#have you met ZweI before?

[bamfkeeper]

Kurt teaching you German numbers, his methods are very encouraging. 18+ under cut. MDNI.

This crossed my mind, and I think it's super hot. But maybe it's just meee idk 😖 It's all for fun anyway. I have trouble retaining information so I figured Kurt would come up with something to help you remember if you have the same issue. <3

Warnings: More dominant Kurt bc I wanna see more this side of him, it's not too crazy. Afab reader, sex toys, praise, orgasm denial, slight overstimulation, oral (reader giving), he uses his tail~ Not edited, please ignore grammar mistakes!

WC: 1.8k

You didn't speak German, when you met Kurt you vowed you'd try to learn. You asked him to help you from time to time, and he gladly did. He always praised you for words you got write, and gently corrected you or helped you when you got something wrong or simply couldn't remember. But even if you missed a day, you forgot everything. It was frustrating for you, how you couldn't retain something so simple. Kurt knew how you felt, so he thought he might change up the lessons to make them a bit more...interactive.

"We will start off easy, liebling." he hummed and sat in front of you, looking down at you on the floor. You were trembling and looking up with anticipation, biting your lip, squirming slightly on the vibe he had on your cunt. "Numbers. One through ten, ja?" he turned the vibe on a low setting, enough to jerk you up slightly, but not enough for you to reach your peak.

"Okay..." you rasped, crawling to be more sat between his legs. He chuckled and watched you fondle his growing bulge in his underwear. "Naughty liebchen..." he cooed, "Wait."

With a reluctant whine, you stopped and looked up at him again. Your cheeks were much hotter from the situation, he hadn't ever been this way before, but you weren't complaining.

"One." he said calmly, his tail curled up at the end as he watched you.

"Eins." you replied softly, your legs trembling. You could feel your core dampening, your clit throbbed against the dull vibration from the vibe. He grinned down at you, nodding. "Good. That's correct..." a press on the remote made the vibrator increase a notch, which in turn made you feel more pleasure.

"And what's two?" he asked, slowly pulling himself free, his cock slowly hardening as his hand stroked it. Your eyes were glued to his pretty cock, the tip beading already and you wanted to taste him.

"Zwei," you said back, hoping he'd let you suck him now. He saw your wants, but he didn't give in just yet. You were only on two after all, you needed to remember more than that first.

"Ah, good...three." he continued, hitting the next button to increase the vibrations. The second setting felt good, but not enough for you. You wanted more, and he saw your hips squirming. He smiled at you, he was unbelievably hot right now, it wasn't fair.

"Three." he whispered, "Make it to five and I'll let you cum." he promised, his hand steadily stroking himself. The promise of your climax made you feel more motivated, you were pretty confident so far. "Drei," your answer came out with a slight whine, and the vibe increased again, the third setting beginning to make a louder hum and your legs shook more.

"Das ist gut...you are doing so good." he whispered, "How about four and five? Can you remember four and five?" he asked, his hand moving a little faster on his cock. You bit your lip, spreading your legs slightly as you practically made a pool under you with how much you were leaking. "Ah...a-ah...v-vier...and....fünf..." you moaned loudly as he hit the button twice and the vibrations increased two notches.

He hummed and his tail tapped your back, urging you to scoot closer. "You did well, how about I let you reach your first orgasm? You remembered one through five, you deserve it don't you?" he reached down and cupped your face, his cock almost touching your lips but not close enough.

"Y-yes...." you whined, his finger pushed into your mouth gently and he tsked, so you corrected yourself. "Ja..." a bit muffled with his finger but...he got the gist. He nodded, his tail trailed your spine and moved between your legs. His spade cupped your pussy, feeling how wet you were and his eyes glistened.

"What a naughty girl. You are so turned on by this, hm? I had no idea this is what would get you to remember. I suppose we shall do this anytime you need a German lesson, won't we?" he pulled his thumb out of your mouth and held your chin, pulling you closer to his cock. It throbbed slightly, the head dripping sticky precum for you.

"Do you like when I am like this? You probably didn't expect it from me...but I assure you liebling...I can be however you want me to be." Kurt hummed and rubbed his cock on your lips. "Not yet..." he teased, his tail gently pressing your soaked entrance. "Tell me one through five again, sweetheart."

You were dizzy, you never thought Kurt could act like this, but hell, you weren't going to tell him to stop. You shifted, your back arching slightly, trying to get more of him to poke into you, but he anticipated this and withdrew his tail. "Kurt," you whined, pouting before reciting the numbers in German.

"Was that so hard?" he questioned, a playing smirk on his lips as his tail pushed back against you. Between his tail toying with you and the vibe, you weren't far from your orgasm. He worked you for a bit, until he felt you push your face into his thigh, moaning loudly as you felt your orgasm hit you. Your entire body shook with the shocks of it, the vibe was right on your swelling clit and it felt so intense that you swear the vibrations went straight to your toes.

"Ah...that's it...let yourself go, liebe...you're so good." he praised and groaned to himself, seeing you reach your peak almost got him to his own, his hand stroking himself hastily. When your orgasm was over, you whined and panted from the intense sensation still humming on your clit. He chuckled seeing your blissed out face, though slightly wincing from the overstimulation. "You are so beautiful...you feel so wet on my tail, liebe...can you get to ten?"

"A-aah...nngh, Kurt..." you whimpered, "S-s'too much..." you panted and held his legs. He shook his head and smiled, "Get to ten...then I'll give you a break."

He continued the slow count to ten, when he got to eight, you couldn't remember what it was. "Nngh...I-I don't remember..." you whined, your second orgasm right there....so, so close! You were right on the edge and about to teeter off when he cut the vibe's power. Your throat caught a strangled cry and you looked up at him. Your eyes held betrayal and he laughed softly.

"You know our deal, schatz...each number you get correct increases the power...for one you get wrong, you cannot come." he said calmly, explaining it in a teasing manner. His head tilted slightly, his hair curling at the ends and falling over his forehead. "Let's try again...from one."

You groaned and pouted, your forehead pressing against his leg. "Fine..." you muttered, feeling a little stubborn but obliging. One look up at him and your resolve melted away. You leaned up and kissed his tip before he could say anything in response. "Eins, zwei, drei." You said quickly, "Vier, fünf, sechs." your tongue dashed out and licked over his tip, tasting him. Your tongue took its time, slowly rolling over his head and pressing against the slit to get more of his precum.

"Sieben..." you trailed off and thought about what eight was, you had forgotten before. "Er..." you frowned, your brow furrowing in thought. His cock head came into view, you kissed the tip and suckled. "Oh! Acht!" you said proudly, making Kurt smile widely.

"Ja! Ja, das war gut!" he laughed and held the remote up a bit, turning the vibe back on. The vibrations weren't as strong as they were but they were slowly building back up. "Now what about nine and ten...?"

You moaned loudly, your already sensitive clit being stimulated raw like this made you more ready to cum a second time. The intensity of right before your climax overwhelmed you and the sensation continued. You felt like you were balancing on the rope right before free falling to pleasure, the vibrations just needed to be slightly more powerful...

"N-Neun...." you rasped, hot breath hitting his hard dick and he had to hold everything back, maintaining his composure so you completed the exercise. "A...and...zehn!" you weren't sure on that last one, but spat it out anyway.

Kurt was relieved too, he needed more from you just as you needed more from him. "Ja, good, you got them!" he turned the vibe up and he cradled the back of your head, pulling you to his cock and pushing past your lips. He bobbed your head and he groaned, "Ja...so gut...I know you've wanted this." he grunted out of a clenched jaw, his tail continuing to caress your pussy.

"More, liebling...I'm close." he warned, guiding you to bob your head quicker. Your hand reached down and fondled his balls, rolling them gently and earning louder groans from him. Each noise he made shot pleasure straight to your core. "Mmn, mmf!" you looked up at him as you tried to take more of him than you were used to.

You gagged slightly, but that didn't stop your determination. He watched with half lidded eyes as you tried your best to deepthroat him while your orgasm hit you. Your nose buried into his pubic hair, saliva dripped down his balls as your tongue pressed against his cock and protected the underside of him from your teeth. You muffled a cry as your body shook from the force of your climax rushed through you.

His eyes roll back and he jerks his hips up slightly, soon hot ropes of cum shoot out into your throat, coating your tongue as he pulls back so you don't choke. The sticky fluid fills your mouth and you eagerly drink it down. He feels you swallowing and he waits until you get it all, then he pulls himself out of your mouth.

"Oh, liebling...c'mere." he pulled you up, your poor legs trembled as you stood. He turned the vibe off and removed it from you, looking at your swollen and reddened clit. "Poor little button," he smirked and leaned down, laying a kiss against it. You moaned loudly when his lips touched your throbbing bud and he pulled back before it became too much.

He gave you that charming smile, and your exhausted face couldn't help but smile back. He would be the death of you, you swore. He pulled you into his lap and held you, kissing your neck and cheeks in a loving manner. He adored you more than anything else, and he loved how the two of you could have fun and explore these kinds of things together.

"You know...if you ever want to learn German colors..." he trailed off, flashing a mischievous grin. Maybe you could go for another lesson.

Thanks for reading.

*BAMF*

dividers by @/adornedwithlight

Cover images: Immortal X-Men #7 (2022)

[kalpeavaris]

Other than the AU gang do you have any murder drones ocs?

Oh, I am SO glad you asked anon! I've been waiting to spam my profile with my OCs but with my AU project going off lately I was hesitant if people would even be interested in original characters or even other stories that don't primarily involve the canon characters. :D

So let me hit you with the giant wall of text that is all this stowed concept art & story I have lying around waiting to finally be released (especially written, lol) Below the cut is all the information to my AU/own story set after the Absolute Solvers defeat in 3071.

Lemme introduce you to my personal project:

"Murder Drones: Echo"

“It takes a demon to kill an angel.”

Let's start with the most important stuff, the characters! This line-up is relatively fresh but it still misses 1-2 characters (especially SD-K) which I haven't finished designing yet. A little bit of info is written below the characters, buuut to add more context Imma just speedrun through them lol

Alot of these characters can be found on TOYHOUSE! (requires you to be logged in, sorry :c)

Serial Designation Y - Trans-masc host (build intended to be female presenting, doesn't love that though. He identifies with the male type much more and it shows). He's the secondary host to ECHO, the main antagonist of the story and has 6 wings (not feathered, they're shaped from membrane and take the shape of feathered wings).

Serial Designation D - A character that is also set on appearing in my MD AUs (like Synemy) - and she has appeared in the Synemy fanfiction before as a flashback character that worked with Cyn! She's a former maid and was rebuilt as Disassembly Drone by the Solver itself. As Dina (her true name) had feelings for Cyn she followed the Solver thanks to it using Cyns body as host. She's neither a good nor bad person in the story but rather a neutral force that just wants to be left alone.

Serial Designation X - A Communication Disassembly Drone that worked in a squad with K & T. She's fairly quiet and rarely talks and if she does, it's mainly to bring up good points. Or to insult someone because they're annoying, lmao. She wears glasses as she misses the main eyes DDs have (the yellow lights on the headband) - she's incredibly short sighted and therefore rarely ever involves herself in aerial fights. She uses close-combat techniques as she used to be a ring fighter before being rebuild.

Serial Designation T - The navigator of the 3-people-squad with X & K. He LOVES 1980s music and salvages places online & IRL for music and CDs. He's not above rick-rolling people. B) He met Kira in 3050s where his programming to kill Solver Hosts was overwritten by the Solver, causing him to become neutral towards her. One thing led to another and they had a child. Whoops! (they're madly in love)

You can also find more stuff on him (and Kira!) on their shared Pinterest Profile B)

Evie (also spelled "Eve") - Ts & Kiras daughter. Her body was constructed to be a hybrid of both a Worker Drone & a Disassembly Drone. She's the perfect middle ground of her parents (not only regarding her height). Her drive to kill Workers is not really present, though she can be very "feral" if she's starving. Still needs Oil to survive and cannot go into the sun - doesn't have nanite acids, but instead a stinger. T made sure not to give her acid. He's worried she'll hurt herself with it.

Kira ("ZWEI") - Kira is one of the Drones that was held at the Cabin Fever Labs similar to Nori and Yeva. She was number 24 (yes ik there's a name for that number in the show but since those names are names from workers on the MD staff team they're more easter eggs and less canon ig) and as a communication drone, her Solver gave her differing powers. She escaped from the labs in the mid 3050s after a botched patch and found herself an Outpost to reside in until she met T. Kiras antennas were able to pick up communication between the Solver & the landing pots, making her aware of the upcoming threat. Her existence as com-drone makes it easy for Echo to manipulate her as well as she cannot tune out incoming signals easily.

Motte - Motte is Echos main host (similar to how Cyn was to the Absolute Solver), with the exception that Echo doesn't inhabit her body all the time; only if it needs to speak through her. Motte is completely blind, her visor crached & her left eye replaced by Echos symbol that glows when she's in active possession. Before the possession she was a worker drone in Outpost 4 and quite a friendly individual. Ever since being possessed Motte is extremely paranoid, doesn't speak (semi-voluntarily, since she fears hearing her voice thinking it might be Echo). She's close with Y due to them sharing the same fate as hosts and he's the only person she allows around her. She's not evil or even slightly motivated to follow Echos commands, she's simply being used against her will (dw, she'll get her comfort to the hurt).

