#this took me an entire month to write dear god

[checkeredflagggs]

The Story of Us: Chapter 4

pairing: logan sargeant x famous!fem!singer

summary: logan and you have been keeping a secret from everyone but it might be time for it to come out

a/n: while I do my best on most of my works to be race neutral, this one is very very very self indulgent 🤷🏻‍♀️

a/n2: this is part 4 of 5, which will be released when they’re finished and I’m using pretty much everything from Taylor Swift

a/n3: I still don’t understand instagram so - no one but those that follow you can see a private accounts comments (even on a public post). Also I still hate twitter so I’ve replaced it with Bluesky.

a/n4: Also timelines? Never heard of them. This is set in 2024 but I’ve moved Miami to before Australia and changed some of the results of races.

a/n5: sorry this one took so long! Been dealing with some stuff

Masterlist | Taglist

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Valentine’s Day

y/n

liked by logansargeant, charles_leclerc, carlossainz55, oscarpiastri, and 17,824,192 others

y/n: the vault is open and it’s treasures are yours.

In the process of writing and polishing up my albums, certain songs have been put aside, treasured but not shown the light. Now it’s time that changed — time for the secrets to come out.

view all comments

user1: oh my god yes

↳user2: banger after banger after banger

↳user1: as always!

oscarpiastri: why must I suffer…

↳logansargeant: 🤣🤣

↳landonorris: I don’t like your tone young man

↳oscarpiastri: you are 2 years older than me

↳landonorris: respect your elders!

↳oscarpiastri: whatever you say old man

↳oscarpiastri: as long as you stop squawking about the garage trying to sing

↳user3: so brutal…

↳landonorris: YOU MUPPET

user4: FAVORITE SONG? And if it isn’t All Too Well (10 minute version) you’re wrong

↳user5: Electric Touch!

↳charles_leclerc: timeless!

↳maxverstappen1: say don’t go

↳user6: babe!

↳pierregasly: is it over now?

↳carlossainz55: you all over me

↳lilymhe: Slut!

↳user7: better man obviously

↳alex_albon: Mr. Perfectly Fine

↳alexandrasaintmleux: when Emma falls in love

user8: she still has the grid all up in her comments…

↳logansargeant: they were fighting in the group chat on who’s the biggest fan

↳user8:😂😂 drag them!

↳alex_albon: mate…

↳logansargeant: it was 3:30 in the morning and I couldn’t sleep because of your stupid fight idk anymore

user9: this is the best thing happening so far this year

↳user10: right? Better then some sitcoms

user19: secrets come to light!?!?

↳user53: they’re totally gonna reveal themselves soon right?

↳user19: within the week is my guess!!!

↳user11: you guys are freakishly in sync

Private Messages, Logan and y/n

f1gossip

liked by logansargeant, landonorris, estebanocon and 92,913 others

tagged: georgerussell63, lewishamilton, landonorris, oscarpiastri, estebanocon, pierregasly, maverstappen1, hulkhulkenburg, kevinmagnussen, alex_albon, logansargeant, carlossainz55, charles_leclerc

f1gossip: I Can See You…talking about y/n and her newest album! The fanstage this weekend at Imola was full of people asking the drivers their thoughts on y/n, her newest album, the Eras tour, and even their thoughts on her emerging relationship!

view all comments

user12: one of the best fan stages ever

user13: worth getting up at the ass crack of dawn to watch

user14: I think you mean it was full of them getting asked a tangentially related question and yapping nonstop about her until someone managed to cut in?

↳user15: thank god I wasn’t the only to catch that…

↳user14: you’d have to be blind deaf and dumb to miss is…

↳user16: that’s describing about 50% of the grid when talking or thinking about y/n then…

↳user14: 😂😂😂

user17: poor Oscar, Logan, and Nico looked so done

↳user18: if the past is to be believed, Oscar probably spent the last week listening to Lando try to belt out the entire album…

↳user20: oh dear 🤣

↳user18: and as user19 says…Logan has been dealing with the grid and their girlfriends flirt with his girlfriend for a couple of months now.

↳user19: I vote he just goes bowling this weekend. Knock them all out liked by not_y/n, not_logan, not_oscar

user19

liked by user53, user, user and 18,012 others

user19: I’m guessing the Logan and y/n relationship reveal is happening very very VERY soon. Tonight all of y/n’s outfits were of the blue variety (excluding, of course, the reputation bodysuit and Red combos). I’m guessing she wore blue to publicly support Logan (especially after that shit vowles pulled in Australia). My guess is this weekend — after tonight she has a 5 day break (enough time to jet over to Italy for Sunday’s race and still make it back for the start of the New York shows)

view all comments

user21: I believe it

↳user22: after the last few months of following along with the crazy conspiracy theories…yeah I do too

↳user19: y’all should have just believed me in the first place!

user23: if she shows up at Imola, I’m gonna scream!

↳user24: imagining her as a wag…

↳user25: let’s be real — Logan is still the wag in that relationship 😂😂

↳user24: that’s true!

user26: oh my god I can’t wait! My family has been Williams Racing fans for years — even more fans to join the family

↳user27: oh I can’t wait for her fans to drag vowles through the mud…

↳user26: …yes that’s also a big plus. He desperately needs an attitude adjustment

Bluesky

user28: SHE JUST CHANGED RHE LURICS

↳user29: FOR REAL????

↳user28: FOR REAL!!!

user30: my stream cut!! what happened!!!!

↳user31: SHE CHANGED TBE LYRICS!!!

↳user30: what lyrics???

↳user31: Karma! “Karma is the guy on the tracks coming straight home to me”

↳user30: OH MY GOD

user19: I WAS RIGHT. I KNEW IT. ITS HAPPENING!!

↳user53: congrats baby!!

↳user32: WAIT WHAT

↳user33: BABY??? YOU GUYS ARE DATING NOW??

not_oscar: oh my god this is like throwing fire on gasoline…

↳not_y/n: oh yeah prepare yourself. I’m coming to Imola

↳not_lilyz: really??

↳not_y/n: yes! Want me to stop in England?

↳not_lilyz: please!

↳not_oscar: I’ll set a ticket aside for you lily liked by not_lily

↳not_logan: oh I can’t wait

↳not_y/n: …it’s been a long time coming?

↳not_oscar: ugh

↳not_y/n: come on it was right there!! liked by not_logan, not_lilyz

user34: omg i literally can’t wait for Imola now!!

↳user35: she’s gonna slay it!

y/n

liked by lilyzneimer, oscarpiastri, yoursister, and 19,283,913 others

tagged: logansargeant

y/n: I’ve loved you for 14 summers now but I want them all.

view all comments

user36: oh my god

↳user37: 14 YEARS

logansargeant: you’ll have them all

↳y/n: just like I planned

↳user38: because you’re a mastermind?

↳y/n: 😊😊

↳logansargeant: MY mastermind

↳user39: oh you guys are the type to be publicly gross aren’t you

↳oscarpiastri: yes

alex_albon: WHAT

lilymhe: Oh dear…

alexandrasaintmleux: 😳😳

iamrebeccad: Oh!

user40: ok now that this is out of the way…release the baby photos please

↳y/n: 😊😉

↳logansargeant: what??? NO

user19: hem hem??

↳user41: yes yes yes. You’re right, we’re wrong

↳user41: BUT COUPLE OF THE YEAR HERE!!

user42: never thought I’d be involved in something that broke the internet…

user43: ARE YOU GUYS MARRIED &/OR ENGAGED???

↳y/n: No we’re not

↳logansargeant: yet

↳y/n: 😳😳

Private Messages, the Grid (Unserious)

y/n

liked by logansargeant, oscarpiastri, and 17,284,824 others

tagged: logansargeant, williamsracing

y/n: Imola you are so beautiful — thank you for treating my man right.

Logan, my love, congratulations on the points. It was lovely to see you chase your dream

comments have been restricted on this post

logansargeant: it was one of the best days of my life having you here. thank you for coming out in the middle of your tour

↳y/n: there is nowhere else I’d rather be than right by your side

↳y/n: no matter where that might be

oscarpiastri: it was good to see you again!

↳y/n: you as well Oscar! And congrats on the podium — it was a well deserved 2nd place

lilyzneimer: thanks for the ride! It was good to catch up with you again

↳y/n: it’s always a good day when I get to talk to you Lily!

yoursister: ummm some warning next time! That’s 2 times now — I wanna go to a race too!

↳y/n: next time for sure

↳y/n: I have breaks for Montreal or Silverstone?

↳yoursister: or both?

↳logansargeant: both please!

Private Messages, y/n

Taglist

@anamiad00msday @suns3treading @daniskywalkersolo @awritingtree @justheretoreadthxxs @coral7161 @lost4lyrics @mastermindbaby @freyathehuntress @angelluv16 @nichmeddar @mxm47max @justaf1girl @a-beaverhausen @tallrock35 @elizamoe133 @imlonelydontsendhelp @jessica3478 @il0vereadingstuff @msimpala-67 @Americanvenom13 @taylorrrrrrrrrrswiftttt @widow-cevans @1-of-my-many-obsessions @theendofthematerialgworl

[reiderwriter]

hi! I just wanted to say I think your writing is so good and you seem like a lovely person 🥰 I’m hoping to request a post prison Spencer smut. Basically it’s when he’s just been released and he’s so touch starved and possessive over you? I’m such a sucker for prison Reid I can’t 😅

A/N: Nothing hotter than a man who looks like he has been through hell, and dear GOD, is post-Prison Spencer DELECTABLE. Thank you for your request!

Warnings: 18+, minors dni. Penetrative sex, creampie, slight dom/sub themes, use of pet names, spoilers for s12 of Criminal Minds, mentions of prison, mentions of blood/ wounds and injuries sustained in prison.

The seconds ticked down as you waited for the key to be pushed into the lock, the door to swing open and for your life to be put back together. 84 days and you were on edge, almost three months without him.

Your leg shook as you waited, heard the footsteps coming up the hall. You stood, wiping the sweat off your hands and taking a deep breath.

You hadn't been allowed to visit Spencer in prison, his teammates taking priority as they worked to keep him safe, to get him out. You hadn't seen him in three months, though you'd moved yourself into his house to be able to wrap yourself in his scent, haunt yourself with his presence.

He wasn't a ghost anymore, as he opened the door and you found your eyes on Spencer Reid for the first time in too long.

“Spencer,” you voice was pathetically small, as if you didn't trust him to be real anymore. You supposed that was probably justified. Your entire body was on edge as you looked him up and down.

Before, he'd keep himself clean shaved, but you found yourself greatly appreciative of the stubble framing his face. He'd never been the best at taking care of his hair, and now it looked perfectly ready for you to run your hands through. His clothes were still messy and by god did you want to grab the lapels of his jacket and pull him back into you.

“You're still here,” his voice was nearly as weak as your own, as if he'd not used it for nearly as much as it should've been used. “I know they said you were but… god I'm so happy you're still here.”

He took a step closer to you and pulled you towards him. You weren't used to Spencer initiating physical contact like this, his hands strong and certain on your hips as he grabbed you, one hand coming up to the back of your head to cradle it and push you further into him.

You melted into the touch, finally feeling warm after the coldest spring of your life.

“You can't get rid of me that easily, Spencer.”

“Good,” he said, tilting your head up and not hesitating even one beat before he pushed his lips against yours. His grip was hot as you let out a soft moan into his mouth, taken aback by his sudden affection.

Before prison, you'd been quietly intimate. A soft kiss here and there, and some awkward and tender sex. While you didn't mind your earlier boundaries, you certainly weren't mourning them now, gripping his shirt tighter as his tongue began exploring you. You'd been happy just to be in his presence before, but now you needed to be so close that you could no longer find where his body stopped and yours started.

When you lifted your leg, he instantly took your hint and pulled you up, holding you in his arms as you wrapped your legs around his waist.

Not breaking from your kiss for longer than a breath, he dropped everything to carry you back to the bedroom.

“84 days.” You gasped between kisses as he dropped you on the bed, falling down with you as he moved his attention to your neck, your chest, your bared throat.

A growl was all the reply he had to that, knowing instantly what you were talking about, but needing to feel you more, to pull comfort from the warmth of your body.

“84 days and I thought with each of them that I would never do it again. You're never leaving me again, I wouldn't survive. I'd refuse.”

“84 days, 7 hours, 23 minutes. Every lone moment thinking about this and you, and being here again,” he said, pulling back again to stare directly at your bared soul.

“I need to feel you now, Y/N. Please, be a good girl and let me.”

If you could will your own clothes away, you would've at that moment, already aware of the mounting pleasure pooling between your legs.

Instead, Spencer handled it for you, tearing where he couldn't unbutton fast enough, divesting you of shirt and skirt and beginning to work your underwear slowly down your legs. At the same time, you pushed yourself up, scrambling to unbutton his own shirt, moaning in frustration as you struggled to get it pushed off his shoulders.

“Spencer, clothes off, now,” you begged, and he finally paused for a second.

“I'm different. Not a lot, but there are some…wounds. Don't be alarmed.”

“Spencer, if you think a few cuts and bruises are going to dampen the absolute desire I have burning for you, you are dumber than I thought.” Taking his momentary surprise to your advantage, you pushed him up and straddled his lap, sitting together with him as you rid him of his clothes.

You traced hands over every ridge of his skin, trying to document every change and appreciate every line. Tracing your way downward, you let your hand disappear into his lap as you looked up at him again, catching his eye as your fingers unbuttoned his pants.

His hand stroked lazily across your cunt but his eyes locked with yours and you found yourself aching with a need for him.

Before, he'd been thorough about foreplay, making sure you were absolutely ready for him, ensuring your pleasure and bringing you to climax before he even palmed himself through his pants.

It was generous, and everything you didn't want right now. You needed him to get everything he'd missed, needed to see him relaxed, pleasured, sunk deep inside of you and losing himself with each stroke.

You softly pressed a kiss to his lips, releasing him from his pants. A few strokes was enough to have him at full mast, and in another moment you were pushing yourself up on your knees and sinking back down.

Three months and you'd almost forgotten how perfectly he filled you, steadying yourself with hands on his shoulders as you bit back a whorish moan.

“Good girl, just like I remember…” his words came out slurred, as of he were drunk on the feeling of you, intoxicated as you began rocking your hips up and down his length.

“I'm better than you remembered,” you mumbled, stroking the small soft curls at the base of his neck. It was ridiculous being jealous of your past self, but god did you want to grab the you of January and shake her within an inch of her life.

You'd tell her to grab Spencer Reid and never let him go, to make him spend his entire life filling you up, to pleasure him until he hadn't a single thought of going anywhere.

You kept up your pace, riding him at an even pace, making sure to lower yourself down as far as you could manage without becoming a moaning mess, but soon the pleasure became overwhelming.

Spencer kept one hand working over your clit, and you had to resist falling apart in his hands, determined to pleasure him before you thought of taking that same ecstasy for yourself.

“It's okay, Y/N, you can let go. I know how long you've waited for this,” his words were soft but his tone was demanding, ordering you to cum on his cock. He lifted his hips slightly, grabbing your hips in his hand as he took charge of the pace and strength of your thrusts, going harder and faster than you'd been able to manage.

You loathed to give up control, bit your body betrayed you, thighs shaking as you gave into his wishes, cumt clenching around him as you rode out your orgasm.

“That's it, nice and tight for me.” He grunted the words into your ear as he really took control. Tipping you until you were again flat on your back, he lifted his hips up and let his pace speed up, rutting into you deeply as he breathed in your scent, head buried in your hair, arms tight around your waist.

You moaned for him, knowing he loved every sound that passed your lips, knowing that he craved the knowledge of your pleasure.

He, too, didn't hold back. His voice filled your ear, filling your brain with every fantasy, every memory of you that had kept him alive for 84 days of hell.

Each story was lustier than the last, your mouth dropping open in a moan as you, too, imagined him in each of the scenarios he'd spent time on in prison.

You across his desk, his head between your legs in the morning, you in his cell, him inside you in public, the red scratches your nails dragged against his skin that had been commented on in the showers.

You'd guided his through 84 days of hell, and you were finally embracing him on the other side.

“Y/N, I'm gonna cum, I'm gonna- shit.”

To your surprise, he didn't pull out as he usually would, but instead slammed himself deeper as he began releasing string after string of his sperm into you.

“Shit. I'm sorry I should've asked if that was…”

“I don't care. Just next time, make sure you do that again.” The feeling of his cum inside you was enough to push your body over the edge once again, and you panted as the aftershocks continued milking his cock.

“I missed you.” He whispered, pushing a few stray hairs behind your ear as he stared at you with all the love in the world.

“I missed you more.” You whispered back, and you meant it.

[lovezbrownies]

I will literally run over my dog (no I won’t I love her too much) for some more Lauren writing.

I NEED IT!!!!! 😭😭

-poopyhead🤪

Confessions after aggressions (Yan!Bully x GN!Reader.)

Hello dear poopyhead! hope you enjoy :3 this fic is almost 2.3k words! Sorry it took me a week to get this out! Blew my money on legos and I can only write when I have a drink in hand ;;

Masterlist

Synopsis: What happens when your lifetime bully who is madly in love with you catches someone trying to hit on you?

Bully Lauren McCanister x GN!Reader

WARNINGS: Bullying, verbal harassment, darling being hit on by a third party, threats, physical fight kinda!, darling's scared of Lauren, Lauren goes off, Lauren kisses darling without consent smh Lauren, fuck used a lot, degrading words against women used by Lauren, again smh Lauren, mildly cute at the end, No use of y/n

“Hey, if you don’t come to my game today I’ll make sure you regret it, and wear this. And you better fucking wear it. Either wear it once today or I’ll force it on you this entire month. Fucking weirdo.”

And that’s how you found yourself in this situation, out in the cold night, wearing your bully's jersey jacket she insists you wear, and watching that same bully carry her team to a win. It’s been going on for a while, you don’t know what the rules of football are, and you’ve never really been into many sports. Sure maybe you’ve watched a few games or liked a certain team but you never truly got into it, and you don’t think you ever will.

Lauren reserved you a seat at the very front of the school’s stadium, next to the team’s benches or whatever they call them. So whenever there’s a pause to the game Lauren can easily go up to the benches, rest, and talk with you. More like constantly begging you for praise.

“Look at that, the loser came, what did you think? Obviously, you thought I was cool, right? Well, that’s a no-brainer, you don’t know anything about football so you’d think anything I did was cool. Oh, you’re such a fucking freak! You want me so bad it makes you look stupid! You were staring at me sweating and heaving the entire time right you, weirdo?”

It’s always the same, she’s been participating in more sports lately since it’s her senior year but it was torture to attend every game of hers so she doesn’t give you hell later on. Lauren’s games never ceased to bore you, constantly watching her carry her team to a win every single damn game gets tiring fast. And if you dare look away to entertain yourself Lauren will purposefully fumble the game just so she can confront you for not paying attention to her faster. 

So when Lauren finally had the chance to take a break and take a sip from her water bottle you told her you’d be going to the bathroom, and her one response was “Don’t take too long.” Thank heavens. You couldn’t hold it anymore, and again if you left without telling her she would leave the field herself and chase after you, her team either winning by an inch or losing wholeheartedly.

Along the way, you saw many people skirt away from the stadium's seats to get food, and beverages, or to go to the bathroom. It was half-time, or whatever they call their little break, after all. You felt someone watch you as you walked to the bathrooms, but every time you looked around there wasn’t a single person looking in your direction, though your guts told you not to, you brushed it off and continued heading towards the gender-neutral bathroom the school’s stadium has. They mostly made it to save costs on individual bathrooms for specific genders.

You finished with your business in the stall, the moment you stepped out of said stall however a tall woman wearing the rival school’s merch stood right in front of you, blocking the way and effectively stopping you from moving anywhere.

You look up at the woman, she looks about your age with brown hair and eyes, nothing of note in her appearance. She looked down at you, smirking as if she were an almighty god. You raise a brow, trying to seem as uninterested as possible, to avoid giving her the wrong idea, “Can I help you?” Somehow the woman’s cocky smirk only widened as she reached a hand out to you, going out to grab your face.

“Was watchin’ ya earlier, wanted to ask if you’re singl-” Just as her hand grazed your chin you harshly slapped it away, grabbing a few people’s attention but no one wanted to anger the tall brunette. Yet the woman seemed to take your slap as an invitation, moving even closer almost pushing you back into the stall. And move back you did, trapping you with the woman in the cramped stall, with your legs pressing harshly onto the toilet seat and the woman’s arms reaching out to the stall’s walls.

She smiled so wide it resembled a horror character, her eyes filled with lust, the woman leaned down towards you, she was drunk you could tell from the overwhelming smell of her breath, “Hey! Back off! Get the fuck away from me!” You pushed and pushed as much as you could but that only enticed her, “Nah, need a cutie like you to hang off ma arm~” 

Just then the smell of alcohol and sweat disappeared and a loud crash was heard, “YOU GOT A DEATH WISH FRESHMAN?!?!” Is that Lauren? Oh, that definitely is Lauren, You peek out the stall to find the woman lying on the floor, looking up at Lauren, face full of fear, “Who the fuck are yo-” The lady couldn’t even finish her sentence as Lauren grabbed her by the hair, easily lifting the woman off the floor just by pulling at the hair of her scalp.

You couldn’t predict what had happened then, you heard Lauren threaten the woman, cussing her out in the most colorful ways with a low voice, “I’m going to fucking end your life, you fucking dickwad. You are nothing but a pile of shit compared to my baby, you don’t touch my sweetheart and think you can get away with it, fucking slut! You will pay for what you did. Keep one eye open when you’re sleeping, you dirty whore!” And much more that you missed. Lauren looked beyond angry, she looked like a feral rabid dog.

It was completely horrifying to witness the unbridled rage of Lauren McCanister. Your entire life you thought you’d been the only one to be relentlessly bullied by her, the only one who truly witnessed how insane she can get. But you were entirely incorrect, watching how tight Lauren’s grip is with the woman’s hair, how she yelled and spit on the woman, how she harshly pushed the woman against the floor, a loud crack came from the woman’s head making you cringe from how painful it sounded.

Lauren shifted her head towards you, staring at you like she was a predator in a horror movie before swiftly moving to you, taking two long strides to finally reach you, grabbing your hand she growled, “Good fucking thing you’re smart enough not to accept her shit. Else I’d make sure you never think of another woman ever again. Let’s get out of here, this place is full of morons anyway.” Lauren, with no regard to your own personal wishes, proceeded to pull you out of the bathrooms, people stared at the both of you as she led you to the underground car park.

You could barely breathe, fearful of what the monster would do to you. Will she hurt you? Are you done for? Should you quickly send a text to everyone you love? Was all that studying in vain? Are you already dead? Your thoughts were interrupted by the feeling of a cushy seat beneath you, the sound of a car door slamming, and then the roar of a car engine. Snapping out of your daydreams you look to the side, at Lauren. She still looked furious, though calmer than before. She was still muttering under her breath, her hands gripped at the steering wheel so hard her knuckles were entirely white.

“...ng loser, fucking idiot, fucking whore… Going after what’s mine? I’ll show her… my poor baby…” McCanister wouldn’t stop muttering, and you couldn’t stop shaking, she then drove the car off, you have no clue where you’re going. Maybe she’s already dug up your grave? Today really is your last day as a living person, maybe you can haunt this asshole in the afterlife? If there is one at least. It hit you that she will make sure you'll be in pain when she does kill you, there is no quick and painless with Lauren, only slow and torturous.

Suddenly you flinch at the hand that had grabbed your thigh, damn near screaming out in fear, “The fuck are you shivering for? Did that hillbilly bitch scare you that bad? God damn, I’m going to kill her for doing all that to you, my angel…” Angel? What the hell is up with her today? First she ‘defends’ you from that woman, and now that you think of it, all she’s been calling you so far are very affectionate pet names. Sure, she’s called you these types of nicknames before but in a more degrading form, hearing it now… It felt much more intimate than before.

You stare at her from the corner of your eyes, not daring to move a single muscle, hoping she somehow forgets your existence if you don’t move. Lauren had calmed down quite a bit now, it’s been a while on the road and you still had no idea where she was taking you, the roads were unfamiliar to you and even if you wanted to you couldn’t tell which road you’d know due to the fear overcoming your body. You decided to look down for the rest of the ride to not incur her wrath anymore.

It then clicks. The game’s still not over, they’re still playing, and the team’s golden ticket was driving a car to your grave. Lauren was still wearing her uniform and all, her headgear haphazardly thrown to the back of her expensive car, she even still has her team’s colors painted on her face. You don’t know the consequences of her bailing on the game, but you know she’ll be able to get out of it one way or another. Either by bringing her mom up or by bribing the coach into forgiving her. But all in all Lauren seemed more upset about what happened in the bathroom than her bailing on her game.

“Hey. Come on, stop daydreaming and get out.” Lauren’s voice was rough after she screamed at that woman. Turning towards the driver’s seat you didn’t see her there, the hell? Where did she go? Wait was it all a drea- “Over here, moron, god you’re so stupid. Or is it because that bitch rattled you to stupidity? Don’t worry, I’ll gut her soon.” Lauren said again, but this time you could tell she was speaking from your side, you looked over to find the door to the passenger’s seat was open and Lauren stood firm, her arms crossed and her face unreadable. Lauren reached a hand out to you, “Come on.” She said.

You didn’t want to grab her hand, who knows what she’d do to you if you did, so you tried to leave the car without her help, but before you could even put one foot out the door, Lauren pushed you back down, “Take my hand.” And you did, although hesitantly. Lauren, like some gentleman, pulled you up, helping you out of her ridiculously expensive car. You heard her mutter something for what felt like the 50th time this night, “God... still shivering.. to kill that freak…” Why in god’s name do you only manage to hear her murder plots when she mutters.

You look at the house Lauren parked at, it had the normal suburban house structure but was surrounded by much richer, fancier houses. Was it Lauren’s house? Knowing Lauren you’d thought she’d have a bigger, grander, fancier house. Your thoughts and speculations didn’t have to go on for long since Lauren spoke up as if she’d heard your every thought. “This is my house, from now on you’re going to come over every weekend, got it?” You turned to her, face full of disbelief. That ridiculous sentence completely woke you up from your fear, is she kidding? As if you’d spend two days and two nights trapped in her house, with satan and its spawn.

It all felt like a joke really, none of it felt real, so you laughed like anyone in this situation would. “Y-you’re kidding, right? You hate me! I hate you! We shouldn’t even be near each other for an hour, no less two days!”And you kept laughing, damn near falling to the floor from how stupid this situation is. A slow chuckle came out of the lady in front of you, looking back up at her you wiped away the fake tears, but oh how fast your smile fell. Lauren wasn’t chuckling because she realized how ridiculous she was being, she chuckled to get your attention. She looked beyond pissed, as if she’d strangle you if she so wished.

Lauren walked closer to you and you walked back until your back unfortunately met with the car behind you. Lauren placed one hand on your hip, and the other took hold of your chin, “H-Hey I-I was j-just kiddi-” You were silenced. Lauren crashed her lips into yours before you could utter another word. Shock filled every part of your body, you were frozen still. Unable to react to this sudden change of events, one moment she was openly threatening death on one person, and the next she’s passionately kissing the person she’s been relentlessly bullying. The strangest part is you could see her blushing, her eyes squeezed shut, while yours were still wide open.

