I do.”

“You—you better!” He coughs and tries to regain his composure. “Now, where do you wanna go? Unless ya wanted to shop at Versucky, ‘cause I guess we could go back in there.”

“I’m not really sure,” you admit. Even in the human world, you weren’t very familiar with couture brands, and you’re even more lost in the Devildom. Your eyes scan the apparently endless miles of gilded shops until you spot a strange blip of steel gray in the sea of gold. “What’s that?”

Mammon squints in the direction you point. “Never seen that store before in my life. Kinda gross, though. The whole ashy color scheme really clashes with the rest of the buildings here.”

To be honest, you find the dull color of the edifice somewhat soothing compared to the sheer gaudiness of its surroundings. You begin to make your way over to it, Mammon in tow.

“Thrifty’s Cheap Finds,” Mammon reads as you near the building. He dry heaves. “Cheap finds? What is this? Some kind of lame way to attract broke-ass degenerates like …” He trails off when he sees your raised eyebrow and blushes. “I wasn’t gonna end that sentence with ‘you,’ I swear! Calm down!”

You shake your head and don’t respond as you enter the store. As you begin to wander around the shop, not even Mammon can keep his jaw from falling open in wonder. Inside Thrifty’s Cheap Finds is everything from hairspray to mattresses to books to cookie sheets—all of them branded with human company labels.

“No wonder everything here is so cheap,” Mammon realizes. “No one in the Devildom wants human stuff. Well, unless you’re Satan and Lucifer and like all that antique crap.”

You resist the desire to glare at him and instead pore through everything in the shop, your eyes never failing to examine each item. It’s been months since you’ve been home and seen any of these types of knickknacks.

A wave of homesickness washes over you as you finger a timeless gingham tablecloth, as Mammon ambles off to the electronics section, which is filled with ancient-looking cellphones and computers.

You swallow the feeling away before it can cause a lump in your throat and tears in your eyes. You wander farther down, realizing that all the mismatched pots and pans mean that this is the cooking aisle.

You pause in the section of this aisle that displays cookbooks and remember the miserable look on Beelzebub’s face earlier today. Perhaps, you wonder, there is something in here that would cheer him up.

The cookbooks are all in disarray, and you shuffle through the many stacks of them several times before you find a book that you think Beel would like. You flip through the cookbook and nod in approval; the pictures are large and detailed and the human recipes are quick, simple and hearty—perfect for the always hungry Avatar of Gluttony.

You flip the book over and read the price tag. “Nine thousand Grimm.”

You worry that that’s too much, especially since you remember Satan once mentioning that books from the human world usually weren’t economical. You haven’t really gotten the idea of how much a single Grimm is worth yet, and you keep hearing Mammon’s voice in your head, insisting that whatever you buy today be cheap.

“Hey, what’cha got there, MC?” Mammon asks, materializing as if on cue. “This what you want?” He grabs the book from your hands and gives it a mildly disgusted look. “A cookbook?”

“It’s for Beel,” you say, defensively.

Mammon raises an eyebrow. “The only demon ya should be buying stuff for is me, but I’ll let it slide this time.” He too flips the book over. You grimace nervously as his eyes widen when he sees the price.

“I’ll put it back if it’s too expens—” you begin, pulling it away.

Mammon blushes. “Ar—are you kidding, MC? When I said to buy something cheap earlier, I didn’t actually mean it! Hell, I’m willing to splurge on ya if you really want somethin!’ You didn’t actually have to go find something this dirt-cheap!”

Huh, so nine thousand Grimm is considered inexpensive, you note. You smile at Mammon’s uncharacteristic generosity. “It’s okay, I really do want this.”

He runs a hand through his hair and tries to regain his composure, but to no avail. “Y—you sure? I mean—if ya wanna get somethin’ from Ralph Goren or somethin,’ I’m cool with that!”

You hold the cookbook to your chest and nod. “I’m sure.” You grab his hand and lead him to the register.

As Mammon pays the nine thousand Grimm to the lanky demon clerk, he shakes his head and looks at you. “You really are something else, y’know that, MC?”

Chapter 3

As soon as you and Mammon return home, you walk over to Leviathan’s room and knock on his door. Hung on your wrist is a bag from a store called, Look At Me, I’m a Stupid Otaku (or at least, that’s what Mammon had told you the building sign had said. You don’t know how to read Japanese.), which held a Ruri-chan figurine. “Levi? It’s me, MC.”

“Come in,” the third-born demon calls.

You open the door, only to see Levi slouched over on his computer. You take the figurine out of the bag. “Where do you want this?”

“Oh, is that my darling Ruri-chan?” he asks, his eyes never leaving the screen. “You can bring it here. Sorry, I’d come over and get it myself, but there are only two minutes left on this boss stage, and he still has half of his HP left.”

You bring the figure to his desk and leave it next to what looks like a box of granola bars. “Super high-energy chocolate-covered cricket snacks,” you read. “Now with extra protein.” You blanch because despite living in the Devildom for a while, you still have yet to become accustomed to the food.

“Yeah, sometimes when I’m really in the gaming zone, I don’t leave my room for days, not even to get meals and stuff lololol, so I keep those here if I get hungry.”

“Can I have one?” You are planning to check in on Beel after making this stop to Levi’s room, and realize that it would be better to show up with food.

His eyes glued to his computer, Levi nods. “Go for it.”

As you reach into the box to take one, Levi suddenly turns toward you, even though you can see the timer counting down on his game. “Better take the whole box. Beel’s not gonna be satisfied with just one.” He sighs. “Everyone’s been kinda worried about him, you know? He’s been down all day, but he’s not saying anything to anyone, not even Belphie.” He perks up. “But! If there is someone who can make him feel better, it’s you, MC!”

You smile at his worry for his brother. “Thanks, Leviathan.” You stuff the box into your backpack.

He nods, before turning back to his game, frowning when he realizes that the onscreen timer read 00:00 and he hadn’t been able to finish off the boss. “He’s in the gym.”

“Of course,” you say, as you leave his room.

Just as Levi had said, you find Beel in the House of Lamentation’s fully-equipped gym.

The sixth-born demon is sitting cross-legged in front of an elliptical, a towel slung across his shoulders. Unsurprisingly, his twin—Belphegor—is with him, napping with his head resting on Beel’s lap.

Beel frowns nervously when he sees you. “Oh, hi, MC.” He sighs. “ I guess you’re not here to tell Belphie how cute he looks sleeping like this. ”

You cock your head curiously. “I can if you want me to.”

Beel shakes his head. “I was just checking to see if he's awake.”

“Ah,” you realize, sitting down next to him. “Is there something that you don’t want Belphie to hear?”

Beel nods but doesn’t say anything more. Instead, he fiddles with the hem of his rather tight-fitting tank top. You try not to stare at the bulging silhouette of his abs that show through. “It’s funny,” he begins. “When either of us is upset, I get less hungry, but Belphie becomes more sleepy.”

You remember learning of the twins’ connection a few days earlier. The two had a bond so strong that they sometimes shared each other’s feelings, and if one had an extreme emotion, the other would often experience it, too. You put a hand on his arm. “What are you so upset about, Beel?”

He groans. “It’s nothing, really.”

You decide to try a different tactic. “You’re worrying your brothers,” you admit gently.

“I know.” Beel takes a deep breath. Twisting around, he pulls out his navy backpack from behind the elliptical. After rummaging through it for a moment, he pulls out a telltale Physics IV: Mind Over Matter textbook. He flips to the end of the book and releases a packet of paper, which he hands to you.

You examine it for a moment, surprised to see in obnoxious red ink, the phrase F - sprawled across the front. Maybe stick to lifting weights, meathead is written underneath it. Although the words cause your blood to boil, you swallow your anger and calmly move your hand up to Beel’s shoulder. “You’re upset because you did bad on a test?”

Beel slouches, his back sliding down one of the supports of the elliptical. He continues to fiddle with his shirt and doesn’t meet your eyes. “It’s not just that,” he confesses. “If I fail another one, my professor is going to make me repeat the subject.” He sighs. “Belphie’s always helped me study in Physics; we almost always have the same class schedule—except I take Weights and he takes regular P.E—and he always made sure I knew the material.”

“But Belphie doesn’t go to R.A.D this year,” you realize. “He’s supposed to be enrolled in a human school for the exchange program.”

“Yeah,” Beel sighs. “I can’t ask him to learn the information at home with me—I know he would if I asked—he’s already been through so much this year.” He gulps. “Lucifer is going to be so mad when he finds out I’m failing.”

