#Yeah its a Google translate but the story is so good I had to share

[nero-draco]

That last part is him talking to Asterios.

[endofthelinexx]

Roses and Flame | 9

Pairing: Female!Driver!Horner!Reader x Toto Wolff,  Female!Driver!Horner!Reader x Checo Perez

TW: cheating, language

Rating: Mature, 18+

AN: I’m just going to go ahead and warn you right now, Collins is very much being an anti-hero in this chapter. I let my intrusive thoughts win, I’m not sorry though. This took a hot minute to finish since my life has decided to be literally the most hectic so I am sorry for that. If something in a different language is wrong its cause i used google translate. comment to be added to the taglist!

Word count: 5.0k

Mini Summary: Collins Horner is the eldest of Christian and Geri’s children. She has been raised to be the fastest female racer Motorsport has ever seen and to despise Mercedes while doing it. But what happens when her world turns upside down?

*No permission is given for reposting my work, copying it or parts of it, and claiming it as your own.  

| chapter 5 | chapter 6 | chapter 7 | chapter 8 | chapter 9 | chapter 10 |

You did your best to ignore the butterflies in your stomach as you finally knocked on the door, waiting quietly. After a few moments it opened and you looked up to make eye contact with the tall man, who smiled back at you, causing you to grin.

“Hello, come on in,” he moved out of your way and you walked in. “You look really good.”

You smiled more and turned around to face him, “thanks, so do you. It smells great too, what are you cooking?”

“Don’t laugh, I’m not that great of a cook so I’m making spaghetti, but I am also making lamb chops. I never seem to mess those up so it seemed like a good idea,” he laughed lightly.

You nodded, “I’m not a good cook either so hopefully that’s not on your checklist.”

“We could always learn together.”

“Yeah, we could,” you smiled, both of you just looking at each other for a moment.

Toto opened the fridge to pull out a bottle of wine, “do you want some?”

“I’d love some.”You smiled, sitting on the bar stool that was at the island as you watched him pour you a glass and set it down in front of you.

“So, you happy that you finally got a break even though it's only a week?” He asked as he went back to focusing on the food he was cooking.

You thought about the last few days, “it’s been a little chaotic, so I’m not sure how much of a break this will be.”

“Oh? What has been so chaotic?”

Sighing, you responded, “it’s a long story I can’t share yet.”

“Hmm, not even a little bit?” He turned to look at you.

You shook your head, “nope.”

“Well, I think you should.”

“No,” you played all tough but the butterflies in your stomach said otherwise.

He nodded, “okay, but I bet you tell me at some point.”“Maybe,” you shrugged.

As you watched him you thought there was absolutely no way in hell you’d tell the man you were currently on a date with that a different man was most definitely in your bed right now. Of course, you weren’t truly dating Toto yet, for now, and nothing was going on with Checo so it wasn’t that bad, but you knew it wouldn’t be interpreted that way. 

You were deep in thought when he spoke up, “dinner is almost ready if you want to get plates, they're in that cabinet.” He smiled and pointed. Snapping back to reality you returned his smile, getting up to get plates. You walked over and handed them to him, “thank you.”

“Of course, where are the forks? I can put them on the table.”

He fixed the plates, stopping briefly to point at a drawer, “right in there.”

You nodded, walking to grab 2 forks and 2 knives. Staring at them for a second, you couldn’t help but smile a little to yourself. This wasn’t ideal, having to hide from everyone, but if you weren’t you wouldn’t be having a date this personal. You hated first dates, the anxiety of being out in public was bad enough, paired with the pressure of having to get to know someone was just so stressful. But being here right now was almost perfect, it felt like you had known him personally for years. You sat the utensils on the table when he came up behind you with the plates, setting them down. Smiling a little more you stood up straight, pressing your back up to his chest. You felt him stiffen up a little bit before relaxing again, you turned to face him, looking up.

“Thanks for dinner.” You spoke softly while he looked back down at you.

He laughed a little, “well you shouldn’t thank me until we’re for sure it actually tastes good.”

“Well that's too bad because I am,” you huffed, he had that stupid smirk on his face for a second before walking over to his seat. You sat down as well, taking a quick sip of your wine as he went to take a bite of his food, “Is it good?”

He nodded, “yeah, thank god.”

You laughed, taking a bite, “I knew it would be.”

The two of you chatted through the whole dinner, laughing and teasing each other, it was amazing. When dinner was finished you grabbed his plate before he could get up, going to wash them in the sink. You could feel his eyes on you as you turned the water on, his chair moving as he stood up. He walked towards you and before you knew it his hands were on either side of you, trapping you in between him and the counter. You almost dropped the plate that you were cleaning when he moved one of his hands to tuck a strand of your hair behind your ear, leaning down so his mouth was level.“So are we doing this for real?” He whispered and the hair on the back of your neck stood up as you carefully put the plate down.

You were frozen in place for a moment before finally turning around, “if you want to deal with my father's wrath at some point in time.”

“Oh boy, I’d love to,” he smirked a little.

“You sure?”

“Positive.”

“Then yes,” you smiled and wrapped your arms around his neck.

He grinned and wrapped his arms around your waist, lifting you up and setting you on the countertop. You gave him a little kiss and he grumbled, pulling you in for a real one and you immediately kissed him back. This kiss felt more real than the last ones, they were more desperate, like the two of you were trying to get as much as you could before it was gone. Now it felt more secure, probably because it was. The two of you spent the next hour kissing like teenagers before you finally pulled away.

“I’d love to do this for the rest of the week, but I should probably go,” you laughed as he moved to kiss your neck.

“How about you don’t go,” he whispered in between kisses, you couldn’t help but tilt your head back to give him more space.

He grabbed your legs and pulled you closer to him, you smiled a little, “I really need to Toto.”

“Nope, not happening.”

You opened your mouth to protest when you felt a nip at the nape of your neck, causing you to let out a quiet moan, you could feel his smirk against your skin. He pulled at the satin shirt you wore, untucking it from your jeans before quickly working at the buttons, his forehead resting on your shoulder. 

You combed your fingers through his hair, smiling, “Toto.”

He stopped and sat up to look at you, “yes schatzi?”

“I’ve got to go, I know they got pictures of me walking in the building, I can’t let it get suspicious, I’ve been here almost 5 hours.” You gave him a half smile.

He huffed, “that's not fair, for you to wear this top and just leave.”

“Well I need to,” you slid off the countertop and tucked your shirt back in before buttoning it back up.

He was almost in shock, “there’s no way you're about to leave.”

“I am and if you were thinking with your head that's up there,” you pointed at his face, “rather than the one that's down there, you would know that I’m making the smart choice.” You reached out for his face, pulling him into one last kiss, “I had fun.” He nodded in agreement and you turned to leave, grabbing your car keys and opening the door, and walking out. About 30 minutes later you walked into Lewis’ house, Audrey was sitting on the couch with Lewis and Checo who all looked over at you when you walked in.

“Jesus guys, have you been waiting for me?” you looked at them questioningly while setting your stuff down on the counter.

Audrey smiled, “kinda, we were watching a movie.”

“What movie?” You looked over at the tv.

Checo spoke up, “it's about like a fashion magazine and this woman is a bitch to this other girl.”

“Audrey you are not making them watch Devil wears Prada.”

“What?! They hadn’t seen it,” she defended herself as you squeezed in between her and Checo.

Lewis looked at you, “so how was the night?”

“Good,” you smiled and Audrey grinned.

“So do I get to know who you went out with?” Checo looked at the three of you.

You quickly shook your head, “absolutely not, and don’t tell people I went on a date at all.”

“Hmm, why should I?”

You crossed your arms, “I’ll call Carola.”

“Okay, fine, mouth shut,” he forced a smile and Audrey laughed.

You finished the movie with them, heading downstairs followed by Audrey and checo, you looked over at her, “let me change and I’ll come in and talk to you.”

“Okay,” she spoke before walking back into her room while checo followed you into yours. When you walked in you set your phone down on the dresser, looking in the mirror while you took off your jewelry. Checo walked over to the bed, sat down, and looked over at you. You looked at him through the mirror, “Yes?”

“Oh nothing,” he looked away, leaning forward to grab his duffle bag off the floor, looking for a shirt to sleep in.

You sighed and looked back at yourself in the mirror, checo pulled out a shirt and threw his duffle bag on the floor, standing up. You leaned down to open a drawer to grab a sleep shirt of your own and when you stood back up you saw him taking off his shirt, you whipped around while he pulled it over his head, “Sergio, you can't wait 5 seconds or go and change in the bathroom?”

He looked over at you, “why are you being dramatic, it's just a shirt.” You huffed and looked at him for a second, “for someone who is so bothered, you seem to enjoy looking.”

“I’m not bothered and I’m not looking.” You felt your face warm up and you immediately blamed the wine.

“Mhmm, so should I put the shirt I was going to sleep in on, or would you rather me not?” He raised an eyebrow.

“I’m going to go to Audreys room,” you grabbed your nightshirt and walked across the hall and into her room, shutting the door behind you. “Audrey what the fuck.”

She looked up from her bed, “what?”

“Was anyone going to tell me he was lowkey ripped?” You sighed and sat on her bed.

“Omg stop, he is?” She laughed a little.

You put your face in your hands, “yeah he is.”

“I just spent an hour and a half making out with another guy and I come back here and I’m about to sleep with a different one.”

“Well you’re not sleeping with him, you’re just sharing a bed.” You looked up at her with an unimpressed look on your face and she shrugged, “well unless you were planning on it.”

“I’m definitely not going to.”

“I heard he’s good though,” she pointed out.

“Are you for real?” you shook your head.

“Yeah, that's what I heard.”

“Audrey, what is your problem?” You started laughing and she laughed with you.

“Well you literally just came in here and I could’ve sworn you were kinda turned on.”

You shook your head, “I was not.”

“I heard it in your voice.”

“Oh no, you don’t think he noticed did you?”

She shrugged, “well what did he say?”

“He asked if he should leave his shirt off..”

“Oh girl, your fucked.”

“Stop, no I’m not, he has a wife, nothing is going to happen.”

“Well, Tayla said she’s been cheating on him.”

You got up and went to change into your pajamas, “how would she know.”

“Kelly, they’re good friends which I know is so shocking,” she spoke with the most sarcastic tone of voice.

“That just makes me feel bad for him,” you said as you take your jeans off, looking around for your shorts, “please tell me I brought shorts with me.”

“Looks like someone is about to get a show,” she had an evil look on her face.

“Audrey, I need to borrow shorts.”

“Nope, you need to live with the consequences of your own actions, now go, we can talk about Toto tomorrow.”

“Please, Audrey.” You practically begged and she shook her head, sighing you grabbed your clothes and sent her a glare, heading back out of her room. You stared at the door to your room, dreading what waited for you on the other side. Taking a deep breath you opened it and walked in, he was in bed reading a book. The room was dark except for the lamp that he had left on, he didn’t look up until he heard you shut the door behind you. You tried to ignore him, as you threw your dirty clothes in your suitcase. 

Walking over to the dresser, you looked at him over your shoulder and he was practically staring you down, “this a joke right?”

“I forgot my pj shorts in here, okay?” You defended yourself as you desperately dug through the dresser drawers.

He watched you as you got more desperate, “or you forgot them entirely.”

You stood up straight and turned around, “look, I wasn’t planning on a man staying here, I was planning on sleeping in here alone.”

He let you finish talking, watching you get all flustered, “ahh senora, come here.” He put his book down and sat up, motioning for you to walk over, reluctantly you did as you were told. He got out of bed, taking his blue plaid pj pants off.

“What are you doing?” You immediately looked away, looking at his face instead of down.

He handed them to you, “letting you borrow my pajama pants so you’ll calm down even though it’s really cute.”

You looked at him for a second before putting them on, the waistband was a little loose on you, and they were definitely baggy. Looking back up at him, you whispered, “thank you.”

He looked back at you, “you’re lucky I have some self-control.”

“The look in your eyes tells a different story.” You mumbled, you were never going to drink wine again.

“I’m sure it does, but I’m not doing anything about it, am I?”

“No, you’re definitely not,” you looked away and went to walk to the other side of the bed, but he grabbed your wrist.

“Why’d you say it like that?”

“Say it like what?” You turned around to look at him as he stared back at you. He didn’t say anything, just observed you for a moment and you pulled your arm away, “I’m going to lay down.”

You moved to your side of the bed before crawling in, pulling the covers over you as he moved to lay beside you. You furrowed your brow briefly and turned over on your side away from him, you began to let your eyes flutter close, ignoring the immense sexual tension. Once you finally began to relax you felt his hand on your waist, and it wasn’t over the shirt. Your breath hitched in your throat when his cold hand came in contact with your warm skin, you immediately turned to lay on your back so you could look at him.

“Checo,” you mumbled, looking at him with your eyes wide.

He looked away from his hand that was now resting on your stomach, “I’m not doing anything, not unless you ask me to.”

“Good thing I’m not asking,” you huffed and the both of you just stared at each other, waiting. 

You sat for a few more seconds and moved to turn around when he wrapped his arm around you tightly, pulling you close to him. God, he did smell good, you didn’t know what it was but you wanted to suffocate in it. You turned around in his grasp to face him, resting your forehead on his chest and letting out a sigh. 

You just let him hold you, feeling him mess with the hem of his pajama pants that you wore, “you’re not getting those back, just letting you know.”

He laughed quietly, “that’s fine.”

“I’m sorry, you know, about your wife,” you looked up at him.

Checo looked back at you, “I’m probably half to blame, I’m barely ever home, but I try my best.”

“You definitely can’t blame yourself, so stop with that,” you grumbled and rested your head back on his chest. The sexual tension still lingered even though you had tried to change the topic, it was quiet again. 

In the silence, you wondered if your dad would be more unhappy that you had gone out with Toto earlier that day or that you were currently laying in Checo’s arms. Your thoughts were interrupted by his voice mumbling your name, you looked up, and before you could think his lips were on yours. Jeez, you were 2 for 2 today, Monaco treated you well. After a few minutes of passionately kissing, you pulled away, trying to catch your breath as you sat up, your heavy breathing slowly transforming into laughter.

Checo sat up as well when you started laughing, he looked concerned, “what, did I do something?”

“what the fuck is going on,” you were almost in disbelief, and he just stared at you.

“We can talk about that later, don’t you think?”

You kept laughing, grabbing him by his shirt and pulling him back in for another kiss, him practically on top of you as you laid back down. You let your hand trail down to the hem of his shirt, you could feel his muscles tense through the fabric before you pulled it up. He pulled away and sat back, grabbing his shirt and pulling it over his head while you watched, he had a smirk on his face.

“Still not looking?” His accent was stronger than normal and you were so turned on, it wasn’t even questionable.

“Would you shut up,” you looked away and he got back on top of you, leaning down to kiss your neck. Right as you felt a moan escape your lips you heard the door open, you immediately tensed up and shut your mouth. You went to sit up, but Checo held you down as he looked over his shoulder.

“Holy shit, Audrey I thought you were joking,” you heard a dutch accent, max.

Checo opened his mouth to say something but you cut him off, sitting up, “Get the fuck out, now.” Audrey’s eyes widened and grabbed the door, shutting it and you fell back down, looking up at him.

“Dios, te deseo tanto (god, i want you so bad),” he exhaled before you pulled him back in for another kiss.

After a few seconds, he pulled away, drawing a whine of protest from your lips, but soon was replaced with a moan as he moved to kiss your neck. You felt his hand dip under your shirt and the moment his hand grasped your breast your phone began to ring. 

You planned on ignoring it, but Checo looked over and read the caller ID, “It’s your mother.”

You pushed him off immediately, grabbing your phone, you took a deep breath before answering the phone, “Hi mom.” You gave her a smile as checo laid next to you, he scooted over when he realized he was obviously close.

“Hey sweetie, how was your night out?” She looked at you with a questioning glance.

“It was great, we had a lot of fun,” you nodded and she smiled.

“Good to hear, what are you doing now?”

You resisted the urge to look at Checo, “just scrolling through Instagram before going to bed.”

“That makes sense, Checo still staying there?”

You nodded, “yeah, I think he’s upstairs with Lewis right now though.”

“Ah, okay. Well, I’ll let you go, keep me updated with the drama.”

“I will. Love you, bye.” You smiled and hung up, looking over at him. He was already staring at you, you held your phone in your hand, feeling it buzz. 

You looked down to see Toto’s name pop up, immediately clearing the notification before checo could see it, “we should probably sleep.”

“Probably,” he mumbled, scooting back to be close to you.

You pulled the covers back up, cuddling up to him as he pressed kisses to your forehead. “You’re going home tomorrow,” you whispered, looking up at him.

“Probably smart,” he hummed and kissed you, you could tell he wanted to continue as did you, but clearly the two of you had some time to think it over. You wanted Toto more, you thought before pulling away from his kiss and drifting off to sleep.

The next morning you woke up cold, when you realized he was gone you opened your eyes. The shirt he fell asleep in crumpled up on the pillow, you reached up to grab it before sitting up. Looking around the room you noticed his bag was gone as well, you looked back down at the shirt. Slipping off the shirt you slept in, you threw his on. It was an old white shirt with a decal and spanish words you didn’t understand, it smelled like him. Before you got up Audrey walked in, handing you a plate with pancakes on it and sitting down next to you.

“I already know what you’re going to say and I don’t want to hear it.”

She had a grin on her face, “wasn’t it just yesterday we had that whole conversation about making bad decisions when it came to men.”

“Shut up, and we didn’t even end up having sex,” you huffed before eating your pancakes.

“Oh, let me guess, you did that thing where when you have 2 seconds to actually think about the situation you realize it’s a bad idea and then you stop.”

“Well yeah, and my mom called me like 4 minutes after you two just decided to barge in.”

She gave you a smile, trying to look apologetic but you knew she wasn’t sorry.

You spent the next few days texting Toto consistently and when you weren’t texting him you were thinking about him. That Thursday, in your extremely hungover state from the crazy night before, he invited you over so he could take care of you since by now he realized you wouldn’t do yourself. You sat next to him on the couch, your legs taking up most of the space even though you had them bent. You rested your head on his shoulder, he was watching some random show that you couldn’t care less about. You took a sip from your glass of water that he got you to take your Advil with. 

He glanced over at you, “are you feeling any better?”

“Yeah, the tv is a little loud though,” you looked at him, smiling as you messed with the blanket that covered you both.

He took care of you almost all day, making you dinner once again, and it was good of course. You ate almost eagerly, but you did your best to control yourself, this was only the second time the two of you had hung out, he didn’t know you were an animal when it came to food yet and he didn’t need to.

“How about you stay here tonight this time?” Toto spoke, looking across the table at you.

You stopped eating, looking up at him, “hmm..”

“You can take a warm shower, and I’ll take care of you.”

“I don’t have any of my stuff,” you pointed out.

“You can use my stuff.”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“Why?” He almost immediately asked, “I want a real reason.” 

“Well what if someone saw me walk in?”

“You said no one saw you when you came in.”

“Oh yeah..” You sighed and he looked at you.

In all honesty, you were scared. Scared your father will find out, scared you’d immediately fall in love and get your hopes up, scared you’d never want to leave.

He stared at you, waiting for an answer, “I’ll stay, but make me leave tomorrow or I might stay forever.”

“I make no promises,” he smiled briefly and went back to eating, you smiled to yourself and did the same.

You skipped on the shower since you had one that morning, plus you wanted as much time in bed with him as possible. The both of you stood in his closet, he was looking for a shirt for you to sleep in while you looked around at his clothes.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many white Mercedes button ups,” you laughed and he turned to look over at you, laughing.

“Well I kinda need them.”

“True, I always thought you were hot in the black jacket so I’m secretly hoping we have an abundance of cold or rainy races.” You pointed out.

He raised an eyebrow, “oh really?”

“Mhmm,” you looked at him as he stared back at you. “You’re really handsome you know.” You turned around to look at the watches in his watch box, hearing his footsteps behind you. You tensed up in anticipation as he got closer, he gently touched your shoulder as he moved your hair out of the way. 

Wrapping his arms around you, you almost immediately relaxed, “I’m very glad you think so.”

“Me too,” you whispered in response, smiling and breathing him in. 

His scent was hard to describe, it made you feel like you were wrapped up in a soft blanket. It had masculine undertones but it was almost like fabric softener with a hint of pine. ‘Whatever it was, it was like heaven,’ you thought to yourself, letting your head fall back onto his chest. You took the moment in as long as you could before he lifted you up and put you on the small island in the middle of his closet. Now eye to eye, you stared at him and he stared back, a small smile on his face. He stood there for a moment before going back to looking at his shirts, you watched as he lifted up a light grey one and walked back over to you. He slipped out the hanger and set it down on the marble next to your thigh. You watched him quietly, raising an eyebrow as he grabbed the hem of the shirt you wore.

“What do you think you’re doing mister?”

“Changing you into pajamas,” he had a mischievous look on his face as he spoke.

You crossed your arms, “oh, i see what you’re doing.”

“Well you don’t feel well, so I’m just trying to help you.”

“Oh yeah, for sure,” you grabbed him by his nice dress shirt, pulling him closer so his torso was pressed up against the island and he stood in between your legs. You looked him in the eyes before beginning to unbutton his shirt.

“What are you doing?” He almost laughed as you took your time with each button.

“Well I might as well help you too, don’t you think?”

“I guess so, it is only fair,” he nodded in agreement.

When you finished unbuttoning his shirt he pulled it off and you couldn’t help grin a little bit to yourself. People could call him an old man as much as they wanted but he was almost just as fit as your younger peers, well some of them.

“I stand by my previous statement, you’re hot.”

“Thought you said I was handsome?”

“You can be both,” you laughed, reaching out to mess up his hair.

He smiled and moved to grab the hem of your shirt again before looking up at you, you gave him a slight nod and he moved to pull it over your head. He looked at you like you were a goddess, you smiled and pulled him in for a kiss. The second your lips met his you could feel his hands on your bare skin, moving to your back so he could unclasp your bra. 

You pulled away, grabbing his arms, “you know I feel different with you.”

He looked down at your bra he didn’t get to unclasp with defeat before looking back up at you, “do you? How so?”

You laughed softly at the look of defeat in his eyes as he moved his hands down to rub your thighs as you spoke, “I want to date you like how people used to date, I want to fall in love with you Toto, like crazily in love with you.”

“I feel the same,” he nodded in agreement.

You ran your fingers through his hair, “and I want to wait, for you know, the big stuff, for when we love each other if that’s okay.”

“I want whatever you want schatzi,” Toto smiled back at you.

“Even if that means you have to wait to unclip my bra?”

“Of course,” he smiled and leaned in to give you a soft kiss. When you pulled away you threw the shirt he had just taken off you over his head so you could undo your bra and throw on the shirt he gave you. 

The second he knew the shirt was on he took your shirt off of his head, looking at you, “schön (beautiful).” 

He smiled and lifted you up, carrying you into his room and laying you down on the bed before moving to the other side. He undid his jeans and slipped them off, leaving them on the floor for tomorrow and getting in bed next to you. As he slipped his arms around your waist and you basked in the secure feeling you wondered if this could truly be it for you.

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[serendipitous-magic]

What is your writing advice for young people who want to write fanfiction and original stories in the near future?

If this is just Way Too Much, skip to the end (#16). My most important piece of advice is there. I also happen to think #5 is pretty good.

-_-_-_-

1) Literally just write. Write whatever you want, and do a lot of it.

_-_

2) You don’t have to post everything. In fact you don’t have to post anything. You can, don’t get me wrong, but it can be intimidating to sit down and think “I will now write something that other people will see and read and judge with their eyeballs.” Because that’s probably gonna lead to nerves and writer's block. Just write down the ideas that you have, the things you want to write, whatever’s in your brain that you want to explore and expand upon and make into something. And then if you want to, share it. Or don’t share it. I have plenty of half-baked ideas and documents and random story chapters and shit hidden away on my Google Drive that will never see the light of day, for a whole number of reasons. I wanted to write it but it wasn’t ~Spicy~ enough to warrant posting, or it’s only like an eighth of a good idea, or it’s like one scene with no story around it, or it’s just something incredibly self-indulgent I just wanted to write for my own enjoyment.

Point being, don’t write for other people. Don’t write so that other people can read it; write what you want, write for yourself, and then if you want to share it, do.

_-_

3) You can pretty much ignore any and all of these for fanfiction. In fact, you can ignore pretty much any rules or guidelines you want for fanfiction. Fanfic is a sandbox. You don’t have to be a “professional writer” to post fic. No one expects you to be Stephen King or Margaret Atwood. Fanfic is just for playing in a fandom and having fun. If you wanna write a 50 chapter slow burn with very little plot aside from the OTP slowly getting to know each other, and no real stakes or central conflict, I guarantee people would read that. Really, fanfiction is the Old West of writing: lawless, wild, unpredictable, and free.

However, here are the rules you must follow:

-Separate your paragraphs. (I’m sure you know this already, but I’m gonna say it anyway just in case.) Do not post one big block of text. Make a paragraph break when someone new is talking, when the characters are in a new place, when a new event occurs that changes the scene, when a chunk of time has passed, and when there’s a major change in subject.

-I know it’s obvious, but... grammar, punctuation, and capitalization. They exist to make writing easy for readers to read, and more people will read your stuff if they don’t have to stop and try to figure out what you meant.

-Use tags and labels, as is possible with whatever site you’re using. Especially if you include possibly triggering content in your story. Again, I know it’s obvious, but it’s common courtesy. Bonus: tagging the themes and content of your story helps readers find it and read it :)

-If possible, limit the use of all-caps and exclamation marks / question marks. 99% of the time, one ! or one ? will do. If you overload the page with a lot of all-caps and long rows of exclamation marks or question marks, it hampers readability.

... That’s literally all I can think of. And, like I said, it’s all pretty basic stuff. You were probably rolling your eyes like, “Uh, yeah, Gwen, I know.” But that’s literally it. You can pretty much do whatever you want in fanfic.

That being said, here’s my advice for both fanfiction and original work...

_-_

4) A quick and dirty rule for coming up with a plot, starting a story, keeping up pacing, or maintaining tension: figure out what dreams, desires, and goals are nearest and dearest to your main character’s heart (see #16). Then set up the main conflict to be directly in opposition to that goal. It doesn’t have to be in a tangible way, though it could be. But, if your main character wants more than anything to reach the ships on the southern coast of your world and sail to a new life, make sure the main conflict immediately prevents them from doing that - in fact, make sure to send them north. If your main character just wants to keep their loved ones safe, kidnap the loved ones. If your main character just wants to date their best-friend-turned-crush, make sure they think they have no chance - or, make them cocky about it, and make sure it makes Person B determined not to ever like them. You get it. Figure out what your character most wants, and then keep them from having that. Boom - your conflict now ties in with your character's motivation. It's like instant yeast for plots.

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5) If you’re anything like me, you want your first draft to be Good, despite all that advice about how the first draft doesn’t have to be good and it’s just to get words on the page, yadda yadda. And if you’re somewhat of a perfectionist (like myself), it’s easy to get stuck looking at a blank page because you don’t have The Perfect Words, and you want what you write to be Good the first time.

Here’s how I cheat that:

Instead of trying to write a Good First Draft from a blank page, hit the enter key a few times, skip a little down on the page, change your ink to red (or blue, or whatever - just something immediately identifiable as Not Black) and just thought vomit. Write whatever the hell you’re thinking, exactly as you think it. Don’t worry about it being readable, don’t worry about narrative flow for now, don’t worry about covering all the details, don’t worry about anything except either a) getting all the details of your idea out onto the page, whether that’s a lot or whether it’s just a sentence or two, or b) if you don’t have an idea yet, finding your way there.

Because this method is also very good for finding your way to ideas when you’re stuck in writer’s block.

Because of how human brains work, getting this stuff out onto the page - in all its messy, stream-of-consciousness glory - will likely spark more thoughts. As you write your original idea about the scene, it’ll likely spark more ideas. Creation begets creation. If you just start thought-vomiting your ideas onto the page, chances are you’ll think of more things as you go, and you’ll start filling out description or dialogue or tone or action or whatever, and pretty soon the scene starts writing itself.

Not sure where you’re going with the scene or which ideas you wanna use? Use a lot of ambivalent language in your “thought-vomit draft.” My pre-writing notes are chock-full of the words “maybe,” “perhaps,” and the phrases, “At some point...” and “...or something like that.” In this way, I don’t tie myself down to one idea; it’s just an idea, and I’m keeping it on the page in case I use it, but I might chuck it in the trash or change it or whatever.

And then, once your ideas for the scene (or story, or chapter, or whatever) are on the page, then go back to the top and start translating them into a “real” first draft. Use black ink, and start copy-pasting chunks of the thought-vomit up into the top part of the document and translating them into Draft 1. Separate out paragraphs where paragraph breaks should be. Add the correct punctuation and whatnot. Change “describe the lobby here - include potted plants, fancy carpet, blood stain, etc.” into an actual description of the lobby. Flesh it out, or condense, or whatever it needs. And if you’re still stuck, change back to red ink and ramble some more until you find a path that feels right, then plug that in. This keeps you from looking at a blank page, and it allows you to generate a kind of Draft 0.5, somewhere between a plan and a first draft.

You don’t have to use every idea. Like I said, jot down whatever comes to mind, put a “maybe” before or after it, and keep working. If the idea grabs you and you wanna keep expanding on it and exploring it, cool. If you just wanna jot it down so you don’t forget it and then move on, also cool. Red-ink draft / “thought-vomit draft” is your time to jump around in the timeline, add or finesse details at whatever point your brain moves to, etc. Don’t try to do it exactly in story order, because you will get tangential thoughts and ideas, and you will not remember to write them down five pages later when you finally get to taking notes on that scene. Trust me. On that note...

_-_

6) Write everything down the moment you think of it. Seriously.

“I’ll remember it when I get around to writing that scene in a couple days / weeks / months (/years).”

You won’t.

Write it down.

Phone, journal, google docs - hell, my family regularly laughs at me for grabbing a napkin during dinner and scribbling thoughts down alongside pasta sauce stains.

And then, once you have it written down somewhere...

