#did it surpass the original game? probably not

[thelvadams]

finished oxenfree 2

[khattikeri]

one of my favorite things about mdzs is that for how heavily its plot involves politics of classism and misogyny... even the characters most directly impacted by it can't and don't free themselves from it. literally the closest exception is mianmian.

meng yao being the "son of a whore" wasn't some sort of commie awakening for him that led him to wanting everyone to be socially equal. he played the political game, climbed the ladders, sucked up to and backstabbed and murdered people, including other prostitutes who actually had nothing to do with how he and his mother were treated at the brothel he grew up in.

he put in so much extra excessive effort for even a fraction of the same respect that members of gentry cultivation clans got. and he did deserve to be treated more humanely! but he feeds into the exact same system that created him, leading to his own undoing.

his efforts were for a fragile upward mobility that was never going to hold up. he never surpassed his origins nor did he empower others in similar stations, because the society he lives in is not one that would accept that.

the second he got caught and all those crimes exposed, he was scapegoated to hell and back, replacing wei wuxian as society's terrible one-sidedly evil boogeyman overnight.

speaking of not-quite male gentry, i think it's interesting that wei wuxian explicitly doesn't try to climb the ladders in BOTH lives, knowing full well that anything he does will be punished just for the sheer fact that he is wei wuxian.

wei wuxian is scolded for giving intelligent and correct answers in school. lan wangji does the same and is praised.

wei wuxian occasionally lounges around with fellow disciples and is punished. jiang cheng does the same and mostly escapes.

wei wuxian refuses to carry his sword around in public (after losing his golden core, which nobody knows) and is scorned as an arrogant upstart. nie huaisang has been doing the EXACT SAME THING for YEARS and nobody bats an eye.

unlike jin guangyao, wei wuxian knew subconsciously from the start that his acceptance was superficial and that he could be cast out any time. when he was 10 and recently taken in by the jiangs, he canonically would not eat or use "too much" food and water because he thought they'd find him a nuisance for "wasting their things" and kick him back out.

now away from just the classism, yu ziyuan is a proud and strong noblewoman in a society that belittles and derides women for everything they do. her strong cultivation doesn't matter. she's victim to the vicious rumors of her husband loving another woman who is strong like her but apparently had a more likeable personality.

it doesn't matter even if jiang fengmian didn't cheat or that wei wuxian is wei changze's son with cangse sanren; yu ziyuan can't bear with the humiliation of herself (and by extension her children) not being "good enough". she's ridiculed for "failing" in that one duty as a wife, mother, and woman.

she lashes out and takes out that anger on everyone present for years, giving her children lasting trauma and also being a key element in how the jiang family and yunmeng jiang sect are effectively wiped out at the hands of the wen clan.

madam jin doesn't even have a name outside of the fact that she's married to jin guangshan. i don't even remember reading anything that indicates if she's a strong or weak cultivator, or what, which in itself proves that to most people, it doesn't matter. she's "just" a woman.

of course she's angry at her husband's affairs and all the bastard children they bring in. but she also can't do anything about them, so she lashes out at the few people she can: servants. non-cultivators, probably. those very same bastard children.

shoutout to meng yao getting shoved down a flight of stairs at age fourteen, because if madam jin tried that move against her husband instead, it would make her lose even more face, which as a noblewoman she'd never do.

and that's not getting into how jiang yanli is consistently sidelined for being physically weak.

that's not getting into how mianmian was actually a good cultivator, but was mocked by everyone around her for trying to stand up for wei wuxian when everyone was turning on him. how everyone scoffed at luo qingyang's words as "just some lovesick woman" who "obviously wants to marry or bed him since he saved her".

luo qingyang is the only one of these characters who HASN'T died. she didn't play society's games like jin guangyao. she didn't dig her heels in confidence of her own abilities like wei wuxian.

she didn't bitterly lash out like yu ziyuan and madam jin. she didn't gently accept it like jiang yanli.

she just LEFT.

she married an ordinary merchant and cultivates separately from mainstream cultivation society, and therein found her own peace and happiness.

mxtx doesn't bother with particularly class conscious or feminist vocabulary to hand-hold readers into understanding these disparities, but that choice highlights them & the deeply entrenched politics of their society even more. i really love it.

[frodo-with-glasses]

More Reading Thoughts: The Prologue

I will never not love Tolkien’s framing device of “my fantasy epic is 100% a translation of an ancient historical book like Beowulf, it’s totally real, you guys, definitely”

“[Bullroarer Took] was surpassed in all Hobbit records only by two famous characters of old; but that curious master is dealt with in this book” is an incredibly intriguing line to me. You’d think it refers to Frodo and Sam, because of what they did to destroy the Ring—but the rest of the hobbits didn’t really care all that much about that. They saw Sam as just another mayor (if a very tenured one) and Frodo as a strange recluse. I think this line refers to Captains Meriadoc and Peregrin, actually, for their courage and leadership during the Battle of Bywater.

“To the last battle at Fornost with the Witch-lord of Angmar they sent some bowmen to the aid of the king, or so they maintained, though no tales of Men record it.” This cracks me up. First of all, the fact that hobbits claim to have sent some aid to the King’s war, but either they’re lying or mistaken or they’re literally so small and unremarkable that everyone completely forgot they were there. Secondly, this is the first and not the last time hobbits are gonna be a pain in the Witch King’s butt

“They were, in fact, sheltered, but they had ceased to remember it” is a line that goes so hard bruh

Today’s vocabulary word is “ramify, v: form branches or offshoots; spread or branch out; grow and develop in complexity or range.” So “large and ramifying tunnels”, in this case, paints the picture of the hobbit holes sprouting rooms and hallways that branch off like tree roots. Fascinating.

The fact that Merry probably has some Stoor blood in him still makes me giggle because they’re the only hobbits that could grow any sort of beard. I still maintain the headcanon that Merry has three (3) hairs on his chin, and he shaves them regularly and is inordinately proud of them.

“Sometimes, as in the case of the Tooks of Great Smials, or the Brandybucks of Brandy Hall, many generations of relatives lived in (comparative) peace together in one ancestral and many-tunnelled mansion.” That little interjection of “comparative” was not mine, it’s right there in the text, and it has me cracking up X-D

Merry’s little personal asides in “Concerning Pipeweed” are absolutely darling—including the shade at Breelanders, the almost wistful descriptions of how much better the plant grows in Gondor, and the fond way he speaks of Gandalf.

Okay so I once claimed that the book never refers to Frodo as Bilbo’s nephew, only as his young kinsman; but here at the end of section three he is actually called “Frodo his favorite ‘nephew’”, with the quotation marks and all. So the idea is already planted in our minds that their relationship is sort of avuncular (throwback to that old vocab word!) before we start the story.

“With [Thorin’s company Bilbo] set out, to his own lasting astonishment…” 🤣🤣🤣

Boy I still need to do Bilbo-With-Glasses someday

Tolkien taking several pages of prologue to explain the inconsistency of the riddle game in The Hobbit will never not be funny

“And no one else in the Shire knew of [the Ring’s] existence, or so he believed.” Except for Merry, who watched him put it on to escape the Sackville-Bagginses that one time.

It’s called the Red Book of Westmarch because it came from Undertowers!! Guarded by the Fairbairns!! ELANOR’S KIDS!! HI HELLO I’M HAVING EMOTIONS

“The original Red Book has not been preserved, but many copies were made, especially of the first volume, for the use of the descendants of Master Samwise.” I AM HAVING ✨EMOTIONS✨

PIPPIN BROUGHT A COPY OF THE RED BOOK TO GONDOR WHEN HE WAS OLD

AND THEN ARAGORN HAD IT COPIED AGAIN

AND THAT’S THE ONE THAT WAS “TRANSLATED” INTO LOTR

HELP

The fact that Merry wrote so many books and Pippin wrote none is honestly so in-character for both of them

And Merry frequently visited Rivendell!! You guys I cry

[doshmanziari]

Two (relatively) recent and worthwhile considerations of FromSoftware soundtracks

As I mentioned a few months ago, I supplemented and republished an older essay on the music of Demon's Souls, the Dark Souls series, and Elden Ring, which you can read here. And I figure it's worth bringing up again, since I'm recommending two videos on the same general subject for a mini-post here.

To begin: Loopine, one of whose videos I've linked before, came out with a video, entitled "How Elden Ring Surpassed the Dark Souls OST", arguing that Elden Ring's clearer and deeper sound design puts it above Dark Souls 3's score. I find Loopine's analysis according to production unusual, appreciable, and clearly articulated; and, contrary to most media criticism solely being the self expelling thoughts, Loopine also conducts a small-scale experiment with other people regarding musical recognition — an experiment that, were it to be applied on a large scale, could yield very interesting results. Even so, the final thought I continue to have here is that the scores to Elden Ring and Dark Souls 3 are so comparable in their aggressive roteness (or rote aggressiveness?) that sound design can't possibly make that large of a difference.

Let me kinda diverge for a moment to remark on the trend Loopine mentions of "REAL CLASSICAL GAME COMPOSER CONDUCTOR REACTS TO DARK SOULS/ELDEN RING MUSIC" videos, just to say: first, how weird that videogame culture at large continues to suffer from this sort of media envy, awaiting the representatives of "real" art-forms to recognize an Undertale theme, or whatever. There seems to be the presumption that a certain kind of professional occupation necessarily yields novel insights; and that such professional appreciation somehow enforces an objective qualitative status upon the art. Did Bach admire the work of Vivaldi? Sure. Does that mean that I have to "admit" that Vivaldi's music is great? Uh... no. But, more than that, I find these videos confusing, given their emphasis on the quality of effectiveness — because a large part of my critical argument is that most tracks for the Dark Souls sequels and Elden Ring are highly ineffective.

A possible reason for this stark divergence of opinion is that, perhaps, most of the people featured on these videos haven't spent much time with the games, and so they miss the more particular details; and they also do not examine the soundtracks as a whole, both internally and according to FromSoftware's relevant catalogue, and lose sight of a bigger picture which reveals the tracks' interchangeable identities. On its own, Yuka Kitamura's theme for Lady Maria might seem extraordinary, and specially suited to that confrontation; when played right after the two-dozen others like it from Dark Souls 3 and Elden Ring... well.

From here, then, I'm going to recommend Crunchy's comparison of the original Demon's Souls soundtrack to the remake's. Being almost 3.5 hours long, and having no script prepared, it is, in a sense, the opposite to Loopine's. The length is not necessarily to the comparison's benefit. I think the video's maker would admit that, eventually, it becomes difficult to sustain the fresh particularities of criticisms made earlier on, because the offenses are fairly consistent. Since I left a comment on the video, I'm going to just quote that comment here:

This is a good musical analysis. Most of the comparative critiques I've come across couch the difference in terms of "taste", meaning that they tend to miss the contextual dimension. I think that it can be argued that the remake's music even fails on its own terms: the elaborateness of the reimaginings suggests that you're battling highly complex bosses with multiple phases, and that's not the case at all. With some of these tracks, I feel like half of the respective boss fight might have gone by during the intro. Given the general orchestral approach, I have the impression that the composer was probably drawing on Bloodborne's OST as the standard, since that was the last FromSoftware title prior to the remake which utilized an actual orchestra for pretty much its entire score; but, of course, Bloodborne's OST is communicating something very different from the world of Demon's Souls. Shrieking, slamming, grotesquely dark horror is definitively out of line, just as the needless graphical elaborations turn a brutal and austere world into a series of decked-out theme parks. I continue to be confused by most of FromSoftware's musical decisions for these games. For instance: why hire Motoi Sakuraba as your composer for Dark Souls? Nothing about Sakuraba's résumé recommends him as a composer of any sort of orchestral music. Was he just an affordable, "reliable" option? [Crunchy provided his own response to this: "I think Sakuraba was hired mainly because he had a relationship with Bandai, who published DS1."] How so much of a game like Elden Ring can be particularly crafted, while 85% of the music is a bundle of atmospheric non-events and "epic" slop, is baffling. Miyazaki's role here seems strangely incompetent, and out of line with the image of the man who pushes these teams to exceed aesthetically generic impulses.

(Parenthetically, I'd call readers' attention to Crunchy's videos on Elden Ring. I've explored just a few, but each stands among the most interesting and informed analyses of the game's esoterica I've come across so far) — OK. That's all for now. Bye!

[tigreblvnc]

BLUE LOCK MATCHUP — @araerry

Your match is...

— Michael Kaiser

✦ OK, this intro is going to be very long and unnecessary, BUT

✦ I had to tell you about my writing process for your matchup.

✦ I read your entire bio in one go, commenting out loud, and I thought it was rare to read such depth in someone's words. It's not common and it intrigued me a lot.

✦ Honestly, I think very few characters can match you because it would require someone who can truly understand who you are, and I don't think that's something everyone can do.

✦ … And it might seem ultra paradoxical to you, but I actually thought of many people to match you with! However, there was always something missing or unconvincing.

✦ My choice was therefore quite limited, and not knowing your age range, even though I thought of some older characters, I refrained from going in that direction. But I'll tell you more at the end of the post if you're interested, where I'll mention the other characters I considered for a match.

✦ I thought of older characters because you really evoke someone who has long since surpassed adolescence! I know the particular context in which you grew up has a lot to do with it, and that's why I couldn't see myself matching you with someone still too immature.

✦ We haven't even gotten to the heart of the matchup yet, but I find your profile extraordinarily interesting. I mean, as a person behind your screen, you must be someone really fascinating to be around. This is the first time I've received such a detailed description with such precise content, so really, thank you! It's a blessing for me.

✦ (I love getting so much material; the more I have, the more I want to write!! MOUHAHAHA)

✦ -- Well, you're rambling but you still haven't started the headcanons, Yuno, right…

✦ First of all… It may sound cliché, but I absolutely wanted the suitor to be capable of spontaneously bringing flowers lol

✦ It's my romantic side speaking…

✦ This is the first time I'm giving Kaiser to someone, and I was waiting for very specific traits to say "this is the right person".

✦ In my understanding of his character, he absolutely needs someone who can take care of others. This is the very foundation of the relationship.

✦ "my maturity also comes from me being an older sister, in friend groups I’m usually the big sister of the group (sometimes mother) even If i’m usually always the baby of the group." -> THIS. It's exactly what I was waiting for!!!

✦ We can say that he is now independent and master of himself, but I believe that all his wounds come from the fact that no one knew how to give him love in his childhood.

✦ "with emotions I find it very hard to express my emotions, for me emotions are very complicated, I never can understand what I feel or what others feel" I don't see him being good at expressing his feelings either, because he was never given the space to do so.

✦ "and this is how my big psychology interest was born" He did it too, partly for personal gain. But I think if today we see him more expressive (it's relative, but he is still much more communicative than in the past when he joined Bastard München), it's thanks to his study of psychology. Imitating the behavior of others to blend in better. Understanding others to manipulate them better…

✦ Maybe you could see through his game. You show little emotion, you talk little about what you feel. It makes you hard to read, and… all the more desirable for those who try.

✦ Your first meeting probably took place in the past, after Kaiser was arrested by the police. They noticed his condition and his injuries, the treatment he was undergoing. He had to be taken to the hospital to check that nothing was broken. It was during this short period that you first saw each other.

✦ He saw the flowers you were growing.

✦ Guess where his tattoo comes from?

✦ (I'm going to create a whole lore about you and an alternative origin of his tattoo)

✦ I think that before you, he hadn't interacted with many other children his age either. He had always lived locked up, with no one to take care of him. He didn't go to school at all and learned the basics of life on his own. Reading, writing, stealing.

✦ This gap with society was a decisive element in your relationship.

✦ If he didn't listen to anyone, neither doctors nor police officers, wanted to hit everyone… I like to imagine that when he saw you, everything in him calmed down.

✦ For the first time, Kaiser wanted to listen to someone talk.

✦ And you were so calm, so shy.

✦ But he intrigued you, this wild boy from nowhere.

✦ Both of you had trouble with social norms. You didn't understand them, it wasn't your world.

✦ I think he was sincerely touched by your situation, even if he didn't physically show it.

✦ "I don’t like people," when he heard you say that, he felt like he was hearing himself.

✦ "I don't like them either," he replied.

✦ Between you, it was a game of taming. Distant, secret, silent, very powerful.

✦ You probably talked about very hard and painful subjects together, especially for your age. But it only scared others who couldn't imagine that two children could have such strength of character.

✦ Maybe he showed you what his father did to him.

✦ Never with words. Only showing.

✦ You understood, every time.

✦ "people have said that I remind them of old paintings" I can understand if they said that because you are someone pleasant to look at. You must have something peaceful, exuding a serenity immortalized, like in a painting. The features of Renaissance paintings are rather soft, you know?

✦ Speaking of painting, I'm sure he liked watching you paint. He didn't say anything, just sat on the floor, watching you brush the canvas. It had something restful, hypnotic that helped him fall asleep. It was something beautiful, and Kaiser had never seen anything beautiful until then.

✦ By any chance, did you draw him while he was sleeping?

✦ "I like sculpturing, mostly Hellenistic sculptures (classical Greek sculptures)" Kaiser's physical appearance tells me he would make a superb Greek statue, and maybe in the future, once the World Cup is won, you'll be the one to create it.

✦ "I’ve always been told I’m intimidating and hard to approach because of my face and my 'aura'" Honestly, I don't think Kaiser ever felt intimidated looking at you. He simply saw someone who, like him, was tired of life.

✦ I want to say that, due to the conditions in which he grew up, his general knowledge was very undeveloped. You talked to him about the stars, he remembers, and today he knows which direction to look at the sky to find their constellation.

✦ "I also love flowers and birds I know so many flower meanings and have a garden where I grow many flowers and plants actually" Were there any of those plants in your room? The ones Kaiser saw the first time he came.

✦ I like to imagine that even after joining Bastard München, a part of you remained etched in him.

✦ The dishes served by the club were never good. Never as good as the ones you made for him.

✦ Maybe you are one of the few to have a photo of him before his rise in football.

✦ "I have dark red hair (I dyed it)" I think he asked Ness for a blue gradient in his hair to echo your red hair dyed by yourself. It struck him when he saw you with it.

