#i mean i haven’t even expanded my farm yet so that has to be a priority. i can’t move anybody into my shack. i don’t think the dog

[fingertipsmp3]

Only stressful thing about Stardew Valley is trying to pick who to romance tbh

[guerilla935]

My Favorite Fishing in Video Games Where Fishing is Not Core Game Play

A really awesome surprise for me is always to boot up a game that is full of action and suspense to be introduced to a fishing side activity. I have toiled away at fishing in games for hundreds of hours at least. It has gotten so bad in some instances that my friends have asked me why I haven’t just taken the plunge into real fishing. It’s definitely because that is a lot of work and in real life I don’t catch a fish every 30 seconds. They have also wondered why I don’t just play a fishing simulator like Planet Fishing (Shout out to Planet Fishing that’s a great game). And that’s where I have to think for a while. Fishing while you have better things to do like save the world is very special. You aren’t fishing because it’s the objective of the game or because that’s why you are there, you are fishing because it’s fun and maybe you need a break to swing a fishing rod instead of a sword. And then you can stop, and get back to fighting or whatever the rest of the game entails. Below are games that have fishing in them for mostly no reason at all. I have shamelessly spent way to long with my bait in these waters and absolutely loved every second of it and I hope that you (the reader) can find a lot of relaxation in these waters as well.

Pokemon Series

Since the very first Pokemon game there has been fishing. You get the old rod from some guy and then you are free to fish up as many goldfishes that you want hoping that one of them will grow up to be a 21 foot tall dragon. Pokemon has combined their fishing with their main game play and makes you at least start a battle with the fish you drag onto shore. Now fishing in Pokemon is pretty subpar mainly because a single Pokemon game hasn’t really been known to have more than a handful of Pokemon that you can fish for. Also if you are looking for a strong water type Pokemon you could do a lot better than fishing for it. Typically a Pokemon player will fish about 5-10 times total. And although fishing for Pokemon isn’t all that great it has been in every game for over 20 years and that is pretty impressive. It’s a small detail that makes the world of Pokemon feel like a real world of wild creatures.

Sonic Adventure DX

In Sonic Adventure DX you are given the choice to play as a lot of different characters, one of which is named Big the Cat. Most of the characters are combat characters that rely on speed and attacks to get through levels, some even wielding rocket launchers and extremely oversized hammers. However when you start the story of Big the Cat you are thrown in a completely opposite direction. Big the Cat is a giant purple cat who lives in the jungle with his best friend Froggy. Froggy accidentally swallows one of the most powerful objects in the Sonic universe and Big the Cat must chase him all over the world trying to fish him out of where he is hiding so that he can eject the Chaos Emerald out of him and they can return to their life in the jungle. The fishing mechanics in this game actually are really good and this is probably because Sega had just put out a series of mildly successful Bass fishing games before releasing this game. Either way its absolutely hilarious that Big the Cat gets to defeat Chaos 6 right before Super Sonic has his showdown with Chaos Perfect.

Final Fantasy XV

In Final Fantasy XV you play as Noctis and his favorite hobby is fishing. When I first played this game I sped through it and never fished once and reached the end of the game never indulging Noctis in his hobby. When I replayed Final Fantasy XV I fished for 50 hours and then ejected the disc from my console. The fishing in Final Fantasy XV is surprisingly deep with a lot of the vendors supporting what you could call a fishing road trip. In the game it is extremely dangerous to be out at night so I would plan day trips to lakes to maximize the amount of fishing I would get to do. I would prepare days in advance to make sure I could afford the trip and that I had enough supplies to both protect myself at the lake and have enough supplies to last the whole day. Final Fantasy XV really is a game about getting really distracted and fishing is probably its best distraction. My days on the lake were the perfect balance of peaceful and rewarding, this game offers an awesome reward of well planned trips and a good haul of fish.

