#curse past me for deciding on the chapter structure before the plot

[dashuisofanubis]

Okay whatever multichapter fic I write next its going to have shorter chapters 😅

[ethanesimp]

THE OAK TREE // ZERO E.T. 

Pairing: Ethan Torchio x GN! Reader

Summary: Everyone at the Oakes Academy is aware of the rivalry that exists between two of the school’s best students, Ethan Torchio and Y/N L/N. What nobody knows is what a brilliant team they are when they’re at risk of their reputations being damaged and a killer’s on the loose.

Word Count: 2.6k

Warnings: Just Ethan and Y/N behaving like children, mentions of killing someone (as a joke), swearing.

Masterlist // Taglist link in bio

TEASER

A/N: This is the first chapter of The Oak Tree! I hope you guys enjoy :) Huge thanks to @night-girl-301​ for proofreading this and cheering me on! I was like... scared as shit to post it so yeah.

Taglist (strike means it won’t let me tag you):  @oro-e-diamanti @gretavanfleetlove @victoriadeangeliswifey @cheese-toastie-11 @selenophiliaxx @superchrystaldrug @petit-poussin @bidet-and-legolas @fallingforyou123 @ethaneskin @soft-boy-ethan @teenyweenynightghost @reputationdamiano @cantaraiilmionome @tabi-toast @queen-of-brokenhearts @geklutst-ei @juststalking @cruz-ata @ohtorchio​ @ethan-torchio-angelo​ @unitermoonshine​ @everythingisdefinitelynotfine​

It was only a few minutes past two-thirty when you managed to open the door that led to the greenhouse. The key, more often than not, would get stuck in the lock, and you’d have to spend a few minutes trying to yank it free, but this time around luck seemed to be on your side.

You placed your large black backpack on the stool that was always by the door before closing the entrance again. Mr. Murphy was still watering the plants, completely oblivious to your presence thanks to the loud music coming from the small stereo he kept near the gardening tools. You tapped his shoulder gently not to startle him; it wouldn’t be the first time you’d come into the place unannounced and you didn’t want to be the reason why he had to walk around with a cast on his arm again. 

He smiled fondly at you and adjusted his large glasses that were starting to slide down his nose. Mr. Murphy was an old man with long white hair and kind blue eyes, he’d been in charge of the greenhouse at the Oakes Academy for almost twenty years and had been the first person to show you kindness after you first arrived at the place years back.

“I thought I told you to take the afternoon free, Y/N,” He shook his head disapprovingly and you could only shrug. You had to work at the greenhouse at least three hours a week to maintain your scholarship per the Academy’s rules and it’d been long since it stopped being a task and instead became your favorite part of each day. 

“We were let out of Philosophy earlier so I thought I’d come by before I go study. Can I help with anything?” The older man sighed but nodded. He adjusted his glasses once again and wiped the dirt from his jeans.

He pointed at the corner where all the pink anthuriums were kept, shielded from direct sunlight, “Please water those, put a bit of fertilizer on the ones that arrived on Wednesday, and if you’ve got time, can you please feed the worms?” 

“Sure thing, anything else?”

“Just those three things. I’ve got to go help unload the groceries so please lock up both doors once you’re done,” He asked with a smile on his face as he buttoned his coat and grabbed his walking cane from where he’d dumped it on the floor right next to him. Back when you’d only known him for a few days, you’d always rushed to his side to pick up his cane and help him, but quickly realized it was a thing that annoyed him because of how independent and stubborn he was. “Oh and, before I forget, the kid’s outside. I don't want to come back and see you two trying to tear each other's heads off."

A laugh escaped past your lips and you shook your head as you tilted your head to the side so you could look through the hole in one of the windows. Just like he’d said, the boy with the long hair was sitting outside by the oak tree reading a book. You looked back at Mr. Murphy and shrugged, "No promises."

"I'm serious. You're smart Y/N, and I'm pretty sure you could easily find something you've got in common. That much hatred isn't good for either of you." Those were Mr. Murphy's last words before he walked out of the room.

You stood by the plants for a few minutes as you played around with the headphones that hung around your neck. You’d already sort of been startled by the topic you’d seen during Philosophy that day and you hoped that being at the greenhouse would serve as a little distraction but Mr. Murphy’s words hadn’t helped much.

You huffed and looked around for the hose to water the pretty anthuriums to get your mind off of everything that had gone down that day.

-

Hours later, you were still unable to shake Mr. Murphy’s words off. It wasn’t the first time he’d insisted on voicing his thoughts against that rivalry you had going on with the person standing between you and your biggest dream coming true. The thing that pissed you off though, was that his words had reminded you of what your best friend, Rory, had told you just the previous night while you did your usual hate rant. According to them, it was a good way to destress yourself.

You scoffed at the thought alone and let your chin rest on your palm as a frown appeared on your forehead. There was not a thing you could name that made you even remotely similar to the person sitting only a few feet away from you at the quiet school library. Ethan Torchio, a.k.a. Your archnemesis, the person you disliked the most in the face of the earth, was biting on the tip of his pencil as he concentrated hard on the thin black book he was holding up. Those dark eyes that shone honey whenever light hit them just right and those long strands of hair that graciously fell down his back accompanied by his signature turtlenecks and pretty smile were enough to make someone’s knees weak, but they only made you gag. 

You were sure he felt your eyes bore holes into the dark depths of his soul because it didn’t take long for him to look over his shoulder and meet your stare. Ethan smirked and his eyebrows shot up as he sent you a wink and a small wave. You knew that expression of his, he was teasing you, riling you up, hell, maybe he was trying to intimidate you. As crazy —and maybe a bit pathetic— as it made you sound, a simple smirk wasn’t just that when it came to him, never had been. Those dark eyes of his communicated his devilish intentions to you while he looked like an innocent child who’d never break a plate to anyone else.

You held his stare and mirrored his expression, which made him chuckle softly. It was nothing more than a silly game you’d play with one another to see who’d get tired of it first. The stare-off didn’t last too long that time around because his attention was stolen by one of his friends, Thomas. You simply shrugged and went back annotating on your copy of the black book. It was nothing more than one of those books written for the sole purpose of boring people to death. You loved reading, but when it came to those school-issued books that took around three pages to describe the sky-blue sofas in the main character’s living room, you couldn’t read more than a few pages before wanting to aggressively chuck it out the window. 

In a desperate attempt to distract yourself from the book that did nothing other than make you feel miserable, you stood up. You walked over to the large window that went from floor to ceiling. To your delight, the curtains were drawn back, which allowed sunlight to illuminate the otherwise dark library with its beautiful hues of orange and yellow. The librarian was a grumpy woman that loved when the curtains covered all the windows and blocked any source of light that wasn’t the soft glow of the lamps placed all over the dark room. You were almost convinced this woman had never felt the warmth of the sun against her pale and ashy skin, sometimes you even thought of her as a vampire that’d burn to death if she dared to stand outside for a few minutes. 

You looked out the window and admired the green gardens that adorned the front yard of the Academy’s largest building. The Oakes Academy was old and had been around since 1057. However, unlike most ancient schools like this one, the school board hadn’t been too interested in renovating the place outside of simply reinforcing the structure enough to fulfill the basic safety guidelines and the installation of optical fiber wires for a better internet connection. Even then, it was still considered to be one of the most prestigious schools to study at, and if it hadn’t been for the generous scholarship you were offered, you wouldn’t have been able to afford it anyway.

“Still plotting that little plan of yours to end the human race?” You bit down on your bottom lip to stop the colorful curse words from spilling as you turned sideways to look at Ethan. He’d decided to wear one of those annoyingly tight black turtlenecks of his and a pair of plaid trousers that made him look taller than he already was.

“Yes, and I’ll start with you first,” You smiled sarcastically at him, “In fact, I’ll swing by your dorm and murder you in your sleep,” You added while you choked the air for dramatic effect.

Ethan laughed and rolled his eyes. He had that spark of hate in his eyes that was always present when he was talking to you. That look alone told you that all that hatred and disgust you felt towards him was returned in the same magnitude. This rivalry of yours that consisted of dirty looks and constant arguments had been going on since eighth grade and it just seemed to get progressively worse as graduation approached. 

Everyone at Oakes knew how much Ethan and you despised each other, it wasn’t a secret. Even the Head Professor had been a witness of plenty of your many petty fights and you didn’t doubt that the people in charge of the Student Welfare department were sick of the many reports you’d filed against each other for breaking the ‘student rules of politeness’. No one remotely important cared much about your reports anyways because they were far from serious and, more often than not, childish.

“How cute. Although I don’t think that’d work too well for you, would it amore? If something were to happen to me they’d know it was you,” He commented. You shrugged and bit your lip in anger at the nickname he knew very well you detested. 

You casually leaned against the window, “Meh, it’d be worth it if I knew I wouldn’t have to see your face again. Now please get away before someone starts getting the sick idea that we’re friends.”

Ethan rolled his eyes but backed up a few steps either way, “God forbid someone would think such a horrific thing," He scoffed and raised his hand only to show you his middle finger when he knew the librarian wasn’t looking.

Before either of you could utter out another word, Damiano, one of Ethan’s closest friends, walked up to where you two were standing, effectively ending the conversation between you.

He waved at you and offered you a kind smile, which you immediately returned. Unlike his best friend, Damiano was a delight to be around. He was one of the kindest and nicest people you had ever met. You were quite close thanks to the fact that he’d been dating Rory for a while and you got used to spending long nights with the two of them doing silly things like playing board games or watching films. You were basically their third wheel, but neither of you minded much, if at all. 

“Hey, what’s up?” Damiano smacked Ethan on the shoulder as he started a conversation with him. You took it as your chance to leave and just awkwardly walked away after mumbling something about having to find Rory. They had told you something about eating dinner together, and while you’d initially refused because you were supposed to finish the book and start on your report, you were tempted to accept their offer and forget about the stupid book for a little bit more.

Just as you were about to leave the library, your phone vibrated inside the pocket of your warm cardigan. You took it out and chuckled when you read Rory’s message about their new phone but groaned when you realized they wanted to see you after curfew. You sighed and left the library as you tried to think of a great excuse to tell your roommate Emilia so she’d cover for you while you snuck out.

Ethan had his eyes focused on your figure as you left the library but turned back to look at Damiano when he spoke up, “If you’d only talk to them Ethan, I-” He sighed and interrupted his best friend, already irritated by the conversation he’d had with you.

“No, I will not talk to them, okay? Not like we can even talk because we start arguing like two toddlers,” Ethan mumbled out the last part and took a deep breath in. Truth be told, no part of him wanted to talk to you. You were annoying, rude, and didn’t seem to have more than one brain cell in his eyes, so why lose his time talking to you? Not like there’d be anything to talk about.

“They’re just so exasperating!” He spoke up and Damiano rolled his eyes as he saw his hate rant start approaching. They were both aware that once he started, he wouldn’t be able to stop, “I just- They try so hard and it’s annoying. Like I swear they’re also a huge hypocrite. I know you don’t see it but I do, I’ve never met anyone mo-”

Before he could end his last sentence, he felt a body slam into his and arms snake around his waist. Ethan huffed at the impact but wrapped his arms around her frame once he noticed it was Adeline Rossi, or Addie as everyone liked to call her. 

She pulled back and looked at both Damiano and Ethan excitedly, “You will never believe this but the craziest thing just happened… Hey, where’s Vic?” She trailed off as she started looking around for her friend.

Ethan chuckled lightly when he saw Thomas quietly approach Addie while she was distracted. They all knew she was the easiest person to scare, so it didn’t take more than a slight push and a soft boo for her green eyes to go wide and for her to jump. She was quick to turn to where Thomas was standing and didn’t think twice before smacking his shoulder with the heavy book she was carrying.

Thomas put his hands up in defeat as he took a step back and rubbed his shoulder, “Okay, okay shit. Stop, that actually hurts,” He whined and Addie only shrugged as Damiano and Ethan watched the whole interaction with amusement. 

“Right, so, ignoring all that,” Addie spoke up once again and shifted her attention back to Ethan, “Since she is nowhere to be seen, could you please help me with some stuff? It’s just this little interview for one class of mine and I’ve already interviewed Damià and Thomas but I need just one more.”

He nodded and said a quick goodbye to his two best friends before following the shorter girl out of the library. However, while he was walking, he felt his phone vibrate inside the pocket of his jeans. He fished it out and frowned as he read the text that had just been sent to him but laughed once he noticed it was only his girlfriend Emilia from her new phone. 

Then he sighed and rolled his eyes once he realized she wanted to see him past curfew again and he knew Will would ask him for money in exchange for not ratting him out. He quickly texted her back and slipped his phone back into his pocket as he followed Addie to her dorm.

Next

GOOGLE DRIVE 

[thefairyletters]

✨ Spooky Recs✨

I read a lot of fanfictions... More than I am proud of. I thought I should recommend as I go before I lose sight of their existence among the sea of my favorites.

Since past few days I have been craving for some creepy, unnerving fanfics that will keep me restless and awake at night. I remembered my favorites and wanted to read more of the kind so I looked up, patiently going through each story that sounded compelling. I also revisited old stories for nostalgia's sake.

Of course, rare as they are, in Naruto fandom no less, it's even harder to find a horror and mystery fic that is well written, not dropped under 2 chapters, and really keeps your attention.

🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹

Genre: Horror, Mystery, Comedy

I've rated 4 aspects of the work -

Writing – I don't judge writing based solely on the grammar and vocabulary. I also consider how the author expands upon a subject, if they are consistent with the facts, if they are able to keep the attention of the readers regardless of their creative writing skills.

Characters – If the characters are well-developed, in their given character, if OCs have any real significance to the story.

Plot – How gripping is the storyline, if the story sticks to its original plot, the structure of the story, plot holes.

Flow – Mother-of-slow-burn, slow-but-steady, steady, fast, I-am-speed

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When the flowers cry : TCOOKIES777 || M || AO3/FFN || SasuSaku || Goth Horror || Post-Canon, set during Blank Period || Ongoing

When one of the greatest medical-nin in the world goes missing in what should have been a simple delivery to the Land of Spring’s Hidden Snow Village, the rest of Team 7 must reunite to find her. But even the most powerful team of shinobi will find themselves challenged in a battle against the supernatural. With Sasuke's return, vengeful ghosts of the past will test him and his love.

My thoughts : One of the best stories I've read in a while, and top tier SS stories. I read this in one sitting. I never listen to music while reading, preferring silence, but for this one, I suggest you do as the author says. Also, keep some tissues and food with you. This story is major in mystery and minor in horror but otherwise full of SS fluff.

Writing: 10/10

Characters: 10/10

Plot: 9/10

Flow: Steady, if a bit confusing (but that's why it's mystery)

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Kyuro : silver_shot || T || AO3 || SasuSaku || Mystery || Post-Canon || Complete

“Oh,” says Naruto, “well, its sort of like that. Except in this village, the story has a way more darker ending – it basically goes like this: the girl and the guy plan to run away together. The guy steals a bunch of treasure, and stashes it away. But then, when he goes to get the girl at her village, he kills her and decides to run away with all that money. But then he is killed by the guards of the girls village and now they're both dead and the treasure is hidden away somewhere”. Sasuke stares blankly at the blond, “that story makes no sense”.

My thoughts : I know you must be thinking the same thing as Sasuke – "makes no sense". I did too, but it's a pretty cool short story. It lies on the funny, creepy side that slowly starts to lose its funny touch. SS makes stupid mistakes later on but it could be because they are MCs. The ending is very ambiguous. It's not my favorite mystery but it is something. Enjoyable read but not something I will pick again.

Writing: 8/10

Characters: 8/10

Plot: 8/10

Flow: Fast

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Moon stuttering in the sky : xfrinz || T || AO3 || Gen || Mystery || Pre-Shippuden || One-shot

Kakashi is suspicious of many things about Haruno Sakura. Too many things about her don't make sense, with too many incongruous explanations.

My thoughts : Author of this story just summarised Pre-Shippuden in less than 4k words and made some tiny changes to it. Not much though. One of my favorite gen fics yet. Read it if you haven't yet. You'll feel more sad than thrilled tbh. But worth it.

Writing: 10/10

Characters: 10/10

Plot: 10/10

Flow: I-am-Speed

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Breath mints : silver_shot || T || AO3 || SasuSaku || Comedy-Mystery || Post-Canon || Ongoing (maybe)

Their home no longer exists with the life it once had – in fact no settlement thrives anymore; they exist only in a snapshot that contradicts time itself. Families within their own homes sleep in a slumber that they cannot wake from. Those that were chatting on the street prior to the event simply drop their heads and remain unresponsive.

My thoughts : I picked it up for Mystery but I stayed for Comedy. But of course that's not to say supernatural elements in this story is not it, but it sure pales in comparison to effortless humor in this story. Lee and Kiba pair is something you don't see often but they get along too well here. Charactisation is on point as well. SS angst! + NS angst (but it's downplayed)

Writing: 10/10

Characters: 10/10

Plot: 9/10

Flow: Steady

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The Curse : sincerelyLen || T || FFN || SasuSaku || Horror || Post-Canon || Ongoing

Team 7 is unexpectedly assigned an S-Ranked Mission involving an unsolved mystery of 10 years. An eerie adventure that will test their teamwork, strengths, and greatest fears. Do you believe in Curses?