✦ Nowadays, he's in the middle of a match against PXG in Japan. It's right now that he's proving himself, learning to deconstruct himself to bring out the best version of himself. I like to think that once he returns to Germany, it will be to come and see you and say "I did it."

✦ It's to those we love that we are the proudest to announce our successes.

A word about your match: Okay, I gave everything I had in this matchup lol. Hope you enjoyed it. BY THE WAY, the other ones I thought of were Ego (yes), Rin, Sae, Chigiri, and Yukimiya, the latter two partly because they had known the hospital too.

© TIGREBLVNC 2024 | AUGUST '24 MATCHUPS EDITION.

[citruscitrushope]

Got anything about Tsukasa and Minori, An, or Mizuki?

OOOOOOO-

Platonic Minokasa is one of my favorite dynamics my goodness, Minori learning to be more confident from one of the most confident people in the game-

I like to think that her speech gets like his sometimes, all grandiose and confidence, the others can tell she's been hanging out with him more if her catchphrases sound more like his introductions.

Tsukasa watches MMJ livestreams a lot, mainly for Shizuku, but he is a very big fan of Minori as well! He thought about how far she'd come compared to the Fan Festa once and almost started crying he's so proud-

They hang out every once in a while, rarely on purpose, just if they run into each other at a mall or something they will end up catching up. Sometimes they practice dancing or singing together, whenever Minori gives advice to Tsukasa instead of the other way around he feels whiplash, the student had become the master!

With An, I feel like it's almost similar to how Akito feels with Tsukasa, but not as intense, mainly as a holdover from her time on the disciplinary committee. She thinks he's a bit annoying and chaotic, but seeing as Kohane and Toya look up to him so much she's willing to give him a chance.

Tsukasa definitely admires and appreciates all of VBS in a way, since not only are their goals and efforts truly commendable, but they're taking such good care of his little brother, he's so happy nowadays! He's quite grateful to them, and he tries to show it as much as he can. ("Thank you so very much for doing so much for Toya! It truly warms my heart to see him feeling so happy. You know, when we were children, we-" "You're acting like a mom right now Tsukasa-senpai..."

An sees a lot of WxS' shows with Kohane, and she oddly enjoys them in a way she'd never admit. Sure, she hates when Tsukasa and Rui cause chaos throughout the school, but when it's confined to the stage she's able to appreciate everything they put into their work. She's even found herself taking inspiration from their stage direction or dances in musicals when planning VBS performances, though she knows that if she says that Akito will never let her hear the end of it.

I also sorta just wanna mention that they both have similar goals in hindsight? They both want to surpass those who came before them in a way (Tsukasa becoming a star like those he admired as a kid, An surpassing RAD WEEKEND), and I think that they feel a vague connection because of it, even if they don't realize it.

Meanwhile, Mizuki and Tsukasa probably consider each other friends, they talk sometimes at school and have gone shopping for clothes and materials together. Their main connector is sewing and such, they deserve to have a fun mildly gossipy sewing "date" (I see them as platonic but)

Seeing as Rui canonically made Mizuki a machine that plays funny Tsukasa voicelines to cheer them up, I feel like they're up there as one of the bigger WxS fans (alongside Kohane, Saki, Toya, etc). They don't go to a lot of their shows, but they see recordings of them a lot and send their praises to them, though Tsukasa somehow hasn't connected the dots and realized that they're seeing them online. ("Amazing show last weekend Tsukasa-senpai!" "How did you see it? You weren't in the crowd! Were you invisible, a ghost?! Show yourself!") Mizuki finds this incredibly funny.

Since they were the one behind Nene and Rui's original show costumes, Tsukasa has come to Mizuki for advice on this topic a few times before. If he's feeling stuck on something, why not ask a master? He always feels extremely grateful whenever they help him, maybe to the point of excess ("I'll do anything to repay you for your wonderful deed, Akiyama! Tickets to our next show, money, anything!" "Y-You don't have to repay me for doing something I wanted to do...").

Mizuki sometimes finds themself feeling a bit jealous of Tsukasa's confidence. They're always so worried about seeming weird or being looked down upon, yet the way he can always be so bombastic and stand out without a care in the world is something they both admire and envy. They don't like bringing this up, though Rui has noticed it in them at times. When this happens, he usually brings up times Tsukasa has struggled or faltered, and how he and them aren't so different. They're both some of the most important people to Rui, so he wants to help them both shine their brightest and feel comfortable in their own skins.

[nekoabiwrites]

Where's Grunty Boi?

I finally write something! It's for a fandom that no one I know cares for! It's got a terrible title! Something's never change <3

AU: None Words: 687 Pairings: None. It's platonic Mikey and Grunty Boi. Warnings: None. Let me know if there is anything!

Summary: Grunty Boi missed the sponsor segment and Mikey goes looking for him.

“Okay… well, that guy’s probably not coming back any time soon…” Mikey muttered under his breath as he shut the door to the studio. The most recent look-a-like had just finished his filming session and it had left him with just a slight headache. If he had to hear that guy say his stupid catchphrase one more time, Mikey may have committed a crime live on camera – hopefully it would have been edited out, but whatever, it didn’t happen.

He took a brief look through all the footage, skimming to ensure everything had been caught when he realised. Mikey glanced around, “Where’s Grunty Boi? I know we definitely have a sponsor for this one…”

Mikey quickly looked all throughout the space, just in case Grunty Boi had simply gotten distracted playing the latest mobile game or whatever, but he was no where to be found. “That’s… mildly concerning.” Mikey said to himself, stepping out the back door.

“Is it?”

Mikey jumped upon hearing a voice down beside him. Sat on the step, hunched over was Grunty Boi, looking dejected.

“There you are. Have you been out here the whole time?” Mikey took a seat beside the grunt on the concrete step.

Grunty Boi let out a hollow laugh, “Only just realised? Nice to know someone cares…” he snarked, his words having no bite to them at all.

“I didn’t mean it like that, I just…” Mikey trailed off, unsure of how to deal with this situation. Sure, Grunty Boi had been upset and mad over the years, but never had he seen him so defeated. After a moment, Mikey tried again, “What’s going on? Why are you out here alone?”

Grunty Boi sighed, “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe I just didn’t want to be mocked, shunned and or ignored again? I may be the sponsor guy, but I do have feelings, y’know?” He shot a half-hearted withering glare in Mikey’s direction.

“I know that.”

“At least someone does…” Grunty Boi sighed again, now picking at a small leaf that’d fallen onto his knees as he sat there, “All those other guys… they all hate me. I just,” Grunty Boi paused, searching for the right words, “I’ve tried to ignore it, but it just gets to me. When everyone you work with immediately jumps to yelling at you or making fun of you, it gets to be too much.”

The pair sat in silence for a moment. Mikey was at a loss. Sure, Grunty Boi’d been in a bad mood for the last few guests, but he’d never thought it would be cause for concern. Grunty Boi seemed to shake off anything that came his way, he always seemed to be able to continue with the sponsors and then move on. Even then, it didn’t seem like it was all that common for a guest to be rude to him, but then Mikey cast his mind back over the last year and realised he was quite wrong.

“Sorry, Grunty Boi. I suppose, I just lost track of things over the past couple years…” Mikey eventually broke the silence, only to be answered with a huff from the man next to him, “How about this? I’ll try my best to get whoever comes in to be… better, I guess.”

Grunty Boi simply shrugged, “Whatever. Anything’s better than nothing…”

“Hey, c’mon. Most of these guys don’t have hardly any staying power. Look at you, you’ve been around for long enough to basically be a mascot at this point. People love you.”

Mikey’s attempt to cheer him up did bring a small smile to Grunty Boi’s face, “True, I am the best look-a-like. I even surpass the original in popularity.”

“Okay, I wouldn’t go that far.”

“Y’know what? I do feel better.” Grunty Boi stretched out his arms above his head and stood from the step finally. “I am better than all of them!”

Mikey shook his head, brushing the dirt off of his legs from the step as Grunty Boi preened in front of him. His ego was certainly another cause for headache, but Mikey could deal with this one.

--

It's short and something probably only I think is cute, but I've wanted to write something about Grunty Boi and Michael being friends for a while. No taglist bc I'm p sure anyone who was on it a) wouldn't care for this and b) barely even remember who I am anymore lmao

[this-daydream-is-dangerous-13]

Taylor can still support her boyfriend and be focused on her career (the same way Travis is). For how much longer will this fandom put her career on top of her personal happiness and life? She shouldn't sacrifice her personal relationships for the sake of her career or hide them.

Taylor shouldn't go into hiding or sneak around and not be seen with people just so 100% of the focus land on her career accomplishments. She's done more than enough hiding with YB. Probably the reason why she was also this public with Calvin was because she was tired of hiding with Harry, and to her, that was a breath of fresh air. I can imagine how suffocated she might've felt in the confinement of her home, sneaking around like a thief at night. Blondie is a people pleaser at heart and even if she might not want to be private as she claims to be, at the end of the day she is going to be convincing that she wants that privacy, for the sake of the person that she is with. I'm sure there's a part of her that really wants to go on a red carpet event with the person that she is with and be openly affectionate, but there was never anyone ever willing to take that step with her, so she let it go.

It's the fans' fault if her personal life becomes a major talking point, not hers. She's just living her life.

She did all the promo for 1989 many years ago. It's a super successful, beloved album that even with the amount of promo it got now, I bet it will surpass a million album sales in the first week of its release. The album generates buzz by itself anyway with all the hits. And also it's foolish to think that her being seen out and about at the football games it's not doing promo and it doesn't help in any way.

A few things here, Anon:

- “the fandom” is far from monolithic. For every person disliking this scenario there are many more who are super into it. And every variation in between. It’s totally fine that you fall into the latter part of the scale just as it is that I fall into the former.

- I do not think Blondie should have to go into hiding. How boring is that?

- We’ll have to agree to disagree about who’s directing the media focus; I don’t think it’s coming from the grass roots. Blondie—queen of strategic moves, always laser-focused on her career—is choosing to draw media attention toward her relationship over her upcoming album re-release right now. And I, personally, wish she were making a different choice because I think her music and legacy do not require this kind of boost from her personal life.

- Of course 1989TV is going to smash 1 million. It has very, very real potential to surpass the 1.287 million US. Domestic sales the original did back in 2014 in pure preorder sales alone (without streaming numbers, or non-preorders). That’s what I hope for for her (and why I wish she were talking about it more). What a massive validation of the whole re-recording process it would be.

- “She did all the promo for 1989 many years ago”like whaaaat? That was promo in a wildly different situation. Back then, she was trying to convince consumers/the recording industry that she could be a successful crossover/convincing pop artist. What she is selling, nearly a decade later, is a different product in all its similarity. Adding to the beloved album while trying, at its heart, to dislodge and replace something that still routinely charts songs 9 years later. I would think that something that entrenched? Could benefit from targeted, personal boosts from its maker, non?

I have not always been a fan of Blondie’s romantic partners, or her business choices. I still throw my hard-earned money at her and maintain a fan blog largely about her. I contain multitudes, as do we all. Unexamined devotion is not an entry toll to partake in any fandom, hers included. I actually think blind, unexamined devotion in anything is potentially dangerous.

I can see/appreciate her happiness while struggling with the conditions under which it comes.

I do appreciate your willingness to share your diverging viewpoint and the fact you have done so articulately AND without saying terrible things about me as a person.

Thanks for reading and for the ask.

[justinforprez]

Sequels that Surpass the Original

Shrek 2 - I need not elaborate

Paper Mario: TTYD - Its just better

Kotor 2 - subjective but its better to me

WW2 - first one sucked ass

Route 66 - There are other routes?

Point Blanc - Stormbreaker sucks

Baldur's Gate 3 - I will not elaborate

Xcom 2 - The Firaxis one. Rather than rehash the original they did just like the original xcom games did and tried weird shit and not everyone likes it but I do

Skyrim 2 - Probably

[hammerbonk]

Hi I’m gonna take a random person from each prsk shuffle au unit and tell you what their deal is. 3 2 1 go

(Also i think its worth mentioning that a lot of whats under the break will probably get retconned in the future) OK NOW 321 GO

An Shiraishi - The Rabbit Hole

Still saw RAD WEEKEND, which inspired her to get into music and aspire to surpass it

Started out in the street music scene like in canon, but was discouraged by everyone comparing her to her dad/accusing her of using her dad’s fame as a stepping stool

She then decided that she’ll surpass RAD WEEKEND another way - (musical) theatre!

While on disciplinary committee duties, she was telling off Rui for doing Rui things when she caught sight of a script for a play he was working on

Was immediately like ‘Dude. You. Me. Theatre troupe.’ And he was like ‘aight’

It took them a looong time to get more people

Were on the literal brink of giving up when Mafuyu and Shizuku joined (i just realised that this is just a THR backstory loredump whoopsie 💀)

Shiho Hinomori - Black/Clover

Never reconciled with the rest of leo/need :(

Became more and more of an outcast to the point of borderline delinquency

Worked part-time at a live house on Vivid Street (not sure if I should make it Weekend Garage) and stood in as a bass player/vocalist occasionally

Akito saw her perform one night and was like ‘holy shit she’s good’

They got talking and connected over their passion for music and strong work ethic

He told her about RAD WEEKEND and how he wants to surpass it and she was like ‘sweet. Can i join’

So they became a duo (name tba) then mizu and minori join yada yada yadaa

Saki Tenma - SUGARSMILE

Like Shiho, never reconciled with leo/need after getting out from the hospital :(

Still was determined to make the most of her high school days, so when Emu offered her to become an idol group with her she eagerly accepted

The first person to join Emu in the unit

Her chronic illness is still a pain in the ass for her when she’s practicing sometimes, but she doesn’t let that stop her

Until it does

Yeah i can imagine her combined passion for music and her determination to make up for lost time leads to a lot of incidents of her overworking herself

Haruka Kiritani - BREAKAWAY

After the whole ASRUN shitshow, she stepped away from the idol industry like in canon

Didn’t feel like completely separating herself from music though so she uploaded covers and a few original songs here and there under an alias online

Not sure if I want her to have joined the group through Kanade or Ichika but let’s go with the latter for now

Ichika, who’s still her classmate like in canon stumbled across her account and was like ‘hey wait i recognise that voice’

So one day Ichika came up to her after class and was like ‘hey ummm do u wanna make music online with me and these other people’

Or maybe they become buddies online and dont realise each other’s identities until later that would be funny

I think she’d be the last person to join the unit

Ena Shinonome - Sunset Days

Started off as an artist that uploaded her stuff to social media but also did streams on the side

To her frustration, her streams became more popular than her art

She mainly played the same game(s?) as Nene, so one day they got talking and became friends

Nene offered Ena to be her thumbnail artist, which she accepted

Ena then got Honami into the game and then Honami introduced Tsukasa to the game

The game? League of Legends (/j/j/j)

Probably the last person to agree to Tsukasa’s idea of doing singing as a proper group

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

I finally saw INSIDE OUT 2 yesterday.

That's probably the longest it has taken me to see a new Pixar movie.

I don't have any memory of whether I saw TOY STORY in the cinema in late 1995/early 1996, but we had the original VHS release from late 1996 and I went as Buzz Lightyear for Halloween that year. If I didn't see TOY STORY in theaters on its initial release, then it took me almost a year to see the movie. Movie came out Thanksgiving 1995, VHS was released right before Halloween 1996. The days when you had to wait a WHILE for a movie to come out on tape.

I eventually saw TOY STORY in theaters, when they re-released it in 3D in fall 2009, ahead of the release of TOY STORY 3.

But I *did* see A BUG'S LIFE in theaters, and so on. Never missed a Pixar since, that was until SOUL, LUCA, and TURNING RED skipped theaters... And then played at theaters not near me earlier this year. I'll get 'em eventually.

So yeah, INSIDE OUT 2 released on June 14th, I saw it yesterday, July 22nd.

And I thought it was a perfectly fine sequel, like most of Pixar's sequels are. I just love revisiting characters and worlds again, and the new story doing something neat and fun with them for a good 90-100min. That's all I needed, really.

I feel TOY STORY 2 is the *one* Pixar sequel that equaled the original, and surpassed it in some ways. Very rarely do sequels do that, really. And I think, in addition to things some folks expect out of Pixar, this is why Pixar sequels tend to be looked at a certain way. But to me, a lot of them have just been comfortably fine movies. Good enough on their own, and solid enough companions to the originals. And I think a lot of that is because the first movies were usually that special, that it's almost unfair the original exists. The new movie has such huge shoes to fill in the eyes of many. I feel like when the original is being made, there's a sort of "all or nothing" attitude behind it. With the sequels, things get more comfortable. "Okay, we made the first one..."

Especially now, since Pixar is no longer a little studio in the Bay Area, and hasn't been since 2006...

So, TOY STORY 2 is still tops for me. And a small clicks under, TOY STORY 3. Then INCREDIBLES 2, not too far behind. I actually legit love INCREDIBLES 2, even if I think its third act setpiece is a little rushed and the resolution a bit lacking. The rest of it, to me, is totally spot-on and just so well-made. Even the big twist that there's no shadowy mind control guy as the main antagonist. It's still a Brad Bird movie through and through, and he's largely in his groove here. That puts it very high in my book.

Next click down would be this movie, and MONSTERS UNIVERSITY. INSIDE OUT 2, plot-wise, is solid and clever. I like that it's small scale like the first movie is: About three or so days of following Riley through an exciting, if not anxiety-stoking time in her life. First movie, she moves out of state. Second movie, leveling up in her sport and meeting new people once more. It does feel like it's retreading a lot of the first movie's major beats without some of the punch (which I think plagues a few of these Pixar sequels), but I do think its 3rd act panic attack does land. Really, the first INSIDE OUT had Bing Bong. This doesn't have anything like that subplot. There was enough really fun and creative stuff here (Bloofy, Pouchey and Lance were the MVPs), I really liked the four new emotions, and its best moments sit right alongside the original... I almost consider MU truly great, the final third in the camp cabin almost puts it over for me. The rest of the movie, I think, quite works as well. Gets progressively better as the Scare Games commence. The early stuff up until Mike and Sulley get dropped from the scare program is just fine to me. Like INSIDE OUT 2, we're in the perfectly fine territory with this one. It's always a very satisfactory watch for me. Both films sometimes rise a little above that and have their moments that I find truly fantastic.

