#well yeah my winter break just ended but for some reason i finally have motivation to draw again so eff uni and SEND ME REQUESTS<3< /div> Explore tagged Tumblr posts

[snake-berry]

Brienne of Tarth

ughh idk if im satisfied with how i drew this but there is a softness in her big blue eyes that i like

requests for my asoiaf portrait series r still open btw ;) i already have another portrait in the works rn bc im feeling semi motivated so yay

[tempenensis]

Jujutsu Kaisen Light Novel #2

Firstly, @bonsai62​ provides me with raw text of this - so thank you very much! This is the first eight pages of the first chapter from the second light novel. That being said, I don’t know how much I get this translation right, but enjoy anyway. Though this is cut at bad point lol

The title of the light novel is Thorny Road at Dawn. Text in bold means that it is spoken in English. 

Chapter 1: Nobara and Toge

.

“About Toge?”

August has begun.

Under the overlapping form of trees in the schoolyard, Panda asks back to Kugisaki who he has been holding on his arm and turning over 180 degree.

For the upcoming exchange event, Fushiguro is also working hard to train as participating first year.

He is in the middle of training with assumption that one-vs-one sorcerer combat can break especially during the fight.

Even though she is training, Kugisaki is now thrown towards Panda – repeatedly thrown towards him in a stage. But because it seems that her motivation is high, she’s become into it, as long as in the end she can be successful facing Todo and Mai even just a little bit.

“Yes. I understand Maki-san is worth of my respect. I also know that Panda-senpai is sorcerer with ability.”

“I also want you to say the same thing about me like Maki.”

Kugisaki answers as she stands up and brushes away leaves attached to her jersey.

“I respect you. I’m not saying bullshit about Panda-san.” (1)

“Well, if you become able to chat while being blown away, I’ll praise you.”

“My body can easily remember just blown like this.”

“Hooon. Then”

Panda looks around, confirming that Toge who went to pharmacy has not come back.

“What about Toge?”

“What kind of senpai is he?”

“Eh, you don’t know from talking to him?”

“Not that I don’t understand. Well, I know he is not a bad person, but if all his vocabularies are riceball fillings, talking with him will be limited, right?”

“We already get too used to it, right Maki?”

“Aah. Now that you say it, it naturally becomes question.”

Maki is spinning around a staff, sending a sympathetic look to Fushiguro after she lightly avoids Fushiguro’s attack and land a small hit on his head.

“It hurts…”

“You are thinking too much again with your head.”

Maki joins the conversation as she glances at groaning Fushiguro. Out of breath but clean of dust, she circles around Panda calmly.

“Among us maybe he is the best at taking care.”

“Yeah, he has a bright personality (2). If you exclude Yuuta, then he is the number one good person in our year.”

“His flaw is that he can get carried away a little.” (3)

“Is he?”

“You are the one who always get carried away when we are together, that’s why you don’t know.”

“That’s unexpected. We are not like that though. We like to join in the fun.”

Kugisaki’s body fitness is finally reaching that point where she can chat while doing her training. Even then, the second years who are lightly talking among them without difficulty remembers existence of Kugisaki of August (4) in the nearby stage.

Just a bit when Panda’s attention is at Maki as they converse, Kugisaki tries to do a feint from the side and mixes it with an upper but—

“Anyway.”

“Geh.”

Panda sways easily, then he hesitates a little before swipe Kugisaki’s feet in sobat-like (5) kick.

Kugisaki, whose pivot foot collapses, falls down rolling. Her body becomes totally irresponsive. In several weeks here, it’s a movement that she kept thought she could do.

That said she becomes irresponsive and she can’t win the match.

As he looks down at Kugisaki who makes a discouraged face, Panda opens his mouth.

“Toge is a good guy. That alone you should know.”

“….I see.”

More than that, her body has become irresponsive and her back is hurting.

The frequency of her falling down sloppily has not reduced, also buying a replacement jersey have also becomes necessary -- Kugisaki at summer time thinks with melancholy.

.---.

The story continues when it has turn to fall.

After the incident of Yasohachi has passed, there’s a brief spare time.

At that day, Kugisaki is alone in Shibuya.

Fushiguro is locking himself up and reading in his room as he is still exhausted after he overexerted himself.

Itadori has gone out to watch a maniac movie in a cinema currently doing a whole-building screening.

Maki is currently on a mission different from Yasohachi bridge, so she can’t meet her conveniently in a while. Kugisaki who completely doesn’t have a plan, aims to go shopping to make-up and clothes shops which are hard to go with boys, then buy daily necessities.

“Winter clothes set, winter shoes, inner and foundation and…”

Grasping paper bags in both hands, she lifts them up as she confirms her haul today.

She doesn’t think she bought too much, but she has walked more than she had planned. Maybe wearing the pin heel boots she bought the other day is a bit mistake.

But it is a rare chance that she gets to go out and shop alone. There’s a lot she still needs to buy.

Kugisaki is thinking to go looking for bags next as she walks in traffic jam.

When she had just arrived in Tokyo, it all seemed to be glittering scenery. After around three months has passed, she gets used to it a lot, used to hearing noisy sounds.

That being said, it is a backside of being busy and lively. It’s a thing that’s called taste of convenience.

“And that, it is really a masterpiece.”

“Doesn’t it make you angry?”

“Hey, hey. Girl, are you alone? Are you free?”

“I’m in a hurry.”

“Salmon.”

“We’re opening a new shop! Please take care of us.”

“Are you not going to eat?”

“How much are you going to eat?!”

“It’s damned boring, how about we skip work today?”

“Mama, buy me that!”

A lot of voices. It’s an intersection where a lot of life collides.

There are daily life as many as the number of people, there are worlds as many as the number of people. In the city where many wills and voices flying around, of course there will be a lot of people who is feeling gloomy – but not Kugisaki.

For her who has a firm sense of self, she understands that everyone has their own way of living in the hustle bustle of the city, it even feels like a kindness.

Now that she thinks about it, the village where she comes from was suffocating.

An exclusivity that imitate the people who had come before (6). An ecosystem long existed that doesn’t recognize individuality of a person. A closed world that gently rot — exists there in that village, Kugisaki thinks.

Compared to the crowd of the city, it is tough yet she can live with freedom.

In the city, someone says that the concern towards other people is weak. Kugisaki laughs, thinking that is wonderful. She has her own way and won’t blame anyone over it. She will stand and walk with her own foot.

However, mixing in the city crowd during the holiday, a mysterious chance can happen.

“Hm?”

Kugisaki who walks towards the direction of Shibuya Hikarie (7) in the lane across the street, makes a face of remembering something as she found him. It is the only one of her acquittances who hides lower half of mouth with closed overly long collar.

It’s Inumaki Toge.

There is also another one. A male foreign tourist with thoughtful blue eyes who can’t be someone familiar. Kugisaki becomes interested on the exchange between the foreigner and Inumaki.

“What are they talking about?”

Kugisaki changes her destination, then crosses the road when the traffic lamp changes at the right timing, and strolls towards Inumaki. When she is near them, she overhears their talk.

“I’d like to go to SHIBUYA109.” (8)

“Salmon salmon.”

“Could you tell me where I can get a taxi?”

“Salmon roe.”

“Ah… Which way should we go?”

“Seaweed.”

“Ah…I, want to go. 109 (9). Please. Ok?”

“Salmon.”

“Shake?” (10)

“….Salmon?” (11)

“….Salmon!? Why?”

“Okaka…..” (12)

“Ee…?”

For some reason, in Kugisaki’s guess ten times over, it has become a troublesome situation.

She knows that Inumaki, who is a cursed speech user, only speaks in onigiri fillings to avoid sudden outburst of curse. How come that he is asked by foreigner tourist for direction.

No, Inumaki can use Inumaki’s way of showing the way – he points his finger and gestures using his body and hands. With that, she wonders if the foreigner becomes impatient (13) as Kugisaki decides to get in between the two of them.

“What are you doing, senpai?”

“Tunamayo.”

“It can’t be ‘tunamayo’. Jeez.”

“Oh! Geisha girl!”

“Who the heck is geisha girl?!”

.

.

--- tbc (hopefully can do more)

(1) More literally, she is saying things about Panda that “doesn’t smell like fairy tale” (2) “His root is bright” is the literal translation (3) 悪ノリ (akunori) is a bit hard to be translated. It’s like, getting carried away in mischievous manner. (4) Overheated Kugisaki lol (5) Sobat : back kick in wrestling (6) literally “To follow the right” (7) A skyscraper in Shibuya (8) A department store in Shibuya (9) Spoken in broken Japanese lol. (10) Shake = salmon. He repeats what Toge said to him. In Inumaki’s language means “yes” (11) Salmon, as in engrish lol (12) Okaka = chopped katsuobushi, in Inumaki’s language means “no” (13) literally, “becomes hot”

[fumingspice]

All The Things She Said

Pairing: Lana Winters x Reader

Request:  student x teacher au fic with lana, billie or cordelia?

Note: Added in a little sparkle with a soulmate AU. Those who are lucky enough to have a soulmate are assigned a necklace with a small pendant. No one knows where they come from or how they’re decided; they just appear and will match your soulmate’s identically. Also, yes the reader is eighteen, and yes there will probably be a part two.

Requests are open!

Your routine was like clock-work; every morning without fail. 5am you would get out of bed and go on a run. There was no reason, really. You weren't someone who was that interested in athletics, it was just a way to clear your mind and wake up your mind and body before going to school and having the energy sucked out of you.

You adored the way the sky looked this early in the morning as you ran through the country park. The heat gave you an extra kick of gratification as you watched the sky dance in colours of orange and pink, painting everything in shades of gold. The sun crept through the mountain like liquid glory and you couldn't get enough of it.

Realising the time, you made your way back to your neighbourhood, waving at neighbours you often saw at this time of morning.

You saw many of the same people on morning runs that you eventually learned by name while running past them, shouting a greeting and waving as you sped past them. This morning, you noticed that the home a few lots down from your own had been purchased; the new inhabitents were outside, speaking with a contractor.

As you ran, you noticed the woman watching you. Breaking your glance, you made a mental note to introduce yourself later.

The shower couldn't come soon enough as you lathered the cool water on your body. Cold showers after a run provided that little extra adrenaline rush that you needed to get you through the day, and boy would you need it today.

After months of persuasion, you had finally given in to skipping the end of school and heading to a gay bar with your friends Emmett and Heather. Being the model student you were, you had declined the offer time and time again; but after catching your boyfriend with another girl and the subsequent break up of one of the most liked couples in school, you decided that now would be the best time for it.

The school day rushed in and at 12pm on the dot, you and Emmett made your way to Heather's car, where she sat impatiently tapping her foot.

"You two took your sweet time," the blonde muttered, pulling on a pair of sunglasses and revving up the engine.

The plan was simple; Heather's parents were out of town for the week so the three of you planned to stay over. Today would be spent getting ready and having a few drinks before hitting the bar in order for you to have a "drink in celebration" for breaking up with your ex-boyfriend.

The bar was lively, and you could smell the mixture of cheap cigarettes, alcohol and weed and hear the music from the street behind. Emmett compared the similarity of the three of you strutting to the bar to the Sanderson sisters from Hocus Pocus.

Heather nudged you yet again, her elbow hitting a nerve in your ribs and making you bounce.

"Will you quit that?" you snapped, realising your fourth cocktail was making you slightly irritable.

Heather glared at you and pulled you over to whisper in your ear. "The brunette at seven o'clock has looked from her phone to you at least four times," she hissed, releasing you and nodding her head in the direction.

You nodded in understanding and gestured for her to tell you what to do. Picking chicks up at a bar wasn't exactly something you were accustomed to, after all.

"Go up to the bar and order something-" she looked at your outift, "-I don't know. Some business casual-sounding drink. Like an Old Fashioned or something. Make a joke about how much you've drank and if she's warm then ask if she's here with someone. Then go in for the kill and Emmett and I will be your wing-people when you break your seal."

"Break my what?"

Heather practically shoved you off your chair.

You shrugged and walked towards the bar, standing close to the brunette, but not close enough so that she knew what you were up to. The bartender approached and you smiled at her.

"Hey, could I get an Old Fashioned pl-"

"And get me another piña colada while you're making your move!" Heather called, acting more drunk than she was in an effort to hint off to the lady. You glared at her, and in return, for some added effect she lent into full view of the lady, shot her a cheesy grin and gave her a thumbs up.

You spun on your heel to see if the lady had noticed, and to your dismay she had. She looked at you with a raised eyebrow.

At least she didn't look disappointed.

"Was that for me?" She chuckled, taking a tip from her class. You grinned as casually as possible, looking down at your hands. You finished off your order and paid, waiting for Heather to get her drink to no avail.

"You know what, yeah I think it was for you actually," you replied. Keeping it cool was the buzz phrase Heather had been using all day. "I'm sorry but my friend claimed that she had seen you checking me out a few times and was pretty insistant that I come over and talk to you."

You sat in the stool, leaving one between you.

The lady chuckled. "It's fine," she said, taking another sip. "I'd be grateful for the company."

"You're alone? You're more than welcome to sit with my friends and I," you offered.

You cut off immediately by Heather collecting her drink, standing between you and muttering, "don't you fucking dare," into your ear before walking over to the woman and leaning over her shoulder.

"Now, you see, Ms- I'm sorry what's your name? Jesus, Y/N! When you flirt it's basic manners to ask for a name," Heather muttered.

"It's Lana," she replied, smiling at you.

Lana. A pretty name.

"Awh, that's a lovely name actually, I wish my parents liked me enough to call me something like that. Anyways, enough about me. So, anyways, my good friend Y/N here just got two-timed by a piece of human trash that she's way hotter than and everyone warned her against dating but hey- you know our Y/N, she's balls-ier than a dodgey testical. So, all I'm really gonna say is we came here because we really want to get her laid so she doesn't need to feel like she got the short end of the bargain so, you know-"

At this stage Heather was trying to communicate through a series of dramatic gestures. Emmett strod over, took Heather by the shoulders and apologised to Lana before walking your drunk friend back to your table.

You were both a little shell-shocked and you feared that Heather's drunken rant had ruined any sembelance of a chance that you had with getting anywhere with this.

"I- I'm so sorry. She doesn't get out much," you said. Lana's smile returned as she waved it off.

"Has anyone ever told you that you look a lot younger than twenty-one?" she asked. You couldn't tell if she was being genuine or if she was trying to hint that she thought you were younger than your ID said.

You nodded. "All the time," you say, it's not like that's a lie. "How old are you? If you're not offended by my asking."

"I'm twenty-nine. I hit the big three-oh in November," she replied. Lana reached into her bag and pulled out a box of Newport cigarettes. "I'm sorry, I've had a long day and I'm dying for a smoke. Care to join me?"

You sat still for a moment before excepting the offer. The club was absolutely packed and you could barely follow Lana through to the balcony without getting separated from her. She noticed and turned around, taking your hand and keeping you close so that you didn't get lost in the crowd.

Lana lent over the metal fence, cupping her hand over her lighter. You watched how her cheeks sucked in, defining her cheekbones and her jawline. You mirrored her position against the fence.

"Hard day at the office?" You asked, declining the cigarette she offered you. "Thanks but I don't smoke."

Lana smiled down at her cigarette. "I like a smart girl. Stay away from these for as long as possible," she took a long draw. "And to answer your question; I moved into a new house today only to find out that none of the plumbing was actually installed and contractor has no idea why."

"My house was like that too; turns out the pipes are just in really weird places," you replied. You turned to face in the opposite direction, laying your elbows onto the bar and watching the crowd. "What do you do? Career wise?"

Lana blew out a puff. "I'm a teacher. French and English Literature."

Ah great; a French student trying to hit on a French teacher. This was gonna be a fun story to tell the group.

"You're kidding? I'm studying French," you replied. 

Lana laughed. "Damn, Y/N. This just has to be written in the stars," she replied, you could sent the well-meant underlying sarcasm in her voice. "You think I have that chance?" You ask, your eyes dart down to her hand. Her ring finger, although bare had an imprint on it as if she had only recently removed a ring. She noticed you looking and brought her hand into a fist.

"Don't look at me like that, Y/N. We're getting divorced," she said. She bit her lip and looked down into the woods beneath. 

You felt slightly guilty. "Oh, I'm sorry." Lana shook her head in response.

"I'm in a gay bar for Christ's sake. We definetly weren't compatiable," she chuckled, reaching for another draw of her cigarette. She turned around, some noise in the background catching her attention. Her sleeve dropped a little bit, revealing two bruises at the side of her wrist that she had clearly tried to cover with foundation. Lana turned back around and you dropped your eyes before you noticed, unaware if it was your place to ask.

"If I'm honest, I don't really like bars. I know this really nice café a few places down. Do you wanna come with me?" You asked. Lana's head cocked slightly, her eyes scanned you as if they were looking for some alterier motive. "I'm not trying to get laid, Lana. I just don't like clubs and I don't think you do either."

Lana's shoulders relaxed, as if trying to decide. "Sure," she nodded. "I'd love to."

You walked back in through the bar, telling Emmett what you were doing. He made you promise to turn on your location and to call him to pick you up when you were ready to leave.

"It's nice that you have friends to watch your back," Lana said as you walked down the street. The air was now cold, nipping at your cheeks and nose. Lana slid her arm through yours after asking if it was okay to do so.

The café in question was small; dimly lit, decorated with plants. It was warm inside and the candles lit everything in orange. It was peaceful. You heard Lana sigh with relaxation as you asked her what she'd like to drink.

Two lattes later, you and Lana lay on the same old, green, springless couch. You giggled and talked for what could have been hours.

Lana noticed your Soul Necklace. “I have one too,” she said, touching the stone delicately. “I’ve never worn it though.”

She told you stories from high school and college while you sat and listened to her in some new form of fascination. You could listen to her talk forever. Your head rested on her shoulder, and hers rested on your head. There was an echo of peace which bounced around the both of you.

Eventually there came a moment when you had finally plucked up enough courage in a moment of silence between you to lift her chin with your finger and close in for a kiss. It was short and sweet, but you could still rellish the feeling of her lips kissing back against yours in a gentle passion.

She waited on you while Emmett drove back to get you, with an extremely drunk Heather in the backseat. 

"Are you free tomorrow night?" Lana asked before she walked away. You nodded. "Would you like to maybe go out? On a date?"

Her final question was asked with a shyness that you found adorable, and giving her a kiss on the cheek as

The next day you went to school in a good mood. Your run was better than ever. Your breakfast was tastier. The sky was more beautiful. You couldn't contain your giggles as Heather drove you and Emmett to school.

"I cannot believe you've landed yourself a date with a teacher," Emmett said as the three with you walked to your French class. You practically danced down the corridor with happiness. The three of you were slightly late to class.

You pushed the door open harder than you intended, making it crash against the wall with a loud bang. You muttered an apology while your friends laughed at you and the teacher settled them down, chuckling under her breath.

That it until she looked up at you.

And you looked up at her.

Lana muttered a profanity under her breath as she realised that she had asked one of her students on a date.

taglist: @its-soph-xx​

[saqui]

Top 3 moments from RWBY vol 8?!!!

Well if you say "top 3 best moments that drop my jaw drop or left screaming really hard" *cough I broke my charger cough* then I guess this is gonna be easy to answer 👏☺

So basically these are gonna be based on my own personal preference or taste so lets see.

Before that, I just wanna say that some of these may contain flashes that may hurt

1st: Oscar's Nuke

This moment was a BLAST

Literally.

This moment is one of the most epic thing to happen in Volume 8 for me. It has this "surprise" feeling, the visuals is SO good, and the fact that Oscar, a very young, scared, simple little teenager, did THIS. A WALKING STICK CAN DO THIS. LIKE WHAT THE F- HE DID THIS BIG BLAST.

Basically, this was the most epic moment of Oscar Pine.

And I have a thing for epicness so it's my no. 1 best moment for me.

2nd: Emerald's Trick

"I have..."

"...Feels weird."

Emerald, just being savage and badass. Literally Emerald being Emerald.

I live... for her sass b-

I really can't describe why I love this but once again, I love epic stuff/badass stuff.

3rd: This other side of Ruby has shown

I don't know if I call this a moment or a scene but seeing Ruby breaking down like this or become very...idk how do you call this... edgy(?) feels so intriguing and interesting of her. It feels like it is the first time. And for some reason, I think this is when Ruby starts to get more realistic with her views on everything more and more.

Basically, for the first time, it seems like she's SO done with all the bs more than ever. Despite how much I find Ruby's motivational side so amazing for me, I also like this other side of Ruby. It's so rare but intriguing for me. So yeah, I love this scene alot. I also like how Ruby cried at the end of that scene. It hits me so hard. The pressure and the burden for people like Ruby can be too much especially when you are the leader and everyone looks up to you and handling situations that could put a person's life in danger, so I kinda relate and understand why it is too much in Ruby's case making it one of the best moments in my own opinion in Volume 8. I love Ruby so much. But yeah maybe what I said about Ruby could be just a feeling and not canon but still I kinda feel Ruby at some point.

So I love this moment ❤

ANYWAYS

There are also other moments that I love in rwby such as:

Penny passing the Winter maiden powers to Winter - it was such a very emotional and very heartwarming moment for Penny. And listening to "friend" song, it just makes me miss Penny but it comforts my heart. This also gained me so much respect for Penny. I love you Penny, you finally get to feel the warmth of a hug and to make your completely own decision. Your wishes came true before death.

Weiss she's best girl so shut up

Ruby being badass cuz why not?

Oscar... everytime Oscar is onscreen.

REN FINALLY SAID BOOP OMG

Vine sacrificing himself to save his teamates. He doesnt deserve it tho but respects to him.

Winter being powerful af

So yeah, I think that's it based on my own personal preferences 👌

I know it's supposed to be three but man, I just really wanna say it h-

Thanks for the question tho! Love answering your questions, @queenofwhimsicaldaydreams! It's an honor :)

[ordinaryschmuck]

What I Thought About The Mitchells vs. the Machines

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is up there as one of the best installments of the MCU. Sure, the action and CGI sucks, and the season finale could use a bit more polish, but there is so much more of what it does right. It brings up an engaging discussion through Karli; the bromance between Bucky and Sam is incredible; Zemo's surprisingly a riot, and U.S. Agent is a character whose inner psychology is something I would like to study. Plus, the series really dives deep into the themes of race and the realistic hesitance that comes with making a black man Captain America. It's easily an 8/10 series that is worth an in-depth discussion.

But f**k that s**t, because I'm talking about The Mitchells vs. the Machines instead!

I know it might be questionable that reviewing a movie starring a predominantly white family of idiots saving the world instead of the TV series about the powerful journey of a black man taking the mantle of an American icon...but this movie is fun, alright? And yes, I'm going to spoil it to explain how. So if you still have a Netflix account, I highly suggest you check it out when you have time.

Because, random people on the internet who most likely won't read this, this Ordinary Schmuck who writes stories and reviews and draws comics and cartoons is going to explain why The Mitchells vs. the Machines might just be my favorite film of the year (steep contest, I know).