My thoughts : My all-time favourite horror Naruto fanfiction. To me, this sets the standard of how mystery and horror elements should be handled. I have never been able to get this story out of my mind even it's been years. Perfect charactisation of Team 7 with Smart-yet-Stupid!Sakura, I-can-fight-aliens-and-reanimated-corpses-but-keep-ghosts-away-from-me!Naruto and I-dont-get-paid-enough-for-this!Sasuke. I especially love OCs here. They kinda reminds me of Pillars from KnY. You must read this story, loosely based on Zombie apocalypse + curse concept.

Writing: 10/10

Characters: 10/10

Plot: 10/10

Flow: Slow-but-Steady

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Silent High : Istoria || T || FFN || Gen || Mystery || Post-Canon || Complete

A bit of the Silent Hill series mixed in with Naruto. Trapped in an illusion whose rules are unknown, they struggle to find answers before darkness consumes them.

My thoughts : One of the best mystery fanfictions I've read. I especially loved how this story handled Genjutsu in the best possible way it could without it turning into some cliche, ghost story. Though really, this story has shown what my greatest fear actually is. I will never be able to leave my back open to a wheelchair. This story has simple writing yet it gives you creeps with the twists and turns. A must read one because it is unlike any other in this list.

Writing: 9/10

Characters: 10/10

Plot: 10/10

Flow: Steady

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Silence of the Damned : Daystar Clarion || T || FFN || Gen || Psychological Horror, Mystery(?) || Pre-Shippuden || One-Shot

When Naruto wakes up to a dead body in his bathroom, he begins a quick spiral into madness.

My thoughts : Listen to Halsey's Control while reading this. Quite chilling, deals with mental issues and morbid but in a fascinating way. It gives a new meaning to Dark!Naruto, but one that actually makes sense. I never saw the ending coming... I had something else in mind and I was convinced it would be, but nope. Here's a sequel to this One-Shot (Uzumaki's War) which I never picked up.

Writing: 10/10

Characters: 9/10

Plot: 9/10

Flow: Slow-but-steady

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To the Victor : Letta || T || FFN || NaruSaku || Psychological Horror || Shippuden || One-Shot

Naruto loses the fight and Sakura is a trophy of war.

My thoughts : A very twisted NS, if you squint. It's not horror but it might as well be... it is still a disturbing story to see from the eyes of Sakura. Quite chilling to be in Sakura's shoes. But I love this because it is one shot and I loved the ending.

Writing: 9/10

Characters: 10/10

Plot: 8/10

Flow: Steady

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Under the Skin : BukkakeNoJutsu || T || FFN || Team 8 || Body Horror || Pre-Shippuden || One-Shot

Your actions don't make you a monster. Your reasons do.

My thoughts : There's a reason why Shino is my favourite team 8 member. In my opinion, Shino is also one of the strongest Shinobi of his generation. His clan techniques are just that horrifying. This story is testament to that. He is so terrible.

Writing: 10/10

Characters: 10/10

Plot: 10/10

Flow: Slow-but-steady

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Instant Message : Keelah || T || FFN || SasuSaku || Murder mystery || Modern AU || Incomplete

She gave him names to kill, in order not to be killed herself. But having blood on her hands was turning out to be much worse than dying. "…There's still round 2…3…4…" When does this game end? She asked. "Don't you see, Sakura?" He said, "It never does."

My thoughts : I read this story a long time ago and have read this twice. Personally, it has the most interesting concept of all stories in the list. It reminds me of Vocaloid series, "Bookmark of the end". Kind of. To those who are thinking of picking this up, go ahead! It's a great book and has one of the best suspense I've read in Fandom. BUT, it has been stopped in mother-of-all-cliffhangers and Author is MIA for 4 years now. But, all things considered, it remains to be one of the best stories I've read.

Writing: 10/10

Characters: 9/10

Plot: 10/10

Flow: Steady

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Monomoth : Ohtze || M || FFN/AO3 || SasuSaku || Horror || AU || Incomplete

Everything ends, eventually. Eight years after the war, Sakura's unhinged and Sasuke's obsessed. The fields are filled with corpses.

My thoughts : I read this story right after "The Curse", my favourite. From what I remember, Sakura and Sasuke are both mentally deranged, in different ways. Lots of death and gore to stomach, so not for weak readers. There's no speak of fluff in this one. Zero, Zilch, Nada. I wouldn't call it your classic 'Horror', but it is very disturbing, so psychological horror is more like it. Don't eat food while reading this one. Did I mention how Sakura is mentally disturbed beyond help in this one? And Sasuke is obsessed. If these suit your tastes, go ahead.

Writing: 10/10

Characters: 9/10

Plot: 10/10

Flow: Slow

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I hope you enjoy this list. Let me know your opinion in comments.

[cherripeach]

Chapter 10

Little Match Maker

Summary: Your life motto is “I have the power of god and anime on my side, don’t mess with me,” and you stand by that with your life. No human, magician, or random creature could ever stop your firm belief in it.

However, getting transported to this world that seemed to turn your already bad luck worse was not what you wanted to be in your life story, but you made the most of it. Making friends, enemies, and disasters, you were in your prime in this world, and so you decided to help as many people as you could flourish, at least what you believed to be.

Chapter 1:5 i’m jared 19 and i never learned how to read

Warnings: Curse words, implied sex jokes

Words: 3.4k

Relationships: developing but future twstxreader

You three made it to homeroom right before the final bell rang, meaning none of you were late which was boring in your opinion. Being fashionably late especially on the first day just shows character. 

The classroom was full of caldrons like from Harry Potter but also full of lab coats like a science lab. There were also just shelves with glass covering them full of plants that you have never seen before and ones you hoped to never touch because you are 100.69% sure they can kill you. Then, there were just shelves of bottles of potions like in the movies which you also did not want to touch not for fear of death but because they could turn you into a frog or something which sounded kinda cool now that you thought about it. Still, you were not going to do it.

Your teacher, however: a hottie. He obviously knows about style and fashion if his dual colored hair and his fur coat are anything to go by. He also had a perfectly shaped face with sharp eyes that you just couldn’t look away from. The whip in his hand told you enough about his life outside of school, and the collar at the end of it also told you enough. This man was def not someone to disrespect, and ngl he could yell at you. That’s for another time; you just hoped you could stare at the man for the entire class. 

Once you and your three friends put the lab coats and goggles on and went to your seats (you assumed because Ace and Deuce dragged you there), the gorgeous man started to lecture, “I see you’re the fresh new faces who will be joining my class today.” He walked around the classroom and gazed at everyone’s figure. “Hm~ What an unusual hair color. Not bad at all, I say. Be careful not to take too long to finish, understood?” He made it to your group of seats near the back and stopped, “My name is Divus Crewel.” His gaze was caught on you for a couple of seconds until he returned to walking around the classroom, “You shall refer to me as Master Crewel, if you please.” He had the most miniscule smirk when he turned back to meet your eyes. 

You turned to Ace with your wide eyes and muttered, “Please tell me he gets you hot and bothered too.” 

Ace just glared and spat back at you, “Only you are dealing with those feelings.” 

Master Crewel clapped his hands twice, “Come, settle down. It’s time for class to begin. First off, a few disclaimers.” 

The entire class ceased the side conversations, and you even placed the weight of your chin on your hands with your elbows on the desk so you could balance your newfound crush for him.

The magnificent man just lightly placed the edge of the whip on his desk, “I shall have your tiny brains remember hundreds of names of medicinal herbs and poisonous plants. And mushrooms are a whole different topic. I’ll have you remember them so that you don’t accidentally poison yourself if you eat some when you go for a walk. Dogs love to eat anything they see, after all.I don’t want to see anyone getting a failing mark during the exam, so I shall be as strict as I can.”

You don’t even remember what he was saying, but you just nodded the entire time. This was a class you knew you were going to stay awake in. Your eyes were still stuck on his figure, and you knew just from looking at him that you may not have a failing grade because you bet you were going to ask for help. 

Your three idiots were seemingly having a conversation next to you while your brain was stuck in your fantasies of after school tutoring. 

Your mind was stuck in your fantasy until the end of class when someone had to use his textbook to smack the back of your head, “Ouch!” You spun around only to find Grim and Ace behind you with a textbook in Ace’s hand. 

 Grim snickered out behind you, “You deserved that, Prefect. Even I, the Great Grim, was paying more attention in this boring class.” By the end of the sentence he sighed all of it out. 

“Come on. Let’s not be late.” Deuce grabbed his stuff and motioned to your group to leave. 

You lightly and neatly put up your lab coat and goggles because male Cruella De Vil was still situated at the front of the class, and you had to look good in front of him. 

“Have a great day!” You gushed out while frantically waving at the man to give him a proper farewell. 

Ace slapped your hand down once you exited the room, “Can you please stop? It’s getting real disgusting.” 

You blew a raspberry at him while the four of you were on your way to your next class, “Oh, shut up and let me be a simp.”

“A what? You know what I’m ignoring you.” Ace shook his head and sighed at your comments. 

The conversation stopped after that when you began to make your way up stairs to get to your next class. You had to go up two flights of stairs which ended with you leaning along a wall, red-faces, and out of breath by the middle of it. 

“Hurry up, supervisor,” Deuce advised. 

You hissed, “Shut up.”

The three of you arrived at your next class which Decue said was “something-something history.” And you were actually kind of excited because you have no clue what has happened in this world, and it is gonna be so different with magic and everything.  

You three took seats near the middle of class, so all of you could still concentrate but still talk some. This class room was structured much more like a lecture hall than the past one with a chalk board at the front behind a teacher desk and desks being on different platforms going up, and so your group had to go up a couple of stairs to get to where you claimed were your seats. 

The class all took their seats and shut their mouths once an older man without a uniform came into the classroom carrying a cat. 

The cat had your full attention for this class because you now have the human desire to pet and love the cat as one should. 

Once the professor sat down with the cat on his lap, he introduced himself, “I am Trein, the professor in charge of Magical History. And this is my familiar, Lucius. I shall have you learn the history behind the magic that you are using now.”

Lucis, the cute little black cat who had a hint of white on his front right under his head, confirmed Professor Trein’s previous statements with a “Meow.”

It took a couple of seconds for you to process the Professor’s words, but once you did you turned to Deuce who was located to the left of you and blurted out, “Wait, is Lucius a real cat? What's a familiar? Can I not pet him? OMG, what if he can understand what I’m saying. That cannot be it-”

Professor Trein cut you off midway with another Lecture (Deuce was just gazing at you with disappointment in his eyes), “I do not only grade by your reports, but also by how you behave in my classroom. I will not tolerate sleeping in class. Now then, please turn to page 5 of your textbooks. This is related to the magic stone that was discovered inside the Dwarf Mines.”

You were taken aback by everything, but you also realized that you did not have a text book. You didn’t even have a book bag or pens, so you turned to Deuce to only flutter your lashes and pout at him until he shared his textbook with you and gave you lose leaf and a pen. 

Lucis decided to bring his voice into the conversation, “Meow.”

“The discovery of this jewel led to magical energy being able to spread worldwide. It could also be considered as the 1st year magic was made possible.” Professor Trein continued his lecture, and you were actually actively taking notes because this was like some wack anime and you had to know the full plot line.

“Meow.”

Ace yawned into his hand when you gazed at him. 

And Deuce was taking notes but his eyes were also beginning to close, “Oh…! The Dwarf Mines, huh… Oh…! Magical energy, huh…” You had to kick him to keep him awake.

Grim rested his head on the desk, “Ugh… I want a more explosive and flashier magic class!”

You could only sigh at the three idiots not paying attention while your pen kept on writing. 

By the end of the class and the lecture was over, all three of the spots next to you were occupied with asleep idiots. You put your stuff into your pockets and got up to nug Grim on his shoulder for him to wake up. His head slowly lifted up with his eyes still closed, so you decided to just carry him to the next class. He was in your arms by the time you got everything together and moved onto the other two idiots asleep. 

You kicked Deuce in the calf who jumped up immediately and rushed to get everything together, and then moved onto Ace to pull his hair. Ace stayed still until you found a certain spot of hair closest to his neck and pinched it and tugged on it. That had him reaching for your hand to stop your actions and had him awake and ready to move. 

“Get up, class already ended.” You let go of his hair to move to the walkway of the classroom. 

Ace shook his head to wake himself further up, “Okay.. but why did you have to pinch me so hard?”

“Were you gonna wake up by yourself?”

“No.”

“I think you see my thought process, then.” You shrugged your shoulders while the two remaining boys got their things together. After that all three of you were off to your next class, causing you to walk down stairs and through hallways until the three of you made it to a field outside.

The boys made you drop off your stuff, which wasn’t much anyway, and Grim in order to go and change into a P.E. uniform. Apparently, in the locker room, there were some extra uniforms for you to change into. 

The locker room stunk of mold and fungus from somewhere in the corners of the room, but Deuce led you to a bin of uniforms. He just pulled the first one from the pile and gave it to you. It was a bright green shirt with a dragon or lizard on it. Then, he gave you a black jacket with yellow stripes on the sleeves and a pair of pants with a faded royal purple stripes on parts of the pants. Seems were also ripped out of certain parts of the uniform with most of the colors being lightly faded. Looking at the uniform as a whole, it was definitely going to be too large on you. 

You thanked Deuce while he was walking away to the right side of the locker room, and then, you got moving. You observed the locker room to see if there were any bathrooms and to your luck, toward the back there was another door which led into the bathroom. You entered the next room to find no line and no one in the last stall. On your way to the stall, you passed up a bulky male with silver-white animal ears on his head in a yellow uniform who was washing his hands. You set foot in the final stall to only find the toilet flooded and writings all over the wall, causing you to let out a sigh and shut and lock the door just happy you did not have to use the restroom. 

Once dressed, you took your cloak and other clothes and walked out of the stall to wash your hands. Looking in the mirror was not on your to-do list, so you kept your eyes stuck on the faucet and your hands because the headache from the rat’s nest on your head and the slight pain from parts of your face gave you all the information you needed. You left the restrooms and found a deserted area where many lockers were empty. You threw your clothes in one of the middle lockers, closed it, and took account of the number of the locker. 

You left the locker room to see that you were one of the final people to get dressed and get out of the locker room. Grim, Ace, and Deuce were seated on the ground near the back of the group, and you made your way to them with many different eyes on you. 

The hulking man blew his whistle to get everyone in the class and started a speech, “I’m Vargas and I’m in charge of watching over your physical education.Excellent magic starts with excellent bodies! Behold…! These muscles that I train every day! A magician with no stamina is unspeakable! First, do 20 laps around the field! And then, 100 sit-ups!” He blew the whistle again and threw his pointer finger out the motion for you all to start your laps.

The three of you jumped up from your spot on the ground and slowly walked over to the track. 

Ace grimaced at the teacher, “Eh… I don’t hate exercise, but I can’t handle teachers like him.”

“I have confidence in my physical abilities,” Deuce had his hands on his hips and was twisting his torso around to stretch it. 

Grim shook his head, “What's so fun about running around? I’m not a hamster, yanno?”

You just sighed and joined the group of students starting to run. Ace, Deuce, Grim, and you slowly joined the middle of the group in a jog around the field. 

You were left pondering for a second about everything and anything and your mind went straight to how you could get out of the stuffy cloak because even if you did look like an adventurer you could not stand to wear it in the heat all the time. So you started up a conversation:

“Yo, Deuce,” You bumped arms with him, making Deuce’s eyes slowly drifted to your figure, “Do you know where I could get a school uniform? Is there like a store or something nearby?” 

Deuce contemplated your question for a couple of seconds until he snapped his fingers, “There is a shop on campus that has everything. We could stop there after school today.” 

“Well, that’s one thing covered,” Your feet were still in a constant jog, but they started to cramp in some areas, “I hope they have a clearance section.” 

The rest of PE was much more strenuous than you expected. This teacher thought that all of you were Olympic Athletes with all the work he is making you do, but looking at some of the students here (the green shirt-green haired fellow who is racing down the track whenever possible and the furry male who you saw in the bathroom earlier). Everyone was doing better than you. Even Grim. 

However, the exercises were soon over and you were all allowed to go back to the locker rooms and change. You were for now stuck lying on the ground wheezing from the physical activities you just completed in the past hour. Ace and Deuce went back to get changed and Grim is asleep on the grass behind you. 

“You okay?” A male’s voice could be heard from somewhere above you, but you were too drained to even move your eyes to see who it was. 

You groaned, “Don’t mind me. I’m just slowly decaying.” 

The male was speechless for a second and did not respond until your eyes fluttered open the slightest bit, “Do you want water? Or the nurse?” 

“No, oh gracious savior, but I’d rather you leave me here to be eaten by the birds.” You shut your eyes, listening to Grim groan besides you.

“Um...okay. Please get better,” The male’s footsteps could be heard walking away. 

You stayed there for about another hour in your head just trying to breathe in and out and maybe even fall asleep until a kick was landed on your side. 

“Get up, you lazy ass.” Ace was blessing you with his presence and his torment.

You hurled your body forward and up to grip Ace’s foot which was making its way to your side again, “Don’t you have a sense of common courtesy to not kick someone when they are dying?” 

“You aren’t dying, but you are wasting our break time.” Ace groaned and pulled his foot out of your grip, “So go get dressed.”

Rolling your eyes, you gathered yourself and stood up to make your way back to the changing rooms. You left Grim to be with Ace, so you hoped those two would not cause problems. The rest was a lack of oxygen and lack of water blur until you found your three idiots out in the hallway and began your track to your next class. You decided to take your time a little because you had a ten minute break before the next class. 

Deuce was looking around the hallways for the next class, “Let’s see, the next class is..”

