#and yes i could’ve posted these separately but i didn’t feel like it :P well i drew these all at once so why not post them all at once? hah

[honeybomb4thebear]

Congratulations, Yasuhiro!

Setting: Non-Despair AU

Yasuhiro tires his S/O sometimes, yet she still loves him. Which is why, it feels good when he touches her like that, even though he is as virgin as he could be.

Congrats on losing your virginity, Yasuhiro!

Yasuhiro Hagakure x Fem!Reader

Genre: N//fw (secks!), sm/t

Even though his fingers were on your panties, teasing you shamelessly he couldn't even look at you. Even when he moved his finger between your labia and pressed it against, he still couldn't look. You liked how shy he was, maybe more than the attention your... Lower parts were getting. "Y-Yasuhiro," you said, your head on his forearm, "just like that... p-please," your voice was barely above a whisper. "You like it," Yasuhiro said, his cheeks showing the faintest hints of pink. "You like it... Right?" Instead of answering, you let out an involuntarily moan. Yasuhiro's fingers were moving quickly, yet not harshly, which was causing you more pleasure than you'd expect. Seeing you as the hot mess you are, Yasuhiro seemed to be even more encouraged, since he touched your pussy directly without worrying about taking your panties off, just slipping the bottom part of it. He was clearly excited now, yet still tried to hide it. His eyes weren't open wide, but they were shining nonetheless. He seemed to be observing you completely, eyes scanning every curve of your body, undressing you with them. His lips were pressed into a thin line, probably to prevent heavy breathing like a creep. Yet the way his chest went up and down gave it away, causing you to snicker a bit. You then noticed his boner, which made your insides pulsate, and of course, Yasuhiro wasn't late to catch on. He gulped. "Like what you see?" His attempts at dirty talk could succeed if it weren't for his nervous and clearly excited expression. Yet you liked him the way he was. "I...I really do," you managed to let out, as Yasuhiro teased your bare entrance without even penetrating his fingers inside. "You are... Really wet," he said, almost surprised. You had to make a great effort to not laugh there, but you wouldn't be lying if you said the way his fingers moved helped. As you let out pants and low grunts, Yasuhiro became more impatient, resulting in him to push his fingers inside you all the way down to knuckles. You jumped in shock and pleasure, a long and loud moan filling the bedroom. This was kind of sudden yet it didn't take much time to get used to it. Your boyfriend then pulled you on his lap, letting you sit sideways so that he could kiss you easily. As his lips crushed on yours, he started scissoring, which naturally made you moan inside his mouth. You were a bit embarrassed by this, but Yasuhiro didn't seem to mind, even separating your lips to hear them loud and clear. While his one hand scissored you, his other hand started to toy with your clit, kind of clumsy but still pleasurable nonetheless. Whilst his fingers worked on you, Yasuhiro landed his lips on your neck this time, and you gladly allowed him, rolling your head back for full access. "Y-Yasuhiro... I'm c-close," your voice sounded really pathetic this time. Shaky, whiny, and extremely erotic. You understood that he liked the way you sounded when he instinctively bucked his hips up to your ass, his erection pressing against you even more. "You can... Cum." he said, letting out a sigh in pleasure right after. He was even harsher with his fingers now, working on you with enthusiasm Yasuhiro had rarely ever shown before. "I-I'm gonna, ah-!" you were out of breath as you felt your body strain with pleasure,  and went limp on his arms as you came back from your high. Yasuhiro slowly pulled his fingers out, a thin line of your cum the following suit after them. He looked at his now cum-coated fingers, eyes still shining and cheeks pink. You felt his erection twitch under your butt. You were slowly gaining breath now, the afterglow losing its primary effects gradually. Even so, your body was still super sensitive. Yasuhiro gulped as he stared at your trembling body with a serious expression on his face. "Do you want to... Go all the way? We don't have to, it's just, umm..." "Maybe," you said, your voice still low yet eyes refraining from eye contact. "Okay," Yasuhiro tilted towards the nightstand, taking out a condom as you worked on his pants. "Y/N, could it be that you are excited?" he asked almost smugly, looking at you as he held the condom in his hand. "I'm just... Helping you out." "Sure,"  he said, his nervousness having reduced a bit. He then requested that you got off of his lap, which you did quickly. You then took off your clothes, which Yasuhiro awkwardly imitated, taking off his clothes as well. When he finally put the condom on, he shyly looked at your entrance, even though his cock wasn't really shy. His dick was twitching at the sight of your pussy, much to his embarrassment. You looked at him, eyebrows raised. "I won't force you, buddy," you said, hint of disappointment in your voice. This caused Yasuhiro to panic, and he immediately started to tease your entrance. "Not that you have to force," he said, still not brave enough to enter you. "Sheesh, Hiro! You bully, stop teasing me..." you murmured, still sensitive so when he teased you your insides were tightening almost painfully. "Sorry, my fault," he said with a sheepish smile, failing to look guilty. And it became even more apparent after he rubbed his cock on your pussy, making you more of a whimpering mess than you already were. "Yasuhiro... Mhm--! Please, I can't take it anymore!" you cried out. Yasuhiro's smile didn't vanish, yet he steadied himself. "You do look nice and wet," he said as he looked at his cock, shining because it was coated in your juices, which made you wonder what had happened to the nervous and ultra virgin Yasuhiro he was a minute ago. "Mhmm... It...It's your fault, so take responsibility." "I-I can, right?" "...Dummy. 'Course y-you can..." "Then I'm going to put it in, Y/N." You failed to talk back to him- because your focus was shifted somewhere else, that somewhere else being his cock entering your vagina. Meaning instead of an insult, it was a moan that had come from your mouth. "Y-Y/N," your dumb boyfriend said, a dazed-yet-perverted smile on his face, "the sound you just made was so hot..." Again, right before you could answer, Yasuhiro started to thrust deep into your pussy, pulling you towards his cock so that he could bury himself inside you as deep as he could. The harsh slapping sounds that were caused by the smacks of your hips as Yasuhiro fucked you were accompanied by your cute moans- which only encouraged your beast of a boyfriend further. You wrapped your legs around his hips, yet Yasuhiro moved one all the way to your head, presumably to get better access to your cunt. The feeling of Yasuhiro's cock stretching your pussy felt better than you could've imagined, now that you were actually able to hear how wet you were. Yasuhiro was almost enchanted by your lewd state. The way your tits bounced as he thrust inside you was almost hypnotizing for this no-longer-virgin boy- and watching his penis penetrate your pussy harshly felt better than any fantasy he had about you. The real deal was the best, after all, he thought to himself. Getting more pumped up, he pushed your other leg to get the best access to your pussy, his dick growing bigger inside you. "I-I feel like if I told your fortune right now, I'd get 100% accuracy for sure!" You tried to insult him but the way his dick stretched your insides turned what was supposed to be a snarky remark into lewd moans. This resulted in Yasuhiro giggling in between his low grunts. "Ahh, Y-Y/N... In order f-for me to get more accurate results c-could we do this e-everyday? Um, uh, w-we will be rich." "Dumbass!" you managed to let out, but that didn't sound as harsh as you intended- it just sounded erotic. The more you tried to hide your pleasure, the more it showed itself. Making you wrap your left leg around his waist, Yasuhiro slightly pulled you on his lap, fucking you in a different angle now. The angle must have worked because your moans were louder than they were before, Yasuhiro felt like he did something. He didn't exactly know what he did though, but you were definitely enjoying it. "Pretty..." He whispered, his finger fondling your clit. "Y-Yasuhiro I'm-" "Cumming?" Two in a row?, he thought to himself. Guess he WAS a Casanova. "Y-yes, please..." He continued to rub your clit, watching your back arch as his thrusts became erratic as well. And not much later, you came undone on his dick, walls pulsating and desperately trying to milk him. The way you wrapped around Yasuhiro was more than enough for him to climax. His loud moan was too cute, you wished to hear it more often but you were glad to see his cumming face nonetheless. When he pulled out, you almost felt lonely. Almost. Because right after removing the condom, he said: "Should I make my fortune tellings more expensive, now that I have post-nut clarity?" "Yasuhiro get out."

sorry i’m so unfunny.

[shoyomeow]

EPIPHANY

❀ characters : wakatoshi ushijima x female reader

❀ genre : angst, angst, more angst and a sprinkle of fluff

❀ wc: 1533

“I know I shouldn’t be here.” 

“Then why are you here?” 

     ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

You refused to believe it. 

Anybody but him.

He couldn’t possibly do this to you could he? Sora must have mistaken him for someone else right? Or who knows, he’s been getting a lot of attention from the press nowadays, maybe a hungry paparazzi made an edit for him. With the technology today it wasn’t completely out of the question right? 

You couldn’t even listen to your own thoughts because a part of you knew that you were simply trying to delude yourself by coming up with these justifications. You knew that no one could truly mistake him for someone else, he towered over everyone else and had an overwhelming presence, besides Sora had 20/20 vision. Paparazzi? That’s impossible because he was wearing the clothes that he had FaceTimed you in an hour ago, no matter how good you are it would be impossible for paparazzi to edit such a realistic picture within an hour and even more impossible for Sora to get hands on it before it was posted on social media.

You had always prided yourself in being rational, so why was it that right now you wanted to be anything but that?

Being rational meant accepting the fact that your boyfriend, who you loved and adored and had been with since your second year of high school, had his hands entwined with a stranger.

Being rational meant accepting that the ease in which he was doing this in a public setting meant that it wasn’t the first time. 

Being rational meant that you had to acknowledge that he couldn’t possibly be drunk because he refuses to drink for a week before a match, there have never been any exceptions and he probably wasn’t going to start now.

Being rational meant that you couldn’t be in denial anymore. 

Being rational meant that Wakatoshi Ushijima, the last person you had expected to hurt you, was cheating on you. And from the looks of it, it probably was not the first time he was doing this. 

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“Ushijima-san, you should go home.” the feelings that you thought you had overcome, the betrayal, the grief, the anger and the hatred you felt for yourself for so long came back crashing on you as you looked at the drunk man. At first glance one couldn’t possibly tell that he was drunk, but you had known him for far too long to not recognise his intoxicated state.

“You used to call me Toshi, please call me that again.”

“Ushijima-san,” you were clutching onto your apartment door so hard that you wondered if you would bleed today, “Do you have someone who can pick you up?”

It was four in the morning and you had been sitting in the same position for the past hour. Prior to that you were far too numb to realise your own emotions as you mindlessly and with a sense of monotony packed your bag. 

You sat down on the couch, the first piece of furniture that you had bought with Wakatoshi when you moved in with him, the once beige sofa was stained and had threads coming out of it’s upholstered ends but you never did have the heart to throw it away. 

There was a sense of dread that settled at the pit of your stomach as you processed your own thoughts. Were you going to remain oblivious to Wakatoshi doing this had Sora’s friend not sent her those pictures? Was he going to keep the wool over your eyes as you planned for a future with him? What if you two had kids at some point, would he have continued to do this?

The fact that he seemed so normal and nonchalant about him cheating was the thing that hurt you. It would make you a liar if you said that the act of cheating itself didn’t hurt but you could’ve dealt with that pain easier if he had been the one to tell you. But to have him lie to you for god knows how long, and see you plan your suburban fantasy with him was humiliating.

You heard the click of the door and straightened your back, he may have hurt you but you will not give him the satisfaction or ego boost by crying over him.

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“Please let go of me Ushijima-san.” his grip on the long sleeves of the hoodie you were wearing wasn’t strong, it was similar to the grip a mother would tell her child to practice so that they wouldn’t get separated. You didn’t know how long you could keep up the indifferent facade. You didn’t want him to see you be vulnerable, not back then and certainly not now. 

“You used to wear my hoodies too y/n, why did you stop? I always liked seeing you be swallowed up by them.” Ushijima wasn’t a clingy drunk, he was simply a person who exaggerated his pre-existent qualities. He became more blunt, if that was even possible and he always acted on the first thought that popped into his mind.

“Because we have nothing to do with each other anymore, Ushijima-san.” 

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“You’re up?” his tone was neutral like it always was, no underlying nervousness, no guilt that you could sense, “Are you going somewhere?”

“Yeah, I’m leaving Wakatoshi.” you wondered how your tone sounded so firm and sincere when you felt like you were breaking apart inside.

“Ah I see, is everything alright?” there was a time when you found him taking everything into a literal sense endearing, now you just wanted to kill him.

“Everything is just dandy, you would know wouldn’t you? After all, you just got laid.” You wondered if it was normal to feel smug as you witnessed the sense of dread, shame and guilt well up in his demeanour, “I just want to know, how long has this been going for?”

He knew better than to lie to you but at least he had the decency to not meet your eyes as shame manifested and bloomed within him, “Around eight months.”

“Eight months,” you mulled over it for a moment when realisation struck you, “That was when you had gone with the team to Osaka right? For a retreat.”

“Yes.”

“I see.” you released a soft sigh, you would cry, you were going to bawl your eyes out as soon as you got into the cab that you had booked for yourself, the one who was definitely going to charge extra for having to wait for so long. You would probably cry for days over the fact that eight months ago, when he had missed out on your anniversary and you had not been worried about it because you had been together for far too long to worry about stuff like that, he had probably been balls deep into someone else.

“Ushijima,” his surname tasted foreign on your tongue as you had not addressed him with that in far too long, “I want you to not talk or say anything else. I’m leaving and by that I mean that I’m leaving you. I wish you luck in your future endeavours and may you forever rot in hell.” 

“Y/n,” he called out as you grabbed your things to leave, “For what it’s worth, I am sorry.”

“You know something?” you smiled at him, the bitter and hate filled smile that you gave him made his heart ache, “I think that’s the first time I’ve recognised a lie of yours. Kudos to me.”

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“The cab is here Ushijima-san, please get in and leave. I have already told them your address.”

“Why?” He slurred as he was helped by the driver to get  into the car, “Why can’t it be our address anymore? Please come back. I miss you y/n.”

You smiled again, the same bitter smile that you had given to him while you were parting two years ago but much less hateful, “Ushijima-san, kindly get the fuck away from me and never try to contact me again. If you show up at my place again I will be forced to take legal 

You straightened your back once again as you walked into your apartment. 

The pain of him doing what he had done still haunted you, after all, can someone ever truly get over being betrayed by the person they trusted the most? But you could happily say that while the pain still existed, it had reduced into a dull throb. 

“Hey babe, who was at the door?” 

You couldn’t help but smile at your boyfriend who had his hair in foils waiting for the dye to set in and a face coated with a green face mask, “Oh it was just Ushijima.”

“Oh okay,” Atsumu turned to go back into the washroom, before his mind processed your words causing him to snap his head at you, “WAIT WHAT?”

You couldn’t help but laugh as you walked towards him and pulled him into a soft kiss, trying to ignore the green face mask which had undoubtedly transferred a little onto your own skin, “You’re annoying as hell but I love you so much.”

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special shoutout to @samuthots​ cause i got the prompt list from her and that is what inspired this fic.

@daifwukus​

[minimoxha]

“There, Problem solved”

Pairing: Batmom x Batfam

Summary: Bruce and F/n’ toddler starts to pick up on things and repeat them

Warnings: Cursing, cookies :P

(This is my first post, I promise it’ll get better.)

————————————-

When Bruce started to date you, he never thought he was going to last that long. He saw you and immediately fell in love but also knew he never had many serious relationships.

He’d never seen himself now, married to you for 10 years and the father of a two year old. Sometimes, he had to pinch himself to make sure he wasn’t living a bizarre dream. Bruce was a pretty good father even with him running WE and his Nightly duties because you had helped him out. You’d convinced him to take days off, you had helped with WE, you had helped him with All four boys. Without you, Bruce would be empty.

Snapping him out of his thoughts, his daughter stated to talk to him. Martha had just woken up and she decided to talk his ear off. He didn’t mind of course, until...

“And he took my Barbie, he’s a bitch” He jumped at the sound of his two year old calling someone a bitch. “Martha, what did you say?” After the young girl repeated herself for the second time, Bruce came to the conclusion that his Two-Year old just called someone a bitch. Quickly but carefully, he took his daughter into his arms and sprinted to the kitchen where alfred was baking cookies and preparing dinner. “Tell Alfred what you told me sweetie” Bruce kissed the young girl on her cheek as she told alfred the whole story, ending off with the kid being a bitch. 

“I do believe Master Jason Curses the most, Martha must’ve gotten it from him. However, it might be best if you prevent her for using that type of language.” Alfred Instructed, Handing the young girl a cookie in order to distract her from the conversation. Martha, LIke her dad, Was a smart girl. Seh could already read, write, and do basic math so she could figure out that the two men were talking about her and would be curious as to why. However, with the cookie, she was to busy trying to eat around the chocolates. (she ate them separately) At the right time, Jason walked into the kitchen, with the goal to eat cookies but is stopped by Bruce and Alfred who are glaring him down. If looks could kill, bullets would have shot through his chest already.                            

 “Yes?”  “Jason, did you teach Martha to say Bitch?”

  The answer was yes, but no. Technically, he cursed in front of her but he didn’t teach them to her....anymore. Jason didn’t think she would pick up on what he does but knowing you, his patrol privileges would be taken for a couple days. He slowly backed out the kitchen and left to his room without answering the men. Sighing, Bruce waited until the girl finished  eating another cookie to bend down and correct her on her foul language. “Martha, Saying bitch is bad” Martha was a smart girl, she could pick up on things rather easily and she was rather intelligent for her age so Bruce knew she would catch on pretty easily. 

The young girl nodded and reached across the counter to grab another cookie to fulfill her sugar cravings. Alfred and Bruce seemed to forget about the incident for a while until you came downstairs, a string of curse word spewing from  your mouth.“That son of a bitch, they act like they aren't fucking bulletproof. No, no B/F/N we can settle this with them.” You were infuriated that your best friends significant other just cheated on them. 

You were nice, a sweet person but the moment someone got on your nerves, there was hell to pay. So, B/F/N’s significant other was getting ready to get it. Having a son with a lot of guns did have perks and that meant you could damn well kill them  but you decided against it in your mind. Acting on impulse was not something bruce was particularly fond of and he hated killing. You ended the call, telling your best friend you’ll call her back and looking towards alfred and bruce.

“Oh, Alfred made cookies!” Your mood seemed to change as quick as light as you walked over to the counter and grabbed a handful of the delicious pastry off the counter. “why do you keep looking at me Babe?”

“Martha Learned the word bitch from someone...At first I thought it was Jason, but now i realize that she spends a whole lot of time with you...” You raised a eyebrow at what your husband was inquiring. “I didn't teach her any cuss words but even if I did it's just a word.” “Yes but I don't want her to go around saying it without knowing the meaning behind the world.” 

Casually, you walked over to the black haired toddler and leaned down to her level and said: “Martha, Bitch is a bad word. It’s what you call people who get on your nerves, its also a female dog. Try not to say it okay sweetpea?” Martha showed her half-gummy, half-toothy smile and nodded. “There, Problem solved.” You teased, walking back to your room leaving bruce to sigh and grab the younger girl. “Alright Martha, Let’s put you down for a nap so I can explain to mommy that not everything can be fixed by ignoring it.” 

--------

I feel like the ending could’ve been better. Thank you so much for reading and it gives me so much more confidence! :)

Bye!

[crystalninjaphoenix]

Threads

A Stitched Story

JSE Fanfic

And we’re back with this! A longer part, I suppose, but hopefully not too long. The main group finally meets up with Jackie again, finding things aren’t quite right over with him. And there’s these creepy things crawling all over, what’s with that? And where’s Marvin? Well, I can tell you now, he’s not having a good time either. Anyway, hope you guys like this! There’s not as much action as the previous part, but still some, and a lot of dialogue, too ^-^

Tagging @septic-dr-schneep for inspiring this AU with this post.

Read where it started: Stitched Together | Season One | Season Two

Previous Season Three story: Torn Apart | Tales to Tell

Taglist (finally): @bupine​ @violet--majesty

Nine o’clock in the morning, and the day had already gone off the rails in multiple ways. The group gathered in the living room of Schneep’s apartment. Chase and Jack sat on one of the sofas, and Schneep and JJ sat on the other, opposite them. They’d brought in snacks, mainly chips and oven-made fries, but nobody was touching them in light of the discussion.

“Look, we have no reason to trust this stranger or his word,” Schneep was saying. “He could be lying.”

“Yeah, but why would anyone lie about something like this?” Chase countered. “‘Hi, your friend who died has come back to life and really wants to see you,’ what could possibly be gained from that?”

