#sorry for the long answer but I felt a wave of nostalgia (water pun intended) and realized I never talked about the meaning of the caption

[no-brain-just-akutagawa]

On the contrary!

The 1st meaning of "is it too early?" is that at the time of posting the chapter had just come out. I knew people were going to panic about potential deaths, so I made a joke that alluded to the fact that it's too early to say that they're dead. What made it even funnier is that I prophesized the whole drowning thing and said it would be a fake death, so for the first 10 minutes I was laughing hysterically while people were losing it (it was hilarious, easily top 3 moments of my meme career).

The 2nd meaning is about the posting time. It's "is it too early?" as in "is it too early for this shit? Is this the kind of meme one posts at 2 am?", because I tend to post memes rather quickly after new chapter releases (or at least I try to), and sometimes my memes are the first thing people see after opening tumblr, so they don't even have time to digest the chapter before being hit with a meme.

And lastly, the 3rd meaning was using "is it too early?" as "is it too soon?". Even though I was really confident about my prophecy, there was a chance I was wrong (and we ended up waiting months to find out that they officially survived). And this is how most people interpreted the caption (the tags and comments still make me laugh to this day, I love it when people go wild under posts), because once this meme spread outside of my followers, the meta meaning got lost. Tbh I didn't expect this cliffhanger to last as long as it did, but it was fun to see this meme stay relevant for so months. So overall I think it aged pretty well, because it was in fact too early to pronounce them dead sghdhjs

is it too early?

[ID: An edited the drowning kid and the skeleton meme. In the first picture Dazai is holding Sigma up. He is looking at the camera with a smirk. Sigma is shocked. Next to them Fyodor is drowning with a neutral expression. In the second picture deep underwater there's a skeleton with a drowning Chuuya's face. End ID]

[thejaf711]

Toast and Ice

“Shit,” exclaimed Yang. She’d been in Mistral in the same place as her family for several days, but ultimately had been unable to get restful sleep. Everything was perfect for her to sleep: heavy blanket, cool room, even a cooling cup of tea on her nightstand. Regardless, sleep evaded the blonde huntress

The room around her provided little entertainment with its white walls and wood floors. The walls had plenty of paintings, though, but she had studied them countless times in her boredom. The ficus in the corner needed watering and the bookshelf needed dusting. Am i that bored? Yang thought. Pulling her scroll up to her face, she squinted as the brightness caught her. 2:30. Slightly past half the night and hours before most people are up. Even at 9:00, she is usually the first out of rooms to get the day started.

Unsure of who this house belonged to, she did not want to train in the middle of the night as she had in the past on restless nights in fear of breaking something, but instead sat on the edge of her bed. But one can only sit on their bed on sleeplessness for so long, she surmised. Having never ventured out of her room at night before now, her curiosity was getting the better of her.

Her stomach growled. Despite the large dinner they had had the night before, she was starving. Damn metabolism. She got up and put on a long brown robe over her sleepwear. Not her usual colour but it matched her brown pajama pants and orange sports bra. Closing her robe, she opened the door to the outside.

The long halls only got longer at night. Twenty feet felt like a hundred. Stepping gingerly as to not make a peep, she crept towards the kitchen. Growing up around her light sleeping father and sister gave her the skill of stealth out of necessity. Whether she chose to use it outside the home was up in the air.

Reaching the living room, she began to lessen her stealth and move a little faster. After all she was at least fifty feet from any bedroom at this point. A lamp flipped on next to one of the couches, bringing Yang into defensive position with fists up and feet apart.

“You’re up at a weird time,” said a small girl in all white even at this hour. Yang relaxed. Weiss’ hair was down and she was holding a steaming mug of coffee.

Yang breathed a sigh of relief. “I could say the same for you. And coffee? Aren’t you afraid you’ll melt drinking that stuff like you do?”

Weiss huffed. “I’m not actually made of ice you know.”

