#and i thought oh. oh no. we are introducing another conflict. with (checks time) five minutes left in the season

[aziraphale-but-lesbian]

I am sick I'm ill I'm climbing the walls I'm eating plaster wtf wtf wtf

[fridayfirefly]

Sunrise on Gotham

Read Sunrise on Gotham on AO3

Masterlist

Written for Maribat March Day 29 - Wait!

Gotham wasn’t Marinette’s first choice for the location of their class trip. In fact, the grim American city hadn’t even made her top ten list. Marinette wanted to go to Amsterdam, a city rich with history and culture. But when Mm. Bustier announced that a vote for the class trip location would be held, the class voted almost unanimously. After all, Lila’s long-distance boyfriend, Damian Wayne, lived in Gotham. Wouldn’t it be great for Lila to be reunited with him? And Lila traveled so frequently that she had already visited all of the other cities Mm. Bustier suggested. Would it be fair to make her go visit a city she had already been to? Marinette scoffed as she overheard the class discussion. She knew that this was just another one of Lila’s lies, perfectly designed to manipulate the people around her into doing what she wanted.

Marinette kept her mouth shut while her classmates all decided to vote for Gotham. But that didn’t stop her from putting her checkmark next to Amsterdam on the ballots Mm. Bustier passed out. Maybe that would have been the end of Marinette’s bitterness if Lila hadn’t “accidentally” glanced at the ballots on Mm. Bustier’s desk she was leaving the classroom. Marinette could still remember Lila’s sickeningly sweet voice, feigning concern for Marinette, asking why Marinette wanted to go to Amsterdam so badly.

As Marinette scrambled for an answer, Alya turned to her with cruelty in her eyes. “I can’t believe you’re trying to sabotage Lila and Damian’s reunion. You’re so selfish, Marinette.”

Marinette didn’t bother replying - it never helped. As she left the classroom that day, she could see the disappointment in Adrien’s eyes. Her crush on the blonde model had long since faded, and alongside it went the rose-colored glasses she used to see him through, back when they were both thirteen. Now, four years later, all she saw was a selfish boy who cared more about avoiding conflict than actually solving problems.

Four months later, the plane landed in Gotham just as the sun began to rise. As her class walked from the airport to the hotel, Marinette felt herself zone out. Even though it wasn’t her first choice, Marinette could still appreciate the sight that was the Gotham skyline. Looming silver skyscrapers were framed by the gray, cloudy sky. As Marinette took in her surroundings, she began to wish that she could stop and get her sketchbook out. Ideas for a Gotham-themed fashion line popped up in her mind like weeds, and she needed to stop and pick them before she could properly zone back in. Gray was a color she had never properly worked with, which would make incorporating the color a nice way to challenge herself. In her mind, shades of gray instinctively started organizing themselves into the different ways she could pair them together.

“Wait!” A hand grabbed Marinette’s arm, pulling her back. Marinette gasped as she realized that she was about to walk onto the street, straight into traffic. She whipped around to face her savior.

The first thing Marinette noticed was his height. She was used to feeling short, at 5′2″, most people were taller than her. But he seemed to dwarf her. She figured he was 6′0″ at least. The second thing she noticed was the look of concern in his eyes. “Are you okay?” He asked.

Marinette nodded jerkily, trying to control her breathing. Having a panic attack alone in the middle of downtown Gotham would be just about the worst thing for her to do. She was supposed to be Ladybug, the savior of Paris, yet she was so unaware of her surroundings in a completely foreign city that she almost got killed in traffic. “I’m okay, I was just daydreaming,” she babbled, “Usually I’d be more aware of my surroundings, but I just got off of the plane and I’m not used to jetlag.”

The stranger had a bemused smile on his face as he walked her talk. Marinette blushed as she realized how dumb she must look to the handsome stranger. “Your accent, is it French?”

Marinette nodded. “I just got here from Paris. I’m on a class trip.”

“Where’s the rest of your class?”

Marinette looked around, trying to figure out which way her class went, but they were already gone, out of sight. “I’m not sure...” She trailed off. “But I have the address for the hotel on my phone, so I’ll be able to catch up with them there.”

“Gotham is known for being difficult to navigate. I can take you there if you’d like.”

“Sure,” said Marinette, pulling her phone out to check the address. “It’s called the Gotham Grand Hotel. It's on the corner of 7th Avenue and 22nd Street.”

“That’s about twelve blocks away. It’s pretty far. Are you sure you’re up for the walk?”

Marinette nodded. “I’m sure I can make it."

His smile returned as he introduced himself. “I’m Damian, by the way.”

“I’m Marinette,” Marinette introduced herself as Damian led the way.

A moment later, Damian's phone started to ring. He answered it while still walking. "Hello.”

A brief pause, then. “I’m on 4th Avenue, by the Starbucks.” Another pause as he listened to the person on the other end of the phone conversation. “I’m not free right this moment, but I will be in a few minutes." Another pause. "I'm helping someone get around the city. She got a little lost on her school trip, and you and I both know that the city isn't exactly safe when you don't know your way around it."

Marinette was beginning to wonder who exactly Damian was talking to, but she didn't want to be rude and interrupt. Instead, she got her phone out of her pocket and sent a quick text to Alya, telling her that she would be a little late because she got disoriented on the hectic Gotham streets.

"I'll be free until five tonight. Father's insisting that I come and have dinner with the family, and I have my internship afterward, from seven to nine." Another pause, this one longer. "I suppose that would work. I was planning on going out to eat at some point, anyway. I'll just have to ask Marinette if she's okay with it."

Damian put the phone down and turned to face Marinette. "My boyfriend, Jon, offered to pick us both up and drop you off at your hotel on our way to get brunch. If you don't feel comfortable with that, I understand."

"Oh, it's perfectly fine," Marinette assured him.

Damian frowned slightly before replying to his boyfriend. Marinette knew that Damian probably thought she wasn't being cautious enough, but she didn't care. After four years as Ladybug, Marinette was confident that she was capable of taking care of herself.

A minute later, a car pulled up beside them. “This is Jon’s car,” said Damian as he grabbed the door for her.

“Thank you,” Marinette smiled in return as she pulled her suitcase in after her. "Hello, Jon. I'm Marinette."

"Welcome to Gotham, Marinette." Jon leaned past the driver's seat to shake her hand. Marinette noticed that he had a very friendly face: a nice smile and kind eyes. "How are you enjoying the city?"

"It's nicer than I expected, I suppose, but I didn't exactly have high expectations. Gotham has a reputation in Europe for being the worst tourist destination in America."

Damian nodded. "That sounds like Gotham. It'll grow on you, though."

"Like a fungus," added Jon.

"If you say so." Marinette cast a distasteful look out the window of the car at the gray streets.

"Do you have any plans for lunch?" asked Jon.

Marinette shook her head. "Not really. The hotel has a restaurant on the ground floor, but their lunch menu is pretty limited. I'm vegetarian, so my only option is a salad."

"Would you like to come to brunch with us?" offered Jon.

"Are you sure you want me there?" Marinette didn't want to be a third wheel if brunch was supposed to be a date between Jon and Damian.

"Of course," said Damian.

"Alright. I don't think I'll be missing anything if I go with you. Our itinerary keeps us pretty busy at the beginning of the trip, but we were given today to rest up, to help get rid of the jetlag. I switched my sleep schedule a week ago, though, so my body is already running on Gotham time.”

Damian nodded thoughtfully. “Do you want to check the itinerary, just to be sure?”

Marinette shrugged. “It can’t hurt to check it one more time.” She pulled the paper out of her suitcase. “Our class doesn’t have anything planned until tonight. We have dinner at a restaurant called..." Marinette consulted her itinerary, "The Coast, and then we’re seeing Wicked at one of the theaters downtown.”

“I've been to The Coast before with my family. They have very good vegetarian options. It is very expensive for a high school class trip,” Damian noted.

“I go to an accelerated school. The school has a very large budget, due to the amount of tuition, and the number of alumni who give back to the school.” Marinette shrugged, a nervous tick. She didn’t like talking about how much her tuition cost. Even with her 50% scholarship to Francois Dupont, tuition was still a struggle sometimes. Her parents didn’t make that much money from the bakery, and compared to the elite professions of some of her classmates' parents, Marinette was often considered to be poor. It left her feeling out of place, guilty every time she felt embarrassed by her working-class parents.

“That sounds-“

Marinette continued to babble. “I’m grateful for the opportunities that François Dupont gives me. Much more grateful than a lot of my classmates, anyway. Some of them only read the itinerary for the first time on the plane ride to Gotham. One of my classmates, Chloé, threw a fit because she believed that the entire trip would be a shopping spree through Gotham. Other students got mad for other reasons. One of my classmates made some promises that she had no business making - telling everyone that we would be getting way more free time than we were actually given. It’s a shame. I used to love being a part of Mme. Bustier’s class, but everything fell apart after...”

Marinette stopped half-way through her sentence and stared down at her hands as she realized that tears had sprung to her eyes. She felt the red flush of embarrassment begin to overtake her face. "I'm sorry."

"You don't need to apologize. It sounds like you have a lot going on with your class at the moment."

"That's putting it mildly," said Marinette. "It's been... difficult, to say the least."

"Do you want to talk about it?" asked Jon.

Marinette shook her head. "Not really. Even if Gotham wasn’t my first choice for our class trip, I still want to at least try to have a good time.”

“What was your first choice?” asked Damian, a hint of curiosity to his voice.

“Amsterdam,” said Marinette longingly. “But Lila wanted to visit her boyfriend in Gotham, Damian Wayne, so the whole class ignored the fact that Gotham is the most crime-ridden city in America, all so that Lila could visit her boyfriend.”

Damian looked shocked. “Did she say her boyfriend is Damian Wayne?“

Marinette nodded. “Uh, yeah.”

Jon snorted. “I know that you like girls too, Damian, but I figured you would tell me before adding a third to our relationship.”

Damian rolled his eyes, quipping back something just as clever. Marinette was too stunned to listen, as she realized that the rich and powerful Damian Wayne whom Lila claimed to be dating was the same Damian who helped Marinette on the streets of Gotham. Marinette stuttered out, “I didn’t- I didn’t realize that you- you’re Damian Wayne.”

Damian chuckled. “I can tell. I have to admit, I’m not used to not being recognized. I'm pretty famous around Gotham."

“The Billionaire Bisexual Ice Prince of Gotham,” quoted Jon with a grin on his face. “The tabloids love Damian.”

“It’s unfortunate, but it can’t be helped. The tabloids obsess over everything even slightly unconventional, and to them, the bisexual bastard son of billionaire Bruce Wayne is the perfect target. Even more so when he started dating another man.” Damian's voice was smooth, but there was an undercurrent of bitterness to it. Marinette got the sense that he didn't often open up about his relationship, for fear that the media would not be kind about it. Marinette sympathized. Françoise Dupont had been a progressive school: they had a GSA and a no-tolerance policy (not that the policy was ever upheld). She hadn’t been bullied, per se, for being bisexual, but she had experienced the all too familiar feeling of being othered for who she happened to love.

“Nice use of alliteration,” said Jon. His words would have lightened the mood if it wasn’t for the slight strain to his voice.

It was obvious to Marinette that this was a sore subject between the boys. “So how long have you two been dating?” asked Marinette, hoping to lighten the mood.

“Two years, but we’ve been friends since middle school,” answered Jon. “Damian was the world's most uptight twelve-year-old, so I took it upon myself to get him to loosen up. We became friends and everything since then just sort of fell into place.”

“An apt recounting, even if it omitted some pertinent details.” Damian conceded.

“Like what?”

“Like the fact that I was the one to ask you on a date, and you were so shocked that I had figured out that you were bisexual that you dropped the glass in your hand, shattering it,” teased Damian.

“I thought I was being subtle about it,” Jon defended.

Marinette giggled. If she could just spend all of her time with Jon and Damian, rather than her class, she might just have fun on her class trip.

Damian turned to Marinette. “He had a pride pin on his jacket and listened to Carly Rae Jepsen. Subtlety is not, and has never been one of Jon’s string suits.”

Marinette noted that she had a pride pin of her own attached to the front strap of her backpack. Most people never took any note of it - Marinette had quite a few pins on her backpack - but Marinette got the feeling that Damian was aware of it.

"We're here," said Jon, parking the car in front of a little café.

"Café Carlisle has good vegetarian options," Damian assured her as he opened up her car door and helped her out. "They make a superb gourmet grilled cheese sandwich and tomato basil soup. I would recommend it to anyone."

"That's pretty high praise. I get the sense you don't give false compliments."

"I don't." It was a simple answer. Marinette was beginning to get a clearer picture of Damian, who didn't waste unnecessary words but was never afraid to speak his mind.

"Then it had better live up for expectations," teased Marinette.

Damian smiled at her as he held open the door to the restaurant. "It will."

As Damian led Marinette to a booth in the back of the restaurant Marinette caught sight of the reflection of her little group in one of the windows. There was a look on Jon's face that Marinette wasn't sure how to interpret. He had a smile on his face, but it wasn't the joking smile Marinette saw a lot of in the car. It was more of an indulgent smile, giving Marinette the sensation that Jon knew something that she didn't. Marinette wanted to turn around and ask him what it meant, but part of her brain begged her not to ruin this budding friendship before it had even begun.

Marinette had only known Damian and Jon for twenty minutes but already had the strangest feeling that there was a connection between them, some sort of relationship that needed nothing more than a little bit of shown vulnerability to create a deep bond. The only thing Marinette could think to liken it to was love at first sight, but it was beyond that. This wasn't infatuation or obsession (both of which Marinette knew well from her days of crushing over Adrien). This was deeper. This was the knowledge that Damian and Jon had seen her vulnerability and had embraced it, showing vulnerability in their own way. Neither boy had said it out loud, but given that they had both closed themselves off from physical affection as soon as they were in public, Marinette made the assumption that any sort of public display of affection was off-limits to them anywhere that the tabloids could see. It put the fact that they had been incredibly open about their relationship in a new light. It reassured Marinette that she wasn't just imagining their connection. Damian and Jon must have felt similarly about her to be able to talk to her about their relationship.

"Marinette?" Damian spoke her name, snapping Marinette out of her thoughts.

Marinette blushed. "Sorry, I tend to daydream a lot."

Damian smirked. "I'm aware. You almost wandered right into traffic the last time I caught you daydreaming."

Jon stifled a laugh. "What could you possibly be thinking of that would make you so focused that you managed to ignore the traffic right in front of you?"

Marinette launched herself into a spiel about her newest design inspiration, explaining as she went that she was incredibly passionate about fashion and designs and that her designs often had her zoning out for hours at a time. Jon and Damian looked so interested in her explanation that Marinette blushed, not used to having anyone's undivided attention.

Marinette wasn't yet certain where she stood with Damian and Jon in terms of the relationship between the three of them, but she couldn't wait to find out.

@maribatmarch-2k21

[anigerrrr]

Girl’s Talk

Natasha Romanoff x Carol Danvers

Word count: 1.5k

Summary: Kamala is introduced to Yelena, and she’s also the biggest fan of her sister’s ship- CarolNat.

Warning: Fluff, Protective Yelena, Kamala ships CarolNat, Slight Thor/Loki(mentioned)

a/n: Just random pieces written after having my covid vaccine yesterday lol I’m not sure how will Marvel deal with Kamala’s superpower in the upcoming series so I only mention a bit of it. Enjoy!

/

“Ok, can anyone tell me why we always have a new kid in the compound?”

Yelena puffed as she entered the compound a bit later than usual, and she saw her sister, Carol and an unfamiliar teenager already standing there.

She came over to join them, gazing at the new girl with distrust.

“Yelena, did you just call yourself in the third person?” Carol teased, and she shrugged suggestively to the redhead who actually couldn’t hold her laugh back for this moment.

“Ha, is it some kind of 90’s joke?” Yelena retaliated. Apparently the younger blonde didn’t get enough sleep hours last night, it always resulted in her grumpy reactions to anybody. “If so, Captain, you really need to update your comedy list on Netflix.”

“Hey,” Natasha chuckled amusedly between the two blonde women as Carol protested, “just because I aged slowly, it didn’t mean I’m out of date.”

“In case you wanna know,” Natasha raised one brow and showed her support to the blonde Captain- “She actually likes to watch The Tonight Show during our dinner time.”

-by telling their sort-of secret aloud. It’s not gonna harm the redhead spy herself, though.

“What?” Kamala finally had a chance to let out her voice, “you can’t tell me the mighty Captain Marvel, my idol, watches late-night talk shows when having some spaghetti. It’s simply out of character.”

Carol frowned, “excuse me?”

“Ugh, ok.” Yelena opened her mouth with hesitation. “No, not ok, I don’t get it. Did you just call her- ” her head was pointing to the other blonde woman, “- your idol ?”

“Am I supposed to feel offended?” Carol mumbled nearby Natasha’s ear, lowering her voice to avoid any foreseeable conflict for now.

“Um, yeah.” Kamala rolled her eyes to the much taller woman standing right in front of her, and her voice sounded genuinely fearless. “Can’t you see that? She’s Carol Danvers!”

Natasha grinned back at the blonde woman, and only teased quietly, “see, someone really has a crush on you.”

Carol blushed in the tiniest way, opening her mouth slightly but had no idea what to argue. Our Captain couldn’t even tell if the redhead was seriously jealous. Fantastic.

“So you like the name or the glowing part?” Yelena hummed, and tried to hide the little noises from her stomach out of hunger.

“All of them, I guess?”

“Oh, I got it now.” The younger widow turned to her sister, and was not surprised that Natasha had been checking on her already. “We’re having a superhero fan tour here.”

Yelena wanted to get her breakfast as soon as possible, so she tried to be nice and not to get involved in this duty. “Enjoy your day then, just don’t touch any fluffy things around here. The cat can literally swallow people, and the raccoon will shoot you in the head.”

“What? No!” The brown haired girl shouted, “I’m not here for a tour.”

“Yelena, she’s a new member in the team- ” Agent Romanoff finally introduced, and took a quick glance at Carol with a playful smile. “- another one with super power, yes.”

“…wait, what?”

“Not that kind of power to control thunder like Thor or to trick like Loki- by the way, aren’t they a lovely couple?” Kamala explained a little bit, and suddenly changed the subject triggered by her interest.

“Ugh, it’s not officially announced.” Natasha was surprised to hear the little girl’s words, a status that not many people had learned about- even in the avengers’ team.

Impressed. Yelena stared at the kid and thought, still needed her breakfast, though.

“New kids.” Carol shrugged, “we’re actually talking about tomorrow’s mission.”

The redhead immediately started glaring at the blonde Captain.

“You’re leaving for days? Tomorrow?” And Yelena tiled her head to her older sister. She’d better not be the last person to know this.

Clearly someone had forgotten their domestic plan for tomorrow.

“Well, not ‘for days’,  I’ll be back before you know it. At least that was the plan.” Natasha looked a bit…nervous, but not speechless. By her side, the Captain who’s in charge of the mission seemed to be awkward for a minute, and they shared a look of silent communication.

“Yelena, you’re welcomed to- ”

“Uh- uh, no. I’m not interested in being the third wheel in your mission date. Besides, I’ve got my own thing to deal with as well. Just remember to pick me up at 8, and feed Fanny before you leave the house, it’s your turn.” Yelena shook her head quickly like nothing’s gonna convince her, and the other young superhero goggled upon hearing some keywords.

“Wait, you two are dating? ” Kamala asked in excitement, “oh my god, CarolNat is real.”

“Well, it’s- we’re…” the blonde Captain suddenly stuttered, “we’re close, yes. That’s true.”

Natasha rolled her eyes back to show her feedback towards Carol’s explanation, and refused to make any eye contact with her sister who just accidentally sold their privacy to the newest avenger.

“Oh, I thought that was your superpower.” Yelena shrugged to the two older women, kind of feeling sorry for the coming out declaration she made for them. “Like, telling the lovebirds in a group of people.”

Kamala gave her a ‘seriously?’ look, “nobody owns a superpower like that.”

“You never can tell.”

“Ok, things got a little tense here.” Carol tried to calm them both down before they made a wrong impression on each other. “It’s time for breakfast, how about I make you guys some really nice omelette?”

“Oh God.” Natasha sighed exaggeratedly, but she didn’t deny the purpose. When Carol turned, she just pushed her sister’s shoulder and forced the younger blonde to follow. “C’mon Yelena, you love eggs.”

“I never said that.”

“Wow, Captain Marvel is making me an omelette…am I dreaming?”

“Never had a nightmare before?”

“Yelena!”

*

“So…”

A half hour later, Yelena was staring at her plate and trying to figure out why it’s not like a normal ‘omelette’ she had seen on television. “In what universe an omelette looks like this?”

“Well, it’s not that bad.” Natasha took a bite of hers, perfectly ignoring the fact that it resembled more scrambled eggs rather than an omelette.

“Stop being rude- ”As they both saw Carol and Kamala on their way to the table, Natasha squeezed her sister’s hand and ordered softly, “and tomorrow I promise to buy you the expensive tweed coat you always stare at in the display window.”

“Huh, it’s exactly why I really can’t stand to undergo a mission with you two. Deal.” Yelena sounded mockingly but she didn’t mean to embarrass her anyway. “You turned weak, Natasha. You knew it, right?”

Natasha only hummed in russian as a response (something like ‘you’d know that when we spar’ ), and grinned when Carol sat next to her as usual. The blonde Captain was finally done with cooking everyone’s breakfast and Kamala had surprisingly finished hers, only sipping a glass of apple juice.

“So, how did you meet?” Said Kamala, aka the newest avenger with extraordinary attention to the secret pairs around the base, “how long have you been dating- I wanna know the whole story.”

“Here we go.” This was the best reaction for Yelena to ‘stop being rude’.

“Well, first of all, I won’t deny or admit any statement of it…” Natasha cleaned her throat and started, her sweet butter sandwich was left on the plate.

“We’re apparently colleagues.” Carol promptly interrupted with a shrug, which made the redhead widen her green eyes in disbelief.

“I met her after the snap, and during the five years, the feelings just kinda grew on us.” The blonde smiled gently as she took Natasha’s hand, “after the end of the war, we started hanging out once a month like normal people, later on it began to be once a week as my main works in space were separated to the new-trained protectors and the Guardians. That’s it.”

Kamala was literally speechless, looking like she just got the best Christmas gift for this year.

“If you kiss her like those cliched soap operas now, I’m gonna kill you both.” Yelena did like the eggs, but obviously she wouldn’t say it. Instead, she ate it up and mumbled her statement after hearing the shorter version of their romance.

“Yelena.” Natasha raised one of her brows, reminding her who’s in charge on this table. And their deals .

“Alright, just kidding.”

“Can I take a picture when you do that?” Kamala immediately stood up and asked Carol, it seemed no one actually cared about the debriefing of tomorrow’s mission anymore. “-when you kiss Black Widow.”

Her Captain was flushed, “w-what?”

To save her partner from the short circus situation, Natasha rolled her eyes and pulled Carol’s arm all in a sudden. All Kamala could do was open her mouth widely in amazement, and tried hard not to scream like a fan who was completely out of control.

Natasha left a rough kiss on the corner of Carol’s lips, her blood red lipstick stained slightly on it.

“Satisfied?” She said with an impeccable grin, leaving the flummoxed blonde behind her.

“This place is harmful for my heart.” - the newest superhero from Jersey City claimed.

“You’re gonna get used to it, kid.” - and the former widow from the red room finally agreed with her.

“I should have stopped leaking the key information.” - the blonde Captain knew it deeply that Natasha’s not gonna take it easy on her tonight.

[proxylynn]

Underfell: File Name not Edgy Enough #27

Chapter 27: Burden

WARNING: I WANT NO RESPONSIBILITY OVER SPOILING THINGS FOR OTHERS. THAT BEING SAID, THIS IS HOW FILE NAME NOT FOUND WOULD FUNCTION IN THE AU OF UNDERFELL. BEFORE YOU READ THIS, UNLIKE THE NICE TIME OF UNDERTALE, THIS WORLD IS KILL OR BE KILLED. THIS STORY WILL BE GRAPHIC, GORY, USE SWEARS LIKE NOBODY'S BUSINESS, AND DEAL WITH SENSITIVE SUBJECT MATTERS. FOR EXAMPLE, THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE READ THE FILE NAME RELOCATED SPOOF WILL KNOW HOW I PICTURE THIS VERSION OF LYNSIE COMING TO THE UNDERGROUND. IT IS NOT AN ACCIDENT. IT IS NOT BECAUSE OF SOMETHING DUMB. IT IS BECAUSE SHE CHOOSES TO END HER LIFE. SO TAKE THIS WITH A GRAIN OF SALT. I MADE IT BECAUSE I NEEDED TO LET SOME OF THIS EDGINESS OUT OF MYSELF. WHICH I GUESS MAKES UNDERFELL LYNSIE EVEN MORE TRUE TO WHO I REALLY AM. ANYWAY, ENJOY. ^_^

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

[A quick recap]

My melancholy blinds me to my current surroundings. I only come out of it once a spotlight hits me.

"The hell...?"

Things look funny. No doubt it's a setup by Mettaton. But I'm unsure what this act is. I mean, it looks like a receptionist's waiting room. A desk and some random chairs.

"GOOD EVENING, LADIES AND GENTS...!"

Mettaton zips in wearing a red suit and shoves me in a chair as he takes center stage.

"FIRST AND FOREMOST, WE HERE AT MTTTV WOULD LIKE TO APOLOGIZE FOR THE LACK OF ME OVER THE COURSE OF THE PROGRAM. DUE TO THE LACK PREP WORK WITH MY COSTAR HERE, WE SADLY HAD TO FORGO A THRILLING ACT BACK IN LEVEL TWO INVOLVING HUNDREDS OF EXPLOSIVES!!"

I so freaking called it. I should let him have his moment...Nah!

"I thought you said that act was shit anyway?"

He extends an arm to cover my mouth.

"FORGIVE HER. SHE'S LOST A LOT OF BLOOD AND NOT ALL THERE MENTALLY."

I leer at him flatly.

"BUT...DARLING HERE IS GOING TO MAKE AMENDS WITH US ALL RIGHT NOW. IT'S TIME TO ANSWER SOME BURNING QUESTIONS."

I'm so confused as he lets go and leaps onto the desk, posing dramatically.

"IT'S TIME FOR..."

A large neon sign shaped like him drops from the ceiling.

"BURNING THE MIDNIGHT OIL WITH A KILLER ROBOT! THE LATE NIGHT TALK SHOW HOSTED BY YOURS TRULY."

Huh. Not a bad title.

"I thought you were working on a courtroom trial program?"

He scoots to now sit behind the desk.

"UNFORTUNATELY, WHILE I DO HAVE THE FUNDS, I DON'T HAVE AVAILABLE WORKERS TO MAKE SUCH A SET. SO...WE'RE DOING THIS INSTEAD."

"Heh...Must be hard to meet your expectations."

"DARLING, YOU HAVE NO IDEA."

A tense dramatic score plays.

"SO, DARLING...ARE YOU READY TO TELL ME EVERYTHING?"

Ah. I see now. Fine, Metta, have it your way. Just be careful what you wish for. You may not like it. Now don't get me wrong. I know my limits. I'm not about to tell him EVERYTHING. I'm not that stupid. But if he wants truth, he's going to get a version that's missing some characters and other junk.

"As you wish. You wanna know the truth? You want to scar the entire Underground? Sure. Why not. What else do I have to lose at this point since you exposed me? So congratulations! I hope you like the prize you've been longing to get. Because I sure as hell don't."

Let the show commence.

[Now our featured presentation]

"RIIIIGHT...ANYWAY...WHY NOT INTRODUCE YOURSELF. LET THE UNDERGROUND KNOW JUST A BIT ABOUT YOU."

I wave with a stupid grin to where I think a camera is.

"Howdy, monsters of the Underground. My name is Lynsie. Last I checked, I'm 5'8'', twenty eights years old, born November 7th, am a Scorpio, blood type A+, and enjoy long naps by the beach."

Am I introducing myself or recording a dumb dating profile video?

Mettaton whips out some cards from his desk.

"REALLY? YOU'RE THAT OLD? HUH."

"Yeah. Why?"

"YOU LOOK OLDER THAN THAT."

I sneer.

"It's the raccoon eyes. Insomnia is a hell of a slap to the face."

"THAT ASIDE...HOW ARE YOU FEELING? YOU'VE BEEN THROUGH A LOT SINCE THIS PROGRAM STARTED."

"I'm grateful to have this reprieve. It's nice to not be flung into fight after fight for a moment. I don't like fighting. I'd much rather avoid any conflict if able."

"SUCH A KIND GIRL. ARE ALL HUMANS THESE DAYS LIKE YOU?"

I eye him funny.

"WHAT?"

"Do mean 'kind' or 'stupid'? Because every monster has called me a fool for being nice."

"STUPID IS A STRONG WORD. NAIVE IS MORE LIKE IT."

I rumble lowly in my seat.

"But...To answer you properly, no. Not all humans are like me. Or...I'm not like most humans."

"OOOOH~, SUCH AN AMBIGUOUS ANSWER. FINE THEN, IF YOU'RE GOING TO BE LIKE THAT, I'LL HAVE TO BE MORE BLUNT IN MY QUESTIONS. LET'S SEE..."

He flips through some of his cards.

"OH! HERE'S ONE...HOW DID YOU COME TO FIND YOURSELF IN THE UNDERGROUND?"

Blunt? I'll give you blunt.

"Easy. I tried to kill myself."

[SNOWDIN: Skeleton House in present time]

The mood in the room sours as the human continues.

"Yep. You see, Mt. Ebott has a reputation, a legend dating back lord knows how long, that those who climb the mountain never return. This has made it a popular place to die. Not as bad as the literal 'Suicide Forest' of Japan, but it does the job okay."

Mettaton's screen blacks out.

"Don't give me that look. You wanted this. You wanted the truth. So take it. Take the blunt no holds bar truth of the matter. And you know what else? It wasn't the first time either. I can think of at least five other attempts. Each more pathetic than the last. But, if memory serves me right, I do believe my very first try was when I was still so very small. Somewhere around age six to eight. I had learned that apple seeds contain cyanide, a very toxic poison. Of course, there's not a heck of a lot in a single seed, but if you ingest a lot...well...Kid me didn't know how many were needed. Just that it was deadly. As you can see, I didn't have enough and I didn't try that form of suicide again. I don't try the same kind twice. I'm too fearful of messing things up the second time. What if it only partly works and I end up surviving? Heh...Trying to end it all only to live but in even worse condition? The irony would be such a hilarious joke. Then again, that's my life in a nutshell. One big cruel unrelenting joke."

Toriel's eyes water. She knew her child had her demons, but she knew not just how far back they spawned. Mettaton's screen relights.

"I...I WASN'T EXPECTING..."

"Yeah, no one does. No one expects me to be so dark. But what can I say? I do a damn good job hiding it."

"BUT...WHY THOUGH? WHAT WOULD MAKE A CHILD THAT BENT ON KILLING THEMSELVES?"

She takes a deep breath and lounges back in her chair.

"You ever feel guilty for something? Something you have no idea why you should feel that way for but you just do?"

She runs her hands over her face.

"I don't remember why I asked her that question. Maybe I was just morbidly curious. I knew my siblings were unexpected pregnancies. The eldest never came to be, so whether it was a boy or girl is forever unknown. My brother came about in the randomness of my mom hooking up with my dad. She married my dad because, well, she did like him but also so that he wouldn't be deported once his school visa ran out. He and his family escaped their homeland to start a new life...but did so illegally. Even on the surface, there's no true freedom. Four years into the marriage, I was born. Things only seemed to spiral from there. Dad would stay out drinking. Mom would be pissed. Bro and I would hide in my room and try to keep the fighting out. Mom gave up on him, someone else charmed her heart and would later be the father of my sister. Eight years into this world and they divorce and months later sis is born. She was unknown and with how old mom was at the time, she now suffers from spontaneous seizures."

The girl looks up in thought.

"So a few years ago, I asked mom...Was I unplanned like they were? Was I another surprise baby?"

She looks back down, her face holding a more cold expression.

"No, she told me. You were the only planned one. ...I should've stopped there. *sigh* I then asked...Why? She answered..."

Emotion leaves her.

"We had you in the hopes that you'd fix our marriage."

Silence. Dead silence.

"So much pressure. And to put that on a babe? How was I supposed to solve your problems? How is it my fault you couldn't stand each other when things got rough?! How is a kid supposed to make sure you don't start taking drugs and acquire sixteen felonies?! How is it my job to make sure you don't regret loving someone else?! How is that fair?! Why not take some fucking responsibility for once in your god damn life?!"

She becomes irate, grabbing one of the chairs and beating it into another one till both are useless before ending with a guttural roar that pains the throat in its harshness.

Toriel recalls similar words from her not long after they became close and she found her.

"Child? You're trembling. Is everything all right? Child, please. Just speak to me. Tell me what's wrong."

"I hate you! I hate all of you! You fucking pieces of shit! Why?! Why is it so hard for any of you to care?! I've been missing for days or weeks and none of you care! *sobs* Did you ever love me?! Why did you even bother having me if you don't even care that I'm gone?! *bawling* Why? Why? Someone tell me why...please..."