WHAT I LIKE

The Animation: Let's get this out of the way right here and right now: If a single person ever tells you that this movie has awful animation, or the worst animation they have ever seen, just go ahead and assume that person is an idiot. Because holy hot cheese sticks, does this movie look amazing!

Say what you want about most of Sony Pictures Animation's movies, but you have to admit that they nail making a CGI movie looking like it could be in 2D. And The Mitchells vs. The Machines is the peak of that style. Every character in nearly every frame looks like they could work well if the movie was hand-drawn, and I love it. I am addicted to seeing films that look 2D with a 3D makeover because there has to be ten times the amount of effort to get that look just right, what with modeling each character in unique ways to nail that style wherein a hand-drawn film, you could just, well, draw it. Not to mention that the cell-shading and certain hand-drawn elements also add to the aesthetic.

Plus, there is so much attention to details, such as most of Katie's character model being covered in sharpie, or how you can see a hint of Eric and Deborabot 3000's drawn on faces even though their black screens are showing something else. Seriously, you can listen to any criticism this movie gets, but don't you dare let someone get away with telling you that it looks awful. It doesn't. It's incredible, and I SO wish that I could have seen it all on the big screen.

The Comedy: On top of being incredibly well-animated, this movie is also incredibly funny. Like, really funny. I shouldn't be surprised since it's made by the same people responsible for Clone High and The Lego Movie, but yeah, I found myself laughing, chuckling, and snorting with nearly every joke in the film. Not every joke works, to be fair. But because of the fast-paced humor, the bad jokes are almost immediately followed up with better ones soon after. What's even better is that the writers know when to take a break with the humor and let some surprisingly compelling drama take over. And even then, when there are jokes during the dramatic moments, they add sincerity to the scene rather than take anything away. Looking at you, The Amazing World of Gumball...I mean, I love you, but sheesh, you need to learn to let a solemn moment play out.

Anyways, the comedy is hilarious. And while I won't spoil every joke, I will go over some bits that might have gotten to me the most.

Katie Mitchell: Let's just go ahead and add Katie Mitchell to the list of characters I highly relate to on a personal level (which is getting longer by the minute, hot damn). But jokes aside, I really like Katie. Her love and desire to make movies is something I identify with, and her goal to just go to a place where she feels like she belongs is easy to understand. Trust me, if I found out there was a group of weirdos who like the same things I do and enjoy the things I make, I’d be willing to pack everything I have and go to them as fast as possible too. Plus, I feel like a lot of us can relate to a character who lives in a household where people question if our career goal is something we can make a living with. I remember two years ago when I told my aunt that I wanted to make my own animated series, and her reaction is a little too similar to Rick's when Katie showed him her movie. They mean well, but sometimes it's for the best to have a cheerleader rather than a critic, especially if that person is family.

Now, Katie isn't perfect as her enthusiasm can get a little annoying at times, and her desire to leave can be conceived as a little too harsh as well. Still, she's pretty cool and serves her role as a protagonist pretty well...also, if the movie gets a sequel, let's hope she and Jude become cannon by then. GIVE KATIE A GIRLFRIEND, DAMN IT!

Aaron Mitchell: But as great as Katie is, it's this goober that earns the reward for my favorite character. At times it looks like Aaron is nothing more than a source of comedy, but he handles some dramatic moments really well. Partial credit goes to Michael Rianda for that one. Yeah, having a child actor would have made Aaron sound more like a kid, but no other voice could have fit him better than what Michael offers as he comes across as weird but never obnoxious.

Also, let's give the writer points for making a character who is clearly neurodivergent. Yet also refraining from having him be annoying or useless to the rest of the cast. No one ever really disrespects or belittles Aaron and instead chooses to work with him rather than against him. Especially Katie, who forms a solid sibling bond with Aaron as a fellow weirdo. It's genuinely sweet to see, and I loved every minute that the writers showed that just because someone acts on a different wavelength doesn't mean they shouldn't be treated any less because of it. You get that with Katie, a little bit, but I see it much more with Aaron, for some reason. And I love him every minute, so that’s a win.

(Plus, I may or may not have had a dinosaur phase when I was younger, so go ahead and add him to the list of relatable characters too.)

Rick Mitchell: This is probably a character you will either love or hate, and I can see both sides of that argument. Because on the one hand, I really like Rick Mitchell. His motivation is clear and understandable from the first set of home videos with him and Katie, both near the beginning and the end. Sure, he messes up a lot, but he is still a man who cares deeply about his daughter, as well as his entire family. He gets to the point where he would make great sacrifices for all of them, especially Katie. Plus, it's just pleasant seeing a cartoon dad who isn't a complete idiot or overprotective regarding his daughter's love life.

However, there are times when Rick comes across as an irresponsible d**k. When he does things like smash the family's phones without telling them or giving them screwdrivers for "presents," you're either gonna find that funny or you won't. Personally, I enjoy Rick and his antics, and I have no problem with irresponsible cartoon dads. As long as they don't cross the line toward Modern-Peter Griffin territory, I've got no problem with dads like Rick, who I believe has never even got that bad. Still, some people might think differently, and I can't blame them. Because after getting great cartoon dads like Greg Universe, I can understand if some people won't be interested in characters like Rick Mitchell.

Rick’s and Katie’s relationship: Alongside the top-notch animation and gut-busting comedy, Rick and Katie's relationship is what I consider the movie's most essential asset. These two are the main characters of the film, and as such, they develop through each other. And what's crazy is that they have very conflicting goals. Katie wants to escape and be with her people, where Rich just wants one last chance to have a good memory with Katie before she leaves. To do so, they first have to understand each other. Katie has to learn why Rick is so desperate to spend time with her, and Rick has to realize why Katie is, well, Katie. What I love most about it is that they try. These two don't spend the entire movie arguing and being at each other's throats until a sudden "Oh" moment in the end. No, there are actual moments when they genuinely try to understand one another and fix their relationship. It's nice to watch, and I especially love when it cuts to Linda and Aaron celebrating each time Katie and Rick get closer to each other. When recommending this movie, I'd say come for the animation and comedy, stay for the phenomenal relationship building.

Monchi: There are probably people already comparing Monchi to Mater or the Minions due to being a comic relief with nothing else to add...but gosh dangit, do I love this little gentleman. Maybe it's because I'm a dog person, but I find Monchie to be incredibly adorable, and I will fight anybody who disrespects this king of kings. Probably not physically, 'cause I'm a wuss, but I will verbally. So WATCH IT!

“HeLlO. i Am DoG.”: Have I mentioned that this movie is funny?

Rick’s videotapes of him and Katie: And right there. Rick's motivation for everything is set in stone through a solid case of visual storytelling.

PAL: The writers do almost everything they should have with this character. PAL might not have the most creative evil plan in the world, but to me, a villain can have a generic scheme as long as they're funny. Thankfully, PAL is funny. Not only is the idea of a smartphone ruling the planet hilarious in all the right ways, but Olivia Colman delivers such a great cynical energy that the character needs. The way PAL reacts to people explaining why humans are worth living is just the best, and her flopping around in a fit of rage successfully gets to me.

If I had to nitpick, I'd say that I wish PAL had more of a meaningful resolution to her character. The movie builds up that she makes a big deal about Mark dropping her, so it feels weird that neither of them really get any actual closure with each other. I'll get more into that in the dislikes, but I wish PAL had more of a fitting end than just dying after accidentally getting dropped in a glass of water. Other than that, she's a great comedic villain for a comedic movie.

PAL MAX Robots: These guys are the funniest characters in the movie. Half of it is the bits of visual humor, while the other half comes from the solid line delivery from Beck Bennett. Especially with Bennett's and Fred Armisen's Eric and Deborahbot 3000. These two are definitely the comedic highlights, as nearly every line they say is both hilarious and kind of adorable at times. And just like with Monchi, if you dare disrespect these characters, I will fight you. Because they are funny, and I will not hear otherwise.

PAL demonstrating what it’s like to be a phone: Have I mentioned that this movie is funny?

(Don't disrespect your phones, kids. Otherwise, they'll try to take over the world.)

PAL turning off the Wi-Fi: Again, have I mentioned this movie is funny?

“I love the dog. You love the dog. We all love the dog. But at some point, you’re gonna have to eat the dog.”: It's the sick jokes that get to me the most. Everyone booing Rick afterward is just the cherry on top.

Attack of the Furbies: Have I. Mentioned. That this movie. Is funny?

Seriously, if you haven't lost your s**t during every second of this scene, then you never had to deal with the demonic entity that is a Furby. In a way, I commend you. But you also don't get to appreciate the comedic genius of all of this. So I also weirdly feel bad for you.

The Mitchells deciding how to celebrate: You don't have a real family if you spend more time arguing about how to celebrate after saving the world than you do about how to save the world. I don't make the rules. I just abide by them.

The PAL MAX Primes: There's not much to say about them. The PAL MAX primes look and act pretty cool, are brilliantly animated, and raise the stakes while still being funny at times. I love 'em, but I don't have much to analyze with them either.

The origin of the moose: ...I'd make the "I didn't need my heart anyway" joke, but to be honest, it's still shattered after WandaVision.

(For real, though, this is a really effective scene that establishes why Rick makes a big deal with the moose and why he might feel hurt that Katie is willing to disregard it completely)

The Theme of Technology and Social Media: There's a theme about how family is important, and working hard on making things work is worth the effort. But that's a bit too generic for my tastes, so instead, I'm gonna talk about the equally important message this movie has about technology. Because as twisted as she is, PAL makes a great point. The technology we have today helps us in a variety of ways. It's especially useful with sites like YouTube, allowing content creators like Katie to reach out and share their voices. The only issue with technology is how people use it. Take note that the main reason why the Mitchells stand a chance against PAL is by using her own tech against her. Yes, over-relying on all the advancements around us can be dangerous, but if we're smart with how we use them, we can get by just fine. This movie isn't about purging all technology like most robot apocalypse stories are. Instead, it's about using it correctly and not being helpless sheep the second the Wi-Fi gets turned off. Which might just be the most unique thing this movie has going for it story-wise (more on that later).

The Climax: The Mitchells vs. The Machines has everything that I think I climax should have. First off, it utilizes callbacks and jokes that I wouldn't have thought twice on actually coming in handy for how the Mitchells win the day. But showing that Monchi causes the robots to malfunction turns a pretty "eh" joke into a solid case of foreshadowing.

Second, everyone does something. Some characters do more than others, sure, but the fact that every Mitchell, even Monchi, has a hand in beating PAL and her robots is a great sense of writing to me. It shows that you really can't cut anyone from the main cast, as they each add value to how they are essential to the plot. Even Aaron, who arguably does the least in the climax, still manages to be the catalyst to what is easily the best scene in the movie. Speaking of which...

Linda Kicks Ass: By the way, that's the actual name on the soundtrack. I'm not even kidding. Check it.

Anyways, for the most part, Linda seemed like a decent cartoon mom. She's insanely supportive but still has the common sense to keep her foot down, like agreeing with Rick to stay safe in the dino stop the second the apocalypse starts. A pretty fun character, for sure, but nothing too noteworthy...but the second she loses her s**t, Linda Mitchell frickin' SKYROCKETS to the best-cartoon-mom territory! Believe me when I tell you that seeing her slice and dice robots like a middle-aged female Samurai Jack is as awesome as it is hilarious. Does it make sense how she can suddenly do this? No, but at the same time, who gives a s**t about common sense?! Because this moment was epic, and I don't think I'll ever get tired of watching it over and over again.

Rick Learning How to Internet...Again: I consider this the funniest moment in the movie. Trust me, the Furby scene is a close, close, CLOSE, second...but I think this scene was funnier.

The final goodbye: This is what I'm talking about when I say humor adds to the dramatic moments. The Mitchells saying "I love you" in moose is pretty funny, but it's also a sweet moment given that this is absolutely how this family of weirdos would say goodbye to each other. And, yeah, I got a little misty-eyed during this scene. Especially when Rick saw Katie pocketing the moose. That s**t just cuts deep, man.

Alex Hirsch Voices a Character: ...That's it. I look up to Alex Hirsh as everything I want to be as a creator, and the fact that his name is on this movie fills me with joy. He's also a story consultant, so that can also explain why the movie turned out as great as it did...although there are some imperfections.

WHAT I DISLIKE

Katie-vision: What's Katie-vision? Well, throughout the movie, we get to see how Katie views the world as there are these hand-drawn elements that look like effects Katie would add if she was the one who made the movie. At times it can be subtle and cute, like when this little beating heart appears when Katie is talking with Jude and her other friends. It's when the movie is in your face with Katie-vision does it get annoying. Like showing how Katie is lying about being certain she can drive up a vertical ramp or signifying what is the Rick Mitchell Special. Even if you justify that this would be how Katie would edit the movie, it still doesn't change how obnoxious these moments can be. For instance, Monchi is justified to be essential for the plot, but that doesn't mean people won't hate him...I'll still fight them if they do, but that's beside the point.

I can totally accept this being a personal issue, as I'm sure some people enjoy it. As for me, I think Katie-vision works best when used subtly instead of crudely.

The Meme humor: It's something similar here. Because some people like meme humor...but I don't. To me, it just dates your story if you reference memes even once. Now, a show, movie, or book being partially dated is nothing new. We Bare Bears, a series that I love, reference memes, apps, and social media constantly. Yet, the show still has a timeless feel to it as it doesn't rely on those references too much. The Mitchells vs. the Machines doesn't rely on memes as much either. But even then, that doesn't make a difference about how annoying that gibbon monkey joke was. Seriously, what the f**k was that? And how is THAT the joke that gets used twice!?

Underutilizing Mark Bowman: It really bothers me how this guy barely does much. I mean, Mark Bowman is the main reason that anything happens in the movie. Because he mistreated PAL, Mark acts as the catalyst for events to come. So the fact that he could have been written out the second PAL takes control doesn't make sense to me. It's worse since I could see more potential with his character through his relationship with PAL. These two could be anti-Rick and Katie, as Mark and PAL show what happens when people disrespect their family. So separating them halfway through the story, and keeping them as such, is a huge mistake as it results in neither having a proper resolution to their arcs. Like I said, Rick and Katie develop through each other, and the same could have happened with Mark and PAL. It doesn't, making it something that I can't help but feel disappointed about.

The Poseys: These are characters I feel like work better with multiple appearances. Sure, they only have the one joke about being a perfect family, but at the same time, you can make a joke like that work. Look at Yvonne from Shaun of the Dead (Which might just be my favorite movie). That's a bit-character whose only purpose is showing how better she is than Shaun despite being in an eerily similar situation. But she works well as we constantly see how great she's doing in every instance we see her. The same could be done with the Poseys, as using a similar joke for one scene is underutilizing great potential to make an already good movie into a better one.

Plus, if you're gonna shoehorn in a romance between Aaron and Abby Posey, the least you could do is have more than one scene developing that...just saying.

Katie’s and Rick’s “Oh” Moments: I want to make it clear that I actually like these scenes. They're well written and effectively emotional. My problem is that they also happen two seconds apart. There's nothing wrong with having a character realize the error of their ways through a tear-jerking moment. It's a popular tactic for a reason. And given how both Rick and Katie are the protagonists, they both need their own "oh" moment. But you gotta space them out, as it makes things easier to see the emotional manipulation that you're clearly trying to pull on the audience. They work, but putting them back to back is an issue easily solved with at least two minutes of padding, not two seconds.

Katie’s Death Fakeout: This is one of the few instances that a joke doesn't work in the movie, made even more annoying with the fact that I could see the punchline a mile away and kept thinking, "Just get to it already." I'm pretty sure no one bought this, especially when Katie didn't look like she could have gotten killed in any way after throwing PAL. It's poorly handled and proof that even the funniest comedies have a stale joke every now and again.

Nothing New is really being done here: Keep in mind that in terms of style, this movie is incredibly innovative. And here's hoping future animated projects can take notes. But narratively speaking? Yeah, there's nothing really new that this movie is offering.

A story about how technology will be the death of us? Been there.

A story about a group of idiots miraculously saving the world? Done that.

A story about a father forcing their teenager on a road trip so they can spend quality time with each other, thus ruining the teen's chance of hanging out with their girlfriend? Believe it or not, I have seen A Goofy Movie...multiple times...both as a kid and as an adult.

Now, I have no issue with a movie's plot being a bit by-the-books, and in some cases, cliche. If done effectively, and if I still have a good time, I don't think there’s much to complain about. And there isn't with The Mitchells vs. The Machines. The problem lies with that I'll forget this movie along with the dozens of others like it in a couple years. Which might just be the biggest issue any film can have.

---------------------

Overall, I'd give The Mitchells vs. the Machines a well-earned A-. It has nitpicks, sure, but it's still a blast to watch. It might not be innovative or groundbreaking as movies like the last Sony Pictures Animation movie, Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse. However, it is fun. And when the world is burning down around us, it's nice to have a fun movie that can distract us from all of it. So feel free to log in to Netflix the next time you're in the mood for a film that is great for the whole family. You won’t be disapointed

(And I will talk about The Falcon and the Winter Soldier pretty soon. I just needed to get this out of my system first.)

[fairyoftbz]

[16:09]

🎄Day 9 of the Christmas project🎄

"Oh god, my neck hurts," you mumbled to yourself as you raised your hand to slightly massage the painful area, desperately trying to get rid of the uncomfortable feeling. "Why are you hurt, love?" Chanhee said as he took a sip of his coffee, slightly grimacing as it was now cold and even bitter. "I've been trying to understand those concepts, but nothing makes sense," you sighed as you closed a tab, slowly giving up this particular task. With your boyfriend, you had agreed to go out to a café and get some work done. It was a great way for you to get productive together because you had no distraction whatsoever. The only thing that you could do was focusing on your respective works. Chanhee was working on a paper as you could sometimes observe him rapidly typing on his keyboard, almost seeing the ideas rushing in his mind. You, on the other hand, were re-reading lectures slides and your notes for the nth time of the day, trying to grasp the concept of the subject you were studying.

"What? Where does that come from?" you said aloud as you read another slide, skimming through your papers to see if you had written down anything related to this concept. Chanhee slightly giggled at your distressed state, and you sighed, getting angry as you couldn't find the precious information you were looking for. "Yeah, no, I give up," you said as you shut your computer, not even bothering to turn it off. "Okay, but only for today, right?" your boyfriend said while taking your hand in his, trying to motivate you. "Come on, we're not far from the winter break, only a week and a half left, hm?" "That's way too long," you whined as you finished your long-forgotten coffee, doing the same grimace as your boyfriend as the cold, bitter liquid ran down your throat. You started looking around, trying to find an occupation while waiting for your boyfriend to finish his essay.

"Are you done yet?" you asked your boyfriend, and he lifted his index as he kept his eyes on the screen, typing rapidly another sentence as his leg started bouncing. That's a sign of him that he was focused, so you took out your phone. "Just a second Y/N," he said as the lights illuminating the café flickered once. "And make sure to save your work," you reminded him as he didn't even notice the lights buzzing. He nodded at your words, pressing a few keys on the keyboard because shutting the lid as well. "Done for the day, I think I did a pretty good job," he said as he hunched over to put his device in his backpack. Before standing up to go, he looked outside the window, eyes widening as he noticed the snow falling from the sky. "It's snowing? Since when?" he said as he was now looking at you. "It's been going on for two hours, I think," you replied, and he nodded, surprised by the sudden change of weather. "Are we good to go?" he asked, and you nodded, excited to be going home after this exhausting afternoon.

You quickly paced to catch the bus that was about to take off, snuggling together as it was packed. You were trapped between the glass door and your boyfriend, who had an arm wrapped around your waist while the other was clutching on the bar, trying not to fall and suffocate you. Once it was your stop, you spammed the button to open the doors despite knowing the fact that it wouldn't open them more quickly. Once they finally opened, you grabbed your boyfriend's hand and jumped off the vehicle, luckily handing on the snow and not a patch of ice.

"Ugh, why is it so cold!" you mumbled as your boyfriend was looking for his keys in his backpack. "I know babe, I know, just let me just get the keys out," he said as he finally took them out of his pockets. You were bouncing up and down, impatient to get warmth. Sliding the key into the slot, you wrapped your hand around the handle, ready to push it as soon as it unlocks. “Ah,” you let out a sigh of relief, your jaw muscles relaxing as the warmth of the apartment engulfed you in a warm hug. Chanhee shook his head with a smile at your behaviour but was also very happy to be home. He was tired because of the pile of assignments he had to complete before the end of the semester.

“I’m craving cookies, do you want any from the store down the road?” your boyfriend suddenly asked as he was about to hang his coat, rubbing his abdomen up and down at the same time. “Oh yeah, why not!” you said, and your boyfriend nodded, putting his coat back on and walked back out the door. While Chanhee was braving the cold to fulfil his cravings, you took a quick shower and filled the kettle with water, preparing two cups and some tea for the two of you. You walked to the living room to turn the heater back on because for some unknown reason it had shut down while you were out at the café. Cleaning the chimney while you heard the kettle whistling, you quickly placed down the wood log you had in hand and went to the kitchen to turn it off.

The main door creaked open as you were about to pour the hot water into the cups, the sound alerting you from your boyfriend’s entrance. "Gosh, it's so cold!" your boyfriend stood on the threshold, stomping the floor to make the remaining snow fall off his shoes. He quickly closed the door as you got closer to him, only to have him handing you the snacks. "I've made some tea love," you said as Chanhee was indeed hastily tearing his winter gear off his body before pacing to the living room. "Ah, wonderful," he whispered, kneeling in front of the chimney as you walked from the kitchen with the two cups of tea in hand. He tried to lit up a match but did it too quickly. The match snapped in half and burnt one of his fingers, forcing your boyfriend to let go of the matchstick. 

"Ow!" Chanhee yelped as he quickly retracted his hand in surprise, the small piece of wood catching fire right on his skin before landing on the floor. He was quick to take it again and threw it against the logs that you had already set up before he came back, the wood immediately setting on fire as he pulled down the protection. "Fuck, that hurt," Chanhee grumbled as he examined his fingers with furrowed eyebrows, shaking his hand a few times in the air to reduce the pain. "How?" you frowned as you set the cups on the table. "The match broke between my fingers," he explained as you gently took his injured finger, observing the blister forming on his joint. "Let me get you a band-aid," you said as you walked out of the living room, opening the wall cabinet in the bathroom before taking out a band-aid and some antiseptic cream. You gently dabbed some product onto his wound, him slightly hissing as you wrapped the band-aid and pressed on his finger between your palms to secure it. "Thank you," he mumbled, and you smiled, clearing the table of the rubbish and went to the kitchen to throw everything away. "Let's cuddle while waiting for the fire to heat the room, mh?" he suggested as you came back to sit down together, Chanhee taking a sip of tea before placing the cup on the coffee table, opening one arm as the other leant on the armrest. You snuggled against your boyfriend, wrapping your arms around his middle, nose nuzzling in his neck.

"This feels nice," Chanhee said after a while having you in his arms, the warmth trapped between your two bodies completing the heat radiating from the fireplace. Your boyfriend sighed in peace as he let his head rest against the couch, his hand gently rubbing your spine up and down. You stared at each other for a while before you closed your eyes, feeling your body getting warmer as the minutes passed by. Chanhee seized the opportunity of your eyes closed to gently press his lips against yours, making you smile into the kiss. You pulled away a minute later, shifting even closer to Chanhee, allowing him to rest his chin on the top of his head.

