#i wanna go back to thinking about niko and maybe writing again

[ilkkawhat]

my childhood best friend would often tell me how she would legit cry thinking about going to school and here i am, 30 years old, crying thinking about going to work tomorrow

[belli5]

Just a friend — Niko Omilana

Pairing: Niko Omilana xfem!reader

Summary: Seeing Niko with a girl leads to misunderstanding.

Contains: angst, fluff at the end, jealousy etc

A/n: Requests for beta squad is open, if you want for me to write anything for them. Also this is not very long 🥲 Disclaimer: please do not send the same request you already sent to someone else.

Masterlist

Arriving at the party with Niko, where the beta squad was, Filly, Harry, Nella, Adeola etc. You saw Chunkz and Aj, going over to them both with Niko.

You hugged both of them, even though Aj didn’t like physical touch from a lot of people, he still hugged you back.

“Guys, do you know where Nella or Adeola is?” You asked, wanting to meet your girl friends.

“Im sure they’re both getting a drink or something..” Chunkz said, “are you planning to drink tonight?”

“Nah,” you smiled “not feeling it tonight.” You say, telling again that your going to see where Nella or Adeola is. On they way you met Kenny and Sharky also greeting them with a hug.

You continued to look for Nella or Adeola, when you finally saw them, you greeted them. You were so happy to see them.

“Y/n, how are you and Niko doing?” Nella asks, giving you a drink. Honestly you had no idea what it was, but when you tried it, it tasted like mojito.

You knew you were planning to not drink, but it’s just one drink. “Me and Niko are fine. How are you both?”

“Im good.”

“Im doing well” said Adeola, you continued to talk with them for a little while, you looked around the room to see where Niko was.

Your eyes landed on Niko, engaged in a conversation with a girl. Jealousy washed over you as you observed them from a distance.

You couldn’t see her face features, because of the party lights, maybe it was just a family member? But if she was, you would’ve known. Maybe just a friend?

The girl was touching his arm, and he didn’t even do anything about it. You turned away, trying to not pay attention to it, deciding to continue talking with the girls.

Later you left the party with Niko, wanting to go home, the heels killing your feet already. Niko tried to make a talk with you, when all you said was “mhm”

He decided to not push it, thinking you were just tired. Arriving at your house, you straight went to unlock the door not waiting for Niko.

After doing your night routine, you got into bed on your side and when Niko walked into the room you turned to your back facing him, scrolling through your phone. You felt him also getting into bed, he kissed your shoulder and you neck. “Goodnight”

Niko didn’t understand what he did, were you mad at him? He tried to think of every wrong thing he did recently, only thing he could think of was that he yesterday didn’t take out trash that you told him to do. But you wouldn’t be that mad at him for it.

Maybe it was dramatic for you to be so childish for not asking who that girl was and just giving him silent treatment. But you also don’t want to bring it up right now. “I love you.” He said, but you’re still ignoring him, it was getting annoying.

Niko leaned closer to you, trying to wrap his arms around your waist, “Niko, can you stop touching me.”

“But I wanna hold you.” Niko said calmly, that’s one thing you liked about him, he never got mad. Not even at his friends “No.” was all you said.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“No, Niko can you just stop talking and go to sleep?” It was staring to piss you off. “Can you atleast say goodnight?” He asks,

You closed your eyes, trying to fall asleep but you couldn’t, without Niko’s touch. You were the one who was mad at him, why were you craving his touch so much then…

It’s been already an hour and half since last time he said something he was probably asleep by now, but you could only sleep if he was holding you.

You also couldn’t sleep without wishing him goodnight, you started to feel guilty for treating him like that he didn’t even know what he did, of course he didn’t..

You turned around to see his back facing you, you placed a kiss on his shoulder just like he did on yours earlier “Niko?” You said trying to wake him up and when he did just said “hmm?”

“I’m sorry!” You apologised, when he finally turned around to look at you “why were you mad at me?” He asked risking it all again to know why were you so mad,

“Earlier at the party..” you didn’t look at him, because it was all silly “I saw you with a girl and I guess I got jealous and I got mad.” You said feeling guilty.

“Oh, that girl was just a friend.” He reassured you, “I wouldn’t want anyone else other than you, you don’t have to worry.” He smiles.

“I didn’t know, sorry.” You said, lying your head on his chest and he told you it’s okay, “I love you, Niko. Goodnight.” You smiled and kissed his chest, closing your eyes, knowing now everything’s fine and you don’t have to go to bed mad.

“I love you too, goodnight.”

[shuuuuush]

Hello!! I’ve seen your one shots and there absolutely amazing, your very underrated and I love your work. I was wondering if you could do a scenario where the beta squad members reject you and regret it afterwards like maybe you confess your feelings and there having a bad day and maybe reject you or they don’t really pay attention to your confession and you distance yourself and afterwards they regret it and basically apologize just an angst to fluff scenario and you can change it however you want but I would love that, thank you! It’s okay if you don’t wanna do it just don’t stop writing for the beta squad because your work is absolutely amazing!!!

Rejection and Regret [Beta Squad Scenarios]

Warnings: none

A/N: Aww, thank you so much! Sorry it took a while. I was trying to figure out how they might react because honestly, I don't think any of them would take confessions lightly, but I hope you enjoy it!

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You were excited as you had previously planned a fun day to hang out with Niko. Today, at the end of it, you were going to confess your feelings to him.

You drove to his house to pick him up, staying in the car for a bit. You called his phone number,

"Hello?" Niko answered. He sounded a bit confused to receive your call.

"Hi Niko, I'm here at your house to pick you up now." Responding to him with an excited tone, knowing all the things you planned for the both of you would definitely raise his spirits up.

"Oh shoot," Niko sighed. You could hear that he rubbed a hand over his face, "Y/N, I'm so sorry I completely forgot about that."

He forgot?

"Well you can just prepare, no worries I can wait out here!" You hoped, a little disappointment tinging your voice as you tried to stay positive.

"No Y/N, I'm not at my house, I'm not even in England right now. I'm on a plane to America. California to be exact."

Now it was your turn to be shocked, couldn't he have told you this before you made plans?

"California!? Why are you going there?" You were perplexed and hurt at the suddenness of it all.

"I'm filming a video with the guys, for the beta squad channel."

Of course he was.

"Y/N, I'm sorry, we can hang out another time? It's not that important right?" Niko said, you could hear chatter over the phone someone calling out to Niko, probably Kenny. "I have to go, sorry again, see you Y/N." And he hung up the phone.

You blinked in disbelief, and stared at your phone for a solid minute just processing what happened. He was in California filming a video? And he just so happened to forget to let you know about that, on the day you made plans to tell him your feelings.

Clearly it didn't really matter to him, he could've let you know beforehand and you would have understood and changed it to a different day. But this felt like you got stood up on a date, which technically it was.

You were really gutted by his actions, driving home you decided to scrap the idea all together. Maybe he doesn't even like you at all.

A week went by and you didn't call ot text him at all. Others can call it selfish but that hurt you, that day was all planned out and important to you and perhaps the both of you if he did like you back.

You were sitting at your couch, watching TV while wallowing in your own self pity as your friends would call it. Mindlessly scrolling just trying to not let it get to you too much.

Your door bell rang, and you just called out to the door saying it was open. You were expecting one of your friends to come over so you thought it was her.

"Y/N."

You stopped everything you were doing. That was the voice you wished you couldn't hear at the moment. But also the same one you longed to have. Turning around slowly, the same tall figure you loved. Niko.

He stood there, wearing a thick jacket and even had a bag on, you assumed he had just come from the airport. Swiftly walking towards you, a phone in his hand.

"Why weren't you responding to my calls? And why did you just leave your door open like that? You are really an idiot."

You stared up at him, still in shock. Did he really just come straight from the airport to you? And did he say he called you? Everything was spinning right now in your head.

"Y/N? Are you OK?" Niko asked, removing his bag and jacket and coming over to you on the couch and putting a hand on your shoulder.

Then it hit you. Maybe he did care about you? Maybe he was here to tell you? Maybe you would never get another chance again. So you just blurted all your thoughts out without thinking straight.

"Niko, I really like you, okay? That's why I wasn't responding to your calls and texts because I was hurt that you told me you were in a whole different country, when I had this whole day planned out for us and I was gonna confess to you at the end and I thought you didn't like me."

And then he kissed you, with just one kiss, it confirmed to you that he didn't hate you at all. That was all you needed to know.

Pulling away to hold your face in his hands, "Y/N, I'm so sorry I missed that day. I didn't mean to hurt you like that, I hope you can forgive me, because I really like you too."

Sharky wasn't sure how to react when you confessed to him. He was having mixed feelings, honestly. He didn't know whether or not he liked you.

So when he told you he didn't accept your confession right now, he meant that he needed some time to figure out his own feelings for you.

You did end up distancing yourself from him. Yes, you were hurt, but you understood. Especially since you felt like that at the start, but then one kind act from Sharky was all it took to confirm your love for him.

You decided to spend some time with your good old friend, Harry Pinero. He thought you would be up to spend some time together to get your mind off it.

Harry always knew a way to cheer you up, whether that would be food or just some time spilling all the tea to him, and he inhaled all the gossip like air. Harry knew your feelings for Sharky, and he had hoped it would have gone well for you.

But when you told him, Sharky declined and said he had to figure himself out first. He was ready to connect his fist to the Somali's face. You stopped him obviously, but he didn't hide the fact that he was annoyed you two didn't get together. He definitely was your number one shipper of you both.

You were at a party with Harry as he invited you and said it would be good to cool off there, what you didn't know was that he had a plan. He invited Sharky too.

You were standing beside the food table and just enjoying your time there, you almost forgot about being rejected for a moment there.

Until you saw a certain someone walk through the door, the very person you tried to not get upset over, Sharky.

You tried not to let him see you, so you went up to talk to Harry and tell him that you saw Sharky. You didn't see the evil smirk on his face when you looked back at the door.

"Well, Y/N. You could just stay here with good old Harry you know?" He laughed and wrapped one arm around your shoulder, he whispered to you, "Don't worry about it, just calm down and you got this."

You were about to question what he meant by that when suddenly Sharky approached the two of you.

"Uh, hey Harry." He waved at the taller man, and then looked at you, and nodded. "Y/N."

"Hey Sharky. What are you doing here?"

"Actually, I was about to ask the same to you." Sharky replied, "anyways since you're here, I actually wanted to talk to you."

"What about?"

"Yeah, Sharky, what about?" Harry repeated your question, earning an annoyed look from the both of you. Harry ended up excusing himself from this as he could tell it was a private conversation.

"Well, what did you want to talk abou-"

"I love you, Y/N." Looking earnestly into your eyes, "I figured out that I love you, I actually love you so much I would do anything for you. And I was such an idiot to have rejected you like that."

Your eyes softened as you observed the man in front of you, beating himself up over the fact that he almost lost you. Even thinking that you would fall out of love with him so fast is stupid. You loved him and you always will.

"When I saw you hanging out with Harry the past few days, I won't lie. I was a bit jealous. And I realised it was because I loved you. And I want to be with you, Y/N. If you'll still have me." He looked up at you, a scared hope filling in his eyes.

How could you ever say no to him?

Later, you found out that Harry had called Sharky to attend and talked about both of your feelings, helping him realise that he truly did love you. You definitely owe the old man one.

You were invited to Kenny's family event, and you decided this would be a good time to let him know of your feelings. You felt as if he reciprocated them, so you weren't too anxious to let him know, but still, you were nervous.

After the meal, everyone went to the main room as there was a dance floor and music. Before you headed there, you discreetly pulled him to the side and asked if you could speak to him.

He led you out to a garden place that was quiet and a bit away from all the people.

"So what did you want to talk about?" He asked, curious as to what you wanted to say.

"Ok, well, I've been thinking a lot about this, and I was hoping you feel the same way," looking down to the floor and fiddling with your fingers.

"I really like you, Kenny, and I wanted to ask-"

"No." Came out of his mouth, cutting you off from your sentence. He stood there with an annoyed look on his face, shocking you as you thought he felt the same way.

Did he not like you that way? Or were you just fantasising that he did? So you had to ask.

"What do you mean no??" Pleading with your eyes that you heard it wrong or you misunderstood what he meant.

"No, because I was supposed to tell you my feelings first." He said, shaking his head, but forming a small smile, "I was supposed to ask you out, but here you are beating me to it. I'm just annoyed that I didn't get to say it first."

Scratching the back of his neck with a small pout on his face as you gazed at him. Reassured that it wasn't a rejection, you started to laugh.

His face grew to an even bigger frown at your laughing figure. But then he started to laugh with you.

"Seriously Ken?" Still laughing but calming down a bit. "Ok, I'll let you start this time and confess to me instead." You definitely will remember this moment forever.

A huge smile was put on the man you loved so much. Clearing his throat, he grabbed the nearest flower and held it out towards you.

"Y/N, I love you. Will you go out with me?"

You have never felt happier, and you best believe you told him yes.

This wasn't the best day for Chunkz. Filming fake employee videos was one he hated the most. He'll be honest. Everything that happened afterwards pissed him off, His car wouldn't work. The boys were extremely annoying to him today and much more.

And when you told him you liked him all out of the blue, that was the last straw. He can't handle all this new information at once. So he told you to leave, he just needed a day's peace by himself with no one around to annoy him further.

At first, you were hurt, wondering why he just treated your feelings like rubbish thrown into the bin. Wondering what you could've possibly done that would've made him so mad.

You thought that news you brought him would have cheered him up, but apparently not. The thing is, you knew Chunkz had bad days, and this was one of them. He'll get around to you and respond back because to him, certain things shouldn't just be left off like that.

And that's what happened, The next morning, you got a call from Chunkz.

"Hey, what's up?" You answered, yawning as you were still sleepy as you just woke up.

"First off, I wanted to say I'm sorry about yesterday, I was having a really bad day, and I just couldn't comprehend everything all at once."

You smiled behind the phone, you knew it.

"I was such a idiot towards you, my darlin, and I'm sorry about that. I like you a lot too."

You were completely awake now, and you laughed in relief, and you were so glad he felt the same. It would have absolutely crushed you if he actually meant how he treated you yesterday. "I'm so glad you feel the same way."

"Oh, and don't tell the mandem I got mad at you yesterday... They will probably smoke me if they find out I was an annoyed bastard when you confessed."

You most certainly will tell them, though you will just make it seem they found out from another source. ;)

"I know it's early in the morning, so I'll let you go back to sleep, my darlin. Though later I'll pick you up at 2 so don't forget." Then he hung up the call, leaving you smiling to yourself.

How could you go back to sleep now?

When you confessed to AJ that you liked him, he legit laughed. You were both in his sitting room because you had previously told him that you wanted to talk to him privately.

He thought it was something super important, but he never thought you would be one to joke around. So he laughed when you told him.

"You like me?" He laughed, putting a hand over your shoulder to try and calm down his laughter, taking deep breaths, "Hah, Y/N, I never thought you'd be a joke man, that's a good one."

"Aj, I'm not joking right now, I'm serious." You responded in disbelief at his reaction.

"Sure you are." He said with his voice clearly laced with sarcasm, "But if you "were," I wouldn't accept anyway. You're not good enough for me." He winked and started to giggle again but stifled his laughter.

At this point, you felt as if AJ thought everything you did was a prank to him. Spending time with him was so much fun, and you loved every minute of it. But you knew he wasn't taking you seriously, and so you stood up and left.

You could hear him call after you, asking where you were going, but you couldn't let him see you so upset like this, holding back your tears. You confessed your feelings to him, and he thought it was a prank? Insane.

On the drive back home, you kept hearing your phone go off and buzzing but you just put it on silent. You knew it was probably Aj, but you didn't want to answer him right now.

How could he treat you like that? Laughing off at your feelings like that. Even when you told him that your feelings were real.

I'm not good enough for you?

Thinking about it, though, he was a famous youtuber known all over many parts of the world, and you were just you. Of course, he thought you weren't good enough for him.

Arriving home, you decided not to eat dinner at the moment and just try and go to sleep. You didn't even reach your bedroom door yet until you broke down crying. Your heart hurt even more because, for once, you genuinely liked someone and told him, but just dismissed your feelings off as a joke.

Suddenly, you heard a knock at the door, but you didn't have the energy to open it, until you heard a soft voice speak.

"Y/N, I know you're in there, could you please let me in? Can I talk to you please?"

Knowing it was Aj, you won't lie and say you weren't upset, but you decided you'd at least give him the chance to talk to you, so you went and unlocked the door. Opening it, you saw him holding a bag full of your favourite food and snacks. Once he saw your face, you could instantly see the guilt he felt as it showed in his eyes.

Holding the door open, you motioned to let him enter. He went and put the food in the kitchen table and after he did he instantly came up and inveloped you into a tight hug.

Physical touch was one thing Aj didn't like, but seeing you so upset, he was willing to try with you.

"Y/N, I'm so sorry! I didn't know you were actually being serious, and you weren't responding to my texts or calls so I knew you actually meant what you said and I know you're hurt and I'm genuinely sorry about this." He rambled on nonstop, "And I even brought you some food to cheer you up because I know those are your favouri-"

You put a finger to his mouth to shush him and lightly giggle to yourself. "Aj, calm down and tell me calmly, I can't understand most of your rambling." Calming down, he took both of your hands and looked you straight in the eye, guilt in there, but you saw something else too, love enveloped over it, consuming his eyes.

"I thought you were pranking me, and I didn't want to be hurt if I did tell you I liked you and you actually didn't reciprocate my feelings." He looked down a bit in thought, and then took a deep breath as he looked back up at you,

"What I'm saying here is ... I really like you too, Y/N."

Taglist: @b4tasquad, @p3drii, @n1kodl, @elora-k, @slutforpablogavi

[g-on-ef]

Story ideas I wanna write that may upload on my Kofi or not post and just wanna share with you guys

Maya Sokolov- Goddess of Loneliness Summary: Maya Sokolov the sister everyone either hated or tolerated the sister that betrayed her own.