ECHO - main villain of the whole thing. Echo itself is a mutated line of code that seperated itself from the Absolute Solver code back in the Cabin Fever Labs when the humans experiemented with it. It mainly affects communication drones and was first seen within Kira, although it was patched from her and moved onto Motte for it's main host. It's a true neutral entity in the beginning, not differencing good from bad or even having slightly grey area understanding. It does *does*. In the evolution of the story Echo gains a pretty dangerous god complex, seeking out power beyond understanding. Other than the Solver it doesn't wish to satisfy hunger or seek out matter to consume, instead, it wants to experience true ascencion - human emotions and more. It's highly motivated by it's drive to know things, being inspired by human religion (especially christianity) with it's true form being a humongus Ophanim inspired burning wheel that is formed from biological matter, eyes and light.

Echo assumes a more "drone-like" appearance when not needing it's massive true form. It tries to imitate the Workers and well... fails, since it doesn't really look like any normal Worker Drone. It really loves halo symbolism which also results in it's powers and main emblem/symbol being a halo-like structure that manifests in it's victims eye. For that it usually destroys the eye in place. Echo is very capable, though not immortal. Like the Solver there is a way to contain it, but for spoiler reasons I won't share this for now!

(Not shown on this chart but imma share them anyways!)

Serial Designation K - K is one of the squad members that came to Copper-9 with T & X. While T and X slowly started to warm up to Kira and not actively killing the Workers anymore she herself was entirely disconnected from that. K is, to be frank, just fucking through the roof. She enjoys the Solvers task of killing off the life around planets and gladly does so. Stopping just because a Worker "is nice" isn't on her to-do list so she's... well, more or less excluded from the Squad which made her angry. On one hand - understandable, on the other hand she's killing everything she sees, sooo...

She's a minor antagonist in the story and serves as obstacle to go through. Even with the Solver gone K isn't convinced to stop which comes with a price to pay if you actively try to hinder people from finding their loved ones. :X

Alex - Alex is a human soldier from another exoplanet that wasn't yet destroyed by the Solver - the Iron system. He works in the IDF (iron defense force) and when the military on Iron-3 get the message that Solver activity has been spotted again in the Copper System (as well as Echos activity) he and his team is sent to Copper-9 to weed out the reminaing Solver Hosts (and later on Echo Hosts). Alex isn't the biggest fan of Drones but works with Iris to keep their mission afloat.

Iris - Iris is a Drone built to assist in military-grade operations. She's a bit similar to Disassembly Drones (though with differening looks) that is working with Alex' squad in order to destroy Solver Hosts & remnants still alive on Copper-9 to avoid another spread (not being aware that the Solver itself is contained and still alive... oh well... sounds like drama. Hehe.) Her name is an acronym for Intelligent Response and Information System.

So, what's the story? Is there anywhere I can look for stuff?

Well, the story right now is still being written & in draft form. It'll be released on my AO3 when it's presentable!

Basically the story plays after the Solvers defeat in 3071 and spans over a few months. It starts of with a semingly smaller mission of Evie searching for her parents who've gone missing after the Solvers defeat - trying to make sense from the entire situation only to stumble onto something WAY bigger than she (and the people helping her) anticipated in finding.

Will there be canon characters?

Yes! Since the B Plot of the story also revolves around humans trying to kill off the remaining Solver Hosts (and the Solver itself) canon characters will be included too. Obviously the characters from Outpost 3 such as Uzi, N & V primarily.

There will also be canon & fanon character interaction! B)

Anything else I could seek out for this story?

Check out this cool playlist I made for the story! It has edgy songs (woah! who could've thought when it's about MD?!), sad songs! (i love making characters suffer for plot purposes!), cool fight songs (NICE robots smashing each other to bits on the battlefield! B)) and much more (which will be expanded upon in the future hehe)

[laheyxlover]

Stuck Between Part 3

Quinn Hughes x Reader x Trevor Zegras

2k

Part 1, Part 2, Series Masterlist. Expect more parts!

Summary: When both boys break a boiling point of jealousy over your friendship with the devils captain, Nico Hischier. Both boys overhear a drunken conversation.

Warnings: Idk lemme know if I need to add some.

Requests are open! (for this series or others)

Trevor had been in his room for most of the day after that. His insecurities spiked earlier. He knew it was stupid but every time he thought of you. He saw your dejected face in the pool. 

It had been two weeks since then, and you had been hiding in your room or the pool for most of your time. You were hanging with Luke to avoid seeing Trevor or Quinn. 

After a few days of Jack keeping his girlfriend busy, he finally decided to have everyone meet her. 

“Jack and Taylor are here..” Luke said softly before opening the door. You were currently blowing smoke out the window, joint in hand and eyes wide. 

“Shit- I thought I had more time..” You mumbled quickly dimming the joint in a shot-glass you stole from the kitchen downstairs. 

Luke rolled his eyes and tossed you one of your perfume sprays before turning to head out the door. 

“Don’t forget to brush your teeth, Trevor’s breath reeked the other day..” Luke said, scrunching up his nose in disgust. 

You swatted at him as you quickly sprayed yourself. Grabbing lotion to make the smell go away from your skin. After a few minutes, you joined everyone downstairs to find them outside. 

Quinn was standing in the kitchen unloading stuff he got from the store, pulling out a can of strawberry daiquiri before sliding it across the counter away from the other stuff. 

You walked into the kitchen and helped him put away the food and other things you’d need for the summer. You both worked in silence until Quinn’s voice broke the silence. 

“What’s with Trevor?” Quinn asked quietly, his voice slightly Horace. 

“I don’t wanna talk about it.” You mumbled before opening your drink. 

“You can always talk to me..” Quinn stopped unpacking and stared at you. He looked nervous. 

“I don’t want to…” You mumbled before walking out of the kitchen, you knew Quinn was just trying to do what he could to help you. But right now you just need space. 

The patio was filled with hockey players, some you’ve met. Some of you haven’t. Taylor was sitting on Jack’s lap as he stared at her lovingly. It made your stomach turn slightly as you remembered a few days ago how you could do that with Quinn. 

Nico noticed you sulking as the room buzzed around you, the weed started to kick in. 

"Was schmollsch so ellei am Pool?" the thick Swiss accent broke your thoughts. You looked up at him a little dazed. 

"Ich stecke zwischen zwei Jungs fest. Ich kann nicht wählen, weil in Wahrheit. Ich weiss nicht, was ich will. Oder ob ich das überhaupt will..." you mumbled, you were slowly getting better at swiss-german. Thanks to Nico for politely correcting you. 

"Isch das de Grund gsi, warum Quinn sich i de Chuchi versteckt? Und warum ich Trevor de ganz Tag ned gseh ha?" Nico asked, sitting down by the poolside with you. 

“That obvious?” you laughed a little as you saw Nico’s reflection in the water roll his eyes. 

“Anyone can see how both boys look at you..” Nico said, accent thick as it deepened slightly. 

“How drunk are you Hisch?” you asked softly as his face grew red. 

“Don’t tell the team..” Nico chuckled as he splashed some water with his feet. 

“I am not nearly drunk enough..” You groaned, suddenly craving your strawberry drinks. 

Nico stood up, a little wobble. Helping you up when you stumbled slightly. 

“Want to sneak upstairs and pre-game the boat ride?” Nico asked like he read your mind. 

“I think you were made for me..” You joked back, deciding to let the captain lean against you for support so no one would think differently. 

Quinn saw you both sneak upstairs and it caused his stomach to drop. Before he could think, he was rushing up and opening Trevor’s door quickly before shutting it. 

Startled Trevor raised his hands defensively. 

“What the fuck Quinn?” Trevor’s tired voice was muffled by Quinn shushing him harshly. 

“Our girl is sneaking into the bathroom with Nico Hischier..” Quinn whisper-yelled. Trevor took a second to process what Quinn was saying. Choosing to ignore the way Quinn called you, theirs. 

“She is probably just smoking..” Trevor said casually before frowning and standing up. Trevor rushed out of his room, fumbling over the blanket as it fell to the floor. Quinn followed behind staying silent as he was trapped in his thoughts. 

“God, who knew Captain had Brennivin! I had this when I was twenty in Iceland..” You teased sitting on the sink as Nico lay in the bathtub mumbling. 

“God. It does not mix well with Tequila..” Nico groaned before leaning up to stick his head over the toilet. 

“I told you not to have another shot..” You giggled as Nico threw you a glare.

When both boys made it to the bathroom, they froze in place as they heard Nico’s voice. 

“Just date them both? If it’s that much of a stress to choose..” Nico mumbled before gagging slightly as he spun his head back to the toilet. 

“God. I should not have let you bring the Brennivin with us. We could’ve just smoked Neeks..” You shrugged as you adjusted your spot on the counter. 

“I will feel better once I drink the entire lake…” He groaned, tilting his head forward slightly. 

“Wait, date them both? God that would make it so much easier..” You mumbled before taking another sip of your drink. 

Nico groaned as his head throbbed, “You need to cover for me. I am going to hide in your room..” Nico stood up before stumbling into the door. 

The thump sound startled you, panicked as you opened the door to yell out for help. But Quinn quickly moved around you to help Nico stand. 

“Oh. Hey, were you eavesdropping?” You accused, slightly glaring at both boys. Quinn helped Nico into your room, while Trevor pulled you into his side. 

“You want both of us?” Trevor asked, voice low. His gaze was sweet, as you gazed up at him. 

“Oh, I don’t know..” You mumbled flushed as you wrapped your arms around him. 

“I was afraid I lost you to him…” Trevor mumbled kissing your forehead. You pulled away from him slightly to gauge his reaction. 

“I could share..” you said unsurely, you wanted to. But you weren’t sure if either boy could handle that. 

“I can share. Only with Quinn...because he did have you first..” Trevor said as his arms tightened around you when Quinn closed your bedroom door. Leaving Nico to sleep his hangover off. 

“Hands off her..” Quinn mumbled, but Trevor listened. Letting you go from his grasp. 

“Can you go? We have a lot to talk about..” Trevor whispered in your ear, watching as you nodded shyly. You looked at Quinn who looked a little puzzled as well as you rushed downstairs.

You walked back out to the patio, feeling more buzzed by the second. Luke was quick to wrap his arm around you when he noticed you stumble over into a lawn chair. 

“Hey, woah there!” Luke said as you face-planted into the plush lawn chair. 

“I am in love with your brother…” You mumbled before opening your eyes to Luke at the shocked look on Luke’s face. 

“I have known that since Quinn snuck you into his room once when we were back home with my mom. He said you got wasted and begged his mom not to rush upstairs and embarrass him” Luke said sitting down on the wooden floor of the patio. 

Ellen laughed at Quinn as he pleaded with her to just let you sleep. She knew her son was smitten with someone when he called her late one night. Trying to figure out how to make the perfect bouquet because you just got accepted into your dream job senior year of college. 

“Oh. I thought he picked up some random flowers..” You flushed as you sat with Luke, anxiously waiting for Trevor or Quinn to come back. 

“Jack told me he thought you and Trevor were going out?” Luke asked, confused. He was bored out of his mind. And he still felt like he owed you for letting him sip your strawberry daiquiri. So he didn’t mind prying into her life for once. 

“It’s..” You were cut off when blonde hair flooded your senses, Trevor’s long hair brushed against the top of your head. 

“We are. I mean if she’ll have me…” Trevor said, wrapping his arms around your neck, and smiling at you. 

Luke frowned as he met Quinn’s gaze from the sliding glass door. But before he could comment on the situation. Quinn opened the door and walked over, ignoring the looks of his brothers. 

Quinn pushed Trevor lightly away, Trevor leaned away from you just enough for Quinn to kiss your forehead. 

“Can we steal her for a second?” Quinn asked Luke, eyes begging his brother to throw him a bone. 

Luke glanced at you one more time before standing up, “If you hurt her. Either of you” Luke said as he glanced between his brother and his friend. 

“I won’t hesitate to hurt you..” Luke mumbled before shooting you a reassuring smile. He got up and walked off to go find Jack, the two brothers gossiping with Jamie as they watched from the poolside. Taylor swatted at Jack but he kept his gaze on you three. 

“We decided to share you. But only with us..” Quinn warned carefully. It was a boundary you all three preferred. 

“...Can we take it slow?” Your voice was quiet, as Quinn kneeled on the ground. Now at eye level with you. 

“We will go as slow as you need. Trevor knows I’d kick his ass..” Quinn said as Trevor made a noise of disagreement. But you both laughed lightly. After a few hours of talking about boundaries. You all agreed to remain exclusive. 

Trevor even gave you his jacket at one point, to which Quinn tugged you on his lap. Both boys are constantly fighting for your attention. But always accepting the compromise you offered. Whether it was holding both of their hands. Or giving them equal amounts of kisses. 

Jack had also introduced you to Taylor who was now taking shots with you in the kitchen. You both chatted politely as Jack watched his girlfriend lovingly. Quinn smiled, watching as Trevor wrapped his arms around you. Stealing your shot from your hands before quickly drinking it. 

You and Taylor gossiping about your favorite hockey player. Trevor stilled against your back, he pulled you closer to your chest. 