"I wish it was cold more often," you whispered and felt your boyfriend chuckle. "It's more like you'd like to be in my arms all the time, am I right?" he whispered, and you looked up at him. "You're absolutely right."

[greekletters]

Chapters: 1/2 Fandom: RWBY Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Weiss Schnee Characters: Blake Belladonna, Weiss Schnee Additional Tags: One Shot, Weiss Schnee Needs a Hug, Alternate Universe - College/University

Hey everyone! At the suggestion of my friend, @dedicatedseeker I decided I wanted to get back in the writing scene a bit and use Schnee Week as my entrance. 

I know this technically doesn’t count as a multiship for day 3, but a little monos is always good. I also have some more content coming for later this week, so stay tuned! thanks for swinging by, as always. 

I will post the fic under a cut as well, for those that don’t like to use AO3. 

Schnee Week Day 3: Weiss Multiship

“Are you sure that you’re okay staying here over the winter break by yourself?” Blake asks, the tone of concern clear in her voice. “You can always come to my house for the holidays. My parents said they would love to have you.”

As Weiss looks up from her book, at her college dorm mate, she can see the sincerity in her expression. 

“Thank you, Blake. And while the offer is greatly appreciated, I think I’d rather spend the time here. Get a head start on reading for next semester.” 

After a few seconds of silence, Weiss refocuses her attention to Blake, who was now continuing to pack up her things for the next few weeks. If she was being honest with herself, she didn’t want to spend a few days away from Blake, much less weeks. Since they had started college two years ago, they had been roommates, and best friends. And not that she’d ever admit it to anyone, but Weiss had always wished there had been more behind the occasional fleeting touch, or the small moments that the two of them had shared. 

“Only if you’re sure.” Letting out a small sigh before answering, Weiss decides to give up on reading and closes her book. 

“You know me, I’m always sure.” Standing up, Weiss leans against the bed frame. “And it’s important that you spend time with your family. Without me following you around all winter break.”

“You don’t follow me around. If anything, I’m the one that follows you. I only go to the library for study sessions because you go. Or to group lunches at the cafeteria. And I definitely only do tutoring once a week because you make me do it.” The look on Blake’s face shifting from sincere to unamused. 

“Doubtful. You are a self motivated and respectable person. And not nearly as socially introverted as you would like to believe, Blake Belladonna. Now, it’s time for dinner, if you would like to go eat with me one last time before you leave in the morning.” If Weiss said she was happy to be eating dinner with Blake for the last time in a while, it would be a lie. 

“Of course.” Blake smiles and the breath inside of her chest hitches before she grabs her bag and leads the way to the dining hall. 

———

The following morning, Weiss tries to stay out of Blake’s way as she rushes back and forth across the dorm. Trying to make sure she doesn’t forget anything. She tries to ward off the impending loneliness by immersing herself in a textbook of business ethics. 

“A-Alright. I think I’m ready to go.” Blake tosses her bag over her shoulder and turns to face Weiss one last time. “Last chance. You sure you don’t want to go with me?” 

Yes. It’s all she can think as she looks at her. Yes, she wanted to go with her. 

“I’m sure. Go.” Weiss brushes her hand in Blake’s direction, as if to shoo her out the door. 

When Blake turns around and opens the door to leave, she stops in the doorway. Quickly, she turns back around and walks over to the edge of Weiss’ bed. 

“Stand up. Please.” When all she gets in response is a quirked eyebrow and a look of hesitation, Blake rolls her eyes and motions with her hands. “Just get up.”

Begrudgingly, Weiss closes her book and sets it aside before swinging her legs off the edge of her bed and standing up, coming face to face with Blake. Well, she would if she were taller. 

“And why am I standing?” 

Without an audible answer, Blake wraps both of her arms around Weiss and pulls her into a tight hug. It takes a few seconds for the tension to fall from Weiss’ body before finally relaxing. She’s sure her heart is racing, and just hopes that Blake can’t feel it. But just as quickly as it began, the hug ends and Blake steps back and retreats to the door once again. 

“Call me if you need anything. Or change your mind. Or just… anything, okay?”

“Blake, you’re going home for winter break, not going off to war. And you’ve stayed here with me and sacrificed enough of your break already. Everyone else went home a week ago.”

“I know, but-“

“No but, just go spend time with your family.”

Sighing one last time, as if in final defeat, Blake nods her head and pulls the backpack up onto her shoulder one more time. She turns and looks into the room and gives Weiss a small wave before pulling the door closed behind her. 

———

The first few days were easy for Weiss to trick herself into believing weren’t bad. Like she was thoroughly enjoying the alone time. Having the dorm to herself was a nice change of pace. She was used to spending a majority of every day with another person, and now it was sudden silence. But after those few days, and all she had were texts from Blake and her other friends, Weiss was beginning to realize how deafening the silence was. 

Christmas had come and gone. She had received gifts from home already. Most of them just impersonal things like gift cards or money. Which was fine, she expected nothing more of them. And she had thought nothing more of it, until she received a message from Blake. 

~ hey, are you busy?

no, I’m not. something wrong?

~ oh, no. are you in the dorm?

yes. where else would I be?

~ I don’t know. you are a human, so you have to eat some time. 

ha, ha. did you need something in particular, or just concerned as to whether or not I’ve eaten?

~ I do care whether or not you’re eating, but your Christmas present is at the campus post office and they close at five, so they need you to go pick it up. please.

fine. I’ll throw on something warm and go get it. I told you not to get me anything. 

~ and clearly I don’t know how to listen. 

The walk to the campus post office wasn’t too long. About ten minutes each way. But it was cold outside, since it was winter. So when Weiss arrives, only to find out there’s nothing waiting for her, she sends a scathing message back to Blake. Mostly reprimanding her for wasting her time, as well as making her go out into the cold. Mumbling short curses under her breath as she makes her way back through the dorm hallways, she rounds the corner of the last hall. Stopping short, she notices a light coming from beneath the door. And she remembered making sure to turn off the light before she left. Was someone in her room? No one else was still there from the floor. So if someone was in her room, who was it? Carefully, Weiss reaches out and twists the doorknob and pushes the door open, ready to either run or fight. But once she can see into the room, there’s no reason for either of those things.  

“Oh hi. You walked back faster than I thought.” Blake is standing, tangled in a mess of Christmas lights, in the middle of the room. Some of the lights had been strung neatly along the railing of their beds, and had gotten progressively worse as they went along. “I knew you would walk back faster because you would be mad that I tricked you into going to pick up something that wasn’t there.”

“What exactly are you doing? And why are you here?” Weiss’ voice is softer than she expected as she looks at the lights and then back to Blake. 

“Yeah um, I can explain.”

“Please do.” Crossing her arms over her chest, Weiss shifts her weight back onto one foot. 

Blake opens her mouth to speak a few times, each time falling back as though she’s trying to find the right way to start. Eventually, she sighs heavily and when she looks up, Weiss can’t help but look back into amber eyes. 

“Well. I wanted you to come with me.” As soon as she sees Weiss roll her eyes, Blake finds a little more resolve to keep going. “But you told me to go without you, so I did. And the entire time I’ve been gone, all I’ve done is think about you being here. I’ve wondered what book you’re taking notes from. If you’ve been putting enough marshmallows in your hot chocolate when it snows. I’ve been thinking a lot about how you didn’t want to come with me.”

In the brief pause, Weiss sees something in Blake’s eyes that normally isn’t there. Sadness? The thought of causing her sadness wasn’t something Weiss wanted to know if she could bare. 

“I told you it was okay-“

“I want to stay with you.”

“Blake, what are you talking-“

“For the past two years, I’ve spent a lot of my time with you. Admiring from afar. Going to study sessions at the library, sitting through meals in the cafeteria dealing with Nora and Yang throwing food in our hair, helping tutor other students because it was something that I knew you enjoyed. And I didn’t know how to tell you what I felt without sacrificing our friendship.”

She’s pretty sure that her heart is beating in her throat and her arms and legs feel absolutely numb as she feels the blood rushing in her ears, as she listens to Blake keep talking. 

“And I know that you didn’t want to go with me. But I want to stay here with you.” Blake fumbles with the lights that are wrapped around her arms and hands as Weiss takes a few steps closer to her. “I had wanted to put the lights up and surprise you and I had this whole speech planned about how I was going to tell you that I wanted to be more than what we are, friends.”

Without saying anything, Weiss reaches out and begins to untangle the lights from Blake’s arms, her hands shaking slightly. Letting them fall to the floor, piece by piece. 

“But apparently, I’m not very good at hanging up lights. Nor am I very quick at it.” And when Blake looks down into her eyes and speaks softly, Weiss can feel her heart melt in her chest. Weiss reaches up to pull their foreheads to rest against one another, as Blake whispers into the small space between them. “Do you want to stay with me?” 

“I would like that very much.” 

[cherdream]

blue bird+renjun

synopsis: the budding friendship of renjun and y/n who seem to be polar opposites. 

genre: fluff + angst

warning: mention and acts of abuse (i’ll make a note before and after the scene!)

a/n: i hope everyone’s okay and signing petitions! i’ve also missed a bunch of the dream member’s birthdays because i haven’t been motivated to write anything and post. again please sign petitions, wear masks, and stay safe!

UPDATE: will not be getting a sequel. i apologize for the request.

“stop acting like you understand me,” you yell at the slender boy.

“that’s because you’re not letting me,” he yells back.

“renjun don’t you know how not to be nosy,” you ask, seething.

“it’s not being nosy it’s called i don’t want you to go through all this alone,” renjun replies.

“even if i told you, you wouldn’t understand.”

“and why is that?”

“because god damn it, renjun you’re a golden child. a damn prince and i’m someone my family could care less about. an angel and a devil aren’t meant to understand each other,” you yell leaving the boy flabbergasted as you walk away.

***

“mother,” renjun calls out as he arrives home for winter break.

“oh my, i see my baby has grown a bit,” his mother comes to hug him.

“you’re just being nice. my height has remained the same for a whole year already,” he replies hugging her back.

“how’s y/n?” she asks causing renjun to pause for a moment.

“is it possible for parents to not love their own child?” he asks as he takes off his coat.

“i’m sure most parents love their child but there are some that don’t. why? did something happen?” she asks with a worried look.

“no nothing happened. i’ll go wash up,” he replies with a faint smile and takes his suitcase to his room.

***

“i don’t really see why you had the audacity to come back home,” says a woman.

“the academy told me i had to come home mother,” you reply as you stare down at your feet.

“we pay so much for your tuition and yet they can’t let you stay there for break?”

“it seems so.”

“just get out of my sight and stay in your room like you always do,” your so called mother says in annoyance as she lights a cigarette.

“yes mother,” you reply in a monotone voice as you quietly walk upstairs to your room.

***

“oh we’re having hot pot?” renjun asks as he comes downstairs for dinner.

“of course, it’s your favorite after all i haven’t seen you for awhile,” his mother says.

“when’s dad coming back from his business trip?” he asks as he sits down at the table.

“in three days,” she replies as she plates some food for him.

“thanks and you need to eat too,” renjun chuckles as he takes the plate.

“my son needs to gain some weight and grow up strong,” she replies with adoration.

***

“miss can i come in?” a maid asks as she knocks on your bedroom door.

“is it dinner?” you ask.

“yes.”

“then come in.”

the maid quietly walks in and places the food on a table then quickly walks out.

you roll off your bed and sit yourself down at the table.

“they always forget i’m allergic to peanuts,” you mutter as you notice the cake topped with them.

the loud chatter of the floor below could be heard as the rest of the family enjoy dinner together.

“brother must be home too,” you say to yourself as you pick at your food.

***

you ignored all the messages renjun would text you during winter break which led to renjun having a whole conversation with himself as he wonders why you became so enraged that day.

winter break finally came to an end leaving both you and renjun to start packing for the academy once again.

***

“the miss is leaving today madam,” the maid informs your mother.

“didn’t i tell you not to report useless things to me?” she asks in annoyance.

“i finally have a few days left of my break without her being home,” a young male says as he focuses on his game.

“we should have sent her out of the country for schooling,” she sighs.

“father said she’d might be in trouble if she went by herself.”

“your father has always been soft-hearted.”

you try your best to carry your suitcase without making any noise but it was no use.

“can’t you be more quiet!” your mother scolds.

“sorry,” you say as you heave your suitcase down the stairs, but another thud could be heard.

[act of abuse ahead]

as if already knowing what was to occur next, you shut your eyes tightly as a hand lands harshly on your cheek.

“such a nuisance,” your mother says, as she grabs your hair and pulls you down to the floor.

the beating continues as you try to protect your face, which angers your mother more as she grabs hold of them and throws your body towards the floor once more. opening your teary eyes you see a blurry vision of your brother’s shoes. your eyes meet a amused expression on your brother’s face as your hair gets pulled by your mother. you could no longer hear clearly what she was yelling about. eventually you stopped crying and became numb to the seemingly never ending smacks.

[scene ends]

***

“mother i’m leaving,” renjun says as he puts on his shoes.

“wait take some food with you,” his mother frantically says as she hands him a lunch box, “did you make sure you didn’t forget anything?”

“yes i made sure,” renjun chuckles and gives her hug before leaving for the train.

as he walks to the railroad center he checks his phone to see if you’ve replied only for him to see that you’ve left him on read.

renjun: hey i’ll be taking the 6AM train tomorrow in case you wanted to meet. i have seat 20.

[read]

***

the train arrives at your stop causing renjun to look outside the window for you, but to his dismay he doesn’t find you as the train starts to leave the station. until he hears someone plop down in the seat next to him.

“y/n!” he exclaims with a wide smile until he sees your bruises, “did she hit you again?’

“i just got assigned to this seat coincidentally,” you say, ignoring the question he asked.

“alright, i won’t pry it out of you, but i’m always available to talk,” he smiles, “also at least let me treat the bruises.”

you don’t say anything which prompts renjun to treat them anyway. his fingers gently apply the medicine, trying not to hurt you.

the train ride remained silent for awhile until renjun breaks it by saying, “i’m sorry. are you ignoring me.”

you simply reply with a hum.

“y/nnnnn,” he whines.

“shut up,” you reply, glaring out him which causes him to pout.

“it’s fine,” you nonchalantly say.

“really?”

“yes,” you frustratingly reply.

“good, did you bring lunch?” he asks taking out his lunch box.

“no.”

“alright we’re sharing then.”

“there’s only one chopstick.”

“i knew you wouldn’t bring lunch, so i, of course, brought an extra one,” he replies showing off another pair of utensils.

“why are you smiling like that, but thanks,” you tease.

“hey!” he exclaims causing you to laugh a little.

***

“tell me again why your friends with y/n,” a young male asks renjun as they walk to their next class.

“because she’s a nice person,” he says.

“well it seems like your her only friend,” the boy replies as he notices you alone in the school garden.

“yeah.”

“hey, you’re y/n right?” renjun’s friend asks as he walks up to you.

“yeah why?” you ask, confused as to why the boy’s talking to you.

“i’m chenle. renjun seems to think you’re nice,” chenle smiles.

“oh.”

“hey leave her alone. she’s shy,” renjun says as he tries to take chenle away.

“why? i wanna know why you think she’s nice,” he says, shoving renjun’s arm away.

“we’re going to be late. let’s just go,” he pleads.

you close the book you’re reading and walk away before saying, “i don’t think i’m nice. so there’s nothing for me to explain.”

***

“y/n?” renjun asks as he approaches a figure in the school’s greenhouse.

“hey,” you reply.

“it’s late,” he says as he seats himself down next to you.

“then why are you here?”

“something’s been bothering me lately.”

“what is it then.”

“what’s really going on in your family?” renjun finally asks as he makes eye contact with you.

“i wouldn’t consider them family,” you sigh, “you heard of my brother right?”

“yeah the genius of the l/n family.”

“well that’s the problem,” you gaze up at the stars.

“is it because you’re not like him?” he asks as he continues to look at you.

“bingo!” you smile.

“y/n...”

“look renjun i’m okay with it. i know i’m not good enough for them. i lost the desire to be loved.”

for some reason it hurt renjun to hear those words from you, “i think you deserve to be loved,” he says.

“hmm?”

“everyone deserves to be loved, but most of all you do. i know i have no say in your life because of how loving my parents are and i know i won’t understand what you have to go through but...” he looks away from your gaze as he stops his sentence.

“but what? don’t leave me hanging,” you jokingly say making the boy a little flustered.

“i’ll give you all the love your family couldn’t provide,” he finally says after a moment of silence.

“and why is that?” you sigh.

“because you don’t see yourself the way i see you. you’re a good person and you’re important to me.”

“if you phrase it like that i can’t really refute it, can i?” you smile.

“i won’t let you either way,” he says with hands at his waist as if he’s mad.

***

“please stop,” a blonde girl whimpers as she falls to the ground.

“i don’t want to. it’s funny seeing you scared,” a brunette says as she looks down at the girl.

“why are they so loud,” you mutter to yourself as you try to read your book.

the rest of the girls surround their victim as they burst into laughter.

“say belle, why do you think everyone hates you?” the brunette teases.

belle doesn’t respond.

“because you’re useless and a good for nothing,” the brunette answers herself while the rest of her friends laughing along.

“how annoying,” you say.

“what?” the brunette says as she glares at you.

“aren’t you the good for nothing?” you ask, closing your book with a sigh.

“who do you think you are?” she seethes.

“i’m just saying you’re a good for nothing because who spends time bullying other people. shouldn’t you get a hobby or something? boxing could help with your frustration, you know?” you say walking up to her.

“i remember! you’re the girl from the l/n family.”

“what about it?”

“then shouldn’t you be the good for nothing?” she mocks as her friends snicker as you pick the girl up, “don’t you feel bad for your parents? they have such an amazing son but ended up with another child that isn’t a genius like him. doesn’t that hurt your mother’s pride, having a useless daughter. isn’t that why they never visit you when you’re at school?”

“well aren’t you annoying,” you sigh with no change to your expressionless face.

“why you little-” she says as she slaps you across the face.

the loud sound of the impact startles the other students.

you could feel the pain stinging at your cheek and for some reason you lose it as you pull the girl by her hair. someone leaves to get the dean while the others try to stop the fight.

***

“isn’t that y/n?” chenle asks as he notices a familiar figure.

“huh?” renjun replies as he looks at where chenle’s facing and is left befuddled as to why you were with the dean and gen.

“i heard gen and y/n got into a fight,” a girl whispers to her friend as they walk past renjun.

***

as you exit the principal’s office with your parents you notice renjun waiting near the door. you give him a glance, silently telling him not to talk to you since your mother was here and was already mad enough. you give him a little smile telling him that you’re okay.

renjun has no choice, but to leave. he never met your parents until today. he could notice the cold presence your mother exudes as she sends him a glare.

***

the next day, news went around at the academy that you got suspended as you refused to apologize to gen. therefore, you packing your bags didn’t surprise renjun, however, you started to avoid him and he didn’t understand why. 

***

the day after, you finished packing everything from your dormitory before the rest of the students woke up, as you didn’t want to say goodbye to renjun.

***

renjun wakes up a little bit early today as he’s expecting a letter from his mother, so he hurries down to the school’s mail office. excitedly opening his mailbox, the first letter he sees has your name plastered on it. confused and worried at the same time, he hurriedly opens your letter.

dear renjun,

      you’ve been the first true friend i’ve made, though it took awhile for me to open up. i know that you wouldn’t understand my family situation, but despite that you chose to stay with me and try to lighten my mood. you became a sense of comfort.

renjun clenches the letter in his hand and runs out the place in hopes of being able to say a goodbye.

     you made me believe in things i didn’t believe in. you made me realize that someone is willing to stay with me. that someone would hold me in their arms when i cry. tell me everything will be okay, and that i’m worthy of my existence. unfortunately, it’s been decided by my parents that i’ll be studying aboard from now on. when i’ll be coming back is something i don’t know either.

he sees you loading your boxes into the car near the school entrance. sprinting to the entrance, you can be seen entering the car. renjun runs as fast as he can but before he gets there your car has already started driving away.

     but thank you for all the times you’ve checked up on me. for treating my wounds both the physical and emotional ones. simply being my friend made a big impact on my life. it made me look forward to going back to the academy. something about that stupid positivity of yours and your constant attempts to make a joke made my heart warm.

not giving up, renjun continues to chase after you. thunder could be heard as it signals future rainfall, but he refuses to give up chasing after his friend.

      i’m sorry for not being able to do the same and for not being able to repay you back for all those fond memories and pretty laughters. i only wish the best for you. for the first person i’ve learned to love and value close to my heart.

***

“do you want to stop the car?” your father says, signaling to the figure of renjun running in the rain after your car.

“no,” you reply, closing the window as another loud “stop” could be heard from your friend.

you couldn’t say a farewell to your friend, your heart just couldn’t handle it.

***

as renjun witnesses the car continuously getting smaller and smaller in the distance, his legs give out and his breathe struggles for air. coming to a stop, he breathes heavily as rain continues to pour down on him.

      i promise i’ll see you again in the future. i don’t break promises, renjun. it’s your choice to wait for me or to forget me, but for me i would always remember you as my first friend and my haven.

                                                                                        thank you,

                                                                                        your friend, y/n

[imagitory]

Favorite twst boys?

Oooohoohoo, you wish me to talk about my Night Raven College baes? Let’s see then...

Ace Trappola ~ Okay, so I should admit right off the bat that I have a huge soft spot for the Heartslabyul dorm in particular. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll are one of my favorite things ever, and so most adaptations of those works tend to give me some amount of glee, even the really flawed ones. But for Ace specifically, it took me a little while to warm up to him, given that he can be a real prat, but once he and Deuce really rallied around Yuu (especially when they dropped everything on their winter break and took the bus all the way back to school during the Scarabia incident to try to rescue them and Grim -- MY HEART!!!), I fully adopted Ace as my second trash son and that was that. I also loved Ace’s development in the Ghost Bride story line, as well as his admittedly harsh, but still rather fair tear-down of Riddle immediately pre-Overblot. Ace can be really harsh sometimes, but that also makes him an incredibly honest sort who won’t take anyone else’s bull and won’t let anyone push him around -- yet at the same time, he’s also lighthearted enough that he never takes himself too seriously. In some ways he kind of reminds me of Jounouchi Katsuya from Yu-Gi-Oh!, and that’s definitely a compliment.

Deuce Spade ~ MY ORIGINAL TRASH SON. I loved Deuce pretty much from the get-go, considering how passionate he was about trying to fix the mistake with the chandelier and how adorable he was casting the only magic he could manage (“COME FORTH, CAULDRON!” XDD). Then there was the whole “chick” incident where we not only saw his delinquent side which he tries so desperately to hide on full display for the first time, but we also got to see how much he truly loves his mom and how friggin’ stupid and yet absolutely sincere he is, and I just fell in love with Deuce even more. The Wish Upon a Star event where we learn Deuce wants to basically be this world’s equivalent of a sheriff after having been such a delinquent in his younger years only made me feel all the more for this guy -- him wanting to be so much better than he was even if he’s not the smartest, strongest, or most talented guy around I find so compelling and likable.