“And he’s not really a stranger,” Jack added. “I think I kinda remember Jackie mentioning him before. Said he was a detective, or something.”

Schneep rolled his eyes. “It does not matter in the end. He could still be lying.”

 But I have to agree with Chase, JJ signed. Why would he do so?

Chase looked at JJ, startled but relieved. He waited for Jack to translate Jameson’s signs for Schneep before continuing. “Yeah, and it’s not totally out of possibility, is it? When we thought we defeated Anti before, Jackie and Marvin reappeared. Maybe now that Anti is gone for good, they came back somehow.”

Schneep folded his arms. “If we say they have come back in some way, there is a high chance they will not be the same, given how...odd they were last time.”

Chase glanced back over at JJ. “Yeah, uh, we’ve...thought about that.” He waited for JJ to jump in, but there was nothing. “But...I mean, we should still check it out, right? Stacy gave me this guy’s number, I can call him to see what’s up.”

“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea,” Jack added. “See for ourselves what this guy’s like. Or, uh, hear. You know?” 

“Yes yes, we can do that first.” Schneep nodded. “What was his name again?”

“Malcolm,” Chase said, picking up his phone and copying the number from his notes into the dialer. “I’ve never met him before, but then again, I don’t really know all of your guys’ friends either.” He could’ve been at the funeral, but then again, Chase didn’t think he would have remembered him if he was. He was a little...distracted at the time.

“Yeah, I think I’ve heard him mention that name before,” Jack said. “Or I’m just thinking about Marvin instead.”

Speaking of which, where would Marvin be? JJ asked. The two of them were, well, stuck together, weren’t they? But this stranger only called us to talk about Jackie.

“Uh, maybe the two of them just...separated?” Jack suggested.

“Guys it’s ringing,” Chase shushed. Everyone else fell silent.

The other end clicked as it was picked up. “Hello?”

Chase swallowed a lump in his throat. “Hi, it’s Chase. Are you Malcolm? Uh, I think you called my, um, ex?”

“Oh yeah!” The man on the other end sounded friendly enough, if not at all familiar. “Yeah, that was me. Sorry about that, by the way. I have no idea why he remembered your ex’s number and not yours.”

“Right, ha,” Chase laughed nervously. “So, uh...did you really...I-I mean, did Ja—is he really, uh, is Jackie—”

“No I get it, it sounds insane,” Malcolm said. “But yeah, Jackie is...alive. I-I don’t know how, but he is. I can probably put him on, if you’d like.”

Chase felt the bottom of his stomach drop out. “Uh...yeah, you can do that.”

“Great. Hold on a minute.” On the other end he heard what sounded like a hardwood floor. A door opened, and Malcolm’s voice came through, the words muffled. A few seconds later, a different voice came through the line. “Chase? Chase?”

It took him a moment to respond. The others were all staring at him intensely, Jack actually leaning a bit closer as if he could hear what was happening in the call. “Uh...yeah,” Chase finally said. “It’s me. Is this—”

“It’s you!” Jackie’s familiar voice was bright. “It’s you, you! Where are you? I can’t find you.”

“Uh, y-yeah it’s me,” Chase said. “I’m, uh...I’m on my way.”

“Here?”

“Yeah, to wherever you are.”

“Hurry! Where are you? Tell me!” Jackie insisted.

“Um...can you hand the phone back to your friend?” Chase asked. “So he can tell me where you are.”

“Where are you?!” Jackie repeated.

“I’m going there, I just need to know where there is,” Chase persisted. “Can you tell me or hand the phone so your friend can tell me?”

Jackie groaned, sounding disappointed. There was a vague sort of shuffling sound. “Are you still there?” Malcolm asked.

“Yeah,” Chase said. He glanced around at the others. “So...I guess we’ll be stopping by.”

“That would be great,” Malcolm replied. “Jackie is, uh...he really wants to see you. I’m at 756 Windscape Lane, it’s on the west side. My roommate will be out all day, but I took the day off work so I’ll...be here. With Jackie.”

“756 Windscape Lane,” Chase repeated, giving the others a significant look. JJ immediately took out his phone and typed in the address. “We’ll be there soon.”

“Great. See you then.” Click. The call ended.

“So...” Schneep said slowly. “Was he telling the truth?”

Chase looked up. “Well...y-yeah, he put Jackie on the line, and...well it sounded like him. I’d know that voice anywhere.” He paused. “I...I guess it could have been a trick somehow, but it...sounded like him,” he repeated lamely.

JJ took a deep breath. Well, we should at least check it out, shouldn’t we?

“Uh, yeah,” Chase said, giving JJ a slightly startled look. “The address isn’t that far from here, I think. But I don’t have my car so we can’t drive, and it’ll take a while on the bus—”

“I think I could get us there,” Schneep interrupted. “Or at least close.” The air seemed to shiver around him. “I have been practicing, after all.”

“Right, sounds like we’re all good, then,” Jack said. “Do we need anything? JJ, you want a scarf for your face?”

That would be nice, JJ said.

“Well let’s hurry, then,” Chase said. “I said we’d be there soon.” And he wanted to see what this was all about. See if there was anything to hope for.

— — — — — — —

“Stupid power outage,” Yvonne muttered. She was laying on the sofa, pointing her flashlight at the ceiling and making patterns with the circle of light. “Stupid crazy shit happening in the world.” She sighed, and looked over at the nearby armchair. “How’re you hanging on?”

Marvin was curled up in the chair, hugging his mask to himself. He didn’t respond. In fact, he hadn’t said anything at all since that weird comment about “puppets” an hour or so ago.

“Great, glad to hear it,” she commented, looking back at the ceiling. If she could just figure out what was up with his soul, and with those strange strings. She had the feeling they were connected with each other. Sighing, she turned to face the coffee table. Earlier, she’d grabbed a few books from her shop downstairs that she thought might help. Hadn’t had the...initiative to look at them yet. Now was as good a time as any. She reached over and grabbed one, flipping to the table of contents. “Hey, it’s Rituals for the Curious Soul Mage. Remember this?”

Marvin turned to look at her. Still didn’t say anything, just...staring.

“Course you do,” Yvonne mumbled. “You took a spell from it.” The book originally had a lock holding it shut, but one day, shortly after a visit from Marvin a few years ago, the one where he dropped off his mask at her apartment, the lock had suddenly disappeared. Recalling this, she flipped to one of the spells. There were a few pencil notes in the margins that weren’t in her handwriting. Yvonne scanned over the spell and the notes, and paused. “Wait a second.” She sat up straight. “Marvin, you didn’t...you didn’t actually do this, did you?”

He just kept staring at her.

“Look, I’m all for reading up the theory, but you didn’t actually do it, right?” Yvonne repeated, maintaining eye contact. “You knew how dangerous this was, right? Tearing up a soul is—it’s just—” She stopped. “Oh my god, you actually did it,” she whispered. “That’s why your soul is—oh my holy fuck.” She read over the page once again, running her finger along the title: Transference Ritual. “Who’d you convince to be the other...” Slowly, she trailed off. “Your flatmate. Both of you died at the same time, you...shit. Fuck shit.” She snapped the book closed. “What happened to him? What happened to you? Why are you back now?”

Finally, Marvin shook his head slowly. “I don’t know where the other me is,” he said quietly.

Yvonne buried her face in her hands. “It’s fine. It’s—I’ll figure it out.”

Marvin tilted his head, then looked out the window. “Shards?” He asked. “Where did we go?”

“I still have no idea what you’re talking about,” Yvonne sighed. “But I’m closer. It’s fine. It’s going to be fine.” She picked up the book again and reopened it to the same page. Maybe she could learn something from this spell.

— — — — — — —

Meanwhile, on the west side of the city, the air seemed to shimmer, and all of a sudden, four men popped into existence on the sidewalk. One of them immediately bent over and covered his mouth. Another pressed his hands to his head. “Oh god, I don’t feel so well,” the last one muttered.

“What? You were all fine when I took you to the apartment!” Schneep protested.

“Maybe it’s like...you can’t do too many at once?” Jack asked, shaking his head. “But yeah, doesn’t matter, I still feel like my insides want to be on the outside.”

“Same,” Chase muttered, straightening. “And dizzy too.” He squeezed his eyes shut and opened them wide. “Okay, but it looks like we’re here. Uhh...what was the address again?”

JJ pulled his hands away from his head and signed 756 Windscape Lane.

“Right, 756.” Chase nodded. “Looks like we’re already on Windscape Lane. Nice place, I guess. Quaint.”

It’s an older section of the city, JJ explained.

“Well, we’re at 740.” Jack pointed at the number on one of the nearby houses. “We’re close. Let’s go.”

It was just a couple blocks’ walk before they reached their destination. The town house labelled 756 looked just like any of the others on the street. Chase hurried up the short walkway to stand on the threshold. He glanced behind him. Schneep was clutching Jack’s arm for stability, and JJ was adjusting the scarf around the lower half of his face. Jack nodded for Chase to go ahead. Chase nodded back, and turned around, ringing the doorbell.

A few seconds later, the door was opened by a black-haired man in a purple hoodie. “Oh hey,” he said.

“Hey,” Chase said, recognizing the voice from the earlier phone call. “Sooo...I’m Chase.”

“Malcolm. Nice to meet you.” The other man held out his hand for a shake, but slowly withdrew it when Chase didn’t take it. “Uh...I wasn’t expecting a whole group. It’s fine, though. Come in, come in.”

The group entered, finding themselves in a dim hallway lit only by a couple candles on a table. “Man, it’s so dark in here,” Jack complained. “I can barely see anything.”

“Oh no, what a nightmare,” Schneep drawled.

“...sorry,” Jack muttered.

Did you just quote Avatar? JJ asked.

“I think he did,” Chase said.

“Uh...I think I’m missing context for this conversation.” Malcolm looked between the group. “Anyway, yeah. The power’s out. Sorry about that.”

“I think it’s a citywide thing,” Chase shrugged. “It was out at the last two places we were.” He hesitated. “So...where’s, uh...”

“Upstairs,” Malcolm said, anticipating the question. “He’s been hanging out in our spare room. Haven’t told my roommate yet, because honestly I don’t know what the fuck to say about this.” He pulled his phone out of the pocket and switched on the flashlight feature. Pointing it to the side, the beam landed on a staircase leading upward. “C’mon, I’ll show you.”

A quick climb up the stairs and they were in another hallway. Malcolm led them all the way down to the last door on the left. He opened the door slowly, shining his flashlight inside. “Hello? Jackie? Your friends are here.” The room was dark, of course, the only light coming from a battery-powered digital clock. It was hard to even see the vague shapes of furniture. Malcolm glanced back at the others. “I’ll uh...open the window.” He darted inside. Curtains rattled on the rod and morning light flooded the room, landing on a figure sitting on a bed and looking downwards.

Chase and Jack exchanged looks, both reluctant to go inside. But after a bit, Chase took a deep breath and stepped inside first. “Hey, uh, Jackie?”

At the sound of his voice, Jackie’s head snapped up and whipped towards him. Chase stopped in his tracks. It was definitely Jackie. Wearing his favorite red hoodie and a pair of jeans, brown-haired and blue-eyed like he’d always been. Jackie smiled wide, the expression so familiar it ached, and ran right over.

“Ja—oof!” Chase stiffened as Jackie wrapped his arms around him in a tight hug, momentarily at a loss for words. After the initial shock of seeing and feeling Jackie alive again, he was starting to feel the panic at the skin contact sinking in. He looked at the others with an expression of panic on his face, practically begging for them to tell him what to do about this.

Jack nodded, and walked inside the room, Schneep following behind, still gripping his arm. “Uh, hey Jackie. So...you’re back?”

“Hmm.” Jackie glanced over at Jack and Schneep, not letting go at Chase. “Others.”

“Uh...yeah, we’re the others,” Jack said slowly. “You, uh...you okay?”

Jackie didn’t answer. Chase started to squirm, pushing at Jackie’s arms. Malcolm, standing back over by the window, cleared his throat. “Yeah, so...he’s been acting weird like this ever since he showed up here.”

“Weird like what?” Schneep asked.

Malcolm waved vaguely at Jackie, still attached to Chase. “You know...he keeps talking weird and disconnected, or not talking at all. I think his memory’s fuzzy or something, he didn’t...didn’t remember his name at first. I have no idea what’s going on.”

“Can someone get him to stop?” Chase whisper-shouted at the others. “It’s—” He yelped. Jackie had suddenly grabbed his wrist. Sharply jerking it back, he stammered out, “Uh, Jackie, don’t—please don’t do—I-I mean I’m glad to see you too, but—but don’t—”

“Where’d they go?” Jackie asked, brows scrunching together in confusion.

“Where’d what go?” Chase asked, trying to lean back.

Jameson finally stepped into the room. I hate to ask this, but...he wasn’t like this before, was he?

Jack shook his head, momentarily at a loss for words. “Not at all...I mean, he was always a touchy-feely kind of—actually no, that sounds wrong, I mean he liked to hug people a lot. But he’d stop if you didn’t want it. If he didn’t, Marvin never would’ve lived—”

“Marvin!” Jackie suddenly shouted, looking around as if he expected to see him nearby. “Where is me? Us? The missing parts.”

“He’s been doing a lot of that,” Malcolm muttered, rubbing his temple like he was getting a headache. “Lots of talk about me and us and something missing.”

“That is...odd,” Schneep said, narrowing his eyes. “Jackie, can you stop that? You are making Chase uncomfortable.”

Jackie growled. “No. He’s ours.” He squeezed Chase tighter, not noticing or not caring how his uncomfortable expression turned to one of genuine distress.

“Well that’s...unsettling,” Jack said.

Jack. Jameson stepped closer. Maybe you could use your soul vision on him?

“Huh? Oh yeah.” He’d almost forgotten to try that. The weird soul vision was just normal to him now. With that reminder, he closed his left eye and watched the world turn monochrome. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed Malcolm’s soul glowing a bright violet, but he was more concentrated on what he was seeing in front of him. Last time he’d looked at Jackie’s soul, it had been a random mess of red and blue shards. Now? Well, the soul was still broken, but the pieces were mostly red, and they seemed larger than before, almost holding together a shape. Almost. They still weren’t a solid light like all the other souls were, and about a fourth of them were still blue. “Okay, that’s...still concerning, but not as concerning as it was.”

“Uhh...once again, I’m missing something,” Malcolm said.

“It’s a long story,” Jack said. “What’s important is that...Chase, are you okay?”

Chase didn’t answer. He’d slowly gone very pale, shaking a bit and breathing faster and faster. Once again, Jackie paid no mind to this, content to keep hugging him tight.

“This does not seem good,” Schneep muttered, pushing away from Jack. He walked over to Jackie and Chase and slowly reached out. Once he made contact, grabbing Jackie’s arm, he started physically trying to separate them.

Jackie suddenly shrieked, turning his attention to Schneep. “No! You can’t!” He shoved Schneep away, sending him stumbling backwards. “Stupid us̀el̴e̡s͝s doctor! He’s ours!”

“Jackie!” Schneep gasped.

“Hey!” Jack stepped forward. “Just drop it, Jackie! And leave Chase alone! Look at him, can’t you see you’re freaking him out?” Chase was rapidly blinking back tears as he tried to keep from hyperventilating. “I get you’re excited to see him, but you can’t do this.”

“We can do anything,” Jackie said in a low voice. “He’s ơu͝r̡s̕.” Without warning, he grabbed Chase’s bandanna and started pulling. Chase made a startled squeak that turned into something more choked as the bandanna didn’t come undone.

A bright blue light suddenly burst in between Jackie and Chase, growing into a sphere made of lines of runes that slowly pushed them apart. Once they were separated, Jameson slowly lowered his hand. Chase, are you okay? He asked.

Chase covered his mouth with his hands, breathing heavily. “I-I’m...gonna...” He walked over to the bed and sat down on the edge, saying nothing more.

“Um, okay!” Malcolm looked back and forth between JJ and the spot where the sphere had been. “Excuse me for interrupting the moment, but what the fuck’s going on here?!”

“Magic is real, that is what’s going on here,” Schneep said curtly. “Jackie, no.” He lunged forward and grabbed Jackie by the back of the hoodie, just in time to stop him from walking over to Chase. “At least I can feel him like normal,” Schneep muttered. “Not like last time. I know where he is.”

Jackie, very obviously upset at being grabbed, started to turn around. He was probably planning on hitting Schneep at the very least, but he stopped halfway through, staring at the window. His eyes widened, and he suddenly laughed.

“Uh...that does not sound like a happy laugh,” Schneep said. “That sounds a bit...evil.”

Jack, Jameson, and Malcolm looked over at the window in unison. There didn’t seem to be anything there, so Malcolm, standing closest, edged up to it and looked out the glass. “I don’t see—wait what the fuck?!” He jumped back, just in time for the others to see something green crawling up the side. “What is that, string?!”

“String?!” Jack ran over to the window. Bits of green string were climbing along the edges of the glass, wriggling like snakes. The sight made him a bit sick, memories of Anti flashing through his mind as he slowly backed up. “What is that?!”

“I thought we’d established that it’s string,” Malcolm said. “The real question is, what’s it doing here?” His eyes widened. “Wait, is it—?!”

The window swung open. Quickly, the bits of string climbed inside, dropping to the ground and inching their way across the floor.

“It’s me!” Jackie said, delighted. “Parts of missing pieces!” He started to walk towards the string, but Schneep grabbed him, pinning his arms to his side. Jackie scowled. “Stop it! I need it!”

“I do not know what’s going on,” Schneep said, “but it sounds bad! What is happening?!”

“It’s weird string!” Jack continued to back away from them. “A bunch of them! They’re—oh god, that’s creepy, they’re like little worms.” His head followed their movement. “And they’re heading for Jackie!”

Malcolm ran over and slammed the window shut, trapping a few strings on the other side. “Well I’m guessing we don’t want that, so what do we do?!” He looked over at Jameson. “Can’t you do the same sort of thing you did to separate them?!”

Jameson jumped in surprise, then nodded, throwing out his hand. A disc of blue sprang up in front of the strings’ path. When they tried to squirm around it, JJ curved the magic around them, until eventually trapping them in a dome of blue light. Problem solved, he signed shakily.

“Okay but seriously, what is this?” Jack asked, inching closer to the strings contained in their magic dome.

Jackie managed to shake free of Schneep’s hold and immediately lunged forward. Schneep cried out and tackled him. The two landed hard on the floor. After a few seconds of wrestling, Schneep managed to pin Jackie to the ground.

Chase, looking only slightly less pale, glanced over at the strings. “Hey, they look like, um...you know...” He laughed nervously. “You know, the last time, when Jack pulled the string out of Anti? They look like that did, but lots of them.”

“God, what have you guys been up to?” Malcolm muttered.

“Huh. Actually, they do,” Jack said to Chase. “What does that...?”

I wonder, Jameson signed, if it is the same string.

“Wait, what?!” Jack whipped over to look at him. “JJ, that’s—is that possible? For this string to be the same? I mean, it wouldn’t have duplicated or anything, would it?”

“Hold on a moment.” Schneep paused. Jackie tried to take advantage of this and try to climb to his feet, but Schneep realized what he was trying and grabbed him again. “The—ach—the strings, I snipped them up, remember? Into many little pieces. I thought...I thought that would destroy him.” He hesitated again. “Maybe it...did not?”

Momentary silence filled the room. Then Chase said, in a voice quiet enough to be barely heard, “Maybe...in order for him to go away completely, we have to completely destroy these strings.”

Schneep nodded. “That...that would make sense.”

But how do we do that? Jameson asked. These aren’t normal pieces of sewing thread, they’re magic.

“We can figure something out,” Jack said decisively. “In the meantime.” He looked over at Malcolm. “Do you have, like, a jar or something we can use?”

“Uh...I don’t know if we have a jar, but I’m sure there’s something in the kitchen.” Malcolm edged around the room, giving everyone else space. “I’ll just...go look.” And he hurried out of the room.

“Alright. Amazing,” Schneep said. “But also, what do we do about—ahk!"

Jackie had managed to shift around and punch him in the face, whipping his head to the side. Schneep, startled, momentarily loosened his grip enough for him to wriggle out and climb to his feet. He darted straight towards the spot the strings were imprisoned on the floor. His hand flung out like he was throwing something. And something did fly out of his hand, though he wasn’t holding anything. Bits of jagged red light sprayed outward, sharp edges scraping along the edge of the blue magic dome until it burst like a popped balloon, all the strings flying outward.