“Why can’t you just get a tutor, like Mammon does?”

“You see how everyone makes fun of him because of that.”

You want to point out that Mammon usually brought the teasing upon himself and justified it with his unrelenting moronness, but an idea strikes you instead. “Hey, I 'm in Physics IV, too. Why don’t we study together?”

Beel’s face lights up. “Really, MC? You’d do that?”

You laugh as you hear his stomach growl in excitement. “Of course!” You remember the cricket snacks you took from Levi’s room and begin to take the box out of your backpack. You see the cookbook you bought for him and take that out, too. “You’re hungry, now?”

He grins sheepishly. “Yes, I’m famished!”

“Look here, I brought you snacks,” you say, handing the box to him. “Thank Levi next time you see him.”

Beel immediately rips open a package and begins to eat. “Hi wroh.” He swallows, and repeats, “I will. Thanks to you, too.” He looks at the cookbook in your hand curiously. “What’s that?”

You place the book in his lap, balancing it precariously on Belphegor’s head. “It’s a cookbook from the human world. I bet it has all kinds of recipes for foods you haven’t tried before.”

Beel grabs another cricket snack as his eyes widen. “I haven’t eaten many human foods before. Let’s look at it together.”

You nod, opening the book and flipping the page as Beel munches.

“Haha,” he laughs. “Angel Food Cake. Maybe we should make some for Simeon and Luke.”

You smile and turn to the following page. The next recipe is for Devil’s Food Cake. “Or maybe you can make this one for dessert someday. Or this one—look—Deviled Eggs.”

“Those look good.” Opening another snack, Beel suggests, “Hey, MC, I’m on dinner duty tomorrow. Want to help me cook some of these foods? Or maybe, I can cook and you can help me study?”

“That sounds like a good idea, Beel,” you muse. “What do you think we should make, then?”

“Well, Satan won’t eat animals, Leviathan refuses to eat seafood, and Belphie—” He pats his brother on the head. “—doesn’t like to eat beef or veal. If we use any of those, we probably have to substitute the meat with other things.”

You and Beel pore through the cookbook for several hours, finally deciding on Deviled Eggs as appetizers, Garlic Parmesan Risotto and Savory Mashed Potatoes for the main course, and Black Forest Cake for dessert.

“This will be fun,” Beel promised, yawning. “I’ll pick up the ingredients after school tomorrow.”

You curse the contagiousness of yawns as you yawn, too, feeling your eyes grow heavy. You can feel Beel’s head rest on your shoulder as he begins to snore lightly. Without thinking, you lean your head to the right, feeling Beel’s under you. You promise yourself that you won’t fall asleep as you close your eyes and mutter, “Sounds … like a … plan.”

Chapter 4

“I’m gonna kill him,” Mammon whispers, his voice low and colder than ice as you, him, and Beel huddle over your D.D.D. “I’m really gonna kill him.”

Beel frowns at his elder brother. “Why are you so upset? You’re not even in the picture.”

“Yeah, if anyone should be mad, it’s me, Beel, or Belphie,” you comment, zooming in on the photo, which had been taken yesterday.

It was from when you and Beel had fallen asleep together as you two pored over the cookbook you had bought for him. Strangely enough, Asmodeus—who had both taken and posted the photo—was in the picture, as well; he was posing as if he had been napping sweetly on your shoulder the whole time. To everyone’s surprise, the only one “awake” in the photo appeared to be Belphie, who had wriggled his way from lying in Beel’s lap to having his legs rest on his brother while his torso and head were sprawled all over your lap. He was too deeply engrossed in reading Beel’s new cookbook to notice his brother taking the picture. Asmodeus captioned the photo, Just getting a bit of beauty sleep with my babes 😘.

“Yes, you should!” Mammon says. “ Why aren’t you, by the way? This photo is a total invasion of your privacy!” He whirls toward Beel, his eyebrows downturned in anger. “And what’s the big idea, Beel? Sleepin’ on MC’s shoulder like that?” He puts a hand on your head patronizingly. “You shouldn’t touch anyone like that without their permission!”

Beel smiles. “Well, I think MC looks cute in this photo! And it’s not my fault that we fell asleep like that.”

Mammon rolls his eyes. “Well, I’m still gonna kill Asmo for postin’ it.” He taps on your Devilgram feed to unlike the photo. “Anyway, why’d ya call me here?” he asks, gesturing toward the Hall of Lamentation’s kitchen.

“No one called you here,” you remind him, taking a seat at the kitchen table. You reach down, grab your backpack and pull out the cookbook you had bought for Beel, as well as your copy of Physics IV: Mind Over Matter.

“Yeah,” Beel agrees, his mouth downturned in a frown. “You just heard that MC was going to be in the kitchen helping me cook and decided to come along.”

Blushing, Mammon takes a seat next to you. “Maybe I just wanted to help ya cook, Beel.”

“No way.” Beel sticks out his arms, barring him from entering the kitchen. “You’re not helping me cook. If you cook, I won’t eat it.”

“Okay, okay, fine, jeez.”

As you flip through the cookbook to find the recipes that you and Beel had decided to make yesterday, Mammon grabs your Physics textbook, whipping through it boredly. “Why’d ya bring your textbook to the kitchen? You having trouble in Physics and want to study here or somethin’? ‘Cause if you are, never fear—The Mammon is here!”

You look at Beel—who glances at you nervously—from the corner of your eyes. You yank the textbook away from Mammon. “You’re not even taking Physics.”

“Yeah, I’m taking Chemistry, and have a C in it, so I’m still passing—so what?”

“How are you supposed to teach me Physics when you’re not even in it?”

“MC! Don’t doubt the Great Mammon’s abilities!”

“Oh yeah? Does the Great Mammon know the formula for … angular acceleration?”

“The change in angular speed divided by the change in time,” Beel pipes up, as he hovers over the stove, checking for the water to boil for his Deviled Eggs.

Mammon laughs and waves his hand at his brother. “Don’t be ridiculous, Beel.” He turns to you. “C’mon, MC, don’t mess around with me. I know ‘angular acceleration’ isn’t even a real word.”

You turn to the glossary in the back of your book and point to the term with the formula next to it, which Beel had recited. “Seems like the Great Mammon’s abilities have failed him.” You watch Mammon blush furiously and smile. “And besides, Beel and I are having a Physics study session, since we’re both in the class.”

“And we’re not getting much studying done with you here,” Beel quips. He retrieves four dozen eggs from the refrigerator and begins to carefully drop them into the boiling water on the stove with a ladle.

You do a double-take and glance at the cookbook. “Beel, the serving information here says that to serve eight people you only need sixteen eggs, at the most.”

Mammon and Beel shake their heads.

“If my brothers are going to get a chance to eat anything, we’re going to have to make this many,” Beel decides. He hoists up a giant pot of potatoes that had been already boiling on the stove and plops it in front of Mammon, handing him a potato masher. “Mash these.”

“I thought you said you didn’t want me to cook anything,” Mammon whines.

“Yes, because whatever you make tastes gross. Mashing the potatoes isn’t cooking anything, so you can do just that.”

Mammon grumbles something that sounds curse word-y, but stands up and begins to work the masher into the potatoes. “Just for that, I’m making ‘em creamy. No lumps.” He whispers to you, “Beel loves lumpy potatoes.”

“Fine, Belphie will like it smooth, anyway,” Beel assures. He walks over to the refrigerator and yanks out an entire wheel of parmesan cheese. He sets it in front of you and hands you a cheese grater. “Can you shred this cheese, MC? I’m about to start getting the arborio rice for the risotto ready and the whole process is going to take a while.”

Your eyes widen. He wants me to grate the entire wheel of parmesan. “Sure, but what about our … you know, study session?” You had promised to help Beel with Physics, and you were by no means going to forget about it.

“Ask me questions as we go? Sorry, I didn’t realize how much there was to do,” he says sheepishly.

You nod, laying your Physics textbook flat open to Chapter Seven, which was your assigned reading for your next class.

You cut off a block of cheese and begin to run it against the serrated surface of the cheese grater for several hours, asking Beel problem after problem from the book. He stumbles on quite a few of them, but you correct him only if you know how to—after all, you yourself aren't a master in Physics. The ones you don’t are questions that you skip, mentally circling them to come back to later.

