#it also gives her the same AC of 20 she's had till now

[invinciblerodent]

oh it sucks that i don't hate this

[fwkei]

Remember...?

Draken x fem!reader (mainly fluff slight angst)

Finally got my first request yall 🥳 I couldn’t strictly follow the request like i wanted to but i hope thats alright, the gist is still there. anyways thank you sm for it and i hope you enjoy 

TW/CW: Mentions of sex, mentions of alcohol, mentions of sex work

WC: 7k (omg the most ive ever written🙆🏻‍♀️)

Note: I changed my writing style a bit for this request so i hope yall don’t mind! and again i dont read my stuff over so my apologies if theres any mistakes lmao

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You sat on the street, overheating as you watched the ‘heat waves’ coming off the ground. You held your hair up with one of your hands since you had nothing to tie it with, while the other held a lukewarm water bottle. You sighed, you felt so anxious and frustrated.

What now?  

You thought letting your mouth part due to your heavy breathing 

You took things too fast. It had been about 3 weeks since you left your parents ‘home’ and why did you leave? Well there were a number of reasons that are a bit too much to list, but all that matters now is that you’re completely and utterly on your own. 

You only managed to scavenge small jobs here and there to get some money to buy some basic necessities but nothing more. 

“Sorry Y/n, my niece is coming down to Tokyo and I told her she could have a job here and stay at the studio above...I’m gonna have to let go. I’m sorry.” said your boss to you only a couple hours ago, with pity filled eyes 

“...No it’s fine really! I understand.Thank you for taking me in while you could.” you said bowing your head at the man, biting your inner cheek trying to keep a level head 

“I’m happy you understand. You can leave your apron and hat on the cashier. On your way out.” he said patting your shoulder as you slowly brought your head up 

“Right..” you said taking off your apron and hat as you walked slowly to the cashier, placing it down 

You brought your hands to your temples out of stress, trying to figure out what you could do now. You only had very little money, and there was a heat wave striking Japan this week. At least your boss allowed you to live and pay rent in the small studio right above his store, which had an AC, but now that was for his niece.  

This had been the first time in a while where you had no idea what to do. You had always been the type of person to be able to take care of yourself and your problems..on your own. All your life since you can remember, you always had to be the one to take care of others, not that you mind or minded...but you were only so young. You never really had a childhood, at least not that you can remember. You do remember cleaning up after your parents who lost all will just to even... parent. You remember taking jobs as a babysitter at a really young age in your apartment complex to make some money.. You remember being the reliable older kid of your school and complex, where kids would come to you asking for help with things like homework all the way to buying something for them to eat because they were hungry. Not once did you ever say no, because you really did want to be there for those kids who’s parents didn’t give them the care they needed. But it just became too much.. You ended up spending all of your saved up money on them, just so they could have something to play with or something to eat. 

Before you even realized it, you were in your last year of high school, with no money saved over, no scholarships, no one to rely on but yourself. Not even a friend. Was it really the right thing to do? Use all your money that you worked so hard for to help kids he lived next door? Or just plain stupid? You knew you couldn't support them forever...but you tried so hard to. All you wanted was to give them a childhood they never had, and someone to look up too. But now you left them. All because you were frustrated. You felt so unbearably guilty. All the work you put into your studies to get at least some type of scholarship just went to waste because you couldn't handle your life anymore. You were being so so so stupid. 

Before you even knew it, the sun was going down, and you grew even more tired and sleepy. You signed, taking a jacket out of your bag and placing it on the ground so you could rest your head on it. You brought your hands to cushion your cheek as your eyes started to close. The air finally got a little cooler making it easier to breathe and well...do anything. 

As you were falling asleep you could hear chatter and laughing, and finally a tap on your shoulder waking you up. You cringed your eyes before opening them up more to see 2 women. One had blonde hair and the other had pinkish hair. They looked older than you, maybe in their 20’s. One held a bag and the other held a bottle of wine with two glasses, they bent down so their heads could be closer to yours. After examining you for a bit they turned to each other and smiled happily before turning back their gaze to your confused face. 

“Hey?” you said sitting up more, a little startled by the intimate contact they were giving you 

“Hey there, say...what’s a pretty girl like you sleeping on the street for?” asked the girl with pinkish hair that was tied into pigtails 

“I uh..don’t have a place right now so..” you said scratching your head 

“Really? Hmmm.” said he one with blonde hair 

“How old are you? And what’s your name? I think we can help you out! Woman to woman!” said the pink haired girl smiling sweetly making you feel fuzzy at their niceness 

“18, and it’s Y/n.” you said smiling nervously 

“Nice to meet you Y/n, I’m Remi, this is Rema, my twin sister.” said the pink haired girl pointing to the blonde as she waved sweetly 

“Hi, it’s nice to meet you too..!” you said bringing your hands to your thighs smiling 

“So did you just turn 18?” asked Rema 

“Sorta, 2 months ago, why?” you asked 

“Oh good!” they both said 

“Well, it’s your choice really. One of the girls left today, and the boss sent us to scout another girl to take her place, buttt we just went to buy food with no intentions of finding someone but luckily we just found you! It’s perfect!” said Remi 

“Oh? What work?” you asked getting excited 

“Oh silly, we live in a brothel! It’s really not all that bad you know, great pay and rooms...so what do you think?” asked Rema 

“A brothel..” you said under your breath 

Your mind was in a serious state of concentration. 

It can’t be all that bad, right? You just have to please people and go on with your day so… that’s what i've been doing my whole life… plus… there's a bunch of women in those things right? I probably won't get too much attention from customers if there's sweethearts like Remi and Rema walking around...so...just for the time being… I think it could really work out in my favor. 

You thought to yourself 

You brought your head up, giving the girls a closed eyes smile before shaking your head ‘yes’ making them jump in excitement. 

“Oh good!” yelled Remi grabbing your hands 

“I’m so excited! We haven't had a new girl in years! How do you think Ken will react?” asked Rema smiling as you 3 all started to walk 

“Ken?” you asked furrowing your eyebrows at the familiar name 

“Oh right, We’ll have to introduce you to him and everyone else tomorrow. He’s the bosses foster kid..I think you two are actually the same age.” said Rema bringing her pointer finger to her chin 

“Mhm mhm! Oh and since you're new, tomorrow I will take your pictures for the board, you can borrow one of my sets till you can afford to buy one for yourself, how does that sound Y/n?” asked Remi smiling and holding your hand 

“It sounds..great! Thank you so much.” you said bowing your head slightly 

“No worries! Hopefully the boss will take you in.” said Remi patting your head 

“Yeah..” you said as you 3 continued to walk to the brothel 

You couldn't seem to get your mind off of that familiar name..Ken? You swore you knew someone named that. It definitely wasn't a popular name so it’s not like you knew it from some type of T.V program.. After thinking hard your whole way to your new home you couldn't seem to remember them. The person named Ken. And so you decided to brush it off for the time being. 

The brothel was pretty big, and consisted of 12 girls, not including yourself. It was really late so everyone was asleep. Remi and Rema showed you to your room which was much more spacious than your room at home. They told you that you were allowed to decorate it and style it however you wanted. But they told you it was important to know that this was the room where business would be done, and not to leave important things around since some of the men came into brothels for the sole purpose of stealing. Remi even told you a story about how one of her clients tried to steal one of her panites, but then the boy named Ken stopped him by knocking him out with one punch to the stomach.   

“He sounds strong-” you laughed as they gave you a small tour 

“He sure is! Like the bodyguard of this place! He’s a sweetheart!” said Remi smiling 

“I’m sure..!” you smiled 

“Alright that’s about it, you should shower now and get ready for tomorrow. The boss will probably wanna take a look at you before seeing if he wants you. But I'm sure he will! You're pretty so it’ll go smoothly!” said Remi handing you her shower stuff for you to use for tonight and a set 

“Got it, and again...thank you so much. I really appreciate it.” you said again 

“Of course! Remember..we’re neighbors so feel free to knock whenever you need something..Also I can give you some tips before your first client so you know what to do.” she said smiling 

“Right, goodnight then!..” you said feeling your face get hot at how she so easily talked about sex. 

After that, you did exactly as she said, you showered. You thoroughly washed your body, face, and hair. Getting out you looked down at the set Remi gave you. It was just a black bra and matching panties with a silk cover up which made you feel better knowing you could cover up with that.  

You rubbed your mouth as you started to rethink your decision. I mean...you respected sex workers..but was this life what you were willing to settle for? Aimlessly waiting around for some random horny man to choose you and do things with you just for you to get only 40% of the payment? Was this all really worth it? Leaving home to avoid your problems...to end up here? You were grateful, yes, Remi and Rema were so sweet and open with you. You could only hope that the others were just as nice. You really wanted things to go well, and that can only start with some good rest. 

You woke up to a knock on your door, to see Remi and Rema walking in with a smile 

“Morninggg!” they sang as you quickly got out of bed 

“Hi!” you said frantically 

“No need to rush! Usually men start coming in at 10, but since you don't work here officially yet you got to sleep in a bit! But the boss called for you, you should go to the set up room down the hall to get ready, remember it?” asked Rema 

“Yeah I do. Thank you for waking me-!” you said smiling and grabbing your stuff and shoes 

“Course, good luck Y/n!” they said as you quickly walked out of your room to get ready 

As you walked in, there were a few other girls getting ready. You smiled and introduced yourself to them, and them to you. They were all so nice and pretty. It made you feel a little bit better about being here, and less nervous since they complimented your looks. You got ready in about 10 minutes, letting one of the other girls help you out with your hair and stuff like that. You gave yourself one last look in the mirror before stepping out and waving to the girls ‘bye.’ 

You nervously walked to the boss's door. You took a deep breath before knocking. You heard a muffled ‘come in!’ so you walked in smiling while holding your covering close. You gave a nervous closed eyes smile before seeing his office was simple, just a desk with a bunch of papers and a chair on the other side. 

“Y/n, correct?” he asked placing down his paper and taking off his glasses to look at you

“Yes.” you said smiling 

“Pleasure-” he said leaning over the desk to shake your hand 

“Likewise.” you said smiling, shaking his hand firmly before sitting down

“Well, I’m sure Remi and Rema told you just about everything you need to know, I take 60% of your earrings, I use that stuff to pay for rent and bills for you girls and my kid… which usually takes up about 30% of that 60%, meaning you make a profit of 40, while I make only a profit of 30 per girl.” he said 

“Yeah, I was told.” you said smiling nervously fiddling with your hands

“Good good, now that that's over with..” he said getting up ad signing 

“I’m just gonna take a look at you, no need to be nervous I’m not gonna touch you or anything, so please don’t feel worried.” he said smiling 

“Right!” you said getting up 

“Alright just do a quick 360 with arms up.” he said smiling 

“Okay.” you said doing as he said 

He looked you up and down but not in a lustful way at all, it was more of like a ‘just seeing how you’ll hold up’ kinda look, almost like he was a bit worried for you. 

“Thank you-” he said sitting back down as you did the same feeling nervous

“I was also told you’re 18? Right?” he asked looking down at his papers 

“Yeah that's right.” you said 

“Well I don't usually have this talk with the other woman because they're older. I know the age of consent in Japan is 16 and blah blah, but you’re still pretty young, are you sure you wanna work like this?” he asked looked into your eyes 

“...Not entirely but it’s the best I can do right now.” you said with a determined face

“I see- we’ll then welcome, and just remember you can leave whenever you want, but give a 2 weeks notice. When Remi is done, ask her to take your picture.” he said 

“Understood, thank you!” you said said smiling and leaving   

You walked out of the room, closing the door carefully signing in relieve 

That went pretty well.

You thought 

You started to walk down the hall so that you could ask Remi to take your picture. But when you put your ear to the door, you heard lewd noises letting you know she wasn’t done just yet. It was already 5, and the brothel closes at 10. You didn’t really know what to do, so you walked over to the kitchen, sitting down at one of the stools waiting for Remi and or Rema to finish up with their work. You tapped the pen that was on the table and started to look around the kitchen. You remembered Remi told you there were snacks in the cabinets, so you got up and started to open and close them one by one to find something to eat. You finally found a cabinet filled instant ramen, you grabbed one and started to pour water into it, popping it into the microwave that was on the counter top. You stood in front of it waiting, playing with the loose strings of you covering when suddenly you heard the door open. 

“I’m home.” said the tall boy with dark hair tied back to reveal a dragon tattoo on the side of his head 

Is this Ken? 

You thought as the microwave beeped, making his eyes turn to you

You quickly shot your eyes to the microwave, hoping he didn’t notice your stare. He looked so familiar it was almost irritating how you couldn’t remember him. You took the hot cup out of the microwave, placing it down on the counter top, ignoring his presence as he walked over, placing down the plastic bag in his hand, noticing your frustrated face trying to figure out where the utensils are. 

“Left of the sink are where they are.” he said sitting down on the stool across from you after looking at your face a bit 

“Thank you.” you said smiling nervously turning around to grab a pair of chopsticks 

“Are you new here?” he asked taking out a styrofoam box from the plastic bag, opening it to reveal a hot meal of meat and rice and vegetables 

“Yeah..I was supposed to start today but I don’t have my pictures taken yet.” you said smiling turning back to mix your noodles 

“Could you grab me a pair too?” he asked realizing he forgot to take a pair of chopsticks from the restaurant 

“Sure-” you said turning back quickly to grab some for him, placing it in his hands as he gave you a soft smile making your eyes widen slightly. 

“You look familiar..” you both said at the same time making both your eyebrows raise in shock then turn into a slight scoff from the both of you 

“Glad we’re on the same page then.” he said taking a bite of his food as you did the same still standing 

“You know you can sit down, don’t feel nervous.” he said looking up you slightly 

“..yeah.” you said smiling, walking around and sitting next to him. 

“So when’d you come?” he asked turning his head slightly to see your mouth filled with noodles making him smile a bit 

“..I came by last night, really late with Remi and Rema.” you said after finishing your bite

“I see...I feel like I remember you from somewhere, can’t pinpoint it though.” he said looking back down at his food 

“Same here, and you must be Ken though, right? When I first heard your name I swore the same thing but I just can’t remember..” you said before sipping some of the broth of your soup

“Yeah, but you can call me Draken and your name?” he asked getting up to grab a napkin from across the table 

“Draken...sure! Oh right, my bad. It’s Y/n. Nice to meet you-” you said smiling holding your hand out for him to shake

He only completely shot up to look into your eyes with his wide ones. You gave him a confused look as you watched him get knocked out of his thoughts, bring his hand up to shake your hand before clearing his throat and walking back over to sit. Maybe you struck a nerve? Maybe had the same name as someone who hurt him in the past? You really didn’t know but it made you feel interested. He looked like he just had his life flash before his eyes or something. 

“Are you okay?” you asked 

“Uh yeah, I’m fine. My head just hurts a bit.” he said looking as if he was deep in thought 

“Oh? I have some tylenol in my room.. You want one? Or I can make you a cold drink, you’re probably dehydrated?” you asked smiling a bit 

Draken turned his head to look at you, his mouth was parted, and he just looked so..anxious? You couldn’t even tell, almost like congested because he wanted to say something. 

Draken felt his heartbeat quicken when he heard your name. As soon as you said it, a random memory that was buried deep in the back of his mind hit him as he quickly re-lived it. But could it really be you? The Y/n he knew from so so so long ago? Around 10 years ago? There could be no way, he remembers the girl moving to a different city..the chances were so low that it could really be you already. 

But the second you said those words.. Those words of offering to make something for him, or give him something, despite you thinking you only just met him...Made him know that it was really the Y/n he met when he was only a little boy...but how the hell did you turn up here? In a place and part of town like this? He was so confused and just wanted to ask you...but you still didn’t remember him. 

“..No I’m alright, thanks..can I ask you somethin-” said Draken before being interrupted 

“Y/n!! Come on, let's take your pictures!” yelled Remi coming out of her room waving as a man walked out too buttoning his shirt 

“Sorry, just remember what you wanted to say and tell me later.” you said smiling and standing up and walking over to Remi

Draken watched you as you walked away. He saw Remi give you a hug, and the man that was walking out checked you out to which Draken gave him a pissed off look. Making the man smile nervously, wave, and leave. 

Do you really wanna live your life like this, Y/n?

He thought to himself before packing up his trash and throwing it away

Remi took your pictures, telling you to do different poses etc, and you finally settled on one. You walked over to the front of the house to place your picture in its designated area above your name. You signed, stepping back to look at it, fixing your gaze to see Draken was walking over with his hands in his pocket, looking as he was going to leave. You saw him glance at the photo making you feel slightly embarrassed.

“Nice.” he said smiling but looking into your eyes in a way where it looked like he was concerned for you. 

Just as you were about to thank him a man walked in and started looking at you making you feel nervous. The man requested you, and so you smiled at him pointing your hand to where the showers were, as you started to walk behind him, you turned your hand giving a thumbs up to Draken with a nervously flushed face, smiling, as he he brought his hand up giving you a thumbs up with soft and concerning eyes before opening the door and leaving. It made your smile fade slightly, you’ve seen that face before from him. But not from today.. And it was all you could think about during your work. 

As you laid in your room, after work you couldn’t help but feel a little bit...stupid? You felt so unsatisfied, not because of your customers but because you just couldn’t remember. It felt like an itch you couldn’t scratch hard enough, and with every interaction you had with the boy almost felt like a tease, like the itch just became more itchy and your scratches just became more weak. Maybe if you spend more time with him, you’ll remember? 

It had been about 4 weeks, 4 weeks of saving your money, and every 4 weeks the boss collected his fair share of the cut. It wasn’t a pretty 4 weeks, it was probably the worst 4 weeks of your life. But... you and Draken would often exchange stories about your lives late at night which you enjoyed a lot. It always makes you feel better. But yet again you still couldn't figure him out. You felt as though you’ve met him before, and as though you two have had these kinds of talks before. 

Draken only grew more and more helpless, seeing how you still haven’t remembered. He was slowly watching your life crumble. He felt so angry that you settled and believed you deserved to live like this, barely scraping by. He felt so awful, and saw how you grew so tired of it all. He just so badly wanted you to remember him, so that he could once again talk to you like he did before.

You had one last customer before closing, going through your usual routine, this n that, the man offered you a drink. You stupid obliged drinking it, hoping it would make your time more enjoyable but you were wrong, so very wrong, and so very stupid for drinking that stupid drink. You remember some parts, you did your job, then it all went black.. You woke up after hearing knocking on your door. You jumped out of bed, confused. You remember seeing the man leave as you started to fall asleep but that's about it. Usually you never fall asleep after the work because you never do much, your mind started to panic. But the door opened revealing Remi smiling.

“Hey sleepy! Boss says it’s your turn, come on, get your cash!” she said smiling 

“Right let me just..it’s in my drawer..I don't know why I fell asleep so fast I think alcohol makes me sleepy.” you said getting out of bed and kneeling in front of your drawer to get the envelope of cash you had been saving.

“Heh, same here. I never accepted drinks from clients..they never had good intentions with that!” she said coming over and sitting at your bed 

“..yeah.” you said starting to feel that panic arise in your body when seeing the envelope was...gone.

“What's wrong?” asked Remi noticing you were frozen 

“I- the money..It’s gone..he took it..” you said with wide eyes feeling as though you were about to sob realizing you had just lost thousands of yen.

“Don’t say that..it..it probably just got misplaced! Come on, I'll help you look!” said Remi getting up  

You couldn't even respond because of the amount of panic you were in. Your heart was racing and you felt tears fall from your eyes. After about 15 minutes of looking, you two found nothing. Absolutely nothing. You sat on the floor with your hand over your mouth, again, trying to keep a level head. 

What now..?

You thought to yourself feeling hot tears stream from your face.

“Hey..guys? Boss is calling for you Y/n..what’s going on?” asked Rema walking in seeing you covering your face, crying 

“She was robbed by the guy who just left, he put something in her drink to knock her out while he looked around and took the money...she doesn’t have the money.” said Remi 

Rema’s mouth parted in shock and pity. 

How could you mess up something so easy? All you had to do was keep your money safe. But you even failed at that. 

“You have to tell him, Y/n.” said Rema rubbing your back

“Yea..yeah, could you two just give me a second? I’ll be right out.” you said smiling while wiping your face 

“Sure.” they said frowning and walking out 

You fisted your hands, and grabbed your covers before screaming into them to muffle your sounds..

Okay..it was a couple of thousand yen...not too bad right? I can promise the money by tomorrow..I’ll pick up some sort of street job...yeah! That’s good. Everything is fine..it’s fine.

You thought to yourself before wiping your face on more time and slapping both sides of your cheeks to wake you up.

You got up and walked to the bosses door feeling the eyes of people on your back. You knocked on the door before opening it slowly, refusing to make eye contact as you went to stand in front of the man with your arms behind your back.

“Alrighttt, let’s see here, in the last four weeks you had a total of 37 customers, so you should have around 300,000 yen, correct?” he asked looking at his paper 

“Yes.” you said still looking down

“Alright, just hand it to me so I can count and divide it, you can sit.” he said smiling holding his hand out 

“I..I don-” you said before being interrupted by a knock 

“Come in.” he said 

“Hey sorry dad, Y/n left her money with me while she went out. Thought I should bring it to her. Remember, Y/n?” said Draken walking in with an envelop in his hand smiling as he came to stand next to you, as you nodded your head ‘yes’ 

“Oh, thank you Ken.” he said smiling and taking the envelop 

Your mouth parted as you gave a confused look, Draken only smiled and gave you a thumbs up while his dad counted the money. You felt so guilty and shocked, and all you could do was just stand there, like an idiot. 

“Here you are...120,000 back..” he said, patting the money on the table to make it flat, putting it back into the envelope and handing it to you

You hesitantly brought your hand to grab it, glancing over at Draken who gave you small smile

“Thank you-” you said to him seeing Draken was already opening the door to leave 

You quickly followed after him as he walked into his room. Before entering his room he turned around and looked down at you 

You felt your eyes soften as you felt as though you were about to cry again, you tilted your head and neck down biting the inside of your cheek to keep in your cry. 

“I promise I’ll pay all of it back by tomorrow, all 300,000.” you said 

“Do you ever give yourself a break?” he asked as you brought your head up to look at him seeing he looked almost irritated 

“You didn’t even ask why I did it, you just immediately jumped to feeling guilty. And you don’t need to pay me back. Really.” he said bringing his hand to close to the door, but you stopped him by grabbing his wrist making his breath hitch 

“Why?” you asked looking into his eyes 

“You still don’t remember? Even after all this time we’ve spent together?” he asked smiling as you took your hand off his wrist 

“Remember...?” you asked furrowing your eyebrows in confusion, but then it suddenly hit you

“I swear it wasn’t me! I didn't steal!” yelled a little boy with blonde hair as two cops stood in front of him 

You tilted your head and walked closer, but still keeping your distance to hear. It was a winter day and you were on your way to the corner store to buy some snacks, but you were met with an interesting scene. You kept your hands in your pockets as you listened over to the boy screaming and pleading his innocence 

“I wouldn’t steal something so stupid! What would a kid like me need a lighter for!! I don’t know how it ended up in my pocket! Lay off!” he yelled as the officer dangled the lighter in front of his face

A lighter?

“Keep it down! We know how troubled you kids are here! Especially with those tattoos!” yelled back the cop as the boy grew angry and fisted his hands, ready to punch the cop

“Hey!!!” he heard a voice yelled 

“Hey wait a minute!” you yelled waving your hand smiling as you ran to the scene 

“Can we help you?” asked one of the cops in a soft tone 

The blonde boy grew quiet, and you saw his hands loosen as he looked at your smiling face 

“Yeah, why are you two yelling at my brother?” you asked furrowing your brows at the two grown man 

“...Your so-called brother stole a lighter from the corner store right behind you, where are your parents? We would like to have a word with them.” he said standing up straight 

“Yeah, and talk about how they let their son tattoo himself already..” said one under his breath making the other laugh 

You looked over at the boy growing angry, you gave him a smile..making him calm down.

“He said it was just an accident, I asked him to pick up a lighter from the store so that we could light a candle at our father’s grave! See!” you said digging into your bag to pull out a candle 

“He probably felt pressured because I asked him to get it, so if you’re gonna get mad at someone, get mad at me!” you said as you started to fake cry 

“It’s our father's death anniversary, and you're yelling at kids for making a mistake.” you faked cried

“Yeah!!” yelled the boy making you smile under your hands as the two officers became anxious, feeling bad for what they had just done.

“..we’re sorry. Please let us apologize.” they said slightly bowing at you two 

“I don’t think we can accept it...you two also made fun of the dragon tattoo on his head!...dragons were our dads favorite animal. He risked his life fighting for Japan and you two are laughing at him! Is that how your mother taught you how to behave?” you asked pretending to wipe you tears as the blonde boy watched you in awe seeing you toy with grown men 

“Please let us treat you both to whatever you’d like from the corner store as an apology!” they both said bowing lower making you smile and look back at the boy. You gave him a thumbs up as a smile grew on his face 

“Fine..come on then?” you said as both the officers raised their heads, opening the doors of the corner store for you both 

You and the blonde boy walked around the store, filling your baskets with all types of things. The blonde boy watched you in just pure awe as you walked around picking your favorite snacks, as he did the same, glancing at you every now and then. 

“Here.” you said smiling at the cops 

“Right!” they said frantically taking out their wallets as the boy placed down his stuff nervously, still watching you

“Oh and-” you said reaching your hand to grab the lighter from the officer and placing it into the bunch of snacks 

You smiled, your hands were behind your back as you watched the officers pay for yours and the boys' food, placing them into bags for you guys too. You grabbed the lighter and your bag, as the boy did the same 

“Mom told us to meet her at the cemetery steps, remember?” you said looking into the boys eyes

“..yeah, I remember.” he said smiling feeling his face become hot 

“Let’s go then.” you said smiling and taking his hand as you two ran out of the store 

After a bit you two stopped and sat on the curbside while you both chose a snack to eat.  

“Here’s your lighter, you don’t have to stay with me by the way.” you said handing him the steel lighter 

“..Thanks” he said 

“Sure- what do you need it for anyway?” you asked smiling 

“My boss asked for it.” he said putting it in his pocket

“Oh, are you in some type of delinquent group?” you asked looking at him 

“Yeah..” he said smiling 

“That's cool, what do you guys do?” you asked taking a sip of your drink 

“We kinda just...like...do stupid stuff and fight..” he said 

“Sounds fun, but...stupid.” you said laughing making him scoff 

“Why’d you do it?” he asked 

“Do what?” you asked back turning you gaze to him 

“Come in to cover me. You could’ve gotten in a lot of trouble because of me.” he said with a frustrated face 

“You’re right, I just wanted to, that's all.” you said smiling making his mouth part and cheeks redden

“You seem pretty fun too so I thought we could be friends or something..” you said nervously 

“Yeah! Sure- We can be friends!” he said happily making you feel flustered 

“Well then, it’s nice to meet you, my name is Y/n, yours?” you asked holding over your hand 

“Ken, but you can call me Draken-” he said taking ahold of your hand gently as you gave him a closed eyed smile blushing 

“where the hell did you find that candle and com up with that whole sob story Y/n?”

“Dunno, I saw the candle on the ground by a newspaper, I kinda just winged it- “

After that day you remember hanging out with Draken almost every other day. You remember him telling you how he and his close friends started their own gang and needed some sort of funding, and so you gave it to him, on his birthday.

“I saved up! You said that you and your friends needed some money to start off so that you guys could buy a flag or banner? Right? Well, here’s 30,000 yen for your birthday!” you said handing him an envelope and a small balloon.

“Are-are you serious right now Y/n?” he asked taking the gifts, opening the envelope to look inside to see the money as his eyes lit up 

“Yeah, I babysit more kids now so I was able to put some aside for you.” you said smiling satisfied with his reaction 

He didn’t even say anything, all he did was bring his arms around you upper body, hugging you tight making you laugh as you brought yours to hug him back 

“Thank you- you’re the best! The guys will be so happy!” he said smiling while grasping your wrists in excitement. Your eyes traced over his face as they soften. You smiled. 

“Likewise.” 

And- after that, you remember the day you 2 separated as friends. You both sat on the curbside, you remembered you called him to come and see you. It was a winter night and the sun was going down. 

“I uh..well I don’t really know how to say this without sounding cliche but-”

“What? Are you gonna confess that you’re madly in love with me or something?” he asked grinning, making you sweat drop 

“Jeez be quiet...I’m trying to make this a memorable moment-” you signed smiling, placing your palms on the cold cement 

“Alright let’s hear it then Y/n-!” he said bringing his hands to the back of his head as he laid down looking up at the stars 

You only frowned slightly, you shifted your position so that you could sit beside him and have a good look at his face. 

“You’re scaring me..” he said jokingly making you smile 

“It was really fun the past year.” you said smiling as Draken shot his head up to look at you face to face 

“The hell are you talking like that for?” he asked furrowing his brows 

“My parents can’t afford living in any districts in Tokyo anymore, so we’re moving to another city… about 4 hours train ride from Tokyo so-” you said looking down at your hands on the floor

“So? You act like I won't be able to come and see you or you come and see me..” he said ducking his head a bit so that you could look at him 

“Draken, train tickets are about 220 yen per person, I can't afford it, and if you came by to see me I'd feel guilty because you’d be wasting your money just to only see me for like an hour.” you said 

“How can I be wasting my money on you? It’s not wasting if I wanna do it and see you, plus what makes you think it'll only be a couple hours?” he asked 

“I’ll have to start working once we get there, so I wouldn’t have anytime...I wanna start saving so that one day I can come back to Tokyo and live here, so that I can see your dream come true of helping your friend create a ‘new era of delinquents’ you know? I’ll even help you guys if you want with financial stuff or something.” you said smiling at him 

Draken bit the inside of his cheek. He wanted to tell you so bad how he felt but..