_-_

7) Consolidate your writing ideas in one place.

Maybe this isn’t really your style, and that’s totally chill.

Buuuut, if you’re Type-A like me - or if you tend to be somewhat unorganized and you know you’ll lose track of your writing notes if they’re scattered across multiple notebooks, journals, napkins, phone notes, etc. - having one consolidated document of notes is a life saver. I keep mine on Google Docs so I can access it, add to it, and look through it for inspiration anywhere at any time. When I have one of those Shower Thoughts that I jot down on my phone or on a napkin during dinner, I set myself a reminder on my phone to type it up in my Story Ideas document later.

(Or, if the idea I had was for a story of mine that I’ve already started planning / drafting / whatever, I put it in the document for that story instead of the Big Random Story Ideas doc. You get it.)

_-_

8) Have other ways to collect and save writing ideas, besides just writing stuff down. If you like Pinterest, make pinterest boards of your characters or stories or settings or whatever. If you’re big into playlists, make a playlist for your character / setting / story / etc. Or both. Or something else. I’m not good at drawing, but maybe you are, and maybe you like to draw your ideas. Whatever form it takes, having another way to save ideas and think about your stories is invaluable.

_-_

9) Some writers can just start writing with no idea where the story is going, and they just kind of figure it out as they go. I envy those writers. And I do that sometimes for fanfiction, where the stakes are somewhat lower and the audience is reading more for scene-to-scene enjoyment (and to see their OTP kiss) than for a Driving And Compelling Narrative.

But here’s the thing: especially if you’re just kind of starting out, writing without some sort of plan is really, really hard, and will likely lead you into a slow, meandering narrative that will likely frustrate you.

Even if you think you’re someone that just can’t write with a plan (and again, I have the highest respect for pansters out there - I don’t know how you do it, you crazy bastards, but you keep doing you) - even if you think “I can’t work with plans, they’re too prescriptive, I just want to write and see what happens -”

Try at least making the most skeletal of plans.

Even if you have no clue what 90% of the story is, yet. That’s fine. But you need to have some idea of what you’re building to, even if that’s nothing more specific than a feeling, or a turning point for your character. Even if your entire plan for everything beyond Chapter 1 is, “At some point, Charlie needs to realize that Ed was lying to her.”

This is where those Draft 0.5 notes come in handy. Because, more than likely, working on your current scene that way will spark ideas for later scenes, which you can put down at the bottom of the document and save for when they become relevant. In my experience, the line between planning ahead and making a Draft 0.5 is exceptionally thin. One can quickly turn into the other.

If you’re really, really resistant to the idea of planning ahead, that’s okay. It’s not everybody’s style. But for the love of all that is holy, write down your ideas for future scenes, even if you’re a person that doesn’t like to plan and writes only in story order, because you will not remember that idea once you get to that scene.

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10) You don’t have to write in order.

Here’s the thing: I’m a person that can only do my Draft 1 in story order (meaning, chronological order). I just have to be in that flow; I need to write in story order for me to best channel where the character is at from scene to scene, both narratively and emotionally.

But my Thought Vomit Draft is another thing entirely. By using the brain hack of putting my notes in red (or another color, it doesn’t matter) and going down to the bottom of the document / page and taking notes there, and then integrating them into whatever plan I have, and then translating them into Draft 1 once I get there in the story - by doing that, I can get my good ideas onto the page (and expound upon them and let my muse carry me and ride that momentum while I’m in the moment of inspiration) without writing out of order.

Maybe that’s just me. But if you’re a person who really prefers to write in story order, that could be hugely helpful to you. It is to me.

_-_

11) Emotion and motivation will do more for your story than technicalities of plot.

If your characters really care about something, and their journey through the (shaky or weak) plot is emotionally engaging, it will be a much more compelling story than a story with a “perfect” plot and unrelatable or unmotivated characters.

If your characters care about what they’re doing, and it means something to them, and their goals and actions are driven by dreams or fears or emotions that are integral to who they are, your audience will care too. If you have a perfectly crafted plot that hits all the right beats and has high stakes and fast pacing and drama - but your characters don’t connect with what’s happening in a way that’s deeply meaningful or emotional for them? You’re gonna have a hard time engaging readers.

When in doubt, prioritize character emotion and motivation over plot. Emotion is what drives story.

This power is highly exploitable. (Just look at pulp novels and shitty but entertaining movies.) You can even use it to glaze over plot holes or reinvigorate a limp narrative. Use it that way sparingly, though. It’s a band-aid, not a surgery. 

_-_

12) Evil villains are hard to write - mostly because there are very few truly evil people in the world. (There are a few. Billionaires and several big name politicians come to mind.) But by and large, there aren’t that many evil people. There are plenty of bad people, but bad people have some good in them, somewhere in there. Trying to write an evil villain is hard, because they often turn very cartoony.

Here’s a tip: it’s much easier to write antagonists who aren’t evil. Even if they’re bad people. Of course, there’s no reason you can’t write a villain that’s just truly evil - a serial killer, or an abuser, or a billionaire, or someone who legit just wants to hurt people or blow up the earth or stay in control of an oppressed population, or whatever. But chances are, it’s gonna be really hard to make them feel real, and even harder to create a plot around them that doesn’t feel forced or contrived.

Instead, try writing an antagonist / villain whose motivations and goals directly clash with your protagonist’s - but not because they want to take over the world or see people suffer. Write an antagonist who’s chaotic good, but whose perception of the situation is completely opposite from your hero’s. Write an antagonist whose only desire is to save people, and who will do anything to achieve that goal - anything. Write an antagonist who believes in the letter of the law, and will hinder and oppose the hero’s methods even if they agree with the hero’s motivation. Write an antagonist who got in way over their head and did some things they regret, and now they don’t know how to get out, and they’re doing their best but whatever they set in motion is too powerful for them to stop now.

Write villains who are human. Write a killer who thought they were doing the right thing by taking their victim out of the equation, who vomits at the sight of the body and sobs over the grave they dig. Write a government leader who truly believes she’s doing what’s best for her people in the long-term, even if it might hurt them in the short term, and is willing to endure the hatred and belligerence of the masses if it means securing what she thinks is a better future for her people. Write a teenage bully that thinks they’re the one being picked on by the world, and they’re just fighting back, standing their ground. Write a scientist who will break any code of ethics and hurt anyone he needs to - in order to bring back his baby sister from the grave, because he promised her he’d protect her and he failed. Write an antagonist who is selfish and self-centered and capricious - because in order to survive they had to look out for Number One, and that habit ain’t about to break anytime soon.

Write villains who aren’t even villains. Write antagonists who oppose the hero because of moral differences. Write antagonists who are trying to do the right thing. Write antagonists who treat the heroes with kindness and dignity and respect and gentleness.

They don’t have to be good. They don’t have to be Misunderstood Sweethearts who “deserve” a redemption arc. They can be cruel and nasty and dismissive and callous and violent and etc. etc.

Just hesitate before you make them Evil-with-a-capital-E. Because evil is hard to write, and honestly, boring to read. Flawed human beings with goals and motivations that directly oppose the main characters’ are much easier to write and much more interesting to read.

Ask why. Why is your villain trying to take over the world? What does that even mean? Are they trying to create a Star-Trek-like post-capitalism utopia, but they know that won’t happen in a million lifetimes, so they’re trying to do it by force? Are they actually super in favor of human rights, but they got very impatient waiting for the world to do anything about poverty and war, so they decided to take it into their own hands? Are they determined to fix the world - no matter the cost? Are they terrified and overwhelmed, but committed to see it through to the end? Or - maybe they’re just doing it on a dare. Maybe they don’t really give a shit about world domination, they were just a mediocre rich white guy who decided to fuck around and find out, and now he’s kind of curious how far he can take this thing. And now he’s kind of an internationally-wanted criminal, so he’s kind of stuck living on his hidden private island in his multi-billion dollar secret base, strapping lasers to sharks’ heads for the hell of it. Gross, selfish, uncaring, and dangerous? For sure. Evil? Depends on your definition. See, now we’re getting somewhere.

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13) It’s tempting to let the plot control the characters. It’s easy to drop your characters into a situation and see how they react. But here’s the thing: that doesn’t drive plot. In fact, it bogs down pacing. Instead, try to build you plot off of your characters’ actions and decisions. Let your character build their own situation. Not to say it should go they way they wanted it to go; in fact, usually, their grand plans should go to hell very quickly. But having the characters take action and make decisions, and letting the plot develop based on that, is much easier to make compelling than making a rigid series of events and then trying to herd your characters into them.

_-_

14) Having trouble justifying a character’s actions? Consider having them make the opposite decision, or having them approach the situation in a different way. For example: you need your character to go meet the bad guy, for plot reasons, even though there’s no way it’s not a trap. If the character goes, readers are gonna be groaning with their head in their hands, because c’mon man, that was really fucking stupid. But he’s gotta go, because the plot needs that. Two ways you might handle this: a) He knows it’s probably a trap. He decides not to go. The plot conspires to get him near the villain anyway. Or, b) He knows it’s a trap. But he needs to go, for (insert reasons here). So, he approaches it in an unexpected way. He brings backup, recruiting a side character we met earlier in the story. Or he arrives on the back of a dragon, because ain’t nobody gonna fuck with a dude on a dragon. Or he goes - early, and ambushes the villain. It may work, it may not. He may get himself kidnapped anyway. But it moves the plot along without having Stupid Hero Syndrome.

_-_

15) This is a legit piece of advice: if all of this sounds overwhelming, literally just ignore it and write what you want. For real. Writing should be fun, and every single writer operates differently. If you’re sitting here like “I’m getting stressed just reading this,” just flip me a good-natured bird and get on with your life. I promise I won’t take it personally. Same goes for literally any other writing advice you see. Lots of rules and guidelines can very quickly make anything thoroughly un-fun. Just write. If you’re passionate about it and you do it for long enough, you’ll start figuring out the tips and tricks on your own.

_-_

16) Here’s the best piece of advice I can give you: know your characters. More importantly, know what’s important to them. Build their personality and decisions off of that, and build your plot off of their decisions.

I see a lot of character building sheets that ask a shit-ton of questions like “What’s their most prized possession?” “Do they like their family?” “What’s their favorite food?”

And while these are good questions, my problem with this type of character building is that if you start there, with the little stuff, you’re building on nothing. IMO, to make a truly strong character (not strong like Inner Strength, strong like effective), you need a strong foundation.

Here are the things you must know about your character:

a) What are their greatest fears / deepest insecurities? And I don’t mean “wasps” or “heights.” I mean the deep shit. I mean fears like “living a meaningless life,” or “turning out just like their parents,” or “that no one will ever love them,” or “being powerless.” You may say, “But they’re really scared of wasps! They fall into a wasp nest when they were little and got stung so much they almost died!” Great! That’s a fantastic bit of backstory. They should absolutely be afraid of wasps, and that should absolutely be an impediment later in the story. But dig deeper. What about that event actually scarred them? Was it the helplessness? Stumbling around, swatting at the air, not being able to do a single thing to stop what was happening to them? Was it that they were alone, and no matter how loud they screamed, no one was coming? Was it the bodily horror of feeling themself turn into an inhuman creature as they swelled up from the stings, unable to move their fingers or face normally anymore?

And don’t forget insecurities, because those factor in, too. Are they deeply insecure about their identity? Do they believe, deep down, that they’re ugly? Did they grow up poor and they’ve always been really touchy about that? Why? Dig deep. Figure out what really, really bothers them.

b) What are their hopes and dreams? What do they truly want out of life? What do they consider the most valuable to their experience here in this thing called life? Is it the freedom to forge their own path and be independent? Is it the approval of their family or peers? Is it a home? Is it knowledge, or understanding? Spiritual fulfillment? Is it deeply important to them that they contribute to their community, or protect those they love? What do they need in order to feel truly and deeply fulfilled in life?

Figure out those two things (each one encompasses several things, btw, you don’t have to stop at just one for each), and then use that to inform how they behave and the types of decisions they make within the story. 

It also informs character behavior and personality. 

Let’s say we have a character who’s afraid of helplessness. They’re probably gonna be the person that always wants to do something, try something, no matter how hopeless the situation seems. They’d despise just sitting and waiting, probably, because it makes them feel powerless. They might even be the person that makes rash decisions and acts impulsively and puts themself in danger unnecessarily, because in their mind it’s better than being at the mercy of fate. This is one way you could use a character’s personality to inform their decisions, which in turn helps to inform plot.

Or, let’s say we have a character whose greatest fear is being left behind or forgotten. We may have a chatterbox on our hands. They might be obnoxious. They might love the spotlight, constantly vying for attention no matter the situation, because deep down they’re so afraid that they’d be forgotten otherwise. Or, it may go the opposite way. They may be so afraid of people leaving them that they’re terrified of bothering people. They don’t want to do anything that could annoy people, anything that might give people a reason to leave them. They might be exceedingly polite, quiet, accommodating. A push-over, really.

These are two nearly opposite types of personalities, both stemming from the same core fear/insecurity. You can go a lot of different ways with it. But if you build on that strong foundation, you’ll have a strong character, and a stronger plot.

Likewise, the structure of your story can and should inform the design of these character traits. If you need your characters to team up near the end, it may be impactful if you give your main character a deep fear of commitment, an insecurity about being unwanted or left behind, and make them highly value independence and freedom. That could make their team-up for the final battle very meaningful. Conversely, you can use your character’s deepest fears and desires to help design the plot. Is your character deeply insecure about voicing their opinions or taking a stand, because of trauma they faced in the past? Make them face that. Build that into the climactic third act. Give them the big inspirational speech where they stand up and talk about what they believe to be important, what they think the group should do. And then design that character arc to run through the story, giving you more handholds and stepping stones, more pieces of foundation on which to design the plot.

In this way, character should inform story as much as story informs character. It’s a feedback loop.

Bonus: if you build your character and your plot off of each other in this way, it automatically starts to build in the foundations of that emotional investment I mentioned earlier. If your character’s decisions are based on what they most want and do not want in life, you basically have your character motivation and stakes pre-built.

Note: you need to know these things about your villain, too.

-_-_-

I’m genuinely sorry about the length of this, lmao. But you did ask.

Best of luck!

Edit: I forgot an important one:

17) Start when the scene starts and end when the scene ends.

What do I mean by that?

If your notes say “Danny asks Nicole out after school and majorly flubs it,” start the scene when Danny approaches Nicole after school. Better yet, cold-open the scene on “I was wondering if, you know, you’d wanna. You know. Hang out some time?”

Don’t start that morning when Danny goes to school, unless you’re gonna cover the school day in like one or two sentences. Don’t spend whole paragraphs going through the school day, unless it’s to cover other plot points first (in which case apply these same guidelines there), or if the paragraphs are there for a specific reason, like to illustrate how stressed he is and how it seems like every little thing is going wrong. Even then, trim the fat as much as possible. Expounding and describing everything Moment-to-moment is for the meat of the scenes, not the leading-up-to and coming-away-from.

Here’s my rule of thumb: study how and when movies cut from scene to scene. Movies have exceptionally strict, limited time for storytelling; they’re excellent examples of starting a scene when the plot point starts and ending when it’s over. If you can’t picture a movie showing everything you showed, start the scene later and end it earlier.

[derangeduser]

Equivocal Intentions.

Hanna (2011) Fanfiction

Summary: When Erik Heller and Johanna Zadeck ran away with little Hanna in tow, they also took along Erik’s sister, Y/n, who has a rocky history with a certain C.I.A. agent. We’ll go on from there…

Marissa Wiegler x Erik’s Sister!Reader

Warnings for this chapter: Cursing, violence, death of an animal, etc.

Here’s the key:

Y/n - Your name

e/c - Eye color

h/c - Hair color

A few disclaimers!

I do not own the story Hanna, this is just my adaption of it with a reader insert.

This will be a story with multiple parts, and it will be somewhat lengthy.

I will be mixing between the film, and the screenplay, so things might not be the same as the movie.

To be a 100% honest, I’ll use google translate a lot for this story. If anything is wrong, I apologize!

This story does have romance in it, though it starts off slow in the beginning, so please be patient with me. :3

Views that the characters have, may not necessarily be my views.

Finally, I do not own any characters within this story, including you. I hope you enjoy. :)

—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-

Prologue

-Present Day-

“It can cut you like a knife..”

You trudge through the snow as you sing,

“If the gift becomes the fire…”

You adjust the bow around your body, fingers used to the cold environment.

“On the wire between will and what will be….”

Your e/c eyes spot two figures in the distance tussling in the snow, a girl and a man, with the audience of an animal corpse.

A deer it seems to be.

“She’s a maniac… manic… on the floor. And she’s dancing like she’s never danced before…”

As you finished the song, the fight seems to come to an end. The girl is now on the ground, with the man standing above her.

That is, until he walks away…towards you.

Before he can reach you, you hide in the vast amount of trees, camouflaged clothing blending you in perfectly.

Once the man gets far away enough, you leave your hiding place, and start walking towards the girl. By this point, she had gotten up and starting hauling the mutilated corpse.

“Need hel-“

Before you got to finish your statement, she grabbed your hand from her shoulder, planning to flip you over her small frame.

You think ahead however, kicking the back of her right knee. She falls to the ground, and you yank her arm off your hand, grabbing its twin and turning her around. Once she sees your flushed face she sighs,

“Sorry Y/n.”

You smile, letting go of her hands, shaking your head.

“It’s no problem kid, you did a good job.”

“I lost.”

“Because you just fought Erik, you were tired.”

Hanna’s light blond hair shakes with her head as she looks down at the deer. “I always need to be ready, even when tired.”

A sigh comes from your pale lips,

“Whatever you say honey. But Erik’s too hard on you.”

You always hated that Hanna had to be taught these things at such a young age. Fighting to kill, expertly mutilating an animal corpse, to always be alert and never relax. It killed you that she never got a normal childhood. Instead, she’s confined to the vast snow of this secluded forest.

You fell out of your thinking when you saw Hanna begin to pull the dead deer’s body in the direction of your shared home.

You catch up to her, and grab on to one of the sticks attached to the make shift sled.

“Let me help.”

Her blue eyes look at you, unreadable.

“Papa said I have to myself.”

“Yeah well he isn’t here. What he won’t know won’t kill ‘em.”

Hanna’s face still didn’t move, until you see the small traces of a smile pulling at her mouth.

She lets you help as you start in the direction of your cabin.

—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-

Once you reach the cabin you drop the stick, stretching your arm.

“You do the rest. Don’t want your dad to get his head in a twist.”

The girl nods and continues pulling the deer as you walk inside, seeing your brother sat in front of the fire.

The look he gives you, makes you groan, your jacket falling away from your shoulders.

“You need to stop babying her, Y/n.”

Your e/c orbs couldn’t have possibly rolled any farther in your head.

“And you, brother, need to stop being a jackass.”

The chair across from him squeaks when you land on it.

He gives you a hard stare.

Hanna walks in and looks at you both.

Your eyes blaze, daring him to say something. Erik sighs, and gets up.

You stand up as well, still glaring.

He gives one last look to you, before asking the girl, “What’s wrong?” She gives him no response, hanging up her things. He grabs more logs for the fire.

“Are you hurt?” He sits back down in his original seat. “You were half asleep. You must always be ready. Even when you’re sleeping.”

You rub your eyes, exasperated.

Fucking hell.

“Think on your feet. Adapt-“

“Or die. I’ll do better next time.”

He looks at you, and you sigh.

“Kannst du es bitte auf deutsch sagen?” (Could you say it in German please?)

“Mach es beim nächsten Mal besser.” (I’ll do better next time.)

She responds to you immediately.

“Buono. Italiana?” (Good. Italian?)

“La prossima volta andrò meglio.”

(I’ll do better next time.)

“Española por favor, cariño?”

(Spanish please, honey?)

The girl sighs, her father watches expectantly.

“Lo haré mejor la próxima vez.”

(I’ll do better next time.)

“Est-ce que ça te plaît, connard?”

(Does that please you, you asshole?)

You say turning to Erik, who does not look impressed by your words. Hanna laughs, which gives you a pleased grin on your face.

“Oui, Y/n.” He gruffs out, rolling his eyes. You join your niece in her laughter, and you notice Erik looking at you both fondly.

He continues to tend to the fire as Hanna walks up to you, grabbing your warm hand.

Jesus her hand is fucking freezing.

You keep quiet, and look at her with kind eyes. She whispers, “He found out didn’t he?”“Probably. But I don’t really care.” You shrug, grabbing her other hand, wrapping the pair around your body in a hug.

She nuzzles into your chest, arms tight around your waist. “Aunt Y/n?”

“Hm?”

“Could you read for me again tonight?” She speaks against your sweater.

“Of course, honey.” You couldn’t help but melt at her adorable self, tugging your fingers through her hair. She squeezes you one last time before letting go of you, going to retrieve her book.

You look after her for a moment, then your gaze moves to your brother, who was watching your encounter. Either you were finally going mad, or his mouth was turned up slightly.

“..would you like to join us?”

He takes a few seconds to react, and your patience almost wore thin, you then see him nod his head. You then smile a bright grin.

—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-

“The great blue whale, is the largest animal to have ever existed. It’s heart weights 1300 pounds, and a male has 7 gallons of testicles.”

Erik freezes up at the last word, and Hanna laughs quietly. Smirking you continue,“The blue whale’s music can be heard for over 500 miles. A blue whale’s tongue weighs over two and a half tons-“

“What does music feel like?”

You pause at the question, before turning the pages of the book. You grin once you’ve found what your looking for.

“Music. A combination of sounds, with a view to beauty of form and expression of emotion.”

“Like when you sing?”

A chuckle comes from your throat as Erik responds, “Yes, exactly that Hanna.”

The girl looks off in thought, you eye her face curiously.

“I would like to hear other types though.”

You took no offense. She reminds you a lot of her mother. Always curious. And you fondly remember her having a much better voice than you.

“We have all we need right here.”

Erik’s voice cuts your thought short, you glare at his response.

Hanna talks back to him before you could, “It’s not enough.”

A sense of pride washes over you.

She then looks at you and her father.

“I’m ready.”

And it instantly washes away into dread.

—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-

-Five Years Ago-

“Aunt Y/n, have you ever been in love?” Hanna asks as she looks through her Grimm’s Fairytales.

The water you were drinking went up your nose, throat erupting in coughs as Erik firmly pats your back. Hanna’s eyes widen in concern, before you wave her off.

You wipe your nose and mouth, clearing your throat. Suddenly, the necklace around your neck feels very heavy.

“Uh why do you *ahem* ask?”

Hearing a quiet chuckle come from behind you, you glare at Erik making him stop. Your niece looks back at her book now that you’re ok.

“The princes and princesses in these stories… I’ve always wondered what love was like, and if you’ve ever.. experienced it.”

Now your eyes were the size of sauciers, you anxiously scratch the back of your h/c hair. “Why me?” Why not target your asshole of a brother?

The young girl shrugs, turning the page of her book. “I don’t know. I just have.”

Your throat still hurts from your shock earlier, you swallow to relieve the irritation.

“So?” She presses.

“Right. Well I guess you could say that… I have.”

Your brother resists the urge to laugh at your suffering. You elbow him in the gut, when Hanna questions, “You guess?”

Realizing that your niece won’t let up until you give more details, you look at Erik. He stares back at you for a moment before murmuring,

“Only if you want to.”

At this point, all of your hair will fall out with the amount of times you’ve tugged at it. You spot blue eyes looking back and forth between you and your brother. “It’s best sh- you hear it from me.”

You look directly into Hanna’s eyes, yours now holding some type of edge.

“I was in love. Once.” Erik rolls his eyes. You pretend not to notice.

“And.. what happened?”

“We both… didn’t see eye to eye on something. I ended things with her a long time ago.”

“Her?”

Hanna’s eyes didn’t show disgust, but genuine curiosity. Your smile, usually bright and cheerful, seemed tight. Your thoughts raced…did you and Erik teach her about gay people yet?

“Yes. Her.”

Her blond head nods, looking back at her book, gloved fingers tracing over a picture. You turn to gaze at Erik behind you, but he isn’t looking at you. His eyes are trained on his enclosed hands, jaw clenched.

You turn away and sigh, looking at your own hands. You spot crescent shaped indents in your palms, your niece then asks,

“What was she like?”

Those indents quickly trickled blood.

You went pale, and not because of the cold. Finally Erik interjected, “Alright, that’s enough. Time to go to sleep.”

The only thing that portrayed her annoyance was her icy blue eyes, but she pushes it down and closes her book. As she puts it away, you get up to go and get bandages. Erik stops you, grabbing your wrist. By this time, Hanna had climbed up into your shared bed and lied down.

“You alright?”

It took all of you not to tease him. Typical big brother.

“Of course I am. I knew we’d have to tell her at one point. Better now than later.” He nodded, but didn’t let go of your wrist.

“Uhm may I have my wrist back? I kinda need it.”

“In a second..”

“Huh-“

He pulls you into a hug, and you are inclined to think that your brother is possessed. He’s certainly feeling affectionate today.

You slowly wrap your arms around him, forehead on his shoulder. You stay like that for a few seconds, before you break the moment by saying,

“Okay but seriously, I need to bandage my hands because they are currently bleeding.”

Instantly, he wretched away from you bringing your palms to his face, he sighs deeply. “Sit.”

You do so, smiling sheepishly. He goes to your limited medical supplies, and grabs some bandages. He walks back to you, and starts unwrapping them.

“You don’t have to do that you know, I can do it myself.”

He doesn’t respond, wrapping your palms in the somewhat scratchy texture. You sigh.

Once he’s done, he puts away the rest and speaks,

“Are you sure you’re okay? I know how you get with.. her.. involved.”

“Me? What about you?”

You brother raises a bushy brow,

“What about me?”

“If there was anyone who had the most feelings about my relationship with her, it was you.”

Erik attempts to deny your claim before you spoke again,

“Don’t even try to deny it. Since the beginning you didn’t like her.”

“I was justified in the end, wasn’t I?”

He asks rhetorically, and you take on a wry grin. “You got me there.”

The man sighs as he watches you fidget with your bandages, looking at nothing in the distance. He was about to say something else until you both heard a noise from above.

Your eyes dart to your bed, as you see blond hair quickly duck.

You feel your legs move and get up from your seat, walking towards your bed. You pause when you hear your brother, “It’s not your fault you know.”

Back still turned to him, you continue walking, climbing up next to Hanna.

The girl is feigning sleep. You gain a devious idea. Slowly, you move your hands to her sides, and start to tickle her adamantly. She erupts in giggles and screams, “No! Agh stop!”

Once she’s out of breath, you ease up falling to lie next to her. “That’s revenge for eavesdropping.”

Still catching her breath she heaves,

“I-I’m sorry.”

You boop her nose. “No big deal kid.”

Nodding, she tries to regulate her breathing. After a bit she asks,

“So you’re a lesbian, aunt Y/n?”

If you had more water, you’d spit it out. But you didn’t, so instead you just about choked on your spit. “How do you know what that is?”

Did you tell her about it and just forget?

Whilst your in your thoughts Hanna responds, “Papa told me about them.”

Your eyes almost bulged out your skull. “He did?” “Mhm.” “Oh. Well I guess I am.���

Damn. You’re really gonna need to thank him for that.

Silence consumes you both, save for Hanna’s heavy breathing and the crackling of fire below.

You felt the weight of sleep start to fall upon you, before it’s lifted off you.

“Did she hurt you?”

You bite your chapped lips, and turn towards her. She’s staring right back at you. “The woman you loved. Did she… hurt you in some way?”

You move back and forth between blue, not knowing which eye to look at, before deciding it’s best to just close your eyes. “In some ways, yes.”

The girl stays silent, but you can feel her breath on your face. It seems slightly rapid. You open your e/c eyes, just to see her blue ones filled with something akin to anger.

You grab her small face with your hands. “I’m over it. It’s been years since then. There’s nothing to be concerned about.”

Her breathing has calmed, though the glint in her eyes didn’t change.

“I want to protect you.”

You feel like you’re choking, and you feel the urge take your necklace off. You almost had the nerve to say,

“Well if your goal is to protect me from my ex, then it’s perfect she is the one hunting you isn’t it?”

Though you didn’t want to give the poor girl a heart attack.

A sigh comes out your nose, “What she did to me doesn’t matter, you don’t need to protect me from anything. Okay Han?”

You give her a stern stare, and she relents. “Okay.”

“Thank you. Now sleep, before your father fucking kills me.”

She laughs, and closes her eyes.

You gaze at her face for a moment, the bliss on her face filling you with an emotion you don’t want to define.

Then you follow suit, closing your own eyes, surrendering yourself to sleep.

—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-

That’s the end of the prologue folks! I know that it’s a bit rough, but I hoped you liked it regardless. If you have any ideas for or theories about the story, feel free to tell me, I’m all ears.

Anyways I really hope you enjoyed reading, and that you stick around for the future. Thanks for reading! Have a nice morning, afternoon, evening, or night wherever you live! ✌️~ derangeduser

Song Used In Chapter: Maniac by Michael Sembello

[jawabear]

Hypothetical (Javier Pena X Reader)

Not My GIF

A/N: So, firstly I want to start by saying thanks for 200 followers?!?!?!? like that is awesome!! Secondly, this was a request that I had a lot of fun writing! and I actually really like it, I hope you do too. Also, for the Spanish parts I used google translate because I don’t speak the language so it maybe wont be entirely accurate. Sorry for any mistakes. Stay safe :)

Genre: Fluff

Warnings: fem!reader, none really, Soft!Javi, drinking, Pedro Pascal comes with his own warning 

Summary: There’s this one girl who he really likes, hypothetically what would happen if he asked her out?

Javier let out a deep sigh as he pulled up outside his favourite bar. It was a small and quiet place so it was perfect for him, someone who spends all day surrounded by people who couldn’t careless about him or anything else really. But the main reason he went there was because of the barmaid that was always working on his drinking time. If anyone could make him feel better about his shit life, it was her.

His entrance into the bar was the same as it had been since the first time he ever went there. The bar was quiet, a few regulars scattered about the place, a quiet but almost obvious song playing in the background. And (Y/N), the barmaid, was making and servings drinks between wiping down the bar, making light but idle chat with the ones she served and the ones who sat at the bar.

