#nothing super incredible just some sketchy stuff to get the Feel

[pommegrantaire]

hi it’s late but i drew jeremy for the first time since like… 2022??

this can be seen as Trans Boy Jeremy and Older Confident Trans Girl Jeremy or a fun Then and Now time-skip lol but either way: I love them ✨

[evakuality]

Hanna, episode 8

1.  I know I’ve said it before, but these scenes with Hanna and Mia are so super gay.  Part of me still really really wishes that they’d gone there - I like the Jonas/Hanna reunion in s4 well enough (if we ignore the absolute travesty of stealing time from Amira), but I’d have really loved if Mia and Hanna had been the thing instead of adding in a random extra character for no reason.  Imagine the potential....  Also, Alex is still the worst.  Like I know he’s the worst because William was the worst.  But he’s still the worst.  Gross.  His sleazy manner is so offputting.  I hate that Mia ends up falling for this.  I do hope that unlike the original, Mia doesn’t lose all of who she is herself in her season.

2.  Ugh, I forgot how irritating Kiki is.  I really really like her by the later seasons (particularly in s5) but man in these early times she was not so great.  I know Kiki thinks they’re all being punished because Leonie hates Hanna, but as I said before Amira and Mia weren’t even with Hanna at that point, so that’s not likely.  Kiki’s need for control and to be liked is really coming out in some unpleasant ways.  This whole ‘what Hanna does reflects on our crew’ is so... bleh.  With every word Kiki gets more and more toxic, and then starting in on Amira as well, and wondering why she’s the bad guy?  She’s a young kid and she has this desperation to fit in and be cool and liked etc and I get that she’s not a dreadful person at the end of the day.  But she really needs to grow up.  Particularly given that she literally pursued Alex when he’s not exactly a saint about all this sort of stuff.  One thing I do love about this bit with Amira (and she repeats it when she speaks to Matteo in s3, which is a nice bit of character continuity), is how she leans forward and speaks very forcefully to Kiki as she explains her point of view.  The camera is tight up in her face, or rather she moves into it, and it doesn’t let Kiki or the audience move away.  And the call to prayer is a lovely touch right after, reminding of the ‘Muslim gangster world’ and what that’s really like.  Kiki needs to step out of her own sphere and realise that other people have their own thoughts and feelings and things aren’t always what she thinks they are.  Poor Hanna is suffering a lot, and instead of supporting her, Kiki chooses to pile on, focusing on her own ‘pain’ at the situation.  Which, in context, is really really petty.  And then she acts like she’s the hurt party?  Grow up, child.

3.  This little scene with Jonas is so painful.  The acting here is really nice.  Jonas’s sadness and hurt is so palpable, as is Hanna’s anxiety and tension.  It’s all so awkward and painful, and the way it’s shot with Jonas always at a distance and never really looking at Hanna just makes that all the more intense.  And I mean, I know Jonas is hurting and I know it’s hard for him, but this whole bit about how Hanna has no personality of her own is so mean.  In some ways he’s right (and correct me if I’m wrong, but in the original it was Eva herself who says this bit to her Jonas - I don’t recall every detail of Eva’s season as well as I’d like so this may be wrong, but what I remember is something similar to this line as part of why she choose to end it at the end, and if so I don’t really know that I like this change; it’s better from the character herself as a realisation).  But even if he’s right, it’s a bit unfair.  He told her to go and be someone outside of him, and now he’s like ‘I don’t know you at all’ and it’s really frustrating because I still don’t feel like ‘make out’ is an accurate description of what happened, and Sam is really the one who was pushing and pushing, and yet all the blame is being set on Hanna.  He says it’s not because of that, but of course it is.

4.  I always cringe at these scenes where the Eva character gets ‘slut shamed’ and basically panics.  It’s so hard to watch them go through it, and in so many ways this is the hardest episode for them.  Hanna is at a nadir.  Yes, Mia, Sam and Amira defended her, but with the tension with Kiki that support is falling apart, and then Jonas told her to call him when she gets a personality (harsh!!), and now she has someone in the school sending her messages in period blood.  It’s all pretty shitty.  And Kiki almost word for word repeating Jonas’s accusation about knowing ‘what kind of girl’ she is.  It’s totally understandable that she wants to get away from all of this stuff.

5.  Then this shot of her at the bottom of the stairs.  Distanced and lonely, and it’s even worse than it was at the start of the show.  Then, at least she was outside and had space around her, and the colours were much happier.  Here she’s closed, in, boxed out by stairs and the walls etc and it’s this dark, gloomy colour set.  There’s a bar of light, but she’s not even in it, she’s to the side of it, like she can’t even let herself have that.  Then we cut to literally seeing her through the bars of the stairs, like she’s imprisoned, which is effectively what everyone in the school is doing to her.  I do like the change that Matteo is here in person for this ‘you shouldn’t change schools’ talk.  There’s something about the interaction that changes when they have to do it face to face.  And yes Hanna, my love.  You start getting angry that people keep trying to tell you who you are.  Matteo’s lines here really do feel more like an overt attempt at reverse psychology than Isak’s did.  Again, I assume this is because we still didn’t know about Isak at all.  Whereas Matteo still feels more cynical and calculated.  His attitudes and the way he’s approached Hanna have felt different.  It’s really interesting to consider where his head is at in this season given just how low and disconnected we see him at the start of his own.  I guess when he’s called out for it over the next little bit it does change things a bit.  Plus of course the way his own life is about to be hit.

6.  The Hanna and Leonie talk is really interesting.  Up til now, Leonie has seemed much more dominant and Hanna much more timid.  And that’s been partly the way it’s filmed - they’re sitting or Leonie is placed above Hanna.  But here, Hanna looms over Leonie, quite literally, and it’s good to see her start to stand up for herself.  Leonie’s mannerisms are the same but they aren’t having the same effect.  And that’s partly because Hanna is at her lowest ebb.  While she seemed lost and lonely at the start of the season, that’s nothing on where she is now - now, she really has nothing left to lose so she can have this conversation and look!  Direct communication actually worked!  She got the results she wanted.  Also interesting is the choice to put Leonie in white and shoot against this wall - she looks diminished and washed out even after they were put back on the same level when they sit.  Until now it’s been hard to sympathise with her.  Yes, we know she’s been hurt, but she’s been so awful with it.  But it’s so clear here just how much of a toll all this has taken on her too.  And it’s so painful to watch Hanna have to admit to the things she did that have ruined so many of her relationships.  And the business with wishing we can change things but not being able to - it’s so human (and also this scene is so incredibly well acted!) and it sucks to have to admit that we can’t do anything about what we’ve done in the past.

7.  Somehow this bit with Jule doesn’t hit the way it does in Eva’s season.  I think it’s a combination of the way they’ve chosen to portray Jule - she seems a lot more standoffish - and the fact that Matteo has been a bit sketchy the whole time, with some clear hints that he’s not all he seems to be.  Also, possibly, because we do have Skam as a reference and so we did already know where this was going.  Either way, this last part of the scene falls flat after the very emotional bits with Leonie.  

Overall, I find this episode a lot more fluid than the previous one.  But this last day’s clips must have been a whole lot when watching live.  Poor Hanna goes through the ringer on this one day.  The way this one is lit is really interesting as well.  It’s either dark shadows or it’s really bright light, almost harsh with sun etc almost washing things out.  It’s an episode of extremes, which I guess is the point.  Hanna is going through some extreme emotions here, and the surroundings do tend to reflect that.

[five-rivers]

Interview with a Ghost (part 5: Buried)

(PART 1) (PART 2) (PART 3) (PART 4)

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.

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"What?" said Captain Jones, as Collins and Paterson finished explaining their understanding of the situation to him. "What? What?"

"That was my reaction, too," said Paterson. "Just, you know, internally."

Jones waved one hand, the other supporting his forehead.

"Er, sir?" said Collins, leaning forward, trying to catch the captain's eye. "How should we, you know, proceed on this? I don't think there's any precedent."

The captain bit back a groan. "No, there isn't. He was insistent that the Fentons, his parents, didn't do anything to him?"

"Yeah."

"But it still can't be- can't be healthy for a ghost or- or whatever he is to be there," said Jones. This was making his head hurt. "They have weapons, and even if it was an accident, he died and they- No one noticed!"

"That is pretty messed up," agreed Paterson.

"That's got to be child neglect, at least, right? Negligent homicide?"

Collins nodded. "We can't really charge them with that, though, can we? Not without revealing he's a ghost and getting the GIW and whoever stole the body coming down on us."

"That could just be something Phantom's saying, though," said Paterson. "We don't know if it's true or not."

"It felt true," said Collins. "He sounded like he was actually scared."

"But can we just let a kid- two kids, with his sister- be in a situation like that? Even if one of them is dead. Especially if one of them is dead. Or whatever Fenton, Phantom, whatever, is claiming to be."

"He didn't really claim to be anything, really," said Collins.

"Look, I already have a headache as it is. What it comes down to is, I don't want a kid to be living under the same roof as people who regularly and publicly shoot at him."

"So, what do we do?" asked Collins. "He doesn't want to leave, and I don't think we can make him, physically."

"No, we can't. But does he know that?"

"I think he's aware of his laser murder powers," said Paterson.

"He kept coming to talk to you, though," said Jones. He massaged the bridge of his nose. "There's something here..." Suddenly, it all came together. He clapped his hands. "He wants to keep his secret from the public, right? That's our leverage."

"Leverage?" asked Collins, dubiously. "Captain... he is still a teenager."

"I know, I know, but hear me out. We tell him, he has to let his parents know, and his parents, they have to make their house safe for him. If they're reasonable, they'll do it. If not, we can get them for, I don't know, going crazy and thinking their kid is a ghost, or having weapons all over their home. Obviously, he isn't. That's the position we'd maintain." Jones took a deep breath. "No need to expose him publicly, and, as long as he isn't, he'll have to act like he's human, right? If he wants to maintain the illusion?"

"I guess that would work," said Collins. "But... do we have to get child protective services involved? I don't see that going well."

"Not if everyone is reasonable," said Jones, a crazed look in his eyes.

"Hold up," said Paterson. "Doesn't this hinge on getting him to, you know, tell his parents?"

"Weapons. Home. Around children. And- We'll agree to bury the rest. Tear up documents. Hide everything. Cover for him. We already know what killed him. What's the point of bringing it into the light?"

Collins and Paterson both nodded slowly. "I'll call him," said Collins.

There was a knock on the door. The three glanced at each other.

"Come in," said the captain.

One of the officers stuck her head in. "Sir?" she said. "The mayor is here to see you."

.

Danny would have been at home, plotting with Jazz about how to get his body back, but, no, Skulker had to show up, again. He should have wrecked his suit instead of just sucking him into the thermos last night.

"Hah! Ghost child!" shouted Skulker. "Today I will have your pelt! I have new-!"

Danny screamed in frustration, the harmonics of his voice almost touching a ghostly wail. "Can you leave off about my pelt for like five seconds?" demanded Danny, attacking more aggressively than was his usual wont. One of Skulker's arms flew off his body, clattering on the tiles of a nearby roof. "Didn't you have enough of that, helping Vlad steal my corpse yesterday?" There, after days of dancing around the word, he had finally said it.

"Wait, your what?" asked Skulker, pirouetting awkwardly to avoid another barrage of ectoblasts.

"My. Corpse!" screamed Danny. "You helped him steal my corpse!"

"You don't have a corpse, you're still alive!"

"Shut up!" It was a good thing they were so far up. Even at the volumes they were speaking, they wouldn't be overheard. "You don't know anything! I'm half dead, so I have half a corpse, and I had to bury it, and then the police found it, and you helped Vlad steal it!" Danny was basically in tears at this point, hands clenching the metal of Skulker's chest so hard it buckled and warped, holding the unfortunate ghost above his head.

A number of complicated emotions passed over Skulker's face. "Uh," he said. "Time out?"

"What?" snarled Danny. He was more than ready to rip Skulker apart.

"Your body, whatever there is of it, did Plasmius really take it?"

"He basically gloated about it to my friends," said Danny.

Skulker's face twisted up, the metal plates it consisted of glinting in the sunlight. "Disturbing the remains of another ghost is... distasteful, at best." He shifted, obviously trying to get out of Danny's grip. Danny held on, tighter. "Let me go," he said. "I'll spread the word. There won't be a ghost in the Zone who'll work for Plasmius after this."

Danny sniffed. "I want it back," he said.

"Of course you do," said Skulker, nervously. "Just- let me go, alright, ghost child?" He paused. "Phantom?"

Danny relaxed his grip. Before Skulker could recover, he whipped out the thermos and sucked the other ghost in.

"I'll let you go," he grumbled. "Right into the Ghost Zone."

.

Jones did not like Mayor Masters. A complete outsider, a stranger to Amity Park, the man had somehow wormed his way into the mayor's office. Jones had always suspected bribery, but had no evidence.

This visit of his... it was suspicious. Incredibly suspicious. The timing felt rotten. Masters had barely set foot inside the station before this.

Well, the timing and the questions he was asking. Jones was glad he had told everyone to deflect questions about the body and Phantom beforehand, no matter who was asking.

Jones fixed a grin onto his face. "I'm sorry, Mr. Masters," he said. "We can't discuss ongoing investigations."

"I think," said Masters, "that, as mayor, I am exempt from that rule. I am, after all, your boss."

"That's true," said Jones, "but this case is especially sensitive, and everyone is a suspect."

"I can't possibly be," said Masters. "I didn't even live here two years ago. I believe you are dancing around the subject, sir. Let us not have our personal feelings get in the way of things, hm?"

This bastard- There was no way he should have known that particular detail. Not without suborning the ME or her assistant.

Or stealing the records. The initial reports had gone missing with the body, and the computer system had been hacked.

Jones pressed his teeth together so hard they ached. He could feel them grinding inside his head.

"Why don't I give you an overview of what we know so far?" he asked, voice as sweet as he could stand to make it. "We'll start with Cameron over here. He's the head of our cult division, and a real wizard with computers."

If anyone could drive the man off, it was Cameron.

.

"I didn't think babypop even had a corpse," said Ember, crossing his arms. "Are you sure he isn't just delusional?"

"He could be," said Skulker, "but that's not the point. He believes it. Do you really want to be dealing with him as a restless spirit?"

"Oh, god, no. He's already such a spoilsport. Can you imagine?" The blue flame her hair was drawn back into shuddered.

"I don't have to imagine," said Skulker. "He tore my arm off."

"He always tears your arms off," said Ember, dismissively.

"He's only going to get worse though," said Skulker, "if it really is his body. If Plasmius is doing anything to it. That anxiety. A person's body should be taken care of properly, not messed about with."

"Hey!" said Technus, who was on the other side of the room, fixing Skulker's mechanical body. "I donated MY body to SCIENCE! I'm perfectly fine."

"Yeah," said Ember. "Some people would disagree with that, but the thing is you chose to do that. Those're the rites you wanted."

"Do you think I, the great TECHNUS, master of all things technological and-"

"No, actually, I don't think you knew," said Ember.

"Ohhhhh! I'll alter all your auxiliary cables, you little-!"

"Can we get back on topic?" asked Skulker, his high-pitched voice cutting above the argument. "We need to get Phantom's body back! Otherwise he'll be completely unbearable!"

The ghosts looked at each other. "Agreed," they said.

.

Danny leaned over Tucker's shoulder. "Are you sure?" he said.

"Positive," said Tucker. "Sorry, man, but Vlad's super secret super villain stuff isn't online. Your body isn't mentioned at all. Nothing is. His internet enabled stuff is all pretty bland, compared to what we know he's doing. I mean, some of it is kind of sketchy, but it just isn't the same level."

"Anything we can blackmail him with?" asked Sam.

"Not really. We can't exactly say how we got it, after all, so he'd have plausible deniability."

Danny groaned. The groan turned into a long plume of blue mist. Danny growled. "Whoever is interrupting this time-"

"Whoa, calm down, man," said Tucker. "This is pretty normal."

Danny's phone began to ring. If this was those detective he was going to-

It was Jazz. "What?" he asked.

"The ecto-exodus alarm is going off," said Jazz. "Where are you?"

"Tucker's," said Danny. "I'm going to check it out."

"Be safe. Mom and Dad are out there with blasters, and they've notified the GIW."

"Noted," said Danny. He hung up, then turned to Sam and Tucker. "This is a big one, apparently. You might want to stay in."

"Good luck with that," said Tucker, pulling a ecto-rifle from beneath his desk. "I've been wanting to try this baby out."

"Please don't name it," said Sam.

"I think I will!" said Tucker.

"Just don't shoot if we're not fighting, okay? They might not be here to cause trouble. Don't give me that look, I'm trying out some optimism."

Before his friends could say anything about that, he flew up through the roof. From there, he had no problem picking out the crowd of ghosts who had just passed by.

Skulker was leading them. Danny scowled, and flew forward to intercept them, too angry to process whether or not confronting a group of ghosts that large was wise.

"Hey!" he shouted. "I thought you said you'd leave!"

"Chill, babypop!" shouted Ember. "You're a cold core, aren't you? We're here to get your body back."

That brought Danny up short. "Wait, really?"

The other ghosts, largely the rabble of the Wastes, the region of the Ghost Zone right outside the Fenton portal, gave a ragged sort of cheer.

"Yeah. And trash Plasmius's crap."

"Oh," said Danny, taken aback. "He has a ghost shield around his mansion, you know. A human shield, too, before you say I can get past that."

Poindexter floated up, over the mass of the crowd. "He can't keep them up all the time, can he?" he asked adjusting his glasses.

"No, I guess he can't. One sec." He pulled out his phone. "Hey, Tucker, can you find out where Vlad is right now?"

.

"... and these are the cults that believe ghosts are divine messengers, there's a lot of variety in them, too," Cameron was saying, pointing eagerly at his computer screen.

"Excuse me," said Vlad. "But I don't see how this is relevant. At all. To anything."

"Oh, it's very important," said Collins, nodding sagely. "We got some of our best leads in this case from the cults."

Cameron beamed.

"I am myself quite familiar with the local cults," said Vlad. "If they become relevant, I'm sure I can come back to-"

"No, no, Mr. Mayor," said Paterson, "you won't understand without context."

"I-"

Several dozen ghosts suddenly entered through the roof. Everyone dove for cover.

"Hiya, grave robbers!" shouted a ghost with fiery blue hair. Ember McClain. "Or one grave robber in particular."

Actually, come to think of it, she'd masqueraded as a human for a while, too. Collins was going to have a crisis about how easily ghosts could blend in with humans at some point in the near future. Not today, but before the end of the week. He'd need to talk to a shrink. Preferably one who wasn't a ghost.

Oddly, the ghosts weren't attacking.

The sound of Mayor Masters clearing his throat issued from behind a sizable desk. "What are you here for?" he asked.

"You know, grave robber. We've got a bone to pick with you, until you give back what you took."

A few feet away from Collins, Jones inhaled deeply. He stood up. Collins resisted the urge to drag him back down.

"We don't have Phantom's body," said Jones, "if that's what you're here for."

"We know," said Ember. "That's what this's about. We know who took it, and we don't want to deal with Phantom while he's freaking out over some jerk having his body. So. We're giving an ultimatum-"

"Hey, guys," said Phantom's voice. "I found the shield deactivation button. It was in his car, next to his garage door opener."

"Oh, cool. You trash his car?"

"Nah, I let these little gremlin dudes do it. They looked like they were having fun."

"Whatever, babypop. Let's go get your body!"

As quickly as they came, the ghosts were gone.

Mayor Masters swore, and started for the door.

"Hold up," said Jones, putting a hand on the taller man's shoulder. "Where exactly do you think you're going?"

"To call some competent ghost hunters, since those menaces are clearly after my belongings!"

"Nuh uh," said Jones. "We've got some questions for you."

"Yeah," said Collins, "like why you seem to think that they're going to your house, when they could have been talking about anyone."

"Wow!" said Cameron, smiling. "That was exciting! I'm glad I was livestreaming, like you told me to, Paterson!"

"Well," said Vlad. He paused. "I need to call my lawyer."

"Better make sure they're a competent one," mocked Jones.

.

Collins was surprised when Phantom materialized in the middle of the room with a long, dark plastic body bag in his arms. So were most people. Across the room, next to the coffee machine, one of his more caffeine-addicted coworkers do a spit take, and Jones burst out of his office in an avalanche of paperwork.

"I want a burial," said Phantom, finally. "A real one, this time."

Silence.

"I think I can arrange that," said Captain Jones.

[zelskzerker]

Mangadex went down so I read alot 1/7

Lets review a bunch of isekai and related stuff I binged because mangadex went down. The scale will be a single thumbs up to a single thumbs down in terms of how much I would consider recommending it in general.

Legend

Chapters 1-51 Pretty straight forward in most aspects. For the best. Nothing crazy bad or good happening, making it surprisingly straight forward for an isekai. [Insert isekai startup here] but this time the MC is given a super magic body and the knowledge of ancient magic. Which he promptly uses to create a griffon buddy. Gets a THUMB IN THE UPPER CORNER for just being a nice, believable stay in a world, but I have read some stuff that really has interesting sparks the way this doesnt. MC is brutal at times and General Princess is cute. They make a good pair for each other.  Although there are no ecchi situations, that artist really knows how to slide in the lewds, whether its mid combat flourishes or pre chapter artwork.

The Black Create Summoner: Revolt of Reincarnated

All Chapters

Truly is revolting. A resounding THUMBS DOWN.  Apparently this was just an advertisement manga, which means that its intentionally incomplete and unsatisfying. Ontop of that, the sketchy artwork was generally rough and got worse to look at the more it went on. [Insert isekai startup here] but this time he has a grimoire that lets him summon stuff he draws. The power isn’t used that much though or in that creative of ways. Characters didn’t really leave an impact except maybe the elf little sister that is stubborn yet knows she is incompotent and recruits a dragon out of stubbornness. 

Minotaur’s Sweetheart

Chapters 1-16

So what if a minotaur accidentally seduced the adventurer that was assigned to kill him? This is a good romance manga deserving a THUMBS UP because the pure-hearted minotaur boy and the unmarriageable adventurer girl actually develop a relationship and progress as people. The manga is ultimately about monsters and humans interacting and is fresh due to having a plot that evolves the situation a lot beyond the initial setup of the manga.

Moon-led Journey Across Another World

Chapters 1-64

[Insert isekai startup here] but this time the god of the new world calls the MC ugly and banishes him to the edge of the world to die off. In order to help out the MC, the god of our world (Tsukuyomi) gives him a bit of power. The MC is funny to watch once you realize that he is an incredibly cautious pureboy and expecting every common street thug to potentially end him but in reality he is a god-rivaling cataclysm himself and never realizes. He is so powerful that he recruits the blue haired mist dragon, Tomoe, and accidentally turns her into a weeaboo. Tomoe can read minds and access pocket space with her mist ontop of her sick weeaboo katana skills. She really shines as the most mature person in the story, gaining information that no one else in the story has and carefully withholding it from the MC in order to protect his innocence. She is a DAMN good tomboyish waifu and sarashii is a blessing. Other main girl is yandere spider, Mio, which has shockingly good and well conveyed bouts of emotion. She has an extremely rare “can’t cook at all” joke that is explained due to her “eat literally anything” nature. In terms of plot, the MC hates the god of the world he is in and pretty much plans to do everything she doesn’t want him to. Which means mingling with humans, and eventually, god slaying/usurption. Odd think about this manga is that it’s heavily Japanese-inspired. That may sound odd because its a manga, but generally isekai are most medieval/western skinned than this one which leans in on Japanese mythos. Just look at the god of our world in the manga.

THUMBS UP.

The Unsuccessful yet Academically Unparalleled Sage ~A Cheating S-Rank Sorcerer's Post-Rebirth Adventurer Log~

Chapter 1-10 So lets set up this genre here. This is a part of the “reincarnation” genre, which is a spinoff of isekai. They generally depict a very capable mage who reincarnates themselves into the future of their own world. At which point they realize that although they were pretty strong in their day, they are now practically a god in the deteriorated modern day. This genre will hereby be indicated by [Insert reincarnation startup here]. For this manga in specific, [Insert isekai startup here] but this time the MC could only use lightning magic and was the best at it but failed the gene gacha then [Insert reincarnation startup here] and he fails gene gacha again but is still the walking thunder god. These kinds of manga are always precious when the MC can walk through the world and see the fruits of their past labor. Specifically through Merlin, the MC’s adopted demon daughter who has grown up to be his heritor and bridge human/demon relationships. Truly adorable and heart warming. Lacks a bit of spice from themeing or ongoing plot due to its short length however. THUMB IN THE UPPER CORNER.

Older Elite Knight is cute only in front of me

Chapters 1-17.1

THUMBS UP. This is an oneshota manga where shota is a chad with incredibly good tastes. A really good ecchi manga with a light hearted story featuring Haru(the shota) knight that joins Karen’s(the oneesan) knight crew. As with all good romance manga, the main plot isn’t romance. Knight shenanigins are always happening, with a big (and lewd) bad entering recently. Top tier variation on the lewds, even including a princess loli in on the fun. Must read for all oneshota fans.

Lonely Attack on A Different World

Chapter 1-91

[Insert isekai startup forma de classroom here] but this time the MC gets leftover garbage skills and has to learn to survive. Learning to survive thus makes him the most op and he can magic trick his way out of literally anything. Strong start as the whole classroom first tries to get their footing, but after the starting arc is done this manga starts spinning it’s wheels. The manga is kinda lacking in themes, overarching plot and end goals, so stuff just happens to make this a sort of slice of life trap room escape manga. Magic “just works” in this universe so its not very dramatic when the MC pulls out a new trick out of his bag of million tricks. Just kinda stagnates too much for my liking. THUMB IN THE BOTTOM CORNER.

The Unwanted Undead Adventurer

Chapters 1-34

Rentt Faina, the MC, is a good guy with no talent who aspires to be a legendary adventurer. But then he gets turned into a skeleton, giving the chance to evolve his way to greatness, kinda like in Spider isekai or Dragon isekai. The MC is most like Goblin Slayer in his serious and knowledgeable approach to the world, how characters that know him revere him. End goal so far is just him seeing how far he can evolve as he comes across other vampires and vampire hunters. Really want to see him go to the top. Fuckin great art. Girls drawn perfect. Like the hat on the guild girl, but nothing beats the witch Lorraine. THUMBS UP.

Teihen Ryoushu No Kanchigai Eiyuutan

Chapters 1-13

THUMB IN UPPER CORNER. Pretty funny comedy about a lord of a poor land who wants to be a stereotypical evil lord but can only use healing magic. Therefore he bumbles his way into accepting a heretical cult nun, beast men who hate humans, etc. All the girls are to crazy for him to want to sex them(weak. give the assassin nun your babies). Most interesting parts are aforementioned nun, his fujoshi assistant, and the MC’s willingness to use his power to commit heretical and immoral warcrimes. 

The Undead Lord of the Palace of Darkness

Chapters 1-11

Art average, don’t come to this one for spectacle. It’s strength is in the subertfuge that it’s recently-necromanced-back-to-life MC goes through to get his Master killed and to later, probably, evolve into a vampire. MC isn’t evil though, just wants to survive. Main girl on cover was born and raised to hunt vampires but has a compassionate heart. Obviously she goes easy on and relates to MC. Story is still kinda in it’s first arc so the overall trajectory of the story is a bit hard to gauge and not quite satisfying enough by its own right. Probably a thumb up with more chapters but for now THUMB IN THE UPPER CORNER.

The Reincarnated Inferior Magic Swordsman

Chapters 1-38

[Insert isekai startup here] but this time.... uh... THUMB SIDEWAYS. Usually I am patient, but 31 chapters with no goal and just barely plot? Wow. Saving grace is uh... I guess the world of “other isekai people existed but they sucked because they didn’t level uncap like MC” could go somewhere but. I take it back, lowering this one to a THUMB DOWN.

The Invincible Sage in the Second World.