Every so often, Beel grabs a scoop of the mound of grated parmesan that you have shredded and adds it to his pot of risotto. Surprisingly, Mammon also throws several handfuls of cheese into his potatoes, as he mashes them until they are so smooth that you were sure that not even an ant would be able to find the tiniest lump.

Beel doesn’t notice that Mammon adds the rest of the ingredients in the recipe to the potatoes—copious amounts of cream, whole stalks of herbs, salt, and more butter than you have ever seen in your life, and stirs them together.

“Beel says he won’t eat anythin’ I make ‘cause he’ll hate it,” Mammon explains to you when you stare at him for disobeying his brother’s explicit orders of doing nothing but mashing the potatoes. He smirks. “But wait ‘till he gets a load of these. They’re gonna be great.”

You roll your eyes at the mischievous demon, wondering how his little fling with deviancy is going to bite him this time.

“Okay, time to assemble the cake,” Beel announces, plopping all forty-eight freshly-piped Deviled Eggs onto the table, along with a steaming casserole filled with Garlic Parmesan Risotto. “MC, can you sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top?”

As you begin to do just that, he brings over three round German chocolate cakes, a bowl of whipped cream, and a dish filled with cherries macerated in sugar. One of the three cakes is already topped with a layer of cream and cherries.

“I hate cherries,” Mammon grumbles.

As if on cue, Asmodeus walks by. “That’s why you’ve never popped one.”

You stifle your laughter as Mammon’s face turns a very unbecoming shade of red. “Asmo!” He sprints after his brother, leaving you and Beel alone in the kitchen. “I was already gonna kill you once, but now I’m gonna kill you twice! C’mere, you bastard!”

You turn towards Beel, who is putting the third layer of cake onto the growing tower and covering it with whipped cream.

Putting his spatula down, Beel looks at you. “MC, thanks so much for helping me today—with the food, with the studying, with everything.” He looks down. “I don’t know what I would’ve done without you.”

You smile at him. “It’s no problem, Beel!”

“No, really,” Beel insists, staring into your eyes with an intensity that sends shivers all the way down to your toes and causes you to flush pink. “I feel so much more confident now in Physics. I think if I took a quiz today, I’d at least know enough to pass.”

“I’m just glad I could help,” you say honestly.

Beel grins and carefully lifts the Black Forest Cake by its base and puts it on a cake pedestal. “It’s time to put all this food in the dining room,” he says. He then notices Mammon’s mashed potatoes. He frowns as he sees the green herb fragments, signifying that his brother had done something other to the potatoes than simply mash them as he had told him to. He dips a spoon into the pot and tastes them. Beel’s face becomes a blazing inferno. “I’m going to eat him.”

“What?” you ask, noticing the sudden shift in his mood.

“Sugar.”

“Sugar?”

“He put … sugar … in the Savory Mashed Potatoes.”

THE END

#obey me #obey me shall we date #obey me mammon #obey me shall we date mammon #obey me shall we date beel #obey me beelzebub #obey me shall we date beelzebub #obey me beel #fluff #humor #brothers #fanfiction #fanfic #adverbslut_writes

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popculturebuffet · 4 years ago

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Jake Reviews Stuff: Steven Universe: The Answer

Happy pride everyone and naturally, it just wouldn’t feel like a celebration of pride in animation without one of the frontrunners of LBGTQ represintation in Children’s television, as well as quality in storytelling in general: Steven Universe. Since your seeing this you probably know the gist but as my idol peter parker would say let’s do this one last time: The story of Steven, a 14 year old, though he dosen’t look it, boy with a boundless amount of love, compassion and empathy, lives in beach city with his borderline homeless dad , surrogate moms and surrogate until we find out they actually are kinda related sister: Garnet, a fusion of two gems in love and thus the sum total of both them and their feelings, Peal, an emotional but loving gem who grew from a servant to Rose’s right hand, sometimes lover, and confidant, and Amythest, a gem born long after the war that brought everyone else here who acts like a 20 something or teenager half the time. Steven soon finds himself fighting alongside themt o protect earth both from the monsters caused by the final battle of the war his mother fought to save earth from distruction and let her army live life how they choose, and the gem homeworld as it starts to take an intrest in earth again. And as the fight goes on Steven also starts to see just how flawed his family is and how much they haven’t moved on from his moms death and finds himself forced to help them past it while grappling with his mom’s terrible and complicated legacy, everyone expecitng him to basically be her, and what it means to be a being that’s truly one of a kind. I absolutley love the show: it’s not without flaws; Characters tend to be ingnored for seasons or episodes at a time,some arcs are really weirdly paced and the slice of life episodes can be jammed in the weirdest places. But the show’s strength: a devotion to having emotional resolution be even more important, and sometimes just as powerful animated and framed, than fighting, though the show’s fight scene’s are incredible, incredibly deep characters with fully fleshed out arcs and growth, and a love for tackling deep, heavy subjects through metaphor or even directly, taking on things such as gender identity, societal conformity, ptsd, grief, gender identity and many many more with grace and weight and helping kids with them in the process. The show is also the frontrunner for LBGTQ+ representation in cartoons in the 2010′s. While other shows had bits nad pieces, series creator Rebecca Sugar was the one responsible for making Marcline and Princess Bubblegum ex-lovers and making it obvious as possible without saying it because standards were bullshit, Steven Unvierse decided to say fuck subtley and thus had PLENTY OF gay content: Garnet is a fusion of two women and the embodiment of their love and relationship, and when the two show up their very affectionate with one another to the point of bullcrap censorship in less tolerant countries such as india and russia, while Pearl out and out had a CENTURIES LONG romantic relationship with Steven’s mother who was explictly pansexual, and that’s just the main cast! But I genuinely believe that it’s thanks to Steven Universe that children’s animation is as LBGTQ+ positive as it is now. SU wasn’t the first to have gay leads but it was one of the few kids shows with the balls and, at least in the us, network support to explictily have gay characters as some of the main cast, and I feel the show’s success softend execs at CN and other companies to let more representation too. Since SU”s airing, most CN shows have had gay content great and small, Nick has had gay parents and a bisexual lead, not to mention the korra ending kicking it all off, and Netflix has said hold my beer, having not only multiple gay main characters, but having the finale of she ra be built on a decleration of love between two women saving the universe and being the climax of the entire series. Not that those crews likely still didn’t have to FIGHT for most of that, i’m not bilind and NOelle Stevenson has outright admitted she had to be sneaky about catradora for season 1 as to not get it shut down, but I feel SU”s sucess and Rebecca and crew’s own likely fights put the various studio goon’s reflector shields down and got more representation into children’s media. And that’s a wonderful thing. So naturally the show was a lock for this month and for coverage here.. i’ts just given the show’s heavily seralized nature and the fact it dosen’t really have any long romantic story arcs. Sure ther’es plenty of romance, but it’s mostly either in the past or between an already married couple that’s also a person. The show’s arcs were more focused on worldbuilding and character building, which I do prefer and will be doing one in July. But it did make it tricky to find an episode to spotlight the character I wanted to spotlight: Garnet Garnet is easily my faviorite character, with pearl a very close second: she has a great dynamic, is a decent if flawed mother and leader, and is also damn funny with her deadpanned reactions to things being utterly divine. As well as whatever the hell this is.

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The problem is I also wanted to spotlight the parts making up her: Ruby and Sapphire, their relationship etc as they themselves are fantastic and i’m 100% convinced were the inspriation for one mr mc skat kat and one paula abdul’s magnum opus in steven’s unvierse

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The problem is most rupphire episodes are tangled in bigger arcs. They debuted at the end of the invasion arc, they had the baseball episdoe together shortly after another arc, and their wedding is tied up in the reveal rose was pink diamond and the reception is crashed by the climactic battle with Yellow and Blue that sets up the final arc of the whole series. But thankfully season two gave us The Answer to my problem.. ironically named the Answer, basically Garnet Year One as Garnet tells steven how she came to be, a story so beauitful they made a storybook out of it.. and it’s my honor to present it here after the cut.

We open at the Barn... as a refresher at this point the Gems and Steven have been staying at Greg’s old family farm in order to have the space and suplies to build a drill to stop the cluster from hatching and destroying earth, with Peridot reluctantly working with them. So as such Steven’s sleeping there when Garnet wakes her.. and in a notable departure for her it’s san’s shade, which shows her adorable excitment as she wakes Steven. Turns out it’s his birthday! And.. I don’t really begrudge the show for takin ga break for two episodes to celebrate it: besides being the only time steven went up a year, on screen, it was a nice break from the peridot/cluster storyline for a second, and this and the following episode are pretty great and both add a lot to the world as a whole. It’s why i don’t MIND when SU takes a break from the plot, as long as they do it for good reason.