“I know, that’s why it’s fun to tease you about it,” Yang said sticking her tongue out. “Laugh all you want, but this focuses me. Gives me a reason to keep going.”

“Most people refer to that as caffeine addiction.” Yang moved to sit next to her teammate.

Weiss’ expression softened. “Had a lot of days where i had to drink a lot of coffee to keep up with my dad’s intensive training. Now this stuff doesn’t do anything, no matter how strong i make it.”

“I’m sorry, Weiss.”

“Don’t be. Means i don’t have to worry about not sleeping because of this.” Weiss shifted to see her teammate better on the couch.

“What kept you up tonight?” Asked Yang.

“Ozpin gave us quite the information overload a couple days ago. Also that whole being kidnapped thing got to me a bit.”

“Fair enough,” yang said changing her expression. Her mom had done this as much as anything. Yang reminded herself to pay Raven back for this new trauma one day.

“I’m ok though. Just tired but not tired you know. What about you?” Weiss sipped her coffee

“Tired but not tired. A little hungry too. A lot overwhelmed. Mostly ready for all this grimmshit to be over with. And you know Ruby’s going to need years of counselling when all this is over.” Weiss giggled. Regardless if it was a joke or not, Yang’s tone and almost dismissal of that inevitably was humourous.  Yang giggled in return. She wondered if Weiss had picked up on her projection.

“We all will without a doubt.” Weiss took a long gulp from her coffee. “I borrowed a little something from Qrow if you want some.” She held up a bottle of Mistral rye.

“You know we probably shouldn’t.” Yang reached for the bottle and took a sip.

“After the shit we’ve been through, i think they’ll give us a pass.” Weiss took the bottle and poured some in her coffee before passing the bottle back.

Yang smiled after another swig. It was smooth whiskey. She understood why Qrow was fond of it. “Weiss,” she said before pausing

“Hmm” weiss replyed.

“I just wanted to say thank you. You know for listening to me the last few days. Just being there means a lot.” Yang chugged a shots worth of rye to finish her sentence.

“I didn’t know booze softened you up so fast,” Weiss teased. “If i’d known i’d given it to you last year.” The two girls giggled and Yang gave weiss a lite punch in the arm. “You know i love you right?”

“Note to self give the Ice Queen whiskey to melt her a bit.” They laughed harder this time, still keeping their noise level down as not to disturb the others. “I love you too, girl. Don’t ever leave me again, ok?”

A tear welled up in Weiss’ eye. “I won’t.” She smiled.

“You hungry too? All i really want is some toast. Pretty sure that’s all we have left anyways.”

“I’d like that.” The teammates smiled. Yang picked up the bottle and carried it over to the kitchen with her to get the bread out. Taking several swigs in the process, Yang pulled out the butter and put the bread in the toaster. Weiss sat at the bar with her coffee. “Your face is getting a little red.”

“Empty stomach. This stuff is gonna hit me like an ursa if i don’t eat something.” Weiss giggled. “ What is it?” Yang asked with a smile

“Never thought i’d see one of my teammates get tipsy before.”

“First time for everything, sweetheart.” The toast popped up suddenly, startling the two girls. They both laughed after they composed themselves.

As she buttered the toast, Yang’s expression changed. “You know i used to do this for Ruby every morning. Before school when we were kids, and even on weekends. Ruby is a great fighter, especially when she has to fight to cook anything.” They laughed. Weiss had gathered that Ruby was not the domestic type. “I loved doing this though.” She sighed.

“You ok? I know i’ve asked you this before. Can you give me a straight answer this time?” Weiss frowned as she took the bottle from yang for a swig.

“Yeah i can. I have no idea where my future is. Is it here with ruby forever or will i go off and get in big adventures? Will i become the next Qrow and be an alcoholic just getting by because of his immense skill? I don’t know.” Weiss sipped her coffee with a frown. “I tell you what i do know though,” Yang began, “we’re going to keep on going and i’m going to protect my sister and you no matter what.”