It's been 2 months since the truth was discovered and nothing has been the same.

Mia hates her, Killian is always looking for an opportunity to remind her that she's a good for nothing back stabbing bitch, Niko is avoiding her like the plague, her parents have cut her off and Illya...her only saving grace broke up with her in the worst possible ways.

No one wants to hear her side of the story or more precisely no one cared to hear it feeling more alone than ever Maya decides she has over stayed her welcome in her family's lives and decides to escape somewhere where no one knows her, her story, and more importantly her family.

As she takes this journey of self discovery and healing she'll see that family doesn't always end in blood and that there is such as thing as a second and greater love

Eli/Gareth- Gods of War and Destruction

Eli bumps into Gareth and instantly feels something for the quiet member of the Heathens, something about him makes Eli want to get to know him to posses him make him his

Killian who loves Eli like a brother isn't sure how he feels about the mysterious member of the King Family going after his brother especially since Killian is trying to keep his brother safe from a stalker Gareth maybe older but Kill will be damn if anyone hurts him

Eli also wants to protect the fixer of the Heathens and he'll be damn if some professor steals him from him

Nikobran- break up/make up listen I want an angst story one that's heart broken and has Niko and Bran moving on but Niko refusing to let Bran go

Eli/Jeremy/Landon- Eli/Jeremy/Landon love triangle where Eli and Landon both are fighting for Jeremy and my poor baby is confused as to why two King men keep bothering him and Niko with Killian are laughing and enjoying this !!!

Gareth/Vaughn- Vaughn has always been attracted to Gareth his own prince Charming and he is definitely showing Gareth why he's the best choice

Nikobran- AU idea where Niko and Bran are childhood friends {age swap Niko is 23 Bran is 19} and Bran has always had a crush on him but Bran has always been Elis little cousin and Lans sweet innocent little brother so what happens when Bran decides to move on what will Niko think about this?

Nikobran- Love Wins All

Niko was dared by Killian to sleep with Landon King's younger brother

Niko agreeing because he was sick of Landon's bullshit not to mention how the fucker stole his baby sister what great way to get back at him than sleeping with brother.

However he never counted on catching feelings or having a beautiful little girl with the asshole who no longer wants anything to do with him

Niko will do anything to get Bran back but is it to late? Or will love win and get their happily ever after ???

And that's all again I may or may not write these idk yet

[m1ckeyb3rry]

I wish there were a more standardized rules for the romanization because the differences are so wild that I go back and read and I’m like what who tf is this…like atp it’d be easier for me to just read it in korean instead if I have to think this hard to figure out who is being referred to…and yes the webcomic def isn’t as deep LOL im ngl I was never like super SUPER into orv like that so I didn’t mind it just being a more surface level easy quick read maybe someday I’ll actually get the willpower to fully read the novel…

Wait you’re so right LOL I totally forgot….also on that note iirc I think yukis bday is late April, I wanna say 26/27….but I could be wrong because I (regretfully) have not paid as much attention to yuki as some others (KARASU cough) but I’m actually laughing so hard sidekick Niko is actually gold I love the dynamic

Oh yeah there’s definitely Kaiser glazers LOL I feel like most of them are also the ones calling ness a glazer which is ironically funny (classic dude bro activity)

I just saw your side by side post and I was gonna say why do they look so similar in those panels LOL ok but hak too >>>>> I also remember seeing scenes of him and being like omg…actually he does kinda remind me of the closeted pining loser..lowk maybe I should go back to reading this again

LMAOO yeah you could never catch me pampering someone like Reo does to Nagi but OOOOOH guys im getting an exclusive sneak peek to peregrine hehe ok but reading this YOU CANNOT DROP A BOMB LILE THAT OMG??? Guys….guys?????!!!! Heavily agree that nagi being with her DESPITE the hassle >>>>>> Nagi being with her because she’s the only one who isn’t a hassle….it makes it feel more meaningful because we all know how much he hates hassles and instead of her just conveniently fitting with his lifestyle in that sense he’s actively willing to actually go out of his comfort zone for her….its the active part fr…I’m crying him biking all the way to meet her is giving me white butterfly hiori and willow tree rin add him into the losers with wild signs of affection club…ok but him actively failing to give the opportunity to her SHSGSHSH Lowk I can imagine her being pissed when/if she finds out but also OHHH ok it’s been a bit since I last read it but the pieces are here so that’s why Nagi’s always been kinda looked down upon because of his soccer career decline…that sounds like a big peregrine installment though LOL excited for whenever you decide to put that out!! I’m all for the tidbits and spoilers though

I was also going to say I remember first reading peregrine and getting sidetracked by chigiri because of the way you wrote him as the bff too LMAOOOO I definitely see the chigiri bff trope used here and there and I haven’t seen any characterizations of him here that are as bad/wild as other characters (like the Itoshis) but yours is def one of my favs miraverse characters on top!!!

LMAOOO “did I miss a tag was this supposed to be some cucking fic” no dw they’ll turn around once they realize it’s not aiku (like me reading Karasu bfb part 2 instead of 1 smh) OR they’ll just convert to (whoever it is) nation from your writing

OOOOOH ok actually that makes it easier for the fyp to do its thing then manifesting some top tier audio!! On a slightly unrelated note whenever I see anything using that audio from the Barou one you showed me I think about the Barou edit and lose it…truly living in my head rent free

Omg so I sent in the reply and went to go look at the source material to translate but got side tracked and completely forgot about it until I read this so umm!!! Going now!!! LMAO luckily they’re pretty short so it won’t take me long as long as my brain has the capacity to remember to actually do it shshjensjs

- Karasu anon

i think i started reading it because of an edit on tik tok (at this point what DON’T i do because of edits on tik tok…) and found out the webcomic wasn’t finished so i just went straight for the novel instead!! and honestly i’m glad i did because it was a much better experience imo…honestly i was lucky in that i had literally nothing else to do so it was easy for me to keep reading which meant i could get to the really exciting parts quicker!! since at first it’s kind of confusing 😰 but i do want to reread at some point because i think it’s one of those stories that’ll be even better when you know the ending?? or like you pick up on things you missed the first time around 🙂‍↕️ however it’s so long that rereading would be such a time commitment idk if i could do it 😭

okay wait yeah he does have an april birthday i was thinking of nagi when i said may!! LMAO agreed the yukimiya facts are not at the forefront of my mind as compared to nagi karasu and barou’s (also barou and i have almost the same birthday this basically makes us soulmates i think)

kaiser glazers are so interesting because 99% of kaiser fans fundamentally misunderstand his character to the point that it’s like…just create an oc…LMAOAOA he’s definitely interesting but i think he has to be viewed in a very particular lens to even make sense as a person 🤔 he’s not solely “evil abusive meanie villain” but he’s also definitely NOT a sweetheart who would be perfect and flirty in a relationship…many layers to that man but i will leave the exploring of them to someone who actually gaf abt him

NO BECAUSE THE RESEMBLANCE IS UNCANNY TBH LIKE WHY DO THEY LOOK SOSOSO SIMILAR?? dare i say nagi might pull up and steal shinah’s story that i always wanted to write but never did…DARE I SAY 🤫 jkjk we will see if i can even make it work because to be honest it might be too dependent on yona lore HOWEVER the crossover could be insane 😨 especially because hak was the second lead so i could EASILY give rin that spot and fulfill my rin second lead dreams 🤩

LMAOOO I NEEDEDDDD TO GO ON THE PEREGRINE RANT WITH SOMEBODY!!! oh 100% it’s like one of the main three fights they have (the first is after he becomes friends with reo and asks her why she hates him so much so she tells him she hates him for not trying and still being better than her because she’ll be stuck in their hometown forever [they secretly become friends and then start dating afterwards], the second is when she finds out he failed on purpose because she’s all like “oh you didn’t trust me now i didn’t even earn it” and nagi’s like “bro what do you want from me 😰”, and the third is when he bikes to her house and asks her to stay and she tells him she has to leave and then literally gets in the taxi and leaves him standing there in the rain watching her go 😭) okay wait more peregrine lore: the reason why she gets with kira is deadass because chigiri reo and may convince her to go to a college party in their freshman year with them for the underage drinking experience and when she’s drunk she sees a tall pale haired soccer player and is like omg nagi??? and goes over to cry and hug him because she misses him sm…meanwhile kira is like WTF but finds her hot so he decides he needs to snatch and that’s why he knows who nagi is even though she doesn’t remember it happening because reo may chigiri were NOT responsible friends and she had a bitttt too much 😓 she says no because she still loves nagi and wants to be with him once she graduates but a week or so later nagi goes viral on social media for mentioning he’s in love with a girl from their hometown — orie watanabe (reader’s best friend from when she was a kid who sold her out to her mother) so she calls kira and is like “ok ig i’ll date you i have no other options” BUT plot twist there’s an interlude which shows the actual interview and all nagi said (in response to the interviewer asking why he’s single) is that he’s still in love with this girl he knew from when he was younger (implied to be reader) it’s just that the gossip sites went crazy trying to find the girl and orie being a clout chaser is like “oh he’s talking abt me” LMAOAOA and ofc as chigiri mentioned nagi doesn’t have any social media so he had 0 clue what was even HAPPENING but that’s why reader thinks he moved on first!!

also wait number one peregrine moment that is yet to come is during reo and may’s wedding…the date of reader’s wedding has been set and she’s dancing w nagi as the best man and maid of honor usually do and she starts crying because talking to may made her realize she actually still loves nagi but she doesn’t know how to escape the hole she’s dug for herself so nagi’s like “wow guys she’s so emotional her best friends are getting married 🙂‍↕️” and they go sit in the corner and he’s like ok why are you ACTUALLY crying and she’s like i wish we were the ones getting married which ofc makes nagi be like 😮 UNFORTUNATELY kira is there and he overhears and starts crashing out but then the goat himself HYOMA CHIGIRI pulls up and diffuses things by dumping a glass of red wine on kira’s head and saying “you’ve always wanted to be like me at least now you’ve got the hair color down 🥱” JFNDJSKS then kira fucks off back to america but chigiri gets home first and he + niko + kunigami get all of reader’s stuff out of their house before kira can do anything…then nagi gets back into soccer but the only team that’ll take him is a really shitty one that’s supposed to be kicked out of the league because they don’t even have a coach and reader is like “yo if you take nagi as a player i’ll get you a coach” and then she calls chigiri so he + kunigami + niko (who still has reader’s cat for some reason) pull up and chigiri gets the job as their coach and he + nagi lead them to victory that season even though chigiri had to quit playing soccer in college because of his leg (hence why kira replaced him) 🤩

YESSS THE AUDIOS GO CRAZY i never know when inspo will strike because it’ll be the most random videos fr but at this point i trust my for you page to lead me to greatness it hasn’t let me down yet!! also omg the barou effect…so real though that edit was PERFECT like the clips they used and everything…lowkey after sae i might do barou’s edition of the oaeu because i cannot wait to write him and also because it’ll introduce niko as aiku’s sidekick which is a must

LMAOOO no worries i will go respond to them now!! hehe you are always on the translating grind my goat fr 😩

[starlight-time-machine]

Week in Review

10/22/2023 – 10/28/2023

Sunday

Once again, it’s Manga Sunday: I think I’m going to check out of MamaYuyu at this stage – what drew me into the first chapter was the interesting emotional connection between Corleo and Mamama, but now it seems like the story is moving into a regular shounen battle manga structure with Mamama nowhere to be seen… And I really couldn’t care less about the power system of this world either… And Corleo’s internal motivations are so vague and generically “I wanna be a hero”, which was succinct and fine enough for the first chapter but now I don’t feel it propelling the story in any way other than giving him a reason to fight, which is like every other generic reactive shounen protagonist… I’ll probably check back in when the series ends, but as of now my general opinion is that it should’ve been an oneshot.

Y’know what. I’m genuinely invested in the Handsome Must Die final fight. It’s just high campy fun, with Ban’s tragic backstory and Inukai’s enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-ally turn. I’m sure the final chapter next week will be pretty explosive…also wow Ban-kun…your skills…

Undead Unluck: UWOOAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH ANDYYYYYYYYYYYYY also I love seeing Fuuko’s strategic mind at work, trying desperately to think of a solution with all of her members’ powers at her disposal…and once again I think about how amazing Undead Unluck would be as a video game.

It definitely feels like Ichinose is finally reaching its emotional core and wrapping all the twists up in preparation for the ending… I find the light bit of intergenerational trauma theming interesting, I can appreciate that it was a more nuanced relationship than the typical “my dad was mean to me” situation. But even then, it feels slightly surface-level, since Taizan 5 always likes to move things along briskly. I feel a little robbed of a real conversation between the parents, but I do like that Sachie is stepping up. But even then (again), I would’ve liked a bit more insight and depth to this final (?) confrontation beyond flashbacks to show Kakeru’s motivations and then Sachie being like “hey stop that, we actually are proud of you” and Kakeru relenting. Will we get a satisfying conversation between Sota and Kakeru next week? I can only hope.

Oshi no Ko: Gotta say, Kana is super cute in that costume with the panda bow. I’m enjoying the detail of Ruby having stars in both of her eyes when she embodies Ai, though I’m not sure how professional the director’s shooting strategy is lol.

Man, Dandadan always has the most fantastic spreads. I’m looking forward to seeing what supernatural power-up Rin will get, probably something like an idol? Or specifically, an idol duo sort of situation, to fulfil her promise to Mai? That’d be cute.

Marriagetoxin: I think Ureshino and Himin-chu should just date instead. Internally I’m bracing myself for another like five chapters of action that I won’t care about that’ll end with Himin-chu feeling fond of Gero for realises before we move on to the next girl. Also what in the hell is this marriage ceremony. This mangaka can definitely make some stupid over the top creepy gimmick villains, but it’s hard to take it seriously when they’re also trying to write genuine romances between well-rounded characters. Ugh…you know what…maybe I should just drop this series now and check back in at the end to see if Gero and Kinosaki get together…yeah I’m gonna do that.

I’m starting to come around a bit on shady eyepatch investor guy (Magilumiere). I always love a suit jacket over the shoulders look… AND YES HE SERVED AS A CONDUIT FOR EVERYONE’S FORMAL WEAR LOOKS AHHHHH OH MY GOD NIKO???? I SCREAMED OUT LOUD WHY DO YOU LOOK LIKE A LITTLE ARISTOCRATIC BOY AHHH Thank you Eyepatch Man. I accept you wholeheartedly now. I don’t care enough to learn your name though lol

The Akane-banashi chapter was fun, I always relish being able to see my favourite character, Karashi.

AGHHHH the little orange on Tayutan’s chibi in Cipher Academy is sooooooo cute and YESS THERE IT IS THE RETURN OF HARSHLY SHADED TRAUMA CREATOR TAYUTAN WOOO I fear that she’ll lose this battle though…we’ve had it too good for too long… Awww DDR and taiko games, that’s so cute… AND BYU’S ONE POINT LESSON  BEING UPSIDE DOWN SDKLFSDF I really really really love how Cipher Academy plays with its pages and isn’t afraid to get silly with it. I know there was that kerfuffle about how “untranslatable” Cipher Academy is and how that’s apparently a bad thing, but I actually really enjoy seeing the original Japanese wordplay in these sorts of Code Battles, and I don’t think having to leave it in is a failure on the translator’s part. I don’t need or even necessarily want translated media to be scrubbed completely bare of its original context, after all. Kubinashi is definitely nasty for starting off with that word, though. Interesting, so that’s Tayutan’s weakness… I’m getting more scared for her. I love the chain link imagery, it’s so fitting for shiritori.  AGHHHHHHHHH YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS ANOTHER WIN FOR TAYUTAN WOOOOOOOOOOOO and in such a dramatic fashion… I’m starting to think Tayutan will just never ever lose, which is completely fine by me because I love her. There’s something so cool about a character who has to restrain herself in order to not hurt others…uwagh. Tayutan the character of all time.

Because my library deadline was rapidly descending and I couldn’t renew it, I finally continued reading Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters on my quest to find a contemporary adult fiction novel I enjoy (the quest being named, succinctly, Am I The Idiot Or Does Adult Fiction Just Suck). And because this is the first time this has been brought up in a Week in Review, I’ll go a bit into my weird book tastes:

For some reason I hate reading 99.9% of adult fiction, and most of the ones I do like are classics I had to read for my English degree. I probably have less than twenty adult fiction books in my entire book collection (totalling 148 books, not including digital), and the thing is that I really enjoy the idea of buying books and I would like to do it without having to shamefully walk into the kid’s or manga section. (And also I’d like to read a good book that still allows sex and swearing lol). But I don’t know man, I look up popular books and books that seem up my alley and every time I read them I just get so bored by the story progression or lack thereof or the writing style or the dialogue that I can’t relate to at all. I try following BookTubers and reading their recommendations, but it drives me a little bonkers crazy because most of them share the exact same milquetoast opinions and they’re all mood readers who love thought provoking books about exploring the human condition and they all love the same Booker Prize or Women’s Prize or whatever other prize winning book du jour, and absolutely none of them share my tastes, which makes me feel a little bit like an alien freak with no one to talk to or get recommendations from…  

I’m being a bit dramatic. It hasn’t all been terrible – some contemporary adult fiction I’ve enjoyed are Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller (which I own) and Dark Matter by Michelle Paver (which I greatly enjoyed, but the ending made me so sad that I know I’ll never want to reread it, and therefore I won’t buy it). And I’ve generally enjoyed the non-fiction books I’ve read, so I could always buy one of those if I really love it. But nevertheless, I embark on my lonely quest every time I try an adult fiction novel…

Detransition, Baby is fine. I dropped it lol. The messy dynamics between the main trio is an intriguing premise, but I don’t like all the off-topic tangents that are just saying things at me and the dialogue feels so stiff and unnatural. And to be fair, I’ve been around normies sometimes and they actually do talk like that, it just freaks me out because it sounds fake and so unlike how I talk with my friends, and I can’t get invested in characters who seem fake to me. So this one is going to be a pass, just like all the other novels I’ve tried whose premises were “explore the human condition with these messy characters who say a lot of things but nothing really happens.” I should really learn my lesson by now.

