#So yeah basically Ramshackle has three students

[yuriisclumsy]

What if there was an AU for [Name] being one of the top ranked mages in twisted wonderland?

╰Description: [Name] is one of the top mage in Twisted Wonderland, right after Malleus Draconia.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 (You are here) | Part 4 | Part 5

—April 28, 2024—

Thought… This is a continuation on the What if there was an AU for [Name] being one of the top ranked mages in twisted wonderland?

[Name] was contracted to teach spell casting, both theory and practice. She was given two freshmen classes, two sophomore classes, and one senior class, for her first year as a professor. Three of which were advanced classes.

Her material wasn't that different from regular classes, if you knew your stuff you could easily do her homework. It was the use of a different method that was peculiar.

But don’t be fooled to think her method is easy. Though her assignments may be simple, this is just for the first month of classes. Until her students adjust to her method of spell casting. 

Notice how I said her students and not her? Yeah. It’s not her who will struggle.

Because of her unique way of casting spells, it helped [Name] in her ascension through the ranks, and the grounds of her enlistment to NRC by the headmage Dire Crowley. 

[Name] was gifted in other fields as well. Given the demand for certain subjects, she could effortlessly teach those areas without having preparations beforehand. Just another reason for her being here.

Aside from talent, given her age, she could easily relate and connect with students–as they were her age. This leads to students wanting to be more in class, as they would feel comfortable, and the rise in student engagement in classes aside from her own. That is what Crowley thinks anyway.

Oh, how he couldn’t be far from the truth. Poor, sad, little, birdy.

…

The NRC campus has been cheery as of late. Perhaps it’s because of the new teacher. After all, this was a college full of boys. Boys that haven’t seen a girl since they entered and are now acting like a pack of hyenas. But don’t mistake them for Ruggie, he’ll take much offense to that. 

Imagine getting compared to monkeys just because you’re human. You wouldn't like that now, would you?

As the early classes were about to begin, there was a class that stood out when you passed it as it had a mountain of students surrounding its doors.

This class was none other than [Name]’s classroom.

All the boys were lining up to see her. They were willing to be late to class. Of course, this took priority over all else.

 Because it was [Name]’s first day, Crowley had decided it best to have all enlisted students from her classes gather for an introduction. Those present ranged between new freshmans to lousy sophomores, to seniors that wanted to learn something new before they graduated. 

And of course, it wouldn’t be complete without our cast. The Housewardens, their Vices, and everyone affiliated with them, and last but not least, our troublesome ADeuce Duo and the two students of Ramshackle Dorm, would all have her.

The class was filled with students excited to see their new teacher. Some talked about her beauty, some gushed about her talents and achievements, and others just wanted to ask if she was single.

“Greetings everyone,” a voice spoke, cutting through the chatter making the room silent. 

“I’m your new professor, [Name], [Name] [Last Name],” she introduced herself, placing a stack of papers on her podium. “But you all can just call me Professor [Name].” 

Looking out into the sea of students [Name] continued. “I will be teaching spell casting to advanced and regular classes from all grade levels. So, all are welcome to enroll.”

[Name] walked up to the board and began to write, “today I won’t be teaching, given that it is my first day and still time to switch classes. Instead, I will be going over the basics of my class.” On the board was written ‘six rules’.

“As you can see, I have six rules you must follow.” Picking up the stack of papers left on the podium before disappearing into tiny white particles, leaving the students to gasp in surprise.

“Rule number one: Don’t be late. Unless you have a good excuse, I don’t want to hear it.” [Name] spoke from behind the class. She had teleported there to hand out the papers.

“Rule number two: I expect nothing short but sheer effort in this class.” The papers started to float from her. She was using her magic. The students stared in awe seeing the paper in the air, especially the freshmen. “Which means studying and practicing what I taught you.”

She began her descent from the back of the class, the papers slowly going down to the students grasp. 

“Rule number three: There will be no time to laze around in class.” Saying so, Leona could feel her gaze on him in particular. The ones who knew Leona chuckled, knowing [Name] was referring to him in particular. He scuffed. looking to the side he saw Ruggie holding back a laugh. He glared at him like an angry cat, which only prompted him to hold even tighter that laugh.

“Rule number four: I prohibit sabotage; self-inflicted or deliberate. If anyone is caught they will get reprimanded.”

“Rule number five: There isn't going to be any kind of special treatment because of status. So don’t go running to your big influential mommy for help when you have a bad grade in my class. If you fail, you fail.” Students giggled as they heard her comment. 

Malleus smiled in amusement. Not having to worry about being treated differently because of his position was nice. He was liking her more and more the more she talked.

Reaching the ground level floor, she walked back to the podium. Now that everyone had received their papers they read it. The rules were there… All minus the last one; number six was missing.

“Are there any questions?” [Name] asked the class

Riddle, being the high regards for rules and policy, extended his arm.

Seeing a hand go up, [Name] looked to see who it was. “Yes?”

“I apologize for disturbing you, but number six is not on the paper you’ve given us.”

“Hmmm… I thought it was a rule that everyone knew, so I didn't add it.” She said nonchalantly.

“Pardon?” He let out in confusion. “What do you mean by that exactly?” At this point Riddle wasn't alone. Something we all knew already? He thought.

“Well. Why don’t you all try guessing what rule six is?”

Students started raising hands left-and-right wanting to get the right answer. All the answers varying vastly:

“Follow all the rules!” not it. 

“Rule number six is don't break the other rules” that’s the same as the last one.

“We should all respect each other!” cute, but not it.

“Do all of you really not know?” [Name] shook her head a bit saddened.

“Rule number six: Have fun.”

The students looked at each other in disbelief. That was it? They thought it was going to be something else. Something more… strictly. Like the other rules. Not this.

“Life is short. Go out, learn, explore, and live life. Even to those among you that have a longer lifespan. Before you know it, you’ll have lived long enough to tell tales from hundreds of years ago. That is something to cherish.”

“This is what my classroom is all about.”

(finished: 4/29/2024, at 12:43am)

𝚃𝚊𝚐𝚜: @scarabiafriend, @sleep-ydragon, @d3sperate-enuf, @elaemae, @lucky-whispers, @kiwiimochi, @emmorphine, @azriel-sama, @amora-ledezma, @writerstrashbin, @marinahavik, @twstwondersforyou, @lunatheroyal, @ririsun, @dyedscarletletter, @kuureii, @otomega, @valacz29, @busy-dadzawa-fish, @sarah22447, @valacz29, @wondering-again, @lucid-stories. Re-blog or Comment if you want to get added into the Tag section for Twisted wonderland. Back to The Mind

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[mysteryshoptls]

SR Sebek Zigvolt - Ceremonial Robes Vignette

"I shall speak quickly!!"

[Mirror Chamber]

Sebek: Hm... I think this should be the route my lord should take to today's ceremony.

Crowley: Ah, good timing. Zigvolt-kun!

Sebek: Headmage…? I was not aware of any meetings you may have with my liege…

Crowley: Am I not allowed to casually speak to my own students?

Crowley: Although actually, I was hoping you could help me prepare for the ceremony we are holding later. We are currently a little short-handed.

Crowley: There are two things I wish to request.

Crowley: First is escorting the guests. Second is to carry chairs and desks from Ramshackle.

Crowley: Both are simple tasks. Would you attend to these?

Sebek: Since it is a personal request from the Headmage yourself, I shall not refuse. I accept.

Sebek: Although, it is very evident that more assistance would be needed…

Crowley: Ah, no need to worry about that. I've already wrangled up three other fantastic helping hands.

Crowley: Or perhaps I should actually say it's 3 pairs of human hands, and one with paws…?

Grim: Myaaaaaaah!! I never said I was gonna help!

1. We have to. 2. Good students would do the tasks given them.

Jamil: Headmage, I would appreciate this being over with swiftly.

Sebek: Grim and [Yuu], huh. And the Vice Housewarden from Scarabia.

Sebek: Two scrawny humans and a small animal. I don't mean to be rude, but will these three be sufficient?

Jamil: If you have any complaints, you can ask someone else, then.

Crowley: Now, now. Grim-kun and [Yuu]-kun are probably the most knowledgeable when it comes to Ramshackle.

Crowley: Please have the two of them show you exactly where the chairs and desks are stored. Now then, I'll leave it to you all.

Jamil: So, that basically means [Yuu] and Grim will be getting the chairs and desks.

Sebek: It'll take all day if I leave it to just you two. I'll help as well.

Grim: The way you say that kinda pisses me off!

Sebek: I simply spoke the truth. How many chairs are you able to even carry in those little paws of yours?

Jamil: Hey, no fighting. I guess that means I'll be escorting the guests. [Yuu], look after these two.

Sebek: I cannot allow anything to keep my lord waiting for me. We should finish these tasks as quickly as possible.

Sebek: Hey, you two. Hurry and take me to Ramshackle, already.

Grim: Don't be tryin' to boss me around just 'cause you're bigger than me!

[Ramshackle Dorm – Hallway]

Sebek: So, this is the room with all the chairs and desks, I see. Then, allow me…

1. If you try to open it too forcefully… 2. We haven't started cleaning that room yet!

Grim: Yahoo, just slam that sucker open!

[SLAM!!]

Sebek: Urgh!? [cough, cough] Wh-what's with all the dust…!? It's as though it has been neglected for decades...

Grim: Myaha! Serves you right!

Sebek: Grim, you little… [cough] If you keep messing around, we'll never finish our tasks!

Grim: Hrk… Guess this guy has a point somehow…

Sebek: [sigh] …The room is one thing, but it looks like the chairs and desks aren't that dusty.

Sebek: However, it's not like they can be used as they are now. I'll bring them outside the room, so you two should wipe them down quickly.

1. Got it! 2. You good with that, Grim?

Grim: Hrrrrn～ Then, I guess I'll go and do ya the honor of grabbing a rag for ya! You better thank me!

Sebek: A good retainer knows that action speak louder than words. Hurry and bring that cleaning cloth already.

Grim: Mrraaah! You're just so annoyin'!

Sebek: Alright. I've finished carrying out all the chairs and desks. Have you finished wiping them all down?

Grim: Oh, yeah, we're done! They're all spick and span!

Sebek: Time to carry these to the Mirror Chamber, then. It may take us a few trips to carry all of these.

Sebek: Hup…

Grim: Myah!? You sure you can just carry 8 chairs like that!?

Sebek: Of course, this small amount is no problem whatsoever.

Grim: I-I can totally do that too, I just gotta use magic… Hyah! Myaah～?

Sebek: You're too shaky. It's much more efficient to carry these by hand while in a narrow corridor, instead of attempting to use magic.

Sebek: Hurry, we must away.

1. Then, I'll carry a desk. 2. Upsy-daisy…

Sebek: ! Hey, careful! I'm stacking the chairs right here, if you just haphazardly try to lift it like that…

Grim: Ah, watch out! The chairs are about ta fall!

Sebek: Urk!

[rattle, rattle]

Sebek: ...Whew, somehow I kept it from toppling over.

Sebek: [Yuu], how long to you intend on using my arms as a shield? I need you to move.

1. S-Sorry. 2. Thank you.

Sebek: I see your powerless human self is in full force. I cannot leave this to you, I'll carry the desks as well.

Sebek: It generally falls to me to carry heavy items in Diasomnia, as well.

1. They really rely on you, huh. 2. You're really strong, huh.

Sebek: Heh. Well, that's because I train every day so as I can protect my liege, Malleus-sama.

Sebek: SO IT IS ONLY NATURAL THAT BOTH MY LEIGE AND LILIA-SAMA WOULD SOLICIT MY ABILITIES!!!!!!!

Sebek: Why, just the other day, I had my lord's lab coat...

Grim: Myah! Look, [Yuu], Sebek! Carryin' chairs with magic's easy-peasy!

Sebek: H-Hey, keep an eye forward! You're going to bump into the corner!!

[crash!]

Grim: Myaaaah! I'm trapped under all the chairs! …Help meeee～!

[Mirror Chamber]

Sebek: Headmage, all the chairs and desks have been brought over here to the Mirror Chamber! …Headmaster, are you here!?

Jamil: Apparently, the Headmaster is entertaining the guests before the ceremony begins. He left just as I arrived a moment ago.

Sebek: I see… Then, what should be done about these chairs and desks?

Jamil: I made sure to ask how they were to be arranged, so I'll instruct you on what to do. [sigh] …It really seems like we got the short end of the stick.

Grim: Seriously! I'm gonna be pooped before the ceremony even starts!

Sebek: Nothing will get done if all you do is sit there and complain. We should finish this task quickly.

1. Let's do our best! 2. Yeah!

Jamil: Alright, then. I'll assign you what you need to do now, so make sure you listen well.