If we go by the story that barmaids are there to listen to problems, (Y/N) certainly is the perfect barmaid. She was always a welcome listener if anyone ever had an issue. She was nice to talk to. She was a friend to all, but she could be firm when she needed to. That was evident to Javi when one guy started getting a little too flirty and a little to handsy towards her, she firmly put him in his place that shocked everyone, and Javi hadn’t ever seen that guy again.

Javi sat in his regular seat, (Y/N) was talking to someone else. Oscar, his name was, if Javier remembered correctly. A writer, not a journalist, a writer. Apparently he was writing a fictional book, something to do with mysteries and detectives, most likely a children’s book but who was Javi to judge? If it worked out for him, go for it. It wasn’t like Javier was any better off, hating every second of his infuriating life, but in a strange way he knew he wouldn’t change it. Yet.

(Y/N) seemed to clock Javi’s presence and skilfully managed to shorten the conversation without making it seem like she was trying to get away from Oscar. She didn’t even need to ask Javier what he wanted, she had known him long enough to know what drink he was in the mood for, and right now he was in the mood for whiskey on ice.

She gently placed the glass in front of him with a smile before leaning on the bar in front of him “tough day?” She asked quietly.

He nodded and took a large swig on his freshly poured drink “it always is (Y/N)” he told her flatly.

“You should take a day off” she said pushing herself off the bar and preparing drinks for other who had just walked in. She had a great memory and knew exactly what drink to make each person, this didn’t make Javi seem as special to her as he would like, but she did seem to spend more time talking to him then anyone else in the bar. “You’ll work yourself to death”

“If only” he laughed dryly “anything to get out of this...constant loop of failure” he took his drink in his hand and gently swirled the amber liquid.

“Javier, in all seriousness, I really do think you should have at least one day off. It’s not healthy working as much as you do, especially in the job that you do” she served a few others, giving them polite smiles as she continued talking to Javi.

“It’s because of what I do that I don’t think I’ll be able to get a day off” he said. She let out a defeated sigh and came back to stand in front of him again.

“I still think you should try” she said

“And do what, on my hypothetical day off?”

“Well, you could hypothetically relax. Take some time for yourself. Or...we could...hypothetically maybe go out..or something” her gaze had shifted to the cloth she used to wipe down the bar which suddenly seemed like the most interesting thing in the world.

“You mean like a hypothetical date?” He asked takin a smug sip of his now empty drink.

She took the glass from him and began to refill it “unless you don’t want to...in which case that’s fine...”

“And... what if I did want too?” He asked as she set his refilled glass in front of him. “What would you say?”

“Then I’d say ask for a day off, and that I work 6-10pm Monday through Friday and 5-11:30pm on weekends” she smiled sheepishly as she went about cleaning a glass before filling it for another customer.

“I think,” he began, rather proudly, “If I’m taking a day off, hypothetically of course, then you should take a day off too”

“I only work nights Javi” she chuckled.

“That may be” he hummed, swirling the amber liquid in his glass “but those nights must be long. Especially when you have people like me giving you sob stories”

“I don’t mind it” she said quietly as she lent on the bar. He instinctively moved forward looking at her with fondness in his eyes which she returned. “It’s good company”

“Yeah?” He said just as quietly, a softness in his voice that was new to her. It was as if in that moment all his worries had slipped away and he was just a normal guy with a normal girl.

“Yeah” she agreed softly.

“Tomorrow? Here, at six?” He offered quickly.

“It’s a date” she smiled.

Tomorrow, there, at six couldn’t come quick enough for him. He had somehow managed to grab a day off which didn’t do him any favours. He should’ve been relaxing but he was far too excited to relax. He felt young. Like a lovesick teenager asking his crush out or something. But in some respects, that what he was. He certainly liked her, no one made his day quite like she did. He was giddy at the thought of actually going in a date with her.

Luckily for him, the day seemed to fly past and soon it was coming up on six. Javi pulled up to the bar and made his way inside. She wasn’t behind the bar. Instead it was a young blonde girl who he had never seen before. But he wasn’t too bothered about that. His girl was sat at the bar swirling her drink in her glass before taking a sip of it.

He couldn’t help but smile. Butterflies swirled in his stomach. He felt amazing. He was quick to compose himself and casually walked over to the bar taking up the seat beside her. She didn’t clock him at first, only turning to look at him when he spoke.

“So, do you come here often?” He asked in a smooth voice, hiding his giddiness well.

She turned her head and looked at him. Her eyes softened as soon as they met his and she smiled softly at him as she placed her drink back down. “Considering I work here,” she said “yes. What about you? Are you a frequent visitor or are you just passing by?” She asked resting her elbow in the bar and her chin on her open palm as she looked at him with the same fondness as the day before.

“Frequent. But with company like this, can you blame me?”

“Certainly not” she smiled.

He gave her a quick scan up and down, a soft smile finding its way to his face, “you look positively stunning tonight”

(Y/N) let out a nervous laugh and turned her gaze away from him briefly “thank you Javi. You don’t look too bad yourself” she said looking back at him “clearly a day off has refreshed you”

“I have to admit, I haven’t done much relaxing”

“Oh? What have you been doing instead?”

Being far too excited about this date is what he wanted to say. “Just stuff” he said “my job had made it so I find it pretty much impossible to sit down for a while”

“That’s a real shame. I think I relaxed too much” she laughed “I didn’t get out of bed until 1. I was still in my pyjamas an hour ago”

He laughed at her words. He ordered a drink and they moved to a free table near the back of the bar where they sat, drank, spoke and laughed for the remainder of the night. Right up until closing time. Maybe he didn’t spend his day relaxing, but that night with her made him feel more relaxed then he ever had in his life.

But nothing good lasts forever. And they both soon found themselves outside her apartment. “Well, this is me” she said gesturing awkwardly to the door.

“I really enjoyed tonight” they both said at the same time making them both laugh.

“I really did” Javi continued, “and I should thank you. If it weren’t for you, I probably would be working myself to death. But it was nice to have a day off. A real one”

“You don’t need to thank me. You deserve a break. You work so hard and do so much for the people in this country and quite possibly the world. That’s a heavy burden to bear. But you bear it because it’s the right thing to do. Even if you have to shake the wrong hands to get there”

“I wish I shared your confidence” he said “sometimes I think we’re no worse then they are...”

She stepped forwards and placed a soft kiss on his cheek “you’re nothing like they are. You’re a good person Javi. A good person, with a kind heart. And I’m always here for you should you need me”

For a moment they stood in silence looking at each other before Javi made the move, taking her face between his hands and pressing his lips to hers. She brought her hands to rest on his waist lightly as she sunk into his kiss which she had long desired. It was so much better then she could’ve ever imagined. It was so gentle and loving, but yet a passion in it that made her stomach flip every which way possible.

He slowly pulled away from her, resting his forehead against hers. She smiled as they swapped their hand positions, his hands falling to her waist whilst her hands rose to rest on his cheeks. “I feel like that was long overdue” he said. She laughed softly and hummed with a nod.

“Yes. But hopefully we can make up for lost time” she said.

“Oh, for sure” he said before kiss her again, this time a little more deeply, a little more passionately. But it was just as thing were really staring to get going that the clicking of a door was heard, ignored at first but then a voice came which was less ignorable.

“(Y/N)? ¿Eres tú, querida?” (Is that you, dear?) A aged female voice came from two doors down. (Y/N)’s landlord. A nice lady, a very sweet lady. A lot nicer then most landlords in the world. (Y/N) and Javi pulled away from each other and (Y/N) looked over to the older lady, Mrs Ortega. She was wearing a light pink dressing gown, slippers and a night cap over her grey hair. Round glasses on her nose but she still had to squint to see the figures clearly.

“sí, señora Ortega. Lo siento, no quise despertarte” (Yes, Mrs Ortega. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you) (Y/N) apologised quietly, wondering if she would end up waking any other who were in the floor.

“Veo que tienes una amiga contigo” (I see you have a friend) she said with a hint of a smirk as she looked between (Y/N) and Javi who were still very close to each other.

“buenas noches señora” (good evening, ma’am) Javi said politely with a slight nod.

“Los dejo a los dos. Buenas noches querido” (I’ll leave you both to it. Good night, dear) she turned with a slight wave and waddled back into her apartment.

“buenas noches” (good night) (Y/N) called back quietly before the door was shut. She turned back to Javi who was looking lovingly at her, his nose now pressed against hers.

“tu español es sexy” (your Spanish is sexy) Javi said in a deep voice. “I never knew it was that good”

“I’m glad you think it’s good” she smiled. She paused for a moment and looked down, thinking over her next words. “Would-Would you like to come in?” She asked in a small voice, scared of rejection from him.

“Yes” He said simply. She smiled and turned to unlock her door “I have a late start tomorrow, so we should be fine”

“What do you think we would get up to to make you late anyway?” She asked as she opened her door and turned back to face him.

“Something hypothetical” he said before wrapping his arms around her and kissing her again as they fell into her apartment.

09/12/20

[theowlhouseheadcanons]

I´ve finished The Owl House recently and I´m just amazed by the show in all its aspects, especially the plot and the designs. Even though the very known Disney´s touch is there, it is placed so smoothly along with the story that makes the show really refreshing to watch. 

But as any cartoon trope, I bet my right hand there will be this prom episode where all the characters will get a new, formal outfit that will make the fandom go YEAH

… But this episode is not here yet, and probably will take some time to be, and since hiatus is taking so long… I took the creative liberty to illustrate some of my expectations. 

Sooo, Ta-dã ! 

It took longer than I´ve expected it to, 

Here it goes the thoughts I´ve put in every piece! 

Willow: yes, I just couldn´t resist the urge to relate her outfit with the tree that is behind her name, and c´mon, you know the creators also have this association in mind. It just fits. The little details on her dress are the flowers from the willow tree, and I wanted to resemble the “wavy strips” shape of leaves in someplace - first I thought about making her dress in this shape, but I wasn´t finding a way to make it right. So I added this detail to her earing, since making the reference more subtle felt like a better reward to give the public once they notice the design´s purpose (hope it made sense)

Gus: our gold boi is an illusionist and a human enthusiast, and I wanted to make both of those traits show off. So, which iconic human being we have that also practiced the art of illusion? If you said Houdini, you´ve read my mind. I based Gus´ suit on the one Houdini used to wear a lot *according to google* and made the little bow tie as a reminder of his coven (not that we needed a remind for that but yeah); And what about the hat? I took the liberty to make it a headcanon that, in one of Owlbert trash raids to the human world, there was this sympathetic top hat laying around and, as Luz knew how much Gus liked human stuff (and wanted him to be more assertive about stuff´s finalities), she gave it to him. And I´m sure you can imagine his enthusiasm, and how forward he was looking to properly use the “artifact” as a human would (even if it´s all beat up!) Besides, the hat was made for a head way bigger than his, so it keeps falling into him and he has to stand funny in order to keep it in place

Luz: Luz is “light” in Spanish/Portuguese, her light spell has this yellowish color so there wasn´t much stress to pick the primal color (picking the right variations in the other hand…that was sort of stressing). For her dress model, I wanted something that expressed her buoyant personality, but still “serious” enough to attend a formal event. So, I made it like a sundress and added some layers of details, as the sleeves and the semi-transparent cloth over the dress´s hem. Also, I “tamed” her hair a bit so it wouldn´t just be the same she uses every day, with this one rebellious lock of hair at the back which refuses to stay put along with the others. 

 Luz appears to me as someone who would love to wear super extra outfits for cosplay purposes, but being conscious about her clumsy self, she would rather stick with something simple enough to move freely (and fast) if the situation requires it - especially because it would be her first prom out of the human world (maybe her first prom in life?) so it would be nice to avoid any unnecessary awkward scenarios - which we all know are totally going to happen. Thus, I thought about adding some glitter to it, but I saved the sparkles for someone else...

Amity: OH I HAD SO MUCH FUN DOING THIS ONE. Amity (spoiler alert) is a big fan of Azura´s books, just like Luz, and it is pretty clear she inspires herself a lot on the character - her dyed hair, the drawing of herself wearing Azura´s clothes on her diary´s cover - SO based on that sweet info it wouldn´t be a surprise if she coded Azura´s dress in her own. I made her dress a plain white (like Azura´s)  but, to resemble Amity social status (da gurl is rich) gave it an “elegant” cut, with the purple, shining and very-expensive looking silk falling upon it to give life to the outfit (and they also translates as the shoulder parts of Azura´s dress). Her earing stands for Azura´s chest star, and I played a “half-fancy” hairstyle to complement. (I don´t like to have favorites, but this one is definitely one)

King: the king of demons claims he´s a naturalist and has concrete displeasure to wear clothes. So little cute smokes were out. But as a king, and with his obnoxious personality, he would definitely want to dress as fancy as everyone else, with the little of “dressing” as possible, get it? I know that adding a bow tie to him isn´t the most creative of looks, but the filling is in the headcanon I (once again) took the liberty to make: King wanted to feel fancy, but he wouldn´t dress a suit, and he refused to go without anything. This led everyone on the house to search for something that King could wear, which resulted in Eda finding some old holiday ornaments boxed in a dark corner of the attic; Among those, there were many red bows of different sizes from where King picked the biggest one - which was meant for Hooty, since it was a door ornament - and a smaller one for the tail, as the final detail. He also gave Hooty one of the bows, a really small one, just to say he gave the owl something. 

Eda: I must confess, Eda outfit was the trigger of this whole thing lol. I was scrolling through Pinterest and BAM this look appeared and my mind instantly associated it with the Owl Lady. I just really wanted to draw her in this look because it is so her. She´s the elegant foxy aunt of the party who put candies in her bag and sneakily takes all the table decorations home (especially the shiny ones!). She received Principal´s authorization to attend the prom with no risks of being arrested, as a treat for her good choice of enrolling Luz there, which is the only reason she´s so proudly showing off who she is (I´m talking about the necklace, if you´re wondering). Plus, her hair up was so fun to make? I´m 100% ready to see it canon

oof, this was long.

I´m thrilled at the chance to share it with you guys, and I´m more than welcome to feedback!

[fantranslatorbychoice]

Kakuriyo no Yadomeshi Volume 6 Chapter 4 - Secret Girls' Night-out

T/N: Hi y’all, it’s me again, it took a bit longer because I did my best to beta-as much as I could, but if it’s still wonky, I apologize, it's not like I get paid to do it lol also it's rather challenging when I had to convert my brain waves from Japanese to English to my native language and however those combinations work just to spew all of these out in sufficiently passable English. So I hope you all don't mind stuff like typos or inconsistencies with the tenses srsly even the original text has that and I just literally gave up evening out the tenses, like really apparently it's no biggie to have an entire paragraph in Japanese that both has past and present tenses (they mostly don't have future tenses) but if that happened in English some would just nitpick that shit out. I mean, yeah, for sure when I do editing and get paid for it I would, but if I'm just reading fanfics from writers who don't have English as their native language I just don't give a hoot, as long as the story's good, to heck with grammar, spelling and syntax. Srsly some non-native EN speakers get turned-off or even scared when nitpickers hit on their imperfect spellings or grammar or dictions, srsly honestly just give them a break, they worked hard to learn another language. I felt this even more so when I started learning Nihongo, like srsly as long as a person gets to say what they want to say even if it's not perfect in anyway, then that's more than enough for me.  srsly I am forgiving like that. Also this chapter has more notes than usual, especially regarding Nihongo and stuff, so if you don't like it you can always move along lololol Also I gave up, I'm keeping the titles and roles in Japanese i.e. Odanna-sama, Wakadanna-sama, Bantou-san, etc. I'll just stick in more notes instead lol

Also if you like this translation, you can heart it, share the link, reblog, I just respectfully ask that DO NOT REPOST ELSEWHERE. This is my contribution to the scant English content of this fandom, and I worked really hard to finish this thing, it’s not like I just copy-pasted everything. I even had to build the kanji in Jisho one by one. Try it and you’ll see what I mean.You can rave about this, rant about this, but if possible please link back to this page. If you’re unsure how to do that, just copy the web address of this page. If you’re on a blogsite just insert the web address as a hyperlink as a link back to here. Honestly if this light novel was officially-published in English, I wouldn’t even be doing this right now... And if it did, I’d take this offline to support the publishers and Yuuma-sensei. Creators support creators, is what I believe in. As previously-mentioned in earlier chapters, if you stumbled upon this one, the two seasons of the anime covered volumes 1-5, so other than the extra details, you didn’t miss much stuff. OK, with all of that out of the way, here's Chapter 4 now. P116 "Th... These are... The Southern Lands' cultured Japanese amberjack**... A bundle of Kiseki beef.. And there are so many other local products from the Southern Lands too. Ah, there's even the coconut oil that I always wanted!" So many extravagant ingredients have been hauled into Yugao, and I was flabbergasted by them all. There were also so many cans of various contents as well as dried fish and other products stuffed inside. Canned tuna and other canned stuff were considered as high-end products in Kakuriyo, and I am very grateful. Ginji-san and the Daruma gang from the kitchens delivered a box packed with so many ingredients to Yugao, and we had no idea why. "Well, the Dog said that these are their repayment to our kindness. It's because a while ago, Ranmaru came to Tenjin-ya." "Really, Ranmaru from Orio-ya?" "Hatori-san also came too, with him." In some way, Ginji-san's mood was good. For a while now, his nine fluffy tails were wagging from left to right. "It's from our head accountant Byakuya-san, Aoi-san's rewards for your achievement, and for Tenjin-ya's cooperative business venture and all sorts of other demands that were deemed justifiable, and because they wanted to give other things as a way of expressing their gratitude, they brought in many other souvenirs and products as well. They also exchanged with us various other information." T/N: This is related to tuna fish, but don't ask me how they cultured it. Probably in the open sea, like in sea cages. Yes, that's a thing, and yeah I was also in the fishing industry at some point in time, if you're wondering. Also if you're wondering why I rarely use "you" in the dialogues of the translations, it's because in polite Japanese conversations, instead of saying ANATA or OMAE= you, one's name is mentioned instead. In the original text, when people are talking to each other, rather than say "you" they say the other person's name or occupation + san instead i.e. bengoshi-san= lawyer san, Ginji-san, or if it's a username because they don't like using their true names- USERNAME-san. Because using "you" in any way, shape or form in conversations is deemed rude AF. So the next time you chat with Japanese people, please remember to address them by their name, or occupation, unless you've established rapport with them. I forgot to put this explanation in my earlier posts, but it's one of the most important stuff I learned in my Japanese classes, the Japanese folk won't care so much on grammar but more on being polite and taking care of remembering social status stratification aka just be polite by using polite terms. I actually experienced this first hand after chatting with some of them, they just told me not to use Google translate and just chat with them with whatever I know. They're very grateful when people could talk to them in their native tongue, especially when the honorifics are used. This note's long AF but I did say that I'm gonna drag you all with me in this whole learning Nihongo thing, and I'm doing just that. P117 "That friendly Ranmaru did that? Doesn't he hate Tenjin-ya?" "Hee hee. Well, don't take this too seriously, OK?" Even though saying it that way, I imagined that Ranmaru's horrible words and demeanour were probably due to his circumstances. Orio-ya sees Tenjin-ya as its rival, it's hard to imagine them having an image of humbly bringing over souvenirs. And the business dealings, I wonder what those are...? "Oh that, Ranmaru saw that you had a strong sense of duty. He wanted to particularly express his gratitude to Aoi-san." And thereupon, these ingredients from the Southern Lands. Stuff I rarely get hold of, especially something like that one round amberjack, and I unconsciously grinned. "Even so, if the circumstances allowed, he would have stopped by and said it himself** ..." "It was before Aoi-san's business hours, and Ranmaru is also busy it seems, so he had to go back immediately. Even I wanted to take our time since I thought it was fine, but it can't be helped... Because Ranmaru is the Southern Lands' Hachiyo." "Ha ha. Then what happens next is that if it's possible, Ginji-san will go to Orio-ya, won't he? Nothing's stopping you two from visiting each other now?" "Aoi-san...." Up until recently, Ginji-san and Ranmaru's long sibling feud previously ended sometime ago, and the long-standing so-called inn rivalry and clash between Orio-ya and Tenjin-ya has been cut. T/N: aisatsu=挨拶=greeting, introducing one's self, improving relations by dropping by every now and then, can also mean like popping up to say hi or whatnot. I don't know how to directly translate it since aisatsu has more of a sense of how a supervisor pops up in the work place or a teacher suddenly appears in a class just to check, it's not as informal as a neighbor dropping by the house just to have idle chitchat. Hweh. P118 But after the ceremony, the changed relationship between the two has been noticeable. "Oh, that, I see. Someday soon, I will take a break and go visit him too." "Yeah, I agree, that's great. Oh, I wonder if everyone's doing well... Hatori-san and Tokihiko-san, Hideyoshi and Nene, the cute twin chefs.. And Nobunaga." "It seems that everyone's doing fine. The twins Kai-san and Mei-san, Orio-ya profoundly realized that they're really suited to be chefs, and everyone seems to cheer them on, Hatori-san was still the same as ever, but sometimes he returns to Shumonzan. He says that he bickers with Matsuba-sama as always, but one way or another they've become in good terms with each other." Ginji-san asked Ranmaru, and he told things about Orio-ya's management staff. I see, everyone in each of their own way have been doing their best to move on forward. "Oh, and somehow Hideyoshi-san and Nene-san seems to have been engaged." "Whaaat? Why that fast?" Wait a minute. Hideyoshi knew that Nene-chan has decided, that she likes Ranmaru, wasn't it? But that's what Hideyoshi said... My astonished face must have looked funny, and Ginji-san turned away his face and giggled. "It's surely shocking, isn't it? Why, it's amazing, Hideyoshi was especially honest and manly. P119 I simply cannot..." Ginji-san let out a tiny laugh again. What is it about his old haunting grounds, being delighted at the many changes in Orio-ya? At any rate, I was surprised with Hideyoshi and Nene's engagement. Firstly, congratulations Hideyoshi. You thought that your unrequited love has been going on for so long, it was outside your thoughts early on, but now your love bore its fruit. I'm glad, as I'm rooting for you on from the sides. What the heck, behind my back, how did they get involved in that, that was surprisingly an unusual story, if I meet Nene this time I need to get information from her. "But the when the trustworthy Waka-danna** and Waka-Okami** get married, Orio-ya will surely become peaceful, and Ranmaru will also be pleased. Certainly after the marriage, their organization will grow even stronger. He'll get exhausted if it's just Ranmaru holding everything together." "Isn't Tenjin-ya also reasonably solid?" "I guess, although the position for Waka-Okami easily changes. Originally the person in that position is supposed to only resign once, but right now Kikuno-san has temporarily retired as the Young Mistress and supposed to come back. However, there have been circumstances in her family, and she immediately relinquished her seat as the Waka-Okami." "Ehh, like that?" After showing my disbelief, Ginji-san sadly nodded.

T/N: Waka-danna=young master, Waka-Okami=young mistress P120 "If it comes to that, when a new Waka-Okami doesn't hold the position for very long, we can say that there's a gifted person in Tenjin-ya, and it's only a little issue.** Likewise, during that matter with Orio-ya, we in the management staff really wanted the former Waka-Okami O-ryo san to come back and give it another go. Her abilities are very outstanding." "Even I too... I was shocked to see O-ryo completely doing her job well. Even Nene, one way or another admires her so much." "Yes, I agree. But, oh well... O-ryo-san returning to her former position, it's already a huge chance and a necessity. Right now she's drifting away from supporting her fellow waiters and waitresses, well, O-ryo-san must be intending to. To me, she seems to be enjoying having lesser responsibilities and more carefree in her current position." "Well, that's for sure..." Based on how Ginji-san talked about it, lately it seems that O-ryo has no obsession on the position of Waka-Okami. A little bit until recently, she seems, to have returned the bearing of her Waka-Okami decorum, but lately she's wholly just wanting to eat and eat, when she finally gets some free time she goes to Yugao, and lately has been persisting on going out hunting for marriage partners. However, I could say with confidence that she seems to be taking advantage of being relieved of her position as a Waka-Okami , and surely Tenjin-ya will realize that they need O-ryo's abilities. O-ryo's strength, is diligently doing her duties in that position. "Anyway, Aoi-san. I was preparing and building up the Autumn Festival here in Tenjin-ya at the end of this month, and I was thinking of using pumpkins, is it possible for Yugao to make Autumn foods and sweets for us?" T/N: Honestly double-triple negatives are a pain in the ass, srsly it's like inception to the nth power, I had trouble deciphering this line and almost this entire page in the original text so if it doesn't make sense, meh, I did my best within my current abilities. P121 "Pumpkin? Of course. It's gonna be fun, like Halloween." "Oh, right! There's a foreign festival called Halloween in Utsushiyo, but I thought it's impossible to recreate that here in in Kakuriyo, though I could imagine it to be made into a Pumpkin Festival." "Oh, not at all, we can make that same Halloween theme here because Tenjin-ya is mostly full of Ayakashi." A Japanese Halloween that doesn't use costumes... "But certainly, this year's pumpkins are delicious, so Pumpkin Festival sounds good, doesn't it? It's also a great idea to give out candies to our young guests." "We can probably decorate with paper lanterns and pumpkins too. We can place ogre-fire inside, and make them float all around Tenjin-ya." "Wow! That's very much like Utsushiyo's Halloween!" Why, the Autumn Festival goes well with the Pumpkin Event and our imaginations ran wild. "Also, Aoi-san. Pumpkins are not Odanna-sama's favorite." "..." Abruptly, the topic on Odanna-sama popped up, and I stiffened a bit. Some days ago, we came back from the orchard park date. I remembered being hugged in the airship's deck...** "How are you feeling, Aoi-san? Why is your face all red?" T/N: **insert lenny face here** You can't stop me wahahaha P122 "Hm? Oh, it's nothing, this is nothing. Odanna-sama not liking pumpkins, I wonder if I somehow  asked that before..." "Oh, right. I saw that Odanna-sama often puts a lot of his boiled pumpkins in Byakuya-san's small bowl." "...really, isn't Odanna-sama unbelievable?" "Yes, he is. I don't know when Byakuya-san patience will end, but I want Odanna-sama to overcome his distaste for pumpkins." "You're right. His pickiness for food would not end... In this event I will feed Odanna-sama with the pumpkin cuisines I wanted him to try..." I haven't yet known what Odanna-sama likes, but I know what food he doesn't like. It wasn't at all regretable to make fun of Odanna-sama, but this time I got surprised. "Aoi-sama-- Manjuu-steaming has been finished!" Ai-chan's face suddenly popped out of the kitchen. She seemed to have established her affairs in Hyakumeyama, and she has changed her appearance to that which she made herself. Her time before returning to the pendant is still short, but she's working hard right now as a newly-hired employee. "You were steaming manjuu**? I thought I was smelling something good." "Yeah. Just a while ago Dr. Saraku was asked by Tenjin-ya to do some manufacturing trials for a new souvenir product.** T/N:  Steamed bread with bean jam filling. They’re really good, try them when you can!

when I write souvenir product, it's translated from omiyage=お土産= something that you take home for your friends or family when you go have fun somewhere like a national park or a museum or amusement park. Like when you buy takeaways -  T-shirts, food, keychains, etc. and bring them home or something. Is there an English equivalent for this? Because I don't know. In my native language we have an equivalent, well, for most Asian languages I guess. Don't know about others though.. Hm.... korewa....*inhales* O_O