Chapters 1-12

[Insert isekai startup here] but this time a pro mmo player in a game called “Broken Balance Online.” Guess what his class, the sage class, was considered in the game? Not far along enough to really pop off but it isn’t horrible. MC is moderately cautious to a healthy degree which is actually rare in most isekai. THUMB IN BOTTOM LEFT CORNER. 

The Dark Queen and I Strike Back

Chapters 1-29.5

Although technically an isekai, no isekai startup here. This a battle manga with a big mystery on the backdrop of a war. That is to say, the MC gets teleported to a world to kill the demons but he ends up defending them from the humans with all he’s got. Of special note is the complete seriousness of this manga that whiplashes into debauchery like tentacles, the above cover, oneshota, and even really dark jokes in some of the omake. That tonal lash effect will be either make or break, and it is a HUGE make for me. I love when a single piece can have both absolute serious scenes and utterly lighthearted and fluffy ones. Or in this case utterly lewd ones. May the average-human-amount-of-perverted MC one day slam some demon lord loli. THUMBS UP.

Chillin' in Another World with Level 2 Super Cheat Powers

Chapters 1-24

THUMB SIDEWAYS. Has the feeling of a nerfed slime isekai. Nerfed in all ways except romance. Art surprisingly good.

[trilies]

an argument for AO3

So I’m in a conversation with someone who is kind of in the “against AO3″ camp, and they asked me a couple of questions. Namely, who wouldn’t be uncomfortable with pedophilia? Isn’t it sketchy that a beta website is asking for so much money despite reaching its goals?

And my answer became so long... I figured it might as well become its own post. Please bear in mind that this is cut from a whole conversation.

But here it is.

------

No. It doesn't seem sketchy to me at all. Why would it? I know we make jokes about how much money tumblr has cost the various sites which purchase it like Yahoo, but there's some truth there: it's really expensive to host a website to thousands and thousands of people. It's why we see so many tumblr owners trying to shoehorn in ads or make people buy services, or why Photobucket tried to pull that truly atrocious bullshit a year or two back. Without image hosting capabilities (tumblr and photobucket's big thing), the strain isn't as huge.... but AO3 is MASSIVE. It is hosting literally thousands of accounts, millions of stories. That's massive on a server scale alone, ignoring all the other work they do. Yeah, it's in beta... but that's because it's trying to reach a goal of being as good a fanfic archive as they can be, and they don't believe they've reached that goal yet. Being in beta means they can better listen to their uses on shit like tagging systems and make those changes. Not to mention, again, they are INCREDIBLY transparent. If you are worried about where the money is going, you can go on the site and they have all their stuff up there.

As for the pedophilia subject matter.... Please give me a moment. because there's honestly a lot to say on that particular issue, if nothing else. This will take a while, so if you see this and there hasn't been a reply yet.... I'm still typing lmao.

To start with, of course people are uncomfortable about pedophilia. However, there are a lot of problems with how pedophilia is viewed or *used* as an accusation in the current fandom climate.

For example, in honestly EXTREMELY recent times, I was told I was "defending" pedophilia because I disagreed that a character (an immortal food gijinka) was "minor-coded" or "designed as an underage teenager". (As a note, an argument for this view was that the character's breasts were too small.) When I pointed out, hey, that's kind of a fucked up accusation to throw at a complete stranger, especially as I am a CSA survivor, I was told "You have to be lying about that, then, because a real CSA survivor would understand."

c o o l

That's just my personal experience that happened within a couple of months. Other people have talked about running into people who think that a character turning 18 means they're a pedophile for still dating a 17 year old. Or running into people who think a 40 year old dating someone in their 30s is pedophilic. Or believe that even SHIPPING characters who were not yet 18 was pedophilic if you yourself were over 18.

(Of course, you also have the kinds of people who try to use Moral Purity as a way to bash ships they don't like. I once saw someone try to claim that a popular mlm ship, A/B, was pedophilic because one half of the equation looked young.... when some other artists drew him... Of course, on the side, this person liked to also get angry that *their* favorite ship, a dude/chick ship composing of A/C, wasn't more popular. So. You know.)

So that's one half of the problem: the word "pedophile" being so warped that a lot of people now have no idea if the person using it has a genuine concern or if the accuser is trying to smear someone who doesn't ship the same thing. FFnet and Tumblr have gone with the "burn it all down" approach, which hasn't actually helped anyone and is, to boot, sloppily moderated. So we know from history, from experience in cases like mine, that it doesn't help in that area.

The other half of the problem is... How far is too far?

This is where "anti" culture begins to find similarities with the whole Warriors for Innocence thing. If you completely and blindly block an entire tag, or anyone associated with it, you have to ask: who are you hurting? Warriors for Innocence hurt actual rape victim, and queer folk, and a whole lot of others. Far as I can tell, anti culture is on the route to the same thing, because I have yet to see appropriate answers to a lot of issues.

If one says "anything with underage sex in it is bad and should be banned", what about fics that tackle it in a serious manner? The young adult novel "Speak" deals with rape of an underage girl and how she works through that mental trauma; are fics with stories equivalent to that allowed? Do fics with underage sex have to focus purely on how it is Horrible And Bad to be allowed? Does only a chapter have to be allowed? A paragraph? An author's note? A tag? Or are we allowed to never explore dark subject matter?

Is fic with underage content in it only horrible if it's someone over the age of eighteen who writes it? Can a teenager write smut (terribly written as it may likely be) between teenage characters? Can a teenager write smut between a teenage character and an adult character? For the record, i did in fact, over the summer, run into someone who said that teens/minors "shouldn't even know about NSFW", which is asinine to me, because Abstinence Only is a terrible thing to put in schools, and somehow worse in a way when you try to put that into effect in fandom. If the answer is 'yes', what are you going to do, demand to see people's birth certificates in fandom?

(As a note, I think this is a terrible message to put into fandom for teenagers because I believe it will inevitably lead to self hatred and a warped view of sex. If you make the extremely simplified black-and-white statement of "teens and sex should never go together ever in any way", that's going to mess up teens who are starting to experience arousal in their bodies. The message, whether intended or not, ends up as "NSFW things are bad, which means my brain which thought NSFW thoughts is bad, and my brain thought those thoughts because my body had these feelings". )

(This is bad for any average teenager. This will be especially worse to CSA and rape victims, along with queer youth who, in a lot of places, are still struggling with their bodies and/or feelings because the world is still pretty damn queerphobic.)

Speaking of CSA and rape victims, what about those of them who write/read underage ships or dark content as a way to cope with what happened or Just Because? That's a thing lots of us do, especially those of us who don't look like the Perfect Victims people can use as an excuse for whatever crusade they're waging. I've heard anti types go "Well, it's an unhealthy way to cope" or claims that CSA/rape victims who write such dark content are "just as bad as their abusers"... But are they psychiatrists/therapists? Are they the psychiatrists/therapists of *those specific people*? Will you moderate this kind of content by forcefully interrogating CSA/rape victims to out their trauma to a complete stranger? Will you demand to speak to their therapists? Over fanfic?

When I was a teenager, I wrote all sorts of stuff. I wrote dark dub-con fic, because I liked to explore those dark feelings in the process and the aftermath separate from myself. I wrote a fic with a fairly young teenage girl (what age was kh2 kairi? who even knows, I sure didn't) falling for a MUCH older man built like a brick shit house so that there was never any doubt to him being an adult, even giving him her first kiss, because they were my favorite characters, I wanted both of them to have a moment of happiness (that i promptly ruined but hey), and, *in this fic*, I knew it would be alright. I knew the girl would always be in control, she'd be the one making moves, that the guy was nonthreatening and kind and protect her and work alongside her.

(and then I began the process of killing him off in the next paragraph through him saving her life, but, like. Drama (tm), baby)

This was all good for me. At an age where I was young, vulnerable, and figuring out weird shit like arousal and romantic feelings, it was *invaluable* to have a space where I could explore all of that while relatively safe from actual danger, even if the stuff I wanted to explore was a little messed up. This whole thing against AO3 wouldn't have helped me, and I'm pretty sure it's not helping a lot of other people too.

There is an issue with underage people and sex stuff- not just in fandom but in culture at large. We have Hollywood dressing up young girl actresses in super slinky or revealing clothes. We have schools saying girls basically should never wear shorts, and capitalism fucking this up further by only selling SUPER SHORT shorters. We have media of all sorts giving us adults, whether in real actors or character design, in the roles of young people. (See: "how do you do, fellow kids") We should probably take more care about fandom spaces, so that people of all ages don't feel pressured to engage in sexual shit they're not 100% game for or into, or just have it shoved into their faces without consent. It's a complex issue... and it's not stuff that can just be 'banned' and have that fix it.

AO3 has on its plate a very complex problem that will, if we're all honest, never have a perfect answer. It has given us the best that can possibly be asked for. It obeys the law by not having actual child pornography on it (aka visual proof of actual real children, defined by us law as such), which is closest to "objective" we can get at the current stage in humanity and state of fandom. It has a very comprehensive and moderated tag system, so that people can post warnings along their fic so that people don't stumble onto shit they don't need to, and so that people can moderate their own reading experience to some degree.

If some people aren't comfortable with AO3, that's fine. However, most of us are getting annoyed not with those people, but with the people who just blindly say "AO3 supports child porn and is probably stealing money" (statement simplified for the purpose of this post). It shows an ignorance of the fandom history that lead us here, no understanding in either AO3's practices or how expensive it is to run a site, and no consideration for how complex this problem can really be. It would be great if this was a black and white issue, if there was an easy answer as just "banning" certain kinds of content... but there isn't. And that's where I am.

[love-takes-work]

The Art of Steven Universe the Movie: Outline & Review

The Art of Steven Universe The Movie was released March 3, 2020. It's a wonderful journey through the concept art, character development, and experience of fashioning these ideas into the movie we all love.

Nuts and bolts: The book is published by Dark Horse, and it was designed by Ryan Sands (a zine specialist), with commentary by Takafumi Hori, Kat Morris, and Rebecca Sugar. It includes art by Rebecca Sugar, Kat Morris, Takafumi Hori, Alonso Ramirez Ramos, Angie Wang, Ashley Fisher, Becky Dreistadt, Chromosphere, Danny Cragg, Elle Michalka, Hilary Florido, Ian Jones-Quartey, Jasmin Lai, Jeff Liu, Joe Johnston, Julian De Perio, Katie Mitroff, Leonard Hung, Miki Brewster, Patrick Bryson, and Paul Villeco.

Full review below with low-quality images.

[SU Book and Comic Reviews]

An introduction explains the same origin story that Rebecca Sugar told us in the movie DVD's commentary: that she accidentally restored her phone to factory settings and lost years of important stuff, and she ended up applying that devastating premise to her movie. That combined with the concept of "breaking" the main premise of a TV show to make a movie was how she got started developing the story. The opening of the movie styled like a storybook is blocked out with some great drawings and breakdowns of which narration would go to what storybook pages. This is combined with some partial sheet music for "The Tale of Steven." Rebecca writes about how she felt having to wrap pre-production on Season 5 only to take on this even bigger movie challenge. The biggest challenge was writing all these songs in such a short time--six weeks--and having to deal with the stress, being crushed under all that pressure while still wanting to do this story so badly, and it was humbling to still have to work so hard to sell the idea. The feeling of relief to finally be done that Steven expresses in "Happily Ever After" is very similar to what Rebecca went through feeling like she wanted to be finally done but still knowing what she had to do to climb an even bigger mountain. Some very cute Steven-at-age-16 and Connie in Space Camp clothes follow. Notes indicate that Steven and Connie are the same height now, but his poofy hair is just slightly higher than her head.

Notes from 2017 also give us the "Neckstravaganza": design notes on Steven's new form, with a neck and a jacket. It's very cool.

Some beautiful Joe Johnston boards follow, with sequences from the "Happily Ever After" song. We also get Angie Wang's final design (with Ashley Fisher's color) of the injector, including some sketchy concept art for it from Rebecca Sugar and Hilary Florido. In the rough concept notes, they call this the "Mega Injector," with notes for Takafumi Hori to use for scale. It looks beyond huge in a Leonard Hung drawing.

Spinel concepts are next. Some notes explain that aivi & surasshu (the usual composers) were involved very early since it was a musical, and Rebecca included them when pitching the story to the Crew so they could organically develop the sound. The heart shape was central to Spinel from the beginning, and early versions of her had an entire heart shape to her head.

(There's a doodle of what looks like a cartoon dog in the pile of drawings shown in this section. It's not clear what that was.)

Spinel was given the heart imagery partly because Rebecca had learned early on about the importance of symbols, and when it came time to assign one to Steven, the star was chosen because it's so positive and is read as gender-neutral. Rebecca still hadn't used hearts for anything, so it was time. They also incorporated really old, dated character design ideas to make Spinel feel like an outdated cartoon from the rubber hose era.

The aspect of her design with the running mascara versus cute eyelashes predated the rotation of her Gem. Rebecca likes to start with more realistic sketches when she's figuring out a character, and then she'll move to making it more cartoony. A quote from Miki Brewster is shared: "Spinel can do anything, as long as it's entertaining!" Her "best friend" form is described as "a doll for friendship fun & games! Of a different era--hokey, charming, weird...super gullible and trusting. Incredibly loyal, constant entertainment machine!"

When it comes to developing her "worst enemy" form, Rebecca explains a bit that she has a really complicated relationship with old cartoons because nostalgia is not compelling to her--the animation from the 1930s is so neat, but considering the social limits and the way the industry was at the time, Rebecca doesn't think she could have participated. Especially considering nowadays she even had to struggle to be allowed to tell the stories she needed to tell and it would have been impossible five years ago. The norms of the time aren't entirely extricable from the art itself.

Takafumi Hori weighs in with commentary on how fun it was to animate a scary but fun character on top of Miki Brewster's boards for the "Other Friends" fight sequence.

Next, moving on from the central new character, they also spend some time discussing Steg. Rebecca first explains "Steg Multiverse" as a character so uplifting he can make you fly, combining Greg's unending support and Steven's positive power. She makes reference to the early "stegosaurus" concepts they had for his look, but they didn't want to lose the opportunity to have his hair flow. Rebecca confirms that the pompadour idea was established in "Steven and the Stevens" so they wanted to give it to Steg, and she credits Paul Villeco for really finalizing his design and bringing him to life.

And of course the poofy hair from Steven and the double-necked guitar was essential for Steg.

Next, the book gives us a whole page of handwritten notes about "Drift Away." Kat Morris explains the intentional duality of the scene--how Spinel should be shown seeing her own past with new perspective, being embarrassed, blending together who she was with who she is. The partial lyrics to the song and some sketchy boards are offered.

Rebecca shares her personal connection with the subject matter--how she once left a stuffed animal in her garden and the side facing the sun faded. It really made a mark on her as a child that things changed without her, because of her actions, and that she'd left this treasured toy alone without thinking about it all that time, letting it be affected by the elements without her interference. She wrote "Everything Stays" for Adventure Time based on that plushie, and realized that she was writing about it again for the Steven Universe movie.

Many beautiful miniature boards are shown in this section.

Partial sheet music for "Drift Away" is also offered here. It's credited to Rebecca Sugar and Aimee Mann. The music sheet is followed by some lovely images of the garden by Julian De Perio, Patrick Bryson, and Leonard Hung.

Takafumi Hori returns for a discussion of the final fight sequence during "Change," which he animated from Jeff Liu's boards. He discusses trying to keep the fight feeling dramatic and serious even though Spinel's fighting style is funny. He wanted to keep her tension. Hori-san throws in a word of thanks for being allowed to work on his favorite show again, praises Jeff and Miki, and compliments Rebecca Sugar's demos. He hoped we'd get a soundtrack album. (Of course, we did.)

Some final boards by Rebecca Sugar and Becky Dreistadt of the characters in their show gear descending the steps close out the book. There are also some cute little doodles at the end on the credits page, like a head of lettuce with caption "lettuce adore you" and Spinel in a drifting go-kart laughing, captioned "drift away."

The back cover pictures Steven with his arm around a heartbroken Spinel, comforting her.

Overall, the book is wonderful--the accompanying information is generally not new to anyone who watched the DVD's documentary and commentary, and many of the sketches have been released one way or another directly by the artists through Instagram, Twitter, or Tumblr blogs. There was still plenty of wonderful new concept art that wasn't already out there, and looking at some of the iterations Spinel and Steg went through was particularly captivating. There was no new insight into the development of the plot beyond the premise and the Spinel-related conflict, though; nothing about how they decided to focus the Garnet storyline, the Pearl storyline, and the Amethyst storyline for how they would each get their memories back, and there was no spotlight on their movie versions--modern Cotton Candy Garnet, copycat baby Amethyst, and factory settings uncustomized Pearl. I was hoping especially for some Amethyst stuff because the movie was the first place we got to see her with the simple default outfit and segmented limbs. It was primarily an art book with commentary on some of the most definitive movie aspects--it didn't reach the depth that Art and Origins gave us. It has a start-to-finish feeling in a sense, but it's mostly just splashes of information that are fun to know. It's a great companion and definitely should not be missed by any fan of the movie. I recommend it heartily!

[SU Book and Comic Reviews]

[unrestedjade]

I’ll be adding this to Cigarettes and Cassette Tapes later, but for now I wanna puke this onto Tumblr before I nitpick to absolute death. @chupacawha this was inspired by something you said when we watched the Genkai Tournament arc but I can’t remember what lol.

The walk back to the train station felt about a hundred times as long as the trip out to the temple. And that wasn't even touching climbing down all eighty million steps leading from the temple grounds just to get back to the damn road in the first place. Botan helped as best she could, but most of Kuwabara's weight was on Yusuke. The taller boy leaned heavily on him as they stumbled along, his arm bearing down on Yusuke’s shoulders. Yusuke’s arm around Kuwabara’s waist trembled with effort, hand fisted in tattered fabric to anchor himself. If either of them stumbled, they were both going down.

Yusuke wanted nothing more than to fall face down in the ditch and stay there. Fuck it, let the weeds reclaim him. There wasn't a square inch of his body that didn't hurt, and he was running on less than fumes. The only thing that kept him putting one foot in front of the other was the fact that Kuwabara was having an even harder time staying upright and was somehow doing it anyway. Stubborn bastard. Stubborn, heavy bastard.

The sky was passing from twilight to true night by the time they reached the station. The girl at the ticket counter shot them a look that was equal parts suspicious and alarmed, which Botan smoothed over with some line about a hiking accident. Blah, blah, worse than it looks, blah, blah, bald-faced lie. None of them were dressed to go hiking, and the state of Yusuke and Kuwabara's clothing ruled out any kind of nature-y mishap short of a bear attack. In any case, they must not have looked sketchy enough to call for security, because soon enough they were joining the evening commuter crowd on the platform.

Not many people headed into the city at this time of night, preferring to live out in the smaller towns and suburbs and commute in for work. Botan helped Yusuke maneuver Kuwabara into a window seat. He was pretty out of it after all that walking, eyes glassy and unfocused. Yusuke didn't feel so hot himself, and dropped into the aisle seat next to him-- too much effort to take even one extra step to sit next to Botan in the seats opposite.

"Well," Botan sighed as the train got underway, "that was certainly an eventful day." Her ponytail, normally high and bushy, was wilting down the back of her neck, strands falling loose into her face. Mud smudged the knees of her jeans. On the seat next to her, her bag bulged with the jar holding the shrunken Randou. Yusuke recalled seeing a logo for some brand of pickles stuck to the glass. He hoped it stunk to high heaven in there. And that Botan had forgotten to punch air holes in the lid.

Yusuke slouched in his seat. "That sucked." The train's climate control chilled the sweat soaking his ruined t-shirt, raising goosebumps on his arms. Not that he'd admit he was cold, but he was kinda envious of Kuwabara's jacket-- what was left of it, anyway. "All that shit, and no Tokyo Dome. Don't know what I fuckin' expected."

"Language," Botan chided, more out of reflex than actual offense. "And if it makes you feel any better, I never had a ticket in the first place. I just didn't know how else to get you out here." She had the gall to smile and shrug.

"Y'know," Yusuke sighed, "you're kind of an asshole sometimes." He didn't know why he was surprised. He was starting to get the feeling that getting his life back just meant he was stuck being the spirit world's bitch for the indefinite future. They could at least throw him a bone now and then.

Botan dropped the ditzy sidekick routine, along with her smile. "Don't forget that this is your job, Yusuke. Koenma was generous enough to-"

"Yeah, yeah, enough. I get it." More lectures. Dead or alive, he could never get away from people who wanted to nag at him. Beside him, Kuwabara snored softly, head resting against the window. It didn't look terribly comfortable, but at this point he probably didn't give a shit.

"You did amazing work today," Botan said, relenting. "Really." She reached out to lay a hand on her bag. “Thanks to you, Randou won’t be able to hurt anyone else.”

Yusuke couldn’t help but glance over at Kuwabara’s right arm, the elbow of which had been bending the wrong direction only a couple hours ago. Botan followed his gaze, a frown creasing her brows. “Don’t be too hard on yourself,” she said, softly. “What happened wasn’t your fault, it was Randou’s. And luckily, Genkai is an incredibly gifted healer.” She smiled. “All’s well that ends well, isn’t that right?”

Just because the bones were mended didn’t mean they hadn’t been broken in the first place. But it hadn’t been Botan’s fault, either, so Yusuke kept his mouth shut.

A rough spot of track made the train car shudder. Kuwabara was dislodged from the windowpane and leaned over in the other direction, head thudding onto Yusuke’s shoulder. Apparently, his skull was thick enough that this didn’t wake him up.

“Super.” Like Yusuke really wanted to prop him up for the entire train ride after propping him up for the entire walk from the temple.

The googly eyes Botan was aiming at him just made things worse. “Oh,” she exclaimed, “isn’t that adorable?”

Yusuke glared. “No,” he sneered. “Are you sick in the head, or something?”

“I think the two of you have gotten a lot closer after the day you shared.” Botan rested her chin on her hands, a syrupy grin plastered on her face. “How heartwarming!”

“Revolting.”

Giving Yusuke a conspiratorial wink, Botan stood, hefting her bag over her shoulder. "I have to use the bathroom!" she announced to the train car at large. "I will probably be a while!"

Nearby passengers looked up from their magazines and conversations at her. Yusuke only raised an eyebrow. "What a lady."

"And you're such a gentleman," Botan shot back as she stepped into the aisle, aiming a pointed smirk at Kuwabara's head on his shoulder. She walked away too fast to see the one-finger salute Yusuke gave her, but she could probably guess, anyway.

For the next few minutes, Yusuke pondered whether Botan actually did have to take a shit or something. He’d seen her eat before, but he had no idea how any of that stuff worked for a spirit, and he wasn’t about to ask. He figured she probably just wanted a place to leave her physical body while she checked in with Koenma. That was probably for the best-- she always forgot to close her eyes first when she left it. Looked creepy as hell. Well, if she was gonna be gone for a while, Yusuke could catch a nap. The combination of the cool air and Kuwabara's warmth against his side had him sleepy.

As exhausted as he was, no matter how much he tried to relax, he just couldn't let himself fall asleep. It didn't help that other passengers kept stealing glances at them. Yusuke caught a salaryman three rows down glaring disapprovingly over the top of his newspaper. "The hell are you looking at?" Yusuke snapped. The salaryman hid behind his paper. Good. Uppity guys in suits were especially annoying.

Kuwabara stirred, a confused croak in the back of his throat.

"You're awake," Yusuke said, voice low so the busybodies sharing the car wouldn't overhear. "Sit up and get off me." He didn't even elbow Kuwabara that hard, but Kuwabara hissed, curling an arm over his side. Fuck, that's right. His ribs had been busted up pretty bad— probably still hurt like a bitch. "Shit, sorry. You okay?"

"You're a dick, Urameshi." Kuwabara's speech was slurred, like he was buzzed. Botan had been babbling something about accelerated healing and reiki donation on the walk to the station that Yusuke hadn't listened to at all. Maybe she'd meant that Kuwabara was gonna be a little fucked up for a while from whatever Genkai had done to fix his injuries.

He was also still resting his stupid heavy head on Yusuke's shoulder.

"Seriously, sit up. Do I look like a pillow?" Yusuke gave him a shove, gentle this time, because there was nowhere on him that hadn't been horribly injured. Kuwabara barely moved, mostly because Yusuke was still too worn out to do much more than lift his own arm, much less push the larger boy away.

"...You smell real bad."

Great. This was exactly how Yusuke wanted to spend the two-hour ride back into town. "Lean against the window, then!" It wasn't his fault he'd taken a dip in a damn swamp today.

Kuwabara shook his head, the frizzy remains of his pomp tickling Yusuke's cheek. "Nuh-uh. Too hard. Makes my head hurt."

"What are you, a little kid? Man up."

Ordinarily, Kuwabara would bristle, say something about being ten times manlier than Yusuke, and sit up straight to prove that he was just fine and in no way had gotten seven kinds of shit kicked out of him. He didn't budge. His skull was really starting to dig into Yusuke's shoulder. Fuck it. Yusuke shifted his weight, leaning into Kuwabara so that they were propping each other up and Kuwabara's head was resting on muscle instead of bone. His forehead against Yusuke's neck was warm, feverish even. He had to feel even shittier than Yusuke did, weird psychic healing bullshit or not.

"For the biggest punk in school, you're pretty clingy," Yusuke joked, because nothing about this wasn't awkward as hell. He was going for a mocking tone, but it didn't quite come across. "Were you worried about me?" It was hard to sneer effectively when you had to whisper to avoid the attention of a dozen strangers who'd turn around to see you totally not cuddling with your big ugly classmate.

"Yeah."

Well, shit. Yusuke didn't know what to say to that. He huffed out a sigh. Winding Kuwabara up was the easiest thing in the world any other time. Just one normal thing tonight, that was all he was asking for…

"Thought you were gonna die again," Kuwabara murmured, because of course he couldn't just shut up.

"Don't be stupid," Yusuke snapped. "You're the one that..." A mouthful of bile stopped him from finishing his thought. He swallowed, throat burning. Just the reminder of what that psycho had done to Kuwabara had his guts churning again, enraged. He hadn't been that angry since the shit that had gone down with Keiko at the warehouse, and it caught him off guard even now. If Randou had been a human and not some stupidly strong demon from Hell, Yusuke would have killed the fucker. But Randou would get his in Spirit World. That would have to be good enough. "How are you feeling?"

Kuwabara squirmed a little, trying to find a position that didn't leave the armrest between them pressing against his abused rib-cage. "Like shit," he said. "You?"

"Like shit," Yusuke repeated back. It was true. He'd never felt so used up. Leaning against Kuwabara was at least a little more comfortable than trying to slouch down against the seat back. If you can’t beat ‘em, or whatever.

"If I ask you something weird, will you laugh?"

That was not a question Yusuke was prepared to hear right now. Then again, sitting in silence while they were both awake would be even more awkward. "Probably. What's up?"

"Was I at the bottom of the swamp with you?" Kuwabara twisted to look up at him. Huh. His eyes were gray. Yusuke had never noticed that, but then he wasn't usually this close to Kuwabara's face when he wasn't busy pulverizing it.

More importantly, he hadn't hallucinated Kuwabara showing up underwater like he’d started to convince himself. "Yeah," he said, glaring down at Kuwabara and trying not to accidentally take a bite of his stupid hair. "Real nice, showing up to shit-talk a dying man one last time. How the hell did you do that, anyway?"

Kuwabara shrugged. "I dunno." He looked forward again, his face turning out of view. The hint of redness across his cheekbones Yusuke caught was probably from the fever he was running. "You were drowning, and I really had to get over there, and I couldn't get my stupid body to move. So I guess I kinda just...left it?" He chuckled once, wincing as his ribs protested. "Felt kinda nice to take a break from just lying there feeling like crap. It was getting pretty hard to breathe."

"You had a collapsed lung." Among many, many other things. Yusuke had the feeling the image of Kuwabara so mangled that his body looked vaguely off and uncanny would be featuring in his nightmares for a while.

"I guess that'd do it," Kuwabara said. He didn't seem too alarmed, which could have been down to him being punch-drunk and tired. "Did you get him?" Botan had talked at length about the justice awaiting Randou during their long walk. Add a concussion to the list of things Kuwabara was healing from. "Yeah."

