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makeste · 4 years ago

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BnHA Chapter 316: We've Had One, Yes, But What About Second Explosion

Previously on BnHA: Deku was all “[powers up like whoa because it’s time to end the fight]”, and he saved Overhaul from getting not-shot, and then smashed up Nagant’s arm with the power of his new rechargeable super knees. Nagant was all “yoooo this kid is crazy strong whaaaat, it’s like he’s some kind of protagonist or something.” Deku was all “I AM A PROTAGONIST, ACTUALLY, DO YOU WANT TO JOIN FORCES AND FIGHT BAD GUYS WITH ME?” Nagant was all “ah shit why the hell no -- ” and then AFO was all “SURPRISE” and everyone was all “?!?!?!” and AFO was all “TIME TO EXPLODE NOW” and made Nagant explode because he’s an absolute fucking dick. And then Hawks showed up, because Horikoshi just wanted to stuff as many plot points as humanly possible into a single chapter I guess.

Today on BnHA: Hawks is all “good job giving motivational shounen redemption speeches Deku but I’ll take it from here” and screams very earnestly right in Nagant’s face until she finally wakes up. Nagant is all “oh hey it’s my successor, you seem surprisingly unfucked-up from your own HPSC tenure, how did you manage that?” Hawks is all “fandom is going to love hearing this one, but basically it’s because I’m very upbeat and also I had the world’s best role model Endeavor to look up to,” and I swear this man stirs the pot on purpose, but damn it I still love him so damn much. Overhaul is all “HELLO AGAIN, JUST A REMINDER THAT, THE BOSS!!” and Deku is all “MAYBE TAKE TWO SECONDS TO REFLECT ON HOW YOU TORTURED A LITTLE GIRL,” which, thank you, lol. Nagant is all “btw AFO’s hiding in a house in the woods”, and so Deku and the gang go to the house in the woods. Video recording!AFO is all “hi I’m AFO welcome to Jackass” and blows up the house. Sometimes I wonder if this manga is just a weird dream.

I am once again reading the Bean version because I think it was actually the best out of all three translations last week. and that is surprisingly including Viz’s. “faux” is not nearly as entertaining as “knockoff”, and also I have literally no idea why Caleb thought Deku was saying the Third’s lines lol

oh hey, Endeavor’s here too! not that you’d ever be able to tell from this first panel lmao

glad you received All Might’s call, mysterious unidentified glowing smudge

oh snap he says he’s weaker in the rain. is that why AFO told Nagant to attack then?? except that as we discussed the other day, I believe that AFO fully intended for Nagant to lose the fight, so him giving her info that would give her an advantage doesn’t really fit in with that. maybe he wanted Deku to be separated from Endeavor and the rest for maximum angst, though

btw Deku’s eyes are unsurprisingly back to the new normal here

alas, the angst continues. I say, pretending like I’m not totally eating it up each and every week and writing essay after essay about it lol

anyway so apparently Hawks can’t actually fly lmao. he was just yeeting himself with style

for some reason this is the funniest fucking thing I’ve ever seen omfg. wave to Hawks, kids! say “bye, Hawks!”

j/k of course Deku is catching them. -- except???

wow so he was just running on fumes there at the end. well, good to know there is actually a limit to his shenanigans, particularly regarding this new “knockoff” 100% OFA. it will definitely not alleviate any of the discourse, but it’s good for my own peace of mind because it’s solid confirmation that he still needs his pals in order to win this thing

anyway, but on to the rest of this conversation, which is basically Deku deducing what we all deduced last week -- AFO implanted some sort of trap into Nagant when he gave her Air Walk. though I’d still like to get the actual details from AFO and/or Horikoshi, because this was particularly wild even by quirk standards lol

omgggggg

she still has a face after all!! so it’s confirmed, Horikoshi has no idea what “blowing up” actually means. we might have guessed, based on what happened to Toga in the MVA arc, and also based on everything Katsuki does ever, but shhh

so now Hawks is all “NAGANT PLEASE WAKE UP, IF I SHOUT MY NAME AT YOU WILL THAT DO THE TRICK”

this is actually kind of touching though because even though we all know (or most of us acknowledge at any rate) that Hawks is a pretty caring person, it’s rare to see him actually panic over someone’s welfare like this

oh shit Horikoshi is really doubling down on it

I wonder how much Hawks knew about what really happened between Nagant and the HPSC. regardless, he probably sees her as a kindred spirit of sorts, and I’m more than happy for Deku to pass the redemption torch onto him now that he’s on the scene. like no offense Deku but they actually know each other and stuff lol

DAMMIT NAGANT CAN’T YOU SEE HOW LOUD HE IS YELLING

apparently being freed from his HPSC shackles has finally given Hawks the space to embrace his own inner shounen protagonist. is there anything more shounen than trying to motivationally scream someone awake when they’re lying in your arms inches from death?? 100% guaranteed to work

!!! IS THIS NAGANT’S POV OMG

SO SHE IS ALIVE. THANK GOD. Horikoshi doesn’t want to meet with my emotional distress lawyer today after all

love how she’s all “just gonna stir up the weekly Hawks Discourse pot here by implying that he probably committed a lot of Atrocities just like I did, so now people can get all hopped up about that, even though there’s no evidence he’s ever killed anyone aside from that one horrible ‘damned-if-you-do...’ situation with Twice.” no one asked for your provocative speculation young lady!! trust me Nagant, our rabbles don’t need the rousing lol

but nice save there with the “so how are your eyes so untainted” well you see it’s because even when he was following the HPSC’s orders he always went to great lengths never to go against his own moral compass. which just to be clear was incredibly difficult, and led to a ton of pain and suffering on his part, because the life of a spy is basically just one impossible situation after another. but in spite of that he never stopped trying to do his best to help people. I don’t really know where this tangent came from or is leading to, lol, but anyway p.s.a. I love Hawks a lot and he’s a good kid dammit

oh shit??!?

how is the League always able to swing all these fancy forest mansions. where do they find them. how many do they have

so Deku’s dropping them -- very roughly, not sure if he was reacting to finally getting AFO’s location, or if his energy really is giving out -- and now Nagant’s saying that AFO hired other villains as well. well of course he did. gotta keep chipping away at OFA’s ninth successor little by little

now Nagant is asking Hawks how he’s able to keep making “that” face. I assume she’s again talking about the fact that he somehow didn’t let the HPSC wear down his spirit

oh my god???

thanks for stuffing this chapter to the brim with good nutritional Hawks Feels, Horikoshi. what a good. he just keeps on trudging forward undeterred no matter what bullshit comes his way. what a steadfast little guy. I WILL PROTECT YOU FROM DISCOURSE MY SWEET SUNSHINE

lmaoooo

“SPOTTED THIS DUDE JUST CHILLING OUT THERE ON THE ROOF WITH NO ARMS, SEEMED PRETTY SUS” good job Endeavor

anyway so you don’t really need me to tell you that Overhaul is immediately starting in with the “BUT THE BOSS WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO TAKE ME TO THE BOSS YOU PROMISED YOU WOULD TAKE ME TO THE BOSS” stuff again. but I will go ahead and tell you anyway. so yeah. he’s doing that

OMG YOU GUYS LOOK AT DEKU’S “of all the fucking assholes to just randomly drop in on my life once again why did it have to be you” FACE THOUGH, OMG

fun fact, if you go back to chapters 124 through 160, there was an entire story arc where Overhaul imprisoned and tortured a little girl. yeah, I know!! suuuuuuuuper evil. anyways just an interesting little anecdote for you all that’s somewhat relevant to the current situation

OMG, YES. FUCK YES, DEKU

THEN WHAT ABOUT SPARING ONE FOR HER!!! YES!!! EXACTLY!!! JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, SOMEONE GETS IT

HERE’S THE PANEL OF DEKU SAYING THE EXACT SAME THING I’M SAYING LOL

(ETA: so apparently there’s some discourse about this because some people are interpreting this as Deku saying “you should apologize to Eri”, which would obviously be a terrible idea even if Overhaul actually wanted to do that, because Eri shouldn’t ever have to see him again. however I just want to point out that there is a HUGE difference between saying “it would be nice if you could direct that feeling of regret/being sorry towards Eri as well”, vs saying “you should also apologize to her.” all Deku is doing is rightfully pointing out that Overhaul has hurt way more people than just his boss, and if he really is remorseful, then he should extend those feelings of remorse to Eri and the rest as well. it’s not a directive to take any specific action, and I’m 1000% sure no one at U.A. would let Overhaul within 100 miles of Eri ever again.

tl;dr “try feeling remorse sometime” =/= “do you want me to fly you over to U.A. right now to surprise the little girl you traumatized”, lol.)

[slings an arm around Deku’s shoulders] you’re a good kid. I like you. I don’t know if I tell you that enough, but it’s true

meanwhile here is Overhaul’s “spare... a thought... for Eri...???????” face sigh

the struggle is real y’all

(ETA: and that’s... the last we ever saw of Overhaul, I guess? well all right then. I assume Deku will make good on his promise, so we know he’ll get that little bit of closure before going back to jail or whatever, and I confess I’m more than fine with leaving the rest of it open-ended, especially given his character’s history. I think this was pretty generous all things considered.)

lmao holy shit

All Might what did you do to those tiki torch guys?? did you thrash them. did you give ‘em those hands. did you deliver their own asses to them complete with a sticker reminding them Amazon Prime Day is on June 21. we missed out goddammit

so Endeavor, who wasn’t the one he was asking, is telling him that they captured (well let’s be real, Deku captured, give the credit where it’s due) Nagant and Overhaul. and so I guess they’re going to take Nagant to the ER now

fire is no one’s weakness

-- oh my GOD I scrolled down and audibly gasped

[is politely but firmly approached and asked to remove my arm from Deku’s shoulder by the physical manifestation of all this Dekuangst] “we’re sorry, he’s not allowed to have visitors right now” oh shit, my bad. [goes to stand behind a police barricade]

lmao what. did you run out of room on the previous page

what an exaggerated fade to black lmao

-- AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I actually can’t see what he’s reacting to so maybe I’m just seriously jumping the gun here lol, but THE HELL WITH IT. the next panel appears to be a cut to Haibori Forest, so I’m just gonna go ahead and declare that Deku ran off on his own all wounded to go have more Dekuangst, just like I manifested. now go call Katsuki goddammit

[scrolls three more inches down] oh

yeah so like I said, Deku is walking very slowly a few feet in front of Endeavor, who’s telling him to wait up. yep. we’ve all gotta be so careful to not just jump to conclusions. I know we’re excited but still

anyway, so! welcome back to Mt. Lady and Kamui Woods (ARE YOU GUYS DATING) and Edgeshot! have fun walking into this obvious trap lol

dammit Deku why are you so determined to tempt fate

[monkey puppet meme faces]

OH MY GOD THIS IS PURE GRADE-A CHEESY COMIC BOOK VILLAIN 101 SHIT AND I’M HERE FOR IT

that’s such a weird way of clapping who claps like that

unlike certain other people who shan’t be named, AFO doesn’t feel the need to inexplicably take his shirt off when recording sinister villain monologues. I think we’re all pretty grateful for that

high fives to everyone who called it!! yep yep

anyway so this whole scene has major booby-trap vibes, which I’m enjoying immensely even though I don’t think anything is really going to come of it lol. probably just another long-winded AFO Speech. but wouldn’t it be funny if like the ceiling started lowering down to try and squish Deku afterwards lol

(ETA: well the explosion was still pretty funny too ngl.)

ffff

[“Dekuangst is the trap” intensifies]

anyway so yeah. he’s just hitting up all of his usual villain talking points. we get it, you’re so smart and you see right through the thin veneers of society and people who don’t conform are left to fend for themselves and labeled as villains and history is written by the victors, and blah blah blah dude are you just jumping randomly from one soundbyte to another lol. literally what are you talking about. what does this have to do with you blowing up Nagant

-- holy shit??

[”Dekuangst is the trap” intensifies MORE?????]

LOL WHAT

BRO. WHAT IS WITH YOU. DON’T YOU KNOW HOW TO LAY ANY OTHER KIND OF FUCKING TRAP GOOD LORD

“YOU’RE NEXT” THE CALLBACK?? THE PARALLELS?? THOUGH WHEN ALL MIGHT POINTED HE MADE IT LOOK WAY COOLER. AFO’S POINTING JUST LOOKS LIKE SMOKEY THE BEAR

HAS ANYONE CHECKED IN ON KAMUI WOODS I HEAR HE IS WEAK TO FIRE?? THE ONLY ONE WHO IS, APPARENTLY

r.i.p. to this particular forest mansion. don’t worry they have a ton of backups

remember last week when I said maybe AFO thinks explosions are gauche. well never mind. he fucking loves explosions

anyway so that’s the end of BnHA, everyone. hope you enjoyed. it was a good ride while it lasted. see you all, good luck in your travels

#bnha 316 #hawks #takami keigo #lady nagant #midoriya izuku #all for one #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha #manifesting 317 opening with a slightly modified version of my previous fantasy scenario lmao #'WHADDYA MEAN THEY BLEW UP THE NERD'#that's *his* job #sorry lol I kid I kid

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checkingoutforheroes · 4 years ago

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Hero.

Pairing: Natasha x Fem!reader , Avengers x Platonic!reader

Words: 2364

Genre: Angst at first, Fluff ending.

Warning: Being dumped. I think I’m not cursing in this one. Lmk if there are any.

Note: Read as Natasha pov

Flashback...

Y/n and I are fighting. Wait. No, not fighting. More like screaming, at each other. For the first time in a long time. This is not a funny or jokingly screaming. This is a serious scream. Why?

“Are you sure about this, Natasha?” Y/n turn around to look at me with her red teary eyes.

“Yes, and I have to leave before you love me.”

“Well, I already fell for you, Natasha! Can you not see it?! Deny it how you want but you do feel the same. Trust me, I know!”

“I’m sorry that you did. I don’t want to mess or hurt you any further. ”

She looks down for a moment before looking back at me, wiping her tears. “I don’t want your apology.” She sniff and force a smile while I just looking at her. “You have never hurt me, Natasha. Ever.”

I move closer to hold her hand “Y/n...”

She tilt her head to look at me one last time “Goodbye, Natasha Romanoff.” And just like that. She walked out of the compound. She’s right. I do too have feeling for her but this is what the best for her and her own safety, or we’re just not destine together. Or, that’s what I thought.

Present...

The team and I are having breakfast like we’re usually did every other morning and of course Wanda have to ask about her other friend. “It has been almost two months I think since Y/n is here.” I just look down on my plate.

Tony interrupt “Yeah, where is she? I miss her coffee. She made the best coffee ever! Not gonna lie.” Clint kind of sense that we have something going on. “You can buy the whole Starbucks store Stark. Get over it.”

“Get over it?” Steve looks at Clint and Wanda ask again “Something happened?” Tony interrupt again “Yeah, there must be something. Y/n is always here. Except when she have field trips or camping with her students. We like her here, she’s happy when she’s here.” Steve try to stop him but God knows even Pepper can’t stop him. “Tony. Stark.” Tony continue “That doesn’t seem weird to you?”

I finally speak. “What Stark? Huh? I am asking the same question too! Where is she? I wish I have the answers for you guy. I’m sorry but I don’t!” They all been quiet for a minute until Tony open his mouth again. “Jeez. Did you guys broke up?” I look at him “Broke up? We’ve never together.”

Steve smiles “I maybe old school but I don’t think I’m that fool.” Clint turns to talk while Wanda drinks her coffee. “You guys been doing all those things. Even blind people can see it.” “What things?” I ask and Steve answer “All the things that lovers do.” “Want me to specify it for you?” Tony ask and Wanda told him to stop. “I think she understand, Stark. Let her speak. Or not. It’s her choice. She’ll tell us when she’s ready or want to.” I’ll excuse myself “ Thank you, Wanda.”

Few hours later, I go to the kitchen and Wanda is there. Making lunch for everyone. “Oh, hi Nat.” I grab a glass and pour water in it “Making lunch for everyone?” Wanda chuckle while stirring whatever in that pot “Someone has to.” “Yeah.” I sip my water and just stare at my glass for a couple of minutes. Wanda breaks the silence. “Okay, I know I said that you will tell us what happened between you and Y/n when you’re ready or want but, I can’t take it. You’re killing me.” I look at her “I don’t think you know-“ She cuts me before I finish “Yeah I know that you know I don’t know what you don’t want me to know but your thoughts are too loud. You are battling with yourself. There’s war inside your head. I can’t fully control my power and I don’t mean to invade your privacy. So, can you help a sister?” I just stare at her, she turns off the stove and sit next to me. “If you don’t want to tell the boys, you can talk to me.”

My eyes still glued to my half empty glass “It was my fault. She walked away the last time we had a movie night together. I, we had a fight after that. Your best friend walked away and it is my fault.” I turn my head to face her, didn’t even notice I that I’m crying until a few drops fell down on my lap. “I’m sorry.” Wanda stay silent and I go on “You guys thought that we were an item but we aren’t. Well she wants to but I didn’t.”

“You’re scared.” Wanda said.

I nod. “Yes.”

“Of love?” she asks.

“Of losing her.” I said. “So I ran away. I make her cry. She’s being expose. Every time we go out either with me or any of you, she’s expose to danger and threats. I don’t have a clean past, Wanda. Someday, my past will corrupt me. Besides, our line of job makes me worrier. Enemies everywhere, they can take and harm her anytime.”

“Does she know?” Wanda asks.

Shaking my head. “No. I didn’t say much that night. I said that I’m sorry, but she doesn’t want my apologized.”

“You’re a jerk! No offence.”

“I deserved it.”