P123 "We're still only in the middle of improving it, but once we're done we want Ginji-san to be the very first to try them out." "Wah, that sounds fun. When Byakuya-san saw the special products from Orio-ya, he also also saw the need for Tenjin-ya to make new specialties and other famous products, and he's going to be considerably sensitive about it." "Uhm.... But we have no confidence to meet that expectation..." If we couldn't get to sell all of the products that we made, what will we do if Tenjin-ya gets struck greatly by that? What will we do if Tenjin-ya's status and popularity crashes down? With regards to that, we had to think very hard. For Yugao as a small establishment it is a challenge, and the pressure feels a bit different. "It's alright. With regards to hit products, through time and through fads, luck always has a greater control. To me, the only thing needed by Dr. Saraku are failures no matter how many times, in his division. That is why it is important to fail when tackling new challenges." ".. Ginji-san..." "Because I think, we become stronger, don't we?" Ginji-san's relieving smile is so bright, even today it's promising. Having his support, for today as well, I will work harder for Yugao's business operations. P124 The next day, around noon. Tomorrow Tenjin-ya will be closed for a break. Since today Tenjin-ya's business operations will end and all shall check out at the same time, everyone's waiting to be free of work. Today, Yugao also has no business transactions, so tonight I was making up my mind to call all of the ladies to make hotpot. I was thinking of calling out all about to all the members who could attend, I only need to walk to the inner garden. "Oh, it's Kasuga." I noticed Kasuga first. On the other side of the log bridge, she was under the ginko tree. I was about to call out "Hey Kasuga--" but she seems to be talking to someone and I stopped. Behind the base of the ginko tree whose yellow leaves were slightly changing color, what the... Kasuga is usually cheerful but her face now weirdly has this blank expression. "Isn't that..." Beside her, it was Chiaki-san, the doorman in charge of the footwear. A Bake-Tanuki like Kasuga. Normally he doesn't get involved with her much deeply, but this time their dialogues seem to be at a crossroads. I thought that the young man was humble and modest, somehow trying his best to look cool, but somehow he is speaking to Kasuga with a harsh expression, the atmosphere doesn't seem good in there, the impression is very different from the usual funny and light. What is up with those two. These two were different from how I knew them. "Oh, Aoi-chan." P125 From far away, Kasuga noticed me, her Tanuki ears popped up, and rushed towards me. "Aoi-chan, are you going to the main building?" "Ehhhrm, yeah. That was weird, seeing the two of you." "You think so? Chiaki is my relative you know. We were just talking." "Oh, I see..." I don't understand but, I wonder what's normal for those two. "Speaking of, Kasuga, tonight, uhm, won't you come to Yugao after work?" "To Yugao? To make me eat food?" "Yeah. I was thinking of actually holding a ladies-only hotpot banquet. I'll set up the kotatsu, and there's also mountain apple liquor. Let's have a girls' night-out once in a while." "Girls night-out..." Kasuga said "That sounds so much fun" with a wicked Tanuki face. I wonder if she's recalling amusing stories she got out of everyone. "I was thinking of calling O-ryo and Shizuna-chan too. I'm going out to meet them now." "If you say so, I'll go tell them. I'm roommates with Shizuna-chan, and I'm assigned to the banquet hall with O-ryo sama." P126 "Oh, is it OK to ask? Sorry about that." "It's fine, it's like the usual running of errands." Smiling like a beast, Kasuga nimbly dashed away. Under the deep autumn air that feels cold, her fluffy Tanuki tail swings left to right. "..." Looking back at the ginko tree, Chiaki-san the chief doorman wasn't there anymore. I wonder what the two talked about. He seemed to have casually listened to the girls night-out plan. The strong mountain apple liquor, lend me your strength... "Aoi-dono" "Wah, Sasuke-kun!" Without warning, Sasuke-kun the O-niwaban fell down beside me. He has a long scarf hanging down his neck, ninja-style from sunrise to sunset. Normally, during the day he usually wears a monk's robe as he sweeps the garden. "What's up? Something happened during work?" "I am patrolling around. Lately, there has been some disturbances." "Well, tomorrow the inn will have its break, it must be difficult. Are you hungry?" "Ah, my stomach is..." P127 Grrrrrmmmmm. Sasuke-kun's hungry stomach made some noise. "My stomach is probably hungry..." "Hee hee. When your duties are done, while on break come to Yugao. We received a lot from Orio-ya, blessings from the sea. The Southern Lands were also grateful to Sasuke-kun, would you want anything?" "Is that true?" Sasuke-kun always had a cool expression, but when it comes to food his eyes sparkle with joy, like  a child's. Realizing that he's let out his enthusiasm, he cleared his throat and hid his mouth with the scarf while saying "Well then, until later," and he disappeared into the wind. Sasuke-kun is just as always very earnest, it's adorable. "Nevertheless, some disturbance..." I heard about that by accident, recently. The disturbance, it's shady, things don't look good, among other things. I was working and doing my best in Yugao, and whatever lurks up in my surroundings I don't notice anything at all. But, at the moment I don't know about  the things that have started happening, and I got more anxious and worried. P128 Today is a secret girls; night-out, no guys allowed. It's going to happen after Yugao's working hours, a hotpot party will be opened for the ladies of Tenjin-ya. Today it's not at Yugao, the venue will be at my room at the back, and I will bring out the kotatsu. Tonight's dinner will be amberjack shabu-shabu. We'll make a light konbu/kelp dashi amberjack shabu-shabu from the many seafoods from Orio-ya. "We'll use the top shelf kelp to make the konbu dashi for the seafoods of the Southern Lands. It's a hotpot filled with crunchy mustard greens and thinly-sliced daikon, Welsh onions and enoki mushrooms, I'm going to fill it with amberjack as much as I want." "OK--- Let's eat!" Despite it being after work, the ladies' eyes will get fired up. I wonder if that's the case when they get hungry after working hours. I immediately placed in the fatty slices of amberjack in the hotpot's boiled  konbu dashi, and let it cook. I will add in here some ponzu for that single tingly flavor.** "Ahhh, what is this luxury. It's been a while since I had amberjack shabu-shabu..." "O-ryo sama, eat the vegetables too. Adding the thinly-sliced daikon makes this a shabu-shabu." "Alright, I get it..." O-ryo just ate only the amberjack, and Kasuga sneakily added in the vegetables. She also placed some of the boiled enoki, and placed a lot of the dashi along with the fish slices, placing all of these together she took a bite. T/N: Sour-tasting soups are best with fatty meats and fish, so I'd get that Aoi would do this to cut the fat and make the shabu-shabu taste even better and also to cut the fat and greasy feels. P129 The two closed their eyes in contentment. Certainly, when the raw amberjack was cooked over a flame, the entire flavor of the fish changes. Instantly the soft slices of amberjack became tough, and over that ponzu was added,  this was entirely different when eaten as sashimi or with pickles, it can be an enjoyable, extravagant yet healthy food. Well, not really, it's just the season to eat hotpot deliciously. "Speaking of, what time is Shizuna-chan coming?" "The bath hours haven't ended yet, I think she'll come over after fixing and cleaning up the bath houses. She's the only one from the management staff, and she has to stay in her working area up until the end of business hours." "Oh, yeah. I see. Shizuna-chan is part of the management staff." I lightly glanced at O-ryo. O-ryo was a former management staff member, but she seems to be unaffected by my words. It seems that the person in question enjoys whatever working position she's in right now, and is drinking carbonated water as well as the mountain apple liquors equally. Somewhat it's like being that annoying single office-lady... "Perhaps I should say it- did you know? Orio-ya's Nene is married to their Waka-danna?" "No, aren't they just engaged? It seems like that for the time being, before getting married?" P130 Uhm, Kasuga and I looked at each other. But O-ryo wasn't listening. "Hmmph. That young girl, she'll be suffering so much marrying so young. That Waka-danna called Hideyoshi, that tiny squirt, he'll noisily scold her." "You think so? I've seen that Hideyoshi, he seems good enough. Well, he is pretty noisy. But he seems to like Nene very much, I think it's wonderful that he got his feelings through." I feel like an aunty who's earnestly chatting away about her relatives. If I could talk about it better, those two make a cute, tiny couple. "Gah! Enough chatting about a guy's love for some girl! I am not interested in the happiness of other people!" With a thud, O-ryo slapped her empty wine glass on the kotatsu. "Ahhhh, O-ryo sama don't start complaing about envying other people..." As always, Kasuga started telling her off with her "good grief!" pose. "I'm sorry I'm late--" A breath of fresh air, Shizuna-chan has joined the party.** Shizuna-chan takes care of the bath houses and bears the task of keeping them in order, and is Tenjin-ya's sole management staff for that purpose. "Shizuna, you're late! The battle has already started!" T/N: well the transliteration of the original text was "Shizuna-chan has arrived in the battlefield", but I think this has the same feel, from RPGs honestly IDK anymore lol anyways IMO food parties are always a battlefield so wth it's the same gahaha P131 "Ah, yes--? I'm sorry, ehhh, a battle?" After that, even if O-ryo was just a waitress who glared at her instantly, Shizuna-chan humbly apologized. It seemed that she had no idea what O-ryo meant with her words of choice. Shizuna-chan brought a box for us, filled with so many delicious sweets.This seemed delicious to eat as dessert. "Shizuna-chan, come sit beside me. Say, do you like amberjack shabu-shabu?" Shizuna-chan rarely visits here. I did my best to take care of whatever she needs. "Well, it has been a while since I had some amberjack shabu-shabu, how nostalgic..." "Oh, right. When you were young, you were a staff at Orio-ya. During that time, did you ate a lot?" "Yes, it was my favorite. Shishou-sama** made a lot of it for me..." Talking while bashfully fidgeting, Shizuna-chan started to eat with a lot of etiquette. Suddenly, O-ryo started looking at Shizuna-chan like a sister-in-law. "I say, uhm, Shizuna? There's someone in Orio-ya like you, who's also nice and has good vibes?" "Yes? A person with good vibes?" "Hey, weren't you explicitly pursued here in Tenjin-ya? Who was it.... That guy who looks withered up, called Tokihiko. You like someone who looks bitter and glum, don't you? It's illogical and unadult-like. Don't think that somehow you're under the shadow of that guy.. *hic*" T/N: I don't know how to call the main artist or the one who takes in a lot of disciples or students or apprentices so this is the next best thing, I guess? I mean, it’s directly translated as Master=師匠-Shishou, but it can mean other stuff, not just like sensei though. P132 "Oh, uhm.. that.. Shishou-sama.... he is uhm..." Shizuna-chan's face started blushing, like she had some beer or whatnot. Once that conversation was started, she immediately got perplexed. "Wait a minute, O-ryo! Shizuna-chan just started eating, don't ask her such direct questions, her throat might block off the shabu-shabu." "You're loud Aoi! Shut up, what's more important than looks are the uses**, you crazed-cook!" "What the.." Whom on earth did she think this hotpot party was prepared for? When O-ryo drinks liquor, she always blurts out unapologetic things. "Haaahhh... Aoi may be crazy about cooking, but in the end, eventually she'll get married to Odanna-sama... He'll pick up an excessively-expensive palanquin for you, you won't understand how miserable I am..." "What the heck are you saying... I'm doing my best to avoid being his fiancee." "But Aoi-chan, didn't you and Odanna-sama went out, and you were away for more than a night?" "Hold up, Kasuga, it's a weird, story, it can't be helped. We were captured by the mountain's Kaku-zaru." "Ah, but.. Odanna-sama pulled you out of a pinch, didn't that made you have a change of heart? Or some progress?"

T/N: hanayoridango=function before looks, like buying food first before buying flowers, yeah that’s the literal meaning of the phrase. P133 "...what?" A while ago Shizuna-chan got asked the same kind of questions. Suddenly, the  three girls gazed at me. What the, what's up with their eyes, those three? They look like hyenas having an eye on their prey. "I.. I didn't mean it that way! Uhmm... Odanna-sama just.. gives his all as he saves me..." Speaking of progress, what on earth is progressing right now? My first-hand experiences weren't much, and even using those as my basis, I still don't understand. In the end, somehow despite never having an idea on what occurred, the warmth I felt when I was hugged just abruptly pops back again into my mind, and ultimately my face remains blushing, as I chattered and gritted my teeth in silence. I really don't understand this, I wonder... what is this feeling? "What the heck is that..?" "Yeah, what gives? It's weird, Aoi-chan's face is so red, why is that?" I could hear Kasuga and Shizuna-chan somewhat breaking the silence with their hushed conversations. "OK--- that's enough talking about sweethearts and whatnot--  That's every last one of them--" "Yeah, I heard you, I heard you!" O-ryo had enough of the topic already, and she rolled down into the kotatsu with an angry and dead-drunk expression. She probably got one-punched...** T/N: Yeah I feel you O-ryo, when everyone has some special someone and you're the lonely third wheel I mean, I can't blame you girl, I really can't. It's worse than getting one-punched by Saitama, but... Still lol tho sry my bad P134 "O-ryo sama, with that middle-aged man attitude such as yours, you'll miss your chances of getting married." "Kasuga? With the romance that a little girl-chama like you would know, wouldn't have an idea on what love is like, there's no such thing as an immediate fated encounter. Really esteemed women like me, wouldn't have to rush in choosing.There's no leeway for mistakes--" "Yeah, yeah. But regarding myself, I have a first love..." "What, that story about when you were young? Yeah, yeah, sure, that story that smells of inexperience is good enough. Kasuga, go pour me some more.." "Y-yes... Good grief..." The esteemed woman bully lied down again. And as the junior poured more liquor for her, she drank heartily, again. "But Kasuga, speaking of that, during the day, I saw you being with the Gesokuban** Chiaki-san. What on earth were you two chatting about?" "....uhm..." I suddenly remembered it, and without thinking I asked. Kasuga's facial expression slightly changed. "Reallyyyyy?! What the, Kasuga is with that Chiaki?!" Hearing that topic, O-ryo suddenly bolted upright. She kicked her legs inside the kotatsu, and Shizuna-chan let out a tiny, pained "ouch". "What is it, O-ryo?" "Chiaki may look sloppy and gaudy, but so many waitresses are eyeing on him. Not only does his face look good,

T/N: Gesokuban=下足番= doorman in charge of the footwear, normally in Japanese inns or hotels the footwear are kept outside the halls to prevent dirt from coming in. I think elsewhere in the world this is a practice, there’s a thing called indoor and outdoor slippers or shoes. P135 but being a Gesokuban, he's pretty much a member of the management staff. If he gets married, it's easy to dominate him. That's what I understand from hearing other people. Kasuga, he's also your type?" "...what are you talking about, O-ryo sama? Chiaki is my Uncle. Simply put, my father's younger brother.**" "Whaaa... Really?" Everyone got shocked. Everyone in here seemed to be unaware of that fact. Kasuga went "Uh-oh". Her face spelled out "I shouldn't have said that." "It's probably due to this liquor.. I may have said too much..." Kasuga was scratching an itch on her temple. Taking the opportunity, Shizuna-chan suddenly seemed to have remembered something. "Speaking of that... Kasuga is taking a long vacation to go back to her parents' home, and at the same time, Chiaki-san probably won't we working too, isn't it? Could it possibly be that, he's going home with you?" Somehow, a lot of suspicions and doubts started rising up, and Kasuga started clamoring and wailing. "Geez... stop it already! What I told you is already enough! More importantly, hotpot! Look, the mustard greens and onions, and the tofu had all boiled down.The umami of the vegetables and the amberjack have already dissolved into this precious konbu dashi, and it's considerably better now. Aoi-chan, how are we going to divide this?" With dexterity, Kasuga started distributing the contents of the hotpot into smaller bowls, but I was still determined to press information out of her. This girl is pushily taking charge over the hotpot... T/N: I don't know about you guys, but in some families due to the age gaps between the siblings, some of the nieces and nephews ar more closer in age to their aunts and uncles than the aunts and uncles have to the children's parents. I was actually raised by an elder cousin, and her eldest brother was around the age of my father, so yeah, I could understand how this whole thing with Kasuga goes. P136 "Ok, with this, it's definitely udon!" "Udon!" "Yeah let's do that" Shizuna-chan gratefully put her hands together, and O-ryo's sparkling eyes were on standby. Immediately, the udon balls were brought in, and these were dunked into the deliciously-filled dashi stock. After boiling it down, we only had to wait for the noodles to absorb the flavors. "By the way, you all, what do you think of the single guys in Tenjin-ya?" "Yes?" "Do you have anything funny about them to talk about?" While O-ryo poured some newly-opened liquor, she drunkenly pushed the question at me. This woman, sets herself aside and starts gossiping about Tenjin-ya's male army. "First of, let's start with Akatsuki. That guy's the youngest male in the management staff, he may have a promising future, surely being young his composure isn't yet enough, I think. Well, in desperate times I could say that he's adorable, but he's the type that holds grudges, and it's not a good thing that he easily snaps out. For certain, I think he doesn't have a girl." "It seems that O-ryo sama has a problem with the Bantou** -sama snapping out at her words and deeds, don't you?" "Shut up Kasuga--" "Owwwww" T/N:Bantou=番頭=head clerk, or the head receptionist

P137 O-ryo pulled out Kasuga's cheeks. Kasuga's cheeks stretched out so much. "Akatsuki-san's face is a bit scary, but he is a hard-working employee, in my opinion. But, well... I'm not interested in someone younger than me..." "That's right Shizuna, you have an older guy fetish don't you?" "Yeah, the guy has been living for 500 years now, yes..." Shizuna-chan just casually blurted out that she wasn't interested in Akatsuki. She's probably a bit drunk. She's drinking the mountain apple liquor on the rocks... "Akatsuki, you say... When I met him he shouted like he was going to kill me, that guy gave me the impression that he was the worst but... Now I think he's a really good chap. One way or another way though, he's not someone who likes taking care of others. I remember her younger sister.." That child** comes here to Yugao, his eyes may look evil but he's a caring person. Surely, I think that he's concerned about troubling his younger sister Suzuran and grandpa, among others. "Oh, and by the way..." At this point, Kasuga secretly pulled out a notebook and started telling us the stuff that she wrote. What the... What the heck, that is scary. "According to my research, the Bantou-sama doesn't have a woman's touch on him. He's aloof, and he easily and earnestly gets resentful. It also seems that despite the lady waitresses asking him out to have fun, he always doesn't go with them." "As expected..." T/N: the term Yuuma-sensei used for Akatsuki is mame=マメ=bean, but can also mean a child, a little person, etc. Honestly it's not wrong, Akatsuki is an actual precious bean IMO lol protect that spider bean lelz P138 "But that guy, a little girl once invited him to play with her..." Surprisingly, I thought this was a bit rude. Most likely, Akatsuki is sneezing a lot right now. "Wah, udon, udon--" Finally, the udon has been boiled enough. Everyone started putting udon on their bowls. "Gahh... This is it. The udon to finish the hotpot."** "Cooking this in the dashi makes it yummier, doesn't it?" The udon has surely absorbed the umami and the fatty flavors of the amberjack. I added the refreshing taste of the Sudachi Ponzu in mine. This went smoothly down the throat, and this perfectly wraps up the the meal. No, I mean, this is a work of art. "Hey Aoi, you only drank one glass of the liquor? You go drink some more..." "Sorry but, I dont drink more than a cup. Previously, drinking made my eyes hurt when I look at things." A cup of that liquor tastes great. But I dread getting drunk if I drink more than my limit. But everyone was just drinking heartily, so I guess it's fine. The mountain apple liquor also has another nickname, it's called "Easy Bandit-Killer". "Well then, next is the Waka-danna sama's turn" O-ryo continued the conversation where we previously left off. "Waaat? Even Ginji-san?! But.. Isn't Ginji-san perfect? No, a perfect Youkai? I couldn't find any fault with him." T/N: Just in case you're wondering how this works, it's rather easy.. After eating all of the ingredients in the Japanese hotpot, like taking out the veggies and meat, there's a lot of soup left. It's easier to just drink the soup but in Japan, they add stuff to help it go down easy. Choices are either noodles or rice, and the young ones love putting the noodles in. It actually tastes good either way, but I prefer noodles. I think in Persona 5 they also had this same dilemma lol Also yeah Ginji is just the ball, perfect ball of fur lol but he also has this shadowy and mysterious side so if you want a dude of mystery, Ginji's your man gahahaha P139 "Eh. You don't understand, Aoi. Seeing no faults or imperfections is that person's shortcoming-" An adultish smile floating up her face, O-ryo started spinning her glass around. "Waka-danna sama is, well, fanstastic. When you look at him he's handsome, he is well-mannered, and is skillful at his job." "Yeah I get that. He's very sweet, and he always lends a hand... But for sure, Ginji-san seems to have no interests in romantic relationships..." Even I haven't unraveled the reasons to why Ginji-san is still single. But I'm not surprised that he's well-liked. "Oh, well, based on what O-ryo-san was saying, Ginji-sama has no chink in his armor, doesn't he? When a little girl couldn't get any confidence from everyone and has to hold it together by herself, when that perfect Ginji-sama sees that person, his voice would probably not break so easily." "The Waka-danna sama isn't a greedy type, but look, what Aoi-chan is saying is that the Waka-danna seems to have no hobbies or interests. Aoi-chan doesn't understand how, but among the employees he seems to be the type that only admires one person. In that case, his attraction for this one girl could unfortunately end. And she won't be pursued relentlessly." Oh, I get it... Shizuna-chan and Kasuga pointed this out, and I could understand it better. "But after that thing with Orio-ya, somehow the air around the Waka-danna sama has changed, didn't it? T/N: OK I just translated from Japanese what I'd say if I was fan-girling over Ginji, srsly arrrghhh does a guy like this exist? I'd want the extra tails and the transformation powers but I'm OK without those as long as he's into romantic stuff.. Does he? Does he not? I don't know yet lol are there any Ginji fan-fams here too lololol P140 I heard it from the lady waitresses that aren't easy to talk to. That person, he has undoubtedly became likeable. And then, the Waka-danna sama, didn't he take care of you in your condition?" "..." With a wicked face, O-ryo was testing me with her words. But to me, up until now I think that Ginji-san is likeable, and in that case it's not even a joke. He hardly comes to Yugao now, and because of that it's gotten lonely... "On another point, among the Waka-danna sama's nine tails, the third one below, from the right seems to be the most unique.That is somehow a weak spot." "Kasuga, how did you know such information?" It's scary... Kasuga's information is creepy. Even though she's drunk the power of her research skills scared all of us. "Well then... Choubachou** Byakuya-sama--" "O-ryo, don't you dare take another step over there--" We suddenly exercised caution with Byakuya-san. If we speak rudely of him, we feel like we're going to get cursed.** "I honestly couldn't remember a time when he got angry..." "Me either..." "Me too..." T/N: OK so my bad, Byakuya’s supposed position ranges from accounting to reception, but I just previously translated his position as head accountant because it’s what I got before. But he’s more or less the chief of management operations, which includes accounting. Anyway... Hey, I mean, if Byakuya can kick Raijuu's ass then it's justifiable that Byakuya is always in a sour mood, and it's bad to talk about him rudely. Raijuu's a pain in the ass for sure. Arrrgh P141 In the end, this girls' group had nothing more to say. We shuddered when we remembered stuff, and inside the kotatsu we all curled up. Though we were only just talking about him, his pressure on us made us feel defeated even in here. "H.. However, Byakuya-sama stealthily spoils the pipe cats living at the back of the mountain..." "Kasuga, nobody knows about that yet. Don't talk about it, if that gets leaked out we'll get killed." Well, in short, Byakuya-sama pours all of his love to the pipe cats. "Geez, we've wrapped out heads too much on these puzzles, and my hands have lost all feeling. Like Odanna-sama, he also exists above the clouds." "That's because Byakuya-sama is Odanna-sama's good old wife." O-ryo and Kasuga opened the box that Shizuna-chan brought for us, and while munching on these they were sloppily chatting. "Good old wife?" Isn't Byakuya-san a guy? as I tilted my head. "Since long ago, he has assisted in the running of Tenjin-ya. Odanna-sama is able to go here and there freely for work, and Byakuya-sama was staying in Tenjin-ya and presides over it. He has long been in good terms with Odanna-sama, and Byakuya-sama could readily and frankly give out his opinions to him." Come to think of it, before Odanna-sama and I went out, him and Byakuya-san were talking about something one way or the other. P142 In that case, other than the other employess and executives, nobody sees it like an older wife giving encouragement to her husband. "And for sure, when the Oo-Okami** sama isn't here, Byakuya-sama also takes in that role as well, doesn't he?" "Oo-Okami?" Shizuna-chan was drinking the last drop of the sweet liquor, she was reminded of her old home and started talking. "Ougondouji-sama is currently residing in Orio-ya. Previously, Ougondouji-sama was asked to be the Oo-Okami. She holds the same position and rank as Odanna-sama, therefore ever since Ougondouji-sama left Tenjin-ya,the position has been vacant." "Oh, I see... If that's so, with regards to that old tale, I have asked Ginji-san about that." And with that, Byakuya-san also holds the position of Oo-Okami. "Haaaahhh... That weird chat about the Oo-Okami has been a bit too much already." "O-ryo sama, didn't you tell me back then that you'd focus intently on becoming Oo-Okami ,once upon a time?" "Shut up Kasuga! It's a harsh fact that I have to live with!" With O-ryo and Kasuga's conversation, my ears grew eager to listen. "But isn't that.. O-ryo already has no interest with the Waka-Okami position?" "Whaaat? Aoi, you're asking that question? Did't I tell you that I won't get into the position of Waka-Okami again?" T/N: Oo-Okami, Mistress of the House, or something, like the big lady boss.

P143 "R..Really?" "It's fine, really it is. My enthusiastic, indomitable personality is dead. I want to enjoy living a carefree life. I plan to marry a rich guy, then immediately stop working--" "..." Somehow, the atmosphere became tense. Could it be possible that, among all the people in here right now, we're all thinking that O-ryo didn't really want to give up that position? Especially Kasuga, she was shell-shocked, and her face looked troubled. I felt that the mood has changed, so I tapped my fist in my hand. "Oh, right, right. I brought some large-sized grapes from the fruit orchard park, and I made some grape tarts. Let's eat some? I added a lot of grapes on it, it's a custard cream dessert." "Kasstard? OK OK let's eat--" It seems that nobody understood what I meant, but everybody nodded their heads excitedly. Grape tart. I made the crust with the coconut oil from Orio-ya and baked it, and by adding the large grapes called Daishisui that I gathered with Odanna-sama yesterday, the tart looks like a sparkly jewelry box. On top of the crust, I laid down an easily-made custard cream made of Cassowary egg and some wheat flour, with cow's milk and a bit of sugar, P144 and these buried the grapes cut in halves, which I later baked in the oven. After baking this for a while, I topped everything with raw grapes and pure cream. These were arranged as such because the tightly-packed grapes beneath this layer cannot be seen. "Woooooow!" Those dynamic-seeing eyes, everyone's eyes were sparkling. I sliced the large tart in front of everyone, and when the neatly-arranged grapes were cut through, Shizuna-chan let out a regretful-sounding "Awww".** There wasn't any fork, we used kuromoji, special wooden chopsticks** normally used for Japanese sweets or just ate them using our bare hands. "Uwahhh this is juicy-- What is this, I thought this food has raw grapes, but this tastes is like it was meant to be a baked dessert!" "This is the first time I ate something that tastes like this, but the grapes' sweetness stands out, it's really delicious--" O-ryo eating with her hands and Shizuna-chan using a kuromoji, they fell into a trance like typical ladies who love sweets. "This is generally called a fruit tart, and with the rich taste of the eggs in the custard cream, it blends well with the sweet and sour freshness of the fruits, and together these really bring about the best-tasting combination. The sweetness gets reduced, and the sourness becomes mild." As I was explaining how the mild taste came about, Kasuga haven't taken a single bite of the grape tart, and while propping her chin with her hand, she was observing it quietly. T/N: Lol I feel you Shizuna-chan, I feel the same when a freshly-bought ice cream tub looks so neat I don't wanna cut through it lol that's why ASMR of perfectly arranged anything are famous bahaha

Kuromoji=黒文字= Japanese sweets are eaten traditionally by using tiny wooden chopsticks, to cut and skewer them. You can check them out via search engine or smth P145 "What is it, Kasuga? Don't tell me, you don't like grapes?" "Hmm? No, it's not like that.. I really love grapes. That dessert you called tart, I was thinking of something." Kasuga ate held tart like it was a hard cookie, and bit on it heartily despite doubting what it was, before chewing on it. She filled her cheeks with the grapes, the custard, and the fragrant crust. "Mmmm, I wanted to eat some more. The grapes are heavy, and they burst in my mouth." Just a while ago we were enjoying some amberjack shabu-shabu, but we still had room for dessert, and all of the girls ate as much of the grape tart to their hearts' content. "Aoi-dono--" In that moment, came a boy's voice that can be heard from inside Yugao. "It's Sasuke-kun. I told him that I was going to give him something to eat after his working hours." The three ladies around me went "It's.. Sasuke-kun?", and they looked at me from the side. "Say, Aoi, tell Sasuke-kun to come here too." "Really? Even if today's a no-guys-allowed girls' night-out, it's OK to call him in?" "Yes, it's totally OK. Sasuke-kun is an adorable and good boy." "..." Even though there was a nagging feeling, I went outside of Yugao and called out to Sasuke-kun. "Sasuke-kun, thank you for your hard work. We were just having a hotpot party inside but, P146 I'll also add something for you, OK?" "Hotpot, is it? Is it because it has already gotten a bit cold?" "Come in. Everyone's waiting for you. I'll go and prep up." "I understand." Sasuke-kun unknowingly trudged toward the innermost room, and opened the door. "?!" No sooner than opening the door. Sasuke-kun the ninja couldn't react fast enough, and he was dragged into the room. "Gyaaaaahhh! Aoi-dono, Aoi-dono---" Sasuke-kun, the innocent and sweet Sasuke-kun, he was preyed upon by the ladies starved of men. "I- I'm sorry, Sasuke-kun. I'll make you a delicious hotpot, OK?" I feel guilty that he gets harassed, and using another earthen pot I added dashi stock, vegetables and the amberjack slices, and hurriedly went towards the innermost room. Please, please let Sasuke-kun be OK! "..." Sasuke-kun was already pestered by the drunken ladies, here and there he was grumbling being urged to drink liquor, P147 his hair has been tousled and his scarf stretched out, it was horrible, but he was being coddled and spoiled. "Aoi-dono--" Poor Sasuke-kun, he was crying out of fear. He was unprotected, and the swarming girls were getting their fill, it was another shabu-shabu over the kotatsu setting. They're feeding him too much. While he's eating delicious food, I will protect Sasuke-kun.

Despite the determination of that bunch, just like turning off a lamp, the girls suddenly collapsed. 

Zzzz.... The effects of the mountain liquor came at last, and the intense sleepiness has struck. "Aoi-dono.. What on earth, were you doing here?" "Hmm? It's a secret girls' night-out, Sasuke-kun." "Secret girls' night-out..."

It's really too much to handle drunkeness. The true intents and personalities of the girls, were hidden and unseen, in this empty room these must not get out. Everything that they spewed out, they'll probably forget in the morning. And that was the so-called, girls' night-out.

End of Chapter 4, Volume 6. Previous - Intermission 1 Next - Intermission 2

References:

Wonderful site for the youkai references

Other stuff I used to do this: Kodansha Kanji Learner’s Dictionary (you can buy here, I’m not sponsored btw). I was about to buy the older edition but then the newer one came out 2013 so I bought that instead. Worth buying since I was able to find nearly all of the words I needed just by stroke pattern alone.

Merriam-Webster's Japanese-English Dictionary (the red-covered 1996 version is apparently out of print right now). This is what I have been using for a very long time, I bought it when I was still a fetus (yes I am old so what lol), and after so many years, when compared to newer editions, I still prefer this one since its entirety is Japanese-English, the English to Japanese gloss are just 16 pages tops, so you get more Japanese words for your buck. But that’s just my opinion, maybe other people prefer the Jap-En x En-Jap IDEK.

Basic online dictionary, Jisho. Knowledge of verb conjugations  and other words are necessary since not all have entries.

If you can read Japanese, you can buy the whole set in Amazon Japan, they’re shipping worldwide now, I think.

[elletromil]

Get To Know Me!