“Look, I have a feeling I know what you’re gonna say..just remember what you wanted to say and tell me later, okay?” you said placing your hand on top of his causing his eyes to widen 

“...You’ll remember me, right?” he asked looking into your eyes deeply making your mouth part 

“Yeah, I’ll remember you as long as you remember what you wanted to tell me. Cause I feel the same” you said smiling as a tear fell from your eyes 

“good...I will.” he said smiling back and tilting his head and wiping it off your face

After the memories hit you, you stood there with wide eyes and tears, with your wrist covering your quivering mouth. You had completely suppressed your memories of Draken, and your feelings because you knew you wouldn't be able handle being apart from him for so long. And he did the same. You couldn’t imagine how unbearable it was for him to be waiting up like this. You looked up at him seeing his eyes were softly looking at you. You could do nothing but bring your arms around him hugging him, as he brought his arms around you to do the same. You were still such in shock. 

“I never thought you’d end up in a place like this, living a life like this.” he said against your ear 

“I don’t wanna see you like this, please let me take care of you like you did for me..” he said said tightening his grip slightly  

You could only cry at his words, you didn’t even wanna try to speak because you knew it would only come out as a sob. Was it really alright for you to rely on someone so much?

He pulled back from the hug and looked at your face, seeing you were still crying as you nodded your head ‘yes’, he smiled and wiped them away with his thumb. The smile on his face...he looked so satisfied...and happy...happy that you finally remembered. Finally remembered him.

[addictedtomanga]

Shoujo manga recommendations - unrequited love

1.       360 Degrees Material

Taki is the cool yet strange guy in Mio's class. She bumps into him at the subway station after school and saves him after he almost gets pushed onto the tracks. The next day, he returns the favor by saving her from an incoming car. This marks the start of Mio's love.

2.       Ai Kara Hajimaru

Sakura Ai has always loved sunflowers, as they appear like the sun, which incidentally also was the name of her first crush, Taiyou, in the 3rd grade. From since then, Ai has never had another love and has also become quite introverted, but after meeting a guy with the same name, somethings will begin to change…

3.       Anta Nante Okotowari

Yui has a deep love for her "older brother" (they're not actually siblings, but are related), and she is devastated when he gets married. While at the wedding, Yui meets a sobbing boy, Kaoru. It turns out that his cousin (that he was in love with) is the one Yui's brother is marrying. When Yui moves into a boy's dorm so she can seek out new love, she finds that the head of the dorm is none other than Kaoru!

4.       Ao Haru Ride

Yoshioka Futaba has a few reasons why she wants to "reset" her image and life as a new high-school student. Because she's cute and had a demure personality she was ostracized by her female friends in junior high, and because of a series of misunderstandings and mishaps, she couldn't get her feeling across to the one boy she has always liked, Tanaka Kou. Now in high school, she is determined to be as unladylike as possible so that her friends won't be jealous of her. While living her life this way contentedly, she meets Tanaka-kun again, but he now goes under the name of Mabuchi Kou. He tells her that he felt the same way as she did when they were younger, but that they cannot go back. Will Futaba be able to continue her love that never even started from three years ago?

5.       Awayuki no Namida

Ritsuka, who likes to watch the snow as it falls, has an unrequited love for Fubuki, who lives with an older woman. Ritsuka and Fubuki fall in love, but Fubuki still has past debts toward the older woman, who was his dead brother's fiancee.

6.       Bambi to Dhole

Yukimi is her real name but everyone calls her Bambi. She is the student discipline committee member who locks students out of the school if they're a minute late, but sneaks cigarette breaks on the roof. Lone wolf transfer student Tetsu Nagasawa hops the fence after she locks it and breaks her cigarette in half when he finds her on the roof, but he's a super nice guy to a mother and baby on the train. Bambi already has a boyfriend but will the wolf steal her heart?

7.       Celeste Blue

Eishi is one of those popular guys that are smart, good looking, and is good at sports. However, he thinks people and "love" are bothersome and would rather not deal with either of them. When his teacher told him to help this girl, Uta, to study, he dreaded the idea of having to stick with such an annoying girl. Soon, though, his heart starts to lighten up towards her.

8.       Datte, Kimi ga Warau kara

Let’s get into a time machine and return to that time. Where it was always fun and you were always laughing, to that time... "I only have three more months to live" Yui who just transferred to a new school in the countryside becomes Ryo’s classmate. Yui who is suffering from an illness has a "wish" that she can’t tell anyone, but Ryo wants to grant her that wish but… After death, reality hits Ryo and Yui. This is the story of the eternal promise that was made by the two of them.  

9.       Eien no Mae

Arisa has had a crush on classmate Nageki since the school festival, but has never spoken to him. Will she be able to strike up a conversation before they part ways at graduation?

10.   Futari no Himitsu

Saijou Kiki is a model and child star and with the release of her new commercial her popularity skyrockets. At school, she harbors feelings for Takumi-kun... but somehow ends up kissing his friend Teppei?! And what's more, they've switched bodies due to some sort of old legend?!

11.   Getsuyoubi Kara Kataomoi

Despite his one-sided love, a prince at school encouraged his crush to confess to her crush. But he also could not resist confessing to her. What will happen?

12.   Hachimitsu ni Hatsukoi

Koharu and Nacchan are childhood friends which many of their friends thought they are a dating couple. Soon, after getting into senior high school, Koharu feels something different with Nacchan. While Koharu tries to figure out her feelings, Nacchan's already falling in love with someone else, the beautiful Saionji, but his love doesn't stop him from caring for Koharu. Does what Nacchan feel towards Saionji really be love? Why can't he let Koharu go on a blind date? 

13.   Hatsukoi Hakusho

A collection of one shots.

14.   Hiren Trip

Miyu, an ordinary new first-year student who hopes to become a mangaka meets the schools’ class president who seems to have a hidden side to him. While being pushed around by the cool but private class president, the curtain on Miyu's stormy school life is raised.

15.   Katakoi Triangle

Sekiya-san of the cultural library has an unrequited love for Yuuki-kun. The one who cares about Sekiya-san is the popular Kasai-kun, who is also Yuuki-kun's friend! And, what's this? Yuuki-kun is rooting for Kasai-kun?! It seems that everyone's feelings are one-sided... or are they?

16.   Kimi ga Inakya Dame tte Itte

Nayu and Oumi are childhood friends. Without realizing it, Nayu finds she has fallen for Oumi over the years. However, just as she comes to terms with her feelings, Oumi reveals himself to be in love with the pretty Tsuzuki-san in his class. How will Nayu deal with such heartbreak?

17.   Kimi o Omou Toki

What does it mean to love? Most of the time, I don't know... Falling in love with someone always ends up with a farewell. Encounters in which you can meet a kind man are very rare. For someone to tell me, "Momo-chan, I love you very much~ ♪" and to caress me with a smile... I don't understand the meaning of those things. Still, that kind of behavior gives me a warm feeling and makes my head spin.

18.   Kimi to Kyun Koi, Shiyou

A collection of one shots.

19.   Kobayashi ga Kawai Sugite Tsurai

The comedy starts when the cross-dressing begins! The Kobayashi twins, Mego and Mitsuru, were named after historical figures, but only Mego has grown up with a taste for history. So when Mitsuru is in danger of losing his weekends to extra history classes, he convinces his sister to swap clothes with him and ace his tests! After all, how hard can it be for them to play each other? But Mego can’t rely on just her book smarts in Mitsuru’s all-boys, delinquents’ paradise of a high school. And Mitsuru finds life as a high school girl to be much more complicated than he expected!

20.   Koi dano Ai dano

After constantly transferring during middle school (Warau Kanoko-Sama), Naedoko has entered Takara No Tani High along with Tsubaki. Follow her adventures as she tries to restore the Newspaper Club's status without being noticed by the Broadcasting Club or Student Council...!

21.   Koi ni Dokubari

Youthful, real love between a pure girl x sharp-tongued boy. ‘The boy I’ve had a long unrequited love for has found himself a girlfriend. On top of that, she’s my best friend. Even though I’m the one who met him and fell in love with him first. Why did he not choose me…?’ Heart-broken Aya meets Ryuu, an unpredictable, older boy. Aya gradually begins to be drawn to this sharp-tongued, but kind Ryuu. However, this love isn’t straightforward at all. “When you fall in love, you can’t keep being a ‘kind, good girl’.” Ryuu’s words pierce her heart, doesn’t disappear and is painful, but…? 

22.   Last Game

Yanagi is rich, smart, a girl-magnet, and always at the top of his class... well, until Kujou transferred in his primary school. She was quiet, plain, and poor, yet not once has she failed at beating Yanagi, both in academics and sports! Yanagi has made it his life goal to defeat her and thus, followed her from elementary until college over the past 10 years. Only when he decides to change the rules might he finally win. Here comes their last game!

23.   Love so Life

Shiharu is a high-school student who loves kids, lives in an orphanage, and works at a daycare... Until the handsome uncle of two-year-old twins offers her a raise if she'll be their babysitter. Often relying on memories of her mother's actions for guidance, Shiharu quickly finds herself falling in love with her new makeshift family.

24.   Mako to Aki-chan no Koigokoro

A collection of one shots.

25.   Metallic Colors

The story of a stylish and gaudy girl who strives to win the heart of the boy she likes.

26.   Nonchan to Watashi

Risa and Takumi are childhood friends, but due to a fight in the past, they stopped talking to each other. Now university students, Takumi is a famous playboy who goes out with a different girl every day, and Risa still regrets not having been able to apologize for what she did six years ago...

27.   Orange

In the Spring she was 16, Takamiya Naho receives a strange, but detailed letter from herself, ten years in the future. At first she thinks the letter is a prank, but then the things written in the letter actually happen, including the new transfer student that sits next to her in class, Naruse Kakeru. The letter reads just like her diary entries, down to the same characters. It is not till two weeks later, when Kakeru shows back up at school, that Naho finishes the letter. In the letter, her 27-year-old self tells her 16-year-old self that her biggest regret is that Kakeru is no longer with them in the future, and asks her to watch him closely.

28.   Propose no Okite

A high school girl becomes a wife?! And her husband is the worst man? Because she had to pay her family’s debt, she married! The husband is the son of a big Hotel company. The first time she saw him she said "You got a wife thanks to your money! You’re the worst!" "I maybe the worst", he said "but you’ll have to live all your life by my side…"

29.   Saboten no Himitsu

Miku Yamada has a longtime crush on classmate Kyohei Fujioka. But no matter how many times she tries to show him how she feels, clueless Kyohei just doesn't get it. Frustrated, Miku gives up on him, only to have him start calling her "Cactus" for being prickly when he's around. Will Kyohei ever figure out Cactus's secret?

30.   Shitsuren Biyoushitsu

A collection of one shots.

31.   SP x Baby

A romantic comedy about a privileged man and his kickass female bodyguard. Tamaki Hasegawa misses an interview for a much-needed job in order to stop an assault on a man running for his life! The man—Kagetora Sugo, the prime minister’s nephew—then asks Tamaki to become his bodyguard. Tamaki isn’t sure she’s cut out to be a bodyguard, but Kagetora has another reason for wanting to hire her. Unbeknownst to her, they’ve met before…

32.   Special A

Her whole life, Hikari Hanazono has been consumed with the desire to win against her school rival, Kei Takishima--at anything. He always comes out on top no matter what he does, and Hikari is determined to do whatever it takes to beat this guy!

33.   Suki desu Suzuki-kun

Suzuki Hikaru, Hoshino Sayaka, Ito Chihiro and Suzuki Shinobu are all new students who have just entered the same middle school. Sayaka is a shy girl who secretly loves acting. Hikaru is an energetic boy who loves basketball. Incidentally, he shares the same last name with Shinobu, a popular rich boy who would be perfect if not for his rotten personality. Chihiro is Hikaru’s childhood friend and has long had a crush on him.

34. Wana Love - Wanna be the Honey Trap

Mayuko is a model. She's acting like a beauty in front of guys but in fact she's suffering of an unrequited love with the cameraman Nagumo...Will she reveal her true nature through his lens...?

35.   Yoshiwara Hana Oboro

Hana is a normal teenager who goes to school normally, that is until she gets run over by a car... or did she? Suddenly, she finds herself in a weird place known as the "Red Light District"... in EDO PERIOD?! Trying to find a way to get back to her own time, she somehow gets mistaken for a prostitute and has to escape. Not expecting to be saved by a gentleman, she suddenly ends up in a geisha house.. but then she is bought by the same guy who helped her earlier?!

36.   Yumemiru Taiyou

While loitering in the park, Shimana Kameko, who intended to run away from home and skipped school, meets a suspicious man in a kimono. This man, who had been locked out of his house, offers Shimana a place to stay. However, he requests she fulfill three conditions in exchange for her tenancy?!

[thebrownssociety]

Hi, so I was wondering about the toons getting an education. You said that they didn't know how to read or write at the begining. First of all, when did they learn to read and write? And second of all, when they started learning those things, how did they do it? Did all of the toons go to school, you know, like kids do? Did they have classes and classmates, different subjects, different teachers? Or did they have private tutours?

So, first things first, thank you Ana for giving me one of my most complicated asks yet! That's why it's taken me so long to answer, I need to first of all sort through the strands of my brain in order to find the answer, and then translate it so it can be understood by normal people.

This headcanon is LONG, I hope you lot enjoy.

the majority of the toons [about 90 percent] are NOT created with the ability to read and write. In the olden days it was generally assumed that they didn't have the ability to learn either.

The other ten percent DID. They tended to be toons that were created to be doctors, lawyers or other professions that need the ability to read and write. Or members of royalty because the creators made the decision that royals would have been taught to read and write and so incorporated that into there designs. This is why Porky Pig is unusual, because he has the ability read and write, but he's not royalty and he doesn't have an official profession. Technically Porky is an anomality, it just happens that his anomality has helped him more than hindered him.

Moving onto the villains, it tends to follow the same rules as above. Grimhilde [wicked stepmother] has the ability to read and write because the creators assumed that as the now queen she had to be a princess before, therefore fit the rules.

Maleficent however, couldn't read or write [much to her frustration] because she was a villainous fairy and although she was [I think?] royalty of some sort within the fairy world the creators decided she didn't need the ability.

You might be getting an idea of the timeline from the movies I mentioned. I headcanon that the toon began campaigning to get an education during the 60's. They did this largely via peaceful means [mainly because one thing that has always been acknowledged by humans is that Toons are quite powerful and they aren't to keen to annoy them massively. The toons for their part don't want to cause massive distress to humans - they want to make them laugh! - so it actually works to a degree. During the 60's though the Toons decided something needed to be done.

The directors and other higher-ups had been promising to change the rights for the last decade and it hadn't happened. In 1965 the Toons decided enough was enough, they would start peacefully protesting. They adhered to the riles of there contracts to the letter. The LT's contract for instance says they have to arrive at least five minutes before filming starts, so they arrived five minutes before filming started when previously they'd been arriving half an hour so the director could run through everything with them.

They also left straight after seeing as there contract said they were free to go after the filming ended.

The LT's were also contracted to be available should WB ask them to do anything like help in the kitchens, but they only gave to do that for a set amount of hours each week. They worked those hours to the letter and went straight after. A few of the more devious toons even reasoned the contract just says they have to show up, not do any work, so they didn't. At first the studio got round that by asking toons who they knew would do the work properly, but it didn't take the toons long to figure out that was happening and then the 'good' toons wondered why they should bother when the 'bad' toons were being allowed to get off scot-free?

Eventually no toons was doing any work to help the general running of WB at all.

The above, I should mention, did not happen overnight. It took around 18 months, and it wasn't just happen at WB. Although Disney didn't have the exact same contract, they ran on the general principle of arriving at a set time and leaving straight after, so the toons just adhered to there contracted times.

18 months later and the companies decided enough was enough. They were having to go overtime to film the cartoons/movies now the toons weren't doing extra [previously unpaid] hours. [Which they did because the majority of them are perfectionist when it comes to the cartoons and wanted them to be the best they could be.] They were also having to pay the Human employees extra to cover the hours, often at extremely short notice. And unlike the toons they weren't contracted to come in just because the company wanted them to.

So anyway, the point of me detailing this is to explain the circumstances that meant that the companies were at there wits end and ended up petitioning the president to give the toons rights. Mickey Mouse also helped out enormously here as well. Walt Disney had died a few months earlier and Mickey was now running Disney. Which also meant control of the theme parks. Mickey decided that seeing as Toons clearly weren't valued enough to bother educating [despite being proven as intelligent] they shouldn't bother providing entertainment at the parks either.

The Disney toons also had it worked into there contracts that they had to make periodic appearances at Disney's parks [kinds like the people dressing up as the characters do now, except it's the actual toons] and are on a rota basis. Unless they're doing an events [like Halloween for the villains or valentines day for the princes and princesses] then each toon does at least one 12-hour day at Disney per year. It was this bit that Mickey was putting a stop to.

It had a real knock-on effect as, as well as the rides, most people went there hoping for a glimpse of there favourite toon. Without that...

As much of an absolute business-killer as this idea was, Mickey was more than happy to explain to anyone who would listen [read: most of the world news] exactly WHY he was doing it. With all this pressure it was really just a matter of time until the laws changed and the toons were able to gain an education. This was in 1968.

Now as fast as things work in Toontown, this was such a complicated area that it took a full 2 years for the various schools to be built, staffed and a curriculum drawn up (which followed the same basic guide as human education, but with some added stuff and some stuff taken out. It basically followed a 'would a toon actually need this in future life?' and went from there.

Here's were it gets slightly complicated. Because I mentioned before that toons age in a weird way. But the main thing is they go up and down in there age on a day to day basis until they are about 20. This makes educating them quite difficult, to say the least.

The studios solution to this was to bring in Human teachers to teach them at the grades human children would go through. So Kindergarten, Grade 1 ext. The thing was that a lot of the toons had learn some of th education already, like identifying shapes and coulors and things. And of course the ones who were professionals [Like Ludwig Von Drake and Gus Goose] already had a college-level of education, they just needed to prove it to the teachers.

The end result of this was that it wasn't unusual for a toon to be in a class for only a few months at a time while they did the work [don't forget, they only need 4 hours of sleep as well, so they could study for longer if they wanted]

It did eventually even up though and the toons ended up spending 9 months if the right class. For example, Porky Pig aced Kindergarten all the way up till 4th grade and then found he was struggling with 5th grade. This was a shock to him after spending 21 months in education [excluding holidays], to suddenly need help. Porky was forced to realise that he had centred a lot of his identity around being 'the one who can help his friends/family read.' and hadn't expanded his personality much beyond that.

So yeah, as an average most toons took about ten years to complete Kindergarten - end of high school.

Then a few of them took college courses, which lead to them getting degrees, which led to a couple of them getting teaching degrees. The majority of the LT's you see in Tiny Toons [excluding Foghorn, who decided he didn't want to be a teacher, and Elmer who took a undergraduate degree in law until 1992] did their teaching degrees from 1988 - 1992.

There's a couple of you who might had realised that they were filing Tiny Toons at the times and learning how to be parents at the same time. That was partly why they wanted to do it then, they realised that after Tiny Toons had finished the kid would need educating. Although the human teachers had been alright, they'd found it slightly difficult to cope and the LT's didn't want their kids to go through that particularly. Also, what's the point of building a school just to got rid of it after?

So here's the main schools: (After the toons gained teaching degrees)

Disney Elementary - Kindergarten- Grade 5.

Hanna-Barbara Middle School - Grade 6_8.

The Looniversity (the name stuck after the TV show) Grades 9-12.

So the Tiny Toons finished filming in 1992 and had it promptly explained to them that they would be attending school the next August [Tiny Toons were created in 1987, so were 6 by the end of filming.]

Toons don't do pre-school because there doesn't seem to be any point. Loads of Toons have coped without preschool for decades now, why would they start now?

So the TT's started Kindergarten at Disney Kindergarten, run by Snow White and helped out by Cinderella and Fairy Godmother. Kindergarten is the only school year where the toons have to do an entire year in it, the logic being they'll have longer to get adjusted to school if they're there for a year as opposed to three months.

Then it was decided which was the toon would go. Would they move upwards into Disney Elementary school, run by the Three Good Fairies? Or would they be taught by human professors? Or - the final option - they could be privately educated. [It's mainly royalty or the children of famous toons like Micky and Minnie that go down this option. The TT's were unusual in that all the LT's opted to send there kids to Disney Elementary with the hope it would help them make friends with other toons outside the LT bubble. Whether it did or not remains up for debate.

Anyway, they then go to Hanna-Barbera Middle School, which is then followed by the Looniversity. Now, despite what was shown in Tiny Toons, The Looniversity does not focus solely on Toon Physics and the like, the kids have to study the curriculum. They have options to take Toon Physics class if they wanted to, but they don't have to.

The Toons technically don't HAVE to finish High School, but they're strongly encouraged to. College is another matter, it's quite hard so only Toons who the adults know will stand a chance of passing are encouraged to do it.

Toontown University focuses primarily on The Performing Arts and Toon Physics. As well as those subjects, it offers Art, Physical Education, separate courses of Dance, Drama and Music and LAMDA.

If a Toon wants to study the likes of Maths, English and Science they can either be privately educated [A lot of the adult toons have ridiculous amounts of money due to there cartoons and the fact that until the 50's Toontown didn't exist and all there expenses were being covered by there respective directors/studios] or they could join one of the smaller colleges that specialised in what they want to do.

Push comes to shove, they find a Adult toon [over the actual age of 25] with a degree and try to mentor under them. This happens a lot.

[katchihe]

I've been in the mood for "dark-haired boy who has the smads" so here's a little something based on that. It kinda happens before this thing here.

I guess you can call this angst? Muahaha

It doesn't help that I've been listening to this song on repeat.

You can say this is Arlo x Candela if you want? I'm not all for the ship, but I'm also not against it :') Enjoy!

Arlo sat at his desk in silence. It was late at night from what the clock read on the wall. 3:22AM. To be fair, he didn't even feel the nights like these, having gotten used to them already.

The Rocket Leader had grown tired of waiting for the brunette to awaken from her unconscious state for the past 10 hours. He couldn't deny, his Scizor had landed a good hit on her.

While he waited for her to awaken, Arlo held Corsen's cellphone flipping through the camera roll looking for any useful information. He had already dug through all the other corners of the device, but so far had found nothing of use.

Unlocking the device wasn't hard. He had expected the small cellphone to have an anti-hacking protection system based on who it belonged to. One could say he was even surprised it didn't, however, it didn't matter if it did or not; he could easily break through it.

The red-eyed leader sighed feeling his eyes grow heavier by the minute. He felt a headache starting to form from having been looking through Corsen's cellphone for the past, Arceus knew how many hours it had been now. At this point he probably had a better chance of finding Mew than finding anything useful in the device.

With another flip of his thumb a picture suddenly appeared, one that caused his stomach to fall into something cold. Arlo stayed frozen looking at a pair of golden eyes he had come to love so deeply once in his past.

The woman in the picture smiled at him, eyes just as bright as he remembered. Corsen stood beside her with a surprised expression as the woman flung an arm around the brunette.

Arlo's eyes grew dark seeing his ex-fiancée Candela. A wave of emotions washed over him like a bucket of ice water. His grip on the cellphone tightened. Memories he had locked away in the deepest part of his mind started to surface.

It had been a Spring morning, the day of their faithful encounter. They were both 8 years of age. Arlo remembered how he had turned a corner far too fast and spilled his drink over Candela's brand new shirt. The girl was furious at him, the two bickered back and forth at each other.

The years slowly progressed and both grew up with each other. Having gone to the same private academy, the two had grown a close bond through the years. The students at the academy always saw the two as Ace Trainers. They were the idols everyone else wanted to be like.

He still remembered the day he had asked her to be his girlfriend, and their first date. They both had just turned 19. Candela had wanted to wait until they were done with the academy, so he obliged to her request. Arlo had booked a dinner at his family's favorite restaurant to celebrate their graduation. The restaurant was the best one in town, they didn't allow just anyone to walk in. That night he remembered his heart couldn't stop beating from the sight before his eyes. Candela had tried wearing a dress for the special occasion. She had always been a pants-type of girl since she loved to go an an adventure whenever possible, said adventures tended to end up in mud and dirt.

That night he had caressed her hand in reassurance. The gesture tinting her tan cheeks pink, with her eyes shyly looking to the side.

He remembered their first night together, and the many that followed. How he would hold her in his arms as she called out his name till the sunrise.

He regretted it.

He regretted all of it. Regretted how he had loved her so deeply. How she had managed to elevate him to the stars above with just a touch.

Regretted how he had seen a future with her.

---

"I want a 3-story home. With 4 kids." Candela joked with a hearty laugh. She wrapped her arm around her boyfriend lovingly as the two sat on a grassy field overlooking the city.

"I'll give you the whole damn world and 10 kids of you want." He replied with a smile before proceeding to cup her face in his hands, planting a passionate kiss on the lips.

---

Arlo's grip tightened on the cellphone. His stomach churned in a mixture of emotions.

---

"The firework festival has got to be one of my favorites!" Candela chirped looking up at the darkened sky. Arlo walked behind her admiring the woman in front of him with loving eyes. He loved how she would get so child-like at things she loved.

Arlo nervously turned a small box in the pocket of his coat. Would she turn away if he asked the question? Or would they join both their lives to form the future they both dreamed of.

Candela would never have to worry about lifting a finger again for the rest of her life. Arlo had more than enough wealth to keep them both stable for 20 lifetimes if they needed. Not to mention, when they would announce him as Valor Leader, he would have all the connections set for his descendance down the line.

"Arlo, are you alright?"

Arlo blinked back into reality looking up at the pair of bright golden eyes full of worry.

"Yes I'm fine," he nodded in reply with a smile. The sky suddenly burst into color as the fireworks began their display.

"Oh look! It started!" Candela quickly turned around to face the colorful sky. Arlo gave a low sigh, gut turning, he readied himself.

"Hey Candela..."

With a bright smile, the woman turned just in time to see Arlo drop to a knee. The fireworks in the sky couldn't have possibly compared themselves to the beauty that was the diamond inside the small velvet box.

---

With a slam to the desk, Arlo heard the cellphone's screen crack even further than it already was.

The red-eyed leader stood up from his chair and began to pace around the lab. It had been 7 years, yet he still couldn't wash away all of his emotions. It hurt. And it angered him how vulnerable he had let himself become.

Trying to calm his growing rage, Arlo frantically paced around the lab. He swore he had drowned his past in the sands of time.

There was no one in the universe, and there would never be anyone in the universe who could possibly bring such feelings back to him.

A sudden thud brought the red-eyed leader back to the present and out of his thoughts. Arlo turned to the door in the far corner of his lab before quickly glancing at the clock on the wall. 4:12AM. Someone had finally woken.

Arlo sighed as he rubbed his forehead. Only his footsteps were heard as he crossed the doors, leaving behind the cracked phone still displaying the picture.

[rinharu-purple]

MC’s confession day

Isn’t the “Slightly drunken date” one the best dates? Not because it has many sweet moments between Gavin and MC, but mainly because this date revolves mostly around MC’s thoughts and feelings about Gavin as well as how she perceives *cough* and simps for *cough* him. Those thoughts and feelings must be at such a great magnitude, that she actually confesses them all to him by the end in the most hilarious, cutest way possible. That’s why I’ve decided to write an analysis about it. 

If anyone's interested in an analysis about MCs feelings towards Gavin in general, could take a look at here

20 seconds in to this date MC already blurts out her first thoughts about her expectations from this date evidently:

“Gavin was going to teach me how to surf. Which meant I’d get to see him up-close riding the waves...I’ll bet he looks handsome”. But weren’t you doing this, so that you could enjoy the activities that Gavin is into together? Wasn’t that the reason you went surfing with him MC? Anyways, Gavin must also have thought the same way, which is why he tells her that she should be more specific on what she wants, and then asks her why she wanted to watch him surf. To much of our surprise, she honestly and directly tells him because she’d thought that he would look so handsome doing it...leaving him speechless during the process. #strike one

Next scene is MC watching Gavin surfing from afar and again, what she thinks meanwhile is...”The waves splashed on his tightly-flexed muscles, glistening in the sunshine...What an amazing man”

She has spent the whole afternoon watching him surf and when Gavin finally gets out of the water during the sunset he finds MC still drooling over him.

“Then there were the beads of water dripping the lines of his body...

It seemed...even more beautiful than the ocean sunset.”

At this point even a guy as oblivious to such simping as Gavin feels the slack-jawed gaze(her own words not mine) of MC on him and calls her out in a flirtatious tone:

While MC is struggling to find an excuse, he helps her out and changes the subject, because you know best boi gotta best boi, yet still...#strike two

After that they go to the beer festival where MC’s amazement continues. Once seeing Gavin on the stage playing the bass, she realizes how less she still knows about him and gets bewitched even more.

“This was a Gavin that I’d never seen before, shining in the spotlight all on his own. as he stood there, It looked like he could take on anything this world could throw at him. As I looked at Gavin, this feeling suddenly welled up in my chest, filling it up entirely...I want... to get to know him better!”

At the moment their eyes met, MC can’t keep those thoughts and feelings built up inside and lets them out shouting...

Funny thing that she was at first in a dilemma about those stirred up feelings and wondered if it was the music or Gavin who had driven her so wild. Her conclusion at the end was though: “From the beginning to the end every throb of my heart was because of this man”.

Leaving the venue, they finally arrive at the lighthouse where the final act commences and at this point MC has chunked down at least 3 cans of beer already and Gav-babe a few more. They both have blemished faces due to alcohol but it just turned on MC even more (I am telling you, she is drooling all over Gavin from second 1 till the very end during this date).