IN a great callback steven asks if garent’s going to tell him she’s a fusion, as Jailbreak revealed the reason she hadn’t yet is she was saving it for his birthday, which is a good joke and a great callback. Garnet cheerfully tells him know but has clearly found a backup: While steven knows she’s a fusion now.. she never told him how she came to be and how ruby and sapphire met after all. So we journey back about 5000 years to, as we’d learn much later with the pink diamond reveal, the start of the gem war. Earth was to be the next great colony, as we’d learn next season for pink diamond, but something was in the way: The rebel rose quartz and her brutal right hand pearl were causing tons of distruption, so the rest of the diamonds had come to snuff out the rebellion personally. So that’s where Ruby and Sapphire came in. Sapphire is a higher class gem, and befiting her caste is a precog, with Sapphires brought in to tell the diamonds the future so they can either make sure it happens or change it’s course. Garnet neaturally has this ablility too but vastly improved to see multiple timelines. She’s proper and distant. Ruby meanwhile is a shy, if more intellgent then her peers grunt soldier. Rubies as we learned here are basically made in groups to fuse. To homeworld, Fusion is simply a tactic to create a slightly stronger gem out of three other gems, and basically creates one giant person. In Contrast up to this point the series has shown fusion as something important to the crystal gems and requriing more work: It requires all parties to be in sync to even happen much less stay together, and requires an emotional connection; Freindship, romance, kinship... whatever it is it’s needed to hold the fusion together. It’s part of what MAKES garnet so impressive: Garnet is a permafusion, only unfusing either when her two halves are needed. or when thier personal conflict is so great they CAN’T stay fused. It also means due to said emotional resonance and combining the best traits of two gems rather than creating just one big gem, that the crystal fusions we’ve seen are vastly more powerful and versitale.. evne if they dont’ speak much because Rebecca made the mistake of getting big artist to do the role and apparently refused to just you know.. recast? It’s something that always baffled me. There’s no shortage of talented poc performers who can sing out there. Anyways, that’s part of what makes this intresting: up till now, we’d only seen one form of fusion.. we hadn’t seen what homeworld thought of it and used it for, and to the show’s credit it was hinted back during the return arc when Jasper called fusion a “tactic for making weak gems stronger”, since as far as homeworld used it, that’s what it was and it’s a stark contrast to the crystal gems harder to maintain but much more intresting and unique fusions.

We’ll get more into this later. The two front rubies argue about whose going to punch people whie our ruby just points out the obvious: Their just going to fuse into a really big ruby and punch together. This gets her shoved into sapphire, which despite not being her fault gets gasps and monocle pops from the gems around them. And it’s about time I dug into the episodes unique animation style: instead of the usual, only a handful of characters, the rubies, sapphire, and later rose and pearl, are animated normally and even then, at least for the first half, are brightly lit in their primary colors, while the rest of the gems present are just barely animated sytlistic shadows. It’s a really intresting choice and a clever way to save on budget, while still looking gorgeous.

Sapphire, while refusing Ruby’s help getting up, is understanding if monotone, but as w’eve seen in the present, tha’ts mostly just a side effect from seeing where everything’s going, and likely the reason garnet’s own emotional process is much like that; Stoic but willing to emote when necessary. Sapphire however has a reason for brushing her ruby off: the reason she was called here.. Blue Diamond. This is intresting as it’s not only the first time we HEARD of blue, as before this we only heard of Yellow, who’d make her proper debut at the end of this season, but the first time we saw a diamond in any way shape of form. Sure we had murals and such, but given the lack of info about the diamonds this early on it was impossible to tell whow as who and the only giveway there was more than was diamond was the symbols: the era 1 symbols in temples and at the arena showing all 4, hinting at pink, and the modern one shown in jailbreak that was a triforce. We do only see Blue in a hood, covered by her palquin and her voice done by Garnet, but it’s still the first tiem we’d see any of the diamonds in any onscreen form. The Garnet voice is also notcable as every other voice in the flashabck, including characters who aren’t either part of garnet or the same gem type as part of her, is normal.. it’s only blue Garnet does a voice for.. and a clever way of covering for the fact they likely hadn’t cast her voice actress yet. It’s also notable for the introduction of Blue Pearl, who silently stands by her Diamond teh whole time.. it’s weird thinking back to the fact that this was the first time we’d really SEEN other versions of our main cast: other rubies and another pearl. Sure we knew they were all part of one type or another with the obvious exception of garnet.. but this episode is notable, and weird to think about giiven how many variants we see as the series goes on, for being the FIRST time we see this on screen.

Sapphire reveals that while she, and two of her rubies, will poof the rebllion will end here, and Blue is releaved to here this, thanks sapphire and dismisses her. As Garnet explains, Sapphire had no issue with this as she simply saw her life as one straight line: No choice no, option: Fate would just come as it may. Sapphire also muses to Our Ruby on the fact that she finds this planet a wonderful place for a colony.. and that she wishes she could’ve seen more of it. While Our Ruby says theirs more time, Sapphire, while appricating the sentiment gently shoots it down. This little moment is interuptted however as Rose shouts out, signaling her and Pearl’s arrival. The battle has begun. And I do like the clever use of storytelling here.. not in presetnation but in what we’d learn muchhhh later with the big reveal: To a first time watcher, we just thought that it was only rose and pearl for story purposes or it was a small attack. After all the rest of the characters we’d seen were just shadows, so I, and I presume many others just assumed the rest were off screen or failing that this was just a small strike. As we’d learn once we got the full story of Pink Diamond becoming rose.. it was indeed JUST them, and only them at the time. it’s probably why in the future sapphire saw the rebellion ended her: Pink while powerful had to reign it in as not to be found out and pearl, while as we see her is already utterly badass and an ace with a sword as she mows down Quartz soldiers, is still one gem going up against a literal army. Another noticable thing, that hints at when this takes place is the fact that when Rose takes down the fused rubies, poofing two of them and leaving ours to flump to the ground.. she uses her fists. At this point her iconic sword is well established and it’s assumed it was just left out for artistic purpose.. but since we meet who made it next season with Bismuth, it’s another clever hint this is before there was a proper army. Bismuth wasn’t a gem yet so Rose/Pink just had her natural strength and shield to protect her, which wasn’t nothing, but the sword probably made it far easier to hold back.

And thus we come to the moment of truth: Pearl has come back and is about to mow down sapphire.. when Ruby realizes just waht Sapphire meant and waht she’s about to do and thus.. the future changed. Ruby tackles her out of the way. And Garnet is born.

I absolutley love Garnet’s cotton candy design, both as a sensible evolution, as this is a garnet formed in a moment of passion and accidently versus the one we see in the present or even in flashbacks: a person formed by choice and love and thus having a more stable form. Naturally, Rose and Pearl are baffled by this.. and it’s even more understandable.. as the above mentioned pink diamond origin episode explained.. they had never SEEN this kind of fusion before. While i’m sure this isn’t the first time this happend in gem history, any others were likely killed as soon as it were over or went into hiding as we saw with the off colors. And Pink being sheltered and Pearl being created for her, probalby simply never thought of something like this existing. But they also realize this never before seen to them miracle is their cue to skidoo and book it out of there. Naturally Blue is pissed and the court are disgusted as the two defuse and both have about the same reacation.

Before Blue can murder Ruby for you know, doing her fucking job, Sapphire ttakes her by the hand and books it off the sky arena and the two plummet to earth while ruby screams no a lot. The foundation of any good relationship.

They float down to earth.. because she’s Mary Poppins Ya’ll. Ruby reveals why she’s upset: Because as she sees it, there’s dozens of her. She’s not WORTH this. Sapphire has no reaction because for the first time, she has no idea what the future brings, what it means and the future she saw was just shattered. She’s frozen.

Jokes aside I really love that pun. Ruby worries and quickly scoops her up bridal carry style and quickly finds the two a cave. In the cave the two light that flame get that and Ruby continues to freak out over what happened, upset with her self that she’s supposed to save sapphire.. with Sapphire gently reassuring her “you already did.” It’s also intresting as it shows even garnet, or at least half of her, had to go through what peridot did.. it went down a bit easier since exile happened right away, but Ruby still had to shake off the homeworld conceived notion that she was WRONG for saving sapphire simply because it lost them the fight and got them fused and all that. It’s also a nice metaphor for someone whose been told, for a nightmarish rainbow assortment of bullshit resaons, that being gay is wrong only to discover they are and having to realize there’s nothing wrong with who they are.