Ace was pouting next to you, “For a magic school, it doesn’t really feel that much different from a normal school, huh… It’s a lot more… ordinary than I thought… Guess I don’t have to worry much even without magic.” His body shifted to turn to your side, “Dontcha think so, too, Grim? Hm…” 

You gazed at where Grim last was which was to the left of you and let your eyes focus and blink for a couple of seconds, “Are you fucking kiddin me?”

A gasp was heard from Deuce in front of you, “Look outside the window! That fluffball running in the Courtyard…” He pointed out Grim’s exact spot in the middle of the large area. 

Once you began your sprint to him, you could hear him cackling about how he did not deserve to listen to boring lectures all day. 

You stopped your run when you realized that you would never be able to make it farther due to PE kicking your butt, “If I have to go to school, then, so does he.”

Deuce and Ace were arriving right behind you.

Deuce crossed his arms, “Running away on the first day…” He shook his head, “That guy just doesn’t learn, huh.” 

“Being negligent on the first day, are we? So, d’ya want us to help you catch Grim?” A smirk bloomed on Ace’s face. 

You scrunched your nose, “If I have to be here, then so does he.”  threaded your hands together and squeezed your eyes shut and bowed, “Please, please help me.”

“I want some chocolate croissants from the canteen!” 

Deuce blurted in agreement, “Then, I shall have some café latte from the cafeteria.”

You rose from your bow, “Perfect, perfect. Thank yooou!!” not even thinking about how you were going to afford that. 

Ace and Deuce pulled their magic pens out of their pockets and joined each other in front of you to start their hunt for Grim. 

Ace smirked at Deuce, “And that’s a deal! Alright, shall we go help out our helpless prefect, Deuce-kun?”

Deuce narrowed his eyes and rolled back his sleeves of his jacket, “Sure thing, Ace-kun. I’m most looking forward to lunchtime.”

“I’ll be in the classroom once you catch him.” You waved the two off while they began their hunt for the cat. 

By the time you made it to your next class, the three showed up with sweat dripping from their faces, their clothes in disarray, and the teacher right behind them. 

This would surely be a great year.

[bloodyshadow1]

just finished Alanna’s route and I gotta say, I’d give it a C, it wasn’t bad, but I didn’t see a lot of good either.  There was so much crammed in as much as possible between the Society (that we barely get to see anything of), Time travel (which is fine but done pretty poorly with little buildup or fanfare or explanation), Immortals (like time travel, a decent story enough on it’s own, but only mentioned in the final 3rd of the story and barely talked about afterward), and Magic power stones (pretty vague power system that no one seems interested in telling the MC about) it feels like they accidently threw 4 darts at the idea board this time and never bothered to throw again.  It’s such a mess that the MC has to take on faith without ever being given a real reason to side with the Circle over anyone else other than her ex girlfriend is part of it and they hate her dad.  It’s so quick and it doesn’t ever feel like the right decision at least to me since you spend so little time with the Circle even as background characters to Alanna’s story.

Alanna as a character is kind of meh for me overall.  Physically her design is fine, seems cute more than hot or sexy, but sort of bland and generic.  there are other cute love interests that never felt this generic, she feels like she should be the sister or best friend character instead of the love interest of the MC.  It doesn’t help that by making her the MC’s ex returned, we know little to nothing about her, so much of a romance arc is missing because even if the MC knows, we the player don’t know what’s so great about Alanna.  All of Alanna’s character feels told instead of shown, the MC seems to worship the ground she walks on, but the actual story leaves much to be desired because we don’t really see her do anything super charming or amazingly skilled.  She’s pretty, but she’s not even the most beautiful woman in her route much less London or the world. I could understand why the MC would love her since she’s still hung up on her, so I could believe it if I took the story with a grain of salt, but the fact that her personality seems to be she’s so charming and everyone loves her without every truly delivering on such claims makes her whole route fall even flatter than it’s plot led to. The fact that the MC slept with her right away as a ‘palette cleanser’ was sort of interesting, but it still felt like being told about her, nothing about what she and the MC had gone through felt like she was so irresistible that the MC would need to get her out of her system, because we don’t know anything really about her relationship with Alanna.  And that’s a big problem to her selling points as a love interest

  We don’t know all the stories the MC has with Alanna, especially if they only dated for 2 months, the audience/player/readers, need to understand why the MC is in love with their love interest besides the route being named after them, by making their entire relationship when they first fell in love we miss all of that and are left with empty feelings and gestures between the two of them. The little back and forths between them about their past are okay to start with, but nothing about Alanna as a character from her 12 chapters makes me believe that she’s so lovely the MC can overlook her massive flaws and go along with her very unpersuasive desire to have the MC join them to help the world.  Her depression and feelings of helplessness after 200 years was interesting, but it felt like it came too late.  I’m actually really glad the MC called her out on her bullshit, by the end of her first chapter, I get a bit of where she’s coming from, but what Alanna did to the MC was fucked up and she doesn’t get to just pretend it never happened.

Plot wise, the story is a mess, like Alanna, so much of the story is told to the MC and she’s supposed to take it on faith that the Circle is somehow more morally right than the rest of the Society.  It fails because the Circle has barely any real character, they have interesting traits that if they were around more to make me care about them as something other than the vehicle to do the time travel and nothing more.  In so many routes, you’re introduced to all your love interests at the same time and they’re already a group, while you spend the most time with your love interest, you get to know most of the characters as people outside of their routes, but the rest of the Circle is pretty bland.  Not to mention that the Society is built up as this big maybe evil maybe just powerful and in the wrong hands thing..., but you barely interact with them at all.  The only people tell  the MC and her brother that the Society is bad is the Circle who are actively members of it and nothing about what they say or do makes me feel like they’re any more trust worthy than the rest of the society except most of them are going to be future love interests.  In Alanna’s route, the only member of the Society not in the Circle that has a unique character portrait is Arabella and she’s kind of a more interesting character with a more sympathetic story than the Circle. We hear about how corrupt and morally bankrupt the higher ups in the Society are, and we know the MC hates her dad, who seems to be considered the worst, but aside from being a bit stuff and arrogant, (much like the wealthy elite of our world) we don’t see much evil, and it confuses me if the Circle wants to bring down the Society or try and take control of it for the greater good without much of a reason to trust them.

The Immortal plot point fell flat to me, like the story basically skipped over the time travel plot device by making it literally a this happens and barely talk about it, but adding the Immortality plot felt unneeded in a narrative that needed a lot more structure, not irons in the fire.  I feel like if Alanna/your love interest was the only one of the Circle that was immortal other than the Elites of the Society it would have made a better route to go.  Having an immortal character in your romantic story is fertile ground, they could be a tragic figure, a figure who is hedonistic and loving their immortality, etc, there are plenty of ways to go, an immortal character with a bunch of their pals who are already incredibly powerful and have a vague sense of goodness about them, makes it feel far from a curse or whatever they’re trying to portray it here.  It could have also been introduced better to the MC by say meeting Arabella in the present day and being shocked by seeing her and needing confirmation from the Circle or Alanna, instead of Alanna dropping it in a mood to the MC.  

Overall, it felt to complicated of a story to tell with all the moving pieces that didn’t deliver on any of them sadly.  the whole story felt like it was a mix between Queen of Thieves and Astoria Fates Kiss, without the charms of either the story or the characters, replacing Greek Mythology with time travel.  I will also say, it the plot made me kind of uncomfortable with how a bunch of mostly white young adults have decided to be judge and jury throughout time with the first antagonist being a powerful black lesbian in london 200 years ago, and we only have their word that something is afoot.  I know that she actually was doing bad stuff, but the Circle is just a vigilante group with no actual authority and using time travel as their own means of policing people and if it wasn’t a simplistic romance story disguised as a scifi fantasy story, I feel like more nuance would have saved it.

The good parts: Alanna’s route for Immortal Hearts Society wasn’t all bad, I  I will admit I am probably overly harsh since I just finished it.  I actually really enjoyed the both the Female and Male MC character designs, they both were surprisingly interesting compared to a lot of MC’s.  I really did enjoy the MC for the most part and I liked her relationship with her brother, most of the time I’ve seen sibling relationships in Lovestruck they’re fine but don’t tend to have much actual conflict, just superficial.  But I like that the MC loves her brother, but burned her bridges with him to keep him safe, she regrets what she had to do but not what happened which is a pretty interesting take.  Alanna was enjoyable as a love interest in the beginning, but as the story got more and more convoluted, it felt like she didn’t have much actual character.  I do have a soft spot for the Circle characters, except for the two current love interests, I’m more annoyed that we didn’t get to see and interact with them more, especially since it looks like they’ll be future love interests if the pattern holds.  It was a fine story and I know I’m being overly harsh, but it just felt underdone instead of bad, which tends to make it worse in my mind because the lost potential is frustrating. 

 I wouldn’t mind continuing if the writing got tighter next season, I’ll still give it a try.  I would very much like an Arabella route before anyone else, she has such a gorgeous design and despite not seeing a huge amount of her character being a warm genuinely kind person stuck between a rock and a hard place for her family was an interesting take instead of making her one of the many false sweethearts in Queen of Thieves that stab you in the back.  I also think that if she still is around in modern day she would have fit the story as a love interest better than Alanna. 

Not sure if anyone is going to bother to read this but it feels good to get it out.  Maybe you think I’m full of shit and I’m fine with that, maybe you love Alanna and she’s your favorite love interest.  I’m sorry you read this because I don’t want anyone to feel bad, this is simply how I feel after reading the first chapter

[rpgmgames]

June’s Featured Game: Midnight Train

DEVELOPER(S): Lydia ENGINE: RPG Maker VX Ace GENRE: Mystery, Adventure WARNINGS: The game contains small jumpscares, blood, suicide, violence, murder, death, possible animal death and mutilation. SUMMARY: Luna is a traveler that is looking for a certain place. Suddenly, while she’s travelling in a train, the people around her disappear and the train stops in a mysterious place. She finds there a pocket watch with some instructions; she needs to find the next train before time runs out or she will be trapped in that world forever.

Play chapters 1 & 2 here!

Our Interview With The Dev Team Below The Cut!

Introduce yourself! Hi! I’m Lydia, nice to meet you all! I’m the main developer, artist, writer and programmer of Midnight Train. I’m also the developer of Aria’s Story. I’ve been creating games since 2015 and it has been a wonderful experience so far! Some random facts about me: I love videogames (Pokémon, Animal Crossing and Splatoon are my favorites!), I’m from Spain, my favorite color is orange and I love sweets!

What is your project about? What inspired you to create this game initially? *Lydia: The game follows the adventure of Luna Wyndell, a mute girl, and Neil Lawton, a detective apprentice. Luna and Neil were travelling in a train called Midnight Express, but a curse activated and they ended up in a weird building. They receive a pocket watch with a note, saying that they have three hours to find the next train. They will try to escape from that place before time runs out while they try to discover the truth about the Midnight Express! Luna is a very brave girl who isn't afraid to fight enemies and use violence when it's needed. Neil panics easily and is very naive, but his deductions will be very useful throughout the game. They will help and protect each other during their adventure. My inspiration was my desire to make a better and more original game! I feel like I learned a lot during the development of my first game and I thought it would be a shame not to use that knowledge to make a game I liked more!

How long have you worked on this project? *Lydia: It’s been a year since I started it!

Did any other games or media influence aspects of your project? *Lydia: Steampunk aesthetic is one of my mains inspirations! Dai Gyakuten Saiban is a game that inspired me in terms of aesthetic and designs. Also, games like Danganronpa and Ace Attorney inspired me a lot, since there are deductions scenes in Midnight Train. My other inspirations are other RPG Maker games. I’m not inspired in a particular game, but they’re all inspirations in one way or another. This time I’m trying to mix elements from classic horror RPGs with other elements to make something more different and unique!

Two years ago, we interviewed you for your game Aria's Story! How much has changed since your first GOTM feature? *Lydia: Whoa! It’s been two years! I’m really happy I got the chance to be interviewed again, thank you for the opportunity! Well, one of the main things is that Aria’s Story was released last year! All the criticism I received allowed me to improve as a developer. I definitely learned a lot. I’m also really glad people enjoyed Aria’s Story. Thanks to that, I decided to make a new game! Also, since then, I graduated from university! Now I have a degree in business administration.

How different is your development process on this project compared to your previous project? *Lydia: It’s definitely very different. My main goal is to make something different compared to Aria’s Story, so I’m doing things quite different. Midnight Train is an episodic game, unlike Aria’s Story, so the structure is very different. I need to design carefully each chapter, because I won’t be able to change plot points introduced in early chapters once they’re released. Everything needs to be perfectly planned. Before starting working on the game, I planned everything relevant and important that would happen in the game, in order. Once I start working on each chapter, I plan each chapter with even more detail, following the guide. This makes it easier to balance cutscenes and gameplay, and the overall flow of the game. Aria’s Story didn’t follow this method and it wasn’t as detailed. Instead of a big goal (the release of the whole game), I’ve set myself smaller goals (the release of each chapter). It definitely makes the development more fun this way! I’m allowed to share more things about the game and it’s more enjoyable for everyone. Another important difference is that with Aria’s Story I was very inspired by games like Ib and The Witch’s House, and wanted to create something similar. I’m taking a different approach with Midnight Train, and making something more unique. I’m trying to introduce things that aren’t very common in these kind of games, and that allows me to be more creative with the development and the mechanics of the game!

Have you come across any challenges during development? How have you overcome or worked around them? *Lydia: I think the biggest challenge was the beginning, before I created this blog! I knew I wanted to make a story about a cursed train, but I didn’t have good ideas for it. At the end, I managed to create a story I really like and enjoy! Another challenge was Luna’s character! I wanted this project to be a long game, with a big story and many cutscenes. But I also wanted the game to have a silent main character, to make things different compared to Aria’s Story. I was afraid I couldn’t develop well the main character and that she would be forgettable in comparison to the other characters. The solution? Giving her a reason to be a silent main character and giving her a personality through her actions, not her words! At the end it worked really well, as I think she's the most popular character right now!

Did any aspects of your project change over time? How does your current project differ from your initial concept? *Lydia: Not much has changed, since everything has been written and planned from the beginning! I remember that in an initial concept, Luna and Neil were rivals and didn’t get along with each other. But in the final version of the story, it ended being just the opposite!

What was your team like at the beginning? How did people join the team? If you don’t have a team, do you wish you had one or do you prefer working alone? *Lydia: It was just me and MerúM, he’s my boyfriend and also the spriter of the game! He also made the character sprites of Aria’s Story. Later, Bruno Buglisi joined as a composer!

What is the best part of developing this game? *Lydia: There are many things I love about developing this game! I really like working on the minigames! They’re simple and easy, but they are fun to develop! I hate designing puzzles, so now I add more minigames instead. The game still has puzzles, just not as many as my previous game. I also love writing the deductions scenes of each chapter, it’s such a fun part of the game! Making maps is another thing I enjoy, since I like the steampunk aesthetic of the game. Another thing I really love is interacting with the community, I really enjoy reading their thoughts about the game! It makes me so happy that people are enjoying something I created!

What's your personal favorite thing about the game? (The story, a specific scene, etc.) *Lydia: Luna!!! She’s such a fun character to write and I always find new ways to surprise players thanks to her actions!

Which character in your game do you relate to the most and why? (Alternatively: Who is your favorite character and why?) *Lydia: Definitely Neil! I used to have low self-esteem like him in the past, and I’d probably very scared in such situation. But just like I did, I'm sure he will be able to become someone more confident in himself!

Do you plan to explore the game’s universe and characters further in subsequent projects, or leave it as-is? *Lydia: Right now, I don’t have plans to continue exploring the game’s universe after the release of all the chapters.

Looking back now, is there anything that regret/wish you had done differently? *Lydia: There isn’t anything I regret with Midnight Train right now, but I wish I had the courage to create a Patreon/Ko-fi sooner! It definitely helped me a lot with the development. It allowed me to invest more time working on it and develop it faster!

What about when looking at Aria's Story, is there anything that in hindsight you would like to change? *Lydia: I guess I’d have liked to develop more the characters! But since it was a shorter game with many puzzles, it was more difficult to do that. Everything was resolved at the final moment, but I’d have liked to add more foreshadowing to the final twist, I feel it was kind of sudden. But I’m really proud of it, considering it was my first game!

Is there something you’re afraid of concerning the development or the release of your game? *Lydia: I was really afraid people wouldn’t enjoy the game because it doesn’t have horror in the gameplay (it has a pretty dark story, but the gameplay isn’t scary) and because I introduced different elements compared to my previous game (deductions, minigames, less puzzles and more cutscenes). I didn’t know if people would like it. But Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 were a success so far and people seem to enjoy the game! Now my main concern would be to disappoint people with the other chapters!

With your current project, what do you look most forward to upon/after release? *Lydia: I want to rest and have time to play other games!

Do you have any plans or ideas for a project that you'd like to work on after finishing your current project? *Lydia: I’m also working on a new Aria’s Story update, which includes new content and new endings. Since I’ve been busy with Midnight Train, I didn’t have much time to work on it! I’ll focus on that once Midnight Train is finished!

Do you have any advice for upcoming devs? *Lydia: You should have fun developing your game and don’t overwork yourself! You can take breaks and work on it again once you’re motivated, that’s okay! Keep a positive attitude and enjoy the experience! You can do it!!!