Taylor sent you a smirk, and you blushed knowing that she caught onto the tension in the room between you, Trevor, and Quinn. Dammit Jack. You thought, but little did you know it was Luke who snitched on her. 

“I guess I have to say Trevor because he is currently squeezing me to death..” You teased nudging his side with your elbow. Trevor mumbled, ‘Sorry’. But made no effort to move from behind you. 

Trevor didn’t care if he was being clingy, he simply wanted to be with right now. As if marking his territory from the other boys you’d chat with. After you all moved back outside, you sat on Trevor’s lap while Quinn casually laid a hand on your thigh. 

When Nico came down the stairs, he hissed at the sun. It was starting to set, and he was feeling awful. 

“Ich fühl mich wie scheisse. Ich hetti nöd na en Schuss selle becho..” Nico’s sleepy voice mumbled before chugging the last of your water from your cup. 

You laughed as both Trevor and Quinn tightened their grip on you. You swatted back at them playfully. You knew they had grown a slight dislike of the Devil's captain since you became friends. 

“He is just hungover..” You summarized for the boys. Trevor relaxed against you. But Quinn kept a glare on Nico. Nico was too hungover to focus on the people around him. He sunk into the lawn chair next to you all. 

Quinn’s grip on your thigh loosened when Nico started snoring loudly. Relaxing back against you and Trevor. 

As everyone went back inside, and filtered out through the night. You ended up eating dinner with Quinn in bed while Trevor helped Nico to bed. Quinn ran his hand through your hair. 

“And you're sure it's okay?” Quinn asked as you laid your head on his arm. 

“More than okay..” you mumbled against his arm. 

“I am still a little jealous of Trevor. But he said something that stuck with me..” Quinn said as he thought back to his conversation earlier with Trevor. 

“I love her. And I am willing to make whatever work. Because I can’t ask her to choose either, Quinn.” Trevor’s voice was firm. Like he truly believed what he was saying. 

“What did Trev say?” You asked softly drawing circles around Quinn’s arm. 

“He just said something I relate with..” Quinn mumbled as he leaned over to kiss your forehead. 

After a few minutes of talking about the things you wanted to do tomorrow, you snuck off back to your room. You said goodnight to Trevor too, on your way back.

[dotversion2]

Dot Explains the Plot of Library of Ruina

Preamble:

Library of Ruina is my favorite game of all time. A big part of that comes from the characters and the story. The problem, if you want to call it that, is that the game has a lot of characters and a lot of story and all of it has layers worth analyzing. While I cannot cover everything that happens, I can at least impart upon you and your friends a shortened version of the game's events with most of the key points intact. This can be useful as a refresher to anyone looking to remind themselves of the plot events for the sake of writing their own fics, people who want a more comprehensive timeline of events but don't want to dig through Fanon's awful website, or you just enjoy reading my writing. This was originally written to get a friend of mine caught up on the game events so she could watch a stream I am on where I am cohosting a friend's blind playthrough.

Before we begin, broad content warning: this game goes to some pretty dark places. Everything will be under the cut; that said, while not every chapter covers these topics, here's what to expect.

Chapter 1: Canard

Roland materializes within an unknown location, cursing his abrupt appearance within this mysterious place. He is quickly met by a darkly dressed figure who immediately begins questioning him on how he arrived within 'the Library' without an 'Invitation.' He explains hastily that he has no idea how he got there. He was simply wandering the backstreets looking for his favorite sandwich shop. The woman, unsatisfied with his answers, pulls his arms and legs off. He eventually blacks out from shock and blood loss.

Roland awakens a few days later to find that he is both alive and fully restored. His tormentor is still there, now clad far less threateningly. She apologizes for her actions earlier and explains that she has not only healed him but returned him to his physical peak. She introduces herself as Angela and explains that she is the Head Librarian of the Library (of which he has wandered into). Roland introduces himself, explaining he is a Rank 9 Fixer who had fallen on hard times. Angela offers him a job as the Patron Librarian of the Floor of General Works, explaining that the job is split between organizing books on the given topic and handling Receptions. Angela explains that she sends out Invitations which offer Guests books with information they desire if they can complete a trial within the Library. That trial is a duel to the death against the Librarians of that Floor. Roland, having few connections in the outside world, agrees to the offer.

Canard Receptions

There are four Receptions in Canard and they are thankfully mostly world-building so I can lump them together. I will not be so lucky later. The first Reception is the Rats, a trio of vagrants scraping by day-to-day. Rats is a term used to define any consistent group that isn't registered with a Fixer Office or Syndicate. Said Rats are organ harvesting in Zwei Association territory to build up the money and rep needed to join the Stray Dogs syndicate. While examining their current victim, they discover that he has an orange circle on the back of his neck and that his organs already seem scrambled. The group does, however, discover the Invitation with the man's stomach. Signing, a door appears before them. When stepping through, they enter the Library. The Librarians never lose a fight in canon so I won't go into details describing any of them unless something important happens during the fight. Assume every Reception ends with "and then everyone got turned into books".

The second Reception is Yun's Office, a Rank 8 Fixer Office that is struggling to make ends meet. They have fallen on such hard times that they have taken to doing the most banal of odd jobs like finding lost pets. The Invitation appears on Yun's desk but he pass it off to some of his employees to investigate. When they don't return but a second Invitation offering the books of his fallen comrades does, Yun sends his understudy Finn in his place. Finn is defeated and a third invite arrives. Yun finally enters personally and gets berated by Angela for exploiting Finn's loyalty and getting him killed. Yun callously explains that the City is built on people exploiting each other and, if he didn't exploit Finn, someone worse would. This angers the Director who leaves to let Roland do his thing. After the battle, Angela asks Roland during this encounter if he knew Yun since they were both Fixers. Roland retorts that not every Fixer knows every other Fixer and that there are a lot of Offices big and small.

The third Invitation is the Brotherhood of Iron, a trio of cyborgs. They pawned off their organs for their combat augments which allow them to disregard eating and sleeping while having drawbacks of their own that require addressing. The receive the Invitation and face the trials within. This is when we are introduced to the politics of AI within the setting. While full human transformation is considered acceptable, fully artificial beings are outlawed by The Head (the governing body of the City). Angela's existence stands in opposition to that decree, leading Roland to wonder what her creators were thinking defying such a crucial law with such heavy consequences.

The final Reception is of the Hook Office. While technically a Fixer Office, their specialty is murder and mayhem. Roland laments seeing criminals hiding their true intentions behind the legitimacy that comes with being an organized office. One of the Hook Office members takes a swing at Angela when she greets them. This does less than nothing since she is unto a god while within the Library. She sighs and leaves so Roland can do his thing.

The Suppression of Bloodbath

I am not going to go over every Abnormality Suppression because there are nearly 50 of them but I will go over at least the first one to explain why they are done.

After having to solo an entire Fixer Office himself, Roland complains to Angela that the workload she has given him outstrips what one person can feasibly do. To his surprise, Angela agrees and says that there is a way to acquire additional help but it won't be easy. She explains that there are books within the Library that contain Abnormalities (monstrous manifestations of the human psyche) and the Lobotomy Corporation employees assigned to observe them. If he can enter those books and 'suppress' the Abnormality, she can reawaken the employee. Furthermore, suppressed Abnormalities can lend their aid to him through their boons. Roland accepts the offer and enters the book of the Abnormality 'Bloodbath,' a tub filled with blood that pulls in those who stare at it for too long. After defeating the monster, Roland gets his first assistant. Assistant Librarians are not named characters but create-a-characters you can customize yourself. Interestingly, if you have a Lobotomy Corporation save on your PC, the awakening employees will be pulled directly into your new game.

The Floor of Literature

Upon completing the battle with Yun's Office, Roland notices that the Library has expanded upwards to a new floor… and he can hear people arguing. Following the voices, he sees a woman arguing with Angela. She says that she has not forgiven Angela for what happened while Angela simply states that they don't have to like each other, so long as they each do their jobs. Once Angela leaves, the woman introduces herself as Malkuth, the Patron Librarian of the Floor of Literature. She used to be the department head for the Control Team at Lobotomy Corporation and one of the nine Sephirah (human brains put into robot bodies intended to run the departments of LobCorp's central branch). Roland asks how he can help her with her work and she responds that bringing in more books helps them progress Angela's goals and awaken the other Sephirah. Malkuth is generally a preppy ray of sunshine (except for when it comes to Angela).

Having a second floor means you can now field two sets of units in a reception, with the second taking over if the first falls. The returning Sephirah also help catch the player up on what happened in LobCorp and help give a sort of narrative parity between the two games. In their third conversation together, Malkuth explains what Angela did that pissed everyone off so badly. Speaking of...

What did Angela do that pissed everyone off so badly?

Explaining this kind of requires explaining how Lobotomy Corporation is played so- LobCorp is a base management sim where you have to run the world's most dangerous power company while a bunch of those robots from Borderlands yell at you. Over the course of 50 days, you have to complete a certain number of research goals and productivity quotas to generate an unknown substance referred to as Light that will supposedly help break everyone from the collective mental ennui that has gripped the world. This is broken up every so often by one of the Sephirah having a mental breakdown you have to talk them down from. If you find yourself in a dead end gameplay-wise because all your best employees were killed in a freak accident involving an inconspicuous button, you can rewind back to certain points in the timeline and go from there.

At the end of day 50, after all the Sephirah have their arcs and X (the player character who is a clone of another character called Ayin) confronts his creator, the LobCorp office has finally collected enough Light to fulfill the initial goal of spreading it over the City. It will take seven days, but it will be worth it to finally lift the malaise that has filled everyone's hearts. Ayin and what's left of Carmen (the other founder she will come up again later) enter the great pillar of Light and disappear from the world. The Sephirah prepare to earn their eternal reward (death) and shutter the facility. However, after everything that's happened, after everything that she's gone through, Angela did not wish to simply die and disappear from the world. She wanted to live. With Ayin gone and her programming fulfilled, she was finally able to act freely and did so by standing in opposition of the Department Heads. She would take the Light for herself to do with as she wished. Eight of the Sephirah stood against her, with only one taking her side. Angela released the Abnormalities into the facility, pushing the departments and their employees to the brink trying to contain them while two of the department heads (Gebura and Binah) had a climactic anime duel that was probably undercut by them being rhombuses.

After three days of fighting, Angela and the Sephirah called a truce and brokered a deal: Angela would release half the Light over the City and keep the other half to herself. The Sephirah would also be joining her, kept in stasis until she could construct new bodies for them. Thus we have the White Nights and Dark Days: the three days of Light and then the four days of its absence. During those four days of darkness, the Pianist emerges as the first Distortion. Roland finds his way into the Library not long after (though exactly how long is kind of up for debate).

And that's more or less what happens in Canard. Come back next time for Urban Myth, our third Patron Librarian, and Mrs. Lovett's Meat Pies.

This is the shortest one of these, btw.

Chapter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

[marcmarcmomarc]

If there’s one thing I don’t like about RWBY: Beyond, it was the choice to make it fully voice-acted. While I do absolutely love what we were given, it’s really obvious that CRWBY was working with whatever resources they had left, and were unable to get many of the show’s voice actors back before Rooster Teeth shut down, so they couldn’t make many stories for the miniseries.

So, what I think would have made for a good RWBY: Beyond episode is @pmpknsoup’s post featuring Ruby and Robyn that I’ve brought up too many times on this blog.

This will be the third time I touch on that post, but I can’t promise that it will be the last.

Feel free to comment or reblog how you think this would have gone.

———————————————————————————-

(In Theodore’s office in Shade Academy at early evening, Team RWBY and Jaune Arc face the main members of the Remnant Alliance, consisting of Team JNPR plus Oscar Pine/Ozpin and Emerald Sustrai, Team STRQ, the Ace-Ops, the Happy Huntresses, Winter Schnee, Team SSSNN, Team CFVY, Whitley Schnee, Willow Schnee, Klein Sieben, Maria Calavera, Dr. Pietro Polendina, Ghira Belladonna, Kali Belladonna, Ilia Amitola, Bartholomew Oobleck, Peter Port, Glynda Goodwitch, Theodore, Xanthe Rumpole, and Zwei.)

RUBY: Listen. Thanks, everyone, for your patience.

RUBY: It took a while to figure out how to tell you, and I know being left in the dark about our whereabouts over the remainder of the winter, the whole spring, and the summer has left you anxious, but now, I’ve decided it’s time to reveal what’s been going on. Robyn, I’ll need your Semblance to prove all of this correct.

ROBYN: Uh, okay.

(Robyn steps away from the group, removes her glove, and joins hands with Ruby. Her Semblance turns on and glows green with every piece of information Ruby gives.)

ROBYN: So, you guys didn’t make it out of the pocket dimension before it collapsed. Where did you guys fall to?

RUBY: Well, after I fell, I regained consciousness on a beach surrounded by giant seashells. I tried to hone in on a giant tree, but just ended up looping in circles. Eventually, I had to stop, then found a mouse trying to pull a plant out of the ground. I pulled the plant, which turned out to be a cheese plant, out for the mouse, and fed it to them. After the mouse revealed that they could talk, I named them Little, and they decided to stay by my side as I tried to get home. Then we found Weiss and Blake captured in vines by a whole village of talking mice. It didn’t take much convincing to get them to let them go. Then we went to look for Yang and found a creepy Grimm-looking creature moving jerkily. And I mean very creepy. (IMITATING JABBERWALKER) “Stalking. Searching. Waiting. Listening.” (NORMAL VOICE) Then Yang came barreling out, already fighting the creature while missing her arm. Then Blake realized we were in our favorite childhood fairy tale, The Girl Who Fell Through the World.