Riddle Rosehearts ~ Yeah, I know, a lot of Heartslabyul love, but like with Ace, it took me a LONG while to warm up to Riddle. I thought he was a total jerk and I wanted nothing more than to give him a good telling-off (“go ahead, use that stupid collar on me -- I don’t have magic for you to block, you bullying prat!”) until Ace got around to punching Riddle in the face and then tearing him a verbal new one for me. It honestly took Riddle’s Overblotting for me to feel the least bit sorry for him, but it was how sincerely he acted after the fact in trying to make up for his mistakes that really softened my heart to him. Riddle has lived his whole life following rules and convention to the letter, and it’s made him miserable, so now that he’s come to grips with the fact that he doesn’t need to be miserable in order to live an upstanding life, he’s softened a bit. Even with this, though, that rule-abiding, upstanding attitude isn’t always hard to shake, and I think it makes for a much more balanced outcome than if Riddle just went hog-wild and stopped caring about everything -- because the whole reason Riddle followed the rules so closely is he wanted to do what was best for all and to be the best he could be, too. His motivation for being so strict came from a deep passion for leadership and order, and I’m glad that passion of Riddle’s wasn’t dampened, but instead given nuance. Now he can focus his passion more effectively, rather than lashing out in all directions indiscriminately. Like Ace as well, I loved Riddle’s development in the Ghost Marriage plot line, particularly his individual side story with Malleus. It really showcased Riddle’s noblesse oblige moral code, which I personally find the most compelling and likable aspect of his personality.

Jack Howl ~ JACK IS A GOOD BOY. Anyone who disagrees can fight me. (LOL, not really, but...) Like with Deuce, I liked Jack pretty much immediately. From the start, he just came across as so much more down-to-earth and honest than either of the other two main characters from Savanaclaw (even if Jack is also a total tsundere, but honestly, if you’ve watched any kind of anime, you’re fluent enough in “tsundere” as a language to know exactly what Jack really thinks of something). He was sort of depicted as a black sheep in his own dorm, and -- honestly? -- I’m a sucker for characters that are sort of on the fringes and don’t quite conform to what people expect them to be. Add to that how passionate Jack is about working hard and being the best he can be in his own right, as well as how deathly loyal he is, and he’s just overall a character I would love being friends with.

Jamil Viper ~ Jamil was the first character who Overblots who I actually felt sympathy for long before we see his side of the story in flashback form. Part of this admittedly is because I could sort of see where Jamil and Kalim’s story was going ahead of time, but the other reason is that I could see how much work Jamil put in all the time. Even though yeah, it was a real dick move to try to foist out Kalim so he could become Head of Scarabia instead, and yes, he manipulated things to make everyone see Kalim as cruel and irrational, it doesn’t change the fact that Jamil still acted like a Dorm Head a lot more than Kalim did a lot of the time, in the sense of making sure things run smoothly. Kalim definitely brings amazing enthusiasm to Scarabia as its leader and inspires a lot of positive feelings in the people around him, but if there’s a problem, it’s Jamil who often ends up fixing it, not Kalim. And from the start, I really felt for this guy who Kalim -- simply due to privilege -- didn’t seem to acknowledge he was demanding so much of, without receiving the same kind of attention and appreciation in return. I never disliked Kalim for this, because I could tell Kalim didn’t mean it maliciously and admittedly Jamil really should’ve said something since Kalim adores Jamil and would have likely been more than receptive to hearing what he had to say...but at the same time, given their power imbalance, it’s also not completely unsurprising that Jamil didn’t feel like he could say something. The best part about Jamil for me, at least, ended up coming out after he was allowed to finally speak his mind. Yeah, maybe he’s a little meaner now. Yeah, maybe he’s not so patient or amiable now. But he’s also allowed to show more of that deep, searing passion and ambition he’s been bottling up for so long. I loved seeing how much he enjoys dancing and performing through the Fairy Gala event and the recent Pomefiore chapter. I’ve loved how thoroughly (and pretty justifiably) distrustful he is of Azul. I’ve loved how he’s sort of on the fence emotionally about looking after Kalim the way he used to and making sure Kalim doesn’t expect his service the way he subconsciously did before. Jamil is one of the TWST characters who surprised me the most in how much I enjoy him, and I honestly can’t wait to see how much more he grows.

Epel Felmier ~ I WILL PROTECT THIS BOY, OKAY. Not because he’s delicate-looking, but because damn it, if he wants to eat macaroons and steak with the wrong fork, then he should be allowed to just go out and do it. I absolutely love the contrasts we’ve already seen in Epel so far. For as sweet and bishounen as his face is, he has a real rough, informal side fitting his background as a kid from the country, and yet he also has his “Prince Charming” moments too. He completely on his own comes up with the idea to arrive riding a horse when trying to impress the Bride during the Ghost Marriage event, and yet he’ll also tear into a bunch of ghosts who dare mistake him for a girl. Epel reminds me of a friend of mine from high school who also was a lot gruffer and more cynical than his short height and cute face would suggest, and it makes for a very interesting character, I think. You can’t pin this kid down or put him in a single box, and I think that’s awesome.

Vil Schoenheit ~ All right. Before the Pomefiore chapter, I thought there was no way in Hell that I would ever warm up to Vil. His slapping of people’s butts in the Fairy Gala event, his superficial focus on exterior beauty, and his bullying, condescending attitude toward Epel in particular really made me dislike him from the get-go. But then the Pomefiore chapter started and we reached the auditions...and I found myself agreeing with just about every critique he made, in contrast to Rook’s sunnier, fawning reviews. It made me feel like I was watching American Idol or America’s Got Talent and agreeing with Simon Cowell (which I honestly almost always did, whenever I watched those!). And as the Pomefiore chapter’s unfolded, I’ve seen that fascinating contrast in Vil. Yes, he’s very superficial -- but his dream is to act and be an idol, and in that world of celebrity, appearances are important. Yes, he’s very conceited -- but he’s also an incredibly hard worker who’s put in a lot of effort to improve himself and his talents to the point that he should be proud of them. Yes, he’s almost cruel in how relentlessly he pushes people -- but he never holds anyone to a standard he wouldn’t also expect of himself. Yes, he’s very forceful and sees his way as the only way -- but he does truly want those people to succeed in his own weird way, even if he can’t properly express it. Not to mention the fact that he’s constantly typecast as villainous characters, and he just wants to be a hero who makes it to the final curtain call!! My heart!! It’s made it so that like with Jamil, I’ve found sympathy for Vil long before he Overblots, and so I’m all the more eager to see how both the Overblot itself and its aftermath impacts Vil as a character and his relationships with the other characters.

Malleus Draconia ~ Oh, come on, who doesn’t love Tsunotaro? This precious child needs all of the love and party invitations in the world! (And yes, he may be an immortal fae, but he’s still a precious child to me, so there.) I would totally love chatting about gargoyles and grotesques with him. X3

[nekoprankster218]

Spoilers for the last two episodes of RWBY Vol. 8 below; TL;DR at the end

I was binging the last four episodes of Vol 8 when this moment came up in the penultimate episode, and it just took me by surprise in the moment. I was still processing it even as Ironwood made his first attack. I was not expecting this move from CRWBY (actually wasn’t expecting a lot of those this season, but especially these last few episodes), and now that everything is done, I really wanted to just make sense of it. It was really quick and small, but I feel like analyzing it based on everything we know speaks volumes.

Just in case you never came across this info (I had to explain it to my dad since he only watches the show and interacts with nothing else), it was confirmed during I believe a panel with the writers that Ironwood’s semblance is a thing called “Mettle.” It essentially keeps him focused on a task, no matter what needs to be done in order to accomplish it, even if the choices that have to be made are morally or emotionally tough. There’s been some upset from the community about this semblance and the way it was introduced, as well as other bits about it; and even though I’m also disappointed in execution, this doesn’t mean it’s not existent in the show.

So, this very quick detail coming right before he goes against Winter. What interests me more isn’t the fact he shed a tear over her betrayal, but everything else about him since he first woke up in the cell. There’s just been something about his movements and voice (mainly the movements tho) that’s been bugging me; and it wasn’t until the tear fell that I realized what it was. They’re cold and stiff - they’re robotic. Kinda fitting, given this follows when the one robot of the show has just been turned into a real, fleshy human.

And this tear is the only “human” thing about it. His face is dead, his eyes are dull, and even his expression clashes with the teardrop. And as I was watching things play out, I couldn’t help but think of the little phrase: “the eyes are the window to the soul.” Well, given how I just said his eyes are dull, maybe the more fitting term would be eye mechanisms, but I think where I’m going with this is kinda clear.

This is the last trace of James Ironwood leaking through, in my opinion. The one who sacrificed his arm to protect Amity - to protect the one hope the entire planet had for communications. The one we listen to in “Hero.” The one who opened his arms and plans up to a bunch of kids when years ago he was willing to betray a colleague in order to have full control of Vytal security. The one who trusted, and expressed himself, and let himself be weak and exhausted in front of others (see: his talks with Qrow and Oscar), and gave physical affection (see: hug with Qrow); the one we saw in Vol 7 right before Cinder and Salem showed up.

Mettle is locked onto the goal of protecting Atlas - it’s been said so time and time again that he’ll do whatever it takes. But I feel like the betrayal from Winter, while not being strong enough to break Mettle’s hold of his body, might’ve at least gotten through to his mind/soul that things have gone too far. A fitting parallel comes again from Penny with the virus controlling her body - although in her case, with a little help from Jaune, her soul was able to overpower the virus and take back control of her body. With Ironwood, though, his fate is the opposite. He’s lost that battle, with the only thing he can do against his semblance is weep briefly.

With that I mind, I honestly do hope he’s died amidst the rubble. Aside from the horror of him possibly shifting from “protect” to “revenge” now that Atlas is gone - even if the destruction frees him from Mettle, death at that point really is the best option from both a narrative and a meta standpoint. Mettle is something that has yet to be even acknowledged in-universe; if CRWBY tries to redeem Ironwood at this point, trying to use it now as a explanation will probably seem to those who don’t know about it yet as a lazy excuse to wave his actions away. Honestly, yeah, even knowing about it now still makes it seem like a lazy explanation/motivation. Sure, it’d be nice if maybe the Shade professor mentioned it to the kids so it’s finally addressed in-universe like it should’ve been much, much earlier, but damage has already been done. Ironwood’s a tragedy, but but very hard to realistically redeem at this point. The public’s already seen him try to blow up a whole city of people for a petty reason - even if it came out it was all because of a semblance, that might just make them distrust him for new reasons, much less forgive him.

Also, note: this isn’t me waving away everything fucked up he’s done since the end of Vol 7. As much as I wish CRWBY did things differently with his character, that’s not the story we got. This is just me making an observation of a detail and trying to make a theory about it - not an excuse of actions or an argument for redemption. I’ve seen at least one other interpretation of the tear that have gone down different paths, and they weren’t as a nice as I was, and honestly given how quick and vague this was anyone could be right at this point. However, for me, I kind of want to go off based one of the lessons we learned from this season, the one which Yang verbalized in “Risks.” I want to be optimistic about this moment. I want to have hope that deep down, there was a person, and one that hopefully had his soul freed from the narrow-minded shell that’s been marching around this whole season. That’s my interpretation for Vol 8!Ironwood.

TL;DR: Given how off his movements and expression have felt, the way the tear clashes to me seems like the writers saying, “Mettle has taken complete control over Ironwood’s body, and all he can do now is shed a tear as he can’t stop his body from fighting Winter and dooming everyone.” It reads much like Penny’s battle with the virus; although in his case, he lost, and hopefully he’s also dead so he and everyone else can finally be at peace over this whole mess.

Holy shit. One day into the hiatus and I just did a full write up over a split-second tear. God, this is gonna be hell.

[sxveme-2]

blueberry pancakes // bucky barnes

MASTERLIST

Description: A single mother. Juggling being a mom, a full time pediatrician, and a difficult ex who believed now would be the best time to finally be a father. A soldier ripped out of time. Ex-assassin turned superhero. Learning how to balance a new domestic life with handling demons of his past, while facing the trials of the future. a love story began over something as simple as chocolate chip pancakes with hidden blueberries.

Disclaimer: I do not own any original Marvel characters! All canon plots and canon characters belong to Marvel Comics and Marvel Studios. This is an original work. You may not publish it anywhere else

Status: Edited

Note: Takes place after endgame. I have elected to ignore Tony's death and Steve's leaving. Did not happen. Quick Reminder! My works are only published here, AO3 and on Wattpad, thank you.

Chapter Seventeen: The One With the Dancing

Warnings: Explosions

Word Count: 3026

     Ever since Lily was a child, her parents were the one constant thing that never changed throughout her life. However, as each individual Osborne child grew up and grew out of the nest, things seemed to change. Their work became more of a taboo topic, and they'd never share the research they were doing. But it became worse when Lily married Scott. And it seemed as though things just...it was like there was something changing within the lives the Osborne children believed they had. Puncturing holes in that pristine image of Alicia and Abel.

Lily blamed herself for it, as she tends to do. She believed she allowed her relationship to become distant between her and her parents, which is why they didn't talk as much about these things. A part of her even believed it to be a factor from her and Scott’s marriage. She knew her parents weren't his biggest fans, and dinners were always tense. They would always pull him aside during holidays...but Lily never really thought twice.

She didn't feel the need to. She somewhat hoped that the little talks they had were them finally getting along. Because at one point, Lily did indeed love Scott. And he loved her. So she figured that was all. But that was simply the socially naive side of the girl.

It wasn't until now did she realize there was something deeper going on.

"What are you insinuating, Sergeant Barnes?" Abel countered, leaning forward.

"It was simply a question, Abel. I'm not trying to insinuate anything. It's just odd in my opinion, that's all sir." Bucky smiled gently, sipping on his own coffee.

"I-I found it a bi-bit odd as well." Lily managed, heat flushing as all eyes turned to her. She wasn't exactly known to defy her parents or speak out really. Even Bucky seemed taken aback. But she persisted, her heart racing, "I mean I called you a month ago. I figured y-you'd come down before."

Even when it came down to dire situations, Lily had a rough time standing up to her parents. Well, she struggled with everyone doing that. But her parents posed particular trouble for her. She appreciated and loved them more than she could put into words, and never wanted them to feel as though she were defying them. Their approval was Lily's driving motive in close to everything she did. It was one of the main reasons she became a doctor, other than her sheer intelligence and love for children. She wanted to be the absolute best for them, be the best, become the best. Even at her age, standing up to her parents was difficult. Their approval was everything Lily strived for.

The only time she even slightly wavered when it came to standing up to them, was with her siblings. If they were being a tad harsh on Rose for staying out a few minutes after curfew, typically Lily would smooth it over. Cedar didn't do so well on a test and they were upset? Lily reminded them that he's trying his best and that everyone has slip-ups. That was it. Those were the only times. Except for the conversation at the cafe.

"Lily?" Alicia pondered, "I don't understand. We were worried sick we just...couldn't get down here," the blonde insisted, but the twinkle in her eyes faded, "We want to go see him today."

"Mom you're dodging..." Lily whispered, fiddling with her fingers, "Why didn't you come down when he was initially arrested?"

"Mum!" a voice called. Rose. the elder sister let out a shaky breath as she leaned back in her seat, eyes averting from her parents just across from her.

Glancing down at her lap, Lily fluttered her eyes shut. A deep instinct within her knew that there was something going on. But another part of her wanted to block it out. Hide it away. Pretend everything was fine. Act as though Cedar was walking free, her parents were simply environmental scientists, that nothing changed. She didn't like the feeling of change. The uncertainty in the air, the confusion, the constant paranoia. Her fingers began to tug at a loose thread at the end of her stark white dress, fiddling and pulling at it. Until the cool feeling of metal splayed across her wrist, rubbing smooth circles.

"Everything okay, Lil?" Gen asked, pulling the blonde out of her fixation.

"Yeah sorry. Late-night last night." she lied, giving a forced smile.

-----

"Why don't you leave Hunt with Gen and Rose for a bit and we can go somewhere quiet?" Bucky whispered as the group went to stand, about to leave the cafe, "It's just a short walk from here, a block or so."

"Yeah...Yeah, let's do that." Lily nodded along, turning towards her parents who had already left the cafe, after telling the young girl they were going to the police station, "Hunt! Buddy why don't you stay here with auntie Rose and aunt Gen for a bit. Bucky and I have some stuff to do." the blonde smiled down at the boy, running a hand through his hair.

With a nod from her son, Lily turned her attention back to the brunette. Lily felt like the world around her was closing in. Everything was out of place and uneasy. Whether it be her parents, Cedar, or her love life actually having a spark to it. Things just wouldn't sit still. They wouldn't stop for her to catch her breath. Anytime she believed some sense of normalcy was returning, the world threw another curveball her way. She just wanted to get to know Bucky and hopefully open herself up again, maybe fall for another.

Slipping his flesh hand into Lily's, the man next to her gave a gentle squeeze. With a glance upwards, the blonde blushed at the way he looked at her. Those troubled eyes becoming clear when they rested on her fair complexion. She loved the way he looked at her. Those blue eyes staring down at her like there was no one else around. There was no confusion, no pain. Just her. He looked at her, not as Lily Osborne. Not as a single mother. Not the daughter of famous scientists. He looked at her as Lily. The brilliant mind who has suffered through emotional trauma, who continues to fight through the hard days and raise a son. He looked at her like she was the most beautiful, and the strongest woman he had met.

And his touch. Oh, his touch. Ever so feather-light yet meaningful and passionate all the same. His slight hesitation with the vibranium arm, yet never failing to overcome that slight fear. Because she made sure he knew she wasn't scared of him. She knows what he had done. Who he had killed. All the pain he had caused. But she knew it wasn't really him. It was the Winter Soldier. It wasn't James Buchanan Barnes. Not the man who watched National Geographic with her son. Not the person who cooked her dinner. Not the person who kissed her as though she'd break. His touch was the most special thing to Lily. Because he touched her like a human, and she let him with no real fear.

Bucky led the young mom from the cafe, fingers brushing gently across her knuckles as the cool November wind brushed between them. Her long blonde hair gently tossed across her face as they walked east from the cafe, dodging people. Lily had lived in the city for fifteen years, yet had no idea where was leading her. It was to a seemingly quiet part of the busy city, where there were small flower bushes and a few elderly walking about.

"Where on earth are you taking me?" Lily hummed, tugging gently at the taller man’s arm.

Twirling the blonde, Bucky chuckled before tugging her closer to his chest, "Well doll, I'm taking you dancing."

-----

"A retirement home?" Lily laughed softly as Bucky led her through the moth-ball scented halls of the building they had entered. But he seemed distracted, waving and smiling at little old ladies and bright old men. All seemingly knowing who he is.

"James!" a voice called as the two walked through a set of double doors to a large rec room. Lily turned her head to see an older woman, dark skin wrinkled in a pug like way that made Lily's heart positively melt as she smiled, "We were worried you weren't stopping by today. And you brought a guest! Don't tell Mathilda, she may cry." the woman teased, a raspy laugh escaping her lips as the pair made their way over.

"Hey aggie," Bucky greeted softly, "This is Lily- "

"Lily!" the woman, Aggie, exclaimed, lifting her hands up, "The girl you go on and on about. Yes, I remember. She's even more beautiful in person. I'm Agnes, call me Aggie. It's lovely to finally meet you, dear. And you two made it just in time for dancing!"

Before Lily could properly introduce herself, the taller man swept the blonde away onto the beige floor that was cleared for the event. A small laugh left the girl’s lips as she stumbled into Bucky's chest, a new sense of calm washing over her. Gentle music, All About Us by He Is We Lily figured out, began to play lowly around the hall, and Lily felt Bucky's metal hand grip at her waist gently, fingers running along the blue yarn of her cardigan. His flesh one tangling itself into her fingers, bringing the girl close as she rested her frail hand on his steady shoulder.

Where her hand-laid, the slight feeling of scarring was evident through the thin cotton of his charcoal grey shirt. A shaky breath escaped from Bucky's lips and Lily glanced up, catching his eyes in hers. Her fingers gently traced the line across his shoulder where his metal arm met the human muscle of his body. Her deep forest eyes kept his sky blue locked onto hers, as they swayed gently along to the music. She felt the room melt away around her, his eyes keeping her locked in place. The feeling of the scar tissue left a fire burning on her fingers. His eyes looked scared, and that's why she didn't stop. She wanted him to know she loved that part of him.

"I know most people call men handsome," Lily whispered, their noses brushing ever so lightly, "but this part of you is beautiful. It shows strength, Buck." she continued, "I know the pain associated with it. And I can't undo it. But I'm going to help you make new memories to outshine them," she concluded, a new sense of boldness and confidence surging through her.

"Lily..."

"I-I know it won't be easy. You being an Avenger. My current messed-up family. Raising Hunter. But the-there's something here." she continued, squeezing her eyes shut and dropping her head, "And Hunt loves you. God, I haven't seen him smile like that in so long."

The feeling of his hand dropped from her waist, only to place itself on the blonde’s chin, lifting her chin to meet his eyes once more, "I don't want to put you and Hunt in danger...I couldn't live with myself if something happened."

Shaking her head, Lily gave a weak smile, "You couldn't hurt us. I trust you with my life...I trust you with Hunter." she insisted, their faces slowly moving even closer.

"Okay...I won't complain," he teased, a gentle grin on his lips, "Let's see where this goes." he whispered, pressing a loving kiss to the blonde’s lips.

As the music continued, Lily felt something open inside of her. Something...warm. It spread through her body. Whether it was the warmth from her closeness to Bucky or the new opportunity he symbolized. A new future for her. A kinder future. One where she was able to look forward to the days to come. Not dread waking up and seeing him beside her. Waking up and seeing someone she couldn't wait to spend time with. She saw a future with him. A happy one.

The music halted in her mind. There was no noise besides the gentle breaths escaping from the pair. Peace and tranquillity surrounded them. It had only been two months since they had bumped into one another at the cafe, and that day will live forever in Lily's heart. The sneaky glances from each side of the area. Only to be brought together by a certain young boy who now seemed to be one of the driving forces in the two's relationship. Or a future one. And it just seemed to all finally fall into place. Two months can change the entire course of someone's life, and that's what happened with Lily and Bucky.

All because of blueberry pancakes.

A rumble in the ground shook Lily's mindset. The entire building shook, more like it. A shake that Lily had never felt before. It didn't come from below, no. It came from outside. Not too far from the area that they were in. Bucky's hand tightened on Lily, pulling her into his chest, acting as a shield for her. The tv station in the corner of the room switched from Golden Girls to the news, a panoramic view of an explosion. From the prison. Just two blocks away. Where Cedar was held. Lily looked up at Bucky, who had a grave look on his face.

"I have to go to work."

-----

The only thing on her mind was Hunter. As they ran through the retirement home, Hunter. As they stepped out onto the busy street, Hunter. As they sprinted through the crowded streets, Hunter. When she came face to face with Captain America and the Falcon, Hunter. Her face sickly pale, her palms sweating as she heaved. Her breathing quick and her mind frantic. She wanted, no, needed, to see her son. Ensure he was okay and for the love of God, hide him from knowing that Cedar and his grandparents had been in that building.