Monday

Finally back on the House marathon train. This episode had a fun set-up, being the one where a guy takes people hostage in order to get a diagnosis. I always like the episodes where the challenge isn’t necessarily the diagnosis itself but the situation around the patient. There are some fun parallels between House’s obsession with the patient’s obsession and how it endangers others, and also a solid kick to Thirteen’s apathy towards her own life. Solid episode all around.

Watched episodes 2 and 3 of Kusuriya, and I’m starting to lose the faith a little bit. And by that I mean I think that maybe Kusuriya’s structure just doesn’t lend itself well to anime…at least, for the first few mysteries that have very little action. But in general Maomao tends to solve mysteries with just a little bit of looking around and thinking, and the mysteries themselves don’t require too much set-up either, so in anime form it feels like 20 minutes of stasis. There’s a lot of exposition that needs to be done too, and I think they should’ve used that Narrator they established in episode 1 instead of having the characters awkwardly talk at each other about things they already know. Of course, I’m still going to watch it, but if I were to separate out the scores for the manga and anime, the manga would be a 10/10 while the anime is about a 7/10 so far. I’m hoping things will pick up when we get to the Garden Party, but for now I’ll just enjoy seeing Maomao and Jinshi in full color and with voices and accept that it’ll be a somewhat clunky adaptation. But it’s fun getting to see Maomao be a little kitty cat poison freak.

Kakegurui is another series where I don’t really get what’s going on anymore but I stay to see what happens anyway (plus the art is gorgeous). Yumeko as a protagonist feels a little one-note, and it’s funny that it even carries into her backstory, so we basically didn’t get any new insight to her character in chapter 105 other than external information about her family. In terms of characters I’m actually invested in, I hope we can get back to Mary soon, since she actually has to struggle and claw her way to what she wants.

Koko wa Ima Kara Rinri desu 38: This is a manga I picked up on recommendation from a classmate, and it’s been decently enjoyable so I’ve stuck with it. I do enjoy the “teacher helps a class of students” structure (Assassin Classroom being a favourite), and I appreciate that this manga hasn’t shied away from real things that teens deal with like sex and gender. This chapter was wholly uneventful, though.

I don’t know if I would call Scary Campus College University “good”, per se…but it’s definitely entertaining. This beauty contest is really…well, it’s absurdist fun. I liked that bit when the other beauty contest winners were given some pathos beyond being over-confident, and I like that Chigarashi eked out a victory by herself…even if it was because of a stupid ridiculous rap LMAO. Feels very Sakura vs Saki rap battle in Zombieland Saga. With Fujimiya being the crux/final boss and all of the exorcists in play in this Cultural Festival arc, it feels like the manga might be wrapping up as a whole soon.

Sousou no Frieren 115: Frieren is a bit of a weird series for me. It’s so universally praised and emotionally affecting for a lot of people, but I don’t feel all that strongly about it. To be honest, most of my investment is from seeing the shy blossoming romance between Stark and Fern, and I shamefully admit that I kind of don’t feel anything about Frieren’s wistfulness for her past with Himmel. I care even less so about the action scenes, so this current arc is doing absolutely nothing for me. I’m going to force myself to watch the anime since everyone’s raving about it, but I don’t know if I’ll enjoy it. And it’s like, I’m down for some quiet fantasy stories, but this one just doesn’t grab me.

I’m really happy to get another chapter of Yuria-sensei no Akai Ito. This manga has just been so refreshingly messy and human, and I love the complex web of atypical relationships that this manga has woven. In the first place, it’s so rare to get a protagonist like Yuria, and her age and practical personality shines through amongst all the chaos she has to deal with. This Christmas chapter was super cute, and a glimpse into the non-nuclear queer-adjacent living situation that these people could have together…not to mention how all the characters feel so layered and real. This was the kind of ambiguous messiness I wanted from Detransition, Baby, to be honest. And I just found out this got a live action show, which is so fitting for this manga, so I’m looking forward to watching that and I hope they do the story justice. (Although I’m a bit tentative… Because the thing about Japanese live action adaptations (that I’ve seen, anyway) is that they tend to be a little too…clean and perfectly choreographed to a science. To the point where there’s this veneer of fakeness to it. And I want MESS. And hnrghn I’m looking at the preview images and already I feel like the actress for Yuria is too young and neat and why is her hair so perfectly shiny and straight, I was imagining like Evelyn Wang from EEAAO’s levels of frizz…I’m going to be disappointed, aren’t I).

Two new chapters of the Kusuriya manga, what a treat. We get a nice denouement for the hunting arc and some more progression between Maomao and Jinshi, with rumblings of perhaps some political conflict ahead. Possibly three high ranking consorts being pregnant at the same time is such a juicy plot thread…I really look forward to seeing how Maomao protects Gyokuyou and how the babies will change the political landscape.

I had meant to leave Kusuriya for last in my manga binge, but I missed that Kono Bijutsubu ni wa Mondai ga Aru had a new chapter. Absolutely nothing happened though, which is a little baffling but whatever.

Yeah okay I had to quell my curiosity so I watched the first episode of the Yuria-sensei live action and yeah. It’s just as I thought. Everything’s just too neat, too polished, too rehearsed for any real emotion to come through… The camerawork is uninspired, the lighting is so whatever, the acting is a tad overacted… It’s crazy to me that even the hospital and the movers and Yuria’s home are just. Pristine. There’s just zero verisimilitude to be seen, which stings more when the manga is so uniquely real. Goro’s mom’s actor is spot on, though. I don’t know, maybe an anime would do it justice…but I don’t even know if anime production companies would go for a story like this, and also I feel like the scratchiness of the manga’s art doesn’t lend itself well to animation. But that sort of roughness does lend itself well to live action, which is why I wish the live action was good and had good actors who could actually emotionally fill out the roles…it’d be such a rich piece… basically I want this to be shot and directed by anyone who actually has a creative vision and isn’t beholden to just making a beautiful pristine product.

Tuesday

Watched two more generally uneventful House episodes with my friend. The House/Cuddy plotline is soooo boring and juvenile to both of us, but we liked the Foreman/Thirteen plotline.

I finally continued reading Sammy Keyes and the Hollywood Mummy, and god it’s just so good. The change of scenery from the previous books is a welcome change, and the book kicks off right in the midst of the action as Sammy and Marissa travel to Hollywood to see Sammy’s mother. Seeing Sammy and Lana finally interact is so rewarding, and their relationship is so nuanced and layered – Sammy’s constantly wrestling with her own anger and sadness and empathy towards this mother that she doesn’t even recognize anymore. And reading this as an adult, I can also see Lana’s sadness in her single minded ambition in this horrible industry. I love that the Sammy Keyes books aren’t afraid to delve into complicated subject matter, despite being kid’s books. And wow, our first murder case of the series, and it’s looking like Lana is involved somehow…all of the set-up is just pitch perfect.

Wow Marissa’s getting some real standout moments in this one, which works because Sammy is so frazzled about her mother being involved in the case. But Marissa’s emotional maturity is great to see. The tension is just racketed up tenfold throughout this whole book in comparison to the ones before, since Sammy has a big personal stake in the mystery and she’s a fish out of water and it’s a murder. Wendelin van Draanen is definitely good at creating a cascade of chaos.

Wednesday

Finished Sammy Keyes and the Hollywood Mummy and wowwww. So many good misdirects but also clues being dropped all along the way…and a very dramatic intense ending that Sammy takes charge of…and also themes about the pain of seeing your mother as her own person and letting go…genuine emotional moments between Sammy and Lana…everything just works so well. This is definitely my favourite book of the series so far. And oh no now I’m a third of the way through…it’s so hard to stop myself from ploughing through the whole series.

Thursday

Couldn’t help myself and started the next Sammy Keyes book, Sammy Keyes and the Search for Snake Eyes, but I’ll probably stop here for a bit because it’s not as electric as Hollywood Mummy was. Having a baby dumped on her is chaotic in a stressful way, and it just feels like everything is going wrong for Sammy. I like that at least Officer Borsch has grown enough to see Sammy as more than a juvenile delinquent though, and can get her the help she needs.

New Skip to Loafer chapter! Makoto saying she has a crush on a senpai makes me a little sad, since I’m a Makoto/Yuzuki shipper… also we got a glimpse of Sousuke’s somewhat complicated home life huh… Overall just a solid chapter.

Friday

I couldn’t wait until Anime Saturday so I watched episode 4 of Undead Unluck and I cried. Everything is just so perfect, I love the quick cuts both for comedy and for drama, Yuuki Aoi killed it as Gina, the comedy was great, the action was great, the lighting and color grading was amazing, I even love the sound editing and sound design, I love the video-gamey sound effects and also the general sound editing of the fight and the sci-fi elements and the UNCHANGE cut-in, fuck that was insanely stylish, and I love Gina and Andy’s kiss in her final moments… This is what makes Undead Unluck so refreshing, and what hooked me onto the series in the first place. Introducing a girl who’s a romantic rival for the main girl is so common in shounen manga, but they would never let her actually get close to the main guy, let alone share an actual intimate moment or a kiss, since they’re so set on preserving the ‘purity’ of the main couple’s relationship. But to get this moment of real connection and tragedy in Undead Unluck was so amazing, and I was shocked that Gina actually died when they’d endeared her to us so much. Undead Unluck truly doesn’t pull its punches, and I just love it so so so much. I think what was always holding the manga back a little was its art, which is lovable but still a bit rough around the edges, so seeing it translated so beautifully and even elevated so highly in the anime with just perfect production on every aspect of animation makes me so happy. If they can keep this up, it’ll be an easy 10/10 for me, and another entry into the Starlight Time Machine Awards.

One more Houseki no Kuni chapter before we head into hiatus again. The quiet but stirring emotions that Ichikawa conveys in their artwork is so moving, even if I don’t remember all the granular plot details that got us to this point. Once Houseki no Kuni ends, I’ll have to go through and reread the whole thing.

Two more chapters of Gakuen Babysitters, which are just like cotton candy in that they are sweet but ultimately lacking in substance. Seeing Kotaro interact with a bird was cute, but the rest was just whatever.

A pretty action packed chapter of To You The Immortal. I don’t really know how I feel about this future arc, but I suppose we have to follow Immo to the very ends of time so the adventure still has a ways to go. This is another manga where I binge-read the whole thing and fell in love with it, but now that I’m reading it only when it updates, it’s hard for me to remember everything that happened. (And I hear the anime was…clunky). So I’ll have to reread this when it ends.

Kemono Jihen chapter 64: A pretty fun fight! I’m not really one for fighting tournaments though, so this arc hasn’t really grabbed me. But hey… Inugami/Mihai ship fodder… I’ll take it.

Saturday

Spent the day making soup with my friend and then rewatching Over the Garden Wall for peak autumnal vibes. I love the different vignettes we see every episode, the music is just absolute perfection, and I love the unique voice acting. OTGW just really knew what it wanted to do and didn’t overstay its welcome. Also Greg is soooooo cute.

The new Kusuriya episode had a welcome style change from the previous three episodes, with a looser style of animation that added a lot of character to the more mundane scenes like eating or feeding. There were some clunky bits, like when Maomao waved goodbye at Xiaolan, but overall I really enjoyed the experimentation here. The slap and the overall confrontation between Maomao and Lihua’s lady in waiting was fantastic, and I also liked the subtlety of Lihua’s embarrassment when Maomao tells her about the secret technique. Some other little moments I liked were the brothel ladies playing with Maomao’s hair, and Lihua petting her head when she was asleep. Also the return of the narrator! I thought the pacing throughout was just perfect. Judging by the preview, the next episode will seemingly be a return to form, but at least the Lihua arc was a knockout.

A pretty chill slice of life SpyFam episode today. The segment about macarons with the Damian/Anya moment was cute, but I physically could not make myself care about the Franky and cat segment. Even reading that chapter in the manga for the first time was such a slog because of how much of a foregone conclusion it was, and I didn’t find the comedy good enough to justify it. I hope maybe someday we’ll get a Franky arc with real stakes, because his position as an informant can actually be pretty perilous and ripe for drama, but I digress. But! Next week we start the cruise ship arc! Which is my favourite arc! So I’m looking forward to that!

[rpf-bat]

I was tagged by @rosalba-robi to talk about my top 5 favorite fics that I’ve written (thank you 🖤)

1. Three Summers In Hanko (Blind Channel, Joel/Joonas)

Of course I have to promote my Summerfest fic!! It’s fresh in my mind, because it’s my most recent project. It was a gift for @hellogemmabc, but I don’t think she’s read it yet. 🤔

It’s written from the POV of Teen!Joonas.

And it takes place from 2009-2011, which is when I myself was a teenager and had my first summer romance lol ☀️

2. Heaven Or Hell (Blind Channel, Niko/Joel)

Angel!Joel x Demon!Niko is still one of the best ideas I’ve ever had 😇 😈

And Demon!Niko is a complete asshole…which was really fun to write. 😂

It’s not “dove” fic or anything, but for me, who had spent the last five years writing almost nothing but G rated fluff, it was a huge genre shift. There’s a ton of implied sex, but very little romance, and every character in this AU is a terrible person.

I loved it so much that I wrote a part two and a part three. There was originally going to be a part four, but I lost motivation after part three wound up having a really terrible hits/kudos ratio. 😞💔

Part three had Aleksi getting drunk and letting Niko and Joel spit roast him in a concert venue bathroom….you’d think more people would want to read that, right? 😳😏

Then again, maybe people thought it was poorly written….it was my first time writing sexual stuff, after all. 🤔

3. So Close To The Edge (Blind Channel, Joel/Aleksi)

As mentioned above, the thing I’m most known for/have the most experience writing is sugary fluff, and this was that. ^^;

It was written for the BC Christmas event in December 2021. 🎅🏻🎄

But it was also important because it was my first M/M fic!! Before joining the BC fandom, I had spent the last 5 years writing MCR reader inserts. So, the first few BC oneshots I wrote, were reader inserts, as well.

But, I quickly realized that the BC fandom seems to prefer M/M over M/F?? Not sure why, because the MCR fandom was definitely the opposite. But I’m happy that my first foray into gay romance writing was so well received 😅🏳️‍🌈

4. Someone Get Me To A Church (My Chemical Romance, Gerard/Reader)

I wrote this for a super fun Halloween themed challenge back in October 2020!

The prompt was “exorcist”.

Demon!Frank taunts Priest!Gerard about his forbidden crush on Y/N, while he’s trying to perform an exorcism. ✝️😈

5. I (Don’t) Wanna Be Your Slave (Måneskin, Damiano/Reader)

This was like…my first multichapter RPF fic ever! I’m normally a oneshot person ^^;

Unfortunately, I kinda abandoned it when my neurodivergent brain decided to switch hyperfixations, from Må to BC. 🤷‍♀️

It was an interesting plot. Right after Eurovision, someone joked that they wanted to see a “my mom sold me to Måneskin” fic. 😂

I was like “I’ll do it!” But, the twist is that Damiano is actually a good person…he only “bought” Y/N so that he could immediately free her from slavery. 🥺

I’ll tag @robinruns and @darkerthanblack666-ao3 to post theirs!

[introductions-are-a-spook]

Feedback appreciated!

Maxwell was busy at work in his study. He refused to be confused any longer. Andrew was a suspect, and there was good reason for it. It was high time Maxwell put aside his feelings and started acting like the detective he was.

Throughout the week following their date, Andrew had been seen in several suspicious locations. Apparently he had been walking around near Jennifer McAllen’s manor- the case’s prime suspect- while, oddly enough, being adamantly followed by a black cat.

Later that night Miss McAllen had reported an intruder that fled upon seeing her. Another man, Nikos Antigone, had said he was outright robbed, with force. Odd, ‘Blinker’ didn’t seem the violent type. Neither person had been left the classic note.

Most curiously, Maxwell had received an anonymous yet well written letter, telling him to run away from Andrew and never look back. It had been delivered to his personal mailbox. It isn’t necessarily related to the case, Maxwell thought. Could be a jealous ex-girlfriend.

Wait, jealous of who, him? He was doing it again! Still trying to make him and Andrew out to be something in his mind. Dammit.

There was a sudden knock at the door, startling Maxwell and causing him to drop his pen. His older brother- George's- voice came through the door, asking to come in.

“Oh, now you want permission?” Maxwell snarked at him.

The door opened. “Well, after last week's squirrel incident, I thought you might appreciate the extra privacy.”

“You admitted to having at least one camera in my room that morning. What do you mean, ‘privacy?’”

A second, lighter voice sounded from the doorway, interrupting them both. The second youngest, Casey. “Hey Maxwell! So, Darwin told us you had a second date today? That’s so exciting! Who are they, what do you have planned?”

Maxwell rubbed his eyes, minding the glasses, and huffed. “How did he find out?” he asked in exasperation. “No, it’s none of your business. Now if you all don’t mind-“

“Actually, what time is it? Aren’t you going to be late?”

Maxwell rolled his eyes at Casey and checked his watch. It was almost time, he decided. “Oh, fine, you all win this round,” he said, as he grabbed his coat, wallet, and keys while walking out the door.

~*~

Maxwell drove over to the bakery to find Andrew nowhere in sight. He strode in, where Isabella cleaned up after the last customer and closed up shop.

“Hello Isabella. Is Andrew here?”

“Hello again, Mr. Chapman. Why do you ask?” she gave him a look that could easily have been taken as a smirk.

He snickered. “You of all people should know why.”

She returned a chuckle. “He’s up in his apartment. I think he got a little frantic over his most recent piece.”

