#lets see if i somehow predict a group for an event being real again

[w1f1n1ghtm4r3]

had the idea of making a fake lim set... dragon themed because i would kill for some dragon girls

[spade-riddles]

Submission: Adjusting expectations

Okay, guys. Wading in here where it’s possible no-one wants me, but … here goes. 

We - Kaylors - are in a hard place right now. People feel hurt, they feel hopeless. They feel like they were led on by the likes of Spade. I’m not here to invalidate any of the feelings that come from seeing Karlie and Taylor play out this charade.  

But I think we (collectively, as a fandom) need to take a breath and ask if any of this is really as bad or unfixable as we think it is. Because, for me, the recent stunting is hard to stomach but not truly surprising. On some level this is how I expected Karlie and Taylor to handle both the birth of the baby and the launch of the rerecorded albums. As much I wanted to believe in the idea of spring breaking loose and bringing with it a fervent revolution … I could see the pieces still in play on the board and I doubted it was coming. 

I think the problem is that there was a split between the optimist and pragmatist sides of the fandom, over the last year or so. To be clear - I’m not judging the optimist side of the fandom. Not at all. Taylor has pulled wildcard moves before, and emotions run so high in all this, especially with a baby involved now, that I don’t blame people for wanting to believe the best. But it reached a stage where some of the things people were trying to talk themselves into were just wildly unrealistic. And when that happens, of course you’re going to get hurt. It’s inevitable. 

But let’s really look at this for a second. We should have known that neither Karlie nor Taylor was going to be shaving her beard in March. Ditching Jerk right after or just before the birth would have been too soon for Karlie. It’s not unusual for a celeb marriage to fizzle out within a year of the birth, but before the baby even arrives? That would be weird, and would draw attention just when it seems Kaylor don’t want it. They just had a baby. That’s an adjustment in itself, and Karlie is suffering enough social media hate on top of that. I wouldn’t blame her for just wanting to take a break and lie low during this difficult time. And unfortunately, for Karlie, that means maintaining the status quo of the situation she put herself in with Jerk. She may be doing the bare minimum to maintain it, but if she wants to avoid attention, she has to make it seem like everything between her and her “husband” is normal. And that she’s trying to make it work, which I believe will be important later. Good people try to make it work, even in bad relationships. 

Toe wasn’t going anywhere either. Taylor had relied on him so heavily during the promotion of Folklore, with the William Bowery narrative, that she was almost backed into a corner. She had to give some allusion to his air quotes “creative input” and their so-called happy relationship, or her failure to do so would have become the story and overshadowed her night. The headlines would have either been break-up speculation or complaints that she didn’t give him his due. We think the cutesy coverage after she named him in her acceptance speech was bad, but negative headlines have a far longer shelf life and can take on a life of their own. They would have been worse. Whatever we might think of Taylor’s actions, Folklore is one of her best albums and she deserved to have her night. 

So, on to the announcement of the birth. This is a tricky one, and again, I completely understand why people reacted so badly against it. It was everything we as a fandom said we didn’t want. It was Jerk using the baby for personal good PR. But I have to be honest here. I always thought we were kidding ourselves believing he would NEVER be seen with the baby or implied to be the father. I do believe Karlie is doing her damnedest to minimize the digital footprint of his involvement and keep her actual baby out of it. But he was always going to get to bask in the glow of playing daddy for a while. It’s the trade off Kaylor made when they used him to shore up their closet. 

This is also why I increasingly suspect the timing of the announcement got the green light from Kaylor too. If Jerk was always going to be assumed to be the father of Karlie’s baby, then there was always going to have to be a birth announcement that incorporated him somehow - unless the girls were ready to answer awkward questions, and it doesn’t seem like we’re there yet. So the best way to minimize the damage is to have his moment of glory overshadowed by a bigger win for Taylor. It worked pretty well actually. Even on Kaylor blogs the stunt was mostly buried by Taylor content.

I know a lot of fans feel gaslit by all the hints, but I do think there’s a possibility Taylor really didn’t grasp how hurt Kaylors would be. From her perspective, she “fed” fans three times over that night. She gave us a beautiful performance, a gorgeous red carpet moment, and a win to celebrate. I think it’s possible she really didn’t realize the double whammy of stunting that night would make it all feel worthless for many.

Taylor is in an awkward position. As a consequence of Kaylor retreating into the closet, the support base for them has shrunk. (When I use the words “Kaylor fandom”, I refer to this support base.) I would say Kaylor fandom consists of two parts. There is a silent portion, who observe events and comment anonymously, but don’t say anything “on main”. And then there are the small corps of true believers, who think Karlie and Taylor are still together and the baby is theirs. This latter group do most of the actual talking about Kaylor, but they tend to be pretty battle-hardened. They’ve been around for years, they never believe any of the stunts and their capacity to be hurt by them is, as a result, pretty limited. These Kaylors criticize sometimes, but they tend to fall back in line eventually and mostly adopt a “let’s wait and see how this all shakes out” approach. The problem is that I would say these “chilled” Kaylors are the minority. For their own sanity they curate their blog experience and often don’t post the more negative anons they get. Which is fine, but if you were looking at it from the outside, I could see how it might create an impression that the fandom as a whole can roll with the punches. And for a lot of the silent majority, that’s not the case. 

But again, I can see how Taylor might not necessarily know that. She went quiet after the Grammys, when I might have expected more celebratory posts from her. If I had to guess, I’d say she didn’t expect the backlash. I’m especially noticing a backlash against her for allowing Karlie to take so many hits while her own reputation has never been better. And I can’t defend her on that one, except to say I hope she has a plan. But I understand where people are coming from when they say the songs aren’t enough and actions speak louder than words. It’s tough to watch. 

Still, we’re in a position we should realistically have been able to see coming. We should have known Jerk wasn’t going to be out of the picture immediately after the birth. This is one of those things nobody likes, but maybe we all just have to be patient on. I don’t see Karlie busting out of the closet to admit her marriage was a fake, or testifying to the FBI. I think she’ll just let her marriage quietly fall apart, as many real marriages did during the pandemic. And for that to work, she needs to make it look like didn’t throw away a family unit lightly. Hence the “I tried” post, the social media break, and the suggestions of spending time with Jerk’s family. All of this can be spun later into a narrative of Karlie having tried to make it work, only to never really be accepted. The hate online affected her mental health and she gradually realized how unhappy she’d become and decided she needed to break free and find her old self again for her baby’s sake. This is the most likely narrative for Karlie’s freedom and it’s one that could work - but it’s going to take time to unfold. Personally, I’m giving it a year. If we don’t see a separation by then, and definitive moves to a reunited Kaylor, I’ll be bowing out. I’ll still know what I believe the truth to be, but I won’t see the need to devote my energy to defending it. ,

Meanwhile, the masters rerecords are about to be released, and Taylor has invested a lot in their success. Because of this, I can’t envision her coming out until at least the big three (Fearless, 1989, and Red) have dropped. She might drop hints, but I don’t expect anything earth-shattering. Even the order of the album releases seems to confirm this. She’s breaking out the big guns first. 

I’ve seen people speculate that because Rep can’t be rerecorded until 2022, Taylor will hold off on any coming out until then. And I’m not so sure of that. Yes, people listening to the album for clues would give Scott and Scooter money, but if we’re being honest, a fair amount of people are probably listening to those albums already, regardless of the drama. Those sleazeballs are profiting from Rep, full stop. But if Taylor profits more, from her bigger albums, she still wins. And she can still put out a Taylor’s version of Rep with vault tracks and collabs, to seduce people away from the Big Machine version in early 2022. Honestly, I think there’s a good chance Taylor would consider this is a worthwhile trade-off anyway, if it meant she got to live a more open life with Karlie - and most crucially, begin to repair Karlie’s reputation. As children get older and the world begins to leave the pandemic behind, it becomes harder to live behind closed doors. I guess we’ll find out how Taylor finds the reality of such a life, and what she considers worth sacrificing to step away from it. 

All this to say: I can’t predict the future more than anyone else, but I don’t think the situation we’re in now is irreparable, and if we’re being really objective, I don’t think it’s even surprising. I do think Taylor should give us something, if she wants to keep us around. No-one can live on a complete absence of hope, and as I’ve stated, letting the fandom dwindle to this extent has its own dangers. But I think we also need to keep our time frames realistic, even if it means rejecting lifelines like the Spade riddles. We shouldn’t expect Karlie to be free of Jerk for around a year, and we shouldn’t expect Taylor to do anything much beyond general music promo until at least the big three have dropped. Sucks to say it, I know. But at least this way we won’t be disappointed, and if Kaylor do pull a wild card and move towards freedom, we can be pleasantly surprised. 

Just my two cents. 

___________________

Well written and fair arguments on our reactions and expectations. I had typed up more, but I will let others post their comments before I chime in.

[vs-redemption]

This is the first piece out of seven written for the one year anniversary collaboration event for the @konoblog-simps discord. I encourage everyone to check out the masterlist for today's prompt and support the other creators. Some content is not suitable for minors so please pay attention to the warnings.

Prompt: Fluff (Finral Roulacase x Fem!Reader)

Word Count: 1.3K Warnings: None

Anyone could tell by a glance that the mixer wasn’t going well, and by the look on Finral’s face, you knew that he was coming to terms with that unfortunate fact as well. The other two magic knights sitting with him were either the only people in the restaurant oblivious to the disaster, or they just didn’t care as the one who’d likely arranged the gathering in the first place frantically grasped for conversation.

“You know,” Finral looked completely distressed by this point, gesturing desperately to the two who were meant to be acting as his wingmen. “Four members of the Black Bulls were actually recruited into the Royal Knights. Asta and Luck are two of them. They’ve been on some really crazy missions lately.”

The girls sitting across the table just force smiles before going back to picking at their food. No matter how much The Black Bulls had done recently, people were still stuck in their ways and looked down on the squad known for causing a little more trouble than they should. In your opinion, it was really a shame that all the girls Finral had ever invited to his little mixers failed to see what was right in front of them.

Time after time you watched him act like a complete gentleman; making polite conversation, giving just the right amount of respectful compliments, and even using his spatial magic to bring unique flowers or special treats from around the Clover Kingdom, just for girls to turn up their noses because of the Black Bulls symbol on his cloak. Well, that and maybe he did seem to try a little bit too hard at times. It was endearing though and obvious with the way he acted that he was genuinely looking for a real relationship with someone special. The poor boy had so much love to give, but nobody seemed to want it.

“Can I get three slices of chocolate cheesecake for table four?” You peek your head into the kitchen to ask the owner. The man gives you a weird look before checking the receipts.

“Table four didn’t order any chocolate cheesecake,” he folds his arms, “and we usually save that for special customers anyway.”

“You can take it out of my paycheck,” you tell him seriously while grabbing the dessert and skipping back out into the dining area.

Chocolate was a little more expensive since it had to be imported from the Heart Kingdom, but your boss was a hypocrite. By ‘special customers,’ he’d meant magic knights. Finral and his friends fit the criteria, even if they weren’t in one of the more glamorous squads. Taking a hit to your wages wouldn’t set you back too much, and anyway, you hated seeing Finral’s mixer flopping so badly. He didn’t deserve such poor luck, and you hoped maybe you could do this one thing to help him out a little.

“Three slices of chocolate cheesecake, as requested for the lovely ladies,” You gently slide a plate in front of each of the girls. Their eyes light up immediately, hands reaching for their forks so they can dig in as soon as possible. Finral, on the other hand, looked panicked.

“Excuse me, I didn’t order that,” he leans in towards you and whispers.

“Not to worry,” you wink playfully, ignoring the flutter of your heart caused by his closeness. “Consider it a thank you for all your hard work while protecting the kingdom. It’s on the house.” He didn’t seem to believe you, but you don’t give him the chance to ask any more questions. You straighten up and nod to the girls, telling them to enjoy the rest of their evening and then hurrying off to get back to your duties.

Things seemed to pick up for Finral a bit after that. The girls seemed a little more inclined to give him a chance, listening to his stories and being a little more forthcoming when he asked questions about themselves. You had to roll your eyes a little. Seeing the cautious optimism on Finral’s face, and seeing him smile without the usual underlying stress and self-consciousness was worth it, even if you didn’t think those girls deserved a moment of his time or attention.

It was a little before closing time when the mixer finally seemed to be wrapping up. You took that as a good sign and watched curiously as Finral and his friends walked the ladies to the door, thanking them politely and bidding them good night. You turn away, expecting them all to go home for the evening, but jump in surprise when you feel a tap on your shoulder.

“O-oh!” you feel heat rise to your cheeks when you find yourself face to face with Finral. “Can I help you?”

“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you.” He smiles, looking embarrassed. “I tried to thank your manager for sending those desserts earlier, but he said to thank you instead.”

“He wasn’t supposed to tell you that,” you mumble, averting your eyes and wishing the owner had just taken the credit. This was such an awkward situation to leave you in.

“I don’t understand,” Finral replies, his soft purple eyes searching your face for an answer. “Why’d you do that?”

“It just looked like your group needed a little pick-me-up,” you shrug, shifting from foot to foot nervously. “Just thought I’d help you out a bit… I don’t know.” Finral looked surprised by your explanation, and regards you in wonder for a moment before his face falls.

“Well,” his shoulders slump in defeat, “I still managed to get denied a second meeting from all of them. I really appreciate the thought though. I’ll pay you back, I promise.”

“That’s not necessary,” you tell him, a mixture of annoyance and relief swelling up inside you. As you’d predicted, those girls didn’t deserve a guy like Finral, and part of you was glad they’d rejected him. “Magic Knights are supposed to get free desserts anyway,” you reveal. “Just don’t tell anyone that I told you that.”

“But, you have to let me do something to repay your kindness,” Finral pleads, that anxious look coming back to his face. You fight the urge to reach out and try to smooth away the wrinkles caused by his stress, and start to fiddle with your hands as a crazy idea comes to mind.

“Well,” you glance up at him shyly, “You could always invite me to your next mixer.”

“What?” His eyebrows shoot up towards his hairline, somehow blown away by the suggestion until it clicks in his brain why someone would insist on inviting themselves to a mixer. Realization blooms across his face and you smile when his cheeks turn red.

“You don’t have to bring your friends though if you don’t want to,” you say, feeling a little bolder now. “Or invite anyone else at all really.”

“But that would be…” Finral blinks at you, struggling to accept what was happening.

“Only if that’s something you’d be comfortable with,” you decide to give him a chance to decline, not wanting to bully him into taking you out.

“I… really?” He stumbled over his words, “I mean, yes. I would be… very comfortable or… are you comfortable?”

“Yes,” you nod your head in confirmation, letting out a small laugh at his nervousness. “So, it’s a date then.” You finally say the “date” word and a look of excitement and disbelief takes over his features.

“O-ok, yeah.” He lets out a breathy chuckle, “Are… you really sure?”

“Yes!” You exclaim in amusement, “Just let me know the time and place and I’ll be there.”

“All right!” He promises, “I’ll make arrangements and let you know as soon as I can.” He pauses to shake his head as if he really thought he was stuck inside a dream. “I’m… really excited.”

“Me too,” you admit.

After a slightly awkward good-bye, Finral finally headed back outside to join his friends while you got back to work. Butterflies danced around your stomach as you tried to imagine what the magic knight would plan. You’d been interested in him for so long, and you hoped things would work out well between you. If it did, perhaps you’d never have to watch him suffer through a failed mixer again.

[delos-mio]

Out of the Woods - College!AU - PART 2

A/N: Part 2! I hope you enjoy this chapter. No major warnings apply! Thoughts, feelings, predictions always welcome <3

***

After dropping you off that evening, Nikolai found his mind to be running a mile a minute. It was 1am, relatively early by college standards, but he had no desire to go back to the party and no desire to go home. Instead, he walked around campus until his feet throbbed. He thought about your smile and your laugh, the way you bit your lip and the way you toyed with the ends of your hair. He thought about how you could very well be in the arms of another man right now.

He could have lived without that mental image.

It seemed wild to him that you could make so many feelings flood back to him in such a short amount of time. It hit him like a ton of bricks the moment you locked eyes, and it was instantly like the last 5 years of silence never even happened. God, he wished they never happened. How could he have been so cruel? Who just up and left the person they were very clearly falling in love without a trace? Nikolai, that’s who. And under the penetrating glow of the moon, for the next six or so hours, Nikolai hated himself for it.

Nikolai quietly tried to sneak back into the apartment he shared with Aleks around 7am. Generally, he was a pretty heavy sleeper, so he figured it’d be no problem. As the front door clicked shut behind him, another door clicked open inside the apartment. Alina, clad in only one of Aleks’s shirts, exited his room and immediately jumped upon seeing Nikolai. He quickly averted his eyes and turned his attention to the ceiling, trying to look anywhere but at the half-naked girl before him.

“So, I take it he wasn’t too upset I left the party early?” he asked before she blushed and quickly padded down the hall to the bathroom.

Nikolai pushed his hair back from his face and shook his head. Of course Aleks had company. He made his way to his room and let the back of his knees hit the mattress, flopping onto his back. His eyes fluttered shut as he mulled over the events of the evening. He knew he needed to turn his brain off and actually try to get some sleep, but that was still proving to be rather difficult. As he was getting lost in his own thoughts, he was interrupted by his door being flung open and Aleks leaning in his door frame.

“Do you mind? I’m really tired,” Nikolai grumbled, still not opening his eyes.

“You dog! You got home later than me,” he said with a smile evident in his voice.

“It’s not like that. You’ll notice I didn’t bring anyone home with me, now did I?” Nikolai was starting to get irritated by his roommate’s presence and hoped he’d leave him in peace and quiet sooner rather than later.

“Maybe not. But you could have. Seemed like you and Genya’s new roommate had something going on,” he pried.

“Can you fuck off? Respectfully?”

“Alright, alright. I’ll let you sleep. But you’re gonna tell me about her when you wake up.” With that, Nikolai heard his door shut again, leaving him in the stillness of his room. He fell asleep half hanging off the bed where he landed with the girl who got away on his mind.

----

When you woke up the next morning, Nikolai was still fresh on your mind. The way he smiled, the way he smelled…everything about him haunted your dreams. It didn’t even take a full minute before the guilt settled in. Jesus Christ, what were you thinking? Did Matt cease to exist because your first love cropped up out of nowhere? You just started flirting with Nikolai again like it was as easy as breathing. But you couldn’t help yourself—Nikolai had worked his way into your head instantly just like he had when you were 17. Like the first time you saw him take off his helmet, shake out his perfect, golden hair, and skate to the bench. It had been a wrap since that moment. You groaned into your pillow, feeling a little nauseous and a lot guilty. After freshening up and pulling a sweatshirt on, you wandered out into the living room of your apartment with Genya where she was eagerly chatting with Zoya over a cup of coffee.

“Fancy seeing you here, ditcher,” Genya teased as you grabbed a mug for yourself.

“I didn’t ditch,” you said. “Nik told you guys we were leaving.”

“Where’d you end up anyways?” Genya asked with a tiny smirk. This line of questioning amused Zoya and she gladly joined in on the antagonizing.

“I can only assume, knowing him, that you ended up somewhere more...private,” Zoya interjected.

“It wasn’t like that. I um, we ended up just going to get some food. Catch up or whatever,” you said while you shot daggers at Genya. You paused to take a sip of the too-hot drink before continuing. “Where have you been hiding Nikolai anyways?”

“He ain’t hiding- have you met the dude? I met him during Freshman orientation. Zoya and I lived in the dorm room next to him and Aleks,” she said as a matter of fact. “We’ve been hanging out ever since. Real good guy.”

“I know,” you sighed, pushing around a pen that was left on the coffee table.

“You like him! Oh man, I’m sorry, I didn’t even think about him being totally your type. You and your pretty boys. Mhmm, I bet he liked you too,” Genya teased and smiled again.

“No, he’s just an old friend,” you lied. “I have a boyfriend.”

“Could have fooled me,” Zoya mumbled, but you caught it. The comment did nothing to ease the growing knot in your stomach.

“Seriously. He’s my friend. I kinda got carried away with the flirting last night, but I was so excited to see him, you know?” You looked at them both, silently pleading with them to let it drop. “We’re just friends. Nothing else.”

“That may be true now, but the dude has it bad for you. I saw the way he looked at you, dude,” Genya said softly, finally sympathetic to your anguish. “Can I ask how you know each other? Besides ‘high school or something’?”

“We didn’t even go to school together.” You leaned back into the cushions, letting your focus drift away from the girls across from you. “My parents own an ice rink in my hometown and I’d work the concession stand when I got out of school- do my homework and pour hot chocolate or whatever. Nik played hockey with his high school team there.” You smiled to yourself. “I saw him come off the ice one day and thought he was the most handsome boy I’d ever seen. And one night, he walked right up to me after practice and started talking to me like we’d known each other forever. I didn’t have a ton of friends in school and hadn’t really been noticed by boys like...ever. So to have this super hot dude flirting with me was wild.”

“Oh my god, was Nik your first crush?” Genya squealed.

“I’d had a couple guys that caught my eye before him, but he was the first guy I really liked. First guy I kissed. First guy I…” you trailed off, letting the pause speak for itself.

“No wonder he was so happy to see you,” Zoya said.

“He kinda ghosted me when he left for college and I hadn’t talked to him since the last night we were together. I was too scared to try and find him on Facebook or anything. I didn’t want to see him with other girls hanging all over him and hurt my own feelings, you know?” Genya and Zoya exchanged a sympathetic look. “Anyways, that’s about it. Pretty boring stuff.”

“Babe…”

“I gotta start getting ready for work,” you said, abruptly standing and putting your mug in the sink. “I’ll see you guys later.” With that, you shuffled out of the room, hoping neither of them caught the hitch in your voice. So, maybe you weren’t as over that ghosting as you thought you were.

----

The weekend passed with a lot of idle time thinking about when you could possibly see Nikolai again. You were really regretting not scrawling your number somewhere for him. It was torture not knowing how to find him again outside of groveling to Genya, or hoping dumb luck would make you run into him.

You made it to Monday morning and somehow managed to make it to your 8:30 am class on time; a rare feat for you. Thankfully, the class was all engaged in a lively discussion of what constituted a modern classic novel, so it was easy to stay alert and engaged. Before you knew it, your professor was dismissing you and reminding you all about the paper that was due on Thursday. You shuffled down the stairs of the academic building and paused once you got to the quad. Normally, you’d head home for a few hours before your afternoon class, but you had a little time to spare today before your study group. But you also had Nikolai’s face burned in your mind. Would it be totally weird to try to find him?