@s1utspeare​ tagged me (about a week ago, but, you know, life), thanks dearling :D

Part I

name: I’m known as Elle. I personally pronounce it as the letter ‘L’, but ‘Ellie’ is fine too, I’ll answer to both and neither are my real name. (i’m old, so i don’t share my real name anymore sorry)

pronouns: she/her but I seriously don’t mind

star sign: Pisces

height: 5'6″

time: 8:11am because before work is one of my most productive time XD

birthday: March 4

nationality: canadian

fave bands/groups/solo artists: My go-to answer is Dir en grey, but sometimes I’ll be obsessed with one artist/band which is not currently the case

song stuck in your head: A french kid song from early 2000 that is freaking annoying and basically is someone with a “baby”‘s voice singing about the animal of the jungle. I’ve gone to bed with that song in mind and woken up with it still there. I can’t wait for it to go

last movie you watched: Midnight Diner 2! A friend recommended the series to me on netflix and I realised there was movies too so yeah, of course I watched the movies too

last show you binged: Unsurprisingly considering my last answer Midnight Diner! I’m on the last season now, but I would have finished it already if I hadn’t taken breaks to play some games XD

when you created your blog: 2009 if i remember well

the last thing you googled: “how to remove some outlook option” (it was a term in french, i’m not gonna bother translate it more than that XD) for work

other blogs: I have a dreamwidth journal and a pillowfort under the same name... My dreamwidth is more or less abandoned as is my pillowfort... I ain’t good at keeping up with stuff if they don’t have an app

why i chose my url: back when I was in like... early high school? I had an idea for an original story and for some reason I decided that one of the character’s name would be “l’immortelle” (french for “the (female) immortal”) but in reverse. I removed the extra ‘M’ for the aesthetic. So yeah, that stuck.

how many people are you following: 338

how many followers do you have: 1,593

average hours of sleep: about 7-8 hours a night

lucky numbers: 4 because its my birthday

instruments: i can play piano and the flute

what i’m currently wearing: a pair of black jeans and a purple and black stripped long-sleeved shirt. Cuz it’s cold this week.

dream job: I actually have it. I’m a creature of habit, so office work is very nice in the sense that I know exactly what my day is gonna be like (even when it’s a shit day, you know what could make it a shit day) and the work I do doesn’t actually feel like work to me (emphasis on ‘to me’).

dream trip: Going to Sweden to visit @solrosan​ with our other friend Red and possibly other countries with them too. Or Rosa coming to us and just taking off a week or two to stay at a cabin. And going to Australia to visit @honey-bee-britt​ :D

fave food: so manyyy. what comes to mind right now is ham tho, so i’ll go with ham

top three fictional universe you’d like to live in: I’d like to be a hobbit living in the Shire, i feel like i’d make a great one XD I’d also like Moominvalley I think. And uhhhh, Hyrule from Breath of the Wild, but only pre-calamity or post whatever is gonna happen in Breath of the Wild 2 XD

Part II

last song: Mama’s Gun by Glass Animals

last stream: A playthrough of Hollow Knight

currently reading: At least 10 books and just as many fics. This week is more of a ‘imma watch some random playthrough’ than a reading week tho, so I don’t remember what I am in the middle of

currently watching: Midnight Diner

what is antipoetry to you: ? I have no clue and quite honestly, i don’t care XD

currently craving: chocolate, because I always have a chocolate craving, but also craving time/motivation to finish all these prompts waiting for me in my ask box

I’m not tagging anyone, but if you wanna do it, consider yourself tagged :D

[krispydefendorpolice]

The Demon’s Bride (4)

Call out to @vitaliciouscreations for their “Drop of Paradise” story. I’m using the same name Tiān but they came up with it (to best of my knowledge). Another fun read. Anyone interested in me putting up a random maribat recomendation in this part?

On to the story

Beginning Previous Next Masterpost

_________________

Chapter 4

After dropping Mari in front of the hotel she was staying at, where the teacher definitely had not noticed she was missing he fumed, Damian returned to the Bat cave. His father, all three of his brothers, his sister, Alfred and the rest of the extended Bat Clan were waiting.

“You never turned your comm back on,” Bruce commented.

“I needed to speak with Mari before talking to you,” Damian said, passing his father and pulling up files on the Bat computer.

“We had noticed. It would have been nice to know you were alright after she took down Jason the way she did.”

“Hence the reason I left my tracker on instead of disabling it. You knew where I was.”

“Who is this mystery girl the boys are talking about?” Barbara, aka Oracle, asked.

Damian ignored the question while he filtered through the files of the Wayne conference attendees for the school group staying at Mari’s hotel and down to the students on the trip. He pulled up the school picture of Mari and the information they had on her.

“She is a friend from my childhood,” he finally said looking at the information. He saw that her name was Marinette Dupain-Cheng, her parents on file were listed as Tom Dupain and Sabine Cheng. So they hadn’t changed it, he thought, disappointed in himself because he never looked.

Damian turned when no one said anything after his declaration. Leaning against the console he waited for their responses.

“Bull shit Demon Spawn. You’ve never mentioned friends other than Jon and the Titans before,” Jason said, “and even then it’s because they are not your friends.”

“I assure you she is,” Damian said.

“Then why is this the first time any of us have ever heard about her?” Dick asked.

“None of you have ever shown a particular interest in my childhood with the League of Assassins before now, so why would I have talked about her to you?” Damian answered with a question of his own.

“Because you bit off our heads every time we asked anything,” Tim argued.

Damian narrowed his eyes, “The last time anyone asked me anything about the League I was 11 years old, had just moved in with a bunch of strangers, and had witnessed my family and my whole life destroyed by a madman. Of course I fucking yelled at you. I couldn’t handle it. I couldn’t cry, yell or rage about the unfairness of watching my family, my family,” he emphasized, “die because I was with strangers and emotions make you vulnerable and I could not afford any more vulnerabilities with the unknown situation I was in.”

The entire clan was silent during his tirade, and a bit ashamed at what he was revealing to them years afterwards.

“I’m sorry Damian. We should have realized that and asked you how you were handling the changes at the time,” Bruce was the first to apologize.

“So you weren’t just rabid from Mom’s Tender Loving Care?” Jason asked.

“Master Jason,” Alfred chided while the rest of the clan just gave Jason a Really? look.

“In the 10 years I lived with her I probably spent less than two in her actual company,” Damian said. “I don’t think I would have responded well at the time even if you had realized,” he acknowledged Bruce’s apology.

“Can you tell us about her?” Bruce asked.

“I can but there’s a lot to talk about to really understand everything. I’m meeting her tomorrow for her free day, we can come here for dinner. I can give you some of that background information now and she can answer any of the questions about herself that I can’t answer.”

“Alright. So tell us what we need to know.”

“Might I suggest we move this discussion out of the cave and to the parlor where we might be more comfortable while we talk,” Alfred interrupted.

“That sounds like a good idea Alfred,” Dick said.

**************************

They did as Alfred suggested and moved to the sitting room so they could sit comfortably while talking about Damian’s past. They were all aware that before he came to them at the age of 10 he had lived with his mother and grandfather and with the League of Assassins. He had been volatile and reckless even while he was taking up the mantle of Robin and began following the others into the vigilante lifestyle.

But apparently there was more to his actions as a kid than just being a snobbish brat raised to believe he was better than everyone else.

Damian sipped at his cup of Black tea while settling his mind around what he was going to discuss. He had spent the last 7 years trying not to think of the other half of his biological family and believing the rest were dead so that he hadn’t had any other reason to reflect on his youth in the League. But that had obviously been a mistake. If Mari survived did anyone else? Can I get my family back? He wondered to himself while the rest of the clan settled down with their drinks of choice.

Finally everyone was settled. Bruce was the one to set the ball rolling.

“So what should we know?”

“Before I start about what I know,” Damian began turning to Jason, “I need to know more about what you know of the League, Todd.”

Jason raised an eyebrow and looked at him stonily. If Damian was quiet about the League as a kid (lies, he really wasn’t because he was an Al Ghul dammit) then Todd was a monk who had taken a vow of silence (slightly less a lie, he didn’t talk about it but he did rant about what a bitch Talia was). None of the Bats knew much about his time with the League other than he met Talia before returning to Gotham to seek vengeance on the Joker.

“Like what, Demon Spawn?” Jason asked.

“Well, first, did you have a designation?”

“A what?”

“That’s a no then. Consider yourself lucky, or not, since you were one of mother’s various pet projects then.”

“Damian,” Dick warned as Damian still had a tendency to be very blunt, to the point of being abrasive, when talking about other’s trauma’s.

Damian frowned before nodding in acknowledgement of the warning and in apology for his tone.

“I suppose the first thing you should know is that the League of Assassins is only about two hundred years old, while Tiān the city from which it was established is thousand of years old. Grandfather found it years ago and started to recruit certain prized and influential citizens and families into following him. Eventually the majority of the city were members of his cult and doing his bidding. We can get more into why the League as its own city is important tomorrow.

“Now, since the League is a cult and it was born out of an independent city how has it maintained it’s membership for so long? And I assure you it wasn’t because grandfather shared the secret of the Lazarus Pits with anyone” he asked.

“They recruited new members,” Dick answered with a shrug.

Damian gave him his own Really? look. “Recruits only account for about 25% of the new trainees and they are usually older teens and young adults. The people that are disenfranchised from the society outside of the League. Individuals with knowledge of the world outside shaped by influences from outside and not by Ras Al Ghul,” Damian said. “I was one of 79 children born in my year group. I was not raised by Talia no matter how she spins it. Despite having a personal bodyguard, private tutors and a nursemaid because I was an Al Ghul heir, I was raised with the other children my age in the al’akadimia*.”

“Talia didn’t raise you?” Barbara asked.

“She oversaw my training, instruction and education which seems to be her impression of parenting, but no, she was not involved in the day to day of my life growing up. I got more of that with Father in the first few months than I did from her in the entirety of my time with her,” Damian answered.

The Bats were silent as they digested this new piece of information from their youngest.

“In the cave you mentioned losing your family. It sounded like it happened in Slade’s attack. If not Talia, who were you thinking of? The girl?” Tim asked.

*academy- Arabic via Google translate

_________________

So, this chapter f*cked with my head. I was just writing and playing with the story and had to come up with a reason for Damian being such a little shit as a kid. And I threw in the line about him losing his family and moving in with strangers when I had an oh shit moment of enlightenment.

In the Son of Batman, Damian witnessed his grandfathers death. His mother brought him to strangers and essentially dropped him on their doorstep. Then we get into the fact that most likely he was essentially abused growing up (how else do you get a kid that wont show emotions) but they were still his family and yeah...

I try throwing in a flippant reason but really it kinda sounds like a canon reason too.

I had never thought about why canon Damian was the way he was especially in that first movie and now my head hurts. I’m curious if anyone else has ever given that a thought or if you’re just now having that oh shit reaction?

Taglist: I’m so happy so many are enjoying it. I’m trying to get everyone but if I miss you I’m sorry but it’s not intentional. Also, I appreciate the comments but unless you ask I won’t tag you so if you’ve commented and not been tagged it’s cuz you didn’t ask or because I overlooked it trying to find everyone who’s asking to be tagged. And I’m going to ask that you message me since I’m having trouble finding all the asks in the comments. Thank you.

And thank you all!

@ozmav @multifandomscribette @mochinek0 @inevitableenquere @zebrabaker @poshplumcot @tog84 @luciferge @sonif50 @ravennightingaleandavatempus @northernbluetongue @actual-human-disaster @clumsy-owl-4178 @aarushi-03 @bluerosette23 @g-arya @moonyloonyx @fertileleaf @shreky-boi @thanks-captain-obvious @panda3506 @hinata3487 @thequestionablyhuman @dontgiveaflyinflip @dast218 @chocolatecatstheron @asianfrustration13 @slytherinsheashire @weird-pale-blonde-person @yin-390 @mycupisbroken @vixen-uchiha @kuroko26 @autisticlinx @worlds-tiniest-spook-pastry @mariae2900 @zalladane @hypnosharkrebeldreamer @tbehartoo @novicevoice @violatiger8 @thebookish3lf @fandomkitty8 @redscarlet95 @gingersnapnoir @chewbaccaatemythoughts

[mymemoirs]

Unrecorded Memories and Missing Taiwan #8

This is gonna be my last post for this series because I am left with only one week worth of story. Yes, my 2018 summer exchange story is coming to an end. I'm so glad it's going to be over because there's so many things I want to write in my next post.

32) Monday came and each groups presented their presentation in front of the class. My groupmates and I presented our presentation. It went smoothly and there were no real pressure compared to my AI presentation. Unlike the AI presentation, there was no grading for our presentation and thus no recognition of who's the best presenter in our class. Well, I think this way we can just be neutral and enjoy everyone's presentation. Although, to be honest, I can't remembered any of the presentations during this class compared to the AI class.

Okay, this is really out of context, but I have to admit that the Indian students I met are confident and good presenter. One presenter in particular presented like Steve Jobs. His talk is inspiring and full of hope (well, his expressions especially) even though he's just explaining about an AI that creates lyrics for music.

Now, back to topic *laughs*. So, after everyone in the class finished their presentation, I think we were dismissed quite early. I don't really remember what I did that day. The only clue I have of that day is a photo of the 7-Eleven near the campus. I think knowing well that I will miss that place, I just took a photo of it for my memorabilia. Well, sure enough, I do missed that convenience store. They have everything! I always bought my breakfast there. Sometimes I even have my lunch or dinner there. It's such a memorable place. I really love how the convenience store really depicts 'convenient' very well. It's very different from the convenience store in my country. Oh, and I think it's open for 24 hours. Like, seriously, this is too convenient!

7-Eleven store besides Asia University Campus. Look at that infinite supply of foods with chairs and tables. I just love so many selections of foods to choose, I really miss Taiwan's 7-Eleven.

33) On Tuesday, our professor suddenly told us that we were going to have a campus tour. So, off we go around the campus with our professor as the tour guide. It's not like we don't explore the campus but after the tour, I realize how big the campus is and how little exploration I did. There were so many places, BEAUTIFUL places around the campus. But the only thing I did whenever I finished classes was to go back to my room and rest. I don't really explored much except when I get lost. I also didn't visit other friends in different dorm buildings which is located quite far from my own. Now, that I think back, it's really too bad that I don't do much exploring but that's also one of the reason why I would still want to go back to Taiwan if I had the chance. I'm only in Taichung before and there were a lot of cities in Taiwan I haven't explored yet. I'll love another chance to explore the country.

The first half of our class (before lunch) was spent on touring the campus. After that, on the second half of our class, we went to an art museum in Asia University. I think our professor was out of ideas on where to take us and since most of us never visited the art museum that was actually located in the campus. He suggested that and we all went along, although, we must pay for our own entrance fee to enter the museum. However, I think it was discounted. I vaguely remembered paying 100 NTD for that.

The museum itself is called "Asia Museum of Modern Art" located in Asia University's premises. I actually had to pass through the museum every time I went back to my dorm. It have this amazing architecture that's also one of its selling point in my opinion. The architect of the building is a Japanese man named Tadao Ando. I just have to go gaga on him after searching more about him and his works. What a talented man he is! It even shows in the museum I went.

He's a King of Concrete because his works mostly uses concretes and the museum I went was made of concrete. It was also not painted and that's really interesting to see a building not painted but still exudes such a classy and modern look. There's also one spot in the museum that's very popular. Since the building is triangle, the corner of it have this eye fish effect if we took a picture from that corner. Just take a look at this picture below!

In one of the corners in Asia Museum of Modern Art.

As you can see, being in the corner allows people to see both sides of the wall, making an effect of using a wide lens or fish eye lens. I saw Tadao Ando's other work too in the internet and I am officially a fan of his work now. He really have piqued my interest in the world of design. I'm in love. *laughs*

Since it was an art museum, there were a lot of art works ranging from pottery, paintings to very abstract object. According to the guide, the museum have different arts displayed there depending on the exhibitions. I don't really remember what exhibition or what theme I am seeing when I went there but I was mostly focused on the architecture of the buildings. Walking around and seeing people taking pictures. I don't really take pictures which is kind of a bummer but I don't think I feel comfortable asking people to take a picture of me. Most of my pictures are taken in a group or by my classmate's initiative.

I took a picture of this because of the meaning behind the words which is very simple but deep. You read it downwards and from right to left, it would be translated as: "In Beauty, there are great pain and ecstasy"

34) After our trip to the museum, we can go back to our dorm. That Tuesday was actually the last night for my roommates since their classes had finished. So, we decided to eat outside and find a cafe where we can chill near the campus. The campus is actually very convenient since there's a lot of shops near it. I actually enjoyed eating around there to be honest. Ah, now I really miss my student's life. Hahaha.

When we went to the cafe, we ordered waffles and shared it among the four of us. While we were eating, the cafe owner suddenly approached us and offered another serving of waffles for free. That is actually quite surprising for us but we received it with delight. Who wouldn't like a freebies right? However, I had a feeling the reason we got that free waffle was because my roommates were attractive. Or maybe it's just because we were new customers and he wanted to gain repeating customers. Which is me *laughs* cause I brought another friends to that cafe again but we weren't lucky to receive a free waffle again. Oh yeah, the name of the cafe is 唯享时刻 (Enjoy Moments) which have a very cute exterior. I think that's the reason why the four of us is interested to try out that cafe.

Anyway, while being on the topic "being treated/ getting freebies" cause you're attractive, it's only when I went to Taiwan that I do saw this kind of thing. I mean back in my country, it's really rare to see my friends being treated or offered by strangers 'cause we're really scared if that actually happens. Heck, I even saw it twice happening with my roommates since one of my roommates were especially attractive. Aside from the cafe, there's this one time when we went to a minimart to buy our breakfast for tomorrow. The cashier actually didn't charge one of my roommate for something she brought it was as if he was treating her. It was actually amusing for me to witness that, their conversation goes like this:

Cashier: *scans barcode of the stuff, leave out an item and then says the price*

Roommate: Um, you forgot to scan the banana.

Cashier: Oh, no, it's alright. It's for you.

Roommate: Um, okay... *while giving the money* Thank you.

This is not really the exact conversation since I forgot if the cashier even said anything at all about giving it to her. I am not beside or behind her when this happened and I remembered the cashier being meek but he was definitely attracted to my friend. Because after going out of the minimart, the rest of my roommates who also went to the same class with her, tease her and said that this is not the first time the cashier treated her. And I think that's also part of the reason why they chose to shop at that minimart.

Last picture together before my roommates leave Asia University.

Anyway, back to to the cafe moment, I was really sad that we had to part ways tomorrow. Iris and Karen were going to stay in Taiwan for a while but they will go to a different cities tomorrow. Vincy, on the other hand, will be going back to Hong Kong. I can't remember every conversation we had, but I do miss them from time to time. I don't know if they feel that way towards me because our meeting is really such a short period of time and I actually rely on them as my roommates. We still had the WhatsApp group chats but it's always me who initiate the conversation in the group but even if we're not close, they really leave behind such a deep impression on me. I do hope I can meet them again.

35) The next day, on Wednesday, we have our class as usual. Our professor invited other lecturer to teach us about Fintech that day. There weren't much to mentioned for this day except that my roommates all went to their respective destination and we parted ways. I did have the chance to eat my lunch with Vincy before I sent her off in front of the campus. Aaaah, now I really miss them and the moments I had with them but life must go on and that's the thing about making friends across countries. You need to go back to where you belong.

On Thursday, the professor told us that we're going to have a farewell party and ask us to gather in a cafe near the museum. The cafe was actually managed by an alumni of the university and I think that's the reason why our professor wanted us to go there. Although, I don't know if the cafe still exists since it doesn't show up in google maps. With the pandemic that's happening, I felt it cause businesses to go bankrupt but at the same time new kind of businesses went viral during the pandemic.

During our farewell, everyone is having a light snacks and coffee, conversations, picture taking, etc. I don't quite remembered how the event unfolds in the Entrepreneurship and Creativity class farewell compared to the AI class farewell. I think the professors only gave some short speech and we also watch some videos before we received our certificates. The owner of the cafe also gave her speech about the cafe which really fits our class.

Receiving the certificate of completion from the professor.

After the farewell party, everyone is free to go. I usually hang out with my Thai friends when I'm on this class but instead of going out with them, I went out with my classmates who came from the same university as I am. It's funny that I only get close with them on the last day. I think they've told me that they felt I was not really approachable especially since I always hang out with my Thai classmates. I don't really deny that because I personally felt the time is so short to be friends with everyone and I'm the type to focus on one group of friends rather than getting along with everyone which I think is impossible for introverted me.

It's a good thing that I do get along with them eventually. I am also grateful that they invited me to go out with them 'cause I don't think I'll go anywhere that day if they didn't invite me. Although, initially I think they just invited me to get a picture together in front of the campus as the representative of our university. After that, they find me approachable enough to ask if I had any plans and would like to join them. Since I love travelling and am not the type to plan most of my days, I gladly accept their offer.

So, off we go to their dorm since they had to take care of some stuff (like preparing to go out, do a little packing, pray, etc). Since, I'm ready to go out and have done most of my packing, I don't mind going along with them to their dorm. It's also the first time I visited other dorm buildings aside from my own. Their dorm rooms are actually quite different compared to mine. They had inner toilet in their rooms while in my dorm the toilet is outside of our rooms. While I am there watching them, one of the classmates actually offered to do some makeup on my face and I let her do it. Although, I don't really have a picture of it unfortunately.

Me and my classmates from Airlangga University

After that, we went downtown to get our lunch since the food in the cafe is just light snacks. It was quite late when we grabbed our food, I think around 2 or 3 in the afternoon. We went to subways since they're craving for it and I also think it's halal for them. I actually enjoyed talking with them, they're funny and expressive. However, in terms of a travel buddy, I don't think I can get along with them because they only visited shops and more shops to buy the stuff people ask them to. Of course, they charge for it which is very business minded of them but I can see they're struggling with their baggage too.

We were outside for the whole day. Since, I had no makeup remover, I had to follow them to their room to use it. Afterwards, I left their dorm because I had prior plans with two of my Thai classmates (Phoom and Benz) to eat together since this is our last night in Taiwan. I remembered only eating with both of them even though there are other Thai classmates who didn't joined us that night.

While walking to our meeting point, I actually thought how beautiful the night view is around the campus. There were couple of places I went during daylight but it looks so different and beautiful with the lights. The moon was very bright that night too. Tbh, those kind of moments actually reignite my desire to travel again and even during that time I already missed Taiwan. I'm sure people who travel or on a holiday have those kind of moments where they miss holidays even before it ends.

Now, back to our dinner. We ate our dinner in a beef noodle shop near the campus which is actually very popular because it's close to the university and it also tastes quite good. Although, I don't think we can eat that everyday because it's quite costly compared to other available options (around 100 NTD). But when's the perfect time to eat a bit costly dinner than the last day, right? I personally enjoy talking to both of them even though they are much older than me since I knew they were a master's student around their 30s. After eating, we went to a minimart where they bought beers and then we walked back to our respective dorms since my dorm buildings aren't the same with them.

36) Friday, my last day in Taiwan! Everyone who's going back that day went to the meeting point in front of the campus where we will board on a bus that's heading to the airport. We say our goodbyes to the remaining friends who's going to stay, taking pictures together and just spent some time chatting before the bus arrived. Most of my classmates are going back directly to their countries but I was heading to Singapore instead because I have relatives living there.

The moon is so tiny but trust me, it really caught my eyes. Seeing it with your own eyes does feels different.

We all went home that day. It was really a memorable month for me and I am grateful that I get to experience all of this. I have always wanted a student exchange experience while still balancing my college life and this opportunity came through. Having this summer exchange on 2018 was one of the best highlights I had during college. While on the plane back home, I sat near besides the window and I was able to see a full moon shining brightly and beautifully. Although my phone didn't do much justice to the grandeur I saw, I really wanted to share with everyone the picture of it to end this series.

- Reina

PS. Thank you for reading this series, if anyone ever read it. I really appreciate it. Even though there are certain events or timelines that I'm not completely sure of, I find writing and sharing about the memories I had in Taiwan as a fond thing to do because it's really a memorable one that I just had to write about it. I also find this process - digging up past memories - to be a good exercise for my brain.

[toxicsquad]

There is no better way to get to know someone than through a good question tag. In this case we have decided to make an Indie game dev question tag with the responses of our four developers. We hope that it will reveal many unknowns, but if you are left with any questions, do not hesitate to use our ask.

What part of game development are you responsible for?

Athe: I write and write, I melt in my seat, I correct, I cry and then I program. It’s an endless cycle. Occasionally I laugh like crazy while I eat Pringles.

Sam: I draw and color without leaving the lines (almost always) the sprites, the illustrations and the ravings that usually occur to us past 3 in the morning.

Illy: English translations.

Sher: I draw BGs

What tools do you use (hardware / software)?

Athe: Recently my desktop PC has passed away, so I’ve had to rescue my old PC from the garage. I also have a laptop that saves my life more times than I would like to admit. As for the software, I need, above all, drive documents, video editing programs, image etc (I have an Adobe package) and of course Renpy and Atom.

Sam: My main friend and companion is my tablet, a wacom intuos S (pistachio color, so cute). As programs I mainly use the Paint Tool Sai, because there is nothing in this life like its stabilizer. And less frequently than I would like (for details, texture brushes, effects ...) I also use Clip Studio Paint, which I only know how to use at about 2% of its capacity ... If someday I have time I would love to stop and learn seriously what can be done with it.

Illy: During the school year I live in a residence, so I use an old laptop, and when I return home I use a desktop computer that never has memory space. I translate the chapters in the same Atom where the complete script is and I keep them in google drive files where I share them with our beta reader. I also use editing programs like photoshop when I have to translate comics or procreate for when my artistic skills are required.

Sher: ipad+procreate+some final tweak in photoshop, I don't need much more

What is your favorite part of the job?

Athe: Would it be wrong if I say that is when we released the episode? During the whole production time everything is very stressful, there are times when it’s really uphill, but when we release a new chapter it feels soooo good. It's like saying to yourself, yeah, dammit, I can do it. Look at everything you've climbed by yourself. You're doing it right.

Sam: In general, my favorite parts are when the first scenes start to be programmed, and I can see the sprites with the backgrounds, the texts, and how the illustrations look. Everything always looks so much better when viewed in-game… I also really like being able to check out the script as it is written. And from the artistic part that concerns me, when I see that my hands capture the idea that I had in my head ... Especially in character designs.

Illy: Having to find a way to translate very spanish expressions into English, research vocabulary that I have never had to use and commenting on some translations with our beta reader (which we adore) to make it understandable without losing the original meaning.

Sher: I like to do the lineart when the sketch is complete, if I no longer have to think about anything else and it's just going through it, I find it very fun and relaxing

What is the most difficult part for you?

Athe: Offf, yes, I admit it, sometimes writing is the WORST. Other times I love it, especially when I can expand on the descriptions or stop at a part that is intimate or that I find interesting (for example, Hasiel's conversation from 6.3, small spoiler: P). But, I HATE having to paste scenes, often the protagonist moves between scenes and you always have to add lines to those transitions that really do not interest anyone, but that otherwise the text would be confusing. Anyway... It is a very wide world, with a lot of history, I have to deal with what I need readers to know to understand the facts, although sometimes it gets a bit boring.

Sam: What part does not... Rather who e.e Zihel and Ariel are a thorn in my side. Especially Zihel. I know it has to do with the fact that it has never been my strength to draw boys, and much less if they are more masculine in appearance... That's why I also suffer a lot from drawing muscles. Another thing that brings me a headache is the perspective of the illustrations. Every time I try to get out of the typical shot or poses a little... It doesn't work out.

Illy: Doughy’s  stuttering ¬.¬

Sher: chairs, sofas, tables... anything with four legs is my enemy

Anything to help or encourage you while you are working?

Athe: I need music, no, seriously, I NEED IT. I’m unable to focus without it. If, on top of that, I can get what I hear to act as a sounding board for what I write, the text is a thousand times better... But the muse is a pretty bad person.

Sam: Having a show/movie in the background that entertains me. The longer the better, so I don't have to stop to think what I want to put on next.

Illy: Eating sunflower seeds to trick my brain and not be tempted to do something else that distracts me.

Sher: I try to see other artists to motivate and inspire me before I start drawing, what I find most difficult is that initial push and that is where I need the motivation, then I usually have something in the background but it is not necessary

Something that’s a pet peeve or discouraging?

Athe: Some narrative climax moments. Generally, they are not important plot moments (that is almost entirely decided), they are often small decisions to go from scene A to scene B, but I can spend a LOT of time deciding which is the fastest and best way to tie those two ends. I'm the worst.

Sam: Many times when starting, I can't get the poses to fit the way I want, for example.

Illy: Finding many parts in a row that I find especially difficult to solve and that make me believe that I have forgotten how to English properly. And looking at how many lines I still have left.

Sher: When I don't know how to fill in some area, if I see something very empty but I don't know how to solve it, I can spend days looking at the screen without being able to advance, even if I have other areas that I could do in the meantime

What is required on your table or work surface?

Athe: Notebooks, sticky notes, pens… I’m a person who writes everything down, especially the tasks, but I also order the story by color schemes. The stack of sticky notes have 9 different colors, each one represents a character and I play a lot with them for a lot of nonsense. Besides, even though I have been writing on the computer for many more years than I wrote by hand, I still have a preference for the analogical.

Sam: Coffee, sweets, chocolate, cereals... And cats.

Illy: My phone, the sunflower seeds, a Capital America: Civil War 1L water cup, sticky notes that remind me of tasks.

Sher: I have nothing really lol all my things are for decoration

Your most productive hours?

Athe: Owl. Totally nocturnal. Although I have several crises a month to force myself to work at other times that always end... Wrong.

Sam: Also at night for the most part, although I can no longer stay awake as long as I endured before having a job (the good old days...) However, in the middle of the afternoon, when the zoo that I have at home is still taking a nap, I also manage to go a long way.

Illy: From when I finish eating until 7 or 8 in the afternoon, when I don't have to cook, clean, run errands...

Sher: I take over for Illy apparently, from 7 or 8 is when I start to get into the mood until bedtime

Do working hours make you forget to eat or make you eat twice as much?

Athe: It depends, in the past I ate a lot, now if I have stress I don't eat anything. If I'm in a normal productive phase and I'm not on my nerves, I'm probably eating by inertia.

Sam: They make me eat more, but especially junk food e.e And they make me forget healthy meals, especially dinner at night.

