#always been my motto instead of the overdone

[luninosity]

Yay! A short story I wrote a while ago for a Women in SF contest (didn’t win) will be out from JMS Books in May!

It’s m/f (for that anon a while back who asked about whether I’d do more of that) but both protagonists are very happily openly bisexual.

It’s also the story that I pitched as, “like a Regency romance ballroom first meeting...only in space...like, the ballroom is part of the Galactic Empire and the dashing captain is the captain of a starship. And there’re gay and ace secondary characters on Kit’s crew. And also there are jelly sun-candies and champagne and dress uniforms.”

Want the beginning?

#

“You never call your mother,” Lady Elise’s virtual image grumbled across time and space. Imperial Starship Captain Catherine Everington contemplated thumping her head against her own desk, under the sympathetic artificial gleam of the wall lights. She didn’t. Her mother would see.

She said instead, “I’m calling you now,” which was true and therefore inarguable.

“Only because I called you first. Ten times.”

All right, maybe it was arguable. “Mother, I’m busy.”

“You are not too busy for this. It’s important, Catherine.”

“To you,” Kit said, and tipped her chair back on two legs, mostly to watch her mother cringe. Her chair was used to this, and bent obligingly. The captain’s personal briefing room folded curved sleek walls around her in solidarity; out on the Dreamer’s bridge, she knew, her crew would be waiting. Her family. Her home. “I’m not part of your politics. I haven’t been that for years.”

“I’ll make it an order if I must.”

“You don’t have the authority.”

“I’m having tea with the Lord Admiral tomorrow, and he’ll be perfectly delighted to issue you a new set of directives.” Steel and rose petals; lace and swords. Kit sighed again. Her mother was every bit a child of the aristocracy, each diminutive inch crackling with brilliance. Lady Elise’d been born to power, and wouldn’t let anything as simple as not technically in fact being a commander of the Imperial Exoplanetary Survey Service stand in her way.

Kit, of course, would inherit all that power.

She tried not to think about it, most days. About the title, the planets, the gardens, the vast shipping consortium. About that other life, full of waltzes and ballgowns and necklaces strung with rare gems from a thousand worlds.

About the disappointment in her mother’s eyes, when faced with an only child who’d chosen the Academy and exploration and clunky exo-suit boots and short spiky hair and the delicate curl of tattoo-script along her left forearm, the lines her crew had convinced her to get while they’d all been merrily tipsy on the resort planet of Mira, on leave and planning the next leap into the unknown, toasting the IESS motto with sweet winter-vine wine: We seek the next star…

At the moment all the stars glittered, tantalizing and slipping even further away, outside her briefing-room window.

She tried, hopelessly, “I don’t want to.”

“You have a duty to the family, Catherine.” Lady Elise shook out flowing sleeves, smoothed them down, and did nothing so inelegant as cross her arms or scowl. “To the name. To the position. You will someday be the fifty-second Lady of the Fourth—”

“I know!” So did her crew. Qi’in had laughed for twenty minutes. Serena had asked about Lady Elise’s famous dazzling salon nights. Gil, Kit’s unflappable second in command, had known her since the Academy, and had raised eyebrows and said, teasing, “So now that everyone knows, can Richard and I borrow your summer home on Utopia One for a vacation, sometime…?”

“You can’t ignore your social obligations forever.”

“I’m working, Mother!”

“Yes…so you are.” Plainly a personal insult, that. Elise eyed her daughter with steel behind blue-and-silver bejeweled eyelashes. “I do know it’s quite a current trend for ladies to slip on trousers and run corporations and even join the Fleet—and don’t think I’ve not heard that you’ve inspired them—but, Catherine, you’ve made your point. You needn’t run around in the dirt of strange planets any longer. We all know you can, if you so desire; you’re perfectly capable of whatever you’d like to achieve. So you’re welcome to return home for the Emperor’s celebration gala.” In that voice the words welcome to became an order. Not to be disobeyed.

“Mother—” But it wouldn’t do any good. Hadn’t on any of the countless other occasions, over the previous ten years. The chair curled itself more closely around her.

Changing tactics, perhaps. Kit tried, anyway. “We’re half a galaxy away and busy, we’ve got three more worlds to survey, we can’t just call off the mission for a celebration—”

“Darling, it’s the end of the Regency!” Her mother spread both hands: can’t you see it? “It’s positively historic. Our new young Emperor finally of age—it has been nearly twenty years, and we’ve had those six old men bickering with each other for so long about what’s best for the throne, so this will be the beginning of an era…I wonder what he’ll wear. His uncle Pericles always favored reds, with that overdone gold embroidery…”

“He’ll wear clothing,” Kit said flatly. “Mother, you don’t need me there. I only ever embarrass you.”