Underneath are CARS 3 and LIGHTYEAR.

I guess my only major issues with CARS 3 are that the pacing is weird to me in the first third, particularly how they handle McQueen's post-crash depression. Once they start really traveling in that movie, like to the Thunder Hollow and Thomasville racetracks, that's when it really gets into gear for me. When it really leans into the Cruz stuff. I still think it sidelines most of the Radiator Springs gang, though, much like CARS 2 did. If they make a fourth movie, I'd like to see them appear more. That ensembles helps make the first one so good to me.

LIGHTYEAR I've already defended multiple times on here. I really like it as an old-school space adventure movie, and I particularly appreciated the themes of ego, legacy, and doing better by your past mistakes. Of all the 2020s Pixar movies, it feels like it's from the Lasseter era. Kinda old school. I just don't think it's spectacular or anything, doesn't really go as hard as it should, but it's a very solid sci-fi treat nonetheless. I think it would've fared better had it been an original movie, and not a Buzz Lightyear story.

Then a click below those two, for me, are FINDING DORY and TOY STORY 4. These are both firmly of the 2010s Pixar in my opinion, very much of the Lasseter in complete control era. The "legacy"/"nostalgia"-heavy era. And it makes sense, TOY STORY and FINDING NEMO hail from the classic period when it was largely "Team TOY STORY" calling the shots. John Lasseter and Andrew Stanton. There's fantastic stuff in both of these movies that I really love and admire, and I think they're overall satisfying and good. FINDING DORY in particular hit close to home as an autistic person... but I also feel like they are very, very overplotted and busy. I know the low-hanging fruit is stuff like, say, how TOY STORY 4 ended. I didn't have a problem with that, I actually found the ending with Woody going off with Bo to be a good - albeit risky - choice. No, my main issue is that this is where it starts to feel like the needle had gotten stuck for the studio. Like, "This IS a Pixar movie". It's gotta have the big cries, the big goodbyes, the big emotional moment, the plot has to have a lot going on. They gotta be here while this is here, and vice versa. They have few moments where they can just breathe a bit, or when they do, then it's WHOOSH onto the next thing. TOY STORY 4 does, however, have that long quiet stretch with Forky and Woody on the road. Good stuff. The reprising of certain moments, particularly in DORY's case, feel like "Greatest Hits" (to paraphrase someone else), and I don't think DORY's 3rd act grand theft truck sequence really works well. So, it's all just a matter of me thinking there's too much complication in these 100min stories. Too much plot crammed into them. Floyd Norman himself put it best when describing animated movies in the early 2010s, that the films with "hopelessly overworked plots and convoluted structure" were trying too hard to "convince" the audience rather than "entertain" them.

Then last but not least. Bottom ring. CARS 2.

With everything that movie has going against it... The jam-packed plot, Mater being confused as a spy being largely unbelievable (Finn McMissile and Holly Shiftwell aren't very bright, it seems), McQueen and Radiator Springs largely pushed aside, and the weird stuff with the lemons - cars that break down, that universe's disabled people almost - turning their collective plight into corporate villainy... I don't dislike it! I think there's a really good international race/spy action movie buried in here, and I'm aware that the movie was originally meant to be a summer 2012 release and then it got bumped up to summer 2011... Maybe it needed that one extra year to coalesce into something solid? But, yeah, I still think it's beautifully-realized, full of visual candy, and great action even. That opening setpiece on the oil rig slaps, I say. Pixar could've had a really solid James Bond-style movie here.

CARS 3 seems to imply that everything that happened in CARS 2 was all a dream. Even Larry the Cable Guy himself, Mater's voice, seemed to imply that not too long ago...

I had a weird thought recently... What if they took the existing movie, and re-framed it as a Mater's Tall Tale? The movie is very much informed by those CARS TOONS shorts that Pixar started making in 2008, where Mater made up some big fib about having various careers. Those worked because they were presented as silly fantasies, conjured up by a goofy old dingus. CARS 2 comes close to being that, there's a bit in the end where Van (the lost minivan traveler husband from the first movie) doubts everything Mater told them, but then jet Holly shows up. I think CARS 2 could've landed if they did some PRINCESS BRIDE thing where Mater's telling the tale back to someone, maybe Lightning, and being doubted every step of the way. Like he's making it all up on the spot, like the movie itself seemed to be doing. He did that in the shorts, "Yeah, Lightnin', you was there too!"

It's a massive mess, a car wreck you could say... but I still enjoy most of it. I bought the Blu-ray back in the day, even. It was one of those 2-discers that had LOTS of bonus features on it.

So on the whole, I like the Pixar sequels, even if they may not always match the originals. But I think that's just true of a lot of sequels to movies considered among the greats, or very high on folks' lists. Not all of them can be GODFATHER PART IIs or EMPIRE STRIKES BACKs. TOY STORY 2, for me, is the Pixar sequel that's the equivalent of that. I'm totally okay with the other ones not being that... So long as I still really like them and took something home with me from them... Yeah, that's what matters to me most.

[velkyr]

DUSK QUESTIONS MOMENT. 1, 10, 40, 52!! 👀

ON IT BOSS!!!! o7 (tysmmmm for letting me ramble mwah. I wrote more than I expected as per usual 💖)

(original ask game post here)

I've read more'd this because oops it got so long sorry orz

Why did you pick the race you did for your Tav?

the short answer is always just going to be I love tieflings, I am weak for tieflings, this is a universal unchangeable fact amen 🙏 I think 3 of the... 6(? I might be forgetting some other oneshot-only characters idk) characters I've played at a table have been tiefs or homebrew variants of them! they're very gender to me, I felt that way before I even really knew jackshit about my own gender. absolutely batshit that I still thought I was cis when I started playing d&d lmfao. also horns tails fangs and claws need I say more. I shan't, I don't have to

but yeah specifically for Dusk, I wanted to base them off of my first d&d character in particular, who was a tiefling homebrew to represent an au ra from ffxiv in our homebrew campaign based around the game. so it was important to me they were also a tiefling draconic sorcerer to match!

a lot has changed about them while I've reworked them, but many of the fundamentals have remained the same. gender, motivations, reasoning and general force of personality have been altered towards things that I find more compelling or more fitting, 6 years down the line - but race and class, the idea of them being nobility who left their home(land) and has a bunch of hangups around it, that's all as it was back then.

10. If your Tav didn’t become an adventurer, what else would they be doing?

this is an interesting one, I've been stewing on it a fair bit recently while I've been thinking about what they'd do post-bg3 shenanigans. the thing with Dusk is I've infused them with So Much raw adhd (to the point of it far surpassing my own, oops. this seems to be how I bestow love on my favourite OCs at this point), they Need enough outlets in their day-to-day life or they'll end up in an understimulated mess pretty quickly.

adventuring is obviously a solid option for that need! but without that on the table, I think it needs to be something that caters strongly to their interests and whims. I can see them working well in a profession involving enchantment and/or working with jewels and precious metals. enchanting things would be a good way to siphon off some of that raw sorcerer magic - if they don't use it often enough, there's a build up of sorts. with it being lightning based, it's a bit like having an unstable motor that runs way too fast, and it makes them incredibly irritable.

as for the crafting part of the equation, well, they're already fascinated by shiny things, they're pretty detail oriented and good with their hands, and it's the kind of skilled manual work that requires Just Enough focus to be stimulating. the only thing they'd probably end up hating about either of these would be dealing with noble clientele lmao, but I have no doubt they'd find a way to exploit that anyway. while they may not be the most book smart in the world, they're people smart by necessity. (something something insight proficiency)

and really, as an alternative or perhaps on the side, I don't think they'd be opposed to sex work if it were an environment they felt comfortable in, with a well-vetted set of clientele that they have full autonomy over.

40. What is the biggest mistake your Tav ever made?

welcome to 'pick a struggle' with Dusk, they have their fair share,,,

there's a couple of things that stick out, but I'll stick with one that's pretty fundamental to them. they deeply regret having lashed out at and pushed away the people that tried to help them when they were younger, still stuck living in elturel.

while they can't entirely be blamed for it - they were conditioned to think and feel a certain way, and those patterns were ingrained across a lifetime, all the hallmarks of the abuse they faced - at the end of the day, the friends they'd made after they started sneaking out at night were only trying to help them see how awful their living situation was.

by the time Dusk fled home, they'd burned all the bridges they'd tentatively built over the years. their best friend at the time was the one who made a sort of last ditch attempt to convince them, and it came at the right place, the right time to push them into leaving. but it was outright said that none of them wanted to see them again, after all of the vitriol.

with the distance of years and the gift of hindsight, they regret it all the more. they haven't really forgiven themselves for it.

52. What is your Tav’s worst fear?

oh you already know this one I'm sure 🤠 but I'll elaborate it into something a bit broader that pokes at the Theming more.

they fear being forced back into a gilded cage - whether that's being dragged back home to their family or pushed into a new one. they fear the loss of the autonomy they've carved out for themselves. they fear a loss of identity, and the concept of having it stripped from them, reducing them back into some (feminine) trophy to be given away for material gain.

at its core, it's a loathing of the idea of heteronormativity, really. that's what I always parallel it to, and it's pretty on the nose in that regard.

granted, it's kind of a paradoxical fear for them. they're so thoroughly weary after spending so long living with their guard up, molding themselves into someone who can take on the world alone, that in secret, there's a part of them that just doesn't want to fight anymore. that part would be tempted to give up - to let themselves be reshackled, so to speak - if the circumstances were dire, so long as there were the promise of them being safe and cared for at the end.

as a secondary but very much related thing, they've also come to fear and resent being alone, and the idea of being left behind by people they care about.

[toontails]

Toon Quest

Chapter 11: Working Hard or Hardly Working

Y/n stared at the tree—aiming the arrow at the trunk—her pointer finger being her line of sight. The sun had set an hour ago but Felix stuck to his word when he said he’ll train Y/n to properly use a bow. Not only that, Y/n also got Ruck to help her train for the contest. Starting tomorrow, she was ready to go. Headstart into the unknown. Killing two birds with one stone. 

“You’re doing good.” Y/n heard Felix a few feet away. She released the arrow—watching it fly over to the tree, but it landed at the base. Y/n only made maybe one hit—and she wasn’t satisfied with that. It was like the more she tried to use the bow the more horrible she got at it. 

“Dammit..” Y/n muttered. 

“You did good, don’t worry too much about it.”  He says as Y/n reached back into her quiver for another arrow, which she retrieved and loaded it into the bow, despite still learning to aim and shoot. She was getting better at loading the arrow, after a few stumbles here and there with latching the nock onto the nock point, she was able to load the arrow without looking. Not much but it was something. 

Aiming the arrow once more at the tree, Y/n slowly pulled the arrow back and gently squinted her eyes at the tree and stared off at it, she failed way too many times to hit the tree and the arrow either ended up past the tree or right at the base of it. So she became hesitant as she stared at the tree in concentration that soon dwindled off into hesitation. Her grip loosened on the arrow and she slowly lowered her arms before looking over at Felix who was already looking at her, waiting for her to release the arrow to hit the target. 

His eyebrows slightly raised in response to her halt in action. Y/n was silent for a moment as she stared at him and then moved her gaze to the tree and then to Felix. 

She couldn’t really explain her hesitance. Was it out of embarrassment that she couldn’t even shoot an arrow, or the fact that this is the 100th thing she found out she wasn’t good at? Or was it the fact that earlier encounter with the contestee’s left her in sheer shriveling doubt that she wasn’t good at anything other than probably picking up a controller on some console and playing the day away, or just sitting in bed and taking talleys how long she could sit without getting up and running to the bathroom. 

There was a doubt crawling in her head that maybe even with training she wouldn’t do no good to make it to the finals, even make it to the basics of the contest, though Warrior Falls was just one thing on the list that worried her. If she couldn’t surpass that, what the hell good would she even bring to the table? She felt like she repeated this same exact thought in her head countless times and everytime tried to swallow it down with everything being alright and she would be good, but reality had kicked in long ago when the book came into her life. It wasn’t a movie, or a game or anything fanatical that would magically happen. This was something that she had to make due on her own and she couldn’t even shoot an arrow correctly. 

“What’s wrong..?” Felix’s voice cut through and Y/n slowly furrowed her eyebrows as she lowered the bow to her side. 

“I need help.” 

Felix moved to walk over to Y/n and reached over and gently raised the arm that was holding the bow. Resuming her original position. She aimed at the tree, Felix’s hand enclosed hers holding the arrow and he helped her pull back and aim correctly. 

“Right there.” He tells her. He moved his hand away and Y/n released the arrow and it flew over to the tree and landed right in the middle of it. 

She looks at Felix who smiled at her. “See?”

“You helped me, that’s why.” Y/n deadpans before moving to grab another bow from her quiver and loaded it onto the bow. 

“So the arrow can stay right there for you to get a better aim at it.” Felix replied as Y/n aimed towards the tree once more and pulled the arrow back, staring at the tree once more as before she hesitated yet again and her eyebrows slowly stitched together. 

“It’s okay to make mistakes, Y/n. It’ll help you learn.” Felix spoke once more and Y/n had grown silent for a moment before releasing the arrow, it shot off towards the tree and landed at the base of the tree—a tad bit higher than before. A difference from what she made for the last hour. 

“See? Look at the difference there.” Felix moved to stand beside Y/n who was staring off at the tree. She slowly nodded and glanced at him. 

“Yeah.”

The two fell in silence as Felix’s eyes gazed down at the bow in her hand before slowly nodding. 

“Want to try again?”

“Yeah.”

For the 3 hours, Y/n would aim and shoot towards the tree to try and land the bow in the same exact place the last bow was that Felix helped her with. Leaving it embedded into the tree to help her everytime she would move to retrieve the arrows to start over again. 

With aiming and shooting nonstop she saw some difference, Felix would come in ever so often to redirect her pose correctly or if she was holding the bow the right way—because lord knows the last thing they needed was for her to accidentally shoot someone. 

Y/n was silent for the most part until the string would zip back and hit her forearm. She hissed in pain and flinched seeing it hit the same exact spot from last time. Felix placed a hand on her back. 

“Remember. You let the bow rest in your hand, you don’t hold tightly onto it.” He reminds her and Y/n slowly nods and sighs through her nose. 

Before moving away to go retrieve the arrows that were emptied from her quiver. 

“You know, if I can shoot one thing, that would be great.” Y/n tells him. 

Felix watched as the human retrieved the arrows stuck in the ground and placed them back in the quiver one by one. 

“I’m certain you’ll hit something. It takes time to learn these things, Y/n.” Felix states. She fixes the strap of her quiver on her shoulder and turns to look at Felix slowly walking over to him and standing in front of him, she motions towards the tree. 

“I suck at this. It’s been three hours, and I missed like—a hundred times already.” She complained, it was evident the human was becoming agitated and Ruck’s statement about her being patient was starting to become very self explanatory. 

“Took me 100 times to tie my shoes once.” Felix states and Y/n gives him a confused expression before a smile cracks onto her face. Felix soon smiled after gently.

“It takes time…” 

Y/n stared at him before nodding, her irritation being pushed back once more. She glanced back at the tree where the arrow was embedded in the tree.

“I’ll try again tomorrow.”

-

Lucy sat next to Bendy at the table watching the priest prance back and forth and about vows, and promises, and proper speech etiquette…the man had been ranting for the last 2 hours and the sun had set some time ago and Bendy was utterly exhausted. Running around doing deeds and other stuff was unbearable, he didn’t expect someone with such a label to do so much damn work..

Lucy seemed half ready to hop out of her seat and just walk away, as much as he wanted to and he hadn’t seen that bored and unamused expression on her face yet, but he was glad the two were on the same page. 

She still had an arm intertwined with his and at this point Bendy just got used to it as she never seemed to leave his side. 

“And remember, you two are the face of this empire—Especially you Bendy as you are an adventurer!” Exclaims the man and Bendy only blinks slowly before leaning further into his seat, his eyebrows furrowing together in frustration.

“Great…couldn’t be reminded.” Bendy muttered under his breath. As the man spoke Lucy looked at Bendy who was still staring off at the man with a time ticking expression.

“Well..I’m certain it’s time for bed now.“ Lucy starts before she stands from her seat. Bendy’s eyes flicker to Lucy before he stands up as well.

-

Walking down the hallway, Lucy was busy picking something off her dress—perhaps lint, Bendy walked beside her, he was pretty much just returning her to her room for the night, thankfully for as many times he’s been around the castle he was able to get a layout and properly know his way back to the residence hall where everyone else was. The last thing he needed was to be walking around clueless as hell. 

He actually enjoyed the peace and quiet that Lucy gave—he was ready to close his eyes and just drift off into a forever sleep. He's been up since the break of dawn and he could feel his eyelids burning from fatigue, screaming for him to find a bed and quickly go to sleep. The sound of their footsteps hitting the carpeted floor was the only sound up until Bendy surprisingly started to talk. 

“So, I see Modi is. You know. The kinda n’ all that. Hadn’t seen the queen yet, where is she?” He asks. Lucy looked away from down the hall she had been watching and glanced at Bendy. 

“Oh. I don’t know much about her. She passed away years ago.” Her statement was very..off? All considering the queen had to be her mother. Bendy raises an eyebrow and turns his head to look at her. 

Lucy slowly looks away from Bendy and nods once. “I was an orphan. I was brought into this family by my father when I was 3 I believe.”

Bendy’s confused expression flattered when she started to explain, he didn’t expect that at all. It seems to affect the girl though as she still kept her shoulders high while mentioning it. 

“Not so many people liked the fact that I was the new face of royalty ever since being picked from the orphanage, I’m quite thankful it happened. I wouldn’t be able to see all the wonderful things I’ve seen so far.” She looked back ahead and smiled and Bendy slowly looked away as well. 

“I wanted to prove I can be…which is why I’m glad I ran into you at the time.” Lucy trailed off. Her eyes landed on her room door where Bendy slowly stopped walking. Lucy removed herself from Bendy before placing a hand on the doorknob. 

“Because of you, you made everyone give me a second chance..”

“And I thank you for that.” She smiled at Bendy who stared at her for a moment. “Yeah..” his eyes flickered away. 