Final Fantasy XIV Online

Final Fantasy XIV is the only game I have ever played where the fishing played exactly like its combat. When you are fighting enemies in a dungeon in FFXIV you are constantly adding buffs, landing hits, using consumables, and managing resource bars. When you are fishing in FFXIV you are constantly adding buffs, landing hits, using consumables, and managing resource bars. Note you are doing so at a much more leisurely and less life threatening pace but you are still doing it. I never maxed out the fisher class but I got it into the expansion content which was a really long and relaxing experience. Yet another Final Fantasy title where the real meat of the game is in getting distracted. When you fish you also sell on a player market that fluctuates based on market price just like real fish. You get the relaxing fishing side of the game and also an aggressive economic number crunching side as well. I spent way too long with a real pen and paper deciding how much I should sell for on any particular day and bossing around my two cat girl employees.The MMO aspect of the game adds so much to what you would expect to be a very solitary experience.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Have you ever gone fishing for hours to receive an empty bottle? That is exactly what kick started my addiction to fishing in Twilight Princess. An empty bottle in Twilight Princess means another way to heal yourself, another way to add oil to a lantern, another way to carry useless water around. The only way to get the 4th bottle in the game is to go to a dedicated fishing spot and fish until you pulled it out of the pond. The actual fishing is pretty weird, it involves motion controls which I still am not entirely sure what they do or how to properly use them but it is really fun to hold the pole in gyroscope and set the lure in the water waiting for fish to come get a nibble. Although the physics with the water make it difficult to see if you have actually gotten a bite or not it still is enjoyable the other 85% of the time it works.

Stardew Valley

So this one is at the top of every other “fishing in games” list and there is a big reason for that. It’s really good. I think in my first Stardew Valley farm I gave up farming entirely and fished all day every day and stopped to buy food to replenish my energy and go back at it. I really didn’t care about getting rich or making enough money to expand the farm or get to know everyone I actually spent about 50 hours just fishing. The fishing takes some skill and a pretty keen eye but the random jerks of the fish and the rhythm of the game play are so fun to try to master. It’s a part of Stardew Valley that I felt like I was continuously improving on as time went on and it was really fun. I mean I don’t recommend it because you’ll end up moderately poor but it was really fun.

Fantasy Life

Fantasy Life offers you 12 potential jobs, you could be a brilliant blacksmith or a devious potions maker, a lumberjack or a knight, a hunter or a seamstress. However your inner dad is calling and you decide you want to play through a fantasy RPG as a fisherman, hell yeah. the story is relatively short so you can quickly unlock a lot of locales to fish at and there is a manageable economy system that lets you deal in fish in advantageous ways. You can even pick up cooking on the side and make fancy dinners and sell the fish for higher you can do that as well. Fantasy Life is like a clever mix between Animal Crossing and Final Fantasy XIV and it kind of succeeds and falls short of it. The fishing also takes a good amount of skill and rhythmic approach to master so it doesn’t get boring almost at all until you have cleared the game.

Maple Story 2

Maple Story 2 is one of the most expressive and cutest games that I have ever played. And the fishing is no different, its all about style. The fishing in Maple Story 2 is monotonous and can get old but you do it for the chibi clout. Because much like the rest of the game you can look however you want and do whatever you want and sometimes you just feel like kicking back and throwing lure in the water at the beach. I never got super into the fishing in this game but it won me over with its adorable design and stylish atmosphere.

Animal Crossing Series

Of course I had to include the most popular game right now. Animal Crossing has become something of a connection between people when we can’t leave the house. A thing we all have in common on social media and with our friends. My first experience with Animal Crossing really starts with New Horizons and I was completely blown away. The fishing isn’t super complex or difficult but the range of what you can pull out of the water and what you can do with it is absolutely breathtaking. For a game about cartoon people living with humanoid cartoon animals the fish looking photo realistic. And the museum where they can be kept is stunning. The museum looks like it was designed to capture the feel of being in a museum and matches the design of all the great real life aquariums and observatories. Although it is a bit frustrating when your rod breaks it is easy enough to make one (or worst case buy one) to get your bait back in the water.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Tell me I’m wrong, you can’t. Isabelle getting added to Smash brought a very powerful fishing move that isn’t practical all the time but is really funny. Wouldn’t recommend this game if you are looking to relax and fish but I do recommend hooking your friend with a fish hook and send them flying off screen if you had to.