“Of course she doesn’t want your apology. She wants answer and you didn’t give her a damn reason to leave or stay. She’s upset. Trust me, that girl is willing to die for you, Nat!” I look at Wanda, she never raises her voice at anyone, except Sam, Tony and her late brother, Pietro. She continues. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell at you but she’s my best friend and you’re too, and my mentor so, I have to be the one to knock some sense to you.”

“What do you want me to do?” I asked.

“Stop being scare and push people out. I mean it’s almost two months and you just keep it to yourself. You are not alone, Nat. You can talk to me or us.”

I smile a little. “You already know did you?” “That’s why I asked you about her this morning. I’m sorry, I should have just talk to you personally.” Wanda said and brush her off. “You didn’t know the whole story. It’s okay, the boys are her friends too. Tony’s right. Her coffee is the best.” I look at Wanda and smile. “And your food is the best.” Wanda smiles big “Now, that’s the spirit! Don’t worry Agent Romanoff, we are going to get you your person back. Now, save your tears and let’s have lunch.” I nod. “I’ll get the plate.” Wanda nod and stand from her stool “And I’ll get the boys.” She moves two steps forward and yell “BOYS! LUNCH TIME….!!!!” I look at her weirdly “What? They know their ways.”

I park right in front of Y/n work place. She a kindergarten teacher. Wanda look at the kids outside and smiling really big. Turns out they are having Fun-Day today. “How do you know she’s here? What if she quit the job and move to another country?”

“Wanda, she’s your best friend. You should know her better. She loves those kids to quit her job. Plus, I tracked her phone. She’s here. Look.” I show her the tracking apps.

“You knew her whereabouts THIS WHOLE TIME?!! And do nothing?”

“Of course I know. I love her. Should I buy her flowers?” I changed topic.

“No.”

“Chocolate?”

“No.”

“Teddy bears or animal stuff?”

“No. No. And no. You know she’s not that kind of girl. Just present yourself, it already means the world to her. She’s your crush. You should know her better.” Wanda smirking. There she is! School over. Go! I’ll wait here.”

When most of the kid already out of the school, I approach her at the gate where she’s busy waving at her students. When I’m about to say hi, some kids notice me behind Y/n and call their other friend. Y/n turn around to see where her students running to and sees me.

“Jake, Caleb, where are you guys going? Your parents waiting over there. Katy, Mila, where are you-“ She stops and just standing there. I know she wants to run but she can’t leave her students unsupervised. Let alone with an Avenger.

I look straight at her eyes and smiles a little. “Hi. Y/n.” “Hi.” That’s all we’re manage to say because we’re busy gazing at each other until the students pulling my legs and hands.

“You are an Avenger!”

“Yeah! The Black Widow!” “Can I have a picture with you?”

“I’m your fan!” “Me too!”

“You, might want to say hi to your little fans.” Y/n said and I look down. “Wow, that’s a lot of them. Hi little person. Okay, they have a lot of questions too! No, I’m not here to kill somebody. No, not killing an alien too. Yes, I ate vegetables. No, I’m not kidnapping your headmaster. What’s up you guys with murdering and kidnapping?” I turn to see Wanda and luckily she sees you. “Wanda. I could really use your help right now!”

Y/n see the situation is getting heated, she helping me out a little. “Okay calm down guys. Ms. Romanoff will answer your questions one by one.” Right on time, Wanda’s arrive. “Did I see Agent Romanoff being attack? By children.” Y/n looks up at her. “Wanda?” Wanda smiles “Yes and I’m here to save my best friend relationship and my mentor’s butt from children attack.” Wanda looks at the children “Hiiiii.... Good evening children of kindergarten!”

“Scarlet Witch!” “Look, it’s Wanda Maximoff!” “You’re so cool!” “You can fly!”

“That was fast.” Y/n said looking at Wanda entertaining the children and catch their attention so I can talk to Y/n. “Yeah, she has ways with children.” “I know. I’m her best friend.” Ouch that’s cold.

I talk to her. Hopefully she’ll listen. “I want to talk with you.”

“You’re talking. Actually, my work time has ended 10 minutes ago but if you wanna talk about donation or social safety talk about this school, you can come again tomorrow morning. I’ll let the headmaster know about your approach.”

“I’m not here for any of that.” I said.

“You’re to join our today activity then? Fun-Day, students, teachers and parents doing some fun activities together once a year. You’re kinda late for that you know.”

“Am I too late to say sorry?” I said and Y/n just quiet. “I made a mistake. I really am sorry.”

“I told you, I don’t want your apologies. And you made it crystal clear that we don’t have anything to do with each other.”

“Give me a minute to explain. Please.” I move closer to her but she move a step back. “Y/n, please. Just a minute. I promise.” Y/n look at me; her eyes are about to drop tears. She’s looking at her watch and counting “60, 59, 58….”

“You are right. I do have a feeling for you Y/n. I’m a coward. I’m scared that one day I’m gonna lose you. My job and my past put you in so much risk. A risk that I’m so scare to put you in. You know the world can see us, in a way that’s different than who we are. Wanda knock some sense to me and for once I listened and I really regret of what am I doing.”

“You creating space between us. You know that our hearts feel the same but you separated it.” Y/n said looking anywhere but me.

I step beside her. “I want you to be safe Y/n. I want to protect and won’t let anyone hurt you. But those will not happen if you are with me, you understand what I mean. You deserve someone’s better. I don’t deserve you. I don’t –“

My word was cuts by Y/n “That’s the problem! You don’t think you deserve something so you ruin it. You think you don’t deserve to feel happy?! You think I don’t?! You think you’re fine to let go of something that you really want in your dear life?! Well, I don’t. I don’t think you deserve all that, Natasha. I think you deserve all the joy, all the happiness in your life. Yes, you have a broken past but, you should not have a broken future too, Natasha." Her tears dropping heavily now.

I take her hand; her face softens while looking at me. “Let me redeem my mistake. I’ve learn my mistake and regret it with the rest of my life is you didn’t let me. I want us back together. I’m sorry I didn’t say this sooner. I love you. You are the best miracle that ever happened to me.”

“What’s make you so sure I want us to back again?” She asks. Her face shows that she wants it too but afraid that I let her go again.

“I’m not Iron Man, I’m not a God, I can’t take your hand and fly you wherever you want to go. I can’t read your mind like Wanda and tell you everything you wanna hear but I’ll be your hero. I can be everything you need and if you are the one for me, like gravity, I’m unstoppable. Now I believe in destiny, I maybe just an ordinary human without her soul but if you’re the one for me, I’ll be your hero. Like the one you tell Wanda.”

Y/n let out a soft laugh “Could you be the one?” I laugh with her “Yeah, I’ll be your hero. When it’s meant to be, I’ll be one. So, I’ll wait for you. Whenever you want, whenever you’re ready.” Her left hand cupping my cheek and her right hand hold my hand. “Your world is my world. Your fight is my fight. You make me happy. I know where I’ll be Natasha Romanoff.”

“The last time you call me by my full name, I was in trouble.” I wrap my arm around her.

“You will always be in trouble. You already commit to it, Agent Romanoff.”

“I won’t waste it. I promise. I love you Y/F/N Y/L/N. Or Y/F/N Romanoff. I guess that sounds better right?”

“Shut up and kiss me.”

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kmclaude · 4 years ago

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Forgive me Father, I have no awful headcanons for you, only a general question on comic making. How do you do it, writing-wise/how do you decide what points go where, how do you plot it out (or do you have any resources on the writing aspect that you find useful?) Not to get too bogged down in details, but I attended a writer’s workshop and the author in residence suggested I transfer my wordy sci-fi WIP into graphic novel script, as it might work better. (I do draw, but I don’t know if I have it in me to draw a whole comic—characters in motion? Doing things? With backgrounds? How dare, why can’t everyone just stand around looking pretty)

I was interested but it quickly turned into a lot of internal screaming as I tried to figure out how to compress the hell out of it, since novels are free to do a lot more internal monologuing and such compared to a comic format (to say nothing of trying to write a script without seeing how the panels lay out—just for my own sake, I might have to do both concurrently.)

As an aside, to get a feel for graphic novels I was rereading 99RM and was reminded of how great it was—tightly plotted, intriguing, and anything to do with Ashmedai was just beautifully drawn. I need more Monsignor Tiefer and something something there are parallels between Jehan and Daniel in my head and I don’t know if they make sense but it works for me. (As an aside, I liked the emphasis on atonement being more than just the word sorry, but acknowledgment you did wrong and an attempt to remedy it—I don’t know why that spoke to me the way that it did.)

I thought Tumblr had a word count limit for asks but so far it has offered zero resistance, oh well. I don’t have much else to say but on the topic of 99RM, Adam getting under Monsignor’s skin is amazing, 10/10 (about the Pride picture earlier)

wow tumblr got rid of the markdown editor! or at least in asks which means the new editor probably has no markdown....god i hate this site! anyway...

Totally! So first, giant thank you for the compliments! Second, I have a few questions in turn for you before I dive into a sort of answer, since I can give some advice to your questions in general but it also sounds like you have a specific conundrum on your hands.

My questions to your specific situation are:

did the author give any reason for recommending a, in your words, "wordy" story be turned into a graphic novel?

is the story you're writing more, like you said, "internal monologuing"? action packed? where do the visuals come from?

do you WANT it to be a comic? furthermore, do you want it to be a comic you then must turn around and draw? or would you be interested in writing for comics as a comic writer to have your words turned into art?

With those questions in mind, let me jump into the questions you posed me!

Let me start with a confession...

I've said this before but let me say it again: Ninety-Nine Righteous Men was not originally a comic — it was a feature-length screenplay! And furthermore, it was written for a class so it got workshopped again and again to tighten the plot by a classroom of other nerds — so as kind as your compliments are, I'm giving credit where credit is due as that was not just a solo ship sailing on the sea. On top of that, it got adapted (by me) into a comic for my thesis, so my advisor also helped me make it translate or "read" well given I was director, actor, set designer, writer, editor, SFX guy, etc. all in one. And it was a huge help to have someone say "there is no way you can go blow by blow from script to comic: you need to make edits!" For instance, two scenes got compressed to simple dialogue overlaid on the splashpage of Ashmedai raping Caleb (with an insert panel of Adam and Daniel talking the next day.) What had been probably at least 5 pages became 1.

Additionally, I don't consider myself a strong plotter. That said, I found learning to write for film made the plotting process finally make some damn sense since the old plot diagram we all got taught in grammar school English never made sense as a reader and definitely made 0 sense as a writer — for me, for some reason, the breakdown of 25-50-25 (approx. 25 pages for act 1, 50 for act 2 split into 2 parts of 25 each, 25 pages for act 3) and the breaking down of the beats (the act turning points, the mid points, the low point) helped give me a structure that just "draw a mountain, rising action, climax is there, figure it out" never did. Maybe the plot diagram is visually too linear when stories have ebb and flow? I don't know. But it never clicked until screenwriting. So that's where I am coming from. YMMV.

I should also state that there's Official Ways To Write Comic Scripts to Be Drawn By An Artist (Especially If You Work For A Real Publisher As a Writer) and there's What Works For You/Your Team. I don't give a rat's ass about the former (and as an artist, I kind of hate panel by panel breakdowns like you see there) so I'm pretty much entirely writing on the latter here. I don't give a good god damn about official ways of doing anything: what works for you to get it done is what matters.

What Goes Where?

Like I said, 99RM was a screenplay so it follows, beat-wise, the 3-act screenplay structure (hell, it's probably more accurate to say it follows the act 1/act 2A/act 2B/act 3 structure.) So there was the story idea or concept that then got applied to those story beats associated with the structure, and from there came the Scene-by-scene Breakdown (or Expanded Scene Breakdown) which basically is an outline of beats broken down into individual scenes in short prose form so you get an overview of what happens, can see pacing, etc. In the resources at the end I put some links that give information on the whole story beat thing.

(As an aside: for all my short comics, I don't bother with all that, frankly. I usually have an image or a concept or a bit of writing — usually dialogue or monologue, sometimes a concrete scene — that I pick at and pick at in a little sketchbook, going back and forth between writing and thumbnail sketches of the page. Or I just go by the seat of my pants and bullshit my way through. Either or. Those in many ways are a bit more like poems, in my mind: they are images, they are snapshots, they are feelings that I'm capturing in a few panels. Think doing mental math rather than writing out geometric proofs, yanno?)

Personally, I tend to lean on dialogue as it comes easier for me (it's probably why I'm so drawn to screenwriting!) so for me, if I were to do another longform GN, I'd probably take my general "uhhhhhh I have an idea and some beats maybe so I guess this should happen this way?" outline and start breaking it down scene by scene (I tend to write down scenes or scene sketches in that "uhhhh?" outline anyway LOL) and then figure out basic dialogue and action beats — in short, I'd kind of do the work of writing a screenplay without necessarily going full screenplay format (though I did find the format gave me an idea of timing/pacing, as 1 page of formatted script is about equal to 1 minute of screentime, and gave me room to sketch thumbnails or make edits on the large margins!) If you're not a monologue/soliloque/dialogue/speech person and more an image and description person, you may lean more into visuals and scenes that cut to each other.

Either way this of course introduces the elephant in the panel: art! How do you choose what to draw?

The answer is, well, it depends! The freedom of comics is if you can imagine it, you can make it happen. You have the freedoms (and audio limitations) of a truly silent film with none of the physical limitations. Your words can move in real time with the images or they can be a narrative related to the scene or they could be nonsequitors entirely! The better question is how do you think? Do you need all the words and action written first before you break down the visuals? Do you need a panel by panel breakdown to be happy, or can you freewheel and translate from word and general outlines to thumbnails? What suits you? I really cannot answer this because I think when it comes to what goes where with regard to art, it's a bit of "how do you process visuals" and also a bit of "who's drawing this?" — effectively, who is the interpreter for the exact thing you are writing? Is it you or someone else? If it's you, would you benefit from a barebones script alongside thumbnailed paneling? Would you be served by a barebones script, then thumbnails, then a new script that includes panel and page breakdowns? What frees you up to do what you need to do to tell your story?

If I'm being honest, I don't necessarily worry about panels or what something will look like necessarily until I'm done writing. I may have an image that I clearly state needs to happen. I may even have a sequence of panels that I want to see and I do indeed sketch that out and make note of it in my script. But exactly how things will be laid out, paneled, situated? That could change up until I've sketched my final pencils in CSP (but I am writer and artist so admittedly I get that luxury.)

How do I compress from novel to comic?

Honest answer? You don't. Not really. You adapt from one to another. It's more a translation. Something that would take forever to write may take 1 page in a comic or may take a whole issue.

I'm going to pick on Victor Hugo. Victor Hugo spent a whole-ass book in Notre-Dame de Paris talking about a bird's eye view of Paris and other medieval architecture boring stuff, with I guess some foreshadowing with Montfaucon. Who cares. Not me. I like story. Anyway. When we translate that book to a movie any of the billion times someone's done that, we don't spend a billion years talking at length about medieval Paris. There's no great monologuing about the gibbet or whatever: you get to have some establishing shots, maybe a musical number, and then you move tf on. Because it's a movie, right? Your visuals are right there. We can see medieval Paris. We can see the cathedral. We can see the gibbet. We don't need a whole book: it's visually right there. Same with a comic: you may need many paragraphs to describe, say, a space station off of Sirius and one panel to show it.

On the flip side, you may take one line, maybe two, to say a character keyed in the special code to activate the holodeck; depending on the visual pacing, that could be a whole page of panels (are we trying to stretch time? slow it down? what are we emphasizing?) A character gives a sigh of relief — one line of text, yeah? That could be a frozen panel while a conversation continues on or that could be two (or more!) panels, similar to the direction [a beat] in screenwriting.

Sorry there's not a super easy answer there to the question of compression: it's a lot more of a tug, a push-pull, that depends on what you're conveying.

So Do I Have It In Me to Write & Draw a GN?

The only way you'll know is by doing. Scary, right? The thing is, you don't necessarily need to be an animation king or God's gift to background artists to draw a comic.

Hell, I hate backgrounds. I still remember sitting across from my friend who said "Claude you really need to draw an establishing exterior of the church at some point" and me being like "why do you hate me specifically" because drawing architecture? Again? I already drew the interior of the church altar ONCE, that should be enough, right? But I did draw an exterior of the church. Sorta. More like the top steeple. Enough to suggest what I needed to suggest to give the audience a better sense of place without me absolutely losing my gourd trying to render something out of my wheelhouse at the time.

And that's kinda the ticket, I think. Not everyone's a master draftsman. Not everyone has all the skills in every area. And regardless, from page one to page one hundred, your skills will improve. That's all part of it — and in the meantime, you should lean into your strengths and cheat where you can.

Do you need to lovingly render a background every single panel? Christ no! Does every little detail need to be drawn out? Sure if you want your hand to fall off. Cheat! Use Sketchup to build models! Use Blender to sculpt forms to paint over! Use CSP Assets for prebuilt models and brushes if you use CSP! Take photographs and manip them! Cheat! Do what you need to do to convey what you need to convey!

For instance, a tip/axiom/"rule" I've seen is one establishing shot per scene minimum and a corollary to that has been include a background once per page minimum as grounding (no we cannot all have eternal floating heads and characters in the void. Unless your comic is set in the void. In which case, you do you.) People ain't out here drawing hyper detailed backgrounds per each tiny panel. The people who DO do that are insane. Or stupid. Or both. Or have no deadline? Either way, someone's gonna have a repetitive stress injury... Save yourself the pain and the headache. Take shortcuts. Save your punches for the big K.O. moments.

