#sorry if this was spelled or written incorrectly!

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

So long, farewell; until we meet again.

This is the concluding story to the corresponding blog event, A Fellow in Need is a Friend Indeed. ahyduaysovfva SORRY IF THIS IS SHORT, I wanted to wrap it up quickly so I can scream more about Halloween--

Please note, I was not able to respond to all interaction requests, as many were sent after the submission period, disregarded rules, or simply did not catch my interest 💦 Apologies!

Be Honest with Me.

Strange posters had started to crop up all over NRC. Few at first, but they became more numerous over the week, culminating in clusters of them stamped in the cafeteria and rows lining every hallway.

They were colorful and glittery, proclaiming of a great, once-in-a-lifetime show coming to campus. The stars, a traveling fox and cat duo. Immediately, the culprits were clear.

“You used the library printers for THIS?!” Raven demanded of them, thrusting a flyer she had torn down in Fellow’s face.

“It was free!”

“Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should!” She slapped a hand over the words plastered on the page. “kume c the greatist sho? You can’t make these claims—they haven’t been reviewed and approved by the proper authorities! And there's spelling errors all over!"

“Oh, calm down!” He poked her square in the forehead. “See, this is why you should come to our show. It’ll really teach ya how to live a little, laugh a little.”

"Wh-What...!!" Raven collected herself, then shot Fellow her fiercest glare. “Do you even have a venue or a stage crew secured for your performance…? How do you intend on putting on a show when there's been no planning put into this event?"

He held up a finger, shushing her. "You ever heard of a diversion, kid? You don’t need fancy stuff to have fun.”

"What is that supposed to mean?"

His grim was a wolfish invitation. "Come on to the theater and you'll see for yourself."

... I came.

Raven scanned the courtyard. Several students had gathered, spanning all seven dormitories. A few had posters in hand, and some of the Ignihyde boys had even come prepared with light sticks.

No stage was set, no decorations set up.

No fanfare at all.

I wonder what this grand show is going to be.

Raven folded her arms and leaned back against the trunk of an apple tree. Peering through the leaves, she could make out the final blips of sunlight. Golden, touched with pinks, oranges, and reds.

5 minutes.

10 minutes.

20.

40.

An hour and a half.

Mob students fidgeted, double checking the time on their phones, on the flyers. The sunset bobbed, then drowned in darkness. Warm colors bled into black, the stars popping into view.

Raven frowned.

No show.

Had Fellow written the time down incorrectly? Was he running late, perhaps too caught up in his own preparations? Did something happen to postpone...

“You ever heard of a diversion, kid?“

A diversion. An activity that keeps the mind from being too serious. Recreation, pastime. Neither of those definitions.

A distraction. Divert attention to one thing. and you won’t be paying attention to another.

Raven's thoughts skidded to a halt.

Wait a minute.

"If we're all here..." she said out loud, "then who's back at the dorms watching our things?"

All heads in the courtyard snapped to her. Realization and horror were etched into the students' expressions. They tore off for the Hall of Mirrors, pushing and shoving each other to be first through the doors.

Raven raced for her own abode.

The highest room in the tallest tower. Up a long flight of stairs, two steps at a time. Behind the ancient wooden door, in that dusty attic was--

She barreled inside, panting heavily. Her lungs burned, as if lit on fire. Left, right--her eyes darted around the room, searching for signs of disruption.

Paper, ink smears books puled high. The usual clutter, nothing missing from its place.

But the windows were open, and a brisk breeze weaving itself through her curtains, setting them fluttering. She rushed over, leaning out and staring down. The branches of a nearby tree opened to the window, and the angle at which the roof was slanted would allow for an easy slide if one was daring enough to try.

Did he and Gidel-san really just…?!

Raven pinched the bridge of her nose.

Why the distraction if they haven’t taken anything while everyone was away?

She paced her room, reexamined everything. Counted the books, checked the corner where Fellow and Gidel had holed up.

Nothing.

Raven shuffled to her writing desk, a finger taped to her chin.

What happened here…?

Then she saw it.

A book, sticking out from under her chair.

Raven crouched down and retrieved it. The cover, dented. The story, about a boy who never wanted to grow up.

Second star to the right and straight on till morning…

What she had been reading the day she had bumped into the two.

Raven flipped through the novel, stopping on a page flagged by a neon sticky note. Scrawled in messy handwriting was a short message.

Thanks for having us, kid.

Back on the road.

Talk soon, stay safe.

- Fellow

(What she assumed was Gidel’s signature followed, though it resembled scribbles more than letters.)

Raven held the note to her chest. Her ribcage constricted, squeezing her heart. They’re out there. Back on the run from their pursuers.

The last piece of the puzzle clicked into place. Mental gates swung open, as if finally unlocked by a skeleton key.

The diversion. It was to keep people anyone from knowing where and when they’d gone. No witnesses, no information to be leaked, no one put in danger if the wrong crowd comes along sniffing for them.

Raven chuckled, laying her arms on her windowsill as she looked out at the campus. The moon was high up, casting a silvery veil over the shadows that slithered in the dark. Almost protective, in a way.

“… Well, what do you know? I guess he still has it in him to be honest every once in a while.”

[sacchiri]

I recently bought the jp volumes of Hellsing along with the guidebook, and since I'm reading the series in its native language for the first time I might as well share some random things that stood out to me in no particular order.

This isn't meant to be an analysis of translation differences, I'm too lazy for that. Also it's been 12 years since I've watched the anime and read the low quality fan scans of the manga so some of these comments are just "Lol, forgot this was a thing"

Volume 1

... I really want to know who this guy is at the beginning, yelling at Alucard in overly familiar language to "Get your shit together!" and "You're the only one we can count on!!". We know from the style of speech that it's a dude, probably just some Hellsing rando, and maybe it's not all that strange since he has probably been working with the same soldiers for years--but it's still funny.

"I know, it's just so nice out :("

..The way "HELLSING Organization" is spelled out like this reminds me that apparently the name is supposed to be an acronym. No really.

...

God they're so silly.

Now that I think about it, the only thing Seras has done this chapter since being turned into a vampire is say "I'm sorry" over and over.... girl you got shot in the lung, why are you apologizing

Not a huge difference, but what Integra actually says here is "Leaving a corpse here for 20 years... You're a terrible person too, Father" and not "What were you thinking, Father?" as the Dark Horse translation suggests (note the lack of question mark in the raw version). I thought that might be of interest to some.

Something else I thought was interesting is the first line Alucard ever says to Integra, and how uncharacteristically polite he sounds.

O-kega wa gozaimasenka- That's two honorific 御's back to back! (He even said them in kanji, even Walter isn’t that straightlaced and he’s literally the butler.) This is also the only time Alucard uses this overly flowery gentlemanly language with her, and good thing too because it would be so annoying if he spent the whole manga ending his sentences with ~gozaimasu.

What I'm trying to get at is, after seeing this sentence in the Japanese version, I'm like 100% sure he actually heard her when she was mumbling to herself about hoping to find a knight in shining armor, and he was totally going the extra mile in playing into that role for their first encounter. Which is kind of sweet.

Lol they misspelled Alucard on the top left... or rather, they incorrectly spelled it right?

One would normally expect Alucard to be written アルカード, and indeed pixiv dict lists アーカード as a misspelling (the u sound is weak in Japanese, so it's easy to mishear arukādo as ākādo). Hirano was definitely aware of the correct spelling though, since he used it in the pilot chapter and in his old character sheets. It was only when the manga officially began that he switched to the アーカード spelling. I doubt it was because of copyright issues because there is already a long precedent of vampire characters named アルカード in various old manga, OVA, and games in Japan that have coexisted without issue (like this guy Hirano mentions in volume 1's afterword).

Most likely Hirano simply thought it looked better, or was a means of differentiating his character from the others somehow. It certainly makes life easier for Japanese fans searching for fanart since アーカード is only going to bring up Hellsing and not the Castlevania character.

Jan Valentine even pokes fun at the spelling discrepancy later in volume 2, but since there wasn't a good way of expressing this in English it was left untranslated.

(Speaking of spelling inconsistencies, there's a lot of minor details I'm noticing now, like half the time the furigana for 吸血鬼 is written バンパイア and the other half it's ヴァンパイア... anyway)

Um, just noticed literally everyone's wearing glasses What should I do

Hirano's habit of jotting random comments underneath his panels is one of the underrated perks of reading the manga

The Dark Horse translation almost makes it sound like she's looking forward to seeing this battle play out, while in the Japanese she simply sounds apprehensive. Almost as if she's worried about them? And she's going out on the field personally to make sure nothing bad happens? Aww

Ok this is a weird tangent, but I just noticed the scans of the Dark Horse version I've been looking at use a slightly larger image range than the Japanese version does. It was only noticeable when I got to this part:

The second image is what the Japanese version of the scan looks like and I can confirm that this is what it looks like in my physical volume as well. You shouldn't be seeing the messy borders of the inking on the bottom like that.

Manga manuscripts are set up so that there are a few millimeters of bleed border around each page. You're supposed to color and line all the way up to (4) while keeping in mind that printing and paper cutting may result in the image being trimmed up to (3).

Either Hirano didn't color his lines all the way to (4) (this man has been drawing manga for years but this is Hirano we're talking about so it's very possible), or Dark Horse didn't honor the original bleed borders of the manuscript. I'm kind of leaning towards the former since there was a Hellsing exhibit in Japan a few years back where you could look at Hirano's original manuscripts and there's one where you can clearly see that he spilled a mug of tea or coffee across the entire page

Anyway, it's weird, and I'm curious to see if someone that owns a physical copy in English can confirm whether theirs actually looks like that. It's volume 1, page 141.