“I see,” Maxwell sniffed in amusement, going through the gate that led to the stairs. On the way, he heard the faint plucking of strings, playing the same motif again and again, a little different each time.

There the man sat, holding his violin like a guitar, pizzing away with an austere look on his face. Maxwell covered his smile with a hand and watched, unnoticed, a little longer. The tune was pretty, but it was missing something. And yet, Maxwell may have had just the thing to help.

He cleared his throat, and Andrew jumped up, stammering.

“Oh my god, Maxwell! I’m so sorry, I completely forgot about-”

“Oh shush,” Maxwell spoke, walking over to the upright piano in the corner and running a finger over the keys. “Do you mind if I try something?”

Maxwell noticed that Andrew had not yet looked him in the eye, instead choosing to avert his head. Nevertheless, he nodded, and Maxwell played the theme Andrew had been plucking. A few progression notes and a key change, and the piece was moving forward. He paused. “What do you think?”

“Huh, that was really good! And then maybe this?’ He played the theme, the transition, and the key change, followed by a bridge and then the theme again.

“That does sound nice. Though maybe put the key change toward the end, instead. Like…” He played the whole idea, frowning when he realized it was only half a minute long. “Add a few more phrases, perhaps?”

“Enough to write an entire piece? Well that could take-”

“Not terribly long, if we work together. Besides, this is far more enjoyable than whatever stuffy concert we had planned.” And so the work began. Andrew continued to turn away, and eye contact was still scarce. He had some kind of bandage over the bridge of his nose, but Maxwell couldn’t quite see why. And it was possible that Andrew was catching on to the staring.

So halfway through composing the ninth line, Maxwell leant forward, coarsely taking the man’s chin in his hand. Andrew put his hands up in protest as Maxwell turned his face.

“Good riddance, Andrew, you’ve been avoiding my- oh,” Maxwell stopped short. His tone went from exasperated to concerned in a moment. “Andrew, your nose, it’s broken! Why would you hide this?”

Andrew bashfully pulled away. “It doesn’t matter. I had Isabella look at it, anyway.”

Maxwell huffed. “I'd imagine you’re always terrible at lying under pressure, then. Why did this happen? Who did it?”

“It’s none of your business, quit worrying about it.”

“Andrew, this isn’t like you-“

“What would you know? We barely know each other.”

“Stop it.” Andrew shut up. “Now tell me what happened.”

Andrew took a deep breath and smirked. “Y’know I don’t wanna tell you. Why don’t you use your detective skills and figure it out?”

Maxwell sighed and returned the grin. “Perhaps I will.”

And so the music continued. Maxwell continued to interrogate Andrew about his injury, and had managed to weasel out of him that it had happened four days back. He also mentioned that he was alone when it happened, and Maxwell had a suspicion that there were two perpetrators.

The progress on the music continued, and the two gradually resumed a companionable silence. By nine at night, Andrew had played what he could on the violin, and both took turns on the piano. Still, it wasn’t right. The tune was both bright and whimsical, of which they could only play the first half.

“Perhaps I should mention- We both learned piano for the sake of it, but my true skill lies with the harp. We could arrange it as a duet, but we’d have to do it in my home. It’s simply too much effort to bring it here.”

Andrew laughed. “Show me.”

[tsskyx]

Unmeta

You know what’s ridiculous? This post was originally supposed to be an essay, an entire thesis backed with unshakable logic that I wanted to become my magnum opus. But as it turns out, I’m pretty terrible at doing that sort of thing. The first day I’m full of enthusiasm, while the next day I reread what I wrote and I delete it all again. It’s terrible.

For this reason, I’ve decided to just start with the opinion part. Instead of laying out the facts and easing the reader into it, I’ll just blurt everything out in one go. Instead of neatly organizing everything, I’ll write my thoughts as they come to me.

(Update for 2/Oct/2021: I no longer remember when I made the first draft of this post. Maybe it was in 2018, maybe even as early as 2017. Who knows. This post existed in my drafts since forever. It is time to finally publish it. It contains very little information, very little evidence for anything or logic or facts, it’s just a one big opinion piece that I began writing years ago out of frustration. Frustration not aimed at the game itself, nor at Toby or anyone else, but at my inability to decouple the “meta” from Undertale and thus causing me to disassociate from the characters that I loved, when I didn’t plan to do so. All I ever wanted is to make sense of the Undertale world, instead of giving its inhabitants a meta-existential dread. In a nutshell, for the Undertale world to be self-contained, the 4th wall must stay intact, and the mechanics of the UT world mustn’t resemble a video game. That’s basically the gist of this post. Proceed with reading.)

You know Undertale meta? All the 4th wall breaking stuff and whatnot? The stuff that makes the game so awesome?

What about it you say?

It’s not real. I don’t think it is. It cannot be.

Tell me, has Undertale personally impacted you? Was it more than just a game to you? I know for a fact that for many people, it was much more than that. So tell me, is it fine by you that despite presenting itself in this way to us, it still sort of cops out of this at the very end? (By which I mean, when we learn that we aren’t Frisk. That we’re just someone controlling them.)

Some say that this cop-out, this act of “disassociation”, is necessary for our psychological journey to end. And I agree. We cannot dwell on this forever, else we lose our minds. But what I meant is something much more... materialistic.

Let’s take Oneshot, a game that’s arguably even more meta than Undertale. Oneshot embraces the 4th wall. It labels us a god. It portrays the game itself as an in-game machine. And yet, it feels real. Despite all this ridiculousness, the story feels real and possible. Kind of like The Matrix. Perhaps think of everyone in Oneshot except for the main character as a Matrix program, while Niko is the only user hooked up to it. It still feels real, because Niko is real, because there exists a real world they can to return to.

But Undertale floats somewhere between being real and being a fairy tale, a mere bedtime story. The reason is its lax handling of the 4th wall. Say, if Undertale were to be considered a “real” possibility, as in, entirely fictional, but still believable, kinda like The Matrix, kinda like any science fiction, or just fiction in general, what would it be like?

I’ll tell you, everything would have to be real, everything would have to look exactly how we see it. There’d need to be turns, there’d need to be save files, there’d need to be so many bizarre things, it probably wouldn’t take long before the NPCs themselves realized their own nonexistence, probably around the time they developed computers and video games. It’d be so similar, they’d have to be either stupid or under some kind of spell to not realize that their entire world is just one giant video game. Especially Flowey. Some say that he has already realized this, as his dialogue hints towards this. Which puts a super unfortunate spin on his condition. Furthermore, the entire game could be described through its Game Maker code. No need for laws of physics, just observe the if-else statements!

It would also mean that Frisk is controlled by a third unknown entity. If we were to take everything we do to Frisk at face value, it must all be them. Except... after a true reset, everything gets reset, even things about Frisk, such as them expecting the whoopee cushion prank. So... Frisk isn’t in control. But Chara isn’t either. Take for example the final fight against Asriel. Chara appeared pretty enthusiastic during it. What if someone were to reset the timeline during the fight? Either it wasn’t them who did so, or they were just pretending to be entertained, or perhaps they aren’t the narrator in the first place even.

No matter what, there will always be an instance where Frisk forgets, and where Chara doesn’t do something when they could have. Once you mess with the game enough, their personalities stop making sense.

This gradual breakdown of the narrative as I keep attacking the logic of it from every direction imaginable is a symptom of something far bigger. The fact that unlike The Matrix or Oneshot, there is no “real world” in this game. The virtual part of it is what the game is trying to make us focus on. It’s all there is. There is not even a hint of “another” world in the game, a world that wouldn’t be governed by these terrible rules. And even if there was one, even if you consider what Sans said to be that world, even if you considered Deltarune to be that world, there is still no guarantee that everything will be okay. What if the characters - your friends, aren’t real in this actual real world, what if they’re all just computer simulations? There’d have to be an entire population hooked up to a virtual reality for everyone to be “safe” as I’m putting it in this hypothetical real world, which sounds not only ridiculous, but like a direct ripoff of The Matrix.

The game has made Frisk the main character. Why, when making Sans the main one, the one who at least has a possibility of coming from a “real” real world, would be far more logical?

Because it lacks logic. Undertale is an experiment. Toby Fox is not a genius. He was just messing around, he didn’t think of literally every tiny little logical detail (contrary to what some individuals would like to think), he just explained enough for most of the story to make sense. But, no matter how you spin it, this fundamental flaw will always be there. The story tries to merge you and the protagonist, before disassociating you from them. Even if you always were disassociated from them, how can the in-game world be real, when other aspects of your reality weren’t disassociated yet? Where’s the disassociation for battles and turns, for save files and time travel, for stats and everything? How can Undertale claim to be complete, when it isn’t? ... Perhaps because it is not claiming to be. It’s an experiment after all. And I don’t mean “incomplete” as in a single update / new game can fix it. I mean the premise itself is already broken from the start. And while there are many fictional worlds which function on a similar level of meta, Undertale is the only one that appears to irk me mad. I don’t know why. Maybe I love the characters. Maybe I love them very much. Maybe I love them so much, that I wanna write a fan fiction about them. And maybe, just maybe, this tiny little issue is making this dream of mine impossible. Undertale is a story conveyed through game mechanics. Choosing any other medium breaks everything down and the author needs to invent their own rules. There’s simply no way around it. Unless someone has the balls to program a fan game of their own, there’s just no way to resolve this without adjusting the canon a little bit, to make it “a little bit more sensible” as some would put it. Just a small nudge, a lil’ nudgie wudgie to the canon mechanics AAAAAND we’re in fanon territory. Excellent, better go all out.

Here’s my head canon, my little “adjustment” of the canon rules. Thanks to it, I can once again think about Undertale as a real world, I no longer need to philosophize over the meta like I did above, I can all put it past me:

Saving, loading, resetting? Regular sci-fi time travel.

The save file? The parameters of the time machine.

LV and EXP? Another set of properties of the machine, though it could be properties of the soul too. I’m undecided on that note. But either works, that’s what’s important.

Chara destroying the world through LV? No, screw that, Chara merely tuned Frisk out. And the black void was the inside of their mind as Chara denied them access to their own body.

The intro? Literally never happened, no one “saw” it. (The past was still real. It’s just the intro that never existed.) The outro? Literally never physically occurred, Frisk wasn’t “stuck” on the ending credits, unable to go further, fuck that.

Flowey? No screw everything meta about Flowey, there exists a perfectly logical explanation to everything he says, and if not, such as in the genocide run with him hinting towards people watching but not acting... he never said that in the first place!

Same with turns, the battles don’t actually look that way, there are no turns, what Sans perceives and abuses as such is just an illusion, the actual battle against Sans is absolutely fluid. And him pausing at the end and not letting us go is him keeping his guard up, until falling asleep and giving us an opportunity to sneak near him and strike. We don’t need turns to explain it. And what he said about turns... just ignore it! Ignore everything that directly proves me wrong! Because resolving that fucking conundrum IS more important than being logically consistent, and you can’t change my mind on that. Screw logic when the foundation of the entire fandom, of every UT-related fiction, is at stake here.

And I shall call this philosophy... the Unmeta. Because it attempts to undo the meta. Hence, “unmeta” for short.

[neptunevasilias]

Neptune?

Oh boy...... this dude. Buckle the fuck in

Favorite thing about them

Gay bitch! *does a gay little run that pisses you off* also he is trans

Serious answer: what a fucking nerd. Same hat! Seriously though, I love how for all he tries to seem “cool,” he’s just a nerd. Also, I think he’s very analytical! I really liked his chapter in btd because of that. And same hat to that as well. Just in general, he’s super fun to play with, and he’s really compelling to me because of how much he Tries but ultimately does not succeed.

Least favorite thing about them

Apart from the Everything(aka the playboy attitude)? I actually hate that he’s treated as a joke for acting “gay” in rwby chibi. Like ok, yeah, I’ll take my crumbs, but make it canon fuckers

Favorite line

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

brOTP

*gets out my metaphorical spreadsheet* ruby and here’s why

They’re both bookworms! Ruby loves fiction, Neptune loves nonfiction. Together, they tackle the whole library. But at the same time, Ruby absolutely grew up watching remnant’s bill nye the science guy and also is smart enough to make crescent rose, and also I think she’d read a lot about any topic that interested her. And Neptune would be such a romantic and secretly read YA romance novels. Just. Bookworms bonding, yes. Also they’re both autistic don’t @ me. Also also, iirc lindsay said her favorite character(besides ruby of course) is neptune, so yeah.

OTP

Seamonkeys but this is where I actually Talk About It

So. The fall of beacon wasn’t actually the first time Sun left his team, and he says this himself. He did this in volume 1, when he ditched them to leave for vale early. So the thing about not just seamonkeys, but the whole team dynamic, is that this isn’t the first time sun fucked up like this. But what makes the fall of beacon the more important and gut-wrenching and dynamic-altering one, apart from what I just said, is how long he’s gone. He’s gone for months. And right after the fall of beacon no less, which was traumatic for everyone, these boys included. So while they’re recovering and trying to get things back to “normal,” they don’t even have their team leader there to help them or even just be with them.

Neptune of course is in love with him. Obviously. Who do you take me for, this is a seamonkeys blog. Honestly I think he was in love with sun the whole time and has been pining since the beginning of their friendship. Anyway, he’s got all these conflicting emotions about what’s happening. Obviously they’re all mad, him included, but most of all he just misses sun. And his absence is noticeable. Who’s there to rally them into doing dumb shit anymore?

The worst part is that they can’t contact him, because the CCT network is down. But can you imagine, the day that sun finally showed up again in his contacts once he went back to haven? God.

So once they’re reunited, neptune clings to him. He doesn’t want to lose him for a third time, and he also wants to make up for lost time, and also he wants to be able to pretend like none of it ever happened, that they can go back to their normal routine now that he’s back. That’s what they did last time, right? And between sage and scarlet not wanting anything to do with sun, neptune trying so hard to pretend things are how they’ve “always” been, and sun wanting to just get on with it all without putting in any of the emotional work to reconcile with his team, nothing is getting done.

I have my own version of events that goes down after that because before the dawn is my playground that I can do whatever I want with, but basically what needs to happen is that neptune needs to basically get a life outside of his team. And honestly the reinitiation was the perfect way of doing that. I have him bond with team BYRN(especially Rae, wink wink nudge at my followers who’ve seen me talk about her before). And being around new people helps boost his self-confidence, and then he’s ready for a romantic relationship with sun.

Sun though? Just needs someone to put him in his place and wake him the fuck up. And blake did give this to him, at the start of before the dawn he’s leaps and bounds better than he was in volume 4. But there’s still more work he needs to put in. He needs to actually commit to his team, so btd is about that.

Basically, sun fucks up, and both of them need to put in the effort to make their relationship work. Mostly though, it’s about the pining. You cannot even begin to imagine the pining. Surprisingly I didn’t tallk about it much during these several paragraphs, but that’s because it can really be summed up in one sentence llksdjfdlksfj. Also as a subset of that, JEALOUS NEPTUNE good god

nOTP

Him and yang sorry for anyone who ships them but she just finds him so fucking annoying god bless good for her

Random headcanon

Buddy...... buddy. You have no idea. There is one in particular that i’ll tallk about though: him and pyrrha used to be friends at Sanctum.

Not best friends. Not even close friends. But they were the only friend the other had. They were the loners that sat at the same lunch table and did group projects together, but didn’t hang out or know each other that well. But they were in this situation for opposite reasons. With pyrrha, it’s the same as when she’s at beacon: everyone sees pyrrha nikos the champion fighter, the celebrity, someone they shouldn’t talk to, or get to know. She was isolated from everyone. With neptune.... well, he canonically has “about the presence of a chair.” And one of my biggest headcanons for him is that before he met the rest of team sssn, he didn’t put effort into trying to look “cool,” he was just a nerd. So yeah, no one really noticed him either.

So him and pyrrha only really had each other, and even then it wasn’t that deep of a friendship. They were both academic, though; like, invested in their studies and stuff, so I think that commonality did make them more comfortable with each other. And maybe near their graduation, pyrrha invited neptune to study with her, but then they went off to different academies and never got any closer than that. Maybe neptune started crushing on pyrrha, but again nothing would have come of it and he would’ve just tried to hide it.

Actually, now that I think about it, I bet they danced with each other at school dances, very awkwardly of course. Pyrrha would ask him once the dance had started and they had been standing there a while bc he was the only one she was comfortable with. Hmmmm actually writing this made me even more invested in these two than I was ten minutes ago. Welp. And they’re not a ship for me, but brotp doesn’t really fit either, I just think they were really important to each other at that point in their lives.

Unpopular opinion

Ok so this is complicated. I guess my unpopular opinion is “he actually has the possibility to have so much fucking depth if the writers could just SEE it” *loses my mind*

Song I associate with them

The song from that album is Ewing

But uh lskdjflkdfjd I have a (more or less) carefully cultivated neptune playist and I could show you everything here individually, and explain exactly why it’s on there, but I won’t. I will say though, Drops of Jupiter by Train perfecty captures the seamonkeys feel, although Sleepless Nights by ayokay has been THE seamonkeys/neptune song for me for over a year now so nothing can take its place. Here’s the full playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2ZulwB4hWIdZ3LxxQ5QuvQ?si=-XiW2VUeRVacrMs23vYlnw

There’s everything ranging from serious songs(i wanna get better) to joke songs(santa baby) to otter pop which is on there because of ottertune(if you remember ottertune you’re entitled to a rwby senior discount)

Favorite picture of them

So fucking many but here take this yes it is my current pfp

[polandspringz]

if you still wanna talk about them, i’d love to hear your ozpin headcanons!

I ALWAYS WANT TO TALK ABOUT OZPIN DON’T YOU WORRY

(This may or may not be inter spaced with short sentences that are “fan-fic” esque in style if I get inspiration while writing a headcanon. IDK if that’s annoying or makes the reading more fun, but whatever-)

-Ozpin is actually a very emotional person. The parts of Ozma’s soul that have fused with his own may have been hardened somewhat by time and experience, but I’ve always seen Ozpin as a headmaster as a very caring and soft person. Sure, he manages to remain calm and levelheaded, but that doesn’t mean in private he’s not on the verge of breaking, especially when he’s thinking about how much he’s hiding or the childhoods he has ruined.