"Our guess is this is an escape plan," Steve commented, turning to Bucky, "Three prisoners have escaped...Hallea Tyler, Ryan Hux, and...Cedar Osborne." the man commented, glancing down at the blonde next to his best friend.

Lily felt her knees shake. Her mind fell blank. A strong grip around her waist kept her steady, that familiar cold of the metal ticking off the fact it was Bucky. Cedar had escaped. Her parents had gone to the prison to see him, after acting strange. And now Cedar was nowhere to be found. Everything fell into place too perfectly, with too many coincidences. Glancing up at Bucky, she grabbed at his jacket before whispering the faintest word.

"Parents," she whispered, grunting as someone pushed past her, "ask."

"Is there anyone in the building?" Bucky asked, metal fingers running circles over her waist.

"They've identified those who didn't make it. No one by the name of Osborne. Your parents should be okay." Sam nodded, looking down at Lily, "We'll find them."

Her parents being alive was a relief, sure. But terrifying at the same time. If Lily's assumption was correct, then she wasn't sure if it brought her comfort. The idea that this could have all been orchestrated by them fit so well with the odd events leading up to this day. And as much as she didn't want to admit this to herself, it was the only real explanation to why the exact building her brother was being held in after an odd set of circumstances...and them showing up a day before. It scared her, that her parents could be capable of this.

"Hunter...Hunter, I need to get to Hunter." Lily whispered, tugging at Bucky's sleeve, "Please I have to get back to Hunter."

"Okay...yes okay," Bucky turned back to the other two, "I'm going to take Lily to her son. If you need me back here I'm on coms." With a nod from the others, Bucky tucked Lily under his arm and pulled her from the scene of the explosion. One that she believed he felt the same way about. That this was the works of the Osbornes, and whatever sneaky business they had seemed to get themselves into.

-----

Lily's breath was heavy as they reached Gen's cafe. No one in sight other than on the other side of the street. But Lily didn't care. She just needed to see Hunter. Make sure he was okay. That was her main focus. Getting her son to safety and as far from the city as she could. Take him home, keep him safe behind the closed doors of their home. Away from anyone's eyes. She just wanted Hunter to be okay.

Pushing open the door to Gen's cafe, she was met with silence. Only the quiet humming of music floating through the speakers. Her head spun, and a panicked feeling settled in. But she saw the blonde of his hair, and a feeling of relief overtook it. Both Bucky and Lily jogged over to where Hunter sat, and the latter tugged the boy tight to her chest. She was sure he could feel the pounding of her heart, and the urgency in her coos. Hearing him breathe made her feel okay again. She felt at peace.

"Lily we should go." Bucky whispered, tugging gently at her shoulder, "I don't like this."

"We guessed you'd figure it out, Sergeant Barnes," an all too familiar voice called, "Seems you and Lily are quicker than we originally intended."

Alicia Osborne.

Lily shot her head up, watching her mother, father, and brother walk from the back of the cafe. Immediately, she covered Hunter's ears and tugged him into her chest, ensuring he didn't see what was happening. but, she figured this was the entire plan. For what though? Lily didn't know. Whatever it was, it had Bucky and Lily in the center of it, dragging Hunter along with them. Something Lily would kill to avoid happening. But the others seemed to have different plans, as Abel walked towards Bucky. And then spoke in a tongue Lily didn't know.

"Longing,"

[justshekthings]

just for a moment - park jisung fanfic (part 1)

“Continuing to run you turn around with a huge smile across your face, locking eyes with the boy whos awestruck expression turns into a comforting smile. Somehow without even knowing each other's names you both felt as if you've managed to escape reality, like the two of you were the only people in the universe, a feeling so rare, a scene only in movies, an occurrence never forgotten and yet was just experienced by these two individuals, even if it was just for a moment.”

Park jisung  x reader 

Word Count: 8731

Reading time: 1h 7m

Italics = thoughts

“normal” = spoken 

*IMPORTANT PLEASE READ*

Authors note: Since this a fanfic, therefore fiction, there story is set in your last year in highschool with the rest of the dream members who are all the same age. The school year will also be following the korean academic year system, just for some realism. I also made up a few characters with a korean name generator so please don’t overthink! I will also be releasing this story 4 chapters at a time with 3 parts in total, making a total of 12 chapters #quickmaths. Apologies in advance if my uploads are slow or my grammar is awful. Make sure to like and comment any suggestions or thoughts, but try to be kind, it’s my first time writing a fanfic. 

Enjoy reading~

March: March, although somewhat an afterthought or rather a shadow of winter, left with only it’s remains, it sets the groundwork for the rest of the year. March plants seeds that grow from mere sprouts to full grown plants during the course of the year. 

It’s early March, the month when the snow starts to thaw in preparation of the well anticipated season of spring. The feel of the winter air has managed to remain in Seoul, resented by the thousands of students forced to return back to school for the first semester. One of those poor unfortunate souls is you, y/n l/n, an 18 year old girl and you’ve come back to start and, hopefully, finish your senior year at Seoul Highschool. Although what does seem to make your experience there a little more bearable are your two friends Seo Kyung-Hu and Hu Mee-yon, while those two have been friends since primary school, you only met them in Middle school when you first transferred and they being the only nice enough kids willing to approach you, the three of you clicked instantly and ever since your trio have stayed a complete set.

Unlike your two friends, you could care less about school purposefully staying up late in hopes of sleeping through your alarm and having a valid excuse to miss the first day of school. And your plan worked… to some extent. Your mother on the other hand was keen to send you to the school you paid money for, as you should. You were fast asleep dreaming about exo performing as ot9 was suddenly awoken by the screaming of your mother. “YAH Y/N WAKE UP AND GET TO SCHOOL BEFORE I TAKE ALL YOUR EXO POSTERS AGAIN!” hearing that was enough to make you jump out of bed and start getting ready, not without a few complaints of course. Walking into your washroom you take one good look at your face in the morning, “oh god” you’re at least grateful your skin decided not to break out on the first day of school however your face was still puffed and quite dull. You continued washing your face, brushing your teeth and putting on that god awful, ugly, disgusting, and horrific uniform, as you described. Objectively your uniform wasn’t at all bad however you had the tendency to well… overthink. (the uniform looks like the A-teen beige uniform)

It being 8:35 and school starting at 8:45, you speed walked and slightly ran to school attempting to cut the initial 10 min walk in half with at least 5 mins to spare just in case. Fortunately enough you managed to get there on time to check what your classroom was, before the bell. Room 215? Ok… WHERE IS THAT AGAIN?! Somehow the break managed to erase most of your memory of the school, although there wasn’t much worth remembering about your most hated location on planet earth. You run around frantically desperately trying to find your homeroom before a teacher, or worse a hall monitor. You stop in the middle of an empty hallway to text your friends where the hell room 215 is, until you hear a unfamiliar voice reach out to you, “Are you lost babygirl” WHAT THEEE it took a second for you to process what the guy had said until out of instinct you start to laugh uncontrollably with your eyes starting to tear up. You turn around, hand holding your stomach, “What did you just say?” you ask, unable to take the male standing in front of you seriously. He stares at you, seeming to enjoy that you understood his reference, “What so you’re telling me you’re not totally turned on by that comment?” With a slight over exaggerated gasp at the end of his sentence, obviously showing that he was joking. “No no your question was valid just-” unable to finish your sentence you rerun the moment that had just unfolded through your head, succeeding in making you burst out in laughter again. His voice cuts through your laugh, “No but seriously you seem lost” finally regaining your composure, you take a minute to examine his appearance, and his attractiveness, and realizing you’ve been staring for a bit too long you panic quickly trying to cover it up, “YEAH UM i'm lost do you know where room 215 is?” “New student?” “no just dumb” He laughs at your honesty and points you in the right direction like a true gentleman. “Oh my god thanks so much, hope I see you again cute stranger!” you end your sentence with a wink and then run off after getting a glimpse of his dumbfounded expression although close enough to hear him yell out, “The name’s YangYang!” 

The odds were in your favour managing to slip into class before your teacher arrived and you had a mini-mental celebration before choosing to sit in the empty window seat in the middle row with an empty seat beside you to limit the amount of human interaction you get. Sitting down in your seat and see the teacher walk in and start the generic beginning of the school year talk, you text your friends to pass the time, who were lucky enough to have their class together, while the class goes through the course outline. After waiting a few minutes at the front, you see both of your friends, Kyung-hu and mee-yon or as you called them kyuhu and mimi to simplify their names, walk out and you guys greet each other before the three of you walk in the direction of your neighborhood, talking about what you all did during the break, all the annoying teachers and most recent gossip. 

You’d notice that the first week of school would follow this routine, passing by quite quickly and finding it uneventful as your teacher didn’t give a lot of homework as it was the first week of school. During the first week you concluded that there was no one in your classroom, or in the school for that matter that piqued your interest except for the fellow that helped you on the first day but has managed to slip your sight every time you scanned your surroundings to find him. Although just as fast as the first week passed by, the weekend went just as fast, and based on how your school operates, it’d be the only free weekend you’d have in a long time. And much to your dissatisfaction, you found herself in the same situation from a week ago, tired, lazy and lacking any motivation to go to school. Despite this you actually made an effort to wake up early, too early, to get ready for school to escape the never ending nagging from your mother over calls from the office over your tardy attendance. After eating a good enough breakfast, you open your door expecting a cold breeze to meet you as it did last week but to your surprise the outside was bright and dry, with no traces of snow, almost as if the weekend magically changed Seoul from winter to spring. However the leaves on the trees would need a lot more time than a weekend to grow back to their former glory. Remember when I mentioned you woke up too early, you were exactly two hours early when you arrived at the school, which suddenly made sense to you when you realized that no one in your house was awake yet and the roads in your neighborhood felt deserted. After walking around the campus you finally settle on a familiar tree on the outskirts of the school grounds, its location the very reason why you and your friends chose it as your casual lunch location for the past two years. You set your bag on your lap hugging it like a pillow laying your head on it for support and almost immediately you start drifting off the sleep. 

Unbeknownst to you, your perfect sleep would be ruined by one Park Jisung, you see park jisung made the mistake of waking up 20 mins before school started not taking into account it was his very first day at the highschool and he was bound to get lost on the way to school and if he even managed to find the school, he’d have no idea where his classroom as he also missed orientation for all new students. Late and lost, jisung looked around the front of the building in search of someone to help him but since school had already started most staff and students were already inside. Although it would’ve been easier for jisung to walk inside the building somehow he noticed a figure under a tree not too far from him, jisung assuming it was a student figured it’d be easier to ask a student then suffer a scolding or even awkward small talk with a teacher. He runs up to the sleeping person under the tree and realizes it’s a girl from the long hair and skirt, legs criss crossed under a bag you is hugging and sleeping on. Reluctant to grab your attention, awakening you from your slumber, but he must do so if he ever wishes to get to class. “Excuse me?” Jisung repeats this a few times first with a shy voice growing in volume in desperation to wake you up. In your dream EXO OT9 were just about to sing love shot, one of the comebacks lay missed out on, when you heard a reluctant voice repeatedly saying excuse me disrupting your peace and not to mention exo’s performance. Jisung seeing that his voice was not enough to wake you up he starts to get physical. You try to ignore the voice hoping it’d go away until it actually starts poking your shoulder, now you have no choice but to let go of your perfect dream and wake up to respond to the thing that dares interrupt your nap. Jisung notices the girl moving, satisfied that he finally woke you up, he watches as you yawn and rub your eyes, cute he thinks to himself admiring the girl’s sleepy and adorable state. You open your eyes to see a timid but tall boy crouched beside you, finger still pointed after persistently poking you. “Yes?” glaring at the poor boy with the rudest voice you could muster expecting him to get the hint to leave you alone. “U-um can u help me?” Looking at the nervous state of the boy you empathize with his confusion seeing as you were in a similar dilemma a week ago. Softening your expression you say, “yeah what's up?” using a tone completely opposite of the one a second ago, causing Jisung to relax and become more at ease after noticing your change in attitude, “oh can u tell me where this classroom is?” Jisung points at his paper, saying Room 215. He watches your face light up, “Oh! That's my classroom you can just follow me!” And you give the boy an eye smile, happy that you can help him and possibly become friends with the boy. Jisung’s ears turn pink admiring how cute your smile is and touched by your hospitality. you stand up dusting off your skirt and checking if you had any dirt on your clothes or legs. Putting your backpack on and adjusting the straps you ask the boy what time it was. “Oh it's 9:00 am” Jisung says to you sheepishly hoping he doesn’t shock you by how late they both are, “OH SHOOT'' After hearing the time realizing just how fucked you were, acting quick you grab the new boy’s hand and start running towards the building. Jisung trailing behind the small girl is blushing due to the sudden skin ship and can feel his heart pounding due to the spontaneousness of the girl's actions along with the running not at all helping with his heart rate. Running across the field underneath the sunlight causes an increase in heart rate, a mutual feeling felt by the two, but you both recognize it as a mere adrenaline rush as you both try to take in the predicament you find yourselves in. Jisung staring at the hand who had taken his own so boldly, looked up staring at your hair that had turned from a raven black shade to a chocolate brown in the sunlight admiring how it swayed while you ran. Continuing to run you turn around with a huge smile across your face locking eyes with the boy whos awestruck expression turns into a comforting smile. Somehow without even knowing each other's names you both felt as if you've managed to escape reality, like the two of you were the only people in the universe, a feeling so rare, a scene only in movies, an occurrence never forgotten and yet was just experienced by these two individuals, even if it was just for a moment. 

April: April bears us spring, which in turn prepares us for summer. The weather is unlike any other, it follows the frigid temperatures of winter and yet precedes the intense heat of summer, the month is in equilibrium. 

You watch from the safety of the other side of the field as Jisung is teased yet again by his new found friend group. As cliche as it sounds he managed to land himself with the “popular kids'' group despite this school not caring much for social norms, even if there was a popular group it’d be them and they’ve accepted him wholeheartedly as if he spent the last two years with them. Much to everyone’s surprise Jisung was capable of fitting in despite him being the new kid and it being the last year, it was almost as if he was the missing part of their friend group. The group consisted of Chenle, Renjun, Jeno, Jaemin, Haechan and Mark and they weren’t just popular, they were rich and attractive as well. “Oh how he’s blossomed” you say to yourself while admiring Jisung for coming out of his shell and express himself freely “Oh god please don’t tell me you just said that” “You sound like a pedo” As if on cue your two friends arrive at your spot under the tree, slightly creeped out by your confession. “YA I didn’t mean it like that!” you say pouting at your friends' judgmental remarks. “It’s just that he’s grown so much and it’s only been a month'' taking one last glimpse at Jisung having fun before turning to your best friends who have already started to eat. “Jisung was an innocent shy boy when you met him, your maternal instincts kicked in when you first saw him, so helped him out and get comfortable at the school and now you feel like you’ve raised him but now that he’s found a proper friend group you’re sad blah blah blah yes we get it.” Shocked and speechless at what Mee-yon just said, you shake your head looking down before resting your head on your arms placed on your knees while meeting their gaze, “Did I really sound like a pedo?” this time Kyung-Hu was the one to reply “yes you definitely did” nodding innocently while getting it to you straight. And with that final blow you hide your head in your crossed arms similar to a fetal position, accepting your defeat at their teasing. 

As you hear your friends move on to a new topic you just keep your head down too tired to raise it and decide to take a mini nap to hopefully make up for the 3 hours of sleep you got the night before. It wasn’t like you and jisung falling off bothered you that much you actually rarely thought about it, but for some reason today you were bothered. I guess we were never really friends. I guess more like friendly acquaintances? What about the time we hung out after school or skipped class together, did that mean anything? You sighed letting go of the memories of jisung and started falling asleep unaware of the glances from the same person you were just thinking about. You dreamed about the day you two met, after getting too tired to run the whole way there, since the two of you were already late you decided to just walk the rest of the way to your classroom while in the school, to give Jisung a mini school tour. “You just transferred here right?” “yeah I used to live in Inseon” “so why’d you decide to move here and transfer just a week after school started?” “My mom got an unexpected promotion she couldn’t refuse so we had to move to Seoul, but you sure ask a lot of questions'' you remember him teasing you for that “Well do you blame me? I’m curious.” You catch him off guard by your retaliation, “so do you miss it?” asking another unexpected question that causes a change in mood after bringing up his old home. “Of course I do, I grew up there, I had friends there and I had memories” you turned around noticing his melancholy expression while reminiscing and looked at him with concern, feeling sorry for the boy who was just staring at the ceiling almost as if he was trying to find something that was not even there. He notices the silence and makes eye contact with you realizing he must’ve worried you. “Oh but it’s better this way!” He says happily to ease your obvious concern and you stare at the nervous boy, eyebrow raised not convinced by his sudden change of heart. You let it go and the two of you walked a little bit more in silence before stopping, well at least you stopped, Jisung was absent minded enough to not realize you had stopped walking and bumped into back, you instantly looked up and stared at the boy directly over you. Jisung as the shy boy he was, panics and steps back slightly red which causes you to chuckle at his innocent behaviour. “Well here we are room 215” but before jisung was able to walk into the classroom, you turn around and stop him holding out your palm showing the universal symbol to stop, before extending it as a handshake. “Before you hear it from anyone else, I'm y/n” while grinning from ear to ear and jisung grasps your hand and gives you a light handshake, “hi i’m park jisung” returning you the same enthusiasm through a smile. After holding each others hands a little longer than expected, you let go awkwardly and enter the rowdy classroom filled with talking, laughter and pure ruckus. 

You didn't know one was capable of dreaming of a memory but you just did, and just as it was before, your nap was interrupted by noise, this time in the form of whispers, many whispers. You lift your head using your right hand to rub your eyes to adjust to the light and you meet eyes with the very boy you were dreaming about. “Jisung?” you ask with open eyes, confused and surprised. “O-oh hi y/n we meet here again” he answers, scratching the nape of his neck sheepishly. His friends beside him, snicker at his awkward response and continue laughing amongst each other mocking him, jisung notices this and pretends he’s about to hit them so they’d stop making you feel uncomfortable. He looks back at you even more embarrassed to explain his presence in front of you, “so-” “Why are you here, and where's kyung-hu and mee-yon” You notice that your two friends are nowhere to be found and you become more and more anxious being alone with practical strangers. “Funny you should mention that, they actually-” “We went to get some snacks!” Although kinda mad at them for leaving you alone, at least they showed up before this conversation could get any more awkward than it already was. Jisung feels quite relieved sparing him from the awkward exchange however his friends can’t get enough of his uncomfortableness bursting out in laughter when he was interrupted, not once but two times. Jisung and his friends move themselves to the tree beside you guys resting under the shade after mee-yoon and kyung-hu return back to their seats. After waiting until they were at a comfortable distance you start yell/whispering at your friends, “WHat the fuck guys you dont leave me alone with strangers!” “Oh don’t worry at least you finally talked to him instead of staring at him all day. Plus we needed to get enough snacks for all of us and we all know one person can’t carry all of that food. So please consider this strawberry milk as an apology.” Kyung-hu offers you the drink with Mee-yoon nodding her head in agreement. “Ugh I guess this was worth that horrible experience”  you take your favourite drink after barely eating anything due to your lack of appetite. 

The bell goes off and everyone starts to leave the field and head under the main building including you and your friends and since those two had a class together you took a different hallway hearing footsteps behind you before realizing the only person that could’ve been behind you was someone in your class, god please kill me now. And before the awkwardness kills you, you turn around and break the silence “hey thanks for watching me while I slept I understand my friends prolly asked you to do it as a favour and I really appreciate it” Jisung looks up after staring at his feet initially scared to stare in your direction. “No problem, i'm sorry that woke you up from your nap under that tree, it feels almost like deja vu” Both of you shyly laugh at his reference to your first encounter reminiscing the past memory. “Tell me park jisung why is it always you that must ruin my napping time? What have I done to deserve such cruelty.” Your exaggeration and choice of words managed to put a smile on his face and even a chuckle out of him. “Hey that's not my fault you’re obsessed with sleeping under that tree.” “But it’d be a waste not to, the weather this time of the year is just right, you can feel the heat but it's not overbearing it comforts you, it doesn’t require you to add layers nor remove any. We don’t need to change, not one bit. I can’t afford to take these moments for granted.” Jisung stares at your back taken aback by your sudden seriousness, not to mention the topic being the mere weather. Coincidentally the roles were now reversed, it was now Jisung that was perplexed by the change of mood similar to how you were a month ago. Although he could tell your words held more depth than they let on and decided not to speak on the matter moving on with the conversation. “But seriously no need to thank me after all I do kinda owe you for helping me out, plus you’re my friend, actually my first friend at this school” flashing you a smile which eases the awkwardness of your conversation. “Friend?” you widen your eyes at the title, unaware he saw you like that considering the limited time the two of you spent together. “Yeah that's what you call people you care about right?” your eyes follow his figure with a speechless expression on your face as he passes by you and walks ahead to go back to class, but just before he walks in he steps back to look back at you, “are you coming, friend?” before winking at you, emasked in the sunlight coming from the classroom, changing his eyes a lighter shade, before completely walking into the classroom. He leaves you baffled and blushing at his new found confidence and you are still processing what just happened, did he just wink at me? You shake your head trying to forget his words in hopes of calming your heart rate and enter your classroom sitting in your seat, on the other side of the class. Despite how much you try to hide your embarrassment, you just couldn’t hide how pink your ears were, same as jisung who might have put on a brave front, is slightly regretting and yet at the same time, proud of what he said. Both of you refusing to look anywhere else but down and especially not at each other, lost in your own thoughts but if the both of you had just looked at eachother even if it was just for a moment, you both would’ve found out something crucial about each other. 

May: May does not only serve as the last stretch of spring but as a period of freedom. It enables the ability to be free enough to have dreams and independent enough to act on them. 

Unlike the last two months you and jisung actually managed to talk more, although more doesn’t necessarily mean a lot but considering you and him have only shared a few meaningful conversations over the span of two months, your current relationship was a huge upgrade. Disregarding the occasional partner project or pairing in physical ed, in which you and jisung had always chosen each other considering both of your friends were in different classes, you’ve developed somewhat of a casual and low maintenance friendship, that didn’t need frequent conversations but had few but worthwhile moments, all of which were cherished by the both of you, as they reassembled the same serenity the two of you shared the first day you met each other. The moments you shared rarely felt forced and if they were, due to the immature pressures of both of your friend groups, the two of you had no trouble slipping into your own world. As naive as it sounds the friendship the two of you shared was purely platonic, no doubt there were moments of butterflies and heart racing however it only lasted just for a moment, quickly fading away. However someone you were interested in was the guy that helped you on your first day, although all that you knew about him was his name, yangyang. 