Sebek: Hup, whew… And, this chair should be here in this row.

Grim: Hrrrrn～ I can't get 'em to line up nicely with magic!

Sebek: You should just do what [Yuu] is doing and line them up by hand. …Hm? Are those chairs over there flying in a row into position?

Jamil: Hyah… There we go.

Grim: Myaaah! That's no fair, he gets to move all the chairs with magic!

Sebek: Urk… Well, there's nothing to be done about it, we're still learning how to more acutely control magic…!

Sebek: …I must quickly learn to control my magic more precisely. I am constantly training to do so, and yet…

1. Oh, is that so. 2. You're really serious about this.

Sebek: That's right. A task of this level would be child's play to my liege, and yet, here I am, still a fledgling…!

Grim: [pant, gasp] …What, you saying this liege-guy is really that amazing or something?

Sebek: Only his retainers may address him as 'my liege'! You should address him as the Mighty Malleus Draconia-sama.

Grim: You say, actin' all high and mighty. Then you should call me the Up-and-Coming Great Mage Grim-sama!

Jamil: Hey, you two. If you have time to stand there and argue, get to work. Don't you want to finish this up quickly?

Sebek: This is not an argument!!!! I am merely enlightening an ungrateful soul on my lord's splendid self.

Sebek: In any case, he is incredible. I'm sure you all heard of his exploits in last years' inter-dorm Spelldrive tournament!

Grim: Myah…?

1. His exploits…? 2. I really don't know.

Sebek: WH-WHAT!!?

Sebek: I cannot believe that there are creatures here in Twisted Wonderland who has absolutely no knowledge of his indomitable achievements…!?

Sebek: Well then, I shall enlighten you. I had not been enrolled here yet, however I was watching the match from the stands.

Sebek: Absolutely no one could hold a candle to the prowess of Diasomnia under my liege's leadership. It was a completely one-sided game.

Sebek: He summoned grand mountains that pierced the sky near the goal, so as to keep the opponent players from coming close…

Sebek: On top of that, the skies roared with thunder, just as if he were the Thorn Fairy of the Great Seven herself!

Grim: He made mountains and thunder!? If that's true, then this guy's too amazing!

Jamil: It feels a little more exaggerated than I remember, but… Yeah, that's about right, more or less.

Sebek: Aha! You sure know your stuff, for a human!

Jamil: Don't just attach yourself to me like that all of a sudden! You should probably leave off bragging about your lord for later. We're getting tired just listening to it.

Sebek: However this is nowhere near enough to grasp just how great he is…

Jamil: We know that Malleus-senpai is so wonderful you can't help but brag, yes, yes! …Sigh.

Jamil: I will say, I am envious of your ability to respect your Housewarden so strongly.

Sebek: Hrm… Is that not so with the Scarabia Housewarden?

Jamil: I'd rather not comment on that any further, but essentially, it means there are many different types of Housewardens.

Grim: Yeah, but you two're always hangin' out, I always thought you guys were friends.

Jamil: We've been together since we were born. It's not surprising that it would seem that way to outsiders.

Sebek: SINCE YOU WERE BORN!!??

Jamil: L-Lower your voice! What are you on now!?

Sebek: I-I envy you…!

Jamil: …Really?

Sebek: I would have loved to have been serving Malleus-sama since I was born…!

Jamil: Well that's… I mean, Malleus-senpai is much older than you, so wouldn't it have been impossible for you to have looked after him anyway?

Sebek: Urgh… Why couldn't I have been born far earlier…?!

Grim: Man, this guy get's real annoying real fast when it comes to that Malleus guy.

1. Did that make you sad? 2. Cheer up.

Jamil: [sigh] …If we can finish setting up early, I'll listen to all you have to say about Malleus-senpai. So lend me a hand, already.

Sebek: R-Really!?

Grim: Myah!? He just went from sad and depressed to jumping all over the place!

Jamil: Geez… Why does it have to take this long just to set up some chairs and desks…

[Diasomnia Dorm – Lounge]

Sebek: Here, I've made tea. And don't hesitate to ask for another cup when you need it.

Grim: Wooah～ It smells good. [Yuu], give me some sugar!

Jamil: I'll say this now, but this is only until the ceremony begins. If we factor in travel back, there isn't much time to sit and dawdle!

Sebek: Fine by me. I must also escort my liege to the ceremony, as well! Therefore, I shall speak quickly!!

Grim: Sebek's really into it, huh.

Jamil: When I said we'd listen to him brag about Malleus-sama's exploits… I didn't think he would actually take it seriously…

Jamil: He's like a whole different person whenever it comes to Malleus-senpai. It's pretty troublesome when someone has nothing but pure admiration like this.

Sebek: Hm, is something the matter? Now, which tale should I begin with…

Requested by @olivebranch311.

[rainy-s-other-corner]

Just a little thing I'm starting next year. Here's part 0.

*The scene is set in the Ramshackle Dorm, where the Freshman group are hanging out in the living room. Ortho, Sebek, and Ace were looking over some notes while Jack, Epel, and Deuce played cards. It wasn't long until the members of Ramshackle Dorm, Rosabell and Grim, entered the room with snacks and drinks.*

Grim: Ta-da! Treats for a party!

Ace: Awesome! And perfect timing too! I'm about to bash my head in with all these notes.

Rosabell: *smirks before placing the tray down* Good idea. We don't want you to have more brain damage than usual, especially with Sebek around.

Ace: Yeah. Don't want-hey!

Sebek: Learning hurts humans? Another reason why humans are inferior to us fae.

Rosabell: Says the fae who asked us, the non-fae students, to help tutor him.

*The others chuckled while Sebek stuttered.*

Ortho: I agree with Rosabell Reyes. You shouldn't overwork your brain. You'll need it for the next three and a half years.

Ace: And we're back to me. *deflates*

Deuce: At least we're done with finals and we have winter break to head home and relax.

Rosabell: Yeah...go home...

Epel: Ah! *smacks Deuce's arm.*

Deuce: Ow! What was that for?!

Epel: *whispers* You dumbass! Rosa can't go home!

Deuce: Ah! *bows his head* Sorry Rosabell! I didn't mean to-

Rosabell: It's fine. Let's just celebrate finishing this semester. *picks up a teacup* And to surviving all the crap we've gone through.

Grim: *picks up a teacup* Yeah! And to all the snacks we'll be enjoying soon!

Epel: And to all the celebrations we'll be having! Like birthdays!

*The group raised their teacups and clinked them together. As the boys talked, Rosabell looked inside her teacup and let herself get lost in thought. The image of her older sister smiling and holding a cake with candles popped in her head.*

Rosabell: (It's been a few months since I've been in Twisted Wonderland. I wonder how she's been doing? Has she given up looking for me? Or is she still looking for me?)

Jack: Rosabell? Are you okay?

*Rosabell jumps and notices that everyone is staring at her.*

Rosabell: *clears her throat* Yeah. Just miss my sister.

Sebek: You have a sister?! What is she like?

Rosabell: Bubbly. She would have loved being here. She would have made so many friends here. She would even over-plan a birthday party for me here.

Grim: With lots of food?

Rosabell: Yeah. Way too much food for a bunch of people I don't know and people I barely tolerate.

Ace: So basically...like Kalim?

Rosabell: Yeah. Pretty much.

Epel: That explains how you handle him so well! Better than Jamil!

Rosabell: Yeah. In a way, he reminds me of her. *smiles sadly*

Deuce: We can have Kalim set up a birthday party for you when it's your birthday. That way, it's just like home.

Ortho: That sounds like a plan. We should start planning now! When is your birthday, Rosabell Reyes?

Rosabell: ...

Epel: Come on, Rosa! Tell us when ya birthday is!

Ace: Yeah! We can get you a cake from Trey and have Heartslabyul host your party!

Rosabell: ...

Jack: Guys-

Epel: I think it would be better if we use Scarabia. They have the space and Kalim always hosts parties and feasts there. It would make more sense. But ya can bet that Pomefiore will be great at getting her ready for her party!

Sebek: Nonsense!! Diasomnia would be perfect for Lady Rosabell to host her birthday party and she'll be bless by Lord Malleus himself!

Rosabell: ...

Jack: Guys-

Ortho: I believe Ignihyde would be better. We have the latest video games as well as good classics, and we would be the perfect place to host Rosabell Reyes's birthday!

Grim: No way! Ramshackle has everything we want and is perfect for starwatching! Rosie's favorite activity!!

Sebek: She'll have a better time at Diasomnia!!!

Ace and Deuce: Heartslabyul!!

Epel: Scarabia!!!

Grim: Ramshackle!

Jack: ENOUGH!!!!

*Everyone jumped and cowered from Jack's voice. Embarrassed, he cleared his throat before speaking.*

Jack: Don't make plans without asking Rosabell what she wants. *turns his attention toward Rosabell.* What do you want for your birthday?

Rosabell: ...

Epel: Sorry Rosa. We're acting like a bunch of wild kittens. What would you like to do for your birthday?

Rosabell: Doesn't really matter.

Deuce: Of course it does! We are your friends and as my goal is to be part of the Honor Students, I would like to do my best to make it great.

Sebek: I agree. A birthday only comes once a year. We need to make it fit enough for Lord Malleus to come!

Rosabell: Guys-

Ace: And we get out of class to do whatever you want! Crowley can't say no to his only female student.

Ortho: That's right! And we can get you whatever you want! And bring whoever you want to the party!

Rosabell: Guys-

Grim: And we can have whatever you want to eat!! It'll be a buffet like no other!

Epel: That's right! We can get you food from your world or food from around Twisted Wonderland.

Rosabell: Guys! It doesn't matter because it already passed!

Guys: ...Huh?

Rosabell: My birthday already passed and I was mostly spending it to keep most of you *glares at Ace, Deuce, and Sebek* out of trouble on that day.

*Ace, Deuce, and Sebek are shocked by this.*

Deuce: We caused trouble for you on your birthday?! Why didn't you say so?!

Rosabell: We were so busy dealing with overblots and school these past few months that I didn't want to distract any of you. Besides, I...actually don't like celebrating my birthday.

Ortho: Why is that?

Rosabell: ...

Jack: Rosabell. *places hand on her shoulder* Why do you not like celebrating your birthday?

Rosabell: *blushes for a quick second before steeling herself* It's not that big of a deal. I just don't like it. Besides, we're not here to talk about my birthday. We're here to celebrate surviving a semester. So let's just drop it. *takes a sip from her teacup*

*Everyone looked at each other and silently came up with a plan. Later that night, the freshmen group spoke with the sophomores and juniors about a plan.*

Trey: You want to find out about Rosabell's birthday? Why not ask her about it?

Ace: We tried but she then became cagey. Even going as far as saying that she doesn't like celebrating it.

Azul: Then why bother figuring it out? If she doesn't want anyone to know, then who are we to force it out of her?

Kalim: But a birthday is a wonderful thing to celebrate! We should go all out for Rosie! Like get her a feast she'll remember!

Jamil: Didn't you hear? She doesn't want to celebrate it. We need to respect her wishes.

Grim: But Rosie has done so much for us! We have to do this!

Riddle: I agree with Jamil. Doing this plan will make her never want to tell us anything.

Idia: *through his tablet* I agree too. She usually doesn't go out of her way to be friendly with any of us. Well, except for four of us. She probably doesn't want to celebrate with us anyway.

Vil: Besides, what good would it do for us? We have nothing to gain from all this and some of us will be off campus. It's almost wishful thinking.

Lilia: That may be true. But how about we look at this from her point of view?

Ace: What do you mean?

Lilia: Rosabell is far from home and she only knows this school. She has no way to go home and there's not a guarantee when she's going home. Not only that, she has to deal with people with magic and them turning into monsters at any given moment. And from what I'm gathering about her conversation about her sister, that's her only family left. If I were put in her shoes, I would like to have a way to feel safe and at home.

Azul: So you're saying that we should figure out her birthday? But how?

Lilia: I'm not saying the freshmen have a great plan but there is an easier way to figure out.

Ruggie: And what would that be?

Lilia: Having her celebrate our birthdays.

Everyone: Huh?

Riddle: How would that work?

Leona: If I had to guess, she would have to take turns celebrating each of our birthdays and she would have to tell us what we want to know. She wouldn't have much of a choice.

Lilia: In a way, plus she would get to be comfortable with us. I know that there's at least one person she really wants to get close to. *shares a look with Ruggie before both of them giggle* But it would only work if all of us do this. Not unless, you're all chicken. Diasomnia will help.

Riddle: We are not chickens! Heartslabyul is in!

Leona: Hn. We're not tucking our tails away just because Lizard's dorm is going along with this. Savanaclaw is in too.

Azul: Not what we usually would do but I can't turn this down like a guppy. Octavinelle will join.