“You know even without me, m’ sure ya��� would have made a change in view.” He starts and Lucy nods.

“Yes, I understand…”

The two silently stood in front of each other, Bendy resting his shoulder onto the wall before Lucy started to speak. 

“You know. You have a funny way of talking? Do all adventures talk like that?” 

“Like what?” 

“Say nothing.” 

“Nothin?”

“See?” 

Bendy raised an eyebrow at her pointing out his accent—which she somehow didn’t know existed for whatever reason or did she expect him to speak a certain way? 

The two soon let out a laugh at that conversation and Lucy twisted the doorknob before opening the door. 

“No, really. I had a wonderful day with you, Bendy.”

“Me too. See you in th-“

He was cut off by Lucy wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing a firm kiss to his cheek. Bendy stiffened as stiff as a wooden board. His hands glued to his side, Lucy pulls away and smiles at Bendy’s amazed expression. His mouth opened slightly as he seemed to want to say something but couldn’t seem to find the words. 

His eyes flickered away from Lucy and down the hall as if checking to see if anyone was there. Which there wasn’t. He then looks at Lucy before pouncing towards her, his mouth slamming against hers, whereas the two fell into the room and the door slammed shut. 

-

Y/n laid on the bed. Staring up at the ceiling, her head was busy thinking about what tomorrow would hold. Training with Ruck was the biggest thing on the list certainly, everyone was fast asleep in their original spots. Spunk found comfort with sleeping on Donald’s back on the couch. Y/n tried to close her eyes to go to sleep but it seemed every time she tried, her eyes would be ripped right back over. 

She heard the door open and looked over to see the yellow light from the hallway spilling into the room, and soon Bendy stepped inside with a tired expression, seemingly ready to collapse on the nearest spot open and just fall to sleep. The sudden feeling of excitement rushed through Y/n when she saw Bendy though. It had been all day since she’s seen him and the events that took place today, she was glad to see he was still alive and kicking while having to spend time trapped with Lucy. 

Bendy’s eyes offhandedly trailed over to Y/n when he checked to see if everyone was asleep. When he spotted she was still awake, he turned his head to her and Y/n sat up and smiled, the blankets falling from her shoulders as Bendy quietly walked across the room.

“What’re you still doing up?” He asks her. Y/n yet again couldn’t find an answer for that other than shrugging. 

“Not too tired.” She replied. Feeling the bed dip down as Bendy sat next to her, his eyes glued onto her face before they furrowed together.

“What happened to your face?” He asks. Honestly she knew that was coming, out of everyone to question it, Bendy was the one she worried the most about finding her earlier injuries. 

“Asking me? The hell happened to you?” Y/n raised an eyebrow and her eyes flickered down to his shirt, where three of his buttons were undone, like they were hastily buttoned back up. Bendy brought his hands up to his shirt to fix it. 

“Nothin.” He quickly replied. Y/n was silent for a moment before he moved his gaze back to her. “So. What’s goin’ on with your eye.”

“I fought a dragon. What else you wanna know.” 

Bendy squinted his eyes, which it was clear that was a lie. “Don’t lie.” 

“Guess that makes two of us.” 

Bendy fell into a deep silence before looking away from Y/n and to a wall across the room. The human fixed the blankets to her shoulders and then moved to lay down on her side. Bendy looks back at her when he feels her move to lay down. 

“It’s nothing bad. Just a small run in when I was out today.” She soon replied. Closing her eyes in an attempt to get her ready for sleep. 

“Who did it?” He asks. 

“Some guy. Don’t worry about it.” 

“You givin’ me the cold shoulder or somethin?” Bendy asks. Y/n shook her head with a laugh out of her nose.

“No. I need to be up early tomorrow in the morning so I need to sleep. Which you should be too, Mr. Lady’s Man.” Her last statement caused Bendy to deadpan. His eyes flickering over to her form. 

“Ha ha. Funny.” He muttered. Y/n slowly opened her eyes and looked at him. In which he was already looking at her. When he looked at her, his eyebrows flickered up and he placed an arm on her arm. 

“Get up. Hadn’t spent a minute with you and you’re already tryin to fall asleep on me.” He says before sitting up from the bed. Y/n remained laying down and raised an eyebrow at his sudden bothersome behavior, not that it was really aggravating. 

“You mentioned you wanted ta’ show me some of your archery skills.” 

Y/n sat up with a grin. “Oh yeah. I got a few tricks or two.” 

-

“Jesus—be careful with that thing.” Bendy flinched away from Y/n’s view as she pointed the arrow at him. Y/n was surprised she could remember the path around the wooded area near Welkin, with how many times she’s been in and out of it with the others, it was no surprise It was new to Bendy, with it already being dark the area was dim, but the moonlight fed some light into the area, who would have knew away from the city you could actually see in the dark with only the moon and stars? No pollution or city lighting from buildings, cars and streetlights. Just the stars in the sky and the moon. 

“Looks like you guys been havin’ much more fun without me.” Bendy grunts as he trailed behind Y/n who stepped over a log, she glanced over her shoulder to him and shrugs. 

“It was at first till I got my ass kicked earlier today.” 

She stopped walking and Bendy slowly stopped behind her. Y/n turned to face him and was met with a concerned expression but he soon chuckled. 

“Maybe trainin’ ain’t for you.” He teases and Y/n shrugs.

“Maybe it’s not.” She sat down on the log and Bendy followed after her. Resting his elbows on his knees as he looked at her. 

“What was the Loud Adventurous Y/n up to today? Aside from—whateva’ scuffle you had today.” 

Y/n thinks back on what happened in the day. Minus Stinks being a small bump in the road. Her earlier run-ins with a mage was another part of it. 

“We were catching chickens today and I ran into this witch. And she knew about Hector, and it was so weird. Like she made me see a vision of what happened back then when Hector was alive and he told us to go to this cave or something. Something that would help us, from what I know. He marked it in the book somewhere, so after Warrior Falls we’ll have to check that out.”

Bendy slowly blinked and deadpans. “Fuckin’ hell. So you all really did do some stuff without me.” He muttered. And Y/n let out a soft laugh. 

“Well. I miss having you with us. What have you been up to on your side?” Considering Bendy’s role was to do nothing but follow Lucy around, she was certain it was nothing too complicated. 

“Beside bein’ dragged around by Lucy. Nothin’ too interesting unlike what you all been up to.”

Y/n smiled before moving her gaze off to the trees. Placing the arrow back into her quiver and placing the arrow around her. She heard the crickets chirping in the air and the cicadas singing. The rustling of the leaves danced in the cool midnight air, the two sat in silence as they stared off into the vass land of trees and nature.

“You know. We should actually take a vacation to the offlands..you know. Not with the whole. Running for our lives situation and all that.” Y/n’s meek voice reached Bendy. He glanced over at her as she continued to stare out into the trees. 

“There’s so much stuff here to explore, like who would have known this place existed? I wonder why some people on the mainland haven’t heard of this place.” The human glanced up at the trees reaching out for the sky before glancing back at Bendy who turned his gaze to her. His index finger tapped the log they were sitting on as he gave her a calculated look. 

“Let’s hope we don’t get dropped from the face of the earth before then.” He soon responds and Y/n chuckles before nodding in agreement. “Right..”

“Also. What are you doing to have to be up so early?” Bendy asks. Y/n inhales before looking back up at him. 

“Training. Had to enter this contest called Warrior Falls.” 

“Oh. Yeah, I heard about that. Heard it’s a real big thing for the people in town.” 

“Which is what I’m afraid of. The guy I ran into earlier doesn't like Hector. So he doesn't like me. Some family shit, or something like that. Long story short.” 

She grimaced and rolled her eyes. 

“Nobody likes me. So Ruck’s training me to atleast do something good in the contest, all across the land of the offlands will know us.” She says and Bendy furrowed his eyebrows together. 

“Y/n. From what Lucy told me, that contest is a very dangerous thing…you’ve never traveled a day in your life, you’re a mainlands body. You-“

“And you never wore a crown over your head before.” 

Bendy silently stared at Y/n when she turned her body to face him on the log. He sighed and furrowed his eyebrows together. 

“That makes two of us. We both don’t know anything out here. We’re clearly being chased so lord knows what would happen to us if we don’t do something productive.”

Bendy continued to stare at Y/n with the same expression and Y/n tilted her head. “I'll be fine. If things get too rough. I’ll drop out. But Bendy, I only have 4 days to make a difference for my title, our team for having the view for being voyagers, something clearly grand in the offlands eyes—“

“So…you’ll do what you have to do then..” he finished for her. Y/n slowly opened her mouth and stared at him and she slowly nodded. 

“Whoever that guy is. If he causes too much problem, don’t be surprised when I slice his throat.” Bendy sneered and Y/n smiled before clasping her hands together. 

“So, you’ll be there to support me even if I’m being beaten to the ground?” 

“Have no choice but to be there. The whole town will be at the contest. It’s an annual thing from what I’ve been told.” 

Y/n froze for a moment. She knew it was a contest but didn’t expect the entire town to be there. She was going to make a fool out of herself in front of thousands of people…great..

She pinched her lips together and slowly nodded her head. “Great..” she really hoped Ruck could help her. From what he told her, he wasn’t going easy on her. 

“Well. Ruck’s helping me so, that’s a good thing. He was there with Hector and clearly Hector’s good. No doubt I’ll be atleast decent.” 

“Well if we’re going through with this. How are you feelin’ about it.”

Y/n was silent for moments before looking back at him. 

“I trust Ruck. But more so scared what he’s gonna have me do.” 

“Whatever it is, I’m sure it’ll do you some good.”

“You tryna say something?” Y/n raised an eyebrow and Bendy let out a chuckle. “Maybe. I think you got a thing for being a target.” 

“Says the guy who got his ass kicked multiple times for our first run.” 

“And how do you think your run is gonna go?”

“…Hopefully good.”

-

Y/n felt a nudge to her arm and she squinted her eyes and felt the sleep slowly start to be pushed away at the harsh nudge. Opening her eyes she spotted Ruck standing near the bed with her bookbag in his hands, the others were in the back getting ready as well. Meek and Don surely were already outside waiting. When Ruck saw Y/n open her eyes and slip from her sleep he tossed the heavy book bag at her, the weight of the bag caused her to let out a huff. 

“Let’s get a move on kid. We got a long walk.”

Y/n furrowed her eyebrow in irritation from suddenly being woken up, but she really had no reason to be upset as this was the purpose of the whole training. 

Sighing she sat up from the bed and looked down at her bag. Placing a hand on her face, she tried to rid the tiredness away but no matter what she couldn’t seem to pull herself from the bed. 

The next thing she knew she was walking away from Welkin with everyone? Minus Bendy of course, the quiver was placed inside the bookbag—sticking out for easier access and Y/n had her bow around her, she felt like she was some cargo carrier carrying so much stuff. 

They had been walking for over 2 hours and she was sure that they passed up so many cool things but Ruck didn’t stop to take a gander at the stuff. But that was mostly taken over by the fact that wherever Ruck was leading them was way too far out. She couldn’t imagine what the walk back to Welkin would feel like. After an hour of walking with such a heavy bag she felt like her legs would give out. 

Felix and Oswald were trailing behind everyone talking with each other, Cuphead and Mugman—as always were walking next to each other, surprisingly this time Cuphead wasn’t bothering the soul out of Mugman which Mugman seemed to appreciate the serene trees that slowly seemed to be disappearing the further they walked. The environment was starting to become dry and much more humid, like the sun got closer to the earth on this side of the Offlands. Y/n had to roll up her sleeves to her button up to get at least a bit more air—but the air was so still and thick it felt like no air at all was cycling. 

The straps of the bag rubbing against her shoulders didn’t make it any better. Her scalp felt hot and she just felt like jumping into a pool of water to cool down. The weather felt like one of those horrible sunny summer days where everyone was hot indoor and outside they even a pool or a water park would suffice to their needs of comfort of cooling off, 

Y/n felt a tickling sensation crawl down her temple, and lifted a hand up to her temple to wipe the sweat away. 

Panchito and Donald were busy comparing the sticks they picked up—they didn’t seem bothered by the heat, not nearly as Y/n did. No one actually did. They walked just fine like it was nothing.

She slowed down and Oswald and Felix walked past her, the two glancing back at her when they spotted her slowing down like a car out of gas. Meek glanced back where they were and looked at Y/n who had let out a heavy huff and soon stopped walking completely. 

He turned his head back to Ruck who was walking between him and Don and said something to him. In which Ruck soon spoke up, not even glancing back at Y/n. 

“What’re doing Y/n?” He called back. 

Panchito and Donald looked back at Y/n to see she was a few feet behind, Cuphead and Mugman slowly stopped walking and stood next to  Panchito and Donald to glance back as well. And Oswald and Felix stopped walking as well to check on Y/n.

Y/n slowly sat down on the ground, her legs sprawled out in front of her as she sulked. 

“It’s hot.” She whines. She wanted to take a break from walking to cool off just for one second. 

Ruck glanced over his shoulder to the human while she turned her head to look at him. “And my legs hurt.” 

“You’re gonna end up dead if you don’t start picking yourself up.” He tells her. Y/n stared at him and furrowed her eyebrows and huffs. 

“It’s hot.” She repeats. 

Ruck looks at Meek and nudges his head forward for them to keep walking, Meek and Don continue walking and Ruck turns around and walks over to Y/n. 

“I got her.” Ruck told the toons as he motioned for them to continue walking. They all hesitated before they moved to continue walking. 

Y/n side eyes Ruck as he turns away from the others who were walking away. He moved to stand in front of her before kneeling down to her level. 

“Come on. Get up.” He moves an arm to slap the side of her arm. Y/n and sulks and sighs heavily. 

“But it’s hot—“

“You let something that’s not even physical stopping you from walking to a location, what makes you think you can fight something that’s physically in front of you when you’re sitting here whining about it being hot.” He rested his forearms on his knees and raised an eyebrow. Y/n furrowed her eyebrows, her chest heaving up and down from being tired out. 

“It’s only the first day.” He tells her. He placed a hand on her warm head. Her hair brushed between his fingers where he could feel her warm scalp.

“What seems tiring and impossible right now, will feel like a walk in the park the next day.” He gently shook her head and Y/n stared at him—she seemed to be on the fence, she’s never been in a situation where she either chose to just sit, or move. 

“Until you learn to stop walking backwards. You’re never gonna see what’s in front of you.” 

He could see her pupils dilate, like a match being lit in her, The corner of Y/n’s lip twitched into a frown and Ruck stood up and stood in front of her. Her eyes followed him as he stared down at her. 

“Your choice kid. Your journey, not mine.”

He moved and started after everyone else who was still walking. He heard the grass and leaves rustle, and when he turned to look behind him, he saw Y/n pushing herself up from the ground, dusting her pants. She looks at Ruck and he nods silently. 

“Let’s go then.” He tells her. 

-

Walking down the now dirt trail, the dirt resembled much like a dried dessert and it was understandable why the heat was so strong. The dried cracked ground was like concrete and there was a meadow of dried grass and some sand. A few trees around the arrow and a lake somewhere in the distance. The sun hadn’t lifted up, and Y/n’s legs felt like they were going to give out on her.  

Ruck slowly stops walking as well as everyone else and he glances around the area before glancing back at everyone. 

“Here.” He said. Y/n immediately drops the back on the ground near a tree under the sun. Spunk waddles over to the bag and flops on the ground to lay down. 

Y/n’s eyes gazed around the area, her chest heaving up and down from the walk. The trees were brittle and dried but seemed tall and healthy. The sand blew in the wind—the air hitting Y/n’s damp forehead, chasing a cool shiver to run up her spine. 

“Wonder if you can make a sand castle with some of this sand.” Cuphead pipes up as he hadn’t spoken too much through their short journey to the location. 

“I’m sure you probably can’t..” Oswald muttered from the background. 

“Put your bookbag back on.” Ruck glanced at Y/n. She looked away from her surroundings and glanced at him before furrowing her eyebrows, she just took it off..

“But—“ 

“Put it back on.” 

Huffing from her nose. She bent down and picked the heavy book bag up and placed it back on her shoulders, her sore shoulders weighing down heavily, she grimaced before fixing the straps and glancing at Ruck and he motioned over to the opening out into the hot sun that was ready to attack her with its spiking heat and devour her whole. 

“Walk over to that area over there.” He points way across the way, where some wooded area was located, perhaps the other side of the woods. It had shade, but that seemed like another 20 minute walk! 

Y/n flinched back and she grimaced. “What?! I already did all this walking!” She shouts. 

“Go.” Ruck orders. Y/n scrunched her nose up in irritation before throwing her head back with a loud shout. She trudged passed everyone out into the sun, spews of shouts and curses escaping from her mouth. 

“Dammit!” The human's voice shouts from the background. 

“Oh yeah. She needs a lot of work.” Don muttered and Ruck silently nodded as she watched her walk off, still speaking incoherently. 

“You know she kinda reminds me of Hector.” Meek adds on before turning his gaze to the toons behind the three. Don and Ruck still staring off at Y/n walking off to the distance. 

“I guess in the meantime you guys can train as well! Might motivate her.” He brings up and Donald deadpans. No thank you, he wasn’t going to be walking around for gods know how long. 

“We aren’t competing though.” He says. 

“Still got a group of goons waiting for you back home though and let’s not forget the fact that you all are fighting against the world, you’d rather procrastinate till deaths in front of you?” Ruck redirected his gaze to the toons and Cuphead snorts. 

“I fought death twice.” He boasts. 

“No he hasn’t.” Mugman quickly denies. 

“Well. Didn’t want to be reminded about that..” Oswald muttered as he rocks back and forth on his feet. 

“Then get out there.” Ruck said before walking off to follow Y/n.

-

Y/n felt her legs shake—something she never felt before, her knees giving up on her, the weight of the bookbag felt like a million anchors were on her back. She was tired. And hot..

Her legs slowly lowered to the ground, her knees gently touching the ground but she fixed the bag on her shoulders and lifted herself up before she could even touch the ground. Straightening her posture as she continued walking and furrowed her eyebrows before her eyes locked on the shade that was only a few feet away. 