Question from last month's featured dev @project-cadeau: How do you tend to handle mean comments or harsh criticism on your games? *Lydia: I answer them as if they were normal comments! I’m always polite to everyone, even if they’re mean. If you answer them in a rude way, I think they will send you even more mean comments. I answer them nicely and forget about it, I honestly don’t think much about it. About criticism, it really depends. If they only say bad things in the critique without telling you how they could be improved (Example: “I really hate your game!”), then it isn’t a good critique and I personally think it’s better to ignore it. Criticism is a good thing because it helps you to notice your flaws as a developer and improve them, but harsh comments and opinions aren’t going to help you in any way. Just ignore it, that person only wants to hurt you, not help you. I personally got more mean comments before the release than after the release (I'm talking about Aria's Story now). I kept doing my best, hoping that maybe they would change their opinion after playing it! I think people can't judge a game without playing it.

We mods would like to thank Lydia for agreeing to our interview for the second time! We believe that featuring the developer and their creative process is just as important as featuring the final product. Hopefully this Q&A segment has been an entertaining and insightful experience for everyone involved!

Remember to check out Midnight Train if you haven’t already! See you next month! 

- Mods Gold & Platinum

[morievna]

Ni-Ti loop curse - Ugetsu’s arc and predictions

I noticed that most of fandom thinks that after chapters 27-28 Ugetsu’s story is finished. It surprised me a little since I have different opinion that in fact he will definitely play role in upcoming final arc and that him getting happy ending is still possible.

Whole Given basically

Spoilers for manga below.

1. Ugetsu compared to rest of characters

Since Ugetsu was introduced I was clearly intrigued by him, but no means I expected him grow to be my favorite character. I was rather surprised that instead of presenting him in a bad-ex trope way he got full-fleshed and nuanced. I like how he is one of mysteries of the story – at first we know that he is responsible for Akihiko views of love as painful thing and we got tidbits of theirs domestic life where they seems to be intimate but we get vibe that there is something wrong. Then we got chapter 17 and we know what went wrong and it is heartbreaking. I think it interesting choice that we simultaneously got both Akihiko and Ugetsu perspective on it and we get why it went that way. Natsuki-sensei not only spent lot of time fleshing out story from his perspective to sympathize with him and clearly puts a lot of effort in showing all emotions on his face. Compared to other supporting characters he got the most of time in manga and we get him to know relatively very well – from little information about childhood, his motivation and so on. Besides, what also distinguish him from them the most is the way he impact main storyline – he is important both to Akihiko’s as well as Mafuyu’s story, while rest orbits primarily around one character.

But what I found truly fascinating is how he is foil and contrast with rest of characters, because he is such extremum when it comes to music and relationships.

Uenoyama – he is called prodigy too; before meeting Mafuyu his life was centered only on music but it didn’t go well for him

Haruki -  totally opposite in almost everything from acting towards others, living space, views on music to relationship with Akihiko

Mafuyu – another prodigy who express feelings via music, but who wants to cultivate bonds with others

Yuki – both are dedicated to music at cost of their wellbeing and relationship

Akihiko – since he and Ugetsu are paralleled a lot with Yuuki-Mafuyu I will use Hiiragi’s quote “together, they filled in each other’s missing pieces” – in terms of character qualities and simple things as providing home and support, whose they respectively needed.

By all this I wanted to show you how his story entwines with rest of characters, so cutting him from main plot would be for me at least weird.

2. Ni-Ti loop and CAC song

To be honest I was worried that we may get negative character arc to contrast him with Mafuyu. But after rereading whole story I have more hope about this. So let’s start what is core of positive/negative character arc

“The Central Problem: This is the damaging belief your character must face to complete their arc. They may believe they’re weak or inferior to others, or they may refuse to trust anyone but themselves. This inner struggle will be confronted at the Climax and their ability to overcome it will determine if they succeed or fail in the conflict of your story.”

https://thenovelsmithy.com/positive-negative-character-arcs/

Applying it to Ugetsu he believes that being isolated from others is only way to be dedicated to music, thus pushing away others and acting inconsiderate to them.

It reminds me also of Ni-Ti loop:

“Instead of a healthy balance of introverted and extroverted functions, the INFJ becomes stuck in their introverted processes, keeping them trapped within their own mind in a seemingly endless loop of thought.

As our introverted iNtuition (Ni) ponders theories, concepts and possibilities, it feeds these ideas to our Ti which seeks facts and logic to back up and solidify these thoughts.  As it obtains this information, it feeds it back to our Ni which creates even more theories and concepts.

Each time this loop goes full circle, the thoughts become more and more radical and outlandish, pushing us further from reality and deeper into our minds.”

http://www.jennifersoldner.com/2016/02/ni-ti-loop.html

So we get Ugetsu thinking about how they chasing each other and neglecting music, then instead of talking to Akihiko about his insecurities he decided to push him away since prior to their meeting he was alone and fine this way. When declaring breakup didn’t work, he fallen further in this way of thinking and tried to discourage Akihiko by sleeping with other men. However, logic doesn’t apply well to love, so he is conflicted about his feelings constantly. So there is cycle in their relationship of pulling and pushing away resulting only in more pain and violence.

But even after Akihiko leaves him after their argument, it got even worse – he got more isolated from rest of world and depressed. His solution didn’t work at all.

During CAC we can observe that he starts to understand this. He seems to be stunned that not only Mafuyu can perform music on his level and be connected to others and Akihiko’s skill in drums got so much better thanks to Haruki’s influence.

Theoretically this could be end with him failing to change but…

CAC song is about ending and begging. It conveys that positive change is possible. I like how Mafuyu is not only referencing his experience about trauma and healing, but want to help others persons in his life and reassure them that everything will be alright. And there is this frame:

Of course it has double meaning – Mafuyu want to resonate feelings via music like Ugetsu as well as to resonate meaning of song to him.

So concluding – with the both facts that Ugetsu does no longer believe in his previous standpoint and we have positive message of the song, we can discard option that his story ends here. But what comes next?

3. 3-act structure and what it means for the story

Quoting Wikipedia:

“The three-act structure is a model used in narrative fiction that divides a story into three parts, often called the Setup, the Confrontation and the Resolution.”

For Given as whole it would look like that (image from wikipedia, little changed by me):

3-act structure is one of most common used in stories. I think it can be applied to Given too, because of the way stakes are gradually rising and evolution of Mafuyu’s songs (first one about his trauma and past love, second about positive change and final will be most likely about his feelings for Uenoyama – well technically second one mentions it too, but I think it will be explored more). For now I rather want to use that structure as tool to predict what can happen. Let’s look again at what Wikipedia says about final act:

“The third act features the resolution of the story and its subplots. The climax is the scene or sequence in which the main tensions of the story are brought to their most intense point and the dramatic question answered, leaving the protagonist and other characters with a new sense of who they really are.”

How to grow more tension?

For me the most interesting it would be instead of *insert some cliché drama* getting all main four character confronted with someone who foils all of them on both music and personal level. It would cause to challenge their perspectives, disrupt the routine and reevaluate their standpoints. In the end it would be resulting in character grow for all of them.

In less vague terms my theory is that Ugetsu will perform together with Given on debut in festival. To break Ni-Ti loop the best is interacting with people and outside world. To step out of comfort zone and leave basement.

I envision this scenario roughly like that:

Since it is very likely that Mafuyu will write new song (probably together with Uenoyama)

Then he would consult it with Ugetsu

Mafuyu would be concerned about the other wellbeing hence trying to help him the same way it worked for him in begging of the story 

Tensions during rehearsals – mainly due to Ugetsu being critical of their skills at music

After some time Ugetsu will start open towards rest of group and genuine wanting to help them performing at their the best – even if it would took some sacrifice from him (like resignation from violin competition or concert)

Thus resulting in final reconciliation with Akihiko (not necessary in romantic sense, more like healing each other wounds they caused before)

Climax at debut

Of course, maybe I went too far with this theory, but it would wrap up things nicely in my opinion. This was written emphasizing Ugetsu’s story, maybe I will expand it in relation to rest characters another time.

Finally I want to point out certain issues that would tie into this from recent chapter:

1.    Mafuyu’s hesitation about debut - his fear of taking music seriously is rooted in Yuuki’s death and Ugetsu’s story as well. As chapter 18 showed he want to learn from their mistakes and I think he is afraid of losing himself too much in music and breaking up with Uenoyama in result. In order to move forward he has to make peace with music in some sense like discussing his insecurities with certain some who embodies music basically XD

2.    Akihiko pursuing both violin and drums – these two instruments are so loaded with double meaning (drums – fun, escaping pain and violin – passion and lost dreams). But regardless if Akihiko has to choose one of them or not – pursing violin corresponds to confronting why he given up on violinist career earlier and by this confronting Ugetsu

Bonus:

Doesn’t sound it like foreshadowing?

So this is all for today. I don’t remember writing this much since my thesis – I hope it is coherent and that there is not that many errors XD If there is something unclear – feel free to ask.

[cctinsleybaxter]

2019 in books

The year’s contenders for the good, the bad, and the rest. I used to make a list of the ten best books I read all year, a tradition encouraged by my mom as far back as high school, but out 2019′s twenty-six mediocre offerings it didn’t really come together. Instead I’ve decided to break my ‘honorable mentions’ category into three subsections that I hope you’ll enjoy. In order of when read, not in order of affection:

Honorable mentions [books I liked; 3+ star material]

The Fifth Season by N.K Jemisin was given to me as a Christmas present last year, and I wasn’t sure how much I would like it since I don’t really do high fantasy. Rules need not apply; I loved the world building and narrative structure, and the characters were so much better than I’m used to even when their arcs seemed familiar at first glance. I guessed what was going on with the formatting maybe a little too quickly, but even then it was emotionally engaging and I was eager to keep reading and see what happened next. Haven’t devoured a book that way in years.

The Periodic Table by Primo Levi has been on my list for a while; as a memoir told through short stories it’s hit-or-miss, but so worth it. I especially loved getting to read his early attempts at fiction, and the chapter Phosphorus regarding his first real job as a chemist in 1942 (his description of his absolute disgust at having to work with rabbits, the feel of their fur and the “natural handle” of the ears is a personal favorite.) This excerpt is one I just think about a lot because it’s full of small sweet details and so kindly written:

“[my father] known to all the pork butchers because he checked with his logarithmic ruler the multiplication for the prosciutto purchase. Not that he purchased this last item with a carefree heart; superstitious rather than religious, he felt ill at ease breaking the kasherut rules, but he liked prosciutto so much that, faced by the temptation of a shop window, he yielded every time, sighing, cursing under his breath, and watching me out of the corner of his eye, as if he feared my judgement or hoped for my complicity.”

Slowing Down from Mouthful of Birds by Samanta Schweblin is a one-page short story, but I’m including it because it’s the best in the book and one of the better stories I’ve read in general. I won’t spoil it for you since it’s more poem than anything else (and you can read the whole thing here.)

A Short Film About Disappointment by Joshua Mattson deserves to be lower in the order because it’s like. Bad. But I couldn’t help but have a self-indulgent kind of love for it, since it’s a book about white boy ennui told through movie reviews. It definitely gets old by the end (one of those things where you can tell the author lost steam just as much as his leading man), but parts of it are so well-written and the concept clever. 80+ imaginary movie reviews and psychosomatic possession by your traitorous best friend. 

The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway has one of the greatest twists I’ve ever read in a novel, and no that’s not a spoiler, and yes I will recommend it entirely on that basis. It does its job as a multi-year sci-fi epic; reminds me a lot of Walter Moer’s early stuff in that it’s a bit Much(tm) but still a good mixture of politics and absurdity and absolute characters. Tobemory Trent was my favorite of the ensemble cast (but also boy do I wish men would learn how to write women.)

My Only Wife by Jac Jemk is a novella with only two characters, both unnamed, a man describing fragmented memories of his wife. It has me interested in Jemck’s other writing because even though I didn’t love it she writes beautifully; reading her work is like watching someone paint. The whole thing has a very indie movie feel to it (no scene of someone peeing but there SHOULD be), which I don’t think I’ve experienced in a story like this before and would like to try again. 

Mentions [books I really wanted to like but my GOD did something go wrong]

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou is the most comprehensive history we have of Elizabeth Holmes and her con-company Theranos. It’s incredibly well-researched and absolutely fascinating, but veers into unnecessary pro-military stuff in one chapter (’can you believe she tricked the government?’ yes i can, good for her, leave me alone) and carries an air of racism directed at Holmes’ partner and the Pakistani people he brings onto the company. Carreyrou works for WSJ so I don’t know what I expected.

Circe by Madeline Miller was fun to read and goes down like a glass of iced tea on a hot day, but leaves a bit of an unpleasant aftertaste. It says a lot of things that seem very resonant and beautiful but ultimately ring hollow, and the ending is too safe. Predictable and inevitable. 

I was also bothered about Circe’s relationships with Odysseus and Telemachus as a focal point, not because they’re father and son (Greek mythology ethics : non-committal hand gesture) but because it’s the traditional “I used to like bold men but now I like... sensitive men.” Which as a character arc feels not unrealistic but very boring. You close the book and realize you’re not nine and reading your beat-up copy of Greek Myths, you’re an adult reading a New York Times Bestseller by a middle aged straight white woman.

Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor could have been the best thing I read all year and I’m miserable at how bad it ended up being. The concept is excellent; a thirteen-year-old girl goes missing in a rural English village, and every chapter chronicles a passing year. I knew it would be slow, I like slow, but nothing happens in this book and it ends up it feeling like Broadchurch without the detectives. Plus, McGregor, you know sometimes you can take a moral stance in your story and not just make everything a grey area? Especially with subplots that deal with things like pedophilia and institutional racism?

Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor is about a twenty-something who moves from Iowa to San Francisco in the 90s and explores gender and sexuality through shapeshifting. It was something I really thought I would like and maybe even find helpful in my own life, but I couldn’t stand a single one of the characters or the narration so that’s on me! It does contain one of my favorite lines I’ve read in a long time though:

“And anyway, weren’t French boys supposed to be like Giovanni, waiting gaily for you in their rented room and actually Italian?”

Dishonorable mentions [there’s no saving these fellows]

The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchinson was supposed to be a fun easy-to-read thriller and what can I say except what the jklfkhlkj;fkfuck. It very quickly goes from ‘oh hey I read books like this when I was 15’ to ‘oh the girl who intentionally gets kidnapped by a wealthy serial killer is accidentally falling in love with his son and can’t stop talking about his eye color now huh.’ I felt like I was losing my mind; why did grown adults give this 5 stars on Goodreads.

The Beautiful Bureaucrat by Helen Phillips is supposedly surrealist horror fiction about working an office job in a new town, and reminded me of that rocky third or fourth year when I really started hating Welcome to Night Vale. All spark no substance, and even less fun because you know it’s going nowhere. I’ve also realized this past year that I cannot stand stories about women where their only personality trait is the desire to have children. People will throw the word ‘Kafkaesque’ at anything but here it was just insulting. 

The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai alternates point of view between Yale, a gay man living in Chicago in the late 80s and watching his friends die, and Fiona, the straight younger sister of one of those friends now looking for her erstwhile daughter in 2018. It was nominated for the 2018 Pulitzer, and part of my interest was in wondering how we were going to connect the plot lines of ‘the personal cost of the AIDS crisis’ with ‘daughter lost to a cult.’

The answer is that we don’t. The book is well-researched and acclaimed beyond belief, but it is SUCH a straight story. Yale’s arc is fueled by the drama of his boyfriend cheating on him and infecting them both, Fiona is painted as a witness to tragedy and encouraged to share their stories with her own daughter. “You’re like the Mother Theresa of Boys Town” one of the men complains bitterly of her, and the claim goes undisputed. It’s a story that makes a lot of statements about love and families and art that I feel we’ve all heard before to much greater effect.

[chubbyooo]

Blurred Lines Chapter 32 - The Calm Before the Storm

after the short hiatus while i focussed on other projects we’re moving back over to Kyradia 

Kyradia and Ashara regroup with their crew and prepare for the coming fight

Kyradia covered her eyes as the Fury touched down in front of them blowing dust and sticks in their direction. They had decided they would need to be crafty if they were going to catch Zash’s people, Ashara’s bug had been working wonders they knew exactly where they were and what they were saying but catching up was still an issue. This temple was in the middle of a lake so Ashara had suggested an arial assault, definitely the right call apparently their adversaries had jumped over stepping stones for like an hour. As the boarding ramp lowered Kyradia could see the rapid foot tapping of seemingly Andronikos, as soon as it was down he strode over to them folding his arms as he arrived this was gonna take a while.