Kuwabara made a pleased sound. "Good."

"Yeah, fuck that guy," Yusuke said, in the understatement of the century.

Kuwabara was quiet for a couple minutes. Just as Yusuke was wondering if he'd fallen asleep again, he said, "What do you think his deal was? I can't figure it out."

Yusuke shrugged. "From what the old bitch said, he might not have a reason other than fighting and throwing his weight around."

"I don't think that's it," Kuwabara said, his speech getting, if anything, even less distinct. He’d probably doze off for real pretty soon. "You like fighting, but you don't keep beating on people after the fight's over.”

“You’d know better than anyone.”

Kuwabara didn’t rise to the bait, too lost in his own train of thought. “Guys like that, I don't think they care about the fight at all. Just wanna hurt someone."

Yusuke frowned. Kuwabara wasn't wrong. And for whatever reason, he seemed to keep running into the kind of guys who were out to spread hurt around for the sake of it. Kuwabara definitely had a talent for sticking his nose into trouble, like he had today.

Another flash of anger. Yusuke had a feeling it would take a while to really calm down, even if the adrenaline rush of the fight was long over. "I shoulda killed that asshole."

Kuwabara shook his head, jostling Yusuke's jaw. "You're not that kinda guy."

Yusuke wasn't so sure about that, at all. He hadn't spared Randou's life, he just hadn't been strong enough to take him out. He'd have to accept that whatever punishment Koenma came up with for the guy would be enough, but he couldn't shake the feeling that the world would be better off without Randou in it. In the moment, with Randou gloating over all those people he'd killed and Kuwabara lying shattered on the ground, he'd wanted nothing more than to break his own fists turning Ranou's face into an unrecognizable lump of meat until long after the demon stopped moving.

He didn't say any of this out loud. Despite being one of Randou's victims, Kuwabara wouldn't agree with him. His honor code didn’t have a lot of flex in it. Yusuke didn't want to think about Kuwabara being disgusted by him, or scared of him.

Or wrong about him.

"Sorry," Kuwabara said. "I wasn't much help, either. Just got in your way."

Okay, now Yusuke knew for sure that Kuwabara was completely out of it. He never talked down about himself. "No, you didn’t." Shaken from his dark thoughts, Yusuke nudged gently against Kuwabara's side. "You were great," he said, the compliment sticking in his craw out of habit. "I'm glad you were here."

Kuwabara caught himself before he laughed and hurt himself again. "Y’know, not counting the whole...monster serial-killer thing, it was kind of fun."

Parts of the day, Yusuke had to admit, had been fun. The ordeal had been a pain in the ass overall, but in bits and pieces, for a few minutes at a time, Yusuke had forgotten he was working a case. "Well, next time you wanna change of pace I can kick your ass at the arcade instead of in the alley."

"Whatever," Kuwabara said. "Don't forget who schooled you back at the temple."

Yusuke scoffed. "You're psychic, so you had an advantage. With normal machines, I'd murder you."

"We’ll...” Kuwabara was cut off by a yawn. “We’ll see about that.”

Minutes passed, and Kuwabara's breathing gentled as he drifted off. Yusuke looked over the top of his head out the window, watching the nighttime scenery whip by outside, fields and little stands of trees partly obscured by his own reflection staring back at him. It would be at least another hour before they got back into the city, and then they still had to walk all the way to Kuwabara's house. And then Yusuke would have to walk all the way back home. And then he'd have to go all the way back to that stupid fucking temple in the middle of nowhere for six whole months.

Sometimes it felt like staying dead would have been easier.

Warm air gusted across his collarbones as Kuwabara sighed, as if he'd heard Yusuke's thought and was irritated by it.

"Take it easy, big guy," Yusuke murmured. "Not going anywhere." At some point he'd leaned his cheek on top of Kuwabara's head, sweat and grass and pomade mingling in his nose. As much as part of him needed to stay alert, keep watch for threats, be ready to defend himself, he was just too tired. He let himself stay where he was, not thinking of much, listening to Kuwabara breathe and the muffled shift and clatter of the train around them.

Quietly, Botan slipped back into her seat across from Yusuke. When she set down her bag, it was clear that the pickle jar was gone. So, Randou had been delivered to the proper authorities, whoever that was. Botan's eyes were glassy, and she was blinking furiously. She'd forgotten to close her eyes before she left her body again. Heh. It would be sort of cute if it weren’t so damn unsettling. She smiled drowsily at Yusuke, taking in the tableau of him and Kuwabara sitting peacefully together.

“Don’t,” Yusuke said, heading off whatever cutesy crap she was about to say. He was too tired and semi-comfortable to move, but she could shut up about it.

Botan’s eyes twinkled. “I didn’t say anything!”

[the-explodin-kittins]

theimperfetc:

spankfuckabuseme:

Oh Tumblr, I have quite the story for you today. I’m back from my break with quite the cautionary tale. My message? Don’t fucking trust people from the internet. I know this, I really do, I’ve been burned by crazies here before. But the sociopaths just keep getting smarter and better at lying. Take this to heart, learn from my mistakes and naivety. Just because it happened to me doesn’t mean it has to happen to you too.

So here’s a tale about how I got catfished on tumblr.

A few months back, I got to know a fellow blogger, @silence-in-submission and her Daddy, @thewolfsdarklair/@kinginthesheets. I was talking with both of them for a bit, but then things got a bit more personal and serious between Wolf and I. We got to know each other, had a lot in common, and started messaging on Kik damn near constantly. He told me he was a single dad, and that his ex walked out when his son was 3 months old and it’s been just him ever since. I’ve never actually trusted anyone on tumblr enough to give them more than a few details about myself, but this slimeball is good at making you trust him and charming the pants off women, myself included. He made himself into the perfect man and played the part well. He used my vulnerable state of going through a divorce to weasel his way into my heart.

BUT! Though shady, this isn’t even the most scandalous part of my tale…yes, I’m a piece of shit man stealer, I’ll own that. But try to keep up, so far we have a tumblr submissive, and a tumblr girlfriend. Girlfriend knows about submissive, submissive does not know about girlfriend. Read on.

Anyways, we start chatting more and more often and he tells me how amazing and special I am, I’m the most incredible woman he’s ever known. I let him into my life enough to show him pics and videos of my son and I. My sweet kiddo blew this monster kisses on FaceTime. He shows me photos and videos of his son and himself. Snuggling on the couch, coaching his sons T-Ball games. Father of the year, swoon! Plays up the single dad card, hard. He messages me nonstop, “good morning beautiful” every morning, phone calls on our commutes to work daily. We had the same favorite bands. We both loved to cook. He told me about his family. His careers. He would message me links to sweet country songs of how he felt about me. My ringtone for him was “Crave You” by Thomas Rhett, I legit bought a damn ringtone for this dickwad because that was “our” song. He would conveniently disappear over weekends, busy with his single dad gig, but in reality he was otherwise occupied.

It was soon, but man I was sure I was in love with this joker. My dumb ass bought a plane ticket to see him, with his enthusiastic blessing. I was supposed to go see and stay with him over Easter weekend. We were both so excited! We could finally be in each other’s arms at last, he said it felt like “I had been his for a lifetime” already. We were going to sight see in his city, cook dinner together and have loads of crazy, kinky sexy. I had a countdown app on my phone counting the days, minutes and seconds until I was with this amazing man. He conveniently disappeared from the face of the earth a few days before and surfaces the afternoon before my flight to tell me he’s out of the country for work and he’s so sorry but I have to cancel my trip. I thought it was odd he flew out of the country without a heads up, but he said it was super last minute and he needed to make arrangements for where his son would stay when he was gone. He was “overseas” for over a week before he told me I would have to cancel my trip. He’s gunna make it up to me 10fold, he misses me, he loves me. Ya know, it was fishy, but shit happens with work. I was devastated and mad he didn’t tell me sooner he was away on work. But here I am, out the better part of $500. He’s “out of the country” for another week and once he’s back, I sent a care package to him and his son of stuff for them. I went to copy and paste the address he gave me and google popped up with the address and it was a commercial building, not a home. Strange. I asked him on the phone why he gave me a fake address, and he casually told me it was the building he worked in. Still strange, why wouldn’t I send it to your house? Oh well. I was so excited to send something from me to him. It was super cute, love letter with cartoon hearts at all. I’m a SUPER thoughtful and romantic person, I went all out asking him if he would be my boyfriend “officially”. I got him stuff from his favorite shows and movies, same with his son, and here I am out more money on this joker. He thought it was super cute, said his son loved the books and he loved the figurines I sent him.

So we plan another trip, two actually. He tells me he’s flying here for the weekend April 26-30th. My son had a brief stay in the hospital due to illness and he was the perfect boyfriend during the whole ordeal, calling while I was at the hospital and cooing “awww poor buddy” when my son would cry. Messaging to make sure we were ok. Everything is going well, we’re released from the hospital and my boyfriend will be here in less than a week! Ahhhh! I just moved to a new house and I’m working on making it presentable and homey for us to nestle up in over the long weekend. I got us tickets to see Infinity War together. We were going to go dancing and I had a babysitter! Yet again, the same as the last trip, he falls off the face of the earth for “work.” This was on Friday the 20th and I have yet to hear from him again and as far as he knows, he thinks I still think he’s planning to come here Thursday and he hasn’t said a word to me! I’m sure he was planning an elaborate work story for this Wednesday to message me with, but I’m sure he will see all of this before then and hopefully not waste his time. We also had plans for me to pick him up from a nearby town May 7th after a work trip that would bring him back this way so soon! I was so lucky, I get to have the man I love sleeping next to me two weeks in a row?! Luckiest girl ever, so spoiled.

But…something just felt…off? the other day. My PTSD from him canceling the last trip was making this past weekend feel eerily familiar. He was off the radar again, I was sick with worry, and I had the impending doom feeling in my gut. Part of me knew there were never any plane tickets.

I had ran a background check on him previously and most things he told me checked out. His age, where he lives, his family members he has mentioned in passing. No marriages or crazy criminal charges listed (but man, 20 was a rough year for you, wasn’t it man?) I missed a small detail the first go around. I missed an eviction suit from last year, with a codefendent listed of the female variety that I was positive wasn’t a family member. Facebook to the rescue, and to my utter dismay, his codefendent was in fact his WIFE since 2015, the MOTHER of his son who supposedly bailed, and they have ANOTHER son who recently turned 1! His wife also may or may not currently be pregnant with number 3, I’m not positive. Oh my. All the happy family photos, I swear to you I threw up where I was at when this news sunk in. The man who said he saw a future with me, saw marriage with me, couldn’t wait for us and our kids (the one I knew about anyways) to all be together at last. We casually discussed me moving to be closer to him in the future if our trips went well. If this would have played out longer, who knows how much of my life I would have ruined for the lies this man told me. But…he already had a happily ever after.

I had been fooled. And not to any fault of my own, other than my naivety. I’m not an idiot, I did my due diligence and did a background check, but one little line on there was missed and I ignored all the little details about him that were sketchy because of the way he made me feel with his words. This man is an expert liar and sociopath. Who knows what shit he spins to his wife to cover his ass with his online affairs. I feel so bad for her. I feel so bad for anyone else he’s involved with. I feel so bad for myself for getting mixed up with this mess. I hate that I didn’t trust my gut when I felt like he was too good to be true, because part of me always knew he was too good to be true. The last photo is the last contact he had with me last Friday, keep in mind he’s supposed to be flying to see me Thursday supposedly. Oh and PLOT TWIST! The child he said he was a single dad to? Send me photos and videos of? I sent him a carepackage? IT’S NOT HIS CHILD. It’s his wives from another man! So he exploited a child that’s NOT EVEN HIS.

Silence, I felt, and still feel dirty, for beginning a relationship with a man who was already in a D/s dynamic, but he said he wanted more with me than that - led me to believe you were just a hobby and I was the real deal. He told me to say the word and you would be gone, that I was “so much more to him than that.” Led me to believe he was slowly breaking things off with you to be with me completely. And I sincerely bought into it, unfortunately. I thought he had told you about me when I sent you those cryptic messages a few weeks ago. I also played along when he sent me fake messages to screenshot to calm you down. The messages telling me to back off from your dynamic in February we’re also fake. I know, I’m an awful bitch for toeing in on your property, but you’ve got to know he played us both the same and I fell for it hook, line and sinker. What I did wasn’t right, I’m sorry, but we’re both victims here and I’m glad I was able to uncover the truth about this piece of shit. It’s not us. There’s nothing wrong with you, beautiful girl, this man is a selfish monster, don’t let this ruin you and for the love of god don’t believe whatever lies he’s going to tell you to keep you around. You can do better. We both can.

My dearest N, you sociopathic anal hemorrhage. I know you thought you were smart, how could this crazy little 20 some girl blow up your spot? You’re alpha, established, educated, and wise. You had it all figured out. There’s no way that your loving B would ever be suspicious of you, because I just LOVED you so extremely, right? All you need is love, baby. Well, love be but a feeling and though I felt it strongly for the person I thought you were, logic and the truth always win. I’m not an idiot, honey, and I fucking figured it out. The lies roll off your tongue like cotton candy. You know all the right things to say. But you can’t talk your way out of this explosion, buddy. I hope the lies and drama were worth the shitstorm you’re about to experience. You say you don’t do drama but my sweet idiot, you ARE drama. I’m sure you can understand why I had to go and message your wife every conversation, detail, photo and video you’ve ever sent me because being a Libra, you’re all about justice, my badass teddy bear. I’m sure you’re tempted to lash out now and try to hurt ME by sharing the intimate pictures and videos I sent to you of myself, but let me remind you that’s called “revenge porn” and given your job, you know that isn’t legal. Every person you cross paths with is either a blessing or a lesson, and though I KNOW my presence is a motherfucking blessing, you’re gunna learn this goddamn lesson today, fuckboy.

So let this be a lesson.

1. Block this dude. Both of his accounts. He’s bad news. There’s good people on tumblr, and we don’t need this sociopath muddying our waters. I’m sure he will resurface with a new blog, but heed this cautionary tale. 2. Don’t ignore red flags because of sweet words. Actions speak louder than words. 3. Don’t meet people from the internet without a background check, and check it thoroughly and use every tool the internet gives you to verify family members and details about the person you’re meeting. A person can be anyone they want to be online, and men like this think they’re invincible. 4. Make someone work hard to earn your heart. Even if someone seems to check all the boxes and seems like your perfect man, if he is, he will earn your heart - you won’t have to give it to him with hesitations, you won’t have to wonder at night when you’ll hear from him next.

I don’t know if this asshole is a prick, a sociopath, a monster, or if he just thinks he’s smarter than everyone else. Well, he’s not. Not for long enough. If you know of this vaguely human-shaped piece of shit, then spread the word. He shouldn’t have contact with anything more than the fucking curb. I expect both his blogs to be gone pretty much right away here, but he’s obviously an addict to this kind of behavior. He’ll be back and looking to get his kicks off of the vulnerable again.

Be careful who you let in this deep, people are more fucked up than you know. If something seems off, look into it harder. And trust your gut. Mine knew something was wrong with this sack of bees with a face, but didn’t step in in time.

@thewolfsdarklair you’re narcissistic enough to be reading this. Fuck you. With a rusty garden rake, in a counterclockwise swirl, in the lemon and salt depository of hell.

#douchecanoe

[hellzyeahwebwielingessays]

The Not-So-Amazing Mary Jane Part 28: AMJ #3.2

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As with issue #2 (and all future posts) I advise you to read the prior instalment as I’m not going to recap the first half of the issue again here.

Moving on, we finally get to meet these new crewmembers. They consist of:

H.E.R.B.I.E. 1.05, a version of the F4’s robot buddy

Screwball, a “… self-styled as a performance artist and the world's first live-blogging super-villain. She was an Internet personality and social-media attention monger to such an extent that she committed crimes on camera.”

And Master Matrix. He's a whole mess. Basically he is the world’s most powerful LMD, and a highly dangerous weapon. He views Spider-Man and Deadpool as his ‘fathers’ in a weird way.

Beck starts to justify the hires, but MJ says that if they believe in the project as she does and have earnest intentions then she’ll reserve judgement.

Screwball tells McKnight that she’s leaked some fake photos to mislead the Savage Six and buy them some time. With that McKnight is eager to get to work.

Let me be upfront about this, I know little about HERBIE or Master Matrix. I’m not an F4 expert and I never bothered with the Spidey/Deadpool ongoing. So I will admit that maybe I’m missing some important context here. My research on the Marvel.wiki didn’t yield any results on who HERBIE 1.05 is beyond him maybe being the regular version of HERBIE. And last I checked the regular HERBIE wasn’t a bad guy. Master Matrix in contrast seems to have been a morally ambiguous character initially but grew to be a good guy. He has a kill switch he willingly handed over to SHIELD just in case he ever went rogue.

So 2/3 of them are perfectly fine. I don’t even know how much MJ would know about HERBIE or Master Matrix. However, Screwball?

Screwball is a straight up criminal. Not an especially dangerous one granted, perhaps not even a D-lister. But a criminal nonetheless. MJ has seen her before, as she witnessed Superior Spider-Man assaulting her on TV in Superior Spider-Man v1 #6.

Realistically, given how horrified MJ was by the incident you’d imagine it’d stick in her mind. Additionally, given how Screwball is an attention monger and very into social media I’d imagine MJ would have some awareness of who she is. MJ herself is very up-to-date with the latest trends and would be plugged into modern pop culture and social media.

However, for the sake of argument let’s say MJ doesn’t remember Screwball at all. Let’s say she’s never heard of HERBIE or Master Matrix. Given how in the first issue she was taking note of the criminal and super powered crewmembers, wouldn’t she at least suspect these people might be shady? Wouldn’t she double-check somehow that they are legit? It all leads back to the same complaints I made between my coverage of issues #1-2. She’s not even checked that Beck is out and about legally for God’s sake!

What’s so much worse is that the story acknowledges  that these hires might be shady. Beck is concerned MJ will have reservations. MJ decides to reserve judgement.

This means she doesn’t fully trust them, that she acknowledges they might  be sketchy.

And her conditions for reserving judgment depend upon even shakier criteria.

How the Hell can she tell in this singular moment, when she’s barely spoken to any of them, that any of these people:

a)     ‘Believe’ in the movie like she does?

Or

b)     Have earnest intentions?

She’s not verified any of them are reformed or on probation. She’s got no idea what they are fully capable of or if they are on the run.

Once more she is engaging in blind faith. She is trusting the word of a super villain who’s entire skillset revolves around lying.

The final thing to take note of is the fact that the crew are actively avoiding the Savage Six; hence the new shithole location.

Um…why aren’t they just contacting the authorities or organizing protection for themselves?

SIX super villains just attacked them and want to do so again. That’s surely grounds to bring in the police or the West Coast Avengers or somebody.

Surely, MJ herself could arrange that.

Alright, maybe you could argue they want to avoid arousing suspicion because of their criminal crewmembers. But this leads back to the fact that MJ wouldn’t stand for criminals working on the movie and Beck wanted press attention for the movie anyway. In fact if a civilian like Diperna knows about the movie how do the press not? How could no one have noticed that there are super powered people and criminals working on the set?

Everyone should know that about the movie anyway, so why not bring in help from superheroes or the authorities for protection?

The answer lies in the fact that this story is incredibly half-baked and inconsistent.

I will also add that on a purely personal note I dislike 616 Screwball so just seeing her annoys me.

The next day filming has been delayed again because of bad weather. Mysterio decides they should shoot in the caves.

Filming inside some caves nearby an abandoned zoo whilst it’s raining. Seems like a health and safety nightmare doesn’t it?

If so then it’s yet more evidence of how vain and selfish Mysterio is.

Days later, we see some crewmembers intimidated by Screwball. Their conversation with her reveals she hacked someone’s private information and threatened them to deliver food to them.

MJ overhears this conversation and learns that, in order to evade the Savage Six, Screwball arranged an unmarked truck. MJ decides to solve the problem by contacting Peter and asking if he knows any teleporters in L.A.

Later, Cloak and Dagger show up and deliver food to the cast and crew.

*pinches bridge of nose again*

God, where to start with this?

So, Screwball has definitely committed a crime in the course of her role as production manager. Hacking someone’s cloud server is very much illegal and an invasion of their privacy.* Depending upon whether you believe her or the truck driver she might also have threatened the driver’s life.

Screwball admits to having done this and MJ over hears it. And yet MJ is still ‘reserving her judgment’? 

I guess earnest intentions+believing in a movie>>>>>>>>>>>harming people in Mj’s book right?...

...what the fuck Williams seriously…

But the stupidity goes another level when MJ contacts Peter so she can get super powered assistance.

Let me get this straight, MJ and Beck are on board with using superheroes to deliver food to them, but not as protection for actual super villains who want to hurt them?

And MJ in particular doesn’t feel she should let Peter or other heroes know about Mysterio or his criminal crewmembers. BUT she will still contact them for a far less serious reason?

Anyone still arguing that for MJ to ask for help would be reductive to her/female characters no longer has a leg to stand on. MJ just used super heroes to solve a problem for herself. Scratch that, she asked her super hero boyfriend to solve a problem for her. And by bringing in characters like Cloak, Dagger, HERBIE and Master Matrix AMJ has arguably invited the wider Marvel universe into the story too. At which point MJ has no end of options available to her to ensure Mysterio isn’t a danger. She just isn’t using them because Leah Williams Mary Jane is not the Mary Jane we’ve known and loved. She’s this weird facsimile with all her social skills and charm but none of her deeper moral convictions.

Finally, if Beck and MJ (hypothetically) aren’t getting protection because they have crooks on staff then why bring in super heroes at all? I admit we never see what crewmembers are in Cloak and Dagger’s line of sight, so arguably MJ asked the criminal crewmembers to scram. But a hint of that would’ve been nice.

As filming inside the cave proceeds we see the Spidey actor struggling with his lines. The scene depicts ‘Spidey’ saying ‘You’ve gone too far this time, Mysterio. Now it’s personal.’ Amidst a street full of injured/dead people.

Mallorie is playing one of the injured people.

First of all, Mallorie wasn’t an actor or extra earlier in the story. But I suppose it’s not uncommon for crewmembers to have small roles in movies and with a reduced cast it’s likely she was just filling in.

More problematically, the scene is clearly depicting the fact that Mysterio has hurt (even murdered) people in his past. He’s done stuff so bad that Spider-Man, a hero, has been personally enraged by his evil acts.

This is in the movie. It’s in the script. MJ read this. MJ is seeing this recreated.

This eviscerates  even the slightest remnant of deniability on MJ’s part. As I’ve argued in prior instalments, MJ SHOULD know Beck is a killer and a violent person. There was no denying that. But even if you were being wilfully ignorant or belligerently insisting only the events of this mini-series ‘counted’, the mini-series just spelled out for you that beck has seriously hurt people and that MJ knows  that.

But she is still allowing him to make his vanity project. She’s still letting him walk free. She’s still chummy with him. She’s still showing no sign at all that she’s going to make Beck face justice.

On the last pages the actor playing Spider-Man quits after a light falls nearby. This leaves Beck and MJ sad, wondering how they can finish the film without Spider-Man.

I have nothing to say about this beyond a heavy light falling inside a wet cave should’ve been an obvious health and safety concern.

So, that was Amazing Mary Jane #3, quite possibly the single worst issue of the entire series thus far.

Honestly, I’m going to soldier on through this series, but I’ve made my points.

There is no hope of fixing this series now.

Not because there couldn’t be a justifiable explanation (or several) that could address all the problems. But because it’s become plain to me that Williams will not provide them to us.

Williams frankly seems like someone who understands aspects of MJ as a character. She knows how to make those aspects shine.

But there are other aspects she so fundamentally doesn’t get that it debilitates any good she might’ve done.

And more poignantly, even within the context of the story she is telling she has been incredibly inconsistent and at times downright baffling.

She either needs a better editor or she might be someone who ultimately wasn’t a good fit for this character/story.

*It’s extra bad considering several years ago in real life there was a major news story about the private photos of celebrities being hacked, perhaps the most notorious example being Jennifer Lawrence. I’m like 99% sure Leah Williams heard about that because I  heard about that just from tumblr and I’m not someone who used to work in Hollywood nor do I work in the entertainment industry in any capacity.

P.S. How does Peter not know about the Savage Six?

Super villain attacks aren’t that common outside of New York city and the villains in question are predominantly associated with operating in NYC.

Three of them are very recurring enemies of his, one of which committed some very violent crimes during a traumatic recent event; the ‘Hunted’ storyline.

They attacked the set of another of his very recurrent enemies that his lover is working on.

None of this happened in a secluded location, it was all perfectly public.

So how on Earth does he not know about this? Why hasn’t he contacted MJ to ensure she’s okay? Why isn’t he riding down there to see if he can help her or trying to arrange his Avengers buddies to provide some protection?

The only answers are that MJ has lied about that again, Williams is mischaracterizing Peter indirectly or this story is badly written.

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[crowsheadcaneandleathergloves]

The School for Supernatural (Grishaverse Big Bang)

@grishaversebigbang

Corporalki: @fleeingtofiction, @pleaseuseacoaster, @wonderland1888

Materialki: @maiyoart (artwork), @plasticbattleaxe (artwork), @satelliteinasupernova (artwork 1 and artwork 2)

Summary: Wylan is whisked off to The School for Supernatural. It is nothing like Hogwarts and it lacks the famous wizarding school’s luster. But there is one thing in common: it’s a school for the unordinary. The supernatural. The magical, one might call it. But as Wylan meets others like him with varying abilities, he soon realizes that The School isn’t all that it seems.

Chapter 1: Wylan

Wylan was a good kid. He was a smart kid. He could play the flute and read music. He could speak fluent French and German. He could create paper cranes out of pretty much any paper that could be turned into a square. He excelled at Chemistry and Math. He was a natural when it came to dealing with children. 

So how did he find himself shackled in the back of a van, bumping along a remote dirt road, on his way to a sketchy boarding school? Why had his father had consented to this? 

Actually, Wylan knew exactly how he had gotten into this situation, but right now he didn’t want to think about it. 

Wylan felt an itch blossoming on his nose and he wanted to scratch it. But he was strapped tightly to the back seat with his hands shackled down. He couldn’t move an inch. “Um, excuse me sir,” he called out to the boy in the passenger seat nervously. He had to be a couple years older than Wylan. “I have an itchy nose—“

The boy glanced up to the rearview mirror with those piercing blue eyes and glared at him. He said absolutely nothing and reached his hand up to pull down a screen so the back of the van was divided from the front.

Wylan was shocked by the rudeness. All he had asked for, or at least tried to ask for, was to scratch his nose. 

He wasn’t at all dangerous yet the driver and the boy acted like he was some monster. 

The van jolted as they began driving on unpaved road and Wylan yelped as the shackles dug into his wrists. 

“Be quiet back there!” The boy hollered, banging on the inside of the van. 

Wylan pursed his lips and moved his wrists as much as they could under the tight restraints, trying to get at least a little more comfortable.

He was naturally curious, was used to knowing what was going to happen next. Right now, he was in the dark about literally everything.

Wylan glanced at his watch—11:22 am—before closing his eyes and silencing his thoughts. First to a whisper, then to a buzzing, then to nothing at all.

His body felt like it was falling away and shedding it’s skin like a snake. Wylan was falling...falling...falling…

And then his eyes reopened. Only, they weren’t his physical eyes. His limbs reassembled, and a warm feeling—like he had just drank a hot chocolate after coming in from a chilly winter’s evening—began in his belly that expanded to meet his torso and to where his legs met his hip and his body met his head.

Wylan remembered the first time he had ever astral projected. It had been a complete accident—but one that changed his life forever. 

He had been maybe 4 or 5 and, earlier that day, his tutor had expressed his annoyance that Wylan was incredible and beyond his years at everything...except reading. His father had berated him until he was crying. He had retreated into his room and let his imagination run wild. He was close to drifting off when his thoughts drifted to The Great Wall of China and each and every brick when, when he reopened his eyes he was there. On The Great Wall of China. It had been a clear day and he had seen tourists walking on The Wall. Walking through him. As if he were a ghost. He stayed until his whole body was in excruciating pain before he had been forced back into his physical body.