(Btw I need to mention how I like that they don’t start making out or anything while drunk but rather gush out about their feelings about each other. Typical for Gavin x MC, they are so pure and innocent...until...you know...they aren’t...;) when is the Whispers ASMR coming to the ENG server again?)

While MC is getting more and more assertive by every passing moment, Gavin finally gives her the final string of encouragement she needed by saying that his smile, his strength, his joy and sorrows all belong to her because she is the reason for him being the man he is today. That’s when MC takes out the shell from her pocket and gives it to Gavin, telling him that there are many things he still doesn’t know about her, but Gavin has another ace up his sleeve:

On a side note, Can we please agree on how good Joe delivers this line please? That mischievous tone and that bantering voice...its just perfect!

Things not only not end there but also escalate even further from this point on, because let me remind you that our lovebirds are drunk, so Gavin finally lays the cherry on top while MC lays herself on top of him by saying that he is crazy for her too (it only plays Crazy in Love by Beyoncé in every possible cover version in my mind during this scene <3). And that is our # strike three

After this final line of his, there is now no way of stopping MC’s confession anymore so here she goes...

“No more talking! Just listen to me! When I said that, I meant it. Not about the bass playing, but you. I like the gift you gave me, I like the bracelet you gave me. I also like that love letter that I never read. I want to see more sides of you...When you’re eating, when you’re sleeping, when you’re happy, when you’re sad, when you’re wearing a tuxedo, or red in the face from drinking.

All of it! I want to see every side of you

Is...is that ok?“

As we know after this confession Gavin reassures her by saying that he belongs to her alongside all the things that she's just wanted of him aand CUT!

Its just so well written how MCs fascination about Gavin riles up throughout the day and bursts out by the end of it. How she sees him as a handsome, attractive, talented and fascinating man in anything he does as well as how amazed she is by him to an extent that she courageously shouts out how crazy she is for him in public but also courageously tells the same thing to his face when called out on it. She just wanted these feelings out. Those feelings in which she is amazed by every thing he does and wants more of it, all of it. MC literally confesses to Gavin during this date and because of it, this is one of the best dates.

Writer's note: Now that I think about it, it's understandable why mappa didn't include this date in the anime.

Disclaimer: The print screens are from YouTube because I prepared this post on PC so I had to improvise.

[lilmissbeanie]

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Haikyuu Masterlist

Toru Oikawa x F!Reader 

Song ~ I think I’m in love by Kat Dahlia. 

Warning - Swearing

Fluff, SFW.

Word Count ~ 8.8k

Under renovation! 

I won’t lie to you guys I have been writing this one for about 3 weeks it’s been hard with going back to work I have barely had the time to do it.

Posted 08/07/20

Oikawa had first seen her at a practice match against Shiratorizawa that was held at the start of his third year, she was the team's manager, he was awestruck by her. Her (H/L) (H/C) was tied back out of her face in a French braid, she had a massive grin, and her (E/C) eyes seemed to glimmer with excitement. When he heard her loud joyous laugh rang though the gym it was clearly at something Tendo had done, he knew he wanted to listen to that sweet musical sound spill from her lips every day for the rest of his life. 

The match had ended with Shiratorizawa beating Seijoh, three-set to two. Even with Oikawa pushing himself to play at a hundred and fifty percent, as he wanted to show off, he wanted her to notice her. The pang of jealous that rip through him when she hugged Ushijima and congratulated him, what made it worse was when he hugged her back! He felt his jaw clench painfully tight; his eyebrows frown into a glare, his knuckles turned white at the tightness he squeezed his bottle of water. 

"What are you glaring at?" Oikawa head turned in the direction of his childhood best friend, Iwaizumi. 

"No one." His brown eye's flicked back to where the (H/C) girl was stood talking to Ushijima, with a closed-eyed smile at him, upon her tiptoes patting his head, while he had to lean down for her as she was relatively short compared to him, it caused Oikawa to glare at the pair again.

"Wait? Are you jealous of Ushijima right now." Before he could control his facial reactions, his eyes grew large, and his eyebrows shot up. Iwaizumi instantly knew he had hit the nail on the head. "That's his sister, Shittykawa." Iwaizumi told him as he walked away, not before catching the bewildered look on his friend's face, Iwaizumi, bit back his smug look as he walked away.

"Since when does that bastard Ushiwaka have a sister?" 

The next time Oikawa saw the girl was inter-high preliminaries, but that didn't matter, she was all that was on his mind. He trained extra hard, so hard that he hurt his knee again, but he knew that she was going to be here and he wanted, well needed her even, to notice him. 

(Y/N) had seen him at the start the day with his fangirls they had made him food, and he had said they were terrific asking if they had made them for him, making (Y/N) and rolled her eyes. She had to stifle her giggles when Iwaizumi hit him in the back of the head with a volleyball but the look of fear on Oikawa's face when he saw who it was, was absolutely priceless and caused some to escape. 

Oikawa looked past Iwaizumi, spotting the girl who has been on his mind for the past two months, he saw by the way her shoulders shook he could tell she was giggling, the pain in the back of his head subsided as he rubbed the spot where the ball hit, if she was going to laugh at his expensive then he was happy to get hit in the back of the head with a volleyball. His eyes locked with hers for a second "(Y/N)! Come on!" and just like that, she disappeared from his sight once again.

After Seijoh's first match had ended, Oikawa had found himself leaning on the wall, his elbow was resting upon it with his chin placed on hand as he watched over the game that is happening below. Well, he wasn't exactly watching the game below him, his eyes were on the beautiful girl sitting on the bench with a clipboard in one hand and a pen in the other. Her hair was in in a ponytail this time. Some had come loose and fallen around her face, gently framing it, every time a few strands fell in front of her eyes, she would huff and her eyes squinting in annoyance before tucking it behind her ear again, he found it cute. His eyes zeroed in on the way her nose crinkled as she watched the game, making notes on the game and the players. The slight smile that graced her face when her brother scored a point was mesmerising. 

Ushijima had noticed Oikawa looking in the direction of his sister, he had seen it at the practice match as well, one thing for sure is that Ushijima was not happy that Oikawa was eyeing up his baby sister, no way was that guy going near her, he wouldn't be having any of that, he had heard the rumours of him being a fuckboy, and that was the last thing he wanted his sister to be around. Ushijima was hoping (Y/N) hadn't noticed the prat.

What Ushijima and Oikawa didn't know was it that she already had, (Y/N) noticed the boy at practice match, it was hard to miss the look she received from the boy or the cheers from his fangirls that came to that match. (Y/N) won't deny that she thought he was handsome, that he was on her mind, ever since the practice match she has thought of him, those brown eyes and the way they sparkled, the way his hair flicked, the cheeky grin his face held and his passion for volleyball draws her to him. There was no way though that (Y/N) was going to let him know that he caught her attention if he wants anything to do with her he would have to work for it. 

The first time they spoke was after the final match of Seijoh and Shiratorizawa with the latter being once again undefeated. Oikawa was walking back to the bus, he was frustrated that they had lost once again, lost in thought of trying to work out how he was going to win in the next match against Shiratorizawa he bumped into someone, his hand shooting out to catch the small figure that bumped into him. As he looked down his heart jumped in his chest when he saw who was warped in his arms and secured firmly against his chest, her hands where placed on his chest, Oikawa was sure he that she could feel his heart racing.

"You're Shiratorizawa's manager and Ushijima's sister, right?" Oikawa asked he realised she had to be a good couple of inches shorter than himself, he loved the feeling her in his arms, a whiff of sweet peachy-scent filled his sense. Her (E/C) eyes staring up into his doe-like as she cocked her head to one side, before lightly pushing against his chest and stepping back, Oikawa tried not to sigh or frown at the loss of contact.

"That's me. You are Seijoh captain, Toru Oikawa." Her voice was like honey to his ears, sweet, soothing and addictive.

"You know me?" 

She nodded and hummed in reply. "I know everyone on all the teams, I am the manager after all, and well, your serve is hella impressive, and you are a great setter." A slight blush formed over his cheeks at the compliment, if anyone else told him he was a great setter he would generally brush it off with a shrug and a - yeah I know. Coming from her though it was a totally different ball game, his crush had just complimented him, and he had no clue how to respond. 

"Also, No one can't miss the looks you give me, especially the one's you sent to me while watching the match the other day from the stands, and the glare you sent when I hugged my brother at the practice match." Her face held a smug look as Oikawa was taken back. She had noticed him back then, on the inside he was jumping for joy, his crush had noticed him, but at the same time, he thought shit she's seen the looks I've sent her, and she was very good at being sly about it. 

"You noticed me?" He wheezed out as if he all the air was knocked out of his lunges, which couldn't help but make her giggle, he practically melted at the sound, his face softens as the sound met his ears his eyes turning into a gentle look of adoration as he watched her cover mouth with her fingers to conceal the giggle. 

"You are hard not to notice, pretty boy." Patting his cheek. "Anyway, I forgot something. So thanks for the save. I'll see you around, pretty boy." 

He watched as she walked away, a hand in the air waving bye not even turning around to look at him, the sway of her hips and the way her hair bounced with each step, yep he had fallen for her and fallen hard. 

Maybe, just maybe it was time to try and love again.

During the start summer holidays they bumped into each other at the beach, well more like Oikawa stalked her Twitter and found out that she had a day trip planned at the beach a week later and proceed convinced the team that they need a relaxing day at the beach, the exact same day. 

(Y/N) had later posted a group selfie of them all confirming that they still went on the beach day. The girls were either sunbathing, swimming or playing some three on three beach volleyball games. The boys were walking along the beach when Oikawa finally spotted her, his eyes ran over her body; she was wearing a turquoise bikini with white high waisted shorts, Seijoh colours suited her, like really suited her. It made his heart do somersaults in his chest and made him have some thought he shouldn't but will most differently be remembering tonight. (Y/N) caught sight of him out the corner of her eye and waved the Seijoh team over, to join them. 

"Hey, pretty boy." She grinned at him, held the volleyball to her right hip, with her left hand placed sassily on her other hip.

"Wanna join us?" she asked, launching the ball at towards him. He wasn't expecting the force or the speed behind it as he caught it, but then again, her brother is one of the top three aces in the country. He could feel Iwaizumi's glare in the side of his head; he had just worked out why Oikawa had so desperately convinced the team to go to the beach. 

Wasn't long till they spilt into teams, six on six, (Y/N) and Oikawa ended up on opposite sides. It got competitive very quickly, they didn't play by standard rules, everyone seemed to play whatever position was needed and (Y/N) was jumping around the court like a child on a sugar high after coming out of an all you can eat sweet shop, she went from being a wing spiker to libero and a setter in no time flat. They just kept playing till they were fed up not wanting to play anymore.

"Want to stop and grab some ice cream?" Oikawa gestured over his shoulder with his thumb towards little cafe he had noticed.  

Oikawa asked (Y/N) if she wanted to go for a walk along the beach not long after the match had ended, walking next to one another with close proximity he once again caught the scent of peaches and cream it was barely there the smell of salt nearly masking it, but he could still smell it. The conversation between the two just flowed with no hesitation or lost for what to talk about, it didn't take long for (Y/N) to discover his love for aliens as well as theories, he found out about her passion for ancient history.

"Sure, that sounds good" (Y/N) nodded and grinned. Stepping inside the door that Oikawa held open for her, giving him a polite nod as thanks before looking around, on the outside, it looked like a little beach hut style cafe. Once you step inside it was actually a retro-looking American style dinner with booths and hanging on the walls vinyl and pictures of prominent artist from the fifties like Elvis and Ray Charles, in one corner there was the old-style jukebox that had the king of rock and roll himself playing. 

"Take a seat where ever you like lovelies, I'll come and take your order in a moment." A lady in her mid to late forties said to the pair from behind the counter, her American accent rang through strongly as she spoke. Taking a seat opposite one another in one of the window booths placing the menu in between them. They couldn't believe how many types there were, either they could have one to themselves or share one. They both seemed to be drawn to The Ultimate Banana Spilt, with bananas, cherries, chocolate-covered strawberries, chocolate, strawberry and vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, brownie pieces, fudge, caramel, wafers and sprinkles, it was a heart attack on a plate but sounded terrific! 

"That one!" They both pointed at it at the same time, causing them to laugh. 

The same women from behind the counter came over, taking the order. "What a cute couple you two make." She gushed over them, causing them to become flustered and stutter in denial, while the lady looked utterly unconvinced. "What can I get for you both?" Oikawa quickly ordered the sundae and a couple of soft drinks, to stop it from being more awkward, which turned out it actually only makes it worse when the women smirked and commented, "The perfect sundae for a couple."

The pair looked each other as the blush flushed cross their cheeks before (Y/N) just shrugged shaking her head. 

When they had finished the sundae which they were both impressed that managed to, it was huge! They slowly wander back along with the shore barefoot, the waves licking at their feet laugh at stories they told one another, mostly (Y/N) revealing to him some of the embarrassing stories of Wakatoshi had done when they were children.

"(Y/N)!" Her head flicked forward to see her brother storming his way towards them.

"Speak of the devil." She mumbled while Oikawa chuckled nervously as Ushijima glared at him, it was a deathly glare, you know the overprotective brother glare. 

"(Y/N), we're leaving." he gently but firmly grabbed her wrist as he dragged her back towards her friends and few from the Shritorizawa team. (Y/N) mouthed him a sorry before making a phone with her hand holding up to her ear and winked at Oikawa. 

"Ushijima!" He yelled, watching as they both turned around, (Y/N) tilted her head to one side hinting for him to continue, while her brother continued to glare at him, "You should have come to Aoba Johsai, the colours really suit you." He smirked as he watched her laugh and shake her head at him before she stuck her tongue out at him. 

Oikawa's eyes flickered to Wakatoshi which just freaked him out, the glare he received was as if he had just asked for a death wish from what Oikawa had just said. It was going to be hard to get Wakatoshi to allow him to see (Y/N) again. He thought back to the fact that (Y/N) wanted him to call her, jumped fist-pumping the air in excitement, screw Wakatoshi he liked this girl, and he was going to become friends with her and get her to fall for him. 

But that was when it clicked...

He doesn't have her number. 

Groaning, he threw his head back, covering his face with his hands. Why was it so hard to get the girl he liked?

"What's up Shittykawa?" Iwaizumi appeared next to Oikawa kicking his side lightly while Oikawa sat on the sand, resting his elbows on his knees as he stared out to sea with a dejected look on his face. "(Y/N), not what you expected her to be?" 

"She was more than I expected, she is amazing, she has a great sense of humour, and she is the complete opposite to her brother, she's outgoing, and she's such a happy go lucky person. She even told me to call her." Oikawa smiled gently at the memories of the day. 

"So?" 

"I don't have her number." 

"The one girl you've ever wanted since that bitch and you failed to get her number. Impressive."

Iwaizumi bit back the dry chuckle as he realised his best friend was smitten with this girl, and he was glad for that, he deserved to be happy, especially after Oikawa's ex broke his heart, and he retreated to flirting and fuck buddies.

But didn't matter how smitten he was Oikawa still failed to even get her number, how useless could he be? He could flirt with his fangirls with no problem and get their number with ease, but this one, he seems like he has lost all his charm and wit whenever she is nearby. Iwaizumi realised how much of a forgetful idiot Oikawa had to be, he literally tracked her down and found her twitter, how has he managed to forget this? "Twitter." Was all Iwaizumi said as he walked away to find the rest of the Seijoh team. 

New life suddenly filled the boy, his bubbly playful personality had come back, "Iwa-chan! You're the best!" he called after his best friend.

Throughout the summer, after Oikawa sent her a message on Twitter and gotten her number. The pair would try to meet up at least once a week, going out on different days out ranging from visiting the mall, go to the cinema to see the latest horror movie and make fun of it, to the planetarium or just sitting in the park or a cafe and trying to work out what people do with there lives and chatting, they didn't care as long as they were together. While they were at the mall the pair went in a book store (Y/N) had found Oikawa a book full of facts about aliens, she just had to buy it and give it to him for his birthday, which he didn't even try to hide or deny was his favourite present. 

The team quickly noticed the change in his behaviour after that. He was always on his phone, a small love-struck smile graced his face or laughing at something he read the only time he wasn't like this was when they were practising. (Y/N) was just as bad, everyone had noticed the difference in the pair, Iwaizumi instantly knew the reason, and Ushijima had an inkling of who it was causing the changes in his younger sister, but was praying he was wrong, and Oikawa hadn't managed to catch his sister's attention, pray that them hanging out at the beach hadn't sparked this side to her. 

Once they were back to school in September, it became so much harder for the pair to see each other, both Aoba Johsai and Shiratorizawa training extra hard for the inter-high tournament and for nationals. They still texted each other when they could and would have hushed late-night calls about there day and Oikawa telling (Y/N) all about the alien theories, and he had some that linked into ancient Egyptian history he had found on twitter. He had stopped flirting with his fangirls. His mind was always on the younger Ushijima, he already had decided that he wanted to change that damn last name of hers. 

It was the inter-high tournament the next time they were able to see each other, with weekend practices and school, they struggled to see one another since the middle of September, and their phone calls and texts had become rarer the closer they got to the tournament, so they had agreed to meet before the first matches, they were both sat in a quiet secluded corner catching up on everything that had happened.

Oikawa had gotten a kick out of the fact that the second the matches ended for Shiratorizawa, she was up in the stands watching his games, cheering them on. The semifinal match for Shiratorizawa was held before Seijoh's so she had made it just in time to watch, she lipread all his teammates telling something about him that he will owe them Ramen if he misses. 

"Oi, Pretty boy!" She yelled from the stands, she watched as his eyes dart around the bleachers trying to figure out where she was when he finally locked on to her, Oikawa couldn't help the smile that graced his lips when he noticed her figure that was leaning against the wall with a lazy yet cheeky grin on her lips as she rests her cheek on her hand before he mouthed a sassy what to her. 

"You know how I like my Ramen!"

Chuckling and shook his head as he gave her a thumbs-up. All the while, his teammates gave him a smug look suddenly working out who was behind all the texting and longing lovestruck eyes he sent at his phone when it hasn't buzzed in a while. 

(Y/N) could feel the murderous glares coming from all directions around her, turning around looking at all of his fangirls, smirking slightly she waved at them, before going back to watch the match. She could hear the mumbles about her being a Shiratorizawa bitch, and she must be the whore that took their Toru Oikawa away from them. 

It was an intense match, with the scores always being so close, (Y/N) was gripping the wall the entire time she didn't move from her spot the whole game, praying that Seijoh would win, she knew Oikawa's dream to get to nationals, even though she knew he had to go up against her brother team in the next round she would want Oikawa to win, she wanted his dream to come true. 

So when they lost her heart broke for him, when they thanked everyone in the bleachers for coming to the game and their eyes locked, (Y/N) sent him a faint, sad smile and she could see the tears he was holding back. Without a second thought, she ran to the doors to his side of the court. 

She waited patiently leaning against the wall for them to walk out, one by one they did each and every one of them looking so lifeless and upset. When Iwaizumi walked out and saw her, he checked over his shoulder before looking back at the girl sending a slight nod in her direction giving her shoulder a gentle squeeze before he follows after the rest of the team. Oikawa was the last one to step through the door, with a demoralised look on his face. He was clearly the most upset of the whole team. (Y/N) watched him her head tilted to one side as she gave him a tight smile, her heart cracking even more as she saw how lugubrious the boy she had come to treasure so dearly looked.

"Come here, pretty boy." (Y/N) whispered as she walked towards him, pulling him into a tight hug, her arms wrapping around his shoulders, as he buried his face into her neck and his arms around her waist, he inhaled her peach scent finding comfort in it.

"I thought you ran up the stairs and way from me cause you were disappointed in me." He mumbled into her neck so quietly she barely heard what he said. 

"Oh, Toru," She began tenderly, as if not to scare him, her voice was so gentle and compassionate, she chooses her words carefully before continuing. "No, I wasn't disappointed in you. I couldn't ever be disappointed in you, you played so well today, I was so proud of you." She laced her fingers into his hair as she tried to comfort the boy in front of her, as she felt the silent tears stream from his eyes and soak into her team's uniform jacket. 

Pulling away from him, she cupped his cheeks, giving him another gentle smile, making him look in her eyes as she gently brushed the tears away with her thumbs. "Come on, I'll pick you up from your school once you have had the recap meeting and we can go get some food, just the two of us. Okay?" 

He nodded, and they headed back to the entrance, the Shiratorizawa bus had already left, (Y/N) had driven to the stadium that morning anyway and she told the coach she was going to watch the Aoba Johsai - Karsuno game and to leave without her. Gently she pushed Oikawa on to his bus. 

"I'll meet you by the gate, text me when you are done with the meeting." He nodded, taking a seat next to Iwaizumi as he watched her walk towards her car. Sitting down in the driver's seat, she leaned her head back in defeat. Shiratorizawa didn't lose often, and it hurt when they did but nothing like this. That is when she realised that she didn't just love Toru Oikawa, she was in love with him.

Head over heels in love with him.

"Fuck." She groaned, lightly banging her head on her steering wheel. She wasn't upset that she had fallen in love with him, it was more that she was scared her brother would kill him because Toru Oikawa clearly liked her, the boy wasn't very good at hiding the looks he sends her when he thinks that (Y/N) isn't looking. 

Her phone dinged loudly making her jump as she was too deep in thought with whether or not she should tell Oikawa her feelings for him, not because she wasn't worried he didn't feel the same it was more for his safety, she didn't want anything to happen to that pretty boy. Grabbing her phone, she saw it was from Wakatoshi, a standard blunt text. 

Who won?

Karasuno. I'll text you when I'm back.

Throwing her phone back on the passenger chair, she switched on the engine and headed for a quick stop at the dorms to get changed before she drove to Seijoh.

Jamming the key into the lock of the beige colour door to her dorm. She quickly stripped and threw her team uniform on to her bed, (Y/N) changed into some faded blue jeans and an oversized jumper that was hanging off her shoulder. Grabbing her keys and wallet from her desk, she heads back out her door.

"Where are you going?" She jumped at the sound of her brothers voice behind her as she was locking her door. 

"Out." She huffed, trying to push past her brother. 

"Where." He asked against as he placed one of his large hands on her shoulder, stopping her. 

"To get ice cream." (Y/N) replied as she pushed Toshi's hand off her shoulder, glaring at him as she walked past him. "I'm eighteen Toshi. I can drive, and I want ice cream. I'll be back later and will be ready for tomorrow." 

"You better not be going to see that damn Seijoh captain." She heard Toshi call after.

"So what if I am, I'm my own person Toshi." She snapped at him, leaving the building.

Jogging down the steps of the dorm building before jumping back in her car and continuing the short drive to Aoba Johsai. Parking up out the front of the Seijoh, (Y/N) got out the car and leaned against the bonnet of her car again as she fished her phone out of her jeans pocket seeing that Oikawa, her brother, Semi and Tendo had texted her, ignoring Toshi's, and Tendo's fifteen thousand texts, her friend needed her. She honestly wasn't in the mood to deal with her overprotective brother and his friend that he roped in to help him get information out of her. She smiled at the one Semi sent telling her to ignore the other two boys she replied a quick thanks.

Checking Oikawa's text that was sent ten minutes ago saying he was going to have a shower and will be there in ten, looking up she saw the boy gloomily trudging towards her, one hand stuffed in his trench coat pocket while he was scrolling on his phone, his hair falling flat against his forehead where it was still wet from his shower, not the usual sweeping style. Quickly sending him a text - Lookup. (Y/N) watched as his nose scrunched up and eyes squinted into a frown behind his glasses, as he read the message on his phone before looking up. (Y/N) giving him another smile, she beckoned him to jump in the car with her head before sliding into the driver seat once again. 

She loved it when he wore his glasses just gave him this more relaxed look, and personally, she thought it made him look ten times more handsome, she had seen him in them quite a few times, she had let it slip that she like it when he wore them one time when he was too lazy to wear his contacts and from that time on Oikawa, seemed to always wear his glasses around her if he didn't have practice after their hang out.

 (Y/N) tapped her fingers against the steering along to beat of the music that was playing quietly. Other than the music, the car was silent neither didn't really know what to say. (Y/N) had already decided where they were going for food hoping this would cheer him up, even if it was an hour-long drive. She glanced at Oikawa out the corner of her eye he had his chin resting on the palm of his hand while staring out the window, deep in thought. When they finally pulled up, the sun was beginning to set in the autumn sky, the hues of reds and oranges were painted across the magnificent lavender sky. Oikawa looked at her with raised eyebrows when we saw the little beach retro diner, the one that they went to that time at the beach, in front of them. 

"Come on pretty boy you look like you're in need some ice cream." She said with a slight grin, tucking her hand in his, felt like if static shocks shot up their arms as their hands met before she tugged him inside away from the cold breeze blowing in from the sea. 

"Oh, it's you two again! I see you finally got together." The same middle-aged women comment as she glanced at their conjoined hands. Going to pull her hand away, so people don't get the wrong idea again just caused Oikawa to tighten his grip. He needs this comfort right now and (Y/N) caught on to that as she squeezed back while just giving an awkward smile to the women.

Taking a seat in the same booth as last time, (Y/N) passed the menu to Oikawa "It's on me pretty boy, just pick what you want." She watched as his eye scanned over the menu, the indecisive look in his eyes.

"So what can I get you two?" The lovely lady asked. Oikawa frowned still not sure what to order. "You could always make your own if you like."

"We can?" He asked, looking back at the menu again, "could we please get the waffle sundae, with praline and vanilla ice cream, topped with, raspberries and strawberries and whipped cream." The lady nodded as wrote down all he said, 

"Any sauce?" Oikawa looked at me, motioning for me to pick. 

"A hazelnut and can we add sprinkles as well, oh and two Rio's please." 

She nodded, walking away as she went to make it the sundae.

"How did you know that this place that would be open at this time of night?" 

(Y/N) pulled her phone and waved it in the air, as she grinned "Google, of course." 

Looking around the room, (Y/N) noticed that they were the only ones in the diner, getting up she walked over to the junk box, she couldn't help but get giddy when she saw that it was a proper vintage one, a massive one, it was filled with vinyl, there had to be a couple of hundred of the black plastic disks all from the fifties to eighties. She ran her hand over the top of the smooth wooden surface before grabbing the folder that contained all the songs available.  

"What kind of music is this?" 

Causing (Y/N) to gape at the boy next to her. "They're vinyl." She replied in a deadpan tone.

"I can see that, but I don't think I know too many of these songs." He said, looking over her shoulder at the book in her hand frowning as he read the titles of the songs.

"Are you telling me you know barely anything from the fifties to the eighties music-wise? Come on you got to know some, let's go with the sixties first." Her eyes scanned the page in front of her, sucking her bottom lip between her teeth as she thought. Oikawa couldn't help but stare at her, that thinking face of hers was so cute, and he just wanted to squish her cheeks while peppering her face with kisses.

"Oo, how about this song." She typed in the number for 'Daydream believer' by The Monkees, they watched at the machine selected the correct vinyl, and it started to play, the sound of the music and the crackle from the vinyl had (Y/N) slow swaying from side to side her eyes fluttered closed as she quietly sang along. Oikawa was watching her with a gentle smile, she was so engrossed in the music really enjoying it. But no, he didn't know the song.  

"Nope, don't know it." Her eye's flicked open, and her eyebrows shot up. Huffing as she ran her finger over the open book containing all the available songs. 

"Ah-ha, you've gotta know this one," She tapping her finger on the song she had selected to play next, as the bass guitar at the start of 'Sweet Caroline' by Neil Diamond came through the speakers. She watched him with inquisitive eyes waiting for a reaction from Oikawa, he started to frown and shrugged, "I recognise it, but I don't really know it." 

"Recognise it?!" Gawking at him. "Right, we are swapping to the seventies." (Y/N) flicked through a few pages to the list of songs from the seventies, he has to know AC/DC, and everyone knows Highway to Hell. Putting the song on the grin spread over (Y/N) face as the electric guitar started up, and she sang along. 

"Oh! I know this one!" Oikawa grinned as it got to the chorus.

"Finally!" He couldn't help but laugh as she jumped for joy. "Okay, but we are still going to find out how uneducated you are in the realms of classic music. This one next."

The lady watched the pair from where she was creating their sundae, she couldn't help but watched the couple, she laughed quietly when at the look of shock on the girls faced when he didn't know the song—the different eras playing through the diner. It wasn't until Raspberry Beret came on and he didn't know who it was that she looked like she was about to have a complete mental break down. 

"This is my favourite artist of all time! We are listening to all his songs on the drive home." She told him pointedly.

"Your food is ready." The pair looked at the table before sitting down and digging into her sundae, they chatted to whatever came to mind, flowing smoothly like water over a waterfall. Every now and again (Y/N) would quietly sing along to the songs, getting way too into Paradise City by Guns' n' Roses, tapping her fingers against the table to beat of the drums.

"Pretty boy! This is your song!" 

"What? No, it's not," He chuckled at her passionate declaration.

"It so is!" She waved her "You are the kinda guy who would want to go to the paradise city where the grass is green, and the girls are pretty!" She told him, pointing an accusing finger at him. 

"Well if the pretty girls, is actually just you then sure." The flirtatious tone to his voice caused the blush that coated (Y/N) cheeks were so red that they were on par with the strawberries on the plate in front of them. 

"Toru?" 

His eyes widen, that was the second time today that she had used his first name. Damn it, I have done fucked it. His whole brain had gone into panic mode as he thought that. "Y-yea?" He choked out as he gulped.

"Do you mind if we go for a walk there is something I want to talk to you about." He nodded, damn it, she was going to reject him, wasn't she? He knew it; he just ruined their friendship. Standing up, she went up to the counter, paying and the women handed her two takeaway cups. 