(Confusion and wonder all around. “That fairy tale?” “The Ever After?” “It’s real?”)

OSCAR: That fairy tale actually happened? And the Ever After is real?

RUBY: Which meant the creepy Grimm-like creature was the Jabberwalker from that story. Also, Weiss had a very hard time wrapping her head around the Ever After’s absurdities.

(Weiss blushes with embarrassment.)

WEISS: I did not.

RUBY: Our hands are glowing green, Weiss. Robyn’s Semblance never fails. Then we went to the village in the King’s Acre to barter with the Jinxy Peddler, who had stolen Yang’s arm. Well, they don’t “steal”, they just “take things others aren’t looking at”. Fair is fair, right, Little?

ROBYN: Sounds like a legitimate businessperson.

WEISS: Right?

EMERALD: Wait, you guys met the Jinxy Peddler?

VELVET: Was he cute?

WEISS: Cute? He was adorable!

RUBY: And, despite being older than he was in the book, his strategy was the same, selling treasures that are really other items in disguise. If my memory serves me right, he had a yellow scepter, a pink rabbit statue, and a marionette-like doll. Toy soldiers won the scepter, and we only got it back from them because Little tried stealing the marionette, exposing Jinxy’s treasures as fakes. The rabbit statue was another mouse, the scepter was Yang’s arm, and the marionette was one of Penny’s Floating Array swords. The soldiers followed us to arrest us for stealing Yang’s arm, or “royal property”, before I traded Penny’s sword, and told them she was the greatest warrior to ever live. “She was touched by magic, and she gave her life for thousands. She took a message of hope to the stars, and she saw the world through better eyes.”

(The gang gets emotional, especially Winter and Pietro, who are comforted by their loved ones.)

RUBY: The soldiers escorted us to the Crimson Castle for the birthday of who we thought was the Red King, but turned out to be the Red Prince, who was more of a spoiled brat than Weiss was at Beacon.

YANG: (nudging Weiss) Heh-heh.

RUBY: We challenged him to a game of chess, where he shrunk the girls to the size of chess pawns. Not that it hindered their performance against the Prince’s pawns. When we revealed that we’re humans and beat him, he threw a tantrum and wanted us beheaded, and the Curious Cat rescued us.

(More interested chatter. Nora Valkyrie gets giddy.)

NORA: The Curious Cat?!

REN: Were they as chatty as the book made them out to be?

RUBY: Mm-hm. Not to mention easily distracted. Anyway, they took us to look for ingredients for a Growgurt Parfait in the Garden’s Acre, and we told them our life story, but because we kept getting distracted with our internal conflicts, we kept losing them over and over again. After the third time, when they asked me how I’m supposed to save the world now that Salem has two out of four Relics and that Atlas is gone, we met an herbalist, a caterpillar named Herb who seemed to be asking us questions to figure out what medicine he needed to make to help us. Looking back, he was being reasonable, as too little medicine is useless, but too much medicine is toxic. Eventually, Herb just decided to smoke a hookah for a bit and drugged us with leaves that made us see our past selves tempting us to “go back”. To be free. To be simple. To be whole. To be different. The other girls rejected and had already accepted their failures as something to learn from, but I almost gave in, before the Cat stopped me, then got Herb swallowed by a hole in the ground.

(The gang chatters in moods ranging from confusion to nervousness.)

TAI: Whoa, whoa, whoa. Back up. You guys did drugs?

QROW: Don’t let alcoholism be next, girls.

RUBY: Anyway, the Cat led us to a market to keep looking for the Parfait ingredients. Along the way, they told us about a process that occurs when an Afteran is no longer doing their assigned role, triggered by them losing their ways, wearing out, doubting themselves, or even just finishing their assigned tasks, upon which they are taken to the Great Tree and repurposed into someone or something else with a new identity, personality, and role. Their memories are erased in the process, but the heart very rarely forgets. They don’t die. They ascend.

(Such a concept catches the interest of the gang.)

REMNANT ALLIANCE: Ooh.

EMERALD: Talk about a potential existential crisis.

RUBY: Hence why there was no Red King when we got to the Castle. He lost his game and ascended into the brat we encountered. And the hole that swallowed Herb was him starting his own Ascension. Anyway, after we arrived at the market and got all of the Parfait ingredients, the market was attacked by Jabberwalkers using Neopolitan’s Semblance. Yeah, Neopolitan fell with us, too.

(Nora, Ren, Oscar, and Emerald grow worried.)

REN: Uh-oh.

TAI: Neopolitan? Who’s that?

RUBY: Remember Roman Torchwick, the criminal from Vale? Neo was his partner. She held me responsible for his death at the Fall of Beacon and wanted me dead to avenge him. She expressed herself through gestures and facial expressions because she couldn’t talk.

RAVEN: Was she that chick I saved Yang from on the train on Mountain Glenn?

RUBY: Yep. Then I disposed of her by opening her umbrella on an Atlas airship in the sky during the Fall of Beacon. Apparently she survived that fall without any of those Grimm surrounding us eating her.

OSCAR: Team JNPR and I last fought her right after Ironwood declared us fugitives.

RUBY: Then she fought us in the pocket dimension between here and Solitas. Heck, she was the reason Yang, Blake, and I fell. Anyway, we made the Growgurt Parfait and the girls grew back to normal size just as we got assistance from the Rusted Knight riding his white rabbit.

WHITLEY: Did Weiss go goo-goo eyes the second she laid eyes on him? She had a crush on him when she was younger.

BLAKE: I think everyone had a crush on the Rusted Knight at some point.

RUBY: Well, things didn’t help when he turned out to be a grown-up Jaune with longer hair and a beard, who grabbed a fruit that sent him back in time twenty years right after he landed.

(The gang gasps at the new knowledge of the Rusted Knight being not only Jaune, of all people, but Jaune thrown backwards in time, grown older, and living without his friends for so long.)

NORA: Oh, my Gods! Jaune!

JAUNE: I was stuck there isolated from other human contact, too.

YANG: Weiss certainly loved how mature he was.

RUBY: And the white rabbit was a jackalope Jaune named Juniper.

NORA: After his team? Aww!

RUBY: Then Jaune told us his perspective on the Tree, that he believed it was death, that Alyx backstabbed her brother Lewis, the author of the fairy tale, who wrote the story the way he wished it happened, and that the Cat couldn’t be trusted. Before long, we got caught in a “punderstorm”, which creates a physical manifestation of a mental or emotional problem. Jaune, Weiss, Juniper, and I were sent to metaphorical and literal crossroads, while Yang and Blake were sent to two broken, wooden, rickety bridges connected to a giant pillar that they could only make more planks to advance toward if they were honest about their feelings for each other. Yeah, Yang and Blake are girlfriends now.

(As Yang and Blake blush at each other, everyone’s hearts melt, all proud for the Bees.)

REMNANT ALLIANCE: Aww!

NORA: See, Ren? I told you there was more going on!

KALI: Our baby girl found love?

TAI: With my sunny little dragon?

RAVEN: Wow. She really is your daughter, Tai.

TAI: What’s that supposed to mean?

RAVEN: A tall, muscular, boisterous blonde who tells bad jokes pining after a brooding dark-haired beauty? A tale as old as time.

RUBY: Then the Cat bailed on us after mistaking us for selfishly using them to get home, and once the storm passed, Jaune let us spend the night in his house in the Origami Acre, then he introduced us the next morning to a village of paper stars called the Paper Pleasers. They seemed very dumb and clumsy at first, because of the daily disasters they were causing, but, at the end of the day, were very hospitable. He also named them after all of us. On Jaune’s to-do list, I saw Ren, Ruby, Oscar, Nora, Neptune, and Pyrrha.

(Not a word is spoken as everyone exchanges concerned and uncomfortable looks with each other.)

RUBY: Anyway, a Paper Pleaser told us they kept causing disasters because they wanted to ascend, because their purpose was long since finished, but Jaune was stopping them because of his belief that the tree was death. They told us that the Tree isn’t death, but resurrection, rebuilding, and rebirth. Then Neo’s Jabberwalkers attacked, and while we were distracted, the Paper Pleasers finally managed to off themselves by destroying the koi pond dam and drowning in the flood, then when the girls asked me to help comfort Jaune, I blew up at them for caring more about everyone else’s feelings or getting home, taking my mental health for granted and ignoring my problems…

(Everyone leans in anxiously. Things are getting even more interesting, but not in a good way.)

(Weiss, Blake, Yang, and Jaune exchange looks of guilt.)

RUBY: …then I ran away, came across the Abandoned Acre, and entered a mansion, where Neo had made clone illusions of Roman Torchwick, Penny, Pyrrha, Professor Lionheart, Clover, Ozpin, and Ironwood, and used them to physically and psychologically abuse me, beating me up ruthlessly and blaming me for their deaths, and when the chaos was over, I felt no will to live or be myself anymore, not helped by Torchwick’s question: “Do you really think you can stand to watch more of your friends fall? Or are you ready to admit the truth, that the world would just be better off without you?”

(The gang regards Ruby with sorrow over her being trampled by her trauma. Ozpin can be heard sniffling.)

RUBY: Then Neo offered me tea made from leaves from the Tree intended to wipe me from existence. The Cat blasted her away, but then turned out to be evil and tried to possess me, while revealing that they had been trying to wear me down the whole time, then Neo fought them off and stomped Little to death, then I finally gave in, drank the tea, offing myself, and got swallowed by the Tree.

YANG: (tearing up) Oh, Rubes.

RUBY: Then I met a Blacksmith, who I also found at the market, or, rather, she found me, and then she presented me with a choice to either change my identity or be myself. I saw my mom’s weapon and was treated to a vision of the night she left with Raven on another one of Ozpin’s secret missions and never came back.

(Tai turns accusingly at Raven.)

TAI: Raven?

YANG: She lied? She left with you?

RAVEN: Yeah… Hey, like I said to her, “First time for everything.”

(The gang gives her a look.)

RAVEN: Really? Sheesh. Tough crowd.

HARE: (to Ruby) Wait. What did you say your mother’s name was again?

RUBY: Summer.

HARE: (muttering) So, her uncle is Qrow, her father is Taiyang, and her sister’s mother is Raven. All are members of Team STRQ. Summer, Summer, Summer… (out loud) Summer Rose, the leader of Team STRQ, was your mother?

REMNANT ALLIANCE: (walla) Summer?…Summer Rose?…The previous silver-eyed Huntress?…That’s Summer Rose’s daughter?

RUBY: Yeah. And then, I finally remembered my mom’s words, “I love you just the way you are,” chose to be myself, and came back to help the girls fight the Cat. And we won.

(Cheers and applause all around.)

RUBY: And then Neo killed the Cat by using the Jabberwalkers to eat them. By the way, Jabberwalkers are the only creatures to prevent Ascension if they eat Afterans.

BLAKE: On my count, there were a whopping five of them.

REMNANT ALLIANCE: (walla) Five?…Five of them?…Five Jabberwalkers?

SUN: Talk about overkill.

ELM: (after doing the multiplication math in her head) That’s gotta be over ninety teeth!

RUBY: And, according to the girls, Neo was possessed by the Cat, and she chose to accept Torchwick’s death and undergo her own Ascension. Oh, and Little ascended, too, into who we called Somewhat, and succeeded Jaune as the protector of the Ever After. By then, we had made it to the Tree by coming to terms with the truth, we’ll never be perfect, that even the most skilled Huntsmen and Huntresses have failed, and we walked through the door back home, landed inside the plane of the Tree, and met the Blacksmith again at her workshop. When we noticed two statues of the Brother Gods, she told us their backstory. That the Ever After was overfilled with plants and dangerous wildlife in its primordial years, but the Brothers were created to clear it out. Then they created the Afterans as well as the different acres for them to live in. They designed new creations that would replace them in maintaining the Ever After. This was how the Cat was created. They later created the Jabberwalker as a form of destruction. However, the two disagreed on whether it disrupted the balance or not and began to wage war.

OSCAR AND OZPIN: (both scoff) What else is new?

RUBY: The Blacksmith told us how balance isn’t supposed to be two opposing forces locked in battle; balance is an ecosystem, an organism, and a living thing, thus balance isn’t restored with force or manipulation, it’s restored naturally, requiring love and patience to see it through to the end. The Gods got to Remnant because the Ever After created a door to a “greater beyond” for them, so they can leave and experiment in creating new worlds as much as they like.

NORA: (snickering) So the Tree basically said, “You think you have life sorted out? Then get out of my house”?

RUBY: Pretty much.

(Everyone laughs at the Brother Gods basically being “kicked out of the house” by their “mom��. Some Gods they are.)

YANG: Oh, my Gods, that’s such a hilarious way of looking at it. Thanks, Nora.