You and your two friends approach the stands taking your seats to watch the soccer game hosted by your school after getting invited to sit beside jisung and a few of his friends to cheer on Jaemin, playing as a forward and Jeno, the goalie. As you look forward at the field and someone wearing the number 24 caught your eye. You found the haircut and build of number 24 familiar. You struggled trying to figure out just where you saw someone with similar features as 24, but it was only until he finally turned in your direction, getting a good look at his face. “That's him!” you accidentally stood up, hands covering your open mouth and jisung who was having a conversation with his best friend chenle, turned around to look at your stunned expression. “Hm? What happened?” You looked around embarrassed by drawing attention to yourself and sat back down awkwardly, leaning towards jisung who sat in the row in front of you to whisper, “do you know who number 24 is?” “Yeah that’s yangyang but what about him?” “Yeah I KNOW what his name is, but like who is he?” “I hope you realize how stupid you sound, but why are you asking me, I’M the new kid remember? Not the person who has been attending this school for the past two years.” Jisung raises his eyebrow to you confused as to why you don’t know who this guy was, expecting the both of you to have already met at least once. “So what you’re basically saying is that you got nothing?” “No I never said that, for your information yangyang is our age but he only transferred here last year from Germany. I guess he keeps himself lowkey, soccer is really his only extracurricular.” “bruh you should’ve just led with that, not with any of this new kid bs” “I think you meant to say thank you” Jisung gives you a deadpan look disappointed by your ungratefulness, you catch a glimpse of his face and laugh at how annoyed he is. Hoping not to make your friend upset, you lean in and stick out your tongue playfully in a teasing manner before flashing him your signature smile, “Thank you Jwi~”. Taken aback by his nickname (jwi means mouse in korean) along with the hint of aegyo in your voice, blood rises to his cheeks and to his ears but before you properly see it, he covers his face with his hands while looking down although his ears, like always, were giving him away. 

But before you could tease him the announcer's voice filled the outdoor stadium, “Ladies and gentlemen the game between Seoul Highschool and Apgujeong Highschool is about to commence!” Suddenly you hear everyone in the stands start screaming yelling to the top of their lungs. “We will first introduce the starting lineup of the home team, starting with co-captains Na Jaemin and Lee Jeno!” You, jisung and both of your friends stand up and start cheering on the duo running onto the field, as you have become quite friendly with jisung and his friends so it was only fitting for you to support them. After their introduction you paid no attention to the remainder of the names until, “Now introducing number 24 yangyang!” Your head that was previously resting on your palm was raised after hearing that familiar name and you lean in trying to get a closer look at him before going beside jisungs ear. “Ya” Jisung, scared by the sudden noise, flinches back leaning on to chenle, who was too distracted talking to Renjun to notice his best friend but jisungs reaction does cause you to grin. Pointing at the smiling boy on the field, you say “Do you know what class he’s in?” “Oh him?” He takes a double check looking you up and down weirded out by your enthusiasm and interest in the soccer player. “Yes we were literally talking about him like 10 seconds ago” you rolling your eyes at his forgetfulness, you find it hard to believe he could be this oblivious knowing he was acting like this to tease you. “Yeah I know what class he’s in” you glare at the boy already knowing you’d have to do the most for him to finally spill the tea. “Uh would you like to tell meee?” you, not caring if you seemed desperate. “Lemme think, hmmm yeah no i'm good” “YAH PARK JISUNG'' you see his amused expression before coughing to regain your composure and trying another strategy “Can u please tell me~” you try to act as soft and cute as possible and although aegyo tears away at your soul, you know jisung couldn’t bare the sight of it. “STOP OH GOD” He tries to cover your face so he wouldn’t need to watch your aegyo any longer but you being determined, keep dodging him so he could see every cute action you’d do. “Please jisung~” “OKOK FINE JUST PLEASE STOP!” You quickly change your expression to a serious one which slightly scares jisung “so tell me what his classroom is” you say in a threatening tone while stabbing his ribs with your fingers causing him to flinch away, he sighs and slouches showing his surrender, caving into your antics, “fine it’s room 105” “Thank you! See that wasn’t so hard now was it?” You happily smile at him but you can see he obviously didn’t reciprocate the same feelings of joy and instead glaring at you. “Easy for you to say I have to bleach my eyes and tend to my wounds” Jisung cries out while holding the ribs you just stabbed, you roll your eyes yet again and scoff at his over exaggeration. “You’re such a kid.” “I'm legit older than you soo you’re the child here” him feeling proud at his comeback, looks up to catch your reaction but you’re pouting, hand crossed over your chest upset by the undeniable fact, which he finds kind of adorable. “Anyways why are you so interested in this guy anyways? Do you like him or something” jisung asks with his eyebrow raised while poking your leg suggesting that you do hold feelings for the boy, you feel your face become slightly hot by his suggestion. You swat his hand away and say, “N-no, the answer is no. How can I even like him, I hardly know anything about him. I’m just...” “you're just?” you start glaring him for interrupting your sentence and for teasing you. “I’m just interested” you finally end your sentence returning a playful wink to jisung just as he did a month ago. “Uh huh” Jisung says with a suspicious tone before turning around showing his back to you and properly watching his friends play in their first game of the season. Not satisfied with his answer you decide to talk a bit more, “what, can’t a girl be interested in a guy? I can’t just sit around dreaming about the day he approaches me, when I want something, whatever that may be, I go get it! Plus don’t you have anyone you’re interested in?” Still refusing to turn to you, you assumed he was just ignoring you, not paying attention to your question but jisung’s act backfired when you noticed his ears turn pink after hearing what you asked. “Heoll~, our jisungie has a crush?” (heol is korean slang for omg) you start shaking his shoulders out of excitement of this discovery. Still not looking at you, jisung puts his head in his hands to hide his embarrassment, amused by his timidness, you try to make him turn to you but he won't budging, unable to look at you to spare himself further embarrassment. In truth jisung didn’t have anyone he was interested in, so he was confusing himself but it was probably the question itself and the possibility of him having a crush that made him embarrassed, or at least that’s what he told himself.  “Yaaaaa jisunggg tell me~” You say in a teasing voice but realizing your strategy wasn’t gonna make him turn your way, you smirk hoping that if anything were to get him to turn around it’d be this. So you start tickling him hoping he was even ticklish which fortunately he was, severely ticklish at that too. He starts to spasm due to the tickling laughing uncontrollably using his hands to block your hands and move away from your grasp. “YA STO-” turning around to yell at you, unaware at how close you got when trying to tickle him, he stops mid sentence finally realizing the lack of distance between the two of you. He takes a small gasp interrupting what he was going to say, speechless by the sudden eye contact, but it’s too late your eyes were already locked. “Ah there you are~” you say that in such a gentle tone that it was more of a whisper, inaudible to anyone besides you and jisung. Once again you guys find each other in the sunlight, which lights up both of your eyes making them seem as clear as honey, unaware of everyone standing up, cheering as yangyang just scored a goal. Both of you too lost in each other's eyes to notice anything else besides the smallest details in each other's iris’. However the gaze is suddenly broken when you look around and realize the cause of celebration, clueless to jisung's lingering gaze. “Oh my god look yangyang just scored a goal!” You tell the boy in front of you eyes glimmering with admiration, much to jisung's displeasure. Jisung was slightly upset at the soccer player who was the reason for breaking your eye contact, along with the fond expression brought to your face when looking at yangyang rather than himself. And although jisung might never admit it, deep down he’d wish for you to look at him like that even if it was just for a moment.

June: After months in the cold waiting for the arrival of summer, at last June has arrived. The month does not only represent a drastic change in temperature but in emotions as well, this month is when mere feelings can finally develop, for better or for worse. 

“I like you” the words you hear coming out of your newest friend, whom you’ve become quite close to and bonded with over the past month. “Yangyang I-” “it’s okay you don’t have to answer, I just wanted to tell you” The boy says before winking and smiling at you with confidence. In the distance you could hear his friend Hendrey call out to him in a distance and you see him turn around to wave at his friend and turn back around, “anyways y/n I kind of need to go now, my friend is calling me” He says scratching the back of his neck, reminding you of another male friend of yours, using his thumb to point back to hendrey. He runs off to his friend, not forgetting to turn around, giving a cute wave before Hendrey wraps his arm around his shoulders walking off to who knows where. Now you’re left alone dumbfounded, behind the school building with a stunned expression, while physically you look as if your mind is blank your thoughts were far from that of panicking at your friends sudden confession. In retrospect you were kind of expecting this to happen as at some point considering your relationship was never just friends, you yourself started talking to him with slight romantic interests involved. Although it was, at least for you, a bit too soon. Still baffled by recent events you failed to notice the running footsteps of two boys come from behind you. “YA CHENLE GIVE THAT BACK!” You remain stuck in your headspace as both boys suddenly stop when they notice your strange figure and start whispering to themselves. “Yah isn't that y/n?” Chenle says to the jisung who steps closer to get a better look at you standing alone, he turns back to his friend “Uh yeah I think so?” There’s a second of silence as the boys try to figure out the odd circumstance, before Chenle says, “oh well HAVE FUN!” sticking out his tongue and running away while laughing uncontrollably hoping jisung doesn’t try to go after him after successfully figuring out his password and stealing his phone. “YA” jisung lets out a heavy sigh giving up trying to get his phone back and turning towards the dazed girl, shaking your shoulder a bit to get you out of your trance “Y/n?” “H-huh? Jisung? W-what're you doing here?” “I should ask you the same thing, I mean you're all alone out here” “Oh I was? I guess I didn't notice.” You shake your head trying to forget yangyang’s confession and bring yourself back to reality not noticing jisung turning his head to the side to hide the slight blush after seeing you in a confused state. Confused as to why he had suddenly spaced out looking in another direction, “Jisung?” You ask him while tilting your head cutely, an action jisung was still able to see in his peripheral vision which made him want to keep his head turned away even more. It was now you trying to get his attention so you smile realizing the irony of the situation,”Y-yeah?” “You wanna go to class now?” You say smiling before walking ahead of him with a slight skip in your step. “Yeah sure” you hear him say awkwardly following you to class. The two of you walked in silence from that moment on side by side, you taking a few glances to check up on him as he did with you and whenever you two did make eye contact you both gave each other a smile that although a bit awkward, was comforting in some way. 

It was almost a week after yangyangs confession and since then you’ve fortunately managed to avoid him, still confused with what your answer, but it wasn’t whether or not you had feelings for him or not because you knew the boy could make you laugh, smile and give you butterflies at soon as you laid eyes on him, but you felt as if it was rushed. You considered it as only a crush than deep feelings for a committed relationship, simply put it was too early. And yet you knew you’d regret rejecting him because you didn’t want your relationship to end, rejecting him would risk losing, what would've been a perfect relationship due to your own indecisiveness. Ugh I hate feelings, you trying to decide your answer, was exactly what caused you to get lost during your late night walk you took to clear your head. Realizing that you’d been spacing out, you take a look at your surroundings and you had absolutely no idea where you were. “Oh shit” although what you could recognize is a neon sign at the end of the street that spelled out Convenience Store with a couple tables and seats at the front for eating. Feeling your stomach give a loud growl, you unlock your phone just to check if you have time to spare to eat some ramen, before your mom yells at you for staying out too late, 9:00 only? “OK! Lets go!” you celebrate to yourself, pumping a fist in the air before skipping towards the store and greeting the cashier. While you run your finger through the shelfs scanning the inventory trying to find your favourite ramen, “cheese ramen, cheese ramen, cheese ramen” All of a sudden you hear the door of the store open due the iconic bell and you hear a voice, a male voice greet the cashier as well, “Good evening~” FUCK! You instantly recognize the voice cursing inwardly at the chances you’d bump into him at a convenience store of all places. You immediately move to the next aisle, away from the entrance praying that he wouldn’t see you hiding behind the end of the aisle. “This literally cannot be happening to me” “What can’t be happening to you?” you let out a shriek, jumping back startled to hear ANOTHER voice. Please don't be him, please don't be him, you open your eyes that were shut due to fright, to look up at the stranger that just scared you “J-jisung?” “Yeah who else?” You wonder why you didn’t recognize his voice initially but you see his confident grin while looking at your distressed state, it somehow pleased him to see you like this. “So you gonna answer my question or are you gonna keep on staring at me?” Realizing you must look completely crazy, you fix your posture to look at jisung straight in the eye, “none of your business.” And you walk away from the boy taking your former spot using the aisle to block anyone’s view of you. You occasionally peek your head out just to check on the whereabouts of the mystery boy and jisung takes notes of this, standing behind you, hovering like the giant he is. He chuckles at your childishness, “who are you hiding from?” He asks out loud not caring if anyone heard him, you panic quickly putting your hand over his mouth to shut him up. “Jheez can u be any louder? Plus did I not make it clear, none. of. your. business.” Jisung pouts at you before licking the inside of your hand causing you to let go of him and give him a look of a disgust while you try to wipe his saliva off your hand with your sweater, but all he does is flash you a playful smile satisfied with your reaction. You roll your eyes at jisungs shenanigans and turn around to continue your spying seeing that the boy stayed by the cashier examining the gums and candies. Jisung follows your gaze tryna figure out just who you’re so afraid of before realizing who it was and his smile then turned into a thin line. “Him?” “Ya what do you mean him? That's yangyang!” You hit jisung offended by his reaction to your crush. Jisung flinches pretending that your hit actually hurt, “yeah did I stutter?” you ignore what jisung just said, too focused on predicting the movements of yangyang, maybe focusing too hard that just when you thought he was going to leave without noticing you, you two accidentally make eye contact and you quickly hide behind the aisle hoping he didn't see you. With your chest going up and down, you struggle to control your heart rate placing your hand on your chest to hopefully help lower it down. Jisung widens his eyes seeing you so flustered, “why what happened?” he looks at you, concerned thinking you’re having a heart attack. “He saw me” you slide down now sitting on the floor with your legs folded in front of you while you hide your face in your hands breathing into them, trying to calm yourself down. “What am I gonna do, what am I gonna do” you continually repeat those words slightly scaring jisung in the process, although after seeing you in this condition he realized he needed to help in some way. “Okok just stay here” patting your head before walking off leaving you to curl up on your own. Jisung walks down the aisle that yangyang just saw you in, already meeting face to face with the boy that had walked in your direction trying to check if it was really you or a hallucination. He stops when he sees jisung, taking a step back confused as to why he’d see him there of all places, “Jisun-” “Oh hey Yangyang funny seeing you here, isn’t it a bit late tho? Based on what jeno and jaemin were talking about I swear you guys have soccer practice in the morning tomorrow at 6, no?” Jisung interrupted yangyang, rambling on about a made up soccer practice, jisung thought of on the spot, while putting his arm around the clueless boy's shoulders pushing him until they made it out of the store and before yangyang could process what was happening. “O-oh they never told me we had practice” “oh well good thing you heard it from me, tho you might wanna double check just in case, ok?” “y-yeah ok, but wait-'' but before jisung could hear his question concerning you, and then be forced to answer it he turned around and walked away allowing the convenience store door to shut thus ending their interaction, leaving yangyang completely dumbfounded as to how he ended up outside of the store instead of inside looking for you. Jisung gives a sigh of relief upon returning to the scared figure on the ground in front of him, “It’s okay now” you hear those comforting words escape his mouth and you lift up your head to look up at him, “is he gone now?” Suddenly, jisung feels heat rise to his cheeks when looking down at your curled up body, resembling a scared child and somehow your question triggered a protective instinct in jisung, who felt the need to protect you from all the things wrong in the world well at least all the things that you couldn’t protect your own self from. Finally calming down after your nervous breakdown you stand up wiping away the dust on your clothes before turning to jisung with a smile on your face, “Now let's go eat some ramen!” 

Both of you walk out of the convenience store after finding your cheese ramen and his spicy one, cooking it using the hot water at the store. You both sit down on one of the tables in front of the store met with a cool breeze that cooled the two of you down a bit from the summer heat. After taking a few bites and many loud slurps from the ramen, the two of you take your time to chew creating a moment of silence so jisung turns to you, “so you wanna tell me what happened in there?” You feel obligated to give him an explanation especially after how he helped you out, swallowing your food you lay your chopsticks down and explain to him the situation of yangyang confessing to you and you being nervous and confused. “Heol, yangyang actually likes you? Whaa” You throw a piece of your trash at him offended by his question, “Ya what do you mean actually liked me, what is their not to like” you say while flipping your hair back confidently, “Mhm you keep telling yourself that” his comeback slightly surprising you but you stop there not trying to take anymore insulting comments. “Ok but I was really nervous back there, if I wasn't so antisocial or if I actually understood my feelings then maybe yangyang and I would’ve already been dating and doing whatever couples do.” Thinking about the possibilities you pout and shove a bunch of noodles in your mouth to chew angrily, showing just how stressed out you were. Jisung lets out a laugh which earns a glare from you after being charmed by your inexperience and instead of making fun of your fantasies with yangyang, he empathizes with your situation thinking of a mature answer to help you out. “Do you seriously think anyone understands themselves? Because they don’t. People may put on a convincing facade but trust me when I tell you everyone is just as confused as you are. We’re teenagers for god sakes, we’re supposed to be going through this. You may not know what you want now, but in the future you will and how are you ever gonna figure it out unless you try? I have no idea what you’re feeling right now but I do know it’d be a waste to push those feelings aside because you’re scared. You’re the only thing stopping yourself and for whatever the reason is to why you're scared, whether that be getting hurt or getting embarrassed, just know it's natural and what’s meant to happen will happen but only if you allow it to.” In awe of jisungs words and yet curious as to how he developed all that wisdom. You stare at him, trying to read his face trying to understand what he was thinking. Instead you notice the soft glow of the neon sign on his features, his hair and face slightly lit up. You soften your expression while examining the details of the boy in front of you, who’s sitting with a slight slouch while spacing out, looking down at his ramen that makes you giggle inwardly because it looks like he’s glaring at his own food. You notice just how innocent and vulnerable he looks, and yet on the contrary you are unable to understand his thoughts now matter how you try. You find yourself spotting traits about jisung that you never realized before, like the glimmer in his eye or the sound of his sniffle while eating hot noodles, or how his cheeks puff out in the slightest and his hands inter cross when trying to focus. Even if he was sitting right across from her, he felt beyond reach and in the perspective you found jisung in, he was what they call picture perfect. If only I could just read his mind, even if it was just for a moment. However you stop yourself from staring at your friend for any longer and look down to take in his words, the same words that caught you off guard. You take a minute to absorb jisungs advice and just as quickly as yangyang said those three words to you, three words of the same nature slip out of your mouth, delivering the long awaited answer you were trying so hard to figure out, “I like yangyang.”

If you were able to read this far, I love you~

[whitleyschn33]

Hey, I don't mean to bother you again, but if you're still feeling up to it, I'd still like to see your opinions on each member of the Schnee family. No pressure if you don't want to do it though; I still appreciate seeing whatever you do post.

Hey!

You’re not bothering me, trust me. My motivation for... well, everything, but this blog in particular fluctuates pretty wildly, and that means that asks can sit in my inbox for months. The world going to hell hasn’t helped much. Also, every single time I’ve tried to write this, I’ve ended losing chunks of it cause I was too dumb to just type this in a word doc and copy-paste, so that’s been frustrating, to say the least.

Now that I’ve gotten smarter, though, let’s get into the Schnees!

Jacques

I have mixed feelings about how he was (potentially) written out of the show (and I have a feeling I’m going to be saying that a lot in this reply). I said in this post awhile back that I didn’t want Jacques to become an agent of Salem because something like that would most likely become the focal point of his asshole-ness and shove everything else to the side. That feeling holds true, but not really in the way I had been expecting.

How he ended up benefiting Salem, I’m perfectly good with. Him not knowing about Salem or Watts’ motives for making the deal with him, making the deal because it of how it would benefit him and not to serve Salem/kill people - that I’m good with. He was an unknowing pawn Watts/Salem manipulated around the board, but not a mustache-twirling villain all on board with working with the genocidal maniac/serving on her council of villains, and that’s all I really wanted - for him to not be a knowing member of Salem’s board of evil. Being part of a group that desires global destruction just doesn’t fit his motives – can’t make money off people if they’re all dead.

However, the fact that that’s why he was arrested - that his downfall was due to and focused solely on being involved in a Salem plot that just popped up this volume rather than anything to do with his treatment of the Schnees or the Faunus - that kinda rankles. This goes back to the ask I answered a while back - the focus on all the new plots and characters that meant a lot of the old stuff that’s been built up was shoved aside. Jacques being taken down feels like it should have been this huge emotional climax, tensions running high with all of the Schnees there and a huge release of all of those tensions as Jacques gets taken down for the crimes that we as the audiences most revile him for – his treatment of the Schnees. Instead it was… none of that. Jacques is arrested by Weiss for his aid to Watts… and she promptly cracks a joke about it to kill the tension. Winter is able to get in a decent snap at him, but that’s it from her. The entirety of Jacques’ arrest is focused on the heating crisis. He’s dragged off, and only Willow and Whitley get to witness and react to it, and even that’s just a look from Willow and Whitley running off looking completely done with everything – they don’t even react with each other. There’s nothing in Jacques’ downfall about his abuse to his wife and children or even the Faunus, it’s all the election and Watts – plot points that don’t hold nearly as much weight to the audience as ones that have been set up for years.

So, TLDR for Jacques: I actually hope this isn’t the last we see of him, because that would be a disappointing way to end the Schnee’s arc as a family. At the very least, I hope we get to see him talked about between Winter, Willow, and Whitley if/when they actually get to talk to each other.

Willow

Mixed Feelings: Round Two.

Her design? Love it. Her conversation with Weiss? Gold. Willow as a character? A bit more involved than I would’ve thought from how very non-existent she’s been up until now and implied to have been in Weiss’s life, but I can roll with her being a bit more aware than I would’ve gone with. Willow’s role in this volume? Ehhhhhhhh….

I hate that she literally just has a camera hidden in Jacques’ office and recorded the entire thing. It seems like such a cheap way of Weiss getting the information she needed, and comes out of nowhere after there was already a way for her to get the information set up in Whitley. Seriously – we already had Whitley established as having seen Watts, seen Jacques’ reaction to him, look suspicious at Watts, and hear at least the man’s first name. Whitley absolutely had the information Weiss needed – so why the hell pull “Willow actually has cameras set up everywhere” out of thin air? And actually – wouldn’t Jacques have his office swept for cameras and bugs on the regular? You know, like the head of an extremely powerful organization and high-profile target of at least one major terrorist group probably would? To prevent something like this exact situation from happening? I just find it hard to believe that she could’ve set them up for long without being found, and setting them up just before something important to the plot happened in that room is just very convenient.

And like, there’s actually no reason that it needed to be that way. Willow and Weiss could have had the same conversation, just swap out the lines about the cameras with “I don’t know, but I know who would – your brother”, and you can even have Weiss still say that he wants nothing to do with her and Willow agree with her “you left him here with us” line, prompting Weiss to seek him out to get the information she needs and maybe even have a heart-to-heart with him. Whitley wouldn’t even have to give up the information in that conversation – he could be incredibly stubborn about it and unwilling to help until Weiss is called into a meeting about the heating crisis, which Whitley would absolutely follow into to listen whether he’s invited or not, and hearing what’s going done, decide to step up and come clean, realizing if he doesn’t, thousands of people will die. I can actually picture it in my head, and it would be so much better than just “Oh, yeah, I got cameras that recorded the entire nefarious conversation.”