“Wait, what?!” Jack gasped.

Jameson staggered back, eyes wide, but then jumped into action, diving forward and once again knocking Jackie to the ground. Jackie cried out, surprised, but reached out. One of the strings crawled forward, making contact with his hand and wrapping around his fingers.

“No!” Chase suddenly dashed forward, pulling off his hoodie and throwing it over the strings. It covered them all, and he quickly swept them up, holding his hoodie in a ball close to his chest. “God, they’re still wriggling.” He shivered.

Jackie’s expression brightened. “Chase! Chase. Chase Chase Chase.” He held out his hand, the string now tightening around his wrist like a woven bracelet.

Chase stared at him, then without looking away, gestured for Jack to come closer. Jack hurried over, and Chase passed the hoodie to him, still balled up to prevent any of the string bits from falling out. “H-hey, Jackie,” Chase said, smiling nervously. “How...what’s up?”

“I...I don’t remember,” Jackie whispered. “But hey. Come here. Please?”

JJ looked up at Chase, alarm in his eyes. Chase swallowed nervously, then nodded. After a moment’s hesitation, Jameson backed away, letting Jackie sit up straight. Chase scooted a bit closer, and Jackie immediately snatched him, wrapping his arms tightly around him.

“Chase...” Jack said softly, gaping.

“It’s fine,” Chase said hoarsely, giving Jack a wavering smile. “Go down and find that Malcolm guy, give him the, uh...hoodie.”

Jack didn’t move for a long while. But slowly, he backed up, leaving the room.

Schneep slowly walked over, offering JJ a hand to help him up, which he took. “This is all wrong,” he muttered.

“Y-yeah, no shit,” Chase mumbled. “Jackie wasn’t magic.”

Schneep frowned. “I was not talking about that, but yes. Perhaps being stuck with Marvin for so long had some...effects?”

That would make sense, I suppose, JJ agreed.

“Maybe,” Chase said quietly. He was trying very hard to keep breathing at a regular pace. Jackie’s hug was...suffocating. But also, he got the feeling that Schneep and JJ were giving him these...strange looks. Well, obviously Schneep couldn’t look at him, but it was something in their expressions. “You, uh...you two okay?”

“Are you okay, Chase?” Schneep countered.

“Hey, I’ll...live.” By this point, Jackie seemed to have significantly relaxed, closing his eyes. For whatever reason, he’d been able to distract him from the weird string things, and that was all that mattered. Speaking of which...“Hey, weren’t there more of...those? That got stuck outside?”

The two others stiffened. Jameson glanced over, then walked up to the window and peered out. After a moment, he pushed it open and leaned out, looking down and to the side. Then he pulled back inside and shut it. Well for whatever reason, they’re gone now, he signed. And then he tapped on the glass, no doubt saying the same thing in Morse code for Schneep.

“What? Where did they go?” Schneep asked.

“Y’know at this moment I don’t really care about that,” Chase said plainly. “We can deal with that later.”

The other two shifted uncomfortably. JJ tried to exchange a look with Schneep before remembering he couldn’t respond in kind. Schneep folded his arms and went to stand by the door. Jameson stayed at the window. And Jackie didn’t seem at all eager to let Chase go, so they remained on the floor, waiting for Jack and Malcolm to return.

— — — — — — —

The power in the city didn’t come on for another few hours. When it did, it came back in patches, depending on which section had managed to repair the mysterious damage done at the junctions. Yvonne’s shop was fortunately close to one of the repaired sections. Around noon, she sighed in relief as the lamps in her living room came back on. She was getting tired of straining her eyes to read books by flashlight. “Well, guess now’s a good time to take a lunch break,” she said, setting a book aside. “You hungry, Marvin?”

“Hmm?” Marvin hadn’t moved much from his position. But he nodded slowly. “Yes. Food.”

“Food is good.” Yvonne stood up and stretched. “C’mon, to the kitchen.” She walked over and grabbed his hand, pulling him to his feet. Together, they went into the apartment’s small kitchen. Marvin hovered in the corner, still holding his mask close, while she searched through the cabinets. “Don’t know if I have anything you’ll eat, you picky bastard,” she muttered. “Uh...I guess some pasta. You want some pasta?”

“Does it matter?” Marvin asked.

“Well not to me, but does it to you?”

“Does it?”

“Does it?”

“Does—”

“Okay, never mind, fuck, I’ll just make spaghetti,” Yvonne groaned. She grabbed the box and a pot, filling it up with water and setting the noodles on the stove. 

After a moment, Marvin walked closer, standing behind her and looking over her shoulder. She glanced over at him. “Uh...you know what they say about watched pots and boiling,” she said, trying to make it a joke.

Marvin blinked. “...no? I don’t remember that one. I-I don’t remember...there are things missing, still, without the other half.”

“Uh...right.” Yvonne said slowly. “Well, I”m just saying, we don’t need to watch it. We can just...sit down. At the counter, here.” She took a seat on one of the stools, patting another to indicate Marvin to do the same.

He didn’t. Instead he turned around and walked back into the living room, probably going to wait in there.

“...well, you can do that, too,” Yvonne commented. She sighed, and leaned back against the counter. What did he mean about the other half? Perhaps...she’d seen the way his soul looked in the Lens, the way it was...broken. Was only half of his soul there? That would explain some of the weirdness with his memory. There was evidence that the memory and the soul were linked, though it wasn’t clear if the soul affected memories or vice versa. In fact, a lot of people, even soul magicians, were still unsure what the soul was. The common consensus so far was that souls were like summing up someone into a single entity, like compressing their memories, beliefs, personalities, and everything else into a small, magical something. But it was also something different from all that, different from the mind, which was evident in how mental magic and soul magic were completely unrelated branches.

She continued to think over this as she watched the pot of noodles boil, and eventually turned the stove off, grabbing the strainer. As she poured the spaghetti into the strainer, she wondered if everything strange about Marvin could be explained by the strange way his soul had been broken. And that, the breaking of the soul, was likely related to the failed transference ritual. Though...it still didn’t explain why Marvin had actually died, or why he was back now...

In the other room, Marvin started laughing.

Yvonne paused. That wouldn’t have sounded so weird, with the Marvin she’d known before. But this was a different Marvin. Though his laugh was the same, it was...she hesitated to admit it, but it was creepy hearing it now. Abandoning the pasta, she walked back into the living room.

Marvin was standing by the window. Which was now open. That was odd. She’d left it closed ever since those strange green—

She shrieked as she saw the bits of string wriggling into the room. Less of them than before, but still concerning. What did they want?! Getting over it, she straightened. A Sending had taken care of them last time, it will this time as well. “Marvin, get away from those!” she shouted, rushing forward.

Marvin glared at her, snarling. He made a sweeping motion with his hand. There was a blast of cobalt-colored light, and suddenly glowing blue strings were shooting out from his hands. Yvonne hesitated for just a moment, surprised, but it was long enough for the blue strings to wrap around her, pinning her legs together and her arms to her side. She gasped, and lost her balance, landing hard on her side. What was this?! This wasn’t a spell that Marvin knew! At least, not before the transference ritual must’ve gone wrong. She tried to fight against the magic, but it simply wound tighter, and she was panicking too much to get a good grip on a spell of her own. “Marvin!” She shouted. “What are you doing?”

He didn’t even look at her. The green bits of string were now inside. Marvin reached towards them, and the string crawled up his arms, wrapping around them, heading upwards until they reached his neck. They burrowed under the bandages Yvonne had wrapped there, loosening them until they fell. Marvin shivered, closed his eyes, and laughed again. “Missing, missing, more complete, complete!...nearly c͝o̵mplęt͞e.”

Yvonne managed to sit up, pushing herself against the wall. “Marvin...?” she asked softly.

Marvin’s eyes snapped open, his right eye now glowing bright green. Reaching up, he pulled off the bandages. The strings had woven into the cut on his neck, crudely stitching it closed. “We...I found more missing pieces,” he said, voice tinged with static. “And yes, yes, I remember. All the others, all the pu͡p͠pe̢t͢s.” He clenched his fists, trembling slightly—but not with fear, with anger. “We hate them so...ś̕o̢͡ much. Why? That’s still missing. I need to find that, too. But I...I know that now.” He laughed. “Which do we find first? The puppets or the shards?”

“Marvin...” Yvonne repeated softly. “What are you talking about?”

“You’re his friend,” Marvin said, tilting his head. “He came here often, he...his mask.” He looked back over at the sofa, the ceramic cat-shaped mask discarded on it. Slowly, he reached over and picked it up, turning it over in his hands. He gripped it firmly, and—

CRACK!

One half of the mask fell back to the sofa. Still holding the other half, Marvin pulled out the ribbon that would’ve held the mask in place. He put it up to his face, covering the left upper half. One of the strings from his throat unstitched itself and crawled upward, becoming the new ribbon holding it in place. “And the s̀ho͟w ͢goe͞s̴ o͏ń,” he whispered, running a hand along the ceramic, magic slowly staining it blue instead of white. A smile twisted his face.

Yvonne stared in shock. What...what had those strings done? Mentally, she finally started running through some spells, looking for one that’ll help.

Marvin stared right back at her, and after a moment, approached. Yvonne tried backing up, but she was already backed against the wall. Slowly, Marvin bent over, his face inches from hers. “Hold tight to everything,” he whispered. “Before it fades away. There will be nothing left but a bleeding hole inside your chest.” And with a final flash of a grin, he disappeared in a flurry of white noise.

The blue strings of magic disappeared, and Yvonne hurried to her feet, looking around. She ran a quick detection spell, finding no other soul in her apartment. Once she was sure of that, she hurried over to the sofa, grabbing the other half of the mask.

What happened to Marvin? What had he become?

— — — — — — —

It had taken a few hours to convince Jackie that holding Chase’s hand was just as good as hugging him. Now, with the group gathered in the town house’s parlor room, Jackie and Chase were sitting on the sofa, with Jackie holding tight to Chase’s arm and leaning his head on his shoulder. With the strings out of sight, he seemed content to just hang around. Still, the others kept giving him uneasy glances, especially Jameson, standing in the corner. Jack and Schneep had taken the two armchairs, and Malcolm was pacing the length of the room, thinking over the very brief explanation the others had given him.

“Do you think that maybe we need to cut them up further?” Schneep asked. His scissors had appeared in his hands at some point, and he was now turning them over.

“No, I don’t think so,” Jack said. In his lap was a metal water bottle, its lid duct-taped closed. He gripped it tight, feeling the strings moving inside. “I think if we cut them up further, it’ll just be harder to keep track of them.”

“Ah. I suppose that makes sense.” Schneep frowned. “What will they even do?”

“Well...there’s this one around his wrist,” Chase said tentatively, holding up Jackie’s hand so the others could see the tight string bracelet. “They, uh, were all moving towards him. And he wanted to get to them. A lot like last time.”

Perhaps if they all get to him, Anti will somehow return again? JJ speculated.

Jackie giggled. “I have no idea what you’re saying. Do I know this language? Did I forget it?”

“I don’t think you did, buddy,” Jack muttered. 

“Okay, so.” Malcolm stopped pacing, turning to look at the others. “Can we burn the crazy magic string? Is that possible?”

“I do not think so,” Schneep shrugged. “But I suppose we could try.”

“What happens when we do get rid of them?” Chase asked. “Will, uh...he...” He tried to push Jackie’s head away, only for it to land right back on his shoulder. “Stay like this or change or...?”

Nobody answered that question, the silence filling the air. Until it was interrupted by a doorbell. Malcolm groaned in frustration. “God I swear if any other crazy shit happens to make me question reality I’m going to go straight to bed, I don’t care anymore,” he muttered as he headed out to the front door.

“Uh, okay, so,” Jack said. “Back to JJ’s question. If the string get to him, will Anti return?”

“But I’m a͟lready͝ ͝ḩer̕ȩ.”

Silence once again. Everyone looked over at Jackie. They had to let it sink in that yes, he had just said that. Chase leaned away, looking suddenly sick. Jameson adjusted the scarf around his mouth and stared at the ground. “Well that was the creepiest thing you have ever said,” Schneep mumbled, gripping his scissors.

“Um...Jackie.” Jack inched his chair a bit closer. “You’re not...you’re Jackie, not anyone else.”

“No, we are someone else, too,” Jackie insisted.

In the third silence that ensued, the group could hear talking, coming from the direction of the front door. And it was getting closer. Malcolm poked his head into the room. “Hey, uh, someone’s here to see all of you,” he said.

“What?” Schneep asked.

Who could that be? Jameson asked.

“Yeah, I agree with JJ, who is it?” Jack asked.

A figure stepped out from around Malcolm. An older woman, with a dark braid of hair down her back and her eyes glowing a slight purple. “Sorry for dropping in on all of you like this,” said Delyth Mae, magician. “But we really need to talk.”

[gongju-juice]

7. Once Upon a Southern Night

Still Stuck in 1863

Warnings: Language, Mentions of a miscarriage, all of the usual

That night, you had the strangest, most desirable nightmare of your entire life.

You were barefoot,  laying in a bed of flowers wearing a long black dress and white apron. By your side, he was there. But instead of his brilliant red eyes, they were the peaceful color of a bluish gray. On his stomach rested his top hat and he was dressed in the finest clothes; clothes no regular person should have been lounging around in.

“P-Preston?”

He turned on his side and looked up at you, his hand absentmindedly rubbing circles on your flat middle. Bending down, he pressed a kiss to your forehead.

“Yes, dear. I’m here.”

“I. . .” you looked around the clearing. It was early in the afternoon, the golden rays peeking through the oak trees above you. In the distance, rows of cotton stood out against the brown field. “Is this. . .a dream. . .or a memory?”

“Neither,” he murmured. “This is a vision. We are talking together in real-time while you are asleep. Everything around us is what home used to look like.”

“How. . .is this possible?”

He caressed your face with his other hand, gazing into your eyes like he was a moth drawn to a light. 

“This is what life should’ve been like. Your mom and the aunties should have been making clothes for the baby, and I should’ve been preparing our home in Pensacola. Instead, I was dragged out to war for what would be the final time I’d ever see you.”

You shook your head, sitting up in the bed of dandelions. “Home? I would be a slave if that would’ve come to fruition. You would’ve married Abigail, and I’d be your negro mistress sleeping in the shack outside with our biracial children.”

He grimaced at his former fiance’s name. No matter what he said, the truth would always be the same. Your love was never equal, he owned you. His family owned you from the moment you were born. You were not his lover. You were his slave.

“I would’ve bought your freedom. Mother could not really force me to marry that woman. I wouldn’t have put up with it—not in a million years. I wanted to dress you in the finest clothes, drape you in jewels. At one time, you wouldn’t have hesitated to believe me.”

He gently pushed you back down to the earth and hovered over your middle before placing a series of kisses on your covered navel.

“We were going to name her Sarah,” he said with a sad note of laughter. “If she was a girl. And if he was a boy—”

“Clyde,” you whispered. “Oh, Preston—Preston, I remember it all. Everything!”

He took you in his heart, and you heard his wild heartbeat clear and strong. The flood of memories was overwhelming, and all you could do was sob in his chest. You remembered catching lightning bugs in the twilight, him secretly teaching you how to read under the stairs. You remembered making love in his bedroom—how the other slaves on the plantation resented his favoritism. 

You remembered missing your periods three consecutive months in a row. You remembered his face as you told him, how he lifted you in his arms. You remembered when Major Whitlock arrived and took him away, how he left you with only a little picture of him in a tiny locket.

You remembered his furious mother, and how she incurred her wrath on you any chance she got. You remembered when she knocked you unconscious, blood spilling between your legs when she told you her plans. You remembered your mother’s cold hands and the pain—

How you cried. How you wished for him to come and take your pain away. And your vengeful mother. She spoke nonsense in your ear as you were dying on her straw mattress. She chanted in the candle dim light of your cabin, and the next thing you knew—

You were being tickled in your adopted mother’s arms. 

“Do you know?” you choked. “Do you know what your mother did to me?”

His eyes lowered, hands falling to clasp your wrists. “I didn’t find out until twenty years later. . .when I could finally stand to be near a human without wanting to rip their throat out.”

“Did you know. . .that she killed our baby? That she wanted to send me up to Charleston so Abigail and her folks wouldn’t know?”

Tears threatened to spill from his eyes as he turned away. As he did, a butterfly rose from a lonesome bluebell.

“If I would have been there, I wouldn’t have let that happen,” he growled. “And it’s all Jasper Whitlock’s fault. If he wouldn’t have dragged me out to—”

“No,” you said, “you wanted to go to war. You wanted to bring honor to your family and  keep slaves from being free so you could bathe in your money. Don’t act like the victim, Preston. Don’t act like I don’t remember how cruel you were when the abolitionists showed up in Mobile.”

He shook his head, whirling back around to face your tear-stained face. “It was a different time, Y/N, Why does that excuse work for Jasper and not for me? It was my right—”

“And you still think it is!” you snapped. “You think you’re entitled to me because of the past, because of a flawed love we used to share. Jasper has acknowledged things have changed, and he’s changed with time. But you—you’re still stuck in 1863.”

“No!” he shouted ferociously, and suddenly his eyes flickered from river blue to blazing red. “I lost the life I should’ve had! He stole that from me! He deserves to pay, to feel every ounce of suffering I felt all those years.”

“Has he not suffered as I have?” you cried. “He was a slave to Maria, just like I was a slave to you!”

His eyes closed, and he struggled to regain his composure. You saw through the illusion quickly. He must’ve enlisted the powers of a witch to fabricate this false reality. Your love for Preston was real, but your fear of him was even stronger. You gave yourself to him out of necessity. To refuse your master. . .it was not something a black woman did and got away to tell the story.

“It doesn’t matter how you feel,” he said after a while. “I will make you love me again as you did once before. You’ll see—once I destroy Jasper and all of his family, you will have nobody else but me.”

The dream evaporated and suddenly you were in the middle of the living room, your family and guests all standing over you as she gasped violently.

“Y/N!” Jasper called, holding you in your arms as you came to. Your mother was about to inject an IV needle into your vein while Carlisle tried to determine the cause of your sudden collapse.

“Mom? Jas? I—” you tried to sit up but you were promptly held in place.

“Just breathe, darlin’,” Jasper instructed. “I’ll move you in a minute. It’s okay, I got you.”

You attempted to weakly lift up your hand to his cold face. And that’s when you knew. Nothing or no one could ever separate you from him. Jasper was the only man you loved; the only man you needed. If he was the light, you were his shadow. If you were the night, he was the star that made it brighter.

“Y/N, this is really important,” your sister said, bending down on her knees to get closer to you. “What happened while you were gone?” Behind her Zacarias stood looking very concerned, his hand on her shoulder.

You shook your head, trying to find a way to say the words. “It was him, and we were. . .back in the past.”

Jasper’s jaw clenched and he looked towards the ceiling. If he were human, you could tell he would be crying by now. 

“He’s got a witch on his side,” Zacarias confirmed, crossing his arms. “And whoever it is, they must be good. It’s hard to make telepathic communications for more than a few moments at a time, especially from such a far distance.”

“Then what can we do?” Peter asked, looking at the Cullens in desperation. “These witches. . .we’ve never faced anything like them before. And the newborn armies will still be coming on top of that.”

Ava massaged the palm of your hand comfortingly, slowly, your energy began to come back. But Jasper still would not let you move.

“Witches are not infallible. It looks like he’s only got one on his side—maybe two if he’s lucky. As long as they’re at a far enough distance, well protected by the armies, they can do much damage to any specific target. The concentration that’s needed for combat is ridiculously difficult, and they can only focus on a few people at once. But that’s why Zach and I are here. We can hold off their attacks while you guys take care of the armies.”

Jasper finally spoke up, shifting you so that you were held firmly in his embrace. “We’ve got just a week-and-a-half to get in tip-top shape and make things right. I don’t care what I have to do, Ava, I won’t let Y/N get hurt. I would die if it meant her freedom, and if it that’s what it takes to end this all, then don’t hesitate to sacrifice me for the greatest cause—”

“No!” you objected. “If you die, I’m dying with you! I don’t want to be in this world without you, Jasper. It wouldn’t even be a life anymore! Please don’t say that, please don’t leave me alone!”

Carlisle kindly ushered the guests to the door, and left the two of you alone in the house.

“Your happiness is my only priority. And if you want to be with him. . .then you should,” he whispered painfully. “I deserve to pay for the suffering and heart I’ve caused others. I could’ve sent Preston away with the others when we were leaving that fateful night. He didn’t have to die, as I did.”

