#I don’t have a white person skin marker so I took an hour to blend white and yellow lol

[sulfuric-nest]

I’m working on something :))

[mysticsparklewings]

Sparkle By the Sea

Pardon me as I just barely squeeze a MerMay piece of art in. I'll be honest with you guys, I've been pretty lacking in artistic motivation since NaPoWriMo ended. Although if you've noticed my lack of uploads, you probably could've already guessed that.  This isn't abnormal for the aftermath of a month-long challenge for me, especially with a brand-new video game calling my name at every moment of the day, but even so I feel like this particular motivation drought was a bit different. Part of it definitely had to do with the changes to DeviantArt that I'm sure I don't need to remind everyone of, but that's been more of me dreading seeing what the state of the community is than anything else. (However, I have noticed I'm not a fan of the new tag system over the old category one, as confusing as the category system could be sometimes.) Rather, I think this lake of motivation has more to do with the fact that being largely absent from all social media during NaPo reminded me...well, that I hate social media. This is really a bigger discussion for a journal or something, but suffice to say it did not feel good to realize just how many literal hours I had previously been spending trying to desperately to scrape up just a little bit of support on other social media platforms (namely Twitter), versus the more natural growth I see here on dA that also feels a lot more genuine and less forced/obligatory. I can't really explain it, but that reminder/realization really helped my brain slip back into a place where I felt like creating again. And with that, I'll transition into talking about the art and save the social media talk for, as I said, a journal or something later on. Naturally, I've been seeing a lot of mermaid art this month and every year I feel the urge to get in on the fun, though I know better than to try actually doing the MerMay Challenge (especially not this year after having just done NaPo), so I usually either do a one-off drawing or if I'm too busy with other projects I just skip it. But I was starting to feel that need to make art in my brain again and I've had a specific set of stickers from the dollar store sitting in my stash for quite a while now that more or less sealed the deal for me. How do these stickers fit into the mix? Well, I originally fell in love with/picked them up because they are mermaid-themed and absolutely adorable--See for yourself! And I thought they would make for nice decals in a book project since they're wall stickers and therefore repositionable with minimal adhesive-yuck. And at first, I thought maybe I'd end up making them into said hypothetical book project in time for MerMay...except that felt a little cheap in combination with my lack of uploads. Did I really want to come back with a book project featuring mermaids I didn't even draw? And for MerMay of all things? So I sat on the idea and left the stickers out where I could see them, and eventually I sat down and took a closer look at them. The art style, upon further inspection, actually didn't look like it would be too far outside my usual art-making realms...Most of the coloring looks a lot like watercolor, except for the skin which I thought was flat and smooth like alcohol marker and the glitter accents which from my perspective pretty much had to be digital, but could potentially be replicated with glittery/metallic supplies... And that was the moment the idea hatched.  I decided I'd try drawing a mermaid myself in the same style. This would work for MerMay, have something to do with the stickers, and based on my plans would work well for me as a mixed-media project, which as I'm sure I've said before is where I think my artistic talent shines best. I thought the scariest part was going to be replicating the looser and less strict line style, and to a point it was, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be. I find it's usually kind of tricky to explain this, but really what this part of the process boils down to for me (if I'm replicating an existing style and not using my own), is really just studying the original artwork(s) and looking for patterns, then trying to stick to those patterns. For example, the style here features fairly large & rounded faces, and the hands are more like hand-shaped mittens (which was great news by the way because hands are always a pain in the butt for me), so I did my best to emulate those features. As per usual, I did start with a sketch, but I tried to keep it looser than usual, and then when I did the inking I started with my 0.2 Micron, again trying to keep things loose and no be too fussy if I could help it. Then I went back with a brush tip liner from Prismacolor to get more natural variation in the lines and to force myself to not have quite so much control over the line weight. I was also very careful with my choice of liners because I knew pretty much everything except the skin was going to see a lot of watercolors, which meant the lines had to be waterproof. And of course, I went with watercolor paper (my nice 100% cotton stuff this time) to make sure I didn't have any issues with blending or layering. Now, at this stage, I didn't know what I was going to do for the background, though I was leaning towards the idea of making one separately and placing the mermaid on top afterward, as sort of a nod to the original mermaids being stickers. But I wasn't totally sure yet. What I was sure of was how scared I was to just dive into coloring. The sketching and inking and gone so well I was thinking I was in for a rude awakening at any moment. So, just in case, I scanned my uncolored lines as a fall-back if I royally screwed up. With my paranoid mind set at ease (for the most part), I could begin with color application. I started with the skin since it was the easiest; Just one good layer of alcohol marker, leaving a little white space here and there like the artwork I was emulating. Although 1. The marker color turned out a bit darker than I was expecting and later blended too well with her tail, so I had to lighten it in Photoshop, and 2. because watercolor paper really soaks up the ink, I ended up with less white space than I thought I would. But beyond that, this step went off without a hitch. So then came the second-scariest part: The watercolor. I used a mixture of my Master's Touch watercolors and Mermaid Markers (yes, that was a very conscious supply choice ) and tried to take my time and be mindful of the color balance I was looking for. I'd decided ahead of time that I wanted to try and stick with a soft-ish palette like the original art, but I still wanted my choices to be different. Since yellow/gold is featured in the original but not used for a tail color, that's what I went with, and I opted for the blue-y-purple hair since a soft blue and purple are also prominent in the original and based on color-theory would be a nice contrast to the gold-orange tail. Though I did also try to get some pink in both the tail and the hair for a bit of unity and calling back to the pink in the original art. The trickiest part with the coloring was actually the tiny lips and blush spots. I ended up using a fluorescent pink for that turned out as more of a red originally and had to be touched-up via Photoshop because of that and also because of the lightening I did to the skin. It's more that it was a bit of a challenge to get the shapes of these much smaller areas right and in the correct place, since I had to use very minimal pencil markings, lest I end up with nasty graphite marks mixed into the paint. Getting the hair to be dark enough without being extreme compared to the rest of the drawing was also a great test of patience, but it ultimately worked out, I think. I also had a hard time deciding what color the piece of coral in her hair should be, which is why it ended up as this vague dusky-orange color. And I got more pink on the sand dollar next to it than I intended, but neither of those things is a huge deal. While I waited for all that to dry though, I had to decide how I was going to go about tackling all that extreme sparkle the original art had. I could have just added it in digitally and not even attempted it traditionally, but everything else had gone so smoothly that I decided to push my luck this time. Originally, I started with just glittery gel pens, but I found pretty quickly that they were sinking back into the colors underneath them too much and thus just weren't doing what I wanted. I wanted high-impact sparkle. After some brief consideration, I turned to the metallic watercolor sets I have made by Art Philosophy, which are very high-impact metallic and pretty opaque, which would work well over my failed gel pen and would work wonders for the areas where I wanted that high-impact over an opposing color. (I.E. Where I wanted the blue sparkle over a very orange-yellow area, which would normally make brown mud if the color on top wasn't opaque.) The funny part about that is that I originally used a different shade of purple and gold for those areas of sparkle that I ended up completely covering with different shades (the purple needed to be lighter and the gold needed to be darker/more gold and less yellow). And her eye shadow cover saw all three colors before I settled; The purple just seemed wrong, and the gold blended too well with her skin. I thought the blue wouldn't work so close to her blue hair, but it actually ended up looking the best out of the three. Although, I do have to make a full disclosure that the high-impact sparkle you see here is in fact where I went in and re-did it digitally once I scanned the artwork in. Unfortunately, glitter and metallic supplies just don't scan very well and usually end up looking too dark, dull, or flat by comparison. The metallic paints work just fine in person since you can move the art and see how they reflect the light, but it just doesn't work in a still image that's been captured by having a bright light uniformly shined over it. Still, re-tooling the sparkle digitally ended up being an interesting challenge, especially since it's been a fairly long time since I was messing with digital textures like this. Also worth noting is that I had to re-paint some of the metallic areas because they weirdly lifted off onto the plastic cover I used to protect the art when I pressed it onto the background to make the glue stick. I'm not sure if it's because those were the extra-layered areas and they hadn't fully dried all the way down to the paper, or if that particularly plastic just picks up this metallic paint really easily or what. And speaking of that background... Like I said earlier, I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do for a background for a while, but after reviewing my mermaid-centric Pinterest board I decided a simple rock seat and something to vaguely suggest the ocean/water without getting too detailed would suffice just fine. Based on that, I felt like using gouache would work nicely (and I just really felt like using the gouache since I don't find a lot of opportunities to use it) and that a color scheme that flipped her hair and tail colors would be best for the effect I wanted. I've found I really like the Strathmore 400 series mixed media paper for gouache because of how smooth it is, so I cut a piece down to size and got busy. For the most part, I just kind of went in with the colors doing whatever felt right, and trying to use some gouache I'd already mixed from past projects (since gouache can be reactivated and I've found this kind, in particular, seems to reactivate really nicely) either on their own or to mix the colors I felt like I needed. And I also tried to do a lot of blending straight on the paper to get more variations in color and make things a bit more lively. Oddly enough, this ended up being a good example of gouache's covering power because I accidentally started applying the colors upside down--using more greens and blues on top and more pinky-purple on the bottom--and not only had to flip the paper around but also had to do a fair amount of covering the colors I'd already put down with colors you don't really want to mix with them because they don't make very pretty results.  But it worked out just fine, so yay! I also added some clouds for a little extra ambiance, which I think looks quite nice. Believe it or not, the most difficult thing about the background was the rocks. I spent far longer than I care to admit (or bothered to document, for that matter) trying and in many ways failing to mix the proper shades of gray I wanted, and the end result didn't turn out quite as clean and graphic as I had hoped, but by the time I put the mermaid on top, you really can't tell because you can only see a fraction of what's actually there.  And I mean, the end result isn't terrible, it's just not quite what I was picturing in my mind's eye is all. Personally, I know it's kind of an odd choice, but I really like how there's no defining line between the water and the sky, and yet you still get a clear idea that they're separate and the rocks aren't just floating in space. I'm not sure how, but I think I'd like to work with this kind of ambiguity more often. It's like a step between abstract and more structured art. Anyway. With the background done, the next step was to attach the mermaid, which I felt like doing in a more 3D and less flat manner, so I chopped up a cardboard box that previously held a chocolate bunny I had on hand and glued some pieces together to boost the mermaid up a bit. This where those deep shadows between her and the background are coming from.   Here I feel the need to insert a comment about how difficult it was to get my tacky glue to dispense the glue for me, though there's a chance this is because I need to poke the opening in the tip to be a bit wider. (You have to poke it open yourself and I always felt like I never did get it open quite enough...unless you like strenuous hand exercises...) Of course, once all the above was done then I had to scan the art in, which I was admittedly a bit nervous about after the incident with the plastic cover peeling off the metallic paint (though fortunately, the scanner glass didn't have the same effect), and then all that was left wad the digital retouches. Overall, I'm really happy with how this turned out. It doesn't blend in as well as I originally wanted it to with the original art, but in the end, that doesn't really bother me. It's just a nice piece of art on its own that is also unique from what I normally do...except it's still got a lot of similar elements to how I normally make art. It feels a lot like the days when all I made was fanart. The key difference here is that I know myself better as an artist now and thus can use that knowledge to my advantage. I can't promise this a return to regular posting for me, though I do hope it's a gateway to me posting more frequently at least, but I can say I do intend on getting back to working on art more often and therefore being more present online again. At the very least, I can happily tell you guys that I have a couple of new art supplies en route to me that I've been wanting for a while and am excited to share with you once they arrive.  If nothing else, we at least have that to look forward to! ____ Artwork © me, MysticSparkleWings ____ Where to find me & my artwork: My Website | Commission Info + Prices | Ko-Fi | dA Print Shop | RedBubble |   Twitter | Tumblr | Instagram