Minecraft

I have a very special role in Minecraft when I join a friends server. A role that I assign to myself. While everyone is off getting awesome swords, spelunking for diamonds, and exploring the infinite landscape, I build a small wooden shack and I set up a farm with an irrigation canal and start fishing. A steady supply of food is necessary and while I’m hanging out with my friends in a server I’m happy to be the one to provide it. The fishing in this game is probably the slowest of all the ones on this list but is the most useful. just throwing the fish in the oven creates food that can help keep you and your companions alive for a long time. I think I definitely have my limits with Minecraft fishing and I couldn’t do it for hours on end it is rewarding to set up shop and find a nice place to settle down for a few hours to fish.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

This is the only Tactical RPG in this post. Fire Emblem: Three Houses has sections between combat where you can go and talk to your students and do other activities. We aren’t here to discuss other activities though we are here for the fishing. The fishing allows you to catch fish for some reason that I’m sure is good but never intrigued me enough to learn. All I know about the fishing in Fire Emblem: Three Houses is that it’s fun. I started to bust through combat just so that I could get back to fishing. The funniest part about this one is that the fish has a health bar. Pressing the A button at the exact moment finds a way to become easier and still find ways to mess you up. Either way, I’m not that interested in tactical RPGs but I heard there was fishing in this game so I had to play it and it was worth it.

Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy

In Jak & Daxter, Daxter gets turned into a small animal by dark eco while exploring a dangerous island off the shore of his home with his best friend Jak. To get back to the island to investigate, the pair have to borrow a boat owned by a fisherman who is troubled by an invasive species of poisonous eel that is ruining his haul. He asks Jak to catch fish for him without catching any eels. This fishing mini game can only be done once but it is going to either be something you think is very unique or a huge waste of time. All I’ll say is that the sound that the fish makes when it goes into the net is absolutely a reward in itself it is so satisfying. But anyways, more intense than some other options here but get it done so you can get back to absorbing eco powers and jumping on stuff.

Shovel Knight

Shovel Knight is a 2D action platformer but you can also fish. And you fish for the best kind of fish, money. You can get some other stuff too like health pickups and magic replenishers but we know what you want. You see that little glint and you pop out the fishing rod and pull out those money bags. If you are devoted enough you can even get a surprise from the Troupple King (long live his highness) if you fish out the right stuff. I don’t even know if I fished all that much when I played Shovel Knight but it’s hilarious that you can.

NieR: Automata

I did not play a lot of NieR and that’s because I was fishing. I don’t know why all I did was fish but you throw your little robot in the pond and you lean on a magical stool so honestly it was good enough for me.

Club Penguin

If you know then you know. In hind sight there really wasn’t a whole lot to do in Club Penguin but this mini game really messed me up. You basically get to move up and down, catching fish and avoiding trash and other hazards. Basically trying to do this and catch as much fish as possible to avoid having to ask your parents for real money to pay for snacks to feed a virtual ball of fluff with eyeballs. I don’t really remember how challenging it really was but I remember getting decently high scores to about like 100 fish per round so I guess it was pretty easy if I could do that at age 10.

Rune Factory 4

I’m gonna be very honest about this one and say that the fishing in Rune Factory 4 is basically just Animal Crossing fishing but more anime. The fish react to the pole the same, the fish almost look the same, and the buttons to respond are the same. What makes this one special is where you can take it. You can fish in the little moat in town, in the lake, in a dungeon full of monsters, in a lake that is eternally the season fall, anywhere. You are constricted by the boundaries of Stardew Valley and that is how much energy you have and how much time you have in the day. It’s still fun to fish but I wish that they had used their fun fantasy setting to give the ability to fish up some cool made up fish instead of strictly things that exist in real life.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2

Ok, diving, fishing, same thing. Diving in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is just fishing with your whole body. It works a lot in the same way as Pokemon where you fish up monsters to fight and get the rewards from them. It is a completely optional activity however if you decide to undertake the grind of scavenging in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 then you will never hurt for money ever again. It makes my wonder why Rex stopped being a salvager to do odd jobs because this was PROFITABLE. The main incentive is that there are spots that spawn a certain enemy that drop cores. Cores are like gacha or loot boxes that contain new anime girl partners that deal huge damage in fights. They even have their own side quests and story lines. I spent maybe 30 hours grinding before giving up on this game and while it does become tiresome I really enjoyed the random rewards of possibly getting a new companion or a really cool weapon.