[lulublack90]

Prompt 27 - Fix-It

@wolfstarmicrofic July 27, word count 876

CW - Murder, killing with a knife, blood, dead bodies, graves

Part eight of werewolf Sirius

Previous part First part

He looked at the note over and over. It was definitely Regulus’s handwriting, he’d watched him use it enough times. The papers had said he’d drowned and every scrap of information he’d managed to gather said the same. Regulus Black had drowned. He’d thought it odd, as Regulus had always been a strong swimmer. He often out-swam Sirius himself. But now he knew the truth, but he couldn’t think why Voldemort would lock the son of his most loyal servants away and lie about his death, hopefully, he could ask Regulus himself once they got him out. 

Greyback returned on the day of the full moon. His followers grabbed Sirius and forced him to his knees. He glared up at the old wolf. They’d prepared for this. 

“Well, Lord Black, are you ready?” Greyback growled. “Your brother’s life hangs in the balance. If you answer incorrectly again, I’m afraid that young Master Black won’t see the moon rise.” Sirius shook with rage. 

“How do I know you’ll keep your word and let Regulus live?” Sirius’s voice was shaky. He added to it, pretending it was with nervousness. 

“When you agree, I shall send word to the Dark Lord and your brother’s carers that you are doing as commanded, and they will keep him alive until the sunrises tomorrow and I will send word that Dumbledore is dead. If I don’t your brother, your lover and yourself will not live another day.” Greyback’s eyes flicked over to Marcus. “You know what, we'll throw in your little buddy as well. He’s been useless to me since he arrived anyway.” Sirius swallowed and let his head hang low.

“I’ll do it,” He whispered. 

“I’m sorry I didn’t quite hear that,” Greyback smiled horridly, holding a hand to his ear. 

“I’ll take you to Albus Dumbledore in exchange for my brother’s life.” He repeated, defeatedly. Greyback took out a small scroll of parchment, held it up and clicked his fingers. It disappeared into a cloud of black smoke. A minute later, a different parchment returned in the same black smoke and Greyback unfurled it. 

“The Dark Lord is very happy with you, Lord Black.” He turned to address the rest of the camp. “We will be leaving in a few hours for the forbidden forest. Prepare yourselves, my children. Tonight is going to be written in the history books!” A knife slid across Greyback’s neck, he raised his hands to the wound as blood poured out. He fell to the ground with a sickening thump. Then, one after the other, his closest followers fell with him and a few others dotted through the gathered wolves. Remus stepped forward. 

“Well done. We leave for Lestrange castle before nightfall.” The gathered wolves all bowed to their new leader, Sirius included. Remus bent and pulled Sirius up from the ground. They stood together looking at the new pack they’d created. A wolf pack that after tonight would be peaceful and free from Greyback and Voldemort’s whims. 

“Who’s hungry? After all that, I’m starving,” Marcus rose from his bow, clapping his hands together. “Hey, when you’ve finished making googly eyes at your mate, pack master. Could you do something about this rubbish strewn across the camp before it starts to stink?” Marcus joked, holding his nose closed. Remus rolled his eyes at the mischievous wolf and raised his wand. He levitated them into the forest and dug graves for them all. No words were said and the few that had gathered quickly left. 

The pack of twenty wolves arrived at the castle gates. Those who could do magic had acquired wands, and together they began to pull apart the protection spells keeping them out. Sirius felt the last bit of magic breaking and the gate swung open. Sirius walked through as they’d discussed earlier to check it was safe. When nothing happened, the rest of the pack followed. 

They hid in the shadows away from the main door. He and Remus locked the gates again with their own brand of magic. It would be almost impossible for anyone to get in or out who wasn't already familiar with their spells. Sirius cast a reviling charm to show how many people were in the castle. Faint yellow dots appeared before him. He counted ten in all. Nine gathered together in the dining room and one below in the dungeons. Smaller blue dots shone together in the kitchen. House elves. He watched as another blue light appeared, and together they all disappeared. He ended the spell. Taking Remus's hand, they turned back to the gathered wolves.  

“Anyone who has changed their mind now that we are here and doesn’t wish to take part in this fight can go and none of us will hold it against them. We will meet you at the new camp tomorrow if we make it out,” Remus addressed his pack in a whisper. Their superior hearing meant they all heard the quiet words. None of the pack moved.  

Sirius could feel the change coming. Remus looked at him, and they shared a silent moment before the first whimper left one of the other wolves. They hastily cast a silencing charm around the pack and let the wolves within out to play.  

Next part

[phoenix-before-the-flame]

go home and suck ya muddah pum-pum and bumboclaat.

Woo hatemail anon you're back! And you did your research and localized your hatemail into patois! How thoughtful!

The effort is appreciated but still! Corrections have to be made!

Patois is mostly an oral language, while it has no official spellings for words on paper there are still some words and articles that have a spelling or two that's accepted by local peeps to use in day to day writings like in text messages.

Muddah isn't the best way to write Mother, gets the pronounciation all janked up. Mada works best, shorter and sounds closer to the actual pronounciation. Or you could go with the other alternative of Mumma (pronounced more like muh-ma).

Pum-pum is incorrectly written. No upstanding jamaican is gonna take the time and use a - when you're cussing someone out over text. What is this school? You either slap those two pums together as one word or put a space between em. We ain't got time for proper punctuation here! And regardless, pumpum is still a rather soft way to go about it. Jamaican cussing out is harsh as fuck. Try pussyhole instead to really get your point across.

You used bumboclaat incorrectly! C'mon man! While there isn't a true and definite usage of bumboclaat it is odd to use it at the end of the sentence like that. Usually it comes before, it works almost like an adjective most times, and it can also work as a standalone being just said by itself, how fun! And there's also alternative to bumboclaat such as rassclaat, bumborassclaat, bumbopussyrassclaat, and so on and so forth. The cursing in patois allows for much versatility and endless combinations so get creative!

All in all i'd say your hatemail has seen much improvement from yesterday evening and i'm very glad you took my advice and did research. But still!

Your sentence is too bland! Too barebones! And it still has too much english in it! If I were to take your sentence and transform it to really make it work i'd take it from:

Go home and suck ya muddah pum-pum and bumboclaat.

And transform it into:

Gwaan a yuh rass popdung yahd an guh suck out yuh mada dutty bumboclaat pussyhole an leff mi alone.

Do you see how much a difference that makes? One's a lot more colourful than the other isn't it? Though you aren't a patois speaker by nature so i'm not sure if you can even read that properly.

All in all an improvement but still not enough to garner a much better grade i'm afraid. 5/10, you get the extra mark for attempt but didn't gain anymore for incorrect usage and a glaring lack of creativity.

Sorry hatemail anon, i wanna give you a better grade but i must be fair 😔✌

[na102]

I've now watched both seasons of Wheel of Time and they're great!!! I haven't read the books and am curious- what do you like/not like about them, and would you recommend them? (Also are they gay)

Yay! I'm glad you like the show! I do recommend the books they obviously have their flaws but are worth it and while it's not direct I saw it as very gay.

The rest of this is a detailed rant going more in depth. With some (mild mild) spoilers

I really love the world building and detail it just sucks you in. The story arcs themselves are fantastic ive never felt such euphoria at climaxes than I do with this book series it's also the only one to ever make me cry same goes for the characterization. I could go on and on about what I love about this series. However I will sum it that for everything I disliked there is 10 more things I liked.

when it comes to female characters this is probably some of the best female centred fiction I have ever read pre Locked Tomb and Baru Cormorant. Just women who aren't completely men obsessed that are independent, brave, talented, heroic and just their own character. In addition many of them are ambitious.

When it comes to gayness that depends on how much you are okay with reading in between the lines. The earlier and middle books it is HEAVILY implied that many Aes Sedai are or have been at one point lesbian lovers "pillow friends". There is also some Polyamory (spelled incorrectly the one where it's people who share the same spouse but don't sleep with each other )

despite that distinction there are a LOT of women who are very *close* to each other including ones In The same polycule.

The books are very long that's both a pro and con.

One of the things I'm not a huge fan of is how the series does change genres. The 1st few books are more of coming of age and then you get court drama but the build up is worth and it's still a great read. It takes you through their whole lives. I recommend starting with the Prequel New Spring if u are going to read them it adds extra layers to the earlier parts.

The series also changes with the last few books( Robert Jordan passed away while still writing the series so Brandon Sanderson completed the books based on his notes). This is where a lot of issues come into play. With only notes he does wrap it up nicely however he does flub some characterization. The main issues center around the female characters.

Despite some of the great writing of women it is still written by a man a while back. There are some negative portrayals,stereotypes by Robert Jordan .They are also a little less free with sexual expression. There is way(way) less sex than the show but the characters are also a little younger and it fits the setting. everything else outweighs it. Believe me there are many scenes that are better and more intimate then sex ones.

It gets much worse when Sanderson takes over. A lot of the near canon lesbianism is removed and there are a lot of submissive portrayals of women in addition to just out of character behavior. However with the book wrapping up you are very much distracted by everything else going on and the ending is so well done and cathartic I didn't even really care.

But it was overall a groundbreaking work of fiction. To this day it is still my all time favorite series. I think it's the best epic fantasy series there is. There are so many different worlds and so many different stories within it. It changed my life.

Sorry about the rant hope this helps. I do 100% recommend the book series. I also recommend using your local library if possible cuz there are lot of books in the series and it can get pricy buying them.

[halleyuhm]

Trick or treat!!!!!!! - @maddstermind

You've got a treat!

Here's a chat scene from Route LXVI. I had to ultimately put it aside because it was not progressing the plot in an already slow chapter, but it was fun to write, and it worked as a great character study. Plus, it marks the beginning of Liv's worst lie~~

The layout is a bit weird because I normally write my chats adjusted to the left or right according to who is talking. Here in Tumblr it's a bit different. Bear with me. There it goes:

You:

Hey remember this convo from the neolitic era

Image

Image

Image

Highzs🎱:

LMAOOO where did you find this?