[the--regenerating--degenerate]

Sol Invictus

Chapter six: The Grimm

The cockpit of the Juniper was quiet—crowded, but quiet. Jaune sat uneasily in the captain’s chair, a frown forming, his fingers flexing worriedly as he adjusted the ship’s trajectory as the Juniper left the red dust of Caviis IV behind them. Next to him was Ren, quietly contemplative, but fidgety, his arms tight, shoulders hunched as he checked local readouts and sensor sweeps. Nora sat in her traditional spot behind him, shockingly quiet as she held Pyrrha’s hand.

Normally the cockpit would be filled with Nora’s numerous questions, statements, and dozens of misremembered stories, which Ren would quietly correct when she paused for breath. Currently, her boundless energy seemed sapped and drained as she comforted Pyrrha.

If Jaune was a superstitious man, he would have taken a reserved Nora as an ill omen. He was more than sure that Ren already had, judging by the slight movements as Ren’s jaw worked the words of a silent void shanty.

Behind Jaune, Pyrrha sat with her head bowed, her free hand rubbing at her temple, every once in a while, she reached out to grasp the only trinket in the cockpit. It was a strange little thing. A necklace made from polished white beads, which Jaune swore were made of some unknown bone, and a single round charm of a circumpunct etched in gold relief. It was the only mark the Juniper bore from their mysterious compatriot, that marked the ship as Pyrrha’s home. Ren had his trinkets, charms, and fetishes. Nora had painted one or several of the rooms with bizarre, colourful shapes in strange, sometimes unnerving patterns. Even Jaune had knitted the rug in the mess and common room.

All Pyrrha had added was her necklace in the cockpit.

Every now and then she would reach out for it, bringing its bronze relief to her forehead, before letting it go to hang from the ceiling once again in the middle of the four.

Before them was the vast openness of space. Distant stars shined like tiny candle flames off in the distance against the cold hard black of the void.

It was a view which Jaune never stopped finding awe-inspiring. Despite him not being much of a believer, Jaune could always see why some still clung to those beliefs every time he looked out the viewing port. But the stars were dull today, overshadowed by worry. Pyrrha screamed as he had never heard from anyone before…

Then she vomited up blood.

Their passengers had disappeared to Ms. Snow’s quarters, where they remained held up. Pyrrha had slowly recovered after that; her cheeks, while still pale, were returning to a healthy hue. Though she still winced at the bright, sterile lights of the Juniper’s halls and so had kept her eyes closed.

“Pyrrha… What happened?” Jaune asked gently as he turned his high backed seat to look his friend in the eye.