The mug was gently set down atop the desk, not a sound from it as it was laid to rest, before Ozpin stumbled. His knees gave out, and his body doubled over, his arms barely supporting him as he sprawled across the surface of it. He was shaking, the thought passed through him as he managed to pinch off his glasses, pressing a sweaty palm against his face as he let out a muffled scream. His hand brushed up through his silver bangs, and his eyes stung as exhaustion took over. He slumped to the floor. 

He had changed his vote, had given in to Glynda and the rest of his friends. Yes, they were his friends, he told himself, you gathered them so they could give you advice in this lifetime. They know what’s best. 

He struggled to reason with himself even as the other part of him screamed out. He knew he had just signed Miss Nikos’ death warrant. 

-Based on how Ozpin talks to Oscar about them merging at first, I imagine that the young Ozpin was likely just as frightened when he woke up to another voice in his head filling it with all these notions of destiny and legends and such, but I also imagine that he was also one of the most quickly swayed to the task. Since Ozpin became a headmaster at such a young age, and that World of Remnant detail hinted at his aura being immense, I think once young Ozpin got over the shock of everything, he was just like “ALRIGHT LETS GO LETS GO” and with the help of all the caffeine he could absorb and not die, he just blazed his way through training to the point that he didn’t even need a team. He likely had one, but I doubt he was close to them or was able to make many friendships when he had such big goals and was likely a target for jealousy.

“Hey, Oz!” one of his teammates called back as she stepped out the door, “We’re going out to sight-see before the tournament tomorrow. Want to come?”

He turned around at the small desk of their temporary dorm. He smiled at the boy, but shook his head, “Unfortunately I think I will be staying in tonight. I want to do my best in the first round.”

The boy’s face fell, although it was not smiling in the first place, “You mean our best.”

Ozpin fumbled, “Oh, ah, yes, of course. I’m sorry about that. I misspoke.”

“No, it’s fine,” the boy grumbled closing the door, eyes now narrowed into a glare as he turned to burn a hole into the carpet of the hallway, “We all know you’ll be the one to make it to the finals anyway.”

The door closed and subsequent grumblings could be heard as the boy met up with others. Loudly as they stormed down the hall, Ozpin tried his best to ignore the complaints and insults laced with his name. Ozma took over, and their hands deftly picked up the Long Memory and began to tinker with the gears inside the hilt.

“Maybe it is in our best interest to let one of them advance instead,” Ozma said, “Salem does not yet know that I am here. A low profile perhaps-”

Had anyone been looking through the window, they would have seen a green flash of light as Ozpin took over again, only the tiniest stillness in the hands before they got back to work piecing the old weapon together some more. 

“Perhaps, but it is also in our best interest that I become a headmaster as quickly as possible. You may have founded the schools, but you are right in that we cannot leave the relics alone for too long. It has already been, what did you say, ten years since your last life? The headmaster of Shade is new. We should make sure he wasn’t told too much and doesn’t plan to do too much without us.”

He reached for a gear sitting on the desk. Ozma whispered to him as his fingers hovered above it.

“It would do you some good to make some allies, Ozpin.”

“I will in due time, my friend, but as I’m sure you know more than I, trust with a task as momentous as this, must be earned. If  I am to have allies, they will have to come to me first. If they are not deterred by our secrecy and our coldness, then I will know we can tell them some.”

“You’ve been looking into my memories, haven’t you?”

“They’re our memories, now, aren’t they?” Ozpin smiled, holding the screwdriver up as he gestured to the air, “But yes, I did see a few. And frankly, I don’t want to give so much away that I die at the hands of one of her henchmen so horrifically like the last two times-”

“Ozpin, I-”

“Do not be offended, my friend. Now, focus your mind elsewhere. I will need either your hands or the memories they hold to help guide me if we want to be able to compete tomorrow,” he said, placing one of the gears back inside the weapon.

He was lucky his past self had made it so durable. The amount of times his teammates had tried to shatter it only jostled a few things loose.

-I might have just contradicted myself in those two headcanons, but I think it’s fairly obvious Ozpin puts up a front, and I believe that could apply to even himself. This may be me projecting a bit, but Ozpin probably is the type of person who will be the most mature in the room when he needs to be. If there is someone else there capable of acting and taking more responsibility for things, he will be looser and less serious. This is probably more canon when you look at how he reacts when Glynda reprimands the teams for the food fights, but it could come from him having to grow up too fast once the merge happened.

-Even though Summer’s mission may not be tied to Ozpin, or at least he doesn’t know that it was tied to him or Salem, I like to think that in the same way that Ozpin feels guilt when he sees Hazel, when he sees Ruby he feels guilt about Summer.

-Out of everyone in Ozpin’s inner circle, it is not Qrow or Glynda, but James who is his favorite. This isn’t any shipper part of me, but that I just imagine that James was probably the strongest person for Ozpin to rely on, and while he probably reassured Ozpin hundreds of times that he had the military might to end Salem once and for all and Ozpin shrugged him off, he appreciated the sentiment and the toughness the man offered him. While Qrow was his spy, Ironwood (although he is based on the character longing for a heart), was the most caring and understanding of Ozpin’s pain. Qrow may have taken stride in feeling like he knew the most out of everyone in the circle about Oz’s past, but Ironwood didn’t need more information, he didn’t need the full story. He seems very perceptive, and probably knew all along that Ozpin wasn’t telling the full truth but kept his distance, and that probably spoke volumes to Oz. Which is why it hurts him so much to see the man on the verge of a breakdown now that he is gone and Oscar is the only key between them.

-When he first woke up inside Oscar’s body, I think Ozpin spent the first few weeks in silence, trying to cope with the fact that he had died again. Although Leo and everyone says that Ozpin had never reincarnated that fast before, I imagine he reincarnates instantly but the time it takes for him to gain status and the recognition again varies. If the team was already on the road a few months by that point and Oscar just had to hop on a train to get to Haven Academy, then I imagine the first weeks or months Ozpin was silently watching and trying not to break down and let himself be known as he saw the news through Oscar’s eyes, as Pyrrha Nikos was honored with a statue in Argus, as casualties were reported, the repeated film footage of Glynda struggling to rebuild the city. Oscar, during this time, was starting to have dreams of past events, and maybe the thing that alerted him the most to something being amiss with himself was a dreamed himself dying, but he could barely remember these dreams when he woke up, just the feelings remained. It wasn’t until he had a dream of a mysterious man reaching out towards him, calling his name, that he remembered it upon waking.

[onestowatch]

Let’s Talk Gavin Haley’s ‘Long Game’ [Q&A]

Photo: Jace Lumley

It’s not often you find an artist whose aura of genuineness precedes them as they enter a room. Gavin Haley is one such artist. The pop singer-songwriter’s debut EP Long Game just dropped today and it’s a testament to Haley both as an artist and a person. 

For Haley creating Long Game has indeed been a long game. It’s a project he’s put his heart and soul into, and it shows. From deeply emotional songs like “Like You For Real” to thought-provoking tunes like “If It Was Easy,” we couldn’t wait for the chance to speak with this bright and up-and-coming musician. Creative and pure at heart, Haley took us into his world, as we touched on childhood Halloween costumes, sports, and of course his newest release! 

OTW: Gavin! I know you’re currently on the road with Ashe on her Ones To Watch presents tour. But I want to know about your all-time best and worst gig ever? 

Gavin Haley: Salt Lake City recently was pretty incredible. We played this super small venue, and all the fans just packed in. It was so amazing and very electric. It’s tough to do that when it’s just you and your guitar. But everyone was so receptive and it was just a blast. The worst experience though? I don’t know. I’ve played through a lot of shitty shows where like no one cares at bars where people talk over you.

OTW: That’s the worst. 

Haley: Yeah! But recently in Santa Cruz, the sound guy couldn’t quite get it right. So I hopped down into the crowd and just played. It was fun! It turned out to be okay. As for the worst tour experience? I’d say just trying to find food in the middle of nowhere. In every major city, I have to find a Whole Foods because I have a very restricted diet. It’s either that or eating Lärabars and trying to survive off of that (laughs)!

OTW: What can you not eat?

Haley: I’m just gluten-free and vegan. It doesn’t seem like too much but then when there’s fast food or when people get Subway, I’m like nah. 

OTW: The tour wraps up just before Halloween, so I have to ask, what are your plans? What are you going to be?

Haley: I’m trying to get to Oct 25th, and then we’ll decide. Haha! We’ll see, there’s some stuff happening in LA that I’ll try and go to if I’m back here. 

OTW: What’s been one of your most iconic costumes?

Haley: I’m pretty weak when it comes to Halloween. I always decide last minute. The best costume I had when I was 11 and had really long hair at the time. My sister shaved most of it, and we left a really long strand in the back and braided it. And I was a Padawan. I had a lightsaber and everything. 

OTW: Wow, you committed to it. I’m proud of you.

Haley: Haha! It just happened. My mom came from a more conservative background, and so she didn’t let us celebrate Halloween. So I would sneak out with my friends and go trick or treating last minute. But I really don’t know what I’m gonna be this year! Maybe I’ll just find a wig and do that? (laughs)

OTW: Wigs are so in right now! Well, circling back a bit to your beginnings, what’s your earliest musical memory?

Haley: My dad had a guitar he never played. I remember trying to play it, and getting a dime because I didn’t know picks existed. I was so young. But I think the first time I thought, “Wow music is really cool,” is being in church singing along. Or going to my first concerts, which were always Christian music and getting my guitar when I was 13. I remember only being able to play these two chords, and I would do it for hours. My first musical memory would definitely be playing my dad’s guitar.

OTW: So you kind of got started in music via the church?

Haley: Kind of. That’s where I found my passion for music for sure. Like I never learned music the “proper” way. When I was cycling, I would always use music to get my mind off of the training. I’d be in Europe for half of the year and that’s where I started writing at 17 or 18. I’d make melodies and write songs and that’s when I realized I was gonna do this. Then I came to LA and didn’t really know anybody. And all up to now it’s been a blur. But I definitely started just sitting in a room in Belgium playing guitar.

OTW: That sounds magical in itself. 

Haley: It was! And it’s still what I’m doing now. 

OTW: How was the transition from cyclist to musician, and why’d you feel the need to make the jump?

Haley: It was tough! I’d been cycling my whole life, and many people don’t know much about the sport. I was only pro for a year, but I couldn’t do the intensity of the proper training that would let me stay at that level. Music was the only thing that made me not depressed during all of that time. So, I decided to chase another passion that I’ve had for a long time. Music kept me above water for a long time. 

OTW: Are there any skills that you brought from cycling to music?

Haley: It’s difficult. it doesn’t translate skill-wise. But I know how to win. That sounds dumb, but I know how to not stop. Other people quit, but I don't stop. I just keep going. It doesn't matter how slow or how fast, I just know where I wanna go. I can put my head down and cancel out a lot of the bullshit, which is good to do here. 

OTW: Staying focused is important. And I know a lot of people out there who are making career transitions to follow their real-life passions. What advice would you give to people thinking about making a jump like that?

Haley: Being nervous and antsy about it is always going to happen. People just get caught up in that. We get taught that you’re supposed to be comfortable in what you’re doing. And if you really have something you want to do, you’ve gotta go do it because you’re not gonna come back here. Right? You’re not going to come back to this life. You won’t get the chance to do this again. That’s the motivation for me. I’m like, I need to do something I want to do. If you’re thinking about something all the time, you can probably make that your life if you spend enough time on it. It the initial jump though that’s hard. Because I think once you’ve gone for it, it’s not as scary anymore.

OTW: I’m taking notes. What’s one of your biggest accomplishments so far?

Haley: Oh, we're just getting started! I’m so happy to be here to be honest! This tour is a really big goal for me. You know, getting to a place where I can just travel. It’s funny because your achievements are changing as you go. Two years ago, this is all I wanted. And it all just keeps changing. Now I’m looking at stadiums like, “How can I get there?!” So far it’s just been having people sing back the words to my songs on this tour. It’s amazing.

OTW: What is that feeling like? 

Haley: Unreal. You never know if a song you wrote in your bedroom or bathroom–who knows where I wrote some of these things! It's just... I can’t even describe it, but it feels really good. That’s the biggest achievement. 

OTW: Tell me the story behind your new EP Long Game. When did you start making it?

Haley: I’ve got over 400 demos, to be honest. And it wasn’t something where we were pulling from all of it. The EP really came from the best songs I’d put together in the last eight months. And it’s a story. Long Game is about not knowing what’s going to happen but also not ever being willing to stop. There’s a lot of good messages on the songs. Even though they sound sad, there’s major positive feelings in them.

OTW: How would describe each song on the EP in one word?

Haley: Okay so “Low Beams”: Smooth. “Like You For Real”: Feels. It’ll put you in your feels. “The Way I Am”:  Sad. “Show Me”: Hopeful. “Light Codes (Interlude)”: Different. “Scars and Tattoos”: Record. That’s a record. “Long Game”:. It just feels big. And “If It Was Easy”: Stadiums. Or Light? Light is cool. It just feels big though. We’ll call it light, because it’s got a good message. 

OTW: When you’re not making music if ever, what are you up to? 

Haley: I’m hoopin’ for sure, basketball. I can’t right now because of this micro-fracture in my foot. 

OTW: How’d you get that? 

Haley: I don’t know! Probably from basketball. I was tryna get up there and landed badly. So either that or chillin with my friends. I don’t go out too much. I like to kick it with my friends and go out into nature. But I’m always writing so that’s always happening. 

OTW: You mentioned basketball. What position do you play? 

Haley: Guard.

OTW: I sensed guard energy from you, but I didn’t want to project!

Haley: Yeah! (laughs). When I’m out there, I’m floor general. I like to make plays.

OTW: Call them out! Situate them. Do you have any favorites teams?

Haley: Lakers! I started watching the NBA when I moved to LA. Lonzo Ball is one of my favorite players. He got traded, to the Pelicans. Bless his soul now... trash. But we got Lebron and AD. It’s gonna be crazy. LA is about to go up! It’s gonna be a good year. 

OTW: Ok tell me, who are your Ones To Watch?

Haley: I’m running back on some old albums, Frank is so good. Being on tour, everyone’s DJing different albums so I’ve been listening to a lot of stuff I haven’t heard in a long time. Nostalgic. But new people. I feel like all the people I think are blowing up have blown up already! I like AUGUST 08, he’s my homie. Channel Tres, Duckworth is dope. Niko Rubio just dropped her first single. She’s gonna be making some waves. I’m listening to everything though. I like to study.

OTW: Lastly, we know you’re a songwriter, true to form. What song would you want to sit in on the writers' session for?

Haley: Oooh. I would love to sit on a few sessions with Ed Sheeran, because I feel like the way he puts together his stuff is very simple and proper. Man, there’s a lot of songs. Probably “White Ferrari” or “Nights” by Frank Ocean. On “Nights,” where he goes, “Every night fucks every day up,” that line is crazy! People sit in sessions for hours trying to make shit like that. And it just seems so effortless, though I know it’s not. I know he works very hard, and I would love to see that. 

[shaevira]

For my 55k post I will post my au one shot prompt that’s slightly tweaked for freezerburn . it went a lot different in my head and was a lot sweeter lmao oh well.(also lol @ my attempts to be funny) i also havent written in forever so SHRUGS excuse my shitty writing lmao

words: 2.2k

prompt: Everything is in black and white until you meet your soulmate.

“How did you even meet him again?” Weiss yelled, as she just nearly missed bumping into a different stranger for the 5th time in one day.

Weiss was being pulled through a crowd, almost unwillingly as she was drug behind her best friend, Pyrrha Nikos to a rowdy concert - or was it a battle of the bands? Weiss couldn’t exactly remember as her ear drums were in the process of being blown out by the band currently playing. Either way, loud music and thinking quietly to oneself was on the opposite ends of the spectrum.

To her luck, Pyrrha heard her question - “We met at a festival like this one! We just bumped into each other and boom! Color - just like that!” Pyrrha exclaimed loudly. For a prim and proper duo the two knew how to make themselves heard.

Weiss groaned. She didn’t want to be here. She didn’t want to feel left out. Even if she had just been invited to this screamfest.

But in this case she was, because she couldn’t say ‘no’ to her best friend. Her best friend who had found their soulmate. Her best friend who now had the privilege of being able to see color. As long as she was around her soulmate of course.

As for Weiss, everything remained black and white. Literally.

Weiss had money, lots of it. She could buy anything she wanted.

What she could not buy was true love; the satisfaction of seeing everything and anything for how it truly was.

Her whole world, just like every other soulmate less person out there - was dim.

“Oh! They’re on next!” Pyrrha clapped together her hands in excitement. Pyrrha’s tall and demanding demeanor had managed to get them to the front of the crowd and to where the railings blocked them off from the stage.

A girl with dark toned hair walked on stage. If Weiss didn’t know any better black and white was this chicks aesthetic already. How cliche. Behind her followed two scraggly looking dudes. One had his shirt opened, his washboard abs rippling in the light and the other looked awkward and out of place.

Pyrrha’s Soulmate.

There was one more person to follow behind - she carried drumsticks and lifted them in the air as she posed and grinned. Her light toned long mane flowed behind her and she banged her head; this riled up the crowd who began to cheer loudly. She posed once more, this time flexing to show off how ripped she was before taking her seat at the drum set.

Pyrrha’s soulmate picked up a bass, while the washboard guy picked up a guitar. The slender black and white aesthetic figure took place on mic.

“I’m Blake Belladonna and we are the Bleeding Banshees!” She raised a fist in the air, before clutching onto the mic as if it were a desperate lover.

As soon as these words were said the crowd screamed loudly and the singing - or well - screaming in this case began.