She lets out another huff before her knees feel weak once more. Repeating the same action as before, she felt like a deer walking for the first time. Scrunching her nose up, she slams her foot on the ground and pushes herself forward, it was like she was fighting for her body to move instead of shutting down. 

She was almost there. 

Trudging a few feet she tumbled into the shade and fell onto the ground, the lake of water was a few feet ahead near the trees and water randomly laying around never looked so good until now. Y/n heaved and huffed as she rolled onto her back. Facing the leaves of the trees where the sun was peeking out of them. 

Ruck soon walks over and looks down at the tired human who seemed just about ready to pass out. 

“Good job, kid.” 

Y/n heaved and huffed and her eyes followed him as he walked off. She heard Meek call out to Ruck and Don but didn’t care to listen to what they were saying, she was more so focused on getting herself stable. 

Felix soon walked over and kneeled down next to Y/n. Placing a hand on her forehead.

“You okay?” He asks and Y/n nods slowly. 

“Never been better..” she grumbled. Donald laughs as he walks over. His foot nudged her side.

“You look horrible! Haha!”

“Donald.” Oswald warned before giving the duck a pointed expression. Donald huffs and stops laughing. 

“Oh, querida, are you okay?” Panchito sits on the ground near her head and gives her a worried expression. 

“God dammit—you fuckin’ mutt—“ Cuphead cursed as he tried to pick up Spunk away from the water the pup for some reason dipped his head in, but when he tried to pick up the pup, Spunk snapped at his hand like some crocodile and dipped his head back in the water and scurrying over to Y/n. 

Spunk stops near Y/n’s face and water shoots from his mouth and onto her face. She immediately closed her eyes and grimaced before quickly sitting up. 

“Alright, Y/n. Come on, get up.”

Ruck calls out, he looks away from the tree he was looking at and over to Mugman and Cuphead. “You boys know how to shoot?” 

Cuphead raises his eyebrows. “Oh most definitely, you know. I knew a few tricks.” His eyes slid over to Y/n and he caught her gaze before winking. Y/n stared at him before looking at Ruck and standing up. Felix and Panchito followed after her as they were kneeled on the ground. 

“Great, we’ll get to that later. First thing is. You need to learn how to hold your breath.” Ruck motions over to the lake a few feet away, rocks and trees and sand surrounding the large lake. She could only wonder what it would be like to swim in it. 

“Having a bow is precisely about how you aim and shoot. The more you hold your breath the better you can aim at what you’re looking for, but most importantly.” His eyes trailed off to the water. 

“It might come in handy for later down the line. You’re a warrior now, you should learn to hold your breath for more than 5 minutes.” 

Y/n was silent before her eyes flickered to the water and back to Ruck. “So I get to swim.” 

Ruck rolled his eyes. “What did I just say?” 

“So swimming it is.” 

-

Wading in the water, Ruck sat on a rock near the lake. He held the bow and was adjusting the string seeing Y/n somehow loosened it up. 

Panchito and Donald were busy off near the trees exploring some things—like always. Oswald and Felix were already in the water—mostly because Oswald was complaining about how hot it was and the fact that Cuphead was going to teach her to hold her breath and Felix wanted to make sure the two didn’t die in the process. And Mugman sat near a tree holding the book in his hand reading to pass time until they all would start doing the technical stuff, Ruck wanted to start off slow. For Y/n’s sake.

Cuphead slowly drifted over. His hand rested on the dry ground as he floated near Y/n silently. 

“What are we gonna do after this?” Y/n asks. 

“Practicing your archery.” Ruck responds before his head flickered to the water— in their direction. 

“Go practice until I can get this damned thing fixed that you somehow destroyed.” 

Y/n looked at Cuphead who started floating backwards. 

“Alright. Come on.” He tells her, Y/n swam after him and gazed down at the water. The lake was actually pretty clean—usually when she saw lakes they were green and murky. But the water was as blue as the ocean. 

“I dunno how much of a good trainer you are.” Y/n jokes and Cuphead raised an eyebrow. “I can be a good trainer. What makes you think Mugsy knows how ta’ play the piano so good?” 

“I’ve never seen Mugman play a piano before.” 

Cuphead grew silent at that statement. “Right..right, yeah.” 

The two were silent for a moment and Cuphead’s eyes moved away from the water before opening his mouth to speak but whatever he was about to say he couldn’t seem to get out. Y/n pressed her lips together and Cuphead grimaced. 

“Shit…” he muttered under his breath. 

“I said don’t make anything awkward.” Y/n lowered her voice to him and he tilted his head and huffed. “Me? I ain’t makin’ anythin’ awkward—“ 

“You’re a dirty liar.” Y/n furrowed her eyebrows and Cuphead snorted. “Look we’ll talk about this later—“

“No we’re not.” She quickly declines that statement and Cuphead stares at her and blinks. “Yes. We are.” 

“We promised it would be under lock and key.” 

“Y/n. I’m serious—“ 

“And I’m serious. You’re gonna teach me to hold my breath underwater or not? Because this is getting real awkward.” Y/n lowered into the water and the water touched her chin and Cuphead slowly sighs. 

“Yeah. Just hold your breath.” He deadpans. Y/n stared at him before slowly lowering herself into the water. Cuphead perked up and gasps. 

“I was joking! I’ll help!” 

-

“Like this?” Y/n said as she inhaled, her chest heaving up and filling her lungs with air. Cuphead nods as he follows her actions. 

“Yeah, like that. It should slow your heart down—“

It took a little over an hour for Cuphead to give Y/n a good rundown on the proper way to hold your breath under water. At first she couldn’t go 3 minutes, but now she could go a good 6 minutes. She sat under water and watched the fishes swim past her, her eyes following them, the air bubbles left Y/n’s nose and she was off in her own little world looking at what the water had to provide. The rocks and fishes of different colors.

Later on. Y/n was standing next to Felix who was speaking to her about how to walk with the bow while aiming at something. She held the bow in her hand as she aimed it at a tree and walked sideways. 

“Like this?”

Felix shook his head and pointed to her feet. “Foot over the other.” 

She placed her right foot over the left to move and repeated the action as she pulled the arrow back and shot it at the tree. In which it actually hits it! She smiled and quickly looked at Felix who smiled at her. 

It was about an hour Felix got to train Y/n with the bow, until Ruck walked over. 

“Left.” 

Y/n aimed to the left. 

“Right.” 

She then aimed to the right. 

“Left.”

And repeated the action over again. She thought that the training would be horrible but overall. With swimming and getting better at the bow. 

But that was quickly ruined. 

“Alright. Warm up is over.” 

Y/n quickly looks at Ruck as she places the arrow back on her quiver. 

“Huh?” 

“You’re good with swimming and getting better with the bow. But the contest isn’t relying on those two.” Ruck stands next to some trees that seemed to resemble an aisle, something she hardly noticed. 

“It’s based on your strength and agility and obstacles.” 

“Oh man. I love obstacles.” Panchito sighs and Ruck nods. 

“You guys are doing it too. It’s a race.” 

Ruck motions Y/n over to him and she walks over and looks down the aisle of trees that had branches intertwining, vines, rocks and other things that looked like a natural organic obstacle. She blinked owlishly at the view. It seemed fun to explore it; if everything didn’t seem like it would cause her to break an arm. Her eyes slowly moved to Ruck who had his arms crossed over his chest. 

“I can’t get past all this shit.” She juts her finger behind her, motioning to the toons behind her.

“They can.” 

“Your name’s on that board with Stinks.” 

Y/n immediately stopped talking as she stared at him and furrowed her eyebrows. 

“What?”

“You’re gonna fight him. Vendolez and a boy who has a chain of annual wins.”

Y/n’s eyes stayed glued on Ruck and her eyes hardened and he slowly nodded once seeing her expression. 

“…”

“So it’s your choice. I’m teaching you to take the hits, not punch harder.”

“Guess I’ll bust my ass through this course again.”

-

Y/n hissed in pain as she trudged back into Welkin. The sun was starting to set, the course was..a pain. At Least she was learning to climb trees more, despite having a few falls and tumbles, the race was nice with her friends. They more so were playing around rather than training but Ruck surprisingly let them, she was certain the training would get harder as days progressed. 

Mugman laughs as Donald complains about how he would have won if he didn’t trip over a log—his typical bad luck of course coming in to ruin it for him. 

“Oh don’t worry! I think you did wonderful!” Panchito slaps a hand on Donald’s back who grunted in response. 

Felix was the one who won the race. No surprise Y/n came in dead last again. “Yeah. I lost.” Y/n said. Her clothes were littered with dirt and grime from the amount of climbing and falling. But that was the least of her worries. She just dreaded having to wake up and be met with a sore body and new obstacles. This was just the tip of the iceberg. 

Felix placed a hand on Y/n’s back and smiled at her. “You still did great.” He praised. 

“I’m starving..” Oswald mutters and Mugman nods in agreement. With a day's worth of training and running around and walking back for almost 4 hours. Food was the first thing on their mind. And Y/n couldn’t agree more. 

Some people in town greeted the group, Atleast one good thing came out of being a Vendolez. 

“I’ll get us something to eat.” Meek says before breaking off in a different direction, surely towards a shop, Don followed after him and Y/n spotted some benches with tables and immediately walked over to them and sat down. Panchito had grown distracted with a toy shop that made handmade toys and he was too busy looking at the displays. Y/n saw a paper be placed in front of her, her eyes flickered down at the paper to see it was a flier—in some way to promote the contest. 

She saw her name right next to Stinks on the list of names—on who would be going up against each other. Y/n looked over to see Donald who grinned at her. 

“So, this is the guy?” He asks. Y/n deadpans before nodding. “Yeah..” 

“Stinks? What type of name is that?” He laughed and crumbled up the paper and tossed it behind his back. 

Mugman sat down next to Y/n and looked at her. “I’ve seen his dad around the castle. He’s the first in command for their battalion.” Mugman brings up and Y/n could remember Stinks vaguely boasting about that. 

“How’d you know that’s his dad?” She asks. 

“He was telling me about how his son is the leading winner of these contests.” He then rolled his eyes. 

“Sorta bragging about it if you ask me..”

“Where is he? I wanna meet this guy.” Cuphead piped up and crossed his arms. “He got an arm, I got one too.” 

“No one’s doing anything to him.” Felix wants as he gives everyone a pointed expression. “I’m sure that his personal vendetta with Y/n is in the rings only.” 

“In the rings only? The guy busted her eyebrow open.” Oswald placed a hand on Y/n’s head. Oswald knew Felix didn't believe in what he said either. 

“Or..he..probably doesn't like you.” Felix quickly adds in before continuing to speak to push away what he said prior. “But either way. Just stir clear from him.” 

“Great advice. I’ll be sure not to run into him when I have to fight him.” Y/n sighs and rubs her forehead. 

“Hey guys!” 

Looking over. Bendy and Lucy walked over, her arm intertwined with his as always. “Oh god.” Oswald quickly said once seeing Lucy. 

Lucy gives Y/n a concerned look when she sees her state. She looked exhausted, beaten and dirty. 

“Oh dear. What happened?” She asks before removing herself from Bendy and walking over to the table and pinch at Y/n’s cheek. 

“Ow—nothing—I’m fine—ow—“ as Lucy worried about Y/n’s state, Panchito walked over and spotted Bendy before smiling. 

“Well. I have not seen you in..hours. You’re still alive, that is a good thing.” He smiled and Bendy hummed in agreement. 

“Yeah.” He glanced at everyone. “Looks like you all came back from trainin?” 

“She’s a little irritated right now.” Felix informed and glanced at the human show as still being checked up on by Lucy. 

“But she did great today.” 

Y/n brushed Lucy’s hands away, in which she backed away from Y/n and placed her hands behind her back with a smile. 

“Yeah, I'm good. Just a few minor scratches.” 

“Minor?” Bendy raised an eyebrow. And Y/n deadpans before grimacing. He then leaned towards Y/n and sniffed her. “You also smell like a wet dog.” He teased and Y/n huffs. 

“It’s almost like I wasn’t outside in the heat all day.” 

Ruck had walked over but when he spotted Lucy he seemed to be taking a step back to walk away but the girl already caught sight of him and smiled. 

“Oh hi!” She quickly says and Ruck deadpans. It was clear he did not want anything to do with Lucy. 

“What have you two lovebirds been up to?” Cuphead teased and Bendy looked over Lucy towards him and squinted his eyes. 

“Oh nothing. Just doing some duties around the town.” Lucy replied. Felix’s ears perked up and he smiled at Bendy. 

“That’s great. We’ve only gotten around to catching chickens.” 

“Which is why I brought the offer to the table, she never did much around the town before.” Bendy replied and Mugman raised an eyebrow. 

“Since when did you start willingly wanting to help people?”

“Since when did you start askin’ so many questions?” Bendy quickly shot back. 

“I’m glad we ran into you all, I wanted to see how your archery skills are.” Lucy looks at Y/n. Y/n blinks and sighs. 

“I’m sore.” She muttered before getting up from the bench and stretching. Her muscles and bones popping. 

“I’m as stiff as a board I can do this—“

“Jesus christ don’t.” Ruck muttered but Y/n ignored him before stiffly moving her arms like she was mimicking a robot.  

Panchito tilts his head. “What—what is that?” 

Lucy smiles before letting out a soft laugh at Y/n’s actions. 

Donald deadpans and rolls his eyes. “Embarrassing..” 

A few ways ahead stood a small group standing near the bulletin board. The dog toon taps Stinks on the shoulder who was busy examining the flier on the board. The classes just let out and everyone was either on their way home or standing around catching up with one another. 

Stinks turns and looks at his friends who snickered and points over across the way, where Stink’s eyes landed on Y/n. Who was busy standing with her group—she was doing some odd dance. 

The dog mimicked the humans moves goofily and the others in the group laughed except for Stinks who didn’t find it funny at all. 

“It’s the Prince.” Someone whispered.

“He’s a demon.” 

“There goes that girl.”

“Ay, Stinks.” Stinks looks over to see another contestee leaning on the wall, near their age with toned skin and broad shoulders, he was the second rank in the contest. But as an alumni, even then he couldn’t beat Stink’s score. 

The guy pointed to the flier and chuckled. 

“That’s that Vendolez?” He asks. The contestee’s either gathered around or were still speaking to their friends. Stinks furrowed his eyebrow and glanced back over at Y/n who was busy speaking to her group. 

“Gal clearly is good if she’s gonna go 1 on 1 with the man.” 

“Talking that? I’m worried about that demon, you know you can’t trust em.” The dog toon points outs. 

Stinks ignored them before he started across the way. A few contestee’s giving hushed whispers when he saw Stinks sauntering over Y/n’s way. 

“Oh yeah, I know those. I love those flowers!” Lucy smiled as Y/n was explaining what cool things she saw while they were all out. 

“I heard they make you sneeze for eternity.” Mugman pipes up and Lucy quickly smiles and nods in confirmation. 

Lucy digs in her dress pocket before looking at Y/n and pulls out a paper. “I made this for you. Bendy told me what happened while you were training. I didn’t have much so I made a drawing.” She smiled and Y/n unfolded the paper and looked down at it to see a smiling sun. ‘Don’t give up!’ 

It wasn’t much, but it did cause Y/n to smile. “Aw..thanks L—“

“Lucy.”

Y/n turns around to see Stinks had stopped walking and looked at Lucy who raised her eyebrows. 

“I didn’t expect you to actually find someone.” His eyes flickered over to Bendy. “Especially a demon. I heard they eat humans.” 

“Razor sharp teeth!” Howled one of his friends from the background. Some of the pedestrians had stopped in their duties to place their attention on the group. 

“Hey man, if I were you, I would do somethin’ about that.” Cuphead quickly tells Bendy. Bendy only blinked and rolled his eyes. 

“Come on, Stinks. It’s not that serious.” Lucy starts. Y/n remained silent as she glanced at Stinks who seemed to completely ignore her, and she was glad in all honesty. She was too tired for anything. 

Lucy sighs through her nose and her eyes flickered up to Bendy. Donald had nudged Bendy and shook his head when the demon looked at him. 

“That’s enough.” 

“And you, you’re on the list with me.” Stinks placed his gaze on Y/n.

“I’ll put you on the front page of every newsletter. I ain’t got nothing to lose.” 

Y/n looked at Stinks and she heard some murmurs in the crowd and she only shrugged. “Not fighting you—“

He smacked the paper from her hand and Y/n furrowed her eyebrows before picking up the paper and he yet again knocked it from her grasp. 

“What do you have to lose?” Stinks asks. And Y/n huffs before moving to pick the paper up again. 

“Okay, Stinks. Leave her alone.”

Ruck shook his head at the group sitting at the bench, he knew they would pounce in whenever but he wanted Y/n to figure her way out of this situation. 

When Y/n picked the paper back up, Stinks was about to smack it from her hand again—in an attempt to get her angry, clearly. But Y/n countered that by moving her hand away from his, which he looked at her in surprise—like she wasn’t supposed to do it.

He quickly placed a hand on the side of her face and shoved her to the ground. Y/n fell onto the ground and hissed in pain. Felix slowly stood up from the bench to walk over to her but Ruck placed a hand in front of him and looked back at everyone. 

“Don’t move. I need to see what she’ll do.” 

“You crazy? She’s getting beat—“ Cuphead quickly objects. 

“Stinks! Leave her alone!” Lucy shouts. Stinks turned to walk off—ignoring Lucy. Y/n breathed heavily and she clenched her eyes shut but soon opened her eyes and heaved herself from the ground. Ruck nods as Y/n sheds herself from the bookbag and tosses it to the ground.

Some of the contestee’s made a noise of surprisement which caused Stinks to turn and look back at Y/n to see she was standing up. Y/n sighed and looked at her group of friends. 

“This shit about to hurt.” She said and Donald gave her a strained smile. “You’re doing great!” 

Stinks raised his eyebrows before motioning Y/n to come closer, beckoning her to do something, she only stared at him before he started to walk over to her first, she immediately threw a punch but he caught her arm and tossed a punch to her abdomen. 

Y/n stumbled and he shoved her back causing her to fall back onto the ground. The group chanted in unison but Y/n was mostly focused on finding a way to get out of this without making a fool of herself.