The building that housed Science and History was only a quarter mile from your classroom, so you made quick work of the walk and tried to hype yourself up, telling yourself that it was normal to want to see him this bad- you’d missed out on a few years there! Of course you wanted to see your friend. When you got inside, you realized you had no idea where you were going. You had yet to take any sort of History class while at school and had absolutely no idea if he was even in class at this time. God, this was seeming like a dumber and dumber idea the more you walked around. After wandering aimlessly for a minute, you saw a familiar head of effortlessly messy golden hair slink out of a classroom.

Immediately, your eye was drawn to him. You were thankful he didn’t notice your presence because you were definitely staring. All weekend, you were sure you had a picture-perfect vision of him in your head, but you were abruptly reminded that he was much more handsome than you could dream up. He had traded in his button down shirt from the other night for a cozy looking grey sweater. You allowed yourself one more moment to admire him from afar before you approached. But Nikolai had turned to face you straight on, face lighting up the moment he saw you.

“I was wondering when you’d come around.” You could hear the smile in his voice.

“So, you don’t think I’m crazy for wandering around a building I’ve literally never set foot in, hoping by cosmic timing you’d be here?” you smirked.

“I promise you, I don’t think you’re crazy. I mean, I was considering doing something quite similar myself,” You couldn’t stop the heat that started to rise in your cheeks.

“So, where are you headed now?” you asked, rocking on your heels.

“Well,” he pondered, “I was going to meet Aleks at The Moose if you’re walking that way.”

“I’m not, but I have a couple minutes before I have to be at my study group if you want to sit outside,” you offered.

“Of course, darling,” he grinned, hazel eyes playful as you found a bench next to the bike rack. “How was your weekend?”

“Not bad,” you shrugged. “I had to work both days, but it was pretty slow, so no complaints. I only got grilled by Genya and Zoya a little. It could have been a lot worse,” you smiled.

“They do love any information they can get their little hands on,” Nikolai said, leaning back into the bench. “You...didn’t see Matt at all?” he probed, trying with all his might to look and sound nonchalant, but failing.

“Why do you want to know?”

“Can I not take an interest in you?” he asked with gentle eyes, but you just glowered.

“No. I didn’t see Matt this weekend. We haven’t even talked since Friday, honestly,” you said. Nikolai didn’t interject at all, just looked at you to go on, if you felt like sharing. “We haven’t really been getting along lately. He’s a nice guy and all, but I don’t know how much we have in common. And he never seems to have time for me unless it’s on his terms. Like, he expects me to be available whenever it works for him, but he’s always conveniently busy if I ask him to do anything with me.” You kicked at a rock near your toe, eyes fixed on the ground, totally unsure why you just told Nikolai all that.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” he said sincerely. “I’m saying this as your friend,” he started, making you look in his eyes again. “You deserve someone who understands what a gift it is to spend time with you.” It was so simple, but it made tears instantly spring in your eyes. “Hey. Hey, now. None of that,” he smiled, thumbing a tear away. “Would you maybe want to come over Friday? Get pizza and watch a movie or something?”

“That sounds really nice, Nik,” you nodded. It was then he broke into a blinding smile and you were unable to stop the swirling in your belly.

“Could I—would I be able to get your number? So I can send you my address or whatever,” he added quickly; you were really starting to love seeing him get flustered.

“I think that’s a good idea, yeah.” You reached for some scrap paper and pencil from your bag and scribbled down your number, placing it in the palm of his large hands before standing up. His fingers just barely brushed yours as he took the paper before stowing it away in the front pocket of his jeans. “You can always use that number before Friday too, if you want,” you said with a sly smile and patted Nikolai’s cheek gently. His laugh carried a bit as you walked opposite directions out of the quad, your feet feeling like they were being carried by tiny, pink fluffy clouds.

Fuck. Did you just set up a date with Nikolai? No. No, not a date. Just two friends eating pizza and watching movies. Friends did that all the time.

But as you walked to the cafe where your study group met, there was a crashing wave of guilt that washed over you. What the fuck were thinking? All you were doing was playing with fire, practically begging fate to burn you. You were mentally beating yourself up, feeling like a total shit bag as you pushed open the door to the small cafe, seeing your group already gathered and breaking off into pairs, Matt beaming at you when you came into view.

“Hi, baby,” he said, kissing your cheek as you sat down next to him.

“Hey,” you smiled back with tight lips, hardly able to look at him.

You started going through notes for an upcoming Logic and Reasoning exam, but you found yourself unable to process anything you were reading. Your mind was elsewhere and you only managed half-hearted affirmations and hardly contributed any correct answers. Here Matt was, sweet and excited to see you. He was good, he was nice. Maybe you just needed to make more of an effort with him. Should he really want to do the things you wanted to do, or were you being selfish? You weren’t sure.

“Something wrong?” he asked suddenly, snapping you from your thoughts.

“Just don’t feel good, that’s all,” you shrugged, looking back at your notebook and computer. He accepted that answer and didn’t probe any further.

“So, you should come over Friday. I don’t have anyone else to hang out with and thought we could hang out,” he said into your ear, hand gripping your thigh.

“Can’t,” you said with a shake of your head. “I already have plans.”

“Oh there’s a surprise,” he said, half under his breath. And that...that was it. You immediately slammed your pen onto the table and looked at him with hard eyes.

“Would you just say whatever you’re trying to fucking say?” you seethed.

“Just seems awfully convenient that every time we’re supposed to do anything, suddenly you have plans with I don’t even know who” he said, clearly annoyed. “All I’ve done is try to accommodate you and do what you want, but that doesn’t seem to be enough,” he added with a melodramatic sigh, which was more than enough to set you off.

“Oh, that’s a fucking joke, right?” you laughed. “Maybe you’d know more about my schedule if you ever bothered to talk to me more than once a week. And you literally just said I should come over because no one else can! Like, I’m your girlfriend- I shouldn’t be your last ditch option,” you scoffed. “You know what? I can’t be here right now. Call me when you’re ready to rejoin all of us in reality.” With that, you grabbed your bag and stormed out the door, letting your feet take you quickly in any direction that was simply away. No, you were right about what you said to Nikolai- Matt only saw you as convenient.

Friday couldn’t come soon enough.

[chidoroki]

Norman - 22194

March 21st is here and it’s time for yet another birthday post. I already rambled on about Emma and Ray on their special days, so now it’s finally time to complete this full-score tradition with Norman. It might not be as detailed or long as the other two, since he was absent for a good chunk of the story, but it doesn’t make him any less important! I’ll be honest now, the boy isn’t my favorite character (he doesn’t place anywhere in my top ten for this series either) so I probably missed some moments worth mentioning but I did my best to praise this child anyway!

(spoilers for the entirety of The Promised Neverland, so if you haven’t read/completed the manga yet, consider this your first warning, because I’m once again going from start to finish with this.)

Since I want to stay consistent with the other two posts, this will focus on the manga timeline, as season 2 is, well.. it’s own thing. I’ll mention some things but don’t count on much. With that, let’s go.

- He achieves a perfect score on Grace Field’s daily tests, alongside Emma and Ray.

- He is, without a doubt, the smartest kid the house has ever seen, as he passes each test flawlessly and has maintained a 300 average.

- He’s a complete strategist who is capable of achieving victory (even in something simple as tag) by observing his opponents moves and analyzing their weaknesses in order to counter.

- Knows how to pick locks. The scene from ch1 was left out but we see him doing so later on in ep02.

- Stays relatively positive and calm after learning about the truth of the farm.

- Even going as far as giving Emma a reassuring smile, which I think is impressive given the literal nightmare fuel they’ve just witnessed. 

- I’m giving him half credit for suggesting the idea of there being tracking devices, since anime has him reveal this possibility while in manga it’s Emma.

- Both of them realize what determines the shipping order and that the demons favor their brains.

- This silly panel that I love dearly.

- Made sure to do a sweep of the entire house beforehand to make sure their escape planning doesn’t get pick up on.

- Figures out that Isabella only knows the children’s locations when she checks the tracker and that it can’t identify who is who.

- Has the nerve to lie right to Isabella’s face.. not that she believes it, but still gutsy nonetheless.

- Knowing the house probably wouldn’t have any rope, it was his idea to use the spare tablecloths.

- Had a feeling that Ray would reveal the harsh reality of how dangerous it would be to escape with all the children, which turns out to be correct.

- His laugh in ep02 is so precious.

- This statement being 100% accurate.

- Manages to convince the logical Ray, who we know now has spent many years coming up with a solid, safer escape plan, to join in and assist with their crazy and reckless plan instead. Having Ray on their side also grants them many advantages.

- Absolutely hates to lose, which is a good mentality to have in a world where your life is a stake and your time is limited, which eventually leads him to consider every possible opportunity to stay ahead of his enemies throughout the remainder of the story.

- Realizes that the trackers must only send out a signal upon being broken, which we found out to be true in Ray’s one-shot chapter.

- - Him looking completely terrified in this panel.

- He managed to catch all the Grace Field kids in a game of tag even after they received advice from Ray about how to survive longer.

- The goddamn intimidating energy he gives off here is fantastic.

- Despite his body being physically weak, he manages to survive and win against Krone during their game of tag.

- Just like Ray some couple chapters ago, Norman is completely serious about this idea.

- Suspects there’s a traitor among the kids and swiftly comes up with a plan to lure them out.

- This panel of him “dead” from the first side story.

- He has a feeling the spy is Ray, so he moves up the day of the escape to catch him off guard and send him into a panic.

- Even though the anime didn’t include it, he managed to throw off Krone as well with some fake footprints to keep her off their backs.

- Was honestly considering on leaving the spy behind while the rest of them escaped, though he doesn’t seem real happy about the idea, considering the traitor is Ray.

- His plan on fishing out the spy was flawless as he finally calls Ray out by revealing that the information he gave about the ropes and where he hid them were fake locations.

- Not only was Ray the first one Norman suspected, but he caught onto him way back when Krone first came to the house. All the information Ray was feeding them helped Norman come to this conclusion as well.

- Along with Emma’s words about believing that no one in their family is truly bad, Norman refrains from cutting Ray off to allow him to become their trump card. This was a risky move itself, knowing Ray could sell both him & Emma out at any time. Norman tends to prioritize victory, so while staying alive is absolutely necessary and that could’ve been achieved without Ray (as he could’ve just used Ray then ditch him later), he still decides to make the offer as realizes that in order defeat Isabella, Ray’s full cooperation is essential.

- Realizes that it was Ray who hid Little Bunny in the first place and lead Norman and Emma to investigate the gate that night, which leads him to believe that Ray isn’t really an enemy.

- He’s also left handed. Yes, that’s important. Not only for later in the story but because we’re superior. I’m sorry y’all had to find out this way. 

- This stupid, little face he makes.

- Suspects that Ray doesn’t actually plan on escaping at all and intends to kill himself.

- Just like Emma and Ray, Norman also recognizes and understands morse code.

- Look at this precious child, not even angry after getting punched and knocked over. (because i certainly would be)

- Finds Ray’s hidden supply of oil which confirms the method for his future suicide. This also helps Norman later on when he comes up with a refined escape plan by using the fire Ray plans to start.

- Figures out Krone’s true intention about why she wants to join forces with the kids in the first place. 

- He ends up accepting Krone’s offer anyway, because despite the large risk, any information that can snag out of her would benefit them.

- You mad lad, look at you, taunting the bringer of death yet again while a smile on your face.

- And he still manages to find some strength to smile while upon death’s door.

- Not for long though, as once he’s given the chance to be alone, he finally breaks down. Having the cup overflow with water really helps demonstrate how impactful the thought of dying hit him as Norman was overcome with so many emotions that he didn’t even have the strength to hold onto the cup or his facade. It’s then he starts to feel scared and sorry for himself but away from Emma and Ray’s eyes as to not worry them.

- His entire internal monologue as he comes to terms with his unfortunate situation and flips back to his determined “I can’t lose” attitude to help everyone else escape. Also, his theme ‘22194’ hits especially hard.

- For someone with weak, physical abilities, he manages to climb the wall on his own.

- Though the cliff stopped his escape, he used that opportunity to survey the surrounding area of the entire farm to rely his findings to the duo and provide them a safer escape route.

- Completely adamant about his decision to accept his shipment in order to give the rest of his family a chance to escape. (hell, id’ be terrified right now)

- This hug that is sure to break everyone’s hearts.

- Quick to react to Emma’s last ditch effort and prevented her from slamming her already busted up leg into the ground.

- Not only did he predict that Ray would start a fire to distract Isabella and on which day, he also left behind the pen and key he received from Krone along with a new, detailed plan (which he managed to come up with in only a few hours by the way) that would allow the kids to cross over the cliff.

(post season one spoilers below. again, focusing on the manga timeline, so any new season 2 events will be mentioned sparingly.)

- Like Ray, Norman was able to figure out how the pen worked well enough to see Minerva’s message regarding B06-32.

- Since he doesn’t show up again for quite some time post-escape, there isn’t much to talk about.. but at least I can make fun of him thanks to extra pages, like how he wouldn’t have enough strength to use a bow.

- But hey, props to s2ep10 for actually giving us Norman shooting an arrow. He was pretty decent with it too, as he hit his target on the first try behind a darn smokescreen. The manga did show him holding a bow in ch161, but that’s it.

- Not relevant to the actual story at all, but his smarts certainly make anything possible.

- I’m sorry but these tiny failures of his bring me great joy.

- Though the tests at Lambda are harder than those at Grace Field, Norman still managed to get every question correct. Every single day he was there. Even when the facility manages to increase the difficulty of the tests, he continues to pass each one with flying colors.

- Since he noticed someone who’s right handed also takes the same tests he does, he makes an attempt to communicate with them via a Rubik’s cube. He waits patiently for five months until he finally gets a response from Vincent around Christmas 2046. 

- Dealt with the experiments/drugs that were forced onto him and the seizures that resulted from them.

- Even with the tight security and surveillance, he somehow acquired explosives and successfully blow up Lambda and escapes with the survivors.

- Again, not significant to the story, but seriously dude? You just fainted and yet you still get this crazy question right effortlessly?

(post time-skip)

- Contacts Lucas moments before the B06-32 shelter gets blown up and gives him the numeric code that eventually leads Emma’s group to the “Jaw of Lion.”

- Destroyed numerous mass production farms since his escape from Lambda.

- As well as save countless children from other farms and used the Paradise shelter found by Smee’s network to give them a sense of safety and taste of a normal life.

- The darn glow-up he receives, like sweet lord child, are you sure you’re still 13??

- - His cute, squishy cheeks though!

- He may look like he’s in his thirties, but still has the strength of a child. (see anime? this is how strong ray’s slap should have been!)

- Learned a great deal of demon history and gave that lengthy lesson about the demon’s genetics and how they inherit the characteristics of whatever they eat and evolve accordingly. 

- With Emma’s wish about saving everyone and lively happily still on his mind, he thought of a safe and certain method in order to create such a future for all the children raised as food.. which ends up being complete extermination of all the demons caused by a civil war. His plan also includes ending the Ratri clan as well. How cheerful.

- Are you surprised to learn that Norman getting tackled by the younger kids is my favorite panel of him?

- You weak, little bean, I’m sorry I enjoy making fun of you so much.

- Successfully forms an alliance with Lord Geelan and his clan by offering revenge on the royal family, the five regent houses, as well as the Ratri clan, thus putting Geelan in full control. In return, it would grant Norman the full release of farm children, permission to self-govern and some much needed power in terms of demon strength.

- He knows full well that the entire alliance is a lie and both parties are only using each other, though in works in his favor, as it will send the demons to destroy each other without the lose of any human lives.

- This absolute powerful panel that the anime decided “nah, we’re gonna change this too” because they’re cowards.

- Narrowed down possible locations on where to find Sonju and Mujika. Sure it was with the intention of killing our demon friends but his map was accurate.

- Survived who knows long with his seizures at level 4, and because of his severe condition, he’s completely set on following through his plan and succeeding before his time runs out.

- Seems to enjoy blowing stuff up, such as the imperial city’s bridges to send the place into a panic and trap all the citizens.

- Advised the Lambda crew on how to effectively fight against the queen by attacking relentlessly.

- Let loose a poison that causes not only normal demons to degenerate, but the royal family as well, such as the five regent heads and the queen who’s name is too long and complicated for me to ever remember, who all have the cursed blood. (at least that’s how effective it was in manga, in anime it did absolutely nothing to vylk)

- He somehow managed to learn, speak and understand the demon language, which, according to Shirai (vol16 author notes), is actually an uncommon language nowadays. (and we’ll unfortunately never know how this language actually sounds, thank anime..)

- Do I even praise him for killing a demon and well.. all this? Sure in the anime he tried killing Vylk, but old demon was fair more innocent compared to the royal family, so I have no idea.

- I will give season 2 some credit and say I prefer their take on the “right now you look like a small child, shaking with fear” panel.

- But not too much credit, as they didn’t give us the full trio hug as the manga did!

- Then again the anime did have him about to apologize to Vylk and Demon Emma for his actions, which is something, I suppose? since in ch154 he says he didn’t regret killing the queen and royals, which I guess is justified because they were the bigger problem, but oh well.

- Might have apologized to Ayshe for killing her father? Can’t be sure but that’s the unanimous consensus in the fandom right?

- Instantly comes up with counter moves and directions for the entire group upon hearing the enemies locations from Vincent during the GF raid.

- I honestly can’t look at this panel anymore and not laugh about it.. because reasons.

- He just keeps on winning. (also he looks real good here, i’ll give him that.)

- He and everyone else are skeptical about there being no “reward,” and for rightfully so.

- Upon learning that Emma is missing after everyone crossed over to the human world, they all adopt her optimistic attitude and swear to find her no matter where she might be.

- After a stressful two year search, the kids finally find Emma and Norman is so overcome with emotion that he busts out into tears of joy, despite finding out that she lost her memories due to the reward. All that matters to him is that Emma was safe and happy and he accepts her just the way she is.

And I guess.. that’s it. I’m sorry again, I know this is truly the weakest post out of the trio and I have no doubt I glanced over a whole bunch of great moments but it still had to be done! Making fun of him probably wasn’t the best thing to do on his special day either, but I assure you this child is very powerful. Who else do you know that is capable of sending an entire fandom into a panic and rage furiously by just simply showing up?

Ah ha okay, now I’m done. In all seriousness though, this lad is great and through everything he has endured, he definitely deserves to be celebrated today, so happy birthday to our boy Norman!

[treatian]

The Chronicles of the Dark One:  Magical Loopholes

Chapter 63:  The Savior’s Test

One by one, the family exchanged glances at each other, doubtful and hopeful glances all at once before Emma gave the final nod and David left the shop, he assumed to fetch the dog. It was only once he'd gone that he turned to his fearless defender, realizing that their lunch had been interrupted yet again.

"Belle…I'm sorry that we-"

"It's fine," she assured him with a hand on his arm, smiling gently. "I'll stay."

Stay. Stay to watch. Stay to see him help. Stay to defend him. He couldn't help the smile that broke out over his face. He was beginning to enjoy having someone on his side a bit too much. If the others weren't there, he would have kissed her, but Emma chose that moment to clear her throat as if reminding him that they were, in fact, still present. He sighed in irritation of all they'd interrupted.

"In the back," he snapped before he led Belle back ahead of them. The sooner this was over, the better.

Fortunately, David returned quickly, leading the spotted dog into the back room on a leash. He smiled as he crouched down and urged the beast over to him. "Hey boy, good boy!" he cooed, using every trick to befriend the animal that Mr. Oak had taught him in his youth. The dog responded with a couple of happy licks as he stopped perfectly in front of him.

"I ah…didn't know you were such a dog person!" Belle said with a chuckled beside him.

"Well…a long time ago, in another life, I got to know a sheepdog or two." Yet another part of his life she had no knowledge of yet, a part he wanted to tell her about, a part he could be telling her about now over lunch if it weren't for this mess.

"That's fascinating," Emma drawled sarcastically. "But unless you can speak dog, how is Pongo gonna tell us anything?"

"With magic, of course," he commented. "It won't allow us to communicate, but it will allow us to extract his memories."

"Extract?!" David stressed his heart rate hitching.

"You don't have to worry. He won't feel a thing," he assured them. He wouldn't do this if it hurt the beast. Aside from the fact that Belle would never forgive him, he wasn't that much of a monster.

"Why should we trust you?" Emma argued. "You could just as easily use magic to fool us."

"Because I'm not going to be the one using magic…you are." He smiled as they have finally arrived at the best part of his plan, the part most informative and important to him.

"Me?" the girl questioned. "How?"

"You have it within you, told me so yourself," he pointed out before glancing to Mary Margaret. "You witnessed it, didn't you?"

That was a calculated guess. Emma hadn't said that Mary Margaret had seen it, but he assumed that by now, if she hadn't seen it herself, she'd at least heard about it. The look of nervousness and lack of denial from the Queen confirmed his suspicion.

"Emma, you don't have to do this," Mary Margaret pointed out as if her daughter was about to drink poison instead of performing a moderately difficult spell.

"If it tells us something about Archie's death, then so be it," she responded.

Excellent.

He carefully removed a box from his cabinet and searched inside to collect a memory keeper he'd once gotten from Clopin. Powerful things in their world somehow Mr. Gold knew it had transcended worlds somehow to arrive in this one as a "dream catcher" to another group of people.

"Do you know what this is?" he asked of Emma.

"A dream catcher," she responded appropriately, sounding almost as nervous as her mother.

"Well, it's capable of catching so much more," he explained.

He gave the artifact a bit of magic, just something to spark it to life after so long, and then summoned Pongo's gaze up to him and dragged the catcher down the dog's head, neck, and along his spine. It glowed as he did it, burning brighter and brighter before he finally pulled it off the animal, and he judged for himself the weight of what he'd collected. What he saw inside of it was interesting, very interesting indeed.

"What is that?" Belle asked beside him.

"Memories," he answered, standing up and shifting a bit so that she could see for herself there was no harm to the beast or in what he'd done. "Now, Miss Swan…you show us what happened?"

"How?" she asked as he presented it to her, and she reached out to take it. "It's just a jumble."

Was it now? A "jumble"…not nothing. That was very informative indeed. But with a bit more teaching, perhaps…

"Will it," he pressed. "Will it, and we shall all see."