Weiss groaned and pretended to be just as excited as Pyrrha for the next thirty to forty-five minutes. The music was just too much. But if there was one person that kept Weiss’s attention was the girl on the drumset who was dramatically lip syncing along in the back and making horrid faces while doing so. Weiss had to keep herself from bursting out in laughter for several songs.

Soon enough the screaming was over and Pyrrha had once more dragged Weiss off to meet the band. Blake had been kind enough to give them V.I.P passes. How Pyrrha met and befriended this lot of people will always remain a mystery to Weiss.

Weiss and Pyrrha slipped backstage as another band passed them getting ready to start the next gig.

They were soon greeted by three out of four of the band members. Soulmate, Aesthetic, and Abs had come out to meet them. But not, what Weiss liked to call her, Facial Horror.

“Pyrrha!” Soulmate had called out to her before embracing her in his arms.

“Jaune!” Pyrrha grinned and hugged him back.

Oh, right. Jaune. That was his name. Weiss was happy that Pyrrha finally found her soulmate, but at the same time - she was envious. For a variety of reasons. She did not care enough to keep his name in mind.

Pulling out of the embrace Jaune noted Weiss. “Who’s uhh, your pale friend?”

“Excuse me? I’m not pale!” Weiss retorted.

“Hate to say it, but you are pretty pale.” Aesthetic commented, as she seemed to be holding hands with Abs.

Weiss glared at the other couple now. So she was surrounded by people who could see color, but she couldn’t? Who had found their soulmates, and she hadn’t?

She felt a sense of exclusion.

Before Weiss could say anything, Pyrrha cut in before anything could truly escalate. “Weiss, this is Blake, Sun and Jaune. Everyone, this is Weiss.” She had pointed to everyone respectively, as they gave a simple hand gesture back.

“Where’s…?” Pyrrha looked around, Weiss had mentally asked herself the same question that Pyrrha was obviously about to ask.

“Oh, Yang? She opted out. She said she didn’t want to fifth wheel.” Sun commented.

“So, I’m going to be the fifth wheel then?” Weiss raised an eyebrow in discontent.

“I’ll see if I can convince her to come. She may change her mind if she know she’s not the only one.” Blake pulled out a cellphone and put it to her ear.

“Weiss, you haven’t found a soulmate then?” Jaune questioned.

Weiss had half a mind to groan and ask if that was rhetorical question, but instead politely shook her head no.

“Well, you’re in luck then! Yang doesn’t have one either. At least you two will have something in common!” Jaune grinned.

Weiss ultimately decided that Jaune was a special kind of idiot. How the universe decided him and Pyrrha should get together was beyond her.

“Yang’s in. Surprisingly.” Blake said as she shoved the phone back into her pocket.

“What’s she up to now?” Sun asked.

“She’s just putting away her things and she’ll be here in a second.” Blake paused before starting up again. “Hey, there’s this bar down the street we can walk to. You guys mind if we go there tonight?” Blake turned towards the group.

Everyone nodded in agreement. As they had, Yang had run up to the group.

“Aww, you guys didn’t leave without me! What a good group of friends!” Yang wrapped her arms around the shoulders of Blake and Sun shoving her way in between them.

“Of course not. We were thinking about going to that new bar just down the road, you in?” Blake turned her head towards Yang.

“Duh, you already asked.” Yang pulled away now shrugging and putting her arms behind her head. “But uhh...who’s the odd-man out?”

“You mean Weiss?” Pyrrha questioned.

“We-who?” Yang commented, almost in a confused manner.

“I’m right here, you big brute.” Weiss scowled.

“You’re so short! I didn’t see you there.” Yang grinned widely. “Hmm. Big brute. That should be the name of our next song! Thanks Princess.”

Weiss, definitely groaned while the group laughed at her displeasure. How did she get into this mess of a group? Weiss could only hope alcohol would be her systems soon enough.

It didn’t take long for the six man group to make their way to the bar. The walk was one that Weiss had mostly spaced out on. She only heard bits of the chatter which was mostly between Sun, Blake, Jaune, and Pyrrha. Yang messed around on her phone while taking occasional, and very obvious glances at Weiss.

They arrived at the bar and luckily for them, they had been recognized by the owners and given sitting very quickly.

The chatter between the group became more disparaging for the likes of Weiss and Yang. The talk of soulmates and what new color they all had discovered or whichever one was their favorite was something that Weiss and Yang could not relate to.

The more their talk grew the more Weiss and Yang shot down alcohol.

Yang seemed to have had enough and tossed some peanuts at Weiss.

“What the hell, Yang?” Weiss slightly slurred as she had clearly seen Yang take that action.

“You wanna get outta here?” Yang asked - she seemed to handle her alcohol well.

Weiss sighed and nodded. She paid her due and hopped of the stool following behind a very upright Yang.

The cold night air hit them in the face as they both took a deep breath, in near unison.

“That fucking sucked.” Yang laughed as they started their walk.

“No shit. All that lovey dovey bullshit. Colors! Soulmates! Fuck them!” Weiss was inebriated. “It’s not fair! They get all of that and what do I get? A fucking multi-million dollar company.” Weiss scoffed, she made wild motions with her hands and her tone of voice went in and out with emotion.

Yang let out another laugh.

“My dad! He fuckin tried to help me - bless his fuckin’ soul - by putting on a ‘let’s fuckin’ handshake Weiss’ charity to see if you’re the one! Do you wanna know how many sweaty boys I shook hands with that day? Three hundred. Three fucking hundred and NOT A SINGLE ONE MY SOULMATE. We raised a lot of money for charity, but me? I’m still a single fuck while Pyrrha get’s Captain idiot and the abs aesthetic brigade!” Weiss had gone on a full out tirade.

Yang was completely lost in laughter. Yang was tipsy, but she wasn’t gone like Weiss was.

“You know, maybe you’re looking for the wrong gender.” Yang teased.

“Fuck, you think? Maybe if I start touching girls butts I might GET SOMEWHERE.”

Yang snorted down another fit of laughter.

“It’s not funny Yang! Don’t you feel lonely too?!”

Yang stopped her laughter and put on a straight face. “Well, yeah...but watching you say everything I wish I could say makes me feel a lot better. In a sense, I’m not alone. Because you feel exactly the way I do.” Yang kicked at the ground. “In the end I’ve accepted that maybe it’ll never be for me, you know?”

Weiss grabbed the bigger girl by the shoulders and shook her wildly. “You can’t say dumb things like that Yang!” Weiss yelled then pulled away, and covered her mouth. “I think I’m going to puke.” she muttered.

Yang put her hand on Weiss’s shoulder, Weiss turned her head to look at Yang and both girls paused.

“Your eyes...they’re…” before Weiss could say anything she puked all over the ground in front of her.

Yang knew what she was about to say. As Yang could see it too.

Yang had let Weiss finish her business before picking her up and carrying her safely back to their hotel room.

--

The the next morning Weiss woke up with a headache. Everything was in black and white once more.

“Heard you had a rough night.” Pyrrha winked as she squeezed her hair dry with a towel.

“I had the craziest dream I could see in color.” Weiss muttered.

“How do dreams like that even work?” Pyrrha chuckled before returning to the restroom to finish drying her hair.

A light knock could be heard on their door.

“I’ll get it.” Weiss muttered loudly and shuffled her way to the door. When did she put on PJS? She shook her head.

She opened the door and it was none other than Yang Xiao Long.

“Hey.” Yang nervously smiled.

“Hey Yang..” Weiss hadn’t the slightest clue what she was here for.

“I came to see if you were okay, how are you feeling, I brought you these I thought you might like them and..” Yang seemed to spurt out words at a mile a minute all of a sudden as she shoved flowers into Weiss’s arms and pulled back immediately. What happened to the cool nonchalant girl from last night?

“Whoa, whoa..slow down..what are these for…?” Weiss had trouble keeping up as she rubbed her head.

“Can I show you?” Yang cautiously asked.

“Where are you going to -” Before Weiss could finish her sentence her lips were sealed by others. Yang’s.

But Weiss didn’t pull away. Not immediately at least. “Yang what was tha-” she paused, her eyes widened. Suddenly everything was filled with color.

Yang’s lavender eyes stared at her cautiously. Her bright yellow mane flowed behind her as she adjusted her black leather jacket. A small bead of sweat ran down the side of her bronzed neck. There was a small tint of red on Yang’s cheeks, almost unnoticeable but to Weiss everything was so bright. So colorful. Yang was the only thing currently colored, but she shone bright like the Sun.

“Yesterday, when I was carrying you back...It was the most amazing thing just looking at you. You were beautiful and for once I knew what it was like and I just wanted that feeling again...and I..I want that feeling to last forever.” Yang gave a sheepish grin, she wiped the sweat off of her neck and looked at Weiss expectedly.

“It wasn’t a dream?” Weiss muttered. “I’m stuck with the Facial Horror?” Weiss’s eyes widened as she stared at the ground. The red carpeted ground.

“Facial Horror? Wow, Weiss! That’s a really good song name too! First Big Brute and then Facial Horror! Maybe you should join our band!” Yang grinned.

[knightofbalance-13]

RE:RWBY Chapter 3 Review

http://archiveofourown.org/works/10099949/chapters/22790120

Students gathered in Beacon Academy’s large auditorium for an opening assembly. Ruby and Jaune managed to join to the crowd once they saw first-yeats flood towards the innards of the school.

Yeah, again this is a constant problem throughout the story as the author doesn’t understand that you need to add a bit more than what is necessary to keep an audience excited. Detail is the name of the game as it helps the reader visualize and see what is going on. Even in the original scene, I could tell the audience was excited due to the chatter and slight movement which made me excited as well. Here it sounds like everyone is like a robot. awaiting their orders.

“O-oh, okay! Bye…!” He sighed. “She thinks she has it bad, I can’t hold anyone’s attention for more than ten minutes. I gotta listen to Dad more…”

Another problem: Jaune’s original line “No where m I going to find another nice, quirky girl” was both cute, understandable and human. This feels...awkward and artificial due to the change in Jaune’s speech pattern.

“Yang Xaio-Long!” She announced as she walked up to her. “Oh hey, how’s your first day going, sis?” She waved happily, completely unaware of the trouble she experienced in such a short amount of time.

Um, again, detail. Maybe add in: “ up to her, ready to let out her frustrations and woes onto her elder sister.” Would have been more interesting.

“You’re lucky we weren’t blown off the side of the cliff!” Weiss warned. “Oh my god, you really exploded…” Yang did her best to contain laughter.

Yeah, in the original, Yang’s voice expressed surprise at Ruby being literal as well as Ruby’s compliants were being said just as we were seeing Weiss’ angry face thus it was one joke after another. Just as well, the way the Yang line is structured is just bad considering it should go like this: “Yang said, trying her best to contain her laughter.”

“It was an accident! An accident!” Weiss held up a pamphlet in front of Ruby’s face entitled “Dust for Dummies” and shoved it towards her hands. “The Schnee Dust Company” she began, “is not responsible for any injuries or damages sustained while operating a Schnee Dust Company product. Although not mandatory, the Schnee Family highly encourages their customers to read and familiarize themselves with this easy to follow guide to Dust applications and practices in the field. Well-readiness in the field of Dust applications can lead to none or fewer legal issues with the Schnee Dust Company and its providers.”

Describe Ruby’s lines as crying out and then it becomes funny. Weiss shoving the pamphlet into Ruby’s hands may not seem like a bad thing but it was the punchline of Weiss’ “read this and never talk to me again” line. Now, the line will be said without a punchline or a joke.

And Weiss’ talk is nowhere near as funny with it being speed up or seeing Ruby being overwhelmed. In fact, it’s not even funny just....there.

“I noticed your Dust cartridges,” Weiss said in reference to Ruby’s ammo belt. “Even if you do use an inferior and cheaper brand, that’s no reason you can’t familiarize yourself with proper safety protocol. For the sake of me and everyone at this school.” “U-um, it’s not really all that ch-cheap-” Ruby spluttered. Weiss ignored this. “You really wanna start make things up to me, dolt? “Absolutely?” “Read this, and don't ever speak to me again.”

yeah, the interjection of the two extra lines are completely superfluous and adds nothing. You could edit them out and it wouldn’t lower the quality at all. In fact, the joke of Ruby being awkward is now overstaying it’s welcome and becoming pretty damn boring.

“Look, uh, it sounds like you two just got off on the wrong foot. Why don't you start over and try to be friends, okay?” She offered. Clearly this girl had no intention to let things go with her little sister.

One word can make all the difference, like adding “hopelessly” after “offered.” Without that word, the lines here are kind of confusing as I don’t know why Yang is doing something she knows she’ll fail at while “hopelessly” implies she’s taking a chance.

“Yeah!” Weiss exclaimed with sudden and obviously-not-forced enthusiasm. “And we can paint our nails and try on clothes and talk about cute boys, like tall, blond, and scraggly over there!”

Narration is suppose to be factual and informal, not sarcastic. That defeats the purpose of narration. Everyone knows that.

“Wow, really?!” Ruby asked, far too optimistic for Weiss’s sense of humor.

Weiss offered no response but dead silence and a very disgruntled glare.

Okay, what narration style is this? This all over the place third person narration is something that beginners have hammered out of them by the second chapter. I know this because I had this problem in my very first work and didn’t repeat it.

Also, waiting for the punchline. You know, the frank “No” Weiss says that is the payoff to the build up of her sarcasim, Ruby’s hopefulness and her glare? ... Not happening? Then your joke falls flat. Also, Jaune’s “I’m a natural blonde” was set up by Weiss mentioning him but that’s also edited out so that’s another build up wasted.

A man walked on stage and the room began to quiet down. Ruby squinted and saw none other than Professor Ozpin make his way to a microphone stand with Professor Goodwitch in tow. Ozpin seemed to stand with regal straightness despite reliance on a cane. For that matter, Ruby felt like his eyes lingered on her for just a moment despite his sweeping, aloof gaze. A very unsettling, ghostly presence. He quietly adjusted the microphone to his height, and gave a slight cough to draw the crowd.

Normally this would be praiseable given that it’s fine detail...but it shows the author is too lazy to do it for everything else which is what really needs it. Youw atsed detail on Ozpin when this detail should have gine to the Weiss and Ruby part or to Ozpin’s introduction.

“Kind of a creepy guy, huh?” Yang asked, hardly respectful without the experience Ruby had. “Hey, he’s just a little strange. I promise he’s got it together more in person.” “Didn’t sound all there to me.” “Maybe he’s getting on in years,” interrupted Jaune Arc, who appeared between them. “You know, my grandpa hasn’t been able to tell me or my sisters apart since I was six.”

Creepy? I never got a creepy vibe from Ozpin. Your language from ebfore fits that but doesn't fit his character: Those description are better suited for Salem NOT Ozpin who is a mentor character and thus this unsettling vibe would conflict with that. And removing that and replacing it with creepy is both a downgrade and makes him superfluous.

Also, Jaune line here is...just dull and sad for people with Alzheimer disease. The blond line was much funnier.

Pyrrha Nikos commanded attention wherever she went. The young girl wished to keep things quiet on her first day at Beacon, but students who had heard of her fighting prowess and seen her face from magazine to cereal box refused to give her that peace. Weiss Schnee, the queen of entitlement, hardly attracted a crowd herself but made sure to make herself the forefront of Pyrrha’s followers. “Oh, Pyrrha, your gown looks simply divine!” Weiss kicked off a torrent of compliments, even though her night garb advertised nothing but modesty. Ironically the white-haired girl dressed richly and without shame of her wealth. Hundred-yard stares of awe and envy showered her every move. Everyone in the ballroom must have gawked to some extent; all except that scraggly blond boy who cluelessly wondered what made all the ruckus.

Okay, again, this clusterfuck of a narration style is giving me a headache as this gets hammered out of you mere days within writing. It’s too specific for normal 3 person and two wide spread to eb character specific.

This praising Pyrrha thing only worked because Jaune was there to provide a direct foil and counterpart to Weiss at the moment, bring misery for Weiss who at the time was the perfect joke magnet due to her bitchy side being the only side we see so far. Now there's no misery except Pyrrha who is too kind and composed for it to be funny. Also Jaune not noticing Weiss is very OOC.

Speaking of: You showed you can do detail now mind explaining what Weiss is wearing? no? The why is it so attractive?

“I know I do!” She purred seductively through her teeth. Several shirtless guys had taken the opportunity to flaunt themselves before they turned in. “Oh come on, after your sixteenth birthday, I don’t think he’d want you having sleepovers anymore.” “Ah yes, Lilac,” she reminisced. “Really made it a ‘sweet’ sixteen.” “Gross,” Ruby shuddered. “Is it really that much more gross than the time I walked in on you polishing Crescent Rose ?” “It’s very different!”

because the joke about Ruby being sexual attracted to weapons didn’t die out after Volume 1 ended...there years ago!

Also, ruby’s grossed out by Yang mentioning sex but had a sexual depiction of Blake?...Not only is this inconsistent with this version of Ruby, it’s OOC as Ruby would probably have a joke like that swing over her head! God, you know a joke is unsalvageable when Taiyang is mentioned and I’m not smiling like a goofball.

PS: Jaune was suppose to wlak in here and make Yang roll her eyes which is funny because Jaune was in a onesie which has lead to many a funny fanart. Here we have...a sex joke and a joke that went stale two years ago. See why jaune is important?

“Whatcha writing?” Yang asked, head tilted towards the scroll. “Just a letter to the gang back home. I promised to tell them all about Beacon and how things are going.”

Okay, the incosnistancies in the author’s writing style is pissing me off. it’s too robotic to be casual and too casual to be informal! It’s really ruining my experience.

Next: Ruby was writing a letter in the original script which kind of reinforced her being simpler than the others, hence “a simple soul.” Typing doesn’t work the same.