It’s been tossed around that every great RPG has fishing in it. I won’t argue that point but a lot of great RPGs certainly do have fishing in them. Everyone needs a break sometimes and fishing is the perfect activity to remind us to stop and take that break. Even games can get long and without these distractions it might be so much harder to complete these harrowing tasks. Don’t forget to take breaks and just enjoy the sound of the water every once in a while because there’s no rush playing video games.

Honorable Mentions:

Kingdom Hearts: Sora fishing with his bare hands on Destiny Island

Persona 4: Weird aqueduct fishing

Persona 5: Marina fishing life

Sea of Thieves: A pirates life for me

[where-theres-smoak-2]

I’ve days this before in another post The biggest fail in this trilogy is that Alina wanted to have an easy life by that I mean having none of the responsibilities and hardships the Darkling has had to deal with in order to make Grisha safe and respected.And initially you feel sorry because she’s so young,etc but then she doesn’t evolve during the course of the story and remains the same selfish and self centered character she was.I know you probably haven’t read R&R yet but when you do I would recommend reading SOC duology. I think one of the good things about these books I’d that they’re not directly connected to the trilogy. There are some cameos from some characters but otherwise it’s focused on their own plot and the hilarious thing is that at the same time it validates the Darkling’s points since nothing changes after the Fold is destroyed things actually get worse for the Grisha(if it’s even possible)and Rsvka’s in depth due to all the wars they’re fighting which makes Alina’s story absolutely meaningless and the characters ends up looking extremely selfish after die dung the trilogy constantly victimising herself instead if actually having agency.

I'm half way through R&R, I should have finished it by now but to be honest I'm not really enjoying it and it feels more like a chore reading it. But I did get spoilt on how it ends recently and that's made me even less eager to read the rest of the book lol. Just going to put a quick books spoiler alert in here for anyone who doesn't want to be spoilt.

I've seen a lot of people say that things just got worse after the fold is destroyed. I have spoken about this in another post but whilst I think aleks was wrong to expand the fold into novokribrisk and he was wrong to put the collar on alina, I think his desire to not destroy the fold is valid. It's the only thing that makes grisha useful to the king in a unique way, it requires nearly all the different types of grisha to cross the fold safely. Without it the grisha won't be useful anymore and how long until they are back to being hunted and kill within ravka on top of everywhere else. So I am actually a big supporter of let's keep the fold and instead have alina realise that her destiny isn't to destroy the fold that's just religious propaganda told to give hope to people when the fold was created. Her destiny is actually to protect the grisha. I never throughout the books got the sense that she ever really cared about the grisha. I mean sure she had a small group of grisha friends who she cared about but the grisha as a people not so much. It was more like oh are the grisha being prosecuted and killed merely for existing, burned on a stake, experimented on, kept as slaves? That's a shame, well I've destroyed the fold now so I'm going to merrily skip off to this farm with my childhood friend turned lover because naturally he's more important than an entire minority group who are suffering. Wait putting one person above an entire race of people that sounds familiar, oh right, baghra.

I just find alina's character arc very dissatisfing and was disappointed to find she ends the books series on the exact same place she started it. I personally think the more interesting story would have been for her to realise that things aren't as simple and black and white as she wants them to be and for the darkling to get a little bit of redemption and for him and alina to work together to better the lives of all grisha.

[kihaku-gato]

So, retrospect of 2021 and myself (don’t read unless you wanna drown in moodyness, which the doctor does not prescribe);

Trainwreck. More meltdowns/tantrums this year than even last year even though it looked like I was going to get to the rhythm of things. I became significantly more temperamental/angrier and toxic than before, and its become a war to try not to be.

My health is... still bad but at least improving. After TWO ENTIRE YEARS OF BLEEDING OUT UNDIAGNOSED I actually got to a doctor this year, he identified the problem, prescribed me some meds, and although my issue isn’t cured yet, I’m in far better straights than I was before the diagnosis. My diet isn’t great but has expanded enough that I can now go back to having 3 different meals again, meaning I wear out a little slower during the day. I also may be able to actually explore into berry/fruit smoothies this year to further improve  my diet.