The second time he astral projected took a year of studying what had happened the first time, recreating those circumstances and practicing. 

He must have laid in his bed for hours on end, thinking of The Great Wall of China. Looked at paintings until his eyes hurt. Even when his father yelled at him and screamed at him because he couldn’t read, he didn’t cry. All he could think about was whatever he had done that day where he had escaped to somewhere new.

Until, one day, his father had left for a meeting and he had the house to himself, which was a rare occasion. He had leaned back in a plush recliner, exhausted from his newest tutor trying to get him to read the largest book he had ever seen. The book was apparently about Paris and he had been thinking of the Eiffel Tower. And, suddenly, he was there again. At the massive structure with people walking through him.

Now he was 16 and projection came naturally to him.

Wylan flew above the van and glanced at the licence plate—committing it to memory—before taking a look at his surroundings.

They seemed to be in the deep countryside, wheat blowing around vigorously and farms in the distance. 

Wylan glanced behind him and just saw wheat. Wheat wheat and more wheat.

He super sped over to the nearest farmhouse, rainbow streaks in the sides of his vision, and saw a wooden sign: The Bonds.

Wylan sped back to the winding dirt road. The wind was still raging, though it didn’t affect Wylan in his astral form 

He thought about the driver and the boy back in the van. What if they figured out what he was doing? They wouldn’t kill his body, would they?

Wylan knew he should go back to his physical body before the driver and boy found out.

Soon, he told himself, soon.

But first, he wanted to see this so-called boarding school with his own two eyes. 

He sped down the single road as quickly as he could while also keeping an eye on his surroundings to search for the school. 

In three minutes astral time, which had no real formula but Wylan had gotten used to counting to 60, he finally found it. At least, he supposed it was.

The wheat and farms were long back down the road, replaced by stretches of flat green grass with a single building to Wylan’s left.

The building was huge—a mansion made out of dark wood and cream coloured walls. As he floated higher, he noticed marble pillars and greenery in the courtyard.

As Wylan got about 300 feet away from the mansion, a breeze ran through his body and hair. 

He stopped dead in his tracks. 

In the astral plane, wind and other physical sensations just weren’t a thing. Whatever created the wind wasn’t natural.

Wylan shivered and he felt a tug to go back to his body.

Not yet. He snapped to himself, flying closer to the building and going through the outside wall. 

“You get back here Brekker or I’ll break your other leg and you’ll be walking with a double limp!” A girl shrieked as she ran out of the door.

Wylan followed the girl curiously. Other people his age? His father hadn’t said anything about that. Although, now that he thought about it you couldn’t really have a school with one child. That would just be plain tutoring.

As Wylan made his way through the next wall, he saw the girl stomping over to where a boy with sunken cheeks and pale skin was. He had a black cane clutched his left hand. Presumably “Brekker”. “I only need it for a moment, Zenik,” the boy said. Only it came out more like a rasp than anything.

Did people smoke at this school? 

The thought was instantly shot from his brain as another boy walked—no swaggered in. His was tall and thin like a toothpick, his limbs long too. He had his hands in his pockets and his initial thought was, I like him. 

Why? Wylan had no idea. Maybe it was because of his eyes, which were glittering and brown. Or the way he walked—like he owned the building and everything in it. Or how he looked so comfortable in his own body. Or how his facial features were—

“Kaz, c’mon,” the dark skinned boy said. “You steal Nina’s stationary and envelopes on a weekly basis. Shouldn’t she know why?”

Nina crossed her arms and nodded defiantly. “Thank you Jesper.” She then looked over to Kaz. “I don’t want you using my stuff without me knowing why!!” She snapped.

“I’m well aware of your opinion on the matter, Zenik.” Kaz said, eerily calm. “I’ll ask Brum to buy you some new pens when he goes out to the market again.”

“You aren’t answering my question, Brekker,” Nina said, tapping her foot impatiently. “Either you tell me why you stole my stuff or I break your other leg.”

Kaz pocketed a pen and envelope in his jacket pocket and leaned casually against the wall, crossing his legs, placing both of his hands on top of his cane. “I sneak letters to my family.” He said simply. 

When Nina and Jesper opened their mouths to speak, Kaz put a hand up.

Well he’s obviously the leader, Wylan thought as he watched this interaction unfold. And, to be honest, Wylan could see why. This Kaz guy looked like he could rip out your eye with one hand while choking someone else with the other, in addition to having polite conversation with another person.

“And before you ask, no I will not send your families’ letters.” Kaz stated.

Nina and Jesper’s mouths clamped shut.

Kaz cracked his knuckles beneath leather gloves and Wylan couldn’t help but be curious. What power did he have? Fire manipulation? He cocked his head to one side and looked at Nina as if they hadn’t just been arguing. “Is that explanation acceptable, Zenik? Or do I have to elaborate?”

Nina let her arms fall to her side. “You are insufferable, Brekker, you know that?”

“I do, you’ve told me plenty of times before.”

Nina turned around and flicked her hand with it. “Borrow my pens and envelopes as much as you want, Brekker. But you better not break one or I’ll kill you and make it look like an accident! Mark my words, Brekker!”

Kaz had a sly smirk on his face as Nina shut her door loudly. “I wouldn’t put it past you, Zenik. Wouldn’t put it past you…” he walked down the hall and Wylan followed, noticing an obvious limp in his right leg.

Wylan began to feel his head throb, a sure sign of a headache coming on, indicating he didn’t have much time left in the astral plane.

Wylan followed Kaz into another room, curious to see what he was writing. This one was pretty large. The bed looked incredibly comfy, however it was stripped of comforters and pillows. Instead, there was a pull-out couch pushed in the corner with a pile of sheets and blankets and a pillow next to it on the floor.

Wylan watched as Kaz sat down at the desk, leaning his cane against it. He took out the pen and envelope out of his pocket before opening his desk drawer, withdrawing a single sheet of blank, white, paper.

Kaz leaned back in his chair and didn’t say anything for a long time. It looked like he was waiting for something. Or someone.

Wylan didn’t have to wait long to find out. He almost yelped in surprise when a tiny bronze skinned girl suddenly appeared at the windowsill, crouched low like a frog. 

He was still trying to figure out what had happened when the girl at the windowsill hopped off gracefully and landed silently on the hardwood floor. “How’d you know I was there?” She asked.

Kaz turned back around to face his desk and clicked the pen a couple of times before responding. “I told you, I felt your presence.”

The girl drew closer to Kaz and perched on his bare bed. “I still don’t believe you.” She stated. “Anyway, why did you lie to Nina?”

Inej couldn’t see it from her place on the bed but Wylan saw as Kaz’s left hand twitched. “What are you talking about?”

“Don’t play dumb with me Kaz.” The girl said slowly. “Even from here I could tell you were lying.”

Kaz pursed his lips tightly before parting them again. “I needed a pen and envelope.”

“But why her specific pen and envelope? You have plenty of stationary here already.”

“It’s not the same.” Kaz said, beginning to click the pen again. He paused for a moment. “Zenik’s pen’s ink flows better than mine.” He said dryly.

The girl barked out a laugh and rolled her eyes. 

Kaz began clicking the pen once again and the girl must have taken this a sign for her to leave. “Come down for lunch?” She asked as she softly landed on the ground again and made her way to the closed door. “You barely come down for food, I’m afraid you’ll starve to death.”

Click, click, click. “Believe me, there are worse ways to die than starvation.”

The girl sighed and walked out the door, closing it softly behind her.

Wylan’s headache was getting worse. He wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold on.

Just a little longer, he told himself. He just wanted to see who Kaz was writing to and what about. If the other girl was so sure he was lying earlier about his family...well...he wanted to know.

Wylan watched as Kaz methodically and slowly wrote on the piece of paper with Nina’s pen, her envelope next to it. 

Kaz’s writing was small yet incredibly messy—Wylan just managing to decheiver each letter. 

D-E-A-R

A strike of pain zapped through Wylan’s head and his hand automatically went to hold it. Just a little longer…

Z-

Kaz began the line of the next letter but Wylan couldn’t take it any longer. He was using all of his strength to root himself in this strange boy’s bedroom but the pain was beginning to travel down his neck...to his shoulders…down his arms.

Wylan closed his eyes and relaxed his body, watching as the rainbow streaks overwhelmed his vision as he was being brought back to his physical body.

For a split second, it was like putting on a tight body suit. Wylan always liked to close his eyes for this part.

When he opened them again, he was back in the van, strapped and shackled. His head, shoulders, and arms no longer felt pain but they were sore.

He glanced at his watch again. 11:25. Only three real minutes had passed while he was in the astral plane.

While Wylan knew a lot of things about astral projection, how time worked in the astral plane was beyond him. 

All he knew was that you could spend a certain amount of time in the astral plane and, when you came back, the real time you were gone for was shorter.

Wylan’s mind went back to the other teenagers in that building. 

What were they like? What did they do? That small girl—the one who had been on Kaz’s window must have invisibility. 

Kaz…maybe fire because of the gloves?

As for Nina and Jesper, he couldn’t think of any clues he might have gotten from his short observation of them.

It was irritating because he wanted to know what Jesper’s ability was.

The car rattled along the dirt road for another three hours, the boy in the front often sliding up the curtain between them to check up on him. 

Where did he think Wylan was going to go? He was shackled to the seat so tightly he could hardly breathe, let alone escape from the van.

When they finally stopped and Wylan heard a door opening in the front, he thought that maybe they’d arrived and someone would be coming to the back door to unlock him.

But no one came.

Instead, Wylan heard a sharp whistle, an eagle’s call, and then the van revved up once again.

This time, when the van stopped less than a minute later, the boy and the driver of the van opened the back and began unlocking him.

The driver was older, maybe in his late forties early fifties and he had similar blue eyes as the boy’s. 

Wylan wasn’t sure if they were related in any way or if it was pure coincidence. 

“Try to run and you die,” the driver said roughly.

“If you’re a flier, I’ll follow you until you’re too exhausted to keep going and shoot you in the head.” The boy added. 

Wylan blinked. Did they not know what he did? Or was this just the standard introductory they always did? “Okay.” 

When Wylan was unlocked, the two men turned him around and jostled him over to the building. The mansion with the courtyard loomed above them. Wylan looked up and squinted against the sun, finding Kaz’s bedroom window and the part of the wall he had flown through in the astral plane.

“Keep moving, boy,” the man said, digging his elbow into Wylan’s back.

As they neared the front door, Wylan noticed two faces in a nearby window. Nina and Jesper. Was the other girl there also, just invisible? 

The boy opened the door and the man shoved him in. “Bedroom’s on the top floor. Choose one.”

The door slammed shut and Wylan was left with the boy who seemed like he’d rather be anywhere but with him.

“I’m Wylan Van Eck.” Wylan introduced himself hesitantly. 

“I know.” The boy responded. He began to walk away.

“What’s your na—“ Wylan tried but the girl, Nina, poked her head through a doorway. 

“—Don’t bother to ask him questions, Wylan,” Nina said, rolling her eyes. “He won’t answer them, believe me.”

“What’s his name?” Wylan asked.

“Matthias Helvar, the only one of us to get close to Jarl Brum, the disgusting man who drove you here.” Nina muttered. “He’s as strong as an ox but not that bright—“

“I can still hear you Zenik!” Matthias roared from another part of the building. 

“I was hoping you would!” Nina shrieked back. She rolled her eyes and beckoned Wylan closer. “C’mon, I’ll bring you to where all of us hang out and sleep.”

Wylan followed Nina through the building’s intricate rooms and maze like hallways. He didn’t even realize someone was behind him until he spoke up.

“So what do you do?”

Wylan spun around and saw Jesper. He was grinning and swinging his arms around as he walked. “Oh, uh. Hi!” Wylan sputtered. He had the urge to introduce himself again but surely, if Nina had heard him introduce himself to Matthias, Jesper knew his name too?

He momentarily forgot his words as he craned his neck up to look at Jesper. 

“Wylan?” Nina prompted.

“Oh. Oh! Sorry. I got…” Wylan coughed awkwardly, trailing off. “I do astral projection.”

“Whoah,” Nina said. Jesper nodded. “What’s that like?”

“It’s cool.” Wylan said as he began climbing the carpeted stairs. “When I was younger I’d visit the Eiffel Tower and the Leaning Tower of Pisa.”

“What was that like?” Nina asked, as they climbed the second set of stairs to the third floor. 

“It never gets old. I sometimes wish I could stay in the astral plane forever.” Wylan breathed. He hadn’t visited France or Italy in forever. He should go tonight. 

“Why can’t you?” Jesper asked as they began to climb the third set of stairs. He was trailing his arms behind him, on the handrails.

“It eventually becomes physically painful and I’m forced to come back.” Wylan said. 

Nina made a sympathetic face and said, “how long do you have to wait before going back?”

Wylan shrugged. “Depends on how long I stay in the astral plane. If I stay longer, I have to wait longer until I go back.”

They had finally gotten to the top of the fourth set of stairs and Wylan recognized it from being in the astral plane earlier. Kaz’s room was down that hall and Nina’s was the closest room to the left. 

“Here’s where most of us sleep and hang out.” Nina explained. 

“How many people are there? Who live up here, I mean.” Wylan asked.

“Five of us, now six with you here,” Jesper said.

Six? Wylan repeated in his head. He mentally counted the people he remembered from earlier. One, Nina. Two, Jesper. Three, Kaz. Four, the invisibility girl. Five, him. 

“Who’s the sixth?” Wylan asked.

Nina rolled her eyes and pointed to a nearby couch where a white wolf was curled up.

“A wolf?” Wylan asked, incredulous. 

“Yes,” Kaz said dryly, stepping into the hallway, cane in his right hand. “He’s our pet.”

Wylan almost fell over when the wolf stood up and growled in Kaz’s face. Kaz didn’t flinch at all. “I am not a pet, Brekker.”

Kaz’s eyebrow twitched upwards. 

The voice...the voice of the wolf sounded familiar. Wylan glanced back at Jesper who looked unsurprised.

Kaz didn’t do anything for a long while, just stared into the wolf’s blue eyes. Then, he swiftly turned around and walked to Nina, removing her pen out of his pocket. 

Nina snatched it away and inspected it, making sure it still worked. When she was positive Kaz hadn’t done any damage, she put it in a pocket of her red dress. 

Kaz glanced over at Wylan for a moment, and Wylan could practically feel the silent assessment he was making, before turning back around and retreating back to his room.

The wolf jumped off the couch and morphed into a boy—Matthias. His massive arms were crossed and he looked like he wanted to kill Kaz on the spot. “I don’t understand how anyone is friends with that demon but hate me.” Matthias snapped as he stomped away. A door slammed.

“Poor baby,” Nina grumbled. “Don’t mind Helvar, Wylan. Come on. There are three rooms you can choose from.

“So he can turn into a wolf? Is that what he does?” Wylan asked curiously.

“Not just a wolf. Though, I think he prefers a wolf over all the other animals he can turn into.” Jesper explained.

“Room number 1,” Nina said, opening a door. “A beautiful one person room with a desk, a bed, a wardrobe, and a window overlooking the endless grass.” She opened her arms. “This is the largest of the three,” she added in.

They walked to the next one, Jesper gone as he had returned to his own room. The second room was further down the hallway and across from another door which was cracked open slightly. “That’s Inej’s room.” Nina pointed out before opening the door across. “Room number 2. The exact same as room number 1 except it’s slightly smaller.”

The third room was exactly the same except there were two windows and it was the smallest one. It was at the very end of the hallway.

“I’ll take this one.” Wylan said, walking inside and sitting on the bed. 

Nina’s eyebrows furrowed. “Are you sure? You don’t want the big one or the medium one?”

Wylan shook his head. “No. I like this one. It has the most windows.”

Nina shrugged. “Okay. Suit yourself. I’m going back to my room. We have lunch at 12 down on the main floor in the dining hall. You better come down then or earlier or all the good food will be gone.”

“Thanks Nina,” Wylan smiled. 

Nina smiled back but then scratched her head. “Did I introduce myself already? I swear I didn’t—“

Wylan’s back went ramrod straight. Right. He wasn’t supposed to know anybody’s names here. “I think you did,” Wylan said hesitantly. “Anyway, it’s nice to meet you.”

Nina waved and was out the door.

Wylan walked around the small room, checking his watch. 11:45. He opened the drawers of the desk and the wardrobe, finding nothing except coat hangers and blank sheets of paper. He then sat on his bed, facing the larger window of the two.

“Nina didn’t introduce herself.” The voice was raspy and dark and Wylan knew exactly who it was before he turned around.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Wylan said. He could feel the blood rushing to his face. 

“I could hear everything. She didn’t once say her name. The only thing anyone called her while you were around was Zenik.” Kaz was leaning against the door frame, his hands resting on top of his cane.

Wylan blanched and felt smaller than when he was standing next to Matthias or Jesper.

Kaz cocked his head to the side. “I’m Kaz Brekker.” He said with a nod. “Mr. Van Eck, what ability do you have?” The words were polite and Kaz’s voice sounded almost genuinely nice if not for the way Kaz’s eyes were boring holes into his skull. 

Wylan opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out.

“Kaz, you’re scaring him.” The other girl—Inej—stated, suddenly appearing at Kaz’s left. She looked at Wylan and smiled. “I’m Inej Ghafa.”

Through all of this, Wylan’s brain was turning like gears. Something occurred to him. “How come you know Nina never said her name but don’t know what my ability is? Jesper, Nina, and I were talking about that while going up the stairs.”

Kaz’s eyebrow quirked as if he were amused. “You’re a smart one.”

Wylan played with the hem of his shirt. “I can astral project. What do you guys do?”

“I can turn invisible,” Inej said. 

Wylan looked at Kaz expectantly. Eventually, Inej signed when it was obvious Kaz wasn’t about to reveal anything about himself. “He can manipulate fire.”

Kaz didn’t say anything at all and, instead, walked away. 

Only when Wylan heard the door close did he realize that Kaz didn’t answer his question about how he knew Nina didn’t say her name but not his ability.

“Sorry about him,” Inej said. “He’s not one to talk much.”

“That’s fine. Too be honest, I’m more afraid of Matthias than Kaz.” Wylan said. He was tempted to ask about the market Kaz had brought up earlier when he had been in the astral plane but decided against it.

“Well, I’ll leave you to get settled,” Inej said. “I’m sure Nina has told you about lunch at 12:00?”

Wylan nodded. “Yeah.”

“Okay.” Inej said, and left Wylan with his thoughts.

He was so disoriented and confused. He was without his luggage until after supper so his room was bare, and reminded Wylan of a hospital room.

Wylan wanted to do something. Draw or paint. Anything.

He checked his watch again. Five minutes until lunch. There was no point in exploring the building if lunch started soon. Besides, he hadn’t eaten since he was back home—almost four hours earlier.

Chapter 2: Nina

Nina was the first one at the table for lunch, like always. She could smell chicken coming from the kitchen and a massive bowl of Caesar salad was set on the passthrough window.

All the other four students had their schedule. Matthias would be down next, then Jesper. After that it would be Kaz immediately followed by Inej.

As for the new kid, Wylan? Well, Nina would see when he’d come.

Matthias came through the doorway in front of her. At least he was in his human form this time.  

A couple days after she had arrived, Matthias had crawled in as a tarantula. When he had morphed back into human, Nina had been tempted to break all of his limbs right then and there.

“Zenik,” he nodded curtly as he took his place to the left of the head chair.

“Helvar.” She replied, her voice equally icy.

Nina could see the way he swallowed hard and the way he wouldn’t look her straight in the eyes. He’s still scared of me…she thought. Good.

When Nina had been nine and Matthias, was ten, she had accidentally broken a man’s arm when his hand had roamed where it shouldn’t at the diner her mom worked at.

Matthias had shown up and began to befriend her. It was nice and Nina had almost considered him a crush. Almost. But, Matthias had ulterior motives and, late at night, he had broken into her house and tried to steal her away. Presumably to this school.

However, Matthias and Jarl Brum, the head of this school, had greatly underestimated her. She had almost suffocated the boy to death before her conscience told her to stop.

Nina had warned  Matthias to never come back.

She had been too nice back then. She should have killed Matthias there on the spot. But all Nina could remember was Matthias’ pleading eyes and she had remembered that he was only a boy.

The stairs creaked and Wylan came down the stairs, hesitantly peeking into the dining room before walking in. “Is there...um...a specific chair I’m supposed to sit at?”

Matthias pointed to a chair at the very end of the table. “Over there.”

Wylan pulled out the seat and sat.

It was almost completely quiet, but Nina knew this kid wouldn’t stay silent for long. He was the curious type. The real question was, would the question be about his surroundings, Nina, or Matthias?

Wylan answered the question when he looked over at Matthias. “So...if you can morph into animals, morphing, can you turn into a unicorn or another fictional animal? Like a dragon?”

Matthias stayed still in his chair like a soldier. His heartbeat and breathing were steady. “I have never tried.”

That was utter bogus. She had asked him the same question when Matthias had told her about his ability.

He had once tried to turn into a dragon it had not worked.

Why was Matthias lying? To look cooler? Like he didn’t believe in fantasy creatures?

But Nina didn’t say anything. She wasn’t in the mood to get stabbed in her sleep.

“But why? Aren’t you curious?” Wylan asked.

Even though Nina was probably only a couple years older than Wylan, she thought he acted much like a curious little kid. One that would surely annoy Matthias to no end.

Matthias shook his head. “No. Not necessarily.”

Jesper came down the stairs, skipping at least three steps at a time. “What’s for lunch?” He called out.

“Caesar salad and chicken breast.” Nina responded as Jesper took his spot next to Wylan.

She could feel Wylan’s heart rate speed as Jesper made himself comfortable at the table.

Kaz slowly made his way down the stairs, cane in hand. Inej followed suit, her feet making no sound.

Kaz took his place to the right of the head and Inej between Matthias and Nina.

A maid came out of the kitchen, doors swinging behind her, and began plating up Caesar salad.

Wylan gestured to the empty head chair. “Who sits there?”

“Jarl Brum,” Nina responded. “The man who drove you here in the van.”

“But he only joins us for supper.” Jesper added in, picking up his fork and beginning to eat.

“He apparently has very important business to attend to.” Nina added, taking up her fork.

Matthias glared at Nina. He seemed like he wanted to say more but nothing came out of his mouth.

“So, what’s your power, Jesper?” Wylan asked, stabbing a crouton.

Nina perked up a bit and tried to recall whether or not Jesper had introduced himself. Unless he showed up after Nina had left, it wasn’t possible. And Jesper hadn’t voiced that he knew Wylan from before.

Astral projection. That was what Wylan said he did. He could separate his physical body with his astral one.

And no one could see astral bodies. It was a perfect spy tool.

Had Wylan spied on them before he arrived? When? Nina hopped it wasn’t when she had been sneaking snacks from the kitchen. That wasn’t a very good first impression.

Kaz must have realized this too because he stopped eating and narrowed his eyes. But he didn’t say anything either.

“I can manipulate the molecules of solids.” Jesper said slowly. “There really isn’t a shorter way of saying it.”

Wylan’s eyes widened. “How does that work?”

Jesper shrugged. “I don’t really know. But I can change solids to other solids.”

“Can you give me an example?”

Jesper smirked. “I can do one better. I can show you. He picked up his knife and spun it around his fingers like a baton. He closed his eyes and his brows wrinkled as he willed the stainless steel to change.

Slowly, the shininess dulled and Nina could only explain it as the growth of a person’s hair. You can’t really see any change if you’re always looking at it. It’s something you only notice after a period of time passes without looking.

Nina blinked and the knife was black as night.

Jesper handed it to Wylan who inspected it so closely Nina was afraid he’d cut himself.

“It’s coal.” Wylan stated.

Jesper grinned, victorious. “It is.”

“Can you turn it to—“

“—Gold? Diamond? Quartz? Wood? Yes, yes, yes, and yes. Anything solid.” Jesper said, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms lazily.

“Incredible.” Wylan said, clearly gobsmacked. He passed the knife back to Jesper. “What about texture? Can you change the texture of things you change? Like, for example, turn the knife into normal wood and then petrified wood?”

Jesper frowned then shrugged. “Huh. I’ve never tried.”

Wylan looked like he was about to jump out of his chair and do a dance. He pointed to the black knife. “You think you could try?”

Matthias cleared his throat and said in his gruff voice, “the table is supposed to be for eating. Not for experimenting. You should do that in your own time.”

Wylan’s cheeks went pink, his eyes flicking back and forth between Jesper and Matthias. “Sorry.”

Jesper glanced at Wylan, his brows furrowed. And, when Matthias wasn’t looking, wrapped his hand around the knife and closed his eyes.

The knife, which had been made of coal previously, was now made of hard, petrified, wood.

Grinning, Jesper poked the handle of the knife into Wylan’s side gently.

Wylan glanced over to Jesper nervously and he broke out into a smile when he saw what was in Jesper’s hand.

“Take it,” Jesper mouthed. Wylan gingerly took the knife into his hand and put it in his breast pocket.

It seemed as though everyone at the table was looking except Matthias.

The rest of lunch passed like any normal day and, soon, Matthias stood up at the end of dessert (a delicious apple crumble) and everyone else followed suit.

As they were exiting and splitting in their own direction, Wylan came up to Nina. “Is that how lunch always is?”

“Awkward? Silent?” Nina prompted.

“Tense.” Wylan said finally.

“Yup.” Jesper said, coming up behind Wylan as they began the climb up the stairs.

“It’s even worse when Brum is over for supper.” Nina said, shivering. “He tries to make conversation but Helvar is the only one who talks with him. Sometimes Kaz adds in.”

“Why does Matthias like Jarl Brum so much?” Wylan asked curiously. “He’s got powers like all of us but he seems to be like...a second in command—first when Jarl Brum isn’t here.” Wylan scratched his head and ran his free hand on the smooth handrail.

“Ooo, don’t let Kaz hear you say that.” Nina said, a grin on her face. “Kaz likes to think he’s the boss around here.”

“Well, he kinda is though,” Jesper said.

“He does have that kind of aura.” Wylan agreed. “He’s very...intimidating.”

“Ah, don’t worry about Kaz. He’s a real teddy bear when you get to know him.” Nina said, turning her head back to look at Wylan again and laughing at his incredulous expression. “Nah, just kidding. But all you gotta do is stay out of his way and you’ll be fine.”

As they got to the fourth landing and about to climb the last set of stairs, Kaz walked around the corner, his cane hitting the floor loudly like a rabbit thumping its hind leg as a sign of danger. “Brum is gone for the night. C’mon.”

Nina glanced behind her at Wylan and Jesper before following Kaz down the narrow hallway.

She felt a question bubbling out of Wylan before he even spoke. She turned back around and made a zip-it motion to him.

Nina was in no mood to watch Kaz murder the poor kid.

She remembered walking these exact steps when she first arrived.

She had been terrified but too proud to show it. Nina felt sorry for Wylan; he had no idea what he just got himself into.

Kaz pushed open the double doors and the night air flowed in, refreshing against Nina’s skin.

The balcony was beautiful. The wooden handrail was so intricate that Inej had confessed to coming out here when she couldn’t sleep and just trace the endless patterns.

Nina would have probably joined her if not for the fact that she slept like a log and hated this balcony because of her traumatic experience on the first day she arrived at this school.

Inej was perched on the handrail, ankles crossed.

Wylan waved at Inej in greeting. “Hi!”

Kaz pulled a rock out of his pocket and all Nina could see was Koja, her little fox friend that she had owned. With his soft red fur and his black, button, eyes that her mom lovingly made for her for her birthday.

Nina made her way up to Inej. “What do you think of Wylan?” She asked her quietly as Kaz began his usual, menacing, speel.

“He seems sweet.” Inej said. “You?”

Nina was about to respond but Wylan’s voice cut her thought off. “Wait. You can’t be serious.

“He’s always serious.” Jesper said. He was twirling a pen around his fingers.