Just as you were about to pull away she beat you to it, she was looking down at you all flustered, face so red it made a mockery of tomatoes, and her face paint was smudged. “You better know what this means. You’re mine from now on, you will be mine until we both die. I-I’ve never lov… Fuck, whatever let’s get in the house a-and makeout or something…” 

The rest of the night was fuzzy, but all you know for sure is that Lauren never let you leave her side.

[scoonsalicious]

Unwanted, Chapter 1: Unarmed, Pt. 1

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Avenger!Fem!Reader

Summary: (For this part only) Following the events of CA:CW, Tony Stark has offered Steve Rogers an olive branch of sorts to bring The Avengers back together. You, CTO of Stark Industries and head of Innovation & Technology for the Avengers' Initiative, have your doubts, as you're not quite ready to forgive Captain America for ripping your family apart just yet. Steve had one condition, however, when agreeing to return to the team, one that's going to turn your life upside down and inside out: If he's coming back to join The Avengers, he's bringing his best friend, Bucky Barnes, with him.

Warnings: (For this part only) Language (obviously), minor mention of alcohol, I'm obviously on Team Tony during the CW; don't come for me, awful jokes, minor use of (Y/N). As always, if I missed any, please let me know.

Word Count: 3.2k

A/N: Here's a little preview of Unwanted. In it's current form, it's standing at about 50k words, with about 25k still in editing, and I'm maybe about half done with writing the entire thing? I'm not going to lie, it starts out cute and fluffy, but it's gonna get real angsty and painful. Dear Reader has unresolved emotional trauma and Bucky doesn't understand the importance of boundaries in 21st century relationships. This piece has been my baby for several months now; I really hope ya'll enjoy reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it! Banner By: The absolutely amazing @mrsbuckybarnes1917

Taglist: (Please let me know if you'd like to be added!) @blackhawkfanatic

"You're sure you're cool with this, Boss?" you asked Tony Stark, for what was probably the ten thousandth time in the last hour. The two of you were sitting by yourselves off in a corner of the common area of the Avengers Tower while the rest of your team congregated around the bar, eagerly anticipating the official return of Captain America to the Avengers. That, by itself, would be enough to warrant a gathering of Earth's mightiest heroes, but what had everyone in attendance talking was the fact that Steve Rogers wouldn't be returning alone.

Your billionaire employer sighed and swirled his glass of Laphroaig, the amber liquid sloshing along the sides of the tumbler. "I don't love it, Pocket, but it was Cap's only condition for coming back into the fold, and since Barton, Wilson, and Maximoff all went off the reservation with him, it seemed a small price to pay to get everyone back under one roof." He took a swig of his whiskey and smacked his lips.

You couldn't help but smile at his use of your nickname. Thor had inadvertently given it to you when you first met the God of Thunder years ago, remarking for everyone to hear that you were so small and tiny, he could tuck you into his pocket and abscond away with you to Asgard. Somehow, it stuck. You'd hated it at first; it had felt dismissive and condescending, which of course meant that it soon became the only thing the members of your team called you, but the more they used in their daily lives, the more you actually came to love it. It was a brand new, unique identity that came to embody the person you’d become, and the past you’d worked so hard to put behind you. You were more likely to answer to 'Pocket,' now, than you were your legal name, and you were grateful for it.

"Besides," Tony continued with a shrug, "if letting the Barnes thing go means we get the band back together, I'm willing to be the bigger person about it."

You stared at him, impressed. "Well look at you. When did you get so emotionally evolved?"

"Since Pepper told me I needed to start seeing a therapist or she’d leave me once and for all," he admitted to you with a cheeky wink; you both knew that, though Tony drove his partner, Pepper Potts, absolutely insane sometimes, she loved him far too much to ever walk away from him for good. That didn’t stop the threats, though. Lord knows he tried her patience. In your opinion, the woman was a saint.

Your eyes widened at the revelation and you let out a low whistle of appreciation. "You're going to therapy? Wow. Tony, That's amazing. I'm proud of you."

"Oh please," Tony scoffed, "I have much more important things to do than sit on a couch and spill my feelings. Besides, my secrets are too valuable to divulge to an actual human being. I just trained FRIDAY on therapeutic conversational datasets so she can handle all that psychological mumbo jumbo and then I paired that with BARF's augmented reality-- it's seriously the platinum standard in mental healthcare. No awkward silences or judgmental stares, just pure efficiency. You should try it; it’d do you wonders. And the best part? No copays."

You chuckled as you took a sip of your pineapple and Malibu. "Yeah, okay. That completely tracks for you," you told him with a smile. "So, what did Dr. FRIDAY tell you that got you to change your mind about the Barnes situation?"

Furrows appeared between Tony's eyebrows as he took another sip of whiskey to buy time for collecting his thoughts. There was still so much pain in him where Bucky Barnes was concerned. You'd worked for him in some capacity for nearly fifteen years and you'd never seen him as defeated as he'd been when he got off that Quinjet from Siberia. He'd been bloodied, battered and utterly broken, body and soul. Seeing him like that had shattered you, and you never wanted to live through something like that again.

Tony ran you through his experience with his therapeutic innovation, and you had to admit, it was impressive. The system had helped him realize that Bucky Barnes wasn't responsible for the heinous crimes Hydra had brainwashed him into completing, and so his anger over the death of his parents, while justified, had been misdirected.

"Once I processed that, it was a quick jump to realizing we can't be the best version of the Avengers if we only have half the team at home, and it's innocent people who would pay the price for it. So, when I reached out to Cap and he agreed to come back if I agreed to let him bring Barnes with him, well..." Tony trailed off, gesturing vaguely with his hand toward the where the rest of the team was waiting.

"So, you and Rogers are just, what? Good then? All water under the bridge?" you asked him, mild irritation clouding your voice.

"Oh, absolutely not." Tony took another sip of whiskey. "I can work with him again, and I'm glad to, but we're not going to be braiding each other's hair anytime soon."

"Good," you said, raising your glass in a mock toast to Tony. "I'm not quite ready to forgive him on your behalf just yet." Tony had essentially saved your life when you first met him, and he’d continued to support and guide your career to heights you could have never imagined. You'd started as a systems analyst and mechanical engineer at Stark Industries fresh out of college, and under Tony’s mentorship, it wasn’t long before you found yourself rising to the position of the company’s Chief Technical Officer, second in command only to Pepper, now that Tony had passed on the reins to her. All this happened long before he'd ever brought you in to work with him on the Avengers Initiative, and now you spent the majority of your time heading up their Technology and Innovation Department, as well.

Any kind of healthy respect you might have had for your boss had died out a long, long time ago, because Tony Stark  was Tony Stark, but now he was just Tony-- more like an annoying older brother you loved dearly,  whose name just happened to be on your paychecks. You owed him everything and that had earned him your unwavering loyalty. You'd follow him to hell and back again if he asked it of you, though he knew he’d never have to; you’d be paving the path there right alongside him.

The sound of laughter made its way across to you from the other side of the room and you felt warmth at the sound-- everyone, together again and happy. Just a few short months ago, you never would have been able to imagine the scene before you, not after the fight in Berlin and its brutal aftermath. You had thought for sure that this little family you'd found yourself in the middle of had been destroyed beyond repair.

So, you might have had your own reasons to be pissed at Steve Rogers.

"What's Barnes like?" you asked Tony. Having only ever glimpsed him from a distance, or from behind a computer monitor, you'd utilized all the resources at your disposal to dig up as much information on the Winter Soldier as possible, but even your skills hadn't been able to get you what simply didn't exist. "You know I don't like unknown quantities."

Tony seemed to think for a moment. "You mean, aside from being a brainwashed, murderous assassin?"

"Tony," you chastised. You knew that Barnes had spent a good deal of time in Wakanda before coming home to New York, working on having the words that triggered his homicidal alter-ego neutralized. Rogers may not always acted rationally when it came to making decisions about his oldest friend, but you were sure he wouldn’t be bringing Barnes back to the Tower if he posed a serious danger to the rest of you. Right?

"Fine," Tony said, with a typical exaggerated sigh. "Aside from being a former brainwashed, murderous assassin; better?" You rolled your eyes but nodded. "Don't really know, didn't care enough to ask. I'll be happy as long as he doesn't start murdering us all in our sleep. Cap vouches for him, so that counts for something. Maybe not as much as it did once upon a time, but something. But T’Challa seems to think he’s harmless enough now, so that’s good enough for me."

You nodded, taking another sip of your pineapple and Malibu, then leaned back, pensive. "Oh, God," you said after a moment of thought, sitting up in alarm. "You don't think it’s going to be like having an entire extra Rogers around, do you? All '40s morality and emotional repression? Because I am so over having him police my language." It wasn't that you had anything against Captain America as an Avenger, but there was only so much of the Boy Scout act you could take before you started getting nauseous. And okay, fine, you weren't too proud to admit it-- there was a not-so-small part of you that still hadn't forgiven him for what you saw as his blatant betrayal of Tony when he refused to sign the Accords. You'd promised to play nice, though, for the sake of your family, but your personal relationship with The Star-Spangled Man had taken heavy damage since Berlin.

Tony chuckled. "As if you'd ever let Cap's presence keep you from a good profanity. I should put out a swear jar. We could fund that crisis algorithm project of yours off your mouth alone."

"Fuck you, Tony," you uttered with a chuckle, fully aware that he had your number. You never met a four-letter word you didn’t fall immediately in love with.

"And look at that," Tony said with a smirk, "I just made another dollar. Hey FRIDAY, open up a new savings account and deposit a dollar into every time Pocket has a potty mouth."

"On it, Boss," the AI replied cheerfully.

You swore at Tony a few more times for good measure. "I fully intend to financially bleed you dry now, asshole."

"Oh no, I'm shaking in my custom Tom Ford's," Tony mockingly bemoaned, putting his feet, enclosed in the aforementioned ridiculously expensive loafers, up on the coffee table.

Raised voices from the other side of the room caught your attention. You stood up and craned your neck, trying to see what had caused the commotion. "I think they're here, Boss," you said.

"Alright," Tony said, standing up and putting an arm around your shoulder, "big smiles, kiddo. Remember, we're supposed to be happy about this." You suppressed a chuckle as you watched Rogers present Bucky Barnes to the rest of the team. Everyone was welcoming; you wouldn’t have expected any less, but as you watched their body language, the only word that came to mind was guarded. And you completely understood; The Winter Soldier’s reputation had preceded him, after all. There were hugs for Rogers, of course, but no one made any attempt to reach out to his friend.

Despite your overall annoyance with Rogers, you couldn't help but feel some degree of happiness for the giant oaf. When you'd been assigned on a mission with him (which happened fairly frequently, as he was so pathetically abysmal with anything having to do with technology) and ended up having to hole up in a safehouse for an extra couple of days while waiting for extraction, he'd started opening up to you about James Buchanan Barnes, and the reminiscing had made him so happy, you encouraged Steve to tell you everything about this Bucky. After that, the trouble was getting Rogers to stop telling his Bucky stories. If he wasn't sharing tales about growing up with his best friend during the Great Depression and all the absolute mischief they got into, he was sharing war stories of their time together with the Howling Commandos. He'd even shared his grief with you– how painful it had been to watch Barnes fall from that train and the guilt he carried for not being able to save him. He’d confessed to you once that, when he went into the ice, fully prepared to die, there was a part of him that was relieved to be reunited with Barnes in the next life, and waking up some 70 years later to a world where he was still alive but Bucky was still gone had broken his heart all over again. And yet, here they were– together in the next life, after all. If you were a different kind of person, you’d say it was a goddamn miracle. 

Because of the way Rogers described his best friend in those old stories, you were expecting Bucky Barnes to come swaggering along next to him, with a cocksure tilt to his head and a panty-dropping smirk playing along his lips, but the man who accompanied Steve was the furthest thing from that.

He shuffled behind Rogers slowly, looking at the floor and avoiding making eye contact with anyone else from the team. His hair hung long and limp, curtaining off his face as though it were a protective barrier. Though, if it was keeping him away from everyone else, or everyone else away from him, you couldn't be sure. He was much thinner than you'd anticipated, especially for a super soldier– though still extremely muscular, giving you the impression that it had been a long time since he'd let himself indulge in anything more than the bare minimum amount of calories he needed for survival. Tilting your head, you tried to steal a glance at his infamous metal arm, the thing of legends that had turned him from a run-of-the-mill assassin into the stuff of waking nightmares.

But the sleeve of his jacket hung limp, only empty space where the appendage should have been.

Curious. He'd come to Tony Stark's home unarmed. Your hand flew to your mouth to try and stop the uncontrollable snicker that broke loose at your own stupid joke. Tony elbowed you gently in the ribs to shut you up, and you hoped you were too far away and the others too distracted by Steve's introductions to notice you, but that thought flew right out the window when Bucky Barnes' head snapped up at the sound, his eyes locking onto yours from across the room.

"Holy shit," you breathed, knowing another dollar would go into Tony's digital swear jar, but damn if the man didn't have the most striking blue eyes you had ever seen. There were dark circles under them, and he looked incredibly tired, yeah, but they were beautiful. You didn't mean to stare, but you found you couldn't look away, either, and so the two of you were locked into some sort of impromptu staring contest. The longer you looked at him, the more you could sense an overwhelming sadness coming from him, as well as a level of wariness at being in a room full of strangers. It was almost overwhelming.

But then, just as suddenly as it began, the spell was broken. Blinking once, Bucky looked away and you felt the tension vanish from between you.

"What was that about?" Tony asked you in a low singsong voice.

"I have no idea," you answered, honestly. There had been so much pain and loneliness in his eyes. You'd seen eyes like that before, when you were younger and looked at your own reflection in the mirror following a scalding shower with your skin scrubbed raw and bloody. You suppressed a shiver.

Finally, Steve managed to disengage himself and Bucky from the other Avengers and began making his way toward you and Tony. Up close, you were struck by how tall Bucky was. He had to be at least a foot taller than you, if not more. And God, he was handsome. Granted, in a kind of heroin-chic sort of way, but still. A couple of good nights' sleep, a few good meals, some light personal grooming, and... well, there was a very good chance you were going to be in trouble once he got his shit together, that was for sure.

"And Buck," Steve was saying, drawing you out of your ogling, "This is our resident computer genius, Pocket (Y/L/N). You ever need help with anything technology-related, she's your girl."

"A bit of an over-simplified version, Rogers," you said, sticking your hand out to shake Bucky’s, "but yeah, that about covers it."

Bucky looked at you, then down at your hand, making no move to take it.

"What the hell kind of name is Pocket?" he asked, voice rough as though he hadn’t been using it a lot. Pulling your hand back, you shot him an annoyed glare.

"I don't know," you oozed back sarcastically. "What the hell kind of name is Bucky?"

"It's his nickname, Pocket," Steve supplied helpfully, though not without a trace of confusion. You gave him an annoyed, pointed look.

"No shit, Rogers." You turned back to Bucky and spoke slowly, as if to a child. "So, what do you think Pocket is, then?"

"Oh," said Bucky, catching on. The corners of his mouth turned up ever so slightly. "Gotcha; m'sorry about that. My manners are rusty from a severe lack of use."

You didn't mean it, but your mouth curved up into a hint of a smile, too. And then, almost as if you couldn't stop yourself from doing it, you found yourself saying "I see you've arrived unarmed."

There was a long, heavy beat of silence as Steve and Tony stared at you, mouths slightly agape, and you wondered if you'd made a critical error. You were just about to punch yourself in the face and claim you had a concussion and therefore couldn't be held responsible for what you said when Bucky burst into laughter.

It was the most beautiful sound you'd ever heard, and it was contagious. Through your own laughter, you risked a glance up at Steve. He was looking back and forth between you and Bucky, an indiscernible look in his eyes, and you couldn't help but wonder how long it had been since he'd heard his best friend laugh. Hell, you wondered how long it had been since Bucky Barnes had laughed at all.

"Pocket," Tony groaned, palming his face, "that was truly terrible, even for you."

"I'm sorry," you said, trying to catch your breath through your burst of giggles. "It just slipped out-- I couldn’t help it. You know once these things come into my head, they just bounce around in there until they fall out. I didn't mean it."

Steve smiled at you. "So that's what you were snickering at," he said, amused. Damn that enhanced super soldier hearing. Rogers didn't need to be so nosy with it.

You shrugged. "What can I say? Bad jokes are my superpower. Don't be jealous that all you got was super strength and a six pack, Rogers."

Bucky laughed again, then nudged Steve playfully with his elbow. "I like this one, Stevie," he said. "She's funny."

You weren't sure why, exactly, but something in Bucky's words turned your insides into a warm puddle of goo.

Oh, you were going to be in trouble, indeed.

Next Part ->

[totaly-obsessed]

can you do a millie bright x reader where it’s their wedding day and the whole team are there and it’s just really fluffy and cute:). love your writing so much

Tears of Joy

Millie Bright x reader request

-> Marrying the Love of your Life

-> sorry for the delay - I hope you like it!

➳ Masterlist

•─────⋅☾ ☽⋅─────•

After waiting and planning for months on end – maybe even your entire childhood, the day was finally here. You were getting married!

Sure many dreams from your childhood wedding plans came true, but you didn’t quite find a prince charming, more of a princess charming – your very own knight in shining armor, the one and only Millie Bright.

As soon as you hat met Millie all those years ago in a Social Media meeting for Chelsea, you knew that she was the one. But the gentle giant had been quite scared to come up and talk to you – so you had to take the first step.

While the blonde looked intimidating it only took speaking to her once to see that she really wasn’t – maybe more so on the pitch, but luckily you didn’t have to face her there.

Millie had blushed a deep red when you caught her arms as she frantically tried to leave the meeting room, something you had not expected.

“Hi Millie, would you like to go on a date with me?”

Of course, she knew who you were, the new head of media for the women’s branch of Chelsea and she had spent the last four meetings just staring at you.

While you had felt confident walking up to her, seeing her face contort into a frown and lines appear on her forehead changed your mind quickly and you removed your hand.

“Or not – sorry that was a stupid idea.”

She couldn’t pull you in a hug fast enough. Dear god. If she hugged you like this, you never want to hug another person.

“I wanted to act cool and act like I wasn’t sure… But I would love to!”

To this day Millie and you could laugh about how much more stressful it had been than it needed if she had just said yes immediately.

---

 ---

While you had taken the first step to dating, Millie had been the one to ask the big question. She had just come home, even though she had been at home the entire time, from winning the Euros – and emotions were at an all-time high. Your girlfriend was now officially the champion of Europe.

You had been the first person she had seen out of the stands, her parents pushing you forward when you wanted to let them go first, after all, she was their daughter. “Don’t be silly love!” Had been what her mother said once she saw the blonde making her way towards the barriers.

“I did it, Baby! I fucking did it!” She was in tears, face still hot from running on the pitch for such a long time as she pulled you into a passionate kiss, not caring the slightest about all the cameras.

“You did so well my love! I am so proud of you!”

She would never forget the look on your face – she had never seen you look so proud of anybody, and now you looked at her like this. Her heart? Melted into a puddle.

Your girlfriend didn’t wait for long, lifting you over the barrier and pulling you as close to her as she could.

“My god Mills, leave some for me!” It was Rachel who finally pulled her sweaty best friend off you, just to replace her, giving you a bone-crushing hug.

“Off Rach! That’s my girl! Get ya own!”

The ‘DalyBrightness’ duo had always playful banter between them, and you were no stranger to it either, often getting roped into it somehow by Rachel, determined to get Millie angry – but the taller one of the two could only laugh about it every time.

The whole evening and night was spent partying, first in the dressing rooms, then in a chosen location with friends and family. Trafalgar Square was the next destination, where the girls would meet the nation they had made so incredibly proud, just the evening before.

After all the meetings and interviews had finally calmed down, you got your girlfriend back. Millie had finally arrived at home, in your shared south London house and the first thing she saw was your dogs Hera and Zeus. But upon lifting her head, the defender saw that they flanked both of your sides, while you held a beautiful ‘Welcome Home’ cake in your hands.

She couldn’t kiss you fast enough after seeing your nice gesture and cute smile.

“I love you much my love, and I don’t think I tell you enough. But I really do.”

The first thing you did after not seeing each other for such a long time, was napping. In the big bed, ready to sleep the day away. What you didn’t know, was that Millie woke up way before you and found herself staring at a beautiful ring in a little box.

Today was the day.

After making dinner she had asked you. She didn’t go down on her knees, so she pulled out a box, opened it, and just sat there for a second until you finally turned and noticed the ring.

“Mills?”

“Marry me?”

Choked up on tears you couldn’t do anything but nod. “Yeah, baby. I’ll marry you.” The kiss that followed tasted like tears, tears of utter joy as Zeus and Hers ran through the room yapping as if they knew what had just happened.

---

 ---

The day was finally here. Yours and Millie's wedding day. In retrospect you could not have chosen a better day, even if you obviously had not known how the weather would be – it was perfect.

Getting ready was a long process, not even physically, but rather mentally. But there was not a single doubt in your mind, that you would marry the love of your life.

You were ready when a knock sounded at the door and your sister who at the same time was your maid of honor opened it. The door was only open a smidge so you couldn’t really see who was behind it, while you talked to your bridesmaids.

“It’s go-time people!”

Your heart fluttered. But you were not nervous or anxious, no. You were excited and nearly ran out of the room with the bridesmaids to get to the altar, but your sister stopped you in your tracks, insisting that you had to wait somewhere else until the rest of the wedding party walked down the aisle.

Now stood in a room you waited for your sign. Fuck. Now the nerves were coming up. In your head, you went through the plan again, when you heard someone clear their throat.

It was Millie. There she was, dressed in a gorgeous white jumpsuit – looking at you like you hung the moon. “Baby! “You cannot see me in my dress before the wedding!”

Tears brimmed in both your eyes as you stared at your fiancé who couldn’t keep standing there any longer, so with brisk steps the blonde rushed forward and engulfed you in one of your favorite hugs. Your hearts find each other and beat in unison.

“How are ya feelin?” She rested her forehead on yours while staring at you as long as she could. “Nervous. Excited. Incredibly happy.“

The music inside was slowly getting quieter and you knew that you didn’t have that much time left. “I thought we could change the plan a little.”

Turns out Millie's idea was brilliant. Instead of just you walking in, both of you walked in together, no one would give anyone away. This would be a union of love between you and her, but that didn’t mean that either of you had to say goodbye to your family.

You could hear the gasps as you walked down the aisle, arms hooked together, each of you a flower bouquet in hand, the biggest smiles anyone had ever seen on your faces. You looked magical.

---

 ---

In the end, you don’t even know how you got through the vows, all you remember were a lot of tears, and an incredibly passionate kiss that was met with screams of joy from the audience.

After all of your families had congratulated the both of you, your Club mates made their way towards you each of them with big smiles on their faces.

Niamh was the first at your side and was the first to pull you into a warm hug. “You look like a princess. But one of those badass ones, that doesn’t need a white knight to save them.”

“I will need a cheaper ring for daily use, this one belongs in a bank in a safe deposit box.” Millie's joke was met with a lot of laughter as Sam came over and after hugging you as well, took a closer look at your ring. “Maybe! That is a fucking rock Mills!”

„You’re one to talk.“ Hempo received a  slight nudge from her captain while everyone else laughed along.

One after the other Chelsea and Lioness teammates alike made their way through the masses, hugging you with congratulatory tones and singing praises. Most of them even brought presents which they gave your sister for safekeeping.

“I can finally call you my wife.” Millie had stolen you away from the open space for a second and pulled you close for a deep kiss.

“My wife, huh? That has a nice ring to it.”

Not only were you her wife now, but she was also yours. Married. Oh dear god, you were finally married to the girl of your dreams. “Best day of my life.”

“Then I am excited to give you better ones.”

“God. you disgust me.” Neither of you had seen Rachel invade the nice little space Millie and you had created for the two of you

“Rachel!”

[notsoattractivearenti]

1+1 = 4 (Mason Mount x Fem!Reader)

WC: 3.0K

Warnings: mention of c-section, post-surgery recovery

A/N: i haven’t written anything since last month and i’ve missed writing so here it is... dad!Mason for me and y'all my loves 🥰🫶🏻 apologies if this isn’t so good lol tbh i wrote this for my own comfort cuz it's been an extremely rough few weeks so i kinda needed this and i’m a huge sucker for my faves as attentive partner and dad fics! not to mention this is officially the longest fic I've written + posted here! hope you guys enjoy and i’d love to hear your thoughts thru ask/reply/reblog 💗 apologies for any grammatical errors! feedbacks are highly appreciated 🤍

—

You just woke up from a short nap after your C-section. Your baby was not supposed to be born for another month, but when your doctor saw the umbilical cord was wrapped around their neck during ultrasound, they told you and Mason that an emergency C-section had to be done the next day before your baby moved to the birth position. You recalled the day it happened.

—

You were really scared and nervous even though you have given birth before – but your first pregnancy and labor went smoothly so you didn’t exactly anticipate this. Plus, you had never gone through any major surgery your whole life ­– you just were not ready at all. You wanted another vaginal delivery but since the circumstances changed, you didn’t have a choice and all you cared about was your little one coming into the world safe and sound.

Mason was scared too, but he tried to conceal it from you. He just knew he had to be by your side all the time, as you were about to go through another life-changing moment but not as you planned. He was worried about the baby but even more about you ­– he felt so helpless because he basically couldn’t do anything but be there for you. If he could, he would make himself be the one who bears the pain instead of you.

On the way home after the checkup, you sat in the passenger seat and just silently stared at the road with your hand resting on top of your belly – subconsciously rubbing it sometimes – while thinking about the sudden news. Mason noticed how quiet you were, and as he drove he grabbed your hand to hold it tight.

“My dear, everything will be okay,” he said softly, “little peanut will be just fine. So will you.”

You sighed. “Maybe you’re right, but Mase...” Your voice was shaky, “I’m terrified. I really am...”

He took his eyes off the road for a second to glance at you, then kissed your hand and rubbed it with his thumbs repeatedly.

“I know, Y/N. But you’re the strongest person I’ve ever known and you’re going to get through this like the badass you are.” He assured you.

“And I will be with you the entire time and take care of you. I promise.” He added.

You smiled a little, still nervous but way less than before. You knew he was also worried yet he still gave you the comfort you needed. That is one of the things about Mason that made you fall in love with him in the first place.

“Also, picture how excited Gem will be when she finds out she’s going to meet her baby sibling soon!”

Before Mason even finished his sentence, the possible scenario was already playing in your head. You looked back to the time you and Mason broke the news to Gemma, your 4 year-old daughter – she screamed then cried out of happiness. She has been so excited to have a little sister or brother since and kept asking when will the baby be born. You could clearly imagine how she would react this time.

“Oh God,” you put your hand on your forehead and jokingly groaned, “she’s going to scream her ass off again isn’t she?”

He shook his head playfully and laughed. “Well that’s my daughter alright!”

—

During the surgery, Mason was sitting next to you the whole time, not wanting to let go of your hand. You were fully conscious since you had regional anesthesia, and to distract yourself from your anxious thoughts you and Mason chatted about the most random things – and it helped calming you down.