“so I’m guessing you didn’t capture them” Kyradia nodded not making eye contact. Andronikos put his hand on Kyradia’s shoulder Kyradia let out a small smile but that’s all she could muster at the moment

“come on let’s get inside we can explain in there” Ashara began heading into the fury leaving Kyradia with Andronikos, Kyradia still not looking at him

Andronikos held her by the shoulders “hey Ky are you alright you look pretty shaken up” Kyradia took a deep breath before wrapping her arms around him burying her face in his shoulder. Andronikos awkwardly put his arms around her “hey hey hun it’s ok just tell me what happened ok” they were both bad at hugs and general signs of affection so Kyradia didn’t blame him for being surprised by this

Kyradia held him for a few more seconds before she looked towards him and shakily said “Zash is back” Andronikos’ eyes widened raising his eyebrows 

He stumbled over his words as he responded “what wha what do you mean back h-how can she be back?” he seemed to still be processing the information frowning heavily

Kyradia swallowed “I uh I dunno how but she got out of the prison and I uh dunno but we gotta stop her” Kyradia hung her head and sighed heavily

She felt a hand clasp the back of her head and hug her tightly “hey it’s ok hun we’ll stop her and trust me I wouldn’t mind showing her the back end of my blaster, I’m not afraid to hit a girl” he paused “at least one like that” Kyraida let out a small chuckle 

“yeah right she’s a sith lord she’d kick your ass” she smiled at him as he frowned lifting his chin up feigning anger

He raised his eyebrow grinning at her “she may have the force but i’ve got you, with you around I think I’ll be just fine” he was right there Kyradia couldn’t wait to destroy her 

She leant in close to him “oh yeah you just assume I’ll protect you” in response Andronikos leant and passionately kissed her

Kyradia let it last for a few seconds before Andronikos leant back “yeah I do” Kyradia looked away turning a deep red 

“shut up” she punched his arm playfully

Andronikos chuckled “never” they grinned at each other before turning towards the ship. Ashara was standing there arms folded tapping her foot impatiently, Kyradia just grinned at her as her frown broadened

Kyradia took Andronikos’ hand for a second as they walked “uh thanks”

Andronikos cocked his head as they walked “for what hun” Kyradia sighed she didn’t want to have to say it out loud she was so bad at touchy feely stuff

Kyradia toiled with her hair “for uh cheering me up” ugh why was she so bad at this. They made their way to the ship in silence Ashara looking relived as they finally arrived.

The Holoterminal flickered to life with the temple structure coming into view “this is the temple of Exar Kun” Ashara explained, she was taking point on this one which seemed like the best idea she would explain it with less anger and cursing.

Xalek cocked his head at the display “and this is where the Dashade is hiding?” they all frowned turning to him

Ashara turned to him “what no” Xalek held an icy glare towards Ashara before turning to Kyradia, Kyradia let out a small sigh even now when Xalek was a sith lord he was still jealous of Ashara.

Xalek folded his arms confused “you said we were after Zash right?” Kyradia frowned but then it hit her Xalek only ever knew her as part of Khem

“um Xalek you’re aware that Khem had Zash’s uh essence inside him right, they’re not the same person” Xalek took a long moment 

“oh I uh I always assumed the two voices was a Dashade thing” Kyradia pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed “that does make a lot more sense actually” Andronikos sarcastically nodded her head at him

Ashara stifled a chuckle “well so you’re aware the real Zash is currently inside a holocron and should be some sort of human, maybe blonde but the ritual is unclear as of yet” Xalek stroked his chin nodding “ok well with... that out the way Zash’s followers, a milirian named Terri and a human named Lusari are performing some kind of ritual” Kyradia nodded, the bug had certainly given them insight on those two, they seemed very naive and unaware of the seriousness of what they were doing. She was almost positive Zash had lied to them but she wasn’t sure how much, Zash had always been lying to her so she could only assume it was the same.

Xalek got out a small notepad “so kill them and take the holocron” they all let out a long but expected sigh as Xalek began seemingly jotting that down

Kyradia spoke up knowing it would be much easier to convince Xalek if she said it “no they seem like they are somewhat being manipulated and as a result we should take them alive” Xalek nodded crossing out what he just wrote

Xalek murmured quietly “I see useful for interrogation” Ashara sighed looking towards Kyradia

Kyradia shrugged “sure but make sure they’re not that injured alright?” Xalek nodded taking futher notes, Kyradia had given him the notebook after a few incidents where he forgot key orders like that and compromised their plan, she was pleased he actually used it.

Ashara turned back to the display “anyway we know that the ritual will be starting soon and as a result we need to get there ASAP so we’re gonna fly over and drop out of the ship” Andronikos nodded looking a little frustrated to be on ship duty again

He said through gritted teeth “alright I’ll get the parachutes ready” Ashara smiled at him

“oh don’t worry you’ll be seeing plenty of action apparently they have some mercenaries prepared for extraction so you’ll be blocking their escape alright?” Andronikos smiled nodding seemingly pleased with his assignment “oh and don’t bother with the parachutes they’re too slow”

Andronikos looked taken aback “what? how are you gonna land?” he kept looking towards Kyradia clearly worried

Kyradia gave him a devious look “we got the force don’t worry” she let a little lightning crackle in her hand 

Andronikos stepped back “if anything that makes me worry more” that was fair but they’d be fine she knew it, that was the easy part

Ashara pointed at the temple “once landed we will most likely be met with one or both of the prior mentioned followers so that’s why we’re bringing you Xalek” Xalek smiled his hand brushing over his lightsaber

“sounds good I’ve missed the action” Ashara narrowed her eyes at him and Kyradia had to admit she was also worried about him accidentally killing sone of them but given the stakes they needed his help

“Kyradia will then head in and stop the ritual before Zash can I guess return” she looked to Kyradia who nodded, Kyradia wasn’t sure how Zash would come back but she assumed it would have bad consequences

Xalek looked away for a second before asking “what if she doesn’t stop the ritual” Xalek seemed reluctant to ask the question but Kyradia understood the reasoning.

Kyradia didn’t want to think about it but it was likely to happen “then I’ll have to fight Zash and hopefully you can help me” both Ashara and Xalek nodded, Kyradia felt a small well of pride knowing they’d have her back

Ashara looked to each of them “so we all clear” they all nodded “ok lets get going then” Ashara and Andronikos went to start preparing leaving Xalek and Kyradia in the room

Xalek moved to the corner and began practicing with his lightsaber, Kyradia stayed quiet for a second before speaking up “Xalek what’s the key thing you need to remember about this mission?” Xalek turned around frowning in confusion for a second

“um” he looked away “don’t kill the followers?” Kyradia nodded smiling at him, he attempted to smile back but it came out as more of a snarl, Kyradia had never related to Xalek more. “so she’s back then?” Xalek gestured to the door Ashara had gone through as he folded his arms

Kyradia let out a long sigh “ya know Xalek you’re not my apprentice anymore and neither is she there’s no reason to be jealous of her” Xalek had always been jealous of Ashara back when they were apprentices, Kyradia kinda got it he was much more traditional for a sith apprentice so it must have been annoying how she always favoured Ashara.

Xalek looked away “I’m not jealous” he paused “I just think you already have a force using friend to help you out... who says you need another” Kyradia let out a long sigh before walking towards the cockpit she didn’t want to deal with that right now. 

As she walked into the cockpit she could see Andronikos plotting the course into the navicomputer “you got everything sorted up here hun?” he turned round to her with a smile

“oh yeah these mercenaries wont know what hit them” Kyradia nodded at him raising her eyebrow

“uh huh i bet they’ll go down in seconds” she leant in giving him a quick kiss on his cheek before looking out of the view port

he put his hand on her shoulder “are you prepared for this Ky?” she continued looking out the viewport

“as ready as I can be” she paused “it’s just well we have so much history I uh I dunno I thought I’d put all that past stuff behind me and could become better” she paused again “I’m a better person now right?” 

Andronikos squeezed her shoulder “of course hun and for the record you’ve always been awesome, no one likes confronting their past” she held his hand tight

“yeah i guess I just...” she trailed off, thinking about her past always did this she should focus on the task at hand “never mind I’m gonna go check on Ashara” Andronikos frowned at her but didn’t press her as she stumbled away.

when Kyradia caught up with Ashara she found her meditating in the engine room “brings back memories huh?” Ashara was startled nearly falling backwards but caught herself.

“uh yeah I uh guess so I dunno i feel kinda homely in here” she stumbled up looking around awkwardly

“yeah I get that, no matter where I sleep the Fury is more like home to me” Ashara nodded seemingly agreeing. Kyradia looked away holding the back of her head “I uh just wanted to check you were ready for this?”

Ashara gave a warm smile “yeah I think so, I’ll have you’re back” she cocked her head “but are yo-” 

Kyradia interrupted “please don’t ask me if I’m ready for this everyone is doing that” Ashara chuckled nodding

“alright sure no worries” she paused “uh I know we’ve gotten a little caught up in all this but I just want you to know I’m sorry I judged you so harshly” Ashara fidgeted awkwardly

Kyradia nodded “I think it was completely fair I can be a real grade A bitch sometimes” Ashara gave a half smile

“maybe the old you but you’ve changed since then Kyradia, this conversation is proof in of itself” Kyradia frowned she didn’t really agree

Kyradia looked away “you’re too kind I’m not that different if yo-” as she looked away she felt arms wrap around her as she tensed up turning to see Ashara hugging her “uh ah um Ashara I’m still not a hugger”

Ashara laughed deviously “take my complement then” Kyradia’s arms went limp as she conceded

Kyradia groaned “fine” Ashara let go beaming, seemingly pleased with the results. Kyradia knew she wasn’t right though and she’d probably agree if she knew everything about her, maybe she should tell her? no after they stop Zash just in case she needs Ashara, it’s too much of a long story anyway.

A silence fell over the chamber that was broken when they heard Andronikos’ voice through the coms “we’re getting close guys get into position” looks like it’ll have to wait she had a sith to eviscerate...

[leapingtitan]

Thoughts on Chapter 114

I have to say that I’ve been looking forward to this chapter for almost 3 years. Zeke being my favorite character, his past is something I’ve been wanting to see all this time. And Isayama delivered just on time.

There are a few points to point out in regards to this, but this may very well be my favorite snk chapter, at least for the time being. It has basically all of the things that make me love snk as a whole. Main lore revelations, displays of how fucked up the world is and of course, Zeke Jaeger as a character and the revelation of what he has been trying to do all along.

Zeke’s past is, to say the least, screwed up. Grisha and Dina’s behavior towards him was very much what we expected it to be. It was hinted, but seeing it from Zeke’s eyes was just drenching. Those two didn’t really care about Zeke as a child and used him for their purposes in acquiring the Founding Titan. All in the process, they forgot that he is just a child and placed enormous stress on him. As Xaver stated, it didn’t even look like he wanted to become a warrior himself, at least not until much later.

Tom Xaver is the “Mysterious Man” from the character guidebook who was briefly mentioned at the end of last chapter. Although it was speculated to be the case because of his armband, getting the confirmation that he the source of both the Beast Titan’s powers that Zeke ended up acquiring later on and the glasses with Zeke seem to have personal value to Zeke for the obvious reason that is him and Xaver’s relationship.

Xaver, in any case, was an interesting character on his own. His manifestation of the Beast Titan’s powers was apparently deemed unfitting for Marley’s typical usage of their power, that is invading other countries and making use of the sheer force that is the Titan shifting ability. Although I’m curious to know how exactly Xaver’s Beast Titan was “useless” in that regard. Remember when Magath was analyzing each of the Titans in the first half of the Marley arc? It seems that the thing that Beast Titans have in common is being slightly taller than the others that are not the Colossal Titan.

Since Xaver was already a baseball player who seemingly had quite a bit of free time to practice the sport, my guess is his Beast Titan did not have the physical features that Zeke’s does. In this case, the abnormally long arms which would provide massive momentum and throwing strength.

But regardless, Tom Xaver chooses to dedicate the remainder of his life to being a Titan Researcher. This was personally an enjoyable aspect of his character to me, as the Titan Chemistry Research Society that has been mentioned since the Basement reveal hasn’t really gotten any direct exposition, so seeing a direct member of it was nice.

Anyway, Zeke isn’t doing that well as a warrior and Tom Xaver is not fit for combat, so the two naturally spend a lot of time together. It ultimately leads to Xaver being the one to suggest Zeke betraying his parents after he overhears that Marley is on their trail. In a way, this ultimately sheds light to Zeke’s further developments.

He betrayed his parents to save his own life plus that of his grandparents, and it wasn’t until later when he found the resolve as an Eldian Restorationist on his own. Thus, I truly believe in what he told Kiyomi. His parents being cruel and inconsiderate of him aside, Zeke may or may not have come to his own conclusion that they would only bring Eldia down.

It isn’t until Zeke’s later years that we find out about a certain reveal which I quite appreciated. Eldians, “Subjects of Ymir” are biological extensions of the Founding Titan’s biology itself. That’s just the way of saying that they’re all connected to the Coordinate in the middle, where the Founding Titan is. As Zeke’s Beast Titan can trasnform those marked to his own Coordinate, his Titan via spinal fluid, we can assume that, should the Founding Titan decide to do so, can mass-transform Eldians in the same fashion as the it’s connected to all of them by default. On top of that, Xaver theorizes that it possesses the ability to alter their biological structure to the point of completely eradicating an epidemic.

This theory is what brings us to the main reveal this chapter, Zeke’s plan which we have been theorizing about for a long time now. To use the Founding Titan’s powers to sterilize every Eldian and wait for the last generation to die either by natural or non-natural means. With that, even if one of the 9 Titans remains, once they reach the 13 year point, the power wouldn’t have anyone to transfer to. Thus, ending the “cursed history” just like he said he would.

Before I elaborate on that, Tom reveals to Zeke that he himself wishes he never would have been born due to the stuff that happened with his wife. Truly cruel, and you can see that until the end they remain on the same page. The father/son moment they had as well was quite touching but very tragic, just like the rest of the chapter for the most part.

We come to the current point in time where Zeke detonates the thunderspear in his abdomen in hopes to escape his confinement and get rid of Levi. Both of them have been opposing forces since the Return to Shiganshina arc but they both ended up making the same mistake over and over again: Underestimating each other. Levi didn’t think Zeke would do anything under his watch in the forest and didn’t think he would actually detonate himself either. Meanwhile, Zeke has underestimated Levi an equal number of times as well.

But regardless, he did it. I don’t believe that Zeke is dead because let’s be real here, he has quite a lot of plot armor and killing him after revealing his goal to euthanize the Eldian race would be anti-climatic and would render the entire chapter pointless. Levi, on the other hand, has to die sooner or later. I’m not saying I’m “happy” though I personally never hold personal bias and attachment with characters outside of ironic and meme reasons. If a character dies, they die. That’s it. I’ve been reading snk for almost 5 years and I’ve gotten used to it at this point.

With that said Levi could potentially come back later depending on how fast he heals but my prediction is, someone will find him and he’s going to have his last words. When the big boom happens, it seems to be raining. Atmospherically that seems an appropriate end for him, whenever someone finds him. As for Zeke, seems like Levi was lying. He did close his limbs from the explosion from what we can see though it’s nothing he can’t regenerate. His neck seems in tact and it looks like he’s gotten used to physical pain at this point. Honestly, it’s tragic.

Lastly we come to what I believe is the most important lead we have this chapter. Folks,

Zeke and Eren are not on the same side.

Although we can question Eren’s mental state and motives for the past 20 chapters, let’s just keep in kind that this is Eren who has ALWAYS fought for freedom. The one who possesses the Attack Titan, at that. Now, do you really believe that his idea of “Freedom” is for his own race to go extinct?

Personally, I think he may have tricked Zeke, but at the end, I believe the two to have entirely different motives and are not going to be the dynamic duo of this final arc.

The biggest reason why I think that is an interview that Isayama held a few years ago when he was asked about Zeke. This is not a direct quote, but Isayama says something along the lines of

“When coming up with Zeke’s character, I wanted to follow a main common trope that the main character, in this case Eren, needs an opposite. In this case, Zeke is the type of brotherly existence to Eren but is ultimately the kind of character the protagonist strives not to become.”

In other words, Eren and Zeke both wish for Eldia’s salvation. However, they have different ideas. Zeke wishes for the extinction of the Eldian race, while Eren likely wishes for Eldia to overcome its oppression even if it means absolute genocide against the rest of the world.

This is why I believe that the “Final Battle” will involve the infiltrating Marleyan warriors, the fleet fighting off against the remainder of the Survey Corps, while Eren deals with Zeke.

Logically speaking, Zeke has no reason to activate the rumbling, but what needs to be elaborated on is that Eren is the one who decides what the outcome of the usage of the Founding Titan’s powers are, not Zeke. I definitely believe the two will duke it out, but before that we are going to get the next thing I’ve been waiting for which is their long-awaited reunion. And no, the airship doesn’t count.

Overall, like I said this may very well be my favorite snk chapter for now. Don’t have much else to say except it’s very solid and I look forward to seeing the rest, as usual.

[aliteraryprincess]

Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust

Warning: Contains spoilers

Welcome back to Fairy Tale Friday!  Today we’re going to take a look at the first “Snow White” retelling of this feature.  “Snow White” was one of my favorite fairy tales as a young kid.  Apparently I used to watch the Disney movie several times per day, and the illustrations for it in my childhood fairy tale collection (pictured above) were my favorites in the whole book.  

As a Retelling:

In terms of the elements of “Snow White” in this book, Bashardoust draws exclusively on the German version collected by the Brothers Grimm that we are most familiar with.  She doesn’t incorporate all the elements of the story.  Notable missing pieces of the tale are the dwarfs, the glass coffin, the poisoned apple, and the prince.  However, she greatly expands on the elements she does include and puts her own unique and interesting twists on them.

In the fairy tale, Snow White is the result of her mother’s wish for a child “as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as ebony.”  Snow White famously has pale skin, red lips, and black hair.  Bashardoust’s Snow White character, Lynet, doesn’t have these specific features; instead, she is described as looking exactly like her late mother, who was very beautiful.  However, Bashardoust does keep the concepts of snow and blood involved in Lynet’s birth.  Lynet was created from snow and blood by a magician at her father’s request after the queen died.  Because of this, Lynet can magically manipulate snow.