“You didn’t die,” you insisted. “It was the first stage of your metamorphosis. He died that night. He could never get over what he’d lost then and even now. That’s not your fault. He could choose to be happy, but yet he only desires the suffering over others. He told me he didn’t care about my happiness but you—”

You didn’t have to finish your statement, the both of you knew in your hearts. 

“I love you so much, baby!” you sobbed, clinging onto his shirt desperately. “I don’t want him, or any of the life we had before. You are my now, and you are my future.”

He buried his face into your shoulder, rocking you on the cold living room floor. 

“And I love you too, darlin’. I love you so much.”

The truth is guys, I haven’t posted in a while because I’ve been so depressed lately. This world is so evil, and I just feel like how can I post when they are literally people protesting in the streets, people dying, and the world in chaos??

Anyway, fanfiction is an escape these days. It always had been, now moreso than ever. I know I’m just an amateur, but if I can make someone forget their worries for even five minutes, I’m honored.

Stay safe, mah bois.

Part Five    Part Six   Part Eight

[alextriestowritestuff]

Mark of Athena Re-read

Hey guys! If you’ve been keeping up with my last couple of posts, you’ll know I’ve been re-reading the Heroes of Olympus (HoO) series by Rick Riordan, starting with the Son of Neptune. If you want to my thoughts on it (spoilers included) and my background with the series, click here. I made a little bit of rant post about my feelings about the HoO series overall so far and you can find that here! This post will be about the Mark of Athena (MoA) and as always, spoilers abound.

Soooo y’all...I think this book is worse than the Lost Hero. I feel so bad for saying that bc I hated tLH (Like I’d give that book 2 stars) but god, this was so bad. No wonder I forgot what happened when I originally read it. Before I get into it, I will say I’m usually not negative in my ‘reviews’-I’ll give credit where it’s due (I did that in tSoN with Hazel and Frank who weren’t really my fav characters to start with) but this book has very little redeemable aspects imo. So I’ll start with the thing I was most irritated about: Piper.

Piper...Piper...Piper. Gods, none of her chapters ever passed the Bechdel test. I DESPISE her and I hated every single one of her chapters. With characters like Frank, I admitted that sometimes his chapters were a bit boring but I never hated the guy’s narration. Piper, however, is an insecure hypocrite. Let me show you.

So at one point, Annabeth, Piper, and Hazel meet up with Aphrodite. The POV is Annabeth’s and while Aphrodite is talking to them, it seems like Piper is just embarrassed to have her around. 

“Mother!” Piper said. “You’re embarrassing me.” “Well, I don’t see why,” the goddess said. “Just because you don’t appreciate my fashion tips, Piper, doesn’t mean the others won’t. I could do a quick makeover for Annabeth and Hazel, perhaps silk ball gowns like mine—” “Mother!” 

And a few lines later she says again “ ‘Mother, Piper said, “is there a reason you’re here?’” (30). 

Okay so someone tell me why this girl says 10 pages later “But also, Piper was secretly hurt not to have her mother to herself. Aphrodite had barely looked at her. She hadn’t said a word about Jason. She hadn’t bothered explaining her conversation with Reyna at all. It was almost as if Aphrodite no longer found Piper interesting. Piper had gotten her guy. Now it was up to her to make things work, and Aphrodite had moved on to newer gossip as easily as she might toss out an old copy of a tabloid magazine” (40). LIKE GIRL MAKE UP YOUR MIND. Do you want your mom’s attention or not? But I’m highkey interested in what Aphrodite said to Reyna tho.

Let’s talk about Reyna for a second. First off, I feel so bad for her?? Percy turned her down-fine, he has a gf. Then I thought Jason had feelings for her but he says this in MoA, page 19: “It’s just…I never felt that way toward Reyna,” Jason said, “so I didn’t think about its making you uncomfortable. You’ve got nothing to worry about, Pipes”. Like damn can Reyna get any love?? I get that he doesn’t like her anymore since he met Piper but to have never liked her? That’s rough. And notice how this quote is from page 19, but again on p. 40, Piper is still so insecure in their relationship. I don’t she’s listened to a word he said at all. Then towards the end of the book, she says oh I love you but she literally didn’t know the man’s age prior to that. Like what?? Did they even kiss this book? I think like once lmao. Also speaking of the birthday thing, Piper says this while she waits for Jason to blow out his birthday candles.

“Well?” she urged. “Blow out the candles.”

Jason did. Piper wondered if he’d made a wish—hopefully that he and Piper would survive this quest and stay together forever. She decided not to ask him. She didn’t want to jinx that wish, and she definitely didn’t want to find out that he’d wished for something different. 

Me @ Jason: This your girl? Come get her. Because Imma hurt her feelings. What do you mean you want him to wish to stay together forever? He should wish for Gaea to you know die so everyone can be safe. If I ever met Piper in person, I’d fight her. ON SIGHT. 

In a related note, I’ve got nothing to say about Jason. He was fine. He passed out alot during this book, didn’t do much for how hyped his powers are supposed to be. I will say when he and Percy were possessed and they fought each other, Percy totally won that fight. He knocked Jason the hell out and was about to end his whole career until Piper got Blackjack to knock him out. But overall, I think Jason’s rather bland and him and Piper have NO chemistry. But I don’t think he deserves insecure Piper as a girlfriend. She’s a whole ass child of Aphrodite and she’s worried about her relationship...let me move on.

My main issue with the book lies in the structure and plot. The previous two books had 3 narrators and each set of trio had a specific prophecy assigned to them-i.e: Percy, Hazel and Frank had to free death, retrieve the eagle. The prophecies are a catalyst to get them to go on the quest. And then obviously, we have the overarching prophecy of the seven that will come to fruition in small chunks until the last book of the series. That’s fine. So the issue with MoA is that now Rick is handling seven characters + Coach Hedge (like why was he necessary??). He has 4 POVs which threw me the hell off bc we had 3 in the previous two books and honestly, I think we could’ve gone without one of them (Percy’s actually). As a writer, it’s hard to balance multiple characters in the same setting constantly. If they have a conversation, one or two of them will have less lines because other characters have already said them. Therefore to give everyone adequate ‘screen time’, Rick had to separate them by keeping groups of three or two on their own side quest. As a result, however, reading the book felt like I was being brake checked constantly. Ex-We follow Percy, Frank, and Hedge to an Aquarium then we follow Annabeth, Hazel, and Piper to meet Aphrodite, then they encounter the Romans, then Piper and Jason meet Hercules and get the horn and so on. Like they’re constantly shifting and doing stuff but not going as a group so it feels like I’m constantly trying to catch up. There’s too many pit stops for my liking. And I deadass have no idea what most of it had to with the MoA prophecy. 

This disjointed-ness is what makes me rate it lower than tLH. Because while I didn’t like Piper or Jason in that book, it was still cohesive. There was a plot and it was followed. Another reason I might feel this way toward MoA is because Rick has a formula and it’s starting to be predictable. Think about the original Greek myths-there’s one main demigod like Hercules, there’s a quest, there’s godly interference so it makes sense the the PJO/HoO characters have the same thing. But all this talking to gods (esp gods we’ve already met like Aphrodite) is taking up so much space and slowing the plot. It also didn’t help that the minor villians in this book are all unlikeable?? All they did was talk. Otis and Ephialtes. Porchy and Keto. Arachane. All they did was talk. Here’s how to defeat a PJO/HoO villain: con them to help you/let you go or fight them. That’s it. 

This book is where I started to really regret reading the series. Like I was just over it. The plot was somehow slow and all over the place at the same time. The last couple of chapters were good because I was like finally, something relevant to the prophecy is happening. 

Let me leave you guys with some positives about this book though:

1. Annabeth’s POV. What a gal. When she faces Arachane, Annabeth mentions that she doesn’t have an active power like the other Seven but she has her intelligence. And I’m like yes girl, you are brave and everything I want to be. I would read the PJO series from her POV over this series.

2. Percabeth. They kept promising to come back to each other and my heart melted. Percy was so worried about letting her go follow the Mark but he knew it’s what she had to do and he let her go. And ugh, them falling got me all over again. And like just their chemistry is off the charts. Piper and Jason could never. 

3.  Percy’s comments about Luke. Percy realizes that he’s around Luke’s age when Luke went all ‘Gods are bad, their children are pawns’ and like I get chills from reading that passage because you can tell Percy’s tired. He can’t have a life because of these quests, he’s constantly moments away from dying. He never really got a chance to be a teenager. And I get he wants to help people and keep the world from being taken over by bad guys but he’s also human. He’s seen demigods die...he’s traumatized. Like Percy, I really understand Luke better now (right idea, wrong execution) and l see how tired Percy is. 

4. The Leo/Hazel/Frank disaster of a love triangle. Like I’ve mentioned before, I want Hazel, a THIRTEEN YEAR OLD child, to be left the hell alone when it comes to romance. But because Uncle Rick insists on pairing up everyone, I have to oblige. So here I am. The amount of times I cackled at Frank and Leo’s digs at each other is astronomical. Like shots were fired, no one held back. I was like is this even MG/lower end of YA anymore with all this salt?? Over the years I’ve been spoiled about the series so I know that Leo somehow ends up with Calypso so I know nothing will come out of the love triangle (and it seems to be wrapping up bc Leo and Frank complimented each other’s abilities toward the end there) but passive aggressive-ness was peak. 

5. Every single conversation between Reyna and Annabeth. Like two powerhouses talking about wanting to save their camps and the world. I loved it. Hands down. I hope they can be friends when this is all over. 

6. And lastly, the reunion of Percabeth. The Judo flip. The fact that Percy talked about having a future with her. 

Thanks for reading if you made it down here and I’ll see you guys in a couple of days with my House of Hades update. This book and the one after it I’m reading for the first time ever so I’m going in semi blind (like I said, I know some spoilers). I’m currently on chapter 2 or 3 of that and ermm, it was a weak intro but I’ll keep going :) rooting for Percabeth to make it through. 

[themelodicenigma]

So you really DON'T believe that Sora looks like Ven or Roxas??? Wtf lmao Bluerosesburnblue stuck to the facts there as usual, so why are you fighting the truth so hard? I dont want to sound rude but nothing you said made any sense. It's PERFECT for Sora to have been influenced by Ven and its basically implied in BBS.

I do like how the moment I allow anonymous asks again, the questions come flying in. Especially, when this is one of four that I’ve received talking about the same thing since those posts. I can’t tell if it’s even the same person, or if I just riled up some indignant feathers of her followers. I don’t know Blue personally, but I do feel pretty confident that she wouldn’t encourage one of the things you (probably) sent based on her comments about similar behavior during the SRT debunk. I know that the original inquirer, Mademoiseli, wouldn’t like it either. 

Well done.

In any case, you could’ve brought it to the table on the reblog/comment chain instead of in my ask box, but...

Okay.

I am pretty tired of this conversation and the impact it has had on my interaction with others, so this is probably going to be the last time I address this unless any actual new information comes about regarding this part of the story. There is something that needs to be realized though:

For one—the reason why I even commented in the first place and why the conversation took its turn is essentially linked. The reason I entered it was because I held a difference to these statements and phrases made by Blue’s first answer:

“I think it’s certainly possible that Sora’s connection to Ventus did effect his appearance in a number of ways, and out of every possibility that one seems the most likely to me.” 

along with:

“Ultimately, I can’t say for certain that Ventus had an impact on Sora’s appearance, but since there seems to be a good deal of evidence supporting that it would be possible, it’s one of the better explanations in my opinion.”

[via Blue post]

Admittedly, I was “triggered” to respond from this, which so happen to be the opening and closing statements of the posts. But, I understand that I shouldn’t have been prompted by it in the way that I was (not fully, anyway).

In that, she was primarily talking about the topic of Ven influencing Sora’s physical appearance as a probable explanation to the hypothetical question of, essentially, “Why do Sora and Ventus look alike?”. All the while, looking at how the ideal was congruent with existing concepts.

I, on the other hand, in addition to that, took it as an evaluation of, not only a hypothetical scenario, but extending to that of weighing the probability of the question and explanation becoming reality within the context.

In other words, while she was much more concerned with whether there existed congruent truths between the premise (Ven influencing Sora) and the context, I was primarily concerned with establishing whether it HAS happened and judging the likelihood of it happening at all. Between us speaking on theory and concepts or plausibility and probability—these certainly aren’t mutually exclusive, but the direction of the conversation was split between the two somehow. 

And I’ll take the blame for that, but in recognizing that our approaches weren’t completely separate, still, talking about the likelihood of the premise being true and/or introduced at a later time WAS still a relevant topic. It could’ve been its own conversation, but it was relevant, nonetheless.

Two—I am a person that, when encountered with a question, I am first immediately concerned with the facts. Always. Only after that do I inquire about uncertain material through a “possibility spectrum”, and what determines the strong end of this are the facts that suggest or support the proposition at hand. Through that, I’m never opposed to admitting my uncertainty about something or the existence of “breathing room” to probability. Not to mention, establishing the difference between plausibility and probability for its interaction in gauging truth—I could get more into that, but it won’t be necessary for the sake of this post.

Anyway, with that out of the way, I’m going to approach the rest of this post by centering it around this question [ID as premise]:

Premise: “Do you believe it’s possible for it to be explained that Ventus influenced Sora’s physical appearance when their hearts connected?”

Understanding the extensions and work around of the questions (Sora growing into the influence and not being instant), I would answer—yes, it is possible by the merit of its potential to be. However, after reviewing the explanations already established for this connection and the results created by said explanations for the topic the prompt addresses, I would say that it’s unlikely to happen.

Yeah. You read that right.

Possible, but unlikely to happen. [improbable] 

Remember to consider that there are two ways in which something can be explained for fictional media. This is typically split in what is taken from the concept of Diegesis, where in this scenario, we’re talking about explanations that function internally within and by the world, and explanations that function externally outside and by other means. Both approaches can even simultaneously exist for the same topic—there being an appropriate explanation for something in both ways.

The formation of my conclusion, actually, is based on the facts, which also don’t include any strict implication that Sora was influenced by Ven, as if to even create an equilibrium between their facial features. If anything, you could argue the opposite was done, specifically in the way of making a distinction between the two by their face.

So, let’s take a step back, and go to where all of this actually started in the game’s context. The first question revolving around this topic would essentially be this:

Q1: “Why do Roxas and Sora look alike?”

*we’ll refer to this as Q1

If not automatically generated by the events of the story itself, this question was made relevant even back in the release of the Ultimania Alpha (when Roxas was just “Mysterious Boy”). Here we could see Roxas’ face and model much more clearly than that of the picture at the end of the GBA version of CoM. The Ultimania Alpha features this as his profile header (and also on the correlation chart):

“Who does he (you) look like? The key person of “II””

- KH Ultimania Alpha—Roxas’ Profile, pg.12 

First, it’s good to establish that by design, the characters of Sora and Roxas do and were intended to [basically] have the same face, save for a few differences made. They also have other attributes that are considerate of each other, but we’ll highlight the face specifics. This is certainly non-debatable from an external application that they are to be correlated characters by design.

“The facial models of Roxas and Sora are basically the same, but the chin is slightly different. When I put on his hair, Roxas looked a little bit stout, so I made him thinner.”

- KH2 Ultimania—Tomohiro Kayano [3D Modeling Director], pg. 345

“Roxas: I traced Sora for this piece. My image of Roxas actually came first, before Sora, and I had already drawn him for the first project document. The concept of "between" was something I kept in mind: since Sora's outfit was to be black this time, I made Roxas' base color white, and I also added a black and white checked pattern. The cross on his chest isn't a necklace, it's part of his zipper, and it is the motif of the Nobodies. Also, his hair is supposed to be the exact same length as Sora's.”

- KH2 Ultimania, pg. 701 [via KHInsider]

“Roxas A lot of thought was put into this character. Based on the premise that he was 'an expression of the reverse, hidden inside Sora', I gave him pretty much the exact same face as Sora, just with slightly narrower eyes. And then, I made white the basis for his clothes, in contrast to KHII Sora. The black and white checkered pattern, 'neither darkness nor light', was to be a hint. My absolute favourite scene of his has to be the one at the end of the opening of KHII, when he says 'looks like my summer vacation is over'. I put a lot of feeling into creating that, as I intended it to feel, for a moment, like the end.”

- Nomura, KH Character’s Report Vol. 1 [via KHInsider]

The third one is the most interesting because it’s the only one to provide an explanation to the external application of the similarity—it being based on the connection that the characters shared and how they’re perceived against one another. Roxas being the “reverse” of Sora was utilized in more ways than the face, more so than what is understood by how that could apply to Riku’s design.

If considering the relevancy of correlating Sora and Roxas’ designs outside of representing their connection to one another (i.e. just by design alone in representing it—external), the answer can also be assumed from the game’s revelations. Meaning, after playing KH2, it would be reasonable that people would essentially believe that the answer to Q1 was answered as:

“Because Roxas is Sora’s Nobody”

Hah.

However, in the reality of the internal explanation that directly influences the characters, this didn’t quite turn out to be the answer that was presented. Not only that, but the question changed. BBS happened, and instead, we receive an answer that turns Q1 into a misleading question, and presents another in its place:

Q2: “Why do Roxas and Ventus look alike?”

No, seriously. It is the literal question posed in the BBS Ultimania:

“Why do Roxas and Ventus look alike? A: Because inside Sora, which is Roxas’ body, is Ventus’ heart.

As was shown in the opening to KH BbS and the ending to Last Episode, Sora and Ventus’ heart are linked (P.646). And so Roxas, who is a part of Sora, was affected by that and looks just like Ventus.”

- BBS Ultimania, pg. 616 [via KHInsider]

The answer here is pretty straight forward. The “why” is propositioned by two things: Sora and Ventus’ hearts being linked and Ventus’ heart residing in Sora when Roxas was created. Whether it was just one or both of these reasons is inconsequential—Roxas took his physical appearance from Ventus, NOT Sora. This is the internal explanation given on the topic of Roxas’ and Ventus’ appearance, not the external as previously given in KH2.

Since BBS, the idea of Roxas = Sora has essentially been replaced with the actuality of Roxas = Ventus multiple, if not every single, time appearance is mentioned or corresponding questions were answered.

"Ven has the same hairstyle, face, clothes, and voice of Roxas, but just who is he?”

“The face of the polygon model of Ventus that appears in this title is, strictly speaking, different to the one from KH BBS. The one in KH BBS was subtly altered from Roxas' face, but this time, in order to increase efficiency on motion work, we used the same model for Ventus and Roxas.”

“Yes, it is the same actor. Therefore the player will only look at Ven as Roxas from Kingdom Hearts 2.”

[blazed through because those quotes are too long]

* Keep in mind it’s usually about how VEN looks like Roxas, because Roxas was introduced as a character first. Internally for the story, it’s really the other way around.

And, in the mountains of paratextual material that has covered the two characters since BBS, it has opted to mention the similar notion of Roxas getting his appearance from Ven—this being mostly by the specification of the face. The idea that Roxas and Ventus share the same “physical entity” has been introduced and cemented by the explanations given by BBS.

So, instead of getting Q1 v.2:

“Okay? But uhh, still, why do Sora and Ventus [Roxas] look alike, then?”

We get this:

Q3: “Why do Sora and Vanitas look alike?”

The answer, of course, was explained in a similar fashion to Q2:

“How did you decide on the design for their faces?

Nomura: Well Terra’s look was already a decided thing, we just had to make him look a bit younger. I knew that Ventus should look either like Sora or Roxas, and I wasn’t sure which one to go with, but I thought Vanitas looking like Sora would have a bigger impact so I had Ventus look like Roxas instead. And there is a reason that Vanitas looks like Sora. As Sora filled in Ventus’ fractured heart, the fractured part (Vanitas) was effected by Sora and ended up with Sora’s face. So if it had been Riku who had filled in Ventus’ heart, Vanitas would have looked like Riku.” 

- BBS Ultimania, pg. 646 [via KHInsider]

Similar to the above, instead of Vanitas, who comes from Ventus, looking as such of his existential bond, instead it emphasizes that of Sora = Vanitas by the physical attributes. Interestingly enough, in the same quote is the proposition of whether Ventus would look like either Sora or Roxas in development, lending more to the idea of this separation of their appearance. Similarly, this is mentioned consistently in how Vanitas looks like Sora. This extends even beyond the Ultimania books, as even the KH3 Character Files book emphasizes that Vanitas has “Sora’s face” and resemblance. [pg.86]  

If you read my posts in the original chain, you’d understand that what I’m pointing out is that, instead of establishing an equilibrium between the four characters, it instead creates the separation of two different physical entities:

Sora [Vanitas] and Ventus [Roxas].