I have become more sick of cattle husbandry than I already was before. Because my uncle has gone south in health we now have to not care for just 1 barn like before, but his too, making THREE barns with entirely different layouts, problems, and problematic animals. Does not help that we had more cattle/calf fatalities (both on our farm and my uncle’s farm) this year than I have ever seen before. Some just went skin-and-bones and shut down despite high access to food, others would fill up like goddamn balloons and suddenly we’d have a bloating emergency on our hands (not even the easy gas-bloat we’ve dealt with in the past, but instead difficult to cure, very specific foam bloat). One cow had literally toxic milk and from it killed both her calf and ANOTHER calf that wasn’t even hers in the process, we even had MULTIPLE cases where animals would just suddenly go dumb and drink from shit/mud puddles rather than the clean water reservoirs that were RIGHT THERE IN FRICKING ACCESS. Don’t even get me started on cattle that just want to MURDER you for even being in the same space/pens as their calves (its to the point now that I have to accept the very likely possiblity that they are likely going to kill me one day, and that the best I can do is at least make it that if one day they try that I’ll at least try to take them down with me), it was HORRIBLE this god damned year. As much as I’m skeptical that my sis’s plans to introduce Shorthorn to the bloodline will do any good to increase docility, I sure pray that it does.

Personal work projects have not been that great. Despite great help from contacts giving me seeds of various species, I cannot bring myself to garden to any usable capacity anymore. I was burnt out start of this year and it has not improved. I was given maple and oak seeds this autumn 2021, and I STILL haven’t even SOWN the damn things, AS DECEMBER IS NEARING END. Viability of those is likely going to be nonexistent if I ever muster to sow them. Many plants, both indoors and outdoors are either dead or dying, and it takes a disproportional amount of energy and effort to even get basic gardening jobs like watering and weeding started much less finished. If I can somehow keep the the stock in the greenhouse alive, once its sold, I plan to only grow a third to quarter of what I grow now, cause I cannot keep fighting to keep stuff alive when its not even going to be bought. My ineptitude for marketing/advertising while I have so much anxiety has not done me any favours.

Artwork. I accepted a quite a while ago that as long as my mental state is such a mess I can’t expect such a high bar of myself to draw at all. I mourn over a lot of ideas that will unlikely reach paper due to how hard it can be to get to drawing. On the upside for this paragraph at least, I drew OC/OC art of my own and a friend’s OC flirting/interacting, and I attempted to draw one of 3 NSFW-themed OCs, that’s not much if we were still in the art golden age, but it’s still something to be proud of. I got some polymer clay for christmas, so if I can stop being a chicken I’ll prolly seek my plans to do some polymer clay sculptures to vent the creative energy that has so far struggled to come out in drawings (perhaps more handsy art may do me some good).

I was hoping to explore myself both in my OC persona as well as irl for style/hairstyle, but that kind of flopped, especially in the latter. As much as I have ideas for a redo of my catboy persona, I’m hesitant to try since I fear I’d attach too much of the negative traits I’ve acquired this year.

Reading. Moreso than I have been for a long while. It too takes a fair bit of effort but I’ve been enjoying myself if I can muster myself to read. Thanks to a friend archiving her own collecting as well as buying manga again, I’ve been at least picking up some books and manga and reading new ones while also rereading old ones. Part of me is tempted to write manga/book reviews of the stuff I’ve been reading, since I’ve grown some enjoyment in picking apart what it is that I like about a manga or novel. I also got some collector’s-lvl books for christmas this year and I’m quite happy about that. Through my friend I also ordered $214 worth in manga....... that was fun but next time my personal budget is gonna be a strict $50 cause JESUS FUCK THAT’S WAY TOO MUCH MONEY WHAT WAS I THINKING-

While I hope 2022 will be kinder and easier than 2021, I don’t expect it to be so. I will be trying to explore more positive things while things are rocky both out in the world as well as in my mind. I hope many of you have a kinder/gentler 2022, and congratulations on surviving 2021 along with me.

[her0brine]

I finally got around to finishing the first part of my little three part fic about Steve and Alex meeting for the first time! I haven’t made a name for this part/the overall name for the story yet so I’ll probably edit this later! I genuinely hope y’all like this first part, the other two halves I’ll try to make it as equally long!!!