"It's cold out there, here's some hot chocolate for you, on the house." She smiled, sending a wink at (Y/N) before shooing her out of the diner.

As they stepped out, the diner (Y/N) handed the hot chocolate to Oikawa. "That lovely lady gave us these on the house." 

"That was kind of her. So, um, what did you want to talk about?" Rubbing the back of his neck as he nervously glanced out the corner of his eye at her.

"Can we walk a little first?" (Y/N) asked as she stepped on to the sand, she caught the nod that Oikawa gave as he followed after her.

The sound of the waves crashing against the shore was the only noise as they walked along the beach neither of them had spoken since they left the cafe, it wasn't an awkward silence, but you could sense the slight tension in the air, (Y/N) was trying to work out the right words to use to tell Oikawa that she had fallen for him.

 "I realised something today." She didn't look at him, (Y/N) eyes were glued to the cup wrapped in her hands, she was so nervous, she wasn't sure whether or not this was the right time or even if this was the right thing to do, he didn't say anything, just continued to listen to what she had to say. "When Seijoh lost the match today it broke my heart, I know how much you want to get to nationals, I wanted you to win so badly, I was praying that Seijoh would win, that tomorrow you would go up against my brother's team, and even though I would be sat on the bench as their manager, but I would be rooting for you on the inside, continuously cheering you on." 

His head turned to look at her in shock, he was not expecting her to say that.

"I want to always cheer you on, by your side for everything. I want to be there for your every win and be the one you lean on when you are feeling down and catch you when you fall, I want to be that person to you Toru, because, well..." She stopped and turned to face him, she shyly looked up into his swirling caramel brown eyes. "Well, it's because I've fallen for you, I've fallen in love with you Toru Oikawa." 

Oikawa was stunned when she said she wanted to talk he was not expecting this. He was not expecting her to tell him that she was in love with him. Taking the cup out of (Y/N) he placed them both on the wall next of them, before cupping her face in his hands, brown meeting (E/C). 

"And I want to be that for you too, I want to be the one you lean on, I want to be with you for every up and down, because I'm so in love you too (Y/N) Ushijima" He watched as the broad infectious smile spread across her lips, his eyes flickered between her eyes and lips. 

"Can I..." Taking a deep, shaky breath before continuing "Can I kiss you?" He asked nervously as he wrapped one arm around her waist as his hand on the small of her back while his other hand brushed the hair from her face. He was so nervous, he never been timid when it came to kissing a girl, not even his ex but this, this was different, she was his world now, and the last thing he wanted to do was ruin his chance right now.

(Y/N) bit her bottom lip, oh he hoped she didn't know the things that doing that was doing to him, she could most likely get him to do anything if she was to give him the puppy dog look while she bit her lip and the last thing he needed was her to know that it made him putty in her hands.

She gave a slight nod, it was so subtle that it if Oikawa's molten brown eyes weren't fixated on her face he would have surely missed it. The tip of tongue darted out between his lips wetting them as he dipped his head, his nose gentle brushed against hers there hearts were beating out of their chest. The butterflies that were fluttering around in his stomach as he apprehensively brushed his lips upon hers, their eyes fluttering shut at the contact when he felt one of her hands rest on the nape of his neck, her fingers tangling into his hair and the other gripping the front of his coat, pulling him closer, it was soft kiss and full of love, both of them pouring how they feel into it. They could taste the strawberries and hot chocolates on each other lips feeling as if they were on cloud nine. Oikawa pulled away, planing a soft peck against her lips before leaning his forehead against hers. 

"You have no idea how long I have wanted to do that." Oikawa planted a kiss against her temple and pulled her into a tight hug inhaling her peach scent again.

"Since the first match of the school year?" (Y/N) giggled wrapping her arms around his middle, burying her head into his chest as she inhaled his musky, sweet smell.

"Maybe~" He mumbled cheekily into her hair. (Y/N) noticed how affectionate he was, endlessly planting little butterfly kisses in her hair or he was twirling it around his fingers. He was continuously drawing patterns or rubbing circles on her back.

"So~ does this mean you're my girl now?" 

"Is that how you ask someone to be your girlfriend, pretty boy?" 

"Well, I have only had one other girlfriend." Tilting her head up (Y/N) raised her eyebrows not believing him. "Seriously and she dumped me cause I was too focus on volleyball." 

"I think your passion for volleyball is cute." She kissed his cheek as she leaned up on her tiptoes.

"So will you be my girl to spoil and show off?" 

"Hmm~" Tapping her chin and pouting her bottom her lip out, leaning back in arms so she could admire his pretty face. "Well, I suppose I could be." 

He rolled his eyes at way she responded, but they widen at the feeling of her hands, gripping the front of his coat, pulling him down to plant a kiss on his lips once again. "I would love to be your girlfriend, but let's not tell my brother, for now anyway." 

"That I agree with I don't want to die anytime soon." 

"Like I would let him kill you." Shaking her head, grabbing their forgotten hot well luck warm chocolates they began to walk along the beach back towards the car their fingers entwined. Oikawa would make (Y/N) blush and go shy every time he would plant a kiss on the back of her hand, and he loved it, he wanted to make her blush all the time with cute gestures and little sweet nothings. 

It was two days after the match between Karasuno and Shiratorizawa, with the outcome being that Karasuno had won. (Y/N) was missing her boyfriend, they were back to there text whenever they could, and the late-night phone calls had started again, but she wanted to spend time with him, she wanted to be with him all the time.

"Question? Why is Shiratorizawa's manager led on the floor of our practice court looking like she's having a mid-life crisis?"

"We don't have practice on Wednesdays I put my foot down and said we all need a break and because I am having a mid-life crisis. Your captain is an uncultured swine." The team just stared at her, noticing Oikawa hadn't actually arrived yet.

"You." (Y/N) Pointed at Matsukawa, "Who is the original performer of Uptown Girl?"

"Westlife." He replied without missing a heartbeat, holding up her phone she clicked something on her screen, and the wrong answer buzzer sound played.  

"Wrong! Anyone else got the answer or are you all uncultured?"

"Billie Joel." The voice she loved said as he crouched down behind her, leaning over her as their eyes met, beautiful chocolate ones meeting breathtaking (E/C) ones.

"One point for Toru?" she looked shocked at him, "Three days ago you didn't even know who Prince was, what's going on?" 

"She didn't call him pretty boy?" She heard the Seijoh team whisper between themselves as they watched the pair. 

"Yea yea I brushed up on my music taste last night, cannot have my girlfriend think I am, how did you put," he tapped his chin smirking at her "Ah yes, an uncluttered swine now can I?" he planted a kiss on her forehead causing a light blush to appear on her cheeks.

"Did he just-?"

"Yea I'm pretty sure he did..."

Leaning forward, Oikawa grabbed (Y/N) wrists smirking at her. "Baby. Don't. You. Dare." She warns, her voice was dangerously low, she knew what he was about to do. "I hate you!" 

"You weren't saying that three days ago!" He practically sang with a chuckled as he dragged off the court. 

The whole team just watched the couple, gobsmacked. 

While Iwaizumi was rolling his eyes, Oikawa had called him that night when he got home from being out with (Y/N) telling him that they were together now, he damn well hoped they were not going to be like this all the time playful and cutesy, it made Iwaizumi want to puke, especially with the mix of the couple giggled and chuckles echoed throughout the gym. Still, Iwaizumi was happy for his friend, he deserved to love and have someone who loves him just as much in return. Iwaizumi eyes soften as he continued to watch the pair mess around in the gym, (Y/N) was now chasing after him, he gave a small gentle smile, you would miss it, well, almost miss it if you weren't looking at him.

When Ushijima found out about their relationship was when (Y/N) said she had chosen to go and study sports therapy in Brazil. It was at the airport, they had managed to keep it under wraps for six months. (Y/N) was waiting for her flight. Her mum and brother were with (Y/N), her mum obviously upset that her baby girl was going so far away from her.

(Y/N) 's mum also knew about the relationship between (Y/N) and Oikawa, she loved them together, she had once seen them on a date together, and she was cooing all over how cute they were. Her mum also promised not to tell Wakatoshi about there relationship. 

"Last call for flight 825 to Rio De Janeiro. Will all passengers please make their way to departure gate 17." Hugging her mother and brother one last, slinging her backpack over her shoulder and showing her passport to the guard as she stepped thew the gate.

"Ready to go?" She smiled a smile that reached her eyes as she jumped into the love of her life's arms, even after six months the pair of them were still in what people call the honeymoon stage, but the couple just said it was true love and that they said they were actually soulmates, of course, they had had the odd argument, but they always made up and apologised rapidly.

"Sure thing pretty boy! I'm so excited" She giggled kissing him. (Y/N) glanced over her shoulder to see her brother seeming to be fuming, but there was no chance he could follow after her. 

"Don't worry Ushiwaka, I'll take good care and look after your sister, she is my girl after all, and I love her so much." Oikawa teased, smirking towards him. (Y/N) could see the rage burning in his eyes, the way his hands clenched and unclenched, his jaw was set. 

Both (Y/N) and Oikawa knew this would be the only way they could get away with telling Wakatoshi and in the process, not getting Oikawa killed. (Y/N) mum had her hand over her mouth to stifle the giggles at the way they pair had chosen to say to him.

Epilogue

After (Y/N) graduated and became a sports physical therapist, Oikawa and (Y/N) ended up in Argentinian, the pair gained national citizenship. Oikawa was on the national team, (Y/N) had never been more proud of him. He was the same, just as proud as (Y/N) had become the same national's team's physical therapist.

They got married in 2018. As you can imagine, Oikawa had a little difficulty to get permission for (Y/N) hand in marriage when they popped back to japan to visit their families, not from her father, her father and mother adored him, it was Wakatoshi, but somehow (Y/N) managed to convince him to let Oikawa marry her. The wedding was wondrous, it was a beach one in Santa Teresita, and all their high school friends and family attend. Wakatoshi did nearly give a reason for them not to be together, but Tendo and the rest of the Shiratorizawa team were there stopping him.

Iwaizumi was the best man, and his best man speech was entertaining, embracing Oikawa with when he first saw (Y/N) and how jealous he was of Ushijima cause she patted her brother on the head and gave him a hug. Iwaizumi was also telling how much of a lovesick puppy he was, and he was so happy that the pair were still together, after six years of happiness, even if how cutesy they are made him sick to his stomach. They were still all lovey-dovey as they were at the start of the relationship. He ended the toast by saying how much he knows Oikawa will always treasure (Y/N) and that they will always be together.

In 2021, they were at the Olympic games. Oikawa being the setter for the Argentina team, (Y/N) was, of course, the sports therapist, they had their first child on the way. They had yet to tell anyone, no one knew a thing only the pair but (Y/N) was starting to show now at four months. And it was just in time for the games. Oikawa was over the moon he was going to get the greatest gift ever, parenthood. The one person they worried about most is, of course, Wakatoshi, but he couldn't kill Oikawa at the games so when Hinata noticed that (Y/N) was pregnant before anyone, the boy was actually surprisingly observant, the rage in Wakatoshi eyes when he looked at Oikawa was burning like the fires of hell.

Wakatoshi was a force to be reckoned with during his match he was furious that Oikawa had sullied his sister. Atsumu found this far too amusing and continued to tease him making him angrier, didn't help that Bokuto decided to join in on the teasing.

That evening Oikawa did run away from Wakatoshi, he was on a rampage, (Y/N) tried to remind him they had been together for nine years now, and he needs to get over the fact that they have sex. 

But when the baby boy was born Wakatoshi became smitten with Kazue, Oikawa had named the boy, his name meaning single blessing, which he wasn't wrong the child was a blessing. Wakatoshi had suddenly warmed up to Oikawa after that, the two started to get along, though Oikawa was a little apprehensive about this but started to warm up to the idea of being friends with him, who would have to know it would take until (Y/N) and Oikawa to have a child for them to become friends. 

The couple lived the rest of there lives together, in bliss and happiness, with four children in the end and so far they had eight grandchildren. They always took them to the same beach and little cafe as they went too when they were teenagers when every they were in Japan, the owner had seen the couple go from friends to being in a relationship to engaged to being married, and she met all their children before she passes away her own child had taken over the shop.

The children and grandchildren all look up to their grandparents for their love life, they still adored and fallen more and more in love with each other every day.

©️ All content  belongs to lilmissbeanie, do not copy, edit, repost or translate. 

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Year in Review - Animal Crossing New Horizons

I started writing this review/criticism in May of 2020 but decided to update it as the year went along and post it on the anniversary of NH’s release. I would like to preface that this is mostly going to be full of questions of criticisms, I love this game. I have not been able to put it down since I got it on March 20th. My first AC game was NL and then I played HHD. I was ecstatic when they announced NH at E3 2019 and kept trying to find other games to fit in my AC shaped hole in my heart but I wasn’t able to fill it till this game came out. I feel like the pace of the game is great with how you build up to unlocking terraforming and 5 stars, and I feel like the updates are well timed especially with how crazy 2020 was for everybody. That being said there were some things that irked me. 

Some of the points I will bring up came from other people/commenters I have seen on here, Discord, Reddit, and Twitter that I also agree with. Some other points are from Youtubers such as ShayMay and ChuyPlays. And others are from me. 

With that out of the way, let’s get on with the review. Warning, I guess, don’t expect this to be an essay, this is just a patchwork quilt made up of thoughts.

Terraforming

I wish cliffs/tiers had a smaller level? Like how we’re able to make stepping stones for our rivers if we don’t want to put a bridge down/use our vaulting pole. I just wish there was a cliff alternative. 

Another cliff alternative would be if we could put bridges between cliffs. I think we’ve all been there where we see this picture 

          thought ‘we can do that!!” then realized it was photoshopped

When we go into terraforming, I wish a grid showed up on our island. It would make it much easier to avoid hitting the wrong square when I’m trying to change a river. 

Having us be able to “close” a waterfall from a lower level but not create a new on at the same spot. 

Also the fact we can add a 4th tier but can’t put anything on it is just strange to me. I know we have to have a limit to how high we can go, but at least let me put nature stuff, such as trees/flowers/bushes, on top of it instead of just a flat piece of land. 

Houses

Why no ceiling items? Find it odd they added a bunch of stuff in HHD and didn’t add that to the new mainline game

There’s no reason I can think of to why we can’t access our storage when we’re crafting inside our house. 

Buildings

Dodo Airlines

The Dodo Islands right now are very boring and barely use them. I have enough money and materials to not go farming and save up all my NMTs for when I go villager hunting, which has also become a rarity. I think it would be a good idea to make some islands seasoned themed. Have them be all rare, but have an island where it’s fall and has maple leaves falling, a cherry blossom one, one with snowflakes. I wouldn’t recommend they make Holiday themed ones, but having seasonal ones would be nice.

When I mess up a dodo code or accidentally hit ‘make a bridge’ instead of incline, etc. why do I have to restart the ENTIRE conversation instead of the characters just being “oh? did you mean “x” or “would you like to retype it?” like is it that hard??  

Resident Services

As much as I love Isabelle this game has made me very indifferent towards her. I think they gave her a role that didn’t need to exist. They could have either let us roam around without any warnings to who was roaming around our island, in the campsite, or any weather updates. Just have us rely on our villagers, the TV, and our eyeballs. OR they could have given us a social media like app and/or a weather app. Instead, they gave us Isabelle that only announces something once a month.

Nook’s Cranny

This might just be me but can they add a little DIY area in the store? Maybe just make to where you can only customize things?? This is more out of convenience than an actual problem  

Speaking of customization, since you can make medicine but also buy can we do the same for the custom kits and bait. Like make it where we can buy bait and also make our own custom kits? I just think it’s weird that they give us either/or for medicine but not for the other 2 that I honestly use way more than medicine.

Why do the Able Sisters get to have all of the colors of an item in their shop but Nook’s Cranny can’t? And why can’t we just be able to customize all items that have multiple looks/colors? Example, why can’t I just be able to change the wood type for the antique set instead of having to buy each one? I get that the furniture catalog is already small, but that’s not my fault. They’ve decided to not add past furniture sets into NH. 

Able Sisters

Let us multi select clothes instead of it just being how much we can wear. idc if it’ll just put those clothes in our personal storage and then we’ll have to run home and put it in that storage, I just hate having to walk back in and out every time I want a dress in multi colors. ALSO tell us if we already bought it, like a little storage icon or something

Why can’t we hang any article of clothing on the back wall, why do we have to either make it or have the OG qr designer come to our island? 

Why can’t we have the transparent option when designing clothes? I think it would make many designer’s lives easier instead of having to make 8 versions of the same outfit.

NPCs

I have played this game almost every day since it came out, minus 2 days. I have also been able to make friends on discord that help with trading/cataloging/etc. I have all of Saharah’s, Kicks’, Label’s, and Redd’s items. I have all of the fish/bug models I want and have no desire to “catch them all”. I haven’t talked to Wisp in months because I have most of the items and his idea of “expensive” is 10k bells. The only NPC I actively look forward to is Celeste because even though I now have all of her DIYs, she still gives out star fragments, regular large or horoscope, when I talk to her. 

What I’m wondering is if they’re planning on doing anything else with these characters. Before I speak further I’m going to weed out characters that I am actually fine with. CJ and Flick will always be there if I want a bug/fish model, I understand that Saharah/Kicks/Redd have a ton of stuff to get and w/o the help of my discord friends, I probably wouldn’t have gotten everything till late 2021. 

So that leaves Label and Wisp. I understand Wisp is there for beginners, but now that I’m at a point where I am a bell millionaire and have most of the Nook’s items cataloged, there is no reason for me to talk to him. I wish Nintendo had put in a system where depending on the person who Wisp is talking to, it determines how much money you have in your bank account/looks at your catalog, Wisp’s item’s worth goes up.

As for Label...I never saw her as viable. I also thought the tickets were dumb and you don’t even have to talk to her to have her items show up in the shop the next day. I think it would be great if when you bought all of her items, she decided to join the Able’s sisters in their shop like in NL and then have Gracie show up in her place for the weekly NPC. 

Where is Blanca? Or Brewster? Or Shrunk, Katrina, Gracie, or Kapp’n and his family? I understand we will probably never see characters like Harriet or Pete because they have been replaced by a new system, but what is the excuse for these other characters? I’m hoping they show up in year 2 of NH but...we’ll see.

Villagers

I think having your first villagers living in basic homes is a good idea but one that quickly gets annoying. I found Sherb while villager hunting for the 1st time and have had him ever since, but his house is stuck at basic lazy setup. Instead of me going back and forth on whether or not i should trust somebody enough to hold Sherb, get somebody else out, then get him to move back to my island, You can have it to where you let them leave, then just wait till he comes to the campsite to visit and reinvite him. You get his actual house and he still remembers you. This could also go for you accidentally letting somebody go or letting somebody go then regretting it. Also it’d be fun to see some old villagers again.

I was curious and looked back on past games to see how many new villagers were released each game and NH has been the least amount. NL released 112 new villagers in total while NH has released 8. I’m hoping they might release more down the line but, hella disappointing imo. Along with the Sanrio update and adding those characters to the game, I am more hopeful that they’ll be adding new characters!

Having an “event” of sorts where you visit a villager’s house and they’re looking inside their closet. They look at you in surprise when you walk in and sheepishly explain that they were going through their clothes/items. They then decide to ask you for help since they can’t decide what to get rid of/what to keep and think you have a good eye for that sort of thing. Basically, a way to get rid of any clothes/items your villager somehow received bc I guess Isabelle scolding them isn’t enough.

A big problem I feel like everybody has is the villager dialogue. Yes they added sub personality types for each personality but they are not perfectly cut in half, ex. are the Sisterly types where there are 4 B types and 20 A types, like?? How I have “fixed” this problem is by having one of each personality type on my island so I always have different conversations with my villagers, but I understand not a lot of people do that. Some people just want normal/peppy types on their island bc they’re cute as hell, I get it. I know it would be...difficult to come up with unique dialogue for all 399 villagers, including Sanrio, but....you could at least for the “gimmicky” villagers. Some examples of these villagers are Ribbot and Sprocket, Lucky and Ankha, the super hero squad, and Kabuki. 

Quality Life stuff

Why cant we sit AND wish on stars? And I don’t mean the sit emote; why can’t I sit on a bench and wish on stars?

It sucks when I’m about to hit my rocks or just do a lot of dig work and then my shovel breaks in the middle of it. To show the tool is about to break, cracks should start to form on the handle and get deeper/longer as you keep using it, starting when you have 5 uses left. You can also add an auditory element by making the tool sound like its struggling when you are using it. Net/Shovel/Axe/Fishing Pole can have cracks show up on the handle, Slingshot can have crack show up at the bottom of the 2 spokes while having 1 at the top of the handle. And the watering can have cracks at the base of the can.

If our inventory is full when I dig up a flower, why can’t I replace it with another flower to bury? And if I can dig up an item at an diagonal item, I should be able to bury it again at the same angle.

Other

Having more...liveliness?? on the island, idk how else to say it. Example is whenever you travel by plane there's a chemtrail in the sky afterwards, maybe just seeing other planes go by throughout the day. Maybe you can get a hint Redd or Gulliver will be visiting you tomorrow if you see their boats beyond the horizon, Redd’s just crusin’ and the Gulls’ boats looking messed up. On a week where you don't have a new camper, maybe have an old villager visit. That leads me too

I wish villager’s doors could count as “exterior decorating” and we can just put any ornamental on there instead having to hope that your villager will put the wreath on their own door. 

Conclusion

If you read this whole thing holy shit, thanks!! Go treat yourself on my part lol If you disagreed with me or whatever feel free to chat with me about it! 

[kingedwardvi]

Calendar of State Papers Foreign: Edward VI 1547-1553

1550

January 27. Place torn away.  Count Ludovico Rangone to the Duke of Somerset. Returns thanks for renewed instructions to the Ambassador for the promoting of his affairs with the Emperor. [Italian. Half a page.]

---

March 24. Copy of the treaty of peace at Boulogne. [Fifteen pages. Printed by Rymer, Vol. xv., p. 211, ed. 1728.]

--- 1550. April. [Before the 6th.] "Memorandum of the Commission [to the Earl of Huntingdon, Lord Cobham, and Sir John Wallop] for delivery and receipt of the hostages." [Three pages. Draft.]

--- June. "The names of the French gentlemen." A list of the French Ambassadors Extraordinary, and those who accompanied them to England in May 1550, partly in the handwriting of Cecil. [One page.]

--- June 2. Westminster. The Council to Sir John Masone. Narrates the reception of M. de Chastillon and others sent to England to receive the King's ratification of the treaty of Boulogne, with the entertainments provided for them. Mentions the discussion of matters connected with the peace; such as the liberation of prisoners, restoration of captured vessels, and the demolition of Roxburgh and Eymouth.

Enumerates the presents made to them by the King. Refers to Bowes' proceedings with the Scots, and the encroachments made by the French at Calais. The King having pardoned some Frenchmen justly condemned to death, the Council hope that if any Englishmen are in similar case, the like clemency may be shown to them by the French monarch. [Ten pages. Partly printed by Tytler, Vol. i., p. 284. Copy in Sir J. Masone's Letter-Book.]

---- June 3. Konigsberg. Albert Marquis of Brandenburg to the Duke of Somerset, "Lord Protector." Letters of credence for John Alasco. [Latin. One page.]

---- June 14. Paris. Sir John Masone to the Council. Had received their letters on the 2d and 5th. The reception of the French Commissioners gave much satisfaction. Details his interview with the French King on preceding Thursday, in reference to the encroachments at Calais. 

Having had secret intelligence of the arrival at the French Court of George Paris, sent from Ireland by M'William with letters of credence, and of the despatch to Ireland of M. de Botte, a Breton, disguised as a merchant, mentions his conversation with the King as to these practices with the Irish. 

Had conferred with the Constable regarding the frontiers and the Scots at St. Andrew's. Recommends caution and preparation. Various reasons assigned for the Emperor going to the diet at Augsburg. Expense of living in France. Stourton desires to return to England, but is afraid to do so without warrant of protection. Sends a cipher. [Ten pages and a half. Copy in Sir J. Masone's Letter-Book. Partly printed by Tytler, Vol. i., p. 291.]

--- June 29. Poissy. Sir John Masone to the Council. Since Francisco's departure has had one or two conferences with the Constable as to the frontiers, and had been again in hand with him touching Ireland, about which country there is some stir in the French Court worthy to be looked into. These Irish wild beasts should be hunted down. T

The Emperor is reported to have left Spires on the 13th, and is expected at Augsburg on the 20th. He has grown into a notable pensiveness, and is specially troubled that peace has been concluded between France and England without him, and that he cannot frame his son to such a sort as he much desires

Notable feud between Roygnac and De Nevers. The Bishop of Rome has made an old bawd of his Cardinal, having neither learning nor any other virtue or good quality, wherewith the Holy College are much offended. Has been requested to intercede for François Robin, formerly in the service of Sir Thomas Speke, now a prisoner in the Marshalsea on suspicion of being a spy. 

Stourton still importunes to obtain licence for him to return; his companion Horsemonden, than whom never was there a verier ruffian, and who to make himself a gentleman has fathered himself upon Pole's kindred, bragging the said Pole to be his uncle, has been commanded to avoid the Court. 

Great want of rain lately, but much fallen within the last three days. The French King has nominated Basse Fontaine and Erskine Ambassadors to the Regent for pacifying the matters of Scotland. On the 27th, between four and five in the morning, the Queen was delivered of a son, whom they call M. D'Angoulême. Various surmises who shall be the godfathers; they who know much say that the Queen is desirous the King of England should be one of them, and that for that purpose a gentleman will shortly be sent to England. [Six pages and a half. Copy in Sir J. Masone's Letter-Book. Partly printed by Tytler, Vol. i., p. 301.]

---

June 30. Westminster. The Council to Sir John Masone. Send further instructions how to act in the matter of the encroachments. Sundry requests as to prisoners had been preferred by the French Ambassador. Inform him of the prohibition against the exportation of horses from Scotland to France through England, in consequence of their great scarcity and high price. 

The French Ambassador had had appointed for his lodging the Lady Yardford's house,—one of the fairest in London,—but this he misliked, and as such as he wished were occupied by noblemen and others who cannot be dislodged, he seemed not altogether satisfied, although offered the best that could be had Scottish ships on the coasts of Cornwall, Devonshire, Essex, Sussex, and Suffolk, having not only pillaged the Emperor's subjects, and the Portuguese trading with the English, but also of late spoiled the King's subjects, proclamation had been made forbidding them to be supplied with provisions or other necessaries in any of his Majesty's ports. Send letter from Bowes of the 19th instant in regard to the Scots. [Five pages. Copy in Sir J. Masone's LetterBook.]

---

July 20. Poissy. Sir John Masone to the Council. Complains of the French Ambassador's misrepresentation of him in regard to the Scottish hostages, and gives an account of his explanatory interview with the French King and the Constable, who said that the Ambassador had been mistaken, but that, under the impression of a promise of their liberty having been made by some of the Council in London, the King had released the Scots taken at St. Andrew's, who otherwise should have rotted in prison, so cruel was their offence, so cruel was their murder [of Cardinal Beaton]. 

The King refused to interfere for the Archbishop of Glasgow, who must "stand to his folly." Incloses memorial from de L'Aubespine as to liberation of the French prisoners in Jersey. After great suit by the French King, and considerable difficulty made therin, the Bishop of Rome has extended the jubilee to the French Court. One or two sons of Lord Stafford have lately passed through Paris towards Rome; knows not whether Horsemonden has gone with them, but here he appears no more. 

The Emperor's Ambassador and Nuncio from the Bishop of Rome have of late been twice or thrice at the Court together, it is supposed to persuade the King to agree to the Council. Intended exchange of the Emperor's Ambassadors at Rome and France. Roygnac's castle taken, and himself escaped to Flanders. No English prisoners now at Marseilles. 

In seven or eight days the Prior of Capua and suite go to England on their way to Scotland to bring the Queen. Having the grant of the keeping of the abbey of Abingdon by letters patent, requests the Council's aid against the recusancy of a previous occupant to vacate the same. M. de Humiez, who was the Dauphin's governor, is dead. 

Villebonne, who made the first payment of the money [conditioned in the surrender of Boulogne], is also to make the second; it is whispered at Court that his present at said first payment was very simple; if it were so, the Council have now occasion to make amends. [Ten pages. Copy in Sir John Masone's Letter-Book.]

--- July 26. "Acta Conventus Augustani anni 1550 summatim et breviter expositis Ces. M. ac principum responsis confecta xxvj° Julii, ex Cæsa. Matis. propositione." Copy of the proceedings at the Diet of Augsburg, assembled professedly for terminating the difference between the Catholics and the Protestants. [Latin. Twenty-one pages.]

---

August 3. Poissy. Sir John Masone to the Council. The Prior of Capua has altered his intention of going to Scotland by way of England, and has gone to Rouen, whence he will depart within three or four days. Has this day been to Court for redress of injury done to certain Englishmen in Brittany. 

Has been required to write for the good entreating of the Queen Dowager of Scotland, in case she should be driven by stress of weather into any English port, or require a passport for a hackney or two. It is said she is to be married to the King of Navarre, whom the Lady Margaret has refused. 

Sends much general information relating to the Emperor's proceedings, and of those of the Bishop of Rome in regard of the French bishops. Has had an interview with Geoffrey Pole [younger brother of the Cardinal], who, being very desirous to return to England requested him to write for permission to do so. 

In consequence of Andelot not having returned from Spain, the King has deferred his journey to Rouen, whither he will not likely go till the 15th of next month. M. de Thermes comes from Scotland in the French King's company. [Seven pages. Copy in Sir J. Masone's LetterBook. Printed, except one paragraph, by Tytler, Vol. i., p. 308.]