"I know this isn't the most pleasant of times to ask...But since we've come to know more about each other, I have been curious about something. The humans that fall down here...They tend to not fall down for the happiest of reasons. If it is not too painful...Can you share with me your reason? What made you come to a cursed mountain where none ever return from?"

"*hard sniffling* They used to care. I used to know what it was like to know others cared. I can't remember when they started to pull away. When I became invisible. I just want to know why. Was it something I did? Did I do something wrong? Did I not make them proud? I thought I did everything right. I was a good girl. *voice cracking* I'm a good girl. Aren't I?"

Even Grillby had memories of such talk pop into his head.

"You are an amazing person. You live in his cold place and open this bar to every sad face willing to cast aside their mean spirits for spirits of another kind. You put up with a lot of nonsense, a good bit came from me today, and I'm sorry about that."

"Where is all this coming from?"

"I'm not done. You have been nothing but nice to me. And doing that isn't easy in this world we live in. Since meeting you, you've shown me more kindness than I got from my own family, and this is only our second meeting. Heh, how pathetic is that? I fell into the Underground trying to die, only to end up wanting to live because of the few that showed me any decency. And for that, I give you my thanks."

"Pussycat?"

"I don't know if it was the punch or I'm just in a weird mood. I'm probably making things awkward. No one wants to hear someone ramble about lame junk when at a bar. This is a place people go to forget things. I know I've got a lot I want to forget. Like the three or four times I ran away from home but never had a plan and always had the cops take me back. Or the time I cussed out my grandma because I thought she lost my dog when it turned out my mom had dumped the pup at a shelter and told me it escaped. Or the suicide attempts..."

"Attempts?"

"Oh yeah, there was more than one. Hard to believe, but I'm a very sad person. No, that's being too nice. Depressed is more accurate. 90% of the smiles you see me do are fake. Just part of the mask I wear to hide how truly miserable I really am."

"God, I hate myself. I'm a sad pathetic mess."

Sans now gets a clearer picture of the baggage weighing on her.

"oh! and don't forget, you're making dinner. pap only let that slide because you were practically dead. so don't get any ideas thinking you can get out of it."

"Did you just really say that?!"

"the hell is your problem?"

"Did you really just insinuate she'd harm herself?"

"i dunno...maybe?"

"You can't say that kind of stuff to her!"

"why not?"

"You...You don't know how she came to the Underground, do you?"

"she told me that she fell."

"I'm not comfortable telling you this, seeing as she hasn't and I don't think it's my place, but I can't let you say idiotic things like that."

"okay, weed, you have intrigued me. if she didn't fall, then how did she get here?"

"Well...Falling is how she came to the Underground. But...She didn't fall from an accident."

"you're telling me she..."

"She fell on purpose. She...was trying to die. I don't know about her life on the surface. She doesn't tell anyone about that stuff, not even Mom. But I have been with her since the start and I can tell...Under all that toughness and pass the goofy dork innards...She's very sad deep down."

And that moment that recently happened at Grilbby's.

"enough with the act! you act all calm, with your little quips and remarks. making you look so well put together. but i know better. i know you're just as messed up as the rest of us. so why don't you get off your high horse and get out of my life!"

"You're right. This is an act. Every day, I wake up and I pretend to be this way. To play this role of the girl that never gives in and can smile through it all. I put on my mask and face this world as best that I can. But inside I'm dying. I'm being crushed by insecurities, doubt, depression, and so much negativity that I let myself fall into a pit hoping for the sweet embrace of death. I have attempted to end my life a good handful of times. Each more pathetic than the last. Even now, I'm just a few triggers shy of crumbling into a blubbering mass of tears. Yet there are few things that keep me from doing those bad things now that I'm here. And if putting on this act keeps me in, relative, ease...Then yeah. I'm gonna pretend my ass off that all is fine with me. Because I'm a fucking moron that is too afraid to open up to those closest to me and ask for help!"

Papyrus, of course, takes all this in as vital information he could use against the human. Her emotional and mental instability can be used to manipulate her. Grooming her to be more obedient to his will.

"I'm sorry."

"DAMN RIGHT YOU'RE SORRY."

"No...I mean, I'm sorry for earlier. It was wrong for me to hit you. You just...*sigh* How do I say this without sound like a dweeb?"

"JUST...SAY WHAT YOU WANT TO SAY. DON'T ALTER YOUR WORDS. THEY LOSE IMPACT THAT WAY."

"If that's true, then don't make a big deal out of this."

"W-WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

"I am an emotional wreck and going through so much internal bullshit that it ain't funny. So know that the stupid things I'm about to say are true because this is making me feel very vulnerable and uncomfortable which I think you feel too."

By now the human was breathing heavily over the shattered remains of once recognizable objects, slowly regaining her composure. She stares at the mess for some time. Mettaton doesn't even try to do anything that could get her attention while in such a state. Eventually, she drops the bits in her hands and takes a seat in the chair she spared. Slumping in remorse and holding her face.

"I'm sorry. That...That was shameful. I'll pay you back for the damage."

"DO YOU NEED A MOMENT?"

She rubs her eyes of faint moisture.

"N-No...No. I'm fine. That...That was just a moment of venting weakness. I normally cry this crap out of my system. But...I'm so sick of crying. Yet...That felt good though. So much pent-up bullshit I don't or can't let out was just dropped like weights off my back. ...Does this count as therapy? Because this feels better than that child physiologist mom sent me to after I ran away...the first time."

"SOUND LIKE YOU DON'T CARE FOR YOUR PARENTS."

"You'd think that, but no. Don't get me wrong. I love my parents. They could've been far worse even with the flaws I've mentioned. Dad never missed work and made sure bills could be paid. Mom always made sure we could eat even if it meant she didn't and often broke the law to do so."

Her head lolls back as she lounges.

"It's easier to dwell in the negatives than the positives growing up. It can make for a bitter soul. This is just the tip of a massive iceberg, there is so much more crap hidden below. But now is neither the time nor place to dive deeper into those murky waters. I'll drown if I stay under too long. *sigh* I don't hate them for the life they brought me into. I'm just...disappointed. Disappointed by the choices they made and things they expected to get from them. Disappointed in myself for allowing all that to have so much of a hold on me. Disappointed...So very disappointed...*long drawn out groan* Could we please leave the personal questions for now?"

"VERY WELL."

He flips through the cards.

"YOU'VE BEEN IN THE UNDERGROUND FOR SOME TIME NOW. HOW HAS THAT BEEN? WHAT IS IT LIKE TO BE A HUMAN AMONG MONSTERS?"

This gets their attention. The human knows better than to tell all. But she's so far been extremely open. They hoped she was of sound mind enough to remember to keep some secrets.

"Even after all the attempted murder...I prefer monsters to humans. Because at least once the fighting is over, things can be somewhat normal. It's like 'hey, I know I just tried to kill you, but do you wanna maybe hang out for a bit?' and then that happens. It blows my mind how there's no animosity or spite afterward. After Humans fight with each other there's no calm, no peace of it being over, hell, a war might break out if it was bad enough. You never know how bad someone feels after and if the grudge they carry will make them go to extreme measures to make them feel better. Well...Except for the Irish. Those lads can tussle and then be all chummy after like it was a bonding experience. Nice folk. Always fancied them. Heh...Kinda like Monsters. A tough outside but nice inside. Maybe that's one of the reasons they were persecuted too. ...God, my kind is trash. All it knows is hate. We even hate ourselves. And one day...That hate will be the end of us."

She moves some hair from her face. A small smile coming to her.

"Moments like this...It's nice. Brief pauses of reflection and repose. Typically I end up doing this kind of thing in my head or I talk to myself. Funny how that works, the mind I mean. It is a self-aware entity in itself that can be both you and not you at the same time yet won't confuse itself by doing so. Probably why the imagination is such vital part of it. *pause* Heh...My bad. Lost myself for a moment. Back on point...Sure, this all began with you nearly killing me and it's probably just leading up to something else. Something good or bad. Yet till that happens...This is nice."

"SPEAKING OF NICE...YOUR LV HASN'T GONE UP FROM ITS BASE LEVEL. WE'VE SEEN YOU GO INTO FIGHTS, SO IT'S NOT THAT YOU'VE AVOIDED THEM COMPLETELY."

"As I've said...I don't like fighting."

"YOU MUST BE AWARE THAT PACIFISUM IS NOT A RECOMMENDED OR AN EASY THING TO DO IN THE UNDERGROUND. IS IT HARD BEING NICE FOR YOU DOWN HERE?"

"Is it hard for a fish to swim or bird to fly? Nice is my default. I don't have it in me to be genuinely mean. I can be rude or even a bitch, but that's only if that was how I was treated first. The real hard part about it is getting others to understand this niceness is real. Some pick it up with no trouble. But others are difficult. Going so far as to think I'm trying to lull them into a false sense of safety as part of an evil human trap. Can you believe that?"

Sans eyes Papyrus who rolls his sockets at his brother, both knowing damn well she meant him.

"EVEN SO, HAS THERE BEEN A TIME WHERE YOU WANTED TO FIGHT BACK? SURELY EVEN I PROBABLY INCURRED SOME IRE FROM YOU?"

She looks at the mechanical machination with a mix of confusion and annoyance.

"Ire is a strong word. True, I'm not happy about this situation. Exposing me for ratings. One of your goons bashing me over the head. The creepy stalking behavior by watching me through cameras. The needless puzzles and fighting. All of it wasn't necessary."

"I DISAGREE. EVERY BIT WAS COMPLETELY NECESSARY."

"Bull crap."

"NOW NOW, LET ME EXPLAIN. REGARDLESS OF YOUR INTENTIONS, YOU HAVE TO AGREE THAT YOU BEING HUMAN DOES CALL FOR CERTAIN MEASURES TO BE TAKEN. HUMANS DEAL PHYSICAL DAMAGE AND MONSTERS ARE WEAK TO SUCH ATTACKS."

"I know that. Get to your point, Metta."

"MY POINT? VERY WELL. MY DATABASE CONTAINS THE COLLECTED INFORMATION WE'VE GATHERED FROM THE PREVIOUS HUMANS THAT CAME BEFORE YOU. EACH WEAKER AND WEAKER AS TIME PASSED. YOU, ON THE OTHER HAND, HAVE BEEN DISPLAYING STRANGE ABILITIES..."

A monitor comes down, displaying the human in her earlier distress and giving off that strange energy.

"NOT TO MENTION YOUR SOUL HAS BEEN CHANGING IT'S COLOR WITHOUT MAGIC INFLUENCE."

The monitor shows the many different colors her soul was throughout the show.

"SO, DARLING, AS YOU CAN SEE EVERYTHING HAS BEEN COMPLETELY NECESSARY. EVERY LITTLE OBSTACLE ALLOWED FOR MORE OF YOUR UNKNOWNS TO BE REVEALED. HOWEVER..."

The monitor goes back up.

"I GET THE FEELING YOU'RE STILL HIDING SOMETHING."

She glares at the robot.

"I repeat, this wasn't necessary. All you needed to do was ask."

She sits up straight and focuses. Her soul emerges...it is a deep dull blue.

"I don't know everything. Seeing as this whole 'soul' thing isn't known on the surface anymore. To use now, the soul is an intangible thing. It leaves when we die and does whatever since no one truly knows what happens after death. But...I do know my soul isn't normal. Not normal from what I've learned here anyway. I possess ten traits for which my soul can become."

Shock smacks them. Even Mettaton spits oil from some port.

"T-TEN?!"

She nods.

"Ten traits. Ten colors. Nine of which are completely fine."

Her breathing falters as she concentrates harder, forcing the soul to change color to her will.

"Blue, integrity. Cyan, patience. Green, kindness. Pink, passion. Purple, perseverance. Orange, bravery. Red, determination. Yellow, justice. White, hope. ...These are my main traits. The nine that make up my core personality. Yet...There is one, the last one, that I will not show you. No matter what."

A question mark appears on Mettaton's screen. Toriel and Sans know full well which one she means.

"WON'T SHOW? HOW COME?"

"That soul is too dangerous. One that I can't control. The black soul of relentlessness."

Papyrus sockets widen. Sans wasn't making it up after all.

"IF YOU TRULY EXPECT ME TO BUY INTO THIS BLACK SOUL NONSENSE THAN YOU BETTER FIND A WAY TO PROVE TO ME THAT IT'S REAL!"

"and how do you expect me to do that? have it triggered and let her kill half the town?"

"OF COURSE NOT! SHE'D NEVER GET THAT FAR INTO SUCH A SPREE ONCE I SLAY HER."

"YOU DON'T THINK I CAN KILL HER?"

"her? sure, you'd kill her no problem. she'd probably let you do it if things got really bad. but the black soul? that's a different story all together."

"YOU TALK AS THOUGH YOU'VE SEEN THIS 'BLACK SOUL' IN ACTION."

"..."

"YOU HAVE, HAVEN'T YOU?"

"that thing isn't something you want to mess with. don't go after something you can't handle."

"YOU DARE THINK THAT PITIFUL CREATURE CAN HARM ME?!"

"no! i don't think it would harm you! i know it would kill you!"

"I have no will over that trait. It consumes me utterly. Coldly targeting anything and everything as a threat, then calculatingly eliminating victims brutally with no remorse by any means. Pain doesn't phase it. It has no fear. But I do. I fear this soul. I fear becoming that...that thing. That beast."

The robot's screen blips.

"YOU MAKE IT SOUND TERRIBLE. IF IT'S AS BAD AS YOU SAY, HOW HASN'T YOUR LV INCREASED? SURELY A MURDEROUS SOUL LIKE THAT WOULD HAVE A BODY COUNT ATTACHED TO IT?"

"I have thankfully been taken out of that state when it happens. My brother down here, the flower you may have seen me with, he's the one that saves me. I don't know how he does it as I only barely register what happens when the Black Soul is in control. But it's one of the reasons why we stay together. He doesn't want to die and I don't want to hurt anyone, so it's a good deal for us both."

"AND DO YOU KNOW WHAT TRIGGERS SUCH A STATE TO HAPPEN?"

"I'm not 100% sure but I have a theory. The worst of times. Moments when I lose all hope or can't take the pain. Mentally and/or physically. It takes over when I can't deal with things. And I guess it tries to 'solve' the problem...by getting rid of it."

Her demeanor is becoming more unsettled as she continues.

"I...I normally am unwilling to share this information. I don't like being personal with strangers. But since this is a live broadcast, and I've basically torn open a can of worms full of my emo baggage, I want this to be known. I need others to understand the danger. Because you all seem to view me as an easy kill. The dumb nice human that doesn't fight back. It'll be easy to get her soul. Hell, if it weren't for the black trait, I'd have given this thing to you guys ages ago. But it's not worth it. There's no point going to the surface, otherwise I'd be more inclined to leave and be subjected to the crap I deal with. And trust me...You don't want to know what I deal with."

Her eyes get dark and her expression serious to the point it's unnerving.

"The death that can possibly happen if the black soul activates and isn't stopped could be limitless. As the bearer of this curse, I remain here. Not because I see less harm if it triggers around monster, hell no. I trust my death to you because I have faith in monster kind being able to handle it. It's because I don't want to risk it being weaponized by humanity. Magic...REAL magic like this is gone from the surface. If it were to be discovered now...Magic will be coveted like any other valuable resource. Blood and dust will be spilled over ownership. The experiments to find a better means of harvesting it, the torture, the suffering, the endless cycle of hate feeding upon the lack of morality. I have no doubt monsters wouldn't even be seen as people. We've done it to different creeds of humanity throughout history, hell we still do it. I...I don't want that for Monsters. Part of me is saying I'm overthinking it, but I can't that optimistic side of me knowing all the fucked up shit Humans do. I don't want you guys to suffer. I don't want to cause harm. I don't want to see any more death! Please!!"

Her eyes are watering and her body trembling.

"I...I-I hate this feeling. This h-helplessness. I'm caged. I'm useless. I'm nothing on the surface. I'm a danger underground. I'm my own worst enemy and I don't know how to fight. *struggling* Why? Why didn't the fall kill me? Why can't I just die? Why am I so weak? I can't even bleed to death!"

She's a mess, weeping into her gloved hands. But Mettaton dismisses this display and keeps going.

"WEAK? YOU SELL YOURSELF SHORT. CLAWING INTO YOUR OWN BODY ISN'T A VERY WEAK THING AT ALL. COME TO THINK OF IT...IN YOUR ENCOUNTER WITH MUFFET, YOU TOLD HER WHY YOU DID IT. CARE TO EXPLAIN WHAT YOU MEANT?"

A recording is played.

["I have just spent an ungodly amount of time trapped in that elevator over there having my soul violated by people that don't even exist anymore on this plane of reality. I have clawed my skin off to stop feeling their hands on me."]

Her face has the look of someone biting their tongue fairly hard to stay in control.

"What's to explain? I meant what I said and said what I meant."

"YOU'RE AVOIDING THE QUESTION, DARLING."

"No. You're refusing the answer."

"YOU SAID YOU'D TELL THE TRUTH!"

"I am!"

Agitation mounts.

"BULLSHIT! HOW THE HELL CAN ANYONE BELIEVE THAT?"

"I don't give a crap if you believe me or not! You weren't the one there!"

"JUST TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED!"

"It doesn't matter! You can't do anything about it! No one can! You can't stop people that break the laws of reality!"

Sans didn't like what he was hearing. And none of them liked that her still exposed soul was sparking with that strange energy.

"THERE ARE NO PEOPLE LIKE THAT!"

"How would you know?!"

"IF EVEN A FLY FARTS ANYWHERE IN THE UNDERGROUND, I KNOW ABOUT IT. IF ANYONE WITH ABILITIES LIKE THAT WERE HERE, THEY WOULDN'T BE UNKNOWN FOR VERY LONG."

"Did you not hear my words? They don't even exist anymore on this plane of reality! You can't find people that are outside time and space, you fucking idiot!"

"I'M THE IDIOT?! DO YOU NOT HEAR YOURSELF?! OUTSIDE TIME AND SPACE?! YOU CAN'T EVEN MAKE A CONVINCING LIE!"

"I'm not lying, you insufferable ego-maniacal narcissistic jackass!"

"TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED!!"

"I did! Accept the fact there is shit in life you can't fathom or comprehend yet is true! Like Bigfoot, life on other planets, or stigmata! Unexplained phenomenons are the backbones of reality! Deal with it!"

"THAT'S NOT AN UNEXPLAINED PHENOMENON! THAT'S A PURE IMPROBABLE IMMPOSSIBLITY!"

"By who's rule?! Are you God?! Do you know every infallible law the universe runs on?! No! You know nothing! No one does! So stop digging for shit that isn't there before something bad happens!"

"THEN GIVE ME A REAL ANSWER!"

"Stop...Please stop!"

"DARLING..."

"I s̷ái͟d͝ s̷t̢̛o̧͘p̀͟!̵̕͜!̧"

A surge of energy bursts from her soul, the flash whites out the screen and hurts the eyes. While blinded they all can hear the garbled sounds of pain and the sudden thud of weight hitting the floor. Their sight comes back to see the human writhing on the ground and gripping her soul, teeth bared in restrained growling.

"DARLING?"

She struggles to make her body move. Just slightly getting her head off the floor.

"Th͜i͞s͠...͜T́h̴i̵s̸ ̛įs ̕y̕our ̛f́aul͝t͏..̢.̴I͜ ͟a͡ske͝d ͠y̕o͏u t̷o͜ ͜s̛top..̢.̵"

The energy courses from her soul over her form, a brighter than normal light emanates from her clutched soul. She weakly pulls herself up to be supported by her free arm and the reason for the light is made clear, a crack has marred her soul. But that is far from the worst part. Sans spots it before Toriel but she's the one that points it out.

"Oh no!"

"What's wrong?"

"The darkness!"

Indeed. Black began to appear in the human's heart. The darkness corrupting the white light and faintly leaking out of the crack. The girl feels this. Panic flashes in her eyes but she's in no condition to handle so much on top of what has already happened.

"Wh̸en̢ wil̡l҉ ̛yo͡u̶ le͘ar͜n.͞..̡Y͘ou ̴fuc̀kín͜g id̴iot.̸..W͢hén wil̡l yoų ́a̶l̢l͜ léar͘n that͏ ̵y͘our act̵i҉o͞ns ͏ha͡v̛e ͘co͡n̴seq͘uenc͘e̶s͘?͘!"

The distortion. The off tone. The malice that seeped out. Perhaps it was enough proof for the automaton to believe her earlier words. For Mettaton seems to be distracted one second and then takes it all seriously the next. One of his hands snakes under his desk and the next thing to happen is the floor beneath the human opens up, dropping her into the unknown. Glitched roaring echoes as she plummets. A sickening crash leads into dead silence.

"WELL...THAT WAS INTERESTING."

His nonchalance about the whole thing is upsetting.

"SADLY, MY CO-STAR SEEMS TO BE HAVING A BIT OF TROUBLE. NOT EVERYONE CAN HANDLE THE STRESS OF BEING IN THE SPOTLIGHT, LIKE MOI."

His flamboyance is rubbing them the wrong way.

"HOWEVER, DESPITE HER TEMPER TANTRUM AND LACK OF COOPERATION, I WILL ASSURE YOU ALL SHE IS NOT DEAD. I MERELY GAVE HER THE SMALL BREAK THAT SHE CLEARLY NEEDED."

It's likely that the break involved her bones or some body part.

"BUT...I CAN GIVE YOU ALL SOMETHING TO LOOK FORWARD TO...THIS WAS THE LAST PRELEWD ACT. THE NEXT TIME YOU SEE US TOGETHER, IT WILL BE FOR THE MAIN EVENT. THE FINAL BATTLE APPROACHES, MY ENCOURAGABLE VIEWERS. DO NOT MISS OUT ON THIS HISTORICAL MAKE OR BREAK MOMENT."

The show shifts into a commercial break.

Toriel begins shaking. She can't deal with this much longer. Grillby does what he can to give her support, but he too has much on his mind. His pussycat unloaded a TON of things and a lot of it was incredibly concerning. Papyrus ushers his brother away from the other two as not to be overheard.

"SO...HOW LONG?"

Sans looks at him funny.

"uh...what?"

"HOW LONG WERE THE BOTH OF YOU GOING TO HIDE THIS PART OF THE SECRET FROM ME?"

"um...which part?"

"THAT POWER. SHE HAS TEN TRAITS, SANS. JUST HOW STRONG IS THAT GIRL?"

Sans scratches his skull.

"i honestly don't know, pap. i didn't even know she had that many. my main worry was always the black trait, so i never asked about others."

Papyrus folds his arms and shuts his eyes in thought.

"i swear, i ain't lying to ya."

"I KNOW YOU'RE NOT."

"then...what's wrong?"

"*HUFF* I DON'T LIKE THIS. I DON'T LIKE THE IDEA OF THAT WEAKLING BEING POWERFUL."

His eyes open but look at nothing.

"I SHOULD'VE KNOWN SOMETHING WAS OFF THAT NIGHT...THAT PUNCH...SHE WAS HOLDING BACK SO MUCH..."

Papyrus clenches his fists into tight balls of rage.

"THAT BITCH."

"ya know she didn't want to hurt ya."

"THAT'S THE THING. SHE THOUGHT SHE COULD HURT ME. HOW WEAK DOES SHE THINK I AM? THAT'S WHAT'S PISSING ME OFF MORE THAN ANYTHING RIGHT NOW."

Sans sighs. One day his brother will taste humble pie and not like it.

[HOTLAND: LAB]

Undyne finishes off her sixth bowel of ramen and looks at Alphys.

"Well...That wasn't how I thought it was going to end. Was it really necessary to tell him to drop her?"

Alphys takes a few more notes and ponders.

"Would you rather there be no main event? Besides..."

She adjusts her glasses.

"If what the human said is true, then the Black Soul being triggered in an open area would result in mass casualties. The zone in which the ending will be shot in is, for the most part, closed and under my remote control. So even in the event of something going wrong, which the odds of such are highly unlikely, then any and all threats can be dealt with in an optimum manner."

Undyne nods.

"I guess that makes sense. Still...I don't what I saw. There was real fear in the human's eyes."

"Good. She should be afraid. She should be very afraid of what's to come."

"And what's that?"

"That would be spoilers."

"Damn it. *sigh* A human soul with ten traits...Sounds tough. I wanna fight it!"

"It does raise a lot of questions. One, in particular, is on my mind."

"What's that?"

"If a human soul, deprived of magic, possesses ten traits and begins gaining magic...What will happen when it attains 100% magic?"

A cold chill runs through the captain.

[HOTLAND: SOMEWHERE ON LEVEL 3]

I am getting so sick of this crap. Why can't I just die at this point?

"*muffled* Lynsie?"

The voice and light jostling is bringing me back to consciousness. Damn it. Here I go again.

My eyes weakly open to the sight of dirt and rock. Just an inch away from losing the ability to see. Like I need a handicap in all this.

"Lynsie? Are you okay?"

Ah, Flowey. It's about time we met back up.

"*groan* H-Hey, bro. I missed you."

He smiles sadly.

"Are you okay? Can you move?"

I roll over on my back and check myself.

[HP ██████████ 10/40]

[HEARTBREAK level ONE in effect]

I figured that's what happened. No wonder the Black Soul was triggering. Thank goodness for the fall knocking my ass out or things would've gone bad fast.

"I think I'll be okay. Sore, but okay. I'm sadly getting used to falling and possible brain damage."

My answer has him pout.

"What's with the face, bro? You know I'm a tough cookie. I'll be fine."

His face gets full of concern.

"I...I heard what you told Mettaton."

Yeah, you and the rest of the Underground.

"I...I understand now why you didn't talk about your past. Why you kept to yourself. I'm sorry."

God, he's too sweet for this place. I reach over and gently stroke his petals.

"I love you, bro. You have no idea how much it means to me that you care. But don't pity me. I do that enough on my own."

I wearily sit up, shaking my head of all that baggage I brought up for the show.

"I wasn't pitying you. It's just..."

He fiddles with his leaves in a shy way but I cut his words off.

"Bro, I get it. I do. It's the same feeling like when you told me your history. Yet, let's be honest here, you're more mentally mature than me and I'm still not completely okay after getting all that off my chest. We can talk more about it later after this ordeal is over. Maybe over mom's cheesecake? Deal?"

"...You mean it?"

"Yeah. I promise."

He smiles brightly.

"Okay. I'd like that."

I pick myself up and stretch, taking a look around at where we are.

"Don't tell me he dropped me back at the start."

"Nope. This is still Level Three. In fact...I do believe MTT Resort is just past this place."

"...For real? Is it a safe space?"

"Yep. There are shops and rooms to rest."

I hear a heavenly choir sing in my head.

"Finally! The universe throws me a decent bone!"

I regret saying that the moment it leaves my mouth. Flowey looks at me funny.

"Don't take that out of context, you know what I meant."

"I don't know. You and Smiley Trashbag are eerily close."

My eye twitches. Things I wish Gaster didn't show me try to pop into my head.

"Are you okay? You look like you're about to puke."

"Never insinuate something like that ever again."

He shakes his head at me. I try to change the subject before I have a heart attack on camera.

"So...Are you able to follow me to the resort? I'm sick of being separated."

"There's ground outside of it and parts I can reach beyond it, but the resort itself I can't get in without some sort of aid like a pot. Cement and tile flooring is a pain to break into."

"Damn, bro, you hella strong."

There's a deactivated reversed conveyor belt that's attached to the artificial platforms.

"Is it safe to cross? It's kinda giving me 'trap' vibes."

"You should be fine. This is normally the part where the colored tiles would be used again, but you know, stuff changed. It's probably off."

"Ah. Gotcha. I guess...See ya soon?"

"You bet."

He ducks into the ground so I take it as my time to leave this pit. The entire time I feel on edge. With my luck, the trap will turn on and I get screwed. Thankfully nothing happens apart from some jets of flame randomly going off in the distance and making me jump like a wuss. At least it got me to the stairs quicker.

After a quite the climb, I reach the top perturbed yet undaunted as a four-way crossroads greets me, though the two paths on the sides are blocked. More Royal Guards, a cat to the left and some kind of insect on the right, both in that imposing armor.

"Well if it isn't my best customer..."

The Ice Scream rabbit pops up from behind the cart I wasn't paying attention to.

"Fancy seeing you again."

As odd as seeing him here is, he's a familiar face that is a sight for my sore eyes. I approach.

"Hey, guy, what's up? Haven't been seeing you much in Snowdin Forest for a bit."

He leans on the cart like a cool guy.

"Yeah...Been moving around seeing if I can make mad gold somewhere where the weather isn't the same temp as my product."

"Any luck?"

"Waterfall wasn't so bad. Even started a new program with rewards cards. Turn in a card with ten punches and get a free doubling of your next order. Speaking of which..."

He reaches into his pants pocket and hands me a punch card. Some holes have already been made.

"If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have had the funds to get this far. So...Instead of starting your card full, I may have added your previous buys. Can't say I haven't gotten better at my wonderful salesmanship."

I can't help but smile. He's come a long way. I'm proud of him.

"Well then, wonderful salesman, I'd like to add some more holes please."

"Heh...sure. But I'm warning you, prices have gone up. 25G. Got to charge more here 'cause of the heat."

"Understood, my dude. Um...Just curious...Got fudge pops? Kinda have this hankering for something chocolate."

He shakes his head.

"Sold out. The Royal Guards bought those like crazy."

"Damn. Oh well. One blue, orange, grape, and blood. All bisicles."

He fills my order and I pay the 100G.

"Here you go. All five ready to enjoy."

I look at him funny.

"Five?"

"Yep. Five. I definitely didn't toss in a strawberry one because of customer loyalty. Nope. Didn't do it."

Must...resist...the urge...to HUG!!

"...Thank you. That...That means a lot."

He gives me a wink and I practically skip away up another set of stairs. I place the treats in my inventory for now. I know not what crap will happen from here, so healing items are a big help.

I am met by a large complex. Redbrick that's been tagged with graffiti, yellow-tinted windows with some broken, a gold MTT sign with two Mettaton images with devil horns, a black & white checkered awning over the door, two large plant potters that have dry withered flower remnants, and a blood-red or just stained that way rug embroidered with gold MTTs.

"Classy."

I'm about to head inside when something hits my leg. A paper airplane? I inspect it to find it's a note.

[Hey! Go up the creepy alleyway on the right for some great deals!]

"...I'm gonna get mugged, aren't I?"

It's against my better judgment, but this is a neutral zone, so I should be okay. I wearily creep around, following spray-painted arrows, to end up finding two girls gossiping among garbage. They notice me and straighten up.

"Hey! Check it out!"

"Yeah! Check it out!"

"So, like, what's up? I'm Bratty, and this is my best friend, Catty."

"I'm Catty, and this is my best friend, Bratty."

Oh no...More valley speak!?! Why is that a thing down here?!

Bratty is a tall, green alligator or crocodile monster that wears a primarily black shawl with yellow and red details on the sides. She has yellow hair that flows into curls and red lipstick.

Catty is a plump purple cat creature who wears a set of black overalls with yellow buttons and tufts of red fur with yellow highlighted tips coming out from under it on either side. She has black hair with a red streak in it and a yellow earring on her left ear.

"Uh...Hi? So...This is a shop?"

"Like, the best shop!"

"You should buy ALL our stuff!"

Catty gets this blanket out and opens it out to show me their items. They don't have much, just four things, but I can't turn away from these items.

[25G - Junk Food - Has a big bite out of it]

[350G - Rusty Revolver - Bullets NOT included]

[350G - Tattered Western Hat - ATTACK up when worn]

[600G - Mystery Key - Probably to someone's house LOL]

A gun...How the fuck is that here?

"Oooh! I know that look!"

"That's the look of some wanting something!"

"Bratty! We're gonna be rich!"

"Where did you find this stuff?"

"I mean, like, where does anyone get guns, or food, or..."

"We found it in the garbage!"

I so called it.

"It's GOOD garbage."

"It's like, really good garbage."

"Where do you get the garbage?"

"Like, the garbage store, duh!!! ...Waterfall mostly."

"I found a gun in a dumpster!"

I check my gold...I don't have anywhere close to 1,300G for their garbage.

"Um...Maybe we could work out some sort of arrangement?"

They glare.

"That's poor talk."

"You need WAY more money."

What I need is to get that stuff away from them. That stuff is bad enough with humans, I don't want monsters messing with crap like guns.

"Ladies, I'm sure there's something we can do. Shops run on trade. This is just a trade of a different kind. I can't give you the gold, but I can get you other things. There's gotta something you'd both want that I can fetch for you in exchange?"

They mull it over.

"Thanks, but we, like, don't really need anything."

"Oh my god, can you go get us some Dazzleburgers?"

"We don't. Really need. Anything."

"Wait! I'll pay you 1000G if you get Mettaton to autograph my butt!"

Catty seems to be the easier one here. Maybe I can work with this.

"While I do know the guy, I'm not sure I can get Metta to sign your butt."

"Damn."

"Wait...You know Mettaton?!"

Their eyes sparkle.

"...Yes?"

They squeal with fanatical glee.