She wheezed and stumbled back up. Stinks didn’t hold his cocky attitude like he did yesterday, he genuinely seemed angry at something. 

As he glanced at his friends who were patting the ground towards Y/n’s direction as they spoke to her in humor. Some speaking in some language she’s never heard before. 

“Get up!”

“Get him!”

Stinks eyes landed on his father who had come over to see what the suddenly crowded area was for—all considering it was his job. Stinks’s ears perked up when he saw his father there.

“She’s gonna pass out.” Felix says as his eyes were glued on Y/n form who was on her hands and knees wobbling. But before Ruck could say anything, Stinks looked back at Y/n, but was met with her quickly getting up and throwing a stern punch to his face. 

He stumbles back but quickly recovers and grabs her shoulders before tossing his knee up and kneeling her in the abdomen, she kneeled over and and met with a punch to the temple. 

And then her nose. It was like one blow after the other. Y/n stumbled and her vision blurred but she tossed herself at Stinks with a shout, the two stumbled to the ground and Y/n tossed a punch at him but he caused her wrist, his hands squeezing her knuckles before shoving her off him. He squats above her and with all his might tossed a punch to her temple. 

“Möhsha!” Lucy shouts in a different tongue. Stinks pauses when he hears her—it was clear whatever she said, it was a command for him to stop. 

“Okay! That’s enough! Get off of her!” Lucy repeats as she quickly walks over and shoves Stinks off Y/n who remained on the ground. Stinks steps back as told and wiped the blood from his mouth and nose. “I’ll see you at the contest.” He spat before turning and walking off. 

Y/n stared up at Lucy  as she placed a hand on her wrist to sit her up, but the human felt like a log. “Come on. Get up, we’re going home.” 

“K.O’d!” Laughed a contestee as they all walked off. The crowd dispersed thanks to the guards doing their job. 

Felix kneels beside Lucy and places a hand on the side of Y/n’s face. “Yeah..he knocked her out.” He says before sighing. A wheezing soft escaped Y/n’s mouth, a split from under her eye and chin leaked blood, and he was certain a black eye would start forming soon. 

“But she’s still wake?” Donald asks. 

“Yes she’s still awake, just in a daze.” Felix replied. Panchito was ranting about something in Spanish in the background and Lucy placed a hand in Y/n’s stomach and leaned down to get a closer look in her eyes. 

She saw Y/n’s pupils dilate and her eyes weren't focused on Lucy, it seemed like she was looking past her. “You poor thing..” 

“Here. I’ll get her.” Bendy walked over and kneeled down onto the ground and slid his arms under Y/n before picking her up. 

-

Y/n leaned her head on the pillow and slowly blinked as Lucy sat on the bed in front of her. “I apologize for Stinks behavior.” She frowned. Y/n was still very dazed but good enough to understand. Oswald was seated next to the bed and was busy wiping away the dried blood from her face. 

“She’s still in a daze I think.” 

“I’m fine…” Y/n replied and slowly blinked. 

“Told you that shit would hurt….” She muttered. 

“You did good, kid don’t worry about it.” Ruck says from across the room. Spunk laid on the bed fast asleep and Y/n’s mouth slowly formed into a smile once hearing his words. 

“Look, I’ll handle it next time, just give me the world, I have him high tailin it out of town in no time.” Cuphead walks over and Y/n’s eyes slid over to him. Y/n sighed and frowned. “My eye hurts..” She whispered and Oswald placed a hand on her arm. 

“I know. It’s swollen.” He says and Y/n sighs as she felt him place a cool towel on her eye.

“How are you feeling about tomorrow?” Ruck asks. And Y/n moves her gaze to him.

“I’m ready for it.” 

“Really now?”

“You saw that punch? I woulda had him down.” 

“As if.” Donald laughed and Y/n cracked a smile at his statement. “Maybe. I almost had him, better than last time.” 

“I’m sorry…you’re still going to fight him?” Mugman asks in bewilderment and Y/n smiles. “I ain’t got nothing to lose.”

“Oh your determination is so inspiring.” Lucy’s small voice speaks up. Soon Bendy walks over and sighs. “I almost killed the guy.”

“Is it because he called you a human eating demon?” Panchito asks from over by the couch where Felix was sitting beside him. Bendy deadpans.

“Aside from that.” 

“I don’t look at you that way.” Lucy says before looking at Bendy, he stops talking and looks down at her before slowly nodding. “Thank you…” 

Cuphead whistles and gives Mugman a sideways glance who also looks at him with the same expression. 

“Well. You need some rest. You’ve been active all day.” Oswald gains Y/n’s attention again and she turns her gaze to look at him. 

“Alright..”

“And tomorrow, we’ll do it all over again. Yeah!” Donald feigned excitement from the background.

-

“Stand your ground.” Y/n fixed her footing as Ruck stood beside her and slowly extended his left arm. “Twist the back to get a good friction.” 

Y/n did as told before extending her arm in a punching motion, ever so slightly twisting her back. 

“Good job.” Ruck praised. 

Y/n felt the sun beat on her once more and surprisingly the walk to the deserted location wasn’t nearly as tiring as it was yesterday. It was like the debacle from yesterday pushed her more in the direction to get up and make a change, she didn’t complain not once while holding the heavy bag for their walk. Her left eye was sore to the touch, and a nasty colored bruise was forming there. But Y/n still got out of bed and was ready to face the day. Which was a surprise to Ruck.

Ruck was surprised to see even with Y/n covered in bruises and scars, the kid still hopped from bed and walked back outside as if the entire town didn’t just see her get her ass kicked last night, she was like a stubborn bull, at times wanting to do as told but other times backing away and just simply letting her target go, she was always on the fence, but she was starting to get a better understanding of having to move forward. And that was what Ruck was glad to see. It made him wonder how many times did this kid fall and busted her ass for her to finally get the gist that maybe it would be best to atleast teach herself some basic training to defend herself. 

Ruck slowly stopped in his motion in teaching her to properly throw a punch as he watched her silently straighten her arms from left to right, following in his actions as he told her. She smiled before she quickly swung her arm over to Ruck to his rib cage, even with him drifting off to his own mind thinking he could see what she planned on doing a mile away. He quickly grabbed her wrist and shoved her to the ground, which she let out a shout and fell onto her back. The dried dirt from under her puffing under her fall and she coughs and lets out a wheeze before squinting up at Ruck. The run casting a shadow over him. 

“You tried it.” He says. Usually what would have pissed Y/n off from being knocked to the ground too many times caused a smile to erupt on her face before she lets out a laugh at being caught so quickly. Ruck stared at her for a moment with furrowed eyebrows before the corner of his lips slowly raised and he chuckled softly. 

“Come on, get up kid..” he says before reaching an arm down where Y/n took ahold of his hand and heaved herself up from the ground.

Oswald watched from under the tree, mostly because he wanted to sit under the shade. He smiled softly as he watched Y/n return to her position and look at Ruck and he continued to construct her on how to properly hold her ground while fighting. 

“You know they seem to be getting a lot more.” Oswald says. Felix and Panchito were standing beside him as they were also watching the two as well. 

“Well. I believe it is a good thing. He is her uncle after all.” Panchito agrees. 

Cuphead was laying on his back staring off at the sky with a calculated expression, his brother looked at his brother as Panchito, Felix, and Oswald were speaking with each other. Cuphead didn’t nearly seem as active as usual. Usually he would be busy climbing trees and raising havoc to maybe piss off Ruck who was trying to train Y/n. But no. He sulked on the ground instead. 

“What’s up with you?” Mugman asks and Cuphead slowly blinks. “Nothin.” 

Donald held Spunk before placing the pup on the ground. The pup rolled on the ground and let out a bark. 

“Yeah, we’ll just pretend like Felix didn’t almost have a panic attack over Y/n last night.” Donald chuckled and walked over to Oswald, Felix and Panchito standing next to each other as they watched Y/n and Ruck. 

“I know you guys have had some run-ins with people but I wasn’t actually there to experience it. I was just worried is all.” Felix says and Cuphead grumbled as he stared out into the sky.  

“I’ll blow the guys head off the next time I see him.” 

Mugman furrowed his eyebrows. “No you won’t..” 

“I’ll make it possible—“

“Shut up—“ 

Meanwhile, Y/n was invested with Ruck teaching her the basics of fist fighting. The day was going to be king with training, and despite the heat already pounding onto her, she was still ready to face it. 

Ruck smacked the back of Y/n’s head as she was busy repeating the actions with punching the air slowly. She flinched and quickly held the back of her head and looked at Ruck. 

“I told you to pay attention. The guy got to you because you were focused on him and not his swings.” Ruck said. Y/n rubbed the back of her head and slowly lowered her hands to her side. 

“He moves too quickly.” She tells him. Stinks was very quick when it came to him throwing punches, fast enough to where her mind couldn’t latch onto everything at once. 

“Then you’ll be quicker.” 

Y/n focused on what he said and pressed her lips together in an; ‘alright’ motion.

Ruck lifts an arm up again to hit Y/n’s head, but she quickly flinches away from his arm. Ruck stopped in his motion at the sudden reaction she had, he couldn’t tell if it was because of a reflex or she was learning. 

“I was reaching for the arrows on your back, dumbass.” 

“What do you expect? You kept hitting me.” 

“Get your bow, we’ll start from there.” 

-

The last several hours was spent training, Y/n was busy doing most of the work as her friends sat around, either exploring the area, watching or coming into help every once in a while. But Ruck was actually spending time to help Y/n this time. 

At one point she was swimming around in the lake, focusing on holding her breath under the water as Cuphead had once started teaching her before—and no surprise, from his statement yesterday. He was a pretty good teacher. Repeating his steps in her head, she held the stopwatch in her hands. Resting her forearms on the rocks, pieces of grass brushing against her arms, she clicked the button on the stop watch and placed it on the ground before slowly taking a deep breath, her lungs expanding with air and she soon dipped into the water. 

Ruck was slowly walking over to the lake where he saw Y/n vanish under the water. Sending her off to work on her breathing skills as yesterday she did good—average for a human to hold their breath underwater, but not good enough. The furthest she went was maybe 5 minutes before the kid came rushing back up for air. 

Y/n was under the water gazing upon the fishes in the meantime. Staying completely still, with her being focused on holding her breath, she couldn’t keep track of how much time passed under the water. Her chest tightened to a degree, signaling she was running out of breath. The bubbles left from her nose slowly, her heart rate picking back up, she slowly closed her eyes to focus on her heart rather than focusing on the fishes. Calming herself down, the human furrowed her eyebrows in frustration at the feeling of wanting to get air. 

Another 3 minutes passed before she opened her eyes and swam back up to the surface. Slowly taking in the air and filling her lungs with the air she looked over to see Ruck holding the stopwatch. He looked at her when she arises from the water. 

“You got to 10.” He tells her. Y/n smiled widely and he chuckled. “Good job kid.” 

“Yes!” She hissed in glee and splashed the water.

Later on. Y/n was practicing her archery skills, Mugman stood a few feet away with an apple on top of his head and his arms glued to his side. 

“Please! Don’t shoot me.” He quickly warns for the 100th time. Cuphead seemed intrigued and wanted to actually volunteer to shoot the apple from Mugman’s head but Felix wouldn’t let him anywhere near the bow. Cuphead had the tendency to get too carried away. 

“You’ll be fine, the best way to teach her to shoot a target is to focus on it.” Ruck was leaning on a tree gazing at Mugman before he looked over at Y/n who was loading the arrow onto the bow. 

“You don’t wanna shoot your friend now do you?” Ruck states—in an attempt to further push Y/n to shoot the arrow at the Apple only. 

“You shout anywhere else, you’re running the risk of potentially leaving your friend in critical condition—“

“I know. I know.” Y/n groans before lifting her arms up and bringing the arrow back. The string creaking which caused Mugman’s shoulders to tense up.

“I won’t shoot you Mugman, I promise—“

“And when was the last time you made an actual bullseye?! Better yet for a target as small as an apple?!” He shouts over to her. Y/n puckered her lips and raised her eyebrows. 

“Or. I could shoot you. We can always go that route too.”

Mugman points a finger at Y/n, the apple wobbling on the rim of his head—how it didn’t fall? No one had a clue. 

“Don’t you dare!” He shouts—he was already kicking in frustration and anxiety just by standing there. Donald was busy in the background laughing at Mugman’s tantrum. 

“Stand still.” Ruck orders before Mugman quickly stands as stiff as a board. Y/n pulled the arrow back once more, her knuckles brushing her cheek bone. She pointed her index finger out and aimed it above the apple. She was still for a moment debating if it was right to shoot, despite her statement before, she really didn’t want to shoot Mugman. 

Furrowing her eyebrows in concentration.

Don’t hit Mugman, Don’t hit Mugman, Don’t hit Mugman!

She released the arrow and it flew off and embedded itself into the apple! The apple falls from Mugman’s head and falls onto the ground and he lets out a heavy sigh of relief. Ruck looks at Y/n and nods in approval. 

Y/n gasps before quickly looking at Felix and smiling widely. “I hit something!” She shouts in glee as she prances over to Felix and hopped up and down in front of him in excitement. 

“Good job! I knew you could do it.” He laughs. 

Later on Y/n was busy trudging up a steep hill that was a few ways from the wooded area. The other stayed back near the woods with Meek and Don to work on their own things, since they were there they might as well be productive and train on their own. Emphasis on the training as it was usually Cuphead using his peashooter to shoot at everyone as they ran away from him and tried to see who could hurdle over stuff the fastest. Deadly to a human, but fun for toons. 

Y/n had a harness strapped to her, it reminded her of those harness leashes parents would put on their children out in public, in this case. Ruck had a harness on as well, and there was a Velcro lead that was wrapped from the back of Y/n’s harness and ran about a good 12 feet over to the front of Ruck’s harness.

It was stored in Y/n’s bookbag and Y/n wondered what it was for when she questioned it, and now she wished she didn’t. She had to walk up the steep dried grass hill. While tugging Ruck’s weight. And he felt like he weighed a million tons. 

Now that she is getting into the technical part of training after working her way up from the easy stuff this morning, she immediately felt frustration build up in her. Too much work! 

Y/n let out a loud strained shout as she fell onto her knees. And clawed at the ground to heave herself up the hill. She couldn’t do it. He was too heavy, he was trudging behind her and was relying on her to walk him up the hill. 

Y/n let out a heavy sigh before falling into the ground, landing onto her sore torso. The side of her face pressed onto the dried grass. The harsh grass pricking her skin. Her back heaved up and down frantically and sweat was rolling down her face. 

“What’s wrong kid? You were doing just fine earlier this morning. You seemed ready to take on the world.” Ruck remained a few feet behind her. He wasn’t even at the slope of the hill yet and Y/n couldn’t even drag him up there. There was no way she could get the two of them up the entire hill. 

“You’re too heavy!” She complained. She clenched her eyes closed at the sore feeling in her legs and chest. Her breathing was rigid and tired, Ruck walks over and squats down. Slapping her back multiple times like he was hitting some machine. 

“Of course it’s gonna burn, what you think this was gonna be? Easy?” He placed the palm of her hand on her back, feeling her rapid heart beating through her like drums. She laid on the ground and a whine escaped her mouth. 

“I can’t do it..” she whispered.  Her lips wavering, every ounce of motivation had quickly vanished in one sitting. 

“You gotta get used to the uncomfortable environment, kid. Life’ll sneak up on you and take your dignity—whatever left you got of it that is.” He starts. And Y/n didn’t reply as she was too focused on easing the pain in her legs and the now headache swelling in her head.

“Tryin’ to teach you to push back, the world is going to soon rely on your ability, kid. And it’s up to you to take matters in your own hand.” 

Y/n lets out a shaky breath slowly lifting her head to look up the steep hill. Her blurred vision was being blocked by the glossy wet feeling in her eyes. Ruck watched Y/n silently. He waited to see what her next move was. Y/n placed a hand on the ground and heaved herself up from the ground. The string between the two moved up from off the ground as she stumbled slightly upon the steep hill, but soon started to trudged forward, pulling Ruck with her as he trudged after her. 

“Good job.”

She heard him mutter from behind her. Y/n lets out a strained groan as she felt like she was tugging with all her might. Bringing a foot forward and digging the sole of her shoes in the ground, her hands latching onto her straps of the harness for tension as she trudged towards the top of the hill with Ruck following behind her. 

Ruck slowly nods as Y/n crawls the hill with every strength in her body. Her legs felt sore and weak, yet she continued on, she trudged for a good few minutes, almost reaching the top—one more step to the top, but she grew weaker, as her knees trembled.

“Don’t stop now, you’re almost there.” She heard Ruck quickly shout out. Y/n placed both hands on the flat ground of the hill and tugged herself up, her leg placed on the ground, she squinted her eyes and dug her sore nails into the soil and with one hard tug, she rushed onto the top like a bull running towards a muleta. 

“Whoa—“ Ruck stumbles slightly from the sudden surge of energy that possessed the human. He stumbles onto the top of the hill as well and looks at the human who had turned to look at him, her chest heaved up and down heavily from exhaustion. Sweat glistened on her forehead and she jumped up and down with a smile. 

“I did it!” She shouts. Her voice echoing in the air from the hill. Ruck raises a hand, and Y/n quickly high gives him. 

“Let’s go!” 

With newfound confidence, for the last several hours Y/n felt confident in herself. More confident than she felt in weeks. 

She had climbed the trees with Felix next. 

Falling from the branch and falling onto the ground. Felix’s ears quickly fold back and he gasps. 

“Oh my goodness! Are you okay?!” He quickly walked over to Y/n and was about to help her up, but she pounced back up from the ground like it was nothing. 

“Sorry, put my foot in the wrong place.” She quickly apologized as Felix took her arm and looked at the small splinter stuck in her arm, he gently picked it out and flicked it away. Y/n wipes her arm on her pants and looks back at the large tree—the one that had the many obstacles that she..failed miserably. But now, she wanted to return to it with open arms. 

She bounds back over to the tree and jumps up to the first branch and looks over to the branch diagonal of her that was a few feet above. But also a branch that was above her. She picked the easiest to obtain, which was the branch above her. Jumping up, she grabbed onto the branch and heaved herself up before standing on the branch and placing a hand on the trunk to keep her balance. She looked down to see Felix watching her. 