You both decided not to find out about your baby’s sex just like when you were pregnant with Gemma. Of course you two were curious, but you wanted to surprise yourselves. A boy or a girl, it doesn't really matter because you will love the baby regardless of the sex.

Suddenly, you both heard the sound of your baby’s cry. The doctor lifted them up so you two could see and excitedly announced, “Congratulations, it’s a girl!”

You and Mason had your mouths wide open and looked at each other immediately once you knew you had another daughter. She came to join your little family sooner than expected, but she was healthy and all your worry was gone in an instant. Mason kissed your forehead and your lips, then whispered to your ears, “Thank you baby, I’m so proud of you.”

The nurse then brought the baby to you so you could see her up close. She put her next to your face, and you could feel tears of happiness streaming down your face – the presence of your newborn girl warmed your heart.

“Hi baby girl,” you tearfully greeted your daughter, “welcome to the world! Mommy loves you so much.”

Mason watched that moment and he was left speechless. He couldn’t stop smiling and crying as he couldn’t find the words to describe the overwhelming joy and immense love he felt at the moment. He was still processing the fact that he had another girl to love for the rest of his life. As he wiped his tears, he quietly whimpered in awe, “she’s so precious… My little peanut.”

—

As you woke up from your nap post surgery, you could feel the anesthesia started to wear off. You moaned and pressed your lips together over the pain you felt on the incision area. You couldn’t really get up because when you tried to move even a little bit, it would hurt so bad. You looked around the hospital room you were in and you saw Mason sitting on the sofa near the window while holding your newborn daughter.

He didn’t take his eyes off of her even for a second, you could tell he was so in love. This reminded you of the day when Gemma was just born – once he held her in his arms, his eyes were locked on her.

You couldn’t stop staring at him as you found this moment so heartwarming and adorable. He then took a quick look at you and when he saw you were awake, a wide smile appeared on his face.

“Oh look, Mommy’s awake,” he said as he got off the sofa to come over to you, “how are you feeling sweetheart?”

“Uh… pain...” You muttered. “But don’t worry, I’m okay.”

“Oh no… I’m sorry, Y/N.” He knitted his eyebrows, the tone of his voice showed how worried he really was. “Tell me what I can do to help ease it. I’ll do anything to make you feel better.”

You smiled as his hand was stroking your arm.

“Thank you love,” you said to Mason, “but let’s just wait for the nurse. With you two here with me right now I can handle this pain.”

“By the way… Can you stop hogging my baby and hand her over to her mom?” You jokingly asked him.

“Oops, sorry!” He laughed while gently putting her on your side.

—

Few hours later, the nurse suggested you get out of bed and try walking around for a bit. Even though you were still experiencing discomfort, you gladly took her suggestion as you didn’t like laying in the bed for too long. Mason, who wasn’t fond of the idea, expressed his concern to the nurse.

“Ma’am, are you sure it’s okay? The wound on my wife’s stomach is still fresh… Isn’t it too soon?”

“Sir, I get your concern and I can guarantee you it is necessary as it is a part of the recovery. Moving around after the surgery helps the recovery process. Don’t need to worry, we’ll check in on you every so often. If you need anything, you can call us by pushing the button next to the bed.” The nurse explained to both of you in a calm manner.

Mason sighed in relief and nodded.

“Thank you,” you said to the nurse, “this is my first time going through a C-section and my husband and I have been very anxious about it. Not to mention this was unplanned so we didn’t exactly come prepared.”

“Understandable. It is normal to feel nervous, Ma’am. We are happy to help.” The nurse acknowledged your worries.

As soon as the nurse left the room, you tried to get out of bed and grimaced while one of your hands was on your wound area. Mason was getting you a glass of water when he saw you – fright was written all over his face immediately.

“Baby!” He spontaneously yelled as he rushed over to your side and helped you. out.

“Ssshh, Mase, I’m alright,” you put your arm around his neck and tried to soothe him, “just want to get up, that's all.”

“Don’t be so stubborn!” He was shaking a little – he felt a genuine fear. “My God, Y/N, you almost gave me a heart attack.”

“Oh please, don’t be a drama queen,” you couldn’t help but make fun of his reaction. “I said I’m alright, hahaha!”

He playfully rolled his eyes in response. You laughed at him and suddenly felt stabbing pain on your wound.

“Ouch!” You shouted. “Man, I can't even laugh without feeling pain!”

“Well, I’m glad you were amused but I guess no more comedy for a while for you, Mrs. Mount.” he said as he stroked your back.

Mason gently supported your body and carefully assisted you on taking your first steps post surgery. You squeezed your eyes, ground your teeth and winced as you were still experiencing the sharp pain – especially when you moved. Mason’s heart ached seeing you struggling like this, he felt guilty even but he knew nothing else he could do but support you throughout the recovery.

“Don’t rush it, sweetheart. It hasn’t been 12 hours after the surgery,” he emphasized. “Just take one little step at the time when you’re ready, okay?”

—

“Baby, Gem is coming here with my parents!” He excitedly shouted from across the room.

Your eyes widened and a squeal left your mouth when you heard that Gemma was coming. As you were in the hospital, Mason’s parents were taking care of her. You have been looking forward to the moment when your girls finally met. She had been impatiently waiting to be able to hold her baby sibling – she even practiced with her doll all the time. 

At this point you could stand up, walk, and sit down. The incision still hurt and discomfort came and went all the time but the painkiller was working well and the bliss of having a newborn was able to distract your mind from the pain. Mason had been so attentive to you and always ready to help you. He thought you needed a day to rest, therefore with your permission he respectfully asked everyone – except your parents and siblings – not to pay a visit at the hospital and wait until you all settled at your home instead. 

“Where is Gem now? Is she close? Are they here already?” You eagerly asked.

“I don’t know,” he answered, “I’ll call my mum.”

And before he even pressed call, Debbie texted him to let him know they just arrived at the hospital. He was beaming when he saw the text, and passed the news to you.

“They’re here! I’ll go get them,” he said as he kissed your forehead and got out to pick them up.

Trying not to hurt yourself, you didn’t act too excited on the outside but you sure were within. Sitting down on your bed, you pulled the baby crib closer and carefully picked her up.

“Hey little angel,” you whispered softly into her tiny ear, “you’re about to meet your big sister. She’s been waiting for you… You’re going to love her as much as she loves you.”

She made a slight smile and you noticed that. You chuckled, you thought it was like she was also excited to meet Gemma. You gave little kisses all over her cute face, and as you did that you could feel how you were completely filled with great love and glee – one more girl has stolen your heart. 

Suddenly, you heard the door was opened, followed by a little giggle you love so much. Your heart was beating really fast – it was going to be one of the biggest moments in your life – you didn’t know if you could handle your emotions when it happened.

You saw Gemma walking in with one hand holding her dad’s and the other covering her mouth. She looked so eager to finally see her baby sibling – she didn’t know it was a girl beforehand – and you wanted to see how she reacted when she found out she had a sister. Behind them were Debbie and Tony, and Debbie had already started recording with Mason’s phone. Gemma then saw you and excitedly yelled, “Mommy!”

You giggled and waved at her in response. 

“Do you want to sit next to Mommy and baby peanut, Gem?” Mason gently asked her.

“Yes Daddy! I want to see my baby peanut now!” She responded impatiently.

Mason picked her up and sat her down next to you. When she saw her sister up close, she squealed and said “Wow, baby peanut is so small and cute!”

You introduced your firstborn to your newborn.

“Gemma, meet Iris…”

She gasped and looked at both you and Mason in disbelief.

“You have a sister, Gem!” Mason cheered.

Gemma was so happy to have a sister and she started to cry. You might have pictured this beautiful moment in your head before but what really happened was a lot better than you had imagined. It was quite overwhelming to see how emotional she was and you eventually cried as well. Mason was really touched, almost shed a tear when he saw how you and Gemma were crying. He immediately grabbed some tissues from his pocket – he was aware this was going to happen – to wipe the tears off his girls’ faces.

“Mommy… Can I hold Iris?” Gemma nervously asked, her big brown eyes were still watery but you could see the sparkles of joy in them.

“Of course, sweetie.”

You carefully handed Iris onto Gemma’s lap, teaching her how to support Iris’ little body. She was so gentle and cautious, uneasy at first as if she was afraid to hurt Iris. Mason tried to ease her since he got how nervous Gemma was – he kissed the top of her head over and over again while assuring her that she was doing fine holding her sister – and it worked out even though it took a while.

Finally feeling comfortable, Gemma gently let go of one of her hands and started caressing Iris’ cheeks. Her eyes were locked in just like his dad earlier, and you just knew she was so deeply in love with her little sister. 

“She’s so beautiful, isn’t she, Gem?” Mason was beaming in awe and Gemma nodded in agreement.

Both Gemma and Mason showered Iris with kisses. The immense amount of love Iris was getting made your heart soar. You looked at your husband and your girls and thought to yourself: how did I get so lucky?

Mason then gave you a quick but passionate kiss on your lips. He looked deeply into your eyes and expressed his gratitude and appreciation for you.

“Y/N, the way you had to bear the pain to bring me two amazing kids to our life is unbelievable. You are the most incredible woman and I can never thank you enough for everything you’ve done for me, for us… I’m so lucky to have you as my wife and the mother of our girls. I will always try to make you happy, feel loved and give you everything you need and deserve because you have given me the life I’ve always dreamed of…”

You had no words and were about to cry again. You pulled him closer and pressed your lips against his – it was a moment full of tenderness and sweet affection. As your lips parted, you two whispered “I love you” to one another.

Debbie – who was still recording – and Tony were also emotional although they were trying to keep themselves together because they thought they didn’t want to ruin the beautiful moment between your little family. You then asked the grandparents to come see the newest addition to the Mount family.

“Iris Mount… Such a beautiful name, Y/N!” Tony complimented.

“That’s perfect for her! Thank you, Y/N, for giving us wonderful grandkids!” Debbie chimed in and gave you a hug.

“Uh, Mum… I contributed too, you know. Why don’t I get a thank-you? ” Mason jokingly protested.

“Yes but you weren’t the one who carried them for months and gave birth, were you?” Debbie lightheartedly replied.

You chuckled at their banter – you held yourself back from laughing as usual because it would hurt you.

With his mother clearly winning the argument, Mason humorously backed out, pouted then stated his closing statement.

“That’s true. But Y/N and I do make the most beautiful babies.”

Debbie and Tony couldn’t help but laugh at his comeback.

—

Yes, he might not be the one who was pregnant and given birth, but he has always been an amazing and present father to Gemma. No matter how tight his schedule could be, he would always make time for her daughter. He might have missed a few milestones that happened unexpectedly but other than those he never wanted to miss out so much on his daughter’s life. When he was out of town for away games, he always asked for daily updates on Gemma and called you on Facetime in every chance he got.

Mason is an ultimate girl dad and takes great pride in it. He would dress up as princess wearing a tiara and Gemma’s little dress that barely fits him and have a tea party with her, buy a makeup set she asked for, and sometimes he would show up at training wearing a headband with the biggest bow on his head because Gemma put it on him before he left. He always said he loves being a girl dad and would do it all over again – now he really gets to do it all over again…

—

taglist: @pulisicsgirl @neverinadream @masonspulisic @swimmingismywholelife @chelseagirl98 @bracedes @lovelynikol16 @thoseboysinblue @lizzypotter14 @mortirolo @masonsrem

[gren-arlio]

This is what the people wanted. You ask, I'll try my best to give. Welcome to Episode 15 of Waku Puyo Extras, Super Schezo Edition. I've been waiting for this.

(I saved this for this exact moment.)

Hey guys, Gren here, and welcome to Episode 15 of Waku Puyo Extras, this time a pinned edition for the time being. A post this long deserves some limelight, you know? This took me so, SO many months to write...

If you want the Google Doc version of this (Has more photos), you can find it here.

And here:

I've been doing this stuff for about a year now, and the poll from about...August of 2024... told me to do this exact thing, and thus, I'll do this exact thing: Schezo and his many, MANY friendships throughout the entire series. My apologies for such a long wait, not only is this post pretty long... I kinda began college as well, so I have less time on my hands than usual, but alas. I post like one to three times a month anyways. I should change that someday. This is far and away my longest project ever.

This entire thing will cover Schezo's friendships and encounters throughout the series, and I do want to mention his meaningful friendships, people who can properly interact with the guy and talk to, and actually have stuff to TALK about, while also mentioning some characters that have moments with him, while not exactly having a big dynamic. Imagine this as both looking back at history and me explaining what I think about it.

Oh, and don't treat my words as absolute. This is a guy merely mentioning stuff he knows about and whatnot. I'm not the Be All End All. As well, this stuff also has my personal opinion in it. If my opinion of a character clashes with yours, I'm sorry.

Also, and this'll become more apparent throughout the work itself, I CANNOT COVER EVERY GAME AND POSSIBLE INTERACTION. Not only will that absolutely execute me, but not every interaction is meaningful or has something funny to it. I'm sorry to the Puyo Puyo Chronicle fans that realize that their game isn't talked about as much as… let's say Puyo Puyo Tetris 2, but going through everything will be a herculean task I won't be able to do. My apologies. As well, there could be a mistake here and there, there’s so much to cover that I’m bound to flub something up. Human nature, after all.

This also covers Puzzle Pop, so major spoilers for that.

With that, I hope you enjoy. This is...a super long post. This is for sure gonna be pinned until I finish Arle's Route. Jesus Christ, this took...too many months. Blame college, finals, and a whooooooole lot of essay writing.

Dear God, why did I do this, he's like my 5th favorite character, lmao

---- So where do we begin with the guy?

Amazing question. Honestly, for those who ain't gonna read the entire thing, and I don't blame you, there's going to be so much stuff to read that you'd probably die from boredom, but here's some characters that'll be covered throughout this entire post:

This'll be broken down into sections, since there's going to be many, MANY characters covered (Much to my hands dismay of typing all of this), so I'm going to sorta make a table of contents for this stuff. I'll try to keep this clean. No promises though.

And I'll just mention here, I know I write a lot about Waku Puyo, but all of this post will be about the games as a whole, not JUST Waku Puyo, so...heads up on that.

Well, Here's a table of contents for people who want to see a specific dynamic (or what's in store) :

Compile Characters:

Arle & Carbuncle

Rulue (And Minotauros by proxy)

Satan (Woah, the ARS...)

Lagnus Bisashi

Witch

Draco

Serilly

The Kikimora's

Suketoudara

Honey Bee (Mostly a manga thing.)

Incubus/Succubus

Skeleton-T

Doppelganger Schezo (Waku Puyo spoilers but like... it's a 26 year old Japanese exclusive game.)

Runelord

SEGA Characters:

Ringo And Ecolo

Amitie

Klug and Sig

Lemres

Now...that's a lot of characters, isn't it? About 20 or so named ones that are relevant to this, not including miscellaneous stuff. Just letting you know once again, I CANNOT COVER EVERYTHING. There's way too much. As well, each entry will cover as many notable interactions they had throughout the series, and then at the end of each entry, covering any differences throughout, and I’ll explain what I think each dynamic is as a whole at the end, and what I personally think of their dynamic. There’s a lot to cover, but this thing is already going to be long enough. But I think a good place to start is the man himself.

Who IS Schezo Wegey?

(Ah. This guy.)

Schezo, someone who's written to be sometimes a joke, sometimes serious, whatever it is, it attracts people. What can I say about this guy that probably hasn't already been said? Probably not much, but I can sure as hell recant stuff.

The guy's a gifted person, no doubt about that. In most terms of the word, he's a prodigy at what he does, a talented mage who usually knows what he's doing with his magic. However, most people know him for his major slip ups in wording, his innuendos are basically his legacy at this point. From the simple eras of "I want you!" to whatever in the world he's saying to people in Puzzle Pop, it's what people know him for inside and outside the community. I mean, do we need to mention how we was in Puyo Puyo Tetris?

This was probably most of our introduction to the guy, and it for sure left a mark on most of us. Sure as hell did for me. Now look at me, writing this because people asked.

Besides that, he's quite the loner, preferring to be by himself rather than being with a group of people, though he's not against talking to people. How else would he have friends? He does strive to become stronger, though back then, he used to do it by just taking other people's magic and tries to take Arle's all the time, but alas, nowadays he just sorta trains, which I thinks alludes to the point that he's trying to make his own power for the most part.

He's usually blunt, being pretty serious about most things he talks about. I mean, most of the time people run into the guy, he's doing his own thing and asks what in the WORLD do they want from him now, which can lead into teasing from close friends. Though usually, he's not opposed to working with others if the cause is big enough. Think wanting to beat up Satan with Arle in Puyo 20th Anniversary, or working with Arle in Puyo Puyo Tetris 1 and 2. Or if you want to go even further back, when him, Arle, and Rulue team up against the Phantom God in Chaotic Final Exam. Granted that ended with him making a realm by himself and then him getting zapped by something, get called presumed dead, and then we're told he was just sent to the start of the dungeon with no memory of the current events...so I'd say the threat was pretty big, yeah.

I say usually because Madou Saturn continues to be the odd one out. He's lazy, doesn't want to help people, and is more of a legit pervert who sometimes messes up his words than... a man who messes up his words all the time, but has a totally well-mannered meaning...for the most part. He does get better at the last third of the game though, when he DOES properly join you.

Despite all this apparently aloofness and whatnot, I think he's by a good margin the most bullied and teased dude in the entire series, probably next to Satan. With everything mentioned + his pretty mixed wording when he gets excited, it becomes stupid easy to tease him. Arle and Rulue do it on an almost weekly basis, Witch follows in his steps in some games (and we're told to think she might be more serious about what she's saying than Schezo,) Satan and him insult each other all the time, list goes on. Despite the demeanor, the dude is very likely to get bullied. And do I even need to mention how ANYONE and EVERYONE can/will call him a pervert? He really can't catch a break no matter how hard he really tries.

But as we know, he's not just a blunt man who fumbles his wording every so often. As history has shown us, he loves cute animals as a whole. Tenori Zoh in Madou Monogatari: Tower of the Magician (TOTM), Onion Pixie and Dongurigaeru from SEGA Puyo are three examples. Even powerful people can't resist cute creatures.

Schezo is a character that’s best for getting beaten down, or somehow having the odds stacked against him, yet still persists through. Yeah, he’s seen as a joke to most of his friends and rivals, but there’s no joking matter when it comes to his skills and talents. He’s already strong on his own, yet even then, while trying to get others' powers to fuel his own, he’s already quite talented. It’s just that in Puyo, that… won’t exactly get you far.

Now with all of that info...Lets talk about his friendships and interactions with others. You may have noticed that I didn't bring up the games much, and that's due to all of that going into these entries. Trust me, it'll make sense later. Now, we start with...

Arle & Carbuncle:

(The benefits of this stuff being based off, what, 30 years of history? I can use many-a-photos from different eras.)

The protagonist of Compile, the main face of the series, what other things do I really need to describe Arle? Probably a whole lot more, but we don't have to worry about all of that, we're talking FRIENDSHIPS here, folks. Dynamics, if you will.

On Arle's end, she's an energetic gal who's always up for an adventure, but also just gets thrown into a lot of stuff just because said adventure is always going to end and be something wild. She always has that darn Carbuncle guy around her at all times, too. Witty, sarcastic at times, jokes around a bit, honestly I like her character. She's probably my favorite of the A girls, then it's probably Ringo. Despite what I've stated, yes, she does in fact have friends, and is a pretty kind person overall. She's willing to help someone if they really need it, but oftentimes she's seen as a more whimsical and carefree person than anything. Modern games tend to make her more of a straight-man to the cast than usual, often being the voice of reason compared to most of the lunatics in the series, Schezo being no different, but much less insane. Doesn't mean she herself isn't silly, far from it.

It's pretty clear from throughout the games that...it differs quite a bit, but there's underlying elements that stay the same. Stuff like Schezo wanting to take Arle's latent magical abilities, Arle teasing Schezo over his fumbles, that sorta stuff, that's been consistent for like 20 years at this point. However, the interactions they have throughout the series at least demonstrate that they're good friends. He cares for Arle, he just doesn't want to say it. However, modern games has Schezo just wanting some peace and quiet in his life, and Arle oftentimes just running into him by chance at this point. They're willing to work together too if the job demands it. Here, he proves that he's actually a pretty smart guy.

With Carbuncle... He's a very jolly fellow. As for being the original pet of Satan that's now gone to Arle, Carbuncle kinda just brings along some sorta hijinks due to the amount of random circumstances. And with Schezo hating Satan and trying to get Arle's magic... I mean, my point should stand, right?

COMPILE:

We can skip over Madou 2 for the most part, since there's not exactly much to cover besides it being the originator of Schezo being called a pervert, as well as his famous PC98 decapitation screen (Which is treated more like a gag than anything. PC98 was odd.)

However, he WAS still a villain in a way for Madou 2. I will say that. But we can instead talk about games that I DO have knowledge in, as well as how the dynamics are. Starting with...Madou Saturn.

Now, some of us know that Schezo's writing in the game ranges from genuinely great to some of the worst we've seen. IMO, he's alright, some parts don't make sense, but others work just fine. I enjoy the aspect of him being sorta a gray ground for most of the game, before turning to your side when there's absolutely no other choice, it's nice that he does that. And in this game, Arle does try to go to Schezo for help, since...you know, the world is kinda in the midst of danger because of course it is, and Schezo just kinda declines it all. He sees it all as a waste of time, something he shouldn't be concerning himself over for a majority of the game.

The acts of heroicness she sometimes sees him do, or giving tips/advice to Arle, isn't even Schezo himself doing it for the most part, if any part, but rather Lagnus taking control of his body for limited periods of time. Since he's a pure dark mage and Lagnus can only withstand his magic for so long. So his acts of goodness is from a completely different person who's controlling his body, but Arle still sees it as Schezo being odd for quite a good bit of the game.

(And even then, he still doesn't care as much as Arle, Rulue, and Lagnus does. Or at the very least, doesn't care/know much about how bad it can truly be.)

He only learns to give a damn after he realizes that maybe this Yoggus thing WILL end the world as he knows it, and maybe he should actually help Arle, Rulue, and Lagnus (Who we'll get to later). He's selfish, leaving problems to be solved by other people because simply put, why should he care? It doesn't concern him. It's not his problem. He only grows to care because he realizes that it COULD affect him, and then he finally decides to help. He doesn't care much, if at all about Arle, and Arle kinda just sees him as a jerk who's willing to help when it's needed, but is happy when he finally caves in. Though she WAS confused throughout due to Lagnus shenanigans, so there's that.

But that's just one real outing of the guy. He's not always going to be like this. Lets be real, there's many, MANY other games where he's notable or at least is vastly different compared to this game. In Puyo SUN, while they don't work together, they do have a common goal: Stop Satan's hooliganry with the sun because it's NOT going well for everyone else, have you seen the horrors that Draco had to go through? Sure, Arle and Schezo still fight, but at least they had a common goal. In Arle's Travel Log, he takes the role of the leader of the Shinsengumi, you can read up on it here. (Made by yours truly.) In Game Gear Madou, he keeps appearing more and more tired before he just falls down and collapses. He's willing to help when the time comes down to it like in Saturn/Chaotic Final Exam. So he's not ALL gloom and doom.

Here's Waku Puyo:

How about we look at the game I always talk about? Waku Waku Puyo Puyo Dungeon, a game that...well, if you follow me around, probably know. Arle and Schezo are there for different reasons; Arle to just play around and have fun, Schezo to regain his lost magic after the Space-Time Crystal took almost all of it to become Doppelganger Schezo. Their first interaction, before the game even starts, has Schezo wondering why she's even here, while Arle merely asks why he's going alone. They're there for different reasons, yet somehow met up in this amusement park. Schezo briefly mentions the fact that if you do all the attractions, you'll get a "Great Magical Item", before simply leaving Arle be and entering the park.

A majority of the time Schezo meets Arle, there's no real animosity with them, with more or less the banter we expect from them, what with Arle teasing him for small stuff, and Schezo getting upset at it because he finds it annoying. Or even just some silly stuff. A notable example is when Schezo sees Arle, and goes deep into thought about why he always has trouble with women, realizing why he has this trouble, says he's ready to take Arle's magic, and BAM. Carbuncle shoots him with a beam, shocking Arle. Stuff like that happens in this game.

When the Ultimate Tower is finally rises after collecting every orb (as well as doing every single route and completing the Satan boss fight...Yikes.), there's quite a good amount of dialog to go around with many of the Compile cast I plan to cover, but Arle's proves to be an interesting one. They run into each other once again, but Arle is still clueless about what exactly Schezo is looking for. He tries to explain but stops himself midway through, and Arle calls it out and asks why. Agitated, Schezo merely leaves, realizing he doesn't want to waste time.

But the second talk is much more interesting. Schezo asks Arle why she even WANTS the treasure, and she replies by saying: "I'm not here for the treasure, I'm just here to have fun." And this...really annoys Schezo, even more so when she jokingly says that maybe she'll search as well. He coldly tells her that he doesn't care for her anymore, and now ARLE is annoyed at Schezo, saying something's been off about him the entire time.

Schezo, annoyed as well, mentions that he's here to find his lost self (the magic), and doesn't need to be nagged by a girl who's merely here to have fun and play around. Both annoyed, she leaves, calling Schezo a massive jerk, before Schezo realizes that he came off as harsh. Alone, he apologies to Arle, trying to say something, but realizing it's fruitless. The end of the game, after PuyoPuyo Land literally BLOWS UP due to Doppelganger Schezo, Schezo seemingly is relived that Arle and the others are okay, and Arle says that he's not really a pervert. Just a...really, really weird guy who blew up the park that she wanted to play around in more. After Schezo calls Carbuncle annoying after arguing with Rulue AND Satan, all three of them chase the guy down after he says he has no time to deal with stuff like this, shouting what's going on in pure confusion.

Here, he doesn't hate Arle, merely finding her a little annoying at times. He has enough empathy to care about how she feels near the end of the game, at least after he yells at her for just being there to play. Arle on the other hand...is here to play, and gets annoyed when Schezo blows up the entire park. But she doesn't HATE him, rather just seeing him as odd. This is even reflected upon in Arle's route (Which as of writing this, I've yet to finish writing up.) where Arle merely sees Schezo as odd, wondering why he's even at Waku Waku Puyo Puyo Land, though jokes about the fact that he might be there to pick up women.

SEGA Era:

Now that we finally reached the SEGA era after...god knows how many paragraphs of info (And a whole lot more that I'm missing, Yon, BOX...I'm just trying to include stuff that has a lot to cover).

A good place to begin would be, well, 15th Anniversary, where they finally see each other again after god knows how long. I am skipping Minna because...it's just kinda Arle being a douche to Schezo. But 15th is just a reunion for the guys, since he was absent from the Fever games and she made it in. And truth be told, in Arle's route at least she's happy to see him, even IF it's Schezo. She even asks him to repeat his classic "I want you" line for old times sake. It's kinda just...nice.

Lets just say in Schezo's story, "Cafe Au Lait" really is a delicacy.

(I love how so many of the image quality range from pretty decent to abysmal. Welcome to Tumblr.)