They chatted quietly as Kaz explained everything to Wylan.

“So Jarl Brum can create force fields and he made one around the perimeter of this school?” Wylan’s blue eyes were wide. “And it’s kind of like a portal and you can’t get back once you go through?”

“Exactly.” Kaz threw the rock up and then caught it. He gestured for Wylan to watch and then threw the rock upwards as far as he could.

Matthias as an eagle caught it and flew to the gate around the perimeter. When he got ten feet away from the gate he chucked the rock through the invisible force field. It disappeared with a quiet blip.

Nina glanced over at Wylan who looked utterly alarmed. He spun to Kaz. “And no one can get out of...wherever it goes?”

“Exactly.” Kaz said again with a curt nod. He laid his hands on his cane and waited for Matthias to fly back to them and morph back into a human.

Wylan gulped as Matthias reopened the balcony doors. “And...and no living human has gone through I hope?”

Matthias shook his head. “No. No one has been foolish enough to go through that force field just for an experiment.”

“When I was in the astral plane I went through it. I felt a breeze. And there isn’t any wind in the astral plane.” Wylan piped up as he followed Kaz through the doorway.

“But that’s not the same thing,” Nina stated. “You can go to places in the blink of an eye. You can’t do that here.”

“And you didn’t see anything odd or out of place?” Kaz asked without turning around.

“No. It was just normal grass and ground. The only thing that told me something was weird was the breeze.”

Kaz didn’t say anything immediately after that. However, once they got to the fifth floor and Matthias retreated to his room, Kaz sat down on a bench and stared at Wylan with a calculating expression on his face.

Jesper and Inej grinned at each other. “Scheming face,” they said together in a whisper.

“Van Eck, have you ever tried momentarily returning from the astral plane without your physical body?” Kaz asked. He leaned back and rested his bad leg on his other thigh.

“What? How would I be able to do that without my physical body?” Wylan said with a frown. “Would I be like a ghost or something?”

“So...you haven’t tried?” Kaz said smugly.

Wylan was at a loss for words and his mouth moved but didn’t form words. “I can try.”

Kaz stood up and smirked—the closest thing to a smile he had. “Good.” And, before anyone could muster a reply Kaz began his way down the hallway.

As soon as the door closed Wylan sat down in the place Kaz had just left.

For a long moment, no one spoke. Inej retreated back down the hallway quietly.

“So, are you going to try it?” Jesper asked excitedly and Nina could feel the blood pumping through his body.

“I...I guess. I can’t imagine it working though. Wouldn’t I need a second physical body? And that’s not possible.” Wylan went silent again. “Why is he even asking me this?”

“Don’t question him.” Nina said, retrieving a cookie from her pocket she had taken from the kitchen. “I’m sure he has good reason.”

“But aren’t you curious to know? Like…” Wylan trailed off, fumbling for words.

“After years of being in the same quarters as Kaz, you kind of learn that his mind works in strange ways and that you don’t question him.” Nina said.

“But I am curious.” Jesper added in. “Of course. But yeah, even if you do ask him, nine times out of ten, he won’t respond.”

Wylan still looked hesitant. “Well...alright. Let’s see…” he shut his eyes and Nina watched carefully, curious to know how the body reacted to astral projection. Would she be able to feel where he was like she could Inej or was he off the grid completely.

Wylan’s heart slowed, almost to a deadly place and Nina was about to run over there but Jesper stopped her. “Let him do his thing.”

Then, Wylan’s whole body went limp and Nina could barely hear a heartbeat. She turned to Jesper. “You think that that’s normal?” Her voice was barely above a whisper.

Jesper didn’t say anything but his accelerated heartbeat told her everything.

They awaited with bated breath and Nina mentally searched the room for something—anything that could tell her where Wylan was. But she heard nothing.

Then, all of a sudden Nina saw it and Jesper stiffened beside her.

A single finger was floating a couple feet away from her. But she couldn’t feel any blood or a pulse running through it.

“Wylan?” Jesper asked, reaching a hand out to touch it.

Jesper had almost touched it before the finger was sucked back into the void as Wylan’s heart rate sped up and he took in a deep breath in his physical body.

He quickly ran up, feeling a little light headed. “Did you see my finger?” Wylan asked excitedly.

“Yeah.” Jesper said. “It was just...floating there.”

“It was super weird.” Nina added in. “I couldn’t feel any pulse even though you were there. You’re right, you’re like a ghost.”

“How’d you do it?” Jesper said. He was fiddling with the pen again.

Wylan opened his mouth then closed it. Opened it, then closed it. “It...it’s really hard to explain. The closest thing I can say is that...it’s like you’re in putty and you have to...to push yourself through it and it’s super hard and really tiring but entirely possible, but it takes a long time.”

Nina wondered if it was anything like how she imagined when she played around with muscles in bodies. Like it resisted her enough but was still pliable in her hands. Whatever Wylan was trying to convey, was something almost inflexible. But not quite.

Jesper rolled the pen around, thinking hard. “Like some kind of metal?”

Wylan shook his head. “It’s...it’s not as hard as metal. It’s like…well, putty. As you work it, it becomes easier to handle and maneuver.”

Jesper grasped the pen in a fist and when he uncurled his hand it was a purple-ish ball. “Maybe something like this?” He offered and threw it at Wylan who dropped it and sheepishly picked it up to inspect it.

Wylan rolled it around in his hand and poked it a couple of times. He tried pulling it apart so quickly that it tore. He told Jesper this and Jesper tweaked it.

For 45 minutes Nina just watched. Well, not exactly. She went down to the kitchen to get some snacks (waffles and some cheese and crackers) and she sat down at the little bench. While Nina was rather interested in this new kid who had arrived, she didn’t really want to watch Jesper and Wylan play around with a ball of putty—whether it was helping Wylan with his astral projection or not.

So, Nina hung out with Inej in her room for a bit. She didn’t know what she’d do without Inej in this weird, closed off, place. She couldn’t imagine being the only girl in a house full of boys. Although, to be honest, Jesper and Wylan were fine. Jesper was a bit eccentric and he never stopped moving but it was better than Matthias’ stick in the mud manner and Kaz’s attitude that resembled a pre-teen boy in the middle of his rebellious war phase that thought wearing all black was super cool.

Supper was uneventful and Nina wanted to puke up her food when Brum asked everyone how their day was and only Matthias replied with a curt “satisfactory”.

When Nina was younger and she was still with her mom, the night time was their getaway.

Nina would stay up until her mom’s shift ended at 11:30 and they’d stargaze and drink hot chocolate until 12:15 where they’d promptly fall asleep in their rickety, old, outdoor swinging bench.

Nina loved sleep. But she loved her mom more.

Now, without her mom, sleep was second priority. Food was obviously first.

Nina snuggled up in the fuzzy comforter she had made Brum buy her from the market when she first got here and promptly fell asleep.

And, like every single night when her body woke her up at the godforsaken time of 6:30 in the morning, she was curled up in Matthias’s bed, an arm slung across his waist like they were an old married couple.

Chapter 3: Inej

Inej could never sleep past five in the morning.

It was physically impossible for her body to sleep in. Whether she fell asleep at 8 in the evening or 3 in the morning.

Even Kaz slept in later than her. Not by much, usually only thirty minutes, but still.  

After getting dressed, she noiselessly padded out of her room, down the four flights of stairs, and exited the building into the fresh air.

The school had a lot of windows but there was one specific place, behind the school, that had no windows and was the perfect place to scale the side of the building.

Of course, she could still scale a building with windows. It was just that she preferred not to.

There was barely any wind when Inej got to the top and leaned against the chimney, letting herself lie on the black roof like a cold blooded animal warming itself.

Inej’s thoughts drifted and hopped from thought to thought—about Kaz’s plan, Wylan, Jarl Brum and Matthias, and Kaz’s secret associates.

The roof was something of a safe haven to Inej. Even though if Jarl Brum were to ride in he’d see her, she knew he wouldn’t. Brum never came to the school this early.

There was a flap of wings nearby, and Inej didn’t even sit up as the eagle landed on the roof and cocked its head to the side before morphing into Matthias.

“You shouldn’t come up here. It’s dangerous.” Matthias states as he sat sprawled his legs out over the roof. He was close enough that it was comfortable but he wasn’t too so that Inej felt unsafe.

Inej didn’t say anything. He always greeted her the same way every morning.

And every morning she’d respond with the same thing. “It’s not dangerous up here.” And Matthias knew what she was implying—that down there, in the school, was much more dangerous.

They stayed like that—Inej laying on her back and Matthias sitting down—silently contemplating about whatever managed to run through their heads at that moment.

Matthias pursed his lips after awhile. “Please tell me you aren’t going to go. You could be punished very severely if you do this.”

Inej sat up and frowned. “I’ve done this over one hundred times. You can’t tell me not to go.”

“I’m not telling you not to go. I’m hoping that you won’t. Whatever Brekker gets you to do every two weeks can’t be good.”

Inej rolled her eyes and ran a hand through her long, dark, brown hair. She hadn’t put it up yet in its bun so it floated around with the light wind. It almost reached her butt when she stood up. “I think I should cut my hair.” Inej said suddenly.

Matthias glared at her but didn’t acknowledge her changing the subject. “Up to you I guess.” He shrugged.

As much as she liked her long hair, it could be such a hassle. It was heavy too.

But Inej felt like if she did cut it her balance would be off from such a large weight off of her head.

But those thoughts were stupid. There were so much more important things to think about than whether she should cut her hair or not.

“It would look good either way.” Matthias said with another shrug.

“You should head back inside.” Inej pointed out. “It’s almost six. You don’t want Nina waking up without you.”

Matthias made a scrunched up face and he looked like he wanted to say something. But, instead, he stood up, transformed into an eagle, and away he flew.

When Inej walked into Kaz’s room, Kaz was sitting at his desk, an envelope twirling around in his gloved hands.

“How was your roof chat with Helvar?” Kaz asked nonchalantly, leaning back in his chair and spinning back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. His gloves were on top of each other at the corner of his desk.

“Good,” Inej said and perched herself on Kaz’s windowsill. It was the best spot to sit.

Kaz raised an eyebrow.

“The same conversation as always.” Inej said again. “Said I shouldn’t be on the roof, said that I shouldn’t deliver the letter for you…” she shrugged.

Kaz pocketed the letter and picked up his gloves, beginning to slide them on.

“How did Wylan do last night?” He asked, stretching his fingers beneath the tough leather.

“He managed to get a finger through from the astral plane.” Inej recounted. “He explained it like he was pushing through putty.”

Kaz nodded as he stood up and grabbed his cane. He had had it for as long as Inej could remember. She was pretty sure he brought it from where he lived when he was collected by Jarl Brum or Matthias.

They were about to head down for breakfast when a voice came through the vent underneath Kaz’s bed.

The vent was a great spy tool. It connected to the main entrance of the house. The sounds were quiet enough that they wouldn’t alert anyone else on the floor but it was loud enough to spy on other people’s conversation.

It was Yuri Vedenen, the school teacher, and a mysterious voice that had been appearing on occasion for as long as Kaz could remember, who had arrived at the school before her.

Inej and Kaz glanced up at each other at the same time. Kaz gave a slight nod, and Inej  dashed out as fast as she could.

The mysterious voice was a puzzle for both Kaz and Inej. Unless Kaz has figured it out without telling her. And, if that was the case, she’d be having a strong word with Kaz.

Inej jumped onto the handrail and slid down as quickly and quietly as she could.

The voice couldn’t be pinned to anybody that they knew. Jarl Brum and Yuri were the only two adults who ever showed their faces, but the owner of the mystery voice had never been seen by any of the students before.

Every time they could hear the voice through the vents, Kaz would stay up in the bedroom to listen to the rest of the conversation while Inej would run/slide down the four flights of stairs to catch a glimpse of the mysterious person.

Every single time she was too slow and the person was gone, leaving just Yuri alone in the entrance hall.

This time she was determined to see something—anything—that could help her and Kaz in their search for the mystery man.

Inej hopped off the rail and landed silently on the main floor before cutting through the study and then the two living rooms (who needed two living rooms?)

As she got closer she quieted her footsteps even more and neared the half wall that separated the living room and the entrance hall.

“So please try to be discreet.” The mysterious voice said. “We don’t want a coup like last time.”

“Yes, yes. Of course.” Yuri repeated. “Discreet.”

Inej turned herself invisible and peeked her head above the half wall.

Yuri was in his normal black garb and was clasping his hands together.

And the mysterious man…

Inej couldn’t see anyone except Yuri.

Inej silently walked closer. Where was the voice coming from?

She followed Yuri’s gaze and it seemed like he was looking straight ahead. But not glazed off in any way.

“Good. I expect to hear from you soon.” The man said again.

Inej quickly walked behind Yuri to see what he was looking at.

She almost made a noise with her mouth.

Yuri was looking at a face floating in front of him.

The man that was peering at Yuri like he would the dirt on his shoe. He had unruly orange hair and bright green eyes.

Inej only caught a glimpse of the man before he disappeared and Yuri continued down the hallway towards the staircase.

As soon as she knew it was safe, she sprinted up the staircase, skipping as many steps as she dared.

She was about to start the third staircase when Kaz appeared in front of her. Inej tried to stop, but there was too much momentum and  the next thing she knew she was on the floor, visible again and on all fours. It seemed like a miracle that she wasn’t touching any part of Kaz.

While Kaz was fully clothed save for his face, Inej knew that both of them would rather not come in skin-to-skin contact. Especially Kaz.

Inej jumped up immediately and offered Kaz her hand.

He didn’t take it.

Inej didn’t take it personally.

“I saw the face of the man!” Inej exclaimed. 

Kaz shook his head in disbelief. “What?”

“We have to have breakfast. Nina’s keeps track of us and if we aren’t on time she’s going to be suspicious.” Kaz said in a clipped tone. “After breakfast come up and tell me what you saw.”

And without waiting for Inej to respond he began making his way down the staircase.

If Inej knew that Nina wasn’t paying attention to everything she would have slid down the handrail and passed Kaz. But she didn’t. Even if she really wanted to.

Breakfast was excruciatingly slow and she couldn’t stop moving. Inej wondered if it was like how Jesper felt.

Only Kaz seemed to recognize how impatient she felt. Maybe Matthias too, but she knew he wouldn’t bring it up.

Once breakfast was finally over, it was their thirty minutes free time before class, Inej was the first one on the top floor and waited in Kaz’s bedroom on his windowsill, invisible.

Kaz was dead last up the stairs. She supposed if she was in a better mood she’d rationalize. The guy did walk with a limp. But Inej couldn’t stand it any longer. She began flickering in and out of sight.

When Kaz walked in Inej opened her mouth but Kaz just glared at her. Inej promptly closed her mouth while Kaz took at least one full minute to close the door and lock it.

“You are the worst.” Inej said as Kaz took his sweet time sitting down at his desk chair. He pulled off his gloves and placed them one on top of the other on his desk.

Kaz didn’t address her last comment. “What did you see?”

Inej pursed her lips. “It was a man with orange hair and green eyes. He was contacting Yuri through this...this portal thing. So he wasn’t actually physically there. That’s why I could never catch him before or see him because he was wherever he was.”

“Did you manage to catch his surroundings?”

Inej shook her head. “It was just his face and even then I didn’t see much because he disconnected or closed the portal almost as soon as I caught a glimpse of him.” She changed the subject. “What were Yuri and him talking about?”

Kaz closed his left hand around his cane. “They were talking about taking blood tests of everyone here except Matthias. Put a sleeping tonic in our supper and take the blood while we sleep.”

“And they talked about a previous coup?” Inej asked. “What’s that about?” While it wasn’t her first time hearing about the previous troubles that occurred at the school, no one ever talked about it unless it was absolutely dire.

She had pieced together that before any of the current students attended the school—even Matthias—there were more than four students who attended this school. And they tried to escape. Something horrible happened but three of the four of them had managed to escape.

And she was working as Kaz’s messenger to contact two of them.

“The last student loyal to Brum woke up while they were secretly taking blood and that was the last straw.” Kaz said it so simply. Like he was asking for some salt for his soup.

Yuri Vedenen was an okay teacher. He knew his stuff but he had a tough time getting it out of his mouth. He was powerless (although Kaz still believed he was hiding whatever powers he might have no matter how long Inej spied on the man).

The six of them had to endure six hours of classes a day, not including breaks and lunch. They were taught math, science, English, history and physical education.

Five minutes before “school” was out for the day, Kaz got up from his seat to throw a piece of paper in the garbage. On his way there, he slid the sealed envelope onto Inej’s desk. Matthias glared at her before looking in the opposite direction.

When Yuri dismissed them Inej was the first one out of her seat and immediately turned invisible, sliding down the two flights of stairs to the main floor and out the door.

She climbed to the top of Yuri’s car with ease and gripped the roof racks.

Yuri came out a couple of minutes later, got in his car, waited for Jarl Brum’s signal, and then they were off.

This was always Inej’s favourite part of the journey. The wind running around her body and the warmth of the sun shining down on her. Plus, it gave her plenty of time to just think.

She liked to prattle off powers that she could see Yuri having if he had powers. She could totally see flight or some kind of kinesis like maybe Phytokinesis—plant manipulation.

But that was just for fun. She still believed he was powerless. Surely she would have known by now.

But Kaz insisted. “He’s got a power.” He always said when Inej, Nina, or Jesper brought it up. And then, with just her in the room he’d say “I know he’s got one. He’s hiding his power. I have firsthand experience with hiding it and that man is hiding one.”

And Kaz would go quiet and Inej would slowly leave his room.

Chapter 4: Kaz

Inej arrived back at the school the next morning on top of Brum’s van. He read the letter after she left to get changed for breakfast.

KB,

What you mentioned in your previous letter is incredibly concerning. While we never got to the point where we knew what the school’s goal was about, we know that the obligatory meals are one of the last things on the to-do list. You are correct in trying to escape as soon as humanly possible with IG.

NL is wondering why you aren’t including the others in your escape plan. He thinks that you should try to get everyone out. (But, between you and me, I understand just getting out with IG).

Anyway, just know that we will both be there when you give the signal.

Good luck,

ZN & NL

Kaz closed the letter up and began tearing it up into little pieces. He’d put it in the fireplace later to be burnt.

No more than two minutes later Kaz could feel the familiar sense of being watched. “It’s happening tonight,” he said quietly, brushing the little bits of paper into his palm. “Take anything you need.”

Inej flashed into view and she didn’t comment on how he knew she was there. She looked slightly sick, like she should, but pretty much okay. That was always the excuse when Inej had to deliver a letter to Nazyalensky and Lantsov. That Inej was sick and couldn’t come down for supper, which was always an important meal because Brum always attended. It had been a close call though. Now with Brum and Yuri forcing everyone to go to meals and finishing their plates, they would want to make sure that Inej joined them for supper.

But using Nina’s acting skills and Wylan’s knowledge of chemicals to create a small stink in the room, Yuri and Brum left her alone. Of course, they left Matthias in charge who already knew that Inej wasn’t in her room so, in actuality, they were all fine.

Inej didn’t move.

Kaz knew it was coming before she even spoke.

“I can’t leave.” Kaz waited for the inevitable. “At least, not without Nina and Jesper and Wylan. And maybe Matthias if he wants to.”

Kaz turned his back. He knew Inej wouldn’t be able to leave without the others. He was hoping she wouldn’t say so, but Kaz’s mind went through just about every possible way this plan could go wrong. And Inej being too caring was one of them. So he told her what he had already planned if this event occurred. “Okay. Fine by me. But I’m leaving tonight.”

When Inej had first arrived, she was young, frightened, and traumatized from her experiences before Brum had captured her and brought her over. As she should have been, because working in a pleasure house against your will is utterly awful and completely illegal.

But, over time, they had slowly grown closer, despite Kaz’s compulsion to pull back and just stay silent.

Kaz had a strong sense or, at least, he hoped that Inej would come with him anyway. Why would she want to stay here, trapped, when escape was an option? Kaz had been planning this for ages and one little mistake could cause his and Inej’s deaths. In fact, it could cause everyone’s deaths.

He reached his gloved hand out to turn the doorknob to leave, halting when Inej spoke. “I’m not going.”

Kaz spun on his heels. His leg was beginning to throb. “What?” His voice felt dry and he hoped he hadn’t heard correctly. Except he knew that he had.

“I’m not going without everyone else. And you can leave, that’s completely fine.” Inej’s voice was the complete opposite of what Kaz felt. “I’m going to figure out a way to get us all out of this mess.”

Kaz wanted to say something—anything. But he pursed his lips and spun back around. He yanked open the door maybe a bit too harshly as he left.

He eventually found himself on the second floor, on one of the small balconies behind the building. It’s railing wasn’t as intricate as the one on the fourth floor where he traumatized Nina by throwing her stuffed fox into the force field.

Even though the rails weren’t as pretty, they were tall and opaque. And hollow.

Kaz knelt down on the wooden floor, putting all his weight on his good leg, barely recognizing the spattering of rain getting on his coat. He laid his cane down next to him.

He dug his fingernails into the groove separating each plank of wood and it popped out of its place, revealing a hollow space.

His metal box was his arms length away on the right side. It was about the size of a shoe box, and he wasn’t planning on leaving without it.

“Ah, so this is where Kaz’s personal belongings are.”

Kaz almost got whiplash from how quickly his head swivelled.

Jesper was leaning against the doorway, arms crossed. A light smile played on his lips.

Kaz stood up as quickly as he could while also grabbing his box. He grasped his cane while popping the plank back in its place. “It’s pretty much empty now so you can use it if you’d like.” Kaz said in a clipped tone.

He couldn’t get Inej’s voice out of his head.

“What are you doing?” Jesper asked nonchalantly.

“Nothing.” Kaz replied, gripping his box tightly. But then he remembered something.

Jesper watched him with interest as he silently leaned his cane against the railing before opening up the box and digging his hand inside.

Kaz pulled out a fluffy red thing and handed it to Jesper. “Here. Give this to Nina tomorrow morning. I’m sure she’ll be ecstatic.”

Kaz remembered Nina’s face when she thought he had thrown the little stuffed fox into the portal. He had created a duplicate the evening Nina arrived but kept the actual thing in case he needed leverage over Nina.

Jesper took the stuffed animal and inspected it with awe. “Is that Koja, Nina’s old stuffed animal her mom made?”

Kaz hadn’t known that her mom had made it, and that just put him in an even more foul mood. “Just give it to her.” He seized his cane once again and maneuvered his way around Jesper and back into the warmth of the school.

Jesper jogged up behind him. “Wait.” He lowered his voice. “Are you going to leave? Like leave-leave?”

Kaz kept his face calm and didn’t reply. Whether Jesper took this as a yes or no, it didn’t matter.

“Are we all leaving?” Jesper hissed again.

Obviously, Kaz thought, Jesper thought of the former.

Of course, Nina appeared then and Kaz wanted them both gone. He was close to doing something he might regret and he didn’t want that. He wanted to be gone and he wanted Jesper and Nina to leave him alone.

“Is that Koja? Oh my gosh!” Nina exclaimed loudly and snatched the little stuffed toy from Jesper’s fingers. She petted the red fur on its head then looked at Kaz, curious. “I thought you—“

—Kaz shoved passed both of them roughly and didn’t look back. He had to leave. He had planned for it to happen in the evening when Yuri was leaving for the night but now his mind spun for other possibilities.

“Someone’s in a bad mood,” Helvar commented as Kaz came up over the fourth staircase.

“Shut up,” Kaz snapped and slammed his cane down harder than usual.

All he could think about was Inej and he hated it.

Think about something else, he told himself as he made his way back to his room until he would go down for breakfast.

Making sure the door was locked and inspecting every little nook and cranny in his room in case Inej was watching, he sat at his desk chair and laid his box on the desk.

It was slick with condensation as Kaz opened it.

There wasn’t a lot of stuff in it but he could already feel the waters rising above his head, trying to drown him and take him under.

But Kaz forced himself to take off his gloves anyway. It felt painfully slow but this was imperative to their plan.

Every single day since he created this plan with Z and N, he had been taking off his gloves for an hour every day.

If he couldn’t take off his gloves, his plan wouldn’t work. The whole thing was riding on him taking off his gloves, and on Z and N. And he had his mind set on doing it. Kaz wouldn’t fail. It was out of the question.

Kaz shakily picked up the silver coin, which had slid to the corner of the box, and inspected it closely.

It was a coin from Jordie’s first pay. After Jordie had been paid for the first time, they had picked out the shiniest one and decided to save it for good luck. It was their way of remembering that some good could come out of bad.

A week after that though...The waters rose more quickly and Kaz slammed the coin down on the table with a metallic screech. The waters slumped back and Kaz picked up the next item in the box.

It was a wolf statue made of bone, about the size of Kaz’s thumb. It was intricately designed and incredibly light.

After Matthias had insulted Jesper’s mom in a fit of rage, Kaz has snuck into his room and stolen the prized possession Brum had apparently given him.

That evening, after Matthias had found the wolf to be missing, he ransacked Kaz’s room looking for it but couldn’t find anything.

Kaz laid the statue down and picked up the next object. A smooth, round pebble, pitch black. This time, Kaz couldn’t hold down the waters and his whole body shook.

Repressed visions flooded his memory and Kaz couldn’t stop them. The canal. Jakob Hertzoon. Pekka Rollins.

Him and Jordie having powers to manipulate water at will. Sitting on the edge of the canal and making water animals—horses, dogs, birds.

Then the plague. The smell of death that clung to their tiny apartment. Jordie, who didn’t get it at first but, who got it after Kaz had healed.

Kaz not touching Jordie in case he could catch the plague again. Realizing his water powers had vanished. Oh, Kaz remembered that day clearer than the rest. Feeling utterly hopeless.

The day the plague was officially pronounced over, Jordie was still laying in the street, weak.

Kaz still hadn’t touched him. For the first time in weeks, he left their little nook between two buildings to go down to the canal. He had been stupid enough to think that maybe the canal was magical and would bring his powers back.

But no. His powers didn’t reply to his hand movements as he had grown so accustomed to.

After silently weeping at the edge of the canal for a few minutes, he saw a shimmery rock a few feet away in the water.

Impulsively, he waded in and picked it up. The water was strong and it felt like walking in molasses. Kaz hadn’t felt that before. Normally, walking in water was as easy as walking through air. He inspected the rock and thought that maybe he’d give it to Jordie.

On his way back to their alleyway, he was so caught up with looking at his rock that he banged into a man in a trench coat. He toppled to the cobblestone ground and the man helped him up. Neither of them wore gloves. Kaz didn’t think anything of it and kept on walking towards the alleyway.

And then the memories appeared more quickly. Jordie lightly asleep, Kaz pocketing the rock and his fingers brushing one of the buildings that they were sandwiched between. How it had burst into flames. Kaz had scampered  to the other side of the alleyway in terror, his back touching the other wall, and that building burst into flames too.

The next thing Kaz knew he was on Reaper’s Barge, Jordie’s, burnt, limp, body next to him. Kaz was doused in water and saw no massive burns on himself.

“Kaz!” Inej’s life brought him back to the present.  

He was breathing heavily and Inej’s face was so close to his own that he jolted backwards. “Get away from me,” Kaz rasped out aggressively. He released his hands gripping the desk for dear life and scrambled to put on his gloves which were neatly stacked in the corner of his desk.

Inej took a giant step back and sat lightly on his bed. “Are you okay? Nina and Jesper were worried about you.”

Kaz scowled. He saw Inej’s eyes flicker to his desk where the coin, the wolf statue, and the rock were. But she didn’t say anything. “I’m fine.” He growled as he swept the three objects into his hand and pocketed them.

Inej picked at the loose threads on his comforter silently. Kaz expected her to speak but she didn’t say anything.

They sat there in complete silent and Kaz’s attention was painfully brought to his laboured breathing. He hated how weak he sounded. He wanted those memories gone. Why couldn’t Wylan have been a memory manipulator instead of an astral projector?

Kaz tried to calm his breathing but every time he did he could feel his body in the water, arms wrapped around Jordie as he kicked relentlessly to land from Reaper’s Barge.