Kalim: I'm already in! I want to make this the best birthday for Rosabell ever! Scarabia is in!

Vil: Hmm. I guess it would be only fair to join in as well. Very well. Pomefiore will help too.

Idia:...

Ortho: Big brother!

Idia: ...I-Ignihyde will help t-too.

Grim: Alright then! Plan Rosabell's Birthday is a go then!

*Back in Ramshackle Dorm, Rosabell sneezes.*

Part 1

[juchioris]

I'm currently more interested in Tribe Nine and Last Defense Academy, but somehow, despite that: New TWST OC.

A fleshed out mob student / NPC: Savanaclaw Student [insert random letter from A to C] - Neiram

What happens when a NPC becomes aware of living in the world of a story? - This is what Neiram from Savanaclaw unintentionally develops as his Unique Magic. He was just trying to find a way to understand things easier with magic, to make studying easier, now he sees people with text above their heads labeling them as "Main" with one to three relevance stars or "NPC" with their face shrouded in shadows of irrelevancy. He sees a spotlight and an transparent floating eyeball sometimes around "mains" - and figures out this is when the plot of the story takes place.

Neiram is absoutely not happy with the part assigned to him in this story. You see, like some other students, he is also the type to get envious when someone is better than him - but nearly everyone at the school is better that him in some way. Neiram has to repeat first year, because his attempts to solve studying for the test that could help him pass after the summer holidays through developing an UM that just gets him the info, did not get him the result he intended and he still failed that tests. So, he basically envies and despises everyone at school, because they are all better than him and it isn't fair that others study so smoothly while he struggles to get anything to stick in his memory and that others are rich while he has to work on the side to get some finances and that others are magically powerful while he is just mediocre. And that others are "Main Characters" while he is so irrelevant, that not even his name is displayed is just outrageous! Grr! 😡

Only one person, he doesn't envy: Yuu. But Yuu just puzzles him. Looking at them, he sees Yuu as a myriad of possibilities, constantly shapeshifting through potential forms, different features overlaying in a fluidity that makes it impossible to see a concrete appearance. It is unsetteling. Just WHAT sort of creature is Yuu? "A regular human", yeah, no way Neiram is buying that. Humans don't look like that!

That is in the near-canon timeline. But in others, across the "Yuuniverse", Neiram can see a concrete appearance of the Yuu of a world he is inhabiting (in these "lower" worlds he can also see if someone is an OC and knows even that about himself, he tries to not think too much about it, because it's confusing, like, does it make him less real?). When he is not scared of Yuu being something really strange, he tries to get closer to them, because he can see that they are at the centre of the plot and he hopes that by getting into the plot he can become a "main", not just because "mains" have a more interesting life, but mostly because he has noticed that "mains" are much more powerful magic-wise than NPCs and he wants that to happen to his as well.

He shows up at Ramshackle like: "Hey, I saw you are renovating the place and I LOVE renovating, it's like a hobby of mine, I see shows about it on TV, would you like some help?" 😁 And most Yuus agree. Neiram then proceeds to fail fixing stuff most of the time, sometimes even breaking it more, because he actually has no idea what he is doing and he doesn't enjoy it either, he just thinks it's important for his future career as mage somehow.

Depending on the present Yuu, he may get to like them. Despite thinking romance is silly and cringe, there are AUs where he even gets a crush on Yuu. Then there are some worlds where he really doesn't like Yuu. One of the most incompatible Yuu-characters, for instance, is Undine Eisner (another of my OCs). They just hate each other, without any chemistry that could turn it e-t-l even.

Another thing he can do is access other characters' profiles. He can see them pop up as floating boxes, but he needs to touch the person to get these pop-ups to open. And he can see which magic spell a "main" is going to use in a battle, shortly before they cast it. Perhaps he will see even more as his UM evolves...?

Behind the scenes: I wanted an OC that matches with my profile pic, so Neiram is a wild sheep beastman. What he is not is my persona, SI or me in any way, like: eww, no.

Anyway, if you're interested in Neiram or my other OCs or any stuff on my page, this blog is always open for interaction. 🙂

[subukunojess]

Are there any students in Your Twistend Wonderland Au based upon Oogie Boogoe? What are they like?

I am surprised no one has asked me that question yet, so thank you!

Yes, I do have a student planned to be in my AU. I do not want to give too much away because his backstory is going to be a surprise and I’m still working it out/researching because it’s never been done before and I do not know if I’m following the Twisted Wonderland rules, but most likely I might edit things that would work for me since it’s my AU. 

Anyway, I’ll tell you about him. Note that I’m still designing his look and I have to find my notebook with all my notes on him, but I’ll go on from my memory.

While there are many wonderful Oogie Boogie twists out there in the fandom, for mine, I wanted to have an original twist (pun intended) on mine. I started with “well what if Oogie was part of the Ramshackle Ghost gang” and went from there. 

Without giving too much away, Felix Cavatica (kudos to those who get the reference) was once a 1st Year Diasomnia student. A mysterious incident occurred in Ramshackle that led to Felix getting crushed just as he was about to overblot. (Again, the details of that day will be in a future installment). As a result, Felix is kind of in his half-dead/half-overblot state which has never happened before and to top that off, he was abandoned and forgotten. His story is tied to another student of mine and it will be explained why nearly everybody doesn’t remember him, most likely around the VDC/Pomfiore arc. 

So at the start of my AU where my Yuu first steps into Ramshackle and Grim comes back again, not only will they have to deal with ghosts, but the ghosts would talk about a monster in the basement and that’s when Yuu discovers Felix. After Yuu and Grim team up to fight him, the three have a heart to heart and Felix lets them stay in his “house”. Crowley discovers Felix, shady stuff is hinted at, but with convincing from Yuu, Crowley lets Felix take classes as a student of Ramshackle. Although he shares a homeroom with Ruggie, he takes classes with Yuu at times and gets to experience the school activities he never got to experience when he was fully alive. 

Again, I’m still designing him and working out the details, but for the first time we meet him in my story, think of like a half-overblot/half normal state complete with a burlap hoodie. There is no ink figure with a glass head yet. He also glows in the dark at night/dark places.

[twstarchives]

Mirror of Darkness Show

This show has been screened at several events: ■ Twisted Wonderland pop-up shop in Animate (Aug 1 - Sept 6, 2020) ■ First Anniversary livestream on Abema TV (Mar 17, 2021) ■ Halloween 2021 virtual event on Cluster (Oct 18 - Nov 18, 2021)

I’ve translated the script below ↓

                           ・━━━━✥◈✥━━━━・

Crowley: Allow me to welcome all of you who have gathered here to hear about this academy. I am the headmaster, Dire Crowley. I’m overjoyed to know that so many of you are interested in our Night Raven College. Heheh.

Now then, I will leave it to the first-years to attend to you all. Freshmen, please be very welcoming and professional with them. Alright, I will take my leave. Ah, I’m so busy, so busy!

Grim: Oi oi, the headmaster just left everything up to us and ran off somewhere.

Ace: Bleugh, I don’t wanna be here.

Deuce: C’mon, Ace. Some of these people might be new students next year. Pull yourself together!

If we get to have juniors... then we’ll finally be considered upperclassmen!

Ace: Now that you mention it... if you had a junior, then you could force them to take care of flamingo feeding duty for you! That’d be a win!

...That’s what you were imagining, right?

Deuce: Ah! Don’t act like I’m you.

Grim: But... they wouldn’t be in Heartslabyul with you guys unless the Mirror of Darkness picked it for them, right?

We’d always welcome anyone to Ramshackle! Hehe! If I get more henchmen, I could push them around everyday and make them bring me all the tuna cans I want!

Jack: Hey, Grim. You’re telling everyone too much of your internal thoughts. This is a job the Headmaster entrusted us with, so let’s do it right.

Ace: There it is—Jack’s always-on-task voice.

But anyway, you guys. The looks on your faces all scream “I don’t know anything!” but... don’t tell me—not just about Night Raven College obviously, but you don’t know about the Great Seven either?! Oi oi, I’m getting déjà vu here!

Grim: These guys are just like my henchman—they need you to walk them through everything.

Ace: Whaaat, but I’m too lazy to give the same explanation again. So anyway, Epel! You can take it from here!

Epel: Huh?! M... Er, me? I’d like to help, but... I don’t know if I’d be able to explain it right.... um... ¹

Jack: He’s stumbling right from the start... Alright, guess I’ll do it.

Night Raven College is a mage-training boarding school. There are seven dorms here based off the Great Seven, a group of powerful figures who once existed in the past. Whichever dorm you’re put in is determined by the Mirror of Darkness at the time you enroll. They say it’s chosen based on the essence of your soul.

Epel: Thank you, Jack. I’m sure all of you here must look up to the Great Seven too, and are hoping you’ll be able to get into Night Raven College as well.

Ace: Hello—? Wait, did they all fall asleep?

Sebek: What?? Oi, all of you! WAKE UP!!

Jack: Agh! Sebek! Don’t start yelling without warning us first!

Deuce: Both of you are being too loud! Everyone, I’m sorry if that startled you. Is it alright if I continue?

I’ll explain about the dorms and the Great Seven.

Heartslabyul is the dorm Ace and I are in, which is said to be founded on the severity of the Queen of Hearts. Everyone here lives by the law of the Queen of Hearts. Dorm Leader Rosehearts is very strict about the rules, but he and others like Clover and Diamond are all respectable people.

Ace: “Respectable,” huh? Deuce, that’s such a basic way to put it.

Everyone! If you end up in the same dorm as us, you better be careful. Our scaaary dorm leader will give you hell if you break even just one rule!

God, don’t you think things would’ve been better if they hadn’t kept in that aspect of the Queen of Hearts?

Epel: Um... The Queen of Hearts was also an amazing woman who reigned over a kingdom that was chaotic by law.

Grim: And so, anyone who broke those laws was said to have been put on trial and exiled from the country.

Jack: I’m part of Savanaclaw, which models the indomitable spirit of the King of Beasts. There are many students here, including Leona and Ruggie, who excel in athletics.

Which is why... I wanted so badly to have a serious fight at the Magift Tournament.

Deuce: I know exactly what that feels like!

The King of Beasts used his wit and magic power to climb his way to the top. A MAN AMONG MEN! Doesn’t he just amaze you?!

Epel: Yeah, he’s so manly and cool... isn’t he?

Grim: But ya know, the dorm leader Leona is just a do-nothing who sleeps all day.

Ace: You say that, but you never know—someday he might just knock you dead with a POW!

Next up is the dorm founded on the mercy of the Sea Witch, Octavinelle.

Jack: Octavinelle is a group of intellectuals who are always getting the highest scores on written exams. Along with the dorm leader Azul Ashengrotto, it’s full of really clever students. They also run a café called the Mostro Lounge.

Deuce: The Sea Witch lived in a grotto deep under the sea, and granting the wishes of pitiful merfolk was something she lived for.

Ace: The price was a little bit expensive, but just for that you could get anything you could ever wish for!

Epel: After that... we have Scarabia, the dorm founded in the tactical spirit of the Sorcerer of the Desert Kingdom. I hear there’s a lot of students here who are good at Astrology and Ancient Curses. The current dorm leader is Kalim Al-Asim!

Jack: The Sorcerer of the Desert Kingdom was someone who excelled at anticipating the future, often gave advice to the king, and acted as a support for the entire kingdom. That “tactical spirit” of his has definitely been passed down through this dorm, hasn’t it?

Grim: So what you mean is, they’re really smart?

Deuce: Yeah. And the people here also use their own power to strengthen themselves! You could say they climbed their way to the top too!

Ace: I could never put in so much effort and motivation just to get good at something.

M’kay, next! This is the one Epel’s part of—Pomefiore! It kinda has a sparkly, really aesthetic vibe to it.

Epel: Pomefiore models the heavy efforts of the Fairest Queen. They say the Queen was the fairest in all the land, and that she spared no effort to preserve her beauty.

I wonder if that’s why... the dorm leader Vil is so strict with both himself and all the students here.

Jack: The Queen was also supposed to have been a master at making poisons. And it’s true that a lot of the students at Pomefiore excel at potion-making too.

Grim: Next, we’ve got that guy Idia’s... Hngyi... Hngyahyde Dorm.

Ace: I-G-N-I-H-Y-D-E! Try to remember it right!!

Grim: Yeah, that! The dorm leader Idia is so rude; he’s always trying to pet my fur like I’m a cat! Me, the almighty Grim who’s going to become a powerful mage someday!

Epel: Huh...? You’re not a cat...?

Ace: Ignihyde was founded on the diligence of the Lord of the Underworld! Cater told me that a lot of the guys here are strong in magic energy engineering and digital gaming, but their lifestyles tend to be real quiet.