This would be different than what was cleanly set between Kairi, Namine, and Xion—this being accompanied by external and internal reasons that not only captured the connections between the characters, but also have literal, internal reasons applied that are part of the narrative.

“How did you go about designing Xion's outward appearance?

Nomura: It was decided from the start that she would have a deep connection to Kairi, so she was based on Kairi with her hair changed a little. We were actually thinking of changing nothing but the colour of her hair, but when designs were drawn up her hairstyle was made quite a bit different too. Even the 3D polygon model's face is the same as Kairi's, apart from the hair. So, if you look at the 3D models of Xion, Namine and Kairi, they have the same face and differ only in their hair, but unexpectedly have individual personalities.”

- Days Ultimania, pg. 485 [via KHInsider]

Actually, the quote itself is similar to the comment made by Tomohiro Kayano above about Sora and Roxas’ 3D facial models being “basically the same”, except the girls are without difference of detail to the face, with the note of being the same while the hair is specifically what differs. This turns out to be an interesting detail because, there’s never an attempt to create a distinction between the three characters outside of what has been spoken for—their hair. And, they have the internal explanation to boot for what makes it literal in and of itself.

This is different than that of the Sora [Vanitas] and Ventus [Roxas] entities, where for internal functionality, there is then a difference by the face in those two and what it means for the characters in the story. As far as I’m concerned, there isn’t even an attempt to establish that they all have “the same face, but different hair.”

Where’s the equilibrium?

The further we go into the explanations that take a different road than that of what Q1 proposes, the question itself starts to become irrelevant—the mystery of the question’s origin (that between Roxas and Sora) was instead supplied by other lore reasoning in the world. All the while, setting a distinction between the two physical entities by “the face” as opposed to just answering the original question.

At least, in an internal way.

Really, Q1 is already answered—this answer being more external, that Roxas has “pretty much the exact same face” as Sora as a way to represent their connection to one another, with the “pretty much” representing the differences that can be accounted for.

However, when it comes to an in-world, internal explanation, instead of providing a lore-based reasoning to express in the narrative, which would’ve been thought to be the same reasoning (because he’s Sora’s Nobody) as the external reasoning, instead we have an answer that makes the Q1, now, seem misleading.

To be fair, it doesn’t necessarily eliminate the Q1, just makes it seem less likely to be answered or if even to be something to be asked anymore. That’s because, in all the ways we understand what resulted from the connection made between Sora and Ventus, we haven’t exactly been given an explicit negative to the possibility of the original premise:

Premise: “Do you believe it’s possible for it to be explained that Ventus influenced Sora’s physical appearance when their hearts connected?”

or, to reintroduce it in a familiar angle:

Q1 v.2: “Why do Sora and Ventus [Roxas] look alike?”

It’s not explicitly negated, but in all the information I could find, this following quote is the closest to answering either question.

– So it’s not “Once Sora’s story is finished, another hero’s story will begin”, the hero is always Sora.

Nomura: Yes. One of the concepts behind the KH series is that the main character Sora isn’t special, he’s just a normal boy. Yes he does have connections with Ventus’ heart, among others, but he hasn’t inherited anything from them. He’s just a normal boy you could find anywhere. I wanted to make Sora a character that the player could take onto themselves and feel that you don’t have to be special. But connect to many people and you will realize your secret potential. With BbS I want to make fans excited to see Sora’s return. The secret event is a symbol of that, so I hope everyone will get to see it and wait for Sora’s next adventure.

- BBS Ultimania, pg. 650 [Via KHInsider]

Unlike the other quotes supplied for the topic of Sora and Ventus’ connection, this quote was on the conversation of Sora’s adventures post-KH3. However, the comment itself is still in retrospect of the internal attributes of Sora’s character, even specifically mentioning his connection to Ventus’ heart, putting it in perspective of that particular circumstance that happens in the game.

So, what do we have now?

That comment doesn’t completely negate the premise, technically, but it also doesn’t support it either. In tandem with everything else in what HAS been done with the connection between Sora and Ventus....

It doesn’t look likely.

There’s also the mention of Aqua pointing out how Sora is:

ENG: “the spitting image of Ven”

JPN: “ヴェンそのもの [Ven himself]”

Even though there isn’t anything conclusive to whether she, just like with Riku, was talking more about Sora and Ven’s disposition than their physical face, the BBS Ultimania does go with the former.

“Guided by a warm light, Aqua meets two boys on the island. Their atmosphere [presence] was similar to that of Terra and Ventus.”

- BBS Ultimania, pg.384

As it is, the fact remains that there hasn’t been any attempt in equalizing the appearance between Sora and Ventus outside of what could already be understood externally through Sora and Roxas. 

The understanding of it being unlikely to be addressed or to be a truth doesn’t rely on “it wasn’t talked about”. Because, IT WAS talked about—the topic surrounding this HAS been approached, it HAS been explained, and the premise at hand isn’t anything offered as actuality.

So, why should I assume then that the information we’ve received for years, that has been explained and told in so many ways, is incomplete?

It could change, sure, but it’s not incomplete as it is. As to this day, we can safely say that the literal equalization of similarity isn’t between Sora and Ventus, because it, as of right now, literally isn’t in accordance to the observable facts. It hasn’t happened, even if to predict it to happen. And if to weigh the possibility of this change occurring, after all the facts presented above and how the subject has been breached, that yes—it’s an unlikely change.

Not impossible, but improbable.

And that is VERY reasonable to say after 10+ years and an immense amount of supplemental paratext produced to say something about it.

This being by not what information is lacking, but by what has been provided. And even then, the frequency and different angles in which the information has been touched upon makes it hit much harder.

If in the attempt to play devil’s advocate on myself, I would proposition that the proposed premise would be setup by the concept behind the story of BBS:

"There is no coincidence in fate"

In which, along with the questions of “why Riku was chosen to wield the keyblade, or why Kairi met Sora and Riku”, the original question (Why do Sora and Roxas look alike?) could’ve been a part of that, and thus, explained similar to that of the Kairi, Namine, and Xion situation—that Sora AND Roxas were influenced by Ventus (and, logically, Vanitas would’ve been as well), and that being why they look alike.

But nope.

Instead, we got it all the other way around where Sora is the character influencing the other characters, and being connected to all three through that direction, not backwards. Creating, really, the impression that the visual similarity between Sora and Ventus IS fate, but through this, it is part of that scheme in which two people who just so happen to be similar are connected to one another.

Their resemblance and their connection is by the design of fate and the way it was meant to be—not necessarily due to a direct phenomenon, but that two people who have that similarity were fated to have the connection they have.

It certainly has been done in storytelling before, so it isn’t a crazy concept anyway.

Don’t know for certain, but from the information available, that actually seems more likely.

Sora has not been affected by Ventus, and the fact that this information isn’t presented as incomplete, this idea becomes less plausible to even be implemented, if not, irrelevant. This would be the same to Q1 as it is, where it was diverted by other information and questions.

All the while, in recognizing the distinction given between the two physical entities of Sora[Vanitas] and Ventus[Roxas], I much more prefer how they’ve handled it so far, where that bridge between Sora and Ventus isn’t closed by that type of phenomenon, but instead, through the efforts of capturing the connection that the characters have. This is directly through the acknowledgement of how the story has implemented understanding of the distinction between the two, particular the face, NOT just the hair. This is also in accordance to story things, in that in the connection between Sora and Ventus, this is primarily a one-sided affair in how Sora influences Ven, NOT the other way around, and I’m fine with that in how it is represented in the story.

This is especially for the sake of Sora and Roxas’ characters is very concerned with his identity in relation to his existential ties towards Sora, and Sora is the normal boy who has “secret potential” by his ability to connect with other people. I’ve of zero interest of Sora’s character being tainted with that type of effect, especially now and in everything that hasn’t [would’ve] acted in accordance to it.

Sigh.

Anyway, that’s just what it is. Don’t send me any more asks expecting me to post this, because I honestly don’t have anything else to say about it that would be that much different. My points would largely be the same. If you have concerns though (like some quotes I got myself since KHInsider didn’t have them), just message me, and I’ll send some screen shots and whatnot.

Anyway, overall, it still remains an interesting thing to thing about alongside the concepts that are implemented in KH. That, I can agree on.

[megamanxfanfics]

The Hiatus

I’ve been dreading the idea of writing this, but the fact that I am at all means that I’m coming out of my funk and am looking onward towards moving ahead, and hopefully forward, once again with this project in the future.  I’m afraid I’ve got a lot of explaining to do.  Wouldn’t you know it?  Life got in the way again.

It seems that every new Writing Season, something always happens to me to shift things around and make it near-impossible towards writing Mega Man X.  I’ve been mulling over how to talk about all of this without getting too personal on an MMX blog.  But the fact is that what happened to me is very personal.  And very complicated.  So I’m gonna just go for it, while keeping it in simplest terms.

I broke up with my girlfriend last month.  Which means I had to move out...

I can say that with dry eyes now, and without a heavy heart.  It was a smooth break.  Very mutual.  We both knew it needed to happen, because we weren’t happy at all. (Always doing our own thing, making separate plans... etc. etc. etc.)

But back to this.

I recall back in November I had posted a Writing Exercise - What X Remembers, in an attempt to kick-start my motivation for this project.  Needless to say, it didn’t work.  I can tell you right now that I wasn’t exactly busy.  I was burnt out.

Yes, I’ve been wanting and wanting to start this thing, but in the planning phases, I’ve also been afraid of it.  Because I don’t want to mess this up. Or it’s too confusing, or disjointed.  And I know how I get.  I harp and harp on things until it’s perfect, or feels good enough to present.  And... frankly, I was in a position where things were so bad at home, that I just wanted to spend time with her to keep everyone happy.

I would also take advantage of ‘Me-Time Monday’ as I used to call it when she’d be out doing her own thing.  Except my creative outlet for those days would be working on music, which is my first passion.  I’ve taken on a massive project of adding vocals to a lot of old music I had written, and even now I’m maybe half-way through that.  And there were definitely certain Mondays that I wasn’t even in the mood for music...  I certainly wasn’t in the mood for X.

I was depressed...  She was depressed...  But why?

Well... this blog, isn’t exactly about that.  But what I can tell you is that we were just going through this mundane routine every day.  Even our weekends became routine.  And neither of us were fun to be around any more.  Even upon realizing it and trying to do different things.  ‘Go out on a date, Dummy!’  That’s what I would tell myself.  But even nice events didn’t work.  She’d complain about being tired, or full or we wouldn’t talk at all.  That... was the extent of our interactions.  Outside of that, we’d just watch our shows, which would entertain us, and make us laugh.  We’d hold hands and stuff, sometimes.  But even then... it didn’t really feel romantic.  As one friend put it best, “It sounds like a friendship...”

And we both realized that last month.

So you could say that from November-February, I had slowly been working at getting my motivation toward this project back up.  Despite my daily toils, I was driven to bring myself to do the things that make me happy.  I had even reread most of the Writing Diaries, all the way up to Season V again, which took me down a nice bit of Nostalgia Road.  Reading about the Process of this Project is just as fun as reading the actual episodes for me.  It’s the Journey, not the Destination, after all.

But like I said, then February happened and we just imploded.  Everything immediately broke down.  My living space, my comfort zone.. where I was going to be!!  I didn’t know what to do.

In week 1 I took out the time to hang out with all of my closest friends.  I told everyone who needed to know first.

In week 2, I started seriously looking for places.  And that was equally exciting as it was exhausting.  However, I did find one thing that wouldn’t be ready for the next 2 months!  And that also freaked me out.  Now I had a pseudo-time table on my hands, but it was a little too long.

In week 3, I cracked.  We absolutely got into a fight in our shared space.  Things were so smooth as friends and roommates.  We had still shared our King Size Bed, and kept it completely civil, since nothing romantic was happening in the bedroom anyway...  But, at some point, some Social Media Drama occurred and I actually started acting like an Ex.  It was becoming very clear to me that living together any longer was going to destroy my Mental Health.  So I made the choice to get out of there, sooner than anticipated.  That Friday, I put a bag together and stayed at my parent’s house.

The original plan was to ride this out as long as possible and move into the 2nd Bedroom while I start to leisurely pack, as I keep looking for places.  But instead, all this drama accelerated my schedule and forced me out of that house.  That weekend, I came back to grab the rest of my clothes and relocate my TV back to my Parent’s house... Which takes me to week 4.  

In week 4, I focused on helping my brother with an After-school play.  I changed my work hours for him and everything, but on top of that, I had an unexpected interview which could’ve changed everything!!!  You see, I’ve been looking for better jobs at the same time as looking for new places.  And that’s what made this so stressful.  That’s even partially what caused all this drama, because one night I tried complaining about it to her, and she didn’t really seem to care much.  We were acting like exes to each other, and I really couldn’t handle it.  So once we got into a fight, that was the wake up call.  We’re not together anymore.  We can’t do this any more! Literally.  It was time to get out of there and move on.   Well, the job interview wasn’t in the cards... but it’s for the best, because it would’ve made this new place that I’ve been hoping for, not make sense any more.   That weekend, I got together all of my books/movies/games/comics, electronics, pictures, etc. etc. while she had put together boxes of the kitchenware I get to take.  By Sunday Night, basically all of my stuff was out of there. I couldn’t believe it.  It was very therapeutic and bittersweet.

This takes us to Week 5 - last week.  The commotion has slowed down to an abrupt halt.  I’ve been very tired.  Technically I have all the time in the world for MMX now, but I’m just not there yet.  And I probably won’t be for another month.  And I say that now, because I’m literally in between places.  All of my stuff is in boxes at my Parent’s house, but this other place that I saw is in the process of coming through.  Their time table accelerated a little bit.  I got news yesterday that the place has been painted, and that new carpets will be installed on 3/23.  As I am basically move-in ready, but also really want this to be the place, I worked with my new Landlord and asked him if I can start to leave boxes this weekend.

And that’s what I did today.  Today I left the first installation of boxes into that house’s basement.  It will be the new location I call my home, and the best part about it is that it’s only 5 minutes from Work.  That’s HUGE.  [But that too is temporary, as I still need a better job.]. One day at a time though, right?

This is primarily the reason why I’m writing today.  I feel that the brunt of this Transition Period has reached it’s Apex, and from here, it’s gonna be pretty smooth sailing into the next place, as I become acquainted with my New Normal of 2020.

I’m also writing, because admittedly, I have been thinking about MMX6 again, and rather than catch up with the rest of the diaries, I just read the last one.  Where I actually regressed into plot points again and still couldn’t answer certain questions, like what those stupid teleport portals are.  I mean, how much of an explanation do I really need?  It’s Mega Science!

I’ll be honest.  I could start tomorrow, and I’d probably feel pretty good about it, until I hit my first slump.  Which will most likely be the Central Museum stage.  And then I won’t want to do anything.

No, my heart’s just not in it yet.  I don’t want to start MMX6 on my laptop.  I want to be fully set up and Comfortable in my New Place when I start Season VI properly.  The silver lining is that I have all the time in the world for this and my music, now.  And I’ll have to feel out that situation too, because I desperately want to do both.  And that’s part of the conflict too.  Both projects literally interfere with each other, because I only have enough time and energy for one or the other on any given night.

Keep in mind, once I have my own place, everything’s on me.  That’s cooking, dishes, laundry and of course self-care, right?  So that involves the necessary shower, and of course entertaining yourself.  And that means yes, actually pulling myself away from my hobbies that I tend to wrap myself in so much.

I’m not blaming this project for losing my girl, or my music.  Hell, I’m not even blaming myself.  We just weren’t a good fit for each other, but we sure tried to be.  For 5 Years!  There was a lot of good in those 5 years too.  But she changed a lot.  Me too.  But her, more...  In a less fun way.  Very easy for me to say, of course.

These things happen.  People change.  And we truly made the healthiest choice to end it when we did.  It was really just a logical conversation about what isn’t working, and both of us literally agreeing that this doesn’t make sense any more.  My friend last night put it best.  “I think your relationship just ran its course.  You both saw it through to a complete end, and it was really good that you chose to end it when you did, because neither of you were happy any more...”

And there it is.  I suppose I’m ending this on that note.  One day I’ll be ready for MMX6 again.  But today is not that day.  And instead, I’ll be playing the MMZ/ZX Legacy Collection in the meantime.  =P.   And no.  Don’t get any ideas.  I have NO intention of writing an MMZ Anime.

[greencrusader13]

OC Interview - Terasas Feldspar

The rules are simple: pick an OC, and then answer these interview questions in-character for them. Then tag five more people to keep it going!

I got tagged again by @melissagt​ so I wanted to do two more: one for Terasas Feldspar, and one for Tyar Kiht. Since I don’t think people know a lot about Terasas other than what I’ve vaguely mentioned of him in previous posts, I thought I’d start with him.

Like with the Raz interview I picked a particular point in time in his life to answer these questions, which for the sake of clarity I’ll make it the same as when I answered Raz’s questions. Terasas would be 33 at this time.

Tagging: @the-sith-in-the-sky-with-diamond @athiefswarwriteblr @nusaran @kunoichi-ume @francestroublr

1. What is your name?

I’m Terasas Feldspar.

2. Do you know why are you named that?

It’s similar t’ my pa’s name, which was Tessir.

3. Are you single or taken?

I just got married t’ a wonderful gal named Mynai. I’ve been infatuated with her since I met her back when we was teenagers, but she was with my best friend back then. It’s really something else that not only is she back in my life, she’s now my wife.

4. Have any abilities or powers?

I’m a pretty decent swordsman, and good enough with a bow t’ go hunting on occasion. I don’t really fancy myself as being anything particularly special.

5. Stop being a Mary Sue.

I don’t know what that is.

6. What’s your eye color?

Green.

7. How about your hair color?

I in’t got any hair, but my fur is sorta this reddish-brown color.

8. Have any family members?

I’ve got my daughter Ariya, whom I had with my late wife Valika. My little girl is my world. I’d do anything for her and t’ protect her. She was a surprise definitely...Val and I weren’t married when she was conceived, but I can’t think of life without Ariya. The first time I held my daughter I... I can’t even describe the sort of love I felt.

My parents aren’t around any more. I wish Ariya could’ve met her grandparents. She looks so much like my ma, and I think the two really would’ve gotten along well.

Like I said before I just got married t’ Mynai, and I consider myself a really lucky man. I didn’t think I’d find love again after Val died, but here I am... here we are. I’m not sure if or when we’re gonna have kids of our own; it’s come up, and we’d both like t’, but right now Mynai wants t’ just adjust t’ being Ariya’s stepmother.

I’ve only got one sibling: my half-sister Dirna. She’s also Raz’s half-sister, so we’re kinda like brothers in that way too. My ma was her mother, and Raz’s pa was hers too.

Speaking of Raz, he’s like my brother. He hasn’t always been there when I needed him, but he’s getting better about it. He helped Ariya and I get t’ safety when true night returned t’ the world, and came back when there was a killer here in New Coalfell and helped put a stop t’ it. Even with small things he’s getting better, like he helped watch Ariya while Mynai and I were off on our honeymoon. My friend needs t’ stop being so hard on himself. He’s a better person than he thinks he is.

9. Oh? How about pets?

I in’t much of a pet person. Besides, until recently I was a single father, and I couldn’t’ve handled looking after my child and a pet.

10. That’s cool, I guess. Now, tell me something you don’t like?

I in’t a big fan of most alcohols. Wine just about does it for me.

11. Do you have any activities/hobbies that you like to do?

I like t’ go hunting and fishing when the stars align. My pa used t’ take me if he ever won a big hand at cards when I was little when he’d have enough coin t’ be gone for a day or two. Fishing is really calming. I like just sitting by the stream for hours without much care.

12. Have you ever hurt anyone in any way before?

I try not to, but everyone’s made mistakes. I’m no exception.

13. Ever… killed anyone before?

Yes. Before becoming guard captain I was a guardsman like any other, and unfortunately that means sometimes I’ve had t’ use lethal force. There was a bandit attack when I was living in Brightscale that I helped defend against, and I killed some bandits during that raid, including the bandit captain leading the attack. That was my first really big battle. 

14. What kind of animal are you?

I in’t an animal...

15. Name your worst habits?

When I fall deep asleep I tend t’ snore pretty loudly. Val used t’ joke about smothering me in my sleep just so she could get some sleep of her own.