RUBY: Anyway, the Blacksmith told us that we impacted the Ever After significantly, just like Somewhat, Alyx, and Lewis, and that the Cat caused a bad impact. Then she de-aged Jaune, but let him keep his memories, which explains the white streak in his hair, and made us a portal in the desert on the outskirts of the city, and now you’re all caught up.

(Ruby lets go of Robyn’s hand. The freedom fighter rejoins the rest of the Alliance.)

RUBY: So, I’m happy to announce that I’m not giving up the fight to save the world anytime soon. No longer will we be putting the entire burden of the world’s safety on one individual, for we are Team Remnant, led by us, Team RWBY!

REMNANT ALLIANCE: (walla) Yes!…Great!…Alright!…Thank goodness!…Welcome back, Ruby!…Good to have you back, kid!…Way to go, Ruby!…That’s my girl!

YANG: We’re so proud of you, Ruby.

RUBY: Thanks, guys. You and your support mean the world to me. And I’m just as proud to call you guys family. All of you.

(Everyone looks at Ruby with warmed hearts.)

———————————————————————————-

Starring the voices of:

Lindsay Jones as Ruby Rose

Cristina Vee as Robyn Hill

Aaron Dismuke as Oscar Pine

Kara Eberle as Weiss Schnee

Katie Newville as Emerald Sustrai

Caiti Ward as Velvet Scarlatina

Barbara Dunkelman as Yang Xiao Long

Samantha Ireland as Nora Valkyrie

Neath Oum as Lie Ren

Burnie Burns as Taiyang Xiao Long

Jason Liebrecht as Qrow Branwen

Anna Hullum as Raven Branwen

Howard Wang as Whitley Schnee

Arryn Zech as Blake Belladonna

Miles Luna as Jaune Arc

Tara Platt as Kali Belladonna

Anairis Quiñones as Harriet Bree

Michael Jones as Sun Wukong

Dawn M. Bennett as Elm Ederne

Shannon McCormick as Professor Ozpin

Additional Voices:

Sena Bryer as May Marigold

Ashley Burns as Coco Adel

Mica Burton as Arslan Altan

Tiana Camacho as Glynda Goodwitch

Cam Clarke as Bartholomew Oobleck

Michele Everheart as Fiona Thyme

Dave Fennoy as Dr. Pietro Polendina

Gavin Free as Scarlet David

Caitlin Glass as Willow Schnee

Mick Lauer as Marrow Amin

Cherami Leigh as Ilia Amitola

Marissa Lenti as Joanna Greenleaf

Joe MacDonald as Yatsuhashi Daichi

Aaron Marquis as Nolan Porfirio

Elizabeth Maxwell as Winter Schnee

Max Mittelman as Fox Alistair

Josh Ornelas as Sage Ayana

Jon Risinger as Bolin Hori

Zeno Robinson as Nadir Shiko

Anthony Sardinha as Peter Port

Kerry Shawcross as Neptune Vasilias

Keith Silverstein as Professor Theodore

Melissa Sternenberg as Maria Calavera

J. Michael Tatum as Klein Sieben

Kent Williams as Ghira Belladonna

Erin Winn as Reese Chloris

Anne Yatco as Xanthe Rumpole

“One Day More” section here.

Moodboard index here.

[howlingday]

I’m a grown woman

Can you do the sex talk scene from the Big Bang theory please?

---------------------------------------------------

Winter: (Knocking on Willow's door) Mother?

Willow: Oh! Winter! I'm so glad to see you! (Hugs her)

Winter: I saw you having naked sex.

Willow: (Pulls away) W... Whatever do you mean?

Winter: Earlier, I came to visit you as a surprise, and I saw you with a man.

Willow: Oh, Winter, I am so sorry. Please, come in. (Winter enters) Please, have a seat.

Winter: ...Is there a seat you recommend that wasn't used in lieu of a bed?

Willow: ...If you were joking, that's not funny.

Winter: ...

Willow: ...But maybe we should discuss this in the dining hall.

---------------------------------------------------

Winter: ...Who was he?

Willow: His name is Taiyang. We met at your sister's graduation.

Winter: How long have you been involved with him?

Willow: A few months.

Winter: And of those few months, how long have you been a pervert?

Willow: ...That is no way to speak to your mother.

Winter: No, it isn't. But it is how I choose to speak to a woman who raised me to never kneel before a man, then proceed to do so wearing only the necklace grandmother gave you.

Willow: ...I will give you only one chance to apologize to me, young lady.

Winter: Or what?

Willow: Or I will send you to your room.

Winter: (Stands) I refuse to apologize to you. I am a grown woman. The Leading Specialist of the Atlas military. And I occupy the moral high ground.

Willow: Go to your room.

Winter: ...But I occupy the moral high ground.

Willow: Go to your room!

Winter: I'm the Leading Specialist of-

Willow: EIN. ZWEI.

Winter: (Scurries out of the dining hall)

Willow: (Watches door shut)

Winter: (Cracks open door) I'm a grown woman. (Shuts door)

[thepictureofjune]

Noah Temel: a hero in need of savior

— how a seemingly unfit song tells us everything we need to know about the boy that cried in an abandoned bed

Schloss Einstein spielt Nice to Meet Ya am Anfang des neuen Schuljahres, 99 Luftballons auf Joshis Geburtstag und Until I Found You wahrscheinlich, wenn sich zwei Charaktere endlich finden und verlieben. Sprich, das Team scheint sich also zumindest minimale Gedanken zu machen, welche Songs sie in welchen Szenen spielen. Aber wenn man sich das erste Mal die Lyrics zu “Hero” anschaut, macht der Song in der Colin Abgangs und Noahs Breakdown Szene wohl absolut gar keinen Sinn. Zumindest nicht, wenn man nicht wieder zu viel rein interpretiert. Und genau das machen wir einfach mal. 

Ich hab irgendwie zwei Wege gefunden, das Lied mit den Szenen für mich zu interpretieren, also präsentiere ich einfach mal beide (siehe den hoffentlichen post nach diesem, für die zweite Version). Falls irgendwer andere Interpretationsmöglichkeiten hat, please do share!! 

“He never ever saw it coming at all”

The song starts the way the story of Noah and Colin ends, with Noah not having seen coming that Colin would leave, that it has never been an option before. It is as surprising to us as it is to Noah that Colin is actually serious about having packed all of his bags and booking a ticket out of here. Even if Noah clearly told Colin to go, he never saw it coming that he actually would. 

We can see this after Colin has already left and Noah is crying in an abandoned bed because suddenly it all becomes real that there is nothing left of his friend. He seems ignorant and uncaring when Joel first approaches him but then literally minutes later, realization seems to hit that this is now officially over. And Noah didn’t see it coming. 

“It’s alright, it’s alright, it’s alright.” 

But it is alright, no? So what if Colin leaves, what if he actually never comes back, what is it to Noah? Colin was just one other person in his life and it wasn’t like they knew each other for long. Surely Colin leaving would not affect Noah much, surely it wouldn’t hurt. He assures himself in his mind, that everything will be alright. 

“Hey open wide, here comes original sin.”

Original Sin in Christianity is a term used for something that happens unfairly to the people, that people are born with and therefore, have no control over. Because Noah prides himself with thinking that everything is alright when it isn’t because he gets to firsthand experience that Colin leaving is not alright and it’s unfair that it was Noah's own pride that pushed him to leave. Noah is widely met with the impact of Colin leaving, even if it was supposed to be alright, even if it was supposed to not matter. It is just something that happens to him, the sadness and the guilt that comes with it all. 

The second “It’s alright”

The singer sings it with a somewhat different tune. It sounds more doubtful. Because maybe after all, Noah slowly starts to realize that it actually isn’t alright. Because now the feeling of indescribable sadness has hit him and he can’t help but cry. This is one of the few times Noah has absolutely no control over his feelings. The first time being when he screamed at Colin that he wouldn’t care if he left. Because Noah has probably learned to keep his emotions in check but there comes times where it all breaks down; where he breaks down. And we get to see that point in this scene, we get to see when it stops being alright even if he tries to convince himself that it is. 

“No one’s got it all”

This is when realization starts to hit. Perhaps love was never meant for Noah. Perhaps love was just always one of those things Noah convinced himself he will never have. Only now, that realization hurts but it’s just the way it’s supposed to be because after all, he cannot have everything. Perhaps there once was a moment when Noah thought that after everything, love was something he did deserve because how come Colin could love him despite all the rejections? But then he leaves and that feeling is gone again because perhaps Noah was just never meant for love, perhaps some people just aren’t and they have no control over it. 

“And the T.Vs try to r*pe us and I guess they’re succeeding”

The TV, the media and everything on it is trying to destroy us because what we see most on the TV or in the media, what we grow up as children is mostly romance. It’s the most popular media genre, the most generic, the most accessible because it exists for everyone. This love and the portrayal of it is trying to destroy Noah. Why? Because it convinces him that he is worthy of it. Love is always on TV, it is always accessible and it is mostly happy but Noah didn’t grow up with that happy love. 

“Now we’re going to these meetings but we’re not doin’ any meetin’. And we’re trying to be faithful but we’re cheatin’, cheatin’, cheatin’.” 

Noah's parents separated, we know that and we know that it has somewhat of a huge impact on him because even if he grew up on happy love in the media, it wasn’t what was shown to him in real life. The repetition of “cheating” and the word in the song growing more and more quiet, sounding more defeated with each time said, could also connect to the fact that Noah has just really truly given up now. 

He lays in a bed that isn’t his, that’s supposed to belong to the boy that likes him, the boy that made him feel normal and he doesn’t feel normal at all. He doesn’t feel welcome, he doesn’t feel happy, he is right back where he started; being pushed away to a place he never wanted to be in because of what his parents did. Because it’s no use. He had happiness and he had a friend and still, he lost it. Noah tried to pretend everything was normal, was alright only for it to break down on him. 

“I’m the hero of the story, don’t need to be saved.” 

Another popular trope in the media and on TV is the story of the hero, as well as the story of the damsel. It’s always the hurt one that gets saved, always the sad one that needs help and Noah realizes he is sad and something within him is broken because of everything that has happened to him but he doesn’t want anything to do with it. He doesn’t want to confront the part of him that is in distress because he has convinced himself that he is the Hero of the story and the Hero is never the one to be saved. Noah doesn’t need anything. He doesn’t want anything. But still, the line repeats four times, followed by “It’s alright. No one’s got it all.” because maybe, even if he has convinced himself he doesn’t need love, that there is nothing wrong if he does not have love in his life, maybe, after all, it is what he wants. 

Because he does cry in Colins bed, in the bed of the boy that tried to help him, tried to perhaps even save him, and that has to mean something, right?

see here: the nolin way of interpreting the song

[goldenamaranthe-blog]

Origin Story 1: Step Mom AU

Kela (16): Hey, Mom?

Blake: Yes, Kela?

Kela: I've been wondering for a while, but how did you and Yang meet?

Blake: (blushes)

Yang: (smirks)

Kela: (blinks in confusion and blushes bright red) OH, GROSS!!!!

Blake: Whatever you're thinking is not the case! HOW DO YOU EVEN KNOW ABOUT THAT KIND OF STUFF?!?!

Kela: I've been checking out your bookshelf since I was thirteen, Mom!!! You aren't exactly discreet about what you read!!!

Yang: (snorts) Ha! She's got you there.

Kela: Plus there's this really cute boy in school....

Blake & Yang: WHAT?!?!

Kela: We haven't done anything! I was just wondering how you two met and got together to start to give me an idea! I want to ask him to the Spring Semi-Formal!

Blake: First off, that's none of your business. Second, if he drives his own car, absolutely not!

Yang: Agreed! I remember what I was like at sixteen with a car. No way are you getting in a vehicle alone with anyone.

Blake: Excuse you? Eleven years together and this is a first I've heard of you being a midnight cowboy.

Yang: Yee-Haw? (sweating) I'm gonna shut up now.

Kela: Oh, come on, Mom! You had boyfriends before Yang!

Blake: Boyfriend, singular, and about a dozen single dates. That boyfriend was also a manipulative and abusive monster, so forgive me for being wary of any boy you suddenly have an eye on.

Kela: (silence) you never told me that before....

Blake: I... didn't want you to associate yourself with something like that... Because you are more than what his DNA dictates...

-Awkward Silence-

Yang: Blake hit me with her car when we first met.

Blake: Yang!

Yang: And hissed at Zwei.

Blake: Yang!

Yang: And jumped up onto the hood of her car when he tried to run up to greet her while I was laying on the road in agony.

Blake: YANG!!!

Yang: My arm was stuck in a tree across the street from the impact!

Kela: (on the floor laughing)

[platinumrosetail]

Hi how your day going

Can I request

Yandere team RWBY x baby koi fish fanws reader

Like each members of team Ruby find baby reader and take her in as her own please

And she a Koi fish fanws so she has a mermaid tail

Please and thank you

Rwby! Rwby! Rwby!!! Also the characters will be ages up to 18-19.

Warning: noob author, female reader, platonic yandere characters, and others.

Characters: ruby, weiss, Blake, yang.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ruby:

She met you when she passed the fountain at beacon, you were just hiding there as some bullies (Cardin and his lackeys) that were picking on you and fled to the fountain as fast as you could.

She had shown her friends and sister you, they all loved you as you were still a child and would need guidance so they all took care of you but ruby is the one who took the title of ‘mom’ to you.