Emma swallowed. Her heart sped up as she took a breath and looked into the catcher; her eyes flickered with concentration, her brows knit together as her muscles strained. There was a spark in the air, something made of magic, something powerful and strong that made the side of his mouth twitch into a smile-

"I can't," she responded.

He held in his laugh though it was hard given how predictable that had been. She'd felt it too. She had to have felt it inside herself. Now she just needed to learn not to run from it.

He took a step closer and nodded at her. "Yes, you can."

Again, she swallowed hard before giving a small nod, as if she understood what he hadn't said, as if it was all clear to her. And then she glanced back at the catcher, closed her eyes tight, and again it began. The race of her heartbeat, the furrowing of her brow, the strain in her muscles…and then the spark. Only this time, it was as if she'd grabbed hold of it, as if she'd recognized what it might have been last time and was clinging to it…her magic. It tasted delightful, even if it was some of the strongest Light Magic he'd ever been faced with. Intoxicating, delectable, extraordinary…and so very, very dangerous if it ever went up against his own. If it ever clashed.

A storm raged around the Savior, a cloud of black on the streets of Storybrooke as streetlights were destroyed, and she held the dagger in her hands. The Darkness found her.

"Emma, you're doing it!" David's voice tugged him out of his vision, the first he'd had in far too long. But one he couldn't dwell on at the moment, not at a time like this even if it if did feel like the Seer was trying to tell him something. Because there, in the keeper, were memories. Clear images of the night before, a traumatic event he'd plucked from the dog's mind for her to see.

Archie answering the door, "Regina!" He let her into the room, and the pair began to talk, words that the canine mind could not come to terms with. And then Regina reached forward, put her hand around the grasshopper's neck, and-

"Oh!" Mary Margaret threw herself into David's arms at the same time he felt Belle shudder and stir behind him. She didn't squeal or cry as Mary Margaret did, but he could still feel her heartbeat, tuned to it as he was, smell the fear pouring off her. He'd been honored that she'd wanted to stay during this, but he hadn't thought to consider the effects of potentially watching the woman who had threatened her life for decades kill another human being in front of her eyes.

"You were right all along!" Emma breathed as he managed to wrap his hand gently around Belle's.

"I'm sorry, Emma," David breathed as he comforted Mary Margaret, though what he was sorry for he wasn't positive about. Frankly, as Belle teetered on the edge of breakdown herself, he didn't really care. Nor did he care why Regina had suddenly decided to murder the bug when she'd been so against killing the biological mother of her child, her real threat, days ago. He just wanted the shop back again so he could calm Belle down.

"And now if you are quite satisfied that I am not the murderer you're seeking-"

"We'll go," Emma finished for him quickly. "We have to find her! We have to catch Regina and make sure Henry is okay so she can't hurt him!"

And that was that. In the blink of an eye, David had whispered something encouraging to Mary Margaret that forced her to pull herself together so they could go with the dog. He watched them go, saw them to the front door, and then magically locked it the second the bell finished ringing before turning back to Belle.

"Sweetheart, I'm so sorry," he whispered. She wasn't crying, not yet at least, but the hand he moved over her arm confirmed that she was trembling. Obviously, and understandably, shaken from what she'd seen. "I'm so sorry you had to see that."

And then she gave in. She launched herself into his arms with a desperation that made him hold her just as tightly as she was holding onto him. How could he not, after the way she'd defended him in front of them, stayed by his side, endured those memories…she deserved every last ounce of comfort he had to give. So, he hushed her and cooed her. He rubbed her back the same way he did when they were in bed, hoping it might ease her as it did her nightmares. He made sure only to tell her true things, that she was okay, that she was safe. He reminded her that Regina had yet to come after her since she was free and promised her that if the bitch knew what was good for her, she wouldn't dare try now, for if she did, it would be her last day on this earth.

Finally, she peeled her head up off his shoulder, and he could see the tears that had gathered in her eyes. "I knew you hadn't done it."

The words were like a punch to the gut, shocking. They were unbelievable simply because he could see that she believed them. Every last one of them. She'd known he hadn't done it…from the beginning, she'd known. His defender, ally, lover, and True Love…so many new experiences, new thoughts, and emotions swirled inside of him every time they were together. And sometimes it was so overwhelming the best he could do was pull her closer and let her hold him as he held her.

[littlemisssquiggles]

Pinehead Headcanons: Oscar’s Sacrifice For His Rose

Guys, I’ve been thinking. And y’know what happens when this squiggle meister muses about something; especially if it’s related to RWBY.

For most of V8’s promotion, the showrunners and the CRWBY kept hinting at how much “darker” this new season to be. And as daunting as that may sound to me as an audience member, the obvious question I ask from this is:

 “…Exactly how dark are we talking?”

After all, RWBY has done dark before. I mean look at V3 and the events of the Fall of Beacon. V3 is still considered to be RWBY’s darkest season to date. Beacon fell leaving Vale Kingdom broken and vulnerable without the protection of its main huntsmen academy and a handful of important lead characters from that arc---heroes and villains alike---died. So keeping that in mind, how really dark can V8 be compared to that? What can the showrunners do for this season that they didn’t already do season prior? And here in lies, my hunch.

Well…not real a hunch. Just a thought. An idea. For me, V8 being darker wouldn’t just represent the Fall of Atlas and the death of lead characters important to this volume arc such as General Ironwood or Winter Schnee or even another member of Team JNPR like Ren or Nora.

Nah son. To me, that’d be way too simple for my taste since, as I mentioned earlier, it’s already been done before so fans are already going to expect that, right? For V8 to be dark for me, the showrunners would have to do something incredibly ballsy. Something that’ll really catch their viewers off guard.

I’m not talking about Ruby Rose losing an eye. As much as I’m not really a fan of that popular fan theory, even that seems too light. Not to mention that Ruby’s development as a Silver Eyed Warrior has been quite inconsistent over the past few seasons and is the aspect of her character that’s been the least challenged.

So I’m going to just toss this one out there because it’s been on my mind since I saw this particular shot from V8 opening visuals. It’s the shot of RWBY falling into an abyss of darkness with Ruby reaching out to grasp what appears to be the Relic of Creation while Grimm hands---the same ones conjured by Salem back in V6 to apprehend Hazel as punishment for his failures---restrain her to drag her further and further away from the light.

Imagine if…Ruby dies?

And I’m not just talking teasing her death like how they did it with Weiss back in V5 with Cinder Fall or with Blake in V3 and V6 with Adam or even Yang back in V3 with Adam.

I’m talking, straight up having Ruby Rose be killed instantly by Salem and her corpse is just left behind for her allies to find her dead. An unquantifiable spark snuffed out after the villains had won yet again. And on this grim tone, V8 just ends like THAT.

Mantle Kingdom is no more; just another graveyard for the Grimm like the former Beacon Academy.

The People of Mantle are all dead; tragic victims of a failed attempt at saving them.

Atlas Kingdom has fallen with its own people about to meet the same horrible end as their former Mantlese brethren.

Salem has succeeded in claiming the Relic of Creation and relishes in her triumph by the restored communications to broadcast a cryptic message to the rest of the world. A message unveiling the Fall of the formerly powerful Kingdom of Atlas at the mercy of her Grimm army; letting the leaders of Vale and Vacuo---the last two remaining kingdoms standing in her way of claiming all the Relics; know that they were next in her conquest.

Our heroes have sustained yet another heavy loss. And what’s worse this time is that now no longer had the guidance of their leader. Ruby Rose is dead. Made to be the martyr this time. And on that note, the volume just fades to black on the echoing cries of our heroes and the victims of Atlas as everything falls to ruin.

It’ll be just like the opening foreshadowed. Happy? Never Again…because the simple soul who was meant to be our hero in the end to rise above everything else and vanquish the forces of evil was now gone. Died another failure to a cause like so many others who died in vain throughout Remnant’s history; just as Roman Torchwick predicted that she would.  And such a tragedy this is since this girl. This single rose---this true rose--- was meant to be unique. She was supposed to change everything, right? But alas, her fate was no different than the ones that came before her.

I’m bringing this up because I have this rather farfetched idea involving the Rosegarden pair that I really wanted to share. It’s not exactly a theory per say. It’s definitely not something I expect the canon to do. Shoot, I highly doubt the showrunners would actually pack the chops to kill off their main protagonist.

However the RWBY V8 opening really got me thinking.

“…We said goodbye to all the things we loved. Gave up our lives just to find that it was not enough…”

In a discussion regarding the ending of the Little Prince story, an anon-ninja informed me about there being an alternative interpretation of the conclusion to the prince’s story wherein, instead of perishing from the snake’s venomous snake bite, the prince succeeded in returning home to his beloved rose on their planet...only to discover that his rose had died in his absence with his care and love.

Putting that together with the V8 opening visuals, it made recall a show I used to watch on Lifetime called Witches of East End. I quite liked it. It's a shame it got cancelled after only two seasons though.

Anyways, why I remember this series in particular is that; spoilers but…at some point during the show’s main PLOT, it did the unexpected and had a series villain kill two of our three main characters. And what made the visual even more horrifying to the audience was that the corpses of these characters were left on display for the surviving third main character to find. It doesn’t help that the two characters were also the beloved children of our third lead who she has watched die countless of times since the head witch---Johanna (I believe her name was) was cursed by her father so that each time her daughters died---she would be forced to give birth to them again and watch their life and death happen again and again. And it doesn’t matter what she did or how hard she tried---even when she attempted to hide her family’s identity as witches from her girls---her daughters STILL never lived past the age of 30.

They always died somehow and it didn’t matter if only one of the daughters died either. When either died, the other one would surely follow. So Johanna would give birth. Raise her two girls into fine young women and…watch them die. Living the same vicious cycle.

This is why the V8 opening visuals  made me think of the prospect of Ruby dying. That shot that I showed of Ruby being dragged down into the dark abyss by the Grimm far away from the light made me wonder.

At first I figured this was a sign that we going to see some mental machinations at the hands of Salem. Basically Salem trapping Ruby and her friends in this cryptic illusion where she tortures them with surreal images of their worst fears incarnated in order to break our heroes down both emotionally and psychologically. So that’s one idea.

But then I thought, …what if…instead that moment is meant to be symbolic. Like the Staff of Creation symbolised life while the Grimm and the void represented death and at some point, Ruby will straddle the fine line between the two for this season.

So with all that in mind, this is what I thought. This is the scenario I concocted from this interpretation.

Let's say...

It is the inevitable Fall of Atlas and Salem kills Ruby Rose.

Instead of the wicked witch being dead, it’s our little red rose and because of this, our heroes are left distraught (Yang in particular, not just because Ruby was her baby sister but also given her doubts over her sister’s judgement and all that jazz). However our remaining heroes aren’t given time to really process Ruby's death. All they could do is take her corpse and attempt to flee since Atlas was falling and our remaining hero team needed to leave if they were going to make it out alive.

Since the show hinted at this bit back in V6, my assumption is that at some point, Vacuo Kingdom will answer the call and come to aid the People of Atlas. While they're unable to salvage the kingdom, the least their forces are able to do with the aid they could provide was evacuate the Atlesians to safety in Vacuo.

So ultimately our heroes are rescued by their allies from Vacuo and reunite with teams CFVY and SSSN respectively. However there is no real time to celebrate their reunion since...well...Ruby is dead. Salem is on her way to Vacuo to claim the Sword of Destruction next and, the group are at a loss on what to do next. Not to mention that certain characters---like WBY (mainly Yang) and Oscar---aren’t taking Ruby’s death too well.

Since the usual gimmick for when a main character dies is for their allies to somehow figure out a way to bring them back from the dead, in respect to Ruby,  I had this idea of...perhaps…while staying in Vacuo at Shade Academy, Oscar discovers a way for him to somehow bring Ruby back from the dead?

Let’s say…it has something to do with his semblance or magic. The thought process I had behind this was that considering that Ozma is technically the only living soul to have ever traversed the line between life and death as an immortal being, imagine if...this somehow made Oscar some kind of human life line or spiritual anchor---A being who is connected to the Realm of Life and Death via his rather unique predicament as a member of Ozma's lineage. 

And thus, using magic (or his semblance or whatever---I dunno) Oscar is easily able to travel the Realm Between Life and Death. Y'know sorta like the Avatar. Maybe?

Basically the notion I had was that

Oscar would go to the Realm Between Realms.

Y’know the same white void where we originally saw Ozma meet the God of Light for the first time in the Lost Fable.

Picture it, Oscar mirroring his predecessor in the Lost Fable, awakening in the Realm Between Realms. In this vacant world, let's say…we get another call-back to the Lost Fable where for the first time since his lifetime as Ozma, a Wizard of Light is reunited with a God.

Imagine if...as a nice parallel, Oscar encounters the God of Darkness in the Realm Between Realms. Much like Light to Ozma, Darkness chose to appear before Oscar since the all-knowing God was already fully aware of what the little prince’s intentions were daring to come to such a world. He knew he was coming to find his rose. 

Let's say...to entertain his own amusement, Darkness agrees to give Oscar a helping hand with his quest for Ruby. The God informs that Ruby’s soul was located in the After Life and even takes Oscar to her so that he may reunite with her. However being the cunning God that he was, what Darkness failed to inform Oscar of was that even if he succeeded in finding Ruby amongst the sea of souls in the After, that didn’t necessarily mean that the boy would be permitted to just bring Ruby just like that.

And since Darkness had dominion over Death (as Light had Life), even with his title as his brother’s cherry picked “champion of humanity”, Darkness wasn’t going to give Oscar that respect in the slightest. For in Darkness’ eyes, this foolish boy lost that mercy the instant he dared to defy the order of the world he and his brother fashioned together to step foot into what he described as his domain.  

After all, there are rules to this game; naturally. Life and death go hand in hand---always in perfect balance.

In a nutshell, to Oscar's detriment, Darkness informs the little prince that the only way that he would be allowed to revive Ruby is if he gave up something equivalent in exchange for her salvation.

An eye for an eye. A soul for a soul. So this presents Oscar with a predicament where in order to save Ruby, he had to sacrifice himself in the process. There was no other way. Ruby will be allowed to return to the Realm of the Living to reunite with their friends waiting for her but this also meant that Oscar would be forced to part ways with everything he and everyone he had grown to love.

This included Ruby despite defying the odds just to find her. He wouldn't even be able to be with Ruby as they once were. Not as teammates. Not as friends or anything more. His life would be gone…and Darkness informs the young boy of all of this; expecting him to fold.

But despite the God's warnings, Oscar agrees to the terms. Without question. Out of his devotion to his rose, the little prince was willing to make this great sacrifice for her. And even when questioned by Darkness of why Oscar would dare to commit himself to such a foolish feat especially for a single girl when there were probably a thousand more exactly like her back on Remnant, it is here where we can get the Fox’s lesson to the Prince, in Oscar’s own words.

Yes Ruby was no different from any other rose. Just as Oz once told him, Ruby had her faults and her quirks just like any other person. She’s remarkable yes. Strong. Brave and Kind. But she’s not perfect. Oscar had experienced the consequences of her flaws and learnt that lesson for himself.

But this wasn’t what truly mattered. What made Ruby important to Oscar was that…she was his. His teammate. His friend. His rose. The girl he…loves. The love and respect that Oscar had for this one girl due to the bond they shared together was enough to make Ruby more special to Oscar than any other girl in Remnant.

His love for her was what made her unique to him. A proclamation which genuinely stunned Darkness as he recounted a time when another poor unfortunate soul, blinded by love just as Oscar was now, came before him for the same reasons as Oscar was doing for Ruby.

Only this other helpless soul didn't make the same bold choice as Oscar did. Unlike Oscar, this soul didn’t understand the value of the life they claimed to love. Essentially a comparison between Salem and Oscar. 

So for the meat and potatoes of this post, Oscar sacrifices his soul to restore Ruby to the Land of Living, bolding choosing to take her place in the Afterlife. As Ruby's soul returns home safe, Oscar's descends slowly into the Void of Death.

But despite this, the little prince bears no remorse. No regrets. He wears nothing but a smile on his fate; perfectly content with his sacrifice as he reached a hand to the light to bid one last tearful goodbye to his rose.

His one true love as he slowly closed his eyes and awaited death's embrace.

And…that’s it. That’s the idea. Obviously me being me, there is definitely more to this concept that I had in mind however this post is already getting a bit too lengthy so I’ll just stop right here. (If anyone is curious about the rest of this headcanon, feel free to ask me in my inbox if you’d like).

But for now, yeah, this is the idea I had. Now as I said, this is only a thought. A mere musing. As I’ll repeat again, I don’t actually expect the show to really kill off Ruby for V8. In another different story, this could’ve happened but I’m not expecting this at all from RWBY even it would’ve made for a very interesting twist.

Regardless, I do still love the concept of Oscar Pine---as our titular little prince, declaring his love for his rose by giving his life to bring her back from the dead should she perish in battle. It feels like such a poetic thing to do. But like I said. It’s just another idea I wanted to toss out to the Rosegardening Pinehead and Rosegarden community.

Take it as you will and maybe you all might like it. Who knows? X3

~LittleMissSquiggles (2020)

[crystal-moon-101]

Ehhhhh, more redesigns/rewrites! The Hong Kong Gang up here. And yes, I added Circe because I see her as part of the squad.

-Cricket-

I tried to make her a little more bug like. Adding a couple more details to the body, adding those palps to her face and changing the white in her eyes to black. Her outfit is slightly different but I changed her hair to a pixie cut, because I thought she'd suit a shorter hair style.

Notes:

16 Years Old

5'5 (When she is half cured, she becomes 5'4)

Real name is ‘Chen Tsui’

Because of her strange bug legs, she had to wear very short shorts. She didn't feel comfortable walking around with them on, however. So she ended up also wearing her skirt.

Before she mutated, she lived with her parents. They weren't the greatest of people, both extremely rich and successful in their businesses, expecting the same with their daughter. They constantly put her down and emotional abused her. The moment she became EVO, they kicked her onto the streets.

Use to have long hair, but Skwydd helped her cut and style it to a much shorter length. It was mostly so it didn't get in the way with the amount of jumping she did, but also a little rebellion against her parents. They would never allow such a look.

Excellent chief, food is often a ten out of ten.

Was the only one in the gang, including Rex, who was already in Hong Kong before going EVO.

When she is incredibly happy, the palps on her face will wiggle.

Emotional sponge of the group.

Because of her up bringing, she sometimes just does insane or stupid stuff out of nowhere because things use to be so uptight and strict for her. It strangely relaxes her.

Took her weeks to figure out how to walk with those legs.

Loves candles, especially scented ones.

Has a thing for street boys with a heart of gold (*Cough* *Cough* Rex *Cough* Tuck *Cough*).

Many don't notice it, but her and Skwydd have a sibling like relationship.

-Tuck-

I changed him the least. His original design is very simple so I couldn't think of much to do. I did rough up his shirt a little more, adjust his build and give him a loose belt.

Notes:

17 Years Old

6'0 (Later grows to be 6'3.)

Full name 'Tuck Byron Craig'

Leader of The Hong Kong Gang since Rex left.

Before he mutated, he lived with his single father, who was a car mechanic. They were happy together, but sadly, they weren't in the best financial situation. They ended up borrowing money from some dangerous people, and when they couldn't came back they came to their place. A fight broke out, Tuck's father was killed and he ran away, living on the streets ever since, eventually mutating.

When Rex vanished, he spent the longest time looking for him. Skwydd assumed the worst quickly and Cricket gave up after a few weeks, while Tuck looked for months.

No.1 Bro to all.

Quarry had made plans to give Tuck Rex's hold spot, but he trash the idea when he saw that he didn't have the same flare as Rex did.

Because of his father, he knows a lot about mechanics with cars or motorcycles.

The one most likely to want to talk things through than fight if there is a chance (Cricket is too quick on defense, Skwydd doesn't trust easily and Circe many issues.)

God awful at trying to speak another language. Cricket tried teaching him Cantonese, but his pronunciations were way off. He tries, he really does.

Would have gotten his ear pierces if he had ears.

He likes crappy high school films, they always just make him laugh.

He's had a thing for Cricket for a long time, but when it became apparent to him she liked Rex, he didn't make any attempt. But now, in the present, he's began trying since it's clear nothing will come between the two.

-Skwydd-

Small squish boy. Honestly my favorite out of the crew. But anyway, I made his tentacles a little longer, gave him little eyebrow things, a gradient on his hands and gave him a new jacket/jumper.

Notes:

15 Years Old

5'6

Real name is ‘Walter Milo Martin’

Emo with a secret soft heart <3.

Before he mutated, he was the child of a young couple who died in an accident, so he was giving to his maternal Grandmother, who was happy to raise him. Bit of an odd child, but he loved his Grandma and had a lovely relationship with her. Even when he turned EVO, she accepted him. However, in her older years she started having heart problems and died one morning. He, of course, called for help, but fled before anyone arrived. He knew very well that being an EVO will get him into trouble. Since then, he's lived on the streets.

He loves art, his favorite form being ink stuff, ironically. Him and Rex like to share drawings, one of the few quiet moments they have with one another.

Has a dorky crush on Circe.

Has a very squishy body and it's honestly nice to hug him, if he allows it.

While his ink spray is his main defense, his does have one nasty bite.

Also, his ink stuff stains, badly.

Has suction cups on his hand/fingers. It's the only way he can hold stuff with them.

Probably listens to My Chemical Romance or piano music.

Knows how the play the flute, a skill learnt from his Grandma.

The one you could vent to for hours without him having to talk too.

Has a really strange bone structure. Like, some parts of him has bones, some don't.

Had to painfully watch the love situation between Rex, Cricket and Tuck on the sidelines.

His real hair is quite long and he learnt early on how to cut, brush and manage hair, even style it. Sadly, he can't really do that anymore, and Cricket hair is too short to style, while Tuck has none. However, sometime after Circe joined and was comfortable enough, she lets him style it for her.

-Circe Kleiss-

You read that right, in this rewrite/reboot/WHATEVER!? Circe is the daughter of Van Kleiss. It was an idea me and my friend came up with, as a way to explain some of her actions and motives, but also for more dramaaaaaa, along with adding onto Van Kleiss's character. Yes, this also means her and Rex knew each other before the Nanite Event. Again, adds more drama. Her outfit changes were to be more practical, especially because of where the Pack lives and sends her on missions. I also made her a little muscular, because this girl has quite the training. Still a bit of a goth girl though.