Pyrrha opened a single emerald eye and tried to smile.  Instead, she grimaced, the skin around her eyes and mouth tight. “It’s fine Jaune. Just a… just a migraine.”

“That was more than a migraine.” Nora was quiet, still clutching Pyrrha’s hand squeezing it reassuringly. “You took one look at that Ruby girl and suddenly you’re screaming! What happened? What did she do? Do I have to break her legs? I don’t want to, I like her! But if she’s hurting you…”

“Magic. Ill omens.” Ren nodded sagely, not taking his eyes from the ship’s instruments.

“No, no. Nothing like that,” Pyrrha laughed, though Jaune could hear that it was tinged with pain, “The girl… she’s fine. I’m fine.”  

Jaune sighed as he leaned back his chair creaking at the movement. He owed his life to her a dozen, a hundred times over.  He had shared with her countless intimate thoughts and even some of his fears.  She was his friend. But that being said, he actually knew very little about Pyrrha. He didn’t know where she was from, who her parents were, where she had learned to fight. Pyrrha Nikos was an enigma, a secret.

One that he was not privy to, despite their years together.

“Pyrrha? Please…” Jaune was insistent, his tone cracking ever so slightly. Never once had he seen Pyrrha taken down, so to see her screaming in pain…  

“I’m fine. I’m okay.” Pyrrha’s jaw was set, her tone resolute; she even pulled free her hand which Nora had clung so tightly to.  Brusquely, she said, “What’s our course?”

Jaune wanted to protest the blatant drop and change in subject, but, sadly, he knew better. Once Pyrrha had set her mind to something, there was very little chance of changing.

Ren said nothing, though his shoulders had become tight and the slightest hint of frown forming at the edges of lips clearly displayed how he felt about how the conversation had turned. Frankly, Jaune agreed with him,.  

Ren brought up the holographic map from his display console. The trip would be simple enough. One of Ms. Snow’s Faunus companions, Belladonna, he believed, had given them the coordinates for an unnamed planet right near the edge of Grimm Space. The route itself was also fairly trivial: a slight rounding path, using several planets and systems as bearings and markers. All told, a week or two from Caviis IV to the first destination.

Getting back to Atlas, on the other hand, was going to be a little bit more difficult. A direct route would not only lead them through the Go-Land Syndicate shipping lanes but also near the area of space where the Pirate Queen and the Muninn had claimed their hunting grounds.

Jaune was of the opinion that avoiding the fight was far more preferable than getting caught in a slugging match with either of them. Yes the Juniper was fast and carried more firepower than what most ships her size had a right to. But there was always that chance of something going wrong. Better to avoid them and live to spend the reward, then die in a ventilated, drifting wreck.

So the plan was to go far around, hugging the outskirts of Wild Space before making their turn towards Atlas. It would take more time, stretching it to three or four weeks for the Atlas run, but it was safer.

Pyrrha nodded and stood up as Jaune finished, her normally placid expression... thoughtful? Worried? Concerned? Maybe all three blended into one.

“Excellent.” Pyrrha smiled, “I will inform our passengers of the route and time table then.”

“Maybe we should let Ren or myself talk to them?” Jaune protested hesitantly, "considering what just happened.”

“Jaune.” Pyrrha’s tone was firm and sharp. “I’m fine. Let me do this.”

Not even waiting for an answer, Pyrrha grabbed the data slate and hurried out of the cockpit, leaving the rest of them alone.

Jaune frowned as he chewed his bottom lip. He had never seen Pyrrha like this. Never once in a firefight, or in a ship engagement or even the odd time the Juniper attracted the attention of the Grimm. To see someone who was always so calm in the face of danger, now becoming agitated at simple questions…

Nora quickly wiped her teal coloured eyes with the back of her hand. Pyrrha was her sister in everything but name. To have Pyrrha pull away from her like that would have cut her deep.

Jaune closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. He was sure Pyrrha would come back and apologise. Nora was too nice; she would instantly forgive Pyrrha, he was certain of that.

But the problem would remain: Pyrrha and her secrets.

“Don’t,” Ren warned as he punched in the coordinates for the first fold, his face inexpressive as it always was.

“What?” Jaune asked surprised.

"Don't," Ren repeated, "Pyrrha has her secrets. She'll tell us when she thinks the time is right. Pushing the matter won't help."

“Yeah….” Jaune sighed as he turned back towards the viewing screens. Ren was right: Pyrrha had her secrets. When she was ready she would tell them.

In front of him, the stars blurred and the Juniper lurched forward into the void.

----------

“What did you do to that girl!?” Weiss interrogated as she rounded on Ruby.

“I don’t know! I told you, I didn’t do anything,” Ruby cried, even as she shrank from Weiss cold anger.

Ruby didn’t know. She honestly didn’t know.  Ruby had been so excited to meet someone like Nora who loved ships almost as much as she did and more importantly, Nora didn’t recoil when they talked. It was as though to her, Ruby was just a normal girl.

Then the Pyrrha woman showed up. Ruby had been prepared for the usual look of disgust, the shudder of someone being offered something vile. She hadn’t been prepared for was watching the woman scream in pain and then vomit blood onto the deck.

Weiss, Belladonna, and Yang had quickly taken her away to the quarters she and Weiss were sharing, and then questioned her for the past hour, thankfully uninterrupted by the Juniper’s crew. Ruby lowered her eyes in shame and worry. Hopefully, they wouldn’t throw them out.

“Ruby, you’re not in trouble… But that woman took one look at you and started screaming as though someone sawed her limb off.” Yang sat on the bed beside Ruby and wrapped her arm around her sister’s shoulder. Her tone kind and gentle, “We just need to know in case they have questions.”

“I know Yang,” Ruby whispered as she laid her head against Yang’s shoulder. “I know… I just don’t know what happened. She took a look at me and then…”

Ruby shrugged.

“We’ll be lucky if they don’t throw us out the airlock after this,” Weiss muttered as she leaned up against the nauseatingly colourful wall.

Ruby hung her head. Had she cost them the galaxy? She tensed when she felt another hand slowly rub her back and the cot she sat on sag with the weight of another person sitting down.

“I’m sorry. It will be okay Ruby,” Weiss whispered softly, “We’ll think of something.”

“I doubt they’re going to throw us off,” Belladonna added from where she sat at the desk across the room, her face thoughtful. “We’ve been on board for over an hour and I can hear the Fold drive kicking in. I don’t think these are the type of people to send us for a bit of a void walk.”

“Yeah, besides we could kick their asses if they tried.” Ruby could hear Yang’s smirk and feel the muscle in her arm around her shoulders tighten at the thought of a fight.

“I don’t think we are going to have to go that far, Yang,” Weiss responded.

“But it might come to that,” Belladonna warned as she stood up from the chair. “We should be prepared for that possibility.”

“I really don’t want to fight them,” Ruby mumbled as she lifted her head from Yang’s shoulder. “Nora’s nice and the other’s were pretty welcoming too… for smugglers.”

“We might have to. We have a mission. If we fail, then billions die.” Belladonna marched across the room to look Ruby in the eyes with a hardened glare. “What’s four smugglers and nine brothers and sisters compared to a billion.”

Ruby winced at the bitterness in her tone. It hurt, but Belladonna was right. If they were forced to, the four of them would have to take the ship from the crew.