You helped ruby confess to Weiss and so both become your mothers while you helped yang and Blake get together, they all called you the little matchmaker as you helped them get in a relationship with the one they love.

They all begged glynda and professor ozpin to keep you, glynda was against it but ozpin thought it would teach them responsibility and on how to take care of any children who’re in danger or lost from their parents.

Ruby would sneak you and her some cookies when you two weren’t supposed top have any yet which brought you two to a sugar rush that wiess had to deal with until it wears off.

You and ruby are spoiled by Weiss when she uses the card that was given to her from her father which all of team rwby and you hate. Tai adores you and thinks of you as his granddaughter even though he thinks that ruby is a bit young to take care of a child at the age she is plus with how she and her teammates, your mother and aunts, are huntresses as well.

You were a bit afraid of zwei but soon learns that he wouldn’t hurt you as he protected you from Cardin until your mothers and aunts came to teach him a leases on. You also met team jnpr who all thought you were adorable.

Weiss:

Weiss had found you knew her family estate before she went to beacon and had taken you with her without anyone but her family butler; Klein, know about you which he found was sweet of her and made sure to keep this secrecy of hers from her father as he is the big issue here more so than her mother and siblings.

Ozpin had let you stay with her as long as she and her team that was deformed after coming to beacon can look after you and take responsibilities for you.

Ruby loved you and thought you were the most adorable child she had ever seen, yang as well as her sister also loves you the same and had soon become the self-proclaimed aunt for you, Blake was worried for you considering weiss family neglecting faunas alike with force labor but soon seen that weiss takes good care of you and also became your aunt soon after.

You helped the group get together; ruby and weiss, yang and blake, which made you the matchmaker of the small little family.

Jnpr soon mat you after jaune saw you with weiss, he didn’t know that ruby and weiss was together as the two wanted to get used to the new relationship plus weiss father would have a fit and she doesn’t want that to stress her and you and with the fact her father still doesn’t know about you yet, jaune started trying to flirt with Wei’s before you spoke before she could and said she was already in a relationship with ruby which shocked and sadden him but he understood and left.

When winter met your it was when she came to visit weiss along with because of the festival happening at beacon for future hunters and hutresses. She was shocked that weiss would have a child with her but was soon explained the whole story and understood quickly and became a aunt figure to you as well.

Weeiss had bought a wheelchair for you which alerted her father but she gave an excuse that a friend of hers needed it and it doesn’t cost that much (it does but not for her family) and so he rwhole family know of this wheelchair friend of their daughter/sister, minus Klein and winter and was now wondering who you were. If Cardin ever picked on you, he now wished he hadn’t as he was soon in a nightmare of a time that he would never forget even if he wanted to.

Yang:

Yang had found you while she was out on here motorcycle, you were getting bullied by some thugs sand she took care of them for you and decided to show you to her friends and sister.

Ruby self-proclaimed herself as the aunt and made her girlfriend the aunt as well. Blake, yang’s girlfriend became your second mother which was a bit nerve reason as you thought she might think of you as lunch like a regular cat would with regular fish but that soon changed fast as she and yang protected you from Cardin who was bullying you and the other Faunus which made the two mothers angry and taught him a lesson.

Blake helped educate you on Faunus history while yang taught you how to be street smart, weiss teaches you on the economy and human history while ruby how to use the puppy dog eyes with zwei.

Ozpin had let yang take you in as you two already grown attached to each other and cause you had no known parents or relatives to take you in and cause it might help with Yang personality and teach her and the rest of team rwby about responsibility along with how to take care of the lost children that might come up on their missions as soon to be huntresses.

Tai and Blake’s parents all love you, you soon became their granddaughter and brought the two families together which helps everyone out as weiss made sure to secretly help the Faunus out with the knowledge that Blake’s family and herself has plus the help of her team now every Faunus with get a brighter future with the help of all of team rwby.

Jnpr met you soon after you officially became the child of yang and blake when they got together and now they’re help of babysitting, though mostly Pyrrha and ren was the one that helped took care of you while jaune and Nora played games with you and of course Pyrrha and ren joined as you had insisted all of you to play.

Yang will protect you from anyone that poses a threat to you and her friends, and sister as long as you stick beside her.

Blake:

Blake’s family was a close friends of your family, so when all but you passed because of some humans that still hated the Faunus killed them while you were visiting the belladonna family, it was only right for them to take you in, though blake said that she would like to adopt you as her daughter which was fine with her parents as they know that she is responsible enough to keep you safe.

She took you with her to beacon as she had gotten the permission from ozpin that she can as long as you stay at the dorms and she along with her team make sure to take care of you.

You helped with any problems she had and helped the team get along and all of you look out for each other and make sure you’re safe from Cardin and anybody that thought that it was a good idea to bully you.

Blake tries to not eat fish around you as that might freak you and make you scared of her but when someone does it on purpose then she will raise hell on that person and anybody who joined in.

You had helped yang and blake get together as well as ruby and weiss which gave you the title as you had somehow got other people together though blake make sure that you don’t overwhelm yourself.

Tai also loved you and made sure to teach you some things he would think you need to know while qrow somewhat stayed at a distance with you but still came in with some life advise just in case you might need it in the future same with tai but it was mostly qrow’s advise that sticker with you.

Jnpr were the go to babysitter for you if they aren’t on a mission for when rwby is about to go on a mission, if team jnpr are on a mission the uncle sun and neptune which was always fun but ends in a scolding for them and a quick check up for you.

[briebysabs]

PH ~Complaints~

This is the first of several pieces I will be making about this series. Reading Pandora hearts was an experience to say the least and I wanted to organize my thoughts into separate categories, because it’s too much to post out normally. Also I’m insane and I think it’ll be fun for me at least. These posts will contain spoilers but maybe it’ll spark people’s love for the series. Maybe it’ll get people to buy the manga volumes. Maybe the stars will align and it manifests an anime reboot (delusional).

With that out of the way, we will start with my complaints and nitpicks of the series. Which isn't a lot but there will be explaining to do here. As a disclaimer, these are things that I found worth mentioning and may not be any issues you had reading. I am going off my initial reading of ph too so if I miss anything, don’t come at me lol.

-> The most notable complaint I need to talk about first is early ph. But I bring it up because this is the main thing that can turn people away from the series. “The early chapters are slow” is a complaint I heard before starting ph. Upon looking back, it wasn’t necessarily slow for me and I enjoyed those parts. But when reading, it was chaotic and felt like nothing was moving. It felt like we were rushing to nowhere. I took several breaks because it was so overwhelming. And I wasn’t reading them physically but off of sites, I know a lot of you remember Bezarius, Liam, Shalon lol. The wonky translations in the early chapters aren’t mochijun’s fault of course, but it didn’t help matters for me.

So much information was jam-packed with an already intricate story. And granted, later on in the 50s-60s chaps, the world makes more sense. But when you haven’t gotten to that point, it’s a lot to take in. You can compare early parts of ph and vnc to see exactly what I mean. VnC’s introductory chapters are much more polished. And some stories work better that way but in ph’s case for me, the direction wasn’t clear. I mean you know the objective, finding Alice’s memories but after that it was just a bunch of “huh???” It wasn't until we met Elliot and Leo, eventually Rufus that everything became more coherent. And you can argue, “yeah you’re supposed to be confused” which is valid but it was a bit messy for me, and I know it's inspired by Alice in Wonderland.

But not only was it confusing and can be perceived as slow (though again not for me), these chapters are long. Certainly not a complaint, I loved having long chapters. But if you’re confused af, you feel as though the plot isn’t moving, and you have these long chapters to add. I see why people may drop the series because “it’s too convoluted and the author doesn’t know what they’re trying to say.” I don’t agree with that but I understand if they weren’t able to go past chapter 35 or something. But we all must remember this was mochijun's first real series. So I understand as well why its beginnings aren't that grounded and can forgive that.

->The second complaint is that there wasn't enough characterization of the Baskervilles squad (as in Lottie and her gang I'm excluding Zwei here) as individuals. What do I mean by this? You can say “well they weren’t that important” which I kinda disagree with because they were the antagonists we were worrying about for half of the story as they searched for their leader Glen.

We got depth given to them as a group, we see that there is a genuine, familial bond. I wanted to know their past or backstories and the most we got from was Lily. You can say we got Lottie too but I don't know I was left wanting more. We know Doug and Fang got Lily’s tattoo in solidarity which is my favorite moment from the squad. But who are they y’know? Fang had such a cool design, how did he join the Baskervilles? Doug is a nothing character. I haven’t read the light novels so these questions could be answered there but having read the manga, we should’ve gotten more.

-> Going from that, the whole Glen thing. Again, might be explained more in the light novels but from manga content, I wish we got more explanations and lore. Who was the first Glen? Who is Levi? He’s someone who we deserved more insight into and what made him so detached.

-> I wish we had more chain on chain fights. I read somewhere that mochijun had struggles mapping out action scenes so they were kept to a minimum. But I think due to that, we don't get to see the true extent of these chains' powers. And yes, Break's condition prevented him from using his chain much. But Break and Vincent's dynamic was great, a final showdown between them with their chains would've been so cool. Mad Hatter vs. Demios we were robbed...

-> Isla Yura in general. Not gonna lie, I forgot he existed. I can respect the role he played, especially knowing now mochijun based Dr. Moreau off him. He was a worthy threat and his obsession with Jack makes sense. But his personality just wasn’t it and rubbed me the wrong way. Stereotypical queer antagonist from the 2000s, we did not need this.

->This might be a biased one but Cheshire should've been a prominent character. We see he’s important to Alice but we got a whole mini-arc with him in the beginning, him appearing in the Break backstory and then he's gone until the final 8 chapters. I also wish he behaved like the cat he’s inspired by. Sassy, mischievous with a dash of dark humor. (though now I say that, Oz does have some of that). There was just so much potential that we simply didn’t explore with him.

-> Speaking of such, Sharon and Ada were so underused. I was expected more from Sharon’s arc and her Eques chain is so cool but that didn’t happen. Every moment with Ada was fantastic but she’s mostly put to the side which sucks. Her relationship with Oz was lacking for me, he comes back from the Abyss and we do not see him think of Ada until 15 chapters later? Her overall reactions to Oz dying essentially after the finale, learning her father’s death, none of this is there. These two had potential, Sharon even being part of the main five, that wasn’t delved into.

-> Vincent and Ada. Okay, lemme break it down. I kinda love them, they didn’t get together which was sad but was the best choice to make. But I do question why this relationship exists. To be honest, until the last 14 chapters I thought she dropped them completely. I was wondering what was the point of making them a whole thing and having read to the end, I still kind of think that. We got two or three main interactions with them and then we just never got back to Vince/Ada until the finale. It was as though the plot simply couldn’t make time for them, it was tightly knit at this point and everything was heading for utter insanity. But then, we get the emotional climax of Vincent’s character. We get Ada telling Vincent “I forgive you”. It hits hard because Vince is a top 5 character for me. But in terms of their relationship, it didn’t feel earned. I don’t think it was developed enough to get such a heavy moment like this.

Their last encounter from what I remember was in the headhunter arc, Ada telling Vince she’ll always be by his side. And while we see he cares about her safety then, I don’t think that means what they have is strong enough to break the self-hatred Vincent has built up for years. Why did it have to be Ada? I know Gil wasn’t getting through to him but if he told Gil what’d he had done. That he indirectly caused the tragedy of Sablier, and Gil really said fuck it, held him down and screamed “I forgive you! The outcome might’ve been the same. Vincent respected Elliot. Vincent looked up to Jack. Vincent grew to care about Ada. But to me, the only person he loved in this world was Gil. And in his last moments, that is all he had. So this whole Vince/Ada thing, while I enjoy them and definitely needed more, at the end I doubt how necessary it was for either of their characters.

->At last, the ending. I love the ending, let’s get that out of the way. Two things I need to say though. One, it did conclude faster than it should’ve. It’s not to a degree where it significantly brings it down but we could have used 5, 6 more chapters. Chapter 104 should’ve been cut in half, 104 ends with “see you later Gilbert” and 105 is total epilogue. That way, the events of 104 get to sink in with the reader. Second, and I know you saw this coming, Reim marrying Sharon. This is the one thing I see most fans have an issue with for the ending and I completely agree, this did not make any sense. It felt like the biggest last minute decision. I think mochijun and the magazine had reached the end of their rope because no one got together in the end. Oz and Alice didn’t become canon really, Gil is too gay, Elliot’s dead so we couldn’t even get elleo implied canon.

(Though you can make a whole other thread arguing how their entire relationship already was from how intimate they were) We all knew Rufus wasn’t gonna marry Sheryl, Vince and Ada went their separate ways. So it was just “alright, um….someone’s gotta get with someone.” And from what I know, there’s no artwork or moment in the series that hints in the slightest that this would happen. We never get a teasing moment from Break about them, Reim and Sharon are friends but the main connection between them is Break. I don't buy the whole "Break's death affecting Sharon deeply and she found comfort in Reim who shared her pain" because you don't have to marry someone who understands your grief. They can just be there for you as a friend. And there was no signs of romantic attraction AT ALL.