I’ve also been described as having a “savior’s complex.” Like, I just want t’ help people. I don’t mean it in a bad way, but some people’ve responded less than favorably t’ me tryin’ t’ help.

16. Do you look up to anyone at all?

Raz. My friend is trying so hard t’ make things right that he doesn’t realize he has already. I’m not sure I would’ve been able t’ step away from the life he was leading if our lives were switched. It takes a lot of willpower t’ stay away from stuff like that after falling into it.

17. Are you gay, straight or bisexual?

I’m straight.

18. Do you go to school?

No. When Raz and I ran away as teenagers that was the last I’d gone t’ school.

19. Ever want to marry and have kids one day?

I never want t’ marry again now that Mynai’s my wife, and I in’t losing her.

We’ve talked about having kids, and we both want to, but we’d have t’ be careful about when we do. Ariya’s normal has already been changed once in a pretty drastic way, and I’d want her t’ be ready and understand that she’d be having a little brother or sister. So, for now, Mynai and I are being careful t’ not conceive until everything’s right.

20. Do you have any fangirls/fanboys?

None that I know of, but I do get t’ meet some grateful people around New Coalfell. They help the job feel rewarding.

21. What are you most afraid of?

Anything happening t’ my family. I went through the pain of losing one wife, and I couldn’t do it again. I don’t even want t’ think about losing my daughter.

22. What do you usually wear?

Just a white collared shirt and trousers at home. When I’m on patrol I wear my guardsman uniform with chain mail armor underneath. It’s good protection, but gets really hot in summers.

23. What’s one food that tempts you?

Okay, so Val used t’ own a bakery, and she used t’ make this one meal that I hadn’t heard of before her. It was, like, this dough that had tomatoes mashed into a sauce on it with cheese and some meats, all baked in a stone oven. Not really a pastry, and not really bread either. It was divine.

24. Am I annoying to you?

*shakes his head*

25. Well, it’s still not over!

Okay.

26. What class are you (low/middle/high)?

Middle I guess? We in’t struggling with our money, but we couldn’t buy some of them nicer places out there either.

27. How many friends do you have?

I’ve got a nice handful of friends; a strong community around me here.

28. What are your thoughts on pie?

Val and I would make pie in her bakery on days where I was off-duty sometimes.

29. Favorite drink?

Apple juice.

...oh, like alcoholic? Red wine.

30. What’s your favorite place?

Our home back when Val and I were living in Brightscale. It was a total wreck when I first showed up there, and Val got a lot of people t’ help me rebuild it after the bandit attack. It was right by a river, so when we were drifting off t’ sleep we could hear the water rushing by. We were also separated a bit from the rest of the town, so it was like our own small piece of paradise as a family. I loved the walk back t’ it from work.

Unfortunately Brightscale became a ghost town after the plague hit, and Ariya and I were forced t’ leave it behind when all the survivors migrated t’ Boulder. Val’s ashes are buried there. Sometime I’d like t’ take Ariya back, but I don’t know what that area’s even like anymore. Could be bandits in the area, or predators, or anything. I’d want t’ make sure it’s safe first.

31. Are you interested in anyone?

*Terasas points to his wedding ring*

32. That was a stupid question…

A little bit, no offense...

33. Would you rather swim in a lake or the ocean?

Lake.

34. What’s your type?

Uh, my type? Honestly I in’t been with enough women t’ have a type, but if I had t’ say it’d be intelligent women who are outspoken. Confidence goes a long way for me, but not arrogance. She has t’ be kind too.

I tend t’ first notice a woman’s eyes first. I don’t know why, but a woman with beautiful eyes seems t’ be what catches my attention.

35. Any fetishes?

F...f-fetishes? N-no...I mean, everyone’s got things they enjoy doing in bed, but I don’t think it counts as a fetish...

Wait, what am I saying? None of this is your godsdamned business! No one needs t’ know I like doggyst...- wait, I didn’t say that before! Delete this part! Delete this p-

36. Camping or outdoors?

*Terasas straightens himself, brushing down his ruffled fur while clearing his throat* What was that? Camping or outdoors? Ooh, what a great, perfectly normal question like all the other ones you’ve asked so far.

Camping. When I feel like it’s safe out I like taking Ariya out for a few nights like my pa used to when I was little. She in’t a big fan of the hunting part of it, so I usually do that by myself along with the skinning and cleaning of the meat afterwards. We have a good time sitting around the fire afterwards eating together. I hope she enjoys it too. I know those memories of my own father mean so much t’ me, and I hope it’s the same for her.

[boglog]

HoC Onion !

[TW mention of sexual abuse/violence]

I’m foregoing the pros/cons format here but generally-speaking my negative points are still gathered at the top w the highlights near the end.

Obviously, between letting a sex offender have a platform in mass media and potholes, I’d choose the latter. My below crits absolutely are not a demand for Spacey to be brought back and he can die in a fire for all i care. I just wish his character’s absence was not the nº1 reason for this season not making any sense

as far as i can gather, this season’s primary arc is as much about Frank’s death (in lieu of Doug’s) as it is Claire’s emotional and political divorce from Frank while she undergoes your traditional postbreakup analysis of who she was pre Frank and post Frank and were Frank actually there this idea might have legs

...but instead we have Doug ://

the level of intensity that the plot demands cannot be carried by forcing Doug into being a deeper character than he was intended, all the way until the end, he truly just reads as either a pitiful sadist or a henchman. It’s disharmonious and dangerously close to bad. 

Frances Underwood makes more sense if Frank dies in episode 8!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She’s literally going to be his reincarnation!!!!!!!

literally...who cares if Doug gets stabbed by Frank’s letter opener? whomst?

Doug can’t be Frank’s proxy, but sans a certain pedoph*le, the plot will just have to suffer. 

Other side effects of Doug’s undeserved promotion include but are not limited to: 

forcing Doug to share the role of antagonist with the Shepards, yet another New Villain © that feels totally unnecessary and confusing (the Conways at least got two seasons)

Frank’s diary feels forced and out of character for someone decidedly so unsentimental  

How does Claire have a bun in the oven when she clearly didnt sleep with Frank for all of season 5 and locked herself in her room while he was being assassinated? How is a Dramatic paternity test not going to be insisted upon in the show’s universe?

fixation on Frank’s will as a McGuffin is really... I don't know boring considering no one cares for the guy? What property of his does claire stand to lose? I’m sure the rich people fandom can speculate but i honestly needed this manifested in the show via some examples instead of the grand abstraction that is The Will bc losing Frank’s assets would set Claire back but it would not directly threaten her presidency. Not to mention that i’m not entirely sure Frank’d have Doug of all people as his sole heir if it didn't serve as revenge against Claire, which just lowers Doug’s importantance even more

Frank never cared for Doug, a largely unlikeable character, which we already knew from the beginning, so Doug’s entire arc is pathetic at best as well as his tangential inclusion in the Cliare v Frank arc

My major problems with Doug’s character began as early as season 4. 

Did not understand why they didn't actually have Doug switch sides by joining the Dunbar campaign in earnest in season 4. Like... it’s such an obvious opportunity to Thicken The Plot © that it’s reached this gif levels of dropping the ball:

P much everything about Doug’s character since then is just so.... lacking, while for the last few seasons they give him depth when he magically has empathy for one (1) woman before she dies (possibly as a direct result of his actions). This entire plot about him evaluating why he was so loyal to Frank could've been unpacked whilst he avoids Dunbar finding out about the murders he did commit. I’d rather him having agency than be a flat, troubled underling.

Aright I'm going to stop complaining about Doug. In season 3 and 4, his insecurity over being replaced and his sacrifices for Frank (and subsequent guilt) came close to giving us a real Moment with him as we delve more into how colourless his life outside of work really is. But beyond that, when his character started getting repetitive, there’s very little to compensate for his alternating acts of extreme narcissism/violence versus his childish confusion / self pity when he doesn’t get what he wants.

Anyways I'm basically at a point where I’d be okay if Frank’s long-lost cousin replaced Doug replacing Frank��

I’m appreciating the writers’ distinct refrain from plot formats and that the seasons progressively move towards the Underwoods but what if just for circularity and added balance we return to having a full-on reporter B plot in s6? More emphasis on Janine and Tom’s sleuthing, culminating in Tom’s assassination and Janine publishing the tell-all expose against Frank---including a reference to Zoe---that becomes the magnum opus of her career (and Claire using that against Frank). I just think the season needed more balance that Doug, the Shepards and Tom were not offering 

The Shepards and Tom, meanwhile, are decidedly banal. First of all, I had a hard time even telling Bill and Tom apart esp given that they were introduced one after the other. All white guys are the same.

Bill just kind of sits around until he has a platform to reference his favourite action movies doesn't he?

Moreover what does Tom do!? he doesn't want power, he doesnt seem to want anything. He’s just kind of there?

Unlike the Conways, the Shepards don’t have a clear goal and are not often in direct conflict with Claire the way Frank and Conway were. They want to control the presidency for money and Claire is always bouncing back from reliving her girlhood to political rivalry w Anette, yes, but what does that mean? What are the consequences? The logistics are so indirect and complicated, what precisely does Anette want? And why does anyone care? The Shepards are extremely boring.

Frank’s asides were purple and long af so I appreciate Claire’s succinct style not to mention her fantastic screen presence. I’m left to wonder, though, if maybe hers and every other aside in HoC is a little too on the nose. Like, they didn't hafta spell it out that the bird in the wall was a representation of Frank’s shadow trapping her, I think we got that 

The artistic intercuts to Claire’s troubled childhood wherein a group of bullies coerce her into stripping naked through the forest, while visually stunning and clever for its self-explanatory nature, feel really passive. They don't visually show us any reason for her not to resist, the bullies even let her keep her clothes after cutting them off her so we’re left to wonder why she does nothing....

Claire was raised to be ~proper~ so her resistance (likely) comes in the form of biting, passive-aggressive poise which is hard to get across in a silent montage but it just feels.. weird

Frances Underwood is going to have a very sad childhood

nearly all the Claire flashbacks are cinematic masterpieces and as much i think Claire’s backstory deserves more attention, i also appreciate the minimalism and the choice humanising moments of her adolescence 

listen I'm sure we all agree Robin Wright is peak acting but the actor for young Claire, who has the arguably harder task of copying Wright is fantastic 

Of all the characters who crop up every season seemingly out of nowhere only to disappear once more once when the plot the Underwoods are done with them, Jane is one of my favourites and possibly one of the greyest characters alive. Smart, mysterious, worldly, a bit of a hippie despite her job, severe despite her sense of humour. Really loves her extremely pedestrian surname. We stan.

Secondary characters rarely get anything close to a backstory on this show, esp ones that were introduced so late. Still, her motivations seem more complicated then others (i.e. betraying Cathy, one of two people she cares about) and I wonder if they deserve a bit more of an explanation. Especially seeing as she has a relationship with every major character.

If anyone deserves a spin-off it might be Jane and her name-dropping career/social life

Cathy faking her own death with a terrible french accent? On stan !!!

Seth teasing Doug even while he’s completely undervalued by everyone around him is a power move

Impressed that they managed three characters named Tom, their distinctly different appearances and the fact that they're almost never in the same POV shots works to separate them.

Claire using the word “female” even facetiously is cringe

Whenever they use the cinema room, the movie they watch is always symbolic. Before the 2017 election, Frank and Claire imitate the characters in Double Indemnity, and this season a pregnant claire watches Rosemary’s Baby. Clever.

i liked the whitehouse tour guide’s inclusion and the cameo from _____ though this season was especially white without their usual token secondary character

So overall i liked season 6 as an exploration of Claire’s character even while it did v little justice to most of the other characters and unfortunately spacey’s absence did affect the storyline

and finally: that cinnamontography !

Not that the series should be pushed past its prime, but wouldn’t it be interesting to see Claire as a mother?

[starryseo]

superhero!sicheng

background: in this alternate universe, the members of nct will have various superpowers and abilities. this bulleted series will describe them in school situations - a school of superheroes/ villains - and also outside of school, in non-magical settings, for instance, describing a non-magical job they may have. it’s kind of like harry potter in the sense that only people with powers can access this magical world (where the school is) but magic users can easily travel in between both worlds. enjoy!

super speed & flexibility;

ok so sicheng here is like a mix of elastigirl and dash

dont ask me how that works out it just does ok

a bit weird maybe

but still super (hah puns) badass

he is really ! heckin' !! flexible !!!

like, he's out there doing flips and somersaults and it looks so cool damn

he can even do the acrobatics in super speed it's awesome

the guys took a video of him doing that once and when they hooked it up to a laptop to slo mo it, the laptop couldn’t handle processing it because they had to slow it reaaaaaaaaal down

so it just crashed lmao

he's really humble about his powers though

he never tries to show them off or gloat or anything

but if - when - people ask him to show them something

he just can't say no because he doesn't want to let them down or anything

he has this move that always makes him and the guys laugh

where he does the bridge, but then he elongates his arms and legs

((it’s the best thing ever))

donghyuck always jumps on top of sicheng when he does that

so hyuck is basically overlooking everyone

it makes him feel superior af #longlivekingdonghyuck

and whenever sicheng is in a minutely awkward or embarrassing situation

you bet your butt hes just gonna super speed away the heck outta there

people tend to think he’s always red because he’s always running really fast

but n o p e

he’s a shy bean that’s blushing because people are constantly complimenting him

ok so imagine there was a school vs school competition

but this time with magic !!!

you bet your butt (again) yuta signed him up for all the running races

yuta also has The Best™ signs and posters with sicheng’s face on it

and he coined the nickname Winwin bc sicheng’s always winning

even against the other super speed runners because this boy is always practicing so he doesn’t disappoint anyone during the race

his smile after winning each race is so precious-

ok so he’s great !!! at phys ed (esp. gymnastics and running for obvious reasons) but he’s also amazing at the no magic sports like swimming. he likes the rush he gets because he’s not as fast in water, so he’s trying to improve his personal best

ofc hyuck and yuta have made him try to run on water

after like 7 unsuccessful attempts (mainly bc hyuck kept pushing yuta into the water as sicheng was running) he finally managed to do it without them two interfering

it was legendary

kinda like dash’s run on water, minus the villains behind him trying to kill him

outside of school!!!!

he also has a job outside of being totally badass in school

of course he’s a cute lil’ barista boy at a cafe close-by

hes winwinning hearts there everyday too give him a break ppl

he tries making lots of different designs on the drink, he mainly bases them on different powers like drawing flames or a snowflake

they may not be super detailed but they’re really cute and he always serves them with a smile

so he gets a lot of tips :)))

he also really likes this job because he gets to see different kinds of people all the time

he usually has late shifts after school, so he gets to see how humans cope with their abundance of school work

and when he has really late shifts, how people are really quiet, mainly listening to music, barely awake

on the weekends, he’s there up and early, and he finds it funny how 50% of the customers are in a rush to get to places like shopping or work

but then the rest are coming in happy groups and they’re just chilling, having a good time

he just really likes watching humans do their thing,, makes him think that there really isn’t much of a difference between their kind and his

but there’s still this separation which he has never really liked, but has had to put up with

so he always try to be as happy as possible around them

because even if they don’t know that hes not 100% human he’s still going to be as nice as possible

bc he’s just a really nice guy like that

my beautiful sicheng, the speedy stretcher <3 

so, as cliches go, you guys met in the cafe he works at

and you quickly became a regular there because of a school project that you had

you would always have a hot chocolate with whipped cream but then ask the barista for what they’d recommend as a side dessert

and he sort of just found that cute and you super cute over the days

but he’s a shy lil’ thang so he would just hand you your stuff quickly & quietly when he was serving you

but then he was always cleaning around the table you were at when his role changed

the guys would catch on pretty quickly because he’d be rushing to leave after school and kept ditching their hang-out sessions for extra shifts

they thought he was doing something dodgy and not telling them 

so they followed him and were rlly confused when he did just get on with his actual job

UNTIIIIIL doyoung realised that sicheng kept staring at one particular customer in the far booth

and then the whole gang knew about this crush

yuta geared up and not so subtly used his powers [will be revealed in his one ;^)] to give sicheng a push in the right direction

a.k.a sicheng tripped over and fell right into you

a.k.a some teen nudged you just as you had picked up your now-lukewarm hot chocolate so it spilled onto you

panic ensued (with yuta and co. cackling in the background) and sicheng frantically trying to hand you tissues

he apologised profusely and you were kind enough to brush it off (but it was obvious you were kind of  annoyed)

and he felt so so so bad because there goes any chance he had with having a good first impression

you still came back the next day though and sicheng gave himself a quick pep talk and walked to you before he could change his mind

he started off the conversation saying sorry again and somehow he managed to string along “i’d really love to make it up to you this saturday...”

free food and time with a cute boy? you couldnt have said yes to his offer quicker

saturday came quickly and the date had gone amazingly - by now, sicheng knew the gang knew and they were all being the best WinWinWingMen [thats literally what they called themselves]

yuta & hyuck taught him Flirting 101

jaehyun picked out his outfit after johnny had had his fashion evaluation on it & then taeyong ironed the clothes out

doyoung tried starting a talk show to ease sicheng’s nerves until the dreamies shoved and locked him out

anyways, the date went amazingly and led to more until you guys started dating

it was cute and all but after being together for two years sicheng realised he hadn’t told you that he wasn’t... exactly... human

and he was really scared about how you would react

mainly because he’d seen people confess things in the cafe and usually it went well

but there were times that it didn’t and he remembers them better and so he’s scared

he doesn’t think you’d react in an over-the-top way but he’s still scared you’d leave him because he’s different

he’s never really spoken to you about Supers, fearing you’d realise he is one and leave him

but one day he decides that you should know because the relationship is serious now and he trusts you

when he sat you down to talk to you

first you thought he was going to break up with you because of how serious he was, and he kept saying “i’m so sorry about this, please don’t take this badly”

and you just held his face and stroked your thumb over his cheeks, telling him to breathe slowly

and after he had calmed down, he mumbled out so quietly, “i’m not... normal”

and at first you thought he was talking about his insecurities until he carried on

“i can do things other people can’t... like i can run and stretch myself”

and, to be completely honest, you were lost, and that obviously showed on your face because sicheng smiled a lil’ and decided to show you instead

so he stood up, and dashed to the door and you were like

whoa

how-

and then it finally clicked: he was superhuman

sicheng decided it would be better to stay away from you in case you reacted explosively

but he wished he was closer because your eyes were sparkling in awe

and he wishes he could’ve seen that up close instead

you were so in awe, and that night you got him to explain more about his powers and magic in general

and he’s so happy you’re still with him, that day was filled with non-stop affection 

after that he mixes up the dates by also taking you around the magic world, but he’s always careful to watch out for authority figures

because they might react badly to a non-magic person

but so far so good

and sicheng’s never been happier

highkey felt bad that i hadn’t posted anything in a while so here we go :)) hope you enjoyed!!

[professor-tammi]

response to @ultraericthered‘s post here (I’m not reblogging purely because it’s a very long post without a cut haha, please put them under cuts :D)

most of what I said about Lusamine and the stories in USUM/SuMo is, ofc, my personal opinion. a lot of people like stories with higher stakes more, and that’s fine, I usually still enjoy them (cliche or not!), but as someone who has a mother who’s pretty much exactly like Lusamine and can relate very strongly to Gladion and Lillie, having the plot conclude with Lillie facing and standing up to her  mother hit me much harder. so it’s very much a personal thing, absolutely!