"Oh my God. Mettaton."

"Oh my GOD, METTATON."

"He's like...My robot husband."

"Actually he's like...MY robot husband."

"I think we're like...both going to marry him."

"We're both like, ALREADY married to him. He just, like, doesn't know it yet."

They're insane.

"Okay...Can I ask what's a Razzburger? I could try to get that."

Their eyes widen in shock.

"You don't know what a Dazzleburger is?"

"Do you, like, live under a rock?"

Don't we all do since this is a mountain?

"Dazzleburgers are epic!"

"They're only sold in the resort."

Interesting.

"Inside huh? Let me guess...Very pricey."

Bratty nods.

"The stuff inside, is like..."

"TOTALLY wicked expensive."

"But, like, this stuff we found is like..."

"TOTALLY wicked cheap."

"You should..."

"Like..."

"TOTALLY wicked buy all of it?"

"Cheap? You're selling a random key for 600G!"

They giggle at me and I sigh. Bitches, man...bitches.

"So where inside am I gettin' them?"

"The MTT-Brand Burger Emporium."

"You have to get them from Bugerpants."

That name...That name brings back memories...as well as sore spots. Douche-cat...

"Burgerpants."

"Yeah, that guy from the store. Yuck, what a creep."

"Yeah! He's a creep! But he's kind of cute, too..."

"C'mon Catty, don't you have ANY standards?"

"Nope!!!"

...You need standers, Catty.

"Yeah, I met him. Not so much a creep but he is a massive prick."

"OK, like, the annoying thing is..."

"He'd be OK if he just treated us with some respect."

"But he just acts..."

"Really weird."

"And then acts like it's OUR fault he acts that way!"

"Like, when we asked him to get those Dazzleburgers..."

"He dropped them and ran away before we could even say anything!"

"We were, like, going to share them."

"Really? I wasn't."

"Catty!"

This zone is full of awful people.

"One last thing...How many you want?"

Catty waves her paws.

"So many! Enough to fill a dumpster!"

"The mega value pack should cover us."

I give Bratty a thumbs up and leave their shady establishment. Now I enter the main building and this time I'm greeted by someone for once. It's either very diamond-like or very origami-like, but above all, it's a tiny monster.

"Welcome to MTT Resort - Hotland's biggest apartment-building-turned-hotel! Whether you're here for a night or still live here, MTT Resort prides itself on a great stay! Just passing through...? Nice! MTT Resort prides itself on being passed through!"

"Interesting business model. Does it work?"

"Oh, indeed it does, human."

"You know what I am?"

"Oh yes! The staff has been informed of your coming and instructed on how to handle you upon arrival."

Oh god, what now?

"Over on your left, we have a dine-in restaurant complete with a stage which hosts a wide cast of live acts. Either comedy done by locals or Mettaton entertains when he isn't too busy."

"Neat."

"If you're feeling like you hate yourself, behind me is the MTT-Brand Burger Emporium, home of the Dazzleburger!"

Well, they know how fast food works.

"All further questions can be taken to my coworker behind the desk."

I scratch my head and shrug.

"Thanks."

I walk away and head for the other receptionist. It's not a bad-looking lobby at least. Red & yellow checkered tiles and the rug from outside continues forward into parts unknown. The obnoxious fountain of Mettaton is gaudy though. I reach the desk and the monster behind it is a weird one. It's blue and its head is a hand with very well manicured red nails.

"Yes, we know. The elevator music volume is super loud and the song is stuck on a three-second loop. We are working on it. Because of this incident, rooms are running at a special rate! 200G a room. Interested?"

Someone sounds grumpy.

"No thank you. I was told to come to you. I'm the human if that helps."

Their head fingers extend in alert.

"Oh! Sorry. I was instructed to inform you on where to go next."

"That would be helpful, yes."

It motions to where the rug is heading.

"If you follow the rug there, you'll be lead out back to the entrance of the CORE. Mettaton will be waiting for you at the top."

"Could I use the elevator instead? All this travel is exhausting."

"No can do. The elevator leads to the Capital and main residence of our people. You're not allowed to go there."

"Oh...That's fine. I didn't want to go there. Just trying to take shortcuts if able."

"*ahem* If you require a small rest, might I suggest renting a room?"

"I don't the gold, sorry."

"That's fine. Mettaton has pre-paid a room for you. One time only."

I'm stunned. Damn him! Why does he confuse me so much?! I want to like and hate him at the same time!

"Um...In that case, sure. Where are rooms?"

They motion again.

"Down the hall to the right."

I wait for them to give me a key or card but nothing is there except awkwardness.

"Is there a problem?"

"No...not really. But...uh...Isn't this the part you give me a room key?"

"What? Room...Key? No, we don't do that. If you leave your room, you'll have to pay again."

So if I enter I can't leave or else I'll have to pay? That's insane!

"On second thought, maybe later."

"Shame. Do let us know if you change your mind. Have a sparkular day!"

I'm getting the feeling they're being nice because they were told to be. Otherwise, I doubt I'd be given such a warm welcome. Oh well. Time to pay a certain someone a visit.

I stroll up to the emporium and find myself paused. I can go about this in many ways. The different choices and outcomes play out in my head super fast. After a few, I settle on something...something that'll leave an impression. I push the doors open. A digital bell sounds. I look at what appears to be a sadder version of McDonald's. And like a mindless corporate drone, he speaks while moping the floor before seeing "who" just walked in.

"Welcome to MTT-Brand Burger Emporium, home of the Dazzleburger. Sparkle up your day (TM)."

He begins to turn around.

"What can I do to..."

His eyes widen seeing me, grinning sadistically at him like a lunatic.

"Uh...help?"

This hurts my throat to do, but it really sells this whole thing. I deepen my voice to imitate Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget and just laugh. He is unnerved to say the least.

"*menacing* No one will help you."

"H-Hey now...Don't think of doing anything funny."

I walk up to him and he backs away slowly before leaping behind the counter.

"Stay back! You can't hurt anyone in shops!"

I keep the deep voice.

"*menacing* Hurt you? Foolish boy...Why would I do that? It's not like you put a cigarette out on my wrist and bashed my head with a bat!"

That last part was done a bit too harsh and I end coughing. All seriousness leaves.

"*coughs* Nah, man...*normal* I ain't gonna do anything. For reals. I was just messing with ya."

He eyes me funny.

"Riiiiiight...What do you want then?"

"Preferably, my phone."

He flinches, his eyes looking quickly down then darting back up.

"I..."

"Metta doesn't have to know."

"What do you mean he won't know?! He knows everything that goes on here!"

"Look, you either give me my phone, or I'm gonna go back there and take it."

"You're not seri..."

My dead stare shuts him up. He seems to freeze up now. I sneer and put my hand out. He looks at my hand and then starts sweating. I'm beginning to lose my patience.

"You have five seconds."

His fur stands on end and he suddenly slams his face on the countertop, giving himself a bloody nose.

"Sorry, (Ha ha) it's against the rules to talk to customers who haven't bought anything. And talking with you this long has put me in serious shit. If you want this 'exchange' to continue, you're going to make a purchase."

I'm not happy.

"...What do you have?"

[60G - Sorebet - Very popular food.]

[120G - Dazzleburger - Very popular food.]

[300G - Mythical Villain - Anti-Hero Sandwich. ATTACK UP in battle.]

[500G - Biltong Slab designed to look like Mettaton - Don't ask. Please.]

I huff through my nose and shell out the 60G.

"That Sorebet better come with my phone."

"Yeah yeah. Don't get your panties in a twist."

"Fuck you. I wear boxers."

He eyes me with a blush before heading into the back. Might as well chat him up while I can.

"So...Do you know the chicks behind the building?"

"Huh? Oh...Them. Yeah, I know them. What of it?"

"They were talking about you."

"The girls were...Talking about me...?"

Hooked him.

"They mentioned you threw burgers at them and ran."

"Bullshit! That is not what happened."

He comes back to the counter with a glass of frozen dessert and my phone.

"Care to enlighten me?"

He sighs and lights a cigarette. I wonder if he can do that while on shift?

"Never interact with attractive people. Unless you're 'one of them', they're just gonna take advantage of you. Those two chicks asked me to sneak them some Dazzleburgers. And I, the naive teenager that I was, said yes to them. Bad idea."

"What happened?"

He takes a dag and lifts the collar of his uniform shirt open, blowing the smoke in there.

"Does that really keep the smoke from spreading?"

"It's worked so far. *puff* So I went out to the alley to see those two ladies, and uh...you know, see what'd happen next."

"Like...Naughty stuff?"

"...Maybe."

"Nice."

He blushes.

"Anyway...Then my boss comes out of nowhere, sees me, and demands to know what I was doing. I was so startled, the hamburgers in my pockets tumbled out onto the ground. Not wanting to lose face to the girls, I scrambled to pick them up! But, as I was bending down, the weight of the remaining hamburgers...*puff*...caused my pants to fall down."

He expected me to mock him. But I can't feel anything more than pity for the guy. This surprises him and he continues his story.

"Then the girls laughed at me. Everyone calls me Burgerpants now. It's gotten to the point I can't remember my name half of the time. It's even on my name tag for fuck's sake!"

Poor douche cat.

"I think you're the first to not laugh at me or that story."

"Why would I laugh? That's...That's messed up, man."

He takes another drag.

"You know something...I misjudged you, human. I know it ain't much, but, I'm sorry for being an ass."

I rub the back of my head.

"I'll be honest, guy...Since the bar thing, I've seen you only as a prick. The idea of you having hard times and lashing out didn't cross my mind at all. That's my bad right there. Sorry on my part for being a bitch."

He smirks.

"So...You're really not going to tell Mettaton about this?"

He hands me my phone.

"Dude, this stays between us. Besides, he's kinda been pissing me off lately."

"Yeah, he does that."

He takes a deep drag before putting the cigarette out on the bottom of his shoe.

"Can I give you some advice? I'm getting on in years, so take it from me...You've still got time. Don't live like me. I'm 19 years old and I've already wasted my entire life. I'll probably be trapped at this stupid job forever. But wait! There's one thing that keeps me going! If ASGORE gets just one more SOUL, we'll finally get to go to the surface! It'll be a brand new world! There's gotta be a second chance out there for me! For everyone!"

"Maybe. So, what did you want to do before this?"

"Oh...I wanted to be an ACTOR."

"Neat."

"When I first came to Hotland, it was my dream to work with Mettaton. Well, be careful what you wish for! God, look what that idiot has done here. This place is a labyrinth of bad choices. And every time we try to change something for the better, he vetoes it and says that's not how they do it on the surface. Oh! Right! Humans are always eating hamburgers made of RHINESTONES AND GLITTER."

"...I can assure you we don't eat that. Eating that would be very bad for our health. Maybe even fatal. Monsters don't really eat that...Do they?"

His eyes shift and I facepalm.

"And you guys think I'm gonna hurt ya?"

"You should probably get going. The boss will get his gears in a bunch if you take too long getting to the CORE."

"Fine."

I put the Sorebet in my inventory and remember my awkward side-quest.

"Oh! Before I bounce, can you help me with something?"

He tilts his head.

"What?"

"The chicks, Bratty and Catty, they have items I want but don't have the crazy amount of gold. They say they'll trade for a mega value pack. Any way you might be able to help make this trade happen?"

He sighs.

"Really? Do you know how much that is?"

"1300G close? Because that's how much I need."

"...What kind of shit are they selling that's worth that much?!"

I goofily shrug. He groans and rubs his face.

"I can't just give you that much for free."

"Catty thinks your cute."

"...For real?"

I nod. He fidgets, fingers tip-tapping and pitter-pattering.

"Okay, I'll tell you what...You score me a hook up with her and I'll give you the burgers."

Damn you rule of three in side-quests!

"Argh...I guess I can try. It won't be the weirdest thing I do today but it is on the list though."

His eyes light up with excitement. I can't mess this up now. How often does he actually smile like this?

"Thank you! *ahem* I mean...Cool."

I slink out of the emporium and head for the exit.

"Um, excuse me, human...The CORE is the other way."

I groan.

"I know. I'll be back."

Exit building, go into the creepy alley, and meet the girls again.

"Look who's back."

"Do you have the Dazzleburgers?"

I show my empty hands.

"Ha! I knew she'd blow it."

"Sucks to be you!"

"Hold up. He'll give me the goods. But..."

"But...?"

"Catty...Do you really think he's cute? 'Cause he thinks you're hot."

Catty's face flushes. Bratty rolls her eyes.

"For reals? He wants a date?"

"A date? A hangout? A simple meeting while he's working? I don't know. For all I know she can walk in, say hi, and that's it. All I need is confirmation and you get all those shiny burgers."

"Yes!"

"Catty...?"

"What a deal! A cute guy and free food! It's the score of a lifetime!"

"Catty, he's a loser. You hang out with him once, then he wants to hang out... All. The. Time."

"But don't you feel bad for him, Bratty? Poor Burgerpants...Think about how cool we are compared to him!!! We'd be saving his LIFE with our awesomeness!! His LIFE, Bratty!!"

"Uh, so?"

"Think of all the Dazzleburgers he could get for us!!"

And just like that, I feel like shit for doing this.

"...So is he free after work?"

"*huff* I'll be back...again."

Leave the alley, enter the building, meet up with Burgerpants.

"I don't like the look you have there. Did she say no?"

I can't lie to this guy.

"Dude, I'm really uncomfortable with this."

"What's wrong?"

"She said yes. But..."

"She said YES?!"

"I mean, she agreed, but please listen..."

"Ha! Ahahaha!! Yes!!! You've brought a tear to the eye of this old man."

I feel so bad.

"Dude, please...I'm, like, 100% sure she's gonna use you for free food and maybe gold."

"...So?"

I'm taken back.

"Look, you don't think I didn't think of that? I know she's probably going to use me. Everyone does. If it's for the food, I don't care. That's just another way I can stick it to my boss. Speaking of..."

He plops this cardboard case down on the counter.

"A deal's a deal. The mega value pack for the girl."

...Okay, they're made for each other. Everyone here is trash!

"So, uh, what time did she say she wanted to hang out?"

I hate everything about this!!

"I'll be back again."

Take food, leave, exit, alley. At this point, I nearly shove the shit at them.

"Oh my God!"

"Is that the mega value pack Dazzleburgers?"

"OH MY GOD!!! GIMME!!!"

"God, Catty. Try to have some self-control."

"Sorry..."

"'Cause they OBVIOUSLY brought the Dazzleburgers for ME."

"NO WAYYY!!!!!"

I point to the items.

"Trade. Now."

Bratty puts the key and gun into the hat before handing it over to me.

"Thank you."

I put the key in my inventory and equip the other two.

[You equipped the Tattered Western Hat]

[You gain 12 Defense and 5 Attack]

[This battle-worn hat makes you want to crew on straw for some reason. It also raises attack by 5.]

[You equipped the Rusty Revolver]

[You gain 12 Attack]

[An super old gun. It has no ammo. Must be used precisely, or damage will be low. Duh.]

[HP: 40 ATK: 62 DEF: 50]

I am becoming OP!!

"Oh! Give burger-boy this!"

Catty hands me a scrap of paper with her number.

"Fine. I'm just glad this is done."

Back to Burgerpants. I slap the paper down.

"Here's her number. I hope you don't regret this."

His face contorts in a weird way...Is he...Happy?

Sweet! I need to pick a spicy outfit for my little shindig later. Though, now that I think about it, I had to throw away all of my clothes to make room for the outfits Mettaton gave me."

"...What?"

"Don't take it the wrong way. They're just all these...Weird getups. 'Promotional' costumes. For 'holidays'. Or 'specials'. Or 'because he felt like it'. The thing IS though! Most of the time I'm the only employee who has to wear this stuff! Sometimes he even calls me into his office just to...Make me put something on...Then he laughs and lets me go back to work as normal."

My pity meter is breaking.

"Anyways, I won't sweat it. I'll take it casual. NEVER let hot people think you care. That's how they GET you."

And the pity meter dropped dead.

"Good luck with that."

I leave on that note. Fuck this resort. Fuck this quest plot. Fuck this whole damn thing!

Wanting this shit show to be over and done with, I do as instructed by following the rug's path out some doors that have a giant sign above that says "CORE". Lazy-ass designers, I swear.

Weirdly this leads to a balcony. A balcony that has been opened and a walkway built that connects to the massive facility. The light from the resort barely shows half of the path as the CORE itself surprisingly gives off the faintest glow. The CORE is an entirely mechanical complex that is largely black and yellow with red accents. The blah colors aside, what gets my attention are the two monsters that were minding the entrance that slip inside when I show up. I don't like this.

"Flowey, you better be able to get here. I have a bad feeling about this."

Approaching shows more of this crazy thing. The CORE appears to be the most industrial and modern region of the Underground. Ozone, a byproduct of electrical power, is omnipresent below the floor level of the CORE. This could mean the CORE might be made of stainless steel, titanium, or platinum; as ozone is highly corrosive to most organic materials. If this is the case, they could use this stuff. The CORE could be a source of ozonated water, which cleans clothes, sanitizes food, and purifies drinking water. This also implies this might be the greatest source of oxygen in the Underground as ozone simply decomposes into oxygen at high concentrations and temperatures. The only hazard I can think of is that oxygen is a shitty thing to breathe. Breathing pure oxygen at high pressures can cause nausea, dizziness, muscle twitching, vision loss, convulsions, and loss of consciousness. Breathing pure oxygen for a long time can irritate the lungs causing coughing and/or shortness of breath. Higher exposure may cause a build-up of fluid in the lungs and subsequent death. Guess how much more O2 is needed to do this to a person? 20% more. God, Humans are so freaking weak. I'll need to be careful here.

The lobby of the CORE has an elevator to the north and two paths to the left and right. Not a bad looking place, very lavishly decorated, the floors are engraved with intricate patterns and multicolored neon tubes serve as wall ornaments and embellishments. I check the elevator, which is disabled, I'm not shocked at this point. Not much else to do, I go to the path on the right, which turns out to be a small room with a square platform overlooking a pit of fire. Not bad. I do enjoy looking at fire. It's pretty. Moving on! Going through the left path leads to a rectangular stretch of wall-less hallway with a doorway at the end.

"Hmmm...My bullshit senses are tingling. I'm willing to bet a random encounter/ambush is about to happen."

As if cued by my words, something cracks the back of my head and then hits my gut as I turn.

"*wheeze* Called it..."

My attacker appears and my dull cracked purple soul is forced out to play.

[Madjick pops out of its hat!]

Madjick has a typical appearance of a wizard. It wears a curved wizard hat, a pair of boots, and two rotating orbs emitting cross-shaped particles. Madjick has a sly smile on its face, but a pair of bright eyes are hidden just under its hat.

[FIGHT]

[ACT]

[̴͝SP͜͞E͡L̵͜L͟͠͏]͘͢

[ITEM]

[MERCY]

I wonder if SPELL will work on this thing? ...N-No. No. Can't chance it. Stick to normal tactics.

[ACT selected.]

[New options available.]

[CHECK]

[TALK]

[STARE]

[CLEAR MIND]

...The fuck kind of options are these?!

[CHECK selected.]

[MADJICK – HP: 190 ATK: 29 DEF: 24 – This enemy can only speak in magic words.]

Finally! My states aren't shit compared to my attacker. Also, only speaks in magic words is the most fucking adorable thing I've ever heard.

"Abra cadabra."

An orb spawns off to my left and rapid-fires crosses at me. I dodge and the orb tries to cut me off by going where I'm headed. It fires about eight times and moving around is not so great.

[HP ████████████████ 16/40]

Thank goodness my defense got increased during all this crap. I could've been really messed up.

[Madjick flaunts its orbs in a menacing manner.]

It snickers.

"A smug one. I like that."

[TALK selected.]

"You know...I can do magic too."

It looks at me intrigued.

"Yep. I can make your smile disappear."

It pauses before sneering at me.

"See? I made it vanish before your very eyes!"

It didn't seem to like my humor.

"Hocus pocus."

[Madjick begins chattering to itself. Its gibberish dizzies you...Your DEFENSE drops by 1.]

My head feels fuzzy. Did it just jinx me? Are there more types of magic than what I've been told?

One of the orbs begins to chase me while deploying harmful but immobile crosses. Yet due to the jinx, my sense of direction is ass-backward. Left is right and right is left. Up is down and down is up. However...much to Madjick's dismay...I'm used to being incredibly dizzy. My childhood was filled with countless hours of boredom appeased by spinning around till I couldn't see straight.

[HP ████████████████████ 20/40]

Ha ha...Suck on those magic balls, wizard-boy!

"*slur* Is that what you call magic? Boo! Disappointed!"

[Madjick whispers arcane swear words.]

"*slur* Oh...Someone needs to put some gold in the swear jar. I'm gonna tattle!"

It growls.

"Eh eh eh. It's not your turn."

I slap my face a few times.

[CLEAR MIND selected.]

"I wonder where Flowey is?"

[You think of pollen and sunshine. Your confusion abates. Your DEFENSE increased by 2.]

"...What?"

"Alakazam!!"

It tries to surprise me with that following orb trick. But now that I know that move it's not so bad.

[HP ██████████████████████████ 26/40]

Huh? Am I auto-healing faster? Sweet! Surely that only means good things for me.

[Madjick peers at you with strange eyes.]

"What? You scared? My sick moves and auto-healing too much for you? No worries, wizard-dude, we cool. I got you."

The hell did I just say? Am I magic high? Fuck it.

[MERCY selected.]

[New options available.]

[FLEE]

[SPARE]

[SPARE selected.]

It looks at me funny. Then it looks at my HP.

[HP ████████████████████████████████ 32/40]

It flinches.

"Please and thank you."

Madjick accepts my act of mercy.

[YOU WON!]

[You earned 0 XP and 120 gold.]

The fight ends, my soul returns to my body and I give my opponent claps of approval.

"Good show, buddy. Keep up the good work."

It seems confused but nods, hovering away behind me towards the exit.

"Well...That was weird."

My head still feels odd. Nothing a few brain sloshing shakes of the old noggin won't fix. Anyway, no time to question strange feelings or whatever. I gotta get through this so I can get back to Toriel. Onwards I go.

Continuing forward, I enter a room with a bridge that is cut off by a tesla coil. Wow. Hadn't seen that in a long ass time. How much do I wanna bet there's a convenient off switch nearby. Oh, look! A super obvious switch right there on the wall. Who could've ever had guessed! I flip the switch and lasers fire at me! First blue, then blue again, and orange. Thankfully they're slow, so once I triggered the first blue laser I easily hit the deck to avoid the others that pass by.

"Setting booby traps on top of other traps now. Geez, Metta, I'm starting to think you don't like me very much. Well, that's fine. I don't like me either! So come at me already and quit this pussy bullshit!"

Calm down. No need to get riled up. Get through this and go home. Then I can just stuff my face with Nanny's awesome cheesecake and pass out happy. I march on, doing my best not to look down or notice how some of the walls and floors are chipped away. Now I'm paranoid about if any other laser that turns up is functional or decorative.

The path leads into a crossroads with a path to my left and a path straight ahead. My bullshit sense is tingling when I look at the left path. Straight ahead it is.

This room contains a bridge with many blue and orange lasers followed by a massive wall of blue lasers.

"Nope. Just nope. Screw the rules! I have plot armor importance and common sense!"

Fuck this outfit. Fuck this shit! I have lost all my fucks! I get down on the floor and combat crawl the long as fuck cold metal catwalk.

"*muttering* Stupid bullshit. Why do I have to be nice? If I wasn't nice, I wouldn't have to put up with shit like this. Bitches don't end up in laser catwalk traps. But no...I have to be a decent person. *getting louder* I have to be a good girl. I have to not give in to the overwhelming urge to punch assholes for being assholes because that's wrong for dumb reasons! *shouting* Why am I pissing myself off?! This is extremely counterproductive given my current situation! Fuck!!"

I blame all this on Mettaton. That's a healthy way to look at it. Probably not. But I'm not a mental health doctor! The fuck do I know?! After crossing the bridge, I storm grumpily along another walkway only to reach something called "Core Branch".

Turns out the "Core Branch" is a four-way intersection. Fan-fucking-tastic. Man, my mood is fucking sour. Maybe the digital sign can be useful and give me directions.

[North, the warrior's path. West, the sage's path. Any path leads to The End.]

"*growling* This is so...FUCKING STUPID!!"

Nope. Not falling for anymore of this. I choose neither side and go straight. This middle path of the "Core Branch" has me entering a vertical room with a right path leading to the eastern portion of the "Core Branch". There's nothing to my left. It just drops into the ozone, so it's certain death. I'm so sure this place followed all safety measures. There is a sign on the wall that is telling me to "Get lost...And stay that way".

"Wha...Why have signs telling me to leave when you told me to come here?! Stupid metal moron giving me dumb mixed messages."

I hate everything. No monster better encounter me while I'm in this mood. I take out a gold piece and flip it. Heads for straight and tails for the right. It lands on tails so right I go. This has to be the stupidest designed building ever! What the hell was Gaster thinking?! Was he on the drugs? Because this seems like he was on the drugs! 'Cause now I'm at another four-way crossroads. Only now I have two digital signs.

[To the East! This is The End.]

[I cannot fight. I cannot think. But, with patience, I will make my way through.]

A third, and hopefully final, tesla coil blocks what has been established as the exit. This means there's a switch somewhere. F that shit. Know what? You know what'll piss everyone off? I'm gonna do what that sign said. I'm going to be patient. Because if I know Mettaton, and I know massive egos very well, he won't want boring content to be televised and eventually spice things up. I plop my edgy tush under the sign and...wait. Using this time to chill. Let this negativity go and...

*Clank-clank-clank*

Oh hell no!

A large monster ominously approaches. Knight Knight is a monster that wields a great staff with a sun symbol in her right hand. She wears a suit of black armor and what resembles a horned helmet with a crescent moon emblazoned on her forehead. The helmet's eyepiece occasionally widens and un-widens as if it is her mouth. Her torso is dominated by a dragon face whose beak occasionally opens and closes, revealing a small eye. It is unclear whether which face is the true face.

"Let me guess...You're here to make me move?"

"Yes."

"No."

She's confused.

"...No?"

"Did I stutter? I'm not moving."

She readies her spear.

"Then prepare for..."

"Let me stop you right there. I get that you're doing your job and following the law, and blah blah blee bloo, whatever. I have been through one of THE worst days in my life. My mind, soul, and charitable goodwill have been pushed to limits that are very VERY thin now. I am in no mood to deal with any more crap. So I'm going to say this once because I ain't fighting you or moving from this spot till this electrical blockaded is gone...Turn around and go home."

She doesn't take me seriously and laughs.

"Heh heh...You have no power to give me orders, human."

She takes a step closer and I snap.

"I͏͟ ̧̀̕W͝IL͘͡L̴ ̶Ŗ͟͜I͝҉P͘ ̵O͜F̧F̛͞ ̸̀Y̧͡O̡͢U̡͠R ͠H̸EA̶͏D͏͢ ̸̕A͜N͢D S̢̛͜Ḩ̶Į͢T̵̕ ͝D̶̀OW͞N̷̴͠ ҉͞Ý̸̢O̡͡U̡͢R ̸ŅE̴͝CḰ̡̧!͞͞!̧͢"

She stumbles back in shock. The strange energy sparks off me. I regret everything.

"I̵'͘͟͏ḿ͢͞ ̧̕͞so̧̨͡r̴̢ŗ̷͜y̧.̵̛.̢͞.̛p̢l͝ea̷se͢.͟.́͢.leave me. I'm so sorry."

I seem to have disturbed her. She slowly steps back and turns around when she's convinced I'm not going to move.

"Adieu...Human."

She leaves me and I let out a shaky exhale. It's getting worse. I'm losing control. I can't do this for much longer. I haven't been given any proper time to deal with this shit. My internal bottle has been shaken too much! It's going to explode! I...I...

"What the heck was that?!"

Flowey pops up beside me and I'm too freaked out to be startled.

"Sis? What's wrong?"

I hold myself in an attempt to squeeze into a tiny ball of self-loathing. This only worries him more.

"Lynsie?"

I...I can't...I need a break. If only I had my music. I could drown out all this. Lose myself in the lyrics.

"B-Bro..."

"Yes? Talk to me. I can help. Tell me what you need."

"...H-How fast can you get to Snowdin?"

He frowns.

"You want me to get 'him', don't you?"

All I can do is nod.

"I...I can help too. You don't have to turn to him."

My eyes dart to the blocked path. He puts things together. He is a smart boy after all.

"True. Mettaton is that way and the room his encounter takes place in is an elevating platform. I can stretch from my roots pretty far but not THAT far."

He pouts.

"*huff* I guess there's no other option. He does have experience helping you out when things get bad. And he can teleport."

I feel bad that I'm making him do this...again. Like in the dead timeline.

"I...I'm sorry."

"Wha...N-No! Don't apologize. I understand. You're worried. It's okay. We'll get through this. Family helps family. What kind of big brother would I be if I didn't do everything to help? Even if that means getting others to help when I can't."

"...I need a hug...please?"

It pains me to see him hesitate. But vines come out to wrap around me for a bit.

"Thank you."

The vines retract and he extends to nuzzle my cheek.

"It won't be like last time. I promise. You won't kill anyone. No one's going to die."

"H-How do you know?"

"Because you're strong. You just have to believe in yourself. I know I do."

...I needed that. I give him a smile.

"There we go. There's my sis. Now keep that smile. I'll get Smiley Trashbag and we'll be back home with mom in no time."

He really is too sweet for this world. He sinks into the floor and I forgot to ask how he was able to get through this floor. I mean, I guess he said he can get through cement so metal can't be too far of a long shot. Asriel sure is a super strong boy even as a flower.

*BUZZ*

The power to the coil suddenly is shut off remotely like I so knew it could be. Damn it. I was hoping to have more time. How impatient is Mettaton for this? Reluctantly, I get up and walk down this new road. Halfway along this bridge, I am blocked by three vaguely familiar monsters that look like tougher versions of monsters I see in the Ruins.

Final Froggit has spike-like protrusions on its head and eyelids, accompanied by a crown-like muff on top of its head. Its lips are marked with lines, as though wrinkled from age. Its "shoulders" are decorated with sharp excrescents, while the silhouette between its legs forms a face with a triangular smile and cross eyes.

Whimsalot has a more human-like appearance than Whimsun. Also, its antennae are thicker, and there is a muff on their head that branches in two. Whimsalot's appearance is also accompanied by a double-bladed spear and a knight mask. Its ghost-like torso is skinnier and shorter.

Astigmatism's body consists of a large ball and four spiked limbs. The ball is accompanied by two "horns" on each side. When idle, a large eye can be seen on the ball also with three eyelashes. However, it changes from this face to another where the eye hollow is changed with a smile. When having its eye closed, the two side eyelashes become Astigmatism's eyes, while the middle one simply becomes a marking.

I don't know what I must look like to them. Probably dreadful. Because they move aside with not a word being side. I nod in thanks, proceeding to the end which for all I know might be the most tragic moment of my life second to Grillby dying. No! Stop it! Do as Flowey said. Smile. Stay chipper. Think of something silly. Like how dumb this place is. Honestly, was Gaster high making this place? I'll have to ask him later. Nah...I'll ask Sans. Less hassle.

The bridge comes to an end, leading to a shadowy doorway and an elevator that probably would've been super handy but was out of order to pad out the length of this bullshit subplot. Augh...It's so much easier to think my life is a fictional story or internet abridge series. It's the only way my brain allows most of this crap to make any sense.

"So this is it, huh? The epic conclusion of this grand show. Heh...I want to feel accomplished for making it this far. Almost. But all I do feel is..."

I can't finish my sentence. The weight I thought I got off my back earlier begins pressing on me again.

"Nothing...I feel nothing. *sniffling* Damn it...Don't fucking cry!"

With a breakdown seconds away from happening, I enter the doorway to the room of darkness and a door shuts behind me then locks. There is no going back now.

Please...I made a promise...Please...Don't make me have to RESET...Please...I'm begging...Please...

[itsclydebitches]

RWBY Recaps: “The Enemy of Trust”

Welcome to the finale, folks! A quick fun fact for you all. Total length of RWBY Recaps Volume 7 is:

68,611 words, or 115 pages single spaced. Yeesh. No wonder I never got anything else done on Saturdays.

Overall thoughts on the finale? There are pieces embedded in this episode that I really liked. Meaning, all these conflicts and reveals could be seen as truly wonderful bits of storytelling... provided you ignore the horrible, messy context it’s all situated in. For example, I greatly enjoyed that fight with Neo... provided I ignore the stupidity that was the group keeping the relic in the first place. I love the idea of Penny becoming the Winter Maiden... it’s just too bad there wasn’t any setup for that in the form of Penny’s emotional growth, either by re-bonding with Ruby or by something amounting from that frame job. I adore that Ozpin is finally back!! ...So I guess I just have to ignore how he pretty much only existed as thematic exposition and that his bad treatment by the writers hangs over his return. It’s all very “Could have been good if the rest hadn’t been so astoundingly bad.”

First though, before the plot, I wanted to dip by toe into some of the questions we went into this volume with and some of the primary ones that sprung up along the way. Simple answers are attached.