Notes:

16 Years Old

5'8 (Grows to be around 6'0 in her young adult years.)

Fear this girl, she knows how to fight.

She was young when her mother died, roughly four years old, so she doesn't remember her that well. However, her father has always openly talked about her to Circe, so she knows her mother was a lovely person, with a personality that somehow made the cruelest of people smile. Sadly, she died to an untreatable disease, though this is was resulting in Van Kleiss joining the Nanite Project, after learning that it was suppose to prevent illnesses.

Biowulf was her primary training, so they have some respect for each other, but can get snarky at one another.

Her and Breach however? Not that great of a relationship. Circe does feel a little bad, as she understands Breach is not all there, but that doesn't stop them from bickering.

Skalamander and her have a rather peaceful relationship. She appreciates all that he does, even if it's minimal compared to the other two.

You could imagine her shock when she saw Rex, her childhood friend, alive. Gave quite the yelling at her father when she learns he never told her this.

Her and Cricket like to have little make up session, even if Cricket doesn't keep hers on afterwards.

She's really good a writing, often making little poems or short stories here and there. Horror is a favorite of hers.

In the past, her and Rex were the only kids around the labs during the Nanite Project. You can imagine the trouble they caused.

She has trouble standing up for herself, but lord forbid you say something about her friend.

She likes to watch murder mysterious, often getting really into the story and making predictions all the time.  

Has the least knowledge of online culture.

Has a giant EVO worm thing as a pet (This one is actually in the show).

[iwrite4obx]

It's a Date Pt. 3 | JJ x fem!Reader | Topper x fem!Reader

Read Part 1 | Read Part 2 | Read Part 4

A/N: Sorry for the bit of a delay! We just uncovered our pool for the summer so I've been in there like 24/7 😜After reading up through Part 3, please comment on this post to vote if our heroine should end up with JJ or Topper. If I do not receive sufficient votes, I will decide for myself. Please comment, I really don’ t want to choose. Requests are now open! Send me an ask! Also, send me a message to have a chat! Doesn't matter if we're mutuals or not, I'm always up to talk if you feel lonely😘 (and I frequently do so...)

T/W: Swearing. Some angsty fluff. I promise it's not just a date gone wrong, stick with it

Summary: Can I request a topper xx reader or Jj x reader where reader is Sarah and rafe’s cousin that’s staying with them for the summer and Sarah and John B wanna set her up with Jj while rafe (not a dick for once) sees her being with Topper and well she kinda has this thing where she says “make a date where it shows off your personality” and she goes on both and yea sorry if it’s confusing. This part is the date with Topper.

Word count: 1.5k

Sarah had refused to wait with you. She swore to you that she wasn’t angry about you going on a date with her ex-boyfriend, but said she just didn’t want to see him. She was also convinced that he wouldn’t be your type, and after she had been so right about you getting along with JJ, you were finding it difficult to doubt her words. So as you waited outside, the heat causing your dress to stick to your thighs, your thoughts were not of Topper, but JJ. As soon as he'd kissed you and said he thought you'd make a great addition to his group, you wanted to say you were beginning to feel something for him. But you'd told yourself that first, you had to get this date out of the way.

Topper was several minutes early. He pulled into the drive and climbed out of his car. He looked much more like the kind of guy you would typically go for. Handsome and polished with a good sense of fashion. He approached you, a small smile on his face.

"Y/n, it's good to meet you. Rafe and Sarah both always speak so highly of you." He took your hand and his own and brought it to his lips, kissing it gently. The gentlemanly gesture stirred up butterflies in your stomach.

"I'm glad I finally get to meet you, Topper." You wish you could say the same of him, but Sarah never had anything positive to say.

"Are you ready to get going?" He inquired.

"Yeah, of course." Topper helped you into the passenger seat.

You made casual conversation in the car. You talked about plans for college, though honestly, you hadn't given it much thought yet. You talked about all the countries Topper had been to and where he still wanted to go. You tried to stay engaged, but at times it felt more like he was reading off a resumé than having a conversation. Everything about him seemed a little too perfect and refined.

You arrived at the Island Club. You'd been there a few times before to go to various events with Sarah or go golfing with Rafe. The location didn't surprise you at all. It seemed to match Topper exactly: pretty to look at and predictably perfect.

As you went to climb out the car, your heel got caught on your long dress and you found yourself plummeting towards the ground. Somehow, at an incredible speed, Topper managed to rush over and catch you gracefully.

"Woah. You okay?" Topper asked, looking down at you with a smile. You couldn't find your voice for a second, so you just nodded. He spun you around playfully then set you down, unexpectedly placing a kiss on your cheek. "You better be more careful." The words were innocent, but his smile was flirtatious, even mischievous looking.

At that moment, you felt like you got a glimpse at this secret, other side of Topper. A version of him that could be spontaneous and fun and easy to be around. Someone you could actually see yourself with. As he offered his arm to you and you began walking, all you could think about was how you could get this new Topper to stay.

You strolled right into the Island Club. The security guards at the front door didn't even ask to see proof of membership. They clearly knew who Topper was. He lead you to the dinning room where he told the host about your reservations. As you went to sit down, he pulled out the chair for you before sitting down himself.

"Since you're going to be here all summer, I'm sure you'll get some use out of the Island Club."

You could tell he was trying to illicit a response from you, something about how nice the club was and how you couldn't wait to spend more time here. He was trying hard to impress you, and it was obvious. But you simply responded with, "Yeah, I guess I will."

"You'll be at Midsummer's? It was always Sarah's favorite party."

As much as you loved your cousin, you would rather not talk about his ex-girlfriend's preferences on a date.

"Yeah. I can't wait." You knew you should try harder to make conversation, but he was honestly boring you.

"Rafe told me you like boats. I've got a brand new-" Topper began, but you reached for his hand across the table and cut him off.

"Topper. Hey, Topper. Can you just slow down for a second."

He frowns. "What's wrong?"

You sighed, trying to find the right words to explain yourself. "I really want to know you, okay? There are lots of people on this island who could dress up and take me out to a fancy dinner and talk about their new boat. But there's only one Topper Thornton, yeah? I want to know him. Forget about trying to impress me. Just be you."

He was still frowning the entire time you were talking, but as silence settled in, a confused expression appeared on his face. "Forget about trying to impress you," he muttered under his breath.

He stood abruptly, leaving his suit coat draped over the back of his chair and grabbed your hand, pulling you out of your seat. You barely had time to grab your clutch before he whisked you out of the dinning room. You smiled at the sudden outburst of spontaneity.

"What about the reservations?" You called.

"Fuck the reservations," was his response.

You ran through the halls of the club, weaving around various guests and eliciting stares and gasps from the people you nearly tripped over. You both kept calling out that you were sorry, but it was nearly inaudible through your giggling.

You burst out of some side door just in time to see the sun begin to set over the horizon. You stopped, trying to catch your breath and tossed off your heels that had caused you to nearly twist your ankles dozens of times during the unexpected chase. Topper was also gasping for air, but he was still laughing.

"I can't believe we did that. My mother's gonna flip when she hears about it."

You smiled, not particularly caring about the repercussions. "I'm sure Uncle Ward won't be too happy either."

You looked around. You had ended up on some sort of wooden walkway that led to a gazebo strung with lanterns. Topper saw you looking at it and took your hand, leading you over to it.

"I come here to watch the sunset. Sometimes it's the only place I feel I can breathe."

You stared out at the sinking sun, watching the explosion of colors play out. You glanced over at Topper, realizing that he seemed suddenly tense. You let go of his hand to rub calming circles on his back.

"You can breathe with me. Just let it all out."

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, ruining the way it was perfectly slicked back. He turned suddenly away from the sunset and began pacing the length of the gazebo. "Look, y/n, I'm so used to trying to be perfect for everyone. My mom, my friends, even- even Sarah wanted me to be a certain way. I feel like I'm never really myself. You have to- you gotta understand this isn't easy to admit. But I feel safe around you, y/n. I know I don't know you but I feel something here. But I don't think I can- I can't actually give you what your looking for. You want the real me? I don't know how to be him anymore." He leaned against the railing, facing away from you, and hung his head.

You walked up to him and wrapped your arms around him, pulling him into a warn embrace. You felt a few years slip down his face and into your bare shoulder.

"Hey, look. Look at the sunset, Topper." You pointed at the sunset where it a tiny sliver was visible above the horizon. He raised his hand from where it had been buried in the crook of your neck to look at it.

"Soon, that sun will sinking below the horizon. And tomorrow, it will rise up again. And when it does, it's a new day, okay? And a new day holds all sorts of opportunities. You can start over fresh, be the you that you want to be, be that you that makes you feel like you can breathe. It's a miserable existence to live solely for other people. There are sometimes when you have to put yourself first. Okay, Topper? I need you to put yourself first."

He nodded and pressed a kiss to your temple. "Put myself first."

You both watched as the sun slipped silently out of view.

A/N: Thank you for reading! Please comment below with who y/n should end up with (or reblog with Team Topper or Team JJ). Part 4 will be out as soon as I get sufficient votes!

Masterlist

[popwasabi]

“Picard” S1 Review: Doesn’t boldly go but is nonetheless engaging

Produced by CBS All Access

Starring: Patrick Stewart, Isa Briones, Allison Pill, Michelle Hurd, Santiago Cabrera, Evan Evagora, Harry Treadaway

Many fans had high hopes for “Picard” going into CBS All Access’s continuing voyage into the Star Trek franchise.

Fans wanted to see the lore finally expanded into the future after its previous three ventures (Enterprise, Abrams Trek, and Discovery) took place in the past, bring modern themes and ideas to Star Trek’s futurist’s world view in a way that felt fresh and relevant, but most importantly continue the story of the franchise’s greatest captain; Jean-Luc Picard, of course.

(He’s the best captain. This is not up for debate. Don’t @ me!)

In some ways the new series succeeds at this. We get glimpses of the previously untouched world of Star Trek post “Nemesis,” new themes that are resonant with real world events and exploratory, even critical, of the Federation’s worldview, and of course plenty of Picard himself as he navigates the strange new galaxy he inhabits.

But Picard ultimately misses the mark due to rushed storytelling, half-baked side plots, and just plain poor execution overall. It’s sad because “Picard” and this very talented cast and production team have their moments throughout this first season’s ten episode run but somehow even with 10 episodes of content to work with fans still end up with a somewhat jumbled mess.

(Me by like the eighth episode.)

This isn’t to say “Picard” isn’t worth your time if you’re an avid Star Trek fan or just someone who likes Patrick Stewart in this role in general but the first season will leave you still hungry for more and not in a good way.

“Picard” continues the story of the titular captain, now retired admiral, many years after the events of “Nemesis” as a retired Jean Luc reflects on his life in Starfleet and of his late friend Data who gave his life for his. A synth ban has been enacted in Starfleet after a major riot on Mars some years prior and Picard is understandably sour on the idea, given his relationship with Data, while also fighting Starfleet on not helping the exodus of the Romulans after the supernova that wiped out their homeworld in “Star Trek (2009).” When a young woman comes seeking Picard’s aid after an attack by mysterious assailants, revealing that she is an android and the possible daughter of Data, and gets killed, it is up to the retired Admiral to find her twin sister before she suffers the same fate.

Before we get started let’s throw out some of the bad faith arguments on why this series wasn’t all that good.

“Picard” doesn’t suck because it has “politics” in it. At this point, if you are complaining about the existence of social viewpoints and political/philosophical discussions in your Star Trek, or let alone any series for that matter, I don’t know what the hell you’ve been watching the past few decades. Star Trek has always been more than just a show about cool-looking spaceships and laser beams, you neckbeards.

(Hell, even the other “Star” got more going on in it than that.)

It’s also not bad because of female representation or “girl power.” Again, Star Trek has always had this and frankly having a few more instances of the women of Trek taking center stage doesn’t even come close to rebalancing the scales on the overall massive representation of cis white men across the genre and even the series anyways.

Also get the fuck over the use of curse words in this series. While certainly some instances in this show felt awkward, the use of the word “fuck” does not dilute Star Trek’s overall story.

(It would have made earlier season’s funnier for sure.)

Now that that’s out of way let’s get into the real reasons that, for me at least, the series fell short of an otherwise promising goal of delivering great new Star Trek.

The main problem stems from the series overall jumping off point in its first episode. Picard is understandably still upset about the death of Data and having him deal with survivor’s guilt is a great way to bring this character into the future and reexplore the humanist viewpoints Data touched on in the older series. But also having Picard deal with his fallout from Starfleet, both from the synth ban AND the Romulan exodus, creates chasmic diverging plotlines that never quite come together. The story really needed it to be one or the other. Either Picard wanting to advocate for the continued existence of synthetic life or the rescue of the Romulans post super nova. The latter is touched on a bit through the addition of the character Elnor but doesn’t quite work given that majority of the Romulans in this series are portrayed as villains.

There is definitely a post Brexit, anti-immigrant hysteria message being told there but not enough depth and nuance is given to make it look like Starfleet was particularly wrong here to abandon them given that they do end up being spies committing espionage in the Federation and the clear villains of the first season. The showrunners could have brought these two stories together by perhaps making Soji a Romulan bent on bringing down synthetic life because maybe her twin sister died in the riots on Mars, making Picard have to choose between his commitment to both minority groups abandoned by the Federation but of course, that’s not what the series goes with.

Also suddenly shoehorning in a convoluted anti-synth worldview into the already ultra-secretive Romulan empire was muddled to say the least.

(A decent summation of the Romulans, pretty much ever. Also why is the only Asian actress in this scene in Osaka depicted as an alien, Mr Kurtzman?...)

Some of these ideas could’ve been saved through better editing and pacing though but not enough is done in this first season to mitigate these issues. Too much of plot is told through plain exposition; people sitting down and talking for five-ten minutes about prophecies and backstory instead of having the story simply show us instead. It makes the pacing often slow even by Trek standards and grinds the action to a halt even when there are lasers being shot at one another in the next scene.

Many of these plots get barely any attention too. The Borg cube, why it’s abandoned, and why Hugh is working for the Romulans through the Federation is given surface level development at best. Seven of Nine returns and at one point is momentarily hooked up to the Collective and she doesn’t really say much about it after it happens. The new character’s Rios and Raffi both have side stories given to their development that get touched on once and never brought up again. Dr. Jurati straight up murders her lover and is set to turn herself into the Federation and it’s just kind of forgotten about in the finale. And Elnor, well, he gets to do his best Legolas impression slicing and dicing fellow Romulans with his sword I guess.

(He is still best boi though :3...)

The main co-star however, Soji the perfect android, has a particularly rushed development going from a scientist unknowing of her nature, to supposed prophet of doom, to predictably the savior all in one season. Her arc needed more time to develop with perhaps her Romulan love affair with Narek being the first season’s main driving force and her realization as an android being the climax. 

Instead we get basically four seasons of Battlestar Galactica’s Sharon arc crammed into one season and it unfortunately makes the story feel half-baked.

(Ok, Boomer.)

Don’t get the wrong idea, all these new characters have great individual moments as well throughout the season but sooooo much side plot is shoved in already into a muddled overarching narrative that it feels like several seasons worth of storytelling stuffed and edited down into a ten episode arc. Why the series felt it needed to conclude this robust story about synth hating Romulans in “Picard’s” first season feels like an unforced error in this reviewer’s opinion even if Sir P Stew only has maybe a couple seasons of extensive acting left in him anyways.

But the season isn’t completely worthless, as much as this review has been spent dunking on its less than stellar parts. The cast is exceptional, even working with the spare parts they’ve been given. Episode 5’s “Stardust City Rag,” in particular, stands out as a good mix of old and new Trek, with a decent dosage of cheese featuring Patrick Stewart trying on a French accent in a space bar. Santiago Cabrera is delightful as the ship captain Rios while also playing various forms of himself in AI form in equally enjoyable roles. Evan Evagora is fun as the deadly yet somewhat aloof Elnor, even if his character doesn’t do all that much except cut up a few Romulans. Seeing Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis reprise their roles as Riker and Troi respectively in episode 6 was heartwarming and felt the most like TNG out of all the episodes. And Jeri Ryan seems liberated in this series in this version of Seven of Nine, no doubt glad to be rid of that restrictive corset and Rick Berman’s meddling hands.

(Big “Fuck you, Rick Berman” energy going on in this scene.)

The production value is obviously high level as Trek has rarely looked this good on the small screen. There’s some great cinematography throughout the season whether it’s Picard’s chateau winery, the haunting nature of the Borg cube, or the synth homeworld in the season’s final beats. The spaceships look cool as always and the world of the future feels well futuristic.

The musical score is also top notch, with a great opening theme that feels very much in line with Trek at its futurist glimpse into a hopeful cosmos.

The season’s best moments though are between Picard and Data and will remind you why they were more than likely your favorite characters on TNG. Generally speaking, exploring the humanist themes of artificial intelligence in new Trek was a good choice and having Picard deal with survivor’s guilt kept the pulse of the muddled story still beating. Brent Spiner is still great as Data and will remind you all again how talented he has always been as an actor and though his age seeps through the makeup a bit he is nonetheless still a perfect android.

Though the finale as a whole is underwhelming, the characters do share a nice final moment that is both touching and reminiscent of everything a fan loves about Star Trek. It’s a great cap to an otherwise ok return to Star Trek for TNG’s top characters and its truly touching in the best way that this franchise has always been known to be.

(Deactivating my emotions chip because I just..can’t! I just can’t, ok! *Sobs*)

But great acting and high production value can only mask so many flaws with a convoluted plot and “Picard” unfortunately suffers from the bloated and uncooked nature of its many ideas. What the story really needed was three season arc not just ten episodes and it shows. I guess the plus side is with this particular plot wrapped up it leaves the door open for new ideas and a fresh start in the second season but it does feel like an overall miss for Picard’s homecoming back into the universe of Star Trek.

Overall, though there are worse ways a Star Trek fan can spend their quarantine than watching “Picard” and there’s certainly enough here for fans to latch onto and have hope for better things in the next season.

Hopefully things are less rushed or at least more focused in the second season and we can see a more proper return to form for both Picard and future Star Trek.

Here’s hoping the producers and writers make it so…

VERDICT:

3 out of 5

Let’s hope we get a return of Q in the next season.

[aion-rsa]

The Best Thanksgiving TV Episodes

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Halloween and Christmas are objectively the two best American holidays. One allows for us all to indulge in our gothic, spooky side, while the other comes along with family and cheer (forced or otherwise). There’s another holiday between them, however, that is at constant risk of being overlooked.

Thanksgiving doesn’t have candy like Halloween or presents like Christmas. What it does have, thankfully, is television. Just like its Halloween counterpart, Thanksgiving comes along in the fall at an important time in the TV schedule. Traditionally, the last week of November is when many network TV shows are looking for a quick boost of creative and commercial energy to get through the Christmas break. And what better way than to do so than with a Thanksgiving episode, where all characters are basically culturally required to get together?

Though Halloween and Christmas specials often get the most attention, there are many fascinating Thanksgiving-themed episodes of popular TV shows. Here are just some of our favorites. 

Bob’s Burgers

Season 3 Episode 5 – “An Indecent Thanksgiving Proposal” 

Fox’s beloved animated series has staked its claim to Thanksgiving as its holiday of choice, which makes sense given that the Belcher clan takes their food quite seriously. Of the many Bob’s Burgers Thanksgiving specials, season 3’s “An Indecent Thanksgiving Proposal” is likely the best.

This episode finds Bob reluctantly agreeing to “rent out” his family to landlord Calvin Fischoeder (voiced by Kevin Kline) to pose as his family for Thanksgiving dinner while Bob poses as the family chef. While this is a strong enough set up to begin with, the episode excels at escalation and goes to some wild places – even indulging one of the series’ favorite recurring gags of Bob losing his mind and befriending an inanimate object. Of course the inanimate object this time around is none other than a Thanksgiving turkey.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Season 5 Episode 7 – “Two Turkeys”

“Two Turkeys” is a prime example of what makes Thanksgiving such a creatively rich holiday for sitcoms and other serialized TV endeavors to exploit. Brooklyn Nine-Nine had already long established that both Jake (Andy Samberg) and Amy’s (Melissa Fumero) respective parents were crazy. All that was left to do was to get them in the same room together.

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That’s just what “Two Turkeys” does. The whole family, including Jake’s dad Roger (Bradley Whitford), Amy’s dad Victor (Jimmy Smits), and Amy’s mom Camila (Bertila Dama), decides to have Thanksgiving at Jake’s mom Karen’s (Katey Sagal) house. Quickly, dueling Thanksgiving turkeys are set up, competitive juices start flowing, and a thumb or two is lost. “Two Turkeys” is Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s best Thanksgiving episode but “Mr. Santiago” in which Boyle intends to behead a live turkey certainly gives it a run for its money. 

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Season 4 Episode 8 – “Pangs”

Most TV Thanksgiving specials ignore the complicated origins of the holiday…and perhaps wisely so. For a long time, most sitcoms and network dramas lacked a real capacity to carefully discuss Thanksgiving myth-making while also addressing Native American genocide. 

Buffy the Vampire Slayer, however, had no such misgivings and dives right in. “Pangs” is technically the beginning of a Buffy/Angel two-hour Thanksgiving event. It’s got all the usual Thanksgiving episode trappings: food, friends, and family. It also has an army of Chumash Indian Warriors coming back from the grave to punish Sunnydale for its colonial sins. 

Chuck

Season 4 Episode 10 – “Chuck Versus the Leftovers”

This is cheating a bit as “Chuck Versus the Leftovers” technically takes place on the day after Thanksgiving. But Black Friday shopping and turkey leftovers are certainly a part of the Thanksgiving experience. 

This episode finds Chuck’s mom Mary (Linda Hamilton) and international arms dealer Alexei Volkoff (Timothy Dalton) coming over to Chuck’s place for a day-after-Thanksgiving leftover feast. Meanwhile Chuck’s friends at Buy More have to contend with the Black Friday shopping crowd. This is the definitive Chuck Thanksgiving episode as it highlights what the show does well. It balances the high-octane drama of Chuck’s spy life with his supposedly tranquil home life. Getting to enjoy Linda Hamilton and Timothy Dalton going head to head is just icing on the Jell-O salad. 

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

Season 1 Episode 12 – “Talking Turkey”

The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air features a few Thanksgiving episodes over its six season run but its first attempt remains the best. Will’s mom Viola makes one of her rare series appearances here when she joins the Banks’ household for Thanksgiving. 