You:

Image

Image

Got them by digging in ancient discord convos

Highzs🎱:

Damn I didn't know grammar

That youre is killing me

You:

Aw I think you were trying to spell cool

like pot8os

Highzs🎱:

pot8os I'm deceased

You:

When you used to write everything wrong on purpose

Highzs🎱:

to mess up with you

so you wouldn't know when I actually spelt something incorrectly due to me being an idiot

You:

being dyslexic is not cinamons with being and idiot

Highzs🎱:

Synonyms*

You:

I did it on purpose!

Highzs 🎱

You are missing an n too

You:

I don't rely on the autoccorrect

Highzs 🎱

Such a helpful tool, though

Could have saved me some misunderstandings

You:

HAHAHAH

LOWZS I JUST REMEMBERD

That one time you told us that you were sick

Highzs 🎱

HAHAHAH NOOOO

You:

YOU TOLD US YOU HAD ANIME

And I spent the whole afternoon searching "anime illness" on Google

and getting top tens instead of answers

Highzs 🎱

HAHSHHSHS SORRY

But that's the reason you finally watched Your lie in April, so worth it

👉👉

You:

👉👉

Probably my fave dyslexia moment

Highzs 🎱

And meanwhile Soda like

Sucks dude, wanna play some Smash until you get better or

You:

HAHAHAHAH

I distinctly remember the moment you said you just needed iron and he went like what

Highz 🎱

He still teases me about it

Did you know that

In those screenshots you sent

In that conversation

I was kinda

Hinting

Towards him

You:

WHAT

I JUST CHIKES WHAT

Highzs🎱:

WHAT??

You:

CHOKED

I'm rearesding everything

Highzs🎱:

Hahaha really???

Ok you are

Hey runt come back down

You:

I'm back

Dammit Lou

I'm going to be so honest

During that whole conversation

I thought you were talking about me

Highzs🎱:

HAHAHAHA I KNEW IT RUNT

The moment you said

"You know you could tell me anything right?"

You:

I was so abviously trying to ease you idiot

I wanted to be a good friend regardless of the feeling situation

I was so off though, damn

Highzs🎱:

Awwww that's so sweet

I actually did like you for a while though

I was pretty confused

You:

Haha no bet

I'm glad you told me <3

Even though I already knew it lmao

Highzs🎱:

Me too

Now

*uno reverse card*

Tell me who you were referring to

You:

NO SHOT

Highzs🎱:

As that written statement proves

We made a promise for a 50/50

Anytime one of us confesses, the other has to do so

You:

Yeah ._. but I wanted to talk about the present, not the past

Highzs🎱:

The present? Weren't you with Percy?

You:

Uhm I could be poly

Highzs🎱:

Alright, intriguing

But first things first

Years later I'll know who you were referring to in that convo

You:

Man, you already know

Highzs🎱:

Say it

Saaaayyyy it

I'm waiting

You:

Man we were rivals and didn't even know it

Highzs🎱:

Nameeeee

You:

Good grief

It was Soda

Highzs🎱:

WHAT

You:

Don't act surprised you knew it

Highzs🎱:

Okay runt

Why did you never tell me

You:

You've activated my trap card!

Same question back to you

Highzs🎱:

Sexuality struggles plus one of the pivotal points was you

You:

I didn't expect a sound answer

Highzs🎱:

You?

You:

Struggles

Highzs🎱:

Fair enough

You:

I'm returning now to compensate though

I didn't send the screenshots for nothing

If you will also tell me your name, of course

Highzs🎱:

That's the promise we made so

You:

100%?

Highzs🎱:

Cross my heart and hope to die

On three?

You:

Uhh nice

On three

1

Highzs🎱:

1

You:

2!

Highzs🎱:

3!

I like Maeve

You:

I think I like Gray

HWAT

Highzs🎱:

What?????

[thefloofartist]

Okay, no... Sorry, chief. Ya got the wrong guy. I know Eren personally & i follow him closely, i even WORK for the dude. That ain't the kind of thing he'd do, you got the wrong guy... As for STYOKUN, he's the kind of guy who'd threaten someone with Doxxing for just liking the show & disagreeing with a headcannon he "claims" that the writers lied about... In fact, that actually happened once! Along with other things... So yeah, ya probably shouldn't listen to him.

I love how easy it is to tell whether a message is written by Canonseeker/Eren or not. This is the perfect example to demonstrate why.

Note all the spelling mistakes. Note the usage of "..." and incorrectly capitalized words, topped off by basic grammatical errors and poor sentencing structure. This is done for dramatic flair, because it utterly lacks any substance. Lastly, I'd like to mention that the way it's written has this underlying tone of being talked down to.

For those not as familiar with the way Canonseeker/Eren writes, once you've seen enough posts by him it becomes too easy to identify him since he never changes his writing style. Thankfully, even if Canonseeker reads this post, his lexicon isn't good enough to modify his speech to hide even as an anonymous account.

[threadsun]

JDA Asks: "Sooo,,, i was very much gone yesterday— sorry bout that. So bad news I’m (sorta) back, good news; I actually managed to finish a quick sketch ref for my man so

So I got this finished.

It’s messy and basic but I I think I got the most important stuff about him- his backstory is kinda long and also the world explaining stuff is also kinda long so just stick with some random facts for now !! -tho if you do wanna hear then I’ll gladly respond- also please sorry if there’s some stuff written incorrectly, English is hard.

Anyways- I hope you had a nice break day !!"

😳😳😳 I.... oh boy.... wow... h...he...

My brain literally short-circuits every time I look at him, I'm obsessed!!! Every detail is so !!!!!! I'm in love!!!!! @threadmoon and I spent a good five minutes just going over every detail and how much we love him!!!

I will gladly hear literally anything and everything about him!!!! Please tell me more!!!!!

Also don't worry about spelling/writing, I'm majorly dyslexic so I get it lmao

Also also I think he'd get along with Moon's OC Nik cause they also wear bells cause they walk silently

[secret-third-thing]

hello my darling

it's me again but i promise it's the last time for a while!

do you mind if i sometimes forget/ignore the male/female instead of man/woman thing? i just forget sometimes lol and technically it's not a big deal but i'm insecure haha

i feel like there is a big trend with neris fics to be... not the most ic positive fics? and i'm not planning to bash cassian but there could be a fair amount of ic/night court criticism in the narrative or i could tone it down. what is your preference with a neris & ic dynamic?

okay that's all! love you, can't wait to get started on this!

xoxo santa

HEY! <3

You are welcome to drop in whenever you want. It doesn't have to be question related!!!

I totally do not mind about male/female man/woman! I do it myself! Or if that does not bring comfort, I can point to the fact that I've written fic that spells Graysen's name incorrectly and NO ONE TOLD ME. So I am very chill about this because if I wasn't, I'd be a huge hypocrite!!!

I personally don't have a preference - I am very much a do what serves the story best. (Also with whatever you're most comfortable doing). If you come back and you're like STT GET READY FOR A BRUTAL CHARACTER STUDY, I'd be just as eager to dive in as I would be if you didn't.

SORRY I FEEL LIKE IM BEING WISHY WASHY but the truth is that I will adore whatever you write because YOU wrote it. I'm very excited and I hope it doesn't stress you out too much!

And feel free to stop by whenever! My life is kinda absurd rn so I'm trying to escape via the internet LOL.

Have a great weekend, Santa!!

[cesar-ramon]

As he listened on, part of Cesar wanted to laugh. What made her think that this man cooked anything ever was beyond him; he was a boy in a Latino household for pete’s sake. The women did everything and spoiled him rotten, he could barely wipe his own ass. Still, that much was more than likely lost on her due to the cultural differences. The other part of him that wanted to laugh was a deep, childish thought in his mind that found it amusing that she used stuff like that for whatever spells and potions she made instead of the traditionally described eye of newt and whatnot. It was movie hogwash and cartoon bullshit, but part of him assumed it to be rooted in truth if only for the fact that regular shit like leaves weren’t special, so what power could they hold?

“So you write something on a leaf and burn it and that’s somehow magic? No red and black candles or sacrificing a goat or something? When you put it like that la brujería suena aburrida.” Cesar chuckled to himself. 

It would come to dawn very slowly on Cesar that everything he thought he knew about magic and witches was not only fake, but so far from the truth that he might as well not claim to know anything. His brows furrowed as he listened on, another drag taken from his cigarette as he listened to her prattle on about closed practices and spirit teams. He was, once again, incorrectly presuming that witchcraft was generally fake, but could be practiced by anyone. They were in New Orleans, after all —- it was voodoo central. Anyone could order some books and open up a shop where they sell charms and candles to tourists and make tall claims. Likewise anyone could buy a couple of crystals and other silly trinkets and call themselves a wicca. It was new aged bullshit to him that people just did or said to feel different and special. Or so he had always thought. This would only be further solidified by what Joss told him next.

“Witch hunters?” He said with a tone of disbelief and fear. The thought hadn’t even occurred to him that such a thing was possible. “ You mean… like, that’s a thing?” He asked, clearly bewildered. It read on his face as his eyes stared widely at Joss, his jaw slack and his expression on of obvious dismay. He had grown up in the South and of course heard all the stories and history of the Salem Witch Trails and all the stuff that came with it, but he, like everyone else, knew it was nonsense. Only innocent women who were victims of jealous old wives or creepy men that they rejected were burned at the stake, no actual witches. But to hear Joss say it so matter-of-factly…

A chill ran down Cesar’s spine as the thought added to the many others floating in his head. Suddenly he was looking at Joss with renewed sympathy. It almost made perfect sense now that some witch hunter killed her. If that was a real thing, it seemed like the most likely and obvious answer. But there was more…

“First of all, that’s racist,” He said as a joke in regards to his name, but there was no humor in his voice. He couldn’t joke like he normally would when everything Joss had been saying had started filling in so many gaps in things he’d written off before. If there were witches and there were witch hunters, what else was out there? And if on the off chance his grandmother was actually a witch, did that make him a witch, too? Did witch hunters kill his grandmother? His father? Would they come for him too?