Jack: The Lord of the Underworld ruled over a kingdom of writhing spirits by himself. He never once neglected his job, even though anyone else would fear it. He was very dedicated and earnest, and worked without taking breaks.

Deuce: One, two, three, four, five, six... We’re at six now, so there’s only one left, right?

Ace: Last is Diasom—

Sebek: With Lord Malleus working as its dorm leader, this is Diasomnia!

Ace: BLEHJG!

Epel: Ah...

Ace: You know cutting in yelling like that scares everyone, right?!!

Anyway, you’ve been gone this whole time... Where’d you run off to?

Sebek: Yes, I was receiving a lecture about gargoyles from the Young Master.

Grim: Gar.... ghnghyle? Do those taste good?

Ace: I don’t really know what that means, but I’ll let you introduce Diasomnia ‘cause it’s too much of a hassle for me.

Sebek: Of course. This is far out of your depth anyway.

Ahem. Are you ready? HUMANS! Diasomnia, the dorm I’m part of, is founded on the nobility of the Fairy of Thorns. The current dorm leader is Lord Malleus Draconia! He is a descendant of the faeries, and ranks as one of the top five... No, the strongest magic-wielder in the world! He was born in the Valley of Thorns, his birthday is January 18th, he’s 202 cm tall, he’s part of the Gargoyle Research Society, both of his eyes are—

Ace: This isn’t a introduction on the dorm anymore; you’re just talking about the leader!!

Sebek: Hm? This is the dorm that Lord Malleus runs, so what’s so strange about talking about him?

Ace: This is obnoxious... 

Deuce: He won’t listen no matter what you say, huh?

Grim: Right?

Epel: I feel like the students of Diasomnia can wield magic much better than the other dorms can.

Sebek: That is correct. The Fairy of Thorns, who lived on the Mystical Mountain², could cast magic that was extremely powerful even among the Great Seven. It’s clear that Lord Malleus is the most suited for running this dorm, isn’t it?

Epel: ...And that concludes our explanation. Everyone, thank you for listening all the way through.

Jack: Every dorm has its own set of quirks, but in the end, the one you join depends on the Mirror of Darkness. You shouldn’t worry too much about it.

Deuce: Jack’s right. No matter what dorm you get assigned to, let’s all do our best together to become powerful mages!

Ace: What’s with this beautiful ending you’re leaving off with? Well, I’m not complaining, getting some cute little freshmen around doesn’t sound too bad.

Let’s go to the next Unbirthday Party together!

Sebek: This orientation is not over until you return home safely. If anything happens, we’re the ones that will be held responsible. Do you hear that, humans? Be on your guard as you make your way back.

Grim: Next time you stop by, make sure ya don’t forget my tuna cans!

1. Epel: M... Er, me?

I wasn’t able to convey this correctly, but Epel starts off by using the pronoun “Ore” (a rougher version of “me”) and then pauses to correct himself to “Boku” (which is a bit softer).

2. Mystical Mountain

It’s called the “Forbidden Mountain” in the EN dub, but the term engraved on Maleficent’s statue on Main Street is “Mystical Mountain.”

[themonotonysyndrome]

Excluding Octavinelle and Pomefiore... how would the other five of the Great Seven Dorms react when their Vice Dorm Leaders read the text from Jade on the group chat about Baby!Yuu being missing from Ramshackle? I bet that Trey would tell Riddle about it as they both know that Ace and Deuce were supposed to be babysitting Baby!Yuu with Grim so the first two would probably go over to Ramshackle with Cater coming along with them and the Third Year would end up showing everyone there Vil’s Magicam account with pictures of Baby!Yuu since Cater would not be Cater if he does not go onto Magicam and that he does follow Vil there... so what would everyone’s reactions be about that? What would Neige’s reaction be when he checks out Vil’s latest Magicam posts since the former probably also follows the latter there?

[Shady Unagi: Good afternoon. Apologies for my sudden text. I’d like to ask if anyone has seen Yuu.]

[Me: Itty-bitty baby Yuu? He’s at Ramshackle with Ace, Deuce and Grim! Why you ask?]

[Mr.Batty-chan: It’s the Octavinelle turn to take care of their lover, Cater-kun.]

[Me: Oh, lol. Wait - how did you know it was me Lilia-chan?]

[Mr.Batty-chan: Fufu, I have my ways~]

[Space Jam, but at the desert: He means that you’re predictable, Diamond-san. You should give Clover-san his phone back.]

[Me: In a bit! Trey is busy doing paperwork with Riddle to noticed that I have his phone~]

[Me: Anyway, how’s Yuu? Did the juniors remember to feed him?]

[Shady Unagi: I could only hope so unless they would like Floyd to squeeze them further.]

[Dandelion man, take me by the hand: Why are you guys spamming the chat group?]

[Space Jam, but at the desert: Scroll up]

[Dandelion man, take me by the hand: Got it. The idiot trio lost Yuu, huh]

[Space Jam, but at the desert: Well, he’s not here at Scarabia. Kalim would want to throw a feast for him if he’s here...]

[Me: He’s not at the Rose Maze either!]

[Dandelion man, take me by the hand: Same for Savanaclaw. One of the meatheads would’ve smelled him.]

[Mr.Batty-chan: I’ve told the Diasomnia students to keep an eye out for the child. Malleus is searching for him as we speak. I’ll have my bats scout around as well.]

[Real Boi 2001: Good morning, everyone! Big brother woke up from his naps because of the chat group’s notification pings and told me to mute it. I’ve informed him of the missing Directing Student! 

[Me: Thank you, Ortho-kun!]

[Shady Unagi: Then... the only one left is...]

[Me: Does anyone know where Rook is?]

[Mr.Batty-chan: Pomefiore most likely]

[Dandelion man, take me by the hand: Or stalking Leona-san. Again.]

[Space Jam, but at the desert: Nope. He’s at Pomefiore right now. Vil is using Yuu for clouts.]

[Me: WAT]

Heartslabyul’s Reaction: 

After reading Jamil’s text (and yes, Cater change the contact names in Trey’s phone), Cater immediately takes out his own phone to check his Magicam account. And true enough, the number 1 currently trending are pictures of Vil and Baby!Yuu in different poses and clothes - all of them were very artfully shot with warm lightings to bestow a sort of comforting and gentle tone to each picture. 

Everyone is talking about it. Everyone is throwing #s around - especially the #DaddyVil one. Ovaries everywhere in Twisted Wonderland exploded. Parents are even sharing pictures of their babies online! 

Cater made sure to liked every single Vil & Yuu’s pictures before rushing to Riddle’s bedroom where he and Trey are at. 

Needless to say that Riddle nearly spills his tea when Cater slams open the door. The Dorm Leader was about to chatise Cater on his poor manners but all words left him when he saw the pictures. 

“Trey, Cater.” 

“...Yes, Riddle?”

“...Yes, Dorm Leader?”

“Weren’t Ace, Deuce and Grim supposed to take care of Yuu at Ramshackle?” 

Trey and Cater shared an uneasy yet meek grin - knowing what is about to happen. 

Together, they dutifully reply, “Yes, Dorm Leader.” 

And thus, the three of them march towards Ramshackle to punish the juniors plus Grim and maybe even educate them on how to keep a better eye on a baby. By the end of the day, Adeuce + Grim would be collared. 

Savanaclaw’s Reaction: 

Honestly, most of the students there sigh in relief, knowing that Rook is too busy taking care of Baby!Yuu to chase or stalk them for once!

And as per usual, Leona slept through the drama blissfully while Ruggie idly wonders as he oversees Savanaclaw’s Magift practise if the seafood trio would fight Vil and Rook for Baby!Yuu custody. 

All in all, they hold the ‘not my circus, not my monkeys’ mentality during this drama. 

Scarabia’s Reaction:

Jamil’s main priority now is to ensure that Kalim never finds out that Baby!Yuu is missing or about Vil’s pictures on Magicam. Why you ask? Because then Kalim would want to take photos with Baby!Yuu and post it on his Magicam account next and Jamil could already foresee and feel the headaches on how the internet would react to it! 

The netizens now wonder just where the fuck did Vil got a baby to model with him because the zealous fans have pointed out that the studio that he used bears Pomefiore’s wallpaper and interior architecture. 

Jamil really doesn’t want Kalim to add more fuel to the fire. 

Ignihyde’s Reaction: 

After Ortho reported what happened and showed him the series of texts, Idia cackled. They lost the baby and now the Directing Student is basically insta-famous online? This sounds like one of his slice-of-life animes! 

He gives Ortho full access to his surveillance cameras around NRC to keep an eye on Baby!Yuu with a request to snap pictures of the seafood and Heartslabyul trio ‘punishing’ Adeuce + Grim. 

Hell, might also snap a few candid photos of Vil and Baby!Yuu too!

Diasomnia’s Reaction: 

The moment Lilia informed him that Baby!Yuu was missing, Malleus flew out alongside his bats. Not knowing that if he just wait for a damn second, Lilia would add that Baby!Yuu is safe and well-taken care of in Pomefiore. 

Oh well. Lilia supposed that it’s good that Malleus exercise once in a while!

Lilia called off the search once he saw Vil’s pictures and seeing him carrying and posing with Baby!Yuu tugs on his heartstrings. Oh, he wants to take care of Baby!Yuu too! 

If anything, he’s more qualified to take care of him since he basically raised Malleus, Silver and Sebek!

And that gives him an idea. Lilia would personally fly after Malleus and convinced him that Baby!Yuu should spend a day and night at Diasomnia with them! Wouldn’t that just be wonderful? They could even have a little sleepover! Think of the fun things that they could do! 

Welp. It wasn’t hard to persuade Malleus. The idea of spending time with his best friend is always a good time in his book. 

Chaos immediately break out when both Octavinelle and Diasomnia storm into Pomefiore for Baby!Yuu. As for Vil and Rook? They ain’t gonna give Baby!Yuu up because clearly, no one could take care of him better than them! 

...And Lilia took that personally lol. 

Bonus round: Neige’s reaction:

It was a beautiful and perfect day for Neige. He just finished a class and was handed a near-perfect grade on his latest quiz paper - but it’s ok though. He promises himself that he would study and work hard more, just like Vi-kun! 

It was during lunch time that Ellis, Immad and Muqazi showed him Vil’s and Baby!Yuu’s pictures on his social media. Several of Neige’s fans already tag him, asking him about his opinion on the pictures and if he would ever model for a baby clothing company. 

Neige instantly fell in love with the pictures! He never thought that Vi-kun looks such a handsome and warm father! He wasted no time to throw in his supports, compliments and comments on each and every one of the pictures. 

Neige even saved some of the pictures because he had never seen Vil in this light before. Usually, Vil exudes a god-like beauty demeanour - untouched by the world and unbothered by any obstacles on his path. So to see him like this? Does that mean that Vil is a lot more approachable now? Neige has been trying to get closer to him over the years but to no avail. Their relationship is strictly professional and it saddens Neige. 

Hey, actually, maybe Vil is more open to talking to him if he sees Neige upload his own photos with a baby?? Yeah! He’s definitely planning to do so!

[wonderland-in-bloom]

the battle for a princess pt.2

[dorm leaders x reader]

@selfinsertheaven asked: Yaaaaaaay I've been waiting for this!!!! If it's not too much to ask, could I get a oneshot of the House Leaders falling for female reader who's basically a Disney princess (kind, gentle, can sing really nice, the works) and them trying to make her fall for them/compete for her heart. Thank you so much I absolutely adore your writing!!

part two!! lezgooo!!