----

August 11. Windsor. The Council to Sir John Masone. On Sunday the 3d inst. the French Ambassador had audience of his Majesty at Windsor, when he exonerated Masone in the matter of the Scottish hostages, and sought to transfer the blame to some of the Council, which they repudiated. 

He also presented letters from the French King, Queen Dowager of Scotland, and two from the Scottish Queen, requesting a safe conduct for the galleys that were to convey the said Queen Dowager and her suite, with permission to send 300 horses through England; which requests were acceded to, the number of horses being reduced to 200. 

A safe conduct for Henry Sinclair, Dean of Glasgow, and Thomas Menzies of Pitfoddels, with 24 men and horses, has also been granted. The Ambassador also intimated that the second payment for Boulogne was to be ready there on the 4th inst., and requested the sending of Commissioners to receive the same and set free the three remaining hostages. 

Farther, had arranged for an interview between the English Commissioners on the Scottish border and the Scottish Commissioners touching the castle of Edrington and a fishing place in the Tweed. Desired to communicate all the preceding to the French King at his next audience. Instructions for the protection of Somerset herald [Atkynson] from the effects of a liability for a prisoner in France six years before. [Eight pages. Copy in Sir J. Masone's Letter-Book.]

---

August 26. Poissy.232. Sir John Masone to the Council. Had received their Lordships' letters, and communicated to the French King their concessions in regard of the Scottish Queen, as also the invasion of the debateable land by 2,000 Scots and 400 or 500 Frenchmen. 

His Majesty admitted that he had heard something of this previously, but supposed it to have been a mere private quarrel between an Englishman and a Scotchman concerning the erection of a border peel. Expressed his regret and would issue immediate orders for the prevention of such in future; and confidentially informed him of a design by the Emperor and Lady Regent to send Skipperus to the English coast to carry away the Lady Mary, and of the Emperor's hatred of England, in despite of which he had made this cruel inquisition for heresy in the Low Countries.

Mentions his conference with the Constable as to the affair of Somerset herald. Great preparations are made for the reception of the Scottish Queen, for whose coming the christening has been deferred, the King desiring to have her as godmother. M. de Guise, with the flower of the nobility, has gone to Dieppe to meet her. Before going to Scotland the Prior of Capua provided for above 1,000 ells of white damask wherewith to apparel the slaves and mariners. 

Again applies in regard of liberating the French prisoners in Guernsey and Jersey. Has often been required to write on behalf of a merchant of Orleans, whose ship of wines had been seized at Dover long since by the late Admiral, but had positively refused to do so, the matter being so old; yet the same being so pitiful, he cannot hold his pen from recommending it to their Lordships, if there be any remedy. [Seven pages and a half. Copy in Sir J. Masone's Letter-Book.] 

---

Sept. (prior to 6th.)  Commission from Henry II., King of France, to certain Commissioners appointed to meet with those of the Emperor for the purpose of settling commercial disputes between their subjects in Flanders. [Three pages. Copy.]

--- Sept. 10. Poissy. Sir John Masone to the Council. For the last 10 or 12 days the Queen of Scots has been so dangerously ill of the prevailing flux, that her recovery was doubted, but within the last two she is considered to be out of danger. On Sunday the Duke of Angoulême was baptized by the name of Charles Maximilian, so given by the Deputy of the King of Bohemia (no longer called Archduke), who being godfather had place above the King of Navarre. 

The deputy godmother was the King's bastard daughter, who held the infant in place of the Duchess of Ferrara. Mentions the entertainment and presents given to the Deputy and his suite. The non-arrival of the Dowager Queen of Scotland had caused considerable alarm at the Court, lest the recent storms should have driven her to the coast of Flanders, but they have been relieved by hearing that she did not embark until last Saturday. 

Immediately on his return M. de Thermes is to go as Ambassador to Rome, and the present one there, M. d' Urfé, is to come to be governor of the Dauphin in room of the late M. de Humiez. Revision of the mintage. M. de Biez is released from close confinement, and it is thought will eventually be restored altogether, much to the disappointment of Chastillon. 

Three or four ships have lately arrived from England laden with images, which have been sold at Paris, Rouen, and other places, and being eagerly purchased, give to the ignorant people occasion to talk according to their notions; which needed not had their Lordships' command for defacing of them been observed. 

The Sherif had attempted to surprise Oran, but being chased by Don Bernardine de Mendoça, had gone to Argel [Algiers] to see if he could succeed better there. 

"This good fellow seemeth to be indifferent to all men, and careth not of what religion he be from whom he may catch any place to put his foot in." 

Dragut Rey lately had made a descent on the African coast. Urges the regular payment of his salary, to prevent the necessity of his borrowing, which he must do at 40 per cent. besides interest, in consequence of the depreciation of the currency, so that his daily allowance of five marks a day does not yield him 40 shillings, while his expenses amount to double that sum. 

The French King leaves this about Monday or Tuesday next week, and is to spend six or seven days at Anet, a residence of Madame de Valentinois, intending to enter Rouen on the 25th if no alteration in his plan. The Constable has had leave of absence till the King arrives at Anet, and has gone to his house called Chantilly. [Three pages. Copy in Sir J. Masone's Letter-Book.]

---

Sept. 14. Poissy. Sir John Masone to the Council. Had their letters of the 6th, and on the 13th audience of the French King, who was attended by the Cardinal of Lorraine acting in absence of the Constable. The King returned thanks to his Majesty for the enlargement of the Archbishop of Glasgow, and was contented with the appointment of two Privy Councillors as Judges of Appeal from the Admiralty Court, of the delays and lack of justice in which he had heard many complaints. 

As to the Scots taken at St. Andrew's, he would defer the question of their full liberty till the arrival of the Queen Dowager, when that and all other matters connected with Scotland should be adjusted; but in the meanwhile would take steps to restrain the Scots on the borders. Has not lately seen De Boses, whom he believes to be attending on the Constable, but expects to see him at Rouen.

The Emperor's Ambassador here has written to the one in England to get him two geldings, and has requested Masone to be the means of procuring a licence for exporting them, notwithstanding the prohibition by reason of their great scarcity. 

"There is a little square between the Duchess of Valentinois, who ruleth the roast, and the Constable; a great many of the Court wisheth the increase thereof. He is very ill beloved, for that he is a hinderer of all men saving his own kinsfolks, whom he doth so advance as no man may have anything by his will but they, and for that also he feedeth every man with fair words, and performeth nothing." 

The King leaves for Rouen to-morrow, taking en route the Constable's houses, then Roche Guyon, and so to Anet. [Five pages and a half. Copy in Sir J. Masone's Letter-Book.]

---

Oct. 6. Rouen. Sir John Masone to the Council. Describes the entry of the French King into Rouen on the 1st of the month, the preparations in the city not having been completed by the 25th ult., in consequence whereof he had to reside in an abbey half a mile distant; but had kept the feast of St. Michael very solemnly within the city, when the order was conferred upon the Rhinegrave only, although there were four vacancies. 

Sets forth the various pageants exhibited. Has had communications with the Constable in regard to the Scots; the settlement of these matters is deferred until the arrival of the Master of Erskine, who is expected in three or four days. Has been spoken to on the subject of the commercial Commissioners, and had seen De Boses about the counterfeiting of the English money. 

Has this day waited upon the Queen Dowager of Scotland, who arrived on the 25th ult. with a large retinue of Scottish gentlemen, and had been received with much honour. Africa had been carried by assault on the 20th ult. with great loss. The English merchants much alarmed at the prospect of a war with France. 

Sends the names of the principal Scots who are with the Queen Dowager, and who are squabbling greatly among themselves about their lodgings. The King will remain eight or ten days, and then visit Dieppe and his other fortresses on the sea coast. 

The Emperor is still hot about the Council. The Pope's Nuncio and the Venetian Ambassador have been frequently of late with the King. The Duke D'Aumale is very desirous to have a portrait of the King of England, which he says was promised to him by his Majesty on his leaving England; urges that it may be sent to him while he is here as he speaks very highly of the King and of the realm, and of the courtesy which he met with there. [Six pages. Copy in Sir J. Masone's Letter-Book. Printed, with small omission, by Tytler, Vol. i., p. 325.]

--- Oct. 27. Westminster. The Council to Sir John Masone. Have received his last three letters, and commend his diligence. They are willing to entertain the Constable's proposition for a renewed negotiation by the same or other Commissioners, as he may prefer, but in the meanwhile require that the French troops quartered at Sandingfeld shall be withdrawn. 

Mention their subsequent interview with the French Ambassador on the same subject, and the right of the English to the disputed boundaries. Send memorial of certain depredations by the French on some natives of Jersey, transmitted to them by Sir Hugh Paulet, the Captain of said island; also another touching an Englishman, named Broughton, prisoner in the hands of Mons. de Brissac. [Seven pages. Copy in Sir J. Masone's Letter-Book.]

--- Oct. Proposal, by medium of Dr. Bruno, from Albert Marquis of Brandenburg, to raise troops for the service of King Edward VI., for which he shall have a pension of 2,000l. per ann., and the command of said troops. 

Refers to proposed marriage of the Marquis with the Princess Mary. Table showing descent of the Marquis from Frederick Burgrave of Nuremberg. [French. Five pages. Indorsed by Cecil, "Doct. Brunonis et Alb. Brandb. mq. opinio."]

---- Oct. Discourse by Dr. Bruno, wherein enumerating the various Sovereigns and Princes of Europe favourable to Protestantism, he proposed that each should send learned men, such as Bucer, Melancthon, &c., to the next pretended Council, for the purpose of disputing with the Papists, and if they should be unable to prevail, then to form a general league, and invoking King Edward to take the initiative. [Latin. Five pages. Indorsed by Cecil, "Discursus D. Brunonis."]

--- Oct. "Articles of the credence of the messenger from the Princes of Germany." With reference to forming a general league in defence of Protestantism; wherein is to be considered "the colour and craft whereby the war shall be dissembled not to be made for religion," and in such respect the league to be regulated by the terms of a "treaty of the Duke of Prussia with Mr. Alasco, had three years past." [Four pages. Indorsed by Cecil.]

---- Nov. 2. Caudebe. Sir John Masone to Sir William Cecil. Refers to his letter to the Council for an account of his proceedings. "If words can make all things hot, here lacketh none of that stuff." The French profess much, but he doubts their sincerity:. the thing that feareth him most being "that they know too well our estate, and thereby think they may ride upon our backs."

Is at present confined to bed with the gout, and his body so droops that he fears he shall never see the end of winter, a great part whereof will be spent in journeying. Earnestly begs to be recalled, as he would gladly die, if it might be, amongst Christian men. Mons. D'Estrees, who has been appointed to join the other Commissioners, is esteemed a sober, wise gentleman; he was lately captain of the guard, and has since been preferred to the office of the Ordnance, which is one both of more ease and reputation. 

Hopes the Council will select a person of like quality to answer him, and suggests Mr. Blount of the privy chamber, if he is sufficiently acquainted with the language, because having been long in these parts he knows the ground. Hears that their Lordships having found some fault with the rolls of Parliament, have determined to commit them to the Exchequer. If this is done in his absence, it may compromise him, and therefore begs it may be deferred until his return. [Two pages.]

---

Nov. 9. Augsburg. Philip Prince of Spain to King Edward VI. Much mutilated;—apparently recognizing the Ambassador sent in room of Sir Philip Hoby. [French. Broadside. Signed by the Prince, and countersigned "G. Perezius."]

---

Nov. 18. Westminster. King Edward VI. to Herman, formerly Archbishop of Cologne, re-accrediting the bearer James Omphalius on his return to the Archbishop. [Latin. Broadside. Signed by the Members of the Council. Indorsed "The King's Matie to the old B. of Collen."]

---

Nov. 29. Westminster. Commissions from the King to Sir John Wallop, Sir Richard Blunt, Sir Richard Rede, Dr. William Cooke, and Francis Hall, Esquire, to meet with the French Commissioners for settling the boundaries round Calais. Signed by his Majesty, and counter signed by the Lords of the Council. [Latin. Broadside. Indorsed "Commission to treat with Commissioners of frontiers about bounding of the frontiers."]

--- Nov. 30. Westminster. The Council to Sir John Masone. Send copy of a commission for settling the question of depredations, wherein the Dean of St. Paul's and Dr. Glyn of the Arches are appointed to act during the absence of Rede and Cooke. Mention the argument between them and the French Ambassador as to jurisdiction, &c., and that Sir Richard Blount of the privy chamber was appointed a Commissioner of the boundaries in room of Sir Thomas Wyat, who is unwell and unable to act. [Three pages. Copy in Sir J. Masone's LetterBook.]

--- Dec. 4. Blois. Sir John Masone to Sir William Cecil. Thanks him for assisting in obtaining his recall. Has written also to thank the Duke of Somerset and the Earl of Warwick, at whose good agreement he rejoices. T

There is much talk of the dissensions in England. Offers his opinion on the mistaken policy of a proclamation in England touching the price of cheese and butter. 

Desires the interference of the Council on behalf of Mr. Warner, who has been very ill handled at Winchester. As he has not heard who is to be his successor, has sent the names of some whom he considers fit. [Two pages. The greater portion printed by Tytler, Vol. i., p. 340.]

--- Dec. 12. Westminster.  King Edward VI. to Christian King of Denmark. Refers to the mission of Albert Knoppert, mentioned in the previous letter of 18th November. Some of the English merchants complain that the dues exacted at Elsinore from all ships of whatever tonnage, which prior to 1548 never exceeded a Henrician noble, of the value of ten shillings, have been raised to one pound on every hundred of the value of the freight, both going and coming. 

Requests that the ancient customs may be restored, or reason for this modern innovation be given by letter from his Majesty. Signed by his Majesty. [Latin. Broadside.] Duplicate, signed by the Council, viz.: Somerset, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rich Lord Chancellor, Warwick, and Bedford. [Latin. Broadside.] Copy of the preceding in modern writing. Another copy.

--- Dec. 17. Westminster. The Council to Sir John Masone. Mention their conference with the French Ambassador on the preceding Sunday, when he made various trifling objections to the Commission for settling depredations. Complain of the conduct of the French Commissioners for the boundaries in advancing groundless claims, and desire him to request an audience of the French King for the purpose of remonstrance. [Five pages. Copy in Sir J. Masone's Letter-Book.]

---

Dec. 30. Blois. Sir John Masone to the Council. Had received their letter of the 17th on Christmas eve, and on St. Stephen's day had audience of the French King. Details this conference, and a subsequent one with the Constable on the same points of remonstrance; at both of which amity was strongly professed and entreaty made for friendship between the English and the Scots. 

Erskine arrived this day with the conclusion of peace between the Emperor and the Scots. Warlike preparations both by sea and land are great, and the completion of the ships formerly mentioned is hastened. Lately at Court war against the English had been strongly urged, on the ground of their internal dissensions, want of supplies, &c. 

The galleys for re-conveyance of the Queen Dowager of Scots are still at Rouen. The Earl of Huntly is lodged at Court, and much called to secret conferences; he has been twice or thrice with Masone making profession of friendship to the English, explaining his escape, and his desire to have a safe conduct to return by land. 

The French King leaves soon after Twelfthtide for Tours, and is reported thereafter to go to Guienne. The Landgrave had nearly escaped from Mechlin; if he had "there would have been shortly a jolly revel in Allmaigne." The Rhinegrave and his brother are reconciled. Chastillon, after long absence, has returned to Court, bringing with him 30 or 40 captains, and above 100 great horses. Among other marriages "muttered," is that of the Dauphin with the Queen of Scots. "Wavering Dr. Smythe," (fn. 1) who is presently reading at Paris, begs permission to return; his leaving England "was, he sayeth, for lack of living, being less ashamed to beg here than at home." 

States his own financial difficulties; he has exhausted his credit in England, sold all his own plate, "and shall shortly be driven for very extremity to do the like with the King's." "If the realm be in that poverty that the King's ministers of honour, who were wont to be served with the first, cannot be paid six months after the day, God help!" [Fourteen pages. Copy in Sir J. Masone's LetterBook.]

---- Dec. 30. Augsburg. Sir Richard Morysine to Cecil. (fn. 2) In consequence of a post from Rouen to Flanders having been robbed of his packets last week, he essays cipher, which if Cecil be as weary with finding as he is of hiding what he writes, he will henceforth be plainer. Is weary both of writing, and that he can by none of his letters get his diets to come a day sooner than they should. Others might better shift than he can. If he is not helped soon, he shall borrow no more where he borrowed last. [Two pages. Partly in cipher, undeciphered.]

[helihi]

Thoughts on RWBY Vol. 7

Quarantine day 20: I finally force myself to re watch volume 7 instead of doing my French homework.

Spoilers ahead for RWBY and How I Met Your Mother (yes).

Volume 7: The Story of a Broken Narrative Kingdom

The day has come where I finally sit down and watch the whole season again. Some of you wondered why I didn’t simply do a The Good, The Bad, and The Dirty review on the last episode of the volume like I did with the previous ones. The answer is the same reason why Ozpin’s speech at the end of the volume encapsulates the volume’s theme as a whole: finales affect the way you look at shows, comics, movies, and books. It provides a framing.

Did any of you watch How I Met Your Mother? For those of you who didn’t, it was a often called the show “which could replace Friends”. Something that you may not know is that fans of the show renamed it something among the lines of “How I should date your Aunt Robin” after the last episode aired. You see, the ending of the show changed the way most viewers see the show in the present.

The show had main character Ted Mosby narrate to his children how he met their mother. However, the story doesn’t begin during the day that encountered happen; no, it starts years before, when Ted declares he wants to settle down and find the love of his life. In that very same episode, he meets Robin Scherbatsky. In the end it’s revealed that the mother (the character we spent years speculating about) is dead (which I expected), and Ted asks his children if they give him the blessing to date their Aunt Robin. Originally, the fans could excuse episode 1 centering around Robin because it was the instance where Ted decided he wanted to settle down, but after the veil was lifted; there were no excuses, this whole story was a Ted’s way of convincing their children he should marry Robin, the main woman in his life during the whole show (even if we spend the last season on her wedding with one of Ted’s best friends).

Perhaps the ending of Volume 7 didn’t destroy the character development of 3 main characters, but it drastically changed the way I felt about the volume.

“The Kingdom of Atlas will remain safe, that’s my promise”- James Ironwood, Volume 7, Episode 1.

If you go back in my blog and read my reviews for most of the volume, you will find glowing ratings and stars. Anyone that knows me, knows that I love a good politics game in the shows/stories I read, so I was really excited when the writing team started developing that during the first half of the season.

Our gang (RWBY+JNOR+Q+M) reach Atlas after finding out that Oz is a fraud, that Salem cannot be beat (by Oz), and that Cinder almost took another maiden’s power. They quickly realize that Atlas is in a state of chaos and Ironwood is consumed by fear taking authoritarian measures, which keep the kingdom divided.

The stage is set:

 Ironwood, Winter, and the Ace Ops.

Robyn, the Happy Huntresses, and Mantle.

 Watts, Jacques, and Tyrian.

I thought the way everything was set was fantastic, I loved the political drama, and I thought the writers were taking their time properly. Even now I give huge kudos to the Schnee storyline, which is my favorite. The volume showed us how flawed Winter’s coping mechanism is, how Weiss is still susceptible to her father’s gaslighting and manipulation, and how the household isn’t just broken by Jacques (Willow apologists, pls read this).

However, the cracks started showing during the first episodes and I noted that on my reviews. We have characters used for exposition dump: from the Robyn supporter, that explains what we could’ve learned by the normal progression of the story, who gets killed as soon as he returns home, and other characters like Maria talking about Pietro while he’s standing right there.

In contrast to that, we get wonderful montages which show the passage of time. The kids interact with one another and the Ace Ops, they train, they help with Ironwood’s plan. It seems weird to have 2 different tools one after the other.

Also, it it weird for anyone that Qrow and Winter only interact 1 time during episode 2 when in Volume 3 a clear rivalry was established? Winter’s storyline was supposed to follow Penny’s, while Qrow was supposed to grow attached to Clover. Because these 2 characters had to reach a certain point in the story, they are not allowed to deviate from the interactions needed for the plot to advance.

Another thing occurred to me while re-watching the season again... Why is Ironwood so fixated in protecting Atlas when it’s floating in the air away from Grimm? Yes, we know that some Grimm can fly, but by the many times we see Mantle in chaos, you would think Ironwood would repair Mantle’s wall to keep it safe?

That’s the theme, guys, girls and nonbinary folks: a kingdom divided.

Just like the Atlas kingdom falls apart, the narrative of Volume 7 has a specific breaking point that marks the decline in quality (you can see that in my reviews). The moment everything went downhill starts in Episode 8, with the dinner at the Schnee Manor.

We spend much time developing the political tensions of the volume for Jacques to be promptly arrested and taken away from the scene in a second.

While Ironwood, Winter, Penny, and Clover are shown doing plot relevant stuff, team JNOR does that ridiculous gag to get Whitley out of Weiss’s hair.  The rest of the team do jackshit, and we don’t hear anything from them until everything is over. Again, the writers reached the plot point and forgot about everything else.

Also, Ruby looks sadly at Weiss when Whitley mentions that Klein was “let go”, yet Weiss has never talked about him to Ruby on screen. Claiming Weiss could’ve done that off screen strips away the possibilities of Weiss bonding with Ruby the same way she did with Yang when talking about their pain during Volume 5.

Such a large table, and only 4 council members, isn’t that kind of stupid? I mean, if Ironwood had 2 seats, numbers wise it makes sense, but who are those other 2 supposed to represent? Why haven’t we seen them before?

Robyn is told by Yang and Blake that Ironwood doesn't know who to trust. She proceeds to pressure him in front of people he clearly doesn’t trust. This is the first instance of OOC Robyn.

The walls crumbled, and everything became obvious as a viewer. Some other notable flaws:

Tension jojoing. The people in mantle will revolt! Except they aren’t. This happens in Episode 5, 6, and 9. The only real uprising is the last one. The other two were silly cliff hangers that make no sense when you watch the show again. (they didn’t make sense before either  and I complained).

Hey there, Watts! You may have an interesting backstory, except it’s only implied you are pissed off Penny got chosen as a major project instead of whatever yours was. Also, Paladin incident? What? If he is the main villain of the Volume, why not expand on him? I shouldn’t be surprised, Hazel and Tyrian are not that complex. And Cinder? It’s been 5 volumes and we barely know anything about her haha.

Robin! I love how civilized and smart you are when the volume started, choosing to observe and talk instead of acting against the main characters. How awful is it that you forget to keep your calm when a Serial killer is on the loose. It would be a shame if someone were to... die.

I already gave my 2 cents over Clover’s death, and I’m not going to repeat myself. I am sorry to all the Fair Game fans, I’m afraid bury your gays is till alive and well.

The nail on the coffin is the final episode: after making a speech about how Salem wants to divide people and how the only way to go is to remain united, James does the exact opposite thing the moment something doesn’t go according to plan. Don’t get me wrong, his PTSD regarding the queen chess piece was foreshadowed, but the moment team RWBY offer an explanation and identify the person behind it, he’s to far gone. Then, Salem shows up, and goes for Team RWBY when Ruby gets under her skin. This shows that Salem has a weakness and that Team RWBY can be trusted when it comes to defeating her, yet that is promptly ignored.

Also, Ironwood might be hurt about Yang and Blake talking to Robyn, but after everything, they were proven right: Robyn is to be trusted, Ironwood was making a mistake.

The whole setting up a trap to attract Tyrian wasn’t Ironwood going “mad with power” or something. Robyn knew he has lying and allowed Ironwood to catch someone who could hack everything. Not only that, but the camera zoomed in on Ironwood, so nobody could see Robyn’s handy Semblance going red. Or... maybe I’m looking too much into it and the writers expected you to forget.

Sorry, I guess James Ironwood had to take a bunch of stupid pills.

“I wish it didn’t have to end this way.” - Clover Ebi.

“It doesn’t have to, but the writers need that Branwen angst.” - Qrow Branwen.

Volume 7: Part 1 of the Atlas Arc

Have you ever heard of Checov’s gun? It is a dramatic principle that states that every element in a story must be necessary, and irrelevant elements should be removed. Elements should not appear to make "false promises" by never coming into play. Let’s play a game called the false promises of the volume that may carry over to volume 8?

Renora: Nora sides with Robin, Ren sides with Ironwood. They do not communicate with one another and the tension builds throughout the volume. They kiss, nothing gets resolved. Ren cries when Neo turns into Nora.

Training: Ren is shown to throw himself into the enemy as a flaw, he repeats the same mistake when fighting with Neo. Oscar’s Semblance is questioned, nothing comes out of it. Ruby’s Semblance is questioned, nothing comes out of it.

Cinder got beef with Atlas? For some reason, Cinder talks about Atlas hoarding power when speaking with Winter. Bitch, where the fuck do you come from? Who are you? Do I know you? Sorry, the writers forgot to write a growth arc for you. My bad.

Nora, daughter of Atlas? Can someone explain to me why she became a SWJ (/s) during this season? We never get a backstory of her previous to Kuroyuri and for some reason Nora is super attached to the people of Mantle. The daughter of Atlas title was thrown around, why?

It’s so nice to see tea FNKI back! Too bad they are there for 5 minutes and never show up again, not even when Mantle is supposed to be defended by all huntsmen. I guess this was fan service.

What’s the purpose of the Happy Huntresses? Isn’t it funny how the only one who got wounded by Tyrian is the only character who could see in the dark, but didn’t tell Robin that Penny wasn’t guilty? Hi Fiona, I don’t know why you exist.

Marrow: the butt of the joke. Since the first episodes, Marrow is shown as the outsider inside the Ace Ops: his teammates don’t take him seriously, Ironwood doesn’t think Marrow is up to the challenge of some missions, and he’s the only Faunus, the only one that seemed to sympathize with Robyn at the end. Too bad he wasn’t allowed to break his mold.

The World Building looks pretty, but it doesn't play the part.

I have to praise the art direction of this season. I was blown away by the aesthetics of Mantle clashing with Atlas, the details in the backgrounds, the world building by back messaging, screens, and posters. My favorite scene of the volume is the penguins in the tundra.

However, you have to walk the walk, and the writing team failed to deliver.

Racism: hey, I know you guys kinda messed up the White Fang’s internal struggles and opportunity to expand on Adam’s power grab and Sienna’s leadership, but maybe don’t skip the racist elements of Atlas? All we get are Faunus mine workers looking angry, that drunk dude who yelled at Blake and Marrow making a simplistic comment about politics. What...? What’s the point of acknowledging u are bad at writing racism and then do nothing about it? Did none of the new writers know how to tackle this?

In-World Continuity: Hey, wasn't the Vytal festival broadcasted to the entire world? When I saw that camera focusing on Yang on episode 1, I thought there would be a call back to what everyone saw her do during the finals, but nope. Let’s not bring that up again. ever. The only important thing about the Vytal Festival is the tower, move on.

Weapons upgrade: We were told that weapons were an extension of each huntsmen; too bad none of our gang actually work on them. Pietro makes all the modifications and repairs. I remember the bumblebee fans eager for a scene of Blake repairing Gambol Shroud, don’t tell me you’re not disappointed.

Atlas ball: not found. Hey! We have Jacques Schnee celebrating his fake victory on the elections! It would be a perfect moment to showcase the disconnect between what’s happening in Mantle and what the people in atlas thing. Too bad we didn’t wanna make extra character models.

--

Closing thoughts

I wanted to re watch the whole season again to see if the bitterness left on my lips after watching that chaotic finale went away, but it only grew. There are so many character choices that made no sense, so many scenes where characters stood around in the background doing nothing.

WHY THE FUCK DID OZPIN ONLY APPEAR AT THE END?

Oh, I’ll tell you why: he needed to give a speech about themes to justify the stupidity that happened during the last episodes to get to that cliff hanger.

I am disappointed in volume that seemed to be doing so good at the begging, but hey... at this point we shouldn’t be surprised, should we? Interestingly enough, the people who dreamed about the ball and the scenes of Blake fixing Gambol Shroud grew quiet after the episodes aired... 

Almost as if criticism wasn’t allowed on the RWBY tag.

AN: The titty window isn’t justified Salem, your ex is now a child that’s PEDO—

[worldcakecakecake]

Feliciano and the King of Hearts

Chosen by the gods as the Queen of Hearts from the moment of birth,  we follow Feliciano’s story as he grows into royal life, learns to rule,  go against age old customs, and his relationship with his husband to  be, the King of Hearts.

Chapter 1 I  Chapter 2 I Chapter 3 I Chapter 4 I Chapter 5 I Chapter 6I Chapter 7 I Chapter 8 IChapter 9I Chapter 10I Chapter 11I Chapter 12 I Chapter 13 I Chapter 14 I Chapter 15 I Chapter 16 I Chapter 17 I Chapter 18 I Chapter 19I Chapter 20 I Chapter 21 I Chapter 22 I Chapter 23 I Chapter 24 I Chapter 25 I Chapter 26 I Chapter 27 I Chapter 28I Chapter 29 I Chapter 30 I Chapter 31 I Chapter 32 I Chapter 33 I Chapter 34 I Chapter 35 I Chapter 36 I Chapter 37I chapter 38 I Chapter 39 I Chapter 40 I Chapter 41 I Chapter 42 I Chapter 43 I Chapter 44 I Chapter 45 I Chapter 46I Chapter 47 I Chapter 48 I Chapter 49 I Chapter 50 I Chapter 51 I Chapter 52 I Chapter 53 I Chapter 54 I Chapter 55 I Chapter 56 I Chapter 57 I Chapter 58 I Chapter 59 I Chapter 60I Chapter 61 I Chapter 62 I Chapter 63 I Chapter 64  I Chapter 65 I Chapter 66 I Chapter 67 I Chapter 68  I Chapter 69 I Chapter 70 I Chapter 71 I Chapter 72 I Chapter 73 I Chapter 74

                                                    Chapter 75

“There will be no discussion. I accept the order to mobilize these seven hundred men and women from the Indian province. Write to Yekaterina and let her know that they are to be expected,” Elizabeta commanded.