After the parents see how the kids mistreat everyone’s beloved butler Geoffrey, the gang is forced to cook a Thanksgiving meal on their own. Predictably it doesn’t go well. This is a big episode for all involved but for Viola and Aunt Viv in particular. It’s fascinating to watch through a modern lens, given original Aunt Viv actress Janet Hubert’s steadfast lack of involvement in all future Fresh Prince reboots and reunions. 

Friday Night Lights

Season 4 Episode 13 – “Thanksgiving”

So many of the best moments in Friday Night Lights happen at the Taylor family dinner table. How then could the show pass up an opportunity for a good-old fashioned Thanksgiving episode?

“Thanksgiving” is an excellent episode that also serves as its respective season’s finale. This hour concludes Coach Taylor’s first year with the East Dillon Lions in truly satisfying fashion. Before that there’s still plenty of time for a heart-to-heart with QB Vince Howard and Buddy Garrity’s attempts at frying a turkey. 

Friends

Season 5 Episode 8 – “The One With All the Thanksgivings”

Perhaps no series on television took the responsibility of Thanksgiving episodes more seriously than Friends. Friends has so many Thanksgiving-themed episodes that the entire list could essentially be made up of them. And that makes sense given the show’s premise of friends as a found family in the big city.

For the purposes of this list, however, let’s go with the aptly-named “The One With All the Thanksgivings.” In this fifth season episode, Ross, Rachel, Phoebe, Monica, Joey, and Chandler flashback to all of the Thanksgivings they’ve shared together. Consider this a Canterbury Tales of Thanksgiving … that just happens to feature Monica with a turkey on her head.

Gilmore Girls

Season 3 Episode 9 – “A Deep Fried Korean Thanksgiving”

Stars Hollow, Connecticut on Gilmore Girls just looks like a town itching for a good fall holiday. The New England hamlet is the kind of place that absolutely lights up with some fallen leaves and the warm aroma of turkey in the oven. Thankfully, the show agreed and rolled out a Thanksgiving-centric episode in its third season.

“A Deep Fried Korean Thanksgiving” adopts the tried and true “accepted too many dates to the ball” trope as Lorelai and Rory are pulled among four competing Thanksgiving dinners: Lorelai’s parents, Sookie, Luke, and Lane. It’s a jam-packed (and tofurkey-packed) episode that still somehow finds the time to introduce the beloved Cat Kirk.

How I Met Your Mother

Season 3 Episode 9 – “Slapsgiving”

In many ways, How I Met Your Mother was the natural sitcom successor to Friends. Like its NBC forefather CBS’s comedy followed a group of friends living their best lives in New York City. Another area in which HIMYM picks up the Friends ball and runs with it is with its appropriately respectful treatment of Thanksgiving.

How I Met Your Mother loves itself a good Thanksgiving episode. None of them, however, are better than the season 3 installment “Slapsgiving.” This episode finds the gang gathering at Marshall and Lily’s house for their first Thanksgiving as a married couple. Meanwhile, Barney is living in mortal fear of the third slap Marshall owes him due to losing a “slap bet.” That countdown to The Slap imbues an already excellent episode with a real fun sense of urgency. 

It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Season 9 Episode 10 – “The Gang Squashes Their Beefs”

Dennis, Dee, Charlie, Mac, and Frank have made a lot of enemies during It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s very long, very creatively lucrative run. That’s why for the show’s ninth season finale, the gang decided to gather several of the folks they wronged together and get to squashing some beefs. And what better way to do so than with a nice Thanksgiving dinner?

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This installment is a one big setup to a dinner table with the gang’s rogue’s gallery at the end and it is all well worth the wait. Some dry turkey and even dryer conservation is nowhere near enough to make nice with the McPoyles, Hwang, Cricket, Gail the Snail, or Bill Ponderosa, but bless the gang for trying anyway.

Mad Men

Season 1 Episode 13 – “The Wheel”

Not many Thanksgiving episodes can lay claim to being their respective series best hours, but then again AMC’s all-time classic Mad Men isn’t just any other series. Season 1 finale “The Wheel” is certainly among the best Mad Men installments ever and it just so happens to take place during the week of Thanksgiving 1960.

The Thanksgiving timeframe serves as an elegiac backdrop and Mad Men viewers are forced to confront what kind of man Don Draper really is. Don delivers the pitch of his lifetime to Kodak executives as he urges them to imagine their latest photo wheel creation not as a sleek, dispassionate time machine, but a carousel that can bring families back home to all the most important times of their lives. Then when Don returns home for Thanksgiving, he discovers what he probably already knew – those times are gone and no carousel can bring them back.

Master of None

Season 2 Episode 8 – “Thanksgiving”

OK, we know we just said that not many Thanksgiving episodes can lay claim to being their respective series’ best but here is another contender. “Thanksgiving” is the eighth episode of Master of None’s second (and thus far, final) season and it’s a perfect example of everything the show does well.

This episode takes a break from Dev’s (Aziz Ansari) storyline in the present to delve into the past of his friend Denise (Lena Waithe). Over several Thanksgiving meals throughout the years, Denise comes to realize her attraction to women, processes it, and does her best to communicate her identity to her mom (Angela Bassett). It’s a touching saga made possible by the Thanksgiving season. It also serves as many viewers’ introduction to the storytelling dynamo that is Lena Waithe. 

This episode takes a break from Dev’s (Aziz Ansari) storyline in the present to delve into the past of his friend Denise (Lena Waithe). Over several Thanksgiving meals throughout the years, Denise comes to realize her attraction to women, processes it, and does her best to communicate her identity to her mom (Angela Bassett). It’s a touching saga made possible by the Thanksgiving season. It also serves as many viewers’ introduction to the storytelling dynamo that is Lena Waithe. 

The O.C.

Season 1 Episode 11 – “The Homecoming”

Mid-2000s teen drama The O.C. always paid proper respect to holidays. Who could forget the Cohen family’s dutiful observation of “Chrismukkah?” But the series’ first Thanksgiving installment in season 1 might just be its best holiday offering ever. 

“The Homecoming” is a wonderful example of everything that The O.C. does well. The plot splits itself in two with Ryan (Ben McKenzie) and Marissa (Mischa Barton) heading back to Ryan’s hometown of Chino to meet Ryan’s brother in prison. That sets up a ludicrous crime arc that would make even the Riggins brothers of Friday Night Lights jealous. Meanwhile, back at the Cohen household, Seth’s (Adam Brody) inelegant juggling of the two women in his life comes to a chaotic head.

Orange is the New Black

Season 1 Episode 9 – “Fucksgiving”

Orange is the New Black’s Thanksgiving episode debuted all the way back in 2013, when Netflix was just proving itself to be a spot for original content. So imagine viewers’ surprise that in the streaming world, you can include the F-word in episode titles.

As is the case in every OITNB episode, a lot happens in this hour-long installment. But with Thanksgiving as the backdrop, there’s a real festive air to the proceedings. Perhaps it helps that Taystee (Danielle Brooks) is set to be released and returned to the real world or that Pennsatucky (Taryn Manning) is praying for the rightful end of said real world. In any case, “Fucksgiving” passionate conclusion makes a convincing case that Thanksgiving is among the sexiest of holidays.

Riverdale

Season 4 Episode 7 – “The Ice Storm”

Riverdale’s Thanksgiving episode is about just as insane as one would imagine a Riverdale Thanksgiving episode would be. “The Ice Storm” (which borrows its name and concept from Rick Moody’s 1994 novel of the same name) finds Jughead and Betty stranded at Stonewall Prep due to an ice storm on Thanksgiving while Archie hosts a Thanksgiving dinner at the community center.

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Of course this episode features cartoonish levels of scheming, but it also takes the responsibility of the holiday seriously. Riverdale spends the episode’s opening once again addressing the tragic death of Luke Perry and his character, Fred Andrews. Amid all the plot twists, the show still excels at putting family first. 

Seinfeld

Season 6 Episode 8 – “The Mom and Pop Store”

Many episodes of Seinfeld feature dense plotting, but even by those standards “The Mom and Pop Store” is a very busy episode of television. These 22 minutes feature Jerry getting tricked by a mom and pop shoe store, George trying to find Jon Voight, and Kramer having some major nosebleed problems.

But the Thanksgiving portion of the episode is what stands out as Elaine gets the invite to Jerry’s dentist’s (played by none other than Bryan Cranston, beginning his fruitful arc of Seinfeld guest appearances) Thanksgiving. Jerry is unsure if he himself is invited, but when dental issues begin to pop up, he decides that a Thanksgiving dinner full of dentists might be a useful place to stop by.

Smallville

Season 6 Episode 7 – “Rage”

While it was cruel for Smallville to wait until after the Jonathan Kent era to hold its first Thanksgiving episode, it’s nice that it got around to it all the same. Granted, Thanksgiving doesn’t factor much into “Rage.” Instead much of the hour deals with Clark assisting his good friend Oliver Queen with his mysterious addiction.

But when the Thanksgiving table moment finally does arrive, it’s a real winner. In terms of pre-Arrowverse WB/CW warm and fuzzies, it’s hard to top a dinner featuring Clark Kent, Martha Kent, Lionel Luther, and Green-freaking-Arrow. And of course the presence of NXIVM’s own Allison Mack as Chloe Sullivan just adds a strange glow over all.

The Sopranos

Season 3 Episode 8 – “He Is Risen”

Many classic Sopranos scenes take place around the Sopranos family dinner table (mostly so Tony can yell at the insufferable A.J.). It’s only natural then that the show would feature a Thanksgiving episode at some point during its classic six-season run.

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That moment comes midway through the excellent season 3. Granted, Thanksgiving doesn’t play a major role in this hour, aside from Janice’s creepy elderly boyfriend muttering “he is risen” during dinner. But this episode is filled with classic Sopranos moments all the same: the introduction of Gloria Trillo, the death of Gigi Cestone on the toilet, and Ralph’s continued seasons-long efforts to dig his own grave. All of those events will factor heavily in the episodes to come, for now, however, The Sopranos is happy to just pass the gravy (actual gravy, not red sauce).

South Park

Season 15 Episode 13 – “A History Channel Thanksgiving”

Over the span of its staggering 23 seasons (plus one Pandemic Special), South Park has revealed a real affinity for holiday episodes, particularly the Christmas ones in which the show can feature longtime characters Santa Claus and Jesus Christ.

In this season 15 episode, however, South Park turns its satirical eye to Thanksgiving…or the History Channel version of it more accurately and weirdly. After the boys are assigned a paper on the history of Thanksgiving, they watch the History Channel to discover that the holiday’s origins are far more extraterrestrial than expected. Soon, Stan and company are involved in an interdimensional Thanksgiving adventure involving wormholes and Natalie Portman.

The West Wing

Season 2 Episode 8 – “Shibboleth”

A “Shibboleth” is a long-standing tradition or custom (often a phrasing or even a single word) that distinguishes one group of people from another. The best episodes of The West Wing seek to understand what the shibboleths of this strange country are…and “Shibboleth” is undoubtedly one of the series’ best episodes.

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It’s the night before Thanksgiving at the White House and the West Wing staff are all facing decisions. CJ has been tasked with choosing between two turkeys to pardon; Toby, Josh, and Sam must figure out how to watch football on Thanksgiving day; and most seriously: President Bartlett has to decide what to do with a boat of persecuted Chinese evangelical Christians seeking asylum. It’s a typically hectic day in the West’s most powerful executive office, but the show explores how one holiday can bring all the chaos to a halt. For a little bit at least.

The post The Best Thanksgiving TV Episodes appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[unordinary-analysis]

Episode 170

Honorable mentions:

Blyke is pissed at this guy

I’m not sure if I can call the superhero posse the superhero posse anymore because Blyke is kind of doing his solo superhero thing now, but I mean he’s part of the posse, and nothing is really contradicting. Yeah I’ll keep calling them that. The nature of the group changed, but not the basics.

Superhero posse is Remi, Blyke, and Isen btw

At the end of my first paragraph, when I say, “-with the complications of a real world situation,” I am aware that the UnOrdinary universe is not real, lmao. The phrasing I used is to try to convey that the factors of things like actual performance ability in regards to power are the roots of this system. So rather than being presented with a society whose classifications exist just for the hell of it, like it seems with a lot of stories, it is clear in UnOrdinary that the hierarchy is prompted and necessary, which makes it harder to debate the morality of its nature when presented with issues like discrimination or abuse of authority. Just a quick note. Probably should have made that more clear, but I didn’t want to go too off topic lol. I do that too much already.

Tfw you didn’t think you would find much to write about and the all of a sudden you have pages of writing

No clue what to say about the end of the episode. I don’t have any predictions as to what Kuyo might want. His history with Rei could go either way because we still don’t know if he stayed a hierarchical abuser or if he eventually turned to Rei’s side. Until we know that, and maybe even then, I won’t say anything.

^^also just lazy this is long already and I have to write another of these

My eyes are numb to this sorry if the transitions are confusing

Low Tiers vs. High Tiers: Newside and Origin Edition:

So, and I’m aware this is a skillfully awful way to start this post, we’re all aware of how bad the tensions are between different tiers, especially in places like Wellston. But in this episode, and the few before it, there’s finally a chance to explore into this concept outside of the select group of teenagers that make up Wellston Private High School. And, yes, we’ve gotten a few examples outside of this when Remi spent time as a vigilante, and also when the superhero posse got into some trouble at Kovoro mall. I don’t know, Remi just brings out the injustice in people for some reason? Anyway, I’m bringing this up now because I don’t think I’ve really talked about this before even when the other examples were relevant. To be fair, I don’t think I was writing these for most examples and during the first superhero arc (Remi’s), I had just started and my posts were like maximum 300 words long. Anyway, I really wanted to take advantage of this opportunity now. It’s always really refreshing to see outside the small bubble we’re normally confined to as the usual focus of the story is on the hierarchy struggle in Wellston and everything to do with it. Though this Blyke arc is very much centered around his struggle with his power and his goal of advancing in the hierarchy, it also opens a window for us to see out, again, into that underlying concept similar to Wellston’s power struggle, but on a more extreme scale. Obviously, the villain of our story, John, is the main focus in the comic because he is the main character, but the villain(?) of the UnOrdinary universe is painted to be the struggle between low and high tiers. The hierachy’s paradoxical creation of social imbalance and social stability is the underlying focus behind uru-chan’s writing in this comic. This is a comic about class struggle with the complications of a real world situation (see honorable mentions above for clarification).

The social dynamic between the different tiers is magnified in the recent chapters’ events and location. We are already aware and comfortable with the concept of higher-tiers (not like high-tiers but higher) preying on low-tier districts to gain power quickly, so it’s a bit less noticeable, or standout, now, for me anyway. But in comparisons to the power struggle at Wellston currently (Joker situation), the situations in these worse off towns is still significantly worse. I’m just going to summarize what’s happening really fast, but hopefully you already know what’s happening because I’m bad at explaining. So basically: lower/mid-tiers or straight up mid-tiers (no known naturally higher-tiers have done this to our knowledge, but more on that later) pick a district known to be filled with low-tiers (always weaker than the offender) and attempt take over in hopes of gaining authority and power. Because no higher-tier has been seen attempting this, I want to say that the cause of this is the feeling deprivation of it in their normal life, where their ability grants them nothing special. Similar to how John reacted shortly after he gained his powers at first, they want to become the oppressor instead of the victims that they’ve always been. By going to lower-tier districts where around a 3.0 (or with aid, something higher), give or take is stronger than anyone else around, these people become “trigger-happy” for lack of a better word. They take advantage of finally being able to do something that they never have before and take it a little far. I do not think there are many motives other than this, especially because in this episode when Blyke was approaching the Newside woman, she thought, “Does he plan on toying with us, just like Lance did?” Take note of the word toying. From her word choices in her conversation with Blyke, I’ve pieced together that all Lance really did was mess things up around Newside, never really doing anything focused or thought through. He was thoughtless and impulsive. Destroyed their town and terrorized its people only because he could. I’ve also hinted at a little bit the use of ability enhancers. From Remi’s superhero arc, we know that some of these lower-tiers are injecting themselves with this enhancement drug to shoot up in strength to be able to attempt anything like this. This means that even if you are the lowest of the low, you have a chance at tasting power, which obviously stretches the number of people pulling something like this. I’m not too concerned about this today, however, because it’s kind of separate from the topic of hierarchical conflict, or at least enough for me to separate it from this post.

This entire concept of low-tier invasion and takeover is an example, probably the most telling one, of the dangers that come from such a polarizing system as the UnOrdinary hierarchy.

Everything I’ve said really seems to lead to the fact that dealing with both injustice and discrimination around ability and people trying to change who they were born to be is unavoidable in a world like UnOrdinary. Obviously, this ranking system was put into place for a reason as exemplified by Rei’s reign at Wellston. But as the world reaches new ages and innovative thinking, the confines of the hierarchical ladder aren’t as stable and reliable as they used to be. I’m sure in the past, the hierarchy has gone along almost without a hitch, but as violence grows due to the harsh pedestal the hierarchy unintentionally puts high-tiers on, and radical ideals are being placed into the heads of anyone who will listen (UnOrdinary the book), the structure of the hierarchy is becoming more fluid, which is confusingly ironic. It’s like the historical Age of Enlightenment reborn. People as a whole are growing more and more restless.

So, the big question is whether or not the hierarchy is still the best design for UnOrdinary’s society. Because while it has created a cushion for accidental and catastrophic incompetence in a more general, everyday context, it has evolved into less normalized, yes, but harsher clashes between the different ability levels. I will say that I, personally, support the idea of the hierarchy because order, when done right, will always defeat brute force. What I’d like to say is that, with proper involvement with the authorities, I think the hierarchical system would run smoothly. And yet they are caught in this circle of trying to stop revolutionary thinking among its civilians. This is why the authorities are trying to put an end to the superhero movement, not because the heroes are helping to clean up the streets, but because in doing so, the superheroes are disrupting the natural hierarchy. See the irony? The authorities aren’t doing what they need to do to stop the hierarchical uprising because they’re busy trying to stop people from rising up against the hierarchy, which somehow contradict. Now, all of this needs a beginning. This cycle obviously had to start somewhere or else the entire history of the hierarchy wouldn’t be so good and desired. The superhero movement is this start for this cycle and they all stem from the same thing: the revolutionary ideas that came from revolutionary thinkers: the book UnOrdinary. Obviously, before this there were some issues with the hierarchical system (allowing John to abuse his power as king), but the issue is more extreme and relevant as I explained in the second paragraph (the thick one), because of the lower-tiers feeling unsatisfied and acting out on other low-tiers because of that. But I really want to let myself believe that UnOrdinary set off a chain reaction in the UnOrdinary universe leading to the class struggles in the extreme state they are currently in. And as the comic is obviously called UnOrdinary, I like to think that there is a reason for that title rather than something so personal and niche as a sentiment of John’s.

[duhragonball]

[FIC] Luffa: The Legendary Super Saiyan (134/?)

Disclaimer: This story features characters and concepts based on Dragon Ball, which is a trademark of Bird Studio/Shueisha and Toei Animation.   This is an unauthorized work, and no profit is being made on this work by me. This story is copyright of me. Download if you like, but please don’t archive it without my permission. Don’t be shy.

Continuity Note: About 1000 years before the events of Dragon Ball Z.

[14 November, 233 Before Age. Interstellar Space.]

King Rehval would die, very soon. As Luffa led her fleet of warships to his new home, there were a multitude other thoughts running through her mind, but she made sure to focus on her sole objective. Rehval. Must. Die.

Her grudge against him went back to the beginning. Her mother was an anti-monarchist who left the Saiyan Kingdom before Luffa was born. Eventually, Luffa's mother entered into a mercenary partnership with Orij, Luffa's father, and the young family roamed the stars in search of adventure. When Luffa was ten years old, Orij betrayed her mother. He was jealous of his wife's power, and planned to exploit her, until he realized that their daughter had inherited the same potential.

Orij's plan went into effect when Luffa was nineteen. By then, Luffa had taken a mate of her own, Kandai, and Orij conspired with him to betray Luffa to the alien Tikosi. Their ghastly experiments would seek to reverse-engineer the secrets of Luffa's hidden power, and then they would share their findings with Orij. When the Tikosi learned Luffa was pregnant with Kandai's child, they simply removed the fetus, as it impeded their research.

The horrors Luffa experienced during that awful nineteenth year pushed her body through a harrowing transformation. Eventually, Luffa would recognize herself as the Legendary Super Saiyan, a once-in-a-millennium warrior. At the time, she thought she had become a monster, too horrible for even herself to contemplate. The power was satisfying while she took bloody revenge against her tormentors, but it never really went away. Even when she transformed back into her "normal" self, it was still there, that ever-present thing lurking just beneath her skin, eager to shine its terrible light on the universe once again.

Super Luffa was great for slaughtering Tikosi, and for making easy money in the mercenary business, but the power wasn't very helpful for tracking down her treacherous husband, who had gone into hiding when he learned that she had survived. One of the main reasons Luffa founded the interstellar Federation was to expand her contacts through the galaxy. The Federation's member worlds were happy to have her on their side; in return, their spies gave Kandai fewer places to hide. But when she finally caught up to him, he revealed that when the Tikosi removed their unborn child from her body, they had given it over to him. He had sold the remains to King Rehval, who apparently had his own interests in the Tikosi's research.

And Super Luffa wasn't much use in unraveling that mystery either. It only made sense that the King of the Saiyans would see her as a threat to his rule. It also made sense that he might hope to find some weakness by studying Luffa's offspring. What Luffa hadn't expected was the sheer depth of Rehval's treachery. She had never respected the man. Any Saiyan who called himself "king" was a fool in her book, but even setting that aside, he was a statesman, desperate to turn their people into some nation-state with a place among the galactic powers. He wanted the Saiyans to assimilate with the rest of the universe: lop off their tails, dress in alien finery, and pass themselves off as well-behaved citizens of a wider community. The thought of it sickened Luffa, but it was even worse than that. Rehval was an alchemist too. Instead of testing his might in combat, he relied on magical drugs and secret potions to enhance his power. "Rehval" wasn't even his real name. He simply assumed the identity of his older brother, then usurped his father's throne when it suited his purposes.