The quiet still of a nighttime forest is abruptly cut by the ragged breaths of a miner, hurriedly shambling across patches of grass, as they gingerly hold onto their day’s work. They have been mining for hours, as they were in dire need of iron ore to smelt into ingots, after realizing their new rail system was a bit short on tracks. Their short grey boots squelched into the wet earth, as it was pouring earlier in the day before they entered the cave system they have uncovered some time before. The sound of their mining completely droned out the pouring rain as it echoed through the cave system, so they were quite surprised to see that a light mist has settled across the Overworld.

However, they are fearful of staying out late at nighttime, and they mistakenly stayed in the cave too long, as the mineral vein they discovered was quite large and they didn’t want to pass up on the rare opportunity. As they walked without a torch, the miner’s eyes seems to be rapidly scanning the environment that surrounds them. Walking in the nighttime without a torch was dangerous and is quite the taboo, but spending years in near pitch-black conditions has actually made the miner gain a bit of rudimentary night vision, but also in reality, they genuinely believe that using torches will actually attract hostile mobs towards them. Along with the lack of a torch, they actually didn’t have much on hand, only the fresh iron ore they recently mined, their fully enchanted netherite pickaxe, and the worn-out clothes on their back. Even though they’re clearly capable of entering and traversing such a dangerous location like the Nether to the point that they’ve managed to make netherite items, they still have to resort to getting basic ores from the Overworld to craft relatively simpler items. They actually own a fully enchanted set of netherite armor back at their house, but they rarely put it on, fearful that Pillagers might catch wind of their armor and would strike against them for it. They’re fully capable of slaughtering them in return if one of them even glanced in their direction, but violence is something the miner seems to be fully avoiding. The numerous scars that litter across their entire body seems to suggest otherwise.

As they make their way across the seemingly lifeless and still landscape, they suddenly pause to hear the rustling of a tree. Immediately, the miner looks incredibly on-edge, their indigo eyes rapidly darting from side to side, but not faltering. The gears in their mind start to grind at the thought of what sort of mob would be lurking around in such a situation. As they tense their body, they suddenly drop the iron ores to the ground as they swiftly grab the pickaxe from their waistband. The sounds of the iron ore hitting the wet ground cause them to ring across the barren land, while they lie alone in the darkness, waiting to strike against what suddenly provoked them.

Silence.

Expecting a creeper to hiss at them or a phantom to screech, the miner eventually realizes there’s no mob stalking them, as it was the just erratic cold breeze of the night, making its way through the sparse woods. However this did not fully ease their mind, as they discordantly picked up from the still wet ground the iron ingots, as the bits of metal embedded within the stone blocks now gleamed in the dim moonlight. They begin again, shambling across the patchy land, although at a much faster pace, but not enough to be considered running. Soon, off in the distance they can see their home, a building they have spent the last few years of their life constructing and expanding upon. The house’s facade appears quite quaint and small, as if a child drew it, but surrounding it is a plethora of small shacks and storage units, along with a farm that jutted from one of the sides of the house. The miner picks up speed again, as a small smile starts to form across their typically sullen face. The smile is quickly ripped apart, as the deafening silence of the forest is disrupted once more.

“S-SHIT AAAHH-AAAAAAHHHH!!!!!.......”

The miner stops dead in their tracks, softly trembling as the iron ores once again tumble out of their shaky grasp.

“...a...AH!?........ err..er.....eahh ah? ah?.....”

The miner seems to quietly babble to themselves nonsensically, as they whip their head around frantically, trying to look for the source of the scream. They knew of swears, but only of ones spoken in the English language, a typically human language. The chances of a villager knowing, and also being capable of speaking such a term would almost be impossible. Some wandering traders, clerics, and librarians have spoken English words to them before, but usually said them incorrectly or with a odd vocal inflection. The miner trembles once more, as they raise one of their hands to place upon the top of their head, as they try to make sense of what occurred.

“n...nnH....nnnHhn...........aH.....ah! ah!! whh..whIIi.....w-WINNdd!...... w-wuh-wind.. ehhgg..... err.............. y-yeaa..............” as a timid smile forms on their face again, seemingly at ease at believing it was the wind playing tricks on their mind again.