And I’ve spent this entire section not really talking about Willow. Uhh… again, I really like her design. I like that she’s wearing purple, a color no other Schnee wears (except… Whitley with that wine… hmmm) – a mixture of red and blue, her freedom being drowned in something else until it’s completely tainted. Her voice is good, and for the most part, I really do like her conversation with Weiss. I also love that she finally points out what me and other Whitley fans have been screaming for ages – that you can’t expect someone that you basically abandoned (in his eyes) to look favorably on you, and I like that she acknowledges her own role in that, that she’s been a poor parent as well, and actively a detriment to Whitley.

TLDR, I like Willow, I just hate the damn cameras that seem to only exist for this plot point (since if they existed before, shouldn’t Weiss being hit be what they were meant to capture?).

Winter

Best girl, hands down. Not kidding, Winter basically carried this volume for me – rational, yet having very human reactions to things while recognizing that the emotional response isn’t necessarily the right one, the star of a badass fight with Cinder in which her Aura breaks but she still goes on fighting and holding her own against a damn Maiden, an awesome new outfit, wonderful conversations with Penny and just a very interesting relationship with her overall, actually gets to fight back against Jacques to his face – is there any point where this woman doesn’t exceed all my expectations?

I wasn’t a huge Winter fan before this volume, but I’ve successfully been converted. Second favorite Schnee for sure.

Weiss

On thin ice. Still my favorite of the RWBY crew, but considering how much of a nose dive the other three (in particular Ruby) took in this volume, that’s not saying a lot. A lot of what irks me with Weiss are… little moments. Implying that Winter shouldn’t trust Ironwood because he “could” be keeping secrets when she’s the one lying while Ironwood has been nothing but honest, the implication that Winter isn’t capable of making her own choices in regards to the military and the Maiden and that Ironwood must have been grooming her (I really hate this implication, both for trying to tear Ironwood down and for trying to rob Winter of her own agency – like, joining the military was her choice, her escape from Jacques, and you want to turn that into some kind of long game manipulation on Ironwood’s part? You want to prove Jacques of all people right in that he “stole” Winter, rather than Winter making her own choices and Ironwood recognizing her abilities and offering her the Maiden’s powers? Really?), trying to brush aside Ironwood’s concerns about just how much RWBY has done behind his back, calling Mantle “her home” when it’s never been that in front of Marrow who is almost certainly from Mantle – just, a lot of little things that I really dislike, not to mention that this is probably the worst design she’s had. But there hasn’t been anything that’s just blatantly ruined her for me, and she remains the most interesting and well executed character of RWBY for me.

TLDR, a lot of bratty moments that push me away from her, but still holds promise.

Whitley

My poor boy! He finally got more screentime and some of our headcanons comfirmed, but made the butt of a joke that could’ve easily been replaced with character development and underutilized so much. I’d say mixed feelings, but no – love his character, hate how he was used would probably be the best summary. Of course, I’m very much biased, but let’s not let something like that stop me.

More screentime! And letting him talk to someone other than Weiss! His banter with Ironwood was good, seeing his reactions to Jacques, how afraid and timid he was, was heartbreaking, and even if it didn’t go anywhere, his suspicion of Watts was nice to see. It’s always sweet to see headcanons confirmed too – the painting of him playing the piano was nice, and even if I’d have rather had it come out of his own mouth, Willow’s confirmation of him feeling abandoned by Weiss was such a satisfying thing to hear.

On the other hand, I absolutely hate the wine prank. It was way too drawn out and petty – seeing so much joy on JNR’s face while setting it up over the course of a whole minute and using an stack of food half his size to toss onto him – it was way too over the top. If they had to go for the food thing, having Oscar (or someone else, but Oscar is the one without a huntsman license, so he’s more believably clumsy) just pretend to trip with a regular plate and get it on his shirt would’ve been just fine, and we could’ve gotten a nice interaction between Whitley and someone new and get some character development. But nope. We got to have RBYJNR take way too much glee in dumping a mountain of food on a boy they’ve never met before for… talking to his sister and unwittingly getting in their way. It just puts a bad taste in my mouth.

And of course, what I talked about in Willow’s section, the set up of him seeing Watts going absolutely nowhere. Seriously – you set up the perfect opportunity, and then took an out-of-nowhere cop out. It feels like such a squandered set-up, and really disappoints me.

At least we actually got him reacting to Jacques, and it was given an appropriate emotion and fitting cinematography. I love the shot of Whitley sitting all alone on the stairs, watching the only person that actually gives him attention being dragged away without explanation, and seeing the weariness and sadness in his expression as he looks up – I love it, I love it so much. The last bit of hope that they may actually treat my boy right in the end…

TLDR: My boy!

And there you have it! Months late, my thoughts on the Schnee after the most recent volume! How will these change after volume 8? Hopefully for the better, but we’ll have to wait and see!

Thank you for the ask, and once again, sorry for the wait. I may try and take a few more hits at my inbox, but that’ll have to wait for tomorrow, since I’ve got work in the morning.

Have a good night, and stay safe!

[calliecat93]

So… been a while since I did one of these. Yeah, long story short 2020 just ruined my anxiety and a bunch of other things and I just couldn’t handle doing the reviews after I feel so behind during the first half of V8. Even the six-week break didn’t do anything to reignite the motivation or help the anxiety, so I decided it was best to quit and just wait for the volume to be over. Which with how emotionally draining the volume was which may have very well impaired my judgment at the time, was probably the best decision. But V8 has been over for months now and we’re awaiting V9. So it’s time to finally finish this.

I normally do one chapter per review, but since I now know all that’s coming, I’m going to do two chapters per review. That means four total reviews, then a mass V8 review, and then hopefully things go better when V9 starts. So last I left off, we got Cinder backstory, the Ace-Ops running into YJR, and Salem breaking Atlas’ shields to finally go forward with her invasion. The dark times are upon Atlas and our heroes are running out of time. So… what happens now? Well, let's find out.

Overview

I normally break down everything moment by moment, but we’re gonna keep it brief since there’s a lot to cover.

In War as Salem’s attack marches forward, all of our heroes are in a bind. RWB wants to help Atlas while May wants to return to Mantle and points out that they can’t have both. Nora is still in need of a doctor, which causes Whitley, who overheard, to call in a character that we haven’t seen in quite a while. With JYR, they were captured by the Ace-Ops, who has now been tasked to use a bomb to blow up the whale. Our heroes negotiate with Winter to allow them time to go in and rescue Oscar and causes Ren to make an unexpected discovery. Meanwhile, in the whale, Emerald overhears Oscar/Oz again pleading to Hazel to see reason, even going as far as to give him the password to the Lamp. Not for Salem, for Hazel. This causes Emerald’s doubts to become even more concerning and with Mercury leaving with Tyrian for Vacuo and Cinder focused solely on her quest for power, she is left alone to decide what she wishes to do.

In RWBY’s 100th chapter Dark, we are at the Schnee Manor where the power blows out. But when they recall that they have an emergency generator, Whitley realizes that they can use the SDC to get supplies to the Mantle refugees. Ruby and Blake go to restore the power as Ruby is still struggling to maintain her usual optimism, but they encounter a Grimm in the process. Specifically, The Hound. Meanwhile, Penny, who crash-landed in front of the Manor last episode, tries to maintain control as Watts’ virus goes into effect. During the battle, it ends with Ruby discovering The Hound. One that utterly horrifies her…

Review

Okay, there is a LOT to go over with these two chapters, So let’s break this down event by event.

Monstra

Let’s discuss our villains first since we have some pretty major developments. First, we have Hazel. We had just about everything that I had assumed before confirmed. The reason that Hazel works for Salem isn’t merely just because she claims to want a new world order. Honestly, I think that Hazel just fooled himself to justify his decision to himself. No, as he talks to Ozcar, the truth becomes crystal clear. Hazel has given up. He confronted her once, and all that happened was she kept coming back until he was too exhausted to fight anymore. She broke him. Fighting her was futile and by taking advantage of this, Salem set him on the only path that he had left: getting revenge on Ozpin. Even though he’ll reincarnate, he can still be hurt. He can still be killed. He can still suffer. It was all that Hazel had left, and it consumed him.

As much as I know that some had issues with Hazel’s backstory, losing your sibling to circumstances that weren’t really anyone’s fault but you still feel so angry that you just need to blame something is very understandable. I’ve been in that place. I think that many of us have. And to learn that he did try to fight Salem at first but in the end, gave up due to her immortality… can you imagine how many others likely went down that route? Wanting to fight Salem but when the horrible truth came out were left empty? RWBY went through it in V6 and barely recovered, so it’s easy to see where Hazel is coming from. It’s easy to see why he won’t believe Oz when he tells him what Salem’s true goal, the release of death via summoning the Gods judgment, is. Oscar takes over and reveals the password, trusting Hazel to decide for himself what to do. Not Salem, Hazel. Will it pay off? Only time will tell.

But Hazel isn’t the only one privy to this new information. Emerald overheard all of it. Whatever fears that she had were all confirmed. Mercury is dismissive, both not believing it (until Tyrian confirms it) and even if he did, points out that Hazel failed and fell into line. It’s going to take time for the assassin to change his mind. As far as he’s concerned, he’s on top of the world, or at least in the best place that he can be in. Better than when he was with Marcus at least. Emerald though? She’s been doubtful and scared since at least the end of V3, even earlier if we count the flashbacks in Beginning of the End. The only thing that has kept her around along with the fear of Salem has been her devotion to Cinder. But with how Cinder has been coldly dismissive of her thus far this volume and now knowing that she’s part of something far worse than she imagined, it looks like Emerald may be deciding that it’s not worth it anymore. The question is, will she act before it’s too late? With Mercury off to Vacuo, she’s on her own to make that choice.

The villains’ stuff is mainly setup for Chapter 9 but it’s good stuff. We’re getting everything in place for the many payoffs that we’ve been waiting a long time for. Many of us have been hoping for Emerald to defect. While IDT as many have wanted the same for Hazel, he’s certainly the nobler of his buddies and has shown signs of possible redemption, so I’ve been hoping for it. Oz and Oscar’s efforts seem to be paying off and Oscar taking over and playing a huge gamble is pure excellence. It’s both Oz trusting the boy and working in tandem with him showing how he is genuinely trying to be better and showing Oscar’s growth with his more diplomatic skills here. It failed to work on Ironwood, but perhaps this time he’ll have better luck.

JYR and the Ace-Ops

Like with the villains, their stuff is contained all within War. But boy do we have plenty to go over. With Atlas in utter chaos, to the point of all the citizens having to hide in a subway, Ironwood has decided to have Winter and her team bomb Monstra. Which makes sense… except that Oscar’s in there. Needless to say, JYR isn’t happy about that. But Harriet, Elm, and Vine remain committed to their ‘we have no feelings’ routine. Even though it’s so obvious that they’re lying through their teeth. Ren’s Semblance confirmed it, but it’s not hard to tell. Elm and especially Harriet are hiding their feelings through their anger and doubling down on following orders. Vine does try to remain reasonable, but otherwise retains his emotionless demeanor. Marrow… he just clearly doesn't want to be there anymore. He’s still trying to remain comitted to what he’s doing, but this and Chapter 9 are going to be changing that big time

And WInter? Oh Lord Winter. She wants to do the right thing but is bound to her loyalty and duty to Ironwood and Atlas, and she doesn’t know which one to follow. Her orders? Or her heart? The choice may seem like a no-brainer to us, but to Winter it’s more complicated. She feels that she owes Ironwood so much. Because of him and the military, she escaped her father and his control. I think that she does realize that this point that she’s just exchanged one puppetmaster for another, but she doesn't know how to cut the strings. We see some signs of hope, both in the last volume when she allowed Weiss and the others to escape, and here when she grants JYR’s request to go into the whale to find Oscar before the bomb arrives. She knows that if Ironwood finds out she’ll be in trouble. She remains conflicted, but it’s still a signt hat it’s not too late. It allows her (and Marrow forthat mater) to remain sympathetic while others like Harriet… well, they’re not making it easy, let’s leave it at that.

That brings us to Ren. He’s had it hard thus far, his emotional control slipping, his split-off from Nora, and everything that built up the last volume coming crashing down. He’s been pushing everyone away, but now? He can’t afford to do so. Not with Oscar in danger. When Harriet says that teammates are replaceable, he strongly disagrees. He and Jaune would absolutely know how wrong this is. They’ve never replaced Pyrrha after all. Even if one considers Oscar part of JNR, he’s never been considered the new Pyrrha. He’s just Oscar, their friend. When he finally admitted that to himself, it allowed Ren’s Semblance to evolve. Instead of simply masking emotions, he can now see them via colored flower petals. Yes dear readers, Ren is an empath.

This development is perfect/. It happened at the right time, Ren finally admitting his feelings for those that he cares about instead of internalizing them and pushing those people away as he has been with Nora. It’s a natural evolution of his powers. He can mask emotions to protect others from the Grimm, and now that he can take it off he can see beneatht he masks of others. Harriet and Elm’s rage. Vine’s uncertainty (I’m assuming anyways based on what happens later). Marrow’s sadness. Winter’s collection of so many different colored petals, reflecting the war that she is having with herself. Now that Ren is beginning to open up, he can now help others do the same. Semblances reflect the on using them, and I think this says a lot about what Ren is truly meant to be and will be in the future.

Schnee Manor

Now we get to the meat of this post. Let’s go over the events in War first. While our heroes are safe at Schnee Manor, they’re conflicted on what to do. May wants to, and by Dark does, go back to Mantle since things are just as bad there and they don’t have the military to save them. Weiss however? She wants to help Atlas. Despite everything, Atlas is still Weiss’ home and there are still family and innocent people that she wishes to save. She’s a Huntress, that’s her job. May however? Her family dismissed her when she was their son, and she made it very clear that she is in no way their daughter. Which first, that was a brilliant way to add that representation. Kdin confirmed that May was Transgender last volume, but now we have undeniable proof in the show itself and it was perfectly delivered. She also makes a good point, Mantle has no protection. The whole reason that RWBY went against Ironwood was that he chose to leave Mantle to die. At this point, it does seem like the heroes can have it both ways. It worked in the past, but not here. Not anymore. But even May admits as she leaves that at this point, there might not be anythign left to do for either city. It’s just… bleak. Even moreso than in V3.

This of course hits Ruby. Normally, her optimism and hope carry her through. It was practically what got the heroes through V6 alive and well. But now? No. Even she can’t deny how bad things have gotten. When she and Blake go to turn on the backup generator, it’s clear how conflicted she is. She wants to help everyone. She chose to send the message because it seemed like the best chance to save everyone. But the longer that she waits, the more unlikely it all seems. She’s becoming utterly overwhelmed. Honestly, with how 2020 went, I find this very relatable. You w\see all the suffering caused by COVID and the horror of the police brutality against Black people and so many other awful things we’re still in the midst of. You want to do something. You want to help everyone and want things to just be okay. But when you do, all of it weighs down on you because you simply can’t help everyone. As Klein said, you can only focus on what’s in front of you first. You feel helpless, scared, maybe even angry. But we’re only human. We can only do what we can a step at a time in whatever way we can, even if it’s just being a shoulder to lean on. It’s at least something.

This leads to something that I have practically been begging CRWBY to do for years now, have Blake comfort her. We’ve had very scarce Ruby and Blake interactions, but it’s always been pretty clear that Blake trusts Ruby and has followed her lead faithfully more or less since the team formed. I think it was very fitting for Blake to be the one who reached out to her as it calls back to when they first talked in Volume 1. Back when Ruby expressed her love of books and wanting to make the world better like the heroes that she would read about. How Blake admired her goal but also viewed it as rather childish. Considering everything with the Faunus oppression, the White Fang, and of course Adam, who could blame her? But Ruby gave her hope. Ruby got her to see that they can make the world better. That despite everything, it’s their job to protect everyone and to move forward. Ruby’s been able to push them ahead so much, and they all still need her. It’s what Ruby needed to hear and it shows how far that both girls have come since those early days at Beacon. Which since this happened in the 100th episode, was very fitting.

Now I’m not gonna say too much about The Hound here. The entire fight scene was awesome and the thing stalking through the Schnee Manor? It somehow felt more horrifying than The Apathy did in Volume 6. How do you manage that?! Whitley and Willow ultimately killing it via the armor was also pretty cool and it’s nice to see the civilian characters getting involved, showing that they don’t have to be helpless like with the ship captain and crew back in Volume 4. Then the final revelation, that The Hound was not only human but had Silver Eyes… yeah Ruby’s reaction could not be more justified. I’m gonna go into my thoughts more in the 11-12 review since Ruby goes more into her feelings there. But the revelations that this one scene caused… yeah, it’s added a whole new level of horror to not just Salem, but the Grimm as a whole. It’s kind of a bummer that The Hound was killed off and it just feels so soon, but with how so much is going on at this point… yeah I’m gonna forgive it especially since the death still leaves a lot to think about in the future.

So let’s talk Schnee family! First, Willow. I like how they handled her here. She’s an anxious mess, which makes complete sense. She has to keep forcing herself to not drink, but without that coping mechanism, she’s so anxious that she ends up running out of Weiss’ room in utter panic. Fortunately, she’s still able to get her act together enough to be of help. She uses the security cameras to warn Weiss and keep an eye on The Hound. Which also allows her to see it heading for Whitley. But instead of waiting on Weiss and since Whitley understandably doesn’t want to listen to her, she does the right thing: act like a mother and save her child. Including actually using her Glyphs to summon a Boarbutusk. Yes, Willow. In a jam-packed volume like this, it’s nice to see these bits of character development for even the minor characters and it was done well here.

Then we have Whitley. I’m gonna admit it, it feels like his change is pretty rushed, but again we have about a million other things going on. Plus I guess the worst situations can bring out the best in people. That’s certainly the case here. He over-hears RWB and May talking and decides to call Klein, who is apparently a doctor, not only a butler (the temptation to NOT make an ‘I’m a doctor, not an X’ joke after getting into Star Trek is REALLY hard XD) to treat Nora. Which Weiss’ reaction to seeing him and him not at all blaming her for being fired was just beautiful. But it’s Whitley making a decision. Not due to his father’s influence. Not to get Weiss’ attention. He did it because Nora needed help and it was simply the right thing to do. The fact that he acted independently makes Weiss so happy that she hugs him. It surprises Whitley… but you can tell that he’s happy about it.

I think that really encouraged Whitley. Jaques isn’t there anymore. There’s no one controlling his fate anymore. It doens’t matter if Whitley defies him now, Jaques can’t do a thing about it. It’s Whitley who realizes that they have the resources and ability to send supplies and help to Mantle. It’s him who goes to his father’s office to get the process underway. Even when The Hound comes in, he still makes sure to give the authorization before making a run for it. With the fear of his father gone and Weiss showing more support, Whitley is showing that he’s not a bad person. He was very much like his sister was; someone trapped and forced to succumb to the toxic influences to survive. He didn’t have the support that Weiss did, nor the skills that either of his sisters had that let them escape. But he’s taking those steps now. He has an attitude still, but he’s kind of where Volume 1-3 Wess was; a major brat but one very much on their way to improving. If Whitey ends up taking over whatever remains of the SDC or outright remakes it, I think that he’ll be a fine leader while his sisters continue as Huntresses.

Finally, we come to Penny. I should probably talk about Nora as well, but since Chapter 11 is when she expresses how she feels ike how Ruby does, I’m going to hold off until then As far as Penny goes… God, I… it just hurts. Knowing how this ultimately will end only makes it more painful to go back through. But just as Chapter 5 made it look like Penny would finally be allowed to choose for herself, Watts ruins all of it. This is a girl who is utterly trapped. Ironwood bound her down by isolating her and then forcing the protection of a whole city on her. Pietro, while well-meaning, was over-protective and allowing that to keep Penny held by her strings. He let go… and look at how it ended. The Maiden Powers, while something that Penny accepted, now has her targeted on all sides and she can’t escape them while bound tot he responsibilities that come with it. Now we have Watts’ virus and despite her best efforts, she can’t stop it.

It’s just… heart-wrenching. Especially when Nora wakes up and calms her down by reminding her that whatever is trying to take over is only a part of her, not the whole being. It works… for a few moments. But in the end, all that Penny can do is succumb. This girl truly has no control over anything. Not over her own life. Not over the abilities that she possesses. And now not even over her own mind and body. She keeps having her strings yanked back and forth, wanting to just snap them off but all her limbs are held in place so she can’t. Watching her act utterly robotic, blankly describing how she will open the Vault then self-terminate… it’s just so wrong. Not to mention her coming dangerously close to being carted off to Salem with only Ruby managing a Silver Eyes blast saving her. It was hard to watch back when these premiered but after the finale? It’s just… it’s just so cruel.

Both of these chapters were excellent. War is mainly a setup chapter and ho boy the event that it sets up for… Chapter 9 is gonna be fun to talk about! But it also had plenty of pay-offs, especially for Ren and great moments like May’s scene, Salem conducting the Grimm, and it just captures the bleakness yet determination of our heroes perfectly. Then Dark… boy is that chapter title appropriate. Again great moments like the Ruby and Blake talk, the entire fight sequence, and probably the most horrifying revelation thus far. There’s some minor stuff like the jailbreak as well that made RWBY’s 100th chapter, as well as the chapter to kick off the return after the six-week hiatus, a thrill to watch. That's not even going into Alex Abraham's spectacular score, especially when the big reveal/death of The Hound happens. Just... it's just perfect. It can feel like there’s just so much going on that it gets hard to keep up with at times… but to be fair, that’s how our heroes feel as well, so I supposed that’s appropriate.

Chapter Stats

War

Favorite Character: Lie Ren

Favorite Scene: Ren unlocking his emotion-reading power

Least Favorite Scene: RWB sipping tea. It’s not a bad scene, but them just kind of standing by while the chaos is going on… it just feels a tad out of place.

Favorite Voice Actor: Kdin Jenzen (May Marigold)

Favorite Animation: Salem conducting the Grimm attack.

Rating: 8/10

Dark

Favorite Character: Ruby Rose

Favorite Scene: Ruby and Blake talk

Least Favorite Scene: I got nothing. Everything here was perfect.

Favorite Voice Actor: Arryn Zeck (Blake) and Jason Liebrecht (The Hound)

Favorite Animation: As horrifying as it was, The Hound reveal.

Rating: 10/10

Final Thoughts

When I watched these, all I could really do was stare wide-eyed. Even though I knew that this volume was going to be intense, somehow I wasn’t prepared for any of it. Certainly not for everything in these chapters. But all of it was just so freakin’ good. Does it feel emotionally draining? Yes. It was a big part of why I’m only getting to these several months later. But was it still worth watching? Absolutely. Compare Dark to the first chapter of Volume 1. RWBY has come such a long way. A lot of things both good and bad have happened in between, but it’s still going and I plan to be here until the bitter end. With quality like this, it gives me a good reason to stick around. So six more chapters/three reviews to go.