“Oh, how can you say that?”

“It’s true.”

“Of course it is, but you don’t have to say it.” Lady Elise sighed. “Catherine, we are one of the leading families of the Empire, like it or not, and you are the only child of the Fourth House. Your absence would be remarked. But it won’t be.”

“…because I’m going to the ball.”

“Precisely.” With a head-tilt, contemplative. “You ought to wear blue. Or green. You look lovely in green.”

“Does it matter?”

“Of course it does.” Those sapphire-blue eyes, a shade poets had once committed sonnets over, looked surprised. “The trend-setters, the dressmakers, the tailors, the weavers…the merchants who import various dyes…the murmurs in ballrooms, in palaces, whether you’ve worn this color or refused that favor…it all leads somewhere, Catherine. How many times have I told you?”

“Enough,” Kit said, and instantly felt guilty, that undefined sense of generalized shame that came along with her mother’s beauty and political acumen and precisely calculated raptures over a bolt of new chiffon. Lady Elise was in many ways everything her daughter was not; and even Kit sometimes forgot as much, fooled along with the rest of the universe by the spun-sugar smile.

She said, not precisely an apology, “You think it will be noticed, then. If I’m not there.”

Her mother waited, eyebrows up.

“I’ll see what I can do.”

“The celebration is two weeks from tomorrow. You’d have more time if you’d answered my earlier messages.”

More guilt. Kit shoved it down. She’d not been precisely ignoring said messages, only…putting off returning the call. “We’ll…try. All right?”

“Wear your hair long if you can. Softness happens to be in style this Season, not that anyone truly believes anyone else’s appearances of innocence, of course.” Elise thought this over, and added, “Particularly not Lady Patrice. We all know she’s sharing Regent Lancel’s bed, and honestly, showing up with that undone hair and those dewy cheeks and those protestations of purity is all in such poor taste. At her age, too.”

Lady Patrice happened to be Elise’s friend, or as close to the term as possible. Kit chose not to mention that her mother was the same age, minus a month or two. “This is as long as my hair gets, Mother. And you don’t actually expect the new Emperor to look twice at me. Besides, the poor boy will have just claimed his throne. You can’t imagine he’ll be hunting a spouse on the same night.”

“He might,” Elise observed, implacable. Kit glanced out at the stars for support. The new Emperor was luckier than he’d ever know that her mother was ineligible as a future Empress, given the need for an heir.

“I’m not planning to seduce him. I’m going to meet him, congratulate him, and smile. And then leave.”

“Seduce him—honestly, Catherine. You make it sound so calculated.”

“It isn’t?”

“Please refrain from discussing sexual conduct in front of the Emperor.” Elise paused, thought for a second, then conceded, “You may do it, however. If he shows any interest.”

“Bright stars,” Kit said, with feeling, and buried her face in her hands.

[stagmanparty]

So I finished watching MLP Season 8 and...

….it´s actually not bad.

Yeah, I´m the first to admit I have to eat my words and agree the show hasn´t really gone down as much as I thought after the movie. I still hate it but the show itself remains good. Yes, there are more than a few mediocre or outright horrible episodes there but the good ones more than compensate.

I do believe that Dubuc is kinda out of her element on ponies, which may explain her use for an entire new cast aside from hasbro´s orders. The friendship school thing is done better than I though tough I still think is kinda stupid at moments.

Overall the balance is...fine.

I was expecting worse but it was an okay season.

I do hate that they explicitly mention the events of the movie but they´re STILL refusing to acknowledge the Equestria Girls ones. Come on Mccarty, stop being embarrassed ot the BETTER story!

Below the cut is my personal opinions of each episode with a dose of sarcasm if u want to read them but for the season as a whole I´ll give a 7/10 it was regular to me.

701-702:  “Girls, I want you all to work on my new school!”

“We have lives, Twilight”

ROLL CREDITS

So this wasn´t bad. I though Twilight was gonna be more selfish but she actually makes some fair points and owns to her mistakes here. What´s funny is that she doesn't act this way the rest of the season…

I still think the students are kinda lame but I like how they interact with each other and the episode itself was well handled.

