#not think about it

[electric-plants]

cyno: we’ll set out immediately after i have a quick meeting with the scribe

aarav: oh did he need more of our records?

cyno: no?? i just have to go and kiss him goodbye

[flipomatic]

Say It - Chapter 2: I Burn

First Chapter

Author Note: I made a slight change to the framing device in the first chapter and realized what I want the titles for the chapters to be.

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Combat training had been a part of Yang’s life as long as she could remember. One of her earliest memories involved her jovially imitating Summer’s fighting stance, using a stick to take aim at the tree in front of their house. Even before enrolling in a combat academy, she had always been learning to fight and honing her skills. That hadn’t changed here at Beacon. If anything, she trained even more than she did before.

The main change was who she spent her time training with. It used to be her dad or uncle Qrow, and then sometimes Ruby before Yang started at Signal Academy. After building her weapons, she spent more of her time training alone. Many a training session over the last couple years had been spent solely with her punching bag, a trusty companion that didn’t mind being burned or toppled over by Ember Celica.

Now that Yang was part of team RWBY, she trained almost exclusively with them. Much of her time became dedicated to learning to fight both against and alongside her teammates. To say it hadn’t taken some adjustment would’ve been a lie; her usual style of charging headfirst into battle didn’t quite align with the rest of the team.

They had ways of reminding her to stay with the group, between Ruby’s calls for her to pull back or Weiss’ exaggerated eye rolls. The most effective way though was when Gambol Shroud appeared by her hand, its line outstretched from a long throw, beckoning her to join its wielder in her attack.

That was what Yang and Blake were working on today, the move that Ruby affectionately named bumblebee. They occupied one of the indoor training halls, which resembled a small gymnasium. It was well lit with lights across the ceiling and, most importantly, there was plenty of space for the two of them to practice without interruption. They needed to get ready for the Vytal festival, and what better way to do so than by improving their team attack. When they used this move in the past Yang executed it from a regular running speed, but she wanted to go faster and hit harder.

The pair’s last attempt hadn’t gone well at all. Blake stood ready in the center of the room, bow on her head twitching as she listened for Yang’s position. She threw Gambol Shroud to her right, while Yang fired Ember Celica behind her own back to gain speed along the wall. At the center she reached out with one arm extended to grab the weapon. If the pieces aligned, it would’ve fallen right into her hand. This was not the case as it landed just behind her reach, forcing Yang to skid to a halt and just barely avoid hitting the back wall.

“Too fast again…” She muttered, grimacing as she looked down at the weapons on her arms for a moment before turning her attention to Blake. Her partner was frowning, which was not an unusual expression for her. “I didn’t realize this would involve so much math!” Yang called over to her, following the statement with a loud forced chuckle. Blake, also in a very expected manner, did not laugh.

“I can throw it a little earlier.” Blake’s reply was blunt and to the point. Gambol Shroud still lied on the floor, and she pulled it back to her in a single smooth motion.

Yang knew what that meant, so she nodded in reply and turned to walk back to her starting position. They were doing this again. Once she reached the corner of the room, she called over to Blake, “Ready?”

“Yes.”

Once again Yang began running and firing her weapon behind her. She counted the number of seconds between each shot, making sure to hold the last one half a second longer than before. This time, she was in luck. Blake threw the weapon perfectly in time and when Yang reached her left arm out to grab it, Gambol Shroud fell right within her grasp.

Unfortunately, that was where her good luck ended. After Yang closed her hand around the hilt of the blade, she moved to fire her right arm weapon one more time to solidify her momentum.

This turned out to be the biggest mistake of all.

As the string snapped tight, with Blake still holding on to her end of the weapon, it almost slipped right out of Yang’s grasp. It yanked her left arm hard, much harder than it had before. Yang could feel the moment her balance shifted, the trill of panic as her whole body extended left to follow the blade and forced her right arm to lift out of its proper position. Just because she knew it was going wrong, that didn’t mean she could prevent it from happening. The process had already begun.

When Ember Celica fired, it blasted the wall to her right. Her momentum suddenly shifted, being pulled inward by Gambol Shroud and propelled away from the wall by the blast. This new trajectory was headed, well, straight towards the center of the room.