Kaz could do nothing but watch his chest move up and down so fast that he could feel slightly dizzy.

He averted his gaze and instead forced himself to look at Inej who was still playing with his comforter’s loose threads. She was breathing calmly and Kaz tried to match up his own breathing with her’s.

That was when Inej began speaking. “Nina, Jesper, and Wylan want to talk to you.”

“It’s not possible to all get out.” Kaz answered slowly. “I’ve went over thousands of different plans with all four of us before Wylan got here. None of them worked. Someone died or all of us died. It just doesn’t work. And now with Wylan? That’s just too many people.”

“Maybe you missed a way.” Inej said, finally look at him and letting the thread between her fingers go. “We can all help. It must be exhausting thinking up plans by yourself.”

“I didn’t miss anything” Kaz responded sourly. “It’s literally impossible to get all five of us out.” Besides, he added silently, how would he tell Z and N about the change? Wylan could contact them, he supposed. That was the whole reason he asked Wylan if he could leave the astral plane without his body.

“We can all think of a plan together.” Inej said.

“Tell me your idea on how we’d all get through the forcefield since there’s no way that we could all hide in Yuri’s car.” Kaz asked with a raised brow.

Inej thought for a long moment. “We could get Nina to hold Brum down and then force him to put down the forcefield.”

“And if Brum refuses?” Kaz asked.

“We’ll kill him?” Inej said although her voice was unsure. “And hope that when he dies his forcefield goes away too?” She paused before gesturing to Kaz. “What is your idea? Even if it doesn’t work just say it.”

Kaz bristled. Late at night, when he thought of ideas of escape for three or more people, he had had one good idea as to how they’d all escape through the forcefield. He’d never told Inej, because it would give her too much hope. But the idea could almost certainly work. Maybe. But he said it anyway. “I’ll take down the forcefield.”

It took Inej a moment before she understood what he meant. When she did, her eyes went wide. “Kaz, Brum will notice if you have your gloves off and try to even get close to him.”

“Brum thinks I’m a pyrokinetic. Not a power absorber.” Kaz said so quietly that he could barely hear himself.

Inej nodded slowly, like she was in a daze. “That could work. If Nina can hold down Brum and Yuri and Matthias if he’s a lot of trouble, we can get you to touch Brum and take down the forcefield.” Her eyes were bright and Kaz wished to be that hopeful.

“It’s not that easy.” Kaz said. “There’s undoubtedly something that we won’t expect.” Which is why he wanted Z and N. Especially with N’s...specific power.

“You’re right, but five different powers have a better chance of escaping than two.” Inej said. “Especially since no one here knows what you do.”

Kaz crossed his arms. “The more people planning to escape, the more likely someone’s going to die.” He wouldn’t let them all go on a suicide mission.

Inej sighed then stood up. “Alright.” She tilted her head to the side. “At least come down for breakfast. We’re behind schedule.”

The dinner table was quiet and Kaz couldn’t not notice the small nod Inej gave Nina as she sat down.

Halfway through breakfast Matthias grabbed his stomach and snapped his mouth shut. No one said anything as Matthias practically ran from the dinner table. Kaz heard pounding on the floor as Matthias went to find the nearest bathroom.

Nina grinned. “That should keep him in the bathroom for a while.”

Kaz slammed his utensils on the wooden table and stood up. “No.” He growled and he would have left if not for Inej slipping past him and blocking the doorway completely.

“Listen to them. We won’t talk in much detail in case the room is bugged, but there aren’t many times we can talk without Matthias around.” Inej said forcefully. She didn’t move until Kaz was fully sat back in his chair.

“Here’s the plan,” Jesper said. “Nina snaps Yuri’s neck and tortures Brum until he gives up and takes the forcefield away. Simple.”

“Not that simple.” Kaz said and picked up the knife, testing it against his gloves. “We don’t know what Yuri’s powers are and Brum won’t easily give up.”

“But Yuri told me that he doesn’t—” Wylan began.

“—And you believe him?” Kaz asked with a raised eyebrow.

Wylan pursed his lips and his shoulders tensed in annoyance. “Okay, then what? How the heck are we going to make Brum take the forcefield away out of his own free will?”

Kaz placed the knife down. “Leave that to me. You all will deal with Yuri and anything else that could possibly happen.” He turned his gaze to Inej. The red haired man with the green eyes. The thought ran through his head and Inej nodded curtly, as if she could read his mind.

“We can’t do anything if we don’t know all the details.” Nina said. “Later, you two tell us everything.”

“There is no safe place here,” Kaz replied easily. “And the less you know, the less you can tell.” 

“Who are we supposed to tell? Yuri? Matthias?” Jesper asked.

Kaz huffed. He still was sure this wouldn’t work. “Just...it’s safer if you don’t know everything.” He heard footsteps again and his spine straightened. “Meet me in the spare bedroom across from Inej’s after classes.”

Less than two seconds later, Matthias came back in, still looking a little green.

“Are you okay?” Inej asked.

“Yeah, I think I just ate a bad piece of egg.” Matthias muttered, keeping his head down as he plopped himself down in his chair.

Kaz couldn’t eat anymore. He palms were slick with sweat and his throat felt incredibly dry.

***

“So tell me where Matthias is again?” Wylan asked curiously.

“Every day after classes, he speaks to Yuri about us. Kind of like to see if we’re doing everything we should. It takes at least one hour.” Nina replied with an eye roll.

“That long? What does he talk about?”

Nina snorted. “Probably what we wear, what we talk about, how much we eat, how long our hair grew since he last saw him.”

Kaz cleared his throat. “Now is not the time, Zenik.” He had to think. How was he going to pull off an impossible stunt that could kill them all if anyone made the wrong move or they got something wrong.

All five of them shut their mouths and brought their focus’ to him who was sitting on the desk. “Wylan, how’s leaving the astral plane without your body?”

Wylan shrugged. “Well, I mean...I can make a little portal through about the size of my fist.”

“Good. I want you to go into the astral plane, follow this road until you see a farmhouse with the sign The Bonds outside. Find a person inside and tell them I’m taking three more people.” Even saying it sounded impossible on Kaz’s lips. “Also tell them the signal is the same. And, at the very end of telling them, before you go back into the astral plane, say what’s written on here.” He gave a piece of paper to Wylan. “Once you’ve read it, tear it up and burn it. And when you come back, stay where you are until Jesper comes to get you.”

Kaz pointed to Jesper. “Go now and when Wylan gets to the astral plane, hide the body where we discussed.” He looked harshly at Jesper to make sure he understood and nodded. “Go now and come back the second you’re done.”

“Wait, are we going before supper?” Nina asked.

Kaz ignored her. He couldn’t disclose a time this open where anyone could be listening. This was the whole reason he chose to meet in this room was because there were no vents and an incredibly small window that faced a brick wall.

He waited until Jesper and Wylan left before turning to Inej and Nina. “You two will deal with Yuri and anything or anyone that might be a surprise.”

“What if Yuri is powerless?” Inej asked.

“He’s not. But if his power isn’t deadly don’t bother too much.” Kaz said.

“And you’re sure you can deal with Brum by yourself?” Nina asked skeptically.

“Yes.”

Jesper slipped back into the room. “Wylan’s gone. What do you want me to do?”

“I want you to, on my signal, turn the nearest thing into a sunflower and chuck it as high in the air as you can.”

“What?” Jesper, Nina, and Inej said simultaneously.

“Just do it or so help me.” Kaz snapped.

“And what do I do before you give me the signal?” Jesper asked, scratching his arm uncertainty.

Kaz held his head with his hands. He felt overwhelmed and very close to lashing out and murdering every single one of them in this room including himself. “I—I...just don’t get in my way but be ready at any moment to give the signal. And go get Wylan once everything begins.”

Kaz’s ears perked up as he heard the massive van Brum drove pull up to the school.

They were all on their feet in seconds. “It’s showtime,” Nina muttered. “When do we know to start?”

“You’ll know.” Kaz responded, grabbing his cane and opening his door.

The walk down the stairs was painfully slow and his bad knee began twinging again.

He took off his gloves and pocketed them, trying his hardest not to allow them to shake.

When he got to the first floor, Nina and Jesper spread out, and he knew Inej was invisible right next to him.

Brum was down the hallway, talking with Yuri about their day. Kaz steeled himself. He wished he could get Inej’s power and then sneak up behind Brum and grab his forcefield power but he could only reuse his power once every twenty four hours.

He was thinking of just walking by, brushing his own hand against Brum’s. But as soon as he was a couple feet away from Brum, Matthias bounded out of the hallway to Kaz’s right, smacking him straight in the back and making Kaz topple into Brum.

Well that was one way to do it, Kaz thought sourly as Brum swore multiple times and grabbed Kaz’s hand, yanking him back up and nearly popping his arm out of its socket. Kaz blinked harshly, keeping the waters at bay. Brum’s hand was freezing cold and felt rubbery. “Watch where you’re going, Brekker.”

When Brum continued on with Yuri, Kaz rustily moved his hands and fingers like he did with water when he was a boy. But nothing happened. He felt absolutely nothing.

Kaz’s breathing became jagged and heavy. Panic began to set in his chest. There was no rushing of power down his arms and out of his fingers, there was nothing. Kaz didn’t have any power. Which only meant one thing.

His hands began shaking uncontrollably this time as he turned to Inej who flickered into his sight. His voice was raw. “Brum doesn’t have any powers.”

Then who has the force field powers? The question ran through both of their minds.

Inej responded so silently Kaz felt like he might faint. “The mysterious voice.”

Chapter 5: Matthias

Matthias watched as a spider on the wall as Brekker told Inej that Jarl Brum was powerless.

He watched as the two of them skittered away, leaving Matthias alone in the empty hallway.

Matthias didn’t know why he turned on Brum. Maybe it was because he noticed the changes in his former father figure.

How, when he called people with powers “disgusting” and “unnatural” he no longer added in “except for you, Matthias.” Instead, he just said “no offence” to Yuri whenever he was in the room.

How Matthias slowly came to enjoy being around the people in the school, save Brekker.

Or maybe it was because Matthias wanted to escape too but he just never had the courage to.

Whatever the reason, he just wanted to leave. Maybe even earn Nina’s respect back.

Matthias let go with all eight legs and turned himself into a fly. It was time to put his own plan into action. Everyone thought he was stupid. And he used that to his advantage. After puking his guts up during breakfast, he snuck back to the kitchen as a spider and listened in. After talking to Yuri after classes for ten minutes, he went back and listened in on the other five’s conversation.

Actually, Matthias had been planning on telling Brum everything after breakfast but he took the rest of the day to think about everything. His situation. His feelings towards Jarl Brum. And, while Matthias hated Kaz to the core, he had to admit the guy had a brilliant mind.

Flying through the vents and tiny cracks in the walls, ceiling, and floor, he shot up into the secret sixth floor which was inhabited by Pekka Rollins. He found him at the cramped dining table, reading a newspaper. After shifting back to his human form, Matthias tried to make himself seem as worried as possible. Acting wasn’t his strong suit. “Quick! We’ve got an orange alert! I have to take you to the safe house.”

Pekka Rollins’ eyebrows shot up he began breathing heavily. He ran a hand through his hair quickly. “Okay. Hold on. I need to grab a couple of belongings.”

Matthias wasn’t sure what to do. Should he let the man grab his things? Was that what he’d do if he was still on the other side and completely worried for the Rollins’ life?

But he took too long to contemplate it. In any real emergency Matthias would have all the answers. Rollins’s mouth curved upwards into a sick grin, now understanding it was all a hoax. Matthias began thinking of an escape route before Rollins took the offense and chose the first one to come to his head. He closed his eyes and prayed no one was under him as he turned into an elephant and the floor broke beneath him.

He counted the floors as they bowed underneath his weight and broke. One, two, three, four, five. As the fifth one broke Matthias clamped his eyes shut even harder and made himself turn into a white wolf.

Matthias could smell Kaz. His smell was distinctly gross and sour and he followed his nose even after he could smell Rollins on his tail.

Kaz was on the third floor balcony with the other four, surrounding the hole he had made. Most of them looked worried but otherwise unharmed. Wylan noticed him first and pointed, fear in his eyes. “Kaz, you better get a touch of this man or I will rip your other leg off.” Matthias growled. Kaz looked slightly shocked and his eyebrows rose up.

Of course he knew Kaz’s ability. Matthias had spied on him for hours on end until he figured it out. He had been so confused before he realized what exactly Kaz did. How Kaz and Jesper had accidentally touched the day Nina arrived and Kaz could change the paper in his room to objects like knives and rocks. How Kaz never seemed to use his fire powers except for the first day where Brum swore he saw the kid burn two buildings down.

He picked up speed, jumping over the balcony’s railing and turning into a fly before he could hit the ground.

Matthias immediately changed course and began flying back up to the balcony. But suddenly he came face to face with Rollins’ shoe and he quickly changed course to avoid being swatted to death.

By the time Matthias made it back to the balcony, Nina had gone and he assumed Inej had too. Jesper was holding onto a rock for dear life, Kaz looking up at the sky with his arms outstretched.

Matthias watched with amazement as the rock slowly morphed into the brightest sunflower he had ever seen. Jesper threw it up as high as it could go. For a split second, Matthias wondered what Nina’s favourite flower was.

But all those thoughts soon vanished as a loud roar almost deafened him. He spun around and glimpsed a woman and a thing. Some kind of animal. It was massive with wings, talons, and fangs. As it got closer, it looked like the animal’s blood was pitch black. They were headed towards them at full speed.

He didn’t have time to alert Kaz when Pekka Rollins escaped through a portal and reappeared on the dormer roof, just feet above Kaz who was so concentrated on opening the forcefield that he didn’t hear Rollins jump.

Matthias roared as he began to shift into a lion but then he noticed someone—or something. A floating dagger near Kaz. Inej.

Matthias flew inside the building, turning into a wolf as he went and following Nina’s scent of tangerine and sweat.

Nina was standing in the middle of the kitchen, Yuri on one side, closest to Matthias, and Brum on the other. Her fists were clenched and both of the men were scratching at their necks hastily. Matthias got closer and growled as he noticed one of Yuri’s hands begin to curl.

A puff of grey clouds formed and Matthias saw Nina’s eyes widen at whatever Yuri was showing her through the clouds.

Matthias knew this trick well. Yuri had used it against him when he had been a boy. Matthias had been mischievous and Yuri had created the clouds to show him his younger sister, huddling on a cold, damp, street alone. Matthias had begged Yuri to make it go away but Yuri only listened once Matthias was crying for at least an hour.

Nina’s fists began to slowly unclench and Yuri and Brum both started to relax as they both managed to get some air.

Matthias shifted into a lion and skidded through the rest of the hallway, digging his claws into the wood to slow down in front of Nina. He opened his mouth and let out a mighty roar. Nina put her hands to her ears but her lips were slightly upturned.

He noticed Yuri’s cloud and saw the familiar shape of Nina’s mom, rocking slowly back and forth in a rocking chair. “Hop on.” Matthias said, trying to sound normal but the jowls on the lion were large and human speech just sounded foolish.

Nina climbed on his back just as Brum jabbed out with a dagger.

And then they were off. Matthias ran as fast as he could go. Perhaps he should have turned into a cheetah instead. As they got to the hole that he had created as an elephant he bent down and jumped up to the second floor, feeling his back left paw slip a little on loose planks.

He steadied himself once again and jumped up to the third floor, making his way down the hallway to the closest balcony. He slowed as he got to the balcony door, pawed at it from underneath, and it opened. If Nina hadn’t been on his back he would have just run through it.

He jumped off the balcony and landed gracefully on the grass, lowering his back so Nina could slide off. “What made you change your mind?” She asked curiously.

Matthias shifted back to his human form. He was slick with sweat and he could hear shouts in the distance. “I...I don’t know.” He swallowed the lump in his throat and, for the first time, noticed the trees nearby bent almost at a ninety degree angle. When had it become incredibly windy? “But it feels right.” And then the question popped into his head again. “Hey, what’s your favourite flower—?”

But he was cut off by Nina’s deafening shriek and the sound of a gunshot.

And then everything went black.

Chapter 6: Jesper

The sound of gunshot made everyone stop. Inej was the first to recover.  She turned herself invisible and hopped from the balcony’s railing to the roof,

Kaz was no longer straining to keep the forcefield open for the two newcomers. Apparently, Kaz had explained a couple minutes before, they were old students who had managed to escape. The woman was a wind manipulator named Zoya Nazyalensky while the monster was Nikolai Lantsov who wasn’t always a monster, mostly he was a man who just so happened to turn into a horrendous monster.

Jesper was holding onto a stick that he had turned into a sword, but now he wondered if he should have made something strong. A crossbow maybe?

Kaz was still leaning against the balcony’s railing, out of breath. But now he seemed ready for a fight. “Let’s go. Make us a gun and some bullets. You shoot. Come on Wylan, keep up.”

The three of them ran back inside the building. Jesper picked up random splinters and pieces of things on the floor, creating a revolver out of a pebble. It fit in his hands nicely, and he made a second one and gave that one to Kaz. As they made their way outside, Jesper yanked up a handful of grass and quickly shut his eyes, picturing shiny bullets and their heaviness in his hand. When he opened them again he gave half of the bullets to Kaz and kept the other half for himself.

He turned to Wylan and grinned lopsidedly. He had only just met Wylan but Jesper would willingly die for him. “What weapon are you most comfortable with? Bow and arrow? Sword? Ninja stars?”

“None, preferably.” Wylan said, scrunching up his nose.

“Shield, it is then.” Jesper nodded, clicking his tongue and picking up a fallen leaf.

Inej and Nina ran over to them. Tears were streaming down Nina’s face and Inej’s face was pale. “Matthias is dead.” She sobbed out.

Kaz looked alarmingly unfazed by this revelation. “How?” He turned to Inej gravelly.

“Gunshot. It was Brum on a balcony and Matthias didn’t see him.” Inej replied, putting an arm around Nina and squeezing tightly.

Jesper blanched. “Where are they now? Yuri, Brum, and the other man?”

“I think the winged thing dealt with Yuri. As for Brum and the other one, I don’t know.” Inej replied.

The wind picked up again in strong gusts and they ran to the front of the house. Zoya was in the middle of the field, the wind she had created whipping her black hair everywhere. Rollins was trying to make his way through, using the portal in front of him as a shield to absorb Zoya’s heavy gusts.

“Where’s Nikolai?” Jesper asked.

But nobody needed to answer, for there was a massive roar that made the building wobble on its foundation. “Inej, Wylan and Nina, go help Nikolai with Brum. Jesper, come with me.” Kaz said as he made his way over to Zoya and the red haired man.

Jesper watched as Kaz stretched out his hands. Suddenly, the man fell through the ground in a portal.

Zoya whipped her head around to see both Kaz and Jesper. “Now we don’t know where he is.” She said spitefully.

“Oh, we do.” Kaz said simply. His voice was patient while Zoya looked ready to slap him across the face—possibly the only person in the world who could ever get away with such a feat.

And, just like what had happened with the man, a portal formed under Kaz and he fell through, cane and all.

Jesper yelled and tried to grab at Kaz’s gloved hand. Kaz gripped on tightly and Jesper tried to heave him up. While Kaz wasn’t heavy, he wasn’t light either. But then his heart sank as he felt Kaz’s glove begin to wiggle off. “No!” He said with gritted teeth, trying to maneuver his hands to grip Kaz’s forearm. Instead, however, gravity won and Kaz fell through Jesper’s fingers like cold stone through the portal, leaving him with one of Kaz’s leather gloves. Zoya shrieked.

Then, all was silent. There were no roars from Nikolai and the wind Zoya had been conjuring up was gone. “He’s almost as stupid as Nikolai.” Zoya snapped, marching up to Jesper, trying to fix her hair.

“But you know you love me,” a blond man came into view, a self-assured smile on his face. He was in rags and slicked with dirt.

Jesper watched as Zoya’s face melted into relief.

“Where’s Kaz?” Inej asked, her head turning to look around.

Jesper retold the short story and Inej went completely silent. She gripped the dagger in her hand and Nina slowly held her hand. “I’m sure he’s okay. We just have to wait.”

Wylan’s voice was quiet and his voice wobbled. “Are you okay?” He was still holding the shield. It had a couple of talon streaks in it.

“I don’t know.” Jesper responded truthfully. All he could see was Kaz falling through that portal. “I just feel...numb all over. Exhausted too. How are you feeling?”

“I’m...pretty shaken up. When my father sent me here I thought I would be just coming to a weird boarding school. Not getting into...all of this.” Wylan bit his bottom lip. Jesper took Wylan’s hand in his. Wylan didn’t pull away.

Five minutes later, the five of them sat on the front porch, waiting for Kaz’s return.

“It’s amazing that this building has managed to stay up after Matthias put a hole right through the center of it.” Wylan mused, trying to make conversation but failing miserably. No one was in the mood to talk. The sun was setting and Jesper had managed to find some food in the kitchen for all of them to eat.

When the sun was just a sliver behind the hills in the distance, Nikolai looked at all of them. “What are we going to do if Kaz doesn’t come back?”

Jesper threw a pebble at the force field which disappeared. “Well, the force field is still up.” He said sourly. Wylan’s hand was still warm in his own.

Inej stood up suddenly. “Oh my goodness.” She breathed. Everyone turned to look to where she was looking. The road in the distance. And a limping figure was making its way slowly up to the school.

“Kaz!” Jesper shouted, and soon they were all shouting and hooting and hugging one another.

They all ran as close as they dared to the forcefield to watch Kaz’s slow limp up the road. When he got close enough to see his face, everyone saw how beat up he looked. He had two black eyes and he didn’t have his other glove or his cane. His clothes were ripped and he looked like a zombie.

All of them waited patiently as Kaz raised his hand, letting the forcefield down. Jesper threw a pebble to make sure.

“It’s gone…” Nina said, taking a hesitant step forward onto solid ground. They all took steps forward and soon they were laughing and hollering and shouting again.

Jesper gave the one glove back to Kaz who put it on with a small smile. “We did it.”

[castielartandcomics]

Can you give inking tips? My inking techniques SUCKS, and you'rs are incredible! (Totaly ok if you don't tell me tho)

First of all, I’M SORRY… This ask is here from probably months, and at first I didn’t have time to answer, but then I just straight up forgot about it and I’m so sorry about this! Hope I can still be helpful after so long, and sorry again!!

Thank you for considering my inking incredible, it makes me super happy! /)u(\ I grew really fond on inking, and it’ll be a pleasure for me to give you some tips!! This post might get a little long so, prepare yourself.

So, first things first!

1. Study the heck out other’s inking.

Take yourself some sweet free time and get something of your favourite authors. Inking, like drawing in general and a lot of other things, can be improved by first of all observing and studying how others do it - pretty much like when learning how to cook!So sit comfortably and get everything in front of you, and begin to really observe! I will give you a lot of examples, and they’ll be all from comics, since these are my usual inspiration because of the job I want to do. If you want to make illustrations, consider various illustrators, or covers of the comics!Just to give you a rough example of just how many inking techniques I looked up and still look at…

… these are just a little part of them. Look at how many different hands you can find, because everyone inks differently - and you don’t need to have them in physical form, you can also just look on the internet, but showing off part of my collection of comics and mangas is nice, haha-

2. Black and white VS coloured drawing

Do you want to make drawings that will stay black and white, or do you want to colour them? This is a very important question you should make to yourself, because the ink will eventually serve two different purposes.

Let me explain.

If you want to make a drawing that will remain black and white, the result will be very flat (obviously, because there will be no shades!). This means that your drawing will need to be clear, which you can obtain by making the character’s border thicker, the background thinner, and/or by making black shadows or elements on the characters to make them stand out.The most practical examples I can make you of this is from mangas:

In these panels from Dragon Ball Super, see how the characters have pure black elements while the background doesn’t? It makes them stand out a lot!

And in this from BBC’s Sherlock’s manga, despite the use of a lot of grays, the characters have black clothes (like John’s, under the jacket) or shadows on them that make them stand out against the background, that remains instead much more clean.

An inking that has to remain black and white is often more elaborate, then, because it has to make the scene as clear as possible with just the white of the paper and the black of the ink!

But, if you want to make a coloured drawing, the inking is generally kept simpler, because the colours will give the drawing the right equilibrium. A very elaborated and complex ink can get completely lost, or even ruined, when coloured - unless you want to make flat colours and want to give the ink more importance, but sometimes it gets lost in there too.

Look at this panel, for example, from PK (which I think is called Duck Avenger in foreign languages?). The comic is coloured, so the inking is left pretty simple, filling with complete black just a couple of things that are useful to the panel itself (pk’s costume, and the background behind the dust, that gives the scene a more scary look). If you take away the colouring, the drawing is very flat: because the colours make everything stand out!

Same thing for this panel of Blacksad: it’s far more elaborate, but the details are left pretty simple, even “sketchy”. It’s the colours that make everything move (handmade colours, even! This comic is fully colored in watercolours!)

Now, it’s not always the case:

In Witch Doctor, the inking is very defined and complex and yet it is also coloured, and the effect is very good! Even a bit “dirty”, which is very nice to see, seeing the horror theme of the story. As someone who has read all of it, I can tell you: sometimes it’s a bit distracting, though. It’s an incredibly complex ink, because the equilibrium between black and colours is hard to find, and sometimes it doesn’t work entirely. But when it does, the effect is incredibly cool and nice to look at!

Personally, my biggest inspiration when it comes to inking is Sky Doll:

The inking is so smooth, but manages to remain dynamic and even sketchy in certain details. And it couples with colours just PERFECTLY.And about this, actually:

3. Make your trait dynamic!

What I mean with this is that I noticed that a good inking trait isn’t the same in the entire drawing. Look up at Sky Doll’s panels, especially the first one: the details inside of the face are thinner than the border of it. To make a comparison, look at the trait that defines the border of the cheek, and then look at the sign on Lodovica’s cheek: it’s much thinner! It gives a clear impression of what is what.For another example, look at my last drawing of Sammy: try to focus on one part, like the bandages on the hand. The external trait for them, that defines where they start and where they finish, is thicker; the inside traits are thinner, and the traits inside them is even thinner.

4. Experiment. A LOT.

You won’t find your way of inking a drawing if you don’t try. Do you ink a lot digitally? Try doing it handmade. Try using only inking pens. Then try to use a brush to ink. They try to mix them! Do you feel better inking eyes with a pen, but hair with a brush? Try it! Try making a drawing with much more complex ink. Then try to make one with very simple ink! Try colouring it! Or even both, and see the difference! And digitally? Try changing brush. Then try inking the whole drawing without zooming in. Try inking it with a brush that doesn’t change size, than with one that changes size depending on how much you press! Try, try, try. A fun idea is also to make a sketch, make various copies of it, and then experimenting a lot of ways on the same drawing, and then see the comparisons! Try really everything, without fear, and without looking for extremely professional stuff: once I made a lot of drawings with a pen! Yes, a simple pen, with the ones you write with! Try that, too!And yes, at the beginning you’ll make a mess after another mess - but you’ll see, slowly you’ll start to get the hang of it, especially when you’ll understand what path is the right for you!

Just to make you an example, always with that Sammy drawing of mine: inks are completely handmade. The face traits, lines of the hair, and thinner details, are all made with inking pens; the border lines and the thicker ones are made with brush and fresh ink; the black of the vest and tie is made with marking pens that are used to write on cds; the washed-out black of the Bendy cutout is made with the same pens, but unloaded!Nothing is ever wrong, just try! And you’ll discover some neat tricks!

I hope this helped somehow!! And sorry again for making you wait so long!!If you need any other tips, I’m here ready to help! And hopefully I won’t make you wait so long again, haha- ^^’

[hardeepcox]

Visa Run #3

 Before I start this, I want to add that during Visa Run#2 my dad, Poomi and I found May at the Foxzee’s bargirl place. Business was dead though because of Chinese New Year and actually it felt pretty awkward. I also want to add May had acquired a laugh that seemed more like a maniacal cackle, true story. Seems hilarious now though oh my god. May and I had been messaging every now and then so we stayed somewhat in touch, but when we met this time the atmosphere just felt really awkward. She told me how less fat I now looked and then invited me to play pool. She destroyed me in the first game. We had a re-match, and the bar boss then told her to let me win (thanks for the intel Poomi [he understands Thai]). Dude I am so bad at pool that I actually sunk the 8 ball too early and managed to lose again. I give up at pool, another awkward beer later, I can hear Poomi’s soul faintly saying “true…. yup….” (this is his catch phrase and also the mantra that I mentally tell myself to be chill). He’s bored, and honestly so am I and my dad. We end up spending that night roaming around and drinking beer in random places, pretty chill.