Will the group’s dangerous attitude be addressed along with the introduced hypocrisy in regards to secret keeping? Ha! Not at all. Everything was thoroughly reinforced and last we saw the group---besides generic airship shots---they were triumphantly defeating Ironwood’s evil Ace Ops. So that’s that on that.

Will Ozpin come back and will there be reconciliation with the group? Yes! But also no! Why have a volume tackling with the biggest personal conflict the group has ever faced when you could instead just have another “Ozpin speaks a handful of words during a life-and-death situation”? Yes, yes he gets that massive monologue. We’ll get to that, but suffice to say it doesn’t exactly accomplish anything. Just hammers home how desperate I am to have his character back that I’ll take anything they’re willing to give me.

How will the group handle the death of Adam---one of the most significant deaths to date next to Pyrrha’s---and how will the reveal of his brand impact Weiss and her time at home? It won’t. Blake and Yang vaguely reference him once and that’s it. Apparently killing your abuser in self-defense creates no lasting trauma we should deal with and major reveals from villains straight up don’t matter.

What will the story do with their new character Maria? Uh, nothing. She exists off screen for the entire volume, only popping up in the last second to (maybe?) help Pietro get the scrolls working again. Oh, and she’s stolen another airship.

How will Qrow’s alcoholism continue to impact the group and how will he learn to start managing his addiction? No idea because that happened off screen. And then was presumably erased when Clover died.

Will the group ever discuss the hopelessness attached to their mission and come to the realization that their fight is worthwhile even though they can’t kill Salem? Sort of...? Because yeah they come to that realization but, again, it happens off screen. More significantly, it happens so well, apparently, that the group is now willing to feed Ironwood’s own false hope (like the fandom claims Ozpin did to them) and will be able to stand in front of Salem herself and announce that she’s totally beatable. And we’re going to risk a whole Kingdom on that came-out-of-nowhere confidence.

What does the Staff of Creation do and how will our characters potentially use it in their plans against Salem? We learn that the staff keeps Atlas afloat and it’s definitely a part of Ironwood’s plans, so there’s that.

How will Ruby continue to train and improve her Silver Eye powers? In the messiest and most contradictory manner possible. We’re shown twice in the last three episodes that she can’t get them to work and then suddenly they’re working again when the plot wants Cinder to skedaddle because there’s five minutes of the episode left. Like Qrow’s semblance, Ruby’s eyes are based on a switch that the writers turn on or off depending on their whim.

What will this volume tell us about Nora given all the hype surrounding the importance of her character this season? Nothing, really. All Nora does is solidify her relationship with Ren in a non-consenting manner and yell at Ironwood about Mantle while helping to orchestrate the city’s lack of resources. Even ignoring the issues inherent in these scenes, what we “learned” about Nora this volume is that she loves Ren, is protective of those who come from a similar background as she does, and will run to hug Oscar when given the chance. So...nothing. 

Now the reason I provided this long-ass introduction is so that a) we can remember what we actually hoped/expected the volume to accomplish now that we’ve reached the end (RWBY introduces so many things that viewers---myself included---outright forget that we were supposed to tackle certain plot points or character beats) and b) to demonstrate just some of the writing problems that are impacting this finale. This is what I mean when I say that this finale could have been really solid if not for... all of that. And “that” is just a small sampling of the issues we’ve built up over the last two years. 

But on to the actual plot.

We open on Jaune yelling, “Give up!” at Neo, which isn’t a heavy-handed reflection of the entire RWBYJNR group or anything. As said though, I did really enjoy the choreography of this fight. Oscar gets that excellent moment where he catches the relic with his cane, as well as when he grabs hold of Neo’s legs to keep her from fleeing. Jaune manages to protect them with two different kinds of shields now embedded in his shield. It’s a shield-shield. And Neo herself is always a joy to watch, demonstrating so much personality as she teases her way through each attack. I was thinking throughout this scene that I’d love to see her and Tyrian fighting together. That would be an excellent blend of insane/arrogant enjoyment.

The problem is that Neo is just having such an easy time of it. Which, I should be clear, is what I wanted based on the logic of the situation. Neo should be able to kick their asses with relative ease. The only reason why this is an issue is because it severely complicates what we saw last episode. How was Oscar able to survive her attack for however long? How was he able to land such a solid punch when now Ren and Nora fly at her with the same kind of obviousness and Neo deflects them with ease? I’m thrilled that the finale gave us such a long moment with Oscar, but the series as a whole still has a problem with relegating most of his development off screen. Seeing the comparatively vulnerable farm boy face off against one of our strongest villains should have been a focus last episode, not something that happens in the ether of, “Well I guess all that worked out somehow despite Neo kicking their asses here.” It’s an issue of consistency and convenience primarily. The show seems to have the characters on a very malleable power scale nowadays. Oscar isn’t strong enough to help with the geist, but he’s strong enough to land the first solid hit on Neo. Team RWBY is strong enough to take out the most elite group of huntsmen in Atlas, but Team JNR isn’t strong enough to take out a single villain four to one. It makes it harder to invest in anyone or anything because we’re always on shaky ground. The viewers never know when the writing will obey the rules it has set up or chuck them away on a whim.

The fight is interrupted though when the guards spot them. Did Ruby mention that they were being arrested in her announcement? Did Ironwood announce that before or after Ruby called? I honestly can’t remember and right now I’m too lazy to check. I was just a little surprised that Jaune immediately knew to run from the guards, rather than going, “Hey, crazy woman attacking us please help.” But eh, I’m happy enough to chalk that up to either my own shaky memory or a small connection lost. RWBY has way bigger problems than details like, “How did so-and-so know about such-and-such?” Not unless that information holds way more weight.

So they flee and we actually get to see some reaction to fighting for once. Oscar in particular is clearly exhausted and his clothes are done-in from the battle. Later, while hiding in the training room, all four of them will be leaning against the wall, heaving after facing Neo. Again, this is good. This is how newly-minted huntsmen should be reacting to fighting people way beyond their skill level. It’s only a problem when we compare these details to what we got last week with Team RWBY. Showing JNOR’s exhaustion from a quick bout with Neo no way aligns with RWBY’s perky, totally fine, no auras broken and no tiredness characterization after facing off against four Ace Ops for a significantly longer period.

So there’s some serious plot armor at work there. It became even more clear this episode that Team RWBY won because Team RWBY always gets what they want, not because it makes any sense in-world. But we’ll have to deal with any other consequences of that next volume because they’re barely in the rest of this episode. Instead, we return to the Winter, Penny, and Cinder fight where Cinder casually tosses Penny aside with her grimm arm. She’s briefly held back by Winter’s summoned birds, but that’s hardly going to faze her in the grand scheme of things. In fact, Cinder still has enough energy and confidence to start some philosophizing while she fights. She tells Winter that she may think “hoarding power means you’ll keep it forever, but it just makes the rest of us hungrier.” Self-fulfilling words from the woman hell-bent on acquiring and hoarding all the Maiden powers? As absurd as Cinder’s beliefs are, that “And I refuse to starve” line was pretty badass. On the whole I think she’s a boring villain, but every once in a blue moon Cinder will have a cool moment before she becomes irrelevant again.

The fight continues as Penny returns to the fray and it sounded to me that she was making more noise during this fight than normal. Granted, we’ve rarely seen Penny engage in an all-out brawl that lasts for more than a few seconds, but the additions certainly help with where she’s heading this episode. Particularly moments such as when they’re outside and Cinder’s sword blows up in Penny’s face, causing her to outright scream. It’s a very human sound, setting up the reveal that yes, an android is human enough to take on the Maiden powers. And if you go by some fan theories, “woman enough” (for lack of a better term) given that her aura is a man’s, Pietro’s. Penny is a girl regardless of starting out with male aura, leading to some wonderful and interesting takes on her as a trans character. Now I’m not giving that praise to Rooster Teeth---this isn’t them giving us representation---rather, I’m praising the fandom’s ingenuity and ability to adopt characters into their own communities. You don’t need “evidence” to headcanon transness, but having a girl born of a man’s aura go on to acquire woman-only power can definitely help. 

Granted, Penny’s vocalizing here is just a tiny detail that I’m choosing to apply positively to an outcome. I nevertheless stand by my early belief that Penny simply didn’t have the development needed to land her in the Maiden position. Having her grapple with her own death, Ruby her resurrection, and the loss of Mantle’s support would have achieved that. It’s clear now why Rooster Teeth brought her back, but that doesn’t mean they’ve treated her character well for the last twelve episodes. Instead, in true RWBY fashion, a lot was introduced with no followup.

As said though, they take things outside to give us a decently cool battle between three characters who can fly. While in the air though Winter’s aura is broken and she starts to plummet. Obviously Penny catches her, to which Winter replies, “What are you doing? My life doesn’t matter!”

Sometimes I wonder if Rooster Teeth bothers to think about the dialogue they put in characters’ mouths. I mean seriously? Winter is not stupid. Nor is she so hard that---as the episode hammers home---she wouldn’t experience fear. So:

Anyone is going to be happy about being caught from a 100% deadly fall. In a situation like this survival instinct trumps responsibility. Even if it didn’t “responsibility” doesn’t make any sense here because:

They’re not giving up on the Maiden. Penny isn’t making a decision here that requires forever and always choosing Winter over Fria. They’re gonna turn right around and continue the fight

Seriously, it takes a few seconds to catch her. This isn’t that big a deal

The fight thus far has clearly proven that they need all the help they can get. Penny can’t take Cinder on her own and indeed, even with her aura broken Winter manages to be incalculably helpful

Fria still has her powers, which she’s about to demonstrate. Does Winter really not realize that Fria is still pretty capable of defending herself?

In short, this line is stupid. More than just stupid it’s twisting a character to get them to fit with the volume’s badly imposed theme. Oh look Winter cares sooooo much about her orders that she would needlessly die for them. Penny must teach her the value of her own life and how “blindly” obeying Ironwood is a big, bad thing. Come on. Lines like these---Harriet claiming the Ace Ops aren’t friends even though they clearly are, Qrow blaming Ironwood for Clover’s death when he’s not even there, Yang sniping at Elm about how she can’t think for herself---only serve to say Protagonists Good; Ironwood Bad. Rooster Teeth really loves to introduce justified and sympathetic characters, only to have other characters go OOC to backtrack on that verbally. Ignore what you’ve seen and just believe the nonsense words that never would have come out of this character’s mouth otherwise. And yes, that includes Yang and her comment to Elm. She is by far the most loyal character, considering that she’s canonically done things she did not want (following Ozpin) purely because Ruby was doing it. If the story had any sense embedded in it Yang would be the one who understood where the Ace Ops were coming from in their devotion to Ironwood, or at the very least the narrative would call her out on her hypocricy. As it is, the story functions around the “fact” that following Ruby is just intrinsically good. No matter what Ruby herself might do and how it does or does not compare to others’ actions. She’s the hero, always. In the same way, having Winter spout such a nonsense line works only to say, “See? Following Ironwood destroys all your self-wroth. Following Ruby? Like Penny does? You learn the value of friendship!” Never-mind that the first thing Ironwood does this episode is congratulate and apologize to Winter when he thinks he’s coming down into the vault...

Enjoyable pieces aside, I’m obviously still salty, but we’ll get to Ironwood in a minute. For now, Oscar is seriously dragging behind JNR and manages to get separated. He’s hidden from the guards by “Nora” who is, obviously Neo. Within the span of a second she’s gotten the relic and will keep it until she hands it over to Cinder.

Congratulations, team! Not only did you allow Ironwood to harm Mantle for weeks on end when you knew his plan was doomed to fail, you’ve also lost the relic you came to secure in the first place, thoroughly betrayed the one powerful ally you had in this war (just like you did Ozpin), have destroyed any hope of escape as---surprise!---Salem actually showed up, and you took out the one elite team who might have helped you fight her. Oh, and Qrow, you got arrested in the end anyway so congrats on getting your friend killed along the way. Seriously, how does anyone---how does the narrative---insist that these people are heroes? At this point this is a story about fallen heroes, but rather than emphasizing precisely how badly the group has screwed up the last two volumes and taking them on a journey back from the brink, they’re still being painted in a perfect light.

So... yeah. Relic is gone. Which we all saw coming the second Ruby happily agreed to keep holding onto it, then got protective when Ironwood mentioned taking it back. Loyalty aside, you cannot possibly think the relic is safer on your or Oscar’s belt than it is in a freaking magical vault. The group should be denied the title of “heroes” for their stupidity and arrogance alone. Especially when they never bothered to tell Ironwood that there was still a question left. That might have changed his mind about letting them carry it around. 

Thus, relic in hand, Neo makes easy work of the rest of the team. Most notably by keeping Nora’s face and giving Ren sad eyes when he tries to strike her. This is a really good moment of visual storytelling and more how RWBY should be using their fights to do double-duty and develop characterization. Neo’s trick not only demonstrates her cruel skills, but tells us precisely how deeply Ren cares for Nora. Even knowing that’s not her he hesitates. Then, obviously, we’ve got the tears as the team runs off. So obviously things are still eating at him and their relationship is a big part of that... which just makes me all the more frustrated that the story passed over his fears at the party. I really don’t care how eager everyone (myself included) was to finally get a renora kiss. We never should have seen Nora ignoring those problems and insisting on moving the relationship forward in a way he clearly wasn’t ready for yet. Ren’s words told us that, as does his grief now. Everyone was wondering if ignoring his anxiety would come to a head in the form of Ren siding with Ironwood, but we didn’t get the chance to find that out this volume. Which, I get it. RWBY doesn’t have a lot of time, but that’s precisely the problem. Tiny tid-bits are dropped and then ignored for weeks, if not years on end. That moment between Ren and Neo was excellently crafted and told us a lot about both, but ultimately it’s just another moment cast adrift from everything else. Who knows if this plot-line will actually continue in Volume 8’s premier, if at all.

So Neo wanders off in an Atlas disguise and hands the relic off to Cinder. What’s Cinder going to do with the relic precisely? Not sure. Gonna have to wait on that one. We do have some decent setup for Neo’s betrayal though. She not only looked pissed at Cinder just snatching the prize, but sad about it too. Neo has always been driven by her own, messed up love, notably for Roman. Now that he’s gone it seems like she was looking for someone else to latch onto. Now that Cinder has proven that Neo is only a tool to her, she’d better watch her back.

Returning to Fria. She, as said, still has a lot of kick in her and easily pushes Cinder back. “That’s the power of a fully realized Maiden,” Winter says as crazy power shoots into the sky. Again, good setup... if I believed RWBY was capable of following up on anything. Remember at the beginning of the volume when Harriet dropped setup on Ruby’s semblance? Yeah, nothing came of that either. And though it still might, again, when? I know I use this example a lot, but you can’t introduce Raven speaking with Tai, drop that for three years (or longer), and then pick it back up like that’s still a relevant thread to follow. By having Winter proclaim that this is a “fully realized” power we imply that others, such as Cinder, may be able to become more powerful as well, but there’s little faith on the viewer’s part that such a line will actually amount to anything. Or if it does, it will happen so far in the future that most viewers will have forgotten about it.

For now though Fria is super-duper powerful. Cinder and Winter can’t even get near her. So it’s up to Penny, the one person not made of flesh and blood, to get the job done. I like that. Great use of difference as a strength. So she dives in and gets Fria to calm down, reigning her power back in. They discuss transferring the power and when Penny tries to remind her of the consequences we get, “I’ll be gone. I know I have a hard time remembering, but I remember that.” Hey. Hey, hey. I want the entire fandom to pay attention to this line because a lot of you still have a tendency to erase agency so as to more easily pin the blame on characters you don’t like. Pyrrha didn’t choose to fight Cinder against Ozpin’s orders, Ozpin killed her! Qrow didn’t choose to fight Clover and team up with Tyrian, Ironwood killed Clover! The Ace Ops didn’t choose to be loyal and maintain the responsibility they swore as military huntsmen, Ironwood just brainwashed them into being obedient puppets! Here, we get another glorious reminder that yes, these characters can actually think and act for themselves. Even the characters with dementia. Asking someone to do the hard thing (Pyrrha) is not in any way comparable to making them. It’s crystal clear from Fria’s line here that Ironwood spoke to her about the situation. He, like Ozpin, was upfront about the consequences. She in turn decided to accept this duty. Yes, I know I’ll die. I’ve accepted that. I have a job to do and I intend to complete it.

So yeah, #stop-taking-away-one-character’s-agency-just-because-you-don’t-like-another-2020.

Penny is thus faced with a glaring responsibility of her own: will she take on the Maiden powers? Because Fria may remember her job, but not who else was supposed to complete the job with her. Was it you? Penny, meanwhile, is looking at all that ice and wondering if Winter can even get here in time. It may well only be her... unless they want it to be Cinder.

As she thinks through this decision we return to JNR. Ren has a brief freak-out about how “We weren’t ready to become huntsmen” but instead of a truthful statement about their maturity and skill levels, the story twists it into a false statement by having Ren start yelling at Nora and placing unnecessary blame. We’re not supposed to believe him here because he’s irrational and lashing out... even though I think “We weren’t ready to become huntsmen” is a 100% truthful statement. The last two volumes have proven to me, if no one else, that having a job with that much power and responsibility isn’t just about whether you can swing your scythe really well. It’s about having the emotional fortitude and, as said, majority to treat it as a job and put that responsibility ahead of your own desires. RWBYJNR has consistently demonstrated that they’re unwilling to do that. It’s their way or the highway, damn promises, responsibility, loyalty, or consequences.

Before things can really break in the group though more soldiers show up and as they’re hiding behind Jaune’s shield he realizes that Oscar is missing. Over the comms Oscar says that he has something he needs to do alone, heading for the vault. I really appreciate this moment because Oscar is the one person in this group who has actually extended some of the unity and sympathy that RWBYJNR keeps yelling that everyone needs to give to them first. He apologizes to Ironwood whereas Yang sticks her nose in the air and insists she did nothing wrong. He approaches Ironwood and asks to find a way forward together while Ruby yells that Harriet has to do what she wants or no, I won’t stop attacking you. We get that moment where Ironwood thinks it’s Winter descending and goes, “I know that must have been hard for you. I’m so sorry,” demonstrating his own care and compassion. We see Oscar embodying Ozpin in his folded hands, use of the cane, and harder eyes, despite the fact that it’s still him in control. 

He has a piece of that maturity the rest of his team lacks. He’s open, Ironwood is open, they’re poised to do what the others around them can’t...

Too bad it all goes to total shit.

You know, I feel like I should be more mad about this but at this point I’m just kind of numb. Why in the world would I be surprised that Rooster Teeth would erase all the work above to turn Ironwood into a generic villain? They did it before, or did I suddenly forget the twenty-minutes that humanized Ozpin only to be followed with two volumes of bashing him non-stop? I knew Ironwood was going to get screwed, I just didn’t think they’d go so far as to do it like this. And shame on me because I should have.

There are times when things happen on screen... but by god it isn’t canon. Because it’s just too stupid to be canon. It’s so horrifically out of character that the only explanation is that this is an impersonator and the writers just forgot to tell us that along the way. Because James Ironwood would never kill a child. Or hell, maybe he would, but it would have to be under RADICALLY different circumstances from these. People realize right that this is so beyond out of character as to be laughable, right? We get:

A man who has devoted himself to fighting the biggest evil his world has ever seen

Learning the importance of care over brute strength, adopting Ozpin’s lessons by giving Mantle Penny

Has spent the last year trying desperately to keep all his people safe, making the hard calls in order to achieve that

Was beyond delighted when the group first appeared, kneeling down before Oscar and hugging Qrow

Has frequently asked after Ozpin throughout the volume, demonstrating a strong desire for him to return

Immediately forgave the group even after learning about Salem’s immortality, still pushing forward with them

Just sacrificed his arm in an effort to continue protecting those around him

Finally realized he didn’t have allies in this team and called only for their arrest, not any violence or mistreatment

Hired the Ace Ops, a group whose conflict was their need to perform that arrest pushing against their desire not to hurt anyone

Ironwood just began the scene by extending sympathy and apologies to another

And you’re going to tell me that this man, this man defined by his compassion and desperate need to protect others... is going to shoot the 14yo kid housing one of his oldest friends? Shoot to kill?

Because make no mistake, that was a killing shot. Ironwood knew Oscar was at the edge. Even if it hadn’t broken Oscar’s aura, that fall isn’t anything you can survive without Humanity 1.0 magic---magic Ironwood clearly wasn’t counting on to save him. They literally took this man and erased EVERYTHING that made him-him, deciding that randomly Ironwood kills kids now because he dislikes a conversation. Kills Ozpin too. It makes zero sense... but you know all precisely why they did it. Because Ironwood is the villain now. He dared disagree with Team RWBY and now that he’s an antagonist they had to make sure he did something he couldn’t come back from. You don’t try to kill the youngest of the group and then come back into the fold. Ironwood is finished. He’s either going to die next volume or the group is going to lock him behind bars as a “witty” parallel of him trying to arrest them, dropping a one-liner about how they’re sorry it came to this.

Which, obviously, I absolutely despise. The rest of the episode? Had a lot going for it. Cool and interesting developments that might have been great if not attached to the horror show of the last twenty-five episodes... but still cool and interesting nonetheless. This? This is the worst thing RWBY has done to date because they not only irrevocably messed up one of their best characters, but they did so in a way that highlights everything that has been wrong with the show the last two years. There was no buildup to this. None. Don’t @ me with “But Ironwood is unstable and the Tin Man has no heart.” No and also no. Rooster Teeth simply decided that they wanted him as a villain and made that happen in the span of a few seconds. It’s just as absurd and insulting as if, last volume while angry at Qrow, Ruby had picked up her scythe and cut through Weiss as a form of anger management. Ironwood aiming to kill the kid he’s been bonding with all volume and Ozpin to boot because they’re having a slightly heated conversation is insane. 

Which isn’t to say that conversation itself helped matters. Because Ironwood remains right. Those are all pretty, philosophical questions, Oscar, but what are we going to do about our situation? Oscar might express more sympathy then Team RWBY, but he’s just as naive and dangerously stubborn. He doesn’t have a plan either, just a continuing insistence that they try. In fact, his arguments are really... nonsensical in places? He says that if Ironwood abandons Mantle they’ll lose hope of uniting the whole world, even though we’ve never established why that’s still a goal when a world-wide army can’t defeat Salem. He likewise makes the absurd claim that because Ironwood is thinking about the big picture “Then you’re as dangerous as she is, James.”

No??

If RWBY is going to incorporate philosophy and moral conundrums into their writing then they actually need to do the work to think them through. Because sorry but the man making a currently still necessary sacrifice in order to keep the world as a whole safe is not the same thing as the genocidal grimm queen hell-bent on destroying it. Again, do they think about the words they’re putting into the characters’ mouths? The worst is how many viewers just eat it up. Because Good Boy Oscar said something vaguely wise-sounding then it must be true...never-mind the absurdity of the statement itself. I love Oscar to bits, just not when the writing uses him as a prop to promote these absurd themes. Not to keep dragging Witcher into every possible part of my life, but it immediately reminded me of this quote from Geralt. “You wizards are all the same...

Just because Oscar says it with confidence doesn’t mean it makes any sense.

Which is where we end up. Oscar falling, Ozpin arriving, the two of them managing to survive the fall. I have to admit that at this point Ozpin’s return just felt damn underwhelming to me. Like yes, of course I’m thrilled he’s back, but watching them mangle James like that just kicked all the enjoyment out of the rest of the episode. That, combined with the fact that Ozpin’s return actually was pretty lackluster. I mean, I feel like a shit for complaining about the thing I’ve wanted since the beginning of Volume 6... but is that really all we get? Ozpin doesn’t save him, Oscar saves them both, because he apparently has complete access to the magic and memories now. What does Ozpin matter then? Ozpin doesn’t speak really, just says Oscar’s name and is then cut off because Oscar doesn’t want to hear anything he has to say unless it’s about saving Atlas. He does express something like gratitude though--- “You’re back, aren’t you? You saved me”---so that’s more than we’ve gotten from anyone else. And Ozpin does narrate... but who is that to? Obviously very reminiscent of our series’ premier, but is he speaking to Salem again? We’re not told---or shown---and as it is that monologue exists purely for the audience. It’s a speech we could have gotten from any character and just happened to get it from Ozpin. It’s not being spoken to Oscar and therefore not forwarding any of the relationships that still need to be mended. In fact, this could well be a speech Ozpin gave years ago, disconnected from who he is now. Perhaps the biggest issue is that the speech is all about fear, further hammering home the finale’s BS stance that Ironwood being afraid of actual, legitimate threats made him into an unhinged child-killer.

Because his “paranoia”? It’s about this. This is what Ironwood was afraid of.

And oh look it’s here.

So yeah... I just can’t fall in love with this moment as I feel I should. RWBY has burned me too many times lately---the last time seconds before this scene---and frankly now that Ozpin is back I don’t trust them to treat his character well. So his return is automatically laced with more worry than excitement to see what comes next. Because if they do this to Ironwood, somehow who has done nothing but try to help this whole volume, what the hell are they going to do to Ozpin, someone who actually lied to and kept secrets from the precious team? I want him back, but not while we’ve got these themes going. I’m legit worried about how the group will react to his return and what the narrative is going to make Ozpin do as penance for his supposed sins. I’m not really thrilled about the prospect of watching more assault that’s painted as heroic justice. Normally I’d be going, “Well you never know, RWBY could prove me wrong...” except that after Ironwood? I really don’t think it will. Because Ozpin may ask, “Will you forgive them? Will you understand why they felt the need to do the things they did?” but it’s “staring back at you is the very thing you should have feared from the start” is what we get when Ironwood is shown again when he’s told Winter doesn’t have the power, he can’t open the vault, and he has no way of escaping this army. Rather than painting this as a tragedy that’s on our “heroes,” Ironwood is just made to look deranged. The story doesn’t encourage us to forgive him, no matter Ozpin’s words. 

The scne was pretty though! lol. Stunningly gorgeous, really. If I just turn my brain off and don’t think about everything surrounding Oscar falling while Ozpin re-joins him, it’s an absolutely fantastic scene...

Yeah, the rest of the episode is mostly things I’ve already covered. Maria picks everyone up in their “getaway ship” because her character apparently only exists now to provide comic relief in the form of illegal actions. 

Penny takes on the Maiden powers while Winter holds Cinder off with no aura. That was badass as hell.  Go Winter, you’re still one of my faves this volume.

Ruby conveniently uses her silver eyes even though they’ve failed twice in the last three to four episodes. 

Qrow is arrested and holds onto Clover’s blood-stained badge. 

Robyn is apparently just fine. 

Watts is potentially getting freed by Tyrian, or else was just distracted by the arrival of Salem, I honestly wasn’t sure. 

The only other thing of consequence is that Winter and Weiss acknowledge that they’re on different paths. They can’t support one another in who they’re loyal to, but Winter will still give her sister a head start.

Oh, that moment and this, of course.

I’ve already spoken about my very iffy feelings about introducing Salem as an actual enemy before the final volume and those feelings are compounded by this absurd denouncement of hard, practical choices. I mean... seriously. What is the group going to do at the start of next volume? “These readings can’t be right,” an Atlas soldier says, horrified at the number of grimm that are appearing around them from an ominous red cloud. That entire army we saw at the end of Volume 6. Plus a giant whale grimm that could easily swallow any of our heroes (Pinocchio reference, anyone?), plus the immortal sorceress who could do any number of things to obliterate you---and take all the time in the world to do it. Like... they’re screwed. They are dead and Ironwood was 100% right to try and take whoever he could to safety and regroup. Except that obviously the series doesn’t end in tragedy here so they’ll wiggle their way out of things somehow. It just won’t be satisfying. Because we absolutely have a hopeless situation here and the story hasn’t allowed the group to acknowledge and then try to circumvent that in any practical manner. Ruby’s silver eyes will inexplicably get crazy powerful. Or Salem will randomly decide to leave. Or they’ll discover some new and untapped skill through the power of friendship. Then, at the end of it all, we’ll be told to look back at Ironwood and call him crazy for trying to save lives with a realistic approach because see? We managed a miracle after all.

I can’t believe I’m going to watch that nonsense. But I will. Because RWBY was a show that I loved and some small part of me still hopes it’ll return to what it once was. At the very least I need to find out what happens to these characters---no matter how stupid and insulting---and this episode, despite all my expectations, did give me tiny glimmers into what RWBY used to be. Moments that were fun or badass or legitimately touching. I almost wish it wouldn’t, just so I could make a clean break with the show. Absolute trash is better than trash that demonstrates skill just enough to make you think there might be hope for a better written story the next time around. Ah well. At least writing the recaps is always fun!

So I’ll still be here, answering asks and chucking out nonsense. Feel free to come join me if you’re ever inclined.  

Until next volume 💜

[marisandini-chu-blog]

Disaster Review: Fate the Winx Saga

This is my review on Fate: the winx saga and tell you what a dumpster truck that show is.

I would like to first disclaim that my view on this show was based on the first episode that I watched blindly going in and immediately decided it deserved to be dropped. 

Because by God, it was bad. 

Not the worst thing that ever graced the netflix platform but rebooting the childhood show I loved into a Riverdale-esque teenage fantasy drama show was enough to make me gacked. 

If you like the show, good for you. But don’t expect to change my mind by asking me to give it a second look. Because there are, oh, so many problems just from the first episode that I cannot look past it for another episode. 

Putting aside the middle-aged fashion they used on supposed teenage girls. The dim lighting from start to finish makes you think the place was ever foggy and drab. The boring-ass setting like a Harry Potter rip-off. The explicit and implicit drug using and sex scenes of supposed minors on screen. The WHITEWASHING!!! 

I can get past most of that (except the last part but that's a social/casting issue rather than writing.) I'm a simple gal, as long as the show hit two points; characters and plot, then I'm happy. 

But they can't even do that. 

Because I'm nice and this is only the first episode, I'll only point out three things that miffed me. Oh, and spoiler alert. 

So ONE. 

THEY DID STELLA DIRTY!!!!

Honestly this one reason is enough to drop the show altogether because they made fashionista, compassionate, talented Stella into a stereotypical RICH BLONDE BITCH!!

There's no problem in reimagining a character, but the least they can do is be creative about it and not be disgustingly out of character. 

It took one scene during the time Stella side-eyed the new girl, Bloom while conversing with Sky. Barely five minutes into the show. I knew from that one scene she was going to be the stuck-up bitch with a secretly heart of gold, who has a tragic background and will spend at least half the season going through redemption and becoming one of Bloom's best friends. 

IT TOOK ONE SCENE FOR ME TO PIN HER! ONE!!!

Do you know how boring of an introduction it has to be when you can spot on guess a character troupe in a glance?  

And God, I hope that I was proven wrong. And I check other reviews to make sure of it. But apparently having a character arc of a decently beautiful, talented blonde girl as a baseline is too much to ask from a cis white male. 

Because what drama can you get if you don't have that one redemption blonde bitch in a group? It's like he doesn't know what teenage girls in a clique are like. Shocker! 

It’s like they’re trying to recreate a RWBY dynamic only Rooster Teeth actually did their job better.  

To make matters worse, they had to throw in a freaking love triangle. As if you can't make anything dark, dramatic, and gritty, than a freaking love triangle in the very first episode. PLUS, they had to use the guy, ex-boyfriend, Sky, to prove Stella wasn't the bitch like the whole episode had portrayed her to be. As if you don't need to put cliche on top of cliche, they just had to do that. 

Then one to number TWO, Bloom's relationship with her parents. 

As background goes with Bloom being a Changeling and her parents not realizing they're not related, I have no problem. 

I do have a problem with the portrayal of their relationship. 

See, at the start they just have a casual video call with them. At a glance there's no problem other than the secret keeping.

Then later on, Bloom tells Aisha she doesn't get along well with her mother. Okay, no big deal. 

Then there's a flashback of a 'teenager' moment of the mother calling her daughter a "weirdo" since she has no friends which sets Bloom off, Bloom slamming the door on her mother, the door gets confiscated, then Bloom sets her parents room on fire by accident with her power. 

Err, okay. So typical communication issues between parent and child. I don't see how the scene can consider them "not get along" because apparently 16 years living with your mother and that one scene was enough to consider them to be in a bad relationship. 

Basically, there's almost no emotional impact in her backstory and generally, I think it's a stupid reason to get so mad that you accidentally burn your mom. Maybe because I'm Asian, but when you slam the door to your mother's face then you don't deserve that door. That's like a slap on the face to your elder and that's a major no-no.

Whatever, back to the story.   

Later, Bloom went back to Earth from the Otherworld and called them while sneaking around their house. Having doubts in learning to be a fairy until she saw her mother's burn on her arm and solidify her resolve to learn to be a fairy. 

I watched that scene and felt… nothing.

The heartfelt scene was directed and written decently enough but still the scene felt hollow to me. Gee, I wonder why? 

Oh, I know. Maybe because around 15 minutes ago, Bloom freaking said WE DON'T GET ALONG!!!

This might be a minor thing but it matters to me because I watched the resolution of the minor conflict of that first episode and the message the dialogues and scene implied is that Bloom feels too guilty to stay. 