♡

“shh, shhh. it’s okay little one.” he cooed. “want to help me take care of him, (y/n)?” what you and riddle both failed to realize, was that the three remaining dorm leaders had a plan up their sleeves. you and riddle managed to treat the little hedgehog. it had a little injury on it’s left leg and you managed to wrap it up pretty nicely. “you’d make a good nurse, (y/n).” riddle complimented you as you rubbed the bridge of the hedgehog’s nose, hoping it’ll fall asleep. “you think so? maybe animals yeah...but people?” riddle smiled a gentle smile, something the heartslabyul students rarely see. “of course. you did cure my broken heart after all.” you giggled. “ah riddle, the overblot situation? it was nothing...” 

it didn’t cross your mind that riddle was flirting with you. you just assumed he was being friendly. this didn’t matter to riddle however, he got to spend time with you and had all the time in the world to win you over. “(y/n)...i-” riddle’s sentence was cut off with cater and trey running towards his direction. “RIDDLE! SOMETHING! BAD! HAPPENED-” you two followed cater and trey to go to the area of the gardens with the rose bushes. riddle’s jaw dropped when he saw the roses painted in blue and green paint. his face began to get redder by the second, and you tried your best to calm him down and didn’t make him explode. you felt a tap on your shoulder and you saw jade and floyd from a shrub. “you wouldn’t wanna see this, come with us.” you hesitantly left riddle to let cater and trey take care of him while you muttered a small ‘sorry’. you followed jade and floyd who was presumably heading to the mostro lounge. “i assumed you two did that?” jade only let out a small chuckle but covered it with a cough and floyd just smirked. “the roses were waaaaay too boring. they’re just red or white. can’t the choose another color?” you shook your head. the truth was, azul told the two of them to distract riddle somehow so the both of them could lure you away all the way to the lounge. 

when the two double doors opened, you stepped into an empty lounge. the purple lighting only illuminated one table, with an all too familiar figure sitting there. “my sweet, precious (y/n). have a seat.” you shuddered at this eerie atmosphere. but you hesitantly took a seat across azul. once you sat down, the lights all bursted alive and the room was illuminated in different shades of color. you were shocked to see new decorations such as corals and chandeliers. “azul! look at what you’ve done with the place...” he chuckled. “of course i got the finest quality of decor. the finest, just like you...” you giggled. “you’re too sweet azul!” he smirked to himself. with a click of his fingers, a rainbow of food appeared in front of the both of you. “i’m planning to have new menus. please, be my taste tester.” you spent the whole afternoon with a happy heart and happy stomach. besides, you also got a chance to talk a lot with azul. this made him extremely happy, and he was actually shocked that there were no distractions from the other dorms at all. when the clock struck at around 8 pm you thanked azul for your little time together and left. on the way back to your dorm, you chuckled to see a figure leaning against the old dead tree of the ramshackle dorm. 

“isn’t it too late for a lady to be roaming around at this time of night?” you shrugged as you entered into the property of the dorm. closing the gate, you turned your head and gave malleus a small smile. “ehhh, i think it’s fine like this.” you approached malleus and that’s when he fixed his posture. “the night we met, i thought you said you would find other abandoned places to relax in.” he sighed. “it’s different now. would you believe me if i said i wanted to see you.” malleus was not the type to joke, you thought to yourself. you just shook off the thought however. “hmm. probably.” was it really though? or was he planning something? well that didn’t matter. “you must’ve been tired from today. you should get some rest.” malleus gently took a lock of your hair and gently kissed it. “goodnight, princess.” all you could do was giggle. you really didn’t know how to react. “goodnight, malleus.” as he exited through the front gate, you couldn’t refrain yourself from smiling. today has been such a weird day with different events involving all the dorm leaders. weird, you thought. 

after cleaning yourself and already tucked in bed with a loud grim snoring beside you, you received a video call from idia on your phone. you picked it up and saw him laying down on his bed. “hey (y/n)...i know it’s late. are you going to sleep yet?” you waved at him. “nope, it’s fine.” he sighed in relief. he promised you that the call would be short but it actually ended two hours later when the two of you were drowsy and really sleepy. “i think you should sleep now, (y/n).” you yawned and nodded. “i’m sorry for being weak at staying up late.” you chuckled. idia brushed it off. “it’s alright! really. after all, i’m the one who keeps talking to you.” idia hesitantly raised his left pointer finger and thumb to form a small little heart symbol while his left hand held his phone showing you his face and hand. “sweet dreams, (y/n). i hope you dream about me.” how adorable. “i really hope we can call each other again tomorrow. it’s been fun talking to you.” and with that the call ended. 

that night, you had a little trouble sleeping. you never realized how different and how caring all of the dorm leaders were towards you. were they in love with you? noooo of course not. well. at least you thought that was the case. 

♡

hey guys! i’m sorry if i write less nowadays (however i’ll try my best to upload one or two things each day) because i had a bandaid around my pointer finger and it’s actually really annoying to type with, and also cause the spark of inspiration for drawing came back lololol. i’ll promise to update everyday though :)) stay safe, stay healthy, stay happy guys! 

love, a♕

[leviskokoro]

Mari in Twisted Wonderland | Abridged Version | Heartslabyul

Chapter 1

Mari had her first prophetic dream and she’s like owo whats this

It was about Alice seeing the Card soldiers paint the white roses red and shit. 

But then, she was awoken by a loud knocking and wonders who it could possibly be at this hour. 

Grim and her decided to go down. Though, she tried finding a weapon first, just in case the person turns out to be some murderer or whatever. Manages to find a knife

They went downstairs to the front door and opened it to see who it was. Turns out that it was Ace. 

She relaxes and lets her guard down.

Ace: Is that a knife?!

Mari: Yeah, what if you were a murderer? 

Grim: Hah! I would’ve taken care of it myself, puny human— Huh?! You got a collar on!

“I ate a tart,” Ace replied, crossing his arms with a scowl on his features. 

Mari tilted her head in confusion and curiosity. “A tart?” 

He nodded. “I was hungry when I got back to the dorm and I found some tarts inside the fridge. Three whole tarts! So I ate one and it was really good. Then the dorm leader found me eating his tart and was all like “Tart theft is unforgivable! OFF WITH YOUR HEAD!” and that’s how I got this collar… The end.” He used a shrill and high-pitched voice to imitate his dorm leader’s words. 

She couldn’t help but stand in silence at that story, squinting. 

“Both of you are in the wrong,” Grim simply remarked with an unamused look on his face. To which the girl nodded in agreement. 

“Isn’t sealing away my magic for stealing a tart a bit too far?!” Ace cried out. “For a wizard, it’s like having your arms and legs chained up. And there were three whole tarts, it’s not like he could eat all of them by himself. There’s got to be a limit to how narrow-minded you could be!” 

“Which is why you’re both in the wrong,” Mari retorted, “You should’ve asked permission first, but he also shouldn’t be so harsh.” 

All he could do was groan at her reply. 

Grim’s eyes widened and he crossed his arms. “What if the tarts were for a party? Someone’s birthday, or something. Heh, I’m a genius.” He grinned, sharp teeth glinted in the moonlight. 

“Birthday?” Ace asked, placing his hand on the back of his head. 

“That might explain why he was so angry,” Mari said, deciding to clean up a little more since she was awake. The two just watched as she did this, not helping because they were little shits.

He huffed, narrowing his eyes at her. “I thought you were gonna say he was being tyrannical, prefect.” 

She shrugged. “He was certainly being unreasonable, but it’s wrong to steal,” she replied as she took a broom and sweeped the dusty floor. 

Grim glared at him, placing his paws on his hips. “You’re at fault for stealing his tart in the first place.” 

“There’s a chance he’ll forgive you if you apologised tomorrow,” the brunette girl advised him as she threw away the dust that she swept up. The wood under her feet creaked as she returned. 

“Grudges over food are the worst,” her partner remarked, an unamused expression on his face. His bright blue eyes widened in realisation. “Wait! I never got those tuna cans from the Headmaster!” 

“Fine. Whatever. All I gotta do is apologise, right?” Ace sighed. He looked at her with a glare. “This is your idea, so you better come with me.” 

All she did was nod. She was going with him regardless anyway. 

“So, where do I sleep tonight?” He asked, an inquisitive look in his eye. 

“You’re actually staying the night?” Grim crossed his arms. “Every room aside from ours is still a mess. Clean a room for yourself.” 

He made a face. “Bleh, I don’t wanna.” Then, he turned to Mari with a smile. “Prefect~ Let me sleep in your room. I’m slim, so I won’t take a lot of space.” 

“Aight.” 

Grim’s eyes widened to the size of saucers at her lax response. “Ffgnaa?! You’re just going to say yes?!” 

“I’m used to sharing beds with people.” Mari proceeded to have a flashback to every time the Demon brothers invited themselves to her room and stayed there without really giving her a choice in the matter, as well as every time she had to sleep in the same room as them. Honestly, at least Ace had the decency to ask first. 

“Sweet! Thanks, Mari.” Ace flashed her a grin. 

After that, they all went to their rooms to sleep. The boy was right, he didn’t take up much space. Plus, the bed was big enough for the two of them. Unfortunately, Ace hogged the sheets. The bastard. 

When morning came, so did the loud knocking. This time it was Deuce and he scolded Ace for getting collared. 

While heading to class, Grim teased Ace about his collar and not being able to use magic. 

Ace will remember that.

They went to the Heartslabyul dorm and Mari is like -surprised pikachu- 

She loves it a lot. The hearts and roses were gorgeous. If only she had magic, then she would’ve been sorted into a nice dorm. Ugh. 

No matter. She’d just have to work hard to make the Ramshackle dorm shine. 

Then they met the e-boy-- I mean, Cater and he was painting the white roses red. 

Mari proceeds to have flashbacks to her dream earlier. Huh. Maybe it was just a coincidence. 

Dude recognises them as the notorious first years that broke the 10,000,000 madol chandelier so he takes a selfie with them. 

He has them paint the roses with him. Grim accidentally sets the roses on fire, Deuce accidentally turns them blue. Turns out it’s a bad idea to ask freshmen that are inexperienced with magic to do your chores. 

Ace complained and asked why they’re painting them red. He said that they look pretty as white roses. Mari agreed and expressed that she felt that the natural colors of the roses were fine. 

Cater explained that it’s tradition for roses to be red for Unbirthday parties. And that they use flamingos in seven different colors for croquet with hedgehogs as the balls. 

Mari wondered if that was safe or ethical. Either way, this dorm was proving to be quite strange for her. 

Ace remembered that he was supposed to apologise. Cater asked if he had a tart of apology and he said no. 

Cater told him that he can’t let him in the dorm then. The first years tried fighting him but lost and got kicked out. 

The bell rang and they had to really rush to Potions class. 

Crewel appeared and Mari had a “Oh no he’s hot!” moment. She paid extra close attention to him during class. 

Then it was History class. Mari mostly looked at Lucius more than Trein but was also fascinated with learning the history of Twisted Wonderland.

 Then PE came around. Mari saw Vargas and was like “Damn he got some tiddies lmao” Then she dies.

Jk. But the 20 laps and 100 pushups were exhausting for her. 

It was break time. Ace and Deuce talked about the classes not being too different from regular school. Mari agreed that they were somewhat similar to the classes she had at RAD. 

Then they noticed Grim was trying to skip class. 

Ace made fun of Mari for losing him and told her that if she wanted his help, then she should buy him a chocolate croissant. Deuce wanted an iced latte. 

All it really took for Mari was to give Deuce her best puppy eyes until he agreed to help. Then she said she didn’t want Ace’s help since he didn’t have his magic anyway. This aggravated him into helping her. Heh, suckers. 

Turns out she didn’t really need their help anyway since she just scolded Grim into going with her, saying he won’t become a great wizard if he didn’t put effort into his studies. 

It was lunchtime and Grim got into trouble with delinquent upperclassmen over food since he bumped into them and the egg broke. One of them said that breaking the egg is the best part about eating carbonara. 

Which confused Mari greatly because she loves eating carbonara and has never ever heard of eating egg on it. Perhaps it was normal in Twisted Wonderland too. Heartslabyul was already strange enough. 

They got into a fight but won this time and the delinquents ran off, yelling about pasta again. 

The first year group started eating and Grim asked what the other dorms are like. Cater popped up next to them, surprising the four of them. Turns out Trey was with him as well. 

Cater basically just tried to get all buddy buddy and exchanged numbers. 

Mari told him she didn’t have a phone and he offered to go phone shopping with her and called it a date

She was just like “bro im fucking POOR” 

Trey told him to chill and they went back on track. Cater started a conversation about the seven dorms.

Time for Mari’s reactions to the other dorms

Heartslabyul - Ew. She doesn’t like overly strict people or environments. 

Savanaclaw - Haha, furry jock dorm. Probably found Jack hot since she’s into the strong silent types. 

Octavinelle - Sea Witch’s dorm, huh? Does that mean they’re business guys? Oh look, it’s that weird guy from the entrance ceremony that “wanted Riddle’s collar” 

Scarabia - The smart ones, according to Trey. There’s the guy who got his butt set on fire during the entrance ceremony and there’s… a really hot guy that’s exactly her type. His hair looked so long and silky and his eyes were mysterious. 

Pomefiore - 

Grim: there’s a super cute girl over there! 

Deuce: A girl besides Mari in an all-boys’ school?!

 Mari: Nah that’s a dude 

Ace: Eh? How do you know? 

Mari: I can see his adam’s apple 

Mari, internally: Shawty had them apple bottom jeans, boots with the fur-- 

So apparently Pomefiore is the “Beauty” dorm and the dorm leader has like five million followers on Magicam. That’s cool, but she’s more interested in their poisons. 

Ignihyde - Cater called the students of that dorm introverts. Trey said that they were good with technology. They seemed real neat. 