Start small. Make an 8-page zine. Tell a beginning, a middle, an end in comic form. Bring a scene to life in a few pages. See what you're comfortable drawing and where you struggle. See where you can lean heavily into your comfort zones. Learn how to lean out of your comfort zone. Learn when it's worth it to do the latter.

Or start large. Technically my first finished comic (that wasn't "a dumb pencil thing I drew in elementary school" or "that 13 volume manga I outlined and only penciled, what, 7 pages of in sixth grade" or "random one page things I draw about my characters on throw up on the interwebz") was 99RM so what do I know. I'm just some guy on the internet.

(That's not self-deprecating, I literally am some guy on the internet talking about my path. A lot of this is gonna come down to you and what vibes with you.)

Resources on writing

Some of these are things that help me and some are things that I crowd-sourced from others. Some of these are going to be screenwriting based, some will be comic based.

Making Comics by Scott McCloud: I think everyone recommends this but I think it is a useful book if you're like "ahh!!! christ!! where do I start!!!???" It very much breaks down the elements of comics and the world they exist in and the principles involved, with the caveat that there are no rules! In fact, I need to re-read it.

Comic Book Design: I picked this up at B&N on a whim and in terms of just getting a bird's eye view of varied ways to tackle layout and paneling? It's such a great resource and reference! I personally recommend it as a way to really get a feel for what can be done.

the screenwriter's bible: this is a book that was used in my class. we also used another book that's escaping me but to be honest, I never read anything in school and that's why I'm so stupid. anyway, I'd say check it out if you want, especially if you start googling screenwriting stuff and it's like 20 billion pieces of advice that make 0 sense -- get the core advice from one place and then go from there.

Drawing Words & Writing Pictures: many people I know recommended this. I think I have it? It may be in storage. So frankly, I'd already read a bunch of books on comics before grabbing this that it kind of felt like a rehash. Which isn't shade on the authors — I personally was just a sort of "girl, I don't need comics 101!!!"

Invisible Ink: A Practical Guide to Building Stories that Resonate: this has been recommended so many times to me. I cannot personally speak on it but I can say I do trust those who rec'd it to me so I am passing it along

the story circle: this is pretty much the hero's journey. a useful way to think of journeys! a homie pretty much swears by it

a primer on beats: quick google search got me this that outlines storybeats

save the cat!: what the above refers to, this gives a more genre-specific breakdown. also wants to sell you on the software but you don't need that.

I hope this helps and please feel free to touch base with more info about your specific situation and hopefully I'll have more applicable answers.

#writing #making a graphic novel #writing a graphic novel #tutorial #writing tutorial

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princessamericachavez · 5 years ago

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PARALLELS EPISODE 43/72/117

Fjord and Jester have a huuuuge tendency of mirroring each other and their past conversations and so much about last week’s one on one felt familiar (though with huge steps forward) that I need to write down a few of the parallels to better illustrate it.

(I blame @justalittlebluetiefling for talking parallels and throwing my brain into this blackhole again)

EPISODE 43:

Jester: So... that happened.

Fjord: Yeah.

Jester: How do you feel about it?

Fjord: Relieved.

Jester: Yeah?

Fjord: Yeah. I was worried for a moment there. I knew it was going to come to something like that, but Caleb pulling the trigger the way he did was...

[...]

Jester. So now we're going to find the place where your ship wrecked, yeah?

Fjord: I think so, yeah.

Jester: You didn't get to ask them about Vandren, though.

Fjord: No, I didn't. It hurts to see so many react to a name that only meant so much to me, but-- I don't even know if he's alive. We might find him down there.

Jester: Wow. Do you think if we find him, you'll stop talking like him?

[...]

Jester: You know, I could probably send a message to the Plank King and ask him about Vandren, if you want me to.

Fjord: What do you mean?

Jester: Well, I can send him a message the same way I try to talk to my mama, and the Gentleman, and Kiri sometimes.

[...]

Fjord: Right. I suppose, what would you put in the letter to the Plank King?

Jester: Whatever you want me to.

Fjord: I mean, I don't know if it's necessary. I can't think of anything as of yet. I don't know, maybe I'll just let you know. Thank you for offering, though.

[...]

Fjord: Thank you for... not telling the others.

Jester: Of course, Fjord.

-----

EPISODE 72:

Fjord: Can I ask, like, a favor?

Jester: Of course. You can ask anything, Fjord.

Fjord: If I, like, conjured an image of what Vandran looks like, could you send him a message?

Jester: I can give it a try, yeah.

Fjord: Okay.

Jester: What do you want me to say to him?

Fjord: Will you just ask him-- tell him that I'm okay, and if-- I don't know. I want to know how he's doing, but-- Caduceus checked in with the Wildmother and said that he was trying to atone for his past. I'm not sure what to say. I just feel like he doesn't care to be found, or I don't know what he wants.

Jester: Maybe he doesn't know you're alive either. Maybe he's been searching for you.

Fjord: I guess that's right. Would you do me a solid and just do what you do?

[...]

Fjord: Sounds like he's okay.

Jester: He retired to an island?

Fjord: God, I've been so, like-- I feel like I need to find him, and I just don't know if it's that important to him. I don’t know if it's important to me, we've done so much.

Jester: Yeah, but I mean, the way you talked about him, I mean, if you need to find him then you need to find him.

Fjord: I feel like I need to find him because I feel like I owe him. But if he doesn't feel that way, it might just be in my head.

Jester: You know, messages are hard because you can't see the person's face. It did take him quite a while to respond.

Fjord: Right.

Jester: For all he knows, I could be somebody bad and just trying to get a response out of him. He might not want to reveal too much.

Fjord: Sure, he was smart like that. Thank you. It's been a long time. I just don't know if what I wanted before is the same thing I want now.

Jester: How are you doing? You seemed really quiet when we were in Nicodranas. You stood in the ocean and you didn't say anything.

Fjord: I feel like we've all changed.

Jester: Yeah.

Fjord: Me especially. He's such a brave man, and he did so much for me, I just wanted to emulate that.

Jester: I know.

Fjord: Repay that, pay it forward, I don't know. I feel like I've been so obsessed with this sword and how I got it, and Uk'otoa and the whole thing, I just feel like there's more out there. It's always more. Even Port Damali and-- and before that, my world just got bigger and bigger and bigger, and the more time goes on, the more you realize there is, and the more that we affect, and the more we can be effected, and-- there's a part of me that wants to leave it all behind.

Jester: Just go somewhere quiet and disappear, and hope that it never bothers you again?

Fjord: Yeah.

Jester: Yeah, I understand that.

Fjord: I just don't think it'll let me. I feel like I'm trying to force something that's not going to happen on its own.

[...]

Fjord: Yeah. Thank you. That might've been just the check-in I needed.

Jester: I wish I could be of more help, though.

Fjord: Oh, you have been. I've known you the longest in this.

Jester: Yeah.

Fjord: Sometimes it's just hard figuring out who you should be, instead of who you want to be

[...]

Fjord: I'm going to see if she'll... take an interest? I don't know. I don't know how it works.

Jester: I don't either! We should figure this out! This is our new mission.

[...]

Fjord: I don't mind a new mission, but if it is, can we just not, you know, tell anybody that--

Jester: Okay, we won't tell everybody, but you and I will know, this is our new mission.

EPISODE 117

Jester: How are you? I know that's a stupid question, but, you know, Avantika showed back up, and she tried to pull you under water and, you know, she's like, you guys had a thing, and it must've been weird to see her, like, kind of dead and stuff. Was it weird? You killed her again.

Fjord: Yeah, it was weird. It was weird, for sure. I wasn't expecting that. I'm all right. It feels like I keep trying to start newer chapters in my life and leave the old stuff behind, and then it just keeps popping up. It feels like it's hard to pursue something new when the past is not dealt with.

Jester: Well, do we need to deal with the past?

Fjord: I think so. I want to. I feel like I need to close all of that before...

Jester: Anytime you want to, I can-- I can scry, you know, I can try to search for anyone again. I know we've talked about it before, but if it would help, I could do it.

Fjord: Right. I actually-- I put a bounty out on... Sabian.

[...]

Fjord: I think they are going to communicate by magical means?

Jester: Do they have the ability? Should I send a message? I know them. Maybe I can send a message and be like: Hey, did you find Sabian? Should we be worried? Is Sabian dead? What's going on?

Fjord: Sure. Yeah.

Jester: You want me to do it?

Fjord: Yeah.

Jester: Oh, okay. Okay.

[...]

Jester: Whoops.

Fjord: No, no, no, no, no whoops. That's great. That's great. I-- that's totally distracting, but that's great. Thank you.

Jester: You're welcome. Well, now you know!

Fjord: Thank you.

Jester: You're welcome. I'm glad I could help.

Fjord: That was very nice of you.

Jester: It's just a spell. Easy to do.

Fjord: I will think about that all night.

#fjorester #critical role #fjord stone #jester lavorre #cr spoilers #let’s see if tumblr shows the colors I’ve put into this to highlight parallels #Sofia’s nonsense

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supercalime · 4 years ago

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The Edge of Great Commentary

I FINALLY READ THE EDGE OF GREAT BOOK! and boy it was a book. That I read. With words and everything. Here is my commentary, yall. Hope you enjoy my rambling

- okay, cocky luke was not what I was expecting

- Also, it’s stated that the FOUR OF THEM are brothers. Bobby is innocent, kids

- The way luke thinks of bobby here makes it so much worst knowing his betrayal

- Julie bb, I just wanna hug you!

- Petitioner julie to always call Luke “floppy”

- Micol, I get you have to condense stuff and I get this was written before they shot the show, obviously, but i still miss scenes we saw but are not written here! I hope this version of the book gets rewritten once we get a season 2, so we can get the extra scenes

- Wake up taking place in Alex’s pov is something that can be so personal

- Okay, I like the change that the show made to actually have them say Alex is gay, good on them

- Okay let’s stan the book for painting therapy in a positive light! Julie claiming it’s helpful is really good for their young audience

- I love getting confirmation that julie is a Harry styles fan. As she should

- Also, bisexual julie is basically canon here at this point. We stan

- Reggie pov!!!!!

- Reggie already loves her. We love to see it

- Oh my god! It’s the willex first meeting! Everybody calm down!!!!

- Sure, we don’t get “he’s cute, huh” but boy! We got “I’m around. Come find me. Even if you don’t have questions.” That is fucking cute!

- Flynn pov!!!!

- I love Flynn so much you guys. It’s not fair. She’s such a bad bitch, we can’t help but stan

- Museum date! Ahhhhhh

- Interesting that they are separating bobby from Trevor. That might be a clue...

- Mystery solved, yall. Luke was the one who wrote “hi Bobby” in the mirror

- Nick is so insignificant in this book it’s kinda comical

- Willie pov!!!!!

- I wanna personally thank booboo and owen for making the dialogue 90% gayer than it’s intended on text. It really shows how much they care about these characters and their scenes together

- The way we get confirmation that Caleb is basically a cult leader on willies POV really sells how Willie is a victim in all of this

- Dude, you don’t need to point out every time the ghosts “breath”. We’re suspending our disbelief here, it’s fine

- Okay, nick not being able to get his glue stick uncapped is very endearing

- I’m glad that the acapela sorry song is here

- Been so long and now we’re finally free!!!!

- Juke is cute in whatever form huh

- The crime that they CUT perfect harmony!

- Three words: willex angst hurts!

- The fact that we get confirmation of Alex’s feelings during their “break up” scene? We love to see it

- I get that we wouldn’t get the improvised scenes like “girls am I right?” BUT! Excuse me? Cutting edge of great as well? What is wrong with you?? It’s the freaking name of the novel?!

- “A voice I knew and missed” fuck off! Alex’s pov don’t fuck around!

- Don’t fucking tell me that Alex was supposed to say he cared about willie back? We were robbed of that in the show! Kenny!

- P A I N

- Oh. Julie played unsaid Emily to Luke’s parents here. Interesting. I would die if that happened in the show

- I’m so mad we didn’t get a rendition of the “I would have still followed you” scene! It’s crucial for willex! C’mon! We are just getting breadcrumbs here! Gimme the gay!

- Wow. The hug was very disappointing indeed. This book condenses too much. I don’t know what limitations the author had but if that was a choice, she did a terrible job. The characters barely have depth

- The ending was so rushed, christ

- Where’s the angst? The uncertainty?

- I’m not gonna lie, I wish this book was written for a slighter older audience, just so we’d be able to get more depth

- I like that they make it clear that the boys are just tangible but they don’t know how long it’s gonna last

- No cliffhanger that gives me anxiety. That’s...good?

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ofstarsandvibranium · 5 years ago

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Literally Falling For You

Fandom: Criminal Minds (Hogwarts AU)

Pairing: Spencer Reid x F!Reader

Summary: Person B is trying to impress Person A and ends up falling flat on their face. As Person B lays on the ground and slowly die from embarrassment, Person A has a mind blowing realization that they actually really like Person B and when they help Person B up off the ground, they pull them into a kiss. (prompt from an OTP prompt generator)

A/N: Spencer is a Slytherin and reader is a Gryffindor.

Warning: mentions of bullying

“Can anyone tell me what the summoning charm is?” Professor Flitwick squeaked.

You and a few students raised your hands, but before the small professor could pick anyone, someone spoke up, “The Summoning Charm is a charm that causes an object at a distance from the caster to fly into their arms. This spell needs thought behind it, the object must be clear in the casters mind, before trying to summon.”

Everyone looked back to see the brown hair, lanky Slytherin speak up with a naive smile. The students around him rolled their eyes in annoyance.

Your charms professor nodded, “Ah yes. Uh, well done, Reid. Fifteen points to Slytherin for answering right, but five points from Slytherin for talking out of turn!”

Spencer looked down with an embarrassed frown as his fellow Slytherins scowled at him. A few parchment balls were thrown at him and you couldn’t help but feel angry at the students for bullying your friend.

Feeling your gaze, Spencer looked up and caught your eye. He saw the anger and he shook your head, mouthing, “Don’t. It’s okay.” You sighed, turning back to your charms professor.

After class was over, Slytherins and Gryffindors alike pushed Spencer around, causing him to stumble and fall. The contents of his satchell tumbling out onto the floor. Students walked all over his things, getting footprints on his books, assignments, and breaking a few of his quills.

You pushed past others as you went to go help him. You fell to your knees, quickly picking up Spencer’s things.

“You really shouldn’t let them bully you like that. You should speak up, fight back.”

Spencer shook his head, murmuring a “thanks” as you helped him stuff his things back into his bag, “If I do that, then people will see me like all of the other Slytherins. A bully.”

“Spencer, you could never be a bully. You’re too sweet.”

He shrugged, “Maybe everyone’s right. Maybe the hat did get it wrong. I should probably be in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff. No one in Slytherin understands me.”

“Because they’re all dunderheads. You’re too smart for them which is why they bully you. They’re jealous.” you state with confidence.

Spencer gives you an unsure look, “Why’re you friends with me, Y/N? You’re a Gryffindor. I’m a Slytherin. We’re supposed to be enemies.”

You rolled your eyes, “Says who?”

“Says everyone. You’re better off without me.”

“Spencer Reid, don’t make me turn your hair blue!” Spencer looked at you with a confused look and you shook your head, “What I mean to say is that I like being around you. You’re sweet and kind and, honestly, I like that you’re not like the other Slytherins. You’re you and that’s what makes you such a great friend.”

He looks at you softly, a shy smile on his face, “I like being around you too.”

“Good! Because you’re not getting rid of me any time soon!” you hook your arm around his and you both proceed to your next class.

____________

You and Spencer are hanging around the lake. You were originally studying, but decided to take a break. You were sitting up against a tree trunk while Spencer’s head was resting in your lap.

“Aaaww look! The freak is getting rather cozy with Gryffindor’s Golden Girl!”

Spencer immediately shot up and scrambled away from you. You scowled at the fourth year Slytherin and his lackeys, Callum and Locke, “Leave us alone, McIntyre. We’re busy.”

The black haired boy snorted, “Oh yeah. Reid was getting really busy with his head up your skirt.” McIntyre’s lackeys laughed while Spencer’s face turned a shade of red.

You glance Spencer’s way and saw how he started to withdraw into himself and you hated it. Absolutely hated it.

“You’re such a prick, McIntyre! Spencer never did anything to you!”

He rolled his eyes and strolled over, “You want me to stop bothering him? Fine. I’ll stop...if you’ll be my girl.” he smirked at you and you glared up at him.

He saw your bag beside you and swiped it up, “Or you could just let me copy off your assignments for the rest of term. Your call.”

You then stood up, chasing after him, “Give me my bag, back! McIntyre!” he laughed as he tossed your bag between Callum and Locke, “Quit it!” It was just between Callum and Locke now, McIntyre going somewhere else. Locke tossed your bag and you followed it to McIntyre, who was now up in a tree.

“If you want your bag, come and get it!”

You growled, ready to climb the tree, but a hand on your shoulder stopped you. You turned to see Spencer, determination in his eyes, “I got it, Y/N.”

“Oooouuu! The freak is here to save the day!” McIntyre mocked while his friends laughed along.

Spencer hoisted himself onto the tree, reaching McIntyre, “Give Y/N’s bag back, Caleb.”

“Oh, we’re on first name basis now, Spencer?”

“You know how skilled I am at dueling. I’m not afraid to duel you in this tree.” you can’t tell from where you are, but Spencer sees the hesitation in McIntyre’s eyes. Both of them know Spencer could blast him out of the tree.

“Fine,” he tosses your bag back to you and jumps out of the tree.

Spencer tries to make it down safely, but he loses his footing. Falling right on his face, in front of you, and in front of McIntyre.

“Such a freak!” he hollers as him and his friends head back to the castle.