“The girl looked over her book to see Ruby unsuccessfully struggle against Yang as she leads her sister over to spot below a vast ballroom window. “Hel-looooo! “ Yang sang, “I believe you two may know each other?”Ruby, right.” She put her book in her lap and leaned back. “You exploded earlier and got that Schnee pissed off.”

Yet another example of animation failing to translate to written form. In the original we had Ruby visibly AND audibly fighting against Yang while Yang’s line was delivered in a cheerful and funny way. This lacks that charm and makes it just dull.

“Ruby, right.” She put her book in her lap and leaned back. “You exploded earlier and got that Schnee pissed off.” “Uh, um…yes?” “Made for a pretty good first day,” she said with a smirk. “See? She likes you,” Yang whispered as she nudged Ruby. “Keep it up!” “I don’t know what to say!” She hissed back, glad that she had the girl’s approval but completely lost on what conversation to make.

See here, this just feels artificial because Blake was so factual and netural about the incident in the last chapter that we would think Blake wouldn’t say something like that whereas the original just had Blake mention she exploded and Ruby tried to shake her hand she sniffed Ruby, reinforcing her awkward personality naturally instead of this unnatural crap.

“Blake,” she sighed. She had just began to pick up her book when Yang asked. “Well, Blake, I'm Yang, Ruby's older sister! I like your bow! “Thanks,” Blake said, a little irritated now. “It goes great with your, ya’know, pajamas!” “Mm..?” Blake tilted her head, impatient for them to either get on with the conversation or leave her be. Yang thought she even saw the bow twitch with annoyance. Ruby laughed uncomfortably as Yang continued to throw out topics.

Okay, this is where the narration style crashes and burns as I cannot tell what is going with it. Is Yang making the observations, is Blake , is the author? It’s mixing in all these things that do not work together!

Also, Blake was perfectly fine before with Ruby whereas in the original she was being factual and showed annoyance earlier on, displaying she didn’t want to talk naturally. Now it feels like Blake is annoyed because “plot!”

“Well, that's why we're here. To make it better.” “Oh, I am so proud of my baby sister!” Yang coddled. She smothered Ruby with a tight hug, which she valiantly fought and lost against. “Cut it out!” Ruby kicked at Yang’s legs to knock her down and they ended up in a pile on the floor. Somehow Yang’s hug turned into a headlock and soon enough sleeping bags were tossed tangled beneath them and pillows flew across the room. Blake sunk into her place against the wall further as eyes turned on the arguing sisters.

If they were being that rambunctious in the original, Glynda would storm in and scold them or at the least someone besides Weiss would come up and tell them to stop.

“What in the world is going on over here?!” No one but Weiss Schnee stormed in on the scene. “Don't you realize some of us are trying to sleep-” Yang and Weiss locked eyes, fed up with each others presence. “Oh, not you again!” They both shouted in exasperation. “Shh! Guys, she's right! People are trying to sleep!” “Oh, now you're on my side!” “I was always on your side!” “Yeah, what's your problem with my sister? She's only trying to be nice!” “She's a hazard to my health!”

Do I even need to point out how the original surpasses this due to voice acting and Blake’s expression?

Blake sighed and closed her book for good. She had been ripped from her peaceful night but couldn’t say the bickering didn’t entertain her some, especially with Weiss angry at an innocent Ruby. Something about the way that girl got worked up gave her a deep satisfaction, but that she would keep to herself.

Why would Blake not know why making Weiss upset satisfy her? She’s a Schnee and from her view Weiss is a spoiled privileged brat that caused her kind Fanaus and her comrades the White Fang trouble for years?

... Blake’s not a member of the White Fang in this is she?... It’d say how dumb that is and how by removing that Blake should be a completely different person but I’ve got house work to do.

Final thoughts: The writing is boring and uniteresting, lacking detail and comedic timing to be engaging or funny. The changes just make the story worse and the narration pisses me off.

[faceoffdoodles]

FACE OFF: ALLSTARS LIVEBLOGGING - GREEN SCREEN EDITION

NOTICE: I had many more pictures of this episode, especially at the end of my reactions, but for some reason Tumblr failed me and wouldn’t save the post NOR save it as a draft, so I had to refresh everything and, at the moment of pasting what I hadn’t saved, the pictures didn’t make it, so the bottom half of this post doesn’t have many pictures to show what I react to, so it may be a little confusing, just a heads up.

It’s that time of the year again where I react to the latest Face Off episodes! First I tried doing reviews but those took some time, and I often forgot important points I wanted to add so I found it more fun to react to what was happening and write it all down, and it feels alot more genuine to me and hopefully to you too! 

It’s the All Stars now so it should be GREAAAAT!

AWWW HERE WE GO 

 There was no one on the thumbail so no one is eliminated? Hopefully, I don’t want them leaving so soon..

Wait... they’re all in pairs already? Aren’t they supposed to like meet individually

Did they choose them?? How was that?

These makeups looks cool AG 

MCKENZIE IN A PARACHUTING SUITE, LOOOVELY

CIG AND GEORGE... TOGETHER???

IS THIS A WET DREAM I’M HAVING??

They will be the most entertaining duo of all time holy shit, I can’t believe this

AND THEY’RE BOTH SO TALENTED

HOW CAN ANYONE EVEN COMPETE

Ben & Evan and Cat & Niko are back, cool!

I like Niko & Cat’s team more, they are really cute

Ben and Evan are alright, I jsut wish it was Ben and Jordan and they would’ve been UNSTOPPABLE

LOGAN AND ADAM, I like that their names end similary

SO is this season all teams or what???

Gage & Rachel seem lik ethe most random matchup yet, what the hell

TEAM RAGE SOUNDS COOL AF THO

So maybe they’re perfect

Team “I shaved my head on both sides”

Really digging the Rachel haircut tho, loooove it

SOMEONE STOP MCKENZIE SHE’S SO EXCITED TO HAVE THIS EPIC HELICOPTER ENTRANCE

TOO FAST, MCKENZIE

McKenzie: “Welcome to Face Off: The Amazing Race edition!”

I dig any shade of blue Keaghlan dyes her hair on

I hadn’t even noticed BEN AND EVAN’S AMTCHING SHIRTS

Yeah yeah you always say that McKenzie, nothings gonna cha-

what

ALL TEAM? Both of them go home??

I’m..

I’,m not sure how I feel about this format, I

I JUST WOULD HAVE LIKED TO HAVE NORMAL ALL STARS ELIMINAITONS DAMMIT

Why CAN’T They

Ughh I’m frustrated at the uncalled change but, alright, I’ll deal with it

Are there even going to be individual immunity challenges?? I loved those!!

Niko’s haircut is taller than ever

Jasmine: “Butt”

Thank you, Jazz

McKenzie looks so cute on that suit, God

GREEN!! SCREEN!! TECHNOLOGY!!

That sounds so COOL

This changes everything holy shit

THIS OOPENS UP SO MUCH DOORS I HOPE THEY TAKE FULL ADVANTAGE

Man, Emily & Tyler are both young, very talented dudes, they’re going to kick ass if they don’t falter.

EMily is basically a child prodigy of makeup, it’s amazing how much she can do.

SOMEONE STOP THEM BEFORE THEY WIN

JK i’d love it if they both won

I like octopuses and I think those who got octopus will have the best chance of making it safe at least

I absolutely love Emily’s style

Evan & Ben’s intro was so cheesy, jesus christ

Their idea screams failure, I like the ambition but if I didn’t know Neville any better, he’s gonna hate it so much

Sassy Stella and Juicy Jasmine, both are really amazing with a distinctive style so I’m expecting a lot

Their creature idea looks pretty cool as well, looks a bit like a jellyfish creature, WHICH I’D LOVE

They totally paired Keaghlan and Melissa because of the blue hair

BLUE TEAM! BLUE TEAM!

I’m watching you Keaghlan, I’mma see the things I couldn’t see on S7

I still think the green screen is one of the best ideas of the show

Okay but, is the winner of All Stars individual or as a team? That’s my biggest question, I hope they separate by mid season

GEORGE FUNNYPANTS IS BACK!! YES! 

Fun Fact: I wrote “Jason Funnypants” before I wrote George, for some reason I keep thinking George’s name is Jason.

I love George’s funny side, Cig is surprisingly normal right now

“I’m happy if you’re happy!” That’s sweet and all with Cat n Niko but one of them’s gotta make decisions

HOLY SMOKES GEORGE’S BELLY is the roundest belly I’ve seen, I didn’t think he was that fat

The way Gage delivers confessionals is really funny to me

“We gotta..” *GASPS” “...pull this off.”

Oh snap the clay just SMACKED against the floor, bad news for Evan (and Ben)

MICHAEL WESTMORE!! I missed you, it’s been a lonely year!

Emily n’ Tyler look like they’re doing something really cool

I actually don’t recall if Cat had that arm tattoo. I think not. Also is Cig’s iconic captain hat gold yellow now??

“I just want to start fabricating..” “I just wanna give you kisses” GOD they’re so sweet

Cat’s face after that is hilarious btw

(George thought it also applied to him)

Jasmine’s tentacles don’t look toog ood tbh

The short shots are BACK! All I ever needed, George n Cig are the most perfect team.

JUST LOOK AT THIS

EVEN CIG IS HURRYING GEORGE’S ANTICS NOW, but I understand they’re on a hurry haha

Now that I think of it, their idea is pretty similar to Ben and Evan’s idea, just with smaller legs

It’s MOLDING TIME and you KNOW what that means

Adam confessional! I forgot he and Logan are a team here, it’s weird

yes, someone had COWL PROBLEMS, this time it’s Niko n’ Cat and it actually looks like it’ll be bad

It’s great hearing Niko’s accent again <3

THEY OPENED IT... with force

Polyfoam Run of Shame it is!

God knows Tyler is the best at “really creepy thin arms”

their creature looks cool af tho

RAGE’s team looks like it’s doing a shrimp Predator

the transparent claw idea ROCKS tho, love the creativity on this one

Emily’s tie dye shirt gives me life

“Possibly the first makeup on Face Off to completely disappear”! OOH I want to see this

I would Love to be a Face Off model

Logan looks like my uncle

I feel like I’ve seen Stella n Jasmine’s alien before

I really ought to start giving these teams some nicknames

Bluehair team’s alien looks really cool so far, Keaghlan is focusing on a GREAT paintjob so I know it’ll be great

ARE THE LOVE TEAM REMAKING CIG& GEORGE’S TUNA MAN FROM SEASON 7??

Hello darkness my old friend

There’s so much green on the screen *ba dum tss*

Something tells me the Love Team (Cat and Niko) are going to be on bottom

The Benevan (Ben  & Evan) team are also shooting for down there

Team RAGE (Rachel & Gage) look promising though,

Team Love’s glowing blue eyes are amazing

Team Funny (Cig & George)’s creature looks creepy but AMAZING

“I guess it’s finished” - Evan making me laugh, good start

THERE THEY ARE!! THE JUDGES!! 

Glenn, Ve Neill and Neville at work and thank god, their wits seem like they are untouched.

I’m waiting for the great Neville quote of the season <3

Okey, Team Talent (Emily & Tyler)’s creature looks fantastic, very smooth with rocky texture and shards coming out of the shoulders, I love it!! tHE TINY ARMS ARE AMAZING

TEAM BENEVAN’S DADDY LEGS MAKE ME LAUGH, it has nothing to do with the head

Also Ben can really pull off a Steve Jobs cosplay

One thing I don’t like is that contestants are aware that they are in a non elimination challenge, I dunno, I guess it can affect how they do the makeups

Blue Hair team did a floaty alien, like it has no legs but I dig it

I LOVE TEAM FUNNY’S SUITS

Nice hair on chest look, too

Their creature looks pretty good as well, it’s what Benevan’s creature should have been

They really pulled it off a LOT better

Ugh, Team Sassy (Stella & Jasmine) looks so plastic

“I’m hoping the judges will just overlook it”, oh NO they WON’T

TEAM RAGE SHRIMP’S IS AWESOMEEEE

I’m guessing that will be 1st place

Hmm, Team Ladam (Logan & Adam) looks sillt, it’s like a bird without skin, it’s like they skinned the bird hunter  makeup from Season 10

Ok, Team Love seemes rushed but I LOVE THE TENTACLE SKIRT, it looks fantastic and shiny, so, props to Cat for That.

Although I wish they hadn’t put the eyeballs and just let it have glowing blue eyes

I still  tand the green screen idea is one of the best things they’ve ever come up with, why hadn’t they thought of it before??

HERE COMES MY FAVORITE PART

JUDGE SASSINESS

“He looks like a mexican wrestler” - Ve Neill, OH MY GOD IT DOES I HADN’T SEEN IT THAT WAY

In a closer look, Team Funny’s makeup looks like a rat with a testicle hunchback

It’s just ewww but well done, so I can’t copmplain.

Remember kids, Neville loves his shapes 

I’m surprised Glenn loves Team Love’s paintjob, so they might be safe

Well, technically, everyone is safe here, I know no one’s going to be eliminated

But at least it doesn’t put em on bottom

STEBEN JOBS AND EVAN TO THE CENTER

They know they fucked up, I don’t like seeing their disappointed faces ;(

The legs are coming out of the shoulders?? I’m no Neville but I also don’t see the sense in that

VE “YOU’LL BE STITCHIN’ IF ITS NOT BITCHIN’” NEILL WITH THE SASS

IT WAS SO STRONG IT MADE EVAN SCOFF

Ben “Steve Jobs” Ploughman is in danger

As expected, everyone loves the transparent scorpion, I too, love it.

 Nice to see Gage n’ Rachel back in form after a long absence.

I love how the model still tries to sell the makeup, must be Megan.

Okay, on clearer view, Team SAssy’s creature is a mess, it looks like a paper ball with tentacles

.I don’t like how the red head sticks out either, nothing is cohesive in this

Also the model’s arms are passing through the tentacles, this is what Jasmine hoped the judges would overlook.

Team Blue is on top as well! 

Their creature is pretty but not quite “transparent scorpion” level

Glenn loves the head

VE “SO BITCHIN’” NEILL

Bitchin’ counter: 1

“Not even a side of garlic would make it better” HOLY SHIT NEVILLE

NEVILLE “NONSENSE ON STAGE MAKES ME RAGE” PAGE

NEVILLE “ALL THE FORMS SHOULD FOLLOW THE NORMS” PAGE

NEVILLE “IF THE FORM AINT PRETTY I’LL GIVE YOU NO PITY” PAGE

wAIT WHAT

KEAGHLAN AND MELISSA WON THIS ONE I’M QUITE SURPRISED

Maybe it was because it was better scultped

So yeah I understand it

No one eliminated, McKenzie warns them to step it up

SO NEXT WEEK IS 2 PEOPLE ELIMINATED

Ben and Evan are ready for a comeback

And they seem in real trouble next episode, so WE’LL SEE ON TUESDAY Conclusion: Great episode, great premiere, great, great challenge idea! I love this green screen challenge and I hope they make a comeback soon, even in this same season. Hopefully it’ll replace focus challenges, but I don’t think so. I still am unsure about the team format or how it’s going to work out in the finale, are we going to see 3 teams or 2? 6 people in a finale seems like a lot so I’m leaning towards too, but even then, will the winner be individually rewardd or do they alsp win the competition as a team? Because if it was going to be teams I’d prefer for them to bring 20 people back and ahve a higher number. Anyways, the creatures were cool, the judges are back with the sass that I missed so much and, I forgot to react to this but the friendliness is back too! When Niko was trying to open the mold, almost everyone was there to help him, there were like 6 people trying to help them, I’m glad to see it’s still so sweet and drama-free. I love art guys, thank you for it! See ya next week! On with the drawing! Also, sorry it’s late but I’ve been sick and busy with social life and school life and what not. It doesn’t help that the internet took down my favorite page for watching the show hours after it premiers so I have to wait days for it to get shown so I can screencap scenes from the show so >:(

[eschapters]