Diasomnia - Powerful and considered celebrities, as well as having an aura that makes them hard to approach. Though, Mari lowkey thought that about everyone except that one guy that got his butt set on fire. He seemed very friendly. Maybe it was her social anxiety talking, maybe they were actually just intimidating. Anyway, Lilia popped up from above and scared them. He basically just said that he’s not a child and that Diasomnia welcomes students from other dorms. So there’s that, at least. Though, this doesn’t do anything to extinguish the intimidating aura from the rest of their students. Then the strange dude left. 

Ace started talking shit about Riddle while Mari blankly stared at Riddle who was right behind him. Boi he ded

Riddle then went on with his spiel about rulebreakers. Honestly, Mari pretty much spaced out during this in order not to roll her eyes at him. 

Then he left to get two sugars for his lemon tea that the rules state that he’s supposed to drink after a meal.

Trey tries to explain that Riddle’s intentions aren’t bad and that he’s just trying to make the dorm better. 

To which Mari replies: “Sometimes it doesn’t matter what your intentions are. If you’re clearly making the people around you unhappy and uncomfortable without actual regard for how they feel, then that’s that.” 

And Grim said: “Someone with good intentions doesn’t randomly collar people!” 

They laughed, but one could easily tell that it wasn’t genuine. 

Then bam, more exposition comes and Cater explains what unique magics are. 

Then they start talking about tarts. Mari offered to help make one with Trey and Ace while Deuce and Grim wanted out. They only wanted to help after Trey said they could eat some tart if they helped out. 

They started chestnut picking and met Leona who was a fucking bitch because she accidentally stepped on his tail. 

Jk. He drinks his respect women juice so he’s not as mean and leaves her with only a warning for the most part. 

She and Grim got back to Ace and Deuce, they picked the chestnuts and got back to the Heartslabyul dorm to make that tart. 

Trey made his whole joke with the oyster sauce but Mari just looked at him with pure disbelief in her eyes. Then Trey realized he needed more ingredients since they brought too much chestnuts and Deuce and Mari volunteered to buy them from the shop. Grim also said he wanted to come since he was tired of mixing flour. 

So they go to the Mystery Shop and get the shit. Mari wonders for a moment if Sam has got anything that could possibly help her get home but then shakes her head, saying she’ll see about that later. They head back to the Heartslabyul dorm but run into trouble, then came the reveal of Deuce’s “Bad Boy” personality. Mari was like -surprised pikachu- while he beat the shit out of the delinquents, silently cheering him on. After that, he got upset because his “honor student” persona was gone. It’s especially bad since he felt that he scared Mari. 

Achievement unlocked: Deuce’s Backstory 

Grim asked if being an honor student meant that he should just grin and bear everything. Mari agreed and reassured that being an honor student didn’t necessarily mean that he should be a pushover. Then she broke it to him that the eggs were unfertilised and would never hatch. Now it was his turn on the surprised pikachu face. 

They bought another set of eggs and went back to the Heartslabyul dorm safe and sound. The tart was finished. Hooray! Though, Deuce was still shocked about the chicks so Mari had to pat his back. They started eating some tarts after Cater came by to check on them. He then brought up Trey’s unique magic.

Trey revealed his unique magic and explained it to them. They were impressed. But once they were done, he told Ace he can’t sleep in Heartslabyul and gave him and Deuce permission to sleep in the Ramshackle Dorm so they did. 

Next day. They got to the Unbirthday Party and Ace gave the tart to Riddle. 

Riddle is like “Fuck you. The Law of the Queen of Hearts says one must never bring a mont blanc tart to an Unbirthday Party! REEEEEEE” And then Mari wonders how many rules there are. He answers with 810 and that he memorized them since he’s dorm leader. She’s like “Dude, he’s a freshman, he can’t possibly memorize every rule.” To which Riddle countered with “I memorized them on my first day in NRC! If I can do it, then he should be able to as well.”

“Not everyone has to be like you!” She proceeds to have flashbacks to her narcissistic grandmother who always believed that she was right and demanded that everyone be like her. This causes her to dislike him. 

“As the dorm leader of Heartslabyul, out of respect to the strictness of the Queen of Hearts, I can’t ignore this violation. Throw the mont blanc and these rulebreakers out!” 

Ace started arguing with him as well and the two third years tried to help. Riddle goes on about how he has the highest grades and is the most powerful, which makes him the most correct. This makes Mari’s stomach churn more because of how much he reminds her of her grandmother. Grim says he’s a selfish tyrant who wastes food and ends up getting himself and Deuce collared as well. 

Then they get thrown out by the third years and meet Chenya, who gives them a tip to talk to Trey and unlock Riddle’s tragic backstory. 

And they did. Because it’s always a good idea to listen to the advice of a strange guy who pops into conversations head-first, literally. 

Achievement Unlocked: Riddle’s Backstory Part 1 

Mari’s reaction was that she sympathised with him and understood, considering that her grandmother was somewhat similar. However-- 

“His past is not an excuse for him to be a tyrant. Perhaps that’s harsh of me to say, but I still stand by it. He believes he’s right all the time and fails to notice how miserable the rest of Heartslabyul is.”

Ace put in his two cents and said it was Trey’s fault that he’s like this, dropping a truth bomb on him. Mari agreed and said “Friends help each other to become better people, not allow them to grow worse and worse.” Then he called Trey lame for being afraid of getting his head chopped off. 

Crowley pops up like “STFU THIS IS THE LIBRARY YOU LIL SHITS” and they said he was the loudest so he started whispering “stfu you lil shits”

They explained the situation and he suggested moving dorms but Ace was like “but thats a pussy move” so he suggested fighting Riddle to the death for the position of dorm leader. But without the “to the death” part. Ace and Deuce agreed to challenge Riddle. Grim wanted to go too but Crowley said other people from different dorms can’t so he got sad. 

Timeskip to the match and it was over in less than 5 seconds. Mari told Riddle that he was wrong but then he started mocking her and her family for barely being able to use magic and having a bad education and then called her completely inadequate. She just looked at him blankly considering that she didn’t particularly care about him insulting her or her parents. 

But then Ace punched him for saying that. And Mari was internally like, “I have decided that I love this guy”. Then he went onto this speech about how kids aren’t their parents’ trophies and that it was Riddle’s fault for not making a friend scold him for being a tyrant. He also calls him a baby. But not like the “uwu baby” kinda way, the kind of immature brat kinda way. 

Shit hits the fan and Trey finally had enough and used his unique magic to overwrite Riddle’s to remove the magic-sealing collars. Then Riddle fucking overblots. 

Mari is definitely surprised. Then noticed the creature behind him to look similar to the beast she and the shared brain cell trio fought in the Dwarves’ Mines. So, she steeled herself and ordered the trio to attack Riddle, especially once Crowley said that he’d lose his life if this went for too long. The third years came to help as well while their Headmaster evacuated the other students.

And they beat the shit out of Riddle. Then Mari kinda spaces out again and has this vision of Riddle’s past. This wasn’t the first time she has seen a vision of someone else’s past, but it still confused her. She wasn’t in the Devildom anymore, and she didn’t have magic. 

Achievement Unlocked: Riddle’s Backstory Part 2 

Then she’s shaken back to earth by Ace and he’s like “Oi, don’t space out now, dumbass.” “Did you see that?” “See that Riddle overblotted? How could I not?!” “Nevermind” 

Riddle is crying and she feels bad so she rubs his back. Her motherly instincts get the better of her at this point. He’s surprised at how she’s treating him, considering the only female figure he had in his life was his mother who was strict and harsh. When Ace started yelling at him, she scolded him and told him to yell at him later. 

“Ace, cut him some slack. You can yell at him when he’s recovered. He almost died ffs” “SO DID WE” 

Then he told Riddle to do the Revenge Unbirthday Party. Riddle agreed before Mari and Crowley decided to take him to the infirmary. Since she was gone, Grim got to eat the black rock again. 

While Riddle was recovering from blot, Mari took it upon herself to help him out. He appreciated it a lot. 

After the Revenge Unbirthday Party, Mari thought about her experience so far. The strange dreams, the overblot, the vision. 

Then she remembered something. Before leaving the Devildom, Barbatos pulled her aside and had a talk with her. He held her hand and a faint glow emitted from it before he let her go. “A fragment of my power,” he said. But she didn’t understand what he meant. 

When she slept that night, she saw Belphie and nearly cried because she missed him. Then she explained what happened to her and that she was in Twisted Wonderland. He told her that he’ll inform the others so that they can find a way to get her back, and that she should hang on in the meantime. 

And so she did, unaware that her adventure just begun.

[thekillerssluts]

Will Butler explains how his Harvard degree developed into his second solo album

“Yeah, it’s terrifying,” Will Butler says, pondering how it feels to be releasing music away from the umbrella of Arcade Fire.

“It’s the classic thing about all writers,” he continues. “The creative process makes them wanna puke the whole time they’re writing something, then they read something back and it makes them feel worse, then a year later they read it and think ‘yeah, it’s okay’. It’s a glorious experience, but it really makes your stomach hurt.”

On the one hand Will Butler is well accustomed to this writing process, being a multi-instrumentalist in the Canadian indie-rock band fronted by brother Win - Arcade Fire. But on his own terms, it’s an entirely new process. Butler’s second solo album Generations arrives five years after his debut Policy, a collection that rattled with a ramshackle charm and what he describes now as a ‘consciously very unproduced’ sound. Arcade Fire wound down from their Everything Now tour in September 2018, leaving Butler with the last two years of playtime. Most musicians, particularly those accustomed to big album cycles, set aside their downtime for family or other musical projects. Somehow Butler’s managed to do both while also completing a masters degree in Public Policy at Harvard.

“I went to school for a variety of reasons but there was an artistic side to it too,” he says. “I have always tried to let music and lyrics emerge from the world that I’m in; you fertilise the soil and see what grows. It was a way to better understand where we are, how we got here and what's going on. You know, ‘where am I from? What's going to happen?’” Both of these questions explored in his degree are used as fuel for Generations.

It’s easy to imagine an album by somebody who’s just pursued a Public Policy MSt to form in reams of political commentary, probably set to an acoustic guitar. However, Butler instead engages character portraits soundtracked by a broad range of thrilling sonics. Opener “Outta Here” is shrouded by a monstrous bass that lurks beneath the depths of the instrumentation before bursting out midway through. “Got enough things on my plate without you talking about my salvation,” he screams.

While the cage-rattling “Bethlehem” is mania underpinned by a thrashing guitar and bubbling synths that help lift the track to boiling point.While there’s no current world leaders namechecked or any on-the-nose political commentary across the LP, the angst of its contents is instantly tangible, backed by the intellect of somebody who’s spent the past few years studying the ins and outs of government processes. A perfect combination, you could say.

This fuel was partly discovered through Butler reconnecting with the music that defined his teenage years: namely Bjork, The Clash and Eurythmics. While these influences certainly slip into frame across Generations, they were paired with something of an unlikely muse: “I got into this habit of listening to every single song on the Spotify Top 50 every six weeks,” Butler explains. “So many of them are horrible, terrifying and just awful but there’s something inspiring about how god damn avant garde the shittiest pop music is now. Just completely divorced from any sense of reality - it’s just layers upon layers upon layers - it’s amazing. It’s like Marcel Duchamp making a pop hit every single song.”

We turn from current music to current events. Navigating Covid-19 with his wife and three kids in their home of Brooklyn, a majority of 2020 has been caught up in family time for Butler. “The summer’s been easier because everybody’s outside, whereas in spring it was like ‘it’s family time because we have to lock our doors as there's a plague outside.’” While being surrounded by the trappings of lockdown since his second solo album Generations was completed in March, the album itself wriggles with the spirit of live instrumentation, which at this point seems like some sort of relic from a bygone era."I think eventually rediscovering this album back in the live setting would be amazing - we’re a really great live band, it’s a shame to not be in front of people."

The source of this energy can be traced back to the way the songs came together; they were forged and finessed at a series of shows in the early stages of the project. “It just raises the stakes. You can tell how good or how dumb a lyric is when you sing it in front of a hundred people,” he reflects. “It’s like ‘are you embarrassed because what you’re saying is true?’ or ‘is it just embarrassing?’ It’s a good refiner for that stuff. I think eventually rediscovering this album back in the live setting would be amazing - we’re a really great live band, it’s a shame to not be in front of people.”

Like his day job in Arcade Fire, Butler’s solo live group is something of a family affair - both his wife and sister-in-law feature in the band, alongside Broadway's West Side Story star, and the student of the legendary Fela Kuti drummer, Tony Allen. Together this eclectic mix of musicians conjures an infectious spirit through the raw combination of thundering synths and pedal-to-the-metal instrumentation; an apt concoction indeed for lyrics that are attempting to unhatch the bamboozling questions that surround our current times.