“Spencer!” you rush over to him, rolling him onto his back. Some blades of grass are sticking to his face and you pick them off, “Are you okay?”

He grumbles, “Yup. Just-Just leave me here to die from embarrassment.”

You softly smile down at him, “What you did was very brave. Thank you.”

“No problem,” he whispers and he watches you stand up, offering a hand to him. He takes it and moves to his legs as you yank him up. When he stands, you’re close. Very close.

You’re looking at him and he’s looking at you. You glance at his lips and then, with a yank of his tie, your lips are on his.

Spencer is taken by surprise, his eyes wide when his lips land on yours, but he doesn’t feel you pull back. So he proceeds to kiss back. It’s his first time and he’s not sure he’s doing it right, but he doesn’t care. He’s kissing you! The girl he’s liked since first year!

You pull back and there’s a bit of a haze in your eyes, “Wow.”

“That-That just happened,” Spencer stutters out as he flattens out his tie.

“I really like you, Spencer. And I mean that as more than a friend.”

“I like you too,” he replies breathlessly, “A-And more than a friend as well.”

“Great.”

“...Great.”

You two proceed to stand there in a bit of awkward silence until you break it, “Um, we should probably head up and get ready for dinner.”

“Yeah. Yeah, you’re right.” you both scramble for your things and start walking back up to the castle. As you walk, your hands graze each others and you both freeze.

Spencer gulps and holds out his hand. You shyly slip yours into his and you both continue your journey to the castle with heated cheeks, shy smiles, and quick glances towards each other.

#spencer reid #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid imagine #criminal minds #criminal minds imagine #hogwarts au

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nooneactuallyasked · 4 years ago

Text

Diner Gal - Reggie x Reader Part 10

Requested: It’s a series, there are no requests here!

Word count: 1,088

Warnings: Cursing

Summary: Julie and the Phantoms ( + Flynn ) go to a musical diner/café/restaurant for inspiration and hopefully a future gig but they end up meeting a very special waitress.

Note: I’m back! Sorry, I had catch up on school work but luckily I have a week off now so more time to write. We’re also nearing the end which makes me really sad lmao (if you have any requests or suggestions for other things to write about let a girl know lol)

I felt like adding more to the diner staff because it’s meant to be like a family but you only know some names and that Sam is the best character here- Caleb as Mother Gothel is my new favourite thing btw I have way too many Willex/Tangled headcanons for no reason lmao

---

Part 1 here Part 2 here Part 3 here Part 4 here Part 5 here

Part 6 here Part 6.5 here Part 7 here Part 8 here Part 9 here

---

Y/N absent-mindedly stirred a cup of coffee, staring into space as her co-workers observed her from afar. “Is- is she okay?” Sam whispered to Noelle who turned to glare at him incredulously, “You’re not serious, are you? She looks like her pet hamster was just taken for ransom and killed right after she handed over the money- what do you mean is she okay, of course not!” Sam raised their hands in defence, “Alright chill, I was just asking because if were to ask her I would straight up die. You girls are fucking scary.” You could almost hear the snaps of necks as all the female staff turned to glare at them. Noelle jabbed her finger into their chest, leaning close to their face. “Now you listen to me, Sammy, you haven’t seen scary and you best hope you never do. Now stop gawking and do your work!” She stepped back and went to pick up an order from the counter. Sam gulped and looked away, “That was kinda hot. Scary, but crazy attractive…” Casey raises an eyebrow and steps away from her observing point, “Okay, we get it, you’re a simp, get back to work before she actually gets mad.” Sam nodded frantically, saluting her before running to take orders.

Casey sighed, “I’m like a single mother but without the commitment of having real kids.” She turned to look back at Y/N, “And now time to sort this mess out.” Casey made her way over to the counter and started messing around with the ketchup and mustard bottles, “So, Doll, you gonna stay here feeling sorry for yourself or tell me what’s going on with you?”

---

Y/N sat in the break room, after hours once again due to Caleb. “Okay, Y/N, we’re gonna fix this, we’ll sort it out just fine! The only problem is the whole possession thing, I have no clue how that stuff works. If I can find a way around that then we should be fine…would an exorcism work?” Y/N tenses when she hears chuckling from behind her, “I hope you aren’t planning on getting rid of me, Diner Gal.” She released a breath she didn’t know she was holding, all the tension flooding out of her body, “Hey, Leather Boy. No, I’ve got other ghostly problems other than just you.” Reggie frowned, he may be an airhead sometimes but he liked to believe he was at least a bit perceptive of other’s emotions so he decided to try and cheer her up anyway he could.

Reggie gasped, raising a hand to his heart feigning offence, “Are you cheating on me? I thought I was your only ghost problem.” He started panicking when he saw her shoulders start shaking, was Y/N crying? How do you comfort a crying girl and not make her even more upset? “Are you okay? I’m sorry!” Y/N quickly turned to look at him, “Sorry? For what? Oh” “Okay, so not that perceptive with emotions…” He muttered to himself, Y/N furrowed her eyebrows but shrugged it off

“Anyway, what are your ghostly troubles? Perhaps I could help since I do happen to be of the ghostly variety.” Y/N hesitated before blurting out her troubles, “OkaysotheresthisweirdghostmancalledCalebandhespossessingCalandIdontknowwhattodosoifyouhaveanyideasonhowtohelppleasetellme-“

“Okay, I know I’m a fast talker but I don’t speed Sonic the Hedgehog so slow down and I’ll help out as best as I can, alright?” Y/N nodded, suddenly taking great interest in the skin around her fingernails, “So, um, there’s this ghost dude who is possessing Cal, he said his name was Caleb and that I either have to make a deal with him or I’ll lose Cal forever.” But if I do that I’ll lose you too-

“Wow, that is rough. Um, okay, I’ll get Alex to ask his boyfriend if there’s anything we can do to help Cal. Just, don’t worry about it too much, we’ll get through this.” Y/N sniffed, feeling her eyes start to water, “We? You’ll really help me?” Reggie’s gaze softened and he took both of her hands in his, rubbing his thumb over her knuckles, “Of course I will, I’d never make you deal with this by yourself, and hey, now we know why Cal was loading you up with extra work!” Y/N chuckled, turning her gaze toward their intertwined hands, “Thanks, Reg. That means a lot.” She smiled up at him as Reggie’s face and tips of his ears turned red, “You okay? You’re uh-“ She took one of her hands away from his grip and gestured towards her face. Reggie looked away, his blush worsening, “Point is, I’m here for you, so don’t worry! I’m gonna go ask Alex’s boyfriend for help but I’ll see you later.”

Y/N nodded as she moved away, giving him space to poof, “Right, see ya later.” Reggie held her gaze for a few more seconds before waving and poofing out.

“Well, I thought he’d never leave!”

Y/N spun around to face the purple-clad puppeteer she’d come to know as Caleb, “You. What do you want now?” She was met with a sinister laugh, one that she was quickly growing tired of. “My dear, I’m simply here to drop off something that will, when signed, make our deal permanent and binding.” Y/N rolled her eyes, “And exactly why would I sign that?” She shivered as the slightly tense atmosphere turned frigid, if the feeling before could be described as a muddy red, agitated but otherwise harmless, this feeling was a piercing blue, capable of cutting through a person and freezing them in place. “Listen here, girlie. If you ever want to see your precious Cal again you’ll have this signed before the end of the boys little performance on Friday. Is that clear?” Y/N swallowed before meeting his penetrating stare, “Crystal.”

“Perfect, I’m glad there are no misunderstanding between us, I wouldn’t want to accidentally lose Cal’s soul whilst I’m possessing him.” Y/N stared him down, hoping her glower had at least some effect on him. “You wouldn’t dare-“ “Darling, in case you hadn’t noticed, you hold no power over me and saying something as pointless as that won’t change anything. Now, here’s my contract. Do think over it, won’t you?” He placed it on the nearest surface before disappearing in a poof of black smoke. “Fucking dramatic ass bitch.”

Y/N ran a hand over her face, groaning at the thought of more problems being added onto her already comically long list. “I hope Leather Boy’s friend has some answers or I’m fucking done for…”

---

Taglist: (if your @ changed then please let me know so I can add it back!!)

@hereforthejatp @slutforjjmaybank @morganayennefertyrell

@dxestars @dcnerd98 @ultraworthlessbitch

@revolutionary-werewolf-ghosts @underc0vercryptid @miisacore

@cas-loves-pizza

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moonelf19 · 5 years ago

Text

Episode 115 Widofjord Highlights

I’m late for a livewatch but also consider! I am late for the monday youtube release. Time to get those crumbs though!

20:20 Fjord asks Caleb for some paper, “just a scrap”. Caleb happily hands over “5 or 6 complete pieces of paper, whatever you need.” Jester reminds the disaster casters that Calebs paper is expensive (and rare, and wow someone had to remind Caleb that his paper is precious? Excuse me?) and hands over her sketchbook instead. Fjord is happy to take the sketchbook and insists Caleb keep his paper in case Dagen screws up the map. At about 20:45 Caleb/Liam makes a wincing face and tilts his head kind of sassy, like “well fine my paper isn’t good enough for you”.

23:00 Caleb starts the conversation about Vess being dead and the consequences. At first he seems to be talking to Fjord about “keeping an eye out”, likely because Fjord can cast see invisibility and see scrying eyes. At the 25′ mark Fjord asks what they should do about Vess, right after Veth was talking, but he is turned to and directs the question to Caleb. Caleb posits some short term solutions and Fjord redirects back to ask “she’s in your amber, right?”

Caleb: Yes

Fjord: If someone tried to scry, like we did on Molly, would they just see your necklace?

Caleb: Well-

Cut to them trying to remember how scry works, if a dead person can be scried on.

Fjord: Should I give you your pendant back?

Fjord: As long as no one can track the item inside your necklace, again, like for the crystal clove.

Caleb: That was a whole other thing entirely, I believe.

The group gets distracted by the term “crystal clove” but Travis keeps looking over to Liam- I think he/Fjord is still really bothered that the crystal was tracked in the pendant and, dare I say it, I want him to confront Caleb about it. Because Travis seemed pretty upset and referred to it as “false advertising” during talks machina iirc. Give me the drama, bois. But Liam/Caleb diverts and calls out to Dagen, ending the rp moment.

52:28 Caleb opts to have Frumpkin keep Fjord company on first watch.

54:09 Fjord notices the scrying orb and calls out to wake Caleb up. They proceed to have a painfully awkward not-conversation conversation while they panic because they didn’t come up with a plan for if Fjord saw anything and neither remember that it’s probably a scrying orb.

Fjord: We’re making good time heading to the most eastern destination. *gestures toward the orb with his head*

Caleb: We could certainly go further. *looks that way and sees nothing* We could probably go farther.

Fjord: Yep, yep. Well that’s it!

Caleb: I don’t think I can go to sleep now, Fjord.

Fjord: Yes, yes...

Fjord proceeds to threaten whoever is scrying, and Matt clarifies whether he is attuned to the necklace. Travis admits that he swapped out the ring of fire resistance for the call-blocking pendant. Liam says that someday, someone will inherit that ring and it will be really meaningful, clearly trying to help Travis save face but Travis seems to kind of embrace his impulse purchases.

58:43

Fjord: *moves back over to Caleb* There was another scrying. Sphere. Eye. Someone is watching.

Caleb, who is making eye contact with Fjord: Great. Take your pick on who wants us dead.

Fjord: The Empire? The Dynasty? Molly?

Caleb: *scoffs, smiles at Fjord* My money is on the Tiefling.

Fjord: Our scent, he said.

Caleb: ... scent. Our blood?

Fjord: *nods and smiles* Our blood. Do you have any idea how to counteract that? Blood magic?

Caleb: If it’s that, I do not. Gods, it’s cold.

Fjord: ... It is...

Liam looked like he was going to say something else, but Travis says he will keep an eye out and we cut to the next watch.

1:04:54 Caleb uses control flame to make the bonfire flare.

Fjord: Awesome! *basks in the warmth*

1:08:06 Dagen made everyone breakfast and is ribbing them about being noobs to the cold.

Fjord: We learned a lesson, yes? Hard lesson learned. All the wiser for it? Seasoned travelers.

Caleb: So much character built last night.

Fjord: So much. Bushels of character.

1:15:32 At the distraction pillar-

Fjord: Caleb you couldn’t read any of these markings, right? That’s not a language, or-

Caleb: I assume I would’ve been able to if it’s by sight.

Jester: You don’t have to cast anything anymore, you can just read things?

Fjord: *has no reason to have this confidence* Yep!

Caleb: Well I mean, I have done a lot of stuff for a long time.

Jester: How many languages do you speak?

Caleb: Four.

Beau: I can read five! I know more languages than you!

Jester: Beau you’re so smart-

Fjord: Okay, it’s not a competition >:(

Sorry, but Fjord, keep it in your pants. Jeez. You’re heart eyes are so loud rn.

Also I want to point out that Travis accurately called that trying to pull the gem out kills you. Smart dude. Still embarrassingly soft for Caleb.

1:20:34

Travis: This is literally the stupidest thing we could be doing. We should just keep going, right?

Liam: This pivoted the entire campaign one, what we are fucking with right now.

Travis: Yeup! We should just go.

Liam: The necromancy thing.

Travis: Let’s keep going.

... Liam: I am going to use telekinesis to pull the gem out.

Travis: And there goes our wizard.

A few minutes and 52 points of damage later.

Travis/Fjord/??: How far is your telekinesis range?

Liam: Exactly 60 feet!

Travis: Yeah yeah just kind of like *puts hand out*

Jester: Heal him!

Travis: Nah he’s fine!

Caleb: No you need to heal me!

Travis: Turn into a T-Rex!

1:27:03, literally a few seconds after the T-Rex comment

Jester: I don’t have cure wounds >_>

Fjord: I will, at 5th level, cast cure wounds on Caleb.

Laura: aww that’s so sweet :)

Fjord: 29 points of healing :)

1:30:17 Caleb gets shit kicked by the pillar again and starts peeling off his coat, looks like death, and Travis is like “its a point of pride!” Caleb rolls up his sleeves. Travis says “LETS GO!” Caleb gets mad at telekinesis and uses Cat’s Ire, still fails. Throws a snowball. Travis says it his the ground and rolls and Liam is like “makes it maybe halfway there”

1:35:23 Jester paints “BIG EMERALD HERE” with an arrow pointing down

Caleb Neutral... Good? Ok?: Oh that’s murder! *big smile* That’s going to bring people right to that!

Jester, Chaotic Neutral: They should be smarter than that :)

Fjord, Lawful Good: Jester, I don’t know, that seems like a bit much...

Cad: If I had seen that I wouldn’t have touched it.

Jester: Right?

Fjord: I would’ve (we know)

Caleb: That’s like a cave that says ‘Free Cupcakes’

Jester: Oh, well, when you say it like that...

Fjord: See? Yeah. *nods at Caleb*

Caleb: *smiles and points at Fjord*

Fjord: It all depends.

Caleb: You just have to attack it from the right angle sometimes.

Fjord: *smiles at Caleb*

As they leave the pillar Caleb tries to cast dispel magic. When it fails, Liam makes a very angry face and flips double middle fingers at Matt/the pillar.

Fjord: It’s ok! It’s ok. We’ll probably come back by this way. We’ll get it another day.

1:39:18 Liam gets a little lost looking at his spells again

Fjord: Cah-leb?

Caleb: Yeah ok.

New Achievement: Pet name for your lover

1:44:21

Jester: Waffle cornbread!

Beau: Does such a thing exist?

Fjord: If the cats can’t make it, I mean, who can?

Fjord is the ultimate hype man.

2:03:00

Travis: Is that a real story or did you write that?

Liam: I wrote it. Today.

Travis: *looks incredibly impressed but trying to hide it* Sure. Sure.

This is now a Travis and Liam friendship blog. Soft. Good. Pure.

2:53:45 Caleb turns Cad into a mammoth and Fjord/Travis is hype. Again. He also wants to see Caleb try to punch a yeti.

3:04:50 Fjord runs up to the yeti in melee with Caleb and does a pushing strike to get the yeti away.

3:32:16 Travis is broken, staring at his table. Laura points it out.

Travis: The necrotic stone? We can’t leave it alone. The yetis? We invite them to fucking dinner.

Excuse me, you say “we” but what you mean is “Caleb” sir.

3:59:20 Travis pops his fidget toy :( not widofjord but let’s all have a moment of silence for what cannot be the first time he’s done that. Can we start sending our recommendations for good fidget toys?

4:03:43 Fjord starts walking into the cave while the others are still debating the plan, and Caleb immediately follows him. When the others ask if Frumpkin will lead, Liam begins to describe using Fjord to steady himself to scout via Frumpkin before Matt cuts him off to close out the episode.

That’s it for this week! Let’s see what talks machina with Liam has for us >:)

#widofjord #critical role #did i have to rewatch the whole episode because my brain is fried?#yeah #yeah i did #the vibe of the show is way different at 1.5 speed #this got so LOOONG #and some of the Travis and Liam interactions were so good I had to include them!#no i did NOT stay up till 6am re-watching and taking notes PFFFT #i am an ADULT

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gloomyhearts · 4 years ago

Text

Always by your side || Luke Patterson

Chapter twenty-two~ it's too much

2020

Alex gives all his frustration room by beating on his drums, the other two stopped playing, studying the blonde.

“Alex, you alright?”

“Yeah, yeah. Yeah, why?”

“I know it’s though man. People say you never forget your first ghost. Maybe that’s true,” Reggie insists, “but I’m sure there will be others.”

“Yeah. Thanks Reg.”

This wasn’t the only thing bothering the drummer, his sister almost dying, again, brings him more heartbreak because she’s everything to him but he can’t tell the others.