I freaking know the scene implied that Bloom loves her parents. I'm freaking saying it wasn't shown that way. Like… how am I supposed to be sympathetic to the main character when her main motivation is guilt instead of love. It would certainly help if during the most honest moment of Bloom; she would say something about loving her mom or her parents, about wanting to protect them from herself, heck or CRY EVEN! 

Instead we have Bloom practicing her fire magic through emotionally fueling herself with the memory of her almost burning her mom. 

Exactly what part of that scene showed she felt remorse or love if she's willing to use the supposed traumatic-memory on the first day of school?!?!

I'm just… urgh. 

Then there's the THIRD problem, it's the most insignificant problem and not about writing but I want to talk about it anyway. The magic. 

Specifically, the absentee of magic. 

So Bloom goes to school in the Otherworld called Alfea. So implying it's a magical place for fairies, right? So you imagine lots of fantastical setting and magic right? 

Yeah, decent amount on the latter but almost non-existent on the former. 

So the characters do magic, that's plainly shown enough through the fairies and the Burn One, which is the big bad monster of the show. But it's a large peeve of mine that Netflix has enough budget to CGI the girls but not the setting. 

Because you know the moment Bloom became the second student sneaking out of the barrier that, you know, must be there for a reason (the security is hopeless there). She looked around the plain forest, looked up and saw a glittering silhouette of a bird or some kind. Smiled as if she's just seen the most amazing thing. Then… nothing. That's it. You get glitter shadow as proof she's in a magical forest and the producer thought they should call it a day. Exactly what's so magical about that? 

Even if there's a more magical aspect in the setting of future episodes. It doesn't make what they did forgivable. First episode is supposed to be a moment where you hook the audience through the characters and setting. 

If you want a great example of a fantastical school setting, look no further; Sky High and Harry Potter did an awesome job! 

Harry Potter can make things magical without much CGI, shown with the disappearing glass, overwhelming letters, pig tails, and Platform nine three-quarters. Most of them mainly used props or just video editing and they look fantastical!

The introduction of the school, Sky High showed what teenagers with superpowers would do. Teasing, wrecking havoc, and generally have fun with their powers like any teenagers would do. In Winx Saga, the magic was introduced through lighting a room, almost choking a guy to death, squashing a forest fire, burning your mom's hand when you get teenage angst. 

The teenagers instead look like having fun when taking selfies or during a party. With almost no magic presence.

Are you even trying to even make a magic school? This is the freaking first episode, its job is to establish a solid setting and background and it did the job poorly. 

Yeah, that's my take on the horrible, horrible decision that is Netflix to use their budget. 

[cchellacat]

Thank You For Your Service:Pt3

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Wintershock: Bucky Barnes x Darcy Lewis

18 + For some smut.

For the next week Darcy stuck to the confines of the Tower. It wasn’t hard, the place was a veritable mini city in it’s own right. The first floor was made up of two restaurants, a boutique and spa. Never let it be said that Tony would ever let anyone in his employ do without the essentials.  There was also a fantastic lending library on five, a gym for the Avengers personal use on sixty-five and an Olympic size pool on sub-level three.

She spent plenty of time stewing over the thought of him knowing who she was that first night, but eventually she admits to herself that he seemed shocked when Tony introduced them too.  She still made it her mission to avoid James Barnes at all costs though, she wasn’t ready to face him yet.

Every time he tried to track her down, she used the private elevator and Jarvis to circumvent his attempts.  Luckily Jane had left for a short trip to Culver to give some lectures, so Darcy wasn’t stuck in the labs where she knew she was all too easy to find.

The problem of Barnes as her bodyguard was keeping her from sleeping well.  She was still furious with him and pissed at Tony for making her comply, but she had went back and retrieved the tablet he’d left her and after reading through it she knew he had a point.  It still chaffed though. She had spent so much of her life looking out for herself that it went against everything in her to allow someone else, no matter how well meaning or right to dictate how she conducted herself.

The problem is that she is frustrated and confused by the sudden insistence.  She's been working at SI for two years without a bodyguard and only a light protection detail when she and Jane go to international conferences. Darcy is convinced the only reason Tony is insisting on a bodyguard now is because he found out she was his daughter.  Thor insisting on Jane having protection when he wasn't there makes far more sense, she is the future Queen of Asgard and he knows there are people who are opposed to Jane’s future status. Darcy is just a low level assistant, no one even knows about her blood connection to Tony.

She also spent some of the time the past week, researching him.  Oh, she knew the basics, everyone did, but what Shield and the Avengers allowed released to the public was far less than what she could get her hands on hacking the Tower servers.  Jarvis was good enough not to tattle on her, so there was that. After the confrontation in the elevator she had also had to get into Jarvis code and convince him to delete the footage of their hate fueled sexcapades, the last thing she wanted was Tony blowing a fuse because she got her freak on with Bucky Barnes.

She hadn’t been able to resist watching it before she deleted it though.  Watching them tear at each other was thrilling, it had been primal and raw. Seeing it from the outside, coupled with the memory of how it had felt, she had touched herself, coming harder by her own hand than she had in years.  It took her breath away to see him fuck her, to watch as all that raw strength, a body made and sculpted for war, held her effortlessly, taking her apart. She lost track of everything watching it, watching them, their reflections carrying into infinity as he claimed her.  It’s what it was, there’s no other way to describe how he took her, even as she claimed him back, teeth and nails marking him. She blushed seeing it, seeing her own wanton abandon.

Watching as her body arched into his and how she pulled on his hair, the grunts he made as she clenched around him had her cuming around her own fingers.  It made her ache to feel him again, to have him fill her with his cock and mutter filth in her ear the way he had. She watches his face when he makes her come, sees the awe and possession in his expression, the way he looks at her like he wants to keep her.  It’s how she knows that it isn’t just her imagination. There is something important between them, something visceral and deep.

He could have broken her if he’d been any less in command of himself.  She knew that now, understood and was thrilled by the thought of it. She’d seen the footage of the Winter Soldier on the bridge in DC.  He and Steve had been all out against each other on that highway and Barnes had held the upper hand, had been winning even before Steve realised who he was.  She was just a fragile human, the control he exerted over himself even as they lost themselves in angry lust had been absolute.

She’d stood in front of her bathroom mirror every evening and morning, fingers tracing over the bruises he had left and knows he could have broken her bones, but he hadn’t.  He’d left his mark, his fingerprints on her skin, blue and purple fading to green and yellow. When they were finally gone she had felt bereft. Part of her wanted those marks back on her body, claiming her, branding her. When he’d been inside her she’d felt whole in a way she’d never experienced before.  

Knowing his story better after pouring over the files only made her want him more.  She wanted to hate him, she really did, but he’d promised he hadn’t been following her, that meeting her had been just that, a coincidence.  She believed him, but that didn’t mean she was going to make this easy on him.

She’d eventually calmed down after everything and decided to beard the lion in his den.  The surprise on his face when she turned up at his office door had been genuine.

Darcy  smiled nervously at him from the doorway before stepping inside. Bucky looked up at her knock and motioned for her to come in.  The office was utilitarian and almost empty, other than the desk and chairs. Book shelves lined one wall, bare and waiting to be filled, on the window sill was a large cacti, the kind you see in garden centers the world over.  She wonders who bought it for him, somehow knowing it’s not the sort of thing he would have chosen for himself.

“Hey.”  it’s all she manages to say.  Unsure of what you're meant to say to the guy who’s fucked you twice but whom you’ve never actually had a proper conversation with.  

“Darcy.”  He seems just as unsure of where they stand as she does.  He stood there, waiting until she sits down before retaking his seat.

The silence makes her edgy and she blurts out the first thing that comes to mind.

“Nice cactus... how’s it going?”

He spares the greenery a quick look of derision before turning his attention back to her.

“It’s good, getting through a review of personal and doing some additional background checks, I didn’t realise how much paperwork this damn job was going to involve.”

She smiles, fingers drumming against her thigh.

“You know this position comes with a PA, right?  Haven’t you found someone suitable from HR yet?”

“I guess  just haven’t gotten around to it yet.  Still a lot of things on the list, honestly I think I forgot with everything.”  he gestured vaguely at the boxes of files on the floor around his desk. “But, what can I do for you?”

“I umm, I wondered if you wanted to get a drink tonight.  Let me apologise for jumping to conclusions the other day.”

It’s as close as she’ll come to saying she was wrong for being so upset with him.  A peace offering and a date in one.

Bucky sighs and looks down at the desk, flicking an eye off to the side and the moving a file over the offending paper.  She holds her breath, thinking this was not the response she expected. She sees it coming even before he speaks.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t.  It wouldn’t be right.”

“Why not?  We’re both consenting adults, you’re not my employee and I don’t work for you…”

“It’s a conflict of interest Doll.”  he still won’t look her in the eye.

“Why are you so determined to keep me at arms length?  I’ve seen the employment contact Tony had you sign, there’s nothing stopping us from seeing each other.  I know I’m not wrong about this, you like me, I know you do.”

“You’re right, I do, but we still can’t do this.  I need to focus on my job, I can’t do that properly if we’re involved.  I don’t want to slip up and you get hurt.” he sounds sincere, but she’s known men who could do that even when they were lying, and right now he wasn’t telling her everything, she could feel it.

“So assign me my own protection detail.  I’ll follow the rules, not cause any trouble.  Tony won’t mind so long as I stick to the program.”

“I can’t do that, Tony asked me to be your personal security, I gave him my word, I’d never forgive myself if another Stark died when I could have stopped it.”

She feels the bottom drop out from underneath her.  More excuses, she’s an idiot, maybe he was interested enough to fuck her but not have a relationship. The thought tasted bitter in her mouth.

“You don’t have to lie to me, if you don’t want to go out with me.”

“Doll, it’s not like that, I do like you, I just…   I can’t trust anyone else with your safety.”

She stood quickly, and strode to the door, she had to get out of there. there is a clatter of the chair as he stands and comes after her.  It’s like the elevator all over again, he catches her before she can open the door, pulling her round to face him, she braces her hands on his chest, all too aware of his body only a hairs breath from her own.

“Darcy, please understand, it’s not about you, this is on me.”

“Then quit.  Tell Tony you can’t do it, tell him we already knew each other, that we want to date.  He’ll understand. You’re not responsible for me just because you played a hand in Howard and Maria’s deaths.  I never even knew them. Give me another security detail.”

His grip on her arms tightens briefly, she sees the conflict in his eyes.

“I’m not going to break my word.”

“No, but you’ll break my heart just fine.”

She pushed out of his hold and spun, leaving him behind.  This was not over.

IT doesn’t make any sense.  Why would she merit the Winter Soldier as a bodyguard and not Jane? Why would she get the scary supersoldier when Jane is the bigger target of the two of them? There was something more going on, there had to be.  She just wishes she could figure out what. Until then, well. She knew now, from his reaction at the last, he definitely wants her, just as much as she wants him. She has to make him see she’s not going to give up.

If he wanted to be her bodyguard so badly, well, she’d make him jump through so many hoops and over so many obstacles he’d quit.  He was just as affected by her as she was by him, that much was clear, but she knew he’d resist letting anything happen between them while he was meant to be her protection. But she wanted him, badly. Badly enough that she’s prepared to tie the man in knots until he resigns as her bodyguard, because she knows in her soul she needs him, she wants to know if they could be something.

The first time she decides to leave the Tower is Tuesday evening, there’s a great little pizza place in the East Village that she’s been dying to try out, she knows she should call him, tell him she’s going out, but she wants to know what will happen if she doesn’t.  So sue her, she’s always been too curious for her own good.

The trip down in the elevator is smooth as always but being in the small space, the memories of what he’d done to her push to the front of her mind.  When she gets off on the ground floor she’s wet and frustrated and ready to turn around and got back to her apartment and deal with the unexpected arousal.  Before she can call the lift back she spots him. She’s not sure if she’s surprised to see him, leather jacket and gloves on, standing by the front door of the lobby.  He looks good, the look he gives her and the small smirk enough to make desire and ire curl in her belly in equal measure. She squares her shoulders, unable to back down now and crosses the lobby at a clipped pace.

He doesn’t say anything as she marches past him, just opens the door for her and follows behind.

Darcy is hyper aware of him, just feet behind her to her left.  She refuses to turn a head and look at or acknowledge him, but part of her itches to sneak a peek, to take in how fucking pretty he looked.  The whole trip goes off without a hitch, he trails after her, she grabs some dinner and then he follows her back.

The little trip out served its purpose, he knows when she’s leaving, good.  The next three days she randomly pops out of the tower on a ridiculous number of errands that have her all over New York.  She can see the irritation building in him, the way his gaze narrows as her smiles become sunnier and sunnier. She takes a deep satisfaction in making him follow her from lingerie shop to lingerie shop, dumping the many bags she exits with into his arms.

It’s day four of “Drive Barnes into Early Retirement”.  She set her alarm for 3:45am. There’s a 24 hour lending library halfway across the city she likes and she’s already booked her Uber.  She wonders what he’ll make of this trip. By her calculations he would be in bed right now, sleeping. Jarvis would alert him of her intention to leave, she can’t wait to see if he can catch her before she makes it into the Uber.

She had slept in her clothes, so grabs her purse and coat and high tales it out of her apartment and into the elevator.

When she reaches the lobby he’s not there.  She only hesitates for a moment before striding outside, looking for her ride.  It’s not there yet. She stamps her feet against the chill and checks her phone impatiently.

She thinks she should feel less surprised than she is when a black SUV pulls up and Barnes rolls down the window.

“Get in.”  it’s terse and strained and she can see the dark circles under his eyes.  For a second she feels at least a little guilty for running him so ragged but then stamps it down.

The drive to the library is tense and silent.  She looks out the window and resolutely ignores him, scrambling out of the car when they arrive and hurrying inside before he can do something dumb, like open the door for her.

Inside she scurries away till she finds the section she wants and peers at the titles.  She can feel him watching her at first as she wanders the stacks. Eventually she gathers the books she wanted and finds a nook to sit and read in.  He takes up the chair opposite her and sits with a book of his own.

For the next hour she reads without much focus, finding herself going over the words three of four times before giving up.  When she looks over at him he’s slumped in the seat, book closed in one hand and his eyes shut. Again, the traitorous feeling of guilt creeps in.  She knows he’s been working hard the last two weeks, increasing security for the Tower, putting new protocols in place, reviewing the existing personnel and a whole slew of other things, she hasn’t made any of it easier on him.

The thing is though, it stung.  She wasn’t good at handling rejection, even when it came from good place.  He’s trying to do the right thing. Keeping his work and personal life separate.  She gets it, but it’s frankly ridiculous. He’s already slept with her, twice, not that she could call it sleeping.  She finds herself staring at hm again, in all honesty he is hard to look away from. Fuck he looked cute like that, all soft and warm and vulnerable looking. There was a tiny little frown line between his eyes, she wanted to smooth it out and kiss his brow, take away whatever was making him anxious.  Then again, she’s probably the cause of it. She sighs and waits. She’s not going to wake him up yet.

The light slowly filters into the space as the sun rises and she keeps watch wondering if she should rethink this whole thing.  It’s nearly seven when she finally reaslies she’ll have to wake him if they want to be back at the Tower and have time to get ready before work.  Jane is back today too, so Darcy knows she’ll have a heap of work of her own waiting in the lab.

She puts the books she chose back on their shelves and grabs the one he was holding too, it had dropped to the floor an hour earlier, but he hadn’t stirred, he must have been really tired.

She tries waking him gently, just calling his name, but he’s out for the count.  Giving up she places a hand on his shoulder to shake him and suddenly finds herself held down across his lap, his hand at her throat, his eyes wide and blue, inches from hers.  His grip goes slack immediately, she can see the horror in his expression and she grabs the bionic hand at her neck, holding it against her chest.

“I’m fine, I know better, I won’t wake you like that again.”

For a moment everything is still and then he closes his eyes and rests his forehead to hers.

“I could have killed you.”

“You didn’t.  You didn’t even hurt me, just restrained me.  I’m fine, see?”

She keeps her tone light and reaches a tentative hand up to cup his jaw, her thumb brushing against the growth of stubble on his cheek.  This close she can clearly see the grey creeping through the dark, it's adorable and so human she wants to coo.  

He opens his eyes again and she feels lost looking into them. She thinks she can see everything in the blue, every thought that crosses his mind seems to be reflected there.  Guilt, remorse, frustration, gratitude… the heat rapidly creeping into his gaze sends a frisson of desire through her, skin prickling, nipples hardening and warmth pools in her belly.  

He’s going to kiss her, she can feel it in her bones, sees the way his eyes drop to her lips and back again and she grips his shoulder even as he heart starts to pound.  

Why does it feel like this with him? It’s the only thing she has time to wonder before his lips meet hers. Soft and warm, moving over hers, the kiss is gentle, slow.  Full of something unknowable and dark. His hands grip her waist, pulling her up till she’s sitting in his lap, his mouth coaxing hers open, one brush a time.

The first swipe of his tongue at the seam of her lips leaves her gasping.  He kisses her with the sort of focus that wipes all thought from her mind, makes her weak all over and has her mewling like a kitten with each stroke of tongue to hers.   All she can feel is him, the restrained strength and power under her hands, the taste him on her tongue as he plunders her mouth.  She wants to crawl inside his skin, wants to put aside the past two weeks and start over, right here, now.

Her body already knows his touch, it sings under his hands, as he runs his fingers under the hem of her shirt, skimming over her skin, pulling her closer.  She finds herself with her hands in his hair, soft and curling at the ends as she tugs on it gently, the tiny little growls of need he makes when she does it, brings a curl of a smile to her lips.  This is everything she wants with him. Heady kisses that last forever, wandering hands and the smell of him, deep and earthy saturating the sheets of her bed. She curls into him, to his warmth and sighs some more as he makes love to her with his mouth. She’d forgotten what just kissing was like, how good it could be, how meaningful.

The sudden and insistent ringing of his phone interrupts them.  He pulls back from her, both of them a little breathless, but she sees the regret begin to set into his expression and pushes off his lap, standing and grabbing her purse and coat.  It’s like being doused in ice water, the abrupt turn from something deep and warm to the cold indifference of his rejection, hollowing out her soul, leaving her empty. She’s vaguely aware of him answering the phone, of the gruff impatience in his voice as he talks to whoever is on the other end. She uses the brief few moments to pull herself back together, to plaster a facade of calm nonchalance over the bitter burning sting of his regret. She won’t let him see how much it hurts, won’t let him see how close she is to begging for him like some love sick ninny.

“You ready to go?”

She doesn’t turn, can’t bare to look at him and see that same dismissal again.  She just nods and makes her way out to the car, once again hyper aware of him only feet away.

In the SUV she jams a finger at the radio and switches till the sound of Eric Clapton comes loud over the speakers.

“We can’t keep doing this Darcy.”  

She wishes he didn’t sound so vulnerable, his voice bordering pleading in it’s tone.  It gets her back up, sours her mood still further. God, he made her feel so much. Being in his orbit was enough to give her emotional whiplash.  Why was he denying this? Them? She knew something had changed again in that library, something more growing in the space between them. Part of her wanted to rip it out and kill it before it grew, afraid he would only hurt her more.  When he reaches for her hand she draws it back quickly. How dare he try to touch her after that? After ending things before they began, again.

“We, can’t?”  She questions waspishly, staring straight ahead, denying him the ability to read her eyes and see the truth..  “I’m not the one going around kissing people, that was you, remember?”

From the corner of her eye she sees his grip tighten on the wheel, flesh hand going white at the knuckles from the pressure.

“You’re right.  It’s on me. It won’t happen again.”

She thinks he believes what he says, but she knows better.  The air between them still full of tension. Darcy digs her nails into her palms, counts in her head to ten, then fifty before slowly releasing a breath she had been holding and loosening her fists.  She needs time to pull back and reassess. Maybe this whole thing was a mistake, and she was making it worse. Perhaps he was right, and they should be nothing more than client and bodyguard.

“I’ll email you my schedule this afternoon, so you know when I’ll need you.  I probably won’t be going out much. Jane’s back today, so you’ll be rid of me for a few days.”

She keeps her tone as impersonal as possible, but a small sliver of bitterness underlays it.

“I don’t mind taking you wherever you want to go Darcy.”

“Miss Lewis.”

It slips out, hard and absolute.  She glances at him long enough to watch his jaw tighten and the flash of hurt in his eyes.  If he wants this to be nothing more than a business relationship he can treat all of it as such.

“Yes Miss Lewis.”

She doesn’t flinch when her name leaves his lips, coated in rime and cutting the air between them like diamond.  She wants to throw up, the sickening feeling of loss she’s brought on herself a leaden weight of doom in her gut.

Nothing else is or needs to be said.  When they get back, they go their separate ways.  He opens the car door for her, standing at attention as she alights and brushes past him, her legs feeling like jelly even as she forces herself to walk confidently into the lobby and into the elevator.  The damned elevator with its mirrors and memories reflected in them to infinity. She spots him briefly at the security desk before the doors close, his face a grim mask, his eyes hard. They flick up for one agonising moment to meet her own and her lips tighten in pain.  She wants to lash out, to scream. This is his fault, he’s the one that started it, kissing her after saying he couldn’t, can he blame her for feeling angry, for giving him what he wanted? The doors close and all she’s left with is her own face, pale of colour, even her lips bleeding white are the edges.  She feels like she’s fighting a losing battle, her body and heart and mind all wanting something different. She needs help.

Darcy gets back to her apartment to find Jane in her kitchen, coffee on and a bright box of pastries on the counter.  The look of concern on Jane’s face when she sees her has the bubbling sob Darcy had been holding in bursting out before the door can close behind her.  She throws herself into Jane’s arms and clings.

“Oh Darcy, Honey, it’s okay, I’m here, I’ve got you. Tell me everything.”

The soft words are exactly what she needed, the whole story falling out between angry tears and gut-wrenching sobs.  She is so glad her friend is back. Jane will help her, Jane will be her rock. The two women had relied on each other for so long that Darcy formed the sort of strong connection with Jane she thought she would feel if she’d had a sister.  

They spend the rest of the day on the couch, work forgotten as they pick thought the events, trying to figure out what it meant.  Jane always the voice of reason, grounds her, gives her hope. She holds onto it carefully. There was more going on, Jane thought so to. Now she just had to figure out what. 

Tagging: @eurynome827  @omnomsauruswrites  @thesaltyduchess  @spacemansam   @book-dragon-13  @loricameback  @jobean12-blog  @sallycanwait68  @lookwhatyoumademequeue  @letstalkaboutsebbaby  @thatgirlkei  @marvelousmeggi  @grimeysociety  @msruchita  @southerncross47

@libbymouse  @randomlittleimp  @slytherinstarkravingmad 

if anyone wants tagged for the next chapters let me know,

[elisaphoenix13]

Conflict Ch.2

The next few hours of hurtling through space were spent in relative quiet. Stephen made himself as comfortable as possible on some slabs of metal as Tony tinkered with something he found laying around, and at one point Peter joined the sorcerer and sprawled across his lap with a piece of alien tech of his own. The doctor leans his head back against another piece of metal, with the comforting reassurance of Peter's weight on him, not even caring that some parts of the teens suit were digging into his thigh. Stephen did notice the tech in the vigilante's hands spark on occasion though.

"You're going to--" Peter yelps quietly when the tech zaps him. "...hurt yourself." Stephen finishes lamely.

Peter grins. "You think we can take some of this stuff home?"

"I'm pretty sure I'll have to stop your father from taking the whole ship back."

"No need." Tony says from across the platform. "I don't think this rig has a self-park function. Underoos, come help. Now."

Peter rolls off of Stephen's lap and jumps to his feet in response, and the sorcerer stands and joins them at the steering gimbals. Tony suits up again to use the strength of his armor to control the mechanism with Peter, and the teen looks out the large window followed with 'Uh...we might wanna turn!' Peter repeats himself as they attempt to turn the ship, and Stephen, coming to the conclusion that they would not land safely after partially crashing into a structure, conjures a shield around the trio.

What's left of the ship crashes onto the planet, throwing the adults off their feet (and possibly Peter but he was nowhere to be seen; Stephen hoped he hadn't been thrown off the ship) and the broken vessel settles with a groan. The shield fizzles away as the sorcerer moves to his feet and makes his way over to Tony, who was halfway to his feet, to help him back up.

"You alright?"

"Yeah." Tony grunts with the effort it takes to get up. "That was close."

Stephen nods in agreement as Peter webs down from the ceiling hanging upside down. "Let me just say, if aliens wind up implanting eggs in my chest or something..." Both parents turn to regard their son. "...and I eat one of you, I'm sorry."

Okay, no more alien movies for the cub, Stephen notes to himself.

Tony points at the teen with annoyance. "I do not want another single pop culture reference out of you for the rest of the trip. Understand?"

Peter waves his free hand wildly before gesturing behind himself. "I'm trying to say that something is coming."

The sorcerer had enough time to make another note to himself to tell his psychotic family to lead with the more important details, right before something rolled at their feet and exploded, sending all three off their feet again. He hits a rounded part of the wall, tumbles to the floor, and finds other people storming the ship when he looks up.

Yay.

Stephen was barely on his feet before he had to conjure a shield to block the knives thrown at him by the one who yelled for Thanos. With a thought, he sends Levi to subdue the man and almost laughs when the cloak wraps itself around the guys head. Almost. It wouldn't be a good idea to anger these people any more. Stephen takes the chance to look around and find the other two fighting his duo, and narrows his eyes when the other man kicks Peter down. Thankfully the teen recovered quickly and jumped up into the rafters, but the man started to really test Stephen's patience when he shot at the vigilante.

Mama Bear was really fighting to get out now.

Then Mama Bear did come out when Peter lunged at his attacker and was immediately wrapped in an electrical rope. The teen yells out as the rope shocks him and Stephen rushes toward them as Tony frees himself from the magnet the main assailant placed on him and stomps on the greenish colored guy. Tony points one hand at the grounded attacker, and the other at the masked one holding Peter, and the sorcerer conjures a single shield as he joins the face off and Levi returns to his shoulders.

He waited though. The guy had a gun to his cub's head and he wasn't about to give him a reason to use it.

"Everybody stay where you are. Chill the eff out." The masked man shouts and then removes his mask before pointing his gun at Tony. "I'm gonna ask you this one time. Where is Gamora?"

Stephen blinks. Gamora? Who was that?

Tony seemed to read his mind and his helmet retracts. "Yeah. I'll do you one better. Who's Gamora?"

Then the moron under Tony's foot opened his mouth. "I'll do you one better. Why is Gamora?

The Sorcerer Supreme couldn't believe his ears. These guys were a bunch of idiots. He didn't even want to know how bad the insect woman was that was watching the whole thing carefully. If Stephen had to be honest though, she looked like she could be an idiot too.

"Tell me where she is or I swear I'll French fry this little freak."

Stephen opens his mouth but Tony beats him to the punch again. "Let's do it!" He shouts and ignores his husband's incredulous glance. "You shoot our kid and I'll blast him. Let's go!" The hand pointed at the one on the ground forms into a sort of shock cannon. "I wouldn't mind sicing my wife on you either. Mama Bear is scary."

The guy holding Peter looked confused but kept his anger. "You're not going to tell me? That's fine. I'll just kill all three of you and I'll beat it out of Thanos myself!" Stephen's heart jumps to his throat when the gun is pressed right up against Peter's head. "Starting with you."

He couldn't take this anymore. These people obviously weren't with Thanos, so they weren't the true enemy. At least they wouldn't be as soon as this guy let his son go.

"Wait...Thanos?" Stephen questions. "All right, let me ask you this. What master do you serve?"

Confusion was completely evident on the guys face now. "What master? Am I supposed to say Jesus?"

Tony and Stephen share a look that very obviously said 'Are you fucking kidding me?'

Tony looks back to the man and motions toward him. "You're from Earth."

"I'm not from Earth, I'm from Missouri."

Stephen really wanted to smack his head against the wall. Just talking to this guy made him feel like his IQ was dropping...dramatically. His poor cub had to endure the stupid right in his ear. It was bad enough that Peter looked more confused than afraid. He had a gun at his head and he looked bored.

"Yeah, that's on Earth, dipshit." Tony says. "What are you hassling us for?"

Peter finally asked the question his parents were wondering. "So you're not with Thanos?"

"With Thanos? No. I'm here to kill him...he took my girl. Wait, who are you?" The guy asks.

Something he probably should have in the first place but Stephen wasn't about to start a different argument. At least not until Peter was safe with him. Said teen's mask retracts, revealing an exasperated expression.

"We're the Avengers, man."

That was the comment that broke the ice. The other trio revealed that Thor had told them about the team, and when the other guy made a passing comment about the god not being that good-looking, Peter's nose scrunched up. It took a lot of willpower on both Tony's and Stephen's part not to smile about how adorable it looked.

Weapons were put away and Stephen dispelled the shield over his hand as they properly introduced themselves, and the sorcerer rolled his eyes when Peter and Quill bonded over having the same name. Leave it to their kid to befriend someone that was going to kill him not five minutes before. At this rate, he wouldn't be surprised if the teen won over Thanos with his puppy dog eyes. It was looking like a serious possibility.

Then again, Quill and his friends were idiots and that would be giving them too much credit.

"Hey Stark." Quill starts. "Didn't you say something about a wife?"

Tony glances at him from his survey of the planet. "Oh...right." The billionaire motions toward Stephen who was currently checking Peter for wounds...again. Mama Bear really was out for this trip. "Him."

Starlord looks between Stephen and Tony. "You guys are married? And Peter...?"

"Our kid. Adopted him after his last remaining relative died."

Drax looks at Tony curiously. "What's a Mama Bear?"

"Something you never want to personally experience."

"Strange is a guy right? Why do you call him your wife?" Quill asks.

Tony pats his shoulder. "Inside joke Quill. He's my wife, Mama Bear, and Peter's mom."

"And people think my team is weird."

"Oh...you are. We're just a different kind of weird. A smarter weird."

To Tony's surprise, Quill caught onto the jab. "Dude...did you just call us stupid?"

"Your words. Not mine."

"You're an asshole Stark. How are you married?"

"My wife is an asshole too. He's just a little nicer about it."