A knock at the door interrupted Ruby’s gloomy thoughts and the four looked at each other apprehensively. Yang pulled her pistol, taking a position beside the door. Belladonna followed her lead on the other side, readying her heavy boarding blade and light calibre pistol. Weiss checked that her pistol was clear in its holster as Ruby stood up and walked to the door.

The door slid open with a hiss and Ruby blinked in surprise as the blood-red haired woman who had been only recently screaming in pain and throwing up blood stood outside with an too calm and gentle smile.

“Hello again,” She greeted Ruby warmly.

“Uh…” Ruby stuttered then caught herself, “I’m sorry. Hello… umm.... I don’t think we were introduced? ‘Cause… well…”

The woman shook her head politely. “No, we weren’t and I’m sorry for that. I… took ill I’m afraid.”

“It looked a little more than ‘ill’,” Yang said dryly as she holstered her pistol and joined them at the door. “It looked like you were about to die. Sounded like it too.”

The woman’s practiced smile never faltered. “I’m sorry if it caused distress, which is why I’m here: to show that no harm was done and to deliver the itinerary from the captain.”

The woman offered a data slate, which Yang took with a nod of thanks and quickly skimmed through.

“And… I’m sorry I almost forgot.” The woman smiled again and held out her hand, “I’m Pyrrha Nikos. I handle security on the ship.”

Ruby took the hand and was surprised by how warm it was and the strength of her grip. A strange feeling of peace and safety seemed to radiate off of this strange woman. The aura of serenity, of peace, of warmth and safety was such an antithesis to Ruby’s own...it was almost disquieting.  

Ruby hestinently offered her own smile in return. “Thank you Ms. Nikos. I’m Ruby Rose. That’s my sister Yang. The Faunus is Belladonna Zech Blake ist Dawn’s Hope and of course Ms. Weiss Snow.”

Pyrrha softly nodded her head in greeting, her lips tightening just ever so slightly as she quickly let go and tucked her hand behind her back. “A pleasure. As security, I must also inform you of the rules. Feel free to make use of the common area. The ship’s cockpit, engines, the armoury, and the weapon bay are off-limits unless accompanied by one of the crew. Feel free to keep your weapons, as I doubt you will be willing to turn them over.”

“Damn right we aren’t,” Yang muttered under her breath.

Whether or not Ms. Nikos had heard her, Ruby was unsure, as the crimson-haired woman continued.

“I must insist you keep them in your quarters. Taking them outside your rooms will be seen as a hostile action. I’m sorry but you must understand that these are simple precautions.”

Ruby nodded her head, waving a hand to shush Yang who clicked her tongue in annoyance.

“We understand. Thank you Ms. Nikos.”

“Please, call me Pyrrha,” Pyrrha said, as she raised her left hand in slight protest at the formality.

“Only if you call me Ruby,” she chirruped back.

Pyrrha grinned that same overly gentle and kind practiced smile and bowed her head. “That sounds grand. But I’m sorry to say, I must return to the cockpit.”

The door hissed closed, leaving the four of them to themselves.

“Well… that went better than I was expecting.” Yang admitted cheerily as she threw an arm around her sister. “Guess we had nothing to worry about.”

“Yeah…” Ruby wasn’t so sure. “Nothing to worry about.”

----------

Pyrrha locked the door to her room behind her as she leaned against it and let out a pained breath. Her hand, the one she had shaken with Ruby, felt as though the bones had been turned to splinters, the muscles torn and the skin peeled in long strips.

What Pyrrha had done was stupid:. but she wanted to be sure.

Wanted to be certain.

She lifted her hand to the dull light of her quarters and though she was prepared for what she might see, her breath still caught in her throat as Pyrrha choked down a moment of panic.

The skin of her hand was blacker than the void and dead.

Her fingers wouldn’t move; she could barely twist her wrist. Already the rot was setting in, eating away at the healthy olive-coloured flesh of her arm.

Pyrrha cursed under her breath as she slipped on her gauntlets to cover the damage that Ruby had unknowingly inflicted on her.  

It had been stupid. More than stupid. Her reaction to their first meeting should have been enough, but Pyrrha was never one to do anything by half. She just needed the confirmation. While Pyrrha was sure that her hand would heal over time, another exposure like that, or the previous one in the hold could either cripple or kill her.

Pyrrha tried to close her hand and winced in pain.  She would have to be careful for now.

Ruby wouldn’t be a problem. Pyrrha doubted the young girl actually knew what she was. The problem would be inducting her. It would have to be done in secret: lessons given alone, secrets, knowledge, rituals revealed. The crew, her compatriots, none of them were allowed to know. They couldn’t know.

She felt her heart drop and blinked away a tear

Jaune couldn’t know. That was always the hardest part.

Pyrrha glanced around her barren chambers. They were dull and lifeless, the walls a pale grey and there was nothing to mark that someone did live here, save for the sword and rifle hanging from their place on the wall.

She took a deep breath of stale, recycled air, and not for the first time nor the last time, cursed the burden, the destiny, that she had been sworn to.

But Pyrrha Nikos, Daughter and Secret Keeper of the Ordo Sol Invictus was never one to shirk duty. To avoid purpose. This was her destiny and thus she would carry it out.

No matter how lonely it became.

----------

Nine days since leaving Caviis IV

Yang yawned and stretched as she left her room. The holster at her hip felt uncomfortably empty. She missed the weight of Ember Celica at her side; that extra feeling of security her boarding pistol brought her.

But rules were rules.

Yang was sure she could take any of the Juniper crew on. However, getting into a fight on the ship was not conducive to her job of being a bodyguard for the Heir Apparent. Void be damned if Yang was going to give little Weiss-cream any reason to deduct from her reward.

Still, space travel made her anxious and just this side of ill-tempered. She hated it. The waiting. The feeling of being stuck in an inescapable tin can for hours, days, weeks at a time. Water strictly rationed to two twenty-second showers a day and food being little more than hardtack smeared with some grey and lumpy protein paste.

Well...at least it's better than reycke.

Thankfully the Juniper crew seemed more than willing to include them in their daily, time-burning activities.

Nora and Ruby would often wander off to some small part of the ship, no doubt rapid-firing asking and answering questions with each other at speeds only those two could seem to keep up with. Blake busied herself with a data slate filled with literally thousands of books ranging from literary fiction and pulpy fantasy to the classics of philosophy and history (as well as a shockingly large amount of erotic literature and images.)

Weiss kept to herself when Ruby was helping Nora.She and Ruby seemed to have grown rather fond of each other, and they would spend hours talking or playing data slate board games like Regicide or Mistrialian Go when Nora was busy with some other task. Sometimes, Weiss would stick close to Yang, but she knew that she was a little too crass for Weisscicle. Not that the two didn’t have some good talks now and then, but Weiss tended to lose interest once Yang got to the “then I punched him in the face” part of her stories.  

All of them agreed that keeping Weiss’s identity a secret was for the best; the crew of the Juniper seemed to be a trustworthy and honest group, but there was no telling what they would do if they found out there was an Atlassian Noble on board. Much less the Heir Apparent. The thought of an easily extracted ransom might be too much for the Juniper crew.

The door to the common room-slash-mess opened and Yang found herself looking into a rather strange sight...