“So…” He began, but couldn’t find the words. If Joss was really murdered like that, he felt even more for her now than an hour ago, but didn’t know what to say or how to say it. He could only look at her with soft eyes and shake his head. For the first time, his shoulders slumped as he considered her position with his whole heart and mind. 

“I’m …so sorry, Joss.”

“I’m actually not worried about that at all.” She almost snorted laughing at the very idea. “You’ve been through too much to let a little hunger kill you. You’re living out of spite.” She waved a hand at him dismissively like she might be swatting at a fly, which ironically, was probably how he felt about her. He moved from the window and slunk into the couch, cigarette nestled between two fingers.

“It’s for cooking.” She tried to sound instructional but her contempt joined it. “We use it sometimes for what I guess you could say like a manifestation? It’s really basic stuff.” She laughed to herself, realizing they were never going to reach a point where anything she said was actually believable. “Well so there’s this thing - let’s just say your spirit team. It could be old family or friends, good spirits wanting to help, angels, whatever you can wrap your head around. There’s other ways to go about it, but you ask for something, write it on the leaf and burn it, that’s the gist.”

She spoke out with her hands, trying to make sense of what probably sounded like nonsense. “And you’re in luck because I’m a spirit.” Her hand was pressed to her chest now with an expression of pride. “And if you’re on your best behavior I can be on your team. Now it’s not super straightforward, no one’s gonna show up with a large check and balloons. You’ll find money on the ground, loose bills in an old coat, you get the idea. Not voodoo. That’s a whole other coven and a closed practice.”

He only seemed to give her attention when the shock settled in, like opening a can of worms. He’d have to find out some time or another, especially knowing his little gift didn’t seem to be going anywhere. “That would be my best bet.” She gave him another smile, exchanging a look of disappointment and experienced expectation. “Witchhunters, witchfinders.” She waved her hands and laughed, smiling at him with a little bit of fondness. Knowing much worse was out there than witches and ghosts, she almost felt like protecting him from the truth. He had no capacity to think about them now, especially when they posed no threat.

“No, it wasn’t a deer hunter, that’s actually.. I’m kind of insulted by that, actually.” She gave him a glance of dry disapproval. “They probably wanted something from me, I mean, they knew where I lived. I only remember walking and walking until I realized no one could see me. Couldn’t find my body, don’t remember how I died so I’m not stuck in a dreadful loop. Part of me thinks I might be around somewhere, which brings me back to my previous theory that it’s definitely someone skilled and not some low level zit hunting for game. And with the way you were looking at me earlier I’d say it was personal. I’ve laid down some solid cat in my days but I doubt it was my pussy that got me killed.” She crossed her arms again. “How about we start with why you don’t have a bay leaf in your house? The last name on that tombstone was Ramon, not sure why you don’t have a bay leaf but, okay. Are you nice to your neighbors you easedrop on, maybe they have a one.”

[miraculously-incorrect-quotes]

Rena rouge: PLOT TWIST! You are your crushes crush.

Ladybug: unrealistic. Not happening

[shujiology]

⋆✦⋆ The Cute Barista Who Couldn’t Get My Name Right ⋆✦⋆

Synopsis: Imagine having Kuroo Tetsuro as your barista and he can never for the life of him get your name right... or perhaps he can, he just chose not to.

+ coffee shop AU, Barista!Kuroo, fluff, Kuroo’s terrible at flirting

A.N: HQ season five when??

꘎♡━━━━━━♡꘎

When he calls for you, he wasn’t calling your name. He was just shouting something that sounded close to your name.

It didn’t help that the entire time he was looking straight at you with half-lidded eyes as if he’d done nothing wrong. You rose from your seat with lightning speed and rushed over to the dark-haired barista to grab your drink right out of his hands and thanked him before rushing to the exit.

“Anytime sweets, see you around!” you gave him an awkward smile, then finally walked out the door to make your way to your college campus.

You look at the name written across your coffee cup in bold black letters and you realize the attractive new barista hadn’t only said your name wrong, but he’d also written your name incorrectly. A dreary sigh escapes you, but you let it slide.

Mistakes such as this weren’t something uncommon after all. Everyone has had a barista who’s got their name wrong by mistake before, right?

At least… you thought it was a mistake—until you came back the next day and ordered your coffee. He managed to start a conversation with you and the conversation went on swimmingly. He was charming and engaging, and you end up exchanging quite the friendly banter. You even found out that he’s a chemistry major and goes to the same campus as you. You’ve never stumbled upon him on campus grounds before, and if you have, you’ve never noticed. But now at least you can always tell him apart by the Cheshire smile he wore on his face.

“Here, on the house” he says, as he gave you your drink, as well as a piece of bagel you didn’t recall ordering. You wanted to decline his kind offer, but he insisted, so you obliged. You thanked him once again and made your way out of the coffee shop. Out of sheer curiosity, you look at the name written on your cup, and lo and behold your name was written incorrectly yet again.

Once or twice, you could accept, but by the third time, you thought it was just ridiculous. You’ve met him precisely three times now, and in all of those three times, he’s spelled your name in three different ways. Somehow out of all three, none of them were correct.

So by the fourth time, you told him you’d just spell it out for him. You spelled out your name, letter by letter, and once he was done writing, you wait. This time you didn’t wait until you walked out the door to check and see the spelling of your name—instead, you checked it as soon as he gave you your cup. To no one’s surprise; he got it wrong again.

“Are you for real?” you say, finally voicing your irritation. He didn’t look confused or surprised. He just looked playful and teasing, almost as if he did it on purpose. “Something the matter, sweets?” he asked, feigning innocence.

You pointed at the name he’s written on your cup, “That’s not my name… in fact, you haven’t written my name at all in the four times I’ve come here” you chastised, yet he still showed no sign of guilt.

“Aw geez ‘m sorry, I guess I’m bad at writing down names,” he rested his elbows on the counter to inch his face closer to yours. “Mind if I write down your number instead?” he winked.

Your face burned red from being flustered in anger. He’s lucky he’s cute, otherwise you would’ve doused that devilish smirk right off his face with the hot burning coffee in your hand.

You did end up giving him your number in the end though...

꘎♡━━━━━━♡꘎

[beels-burger-babe]

Hi! I saw that requests are open, if it's not a problem could i request Satan reacting to MC coming to him with new books every time they hang out because they want him to read them out loud since they have a short attention span? Like, Satan would be reading said book while MC is drawing or doing something else.

I have adhd and reading books that are not digital is a nightmare for me, so him reading out loud would be pretty relaxing.

Btw it's up to you if you wanna do headcanons or a oneshot!

ABSOLUTELY!!! So this is actually my first request and I'm super excited because as someone who also has ADHD I can totally relate! I hope you like it!

Too Still, Too Quiet

GN!MC with ADHD Summary: Satan notices that MC seems to have a hard time hanging out with him; he's determined to get to the bottom of the issue and find a solution.

After living in the House of Lamentation for nearly a year, you've grown accustomed to the many quirks that came with living with the seven Lords of the Devildom. You had gotten close to the brothers, and as they picked up on your symptoms for your ADHD, they each found their own ways of being helpful. Lucifer had always known, as it was written on your file, and made a point of sending you subtle reminders throughout the day to keep you organized and on task. He brushed it off saying that it merely prevented him from having to go after you later on if you forgot or did something incorrectly.  Mammon was no stranger to having a hard time prioritizing and staying focused and took pride in lending you some of the different tools he used to fidget with. After all, his human deserved the best, and you couldn’t get any better than using something that belonged to the great Mammon. Leviathan’s room provided a relaxing atmosphere with just enough stimulation to keep your brain satisfied enough to focus on your school work and tasks. The sounds of the aquarium provided a fantastic back ground noise, and Levi always took caution in wearing his headphones when he gamed if you were working in his room to not add to the distractions around you.  Asmodeus had a good eye for when you were growing too frustrated by the regular chaos that tended to fill the House of Lamentation and would pull you aside to his room for some self-care to help calm you down. There was nothing like a head message and face mask from Asmo as he happily gossiped about the latest drama in The Fall to help ground you.  Beelzebub, on the other hand, was great at noticing when you were starting to grow restless. In those moments, he’d not-so-subtly state that he was heading to the gym and it’d sure be nice if he had someone to join in before very obviously making eye contact with you. At first you had a hard time figuring out a good balance between a work out that satisfied Beel while also not killing you. But now the two of you easily worked with each other until you were both sweating, smiling, and happy. He also made sure to remind you to eat through out the day whenever you went to a round of hyper-fixation on something. Belphegore wasn’t particularly helpful when it came to your forgetful spells or disorganization as, being the Avatar of Sloth, he would normally encourage such behavior. Instead, he did what he did best, and helped put your wandering mind to ease whenever you were trying to sleep.  The only person, and not for a lack of trying, that you just couldn’t seem to find a flow with was Satan. 