[shiredwarf]

24 hours later: i'm still outraged as ever & i've found a couple of new things to be outraged about that i somehow just missed yesterday. which is understandable. hard to keep track of all the fuck ups!

what was the point of euron fighting jaime? also how did they even end up together? that was another case of characters just conveniently appearing at the right time at the right location (which is like euron’s mine character trait at this point: randomly showing up without any real reason just to fuck shit up in the most annoying way possible). Also: why didn't Jaime just go for this route the first time around?! he might have even made it in time. why is euron so obsessed with killing jaime? why is euron in general? what's his point? was he ever meant to be anything but a cheap plot device? everyone deserved better than this

the fact that the unsullied officers just left tyrion with jaime no questions asked is probably the dumbest moment of the entire episode. dany has often and loudly questions tyrion's loyalty but nothing suspicious about tyrion (THE HAND OF THE QUEEN) wanting to stand guard outside the tent and sending everyone else away. like what's he gonna do? free the person he clearly loves most in the world with a key that just magically appeared in his hand while davos somehow sneaks past the entire greyjoy fleet to leave a boat at the foot of the red keep? naaah (how did davos get back from there btw? did he tow another boat? was he not alone? why am i even trying to make sense of this we all know this plot was written on a piece of toilet paper)

and what's with dany never learning of jaime's escape?! someone must have checked on such a high profile prisoner in the morning? someone must have noticed and told dany who just hours ago threatened tyrion with death should he ever betray her. why did noone come up with the idea to use jaime as a hostage??? but guess everyone just forgot about him, just like the writers forgot about his arc :))))))))))))))))))

where did all the dothraki come from? why are there still so many unsullied left? it sure looked like 90% of them died in winterfell. then we see a significant number in episode five and in the trailer for episode 6 it looks like thousands??? do they just respawn? are we following video game logic now? (btw remember when soldiers had actual personalities? when was the last time an unsullied beside grey worm or a dothraki did anything to remind us they're more than npcs. what do they think about all of this? what did they think about the army of the dead? how are they coping? why was everyone suddenly ok with senseless violence against children even though dany has been saying for years she doesn't want that. yeah sure, she started the kings landing BBQ but she was in a completely different part of the city. there was no way for the foot soldier to know that she was indeed butchering civilians and not just wiping out the last remainders of the lannister forces that hadn't put down their weapons. i’m glad though that they all apparently learned to communicate with each other telepathically otherwise they would be as freaking lost as me rn

one thing the books and previous seasons have been really good at is small little world-building elements that pay off later. and they could have used that in season 8! there wasn't any need to introduce new stuff they could have just used what's already there. they did well on that account with lyanna, jorah and theon. Theon probably had the best arc this season tbh (not a tough competition but it's something) and died a stark and a greyjoy. His identity was the major theme of his journey and seeing it played out this way was satisfying! Lyanna and Jorah both embodied "Here We Stand" in their final moments (Jorah quite literally) and that was wonderful! Why couldn't we get something like this for the Lannisters? Why couldn't we get one final, brilliant scene with cersei trying to turn the tide (backup plan? never heard of it). Don't get me wrong, Lena's acting was fantastic but why couldn't we get a "Hear me roar" moment? Her arc was tide to house Lannister more than any other and yet we didn't get anything? Why didn't we get any rewarding rains of castamere parallels? if they're set on wiping house lannister off the map why not show the tragedy and irony of it. why not remind of us tywin's fantastic speech in season 2? they could have used any of those themes but they didn't???

i'm still not even ready to begin to vocalize my opinions regarding jaime. every time i think about it i can feel my life drain out of me. what a fucking waste you guys

what i can vocalize now however is how much i do hate cersei's end and how they treated lena. I cannot get over that. like i realize she is a villain and i realize she is not meant to be a sympathetic character and she never had a chance to get redemption or get out alive but the show treated her like dirt in the end and just like jaime she was eventually reduced to the incest plotline. she started this show out as someone completely at the mercy of the men in her life (her father, her husband) and while jaime was a big part of her arc her main objective was always throwing off that control and taking it herself. sure she overdid it massively and became power hungry but that power hunger is a direct result of the way she was brought up and everything she was forced into/everything she was denied. weirdly, her conflicts are very similar to brienne's. both women didn't want the roles their peers tried to force them into, both women wanted to escape and both women assumed to do so they would have to take on male traits. brienne did that by rejecting her womanhood completely for 7 seasons and aspiring to be a knight. cersei took a very different route. maybe because she had that option (brienne couldn't mould herself into a proper lady unlike her) or maybe because that was literally her only option (imagine tywin's reaction to cersei putting on armour...). in the years that follow cersei and brienne obviously take very different paths and they have very different personalities but just as brienne deserved her knighthood and the affections and acceptance of the man she loves, cersei would have deserved to be free of men trying to decide her fate for her. but she never was. first it was her father, then robert, then her father again, then the high sparrow and when she finally wiped them all out she had to let another man she despised into her bed to maintain power. brienne managed to escape the confines of male-dominated society forced on her, cersei never did. they could have either shown her finally free before her death, free of the men that tried to control her all her life, free of the power hunger, free of societies expectations or they could have had her face her ugly deeds. i doubt she would have ever regretted any of it but it would have been so much more satisfying to see her properly outsmarted, to see her face off either dany or sansa or jon (or even tyrion or jaime had his character arc not been ruined before that). she was a fantastic, complex villain until she basically just started to stare off into the distance. it would have been so satisfying to see her face reality before the end. Instead, we got rocks. but even that scene (as beautifully as it's acted) isn't satisfying. cersei, who has never been one to just weep helplessly, is first reduced to begging jaime for her life & to save their child (AGAIN WHAT WAS THE POINT! I WILL NEVER GET IT!) and then she keeps freaking out because she doesn't want to die at all and certainly not this way (very self-centred as always whereas jaime is much calmer and at peace with what's about to happen and ready to take care of her even though he’s worse off) . i don't know if this was intentional or just a happy accident but even in those final scenes it's very obvious that the love cersei has for jaime is not the same kind of love jaime has for her. i guess they both ended up wanting to die in each others arms seconds before it happened so there’s that. but it’s a cheap ending for the best actress in the show before they robbed her of all opportunities to shine

oh and lena's instagram combined with her body double’s yet unseen work on the show has now convinced me that we're incredibly likely to see cersei's and jaime's mutilated bodies/heads next week. can't wait to see their characters disrespected on a whole new level jfc i’m so tired

i can't even think about brienne these days. absolutely seething. at this point i would prefer it if the brienne/jaime romance had never happened in ep. 4. if they'd stuck to glances and meaningful gestures at least it would have made more sense. brienne would have been his "what if" when they erased jaime's character development and made him return to cersei (which i maintain could have made sense because no matter what jaime will always love his family no matter how much he also hates them IF ONLY THEY HAD PUT IN THE FUCKING WORK). but she's not a "what if" now is she. she is his "this happened and it was good and important" but we're just going to forget this. we're just going to forget that the last 8 seasons have been leading up to this point. we're gonna forget that for the entire first half of season 8 jaime didn't even flinch at the thought of cersei dying. four episodes of jaime glued to brienne's side and then we're just expected to believe he doesn't care after all. then we're just supposed to believe she is never mentioned again and no thought of her crosses his mind or anyone else's for that matter (looking at you tyrion). I genuinely don't get what the point of that romance was then. to keep jaime in winterfell for a bit longer so him getting captured would make more sense? i feel like there were like a million ways to get the same outcome without throwing brienne under the bus. brienne and her entire arc were used as a cheap plot device for jaime and it wasn't even worth it cause they then butchered jaime's arc. god i'm so angry.

remember the last time a tv show fucked up in the last episode? yeah, dexter!  i'm calling it now: got will end exactly like dexter in terms of plot and level of satisfaction. jon will kill dany (a family member/romantic interest) and then go north to spend his day in the wilderness (lumberjacking away miserably)

the more i think about it there is not a single thing about this episode that actually makes sense. this goes beyond plotholes, this is just a plain hole

[blogenana]

Doctor Who - Earthshock Live Review

So I have my crisps and lemonade and im ready to continue my journey through classic who - idk why I just started live blogging it...

• People are climbing

• So they've found something- an alien I'm assuming- why do humans always tamper with things we shouldn't

• Oh they haven't found something theyre looking for people

• I hate how classic who drags on so slowly

• Sinister music

• 'probably nothing" foreshadowing...

• Okay get to the killing already

• YES FINALLY HELLO DOCTOR

• Wow I forget they must have their own rooms in the Tardis

• Lots of books in Adrics room

• "why should that interest me" ooh okay Adric getting a bit sassy

• Why's he fed up

• looool "I'm tired of being considered a joke" "why am I being constantly teased" maybe because you're annoying and you make sexist remarks?

• oh chill

• The doctor don't have time to deal with this

• aww okay Adric being jealous that Nyssa and Tegan get more attention from the doctor than him is kinda cute

• 'I give you my word' 'just as you gave your word to Tegan" okaaaaay go off (spoiler alert) ik Adric dies in this because I saw a spoiler so this is very sad foreshadowing that the doctor will break his word to Adric about making time for him- kinda sad

• I hate the celery stick

• okay Adric kick off

• Doctor can't take criticism which is interesting because the last time he was probably ever blamed for something was One with Barbara and Ian. I don't remember any companion ever criticizing him like this before

• 'Well it can wait' you'll regret that

• "I'm tired of being an outsider" this would make sense if we had seen him being an outsider before - in my opinion Tegan is the outsider as she's new and not as mathematically advanced as the others. also I would say that Adric is the closest to the doctor out of all 3 so his point isn't really valid

• I guess this is the writers way of making adrics death more tragic

• ooh Adrics theme

• I swear he was an outsider amongst his own people too

• 'the tools would go missing" why do these people never take the hint

• forgot Adric was from e space- tbh what was the doctors plan when he did demand to go home eventually- did he wanna travel with him till he died?

• "e space is another universe, there isn't a taxi service that goes back and forth"

• Romana mention!

• "im not waiting around while you plot the course to your own destruction" the doctor has never experienced a companion death before - also foreshadowing

• "you know I think since his regeneration he's become decidedly immature" this is funny also like 4 was soooo mature

• I like Adric and Five's relationship

• the actor who plays Adric has gone better

• Nyssa is the most mature out of this entire group

• "breathe deeply and relax" why is Tegan a meditation instructer out of nowhere

• the doctor didn't take much convincing

• lol the doctor bopping Tegans nose was cute

• Ooh Dinosaur bones

• let me guess - the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs was an alien spaceship or aliens killed them

• Someone screamed

• Ooh yeah she be dead

• Okay the villains look like they're wearing gimp costumes

• Reminds me of American Horror Story Murder House & the leather monster

• Aah doctor who giving a lesson on how the dinosaurs were killed. We love a show that educates

• Did I mention how much I hate the celery stick because I hate it honestly whose idea was it

• Bro chill why is this man grabbing the doctor like that what he do

• Calm the fuck down mate

• Gimp people be shooting

• Okay they may be androids but they'll always be gimp people to me

• Android vision

• CYBERMEN!!!! DAMN

• Why they gotta hit us with the plot twist like that i wasn't ready

• The Cybermen looks sad

• Hehehe the face is funny

• Gimps be strong

• Why do the Cybermen sound muffled

• I find it more creepy when they have human voices than Robots because it makes It more real that these machines have humans in them

• hHaven't seen them in some time

• I love Tegans sarcasm

• I'm cracking up at the Cybermen voice

• 1 gimp down 1 to go

• tThe gimps be dead

• 'prepare to activate the devise" dun dun DUN

• Damn the Cybermen be skinny

• I'm bored i want doctor/cybeman action

• Okay it's getting intense

• Cybermen be SHOOK

• "cyber technology is too advanced for earthlings" figure it out then mate

• He's recognised the Tardis

• THE BEST DIALOGUE "TIME LORDS, BUT THEYRE FORBIDDEN TO INTERFERE"

• THIS ONE CALLS HIMSELF THE DOCTOR, AND DOES NOTHING BUT INTERFERE

• YESS PREVIOUS DOCTORS VS CYBERMEN

• I'm geeking out

• Imma watch this bit a few times hang on

• Aah I loved that it was so cool bloody hell I'm a nerd

• The 2nd Cybermen looked shocked while he was watching

• "have you no emotions sir" classic

• "Adric do you have a moment" "I'm hungry" Okay I like him in this one he's a mood. Why is he suddenly likeable the ep he dies

• "all part of the daily routine" see what I mean

• Well your daily routine Is gonna end soon

• He doesn't wanna go home!!

• Doctor is relieved it's cute

• Ah this is sad

• It would be easier if i didn't know he was gonna die

• Cos I do like their relationship

• Okay we're being introduced to new people

• "you're beginning to bore me" the writers knew

• I'm trying really hard to concentrate I've zoned out

• Ah the doctor has got my attention "I want to announce my presence, see what the reaction is" course

• aaaand the doctor is caught and he's being accused for murder again

• Don't they have cctv just check it

• "apprehended why can't he just say caught" me in English classes

• 'even under the threat of death he has the arrogance of a time lord"

• I thought Cybermen had no emotions but this Cybermen just said he wants the doctor to suffer for their past defeats - revenge is an emotion which is v ironic

• Hh SHIT the Cybermen are walking

• lol tegan " im just a mouth and legs" she's such a mood

• The Cybermen music is cool

• The doctors face when he sees them

• Aah the soldier has betrayed them

• Why is it that whenever there's a women in charge the men who is second can't handle it and goes rogue

• iIt's such a typical trope

• The dialogue for the doctor is great

• "you know them"

• "oh yes, we go back a long way"

• Haha "I'm surprised they didn't mention me" 'well perhaps you overestimate your importance" "oh I doubt it" doctor is and will always be that bitch

• The doctor is doing doctory things

• "that's very clever" "oh it is" the doctor bragging about how clever he is starts here

• Damn tegan she just shot a Cyberman

• Flashback to "the doctor makes people into weapons"

• Finally the doctor vs Cybermen showdown

• Lol I knew they would kill the betrayer

• "our records indicate that you have a fondness for earth" (especially earth girls)

• "this time we shall succeed in destroying the earth" no you won't mate

• Ah the Cybermen coming out of plastic Wrap is a throwback to the 2nd Doctor Cybermen story

• Tegan looks like a badass with the gun

• So they're destroying the leaders of various planets before they destroy the Cybermen

• Tegan has no idea what she's doing

• I love how Five says the most savage lines with the most polite tone

• He could tear you down and look like he's complimenting you

• Tegan has been caught

• Cyberman in the Tardis is weird

• 'who is this woman' - 'no-one of consequence' - 'thanks a lot - gotta love Tegan

• Okay wow that scene between the doctor and the Cyberman about emotions gave me goose bumps what a thrilling scene

• The Cybermen has a point- he can control the doctor because he has emotions

• I'll never get tired of the debate about emotions between them because it genuinely feels like the Cyberman defend the concept of having no emotions to defend their existence

• Five looks hot when he's defending emotions

• Fuck they need to leave Adric behind

• Shit I'm getting nervous

• His theme is playing!

• The Doctor looks conflicted

• Adric leaving his hand out after the doctor let go...

• "I'll see you soon" this is the actors best performance because you can see in his eyes he knows he won't

• The Doctor has never had a companion die before so he walks away without looking back

• "it will once you start getting rusty" Tegan is funny

• Adric is plotting

• The Cybermen say they have no emotions but forcing Tegan watch her own planet getting destroyed is extremely sadistic

• Clever Adric

• The Earth looks different

• Okay so Adric's cleverness is what gets him killed because he knows he can crack the code

• The Dinosaurs! I knew it!

• Oh crap Earth is safe but Adric doesn't know that

• I think this comes down to Adric wanting the doctors attention and wanting to be the best to have his attention

• The Doctor has his pin!

• Five suffocating and shooting a Cyberman is shocking to see

• Adric whyyyyyy

• This Cyberman walking towards him is bloody persistent

• "Now I'll never know if i was right" such Adric last words

• Id like to believe he was

• Damn.

• The Doctors face. The fact that it could have been avoided if he just left the ship

• Adric is the first companion that died on the Doctor's watch

• Adric died thinking the Earth was going to be destroyed and he could have stopped it

• The credits!! his gold star! the silence! this must have been a shock to the viewers. If i didn't know beforehand through spoilers I would be going crazy

• Earthshock had it's ups and downs, the downs in regards to the pace of the plot however the story was good and the Cybermen were fantastic especially their interactions against the doctor. Tegan and Adric were great. Nyssa didn't really have much to do. Davison was amazing. I liked the writing.

• Also I liked the structural shift of the story to the cave androids to the bomb to the spaceship to dealing with The Cybermen to saving Earth and then to Adrics death

[sariasprincy-writes]

Hollow Point 02

One // Two (here) // Three

Chapter Two One part pretty, two parts ‘don’t care’

A gust of wind blew in from the river. It swept over the pier and onto the dock, lowering the temperature another few degrees. The breeze caught the ends of Sakura’s hair and whipped them about her face. She brushed the stands back, tucking them behind her ears before she pulled her jacket tighter around herself.

Why Sakura had agreed to meet at the shipping yard at night, she hadn’t the faintest clue. She hated the cold. She hated being it in. She hated all the layers she had to wear. She just hated it. It made her miss the warm beaches of the Mediterranean with its blue waters and white sand beaches.

What did New York have? Smog and tainted water that didn’t reach above seventy even in the summer?

At least the skyline was something to gaze at.

Before her, the city lights danced across the river like shattered diamonds. The breeze made them dance, twisting and waving like they were performing a private show. It was almost enough to distract from the cold.

Almost.

Sakura wrapped her arms further around herself as she pushed up onto her toes before rocking back onto her heels. Her gaze slipped around the parking lot again. Still empty.

“No sign yet,” Kakashi said in her ear.

Sakura curled her fingers around her cellphone, careful to avoid accidentally tugging on the headphones connected to her ear. “He’ll be here,” she said into the built-in microphone.

“You sound sure.”

Even over the wind, she heard his doubt. She didn’t share it. “He still has another five minutes. Besides, he knows the consequences.”

Kakashi didn’t reply. She didn’t know if it was because he accepted her answer or was choosing not to argue. Likely the latter. He wasn’t one for conflict. Ironic, considering his past.

Instead Sakura just continued to watch the waves until Kakashi came to life again, “Single black van approaching. No markings. Tinted windows.”

She almost sighed. What was this? An action movie? She told him to be discreet.

Headlights pierced the suffocating darkness encompassing the port. A van exactly as Kakashi had described pulled into the wide lot. It stopped some yards from Sakura before the driver cut the engine. The slapping of waves against the docks filled the sudden silence once more.

Sakura stayed where she was, her arms still wrapped around herself. One hand inside her jacket, secured around the grip of her gun, waiting. Just in case.

When Jiraiya stepped out of the passenger door, she relaxed. Even in the semi-darkness, she would recognize that long mane of white hair anywhere. He grinned broadly as he approached, his arms stretched wide. “Sakura.”

With much practice, she avoided his hug and half-glared. “What have I told you about that?”

“Right. My apologies, Tsunade,” he said with a mock bow. When he straightened, he eyed her. “Though Tsunade was blonde and, dare I say, more...endowed.” He was unfazed by her dark stare. “What does she think of you tarnishing her good name?”

Her glare faded as Jiraiya’s attempt at flirting died off. Honestly the man was three times her age - or at least close. She would have thought he’d have grown up a little by now.

“She hardly cares,” Sakura answered, casually readjusting the headphone in her ear. “Tsunade changed her name so she could focus back on her medical career. She works nearly a hundred hours a week at the hospital downtown. Even if I did get her in trouble, the police couldn’t do anything. She has an airtight alibi.”

Jiraiya seemed to consider that a moment before he gestured back towards the van. “I have your shipment for the Senju. Everything else is being distributed to your other contracts now. But I assumed you wanted to double check this one before handing it off.”

Sakura nodded her agreement. She followed him to the van and waited with her arms crossed for him to pull the sliding back door open.

In the back was two large, wooden crates. Sitting on top one was a man about her age with bright blond hair. Black ink peeked out from the collar of his jacket and under his sleeves but she couldn’t make them out. The stranger grinned at her.

Sakura frowned. “Who the fuck are you?”

“This is Naruto,” Jiraiya introduced. “I’m training him to be your new contact.”

“What?” she asked flatly. Sakura took a deep breath in an attempt to keep her temper under control. “I’m in the process of building a connection with the Senju brothers and possibly the Uchihas, and you want to drop a new kid on me? You are my contact.”

“Not anymore,” Jiraiya said, his voice unusually subdued. “Tsunade is not the only one looking to retire. I’m getting too old for this.”

She cocked a brow. “You live for doing this.”

“And I’ll die if I continue,” he returned. When Sakura just stared expectantly, he heaved a sigh, “I’ve been diagnosed with coronary artery disease. And as much as I love dodging bullets and smuggling, I’ve decided to take a step back and enjoy the rest of my years.”

Sakura supposed she couldn’t entirely blame him for that but she didn’t reply.

Jiraiya took her non-answer as acceptance and smiled. “Just please don’t kill him immediately. Give Naruto a chance.”

Her gaze fell to the blond again. He was still grinning at her. She resisted the urge to say screw it and shoot him anyway. “Are you going to get the fuck off my weapons or just sit there all night?”

Naruto immediately jumped up before he lifted the lid of the closest crate. Inside were five rifles lined up side-by-side. Sakura reached for one to examine. The sights were aligned and the grip was still new and easy to hold. She would be quite happy if these guns were being delivered to her.

Pulling out the magazine, Sakura peered inside. “Where are the bullets?”

“Here,” Naruto said. He popped open a smaller box for her. “There’s three crates. About ten thousand rounds total.”

Sakura eyed the ammo. His count was likely accurate. Overall, she was satisfied with the shipment, which unfortunately meant that she didn’t have a good reason to kill Jiraiya’s replacement. For now.

Replacing the magazine, Sakura laid the rifle back down in the crate beside the others. “Alright, get these all loaded and taken to Hashirama. I’ll text you the address.”

“Loaded?”

She paused in scrolling through her phone to look at Naruto. “Yes, loaded. What do you expect them to do with empty guns?”

He eyed the crates briefly. “It’s just that...I had plans and this is going to take a few hours.” When she just stared at him, Naruto wilted. “But I’ll make sure it gets done tonight.”

Jiraiya grinned at the impatient look Sakura shot him. Only once Naruto had climbed back inside the van did the white-haired man slide the door closed. “You heard him,” Jiraiya said. “Hashirama will get his shipment tonight. And you can go off and do...whatever it is that you do on a Thursday night.”

Sakura nearly rolled her eyes. Instead she shoved her hands back into her pockets as she fixed the aging man with a pointed stare. “Make sure it gets done. Correctly,” she added as an afterthought. “I’ll have the real Tsunade on your ass if you fuck this up for me.”

He just waved her threat off before he slipped into the driver’s seat. “Consider it already done.”

Sakura glowered as the van drove away. She’d consider it done when it was actually done.

She was still frowning when Kakashi suddenly spoke in her ear, “Want me to kill him?”

“No,” Sakura said after a moment of serious consideration. “His heart disease will eventually do that. And if it’s true that this Naruto-guy is taking over for him, I want Jiraiya to train him as best he can before he retires.”

“And if the kid screws up?” Kakashi asked.

She watched the taillights of the van disappear around the corner before she answered, “If he screws up, I’ll kill him myself.”

xx

Sakura saw Tobirama the next night. He found her in the bar area of a restaurant that was rumored to have the best burgers in New York. And delicious they were. Sakura had almost finished all of hers, the last few bits of bun left on her plate.

She regarded Tobirama as he slipped into the booth across from her, a french fry still in her mouth as she munched slowly. He eyed the mostly empty plate on the table and then her as if wondering how she stayed so skinny when she ate so much. Sakura herself wondered the same thing sometimes.

“Nice suit,” Sakura said first. “It does wonders for your eyes. Though I have to say you're a little overdressed for a place like this.”

“I'm not here on a social visit.” Both his expression and tone were flat.

She pouted. “Well that’s too bad. And here I thought we were beginning to be friends.”

Tobirama’s face didn’t change. She got the vague impression if she pushed him any further, he was going to find the closest tree and hang her from it. Which probably wasn’t far from the truth. She’d heard on the news that police had discovered some bodies at a park downtown. Judging from the scratches on the inside of Tobirama’s wrists there had been a bit of a struggle.

“I’m assuming you received my gift then,” Sakura said as she picked through her pile of fries until she found one that was perfectly shaped. When Tobirama continued to stare at her with that guarded look, she wilted inwardly. She was going to kill Naruto.

“Was there a problem?” she asked nonchalantly.

To her great relief, he shook his head. “Hashirama was quite satisfied.”

“Then what do you want?” Sakura asked. She chewed her french fry slowly as she considered him. It quickly dawned on her. “Oh, I see. You don't trust me. So you came down here to…rattle me? Threaten me with the consequences should I screw up?”

“Something like that,” Tobirama said smoothly. As if they were doing nothing more than discussing the slight drizzle that had turned everything the same shade of grey that afternoon.

Sakura smiled. “You don't need to worry. Hashirama has done a lot for me in the past. Consider my service a favor to him that you also get to cash in on.”

“And what has he done for you?”

“I'm afraid that is his story to tell. Not mine.”

His eyes narrowed and he leaned forward just loud enough for her to hear. “That doesn't make me trust you.”

Sakura was hardly fazed. “I don't need you to trust me. I just need you to trust that I can get the job done.”

“I don't trust that either.”

“Because I'm young and pink and bubbly?” His unwavering stare was answer enough. Sakura huffed in quiet amusement before she smirked. “Fine. I have some business to see to tonight. Why don't you come with me and you can see exactly how I work.”

Tobirama was quiet. So quiet that she almost thought he wasn’t going to answer her. Then he inclined his head. “Fine, but I'm driving.”

Sakura grinned around her french fry in reply.

Nearly forty-five minutes later, after battling through the downtown traffic and crossing the main bridge connecting New York to New Jersey, they pulled up to an abandoned building. It was an old ship-building warehouse, long and open on both ends. There were windows lining the walls on either side but they were covered in a thick layer of dust. Only the dim, flickering street lights combated the night.

The parking lot itself was empty, except for half a dozen cars parked near the entrance of the warehouse. All lined up in a rough row. Tobirama parked parallel to them but still some yards away.

“This is the place?” he asked with obvious distrust.

Sakura darkened the screen of her phone and tucked it into the back pocket of her tight-fitted jeans. She glanced over the building before she smirked over at him. “What? Think I brought you here to kill you?”

Judging by the look that crossed his face, it was an option he had seriously considered. In the end, he said nothing. Only slipped out of his sporty, muscle car to follow her.

Sakura’s boots echoed faintly off the walls of the large bay as they ventured inside. She more heard than saw Tobirama follow as his designer shoes clacked uniquely alongside her own footfalls.

At the other end of the warehouse was a large moving truck. Non-description and discrete. There were seven men in total. Three were counting the contents of a heavy crate while the rest were perched on boxes they had pushed together into a makeshift table for poker. Only instead of chips, there were magazines for high-powered rifles, car keys and large stacks of money.

None of the men noticed Sakura and Tobirama approach over their own conversation and bustling. Leaning against the back of the open truck, she reached into the inner pocket of her coat and retrieved a candy cane.

Upon the crinkle of her wrapper, all heads snapped in her direction before the men jumped up to their feet. All but one. Who was trying very hard to remain unnoticed behind the others. A few reached into their jackets, their fingers grabbing guns but not quite drawing them.

“Who the fuck are you?”

Sakura ignored the man who had spoken. Just smiled at the one that had remained sitting. She pulled the candy out of her mouth to speak, “Kabuto, you’ve been avoiding my calls. You know how much I hate being ignored.”

At her veiled threat, Kabuto’s men withdrew their gun. Beside her, Tobirama shifted minutely, his hand inside his suit. No doubt wrapped around his own weapon. Things were very close to turning violent. Too close.

Sighing faintly, Sakura held up her hands in truce. “Alright, let’s just all relax,” she said calmly. “I’m not here to fight.”

A long, tense silence passed before Kabuto gave the silent command. His men relaxed their defensive stances but none holstered the guns. Her gaze didn’t waver from Kabuto.

He was a small man, certainly smaller than the rest of his party, but he was cunning. Like a rat, he could worm his way out of almost every situation. Sakura had no intention of letting him this time.

“What do you want, Tsunade?” he asked.

“You and I both know what I want so let’s just skip the whole ignorance part, shall we?” Sakura said pleasantly.

When Kabuto just continued to look like he wanted to sink into the floor, she glanced around. Her eyes landed on a nearby container where a familiar, black case was laid out on the ground. She wandered towards it, all eyes tracking her as she popped her minty cane back into her mouth and snapped the lid open. Sakura pulled the rifle out of its case and inspected it with interest. The magazine was fully loaded, the silencers she had acquired screwed onto the end and ready to use.

“.308 caliber rifle with an extended mag and a titanium suppressor. Beautiful, isn’t it?” Sakura asked Tobirama, turning around to face him.

He was still standing by the truck. He didn’t answer her verbally, just nodded appreciatively, going along with whatever little game she was playing.

Sakura brushed her long, wavy pink hair over her shoulder before she checked the sights, felt that familiar, comfortable weight in her hands. The weapon was all still new.

“Exactly what you asked for, right, Kabuto?” she asked around the melting candy in her mouth.

Kabuto nodded minutely.

Her mood shifted then. Like the stillness that followed after a gunshot. The millisecond of calm before chaos ensued. “Then why the fuck haven’t I gotten my payment yet?”

The men surrounding Kabuto tensed again. He stiffened, his glasses flashing against the flickering lights, and he quickly held up his hands. “I’m working on it. I just need-.”

Scoffing, Sakura looked out at the water. In the blink of an eye, half a dozen shots fired into the warehouse from across the river. Six bullets. Six bodies hit the floor. Until Kabuto was the only one still breathing around the makeshift table.

To her surprise, Kabuto made no move to hide. Though whether because he knew he couldn’t move fast enough or because he was frozen in fear, Sakura didn’t know. Likely the latter. When she turned back to him, his gaze was fixated over the water, searching. As if trying to locate the shooter.

Dropping the rifle back into its carrier, Sakura approached him. It wasn’t until she was hovering over the table that he finally pulled his eyes away to look up at her. “You said you weren’t here to fight,” Kabuto piped, his voice pitching higher in adrenaline and fear.

Sakura shot him a pointed look. “Believe me, Kabuto, your men aren’t much of a fight.”

When he didn’t reply, she leaned forward, her hands resting on the crate until her face was level with his. He blinked against the burn of her minty breath. “Get me my money or it’ll be your brain matter I wipe off my boots next. You have twenty-four hours. Don’t keep me waiting.”

Kabuto was still too shaken to offer an answer. And Sakura didn’t bother waiting for one. She snatched the new, glittering car key off the table before she swept past Tobirama without a glance. She didn’t have to look to know he was following her. His shoes were making that clattering noise behind her again.

It wasn’t until they were almost back at the cars that Tobirama spoke, “That was a sniper.”

Sakura didn’t glance at him. Just kept walking. “Yep.”

“So the rumors are true,” he said. “You do have a shadow.”

Sakura did look at him this time. If only to flash him a smirk. She kinda liked that he had looked into her. “US Marine trained. Don’t bother looking for him. You won’t find him.”

A quiet, curious look passed Tobirama’s face but he didn’t comment further.

When they finally reached the cars, she stopped and turned to face him. “Satisfied?” she asked.

There was something dark, something sinister swimming in Tobirama’s eyes. He nodded once.

“Good,” she smiled. She pulled the candy cane out of her mouth by the hook, swung it around her finger once before she pointed the end in the general direction of New York. “I assume you can find your way home. Until next time.”

Without another word, Sakura walked away. The instant her back was turned, her smile vanished. She popped the mint candy back into her mouth and glanced down at the car key in her hand.

Mazda. Nice.

to be continued...

[lejendarydreams]

The Muse - Episode Four - The Survivor of the Dark Plague

Years ago, Clio was bitten by a strange man who was infected by the dark plague.

A mysterious guy shot the strange man and killed him. Clio cried in pain. He was bleeding. The mysterious guy took him to the hospital where his parents were. He introduced himself as Ehren. He was wearing a UG uniform.

Clio was bitten in the shoulder, in an area where cutting leads to death. Both Clio's parents were doctors, but his father was a scientist as well. His father only had theories on how to approach the dark plague. There was no cure yet.

Before anything else, Clio was losing blood. He finally fell unconscious. His parents looked devastated. Ehren felt their despair. He volunteered for blood transfusion. As soon as it was done, he left the hospital.

After few moments, Clio woke up, feeling sadder than he has ever been. He cried and cried. Doctor Heinz, Clio's father, thought of dealing with the first stage symptoms which was terrible depression. He injected him with anti-depressants.

The people infected in their area was rising again. Mishuno had to tend to her patients aside from Clio. But Clio was put on isolation, in a basement laboratory, and in a cage, chained, in case his infection gets worse.

His father gave up his patients and took care of Clio instead. He experimented different chemicals that would slow the symptoms from escalating. And it was successful. It has been a week and Clio has not turned into a glutton. But whenever the drug falls off, he would feel terrible sadness, to the point of insanity. Doctor Heinz would not give up on his son and kept curing him, experimenting different drugs from time to time.

These drugs were also tried to other patients on the first stage symptoms but their symptoms did not slow down like Clio's. They had to euthanize those patients as soon as their skin texture changed. Heinz realized Clio was different, and special. His symtoms would not rise up the first stage. He all he had to do was approach the case per symptoms.

One day, Heinz thought of reducing his drugs and resorting to mind therapy. Heinz taught him to divert his thoughts through inventing something. And so his days were filled with inventions, drugs, and on and off torturing depression. It was successful. Five years went by, Clio learned to manage his thoughts and countered the sadness by trying to be happy. He focused on his inventions and became really handy. He also listened to The Muse's songs, even became a crazy fan. Heinz knew it was already a permanent cure. He shared this experience to the Maru to help the cases of dark plague. But when he left to work for them, he never came back.

Mishuno and Clio eventually had to move to Earhart. With Clio's inventions selling off, he bought an entire hospital. This also was fated for him to meet his hero, Ehren whose UG Headquarters were located below their hospital. After some time, they met again and he was recruited to join UG.

Fastforward. After Clio left Riantheliss, he went straight to Ehren, who is now the commander of UG.

"What brings you here, boy?" Said Ehren while smiling

"You're not going to welcome me back? I was gone for three months!" Said Clio.

Ehren embraced him. "You gotta clean up the laboratory you burned." He teased. He did burn a laboratory months ago, but that's another story to tell.

"To apologize, I shall bring you a great great news!" Clio exclaimed. Ehren sat back on his throne.

"Make sure, it can make up for the damage." Ehren said.

"Okay, listen. When I was young, 14 to be exact, I met a girl. You remember this story?" Clio asked.

"Yes, who later on became the best singer whom you are so crazy about. Clio, I know already." Ehren said.

"Well you probably got it wrong because, she was reportedly missing for three days now." Clio said.

"She's missing. The great Muse is missing, that's the great news?"

"And there's this girl who calls herself Riantheliss whatsoever, she's the winner of today's annual recruitment process, the girl who went back from the hole! And she's in the infirmary right now, I checked on her, and she looked exactly the same... as... the Muse. No, it's her, my deductions are right, I can never be wrong. It's her. The muse is here! My muse is here!" Clio excitedly uttered.

"That means war with the theurgists if we keep her here." Ehren said.

"Wai-wait! No! I haven't had an autograph yet. And... and... who knows it's actually her? She's in disguise. Nobody noticed, well except for me, since I'm a genius and I stared at her photos almost all my life." Clio said.

"Did you tell her you know?" Ehren asked.

"No, ofcourse not!" Clio denied.

"How about we pretend not to know?" Ehren suggested.

"I don't know, let's try and just be cautious. So what do we do?" Clio asked.

"Take her here. We have to know her intentions." Ehren commanded.

Clio left and went back cautiously to Riantheliss.