“And Alex you’re a great drummer and a great guy okay? I wouldn’t let all that stuff get in between you and what you love.”

“I don’t know man. Sometimes a little fire can make things better on stage, like you and Julie,” Reggie adds.

“Uh, wha.. what is that supposed to mean?” the shaggy haired boy requests.

“Come on. Everyone can see the way you look at her when you sing, you never looked at someone else than..”

Everyone cleared their throats, “You know,” he coughs a few times, “you guys ooze chemistry.”

“You should never say ‘ooze’ again, but yeah I agree.”

“Okay, no. I have chemistry with everyone that I sing with. Seriously, watch. Ugh.”

He began so sing and closed the gap between Reggie and him, his hand grabbing on the raven haired’s neck, pulling him even closer.

“Wow. I see chemistry.”

Reggie needs a second to order his thoughts, “that was pretty hot,” he stutters. Luke lays his finger over his lips and put them shortly after on Reggie’s, he just clears his throat, “girls. Am I right?” They went on with their rehearsal.

Reggie was like always in the house sitting at the island, conversing with Reg, leaving Alex and Luke alone in the garage.

“Can I ask you something Alex?” he nods towards his friends, “whom did Brina dedicated the song she played earlier?”

“Oh.. mm. just this ghost she met at the beach..” he rubs his neck, avoiding his graze.

“Did you know Steve died shortly after his graduation in ’95?”

“No? the poor guy.”

“Is he the..”

“I really don’t know Luke ‘cause she had to leave before explaining further. The next time she’s here you should ask her yourself.”

“That’s the thing, I feel like she’s avoiding me.” I would ask myself Luke.

“I didn’t noticed. But you’re not even really here when she’s visiting,” he shruggs his shoulder.

Flynn’s voice echoes through the speaker and Carlos and another friend open the door in a mysterious way, revealing Julie in her crop top embroidered with butterflies; she takes a seat at the piano and begins to play.

During the song Luke’s eyes trailed to the Julie but he fights against the desire to examine her. Reggie nears him, looking between the two singers, raising one of his brows.

His hazel eyes wander through the crowd meeting with ones he hasn’t expected, the corner of his lips rising; she gave him a rueful smile, breaking the eye contact abruptly.

When the song cam to the end he was once again close to her, he sure was able to inhale her breath, this gave Sabrina all the reason to leave immediately.

“I can’t believe I went there again, you have to tie me down Willie, I’m not capable of thinking straight and staying here alone.”

“I know.. I know.”

“Ow,” she exhales sharply, her arm pressed on her stomach.

“He knows you’re here why did you get one.”

“It wasn’t him, Lexi and the boys.”

“I forgot.. I forgot, I have to speak to them, are you good?” she nods slightly and he vanishes.

“That wasn’t like the other ones. It’s getting worse.”

“Why is that happening to us,” Reggie asks, out of breath.

“It’s because you guys are in serious trouble. It even reached Wills.”

“Willie? Is she alright?”

“We need to talk.”

“All these jolts that we’re feeling is because Caleb put his stamp on us? Will was right, I should’ve listened to her.”

“He’s threatened by you. He wants you under his control. You’re the only ghosts besides Sabrina, to be visible to lifers without his help.”

“And you let him do this to us?”

“I can’t stop him. He owns my soul. All right? He owns everybody’s soul at that club.”

“With everybody you mean everybody?!”

“No, not Sabrina, well not yet, she almost gives up, she needs you guys really urgent. If he even knew I was here talking to you, he..” Willie sighs, “he would destroy me.”

Reggie crosses his arms, “so if we don’t join his club, the weird power outage thing continues until there’s no power left at all?”

“Yes.”

“What exactly happens when the power goes out?” Alex graze darkens, knowing what Willie is about to drop

“That’s.. That’s it. You’re done.”

“Uh-huh. Yeah. And what exactly do you mean by ‘we’re done’?”

“You just.. You don’t exist.. anymore. Not anywhere.”

Still shocked at the fact Alex questions, “what?”

“So we have no choice. We have to say goodbye to Julie, give up everything we’ve built together and work for Caleb? That’s some club you guys got going on.”

“Wait! Will mentioned something about crossing over.”

“Yeah, there’s another option. That’s why I’m here, Sabrina sent me. Please hear me out. You guys really need to figure out what your unfinished business is, you do it in time, you could cross over and be free from all this.”

“And what’s our unfinished business, we… we should’ve listened to Brina,” he ruffled his hair, annoyed from himself.

“I don’t know but since you all died at the same time, it might be something you need to do together.”

“Why should we listen to a word you say?”

“Because I care about you, Alex, and I hate that I brought you.. and your friends into this mess. Sabrina told me you wouldn’t believe me so I’ve to say. ‘Boys I love all of you. I’m doing this for you, please don’t try to come back or to reach me. I’m giving my soul to Caleb so you could be free.’ I tried to stop her but.. but she didn’t listened.. I can’t be away much longer. I’m so sorry. For everything,”

“This is all my fault.. I met Willie, Willie introduced us to Caleb.. and now we’re screwed. Losing Sabrina again, losing our soul, our music.”

“We all wanted to go see Caleb. Brina should’ve talked to us about it we could’ve helped her sooner.”

“We have to tell Julie.”

“No, we can’t do that. This just means more loss in her life. But if we don’t want Caleb to own our souls, we have to figure out our unfinished business.”

“Yeah, man. And how are we supposed to do that? All right? There was so much we wanted to do.”

Luke’s graze wandered to the neon sign on the other side of the street, “but the night we died, there was one thing we all wanted to do together.” The other spun around and followed his glare.

“Play the Orpheum?”

“Getting that gig was literally impossible. Even after people knew who we were, we had to hustle, call in every favour we had. It took us years.” Another jolt runs through their bodies bringing them to the ground, gasping for air.

“We don’t have years,” Luke states, eyes still glued to the sign.

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eponymous-rose · 6 years ago

Text

Fic: Prank War (Jester, M9 | 2000 words)

(Written for @lumateranlibrarian‘s prompt!)

Prank War

Someone's been pranking the Nein, with surprising effectiveness. Someone who isn't Jester.

It's not that she's jealous or anything. It just seems like this is the kind of thing they could be working on together, and anyway, why wouldn't this someone come to her for advice?

One thing's for sure: whoever they are, they've crossed the wrong detective.

“You’re a fantastic detective,” Nott says, which is both super unhelpful and super true. “You’ll figure it out,” she adds, which is still unhelpful, but definitely more of a ‘maybe’ on the truth scale.

Jester scratches her chin, staring at the perfectly placed bird’s nest teetering alarmingly on the top of Caduceus’ head. “And you’re sure you didn’t put it up there yourself?”

He blinks. “Well, no, I didn’t. I feel like I’d remember something like that. I just fell asleep leaning against a tree, and when I woke up, here it was.” He glances up, half-crosseyed, at the nest and its three perfectly pink eggs. “Sorry, guys.”

“How about let’s put the bird’s nest back in the tree where it belongs,” Fjord says, and Jester turns to squint at him suspiciously. He stares back, and the exasperation in his eyes seems pretty innocent, really. Another dead end.

“It’s evidence,” Nott points out.

“Definitely evidence.” But the image floats to Jester’s mind, unbidden, of a momma bird frantic with worry... “But no. Put it back, I guess.”

Beau marches over, snatches the nest from Caduceus’ head, and leaps up to hook one arm over the lowest branch of the big tree overhead. “I’m honestly not convinced this isn’t some sort of longer scam you’re running,” she calls, nonchalantly balancing on the end of a narrow-looking branch and bending to place the nest in a safer locale.

“The Traveler works in mysterious ways,” Caleb murmurs behind her.

Jester heaves a sigh, moving up to offer Beau a hand down from the last branch. “I wish, you guys! This is good stuff! I just don’t understand why someone keeps doing all this cool stuff without telling me! The dick-shaped scuffs on the cave wall. The little tunnel dug around our campsite that filled up with water overnight and turned into a moat. The thing with Nott’s flask--”

“We don’t talk about the thing with Nott’s flask,” Nott says, primly.

“I’m saying, the Traveler loves this!”

Beau shrugs. “So why not ask the Traveler?”

Jester flings her arms up, then flops back into the grass with a groan. “He just laughs when I ask him!” Even now, she feels the warmth of someone else’s amusement running up and down her spine. It’s really irritating, and she kind of hates that it bothers her so much.

Nott has been tapping one finger against her lips, thoughtfully. “Hey. Hey, what if we did, like, a proper interrogation? Just sat down and went through each candidate, one by one?”

Jester props herself up on her elbows. “Could we do that?”

“We are on a bit of a timetable--” Caleb says.

Beau snorts. “Gotta be honest, that sounds fuckin’ hilarious. I’m in.”

“Our pay is time-sensitive--”

Fjord folds his arms. “Only if Nott gets interrogated as well. I don’t trust her in this as far as I can throw her.”

“The farmer was rather insistent that--”

Nott actually sticks out her tongue. “You can’t throw me at all.”

“Listen, if we--”

Fjord straightens, grinning. “That was the idea, yes. That’s how little I trust you.”

“Maybe we should--”

“I accept the premise of this self-burn but not its result.” Nott turns to Jester. “I’ll submit to your draconian questioning, if only to clear my good name!”

“I don’t think--”

Jester claps her hands. “Perfect! Let’s settle down here and set up an interrogation room. Caleb, can you make some really bright light I can shine in people’s eyes?”

Caleb winds down, fumbling over the last of his protests. “Okay,” he says. “So this is happening.”

---

Caleb sits with surprising good grace, given his earlier protests, and blinks politely at her while she tries to figure out the best way forward. “Do you--” she starts, then scowls. “Aw man, the sun came out. Can you make the light brighter?”

“Ah, sort of?” He waggles his fingers a moment, and the light behind Jester flickers. “Better?”

She glares at him; belatedly, he puts on an exaggerated squint, as though staring into a blinding light. “It’ll do,” she says, and decides to try to put him off-balance. “Why did you draw dicks around the campsite?”

“I didn’t,” he says.

She pauses, but a great interrogator never gets sidetracked by such small things as inconvenient facts. “Well, what about the moat around the campfire?”

“Not me, either.”

“Oh.” She tries another glare, but he only squints back. “Okay, Widogast. You win this round. But we might have more questions for you. Don’t leave town.”

He says, “I wouldn’t dream of it,” and Jester decides not to comment on the unnerving sincerity in his words.

---

“You may be wondering why I’ve brought you here today.” Jester leans in, her shadow eclipsing Caleb’s little bobbing light in what she hopes is a properly ominous manner.

Beau yawns. “Not really, no. You... you kind of spelled it all out.”

“I always knew you were clever,” Jester says, pacing slowly, stroking an imagined beard. “But are you--” She whips around. “--too clever?!”

Beau shrugs. “Honestly, I’d rather be an accessory after the fact than the main perpetrator.”

Jester deflates. “Oh.”

Another shrug, this one vaguely apologetic. “Almost as much fun, but a shorter prison sentence. You know how it goes.”

“Oh.”

“Sorry. But if you find who did all this without you, I’ll beat ‘em up for you. With you, if you like.”

Jester considers this generous offer. “I mean, I think it’s probably going to be one of our friends, Beau.”

Beau cracks her knuckles, grinning, and Jester can’t help but smile back.

---

Caduceus sits down a little too eagerly, Jester thinks, grinning broadly, which isn’t the proper attitude for an interrogation at all. “Oh, this is interesting. Okay, I think I’m ready. What are you going to ask me?”

Jester raises a scolding finger. “I’ll be the one asking questions here!”

“Yes, I--” Caduceus scratches his beard. “Isn’t that what I said?”

“Another question! You just don’t learn.” Jester leans in. Caduceus leans back a little, politely giving her more space. “Did you or did you not conspire to scheme to plot a seditious conniving of treacherous, um. Treachery?”

He gives that one some thought. “That doesn’t sound like something I’d do.” He shifts. “This is awkward, but I’ve never done an interrogation like this before. Is that the right thing for me to say?”

“You’d probably protest your own innocence, then break down at the most dramatic possible moment. Probably.”

“Oh.” He gets a bit of a worried look on his face. “That sounds like a lot. I guess I could try?”

She glares a moment longer, then sighs. “I guess you wouldn’t put a bird’s nest on your own head.”

He brightens. “Oh, is that what this is about? No, that wasn’t me.”

Reaching for a properly interrogatory closing, Jester blurts, “But maybe sleep a little lighter and notice next time?”

“That seems fair.” He schools his features to a semblance of seriousness. “Can I go now, uh, copper?”

Jester claps her hands together. “Oh, you have been listening! You’re good at this, Caduceus!”

He beams. “Thanks.”

---

This one, Jester thinks, is going to be a tough nut to crack. Start cool. Cool and chill. No problem. “It’s no secret that you’re basically positioned to learn how to be a criminal mastermind, being half of the greatest detective agency of all time.”

Nott sneers. “The same could be said of you.”

“Where were you on the night of the...” Jester pauses, doing the math in her head. “The night of the other night?”

Nott makes a show of thinking it over, then springs to her feet. “But the same could be asked of you!”

Jester gasps, putting a hand to her chest. “You’re accusing me? Your own partner?”

From somewhere behind them, she hears Fjord muttering, “This is... such a good use of our time.”

“Though it breaks my heart to do it, I must! I must stand for justice!” Nott’s pose is straight out of a melodrama. Jester applauds briefly, then goes back to glowering in order to better represent her agony of the soul. “If I can’t trust you, and you can’t trust me, who can trust who?”

Jester blinks. “Wait, is it whom?”

“Whom?” Nott thinks about it for a second. “Youm.”

“Well, you know whom you can trust. Youm can trust? It’s me, Nott! I’m your partner!”

“Can I? Can I really? Or can we even trust... ourselves?”

“Okay,” Fjord says, marching between them and waving his hands. “Okay. Nott wouldn’t do this without roping you in, Jester, and we all know it. I’m up next.”

Wiping a single artful tear from her cheek, Jester sighs and steels herself for the next interrogation.

---

“No,” Fjord says. “For the third time, it wasn’t me doing the moat, or the dicks, or the nest, or the thing with Nott’s flask--”

A shrill voice, somewhere beyond the circle of interrogation. “We don’t talk about the thing with the flask!”

“Regardless, it wasn’t me. And you can cast Zone of Truth on me if you want proof.”

Jester blinks. “Oh. Right. That. Wow, that probably would’ve saved some time, huh?”

Fjord groans, rubbing at his face. “Can we just chalk this up to a mysterious and unexplained phenomenon and move on with our lives? Unless I wake up with my bootlaces all cut tomorrow morning, I’m not going to go around accusing our family of--” He pauses, like he wasn’t quite expecting that word to come out, then shrugs and keeps talking. “--of doing weird things for no particular reason. That’s pretty much all we do!”

Jester sighs defeat, watching as Caleb’s interro-globe vanishes from thin air. “Okay, okay. I just... I guess I just couldn’t figure out why someone would do cool stuff and not invite me.” And, more than anything, she kind of hates the way her voice goes weird and small at the end.

His exasperation softens, and he glances over her shoulder to where the others are watching. “Look, Jester, whatever this joker’s doing, they’re obviously building up to something big and ridiculous and fun, and that’s got your name all over it. I’d see it as an homage. A tribute. Would the Traveler set you up to be hurt by something like that if it didn’t have a good payoff?”

Jester inhales slowly, because professional interrogators emphatically do not sniffle. “No. He wouldn’t.”

“Well, there you go. We’ll see how it goes. Okay?”

With a heavy sigh, Jester lets the interrogator persona drop from her shoulders like an ill-fitting cloak. “Okay. Let’s get back to work.”

---

That night, though, Jester lies awake, watching the stars wheel overhead and thinking about what it feels like to be missing out on something big, to have to just know some big party’s out there somewhere and let it go on without knowing when or even if you’d get invited. She figures maybe that’s what Caduceus keeps talking about, faith and everything else. Maybe that’s the Traveler’s brand of faith: having to trust that someday you’ll get let in on the joke.

She thinks faith kind of sucks, sometimes.

With a sigh, she rolls onto her side, watching Frumpkin make his nightly rounds, hunting down mice and pouncing on leaves and doing the cat-stuff he does when Caleb’s asleep—which he is now, apparently, judging from the faint snoring over on his end of the campsite.

But... wait. She squints, taking in the scene, and feels a giant grin threatening to break across her face.

Across from her, Frumpkin is hunkered down over Fjord’s boots, industriously biting through the laces.

“No way,” she breathes, softly, and two eyes glowing with reflected firelight, and maybe a little fey light of their own, flash up to meet hers. Jester winks. One of the faint lights flickers out in response.

This time, the warmth of the Traveler’s laughter is a deep comfort that follows her into delighted dreams.

#critical role #critical role spoilers #jester lavorre #critfic #eponymous fic 2019

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lila-sarows · 5 years ago

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tct ep 15: what CAN’T alex gallner do

Hello!! I cried my way through this episode and now I am processing my thoughts by word-vomiting them below. Full disclosure a lot of these are just my favorite lines because there were so! many! good lines!! thank you Briggon!!

Of COURSE it’s a black parade remix adam you fucking emo nerd i love you so much

Adam’s entire monologue. Wow. @ Briggon i did not need to be exposed on live radio like this

“When you feel like a supporting character in your own dumb story” and “If you do find a way out, please tell me” and “Those feelings are mine and they matter.” GOD. It’s so hard to listen to Adam, who I know is funny and smart and interesting and brave, be so self-deprecating. But yes Adam your feelings do matter!!