Illy: It depends on my mood, but I usually eat twice as much.

Sher: I'm generally a VERY distracted person so I don't usually get to focus on a task to get to either of those two modes but I guess when I am sooooooo much on the task, I forget. But that happens like a couple of times a year and "forgetting" is "I delay an hour."

What part of your set up would you improve / change (in aesthetics or functionality) if you had no money limit?

Athe: I'm trying to match some of my peripherals with the rest. They are all a damn different color, apparently I'm cursed... Now seriously, I wish I had a better graphic card that would allow me to make video captures, some speakers and a quality printer.

Sam: Actually, I don't think I need anything more complex than what I already have… But if I had to improve something, I'm curious about the most professional tablets, the big ones with the included screen and all that stuff.

Illy: A new laptop that lets me open 4 chrome tabs, Atom and photoshop at the same time without dying.

Sher: A pc screen that will not change the colors I use on the iPad would be nice, really

Which character are you most like? And why?

Athe: Phew I think the easy answer would be to say Akane ... But, Akane is a better person. : P

Sam: This is very difficult... They are all very different, but still I do not think I look much like any of them. If I have to say something, I could identify with Maske's tendency to avoid problems, and his more homey and calm side. And well… Since Akane has been an OC of mine for many years, surely I have something of her too.

Illy: I think I partly have Maske's instinct to stay out of trouble, and on the other hand Joe's shallowness, although tbh I wish I really did look like any of our awesome babies.

Sher: surprised because (unpopular opinion around here) is one of those who I "least care" about really but I would say that Pin because he is a little dumb, happy and probably has a Satanic room and proud of it

Favorite CG/art.

Athe: AT THE MOMENT. Maske chapter 1. It couldn't be more predictable. I know.

Sam: I quite agree with Maske in chapter 1. But I would also put Pin in chapter 5 and Akane in chapter 6.2 on the top.

Illy: Kyeran in Coco's tank ?? Is he even real? Being basic is my brand.

Sher: surprised again and disappointed but I would say that of angel Hasiel because I like pretty dresses, pretty hairs and pretty wings

Favorite BG/scene.

Athe: The Red Light District amazes me. I already liked the life of that place, its history, but the way of expressing it... Uggg Sher took it to another level. The dirt on the street, the night, the constricted buildings...

Sam: I think I’ll say Raziel’s square, I like it a lot from the first day.

Illy: I don't know if I can choose just one T__T but I would say that the Red Light District and Valefar's pub are at the top.

Sher: for not repeating the red light district that I also like very much, I really like the areas of Coco's laboratory, including the “main” area although the perspective is horrible and makes the characters look tiny, but I like how it looks :(

Your favorite chapter to date?

Athe: Ufff... The first and second one I assure you no, hahaha. I will say that the third one, but also for things that are not necessarily from the chapter, but of the production. It was a good moment. I felt that everything was flowing with ease. We all assumed a clear role, they were times that made us feel comfortable and capable of assuming what came next, I think it was a qualitative leap also, both in texts and in art.

Sam: Oh. Well let's see... Chapter 5 is amazing for me, for everything that happens but also because there are many personalized interactions and choices. I can't say I have a definitive favorite, but it could come close… Also from the last ones I really like the 6.2.

Illy: Chapter 5 has so many details, so many things happen, it's hard not to be my favorite. But the last ones with the specific routes are so great that if I stay with the 5 it’s with the  pain of my heart to have to choose one.

Sher: I would say 5 also because in the end when a lot of things happen is when you remember the most

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No hay mejor forma de conocer a alguien que a través de un buen tag de preguntas. En este caso hemos decidido hacer un Indie game dev question tag con las respuestas de las cuatro desarrolladoras. Esperamos que os aclare muchas incógnitas, pero si os quedáis con alguna no dudéis en usar nuestro ask.

¿Qué parte del desarrollo del juego llevas a cabo?

Athe: Escribo, escribo, me derrito sobre mi asiento, corrijo, lloro y después programo. Es un ciclo sin fin. Ocasionalmente me río como una demente mientras como Pringles.

Sam: Dibujo y coloreo sin salirme de las líneas (casi siempre) los sprites, las ilustraciones y los desvaríos que suelen surgir a partir de las 3 de la mañana. 

Illy: Las traducciones a inglés.

Sher: Hago fonditos

¿Qué herramientas utilizas (hardware/software)?

Athe: Recientemente mi PC de sobremesa ha fallecido, así que he tenido que rescatar mi viejo PC del trastero, también tengo un portatil que me salva la vida más veces de las que me gustaría admitir. En cuanto al software, necesito, sobre todo, documentos de drive, programas de edición de video, imagen etc (tengo un paquete de Adobe) y por supuesto Renpy y Atom.

Sam: Mi principal amiga y compañera es mi tableta, una wacom intuos S (color pistacho, muy cuqui.) Como programas uso sobretodo el Paint Tool Sai, porque no hay nada en esta vida como su estabilizador. Y con menos frecuencia de lo que querría (para detalles, pinceles de texturas, efectos…) también utilizo el Clip Studio Paint, el cual sólo se usar como a un 2% de su capacidad… Si algún día tengo tiempo me encantaría pararme a aprender seriamente todo lo que se puede hacer con él. 

Illy: Durante el curso vivo en una residencia, así que uso un portatil del año que reinó carolo, y cuando vuelvo a mi casa un ordenador de sobremesa que nunca tiene espacio en la memoria. Los capítulos los traduzco en el mismo Atom en el que está el guión completo y los guardo en drive donde los comparto con nuestra beta reader. También uso programas de edición como photoshop cuando tengo que traducir viñetas o procreate para cuando mis habilidades artísticas son requeridas.

Sher: ipad+procreate+algún retoquito final en photoshop no necesito mucho más

¿Cuál es tu parte de favorita del trabajo?

Athe: ¿Estaría mal si digo que es cuando sacamos el episodio? Durante toda la producción todo es muy estresante, hay veces, que se hace realmente cuesta arriba, pero cuando liberamos un nuevo capítulo sienta taaaan bien. Es como decirte a ti misma, sí, joder, puedo hacerlo. Mira todo lo que has escalado tú solita. Lo estás haciendo bien.

Sam: En general, mis partes favoritas son cuando se empiezan a programar las primeras escenas, y puedo ver los sprites con los fondos, los textos, y cómo se ven las ilustraciones. Todo queda siempre mucho mejor cuando se ve dentro del juego… También me gusta mucho poder cotillear el guión conforme se va escribiendo. Y de la parte artística que me toca, cuando veo que mis manos plasman la idea que tenía en mi cabeza… Sobretodo en diseños de personajes. 

Illy: Tener que buscar la forma de traducir a inglés expresiones muy nuestras, investigar vocabulario que no he tenido que usar jamás y comentar algunas traducciones con nuestra beta reader (a la que adoramos) para conseguir que se entienda sin perder el significado original.

Sher: me gusta hacer el lineart cuando el sketch está completo, si ya no tengo que pensar nada más y es solo ir repasando me parece muy divertido y relajante

¿Cuál es la parte que más te cuesta?

Athe: Ufff, sí, lo admito, escribir a veces es lo PEOR. Otras me encanta, sobre todo, cuando puedo explayarme con las descripciones o detenerme en una parte íntima o que a mí me parece interesante (por ejemplo, la conversación de Hasiel del 6.3, pequeño spoiler :P). Pero, ODIO tener que empastar escenas, a menudo el protagonista se mueve de escenarios y hay que agregar siempre líneas a esas transiciones que realmente no interesan a nadie, pero que de lo contrario el texto quedaría mal montado. En fin… Es un mundo muy amplio, con mucha historia, tengo que lidiar con lo que necesito que los lectores sepan para entender los hechos, aunque a veces se haga un pelín peñazo.

Sam: Qué parte no… Quiénes, más bien e.e Zihel y Ariel son mi espinita. Especialmente Zihel. Sé que tiene que ver con el hecho de que nunca ha sido mi punto fuerte dibujar chicos, y menos si son de aspecto más masculino… Por eso también sufro mucho dibujando músculos. Otra cosa que me trae de cabeza es la perspectiva de las ilustraciones. Cada vez que intento salirme un poco del típico plano o poses… No sale bien. 

Illy: El tartamudeo de Doughy ¬.¬ 

Sher: sillas, sofás, mesas… cualquier cosa con cuatro patas son mis enemigos

¿Algo que te ayude o anime mientras estás trabajando?

Athe: Necesito música, no, en serio, LA NECESITO. Soy incapaz de concentrarme sin ella. Si ya consigo que lo que escucho haga de caja de resonancia de lo que escribo, el texto es mil veces mejor… Pero la musa es bastante mala gente.

Sam: Tener alguna serie/peli de fondo que me entretenga. Cuanto más larga mejor, así no me toca pararme a ver qué es lo que quiero poner después. 

Illy: Comer pipas para engañar a mi cerebro y no tener la tentación de ponerme a hacer otra cosa que me distraiga.

Sher: intento ver otros artistas para motivarme e inspirarme antes de empezar a dibujar, lo que más me cuesta es ese empujón inicial y es donde necesito la motivación, luego ya suelo tener algo de fondo pero no es necesario

¿Algo que te corte el rollo o te desmotive?

Athe: Los nudos narrativos. Generalmente, no son nudos gordos de la trama (eso está decidido casi en su totalidad), a menudo son decisiones pequeñas para pasar de la escena A a la escena B, pero puedo tirarme MUCHO tiempo decidiendo cuál es la forma más rápida y mejor planteada para atar esos dos cabos. Soy lo peor.

Sam: Muchas veces a la hora de empezar, no conseguir encajar las poses como quiero, por ejemplo. 

Illy: Encontrar muchas partes seguidas que me cueste especialmente resolver y que me hacen creer que no tengo ni idea de hablar inglés. Y mirar cuantas líneas me quedan todavía.

Sher: cuando no se como rellenar alguna zona, si veo algo muy vacío pero no se como solucionarlo puedo tirarme días mirando la pantalla sin ser capaz de avanzar, incluso aunque tenga otras zonas que pudiera ir haciendo mientras

¿Qué no puede faltar en tu mesa o superficie de trabajo?

Athe: Libretas, post-its, bolígrafos… Soy una persona que lo anota todo, sobre todo, las tareas, pero también ordeno la historia por esquemas de colores. La pila de post-its tienen 9 colores diferentes, cada uno representa un personaje y juego mucho con ellos para miles de idioteces. A parte, a pesar de que llevo muchos más años escribiendo a ordenador de los que escribí a mano, sigo teniendo querencia a lo físico.

Sam: Café, chucherías, chocolate, cereales… Y gatos. 

Illy: El móvil, las pipas, un vaso de 1L de agua de Capital America: Civil War, post-its que me recuerdan las tareas.

Sher: no tengo nada realmente lol todas mis cosas son de adorno 

¿Tus horas más productivas?

Athe: Búho. Nocturna totalmente. A pesar de que tengo varias crisis al mes para forzarme a trabajar a otras horas que acaban siempre… Mal.

Sam: También por la noche en su mayoría, aunque ya no aguanto trasnochando tanto como antes de trabajar (qué tiempos aquellos…) Aunque a media tarde cuando el zoo que tengo en casa aún está echando la siesta también consigo dar un buen empujón. 

Illy: Desde que acabo de comer hasta las 7 o las 8 de la tarde, cuando no tengo que cocinar, limpiar, hacer recados...

Sher: le tomo el testigo a Illy aparentemente, a partir de las 7 u 8 es cuando empiezo a entrar en el mood hasta que llega la hora de dormir

¿Las horas de trabajo hacen que te olvides de comer o te hacen comer el doble?

Athe: Depende, antes comía mucho, ahora, si tengo estrés no como nada. Si me encuentro en un rango productivo normal y no estoy de los nervios, probablemente, esté comiendo por inercia.

Sam: Me hacen comer más, pero sobretodo porquerías e.e Y hacen que me olvide de las comidas sanas, sobretodo de cenar por la noche. 

Illy: Depende de mi estado de ánimo, pero normalmente comer el doble.

Sher: en general soy una persona MUY distraída así que no suelo conseguir centrarme en una tarea para llegar a ninguno de esos dos modos pero supongo que cuando estoy muuuuuuy dentro de la tarea, me olvido. Pero eso pasa como un par de veces al año y “olvido” es “lo retraso una hora”.

¿Qué parte de tu set up mejorarías/cambiarías (en estética o funcionalidad) si no tuvieses límite de dinero?

Athe: Estoy tratando de que alguno de mis periféricos peguen con el resto. Todos son de un maldito color diferente, al parecer estoy maldita… Ahora en serio, desearía tener una mejor gráfica que me permitiese hacer videocapturas, unos altavoces y una impresora de calidad.

Sam: En realidad, no creo que necesitara nada más complejo de lo que ya tengo… Pero por mejorar, me llaman la atención las tabletas más profesionales, las grandes con la pantalla incluida y eso. 

Illy: Un portátil nuevo que me deje abrir 4 pestañas de chrome, el Atom y photoshop al mismo tiempo sin quedarse tieso.

Sher: Una pantalla de pc que no me cambiara los colores que uso en el ipad seria bonito la verdad 

¿A qué personaje te pareces más? ¿Y por qué?

Athe: Ufff Creo que la respuesta fácil sería decir Akane… Pero, Akane es mejor persona. :P

Sam: Esto es muy complicado… Son todos muy distintos, pero aún así no creo que me parezca mucho a ninguno. Por decir algo, me podría identificar con la tendencia a evitar problemas de Maske, y su lado más casero y tranquilo. Y bueno… Dado que Akane es OC mío de hace muchos años, seguramente tenga algo de ella también. 

Illy: Creo que en parte tengo el instinto de alejarme de las movidas de Maske, y por otro la superficialidad de Joe, aunque tbh ojalá parecerme realmente a nuestros bebés geniales.

Sher: sorprendida porque (unpopular opinión por aquí) es de los que “menos me importan” realmente pero diría que Pin porque es tontito, feliz y probablemente tenga una habitación satánica y orgulloso de ello

Tu CG/arte favorito.

Athe: DE MOMENTO. Maske capítulo 1. No podría ser más predecible. Lo sé.

Sam: Coincido bastante en la de Maske del capítulo 1. Pero también metería en el top la de Pin del capítulo 5 y la de Akane del capítulo 6.2. 

Illy: ¿¿Kyeran en el tanque de Coco?? ¿Es siquiera real? Ser básica es mi marca.

Sher: sorprendida de nuevo y decepcionada pero diría que la de Hasiel de ángel porque me gustan los vestidos bonitos, los pelos bonitos y las alas bonitas

Tu BG/escenario favorito.

Athe: Me flipa el Barrio Rojo. Me gusta la vida de ese sitio, su historia, pero la forma de plasmarlo… Uggg Sher lo llevó a otro nivel. La suciedad de la calle, la nocturnidad, los edificios constreñidos...

Sam: Creo que me quedo con el de la plaza de Raziel, me gusta mucho desde el primer día. 

Illy: No sé si puedo elegir solo uno T__T pero diría que el Barrio Rojo y el bar de Valefar están en el top.

Sher: por no repetir el barrio rojo que también me gusta mucho, me gustan mucho las zonas del laboratorio de Coco, incluida la zona “principal” aunque la perspectiva sea horrible y haga a los pj parecer diminutos, pero me gusto como quedo :( 

¿Tu capítulo favorito hasta las fecha?

Athe: Ufff… El uno y el dos os aseguro que no, jajaja. Diré que el tres, pero también por cosas que no son necesariamente del capítulo, sino de la producción. Fue un buen momento. Sentí que todo estaba fluyendo con facilidad. Todas asumimos un rol claro, unos tiempos que nos hacían sentir cómodas y capaces de asumir lo que venía después, creo que fue un salto cualitativo también, tanto en los textos, como en el arte.

Sam: Ay. Pues a ver… El capítulo 5 es una pasada para mi, por todo lo que pasa pero también porque hay muchas interacciones personalizadas y elecciones. No puedo decir que tenga un favorito definitivo, pero podría acercarse… También me gusta mucho de los últimos el 6.2. 

Illy: El capítulo 5 tiene tantos detalles, pasan tantas cosas, que es difícil que no sea mi favorito, pero los ultimos de rutas específicas son tan geniales que si me quedo con el 5 es con un poco de dolor de tener que elegir uno.

Sher: Diría el 5 también porque al final cuando pasan muchas cosas es cuando mas se te queda grabado

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CSSNS 2019 Dark Blue Star

Hello all!

This is my contribution to this year's CSSNS. I know my other story is still going on and it will find it's ending, but since I cannot say no to @kmomof4 here I am, once more.

I wanna thank the lovely ladies at the CSSNS Discord. I love chatting with you all.

And since we all know how shady Blue truly is I give you Rionnag Dubh Dorcha... I took the title from Reul Ghorm, and please forgive me if the translation is not spot on. Blame Google translate. :)

I wanna thank the mods of CSSNS19, my lovely very patient Beta @searchingwardrobes and my artist for the event @hollyethecurious

FFN     AO3

A/N: It is said that evil is not born but made. This is how an act of kindness is twisted into a story about revenge. Emma and Killian are childhood friends until a tragedy separates them will another reunite them. 

Rionnag Dubh Dorcha (Dark Blue Star)

Every town has an urban legend that they tell to scare kids, yet the stories tend to change with time. The real story sometimes gets lost. This is how this one is told.

A long time ago in the middle of the Enchanted Forest there lived a kind woman who loved children forevermore. Her heart was true, but misunderstood. She had once before victoriously escaped a grim fate, but was unable to succeed again. This time her fate was sealed.

Storybrooke had become home to Hester Blue after she narrowly escaped the witch hunts in Salem and left her fallen sisters behind in order to survive. She had hated her cowardness, but finally settled in a new town. She had found her home. She was adored by the town's children. She would give them sugar glazed fruit and greet them with a kind smile. On the day their final baby tooth fell, she would give them a special treat a gold coin.

Everything was peaceful for years. Until she was falsely accused when two of the town's most beloved young children went missing in the woods. No time for explanations or pleas. In their outrage, the town quickly served their brand of justice.

Hester was making treats for the children. Her little cabin filled with the aroma of the sweets. She heard a commotion outside quickly approaching. There were angry men walking closer to the house with torches. She panicked and barricaded the door to keep them out. The men outside angrily called out for her to open the door. The little house shook as they pounded their fists on the old wood. With her back on the wall she lowered herself to the floor. The tears freely flowed. It was happening again and she had a feeling this time luck was not on her side. The vengeful mob finally tore the door off its hinges, ripping it apart piece by piece. They found her sitting on the ground.

Hester was yanked by the hair as she kicked and screamed, "I didn't do anything!" Tears stained her face. The men hauled her out of the safety of her home. They overpowered her and tied her to the large tree that shaded her home and simply told her that her life had been forfeited the moment she made the children disappear. As she took her last breath, she swore vengeance and cursed the town. Later that night when the children emerged from deep within the forest unharmed, the townspeople realized their mistake. They buried Hester's body by the tree that witnessed her death and promised never to speak of her again. No one noticed the tree started to wither away.

Time passed, and the small town of Storybrooke grew so much that the woods in the heart of the Enchanted Forest became a park. There was a dark shroud that extended from the tallest tree in the center of the park to the outer town line. The story of Hester Blue, the Blue Fairy, became a legend. People said her dark spirit visited children on the night they lose their last baby tooth. If anyone sees her when she visits, they are marked for her vengeance.

The children's sightings of the fairy had gone unnoticed by the adults. The sightings increased as the town prospered. The children would share their encounters to give each other a good fright. Once in a while, a nameless child would disappear never to be seen again or heard from ever again.

The attacks on the founding families could not be missed anymore. Finally, the adults heard of the infamous fairy tale.

In every generation, the youngest child of each founding family would disappear leaving the bloodline to continue on with the eldest. The missing children who caused her death were the youngest in their families. The adults never saw the connection: that the curse was the fairy's revenge.

The adults would murmur their suspicions hoping they were wrong.

They weren't.

The Jones ancestors had promptly left America to return to their homeland due to a family emergency. Their estate had flourished under several stewards throughout the years.

Now, Brennan Jones has returned to Storybrooke with his family. They are one of the six notorious founding families along with the Spencers, Mills, Midases, Golds, and Blanchards.

Brennan and his wife Alice shared two sons. The eldest had brown curly hair and blue eyes while the younger had unruly black hair and the classic bright blue eyes of the Jones lineage.

David Nolan had inherited his steward position from his father Robert. It was a family tradition. David and Brennan had met on many times to discuss the financials, and although there was an amicable trust between the families, their true friendship developed soon after the arrival of the Jones.

Liam and Killian quickly bonded with Emma, but the relationship between the youngest Jones and Emma was undeniable. They became thick as thieves quickly. Liam served as an older brother to the two, and he loved them even when they followed him around everywhere. Soon a boy Liam's age moved to the neighborhood and they became friends, Robin Locksley.

The children grew up hearing of the stories. They failed to heed the warnings until it was too late.

The night the youngest Jones boy lost his baby tooth breathed life to the dark fairy myth.

The day's end was fast approaching. Emma smiled sweetly at her friend. "Hey, Killian. Don't forget to put your tooth under your pillow. Who knows what the fairy has in store for you?"

Killian laughed, "You don't truly believe the stories are true?"

"I don't know, I mean for as long as I can remember, I've heard the stories. Uhm, I did it, and I got a gold coin." She blushed as she confessed her secret.

"A gold coin? Do you still have it?" Killian asked excitedly.

She giggled, "Well, yeah but I've got it at home. I didn't bring it with me. I could run home and get it if you want."

There was a soft knock on his bedroom door. "Killian, Emma, we are leaving now. Liam is outside with Robin if you need anything." The door slowly opened, and his mother entered with a smile on her face. "Let me look at you my handsome son, will you behave for your brother and maybe I can convince your father to take us sailing this weekend?"

Killian couldn't help smile wide at the prospect of going sailing with his family. They all loved the water, but Killian was especially fond of it. "Mum, can Emma come along?"

Alice couldn't help noticing the new gap in her son's smile. "Oh dear, did you lose another one?"

"I did it was my last one. I'm no longer the baby of the family," he stated proudly.

"Nonsense, you will always be my little boy. I love you, and yes Emma can come along if her parents allow it."

"I'll make sure he stays out of trouble, Mrs. Jones," Emma ensured.

"Emma, I know you will, you are the only one that can tame my rambunctious son. We will be back soon." She winked at the duo as she left.

"Should we watch a movie?" Killian blushed as he sat closely next to Emma on the bed.

"Did you still wanna see the coin? I can go get it." Emma nudged his shoulder with her own.

"If you like, we can go after the movie."

"Okay, so what do you wanna watch?" Emma resumed her seat.

Killian scratched behind his ear, "I remember you once told me that your favorite movie is 'The Princess Bride' I found it, and I've never seen it. If you don't mind, we can watch it."

"Are you sure you wanna watch a girly movie? I know it has a pirate in it, but you don't have to watch it just because I like it." Emma shrugs. "We can always watch some action movie."

He wanted to see it because she liked, and he liked her. He wouldn't admit it to anyone, but he fancied her a lot. Liam would never stop teasing him if he knew.

"Emma, I want to watch it. You say it's good, and I trust you."

"Okay, do you have any popcorn or something to snack on?" she asked as her stomach growled.

He smiled fondly, "I'll go make the popcorn and get something to drink. Did you want a sandwich too?"

She blushed, "Nope, the popcorn and drinks will be fine. I'll set up here."

"I'll be back." Killian left his room and made his way to the kitchen to get their snacks.

He returns to his room with a tray filled with snacks. He not only has the popcorn but some chips, sandwiches, and drinks.

They watch the movie and soon are comparing favorite pirates.

"Killian, did you still want to go get the coin?" Emma asked.

"Emma, do you mind going alone? I left a mess in the kitchen, and if I don't clean it up my parents will ground me." He gave her a slight pout.

"I can go by myself. I'm a big girl. Okay, I will be back." She smiles and walks out.

Outside Emma smiles at Liam and Robin as she makes her way home. "Hey, I'm going home for a sec."

Liam and Robin share a look as they see the younger girl jog home.

"They're really close aren't they?"

"Yes, I think my little brother is smitten and doesn't even know it." Liam smiles at his friend. "Rob, did you ever talk to Marian?"

"Yes, I did and," Robin smiled "we are officially a couple." His happiness was obvious.

"I'm happy for you two." Liam bumps Robin's shoulder.

"Come on mate, there has to be someone you fancy."

"Rob, I'm not interested in anyone. Besides, I want to focus on my studies."

"You say that now mate, but when you meet her, you'll know." Robin winks at him and they burst out laughing.

Emma approaches them smiling. "Hey guys, I'm back"

"I'm sure my brother missed you." Liam teases her.

Emma rolls her eyes and waves at them as she makes her way inside the Jones home.

Killian is in his room tidying up and looks up and smiles.

"Did you miss me?" Emma asks.

Killian smiles, "Yes, I did. So do you have it?"

Emma takes the gold coin out of her pocket and hands it to him.

Killian inspects it, "This looks very old."

"I know, uhm, they say that a fairy leaves the coin but you cannot look at her. If you do-"

"And you believe this?" Killian is skeptical.

"I didn't before, but I did find the coin." Emma shrugs.

"It could have been your parents."

"I don't know, Killilan. My parent's seemed surprised when I showed it to them. My mom cannot keep a secret."

"Emma, I don't know if I believe it, but the coin is nice." He smiles at her.

They talk until Emma has to go home, and they finally wish each other goodnight.

Killian is fast asleep when a noise wakes him. Frightened, he listens carefully. There's some scuffling, and he pulls the covers refusing to look. He swears he is not afraid, so he decides to peek.

Worse decision ever. He is startled by what he sees. There's a body hovering over him. The scarred face growls when he shines his flashlight directly to its face. It screeches as it covers its face.

Killian runs to the restroom and locks himself inside with the lights on. He hides still holding his flashlight. The doorknob shakes frantically, and the lights flicker then it all stops. He loses track of time as he hides in the bathtub.

There's a soft knock on the door. "Killian, son it's mum. Are you okay?"

"Mum, is that you?"

"Yes it is, who else would it be?"

There is silence for a moment.

"Son, open the door."

"No, there's someone in my room."

"Sweetheart, there's no one. Liam and your father are outside talking. It's just you and I."

"Mum, there is someone in my room."

"I'm gonna prove there's no one." She makes her way to his room. She opens the door wide open and speaks loudly. "No one is in here, Killy." There's a scuffling and she turns to the source and screams.

The scream quickly reaches Killian and he quickly rushes out of the restroom. In his room, he finds his mother's limp body on the floor. He kneels next to her and shakes her to try to wake her. She is so still, so unlike herself. She is always full of energy. Her pale skin is an angry red in some areas, while in others it's beginning to scald although her clothes are still as pristine as they were earlier that night. Killian cannot stop the tears from blurring his eyes. He doesn't understand what has happened. How could his mother's skin be burned when there is no fire?

Liam and Brennan run inside the house. They separate to check all the rooms for the source of the scream. Brennan is the one that arrives first. He is shocked to find his youngest kneeling next to the prone body, the lifeless form of his beloved.

Brennan moves quickly, he kneels opposite of Killian and glares at his son. "What have you done?" He gently shakes his wife's body trying to wake her.

Killian refuses to let go of his mother's bloodied hand. "Father, I didn't do anything. I was in the restroom. I told mum someone was in my room."

"Where! Where is this person? Liam and I saw no one while we rushed inside? Where?!" Brennan screams at Killian.

Liam enters the room while holding the phone, "I called 911. Someone will be here shortly. What happened?" He asks as he notices his mother on the floor and moves to go near her. Brennan shakes his head and Liam stays put understanding his father's silent request.

"Killian, come with me." Liam urged.

Not long after, the Sheriff escorts Killian out of his home to the car. Outside the neighbors surround the yellow tape. The body covered on the gurney follows not far behind.

Emma stands next to her parents and without a second thought she rushes to the car. He is looking out of the cracked window.

"Killian, what happened?" she asks softly.

"She's real. I peeked." That's all Killian says before Emma is rushed away from the vehicle and her friend.

Emma stood dumbfounded as she saw her best friend being taken away.

Months later, without any plausible explanation for the death of Alice Jones, Killian was sent to a mental hospital for evaluation after mistaken speculations that he killed his mother. No one believed his story that someone else had been in the house when Alice Jones died.

Liam and Brennan argued long after Alice's death. Brennan's anger towards his youngest would not disappear.

"Father, when is Killian coming home?" Liam waited for a response that never came. "Okay, when are we going to visit Killian?" Liam asked impatiently. "Father, Killian loved mum, you do know he would never hurt her don't you?"

Brennan stood silent avoiding eye contact with his son.

Liam stormed off. The family was broken, with his mum and little brother gone it was simply a shell. But unlike his father, he will not abandon Killian. His mum wouldn't want him too.

Brennan stood still as he heard the front door slam.

What Liam doesn't know is that he has relinquished his rights to Killian. He cannot look at his son without seeing the image of his beloved Alice, scalded, scarred and bloody.

Liam and his father fought over Killian too often. Their once-close relationship now completely destroyed. It was reduced to door slams and heated arguments.

Liam visited Killian as often as he could. Always making excuses for their father, but he knew he wasn't fooling Killian. He promised him that he would get him out of that horrible place.

"I swear little brother, I will bring you home soon." Liam's promise sealed with a warm smile.

Months passed, and Liam kept visiting Killian as often as possible at the awful juvenile facility. Only in Storybrooke, frozen in a bygone era, would a child be thrown into a mental hospital, but that was Killian's tragic fate. Killian had stopped asking about their father.

"I'm looking for work, so I can support us." Liam explained, "you are a growing boy after all, and I need to be able to feed you." Liam's wink lightened the mood.

Liam's 18th birthday was fast approaching, and he has shared his plan to join the Navy with his friend Robin and Killian. He knew his father was going to flip when he found out. He wanted him to follow in his footsteps. To someday helm the family business, Jones Jewel Shipping. All Liam knows is that he wants to get his brother back.