Rather than face Luffa directly, Rehval tried to seduce and deceive her, leading her into a trap that would strand her on an uninhabitable planet. To keep her occupied until the trap was sprung, Rehval revealed that the fetus he had purchased from Kandai had survived. Rehval was a proponent of gestating Saiyan infants in life support machines, and somehow he had managed to bring her son to term. He then aged the boy to adolescence, and trained him to be his staunchest defender and Luffa's sworn enemy. But the gravest insult, in Luffa's eyes, was that he dared to give the boy a name-- "Xibuyas". It was sacrilige. By Saiyan custom, the right to name a child belonged to the mother alone.

But what did King Rehval care for Saiyan custom? To him, it was just another tool, to be manipulated or discarded when it no longer served his purposes. Xibuyas was uncommonly strong, though Luffa had no way to tell if he had inherited her Super Saiyan strength, or if he was given alchemical enhancements to make him a better enforcer. Rehval wasn't satisfied with merely ruling over the Saiyans, he wanted to control their destiny, their culture, even their very genome. He envisioned a world where Saiyans would be bred like livestock, mated to produce hardier offspring, and her son was simply the stud he had chosen to sire his grandchildren. The very thought of it made her blood boil.

She had escaped his trap, and so he evacuated his throneworld of Saiya, fearing (rightfully) that she would return and destroy everything he had built. Luffa expected to find him cowering in some remote hideaway, but instead he launched a new plan, the Jindan Cult. Assuming the name of Trismegistus now, Rehval recruited Saiyans from all over the galaxy, promising them a potion that would magnify their powers. All he asked in return was absolute control over every aspect of their lives. Really, it wasn't all that different from the plans he had as the ruler of Planet Saiya, only now he wasn't bothering with diplomatic niceties or expensive suits.

The only thing standing in his way was still Luffa, so he launched a series of invasions into her Federation, designed to exploit her compassion for its people and to wear her down. It might have worked, too, except she had help from the fortuneteller Dotz, who predicted his strikes before they took place, and from Rehval's own daughter, the Princess Seltiss. Disillusioned with her father's misrule, the young Princess formed her own Saiyan alliance to serve as an alternative to Rehval's government. Luffa didn't trust her, but they had a common enemy, and Xibuyas was loyal to Seltiss, so at least they had the power they needed to fend off the attacks.

Just when it seemed that there would be no end to the war, Guwar arrived at her doorstep, offering to lead her to Rehval's new base on Nagaoka. A Saiyan mathematician, Guwar had joined his cult, only to realize that Rehval's "leadership" would only get them all killed, or at best, reduce them to a slave species. His defection only proved that Rehval was truly mad, and that his plans were rotten enough that even his own henchmen couldn't accept them.

And so, very soon, Luffa would destroy him, utterly and finally, for the defense of the Federation, for the freedom of her own species, and for herself.

"Five minutes before we drop out of superluminous," she said from the captain's chair of her yacht's bridge. "No one's reported any unusual sensor activity. What about you, Katem?"

"Nothing," Xibuyas said, visibly irritated by the name she used to address him. Luffa would have preferred to have him aboard her own ship, if only to keep a closer eye on the boy, but the Saiyan Free Company had its own fleet, and her attack plan would require him to take up position on the opposite side of the planet. Spending time with her son would have to wait for another day. For now, she would have to settle for the image of his face on the viewscreen.

"Rehval raised you, boy," she said. "Any idea what this means? Guwar told us there wouldn't be much in the way of advance defenses, but I thought we'd see more than this."

"Rehval's servants raised me," he said with a sneer. "And he expects secrecy to be his greatest defense. He believes that no one knows where to find him, so he probably has no idea that we're on our way to kill him."

"Or he's got some escape route set up on the planet," Luffa said. "All right, we'll stick to the original plan. Group A takes the northern hemisphere, Group B takes the south, Group C covers our backs. Carpet bomb the whole thing, and we'll see what they can do about it."

"Pointless," Xibuyas grumbled. "Destroy the entire planet, and they all die in one stroke. I could do it easily, and so could you."

"Too easy," Luffa said. "He'll be prepared for that. I want to see what his preparations are. Let him think he's dealing with a conventional attack before we reveal our true strength."

"If you're so afraid that he'll flee--"

"He seems to be convinced that this planet he's on holds some sort of special power for him," Luffa explained. "If that's true, then he won't give it up without a fight. I want to lure him into thinking he has a chance. We might even be able to get a siege going."

He sighed and sank into his chair. "Fine, have it your way," he said. "There's no arguing with you. We'll send word once Group B is in position."

He signed off, and Luffa made a bloodthirsty smile as she switched the viewscreen to display the Nagaoka system, which was rapidly coming into view. Her son hated her, but he was alive, and soon she would repay the bastard who tried to take him from her. Her wife, Zatte, was in the engine room, making last-minute preparations for the battle. Zatte had elaborate dreams that this battle would mark the beginning of a new era for Saiyan-kind, and maybe she was right, though Luffa never cared for the idea of herself as a Saiyan messiah. It didn't matter. For once in her life, everything was going perfectly.

She gripped the armrests of her seat and leaned forward in anticipation.

*******

[14 November, 233 Before Age. Nagaoka.]

Planet Nagaoka was devoid of intelligent life, save for the Jindan compound, a mostly subterranean facility. Aside from the shipyard and a few other surrounding structures, the planet would have seemed deserted. A thick cloud cover concealed the surface completely, but Guwar had provided the coordinates of the compound. As Zatte escorted him to the bridge, he saw part of the planet on the viewscreen, and he knew the compound lay directly below.

"I thought you'd want to see this," Luffa said as the doorway closed behind him. She never took her eyes off the planet. "They're about to strafe the surface."

"You're just going to blow it up from orbit?" he asked.

"For starters," Luffa said. "If anything survives, we'll go from there. Something wrong with that?"

"I just... I thought you were going to send in ground troops on the far side," he said. "Advance on the compound from the surface, and fight them all hand-to-hand."

Luffa looked at him curiously. "I've had my fill of fighting with these clowns," she said. "There's enough of them down there that even I would have trouble, and I'm not going to send troops down there to die for no reason. If you wanted suicide missions, maybe you shouldn't have switched sides. Rehval would have sent you to your death soon enough."

"I... I had friends down there," he said. "Rehval's the only one you're after, right?"

Luffa turned and spit on the deck. At last, Guwar had her full attention, and he instantly regretted it. He had seen her transform in front of him earlier, when he was first brought aboard her ship. That had been frightening enough, watching black Saiyan hair glowing like molten iron. But she was in her normal form now, or at least as normal as she ever could be, and as she glared at him, he felt that the grim look in her eyes would haunt him for the rest of his life.

"Now you listen to me," she said. "I don't give a damn about your 'friends'. The moment they joined forces with that bastard, their fates were sealed. Don't pretend you thought this was going to turn out any other way."

Guwar's throat went dry. "You're right," he said. "Just get it over with."

Luffa returned to her work, as if he hadn't spoken at all. He looked over to Zatte, the blue-skinned woman who seemed to serve as Luffa's entire crew for this ship. It was ironic to look to an alien for empathy, but he had hoped that she, at least, might appreciate his mixed emotions about this moment. If nothing else, he expected her to be somewhat horrified at the idea of bombing an entire planet to wipe out a single installation. But instead, Zatte had a curious sort of glow in her expression, not unlike the warriors in the Jindan Cult just before they were sent off to their deaths. Guwar had no idea what sort of hold Luffa had on Zatte, but she was fully committed to this action, come what may.

Luffa pressed a button on the console mounted near her left arm. "All ships, fire at will," she said.

A moment later, they did. Gawar watched as hundreds of orange streaks emerged from the edges of the viewscreen and converged on the planet below. It looked like most of the fire was concentrated in a single spot, which he assumed was the compound. But that was only part of it. There energy blasts raining down across every part of the planet that he could see. He could only guess that there were ships positioned on the opposite side covering that hemisphere too.

"There's... there's only the one complex," he said looking back at Luffa. "You're just wasting ammunition, shooting at nothing."

"And you really think I would trust you that far?" Luffa said with a snort. "Even if you have been honest with me, Rehval could still have other bases set up that he never told you about. It all burns. Today. And don't worry your pretty little head about our ammunition, Guwar. I made sure we brought plenty."

Guwar swallowed hard and turned back to face the viewscreen. He could sense the ki energy from the planet dropping as the bombardment continued. Were the cultists unable to fight back? Had Luffa taken them completely by surprise? Or was this Rehval's endgame all along? Maybe he knew all along that it would end this way, and he had led his flock to their doom. For a moment, he wondered if Rehval had been waiting for Guwar to betray him, if perhaps he had wanted Luffa to come to this place and rain fire upon him.

And then he noticed that the ki from the planet wasn't dropping anymore, and that the planet itself didn't look any different than it had before the attack began. Glancing back at the captain's chair, he saw that Luffa had noticed too.

"Scan the planet," Luffa said to Zatte. "Something's wrong down there."

"Life sign readings haven't changed since we started attacking," Zatte said.

"I told you about that," Guwar said. "They have a device to scramble sensors so you can't tell there's any humanoid biopatterns. That way if a ship drops by, they'll think Nagaoka's uninhabited and move on."

"Yeah, I know," Zatte said. "I'm not scanning for humanoids. I'm talking about trees, grass, everything. Nothing's dying down there. It's like we haven't put a dent in it..."

"You didn't say anything about a force field," Luffa said to Guwar. The look on her face was one of accusation, but not surprise.

"As far as I know, they didn't have one," Guwar protested.

"They don't have one," Zatte said. "I don't know what's going on here, but it can't be a force field generator. To cover the entire planet, you'd need an enormous power source, way too big to hide with a cloaking device. I should be able to detect a power signature for something that big, and there's nothing like that on the surface! I don't know what this is... I...!"

She continued tapping keys on the tactical console, and Luffa rose from her seat. "I'm going to the cargo bay," she said. "Get ready to open the bay door for me."

"You're going to attack them yourself?" Zatte asked. "But what if--?"

"Hail the rest of the fleet," Luffa said. "If I'm right, I can punch a hole in... whatever this is... then maybe we can land some ships, play it the way Guwar had in mind. You'd like that, wouldn't you, Guwar?"

He didn't answer, as he really didn't know what to say. Luffa grabbed him by the arm and dragged him to the lift.

"Come on," she said, "you can watch."

*******

The cargo hold was mostly empty. Luffa and Zatte had moved most of the supplies to other parts of the ship, leaving only a small, one-person craft.

"Like it?" Luffa asked. She patted the hull of the craft with her gloved hand as they crossed the bay. "My wife captured it from some felinoid raider who tried to impersonate a Saiyan. He thought he could bluff his way to an easy plunder--" She pointed at the bridge of her nose and bared her teeth-- "but all he got was a plasma bolt between his eyes. She's a crack shot."

"Y-your wife?" Guwar asked. "You mean that blue lady on the bridge--?"

"Felinoid!" Luffa growled, ignoring his question. The brown fur on her tail was standing on end, and Guwar suddenly became very aware of his own tail being missing.

"I see that crap all the time, you know? People mistake any humanoid with a tail for one of us," she said. "So weaklings and cowards try to use that to their advantage. Trade on our reputation as a fearsome warrior race. Except we're not so fearsome, are we, Guwar?"

She went to a cabinet mounted to the wall and removed a pair of masks. "Put this on," she said as she shoved one into his hands. He strapped it to his face, letting the flexible hose attached to it dangle from his chin.

"The Saiyans are afraid," she said. "My mother was afraid of the kings, and my father was afraid of my mother, and I was afraid of my father for a while. You and your cult buddies were afraid of me, so what did you do? Run to the biggest coward you could find and beg him for some snake oil. And now he's hiding under his rock, and they're all hiding with him. Makes you wonder what they're so afraid of."

She pulled out a gas cylinder and handed it to him, then found a second and started connecting it to her own mask. As she worked on the fittings, she transformed, suddenly illuminating the bay with a preternatural golden glow. Startled, Guwar took a step back, but Luffa barely reacted at all, as if she hadn't even noticed what she had done.

"I think we're afraid of ourselves," Luffa said. "I know I am. I turned into this thing for the first time and it scared the hell out of me. It still does sometimes. But all I am is stronger. Angrier. More eager for battle. I'm just like you Guwar, only more. Why'd you cut your tail off? Was it because he told you to? So you could fit in better with polite society? Or was it because you were afraid of what the tail means? Of who you really are. Inside?"

She paused her work long enough to tap her fist against her chest, and gave him a knowing look. "Felinoids try to impersonate us Saiyans, and meanwhile we Saiyans are doing our best to disguise ourselves as anything else. We're ashamed of ourselves for being ashamed of ourselves. That's how I see it. I started hanging out with aliens, and I started to notice how crummy Saiyans can really be to people. I never gave it much thought before, but we're all pretty rotten, aren't we?"

"What are you talking about?" Guwar mumbled, but not loud enough to be heard over the steady pulse of Luffa's golden aura.

She pointed at her gleaming yellow hair. "So does this mean I've risen above all that rotten stuff?" she asked. "Or does it make me the worst of us all?"

She didn't wait for him to reply. Instead, she put the mask over her face and tapped the communicator on the nearest wall panel to call the bridge. "We're ready down here," she said, her voice muffled by the mask. After she shut off the channel, she looked back at Guwar and shrugged.

"I can't talk to my wife about this sort of thing, you know. She thinks I can save the Saiyans, but me? I think I'm just part of the problem."

Guwar could hear her voice even more clearly now than he could before they put the masks on. Then he finally realized she was speaking to him telepathically. Most Saiyans had the ability to communicate this way, but they rarely used it. They couldn't read minds-- only Luffa seemed to know how to do that, and only then by making physical contact-- but they could talk to other people with their thoughts. So why didn't Saiyans use that ability more often? Was it fear? Was Luffa right about them? Maybe every Saiyan could read minds like she could, and no one else had the courage to try.

As he pondered this, the cargo bay door opened, revealing the grey clouds of Nagaoka below. Guwar was suddenly reminded of Salziff, the Saiyan who had led him to the Jindan Cult. Salziff had been kicked out of the order, and his Jindan power had been withdrawn, leaving him weaker than he had been before he joined. In his desperate attempt to regain what he had lost, Salziff had turned to performance enhancing drugs, and ravaged what was left of his health. He begged Guwar not to search for Jindan, and said that Guwar would rue the day Salziff told him how to find it. The gloom over Nagaoka looked very much like the pallid complexion of Salziff's face. Guwar wondered if the poor wretch was still alive. Guwar wondered about his own life expectancy, now that the Jindan power had been withdrawn from him as well.

There was an invisible force field that kept the air inside the bay while the door was open. It flickered beautifully for a moment as it deactivated, and Guwar felt the air rushing out into space. Weakened as he was, he still had more than enough strength to keep his footing, but he still grabbed hold of a handrail to be safe. The temperature dropped rapidly inside the bay, but his ki was strong enough to protect him from the cold as well. The great irony of his life was that he was considered a weakling by the standards of his own species, and yet he had so much power compared to most beings in the universe. He felt completely helpless as he watched Luffa stand at the edge of the bay, raising her hands to attack an entire planet.

He could hear her screaming, in spite of the wind, the sound of her aura, even the muffling effect of her mask. Her hands glowed so brightly that it hurt to look at them, so he focused on the air tank she had slung over her shoulder. For a brief moment, he wondered if he could burst the tank and knock her out of the ship quickly enough for her to asphyxiate, but decided that this would be suicidal to attempt. Even if it worked, he would still have to contend with her wife on the bridge, and her fleet around the planet, and the cult on the planet itself. Guwar didn't know about other Saiyans, but Luffa was right about him. He was afraid, because it seemed like no matter what he did, what side he chose, he would always be under someone else's power. At least Luffa's side could save the universe from Rehval's madness, but that wouldn't improve Guwar's prospects much.

At last, she brought her hands together and launched a spectacular beam of golden energy from her hands. Guwar watched it shoot down to the planet like some impossibly straight bolt of lightning. He had never sensed such an amazing power before. It was beyond anything he had ever imagined. It was enough to destroy a dozen planets. And then, when the beam of irresistable light reached the dismal clouds of Nagaoka...

...it dispersed. The energy spread across the clouds and vanished, like so much milk spilling onto a napkin. The clouds parted, revealing a tiny section of Nagaoka's surface, but there was no explosion, no damage. Soon enough, the clouds drifted back together, and the surface was hidden once again.

Luffa stared out of the bay in disbelief, and then after a few seconds, Guwar noticed a yellow glow on the edge of Nagaoka's disk. A second later, he could sense it, too.

"What... what's happening?" he asked. He hoped that this was somehow part of her technique, but the way she moved her tail told him that she was just as confused as he was.

Finally, beams of yellow light started shooting out from the clouds from every direction. It seemed to Guwar that the planet had somehow absorbed her attack, divided it, and fired it back out into space. For a moment, he worried that this was a counterattack from the cult, except the beams didn't seem to be aimed anywhere in particular. He reached out with his ki senses and quickly determined that most of the fleet was nowhere near the paths of these beams. Even so, he did sense a few power levels that winked out of existence as the deadly energy connected with their ships.

Angrily, Luffa stormed to the bay door controls and restored the force field. Air rushed in to repressurize the hold, and she moved on to the wall panel to call the bridge. "What's going on?" she shouted over the thrum of the ventilation system.

"Six ships are reporting heavy damage!" Zatte's voice called back. "One completely destroyed! I... Luffa, that was your energy it shot back at us!"

"I know that!" Luffa snapped. "How does a force field reflect that kind of power?!"

"I told you, it's not a force field!" Zatte said. "It's too big for that, and too... It's more like when I... oh no. Oh, Providence, no."

"What's wrong?" Luffa asked. For every second that passed without a reply, she grew more agitated. Finally, she dug her fingers into the wall and ripped the comm panel out entirely.

"We're going back to the bridge!" she shouted as she tossed the torn panel to the deck. But Guwar didn't move. He was too busy looking at the planet.

"Well? What are you gawking at?" Luffa demanded as she shrugged off her air canister and mask.

"I think you need to see this," Guwar said ominously. A mathematician by trade, he preferred not to give such vague answers, but in this case, he simply couldn't find the words.

"See what?!" Luffa said impatiently as she shrugged off her mask and air cylinder. And then she finally turned to face the bay door, and saw it immediately. The clouds on Nagaoka had shifted, swirling into an unnatural pattern. They were still moving, but it was clear that they were forming an image of a face, and even before that image had come into focus, there was no mistaking whose face it was.

"Hello, Luffa," said the voice of King Rehval.

He was speaking into their minds, just as Luffa had done before. What made it even stranger, Guwar thought, was that the lips on the cloud-image moved as though it were speaking the words.

"I'm so glad that you've finally arrived," the cloud-Rehval seemed to say. "Now, at last, we can put all of this to an end."

NEXT: The Thrice Blessed Who Will Transform the Universe.

[heythatpenguinhere]

As the Dust Clears

*Hey hey everyone! It’s been a hot minute since I created an Eleteo fanfic for you all so here you go! My mind has been stuck in my home of Puerto Rico which is being ravaged by earthquakes constantly lately. In those feels, I ended up creating this little angsty piece. Keep PR in your prayers and may they be resilient and strong as well <3 

The night before was an ordinary night really. There was nothing to indicate that the peace that Avalor City carried usually would be shattered. Maybe the night was too quiet, maybe the animals weren’t chirping as usual, maybe the air too cool… Or maybe there was just no real way of having predicted things to come regardless…

-

“Oh come on! That wasn’t fair!”

The royal family of Avalor and friends sat in a large room. Each of them was clad in their best pajamas and sleep attire as occasional shouts and laughter trickled out of the room. The royal game night was in full swing with a heated round of charades going on. 

Groans from the opposing team were heard as the Crown Princess herself took a playful bow from the front of the room. 

“Who let Elena and Mateo be put on a team together anyhow?” Naomi exclaimed, chin landing on her hand. 

The two in question made eye contact and winked almost simultaneous, doing nothing to deny anything. Everyone knew that the two were as close as friends could get. Their bond was forged over the years and continued to grow as they worked closely mastering magic and beyond. It seemed they were so in tune with each other that they could often read each other’s minds some said. In a game of charades, this proved to be a lethal combination that cemented their team’s victory and quickly. 

The mood in the room was warm and peaceful however, even with the friendly competition between games. Hot chocolate mugs clanked and the aroma of warm pastries wafted through as well; it was a peaceful night for all in attendance and even the palace staff assisting. 

When it came time to retire for the evening, slight yawns were heard and eyelids began to droop. Everyone slowly began to drift off to their rooms or homes to settle in for a good night’s sleep. The Crown Princess and Royal Wizard walked together along with the youngest princess, who slept soundly while piggy backed on her sister’s back.

“I don’t mind carrying her if you need it Elena.” Mateo said as they walked through the halls to their rooms. He knew very well she was capable of doing so, but still wanted to offer his assistance. 

Elena made a dismissive noise before looking over at him, “Nah I’ve got this. Isa is still light enough for me to handle, though I’m not sure for how much longer honestly.” She said and chuckled as her sister in question snored. 

Mateo admired the princess as she walked tall and confidently even with her sister clinging to her back. Elena was a strong individual both inside and out. He loved that about her and how she made others around her stronger. Her hair was currently down and loose in waves that fell to her lower back. It was rare the times that she had it down, but for the nights she would and that let Mateo have the guilty pleasure of admiring it from afar when he could. Elena was just a stunning person in general he thought. 

He accompanied her as she dropped Isa in her room and made her way to her own royal quarters. The whole way back the two joked and remincised over the evening had with loved ones. They laughed and playfully shoved or poked at each other, comfortable enough with each other for touches to be passed between the two easily. When they finally reached Elena’s large door, the princess smiled. 

“Well this is me. Tonight was a great time! I’m really glad you could join us Mateo.” She said, her eyes beaming at her friend. 

Mateo’s heart clenched the same way it often did when she looked at him. The heartfelt look on her face told how genuine her words were and never left any doubt. Her smile was one of his favorite things about her; It always made Mateo smile also. 

“It really was. I’m glad I could be there too.” He said and the two kept locked eyes for a while in a peaceful bliss before a yawn from Elena broke the silence. 

“And that’s your cue to get some rest.” Mateo joked as Elena blushed from the volume of the yawn. 

“Alright, I guess I’ll call it a night. Goodnight Mateo, sweet dreams.” Elena said as she began to walk through the door and stopped to look back at her dear friend. 