Fast forward to 20th Anniversary, the dynamic is more or less back to what it was beforehand. No real animosity, just teasing on Arle end. much to Schezo's annoyance. They do sort of team up to figure out what Satan's up to in both their routes and in the final story, once again showing that level of trust towards each other underneath the bickering. This sorta stuff continues throughout most of the other games; Puyo Puyo Tetris 1 has them team up to help save Rulue, and even tells her that Satan isn't even the enemy this time. Sure, she doesn't believe him at first, but he's pretty confident in his assumption and is right on it too.

Schezo also appears again as an illusion during some training arc for the A Girls and Tetra crew, alongside Satan and Rulue as well. Here, Schezo says that they're basically rivals, and beats Satan and Rulue in Rock Paper Scissors, truly rocking their world. Just a fun little convo.

Puyo Tetris 2 does the same thing but adds so much more to the dynamic, it's very fun. Schezo meets Arle and realizes that Schezo himself is just... well, himself, rather than possessed like everyone else. With the classic banter and Schezo telling people he's legit trying to get better at wording, he accompanies Arle throughout a bit of the story. After saving Witch, he tells her that he did in fact meet Marle, and that she was strong, but he was stronger, yet felt like she held back. She probably did. He even continues to accompany her since Marle is doing something awful: Ruining his quiet time.

Even when encountering Rulue, he maintains an air of respect, which is insane. And when the entire team has to do some sorta challenges before meeting Squares, Schezo and Arle have to fight again for said challenge, with Schezo adamantly saying they're rivals and Arle... saying otherwise, much to his shock and sadness. Progress. Finally.

God, Tetris 2 was such a good step in the right direction...

Puzzle Pop also helps with their dynamic so much more. Arle runs into Schezo while everyone is in the Dream World created by Meena, and while talking, Schezo was able to deduce a good amount of the story: Someone for sure asked for some power by another person, but because of said power, nobody is really able to leave either, surprising Arle, as she forgot he can legit be really smart and catch onto things easily. He’s even doing better on catching HIMSELF from his innuendos. She also accuses him of being someone else, as per the plot of the game, but he’s the real deal, and decides to tag along with her since he can help.

While wondering who could be the culprit of this whole dream world nonsense, they have an idea of who it could be… Rulue. Kinda. Schezo devises the Rulue Finding Plan, and makes Arle say some embarrassing nonsense about Satan for her to appear instantly. The oldest tricks in the books never fail anyone.

After ALL of that, Schezo wonders something that Arle feared: What if Carbuncle himself is the culprit of all of this? Now it’s just a theory for Schezo, but it never hurts to wonder and ask. And Arle does the investigation herself into if Carby is guilty or not, and jury comes out… and he’s innocent.

They even run into Ecolo for this thing… but I’ll save that up for Ecolo himself. After some things I’ll mention in that part of this entire thing, Arle says he’s not the culprit, but he is in a way, and after everything, Schezo heads off on his own accord, mostly to get intel on his own and he doesn’t like groups. Which Arle is fine with, and even knows he’ll be OK.

Carbuncle Section:

As Arle is always seen with Carbuncle, while there's not too much to discuss, I do want to mention that Schezo sometimes takes curiosity in Carbuncle, or Carbuncle decides to act silly and goofy and completely ruin or question his day overall. What do I mean by this, I hear you ask?

Well this is the only time I'll really mention it, the Puyo SUN shorts had a funny little thing between them. Schezo falls asleep because he's just one tired guy, and when he wakes up, he can't exactly find his sword, and looks all over for it. Arle walks on by and wonders what Schezo is looking for, and he makes an excuse to run away. Arle looks at Carbuncle, and while she's brushing it off, she sees the Dark Sword shaped object inside of Carbuncle, and is understandably confused.

And another funny little instance is Carbuncle just casually shooting a laser at Schezo in Waku Puyo. In one interaction, Schezo wonders what's wrong with everything whenever he's around, and sees Arle minding her business, and comes to the conclusion... His problem is Women. But he's still gonna try and take her power because of course he is. And when he tries... well, Carbuncle blasts a laser at him, basically taking him out of commission. Arle tells Carby off for that, though 2nd guesses herself because... well, it's Schezo. I like that this creature ruins Schezo's day in two different occasions.

In 20th Anniversary and even Puzzle Pop, it's less Carbuncle being up to some silly nonsense and more... Schezo wondering why he and Arle aren't together. They're always together, so them being distant makes Schezo somewhat concerned for Arle's safety, though despite that, he tends to think Arle is alright because... It's Arle, she usually is.

So, what's the TLDR? Basically, they ARE good friends in Puyo, just more of a case of "Friends who show their friendship via insulting each other" sorta look. They'll never say they care for each other, but their actions do indeed prove it. In Madou, it's a mixed bag. Sometimes they're allies for the same cause (mostly if Schezo HAS to do something), or they just DESPISE each other just because. Nothing really in the middle unless it's something like Waku Puyo, SUN, Yon, that sorta deal.

The dynamic throughout the Compile changes so much yet stays similar at it's core that it's honestly impressive to see. Take Madou Saturn, where Arle doesn't really like Schezo and vice versa, but she still goes to him for help, even if it's because of Lagnus. But in Waku Puyo, she doesn't mind the guy because of a partial mutual respect for each other. Yet in both times, it's still very similar to most of their dynamics in general. I like it at times, and hate it others mostly because there's times where Schezo is just...really unreasonable or annoying for no good reason.

SEGA Puyo is a whole different can of worms and I love it for that. They're willing to go beyond the fact that they're friends, and are willing to help out if the time is needed, showing legit concern for their friends and helping them out if needed. He's sincere enough to accompany Arle throughout part of the story, and while there's a one-sided rivalry like usual, it's not the focal point, and GOD I love that. Hell, he cares for her a lot deep down, take the Drama CD where she begins to lose her memories, and Schezo is genuinely concerned. However, Puzzle Pop probably has my favorite dynamic of them in current time, as they can actually work together very well, and bounce off of each other’s personality pretty easily. It’s genuinely amazing how well they do together.

With Carbuncle? It’s mostly just that dude confusing the hell outta Schezo, and Schezo taking Carbuncle being alone as an ominous sign that Arle is absolutely somewhere else, or at the very least, close by. There’s not… that much for us to discuss between these two.

----

Rulue (And Minotauros IG):

(It never hit me how often this pose was used back then.)

As we finally wrap up Arle's stuff, (Fun fact! That took a month to write because of college) we walk right into another woman Schezo finds himself around quite often that has...a lot to cover. I'm truly living the dream here. The R of the ARS, she also has quite a good bit to cover considering she was also a protag for quite a while... until, ya know, she got sidelined pretty badly. But alas, what can we do?

Rulue herself is a headstrong person, confident in her own abilities, to the point of possible arrogance. She's always trying to one-up Arle, and be better than her because she REALLY loves Satan, who likes Arle in a nostalgic sense rather than a romantical sense. She's no slouch though, she's known as the Fighting Queen for a reason, and consistently holds her own against people like Arle and Schezo, and even then, she and Schezo train.

Lets start with the basics: They respect each other in terms of power, and are at times pretty friendly to each other, but man they argue a lot. And I mean a lot. Waku Puyo, they argue about any menial thing while Minotauros is there for the ride, Puyo SUN, Schezo gets mad at the insinuation of Rulue saying he likes men, 15th Anniversary they argue about Satan, Puyo Tetris 1 they argue about Satan, Madou Saturn, they argue about Schezo being super unhelpful and lazy about the situation, need I go on? Most of it IS Satan related, though. It's a duality of man moment, Schezo's been hating this dudes guts for God knows how long, and Rulue has been loving Satan for...well, God knows how long. Schezo doesn't understand the appeal of Satan (Neither do I) and Rulue thinks the exact opposite, remember the PPT1 cutscene where she just RAMBLES about him?

Good times. I remember seeing this cutscene for the very first time and it cemented my thought of the PPT Dub being STUPID good.

It's not always this, however. A good friendship may be signified about the dumb arguments you can get into, but the moments where you do in fact get along. They train with each other in the light novels, Schezo doesn't really have any ill will against Rulue besides the whole Satan thing, the whole reason why the scene even occurs is because Arle mentions that Rulue has been acting super odd and blames Satan, and Schezo basically goes "Well damn. Satan isn't the issue, but this woman sure is." and goes to help her out. There's an element of kindness in there hidden between the 10 Satan arguments. Trust me, I'll explain more in later sections.

I kind of went over Schezo's actions during the Arle section in Madou Saturn, and well, Rulue sorta feels the same way as Arle about the whole thing, just add on a few insults here and there and a lot of "Man he's annoying" into the mix, and boom, you have their dynamic during that entire game.

COMPILE:

This section itself will be fairly smaller compared to others because despite being the R and the S of the team, there's not too many moments of them working together or talking much in a relevant manner. Things like that matter, y'see. If I wanted to mention something like Madou Sugoroku (Do they even interact in that game?) they have to have at least a relevant or interesting conversation, which sadly isn't the case sometimes.

However, it's not all gloom and doom at the very least, because by then I talk a bit more about Madou Saturn, since Rulue actually plays a key part in the game, being one of the protags after all. To get into the cow meat and bones of this, she hates Schezo. REALLY hates Schezo in this game. Since he never wants to help people out, let alone the two girls who cause him the most annoy the absolute hell out of him, there's a good reason why he never wants to do anything with them in the game at least. However, when the Yogs start invading and people are getting possessed, this man DOES NOT care at all, and just finds everything to be annoying as all hell.

I'm happy to say he at least tries to turn over a new leaf near the tail end of the game. However, truth be told, he doesn't really want to help, but since it could result in their world going buh-bye, he kinda doesn't have much of a choice. And even THEN, Rulue doesn't like this guy at all. And neither does most of the community. The dynamic here... if I can call it one, is one of malice and hatred tbh, they don't really respect each other, and will take any opportunity to insult and bring each other down, and then Arle and Lagnus have to pick up the mess. Well, mostly the mess Schezo makes everywhere he goes.

And with that, we gotta mention ooooone other thing before we got into Waku Puyo. SUN. It's a fairly short thing to note but we may as well, since it's a little funny. In Schezo's storyline, they do run into each other when Rulue is sunbathing and Schezo is out to get Satan for his misdeeds. Rulue mentions why he's not into her, and Schezo states that he doesn't really care about that sorta things. This in turn, makes Rulue think he doesn't like women, but rather...something else, much to Schezo's anger and clearing up the misunderstanding. Just a funny little moment in the mainline series.

Waku Puyo :

You're gonna hear this game quite a lot because well...it's what I cover most of the time, really. My bad, bros. As of the time of writing this, I haven't gotten anywhere near Rulue's story (Yeah Arle's story...has been on hiatus for quite some time now, thanks college...) but we do have interactions with them during Schezo's story. And well, it's more or less the same.

Rulue is there to get the prize for being every attraction, Schezo is there to reclaim his lost powers. Once they see each other, it's almost on sight, as they start insulting each other, making Rulue call Minotauros to beat Schezo, and he retreats. This happens I believe two to three times. This is one of those games where they just HATE each other, seemingly, no ounce of respect in sight. Even near the end of the game, Rulue doesn't really pay much mind to the guy UNTIL the park gets blown up, and as such, gets mad at him for ruining her chances of getting magic to beat Arle.

Oh yea Mino too:

However, we CAN talk about what happens when Minotauros is around. In all seriousness, Schezo at the very start doesn't like him as much as he doesn't like Rulue, calling him all sorts of insults throughout his journey. However, late into the game, Schezo feels pity for the guy not because they get along, but because Minotauros is a victim of workplace abuse from Rulue. He still insults Mino, but he does indeed feel bad/pity for the dude. Shame they basically never interact again after this game. And I'd feel bad too if I had to be the worker of Rulue and she treated me like that. OSHA would have a field day with her.

Their dynamic can best be described as “Orders are orders and you’re insulting my boss”, sorta deal. Minotauros is just doing his job, and when Rulue tells him to attack, he attacks. It’s kinda as simple as that.

SEGA Era:

As Mino fades into dust during current times (We'll see him again, hopefully), Rulue and Schezo still very much bicker and argue as much as they used to. Thankfully, with an undertone of respect rather than just seemingly pure spite. As stated prior, they do interact in Rulue's story in 20th Anniversary, and while I think Schezo's isn't anything overly noteworthy, I do want to note Rulue's side of things.

This is where some of the respect comes from, besides 15th Anniversary where Schezo oddly wishes Rulue good luck on her Satan endeavors. Here, Schezo does note that in a world of magic, Rulue can absolutely hold her own with just martial arts, but he too would be scared as hell to deal with her the way Satan does. Sure, she gets livid at the statement, but he was trying to be at least a LITTLE respectful to her.

(Granted, this IS the DS translation and this is as high quality as it'll go [480p], but I just prefer the line so much more than the Wii one. And I just sorta prefer DS 20th compared to Wii 20th. The Wii one says "I, too, would be terrified to meddle with someone like that." btw.)

As we already mentioned PPT, PPT2 had them at least interact a little more in general, as the game actually had solid writing compared to the last two games. While it's not too much, Schezo does point out that Rulue might actually just be being herself for once, and explains off screen what the situation's about, adding on that Satan might know a thing or two (Spoiler: He does), and Rulue is already on board with the idea of getting him. Schezo, not even shocked that the word Satan triggered neurons in her brain, continues to help Arle track down Marle.

And in the side chapters, Schezo laments about training, as he felt like he could've been stronger before this entire ordeal. Rulue shares the sentiment, and they both spar just to get better. Schezo wins this spar because we're playing as him, and Rulue says she can do this all day, no Captain America, but Schezo says there's better things to do now at the moment and dips, leaving her a bit frustrated if anything.

Puzzle Pop sort of has them talking to each other once more, even if it’s because Arle and Schezo tag along in Arle’s story as mentioned prior. However, he also appears in Rulue’s storyline, where long story short, she’s trying to find her beloved Satan, while also somewhat trying to figure out what’s going on. Running into Schezo, she seriously sticks to the bit of loving Satan a lot, while also annoying Schezo to no end, and after asking what he wants in romance, he replies with “Considerable, muscular strength.” when he really means powerful people. He doesn’t care about romance, really. After Rulue says they can’t be compatible, Schezo just asks her for a battle, and loses. Rulue rubs it in, saying that beating him wouldn’t really lead to anything, and runs off, leaving Schezo not only with a loss, but realizing he lost to a girl who’s too into the bit.

What I do like about SEGA compared to Compile is their willingness to actually make advancements to the dynamic these two have. Magical vs Physical is a tale as old as time, and these two have been bickering for quite some time now, but it's honestly great to see that they do in fact get along. Tetris 2 and Puzzle Pop were major steps in the right direction, and it’s a pleasure to see, I like when my characters have more than one gimmick to their interactions. Coming from the guy who goes through Waku Puyo Dungeon a lot, it's very much the opposite there. So seeing them respect each other in THIS day and age? We love to see it.

-----

Satan:

(You know, this has been an amazing amalgamation of images throughout the series.)

The two biggest haters towards each other, you love to see it. Satan has always been a character I've had mixed feelings on, but never truly hated. I like the guy, so don't get it twisted at all. The mutual hatred between these two can't be understated, I think they've been opps longer than some of us (Myself included) have been alive, it's next level. I think there's been a whole four instances where they worked together.

Let's quickly talk about Satan himself. He's the biggest guyfail in the world to say the very least. He's powerful, probably the strongest character in the series, and always has ways to create things and places just because he can. PuyoPuyo Land, The dimension thing in PPT1, Moving the DAMN SUN, stuff like that he's able to do just because. However, instead of being a textbook evil guy, he just wants the attention of Arle and Carbuncle. And because of that, not only are they always at odds, but so is Schezo.

Both want something from Arle; Schezo wants her power to become stronger (at least back then), Satan wants her to be his fiancé back then, or take Carbuncle, or just doing it for the love of the game, there's several interpretations of it. But there's always one thing in common: They HATE each other.

COMPILE:

No, Waku Puyo won't get its own section.

The Compile stuff isn't exactly as deep as some people want it or make it out to be, sadly. This series was never about being super in depth and whatnot, but we still try anyways because we love the series that much. The beef has been generational, to say the least. Hating someone from the day you met them is a sort of talent I need in my life.

Now, why do they hate each other so much? Amazing question, it's because of Arle. They both want her for something and that goes against each others ideals, and boom, beef. Just add on that Satan is a cheeky bastard and Schezo hates the idea that Satan is a thing, and bam, you have generational hate right there.

Now, lets take Puyo SUN, I've mentioned this funny little game a few times already, more than I ever have in this entire blog alone. Fascinating, innit? Satan enlarges the sun and brings it closer, and while this SHOULD spell the end of humanity because of how gravity and space works, Puyo characters are simply better than that. But they still hate the heat, and I do as well. Lets cut straight to it, Satan gets a bald spot from Schezo.

I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemies. Being bald a gateway to the worst roasts you'll ever hear, next to being short. After the entire journey, this is what he does.

This sorta hatred towards each other is continued onto the other games, lets take Waku Puyo for example. In here, Satan makes his appearance more as a ominous voice, but Schezo doesn't take it seriously at all, straight up saying that the voice has to be one ugly dude if he can't show himself, which Satan takes pretty clear offense to. This sorta activity is basically their entire banter throughout the game, up until when Satan reveals himself and says he has NO idea what the Ultimate Tower (Basically the endgame) is, but in classic Satan fashion of "Yeah I know! It's...uh... well, just know that I know." Something interesting does happen though. Before Schezo enters the tower, Satan wishes him good luck and to not get overconfident, as that'll be his downfall. Schezo, understandably, is very confused about his talk, and mentions if he's gone mad. Satan denies the claim, just saying that he felt like saying that. Even when they hate each others guts, there's a small, VERY small air of respect for the guy.

SEGA Era:

For being two of the most popular male characters in the series, I can only really find a handful of moments where they interact in any meaningful manner. They don't really interact at all in 15th Anniversary or even Puyo 7, they finally talk to each other in 20th. And how does that happen? In both Arle and Schezo's stories (Since they're basically connected), they go after Satan. Why? For Arle, she feels like he's up to no good. For Schezo, he just wants to beat him up. Duality of man.

And well, they sorta do just that, with Schezo's story making him sense Ecolo, much to the blobs surprise. You guys think Schezo can sense energy like Dragon Ball people sense ki. They also interact in the final story, where it's mostly just Schezo not trusting a thing Satan is doing, and isn't having any sort of his nonsense, before telling Arle that he and possibly Ecolo might be up to something. One notable thing I like to mention about the final story in 20th is when Arle fights Satan, he uses her battle theme, but when Schezo steps up to the plate, it goes into Satan's theme instead. It's just a nice little thing to note.

One thing I like about this whole dynamic is how little it changes, besides some very few instances. These two straight up don't like each other much, if at all, and are not afraid to really mention it to each other. Spiteful haters, the lot of them. But damn it, they're really good at it.

Puyo Puyo Tetris 1 does change it a tiny bit, but nothing super noteworthy. During the whole "Three girls are possessed for some reason" Plotline, Arle once again blames Satan for the whole debacle, and Satan runs away crying. Schezo tells her later on that Satan for ONCE IN THEIR LIVES isn't the main culprit, but rather some unknown entity that they don't know. Arle is more surprised than anything, but at least Schezo knows that Satan isn't always at fault. He just usually is.

And because he’s seemingly always at fault, that’s mostly his story mode in Puzzle Pop. Ecolo just kinda tags along with him because why the hell not, and because Schezo notices that Satan and him are talking and near each other again, they HAVE to be up to no good. Satan is annoyed that nobody believes that he’s the culprit, and fight’s Schezo because of it, and wins because it’s his story.

And after all of that, he then says that he hopes Schezo has a nice time in the Puyo Underworld for a false allegation, which he… is more surprised that he was wrong rather than going to hell. I’m serious when I say Schezo seemingly didn’t even mind the fact that he had the high possibility of literally going to hell, he’s more surprised that he was wrong about his thoughts, since he was right at first, then somehow twisted it into being wrong again. And I just love the fact that he was more surprised at that, it’s actually peak comedy that he cares more about his accusation falling flat than literally anything else. But with the allegations cleared, Satan tells him to move aside, as he’s actually trying to figure out what is even going on, and is NOT the culprit of this entire thing.

I like that in here, while it’s kinda clear they still don’t really like each other, Schezo can actually admit when he’s wrong in something, and Satan can actually argue back against the guy. Most of the time it devolves into insults, and while the banter is still there in classic fashion, I enjoy the mixups.

So what did we gather? These two guys hate each other lol But really, their arguing and mutual dislike for each other is painfully apparent throughout the series, but at the very least, even Schezo has limits of how much he blames Satan for things, such as Puyo Puyo Tetris 1 and 2. Sometimes you can only blame the Prince of the Puyo Underworld so much before it falls flat at least once.

-----

Lagnus Bishasi:

(Come on, it's super fitting. Also Lagnus there is spelt Sungal. lol.)

Ah, Lagnus/Ragnus/Sungal, where do I begin with you? You're such an interesting character; A joke in Puyo, the real deal in Madou Saturn and whatever Kenji Oda was cooking back then with the novels. But alas, we're here to talk about the guy, and how he's a pretty interesting contrast to Schezo. This stuff will mostly just cover COMPILE, since they barely, if ever interact in SEGA Era stuff. And hey, some prefer it that way, others don't.

If we quickly go over Lagnus, he's a traditional hero in every sense of the word, only cranked up to 11 for the sake of comedy. Cares for justice, wants to stop evil, talks about level ups and exp, that entire thing. It's been like that since SUN. He's trying his best. However, if we move over to Madou Saturn for a second, he's still a traditional hero, but in a much more down-to-earth sense. He feels like a legit RPG character for once, and that's because he IS in one. However in every iteration, he's cursed by something to randomly convert into a 10 year old. (He's usually 17.)

Lagnus can easily be seen as the antithesis of Schezo in a plentitude of ways: Their armor, their types of spells, personality, sense of heroicness/justice, interactions with other people, the list does indeed go on for quite a good period of time. But unlike a few of my friends, I am NOT the biggest Lagnus fan in the world, I'm somewhere in the top 20 at least.

They do first interact in SUN, where Lagnus is just the butt of a joke like he's kinda supposed to in Puyo. He tries to attack Schezo, he dodges, Lagnus falls and turns into a kid. Quite simple.

But continuing with the antithesis claim, the series (at least back then) sorta set them up as such, but it's not really TOLD, per-se. It's just a connect-the-dots sorta thing, which is fine. Compared to Schezo's aloofness, Lagnus actually does actually talk to people, least in Madou Saturn, and holds great respect for people like Arle and Rulue during the events of the game. Lagnus is a Light Warrior who's immune to dark spells in his game, compared to Schezo being called the Dark Mage, Schezo cares about himself while Lagnus cares about justice and dishing it out in spades, stuff like that. And compared to Schezo in Saturn, Arle and Rulue actually like to talk to Lagnus compared to the bum Schezo.

And how can we talk about these two without mentioning that during the events of Saturn.

For those unaware, in the start of the game, Lagnus is put into a crystal by I believe Satan just to preserve his damn body, so Lagnus sorta wanders around as a spirit, and notably, possesses Schezo for periods of time. He can't do it all the time because of the darkness that comes with being Schezo, but whenever he's able to, he tries his best to help Arle and crew, and occasionally find clues about things himself. However, Schezo is none the wiser about the stuff Lagnus does, and when Lagnus is eventually kicked out, Schezo has little idea what even happened, 90% of the time being annoyed that he just ends up someplace else.

When Lagnus gets his body back and reverts to a kid due to the little power he has, when lore dumping the entirety of the game to the ARS, Schezo is just straight up annoyed that Lagnus even did the possession things to begin with, and I kinda understand to an extent. But it's clear as day he doesn't like Lagnus, and does resort to insulting him sometimes, but Lagnus actually has a backbone and is able to clap back with his own insults. And yet after everything, Schezo at least understands the danger at hand and FINALLY is willing to help Arle/Rulue/Lagnus out. And then doesn't join the final boss because you're only allowed 3 party members and Lagnus joins instead at full power. Because yeah, it actually DOES make sense. They really are polar opposites.

I'd also take this opportunity to talk about the Waku Puyo Manga, but they don't really interact much there. Lagnus tries to fight Schezo, he stumbles on a rock, gets pressed because dude, not a good idea, and gets insulted. Really, it's that simple.

Lagnus himself actually has a lot of moments in the manga, but it's not exactly pertained to him with Schezo, more inner conflicts and having a bad case of "3 people in 1" Syndrome, and it's interesting. Yeah the manga basically got canceled after he almost wrapped up his own story, but alas. We gotta ball anyways.

Despite being quite literally a joke in any Puyo game ever, it's kinda amazing that the one game that's not Puyo related is actually the one where he gets the most respect because he's in the genre he's actually supposed to be in. They're supposed to kinda be antithesis to one another, but once again, never said, just kinda shown without saying all to much. At least Arle respected both at some point.

-----

Witch:

(Well boys. We are back to where we started.)

Once again, we loop back to this girl who seemingly is the face of my entire blog, how fun. Wonder how boring it gets hearing the same info from me over and over again at times, but alas, we gotta do what we gotta do. (Also they're like 2 of my favorite characters in the series so it's kinda easy to yap.)

Lets talk about Witch. Confident in her skills, rival to a few characters, and a master of making potions that are completely worthless. She can make real ones just fine, but she just finds making them boring. She's one mischievous gal herself, often trying to become a better witch in general, as well as to get better at making potions. Not only that, compared to even most of the cast, she's a pretty hyperactive girl herself, always laughing and just being a bit too silly for our own good. Which makes sense to an extent, she's like 13-15 in most games.

Witch and Schezo's dynamic...really ranges for some reason, which is kinda funny since everyone we've covered has been a protagonist in a large scale game, or is the main (or major) antagonist in said games with Satan's case. Witch...is a side character. She's never really the big boss of anything, or the protag in anything major. I say major because I AM counting things like PuyOlympics and the Comet Summoner, but they're not...y'know. Waku Puyo or Saturn scale in terms of the game. But she's still a protag.

COMPILE:

The first place I want to start at is actually Tower of the Magician. Thank god I'm partially versed in that game due to other Extra Episodes. You can find the big write up here.

At first, Witch legit thought Schezo was an illusion created by her grandmother for the exam, before she realized he was the real deal and had his own motives to be there. In a way, the dynamic shifts to one where they bicker almost like siblings, what with them arguing, but Schezo still solving the puzzles inside of the tower so Witch can go on through just because he's there for HIS reason, and is helping her on accident.

When the game progresses, and Witch is slowly more and more concerned for her grandmother due to story events, Schezo does have the chance to brush her off like he always does, but instead, does try to help her out. He tries to calm her down, and near the final floor, they walk as a duo to make sure everything goes well. And when Witch sees Wish, she bolts, with Schezo being confused if anything.

When the game gets to the end, Wish (her grandma) is possessed by Dark Matter, and a defeated Witch gives Schezo HER magic to help him fight Dark Matter. Schezo takes it, wins against Dark Matter and a possessed Wish, saving her. Interestingly, he gives the magic back and asks if Wish is OK, and Witch says she's fine.