The timing for Butler’s decision to study Public Policy couldn’t have been more perfect, with his course starting in the Fall of 2016. “I was at Harvard for the election which was a really bizarre time to be in a government school, but it was great to be in a space for unpacking questions like ‘my god, how did we get here?!’” he reflects, with a note of mockery in the bright voice.

“I had a course taught by a professor named Leah Wright Rigueur. The class was essentially on race in America but with an eye towards policy. The class explored what was going to happen in terms of race under the next president. The second to last week was about Hilary Clinton and the last week was about Donald Trump. We read riot reports - Ferguson in 2015, Baltimore in 2016, the Detroit uprisings in the ‘60s and Chicago in 1919 - it's certainly helping me understand the last 5 years, you know. Just to be in that context was very lucky.”

As we’ve seen with statues being toppled, privileges being checked and lyrics of national anthems being interrogated in recent months, history is a complex, labyrinthine subject to navigate requiring both ruthless self-scrutiny and a commitment to the long-haul in order to correct things. The concept of Generations shoots from the same hip employing character portraits to engage in the broader picture.

The writing, at times, is beamed from a place of disconnect (“had enough of bad news / had enough of your generation”), from a place of conscious disengagement (“I’m not talking because I don’t feel like lying / if you stay silent you can walk on in silence”) and from a place of honest self-assessment (“I was born rich / three quarters protestant / connections at Harvard and a wonderful work ethic”).

“I’m rooted in history to a fault,” he says. “My great grandfather was the last son of a Mormon pioneer who’d gone West after being kicked out of America by mob violence. He wanted to be a musician which was crazy - he got 6 months in a conservatory in Chicago before his first child was born. He always felt like he could have been a genius, he could of been writing operas but he was teaching music in like tiny western towns and he had all these kids and he made them be a family band and they were driving around the American west before there were roads in the deserts - literally just driving through the desert! He would go to these small towns and get arrested for trying to skip bills and just live this wild existence.”

Butler’s grandma, meanwhile, was just a child at this point. She went on to become a jazz singer with her sisters and married the guitar player Alvino Rey. “The fact that me and my brother are musicians is no coincidence,” he smiles. “It’s not like I decided to be a musician, it’s down to decisions that were made at the end of the 19th century that have very clearly impacted where I am today. The musical side of it is very beautiful, it is super uncomplicated and a total joy to have a tradition of music in our family...but also in the American context - which is the only context I know - it's also these very thorny inheritances from the 19th century and beyond that influence why my life is like it is.

“For me it’s like, ‘I made my money because my grandpa was a small business owner’ or ‘my grandpa was a boat builder and got a pretty good contract in WW2 and was able to send his kids to college’. Both of which are so unpoetic and unromantic but it is an important thing to talk about, that's a personal political thing to talk about; there's horrifying and beautiful aspects there.”

The lament of “I’m gonna die in a hospital surrounded by strangers who keep saying they’re my kids” on “Not Gonna Die” could well be croaked by somebody on the tail end of a life lived on the American Dream. At times, Butler plays the characters off against each other, like on “Surrender,” which chronicles two flawed characters going back and forth played by Butler’s lead vocals and his female backing singers that undermine his memory; “I remember we were walking” is cut up with the shrug of “I dunno” and “maybe so”. “I found having the backing voices there gave me something to play with,” he explains. “Either something threatening to the main character or something affirming to the main character, just providing another point of view.”

Elsewhere, “I Don’t Know What I Don’t Know” explores the feeling of being unsuitably equipped to unravel the complexities that surrounds us day-to-day. “The basic emotion of that song is very much ‘I don’t know what I can do’ which is an emotion we all have,” he ponders. “There’s also the notion that follows that, like ‘maybe don’t even tell me what to do because it’s going to be too overwhelming to even do anything’.”

Some of these portraits materialised in the aftershows Butler began hosting while on Arcade Fire’s Everything Now tour which found him instigating conversations and talks by local councilman, politicians and activists on local issues. “On some of the good nights of the aftershow town halls, you’d feel that switch away from despair and into action,” he says smiling. “The step between despair and action is possible, that sentiment isn’t spelled out lyrically on the record but it’s definitely there spiritually.”

“I learned anew what a treasure it is to have people in a room. Getting humans in a room can be absurd. And we were having from 5,000 to 15,000 people in a room every night, most of them local. I’m very comfortable with art for art’s sake; I think art is super important and it’s great people can like music that's not political. It was sort of like ‘well we’re here and I know a lot of you are thinking about the world and you’re thinking about what a shit show everything is. You want to know what we can do and I also want to know what we can do!’ So I put on these after shows.”"The dream lineup would be to have a local activist and a local politician talking about a local issue because that’s the easiest way to make concrete change."

Butler would find a suitable location near the Arcade Fire gig through venue owners who were often connected to the local music and comedy scenes to host these events. “The dream lineup would be to have a local activist and a local politician talking about a local issue because that’s the easiest way to make concrete change. Arguably, the most important way is through the city council and state government. The New York state government is in Albany, New York. The shit that happens in Albany is all super important so I wanted to highlight that and equip people with some concrete levers to pull.

“In Tampa we had people who were organizing against felon disenfranchisement, like if you’ve been convicted of a felon you couldn’t vote in Florida, and something absurd like 22% of black men in Florida couldn’t vote and there were people organising to change that - this was in 2018 - and you could just see people being like ‘holy shit, I didn't even know this was happening!’

“These were not topics I’m an expert in - it’s like these are things that are happening. The thought was trying to engage, I’m sad to not be doing something similar this Fall, I mean what a time it would have been to go around America.”

Understandably the looming 2020 election is on Butler’s radar. “It doesn't feel good,” he sighs. “I’ve never had any ability to predict, like 2 weeks from now the world could be completely different from what it is today. There was always a one-in-a-billion chance of the apocalypse and now it's like a one-in-a-million chance which is a thousand times more likely but also unlikely. It’s going to be a real slog in the next couple of years on a policy side, like getting to a place where people don’t die for stupid reasons, I’m not even talking about the coronavirus necessarily just like policy in general. Who knows, it could be great but it seems like it's going to be a slog.”

There’s a moment on the closing track “Fine”, a stream-of-consciousness, Randy Newman-style saloon waltz, where Butler hits the nail on the head. “George [Washington], he turned to camera 3, he looked right at me and said...I know that freedom falters when it’s built with human hands”. It’s one of the many lyrical gems that surface throughout the record but one that chimes with an undeniable truth. It’s the same eloquence that breaks through as he touches on the broad ranging subjects in our conversation, always with a bright cadence despite the gloom that hangs over some of the topics.

The live show is without a doubt Arcade Fire’s bread and butter. While Butler questions how realistic the notion of getting people in packed rooms in the near future is, he reveals the group are making movements on LP6. “Arcade Fire is constantly thinking about things and demoing, it's hard to work across the internet but at some point we’ll get together. It probably won’t be much longer than our usual album cycle,” he says.

You only have to pick out one random Arcade Fire performance on YouTube to see Butler’s innate passion bursting out, whether it’s early performances that found him and Richard Reed Parry adorning motorbike helmets annihilating each other with drumsticks to the 1-2-3 beat of “Neighbourhood #2 (Laika)” or the roaring “woah-ohs” that ascend in the anthem of “Wake Up” every night on tour. It’s an energy that burns bright throughout our conversation and across Generations.

https://www.thelineofbestfit.com/features/interviews/arcade-fires-will-butler-new-solo-record-generations

[ayearofpike]

Thirst No. 4: The Shadow of Death

Simon Pulse, 2011 492 pages, 28 chapters + epilogue ISBN 978-1-4424-1319-1 LOC: PZ7.P626 Th 2011 OCLC: 731720997 Released August 9, 2011 (per B&N)

The immortal Sita has died. Only not — her soul still lives, in the body of her descendant. How did this happen? In seeking the answer, Sita will learn the secret to defeating the ancient race that imperils humanity. The search won’t be easy, though. Sita must traverse time and space, heaven and hell, the physical and the spiritual, and what the hell is even going on my head hurts.

Honestly, I’m not sure what Pike is going for in this book. Is it trying to be smarter than other authors of the era and genre by bending the rules of continuity? Is it striving for a narrative that is just beyond his reach? Is it just pounding out Another Damn Sita Book against deadline to get that green? It could be any of those. At least it ties up the story of the Telar and the IIC relatively well, although there’s still enough loose ends to keep our vampire going if necessary (and of course it is; Thirst 5 is still on the horizon).

One thing Pike has totally bought into is the arbitrary capitalization of the names of things to make them Important Artifacts. You remember this: probably the impetus was Suzanne Collins, naming specific elements of the Hunger Games to showcase why they were relevant and how the country had accepted them as elements of the competition. But then every single friggin’ YA book about a post-apocalyptic dystopia started adopting the shit. At least Collins tried to come up with catchy names for her Artifacts. The other authors just come up with a word to call something and throw an initial cap on it, and Pike leaps happily aboard the Proper Name Train. And every time you think he’s drilled down to the smallest level of a Category, he names a smaller subgroup that needs its own Capital. Eventually it makes me want to put the Book down and kick the Ass.

Is it obvious I’m teaching again? Not just because I’m going all loco on repetitive cliches, but also because it’s taken me like three weeks to write this. 

Let’s just bore down into the summary. We start with Sita in her descendant Teri’s body, awakening to that fact at her own funeral. Apparently she had a couple of days that are just blank or at best hazy, but then Miracle Baby Teen took Teri’s hands and looked into her eyes, and crystallized Sita’s presence. Nobody is sure what this means, exactly, but Sita is feeling blood hunger for the first time in years. The new body doesn’t have the five thousand years of experience and transfusions from multiple vampires and gods and saviors to abate it, after all. So when she gets back to her hotel, she orders room service — only they don’t offer blood. But the delivery boy has some, and dude does she drink it ALL. So then there’s some wacky hijinks as she has to clumsily get the body out of the hotel and dispose of it.

She’s not ready to reveal herself to Immortal Boyfriend yet, though. He was against her turning Teri into a vampire in the first place, remember, and in her weak state she figures he’d kill her. So she carefully and strategically reveals some info like Sita told Teri as they try to figure out what to do about the bigger threats of the virus wielded by the immortals and the crippling mental focus of the monster corporation. The Telar-ites want to focus on mass producing the cure to the virus and getting it distributed, but Sita thinks the only way they can do that is to involve IIC. Someone’s research has turned up that all of the main members were students of the same parapsychology professor at Berkeley(?), and so Sita, Seymour, Miracle Teen’s mom, and the young Indian girl who has been sucked into this life all drive out to meet him.

But before they go, Sita/Teri has to clean up her mess. Apparently she’s not as stealthy as she used to be either, because some dumbass kid saw her taking the room service cart with a body stuffed under it down to the garage, and his mom reported this Olympic champion to the police. So she has to try to wipe out any trace of suspicion from the cops’ minds, as well as finding a safe source of blood to feed on. Turns out one of them has a wife who is a doctor, and after an overreaching act of hypnotism, Sita gets into the hospital blood bank and takes all of it, then goes back home with the doctor and wipes out her memory as well as her husband’s. So it’s cool that she still has her vampire hypnosis, but it’s super clumsy, just like everything else in this new body. And what happened to Teri? Miracle Teen seems to think she’s dead, but that can’t be right. But why not? And if not, how come Sita is so in control?

The professor is quite a font of information, and he sure is scared of the IIC boss. He suggests they go talk to her ex from school, who was one of the major catalysts in the discovery of group-focused mind control via ESP. This dude and his girlfriend are still living in Santa Cruz, and they aren’t at all surprised to find four random diverse strangers at their door. Sita is confused, though, that the math doesn’t add up in regard to how old these people are. According to the research, their studies happened in the ’60s, but there’s no way this dude can be older than 40 when he ought to be knocking on 70. It gets late quickly, and so the couple offers our ramshackle group a couple of rooms for the night. Sita takes the opportunity to decode some more of Original Vampire’s book, and learn more about the deep and true love between him and the Telar he married. She also calls Teri’s parents to check in, and learns that the cops are still looking for her in connection with the missing room service dude, so that sucks.

In the morning, the CEO’s ex tells them more about his research and how IIC stole it to find exactly the right sociopaths to use in its mind-control device. Basically it was an astrological predictor, so that you could tell with a high degree of accuracy what someone would be like and how their extrasensory facility would manifest based on where and when they were born. Sita realizes, all of a sudden, that the creepy kid she ran into at the CEO’s house is actually conceived with this ex, because of his own predilection for ESP and his familiarity with the needs of the astrological predictor. He talks about having been targeted by the device himself, and his girlfriend says that she managed to shake him free by pushing him down the well on the property. They’ve mentioned this well before, and how it provides such amazing water, so now Sita is curious.