  Okay the ACTUAL Visa Run #3

This was my third and final visa run thus far. And for some reason I found myself going to Bangkok ALONE.

 The dumbass company that I work for (whose name I won’t say but rhymes with ee em gee) said we had to go to a capital city to get our new visas, we couldn’t go to the Cambodian border and get new visas like literally every other English teacher in the city. This then became my one shot at exploring Bangkok again on my own and getting to know this city better.

 Day 1 The first stupid thing I did.

 I didn’t know that there was a metro train going straight from the Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok to my hotel, so I got stuck in multiple cabs during rush hour, got sent to the wrong address, and walked for over an hour while dragging my carry-on luggage. Yeah it sucked but dammit it looked so cool. After walking under and over a sketchy bridge or two, I finally got to my hotel. Damn it actually looked pretty nice, well on the outside at least. I definitely killed a few roaches in my room that night. I only had 2 nights so I planned to make the most of it.

 The second stupid thing I did.

I went to the one place that I had only heard about in legends… Nana Plaza. I was now experienced in the partying ways of Thailand, these guys don’t fuck around. I took a Grab motorbike taxi to the place, and the driver drops me off right outside the beginning of a street full of bars. They seem to be stemming from this big place that looks like an outdoor shopping center at your local suburban neighborhood, except for all of the stores were replaced with strip-clubs. Read that again, and nope I am actually not exaggerating. Imagine an outdoors shopping center where you would expect to see Baby Gap, Auntie Annes, Toys r Us Express, Hallmark, CVS Pharmacy, and a local tae-kwon-do dojo, but they have all been replaced by strip-clubs. Yeah and lots of red colored lights. I took a lap around the bar in the center, and the music was absolutely pumping in every single one of the surrounding rooms. I walked up to the second floor, and it got a bit more intense. I think or at least it seemed to me like this floor was the ladyboy floor. Two ladyboys would stand by the entrance to the bars and hit you with something, like a small whip or something. Not my thing, if you’re into this kind of stuff, well then hey you do you bro. Nana’s Plaza is a bit much for me at the moment so I step out to see some of the smaller local bars. My method of choosing which bar to enter first is to listen for the one that starts playing reggaeton first. A couple beers later I’m kinda tipsy, so I go BACK into Nana’s Plaza. I somehow stumble straight in and a lady tries to pull my arm. “Real girls here in this bar” she says. I reply, “what about that bar straight ahead?” She goes “I don’t know.” My drunk logic says this person is trying to reverse-psychology my ass, I’m going straight into the ‘I don’t know room,’ fuck it. She lady is surprised while I zoom past her into this unknown abyss.

I walk into this room, and I see a stage with a pole with a bunch of girls dancing. I take a seat right in front of them, which I usually refer to as the “splash-zone.” I sit down and order a local beer, probably a Chang, and suddenly all the girls that were dancing began to line-up in a horizontal line in front me and give me the sad puppy eyes. They want me to choose one to sit next to me. I go “hey actually I just wanna drink my beer.” They try to look even sadder and bummed out. I try to ignore them. After a couple awkward sips of my beer I figure well I guess I’m supposed to actually choose one in this place. So I pick the one that I think is the hottest. She’s happy that I chose her and she sits on my left. Immediately she grabs my left hand, puts it over shoulder, under her bra, and suddenly I’m holding her boob. I was like damn that was quick uhh I’ll just keep chillin and sipping on my beer. She tells me she’s a university student, and some point makes a comment that I find confusing. I don’t remember what she said, but my response to that was “wait…. Is this a ladyboy bar?” She says yep and laughs her ass off. I go “wait so all those hot girls on-stage are actually dudes?” She says yep. I go “ohhhh… okay then cheers!” And we have a beer. I look across the room and I notice that the bartenders are also ladyboys, but not the kind that look like supermodels. They are just regular dudes, with guts, who want to be women. At that point I realize that being a ladyboy is not necessarily just about transforming yourself into a supermodel, some dudes just want to be chicks. And hey I can respect that. You do you bro. Anyways, my ladyboy then says, “hey I have milk too.” I say, “shut up no you don’t.” She goes, “wanna see?” I reply, “um fuck YES.” The ladyboy pulls down her bra, squeezes her nipple, and a few drops of white liquid come out. I’m like “duuddeeee that’s fucking awesome!” and I give her a high-five. She asks me, “wanna taste?” I say “dude fuck youuu” and we are hysterically laughing our asses off. Then she decides to take it up a notch and asks me if I wanna take her back to my place for 3000 baht. I say nah sorry I’m not into that. She replys, “oh it’s your first time? Okay then half price.” I say, “nahh sorry I’m not down.” Eventually she gives up and start to go back with the rest of the ladyboys. Before she leaves she says “can I get a tip?” I had already paid for the beers so I was like, “why?” But I just want to leave so I give her a 100 baht so she can go away. She then says, “can I have 200 baht more? I want to buy food.” I say “uh hell no.” She smiles and slithers back into the darkness. And I proceed to get the hell out of that place.

 The third stupid thing I did.

 I was hungry, and I was determined to eat some mozzarella chicken at Family Mart. I walked around Bangkok drunk as hell, through random streets, looking for a Family Mart. I find nothing but back to back 7-elevens and I am so incredibly annoyed. I eventually give up and get some basil rice with chicken at a 7-eleven. After over an hour of roaming around the city and looking for Family Mart, I hail a street taxi and head back to the hotel. Day 1, complete.

 Funny enough… in the morning I walk outside my hotel and there is a fucking Family Mart literally across the street. I scurry my way across the street and go into Family Mart, mozzarella chicken here I come! I then realize, they only serve this dish in Vietnamese Family Mart… not Thai Family Mart… fuck me.

 Damn Bangkok, you always find a way to surprise me you sly bastard.

 *I forgot to mention that earlier during Day 1, I had to stop by the Vietnamese Embassy in Bangkok to get a new Visa. This was the whole reason of me being in Bangkok in the first place. The office which handles Visa applications is literally a hole in the wall, literally dude. And what’s funny is that it’s located in a reallyyyy nice part of town. It honestly felt like Northwest Washington DC, but of course the hole in the wall just felt like an actual hole.*

  Day 2

 I decide to explore the city on foot. As I stroll around, I see my hotel is located on Sukhumvit 71, near a Muslim community on one side and a bargirl community on the other side. Super interesting, I hadn’t seen this often in Asia except for in some streets near Ben Thanh Market in Ho Chi Minh City. I ordered a coffee, I think the lady was a Thai Muslim and she was super nice. But of course… no coffee will ever compare to Vietnamese coffee, the best in the fucking world. I only drink milk-coffee, for some reason it tastes like home. I explore a bit more and I notice the metro station is literally next to my hotel. Jesus I’m an idiot, but okay lesson learned. Anyways I can walk for hours, so I keep going like the energizer bunny. I get some spicy Thai food near a gas station, it was like spicy garlic chicken with rice, veggies, and a fried egg on top. Dope. I crushed it. My mouth was on fire and I was craving caffeine again so I walked to a nearby coffee shop and sipped on some damn good local coffee. I used the coffee shop’s wifi and I called a Grab taxi to take me to Sukhumvit road near the Hilton to reminisce the good old times I had previously had with my dad, Paper, and later on Poomi. I get there and I am walking for hours again, enjoying every second of it. I get lost, and suddenly come across different streets that I have seen before during my previous trips. I am absolutely loving this, downtown Bangkok is becoming more and more familiar. Also keep in mind that I am eating random foods along the way. Damn downtown Bangkok is amazing, I estimate it’s about 20 years ahead of Ho Chi Minh City in regards to development. Sky train, subway, and advanced technology every step of the way. As I continue roaming around I start to feel tired and I think about going back home, also I’m full. SUDDENLY. I find myself resting on a walking bridge in between two shopping malls, and I see a fucking TACO BELL! Dude! My first Taco Bell outside of the US! I rushed in there and ordered a taco combo meal with beef. So full but so worth it. I decided to keep walking so I could burn at least 2% of the calories I had been consuming that day. It starts getting dark out, and I can feel the vibe of the city changing. When the lights go out in this concrete jungle, the night beings come out to chill. I only have this evening left in this trip so I decide to make the most of it, let’s go to Soi Cowboy!

 I start walking towards Soi Cowboy on foot (soi means “side street” in Thai), and now it’s dark. Tons of working girls are sitting on the sidewalks, all trying to get your attention. The streets definitely feel more intense than in the morning and afternoon. I keep walking and walking, and eventually I make it! I start walking towards Soi Cowboy and along the way there is a little bar next to the street playing some rock music that catches my attention. I decide to keep this spot in mind. I walk into Soi Cowboy. This shit feels really intense when you go alone, and the strippers or ladyboys are out on the street pulling people into their bars. I decide that I had enough of this shit last night, I’m going back to that street bar I just walked by. I walk to the street bar, get a chair, and start sipping on a Chang beer. Two older ladies are working there and letting the customers choose the songs. Dude if you let me DJ at a bar you KNOW I’m gonna play reggaeton, 100% chance. One lady has good English so we are chatting, the other lady doesn’t speak much English so she sits behind me and starts massaging my shoulders. This lady massaged my entire upper body while I sat there that night, I never even asked for a massage. These ladies are bar-ladies, so they will ask you to buy them drinks. I figure ah hell why not, it’s my last night and I am actually having a good time! We must have been like 4 or 5 beers in when the massage lady says, “hey choose any bottle and I’ll buy you a shot.” I know what’s going down… these ladies are trying to get me to blackout! I, having much experience in blacking out, have an idea. Most Asian girls that I’ve met don’t know much about the strength of liquor/spirits, whatever you want to call it. I look at the options: vodka, tequila, gin, absinthe, jagermeister, you know… the classics! Somehow, I notice a lonely bottle of Malibu, this is a fruity flavored rum with a relatively low alcohol percentage. These ladies don’t know the difference between Malibu and Jose Cuervo, so I order a bitch shot of coconut Malibu and gulp it down. The ladies then expected me to blackout any minute…. Any minute now….. umm…. Anyyyy minute now?! Nope. I was just tipsy and feeling good! So I decide okay I’ll call it a night, time to call Grab. I get the bill it was about 3000 baht! Ouch, but I had a good time so it’s cool. Then the lady with good English asks me, “would you like to take my friend home?” She was referring to the massage lady, who by the way had already digivolved a couple decades ago. I kindly refused. Then, the massage lady asks me for a tip, she had massaged me over an hour non-stop. By now I was tipsy, but I remembered the ladyboy last night asking me for a tip at Nana’s Plaza twice, and this time I was like aw helll nooo. I didn’t tip the massage lady and she was angry as hell, she wouldn’t even say goodbye to me. I called a Grab bike, and he was out there waiting for me in a crowd full of cabs trying to pick-up other drunk, idiot foreigners. Cab drivers of different ages would stand in my way as I walked to my Grab driver, and me being a drunk asshole was actually shoving them to the side! Haven’t done that ever before or since, but I think I was just drunkenly annoyed at people trying to constantly scam me. I finally find my Grab driver and I hop on.

A slight drizzle begins and I don’t have a raincoat, but damn does it feel amazing. As the motorbike speeds up, the light rain hits my face harder. I open my arms wide like wings and I feel like Leonardo Dicaprio in Titanic. I survived day 2, and the next day I had to catch a flight back to Vietnam with a new Visa. Success!

I was supposed to visit Thailand again in June, but yeah goddamn coronavirus hit so… that’s not gonna happen. Until next time Thailand!

[blackandwhitedays]

hello

woah... it’s been over two years since i’ve logged into this blog.

i didn’t think i’d be able to recover it. thankfully i’ve been using the same five(ish) passwords for the past four years.

so much has changed since i first began posting. although, i only made about three posts. it’s not uncommon for me to come up with some bright idea to start a blog/journal then forget about it after a few entries.

 where do i even begin?

well, i graduated. and the boy i mentioned in one of my first posts? we are going on two and a half years together. crazy stuff. he was my saving grace through my last few months of high school. i don’t know what i would have done without him.

i used to post on another website called my-diary, where i updated about my life a lot more. reading those posts made my chest ache. i genuinely felt like i couldn’t breathe. suddenly, i was in high school again, overwhelmed and suicidal with no one to talk to. yeah, shit was rough to say the least.

i lost all my friends in february of my senior year. so, yeah, about two years ago now. i couldn’t really remember the details, but rereading my old entries helped jog my memory. it was all childish drama, as i suspected. my friends thought i was petty and secretly hated them, so they dropped me. i was already disliked by my entire graduating class, and suddenly i had absolutely no one. i sat alone everywhere i went. my guidance counselor accused me of sabotaging my own relationships. which now i understand as a symptom of my extreme anxiety and fear. i would destroy my relationships with others before they could hurt me first. but that’s not what i did with my friends in school. i cared for them a lot. they were all i had at the time. and they were perfectly okay with abandoning me at my lowest point because they were selfish from the start, i was just too desperate to see it.

it still chokes me up thinking about everything. i sometimes get into these weird obsessive states where i will purposely go back and reflect on my high school times and get really depressed. i don’t know why i do it. i’m so much better now than i ever was then. yet it’s like i enjoy hurting myself sometimes. perhaps to make sure i’m still capable of emoting like i used to.

but anyways, let’s talk about the now. i graduated and basically made a massive “fuck you high school and fuck everyone who hurt me.” you better believe i was the talk of the town. i got about thirty comments praising my bravery, then the next morning the hate started flowing in. people called me retarded, a dumbass, a liar, etc. all the good stuff. called me a slut for wearing crop tops. and my mother, who was so worried what others would think of HER because of the post, kicked me out. i lived on ben’s couch for several days. it was a nightmare. i thought i had hit rock bottom.

but shit moved on. i moved away and started going to college. my mom eventually apologized for being a selfish bitch about the whole situation. i forgave her, even though i don’t know if i’ll ever fully be able to. ben moved with me and got his own apartment in the same town. i ran out of money after the first semester and nowhere would give me more loans, so i had to drop out and move in with ben. we both worked as much as we could and moved back in with our parents for about a month. then we saved up and got our own apartment in a bigger city. which is where we are now. ben has a really great job working in masonry. he’s making ridiculously good money, though he has no clue how to budget and is constantly broke. i am a supervisor of a program that helps people with disabilities and brain injuries. i also make good money. i’m saving up to go back to school this fall. our apartment is small and owned by a sketchy property management company who is absolutely going to rob us of our $1,000 deposit. we also have a dog by the name of winston. he is the love of my life and i adore him more than anything in this world. 

my life has done a complete 180. there’s no denying that. the only thing that could make it better is having some friends. yep, two years later i still haven’t made a long term friend. i think it’s due to a combination of moving around a lot, working constantly, and somewhat isolating myself due to fear of getting hurt again. ben and i thought we made friends with some people living in our building. they were a couple and were pretty great for about a month. we had cooking nights where we made dinner, went hiking and exploring different cities, and hung out all the time. then the girl decided to pick a fight because apparently we opened her messages and didn’t reply right away and it upset her. i tried explaining that we’re both insanely busy and sometimes we check our phones in the spur of the moment but don’t get time to actually type out a reply. then she got even more upset and said “guess i’m not allowed to have an opinion then?” and started subtweeting about me on twitter. she also refused to talk it out in person and would only discuss it through snapchat. just really, really childish shit. then a couple weeks later they broke up. so there went that. i sometimes still talk to her but i’m certainly not interested in pursuing a friendship. i don’t need that kind of drama in my life.

sometimes i wonder if it’s me. if i really am some crazy manipulative bitch who just has no idea that she’s on some rampage to destroy everyone’s lives. but i really don’t think so. i just want some people who can come over and watch movies, chill out, etc. then when it warms up outside, we can go hiking and smoke in the woods, go on adventures at night through the city, and eat at all the different restaurants in town. i also want friends who i can make really shitty obnoxious jokes with and they will LAUGH. is that so much to ask? apparently, it is.

i do work a lot though, which prevents me from having as much of a social life as i would like. i’ve been a pretty regular smoker of weed for going on four years now. through my junior and senior year of high school as well as in college up until now. but in these last seven months since i moved into this apartment, ben and i have smoked almost every night. and boy, have i felt the effects. i definitely feel less focused and productive. i just want to come home and be lazy. which i can’t be. my job requires me to stay sharp and be productive, so i’ve decided to cut back and make it a weekend thing. it’s hard, though, because ben smokes every. single. day. and he has no plans to change that. he tried stopping and got so depressed he was feeling suicidal again, which he hasn’t felt in a long time. 

oh, and as for ben and i? yeah, two and a half years. pretty crazy. we were all over each other for the first year and a half. we fell hard for one another. it hasn’t been perfect by any means, but it’s been a good time. 

my biggest issue in the relationship is our lack of sex. i’m a very sexually driven person. i love sexually charged attention. i love a man who will slap my ass when he passes by me, and has to resist the urge to bend me over every time i “accidentally” change in front of him. ben is really not like that. his sex drive is practically non-existent, which has taken a toll on us for sure. it’s mostly because of his depression, i think, so he’s trying to get on antidepressants. they’re also for him, of course. he wants to feel happier. hopefully, it works. 

these last few months have been a little rockier. not because we’ve been fighting more or anything. but i just feel like his heart isn’t as in it as it once was. he will deny it, of course. he claims he’s never been more in love with me. and i’m sure he genuinely believes that. but his lack of effort says otherwise. i spent $150 on concert tickets for him this valentine’s day. guess what he got me? nada. like, not even flowers. or chocolate. i’m not asking for him to break his bank on me. at all. i’m the easiest girl to please when it comes to this stuff. i just wanted to feel special. and i let him know how disappointed i was. i thought expressing my feelings would make him want to make it up to me, but he hasn’t done anything. he also hasn’t done much around the house, and i’ve been working late almost every night. i like things done a certain way, and he knows that. but you’d think he’d recognize that i’m working soo much lately and that i could use the extra help around the house. but no, i have to confront him about it which leads to him getting super defensive which leads to me getting upset which leads to a fight. then the whole night is ruined. it took an entire fight for him to finally clean up one night when i was working. which was nice. but it felt like he was doing it because i made a big deal about it, not because he actually wanted to help me out.

WARNING: Vulgar rant up ahead:

i feel like i’ve sort of began building up some resentment towards him. i hate that that’s the case. but i’m getting laid maybe twice a month. i’m nineteen years old and i am fucking HORNY. and i’m not unattractive to look at by any means. it sucks so bad when i come home and try to be subtly sexy and change in front of him and dance around and all he does is stare at his fucking phone. then when i straight-up climb on him and try to kickstart things, he says he’s tired and it’s too late. it makes me not want to come home from work. there’s nothing for me here. he doesn’t pay any attention to me. the most i see him is when he eventually passes out in my lap at 9:30 at night. it’s fucking exhausting. i’m so starved of attention. i went from being so incredibly crazy about him just a few short months ago, being so positive he was the one for me, to being almost in tears at the thought of dealing with this way of living any longer. i’m trying so hard to hold out for him to see a doctor and get on meds, but i just don’t know if it will help. he’s been on some before, and he was still sad and actually thought getting off of them would help his sex drive. but surprise, it didn’t.

i can’t imagine us breaking up. i mean, i would have to completely start over. get my own place, pay for everything on my own, etc. it would be so hard. i don’t want that to happen. but i’m fucking miserable here. i can’t rely on sitting on my fucking dildo and cuddling my dog as replacements for the love i signed up for when i entered this relationship. are we fizzling out? i don’t know. but i’m sad and angry and very, very frustrated. 

and i’ll be honest, i’m really not that sexually attracted to ben in the first place. at first, i was, but he’s basically used all his moves on me and it’s pretty repetitive when we do have sex. i can’t get off without porn anymore. which i hate. i don’t even like porn that much. but it’s the only thing that works. so, would things even improve that much if he was having sex with me all the time? i don’t know. i just know that if things haven’t turned around by the summertime, i may be looking for a new place to live.

do i sometimes yearn for the freedom that comes with being single? sure. do i sometimes wish i could get laid by someone who actually has new moves to offer? of course. but do i want to sacrifice my relationship to receive these things? that’s what i’m not sure of.

i hate to even think of losing ben. it’s terrifying. i just want to feel loved. i just want to feel appreciated for everything i do around here. i try so fucking hard. but he gets so defensive when i try talking to him and thinks he contributes just as much as me (not even fucking close). i can’t even have a civilized discussion with him because it turns into a messy ass fight. wow, this is the longest post ever. i’ve talked about a lot tonight. it feels good to get some of it off my chest. it’s been building up inside for quite some time. i hope shit gets better in regards to my relationship. i need some damn love. and fast.

[commentaryvorg]

Danganronpa V3 Commentary: Part 4.6

Be aware that this is not a blind playthrough! This will contain spoilers for the entire game, regardless of the part of the game I’m commenting on. A major focus of this commentary is to talk about all of the hints and foreshadowing of events that are going to happen and facts that are going to be revealed in the future of the story. It is emphatically not intended for someone experiencing the game for their first time.

Last time in the remainder of chapter 4’s free time, it was Issues Central, as we learned more of Maki’s mercilessly cruel backstory, then hung out with Kaito for the final time in our last chance before everything falls apart and lengthily discussed how badly he needs Shuichi to rely on him right now, since his final FTE managed to be delightfully full of his issues beneath the surface despite him not talking about himself in it at all.

Now for slightly fewer issues and slightly more plot.

*ding-dong!* *ding-dong!*

Shuichi:  (The doorbell? Is it Kaito or Maki looking for me?)

Come on, Shuichi, you should know by now that that won’t be Kaito; the doorbell didn’t ring like a million times.

But unfortunately, it’s Miu. At least Shuichi deliberately ignored all of the vulgar nonsense she spouted at him and insisted she get to the point, which is that he should go to the computer room.

Himiko’s lingering just outside the computer room door.

Himiko:  “I just remembered… how Tenko would always grab my hand and pull me along at times like this…”

Aww. She was mostly just irritated by it while Tenko was alive, but now she’s starting to appreciate that Tenko was always there for her.

Apparently all the armchairs in the computer room were brought here by Kokichi while helping Miu prepare, but where the hell did he get them from?

Kokichi:  “Doesn’t it smell like something fun is gonna happen instead?”

Nobody is here to have fun, Kokichi. Nobody except for Monokuma, and you, apparently.

Kaito:  “You always seem to show up for stuff like this. I’ve got you figured out…”

It’s a bit much for Kaito to be saying this since everyone showed up for it. I guess what he’s really getting at is the fact that Kokichi showed up for this despite having not showed up to breakfast, meaning he only cares about doing stuff as a group when it seems like something bad might happen and not to actually co-operate and escape. That’s still only Kaito having Kokichi partially figured out, though.

I’m, again, not going to quote any of the stuff Kokichi is saying to Miu, but suffice it to say that this is how he figured out he can manipulate her, and presumably how he got her to make all of the contraptions (that he’s still not telling anyone about because lol what’s escaping that’s boring let me kill two people instead).

Gonta:  “Gonta understand! Exit is in that kon-poo-ter box! So we gotta break it open and go in!?”

Oh, Gonta. He’s still trying his hardest. Of course he wouldn’t know what a computer is, let alone the concept of virtual realities.

Everyone is quite rightly suspicious of Miu’s proposal.

Miu:  “Am I… really that untrustworthy?”

I mean, yes. You’ve not shown any signs of being willing to co-operate this entire time and have been generally unpleasant to everyone. If you don’t trust everyone else, they’re not going to trust you either.

Maki:  “So it separates the consciousness from the body… If that’s possible, then… No… it’s nothing.”

It really feels like Maki’s supposed to be thinking about something interesting and relevant to her issues here, but I can’t for the life of me figure out what it could be. (If it were Kaito saying this, then that’d be one thing, but.) Any ideas are welcomed.

Gonta:  “We all gonna sleep and have same dream? That possible?”

That’s basically it, Gonta! That’s the most accurate way of describing it that uses concepts he’s familiar with. See, he’s trying his best to understand.

This also means that when he wakes up and claims to have “had strange dream”, it’s very easy to assume he’s talking about his experience of going to the Virtual World.

Himiko:  “So an avatar is another body… But I like this one. This body made my soul, and my soul made this body…”

Ha. Oh, dear. I have some bad news for you about that, Himiko.

Kokichi:  “Hey, let’s trust Miu! We should trust in our friends more anyway!”

Oh my god, Kokichi, you are so transparent every single time you do this to try and make everyone’s words along similar lines sound just as empty as yours. I’m almost glad we’re close to the point where he stops having any opportunities to do this because I’m pretty sure I’ve been sounding like a broken record about this for the past four chapters.

Kokichi:  “I mean, Monokuma created this world, right? Maybe he laid a bait to lure us in! Like… a super duper crazy secret hidden in that world!”

Kokichi is not being very subtle about the fact that he’s working with Monokuma on this.

Also, please note that Monokuma’s bait is the only reason everyone decides that it’s worth taking the risk and checking out the Virtual World. If all Kokichi wanted was to not get killed by Miu, he would have simply had to not do anything at all and nobody would have even gone inside the Virtual World to give her a chance to kill him in the first place. Miu’s plan was running under the rather idiotic assumption that everyone would trust her and believe that the Virtual World was worth checking out even if there wasn’t anything of value in there. It would never have happened at all if Kokichi hadn’t helped it along.

Shuichi:  “Kokichi… what’s going on here? Did you know this all along? That Monokuma is hiding a secret in the virtual world?”

Seems like Shuichi has picked up on Kokichi’s lack of subtlety. It’s just not possible to be sure about this until Kokichi actually admits it.

Kokichi:  “Maybe with that info, we could even put an end to this killing game.”

Gonta:  “Huh!? We can end killing game!? Then Gonta will go!”

Oh god, of course Kokichi knew exactly what to say to get Gonta to decide to go. All this stuff about virtual realities and secrets is lost on him, but ending the killing game makes perfect sense.

Keebo decides to go because his inner voice is telling him to. Yeah, they probably know something exciting and murdery is likely to happen in there, don’t they.

Keebo:  “I have always obeyed that voice, and I will continue to do so.”

He’s not even aware of how sketchy it is that he’s unquestioningly obeying this voice without even knowing where it comes from.

Kaito also makes up his mind, but for a… somewhat different reason.

Kaito:  “Call it a man’s curiosity!!!”

Maki:  “The idiot’s at it again…”

Kaito:  “Wh-When a man loses his curiosity, he ages! Curiosity is what moves a man!”

It’s actually kind of adorable (and again, not remotely inherently masculine) that Kaito also connects curiosity to his concept of manliness. Of course that’s something he has a lot of and values a lot – that’s part of why he wants to go into space, after all! – so he considers it part of his idea of “the best person you could possibly be”!

This particular instance also highlights something which has been the case most of the rest of the time too, which is that Kaito’s concept of manliness is really just a thing he has for himself. He’s not inflicting it on others and trying to insist that everyone should be showing manly curiosity right now. He’s just saying it because this is something that’s personally important to him. Just like Gonta isn’t ever trying to tell anyone else that they should be a gentleman.

Maki:  “You can stop talking now, but… I guess I’ll be an idiot too.”

Maki’s comment last chapter that she finds men talking about manliness to be gross is finally relevant to the actual situation at hand, heh.

(Even though Kaito’s concept of manliness isn’t at all gross like a lot of concepts of it can be. Subjectively annoying, maybe, and that’s clearly the only real problem Maki has with it here, but there’s absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to stay curious.)