“That’s admirably. You have a lot to be proud of yourself for,” weiss said smiling. Yang handed her a freshly buttered piece of toast. Breaking it in half, weiss took a bite.

“Klein used to make toast for me and Winter sometimes. Father said it was poor people food but the simplicity made it desirable.” Yang felt the wave of nostalgia that hit her teammate. “I miss him. Between Father and Shitley i often wondered if they were the only ones who cared.”

“What about your mother?”

“Willow Schnee developed a bad habit or two.”

“Yeah good ol Tiayang Xiao Long isn’t known to be the most responsible. Losing two wives was difficult for him. He left the alcoholism to Qrow but he had plenty of destructive habits. His irresponsibility never got us in too much trouble but sometimes things got a little tight. We never worried though. Dad always knew what to do in the end.” Yang smiled. “He got this arm for me afterall.”

Weiss knew not to ask about the arm, touchy subject as it was. She took another bite of toast after a swig of whiskey. “It must have been an adjustment.”

“Dad helped a lot. He did what he could. A lot of it’s up in my head is all.” Weiss frowned. The problem ran deeper than her teammate’s head; weiss had seen her hand shake. Weiss couldn’t force recovery though.

“If you say so,” were the only words Weiss could get out.

“I’d ask you what you meant by that but i think the whiskey would talk too much. Since you made toast, how about 0i make one too.” Weiss picked up her mug and Yang her bottle, giggling at the Ice Queen’s pun. “To new beginnings?” Yang cheered.

“To new beginnings and decent sleep.” The clinked their respective receptacles together.

“I can drink to that.” Yang took a glass from the fridge and poured a shot, downing it almost immediately. “What time is it?”

“Probably close to 3:30 or so. I stopped checking the time a while ago.” Weiss had an idea. “You know we might sleep better if we can cuddle or something.” Yang raised an eyebrow. “It’s the same principle as having a teddy bear, just the other is living and breathing rather than stuffed and inanimate.”

“You know i think i’ll take you up on that offer. I could use the company. You must finally be feeling tired?” Yang said with a yawn.

“Yeah this rye is working as intended.” Weiss yawned in return. “Take another shot and let’s go. Might as well try for six hours before before Ruby wakes us up.”

“Agreed.” Yang finished her toast and took a double shot. “Want one?” Weiss nodded and Yang poured her a double. Weiss drank it with a grimace, eliciting a giggle from Yang. “A little much?”

“No no it’s fine. Not used to shots is all.” Weiss stood up and wobbled a little. “Sorry. Lightweight.”

Yang giggled again. “I was too. Too many nights sneaking Qrow’s alcohol for that now.”

“Oh and you were the one who said we probably shouldn’t. Yang Xiao Long for shame.” They both shrugged and laughed. “Come on let’s try to sleep.”

“Your room or mine?”

“Your room has a bigger bed to accommodate your hair,” Weiss said with a teasing smile.

“Hey my hair is majestic. Besides you’re one to talk yours goes past your butt.” Weiss laughed. The whiskey had turned them into giggling messes. The bottle had been full before the girls had gotten to it but now it was almost empty. “A little artificial relaxation was not necessary but definitely welcomed tonight. Thank you, Weiss.”

“You’re welcome, Yang.” She turned to her teammate and embraced her, wrapping her arms around the much larger girl’s waist. Yang wrapped her arms around Weiss’ shoulders. For once, yang felt she could be truly happy.

After their hug, they moved to Yang’s room and found the bed in the dark. Climbing into it, they cuddled next to each other. “Good night, Weiss” yang said as she kissed her teammate on the forehead.

Weiss beamed as she snuggled into her teammate’s arms. “Good night, Yang.” She reached up and returned the kiss. She immediately closed her eyes and snuggled closer.

Yang smiled as she felt her teammate get comfortable. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes, wrapping her arm around Weiss. Yang was surprised at how warm how warm she was. She’s like a little space heater, Yang thought. Smiling one last time, she succumbed to sleep.