Chapter 30: Midst of Heat

It was late at night. Alair had rushed to a room in the clinic. He was filled with relief and astonishment at the sight of the white haired girl covered in scratches, bruises, bandages, and maybe even burns. The thing he noticed first was the patch on her head. She was sitting up and writing in a small book, but she sure as heck didn't seem too pleased to see Alair at all. Logan, on the other hand, was nowhere to be seen. In the room, there was only a few shelves, a bed, and a desk accompanied by a chair. On the chair hung Etalt's grass green sleeveless jacket. Right next to the bed was a nightstand and a lamp. The lamp's light was unusually bright for some reason. Alair opened his mouth to speak, but then Etalt had interrupted him. "You wanna tell me I'm weak, huh?" Etalt muttered. "What? No, no!" Alair had shaken his head, "Why would I? What happened to you, anyway?" "Let me just sum all of that up in a few words," Etalt had closed the book and placed the pen on the nightstand, "I tried to leave this stupid place with my own little trick because I'm gonna die here if I don't get out soon, but Dunn caught me. Not being able to work well with the heat, I wasn't able to focus too well and eventually... He nearly stabbed and crushed me completely to death until Logan came along and eventually ended up having to literally drag me by the arm here." It was more than Alair had expected, but he asked that one question anyway, "You're okay, though... Right?" "Mhm. I would've been more than okay and probably would've set the old man in his place if that stupid rat didn't slam me into the wall and cause me possible internal bleeding," Etalt shrugged, "But I'm fine, now." "Wait, what?" Alair's eyes widened a little, "Why didn't you tell me about that?" "I could've taken care of it myself. I have my ways. Otherwise, I'd be dead by now." "At least you're alive... But are you sure you're okay?" "Yes, I told you. I'll be perfectly fine," Etalt raised her hand with the bloodstained sleeve and scratched the back of her head, "Just go finish your challenge or something. I'll be fine. I'm not dying, am I?" "You looked like you were..." Alair had leaned himself at the side of the wall, "Even Ryllis thought you were gonna die, which is why I rushed here when she explained more." "Well... Calm down, I ain't going anywhere," Etalt had grabbed the pen from the nightstand and opened her book again, "I mean if I'm not exposed to too much heat or anything, then I'm fine." "Then what about that thing on your head?" Etalt reached up to feel for whatever Alair was talking about, "Geez, you worry too much. Cut it out, nerd! It's not like I'll bleed to death from this!" "I wouldn't be worried if I didn't know who you went up against," Alair sighed. He pursed his lips again upon realizing what he said, "Shoot, sorry. Okay, I'll try to stop worrying." "Good. Leave it that way," Etalt started move her hand over the book with her pen, "Now go back to the mansion. I can take care of myself." "If you insist..." Alair was about to turn to leave, but stopped, "Where's Logan, by the way?" "Oh, the hooligan?" Etalt scribbled a little more before closing the book once again, "He went back to the mansion before you came." "Hm..." Alair had went to the chair and sat down on it, "I just thought of this, but I don't really think you mean it when you say you hate him." Etalt had slipped the pen into her pocket, "Why?" "The way you guys talk is like you two have known each other for years!" Alair rested his head on his hand, "Don't lie. 'Liars go to hell,' you said." Etalt rolled her eyes, "Freakin' fine. I'll just say he's like family," A scoff had slapped her right in the face right as she said that, "A big brother, probably. Probably the one I've never had or was never given... But he's just... Egh... He seems to be hung up about his 'lost friend' or something." Alair had reached into the pocket of his jacket. He pulled a small pink book out of it. "Where did you... Get that?" Etalt was now giving him a long and hard stare. "I snagged it from Dunn's room! Where else?" Alair sneered. He opened the cover of the book. "HEY! OPEN THAT AND I'M GONNA BLAST YOUR HEAD OFF OVER THE FREAKIN' SEVEN SEAS AND INTO THE DEAD ONE!" Etalt didn't even give any regards about the volume of her voice. Alair flipped the page, and on to the first entry of the diary. He read it out loud, "Dear Diary, I get to keep you since big sis gave you to me! I'll be good to you, o- OW!" A burning sensation on his hand had caused Alair to let go of the diary and hold his own hand. Etalt glared, her finger positioned as if it were a gun itself. She reached down for the book herself to pick it up. "I'll be keeping this, thank you very much," Etalt had slipped the diary into a pocket in her jacket, "Now go back to the mansion before I get Raika to freeze off your whole hand!" Through the pain of his hand, Alair groaned, "Okay, okay! I'm going!" And so, Alair went back to the mansion. He slept, but kept his hands completely covered. Tonight's dream was surprisingly pleasant. Alair was walking through a desert area with a person that was shorter than him by an average amount. The two laughed, and even tried to pester Dunn into trying to do something with them. When Alair looked at the person, all he was able to see were dark clothes or so. He couldn't quite tell whether the eyes were blue or brown. It was confusing to him. But then, that dream had came to an end due to something trying to shove at him. "Hey, Alair... Wake up..." Alair looked up to see Fabian holding the yellow orb. It was dark, so only Fabian's eyes and the orb's follow could be made out. "Hm... What is it...?" Alair's voice was sluggish. He looked up at the clock on the wall. It was only 5:23 in the morning. "Dunn wants to talk to you," Fabian had whispered. Alair got up, throwing off the blanket. He tried to look around. It seemed that he had forgotten the events of last night for a bit, "...Why so early?" "I'm not sure, either. It's Dunn, remember?" Alair got off the bed, getting up to throw his jacket over his white shirt, "I didn't think he'd get up to actually do something around five in the morning..." "This is urgent... Please come." "What level of urgency are we talking about here?" Alair had asked. "Very," Fabian responded, "It might have something to do with you being able to be released from this place. The two boys had headed over to a small shack around the training grounds. Within the shack, Dunn was slamming a hammer on a piece of metal in front of him. The sounds of footsteps had pulled his attention from the piece of metal. Fabian had walked up to Dunn before pulling a part of the yellow orb off and placing it in his hands. Dunn had cleared his throat, "So you came, even after what I did to your little friend?" Alair slowly nodded, still worried about setting off the temper of the man. He uneasily shuffled his feet, looking around, "That orb still works, right?" "Still does," Dunn looked down at Alair's feet, then let out a small puff of smoke through his nose, "Are ya afraid of me pummeling ya into a pulp because of yesterday? Nothing to worry about, kid. Take a seat. I have the Amnesis Pearl of Empath." Dunn motioned his head towards three metal chairs and a single metal table. Alair and Fabian had sat down on the table and watched as Dunn had continued to hammer at the object. "I knew a kid like you. Age of fourteen. His name was Niko," Dunn spoke, "Persistent... optimistic... had some level of caring for others... The only difference is that he was smarter and less annoying than you were or ever could be." "Hey! I'm not that stupid or annoying, am I?" Alair sat up in his seat, seeming bitter about the statement. "Calm down, kid. I'm telling you a story. Take the time to enjoy it," Dunn had grabbed on to the metallic object and threw it into the water-filled basin, "There were also two other kids I knew. Their names were Airis and Alya. I'm pretty darn sure ya went to that fine looking woman near Fond Town, you should have at least seen a picture that included those two." "I think he means Eucharis," Fabian had stated. Alair tapped his fingers on the table as he took a moment to think, "...You mean the girl that wore a grey coat and the one that wore a black jacket in the picture?" "Yeah, the runt that stands next to the tall one. That's them," Dunn grabbed another piece of metal, "While they were around, I treated them as my own kids before I became this damn thing that the creator of this world made me." "Guess he still curses even when he isn't mad..." Alair muttered. "When I did become this creature I rather wouldn't be, they ran away. I don't know what happened to them next... But I don't think it's my problem anymore," Dunn swung at the new piece of metal, "Anyways, on to what I wanted to say. I heard that your friend can't handle the heat of this village." "Super sensitive skin, I'm guessing?" "She comes from a region that's frequently blocked by hailstorms. Whaddya expect?" "She never told me that." "She's a secretive little kid. She always refuses to say anything," Dunn had swung once again at the piece of metal, "So, since your little friend can't survive out here... and I also don't want this village to be flooded... I'll let you do one last challenge." Alair knew he was screwed, even if it was the 'last challenge,' "Let me guess... I have to defeat you in some kind of duel, huh?" "Mhm." "Thought so. They told me about it." "Not quite surprised," Dunn tossed the hammered piece of metal into the basin, "So, whaddya say to that?" Alair shifted his feet uneasily again. He glanced at Fabian for a little, then faced Dunn, "Can I... have some training, maybe?" Dunn tapped his foot, then sighed, "Fine. You should be at the center of the village at one p.m., sharp! No holds barred." "That's fine by me, probably." And so, Alair ended up training with Fabian. Holly had volunteered to help as the one who made obstacles for him. However, for the most part, Alair utterly sucked at fighting. Even just landing a strike on Fabian took almost an hour to do. He was pretty much hopeless. Even by the time it hit 12:50, he still sucked at fighting. It was almost as if Alair was just not fit for fighting. He was just decent, if he didn't suck. "Eh... Sorry, I'm just really unexperienced..." Alair had slunked down,!" After a little bit, they headed over to the center of the village. The center had happened to be a stadium, for what Alair would've assumed was for fighting in general. The arena was a huge flat field that had a beige coloring to it. There were stones with various sizes that jutted out from the smooth floor. Around the arena, the top half of the walls were made out of glass while the bottom half were seemingly made out of cement. Dunn had paced right in, being the colossal Komodo dragon again. Alair stared at the entrance to the battlegrounds. "You guys have any advice?" Alair stepped back rather than stepping forward, "Or any last words for me?" "Uh..." Holly put her finger to her chin, appearing to impersonate an intelligent person,"Good luck!" "Thanks." Alair stepped up, allowing for the staff to pop right up. He took in a deep breath, "Heyyy... Dunn... Buddy..." Dunn stepped forward. There was no warning, but there was a blast of fire. Alair moved out of the way on time, "Hey! Why don't we call this fight off, you know?" he called before laughing nervously. All that came were more flames. Alair quickly stepped to the side before attempting to swing at Dunn's face. Dunn only had head butted the staff away before his scaly throat had illuminated. The staff, conveniently, had landed some distance away. Alair was as good as dead. When he looked back at the sidelines, he saw Fabian covering his face with his beanie and Holly watching in mild confusion. Logan, Amaryllis, and Alis had seemed to join the two. Alair waved, forgetting that Dunn was right behind him. Once he heard the flames building up, Alair screeched and ran as if he were trying to pass the pacer test. The flames followed close behind, allowing him to barely escape them. He made a mad dash for the staff and picked it up. Dunn had surrounded Alair with flames, leaving him with no way out. However, the only way out was right in front of Dunn's mouth. "YOU'VE GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!" Alair groaned, pulling at his hair. He looked up, panic and insecurity starting to pile up. At this point, he was only able to hear his thoughts, aside from the flames that licked at its surroundings, "Think... Think... Think... Where? What?" Alair jumped up, attempting to launch himself into the air by anchoring the staff into the ground and pushing himself up. It worked, but only for a short time. He landed where he wanted to be the least, probably - right on Dunn's head. Dunn spouted more flames around the arena, pacing around kickly. The lizard rammed its head into the wall, in attempts to get Alair off of his head. It worked, because Alair sucked at fighting. Alair had been sent tumbling down. He pushed himself right up, trying to make it seem as if the fall damage was nothing. However, it felt as if he had been hit by a truck. Dunn had roared, charging at Alair with his mouth set alight. He was right above the lost foreigner, who had no clue as to how to save his own life... Or that was at least what Alair was before Dunn had came close. "...Wait, haven't I seen this before?" Alair had thought, grabbing on to the staff, "...Oh! Right!" Without thinking, Alair had shoved the staff right into Dunn's mouth. Dunn had bellowed, causing Alair to pull out the staff before an enormous line of flames had emerged onto the wall. Alair, now shaking, had decided to distance himself from his opponent for now. He ran, hiding behind one of the towering stones. He shut his eyes, trying to slow down his breathing. "Oh lord, that was close..." Alair thought in between breaths, "That was just pure luck... Man, I'm gonna die here and it'll suck harder than a vacuum cleaner... Wait, who used that sentence? No time to think about that." Everything quieted down, with the exception of the fire's occasional crackles. There was something off, that was for sure. Alair slid down the stone and allowed himself to shift into a sitting position. He curled up, feeling himself trembling. "Am I... Okay? Heck no. I can barely even think..." Alair continued his line of thought, "Oh my lord... If only someone would actually step in and help..." The young teen stopped his thoughts for a second. He heard something, but he couldn't tell what it was. He listened more closely... "You can't always be helped! Don't you know that?" It was a voice, but Alair couldn't quite tell as to whether it belonged to a male or a female. It was an androgynous voice, if that was how he really remembered it. He recognized it, but he also didn't. Alair opened his mouth to speak, but he was able to hear the sounds of a crumbling rock. He quickly crawled out from the shelter of the rock, seeing it collapse right where he was sitting. Dunn was right there with a piece of the rock in his mouth. He tossed the rock towards Alair, who dashed out of the way just on time. A few pebbles had hit Alair, which had surprisingly stung. Alair looked around himself. The rocks seemed to be lined up in some order, as if they were an unlinked staircase. Alair ran to the smallest rock before stepping onto it and jumping on the next rock. He jumped and jumped, until he had gotten to the tallest pillar. He looked down below himself. Dunn was now slamming his tail at the rock. Alair was able to feel the top half of the rock jerking and giving in to gravity. Soon, the Alair could feel the rock leaning over. He could feel the adrenaline rushing through his blood as he shut his eyes and screamed for his life. The tall pillar of stone had fallen, but the feeling had suddenly came to a stop. Alair slowly opened his eyes. Around him was a gentle outline of orange. There was something about this glow that was familiar. The feeling he had was familiar as well, which was comfort. He looked over to the side of the arena to see a woman with a neatly done ponytail that hung down with her vast white hair. Her pitch black cloak had covered her gentle orange dress. A single green gem had connected the two strings of the cloak around her neck. Just by seeing her once more, Alair felt completely safe. The woman didn't seem too pleased with what was taking place. She slowly lowered her light enveloped hand, along with the stone pillar. Alair had rolled off the pillar, finding himself unable to move. He just laid there as if he were dead. "Dunn," Eucharis had muttered. Dunn looked over at Eucharis. The scales had started to disintegrate, allowing for him to take on the form of the intimidating man again. "Eucharis." Eucharis had shaken her head, "What did I tell you about hurting people?! Especially the ones who aren't from here?!" Alair had finally rolled to his side and pushed himself up, "Eh?" "He can't be trusted, Eucharis! What if he tries to kill us all?" "To the depths of the lake of fire with that! He's only a child!" "Uh... Hey..." Alair had walked up to the quarreling couple, "I'm sixteen now, but I appreciate how you look at me... Somewhat." Dunn's fist had lit up. He raised it and swung it at Alair's face, but Eucharis had raised a hand. Dunn's fist had been stopped by an orange glow. "What did I just say?" Eucharis shot a glare, looking right into Dunn's eyes, "There's a reason why I don't want to see you anymore!" "How the hell did you know that this guy was here?!" Dunn had growled. Eucharis continued to lock her eyes on Dunn, but Alair had looked over at the area where his friends were. Everyone was watching the scene unfold, but Holly had raised her hand and waved. "A tracking device on my child," Eucharis had forced her hand down as if she were trying to tear off Dunn's arm, "I'd very much like to keep my children safe, thank you very much." Dunn looked over at the others, then at Eucharis. "Listen closely to me, lizard breath... Let go of my children," Eucharis had muttered, "Let them see Raika... Let this little boy find the creator... And I won't tell anyone about your true self..." Fabian had ran right up to the three, "U-Um... Guys... N-No need for... any agreements, really... Raika seems upset..." "Hm?" Eucharis had lowered her hand to her side, "Why so?" "Weeell... You see... D-Dunn kind of... Beat up Etalt last night... A-And-" "YOU WHAT?!" Eucharis had raised her arm again before forcing it down quickly. Dunn's face had hit the floor and kissed it. Dunn lifted his head up, "SHE TRIED TO ESCAPE!!" "THAT'S NO REASON FOR YOU TO HURT ANY OF MY CHILDREN, YOU GOOD FOR NOTHING PIG!" Eucharis screamed. Alair cleared his throat, "He also nearly killed her by allowing her to suffer in this environment." Eucharis' eyes glowed a deep amber. It was clear that she was completely livid. She swung her arm down again, "DON'T EVER HURT MY CHILDREN AGAIN!!" Holly had ran in, wrapping her arms around Eucharis, "But mamaaaa! Papa didn't kill her, right?" Eucharis had allowed for her hand to fall at her side, "M-Mama?" "Oh... Oopsie! My bad!" Eucharis had patted her head, "No, no... You are my child. You may call me that if you wish." Holly had giggled lightly, "Okay, but... Please stop hurting him." Eucharis sighed. She swung her foot at Dunn's face with full force before stepping back. "Where's the one you nearly killed?" "I can show you later!" Alair sighed. He crouched down next to Dunn, "So, does this mean we're free or...?" Dunn grunted, "...No." "Dunn!" Eucharis glared again, "Raika WILL flood your village if she doesn't see that any of us are keeping well!" "Damn it, fine! Only because I don't wanna have a flooded village!" Just like that, the force field around the village had slowly melted away into nothing. "Thank you," Eucharis had muttered. "Don't ever fucking do that again..." Dunn groaned before getting up. "I can't and won't promise." "Etalt! Can I come in?" Alair had slipped into the room again. Etalt was drawing once again. She sighed, looking up at Alair, "Oh... You survived." "Nah, Eucharis just came on time!" "Oh... Well, aren't you lucky?" Etalt shrugged before proceeding to draw, "So does this mean that we can get out now?" Alair grinned, "Yep! We're off to see Raika! Now you won't have to suffer anymore!" "Thank goodness... Glad this is over." Etalt continued to draw, not saying anything else. When she still felt Alair's presence, she looked up, "What do ya want?" "Aren't you gonna tell me a story?" Alair had rested his head on his palm, "Like... With Holly and Fabian?" "Huh? Oh... Don't tell me ya wanna know Dunn's backstory." "I do." "Okay, but you might not like it," Etalt had stated. "Come on... Holly's parents were abusive and Fabian's parents died in a fire. What could possibly be wrong with this one?" Alair sneered. "Well, first off... Dunn was better known for his criminal activity in his past life..." Etalt had began, "But every criminal has a reason, right? In Dunn's case... He and his wife had usually gotten into fights because his wife had been spending time with another man. It's reasonable, since Dunn gave her everything she wanted. One day, it got so out of control that his wife had left him with nothing. She even took his child with her." "Woah, what next?" "Dunn, fueled by rage and hatred for his wife, had sought out revenge for wasting a fraction of his life... But first, he had to acquire some tools. He started to rob houses and even banks. He even got to the point of murdering people," Etalt reached her hand up to her head to tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear, "He worked by himself. He refused to work with anyone else. I guess you could say that he was DUNN with life." This had stifled a chuckle from Alair, "Wow, I didn't know you'd have the audacity to make puns." "It's rare nowadays. I used to do it a lot... but then, no one listened to me," Etalt cleared her throat, "So anyways, Dunn kind of ha da criminal record but was never caught. He wore a mask, of course. One that resembled a lizard. It was so that he couldn't be found. He slowly became insane, killing everything and anything in his path before snatching away their belongings... But it continued until he had lit a house on fire..." Etalt tilted her head slightly, "Tell me, liar... Do you still remember Fabian's story? Do you know the answer to that question I asked?" "...Who killed Fabian's parents?" "Yes, that," Etalt nodded, "Surely, you must have an answer now." Alair paused. He slowly nodded, "I have one... It's who I think it is, isn't it?" "Yes, liar. That fire wasn't a mere accident," Etalt had muttered, "The person who had caused the fire and killed Fabian's parents... was Dunn."