Still, Twilight isn't perfect either since she refuses to have zebras or buffaloes or talking cats on her school. Hell, there aren´t even crystal ponies so she´s almost as bad the racist snape guy.

Kinda standard but good episodes.

7/10

703: “So sis, when are you gonna leave?”

“The town?”

“The show…”

I said it once, I´ll said it again, Maud overstayed her welcome. She´s no longer funny and feels like a creator pet by now.

That said the episode itself is actually really good.

Confalone GETS pinkie and gives he an actual character and this was honestly better handled that with Twilight.

Hell for a second I thought Pinkie was gonna have to deal with her own since her meeting with the guy has all the elements of a meet cute scene =P

I could live without the stupid opening scene but it seems even Pinkie realized Maud was being offensive to her audience there…

A really fun Pinkie episode to add to the pile

8/10

804 “thank you for calling me, Rarity. I can surely help you with all my sewing knowledge”

“Oh for this episode I´ll need you to forget about all that, darling and be completely useless”

So yeah, this was a waste of time.

So the mane six can´t help Rarity with her store but have plenty of time to go yell at Fluttershy?

And if Rarity hates the ponies of Saddle Row so much why does she enve sells them clothes?

I actually hate how they´re all portrayed cause they´re feeding the stereotype that people into fashion are shallow and petty and the whole point of Rarity´s character was to subvert that!

I only laughed at one joke in the whole episode.

So yeah another terrible fluttershy episode to add to the pile

2/10

805 The real reason Rainbow flies so fast...to escape her gay for applejack thoughts.

So a perfectly okay episode.

In other seasons it would have gone unnoticed but in this one it stands out for having solid writing.

It was fun and rainbow was very likeable here since she honestly seemed more concern about the grannies than anything.

It feels a bit stretched out but this is normal for a pony episode.

I do hope she kicks Applejack's behind the second she came back to town though…

A fun Rainbow episode.

7/10

806 “Girls, while you wasted time trying to help that kid with divorced parents I acciBURPddentally destroyed a scared statue so we better run, you bastards!” then Twilight pulls a rick an actually leaves them behind =P

SO yeah a complete waste of time.

I understand the point but it doesn't work for me since it seems like they made the problem way too simple.

I also dislike the hippogriffs on principle since i find I them really lame characters so…

Oh and this episode has the WORST song in the entire show. Hell is not even a song, is just words with music behind it.

So yeah, pretty lame episode.

2/10

807 “See Twilight, Sunset would have just told me things straight to my face! Then try to stab me in the back but the point remains…”

I already talked about this back when it aired and yeah, my opinion hasn't changed.

This isn´t a Celestia episode, is another of Twilight´s poorly made panic attacks ones.

We learned absolutely nothing about Celestia, she learns nothing at all and we wasted twenty minutes of our lives.

For a fan of the character, waiting nine years for this is nothing but an insult.

The saddest thing is knowing that the show will end without having a proper celestia episode.

So yeah, a total waste of time with only the adorable sunbutt to save some face

4/10

808 “You noticed all the wanted posters for you on the way here, Starlight?”

“No, actually not”

“yeah me neither, good thing you´re friends with a princess…”

Really, how come Starlight is NOT a wanted criminal? The episode could have dealt with her hometown disowning her but nope, is just a kinda lame sitcom situation.

Hell, it would have been better if we´re told the parents hooked up and now Starlight and Sunburst feel all kind of awkard but nope.

i suppose there´s like a moral lesson in here but the episode was so dull I don't even remember it.

It could have been a better story but it amounts to nothing.

3/10

809 “And to think this all started over a parking lot…”

“you don´t even need the parking lot, Rainbow!”

THAT would have been a better premise…

So yeah, remember season 1? Cool ,cause this is the exact same episode. Nothing new added and nothing interesting happens.

Go watch the leaf episode instead, is way better.

3/10

810 “Wait, Big Mac has a what now? How come nopony told me? Do I look like a jealous sister or something?”

“the shotgun isn't helping, AJ…”

Have they really interacted these two? I mean, don´t want a repeat of the same storyline. Infact, showing that Applejack and Sugar whatever get along well will be an interesting episode.

Far more interesting than this for sure.

I was bored the entire time and shut up, sweetie Belle. You'll be lucky to have Snips…

Another time waster.

2/10

811 “Spike, can´t you just masturbate like a regular teenager? I mean you have your own room now so it won´t be weird for me anymore…”

Again, remember season 2? Go watch that instead.