After a breif flash the two finally talk about their fusion, with Sapphire being suprised considering she figured fusion wasn’t anything like they experinced.. only for Ruby to chime in that sh’es RIGHT: Their fusion wasn’t anything like Ruby’s normal “me but bigger’ fusion.. they lost htemselves.. and both clearly enjoyed it, expressing it through having a third eye for ruby and more than one for sapphi

We then get the utterly adorable musical number: “Something Entirely New”Which takes the so far mildly subtle “This is like two people who had sex with the oppsite gender for the first time “ metaphor.. and just makes it texual as the song basically screams of two people talking over an unfamiliar sexual experince, but in a cute, well done, and intentionally awkward way that’s still approraite for the kids. it’s a real beautiful song and also shows the burgoning couple bond on earth. This is important as a previous episode had garent and out and out say that love takes time and work, accurate and that love at first sight simply dosen’t exist.. and we also see she practices waht she preaches as the montage does show some time past and even before that the two genuiely bonded. Sure they FUSED on the spur of the moment.. but actually loving each other took time and bonding.

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As the song ends, the two dance romantically,deciding to be Garnet for good as we get some nice callbacks to jailbreak: the two hum the tune to stronger than you, now revealed to be their song and spin similarilty to the way they have when they’ve fused, a nice callback that also add’s weight to those previous moments.. and thus two become one and Garnet is reborn.

Garnet narrates as her past self gets used to her strange new form.. and just as she does she falls down a ditch. Eh could’ve been worse.

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Garnet finds herself face to sword with Pearl. Pearl backs off a bit once she realizes who their dealing with, and Garnet panickedly offers to unfuse.. only for Rose to enter. Garnet narrates them as Rose Quartz and her terrifying renegade pearl.

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Truly a force to be reckoned with. Rose dosen’t care about her own feelings though “What you feel is bound to be more intresting” It’s a good moment both because Garnet , up to this point hasn’t had to think about what they are or how they feel.. but more notably... no one but the two gems makingthem up ever cared, not before they were garnet and after all the homeworld gems wanted was to kill her. We also get a great line from garnet: “Why am I sure that i’d rather be this than anything else and that i’d rather do this than anything else i’m supposed to do? “ Rose’s response.. to give a giant grin while saying welcome to earth. As Garnet continues to question things, Rose tells her to never question this, never question what you are... which is a damn good message for a kids show to give out. The metaphor is crystal clear: no matter where you are on that beautiful lbgtq+ rainbow: NEVER be ashamed of who you are, never question it.. just enjoy it. Be who your meant to be and love that person. It’s a damn good message and one badly needed in a medium that for way too fucking long was SCARED to tell messages like this: Of sponsors, of foreign markets, and of idiots like one million moms. it took people like rebecca and her crew to say “fuck that”, to say that queer kids NEED these kinds of stories to know they aren’t alone, they are beautiful how they are. They shoudln’t have to wait to find out what they are.. is okay. And that’s beautiful.

As Rose Tells Garnet that she is the answer, and as we cut back to the present, Steven asks what the answer is. Garnet simply answers: Love. And we close on one great exchange Steven: I knew it Garnet; (wistfully) So did I.

Final Thoughts: While I remembered the episode being good, hence part of the reason I choose it I forgot just HOW great this episode was, especially post reveal. The art direction is goregous, shot like a fairy tail and rightfully so since this episode is told as one, the story is heartwarming and erica and charlene really act their hearts out as ruby and sapphire while Estelle kills it as both present garnet narrating and past garnet, a garnet ENTIRELY diffrent from what we’ve seen but acted beautifully. It’s espcially noticable since unlike the other two lead gems, we obviously wouldn’t see more garnets like we would amythests and pearls, so unlike her contepraries estelle really didn’t get to flex her vocal range as much playing alternate versions as the seasons went on, with this being the closest she got. The episode is beautiful, has a wonderful message, and is just utterly charming and is agian why I DON’T mind that every su episode dosen’t advance the plot: Sometimes it dosen’t need to. And even so this one ended up being WAY more important than I remembered, introducing blue diamond and turning out to be MASSIVELY important once the reveal kicked it: For it was Garnet, and the love dthat forged her that changed Pink’s direction. Before the rebellion was simply a way to stop the occupation of earth and would’ve been snuffed out if not for ruby’s actions.. but seeing garnet, seeing how earth and being free from homeworld’s restraints could positvely impact someone.. it changed rose. Besides bringing her and Pearl together, it also made her realize just what her rebellion could bring to people and what a gem could be and even more how precious her future home was. By forming in an act of Love, garnet changed the entire future of gemkind. By staying that way she did so once more. And that’s beautifully. overall an underated, even by me, little masterwork with once again a damn fine message. We’ll get back to SU soon enough, as I plan to cover the series first full arc as we meet peridot, and see into the souls of our heroines. But first Pride isn’t over yet, and I have one last card on the table as we todd it up a bit with my first look at bojack horseman. Like this if you enjoyed it, comments subscirbe etc etc and don’t be afraid to comission a review for 3 bucks, and until we meet agian, later days.

#steven universe #garnet #ruby #sapphire #rupphire #pearl #rose quartz #pink diamond #blue diamond #the answer #fusion #review #lbtqia #lbtq+#lbtqa #pride month #pride #reviews

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mysterylover123 · 5 years ago

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BNHA OPs 1-7 Ranked

This is my personal opinion. Obviously. The OPs are thoroughly subjective and everyone has their favorites and least favorites. This is just my ranking and its a hard list for me to do because they’re all. So damn good. I’m including both visuals and music here for criteria.

#7. OP 3 “Sora Ni Utaeba” by Amazarashi (Season 2 Part 2, Eps 26-38)

It’s so hard to pick a least favorite. They’re all so good. The imagery in this one is neat and the symbolism is lovely. The song is nice enough. There are a few nice images here and there. This one is just my least favorite of the seven - partly because the song is a little bit too calm for me, and partly because it feels like just a basic summary of the events of the arc in imagery. I think the real reason this one is lower down for me is because it’s tone doesn’t exactly match the arc it��s attached to. The Stain arc is a little dark for this upbeat intro.

#6. OP 5 “Make My Story” by Lenny Code Fiction (Season 3 Part 2 eps 51-63)

This one has a pretty kickass song, albeit one that’s more of a rock jam than an emotional hitter. This one is actually lower down because aside from the final shot of All Might’s shadow encompassing Deku and Kacchan, the rest of it is again just more of a plot summary to me than a big symbolic fest. It’s just straightforward lineups of the characters rather than the more creative images of other OPS. Or maybe it’s just the PLE arc.

#5. OP 1 “THE DAY” by Porno Graffiti (Season 1, Episodes 1-13)

S1′s OP still stands up ok after all this time. This one is very Deku centric, which is probably what makes me like it a lot. All the broody Deku imagery and the opposed BKDK shots, the falling notebooks and the opening image of him reaching out towards that void image of All Might. Also the song is this darker, more edgy jam compared to some of the others and it still stands up after all this time.

#4. OP 7 “Starmarker” by Kana Boon (Season 4 part 2 Episodes 77-88)

This OP is pretty perfect for the season it’s attached to. It looks like a slice of life OP, lower speed and more easy-going in tone, with lots of shots of characters having fun. I’m really into the symbolism of it here and there, especially the part with the candy apple and the brooding scenes of TodoBaku. And all of the Jirous. So much of Jirou in this OP.

#3. OP 2 “Peace Sign” by Kenshi Yonezu (Season 2 Part 1, Eps 14-26)

Ah, the classic. The fan favorite. Most peoples’ pick for at least 2nd place if not first. I do love the song. It just sounds like the soundtrack to BNHA. It fits so well. I think it only lands in 3rd because the imagery is a lot slower and more simplistic than some of the others, at least more so than the top 2, but what we do get is pretty nice, especially the shots of the MCs working out towards the beginning. A respectable 3rd.