(He sings to himself that’s adorable)

I really spent like 2 minutes trying to figure out if the convenience store guy was a recurring character who was going to kidnap Adam

“God, let me come back as a fern in my next life so I can rest” ME. @god i just want to be a succulent

Love that Mr. Wannabe-Goth thinks he likes crows but is actually terrified of crows

The number of times that Adam has talked about holding Caleb’s hand in the past few episodes is very good. so much Yearning in this boy

“I should call him - nope! Nope nope nope nope. .... but maybe? No” dork <3

Sitting under a tree on campus at night feeling emo... the true introverted college student experience

I really like that Adam is aware that his insecurities aren’t rational but that doesn’t make them feel any less convincing. That’s very realistic to me

“I think he was the love of my life” + “Why didn’t he want to be with me?” + “So much of me getting through high school was having Caleb there helping me to navigate this stuff” every time Adam’s voice breaks I feel Vulnerable.

NOT RIGHT NOW CROW

Tbh I think Sadie’s being too hard on Adam. Does she really need to berate him right now? (And thank you Adam for pointing that out!). For one, even though Caleb was also hurt by the break-up, he did absolutely dump Adam (and ghost him afterward) and they are technically exes. He gave Adam no reason to think that breaking up wasn’t what he really wanted, so it feels weird for Sadie to tell Adam that he shouldn’t have assumed Caleb wanted out. And for another thing, his apartment just got invaded by four very intense people! Let the man sit under a tree if he needs to!

I like knowing that Caleb still talks about Adam all the time, that’s sweet

“Why don’t you think you fit in?” “because I’m me” ... ouch

“It’s why I- “ what does that mean Sadie? Why you what???

Again it kind of rubs me the wrong way for Sadie to tell Adam that he should be less focused on himself and more considerate of Caleb’s feelings. I know Caleb is struggling, but he put Adam through a lot, then and now!

I can’t listen to the stakeout and not cry, it’s just a fact of life. Also the parallel between them at the start of their relationship, hopeful and goofy and sweet, and Adam now, lonely and doubting his own worth, is excellent and I hate it.

“You felt... tired with it. Does that make sense?” “Yeah. That makes sense.” the delivery of this line haunts me. alex how dare you.

Some marginally more collected thoughts:

There’s something really beautiful about hearing Adam say that he wishes someone would really listen to and understand him on live radio, where in the real world so many listeners are hanging onto his every word. I love getting to feel like we’re there for him even if he doesn’t know it

It sounds like Adam always saw the Atypical gang from TBS as more Caleb’s friends than his (even though Caleb and the rest told him that wasn’t true), and he was really hoping Yale would be where he’d find his people, his community. And when that didn’t pan out, and he lost his boyfriend, he blamed himself. I just wanna shake him until he realizes how much the people around him love and value him! I mean, look at Sadie - while I think she was too harsh, she did give him a pep talk in the middle of the night. That’s not nothing!

Alex did SUCH an amazing job with these monologues, I was practically holding my breath through them. Thoughtful and wry and bitter and nostalgic and dorky and insecure all in one incredible (and very painful) performance.

I didn’t connect the dots between Caitlin being so strange and Caleb at the time but yikes!! will discuss in ep 17

#tct #the college tapes #the college tapes spoilers #tct spoilers

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whitleyschn33 · 5 years ago

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RWBY7 Soundtrack

Should I be reviewing/giving my thoughts on the OST when I have plenty of asks in my inbox to answer and have no musical authority at all? No, probably not. Am I doing it anyway? Yes.

This is just going to be in what (I assume) is the track order. Let me know if I miss any; I’m going off a YouTube playlist.

1. Trust Love

Initial thoughts: Eh.

It’s okay. It’s not my favorite opening, that honor goes to When It Falls, but it’s competent. Very optimistic, which is a trend for this volume’s soundtrack despite how dire the tone of the latter half is, so I don’t think it fully fits the volume it opens for, but it’s by no means a bad song. It’s easy to sing along and bop to, just doesn’t seem as impressive as the other opening songs. It feels like a different sort of sound than what RWBY songs have been in the past, which is also a running theme for the OST this volume - new artists singing, a lot of experimentation in the style. That’s not a bad thing; the tracks I like the most on this album are the different sounding ones, but it’s very.... noticeable, and didn’t go in the direction you would think for Atlas.

2. Touch the Sky

Initial Thoughts: Why is the best part of this song the ending?

No, but seriously, that outro is a very different sound to the proceeding song and it’s so good. Other than that, I’ve got questions. Like, whose song is this? I’m leaning towards Team RWBY as a whole, but I’ve seen people suggest it’s Weiss’s, it’s Blake’s, I could see an argument for Yang - it’s very unclear. Also, why is the POV character(s) so happy? Their situation isn’t all that much better in terms of Salem and the Relic and all that; they should still be weighed down with that knowledge, shouldn’t they? They don’t trust Ironwood to help make things all better, they still have to carry the Relic (for plot reasons), the only thing that’s changed is that they’re going out on missions. Well, fresh clothes and a distraction are always nice, and it is a chance to put all that stuff on the back burner. I’ll give them that, then.

3. Brand New Day

Initial Thoughts: From the writers that make every Blake song a duet, here’s her volume 7 song; a duet with.... Qrow?

Have Blake and Qrow ever even spoken to each other? And, is there actually no solo Blake song, or am I beating on a dead meme? Actually, to be completely serious, these two actually work well in a song together. Their character directions compliment each other in this volume - both trying to reinvent themselves some and become better (Blake with her new hair and outfits, Qrow with a new outfit and a resolve to recover from alcoholism), it’s just a shame that, you know, this kind of talk or relationship never happens in the show. At all.

Someone in the YouTube comment section said this song sounds like a 90′s sitcom opening, and I have to agree. It really does, mixed with a bit of 50′s doo-wap. It’s not bad, I actually like the doo-wap, but it also has bits of the usual RWBY style rock, and they don’t mix as coherently as I would like in some places. The guitar bridge after Qrow’s verse is pretty nice, though.

Overall, it’s another good song to bop along to, but like the songs before it, I’m not sure it’s one I’ll be listening to over and over.

4. Let’s Get Real

Initial Thoughts: So, even the song thinks they should talk - why didn’t they?

Here’s something you may not know about me. I don’t romantically ship Renora. I’ve always preferred them as a brother/sister pair - probably in part because I’m a sucker for found family. I’ve never really had anything against romantic Renora, though... but this volume definitely made me go from neutral to dislike. Ren’s confused, he’s worried, he’s having doubts about their relationship that he’s not sure how to vocalize. He admits as much. And instead of, I don’t know, respecting that and letting it be for the moment, or pulling him aside to try and help him talk it through, she... kisses him. Instead of stopping to let them work through where their relationship is at the present (which would be nice, to clue the audience in on what exactly their status is), she pushes their relationship to the next level, presumably. It leaves a very bad taste in my mouth, that Ren’s emotions about his relationship with Nora are just shoved aside and aren’t brought up again. Hopefully it does in the next volume (Nora and Ren are notably split for, like, the first time ever in the Volume 8 preview), but still - I thought Tumblr had decided that “guy shuts a girl up by kissing her” trope was sexist or something - shouldn’t this be similarly scrutinized?

Putting that aside, I actually really really like this. It’s very reminiscent of Shine, but a Renora version; it’s got a great beat, the lyrics do a great job in character insight (something I love from RWBY songs, which are probably why Touch the Sky doesn’t do a lot for me), and it’s just a very fun, peppy song. It also feels very at home in Atlas with it’s more techno-leanings. The ending chorus chant of “Is it love?” is also a nice touch.

5. Celebrate

Initial Thoughts: The better Brand New Day (musically speaking).

And by that I mean, it leans all the way into this different style than the half/half approach Brand New Day did, and it’s all the better for it. Once again, another good dancing song, easy to listen and bop to, but it feels... oddly generic. For one thing, there’s no character tied to it, no character insight - I guess you could make an argument for Robin or the Happy Huntresses, but... not really? For another, while as a song I really enjoy the genre of music, it also makes it feel very much not like a RWBY song (something not helped by name-dropping Vegas). It’s fun, but it doesn’t feel like it adds much to the show.

6. War

Initial Thoughts: Wow, I didn’t think you could make me hate the AceOps fight more, but look at that.

Probably the first RWBY song I just flat out hate, and that’s a crying shame considering the excellent music and vocal performances. Those lyrics, though. Just - I hate them. I hate them so damn much. I refuse to give this song more than that.

7. Hero

Initial thoughts: Hell yeah hell yeah hell yeah HELL YEAH -

Best song on the album probably. It has all the usual RWBY flare, gives us a great insight into Ironwood’s thoughts and motivations, and is a fantastic performance by Caleb Hyles. The operatic section at the beginning is wonderfully chilling, and the rock section is very epic. 10/10 song even though I’m not rating these.

8. Until the End

Initial thoughts: Time to play “Who does this gorgeous song belong to?”

Actually, I really, really enjoy this song. It’s creepy in its melancholy, but I love it for that. The piano and subtle strings are beautiful, and the way Casey’s voice echoes gives the illusion of solitude in an empty place, perfect for the tone this song conveys.

Now, the matter of whose song it is. The consensus seems to be Ruby and/or Summer, and that’s pretty likely (and letting Ruby actually have a song would be nice). However, I heard a rumor before the album dropped that this was an Ozpin song, and going through it with that lens makes a whole lot of sense - the repeated “I’ll be here until the end”, the constant use of “we”, “our” and other plurals, the lines “ In waves of shame, we’re desperate to make amends / But through a simple soul, we lie complacent” could refer to him lying dormant in Oscar or other souls in the past instead of actively working to defeat Salem, and in the lines “ As light fills my eyes / I’ll picture me beside her / And pray that I’ll inspire”, it could be him thinking of Salem when he dies, and then praying that he’ll be able to inspire others to fight for humanity, for the light.

I could see it either way, honestly, but no matter which it is, I love this song.

9. Fear

Initial thoughts: Fire whoever was in charge of sound mixing, otherwise, not as preachy as I was fearing.

This is actually the first time I’ve listened to this. I was pretty pissed at the ending of the finale so I didn’t stick around for the credits, and hearing that it was called “Fear”, I was not in the mood for more Ironwood bashing or “You’re just as bad as she is if you act in fear” or whatever BS Oscar said. So, yeah, wasn’t looking forward to this track.

Thankfully, though, it was not another War. I actually enjoyed the lyrics, and the music was top-notch. Don’t really have much more to say about it other than it was difficult to hear the lyrics over the music in some places, but that could be a factor of the video I was listening to. All in all, pleasantly surprised.

10. I May Fall (Acoustic)

Initial Thoughts: Can someone tell the Williams that “acoustic” doesn’t always mean “depressing?”

Like, acoustic doesn’t have to be a super slow, piano/strings, somber rendition, right? It’s just the instruments and the singer without any added computer editing/layering/whatever, if I’m not mistaken. That style of acoustic works alright with songs like Time to Say Goodbye, but not so well with more upbeat songs. This version isn’t bad, per se, but I’d like to see an acoustic version more in line with the original.

That aside - the original I May Fall is my favorite RWBY song, bar none. This rendition was always going to be something I liked, and I do appreciate a lot about it. The strings are absolutely beautiful, particularly the cello(? I think, again, I’m not much of a music person, just have a sister that plays violin), and I love the way the violin/viola picks up for the second verse and gives the song a second wind, implying more strength and resolve. I love the music cutting out completely to let Casey sing, with the instruments slowly coming in to join as she gets louder and stronger, as if standing with her - beautiful, it’s all insanely beautiful, and this is one I will probably buy.

Closing Thoughts

This album was... average, to me. Only a couple songs really jumped out at me, while most were good, but not something I was dying to listen to again, or were dragged down by the context.

What’re your thoughts on this volume’s songs? I’d love to hear them! Until then, have a good evening, and stay safe!

#rwby7 #rwby #rwby7 soundtrack #rwby soundtrack

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fivegoldpieces · 6 years ago

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Talks Machina at Gen-Con Q&A Highlights

Note: This only has the audience q&a portion. Cast answers are transcribed, side-comments and banter are only included if they are relevant to/answer the question posed. Apologies in advance to mobile-users if the read-more doesn't work - this is tagged as #long post if you want to blacklist it.

[[MORE]]

Q: For Matt; might we expect any possible homebrew releases coming out in the next year or so, like dunamancy?

Matt: I have plans. I can't say anything because I want things to be cool and surprising. But I have plans don't worry. It's not that I don't care, it's that I don't have time, but I'm working on it.

Q: For Taliesin; what would make Caduceus really angry?

Taliesin: I will say that he can get angry. It does happen. Juvenile disrespect does eventually get to him. Not a fan of pranking. I mean, you know, everybody's got some layer - there's some stuff. No one's that serene all the time. No one.

Q: For Taliesin; at the end of the Call of Cthulhu oneshot, you mentioned that you had a lot of mouse traps set up. I was just wondering, were the shadow people the most dangerous thing they could've released, or was there a more dangerous horror waiting that they managed to avoid?

Taliesin: I mean, if the cats had been released first, that would have definitely been an interesting thing. The cats would have been a problem. Also, if somebody had died really early, I was setting up a series of rules for dead players to continue to interact, which would have been really really unhappy and bad. And terrible rules for the things that were living behind the glass, and if you were stuck behind the glass, you were right there with them and they could really mess with you. Thankfully none of that happened.

Q: For Matt; you have the Tal'dorei Campaign Setting - I was wondering if you were going to do one for The Mighty Nein campaign?

Matt: I don't have a lot of time. Campaign settings are extensive. I'd like to eventually do something like that. I have materials, it's just assembling them in a way that can be legible by a non-crazy human being that I am. Hopefully! We'll see as time goes on. At the moment, we're consumed with this animated series that you guys helped make happen. Super excited about that. Keep an eye out as time goes on, because hopefully I'd like to get around to that. That'd be awesome.

Q: For Matt; what the hell was up with the undead vibe on Jamedi Cosko?

Matt: Yeah, that's crazy huh? That's a pretty weird thing. Yeah, there was something about him that gives off an undead vibe. Wonder what that means? I appreciate the question, but I don't know if that'll come back into play in some time. Let's see if it gets explored at some point, and if not at least I could tell you at the campaign wrap-up.

Q: For Travis; for the animated series, a lot of the characters have iconic catchphrases so I was wondering how you're going to translate "I would like to rage"?

Travis: Are we going to "translate" that? I think he's just going to say "I would like to rage". Yeah, we are definitely keeping iconic lines, moments, interactions, all those things will be there just as they were.

Taliesin: I'll also add to that - if you want to see somebody doing that and taking things that shouldn't actually work in-game and making them work in-game, Jody Houser is doing a great job in the comic book series of making you feel like somehow Matt is intertwined in everything that happens, it's kind of cool. Check it out!

Q: For Taliesin; a lot of comparisons have been thrown around between Fjord and Percy, and something that I noticed was Uk'otoa is being much more insistent than Orthax was - do you think if Orthax was as insistent and as keen on punishment, Percy might've gone a similar direction as Fjord?

Taliesin: Honest to God, and this is just from watching, I don't think Percy had nearly as strong a will as Fjord does. Watching Travis play Fjord was definitely like, "I did not have the balls to pull that off, oh my God." Percy was never about the hard choice, it was always about "what's the option C that I haven't figured out yet, there's a way to game my way out of this, if I just keep talking I can get everything to work" until the very end. Like chicken? Percy doesn't play chicken.

Laura (using Vex's voice): From firsthand knowledge, Percy does curtail very easily.

Matt: If you actually recall, Percy didn't even make the choice. Scanlan did for him.

Q: For Laura; when can we get a Caduceus tea set?

Laura: Oh, I heard a lot of "ooh's". Who would buy a Caduceus tea set? [audience applause] Well, shit, maybe I should look into it.

Sam: That's so many more people than who voted for me.

Brian: Not to be That Guy, lets just see how long his character lives, before we start making merchandise around him.

Q: For Sam; you are kind of the king of over-the-top and ostentatious whether it be with your character design, or your flasks, or things like that, and especially your outfits at the live events - how do you come up with these over-the-top creations and also how on earth do you plan on topping last night?

Sam: That last part will be hard. I think next year, I'll either come out totally naked or I'll just be so basic - pleated khakis, a polo shirt, I don't know. That outfit last night, it was pieced together from several different stores, I'm sure CritRoleCloset will figure it out at some point. But it was a challenge putting that together. And then, my fellow cast members, like two weeks after I bought all that weird stuff I wore, they were like, "hey let's go goth". So. Fuck you guys.

Q: For Travis; with Fjord's recent decision, do you see him changing outfits to fit his new or old persona?

Travis: I don't think so. Most of Fjord's armor was very piece-mail stuff that he got either from working on the docks, or stuff that he got from Vandren, or items that he was given just as he sort of accrued time and responsibility where he worked. I think that stuff's very dear to him, especially coming from an orphanage where he didn't have any possessions, so all those things that are actually his are very dear to him. He might add to those things, but I think underneath they'll stay there. He might augment them or change them a little bit, in the same way you would draw on your jeans in school or whatever, but that stuff's his so it means a lot to him.

Q: For Travis; after Fjord severed his pact with Uk'otoa, was there a larger fear in telling Beau and Jester what had happened, since he had been traveling with them the longest out of the Nein, or did his journeys with the Nein make that fear equal across all of the party?

Travis: I think actually he was worried about telling Beau and Jester the least, and maybe Caduceus in there as well. He knew he would hear about it from Nott, and Caleb had already sort of started to call him on his shit and saw through a lot of that stuff. He also regards the group as very powerful, so I think a lot of it is turning to his very powerful and talented friends and saying, "I don't have any of that anymore, I hope I can still play with you guys." Legit though, the response was amazing. It was absolutely incredible. Jester is so gregarious and loving and joyful and exuberant that I don't think he was worried about that, I think he was actually looking forward to telling her as one of the first people to know. And Beau is second-mate, so like ride-or-die or right?