Mateo stood there with a soft smile, “Goodnight and sweet dreams Elena.” And as he walked back to his room, he couldn’t help but think how lucky he was to have her in his life. 

-

The movements began slow at first. Slight creaks in the floor, Books settling in bookshelves, frames tapping against walls, vases trembling. Then it all came at once. 

Mateo was nearly thrown from his bed as the violent shaking began. His eyes shot open, awake with alarm, as all around him his room quaked. Looking around he was in shock as things began to fall and tumble and the roar of the land shaking was heard. He spotted his desk with his Tamborita on it and dove under, grabbing the tamborita and then holding onto the legs of the desk as the shaking continued. Sounds of windows breaking and stone rumbling under pressure echoed in the royal wizard’s suite and all Mateo could do was watch and wait. 

The sound of someone screaming however caught his attention. It was a young girl’s voice and Mateo found himself moving from under cover against his own wishes. Running while the floor shook and the palace trembled was terrifying and a feat he would never forget. Cracks appeared in the walls and some places were beginning to break down as he tried to step on solid ground each time. Mateo had to dodge as a piece of the ceiling fell down in the hall, erupting in a burst of dust. 

Royal guards had flooded the end of the hallway leading toward the outside of the palace, seemingly beginning to try and help navigate palace staff and personnel out safely. Mateo spotted a very familiar guard holding onto an older woman so she wouldn’t fall as the shaking continued. 

“Gabe!” He yelled as he reached the group of people frantically running outside. 

Gabe’s eyes were wide with fear, face pale, and as Mateo looked around at the people gathering he couldn’t catch sight of the royal family. His stomach sank. Gabe seeming to realize what Mateo was thinking and instantly began scanning around as well, but Mateo’s mind was set the second he couldn’t see a familiar set of brown eyes.

He could still hear Gabe calling his name as the dust settled, the shaking stopped, and Mateo de Alva ran back into the palace halls. 

-

Dust was everywhere and darkness as well when Elena finally opened her eyes. She was lying on the ground somewhere that was hard and gritty. She could feel jagged pieces of rocks under her palms as she tried to place where she was but couldn’t; her vision was limited in the fog. She had somehow landed on the floor on her stomach and as she attempted to get up, she found she couldn’t; something large and heavy had her pinned down in her spot. Elena groaned before attempting to push off the floor yet again with more strength. The weight would not budge or even shift over her. 

She groaned again before collapsing back into her spot, accepting that she wouldn’t be able to push herself out. The dust was clearing a little and she could just barely make out a room with cracked floors and walls caved in. Suddenly the events from earlier came to mind as she recalled the horrible shaking that had occured. 

“Elena!” A shaken voice yelled from behind her. 

“Isa! Isa are you okay?!” Elena shouted instantly recognizing her sister and trying to shift to look around better. 

A pair of feet came into her view and soon her little sister’s dusty face was visible to her. 

Her sister gasped. “E-Elena, you’re trapped!” 

“I’ll be alright, are you hurt?” She asked as Isa quickly shook her head. 

She let out a sigh of relief; Elena couldn’t help but feel relieved that her sister was okay. She could however sense Isabel’s fear and see the tears welling in her eyes.

“Hey, everything is going to be okay, alright? I’ll get out of here in no time.” She said trying to sound as positive as possible. 

Isabel crouched down closer to her sister, “What are we going to do?” 

Elena looked around at the damaged room and wondered the same thing. 

-

Mateo’s feet wouldn’t stop. He was carefully rushing through the corridors he had grown to know so well in search of the royal family. His thoughts were threatening to consume him as every scenario of what could have happened to them played out. The damages around him did little to ease his nerves as well, but he shook them off and focused on his goal. 

As he ran, he casted spells left and right that lifted broken walls or columns out of his way. He jumped over pieces of stone and made sure to take caution and not step on any broken glass or pottery. 

To Mateo’s relief, he ran into Fransisco and Luisa in one of the halls. 

“Mateo! Oh mijo I am so glad you’re okay!” Luisa exclaimed lunging at him with a tight hug. 

Francisco had his arm tightly around Luisa and appeared to be shaken up still, but spoke up. 

“Have you seen the girls?” He asked looking deep into Mateo’s eyes for some kind of reassurance that his family was safe. 

Mateo shook his head sadly, making Francisco take a step back and Luisa cover her mouth in fear. 

“Don’t worry, I’ll find them I promise.” He said looking at both of them with equal fear. 

-

“Okay so what does it look like?” Elena asked as Isabel was surveying the room and the object that had fallen on her sister. 

“The room is a mess, I can’t see the door… It looks like one of the stone pillars broke off a-and landed on you…” She said, her eyes connecting with the stone object over her sister. 

“I don’t feel any pain though, so it must be lodged by something. If it wasn’t, I’d have probably been well… crushed…” Elena said realizing just how close to death she might have come and shivering. 

“How are we going to get out of here Elena? You need help!” Isa said and Elena could hear her pacing in the room beside her. 

Elena wiggled a little more, annoyed with the lack of movement she had. There had to be something they could do… 

Her thoughts soon turned to everyone one else. If the quake had caused damage to the fortified castle, she could only imagine what it did to the rest of the city... Terror began to crawl it’s way up her throat as she began to wonder if her grandparents were okay, if her friends were okay, if the staff was okay, and if Mateo was okay…  She felt like she had failed them. She was their soon-to-be queen and she hadn’t been able to protect them from this…

“Help! Help! We’re in here!” Isabel began to scream, cupping her hands around her mouth to yell as loud as she could. 

Elena soon joined in as well. With every scream, she tried to exert her magic to help them but her fear and emotions were too messy to settle on one thing. After the wind began to pick up in the room, she abandoned her efforts with magic. The room felt like it was closing in on her and a shifting of the stone above her told her she wasn’t just imagining it; the stone had sunk on her a bit further during the process. 

-

“Elena! Isabel! Elena!!” Mateo yelled in all the doors he ran past and passageways making his way to their rooms. 

The hall to the sister’s rooms was heavily clouded in dust and fog making it hard for Mateo to see too far in. He was blinded feeling his way through when he remembered a spell. Hitting his Tamborita with renewed strength he blasted the dusty fog away and the hall was fully cleared out. 

“Help!” He heard several muffled voices cry out. 

From behind a crumpled doorway and wall, came the cries of the two princesses he knew. 

Jumping over beams and rocks, he made his way to the room’s entrance and banged his hands on what was left of the door. 

“Elena! Isabel! Is that you? Are you alright?!” He screamed. 

“Mateo!” He heard a voice yell out with relief. 

Footsteps raced to the door and he could feel someone bang against it. 

“Mateo! Elena and I are stuck in my room! We can’t get out and Elena is trapped under a pillar!” Isabel yelled frantically. 

Mateo’s eyes grew wider, “Elena is trapped?! Is she hurt?” He exclaimed. 

The thought of the princess trapped under a massive stone and gasping for air terrified Mateo to the bone. Elena could take care of herself, but what if this was something out of her control… and his this time? 

“She says she’s fine, but I think the rock is slipping. Please hurry!” Isabel yelled against the door. 

Mateo took a step back and tried to take a deep breath; he knew he had to calm himself to help them. He had to focus all his efforts on Elena and Isabel. He couldn’t afford to give precious time to fear; he was going to have to be brave. Elena had told him once that he was braver than he thought and it had been hard to believe then, imagine now? 

He shook his head of the doubts and fears and aimed his Tamborita. After telling Isa to stand back, he closed his eyes and envisioned the right spell and soon the lodged door was blown back with the sound of the Tamborita being hit. Dust clouded for a moment before Mateo was able to make out the opening to the room. 

Isabel stood by the opening, covered here and there with dust and debris, but otherwise unharmed. Mateo’s eyes began to scan for Elena though instantly and soon enough they landed on her. Laying under a large stone pillar was where he found her... Elena’s face screamed of relief as she noticed him and within seconds he was dropped on the floor in front of her. 

“Took you long enough.” Elena said with a teasing tone. 

Mateo was taken aback at her ability to joke even in the midst of the situation she was in. He didn’t miss though the strain in her voice that showed she was in discomfort and slightly out of breath. In other words, Elena was in more trouble than she let on.

Mateo shook his head, “Really Elena?” He said with a raised eyebrow. Try as he might to appear as casual as she did, he was horribly worried. 

Elena too knew what that look meant; it was the look he gave her every time she planned to do something impulsive and reckless. It meant he was slightly questioning her sanity, but he was also very worried. In fact, Elena could practically feel the fear coming off of Mateo in waves. She figured her situation didn’t look the most positive, but seeing as Mateo was clearly afraid for her made her wonder if she should be a bit more serious. 

An apologetic look took over her and Mateo melted. He couldn’t ever stay upset or mad at her and he knew this very well, especially in this moment where she was so helpless in front of him. His arm moved out of his own control and soon his hand was settled cupping her face gently; determination was written on his face. 

“Elena, I will get you out of this I promise.” He said confidently. 

The princess was lost for words at her friend. He was looking at her so intensely and yet holding her with such care that she couldn’t help but mold into his touch, believing every single word he said. He looked so strong in that moment and she found that she loved when he would subconsciously let go of his doubts and step into himself. She also would be lying if she said it wasn’t attractive even, but now wasn’t really the time for those kinds of thoughts...

“I know you will. I’ve never doubted you mi amigo.” She said back closing her eyes as she leaned further into his hand. 

With a final soft squeeze of her cheek, Mateo let go and stood up with renewed purpose. He had a princess to save but more so, he had his dearest friend to help. 

He grew closer to the pillar over Elena to get an idea of how big it was and if anything else was on top of it. Scanning the rubble, he noticed that the pillar was quite large and looked pretty heavy. All the other debris seemed to have fallen around and on top of it, adding to the weight of the pillar. He swallowed deeply know that this was going to take a lot of concentration on his part to be able to life the weight magically and not disturb any other rubble that he cannot see. 

“It looks bad right?” Elena asked still not having an exact idea as to what was surrounding her. 

Mateo grimaced. It didn’t look good, in fact it looked difficult. How in the world did she manage to get stuck in this situation while Isabel was perfectly safe. How did all the debris end up on her?

“I know what you’re thinking Mateo but I had to. If I hadn’t pushed Isa out of the way, she’d have been crushed…” Elena said giving more clarity. 

He could hear Isabel behind him choke back a sob and couldn’t help but notice how quiet the youngest princess was being. Elena had risked her life to save her sister without a second thought. 

“I know you had to. Now let’s just worry about getting you out. Did you try your magic on it?” He quickly countered to get the dark thoughts of what could have happened out of his mind. 

Isabel sniffled before answering, “I think she tried but it didn’t help…” 

Elena nodded her in confirmation, “I don’t think I can really focus my emotions too well under here if I’m honest.” 

Her voice was becoming more strained and he noticed a slight twitch of her eye; Elena was in pain and there was no more time to waste. 

“Okay Elena I’m going to need you to be still while I cast the spell but as soon as you can move you need to get out of the way, alright?” He said readying his tamborita yet again. 

Elena nodded and he turned to Isabel. “Keep an eye on the pillar and over debris for me please? I don’t want to miss anything.”

Isabel nodded as well looking worried. 

Pointing towards the large pillar specifically, Mateo took a deep breath and focused; he couldn’t miss or hit Elena. Elena was looking straight at him with a slight smile. She was encouraging him even now and putting on a brave face. 

With an audible noise, the pillar began to glow an orange hue. The noise of rocks moving and pieces shifting was heard as it very slowly began to move upwards. Mateo scrunched his eyes to focus all his energy. Slowly but sure the pillar lifted until Elena could finally move. Just as instructed, at the first chance she had she rolled from underneath the pillar and landed on her back just as the pillar came back down. 

Mateo hunched forward on his knees, breathing in deeply as he watched Elena breathing just as heavily on the ground. Isabel came barreling towards her sister and gave her a hug. 

“It’s okay. Everything is okay now.” He heard Elena repeat as she stroked her hair. 

Mateo couldn’t help but be overwhelmed in relief. Elena was okay. She would continue to live and grow and become the most amazing queen that existed. She would continue to blow them all away.

Tears started to flow down his face as he slowly began to wipe them away. Elena was smiling at her sister, but frowned when she noticed Mateo’s tears. 

“Mateo, what’s wrong?” She asked, instantly worried for his own wellbeing. 

He smiled through the tears, “Nothing is wrong. I’m just so, so glad you’re safe.” 

-

The royal family and council sat in the courtyard as they were read the reports of the damage from the earthquake. No life had been lost miraculously and damages to buildings and roads could be fixed with time. The sighs of relief were passed around all those present as relief swept over the crowds. 

Elena currently lay with her head in Mateo’s lap, exhausted, as she was overlooked by a medic. After they had made their way out of the crumbled room, Mateo had insisted on carrying her out to where the others were meeting. The sight of the crown princess covered in dust in someone’s arms had been a scare to most. She had suffered some heavy bruising on her back, but everyone was reassured she would be okay with rest. Her family hugged her carefully in tears.

She now watched as other people hugged each other and were reunited with their own friends/family. Her people were alright and they would continue to be okay; they were resilient and brave and she knew they would help each other rebuild and grow. She turned her face towards her family and relished in the fact that they were altogether and unharmed. She would take a near death moment anytime to ensure their safety and didn’t regret her choice earlier in saving her sister’s life. Isabel sat with some of her friends as she recounted the story of what had happened to them in the castle. 

“What are you thinking about mi amiga?” Mateo said looking down at her. 

Her caramel eyes met his emerald. Boy was she thankful that he was safe as well. For a moment under that rubble she had wondered if he had been injured or was trapped somewhere himself. But he had acted in bravery to ensure those around him were safe and she owed him her life for it. She could feel the magic within her stir and fluctuate at her thoughts over her friend. He had shown up yet again, not that it surprised her. Mateo was always with her it seemed especially in the difficult times. He was a strong piece of her life and she didn’t know what she’d do without him.

“I’m thinking about how grateful I am everyone is okay. And I’m thinking about how especially grateful I am for you.” She said openly, feeling the need to share her heart with him. 

Mateo blushed heavily, a bright red that trailed over his nose and cheeks, before nervously scratching his neck. “I-I couldn’t just leave you there and do nothing you know that.” 

She smirked as his bashfulness. “You’d have missed me too much otherwise.” She joked. 

Mateo thought on her playful words. Life without Elena in it, is not a life he wanted to have to live through at all. Just picturing the absence of her in even the smallest things was causing his heart pain. He knew for a fact that he wanted to be with her in life however long he could and whatever way she wanted him.

He smiled back at her wholeheartedly before whispering for only them to hear, “Oh, you have no idea just how much I’d miss you.”

[purplepersnicketywrites]

In Pursuit of Butterflies

TSUMINA for @a-hopeless-optimist

Prompt: 33. An unexpected kiss that shocks the one receiving it.

you awakened something in me and this is just. a fic now. ;o T-rated as all my stuff is! i’ma go stick it on ao3 now

There’s a healthy dose of krbk in here too because I can’t help myself, but that’s mostly a Bonus Scene at the end of the Tsumina content!

___

Mina grinned around at her classmates. Not everyone was here - Jirou had gone to bed early, Shinsou was out at a late-night internship, and Aoyama was bust crafting something out of cheese in the kitchen - but most of class 3A were sat in a circle in the common room, ready to play.

She liked this game, a strange mashup of Truth or Dare, Seven Minutes in Heaven, and Spin the Bottle. It was fun to see the way everyone reacted to the match-ups, what they chose to do. As the current Mistress of the Bottle, it was Mina’s job to spin for everyone.

If the Bottle landed on you, you were given two options - you told a truth or performed a dare picked by the last person the Bottle landed on. If you wanted to forfeit, the Bottle was spun again and you had to play Seven Minutes in Heaven with whoever it landed on. The other person could pass, of course, and the Bottle would keep spinning until someone agreed.

There had been some very interesting events sparked by the Bottle so far. Mina had gotten very good at both feigning surprise and spinning the Bottle itself to land wherever she wanted it to land. It wasn’t really meddling, but, well, Mina was a romantic at heart. So what if she wanted to give some of her friends a little nudge in the right direction?

Mina had managed to work out from her reactions in second year that Ochako’s crush was on Midoriya rather than Iida - the two had both been viable candidates in Mina’s eyes. Unfortunately she hadn’t managed to wrangle them into playing Seven Minutes together yet, somehow, and no one in this circle seemed like they wanted to instigate anything today, either.

It wasn’t like Mina could fix anything for herself while she was the one spinning- as the Mistress of the Bottle she was exempt from it landing on her (or being able to issue truths or dares, which was a fair swap in power). That and, well, it wasn’t like she had a crush on anyone yet anyway. Unfortunately.

She could tell that a lot of the boys in the class were handsome, but none of them had ever given her the butterflies she’d read about. It was kind of annoying, actually, that she’d gone almost her whole high-school career without even a whiff of romance. She wanted to be in love already!

Anyway, the universe had just given her a brilliant opportunity: dearest, darling Eijirou had just refused to answer a question about whether his quirk affected certain parts of his anatomy - crass, Kaminari, but effective - which meant he was in the line-up for Seven Minutes.

Mina grinned and spun the bottle. It landed, as Mina had planned, on Bakugou.

Eijirou turned almost as red as his hair, while Bakugou seemed to have been able to keep a lid on his own reaction. Damn, Mina would have paid money to see Blasty get flustered.

Bakugou stood, dragging Kirishima up with him. “Come on then, idiot. Let’s get this over with.”

“Wh- Really?” Kirishima asked, eyes too wide and voice filled with too much hope. Mina sighed. These boys were so bad at subtlety. Everyone knew that they’d been into each other for years now, other than themselves, apparently. “You don’t have to, man!”

“I said I would! Shut up,” Bakugou snapped. Interesting, he hadn’t let go of Kirishima’s arm. Would today be the day? Bakugou glared at the circle of classmates. “I’m not getting locked in that fucking box, though, so none of you fuckers need to follow us.”

Kaminari waved his phone in the air. “You need a timer or something? I’ll come and get you when the time’s up.”

Kirishima shot him a thumbs up before Bakugou began to drag them away to the closet the class had chosen for the game, one around the corner and near the stairs.

“A hundred yen says they don’t come back,” Sero said once they were out of earshot, and Mina laughed. That was the plan, wasn’t it?

“Why wouldn’t they come back?” Todoroki asked.

Midoriya flushed. “Ah, they might want to extend the game?”

“But the game is seven minutes,” Todoroki said. Ah, poor, poor sheltered boy.

“I meant that I think they’ll stop playing,” Sero said. “And disappear somewhere to make out for real.”

Todoroki’s eyes widened. “Oh! I see. I didn’t know they were dating.”

“They’re not,” Ochako said. “But we’re all hoping that they will be soon.”

Todoroki nodded slowly, absorbing the information. “That’d be good for them, I think.”

“Hey, Ashido,” Kaminari said, and Mina turned her head to look at him. “Wanna swap Bottle duties?”

“Yeah, okay!” Mina said. She thought that she’d probably made enough of an impact today - best to quit while she was ahead. Ooh, now she could truth-or-dare people!

“Well, we’re not gonna wait for Bakugou and Kirishima to get back, so you can call the next thing, Ashido,” Kaminari said, giving the Bottle a whirl. “Satou! It’s you.”

“Uh, truth?”

Mina thought about it. “Hmm, what’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever tried baking?”

---

Momo called for a quick break for everyone around twenty minutes later, and as most of the class moved off to go to the bathroom or grab a drink of water Mina saw Kaminari take the opportunity to go see if the closet was free. As Sero had predicted, Kirishima and Bakugou hadn’t come back to the group.

“Empty,” Kaminari said with glee in his voice as he scurried back over to the Bottle. “But! There is evidence they were there.”

Sero leaned towards him. “Yeah?”

“Yeah! So like, there are like, scorch marks, right,” Kaminari said.

“Oh?” Mina tilted her head and Kaminari nodded with enthusiasm.

“Yeah! About, like, either side of where I think Kirishima’s shoulders would’ve been, so damn, Bakugou must’ve been feeling intense,” Kaminari said. “And that’s not all! There are scratches in the wood some ways below them? Like Kirishima’s hands were just dangling at his sides and his quirk activated and he had to grip onto something.”

“Whoa. You don’t think that they...?” Sero let his voice drop into a whisper. “You know?”

“I dunno, I’m just sayin’ what I saw,” Kaminari said, lifting his hands into the air.

Mina whistled low. “That’s what they get for letting all that tension build up between them.”

Their classmates began to trickle back into the circle, so they let the topic drop. A few more truths were given and dares completed - Tokoyami revealed that his parents owned several cats, Tooru said that she had used her quirk to pinch extra goodies at her parents’ bakery a few times, and Shouji had shown them a glimpse of the mouth he kept hidden under his mask.

Then Tsuyu declined to say if she had a crush on anyone or not. Interesting, because that was pretty much code for ‘yeah but don’t pry about it’ and Tsuyu had never mentioned a crush on anyone during their girls’ nights. Mina still planned to ask later - maybe when it was just the girls? She loved to know what her classmates were doing romantically. At the very least she could live vicariously through them.

The room went silent as Kaminari spun the Bottle. Who was gonna join Tsuyu for Seven Minutes? The Bottle turned, and turned, and then-

Mina blinked. It was her. Huh.

“Are you okay with that, Mina?” Tsuyu asked, getting to her feet.

“Uh, totally,” Mina said, standing up. Her heart began to beat a little faster. It had been a long while since she’d been picked for this by the Bottle, and that had been with Aoyama a couple of months ago. They’d spent the whole Seven Minutes time gossiping about their other classmates.

Somehow, Mina didn’t think that Tsuyu would be one for gossip about the others. Would she want to talk about other stuff, though? Like her crush? Or would she just stand in vaguely embarrassed silence? Or-

“Right, let’s go shut you girls in,” Kaminari said, bounding up and grabbing for the key to the closet on one of the counters. Tsuyu stepped into the closet first, and Mina followed behind her. Kaminari shot them both a grin. “You good? I’ll let you out once the time is up!”

The door closed, covering Kaminari’s face, and the lock clicked. Well. Huh. Mina really was here in the closet with Tsuyu, huh? Mina leant back against the wall. She hadn’t had the opportunity to check out Kaminari’s claims for herself - which side were the scorch marks on? She reached a hand down and ran it over the wood. Ah, yeah, those were some deep-feeling grooves, four of them in the shape of finger scratches. There was a matching set on the other side that she traced with her other hand.