He was too quiet and organized for you to be able to stand being around him for long periods of time. You had tried hanging out with him a couple of times, but after a few minutes of him silently reading or him explaining whichever text he was currently studying, you would grow restless and distracted.  Which brought you to your current situation.  Satan had invited you to come relax in his room with him, as the rest of his brothers were dealing with the aftermath of their most recent dilemma. It wasn’t so bad at first, some light conversation here, some banter there, but soon your mind started to wander off to the spines of the endless books around you as you pondered on what might be inside them.  “MC?”  Your attention snapped back onto Satan, who stood frowning at you. You blushed and scratched the back of your neck. “Oh, I’m sorry. I got a little distracted. What were you saying?”  Satan sighed as his frown deepened.  “I’ve noticed that tends to happen a lot with you. Not that there’s anything wrong with that!” He quickly amended raising his hands in defense. “But it seems particularly bad when you’re with me. You get quite jittery and I don’t think you’ve ever stayed in my room longer than ten minutes,” for a second his eyes almost looked sad as he looked over at you, “Is it something I’m doing? Do I make you uncomfortable?”  “No! Satan, no, it’s not you I promise!” You quickly reassured moving closer to him. “It’s just well I have a hard time staying still and focusing on things and when it gets too quiet it bothers me because then my brain is like hyper fixating on the smallest noises in the room, even though I’m supposed to be focusing on what you’re saying or my work, and it’s like, is that a page a turning or a something scratching at the door and then I start wondering about what kind of things could be in here and-”  “MC.” Satan cut off, though he didn’t seem annoyed. In fact, his eyes now gleamed with a sense of understanding. “Do you happen to have ADHD?”  “Yeah, I thought you all knew? Lucifer told all of you when I arrived right? That’s why everyone is so-” you moved your hand in a vague gesture that even you weren’t entirely sure what it was meant to symbolize.  Satan huffed and shook his head. “Lucifer did no such thing. I imagine he would’ve told us if it came to be a big enough problem. But you know him. He takes pride in being the only one to know certain things. “  You frowned and tilted your head in confusion. “But then what about the others? They’ve all been helping me out for months now.”  Satan placed a hand under his chin in thought, “They most likely took note of individual symptoms and decided to help. Belphegore, and possibly even Leviathan and Asmodeus may have put two and two together, but the rest probably think you’re just forgetful or that you’re restless,” he smiled reassuringly at you, “but that’s besides the point. Now that I know, I can help make you feel more at ease when you’re with me. What’s the main issue that you-” “It’s too quiet!” You quickly cut off, causing Satan to raise an eyebrow. “When we’re in here relaxing and you’re just reading and I’m supposed to be reading too, it’s too quiet. I try to focus on the book, but my mind keeps jumping around to other things. And I want to read all those books you’ve recommended to me, I really do, but I start feeling bored after a little while and next thing I know I jumping sentences without noticing and then I’ve gone an entire chapter with no recollection of what I’ve just read because I wasn’t really paying attention to the words at all I was just flipping pages without realizing it, so I have to go back and re-read the whole thing all over again!” You throw your hands in the air in frustration. “Is exhausting and makes me feel dumb, so I get up and do something else instead.”  Satan nodded, taking in every word carefully. “Well first of all,” you yelped as he flicked your forehead.  “Ouch! What was that for?!”  The demon smirked and crossed his arms over his chest. “For calling yourself dumb. Just because you have more difficulty with literature than others, does not mean you’re dumb. You simply require a different reading strategy than what most consider “usual”, and I believe I have a solution that would suit both of us,” you perked up at his words. “I recommended those books to you because I greatly enjoyed them myself. How about, when you’re here, you can choose a book you want to read, and I will read it out loud for you? That should help, yes?”  A light airy warmth filled your chest at just how accommodating Satan was willing to be. “But what about the books that you were reading?”  The demon shrugged, “I can always read them in my spare time.” He moved closer to take your hands into his, silently demanding your full attention. “I want to spend more time with you and get to know you better. I want you to be comfortable and be able to be yourself when you’re around me without feeling stressed. This is honestly the least I could do for you, MC.”  Blushed rushed to your cheeks as you felt your heart flutter in your chest. You awkwardly cleared your throat and took your hands back, rubbing them on your legs as you noted how clammy they were. “I think I-I would like that a lot” The grin on Satan’s face widened as he took one of your hands and lead you deeper into the bookshelves of his room. “Splendid! Then why don’t we get try right away? Take you pick, MC, I will be your narrator for the evening and for as long as you wish.”  ***** I hope this was something along the lines of what you were looking for! It is a little short, but I hope you like it. Thank you so much for the request, I loved it! Requests are OPEN and I would definitely love to complete some more if anyone has any ideas or prompts that they’d like me to complete. Just send in an ask and, if I feel comfortable with it, I’ll do my best to make a fic for it!

[thewardenofwinter]

Literally shivering me timbers as I type. I actually recently added to my personal pirate literature collection. I also already use all of these websites myself! My only qualm is with Wikipedia because quite a few of their sources are incorrectly linked but it's a pretty good overall source for basic info, just don't dive in too deep like me and spend 3 hours looking at the sources behind Black Bart... Also sorry for any misspellings it's quite late and I don't fell like running this through spell check.

Since Nopal so graciously already provided some great websites, I will instead recommend other forms of media to check out.o here are my favorite books/authors/youtubers.

Books:

Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates by David Cordingly- Best entry-level pirate history book in my opinion, formatted well and sensationalized just a tad to keep your attention. Does a good job of discrediting pirate myths while at the same time educating you on the real history.

The Republic of Pirates: Being the True and Surprising Story of the Caribbean Pirates and the Man Who Brought Them Down by Colin Woodard- The same as the book above but focuses more on specific pirates/pirate hunters.

The Pirate Hunter by Richard Zacks- This book shows the true colors of the notorious pirate hunter Captain Kidd and is riddled with historical details/facts concerning the man and the environment he worked in.

The Sea Rovers Practice by Benerson Little- Details the particular methods behind the madness of seaman and their craft.

The Golden Age of Piracy: The Truth Behind Pirate Myths by Benerson Little- Much like Under The Black Flag, Little uses this book to disprove myths and restate the facts behind these men of the high seas. Though I much prefer this book for its credible information and glossary, it reads almost like a textbook and can be a little hard to get into for the casual reader.

The General History of the Pirates by Captain Charles Johnson- Published in 1724 by an unknown captain, this is the book that started it all. Robbers of the high seas, pillaging, plundering, rebellious ladies and gents fighting for their spot in the world. If you can get over the old-timey language, it's a super cool read. But, that being said, this book is seen by most pirate historians as an exaggeration of true facts to entertain readers and relies a lot on unreliable eyewitness accounts. Still, some do consider it credible, just not in its entirety.

Piracy: The Complete History by Angus Konstam- Overview of the history of piracy from ancient times to the present. Since it covers so much time, Konstam doesn't go very in-depth as I would prefer but for a historical lesson outside of just the golden age, this works quite well.

Authors:

Benerson Little- A former Navy SEAL and historical consultant on the hit STARZ network show Black Sails. Author of a few novels above, which are my personal favorites due to his in-depth bibliographies in the back. He has his own historical fiction novel called Fortunes Whelp that I haven't yet finished but so far is quite good. He also goes on a few podcasts and does interviews detailing his knowledge if you wanna check those out too.

Angus Konstam- With his plethora of military and naval knowledge from his time as a naval officer, Konstom has written hundreds of books, many concerning the history of pirates. I've mentioned one of his works above, but he has many many other books that might pique your interest

E.T. Fox- Fox is a historian with his M.A. in maritime history with numerous published works (also has a piratey earing so I trust every word he says). I didn't mention his work above because I haven't finished it, but he has two books called Pirates in Their Own Words that I've read bits and pieces of, so I would recommend checking them out. He also has a book on Henry Every which I am trying to get my hands on.

Nigel Cawthorne- While I have read 2 of his books (Pirates and A History of Pirates) and find most of the info to be passable, for the life of me I cannot tell if this dude is a serious author or not because he has so many bloody books on so many bloody things that have nothing to do with each other. I mean, at least he cites his sources...?

Youtube channels:

Gold and Gunpowder- Gold and Gunpowder covers European colonial sea roving between 1630 and 1730. The legal ramifications of piracy and the societal attitude towards it were unlike any other period of history. My personal favorite channel when it comes to longer in-depth videos and cited information, check his descriptions for his sources.

The Pirates Port- Another channel that focuses on the golden age of piracy and proving/disproving well-known facts. Shortform videos packed with information, and most of his sources are credible from what I can tell personally. He's also coming out with a book soon that I'm stoked to check out!

There's also this great podcast called The Pirate History Podcast that I've listened to a couple times if you prefer audio content.

Hi, I am @writeblr-of-my-own. I am having troubles with finding informations about piracy and you are probably the person most expert on the topic I know here on tumblr, so I was wondering if there were any books or other resources you would recommend/you used while writing.

Thank you very much in advance! :)

Hi Sam! Thank you for the sweet ask! don't mind me wiping the literal tears out of my eyes thank you for thinking of me! 😭

Here are some of the resources that I've used in the past/use now!

https://www.thepirateking.com/index.htm: A great little one-stop-shop type of website I came across some time ago when I was looking for pirate movies other than POTC! There are some pretty good resources regarding terminology, ship types, weapons, navigational devices, and more! This is still one of my fave little corners on the internet for pirate stuff!

https://goldenageofpiracy.org/ : This one is a little more narrow as compared to the one above, but it's still a good place to start your research journey as it hits on a lot of the ships and people that we typically think of when we think pirates!

https://guides.loc.gov/golden-age-of-piracy/print-resources: I really like the Primary Resources listed on this site. From what I can recall, they are available via electronic copy and free! Most of them aren't like what you'll find as far as Wikipedia article-type information that is easy and quick to digest. Most of them are journals that tell the story of travelers who came and went during the Golden Age of Piracy and who may have brushed with pirates at one point or another. They are very interesting to read and some of my faves to set the mood if I'm feeling a little uninspired!

National Geographic's Special Edition Magazine on Pirates: This one is an Amazon link to buy the hard copy of the magazine itself, but there are some really fantastic articles in here and lots of pictures of historical artifacts! Another great place to start your research and just a cool little item to flip through for inspiration or to have on your bookshelf. I happened across my copy of it at my local Target, but I've since spotted it in a few bookstores and magazine shops!

Wikipedia: This is perhaps my favorite resource of all, not just for the pages themselves but for the footnotes and works cited. Once I finish reading something, I always scroll down to the bottom to see the resources they used as reference material. Those have led me down some fascinating rabbit holes of research!

Of course, my pirates are in a fantasy setting, so I've taken liberties with historical accuracy, but it's still important to know the history itself to see what you can actually take believable liberties with!