She barely had a moment to call out, “Bla-“ before smashing directly into her partner’s side. She just barely saw Blake’s wide eyes before she hit, as she had turned her head towards the sound of her shout. The pair both fell to the round, rolling from the impact.

Yang’s aura protected her from the brunt of the collision, first from crashing into her partner and then from the hardness of the floor. She bounced once before settling, though she didn’t stay down for long.

Even though her inner ear wasn’t quite ready to rise, Yang forced herself to her feet with a stumble. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry.” She hurried to where Blake laid stunned on the ground. Her eyes were open, blinking a few times towards the ceiling, and she didn’t appear to have any injuries. “Are you hurt?”

Blake sat up slowly, with both of her hands on the ground to steady her. After a moment she looked up at Yang. “Just a little dazed but I’ll be alright, are you?”

“Yeah, I’m okay.” Yang reached down with one hand to offer to help Blake up, which she accepted. Once Blake was on her feet, Yang watched as she fetched Gambol Shroud from the corner it had flown to. Her steps appeared slow and steady, as they usually were.

The blade at the end of the long cord also seemed unharmed by the incident, which Yang was happy to see; she wouldn’t have been able to forgive herself if she hurt her partner or her weapon in training like this. She couldn’t help a cold chill running down her spine though, as she watched Blake wind the weapon back up.

This had happened before, not exactly this of course but other events like it. Training accidents, damaged equipment, scrapes and bruises, these all came with the territory of fighting with Yang. The others would get this look in their eyes, one that Yang couldn’t define but knew exactly what it meant. The excuses to leave would come next.

She watched Blake carefully for any sign of it, any hint that her trust in Yang had shifted.

There was nothing of the sort in her gaze, instead she almost looked bemused as she walked over to where Yang stood. “We might’ve gone too fast.”

“Just a bit.” Yang couldn’t help but smile, a wave of relief washing over her. “Half as many shots should do the trick.” She lifted her arms and cocked Ember Celica.

Blake nodded back at her, determination steeling her gaze. One of her hands came up to the top of her head, tugging at the piece of fabric tied there. It came away in only a moment and revealed a pair of small cat ears. Even though Yang had seen them before, back after Blake and Weiss had their big fight, that had been the only time. Blake usually kept them covered since most of the school didn’t know, even in their dorm room.

Back then, Yang hadn’t gotten that good of a look at them. It was dark at the docks and she’d been far more worried about her teammates making up. Now though, in the well lit space of the training hall, she could see them clearly.

Cute wasn’t a word that she often associated with Blake, cool and moody were usually her go to choices, but it was the only one coming to mind about her ears. The words easily rose to Yang’s lips before she could fully process them, ready to casually flirt and compliment as she so often did. Something stopped her, a spiking feeling in her chest. Even though the words were there, she didn’t let them out. They felt different, burning the back of her throat as she considered speaking them.

Blake’s ears stood upright at first, in what must’ve been their usual position, before one flicked in Yang’s direction.

“No offense, but I need to be able to hear your position better.” Blake commented dryly, answering a different question than the one Yang grappled with. “Let’s try again.” Without hesitation, Blake turned to return to the center of the training hall.

That was Yang’s cue to return to her starting position as well, back in the corner of the room. She let the words she’d been holding in fade away, pushing them to the back of her mind for another time. For now, she needed to focus all of her energy on perfecting this move.

She counted the number of shots she would need, and then took off again down the wall. The interval was twice as long between them now and her speed was slower as a result. When Yang reached the center, Gambol Shroud was right there waiting for her.

This time when she grabbed it, the pull against her was perfect. She held back her next shot and swung around the edge of the room, making a full circle before her feet hit the ground again.

When she looked over at Blake, her partner raised one fist in the air in a celebratory gesture. Her ears were perked up as she smiled, an expression that for once reached her eyes.

Yang’s chest felt warm as she returned the gesture, letting out a whoop of excitement. The line of Gambol Shroud connected them across the open space, spreading the feeling like electricity.

They continued to train after that, carefully adding in more bullets to the second half of the move. Soon it would be perfect, ready to use in the upcoming combat tournament. Yang enjoyed every minute of it, even when she crashed straight into the opposite wall on their next attempt.

Blake was right there in an instant, helping her back to her feet.