#2. OP 6 “Polaris” by BLUE ENCOUNTER (Season 4 Part 1, Episodes 63-77)

Boy howdy did this one grow on me. I started out being annoyed with it and now we’re here. 2nd place. A close second even. The music is epic (I find myself singing along to the title and doing so with gusty). The imagery is all perfect - never though they could make the internship arc look this great. My favorite, of course, is the shot of Deku and Eri falling, but the other stuff is pretty awesome too. It’s so close to being the best. But for now, still unbeaten:

#1. OP 4 “Odd Future” by UVERworld (Season 3 Part 1, Episodes 38-51)

Of course the best arc has the best OP. This one has been the best, to me, since i watched season 3. Still is. Never fails to bowl me over. The music, the imagery, the symbolism for the All Might vs All for One Fight; the shots of the characters, the way it tells you everything while giving away nothing and hypes you up. I KEEP MY IDEALS ZOREZORE is freaking life, man. And that last shot is the series in a nutshell.

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youuuimeanmee · 5 years ago

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Thoughts on Yugami-kun

Despite the overused theme, it's really rare to find a good high school slice-of-life (SOL) manga who has an actual flowing plot and timeline rather than the usual 4-komas or one stand-alone story format. They're not bad, but a 50-pages chapter consist of ordinary lifestyle is refreshing.

I want to gush about the greatness of this manga so beware, it's gonna be lengthy. It only contains minor spoiler either so for those who haven't read it, feel free to stop by.

To put it simply, the story is about Yugami Yuuji who claims he doesn't need friends, a transfer student Watanuki Chihiro who wants friends, and their mundane everyday life. That's it. The conflicts may emerge from the generic SOL formula (school life, after-school club, hanging out with friends, part time job, seeing fireworks, cultural festival, you get it), but details like these are what makes this series so endearing to me.

1) The realness of reality. (i suck with words gahh)

This is a character who's trying to get by on her first part-time job. There're no exaggerating mistakes like breaking 100 plates as a clumsy girl or superficial ability like serving brilliantly as an excellent girl on her first day. No. She's just an ordinary new girl, she's learning and she's struggling. She makes normal rookie errors, like being too glued on customer 1 so she ignored customer 2. And there's no super nice superior to cover her up either.

If you messed up, you messed up. You'll get chewed, you'll get critique and advises to improve yourself. It sucks and it shows. Jun Sakurai actually took his time to give insightful advice for this scene, unlike some SOL manga I've read who would explain it vaguely or skip it entirely so the character is getting away with a simple "You're an idiot, don't do this again." Those details added a layer of realness into the story. And there're more like this in the story.

Some people might find it boring on first glance but it's quite fun if you look into it as you're also learning new things.

2) As I said above, a flowing timeline.

Chihiro got transferred on her second year and the manga ends in graduation. There is the usual SOL plot formula and no time loop- that's the best part. The length is just perfect for me.

3) The characters, Oh My God. They're all wonderful.

Each has their own quirks, and yet they're so normal. What they stereotyped with doesn't necessarily define them. The simplest example would be this one.

Me before: Ahh. Y'see this flashy bad boy? He's bad news. I can smell his cliche upbringing with dark rich lonely fami-

Me after: ... Nvm. (fyi he's not the mc)

I could go on with each character's analysis because they're all great, but it'd take forever.

The point is, each character is portrayed as really human-ly. They have a good side, they have a bad side. They have good days, they have bad days. There're sides they can show, there're sides they want to hide. I can't put it enough into words but it's so good.

Oh, and the character development is amazing. Be it main or side character, everyone has it. Everyone grew up as a person. This manga shows human psychology and relationship as a whole. I want to further explain this point but I'm running out of gas.

And don't get me started on that SHIP TEASE. Yugami-kun is not a romance manga though, it's a comedy SOL manga (even though the majority of my posts are shipping material).

4) Oh, have I told you it has no fanservice? Huh. Must've slipped my mind.

What I explain above is just a little glimpse of the manga's greatness. It's long completed in Japan but it was finally finished translated in English. I feel really sad when it ends, it's like parting with your newfound best friend.

This manga is wholesome. If you haven't already, go read it.

Edit: I forgot to add that Jun Sakurai is a genius. I look forward for his next project.

#i don't even write about yugami the mc #and it already got this long #the heck #yugami kun ni wa tomodachi ga inai #yugami kun #manga #manga recomendation #slice of life #comedy #psychology #shounen #seinen

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badchoicesposts · 5 years ago

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In A Land Of Myth...

Chapter 4

Summary: When Selene, a young sorceress, arrived in Stormholt she had every intention of remaining anonymous. King Constantine Rys had strict rules on sorcery. The act itself was punishable by death, and she had no desire to be burnt at the stake for her “crimes”. However, it becomes increasingly difficult for her to remain unseen when she becomes Prince Liam’s personal maidservant, and it seems that it’s her job to protect him from everyone that wants to kill him.

Author’s Note: So this is an AU that is a cross between TRR and BBC’s Merlin. If you haven’t watched the show before it follows the tale of King Arthur and the sorcerer Merlin. Merlin comes to Camelot where magic is outlawed and is made Prince Arthur’s servant. This fic will also contain some elements of The Crown and The Flame, but things have been changed up a bit to fit the Merlin story line.

Special thanks to @burnsoslow and @emceesynonymroll for helping me figure out how to write Drake X MC because my inner Liam stan was struggling.

Disclaimer: You do not have to watch the show to understand this fic, but it is based on the BBC show Merlin so the story line will be similar, but there will be changes made to fit my story as well.

Pairing: Liam x MC (Selene), Drake x MC (There will probably also be a fair amount of Platonic!Bastien x MC)

Taglist: @flowerpowell, @bobasheebaby, @alexintheskyy, @slytherincursebreaker, @kingliam2019, @furiousherringoperatortoad, @goldenbirdcrystalcage, @burnsoslow

Let me know if you would like to be added to or removed from the taglist!

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3

Selene was panting heavily as she threw her sword up, blocking the oncoming blow from the weapon of her opponent. She spun in place, ducking as she held her shield up in front of her, blocking his next attack. The two carried on like this for a while. Him pushing her back and her retaliating. She finally seemed to be getting the lead in the fight when a second sword came at her from behind.

“Two against one doesn’t really seem fair!” she exclaimed as she tried to attack one of her opponents while blocking the sword of the other.

“Life isn’t fair,” Drake grunted out as his sword banged against her shield.

Selene scoffed at his words and turned her attention back to Bastien, who hadn’t been going easy on her either. His attacks were aggressive, and with her energy beginning to dissipate, they were easily starting to overpower her. However, she soon saw her opening. Drake was busy shielding the top half of his body, but his bottom was completely unprotected. She ducked underneath Bastien’s sword and thrust her leg out, kicking Drake hard in the shin in the process, causing him to fall to his knees. No one said she couldn’t fight dirty.

“That’s not fair!” he groaned in pain from his spot on the ground.

“Life isn’t fair,” she called back with a smirk.

She turned back to her remaining opponent, intent on finishing this and winning. It wasn’t until she leaned forward in attempts to attack Bastien again did the hem of her dress begin to drag, causing her to trip as she stepped onto the garment. She fell face first onto the soft grass, her shield falling to her left and her sword falling to her right.

“I despise this dress,” she mumbled out in between heavy breaths as she turned to lay on her back.

Bastien chuckled and threw his weapon down as well, holding his hand out to help her back to her feet as he attempted to catch his breath as well. Selene groaned as he pulled her up. Her entire body was aching and all she wanted was to fall into her bed and sleep until next week. She moved over to Drake and held her hand out to him. The man glared at her momentarily, but took her hand anyway and allowed her to help him to his feet. He winced as he placed weight on his leg, and Selene smiled at him apologetically.

“Sorry, about that,” she said.

“You’re not sorry at all are you?” he asked as her face turned from apologetic to amused.

“I’m a little sorry,” she responded with a laugh.

“You saw a weakness, and you exploited it. It was a smart move. I’ll give you that,” he said as he leaned down to massage his leg.

“So you’re saying I’m a good fighter?” she teased. “I mean I did beat you after all.”

Drake rolled his eyes. However, she could see the sides of his mouth turn up ever so slightly, and she elbowed him playfully.

“You’re getting better,” Bastien said, as they gathered their belongings and began to make their way back into the castle. “You’ll be sparring with Liam in no time.”

The woman nodded in response, too tired to use words. She had been working as Prince Liam’s maidservant for almost two weeks, and she was still adjusting to the changes. The first few days had been fairly easy. Liam was being extra nice, assigning her only a few responsibilities per day. However, as time passed and he got more comfortable with seeing her everyday, her list of chores almost tripled.