Q: For Taliesin; I can totally be wrong for this, but just reading body language and facial features, there do seem to be moments where you're kind of just like, "I'm done with this" - I just kind of want advice, like how do you keep playing when your energy level might be low or you don't like where the story is going?

Taliesin: Oh, that is never "I'm done with this", what you're seeing is the "I'm trying to make sure no one notices that I'm reading my backstory notes". That's me reading, frantically. I'm a big believer in terror, terror is a great way to keep me up. "Oh God, I don't remember anybody's name, oh God how many siblings do I have oh God."

Marisha: Well, also you write your backstories like the Silmarillion, it's like, so intense. I'm like "my dad was mean to me" like that's my backstory.

Q: For Sam; based on the amazing reaction we've had to your DnDBeyond theme and the Critical Role theme, when can we expect a parody version of the 2010 hit "Like a G6" by Far East Movement as "Like a d6"?

Sam: Oh wow, that's good.

Marisha: Not to be that person, it already exists. The Library Bards did it. So, you should check it out. I mean, do a cover, Sam, I don't know.

Sam: There are more songs incoming, just so you know.

Q: For Matt; you say dunamancy can alter the reality and the fate of the person that wields it - is this an affront to the Raven Queen?

Matt: I would say, given the fact that elements of dunamancy deal with the manipulation of probability, destiny, things like that, the Raven Queen is probably not that cool with dunamancy. Just throwing that out there. One of the few things she's probably like, "Really, guys?" So yeah, I'd say you're on the right track.

Q: For Laura and Travis; do you talk to Ronin about your campaign?

Laura: So, Ronin, every Thursday night he stays with a babysitter at home, but he watches the opening of the show. Like, he loves the theme song so much. I sing it every time I change his diaper.

Travis: Same, like I know there's songs that parents sing to their kids - he's heard the damn theme song every day of his life.

Brian: But do you guys change the lyrics though, like "You shit your pants, I'm cleaning it up now", you know what I mean?

Liam: My kids bust into that song constantly. We cannot play a board game or anything. Someone goes "it's your turn" "TO ROLL" every time.

Q: For Marisha; I'm a huge fan of Jocks Machina and hopefully we'll get to see them on the channel one day - will Beau ever join Jocks Machina?

Marisha: What are the requirements, are there prerequisites for joining Jocks Machina? You're kind of the authority on this.

Travis: Guns. Abs. Likes to lift heavy things. Likes to break a sweat. Likes to whoop that ass.

Marisha: Check. Check. ...Check? Check. Hell yeah.

Q: For Matt; this is a rather involved conspiracy theory question, so excuse me - last year when the party was in Shady Creek Run at the Landlocked Lady Inn, they first arrived and there was a doorman named Champ who Keg knew. The next morning, they went down and there was a new doorman who said he'd been working for the Marduns for a few months and had bright red curly hair and vibrant green eyes and acted rather enigmatic and shady and shifty and was saying they should listen more and that he hoped that whatever they were after, they were on the right path. Later, once they recover everyone, Jester is asking the Traveler where he was, and he says he was always there. So my question is this: was that character the Traveler in disguise?

Matt: [several moments of silence]

Matt: That'd be pretty interesting, huh? That's a unique observation. I will confirm nor deny.

Q: For Matt; now that Fjord has effectively broken up with Uk'otoa, what do you think would be a more compelling storyline, or what are you most interested to see: him continue to take levels in warlock, possibly with an Archfey patron, or paladin...?

Matt: Part of what I really enjoy about this game is how the players continuously surprise me. I'm down to see what journey Travis wants to take. I'm curious to see how he takes this next path in his journey and which elements he wants to maintain, what direction he wants to go - he seems to be really finding interest in the Wildmother and talking to Caduceus about that, and that's kind of been an element of breaking that pact at the time, so I'm curious if he's going to continue down that path or see this as a blank slate to continue to grow. I'm interested to see the different decisions that Fjord takes, and Travis does through Fjord, and kind of adjust and build the narrative for that character around that. I can't say I have a specific path that I'm hoping for, because I have no idea what Travis's direct interest is, beyond just the actions he's taken in the game. Yeah, I'm just excited to see where it goes. I really love the idea of not knowing that as the Dungeon Master. As much as it's me building and world-planning, many of you out there who run games as GM know the most exciting part of the game is after all that prep, coming to the table and the players completely surprise you, and you kind of have to think on your feet and go with it. That's the best part of the game for me.

Q: For Marisha; what inspired you to play Beau a bit more shaken about her near-death than some of the other characters?

Marisha: Well, I was at 2 hit points the whole time - Liam can attest to that. So you know, I was kind of role-playing that. Shit's crazy man.

Q: For Liam; so you play your characters, both Vax and Caleb, very emotionally without any hesitation, and you're an experienced actor. What I wanted to ask was, something that people who try to emulate Critical Role don't realize that can happen when you try to put yourself into the character and get emotionally invested is character bleed. I was wondering how you deal with that, if you do at all. Like, if something really emotionally devastating happens to Vax or to Caleb, how does it affect you and how do you deal with it?

Liam: These feel like synthetic memories, so any time the superimposed fantasy friend gets killed or has to leave or whatever happens - that shit we carry around and get upset about. Every time we leave on a cliffhanger and someone's gonna die, we think about it constantly. Vax helped me sort through things, but made me more loyal and determined and willing to take chances - which in life I generally try to avoid conflict. Caleb, I still kind of drive around and think about him and still go, like "why did you do that?" He's really messed up, if I just think like, fireballs and cats like it's fun, and we can make dick jokes and it's fun. But if I really take a minute, I just go "Oh". I feel bad for him, I feel really bad for him. I have fun playing the game, and I love these guys, and I feel bad for my character.

Follow-up Q: Do you have ways that you learned to process that, like if you're at home feeling bummed about something that happened on a Thursday night, and you're like "man I need to get out of this funk"?

Liam: Yeah, I pull my head out of the game. I'll play a game with my kid, or watch a movie with my wife, or go running. Running is great. Not for your knees, but everything else. Or spend time with these guys out of the game. There's lots of ways. We're really invested in their stories, so it sort of drags along like coattails wherever we go.

Matt: To give you examples too, when he says "hanging out with friends", the group that's there, your friends that are in this game that you trust enough? You should all also support each other when those dark moments happen outside of the game. Whenever we lose a character in the game, we have like a wake. We go to an Irish pub that we go to often in Burbank, and we all get drinks and we have a wake for that character. And it's part of that process too. Even though it's imaginary, there's a part of that experience and journey that's come to an end and that deserves its respect as well, and we're all there to support the player. As a playing group, be there for your friends who may be going through that experience, because even though it is make-believe and it's a game, that is still a loss. And that's not a bad thing either. Loss is an important thing to process, because life comes with loss. Part of the wonderful experiences of role-playing games is that it allows us a safe space to explore very positive and very negative emotions in a healthy way and make us better people for it. So just be there for them, be supportive, and be the best friends and co-players you can be.

Liam: Part of the reason, I think, that we get upset when these fictional characters are killed is because we're playing this game of imagination together, and we form a chemistry together where we're like "we get to do this together, and it's always like this, and you're always funny like that, and you're always intense like this" and we really love that chemistry. Then somebody gets killed and they're gone, and that chemistry, which is something that we're like addicted to and love, that chemistry is gone. Like, when Molly was gone. Beau and Molly had this great "fuck you" "fuck you" butting heads thing - that's gone. We're actors, but anyone who plays this game extensively, you love the sort-of second life that you create for yourself and then when the character is gone, you don't have that unique mix anymore.

Q: For Laura; I really love how you play Vex and Jester, even though as two characters, they're pretty different from each other. But sometimes, you have an instance where like, your Laura shows. So I actually just wanted to ask, what was the biggest disconnect you've ever experienced between player versus character? If you've ever felt like, you as a person, as a player, would never ever make a choice in a situation versus what your character would do in that same situation.

Laura: I feel like everything my characters do, I wouldn't do in real life. Like, especially Jester. Travis and I have had these conversations: the joy of playing a character like Jester or like Grog, where you don't have to filter yourself - everybody, I assume, has these random really stupid things that pop up in your brain and you don't say them because everyone would judge you, and they're weird - and as these characters, you just embrace it, and it is so much fun. Talk about character bleed - it is an issue that I deal with now, because Jester has had that effect on me, and so I tend to say stupider things in real life now. No, but I would never deface anything in public, I would never steal anything.

Travis: You're not gonna attach any dicks on the walls.

Laura: I would not attach a dick to a wall in public. Or anywhere. I do eat a lot of donuts though, that's on me.

Q: For Matt; we've explored several places in the multiverse in your games, like the City of Brass, the Feywild, places like that - are there any places in the multiverse like the Astral Sea or somewhere that you, either as a player or as a GM, would have liked to have gone but have never had the time or resources to do?

Matt: Interesting. I do have some places that I really would like to explore, whether in this campaign or campaigns down the road. Astral Sea is interesting, it's a really weird amorphous plane, and I just love the prospect of one day throwing an Astral Dreadnought at these poor guys. He's my second to the Tarrasque. Oh they're fun, they're a good time. I've always loved Planescape. The City of Sigil would be great for obvious reasons of course. So I can be like, "no guys, this is where I learned my wrong pronunciation". But the City of Doors is awesome. Lady of Pain is a great element. Those who watched the Search for Bob oneshot, there was a Lady of Pain reference dropped in there. If you missed it, you can go back and look. Maybe there's a few doors in Sigil that lead to Exandria, who knows. Think about that for your home campaigns, huh? I want to go into some deep Abyssal planes too. We've been to the City of Dis, we've seen a little bit of the Nine Hells of Baator, though maybe not the harsher places. There's so many to explore!

Q: For Sam; Matt has said on Twitter that one of the ways you guys handle the pressures of the Kickstarter and the intense dramatic moments in the campaign is by checking in with each other and checking in on each other's mental health. I know you take on a lot of responsibilities with doing the DnDBeyond ads and the songs that you write and also your characters are often joking around with other characters and giving them a hard time so I was wondering, from your perspective, if you could give some details, without giving away anything too personal, on how to properly mentally check-in with your fellow players and just help everybody and check that everybody is doing okay.

Sam: Well, I'm learning from these guys, as we go, how best to do that. I'm weird in that, as weird as I am on-screen, I don't really talk very much when we're off-screen, or I keep my stuff to myself, more than some of these guys do. But they have, in the last few years, helped me sort of connect more with my best friends here. You know, we do check in a lot with each other, thanks to Matt and thanks to all of us. For instance, yesterday morning we all had breakfast together. It was really nice - we just talked about stuff, and it was just great to just sort of reconnect with everybody. I'm not an expert at this in any way, and in fact, on this stage, I am the least good at it, but I have endeavoured to become better at it. Opening yourself up to your friends and feeling comfortable enough to share your past or your worries for the future with your friends and not getting any judgement back is like, the greatest gift. If you have that with one person, it's amazing. If you have that with all of these people? Holy moly, it's the greatest thing in the world. I've tried to be better at sharing my stuff with them and being there for them. That's all I can do.

Q: For Marisha; in campaign one with Vox Machina, there's a lot of powerful badass lady NPCs, so if by chance, it all worked out timewise, who do you think Beau would be most likely to have a crush on?

Marisha: Kima. Yeah. Keyleth very much emulated Allura, and really looked up to her and kind of looked at her as a powerful female figurehead and took notes for leadership through her. Beau would just wanna fuck.

Q: For Liam; what do characters do in the campaign that you find funny no matter how old it gets?

Liam: Everybody throw in on this one. I'll never get over Laura waggling her eyebrow every third word in the game.

Taliesin: Slow snicker every time there's even vaguely a possibility of a dick joke.

Travis: I'd say every time there's a pain reaction out of Nott. It is hysterical to me.

Liam: I like any time, just the concept of death comes up or Molly - anywhere, in the game, out of the game - one of these people would be like, "Like you, you're dead!"

Laura: Uk'otoa.

Q: For Laura; do you think the volcano would be a good spot for Traveler on?

Laura (using Jester's voice): Okay here's the thing. Like, I totally did at first and I need to talk to him, because I think that now it's probably not, because it wasn't very expansive really, as big as I thought it would be, and there wasn't like a lot of beds, and like, no real good food. So, I don't know how many people are coming, but like, even just getting to the nearest hotel was really difficult, you know?

Matt: I love the idea that half of your sketchbook is Jester's tiny Yelp reviews of locations in Wildemount.

Q: For Laura; with all of the throwback to Vox Machina and Whitestone in the week before, how are you feeling with all of it?

Laura: I'm feeling very nostalgic.

Laura (using Vex's voice): Also, I would love for everyone to come visit.

Marisha (using Keyleth's voice): Me as well.

Laura (using Jester's voice): And also, if we did, I think we would cause a lot of problems.

Marisha: New pitch - Travelercon at Whitestone. We know the food is good, lots of lodging and room and board, no dead people in trees anymore.

Laura: All of the residuum that you could ever hope for.

Brian: And endless booze.

[Panel end]

#critical role #talks machina #long post #my hand is now broke #transcript

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dracoqueen22 · 5 years ago

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[CR] Sharing Space

Universe: Critical Role, Campaign Two, And Other Virtues series Characters: Caduceus/Fjord, The Mighty Nein Rated: K+ Description: Of all the weird shit the Mighty Nein has encountered, Caduceus and Fjord accidentally swapping bodies has got to take the cake. For FjorClay Week, Day Four, Class Swap "It wasn't my fault this time," Fjord says. "Are you sure?" Beau asks, squinting up at Caduceus' body, only it has Fjord's familiar vocal patterns and not the steady drawl of Caduceus’. It's fucking weird, is what it is, Beau thinks. Caduceus has this nice, slow drawl, and to hear Fjord's cultured tones in Caduceus' voice is just weird. Plus, he stands all wrong. A bit hunched, awkward, like the armor doesn't fit right, but of course it does, because it's Caduceus' armor on Caduceus' body. It's the person inside the armor who doesn't fit right.