“AAAAGGH!!! WILL YOU DIE ALREADY!!??!”

The shout is cut off by the sharp clang of the sound of metal clashing against metal, as the miner looks completely aghast, frozen in place as their frantic breaths causes mist to form around them. They look across the horizon, knowing exactly where the screaming originated from. They seem to immediately break out of the dazed stupor they were in, hurling themselves into the new direction. Their frenzied loud steps now contributes to the sounds that broke the still of the night, as more metal clashes rang out in the darkness. Mud splatters across their boots and jeans as they run across the land, before suddenly ducking behind a sweet berry bush nearby the source of the sounds, not caring about the thorns now tearing into their hands and arms. They gingerly pull aside some of the branches to peek through the bush, looking downwards on a lower piece of terrain. It seems to be only a few blocks down, meaning that they could jump without the risk of injuring their already previously battered legs. As for why they realized they have to probably make such a jump, they were witnessing a red-headed human going against a pack of skeletons and spiders, who looked as if their luck was running out. The miner seems entranced, but also absolutely petrified at what they’re seeing, as the other human has been clearly shot at with arrows, as one protrudes out of one of their shoulders, as another seems to have broken off in their back.

“IS THAT ALL YOU GOT?! ZOMBIES GIVE ME A BETTER FIGHT THAT YOU LOSERS! HA!!”

The shout and guffaw is followed by the swift strike of their gold sword, slicing and crunching through the exoskeleton of one of the large spiders that lunged at them. As pale blue blood and chunks of spider setae fly away from the large hit, the miner is still fully transfixed behind their dimly lit sweet berry bush, as a discarded torch, presumably from that red-headed person, sits aside it.

They haven’t seen another human being since......... since their earliest known memory. They have spent years of their life along in solitude, fully accepting their fate of being truly alone and never being able to socialize properly with another alive human being. They have stumbled across in their mining endeavors the decaying and crushed remains of other humans, but their bones seemed to be quite ancient or even fully shattered into small shards, further proving their point of them possibly being the last living human in this biome, and all adjacent biomes as well. So to see what was essentially deemed impossible, right upon their own eyes was absolutely stunning, yet horrifying. The miner begins to tremble again, but more intensely as their eyes worriedly dart between what they’re watching and down at themselves, as they try to think of what to do next.

......Should I hop in and help, or would that be too brazen? They seem to be pretty capable of defending themselves and they also have good form, but they’re also pretty injured and the blood that is spreading from their wounds seemed quite big!!! What if another wave of mobs notices them, and they pile on as well? Would they soon bleed out?! Would they get hostile against me, even if I try to help?!? Would they think I was stalking them this whole time!?!?!........

The miner frenetically whimpers guttural sounds to themselves while burying their head into their lap, becoming fully overwhelmed by their own paranoid thoughts. They don’t want their first interaction with another alive human to be stemmed in violence, even if they weren’t the ones who started the fight. Their time to dwell on what to do next was cut short, as the sharp crack of the person’s gold sword breaking in half indicated that they were now essentially dead meat.

“O-oh AH kn-kNULLA!.. AH UH UH...” the redhead says as they begin to panic, as their gold sword was the only usable weapon they had on-hand, as they now attempted to punch a skeleton that was busy reloading their bow. They whiff the punch, stumbling over as the skeleton now hits them over the head with the bow’s lower limb, now disorienting them even more. They soon try to crawl away, still bleeding quite profusely from their wounds, but still not going down without a fight. The rustling of nearby bushes occurs again, with them now wincing, bracing for another hostile mob to come into the fray.

It was not a hostile mob.

The miner bursts forward from the bush, pickaxe firmly gripped in one of their hands, as they effortlessly swipe at the skeleton, absolutely obliterating it’s fragile skull as the pickaxe plunged through it as if it was butter. As bone shards fly away from the hit, the miner shifts their footing to carry the momentum from the hit, to directly pin and gash open the nearby spider that was attempting to lunge at them. As the spider squeals in absolute agony, their cries were silenced by a quick stomp to the head, crushing it as more pale blue blood splatters across the grassy ground. The carnage did not stop as the miner seemed to effortlessly pick off the rest of the mobs, with some of them now attempting to flee the fight, but they were not spared. As the miner now barreling towards the cowardly mobs, the redhead finally laid facing up, looking onwards on what just happened. Now absolutely dumbstruck, they just sat there with their mouth agape, as this being disposes of what was initially fighting them. The way they killed, with such efficiency and violence was...... chilling.