It even made more sense back then but now spike not knowing “how to dragon” has become a huge plot hole cause there´s absolutely no reason for him not to know these things so this entire conflict is pointless.

Oh and him having wings is something I don't really like.

Explain how he didn't have those during season 2 when he grew, hasbro! ANother lame Spike episode to the bad spike episodes pile.

2/10

812 “Girls, you rather go to a school where you dont´do any homework, play games all day, het to eat delicious food..actually I´m leaving too, school closed!”

So yeah do they do anything at Twilight school other than waste time? No wonder the CMC want to go there! Wasting time is their entire MO nowadays since they have their marks!

Prety standard episode, is honestly just to introduce the villain.

The only really fun thing is the “your mom” bit, I would have approved her out of that alone.

It´s okay, sadly can´t say more.

6/10

813 “Evil clones, what was I thinking? Dinosaurs, that´s a proper supervillain plan!”

MEH I mean it´s an okay episode but when you get to it is just repeating stuff from the first discord episode, nothing new. nothing gained.

That should be the motto of this season.

MEH

6/10

814 “Discord, what part of go to hell don´t you get?”

“The part where you forgot to tell me to stay there”

This episode is horrible!

What´s the moral lesson, be an asshole and get away with everything?

WHy the hell does Starlight apologizes? Why is HER problem that Discord feels bad? The idiot should take it on Twilight and she ahs a perfect reason not to let him in the school..Discord is an asshole! As this episode demonstrated!

Can he just...leave, please?

Worst episode of the season.

1/10

815 “Twilight, shouldn't we invite Zecora one of these days?”

“You wanna explain Kwanzaa to the viewers, Rainbow?”

ZZZZZZZZZ

Oh what? Oh yeah this episode.

Look I get the point and being objective there's nothing wrong with this episode but my god, tiw as boring!

Just the same bit repeated over and over and over and over…

Whatever, technically there's nothing wrong with it but I didn't like it.

6/10

816 “So mono means one and rail menas...no wait, wrong scam. Calls dismissed!”

“Slow down bro, so who´s the princess of friendship then?”

“The one with the eyepatch!”

“BLAST!”

So...a perfectly normal episode.

Again, this show always suffers from not having a b plot going on so the conflict get  a bit stretched but as an episode, it was well done.

Hey snape is right that Friendship IS a weapon in this universe, glad someone finally mentioned it.

There´s actually a good moral lesson about how no matter if the lessons are good if the methods are fraudulent which coming from Hasbro is the ultimate irony.

Flim Flam are kinda overdone at this point but it still works.

7/10

817 “Remember that time you left me in the desert with pinkie?”

“Oh sure, everything looks bad when you remember it…”

Actually a pretty good episode.

I mean the premise relies on twilight´s students being borderline sociopaths (guys, is not that complex of an idea, friends can disagree on things) but the episode itself it was really fun and the Raridash wa adorable.

I honestly liked it.

8/10

818 “I mean we could have get you a teacher and encouraged to get better through a montage but insulting you and hurting your feelings seemed like a better idea, pinkie”

Way to handle a problem, girls!

What part of this is supportive” pinkie? Your friends were assholes to you that made you feel bad so you stop bothering them and then come looking for you because is a problem for THEM?

There´s a better lesson about admitting you may not have the talent for something, which is a lesson that kids DO need to learn but since the problem is solved with a “who cares?” the moral lesson doesnt´work and nobody really learns anything here.

Who approved of this crap?

2/10

819 “I say someone must have  said a funny because your mother is in stitches hahaha! I´ll leave you to your grief, Starlight.”

Finally a good episode!

Actually an excellent one. Coupled with a catchy song and really good dialogue, my man Haber can make a really good episode when he wants.

I have zero complains this was the best episode of the season.

10/10

820 “That´s it I´m taking you to your parents or in its defect your lesbian aunts that cannot be seen in the show due to television censorship policies!”

I´m sorry but cootalo was a brat the entire episode in need of a good spanking.

Rainbow did absolutely nothing wrong and that gid set gogin around here is full of lies.

If anything she was a bit rash over the fact that yeah, the little girl she sees a sister suddenly is throwing her away...again, cause she did it with the maredowell thing also. Funny they didn´t mention it, probably to appease the fandom.

As an episode is nothing bad, Rainbow actually comes out great here so yeah, Scootaloo, you're grounded..as in put in a hole in the ground.