In an effort not to lose too much time, he wanted to be emancipated from his father. If Brennan Jones was able to give up on one son without a problem, it should be as easy to lose the other.

Liam gave up on his dreams, dropped out of high school, and settled for a job at a small boating company, Treasure Island Ferries, as a deckhand.

On what would have been a routine trip along the coast, a mechanical failure caused a fire and it resulted in an accident. Liam was one of the casualties. John Silver the owner was quickly made responsible. He had chosen to use subpar parts, and he had faced the grieving wrath of Brennan Jones. Treasure Island Ferries had quickly been disassembled under pressure of the elder Jones.

Maybe it had been an unrealistic dream of his to be rescued by his brother. The visits stopped, and on a rare moment of generosity from his father, Killian was informed of his brother's death. That same day he was shipped off to foster care. After that, he bounced around from home to home. No one wanted to deal with a kid with night terrors and anxiety.

Eventually, he grew up alone and anti-social. At first, he had tried to stay in touch with Emma. He would write to her from wherever he was. They started to lose touch little by little. Killian felt darkness follow him, and he wanted to keep the one person that still mattered to him safe and away from the dark cloud that surrounded him.

It was his fault his mother died, and he lost his brother not long after. The moment Alice Jones died was the moment his father decided he only had one son.

Years later, Killian was still terrorized by the encounter with Hester and it showed. His apartment had dozens of high powered flashlights, and it was rigged with motion detectors. His many meds spilled on the counter. They treated everything from sleep disorder, anxiety, and depression.

He was able to find the closest thing to family in his boss, Dakkar Nemo, owner of Nautilus Security. His coworkers thought of him as eccentric and slightly paranoid. Killian had become a specialist in home security. He wanted to protect families since he had failed at protecting his own.

On the anniversary of his mother's death, Killian Jones was drowning his heartbreak with rum. His brother should be with him. His mother should be with them. He should have been brave and faced whatever monster lurked that night. He didn't even feel the tears pour down his stubbled cheeks. Some days he would stare in the mirror noticing little things that he inherited from his mother or similarities he shared with his brother. He felt connected to them in those rare moments.

His phone kept ringing nonstop. "Bloody hell, take the hint" he slurred. There was finally silence. "About bloody time." Then the phone started ringing once again. He lost his patience and answered without looking at the caller id, "Oi, it's my bloody day off, I said not to bother me, Mr. Smee." He ended his tirade.

"Uhm, yeah. This is Emma, remember me?" The line went silent for what felt like an eternity.

He hissed, "sorry about that lass, I thought you were someone else. How did you find me?"

"It's what I do, I find people. I know we've been out of touch, but I was hoping for old time's sake that you could help me."

"Help you with what?" He scratched behind his ear.

Emma cleared her throat, "I don't know if you remember, but my mom was pregnant when you-" she hesitated, "when you went away." even to her ears that sounded awful, but she waited for his response.

He scoffed, "It's not like I went on holiday Emma. I uh, was taken away from what was left of my family."

"I know Killian, I was there," she sniffled, "you were taken away from me too. I lost my best friend."

The silence was back.

Emma's small voice was barely audible. "I know it can't be easy to talk about it, but - "

"Then let's not, shall we?"

"Killian, my little brother Leo, he saw her too, and my parents think he is having night terrors. He sleeps with his room light on. Please, help him. Help me."

Killian stayed quiet.

Emma decided to continue, "I know we aren't close. I know I have no right to ask for your help. I know it's selfish of me to. I just can't lose him too, not the way I lost you. He is so scared. All the doctors want to do is medicate him and he is hollow. I miss my little brother."

Little brother, in that moment he can almost hear Liam's voice calling out to him. Killian closed his eyes. "I'm sorry, I don't know if I can." He disconnected the line.

Silence was what he yearned for minutes ago. Now he was suffocated by it.

The next day, Killian woke up with a hangover. The pounding of his head only worsened because of the blinding light. He still couldn't sleep in the dark. It was his cross to bear. Slowly the night before came back to him. He walked to his bathroom to get some aspirin. His eyes were still adjusting to the light. He swallowed the pills with a discarded bottle of water in his room.

He remembered - Emma. She called him. His smile was small but genuine. The memory of her voice made him miss her all over again. He used to dream of going back for her - Emma.