She was now responsible for getting him up in the mornings, helping him dress for the day, making his bed, doing his laundry, polishing his armor, cleaning his chambers, preparing his meals when he wasn’t dining with the royal family, helping him get ready for bed, and whatever else he decided to throw her way. On the odd occasion he had even asked her to make sure his horse was properly cared for when returned late at night from a patrol, and the stable workers had already retired for the day.

She had learned fairly quickly that part of her regular duties should have been going with Liam on patrols and missions, but because she had no combat training whatsoever, he had been taking Drake with him instead. She immediately asked Bastien to begin training her, something he had been happy to do, and after their first few training sessions, he had roped Drake into helping her as well . Now she was getting better each day, but she was also more worn out than ever.

The three parted ways and Drake headed back to his house as they made their way to the castle.

“So, I save Liam’s life, and Constantine’s reward is working me into the ground,” she complained once they had made it safely back to their chambers.

“We all have our duties, Selene,” Bastien said, momentarily pausing their conversation as another servant bustled into the room with dinner for them.

Selene leaned back into her chair and thanked the woman before she left. She took a moment to appreciate how lucky she was. Other servants didn’t get to go home in the evenings to a plush bed and warm food from the palace. However, that didn’t stop her from wondering how this was Constantine’s idea of a gift.

“But my whole body is sore,” she complained, dramatically reaching her arm out and grasping at the air “in attempts” to reach the food that she had no way of actually reaching without sitting up.

Bastien just looked at her amusedly. She muttered an incantation under her breath and her plate came soaring into her hands, causing her to smile proudly.

“What did I tell you about using magic?” Bastien asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

“That I should definitely do it,” she said with an innocent smile, pulling a glare from the man. “Oh, relax. You’re the only one here.”

They finished their meal in a comfortable silence, and she bade him goodnight before going up to her room, knowing that she would need to be up early in the morning to help Liam prepare for the tournament that was beginning that day. All of the knights from the surrounding kingdoms were gathering in Stormholt for it, and he needed to be ready on time. As she disrobed for the night, Selene closely inspected her dress. It had become even more tattered and dirty than it had been before, now covered in dirt and mud from when she fell in the grass. There was also a small tear on the torso from where Bastien’s sword had sliced the fabric when she couldn’t get her shield up in time. She had another dress that she could wear tomorrow, but if she were to continue training she would need something more protective and less burdensome to wear. She got into bed, knowing where her first stop would be tomorrow.

Selene rose early, sneaking out of her and Bastien’s chambers before the man had woken up. She walked through the palace halls quickly and began the short journey to her destination. Drake was always up early, so she didn’t have to worry about waking him, but she did need to get back to the palace in time to wake the prince.

She knocked softly on the door to his dwelling and smiled up at him kindly when he greeted her.

“Selene!” he exclaimed in surprise upon seeing her. “How can I help you?”

“Um, may I?” she asked, gesturing past him to indicate that she wanted to be invited in.

“Oh! Of course,” he said moving aside and allowing her to enter.

Most of the time Selene and Drake had spent together had been during her training, but in that time she had become very comfortable around him. He could be guarded and closed off, but she was slowly working on breaking those walls and coming to like the kind hearted person that Drake truly was. Bastien explained to her that he had helped raise Drake and his sister after their father’s death. Bastien had worked closely with Jackson Walker, as the man had been the royal blacksmith before his death. When he had come of age Drake took over the family business, and he now spent most of his time in his workshop. Drake was always nice to Selene, and she appreciated that. He made her feel welcome in Stormholt.

“I’m sorry to drop by this early, but now was the only time I had before the tournament,” she explained, removing her cloak and sitting down at the small table in his kitchen.

“You’re welcome here anytime,” Drake said.

A faint blush rose onto his face once he realized what he said, and he quickly cleared his throat.

“How’s your leg doing?” she asked with a small embarrassed smile pulling a chuckle from him.

“Nothing a good night’s rest didn’t fix. Although, you’re a lot stronger than you look,” he said with a wince as he thought back to the kick. “What can I help you with?”

“I need armor.”

“For Liam?” he questioned, taking a seat across from her.

“No, actually. For me,” she said, biting her lip nervously.

He gave her a knowing smile and rose to his feet.

“I hope you don’t mind, I already took the liberty of preparing something for you.”

Drake slipped out of the back of his small house and into his workshop. He returned a few moments later, his arms full. Selene smiled widely as she looked over the pieces of armor that he dropped onto the table.

“You already had this ready?” she asked excitedly, lifting one of the vambraces and inspecting the handiwork.

“Some of the pieces were already underway, I just needed to make a few small changes so they would fit you,” he said, awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck.

“May I?” she asked, already slipping the hauberk over her head.

The chainmail shirt fell down to her thighs, and she immediately began fiddling with the vambraces, the pieces fitting her arms perfectly.

“Can you help me with these?” she asked, gesturing to the rest of the armor.

Drake nodded and grabbed the gorget, his fingers brushing lightly against her skin as he placed the item around her neck. He then set to work helping her secure the pauldrons over her shoulders, quickly completing the task and stepping back to admire his handiwork.

“How do I look?” she asked placing her hands playfully on her hips.

“Like you’re ready to take on the world,” Drake said softly, a smile tugging at his lips. “Or at least the top half of you does.”

He motioned to her legs which were still being covered by the skirt of her dress. However, she just beamed in response, happy to actually have armor of her own.

“Not the whole world. Just a small part of it,” she responded playfully, pulling a laugh from her companion.

“Thank you, Drake. It… um… it may be a while before I can pay for all of this,” she said nervously looking down at the armor. There was no way any of this would come cheap.

“Oh, that’s not necessary!” Drake said quickly. “Consider it a gift.”

“Drake, I couldn’t. I know these must be worth a fortune,” she said, beginning to pull the pieces off as she prepared to leave.

She handed them back to him and pulled on her cloak, trying to figure out which item she would buy first when she had the money to afford it.

“You should take all of it now. If you insist you can pay me when you have the money,” he said, loading the items into a sack for her.

Selene opened her mouth to protest, but Drake immediately cut her off.

“You’ll still pay me back, just not right away,” he said, handing the items off to her with a small smile.

Selene launched herself into his arms, squeezing him tightly in gratitude.

“Sorry,” she mumbled as she stepped back, her face burning with embarrassment at her actions. “Now I really do feel bad about kicking you in the shin.”

Drake laughed at the guilty look on her face. The two parted ways, and Selene had an extra pep in her step as she made her way back to the palace. She jogged back to her quarters and threw the door open, startling Bastien who had been having breakfast.

“Hi, Bas!” she said excitedly as she ran up to her room and dropped the bag of armor down onto her bed.

She was now in a hurry, having spent more time with Drake than she had originally intended. She didn’t have much time before she needed to be across the castle to wake Liam.

“Bye, Bas!” she called as she bounded back down the stairs and out the door.

She broke out into a run as she made her way to Liam’s chambers, skidding to a stop in front of his door. Selene stopped for a moment to catch her breath before opening the door to already find Liam awake.

“Prince Liam! I apologize for not knocking. I didn’t think you were awake yet,” she said quickly averting her eyes when she realized that he was moving about his chambers topless.

Selene immediately scolded herself for doing so. She had seen him topless several times. It was literally part of her duties to help him get dressed. Although, she had to admit it was the one part of their day together that still made her blush uncontrollably. She closed the door behind herself and immediately busied herself by moving to his wardrobe.

“Good morning, Selene,” he said happily, as he pulled on the rest of his clothing. “I rose only a few moments before you arrived.”

Selene immediately got to work on helping him with his armor. She fastened his breastplate around his chest as he looked down at her, intently observing her as she worked. She glanced up, momentarily meeting his eyes as her hands rested on her chest. He offered her a small smile which she returned with a slight blush, while reaching for his cloak. Selene stood on her toes as she reached up to wrap the long garment around his shoulders. Liam was one of the tallest men she had ever met before, a fact evident by how much she needed to reach up to fasten the cloak together by the base of his neck. The top of her head barely reached his bicep when he was standing up straight. Her height was something people often ridiculed her for, but Liam never once commented on it, instead simply leaning down for her to reach better.

“Are you nervous for the tournament?” she questioned, as she finished what she was doing.

“Liam never gets nervous!” Leo said happily, pulling the two of them out of their bubble. Neither had even realized that he had entered the room.

Selene turned to greet the other man respectfully. However, the anxious look on Liam’s face at his comment didn’t go unnoticed by her.

“Good morning, Leo,” she greeted.