Good episode

8/10

821 “All me friend are long dead…”

“Yeah yeah, lovely. Fill this form here, big guy…”

What's wrong with Twilight this episode? Why is she such an insensitive idiot?

It was pretty clear the obvious solution was just giving him a classroom with no walls and guess what, that´s what she does alter on so what gives?

And why are SPike and SMoulder allowed to burns the school every day?

An dhow come Rockhoof has no job in “modern equestria”? there used to be plenty of things wanting to eat the ponies every week, did they disappear in between seasons or what?

Really stupid episode that only works by everybody bieng assholes to an actually nice guy.

2/10

822 “Look at the bright side Rainbow. We got replaced by a new cast but at least we didn't die horrible on the movie like the transformers did…”

grumble grumble this is actually a really good episode.

I mean I could argue they have already dome similar stuff but it make sense here. The tree of harmony finally gets some light on it and this actually helps make the students look less lame by giving them character so...yeah, it´s actually really good.

Damnit.

9/10

823 “Oh shoot we forgot to invite them to the school!”

“It's okay, Twilight forgot to invite like half of the country as well…”

grumble grumble another really good episode!

I honestly though this episode was gonna suck but it turns out to be one of the best.

It´s obviously a previously unaired episode that they managed to shove into here but is actually a really good so I have zero complains about it.

The kirin is actually really cute and I liked the song so…

9/10

824 “So kid have you seen stuart little?”

“No.”

“Then this whole thing is gonna be new for you…”

So yeah...as an episode is okay but I´l argue that even the target audience could saw this coming a mile away.

My only real problem is that Spike barely apologizes to TWilight despite hurting her so much. Why is he such a brat? Twilight is nothing but a loving and supportive sister to him, look at that opening scene, si so lovely an touching!

Why does the show keep treating Twilight caring for her sibling and treating him like an equal as a bad thing? She even offers to let him go and learn more about his culture, she is supporting and loving why do they keep treating her like she´s doing a bad thing? and again kind of a big plothole nowdays  with dragons going around Equestria with no problems.

Other than that is a fine episode.

7/10

825-826 “Since we´re stuck here where the little filly´s room?”

“There is no little filly´s room in tartarus…”

“NOOOOOOO!”

Really, who built this prison Barry allen? Give them a bucket at least .

Again...actually really good episodes.

The action was good,the stakes were high, while that poor manticore shouldn't be there I still like the good detail than monsters have been kept her since past seasons and than the mane six honestly don´t hold a grudge against them, hope there´s an actual redemption arc down the line and they don't just forget about them like with the other villains,

Speaking of that, Cozy is probably the best vilian on the entire show.Hell, she´s better than Thanos cause she doesn't have an stupid justification, she just want s POWAAAAA! And she´s damn adorable and effective, she almost won.

Still They missed a chance to say that the missing magic was going to the human world to tie things up with Equestria girls for once and who the hell delivers letters to tartarus anyways?

The finally more than makes up and gives almost everyone a chance to shine so I like it. The mane six were treated with a LOT more respect than in the damn movie that's for sure.

Good solid episodes.

8/10

So that´s season 8, is not that bad honestly.. Had they had a better focus it would be better. Continuity is still a bit of a mess and just saying past stuff doesn't count but hey they´re trying.

Now I have like 40 Equestria Girls episodes to catch up though…

[newamsterdame]

YOUR SHIRATORIZAWA MAGIC GUILD AU LOOKS SO !!!! I CAN'T WAIT TO READ IT OMG YES

i mean, if you can’t wait, who am i to deny you? 

both tender fire and bitter squall, a preview

–

Semi blinks open his eyes, takes one look at the room around him, and immediately turns over in bed, reaching up to smoosh his pillow over his head to stifle his groan. It’s no good, however. The sunlight is already peaking though his skewed curtains, making falling back asleep impossible. His only choice is to roll back over and face the day, as terrible a proposition as that is.

He kicks at the wall with one foot, trying to roll himself and his wrap of blankets to one side, but ends up overjudging the distance. Instead of stopping at the edge of his bed, he ends up rolling too far, landing in a heap of sheets on the floor.

“Damnit.” It takes a moment to extract himself—he’s landed on top of a single shoe, yesterday’s pair of pants and what feels like his guild badge. He gropes behind him for a moment before his fingers land on cool metal, and he pulls the badge up to eyelevel, frowning at it.