But he's there for HIS motive: To take her energy and become stronger. And he has the perfect chance to, Wish even allows him to if he wanted it that badly. Yet with all that, he doesn't do it because he wants to take it properly, AND because Dark Matter took so much from her to begin with. Fight her at full power, sorta deal. And then never does. (oh yea witch also fails the exam ig)

(He does say "I'm giving back your magic because I don't want to damage my own!!", least that's how I read it, since their types of magic are so different.) But seriously, this game is such an outlier for the dynamic, yet I love it so much. Schezo doesn't exactly care much for Witch herself, and neither does Witch to him, but when the ideals collide, they do team up, at least for a bit. I think the fact that Witch gave Schezo her magic to become stronger means at the very least, desperate times will call for desperate measures, but I love that Schezo gives the magic BACK to her. He had a clear choice to keep it, but because he didn't get it through the means he wants, he just...gives it back. While he does kinda give a BS excuse, it's a nice moment for the two.

...And then we get to every other game.

Where do I even begin with these two? We can start with Puyo SUN at the very least, where the whole thing saying "I want you!" and other innuendos kinda came from. With this, simple misunderstanding, she wants his clothes, nothing too serious about that in the world of Puyo, yeah? I wish I was right but I'm so fucking wrong.

If we fast forward allllll the way to Madou Saturn, she's basically just being herself until Kikimora mentions Schezo without naming him after Arle and Co. save Kiki from Yoggus Smoke. Witch takes an interest in the person she described, and Rulue says to not get her hopes up, since Schezo is a known perv. Yet this only fuels her curiosity. All to say when they finally meet if she can touch him. And I'm trying to save images, but imagine Schezo looking pissed the hell off that someone even said that.

PuyOlympics is the same dance to an extent. To save MORE images and time, just take a gander at the time I actually covered the game. But otherwise: Witch teases Schezo all about his clothing and robe, saying he looks like a perv with it on, so he takes it off to wear the proper uniform. Much to his surprise, Witch goes on about how he looks really nice, before just shouting that he's one handsome fellow, and he runs away while she chases him. Classic behavior.

However, there comes points that are a bit more interesting to note, one of them being from Serilly’s Happy Birthday, a Disc Station game that’s incredibly text heavy. Think about it like Princess Maker, if you will. I actually wrote about this game a while ago if you’re curious about that, even if it’s shorter than most of my stuff I tend to write about. One of the key things to point out is that Schezo is acting funky because of some curse, and saying “I want you” to… 100 girls, and doing so will remove the curse. Yeah, that’s his curse. Quite the horrific one, if I say so myself.

Because of this, Schezo asked her to make a charm to make any girl fall for him to get rid of the stupid thing, but she declines that offer and instead tries to make a potion with Serilly to help fix Schezo. This is mostly the start of Witch’s “Confidant” with Serilly, as her story is mostly about helping the guy out alongside other things that aren’t important to this thing, fun time though.

Witch isn’t all that impressed with Schezo in this one, calling him creepy because of this entire thing and getting upset that he was even saying this stuff to her and Serilly, but really, she’s thankful that he’s going back to normal at least sometime. See? She cares for him, sorta. I like that she even considered doing that, as more often than not, she’d probably just leave him be, but for once she intervened and helped not only Schezo, but also Serilly. It’s a nice sight to see. It’s something that we don’t see her do very often, and because we do see it for once, it’s a breath of fresh air, and even having her get development with Serilly of all people is incredibly interesting.

And now we get into the game that made my entire blog.

Wooo Waku Puyo yeaaaaa:

Even I get a little tired of talking about the same events over and over again and expecting different results, the guy from Far Cry 3 told me so, after all. But honestly just to recap some of the events that go down JUST to save time, energy, and my damn sanity:

We'll start with something I haven't exactly covered much, a small interaction between the two and Incubus inside the area where Kikimora works. Basically, they're there to teach you how to fuse items, and they kinda make it into a duo show of them playing along and just having a good time. While Schezo is confused by it, they do get their point across, it's cute. And here we go again with the stuff I've covered for a while now.

Witch's entire gig is to get this guys clothes. When they first meet, she's the boss of the Horror House, and he's confused about her wanting "It", up to the point of saying he's never really met someone who acts the way she does, up until Witch says it's the clothes, and she'll get them even if she has to rip them.

Nothing happens until the end of the game, where Schezo can check in with almost every character with lines. I will say that the interesting fact is that Witch appears where the major and main characters are, the front of the Ultimate Tower. So that's neat.

In the first situation, Witch says she wants to tag along with Schezo to get the magical item that the tower has, and Schezo declines, since he works solo, usually. But she insists and says she'll do her absolute best, to which Schezo tells her that she doesn't have to try at all, because she's NOT coming.

The second situation has her giggling to herself after Schezo asks her why she's so desperate for the clothing he has, and she just replies that she wants them. That's it. Nothing more to the story. Grindset tbh Schezo says that he has no good women near him at any times, and Witch just sorta laughs it off, saying that he'll take off his robes eventually. He then asks himself (or us depending on how you read the text), if she's more of a pervert than he's made out to be.

And a final interaction was about Schezo getting Witch's Meteor Grimoire, and she spots him with it, but gets to her usual business. Schezo says he's not stripping for the love of the game, and she says roughly: "I want the book but the clothes would also be a nice extra." They trade books, since she for some reason has Schezo's Areiado Grimoire, and bam. There we go.

Worlds scariest teenage year old girl for a white haired man to go through.

SEGA Puyo:

Now that we've basically covered what we've covered a thousand times in the past and probably future, we can discuss things I probably HAVEN'T talked about. These two have a handful of interactions throughout SEGA Puyo, but not as much as Compile did throughout the years. The most notable of the bunch mostly being from Witch's storyline in 20th Anniversary, as well as Puyo Tetris 2. I've covered the Tetris 2 one as a joke but alas.

20th Anniversary doesn't exactly have Schezo interact with Witch, more vise versa than anything. She's trying to make a potion, a one her grandmother made once (Wish canon bros truuuuust), and one of the ingredients she needs is a bit of hair from... well, lets just say Schezo of all people. After mostly taunting and having their classic back and fourth bickering from the classic duo of IDIOTS, a Puyo battle emerges and Witch wins, while also quickly taking a bit of his hair to boot. Curiously, I believe this is the only ingredient that doesn't have to be swapped out.

And Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 has mostly her being possessed by Marle and reawakening the Ghost of Compile Past, where now she's the one doing the crazy ass innuendos, as well as wanting to have "Fun" for basically eternally. Not only does Schezo show legit concern for her as well as clear up a misunderstanding for Arle, they do in fact save her and make sure that she's alright, and lines her story up with others who had a similar fate.

However, we do see what happened beforehand, and how it all went down. What with Witch helping Marle, and then her feeling some sort of restlessness after the fact. After seeing Schezo, he notes that he saw some sorta girl and she challenged her to a battle, and basically no diffed her. The word "Battle" runs through her mind like a simulation, and she asks Schezo for battle out of the blue.

After winning, she basically wants more battling, and doesn't want to leave Schezo alone now because she wants to keep battling him and having fun. Queue the whole "If you're not coming to me, I'll just come to you" line and a whole lot of "Thank God I have my headphones on right now..."

(Getting footage and rehearing this stuff is...quite the ride.) Oh, and during what's basically the filler arc of PPT2, the whole pageant thing goes down, shoutout to Maguro for making it fun and also keeping the situation under control Witch's nominates Schezo for the "Most Handsome" side of things, citing that his name means "The Gorgeous Adonis that Defies the Gods." HOW IN THE WORLD she knew that is anyone's guess, but it was funny nevertheless.

She even appears in Schezo’s story in Puzzle Pop as the first opponent he faces. Schezo is pretty much talking to himself about Meena and her powers, and realizes that if someone takes her powers, he’ll be much stronger than ever before. But before he can reach that thought, he’s stopped by Witch, who simply greets him, and he already sounds tired of her. When asking her about what’s going on and about Meena, Witch at first brushes it off, saying that even if this situation is as odd as it is, she’s still going to enjoy every minute of it.

However, she’s not all jokes and laughs, as she does mention that her spellbook does mention something about The Dream Guide (Meena), and when Schezo asks for more details, she holds the info hostage for a Puyo battle that she loses. According to her GRANDMOTHER (Wish is real and IN the house), The Dream Guide has the ability to see into someone’s heart and also their desires…and that’s all she mostly wrote. However, Witch suggests to try and find more old books about the topic, which Schezo thinks is a good idea…and runs into Klug for that. We’ll get there when we get there.

What is all jokes and laughs is her side story. It’s her being the world's worst seller of the worlds most “Wait these actually sound nice” potions that always goes wrong, and Schezo was the last of the buyers. He instantly shuts down the idea of him getting a potion from her, as she’s nothing but trouble and mischief, but suddenly changes his tone when Witch mentions an Anti-Misunderstanding potion that he takes. I mean it works, but Schezo is now meowing, and is pretty mad at Witch. After she wins and he returns to normal, she tries to sell another potion, but Schezo swings his sword, furious with her as she runs away, and HE chases HER instead. Oh, Compile Witch, you WISH that was you.

So what do these things mean? Well, while there's nothing of particular note for the 20th Anniversary thing that we haven't covered already, I do like that in the modern games, Schezo actually doesn't mind Witch's company all too much, and shows direct concern for her over getting possessed by Marle, and even though they still bicker...a lot, there's still that underlying amount of respect, concern, and overall bullying that we like to see from these two. I do find it kinda funny that in PPT2, it just feels like Compile but much better at times, and I absolutely love that. Teaser gets teased, vice versa happens, it’s peak comedy. And nowadays, I kinda enjoy that Schezo just sorta sees her as a “Week. RUINED.” sort of gal. While she can easily provide pretty nice info to help him, take Puzzle Pop for example. She also really likes to annoy him to death, such as 20th Anni and kinda sorta Puyo Tetris 2. And it’s still amazing, to be honest.

-----

Draco Centauros:

(Ignore that the name is Doraco. Old works be like that, thanks Disc Station.)

With a character that has a lot of work for them because they're always near the damn dude, we now have... someone who's kinda the opposite of that. Despite being in the same series and knowing each other (kinda sorta) for years at this point, we don't actually have many interactions with these two goofballs. Which to me, is kinda surprising, I thought there would be more than I thought. It's kinda unfortunate, but Draco just happens to be the unfortunate one.

Let me put this in simple terms by explaining her character. Draco is an idiot. A very big idiot. Ok but really, she's not the wisest person out there, oftentimes just being whimsical and carefree. Or just trying to find beauty pageants to go to because why not. She's not exactly a slouch when it comes to terms of combat itself, but we all know her infamous AI at this point and how she can't rotate. Fun, huh? Despite that, Draco usually means well. She's not exactly a jerk to anyone, she's just being herself and being the best she can be. Which lets be real, that's the best we can ask her to do. I'm very proud of her.

Truth be told, there's not much to cover with Draco besides three things. Which is sorta unfortunate, for how much these two have been in the same game together, they never really talk to each other… ever. For example: Madou Saturn doesn’t really have them interacting with each other at all, she talks to Jan of all characters more than Schezo, because they DON’T talk to each other. 

Waku Puyo:

Yes, I get to mention this game for the 1000th time. Shame on me for choosing this game as the game of my choice to comb over with a fine brush. Draco herself appears as a boss in the game, being one of the few bosses that we actually see throughout most of the series, which is very nice. Schezo needs tickets to get into Fire Mountain, the place where she "Works", and halts him from progressing any further. Schezo says that he does in fact have the tickets without really showing her, and she just...believes it. Yeah, I'm serious.

Then after that, she's the boss for the dungeon. Draco mentions how she's surprised Schezo got that far, and if he's ready for "It". This in turn surprises Schezo, since he never really hears this stuff and asks her what she means, only to hear her say "Well, a battle!", to Schezo's surprise... again. He calls himself stupid for thinking it was anything BUT that. Schezo can run into her again after beating the dungeon, and she's training for the next person who comes over, as well as Schezo if he ever comes back, which surprises Schezo, as he at least semi-respects the fact that she trains. Also, fun fact. She can drag Schezo into training because of side quests inside of the game itself. Fun little thing.

Like everyone so far in Waku Puyo, you can meet her in Endgame as well, mostly just more casual banter between the two. Schezo runs into her, and notes that he's always so moody and gloomy, and that he should have more pep in his step to woo women. Schezo says he doesn't care about that, and Draco assumes that he likes guys, which he adamantly denies. She then says he's "Girl-conscious", like an incubus would, confusing the hell out of Schezo, as he wonders what cruel things he did to be called one.

And with their final talk, Draco asks why Schezo returned, and wonders if it was because of her, which Schezo bluntly says no to. This hurts The Gao's feeling, and tells him straight up that he does have a pretty face and is popular with girls, but doesn't understand girls at all. All Schezo understood was that he's popular, confusing and shocking him.

Draco's an idiot, yes, she's a kindhearted idiot. Here, Schezo doesn't actually mind her much, mostly keeping it neutral with her, as well as just accepting that she's kinda stupid. Not only that, Draco's willing to ask Schezo silly questions just because she wants to, and does in fact feel like he COULD be a better person and would woo people... if he just wasn't an asshole to people at times. They don't even interact in Saturn.

SEGAAAAAAAA... Man... :

As we approach the SEGA Era stuff of things again, we run into a major problem. Draco and Schezo interact twice, and it's such a nothingburger for the most part. Here, the dynamic they have changes quite a lot, to the point where it's not Schezo just thinking she's stupid but doesn't mind her that much, he just straight up doesn't like Draco at this point.

A prime example is in Puyo 20th Anniversary in Draco’s story. Her story is all about trying to find some sorta clothing that’ll make her even prettier, and ruining everyone’s days in the meantime and making them incredibly mad at her. Schezo is one of those characters that gets their day ruined by… Ruining his supply of running water that he’s had for apparently a while, years even, and battles Draco over said water supply getting ruined.

After he loses, Draco somehow slips on the water and falls out of the cave, into a flower field. I can’t even make this up. It’s pure comedy and I’ll be there no matter what, but a real interaction wouldn’t hurt that much. I love these two, and I do want to see what else they can do together.

Even in Puyo Chronicles, yes, the game I've barely mentioned throughout this write up, has that as the dynamic. He doesn't like her, and she just doesn't mind much, if at all. It’s genuinely really unfortunate that it stays the exact same as it was in 20th Anniversary, though you can partially blame the writing of the game itself. It had a rough cycle, apparently there was no real writing director, so it was apparently pretty difficult to even make something happen. The games development as a whole seemed sorta rough, but we really dunno much about it as a whole, unfortunately. And the two don’t even interact in Puzzle Pop, which is kinda depressing. But at least they had some interactions.

Yeah...that's about it for SEGA stuff. Personally, I prefer what they were going for in Waku Puyo, mostly because there was actually a bit of stuff going on between the two rather than just Schezo hating the girl more than she usually does. It's... interesting, I guess, but sadly there's not a lot to cover between these two. Maybe in Quest, they talk more, but that’s a whole other can that’ll take forever to open.

-----

Serilly:

(I HAVE AN EXCUSE TO USE THESE)

If you told me about 3 years ago that these two even spoke in a legitimate manner, I wouldn't believe you at all, there's no way that they do...right? Well, she's here for a reason, and that reason is Waku Puyo, where a lot of interesting things happens between the two. And frankly, I'm for it, Serilly needs more people to talk to. Ironically, this is really the ONLY game they speak in, which is very...interesting.

So, what goes on in the game? And well, the manga too but it's a retelling of the event I'll be mentioning with some extra details here and there. Still will covering it though.

Serilly herself is quite the sad, pathetic creature, but I love her to bits anyways. Shy and afraid of almost anything, she's quite the crybaby and oftentimes avoid people because of a rumor going around that eating people like her can grant stuff like immortality and whatnot. So she has a REASON to basically be a soaking wet cat who cannot fight back. However, when she does make a friend or two, she's usually just happy that they don't really hate her or don't mind her company for the most part.

At least in the game, Schezo runs into her before entering Water Paradise, the dungeon she's the boss of. It's mostly just banter with Suketoudara, but they leave, with Schezo being mostly unamused.

When he gets to the final floor, they... don't even fight. Well, inn Schezo's story at least, she's the main boss of the place and you do fight her in Arle and Rulue's routes.

Instead, she seemingly thinks Schezo's there to bully her, and that he's put in quite a lot of effort into doing so, AKA going through the tower. Schezo, however, says that if she doesn't want to fight or stand in his way, why would he call her an enemy? Yet Serilly takes this as him wanting to be her friend, which he says no to at first, leaving her confused as to what he wants. The player is then given an option to be her friend or not.

It actually doesn't matter what you even say in this situation, there'll be slight differences in a few text boxes but the general thing stays the exact same.

Serilly continues to be hard on herself, to the point of crying a lot about it. Schezo, mostly annoyed that she's doing that, tells her to stop being so damn hard on herself for little reason. He mentions that there's two paths in life she can take: The one she's currently on, where she'll accomplish nothing besides moping around and being upset, or follow a path he's on, where despite many problems and adversities, he can still move on with his head high.

This surprises Serilly quite a good bit, and yet Schezo still continues with one more thing; If she can try to follow the path he's taking, he'll actually try to be her friend. Or well, at least he SAYS that, if he believes it is another ordeal...kinda. But Serilly agrees to it completely for the chance of a new friend, and thanks him.

For a character that hasn't spoken much, if at all to Schezo until this, it's a lot. Schezo somewhat being willing to be friends with someone to help her be a better person isn't something we saw, if ever saw, in the games. He even admits that she's not really an enemy or threat. Meanwhile, Serilly is going through her own moment of having someone not hate her, which is nice.

Now, like with a couple of characters (I think almost all) I've mentioned, the end of the game has some moments that I'd like to cover. Schezo runs back into Serilly, and she's really happy to see him again, asking if he's here for her, which he gets flustered with. Realizing the situation, and well... his rep, he asks if Serilly is afraid of him still, and she promptly says no, as they're friends. On the other hand, Schezo is having an internal crisis, wondering how much he's changed as a person since losing his powers at the start of the game.

Now, like with a couple of characters (I think almost all) I've mentioned, the end of the game has some moments that I'd like to cover. Schezo runs back into Serilly, and she's really happy to see him again, asking if he's here for her, which he gets flustered with. Realizing the situation, and well... his rep, he asks if Serilly is afraid of him still, and she promptly says no, as they're friends. On the other hand, Schezo is having an internal crisis, wondering how much he's changed as a person since losing his powers at the start of the game.

(He's basically saying "I've... changed since I lost my powers... Do I have to get even stronger to regain the me I've lost?" It looks odd because of my god awful editing skills, as well as Serilly hitting us with a "...?" as well.)

Serilly, understandably confused by the situation, tells him the advice he told her, and says that maybe he's thinking backwards, and that's not the Schezo she knows. This kinda surprises him, and she apologizes foe sounding harsh, yet Schezo admits that she's right, and thanks her.

And in their final talk, Serilly goes to Schezo to mention that he seems more distant than usual, like the person she knew is going away slowly as she begins to cry. Schezo reaffirms her, saying that he's right here, and that he won't be vanishing anytime soon, and tells her to stop crying, as it'll get her nowhere. A realization hits him, basically saying that he of all people, telling a girl to not cry? Something HAS truly changed about him.

That moment is why I love this game so much. The series before always shown Schezo to be kinda aloof, not really caring much about what others think of him, and saying what he wants to say. Yet here he is, concerned over a girl's emotions, and telling her to stop crying not from annoyance, but almost as a friend, and that shakes him to his core. Not only that, but him seemingly having a minor crisis about himself and Serilly being the one to get him to stop thinking about it, that's something we never see again. And Schezo doesn't go all tsundere either and say that he didn't need the help, no, he just straight up thanks her for everything.

Manga:

The Waku Puyo manga covers the same beats as the game, but is still different enough to talk about. Here, Serilly was brought to being the “boss” of the area mostly because she assumed Satan was her friend, and she was willing to do what a friend wanted her to do because… let's be real, she doesn't really have friends. And the scary part is, she was ready to stay there for as long as it took for Satan to do his stuff because she was under the assumption that they were friends. At least, that’s the background before she meets Schezo and Honey Bee.

Obviously, Schezo’s here to get the orb and Serilly is defending it, but even he can tell she’s not really hostile. Honey Bee thinks otherwise, and both ask for the blue orb, and with weapons in hand, they do ask her for her, but she gets terrified for obvious reasons. Bee tries to threaten her, and Schezo smacks Bee aside as well as giving her his sword to not scare off Serilly, and it works somehow, though of course, it doesn’t work COMPLETELY.

It’s here that Serilly mentions that Satan made her do this because they’re friends and everything I said above, but Schezo is calling her out on Satan not being a friend, because he believes friends shouldn’t do that at all. He thinks Satan is a fake friend, telling her to do this because of course he can. Serilly does mention that Satan is her only real friend (Ignoring the Suketoudara in the room), and genuinely feels hopeless that she’ll never have friends. 

That’s when Schezo does his thing of telling Serilly what a friend really is, and even Bee is agreeing with him, seemingly being as serious as she can be for once in her life. This leads to Serilly wondering if they want to be friends, which Schezo embarrassingly agrees to. Suketoudara walks in, sees this hooliganry, and that brings the page of Schezo saving Serilly after she saves him from getting drowned, doing the cliche look away when they see each other and Schezo carrying her like a princess, all that good stuff, and even gives Schezo the key to the blue orb because… well, he did a lot. The final scene has Serilly ask if Schezo will ever visit her again, to which he replies that he’ll think about it when what he’s doing is all done.

I like the manga. If you want more panels, look at when I covered this for the first time, if you want. What I love so much about their dynamic is how different it is compared to what we’re used to from Schezo himself. We’ve always seen him as an aloof guy who cares mostly about himself, and himself only, and Serilly in a way directly clashes with that ideology because she struggles so hard to even care about herself. She’s always worried about what might happen to her, how she might be unable to make real friends, list goes on. And in a moment of need for Serilly, Schezo is willing to lay down his often cold demeanor and even admit that she’s not really an enemy if she doesn’t want to fight him, and talk some genuine sense into her. And the best part, it actually WORKS. Serilly slowly but surely becomes more and more confident in herself, and when they meet again, the roles are swapped.

Now SCHEZO is the one having the doubts about himself (considering how much he’s changed throughout the story), and when talking to Serilly about him always going to be there for her, he realizes that he’s changed, and wonders if he’ll ever become the person he once was again. And with the info he gave Serilly, she spits it back in her own way, which hits Schezo pretty hard, and realizes that moping around and being concerned about who he is was never his style. It’s genuinely amazing, and I’d say it’s one of the best we’ve seen from the guy. It helps that he’s also genuine with Serilly, something we don’t always see from the guy.

And after that entire thing and how peak Waku Puyo writing can really be, we spiral back into Serilly's Happy Birthday, I noted in Witch's section that they do in fact interact, if only because Schezo is cursed. Here, Serilly is genuinely scared of the guy because in this version, they dunno each other and he's just randomly hitting on her, while Serilly herself is clueless to the entire curse thing until Witch steps in to help her. With these things, I do want to mention that they could've gone this route because it's Schezo, of course they'd go the comedic route. BUT THEY DIDN'T, THANK GOD.

------

The Kikimoras:

(I wonder who really cared about these two for the longest time. But hey, now I'm one of those... I dunno, ten Kikimora fans globally.)

And now we've reached the section that surprises me the most. The Kikimoras weren't ever really on my radar for such a long time before I even got into Waku Puyo, I used to think Black Kikimora was just a really bad card in Quest and nothing more until I began to look into this game. I combined their pages since not only does it save me time, but they both only have Waku Puyo to really talk about. Oh, and because they're both Kikimora's. That too... they had their own game, fun fact. I did a write up a looong time ago... It's not good nowadays but hey, it was a start.

The Kikimora's are characters... people don't really think about much. And I don't blame them, they're usually people that people look once at and leave it as such, a relic of old times. Her personality revolved around cleaning, whole lot of cleaning, and hating dirtiness and whatnot. Black Kikimora (Who I'll refer to as Biki) is supposed to be the antithesis of her, who makes things more or less dirty for the love of the game. One thing is for sure, Kikimora is stupid strong... and hates being called old. However in Waku Puyo (and Saturn for Kikimora), they have more personality then ever before, mostly Kiki. The original Kikimora is much more supportive, acting more or less as a guide for people, helping out whenever she can, which oftentimes isn't a lot. She's much more outgoing than Biki, who's much more reserved until provoked or insulted, where she starts yelling and insults people. However, if anything, Kikimora can be emotional as well... which I'll get into.

Waku Puyo: Kikimora

This is really the only game worth mentioning for the two being together, since Saturn is just her mentioning what Schezo looked like and telling Arle and crew where he went. Nothing more to it.

A majority of the talks between the two...or three really, comes from the Information Booth and the Horror House, since Biki is mostly there as a midboss. We'll start with Kikimora, since she has much more.

As stated earlier, Schezo runs into her in the Information Booth, a place that basically serves as the way to... well, get info about the game, it's mechanics, etc, as well as side quests and random character interactions that are a little charming. Schezo at the start asks Kikimora all sort of questions about PuyoPuyo Land, and while she tries her best to answer the questions, she notes that she can only do so much as a mere usher of the place, and apologizes for the fact that she's unable to answer everything. This in turn makes Schezo call her useless, which greatly... hurts her, as she legit feels upset that she wasn't able to help, and apologizes. Schezo then retracts his statement, saying he was talking about something else, and to chin up, as she forgives him. Schezo though, wonders why he's even apologizing, as he thinks he's in the right.

Throughout the course of the game, Schezo slowly but surely warms up to Kikimora as a person, though he's still harsh at the start. However, Kiki still comes to him for help, such as dealing with Succubus and her nonsensical fliers, and starts to cry as she's unable to answer Schezo's question of "You're the Usher. Shouldn't YOU know this stuff?" He tells her to stop crying at least, and that he'll help, but he does in fact want to see Succubus. As he does and beats her up, she's thankful Schezo took care of the issue, and gives him tickets while leaving. On the other side, Schezo doesn't recall doing something to help Kiki to warrant a thanks.

As the game progresses, they warm up to each other, even shooting a joke here and there, as well as Kikimora congratulating Schezo on specific occasions. Sure, she tells the info to others because that's her job, but she still at least doesn't mind Schezo's harshness and is very, very nice to him, and even he can give the feelings back. While it may be professional, at least they're on semi-good terms. Kiki is just somehow to make Schezo treat her with just a biiiit more respect than he usually does with everyone else. Kudos to her.

----

Waku Puyo: Black Kikimora

As we reach the other side of the Kikimoras, we get very different interactions compared to what we just talked about not even a paragraph ago. As stated prior, Biki is much more reserved than Kiki, never really initiating a convo, and if she's ever IN a convo, she tries to keep it brief, or speak just stays quiet until she gets prompted to talk. Of course, she's not always like that, she can talk properly just fine, but she prefers not to. However, compared to Kikimora, Biki is a lot more short tempered, and oddly has great hearing for absolutely no reason. When she hears someone insult them, she WILL yell back at them, shocking them to their core at times, notably Schezo.