And you seem to assume, like others have, that scenes in which Lusamine shows her most negative traits and is shown to be a shitty parent should only be in the story if they’re to serve as a way to cement Lusamine as an irredeemable villain and build up to Lillie chewing her out for it later on. But all those things could also serve to set up character development, as USUM delivered on.

here’s the reason why Lusamine getting the development she did bugs me: narcissists don’t really change. I guess it’s not technically impossible, but it’s exceptionally rare. they believe themselves to be perfect and the most beautiful and important people in the world; anything that goes awry is someone else’s fault, clearly, because they can do no wrong! they are highly unlikely to admit that they’re damaging the people around them and should be seeking help.

this doesn’t mean they’re inhuman monsters, or that they’re always controlling and petty -- indeed, they often have moments of kindness intermingled with their cruelty, and even in the original SuMo, a bit of that kindness shines through from Lusamine (we hear Lillie talk about the moment she shared with her mother in the rain when she was younger, and after defeating Mother Beast, she sees Lillie in a new light and describes her as beautiful). but those moments of selfishness and manipulativeness don’t just go away. narcissists don’t work like that. but to be fair, that’s not something most people would know unless they’d spent a majority of their lives living with one...

if you read stories from children of narcissistic parents, you will find that pretty much all of them tell you their parents never changed, no matter what they did. so when USUM has Lusamine change the way she does, I feel rather uneasy, because that’s not a good message to be sending out to abused children (or anyone, really) -- trying to change a narcissist in real life is almost always futile, and the best option is to distance yourself! in SuMo, I feel like the game wants you to believe Lusamine changed, but since it’s technically more ambiguous, I choose to believe she most likely did not and that she, Lillie and Gladion ultimately went their separate ways. I know that’s not what the writers intended, but at least the interpretation doesn’t conflict with what’s in the game. USUM doesn’t really have that ambiguity.

but yes; if, theoretically, a narcissist mother were to undergo character development, then the development Lusamine undergoes in USUM is exactly what they’d need to do, ie acknowledge that their children are their own people with their own wants and needs. I appreciate the game for that, at the very least, but almost all of this development is bonus content and not part of the main story, which is a shame to me. (for the record: I saw the full script of the game immediately after it leaked and can assure you I haven’t missed any content. I love spoilers more than anyone! :P)

Uh, Lillie always ends up going back to her even in SuMo, and that one was far from forgivable (Lusamine wasn’t even fully unconscious post-game - Lillie tells us that she regained consciousness off-screen and that she’s been gently scolded” about what she did wrong). 

no, she doesn’t go back to her, she takes her along to Kanto intending to a) find a cure for her condition, and b) travel the world and become a trainer. why does she want to find this cure if her mother’s so terrible, you ask? because human relationships are complicated, and Lillie’s obviously not about to just let her die. most children with intermittently abusive parents probably also acknowledge that their parents have done some good by them, and that’s what makes cutting them off so hard. Lillie tells Lusamine she’s terrible, yes (and she is), but she also understands that her mother isn’t wholly evil and clearly is still attached to her in some way or another. (meanwhile, the main story in USUM has Lillie walk off with Lusamine after the Necrozma battle, which is what I meant by “Lillie going back to her”... perhaps I should’ve said “with her”?)

but I do agree with you on one point! I don’t think the conclusion to SuMo’s story was quite satisfactory and I don’t really like that Lillie seems to forgive Lusamine. it’s mostly that the journey there was better (again, for me!), I think. it does leave a lot of questions open.

and as for the final bit... you say Lusamine definitely came into contact with Nihilego before the events of the game -- where’s the proof? there’s none, is there? you claim Guzma didn’t fuse with Nihilego, but you don’t know this; it could’ve very well happened off-screen. perhaps most importantly, when Nihilego first appears before Lusamine in the game, she acts as if she’s never seen it before. if she had, it most likely would’ve had some sort of code name already, but instead she simply describes it as a “poor creature”, and talks about saving it from its suffering... a rather strange reaction for something she’s supposed to have met with before! and hey, if you’re going to say that your assumptions are inarguable, what’s stopping me from saying that mine are just as inarguable? ;) (obviously they’re not, and at the end of the day, they’re still assumptions.)

[abundantchewtoys]

HS Epi 2: Meat p9 reaction

Let's see what Rose is up to. :P No, seriously, this might just happen. Just for us to switch back immediately afterwards to John.

The events of the Masterpiece are so important, though, I'd thought they'd happen near the climax to the epilogues. Unless the epilogues are shorter than I'd thought of course. There's still Homestuck 2, and wouldn't it just be something, for the part of Meat that takes place on Earth C to build up to that.

---

OOooh, this counts as the start of Epilogue 2, huh? So... I suppose that means Mean encompasses several epilogues, even if the chapter count keeps incrementing. If this were Homestuck proper, the Epilogues & Prologue would have had separate titles, too.

Prologue : yeah, i had a feeling that was going to come up again someday. Epilogue 1 : Rumble in the Pumpkin Patch Epilogue 2 : MY MASTERPIECE.

"If you were one of the haters and fools who saw Lord English’s masterpiece circulating through the black veins of the dark web," So, from starting the first sentence I get the idea that we won't be changing perspective just yet. But John hasn't seen the masterpiece, so he wouldn't be impressed.

"and were rendered agog by its majesty, then you probably have a pretty good sense of what happened next." ... Hah! Yeah, but Andrew won't be pulling a Hivebent on us here... will he? I'd really like some more succulent details.

"You probably also wouldn’t be rendered that much additionally agog if you were told it didn’t happen precisely as conveyed by the young Lord’s expertly produced claymation theater." OOoooooOOOOHhhhh, interesting yes. ... Well, unless the narration will now drily inform us that the events did not happen to clay figures but actual people. That much, we already could guess.

... Ya know, I wonder. The sprites squared never featured in Act 7 because back when he wrote and produced the animation, they weren't part of the story yet. Could this mean that Andrew worked out the events of the Masterpiece beforehand, and only later thought of things like Arquiusprite emerging from Lil Seb, and Gamzee being dissected? ... It would be a grand psyche if Lord English turns out NOT to contain the soul sludge from Dirk, Equius and Gamzee, but uh, yeah, that probably won't be the case. We (the MSPA Reader) already had a mental breakdown about this.

"Would it be that surprising if the first four heroes weren’t immediately captured in the juju," ... YES. YES THAT WOULD BE SURPRISING. ... THEY DIDN'T GO IN WILLINGLY DID THEY? ... Did they exchange pleasantries (or unpleasantries) before Caliborn captured them. ... This can't have been a joint plan they worked out to 'save' Caliborn from becoming a mindless mobster kingpin chained by providence into doing Paradox Space's dirty work.

"Would it raise any eyebrows if the action turned out to be a bit sloppier than that?" Sloppier as in... less coordinated? Well, these are the same kids who went Game Over in another timeline, I can see how. Unless the narration means, sloppier action as in, more stilted, broken up by banter and revelations being exchanged.

"A bloody"- ... Bloody? They weren't killed first, were they??

"-nose here." Ah. "A stray wedgie there. Someone trips on a cape." So, more like school yard scuffles instead of boss battles then. Like Caliborn & John's first stand off.

"stray honks from the sidelines." Useless minions are a pain, eh, Caliborn?

"Would it rock anyone’s world to discover the stop-motion feature did not treat this battle royale with the utmost fidelity?" Not if THIS is the extent of the differences, no, that's more expansion than contradiction, after all. It would just mean Caliborn's version was more succinct, akin to Doc Scratch' white lies.

"No one who witnessed the spectacle online would react to these discrepancies with much surprise. But you are not such a witness. You are still John Egbert," Narration, I don't think you quite understand what POV means. :P Really would like to see later on that Andrew's ghost is, well, ghost writing all of this in the dreambubbles.

"and you had no idea what sort of raucous teen pandemonium to expect when you zapped into the lair of your nemesis to throw down. Which is why you were completely blindsided when, upon feeling overwhelmed by the melee, Caliborn sprung his gambit on you and your three best friends to even the odds." You were completely blown away by this stunning revelation. Really, the juju, really? :P Rose didn't tell you about THIS, did she, and you should use a moment to contemplate that. You know, as you are sucked into oblivion until it's time to emerge from the other end. Guess his/our perspective will be ending here, then, after he's finished getting sucked into the juju? And only when they team back up with the B2 kids later, will he learn that his attempt to stop LE before he became that very monster, caused it in the first place.

"He opened his little red chest, and out came his white, house-shaped juju, levitating there, threatening to behave as the weapon many treasure hunters throughout history have described it to be." Ah, but do the descriptions do it justice, does it really do what Caliborn claimed in his claymation.

"Upon a second look, it’s not quite white though. It’s colorless, null. A house-shaped hole in your confining reality. A hole that insists on being filled." Until I read the "being filled", I thought that maybe they'd actually end up in blankspace somehow. Then again... The juju that John got his retcon powers from should've chronologically already been filled, and it was still see-through.

"You tried to resist its overwhelming pull, but to no avail." Okay, so yeah, this is still happening.

"Not negating your powers, your strength to resist, so much as it seemed to overwrite them." It's basically retconning his powers, where retconning is used in the same context as the effect he has when he zaps to an earlier moment on the timeline: he overwrites what happened before.

"You landed in the abstract prison it contains face-first, alone, and with a force that made you flip over a few times and skid along by the flat of your chin." Oh wow. Okay, they're actually going to be spending at least SOME conscious moments in the juju. ... So, might that be also how John got granted his powers then, a conscious decision made by the four individuals trapped in the juju? It's been theorized before that John's retcon powers are a combination of the 4 B1 kids' aspects: he travels through Time and Space, creates new alpha timelines (new Light, as in fortune)... Also, free as the Breeze (Breath) something something.

I'm pretty sure how he landed was akin to Vriska's slides at the hands (fists) of Kanaya & John.

Blaperile has a good point - would John still have his powers after past John got his? Or were they an ontological paradox to begin with? That would suck, though he might still find a way to travel back to Universe C regardless. For one, there's the possibility to travel through the Furthest Ring and reach the old B2 session.

"You groped for your glasses instinctively, finding them in two cracked halves. You cradled their remains as you looked up." Wow, his glasses were broken?? Eesh, another childhood treasured heirloom lost. Guess we now find out if godhood grants 20/20 eyesight regardless of eyewear. ... Maybe he needs to reach his next god tier first. I'm reminded of Jake getting his 'eyes' knocked off during [S] Dirk: Rise Up.

"The blurry, distorted face of your laughing nemesis" Nay on the 20/20 part then. Though the distortion might be due to Caliborn grinning maniacally.

"was the last thing you saw before the chest door slammed shut and plunged you into textual obsolescence." Oh, so John can 'see' outside the juju then.

"And here, you are now stuck." Stuck in a house-shaped object. A home, if you will.

"You will not emerge from this holding cell, from an outside perspective, for quadrillions of years." Implying, then, that that is Lord English' own age? Or perhaps, the span covered by the Green Sun's influence?

"It is not long at all until you begin to wish you had brought something to read." Pfffff. Guess John's sylladex contents were pretty bare bone, or he had no access to it. Also, it would seem he's separate from the other kids, damn. If he could've talked with them, he could've at least apologized for his (and post-retcon Rose's) mistake in person, before they started their prison sentence.

[peaceasshcle]

here, lemme just-- get all of my thoughts out there. WARNING: THERE’S A LOT.

the flashback in the beginning was nice. i know it was meant to be kinda sad and whatnot bc of their dad getting cancer but lemme just say that javi’s “hey, i was reading that!” and david’s “oh my gooood!!” was cute. also, i couldn’t stop focusing on how #tragic david’s outfit was, but that’s why i love his outfits bc they are tragic, so...... anyway, moving on. i was SO FUCKING RELIEVED TO SEE KATE AGAIN!!! her beautiful face wasn’t messed up at all and i was so glad!!! she just straight up hugged javi and completely ignored david and it’s like, you’re not even gonna ask david if he’s okay? really? bc my kate would’ve. but i digress-- i was glad when gabe finally started coming around and realizing that david wasn’t all that he was cracked up to be, but i got really mad at all the times when gabe would get hit by david. accident or not, it pissed me off. david breaking fern’s arm and shooting rufus made me uncomfortable, lol. and like, i get why he did it, but still. that whole situation could’ve been handled better. i’m at least glad that he didn’t let kate and javi get shot. i stood beside my brother and it was a nice moment and made me happy, but i couldn’t be too happy bc i knew everything was gonna get fucked up by the end of the episode. i felt bad about ava, a little, but tripp was my husbando™ and i didn’t want him to die (even tho he did gdi) and so she was rightfully pissed off at me. she said she’d pick david over me anyway so i didn’t feel too bad. the bit where david’s like, “kate walked right past me and hugged you. why is that?” and i’m like, MY KATE wouldn’t have done that, i’m sorry!!!!!! but i couldn’t actually say that so i just went with, “ask her yourself.” bc lol nah son. but then the fact that she’ll hardly speak to him, just-- kate why? i mean, i kinda get it, but still. ALSO GABE TELLING JAVI THAT HE WANTS TO BE LIKE HIM GAVE ME SO MANY EMOTIONS!!!!!!!!!!!! MY BABY BOY IS GROWING UP SO FAST!!!!!!!!! the scene where ava saved my sorry ass and proceeded to die fucked me up, dude. i thought she’d last longer than that. and david’s reaction was just so-- idk. but i get it bc people handle grief in different ways. but the whole thing with the group going across that edge spiked my anxiety and i was just hyper-aware of kate the entire time. the helicopter scene didn’t help my anxiety lmao. i was just glad that we all survived that bs. plus when javi finally gets up there and he’s like, “great job everyone. just like how we rehearsed!” and kate’s like, “i think we can do better! lets go back over there and try that again!” and it just-- i laughed so hard, fffffff. the walker scene was gross af, but the fact that JAVI LITERALLY TALKS TO ONE OF THEM KILLS ME JUST-- walker: *looks at javi, makes guttural noises* javi: *looks at walker, makes guttural noises back* i died laughing at that, okay? it was fuckin’ great. and the scene in the garage-- HOLY FUCK. kate slapping david and proceeding to break up with him and THEN GOING OVER TO KISSING JAVI (AND JAVI KISSING HER BACK LIKE THERE’S NO PROBLEM WHATSOEVER) LIKE WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK????? KATE!!! THAT’S NOT HOW YOU DO IT!!!! (i mean, i told david that i was in love with her afterwards, but still...) ofc that set david off, and he attacked me, but i refused to fight him. i kept telling him that i loved him, and then he warped gabe upside the head with a fucking wrench and didn’t even fucking bat an eye. like, i’m sorry, but even if i was seeing red and was trying to kill someone, the moment that happened, and i realized that i’d just hit my son UPSIDE THE HEAD WITH A FUCKING WRENCH i’d immediately snap out of it and try to apologize to my kid or something at least. i also felt like gabe agreeing to go with david was ooc af, but the writers did that shit on purpose. otherwise how could they get those separate endings they wanted sooooo bad, y’know? i went with kate, and i don’t regret it at all. i trusted clem enough to get gabe back safely and i just knew that if i left kate, she’d die and i wasn’t having that. so i went with her and helped her clear out richmond with the HELP OF MY MAIN MAN JESUS!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT’S GOOD, MAN???? I MISSED YOU BRO!! YOU LOOK HELLA GOOD LIKE THAT, DUDE!!!!!!!!!!!! but yes, so we did all that, and then clem’s back and she’s GOT GABE AND HE’S ALIVE AND SAFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH THANK GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but then we find out that DAVID’S FUCKING DEAD AND IT’S LIKE WTF?! NO! WHY?! bc as much as i might’ve not always liked david, i never wanted him to fucking DIE WTF?! also the fact that gabe’s like, “dad said for us to take care of each other.” seriously FUCKED ME UP, MAN. like damn. so kate and i go to his body (which i really hated looking at, btw. too much sad.) and she grabbed his dog tags, while proceeding to tell me about what david wanted and ish. and i was like, fuck man. that’s fucking sad af. we respected his wishes, buried his dog tags, and i said my peace and KATE DIDN’T HAVE SHIT TO SAY AND JUST SMILED AT ME AND LEFT HER FUCKING RING THERE AND I’M LIKE WHAT THE FUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK -- and then we put up david’s pic on the memorial wall, and say a few more words, and kate brings up the fact that she wants to have a BABY??????????? naturally, i was like, ‘fuck yeah, babe.’ but still, lollllllll. i didn’t see that coming at all. AND THE BIT WITH JESUS HOLY FUCK. him thinking javi was flirting and i’m like, “heyyyyyyy boiiiiiiiiii how you doin????” bc fuck yeah. sorry, i’m weak for jesus, man. i fuckin’ ship it. and then the “hey, uh, jesus?” and “hey, uh, gabe.” IT WAS SO FUCKING CUTE OMG. THE HAIRCUTTING SCENE WAS ADORABLE TOO!!! being able to tease clem about gabe, and giving her hope about aj, AND giving her that adorable haircut???? A+++++ i loved every bit of it! tho i will say that clem has some big ears, lmao. i still love her tho. <3 THE HUG SHE GIVES GABE, THE FACT THAT JAVI AND KATE HAVE THEIR ARMS WRAPPED AROUND EACH OTHER, AND THE WAVES THEY ALL GIVE EACH OTHER, I’M JUST-- LOVED IT. and the ending scene with her looking like a total badass with that new haircut and jacket????  👌👀👌👀👌👀👌👀👌👀 good shit go౦ԁ sHit👌 thats ✔ some good👌👌shit right👌👌there👌👌👌 right✔there ✔✔if i do ƽaү so my self 💯 i say so 💯 thats what im talking about right there right there (chorus: ʳᶦᵍʰᵗ ᵗʰᵉʳᵉ) mMMMMᎷМ💯 👌👌 👌НO0ОଠOOOOOОଠଠOoooᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒ👌 👌👌 👌 💯 👌 👀 👀 👀 👌👌Good shit Clementine’s story will continue... like omggggggggggggggggggggggg. though i do wonder when they’ll finally let clem rest, lmao. and OKAY!!! i’ll now take this opportunity to say that it killed me how ooc Kate was at times. like, the fact that she didn’t at least look at david and ask him if he was okay didn’t seem like something she’d do, imo. also her ignoring david for that long and only talking to him when they’re fighting??? mmmm no. i don’t approve. the fact that she loses her shit and slaps him and breaks up with him and  THEN goes over and kisses Javi just to add more salt to the wound felt soooooooooooooooooo ooc for her. MY KATE would, at the very least, attempt to have a civil conversation with david. she wouldn’t have ignored him for so long up until that point. she might’ve been nervous to bring the topic up and that’s why she was ignoring him, but i feel like she would’ve pulled him aside after a while and talked to him calmly about the situation. she would’ve picked a better time to do it than when she did in the game. she just-- she would’ve handled it so much better than they had her do, bc that whole thing was a fucking mess. that wasn’t the kate i’d been led to believe. also the fact that she just stops caring about him at all? like, you loved him once, enough to marry him! You even admit to loving him once. so you mean to tell me that you have not even the tiniest shred of emotion left for him? unrealistic. blocked. but no, for real-- i could understand it in some situations, but it just find it hard to believe that she wouldn’t care about him at all. kate and david’s relationship reminds me sooooo much of my mom and dad’s and even though they have their issues and aren’t in love with each other anymore, and even though they don’t always get along, they still care about each other, so i’m like??? sigh. oh well... also the fact that she doesn’t say anything at david’s funeral, and just lays her ring down on the dirt pile? ooc. i feel like she would’ve at least said something. anything would’ve been better than the silence. and then to top it all off, she tells javi that she wants to start a family with him, and i’m like???? you were literally just talking about how glad you were that mariana wasn’t there to suffer through that shit and now you’re telling me that you wanna have a baby? idk. i just didn’t expect that from her. i still love kate, and i’m very weak for her, and everything else that i didn’t mention about her seemed p in character to me, but yeah. those are just my thoughts on that. and lastly, david seemed to be mostly ic throughout the game, but i feel like there were plenty of moments where he was wayyyyyyy OTT. like, whoa. like, i know that the game was trying to use him to show more depth to his character, but would also turn around and use him for confrontational purposes. also the fact that even if you don’t pursue kate, AT ALL, he STILL doesn’t believe you when you tell him that, and he loses his shit and tries to kill you. david’s character could’ve been handled better as well, i think. but yeah, i think that’s about it for now. i’ll make another post later if i think of anything else, and i’m sorry that this is so long, but i had a LOT of thoughts about this, so...

[side-eyeing-you]

Okay, so here’s a recollection of the best day of my fandom life? #ECCC

I’m usually just here to make short, dumb, spazzy comments, so bear with me, because this will probably be long. However, I’ll try not to be too repetitive and remember the interesting parts. ;) Apologies if the pics are effing huge. I don’t do this posting thing - ever. hahah

So, first of all, shout out to @oohdembuns​ for peer pressuring me to go to this thing, hahaha. Cons are not usually my jam, but since it was at home, AND CAIT WAS COMING TOO, I was like, “I’d be kinda dumb not to go, right?” Anyway, so I originally just got a Friday pass and a picture with Cait. And was perfectly content with that. Then there was an announcement that they would be offering more VIP passes for sale, and Buns was like, “omg you have to go!!!!” so I thought about it, and thought about it… and tried to calculate out how many dinners out and shopping trips I had to cut out of my life, and decided, “Okay, you’ve convinced me… I’ll buy it, if it becomes available again.” So I was basically at the gym when the link went live for VIP sales, and Buns linked me to it immediately (so dependable!) and I got to buy one, then less than 30 seconds later it was sold out again. Guess I got lucky!