 “They were so recently created. I’m not sure if it will be safe,” Lili debated at the letters asking for permission on usage on these new cannons created by desperate soldiers from her kingdom.

 “Lili, at this point, we take anything we can get,” Kiku commented over his own glide of hands as he tested spells and tricks.

 “Accept the command and move on to the next thing!” Arthur suggested in the hurry he had turned into comfort the last few days.

 As this commotion occurred, Louis focused on changing the number above.

 Four days since Feliciano left them to the Interludes, this day the one he was meant to enter the second realm if the writings and their knowledge were correct.

 “We should start mourning this instant,” Kandake decreed.

 Lovino was quick to deny, “but we are not sure if-”

 “Whether he is or not, it will work the same way. We must be rash. We can’t lose a single moment no matter our doubts,” she placed them and no more disobeys came.

 They all took their positions to start, some sitting while others stood, but no matter, they kept a focus and a gathering of magic that was equal.

 “Are you all ready?” Louis called to those who worked in the back.

 Arthur especially groaned, knowing that the Queens and Jack will have to make dual duties, yet they nodded in agreement with the rest.

 They began it with a push that they all answered to in unison, an easy flow that didn’t really disturb anything in the room.

 But it wasn’t meant to act in this world.

  Feliciano joined in the help to find others, to instruct and to calm, reaching a routine in such a short amount of time.

 All they had was speech, and so it was with words that they spent their time. He learned so much of the lives of different people, attentive and exciting, earning a rumble of laughter many did not expect to have in such a dreaded place. And then there were moments like these, spent in silence, in getting to know these breaths that they lived on in this world. Feliciano felt comfort spending his sitting with Feliks and Sam, the girl ever so attentive in the likeliness she could meet her father here again, while Feliciano hoped to see his beloved soon, looking to the distance, as if he could wave and greet him. For once, the memories of Ludwig he relayed were of joyful ones, where they laughed, danced and kissed in sweetness, hoping he would meet him as this again…and perhaps-

 “Ah look, a new one just popped out,” Feliks distracted and pointed him to the sudden light of a figure, coming in a fade afterwards. This one was a Spadian woman…a nurse. They looked away, not wanting to think, not wanting to believe.

 Yet, despite, Sam couldn’t hold her curiosity, “What must it be like now? What are they doing? …Have they found something that actually works now?”

 Feliks held the same questions, while Feliciano put blame on himself, scolding for what hadn’t worked, hoping for connection, for speech to the living world to keep on commanding anything new that could turn the tides. But what he could do…was be here…find this power bank and then be that change that would put an end to all of this. He sighed, wishing it could all be presented, fast and easy, and he wouldn’t be tainted with this dread, feeling like his mere sitting was waste, disadvantaging while so many of his people lost their lives in dreadful massacres.

 He changed his glance yet again from a new coming spirit, another Heartian soldier, wanting to find some peace in these two new friends he made, anything. “How long do you think you’ve been here, Feliks?”

 He shrugged, “really hard to tell. I think maybe a week? But I really can’t be so sure.”

 “We should be entering the Second Realm then,” Feliciano slightly angered, impatient, glaring at the waters below as to cast blame.

 “What do you think it’s like?” Feliks distracted perfectly, easing Feliciano with thought.

 “In my village, they used to say that it was brightly colored, beautiful and serene, with happiness glowing in every single street,” Sam told.

 “Street?” Feliciano perked.

 “Some people told me there were bridges and buildings,” Feliks added.

 “Like…a whole town?” Feliciano glowed more like a child each add.

 “What did they say in your village?” Sam wondered.

 “They sometimes mentioned that it was a place of reunion…but also the last taste of your past life before you live on with the Aces,” he remembered…all from retellings in his grandfather’s funeral…nonno. “A book I read also mentioned that we become more aware, understanding our new spirit bodies. We stay there depending on length of mourning. It can sometimes take several months…but the other Queens told me they can’t keep me too long…I still have to look for the arsenal…and maybe I can find something in the third or fourth realm.”

 It made Feliks reminded, “will we stick together throughout?”

 How Feliciano hoped it so, wanting to grasp their arms with him to keep them in place.

 It had been such a short time, but Feliciano found comfort of old friends in them, hope in words and exchange that reminded of life and continuation no matter. But there was a harsh reality. The three of them deceased at different times, which signified different entrances…separation. Feliciano grasped at his legs, not wanting to think of that loneliness that would surely come, coming to a new place, new people…

 “you’ve done this all before,” he could somehow hear his grandfather’s voice at the back of his head and he smiled and giggled as if he was there to tickle or tell a new joke.

 Oh…how he missed him too.

 “…I don’t know, but whatever happen, let’s promise that we will move ahead and face it on bravely-” there was suddenly light, blinding light that Feliciano was laid frozen to. He saw nothing, absolutely nobody in this utter whiteness, so drastic from the darkness he had been used to. No sound, no aware or reach. He didn’t know of the shout Sam gave, of her begging, a call, not wanting to be alone. Feliciano couldn’t answer to anything, suspended, draped entirely in this taking that took him further, drowned him yet again in transport to the next step. There was a rush, a force that kept him from acting against it as he slowly started noticing more of his body, of his presence. The light began to dim, in a cleanse…Feliciano released from it as if he was stepping out from the richly prepared waters of his bath.

 The first color he noticed…was rose, creamy, and soothing like gelato or roses. There was gold, blue, all beautifully reflected in these new waters he stepped on. No depths, but the lovely reflection. He was at such peace, freshness anew that he couldn’t bother to think of where he had been and this new place he found himself in.

 This new world focused slowly, hesitant in the show to his eyes, which Feliciano did not understand, for it was gorgeous, a plethora of beauty that made him smile, elate, and only reveal his interior happiness.  

 The silhouette in the distance, one he had paid no mind to till now, cleared enough to reveal…buildings, all together into what seemed like an island. It was complete, structured, and behaving like any town in their living world. There was sound, shouts and commotion like the daily of a Sunday, more of these islands further off, a transport of small boats commuting between, the sailors joyous and giving.

 Hesitant steps forward, making sure the water underneath him kept him…they did. They only reflected the sky above him, swirling with the puffiest clouds, welcoming, and asking of him for this run in freedom. And he answered to it, with a bright smile as he took his dash, uncaring, dancing and shouting. It had been long since he had last felt like this.

 It’s when he noticed the red sash wrapped around his waist, a long part like a ribbon trailing behind him, his pants a rich silk of red, his shirt a long white blouse with an immaculate embroidery of true gold, crossed and tightening his chest high and proud, shinning more than whatever richness the castle could afford. He twirled, he shouted, feeling like a true Queen again, reigning this moment and making it all for him to take.

 Soon, he stood before the shadow of this place, feeling again those deep questions and fears, shy to take those small steps that welcomed him, further…into the streets. Well…it wasn’t really a street…it was but a small path that surrounded a larger canal, diving well into this town’s center, the buildings looking tall, the shadow darkening, yet still so sweetly with the proximity of children laughing. He saw no one near…even if he swore he could hear the chatter of woman with gossip…all in a Italian that made him smile and think he was back at home. It was the thought that finally pushed him forward, steps on solid ground for the first time in the realms. He went on with no direction, only with wish to meet someone…anybody.

 How could a place look so empty yet lively at the same time?

 There was a commotion, a loud one of feast, the one unison of sound that called him forward the most. He peeked at every new corner, meeting more canals that extended all kinds of different directions, a large number of bridges, the streets small, each reveal with decorations, artistry and impeccable form that wondered and distracted Feliciano from his mission. Sometimes the noises went further or closer depending the miss he took, but always he tried to follow it until he caught the quick passing of a child, running across surely trying to catch another. And there was the biggest light, like the sun was shining right over it, to a large open space, he knew. It was all structured so similarly to those of Italy, an expectance that showed him right as he was exposed to the grandiose of this square.

 It looked like the entire population of the town was there, for it was full in crowds, every space given to chats between all kinds of people, to running, to dancing, playing, even a large table presenting a lineage of food that was the expected delicacy of his province. Feliciano licked his lips, the scent taking him and already wanting a grasp at whatever first plate was presented before him. He could close his eyes and imagine himself back at Barga, with the same people, his family…Ludwig taking him to one of the many dances, to sway forward as he did into the light…lost in the memory and the image he gave himself.

 A sudden gasp broke him from it…Feliciano noticing a little boy, looking up to him with grand perplexity, frozen, trying to understand or utter a single word. Feliciano, even if with the same fears and uncertainties, found his ever-friendly self, if shyly raising a hand and giving a pleasant, “ciao.”

 The boy moved back, trembling, yet not running off, biting lips trying to gather the courage to speak aloud, but instead, he began keeping his gaze to the ground and Feliciano feared he would not tell him anything. Too attentive he was he didn’t notice the gasps, the points, how all these eyes began to slowly fall on him. Feliciano only wanted but to help the boy, kneeling to him, presenting himself even with an extended hand that showed that all was well, that there was peace in his approach.

 “I am not here to hurt anybody…all I want is a friend,” he smiled as the words just sung out in Italian, with the serenity of this very square, and the boy smiled and jumped in its acceptance.

 “It’s…it’s an honor, your majesty,” he bowed as order he had to follow despite his childish giddiness.

 Feliciano was surprised by this well-done curtsy, by his way of realizing, reminding Feliciano once again of who he was and what he surely meant…especially to a town where all seemed to be Italian. It was when he gazed to them, meeting them all at once, for they came closer, a large bewilderment, whispers but a low dim so he could be the loudest presence. He blushed and suddenly wished he could hide again in the darkened paths, but after all, he was Queen, and he had to shine the leader, brave and determined, even in this beautiful world of death. He reminded himself that he was still on a mission.

 When he was about to speak aloud his words, there was a rustling between the crowds, these figures holding high spears of gold with banners of red and symbols of the Italian province. When these four came before the crowds, Feliciano couldn’t hold his gasp, awed and wondered at seeing actual angels.

 They stood quite singularly wearing armors that had the intimidation of war, but the color and decoration of a feast as this. Their divine helmets of golds and red shone as deep as this sun, their wings large above the crowds. He couldn’t fathom such creatures taking a bow before him, while he looked so mundane and small, even with this newly pristine clothing.

 “Sua Maestà,” one of them told with such a beautiful ring.

 “It really is him,” another of the souls told.

 “It cannot possibly be,” another worried.

 “If he’s here, it means-”

 “Oh, many of us are to come soon!” One already panicked.

 “The world is truly coming to an end!”

 Oh…this excessiveness was truly Italy, Feliciano couldn’t help the roll of his eyes.

 “No! It is not as it seems!” One of the angels bellowed to hold such accusations, enough for silence to come again in the square.

 “You cannot be dead,” another of the angels told with such glaring accusation that Feliciano trembled.

 “We know it is not meant to be your time…you were not exposed to any dangers of the war and you had a promise from our Ace Augusta to fulfill,” the tallest came, with demand.

 “You could only be here if you brought this upon yourself,” another angered, fearing that Feliciano had shown an exit to all his responsibilities.

 Feliciano could not let himself be accused like this. “I am here looking for the power of the alignment.” It was not the answer the angels were expecting, for they widened and gazed between one another wanting more answers. “As you have guessed, I am not really meant to be dead. My body was placed on a force rest with the sole purpose of coming here and finding it so I can fulfill my promise to Augusta as it should be. I am meant to return once I have it.”

 It was enough to sate their angers, for Feliciano’s own to be alone, the angels understanding for daring to assume. Yet despite announcing his reasons…silence came when he was expecting instant directions to where he had to go. These were angels…they had to know.

 “As much as I would love to stay and enjoy…I am in a hurry. I cannot stay here long and so I have to know now…where is it?” No decorum, no explanation…he wanted it all simply brought. Oh…how different he must be from all. How much did he lose with Ludwig? Yet…this was the maturity and strength he had taught him well to show as Queen. He gripped his hands, wanting nothing but the hold of his hand.

 He could be here…he could be near…he told himself. Get what he needed and rush to find him once the opportunity was presented.

 “The universal alignment?”

 “Yes. You must know that it is a matter of the lives and wellbeing of our world. Please, I have to get it!” By this point he begged, coming closer to show it purposely, the angels settling back, disturbed.

 “Impossible. You should have gotten it when the universe aligned. You were in Hearts, in the living, we know-”

 “I couldn’t,” Feliciano interrupted before they went on.

 “How? How could you have missed it?” An angel came close, feeling betrayed.

 “Locked. Under a validity sphere field.”

 Clear gasps, widened reactions, the angels moving as the crowd did.

 “Who did this?” They demanded.

 “My king…Ludwig…he did it trying to protect me.”

 “And where is he?”

 “…isn’t he…here?”

 There were more shocks, the angels unmoving. They breathed, they tried to find some sense, words, carrying it all into an order…before this party went on disturbed with the news and simply because Feliciano was there.

 “We have not seen Ludwig. As you have surely noticed, this island only takes those deceased that were from the Italian province in Hearts. The one for Germany is right across ours,” the angels pointed to the canals that could take him there if he so wished. “If he is here…then…that is where he will be.”

 “But I tell you now…we have not heard of his arrival.”

 “When did he pass?”

 “Many...many weeks ago.”

 Another angel sighed, “then we should have known by now. Messages between one another is constant.”

 “He might…he might be trying to hide…or…maybe the angels there didn’t want anybody to know, or he’s just…he’s just…” Feliciano tried to excuse, tried to find reason, a way.

 “You are welcomed to go there and find out for yourself.”

 A chance Feliciano could have taken that instant if the angels did not continue with the rest of the dire information.

 “Now…the universal alignment,” one angel thought and tried to think of a way she could explain herself along with her companions. “While it is true that all power that dies is preserved for a short time here when it passes…”

 “We can’t really…give you a specific location of where it is.”

 “Why? I told you it’s dire. If you care about the wellbeing of all these people, then you can tell me, and I can save all of them!”

 “Sua Maestà, it’s not exactly in a location you can just go to!”

 “But the book said that it is present here in a unique connection!”

 “Exactly, unique and singularly! Not even we can give you directions to it.”

 Feliciano gripped and tried hard not to weep that instant. It was becoming harder each new realm…even when he had the presence of four angels before him. “How do I manage it? How can I come to it?” He still had to keep going, still had a mission. No matter the process, he had to head to it.

 The air had been tense, but the angels admired this new Queen’s tenacity, relaxing, letting it now be something of serenity and the peace this feast had been trying to achieve. “As we said and…what information you have found, the arsenal is not exactly a place that you can get to. Yes…it can be reached, but it’s not easy. It moves, it challenges, and it presents depending on how worthy it sees you.”

 “Are we…talking about a person then?” Feliciano guessed.

 “No…only a place that has a mind of its own, constantly moving and refusing to abide by any command.”

 “Not even for a desperate plea to save the world.”

 Feliciano sighed, “then what would I have to do to please it?”

 The angels worried over the sure answer they had, but nevertheless, it had to be told, even if they knew the Queen wouldn’t like it. “We only know of some words the Aces gave us right at the beginning concerning it…but they never thought it would be needed to us.”

 “And after their experience with Keron, they preferred such powers were better kept intact, away from any traitors in their mists. We didn’t learn more on its meaning to show our loyalty and our disinterest on such a thing.”

 “You won’t find anyone who can solve it. The answer, you must find for yourself.”

 Feliciano nodded and accepted to what this challenge could be, a strong determination that told the angels it was focused and serving.

 “The words are simple: The four stances of the four kingdoms. What the Aces awarded in creation. What a King must abide in their kingship. What a Queen should keep in their ambition. What a Jack needs to serve without condition. And what the people raise to tradition.”

 Feliciano was shocked at himself for not providing an answer so simply. He held his words, cursing at himself for not knowing such a basic structure of ruling.

 The four stances of the four kingdoms…they had to be there… he was sure he had been taught…but no matter how deeply he searched his mind…it didn’t come evident.

 What kind of Queen, an Ace even, did not know the four stances? He wanted to kneel and cry at the embarrassment of not having the knowledge before four angels. They should punish him that instant for such insolence. But no pierce had come, not even words, just a peaceful silence that kept this realm a wonder and a soon taste of heaven.

 “It’s not just knowing what the four stances are, it’s showing them true in a way the arsenal can accept.”

 “I know all of this must be incredibly hard on you…and it only get’s worst…”

 “But you can do it!” A woman from the crowd bounced forward.

 “You have to! So many depend on you!”

 “Please, sirs, is it possible for us to help,” one woman dared come forward, an offering that already wanted to be fulfilled.

 “You may try. But remember all…every word we’ll tell him will be useless if he has not learned to show it himself,” one angel loudly reminded to all.

 “We will try our best,” one man offered.

 “Very well. May I also remind, that like many of you, Feliciano will only be here a limited time. A month only if I am not mistaken. Use your time wisely, welcome him, tell him how we live so he is prepared. Your majesty,” the four turned to him simultaneously, beautiful and a pure majesty that Feliciano thought he was going to drown under. “Good luck, and may you find what you are looking for.” And in graceful swifts they turned and made a militant pace through the crowds, all offering an artistic path for them to take. The four of them went separate directions, different corners of the island. Once they reached the edges, they took flight, one Feliciano only saw dimly of, for they soon disappeared to whatever perch they needed to take to continue their watch over the island.

 All had kept to Feliciano’s silent watch, all in his same wonder if they were going to come back and guide more on this journey. Nothing else occurred, no other new presence came, it was now just the very crowd Feliciano had entered to.

 A near woman sighed and gave up on this waiting, turning to the Queen, bowing before offering a hand. “I understand there is much you have to do, but for now, come and join us! Enjoy the festivity only for today …So many would like the chance to know you and spend time with you…”

 He should refuse, he should walk away and begin his focus that moment. But…the food looked so delicious, the square beautiful, the people wonderful and the activities were surely there to set him aglow. It was an utopia made by his people, meant as the last taste of their culture before they passed on and surely left it behind. Perhaps he needed this moment to be Italian, be himself and take part with his own kind if just for a day.

 The little boy came close, at his side, looking up to him as if he were another angel of guidance, inspired, taking his hand, and wanting to be part of that exposure. Feliciano was slightly startled after he had been so lost in his mind, but he welcomed it quickly with a dear smile. He joined in a tighten grasp, thinking back to the dim jewels in his hands and more than ever wishing he could finally hold his children in his arms. But for now, he turned to his people, all yet still so impressed to be at the presence of a Queen, one of their own, their eyes with many curiosities and excitements to spend whatever chance they could with him. Feliciano grinned and walked forward to grant it to them.

 Lively chatter began again, many played, many danced and sang, and oh had Feliciano missed having some ricotta stuffed ravioli, the taste and scent there so real it made him forget that he was but a spirit in in the Second Realm.

[melvillaa]

An Ode to 2020

Not really sure why I’m awake right now. If this was pre-marriage, I would have taken out my laptop to start typing, but it’s not and Bri is knocked tf out, so here we are. I guess this is the ode to 2020 post that I’ve been meaning to annotate for a while now.

This has been the most transformative year of my life. So many changes in more ways than one. Way more ways. Try like 20. A lot of crying (which I never do.... or maybe i just don’t admit to, lmao), a lot of introspection, a lot of uncomfortability (is that a word?), and a lot of change. A whole lot.

The year started off with optimism and ended with the same notion. Full of hope and wonder for the year set before me, I couldn’t wait for 2020 - it was supposed to be the year all my dreams came true.. and in a weird way, it was! It was the year I got married to the love of my life(!!!!!!), reached 5 years at my corporate job, relocated to a new home in a new city and area code. It was all that - but it wouldn’t be my life if it wasn’t that, plus a little pizzazz, lol.

It’s hard for me to give myself grace. Truly I think I am the hardest on myself. Always empathetic of others and their experiences, but always giving myself the short end of the stick. Living in a pandemic has been wild - but living through my huge life changes in the middle of a pandemic has proven to be even more wild. As a person who doesn’t necessarily love change, I’ve struggled to give myself grace in the midst of the huge life changes I’ve experienced. I’m damn proud of how far I’ve come and how strong I’ve been to withstand the trials that I battle without me really saying a word to a single soul. As a person, me typing this stuff out is me telling the world my story - even if no one reads it. This year changed my life.

Marriage.

I became a wife and entered the covenant of marriage. It really is true that you enter into a marital bliss that is full of love you don’t experience until you get married. It’s unlocking a next level of your relationship and discovering a new version of yourself ... yourself plus another human. There really are different levels of love that you are surprised to find out that you are capable of. It’s different than just being in a relationship with one another. Now we’re bound to each other under a different covenant - before the eyes of God, our family, our friends and the law. It’s weird filling out paperwork and realizing that legally I am no longer a Villaflor. Well technically I’ll always be a Villaflor (Melanie Rose Villaflor Argamaso to be exact, okurrrttttt). I stepped into this role of being a wife and all the “responsibilities” that came with it and also fully embraced the fact that I have a person to do life with who loves me more than himself, who is always thinking of me, always taking care of me, always looking out for me, and who genuinely takes responsibility for me. It’s weird. It’s things I knew of during our relationship, but in marriage it’s somehow personified.. magnified. Marriage is so cool. Maybe it’s cool for me because there’s been such an emphasis and importance placed on it ever since I was a little girl. Bri and I didn’t have the “modern relationship” where we lived together prior to marriage. Yea we slept over and had our own respective places, but to really enter into marriage where everyday it’s me and you, and we have a whole ass home and life together is really wild. I love it. Doing life with Bri is me truly seeing that this man really would give me the world if I asked for it. Anything I could ever want or need, he fulfills it. Everyone always asks me what I’ve learned about him since we got married, or what’s something new about Bri that I’ve discovered ... one thing is that this man and his hobbies are unmatched, bro loves him some cars, any moving vehicle really, lmao. But mostly, I see his heart. He always wants the best - for me and for himself and anyone he cares about, sometimes to a fault when he can’t attain perfection but so badly wants to achieve it. But most times he can .. and then some. I’ve never met someone so naturally good at so many things. Tactically advanced, street smart as hell, a risk taker with the ability to fix just about anything, a people person with an infectious personality who could probably resell a piece of lint if he had to. We’re a family now. A little family of two but we’re both at a place where we really wouldn’t mind unlocking another level of love if it were time to. (He asks me for a “grey” from @greyandmama on IG almost weekly 🥺🥴😂).

Wedding.

It seemed like I waited so, so long for our wedding - for it to come and go like the wind. But instead of a nice sea breeze, it came and went like a tropical storm (... literally 😂but more on that later!) I remember being so excited on New Years Day at the start of 2020 ... the anticipation of our wedding in the next five months and really the start of all of our wedding festivities would begin within the next month ... or so I thought.

I remember hearing about the coronavirus making landfall in the US around the holidays in 2019 and it was already steadily spreading across the US, but not quite as widespread as it currently is. I was going on a work trip to Florida towards the end of January and I remember wearing a mask in the airport and on the flight and I conducted my usual Lysol-ing of my entire space. Everyone was looking at me like I was insane but I really didn’t care, haha. A flight attendant asked me why I was wearing a mask and I replied that I just wanted to stay healthy for my family. (...Still true, lol.) I had no idea at this moment how significantly the coronavirus was going to disrupt our world, how normal mask wearing would be, and how disinfectant wipes would soon be the most prized commodity in 21st century homes. 

February came like a rush - I started designing our wedding invitation suite which was something I had literally dreamed about. I had a vision from the very beginning and new exactly how I wanted everything to look down to the postage stamp. It reinforced a love for stationery design that I knew I had, but damn was I proud of the finished product. I was so meticulous about everything - from the fonts I used, the colors and hues of the paper, the thickness of the paper, the envelopes, the ink I used. It was so intricate, but it was the most fun I ever had while designing something. It didn’t feel like work at all, but it was pure love that I poured into those invitations. Bri’s bachelor party happened in early March and my bachelorette in Chicago (!!!) was supposed to happen at the end of March. The boys went to Jacksonville, Florida and were able to stay with Bri’s old roommate, Ace in his beautiful home. Coronavirus cases were on the upswing, especially in Florida and Atlanta. I was so freaked out. N95′s were no where to be found, but since Bri is a painter, he was able to score some through work. He wore one on the flight and literally got light headed due to lack of oxygen, lol. He had the time of his life in Florida while I poured my whole self into our invitations, lol. And as soon as the boys got back, the US started to shut down. 

Everyone began to work from home and businesses started closing up shop. Star couldn’t make it to my bachelorette, so she schemed her way into getting me to pole dance with all the girls, hahaha. It was literally the night before everything was supposed to shut down. No indoor dining or bars were going to be open at midnight the following Monday, so I was super thankful that I was able to have a mini bachelorette experience in our own little backyard.  

It was an anomaly to fly anywhere and airports became ghost towns. Each day we got a little closer to my bachelorette and myself and the girls were so excited. Itineraries were made, bickering ensued, flights were purchased, I bought outfits for every outing (... so much white, lol) Literally the only thing left for us to do was to actually fly to Chicago. Probably a week to a week and a half before we were supposed to fly out, Chicago issued a stay at home order and everything shut down. We had to make the difficult decision to cancel my bachelorette trip to Chicago and try to rebound and think of a plan B. The girls were so gracious. I’m so thankful for all the work they put in to try and make things work out for me. We tried to do a weekend trip to Ashville, NC but everything was so risky and there was so much unknown at this point. Covid mandates varied from state to state and things were quite literally changing by the day, the hour even. It just didn’t work out. Till this day I’m sad that I didn’t get to have the full bachelorette experience, but I’m still so, so thankfulI for my friends and the work that they put in to make everything feel as normal as possible. 

Home.

Careers.

Relationships.

Ok I’ll reflect on these things later. I’m sleepy, lol.

[finita--la--commedia]

hello! back again to ask about Marina Tsvetaeva. I haven't read any of her work, and was wondering whether you still think starting with her letters would be best? (again, haven't read anything of hers)! If so, what letters would you specifically suggest to start with? otherwise, if u think beginning with some of her other work would be better - pls tell me what! thank you so much. Always in awe of your blog. many blessings x

[ it is going to be a lengthy post ]

Letters. Still – letters. Reading them, you will be able to see and feel her astounding, absolutely unique, “undressed” and tormented Soul and with that, to truly understand and feel through, – her prose and poetry … In her case, it is important.Everything about Tsvetaeva, you must feel and hear. Never “read” or, God forbid, -  ”understand”.   Here is the reference to the book of her letters on Goodreads:https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/283216.The_Letters_of_Marina_Tsvetaeva?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=fvbRr8HRYi&rank=2It contains 800 letters. I never read that translation and I pray to God, - it is good. You don’t have to read all of them, I will give you the list of the correspondents with the commentaries below, so you knew who those people were. Also, you can read the letters and other works, like poetry, at the same time. Why not ?But….  the letters – first 😊 The spelling of the names may slightly vary in that book. Note that all those letters she wrote while being married.  1. To Nikolay Gronsky (1909-1934). A must read. They met in Spring of 1928, in Paris. Gronsky was 18 and Tsvetaeva –  36. A young talented poet, he was later tragically killed in a metro accident: hit by a subway car in the Paris metro, he was just 25. A suspiciously strange accident, indeed ….  Yet, Tsvetaeva always believed it was, in fact – “an accident”. After he died, at the time, when their communications were already over, Tsvetaeva dedicated him a cycle of poems “Gravestone”:“Where did you go ? … Your soul —where did it go ? … Your face — where did it go ? Your face, your warmth,your shoulder — where did it go ?”

They took long walks and exchanged letters, which indicate that Tsvetaeva had a deeper attachment than that of a poetic master to a pupil, but by the late Autumn, their communication faded away … From her letter to him:“… a thirst for THAT OTHER self —not of the world of ideas,but of the chaos of hands and lips.

A thirst for the secret self.

The last self.

The imaginary self …”You can also read her letters to Pasternak, but I deeply dislike him as a person … for what he did to Tsvetaeva and what he did not do for her daughter and her son, because he was simply a disgusting coward. I do believe that Pasternak hugely contributed to what happened to her whole family, its tragedy and her suicide. By the way, the rope Tsvetaeva hanged herself on, was accidentally, given by Pasternak, when she needed to wrap her suitcase when evacuating. It is painful to read her Love letters to him, knowing all that and more. She was trustful and naïve. Not because she was a fool, but because she so strongly and stubbornly wanted to believe in the goodness of the humanity when there was and is – none.

2. To Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)Her letters to Rilke are all over the Internet I gave you the link to their correspondence in my previous reply to you. They never met, but wrote to each other intensely from May 1926 until Rilke’s abrupt death in December of leukemia. During that correspondence, Tsvetaeva fell in Love with him. She was 34 and he was 51.