"Ah... Rian... I mean, Ri, just Ri. Okay, let's go." He said as his eyes are distracted, trying to avoid her eyes.

"You know. You know, right?" Ri asked.

"What?" Clio tried to pretend. They went out of the room and walked. While walking, they encountered Tanvi, Ehren's secretary and Clio's friend. He tried to cover the muse and kept the conversation short. Riantheliss realized something's off with him. So he grabbed him by the wrist to the corner. She looked at the wrist and laughed. It has the logo of the muse, suggesting his fanatism.

"Now I remember. I met you before, haven't I? Who else knows?" She asked like threat.

"Uhh.... eh...." Clio was still starstruck and wondering what to say.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sound like threatening you. I'm just hoping you wouldn't blow up my cover. Right. Judging you and how you pretended you didn't know and how you covered for me, I could say that you're on my side, right?" The muse said. Clio nodded charmingly. "Good boy. I'll give you an autograph if things went smooth for me." Riantheliss added.

"... Actually, I told the commander." He smiled and winked. "Let's go."

Riantheliss felt a little nervous.

They entered the commander's room.

"Welcome, lady, and congratulations for passing the recruitment process." Ehren pretended to just got to know her.

"I know you know. Let's proceed to negotiations." She said.

"Straight and fast." Said Ehren.

"She got me." Clio said.

"First, settle down and tell us why you're here." Ehren requested. She sat down and told her history with Kingsbirth and what's going on with the dam, also Maru's plan on doubling the sacrifices.

"I'd like to seek help in resolving this... and I'm also in search of my parents... whom I never knew... at all." Riantheliss said.

"The UGs have been battling with the Maru for ages. We knew about this and were constantly aiding the lower ranks and protecting them from the Maruns. We helped contain the plague and provided assistance on those who seek. But in the past year, we have fallen shorthanded. We'll do what we can, trust on that, and prepare to engage in battle." Ehren said.

"You'll let her?" Clio doubted.

"We have to be fair. You chose us. You fight with us... there's no special treatment. We respect your new identity while hoping not to engage in conflict with the theurgists." Ehren said.

"As long as they do not know I'm here. I request your aid in protecting my identity." Riantheliss requested.

"Then let's get you a new SRAM." Clio said.

"As for finding your parents, I'm afraid we do not have the expertise to do so. We'll talk more after you settle your things. As for now, Clio shall assist you on your SRAM and lodging." Ehren said.

"Lodging?" Clio wondered.

"There's a vacant room in your penthouse. We can't let her stay with the others for safety purposes." Ehren teased him.

"As you say, Commander". Clio politely said. As they left the room, he signed to him "You're the best!".

They took an elevator to the penthouse. They went in.

"This is our penthouse. My mother and I lives here. Remember Mishuno? She's at work downstairs, at the hospital. We moved in few years ago. This is Mishuno's room, this is my room, please do not enter, and then, as for your room, there's an unused room upstairs." Clio toured her to the penthouse. They went upstairs and entered her room.

"By the way, your things?" Asked Clio.

"I came empty handed." She answered.

"Oh good. Full sponsorship, yes, as I thought. Don't fret, UG got you." He laughed.

"Thanks a lot." She said as she realized that everything was going well. It also seemed that she can get along easily with Clio.

"Pardon me but I just gotta say that, I've been a fan for many years. I always listen to your songs, whenever I'm sad or feeling happy or whatever. Just gotta say that those really helped me and I'm the happiest to encounter you personally. I'll always be at your service, Muse." Clio expressed his fondness of her. The muse, as if it's nothing new, reacted neutral.

"Also, from now on, since you'd be staying here, I hope we could be friends." Clio added.

"I'm sure you know a lot about me. Tell me about you." Riantheliss requested. "We'll have long hours working on this SRAM." She said.

And so Clio told her about his inventions and his duty on the Underground. He also talked about some members and the system of the organization... all while working on the SRAM.

NEXT EPISODE:

https://lejendarydreams.tumblr.com/post/622974725900124160/the-muse-episode-five-under-the-night-sky

[tefltraininginstitute]

The Art of Story Arcs and Transitions in Language Lessons (With Diederik Van Gorp)

Do lessons have a plot? Should classes have a story line? How do lesson plans resemble movie scripts? We speak with teacher trainer extraordinaire Diederik Van Gorp, about story arcs in lessons and how these affect our transitions form one activity to the next.

The Art of Story Arcs and Transitions in Language Lessons (With Diederik Van Gorp) - Transcript

 Tracy:  Hello, everyone. Welcome to our podcast today. Let me introduce our special guest, Diederik.

Diederik Van Gorp:  Hello.

Tracy:  Welcome.

Diederik:  Thank you very much.

Ross Thorburn:  Just to check because I don’t think we said last time, it’s Diederik Van Gorp, right?

Diederik:  Yes.

Ross:  Just in case there's many other Diederiks out there. [laughs]

Diederik:  I haven't met them yet.

[laughter]

[crosstalk]

Diederik:  The dutch pronunciation would be Diederik Van Gorp. But I anglicized it slightly, I think automatically. When I was teaching children in China, it very quickly just became D.

Ross:  I remember you saying that to me, "Just call me D."

[laughter]

Diederik:  The first class, you introduce yourself and I just write a letter D. They thought it was hilarious because this person just has one letter as a name.

[laughter]

Diederik:  They're very cute.

Ross:  Diederik, you wanted to talk about transitions, which I think is really interesting. One, because there's not very much about it online, just as you pointed out. Two, actually when I started preparing for this, I also got to this point where I was like, "What does he mean?"

Diederik:  I wondered as well. At one point, I was talking to a colleague, he's like, "The transitions were very smooth in this lesson, from one stage to the next." It was very hard for me to pinpoint exactly what that was, trying to find an article, you go online, or go to your books. There's almost nothing there. I guess now, they're creating the...

[crosstalk]

Diederik:  One of the big things in the lesson is context. There's one stage of the lesson, you're going to the next stage. It can be very abrupt, means that the learners have no idea where did this come from. Good transition is, you either refer back, for example to the context, or you point to something that's going to happen later.

If you go from a nice lexis activity to a reading task and then all of a sudden there's this seven, eight words, students are matching them, you ask concept‑check questions, you drill it maybe, all of a sudden you say, "Read the text. Answer the questions." Where did this come from? It's a very clear instruction, there's no confusion possible but it's very mechanical.

Linking that activity to...these words were actually in the text. By quickly pointing that out or a listing, or, "Do you remember earlier on?" "Ah, yeah, yeah, we're going to read something about your friend Bob." It gives it coherence. There's something else that I quite like, if a lesson is a narrative, if a lesson is a story, then it becomes very coherent. I like it when it comes full circle.

I wrote for a while, writing dialogues for short movie clips to learn English. Basically, one of the things I learned there was, it's not just the movie that needs a beginning, middle, end. Even a dialogue needs a beginning, middle, end and there needs to be some kind of conflict.

If you look at a lesson, because they argue that the human mind is a bit wired for beginning, middle, end. For a lesson, it seems to be similar. You need a beginning, set it up well. You need to the meat, the most important part of the movie, most important part of the lesson. Then, some kind of closure at the end.

Very often, lessons fall flat because teachers are great at setting it up but it falls flat at the end because they run out of time and becomes very abrupt the end. That's why, watching a movie ‑‑ the bad guy got killed and that's the end of the movie ‑‑ we don't see them being happily ever after, getting married and all those things.

Ross:  Interesting. I remember watching Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo" a while ago. It does end like that. I think the woman jumps off this tower and dies. Sorry, if you've not seen it.

[laughter]

Diederik:  Spoiler alert.

[crosstalk]

Ross:  ...and dies. Literally, the credits come on and you're still in this shock. You're like, "Oh, that's it?" Like you say, movies always, nowadays, we have this scene.

Diederik:  Somehow, it links back to the beginning but there will be the change. With a lesson, that could be a nice idea to approach a lesson. If you fit your stages in there, finish on the high somehow.

Tracy:  Do you know there is an activity, at least we played it in Chinese a lot when I was a kid. This kind of my understanding of transition in the class. You say Chinese [Chinese] .

Ross:  Idiom.

Diederik:  Idiom?

Tracy:  Yeah.

Diederik:  The four‑character idiom?

Tracy:  Yeah, the four‑character idiom. The next person would have to use the last words from the last idiom and then next, the beginning of the next idiom. That's hard picture like a lesson transition.

Diederik:  That's interesting. The last thing you do needs to be the first thing of the next stage. Something like that?

Tracy:  Yes, something like that.

Ross:  Your example earlier, Diederik, of that read‑this‑answer‑the‑questions, it's almost so abrupt you can imagine people going, "Did I hear that right?" Whereas if you say you have that who could remember these eight words? Can you see these words anywhere here? Oh, one of them's in the title. Where do you think the other set will be? Great. Now, read this and answer the questions."

Tracy:  Another thing ‑‑ it might be related to transition ‑‑ is about the difficulty level. If you look at a lesson, it's a flow. Maybe at the very beginning something a little bit easier or less challenging. Then it's getting maybe a little bit more challenging. At the end, they can see how much they have improved.

Diederik:  Then you release the pressure again a little bit at the end test, what have you learned or something?

Tracy:  Yeah.

Diederik:  When you introduce the language in a traditionally staged lesson, maybe in a movie where the conflict is introduced, we have an obstacle to overcome, it's this language point.

Ross:  Is it Joseph Campbell? Is that the person? This idea of there's a story arc, there's only one story that basically people ever had...

[crosstalk]

Diederik:  Yeah, or just a variation on the theme.

[crosstalk]

Ross:  One great story but a lot of it. Certainly my favorite lessons that I've taught to start off with some...We're doing one like an activity. I think it's on my diploma at the beginning asking people, "Oh, I'm doing this. Are you interested in coming to this thing tonight?"

People turning down this invitation and at the end of the class, you go back and do the same thing again but, like the story, the characters have changed. Except in this, the language the students are using have changed. That's the difference, that's the development that's happened which is like a story.

I'm just so into this movie analogy now. You got me thinking of this great Chinese movie I love called "Shower" or Xǐ zǎo in Chinese. At some point in the movie ‑‑ it's some people who are in a bath house in Beijing ‑‑ it cuts to 50 years ago in this desert area of China. After five minutes, you start thinking, "Is this a mistake? Is there a problem with the DVD?"

It creates this expectation. Eventually, it cuts back. It's like the back story. The main character says, "That was your mother." This reminded me of doing teacher training years ago, doing an activity for writing lesson, getting them to do something stupid like, "Give them a dart board but no darts. Then ask them who's the best darts player."

I remember one of the trainees say, "Why are we doing this? What's the point?" One of the other ones goes, "There will be a point. You'll find out in a minute."

I think it's almost that same thing, isn't it? Like with the movies, it's creating this expectation. Sometimes, I don't know what's going on here but if I have belief in this teacher, this trainer, I know there's going to be a point.

Diederik:  It must be there for a reason, but they must have been disappointed so many times.

[laughter]

[music]

Diederik:  Just thinking of something related to transitions is, one of the main scales that a teacher needs is working with published materials, either course book or whatever that has been given to them. That teaching is going from one exercise to the next. "Are you finished?" "Yes." "Now, do exercise three. Do exercise four."

The teacher actually can see the flow of that lesson and just verbalizes it almost, "Yes, now we're going to put that into practice." Maybe transition are a bit more important than you think, to bring something that's dead on the page, bring it alive, give it purpose.

Tracy:  When we're doing research about this topic before, not really much about it, do you think it's because transition in class, it doesn't affect the lesson a lot?

Diederik:  Maybe for the feeling, for motivation of the students, maybe it does a little bit more than we think it does.

Ross:  I think this also comes down to this idea that if your classes feel like a succession of unrelated activities, it's going to be very easy to give up as a learner. It's going to be very challenging to maintain motivation for a long period, isn't it? Like, "Why are we doing this? What's the point?"

Diederik:  Another gap filled.

[laughter]

Diederik:  There's another one. I just remembered this. When I started out as a teacher trainer, I was explaining to new students, if one stage does not go well, no problem. Every stage is like a new spring, you can start anew.

A stage that feels flat, the energy is drained, it was boring, whatever went on. Every stage is a new opportunity to re‑energize the students, project your voice. Transitions can actually spike the energy again.

[music]

Ross:  I want to talk about what I actually thought you meant by transitions, which is completely different. What I think we spoke about there was teaching for adults or maybe teenagers but probably not like six‑year‑olds.

What I actually ended up writing about, taking notes on, was going from one activity to another with some very young learners, almost like this classroom management idea for kindergarten students. As an example, the chaos of some six‑year‑olds with bags coming in to a classroom...

Diederik:  Almost a routine, in this part of the room, this happens, this is the storytelling corner, here we do the book work.

Ross:  This is obviously potential, "All right. Everyone, move to the front of the room!" Then there's this, you can just imagine a car leaving a cloud of dust, things are flying out.

Diederik:  The transition then would be sometimes counting, maybe sometimes a song.

Ross:  Exactly. The idea that if you have those in place and you trained your students on them then all those moving from this part of the room to that part of the room or from a writing or a coloring activity, to another, are smoother and safer.

Diederik:  Different cues, basically. That's similar to teaching adults. Some of the automatic things you do ‑‑ like they worked on their own and you let them compare around as in pairs ‑‑ there's this moment they do it automatically. They're also transitions, I guess.

Ross:  The commonality between the two of those is that if you do a good job of them, they should become so natural that the longer you work with the students, almost the less instructions you need to give.

Diederik:  I've seen a beautiful thing once where the student was so used to the techniques, because this person just came every month to every class of every training teacher, that if the teacher was about to give the handouts, while giving the instructions, she would give an act...

[laughter]

Diederik:  It was like, "Oh, instruction before handout." She wouldn't say it. It's like she knew it.

Ross:  Did you go by that point about it being logical and making sense? It reminds me of...Tracy, when you and I were in India a few years ago, we booked these cinema tickets. It was some beautiful old cinema in Jaipur. We bought these tickets. I think we assumed it was in English or at least it would have English subtitles, but it didn't. It was all in Hindi and had Hindi subtitles.

Because of the genre of the film, which was like Arnold Schwarzenegger‑esque action film, we were able to follow and understand the whole thing. It made complete sense even though we couldn't really understand a word in the whole movie. I think that's similar, isn't it?

Diederik:  Yes, it's very similar. I remember watching Disney movies on the small screen in a long‑distance bus in Turkey. It was all in Turkish. I could understand everything, I think "Kung Fu Panda" and I'm indeed [inaudible 12:56] . It's like, yeah, this is the moment that the obstacle is introduced.

Ross:  It's almost like that you think of the brain being hardwired, the stories are hardwired for a language classes, something, right? They will know the beginning, middle, end.

Diederik:  When people really hate a movie, very often, it's an art‑type movie that they accidentally watched. A lot of people do like it but they're not the mainstream.

Ross:  Or it doesn't wrap up at the end, there's no ending to it.

Diederik:  Like the Coen Brothers movies, [inaudible 13:20] at the end.

Ross:  That almost reminds me of another point. I think Donald Freeman had an article. It was called "From Teacher to Teacher Trainer." He talks about, how can you tell if your training was successful?

He said, people smiling, high‑fiving each other at the classroom doesn't mean they learned anything. People leaving confused and disappointed doesn't mean they didn't learn anything. That's almost like the Coen Brothers just because at the end of the movie, "What on earth was that about?" It doesn't mean it was a bad movie.

Diederik:  It makes you think maybe.

Ross:  Those are movies that I love where you're still thinking about what could the ending mean weeks or months after.

Diederik:  Let's say an action movie, the immediate response is satisfaction but you want to remember it, you want to talk about it more.

[music]

Tracy:  Thanks very much for listening. Thank you so much, Diederik, for coming to our podcast.

Diederik:  My pleasure. Thank you for having me.

Tracy:  All right. See you next time.

Diederik:  See you.

[lorumipsum-03]

Storybook Assassin-Short Story 1

I let out a deep breath and stare up at my latest adversary. We have been in conflict since early yesterday morning and the battle is showing no signs of ending soon, if ever. I take a step back and wonder, how much stuff can possibly fit in one closet? It’s not even a big closet. I set the box of books I had been moving and check the time: 9:02. I don’t need to be at work until ten, so I (regrettably) still have some time left to clean. Once again I plunge into the jungle that is my closet, looking for the treasure that is The Adventures of Weed Wacker and Binary. Volume 4. 1985. I tug out another beat up looking box labeled Misty’s princess stuff. Misty is my sister, she’s 8 years old and a pain in the butt. I move to set the box down on my bed, but before I can put it there, the bottom gives out. Knickknacks and toys from two years ago spill out all over my already crowded floor. I scramble to clean them up, but don’t really get far. You know when you go to clean out your clothes and sort of end up wearing them all? That’s pretty much what happened to me. So, instead of putting them back in the box I end up wearing a crown, veil, weird little princess cone hat, and an elegant red king’s robe. That’s when I notice the wand. It’s about a foot in length and made of a translucent, glittery, purple material, that I assume is plastic. It has been taken out of its packaging, but unlike all of the other toys in the box it is not battered or broken. I think nothing of it and pick up the wand, cold to the touch. I lean back in my chair, and jokingly point the wand at nothing, and give a half-hearted “Bippity-Boppity-Boo.” To my complete surprise a swirling blue portal appears on my wall. I let out a very undignified yelp and drop the wand, which lands on my foot before falling to the floor. That’s way too heavy to be plastic. Now, to answer the question, what’s inside that portal? I have no idea what to expect, so I grab a bag that I normally bring when I go camping with my family. Inside it I have toilet paper, duct tape, two bottles of water, a compass, Swiss army knife and a notebook with some crayon pencils. As an afterthought I grab my phone, I probably won’t get service, but one can always hope. When I slip my phone in to the front pocket of my shorts I get a glimpse of the time: 9:40 AM. Shoot, I’m going to be late for work if I go exploring. Should I go? I know I have a couple vacation days left, but I don’t know If I’ll make it back through the portal. Then again… there’s also a portal to another freaking dimension. Aw, screw it. I grab my phone to call in and ask for today off. I dial the number, it rings twice before cutting off, the ring replaced by a voice. “Jane Black, Rainy Day Comics, how can I help you?” “Jane, it’s Clara, I need to use one of my vacation days.” “’mkay, may I ask why?” “Found a wand while cleaning, made a portal, gonna find out where it goes.” “All right, I’ll buy it. Bring back something cool to show me.” The dial tone sounds and I slip my phone back into my pocket. All right, I guess I’m doing this. I take a deep breath (in case I end up underwater) close my eyes, and step through the swirling blue circle. Oh boy. I step out into a peaceful, sunlit forest. It’s warm and bright, bluebirds and cardinals chirp in the branches, and the grass is soft under my feet. You’re kidding me. In my excitement I forgot my shoes. I spin around to run back into the portal and grab them, but the portal is gone. I pause to bang my head against a tree for a moment before holding the not-plastic wand in front of me and shouting the incantation that brought me here. “Bippity-Boppity-Boo!” Nothing happens. I try again, nothing. I slump down, and glare at the wand for a bit before pushing myself up and heading south. I tuck the wand in my back pocket, seeing as it’s not doing me any good right now, and resign myself to a long walk to the next town. I don’t get far. About five minutes into my quest for civilization I run into two of natures most feared and hated creatures: cops.  As soon as I see them, I freeze and step on a conveniently placed stick. Snap. The cops take that moment to notice me. As they turn to face me I notice they both have translucent wands with black handles that look like they fade to red and patches on their chests that read Magic Patrol in a flowy script. I quickly turn to face them straight on, trying to hide my wand, which I’m probably not allowed to have. If I can hide my wand from them and if I can convince them to take me to the nearest town and if they don’t put me in jail, maybe I have a shot of finding out how to get home. If I can get home. “Oh, hello. I didn’t see you there,” I say. They both raise their right eyebrow simultaneously. Dang, I wish I could raise one eyebrow at a time. “I appear to be lost,” I continue, “could you two point me to the nearest town?” They don’t answer, instead they turn toward each other, and one of them takes out a little glass tablet. One of them taps it and a hologram pops up. A shining blue map of the forest with two silver blips for the cops, and one red blip, that I gather must be me. That’s probably not good. “Miss-” one of the cops begins before the other one cuts him off. “Look here lady, you’re under arrest,” he barks in a loud gravelly voice. Before I can react, the calm cop- the one who spoke first, is behind me and my wand is in her hand. Then the loud cop takes the tablet and scans the wand first, then me. He turns to his assistant and growls “this is the wand we’re looking for. The girl isn’t from here, she’s of no consequence.” And with that, they run off, jump into their car, and leave. Now, unless I can get that wand back, I might be stuck in this weird fairy-tale land forever.  

I give up. I’ve been walking for about five hours, and it’s dark. I think time works differently here, but that’s not really surprising, given I’m in an alternate dimension. My feet hurt, I’m sweaty, I drank one of my bottles of water, and still no sign of a settlement of any kind. I sink to the ground against a ridiculously large tree, whose roots make a pretty comfortable nook. I’m glad it’s warm, because I don’t have a blanket. I tuck my bag under my head and put the Swiss army knife next to me, just in case. I can see slivers of the sky through the leaves, and it’s filled with stars. That’s not something you can see at home. I fall asleep with the tree guarding me, the stars twinkling, and the crickets singing.

I wake up to the sound of twigs snapping, and the soft sound of breathing. Breathing that is not mine. My eyes shoot open, and I find myself looking into a pair of violently green eyes, about six inches from my face. I scream and kick the green-eyed intruder in the gut. He flies backward and ends up sprawled on the grass, I jump up and grab my Swiss army knife. “Who are you?” My voice comes out creaky and riddled with sleep, not as threatening as I’d like. Green-eyes scrambles backwards into the tree opposite mine and puts up his hands. Now that he’s further away and I can get a better look at him, I realize he looks familiar, but I’m not sure where I’ve seen him before. He’s dressed in creamy white shirt with golden epaulettes and buttons, and red pants with shiny black riding boots. His hair is black and looks like it was smoothed back earlier, but now it’s ruffled up from the wind. Then it hits me. “Prince Charming?” He sets his hands down and nods. I shove my less-than-ideal weapon in my pocket and plop to the ground. I just kicked Prince Charming, the Prince Charming in the stomach. If I wasn’t in trouble then, I certainly am now. Oh, well. I’ll try to make the best of it. “Think you’d mind giving me a ride to the nearest town? To my surprise, he doesn’t. He stands up, and offers me his hand before realizing I had already got to my feet. I introduce myself and he introduces himself. Prince Chad Charming LII, he says he’s not that far from town and would be happy to give me a ride. I gratefully accept and off we go to find his horse.   It’s a pure white stallion with beauty uncommon in a horse, and I honestly don’t know what else I expected. We climb on, him in front with the reins, me in back clinging to the saddle for dear life. It takes us the better part of an hour to get to town and when we do, it’s a picture-perfect storybook village. Although, at second glance, it doesn’t look quite so picture-perfect any more. I can see handmade patches on almost every roof, and a good portion of the houses look like they’re about to fall over. The butcher is arguing with an old lady over a scrap of meat while everyone else looks around hollow-eyed and hungry. This whole trip has just been one giant train-wreck. That makes this the perfect time to start an awkward conversation. “So… What’s a prince doing gallivanting around in the woods, miles from his own kingdom?” For a second I think he’s not going to answer, but then he squints, like the reason is embarrassing, and starts talking. “Well, Princess Amethyst is hosting a ball tonight, to celebrate the finding of her wand, and me and my family were invited. We normally don’t like to have anything to do with the Amethyst’s, but finding her wand is a big thing, so my parents think we should be there. And, well, I didn’t have a date. So I went off into the forest to look for one, because my family has had luck with finding damsels in distress in the woods before, and I thought if I could find one, I’d get a date to the ball.” The wand? Could that be the one those cops took from me? “Why is finding her wand such a big deal?” I say, carefully steering the topic away from finding a date for the celebration.  The prince looks a little put-out, like he thinks I would offer to be his date. No. “Well, in magical families, it’s a tradition for the firstborn to get a wand, or a spell book, or something like that when they turn sixteen. The princess’s wand, which had been her great-grandmother’s, was put on display in a museum. It would remain there until she came of age and claimed the wand. But, about three years ago, the wand vanished. Just, gone. Like it had never been there. They reviewed all the security footage and found nothing. We were all resigned to its loss until yesterday night when, the royal guard caught its energy signature about ten miles north of here. Now the princess is eighteen, and ready to claim her wand, even though some may not wish it.” I hmm softly under my breath, if there was a way to get home I may have just found it. “Why wouldn’t some people want her to get her wand?” I ask. “She doesn’t seem so bad.” At this the prince whips his head back and gets this weird look in his face. “You’re not from around here, are you?” I shake my head and mutter something about being from a kingdom across the sea. The prince sighs and starts to explain. “The Amethyst family has always been a little… harsh. They let their country fall into poverty as they grow richer and richer, there’s never enough food to go around, and they can throw you into jail for the smallest reasons. The princess is the worst of them all, even without a wand, and with the king and queen getting old…” he trails off. “The whole country is worried about what she’ll do. It just doesn’t seem right to stand around and do nothing, but my kingdom has bigger worries.” He sounds sad, I can see why. It’s a pretty bad situation the Amethyst kingdom has got itself in. That’s when I get an idea. Time to play hero. “I assume the wand will be present at the ball?” “Yes.” I crack a small smile, this could be my ticket home. “Do you still need a date to the ball?”

I grimace, this was a bad idea. This was not worth it, I wish I was still in the woods. I have just walked through the doors of the Amethyst castle, in a smooth, bright blue dress. The prince is next to me, and his parents are right behind.   They were overjoyed see their son had brought me back, and immediately stuffed me into a bath, did up my hair, and jammed me into the dress. With high heels. Though I must admit, I do look pretty dang good, blue works well on me. I look around, hoping the wand is in plain sight, unfortunately, I can’t see it. The prince, luckily hasn’t quite figured out what my plan is. I don’t know if he’ll be mad or not, but his parents certainly would. This is so illegal. My plan is simple, find the wand, get the wand, kick the princesses butt, and get home. Easy. I keep looking around trying to catch a view of the princess or the wand. After circling around the ballroom twice I finally realize, I don’t know what the princess looks like. I am the best at planning, I blatantly lie to myself. I turn to the prince and ask him what the princess looks like. “She’s right over there.” He says and points at a girl a little taller than me, with long white-blond hair that fades into lavender at the ends, and a dress to match it. And she’s holding the wand. Unfortunately, at that moment the music starts. I need to dance. I don’t know how to dance. I have to get away. I spot the princess slip her wand to a servant, if I can get over there, I can grab the wand and get out of here. The prince is looking away now. This is my chance. I take a deep breath, and slip into the crowd. Making my way over is harder than I thought, and half way through I have to press myself against the wall to take a breather… there are so many people it’s hard to think. That’s when the prince pops up beside me. “Fancy seeing you here,” he quips. I swallow, this is not going my way. “Ho-” he cuts me off. “I don’t need your footwear to recognize you, you know.” I smirk at that, but he doesn’t lift a lip. “Tell me what’s really going on.” I can’t do that. He’ll never believe me. “I’ll believe you.” “You were right when you said I wasn’t from here. But I’m not from another kingdom, I’m from another universe. A universe where all this,” I wave my hands around, “is fictional. I found the wand and somehow opened a portal to your world. I tried to get back and couldn’t, and then the Magic Patrol took the wand away. Then you came, and when I figured out about the wand I thought I would talk to the princess and have her zap me back home, but when you told me how awful her and her family was I knew I had to do something and I…” I pause to take a breath, there are tears in my eyes and a very confused look on the prince’s face. But then the confused look turns to determination, and he holds his hand out to help me up from the floor which I didn’t realize I had fallen to. “Okay,” he says, “I’ll help you.” I start to open my mouth to thank him, and he cuts me off. “But, when we open the portal back,” if we open the portal back, “you’ve got to show me this world of yours, deal?” “Deal.” We shake hands. It’s time to kick some princess butt. I run around the left side, and the prince takes the right. If I can get halfway up the staircase I’ll be right above the princess and her servant. From there I can drop onto the servant’s head and wrestle the wand away. From there the prince will help hold any attackers back as we escape. After that we’ll go… somewhere, I’m not exactly sure where, but the prince says he knows some people who can do magic, and might be able to get me home. I hope he’s right. I tap my way up the stairs, being careful not to make too much noise with my stupidly loud high heels that I can’t even walk in. I almost trip over my dress twice. Why did I think I could do stairs? How am I going to land on someone’s head while I’m in a dress? I take my shoes off and decide to figure it out as I go. I reach my destination without further incident, and peek over the edge of the ivory railing. I’m right above the servant with the wand. The prince is at the front of the crowd, and he gives me a thumbs up. Then the princess starts talking. “And now, for the main event,” the princess says, her voice sounds like wind chimes and crystals. She grabs the wand off the plate it’s being held on and brandishes it. It starts glowing red. She starts glowing black. There’s some screaming. Time to go. I grab the top of the railing, and scoot my feet back as far as I can without falling over. If I get enough momentum I can catapult myself over the edge in one smooth move. I pull my arms forward and push my legs upwards as I launch myself past the railing. It occurs to me while I’m in midair, this was a really, really bad idea. But then I don’t have any time to think, because I just crashed onto the plate the servant is holding. I slam into the ground, the servant crunches on top of me. Yes I mean crunches, his nose cracks pretty hard against the floor and starts bleeding I’m not much better off. Pretty sure I’ve broken my tail bone. Princess Amethyst screams and turns to face me. The wand is still glowing red, as are her eyes and holy heck that’s creepy close up. She points the wand at me and opens her mouth to scream something, I scramble backwards as a bolt of energy flies from the front of the wand, just barely missing me. I continue to crawl backwards as she continues shoots at me, but luckily, she has terrible aim. I try to catch the prince’s eye as I move past him, I give my head a desperate jerk, trying to tell him to circle back around and tackle the princess. All the other guests are screaming and storming the doors. The princess aims a blast at my head, and I go flat as the bolt zooms over my head. I really wish the prince would come help. The prince comes and helps. He hurls himself into the princess and grabs her around the waist, effectively bringing her down to the ground. The wand is knocked from her grasp, and I watch as it clatters across the floor. I lunge and grab it. Oh jeez, I grabbed it. What do I do? “What do I do?” I yell at the prince as he struggles to keep the princess on the floor. “How should I know?” He yells back. “Just try something! Turn her into cheese or something.” Oh, turn her into something else. But not cheese, I have something more…fitting in mind. I raise the wand and it starts to glow green. “Amethyst!” A bolt of light soars from the wand, and strikes the princess right in the chest. It starts turning into crystal the moment it hits. She screams death threats and vengeance as she freezes. In less than a minute it’s over. The prince rolls off of the newly crystalized princess and groans. “That’s the last time I go looking for damsels in distress.” I laugh, I can’t help it. It’s not particularly funny, but after the day I’ve had, I need a laugh. Now I can only hope when the prince says he knows people he’s right.

The prince knew some people. He got me out of trouble with the Magic Patrol, covered up most of the chaos with the fight and figured out how to get me home. I ended up taking back a spell book to show to my boss. It’s pretty cool, and I’ve even learned how to float things (Including myself). I couldn’t manage to take the wand home though, something about it being a priceless heirloom.  All and all, I’m pretty happy with the way this adventure turned out, I’ll just need a break, and some new shoes before my next one.  

[theycallme-tunathot]

Road to Ruin [Chapter 7] Jackson

Pairing: Jackson Wang x Reader Rating: Somewhere between R and NC-17 I suppose Synopsis: Jackson has a big night planned to reintroduce the Reader into his friend group. But he gets a couple of unexpected guests, two people he definitely didn’t invite. Author’s Note: This took me forever. I’m still not happy with this chapter. I cut out at least 2k words and I’m still like...nope. But that’s okay. This chapter is shitty, but the next one will make up for it. The next one is where all the real drama starts :D Enjoy guys! ALSO: gif is not mine and I can't find the person who created it (I got this from Pinterest so I'm sorry!)

"Jack, I hope you've got enough money to cover the sushi appetizer I just ordered."

Your name: submit What is this? // <![CDATA[ function replaceAll(find, replace, str) { return str.replace(new RegExp(find, 'g'), replace); } function myHandler() { var input = document.getElementById("inputTxt").value; document.body.innerHTML = replaceAll('Y/N', document.getElementById("inputTxt").value, document.body.innerHTML); } // ]]>

Y/N was early, per usual. But that didn't stave off the disappointment I felt when I took in her outfit.

Something cute and comfortable.

I know I said that. It was the last thing I said on the phone before I hung up. I expected something a little nicer than what she was currently donning.  

"Y/N, what the fuck are you wearing?"

My best friend tilted her head in confusion, obviously seeing nothing wrong with her outfit. And why would she? This was her usual look. A pair of black running tights with a white Nike check along the left leg, paired with a pastel pink shirt that I never saw her wear before and a pair of black Nike running shoes.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" She asked calmly, eyebrows furrowed.

I was just speechless.