Schezo and Biki can run into each other while doing tutorial stuff for the game itself. Here, Biki is shown as a willingly reserved person, but when its time to help Schezo, she barely does, shrugs it off, and leaves him to learn by himself. And when Schezo barely makes it out of there, she's somewhat surprised, but admits the tutorial for that is done and leaves it at that. Schezo, annoyed, decides to insult how she looks under his breath, saying she's kinda ugly compared to others, and in turn, gets smacked pretty hard with a broom as she yells right back at him, shocking Schezo that she even heard that.

Their next interactions aren't exactly the most dissectible or noteworthy, but it's the Kiki's, they need anything they could get from this. When Schezo tries to enter the Horror House, Biki could be there, just kinda looking around for no real reason, and as Schezo asks if he can, she doesn't really pay him any mind, and says that yeah, he could enter if he really wants. She doesn't care about this man at all. And finally, at the end of the game before the Ultimate Tower, they can have two talks with each other. One is Schezo being confused about Biki's... everything, and once again insulting her under his breath, to the same results. Apparently she has a nickname because of her good hearing, but I kinda sorta dunno what to call it. Back then it was "Hells Ears" but honestly, maybe she's just good at hearing. And then the final talk they have is... less of a talk and more of a "Who talks first" contest, which Schezo wins and Biki gets mad at. It's such a trivial thing, but I like that even Biki can have a small bit of fun despite the fact that she's mostly quiet until provoked.

While it's not exactly a lot compared to the others, I'm glad that they even get some sorta dynamic with Schezo. What with his aloofness and attitude problems clashing with their professionalism and Biki's temper problem, it's just a breath of fresh air because we never see these two really interact again. Though that's because we never really see much Kikimora related stuff after these games.

-----

Suketoudara:

(I think this might be the one time I'll like...properly talk about him.)

This is the one section I was kinda dreading as the months went by, not because I think this section was going to be tough to write... more because I'm just not exactly the biggest fan of Suketoudara myself, he's always just been a whatever character to me. Sorry Suke fans, I'll be trying to make this a bit more brief than most.

Lets begin with Suke's character, as we do with everyone else on this list. He's usually a carefree sort of person, mostly doing his own thing while everything else is going on. Once a side character, always a side character, I suppose. Though the main thing about Suke that we all know besides the way he plays Puyo... is his love for dancing. The guy loves to dance, and is very confident about it, and gets pretty upset when someone insults his form of dance... Schezo and Arle being the most vocal about it, at the very least. However, an aspect I'll touch on is his crush on Serilly, which is never really felt back. Trust me, it'll be important later.

COMPILE:

Despite the fact that these two have been in the same games for years on end at this point, they don't exactly have many, if any meaningful interactions. It's probably because there wasn't too many times we could even play as Schezo, or COMPILE always doing some crazy shit, but who knows?

The main one I'll be covering is Waku Puyo, because Schezo actually talks about the guy and we can make a Waku Puyo manga thing as well alongside it. It's not that much but it's something. Similar to Serilly, he's met at Water Paradise, where he serves mostly as a midboss than anything, but Schezo does in fact see him talking to Serilly beforehand, mostly trying to make her feel happier about herself, as Schezo questions what the hells going on and realizes he's allowed to enter the place. (Side note: I've called these places all sorts of names; Dungeons, Labyrinths, Palaces, Zones... I know they're called Dungeons but still)

The talk these two have is much more simple than almost anything I've covered so far. Suketoudara is dancing, and Schezo calls it stupid and pretty distracting. Suke asks Schezo to tell that again THREE MORE TIMES as he does so, until he's fed up and says "Alright can we just fight now!?" and then threatens to turn him into food. That's kinda it. The manga kinda goes into deeper detail, adding that Serilly isn't exactly known for being a dangerous person... or even a threat, so he tells Schezo that after defeat.

They do run into each other again near the end of the game, like almost every other character. It's once again Suke dancing and wanting to teach Schezo HOW to dance... but he just finds him annoying and leaves. And the second interaction, Suke gets mad at Schezo for knowing where Serilly is but not telling him, getting Suke mad and storms off to find her... leaving Schezo to ask what the hell did he do.

Here, it's just simple how much Schezo does not care for this guy at all. As Suke is more hyperactive than most and talks a whole lot more ALONGSIDE the dancing, Schezo just finds him... annoying at best. I don't think there's a single person who even respects Suke besides Serilly. It doesn't help that (At least in the manga), Serilly seems to like Schezo more. Quite comedic.

-----

SEGAAAAAAAA:

Ah, the beauty of SEGA right now is that they only talk like... once ever. And that's in 15th Anniversary, where now it's Schezo being the joke as he always has been. Not so fun when you're on the other side, huh? But yes, in 15th Anniversary, they do meet in Suke's story, and Suke is honestly quite surprised that Schezo's even here, but at least he recognizes someone. Suke actually teases Schezo at his inability to dance compared to him, and Schezo says he can dance, and will prove it with a Puyo battle... and that's it. No, seriously... that's like everything noteworthy. I genuinely wish I was kidding but there's really nothing else.

What I appreciate is that Suketoudara at least maintains his air of carefreeness about the entire situation. Sure, he may be in a different world, but he's going to at least have a good time here before anything else. And I guess bullying Schezo is something anyone can do, even the fish.

-----

Honey Bee:

(...Why is she plot relevant in the manga...)

As we begin to border near the more niche characters of COMPILE, we reach Honey Bee, a character I'm 95% certain nobody would give a damn about if it wasn't for the manga. And because of that, we'll cover her... little personality that we can go off of, and then explain the manga because that's the only time she's ever been relevant in her almost 25+ years of being in this series. Nobody is saying that she's their favorite character in the series unironically. This is also the section where documenting gets shorter and shorter because there's less and less to talk about. Sad, IK.

Honey Bee... is a character, alright. She's not the sharpest tool in the shed despite her two stingers, and uh... I'll be real there's like nothing to talk about with her.

I apologize to all Honey Bee fans, she could very much be your GOAT, the one you cheer for whenever she appears, have her cards in Quest, all that. I like her a lot, but there's not much to go with. She likes to sting people and watches samurai movies. That's basically her character. At least until we get into the manga.

While we have to admit it's not really canon and whatnot, it's really fun to talk about, and also gives some extra stuff to characters, notably Incubus, Lagnus, and the woman of this section... Honey Bee.

Schezo runs into her when he's trying to get some orb at a different dungeon compared to Arle and Rulue, and runs into... well, Honey Bee. At first, they straight up hate each other, before Honey Bee decides that he's actually quite pretty up close, and...tags along with him for the rest of the time. I don't really agree with her, but when the guy's etymology for his name literally says he's pretty, then I guess you can go ahead.

Truth be told, while she's there quite often, she doesn't exactly amount to that much at the end of the day. She's mostly comic relief for Schezo, who kinda needs it because he was supposed to go on a solo journey, and she also really doesn't like when girls (or incubus) talk to him. She's delusional enough to think they're in a relationship, so that's fun. This is more often shown when she's talking to Serilly, where Schezo has to knock her out several times just to talk to Serilly and calm her down, but she does comply with such things, such as taking Schezo's sword at his command to make Serilly ease up. So she's not all that worthless. She even tries to help Schezo bandage up a wound... to no success.

She does in fact do something when Schezo gets possessed by Incubus' magic, and tries to get help... but the manga never finishes up because it only had three volumes. Sad, but what can we really do about it? She REALLY hates Incubus though, since he's always up in her business. Speaking of Incubus...

---

Incubus (And Succubus too):

(You know, I was planning on using the WWPPD manga pages, but realized that I probably shouldn't risk Succubus' pages because I don't think it'd be... right. I'll put it on the Google Doc version.)

Ah, these two, those low level personas you get just because they're low leveled, but they help with the first boss so you can't hate on them too much. I'm not exactly a huge fan of either, but I can understand the appeal at the very least. I've just never been apart of it. This would be the case if this was Persona, but it's not.

Now to explain these two characters can be pretty simple compared to most I've covered already. There's a lot more than say... I dunno, Honey Bee, or The Kikimoras, but it'll pale compared to anyone who's really worthwhile in this long ass post. I wish I could get paid for this, but what can we do? Incubus and Succubus, as their name implies, are... an incubus and and succubus, people who allure others with their charm, only to (usually) take something from them, their stuff, their life, their soul, whatever the writers feel like doing in that set moment. However, since we really can't have that in Puyo, they're much more comedic compared to what I just mentioned. Incubus just wants to impress women with his charm (failing to do so many times).

Succubus wants to charm men, though we only really see this with Schezo and on an off-chance, Arle. They're still not really good people, but you can only do so much with such characters in such a series. You can only go so far, too.

Incubus:

To begin I feel like we should talk about the Tenori Zoh in the room: Tower of the Magician. Glad to bring up this game again, if only briefly. Incubus appears and is attempting to flirt with Witch and to give her Tenori Zoh as a gift to be with him, something that she's not on board with. Schezo comes by and Incubus takes it as Schezo trying HIS luck to do something, when he's just trying to scale the dang tower, and fights him over Witch. He loses and runs away, and for the spoils of his victory, Schezo claims Tenori Zoh for himself, which he seems quite proud of and also fond of. Here, Incubus doesn't really serve much of a purpose other than to be another Jobber for Schezo to beat, but he's trying his best.

For Waku Puyo, the extent of how much Incubus and Schezo interact mostly varies... on if you're reading a manga or if you decide to play the game. God, good luck with that. But really, both Waku Puyo in the manga and the games are vastly different, as Incubus can range from a guy Schezo can fight and talk to just because why not, or a major villain inside of the manga because we really needed all that Incubus stuff, totally. Same with Honey Bee.

Incubus in the game version of Waku Puyo isn't anything too special on his own, but he does do something neat with Witch. Synthesizing, or Fusion as I like to call it, is a pretty big element of the game, and it's really good for getting better gear for later on during the game. Incubus and Witch do in fact talk to Schezo (and I believe Arle and Rulue in their own routes) about said mechanic, and helps elaborate on it much more. They're basically a walking tutorial for the guy, but the main difference is how they act towards Schezo. In it, they put on a much more theatrical role... just because, and it makes Schezo wonder why they're even doing it. But it's helpful nevertheless.

The other interaction they can have is inside dungeons as a boss, however it's nothing all that special, as it's just Incubus being mad that Schezo is there for the orbs that are needed to get through the game, and Schezo wants them, so they fight. It's really boring. The REAL fun begins is during the Waku Puyo manga, where he's a pretty big antagonist for Schezo, constantly trying to "seduce" him (in reality, mind control the guy and take everything from him), and Schezo just fighting back and saying no every time because he doesn't really swing that way. However, the possession finally works, we see Schezo terrorize some people, Bee goes to get help... and then the manga never got finished. Here, Schezo hates him, like everything else on this planet. But I think it's one of the few times he and Bee can come to the agreement that this person is not only ANNOYING, but also sucks to be around. And hey, he's doing his job but that doesn't mean I can't hate him, because I DO hate him in this manga, and probably in general. But that's neither here or there.

Through every interaction in Waku Puyo, one thing is clear, least for the games. They hate each other. Like they really do not like each other at all. Not only because Schezo is a man, but Incubus is just a really petty person in general. He was also searching for the orbs, and Schezo has a majority of them, so Incubus just plans to hog one just because. You can’t really hate that hard on a man who’s willing to hate that much. In the manga… I mean he’s pretty calculating, but man, did Incubus really need that many pages for himself?

Succubus:

Succubus on the other hand... I still don't like much, but only a bit better than Incubus. She goes after Schezo more often than not in media that we've seen mostly because he's the main playable guy most of the time, and there's also the fact that her job is to literally seduce men. Y'know, that sorta stuff.

I think one of her most well known versions of her is the way she is in Madou Saturn, which I can't really say much for Incubus in terms of interactions with Schezo. Schezo, possessed by Lagnus during this time, is is getting whipped by Succubus for the usual, becoming a servant for her as she kidnapped the males in a village for said thing (and also because of a friendly competition with Incubus.), before Lagnus has to let go of the body, awakening Schezo. Man is in PAIN, screaming that this stuff hurts like hell, while Arle and Rulue wonder why Schezo went from somewhat heroic to a screaming baby. I also just want to add Harpy was brought along for this ride forcibly by Rulue. One of the few times I'll feel bad for her. But alas, because of Arle and crew's save, she fights them and tells them about Incubus as well. There's not exactly much to say but it's for sure something.

Waku Puyo on the other hand is much more comedic than anything. During Schezo's route, she puts up fliers about her services all across the amusement park because... well, how else is she going to do her job? Kikimora tells Schezo and he goes off to the races because he wants to meet Succubus, you can take a guess as to why. (Schezo never really thinks THAT ahead in this game to be fair). Meeting up with her, Succubus wonders if he's there to become her servant, which Schezo just kinda says no to because he doesn't serve anyone but himself, and she gets pretty upset at that since to her, he's a handsome man, she should have said handsome man because it's her moral right. Schezo isn't one to fight about who deserves what, because he deserves his magic to be back after getting stolen, and as such, he doesn't care.

They can run into each other again at the Battle Tower, where Succubus decides that she's not going to sell her business in a random amusement park, but to be an usher for the tower... I mean a career choice is always alright. Here, there's not much to discuss as she's more-or-less the blurb you're required to read to understand the Battle Tower, but she does ask why Schezo wanted to meet her again, to which he says that he's not here for her, he promises that much. Succubus then laughs and says he's easy to tease, which is true. He is the second most bullyable man in the series next to Satan for the cast.

It's sorta what you expect from a Succubus, them trying to seduce men and getting mad when the men resist. And Schezo apparently is really good at resisting them, but she can still find room to just troll the guy at least a little bit. Man, ANYONE can bully this guy.

-----

Skeleton-T:

(Once the coolest dude ever, forever the coolest dude ever.)

Skeleton-T, oh this goofy guy. He's been with us since the very start at this point, and has sadly faded away into someone that not as many people remember, despite the fact that he's a pretty funny skeleton. We had two skeletons take over Tumblr a few years back, so it isn't anything that special, though. But Skeleton-T really is a real one. I personally really like the guy despite the fairly minimal roles he's usually played throughout the series.

How do I explain THIS funny skeleton, I hear you ask. I'm glad the voices that don't exist have asked such a question, and I'll be very happy to answer... Skeleton-T is just a really chill skeleton who likes tea. He offers it to people often, and gets mad when they say no to it, which plays a key role in uh... every single thing he does ever. Other than that, he's pretty chill, even if he gets a grand total of one customer a day. And I like that about him. So what does he even do relating to Schezo? ...It's Waku Puyo, what'd you expect? Something NEW? If only.

Skeleton-T and Schezo... I mean Schezo doesn't actually hate the guy, really. He can find him annoying with the tea thing, but he's never really mad at the guy, all things considered. He's the first boss of the game, as expected with most of the encounters with Skeleton-T, where he asks Schezo if he wants a cup of tea. If Schezo declines, he does in fact get mad at you and the boss begins, though clicking yes I believe leads to a different result. After this fight, Skeleton-T can be seen just kinda wandering PuyoPuyo Land, having a fun time just doing what he wants... until he gets kicked outta some store because of Succubus.

Yeah, when Succubus begins posting her fliers all over the place, Skeleton-T kinda sorta got kicked outta the store he was working at, though I like to pretend that it was a Subway and his sandwich was just that ass, but besides the jokes, he does in fact tell Schezo that some woman (Succubus) kinda threw him out of his store, and Schezo wonders if Skeleton-T was just slacking off if anything, considering he doesn't seem like that sort of person. Either way, Schezo's not really mad at the guy, he was just wondering deep down if Skeleton-T is either a slacker or he legit got booted outta a store. Which he sadly did, that DAMN Succubus ruining a man's 9-5...

Schezo can run into Skeleton-T sometimes in the dungeon's he explores, and oftentimes heals your HP and MP if you sit down and actually drink his tea alongside him. One notable instance can be in the Horror House, where he mentions that for once, he had another customer, a blonde girl who laughed quite often, and Schezo realizes that his two biggest enemies (Arle and Rulue) do in fact, NOT have blonde hair, so he wonders who's the mystery person in this case. I wonder as well...

Schezo runs into him one more time when the Ultimate Tower emerges, where Skeleton-T is freaking out because not ONLY did a tower appear outta nowhere, but even his tea spilled... quite the sad fate, and one fate that leaves Schezo confused at where his priorities really land. And their last talk mostly has Skeleton-T mention that Schezo should sit down and relax a bit with some tea, to which Schezo jokes that the guys brain as well as tea gotta just be green at this point. Skeleton-T takes this as Schezo asking for green tea, which he stops for a bit and wonders for a bit, with Schezo internally saying "...I was joking."

The thing is when it comes to this funny little guy is that his interactions will always involve tea. Talks with Arle, Schezo, even Ringo when he appeared with two other random dudes in Puyo 7 involve tea, it's who he is. But what I like is that the guy here is just... kinda casual about it until someone says no. Granted, Schezo is neutral with the guy and is frankly wondering where the hell his priorities are, but he can sit down every so often and be his only customer, if only because you're playing as Schezo. Go support the local tea business, man.

-----

Doppelganger Schezo:

(I just really like these lines. And there's not many good Doppel Schezo images to begin because he's niche.)

Doppelganger Schezo, Doppelganger Arle, Lilith, what do these three even have in common? Besides the fact that they're the perfect characters to create headcanons with because they don't even do much, Doppelganger Schezo strikes to me as more interesting of the entire bunch, as there's actually something to him in this game, and I really like what they went with in Schezo's route, it's genuinely something that's really fun to discuss with a grand total of... what, four people? So I get to share this with the class, which is going to be very fun.

So who IS Doppelganger Schezo, where did he come from? It's a good place to start, considering that I'll discuss his personality later. To begin, he's what is called "The Space-Time Crystal", the actual "prize" of PuyoPuyo Land, he's what the entire crew is searching for the entire game, might I add. How he came to be was actually quite simple; Schezo was exploring a labyrinth that always changed its layout when he left the place, so every time would take longer and longer because he'd never know what the layout will be. After finally reaching the crystal, it begins to talk to him, and begins to sap him of all his energy, as Schezo himself before the game properly begins is actually impressively strong. Schezo runs out, conserving what little energy he has left, and is the reason why he starts off weak to begin with. He's THE reason Schezo goes to the place to begin with, to restore his lost powers.

Throughout the entire game, Doppelganger Schezo lurks in the shadows, as we never see his full design until the very end of the game after all three characters have beaten Satan... which is a very tall task in of itself. In this time, he constantly berates Schezo in a menacing and foreboding tone, but is surprised when Schezo does in fact continue on through the dungeons and getting stronger. He's even surprised when Schezo beats Satan.

Finally seeing his full design, Schezo realizes that the voice taunting him was none other than a clone of himself. And it's everything that Schezo was back at the start of the game: Arrogant, confident, a man who will mock you because he knows he's stronger than you. He's proud to take Schezo's magic, taunting him about that fact, stating he wonders who siphoned his magic with a cheeky smirk, before Schezo begins to think about how he knows that his powers got taken. The lines you see him saying are (at least how I interpret and write it):

"Really? The so called "Dark Mage" is going to "defeat" me, of all people? Are you going to go all out, or is that "Dark Mage" nothing but a bluff?"

He's every negative Schezo has. Yet how does that relate to Schezo himself? It's because he's the way to show how much Schezo has grown throughout the entire game. The Doppelganger we see is nothing more than someone trying to be Schezo's past self, and we know through the course of the game that Schezo has grown as a person, whether he likes to admit it or not. He's willing to talk more to people, help them out if he wants to, and even support people when they need some help. He grows to care at least a bit for Kikimora, telling her to not cry and apologizes for his mistakes, becomes friends with Serilly and eases to her greatly, adding on that he's willing to help her if she truly needs it. He takes the precautions Satan says seriously, he feels bad for yelling at Arle. These moments show that yes, Schezo himself has grown greatly as a person (even if he thinks he's going insane), not to mention becoming even stronger as a whole. And Doppelganger Schezo represents what he was before, and something he must finally overcome.

And he does so after a hard-fought battle. Doppelganger Schezo begins to collapse, his body being unable to maintain itself, the tower, all of PuyoPuyo Land. He admits that he's nothing but a clone, someone replicating Schezo, as Schezo himself realizes that the voice in that labyrinth he was at was none other than Doppel, and that he's the one who stole his powers. As Schezo says it's time to regain his old powers back, Doppelganger Schezo stops him, saying that there's no need for such limited power, as Schezo has shattered his own limits and has become even stronger, siphoning him wouldn't do any favors. As the amusement park begins to collapse, Doppel admits that everything will be gone, including him, and with one final sendoff and smirk, teleports everyone who was in the amusement park away, while he and the entire place explode.

As Schezo wakes up again, realizing everything is gone, he realizes that Doppelganger Schezo was more than just a clone, but his old self. The old self that he beat on his own, on his own merit and powers HE gained for himself. As Arle, Satan, and Rulue show up to ask if he's OK, Schezo is surprised at the fact that Doppelganger Schezo even did such a thing for everyone, yet can't help but feel an underlying respect for him.

I love these scenes, as we see everything the game was pushing for Schezo's route, his growth as a person and as a fighter. No matter what, Doppelganger Schezo was just that; A doppelganger who was able to steal someone's abilities, yet that person worked back up to the top to break their limits. He's such a fascinating character, and I'm surprised there's even this much to talk about. Do NOT ask how he's back in Puyo Puyo Box though, I cannot answer that question.

-----

Runelord:

(Wooo, yeah this guy...)

Runelord. GOD I do not like him at all, he's supposed to be important for Schezo's story and whatnot, but I swear it feels like the most nothing thing despite it being genuinely important. But alas, he's important and I have to talk about him, despite all my rage.

So who is this guy, anyways? Truth be told, there's like three versions of him because why not via the novels, so it's kinda conflicting. In the game he's in though, he's a 200 year old mage who was sealed away by a great hero. That hero is implied to be Lagnus, I believe, but don't take my word for that. He tries to find the next user of the Dark Sword, or better known as Schezo's Sword. Y'see where this is going?

He's ONLY in Madou S, and is the final boss of the route. Throughout the game, he tries to make a then 14 year old Schezo become the next Dark Mage, though Schezo keeps declining and resisting the urge to say yes. He's on a field trip after all. However, at the end of the game, Schezo succumbs to the temptation, and well. We know what he becomes throughout the series.

...That's kinda it for the guy. There's tons of other lore questions that we're bound to ask, but that involves going into True Madou Monogatari, which isn't... canon, at all. I remember when we all thought it was until we learned by the actual people who knew the series that no, it wasn't canon and was just a cool name. Yet that's why people think Lilith is super interesting, so there's that. But seriously, there's not too much to cover with him, besides the fact that he's the reason Schezo holds the sword he does.

It's IMPORTANT, no doubt, but he's a one-off enemy in a game, even Count makes more appearances compared to this guy. There's really not that much.

----

Ringo and Ecolo:

(As of writing this section, it's February 13th. I began this on August 22nd.)

Ah, Ringo. Only the third A Girl that gets shafted more often than I like to imagine, second being Atari due to her little circumstance of being in a Japanese only game, and then Ally… who’s been shafted ever since her inception, she’s not even a real thing in Puyo Puyo Tetris 2, but rather just some side mission where she says she loves Marle and the himejoshi’s went wild. (As did most of the fanbase.) And Ecolo, that guy sure exists. Yeah.

But I’m getting off track, we’re talking about Ringo here… as well as Ecolo but alas, there brings a problem… there’s not exactly much TO mention, sadly. Schezo didn’t exist in SEGA Puyo until Puyo 7 decided to bring him back from the dead right after he went missing… and then nothing with him because he’s not really all too plot relevant. We're reaching the segments where some entries will be decently long, and then others (like these two) will become dreadfully short. These two will become dreadfully short.

So to describe these two folks, Ringo and Ecolo, those two people. Ringo herself is the most down-to-earth person in the main cast, as she's basically what we get when we throw in a teenage girl who's too into mathematics into the world of Puyo, and she does her job decently well. She's the one that plays almost everything straight... and Ecolo is the exact opposite of that. He's always the one randomly causing issues, or if there's a problem, he probably knows because... Deus-Ex Machina's idk. (It's in reality because he travels space a lot and can see a lot, but prefers to do chaotic nonsense for the love of the game.)

Ringo's interaction only really extends up to Puyo 7 and 20th Anni, where he's one of the first people she runs into during the third act, The World Wonders arc as I like to call it, where she has to travel across the world to find every wonder, which included Egypt. WHY Schezo was teleported to Egypt is my own guess, but we don't gotta worry about that, just know that his cape is top tier now. What matters is that he's hungry, very hungry for being stranded in the middle of Egypt out of literally nowhere, and asks for Ringo's apple, but phrases it as him wanting her, the classic blunder. Ringo, understandably concerned, fights him off, and he just leaves in anger because he couldn't get the apple. Little did he know though, that was all he was going to do the entire story. Quite fun.

Ringo also appears in Schezo's story, when he's trying to find Satan and kick his ass just because he's really upset at the guy. Ringo throws the pervert allegations directly at him without him saying anything crazy to her, so much so that both he and Arle herself have to mention that it's JUST the power Arle has, not even Arle herself. Ringo doesn't really care, as she finds the guy as a whole weird as hell, they fight, and she leaves, calling the guy a pervert again. Schezo then hates the fact that all he is considered to some is just that; Some random ass pervert.

There's not really a major dynamic to talk about with these two, it's mostly just Ringo seeing this guy as a massive freak, but also apparently one of Arle's friends by 20th anniversary, while also still thinking that he's just one big freak. Schezo doesn't really seem to like her much, either. Ecolo's section is even shorter. In 20th, he just senses Ecolo after the end of is story and Ecolo is impressed. However, during the final story, Schezo does appear to fight Satan, and then notify to both Arle and Ringo that he senses that something bad is going to happen considering that Satan and Ecolo are planning something together, which for our A Duo, spells big trouble.

In Puzzle Pop, there's more interactions at the very least. In Arle's story route, Arle and Schezo do run into Ecolo, who was also dragged into this entire dream world, and blame him for the whole dimension thing, because who wouldn't blame someone who can cross through spacetime easily? Ecolo does mention that he could try and leave, but it's not something he can casually do, and acts clueless about knowing about Meena, before Arle and Schezo fight him. After the fight, it turns out that (of course), Ecolo knows everything about who the culprit is, laughs it off, and tells the two to rendezvous with their friends.

Now why did I even focus on these people despite the fact they have next to nothing on them? Good question, it's because it really goes to show how little these Suzuran people get in terms of interaction with others not really named Ringo. I WISH they interacted more, but they tend to be much more comfortable making each era of games talk to only said era of games, and don't really expand beyond that. But Puzzle Pop changing that makes me at least a bit more content with that. But alas, we gotta make do with what we have.

-----

Amitie:

(I got two images left, I gotta make these count.)

Here is the other A Girl, the second one in line to the now FIVE we have, and Ally still forever gets shafted no matter how hard we try. It's just the rules of the land that Ally will never ever get anything remotely cool despite it always being so dang close. I like Amitie nowadays, though she took quite some time to get used to, but eventually I got used to the bundle of energy and stupidity that she is and can also be sometimes. But that's fine.