Quotes from her letters to him:“For my soul is well-bred.” “Rainer, dusk is falling, I love you.”“Beloved, come to me often in my dreams. No, not that. Live in my dreams. Now you have a right to wish and to fulfill your wishes”3. To Alexander Bakhrah (1902-1977)He was 20, she was 31. At that time, he was just a young critiс  Tsvetaeva had never met. She lived in Chekhia (Czechoslovakia) and he – in Berlin. She responded to his critical article on her poem and the epistolary affair had started. He published all her Love letters to him only in 1960 … “modestly” cut 1/3 out of them… 19 letters (1923), one (1924) and one (1928), when Love was already gone. Later those letters were re-published in full. No letters from him were saved.He caught her interest … and just like with Vishnyak and Pasternak before, and with Rilke, Shteiger, – later, she poured out at him all her immensity … And just like with everyone listed above, he simply couldn’t handle it.Then she met and fell in Love with someone else, in the real life: with Konstantin Rodzevich and this correspondence, as well as her Love to Bakhrah, – ended. Quotes from the letters to Bakhrah:“You have not understood my letter. You didn’t read it carefully. You didn’t take in my tenderness, nor my care, nor my human pain for you. You didn’t even understand me in myself: “and does it really matter - who is hurt ?!  - to experience someone’s pain as your own – all of it you didn’t get .”“I cannot love myself, because I love; and don’t want to, because I love him.”4. To Konstantin Rodzevich (1895-1988)She was 28 and he was 31. They met in 1923 in Prague.Years later, Tsvetaeva confessed that Konstantin Rodzevich was her only true Love in life: the man who cared less about her poetry and till the very old age never understood what she Loved him for. He believed that she created a person he was not and fell in Love with that imaginary hero. Many thought and still do that the son she gave a birth to in 1925 was from him. The quote from her letter to him:“I’ve loved everything, I knew how to love everything except the other, the other who was alive. The other has always bothered me; it was a wall against which I broke, I didn’t know how to live with the living. Hence my feeling that I was not a woman but a Soul.You simply have loved me … I told you: there is a Soul. You said: there is a Life.”5. To Abram (Abraham) Vishnyak (1893-1944)I told you about him and Tsvetaeva in my previous reply. She published her letters to him and one of his in “Florentine nights. Nine Letters with a Tenth Kept Back and an Eleventh Received”.Quotes from her letters to him:“What is it to forget a human being ? - It is to forget what one suffered through him …”“Such things do not hurt me any longer, you accustomed me to them, you and everyone else …”“My total forgetfulness and my absolute failure to recognize you today are but your absolute presence and my total absorption of yesterday. As much as you were — as much you are no longer. The absolute presence in reverse. Such a presence cannot but become such an absence. Everything yesterday, nothing today.”“You make me soft (humanize, feminize, animalize) like fur.”“All these last years, my life has been so different, so hard, so icy that now I can only raise my shoulders and my eyebrows: is this me ?You soften me (make me more human, more woman, more animal) as fur does.”5. To Anatoly Shteiger (1907-1944). An absolutely must read. She was 44 and he was 29. There are 30 letters of hers saved to him from 1936 and only one to her, plus some excerpts she saved in her notes and as references to them in her letters to him. He was a young Russian emigrant-poet who lived in Switzerland, I posted a couple of quotes from his poems here. When they started an extensive correspondence, Tsvetaeva lived in Paris. A personal meeting between them took place only briefly before the correspondence had started, then he wrote her a deeply-confessional 16-pages letter to which she responded and this is how it started. She fell in Love with him. In the last, the only saved letter, he reminded her that in that first long confessional letter he tried very hard to explain to her that he was homosexual. She did not understand, didn’t catch it or, rather, what I think and believe, – she did not want to understand or catch. What she saw was only this: a young, broken-hearted man from a previous relationship, who is very ill with a tuberculosis, about to have a lung surgery and who came to her for a help. So she ran to help him, fell in Love, because she felt being needed. This what Tsvetaeva was about … As I say and write about myself: “I am there where I am needed. Make me believe I am needed … and my Soul will be yours … ”. She was the same.  Quotes from her letters to him:

“I am longing for you. Never — without you. As — to be longing for a bread — means to be taken by thoughts about it. To be longing without a bread — means to be swallowed by it. Never in my life I’ve been longing – without a person. One thing — an overflow, another — emptiness. I will never be empty — by you. — I hope. (I think, I have never been empty even for a second).”

“And whether you like it or not, I already took you within, where I take everything cherished, without even contemplation, seeing it already within. You are my capture and catch, like today’s remnant of a Roman viaduct, with the dawn that breaks through and plunges in more faithfully and more eternally than the river Loing, into which it forever gazes at itself.”“But you, at certain moments, are I — to the point of strangeness”“Now I am thinking about you: thinking — you”“Your letter has gored my icy scurf, it opened up my own vibrant abyss – where you immediately and fully have engulfed yourself.”“I tell you in advance – whatever you will be, when you enter through my door, – I will be loving you anyway, because I love you already, because – the miracle has happened – and this is only about the degree of pain – the better you will be – the worse it will be – to me.”When she, finally understood the reason, why he couldn’t return her Love …. she wrote him a bitter and hurtful letter to which he responded:“Yes, you can be colder than a star if you want. I was always afraid of it.”In that last, the only saved letter, the young Shteiger with a wisdom of an old man, pointed out, in a form of a light and polite accusation, as a plain sad fact, at one of the very important characteristics of Tsvetaeva, that accompanied all to one of her relationships: all men that she ever Loved – she simply created in her exceptional unique imagination. She had to … to bring them closer to the level of the richness, vastness and the immensity of her Soul. But there were consequences: soon or later, that “image” fell off … So, Shteiger wrote to her: “You are so “powerful” and “rich”, you recreate the  people you meet in your own way, but when their real, authentic image comes out, after all, – you get astonished of the vanity of those on who that “gleam” of yours is no longer applied by you…But what does the Person might feel when that created “image” of yours is no longer applied on him by you ? After you created it, enjoyed it and then – stop seeing it in him ?” . It is so very true. I do the same … From her last letters to him:“… I loved you as who I am, which is difficult to explain … ““That was a blow to my chest (in which you resided) and, if I did not fall down — then only because no human force can knock me flat any more, because I no longer permit this to humans, because I will die — standing up”“How many times ? Don’t I know that everything ends; don’t I believe that this (what is in me for you) will end one day, will ease me that I will think out of you: will become again an empty – bleak – and roomy house: domaine ?”She dedicated a cycle of poems to him “Poems To Orphans”, the 4 epigraph lines, only he could understand: “Baby walked along the road Shivering and turning blue An old woman walked that road She took pity on the orphan”  Anatoly Shteiger will die of tuberculosis, in 1944 at the age of 37. So, what do you think ? Worth reading her letters first ? ***************************Now, prose and poetry.I can only recommend from what has been translated. If you spoke Russian, my recommendations would have been different. For example, I would have strongly suggested you to read her “Collated notes” and “Diary prose” she kept most of her life, but neither one of them has been translated. Some bits and pieces in various books, strangely translated as her “diaries” (!?!). Poetry.The problem with her poetry is the translation. She created words, which are untranslatable, therefore, in translation, you only get the meaning of what she wrote and in many cases, it is badly mistranslated, misinterpreted. Another thing, that she had an absolute pitch and considered the music her first language. You need to listen to her poetry in Russian to understand what she was saying in a poem … it is absolutely untranslatable.  Don’t read anything translated by Elaine Feinstein. There is a special place in Hell for translators like her. She will go straight there, already reserved. Here is my short review of just 3 lines of Tsvetaeva, someone quoted, you will get an idea how bad her translations are: https://finita--la--commedia.tumblr.com/post/187285356964/your-name-is-a-kiss-of-snow-a-gulp-of-icy-springThe best translations, of her poetry, by my opinion, surprisingly, available free, on the Internet, by Ilya Shabat, a huge collection:http://lib.ru/POEZIQ/CWETAEWA/sbornik_engl.txtJust pick, randomly – any. Here is the pdf book with some of her poems I would also recommend:http://www.sumizdat.org/To_you_in_10_decades.pdfProse. 

Unfortunately, I could only find one work translated into English, it is worth reading:“The Letter to Amazon” – 13 pages. You can download pdf file here, the button in the right corner, on top:https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319316122_LETTER_TO_AN_AMAZON_BY_MARINA_TSVETAEVAQuotes:“Listen to me, you do not have to respond to me, you have to just listen. This is a wound that I inflict right at your heart, at the heart of your cause, of your belief, of your body, of your heart.”“Weeping willow ! Inconsolable willow ! Willow – the body and soul of women ! Inconsolable neck of willow.”“In my youth I was quick to say to myself: I always fear letting go of the wave rising from me and carrying me to another. I always fear that I will not love anymore, that I will not learn anything anymore. But I am no longer young and I have learned to let go of almost everything – irretrievably”There is a semi-autobiographical story I would also recommend you to read, I think there is a translation: “The Tale of Sonechka”Quote:“– Marina, do you think God will forgive me for having been kissed so much ? – Do you think God counted ? – I didn’t count either.”  Well … uhhhh ….  let me know if you have more questions about her works, life, a family or about the correspondents I have listed above for each has a personal story. 

[popculturebuffet]

Jake Reviews Stuff: Bojack Horseman: Horay Todd Episode! (Plus a little bit on girls with slingshots)

Happy final day of pride month everybody! It’s been a hell of a ride.. and not just because the current landscape of the globe feels like hell right now, And to close it out we’re taking a look at an often overlooked segment of the queer community in media: Asexuality. I first learned about asexuality from the web comic girls with slingshots, because I love comic strips as much as comic books and because mainstream media tens to be really bad about telling people about diffrent facets of the lbtqa+ community, proven by the fact It took me till 2010, 18 years into my existince, to learn trans people existed from the long running candian teen drama Degrassi, birthplace of candian rapper Drake despite his damndest attempts to make people forget that, and a show that actually tackled the subject really well and the horrible shit trans people have to put up with, especially at Adam’s age. I also bring it up to apologize for a lack of trans representation of this pride as I scratched my head trying to think of some.. only to forget “oh yeah that really damn good rocko special from last year exists and has been sitting there all month dumbass” as I was writing this. I’m truly sorry and will try to get a review of static cling out sometime in june as an apology. 

Back to Girls with Slingshots though because like with degrassi I want to give it genuine props and a talk here both for teaching me about it and being really good at queer representation in general. We actually meet the comic’s Ace representivie Erin, a shy 19 or 20 year old, when lead and professional dumbass Hazel hired Erin to find out who was dating her friend Jamie.. turns out

Given Jamie had only been dating men up to this point, and her one time with a woman lead to her assuming she wasn’t bisexual,  when Jamie TRIED to tell Hazel what was going on Hazel, being kind of a dim, assumed it was an aaron and Erin decided rather than just you know, show up and let the the hamster in hazel’s brain slowly figure it out to do this. 

Why yes that is a tiny asexual wearing the most transparent graucho marx-ish disguise ever. And why yes Hazel absolutely falls for it and even when Erin outright takes off the disguise it still takes Hazel a good minute to connect the dots. And why yes, this strip is awesome and is worth taking a large amount of time to talk about in an almost entirely unreatled article, more than i’d planned really. But eventually things hit a snag: the two TRIED having sex before Erin left to go to school in london.. and given i’ve out and out admited she’s asexual, you can guess it went badly, with Jamie feeling bad it was so uncomfortable and didn’t talk to her until visting her in london, where the two patched things up: They still loved each other, Erin was simply asexual and Jamie realized she was biromantic.  However this didn’t mean Jamie herself was asexual.. and to Corsetto’s credit she actually fully dealt with this. After Jamie accidently became a meme while complaning about how horny she felt, the two had an honest talk about it, with Erin revealing she was perfectly fine if Jamie hooked up with dudes to satisfy her needs. It was a nice compromise and one of the first times I also learned polyamory wasn’t just something some weird asshole on tv did where he forced three women into what looked like an utterly miserable situation. What i’m saying is polgamy isn’t the same as polyamory and sister wives is objectively terrible and i’ve only seen minutes of it. 

In fact the current daily reprint is up to this storyline and has Erin wing womaning for her girlfriend. And yes I do acknowledge this won’t be a solution for EVERY couple, everyone is diffrent.. it was really nice to show a relationship between two people of diffrent and wildly underrepresented sexual orentations that , rather get into a depressing thunderstorm over something like this, talk it out like adults and work out a resonalbe solution. Hence why I took several paragraphs of something else entirely to get into it. If you want more , check the strip out here. 

https://www.girlswithslingshots.com

Okay now that plot cul de sac is out of the way, though I don’t regret a minute of it, you see the problem: Girls was the exception not the role and media wise, has a small but loyal fanbase. Big shows just didn’t really get that asexuality existed. But then one decided:let’s go let’s do this... so now i’ve talked about something else entirley for a good few paragraphs let’s talk about Bojack horseman Bojack Horseman is, like SU last time, one of the best shows of the last decade animated or otherwise. And like Steven, and adventure time before steven, it changed the game on what a genre of animation could do. See while Animation was going thorugh another renicssance in the 2010′s, it was mostly on the kids side for the first half.. Adult Animation was...

While there were good shows,after all Archer is a child of the 2010′s, bob’s burgers premired shortly after, and venture bros was, and still is, goin.. they were the exception. Family Guy was devloving from a really funny show to a horrible, unfunny mess that was and probably still is the television equilvent of screaming racist and offensive things just to piss people off and thus get attention and Adult Swim hit a slump, with several great shows like metalocalypse slowly leaving, and most that was left were garbage like Mr.Pickles. It .. wasn’t a great time. 

But around half way two shows changed things and most adult animation stood up and took notice; Rick and Morty, which while i’m not as much of a fan these days was and still to some small degree is a really funny show while also having a deeply complex and deeply deconstructed lead. And around the same time. we got Bojack.  As you probably know, Bojack was the tale of Bojack Horseman, a former 90′s sitcom star who starred in Horsin Around, basicaly fully house if uncle joey adopted orphans with bits of other tgif shows mixed in. Also he’s a horse and this world has a mixture of humans and various anthropormphic animals. And they dont’ shy away from that either and use that for a LOT of great jokes. Anyways Bojack is now a washed up asshole whose done tons, and as the show goes on continues to do, terribe things to get where he was, and is now trying to hang on to the scraps of his career. Around him are Princess Caroline, a pink cat and his agent and ex-girlfriend who wants a real realtionshpi , a baby and her career to go somewhere, Mr. Peanutbutter, Bojack’s dim aquantince who was on a ripoff show (which only PB seems not to get and is even called “Untitled horsing around ripoff project” at first in a flashback) and is really nice but also really bad at reading people, Diane, PB’s wife for most of the series who soon becomes bojack’s friend when she’s hired to do his autobigoraphy, and today’s subject, Todd, a 20 something cloudcuckoolander who crashed on Bojack’s couch after a party, and just.. never left since Bojack thought todd was kicked out for being gay and brought him in for brownie points (he was just lazy), and then despite insulting Todd constanlty kept him around because he was crushingly lonely and before Diane, had no other friends.  There’s obviously more to it. more evolutions but as the episode title shows, today’s ep is all about Todd, so we’ll be focusing on what he’s been up to: Todd spent most of the first two seasons just kinda.. bouncing around. Whlie the a-plots could be more serious, most todd plots were wacky palette cleansears, from him ending up in jail and trying to court two gangs at once like it was that one episode of family ties every sitcom sense has copied, made a giant copy of his own head over months, or started a safe cab company for women that somehow ended up as stripper cabs. Season 3 however added more weight: Bojack’s various slights against Todd were piling up, and he was starting to get tired of it, the straw that broke the camel’s back coming when Todd’s ex emily, who todd failed to sleep with because he didn’t want to but, not knowing what an asexual even was, couldn’t comincate with it and bojack having a really bad track record of thinking with his dick.. you can kinda see what happened.

Finding out much later, after Bojack used emily telling him not to as an easy way out of telling him and both were kinda stupid with that, and Todd eventually found out something happened.. but when Bojack tells him it was sex, Todd is genuinely suprised and had, for the last time expected better of him. Really Todd is a great deconsturction of the wacky sidekick in shows like this: the often abused optimist oppisite of the pesmist asshole protaganist. But here it shows.. that can only go on  so long. You can only treat a person like dogshit so many times before they grow tired of you and as Todd prepares to move out and bum around somewhere else we get one of the most iconic, and best, scenes in the series as Todd unloads on bojack after the horse tries apologizing.. couched in excuses. 

“It’s you bojack, it’s alwasy eben you” This scene hit like a truck, not just due to Aaron Paul absolutley killing it, but because as someone with a bad habit, even sometimes falling back into it, of justifying why I did something bad afterwords or blaming other people for far too long, if not NEARLY to the extent bojack did, it resonated. Sure those kinds of things may have LEAD you to the things you do but sometimes, your just doing shitty things and no amount of reason for it makes it okay. And it was a bold step to take: while the two talked on occasion and their friendship KINDA regrew, it never REALLY recovered from this. Things didn’t go back in the bottle. Bojack lost one of his best friends as his friend.. they were in the same orbit but it’d never be the same.  Todd did eventually tell Emiliy what he was dealing with and Emily told him what he was, and Todd started crashing on mr.peanutbutter’s couch because, unsuprisingly, the two eventually became close friends. So with Emily out of the picture, while she liked todd she needded sex and neither of them thought of an open relationship, that’s where we find Todd, grapling with his asexuality while getting into his usual wacky misadventures, which hadn’t and would never stop, as evidenced by the horrifying sex robot he created to try and please emily in a later season. So with all of that FINALLY out of the way. we can finally dig into horay todd episode after the read more. Because while i’m going to try doing that less to get more readers.. this episode is giant just at the introduction and is a half an hour long. 

We open with an orchestra, nervous Todd won’t show up for his solo.. because of course Todd’s a regular part of an orchestra now. He shows up in time to do his bit on the triangle, cheers all around

Att the bar, the various musicians wonder just who Todd is. Was in a prison gang? (Yes two in fact as stated above) A foreign prince?? ( He looked just like one and they swapizesd for an episode), a tech billionare? (For all of five minutes) Or is he both?... there isn’t a both here I don’t know why I did that. However the conductor roars in, he’s a lion, .. and it’s keith david everybody!

As you can probably wager Keith David is a faviorite of mine, one of the best voice actors around, a fantastic live actor, and just all around awesome dude.. and still pretty damn hot at 64. And while this is a minor role, ANY time keith david shows up is cause for celebration and I honestly forgot he was in this, so it was a nice suprise. 

We then find out how the two know each other, with the conductor calling Todd “The most giving man he’s ever known.” Accurate. Todd once saved his pregnant daughter from a shipwreck carrying her on his back, delivered said baby on a piece of driftwood then circumcised said baby while hanging from a rescue copter.. and also had a spirited but respectful debate before hand about how circumcion had fallen out of vouge, with them eventually deciding on it since the lions are jewish and she’d like the option for the baby to join the relgion if he so chooses when they grow up. Which is both a great gag and a nice nod to circumcisons not being popular these days, and makes todd even awesome. I mean not every man would not only be repsectful when talking to a mother about this, but do so while hanging from a helicopter. Also props to the old timey paperback illustrations, which doubly sell the sudden debate bit. It’s something I love the show: while it’s one of the most depressing in existance, it’s also god a wonderfully goofy sense of humor that helps ballance things out.  The conductor then explains todd later filled in last year when their triangle player died after getting his foot stuck in his triangle, another good one, but worries about todd and just how MUCH the man gives and wishes sometimes to see him not there when his part comes up, to see Todd give for himself. Then of course Todd spoils the move by coming out drenched in water with greasy hands, having tried to wash taco stains off his shirt, but then got greasy hands from said taco he ewa sstill holding and being trapped in a bathroom for an hour. That’s Todd in a nutshell: He can be legendary, selfless and utterly helpful or insightful one minute, and somehow get trapped in a hallway for an entire episode the next. That.. actually happened in case you either didn’t know or entirely forgot. Cue Credits.. a FIRST for this show suprisingly. Given most shows i’ve done are 11 minutes the credits usually happen before the show and I just forget to talk about them. I”ll breifly say the credits for Bojack are exellent and I love how they evolved and changed as each season wore on, and give the team kudos for doing what most shows just simply won’t or can’t do in western animation.

We’re at the peanutbutter residence, where PB is in the middle of his political campagin, working with his controlling and assholish ex wife katrina, and Todd gives him some pocket cheese to help but get’s shoed off and works on breakfast in the background with a giant egg for some reason. Probably because all animals are sentient here. And yes they explained how they still got meat. Anyways, Diane is annoyed that Katrina wants PB to decide if he’s for or against fracking based on public approval, insstead of you know just.. being against it because it’s wrong. She’s STILL better about it than that one episode of last man of earth I watched where the straw man liberal asshole argued with the consertaive asshole lead over a pothole they had and refused to just let his son belivie god exists because it calmed him down and in the next one forcibly dressed said son up as coal to mock his future mother in law because he’s as bad as the lead character, because this show is miserable and Ryan is what the writers apparently think a liberal is.  Anyways as this goes on we see Todd.. pulling his weight. He packs diane a lunch, leaves it by her purse as she gets ready to go to work, makes said giant egg into an omlette for pb and sets up a nice breakfast complete wtih his medication hidden inside because dog. We see that despite crashing there Todd has grown from where he was and is now making sure to actively contribute to the house as thanks for letting him stay. Anyways PB needs his glasses to take them off to seem sincer because he left htem at princess carolyn’s, she also represents Peanut Butter, Todd and Diane. Todd heads off, though dosen’t sign for a package as he once ended up with cremated remains, or cremains as he calls them and I now will, over it because of course he did and heads off while a mysterious horse in a trench coat watches... more on her in a bit.

At Carolyn’s agency , PC annoynces “it’s todd” with todd giving back an excited it’s me... he should enter the room like that every time. It really fits. Anyways, it turns out PC needed him for help with actress Courtney Pourtnory, whose in femalecentric Taken spinoff ms.taken, which i’m shocked wasn’t an actual movie. There’s also a lot of tounge twisting puns which as always Amy Sedaris flawlessly delivers and that i’ll miss now the show is gone. Anyways Courtney isn’t seen as relatable so PC goes with the oldest trick in the book: have some normal guy date the celebrity to see them as relatbale and well todd’s on retainer. Todd is reluctant, less so due to his  asexuality and more because he’s not only already busy with the sunglass errand, but has a meeting tonight. intresting. But PC ensures todd it’s no trouble and they can just do lunch for the paparazzi and todd does like the idea of having his picture taken. “It’s proof I exist.” It’s the same reason I hate having mine taken. It’s proof I still exist and this hell year hasn’t ended yet. 

Back at the campagin unsuprisingly what todd didn’t sign for was important and Katrina just tells him to sign for Pb next time, which is like giving a dog a play bone that also has a dart full of poison that shoots out of it into the rest of the living room. There’s no way this ends well and you should know that. So Katrina asks him to dance a little sidestep on the issue instead. 

This movie is eh but this musical number is awesome and I will use it at any opportunity. Rest in peace Charles Durning. It helps it’s still relevant as hell for both sides of the isle. Anyways Todd signs a letter to the state goverment because again, telling todd to do something without even remotely thinking about it is like giving a baby a boomerang loaded with nitro glcyerne, but soon gets cloroformed by our mysterious viewer. “And down goes todd. “.. said by todd himself because of course he did> God bless this man and aaron paul’s performance.  “And up comes todd!” .. whose, not suprisingly, apparently been drugged and/or knocked out enough to have a catchphrase for these situations. After grabbing a pool skimmer for defense because you know a stranger just kidnapped him, the stranger calms him down and introduces himself: And this is where we properly meet Hollyhock..  Manheim-Mannheim-Guerrero-Robinson-Zilberschlag-Hsung-Fonzerelli-McQuack which I copied directly from the wiki because this review is already running long and running behind, and I don’t want to spend an hour trying to copy that from the episode itself. The nightmare of a name, which is a running gag is because she was adopted.. by 8 gay men in a polyamours relationship. And one of them is apparently related to launchpad. 

Anyways Hollyhock, who called at the end of last season to no answer, thinks Bojack might be her dad and thus bought a spy kit to figure out. And used the cholorform, if apologizing for it because once you’ve got it you can’t not use it. Todd is unsuprised by both things; As bojack hilariously but horrifyingly put it his penis was like sun dried tomatoes in the 90′s: it was on everything, and Bojack himself had that kit, mostly using it on himself because of course he did. She tracked down Todd because Todd was in Bojack’s book as his roomate. Todd explains they no longer live together and Bojack has been missing, long story there though we do know where he was due to the last episode, but since Hollyhock really dosen’t need to meet him just wants his dna to find out if he’s related or not, so Todd suggest sher house. Time for more cloroform!

At Bojack’s place Todd wonders where to find a hair, since most ladies Bojack is with understandably shower afterwords only for Holly to find one.. and a sleeping unconcious clearly spiraling once again Bojack. Todd lament siwth an oh bojack: just because he’s mostly done with the guy dosen’t mean he still dosen’t care. Todd’s still a good guy and still dosen’t want to see his former friend go through this for the 80th time... he’s just done being the one to be there for him through it and that’s understandably.  Hollyhock yanks a hair which does nothing to wake him, unsuprisingly, but the mention of “blowing this place” makes Bojack wakes up as he thinks people has blow. it’s also telling that he’s worried Todd’s going to yell at him again and that he’s clearly stills marting from his understandable telling off. Todd is force dto make up an excuse since Hollyhock VERY understandably dosen’t want to tell him the truth, and Todd lightly rebuff’s bojack’s attempts to be pals again.. given he hasn’t really changed, it’s understandable. Also Hollyhock cloroforms him to get out of BOjack asking more questions and sends todd to take the dna to a place. Todd heads to  a 1 hour dna testing lab, because of course there’s one this is LA. But without Hollyhock’s dna they can’t do it but the guy says to come back with it in an hour after he’s done with lunch.. which gets Todd to realize OH SHIT I HAVES A DATE and he runs off. The fact he DIDN’T actually say that is a suprise. 

At the date Courtney transparently breaks up with Todd for publicity as Todd is utterly confused, before getting reminded about hollyhock. This scene just kind of happened so have the first gif I find typing “David Byrne” into gif search. 

Back at Bojack’s house all Hollyhock’s done is snoop around, finding Bojack’s box of bad reviews of other people’s sitcoms because of COURSE he has that, eat a full box of donuts and take a nap.. given the simliiarity todd isn’t sure they need that test. Hollyhock naturally refuses and just wants to use todd’s hair but since the dna guy said that don’t work, they find some in her comb. Todd however has to cover for the earlier Maid excuse he gave bojack, nice bit of foreshadowing there, and cleans up the house while Hollyhock sits around. I know she’s not his daughter, still related but still and even I’m having a hard time beliving the truth.  No sooner than does Todd put out that fire, than things get worse; Naturally the signutre was for pro fracking and while Katrina is pissed, not fairly as again, it’s like she handed a baby a shot gun for tots that make sa funny noise when you pull the trigger and is suprised that he shot up the couch. Anyways PB is understandabily more worried his wife will be upset he has to support fracking now, and Todd untietionally offers to distract her from the media while Hollyhock takes a nap because she feels.. really diffrent early on. While parts of her horseman traits would remain here she’s far less friendly or helpful than she would be later on in this half of the episode. it’s not BAD as sometimes it takes an episode or two for a character to properly become what their like for the rest of the series, it’s just WEIRD. Like Red Green’s monotone in early Red Green Show episodes it just feels.. off. 

Todd rushes off to Girl Croosh, the click baity blog diane works for because I forget when things happened sometimes, where Todd is doing the most todd distraction possible: Telling diane to look at him while he dances. Which to Diane’s shock has been going on for 45 minutes. 

Diane’s boss Stefani comes in voiced by the wonderful Kimiko Glenn who I admited to loving as a voice actress, and having a crush on back in my first close enough review and still stand by. She’s wonderful. Stefani berates diane for not being clickbaity enough, other plot for this season etc etc next todd crisis.  Princess Carolyn is annoyed they didn’t get a picture of courtney with todd.. even though she left first but this eems to be the “blame todd for things that are either not his fault or you should’ve expected by talking to him for five minutes” episode. Anyways PC says to be at the shark jacob’s fashion show in 30 minutes, and Diane bemoans trying to get people to pay attention to the world sucking. Todd shows some more competence and actually gives her a good metaphor: When mr.peanutbutter dosen’t want to take his pill, as I expected, Todd disgusied it.. though in the cheese. Just do that: put some hot goss around the rest of it. Todd, to keep her away from the computer with a literal headline that reads “Mr.Peanutbutter supports fracking and hasn’t told his wife yet”, because this show is amazing, makes up a story about Channing Tatum having an illgitamte daughter and gives her the testing hairs. The theme of this scene, and the episode really is that people underestimate todd: understandably the man got lost in a bathroom at the top of this episode and refused to sign a package because of past shenangians... but because of that they fail to see that todd is .. actually really compitent, insightful and caring. IN this one scene he actually suceeds in his mission in the dumbest, toddest way possible, then on the fly kills two errands with one stone while also giving Diane genuinely good advice. But the big question the episode poses is.. what does TODD want at the end of the day and just how much of this “doing everyones shit for htem” should he take?   