I will also tag @thewardenofwinter, who I know is a bit of a pirate historian herself and pretty passionate on the subject!

[yuta-nakamots]

misfit - j.sc

Pairing - Sungchan x Reader

Genre - Horror/Thriller, Angst, Fluff

Warnings - serial killer, character death, violence, murder, implications of sex

Summary - A murderer is on the loose, killing with no regret and ending the lives of more than just a few people. No one knew who it was, turning against each other upon even the slightest bit of doubt. Maybe you should’ve been more careful with who you chose to trust. 

Word Count - 5.3k

A/N - this is inspired entirely from a dream I had a few days ago. I've added very little to what I saw in my dream aside from Sungchan as the male lead. yes, I am freaked out by this and yes, I am scared of writing for Sungchan bc I don’t know his personality all too well but as an ‘01 liner myself I have faith in us

Written for the #NeoHalloween writing festival hosted by @nct-writers​. Check out the masterlist here.

For five months now, your town has lived in fear. A serial killer was on the loose and he was known by the name of Hickleback Jack though no one knew where the name came from or who had started it. Each month, the population of your town voted on the local community board to have one person executed who they thought was Hickleback Jack. So far, not a single guess was right leaving five innocent people dead. Well, five plus an extra thirty, give or take.

See, the thing about Hickleback Jack, was that every time the votes came in at the end of the month, he could see just who voted for him and targeted them as his next victims. He killed six of those people over the following month, adding up to seven dead each time the town guessed incorrectly. It was getting to a point where no one trusted each other, no one dared to say anything against each other in fear of being accused or in fear of being the next to fall mercy to Hickleback Jack.

Not much was known about this killer other than his appearance. He’s male with a tall and broad figure though he always covers his face with some kind of mask. His common weapon is known to be an axe. People have claimed to have seen him late at night under the dim orange glow of the street lamps but he was never caught by the authorities, leaving everyone restless and waiting for the next kill.

The night was still young when you had gotten home from school and it was a Friday night which was basically an open invitation for you to call over your boyfriend, Sungchan. He had transferred in to your university at the start of the school year, and had ended up sitting next to you during your sophomore seminar class, leading to the start of your friendship with him.

A simple friendship soon blossomed into a relationship after Sungchan’s bright personality began shining through his somewhat intimidating exterior. You lived without fear when Sungchan was around, the love you had for him blocking out anything else in the world that wasn’t him.

You sat on your bed, your homework spread out in front of you while you held your phone up to your ear. “Do you want to come over tonight?” You ask as soon as he picks up your call.

You hear rustling on the other end of the call before Sungchan clears his throat and speaks, his voice husky from sleep. “Sorry, can you repeat that?”

“I said, do you want to come over tonight?” You paused and heard him yawn. “You fell asleep after class didn’t you?” You smiled to yourself thinking of your boyfriend’s handsome face as he napped after getting back to his apartment once he finished with his classes for the day, which was a common occurrence now that the semester was in full swing.

“Mmm,” he hummed in thought, “as much as I’d love to, I really shouldn’t have taken that nap because of how much homework I have.”

“Oh, that’s okay, do your homework first,” you reassure him, “maybe we can hang out some other time this weekend. It’s only Friday after all.”

“Definitely. Are you starting yours right now?” Sungchan asked.

“Yeah, I’d rather not wait and end up cramming on Sunday night.” You laughed, knowing that said event has happened more times that you’d like to admit.

Sungchan let out a noise of agreement. “I’ll let you know when I’m done with my homework though.”

“Same here.” You promised.

“Alright, let’s get to work and I’ll talk to you soon.” He told you.

“Sounds good, love you.”

“Love you too.”

With that you hung up, eager to start on your homework in hopes of getting to spend more time with your boyfriend. You actually had a lot of it this weekend thanks to molecular biology, and you figured that if you couldn’t talk to Sungchan, who had yet to take the course, you called up your study group discord instead. Luckily, many of them were in similar situations as you, faced with the daunting task of completing all the worksheets assigned during class earlier in the day.

“Okay so was anyone paying attention during the lecture today?” Your classmate Chenle asked.

“I know Yeji fell asleep so you’re in the same boat as her.” You interject, recalling the sight of both of them knocked out in their seats as the professor droned on about the functions of the structures inside cells.

Yeji let out a gasp of shock at how blatantly you called her out. “I may have fallen asleep but at least I still know that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell.”

“Everyone knows that, Yeji.” Your other classmate Jaemin said, his voice void of enthusiasm.

“Okay, Jaemin, we get it, Mr. Serious.” You teased.

“Yeah, this is a biology study group, not a bible study group, lighten up a little.” Chenle jokes.

Jaemin scoffed, “sometimes I feel like I’m the only one who’s trying to do well in this class.”

“Well not all of us enjoy the taste of coffee with six shots of caffeine in them.” Yeji argued back.

“Guys,” you called out as Jaemin and Yeji started arguing, “guys!” They finally stopped to hear what you had to say. “Let’s just get this over with sooner rather than later because I know none of us want to be awake at 2am trying to figure this out alone.”

“Agreed,” Chenle said, “so question three, the one about the DNA mutation, how is missense different from nonsense?”

“Missense is where one of the bases mutates and changes to something else, therefore changing the protein level,” Jaemin explained, “nonsense is the same theoretical concept except it spells out one of the stop codes.”

Yeji let out a groan, “can you slow down, or like, I don’t know, use easier words or something?”

Most of your night passed by like this and before you knew it, it was already nearing midnight and you could tell your classmates were just as exhausted as you. “I think we should call it here.”

“Definitely,” Yeji confirmed, “tomorrow morning at 10?”

You all let out similar answers of acknowledgement before Chenle spoke up. “The poll closes on tomorrow night so make sure to vote if you haven’t already.”

Because of how long this has been going on for, everyone was already on the same page once someone mentioned the poll or voting. “There were only five kills this month so I wouldn’t be surprised if the last one is announced tomorrow or Sunday morning.” Jaemin chimed in.

“All the recent kills were related to the university so I know a lot of people are suspecting someone in our age range.” Yeji informed the group.

Jaemin let out a chuckle, “if the killer actually is a college student, I wouldn’t be surprised since it is getting close to the last wave of midterms and then finals so that would explain why the victims fall into the same category.” The chat fell silent at that. “I’m just saying that he’s getting a little lazy by grouping all his kills like this.”

“Jaemin, are you sure you’re not the killer?” Chenle asked with a laugh at the end.

“Guys, I can promise you that I’m not the killer, I swear on my life.” Jaemin promised.

“Alright, that’s enough detective work for tonight, I’ll start the call again around 10 tomorrow. Sounds good?” You conclude, wanting to curl up under your covers already, which is exactly what you do once everyone wishes each other a good night and hung up.  

Morning came a little too quickly for your liking, the bright sunlight flooding into your room through the window and forcing you awake. Checking your phone, you saw that it was 9:30am, meaning you had some time to spare before your next meeting with the bio study group, along with a notification from Sungchan that he had sent well after you had fallen asleep.

Sungchan > y/n

2:14am: Just got rescheduled to work opening shift tomorrow.

2:15am: Didn’t finish my homework but I can stop by at your house after work with my stuff and we can hang out and have fun once we’re both done?

Your heart warmed at how he stayed up late trying to finish his homework for you and that he suggested the idea of coming over after his shift at a small local restaurant finished just so the two of you could be together even if you’d be focusing on your own tasks for a while.

y/n > Sungchan

9:32am: Sorry I didn’t text back earlier, I just woke up!

9:32am: But of course you can come over, I might even be done with my work by then ;)

You plugged your phone to let it charge and left it on your nightstand as you made yourself breakfast downstairs. The house was quiet since your mom already left for work and you dad worked a night shift job and was probably sleeping at the moment. It was strangely serene as you prepared yourself a bowl of cereal though the calm was rudely interrupted by the sound of your ringtone coming from your room.

Deciding to get it after eating breakfast, you poured the cereal in first, thinking about the way Sungchan had told you before that he liked to pour the milk first and let the cereal soak up the milk. “It makes it super soggy and I like it.” He tried reasoning with you, to which you only raised an eyebrow at.

Just as you put the milk carton back into the refrigerator and was about to take a bit of your cereal, your phone started going off again. You placed your bowl onto the kitchen table and made your way back up to your bedroom to see what it was that was so important this early in the morning. Checking the notifications, it was Yeji who had been calling you so you shot her a message.

y/n > Yeji

9:39am: What’s up?

Yeji > y/n

9:40am: I just dreamt that it was Jaemin who was the killer

9:40am: please call me right now I feel like I’m going to go insane

You heeded her words and called her immediately. “So what happened in the dream?”

“I don’t know, I just remember being chased by a man with an axe and I was running to the school to try to see if I could get help but then I tripped and when I turned around, it was Jaemin.” Yeji blurted out without a single breath in between.

You paused, trying to take in all the information she just threw at you. “Do you have any reason as to why you think you dreamt this?”

“The way he was talking last night,” she stopped to catch her breath, “he spoke so in detail that I couldn’t help but overthink like, what if he is actually the killer? What if we’re next?”

“Well, you can vote for him in the poll if you want but personally, I don’t think it’s him.” You think of your next words carefully. “I’m not trying to invalidate your thoughts but Jaemin does come from a reputable family-”

“Y/n, it could be anyone. Family doesn’t matter. We have no information on the guy, we don’t know what economic class he’s in or anything.” Yeji interrupted.

You took a few seconds to gather your thoughts before speaking again. “That is true, but we all know Jaemin wants to be a surgeon right? He’s in all these difficult classes and he maintains such high grades-”

“Okay but how is that relevant?” Yeji interrupted yet again.

She was getting on your nerves but you held yourself back. “Listen, I’m just trying to say that with the amount of time and effort he puts into school, I don’t think he could be the killer. The killer plans his kills well enough that we just can’t find him and that probably takes just as much time as school does for us.”