(Image Sources)

[coeurdastronaute]

Single 8

previously on Single

The city was dingy, dull with the weight of the winter, crispy and sullen, swollen with the long nights of rain and the overcast skies that refused to let anything melt. Buildings were obscured by the low clouds and the world was weary, so very weary from the chill and the perpetual mist that made everything slick. 

The day was heavy for many reasons, the weather included but not the worst of it, by far. Too much distracted the hero as she sat atop the Landmark building. Too many thoughts caught up with her, dousing her in the rain and the fear that she had no more control over her life. And when she found herself feeling this way, Kara did her best not to act without thinking. 

Often, her sister accused her of being rash, but she had a problem and she had to fix it. There were only so many options. But she needed time to think. It was all too much and her entire world was about to change, whether she wanted it or not. 

Kara placed her hand on her stomach and thought about her entire being, both of her sides-- the reporter, just getting the world figured out, getting her writing published, getting everything she wanted under Cat’s guidance because she worked constantly. She put in long days and ran all over town, with no one to answer to or for. 

The hero. Kara felt like she was finally figuring out how to be effective, how to save, how to balance it all. She was tired and she was growing and now, the city would go to hell because there was no way she could do all three. Two lives was barely manageable. 

And now this.

All at once the plan formed in her head. It came with an alarming clarity the moment someone punched her in the stomach and sent her flying. Her hand pressed against the slight bump there as she freed herself from the wreckage and she knew. There was a flutter there, almost constant now. 

Slowly, Kara made her way to her apartment, taking a leisurely fly, despite the weather, enjoying the freedom of her city. She needed the feeling of being unrestrained, sometimes, to keep her centered, to help her remember. More and more, Kara felt herself becoming solitary despite the wealth of people around her. She needed a little bit of self-reliance to do what was coming. 

She took a warm shower and had a large dinner, all while working over the words in her head. It was late by the time she sent the text and asked Mon-el to come over, met with winking emojis and hearts. 

“I just got back from the ship,” he greeted her, happy and kissing her cheek then neck then jaw as he entered the apartment. 

He wasn’t terrible. That was the best part. He was easy, thoughtless, a friend and a comfort, understanding her in ways that many others couldn’t. The customs of his planet were close, but never quite right. His unease on earth never quite going away. But he wasn’t the fulfillment of the prophecy. He wasn’t the love of her life, but now he was in it forever. As childish as she felt, craving bedtime stories and believing in things her mother told her, sometimes she was certain of the veracity of fairytales.

“I can make this quick--”

“I don’t have to be back until tomorrow night. We can take our time.” 

Hands moved to her hips and lips moved to her neck and for a moment, Kara let her eyes drift back as she melted into the feeling before ripping her back to reality as his hand ghosted on her stomach. 

“No, no. I have-- I have to talk to you,” Kara insisted, creating some room. 

“That sounds… not good,” Mon-el furrowed, cocking his head enough that his smile faltered slightly. 

“It depends on how you take it.” 

“Well that makes me nervous.” 

“I don’t want you to be nervous,” Kara offered, moving toward the kitchen. She poured him a stiff drink and handed it to him. “Take a seat.” 

“This is a kind way to break up with me,” he offered with a weak laugh. “At least there’s booze.” 

Kara stood there, wringing her hands and staring at the man she loved-- but wasn’t in love with-- the kind man, the human man who tried to live up to the ideal that Kara and her cousin put on for the world, the man who wasn’t human but was so human and flawed. He was one of her favorite people-- prone to fits of anger, prone to bouts of righteousness, prone to trying his best. 

“I’m just going to say it.” 

“Yes, please.” 

“But I want you to not react. Just sit with the news. I don’t need an answer or anything-- in fact I have a plan. I just can’t tell anyone else until I tell you.” 

“Kara, please. I just need to know. You’re kind of scaring me.” 

“I’m pregnant.” 

The quiet of the room was so loud that Kara couldn’t hear anything else. Her boyfriend stared at her with disbelief, his face blank and processing. His eyes moved to her stomach where her hand protectively rubbed. He furrowed and saw the bump when he knew what he was looking for. 

His drink was downed in an instant and he hissed against the pain before getting up to refill his glass and down it again. 

“You have to say something,” Kara finally managed. 

“You said I didn’t have to say anything.” 

“Well yes, initially, but I need--”

“I’m going to be a father?” he asked, the joy settling on his face finally. It was slow to form and it was through much effort, but it was there. 

“Yeah. In about six months. I just found out--”

Mon-el scooped up Kara and hugged her tightly, excited and growing to understand the news more and more. It took a beat to sink into his mind that it was about him, that he was going to do it and it was him that made this possible. 

“I can’t believe it,” he whispered, hugging her tightly. “A prince to continue the line.” 

Kara froze at the words. 

She hadn’t thought of him at all when she came up with her plan. 

XXXXXXXXXX

Increasingly pregnant and hormonal, Supergirl sat on her couch, furiously tucking into a rather large tub of her favorite ice cream while a movie hummed to itself on the television. The old black-and-white movie tried to keep her entertained, but failed as so many other things distracted her. 

Everything stopped though as her phone started to ring with multiple alerts, followed by the inevitable buzzing of her watch. It didn’t matter about the fight she’d had with Mon-el, and it didn’t matter that no one was listening to her when it came to the plans she was making. The only thing that mattered was helping. 

But by the time Kara made it, it was too late. 

The world would never be the same. 

Before anyone could comfort her about her cousin’s death, Kara left. 

XXXXXXXXXX

“You are perfect,” Kara whispered. 

Tiny toes wiggled. Tiny fingers grabbed at nothing and everything while perfect pink cheeks cried slightly. Eyes staring blankly and seeing the entire world for the first time, the infant didn’t know what to do, and so allowed herself to be coddled and swaddled and sniffed. 

“You are absolutely perfect,” Kara smiled, tears streaming down her face as she ran her nose along the small tuft of hair. 

The perfect baby smelled warm and sweet. In the hospital bed, the new mother cried as she held her new daughter, alone in the fifth floor room at the end of the hall. The baby girl made tiny noises, yawning and fighting the feeling of being born. 

“You are going to be very happy here.” 

“Are you ready to call your family?” the nurse interrupted the quiet moment. 

“I suppose I should.” 

“You can take a few more minutes.” 

Kara wanted to argue, but she really couldn’t come up with any reasons why she should delay except that she selfishly wanted to freeze this moment in time, where everything was okay and her heart didn’t hurt. 

Instead, she just nodded and kissed her daughters cheeks before letting her squeeze her finger. 

XXXXXXXXXX

“On the day you were born, the skies opened up,” Kara’s mother explained as she hugged her daughter, kissing the top of her head. “The entire city was a party.”

“Because it was Confluence Day!”

“Yes, darling,” she smiled and held her daughter tighter. 

They sat on her bed in the twilight, remembering and preparing to sleep. It was a favorite story of Kara’s to hear because it was her story-- only her’s and no one else's. In a world that shared everything, she was grateful to be her own thing entirely. 

“On the day you were born, the lanterns joined the stars with our greatest hopes and wishes, and music played so loud--”

“Even the moons were dancing.” 

“And they danced for days to celebrate.” 

“That’s a lot of dancing,” Kara realized.

“It is. And on the day you were born, the world wrote a poem--”

“Tell me the poem, Mama.”

Alura squeezed her daughter and closed her eyes, remembering the feeling of receiving her newborn, the joy she felt when she first looked into her eyes, the warmth of the tiny body and how amazed she’d been each day since as she grew into a person with her own thoughts and ideas. 

“On the day you were born, the clouds sang a song, and they told of your life, and how wonderful you would be.” 

“And the fairytale,” Kara giggled, as her mother moved, tugging up the blankets to tuck her in for the night. 

“You, my darling, are meant to unite worlds. The stars wrote it out and I read the story myself. You are going to--”

“Be full of love.” 

“Even when it is hard, even after your loses. You will love someone who can take it all from you, but you have enough faith and love to save them.” 

Kara stared at her mother, wide-eyed despite knowing the story by heart. It blew her away everytime, despite it not making much sense to her. The child didn’t know anything about love and sacrifice, but she felt the weight of her mother’s words and it motivated her. 

“Love can do that?” 

“Love is the most powerful thing in the entire universe.”

“Stronger than an atom?” 

“Stronger,” Alura promised, kissing her forehead. “Sleep well. Sweet dreams.” 

“Goodnight, Mama.” 

Despite the lights being turned out and her mother’s story, Kara didn’t sleep. The child sat on her windowsill in the dark and stared out at her sky, at the view of the planets and rings and moons and stars and the sleeping city beneath. She pressed her forehead against the window and she sighed, trying to figure out how to love so hard. 

XXXXXXXXX

“Don’t be stupid, Kara!” 

“Don’t raise your voice at me.” 

Calmly, Kara finished washing the bottles and setting them to dry on the counter. The baby slept in her room, unaware of the heated words exchanged outside, unaware of her place in the universe as the heir to the throne of Daxam. 

“My daughter is meant for more than this place, and you know that.” 

“She isn’t yours. She’s her own person who will make her own choices.” 

“My daughter will be more than just this. She is greatness and destined to lead my people as I was destined. I fought it, Kara, and look at what happened. There must always be--”

“You will not drag her into your politics.” 

“I won’t let you keep her from--”

“You will not take her,” Kara said, her teeth gnashing together as she gripped the counter tightly. “You will not make her into what you want.” 

“Kara, she is destined--”

“She will make her own decisions, and I will not have you around if you’re going--”

“You can’t keep me from her!” Mon-el yelled in his own frustration. 

“I will to protect her, and if that means keeping you away, then I will.” 

He clenched his jaw, his eyes on fire. 

“We’ll pick this up another day, when you’ve thought about it.” 

“There’s nothing to think about.” 

“There are many things we will have to figure out, but I won’t ignore what my daughter is meant for, and neither will you.” 

“You are choosing to leave and go back to Daxam,” Kara reminded him as he snatched his coat and stormed toward the door. “You are leaving her behind.” 

“To hell I am.” 

XXXXXXXXXX

“On the day you were born,” Kara began as she kissed her daughter’s forehead and snuggled up with her in her bed. 

“I was born during storms,” Katie offered as she adjusted in her bed. 

“On the day you were born, the skies were celebrating, and lightning danced and thunder played songs for everyone to sing along with.” 

“What a party,” she whispered, earning a smile from her mother. 

“On the day you were born, the entire universe celebrated, because you were born to be happy. You are a shining star built from the best parts of the sun.” 

“What does that mean?” 

“It means you are the best part of the entire world to me, and the universe knew that I needed you. You are my gift.” 

“Wow.” 

“On the day you were born,” Kara continued, tucking in her daughter, careful to wrap up the sheets nice and tight. “The trees danced, and the animals sang, and the moon as bright because you were here, finally.” 

“All of that, for me?” Katie grinned as her mother kissed her forehead.

“Sweet dreams, darling. I love you.” 

“I love you too. Goodnight, Mama.” 

Kara paused as she watched Katie hug the stuff whale Lena got her, careful to make sure her nightlight was still on. She closed the door quietly and made her way back into the living room where her girlfriend sat with a glass of wine, flipping through the specs from some of her most resent research results. 

There were not many better sights in the world than her daughter nearly asleep and a beautiful girl on her couch. 

“She’ll be out in a few minutes,” Kara promised as she poured herself a glass and took her seat beside Lena, kissing her cheek and neck as she did, earning a giggle. 

“Good. Now you can finish telling me about the prophecy.” 

“I’m sick of bedtime stories,” Kara shook her head and reached o toss aside the folder Lena was looking at. “I’d rather just spend the evening with you.” 

“My, my, Kara Danvers,” Lena smiled and wrapped her arms around her girlfriend’s neck. “You are very persuasive.”

[connorspiracy]

Santa Paws Is Coming To Town || Connor & Miriam

Timing: After Mim’s Solo Setting: Your normal White Crest neighborhood Parties: @connorspiracy and @meflemming Content: N/A Summary: Connor has an unexpected encounter with a bleeding heart vampire.

After a long night of petting Penny’s fur as the dog slumbered by Miriam’s side, the vampire finally decided that she needed to take the dog somewhere safe. Pets were not for people like her, especially sweet dogs that had it in their stupidly big hearts and tiny heads to be comforted by their owner’s killer. She found the dog’s leash, and led her to the door. It was still early, too early for the sun to be out yet, but Miriam knew it was less than an hour away. She’d need to be quick about this. The shelter was quite a walk away, and she wasn’t as familiar with it as other locations that she’d frequented in her youth. She could only hope that she could make it there in time and not end up stuck under a bush or in the sewers until sunset. Walking along with Penny at her side, Miriam was surprised to see someone else out at this hour. “Hello?” she called out, unsure what someone who looked so young was doing outside at such an early hour. 

The winter night bit Connor with its chill. He wore a padded, fleece-lined panel coat over a cozy hooded sweatshirt, hat, gloves, scarf, and still his hands trembled and his breath frosted on the air. He’d hoped to catch something interesting happening during the winter solstice, but either he was in the wrong place at the wrong time or White Crest had decided to be quiet for once. He’d put his camera away and was getting ready to head to his Jeep when he heard the stranger’s voice. Connor turned, looking towards the voice. “Oh, hey,” he said, a jovial smile on his face. He held up his camera bag for her to see. “Don’t mind me. I was just doing some night filming.” His eyes fell on the beautiful Golden Retriever at her side and he had to hold himself back from gushing. “Gorgeous dog,” he said, smile widening a bit. “Can I pet her?”

The way the boy in front of her was dressed reminded Miriam how ill-fitted her clothes were for the weather, and how she was just as cold on the inside as the temperature was on the outside. Oh, well. She hadn’t expected to have to put up appearances so early. Instead, she gave the young man an easy smile. “Night filming? Do you often do that in below freezing conditions?” Kids these days seemed to enjoy such reckless behavior. Then again, she had been no different, there were, no doubt, videos of her being silly and reckless in college, though they were likely hard to find. Anyone that would have had such videos was long dead. Miriam blinked, looking down at the dog, and then back to the boy. “Oh, well, thank you. She’s not mine, actually, but you’re welcome to pet her. She’s quite friendly.” A bit too friendly, truly.

Connor gave a slightly embarrassed chuckle. “Well, I think it’d be lying so say I don’t. But the below freezing part isn’t exactly ideal. I’m just trying to get good footage.” Of what, he didn’t say, but he wouldn’t lie if she asked. Connor was never one to resist the opportunity to pet a dog, and even his most skeptical brain cells wouldn’t fight this opportunity, so he smiled, leaning in to gently ruffle her ears and scratch the back of her head. “Oh yeah? You pet sitting?”

“Well, do be careful. It’s rather dangerous out so late. It’s always darkest before the dawn,” Miriam said. Then, she raised a careful eyebrow. “Did you? Get any good footage?” She shifted a bit on her feet, watching the young man as he petted the dog. “Her owner passed quite recently, actually.” By Miriam’s own hand, though that wasn’t proper to say. Penny, for her part, seemed to be eating up the young man’s attention, making happy little noises that dogs tended to make. She was the reason this dog would never see her owner again. Miriam was the reason that some family would never see that man again. She was-- “I’m just here to make sure that she ends up in a good home,” she said, stroking one of the dog’s silky ears.

"I'm always careful," Connor lied. Although since he now had both Jasmine and Rio on his case about the whole hospital thing, he'd play it mildly safe, at least for a little while. Or unless something really exciting happened. "Nah, nothing exciting tonight, unfortunately," he said with a shrug. Connor narrowed his eyes sadly at Miriam's proclamation that the dog's owner had recently passed away, and he fussed under her muzzle. "Aw, I'm sorry. Right at Christmas too?" He kissed the dog on her little fuzzy forehead. "Nobody should lose their family right around Christmas.” He looked up at what he assumed was the kind woman trying to find this poor little sweetheart a new home. “That’s really nice of you, to help. Did you have someone already?” 

“I’m sure,” Miriam hummed out. “People your age are always so careful.” Humans. For such fragile creatures, they tended to do the most dangerously stupid things. It was as endearing as it was concerning. She couldn’t remember a time when her bones did not right themselves and her skin did not sew itself together quickly. She did not remember what it meant to have to be careful. “Perhaps that’s a good thing, for a night like tonight.” It would be a cold, miserable holiday for some. “Yes, it’s quite unfortunate.” And she was the cause. Because she lashed out. Because she couldn’t take the thought of someone telling her what to do, even if it had been something she was planning. “I owe her as much,” she said softly, looking at the dog. “I don’t have anyone in mind. I was taking her to the shelter, actually.” She was going to force them to ensure Penny went to a good home. Someone would want a sweet dog for the holidays. She just knew it.

“Well, I’m older than I look,” Connor laughed. He didn’t catch the hidden meaning behind her words, but that was probably just as well. He didn’t really want to know that this nice lady who was so concerned about the poor dog had just spent her night murdering its owner. “That sucks,” he said, pursing his lips. “She’ll be alone at the shelter for Christmas, all confused and upset…” Yeah, she didn’t know it was Christmas but that didn’t make it any better. “Bloody breaks my heart, man. Are you sure there aren’t any family or friends who can take her?”

“You do look rather young,” Miriam said with a smirk, especially when he was all bundled up like a child on a snow day. “It’s-- It’s awful, yes.” She swallowed hard, feeling something wretched knotting itself in her throat before she forced it down. No, stop it. She was doing a good thing. She could at least do a good thing. The owner (Thomas Klein; his name was etched into her brain, now) was inconsequential. He was dead. But she could at least help the dog. She was an innocent. “I intend to do everything in my power to ensure she’s well taken care of and brought into a loving home as soon as possible,” Miriam stated. She’d compel every damn worker in the shelter if she had to. “No, no I don’t believe there is,” she lied easily. The owner had friends, had family, but she didn’t know if any of them would take the sweet dog in. What if they didn’t give her the kindness she deserved? Miriam had to make sure she was taken care of.

“I’m almost twenty-four.” Yeah, it was still young, but most people assumed Connor was in his late teens. Twenty-one at the oldest. He’d been denied beer even with his ID more times than he could count. This really sucked. This dog and the owner had probably been each other’s only companions, and now they were both alone, the owner in one life and her in another. “Do you work for the shelter or something?” he asked, genuinely curious, still fussing the dog while they talked. “I don’t know how they manage it. I’d probably end up wanting to take home every single dog,” he laughed sadly. “I don’t think they rehome over Christmas though. To discourage people from giving them as gifts.”

Miriam’s eyes widened a bit. “I… wouldn’t have guessed that. Sorry, sweetness. You’ve got a bit of a babyface.” She wondered, briefly, if he was fucking with her, but age was a rather ridiculous thing to lie about to a stranger in the middle of the street in the early hours of the morning. The early hours when the sun would be rising, and soon. Miriam couldn’t linger here for long. “No, no, I’m just… a very charming and persuasive person when I’m inclined, and I’m usually inclined. I have no doubt I can make them see my way.” She gave the young man a pleasant smile, but it quickly faded to worry. She hadn’t thought of any of that. “Oh. That’s-- I wonder when they’ll start rehoming. I don’t want her to be alone.” She bit the inside of her lip. “I live a bit of busy lifestyle, wholly unsuited to care for a dog properly, and I have someone living with me and don’t want to burden her with the upkeep of a pet. She deserves better than that. Otherwise I would take this sweet girl in a heartbeat.” One of his, not one of hers. She’d be waiting a long time for that heartbeat, were that the case.

“It’s fine, I get that all the time.” Connor shrugged it off. He made plenty of jokes about his own babyface. It didn’t matter if someone else did, too. He didn’t think to wonder what Miriam’s motive was. Why should he? Helping to rehome a dog was something almost any decent person would have done. He had no idea of her nefarious reasons, of the guilt she was trying to mask, the crimes she was trying to atone for. “I think some time in January,” he shrugged. “I only know because I checked the website recently. I’ve… kinda been thinking of going there, actually.” He almost kept his next words to himself, but it wasn’t like Connor to hold back. He rubbed the back of his neck with a small chuckle. “Do you want… I mean… I could take her.” He immediately shook his head. “That’s stupid. You don’t even know me. Sorry.”

“That’s such a long time,” Miriam muttered, clenching Penny’s leash tightly in her hand as she thought about the poor creature being stuck at a shelter for weeks all because she was cruel. You’re a monster and a liar! Morgan’s voice rang in her head like a damned bell. She was. She was. She should own it. She should… She should find this dog a home. She narrowed her eyes at the boy. “You would take her?” He seemed sincere. He mentioned that he was looking for a dog and had been for sometime. This could be good, but she needed to make sure. “It’s not stupid if you’re sincere. Are you? Dog’s are a big responsibility. They mustn’t be dragged out into the cold to go videotaping things because they might be interesting,” she said sternly.

Her gaze felt penetrating. As if she was the type of person who you couldn’t hide anything from. Connor looked at the dog, a happy, innocent, loving creature who hadn’t done anything wrong, who needed somewhere to call home. “I mean, yeah. I love dogs. I live alone. I work for myself. I make my own schedule, and one of my best friends has a dog, and we go hiking and stuff together all the time.” As much as Connor might not have wanted to leave the dog at home, the stranger was right about taking her out filming. He ran into dangerous things far too often. What if one of those bugs had got her? “Yeah, totally.”

The sun was going to start rising any minute now. Miriam needed to figure this out. Here was this boy, earnest and seemingly kind, standing in front of her and willing to do what was necessary. This was a better option than a shelter. It had to be. She gave a quick nod. “Right.” Smiling charmingly, she compelled the boy. “You will make sure that this dog receives the proper amount of attention, care, and love that she needs to be happy. It is of the utmost importance that she is well loved.” She dug around in her pocket and frowned when she found it empty. “I would give you my card, but I don’t have one on me. My name is Mim. Mim Flemming, owner of Flemming Leather. Should you need anything, you only have to reach out to the store and have my assistant patch you through to me or contact me online. If the dog needs anything, anything, you will let me know, understood?” She should get going. She didn’t even know this boy’s name. “Take care of her. She responds to Penny, but she’s quite young, I believe. I really must go.” She handed the boy the leash and patted his gloved hand. Bending down, she gave the dog a reluctant pat goodbye. Again, she repeated, a bit more gently, “Take care of her. And, well, Merry Christmas, I suppose.”

Connor had always been impulsive and big-hearted, so why should tonight be any different? He was still sort of processing what had just happened when the woman handed him the leash and practically disappeared into the night. White Crest really was a strange place, but this was far from the strangest interaction he’d had. “Uh, okay. Thanks? Bye?” he called after her, turning back to the dog and giving her more pets. “Guess we’ve got some shopping to do as soon as the stores open in a couple hours, babe,” he said, patting the side of her neck. “Okay, let’s go, Penny.” Hm. That didn’t sound right. He didn’t want to disrespect her old owner or anything, but she just didn’t feel like a Penny. But then, what was he going to call her? He started walking her back to his car, securing her in the back and taking her home. He unloaded his things, and as he did so, his eyes fell on the logo of his Nikon Z 50 Camera bag. “Hm,” he pondered, taking her leash again. “Nico, you like that?” he asked, smiling. “Yeah, sounds good. Let’s go inside.”