What do we really know about Amitie as a whole? Well, we've known her for well over 20 years at this point (the game came out in 2003, I wasn't even a concept when it dropped), but she's been pretty consistent throughout the series. She's incredibly energetic and upbeat, always having some sorta positive attitude about things as a whole, and aspires to be a great magician. She's been reminding us of that for said 20 years, by the way. Yeah she can be pretty clueless about some more deeper stuff, but her heart is always in the right place. Now how does this relate to Schezo Wegey, who's kinda the exact opposite of what I just mentioned? I'm glad I asked myself, because they interact about three times in the entire series. Which is more than Ringo, ain't that a bit unfortunate.

The first time they talk is in 15th Anni, where Schezo is actually the last fight of Amitie's story, so that's fun. AND he has a good theme to boot. But besides that, Amitie doesn't really recognize Schezo at all, and neither does he, since he's from a completely different place than her. However, something he does notice is Amitie's red Puyo cap, and mentions that it has some latent powers, and that she doesn't really see it, before asking for her (cap). Amitie, understandably, is freaked out by this, and calls him a weirdo, before he has to clarify that he meant the cap, not her, yet he's still called a weirdo. Such is the whims of fate. They then again talk in Puyo 7, where it's actually kinda more or less the same thing, where he talks about wanting Amitie's power (and hat), before she very obviously freaks out and calls him out. Not really much to discuss here to begin with, since it's kinda the same talk in two different games. Schezo is still pretty keen when it comes to latent powers and what can go on, but he still sucks at wording everything that he does or say, ergo, he's always going to fail. Amitie on the other hand, is concerned that some dude with a sword and white hair is asking for her (cap), which is understandable, I'd be scared as hell too.

The final time they really... interact is during the DLC chapter of Puyo Puyo Tetris, where she's in the way of Schezo, who's pursuing Sig for his hand, and attempts to fend off Schezo to the best of her ability. However, because he's the playable character and not her, she loses, and accidentally tells Schezo where Sig might be, while he heads off. A rookie mistake by her, if I say so myself.

-----

Sig and Klug:

(I'm REALLY running outta images, man. But hey, this has both of them, Schezo, AND Satan for the love of the game.)

These two are going to be talked about in a joint entry for a couple of reasons. The first one being that I can condense these sort of things a lot easier, as when characters have a bit less to talk about, I can simply combine some entries to make my writing shorter, more condense, the three miles. Learned that one in college...

The second and more important reason is because they're often paired together in terms of talking, and they do have some things in common with each other and Schezo as a whole, so I think it'd be fitting to at least discuss them together. At the very least, Klug has more interesting things than Sig in that aspect. And third of all... Puyo Puyo Tetris.

But ANYWHO, Sig and Klug. I like these guys, they're pretty decent to me, which is a fall off for Sig because when I first got into the series he was my favorite, then fell out when PPT1/2 dropped because it turns out that he felt a bit stale for me. Klug has always been someone I liked though, at least. But lets explain these folks.

Sig himself is a very... spacey sorta person. He seems aware of the things around him, but never tends to care much in general, or tends to never understand the gravity of it because he's off in his own little world doing his own thing, usually being collecting insects because he likes them so much. (Is there a lore reason why Sig collects bugs? Is he stupid?) He does things at his own pace, if you will. However, the main claim to fame besides this is his left arm, which is a very distinct red, seemingly corrupted by SOMETHING. Because of that, he has latent powers inside of them, something that's been explored quite a bit when it comes to how it works. If anything, it seems like more of a curse than anything, but he doesn't mind it at all for the most part. Sure that arm can lead into horrors beyond all comprehension, but it's fine, he'll survive.

However, his hand can indeed cause problems, such as... uh, the entirety of Puzzle Pop as a whole. Because Sig was willing to work with Meena mostly because they considered each other friends, the spirit of the hand got to him and he became much more cold and ruthless compared to what he usually is, which is...the exact opposite of that.

When it comes to Klug, there's actually quite a lot of similarities with him and Schezo. The constant need to get better at what they do, both being users of dark magic (kinda sorta), the fact they're annoyed by the titular A girl and have a massive rivalry with the R girl, them both being cursed in some way or form (Possessed Klug is rearing his stupid head), there's actually quite a good bit. Klug himself is pretty different compared to Schezo. A guy who is actually pretty mid by himself, the most average joe to ever average in the Puyo World. As such, he works himself to the bone to be the top of his class, and as such, uses the book he has to make himself stronger... even if the book is actually holding a spirit that can possess him and take over his body. But sometimes we gotta take calculated risks to get better, even if the results end up with you no longer having control of your body. Happens to the best of us.

(Mostly) Klug:

For Klug standalone, there is two interaction, Puzzle Pop as well as 20th Anniversary. In Schezo's story, Klug runs into the cave that Schezo resides in, mostly there for the crystals that apparently give more power to his magic, while Schezo tells him to leave his cave, and since Klug refuses, a battle happens that he loses and runs away from, making Schezo more annoyed than anything.

For Sig and Klug together, the main moment everyone points to is the DLC chapter for Schezo in Tetris 1, where Schezo chases around Sig for his hand and latent powers, and Sig... well, he finds him to be a freak, and runs away from the guy. Meanwhile with Klug, when Schezo runs into him, he's yelling at his book to shut up. Schezo, confused as one should be, tells him to move aside and asks why bro is yelling at a book, and Klug notes that ever since Sig ran by, his book has been chattering, before realizing that the voices are back (The spirit itself). He begins to yell at the book, telling it all the evil things he will do to it... such as leaving it in the bathroom, and creasing the pages on the upper-right corners. The sheer horrors of what Akuma will have to do for that book, and also that spirit itself.

After Schezo helps with the book, Klug asks why he even wants to approach Sig, since he's running from... well, Schezo. He replies with the classic "I just want to examine him all over!" line, and Klug glosses through that before realizing The Implications and runs off as well.

Their interaction in Puzzle Pop is slightly different, with Klug realizing that the book that he holds has a lot of latent power, and Schezo was looking for Klug BECAUSE of that book, and asks him to hand it over because he thinks it'll have knowledge about Meena. As expected, Klug is NOT gonna give the book, as he states that it's quite literally one with him, and fights Schezo to defend the book. After Klug's loss, when Schezo asks again for the book, Klug hits the classic "There's a UFO in the sky" and Schezo falls for the trick as he runs.

What do I gather from these talks? Despite the parallels that are given, Schezo is mostly annoyed by Klug if anything, and vise versa, the feeling is mutual. There's a slight comedy in figuring out that Schezo is beefing with a literal schoolboy over a book on TWO different occasion, and the other was because he was annoying Schezo's quiet time. Like I stated prior, the parallel's are kinda there, but we know deep down they won't do much with them. I like both, I really do, and I'm hoping for a little more between them another time.

Sig:

The main discussion point people want to talk about is Sig, and it's kinda obvious as to why, they're probably the two most popular characters in the Western fandom, and still pretty damn popular in Japan. The entire Chapter 9 story happens because of the fact that Schezo wants to examine Sig's hand and learn about it and gets it power. As such, Sig runs away from him for the entire chapter and Schezo goes by several people he knows and considers his friends (or for the case of Lemres, someone he just knows).At the end of the story, Schezo finally gets to Sig, and states that Sig's hand is now his and to give it to him, and a battle ensues. After Sig loses, we see him in the saddest state we've seen him be in ever, as he realizes that he has to leave all of his bug friends on his hand (Side note, imagine how awful that'd feel for so many people), and when Schezo realizes it, he calls off the entire search.

This entire thing was the basis of the story summed up into a single paragraph. If you're looking at this paper and expecting me to psychoanalyze Chapter 9 for what it holds when deep down it's a comedy chapter, you'd be half-right. For people like Klug, I do it because it's their ONLY interaction together. But Sig has another one in Puzzle Pop, which is more interesting.

Schezo in his own story spends the entire time chasing around Meena, this time to figure out what's going on and to take her powers, sound familiar? While doing so, he runs into many illusions of his friends for his desire to fight powerful opponents, but he finally catches up to Meena. Just as he's about to take her powers, Sig appears outta nowhere and tells Schezo to back off, which confuses him. The Sig he's hearing is much more aggressive and fierce than the one he knows, and this Sig doesn't want Schezo to interfere with anything that he and Meena are planning.

After fighting Schezo, Meena escapes and Sig laughs it off, saying he has no further business with Schezo, leaving as he does so. Schezo then deduces that what Lemres told him (I'll explain in the next entry) was true, and that Sig is most likely the culprit in this entire problem they're in, as well as seeming much stronger than he ever seemed, and realizes he has to dig deeper to truly get to understanding this entire thing.

What's so interesting about this is the fact that Schezo interacts with two completely different Sigs, the one that we see in Puyo Tetris that doesn't like him at all and runs away from him and doesn't like him at all, and the much more confrontational Sig that we see in Puzzle Pop. Schezo reacts in completely different ways too, from his confident self to realizing Sig is just kinda an innocent kid in Tetris, to being surprised that Sig would defend Meena and realize that he's most likely the culprit of the game, taking the situation more seriously than he ever has beforehand. I'm glad it's strayed away from wanting Sig's latent power and the normal wacky hijinks that always happens with these two into something that could be a lot more interesting to just look at, and I'm grateful that it's moving elsewhere.

-----

Lemres:

(Saving him for last because he's my personal fave. Schezo is...my 5th favorite.)

Lemres, this guy is pretty much my favorite character in the series despite my blog being all about old Compile nonsense as well as some Quest stuff here and there. Despite me being... well, the guy that mentions Waku Puyo a ton, I do hold a very soft spot for Fever and Suzuran, because I like a lotta things about Puyo, not just one era. And way to end it with a popular character, huh?

The guy has his fans, I'm one of them, and many insane fans, I am not one of them. But the appeal for the guy is very much there, he's a very chill person with a lot of mystery around him and surprising lore. Y'know, the stuff about him first being a dark mage, but since he didn't like it and his parents forced him to do be such things, he ran away from home and became a Comet Warlock. He's a prodigy in that aspect, and is insanely respected by Klug and Feli... to maybe concerning degrees. His magic runs on sweets, ergo, why he always has so many and is good at making them. There's quite a good bit we dunno about the guy, and that draws people in. And the parts we do know draw more people in. And that's why he's so beloved. Kinda funny that he shares a Voice Actor with Sig (Ben Diskin), who's also incredibly popular.

But enough about the guy. You've reached so far in this thing, I may as well give you one last hurrah with this stuff.

The first time these two ever meet is in Schezo's story of 15th Anniversary. Lemres was told to be the light by Feli, and Schezo must be an assassin of darkness...in his very first fight. When they meet, Schezo realizes that this is the fabled Lemres that she was talking about, and Lemres notes that he's a dark mage off a bit of sensing it as a Comet Warlock. As Schezo boasts that Feli fought admirably, Lemres tells him that he's not going to get any candy since he bullied Feli... which makes Schezo think that Lemres himself is a perv. Lemres takes this rather casually, saying he's never been called that before, and even says he doesn't swing that way to Schezo after he asked him to be his desire, before Schezo clarifies he meant Lemres's power, not Lemres himself. I really like how casual Lemres is about all of this, most people freak out or call Schezo a pervert, but he just shrugs it off and wonders about why he was called one for offering candy. Then again, if most people offer free candy, there might be a bit more to that deal.

Their next interactions is actually in Lemres's storyline in 20th Anniversary. Throughout the entire thing, Lemres has been out of energy because he hasn't been having enough sweets, and most things have not been working well at all. He passed out from salt, and almost passed out again from exhaustion, he was going through the wringer. He randomly stumbles into Schezo's cave and realizes that he SOMEHOW baked an entire cake for himself. Lemres, delusional, jumps Schezo because of that. After he wins, he comments that the cake was alright, but nowhere good as his, yet thanks him and leaves. Compared to the last interaction... I mean we're dealing with a Lemres with exhaustion, the interaction is much more deliberately comedic. That's not to say the 15th Anni talk wasn't, but in a way, it was more subdued, and even flipped the script a bit of Schezo asking Lemres the question instead, and him replying back pretty casually all things considered. I'm not really a big fan of the interaction personally, but I don't think it's bad.

What I DO think isn't a good interaction (IMO) is their talk in Puyo Puyo Tetris, least on Schezo's end. Once again, we run back to Chapter 9, where Schezo is running for Sig and runs into Lemres, who's "Just taking a stroll". They exchange names via their titles, and Schezo thinks Lemres is hiding something from him. On the other hand, Lemres offers him a lollipop just because he seems angry, and they fight due to Schezo's being a bit too angry and him needing some manners. (Oh and the insert whatever you like innuendo is there too ig.)

After the fight, Lemres casually admits that he hopes he delayed Schezo long enough, and that it'd be pretty bad if he and Sig crossed paths...even if it was in a dream. This confuses the hell outta Schezo, who wants answers, but Lemres strolls away, asking for another battle when he wakes up. Schezo just wonders what he meant by a dream, and that if it was the case, everyone else would also be asleep, including Lemres. And they're not sleeping together for sure.

Despite what I said about me not really liking this interaction much, again, it's only really for the Schezo side. He's just agitated and kinda out there to yell and throw out an innuendo, while Lemres just kinda stalls and asks him if he wants a lollipop, least for the first part. The second part does interest me a bit though, what with Lemres saying all that dream nonsense, refuses to elaborate, and just leaves after saying he'd like to battle again sometime. The guy is both confusing and a troll and I'm all for it.

After the fight, Schezo begrudgingly tells Lemres a theory he has: Sure it could very much be Satan or Ecolo up to no good again, but what if it's not them for once? He notes that this sort of power shouldn't be possible by just Meena, so she must've had help from someone. Noting the kid with the red hand (Sig), he finishes his theory and leaves after Lemres asks if he wants candy again. Connecting the dots, Lemres decides to seek out Sig.

What I like about this interaction so much is that Lemres constantly plays the straight man to Schezo's typical antics, though this time, they're both playing it straight. Schezo doesn't trust Lemres, who really just wants answers for what's going on, and they play the roles really damn well. Also helps that they're both smart in-lore, and Schezo continues to prove that Puzzle Pop is his best SEGA outing ever.

With Schezo's story, it's very different due to the fact that it's somewhat similar to Puyo Tetris 1's interaction. Lemres this time is stalling for Meena, mostly because if we want to go off of his story, Meena isn't actually all that dangerous, plus Schezo tends to get physical with people he tries to get. Sound familiar? Schezo takes this as Lemres working for Meena when in reality he just doesn't want Schezo to actually hurt Meena. However, something I do want to mention is Lemres mentioning the whole “Never run into Sig, even if it's a dream” thing. In Puzzle Pop, they kinda ARE in a dream, a collective one at the least. Now I doubt that SEGA was actually planning to make Puzzle Pop and then tie into that little interaction they had together, because that'd be some Aizen level foreshadowing. And as much as I love Puyo, I doubt it's one of those series with foreshadowing like THAT.

Yet as stated prior, the way these two act towards each other has people on their knees for more. The laid-back, almost suspicious and mysterious demeanor of Lemres compared to the usually more brash Schezo, they clash very well for being opposites of one another in terms of skill sets. They're both smart guys, they both understand the situations they're thrown in (save for 20th anni), and despite Schezo often seeing Lemres as some sorta roadblock that always seems to stand in his way, he still respects the guys talent and title, they do only call each other by their titles.  That’s kinda sick.

-----

Conclusion.

So, after all of that text, all that lore dumping, talking about dynamics, who each character is and how they interact with Schezo, what did we learn? Well, what I hope I taught you is that the dynamics of a character can shift so heavily within almost 30-ish years of being a thing. For a personality that's stay relatively the same since his inception, Schezo is a pretty layered character, and his interactions with everyone he meets can be so different, so unique. That by in part is also because the characters he interacts with are also incredibly interesting in their own right, and seeing each of them bounce off one another is really fun.

Schezo at his core is an aloof swordsman who's actually quite smart, even with a major tendency to flub his words and make people assume he's a perv. And look where that went. I covered many characters in this, and there's STILL some I'm probably missing that are either too short to cover or the like. (Characters such as Sasori Man come to mind, alongside others like maybe Feli.) Yet here we are, about 26K words into this, at the very end of this all. Even comedy can have layers, and Puyo is no different. At it's core it's a silly "Blob go pop" game, but there's actually quite a lot to uncover underneath that surface. From the genuinely nice talks he can have with Serilly, to the rivalry between Arle and Rulue, to the parallels like Lagnus and Klug, to flipping his role on his head with Lemres and Witch, there's was quite a lot to mention...and quite a bit I missed. After all, I can only do so much. I didn't even mention some games such as Chronicle or Quest much, that'd still be quite the herculean task. But I do genuinely hope this at least made you learn something new, and that's a win in my books.

And Thanks.

With that, I'm also here to say thanks. Thank you for reading all of this, or at the very least, skimming through some parts to what interested you, I do want to give my heartfelt thanks to everyone.

I also want to give my heartfelt thanks to my friends, the people who proofread this, who helped me get information I otherwise would've missed, the people who cheered me on despite the fact there were in fact a couple of times I just wanted to quit this because of the length... I have quite a list of people I want to thank for everything. Just on Tumblr, at least:

I want to thank specifically:

@kirstenonic05, basically my coworker and the person who helped me get so damn far to begin with.

@dremyink06, For helping me get some vital info for characters such as Lagnus.

@enfoe-afiend, @somegalnamedristet, @sbaily, @therealprincesalde, @redamity I'm listing them all at once because not only did they help with quite a lot of editing, but they also helped cheered me on when it was getting kinda tiring to write.

And...a whole lot more people who don't have Tumblr's or I'm unsure have them, but are still very much my friends nevertheless. There are quite a lot of you, y'know. Thank you all. This was in no way in hell a solo project, and you made this project a lot more enjoyable than it could've been. I may have missed a few things, or even messed up a detail, but I hope that this work can help people learn more about... my 5th favorite character in the series. My Tumblr followers and other voters really said "Make the long ass document about Schezo", and I sure as hell did. And it only took 1 and a half college semesters. Thanks for tuning in. Have a nice day. Adios for now.

[haryuwu]

🪞 Twisted Wonderland | Le Mirage

Author's note: Chapter 5 is here! 👏 After several months of not writing, I have returned to finish where I left of. Thank you for waiting this long as well! 🥺

“So you’re saying…” The Saintess of the Mirage family can see the future. Shocking, but not impossible to imagine. Those who are given a powerful gift are said to be favored by god. Such power she holds…to witness calamities before her eyes must’ve shaken her spine knowing it is meant to be inevitable.

“I never felt even more threatened in my entire life before! Was she implying that something terrible will destroy my school?!" The headmage slammed his palms against his table in distraught. The two yelped at the sight of an angered crow—and for once, they thought not to provoke him especially when it involved the college’s grave predicament. 

It was indeed an outrageous prophecy, however, they couldn’t confirm it just yet now that the Saintess had not yet clarified what was going to happen in the future. Was it close to happening? 

Just a few years away? Weeks? Days? Or…in just a few hours? Oh dear…let's not assume the worst just yet. 

"Anywho, whatever she had declared to me, the event must continue! If something strange happens, notify me right away," they stammered before they could deliver their protest. They were eventually shooed away from the headmage’s office, door slamming behind them before they could even see his disastrous rage.

Grim scratched the back of his head as he broke the silence between them, “...So what now? Should we just tell the others about this?” Obviously, they shouldn’t. Grim must’ve forgotten what the headmage had just explained earlier. The Prefect could only wish he had paid more attention to the problem.

Although it is indeed alarming enough to announce it to their friends…Wasn’t the headmage supposed to ask them another favor regarding this issue? How peculiar...Perhaps he’s too confident to say that no terrible things will occur in this school. Or is he becoming more responsible to do his job as the headmage?

Maybe, just maybe…let’s just leave it at that.

The platinum gray haired maiden rushed towards the forest as it is the only place she could think of heading first. The breeze caresses her every being, every strand of her locks sway beautifully along with her dirtied skirt. Her trembling did not come from the cold wind but her fear of failing to pass a message she’s been itching to tell the world.

…Not the world, but just anyone at this point.

“I’ve done it…I finally said it.” Same words escaped her lips, repeating them like a broken record. Her knees soon failed her by the time she gazed up at the sky as it was peeking through dancing tree leaves. The grass pierced the surface of her skin without wounding her, but she wished it was painful enough to wake her from dazing. It gave her enough space to take deep breaths and just stare at the sky blankly whilst the light went through the gaps of greens from above. 

Beside her is a puddle of water that has yet to evaporate completely. Yet she instinctively shut her eyes, avoiding it ever existing.

Louise can feel her eyes throbbing with a strong burning urge behind her eyelids, assumingly searching for another story to be witnessed that has yet to be foretold. Yet more questions loomed within her, then confusion soon took over. This power she holds is becoming more uncontrollable the closer the prophesied event gets as the days go by.

“...Why did I just say that to the headmage? Of all people—” The moment she blurted out the words she’s not supposed to spill…she regretted it instantly. She did expect him to doubt her words. It was never new to her that someone wouldn’t believe what she has seen through a glass or anything alike. 

However, a small voice still shouts within her heart that she must announce it to him as he was the only adult she can confess about the danger his school will be in. If they still keep doubting her words…the brightness of her existence will soon be tainted with ink. Utter darkness that every mage avoids from corrupting them.

'What if they continue to ignore it? What if they don't believe me?' Those questions continue to leech on her, recalling when everything fell apart that the truth she spoke of ended up being trampled coldly. Was it the time she made her first friend?

Ah, yes.

It was when she first came to realize she possesses an ability that every Mirage wanted to have, yet seen by many as either a bane of magic or a blessing. Even from a young age, she kept witnessing glimpses of occurrences through a looking glass or anything that's clear enough for her to stare intently. 

She was only 5, innocent, pure, and as bright as the full moon. Her beauty is tremendously adored by many. The girl could only wish for a friend around her age to play with in which her parents quickly fulfilled. She was moved by their willingness to give her anything. After all, she’s their one and only precious daughter.

However, those things had only given her temporary joy. It was supposed to make her happy, so they kept introducing her to other children that may interest her. Yet to no avail, little Louise could only force a smile while stating her gratitude.

What exactly caused their daughter to feel so blue? They had no idea, they never asked her even once. They could only think of making her meet more people to create stronger connections for their business. As the only heir of the Beau Company, it is natural to go through these lengths.

Despite their efforts, their daughter eventually began to forget how to smile genuinely. The only reason that has been keeping their daughter aloof was that she was often called a liar. 

.

.

.

.

"Louise, Louise! You told me you can see the future, right? The thing where you don’t use a wand at all?" One of her cousins was genuinely curious how her ability works. She constantly asked her questions even if she wished not to answer them as she finds them quite frivolous.

"Could you tell me what I will be in the future? Will I marry a handsome man? Or a wealthy one?!" …Such as these questions.

Louise was taught not to rudely refuse any requests from her family. She was born to be a frank type of person and believes her ability will only be used for emergencies. She speaks her mind, even her thoughts may spill from time to time. She eventually learned to mind her words, may it be in front of a relative or a stranger. That’s thanks to being in a well off family, any proper etiquette was taught to the child.

"Please…give me a moment," Little Louise pulled out her pocket mirror to look through. There was a glint in her eyes that oftentimes any person close to her would mistake them as real gems. In fact it was how images of the future flash before her eyes.

After seeing the events through the pocket mirror, her brows slightly furrow before breaking the news to her expectant cousin. 

"You…" She paused as she felt her stomach churn. It was not a side effect from seeing the future…rather it was the future that she finds troubling for a child to see. But since her cousin asked, she might as well tell her honestly.

"I'm sorry, but from what I saw through the mirror…you wouldn't marry a handsome man. To be more precise, you won't be able to marry anyone."

"W-What do you mean? You’re pulling my leg, are you, Louise?"

"I do not intend to sing lies to you, my dear cousin. I am only telling what I really saw and that’s the truth," Her firm statements greatly angered her cousin, causing her to throw a tantrum. Because of this, Louise was believed to be a lying young lass whose appearance is perceived to be the only thing that’s great about her. 

At first, this little argument among the children of Mirages didn't bother her in the slightest. She was still confident in her looks as she is a spitting image of their great grandmother. But the more she was given ugly nicknames by her relatives, the more she lost her self esteem.

This problem kept occurring again, and again, and again, and again…

And again. 

Until one night…looking at herself in the mirror became unbearable. Little Louise announced to her parents that their ungrateful daughter does not want to see herself through any mirrors or glasses from this day onwards. Her every word caught all of them off guard. This child, who just turned 12, detests this ability that they so badly want to get their hands on. 

“It has greatly…ruined the connections you’ve worked hard on to make our family known again, mother, father. So, I do not wish to use it anymore,” she said as she lowered her head apologetically in front of the elder Mirages, that includes her parents. At first they questioned why she doesn’t want to use such a rare ability passed down for centuries. 

But her next response utterly silenced them.

“...No one ever once said the previous Saintess was a liar.” As much as she speaks the truth, there will be those who still envy such power bestowed upon her and completely disregard her pleas. 

“Indeed, you were right. You are an ungrateful child. If you do not want to become the next Saintess, how else are you going to increase your influence throughout Twisted Wonderland?!”

Her pleas were denied. Their sudden change of tone had caused her fear for the first time. Only apologetic words escaped her lips just as how she breathes. And now she never once again spoke about what she wanted after her parents were told to watch over her strictly from now on. 

Louise von Mirage grew up not to protest against her family ever again.

.

.

.

.

“Ah…” She almost thought the sky was sorrowful as she was. Beads of tears roll down her pristine skin. All the yells that rung inside her head formed into these salty pearls she has always wanted to throw into the sea. There’s still a pang in her heart that has yet to close its wounds. But who would be able to fix this miserable lady?

One person comes to mind as she clumsily wipes off her tears.

“I…have to send another letter to Vil,” Indeed, it was the boy she used to be with since childhood. Her only hope to escape from the shackles of the name Mirage. “I still haven’t received a reply as usual. Shall I give him a visit?” While still feeling lightheaded, Louise staggered to stand and walk back to Night Raven College in search of the dorms. 

…Knowing that she’ll get lost on her way.

At last, she managed to sneak into the Hall of Mirrors. The students seem to be busy within their respective dorms. Not even a single student roaming outside was found skipping to do a hectic preparation for her supposed arrival to the school. It is as if the school became an abandoned castle, similar to what she had witnessed through the looking glass.

“Which dorm was it again? He never told me anything before he blocked me from all of his socials…” Looking at each portal, there are notable dorm emblems on the walls made in gold. Fortunately, she recalls the attire Vil wears and what students like him always gush and complain about. Looks. 

She hopes she’ll spot attractive boys or just as presentable with proper posture as he does. She fears she might mistake a different dorm by just following someone who fits the criteria. “What was the color of their uniform again…? Was it violet?” A fitting color for his image. “Aah…I wish I could see his posts in Magicam. If only he didn’t block me,” she released a sigh before sneaking to the corner. 