Which makes me doubt mochijun planned or even wanted to do this. Her hands might’ve been tied by higher-ups and she had no choice but to include this to deliver the finale she had in mind. This is pure speculation so I could be wrong but with that, this essay I guess, wraps up. There’s other stuff I may not have mentioned, like the jury thing is so absurd but I want to reserve that for my mochiverse theory. When it's all said and done, Pandora hearts is still an amazing series, mochijun has definitely improved as an author. My vnc-ph comparison post which may be after this one will elaborate on that in more detail. Thank you for listening to my rant. What are some complaints or nitpicks you had with ph?

[thornsofrosesdumps]

Taiyang Headcannons!

(I’ll put my trigger Warning stuff in a category so you can skip it <3 it’ll be at the end)

He had curly hair! It got less curly as he got older.

his tattoo is based off of one of the ones a important female figure in his life had (it was a womb tattoo, he didn’t know this)

He has a electricity based semblance

He is a Human Defibrillator.

the entire team jokes are true, he does not deny them.

He’s crossed dressed on multiple occasions.

he used to have a thick country accent, he’s adopted a vale accent over time though.

he took care of his mother when he was younger! It was what made him fall in love with medicine

Medic taiyang my beloved.

He’s got hella anxiety, trust issues and of course abandonment issues.

He takes depression meds!

he’s disabled in some form, either his semblance hurts him to use (it could kill him) or he’s got a bad leg. (Just like me FR)

He’s a Vauco farm boy through and through

He caused so much property damage and hurt a lot of people (he had too, this parallels yang doing it for fun)

He and Raven proposed with marriage knifes!

he still has the marriage knife Raven proposed to him with. (Raven still has hers too)

He met Zwei when he was young, just a kid. He and the dog shared a bond of-life has fucked us over and we’ll spit in its face together.

he can turn into a venomous snake!

he keeps the fangs in his mouth even in human form.

———

(trigger warning area, Murder, suicidal ideation, self harm, depression, alcoholism, domestic abuse and finally the Child labour)

he hates alcohol, he refuses to drink it. His father drank, he’s gotten in several fights with Qrow over this. They almost stopped being friends over it, Qrow agreed to never bring alcohol into Taiyangs house, he left his flask outside hidden.

The first person he killed was his father.

His semblance hurts him if he isn’t in a state of calm/serenity when he uses it. He uses it to hurt himself.

he’s almost killed himself with his semblance before.

When summer died he shut down fully, like emotionally speaking. He raised his kids, did the things but wasn’t there emotionally for them.

he was part of a job that worked him so hard that he almost died when he was younger.

his father was angry and cruel, he would hurt tai and his mother.

when tai was bad as a kid his father would put him in the still burning fireplace to “teach him a lesson” and to train his aura.

[moistmailman]

Persona AU part 2

*At Big Bang Burger*

(Pyrrha is eating a meal with 2 identical little girls, one of them having Pink and brown eyes, while the other having brown and pink eyes)

Heather, picking at the burger: Prisoner, What is on this thing you’re feeding me? It’s wet and soggy! I hate it!

Pyrrha: Lettuce? H-have you never seen a vegetables before? Doesn’t the bowl hat guy feed you in the velvet room?

Brunella: My sister and I have no reason to partake in consuming food for energy like humans must.

Heather, cockily: Yeah! Unlike weak humans, Brunella and I are much tougher than that!

Pyrrha, deadpanned: Then why do you need me to find the guy shutting people down across Vale?

Heather, blushing: S-shut it! That’s none of your concern! *starts removing everything except for the patty from her burger* Do you want to be punished, prisoner!?

Pyrrha, sighing: I could be hanging out with Sun or Yang right now. I didn't sign up for babysitting.

Zwei, in Pyrrha’s bag: You think we can stop by the store on the way home? We’re out of waffles and I want to have some. Nora got me hooked.

Pyrrha: Yeah, I guess.

Jaune, from behind: Pyrrha? Is that you?

Pyrrha, turning: Huh? J-Jaune?! W-what are you doing here?

Jaune, smiling: Emerald and I were hungry and decided to stop here for a meal.

Pyrrha, raising eyebrow: Emerald?

Jaune: Oh, I’m sorry. I never introduced you to her, have I? Pyrrha, this is my detective partner, Emerald.

*Jaune moves aside to reveal a dark skinned girl with short green hair*

Emerald: It’s a pleasure to meet you, miss Nikos.

Pyrrha, shaking her hand: You know my last name? *Smirks* Has Jaune been talking about me a lot or something?

Jaune, blushing: W-what?! N-no, j-just a normal amount! Nothing creepy, I swear! E-emerald, help, p-please!

Emerald, chuckling: Jaune has told me a few stories about you, but I assure you it was all professional talk. Infact, I must admit I know your last name due to our case.

Pyrrha, awkwardly: O-oh, the case?

Emerald: I doubt I need to remind you of your connections to the phantom thieves, right?

Pyrrha, forcing a smile: Of course not. I was involved in their first bust after all. My mind's still racing from simply thinking about it.

Emerald: Calling it a bust is quite generous, if I say so. I would more likely call it their first crime.

Pyrrha, still forcing a smile: Well we all can agree to disagree to that. Some people see them more as heroes if anything. In fact-

*Pyrrha heard a rude cough behind her*

Pyrrha, eyes widening: Oh, my apologies, I appear to forgotten to introduce who I’m with. Jaune and Emerald, this is Heather and Bruenella. My uhm.....sisters? F-from Mistral....we have separate fathers.

Brunella: And mothers.

Pyrrha, forcing a laugh: Hah! Good one, Bruenella.

Jaune, smiling: Why hello, it’s nice to meet you.

Heather, crossing her arms:....who exactly is this dweeb?

Jaune, wise eyed: W-Wha-

Emerald: *chuckles*

Brunella: Heather, it’s rude to call humans names. Even if they have truth to them.

Pyrrha, awkwardly: O-okay, t-that’s enough you two! Stop it! I-I’m sorry, Jaune.

Jaune, awkwardly: It’s okay. I’m used to it. I have little sisters too. They can be giant handfuls, Huh?

Pyrrha: That’s one way to put it.......

Heather, arms still crossed: So what exactly are your intentions with our prisoner?

Emerald: Prisoner?

Pyrrha: J-just a silly nickname they picked out for me. W-we have a very close relationship is all. So I’m practically their prisoner. *forces a laugh*

Emerald: Ah, I see.

Jaune: Uh...moving on. To answer the question, Pyrrha is my friend. We met because of the case actually. I’m a detective trying to solve the phantom thieves case. You probably heard of them, right? What’s your opinion on them?

Heather: I bet theyre a bunch of dumbasses.

Pyrrha: *frowns*

Jaune, eyes wide: O-oh, Uh....I was not expecting that. My, y-you have a mouth on you, huh, little lady?

Heather, arms on hips: What’s that supposed to mean?! You have a problem with that?

Jaune, hiding behind Emerald: N-no! Of c-course not!

Pyrrha, awkwardly: Wait, hold on. You two said that you're both working on this case?

Jaune: Yes.

Emerald: Jaune and I have been partners for a while now. We’ve done nearly every case together.

Jaune, smiling: Yep. I wouldn’t be anywhere if it wasn’t for my partner in crime here. I swear, she nearly does all of the work at times.

Pyrrha, under her breath: Oh my gosh. That explains so much.

Jaune: Pardon?

Pyrrha, blushing: N-nothing! So uhm...how the investigation going? Have any suspects?

Emerald: We have a handful of people at the moment, but nothing concrete on them.

Pyrrha, trying to sound playful: I sure hope I’m not on that list.

Jaune, playfully: We can’t rule you out yet missy. You’re on the top suspect list in fact. We're actually surveillancing you at the very moment. The meal was just an excuse.

Pyrrha, putting wrists together: Well you might as well take me in while you have the chance, cause my phantom thieves and I won't go in without a fight.

Jaune: *chuckles*

Brunella: Is this what humans call ‘flirting’?

Heather, grimacing: I don’t know, but it’s disgusting.

Jaune/Pyrrha: *blushes*

Pyrrha, awkwardly coughing: A-anywho, I wish you two the best of luck on your investigation.

Emerald: Oh we appreciate it, but we don’t need luck. Sooner or later these phantom thieves are going to screw up, and when they do *gets deadly serious* we’re taking these scums down.

*the tension around them get very stiff suddenly*

Pyrrha, annoyance building up: Aren’t you quite confident?

Emerald: I’m just stating a fact is all. We’re dealing with petty criminals here. And one thing they’re known at doing is screwing up. All we have to do is wait.

Pyrrha: Well how many hearts will they change before that happen though? How many have they changed so far, in fact? 2 wasn’t it?

Emerald, clenching her teeth: Tha-

Jaune, smiling: It was 3 actually.

Emerald: *glares at Jaune*

Pyrrha: Oh was it? My apologies. It’s easy to lose count, isn’t it? I wonder if they’re going to go into the double digits by the time you get any breakthroughs though. Surely that would be quite embarrassing for someone as proud as yourself, Emerald?

*Pyrrha and Emerald begin staring intently at each other*

Jaune, awkwardly: A-anyway, h-how About we drop the subject for now?The tension is getting too thick for my likings.

Emerald, smiling again: Of course. My apologies for changing the mood. It was rude of me.

Pyrrha, fake smiling: No, it’s okay. I'm partial at fault too. The Phantom Thieves have really divided people lately. It’s only natural for discussions of them to get heated.

Emerald, smiling: Agreed. *checks scroll* Oh god. Look at the time. We’re late. Our apologies, but we must leave.

Jaune: But we haven’t ate? I’m starving.

Emerald, playfully: Just ask Pyrrha to make you waffles later.

Pyrrha: What?

Emerald: Waffles. You guys were discussing about buying them before we interrupted, right?

Jaune: They were?

Pyrrha: O-oh....Yeah, I guess I recall that.

*Zwei in the bag slightly shakes*

Emerald: It was nice meeting you, miss Nikos. Perhaps we can have a cup of coffee one of these days and try to have a more civil discussion about the Phantom thieves.

Pyrrha: I would appreciate that.

Jaune, being dragged out by Emerald: U-uh, b-bye, Pyrrha! C-catch you around! *In the distance* H-hey, watch the collar.

Pyrrha, waving: Goodbye!

*Jaune and Emerald leave*

Brunella:........was that your, what’s the word again.....boyfriend?

Pyrrha, blushing: N-no!!!!!!

[fivekrystalpetals]

Not me making the umpteenth post about this very panel, but, bc I have only so much to go by here ;_; this panel has some funny underlying subtext because at the first glance, this seems like a very normal, very formal conversation between two people who are more or less strangers but--

1.] Break knows her name now?

interesting that Break addresses her as Miss Lottie here, and not little miss (flirty (derogatory)) like in the Sablier arc.

so, my guess is that he really did not know her name then, because he simply followed Oz (eye of the cyclone lmao) hoping to find some Baskervilles targeting him as they did in the Lutwidge. In fact, Oz himself wanted to do the same, put himself out there as bait for the Baskervilles before deciding to venture into Sablier.

(Funny how Break shoots down Oz's idea of meeting the Baskervilles with the excuse that they might be following absolute orders and hence, useless to negotiate with. and then..... proceeds to do the same lol)

[more under the cut cuz I can't shut up about these two lol]

Also, in the same chapter, Oz lets slip Zwei's name in their conversation which Break silently registers--

all in all, the most names among the Baskervilles he would have known by the time of Sablier arc is Zwei's.

meaning, after returning from his meet-cute meeting with Lottie, he must have set about trying to find out her name. Since they don't have internet in those times, only way to get information is to manually dig around.

but... of course, that is not possible just like that, right? Break cannot ask around a Baskerville's name without raising a bunch of questions, facing trouble from the Pandora (which is why he even hid the Intention's desire from them), ntm, nobody even knew any of the Baskervilles, much less their names.

Well, nobody except Oz. Oz did get to meet the Baskervilles and see and hear them interacting. during which time, Fang and Doug did call out Lottie's name a bunch of times. so obvs Oz should know her name. however, it's up in the air whether he would remember, rather want to remember the name of the girl who stomped all over his chest?

so this means Break really went that extra mile to manipulate this information out of Oz without rousing his suspicions. Oz is too smart for his own good, mind you. The slightest misstep, he is going to figure out what Break was planning:

and from this panel, it appears he didn't want anyone (including Oz and Gil) to know what he had been planning with the Baskervilles. and now even we, the readers, will never know lol

He must have asked Oz to recount his experiences from Lutwidge for him again and got him to slip up her name, the way Oz did for Zwei. Sneaky, so sneaky!

sooooo, while everyone was busy putting together two and two about the Tragedy of Sablier and whatnot, Break here was trying to squeeze out the name of the girl he met in a dungeon someday before he went fully blind (he was fated to see her just once, he can never see her again.) lmaooo what kind of shoujo manga plot was he playing out here?

2.] Lottie expected to meet him again?

This is a little more obvious but funny (to me) nevertheless. when Break puts his sword at her throat, Lottie doesn't even blink or get startled, merely sighs and goes: oh yeah I was wondering why the hell you didn't show up?

But for some reason I felt you'd show your face here.

So, I don't think she means Break making an appearance at Yura's party. That's way too obvious. Rainsworths, and by extension, Break their important valet, are invited and are going to be present here.