Around the polished plastisteel table sat Nora, Ruby, Weiss, Ren and Captain Arc. The former of the five were deep in a game of Spacer’s Run, an incredibly intricate and complicated card game revolving around buying, selling, trading cards to make hand over several rounds, while Arc… knitted?

Yang blinked. Then blinked again.

Yes, there was Arc, sitting there happily knitting, as he offered advice and pointers to both Weiss and Ruby as they were fairly new players.

“Not something I thought I would see,” Yang announced after a moment or two of pause. “You… uh, you knit a lot, Cap’n Arc?”

“There is a lot of dead time to fill in the void,” Jaune shrugged and said, “Need to do something to keep the mind from wandering too much.”

Yang opened her mouth, then closed it. It was sound advice, though Yang personally preferred old fashioned fisticuffs to sitting around and playing a card game or two. Or knitting for that manner.

Jaune marked off his knitting, setting it aside as Ren dealt another hand. While Nora weaved another story about one of the Juniper’s more eventful adventures.

“So we had picked up this cargo right? About a thousand or so crates.“

“More like a hundred,” Ren corrected calmly as he tossed in his last few bars of Aegisalt.

“And we were told under no circumstances were we ever to look into them under pain of horrific execution.”

“We were told just not to look into them.”

“So Cap’n does what he’s told and we’re making the run… and BOOM!” Nora threw her hands wide.  “We run into over a dozen Protectorate heavy cruisers and a battlecruiser!”

“It was a single light-cruiser and two frigates actually,” Ren, again corrected as he bought a card after checking his hand.

Yang smirked as Weiss seemed to scowl and Ruby leaned in closer at every word.

“So the Cap’n pulls our girl into a hard bank and though the Juniper is fast, we’re outgunned, we’re dodging shots and missiles and torpedoes… when the Cap’n gets this idea. He runs us into an asteroid field, shuts down all power, runs us cold, then sends a little message to the Blood Pact Raiders. This was a gang who had some serious beef with us and Jaune tells them…”

Nora dropped her voice an octave. “Hey Blood Pact! You stink like some dirt sucking slag faces… Come get us we’re here.”

“I don’t sound like that,” Jaune commented idly, the corners of his mouth ticking up.

“And so the Blood Pact shows up,” Nora continued to ignore the peanut gallery, “and runs into Procs! So while the Blood Pact is getting slaughtered by the Procs, we managed to slip through around to escape and finish the run!”

“Best part of that run? Guess what was in the boxes?” Jaune teased as he set his knitting aside.

“Weapons? Medicine? Drugs? Cash?” Yang listed off a number of things the pirates tended to smuggle.

Jaune grinned. “Cheese.”

The table fell to laughing. Even stuck up Weiss-cream cracked a smile.

It was strange to see Ruby snort and laugh with the rest of the crew, causing the rest to laugh even louder along with her. It made Yang smile all the more to see how quickly the Juniper’s crew had accepted Ruby. Sadly there was, of course, the period right after take off when Jaune and Ren had avoided Ruby like a plague, and the mysterious Pyrrha woman was only rarely seen.

But much to Yang's surprise, Jaune and Ren had slowly warmed up to Ruby. Whether it was because Weiss was a constant companion, Ruby’s own seemingly infinite cheerfulness, or because they were all stuck in this tin-can and were pushing day nine, Yang wasn’t entirely sure why. But she was thankful that the others had come to accept Ruby.

“Well…” Jaune yawned as he stood up and stretched, “I should go relieve Pyrrha. We’re going to be dropping out of the Fold soon. Should just be one la...”

He was cut off as alarms shrieked and the ship shuddered into real space. All of them were thrown to the ground, heads cracking on the deck plating and furniture.

“Jaune.” Pyrrha’s voice came over the intercom, her tone utterly calm and collected.  That woman seemed to be unflappable. “We have Grimm.”

“Shit.” Jaune spat as he leapt to his feet and raced to the cockpit.

Ren helped Weiss to her feet, while Nora pushed Ruby and Yang back towards their rooms. Yang had to admit she was taken aback by Nora’s sheer brawn as she was shoved out into the hall.

Going to have to have an arm-wrestling match with her once this Grimm business is done. Yang licked the top of her lip as she allowed herself to be physically removed by the engineer.  

“What can we do?” Ruby called, as she rushed to join the two.  

“Get into your rooms and bar the doors,” Ren ordered calmly as he moved down the hall to the armoury.    

“Fuck that.” Yang grinned savagely. Her blood was up. “Give me a gun. I haven’t shot something in a long time.”

“Yeah!” Ruby cheered, “We can help!”

“We’re not helpless, you know,” Weiss pointedly added as she followed them down the hallway.

“I have no doubt that you aren’t helpless, but you are our passengers. We must ensure your safety,” Ren answered patiently, his eyes half-lidded as though the impending danger of a Grimm boarding action was still a rather trivial concern

“You're going to need more than just yourself and Nora,” Yang countered as she shook off Nora’s guiding hand, “You can use us.”

Ren was about to reply when Jaune came over the intercom.

“Ren, lock everything down… I don’t know where they came from but there’s a whole flock of Griffins and at least two Nevermore Grandis. They must have been what pulled us from the Fold. Pyrrha’s coming down to help with defenses.”

Ren let out an irritated breath. “Fine. But you listen to Pyrrha, Nora and myself, understood?”

Yang smashed her fists together, “You got it chief.”

                                                   -------

Yang howled as her pistol roared. Three shots hit centre mass on the Griffon who had just phased through the armour plating of the ship. Its inky flesh exploded out in a mess of black viscera, as it howled in pain spreading its wings and rearing up on its back legs. Its white bone mask and four crimson eyes, filled with a primordial hatred and hunger, stared hungrily back at her.

The Grimm screeched and leapt at her, beak wide open to rip and tear into her flesh. Yang ducked and brought the pistol underneath its head and fired. The Grimm’s head detonated as the heavy calibre round tore into what should have been its brainpan and exploded, showering the area with bits of bone and midnight purple blood.

Blood the colour of shadows.

Beside her, Nora grunted as she caught a claw with her shotgun. With her own roar, she twisted it down and threw it off balance, firing two rounds into its bone mask, shattering it like glass.  She left it bleeding on the floor, heavily injured and dying.

Nora yelled triumphantly as she then slammed the butt of her gun into the head of the Griffon, putting it out of its misery with a sickening crack.

Behind them, another was gunned down by concentrated fire from Weiss and Ren. Even as they brought three Griffons down, another four phased into the ship, screeching their hunger for the crew.

Yang shuddered at the inhuman, evil sound. She squeezed the trigger rapidly, firing several more explosive shots into the leader, who fell to the floor with massive chunks of its body splattering against the hall. She had fired until her pistol ran dry.

“Void take it all.” Yang spat, as she pistol-whipped one more, caving its skull in with the grip of Ember Celica. “How many of these things are there?”

A shadow danced around her as Blake rammed her heavy boarding blade into its sagging mouth and then down its flank, parting shadow flesh and leaving the creature to wither and die. Blake danced away, a small smirk of satisfaction as she ducked under another swipe. Coming back up, Blake brought Gambol Shroud down onto the neck of another Griffon, before leaping back elegantly as Nora and Yang advanced unleashing a cascade of shots into its still twitching form.