"It was my fault," Caduceus says, and that's less weird, his vocal pattern coming out of Fjord's mouth, because Fjord changes accents like some people change their underwear, so it's less disconcerting. He stands weird though. Cranes his neck like he's trying to see over their heads, not that Fjord is short, but well, when you're used to seeing the world from a certain height, Beau supposes that it would be weird to be a foot shorter. "Wow," Jester says, her hands on her cheeks, her eyes darting between them. "Couples really do start to act alike, don't they? Caduceus, you should know better than to touch weird buttons." "To be fair, it’s not technically a button," Caduceus says, and he tugs on the bottom of Fjord's chestplate, making a face Beau has never seen Fjord make. It's fucking weird. Fjord's staring at his hands, wriggling his fingers, as if fascinated by them. Which he shouldn't be. It's not like he's never seen Caduceus' hands before. They've probably been all over his body and-- Nope. Beau's just gonna stop that line of thought right there. "How do we fix it?" Veth asks as she circles Fjord-inside-Caduceus and looks way, way up at him. "This isn't the way to get stronger, Fjord." "Shut up," Fjord-inside-Caduceus says, and his ears flick up and down in a way that’s a lot more animated than when Caduceus does it. "What did you touch?" Caleb walks a slow circle around both of them, fingers tracing symbols through the air before pulling out his spell book and flipping through it. "Nevermind. Be quiet and let me have a look." And by be quiet, he means keep on chattering while Caleb himself focuses and does his wizard thing. "It's Fjord. The real question is what he didn't touch," says Jester. "Hey!" Fjord-inside-Caduceus rears back, indignant, and his ears rear with him. "I already said this time I didn't do it, and even Deuces said he did. Stop blaming me." "It was probably that thing." Caduceus-inside-Fjord points to an object lying on the ground between them. Beau bends down to look at it, but Jester grabs her shoulder and yanks her back. "Don't touch it!" she says, sounding panicked. "What if you get body swapped, too, and then all three of you are mixed up! That would make kissing even more awkward for them." "That's fair," Beau says, and the object suddenly levitates itself into the air, except not on it's own because Veth stands nearby, concentrating. "Mage hand!" she sings, and as the object lifts, Beau realizes it's a coin, but it's not made of a metal she recognizes. Veth turns it slowly over and over, so they can see it from all sides. There are two faces -- one is a human and the other is some kind of monstrous thing with too many eyes and too much teeth. There's writing on it, too, but Beau can't read the language. She's guessing it's some kind of magic language. Probably a form of Draconic then. "Hey, Caleb, come look at this," Beau says. "Where did you get it, Caduceus?" Yasha asks, sounding the calmest of all of them. She tends to take this stuff in stride. The coin wobbles midair and then falls back to the ground. "Oops. Mage Hand only lasts for a minute," Veth says. "Maybe leave it there for now?" "Everybody back off." Caleb plops down in front of the coin, book in his lap. "I need ten minutes of quiet." He starts to trace his little circle around the coin, and well, that's that. Beau gestures everyone to give Caleb his space, and they kind of form a circle around him, too, so no random person interrupts Caleb's concentration. They’re standing in the middle of the street as it is, and people are flowing around them. If they don’t hurry, they’ll attract the attention of the Zhelezo. Caduceus-inside-Fjord scratches at his jaw, then winces when he realizes he cut himself on a talon. "Ow. You should trim these, Fjord." "I've been meaning to," Fjord-inside-Caduceus says. "Especially because... um. Never mind." Jester giggles. "Because it's safer for you if he does," she says. "You didn't answer Yasha's question," Beau points out as she starts to pace. She wants to do something and sometimes, it's torture waiting for Caleb to finish his ritual. "Where'd you get it?" "Oh!" Caduceus-inside-Fjord blinks and grins, and wow, that's a little creepy right there. "I found it at the Sea Floor's Bounty. She gave me a great price for it." Veth narrows her eyes. "How much?" "Does it matter?" Jester asks. "No offense, but Mr. Clay's concept of how much things cost is a little skewed. She probably ripped him off," Veth points out. "That's fair," says Caduceus-inside-Fjord. Caduceus and Fjord, standing next to each other in their swapped bodies, are giving Beau the willies. Because they aren't standing right, and they don't look right, but they're still doing that thing where they lean into each other, and exchange heated glances, and make it pretty damn obvious all they want to do is kiss. It's pretty gross. Not because, you know, of what they are. Just... Beau doesn't like being around all that lovey-dovey crap, and it's weird to see Fjord being so lovey-dovey, and they're kind of like her family, not that Beau has really seen her parents be lovey-dovey. Gah. Bad thoughts all around. "It's fine. Caleb can fix it," Veth says with a sense of certainty. "Or we could ask Essek, I suppose," says Yasha. "He could help." "Destroying things seems to work. We could try that," suggests Jester. "That might not be a good idea," says Caduceus-inside-Fjord, and well, that's at least not weird. Fjord is sometimes the voice of caution. "What if destroying it makes us stuck like this?" Fjord-inside-Caduceus makes an alarmed face, which goes back to weird because it's very rare for Caduceus to look alarmed unless they're in the middle of a battle that isn't going so well. "No destroying it! I don't want to be stuck like this. I mean, no offense, Deuces--" "None taken, Fjord. I like your body just fine, but I like it from the outside, not from the inside. I want to be me, not you," Caduceus says, and then they're looking at each other in that soppy way, and Beau fights the urge to gag. "But think of how kinky it could be," Jester says, and she's got her sketchbook out now, frantically scribbling down her thoughts in one of the pages. "I bet it'd be super weird to kiss like this. Why don't you try it?" "No," they say in impressive unison. Veth giggles. "You're right," Yasha says. "Couples do act alike." There's a snap as Caleb closes his book and sighs with an air of grievance. "Scheisse, it's amazing I can concentrate at all with the six of you chattering above me." "Were you able to complete your spell, Caleb?" Jester asks. Caleb tucks his book away and says, "I did," before he bends down and picks up the coin, slipping it into his pocket without a single hesitation. Nothing happens. "Good news is that we can pick it up right now with no ill effects," Caleb says, and that's definitely a smug smirk. He’s such a little shit sometimes. "And the same person can hold it without activating the magical properties." "All right. What about us?" Fjord-inside-Caduceus asks. "Yeah," Beau says. "What about them?" Caleb gives them all a look that faintly feels as if he's chastising them before he says, "The better news is that the effect only lasts for an hour. Unfortunately, it can't be ended prematurely." "Can we use it again though?" Jester asks, leaning in toward Caleb, and Beau can already see the ideas brimming inside that beautiful head of hers. Jester's no doubt imagining all the chaos she can wield with that coin. Caleb's smart enough to recognize that, too. "The magic has been expended today, but yes, it could be used again tomorrow." He pats the pocket where he'd tucked the coin, and leaves his hand over it. "I think I'll keep it. For further study." "Aw. But I want to look at it," Jester says. "I don't think that's a good idea," both Fjord and Caduceus say in an eerie unison which makes shivers crawl up Beau's spine. "Gross," she says. "Now it’s just getting creepy," Veth says, speaking for all of them. "Stop doing that." Fjord-inside-Caduceus harrumphs and folds his arms, which is such a non-Caduceus thing to do, it once again hits the realm of uncanny valley. "It's not like we did it on purpose." "It's an unexpected bonus," Caduceus-inside-Fjord says, and then his forehead crinkles, and he looks like he's thinking very hard. "Can you hear my thoughts? Does it work like that?" "No, it doesn't allow you to read thoughts," Caleb says with a sigh. He pinches the bridge of his nose. "There's nothing to be done but wait it out, which we can do elsewhere." Beau looks around. They are kind of blocking traffic and attracting stares. Then again, they'd do that anyway, given their colorful bunch. Still, Caleb has a point. "We could go to the beach," Jester says, and her eyes light up with excitement. "Let's do that!" "Water? No, thank you." Veth spins on a heel and starts off in the opposite direction. "I'm going to go back to Yeza and Luc instead. You guys have fun." She waves over her shoulder. "But we haven't even settled on the beach yet," Yasha says to Veth's departing back. Yeah, but Jester said it, and everyone knows if Jester wants to do it, everyone else will eventually agree as well. It's impossible to say no to her. Beau, in fact, had not even considered it. "I think we'll head back to the chateau, too," says Fjord-inside-Caduceus, sharing another glance with Caduceus-inside-Fjord. They haven't been together that long, but they've already got that secret glance thing down pat. "Wait this out." "Sure," Beau drawls, folding her arms. "A completely innocent wait in the privacy of your room. I'm sure that's all that's going to happen." Jester giggles. Caduceus-inside-Fjord looks confused. "What else would--" "Come on," Fjord-inside-Caduceus says, laying a hand on his own shoulder and spinning him in the direction Veth had gone. "If you get her started, the others will join in, and then I'll want to tear my ears off." "I feel like I'm missing something." "I'll explain later." Off they go, Caduceus-inside-Fjord with this weird, loping gait like he's trying to compensate for a height he no longer has, and Fjord-inside-Caduceus taking wobbly steps like the length of his legs makes it harder to gauge how to move. "What do you think they're really going to do?" Jester asks. "I haven't any interest in speculating," Caleb says, and turns to go the other direction, briefly looking up at the sun to orient himself. "Let's go to the beach, ja? That is what you wanted." "I'm fine with the beach," Yasha says. "Sure, why not." Beau shrugs. Jester cheers and off they go. At least, Beau hopes, the day can't get any weirder. ****

a/n: Feedback is absolutely welcome and appreciated! I’d love to hear from you!

#fjorclayweek2020 #fjorclay #critical role fanfiction #teahaw #caduceus clay/fjord #and other virtues series #draco writes critical role

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thelastspeecher · 6 years ago

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MerGucket AU - Shermie

Ages, ages ago, I mentioned that Shermie, aka the third Pines brother, finds out what his younger sibs have been up to in the MerGucket AU. He finds out after discovering that Stan has a daughter he didn’t tell anyone about, and deciding to go confront Stan, sees him or Ford in mer form. That particular scene is long overdue, and in the spirit of MerMay, here it is. Enjoy.

Shermie walked down the pier, mentally going over what he was going to say to his younger brother.

Just be upfront. Stan doesn’t like it when people beat around the bush. Tell him that you found someone who you’re sure is his daughter. You’re not here to judge, you just want answers. And to meet your niece at some point. He saw a flash of color out of the corner of his eye. Shermie looked over. He gaped. A merman with a golden tail was swimming lazily below the pier, headed straight for Stan and Ford’s ship. Shermie stopped to stare. His eyes landed upon the merman’s webbed hands. Scratch that. His webbed, six-fingered hands. Shermie’s mouth went dry. He rushed down the dock to the Stan O’War and boarded the ship.

“Stanford?” he called. “Stanley?” A splash came from the twins’ bedroom. Shermie approached it as silently as possible and opened the door, not bothering to knock. His jaw dropped open. There was a moon pool in the middle of the room that Shermie had never seen before, which was startling enough. To add to his astonishment, Ford was currently getting out of the moon pool and from the waist down, had a long, extravagant tail covered in gold scales. Ford caught sight of Shermie and froze, only partially out of the moon pool. The silence was broken by a splash. A young woman’s head popped out of the moon pool.

“Uncle Ford, you forgot-” she started. She too caught sight of Shermie. “…Oh. Want me to sing him into forgetting?” She cleared her throat.

“No, no, Emily, don’t,” Ford said quickly. He sat on the edge of the moon pool, his tail partially submerged. “He’s family.”

“He’s-” Emily looked at Ford curiously. “I don’t recognize him.”

“You’ve never met him.”

“Why wouldn’t I have met a fam’ly member?” Emily asked. Her eyes widened. “Oh, wait.”

“Yes,” Ford said. He rubbed his face. “Go fetch your father. He needs to help explain things to your uncle.” Emily nodded. She ducked her head back underwater.

“Stanford,” Shermie said in a low voice, “what the hell is going on?”

“…It’s a long story,” Ford sighed. Shermie rolled his eyes.

“Gee, I never coulda figured that out!” he said sarcastically. “Seriously, why are you a- a merman? And who was that young woman? And-”

“Once Stan gets back, we’ll explain. But in the meantime, would you mind telling me why you dropped by for a surprise visit?”

“Ford, I don’t want to-” Shermie shook his head. “Fine. I thought I’d talk to Stan about something.”

“What?”

“Well, Dipper apparently met up with a researcher named Molly Pines while he and Mabel were with you two over the summer. Caleb told me about it, so I decided to look her up myself.”

“And?”

“She’s obviously Stan’s kid. I mean, she looks just like him. But she’s got blue eyes, like Angie.” Shermie crossed his arms. “So I decided to ask Stan why he kept his daughter a secret from me. But it’s pretty damn obvious he’s been keeping a lot more than that a secret. And so have you, for that matter.” Ford nodded silently.

“Yes. We have,” he said softly. An awkward silence fell. Shermie watched the moon pool, wondering if Emily was going to come back.

She looked familiar. Almost like- He groaned loudly.

“Emily is Stan’s kid, isn’t she?”

“…Yes, she is.”

“Great. He has two daughters I didn’t know about.” Shermie pinched the bridge of his nose. “Does he have any other children I’ve never met?”

“He’ll talk about them when he gets back, I’m sure,” Ford said. “He’s very proud of them.”

“That’s a yes, then,” Shermie said flatly. Ford nodded. Stan emerged from the moon pool.

“Ford, what’s going on? Emily said I needed to help you talk to some family member?” Stan asked. Ford nodded silently at Shermie. Stan turned. He paled. “Oh.” He sat on the edge of the moon pool like Ford.

“I just wanted to know why you kept your daughter a secret from me,” Shermie said. He rubbed his temples. “I didn’t mean to stumble upon a massive conspiracy involving mermaids.”

“Which daughter?” Stan asked.

“Molly.”

“Oh. Yeah, Dipper and Mabel met her while they stayed with us.” Stan rubbed the back of his neck. “Told them not to blab about the kids, but-”

“Neither of them said anything about Molly being your daughter,” Shermie interrupted. “I figured it out on my own.”

“Really?”

“I might not be a certified genius, but I can tell when someone looks like my younger brother,” Shermie said impatiently. Stan held up his hands.

“Okay, okay, geez. Calm down.” Shermie stared at the webbing stretching between Stan’s fingers. “Turn around, will ya?”

“No! If I do that, you’ll leave.”

“We won’t,” Ford said. “I can’t speak for Stanley, but I’ve been wanting these secrets to be done with for years.” Stan nodded.

“I agree. I mean, I haven’t felt like this for years, but definitely since Mabel and Dipper figured everything out. But you need to turn around so we can get dressed. When we get rid of the tail, we’re naked.”

“Oh.” Shermie turned away. “How long have you two been mermen? You weren’t born like this. I’d remember.”

“Over thirty years now,” Ford replied. “It was an accident on our parts.”

“Figures that you two would become mermen on accident,” Shermie mumbled.

“Hey, it wasn’t a full accident,” Stan said. “We didn’t mean to do it. But the MerGuckets did.”

“The…MerGuckets?”

“Angie’s folks. They basically convinced us to become merfolk with them. You can turn around again.” Shermie did as he was told. Stan and Ford were now fully clothed, but had visibly damp hair. “Let’s go talk on the deck.”

-----

Shermie leaned against the railing of the ship, trying to get his mind around the story his younger brothers had just told him.

“So you two have families,” he said slowly. Stan and Ford nodded. “You both have spouses and children.”

“Technically, I only have one child,” Ford corrected.

“Right. Tate.” Shermie looked down at the water. “But Stan, you have…five kids?”

“Yep!” Stan said proudly. “And every single one of ‘em is great.”

“You haven’t changed your mind since meeting Emily’s girlfriend?” Ford asked. Stan sighed.

“Look. Do I wish my daughter didn’t shack up with my ex-girlfriend’s kid? Yes. But they’re happy together, and they’re some damn fine pirates, so it’s all right in my book.”

“Hang on.” Shermie looked at Stan. “Your daughter is dating Sam McCorkle?”

“You know her?”

“Yeah. Sam and Caleb went to school together. Huh. I thought Sam became a florist.”

“Nope. Pirate. Which is way better than what Carla used to do.” Stan’s expression became sour.

“…What did Carla used to do?”

“She was a mer hunter. She actually captured me.”

“Wait, really?” Shermie asked, aghast. Stan nodded.

“Yep. Angie got her to let me go, though.” Stan grinned. “Not gonna lie, I love it when she threatens people with bodily harm.” Shermie and Ford rolled their eyes. Footsteps sounded behind them. The three brothers turned. A young man stood on the deck, holding the hand of a girl about eight or ten.

“Um, I came to drop Lucy off,” the man said cautiously, eyeing Shermie.

“Shi- shoot!” Stan hit his forehead with the palm of his hand. “I forgot we agreed to watch her today.”

“It’s okay, I can take her to Uncle Harper,” the man started. Stan shook his head.

“No, it’s fine. I didn’t plan anything else anyways. Lucy can stay with us.” Stan crouched down. “C’mere and give your Grandpa Stan a hug, huh sweetie?” The girl obliged, running forward eagerly and wrapping her arms around Stan. “Aw, you’re still the cutest half-mer I’ve ever seen.”

“Dad,” the man sighed. Shermie’s eyes widened.

“Stan, this is one of your children?”

“Yep.” Stan stood to his full height. “Only son. Emmett.” He ruffled the girl’s hair. “This is his daughter, Lucy. Human mom, so her default is legs. But we’re working on the tail and gills.”

“You have a granddaughter?”

“I’ve got…” Stan frowned. He looked at Emmett. “How many grandkids do I have now?” he asked. Emmett crossed his arms.

“I’m not tellin’ ya. You should know.”

“Fine. Whatever.” Stan turned back to Shermie. “I’ve got fifteen grandkids.” Shermie’s jaw dropped.

“Fifteen?”

“Well, more like twenty,” Stan said. “Can’t remember the exact number, but there’s a lot. Even with Molly and Daisy not having any kids, Danny’s on her third clutch. And she’s having the MerGucket large clutches, since she got with a merman instead of a human.” Stan grinned. “You can’t really say you’re the best grandpa anymore. I’ve got more grandkids than you.”

“Yeah, but you don’t remember all their names,” Emmett mumbled. Stan waved a hand.

“I usually remember at some point,” he said airily. Emmett rolled his eyes.

“Whatever you say, Dad. Are ya gonna introduce me to this person you’re blabbin’ all the fam’ly secrets to, or what?” he asked. Shermie chuckled.

“He’s your son, all right.”

“Yep,” Stan said, beaming proudly. He clapped a hand on Shermie’s back. “Kiddo, this is your Uncle Shermie.”

“Uh, the same Uncle Shermie that you guys decided to keep out of…” Emmett waved his hand vaguely. “…mer stuff?”

“Yes, but it’s high time he was brought into the fold,” Ford said. After a moment, Emmett nodded.

“Yeah. Especially since Dipper and Mabel know all the stuff. It’d be kinda weird for some family members to know and not others.” He walked over to Shermie and held out his hand. “Pleasure to meet ya, Uncle Shermie.” Shermie ignored Emmett’s outstretched hand, instead wrapping him in a hug.

“Good to meet you, too, Emmett.” He broke off the hug. “Wow, you’re a tall one.”

“Even taller than Dad,” Emmett said with a smug look in Stan’s direction. Stan rolled his eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, you’re a real giant. Get on outta here before you’re late for your thing.”

“Yep. Bye Dad, bye Uncle Ford, bye Uncle Shermie.” Emmett ruffled Lucy’s hair. “Bye, Lucy-Loo. Be good for Grandpa Stan.” Lucy grinned at him.

“I won’t!” she chirped. Emmett chuckled and exited the ship. Lucy turned to Stan. “Grandpa, can we practice tails now?”

“Sure thing, sweetie.” Stan looked at Shermie. “We’re gonna have to cut this visit short, Sherm.”

“I understand. Grandchildren take priority. I’ll head out.” Shermie frowned at his brothers. “But I’ll be back tomorrow at three in the afternoon, and all my nieces and nephews better be there.”

“We’ll do what we can,” Ford said.

“Good. I’ll see you then.” Shermie walked off the ship, onto the pier. He glanced back just in time to see Stan jump overboard. He stopped, about to go back on board to help.

No, he’s fine. He probably jumps overboard at least twice a week. Shermie grinned. He probably did that regularly before he got the ability to grow a tail and gills. He walked down the pier. Man. That did not go how I expected it to. Still went pretty well, but… He shook his head. I shouldn’t be surprised. If anyone would turn into mermen and keep it a secret for decades, it’d be those two.

#let's be real here Shermie eventually demands to see Stan and Ford's grandkids too #he has no clue what he's in for. there's like thirty total and they all swarm him.#also idk why I threw Emmett in this it just felt like he should be in there #MerGucket AU #Shermie Pines #Stanford Pines #Emily Pines #Stanley Pines #Emmett McGucket #Stangie Family #my writing #ficlet #speecher speaks

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