Shiratorizawa, also known as the Guild of White Feathers, boasts a badge indicative of the steep costs of joining. It’s shield-shaped, made of white gold and about the size of Semi’s fist. Two birds—a swan and an eagle—are engraved on its front, each embellished by a garnet eye. The back of the badge is engraved with Semi’s name and the date he was officially accepted by the guild. Now, he traces the numbers with his fingers, frowning in thought.

Has it really only been five years? It seems like so much longer than that, so much to let go of, if he had to…

“Oi, what are you doing?” The door to his bedroom bursts open, a wave of heat washing over the room before Tendou himself enters. He’s dressed for questing, a burgundy hooded cape thrown over his shoulders and the rest of his wardrobe a worn, serviceable black. He glances around the room, taking it all in with a slight crease forming between his brows. “Eita.”

Semi scowls at him, holding up one hand to stop him before he can say anything else. With the other, he reaches up to massage his temples, already dreading a day that brings Tendou Satori to his bedroom this early in the morning.

“It’s half past noon,” Tendou says helpfully, as though he’s gleaned Semi’s thoughts. And it’s not as if that’s an impossibility, but their guild has always frowned upon magical applications that go beyond the purity of elemental magic. If Tendou has been developing a talent for clairvoyance, he’s better off keeping it to himself.

“Shut up,” Semi shoots back, no bite in his words. He tugs at the blankets still wrapped around him, shoving them back onto the bed with little ceremony as he gets to his feet.

“Shut up about what, exactly?” Tendou leans in close, voice lilting cheerfully even as his eyebrows narrow over his widely-spaced eyes. “The fact that you’re still in bed so late? Or is it the state of your room? Or maybe, maybe, you were talking about last night—”

He never finishes the thought, because a gust of wind rises up suddenly and pushes him back, his back slamming into Semi’s bedroom door. There’s not enough force behind the wind for it to actually hurt Tendou, but he gives Semi a wounded look nonetheless before tipping his nose into the air.

“Ah. That struck a nerve, didn’t it?” Tendou hums as he dusts himself off, nodding to himself.

“I. Don’t. Want. To. Talk. About. It.” Semi turns away from Tendou, digging through the clutter spread out across his rug, looking for something decent to wear. Now that he thinks on it, maybe the headache he’d woken up with wasn’t just an omen of a bad day to come, but also a reminder of the horrific night he’d had. Either way, he doesn’t want to deal with it.

“Yeah. That was obvious.” Tendou skips around Semi’s bedroom with exaggerated, jerking motions, jumping over particularly obtrusive piles of Semi’s belongings. “Y’know, if you apologize and buy him flowers, Wakatoshi might even forgive you.”

Semi growls, low in his throat. “Shouldn’t he be the one apologizing to me?” he bites out, before thinking better of it. “And I said we weren’t going to talk about this.”

“Hmm.” Tendou shrugs, pulling one of Semi’s white, long-sleeved shirts from under an upended book. “Here,” he says, tossing it over.

Semi catches the shirt with one hand, sniffing it gingerly to gauge how clean it is. Good enough, he decides, turning it right-side-out and pulling it over his head.

“We’re taking bets, you know,” Tendou says after a moment. “On how much the Masters are going to punish you, for this.”

“Of course you are.” Semi finds his trousers under his desk chair, which is turned over onto its side. Chips of wood are missing from the seat and backrest, the casualties of constantly being thrown over.

“Try and piss them off a bit more, okay? So they make your punishment even worse and I win the bet.” Tendou says this conversationally, as though he doesn’t actually care about Semi’s penalty. And he probably doesn’t. When he joined the guild five years ago, at the same time as Semi, the Masters were quick to discover that the best way to handle Tendou was to let him do whatever the hell he pleased, and hoped that his self-interest lined up with the guild’s goals. Four times out of five, they do, and the Masters are content with that. Semi can’t remember the last time Tendou was given an official penalty.

“I’ll do my best.” Semi keeps his voice flat, finding one of his boots under his bed and the other on top of his writing desk. He rights the chair to sit and pull them on, lacing them up as Tendou continues to flit about the room, considering Semi’s potential fates.

A minute later, two black gloves smack Semi in the face.

“Whoops,” Tendu says, when Semi pulls them away from his face to glare at him. “But look, I found both of them for you!”

Semi makes a disgruntled noise but doesn’t otherwise comment, instead pulling the gloves on, first the left and then the right, so that the last bit of skin he covers is the guild tattoo that marks the inner portion of his right wrist—the outline of two feathers, one crossed over the other.