 Onto the day of the con!

 Wasn’t sure how it would be, since I didn’t really talk to anyone via DM or text or anything super regularly that was going. But I’d gotten talking to @supertam87​ and @chrismosstree​ and @myguiltyolpleasure​ a few days before, so it was nice that they were cool enough to welcome me, so I didn’t feel like such a loner hahah. Met up with @valkyrie1969​ and @sileas84​ too. Met @queencaitriona​ and @zengeisha​ and a few others while waiting in line. I gotta say, one of my favorite parts of this weekend was meeting everyone and just hanging out. I wasn’t sure what to expect at first, but you guys guessed it, everyone is as cool IRL as they are online!

 The rest is much of the same. Waiting in line after line after line. Me wanting to off myself, because it was so crowded and hot and stuffy. But hey, that’s con life, lol.

 Panel was surreal to be at. It was fun, and exciting and the MC was funny and made everyone take selfless with their neighbor to ensure that you’d turned off your flash. 

THEN out comes Sam and Cait. I mean, I was like, “Weird. They are right in front of me. This is definitely weird.” But I really enjoyed it and probably missed some bits, so I’ll have to do a re-watch! I honestly could sit and listen to them both ALL FREAKING DAY. They are just so entertaining and fun to watch together, lol.

 Then we tried to go to the 12:30 autograph session. That was full. Which was kind of a good thing, because I was getting hangry at this point. Grabbed some lunch and came back to get lined up for photos. Okay, this was like cattle call and I wanted to just die, hahah. THEN I finally got up to the black curtains where Sam and Cait were standing taking pictures with fans, and it was so weird seeing them there… in motion… in the flesh. They are freakishly tall, yes. And Cait’s legs go on forever. I think her waist is like a whole foot higher than mine, hahah. I walk up to them when it was my turn, and I was like, “Well, this is super weird!” and Cait laughed and they both said, “oh, hi there!” Then snap, done, lol – Get the F outta here, NEXT. Hahah That’s what it felt like, but despite such a time constraint, they were super nice and it was the first real close-up interaction with them, so it was a neat experience.

 Then off to ANOTHER line for the autographs. I got queued in and waited for Sam and Cait to finish their photo ops. I sat on the floor, in the line, and tried to get some rest, but the handlers wanted us to squeeze in tight, so I was literally napping underneath someone’s ass the whole time. I didn’t care though, I was freaking exhausted at this point, hahah. (So I can’t imagine how tired Cait and Sam were?? It was non-stop).

 Then Sam walks in and crowd cheers! Sam-onlies called to the front of the line to begin autographs since Cait was running behind with photos. There weren’t that many Sam-onlies. Then Cait arrived to a crowd full of cheers. And one girl next to me had a Cait only autograph and I fist bumped her, lol. Also, stood next to a super cool shipper who doesn’t know she’s a shipper. She was hilarious. She was like, “goddamnit, I wish I had on google glass so I could just stare at them and record everything on the down low (because they were freaking Nazis about no photography).” This was after we saw Sam walk over to Cait, put his hands on his shoulder, lean down and tease her about hogging all the fans, lol. I died. I was right in front of them when this happened.

 Anyway, got my autograph. Cait was like, “nice to see you again!” Getting autographs after pics worked out, because that’s what I had them sign since I didn’t have anything else to bring. I guess I could’ve had them sign my arm and tattooed it on permanently. JK – I’m not that dedicated. ;) Sam was once again just waiting around for people to sign autographs for. I was like, “Dang, Sam… looks like Cait’s just hogging all the fans. What’s up with that?” And he was like, “I know, right? She’s just being Chatty Cathy over there…” I missed my opportunity to say, “It’s because everyone loves her, don’t you???” Oops. :P

 I wish I had a chance to get some friends something signed by them, but seriously, the handlers were super strict about everything. And I get it, it would take longer to sign more than one thing for everyone, but I get the feeling Sam and Cait would’ve been cool with signing their name to one other item for a BFF or grandma or something. :) (And I found out after that they did, actually! On the down low… very kind of them.)

 Okay, so after all that… I just collapsed by a pillar and waited for the others to finish. Thankful to not be in any more lines. Then we all headed over to the restaurant to meet some other Tumblr peeps. I could only stay for a few minutes, but it was lovely to meet everyone! @ninaf @c2bend @rainmanjdog and others!

 Then off I went to the meet and greet….

Room is set up into probably 10 round tables of 8 people or so. The handlers said to keep two seats open, so naturally, I put my purse on the seat next to mine to save it. ;) Once again, apparently, no freaking pictures were allowed. Who came up with this stupid rule? It’s not like we didn’t pay for the professional pictures and I highly doubt Sam and Cait cared if you took a pic of them from 10 feet away. Not like we were swarming them asking for selfies. Anyway, that was a ranty tangent. Kid you not, though, when Sam or Cait were coming up to our table next, they reminded us, “Now, remember. Phones on the table. Don’t touch them. No pictures allowed.” ANYWAY, we saw Sam and Cait taking selfies with other tables after the fact, so we were like, OH HELL NO. And the handlers noticed that, so one was finally like, “AT THE VERY END, you may ask if Cait wants to take a picture and if she says it’s okay, then you can do so.” We had already seen Sam, so it was like, would’ve been nice if you let us take a pic with Sam too, but we’re happy with Cait! Anyway, I loved the fact that Sam and Cait didn’t give a fuck about the stupid photo rule and just did what they wanted and were gracious to the fans. At the very end, the handlers decided that it would only be fair if Sam and Cait both took pics with each table, so that’s what they did. And a simple gesture made everyone’s day (well, it was icing on the cake). :))

 Rewind:

 Sat at the table closest to entrance/exit. Sam and Cait walked in, got a stealth pic of Sam but missed Cait. They both were holding these cute Jamie and Claire mugs. Sam had brought a bottle of Laphroaig with him. They had to do separate table round robins, for the sake of time, probably. Cait started at the table across from us, and Sam at the opposite end of the room. Anyway, we were just chit chatting amongst ourselves. It was very casual. Once in a lifetime experience, to have Sam and Cait just mingling in the same room as you. Like, wtf. It was weird haha. But anyway, we all kept our respective freak flags under wraps… and everyone was lovely. I did walk over to the bar area with another fan I sat next to, just to get a closer glance of Sam and Cait lol.

 Sam got to our table first. He’s very handsome. Very young-looking. He sat in between these two ladies, so was across from me. I was like, “Y’all can fight over Sam, but dibs on Cait then…” They agreed to the terms of the deal, lol. Sam poured us all a shot of Whisky, which was very nice. It was pretty good. One girl asked me what the name was again, so I guess his sales tactic worked, hahah. (I’m only teasing, okay??). Anyway, Sam was nice and answered everyone’s questions the best he could… he seemed a bit tired, but still friendly and engaged. Someone asked if he took on any of the Jamie qualities or something in real life. And he had to think, and then he said since he had to play Jamie with a “fucked up hand” for a while there, IRL, whenever he got nervous, he would play with his right hand, or move it in weird ways, like Jamie. He also mentioned a bar in Glasgow that he and the guys of Outlander like to go to. I cannot remember the name. And his favorite lift is the dead lift. Gym questions get me snoozin’… lol

 More waiting around until Cait got to our table. Our table was the last to see both Cait and Sam… and she walked over and smiled and said, “ahhh, the best for last.” I sat next to Cait… at a dinner table. That was super surreal, lol. We all said hi and thanks for coming, etc. etc. Then someone asked about Eddie and if she’ll be coming to SA. Sadly, Eddie will not be joining Cait in SA. Cait got to telling us about the whole process then she stopped and was like, “Wait. You guys really want to spend the next 10 minutes talking about my cat’s fucking rabies report??” lmao and we all laughed. We learned that Eddie is 14 years old. Then she was like, “so wait… lemme get everyone’s names! Where are you all from??” She was so friendly and smiley and I cannot…. Then someone mentioned Ryan Gosling and asked if she’s met him before and she told us a funny story about how she lost $20 to Ryan Gosling once, hahaha. And I was like, “Wait. How? Lost a bet?” And then she said that they had the same agent or something, so they all went on this fishing trip together a while back and were playing backgammon hahaha so effing random… and she lost to Ryan Gosling. And she was like, “AND I WAS BROKE. And he was a SUCCESSFUL actor, and I was BROKE… and he STILL took my money.” Ahahhah. Then the lady was like, “Omg, I spoke to someone who knows Ryan Gosling…” and I turned to her and was like, “Nevermind that you spoke with CAIT.” Lol and she just giggled and said, “awww, come on…” lol like all “pffft, I’m nobody” QUEEN. Also, at one point she complimented a lady who said she was in her 50s and told her she was gorgeous, when the topic of aging make-up came up regarding Claire and Jamie, so as to say, they didn’t really need to be EXTRA with their aging process, because people in their 50s still can look great and youthful. She was super sweet and encouraged us to ask her questions and also asked us questions as well, so it was very interactive.

 Then I gave her a little greeting card that said “YASSSS QUEEN” on the front and said, “I was afraid of word vomit if I tried to speak to you in real life, so here’s a card.” Lol and she said, “awww, you don’t have to worry about that. Thanks!” But her handler took it, so I hope she saw it, lol.

 Few other tid-bits:

Since Sam and Cait started on opposite sides of the room, when they both made it to the middle of the room, the first thing they did was turn around to each other, grinned and said, “oh haaii!” to each other. That was cute.

 And at the very end of the night, as they were leaving, Sam took Cait in for a side hug/pose and I was caught off guard and was still afraid of the photo Gestapo so I didn’t catch it! :((

This was all I caught, right before the hug.

Anyway, and that was it… off they went. And then I died. :D

[terranoctis]

epic iii

Here there be dragons and spoilers for stories I’ve read, as is with every single one of these rambling posts. 

1. Of Ice and Shadows by Audrey Coulthurst

I was maybe halfway through the book before I was hit with the kind of thought that probably why I liked this book and the prequel to this book was that it reminded me of the kind of books I’d pick up as a younger girl from Tamora Pierce and other such female writers, even though it doesn’t quite live up to the stories I truly remember from my childhood. I would say that mostly is because of characterization of individuals outside of the protagonists. Nonetheless, it’s no wonder why I kind of still enjoy this novel even if it feels straightforward at times. The novel itself is a fun read and expands extensively on the world that was first established in the previous novel. I daresay I liked this novel more than the previous one because it delved into the magic system of the world and what that constituted for one of two protagonists. It’s been awhile since I’ve read the first novel, but it does feel like a stronger read from what I can remember as well. 

It’s probably one of the easier reads I’ve had in the last few months, but sometimes simple is best. I think the story makes up in heart for what it lacks in complexity. The plot is somewhat straightforward, as are some of the ways the characters react and their personalities. There’s a type of paint stroke here and there that paints the world beautifully, but seems to step the picture at times into a seemingly streamlined build of politics and the world. After having finished the novel, the world feels less dense now that I’ve stepped back, and I’m not certain if that’s a good or bad thing. I felt like the book would have benefited if it were allowed to go into the world more rather than stepping back into resolving one mystery and the separation of the two protagonists. For example, allowing us to go into Denna’s training or Mare’s experience in familiarizing with the culture of the city she was in felt limited in the scope of the entire story... and the payoff at the end of the novel was not as good as it could be because there was a slight hint of “who really betrayed the country” when the queen you’re serving is also questionable in nature. The grey morality of the queen, for one, is left as an open question that seems to set up for another novel without much resolution in this one.  Nonetheless, as a young adult novel that has two female leads who are in love with one another--I think it’s a good read and another solid one set in the same world as the previous book. 

I will say, as a bisexual woman, representation matters and it’s a delight to see it in fantasy novels without fetishization. It makes me happy as well to see it become more prevalent in books that are available now to a younger audience because it’s something that I wished I had as a younger kid who voraciously read.

2. The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie

I vaguely remember reading a blurb or non-spoiler review before I put this on my hold list. The concept of it fascinated me because as someone who has spent time crafting religion in her own fantasy world, my interest was always less in the religion itself, but the interplay of human and “divine” relations and how those are warped over time. It’s no wonder that the world would pull me in, as someone who’s wondered what it would be like for a divine being to be treated as a god even though they never wanted that or vice-versa how they become something monstrous because they feed off of the worship of their people. This is a world of numerous small gods and ancient gods, where something even like a rock is a god, and that seemed to be right up my alley in terms of interest for what I was writing. 

It took me until I was nearly done with the story to recognize that it was also a retelling of Hamlet narrated by a rock in a fantasy world. It’s slyly retold, mixed into the human and god politics of the world. It’s a mystery mixed in with political intrigue and the odd narrative of a patient rock who’s recollecting the story and addressing it to a character we follow, the Horatio of the story. So there are some beats of second-person narration in the story that, even though I enjoyed it, could be rough. I find that I’ve been finding more and more second person narration in stories lately, this and Harrow the Ninth, which is one of the more recent stories I read last year. That being said, it makes absolute sense as a use of narration to be second person, because the rock is the one telling all these tales. The rock is addressing this character all throughout this, drawn to this man.

The rock, also known as the Strength and Patience of the Hill, is the true surprise at the end of the novel, and the payoff is quite satisfying in that. I love that the rock’s omission about little details, which he mentions as a necessity of being a god because they can speak things into existence, is a veil at the same time for the extent of the rock’s power. The rock truly is a player in the context of the entire web of things, although be it in ways they probably did not want to be.  We take the rock as someone who is just a simple rock god among devious and ambitious gods, but the true twist is that even though it is not ambitious, its power is immense. The rock admires Eolo, who is the aforementioned Horatio character (and perhaps notably as well, a trans-man whose sole identity is not predicated on that), and I’ve taken it as an example to how the character reminds the rock of its own friend, the Myriad. It’s a layered story. It’s not just Eolo’s story with Mawat (Hamlet), but is also the rock’s story as the entity who is omniscient and has made their own machinations come to life in order to be safe and be saved. There are parts of the story that ramble slightly, but all purposefully well-done, in the context of how the S&P of the Hill narrates with much longevity. The payoff at the end is well worth the read throughout.

Also, I just love that you can describe this book as Hamlet narrated by a rock. I love my Shakespeare, and I love my fantasy novels. I love my discussions of gods and their divinity, and much more. This book kind of takes all these and paints it out in a way that’s very beautifully done. The second-person narration is at times my problem with this book, but I think it was a well-chosen option for narration. Other than that, I loved the story.

3. The Tiger’s Daughter by K. Arsenault Rivera

I had seen this book mentioned in circles I follow, so I picked up the trilogy when it was being sold for relatively cheap on Kindle. I’ll eventually get through the trilogy, just because I’m curious to see what happens to the two protagonists, but it’s not necessarily high on my reading list at the moment. I tend to read Kindle books faster since I can pick it up on the go or right before I go to sleep with my phone. Surprisingly, or perhaps because it wasn’t as difficult as other books I’ve been reading lately, I got through this one in a matter of three or four days. Truth be told, this story in itself is not a standout one.

Did I enjoy the story? Yes, at certain beats and in curtailed sessions of reading. Overall, it’s unique among most modern fantasy novels in the sense that it is set in an Asian-inspired world, and it focuses on two girls in love with one another as the main protagonists. In spite of its uniqueness and a solid premise to start though, I found the writing itself to be lacking. Like other stories I read recently, including When The Tiger Came Down the Mountain and This Is How You Lose the Time War, the story is being told to another, in a form of a long letter. Whereas the other two stories did it fluidly though, in terms of endearing affection to one or in terms of a woman telling a story to a scribe, this story felt a bit all over the place. 

The majority of the story takes place with a long (novel) letter from Shefali to Empress Shizuka, and has interludes of Shizuka in the present time taking a break from the letter to interact with her current life where she is separated from Shefali. The letter, perhaps because it is written by a woman who is influenced by demonblood, tends to ramble here and there. There are some funny asides that Shefali makes to Shizuka in the telling of her tale, but the quantity and content of these are not always great--and as a result, tends to scramble the story a bit here and there. Not always, but enough that I felt like the story could’ve strongly been condensed. For one, I remember wondering why Shefali was retelling their childhood to Shizuka, when of course Shizuka would’ve remembered all of it, if her affections for Shefali were as intense as the letter seem to have implied. As the reader, of course we want to know their childhood, but it didn’t make much sense as to why she was narrating it again to Shefali, much less explaining cultural things to Shizuka. I feel like as a narrator, it would’ve made more sense if Shefali was writing this story and letter to an outsider to the story, like her brother or a friend outside the story, about everything that happened to her and Shizuka.

There’s also a prevailing sense that no matter what happens in the story, the two girls will survive through it together--to an extent where even the horrible things that occur to them, even at the end, feel like poor stakes in light of what we’ve been witnessing them go through. The romance seems to take priority over everything else in the story, in ways that are sometimes detrimental (because the world honestly would be more fascinating without it only being colored through the eyes of the two protagonists). The story would have been much stronger, in my opinion, if it was much shorter and the first half condensed. Because we spent so long seeing the girls grow up and build their romance, it could drag on. So, though I wanted to enjoy this story, I felt like the enjoyment at times was dragged down by the writing. Is it still worth a read? I would say, if you can suspend your opinions of the writing style, it is still a kind of fun read. Is it honestly my least favorite of the stories I’ve read recently? Truthfully, yes. 

To be fair, I’ve been on a roll with stories I thoroughly enjoy, so I somewhat pity this one just by the comparisons it will draw in my recent reading list. Still good to have representation in writing, but I’m not sure it’s the best written form of representation. Truth be told, I would say this one is somewhat of a miss. Not bad, but not great.

4. Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson

I can go on for awhile about how fun Sanderson’s writing is, but I think one of the things I want to focus on is how I thoroughly enjoy characterization in his stories. We’re continuing to witness an array of characters who are all motivated by different reasons, but we’re also progressing deeper into their personalities and their traumas. To do that, while also progressing the situation of the world around the characters, is not always simple to do. It’s certainly more difficult when you have a sprawling world on the scale of Roshar (with hints of other worlds coming into the fringe). Sanderson has that down though, and it’s why I deeply enjoy reading The Stormlight Archive. 

Sanderson makes characterization extremely funny, in my opinion. There’s something so utterly absurd yet characteristic of Shallan putting herself into situations in Kholinar just so she can view and sketch how the spren are unnatural. First she stabs herself to see painspren. Then, Shallan literally trips herself to be in an embarrassing situation, so that she can view shamespren. There’s that curious and scholarly nature of hers characterized in a situational manner. The writing of the whole chapter makes me laugh in a good way. I like that these actions of Shallan’s just goes on while the conversation that details exposition of what is going on in the city occurs. It’s a brilliant way to build exposition. That’s the kind of writing I like.

There are many little things, like Adolin naming his sword Maya, or Kaladin’s annoyance with Shallan on other matters. Characterization! It’s beautiful when I find great ones. I also like that this novel delves into what is arguably the darker sides of many of the narrators, including Dalinar, who I always saw as the strait-laced man in the earlier novels. He was a warlord after all, and we get to see more of that now and the past he forgot with his deceased wife. We also get to see Shallan break more (let this girl be happy) and it’s tastefully done with how her bond with Pattern shifts by Shallan suppressing her memories and fragmenting herself to deal with it.  One of the most poignant scenes for me personally in the series so far has been Wit retelling the story of The Girl Who Looked Up to Shallan, because it’s a soft voice amidst the chaos for Shallan, who is expected to be this put-together Radiant. And it’s from Wit, of all people. Even Elhokar gets his arc of growth, though it’s dashed of course by the lack of change from Moash--and that contrast is so utterly poetic. Szeth the Assassin joining their side is oddly funny as well, but also a progression of the unification that is so central to the story. I’m looking forward to seeing the consequences of all this in Rhythm of War.

As a fun fact, while I was reading all the aforementioned stories in this post, I was also reading Oathbringer. The novel’s so long though that in order to keep up with my hopes of reading more, I had to read other stories with it and to take breaks at times. 1200+ pages worth of a story, and I still enjoyed every bit of it. Someday, I can imagine this series being a sprawling universe in other media, but for right now, it’s just fun to read. Plus, my favorite character from the first novel returns in this one, and I just love reading about Jasnah. Jasnah with her shardblade as the cover will always be iconic. It’s not a flawless story, but still an in-depth one from the Stormlight Archive that never fails to impress me.