Last night he was a coward. He knew this. Even in the haze of his drunken memory, he was still afraid of a ghost. Liam would tell him it was bad form to let Emma's younger brother suffer the same fate he did. Deep in his mind, he knew that he needed answers. They all did.

~~~

I’m not the best tagger but here we go:

@searchingwardrobes @revanmeetra87 @let-it-raines @kmomof4 @hookedonapirate @ilovemesomekillianjones @profdanglaisstuff @snowbellewells @kymbersmith-90

[kaoarika]

I dunno if ppl remember, but a year ago (okay, almost a year ago) I wrote a post regarding “Favorite Part” that I’m pretty sure only a few handle of ppl may have actually read my entire rambling at the time. However, my post appears in the first pages of Google when you do a search (in English, with specific terms, though), and hah... hah... 

So, it’s almost endgame for the series (the series seem to end in two weeks from today, Sep 11, 2019?!)! And I somehow thought, “yeah, let’s do this once more and WITH FEELING!”

I still consider this series criminally overlooked in the English netisphere, ngl. 

Kinda a shame, because, the series has an interesting story and premise, and has also a pretty interesting cast of characters that you see their growth... reminding you they aren’t perfect, that they will keep tripping, and somehow keep moving on to improve themselves.

I don’t want this post to be just.. .that, an update from that old post I did last year... however, I want to sell you this one again, because... as it happens, I may have had some of my facts wrong due to the language barriers and what not... most of my feelings remain the same and that’s good, although... I think this deserves a better improved writing post from my side.

*cough*

“Favorite Part” (좋아하는 부분), authored by Tarli (or Tarly), is a story about So Woojoo, a woman who lacks self-esteem, and who happens to have some “extreme” taste in men. She tends to fall for guys with a pretty gorgeous face, and while this isn’t a bad thing, for a woman who is overweight like her, whose self-esteem is in the floor, and who doesn’t have friends to be her “voice of reason”... this might fall in an (sometimes unhealthy) obsession level for her.

Because that’s the only kind of love she might know. And things doesn’t get any prettier from there. It’s a long road for Woojoo to learn that the path she approached wasn’t the best she could have.

Let me be clear about something though. I’m pretty sure that you will all hate Woojoo at the start. Especilly during the first ten chapters (that are kind of a prologue). Given her reasons, the way she “loves” is a very pitiful one, where other guys would step on her, and she would be glad to be stepped on, too.

She isn’t a yandere... or a stalker, let me be also clear on this. But it leads into a very toxic relationship with Kwon (?) Minwoo, someone who is rumored to be a jerk with women, he sleeps around with them, and takes some advantage of them. 

When she finally “breaks up” with him, she is helped by a barista by the name of Kang Hanbyeol, because he couldn’t see her being treated as garbage. They eventually start a friendship, and he has some crush over her. He is practically the only friend Woojoo has (and he is 2 or 3 years her junior; Woojoo is 23, while Hanbyeol is 20... point: he never refers to her as “noona”).

This is as far as spoilers I can go with this post, further stuff I may write and do outside this one are not spoiler-free at all, btw.

Turning a “new leaf” is not going to be easy for these characters. They are not perfect and they are not fully likeable either, but trust me you want to root for them as long as the story goes. As mentioned above, it’s an emotional rollercoaster.

I think I still root for “Favorite Part” because my first impression of it went over my expectations. I was probably expecting one of those stories where, once realizing things end wrong, the MC will change immediately after the fact - for fat and overweight female characters (most all of the time), they lose weight as a way to “improve” or “revenge”... but... WELL, this isn’t that kind of expectable (or “fun”/lighthearted) “glow up” story. 

Woojoo may have some negative aspects as a fat character, and I still wish there were more series with a main overweight female character which main goal isn’t to lose weight as a way to learn self-respect... and it’s a long road for that, that’s for sure. I just hope... in an if scenario, she wouldn’t do it to “earn” self-respect, but more of a way where she finds comfortable enough to decide to do it or not... not as a direct response of that.

There’s a certain male who first appears overweight, though. And NOT ONCE he is treated as a joke, either. Sure, he seems to love to eat and what not... but not as a joke, I promise you. Also rare to see in dramas and what not... similar to Yachae in Park Subong’s “Veggie Hot Bun School Spring Holiday”.

How is its availability in English? WELL, you see... I don’t think it’s impossible for the U.S Line Webtoon branch to pick this series up in the future (and they have picked up some series from their Korean parent company somewhat late), however, I suppose the markets are different and the U.S.’ site is simply more pushing forward to their western creators (other international LINE sites have picked it up, however... ).

SO, last month I found out that at least someone is doing a fan translation of it in English! It’s not perfect per se, and at times it feels wonky, but I believe it has been improving as far as a I have seen, and hopefully this can bring to more people talk about it ;)

Even though it’s still in the first chapters, the road towards more an emotional rollercoaster is a long one, but, hey! Let’s enjoy this road together for the time being (and NOW I CAN FINALLY SHARE MY PAIN OVER THESE CHARACTERS WITH YOU, MWA HAH HAH).

HOPEFULLY the first 3 chapters... 5...  don’t turn you off to read it. I promise you, this is a nice emotional rollercoaster... You are going to suffer, you are going to get happy at times... but it’s a great one.

As I have also said before, this webtoon is also receiving a drama adaptation, although, tbh...? Would they be able to replicate the power that has the original source? (and I have expressed my frustrations over it before)

The series might be ending in late September 2019 in South Korea (as that’s the last public chapter release), but there’s lots of stuff I wish I could talk about it after it finishes.

Links to its ENG scanlation in Mangadex

[owlways-and-forever]

Summary: Lily Evans thought her life would be normal. Well, as normal as it can be for a muggle-born witch in England. But when her boyfriend turns out to be the prince of the wizarding world, and tensions begin to rise among factions of wizarding society, Lily must find her way in situations she never anticipated, and try not to lose sight of her identity. Word Count: 6,355 (27,974) Links: ao3 | FFnet | Tumblr: Ch 1, Ch 2, Ch 3, Ch 4, Ch 5, Ch 6

A/N: Okay, so first of all, sorry for missing an update and then being late for this weekend's. Life has been a little crazy and a touch stressful lately. I got a promotion at work, and even though its awesome, its been a little stressful trying to adjust to my new position, and my schedule has been thrown off. I'm still going to try to stick to every other weekend, but it may or may not happen - my sister's baby shower is in a few weeks and then it won't be long until her due date, so life is going to be pretty crazy for a while. But I'll do my best!

This is a very long chapter though, so at least you're rewarded for all your patience! It was a lot of fun writing this, and trying to envision how Hogwarts graduation might work. Full disclosure - I do not know any latin, so everything here is Google translated/from a source describing Cambridge Uni's graduations. You'll see a few names in the graduation that you might not recognize - I borrowed some of my OCs from my other Marauder's era work, just a couple that I love with all my heart and felt compelled to bring along. Plus, you know, I had to bulk up the numbers somehow - it wouldn't really be realistic to have only 8 graduates, now would it? I hope you enjoy this chapter! 

And a friendly reminder that you can follow @whitefirepalace on Instagram for some edits that follow along with the story!Enjoy and feel free to leave a comment! :D

Chapter 7

“Oh my god, will you just do as I say?” Lily hissed exasperatedly out in the hall, and James had to stifle a laugh.

Moments later Marlene was shoved unceremoniously through the doorway of the classroom, tripping a bit over her feet before steadying herself and looking around. Dorcas and Mary entered a bit more normally behind her, with Lily following after all of them and closing the door.

“What the hell is going on?” Marlene swore, glaring at James and Lily.

“There’s something that I want you to know, that I want you to hear from me,” James began nervously. Somehow, sharing his secret never got any easier. Lily laced their fingers together and he could feel warmth and reassurance flowing from her.

“Are you dying or something?” Marlene asked with narrowed eyes. “Oh my god, did you knock Lily up?”

“No!” he answered hurriedly, completely caught off guard by the suggestion. “No, I… I’ve been at school under a pseudonym, and at graduation they’ll be calling me forward as James Eideard Aneirin, Prince of Scotland. There’s more titles and technically it should be HRH, but I’ve got Dumbledore to stick to that. It’s a tiny bit less pompous I think.”

“Are you genuinely telling us that you’re Prince James?” Marlene scoffed, while Mary and Dorcas shared surprised looks behind her back.

“Yep,” James said, pulling out the signet ring he kept hidden on a chain under his clothes and tossing it to her. “Family heirloom that, so be careful.”

Marlene turned the little ring over in her fingers, examining every small detail with wide eyes. When she was satisfied, she handed it back to him, her mouth gaping in shock.

“Who else knows?” Mary asked quietly.

“Well, Lily obviously,” he replied, fingers nervously playing with his glasses. “Sirius, Remus and Peter. And all the staff. But after graduation, everyone will know, so you don’t have to keep the secret.”

“You knew this whole time!” Marlene hissed, swatting at Lily.

Lily simply shrugged. Of course she knew, and of course she’d kept his secret. That’s what partners did, after all.

“Aren’t you worried that people will tell stories to the press about what a horrible, scandalous party animal you are and stuff?” Dorcas asked.

“A bit, but to be honest, I think the people who actually know any juicy stories won’t say anything,” James answered after a moment. “I’m pretty careful about the company I keep.”

“I suppose we should feel honoured then,” Marlene quipped, with just a touch too much bite in it.

“I’m sorry if you feel like I’ve betrayed you by not telling you sooner,” he said, the picture of contrition. “I just… I always wanted to be myself, to be normal.”

“It’s alright, James, we understand,” Mary answered for the group. “Thank you for telling us.”

James nodded and turned to Lily.

“I’ll leave you guys be for a bit,” he whispered, so only she could hear. “If there’s anything you need, or if they have any questions…”

Lily smiled and pushed a lock of his hair away from his forehead.

“We’ll be fine, go find the boys.”

James ducked out of the room, leaving the four girls alone. It was silent for a few moments as Lily waited to see what her friends would say.

“How could you not tell us?” Marlene burst out at last.

“He asked me not to,” Lily said, knowing full well that it would not be a popular answer.

“And apparently he matters more than we do,” Marlene spat.

It was an unfair statement. In the beginning, of course her friends had mattered more. James had just been a boyfriend and they were her best friends. But along the way he had become so much more - her partner, her future. He wasn’t more important than her friends, but they weren’t more important than him anymore either. They both mattered to her immensely. They were equal.

“It’s his life, Marlene,” Lily replied, trying to push down the sting of Marlene’s words.

“Oh, it’s not like any of us hate the royal family and would’ve tried to off him if we knew,” Marlene huffed, starting to pace back and forth.

“I think she meant that it wasn’t hers to tell,” Mary offered helpfully, but it only made Marlene spin on her.

“And you’re not mad at Sirius for not telling you?” she asked harshly.

“No, but we’re also… we’re not James and Lily, Whatever we are will be done after graduation, or at least by the end of the summer,” Mary admitted.

“Why would you say that?” Lily asked, partly in concern for her friend, but partly trying to seize any change in the conversation.

“It’s been fun, but it just could never go anywhere,” Mary shrugged, though she seemed to be putting on a good face. She had never been the most forthcoming about her feelings. “His family and they’re… station… he could never be with a muggle-born. And besides everyone knows that Sirius and Remus are in love with each other and they just don’t know it.”

Dorcas wrapped an arm around Mary, and Lily reached out for her, but Mary just shook her head.

“No, it’s fine, really. If they ever figure it out, they’ll be happy together,” Mary pressed. “I’ll find somebody more suited for me once we’re away from school, I’m sure.”

“There’ll be so many more people,” Lily agreed.

The room grew quiet again, no one really sure what to say.

“So I guess you’re going to be a princess then,” Marlene said, a bit begrudgingly. Lily smiled. She knew it, sooner or later, Marlene’s fascination with the royal family would overpower whatever else she felt.

“Yeah,” she answered, smiling more broadly. “Not imminently or anything, but someday.”

“So you don’t want James to propose yet?” Dorcas asked, her tone a little bit doubtful.

“I’m not sure I feel any which way about it,” Lily shrugged. “I don’t know that I want to be someone’s wife yet, but I’m also pretty positive about him, so I don’t really feel like I need to wait. I guess whenever he asks, I’ll say yes.”

“So is graduation the first time you’ll meet his family?” Marlene asked, her anger dissipating with every question.

“No, I went to the Palace during the Easter holidays.” Lily began telling her friends all about seeing James as the Prince during official duties and seeing the Palace and her talk with the Queen and her freakout afterward. They listened with rapt attention, and Lily realized just how good it felt to let out this big secret.

o . o . o

James sighed as he set aside his glasses, dipping his fingers into the tub of smoothing solution and applying it generously to his hair until it lay cooperatively, looking perfectly coiffed. Over the years he’d gotten quite good at styling his hair for these appearances, always going for a signature sweepback with a clean side part. A real Christopher Reeve-Superman look. It was how Prince James was supposed to look - neat and tidy and perfect. It never felt like who he was at Hogwarts though, where he had been free to be simply James Potter.

But all that was ending. James Potter didn’t exist anymore. Today, he would step out into the Great Hall and James Potter would vanish into thin air, his privacy and his personal identity gone. It was time to assume his public face and his duties as the heir to the throne.

For all that James had told Lily that he wouldn’t change after graduation, how could he not? Sure, fundamentally he might be the same… he’d stil like the same foods and yell at Quidditch players more than he ought to during matches and he’d always love Lily. But at the same time, he would have different responsibilities and pressures every day. Instead of homework and Prefect duties it would be patronages and state visits. Diplomacy and politics and staying out of all of it while still leading the country through it. And on top of all of it, there was the war. Who would he become to deal with all of that? He didn’t know, and it terrified him.

“C’mon Your Highness,” Sirius mocked, tying his own bowtie. “You don’t want to be late for your own graduation. What on earth would people think then?”

“Maybe that I’m bloody human,” James snapped, snatching his black robe off his bed.

“Grumpy today, are we?” Sirius pushed, swatting James’ hands aside and straightening his bowtie for him.

“I just hate that everything has to change now,” James huffed. “I hate putting you all through this, and Lily. All of you are going to be under so much scrutiny now.”

“Well, lucky thing your friend is devilishly handsome then,” Sirius laughed, shrugging off James’ concerns like it was water rolling down his back.

“We all knew what we were getting into,” Remus interrupted, stepping out of the bathroom. “If any of this bothered us, we could’ve walked away a long time ago. We’re with you, we don’t mind.”

“Remus, especially for you… people will find out eventually…” James groaned, dragging his hands across his face.

“It’s okay, it was never going to stay secret outside of Hogwarts anyway,” Remus shrugged, the worry in his eyes the only betrayal of the true weight of his feelings. “It’s a lot more conspicuous when you don’t have eight teachers covering for you every month.”

“Remus is right,” Peter said quietly. “We all chose to stand by your side. You aren’t forcing any of us into anything.”

James nodded reluctantly, trying to resist the urge to run his hands through his hair even as his fingers twitched.

“Let’s go, or we really will be late,” Remus said.

The four boys nodded together and grabbed their robes, setting off through the Common Room and leaving Gryffindor Tower for the last time. They walked through the quiet halls, stopping at the Transfiguration classroom, where all the graduating Gryffindors were gathered. Professor McGonagall sat at her desk, pointedly ignoring the chattering students, not caring what they did as they waited as long as they weren’t disruptive.

It wasn’t unusual for everyone to look the same, since they had, after all, all worn the same uniform every day. But for some reason it seemed more odd today. The boys all had black pants and white shirts, with red bowties and thin red cummerbunds under their black graduation robes. The girls looked similar in black skirts with red waistbands and white dress shirts. They all held hoods in their hand that had different colored linings indicating their primary course of study. Lily’s was green, for Healing, James’ was purple for Law. Sirius had a red hood for Defense, while Remus had a blue hood for Academia and Peter had orange for Governance. James looked at the rainbow around the room, picking out the rest of his friends. Marlene wore red like Sirius, Dorcas had orange, and Mary had a double striped hood - white for Arts and green for Healing. She was one of only two students who had been allowed to do a double course.

Lily smiled at James when she saw him, and the four boys went over to join their friends. James reached out for Lily’s hand, lacing his fingers together with hers and squeezing tightly. He knew she must be as anxious as he was for the day. But she only smiled and chatted happily with their friends, hiding her nerves well.

Marlene did a double-take as James joined them, her eyes scanning over his face critically.

“It really is you,” she said, and James tried to shrug nonchalantly in response.

The minutes ticked by agonizingly slowly until finally Professor McGonagall stood from her desk, and the room immediately fell silent, fifteen pairs of eyes focused on her.

“Please line up alphabetically by last name,” she said, fixing them all with a stern look. “I trust you don’t need my assistance with that.”

There was a brief pause before they all scurried into motion, hurrying to find their spots. It didn’t take them long to get in order, especially with Professor McGonagall watching them with a stern expression. But she seemed to soften as they waited to leave.

“Before we join the other houses and make our way to the Great Hall for the ceremony, I want to tell you all what a pleasure it has been to have you in my house.” She seemed to get emotional, her eyes glistening slightly. “You are an exceptional group of young men and women, and I look forward to seeing the many wonderful things that you will accomplish in the years to come.”

“I knew you liked us!” Sirius shouted triumphantly, and the rest of the Gryffindors burst into peals of laughter.

“And despite a lovely seven years together, I greet your departure with joy - especially you, Mr. Black - and wish you the best of luck moving forward,” she replied, but the smile playing at the corner of her lips was enough to tell them all that she was teasing them. Perhaps she wouldn’t go so far as to say that she would miss them, but there was not a student in the bunch that did not fill her with a warm sense of affection and pride. They had come a long way. “Right, time to move. Follow me.”

With that, she swept from the room, the line of Gryffindors following behind her. Professor Flitwick was leading the line of Ravenclaws through the halls as well, and they all shared excited and nervous smiles with each other. Professor Sprout and Professor Slughorn arrived at the Entrance Hall with the lines of graduating Hufflepuffs and Slytherins at the same time, and they all stepped into their formation.

Music trumpeted through the Great Hall as the oak doors swung open, and a whirlpool of excitement and anticipation bubbled in James’ stomach as they all marched through together. The tables had been removed, replaced with rows upon rows of wooden chairs, each occupied by a family member. Four rows had been left empty at the front for the graduating students, and they all filed in stoically. An opera box had been added to the right, set back into the wall so that it was cleverly concealed from those sitting further back. The King and Queen sat there, looking as regal as ever in their crimson and gold robes. James wondered how such a box had even been made, but he supposed the answer was simply ‘magic’.

The music seamlessly transitioned into a fanfare, and the entire crowd stood, a hundred voices joining in a chorus of God Save the Queen. When it finished, everyone resumed their seats, and Dumbledore stepped forward to initiate the ceremony.

“It is with great joy that I am able to open this graduation. These students have completed a very challenging array of coursework, and many of them have done so while pursuing a myriad of wonderful extracurricular activities. We are all very proud of the feat that they have accomplished, and feel that each deserves immense recognition.”

Black silk banners streamed out from the tops of the windows, darkening the room.

“We must first take a moment to remember and acknowledge Davey Gudgeon, who would have been graduating today if he had not departed this world prematurely. His loss has been felt severely by many of our students, and he will always be remembered as the truly exceptional student that he was.”

Professor Dumbledore bowed his head, and everyone in the Great Hall echoed his movement. The room was silent as those that knew Davey reflected on his friendship. After a minute, Dumbledore raised his head again, and the banners covering the window rolled themselves up and then vanished with a snap .

“Now, for a more celebratory mood!” His voice had taken on a much more jovial tune, the smile reappearing on his face.

Professor McGonagall stepped forward, conjuring a scroll and unspooling it as she began to read in a booming voice.

“Dignissima domina, Archididascalum et tota Academia praesento vobis haec viros quam scio tam moribus quam doctrina esse idoneum ad gradum assequendum Academia; idque tibi fide mea praesto totique Academiae.”

All of the students who had followed the academic course stood, their blue hoods blended together like a bright summer sky.

“I formally request that the following men and women be awarded a degree in Academia,” Professor McGonagall said, in English this time, the formality of her demeanor never wavering for a second. She read through each student’s name and, and one at a time they stepped forward to become graduates.

“Remus John Lupin,” she announced, and James straightened up, watching as his friend moved forward and knelt before the Headmaster, his head bowed reverently.

“Auctoritate mihi commissa admitto te ad gradum Academia, in nomine Ministerium, Hogwarts, et Godric Gryffindor,” Dumbledore said, as his hands closed around Remus’.

Remus arose and turned around with a grin spreading from ear to ear as he returned to his seat. Once all the students from the Academic course had their degrees conferred upon them, Professor McGonagall began again.

“Dignissima domina, Archididascalum et tota Academia praesento vobis haec viros quam scio tam moribus quam doctrina esse idoneum ad gradum assequendum Artium; idque tibi fide mea praesto totique Academiae. I formally request that the following men and women be awarded a degree in Arts.”

There were only three students who stood, wearing the white hoods, the contrast against their black robes looking rather like an old-timey photograph.

“Benjamin Daniel Fenwick,” Professor McGonagall called, and Benjy stepped forward, kneeling in front of Professor Dumbledore to be granted his degree in the name of the Ministry, Hogwarts, and Godric Gryffindor.

“Mary Charlotte MacDonald,” McGonagall called next, and Mary floated forward, smiling sweetly.

As Mary knelt, she listened to Dumbledore’s words like they were breathing new life into her, as if they could transform her in some tangible way, rather than just being stuffy words dictated by a centuries-old ceremony.

“Sybill Cassandra Trelawney,” was called forward next, nearly knocking Mary over in her haste to make her way to the dais.

She blinked her large, buglike eyes at Professor Dumbledore and clung to his hands as he recited the words, “...in nomine Ministerium, Hogwarts, et Rowena Ravenclaw.”

“Dignissima domina, Archididascalum et tota Academia praesento vobis haec viros quam scio tam moribus quam doctrina esse idoneum ad gradum assequendum Curatio,” Professor McGonagall began again, calling forth the second largest course, “idque tibi fide mea praesto totique Academiae. I formally request that the following men and women be awarded a degree in Healing. Lily Jane Evans.”

James felt pride swell within him as he watched Lily move forward and kneel before Dumbledore. She bowed her head and locks of red hair fell forward over her shoulder, obscuring her face, but it didn’t matter. James knew that her expression was solemn and her eyes were probably closed as Dumbledore clasped her hands and recited the words.

“Auctoritate mihi commissa admitto te ad gradum Curatio, in nomine Ministerium, Hogwarts, et Godric Gryffindor.”

Lily stood, beaming, looking as proud as James felt of her. She had worked so hard, especially during the past year, and had excelled in all her courses. He felt a pang of regret that her degree would be for nought soon enough, forced to sit and collect dust when she became the diplomat and cultural representative that the Royal Family required. If she agreed, that was.

Mary was called forth again, as solemn the second time as she had been the first. Alice Elizabeth Matthews was next, the petite Hufflepuff nearly bouncing as she approached the Headmaster. Fabian Alphaeus Prewett followed her, and then Severus Tobias Snape. James had to resist the urge to hiss audibly as his nemesis stepped forward to receive his degree, but he reminded himself that no matter how much he despised the greasy bastard, Lily would not tolerate any hijinks from him. But it was a good thing that his wand was in his trunk anyway. Emma Grace Vanity was the last to step forward from the Healing course, ending what felt like a very long slew of students after the brevity of the previous two groups.

They were halfway through, and James could feel all kinds of emotions bubbling inside of him. He was excited for his turn to come, and nervous about what it would mean. He was bored by the ceremonial nature of all of this and impatient to get through it all, and yet he felt a thrill and a surge of pride every time one of his friends was officially declared a graduate.

“Dignissima domina, Archididascalum et tota Academia praesento vobis haec viros quam scio tam moribus quam doctrina esse idoneum ad gradum assequendum Jurisdictio; idque tibi fide mea praesto totique Academiae,” Professor McGonagall recited.

James stood along with the rest of the students in his course. He vaguely wondered if he was shaking from all the nervous energy coursing through his veins.

“I formally request that the following men and women be awarded a degree in Law.”

And so it began.

“Amelia Margaret Edith Bones,” Professor McGonagall called, once the entire group had vacated their seats and stepped into the aisle along the outer wall.

And then, in no time at all, there were no students standing in front of him.

“James Eideard Aneirin, Prince of Scotland,” Professor McGonagall called out in her commanding voice.

The Great Hall suddenly felt so silent that a pin could drop and simultaneously buzzing with shocked whispers. He felt paralyzed, unable to move forward, or move anywhere, move any part of his body at all. I told you so! he heard someone exclaim, and he felt his heart pound in his chest, beating against his ribcage like a captive phoenix trying to break free. Somewhere in his mind, James could hear the photographer hired for the graduation go crazy, the shutter clicking at warp speed. She probably saw what an opportunity she had - she would be the only photographer anywhere to have pictures of the Prince’s graduation. James felt his breathing quicken, sucking in shallow breaths, and he wondered if he was having a panic attack. It had happened in the blink of an eye, his whole world had shifted, and he felt like he had lost his footing. How was he not more prepared for this?

James’ eyes found Lily, sitting amongst the other Gryffindor students, and he tried to block out everything else, everything but her. Her green eyes focused on him, and she gave him an encouraging smile. It was all he needed. James stepped forward, walking across the empty space to the foot of the dais, where the Headmaster waited with a small smile. James knelt before him, extending his hands in a praying formation, and Dumbledore wrapped his own hands around them. James maintained eye contact, staring back into Professor Dumbledore’s icy blue gaze as he recited the words that were meant to change his life.

“Auctoritate mihi commissa admitto te ad gradum Curatio, in nomine Ministerium, Hogwarts, et Godric Gryffindor.”

Dumbledore gave him a small nod, and James stood, returning to his seat with his head held high. He had done it, finished school, earned his degree. There had been days that he doubted that he would make it, when his grades suffered from either his own shenanigans or forced absences due to his duties that set him behind. But he had the words resounding in his mind, combined with Professor Dumbledore’s proud expression, to remind him of his accomplishment.

He failed to pay attention to the rest of the students in his course, entirely in his own world as Emmeline Laurel Vance, Adrian Lee Wells, and Corban Aleris Fenton Yaxley were called forward to receive their degrees. It didn’t bother him too much though, he wasn’t particularly close to any of them. He liked Adrian and Emmeline well enough, and he was jealous that they would both be enrolling in the Auror training program. But the idea of Corban Yaxley getting a degree in Law , when he was hell-bent on seeing Voldemort take control of the entire wizarding world… it would be laughable if it weren’t so disgusting.

“Dignissima domina, Archididascalum et tota Academia praesento…”

The words sounded like a far off echo to James, and he had little interest in forcing his mind to return to the ceremony. The world of his thoughts was far more interesting.

“I formally request that the following men and women be awarded a degree in Governance.”

Those words finally brought James back to attention, his focus drifting slowly back to the events around him as he recognized that two of his friends were about to step forward. He waited impatiently as Reginald Alexander Cattermole and Mafalda Arias Hopkirk stepped forward first. Then Professor McGonagall called Dorcas Diane Meadowes forward and James straightened up a little bit to watch more closely. He could practically hear Lily grinning from ear to ear, and he knew she was applauding a little more enthusiastically as Dorcas returned to her seat, newly declared a graduate. Caius Lycaon Tryphonus Nott was next, and James had to try very hard not to heckle him as he received his degree.

“Peter Ian Pettigrew,” Professor McGonagall, and James felt like bursting with excitement. Of all his friends, Peter seemed to understand his academic reservations the most. Remus had always been scholarly, and very gifted, and he enjoyed studying and schoolwork more than anyone James had ever met before. Sirius was the opposite, lazy and laidback when it game to academics, and yet he was so naturally gifted that he didn’t need to put in any work to do respectably well. James and Peter had struggled a bit more, finding a kinship in their trials and tribulations.

“Auctoritate mihi commissa admitto te ad gradum Magisterium,” Professor Dumbledore announced, a particularly pleased smile on his face, “in nomine Ministerium, Hogwarts, et Godric Gryffindor.”

Peter stood, pride emanating from him like a radiant glow, and James led the entire crowd in a round of applause that would have made anyone think Peter had just been elected to be the Minister.

“Dignissima domina, Archididascalum et tota Academia,” Professor McGonagall began again, announcing the final course, “praesento vobis haec viros quam scio tam moribus quam doctrina esse idoneum ad gradum assequendum Praesidium; idque tibi fide mea praesto totique Academiae. I formally request that the following men and women be awarded a degree in Defense.”

The largest block of students stood, a group that radiated pride and determination. Every one of these students knew they were about to head into a war, not all of them on the same side, and they stood like soldiers ready for battle.

Bertram Conrad Aubrey was the first to step forward. Large, with thick, banded muscles, Bertram looked every bit a soldier, and he seemed imbued with a certainty that James wished he possessed.

“Sirius Orion Phinneas Black,” Professor McGonagall called, and James struggled to keep from wolf whistling. He was proud of Sirius too, he was proud of all his friends.

After having his degree conferred, Sirius turned back toward the waiting guests and flashed the most self-assured and charming smile that had ever been seen. It was no wonder half the girls in Hogwarts were in love with him. For good measure, he looked toward Marlene where she was waiting her turn and gave her a salacious wink that was not missed by anybody.

Antonin Aleksi Dolohov was next, and once more James had to suppress the hiss that rose inside him. It was well known that Dolohov had only gone with the Defense course because he felt that knowing all about defense made for the best offense.

Frank Christopher James Longbottom was called forward next, redeeming the program a bit. Frank was everything Dolohov was not. A pinnacle of light and goodness and honor. He came from an old family, not quite in the highest social class, but still James had known Frank since they were young. It made him happy to see Frank defending the people, he was real hero caliber.

After Frank, Professor McGonagall called forward Marlene Pilar McKinnon, and this time James could tell Lily was straining not to whoop with joy. The only word that James could ever think to describe Marlene was bad-ass, and graduation was no exception. She had brought her own flair to the dress code with black heels that were studded with tiny silver spikes and a set matching spiked earrings. Confidence wafted from her in waves as she strode up to the dais and knelt to receive her degree. When the conferral had been completed, she strutted back to her seat with purpose, ponytail swinging as she flashed Sirius a sinful smile.

Gideon Matteus Prewett was announced next, another credit to the program and to Gryffindor, and James looked forward to seeing the leader he was sure to become. Evan Mark Rosier stepped forward next, another Dolohov, and James rolled his eyes. The ceremony finished with Clara Jane Williams, who was a relatively positive note to end on. She gave Remus as shy smile as she returned to her seat, and James wondered - not for the first time - if there was more between them than they let on.

“It gives me great pleasure to present to all the family and friends here today the newest graduates of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry!” Professor Dumbledore declared, and shouts of joy erupted from students and guests alike. “Please join us for a reception out on the grounds of the castle before your departure. And may I offer a friendly reminder that the Hogwarts Express will depart from Hogsmeade Station promptly at 6pm for all those who wish to take it. Otherwise, allow me to remind you that apparition, Floo powder, and departure by broomstick are all prohibited until you are off castle grounds. Thank you very much, and congratulations to all of our graduates and their supporters!”

The graduates filed out of the Great Hall first, not in any kind of procession, but more of a semi-organized press of people. As each of them walked through the ornate doors of the castle to the sloping lawn, a curled diploma appeared in their hands, tied with a ribbon in the colour of their course and bound with the wax seal of their house. James stared at his in amazement as Sirius and Peter chattered excitedly, enjoying the tangible evidence of his accomplishment. Lily slipped her hand into James’, startling him slightly, but he smiled when he saw her standing next to him.

“Congratulations, Miss Evans,” Queen Euphemia said, approaching the young couple. “We’re very proud of both of you.”

“Thanks, Mum,” James beamed, exchanging gleeful looks with Lily.

“I suppose you’ve made your choice then?” the Queen said to Lily, while King Fleamont gave them a curious look, completely oblivious to the conversation that had happened months earlier.

“Yeah, I have,” Lily answered, snuggling closer to James and looking up at him with such adoration.

If James and Lily heard the sound of snapping camera shutters following through the reception, they showed no sign of it. They were far too engrossed in the joy and excitement of the day. Not to mention, it was their very last day all together with their friends. Before long, they would be moving in different directions, pursuing a variety of careers and initiatives in all different places. They were all acutely aware that there was no guarantee that they would all be together like this again any time soon.

After the reception, students and families began to say their goodbyes, departing for the Hogwarts Express. James and Lily stayed the longest with their families, enjoying the relative privacy as twilight fell on the castle. It was less awkward having their families together here, in this somewhat neutral setting. Even though they were still decked out in their finery, they seemed less imposing away from the ornate halls of Whitefire Palace. And perhaps things always got easier between families as time progressed. Whatever the reason, Lily and James were both pleased to see their families melding together so well.

o . o . o

Lily was sharing a shitty flat in London with Mary, Alice, and Fabian. They were all starting the training course at St. Mungo’s, which only paid a very small stipend, and sharing a small apartment had been the only thing they could do. Lily knew that doing the course was a bit pointless, since she’d have to give it up when she married James, but she couldn’t very well just sit around and wait for a proposal.

They had a week to set up their flat and celebrate their graduation before they had to start their course. Lily took the first three days to visit with her family. She had missed them so much, realized, and she wished she could’ve gotten the whole summer to spend with them. But at least London was much closer to home, and she could apparate there in a pinch if she wanted to.

Her parents surprised her by announcing that they were getting a new couch for the sitting room, and gifting her the old one for her apartment. James insisted on getting her a proper bed (“Hey, I’ve got to sleep on this thing too!”) despite her protestations. Alice’s parents were a bit more upper class, and she was an only child, she they’d been happy to get a few things for them - mostly kitchenware, but a dining table and a little tv as well. Everything else they’d gotten second-hand as cheap as they could find, with the result being that their apartment looked like the most hideously mismatched collection of 50s decor imaginable. But it was home, at least none of them cared if some butterbeer spilled on the sofa.

Sirius came over for dinner one evening, and by the end of the night, he and Mary had gone their separate ways, just as she’d predicted. Mary didn’t seem all that cut up about it, and Lily wondered if it didn’t have something to do with Fabian. He’d become very snuggly with her, always seeking contact with his toes or his shoulder or his forehead whenever they sat down to watch the little tv. Not to mention he’d developed a habit of “forgetting” his clothes in his bedroom whenever he took a shower. Lily privately thought that it wouldn’t be too long before those two were sharing one room.

James was living in the Palace, his schedule jam packed with events and outings and meetings. He wanted the Royal Family to be more active, and to play a bigger part in the governing of the country, the way it had centuries before. People responded well to him, and he was a natural at all of it. Sometimes Lily thought it was a shame that he couldn’t get involved in politics, because he was a great diplomat. Most weekends, he stayed with her in the little flat, as long as he didn’t have an event in the morning, but occasionally she went to the Palace. The almost never went out though, since that inevitably ended up with them being photographed.

All in all, life after graduation seemed pretty good. They were all busy, and Lily felt exhausted all the time, but it was in a good way, and she felt as though she’d accomplished something at the end of every day. And yet there was a constant feeling that just as they began to settle into this new life, everything would change.

[out-of-this-dimension]

The Star Fox Adventures Game Manual -- Analysis

So, you may remember a few months back, I received a lot of hate mail on AO3 and FF.net for a fic that I posted that I’ve since taken down in hopes of redoing someday.  The hate was largely from people who don’t like Panther (the fic was Krystal x Panther) but a lot of their arguments were attempts to debunk how “canon” my fic is.  With a lot of my fics, I don’t stray too far from canon, but I do fill in “gaps” with my own headcanons.  I feel like the SF series is a comfortable enough blank slate to do that.  Mild spoilers for future fics, but one of these headcanons is that Panther is Cerinian.  I’ve actually covered this headcanon previously on my blog but I’m too lazy to look up the link.  

One of the arguments my “secret admirer” tried to make about how my fic “contradicts canon” is that “Well, Panther can’t be Cerinian because the Star Fox Adventures manual says that Krystal is the sole survivor.” (and then they made a hate fic about how my headcanon of Panther being Cerinian couldn’t possibly work, but that’s a story for another time).

Admittingly, I hadn’t looked at the manual in most of a decade, so that little tidbit escaped my memory.  But honestly, with Cerinian OCs flying around left and right in the fandom, I thought it was an odd piece of info to nitpick about.  Regardless, it sparked some intrigue, so I decided to poke around the internet and lo and behold, I found a PDF copy of the manual.  Since it’s been a long while since the last time I read the manual, I decided to do an analysis on it.  Analysis with pictures under the cut!

This is the “prologue” of Star Fox Adventures and while it’s all good and dandy, I want to point out three very important things-- 1. Peppy retired at this point, not after Krystal showed up. I mean, this is relatively minor but I thought it was noteworthy that our Barrel-Roll Loving Team Dad was already going to be retired before the “next SF game”-- whatever that would have been, though I’m fairly certain Assault’s development launched right at the heels of Adventures, if not while Adventures was in late development still. 2. Slippy apparently traded in his pilot’s wings to become a mechanic, which is... blatantly ignored in both Assault and Command because while he does mechanic-like stuff (playing off of his role as the “team smartie pants”), he still very much is a pilot. 3. Falco left because he was bored is only a rumor.  I know “Farewell Beloved Falco” tackles this to a degree. I want to also note that this inspired me to re-read Farewell Beloved Falco on Monday and there’s no real point in the manga that says Falco left because he was bored (I have my own speculation as to why he left but I’ll save that for later).  I find it really odd that the manual says Falco “simply disappeared”, when he very clearly left with great bravado at the end of the manga.  He didn’t vanish into the night or anything, like this would imply.  He said he was going to go solo for a bit and flew off after the Titania Incident.  It... feels like maybe there was a miscommunication here between who was giving the person writing the manual details.

This is the Character Bio page, which, to my secret admirer’s glee, does contain the info that Krystal is the only survivor of Cerinia.  It also name drops Cornerian Weapons R&D, which has also never been heard of before or since this manual. I actually searched excessively for more mentions about this and yielded no results.  Curious.  I had never noticed that and assumed Slippy had just been tinkering on stuff for fun.  Also oof, my heart at ROB being considered a full-fledged SF member.

I’m going to skip over the parts I don’t have any commentary on.  

So it’s pretty clear from the final product that Rareware had no idea what they were doing with the SpellStones.  They clearly absorb magic from the planet to keep the planet from falling apart (which says to me that this is not the planet’s natural state but I’ve talked about that before so I’ll spare you the ramble).  But what was going on with them is really unclear.  I understand that Dinosaur Planet gives a better explanation of the SpellStones but that purpose does not seem to be canon any longer.

The text here implies that Scales has every single SpellStone in his possession (the Queen EarthWalker ALSO states he removed the SpellStones himself).  Yet, when you make it into the game...

(Special note: I found this pic on Google and the file was called “Asshole”, which, tbh isn’t inaccurate but it gave me a chuckle so I thought I’d share it.)

Scales doesn’t possess all of the SpellStones.  Drakor, a mutant in Scales’s army, guards the one at Dragon Rock-- we can assume Scales is responsible for that.  The King RedEye has been fitted with one in his head-- we can assume Scales is responsible for that.  But past that? We find Scales in the CloudRunner Fortress treasury with the first Ocean SpellStone, which he has clearly just found.  And the entire point of DarkIce Mines, the entire reason the SnowHorn are enslaved, is because Scales is looking for the SpellStone.  Which says to me that the SpellStone wasn’t even removed by him.  He wouldn’t have had to enslave the entire tribe to go digging for it otherwise.  He wouldn’t have had to lay siege to CloudRunner Fortress either.

So this entire plot point is absolutely inconsistent to what’s in the manual and even... in the game. What is the reasoning behind this?  Probably the innumerable plot changes during SFAdv’s development.

With the fortunate release of the Dinosaur Planet ROM and the creation of the Warlock Engine by Hugo Peters, a lot has been uncovered in terms of how Dinosaur Planet would have originally looked like.  Dark Ice Mines, for instance, was actually meant to connect via the SnowHorn Wastes (or, Northern Wastes) via a small cave entrance on the other side of the river near where one finds Garunda Te.  The cave still exists in the finalized version of the game but leads to no where.  

However, with Star Fox being added in, I think Rare felt the need to add in things that made the game feel a bit more in line with the Star Fox series.  The planet pieces being torn apart was a way to shove in Arwing sections of the game.  And the devs needed a reason for the change in the planet’s state... and what’s a better throwaway reason than “it’s just magic, bruh”?  So the SpellStones, being focal points in the game’s story, were changed to being part of the reason for the planet falling to pieces. That led to DarkIce Mines, despite having a basically completed map, getting yoinked from the planet’s surface and tossed into space, meaning the entrance was sealed.  The reason for all of this was handwaved into “Oh, Scales did this because he removed the stones” without... the game actually reflecting much of that at all because most of it had been made with a different story in mind.

I think Rare did this hoping that no one would look at the plot too closely but uh oh, that didn’t happen.  And if you need further proof that this was all a bit of an “oopsie” on Rare’s part, you need not look much further than DarkIce Mines once more.  Belina Te has a small throwaway line about how her father hid the SpellStone in the mines.  She says something to the effect of “He didn’t say where he hid it, only that it was somewhere safe” which is code for “Yeah lol I stuck this important object crafted by the gods into the claws of a giant monstrosity but it’s w/e”.  Maybe he was hoping that Galdon would protect it from Scales.  I mean, it’s not a bad thought, really...

But the fact that the game seems to imply Scales has all the stones is still technically wrong.  Now, because I think about these things a little TOO much, here’s my theory as to how this could have technically worked: All the SpellStones are placed in the same spot, you just traverse different routes (The Force Point Temples) to reach that spot. The only way I could see Scales making out with 2 out of 4 SpellStones is that there was a battle between the SharpClaw and the other dinosaurs at the central point where the SpellStones are located and General Scales was only partially successful.  Which could very well be the case, but, unfortunately, the manual and game seem to not act as though this is the case...

tl;dr for that section: This literally makes no sense no matter how you slice it and sure, you can come up for reasons that things ended up this way but ultimately, the game is conflicting with itself about its own story.  But let’s move on.

Apparently atmospheric conditions are so powerful on Sauria that it can interrupt communications, which I thought was a neat lore tidbit.  

So I got 2 things from this tidbit about Saurian.

1. This language is called “relatively new”, even though it’s existed for thousands of years, which feels like a contradiction?  A quick Google search estimates English has been around for 1400 years, to put that into perspective and I think English is considered to be fairly new compared to other languages, but I’m honestly not too terribly learned on that.  Of course, that’s only viewing this through the lens of someone who lives on Earth.  Having a language around in the Lylat System only for “a few thousand years” makes me wonder how long the older languages have existed?  It’s quite possible that a few thousand years isn’t a long lifespan for a language in this universe.  

2. Who were these off-worlders?  And boy do I have theories.

Theory 1. The Krazoa.  They are seemingly the gods to the dinosaurs and speak the same language.  This could mean that they taught the dinosaurs this new language.  It would fit the bill for their portrayal in this game. They are godlike entities, the dinosaurs do revere them... it makes sense.  

Theory 2. The ones who taught the dinosaurs how to talk were the Cerinians. There is mild evidence for this with Krystal understanding Dino Speak without a translator despite being new to the planet (evidenced by the fact the CloudRunner had to explain the Krazoa to her/some dialogue bits about her learning of General Scales/the brief exposition we get about her searching the Lylat System for answers).  You could argue this is due to her telepathy - she could just simply be talking in a way that the dinosaurs can understand but I don’t think Krystal’s telepathy had been firmly established as part of her character at this point (she had the ability to leave telepathic messages onto her staff and she could channel magic into Andross, but her true telepathy powers weren’t really shown until Assault).  Krystal’s staff also seems strangely in-tune with Sauria, which I’ve theorized about previously.  I’m mostly thinking on the Magic Caves that are conveniently scattered on Sauria.  It could be that Cerinians had built the shrines within the Magic Caves to help their descendants out if they ever showed up to Sauria.  So, I guess the tl;dr version is “Maybe the Cerinians had previously been on Sauria and had established the Magic Caves and had taught the dinosaurs their native language?” 

To summarize my thoughts, the manual is a reflection of SFAdv itself- riddled with weird plot inconsistencies that you can almost fudge reasons/logic to cover but some of it feels like stretches for the sake of making plot make sense.  There’s some contradictions in the lore/story but despite that, there’s still interesting tidbits to be found.  

If anything, this booklet kind of validates my feelings from the post I made about canon awhile back.  Not all of the canon makes sense when you nitpick it to death.  When the source material conflicts with itself, you’re not going to win a “this is canon because x and y, etc” because... well... the story itself doesn’t even seem to know what’s canon.

Additionally, canon is something derived partially from people’s own experiences.  Two people can consume the same media and come to different conclusions and that’s fine.  We don’t need to have these tired debates about whose interpretation of canon is better.  We just need people to understand that while their interpretation may fit them but it may not fit everyone.  And that’s why, as I have begun doing Fanon Hot Take posts, I keep that disclaimer up.  I don’t wanna say “My opinion of how to interpret canon/fanon is the best opinion” because that’s stupid. There is no definitive “best” because it’s all subjective.  But people get into their own feelings so much about their interpretations and that’s when we have these debates of “well, my idea is better than yours”.  Then people try to dismantle each other instead of just appreciating the different ideas being brought to the table.  And it’s exhausting.

Frankly, I don’t ever think Panther being Cerinian will be canon.  But Nintendo has not, as of this date, said he’s not.  But that’s my interpretation of his character until Nintendo gives us more to go off of.  And if my interpretation bothers someone enough that they decide to send me harassment over it, then that’s on them.  I will not be apologizing for my interpretations, even if they do go against the grain.  It’s a pity people like that exist, that would rather tear at others than try to just enjoy the content that appeals directly to him but alas, they are not the first person to be like that and they will not be the last.

On a lighter note, while I am still bothered by this person going out of their way to be so spiteful, I want to thank them for inspiring me to look at the text.  It validated my feelings further and it made me realize how stupid the canon debate is.  I actually had a blast going back over this book and re-reading everything.  I hadn’t gotten to lay eyes on this booklet in years!  I really hope I get to do this for other SF games because a lot of these manuals have such hidden gems.

Thank you for reading this ramble/analysis!

[milkandhoneyoongi]

something different (hoseok scenario)

request: Hello! I recently read the drabble your wrote about taehyung and his s/o not speaking the same language, and i loved it 💗💗💗😭if you are taking requests, do you think you could do a similar version but with Hoseok? Thank you!!

a/n: some changes between this and the original found in translation?  one, it’s hobi and not taehyung.  two, reader does not speak korean...or a lot of english.  figured it would be interesting if neither of them were comfortable in the only language they shared.  adds a bit of spice.  much different vibe to this one.

and ya’al when i say i got carried away...i got carried away

ALSO i hope people aren’t annoyed by the way i lowkey diss paris in the beginning but like… i’m french so please let me live.  like the reason reader speaks french is because i’m literally fluent in french i swear.  

you can always send me a request here (please please do so i am almost done with any requests i have at the moment) and view my old imagines here

genre: angst/fluff

word count: 1,903 words

warnings: none?

       There was something about Paris that drew people in.  You understood why.  If one spends so much time in a modern world, a city that sticks to its traditional roots can have an allure, but you had grown tired of the old architecture, tired of the effortlessly beautiful vibe that applied both to Parisian style and most aspects of the city.  The stone walls and that ugly tower, you were over it all.  And maybe that was because of the connections you had made to those aspects, but you needed something new.

You needed sleek buildings and a clean metro.  You needed air that didn’t smell like rust, because no, it’s not rustic, it’s just gross.  Nothing chic about an intolerance to change.

You, always having been spontaneous and free-spirited, made a rash decision and just… Got a job in Korea.  Seoul specifically.  You had gotten lucky, finding some job to talk to French business associates of this company that you could not care less about, but it was different, and for a while that’s what you needed.  Just something different.

You thought you were just going to be talking to French business associates and occasionally exploring, but then you got a text from an unknown number.  There were three messages, one after the other, all in full Korean Hangul.  You’d probably eventually need to learn the language if you planned on sticking around, but as a kid you had told yourself the same thing during your English lessons and look where that got you.  You learned nothing.

For the time being you plugged the texts into Google Translate, hoping to get some manageable translation to which you could respond.

From unknown: Thank you for last night. It was nice talking to you. This is Hoseok, by the way.

Hoseok, you thought, Poor Hoseok.  His date gave him the wrong number.

You thought back a nice way to respond, plugging a simple “I’m sorry, but you have the wrong number,” and copying and pasting the characters to send to this Hoseok.  

Within minutes the poor boy had responded again with a simple: are you sure?

You grinned.  Why wouldn’t you be sure?  

To hoseok: Pretty sure.

And then he was calling your phone.  Odd.  You couldn’t answer… No, you couldn’t speak Korean, but you felt bad for the boy.  He was probably heartbroken.

I’m really sorry.  This is not the one from last night.   You seem sweet, and you deserve someone better anyway.

Sure, Hoseok noticed the silly mistakes in the mystery person’s Korean, but he didn’t think much of it.  Plenty of people made typos or grammatical errors.

From hoseok: Someone like you?

His heart was broken; He was feeling bold.

You held back a gasp, looking at your translator app with wide eyes.  Someone like me?  You shrugged.  This was something different.

To hoseok: Yeah.  I guess someone like me.

You and Hoseok actually got on quite well over your little text conversations, communicating almost every day.  You’d been quite flirty but he was cute and he was interested.  You were the rebound, you knew as much, but you had been before and it wasn’t too bad.  Things in your life had a way of working out.

Until he asked to meet you in person.

Yikes, you thought.  The jig was up.  How do you tell someone you really like that you’ll likely never be able to communicate in person?  You certainly didn’t know.

Maybe you should have mentioned, Oh by the way I don’t speak Korean and I’ve been using Google this entire time.  But you didn’t want to ruin a good thing, and you didn’t know if he’d be weird about that.  In a way, you had been lying to him, but you never explicitly mentioned that you were fluent in Korean so, lying by omission.  

You had never talked about the details of your personal life.  He knew you had moved to Seoul for a change of scenery and a change of pace, but you hadn’t mentioned where you moved from.  You mentioned the company you worked for, saying you worked in communications, all true. You could tell funny stories from work that day without mentioning they happened entirely in French.  The fact that I don’t speak Korean just hadn’t come up, you thought to yourself, Nothing dishonest about that.

From hoseok: Hello?

You looked back down to your screen, where Hoseok had asked if you if you wanted to meet in person.  Who’s gonna tell him? You shrugged.  

To hoseok: Hoseok I haven’t been entirely honest with you…

He frowned reading the text?  What had you lied about?  Your age?  Your location?  Your job?

I don’t speak Korean.

He read the text that said, in perfect Korean, that you didn’t speak Korean.  He hadn’t expected that, certainly not from someone who had been texting him in Korean for a few weeks, anyway.  

From hoseok: Oh.

To hoseok: I’m sorry.

From hoseok: I’m a K-Pop star, so.

To hoseok: Oh?

From hoseok: Everybody hides the scary stuff.

To hoseok: I guess so.

From hoseok: Is you not speaking Korean why you  hesitate to hang out with me?

To hoseok: Definitely.

From hoseok: Then let’s have a date.

You grinned.  Of course he didn’t mind.  You two made fast plans to meet after you got out of work, both eager to finally see one another.

You had locked eyes with him outside the small market, smiling widely at his multicolored outfit and happy expression.  “Y/N?” You nodded, shocked by how comfortable he was just pulling you into his arms as soon you did so.  He was so friendly.

“You know any English?” He asked, and you found yourself flushed as you shook your head.

“Not a lot.”  He loved your accent as it rolled over the words, the syllables falling from your unfamiliar tongue.  He found himself in awe of your appearance, your features everything they thought they would be.  You looked perfect.  Not that that mattered, but the lighting graced you in a way he hadn’t expected and he found himself just as enamoured with your appearance as he was with your words, with your wit, with your wonder.  “I speak,” you hesitated, “French.”  Funnily enough the word was hard to say with your accent, but he got it.

“French,” he said back, “Fancy.” He giggled as your brows came together, “Oh!  Fancy… avant garde.”  You grinned at how he pronounced the word with a strong American “r”.  There was something about the way he spoke, about the way he made an active effort to make you comfortable that made your heart flutter in an unfamiliar way.  “Let us go?”

You had spent the time in the market, Hoseok pointing at different things and teaching you the Korean word for it.  You had learned all sorts of thing from girl to cabbage, the last causing you to crack a wide smile.  Maybe one day you’d figure out how to tell him about the pet name in your own culture but you couldn’t find the words in that moment.  

Despite it being a day of learning, you had more fun than you had in a long time, loving the child-like giddiness that crept up your throat when he reached down and grasped your hand, swinging your hands back and forth between each other.  

You said very little overall but you left him that day eager to see him again, even if just to learn more seemingly useless words.  

There was a day he texted you in French.  You felt like a teenager again at the gesture, your limbs feeling soft like putty as you realized how far deep you really had fallen.

Over the course of several months your Korean had advanced to that of a ten year old boy.  That’s what Hoseok said anyway.  He felt overwhelming pride when your tongue formed the words correctly, or even when you tried.  You’d meet up at cafes or libraries and write down notes in a small book.  Vocab, Hangul, everything.  You were determined.

You were determined because you and Hoseok couldn’t talk much around each other but being in his presence allowed you to feel a distinct happiness that you hadn’t felt in a long time.  You couldn’t explain why, it just was that way, and he felt the same.

You were so cute and so willing to talk even if you didn’t know the words.  You’d risk it, and you’d put yourself out there, bounce back from failures and press on.  You were so admirable in your work ethic and he couldn’t help but feel electric when he was around you.  You had gotten comfortable around him and in that process given him a number of sweet French nicknames.  You told him he wouldn’t get the meaning anyway, but that it was a cultural thing thing to give people sweet pet names.  

One time he called you jagiya by mistake.  It just slipped out.  He told you that you wouldn’t get the meaning, but that it was a cultural thing.  You didn’t ask about the flush that painted his cheeks.

Within a week of calling you that by accident he asked you to officially date and it was then that he told you jagiya was reserved for significant others.  You laughed and made a move, pulling his lips to your own in an act of sweet passion.

Hoseok had told his members about you by the fifth month of dating or so.  He wanted to keep you away from his idol life for as long as possible, loving your very personal and intimate times together.  But when you became more comfortable with him when in person, he noticed little things you did that he thought would make his members laugh, things they would love about you as much as he did.  Oh, he nearly choked on his drink, love.

At first they didn’t approve.  They didn’t like the idea of him getting hurt by finding out they actually had nothing in common once they could talk to each other comfortably in real life.

But then they met you, and they saw the way both of your faces lit up at the sight of one another.

“Hobi!” You had cried, bounding toward him.  “Mon petit chouchou,” you chirped, nuzzling yourself into his arms.  You pulled away, bringing his lips to your own as you smiled.  He asked how you were in French and your eyes lit up, starlight twinkling in your irises at his attempts to connect with you.

The boys watched as you attempted to explain your day in Korean, mostly successful.  He’d softly correct you sometimes and you’d scrunch up your nose like a rabbit.  The chemistry between you two was tangible.

The members introduced themselves to you one by one in their best Korean so you’d understand and you grinned.  

After that day you often hung around the other members with Hoseok, often with his arm slung around your shoulders, head thrown back in laughter.  Sometimes you’d teach them little things in French, and you found yourself turning Seoul into a home.  You had friends, learning Korean had gotten you a raise at work and they even offered to subsidize your study of the language, and you actually had stories to tell your mother when she called.

You had never been happier than you were in Hoseok’s arms, and you didn’t need to know the words to explain how that felt.  You had found your something different and it was different in all the best ways.