Yeji took a while to respond though when she did, her words surprised you. “Now you’re starting to sound like the killer.”

“Yeji, I can promise you that it’s not me. I’m just as scared as you are in this whole situation,” you reasoned, “I’ll even vote for Jaemin if it makes you feel better.”

She let out a sigh across the line. “Okay fine. Maybe a kill will happen while we’re on the call and it’ll clear Jaemin’s name.”

“I think you’re letting it all get to you, just try not to think about it for a bit.” You advised.

“But am I really overreacting y/n? We live every day in fear of being the next victim. Tomorrow is not promised to any of us, so am I really overreacting?” You look over at the clock on your wall as she spoke, realizing that it’s already 9:55 and you should probably start the call already.

“No, I don’t think you’re overreacting, I’m just saying that constantly thinking about it to this extent isn’t good for you. We still have school to pay attention to,” you explain, “speaking of, I’m gonna start the call now.”

“I can’t just stop thinking about it that easily but whatever, let’s just hope that we’re not associating ourselves with a murderer by doing this.” You can only shake your head as you start the call.

Chenle joined immediately followed by Yeji. “Good morning ladies, President Zhong here. How are we doing on this fine day?”

You rolled your eyes even though a smile spread across your face. “I’m doing good, Mr. President. Ready to finish off these worksheets.”

“Good, good,” Chenle affirmed, sticking with his act, “and you, Miss Yeji?”

“Fine.” She shot out.

Chenle let out a quiet chuckle, “someone’s a little grumpy this morning. Maybe we should’ve met a bit later.”

“No, let’s just get this over with.” Yeji grumbled just as Jaemin joined.

“Great! Now that the head brain cell is here, let’s get this meeting started.” Chenle exclaimed.

Four hours into your meeting and eight out of ten worksheets later, your phone begins to ring with an incoming call from Sungchan. “Hold on guys, I gotta take this call. Hello?”

“I’m downstairs, come pick me up.” You couldn’t deny the butterflies that spread throughout your chest upon hearing your boyfriend’s voice. You got up to let him in though you certainly didn’t miss the teasing coming from your laptop as your classmates yelled about you and Sungchan.

As you made your way downstairs, you froze halfway down the stairs, seeing Sungchan already in the kitchen eating the bowl of cereal you forgot about. “I’m guessing you made this for yourself earlier and forgot to eat it.” He said through a mouthful of food.

“Babe, no, don’t eat that, it’s like five hours old. The milk is probably stale.” You exclaimed, worried about his health if it really did go bad.

Sungchan only shrugged as he took another spoonful into his mouth. “Tastes fine to me.”

You rolled your eyes before turning to head back upstairs. “Join me in my room once you’re ready, you cereal monster. Leave the dishes in the sink too.” As you returned to your room, you couldn’t help but wonder how Sungchan got in though you figure he’s probably seen you use the spare key under the doormat a couple times since you often were too lazy to get your own keys out of your bag most of the time.

When you sat down in front of your computer again, Jaemin had just finished explaining the answer to the problem you guys were working on earlier so you chimed in asking him to go over it again though he was quickly overrun by an excited Chenle. “Is Sungchan there?” He practically yelled.

“No, not yet, he’s eating some soggy cereal downstairs.” You inform him.

“Alright, let me know when he comes in.” Chenle says, unphased by your boyfriends’ odd preference of cereal.

Halfway through Jaemin’s explanation, Sungchan came into your room, placing his bag down at the foot of the bed before he took his jacket off and stripped out of his work uniform. “I heard a door open, is that Sungchan?” Chenle shouted over Jaemin once more.

“I never get to fucking speak in this group.” Jaemin huffed, at which Chenle muttered a quick ‘sorry’ back.

“Yes, Chenle, Sungchan is here,” you announce, looking over at the boy in question who had just finished pulling a shirt over his head and winked when he saw you staring at his body, “he seems very flirty today, must be because of you, Mr. Zhong.”

Sungchan sits down next to you and places a kiss on your cheek, smelling oddly of cleaning supplies, but you pay no mind to that, figuring he must have used them at work. “How’s it going Chenle?” He asks, though his attention is only on you and he places his hands on your cheeks and leaves a quick kiss on your lips.

“I’m gonna pretend I didn’t just hear the two of you kissing,” Chenle remarks, earning a laugh from Sungchan, “but anyways, you should come back to the basketball team. We miss our giant point guard, you know.”

“Nah, I’m too busy these days. I already have work and school plus I still want to spend time with y/n.” He commented as he shifted to lie on his stomach next to you.

“Man, who knew a girl would be all it took to make this dude throw his love for basketball out the window.” Chenle taunted.

“Love makes you do things, you know how it is.” Sungchan replied, resting his head on your thigh.

Running a hand through his hair, “anyways,” you divert, “back to what Jaemin was saying about meiosis.”

“Thank you, y/n, I thought I’d never be able to speak again.” Jaemin uttered pointedly. “As I was saying, the main difference between meiosis and mitosis is that it creates four daughter cells instead of two like mitosis does.”

“Hey guys, wait, did you see the article that just came out?” Yeji inquired. “It’s another death.”

There was a moment of silence before anyone said anything. “No but you can read it to us.” Chenle concluded.

“Okay,” you could hear the deep breath Yeji took before reading the article, “it says here that the body was found at around 1:20pm in an alley between the lower-income housing apartments, the cause of death is assumed to be by Hickleback Jack using his axe, and the estimated time of death is anywhere from 12 to 1pm.”

“Wow,” Jaemin began, “so he just killed out in broad daylight.”

“Not gonna lie Jaemin, but I thought you were the killer.” Yeji let out blatantly.

You were mildly shocked at her bluntness, but not surprised given how stressed everyone was. “Me?” Jaemin gasped, “Yeji, you know I’m pretty much Rapunzel with how much time I spend in my room studying. And when I’m not studying, I’m either editing pictures or playing video games.”

“It’s true,” Chenle confirms, “he really doesn’t leave his room. We had a sleepover once and I felt like I was becoming a hermit like him.” Sungchan slightly wheezed at that, sending Chenle over the moon. “Did you hear that? Did you guys hear that? Sungchan thinks I’m funny!”

“Yeah yeah, enough about me being a hermit. But Yeji,” Jaemin addressed, “why did you think it was me?”

Yeji hesitated before responding. “I just- the way you were talking the other night...I don’t know. It just sounded so specific and detailed that I couldn’t help but think that it could have been you.”

“I don’t think a murderer would simply reveal his plans like that, you know.” Sungchan proposed.

“Well yeah, but it’s just the way he spoke, it was like he had things organized...you know what? Let’s forget I said that, but I know the four of us are clear.” Yeji resigned.

Sungchan sat up, “wait, why am I not cleared?”

“Y/n, what time did he call you?”

“Like 2-ish.”

“Exactly. Sungchan, you don’t have an alibi, as far as we know, until 2 and the time of death is stated to be 12 to 1pm.”

“I was at work earlier in the day, though.”

“Can you prove it to us?” Yeji pressed on.

“Yeah, my coworkers can vouch for me.”

You were quite surprised at how aggressive Yeji was being towards your boyfriend but you didn’t see any reason to stop her since she had very valid arguments. “Send a screenshot of it to Chenle and we’ll verify you from there.” Yeji commanded.

Sungchan slouched down a little next to you. “I don’t have the numbers of my coworkers though.”

“Alright, then you’re still on the list of suspects.”

After finishing all the worksheets for microbio and ending the call around 3:30, Sungchan pulled out his laptop and started typing away at a half-finished lab report for his human A&P class. You fell asleep curled into his body, his warmth and the constant tapping of his keyboard lulling you to sleep.

When you woke again, you immediately noticed the absence of a large boy next to you and frowned to yourself. As you came to, you heard noise coming from the kitchen and identified your mother’s voice followed by Sungchan’s. Noticing the time on your phone, you guess that he was probably helping her prepare dinner since it was already past 6 and your family ate around 7 before your dad left for work.

By the time you made yourself presentable and came downstairs, your mom and Sungchan were already setting the table. “Looks like our sleepyhead finally woke up.” Your mother exclaimed, making you grimace. “You didn’t tell me Sungchan was staying over,” you were about to open your mouth to say that you didn’t know that either but you weren’t given the chance to do so, “it’s okay, especially with that killer still on the loose, it makes me feel better knowing there’s someone around to protect my baby.”

You looked at Sungchan as if asking him for answers though he seemed to only avoid your gaze, reluctantly taking the seat across from you at the dining table. Your father walked in, delighted to see your boyfriend. “Sungchan! Good to see you, how are things at school?” He asked as he joined you all at the table.

“Okay for the most part, I haven’t taken to my writing class all that much though I enjoy my other science classes.” Sungchan answers.

Your dad hums in approval while you stare down Sungchan, trying to get him to look at you. “Remind me again what you’re majoring in again?” Your mom asks, Sungchan whips his head around faster than you can make eye contact with him.

“I’m majoring in forensics.” He states.

“Interesting, interesting,” your father contemplates, “you know, y/n here wants to become a pediatrician. The two of you are practically opposites in the science field, one dealing with crime and the other dealing with children.”

Sungchan let out a laugh, “I guess opposites really do attract then.”

You hated how well he entertained your parents and you hated how much they liked him. For the rest of dinner you tried to pin him down through your stares and even played a game of footsie with him but nothing seemed to work. It was only once the two of you were back in your room getting ready for bed that you were able to talk to him.

“Look, I’m not mad at you or anything, I’d just appreciate it if you talked to me first before just telling my parents that you’re staying over.” You told him as you went through your skincare routine.

Sungchan jumped onto your bed as he apologized. “Sorry, I just thought that since both of us finished our homework and with the killing today, it would just make sense for me to stay over.” He opened his arms, inviting you in as you stood up after finishing your night routine.