Yang could get used to this, the feeling of having a partner by her side.

Next Chapter

[visenyaism]

i don’t know about you guys but the main reason i am still on tumblr in 2024 is BECAUSE it is the most cloutless least influential social media app out there and that is the experience i am after. absolutely none of this will ever translate into significant attention or real success in my life and that is so beautiful.

[writing-is-a-martial-art]

truly some people have no genre savviness whatsoever. A girl came back from the dead the other day and fresh out of the grave she laughed and laughed and lay down on the grass nearby to watch the sky, dirt still under her nails. I asked her if she’s sad about anything and she asked me why she should be. I asked her if she’s perhaps worried she’s a shadow of who she used to be and she said that if she is a shadow she is a joyous one, and anyway whoever she was she is her, now, and that’s enough. I inquired about revenge, about unfinished business, about what had filled her with the incessant need to claw her way out from beneath but she just said she’s here to live. I told her about ghosts, about zombies, tried to explain to her how her options lie between horror and tragedy but she just said if those are the stories meant for her then she’ll make another one. I said “isn’t it terribly lonely how in your triumph over death nobody was here to greet you?” and she just looked at me funny and said “what do you mean? The whole world was here, waiting”. Some people, I tell you.

[asoftspotforangels]

some of my favorite woven tapestries, by Cecilia Blomberg:

Point Defiance Steps

Mates

Rising Tides

Vashon Steps

[foolfortune]

[demadogs]

this happened months ago. i cannot keep it in any longer. a while ago i went on a porn site ive never been to and it asked if i was over 18 and i misclicked and said no and it automatically sent me to google images of puppies and kittens. i still cannot get over how funny this is.

[robyn-i-guess]

liking someone platonically is so embarrassing like. yeah i admire you. yeah i think about you all the time. yeah i look forward to every time i see you even if it's only for a minute. yeah it's all platonic and yeah i couldn't explain this because it'd sound romantic. fucking hell

[mangosteen]

[koobiie]

shoutout to everyone who wants to infodump but cant string together coherent thoughts to form sentences and instead just look at you like this

[muttmoxley]

sometimes im like "wow holy shit im being really fucking annoying. i should stop talking" and then i pull out my magic 8 ball and it says "youve always been annoying and your friends chose to talk you anyways. youll be fine" and im like wow thanks magic 8 ball. and then the ogre attacks me

[charlesoberonn]

It's gonna be such a funny mess when Donald Trump dies of a stroke on April 1st, 2024.

Naturally everybody will think it's fake because of the date only to lose their minds (both positively and negatively based on their opinion of trump) when realizing it's real

There will be massive celebrations in the streets and on social media and lots of predictable "don't speak ill of the dead" discourse about those celebrations

Weird evangelicals will pull some weird number trick talking about how Jesus was conceived on April 1st and that makes Trump a sort of messiah and people will make fun of that

The Republicans (after they're done with the faux-sadness and faux-outrage) will stomp over each other to be his successor but none of them will succeed. They'll tear each other apart and have no single nominee for the November elections.

There will be discourse about if Biden and the living former presidents should go to his funeral (they won't, he was a traitor insurrectionist)

The Ukraine-Russia War immediately goes in favor of Ukraine as morale in the Kremlin is reduced. China similarly backs off from its threats on Taiwan.

Ten thousand new memes are made, some sticking around for years to come.

Not a month later a bunch of unofficial biographies of Trump hit the bookshelves, many with new details about just how awful he was.

[desolationlesbian]

sometimes I think too hard about like. how the ability to record audio fundamentally changed how humans interact with music. can you imagine if the only time you ever heard music in your whole life was when you or another human being in your actual physical presence decided to create it. and 99.99% of the time that person was not a professional but just like your wife or your dad or your co-worker or church choir singing or playing whatever they happened to know. i honestly don't think we can fathom it

[bumblingbabooshka]

Vulcan teen on Vulcan [tiktok] saying "I have just lost track of my father in the grocery store." The camera turns to show the viewers the grocery store in which almost every single older middle-aged man has a bowlcut and long robes. Camera turns back to show the teen's face which is expressionless and yet communicates all it needs to.

[dionysus-complex]

funniest Kamala Harris VP picks go