The ship shook; Yang felt the familiar thrum of the magnetic charge in the back of her teeth as the Juniper lashed out in anger. Her eyes widened; the charge was akin to ones that powered the guns they mounted on the Muninn. A ship almost four times the size of the Juniper.

Guess they weren’t lying about that. Yang thought savagely. She wasn’t sure what Captain Arc was aiming at, but as she slamed a new magazine home, she sure as hell hoped he hit the fucking thing.

“Hold them off a little longer!” Jaune’s panicked voice shouted over the coms. “One of the Nevermores is dead, but we got three more...Damnit.”

The link cut out.

Yang scoffed and fired as more Griffons poured through the ship’s hull, filling the Juniper with a screeching mass of shadowy flesh, white bone masks, and hateful, hungry eyes.

“Easy for him to say. Come on you ugly pieces of shit!” Yang roared in challenge quickly reloading before she rushed into the middle of them, firing wildly and striking out with heavy, hammering blows that left the inhuman malice of the Grimm staggering.

They just had to hold on a little longer.

----------

Ruby wasn’t exactly sure how she got here. She originally had planned to be with Weiss and Yang guarding the engines and the point defense weapon bay. Instead, she had been roped into holding the hall to the cockpit with Pyrrha as Griffons phased into existence in front of them.

She aimed for their eyes and mouth. Crescent Rose barked in a steady staccato as she fired a short burst of fire down the hall, expertly hitting her targets. Beside her, Pyrrha twirled her sword in an easy flourish in her left hand. Her right was encased in a bronze-coloured gauntlet as she softly chanted an oddly soothing and peaceful song that Ruby did not know the origins of.  

Every now and then, a screeching Griffon would get to close, and Pyrrha would react with inhuman speed and deadly grace. She cut each Grimm down with the spectacular ease of the dancers she had once glimpsed on a holovid. But in person, in fighting, Ruby had never seen anything like it.

Usually, a Grimm, even small ones like Griffons, were tough bastards to put down, often needing half a magazine to put down. Pyrrha, it seemed, just sliced through them.

A perfect strike.

A breathtaking cut.

And the monsters instantly went down, night-red blood glistening on the deck.

Every now and then Ruby thought she saw a brief flash of golden light, but dismissed it. She tensed, getting ready to aim at the next Griffon that phased in. It was probably just the muzzle flash of her rifle.

It seemed like hours the two held the hall that line to the cockpit. They gunned and cut down every demon that came.

“How… How many more?” Ruby panted, as she slid another magazine into her rifle. “I’m running really low on ammo.”

“It does not matter,” Pyrrha’s voice did not waver, she seemed not even to be tired, “We must hold them. If they get to Jaune, then we all die.”

“Cheery thought,” Ruby quipped back as fired another burst down the hall, catching a Griffon who had just phased into existence full in the face with a three round burst.

The air buzzed with electrical discharge. Ruby felt her stomach plummet and the back of her teeth vibrate as the Juniper rocked with the discharge of her primary gun.

“Last Nevermore down!” Jaune crackled to life over the coms, his voice filled with excitement “I’m getting ready to Fold. On my mark in three… two… one… Mark!”

Beneath her feet, Ruby could feel the thrum of energy as the Juniper launched forward into the Fold. They escaped the main horde of Grimm. Ruby could hear the sounds of fighting lighting up in the distance  from the few Grimm still remaining as her friends cleared the ship.  She closed her eyes and wiped the sweat off her forehead with a grin.

Suddenly, a Griffon charged her, barreling down the hall. Her eyes popped open as it screeched in rage and seethed hatred.

Pyrrha moved to intercept …

And missed.

Ruby’s eyes widened and her grip briefly slipped her rifle as she watched the red-haired woman being battered aside, crashing against the wall and falling to the floor in a heap.

Ruby raised her rifle steadying her shaking hands. Even if she hit, the Griffon could take the shots and still tear her to pieces.

She fired and closed her eyes, ready to feel her flesh being ripped from her bones by its needle-sharp teeth.

Her heart pounded.  Seconds ticked by… and there was nothing.

No claws, no tearing, no biting. No pain as her life was ripped from her body by a monster.

Even the screeching had stopped, save for the one or two in the aft that were quickly put down by Yang and the others.

Ruby slowly opened her eyes… The Griffon was dead. The beast was dead. Its jaw loose, its beak hung open. Its tongue shrivelled and its eyes, once lit brightly with malice and hunger, were dull and empty, as though the anger had simply melted away. Its torn, shredded wings lay out stretched and its clawed for legs crumpled underneath it.

It had died not even two feet in front of her. With no wound to speak of.

She looked up and right into the knowing emerald gaze of Pyrrha Nikos.

[minsugasnerd]

Whispering Wall [1/2]

Genre: Fluff

Word Count: 3,549

A/N: I previously wrote this for a writing blog I was on, but have removed it since I no longer write for that blog. I decided to repost it on my main kpop blog. It is however still dedicated to my Soul Partner Kim, I wrote this for her, to make her smile. @softkim2

The Whispering wall was a place you frequented to study, even write your papers for school. Being a college student was stressful but somehow this wall made it easy to write. You were always more focused here than anywhere else. Some say this wall was magical, some say it was just a wall full of vandalism.

Other students like you came to confess secrets, let out some stress, write love notes. Every now and then you’d find an actual conversation, replies upon replies. You found it entertaining to read these. Before starting on your astronomy essay, you took out a fine tipped sharpie and wrote on the wall.

“I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday.”

You smiled to yourself. ‘Yesterday’ was your favorite Beatles song. It always brought a smile to your face, unlike your class partner Jung Hoseok. He wasn’t a total pest but he did his fair share of teasing and distracting you in class. For the most part you ignored him. You couldn’t risk getting your grade lowered over his actions.

The sound of someone approaching the wall brought you back to the present. They looked sheepishly at you before pulling out a marker of their own to write something. You looked down at your blank paper, trying to think of what to write.

Why do I love astronomy?

Your fingers hovered over the keyboard of your laptop for the slightest second before quickly moving. You had always loved astronomy; it was one of the things in your life that had a deep meaning. All that the skies had to offer were tranquil, but at the same time they could be quite scary. You loved the unknown and mysterious aspects of the galaxies and stars. You found it truly fascinating. You were on such a roll with this essay before being interrupted.

“I see my favorite classmate is working hard, as usual. You’re such a nerd.” You couldn’t help but roll your eyes. Hoseok sat down on the opposite side of the picnic table.  

“Well its better than leaving everything to the last second like you do. At least I manage to show up on time and take notes.”

He laughed. “Like I said, you’re a nerd.”

Peering over your laptop to glaring at him. “I’m not a nerd for taking my studies seriously,” he deadpan looked at you.

“Y/n…”

“Whaaat?” you asked while trying to resume your essay.

“You’re a nerd.” he said once more making you irritated.

“If you’ve got nothing better to do, just leave.” you huffed.

“You’re so cute when you’re angry. But I actually did seek you out for a reason.”he claimed.

You sighed and closed your laptop. It was obvious that you weren’t going to get anything done with him sitting in front of you. “What could Jung Hoseok need from a nerd like me?” you asked putting quotations around the word nerd.

“I need you to take notes for me on Thursday. I won’t be in class." He stuck out his bottom lip and batted his eyelashes at you.