I also like Maki just accepting that she’s going to be an idiot along with him. She’s a lot more willing to just roll with Kaito’s “idiocy” at this point. He may be an idiot, but whoops, looks like he’s her idiot now.

Shuichi:  “Kokichi… are you planning something?”

Kokichi:  “Ah-haha, of course not. After Kaito punched me, I became a changed man.”

This is proof that Kokichi knows full well that Kaito punching him was not just an act of violence and was really an attempt to get through to him and stop him doing precisely the kind of thing that he’s about to do right here. Yet Kokichi chose to completely ignore what Kaito was trying to say to him and do this anyway. He is very consciously, wilfully avoiding all possible avenues out of this that would lead to him not becoming a double murderer. So even knowing that he has reasons for doing this that aren’t him purely being evil, it’s still very hard for me to sympathise with Kokichi at all. This isn’t an unavoidable tragedy. He’s choosing this for himself.

Himiko:  “O-Okay… so I hold my chopsticks in my right hand, so…”

NO HIMIKO DON’T SAY IT. You just turned the 50/50 chance that this will be even more heartbreaking than it needs to be into a certainty.

(You can even see Gonta looking at Himiko in this illustration if you look closely.)

Chibi avatars, activate!

Kaito:  “But… it feels weird. I can move this avatar like I could my own body, right? And with this body, I don’t have to worry about all that stuff…”

I thought you said you didn’t have any worries, Kaito.

It really must feel incredibly refreshing for him to suddenly be in a body that isn’t dying on him. He’s so surprised by genuinely feeling fine that he almost lets everything slip. Perhaps it’s because this feeling is a positive one, and while Kaito has a constant, unyielding mental filter to prevent himself from unthinkingly voicing anything remotely negative about how he’s feeling, positive thoughts like this don’t get caught by that filter in the same way.

Shuichi:  “What stuff?”

Kaito:  “Uh… no, it’s nothing.”

More stuff for Shuichi to file in the “don’t think about that because that’s too worrying a truth” section of his brain.

Maki:  “…I want to go back.”

I like how this is the very first thing Maki says upon appearing here. Extremely Done Maki Roll™: now in chibi form!

Kokichi hitting Keebo to prove that their avatars feel pain is possibly done with the intent of backing up his assumption that they really will die in here if they experience pain that would have been fatal. But he’s also just taking the opportunity to be a robophobic asshole.

Kokichi:  “Even if they are avatars, I could never hit a *person*!”

Kokichi explicitly, inarguably sees Keebo as less than a person even though Keebo is clearly a person to anyone who spends ten seconds talking with him. How is everyone so okay with this.

Kokichi:  “And since it won’t leave any bruises, you can hit all you want!”

Keebo:  “That’s a bully’s twisted logic.”

Kokichi is clearly, literally a bully, how is everyone so okay with this.

Kaito:  “Information from our five senses here is sent to our real bodies… But it seems like information from our real bodies isn’t sent to our consciousness here.”

How would you know that, Kaito? It’s almost like there’s sensory information from your real body that you’re expecting to be sent to your consciousness right now.

I really, really like that this line exists to establish that Kaito’s real body is in constant pain at this point, since that’s not something Kaito would ever directly admit to but is very important information that I’m very glad we have.

Kaito:  “If that’s the case, then… it’s fine, but…”

He seems worried, probably about the possibility that his real body could be getting even worse while he’s here without him being able to know or do anything about it. What if his body involuntarily coughed up blood while he’s in here and everyone woke up to see him covered in it? That would be unacceptable.

Fun fact: the assets used for the chibi avatars in game aren’t actually 3D models but are just a series of flat sprites and animations made out of 3D models turned to different angles. I know this because they just mirrored Kaito again rather than giving him different ones for each side. Also, perhaps even more noticeably, Shuichi’s protagonist hair suddenly flips the direction it’s pointing in when you move him from facing down to facing down-left.

Gonta:  “But how we even get here? Gonta not feel anyone pick him up. And we got here so fast…”

His own understanding of this as a shared dream should be enough for Gonta to appreciate that they didn’t have to physically come here. So I guess the fact that he’s experiencing this a lot more vividly than he would experience a dream makes him think it can’t be that and be confused again?

Gonta:  “N-No! If Gonta not strong, Gonta no can protect everyone!”

Oh no poor Gonta this world just took away the one thing he had that made him feel like he could be useful if the opportunity arose.

Gonta:  “Hey, who Gonta gotta talk to to get strong again!?”

There’s someone on the end of that phone who’ll do it for you, Gonta. Just pick it up, say “Gonta Gokuhara wants to be strong again,” and then everything will be just fine.

Kokichi:  “You guys better not cheat by logging out alone!”

I wouldn’t be surprised if Kokichi already suspects that Miu is planning to frame someone by forcing them to log out alone.

Maki:  “I’m guessing… because it’s programmed like that for the killing game simulator. They want to see what kind of killing game it’ll be when no one has their special talent.”

The strength-equalisation only nerfs people whose talents involve being physically strong, though, giving the ones with intellectual talents an advantage. (…Not that the distribution of talents for a killing game was ever particularly fair in the first place, since some are inherently more useful than others regardless.)

Kokichi:  “By the way, Miu, you prepared these maps yourself… not Monokuma, right?”

Miu:  “Th-That’s right… I prepared the maps. What about it…?”

Kokichi:  “No, it’s nothing. I just wanted to know.”

Shuichi:  (What…? There was something off about Miu’s response…)

Kokichi deliberately asked this to give Shuichi a hint that’ll help him figure out the truth later. If Shuichi didn’t know this, he might never be able to figure out the true nature of the Virtual World, and Gonta could well get away with murder. Kokichi is actively trying to sabotage the mercy kill outcome, even before the murder happens.

Kokichi:  “I was gonna go investigate alone. There’s a lot of interesting stuff I wanna check out.”

Kaito:  “Hey… Like hell am I gonna let you do whatever you want.”

Kaito can tell that Kokichi is probably planning something bad and is trying to make an effort to stop it.

Kokichi:  “I’m going, no matter what you guys say. Well, it’d be a hassle if someone kept watch over me—”

Kaito:  “Kept watch?”

Gonta:  “Gonta not understand what’s going on. Gonta not sure how helpful he can be… But Gonta can watch Kokichi so he not do anything weird!”

And Kokichi knows exactly what he’s doing and deliberately manipulates Gonta’s desire to help to get him to come along.

Kokichi:  “Gonta, you’re so sweet… but I knew you would say that.”

DAMN RIGHT YOU KNEW HE’D SAY THAT YOU MANIPULATIVE SOON-TO-BE-MURDERER.

Kokichi:  “You’d make a terrific bodyguard!”

Like he’s trying to tell himself that what he’s about to do is only because Gonta will be protecting him from Miu’s attempt to kill him. It is not. There is absolutely no conceivable way in which this is self-defence.

Gonta:  “It’s okay! Leave it to Gonta! Gonta keep eye on Kokichi!”

NO GONTA DON’T GO WITH HIM

Just like everything else about what Gonta’s about to do here, even this part is driven by Gonta being desperate to be even a tiny bit useful. God damnit.

Kaito:  “Geez… he really knows how to manipulate people. Well, whatever.”

Kaito can perfectly well tell that Kokichi deliberately manipulated Gonta into coming with him for some reason… but then he just brushes it off and doesn’t try to do anything about it, because there’s no way Kokichi’d be able to manipulate Gonta into doing anything truly bad, right? It’s Gonta! Kaito believes in him! Gaaah.

At this point, you can wander around and go into the bathroom to find the toilet paper in there. Shuichi even muses about how it won’t break.

When everyone comes out onto the rooftop, most of them just walk straight out, but Kaito goes wheeeee all the way around the rooftop in a big circle. He’s such an excited kid and I love that they even got that across with the very limited chibi avatars.

Kaito:  “Whoa! It’s snow! Look, Maki Roll! It’s snow! Look! Snow!”

Maki:  “Are you a dog?”

Yes, he is, Maki. He is a very good dog.

Also of note is the way Kaito specifically addresses Maki – not her and Shuichi, just her – and tries to bring her into his excitement. Even in the midst of his ridiculous dogginess, he’s still thinking about helping her by reminding her of the fun kid things she would have done in her normal life before she was an assassin.

Kaito:  “It’s snow, Shuichi! It’s snow! Snow! It’s piling up everywhere! Look!”

Shuichi:  “Y-Yeah!” (He really is like an excited puppy…)

I love that Shuichi agrees about Kaito being a dog.

(Kaito’s addressing Shuichi here because I had Shuichi talk to him directly, so my point just now still stands.)

Maki:  “How can you get so excited over snow? You’re not a kid anymore…”

Kaito:  “Hey, Maki Roll. Men are… living things that must cherish their playful heart! If they lose that, they’ll age!”

Maki:  “…I thought you said when men lose their curiosity, they’ll age.”

Kaito:  “Yeah, they’re both important! A man’s got a lot to remember!”

Kaito is such a wonderful dork. Not only does his concept of manliness include curiosity, it also includes playfulness. Those are both things usually associated with children – so it’s really neat that Kaito understands that they’re not inherently childish and sees them as important enough to be included in his idea of being a “man”. If someone wasn’t able to be curious about things and to let themselves have fun, they’d be boring and stagnant, and that’s not the kind of person who’s going to help humanity make its way into space! No wonder he was disappointed to have to reveal the secret of Himiko’s magic back in case 2. No wonder he kept insisting that those stories of his adventures as a kid were totally real!

When you think of characters in this game who are all about having fun, you’d usually think of Kokichi. But Kaito also understands the importance of letting yourself have fun – arguably better than Kokichi does, since Kaito’s idea of fun doesn’t come at the expense of other people.

Kaito:  “Isn’t that right, bro?”

Shuichi:  “I… don’t know how to respond to that.”

Also, this is the only instance of Kaito trying to bring someone else other than Gonta into his idea of manliness, except for when he punched Shuichi after trial 1, in which he was not thinking clearly at all. Probably this time it’s because he’s got so caught up in his excitement that he’s not thinking clearly for an entirely different reason. I like how Shuichi’s just awkwardly like “leave me out of this, I’m not as ridiculous as you”.

Shuichi:  “That reminds me of a study I once read… People were told they were going to be splashed with hot water, but cold water was used instead. But their minds were so convinced, their bodies reacted as if the water was boiling.”

Tsumugi:  “Oh, I’ve heard of something like that before, too.”

I’m sure you have, Tsumugi, because something like that was used in Danganronpa 2 in an attempt to justify why the victims would have died in real life. That didn’t make sense in the way it does in this game, though, because the argument here is that the body would die (from the brain dying of shock), whereas in Danganronpa 2, the bodies were still perfectly functional and the game was only trying to argue that their consciousnesses inside the virtual reality had somehow completely died even though they had no body to die with.

Once you’re outside the mansion, you’re completely free to run around everywhere on that half of the map. Which is a bit awkward, because Kokichi and Gonta should be somewhere out there right now, but they’re not anywhere to be found in the game. Soooo I guess Shuichi wasn’t dicking around like the players might be and just headed straight to the bridge.

The chibi avatars have a bunch of small idle animations, one of which, if they’re outside, is shivering with cold. It’s pretty cute.

Maki:  “It’s really piled up outside. Kaito would be excited for all this snow. I bet he would make a snowman or something…”

Maki has a sad expression as she says this. Looks like Kaito really did manage to get her to remember her normal life back at the orphanage.

(It’s got to be heartbreaking for Shuichi and Maki the first time they experience real snow once they’re living relatively normal lives outside the killing game, thinking about how much Kaito would have loved it if he were with them. But maybe they’d still be able to make the most of it and honour Kaito’s childlike excitement for snow anyway.)

“Mirai Hills”, says the signboard. Totally not a reference. At least this one is gen two, not gen one, which makes sense given where we are.

I appear to have glitched the game somehow and have this non-stop sound effect of footsteps going on in the background, even when nobody’s walking. Good thing that’s not an in-universe phenomenon; that’d confuse things even more on top of all the other weird stuff about how this world works.

Kokichi and Gonta return, which means that poor Gonta is in despair and miserably believing that the only way to save everyone now is to keep quiet about what he knows and try to mercy-kill them all.

Kaito:  “Where were you and what were you doing?”

Kaito immediately angrily demands this. He’s still doing his best to keep an eye on Kokichi and stop him from doing anything drastic.

Kokichi:  “Oh, I was in the forest looking for the secret of the outside world. But unfortunately I couldn’t find it… Welp, I wasn’t expecting it to be that easy anyway. …Right, Gonta?”

Gonta:  [with a sad expression] “Yeah…”

But Kaito doesn’t question this, because if Gonta is backing up Kokichi’s claim that they didn’t find anything then surely it’s got to be the truth after all. Obviously Gonta wouldn’t lie to them, right?

Gonta is being very quiet and subdued now. But perhaps Kaito isn’t quite able to pick up on that and realise something’s off because the less nuanced expressions on the avatars mean his intuition doesn’t work as well in here. If all he can see is that Gonta is sad and not precisely what kind of sadness it is, it makes sense that he could just be sad they didn’t find anything. Now there’s a neat way in which the Virtual World nerfs talents other than just making strong people weaker.

It would have been neat if the in-universe loading zone worked in the same way as an out-universe loading screen, to sort of lean on the fourth wall a bit. But it makes sense they couldn’t do it that way, because there’s out-universe loading screens between the different rooms of the buildings, but sound can still travel between them so they can’t possibly have in-universe loading zones.

Kokichi disappears through the loading point for a moment and comes back telling us that it cuts off sound, but I wonder how he confirmed that. I’m picturing him yelling something to insult Kaito, not getting a retort, and going “welp, he definitely didn’t hear me”.

Kokichi:  “Well, I’m gonna go on ahead theeeeen.”

[Kokichi goes on ahead along with a silent Gonta]

Kaito:  “Hey, don’t just go on ahead! I don’t trust you being off alone all by yourself!”

Kaito is still doing his best to keep an eye on Kokichi and prevent a disaster! He has no idea that’s it’s already basically too late. (It’s also interesting that he says he doesn’t trust Kokichi alone even though Gonta had gone with him. Apparently he still doesn’t think that Kokichi alone with Gonta is the safest of options if it can be avoided.)

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[Next post]

[thebibliomancer]

50 More Days of Comics! 43/50: Justice League Europe #19 (1990)

More Justice League Europe!

But, wuh? You may ask, if you’re invested in the minutiae of my mystery box. Didn’t you say the box was roughly sectioned and didn’t you already get through the DC section?

Yes. Yes I did.

But somehow I skipped three comics? I was counting up how many comics I had left and found it didn’t add up to 50 so went through the box and found that I couldn’t find posts for three comics. I know I wrote them up. I found them in my email. But I can’t find the posts. So I’ll have a very easy three days of 50 More Days of Comics by posting them.

So yes. More Justice League Europe!

This time following in the finest of comic book traditions: thinly veiled knockoffs of the competitor’s IP.

Marvel is more known for this because they get a lot of coverage out of their thinly veiled knockoffs. The Squadron Supreme (basically the Justice League) have become an important part of Avengers lore and even have their own well-regarded miniseries that is basically every Batman v Superman ever. And the League of Super-Heroes homage in the Shi’ar Imperial Guard has become a huge part of Cosmic Marvel and X-Men lore.

DC is no stranger to this either. It just doesn’t get folded into the lore quite the same way. A group of very Fantastic Four esque astronauts were mutated by cosmic radiation and then died, except for the faux Reed Richards who later becomes Cyborg Superman.

And as the Avengers fought the Squadron Supreme, so the Justice League fought the Champions of Angor with expies of Scarlet Witch in Silver Sorceress, Yellowjacket in Blue Jay, and Thor in Wandjina.

These Notvengers were from an alien world destroyed in nuclear holocaust by the Extremists, themselves expies of prominent Marvel villains.

Lord Havok for Doctor Doom, Dreamslayer for Dormammu, Gorgon for Doctor Octopus, Tracer for Sabretooth, and Doctor Diehard for Magneto.

You may recognize that these people have never been on a team together because it would be massive overkill and also there’d be so much clash of ego and personality and goals that they wouldn’t get one foot out the door before they all simultaneously backstabbed each other.

I give you all this exposition because this issue of Justice League Europe concerns the Extremists, or robot theme park versions of them, and also the two surviving Champions of Angor who have after a long time in the woods, either literal or metaphorical, found their way back to a Justice League book and have joined the team this time.

Fair is fair though. One of the many Hyperions (basically Superman) flapping around the Marvel U joined the Avengers for a while. And a Nighthawk (basically Batman) was on the Defenders for a whiiiile.

In previous issues, the Extremists have come to the Earth-1 and had Doctor Diehard/Magneto steal all the nuclear warheads in the world and threaten to detonate them. Due to reasons, most of the Justice League Europe end up on Angor where they find a broken down amusement park and a man cryogenically frozen?

To summarize down a bit: this is Uncle Mitch Wacky, a spoof on Disney, who had himself cryogenically frozen when he came down with an incurable disease. INFLUENZA!

This is a bafflement to Crimson Fox because on Earth influenza is well treatable but Uncle Mitch cuts her off before she can explain this.

Oh. So Crimson Fox is a later recruit to the team. She’s secretly two people and has pheromone powers because those are always anything but sketchy. She’s also exceptionally French. And is neither crimson nor wearing a very fox like costume.

Also here is the aforementioned Silver Sorceress who helpfully gives worldbuilding exposition about Angor. Also also, the Champions of Angor are apparently also known as the Assemblers?

Back on Earth, Martian Manhunter and Maxwell Lord discuss the UN unanimously agreeing to turn the world over to the Extremists because the alternative is nuclear annihilation. Its to buy time for the heroes to figure something out and in hopes that the Extremists are playing by their own rules and won’t just keep the missiles hanging overhead.

Back on Angor, they saved Carny’s brain. Or decapitated robo-head. Carny (apparently an expy of Arcade insofar as dangerous theme parks go) explains some more exposition.

After Uncle Mitch put himself on ice, the incredibly advanced robots of the park kept things running in hopes that Mitch would return to them as he promised. Very messianic King Arthur king under the mountain type feel.

So they even kept the park running smoothly during the nuclear annihilation of all life because dangit, that’s what Uncle Mitch would have wanted. Even when it became clear that there would be no more visitors because everybody dead.

They decided that they’d recreate the world inside the park. So they made a ride that would feature the Assemblers and Extremists and made them able to think and act on their own.

But whoopsie the Extremist robots killed the Assemblers robots and took over the park. Carny joined them because “it seemed like the happy, wacky thing to do.”

The robo-Extremists got restless, craving new worlds to conquer and eventually ditched Carny and the park for Earth.

At this point, Captain Atom (thankfully sporting a short haircut instead of a mullet despite it being the 90s now) has an idea.

Elseworld, the UN surrenders the world to the Extremists. So Doctor Diehard puts the nukes down in their silos thankful that he doesn’t have to be constantly focusing on that! But he can still detonate them in their silos so, y’know, don’t mess.

On Angor, Wacky Mitch reveals that he has a universal shutdown switch to his robots keyed to his neurological impulses. So now they have a trump card against the Extremists if they can only get back to Earth.

‘Oh hey I can totally get us back to Earth,’ says Silver Sorceress at this time. And she transports them back to Earth right in front of Blue Jay just when he’s being a pessimistic ass and driving Sue to distraction.

Mitch’s influenza hits him hard and he collapses, Captain Atom calling for super cool doctor Dr Light. No, not that one. The good one.

A quick time skip and Mitch is back on his feet and pumped full of antiobiotics. He’s not cured, obviously. He needs bed rest and an IV but he should be able to participate in a battle for the fate of the Earth as long as it doesn’t take too long.

Later, the Extremists base and they’re sitting around enjoying ruling the world but not really doing any ruling. Just snacking on some donuts, really. Pretty life like these theme park robots. Lord Havok considers that this was all too easy maybe but he doesn’t get much chance to muse on it because the ceiling suddenly explodes.

The Justice League Europe flies in and starts beating them up with specific focus on keeping Doctor Diehard confused and off-balance so he can’t use his powers to destroy the world.

The fighting is just time filler until Mitch Wacky can appear dramatically on a sand dune.

Uncle Mitch Wacky: “Hello, Tracer. Are you having a wacky day?”

The Extremists all instantly fixate on him and kneel in the sand before their creator-god.

Lord Havok: “Speak to us, Uncle Mitch! Are we wacky enough for you? Are we happy enough for you?”

Uncle Mitch: Uncle Mitch knows when you’ve been naughty and nice… and you, my boys… you have been very, very naughty!”

And all the Extremists switch off and collapse to the ground.

Y’know, I know they were going to destroy the world but they were really slaves to their programming. They were created to imitate the Extremists and the Extremists were world destroying monsters. In their robot hearts, they were fulfilling their purpose to make the creator-god-on-ice proud of them. The moral of the story is that the three laws of robotics exist for a damn reason. And maybe program your supervillain robots to be more wacky silver age stealing 40 cakes and less explode every nuke, hm?

Oh and then Uncle Mitch explodes.

Turns out that Dreamslayer (Dormammu) wasn’t a robot like the others. He’s the real deal. And he was trapped for five years in the Dimension of Terrors when the Extremists (the real ones) nuked Angor. By the time he got free he discovered that there was nothing left to terrorize and nothing to amuse him. So he hooked up with the Extremists robots to find a new world to conquer.

But now that the Justice League has ruined the fun game he was having hanging out with robots of his dead friends, now he’s just going to kill them all because this isn’t fun anymore.

Some legit cool visuals here. Bart Sears, Randy Elliott and Gene D’Angelo do stuff with intersecting pink lines here that makes pasting a spellcircle from google image search look like crap.

Crimson Fox intercepts the magical attack and blasts it right back at Dreamslayer. Turns out that Crimson Fox was really Silver Sorceress under an illusion. I don’t mean all the time, just this specific instance. Because Scarlet Witches beat Dormammus, fact.

Oh and Uncle Mitch is alive even though the last we see of him in this issue would seem to indicate otherwise. Dreamslayer has bad aim. Having helped save the day now he’s on bed rest getting over the deadly INFLUENZA. And yes, I do know that influenza really is deadly.

The Extremist robots are repurposed for Madame Clouseau’s Wax Museum and Flash and JLE bureau chief Catherine are visiting the museum wrapping up some final plot exposition as the comic wraps. Donating the deactivated robots to the museum being Catherine’s idea of a PR move.

It would later backfire horribly when Dreamslayer returned possessing Maxwell Lord and reactivated them. They’d be thwarted again but it would lead to the death of Silver Sorceress.

But comics be like that sometimes.

[pozolegirl]

I'm sure you've probably gotten this before, but do you have any webcomic recs?

Sorry it took so long to reply!!! I’ll make a list for you!

Disclaimer now though, this blog is totally SFW but some of the webcomics I read have language or slightly more nsfw elements to them. 

1. I Love Yoo

So fantastic, a good drama with a hilarious and amazing main character. I really love this one. It’s got angst and drama and romance, all really well made!

2. Boyfriend of the Dead

HILARIOUS, I love the idea for it, and I’m excited to see where it goes. I really enjoy this zombie story. (I usually can’t handle them haha) (Also, the art style is simple enough that any ‘gore’ in it, isn’t hard core and pretty safe for anyone)

3. Love Advice from the Great Duke of Hell

Another comedy that is really funny. Not a ton of episodes so far, but really great.

4. Hooky 

I’m not done reading through this one yet! I was originally drawn by the cute and beautiful art, and I thought it was just going to be a cute happy go lucky comic, but DANG it’s getting more and more intense and it’s a cool mix of fairy tales and witchy folk lore. I really enjoy it.

5. True Beauty

This one is hilarious. I know it’ll get more serious as it goes on, but honestly, the use of memes and expressions are amazing. It’s about a girl who is a slave to makeup basically, and I have a feeling she’s going to become more comfortable with herself as it goes on. :)

6. The Strange Tales of Oscar Zahn

Absolutely incredible, very spooky but still heart warming and interesting. The art work is phenomenal, and the stories are amazing. I highly recommend this one.

7. Cat Loaf Adventures

To be perfectly honest, I can only handle this one in small doses because I... am not a fan of pun humor. But the art is super super cute and it’s a very sweet comic that is fun.

8. Lore Olympus

Absolutely gorgeous art, a very interesting retelling of Hades and Persephone, that is semi modern based and IDK just very very artsy. I adore it with all my heart. It does deal with sensitive subjects though, beware.

9. Tales of the Unusual

Alright, I actually read so many horror comics, I love them so much. This one is probably my favorite that I’ve found besides Junji Ito’s work. The short horror stories in this comic are more psychological based, and it really comes across as Twilight Zone-y to me. I really enjoy it, and I’m not finished reading it all the way through. (The story with the old man seeing his dead wife’s memories made me straight up sob for like an hour while reading it, LOL) (Most of the stories are creepy though)

10. Siren’s Lament

I’ve been following this one for years, it’s always been beautiful and exciting. If you like mermaid stories, COME READ THIS.

11. Miss Abbott and the Doctor

THIS COMIC IS LIKE CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE SOUL, IT IS THE SWEETEST MOST LOVELIEST LITTLE ROMANCE YOU’LL EVER READ, EVERYONE IS SO CHARMING AND THE MAIN CHARACTERS MAKE ME SO HAPPY, AND THE ART STYLE IS SO CUTE, PLEASE READ THIS COMIC.

12. My Boo

Despite the less encouraging title, (it’s a pun) this comic is such a beautiful, thoughtful, and sweet story about a girl who falls in love with a ghost. It is completed, and it’s so wonderful.

13. Bastard

An absolute masterpiece, one of my all time favorite comics, and AUUUGH IT’S JUST REALLY GOOD. Super sketchy though, please be wary. This comic is about a boy who’s father is a serial killer. He has to protect the girl he has a crush on from becoming the next victim. Lots of gore, a very intense thriller, I’ve read it twice now it’s amazing. (And completed!!!)

14. Third Shift Society

I found this one awhile ago, and it’s really cute! I mean, it’s kind of horror, it’s about ghost hunters and stuff, but I love the main two characters. One of them has a jackolantern for a head. :)

15. STAGTOWN

Another fantastic horror comic. It’s only gone through one arc of story and the new one is starting (and looks even more horrifying than the last one) and I’m SO READY. It’s very creepy and very good.

16. Edith

This one is currently being edited and will be posted as a featured comic sometime soon, so it’s kind of on hiatus? But I’m really excited for it, I love it so much. It looks like an exciting romance, and I relate to the main character on an almost uncomfortable level sometimes. >_>” It does deal with more adult themes, FYI. I love the art style so much, it’s so cute.

17. Unlucky as Lucky Does

This one is hilarious. It’s a comedy and the art is done by such a talented artist, who mixes simple random styles with gorgeous detailed work, it always makes me laugh. I love the main group of characters and I hope I get to read their adventures for a long time.

18. Dazer and Eleanor

I found this beautiful (SO BEAUTIFUL AND DETAILED) comic awhile ago, it’s a sweet little slow burn romance, and since then I’ve become friends with the author! She inks everything traditionally, and it’s mesmerizing to see how detailed all of her panels are. She works really hard, and it pays off, definitely check it out!

Alright now time for some webcomics that are not on webtoons.

1. Mias and Elle

I’ve followed this artist for A VERY long time, and her art is just gorgeous. I love this little comic so much, and I hope I get to read it for a long time! Definitely has some adult themes in it, nothing too crazy yet, but eeehhhhh I feel like it might get there, haha.

2. Countdown to Countdown

WOW this art is absolutely incredible and I the story is engaging and exciting so far. I’m really excited to see where it goes. Please check it out, just LOOK AT THE ART, IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL. It inspires me so much. The artist is on tumblr too, @velinxi , you may have seen some of their beautiful fanart before.

3. Anacrine Complex

A gorgeous comic by @lightlybow, I’ve followed it for years now. (You’re amazing Sae) The panels are always so beautifully built, the art is exciting and beautiful to look at, and the story is very interesting! I love it!

So I know there are some I missed, and there are a ton of comics I didn’t add to this list, but here’s a little compilation for now! :)