Tsuyu’s hand on her arm brought Mina’s attention back to the present, and the situation they were in. Locked in a closet together. Mina supposed that Tsuyu would probably be okay standing just a little too close for a few minutes? It might be the perfect opportunity to pry a little about Tsuyu’s crush, but she’d probably have to work up to that one instead of just blurting out a question.

“So, what did you want to-” Mina found herself interrupted by a soft press of lips on her own.

Oh.

Oh.

Mina couldn’t help but suck in a gasp as Tsuyu pulled back.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I should have asked first,” Tsuyu said. “I got a little nervous and just- Are you okay, kero?”

“Uh,” Mina said, robbed of words. “Yeah! I’m fine, I just, I didn’t think that you’d want to do it? The kissing thing, I mean.”

“I don’t mind, really,” Tsuyu said. Huh. Even with a crush on someone, Tsuyu was still willing to play. “But I don’t have that much experience with kissing, kero, so it might not be that enjoyable.”

Mina snorted. Her own experiences were drawn from playground and party games like this - never anything other than brief contact with boys and a sense of everything being kind of ridiculous. “I haven’t kissed many people much either, so, that’s fine?”

“Did you want to keep going, then?” Tsuyu asked.

Did she? Mina hadn’t really had the opportunity to kiss any girls before. Hey, why not? “Sure.”

Tsuyu kissed her again, and this time Mina was ready to kiss back. It was nice, Mina decided, hands moving to Tsuyu’s waist in something that might have been an instinct.

It occurred to Mina that Tsuyu was a good nine inches shorter than her, so she must be leaning up in order to kiss her. Tsuyu was likely on the tips of her toes to make up for the difference in their heights. That was... Something warm and tingly made its way through Mina’s gut, and she leant down to even them out a little more.

She had always sort of assumed that she would be the one stretching upwards for a kiss. That she would find some magical Prince Charming who would sweep her off her feet. He’d be tall, because that was what girls were supposed to like. She’d have to have her arms around his neck as he lifted her a little. Maybe she would even be carried?

This was different. It was different, and it was good. Leaning down felt more right than expected. Mina found that she liked kissing Tsuyu, she liked the way their lips moved together, she liked the way Tsuyu’s long fingers had found their way into her hair. Mina really liked that Tsuyu was a girl, actually, as she circled her thumbs over the frog-girl’s hipbones, and that was some kind of revelation.

Maybe Mina had never had a crush before because she’d been looking in the wrong place.

Mina had to break the kiss to really think about that. Whoa. Girls. Mina liked girls? It... Made a lot of sense? But then again, surely she’d have had those damned elusive butterflies looking at a girl at some point? Wasn’t that how people usually figured out they liked certain people? Ugh, this was so frustrating.

“Mina?” Tsuyu’s voice was soft, and her hands dropped to Mina’s shoulders as she moved back a little - though not all that far given the limited space they were dealing with. “Are you-”

“Still fine,” Mina said, finding herself to be a little breathless. “S-sorry for just stopping like that, uh, I think I might be gay?”

“Oh.”

“I’ve never kissed a girl before,” Mina confessed. “But it’s better with you than any boys I’ve ever kissed.”

“I’ve only ever kissed girls,” Tsuyu said, and Mina found herself oddly surprised.

She swallowed. “Really?”

“Not many,” Tsuyu said. “But yes, kero, only girls.”

“And how do I shape up?” Mina asked. Gosh, hanging around with Bakugou, the embodiment of competitive spirit, must have rubbed off on her a little. Did she really want to know?

“It’s the best so far,” Tsuyu said, moving closer again. “Can I kiss you again?”

Mina nodded before she remembered they were kind of in the dark here. “Yes.”

Tsuyu’s mouth was just as gentle and soft as before. Mina wondered if Tsuyu would mind if their mouths opened a little more, or if that would push things too far. Mina wasn’t sure if what they were doing could strictly be called a friends thing, but at the same time... The closet was like a liminal space. Once they were out, the feel of Tsuyu’s lips on hers would only really be a memory, hazy like a half-remembered dream.

Something in Mina’s gut curled unpleasantly at the thought. If it was all going to be forgotten anyway, then maybe going a little further wouldn’t be too amiss. Mina had never tried French-kisses before, but maybe- Oh. Tsuyu’s tongue was like a frog’s, wasn’t it? How would that feel? Slippery? Sticky? Would they even be able to kiss that way or was Tsuyu’s tongue a little too big?

It was weird, but, Mina was kind of excited to see for herself, or feel, rather. Seeing wasn’t currently an option for them.

Mina let her own tongue flick out, just a little, over the seam of Tsuyu’s lips. Tsuyu’s grip on her shoulders tightened, and the girl with the frog quirk hummed. Mina lurched forwards, pressing Tsuyu back against the wall of the closet, and licked again. Mina moved one of her hands to cradle Tsuyu’s jaw as Tsuyu opened her mouth.

Tsuyu’s tongue was kinda... Slimy? But not in a terrible way. Mina’s thoughts were a jumble, but somewhere in there the idea that she’d be happy to get used to it flickered through her brain. There couldn’t be all that much time left out of Seven Minutes, though, surely?

“Fuck,” Mina hissed, as one of Tsuyu’s hands made its way under her t-shirt to splay over her waist. Tsuyu’s fingers were warm, almost burning, and Mina bit back a sound building in her throat. “Tsu.”

Tsuyu hesitated. “Are you still okay with this?”

“Touch,” Mina panted. “Please.”

Mina felt like she was on fire. Nothing had ever been like this before, and she leant her face down into the crook of Tsuyu’s shoulder as the frog girl’s fingers traced the muscles of her stomach. No one had ever tried to... Explore Mina like this, to trace patterns her skin like Tsuyu was doing. She wanted more, which was strange and new and exciting.

Somehow, Mina didn’t think she’d be able to forget what was happening right now in the closet any time soon

“Mina,” Tsuyu said, pulling her hand back and Mina’s shirt down. Mina almost groaned at the loss of contact. “Can I tell you something?”

“Yeah, of course you can,” Mina said, face still pressed against Tsuyu’s collar as she tried to collect herself.

“It’s about the question I was asked earlier, kero,” Tsuyu said.

Mina took a moment to wrack her brains. Question? Oh, right, about Tsuyu’s crush. Mina had been planning to ask about it, but now the idea of it sat like a cold stone in her stomach, heavy and uncomfortable. Still, if Tsuyu wanted to use what was probably the last of their time here to say it, Mina was willing to listen.

“Mm?”

“I do have someone that I like,” Tsuyu said.

“A girl?” Mina asked, biting her lip. She was glad that Tsuyu wasn’t trying to move her away.

Mina felt Tsuyu nod. “A girl. Ah, you, actually.”

What? Mina blinked. “Me?”

“I didn’t want to say anything in the circle because I didn’t want to put you on the spot, kero. I didn’t know if you even liked girls,” Tsuyu said. “But now that I do, I wanted to say that. Even if you don’t like me back, I wanted to let you know.”

Mina found herself lost for words again. How on earth was she supposed to respond to this? To all of this? Mina pulled herself away, leaning back against her side of the closet. She liked girls, apparently, and here was a girl who liked her, who had kissed her, who Mina had enjoyed kissing back. Tsuyu was a friend, someone Mina knew, and pretty much the opposite of all of Mina’s half-formed fantasy partners. Was that a bad thing? A good thing?

“Tsu... I-”

There was clicking sound, and then the door opened. Kaminari’s face popped into view as light streamed into the small space from around him.

“Yo! Time’s up!” Kaminari said, moving back to give them space to get out. Mina went first, Tsuyu stepping out behind her. Mina saw Kaminari scrutinising the two of them before his expression drew up into a vicious smirk. “Did you two have fun?”

Mina’s flush was out in the open, this time, but she still made herself stand as tall as possible and eye her friend down. “More than you ever will.”

“Ouch,” Kaminari said, with a wince. “You coming back to the game?”

“I think I’m gonna head up to bed,” Mina said, and something made her glance at Tsuyu. The frog girl looked... A little disappointed, maybe? It was hard to tell, and Tsuyu was pretty good at disguising her expressions. “Uh, so about some of the stuff we spoke about...”

Tsuyu looked at her. “I’ll keep it a secret.”

“What? No, I mean, for now I guess?” Mina hadn’t even thought about that. She didn’t think she’d have a problem being out, really, but first she probably needed to figure out exactly what she’d be out as, at least to begin with. “I meant- I don’t really have- I need to think about some stuff for myself first, I think.”

“I understand,” Tsuyu said, and then she smiled.

Oh. Mina thought, watching as Kaminari and Tsuyu headed back to the gathering of their classmates.

So this is what getting the butterflies feels like.

---

Bonus! Kiribaku scene

Eijirou watched Bakugou glaring at the closet. He didn’t say anything - Bakugou needed to consider this for himself, and if he was offered what he saw as cowardly escape or a challenge to his bravery he would tend to push himself into situations he wasn’t actually comfortable with.

If Bakugou himself deemed this as too much, he’d mutter something like ‘this is fucking stupid’ and that was when Eijirou would suggest that they fuck off to his room and watch something on his laptop.

“Let’s get this over with,” Bakugou said instead.

Well. That was it. They were gonna spend the whole seven minutes in this closet together no matter what. Eijirou felt a little thrill run through him at the thought. Bakugou was comfortable enough with him that he didn’t mind being confined to such close quarters for seven whole minutes, and that was amazing.

Eijirou wasn’t expecting anything to happen, really. He knew enough about Bakugou to know that he was a - heh - closet romantic at heart, and he wasn’t likely to spend both of what he knew would be their first kisses in a glorified cupboard.

If he was gonna kiss Eijirou, it’d be somewhere memorable. Like at the top of a ferris wheel at a festival, at the top of a mountain after hiking toether, or- Well. Somewhere up high where they could look out over the world. Bakugou would probably have planned it out meticulously, never one to half-ass anything he cared about. And Eijirou was pretty sure that Bakugou cared about him.

Bakugou walked into the closet and Eijirou practically jumped to follow him.

“Okay, you wanna put a timer on one of our phones?” Eijirou asked.

Bakugou scowled around at the (lack of) space and grunted an affirmation.

“Cool, I’ll set it to go,” Eijirou said, pulling his phone out. “Can you shut the door and I’ll start it from there?”

“Yeah,” Bakugou said, and reached out for the doors as Eijirou’s thumbs hovered over the screen of his phone. Eijirou thought that his friend was strangely subdued.

Eijirou pressed play on the countdown as the door shut, and put his phone back in his pocket. It would let out an alarm when they were done, so he didn’t need to watch it. The darkness was kinda comforting, Eijirou thought. It was warm and it felt like the sharing of a secret, and maybe that’s why this game was played in small, dimly-lit spaces.

“Cozy, huh?” Eijirou chirped after a few moments thinking about it, trying to squint at his friend through the darkness. No reply. “Man, I can’t believe Kaminari would ask me something like that. You know I think maybe he wanted me to forfeit, ha.”

Eijirou waited for Bakugou to scoff, to make some quip at Kaminari’s expense like he usually did at the slightest provocation. But there was nothing. Eijiroi frowned, straining his ears. Was- Was that Bakugou’s breathing? It sounded fast. Too fast.

“Hey man, you good?” Eijirou asked, eyebrow raised and head tilted even if he couldn’t be seen.

“Fuck,” Bakugou said, but his voice was all wrong. Kinda... Wispy? Nothing like Eijirou had ever heard from him before.

“Bakugou?”

“Shit, I, it’s the fucking,” Bakugou said, and he was definitely breathing heavier than normal. “I can’t fucking breathe, fucking hell.”

Eijirou leaned forwards, concern blooming in his gut. He reached out. “You can’t breathe? What’s-”

The moment Eijirou’s hands brushed against the fabric of Bakugou’s t-shirt, Eijirou found himself being slammed backwards into the wall of the closet by a pair of heated hands on his shoulders. Eijirou’s skin had hardened under the contact, but he could smell the smokiness in the air that told him Bakugou had detonated.

Bakugou kept him pinned like that, breaths sounding ragged.

“Bakugou?” Eijirou tried again, lifting one arm.

“Don’t touch me!” Bakugou hissed, and Eijirou dropped both of his hands to press them to the wood either side of him. “Don’t- Fuck, just- Fucking hell!”

Bakugou slid his hands to the sides, palms against the wood, too, and in the brief flashes of light that his quirk produced either side of him, Eijirou caught glimpses of his face. Bakugou’s eyes were clamped shut, his mouth open and teeth bared in a snarl. Something was wrong, somehow.

“Hey,” Eijirou said, trying to make his voice gentle. “Talk to me, man. What’s going on?”

“It’s so fucking stupid,” Bakugou said, voice hitching on the last word.

“Whatever this is isn’t stupid,” Eijirou said. “And I’m here for you if you need anything.”

“I know,” Bakugou said, and he let his head fall forwards onto Eijirou’s chest. “Fuck, just. Stay right there. I need to get over this shit already.”

“Okay.”

Fuck, Eijirou thought, hardened fingers curling into the wall and probably gouging it as he tried to think of what to say. He wanted to pull Bakugou into a hug or something, but Bakugou didn’t want that right now and Eijirou knew better than to try that again until he gave the all-clear.

Bakugou knocked his fist against Eijirou’s shoulder. “Talk, damn it. I need- Distract me.”

“Oh, yeah! Sure,” Eijirou said, mind immediately going blank. “Uhh, so, um, I... Hm. I got absolutely nothing in my brain, bro.”

“Idiot, everyone knows that already,” Bakugou mumbled.

Eijirou laughed. “Nothing but hair and rocks, yeah! I guess I could sing a song or something? But all the songs I know are like, ones you have to really yell along to and someone might think we got stuck in here or s-”

Bakugou shook his head. “Fuck, change the topic.”

“Oh, sorry, uh,” Eijirou had gone blank again. So... What was it that Bakugou hadn’t wanted to- Oh. Oh. Oh fuck. No wonder Bakugou was freaking out so badly, of course, he had fucking claustrophobia. Eijirou was an idiot for forgetting - it was something Bakugou had mentioned before, in an offhand way so as not to make it a big deal, but he’d still mentioned it.

‘Oh yeah, I hate small spaces.’

And what was this if not being a small space?

“So, uh, did I ever tell you about how I got the scar on my eye?” Eijirou asked. Man, he really needed to like, come up with a selection of topics he could talk about for this sort of situation.

“Yeah,” Bakugou said.

“I did? Aw man, I thought I’d managed to go without you hearing how embarrassing it was,” Eijirou said. He heard Bakugou snort, which was a good thing, right? “How about the first time I dyed my hair?”

“Mmhm.”

Eijirou pouted at the top of Bakugou’s head. “Man, I should really learn how to stop exposing my own secrets! Okay, so. Hey, how about something for the future! Pretty sure I haven’t talked about much of that.”

Bakugou grunted.

“Well, I think once our agency gets properly established and things are like, stable, I want a cat,” Eijirou said, finding that his heart was pounding. He’d not actually shared this idea with anyone. Not even Bakugou, and they were planning to rent a place together.

“Yeah?” Bakugou asked.

“Yeah. I love cats, man. I mean, I like dogs, too! They’re great! But it’d be a cat or two for me,” Eijirou said. “I don’t know if I really care about the breed, but I guess I’d actually like something that’s like, kinda pushy and loud? I think those kinda cats have real personality. You can’t ignore them when they want something.”

Bakugou’s hands had stopped popping with tiny explosions, which was good.

“It’d be an indoor cat. I don’t want it to be like, hit by a car or targeted by a villain or anything,” Eijirou said. “As long as you make the time to play with a cat and stuff they don’t actually need to go out - especially if you have more than one and they can play with each other. I was also thinking that maybe I could like, harness train it? Take it on like, walks and stuff.”

Bakugou said something, but it was muffled by Eijirou’s shirt.

“Huh?”

“Names,” Bakugou said, voice rough but sounding stronger. “Got any?”

“Oh, for the cats?” Eijirou pursed his lips. “Not really! I figure I’ll know what to call a cat when I look at it.”

Bakugou made a small humming noise, and Eijirou hoped that he was maybe warming to the idea. Eijirou kind of needed him to be on board, after all.

“Uh, what else... I kinda want, like, a real house? I know the sort of money for that probably won’t start coming in for a while ‘cause of all the security concerns, but like, long-term goals and all that stuff,” Eijirou said. He wanted Bakugou to live there with him, but, well, they weren’t officially together yet and Eijirou didn’t wanna just spring that on him while he was having a panic attack. “It doesn’t have to be a big house, just like, enough. A decent kitchen, space to park outside, maybe a small garden.”

“With flowers?” Bakugou asked.

Huh, that wasn’t something Eijirou had expected Bakugou to ask, and he grinned. “Yeah. We can plant flowers. Roses, maybe. Red ones? Maybe white? Maybe both?”

“Both,” Bakugou said.

Eijirou felt fondness ripple through him, and he opened his mouth to say something that was probably too sappy, but then his pocket began to buzz and Bakugou was jumping out of the closet. He moved almost too fast for Eijirou to follow with his eyes, but he didn’t go too far. Eijirou stepped out of the closet and closed its doors behing him, before making his way over to his best friend.

“Wanna go upstairs and watch something?” Eijirou asked, turning off the alarm still jangling from his phone.

“Fuck yes,” Bakugou said, turning to head towards the stairs. As he was facing away from Eijirou, he couldn’t be totally sure that Bakugou had spoken again as he stomped away, but it kinda sounded like Bakugou had muttered a ‘thank-you’. Kinda like that time at I-Island all the way back in first year, huh?

Eijirou grinned, catching up to Bakugou and throwing an arm over his shoulders.

[acallforadventure]

Answering questions about the game #00

So question: what are the ultimate goals for the game specifically? Is this going to evolve into somesort of open world survival game with actual Dayz mechanics like blood type going into it or more of an MMO RPG. And if it's an RPG to what extent, something in line with Deus Ex featuring a very indepth story that's actually coherent or more into World of Warcraft vibe? How deep is the building and mining here compared to other games?

I would also like to see what lore this has that's unique to itself rather than Adventure Time. Have you thought up of any specific lore systems or anything? It's apocalyptic and since the main character is human already a massive change to Adventure Time in which humans were rare.

Sorry if these are questions way ahead of what you are doing yourself but figure asking, ya know?

I'll answer with what is already planned, and I'm willing to disclose, because I want to keep some mystery, and on the social networks where I can post static images and gifs, I'm actually publishing those with snippets of lore.

First question: MMO? RPG? The first draft of the game was a MMO, but after seeing for the millionth time how toxic people can become in MMOs, I decided that being a peaceful and nice experience was too important, so I decided to go for a normal multiplayer, so that you can choose the people, and play with your friends, or a restricted group of people, so that you can manage bad apples, instead of quitting the game for desperation. Talking about the kind of game, it will be a sandbox, but there is no digging: I find that leveling up the ground takes a ridiculous amount of time, and becomes a tedious mechanic, producing predictable and uninteresting results too often, while if you cannot dig, you’ll choose wisely where to build what, and you’ll include the natural landscape in the project, as you’d do in the real world, that makes everything more interesting and somehow challenging. I want building to be more relevant too, so there will be a “scaffolding” system that lets you build the skeleton of buildings first, so that you can visualize well your project before finalizing it, this aims to make destruction non trivial, as in Minecraft that you can just dig your way to the end to loot a dungeon, since hopefully people will create their own adventures to play with their friends by building castles, dungeons and such, and using the game as a D&Dish platform. Also, the only other reason to dig is mining, but considered the setting, and the fact that I want exploration and adventuring to be a bigger part or the game, and leave the survival mechanics as quite marginal, acquiring advanced materials like metal will be easier and more common with scavenging and dungeon looting. I will probably give the chance to mine somehow, but I haven’t yet finalized the decision on the “how”, because I want to be sure it won’t be a tedious task that takes up a lot of play time.

Also, since there is no digging, dungeons (ruins will often have “dungeon” elements like monsters and loot too) will be found as entrances sunk in the ground: there is a widely recurring theme of relics from the past in the game, the car wreck is a good example of that, you can find ancient relics resurfacing, they spawn from time to time in random places, because that’s what buried stuff do, it resurfaces, I find resurfaced items from time to time in real life too while exploring the forest, and so dungeons will do the same, the sunken entrances will see light again, and you’ll be able to enter and explore them… At least the ones that don’t move by themselves...

For the RPG part of the question, I like the idea that skill is more important than playtime, so there will be RPG elements, but in a "soft" manner and amount, this means no TENS of stats and skills to buy for everything, and ability to have more diversified skills versus a very closed, focused skill tree, as it's common practice in more classic RPGs (also acquiring advanced equipment should be the difficult part imo, not using it). One specific element that I can already tell is the mana system: I imagine casting spells as a physical strain, as it is often described in books, so instead of having Health, Stamina and Mana, we have only Health and Stamina, because Stamina IS Mana, this means that wizards are people trained in extraordinary physical efforts to cast spells, and so, the usual unfair large step between warriors and wizards, that make wizards a not-very-loved class in many RPGs, is quite leveled out, since wizards will be able to dodge and escape more heavily armored warriors, due to their increased resistance to fatigue.

Second question: how deep and coherent the story? Well, I'm a fan of deep and coherent stories, but I also acknowledge the huge amount of work needed for a story mode, so, the plan is to make a sandbox mode as base, and if the kickstarter will work out, putting as one of the first goals the story mode, so that I will be able to spend all the time and work needed to develop it to the quality standard that I want to give to this game. The sandbox will still have a deep, coherent lore, scattered around to discover in the form of ruins, places hiding a story, old notes and messages, and the presence of objects that give clear clues of past events.

Also, it clearly can’t have the same lore as AT, that would be plagiarism, so I merged in part of the lore of a story I had written previously, that has a similar setting but a quite different lore, the resulting mix means that there are substantial lore differences, but a similar end result on the game’s world. I’m not willing to give the details like this, because I want to keep the lore more of a mystery to enjoy discovering by the players for the most part, and part of it I want to keep publishing with the gifs and pictures, that I find a more enjoyable way to deliver it.

I hadn’t given this much detail publicly yet, only some of you had heard this stuff by talking directly with me, so I figured these questions were a good time to publish this kind of explanations. Bye!