"Don’t try to act all cute. It won’t work. And why aren’t you going to be in class that day?” you quizzically eyed him.

“My best friend Yoongi is coming to town and I haven’t seen him in a year.” he seemed sad. “He’s been traveling for his music.” his eyes finally met yours. For the first time ever, you felt that this was the real Hoseok. Someone who wasn’t always so hyper and annoying.

“I suppose,” you started to say when he squeezed your hand to say thank you. “But you owe me,” you narrowed your eyes at him and took your hand from his. You gathered your laptop and notebook from the table getting ready to leave.

You turned to him one last time “Call me nerd one more time and I’m never doing anything for you ever again.” The sound of his laugh growing smaller and smaller as you walked towards your dorm.

“Thank you!” he shouted after you.

After you reached your dorm, you had managed to finish half of your essay. You stood up and stretched, flexing your fingers feeling relief from having sat in the same position for so long. The tired feeling started to seep into your bones. Well no wonder it’s late you thought to yourself as you checked the time. 11:37 pm. You slipped on a hoodie before taking your toiletries to the shared bathrooms. You brushed your teeth and washed your face before heading back to go to sleep for the night. The image of Hoseok gripping your hand and his smile played in your brain, making you grin as you drifted off to sleep.

The week passed rather quickly. You jotted down notes on Thursday’s class for Hoseok. You had finished the essay for your astronomy class, so you turned it in a few days before the deadline. You could practically hear Hoseok calling you a nerd.

You found yourself once again at the Whispering Wall this time to draw in your sketchbook. You loved taking a blank page and turning it into a piece of art. Making the various colors blend in with each other, creating the most beautiful images. You were always told you should major in art but your true love was what the skies contained.

You sharpened your pencil before letting it touch the surface of the page before you. A thought popped into your head. The Wall! You looked over to the spot you had written on; utterly shocked that someone had answered your quote.

“Yesterday love was such an easy game to play.”

You’ve never smiled that hard before as your heart soared. Someone else loved The Beatles!  Finally someone your age showed the same interest in the same music as you. Finally someone with taste!

You grab a sharpie from the pile on the table when someone pulls out one of your earbuds, making you yelp. You didn’t even have to turn around; Hoseok gave himself away with his obnoxious laugh. “Hoseok I swear to-” you turned around and stopped talking. He had someone who you assumed was his friend, with him.

“Swear to what y/n?” he teased. You didn’t want to be rude in front of this stranger so you didn’t say anything back to him.

“Y/n I’d like you to meet Yoongi. My friend that I told you about.” he stated.

“The one who travels for music?” you asked looking at Yoongi. Taking in his mint colored hair, leather jacket that hung off of his frame, even the sleepy look on his face. He reminded you of your roommate; she rarely showed her emotions and always looked like she was tired.

“Yoongi I’d like you to meet y/n” he looked at his friend who smiled at you.

“Ahhh so this is the girl that yo-” Hoseok elbowed him in the side to shut him up. “I mean nice to meet you,” he shook your hand and smirked.

“Likewise Yoongi,” he smiled and tucked his hand into his pocket. “So what’re you guys up to?” you asked as you settled onto the picnic bench.

“Not much just showing him around. Probably dragging him to a party.” he replied.

“Ahhh well I hope you guys have fun.” you told them. And you meant it.

“Woah! You’re actually being nice to me?!” Hoseok exclaimed as he clutched his chest, stumbling back into Yoongi.

You groaned. “Do you always have to ruin my mood?”

“Who? Me?” he asked. “You wound me y/n.” he wiped a fake tear from the corner of his eye. You rolled your eyes at him, making Yoongi laugh at the exchange between you two.

“It was nice meeting you Yoongi.” you plugged your ear buds in and motioned for Hoseok to scram. Yoongi nodded at you before they turned to walk away. You smiled to yourself. He knew how to get under your skin. You absolutely hated it but only acted this way with him.

Your attention returned to your sketchbook. You let the music take you away. After a while a familiar face with gorgeous eyes and a set of full lips developed on the page. You hadn’t realized you were drawing Hoseok. Was it possible you were crushing on him? No. No way. You slammed your sketchbook closed trying to shake the feelings. You returned your supplies to your backpack, all except for one sharpie.

“Now I need a place to hide away. Oh, I believe in yesterday.” you wrote in your signature loopy handwriting.

The person who replied had fairly sloppy but readable handwriting. It had to belong to a guy. You contemplated who this other person could be. There were so many students on campus, the possibilities were endless. Sighing to yourself you decided to go back to your room.

You were surprised to see you roommate awake. “Wow you’re actually awake?”you didn’t mean for it to sound so sarcastic.

“I know I’m surprised myself. I got invited to a party. Wanna go? I know it’s not either of our scenes but I don’t want to go alone.” you were honestly shocked.

“But you never want to go out.” You stated.

"Yeah tell me about it. But I feel like free booze tonight.” she shrugged as you laughed. “I’m leaving in a half hour if you wanna go.”

“Well it wouldn’t hurt…” you say more to yourself than to her.

She mumbled a ‘cool’ before slipping out of the room to head down the hall for the bathroom. You looked through her wardrobe after deciding that your clothes were too boring.

By the time your roommate returned you still hadn’t decided what to wear. “Move, I got this.” she nudged you out of the way to rummage through her clothes. Meanwhile you quickly applied light make up. “Here,” she shoved a pair of high waisted denim shorts, a plain white tank top, and a flannel shirt into your arms. “It’s not a formal event. Plus it usually gets really hot at these things with all the bodies packed into a tiny space.” You quickly dressed pairing the outfit with a pair of black converse. Your roommate opted for a pair of black ripped skinny jeans and a t shirt with some obscure band on the front.

“Ready?” She asked after she laced up her boots.

“As I’ll ever be.” you replied.

You walked arm in arm with your roommate to the frat house. The faint sounds of music grew louder and louder with each step you took towards the party. Excitement coursed through your body. Even your roommate seemed excited to be there, it was such a change for her usual attitude. You liked it.

Upon approaching the front steps she dropped your arm only to grab your hand, pulling you through the entryway and through the lingering people by the door. Once inside you assessed your surroundings.

“Let’s get a drink!” your roommate shouted over the music and you gave her a thumb up. You followed her into the kitchen, only to find Hoseok and Yoongi leaning against the counters.

“Y/n? What’re you doing here?” Hoseok questioned as his eyes looked you up and down.

“My roommate invited me.” you answered as she handed you a plastic cup filled with foul smelling liquid.

“Cheers” she said as she touched her cup to yours. She downed it before you even brought it up to your lips.

“My kind of woman,” Yoongi spoke with a smirk on his face. You laughed to yourself knowing he would like her.

The four of you chatted in the kitchen for a little while before someone from your English class pulled Hoseok away. “Namjoon needs to speak to me. You good Yoongi?” he asked.

Yoongi eyed your roommate up and down while licking his lips. “Yeah I’m good Jhope.”  Jhope?

You stood there and watched them shamelessly flirt in between sips of alcohol. You refilled your cup with a mixed drink and wandered off. It wasn’t long before you found a familiar face surrounded by a small group of people.

“Y/n! Come sit with me!” Seokjin exclaimed. He patted the only other empty spot on the couch. You’ve known him since your freshman year at the University.