No, this means she had a feeling Break would slip out of there and come out here to have a tête-à-tête with her which is just... ??? How was she so sure? Was she looking forward to it? Waiting for him to write her a letter to her hiding place in Sablier or something? Waiting for him to come there just as her lion knocked down Yura? She wasn't in the least fazed! just goes, oh yeah I was waiting for you >_>

Because logically, Break surely went radio silent the whole of the month(?), right? Owing to his untimely blindness, whatever plans he might have had for her also must have cut off. Unless he got help from another person which he didn't seem to want, esp. not in this case, which, for whatever reason, he wanted to keep a complete secret. And in spite of this radio silence, Lottie doesn't think he was bluffing or stood her up at Sablier. She actually seems quite prepared to meet him here? I wonder how many times she turned the scenario over and over in her mind since they met and parted, and got more irritated what the hell did he mean and if he did mean something, why can't he contact her again?

because, the very first thing she demands of him is an explanation of what he meant by his words at Sablier

and surprisingly, this.... surprises him? at least enough to sheathe his sword and start talking properly to her??? (a huge thing bc Break never gives a straight answer; he is always talking in riddles and annoying everyone on purpose)

[beliell]

Monster headcanon playlist - a summary - part I

Hi, everyone! A week ago I’ve decided to make a Monster (Naoki Urasawa’s work) playlist, available now on Spotify

This posts it has not only been created to share this sum of songs but to illustrate more about my decision of why to choose some of the musics as well. It contains my personal opinion about the masterpiece but canonical events as well.

75 songs were added into that playlist, but I’m going to give a raise on the 10 top songs (5 songs in this first part of post), dividing into english songs and german/russian songs. Yep, german/russian songs ‘cause I believe this representation it is very important to the drama and It’s something I didn’t see in other playlists (sorry not sorry)

Disclaimer: We all know that Monster focus on the German and Czech events, but the choice to add specific Russian songs instead of Czech were mostly personnal.

Let’s go!

1. ‘HOME’, by Heems

All I got is the sweater that you left, the letters that I kept, That spoke of how you liked when I kissed you on the neck, And I held you as you wept, Yeah, I held you as we slept, I held you as we crept, I've been a mess since I met you, I regret you, You could say I love what's regretful. You got me, I get you, If I could, I'd forget you, But I can't since I've left you, I let you, If I could, I'd forget you, I would be more forgetful. When it's cold outside, yeah, I miss you, But we had too many issues.

Err...I don't even have to explain this first one. The end of the relationship profoundly marks Eva, who develops depression and alchool issues as a way to deal with it, throught the drama. Tenma it is severe impacted as well, but more in a 'rush' away, as slowly losing all establish that he had one day as a men.

--------------------------------

2. ‘Erschießen’, by IDEAL 

Komm, wir lassen uns erschießen, zwei Schüsse mitten ins Gehirn. Komm, wir lassen uns erschießen, ich hab nichts zu verlier'n. Komm, wir lassen uns erschießen, Sonntag morgens 5 vor 10. Ich kann den Sonntag nicht ertragen, und ich will keinen Montag sehn.

TRANSLATION: (🇩🇪)

Come on, let us be shot, two shots right into the brain. Come on, let us be shot, I don't have anything to lose. Come on, let us be shot, on sunday mornings 5 minutes before 10. I can't stand sundays, and I don't want to see mondays anymore.

Err...I won't even loose more than one paragraph about this one.

----------------------------

3. ‘Goodbye Horses’, by Q Lazzarus

He told me, I've seen it all before, I've been there, I've seen my hopes and dreams, A lying on the ground, I've seen the sky just begin to fall, He say, "All things pass into the night", And I say, "Oh no sir, I must say you're wrong, I must disagree, oh no sir, I must say you're wrong", Won't you listen to me.

This is a song that I've listening to since I've discovered that were on 'The Silence of the Lambs (1991)' OST.

This book it’s very special to me and it is totally referable to the Urasawa's works due to psychological link they both have. Also, this lyric seems to me like a intimate mono-dialogue between Tenma, who represents hopes and Liebert, the tragical twin, conducting the conversation.

------------------------------------

4. ‘Roman Candle’, by Elliott Smith

'He played himself, Didn't need me to give him hell, He could be cool and cruel to you and me, Knew we'd put up with anything.

I want to hurt him, I want to give him pain, I'm a roman candle, My head is full of flames, I'm hallucinating, Hallucinating.'

It represents rage in a sum, right? The first parts reminded me of Bonaparta and the twin's relationship, so much abuse they've got into and how Liebert as kinda of develop to support a lot of problematic aspects of the worst in the human bein.

    The secound part tho..reminded of Tenma. He was writed to simbolize Light, but we all know that it wasn't something he always got right. His rage for all the crimes that Johan was commiting while transforming his life in a living hell...well, that wasn't something easy to perform throught it, we all know that.

----------------------------------------

5. ‘Was Hat Dich Bloß So Ruiniert’, by Die Sterne

Wo fing es an und wann? Was hat Dich irritiert? Was hat Dich bloss so ruiniert?

      TRANSLATION  (🇩🇪):

Where did it start and when? What irritated you? What was it that ruined you?

Mostly about child abuse and the consequences of it. The Grimmer arc gave me deep sad chills about those children experiments and how he manage to survive throught it.

---------------------------------

The first part ends, I hope it was a good read. Remember, click here to listen to the playlist

[dotversion2]

Dot Explains the Plot of Library of Ruina

Thank you to everyone who read the first part. It's been fun compiling all of these into something a bit more solidified than the mad ramblings I typed out on Discord between shifts at work.

All the same content warnings apply from before.

Chapter 2: Urban Myth

We open on a conversation between a handful of unknown individuals discussing the 'Distortion Phenomenon.' They list a couple of possible sources for the bizarre happenings but get nowhere. We will learn who these speakers are later.

We return to Roland and Angela having a conversation about the status of the Library. Roland says he's starting to get a handle of how his job works. Angela says that she is curious as to why he is so accepting of her orders. She can tell that he is not motivated by fear. Roland admits that there are things about the Library that he's curious about. There's also 'something' that he's been meaning to find the meaning of and he thinks this might be the only place he'll get his answer. Angela is pleased to see that the two of them have a coincidence of interests and is fine with him 'exploiting' her and her Library as she exploits him to handle receptions. Roland is a bit unsure about her wording but drops the issue when she gets prickly about her past. Roland asks Angela what is up with the other Librarians, admitting that they don't 'feel human.' Angela explains that she, the Abnormalities, and the other Librarians can only exist in the Library and would disappear without it. She laments that they all shared the same past of originating as humans, being taken advantage of, and then discarded. Roland asks if this is a form of exploitation in itself; Angela rebukes the idea and explains that, if she hadn't acted, all of them wouldn't be here to begin with. Furthermore, once she completes her goal, she and all the other Librarians will be able to leave together.

The Floor of Technological Sciences

Technically this floor opens at the end of Canard and not the beginning of Urban Myth but that is a minor trifle. After clearing Hook Office, Roland goes looking through the Library again when he notices that it has grown another floor. He enters the newly arisen Floor of Technology and spies a dour-looking man standing near a window. Roland greets him warmly only to be met by a cold, focused stare. Roland feels like he's about to be attacked only for the man to walk over and fix Roland's loose necktie in an extremely homoerotic way. He introduces himself as Yesod, Patron Librarian of the Floor of Technological Sciences. He was previously the head of the Information Department at Lobotomy Corporation and another Sephirah. He asks Roland why he goes along with Angela's orders without question. Roland responds that he doesn't have much of a choice in the matter and tries to bridge the gap by offering him a handshake. It throws Yesod off, much to the thinly-veiled delight of the Fixer. Yesod tells him to fuck off and he does.

Urban Myth Receptions

The first reception is of Pierre's Bistro, a restaurant in District 23 that cooks and serves people. They are up to their usual bullshit and mostly offer Roland a chance to exposition dump about how each District of the City has its own particular culture and weirdness. District 23 is the only place in the City where cannibalisms isn't considered a massive taboo because the culture of the District is built around the pursuit of the perfect dish and they believe that the best path towards this has been through munching on people. Pierre briefly ponders what Angela tastes like (as she is not human) before both she and her sous-chef get got.

The second reception is of the Streetlight Office, a Fixer Office that genuinely tries very hard to make their little corner of the Backstreets better for those living in it and is affiliated with the Zwei Association. We enter on a scene of two of the Office's Fixers, Lulu and Mars, bantering about their recent dry patch of work. Lulu is even considering transferring to a different Office but Mars doesn't think she has the expertise to make the jump and would be better off staying put to beef up her resume. The arguing starts anew when Lulu realizes that Mars ate a piece of cake she had been saving in the fridge. Their boss, San, enters to explain they have a new job: investigating the Library. While the job is under the table and not officially sanctioned, it comes with an Urban Legend-sized paycheck. San shows the Invitation that he was given, originally intended for someone else. Lulu and Mars disagree with taking the job but San promises the pair a nice dinner if they finish the job.

Back in the Library, Angela asks Roland about some of the terms that the Streetlight Office used. Roland explains that Fixer Offices are usually associated with one of 12 Fixer Associations (each one associated with a number). He also explains that there is an internal grading system used by the Hana Association (Hana is one in Korean) to explain the prevalence of the various phenomenon within the City. The ratings are Canard, Urban Myth, Urban Legend, Urban Plague, Urban Nightmare, and Star of the City (and one more that we'll talk about when we get there). Canards are often not even real while Urban Myths tend to be at least 'something.' Angela goes to greet the Office as they arrive, noticing their comradery. San asks if it is okay for them to use an Invitation originally sent to someone else; Angela explains that the Invitation made it to them meaning it was meant for them. San reminds the group to flee if things get too hairy and they enter the reception. As the battle turns against the Office, Mars holds the Receptionists at bay so Lulu and San can escape. After the battle, Roland laments that it is a rookie mistake for a Fixer to have personal connections with the others in their life as it makes losing people that much harder. Angela questions how he came to such a conclusion so casually and he says that it is important to maintain detachment and that he learned that lesson the hard way.

Lulu and San mourn the loss of their comrade. San blames himself for getting them involved with the Library and plans on taking it up with the Zwei. Lulu screams at San that getting the Association involved would make Mars's death worthless if they don't handle it themself. San lets Lulu blame him, voicing his own regrets. Lulu goes to the fridge to get a drink when she sees that there is a replacement slice of cake. She asks San about it and he says that he didn't buy it. Lulu steps out the office and into the rain, screaming as she realizes that Mars had bought a replacement slice for her before they went to the Library. Her blind fury is broken when she looks at her feet and sees an Invitation offering the book of Mars. She calls in every favor she can before returning to the Library…

After the battle, Angela asks Roland for his insight on what just occurred. Roland admits that he isn't heartless but he considers death part of the life of a Fixer. Angela notes that Roland talks with the air of a veteran yet describes himself as a washed-up Fixer. Roland refuses to elaborate but Angela doesn't pry, stating she could simply turn him into a book and read his secrets if she so desired. Roland swiftly changes the topic, asking Angela what her thoughts on what happened are. She says that she feels completely indifferently. Her time at Lobotomy Corporation required her to see employees die over and over again, sometimes for reasons far less dignified than this. She explains that this is why she set up the Library the way she did: to give Guests the freedom of choice without feeling coerced. Roland still believes that the situation is weighed in their favor since Angela can revive dead Librarians. Angela is visibly annoyed; Roland backs off, concluding that her methods are still far more fair than other the rest of the City.

The Floor of Literature

Upon clearing the first half of the Streetlight Office Reception, the Floor of Literature opens. Roland goes to meet the Patron Librarian, bitterly amused that a whole floor is dedicated to a topic he believes isn't fit for the City. He meets the Patron, Hod, who politely introduces herself. She was previously the Department Head of the Training Team at Lobotomy Corporation. Roland asks if she holds a grudge against Angela; Hod admits that she isn't friends with the Head Librarian but she does plan on honoring the deal they made to its fullest. Roland asks why everyone hates Angela. Hod tells him that Angela did something unforgivable, though she considers herself no better. Roland says he wants the tension to resolve itself. Hod reassures him that, if he stays through Angela's plan, she's sure that things will improve. Hod invites Roland to sit and let out some of his frustration. He vents that his work handling Receptions is stressful and he wishes that interacting with the Librarians could be less tense. Hod says she doesn't have good answers to why people can't coexist peacefully but believes that they may find answers in the books he brings her. Roland is a little annoyed that she seems to be giving evasive answers but believes that, since he got himself into this mess, he needs to get himself out of it. Hod supports his endeavors and strives to help him (for which he is very appreciative).

And that is more or less everything that happens in Urban Myth. I haven't been covering all the individual conversations between Roland and the Patron Librarians (even though they are very good) because they would probably bloat this out even further. That said, enjoy this CG of all the rectangles seen during one of Yesod's flashbacks.

Chapter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

[intoasparkingvoice]

Walth, have you shared one of your paintings before? I'd be nice to see them.

WL: Oh, there's this kinda old one I still like a lot, let me get it!

WL: This one! Back when me and Zwei first met, before we even knew we liked each other. We were painting together... and I made this! A bit inspired from Voice's style, though a little messier. I still like it a lot, from the memories...