She ends up climbing down the bucket rope in the middle of the night, into a vast cavern with a faint glow at one end. Following the light leads her to: her own body. Sita’s body, that is, the one that was supposed to have been buried in Denver. Sitting by it is the astrological researcher’s girlfriend, who Sita immediately realizes is more than she’s revealed herself to be. Yep: it’s Original Vampire’s wife, Immortal Boyfriend’s mom, and one of the oldest and most ancient Telar still in existence. But it’s not like that. She took the body to protect what it holds, not just to keep it from these creepy evils that are trying to get more power but also because — check this shit out — it’s healing.

Sita can get back into her body, Ancient Telar says. All she has to do is let Teri finish dying.

Obviously when he finds out, Immortal Boyfriend is pissed. He is totally ready to murder Sita, without actually ritualizing it so she returns to her body. And Sita knows she deserves it, sort of. She’s as much to blame as anyone for the mess they’re all in, and she loved Teri as much as any of them, maybe even more. So she’s not going to fight back if Immortal Boyfriend exacts his rage. But he can’t do it, and he does realize that having a full-strength Sita will help their cause. So they all end up back down in the cave, where they reconnect the appropriate bodies by ripping Teri’s femoral artery and allowing Sita’s corpse to drink the blood. The transfer happens fast, and lucky for Immortal Boyfriend Teri has just enough consciousness to say goodbye.

I have to step out of summary for a minute to flat-out state how GROSSLY DISSATISFYING this is. Like, for seven books now we’ve known Sita as this inhuman giant, capable of defeating everyone and anything. Now she’s in a newer body, with a younger brain and less experienced reflexes even if it has all her consciousness, and she’s supposed to start figuring out how to overcome that. To just un-write the whole thing and stick her back in her old body not even half a book later strikes me as Pike didn’t want to commit to a decision he’d already made, rather than any kind of grand plan that this was always gonna happen. And yeah, I get it, Sita’s body has all kinds of implications, but why did it have to come back almost immediately? I’d go so far as to say that this makes Teri Raine practically irrelevant to the grander scheme of the story. And it sticks the whole personality quirk we’ve just learned about Sita — where she has followed and cared about her line of descendency, one that never actually seemed believable having read the first six — even deeper into the grave.

So now the gang is all together and ready to carry out their plan. Sita waltzes into the IIC office, releasing the deadly virus as she does so, and makes her demand: use the mind control group to destroy all of the high-ranking Telar or die painfully and frightened today. This is where the Arbitrary Capitalization makes its most insidious entrance. The top Telar, the Source, can meld to form the Link, which makes them unbeatable. But IIC can focus its Array through the Cradle, powered by a smaller group known as the Lens, and at least find where they are. So once she learns a Location, Sita can use her Knowledge to open up a Can of Whoop-Ass. But to join the Lens, she’s required to offer up a sacrifice, and she figures the best candidate is the mole who keeps feeding up information on where the group is, and not least the DNA of Immortal Boyfriend so he could get possessed. Who is it? Probably the math teacher who conveniently keeps not being with the group every time they get attacked. Only as the Lens forces her to climb to the top of Truman College’s bell tower and hurl herself off it, Sita sees inside her mind and knows she was innocent the whole time. 

As it happens, she feels claws on her shoulders. Ancient Telar warned her that this would probably happen: in order to tap into the powers of the extrasensory, one has to connect to a Familiar. Sita can see the ones clinging to the kids in the room, but is not permitted to look back at her own, which makes her suspect that it’s probably the most powerful demon of all — a demon that was never actually a demon, but an angel that refused to accept its grace in being less than God and ended up falling into the deepest of despair. Yeah, that one.

She calls back to base and lets her crew know what’s going on, then tries to use her newly replenished powers to fix the police detective whose brain she screwed. Only he starts feeling scared and disturbed, and she realizes that this Familiar that is now attached to her is having a negative effect on her powers. IIC Boss comes in and they talk about the computer game that everyone’s playing, the one about being saved and moving to higher planes of heavenly ability, which is (not coincidentally) being constantly written and updated by the kids in the Lens when they’re not out brain-murdering. 

Have I talked about this game before? It feels like I did, but maybe I’m thinking of Alosha. Miracle Teen loves it, and he said his presence in game was literally just to make himself known. But there are obvious creepy levels behind it, and IIC Boss reveals that there is no possible way to delete or destroy the code because of how it’s been embedded into the Internet. What’s it for? We don’t know yet! We do know that there’s significant backmasking and subliminal messages which echo the invocations the Lens uses to get into its power state. So maybe this game somehow charges telepathic batteries? I’m pretty sure this is the last time Pike mentions it in this book.

But now they’re getting ready to attack the major players in the Telar, so they have to work fast and without many breaks. They get two by melting them with too much chlorine in a hot tub, and then there are four in an LA hotel that they attack by forcing one of the guards to disrupt them and break their Link. But before they can kill all the Telar, one invokes a name that throws the psychic connection into the garbage. Sita knows where they are, though, and attacks in person. We get some more Matrix shit as she leaps from a helicopter and uses stairs like trampolines, and she ends up leaving the last Telar alive with a command that he use his high-ranking government contacts to launch a missile strike on a location that she will psychically contact him with in a few hours. That is, once she figures out where the rest of the Source is hiding.

The rest of Team Vampire shows up (well, not Miracle Teen, who is smart enough to keep the hell away from the demon-summoning corporation that would love all of his power) to help Sita fight the final battle. Seymour and Immortal Boyfriend are going to vaccinate the IIC against the virus, which is dormant but not totally gone as Sita’s bargaining chip. Only not the kids in the Cradle and the Lens: Sita has arranged for them to get a full dose of the virus instead, so the company can’t wield its devilish mind-control device with impunity once its primary antagonists are all dead. Yeah, we’re murdering children now. Sweet. Oh, and also, Ancient Telar is also the mother of the leader of the Source, and Sita has learned that you can control someone who is related to the person with the blood (or DNA, or whatever the fuck marker it is they’re actually using) and so attacking the dude might kill her too. It’s a risk Ancient Telar is willing to take.

She joins the Lens, and her sacrifice is the creepy teenager who leads it. Like, she literally breaks his arm and allows his brain to murder himself. Shit, if Sita knew she could do that! They find the Source and realize it’s impenetrable; their shield is too strong and all the kids will break before they can get through. (Like, I’ll murder kids, but not before I’m done using them to murder immortals.) Ancient Telar tells Sita there is a way — she just has to remember what happened after she died. Like it’s that easy.

But she does. Suddenly, we’re back on the mountain, where Sita has just been lasered in the heart. She finds a cave and follows it down forever, until she sees others and decides she needs to follow them. The path leads to a giant river teeming with inhumanity, all sorts of dead people who are trying to answer a question about their lives in order to take a boat across. Only thing is, if you answer it wrong you’re forced to forget it. We get to remember them, though, because this is a book and not some crazy spiritual encounter. 

Sita answers the first question wrong (”what is the most useless human emotion?”), and then finds a beautiful and familiar-looking young woman who tells her not to despair, because she has plenty of time to think about the answer. She’s already gotten her question right, and is waiting for Sita so they can ride together with another woman. After a second missed question (”what quality is both great and dangerous in humans?”), she meets the other woman, who also looks familiar. Weird! She tells Sita that all of the questions may be different, but the answers are all important, and they should come back to us when we need them. So I guess we can yell at the book like it’s Dora the Explorer later on. The third question is “what is the greatest mystery in the universe?” Sita knows this one: it’s that God and his names are all the same, so by invoking the name you are bringing God to you. It does take her a second, because she has to argue with the boat driver over misleading info he’s given her, but in the end she gets to cross the river with her new friends.

On the other side is a mountain full of caves. They each have to go through their own cave, and Sita ends up at an abyss, where she can see the tunnel on the other side but doesn’t know how to get there. A woman with some grotesque facial scars shows up and walks across the space, offering to help Sita do it, for a kiss. She knows about Sita’s final sin, showing a blood-stained syringe like she’s predicting kid-virus-murder, and with a kiss they will bond and the woman will protect her when it comes to final judgment. After all, she did miss the second question. And suddenly it comes flooding back to Sita, with a realization of what the correct answer is: faith. She doesn’t need to get across, necessarily; she just has to take a leap of faith.

She passes out for a minute after jumping, then comes to in a pathway with the syringe on the ground next to her. She makes her way to the obvious judgment house and sees how it works. You state your name and age, put your hands over a scale, and one of them makes diamonds and the other black pearls. Whichever side is heavier determines where you go in the afterlife, and the younger you are the less the scale expects, I guess. The young woman that Sita rode in the boat with offers to go first, and OH HOLY MOTHER OF FUCK IT’S TERI. Because this is happening in the past, remember, Sita doesn’t think Teri is dead, but the other woman says time doesn’t matter here, you can encounter people who are dead from all periods, including apparently the future. But Teri was good, duh, and she goes up. And now we learn just how old Sita is exactly: 5152 years old. Naturally someone with this long of a life and this complicated of a history produces enough gems to bury the scale entirely. Her hands drop with the exhaustion of producing so much junk, and ultimately the dark side of the scale prevails. The devil himself shows up to make a deal with Sita, though: if she destroys the light bearer, he’ll go easy on her.

And now Sita is back in her living  body, still channeling into the room that observes the Source, with a bitter realization of what she has to do. Ancient Telar has described their initial Link, the one that granted her people immortality, as one that filled them with light. So she needs to kill this lady in order to make the current Source vulnerable. Which, duh, Ancient Telar knew it the whole time, and is ready to make peace with her twelve thousand years. Her soul’s absence weakens the Link, and Sita makes herself visible through multiple ancient magics to let them know of their fate. Of course they try to reason and bargain with Sita, but as she’s already been tortured nearly to death by the leader she doesn’t think it’s necessary to make a deal, and sticks around long enough to make sure they’re all still present when the last dude she left alive sends in the missile strike.

So now obviously the kids are sick and dying and Team Vampire has to get out of this building. They’re stopped by the CEO and her husband, who insist that they heal all the kids, only Sita refuses and the CEO knows why: this Cradle business has gotten out of their control and the only way out is to let it die. When her husband argues in favor of the kids, she shoots him in the fucking head and then asks Sita for one kid: her daughter. They get in the van, Seymour screaming and protesting the whole time, and they’re only maybe a mile away when the shit blows up. See, while Sita was planning for her child murder to be slow and painful, Immortal Boyfriend laced the whole place with powerful explosives so that they’d just die instantly. 

Almost immediately, they get pulled over. Why? There’s no connection between this van and the building they just left, or any of their identities. But CEO confirms that the Internet program just kicked on, which means maybe there’s one person still connected to the Cradle who could make it go. Who the hell could it be? For now, Sita hypnotizes the cops away from the van and they figure out how to make it to a middle-of-nowhere hellhole hotel, where she shares a room with the young Indian girl who had been a part of the Array but has had some unusual powers against it, who had also been scarred in the face before Sita found her, who somehow had the original copy of Original Vampire’s book even though Sita KNOWS she made a copy of it to send back with her. Weird!

And suddenly Sita realizes who is the mole, the rat, the link, the answer to all of the problems. And the young Indian girl slowly drops her facade and reveals that yes, she’s been the human connection for the devil the whole time, and that she was dark and evil even before her arranged fiance threw acid in her face. And just as suddenly, Sita is talking with the devil himself, in a luxury hotel room overlooking ... I dunno, Hell City? He’s kind of pissed that she wiped out the Cradle, and counts himself lucky that the Internet program was able to be started up. Still, he offers her another deal so that his connection to the human realm won’t be lost. Sita wants the answer to the ferryman’s first question in return, but he won’t give it up. But she’s figured something else out: the light bearer is actually this first fallen angel, Lucifer. And now she’s back in the nasty hotel room, where she doesn’t hesitate to rip of the Indian girl’s head and throw it out the window.

And suddenly AGAIN, Sita is back in front of the scale, where she knows the answer to the riddle and realizes just what is holding her down: guilt. It’s her guilt that has caused her hand to rest on the dark side of the scale and pull it down. She releases it and immediately the light side takes over. She is led to a long tunnel, which leads to an intoxicating blue light, and a man with a long braid and a flute. Finally, Krishna has come for Sita. Only he didn’t have to, because he’s always been there for her, and will be even if she chooses to go back to her body.

And that’s the end of Thirst No. 4! It seems like this would have been a satisfying enough ending for this whole series, right? We got some closure, we know that the monsters have been dealt with, we are ready to be done. But we can’t, because we know there’s still a fifth book coming. In fact, I’m pretty sure that I’ve never read that one, after two attempts by Pike to end this series. Maybe it won’t suck? Let’s find out.