He stands up, fully dressed, to see Tendou poking at the few books remaining in his bookshelf.

“Man,” Tendou says, eyes wide as he whistles, impressed. “It’s been awhile since you’ve caused this much damage, Semisemi. Did you have a bad dream, or something?”

Semi squeezes his eyes closed, debating whether it’s worth kicking Tendou out of his room at this point. He doesn’t need to look around to know how much of a mess the place is—his clothes pulled out of the wardrobe and strewn across the floor, his books dumped unceremoniously beside them, picture frames yanked off of the walls, papers scattered, inkpots shattered against the walls. Tendou’s right. He should’ve outgrown this, by now. He should have more control. He should be better, more able to—

“Hey.” Tendou’s hand is on his shoulder, shaking him. “I like your tornadoes, you know. They’re cool. But you’re gonna be broke forever, if you keep having to replace all the things you break.”

Semi frowns, crossing his arms over his chest. He knows Tendou’s right, but he’s never quite managed the control that most other air mages seem to tend towards naturally. Air is a flirt—it likes to hint at things, to push gently where it can. Semi’s wind is more like a battering ram, forceful and overdone. And when he sleeps, it’s worse, a spiraling force that rips his room to shreds no matter how much Semi tries to lock things in beforehand.

Tendou leans in again, flicking his index finger against Semi’s forehead. “Stop thinking so hard,” he complains. “We’re going to be late.”

Semi doesn’t manage to stifle his groan, this time. “Do we have to go?”

The response is chirping laughter. “Well, yeah. I thought you were the one excited to have an apprentice?”

“I was. I am.”

“Well. Then there’s no problem, is there?”

–

The Shiratorizawa Guild Hall is a building made of white marble, draped in maroon banners that display the guild’s motto—“Intense Force”—to the world. On good days, Semi finds the building awe-inspiring. On bad ones, he thinks it’s pretentious.

Today, he trudges up the steps with belligerent force, determined not to let anyone else see his hesitation. The hallways are littered with people, gusts of wind and small bursts of rain accompanying mages running to and from various offices. Semi edges past all of them, not eager to engage in conversation. Instead, he follows Tendou to the main hall, his breath getting shorter the closer they are to getting there.

It’s an old ritual, and one the guild has been eager to reinstate. War had ripped across the continent when Semi was a child, leaving the various guilds devoid of members as more and more mages were conscripted into the government’s special army units. Semi doesn’t remember much of that time, but the mages who’d entered the guild with him had all been taught in a singular class—there weren’t enough specialists to divide them up amongst individual teachers.

But now Shiratorizawa is celebrating a decade and a half as the strongest guild on the continent, boasting a heavy bench of powerful mages. And so the incoming class will have the opportunity for apprenticeships with Shiratorizawa’s up and comers.

A few months ago, when the Masters had first asked him to take on a pupil, it has seemed like a good idea.

“You two are late,” a soft voice says as they enter the main hall. Reon is standing by the doorway, leaning against the wall and looking at them in that way he has—both sympathetic and exasperated.

“Eita-kun overslept,” Tendou responds cheerily. “I already came by once this morning, but they hadn’t posted assignments, yet!”

Semi feels judged when Reon’s gaze lands on him, which probably isn’t a fair. Reon does judge, but only because he cares. Only because he understands. It makes it harder to be hostile towards him, and honestly at the moment Semi resents that more than anything. He doesn’t want anyone’s pity.

“Just try and make it work with your kid, yeah?” Reon says, smilingly kindly—ugh. There he goes again. “Then everything will be just fine.”

“You don’t need to tell me that,” Semi says, pressing his lips together. “Besides, shouldn’t you be warning Tendou? If anyone’s going to scare off their pupil, it’ll be him.”

Reon shrugs. “Who knows? Maybe whoever it is will be excited enough to work with the Guess Monster that they’ll overlook his… eccentricities.”

“Hey!” Tendou turns around sharply, wagging a finger in Reon’s direction. “I’m right here, and I don’t have any eccentricities!”

Reon lifts both of his brows. “Of course you don’t.”

Semi doesn’t bother trying to reinsert himself into the conversation. What could he say, anyway? That Reon’s made it obvious that there’s nothing about Semi that would keep his pupil around, if they didn’t get along otherwise?

Unless they want to learn how to produce untamable tornadoes, Semi thinks darkly.