The most important part of this story is the relationship between Lynet and her stepmother, Mina.  In the fairy tale, the relationship is wholly negative.  The queen is so vain that she immediately despises Snow White when the girl surpasses her in beauty and orders a huntsman to kill her.  Bashardoust’s Mina and her relationship with Lynet are much more developed and complex than this.  The chapters switch back and forth between the two characters, so the readers are able to see why Mina became the way she is.  Though Mina is very aware of her beauty and considers it the only way to get what she wants, vanity isn’t as strong a motivation for her as it is for the queen in the original story.  Her main concern is keeping the power she has as queen.  Though she ultimately does care for Lynet, she knows that one day Lynet will replace her, and the threat becomes greater and greater as the events of the plot continue.  At the beginning of the story, Lynet adores and looks up to Mina, but her feelings become conflicted when she realizes Mina has been lying and hiding her true self.  

Even though she is in the role of the evil queen, Mina is not the story’s antagonist.  Instead it is her father, Gregory, the magician who created Lynet.  We learn early on that he is a horrible and manipulative person when he reveals he replaced Mina’s heart with a magical glass one and claims she can never love or be loved because of it.  Creating Lynet drained his life force, so he plans to kill her and take her heart to restore it, which is a nod to the queen wanting Snow White’s heart (or her lungs and liver in some versions) brought to her in the original tale.  It is him, not Mina, who tries to poison Lynet.  There also isn’t a poison apple.  Instead, the poison is put on a bracelet Mina had given Lynet.  Gregory uses magic to create a double of Mina who then returns the bracelet to Lynet as a supposed peace offering only to be poisoned once she puts it on.  In the German fairy tale, the queen makes three attempts to kill Snow White using bodice laces, a poisoned hair comb, and the famous poisoned apple.  Of these three, the bracelet is most similar to the hair comb since they both take effect by simply coming into contact with the body.

Bashardoust also changes the way Lynet wakes up after being poisoned, though it still involves her love interest.  As previously mentioned, there isn’t a prince in this retelling.  Lynet’s love interest is Nadia, a young surgeon.  The prince in the original comes across Snow White’s glass coffin in the woods and is so entranced with her beauty that he decides to bring her back with him.  While they are walking, one of the men carrying the coffin stumbles and causes the apple to come out of Snow White’s throat, waking her up.  Bashardoust forgoes this and the perhaps more well-known kiss method popularized by the Disney movie in favor of a slightly more practical explanation.  Nadia switches the poison out for one that only causes a deathlike sleep.  Like Juliet in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Lynet appears dead for a period of time but eventually wakes up.           

There is also a fantastic twist on the magic mirror.  In the German version of the tale, the mirror hovers between being an object and being a character.  It’s not human, but it does speak and is ultimately what sets the events of the story into motion.  Bashardoust plays with this concept and combines the mirror with the huntsman in the character of Felix.  Due to her magical glass heart, Mina can manipulate glass.  Soon after coming to live at court and setting her sights on the king, she creates Felix out of the glass in a mirror that belonged to her mother.  He is meant to teach her how to love so she can get the king to fall in love with her, though they ultimately fall in love with each other.  He becomes a huntsman to explain his presence at court and starts to become more and more human.  Despite this, he still retains some mirror qualities; he reflects the feelings of those looking at him.  It is him that Mina sends after Lynet when she runs away, though not with orders to kill her.  He does almost kill her since he believes it will be easier for Mina with Lynet dead, but as in the original, he can’t bring himself to do it.                            

My Thoughts:

I really enjoyed Girls Made of Snow and Glass.  I appreciate that the romance between Lynet and Nadia was kept secondary to the relationship between Lynet and Mina.  So many books end up dominated by the romantic relationships, and it’s always nice to find a book where that doesn’t happen, especially since the relationship between Snow White and her stepmother is so key in the original fairy tale.  And even though it is secondary, Lynet and Nadia’s relationship is very sweet and felt believable.  Plus I love finding LGBT+ fairy tale retellings!

I also liked the way Bashardoust structured the book.  The chapters switch between Lynet and Mina, and Mina’s chapters in the first half of the book focus on her past.  This worked really well to develop Mina, Gregory, and the king as characters and show the readers their motivations.  We also get to see the relationship between Lynet and her father at different points in time and from an outsider’s prospective.  If Mina’s chapters had started at the same point in time as Lynet’s, we would have missed out on all of this and the story and characters wouldn’t have been as strong.    

I do wish there had been a little more world building, especially in regards to the magic.  Lynet has magic because Gregory used it to create her and Mina has magic because he used it to make her a replacement heart.  That’s all explained and made sense to me.  However, we’re never given an explanation for Gregory’s magic.  Why does he have it?  How does it work?  I was also left wondering about the northern and southern halves of the kingdom.  The royal court is in the North, which has been cursed with eternal winter.  Nothing can grow there and food is imported from the South, which is warm and lovely.  Why would anyone stay there, especially the royal family who clearly has the means to move?  We’re given a reason that the current king doesn’t want to leave; his first wife is buried there.  But why didn’t any of the rulers before him move the court?  Questions like this aren’t really important to the plot, but they did sometimes distract me from the actual story.                 

My rating: 4 stars

Other Reading Recommendations:

The starred titles are ones I have read myself.  The others are ones I want to read and may end up being future Fairy Tale Friday books.  To keep the list from getting too long, I’m limiting it to four that I’ve read and four that I haven’t.  This was Bashardoust’s first book, so she doesn’t have more to recommend.  Hopefully she will soon!

Other Retellings of “Snow White”:

Fairest by Gail Carson Levine*

Mirror Mirror by Gregory Maguire*

“Snow, Glass, Apples” by Neil Gaiman*

Beauty by Nancy Ohlin*

The Fairest of Them All by Carolyn Turgeon

Snow in Summer by Jane Yolen

Dark Shimmer by Donna Jo Napoli

White as Snow by Tanith Lee 

About the Fairy Tale:

Sleeping Beauties: Sleeping Beauty and Snow White Tales from Around the World by Heidi Ann Heiner  

Have a recommendation for me to read or a suggestion to make Fairy Tale Friday better?  Feel free to send me an ask!

[aelin-and-feyre]

Circumstance (Part 15)

The last chapter of Circumstance is now finished and posted. There will be an epilogue sometime soon! Thank you to everyone who has read this and stuck with it and loved it just as much as I did, I made me so happy. I hope you enjoy this last part just as much.

Warning: There is slight ToD spoilers in this chapter, sorry

Tagging: @aelinxfeyre @vilya1 @a-courtof-fangirls-and-fanfics@autumn03@rhysandpurred @crazybookladythings @devilsadvocate15@marimarac @carolineherr15@musiccbeach @illyrian-wingspans @illyrianinterrasen@meowsekai@iwishitwasrocketscience @gavrielthelionn @bbyshadowbat @bluephoenix222@daughterxofxnight@highladyofthedark@sugarcoated44 @fandoms-things-stuff@helloprinceling @wolffrising @the-court-of-terrasen@gcarroll@throne–of-sass @rowanismybae @peachyyymeg (thank you to you wonderful people, I’m so glad you liked my fic enough to want to be annoyed by notifications every time I posted)

Fic Masterlist

Five Months Later

Cadewyn wakes wrapped in his mate’s scent. It is the same aroma he’d been enveloped in for the past five months, and the same one he’d fallen into a utterly peaceful sleep to last night, but now, with the scent clouding his mind and making a unsolicited smile brighten his sleepy face, Cade thinks the same thought he has every morning since he met her: that there is never a time in his life that he doesn’t want to wake up similarly cocooned. The sun filters in through the canvas walls of the tent and warms his face, awakening each of his limbs slowly. Delicate strands of golden hair tickle his nose, belonging to the female curled in his arms. Sounds of the camp awakening around them drift through the thin fabric of their structure, but Cade shuts it out for a few minutes more, enjoying the feeling of peace, even though he know it won’t last.

There is a battle today. They are scheduled to attack the enemy forces at high noon, when Aelin and Ember’s power will be the strongest. Cade’s arms tighten instinctively around his mate, nuzzling his nose further in her mess of hair, and thinking about what led them to this.

He hadn’t made it back to Velaris in time to follow his aunt’s silent instruction. His room had been found empty and cold, and it hadn’t taken long for Azriel’s shadows to track him to Terrasen. Ember had found his parents and their Inner Circle in the dining room waiting for them, but it wasn’t the ambush she was expecting.

Instead, the High Lord and Lady of the Night Court and the King and Queen of Terrasen had decided that they were going to war one last time. They were going to help their children secure happiness together, just as they fought for the same thing a quarter century ago. Brexton and Gusty, it turned out, had been the ones to step forward and convince their elders. Cade will forever be grateful to them.

Now, five months into strategy, planning, and brief battles, they are about to embark on the first combat strike that Ember will be unleashing her full power on, and will dictate who the winner of this war will be. Cade completely believes in her – with every particle of his body he knows that she will do amazingly, and that her ingenious plan will work, but he can’t help but feel nervous.

Emberlei shifts a little in his arms, groaning softly at the increasing noise outside their tent and the inevitability of having to awaken. Cadewyn runs a soothing hand down her flannel-clad back, letting his fingers graze her bottom. Ember attempts to bury her head even further into his chest, scrunching her eyes tight as she tries to cling to sleep. “Good morning, Kindling, are you ready to start a fire?”

His mate sighs reluctantly, pressing a kiss to the skin above his heart. “Remind me why we’re doing this again?” She grumbles tiredly.

A rumble of laughter escapes Cadewyn. “Because you love me and you never want to be parted from me?” He responds, half monitoring the rustling sounds of mounting armor and sheathing swords outside. They don’t have much time left to laze about.

“Oh, that’s right,” Ember replies with a soft smile. Her face tilts up so her sleep-ridden, gorgeous turquoise eyes stare into his, half a dozen emotions swirling between them. She shifts up a couple inches to press a lingering kiss to his lips. Cade’s eyes slip closed at what could be their last embrace like this. The princess senses his thoughts as she pulls away, her fingers threading with his. “Are you afraid?”

“Yes,” Cade answers honestly, even though there isn’t anything to really be scared of. Sure, they are facing five different power nations from across the world who have teamed up against them. Yeah, they are only twenty years old and have only just found each other. And of course, Cade isn’t sure what he would do if he lost her. But it is irrational to be afraid, to be anything other than swift and sure with each maneuver they make from this moment until the end of the battle that’s about to begin. “Are you afraid?” He asks, one eyebrow quirking up in an attempt to lighten the mood.

“No,” she says the word so easily, that he almost believes her. With a defeated sigh, Ember rests her brow against his own. “I am Emberlei Whitethorn Galathyius and I shouldn’t be afraid – but I am.”

Her fingers grapple for him, pulling his body tightly against her as she tucks her head under his chin, as if she never wants to leave his embrace. Cade holds her tightly, savoring this moment, committing it all to memory, as he has with everything the past five months – war-ridden months, but the happiest of his life. “I wish we’d had more time.” Cade murmurs into the crown of her head. He feels a slight wetness leak onto the exposed skin of his chest, Ember pressing her lips against his collarbone as she tries to regain her composure. “But I suppose if this was all the Cauldron blessed me with, I will live and die happily knowing that I got to know you, my mate – my own Fireheart.” His use of the name he heard Rowan calling Aelin last month seems to set Ember straight.  

The princess in his arms readjusts so she’s looking into his eyes. “I love you,” she whispers in the growing light of morning. Already, flames dance in her eyes as the power she has been spiraling into the last week is now just hovering under the surface. They hadn’t been able to do anything last night in fear of incinerating the entire camp. “Together?”

“Until my last breath,” his words are the sincerest he has ever uttered in his life. He would follow her to the ends of the earth – where no one knows of the Queen Who Was Promised, or Feyre Cursebreaker. Where there is no whisper of the treaty or the ‘Cursed Mating’ as their enemies have taken to calling them – calling what they had sealed between them just a week ago, claiming each other in a way no one can dispute. A final decision that they made together, and accept the consequences of to whatever end. “And whatever is beyond. We face this together. No matter the circumstance.”

...

“The plan is simple,” Cassian and Aedion stand before the gathering of friends and family, who have come together to fight this one last war, and show the world once and for all that they are not powers to be messed with. “Lysandra and I lead the Bane in the east,” as he speaks, Aedion points to the map spread before them, where they have plotted the territory and their plan of attack – or non-attack. “Dorian and Manon with their legion spread next to us.”

Ember turns in time to see Manon’s iron teeth slip out as she grins, Dorian’s hands flexing as he, too, readies his magic. She can’t believe they are here. The Queen of the Wastes meet’s Ember’s eye and winks. Ember supposes that Manon might just be hungry for bloodshed after so many years of peace and that is why she agreed to this.

��Azriel and I direct the Illyrians opposite them,” Cassian interrupts, nodding to his brother who scans the map with warrior’s intensity. “Helion and Lucien beside us.” Ember finds the High Lord of Day’s already watching her from across the room and she once again nods her head in thanks for joining their cause. Helion’s eyes twinkle and he smiles warmly back. She doesn’t think it’s thirst for blood that fuel’s his reason for being here, but rather love for Cade and his family, and the want for adventure. She is grateful for his help no matter the reason.

Aedion nudges Cassian aside a bit with a joking nudge to point to the center top of the hill they have picked to attack from. Her uncle looks up at her, eyes softening as he says, “Ember and Cade will be positioned here, Aelin, Rowan, Rhysand, and Feyre flanking them.” Cade’s hand squeezes Ember’s comfortingly next to her. She caresses the newly minted bond between them.  “The cadre will be interspersed through the ranks from there.”

Cassian nods his approval, the general and commander working in tandem with each other, almost fluidly after five months of strategizing. “If all goes well, not a single life has to be taken, and no one but Ember and Cade need to use an ounce of power.” He gives the two un-Settled Fae a roguish grin. “And if it doesn’t go as planned, well then the real fun can begin.”

Aedion shoots Cassian a disapproving stare, before shaking his head with a quiet chuckle when the Commander’s grin doesn’t falter. “We have five layers of attack after that, but we really shouldn’t have to go past Aelin and Rhys.” This time, it’s the Queen and High Lord who send each other sly looks. Ember has never been afraid of her mother, but it’s hard not to be a bit frightened when the Fire Breather and Darkness Bringer train together.

“And where am I in those five layers of attack?” The attention of the room turns to her little sister standing with her arms crossed and staring at the map with almost as much intensity as the shadowsinger. Brexton and his mate – a girl Ember has befriended the past few months – stand behind her, probably also wondering the same question.

Before any of the adults can shoot her question down and tell her she has to stay back at camp, Ember speaks up. “Gusty, Brexton, and Magdalene will be on the hill with me and Cade.”

Everyone now turns to her, and she can see their objections about to rise, but Cade beats them to it. “I agree, it will make me feel better to have them up their with us in case anything goes wrong.” He winks at the younger princess, sliding his arm around Ember’s waist and pulling her closer to him, as if he can’t bear to be more than a couple inches from her. Not that she is any better. Since they got out of bed this morning she hasn’t been able to part from him for long.

A couple of the adults grumble a bit but none of them contradict. “Finally,” Cassian calls the attention back to him. “Yrene will stand with Ember and be there to heal the main players if the shields fail.” The healer bows her head in acquiescence.

“Battlefield healing only, Yrene,” Chaol reminds from beside her, his cane next to him but remaining unused for now.

Aedion claps his hands and draws the Sword of Orynth. “We go to war.” He states plainly, meeting each person’s eye in the tent and then nodding to be dismissed.

Everyone begins to pick up their weapons from where they were discarded leaning against the walls, but Ember remains motionless beside Cade, watching the people around her who have agreed to fight with her – with them.

Aedion shakes Cassian’s hand, the two males nodding in respect for the other. “It has been an honor to serve at your side,” the general says.

“Same, brother, I would do it again in a heartbeat,” Aedion’s chest swells with pride at Cassian’s words, and they part ways to their wives.

Chaol takes Yrene’s slightly wrinkling hands in his own and kisses them tenderly, then walks out with her elbow through his, the cane dangling beside him. Manon runs a hand through Dorian’s greying hair and they share a smirk before also departing. Cassian kisses Nesta fiercely then smiles through her scolding and promises to come back to her. The female then takes Magdalene and Brexton in a tight embrace and tells them to be careful. Cassian slings his arms around Azriel’s shoulders and says some joke that makes the shadowsinger sigh in resignation as they exit the tent.

Elain and Lucien share a sweet moment, the former tucking a tulip in her mate’s lapel and telling him she expects it back safe and sound. Helion claps Lucien on the back and father and son head west together. Gavriel goes up to Aedion just as he and Lysandra part. The general hugs his father and they share a short but meaningful conversation before the shapeshifter pulls her husband towards the east. The rest of the cadre – Lorcan excluded as he and Elide stay in Terrasen – salute to Aelin and Rowan, then shift to bound to their respective positions.

With Amren and Mor watching over Velaris, only the people going up to the hill remain in the tent. Ember meets the eyes of Brex and Magdalene, then the High Lord and Lady, then her sister, her parents, and finally her mate. She holds Cade’s gaze for a few moments, and takes a deep breath. “To war.”

...

Cadewyn stands beside Ember atop the huge hill on one side of their chosen battlefield. Their enemy is powerful, diverse, and prepared. They have had 15 years to anticipate this attack, to plan for their defense and offense. Although Cade isn’t sure they were expecting this sort of turn out. Five enemy countries against the four most powerful full-grown Fae and their kin, along with a horde of Illyrians, a host of witches, and the armies of three different territories.