“Hey Jin!” you said as you sat down next to him. “How are you? It’s been a while since we’ve talked.”

“I’ve been good. I made the Dean’s list this year.” he beamed with pride.

“Congratulations! I’m happy for you!” you told him nudging his shoulder. “You were always the smartest one in class. With the lamest jokes!” you giggled feeling the alcohol working.

“What do you mean? My jokes are legendary! ” Jin scoffed at you while simultaneously putting his arm around your shoulders.

“I didn’t know dad jokes were funny” you retorted.

“What do you call bears with no ears?” he asked trying to hold his laughter.

You groaned at the opening of the joke. “I dunno, what?” you asked as you took a sip of your beer.

“B!” he answered laughing. It was his windshield wiping laugh that made you cackle. Not the joke.

“That was,” you paused as he looked at you. “So, so stupid!” you laughed as you swatted his knee. “I’ve got a better one.”

Jin cocked and eyebrow at you. “I don’t think so y/n, I am the king of jokes!” the people surrounding you guys laughed along with him.

“Did you hear about the restaurant on the moon?” you replied knowing he was going to find it hilarious. He shook his head and took a sip from the dark glass bottle he held. “Great food! No atmosphere!” He spat his drink out, nearly choking on it. “Oh gosh are you okay?!” you pat his back as he recovered from the coughing fit. His face was tomato red when he looked at you.

“That was a good one!” he said once he calmed down.

This game of telling jokes went on for a good hour or so when you hear Hoseok call out for you.“Y/n?” you looked up to see him looking at Jin’s arm which was still around you. “Have you seen Yoongi?”

You got up and said your goodbyes to Jin and promised to hang out again soon.

“Last I saw him; he was in the kitchen with y/rm/n. They were getting pretty cozy with each other.” he laughed. “Why is that funny?” you asked as you led him to the kitchen.

“I’ve never seen him this way. Normally he’s closed off to people” now it was your turn to laugh.

“Funny cause so is she.” you snorted. As soon as you turned the corner you both made sounds of disgust. They were all hands and lips.

“Ew guys get a room,” Hoseok spat. The two broke apart with big grins on their faces.

“You interrupted. For what?” Yoongi glared at the two of you.

“Food? I’m starving. Let’s go.” he said not caring that he was interrupting them.

Yoongi leaned back into y/rm/n and whispered something into her ear which made her scoff. “Yeah right D boy.” she replied and he smirked. “Are you ladies going to join us?” Yoongi asked.

On cue your stomach growled. “Whelp I guess that answers for me.” you said patting your stomach. You turned to Hoseok. “Where to Jhope?” both you and Yoongi snickered at that name.

“Watch it y/n” he warned, but the look on his face conveyed that he didn’t care. “Only my Soul Partner can call me that,” he said and gave Yoongi a fist bump. “How about the diner right outside of campus?”

“Food is food,” both y/rm/n and Yoongi said at once, they burst out in laughter.

“Well that’s creepy,” the sound of Hoseok’s voice saying the same thing as you made your eyes go wide. “Can we stop with all this weird shit and go?” he said amused.

The four of you left the party and went to go refuel and sober up. Two am quickly approached as you guys left the diner feeling full. You were surprised that you actually had so much in common with Hoseok. Yoongi told stories from their younger days. He wasn’t as bad as you thought, it just so happened that his hyper personality got in the way of getting to know the real him. He was actually a pretty sweet guy.

You and Hoseok walked together talking while the other two fell behind laughing and goofing around. “Is anything going on between you and that one guy from the party?” he questioned you.

“You mean Seokjin?” he nodded his head. “No. We’ve been friends since freshman year. That’s it.” you glanced at his profile. “Why do you ask?”

He shrugged. “Just wondering.” You noticed a smile form on his lips. You never noticed that he had dimples; dimples that you wanted to reach out and touch. “So, Yoongi leaves in a few days. Would you mind taking notes for me again?” you were approaching the university.

“Sure. But you still -” you went to say but never got to finish.

“Yeah I know I still owe you from last time. Maybe you can let me take you out on a date?” he made it sound more like a question than a statement. “I mean that’s only if you want.” he playfully tugged on the sleeve of the borrowed flannel shirt. His hand met with yours, fingers slowly intertwining with yours. The warmth of his hand sent shivers down your spine.

“A date? With Jung Hoseok? Gee I wonder why I would want to partake in that.”you felt him squeeze your hand. “But I guess. I mean you do owe me.”

“That I do,” he flashed a brighter than sunshine smile at you.

Without realizing where your feet were taking you, you both ended up at the Whispering Wall. You pulled him over to the spot you checked almost daily. “What are we doing here?” he asked as you let go of his hand.

“I wanted to see if anyone replied to what I wrote,” not bothering to look at him as you answered. “Apparently not.” you sighed. You turned around to see him eyeing you skeptically. “You see, I wrote a line from my favorite Beatles song on here. I wasn’t expecting anyone to answer, but someone did.” he nodded, urging you to go on. “They replied with the next lines. I did the same, I was hoping they would have replied by now but they haven’t.” you frowned.

“I’m sure they will soon y/n.” he said as he shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and looked towards the ground. Why is he suddenly being shy?

You opened your mouth to say something but someone beat you to it. “JHOOOOOOOOOOPE!” Yoongi startled you both. It had slipped your mind that you weren’t alone. In the lights of the lamps that dimly lit the area, you could see the hickeys that y/rm/n and Yoongi had given each other while you and Hoseok were alone.

“What do you want Yoongs?” he groaned at the loudness of his friend.

“Thank you for introducing me to her. She’s fucking amazing man.” you all laughed at his outburst. “I’m telling you she’s my soul mate. Your my soul partner but she’s my soul mate.” Yoongi claimed as he snaked an arm around y/rm/n’s waist.

You looked at each other rolling your eyes as the two of them started making out again. “I’ll walk you to your dorm room,” he offered. You took his hand in yours and led the way.

He walked you right up to your door. “Hey that reminds me, what’s your number?” you eyed him. “I mean how am I supposed to take you on a date if I don’t have your number?” he smirked.

“Valid.” You told him your number as the other two caught up with you guys.

“So I’ll see you in class on Tuesday?” he said and surprised you by giving you a hug.

“See you Tuesday Hoseok.” A squeal from y/rm/n broke you two apart. Yoongi smacked her ass. “Those two I swear,” you shook your head.

“Good night Agust Dick” she said and walked into the shared room.

“Good night Y/n,” Hoseok spoke, barely above a whisper moving closer. He kissed your cheek softly, making heat rise to that very spot.

“Good night Jhoooope,” which earned you a laugh from him. “It was nice meeting you Yoongi, ” you waved to him and he nodded in response.

You closed the door and leaned against it. Your roommate had already undressed and was mostly asleep. “See it doesn’t hurt to go out and have fun.” she said before letting out a big yawn.

“No, no it doesn’t.” you said as you got into your pajamas. Your phone buzzed as you slid beneath the blankets of your bed. It was a text from an unknown number.

“Why she had to go, I don’t know, she wouldn’t say. I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday.” You’re not the only one with good taste in music you nerd ;)

It was Hoseok this whole time. You smiled to yourself in the dark before you drifted off to sleep.

finale >