Soon after the night of “Lady Joelle’s” performance, Leo had asked her to begin addressing him without a title.

“Thank you for that vote of confidence, brother,” Liam said as he grabbed his sword and prepared to leave for the beginning of the tournament.

Selene began to straighten out the sheets on Liam’s bed as the two brothers carried on a whispered conversation between themselves. After a moment, Liam turned back to her and cleared his throat nervously.

“Selene, will you accompany me down to the tournament,” Liam asked, fidgeting with his earlobe the entire time. “In case I need your assistance!” he added hastily as Leo chuckled quietly behind his back.

“Of course, sire,” she responded, ready to follow him out to the courtyard.

“Good. Great,” he said awkwardly as he turned to walk forward, Leo clapping him good naturedly on the shoulder.

Selene watched in confusion as Liam glared at his brother, the other man only smirking in return as the made their way outside. Liam joined the other knights gathered in the tournament area, and Selene stood next to the stands that had been erected for the spectators. Her position gave her a perfect line of sight to the area where the men would be fighting but allowed her the access she needed to move freely without having to worry about disturbing other on-lookers if Liam were to need her assistance.

Lady Madeleine and Queen Regina were sitting on two thrones away from everyone else. There was another throne between the two of them that Selene could only assume was for the king, but the man himself was nowhere in sight. However, she didn’t have to wonder about his whereabouts for long before the man made his entrance. Constantine seemed to have a flair for grand entrances. He stepped up in front of the gathered knights and addressed them along with the rest of the crowd.

“It is a great honor to welcome you all to Stormholt. In combat we learn a knight’s true nature. Whether a knight is indeed a warrior or a coward is shown in the way he wields his weapons, in the way he faces his opponents. Knights of The Realm, over the next three days you will put your skills and bravery to the test. Only one will have the honor of being crowned champion. Let the tournament begin!” he concluded, cheers erupting from the stands.

The first two knights began to battle, one of them quickly overpowering the other much to the amusement of the crowd, and Selene watched on not understanding what was so entertaining about two men fighting each other for no reason. Her interest wasn’t piqued until she saw Liam prepare for his fight. She knew that he was the reigning champion, and it didn’t take her long to figure out why. He was light on his feet and moved gracefully. The other competitors were brutish and seemed to enjoy inflicting pain on their opponents. Liam, however, moved quickly and quietly, pushing his opponents back and only forcing them down when absolutely necessary.

Most of the crowd cheered loudly for him, and before Selene even realized what she was doing, she had joined them. It was clearly easy to see who everyone’s favorite was. However, as entertaining as it was to watch the first time, she found herself beginning to lose interest after a few hours of watching duo after duo go up against each other. The young woman was thankful when the fighting for the day had ended, and Liam approached her happily. She held her arms out to take his helmet from him.

“You were wonderful out there,” she complimented, causing him to smile in return.

“Thank you!” he said excitedly as he began to make his way back to the castle, obviously still on a high from the excitement of the activities.

“Prince Liam!” a voice called from somewhere behind them, making them both turn around.

Selene sunk back behind Liam as they were approached by Neville, a knight from Cormery Isle. He had been another victor in today’s competitions, however his style of fighting couldn’t have been more different to Liam’s. He was aggressive and ruthless, trying to cause as much pain as he could.

“I offer my congratulations, Your Highness. You performed very well today,” he said, an unmistakable hint of arrogance in his voice.

“Thank you. You fought very well yourself,” Liam responded, his voice was diplomatic, but not friendly.

“I hope to see you at the celebration tonight,” Neville said, bowing slightly as he moved along.

Selene and Liam watched him as he walked away, both feeling uneasy about the man but neither one expressing their concerns to the other. After a moment, Liam turned back towards the castle, pulling Selene along with him.

“Creep,” she mumbled under her breath, causing him to chuckle.

“For tomorrow I need you to sharpen my sword, clean my chainmail, and repair my shield,” he informed her.

Now that the tournament was done for the day, she was almost happy to have something to do. She gathered his items and made her way to the armory the knights had been using to store their weapons and shields for the tournament. She had just placed Liam’s possessions onto the long table in the center of the room when she heard a soft rustling coming from somewhere behind her.

“Hello, is someone there?” she called.

Hearing no answer, she returned back to the task at hand. Sharpening Liam’s sword was a fairly easy chore, but she was interrupted almost as soon as she had started by the same rustling sound. She turned around and followed the noise that began to sound more and more like a snake hissing as she got closer to the source. The noise seemed to cease altogether as she stopped in front of a shield and looked down at it curiously. It was bright yellow and had three snakes twisted around each other painted on it. She immediately recognized it as the one Neville had been using today. Instinct told her that something was wrong, and she stooped down to inspect it closer. She was just about to reach out to touch it when she noticed something startling. The bright red eye on the snake painted on the left of the shield seemed to be following her movements. The hissing noise began again and she jumped in shock, her body falling back against the floor.

Selene immediately shot up, grabbed Liam’s possessions and made her way back to her chambers. After anxiously pacing around the room for a few moments, she sat at the dining table, sharpening Liam’s sword absentmindedly as she waited for Bastien to return from the celebration downstairs. He returned a while later, after she had already cleaned the prince’s chainmail and had moved on to repairing his shield.

“I didn’t expect you to be up at this hour,” he greeted her with a smile.

The young witch was so lost in thought that she hadn’t even heard him come in. She dropped the shield in surprise at his voice and bent over to hastily pick it back up after her heartbeat had finally returned to a normal rate.

“Bas, I have something to tell you that you may not believe,” she stated, beckoning him closer.

The man looked at her with concern and took a seat next to her.

“What’s troubling you?”

Selene struggled with her words for a moment.

“I saw something today. I was in the armory after the tournament, and I heard a noise. I followed it and it… it seemed to be coming from Sir Neville’s shield,” she said hesitantly.

“A noise was coming from his shield?” he questioned skeptically.

“It was hissing… the snakes on his shield were hissing. And then I noticed that their eyes seemed to be following me,” she said, fully aware that what she described didn’t sound logical.

However, Bastien knew what she was implying.

“You believe he’s using magic?” he asked.

“I don’t know anything for certain, and even if it was a magic shield, I don’t know that it can cause harm,” she stated.

“Selene, that type of alligation is extremely serious. You can’t mention this to anyone else without being absolutely sure,” Bastien warned, his voice serious.

Selene nodded as she contemplated his words.

“What should I do?”

“There’s not much you can do without some kind of proof. In Constantine’s eyes the words of a servant will mean nothing against the word of a knight,” he responded.

Selene nodded and continued repairing the shield in front of her, already knowing that she was in for a long night of worrying.

~~~

Selene went through the motions of preparing Liam for battle in a daze the next day. She was still worried that Neville was possibly using an enchanted shield but knew that Bastien was right. Voicing her concerns to Liam without being certain would do more harm than good.

“Are you alright, Selene?” Liam asked her as they made their way down to the tournament sight. “You seem troubled.”

She was surprised that Liam had been paying enough attention to her to notice her mood, but instead of saying anything she simply smiled instead.

“I’m fine, Your Highness,” she responded, causing him to look at her skeptically. He didn’t have time to question her further though, as the day’s activities were just beginning.

Selene watched on as various knights battled each other, not finding any of it very interesting. It wasn’t until the final duel of the day began that she finally decided to watch closely. Neville was going up against another knight, and she kept her eyes firmly planted on his shield. From her angle, she could see his every move. He was being overly aggressive, but that was the same as the previous day. She was looking for something more than just that anger to prove that he was doing something wrong.

The two men struggled for a while. The other knight was obviously more skilled than Neville’s previous opponents and was not succumbing nearly as easily. Neville’s, however, soon gained the upper hand and delivered a harsh blow to his opponent, causing the other man to fall to his knees. He placed his shield close to his face and that was when she saw what she was looking for. One of the snakes from the shield came to life and struck the other knight on the neck before moving back. It disappeared back into the object and the surface of the shield became completely flat again, as if the creature hadn’t just come to life. Neville delivered another unnecessary blow to the man’s head, making it seem as if that was his reason for falling over.

The rest of the crowd cheered loudly, excited that the man had won and would be participating in the finals the following day. It was obvious that none of them had seen the snakes come to life as Selene had. It was at that moment that Selene realized Neville’s plan, the reality chilling her as if she had just been submerged in cold water. He would be fighting against Liam tomorrow. Neville planned on killing the prince.

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