"Why am I looking at...?" I trailed off incredulously before I motioned to her outfit. "You're wearing workout clothes. Do you remember what I said before I hung up?"

"You said for me to wear something comfortable."

"And cute!"

"Which is why I wore the pink top!"

"Oh, I'm sorry. Is that supposed to make your outfit cute?"

Immediately she shot me a nasty look and threw up a middle finger to show me just how unamused she was with my reaction. But I ignored it, annoyed with her as well.

Hands on my hips, I shook my head, "I said cute and comfortable."

Y/N only shrugged, "I don't know, I thought this was cute."

"No, that's not cute and I even doubt it's comfort level if it already makes me feel uncomfortable—and we're not even in public yet."  

She rolled her eyes at me, but I ignored that too as I checked my watch. Five minutes before everyone would meet in this exact location so we could head out. That didn't leave me enough time to drag her back to her room and look for another outfit. If I knew some of the people coming out tonight, they were prompt every time we met up, so it would be no good leaving now.

A long and exasperated sigh filtered out my lungs and I looked over her outfit warily again. "You'll be lucky if they let you in dressed like that," I chided.

"It's not like I'm wearing a bikini without a cover-up."

"That would've been closer to cute than this."

She made a frustrated noise at me before pulling her phone out of her wallet to check the time. The longer I stared at her outfit, the more I felt conflicted. Yes, these running tights framed her thighs perfectly and accentuated the curve of her legs and calves. She looked good in them.  

Even though I found this outfit cute on my best friend—in the most endearing way possible—I knew my friends would disagree. No matter how good it made her body look, workout clothes were not the clothes you turned up in for a night out. It seemed everyone but Y/N knew this.

"Has anyone told you you're exhausting?" I joked.

"About as often as you're told."

Before we could argue any further, I saw a tall and lanky figure in the distance. And so it began. A night out with friends. At the sight of him, I could already feel my stomach tighten uncomfortably. My nerves were shaky since I hung up with Y/N earlier. While the logical side of my brain said this was too early for me to try and lump her back into my social group, my heart stubbornly disagreed. Y/N seemed eager to put the event behind her and this is how I was going to help her.

Like I told her on the phone, this is her chance to start over again.  

Besides, time was running a little thinner than it was before and if I wanted this fake relationship to catch some steam, we needed this. Just as I said before, this was the test run. If it didn't work tonight, I was doomed to live like a monk and abstain from nearly all female contact until I could prove to my parents that I wasn't wasting all my training in Korea on girls.

"Jackson!"

I blinked a couple of times and watched as Namjoon jogged toward me, smile permanently fixed on his face as he came to a halt just in front of me. Holding his hand out, I went in for our bro-handshake and smiled when he nudged me with his elbow.

"Thanks for the invite tonight," he said. "I don't get much chance to be out after dark these days."

"They work you guys too hard."

"That's what I tell them before they make me run across campus to grab inventory from the shed."

I laughed, shaking my head. I knew Y/N was probably hanging out behind me, waiting for me to introduce her, but something happened when I turned around. She was gone. Confused and slightly worried I looked around to see if she ran off or if she was just hiding out somewhere else.  

Nothing.

"Hey, weren't you the one that gave me that Ryan the bear band-aid when I got my flu shot last year?"

At the sound of Y/N's voice I jumped, whipping around to see her standing in front of Namjoon, grinning. And he was grinning back at her.

"Yep, all because you threatened to cry if I didn't."

She laughed and shrugged, "It worked though, so..."

Did she actually know Namjoon? This was really weird. Watching fervently as the two continued talking, mainly about how warm the weather was and how clear the sky looked, Namjoon likely rattling off some major nerd stuff about the Moon, I tried to regain my composure enough to properly introduce them.

Did they really need me though?

That's when something snapped and I coughed loudly, stepping slightly in front of Y/N.

"Joonie, this is my guest tonight. Y/N, she's a fencer like me," I introduced, not bothering to step aside afterward.

No, instead I stood there, blocking half of her from view and looking at Namjoon like I hardly knew him. How could I trust that the two of them weren't hiding other little secrets from me? Did they secretly hang out and not invite me? And why was I blocking Y/N from Namjoon?

Elbowing me hard in my bicep, Y/N pushed me to the side so she could stand beside me. "He knows. I see him from time to time when I go to my nutrition coaching sessions. He also gives a mean flu shot."

"These hands are literal magic at this point," he replied, dimples on full display.

"Hey guys!"

Thankfully, more people showed up. My roommate Woobin, a sabre fencer as well, and his girlfriend Minji an epee fencer.

As soon as Y/N turned around I could tell she was relieved about knowing everyone she would hang out with tonight—at least at the moment. When I looked at her face, my thought was confirmed. Y/N immediately waved and smiled brightly, tapping Namjoon on the bicep.

I was acutely aware of how close they were standing to one another, and I wasn't sure why.

"Minji is a fencer like me," she explained excitedly. "Total badass."

Minji, far taller than any of us were willing to give her credit for with a pixie haircut that fit her face perfectly, shook her head as she and Woobin came to a halt in front of Namjoon and Y/N.

Minutes passed as I kept checking my phone, trying to keep track of how far everyone was from meeting with the main group. We were waiting for two people: JB and Mark. Now, I knew I was making a gamble allowing Mark to come along. Considering how infatuated Y/N is with the guy, it was probably best to leave him out, but it would've been rude in the circumstance. I initially invited Jinyoung over the phone who weakly muttered out how hungover he was and he'd be lucky if he could keep food down by the end of the night. When he rejected it, he mentioned it to someone else in the room, asking if that person wanted to go instead. By the time Jinyoung addressed me, he told me Mark wanted to go.

How was I supposed to say no?

JB was another gamble. We weren't even 24 hours removed from the antics of last night and surely all of those events were fresh in our minds. I knew there was a possibility that Y/N would react negatively to seeing JB, but I knew she wouldn't be upset enough to make a scene in front of the group. I could handle her in private if need be. Besides, out of all my friends, JB was probably the sanest and the one Y/N would identify with the most. They both liked their private time, they trained with intensity and they cared way too much about their friends.

As everyone became more and more anxious, ready to start the night, I got a text message from JB.

Hey, we were stuck in traffic in town so we're already downtown. Text me the location for dinner tonight and we'll meet you there.

Typing out a fast response, I looked up and called out to the four friends in front of me. "Let's go ahead and head out, the rest of the group will meet us there."

Y/N raised her hand, a sarcastic gesture in my direction. She wasn't used to seeing me in a leadership role.

An over exaggerated sigh filled the sizeable gap between us. "Yes?"

"And where is 'there?'"

"A restaurant."

"Which restaurant? You know I can't eat just anywhere because of the high-sodium content--"

I quickly walked to close the gap between me and my best friend, slinging an arm around her shoulder. "Y/N, would it kill you to live a little?"

"I've been eating low amounts of sodium. If I overdo it, I could get sick--"

My index finger found her lips, applying moderate pressure to silence her.

"Shut up, it's a surprise. I even took your whacky nutritional needs into account. Just enjoy the ride," I said before taking my finger away and making a gesture toward the front gate of the facility. "Tally ho my hoes!"

Nearly ten minutes later we were still walking toward the restaurant just outside the boundary of the training facility. So far it was a typical night: a bunch of my friends and I heading to start our night with food before the fun really began.  

Everyone seemed willing to put parties aside considering two of the three main event planners in the group, Jinyoung and Bambam, were both hungover and in need of an extremely easy Saturday night. And that was fine by me. Last night was enough party for the whole weekend. Not only did I get all the flirting out of my system last night, but I was rudely reminded of how different Y/N was from everyone I hung out with.  

To be fair, this wasn't the first time she came up in conversation with my friends and it wasn't the first time the topic of Y/N held a more critical tone. Jinyoung was notorious for randomly ripping on her. But dealing with Jinyoung was easy. All I had to do was make fun of something he was wearing and the conversation was dropped instantly.  

I'm not sure why it took me so long to step in last night. Maybe I just wasn't expecting to have that conversation in the backseat of JB's car. Maybe I was hoping Y/N would've used her sharp tongue to cut Bambam down to size. It seemed whenever I forgot Y/N was a girl and held at a different standard than me or any other guys, something rudely reminded me. I would never understand fully what it's like to be Y/N, but that didn't stop me from feeling bad for her when stuff like this happened.

Just as I turned onto a main road, the center of town coming into view, the shops visible from the hill we were about to walk down, I felt someone bump me from my right. Blinking a couple of times, I looked down to see Y/N smiling at me.

"Everything okay?" she asked, her eyes scanning over my face. I knew she knew the answer.

Despite knowing she knew, I faked a smile and nudged her with my elbow. "Of course, why wouldn't it be?"

"Well Namjoon just made a rude joke about your short legs and you didn't even look up once."

Instantaneously after she stopped speaking, Namjoon's protests could be heard from behind us.

"That was totally you Y/N!"

She gave an innocent look as she blinked up at me. "Jackson, I'm your best friend, why would I say something like that?"

"Yeah, why would you say something like that?"

"Exactly," she beamed back.

"You are so evil," Namjoon muttered under his breath.

I gave Y/N a sweet smile and a wink. "You didn't let me finish. You would say something like that because you love picking on me. It's like when I had acne problems and you played connect-the-dots with a marker."

Namjoon's laugh was so loud that I nearly jumped out of my own skin. Y/N giggled silently before nodding.  

"Oh yeah," she said, as if she forgot. "But I only did it because you pushed me into a chair with melted chocolate on it."

"How many times do I have to say I didn't see it?"

"That's not even the point," she argued. "Everyone thought I shit myself."

"But who offered you a fresh towel and even washed the stains out of your clothes?"

She rolled her eyes playfully, but the smile was fond and genuine despite.

The rest of the way Namjoon tried to chat to us about the intricacies of doling out muscle massages to the rhythmic gymnasts who stop by the infirmary. Neither me nor Y/N moved to interrupt him, the two of us in a comfortable silence.

Slowing my footsteps, we made it to a trendy store front. Checking my phone, I sent a quick text to JB, asking if he was already inside. But as soon as the other four noticed where we were standing in front of, they began to get vocal.

"Jackson stop playing around," Woobin said easily, clapping my shoulder gruffly.

"This is a cruel joke," Minji agreed.

"What is this place?"

Everyone gawked at Y/N as she stared up at the signage. I'm sure she could tell this wasn't just any ramen restaurant by the exterior design, but I knew, unlike everyone else, how little she ventured into town when at the facility.

"This is one of the best ramen restaurants outside of Seoul," Namjoon stated, his voice thick with how impressed he was. "You could call it exclusive in a way."

"Exclusive ramen shop?"  

"Y/N," I chided. "This isn't a ramen shop, it's a ramen restaurant."

"What's the difference?"

"You pay for the restaurant word," I mused.

"Where are we eating really?" Namjoon asked, looking at me directly. I could almost feel his skepticism from here.

Just as he asked the question, JB responded about grabbing a table near the back. Giving him a large smile and walking to the door, I opened it and held it, gesturing for the group to enter. "Right here. Let's go."

No one moved and my smile quickly dropped. “Come on, get in.”

After much coaxing and almost dragging Y/N into the establishment, we let the host know we already had people waiting for us.  

I couldn't lie, I was feeling pretty damn good about myself. When I planned, it was typically street food for dinner and a mildly cheap activity. But not tonight. I actually planned a decent night out and all in a few hours. Not only did I want to make sure Y/N would have a good time while out with my social group, I wanted to make sure Jinyoung and Bam--

"Jack, I hope you've got enough money to cover the sushi appetizer I just ordered."

I immediately froze in surprise but my momentum kept me moving forward. It was enough to accidentally bump the frozen person in front of me.  

The familiar black hair, styled with a side part, the color contacts turning his usually brown eyes a pale green and his designer cologne wafting over the entire area. Fucking hell.

"Bambam, I didn't invite you and you still owe me for your meal last time. So I'm not paying for it," I quickly countered, trying to regain my calm, but the longer I stood there, the more panicked I felt.

I glanced down for a split second to see the person I bumped was Y/N. No surprise there.

"It's JB's fault that I'm here in the first place," he blamed, pointing a finger in the direction of my very guilty-looking friend.

Inwardly, the groan had the power to rattle the walls of this restaurant.  

Figures. JB's the softest fucker in the world.

"I took Bambam to the pharmacy earlier but we got caught in traffic like I told you and--"

I held my hand up to stop him. It didn't matter how or why he was here at this point. Forcing Bambam to leave right now would be considered rude and it would cause a scene, wouldn't it? Before I made my final decision, I looked at Y/N. After all, whether Bambam stayed or I made him leave depended on her level of comfort. I could tell by the look on her face she was surprised, maybe even shook would be more accurate, but her eyes weren't just focused on the gymnast.

No.

She was looking between Bambam and Mark. So she noticed him too.

Discretely, I nudged her, trying to get her to do anything, react at the very least. And that's when she shook her head and gave a shy smile to the three seated. With swift action, she followed Namjoon, Minji and Woobin to the table.

Bambam immediately rose from his seat, walking over to attempt taking the seat beside Y/N, but she took the end seat, the place right beside Namjoon. I watched as his eyebrows furrowed, seemingly upset over the missed opportunity, but he settled into the seat in between Namjoon and me.

Most of the meal was smooth. Namjoon and Y/N seemed to be comfortable enough to talk through most of it, Mark joining in at one point. Y/N was at her quietest during that time. Bambam went between asking Minji about her handbag and where she shopped for jeans and awkwardly trying to start a conversation with me. It was obvious he wanted to ask something, but it seemed he didn't know how.

When he tried to ask how my Yakisoba bowl was for what felt like the thousandth time, I cut my eyes to him.

"What's up?" I asked easily. I had to maintain my image as the lax guy.

"What do you mean?"

"You just seem kind of off today," I reasoned, setting my chopsticks down as I turned to him slightly.

Bambam gave an uneasy laugh as he folded his hands in his lap. "Oh, it's probably due to my hangover. I'm still feeling last night you know?"

"You had a lot to drink last night."

"Jinyoung should've never brought the whiskey like I asked."

Silence settled between us and just as I was about to ask him a question about his behavior, Bambam completely turned his body so he was facing Namjoon. Lightly tapping on his shoulder, I watched as Namjoon turned to look at Bambam.

"Hey, do you mind if I switch spots with you?" he asked Namjoon.

Thankfully everyone was still in their own conversations on the other side of the table. Namjoon was definitely confused by the request and out of the corner of my peripheral vision I could see the nerves completely take over Y/N's face. She knew what was coming and I'm sure she was fighting the urge to run out of the restaurant at this point.

Unfortunately for Y/N, Namjoon was a nice guy and worse than that, he was agreeable. So of course he switched spots with Bambam so he could sit right beside Y/N. This broke off the two side-conversations happening on the other side of the table.

Now, don't get me wrong, Bambam is a decent guy. Funny, determined, way more dedicated to his craft than people gave him credit for and loyal. These were all things that made us friends in the first place. I'm sure, at this point in Bambam's conscience, he was looking for a way to forgive himself for his behavior, but he couldn't do that. Not without Y/N forgiving him first.  

I could tear my eyes away as Bambam smiled at Y/N, waving shyly. "I'm Bambam, we met unofficially last night."

The groan was thick and stuck in the back of my throat as I continued watching. Y/N gave an unsure nod, hoping Bambam wouldn't make a fool of her again.

"Listen...last night was just wild, right?" He asked.

Everyone's attention was on Bambam the second he and Namjoon stood up to switch seats, but now everyone was leaning forward, trying to follow what was happening.

Y/N gave another weak nod.

His long, tanned fingers played with the dangling earring as Bambam gave a nervous laugh. "I should've never said what I did last night. Being drunk isn't an acceptable excuse. I was a real dickhead and I apologize for shaming you like that in the car."

A thick layer of tension laid hung over the table. Everyone was deathly quiet as if making a noise would somehow cause it to drop and maim everyone seated. I was deathly silent as I watched my best friend, hoping she was okay.

Embarrassment was clearly written across her face as she tried to keep her eyes off of Bambam. The way she bit her bottom lip, how she shifted in her seat, the way she avoided everyone's gaze at the table. She was embarrassed and feeling anxious. As her cheeks reddened, I could see it was a level of nerves she wasn't accustomed to.  

Most of that embarrassment wasn't stemming from discussing last night's events in such a public setting. No. Surely in other circumstances, Y/N wouldn't have been half as embarrassed as she was now. As my eyes drifted over to the other side of the table, directly across from her was Mark. Mark was looking on intently, obviously listening to the entire conversation like everyone else at the table. And that's when it hit me.

She didn't want Mark to overhear what Bambam was apologizing for.

Everyone watched Y/N, probably assuming she would lash out physically or maybe even verbally attack Bambam, but she simply sighed, looking down before glancing briefly at him.

Just as I began to open mouth, hoping to shift everyone's attention, JB cleared his throat to catch Y/N's attention.

"I want to apologize too," he said somberly. "It's my car and I should've had better control over that situation."

"And to your credit," Bambam added, "you looked incredible last night."

My eyes lingered on Mark a moment, his eyes still lingering on Y/N. Why was he staring at her like that? Why did I suddenly feel the need to puff up and let Mark know I had everything under control?

"It's fine," Y/N mumbled out in response, breathing out a humorless laugh and displaying a smile that didn't quite reach the eyes. "I'm over it."

"Really?" Bambam asked, the disbelief very obvious in his tone.

She shrugged, looking directly at him, "Water under the bridge at this point."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

Short replies weren't always a good sign with Y/N.

"Seriously, you can hate me if that helps. I'll even let you hit me—just don't go anywhere near the face," Bambam said, gesturing to his entire face with his palm. He gave an uneasy laugh, obviously not sure how to proceed. It seemed he was waiting for hellfire to consume him when he did this and Y/N's response was throwing him off.

It was throwing him off a lot.

Tight-lipped and showing enough embarrassment for a lifetime, Y/N gave Bambam another smile that failed to reach her eyes as she shrugged.

"Honestly, it's fine. You were drunk right?"

"Yeah, but that's no excu--"

"It isn't, but it's not worth holding it against you."

An awkward silence settled into the table between each of us and I was desparate to get my friend out of the spotlight. I didn't invite her here so my friends could gawk at her. I also didn't invite her here so my guilty friends could apologize—hell, Bambam wasn't even supposed to be here.

Before the silence could ruin the entire mood of the night, I stood up and clapped my hands obnoxiously. The sound caught the entire table's attention as well as a few patron seated nearby.

"Let's get going to the next spot!”

“You mean you planned for more than just paying for dinner?” Namjoon joked, overly pleased with himself when it earned a laugh from the table.

I gave him a sarcastic snort.  

"Namjoon, I regret ever laughing at your joke that one time."

Despite the playful insult, Namjoon giggled like a madman before I rolled my eyes and settled my attention back on the table.

"Get your stuff and let's bounce."

"Where are we going though?" JB asked as he slowly rose from his seat.

I couldn't hide the smirk as I turned my eyeline to my extra broody friend. "Don't worry. Just sit back and enjoy the ride."

Namjoon gasped obnoxiously beside me. "You paid for us to get a ride there?"

The side eye was real as I looked at my lanky friend. "And they trust you with medical supplies."

Masterlist

[geek-patient-zero]

Part 1, Chapter 11

Or: Oh Boy, Here I Go Killing Again

Blood War: Masquerade of the Red Death Trilogy Volume 1

Washington DC—March 12, 1994

We’re back with Makish as he continues his contract work for the Red Death.

Normally, a city the size of the nation’s capital could support a dozen Kindred comfortably.

It’s implied any more than that and people will start noticing the disappearances, or all the people waking up with less blood in them than the night before and no memory of why that is. I think it’s also a holdover from the tabletop game, where you’ve got the established canon characters living in a city, the player characters, and a few of the storyteller’s OC’s. You don’t expect the poor storyteller to come up with a whole functioning Kindred community, so your average game might have about a dozen or so vampire characters. Though, that population number makes many vampire conflicts seem sillier and pettier. All that political maneuvering and deception just to rule over about eleven other dudes.

Despite half of the city being a warzone where even the police fear to tread, the city still gets over ten million tourists visiting a year. Disaster tourism, I guess. Combined with the regular political changing of the guard resulting in a constantly shifting population, a city that can usually fit in a dozen vamps can fit several dozen.

Last night, the Red Death had lowered that number by two. This evening, Makish planned to continue that trend. Following the instructions of his grisly employer, the Assamite intended to wipe out more than a quarter of the Kindred residing in Washington. It was an ambitious plan, but Makish enjoyed challenges. The Red Death had proposed a sliding-scale bounty for each vampire slain. The greater the number killed, the larger the reward per Final Death. Tonight, Makish was feeling very greedy. And quite lethal.

Makish’s target this chapter is in a “popular private men’s club” called The Deadlands, located in Anacostia.

It was located east of the Anacostia river in one of the worst neighborhoods in Washington.

Hopefully Anacostia’s being portrayed like this because it’s the World of Darkness, a Harsher, Crueler Version of Our World, and not because it’s a low-income black neighborhood.

No one visited The Deadlands without a bodyguard. Or tried to enter without an invitation.

The club’s owned by an eighth-generation Toreador named John Thompson, a Camarilla liaison with the U.S. government who controlled several powerful politicians by, well, pimping to them.

Well connected with the most corrupt power mongers in the capital, Thompson worked hard to satisfy the most decadent wishes of his establishment’s exclusive membership.

Unfortunately for his “employees”, Thompson’s pimping style seems to be a Littlefinger as Jeff Epstein kind of deal, his services ranging from offering your typical vanilla paid sex to crueler fair.

No desire was too extreme for those who frequented the Deadlands. Sex and drugs were the norm. Orgies took place every night. Sadism, torture, even ritual sacrifice could be experienced—for the right price. More than one tax increase had been passed to help pay Thompson’s fee for a Congressman’s outrageous request.

You know what’s sad? In this real life hellworld, if politicians were paying to torture and murder prostitutes with their constituents’ tax money, would we even be surprised at this point? Plus, a chunk of the country would suddenly become openly pro prostitute murder and pay more money in taxes to “trigger the libs.”

Despite being Camarilla, Thompson’s business practices sound like something a Toreador antitribu would do, those guys finding beauty in the suffering of others. Makish seems to agree.

Makish was, in his own twisted manner, a highly moral individual. He considered Thompson a necessary but unfortunate link between the world of the living and undead. To ensure their safety, Kindred needed control over important people in government. That much Makish accepted. The assassin, however, found extremely distasteful the constant pandering to the basest instincts of the politicians. He felt such acts put the Camarilla on the same level as the hated Sabbat. Removing Thompson promised to be an enjoyable artistic endeavor.

Makish arrives at the club just after 1:00 am, with a bag full of handy assassin gadgets. He’s already in high spirits because he killed three racist thugs who tried to jump him on his walk to the club.

Before attacking, they had stupidly made several insulting remarks about the color of his skin and the nature of his ancestors. It had been bad judgement on their part. The Assamite had strangled the trio with their own intestines. Makish considered the horrified look of stunned disbelief in their eyes as they choked to death adequate repayment for their affronts to his dignity.

The club’s front entrance guarded by a half-dozen brick shithouse ghouls openly carrying AK-47′s.

No police patrolled this section of the capital. None dared.

More likely the ghouls look white enough to carry assault rifles in an American city, so the cops leave them alone.

Makish smiled and shook his head. Like too many of the Kindred, Thompson had grown complacent. He believed himself invulnerable. Dealing with ordinary humans had dulled the edge of his wits. Ghouls were stronger and faster and deadlier. However, they lacked imagination and realization what a truly powerful Kindred could do if provoked.

The Red Death mocked Kindred who depended on basic technology like security cameras. Madeleine Giovanni tore through the Mausoleum’s defenses and criticized its dependence on ghouls. Now Makish is doing the same. Is there any kind of security method these undead pricks don’t smugly look down on? I’m starting to think Vampire: The Masquerade should have kept the “vampires need to be invited in” rule.

Wait, I remember now. Madeleine couldn’t infiltrate Don Caravelli’s hideout. ‘Course, what defenses he has, beyond Kindred bodyguards, are suspiciously unmentioned. Maybe next book.

They were no match for an Assamite assassin. Especially this particular Assamite assassin. A direct assault would take too much time and give Thompson a chance to escape the surroundings. But there was more than one way to enter a fortress. Any fortress.

The Assamite Clan was renamed as the Banu Haqim in V5, and the term “Assamite” was changed into a disparaging nickname. At first I thought this change was because Assamite may have been a slur, but every google result leads to something V:TM related. It looks like Assamite’s just the word “assassin” changed up, making phrases like “Assamite assassin” sound redundant. No insensitivity in this case. Just a stupid name.

Makish does some rooftop hopping to get to The Deadlands.

The club was less than thirty feet away. The ghouls never looked up.

John Thompson exclusively ghouls stealth game NPCs.

The Deadlands is a rebuilt and reinforced Victorian mansion. Pretty extensively rebuilt too, since it’s five stories tall and Victorian homes typically had only two or three. It has alarms and motion detectors embedded in the roof and gables, which don’t go off when Makish lands on it.

The Assamite had mentally locked them into their present setting. Makish possessed incredible powers over machinery.

This again. I did some digging and learned there’s a branch of Thaumatergy called the Path of Technomancy. It could allow Makish to do this, but it was introduced in the Revised version of the Camarilla sourcebook released in 1999, four years after Blood War was published. It could also be a form of telekinesis. Whatever the case, it’s still a bullshit power to bust out so casually. It isn’t even unique to Makish.

Sensing that the only people on the top floor are two humans “engaged in an act of passion,” he hardens his fingers, peels off a section of the roof, and jumps down.

Thompson was two levels down, talking business with a pair of potential customers. Running on a tight schedule, Makish had no time for subtlety. He planned leaving no survivors of his attacks. While he disliked killing innocent bystanders, these lawmakers could hardly be described as guiltless. Murdering them was probably doing their constituents a favor.

The moment Makish enters, his stealth rating is immediately ruined. Those two mortals banging in another room? The ones Makish specifically noted and decided were unlikely to notice him entering? Makish was so busy fantasizing about killing corrupt politicians that he didn’t notice one of them, a high-priced prostitute, rush out of the room until she starts screaming. He quickly reads her mind, because he didn’t have enough powers. Look, he’s a thousand years old, so he gets a shmorgishborg of disciplines. He learns that her john, an old fuck of a senator, had a heart attack during his throes of passion. Classic scenario, I know. She ran out to find help, only to find this random Indian guy breaking in through a hole in the roof.

I’d like to say things go well for the woman. That Makish can also erase memories and wipes her mind so she forgets ever seeing him, or that he just knocked her out. But this is a dark fantasy story, and typical of dark fantasy, the sex worker dies.

“My apologies,” said Makish regretfully and slapped the screaming woman hard across the temple. The blow instantly shattered her skull and she collapsed on the floor in a pool of blood.”

Oh Makish. You were almost the most heroic character in this book. But hey, at least he feels sorry about it, eh? Eh? Eh.

He then checks on the senator in the room she ran out of, dragging her corpse along with him.

The senator lay on the bed, clutching his chest, gasping for breath. He had suffered a minor coronary. Enough to incapacitate him, but not to kill. Makish completed the job by tearing out the man’s heart.

Unnecessary, but I’m not going to judge him for that one.

“Casually, he threw the woman’s body across the politician’s. United in life, he felt it proper that they should be united in death.”

This I’ll judge him for. You already killed the poor woman, you don’t have to make it worse by trying to symbolically link her with the gross old guy she was paid to fuck. Friggin’ artists...

Alarms, activated by the girl’s screams, were ringing throughout the house.

You ask me, scream-activated alarms aren’t a good idea to have in a whorehouse.

Seriously though, a guard must have heard the screaming and sounded the alarm. Makish doesn’t use his maybe-tehcnomancy to turn them off.

He preferred minor chaos when he worked. Confusion served him well.

See? He meant to blow his cover the instant he entered the building.

Makish hurries downstairs and bumps into three armed ghouls. Pretending to be a terrified innocent bystander, he points them upstairs, telling them the now-dead senator might be dying. Then he tears out there throats as they run past him.

There aren’t any more interruptions on his way to Thompson’s office. He slips in, nods pleasantly to the two politicians inside, then kills them by smashing their heads together.

Thompson, a short, squat man with a huge handlebar mustache, gaped in astonishment.

Toreador are stereotyped as the Beautiful Vampires, but for every sexy male Toreador you get an average-looking schlub like Isaac Abrams and this guy. And no, I’m not giving him any points for the mustache. People with handlebar mustaches after 1900 are compensating for having no personality.

“Who-who are you?” he asked.

“I bring justice,” said the assassin, aware of the hidden camera and tape machines recording his every word and action. His rather stilted dialogue had come directly from the Red Death.

On the one hand, I love that Red D.’s canonically a bad writer. On the other, this is coming from an actual writer who’s allergic to contractions, and it’d be hard to notice when the dialogue is intentionally stilted without us being told so.

“For too many years your presence in this city has offended the Sabbat. Tonight that insult ends.”

You’d think being recorded claiming to represent the Sabbat would cause Makish future trouble getting Camarilla contracts, but he doesn’t look worried about it.

Thompson tries to stall for time, saying they can make a deal, but Makish already read his mind and knows about the already-pressed security button under his desk, and the hidden emergency escape passage nearby.

Makish toyed with the idea of letting Thompson escape into the passage, extending the hunt by a few minutes. It appealed to his sense of irony. But business was business and he had numerous other killings to perform tonight. Sometimes art had to be sacrificed in the name of expediency.

And sometimes expediency is needed to get an artist to make art at all. Am I right or am I right?

Makish reaches into his assassin bag and pulls out a big-ass wooden stake. Thompson shrieks and tries to escape, but Makish quickly stakes him in the heart.

Contrary to popular belief, a wooden stake didn’t kill a vampire. However, it did paralyze the Cainite until removed. Thompson was unharmed, merely immobilized. Which was exactly what Makish wanted.

I’d like to thank Weinberg for not subjecting us to yet another one of those “everything the movies say about vampires is bullshit” speeches that’s in every other vampire story. Even Bloodlines couldn’t resist one.

Also, “unharmed” like stabbing someone in the chest with a big wooden spike leaves no mark.

Next out of Makish’s bag is a roll of gray tape and “a small circular device two inches in diameter.” He also technomances all the recording devices off.

He preferred not displaying his special toys to the eyes of either the Camarilla or the Sabbat. His fondness for Thermit was well known. Death by high explosives was Makish’s favorite artistic expression.

This is one of those scenes that’s stuck with me since I first read this book all those years ago. The way Makish kills Thompson is actually pretty awesome, and is a better example of an “artistic kill” than just disemboweling someone in one quick blow. Just ignore how he’s able to do all this before the ghouls Thompson summoned reach the office.

“Open wide, please,” said Makish politely, and with one hand forced the round ball into Thompson’s mouth. A thin strand of wire connected the device to the stake buried in the vampire’s chest. Carefully Makish wound the heavy-duty tape around his victim’s mouth and upper body. Reinforced with optical fiberglass threads, the tape was nearly indestructible. It could not be torn, only unraveled. Taking it off required hours of hard work. Removing the stake, though, took much less effort.

“Your ghouls should arrive shortly,” declared Makish cheerfully. “Seeing you frozen on the floor, they will immediately think to withdraw the cause of your anguish. You will not be able to tell them not to. Unfortunately, when they pull out the stake, the action will activate the trigger of the plaything in your mouth. It is a small but extremely powerful Thermit bomb. The resulting fire should burn your body to ashes in seconds. The colors will be spectacular. It will be an artistic finish to your existence.”

Taking his bag, Makish stepped into the secret passage. It was a quicker, easier escape method than returning to the roof.

“Goodbye”’ he said to the unmoving Thompson. “Thank you for your cooperation. Enjoy the wait.”

Funny story about this scene.

Like I said, this kill made such an impression on me I still remembered it twenty years later. But over that time, I forgot certain other details about the story. Like Makish. As in, I forgot the character existed at all. The same thing happened with Mad-Eye Moody between Harry Potter books. I read Order of the Phoenix when it came out, several years after The Goblet of Fire, and thought “Wait, who’s this guy with the fake eye? Is he important?”

While I was forgetting details about Blood War, I’d been reading online discussions about Bloodlines after it came out. I’d never played the game before 2019, but I knew a bit about the plot, characters, and notable events... I’d say through cultural osmosis, but let’s be real, Bloodlines was hardly popular enough to be called part of a culture. I was just good at remembering useless geek crap with no real-world applicability. The stuff I knew about the game included a character in it who also made an impressive kill using explosives. 

What I’m saying is, memories blurred together and for several years and until now, I would have sworn the killer in this scene was Smiling Jack.

Now I know Jack was introduced in Bloodlines, but just a year ago I’d thought that maybe he was a character from the tabletop or an early novel, like Beckett. Also, I misremembered his name as Mad Jack. Long story short, I read the book, learned about Makish, went “oh”, remembered that my family has a history of senility, and sunk into existential despair.

The explosion was so loud that Makish heard it two blocks from The Deadlands. He nodded in satisfaction, deciding it was an excellent beginning for the evening’s endeavors.