All Cade and Ember have to do is create a spectacle and not one life will be taken, not one ounce of blood drawn. The witch queen may yet be disappointed by the outcome.

With the sun beating down from directly above them, it’s time. “Whatever the challenge,” Cade whispers to his mate.

“No matter the circumstance,” Ember responds just as softly.

“We do this together.”

The future High Lord of Night and the Crown Princess of Terrasen take each others hands, staring deeply in the other’s eyes – the eyes that have kept them up for the past decade and a half, the eyes they fell in love with before ever knowing the person they belonged to – and let go of their power.

Oh, and what a spectacle it is.

Flames and wind and sun and shadows and water and ice, enough power to envelop the world and then some erupt from them. It spouts into the sky and depicts images of love and peace and well being. Both sides of the battlefield are silent as they watch in awe as the two powers perfectly entwine to portray how the two young Fae wielding it are not to be feared, but welcomed. To show that instead of destruction and invasion, they are the symbol of utmost prosperity and advancement. At least, that’s what Ember is counting on.

The power roils and twists and shifts above their heads before exploding into an array of colors and sparks and water and flowers. A cool breeze, courtesy of the young princess behind them, extinguishes the sparks and carries the flowers to enemy territory, where they fall gracefully across the standing army that is frozen with shock.

Ember breathes heavily across from Cade, her eyelids drooping as exhaustion takes over. Both of their powers are utterly spent, and if even an ember more was taken, she might be on the verge of a burn out. Cadewyn catches his princess before she hits the ground, and Gusty and Yrene are there immediately on the other side. They all kneel in the grass atop that hill together, Ember barely conscious, and watch to see what will happen next. Aelin has sparks flying off her fingers already in anticipation.

Just as they see a horse galloping through and breaking the enemy formation, Ember collapses into Cade’s arms.

...

Crown Princess Emberlei Whitethorn Galathynius of Terrasen wakes up to a dozen featherlight kisses being trailed up her body. Every single one of her limbs ache, including her head which is pounding constantly as it tries to focus on anything other than the feeling of the pecks lighting her skin on fire.

She distantly realizes that a body is hovering above her, hands braced on either side of her head as she groans and opens her eyes. Ember immediately closes them again against the blinding light coming from some infernal place she doesn’t care enough to pinpoint. A deep chuckle sounds from above her and she instantly knows that it’s Cade.

“Turn off your sun please,” she grumbles, squeezing her eyes shut. Cadewyn laughs again and the light shining behind her eyelids does indeed dim. Ember cracks open her eyes and sees her mate over her, his skin lit to a small glow as he smiles down at her. Suddenly, she remembers what happened. Sitting up abruptly, Ember knocks her forehead against Cade’s and they both yelp, the latter rolling off her so she can rise, unobstructed. “What happened?” She asks urgently, now leaning over him on their bed in the war tent. She’d probably been out for a few hours.

The future High Lord of the Night Court smiles widely, grasps her face between his palms, and kisses her soundly. “It worked, Kindling,” he murmurs against her lips. “They believe us.”

Ember parts from him and stares down, wide eyed. “Are you serious?” Cadewyn just nods, trying to pull her down to kiss him again. She pulls out of his reach, sitting cross-legged on the bedspread. “Tell me everything.”

Her lover sighs but his skin does not dim as he sits across from her and begins to explain what happened after she fainted. “A representative from one of the territories charged up the hill, our parents were ready to shoot him down but he was holding a white flag. He explained that his leader was moved to tears by our presentation, and rescinded their declaration of war and shredded their copy of the treaty. Four more emissaries from the others came shortly after, telling of things along the same lines.” Cade grabs her fingers, tears shining in his eyes. “Not one leader continued to fight. Not one.”

Ember’s heart feels like it’s about to explode. Even though she aches all over, she finds enough strength to pounce on her mate and tackle him into the pillows. He catches her with another laugh and accepts the kisses she starts peppering over his face.

“We can be together?” She asks, almost like she can’t believe it.

Cade nods, dragging his fingers through her hair while staring into her turquoise and gold eyes – the depthless orbs that started everything. “I think it’s time you finish ‘Violet Eyes’.”

Ember sits up, straddling his waist as she considers his words. “I think you’re right. Although I’m gonna have to change the name.”

Cadewyn traces his fingers over her sides, thighs, and arms thoughtfully, no longer intent on memorizing each part of her, rather content to take all the time he wants. “Hm? And what would the new title be?”

“Well, you know what truly occurred to me when our power was in the air?” Cade lifts an eyebrow. “None of this would have happened if I hadn’t come with my parents that day to the Leader Meeting. I never would have met you, we would have never switched places, and I would never have even written the song. It was all a trick of fate.”

“An aligning of crazy circumstances.” Cade muses.

Ember leans down to kiss him once more, letting herself enjoy the moment, the time they now have together – centuries of time. “I like that... ‘Circumstance’.”

A/N I know its such a cheesy and weird ending but I love it so whatever.

Masterlist

[commaeleons]

The ramble about bird!Dirk’s wings in The Price for Fire that literally no one asked for

but i'm up hours before my alarm and i’m having Feelings(TM), so here have some word vomit anyway sorry if i make you cry

So okay let’s talk about anatomy and motion and flight and how this all plays into Dirk’s narrative arc.

I mention in...chapter 4, I think? that despite having these massive wings strapped to his back, Dirk can’t fly. And okay the real reason behind that is that frankly I didn’t want to deal with the complications that allowing him to travel in three dimensions like that would involve, but as is so often the case, that gave me the opportunity to do some interesting things with him.

So, first of all: The in-universe reasons why Dirk can’t fly.

Reason number one: He doesn’t have a keel bone. Birds’ sternums are shaped very very differently from humans’ in order to support the flight muscles across their chests. Without that, Dirk’s muscular structure is literally incapable of flapping his wings strongly enough to carry his weight. Whenever Dirk does flap his wings, it’s as a slight boost to his jumps, usually to get him up to the lower branches of the trees.

(Note also that Dirk does not have hollow bones--except possibly in his wings; i haven’t decided--so he weighs substantially more than a bird of his size would. This is reason number two.)

Reason number three: Dirk’s skeletal structure severely limits his range of motion in his arms and wings. A bird’s wings emerge from the torso at the shoulder, and they have a fairly similar range of motion from that joint. Dirk’s, however, come out of his back. I have admittedly fudged this a few times already for dramatic effect (blah blah if he rolls his shoulders forwards in a certain way it opens up room on his back for the wing joints to move more freely but it’s not very comfortable so he doesn’t do it often i can make excuses all day), but at least in theory, he shouldn’t be able to bring his wings forward much past his ribs because the connection to his torso literally doesn’t work that way. When Dirk’s wings are relaxed, they don’t go sideways, they go backwards. (at an angle, but still.)

Then there’s the trouble with having too many limbs in a space that’s not really designed for it. I’m hand-waving the details here because tbh life’s too short to go on a dissertation about how the bones would articulate, but what I imagine is that Dirk has a second set of shoulder blades that support the wings, and his two sets of shoulder blades interfere with each other. So, in addition to not being able to stretch his wings forward, Dirk also can’t roll his arms back. Very much limited range of motion.

What this all means for Dirk

Basically, that his life sucks. He can’t use his wings to fly, they fuck with his ability to move his arms, they’re fucking heavy (there’s a reason Dirk usually keeps them folded up tight; the closer he keeps them to his center of gravity, the easier it is to support their weight), and oh yeah if he falls into a body of water they’ll get waterlogged and possibly drown him. (Most birds have oil glands, and they spread the oil over their wings while preening to waterproof them. The birds that don’t generally have specialized feathers that disintegrate into a powder that does the same job. Dirk has neither of these.)

On top of that, they’re really unwieldy and actually put him at a significant disadvantage if he needs to physically defend himself. Sure, he can try to use them to bat at whoever he’s fighting (like swans do), but again: He doesn’t have the muscular system that would give him real power behind those kinds of hits. Frankly, he’s much better off using his talons. But at that point, the wings are basically just huge weights that can easily be used against him because, like, if you’re trying to take Dirk down, all you have to do is grab hold of one of his wings and twist, and down he goes. Pin him on his front, and he can’t even use his talons. Game over.

And Dirk is very aware of this. It’s one of the many reasons he was so wary to interact with Jake when they first met. Like, Dirk was absolutely stalking Jake every day that he went out there, sizing him up and desperately hoping that Jake wouldn’t come back the next day. He only made his presence known when he determined that Jake was just not going to give this up and might, in fact, escalate if Dirk didn’t put an end to it. Coming down out of the tree at the end of that conversation was already a huge risk for Dirk, but he decided that if push came to shove, he could flare his wings, flash his talons, and startle Jake enough to get the space he would need to escape. (Dirk is very much flight over fight in this ‘verse. He’s not interested in taking down his opponent; he just needs to get away.)

How this plays into his narrative arc (aka that’s a hell of a symbolism no one thought was a symbolism but damn if it didn’t just get symbolized so nice job)

(okay so before i go into this section i need to admit that most of this was not stuff that i consciously planned for when i set out, but fuck it sure turned out this way and i love it)

So we’ve got Dirk with his big pretty wings and his tragic fucking past, and guys. Guys. It is the height of poetic irony.

Because wings are so often a symbol of freedom, but in Dirk’s case, they are very much the opposite. Even beyond the fact that he can’t fly, they literally limit his range of motion (anatomically) and his freedom to travel (because those wings are hella distinctive, and it would be all too easy for his past to catch up to him). They limit him immensely in so many ways.

Dirk sees his wings as ornamental, functionally worse-than-useless lies. And he’s not wrong.

One of the themes I play with in The Price for Fire (and for Dirk, especially), is that of deceptive appearances. We’ve got his “cozy cave” which turns out to be a sort of self-made prison; we’ve got this fantastical bird boy who turns out to be pretty much mundane, aside from his backstory and truly impressive anxiety; we’ve got those ember-bright eyes which turn out to be a subtle dig at humanity (“the price for fire,” indeed: you can have your fire, but it comes with the rest of this package); we’ve got his whole backstory where a blessing turned out to be a curse; we’ve got that beautifully decorated jar, which turns out to be...well, you get the point.

And we’ve got these gorgeous wings that make him feel ugly and trapped.

And Dirk doesn’t--can’t--take care of them like he should, because he was never meant to be able to. He was meant to be a disposable plot device; used and then tossed out. (How many other myths do you know of where the big P plays a role?) But his story doesn’t end there, and he has to struggle to find a reason to love himself now that the one that was given to him is gone--now that the one that was given to him turned out to be a venomous snake that poisoned everything about him that he thought could be good.

But he’s still carrying the weight of that disregard and that lack of care/love literally on his back, and it weighs him down. Disillusioned, he’s so cynical when this beacon of hope appears in his life and tries to convince him that there is something in him worth loving, that he can reclaim his beauty, his body, his life, his story and make it what he wants. And he wants to believe that’s true, but he’s spent so long knowing down to the core of him that he was made to be a trick, a trap, and it’s so hard to trust in anything when you can’t even trust yourself.

But he’ll get there.

And maybe he’ll even find a little bit of freedom.

i just fucking love this sad sad bird boy okay T_T

[lateniteslacker]

Requiem of Trust

I’m posting it!  Castlevania is dear to my heart, and so too is this story.

I wrote this story seven years ago on a whim, long before I posted anything on AO3.  If you’re looking for a masterful work of art, turn around now.  What you’ll read in this story is nothing of the sort.

What you will find in this story is my deep love of the Castlevania games and its characters. It’s meant to be comical, fun, and hopefully endearing.  Yes, there is a plot, but it’s nothing you’ll need tissues for this time around.

As I mentioned, this story is old.  If you’ve read any of my other work, you’ll see how far I’ve come as a writer.  While I will be editing this to fix grammatical errors and a few outdated references, I don’t intend to change much of the story structure itself.  Since editing can take some time, there may be a few days in between each chapter posted.

With that said, please enjoy this trip with me into the past.  I hope you’ll love Requiem of Trust and its sequel Modern Problems!

The story is on AO3 here!

Chapter 1: Mind Your Manners

Modern Day.

He was the height of hip. The lead rockstar. The epitome of modern fashion.

Nothing was getting in Leon Belmont's way.

Nothing of course, except the barista at the local Starbucks.

"For the last time, I just want it plain!" Leon demanded.

"Do you mean plain coffee? Tea? Water?" The girl in the purposeless green visor asked.

"Just pick something from your silly chalk-board and make it!" Leon sighed in exasperation.

"Got it," the girl agreed, with far too much pep.  She punched a few things into the register and then quickly read off, "Skinny, mocha, light, decaf, double-blended, extra hot?"

Leon was at the point of pulling his hair out. "Just… anything!"

"Ok ok!" She rolled her eyes at him and muttered something that sounded like, "You need to chill."

Leon ignored her comment, because clearly she was the one who needed to chill.  He handed her cash, allowing her to keep the change, glad that the horrible exchange was finally over. Just as he almost had his beverage in hand, six horrible words echoed through the room.

"Do you want whip-cream with that?"

"AAAARRGH!" Leon grabbed the drink and marched out of the store.

Finally alone in the nighttime air, he paused to sigh in relief. He would never understand what his descendants saw in this place.

Suddenly, he was reminded of why he was even standing in front of this hellish cafe. He was here to meet someone inside.

Leon turned around, but shook his head, determined not to re-enter the store unless absolutely necessary. So, he settled for sitting on the wooden bench just outside.

He didn't have to wait long before a weight settled silently into the bench next to him. "Leon Belmont. It's been ages."

Technically, it had only been a week. But Leon allowed his somewhat delusional friend the mistake. "Joachim Armster, it's good to see you well, old friend."

"I'm not that old," Joachim scoffed. "I'll never understand your dislike of coffee cafes. What did you get this time?"

“I really couldn’t tell you,” Leon replied, ignoring the scoff and handing the whatever-drink to his friend.  As he turned to face him, he noticed the change in Joachim’s appearance.  

Joachim had taken to adding colors to his hair this decade, often choosing the most bizarre hues. Today it was purple.

He had also grown fond of the "hipster" fashion movement, wearing tight-fitting jeans that betrayed every slight movement and a light pink button down with the top half buttons unbuttoned in a characteristic way that said, "yeah, what do I care? Fuck you.  Fuck me."

Joachim had even tried the man-bun once a few days ago. It hadn’t ended well.

All in all, he blended in decently well, for a vampire. Joachim had long ago started clipping, filing, and painting his claw-like fingernails and adopting the clothing of the era. The only things that betrayed him now were his skin and his eyes, which were both a tad too pale and unnaturally ethereal.

While Leon admired the clothing he would never choose to wear, Joachim took a sip of the mystery drink, and made a disgusted face.

"You don't like it?" Leon asked. "I just told the girl to make anything."

"On the contrary, it's delicious." Joachim admitted, taking another sip. "It's you, Leon. Did you go thrifting again?"

"I… maybe…?" Leon said noncommittally.

"Leon, what have I told you about thrifting?! You can never hope to blend in with the times that way!" Joachim explained for the 100billionth time, exasperated.

"It’s just," Leon trailed off, thinking of something to say.  Eventually he insisted weakly, “you can’t beat the prices?”

Joachim turned to face Leon squarely.  He extended a delicate index finger and pointed out the atrocities in Leon’s wardrobe with a true fashionista’s merciless cruelty. "Leg warmers went out in the 80's, tye-dye bellbottoms in the 60's, striped felt shirts in the 70's, and… oh… the speckled fedora is so last year."

As he made the last comment, the vampire flicked Leon's prized fedora off his head, revealing his ratted blond hair. He could have sworn that Joachim almost cried. "Oh no! No no no! How could you do that to your hair?!!"

"It's fashionable?" Leon ventured.

"Hideous is more like it. Oh Leon Belmont, you had the hair of the GODS, and now you've given it up to punk fashion, the one fashion trend you absolutely should never follow!" Joachim cursed in an ancient language that Leon didn't exactly know and whined at his perfectly manicured fingernails. "If only I still had my old nails! I would tear your hair back into shape right now!"

Leon ducked as the vampire swiped at his hair anyway, placing the fedora back on his head. "All right! Fine! I'll brush it out tomorrow."

Joachim eyed him critically. "You had better. I wish I had seen you before tonight, we could have remedied this fashion disaster before…"

"My apologies, I appear to be late." The familiar ever-late voice sat on Leon's other side, his arrival taking both men by surprise.

"Not to worry," Leon assured him, "I'm glad you could make it, Alucard."

Alucard nodded to them both, politely reasserting, "I would prefer it if you referred to me as 'Arikado' when we are out in public."

Joachim blinked at him. "Why? It's not like we're in Japan. They're the only ones who really speak that way."

"True, people will probably just think you're trying too hard to be Gothic.  Or a weeaboo," Leon noted.

“A gothic weeaboo?” Joachim suggested.

“A gothic weeaboo,” Leon agreed, admiring the classy black suit Alucard chose to wear in public. Like Joachim, Alucard had decided to color his hair with the times, though typically he stayed to normal colors. Today it was black, completing his modern goth wardrobe.  

As a dhampire, Alucard had the good fortune of having many vampiric benefits from his father and immunity to the sun, a gift from his human mother. Despite said immunity, Alucard's skin was still frightfully pale.  

It was a pity.  Alucard would fit in remarkably well were it not for his skin and mesmerizingly piercing eyes.

Remembering who he had actually come here to meet, Leon questioned, "Did you bring the young one with you?"

Alucard nodded.