As Todd passes a sheep with a wonderful “The end of the wool is coming’ sign, he sneaks into the fashion show.. we also see a background model bird smoking that I SWEAR is a protytpe for tuca, just with a diffrent bodytype and a more aloof, supermodely face. Though if this is the same universe it could just be a sister of hers. It’s not out of the realm of posiblity. And yes I will defintely be talking Tuca and Bertie at some point, especially once it comes back next year. Being todd he ends up walking the runway instead, and it goes poorly, but Todd telling them that fashion shouldn’t be elitest somehow works and he become a hit. Also Tim Gunn is there as himself, beacause this show liked to mix animal versions of celebrites iwth the real ones, and sometimes had the real ones voice the animal versions of themsselves. Todd also gets a call from Diane: it’s a match. ALso I forgot Todd’s wonderful ringtone which is him , to the opening of that one betooven song going “todd todd todd TODD!” Magical Back at the horseman residence, Bojack’s sent hollyhock to go thank channing tatum for collecting his mail and goes through all the mail that piled up while he was MIA. He’s also wallowing about his miss opprtotunites, some involving pottery barn. He’s suprised by PB’s governor run, with Todd countering that of course he knew he’s been around and when Bojack asks how Diane feels Todd shoots that down right away and insists he just ask her himself, and again counters; Does she even know he’s back? Bojack insists he’s no tready, and he’s only told Todd he’s back.. and his various drug guys, channing tatum, and hollyhock. But not his inner circle. And given he and PB tend to not mesh well, though it is getting better at this point, he ruined things with Todd, he dropped PC for entirely warranted reasons.. Diane really IS the only person he has to call and he’s likely afraid of disapointing her. He then tells Todd to friend break up with channing tatum, with todd thinking his speech was about him and being understandably disapointed. I also like Todd’s attiude here: he’s done just.. taking Bojack’s shit and isn’t going to stick around for it and only really agrees to go to channing tatums because Hollyhock’s over there and he needs to tell her. 

Todd goes over and lies to hollyhock after warning her BOjack might not be readyf or a daughter and Hollyhock expresses her own doubts. Then diane shows up and Todd’s force dto play being channing tatum so they both don’t get arrested for trespassing. Diane confronts channig with her thoughts he’s the father, which hollyhock instnatly realizes exactly what that means, but relents on doing so, not wanting to be that kind of journalest and ruin someone’s life for her own benefit. Todd gives her a pep talk and she accepts it’s him because it’s what she thinks channig tatum would say and leaves with a cheery “love half your movies. Hollyhock meanwhile has fled, obviously upset and before Todd can deal with THAT, he gets another call, clearly tired at this point as am I as i’m not only not used to reviewing 22 minute shows anymore, let alone 30 minute ones, but I have a ticking clock due to my own procastination. She once again gets mad at him, this time a bit more understandably, and Todd darts off to meet courtney. 

The two talk, and Courntey is dressed like todd only her hat is 50 dollars.. and that’s a hella don’t... I miss Macklemoore. Anyway, Courtney opens up about being seen by everyone but not being seen at the same time.. which todd relates to even if courtney can’t fathom someone having the same feelings, but admits it’s nice to talk about it while Todd laments about his meeting, worrying h’es not ready yet. That what if it goes badly? What if the idea of something is better than the truth. I realate both due to my anxiety proving that and because as a comics nerd and general nerd, that’s happened more times than I can count, both with legendary stories that turned out to not be very good or something I really looked forward to turning out to be a mess, like It Chapter 2, or Zoolander 2, or Secret Empire or.. point is Courtney does relate to that and prefers fiction and the paparazzi, the same ones who tailed bojack for multiple episodes in season 1, eat it up with Courtney announcing their engagment iwth todd responding with “Horay i’m confused!”... that’s me all day everyday buddy. 

Todd goes back to Bojack’s to find Hollyhock, and being a good friend even to someone who certainly dosen’t deserve it at this point, tells Bojack the truth.. which he reflexvley denies before Todd admits she didn’t want to tell him and Bojack. understands and once again piles pity on himself. 

We then get the scene that got me to review this in the first place.. thanks asshole! All jokes aside, the two have an honest conversation: Bojack, while not outright saying sorry admits all he does is hurt people and he slept with the one person he ever saw todd be in love with... given it’s hard for him to give out a genuine apology, it’s still a good moment as it shows Bojack, even if he screws up constantly, is really apologetic about destroying their freindship. That part also shows WHY it was wrong: Sure todd couldn’t and wouldn’t sleep with her.. but it dosen’t change the fact Bojack SHOULDN’T have , knew what he was doing, did it anyway and then never told him. 

He continues with it though after todd wonders if he’s evne allowed to love. , saying he got more of Todd than he deserved, and all the guy asked for was a roof over his head and the ocasional smore in a baquet, and tells todd he didn’t deserve him and he really appricated him. This.. actually gets Todd to open up and he comes out as Asexual to bojack which after making it clear it means he’s not a sexual deviant, dynamo or what have you, a great wordplay gag, that he’s just not sexual.. Bojack.. shockingly and to Todd’s suprise dosen’t think it’s weird like he expected, but is thrilled and honeslty wishes sometimes he was asexual and we get what I consider to be the best joke of the seris.  Bojack; Maybe then I wouldn’t have A strain of herpes Todd; You have multiple strains Bojack: I know, it only works with the A.  Todd feels.. good.. while i’m not Ace myself I am bisexual and both times i’ve come out, first to my mom and a few friends, then to the rest of the world this month on facebook, it felt.. freeing. To not have to worry or hide no more.. to just be who you are.. and it feels.. good to Todd. While Bojack tries to slide back into friendship since todd isn’t mad about Emily anymore, Todd gently stops him: It wasn’t just here, as I made clear earlier, he’s not ready to be his friend again.. but hes ready to be more than NOT friends. While their freindship won’t be the same anymore, as Todd makes painfully clear.. Todd gives him a genuine i’t’s good to see you as he leaves. Again he may not LIKE the guy anymore and understandably dosen’t want to be the only person he can count on in bojack’s life... he still wants the guy to be okay, which the fans could probably relate to the whole damn series; Being fed up with his bullshit and TERRIBLE TERRIBLE actions, but wanting him to be better already. The door rings.. and it’s HOllyhock. We MIGHT get to that another time, but for now we close out Pride, and todd’s tale as todd goes to his meeting... which as it turns out...

While there is still more miles on Todd’s journey, ending his sham engagement set up here, a failed relationship and a sucessful relationship at the end of the series, not to mention reconcliation with his family... Todd takes an important step and takes what he wants, finding his people and being proud of who he is.. and that’s sometimes the best and hardest step. And we get a nice button on the framing device as Todd misses his solo for the first time, to the conductors delight. The End. 

Final Thoughts: This was a really good rewatch.  While not AS heavy as some other bojack episodes, it still has plenty of good character work, moving along or setting up several plots for the season without any of it feeling forced whlie giving Todd added depth in his coming out story. Todd still dosen’t fully understand what his asexuaity is and is scared to be open with it.. but that beautiful scene above is what makes the episode work as is the ending right after: By finally telling someone he knows, and by being accepted by the last person he’d expect to not only understand what Todd is but embrace it.. he can finally find others like him to help him through it and finally find something for himself after giving so much to everyone else while asking nothing in return.  That’s also a nice bit of deconsturction here... while Todd’s happy to help we do ssee bouncing from storyline to storyline actually wears on him and that sometimes it’s tiring being the guy everyone assumes has nothing but time for htem. It’s a nice development and Aaron Paul does it beauitfully and I do stand by HIS casting, as unlike with Allison brie where they knew diane would be an vitamese woman and cast a white woman anyway, though to Ralph-Paul’s credit, he’s throughly apologized for this and Allison Brie herself recently also apologized for it personally in the wake of the recent black lives matter lead call to not have white actors voice People of Color anymore. Also props to Jenny SLate for, if a bit late , still leaving big mouth for the last two seasons and apologizing herself among with any other actor or actress whose dropped a role as a POC when their white. It’s a good trend. But here.. I get why they didn’t try and get rid of Aaron Paul. It was probably hard enough to get executives to give a shit about Ace representaation enough to let htem do it, adding “firing a big name draw to replace him wiht a likely no name” was probably a bridge too far and sadly, sometimes you have to pick your battles, and they picked getting to have an ace character at all and to Aaron Paul’s credit he’s been an Ace ally ever since. HOpefully in the future we will get more ace chracters and more ace actors and actresses playing the part, but every journey begins with a sigle step and this storyline was a huge one.  But overall the episode is truly fantastic, a highight in a series full of amazing episodes and it was a good note to go out on for this month. I won’t stop doing LBGTQA reviews obviously, and I should’ve added the a way sooner, but it’s been fun doing them and i’ve been proud too. Some have been better than others but the better one shave been some of my best work. So as we live in uncertain and stupid times, stay safe , black live matter and your all beautiful. I have other stuff in the works; a full steven unvierse arc, regular coverage and of course that “sorry I was a moron” static cling review, but until then, I love you all and i’d like, if I may, to close on a song... not by me obviously my singing voice is “sorta adaquate I guess’ at best. 

[vidkid20ssimblrlair]

Episode 20: The Vultures (Part 2)

“Whoa Whoa! Wait! Did you just say your sister?!” Vince growled.

“Well, uh..yes.” 

“Don’t tell me she was the psycho in the cat mask!”

“Well, uh..yes. Well technically it’s a fox mask, but…”

“I don’t care what it is. Your sister almost killed us!” he snarled. He grabbed the boy by his hoodie and thrust the gun under his chin. “Give me a reason not to kill you right now!”

“Vince. Please,” I said weakly.

The young man was shaking. He stuttered. “No..pl pl…please. I’m not like her. I just want to…”

"Yeah. Yeah. You just want to help. You starting to sound like a broken record."

I shook my head. “Vince, let him go.I...I think he’s telling...the truth.”

“I...I...I am sir!”

Vince shot me a look that could kill, but he let the boy go and lowered his weapon. He pointed his finger at him in a threatening manner and the boy began babbling again.

"I apologize for her actions. Sincerely. If I can undo what she did I would, but I can't. But if there is something I can do to make up for what happened, I'll do it. Just please," he begged.

The poor man looked like he was going to faint. His face growing paler by the second. I shot Vince a look and DJ seemed to be on the same page as he cut his eye at him. Luckily, it did the trick and our bad-tempered friend seemed to soften.

He frowned and looked away. "This better not be a trap or I swear..."

"No, sir. It’s not," Billy pleaded. "I understand your mistrust, but it’s really not. Lin will tell you. She’s really nice.”

“Nice? Are you sure you got the right Lin?”

I laughed instantly regretting it but I persisted. “So is she ok?”

“Well, she hurt her leg. She was unable to walk when I found her. I ended up carrying her. Got her to safety before the alarms and herd rolled in. She was also pretty out of it, but she remembered your names that’s for sure. Begged me to go find you. Well, that’s after she realized I wasn’t trying to hurt her. She put up a good fight all while cursing at me in Chinese." 

Vince rolled his eyes and smirked. “Yep. That’s her.”

I continued. "Where did you take her?"

"I took her to where I stay sometimes. It's a shipping container like this, but it has a bed and lights. When I left she was resting. It's safe there,” he said gleefully. “Like I said, I can take you there. We can exit out the other side. Should be all clear on that side.”

“Then you go first then,” Vince scoffed gesturing with the gun.

“Oh..well sure. That was the plan actually. I’ll just open it and we can get going... if that’s ok with everyone. Is that ok with everyone?”

I smiled nodding in agreement with my cohorts. “Yes, Billy. We can go.”

He flashed us a reassuring smile and pulled his mask back over his face. He faced the door taking one last uneasy breath and opened the iron doors. They creaked open with an ominous sound. He peeked his head out and gestured for us to wait.

He tiptoed out looking from left to the right and sprinted forward to what looked like another shipping container. The doors facing us were wide open, but the other end was close. He then beckoned for us to follow. We dashed doing the same. Looking to the left and right. He shut them behind us. We repeated the same steps crossing to another. 

Vince scoffed. "Another empty container and I don’t see Lin. Looking more like a trap.”

"Have more patience sir. It’s not. We just got to go a little further."

“Hopefully, not too much further. Thanks to your sister, my patience is wearing thin,” he snarled aiming his gun at the boy's back. He came right up behind him whispering. “I will not hesitate to shoot you if you’re fucking with us. Remember that.”

Oh, yes, sir. I know, but I’m telling the truth. Honest.”

"Well, I'll start trusting you when I see Lin and stop calling me sir!"

"Yes, sir. I mean...um... nevermind."

We did it two more times in a row just like this. To shipping container to shipping container. We took a break after that. Walkers were on the other side. Both me and Vince were also out of breath from our injuries, but this didn't stop Vince from complaining.

“Hey. Why you got to wear that creepy ass mask?” the ex-con asked looking annoyed as ever.

Billy sighed. “I need to keep up appearances. I'm supposed to be paroling and looking out for stray survivors. Not helping them."

“You guys do this all the time?”

“Yes.”

“Well, how come I didn’t see you people here last time I came here?”

The young man shrugged. “Depends on when you came and if you were alone. We usually only rob groups, so that might be why. Using our resources and time for a single individual would be a waste. If we were here, we were probably hiding. Hiding and watching.” 

“That’s right. ‘We’re watching you’,” he murmured thinking back.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

The walkers moved on and we did our a little run again. He went ahead. We followed. Everyone staying alert. We stopped again waiting for a few of the dead to pass. This time Vince pulled me aside to air out his complaints.

"Do you trust this kid?"

"I don't know. I'm not exactly the best judge of character lately. I do think he wants to help."

"Yeah. Help us into a trap!"

I rolled my eyes and slid to the floor. "Well, he's going through a lot of trouble for it to be a trap. He could have just left us out there to die. He even let you keep the gun."

"Well, maybe he's just stupid."

"I doubt that, but I do question your sanity," I said trying not to laugh. "Ease on up on him for now."

This seemed to annoy him rather than satisfy him, but it shut him up for me. Unfortunately, he wasn't finished with Billy. He walked right up behind him after we crossed again and started badgering him again.

"Why we got wait for you to tell us to cross?"

"Well, till the rotters are corral it's not safe. I also need to see if the coast is clear.”

Vince furrowed his brow. "What you mean by corraling them?"

"Our group has a method of corralling the dead and using them for our benefit. Well, for example, herds can be used for cover and as weapons. We unleash the herd we have here with car alarms when we have trespassers and survivors we can take from."

"Why am I not surprised."

Billy shook his head. "Well, we're almost there. Once we turn this corner, we'll be reaching my place."

Vince sighed and clutch his abdomen making a pained face. The boy noticed and lifted his mask. "You alright, sir?"

"I told you..." he paused and his knees buckle. The boy grabbed him holding him up, but this just seemed to agitate him more. He swatted at him as he regained his composure. "Get off of me!"

"Sir?"

"Your sister is a real piece of work," he mumbled.

Billy shook his head. "She’s not that bad. I mean I’m biased, but the others are much worse.”

DJ gulp. “If she’s not so bad I can imagine what the others are like.”

“Trust me. There’s much worse,” he said shaking his head. “Ace for example. Our precious leader. He’s to blame for it all this. Always thinking he’s smarter than everyone. Always quoting Darwinism and survivor of the fittest shit. He’s the reason why my sister is the way she is. Why this group functions the way it does now. If my brother was still here, we wouldn’t be like this.”

“Brother?” I quired.

“Yeah. My older brother. His name was Chris. Things were different when he was around. He kept us together when this all started. We survived without stealing. Without hurting others. My sister found solace in him. The two of them were thick as thieves. Ace was around too, but he was just a part of the group we started out with. I had no idea he would turn us into this. Chris would be horrified to see us this way. One reason I want to help. As much as I can.”

“Well, you’re doing just that. I’m sure he would be proud of you.”

“I guess. Anyway, I think there cleared out on this side. We can go.”

Despite the pain, a question tugged at my mind. I had to ask. The timing seemed right. I bit my lip thinking of a way to word it. Would he even answer it?

“Billy?”

“Yes.”

“It’s one question that’s plaguing my mind, Billy. You wouldn’t happen to know a woman named Jade would you?”

He paused looking uncomfortable but answered with a question. “You know Jade?”

“Yeah. Bald head chick. Wore her own face,” Vince rudely injected. “Yeah, me and his girl had the pleasure of meeting that creepy ass chick.”

“Creepy is one way to describe her. I can’t say that I know her that well though. I sometimes forget she’s a part of this group. I rarely see her and when I do she’s either stopping by to drop off supplies or she’s calling over the walkie talkie with some type of intel. She’s an odd one.”

“Creepy. Odd. Yeah, sounds about right, but she does seem normal compared to you mask-wearing freaks!”

“Vince really?”

Billy chuckled. “I’m sorry, but Jade and normal don’t belong in the same sentence. I can see why you would say that, but she’s far from normal. We wear masks to protect ourselves from retaliation for the terrible crap we do, but with her, it’s a different story. She wants to be seen. She doesn’t really fear anything or anyone. I even think Jade is her real name. Well, that’s what she told us. Just Jade. Nothing more. Nothing less. I don’t even know where she stays most of the time. She likes to go out alone for long periods of time. Scouting and looking for supplies supposedly. I can’t imagine what type of shit she gets up to. Nothing good I’m sure.”

“So does that mean we’re in danger?”

“I hope not. If she didn’t follow you, then you’re probably fine.”

“How about the gas station? We were staying there and when we came back it was trashed! I bet that was her doing!”  Vince injected again.

“Yes. Someone even wrote ‘We’re watching you’ on the wall. Know anything about it?”

Billy looked alarmed. “Gas station? I don’t know. Oh, God! Could it?”

“Huh?”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll look into it, but for now, we should go so you can get back to your people ASAP just in case.”

He peeped his head out again to see if it was safe and back at us. A troubled expression still plastered on his face. He pulled his mask back over it and opened the metal doors wide open. Once he was outside he silently gestured for us to come. He ran and we followed barely keeping up. Then he suddenly disappeared around the corner before any of us could catch up.

"Hey come back," Vince yelled running after him.

We followed him around the corner. All of us on edge, but we spotted him instantly in front of another shipping container in sort of a clearing. Unlike the other containers, this one was decorated with graffiti and a string of cans surrounded it much like a fence. He turned around and took off his mask.

"Here we are," he said smiling. He unlocked the container and pulled open the doors. "Come right in."

We entered into the container and what laid before us was a complete surprise. The container looked like it had been transformed into a bedroom. A desk, a stereo, clothes, and various furniture occupied the space giving it a lived-in vibe. Posters, pictures, and stringed lights on the walls completed the look. The three of us stood still taking it all in, but then I spotted a bed in the back and there laid Lin. She looked as if she had just woken up. She looked over at us and did a double-take. A smile quickly formed on her face.

"Lin!" DJ exclaimed running over to her.

"DJ, Vince, Matthew. I'm so glad to see you," she said wearily. "For a minute, I thought I might not see you again."

She looked over at Billy and squinted. "You..uh...Will? No. Um..."

"It's Billy. Remember? You were pretty out of it. Are you feeling better?"

"I...I think so," she said. She looked over at us as we gathered around her bed. She then pointed at Billy smiling. "Yeah, that’s right. He saved me. I thought I was going to die."

"Yeah, we heard," Vince said shooting Billy a guilty look. "How's your leg?"

"It hurts a lot. I almost fell over trying to stand."

Billy sighed. "Well, I'm no doctor, but I think your leg might be broken."

"We have a doc..."

Lin!" Vince yelled stopping her.

"A doctor? That's good. I'm glad actually. You all need medical attention," Billy said nodding. "I can do what I can here. I have some medical supplies I've stashed away."

He turned his attention solely on Vince and stared at his wound. "You first. You're not going last too long bleeding like that."

Vince reluctantly let the man guide him over to a desk and chair nearby. The young man then pulled out medical supplies from its drawers. Bandages, gauze, and a bottle peroxide. He proceeded to treat Vince's wound.

"You're going need that slug taken out. Honestly, I'm surprised she hit you. She's a shit shot."

Vince frowned. "I guess I'm just a bullet magnet."

Billy laughed and turned his attention to me. "You’re next."

I came over and stood before him. He politely asked me to lift my shirt and I obliged hesitantly. He looked up at me with a troubled look after studying my chest. From what I could see a large bruise was there spending from my chest to my side. I braced fully expecting he would start poking and prodding it, but he didn't.

"I think your ribs are broken. At least I think so. That must really hurt. Unfortunately, there's nothing I can do."

He turned to DJ. "I think you're the only one who got lucky. Only some scratches and bruises. You're tough."

"Thanks," DJ laughed. He looked away suddenly. Something seemed to be on his mind. "So, Billy. I was wondering. What's you and your sister's codenames? Judging from your mask yours dog-related or something? "

He rolled his eyes. “It’s an Anbu mask from Naruto. Geez, I feel like I’m the only one in this world still alive who watches anime!”

“Sorry. I’m more of a comic book fan.”

“Well, you’re no worse than my group. At least you didn’t laugh at me for stating that fact. Anyway, I would rather not say what my sister's codename is', but mine? Mine is pretty demeaning, to be honest. Guess they had the same idea. It’s Runt as in runt of the litter. Shows you how highly they think of me," he quipped.

"Why not leave then?"

"I go where my sister goes and I'm not going anywhere without her, so I can't."

A static sound then rung out in the metal room and a voice followed it with more static.

"Pick up! Pick up dumbass! Where are you?!"

Lin groaned and pointed to something near her. "You dropped your walkie talkie and that thing hasn't shut up since you left. Woke me up a couple times."

"Where are you?"

"Shit! Shit!" he mumbled picking up the device off the floor. The color draining from his face again. He whispered, "It's my sister."

He exhaled and answered the walkie talkie as calmly as he could. "Sup?"

"I've been trying to get a hold of you. Where have you been?"

Hanging out. Paroling and staying out the way like you wanted. I forgot my walkie talkie is all."

"You’re hopeless. Well, did you find anything? Any stragglers?"

"No. All clear."

“Good. I was sure I counted four, but maybe the last is buried. They'll reanimate and resurface soon."

"Yeah."

"What are you up to?"

"Nothing!"

"Well, I'm...on the way over. To your place. We need to...to talk. Over and out."

"What?! No, wait! Shit!" he yelled. He looked over at us. Completely pale and panicked. "You have to go. Now! Like right now!"

"I thought you said it was safe here," Vince said glaring at him.

"I thought it was too. My sister never comes down here. I mean she knows it's here, but she never visits me!"

"Well, we can't exactly just go. Lin can't even walk and this place is huge!"

"Don't worry. I'll show you where you can get out safely. I also have a wheelchair outback. It's sort of raggedy, but it'll work."

He opened the back doors quickly and picked Lin up in one swoop. Just as he said, a battered wheelchair sat on the backside of his container. He placed Lin gently in the chair.

“Go left from here till you see the fence. There’s an opening in it. You can escape from there.”

DJ spluttered. “But…I mean…can’t you come with us…?

“No. I can’t. I told you.”

“Are you sure?”

"Go! Now! We’ll see each other again, but please leave now!"

Sorry for the delay. Life and stress got in the way. Next episode takes us back to Audrey, Madison, and the new face we met last time.

Part 1

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[vmstudies]

30+ things i learned in my first semester of college

Okay, so as a college freshman in her second semester, I wanted to write all this down before I forget it all or it becomes irrelevant. College is a trippy af time, especially for freshmen, and I know high schoolers are all freaking out trying to find what’s true and what’s not. So here’s what I learned my first semester of college, and some stuff I’m still learning.

Warning: this post is long af. 

disclaimer: I’m a nursing ROTC student so I’ve got like a million and one things on my plate at any given time, and I have a wake up call at 5:00am almost every day of the week, so if you have to/already do wake up early, this will be great for you.

1. Be patient. You’re going to have people around you doing all different things. You may not be going out, but your hall mates will. Learn to let go and let them be. Unless they’re screaming excessively in the hall at 3am. Then maybe say something.

2. Do all the extra credit you are offered. Most professors only have 3-4 exams and a final. At least 99% of mine so far have done that. Take what you can get and do everything to keep your grades up.

3. Time management is key. I personally suck at it, but I find ways. Unfortunately sometimes, for me, it means cutting sleep, which I would not recommend, especially if you’re waking up so early. But learn to manage your time the way that works for you.

4. Find a good pair of headphones. Some noise cancelling ones preferably. Those will become your best friends.

5. Coffee will be other your best friend. Even if you don’t drink it. I never had a single cup of coffee till first week of second semester. I drink a cup a day now.

6. Eat well. It doesn’t have to be a salad every meal, but find the healthiest options you can that you like. The Freshman 15 is real, and I gained it, but I’ve lost 10 pounds just by eating a portioned amount of each food group per day.

7. Exercise. This goes along with eating in preventing the Freshman 15, but it also helps with stress relief and focus among a million and one other health benefits.

8. Take chances. Nothing illegal and nothing that could jeopardize your health, grades, or future, but just remember that when a moment passes, you can never get it back.

9. You don’t have to be best friends, or even friends at all with your roommate. But make an effort to get along. My roommate and I learned very quickly that we were not going to be best friends like we thought, but we get along well enough, and that’s all that matters.

10. You’re probably not going to remain friends with all of your high school pals. Even the ones who go to school with you. I thought the group from my high school at my uni would be my best friends and now I only see them when my roommate brings them by.

11. Take a chance on everyone. You’d be surprised who could become the best friend you’ve ever had very quickly.

12. Colleges will want your living situations for next year very quickly. Don’t panic. Just get it done before rents go up.

13. Look for ways to contribute to your city. Volunteer at churches or food banks or homeless shelters or hospitals - wherever works best for you. You start to feel a part of a community when you give back to it.

14. Skipping class isn’t bad, but only when it’s done a few times. If you only show up for exams, you’re screwed, because there are things on the exam that won’t always be on the PowerPoints. TL;DR: show up to class.

15. Don’t drink after people. Mono runs rampant on college campuses, and it’s now airborne. Hand sanitizer is your third new best friend. 

16. Exam season isn’t that scary. As long as you’re maintaining your grades in a class, the finals should be okay. Should be.

17. Assuming you aren’t a commuter, if you have the ability to go home every weekend, don’t. The weekends are a time for you to hang out with friends and have fun at college. If you’re spending it at home, it’s not even worth it.

18. That being said, if you have the ability to go home “often” and you’re happy and comfortable at home, visit every once in a while. It’s good for the soul.

19. Many professors are there to complete research requirements. That being said, it doesn’t matter to them whether they’re good professors or not so long as they get their work done. That being said, you will have some shitty professors. Just work hard and beat them by beating their class.

20. You will have some professors who are, to put it nicely, absolute dicks. Again: beat them by beating their class. Ace that shit then never sign up for a class with them again.

21. Find the study style that suits you best. Rewriting notes is absolutely useless for me. This semester, my study style has become taking notes in notebooks in my dorm, and just having the PowerPoint up to add notes to the slides as my profs speak. It works.

22. Have someone in every class you can text and ask questions or study with. Cooperate to graduate, kids.

23. This one is huge. You will get homesick. It’s almost a total guarantee. It may not be immediate, but it will hit and it will hit hard. Don’t worry. Nobody’s freshman year is what they say it is. Yeah, you’ll find your group, but chances are you’ll spend the first semester drifting and asking if you’re the one person in the entire world who isn’t enjoying things. You’re not. We’re all in the same boat. Just keep drifting. You’ll find your group eventually. Who knows - they may be closer than you think.

24. Sororities and frats may seem like all that, but - at my university at least - while they’re huge here, they’re also a major pain in the ass. Rush for sororities was literal hell, and one girl I was talking to the other day said she lost 12 pounds in just that one week. Know what you’re getting into.

25. If you’re single and remain that way, don’t worry. There’s nothing wrong with you there either. People move at their own pace. My best friend has, like, 5 guys wanting to date her right now, and I have absolutely no one (that I know of). Don’t worry. Just keep doing what you’re doing. The right one will come eventually.

26. Know what you’re worth.

27. Get to class at least 5 minutes early. I’m always running to my 8:30 and it sucks.

28. 8:30 classes aren’t that bad. As someone who is most definitely not a morning person, I have yet to complain. It’s nice to get up and get going for the day.

29. 6:00pm classes suck. Mine ends at 7:15 and then I still have to go get dinner, which is in the opposite direction from my dorm, get back to my hall, shower, eat aforementioned dinner, do schoolwork and study, etc. It’s a pain.

30. Find something small you can do that makes you happy. For me, it’s Korean. I started teaching myself Korean halfway through last semester and I like to think I’m doing pretty well for someone self-taught. I also have a stack of notecards that hits the 26oz mark on my Nalgene. It’s kind of insane.

31. BUDGETING IS SO FREAKING IMPORTANT. I cannot stress this enough. And so is saving. If you get a paycheck or an allowance of any kind, put some of it away in savings every time you get paid, and try not to touch that savings money.

32. Be open to everyone else’s likes/dislikes/thoughts/feelings/opinions. You don’t have to agree or like it, but respect it. You’ll meet people who have all different hobbies, opinions, religious/political views. As long as they’re not out there preaching that we should all just kill each other or whatever, idk, respect it. Respect Dems if you’re a Republican; respect Republicans if you’re a Democrat. Respect Muslims and Jews and Christians/Catholics and Hindus and Buddhists and anything else you can think of. Respect.

33. Keep your dorm neat. Make your bed every day. Clean room=clean mind. Clean mind=better studying.

34. Do your laundry every week, y’all. Shit gets nasty.

35. Only bring what you need. If you find after 2-3 weeks you haven’t used it, send it home. Dorms are tiny. You need all the space you can get.

36. If you’re religious, find your religious community. It will be a great reprieve a few times a week. I was never overtly Catholic, and I’m still not, but it’s nice to get away for an hour a week. Plus after 5pm mass Sundays they feed us home-cooked food, and it’s freaking good. Take advantage of that.

37. Find a place on campus that reminds you of why you’re there when you have doubts or you’re feeling homesick. For me, it’s the first place I ever saw when I stepped on campus: the main lawn. It’s super relaxing and it’s a great reminder that I’m there to kick ass, get a degree, get a commission, and become the person I’m supposed to be in the process. It can also mean the difference between contemplation and a total breakdown. TL;DR: find a place that eases your mind.

That’s all I can think of right now, but if you have more that I missed, feel free to add on! Again, this is all from my own personal experience, and if you find that you don’t agree with one, okay. One size does not fit all. But this is just what I recommend. Have fun in college and good luck! Remember: YOU GOT THIS THING!