“See? I got it.” She smiled. Felix’s eyes flickered over to the branch diagonal of her. He was supposed to be teaching her to climb the tree in a more agile and helpful manner. Ruck was supposed to be doing it. But he got distracted while helping Mugman and Cuphead aim their peashooters. They had very good aim from what Felix could see and had impeccable reflexes. But lacked in shooting a moving target. Something Y/n would soon dwell in, but for now. Taking baby steps to climb trees would be best. 

“Can you get to this branch without falling?” He asks before raising a hand and pointing to the branch. Y/n looks at the branch and eyes it before looking at Felix. 

“You grab with your hands first.” Felix adds. Y/n stared at the branch for a tad bit long before hopping from the branch she was standing on. Her arms grabbed onto the branch she was aiming for. And she heaved herself up, despite her sore body, she still used every ounce of energy she could. 

Felix smiled up as she was situated herself to stand on the tree. “You’re doing good, Y/n!” Felix praised. Y/n peered down at him and smiled. Repeating her actions before she hopped from one branch to the other, the higher she climbed the more confident she became with climbing the trees, but also the more she climbed up, the more the branches started intertwining. 

She placed her foot on the V shape branch and climbed up on the thick branch that could be used for a bridge seeing it was sturdy enough for her to walk upon it. Gazing down at the ground. She felt lightheaded when she saw she was feet away from the ground. She couldn’t tell how far, but it was certainly enough for her to break something internally if she were to fall. She couldn’t see Felix at the base of the tree—which he was there watching her to make sure she didn’t fall off, but alas. She didn’t see him. 

Furrowing her eyebrows she squats down and lays on her stomach to gaze down to the ground. Looking under the branch to see if he was on the other side of the tree, she didn’t see anything other than vegetation and other trees. 

Standing back up, her shoulders lowered from the tension she didn’t even know she had in them. But the human quickly flinched when she saw a figure standing beside her. 

“Shit!” Y/n shouts. Felix takes a step back from her sudden statement, she hardly heard him coming up the tree. In fact she didn’t even know he was climbing it. 

“Sorry!” He quickly apologized—clearly he didn’t mean to frighten her. Y/n’s heart rate calmed down seeing it was just Felix and she let out a weak laugh. 

“I didn’t know you were up here.”

“I followed so I can show you how to jump from one tree to the other.” He says before walking past her, the branch shaking slightly from the two walking on it, it caused her to pause in walking—hesitant if the branch would fall, but seeing Felix walking with no problem was a good sign that the branch was pretty strong enough for them to walk on it. The further out the branch got, the thinner. Thin enough to where you would have to balance yourself like you were walking a plank. Felix walked past it with. In Fact he didn’t seem like he had to balance himself at all. Y/n placed one foot in front of the other and gently raised her arms to walk across the branch. She glanced up to see Felix turned to look at her, she smiled and walked over to him like some child taking their first steps. 

“You know, me personally, I think I’ll make a great Tarzan.” She jokes. Felix chuckled. 

“I don’t think you would like sleeping outside for more than a week.” 

“True. When we slept in the snow, that was a nightmare.” 

She stood next to him and he looked over to the tree across the way. There was a decent sized gap, enough for someone to make a jump, but still risky for anyone new to jumping. Like Y/n. “We’ll jump to this other tree, same as before. Your arms will balance you out. You know, sorta like a plane when they are in the sky.” 

Y/n nods at his words. Her optics danced between where they were standing and to the branch across. Felix was still ranting on about the aerodynamics of how the wind travels through your arms when you jump—bad gravity and Newton's law and inertia for some reason? 

“Which is why I say, when you just go it, it’ll be so much easier. Just jump to the branch and jump over to the next one.” Felix finally ends before looking at Y/n. Y/n stared at the tree and then looked at Felix. 

“Okay so what do I do if I fall? Just asking.” 

“Hm.” Felix’s eyes flickered down the ground quickly before it flickered back to Y/n.”It’ll more than likely hurt.” 

Y/n deadpans and Felix smiled before he walked ahead and hops over to the other branch like it was no problem. 

“Alright! Come on!” He shouts over. He steps back from the edge so Y/n could have room to jump. Y/n walked to the edge of the branch and her eyes immediately looked down to the ground. Feets away from the ground, a tickling shiver crept up her spine and she let out a sigh. Backing away from the branch with one step Felix quickly started to speak before the human could create a cocoon of worries around her head.

“Hey, hey, don’t look down. All you have to do is jump. One big leap. Jump with your knees, keep them straight.” Felix immediately comforts. Y/n looks at him and then back at the ground and then back at him.

“If I jump, I’m falling.” 

“Y/n, you did so good climbing the branch’s all the way up here. You even fell and got back up, don’t be afraid to stop now.” 

The human shuffles on her feet before slowly edging back to the edge of the branch and looking at the branch on the other side. Felix outstretched his arms to Y/n. 

“I’ll catch you.” 

That did actually cause comfort to rise in her body. She slowly nods at the thought of that before taking a step back and jumping off of the branch. She felt her stomach sink at the feeling, she landed into Felix’s arms, his hands holding onto her sides for extra cushion. Her feet landed onto the branch and she smiled brightly as Felix looked at her and smiled.

“See? That wasn’t so bad.” 

Next, She had practiced yet again with swimming and holding her breath. This time with Mugman. The two weren’t in the water. But sitting on a warm rock as Mugman was teaching her breathing techniques. 

“Like, in your chest?” Y/n asks. Mugman shakes his head and points a finger at her xiphoid. “No. Here.” He corrects. 

“So what do I do. Breath in until I show my ribs?” 

Mugman raises an eyebrow at her sarcasm. “Actually that’s correct so—“ 

“Alright then.” Y/n inhales heavily. Straightening her back, and lowering her shoulders. Mugman leans over and presses his finger in the same spot. 

“You’re still breathing too heavy.”

Sighing to release the air, Y/n was about to say something until Mugman laughed. “Just kiddin!” 

Later on. Donald was teaching Y/n to peddle in a more effective way. He was standing outside of the water, swinging his arms in a motion for Y/n to follow—but Y/n was too busy playing in the water. 

“Not like that!” Donald shouts. Y/n kicked her feet frantically as she floated and a bright smile littered her face. “Hey this is kinda fun!” She shouts over to Donald who deadpans and shakes his head. 

But soon Y/n got back to work and followed his direction. Putting Cuphead and Mugman training into motion, along with Donald swimming techniques, she swam under the water, holding her breath as long as she could. Ruck stared down in the water as he watched her swim around. 

Y/n slowly came up from the water yet again and looked up at Ruck and smiled and he gave her a thumbs up proudly. 

Next, she returned to the bow an arrow once more. With her targeting becoming more accurate, she gently walked down the trail as she aimed the arrow. She heard a rustle in the bushes and immediately pointed towards it and shot the arrow at it. A hard ‘thunk!’ emits in the air and Panchito dramatically fell from the bush, the arrow sticking in the wooden target he was holding in his hands. 

“Oh no! veo la luz! ha llegado mi dia!” He strains before laying on his back and sticks his tongue out as if he died. Y/n lowered her bow and smiled at Panchito’s dramatic acting. 

Next, Ruck stood under the tree following along under the branch Y/n was standing on. She was aiming her arrow at a wooden target down on the ground near a tree—Hard from her view but she was sure she could make it.

“Remember. The faster you are. The slower your opponent's brain will react.” Ruck tells the human. The  arrow shoots over to the target and embeds into it. The splintering sound of wood breaking echoes in the air. Y/n quickly reaches back to grab another arrow—but before she could get the arrow to the cliff, a decent sized rock hits her hands, the arrow flying from her hand, she hissed in pain and quickly swats her hand to rid the pain. 

She looks over to see Ruck wasn’t the one that threw the rock as she suspected. But it was Oswald, who she hardly noticed. 

“Dammit.” Y/n grumbled. 

Later on, Y/n was holding a rock above her head as she stared at Ruck with a pleading expression. “My arms hurt—can I please take a break?!” Y/n shouts. 

Ruck was leaning on a tree with his arms crossed. Under the shade, as Y/n stood out in the hot sun. 

“You got 10 more minutes.”

Y/n would have started to bawl her eyes out if she didn’t see Donald standing near another tree teasing her. He stuck his tongue out and then laughed loudly. Y/n rolled her eyes and sighs, she was making a mental reminder to strangle Donald when they get back into town. 

Spunk sat next to Ruck’s feet as he watched Y/n as well. Y/n let’s out a heavy sigh and was above to drop the rock—her arms couldn’t take anymore, but Ruck’s voice soon came in. 

“If you drop that rock, I swear I’ll have you running tracks around this entire area.” He warns. 

Y/n three her head back in a frustrated shout before straightening her arms. She was never making that same mistake again when it’s time for her target practice again. 

Later on, Y/n had her arms outstretched in front of her, clenched her hands closed into a tight fist. She stared at Ruck who was speaking to her about properly connecting a punch. He raised both his hands and Y/n slowly moved her fist to collide with his rough hands. He nods and tells her to continue , which she did. Left, right, left. Everytime he ordered which hand to throw a punch, Y/n would follow in order, until he repeated it faster and faster. She smiled as she did so until his hand collided with her temple. She quickly stopped in their exercise and raised a hand to her eye and glared at him. 

“Ow! What was that for?” She grumbled. “I said watch your guard.” 

And she was back with holding the rock above her head for 20 minutes. It felt like everytime she got; The Rock. It would grow heavier and heavier every time. 

Back to climbing trees. She hopped from one branch to the other as Panchito followed after her. He laughs as he hops over to the other branch, which Y/n was already jumping on as well. Causing it to shake and the two to tumble off of it from its vibration. Y/n holds onto the branch below to save her from falling, as well as Panchito. The two didn’t even heave themselves onto the branch fully. Their bodies dangled off before they looked at each other and laughed. 

“Oops.” He laughs. 

Returning back to swimming. Y/n was busy underwater moving to touch a fish—which it kept swimming away—creating her own game of tag with the fish, she followed after it. The bubbles of air leaving her nose, properly breathing she was able to hold her breath under the water for much longer. 

Ruck stared down at the stopwatch. 

12 minutes. 

Ruck’s eyes flickered up to the water to see if she would come back up, but to his surprise. She didn’t. Sitting on the rock and waiting for her to come back up. He didn’t see her for another 2 minutes. 

14 minutes now. 

Standing up from the rock and crouching onto the ground and slowly placed his face into the water and opened his eyes. Looking down in the deep part of the water. He could see Y/n chasing a fish. Her hands pushed off of the rocks to fly after it like some predator. A laugh escaped Ruck’s mouth at the scene, it was silent seeing he had his head under the water, the bubbles leaving his mouth. Y/n felt the vibration and looked over to see Ruck looking at her. Pushing her feet from the sandy ground she floated back up to the surface and Ruck removed himself from the water and stood back up. Dusting the sand from his pants. He looked back down at the stop watch and stopped it. 15 minutes. 

The trickling of water catches his attention and he sees Y/n sticking her head up from the water. 

“15 minutes.” 

“Really?” She gasps before immediately crawling out of the water. The sand sticking to her knees and elbows. She grabs the stop watch with her wet hands. Water drilling everywhere. 

15.00”

Y/n smiled widely. Her chest heaving up and down, it was clear holding her breath for so long had tired her out. 

“Good job, kid.” 

Next up, Ruck had taken Y/n over to a patch of grass. Which she didn’t change back into her clothes. She wore her tank top and shorts and left her socks and shoes near the lake, feeling the dirt and grass under her feet as she watched Ruck sit down on the ground and move the grass from the way, Y/n followed after him and watched as he plucked a berry from the ground. 

“Been lookin’ everywhere for these. These are called FreezeBerries.” He states. Handing a berry to Y/n. She takes it to see it resembles a strawberry. But with blue seeds. She looked back at Ruck to see him biting into it. Y/n followed after him and bit into the strawberry, it was cold to her teeth. Like a berry that’s been sitting in the freezer, which was odd considering it was scorching hot outside. But it taste delicious, a tangy sweet flavor, she smiled and when she did so, a puff of smoke escaped her mouth, causing her eyes to widen and quickly look at Ruck, which he was blowing smoke from his mouth as well. 

“Whoa!” Y/n laughs, putting the entire berry in her mouth and chewing she blew a large puff of smoke from her mouth, Ruck chuckled and followed after her. 

Y/n picked at another FreezeBerry and placed another one in her mouth, and turned her head to Ruck and blew the smoke in his face. He squints his eyes before looking at her and blowing the smoke in her face as well. Y/n lets out a laugh, the smoke escaping her nose and mouth. It reminded her of those freeze dried treats you would get from a street vendor. 

“I bet I can do a trick.” She said, forming her lips into an O, she lets out a puff of smoke in hopes to form a ring. But failed miserably. Ruck looked at her to see her attempt before he formed his lips into an O as well, and with ease a ring puffs from his mouth. 

Y/n huffs. 

“What? How.”

Ruck chuckled as he watched Y/n attempt to form the ring again. 

Next, Y/n went back into working. Returning her clothes she held the bow in her hand as she shot the arrow off to the target, which it hit the wooden target. Y/n was back to walking on the branch once more, hearing a rustle from below she quickly aimed down, and Donald hops out of the way before the arrow could pierce him, unfortunately he dropped the wooden target in the process. But good thing, was she still hit it. 

Hearing footsteps from her left, she continued walking on the branch but aimed her arrow to her left to hit Cuphead holding the wooden target a few feet away—he stopped in his running when he got caught, the arrow hitting the wooden target, Mugman didn’t get too far before the arrow embeds into his target as well. 

“Damn..I was hopin’ I would sneak pass you.” Cuphead grunts. Mugman placed the target on the ground before smiling at Y/n proudly. 

Meek held onto the wooden target and stood next to Don, they were both standing near a tree, a few feet away. She still had trouble aiming off too far, with two people standing next to each other no less. 

“They’re too far.” Y/n tells Ruck as she continues to saunter down the branch. Her eyes glued on Meek and Don. 

“Make your hand into a quiver. This is where sharp shooting comes into place.” Ruck states. 

Y/n reached back into her quiver and grabs two arrows, placing them both on the ledge and pulling them back, before she could attempt to shoot at Meek and Don, she heard a sound from behind her, at the last minute. Causing her to quickly turn around, but she felt a hand quickly tap her arm, tagging you out. 

“Got ya!” 

“No!” Y/n shouts in sorrow. Felix lowered the wooden target and Y/n sulks. 

“Dammit!” Y/n stomps her foot on the branch. 

“Hey, you still did good.” Mugman walks over to the tree and looks up at the two. 

“I almost had everyone.” Y/n placed the arrows back in her quiver and looked at Felix. “You walk too quietly.” 

“You can’t blame him for not being able to hear him.” Ruck pipes up.  

“Hey, cheer up. Soon, you’ll be the best damn sharpshooter in the offlands.” Don states. Y/n nods and sighs. 

“Yeah, I mean I guess.” 

Panchito sets his target down and Spunk barks before looking up at the sky, Ruck looks at him and knows he was signaling the time.

“Yeah, it’s gettin’ late. Hell. Maybe tomorrow you’ll do great at the training back in town.” Ruck says and Y/n furrowed her eyebrows. “I don’t wanna go back there.” 

“Oh cariño, I am sure that with the improvements you made you will be perfect with the others.” Panchito says, him and Oswald walking over from the hiding spot they were at first. Y/n didn’t seem too moved with that statement. 

“Tell you what. I’ll give you the day off tomorrow if you go to morning training, the rest of the two days, we’ll train out here.” Ruck brings up. Y/n squints her eyes..she wouldn’t lie she would much rather spend the time back out here training. It was quite relaxing in an odd way. 

“Alright, fine.” 

-

Bendy stared down at the ring, examining it in his palms, Lucy sat on the bench as she fiddled with something in her palms. Bendy was sitting beside her, leaning back lazily with his arm tossed on the back of the bench behind Lucy. She was busy twisting the stem of the flowers together to create some sort of bouquet of some sort. 

She was humming softly as she did so, the sound of the stems rustling emitting into the air as well. 

Bendy looks at the diamond ring once more before placing it in his pocket. Lucy notices the small movement and looks at him before looking back at the white flowers. 

Bendy stared out into the courtyard, his eyes bouncing off of the various flowers and bushes, bees and birds flying around and landing on the cobblestone pavement to either peck at the ground or examine a pollinated flower. He felt a strong headache starting to stir in his head, it felt like a heavy bottle of water swaying around with so little movement. 

“You’ve been awfully quiet.” Lucy pipes up. Bendy turns his head and looks at her, his eyes traveling down to the flowers in her hands. 

“Just lookin’ around s’all.” He responds. Lucy nods once more and returns her gaze back to the flowers. 

Returning his gaze back to the courtyard, he was grateful to have the peace and quiet, his head felt like it was going to explode and Lucy wasn’t even the reason for it. Surprisingly.

Lucy then slightly nudged the flowers towards Bendy and looked back at her and back at the flowers. “These are called, Acyndytes.” She starts. 

“A-shine-dites?” Bendy repeats and she nodded 

“They resemble grief. The color is white because even life after death, there is…life.“ 

Bendy raises an eyebrow and she continues. “We use these to resemble a new journey for one who has passed.” 

“Who passed?” Bendy asks. 

“My fathers old friend. He was struck by something our apothecary here in town could figure out. He passed last night.” Lucy stands up from the bench and looks back at Bendy. 

“I want to deliver these, my father should be there now.” 

Bendy slowly stood up from the bench and nodded. “Sure..” 

-

“Would you stop—“ Mugman shoves Cuphead off him, Cuphead laughs at his brother's agitated response. Y/n was busy thinking of the good sleep she would get when they entered the room—and not to mention, a good shower. Her skin was sticky with sweat, grime and dirt. Her clothes were dirty from dust and dirt from all the training they did. The walk was long, but eventful. 

Y/n placed her hands on Ruck’s shoulders and jumped onto his back, wrapping her arms around his neck—he stopped walking for a moment at her sudden motion. 