You copied him, jumping into your bed straight onto Sungchan, effectively pushing the air out of his body. He grunted as your weight fell onto him though he still wrapped his arms around your waist and shifted you up the length of your body so your face was level with his. “Hi” you giggle, shy from the sudden close proximity.

“Hey.” He says back with a smile as you slide off him, leaving an arm and leg slung over his body. “Tired?”

“No, not really, I took a nap earlier since someone didn’t care to wake me up.”

“You looked too cute, besides, you need all the rest you can get.” Sungchan explained, using his free hand to squish your cheeks. “If you’re really not tired then I know a way to make you tired.” His hand found its way down to your butt to further emphasize his point.

“Ew, no, not now.” You quickly refused, moving his hand up to your waist. “Just go to sleep and I’ll probably fall asleep after you anyways.”

“Oh wait,” Sungchan said, reaching over you to the nightstand for his phone, “did you vote on the poll yet?”

“No, I almost forgot.” You groaned, lazily reaching for your phone as well.

You pull up the local community board and enter your information, looking at the list of all the citizens, pondering on who you’d give your vote to. “Who are you voting for?” Sungchan asks, looking over at your screen.

“I really don’t know.” You tell him, though truthfully, you had someone in mind.

Thanks to the nap you had, you really couldn’t fall asleep no matter how hard you tried. You ended up dozing off occasionally but you’d wake up half an hour later only more irritated than when you first fell asleep.

You don’t remember what time it was, but at some point, Sungchan had removed himself from your grasp, unaware that you were still awake, though you made no effort to stop him thinking that he was just going to use the restroom and come back. Five minutes passed, five minutes turned into ten, then twenty, and you decided to check on him once thirty minutes had passed.

The house was completely dark, not even the light from the bathroom was on. You checked inside in case Sungchan had maybe gotten hurt and passed out, but he was nowhere to be found. After searching almost all the rooms in your house, you had yet to find any sign of him. After a bit of thinking, you had wandered out to your mothers’ greenhouse thinking that maybe some time with the plants would help to calm your mind.

It did anything but that.

Not long after setting foot inside of the small shed, you heard screams coming from nearby, getting closer and closer. You watched from the inside of the tinted glass as three girls ran through your backyard and into the next property. You couldn’t help it that you were frozen to your core, knowing who was coming.

You saw his frame as he jumped over the fence from the other end of your yard, axe in hand, running through the open grass and you thought he might have noticed you until he stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes glued on you. You should’ve ducked down as soon as the girls ran past but it was too late now and there was no second way out of the greenhouse.

You knew you should have tried to run, maybe smash through the glass panelling but something in you told you that maybe, just maybe, you’d be able to stop him. Steeling your nerves as he crosses the threshold of the greenhouse, you call out to him. “I know who you are.”

“I’m well aware of that.”

It was as if your world was crumbling before you, the once so comfortable relationship you knew felt fake, even though Sungchan, your loving boyfriend stood right there. The only difference was that you knew who he really was.

“Why?” You start, “why did you kill all those innocent people?”

“It’s all for fun, y/n.”

“What do you mean ‘for fun’? Those are real people you know, people with families and friends who miss them dearly.” You nearly cry out as he continues to approach you.

“You see, life is a game.” He paused his words as he came to stand in front of you. “Laws are nothing but a social construct that us humans follow mindlessly until our own demise.”

He takes a step closer to you, but you stand your ground. “Laws are what keep us safe and keep us happy. They allow us to lead our lives peacefully with others-”

“They are nothing but limits.” He closes the distance between the two of you, an arm wrapping around your waist, pulling you towards him, and you allow him to do so. “My dear, sweet, y/n. If only you weren’t so smart, I wouldn’t be faced with this dilemma.”

“You wouldn’t kill me.” You were trying to persuade him just as much as you were to yourself. “You’d never.”

“Oh? And what makes you think that?”

“You love me.”

“I do, I love you so dearly, but now that you know who’s behind all the killings, there’s no way that I can let you go.” You felt his axe nudge the back of your leg as he brought both arms around you. To an outsider, it would look as if a couple were having a conversation, but for you, this was a fight for your life.

“Take off the mask.”

“Why should I?”

“So I can talk to you properly.”

He took off the mask without much more convincing, his normally handsome face now distorted by the crazed look in his eyes. People often say that the eyes are the windows to the soul, and if they really were, then Sungchan didn’t have a soul.

“I swear to you that I won’t ever tell anyone about this, about you.”

“I don’t believe that you’ll keep that promise, my dear.”

“You know how much I love you. As long as we can stay together, I will not say anything.”

“This is not a tale of beauty and the beast. I am no beast to be tamed and there is no happy ending to this story.”

“Sungchan, no. You don’t mean that.”

“Do I really not mean it, or is that what you would like to believe? Something tells me it’s the latter.” He held you tight against him with one arm, the other raising his axe. “It’s truly a shame that your beauty must go to waste, you were truly a wonderful person both inside and out but I’m afraid that your life must end here.”

Before he could prep his swing, you pulled away and grabbed the nearest pot, launching it at him, the ceramic breaking against his head making dirt rain down upon both of you.

Not even a second passed before his axe was flying at you, lodging itself into your neck, nearly severing your head from your shoulder. You should’ve been thankful really, thankful that Sungchan had given you a quick death, not his usual route since it was so painless and easy for both the victim and the assailant.

He liked a struggle, but for you he made an exception out of love so that the last thing you’d see was him, your lover, before everything stopped.

[kyndaris]

The Spelling Game

When learning English, one would assume there would be a single correct way to spell words. Most times, you would be right. Unfortunately, because of a rift between the United States of America and the United Kingdom back in the 18th century, the fact that the spelling of specific words was variable during that time, as well as the cost of printing, many in the Western world were left with Webster’s attempt at reforming English for the American people and the actual proper way to spell them in British-English. 

It also didn’t help that after rising to power, many of the words that were spelt the American way infiltrated the global conscience. In many countries, including Australia, American-English and British-English were interchangeable. Oft times, it was much easier to spell it the American way. One such example that springs immediately to mind is ‘jail’ rather than ‘gaol.’ But honestly, ‘gaol?’ Sorry British-English. It just looks needlessly complex. 

When it comes to my short stories, I’ve been pretty particular. While most of my stories have been written in British-English, because I grew up in Australia, there have been a few select ones that I have purposely corrected to American-English. Why, you may ask? To sell the illusion that the character is actually from the United States. It also means not using phrases like, “Yeah, no,” or “G’day mate. Chucked a sickie yesterday cause the traffic was chockablock.” 

After all, if the setting is in the United States of America, with a protagonist that grew up there, it feels a little weird that they would spell things like ‘colour’ with a ‘u.’ There have also been many a time that I had to remind myself that ‘aluminium’ is not a thing in the States. Nor is a garbage bin called a ‘garbage bin’, but rather a ‘trash can.’ Tomato sauce, at least in the Australian context, is meant to be ketchup. And don’t get me started on car parks versus parking lots. 

I bring this up solely because one of my old childhood friends was reading one of my short stories and remarked on the spelling. It was a CHOICE! And NOT because I can’t spell. Thank you very much.

In fact, I find it very irritating when many websites, such as Tumblr, Wordpress and even FictionPress try to tell me that I’ve spelt something incorrectly. Just because the site algorithms are based on American-English does not invalidate my alternate words. Armour. Travelling. Enrolment. Oesophagus. Grey. Metre.

I see your red squiggly line but I refute it! REFUTE IT, I SAY!! It’s not wrong. Just the correct way of spelling words that we commonly use. Okay. Well, one might not use oesophagus much in normal conversation, but I thought it a good way to highlight one of the many differences between American English and what is considered the norm in most English-speaking countries. 

Given that I grew up in Australia, I’ve been exposed to both ways of spelling English words. The books I read were sometimes written by American authors and sometimes by those in the United Kingdom, Australia or Canada. Most of the time, I barely stumbled when I came across a new word.

Still, I’m very appreciate that more novels that I’ve picked up, and even a few video games, are catering to proper British-English. In fact, Bravely Default 2 is one of the more recent games that has things spelt properly. ‘Honour’ instead of ‘honor!’ I have been almost giddy with excitement. to see ‘U’s when there had been no ‘U’s before. Imagine my surprise when Ubisoft also offered UK-English as well as American-English!

Of course, for someone that loves the written word, it’s pretty much a given that I can vacillate between the two (even if I prefer British-English). When English is your second language, however, it’s much harder to wrap one’s head around. So, for all you people out there learning English, you should know that British-English is much better and vastly superior to American-English. Sometimes there’s an additional ‘o’ in front of an ‘e.’ Occasionally you’ll have an ‘r’ before an ‘e.’ But most importantly, if things end with ‘-ize’ in American English, you should definitely change it back to ‘-ise.’ To do so is to make it proper. 

To cut a long story short, this post simply came around because someone asked me why I tried to spell things the ‘American’ way. So, of course, I decided to rant about it on the internet. Truly, nothing is sacrosanct. There are no depths that I will not plumb for a topic to talk about in the interim between my video game impressions. 

On a side note, I am currently playing Bravely Default 2 and while the gameplay is quite enjoyable, the narrative is a little bare bones and the world simply not as engaging as I would have hoped. Let it be known that I have many thoughts about this and will be delving into it when I finally finish the game. Hopefully it won’t be too long, but lest we forget, I tend to try and do most everything in a single playthrough. There is no telling when I will finish though www.howlongtobeat.com tells me otherwise.

Oh, and before I forget, ‘z’ is pronounced ‘zed.’ Don’t let the alphabet song confuse you. They just wanted an easy way to rhyme with ‘me.’ So they bastardised the pronunciation of the last letter. DON’T LET THEM GET AWAY WITH IT!

ZED! ZED! ZED! ZED! ZED!