Leon looked around expectantly, but didn't see another soul in sight. "Where is he?"

"He's ordering something inside," Alucard finally said.

Knowing that Alucard was never much for words, Leon instead turned to Joachim, who appeared to be closely observing the tips of his hair. "I knew I shouldn't trust that discount brand. It's already washing out."

"But you're not even wet," Leon pointed out.

"I know!" Joachim snapped back.

Deciding that he really needed to evaluate the sanity of who he associated with better, Leon calmly sat and waited for the final member of their party to show.

Eventually, he emerged from the store, sipping his drink through a green straw. The youth wore faded flare jeans, only two unnecessary belts, a long-sleeved black turtleneck, and a white fur-collared trench coat, which he had draped casually over his shoulders.

Leon felt like reminding the boy that it was the middle of summer, but he didn't suppose that would matter to him. Instead, he offered his hand. "Soma Cruz, I presume? I've heard much about you. It's good to finally meet your acquaintance."

Like Joachim and Alucard, Soma appeared to be afflicted with terribly pale skin. His chin-length silver hair framed his face as he leaned down to take Leon's hand, and his cold grey eyes somehow seemed to hold more life to them than they should.

"No need to be so formal Mr…?" Soma said as he reached behind him without looking and grabbed a chair.  Easily, he swung it around the opposite way and straddled the seat, leaning forward on the backing of the metal chair.  During the entire chair flip, Soma continued to face them, his eyes never leaving Leon’s, and his lips never leaving his drink.

With talent like this, it was no wonder Soma had recently defeated Dracula.

"Leon Belmont, forget the Mr." Leon smiled at him, expecting the usual reaction when people in "the know" heard his full name.

Soma continued to sit in his chair sipping coffee. "Belmont? That's cool. I met Julius Belmont a while ago. Said he'd kill me if I became Dracula. You know him?"

"Both, I'm afraid, though it's been long since I've seen either." Leon admitted. He had meant to stop by for Julius's 30th birthday. He really had.

Soma grinned, "If I didn't win, you might be looking at Dracula right now."

At this, Alucard reached over and slapped Soma's hand without hesitation. "Don't speak of those things in public. It's terribly uncouth."

Soma rolled his eyes. "Yes, grandma, I'll make sure not to tell Leon-Fucking-Belmont that his great-great-great-great-great-great grandson beat my ass with his whip in MY fucking castle when I was ( temporarily) Dracula."

Leon sat aghast at the knowledge and language. Youth these days certainly were different.

Meanwhile, Joachim was grinning maniacally. "I like this one. Can I keep him?"

"No, Joachim, that's the caffeine and bloodlust talking," Leon sighed. "Just finish your coffee."

Joachim pouted, not denying either point, but muttered. "It's tea."

"So Leon, it's cool meeting you and all, but tell me, why'd you drag me out here?" Soma asked.

Not wasting time, Leon leaned in closer, glancing around them quickly to ensure that they wouldn't be overheard by anyone nearby. "Soma, for centuries now, I have helped my descendants defeat Dracula."

"That's cool, but ehh… wouldn't you be helping the other team by helping me?" Soma asked.

"I would be, if you didn't win," Leon said with a grim smile. He wondered how Soma would take his next sentence. "If you didn't win, I would be helping Julius defeat you right now."

Soma grinned at Alucard. "I like this guy, Allie. You don't fuck around with Leon-Fucking-Belmont!"

While Alucard grimaced in disapproval and Joachim dutifully drank his tea, Leon modestly replied, "thanks."

"So Leon, the day needs saving again, right? What've I gotta do this time?" Almost-but-not-quite-Dracula asked, biting his straw before taking another sip.

"I'm glad you asked." Really, Leon was.  Clearly, Soma was enthusiastic and ready to help.  Now that he knew Soma, he wasn't sure the rebellious teen would have cooperated otherwise. He leaned in closer, motioning for the other three to do the same. "Here's what we've got to do…"

LateNiteSlacker’s Notes:

Thank you for reading this far, and welcome to the first End-of-the-Chapter Trivia!  Feel free to challenge yourself to these questions. Comment with your answer if you like.  Don’t cheat and look online!  That spoils the fun. The real answer will be posted in the next chapter!

Chapter Trivia #1!

Should it be possible for these four to travel together? Why or why not?

[ladypjmoon]

BTS FF Reads for July...

Greetings Readers!!!

Sorry this is a few days late—I like to post my reviews during the first week of each month—but it’s summer and I’ve been spending time with friends and family...while enjoying the sun and beautiful weather!  

So, without further delay...here’s my BTS FanFiction recommended reading list for July!!!

Summertime was made for reading and these are some fantastically amazing stories I’ve had the pleasure to read—and, of course, cheerzzz to all these talented writers...and Thank You for sharing your beautiful works of art with the fandom!

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01)   Title: Pull Me Closer

Ship:  Yoonmin

Author:  by Willow_Odessa2333

Link:  http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/11002941

Summary: College!AU where Jimin can’t sleep without listening to a *certain someone’s* channel, and then hears someone in the library that sounds JUST like him, but brushes it off until..... Or in which Jimin meets Yoongi, the voice behind the anonymous live stream host he kind of fell in love with.

My Review: I’m starting you out with a sugary delight that’s so sweet it’ll give you cavities—so remember to brush after reading, lol!  But seriously, this is Yoonmin at their most romantic—full of fluff and feels galore—and it’s sure to bring a smile to your face...so, enjoy!  

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02)   Title: Butterfingers

Ship:  Yoonmin

Author:  by ohdizzy

Link:  http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/7848391

Summary:  Jimin's life is no fairytale.  But if it was, it'd go something like this.  (Or: the AU in which Jimin is cursed to drop whatever he’s holding every time he sees the person he loves)

My Review: Here’s another Yoonmin gem where Jimin’s lost his creative edge and has a painting project due.  Taehyung decides he needs a muse—enter barista Min Yoongi, covered in tattoos.  The plot is pure love, the twist is Jimin’s cursed by the gods to drop things around the person he loves because he hates love and the friends to lovers ending is predictably cliché but beautifully done!    

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03)   Title: Come First

Ship:  Yoonjin

Author:  by jinified

Link:  http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/10155545

Summary:  “You could go in there, you know.” Hoseok suggests offhandedly.  “No,” Seokjin says immediately with a dismissive shake of his head, “he told me to never interrupt him when he’s in there.”

“Bullshit.”

“I’m serious! We have an established boundary zone because—”

“Please don’t.”

“—we’re roommates.”

or: Yoongi has been in the studio too long and Seokjin tries to persuade him to leave. It doesn't go quite according to plan.

My Review: This shorty is pure Yoonjin smut and fun while the simplistic plot only adds to the air of humor and believability—I can actually see this happening...oh yes!          

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04)   Title: Dahlia

Ship:  Yoonseok | Sope

Author:  by signifying_nothing

Link:  http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/8726908

Summary:  witchchild jeongguk accidentally summons a pair of demons

My Review: I find the summary on this fic a little misleading because it’s actually quite a soulful piece of work.  There’s a lot of meat to this one so don’t be surprised by the plot depth and fully developed characters.  Make sure you’re heart, mind and soul are open when you read this one because there’s a fuckton of good questions that are sparked by this basic angel-demon theme.  I loved this story a lot and those of you who like to read unusual story lines will too!!!

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05)   Title:  Daily Smoothies

Ship:  Taekook | Vkook

Author:  by Missmozzie

Link:  http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/8291000

Summary:  Taehyung likes smoothies, and so does Jeongguk.

My Review: I love awkward Taekook and this is a really cute college au with an added Yoonmin flare...enjoy!

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06)   Title: Eternal

Ship:  Jikook

Author:  by staycute1234

Link:  http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/6228838

Summary:  Jungkook has been chasing Jimin for centuries.

My Review: This story spans a few hundred centuries following the vampire, Jungkook, as he waits for his soulmate, Jimin, to be continually reborn so they can be together for another human lifetime. There is blood and smut in this story but it’s sensual and not gore—however, if you’re the squeamish sort you might want to refrain from reading this one.  For all you vamp-lovers, this is a fabulous story and a great read!  

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07)   Title: Finally

Ship:  Vmin

Author:  by rosiex

Link:  http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/10577745

Summary:  In which Jimin and Taehyung finally share their first kiss.

My Review: I adore this story—it’s quick but thorough!  We follow Jimin’s thought process surrounding his first kiss with Taehyung...which is also his first time kissing a boy.  Jimin’s mental dialog is genuine and detailed as he leads the reader through the physical and mental aspects that change his relationship status of his best friend from friend to lover.  This is a great little story with a big emotional footprint!          

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08)   Title: Homefront

Ship:  Namji | Minjoon

Author:  by ACatWhoWrites

Link:  http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/7998787

Summary:  There were times Jimin felt a lot and didn't feel at all. Times before he was a dad that he'd rather never forget and times he'd rather never think of again. Times when he was alone and choking on ash and slipping in mud made of blood and exposed dirt. Times before dancing with his daughter to animated guitar music and planning dates to pick flowers in the park.

My Review: I don’t normally read fictions that portray BTS members are parents (not my thing) but this one grabbed my heart. This is a multi-layered piece that surrounds a soldier (Jimin) who’s past and military obligations overlap with his life as a single father.  I love the underlying theme of finding love when and where you least expect it...because it reminds the reader there’s always hope!

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09)   Title: Insanity (in G minor)

Ship: Yoonmin

Author:  by neatospiffy

Link:  http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/9575978

Summary:  Yoongi is a pianist who runs a music shop in a small town. Jimin is his unlikely studentroommate?  the music!au that nobody asked for tbqh heavily inspired by Yoongi's First Love, the piano version of Butterfly, and several Yoonmin fics I've read in the past.

My Review: I have a hard time reading plots about or with child abuse—however, since it was implied, not graphically depicted, I got through it fine.  Most of the fiction revolves around how Jimin comes to live with his piano instructor and how their bond forms over a love of music...eventually, they fall into a romantic relationship.  This is a very touching Yoonmin story that deserves your attention and will reward you with a happy heart in the end!

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10)   Title: Meet The Parents

Ship:  Yoonjin

Author:  by rosiex

Link:  http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/7851541

Summary:  Yoongi predicts that meeting Seokjin's parents will be a disaster.  He was right.

My Review: An honest and cringe-worthy account of meeting your partner’s parents and knowing they instantly hate you.  I found this story both funny and sad as I suffered through second-hand embarrassment and dreaded the ride home and ensuing fight that had the potential to rip them apart, but doesn’t—with an ending that’s pure Yoongi...at least in my mind.

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11)   Title: Never Judge a Book by its Cover

Ship:  Jikook

Author:  by whenIseeUsmile

Link:  http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/9841067

Summary:  Thanks to Jungkook's idiot best friend, he drowned the books he borrowed from the library. Now, he has to work there to work off his debt. He doesn't really like the job but that one boy that always has his nose buried in his books makes his days much better.  Or in which Jungkook meets bookworm Jimin and falls harder than he thought he would.

My Review: This story is fabulous!  It has a generous amount of fluff and feels along with a well-structured plot that flows easily, making it a great read—and it doesn’t hurt to that there’s a healthy dose of side Taegi either...can I get an Hell Yeah!

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12)   Title: Passengers

Ship:  Yoonmin

Author:  by unclassified_senpai

Link:  http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/9180250

Summary:  The spacecraft Starship Avalon is traveling to a distant colony planet, Homestead II, a journey that will take 120 years to complete. The colonists and the entire crew are in Hibernation Pods, but a malfunction awakens one passenger, mechanical engineer Min Yoongi, 90 years too soon.  A YoonMin PassengersAU.

My Review: You all know I’m Yoonmin trash (she said proudly) and this is Yoonmin in epic proportion!  This is a must read!!!  And, if you’re a stalker (like me) you can go read the comments I made throughout the story however, here’s a section of my last comment...

“Seriously, you did a spectacular job on this story and the research you put into it (behind-the-scenes) shows immensely! I love Yoonmin but in this setting...I don't know, there was just something so beautifully quiet and peaceful about the Yoonmin ship that I haven't found in any of my other reading travels. The characters were so truthful and exactly how I see them in my own mind, including all their pain and insecurities--somehow you managed to keep this same quiet echo through the entire series...which is a feat in and of itself. And Namjoon killed me--every chapter watching his body fade and fail was done with honest and painful simplicity...I cried more for Joonie than I did when Yoonmin separated after their misunderstanding.”

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13)   Title: The 8 by 8 Rule

Ship:  Taekook | Vkook

Author:  by Rix

Link:  http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/7344526

Summary:   Jungkook drinks a lot of water. Taehyung's into it.

My Review: This is another story that won’t be to everyone’s liking so READ the TAGS!  I laughed and blushed my way through this one because Rix’s sex scenes are off the MF hook!  I enjoyed reading this one—but again, I love me some bottom Jungkookie so yeah...don’t read this one in church, lmfao!

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14)   Title: sidereal

Ship:  Vmin

Author:  by darling

Link:  http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/8029858

Summary:  Here we observe the Earth and the Sun in their natural habitat: each other.

My Review: This story is another with the theme of domestic abuse—it’s heart-wrenching and bittersweet—with a happy ending but I caution you all to READ the TAGS for triggers!  Darling is one of my favorite authors because of the unique perspective, style and voice...so I highly encourage you to read this or any other piece by this fantastic writer!    

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15)   Title: you have 1 new message

Ship:  Namjin

Author:  by bazooka

Link:  http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/7481172

Summary:  

r u n c h r a n d a.

fuck, this is going to sound like the weirdest shit. okay look i used ur selcas to catfish and this older dude is gonna buy me stuff but i have to send him a selca with a peace sign

~ * ~ pingkeu jin ~ * ~

hahahahahahaha wtf

My Review: This is a long one however, don’t be afraid—it’s written in a texting format so it’s a very fast-paced read.  It’s Namjin centric with the other members contributing here and there but the plot spirals into a suspenseful thriller and has a great ending...that’s sure to put a dimple in your smile! ;)    

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16)   Title: Figuring It Out as We Go

Ship:  Jikook

Author:  by peppermint_wind

Link:  http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/6078801

Summary:  Jungkook never thought this would happen to him; eighteen years old and questioning everything he used to know. Staying up late watching gay music videos with wide-eyes, phone tucked to his chest, probably isn't helping him much, either, but what is he supposed to do when he realizes seeing two men together makes his whole body ache?

**Based off of Jungkook covering Troye Sivan's, "Fools."

"Jimin’s breathing begins to even, and Jungkook watches his chest rise and fall, steady and slow, like how waves wash up on Busan beaches."

My Review: A very sweet coming about Jungkook discovering and accepting that he’s gay and has feelings for Jimin.  The feels in this story are deep and intense—it’ll make your heart beat faster, ngl!      

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17)   Title: breathing underwater

Ship:  Taekook | Vkook

Author:  by parallels

Link:  http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/3604374

Summary:  Taehyung meets Jungkook on an impromptu summer road trip to Busan.

My Review: This is an odd little gem that I really love—it’s very poetic and beautiful.  I will mention that Taehyung almost drowns and Jungkook saves him so if this is a trigger for you please be careful as drowning is described with great feeling.    

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18)   Title: describe your ideal type here

Ship:  Sugakookie

Author:  by fruitily

Link:  http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/11229873

Summary:  he means well. this is what jungkook tells himself when taehyung shoves a sheet of paper in his face at eight in the morning when he’s mechanically shoveling cereal into his mouth at the kitchen table in sort of a dissociative state. TAEHYUNG’S MATCHMAKING SERVICES, it reads at the top in taehyung’s glaring handwriting. jungkook doesn’t even want to read the rest of it.  or: taehyung makes a business out of matchmaking. yoongi smiles at jungkook at a coffee shop and it's really a downwards spiral from there on. both jungkook and yoongi probably need new roommates.

My Review: This story is wonderful!  Sugakookie done well is always a good time but honestly, I absolutely loved Vmin in this one.  The fact that you never know for sure if Vmin is a couple through the entire story is delightful and fun! Definitely read this one!!!    

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19)   Title: Good Job (with a G and a J)

Ship:  Namseok

Author:  by taetaetiger (sexyvanillatiger)

Link:  http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/8045644

Summary:  “Good, Hoseok," Namjoon says. "That’s exactly right. Very good.” Oh. Oh, Hoseok thinks. Oh, he feels crawling down his spine. Oh, he sits higher in his seat. Oh, he tightens his legs together and feels a rush through his stomach, through the insides of his thighs, through his groin. Oh.

My Review: A college au story with brilliant Namjoon tutoring Hoseok at Seokjin’s request.  This story is cute, funny and all-around a good read so add it to your summer reading list!    

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20)   Title: when the lights go out (run away with me)

Ship:  Sugamon

Author:  by JemKay

Link:  http://download.archiveofourown.org/works/5690152

Summary:  Yoongi’s soft when he’s tipsy, softer when he’s cold, and softest when Namjoon says “I

love you.”

My Review: God this story is “Chick-flick-central” and so worth your time an effort—Namjoon is precious and Yoongi is his spitfire-self that melts in Joonie’s hands—this is a beautiful love story...so check it out!  

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Alright, that wraps up my listing for July—it’s a long one because it’s summer and most of you have extra free time on your hands...I know I do!!!  So, hope these keep a smile on your face during daylight hours by the pool, lake or beach!

As always, let me know if you’ve fallen in love with a certain story and send me the link so I can check it out!!!

Happy Reading and see you all next month!  

^___^  PJ