“So—how’d I do with my archery skills this time?” She asks. Ruck grumbled and shook his back to shed the girl off him but Y/n was stuck to his back like a leech, she pressed her legs into his side and looked around the town above his head. 

“Above average. Now get the hell off me.” 

“Oh, look. There’s Lucy and Bendy.” Don points out the two walking in their direction. Lucy held a white bouquet of flowers in her hands, her arm intertwined with Bendy’s as the two walked over to the group. 

“Oh I’m so glad to see you all! We were just heading out for a small gathering a few blocks down.” Lucy states. Oswald tilts his head.

“What’s the occasion?” He asks. 

“It’s a home going. Wishing a friend farewell.” She replied. 

“Who died?” Cuphead says bluntly. Mugman makes a small noise and harshly grabs Cuphead by the arm. Cuphead hisses in pain.

“Oh. I’m so sorry to hear..” Felix adds and Lucy nods. “Yes. Very upsetting. Come! Follow.” She and Bendy walk past the group back in the direction they were just leaving from. Turning around and following Lucy—unfortunately. 

Y/n rested her chin on the top of Ruck’s head and closed her eyes. Feeling the wind blow in her air—she cooled off when they started to return back to Welkin. The lukewarm air was comforting and not as scorching hot where they just were. 

Ruck turned around to follow after everyone, unwillingly carrying Y/n with him as she didn’t seem to move one bit. It was like a father holding their son up at a baseball game to see the wins, instead it was just a super exhausted uncle carrying around his joke of a niece. 

Y/n felt his every footsteps on the ground and smiled silently before placing her hands on either side of his head before straightening her back to look down at him.

“So. If we were travel buddies. And you had to rely on me to finish a mission, you’d think I would do it?” She asks. 

“No.” He answered blatantly. 

Y/n huffs before placing her hands back on his shoulders. 

“I dunno, I think I got some pretty wicked tricks up some sleep.” She brushed off her shoulders dramatically—not that it mattered as Ruck couldn’t even see her. 

“Yeah, you do.” Ruck responds. She couldn’t tell if he said it just to push past the topic at hand. Or it was a genuine statement.

She stared down at him and smiled. 

“Now get the hell off me. We’re here.” 

-

Y/n stood next to Panchito as the two watched Lucy hand the white bouquet of flowers to Modi. Who was standing next to a toon. The woman had brown curly hair that complimented her fair skin. She was gently patting under her eyes with tissue. Modi was saying something to her but Y/n wasn’t paying too much attention. Her eyes traveled over to the candles on the ground. It’s golden light flickering in the gentle wind. The sun was starting to set, the gradient purple and red, filling the canvas of the sky, as the sun edged near its horizon, bidding everyone farewell for the day. 

There was a lake in town that led out of it—everyone stood near the border of town. There were other people there, it seemed like almost half the town with how many people, Y/n was just glad they were able to stand in the front of it all. Y/n could see the guard—Stink’s father—as she presumed seeing he was a skunk and Stinks was standing beside his father. Was also near as well. Though he hadn’t bothered to even glance in Y/n’s direction, his gaze stayed on something in the water. Y/n followed Stink’s gaze and she spotted toon, laying down on what seemed to be a wooden platform. A dark blanket covering their chest, the dog toon had his eyes closed, like he was sleeping. With various flowers surrounding the body, like a bed. 

Two other toons stood on either side of the wooden platform, which they seemed to have been crying for days. They were wading in the water. 

“Oh man.” Y/n muttered to Panchito, he slowly nodded in agreement. “Yes..It is very unfortunate.” He responds. 

“I apologize that we couldn’t find a cure.” Modi tells the woman. She only sniffs and shakes her head. 

“No no. No need to apologize…he..is in a better place now.” 

Lucy had stepped back away from her father so he could speak to the woman—a small child in the crowd excitedly waved at Lucy in which she smiled and gave a small wave back. 

“I thought toons were incapable of dying..” Y/n lowered her voice and looked at Felix. Felix raised his eyebrows and slowly nods at her minor confusion. 

“That is..sorta true. Remember, toons can still die—just like humans can—“

“It takes longer?” She finished from what she briefly remembered him stating back in the boat before arriving to the offlands. And Felix nods. 

“Yes. Whatever happened to him, I’m sure it was devastating.” 

“You kiddin? Wonder what knocked him off the board. Can’t be from old age, that’s for sure.” Cuphead states and Mugman sighs before shoving his elbow into Cuphead’s ribs who flinched at the action. 

“One more word from you. And I’m going to deal with you.” 

Y/n looked back at the water to the toon, it was odd. Y/n heard distant sounds of voices harmonizing, the candle flickered in the wind. As the crowd solemnly held their own candles of their own. The sun slowly set in the sky, the canvas darkening and the candles being the life of the darkness. 

Modi walked past the group, as he walked over to the water, the ripples of the water bouncing as he stood beside the toon.

He had started to speak in a different tongue that Y/n couldn’t tell. But she still paid attention no less. Watching as he gazed down at the body in sorrow, the crowd's once peppy attitude had mourned for the loss of one soul. How did he die?

A toon was a very tough soul to take down. Yet..here they were. 

“—The loss of a friend. Where he will be with us. In spirit.” Y/n couldn’t tell she drifted off in her mind. The small platform floated down the stream as everyone watched. The candles in their hands were now the only source of light, the golden light reflecting from everyone, a warm glow to the toon that had drifted further away, where the arm light was nothing but a dot in the distance. 

It was sad to see. A few of the people cried at the farewell. As Modi stood in the water, watching the old friend drift off into the night. 

[bestworstcase]

Can I just say that Salem's origin story is just by far my favorite episode of rwby and nothing has yet surpassed it? (maybe the entirety of v9) but other than that it's my favorite to rewatch and my initial reaction to watching it has yet to be beat. Could I maybe get your inklings on that episode and if it also rewired your brain chemistry ?

some inklings

bless you, you must be new here, this house is on a 24/7 never shuts up about salem lockdown; even when i do not explicitly connect the dots she exists between the lines of everything i post about rwby. because the lost fable cold-clocked me yes. every time i rewatch the episode it takes me 3-4 hours to get through because i have to pause every minute or so to talk and scream. i am only slightly less unhinged about her half of so that’s how it is. half the reason i enjoyed V9 so much is it delivered on what i expected from the narrative on the basis of the lost fable to an even more pronounced degree than i anticipated.

anyway the TL;DR of my take on the lost fable is:

- salem was right

- salem did nothing wrong

- salem still is right (and her goal is to end the brothers’ power over remnant)

- ozma’s cocktail of apocalyptic terror and religious zealotry has led him to an idea of who salem is and what she wants that is wildly, hysterically off base, and the narrative conflict is in essence about excavating salem from the narrative he has imposed on her (and the inevitable subsequent truce made possible by the heroes realizing that She Is Right)

- salem fully (correctly) believes that the only possible outcome of playing the game by light’s rules is humanity decimated, remnant destroyed, and eternal suffering for herself; everything she does is about preventing ozma from fulfilling his task, and defeating the gods once and for all in the long term.

- the god of light is the final boss. if dark still exists now as he did then (<- i am doubtful on this point) the endgame conflict is him and humanity vs his brother. otherwise, the endgame conflict is about getting light to Let Go.

- the lost fable is not The Truth, it is very specifically ozpin’s side of the story and relayed to the kids with his misunderstandings and biases intact, because just like ambrosius, jinn gives you exactly what you ask for.

- ozlem endgame REAL

- salem jumping into the pool of grimm caused the resurrection of humanity, whether directly or indirectly

- (no longer vacillating on this one after V9) no purification no purgation she is having her villain -> hero arc as a grimm. cinder too.

- the god of light is a chthonic deity, the god of darkness is a god of nature, and it is actually hilarious how explicitly V9 vindicated me on this point. every post i have ever made about the brothers is 100% correct

- salem is the god of choice, ozma the god of knowledge, thank you for coming to my ted talk

- grimm are people

- this is probably not a deliberate allusion but salem is job. also read edward greenstein’s translation of job it fucks

- when salem glowingly praises humanity’s courage passion resourcefulness ingenuity and capacity for hope in her V1/3 monologues she really means it

[crystalelemental]

Pokemon Team Characterization - Hop

The first request was for Hop, and why did I agree to this?  He’s a rival, the starter factor alone triples his team count on Bulbapedia.  Thankfully he doesn’t do too much nonsense about switching around his team based on this so I’m going to stick with the Cinderace team, on the grounds I think that’s who he’ll get with the Galar VA.

Starting off with early-game Hop fights, his team is structured as his starter, his Wooloo he also started with, and Corvisquire.  I think what’s interesting is that he only picks up one thing, and it’s like...the most common thing.  He gets it immediately, having Rookidee by the second fight after Route 2.  And it’s all he keeps until after the first three gyms.  Hop does not add a fourth until post-Bede Beatdown.

I’d interpret this as his dedication, given that he sticks by his Wooloo and Scorbunny and his first ever catch.  But also a bit of like...single-minded attachment?  Like, this continues for a long time, in a region with a lot of variety, and the entire Wild Area.  Hop goes around talking about catching a bunch of different things, but he doesn’t use them for battling.  His battle team are the original, dedicated group.  Even when he’s got the options in his back pocket, he doesn’t seem to put them on the front lines.  Either this is about being gentle-natured, and not wanting the Pokemon he catches to battle (unlikely given his chosen profession), or it’s a matter of that strong dedication to what’s known, and a resistance to something that’s new.  Riiight up until...

The Bede-ening.  Following his defeat and Bede’s verbal smackdown, Hop’s team completely changes.  Barring his starter, her picks entirely different components, even dropping his Wooloo, which is his very first Pokemon.  He had that since before Leon gave you starters, and he’s willing to drop it.  Suddenly, he’s bringing in new options he’s picked up before, given Toxel, but also bringing in the new Silicobra.  In addition, his team suddenly emphasizes less direct attacking, and more...evasion.  Paralysis is a common theme, as are two-turn moves.  It’s a lot of getting the opponent not to act, and forcing a dodge.

In the post-Bede-ening, Hop’s still fixated on his goal to surpass Leon and become the best trainer.  He’s confronted with the fact that where he’s at won’t cut it, and doing something purely for the enjoyment of it won’t make him a good competitor.  He has to adapt.  And he’s willing to, but also willing to cut out the things he cares for most to try and pursue that goal.  Yet when he does so, his emphasis on two-turn moves, specifically on Dig and Dive which are hiding under the earth and water respectively, implies a sort of...shame to it?  Like a second-guessing, a feeling that this isn’t what he wanted.  Don’t think about it too hard, don’t talk to me about what I’m doing, I’m following this goal no matter what.  The paralysis focus implies a similar thing to Whitney’s Miltank; it’s not about winning, it’s about not losing.  “I can’t lose” is the bigger motivator than improvement.

By team 3, it’s  a bit better but more of the same.  He’s still not using Wooloo, and there’s an appropriate amount of paralysis focus as a result.  Stockpile to shore up defenses, and Roar to force out things he doesn’t want to face, are thematically appropriate for this phase of the game.  Again, it’s about avoiding loss rather than improvement.

Notably though, this team can contain type overlap.  Rillaboom and Trevanent overlap, and Heatmor and Cinderace overlap.  Despite his attempts at improvement, Hop’s use of the type matchups aren’t as sound here.  This could imply a sort of...chasing the wrong thing.  Like, by type and statistics, Trevenant is probably better than Wooloo, so it’s on the team, even if it betrays the fundamentals by overlapping with Rillaboom.  Heatmor...look, Heatmor’s just not a great choice, I don’t really know what you’re doing here.  I’m gonna call its presence a matter of having Lick for paralysis, and Bug Bite to eat the foe’s berries, to emphasize that “don’t lose” mentality.

That said, once through the slump, Dubwool and Corviknight are back.  Snorlax also stays, which causes type conflict with Dubwool.  Interestingly, Pincurchin stays.  He picks it up after his sulk, and then it stays for the rest of the match.  Pre-Legend, his other constant inclusion is...Cramorant.  Which is another type overlap if he has Sobble as the starter.

The Lead (Dubwool) As a lead, Dubwool is...interesting.  There’s a semblance of strategy, but not the best application.  Cotton Guard implies a defensive approach, but Double Edge hurts himself with recoil.  The supposed plan, then, might be to improve your bulk so your opponent doesn’t hurt you as bad, so you can spam the recoil move a bit more freely, but it’s not exactly a sound strategy.  Headbutt as disruption at least slows things down, but Double Kick as coverage breaks past Rock and Steel that resist Normal, pointing to a concern for offensive coverage.

Dubwool’s presence and strategy doesn’t tell us much, beyond that Hop may not be the most skilled battler out there.  What he’s doing just isn’t fully sound.  But he’s someone who loves that thing with all his heart, and that’s his buddy so it’s going on the team, and he will find a way to make it work.  I think Steadfast as an ability really sells that.  Dubwool isn’t a Pokemon he uses to great competitive effect.  It’s just his buddy, and he’s not letting go of that.

The Ace (Cinderace) No I’m not going to talk about Zamazenta as his ace, we know it’s the starter.  The coverage choices seem odd to me, but that turns out to be because Cinderace doesn’t have much to answer the usual Ground, Rock, and Water types.  Intelleon and Rillaboom are much more apt with coverage.  So Hop’s ace is raw offense, emphasizing that type matchup focus by covering weaknesses.

I think, in contrast to Dubwool, this solidifies Hop as someone who does know what he’s doing.  His understanding of battling specifically may not reach fantastic tactical levels, but he’s fully competent.  Moreover, I think it’s interesting to note the contrast here.  Hop enjoys battling, but when it comes to his starter, which he got specifically for his adventure, he’s all out offensive and very careful in his crafting of the moveset.  When it comes to his best buddy Dubwool, it’s not as fine-tuned.  I think that speaks to how Hop approaches things.  There’s a level of seriousness to his approach, but it’s the kind of serious that comes with knowing your place.  I’m gonna speak personally for a while.

I am not great at actual competitive Pokemon.  I just don’t like it.  In some ways, I know what I have to do to be better, but in others, I don’t want to do that!  I reserve my right to be a bit of a casual about it.  And if that means running sub-optimal Pokemon with teams that are fun if sub-optimally designed, so be it.  That’s Hop’s mentality.  I want to be good enough to have fun with this, but it’s not my central focus.  Which is exactly what winds up happening at the end of this arc; he changes his goal from begin a top trainer, to becoming a professor.  He still battles well, it’s just not his life focus anymore.  He doesn’t want to give up what he’d need to in order to compete.

General Team The rest of Hop’s team is notably slow and bulky.  Snorlax, Corviknight, and Pincurchin have like 5 base speed between them, but plenty of defensive merit.  Snorlax and Pincurchin have fantastic offensive coverage, while Corviknight emphasizes defensive play in Light Screen, and disruption in Swagger.  Swagger in particular is interesting.  Previous teams with disruption emphasized paralysis, and if Confuse was applied, it was through Confuse Ray.  Swagger is bolder than Hop’s usually been, and implies a sort of coming into his own.  He’s willing to take some risks, and is a bit more assured in what he’s doing.

Pincurchin’s presence is legitimately just funny to me, especially with Cramorant.  These are, to be frank, goofy-looking Pokemon.  But they’re the ones Hop goes back to in his ever-changing teams.  I think that’s legitimately hilarious, and implies that yeah, these are things he picked up because he just loves them.  He likes weird or unusual Pokemon.  Pincurchin is fairly hard to find, so there’s a bit of appreciation for something rare in both, but Cramorant’s oddity as a Pokemon seems to line up with his interest in being a professor.  He likes Pokemon that do unusual things, or are hard to find out about.  There’s an appreciation for having to put in the effort and overcome something.

I think it’s also worth noting that the majority of these bulky Pokemon are raw offense.  Hop is someone whose bulky offense playstyle implies a sort of cautious but consistent progression.  He pushes forward, but is thoughtful in his approach.

Summation Hop is someone whose story arc is about being a casual mid-level fan of something.  It’s about having the skill to compete, but not quite breaking into professional level play.  It’s about being the kind of person who is more concerned with the emotional attachment and investment than the win, and doesn’t want to compromise what’s important to be successful.  It’s about being flexible and trying different things, but coming back to what you love.  It’s about dedication to friends, and the things you care about.  It’s about moving forward thoughtfully, and keeping your values in mind.  And it’s about how, if you lose sight of that, the focus often becomes on not losing out, on not making mistakes, rather than growing.

If anyone has an alternate read on his teams, I’d love to hear it.  I admit to not being much of a Galar fan, but I can throw your responses at my wife who will absolutely have opinions about it.  She loves the Galar.

[tagfer]

I was a defender of the gen4 remakes (I think the stupid chibi style is good since it better emulates the originals imo- anyway) and even I find BDSP just- boring. Pokemon remakes have always surpassed the original so well by virtue of national dex, new content, etc. But BDSP was just- nothing.

see that was always my problem with bdsp. true, i also wasn't a fan of the artstyle; i get what they're going for but I don't think they did a good job. but it wasn't So Bad that I wouldn't have been able to overlook it. but yeah the true problem was that it was basically a remaster, compared to the Remakes we'd gotten for g1-3.

first, one of the BEST THINGS about the previous remakes was being able to replay these older games with newer mons. and they had to know this was something people loved because they went from FRLG having a dex lock to ORAS expanding available mons as a plot beat. they knew! secondly, they ALL had expanded stories, new areas, new mechanics, equal comparability to other games in the generation... in fact arguably HGSS and ORAS were both the defining games of their gens.

bdsp had nothing. literally nothing. it was a remastered port. it was built in unity¹, released unfinished with a day 1 patch, buggy as hell, with like no changes to fuckall. it was so horrifically coded it took GameFreak MANY MONTHS to get Home compatibility working, which I'll be honest, I'm shocked even happened at all.

but you know what? it sold. it sold so many units. so ILCA is here to stay. excited for the BW remake remaster. they'll probably make all the overworld characters look like miis with how lanky gen 5 sprites were.

(¹ being built in unity is not inherently bad but like bro this is a major franchise with what appears to be an incredibly portable engine considering they've been using the same basic battle engine since RuSa - and Genius Sonority was able to use it, so don't tell me ILCA couldn't figure it out LOL)