Torches flicker in silence as she waits for students to appear in and out of their dorms. Only a few came out in crimson vests with very notable symbols painted on their faces. “What a unique makeup,” she thought. But it’s not what she’s looking for and continued to wait for more students to come out.

Soon a group of well built students rushed out of their dorm noisily. Their strides terrified the young lady at the corner as she held her breath. It wasn’t due to the smell they emit, but due to their nature of sensing her very presence. Their ears perked up towards her direction and yet they chose to ignore their instincts. Perhaps the spell she used still hasn’t worn off.

30 minutes had passed and her feet were beginning to go numb. She watched every student come and go with different comments about the upcoming ball. Assumptions on how the Saintess would look like, interests, dislikes…and gossip of finding a suitor. It was interesting enough to know what people know more about her, however…no one knows who she truly is. 

The poor damsel is just nothing but a reflection of what they want her to be. 

“We should’ve returned 10 minutes ago! Ugh, look how tanned I’ve become. If our housewarden saw me, I wouldn’t hear the end of his scolding,” A certain student caught her attention. Purple vest, neatly clothed, sort of pompous…Yes, this is it. They are the ones she’s been looking for. 

“Pomefiore…” As she whispered the dorm’s name while an image of Vil came into her mind, she didn’t waste any more time and went through the portal. The students who she followed unknowingly lead her close to the dorm’s gates. 

“Huh? Did you sense that?” One of the boys Louise has been tailing turned to ask his friends. Guessing from her energy waning, the spell of cloaking is close to breaking. She must find a spot to hide and slowly replenish her energy. 

With a quick side step, she hid behind one of the large vases to avoid suspicion. Her feet were bare and did not make a noise, fortunately. Assuming that every Pomefiore student is busy decorating the lounge, she mustn’t step into that area and find Vil quickly.

“But where is hisroom…?” She pondered for a moment. She cannot check every room without disturbing any boys in the building nor try to spy on them by gathering information that will surely waste her time.

A sound of clacking of a heel can be heard from a distance. Someone was approaching, so Louise quickly ran and hid herself behind the curtains. She prayed that no one would notice her bare feet exposed.

“Ah, roi du poison. I have seen your latest ad today. The moisturizer you’ve introduced to me miraculously softened the tips of my fingers!” A voice of a young man who seems to be eccentric echoed through the halls. 

“I have ordered 5 more boxes! Even without opening its lid, it smelled divine.” Smell…the lady thought of an idea. But she must hear the rest if ever he mentions the exact smell of this moisturizer…so that she must buy a whole set of it after this!

“It has a lot of fragrances and the staff insisted I use all of them. One of the samples was lavender. It sticks longer than the rest.” Louise’s chest tightens for a moment as he recognizes the other student’s voice. Isn’t that…

“Vil…?” There was no noise that left her mouth to speak that very name of the guy she’s been searching for at this very moment. It was as though uttering it in his presence would take her breath and lose him once again. 

“Oh yes, indeed! Didn’t you also mention she preferred that specific fragrance when you were both young?” Vil stopped on his tracks and faced the guy who she does not recognize. He seemed rather annoyed by his remarks. 

“Would you mind dropping this subject about her? I know you’re curious but it isn’t the right time,” Knowing the position of an important person within this building must’ve been incredibly hectic and exhausting. Keeping the same beauty to ever glow tremendously is also one of his jobs in the industry. Hearing that the talk about her bothers him…perhaps he hasn’t forgotten about the incident after all. 

“But dodging this subject wouldn’t do any good to your complexion. Don’t you think it’s time we try to mend your ties with her?” There’s nothing scarier than the silence before speaking the truth or a lie. The very things she couldn't handle from the boy she admires.

“...My ties with the Mirage are all tightened knots. Cutting it off is easier than trying to loosen it. So there’s nothing to mend,” Vil shattered Louise’s hopes of getting to reach for him once more. If that’s what he thinks of her, only one of the Mirages, then all of her effort to run away from the beginning was all for naught.

The pain she has felt from years ago suddenly returned, crushing her heart. She only stepped out just to see his silhouette going further away from her. She couldn’t feel her numb feet anymore nor did she feel the pearls of salt rolling down her cheeks. Unable to scream his name, she decided to turn away. However, when she finally turned around…

“Huh…?” A beautiful boy stood just 5 feet away with his mouth agape from the sight of her. He couldn’t react as loudly as he usually does as if he was struck by lightning. 

‘Who’s this?’ He thought. ‘A ghost? She’s too stunnin’!’ Although before his voice could utter those same questions, she disappeared into thin air. The glow she emitted shocked his young heart and those sorrowful eyes…At that moment, he’s convinced that what he just witnessed might’ve been a roaming ghost of beauty.

A weeping white lady.

“R-Rook! You saw that, didn’t you?! I can’t be the only one who saw that, right?!” Rook, who turned his head the moment before the lady disappeared, smiled from ear to ear. He sensed that someone had been spying on them even before Epel arrived. He secretly used his signature spell to locate her later if ever she attempts an escape. 

Her face was something that completely invaded his memory as soon as he saw her eyes. That beauty almost moved him to tears. 

“My…I don’t know what you’re talking about, monsieur crabapple.” Yet he still lied through his teeth.

To Be Continued

Previous Chapter ➵ Next Chapter

[cherubcameron]

You’re Losing Me

Part 2 of Cab Driver Theory

Maybe you should have felt embarrassed for how long it took for you to end things with Steve. You’d let the whole thing go on for longer than it should have. Six months in fact. Endless sleepless nights, thinking over and over about everything. How he was always away, probably in Nancy’s bed. Or a hotel room. It hurt you to think of it. It hurt you so much, you spend those nights crying.The fact that Steve had been cheating on you for the entire relationship. Including during the wedding.

It was all too much to take in. You could do two things either you leave during the night and or confront Steve. Something about confronting him, didn’t feel right to you. He could try and persuade you that what you saw was nothing. It wasn’t from Nancy. He’ll try to make you stay, you knew that much.

Finally you stared down at the pen and paper you had. He was still at work at the office. Quote, quote. Because you knew he really wasn’t. He was probably with Nancy, doing gods knows what.

You began to write.

Dear Cheater…

You ripped up the paper immediately, knowing that there was no point in name calling him. He knew what he was doing.

Dear Steve,

You already know why I’m writing this letter. While you spend time with Nancy tonight and for several nights more. I won’t be here to let you hurt me time and time again. Someone notified me about you hooking up with Nancy since before the wedding and during. I can’t believe you could look me in the face and act like you haven’t. Like you weren’t in bed with her. I won’t take it, I won’t put up with it. I’m done Steve Harrington. You can have the ring back, I don’t want it. It only represents your infidelity. And the lack of love you have for me. Don’t worry, I won’t be in yours or Nancy’s way anymore. I’m leaving tonight. My bags are already packed. I’ll be gone before you get home. Goodbye Steve, don’t come looking for me. I won’t be anywhere where you can find me.

Y/n

You leave the note by the kitchen table and grab your bags. Sighing to yourself then finally walking out the door. Away from all that had to with him and your failed marriage.

[badtzbot]

2024 Writing Roundup

4 hours till midnight so I'm not late either 🫡🫡 thanku @kookoofufu for the tag and the mention :')

words posted: 27,397

additional words written: 55,899 light and love to my 100+ wips

fandoms: one piece + a single hamlet ff + there's beartown and ohshc in my drafts but none posted

highest hits and kudos: unsurprisingly, the mihawk x benn x shanks easy does it, darling wins both (1,767 hits, 126 kudos)

new things i tried: okay technicallyyyy i've written fic before but that was like years ago when i was a wee baby. so i would say everything but mostly i just wrote a lot of smut

fic i spent the most time on: the VAST majority of my fics are written in less than 3 days when the brainworms get to me. however my longfic fish bones; stray dog only has ONE out of five chapters posted (im still writing i promise) and it's been six months TT this why i can't write longfic. other than that, to watch a dead woman (hamlet) was i think the only one that took longer than a week

fic I spent the least time on: again, vast majority are written in 1-3 days.... i think either my milkshake brings all the girls to the yard (posted today!!! very nsfw.) which was done in like 6 hours total, or Just me and the Curve of the Valley which was literally just keats and i having a conversation

favourite thing I wrote: didn't write much gen but i'm quite proud of the crocobra doomed old man yaoi (but tonight, i still dream of you). as for nsfw.... write out the ends on our palms, dear because smodrake 4 lyfe

favourite thing(s) I read: ooh god I don't particularly save things i read other than things that ABSOLUTELY change my brain chemistry (as in, like, I have 23 of these insane fics from my entire like 8 years of reading it.) instead I'm gonna give my top three and make a separate fic rec post later <3 light n love

insane, changed my brain chem (no order):

it only takes one break of your pose (to get off) by goldensprite - nsfw, one piece, smoker/tashigi, 4k words, drove me about halfway insane and is what REALLY got me into this ship. i still reread this like once every few weeks

you're my wasteland, baby by arizayna - sfw, beartown, benji ovich / big city, 1.8k words, BENJI OVICH I LOVE YOU. spoilers for beartown book 3

the soft hand it used to fit on by fab_ia (@bananawanis) - nottt sexual but not entirely sfw, warning for mcd. one piece, benn beckman/red-haired shanks, 4k words, i sobbed and cried and threw up and banged my head against the wall. read this if you want devastation to your mental state

+ special mention to my fave book of the year, beartown by fredrik backman, probably look up content warnings if you want to read it

writing goals for 2025: get out of writers block. pain and suffering

tagging: this post is long enough. if u wanna do it then do it

[lucdoodle]

Hello dear friend! I am writing to you to express my admiration and ask a couple of questions!🙏

I admit, when watching your animatic with Adam “Moon Waltz”, my soul burst into tears. I’m rewatching it, and I still can’t get rid of the painful squeezing of my heart, you did such an amazing job with all the components of the work. Adam, as my favorite character, through your work, broke my heart several times with his story. You are simply God! ❤

On behalf of myself, as an artist, I have three questions: 1. Tell me, how much time did you spend on all this work in general, and on individual art? 2. I beg you, tell me what program you worked in, I really want to learn it x" 3. Did you use a graphics tablet or screen display?

I look forward to your answer!

I'm glad you liked it !!! 1- The whole animatic took 2 months, i started working on it the march 1 and finished the april 30 lol I'm not sure on individual art tho, I drew all the lineart first and then added the colors second after finishing the lineart for the entire animatic so I'm really not sure... 2- I used Clip studio paint ! And then After Effect for editing the whole thing into a video 3- I'm using one with a screen display

[notsocheezy]

Brain Curd #371

Brain Curds are lightly edited daily writing - usually flash fiction and sometimes terrible on purpose.

Part 37 of an experiment in progress. Refer to case logs.

Serenity still wasn’t responding to my texts, and who could blame her? I was such an idiot to do what I did. I was an animal, operating on nothing but raw instinct and irrationality. And I was beginning to look the part.

I hadn’t shaved in… well, I wasn’t entirely sure how long. A week, at least. But it looked more like a month. I didn’t see Tracey in the mirror anymore, thank God, but I didn’t see myself either.

I inhaled. The smoke filled my lungs and my brain retreated into the distance. What a relief to be surrounded by nature, inside and out, in a little clearing of the forest behind the golf course.

My phone buzzed and my heart jumped. Was it Serenity? No. Worse. Dad had good news and bad news.

“Just send the bad news first,” I texted. “I know not to let the promise of good news excite me.”

“Stop being such a wet blanket dude,” he replied. The dots at the bottom of the screen danced. “But fine the bad news is Maria wants me out asap”

I rolled my eyes. “What did you do”

“Y do u always think things are my fault?!?! Asshole” He must have been fuming. “She’s just on her period orsome shit.”

That, at the very least, I knew not to be true.

“Or maybe she’s off her meds. Crazy bithc. Anyway”

I sighed and got up from the ground. I knew he was going to ask for help with something. He always did. My phone buzzed in my hand.

“I got a job interview lined up today.”

There was a quick little jump of excitement before my feet came back to Earth. This was meaningless. An interview didn’t mean he had the job.

“So I can’t get my stuff out of her place and I know she’ll go apeshit if it’s still there tonight when she’s off work so you gotta go grab it for me.”

As usual, everything was my problem. But if he actually got this job, maybe he’d start taking care of himself. I approached the door to the apartment and knocked, but there was no answer. Obviously. I already knew no one was home. Dumbass. I let myself in, since the door was unlocked, and approached the couch. Dad’s duffel bag was packed already - probably only because he knew I’d forget something he held dear if he let me pack.

Something moved in the corner of my eye. I turned to look, but there was nothing there. I shook my head. There was no reason to stick around, I needed to get moving.

I took the duffel and heaved it to the floor. It was heavy and unreasonably huge, full of clothes and charging cables and other detritus he considered more valuable than my spine. A sock stuck out a hole in the bottom. I grumbled, extended the telescopic handle and began my pilgrimage.

To avoid being caught bringing my father’s things into my grandparents’ house - as well as the shame of walking through a populated downtown with a decaying, stinking, sack - I took the back way. A two-mile long slog up and down hills, on narrow roads with no sidewalks to speak of, winding beneath eucalyptus trees whose falling branches had killed men before. It was easy going at first, but when I noticed I was leaving a trail of used handkerchiefs, I stuffed them back in the hole and proceeded to roll the bag at an awkward low angle that wouldn’t jostle more of the contents onto the street.

Cars passed by with no comment. I was invisible to these people - and sure, that was what I wanted, but if someone were to offer help I would have taken it. My toe ached, my back ached, my legs ached, my head ached, my sweat drenched every inch of my body. I wished someone would just hit me with their truck or shoot me, or both. I hadn't had a drop to drink in over an hour by the time the hole ripped open so wide that I could no longer roll the duffel bag at all.

I began carrying it by the straps, in shifts. I’d take a deep breath, pick it up with both hands, and get about ten feet before I had to set it back down. Repeat, repeat, repeat. It was a shallow relief to see home from down the back alley - so close, yet so far. This was the riskiest part. I poked my head in the window of the back door. They weren’t here right now. I unlocked it and quickly lugged the bag inside, stashing it behind my bed where it might not be seen.

I took a number of deep breaths. My bedroom smelled like him now. It made me want to vomit.

Water couldn’t flow out of the refrigerator fast enough. I chugged it so fast that half of it ended up just spilling on my itchy, hairy chest. I got lightheaded and pulled off my t-shirt to wipe my face. It didn’t help.

I went back to try to shove the bag under my bed, but no luck. It was too tall. I unzipped the zipper that still worked and took handfuls of clothes out to shove into my bottom dresser drawer. Then, the bag fit under the bed just fine… Though I think I heard something shatter.

I coughed, ‘hacking up a lung’ as Pops would have put it. I limped over to the bathroom and closed the door behind me before peeling off the rest of my clothes. I looked at the big economy-sized bottle of Ibuprofen on the counter and bit my lip. No, no, I can take it.

He trembled at the sight of the mirror, his appearance therein. He was covered in dirt and grime, his hair matted down on top and slowly growing out on the sides. Spotty wisps of dark, bristly hair covered his face, and his chest too, almost enough to hide the scars from plucking - but not quite. The image was a mockery of manhood and he knew it, but couldn’t admit it even to himself.

He climbed into the shower and turned it on, shuddering at the initial blast of cold. He squeezed his chest and shivered, but couldn’t feel his own touch. It was about this time that he realized: Trevor was looking at himself from the outside.

Please comment, reblog, like, and follow if you enjoyed - I'd love to know what you think! See you again tomorrow.

[crehador]

for asks, 5, 11 and 30

for 11, I mean longest maybe not time wise, but which daily stumped you the most overall? maybe an idea took a while to finalize but after that it was fast to write?

thank youuu for the ask! (っ˘ω˘ς )

5. what work of yours got more feedback than you expected?

honestly i think i will have to go with the one with the clones for this one because it was just. such a ridiculous crackpot fever dream idea that spiraled wildly out of control all thanks to the encouragement of my lovely horny regulars

i definitely didn't expect to spend as much time as i have with the clones (and would have probably tackled their story in a different format if i had) and i probably wouldn't have if not for the feedback! so thank you to everyone who has been following along with that hot mess lmao

ALSO HELLO ARKNIGHTS AU?! i mean that didn't get a ton of feedback or anything but it definitely got more than i expected, which was none. it is such a niche fusion that honestly i didn't expect anyone to like... read it while also knowing what arknights is, so i was thrilled to see you there lol and i want to write more of it one day!! snow leopard samatoki distant cousin of the silverash clan my beloved

11. what work took you the longest to write?

so whenever i sit down to start a daily, i create a new page in scrivener and title the page with the number. so if i'm working on daily 123 for example i'll title it "123." then start writing and add a more descriptive tag to the title after it's complete

but if i start writing something and don't finish it on the same day, i'll often just add another page above it and make that the new 123 without changing the previous one...

which is basically to say sometimes, when one idea stumps me for a while, my numbering system ends up looking like 156, 157, 158, 159, 123 lmao

anyway all this is to say, this has definitely happened a few times throughout the year, where one number just kept getting pushed down and down. i can't say for sure which one took the absolute longest

BUT ONE THAT I KNOW took a heinously long time was the prince/pirate request from a beloved mutual! i wanted to write that like as soon as the prompt came in because prince/pirate! what could be better!!

it wound up taking months, i think. (once again sincerest apologies dear mutual who had to wait. for. months.) i went through a whole bunch of different ideas, i think largely because each one wanted to be something bigger than a daily. something longer, more plotty, more substantial

(and so there may be at least one prince/pirate au coming next year lol)

so to answer the actual question here, it might have been that one, but more broadly speaking when a daily took a long time it wasn't usually for lack of interest in the idea, it was usually just Too Ambitious ideas that got me hung up

30. biggest surprise while writing this year?

honestly just... the fact that i actually did it. one fic a day. for samaichi/ichisama. every day. FOR A WHOLE YEAR. i mean okay the year is not quite over yet and i don't want to jinx it but it's pretty much mid-december already and i haven't missed a day?!

like. i had covid for the first time this year. and i didn't miss a day. not even god could stop me at this point. i'm fine. i'm normal

i've done "write every day" challenges before and even challenged myself to write and post every day before this at one point, but my longest streak lasted 50 days. and i'm coming up on 350 now so... yeah. definitely a surprise and a pleasant one at that lol

in terms of specific works... i'm a little surprised by my whole, like. high school au fugue state from earlier this year. where i committed to writing high school aus only for the entire duration of the samaichi high school au event in arb (which wound up being even more samaichi than it originally seemed WHAT DO YOU MEANNNNNN IT WAS ICHIRO'S DREAM ahem. anyway)

like i have nothing against high school au and i find it generally cute and occasionally fun to write, but i don't think i would say it's one of my top favorites. so a bit of a surprise that i was able to keep it up, and i remember having a ton of fun with it too! yes i cheated on occasion and had them as teachers instead of students BUT IT WAS STILL IN A HIGH SCHOOL SO. i say it counts lol

ao3 wrapped asks

[charlesangels03]

A letter for Hirohiko Araki, a renowned manga artist.

Dear Hirohiko Araki-sensei, First, I would like to introduce myself. I am Elijah Gabriel C. Perez, a huge fan of your work, Jojo's Bizarre Adventure and I am writing this letter to you as gratitude for bringing Jojo to the world. I stumbled upon your work when I was 13 years old on Animax when the the anime adaptation of Part 1: Phantom Blood and Part 2: Battle Tendency aired on the channel at around 11 PM in a Saturday night. At first, there was a lot of things I was confused of. Hamon? Stands? Pillar Men? Not to mention that many memes in fact came from this entire franchise that has been spanning for more than 30 years????! But anyway, I was hooked, really, really hooked, and I have my eyes peeled on the for at least 3 hours. Meaning, I have watched 6 episodes since 11 PM and I caught sleep at around 2 AM. Ever since then, I started watching the anime every 11 PM on Saturdays and I fell on love on its uniqueness from other animes. I fell down the rabbit hole eventually. Months later, I started to read the manga of Part 5: Vento Aureo (Golden Wind) because at the time the anime adaptation of it was just starting. So, I had time to immerse myself in the manga and experience it in all of its glory before the arcs are fully covered in the anime. And my God, I was blown away sensei. Your detailed artstyle using pen and nibs blew me away that each of your characters look like Renaissance statues and the way they pose, oh my, they look so fabulous like runway models. Each hatched line in their form looks so perfect and dynamic. What also amazed me is how your writing also is different from other anime and manga, and it took Western media influences. But besides al of that, when I finished Part 5, I was satisfied and willing to dig deeper into your entire catalogue of works which served as a huge source of inspiration in my art and development as an artist. Fast-forward to today, you have a new part published in your series, Part 9: The Jojolands. I started reading the first 6 chapters and although, the concepts introduced there started to become more complicated especially the "principle of mechanism" but I'm hoping that I'll understand it as the story progresses. Besides that, I am really hoping for the all of the characters' development especially with one of the characters, Dragona Joestar (who presents themself as a woman, however their pronouns are he/him) to really start have their own metamorphosis. Another is that, the main protagonist, Jodio Joestar (the younger brother of Dragona) is somehow boring, besides being reckless and exhibiting antisocial behaviors or that's just his personality. But, please don't let that discourage you sensei, I have high hopes for Part 9, knowing that this is the last part of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. With all of that said, I am anticipating for Jojolands to become fully flesh out and be the ultimate representation of the magnificence and grandeur of your art and life as a mangaka. May you have more power, Araki-sensei! May you always continue to make art and may your art continue to speak to people from around the world.

Much love from the Philippines, Elijah Gabriel C. Perez

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Elijah's 5th Blogging Entry: Literacy Photo taken from Author's Note of Jojolion Volume 22 Source of photo: https://jojo.fandom.com/wiki/Author%27s_Note_(JoJolion)

[whatisameliareading]

Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb

⭐️⭐️⭐️.75/5

Wow. This was and felt like a literal tome of a book. There was so much information it literally took me the whole month of January to finish it - and my brain still feels like it is bursting with world building.

This was a solid fantasy book. There was a lot of time spent on world-building. There was geography descriptions that honestly, felt unnecessary at times, but did add to the overall setting. Which is much needed in any book claiming to be fantasy. Too much is better than too little! I would rather be able to picture then scene perfectly than have too little detail and have multiple questions that will forever go unanswered.

The main character, Fitz, my god it felt like this guy couldn't win. Like literally everything in this book was against him. He was abandoned by his family because he was a bastard, slept in the stable in the hay as a child, never even met his actual dad before he died, was generally disliked and hated by many because he was a bastard, was abused more times than I can count. Dear lord the list goes on and on. Like I desperately hung on to the hope that maybe, just maybe, one good thing would happen to him - a win if you will- and no. It didn't. I have never read about a more screwed over character in my life - and I've read all of the Game of Thrones books!

Going off of that, you really want to root for Fitz. He has a power that allows him to connect with animals closely and can sense life within creatures and people. He is quick and smart and determined. Hobb did write a character everyone will want to win. But I have yet to see it happen. Maybe in the next book, but I have a bad feeling about it.

There are so many characters in this book where do I begin? There are the three father figures to Fitz that are so different from one another. They all are there for Fitz and yet not. He is alone even though they care about him. That frustrated me to no end - their actions showed they cared but when he needed them most they weren't there.

The plot was extremely slow in the beginning but ramped up about halfway through. Once we got to the mountains I would say that things actually began to get interesting. The beginning of the book was building up the court life and how Fitz is looked down on for his entire childhood. While that was all well and good, I will admit I thought it could do with a little less - I was starting to lose focus 😖 Only when he began to do actual assassin-like things the plot sped up.

Overall, I would summarize this book as slow but building up to something incredible - I can sense it. I'm looking forward to starting book 2.

[ohfiendangelical]

Dear Zero,

It’s late at night, I’ve been trying very hard to sleep but my mind will not quiet - so I’m writing to you now in the hopes it will soothe me. Not much to report, I saw you very recently and I know you’re only a text away - but let me be romantic; pen my letters by candlelight and imagine you in a few day’s time reading it by the fireplace. Or maybe the pool, since the heat hardly calls for fire right about now.

After I was expelled from the party I made friends with a mountain lion, who led me out of her territory happily once I explained to her my situation. Dizzy, lost, wounded. She took pity on me. Talking with animals is difficult as the language really isn’t there most of the time - you have to communicate through sensations, feelings, concepts. Short sentences — which is hard for me, you know I love to go on and on and on. The animal mind is similar to the human mind, though, so we got on just fine. She hunts once a week, at night, and is more of an opportunist than anything else. She envies the gifts that we have to be able to be more selective with prey, I can’t help but envy the simplicity of “hungry; eat.”

It really is as simple as that for us too, I know. When I’m with you I don’t struggle with the concept nearly as much - but when I’m alone it’s hard. I’ve yet to hunt on my own even now, even when I’ve been so hungry it’s all I can think about. When I’m alone, I don’t feel like a majestic huntress, I don’t feel like hungry animal just trying to survive. I feel like a bully.

You don’t want to hear this, though, I don’t think. You want me to be healthy and to enjoy living - and how can I do that if I don’t enjoy eating? I’m working on it, I promise.

In sexier news, a very secret project of mine is getting some high praise from a lot of interesting people. This invigorates something in me, and I’m writing a lot more now than I was a few months ago, in the trenches of my misery and self-loathing. I’m a writer again, and it feels very, very good.

Write me back soon! I love the look of your handwriting, the pretty words you think up when you think of me.

Love you endlessly, forever,

Your Willow. x

Willow,

I’m elated to hear that you’re writing again. I think the whole world feels a little colder when you aren’t, like it knows that it’s missing something important, a key component it can’t quite place. I’m curious too about what this secret project is. I don’t suppose I’m allowed to know? I can keep a secret when it really matters, despite what the others say. They tend to forget that I am made up entirely of secrets because they have the luxury of knowing one or two of them.

For example, here’s a secret: I once starved to death. It was my first death, and my easiest. I did not have to suffer waking up to the inferno because of how quickly I was found and revived. 

The starvation was a choice. I, like you, struggled with my nature, putting far too much thought into it. I did not want to eat. I did not want to enjoy living. I was addicted to self-punishment because hating myself seemed safer somehow than indulging the other side of the coin. There was a part of me that knew what I would become if I didn’t keep the leash short. I was frightened of that possibility; I found the idea of this potential self repulsive, evil, worse than I already was. I was so dedicated to keeping him at bay that I refused even to dress well, if you can imagine!

But limiting yourself to feel better about yourself is a paradox. It is a prison, and it is a very clever prison that the self designs for the self. It traps you by convincing you that it’s safer there, better there, when it isn’t. It will only eat away at you and worsen these awful feelings until they overwhelm you completely, and then something truly awful will happen, worse than anything that would have happened if you only allowed your monster to breathe. 

I’m glad that I can help give your monster room to breathe. God knows that our arrangement is better than starving to death. Still, you must learn to take care of yourself. It is clear from watching you that you don’t really need me to hunt; you are very capable, you have the tools, the instinct.

Writing is a private affair for you. Try this, then, to embolden yourself to go out alone: Find inspiration in your victims. Go into their minds, see their lives, write them down. Honor their ghosts the way you honored your first. Remember: They were always going to die anyway. By doing this, you make them immortal.

All my love, Zeph