Silence.

The arid still of the night settled in once more, as the miner finished bashing in the brains of the last spider that remained. Their breaths were husky as they straitened out their back, but oddly at the same time, they also looked somewhat composed. Their back and arm muscles flexed tightly against their worn-out clothes, as they begin to look down towards their right hand, still gripping firmly on the pickaxe. It was drenched in gore and pieces of bone, before wiping it off on their pant leg. Their breathing stilled however when they turned around, to see the other human still on the ground, staring back at them in total shock.

“...... y-you...............th-thANK YOU!!!!” the person yelled, as a large smile spreads across their once panic-stricken face. They push themselves off the bloodied ground, now happily walking towards their sudden deus ex machina. They reach out their hands, attempting to give them a handshake before speaking once more.

“T-THAT WAS AMAZING!! YOU! YOU! TOOK THEM ALL DOWN WITH JUST A PICKAXE!!! I WOULD’VE DIED!! THANK YOU!! WHAT’S YOUR NAME!!!!!”

They soon grip the miner’s free hand, jostling their entire arm as they continue to smile gleefully, even with two arrows still lodged in their flesh.

“I’M!! Wait I’m a bit l-loud so-sorry!! I’m just!! AHH I’m Alex!!! My name is Alex!! What’s yours?!”

Their gleeful smile falters a bit however when fully looking at the miner’s face, seeing that they’re absolutely aghast. Also, if they weren’t sweating bullets before during the fight, they certainly were now.

“A-are you okay? Is? Is there something else around us?!.....” they say, as they soon start to survey the dark terrain that surrounds them. Their grip loosens on the miner’s hand, and it is quickly removed before the redhead notices.

“...eRRr............ A-AHh!!............. ssss..........sttt.... stTEEEEVVV.......... HHGHK!!!” was the last thing the miner manages to stutter out, before a large dry coughing fit ensues. The miner backs a few steps away, their hands now flying up towards their throat as their own grip on the pickaxe loosens, it’s metallic ring ensuing at it hits the ground, making a uncomfortable cacophony alongside their pained gasps. Alex looks on in worried confusion, as the miner continues to roughly cough before tears begin to well up in their eyes.

“mmmMhhh!!!........!!!”, they whimper as their face winces from the force of the coughing fit.

“A-are you okay?.... Were you bit?! I’ve heard p-people can have reactions to spider bites, are you o-one of them?”

Their tone was now soft and mellow, not the boisterous and loud tone it initially was, as they attempt to get closer to the miner. They back off, as the miner now realizes their concern and rapidly waves them off. They soon quickly plunge their hands into their jean’s pockets, trying to fish something up.

“Did you drop something? I can look around!!”

“mmhHH!!”

“Wait is that paper? Oh, okay you’re writing in it now?.............. ooooo! I haven’t seen charcoal in so long!!” they say, seemingly amused by such a rudimentary item. The miner begins to regain their proper breathing, as they scribble away on the paper, quickly glancing up from it every few words, looking at Alex in front of them, who is still bleeding this whole time. They soon hand the paper towards them, although their arm is now fully trembling.

“Oh? Okay okay give me a second, let me clear out my throat!..... Okay let me start! ‘Hello, my name is Steve. It is very nice to meet you. I live around here, and my house is just a few blocks down from this spot. I’m very sorry that I cannot speak to you, I am mute. I can kind of speak through my hands, but I’m not sure if you can understand it. Please let me invite you to my home, you are hurt and I have potions of healing and I can construct you a new bed. I’m terribly sorry I had to meet you like this, I hope I didn’t accidentally scare you when I jumped out. I sincerely apologize if I did.’ ...... oh. You’re mute?........ I’m... I’m sorry I tried to make you talk......”

Alex’s voice wavers, as a guilty look spreads across their face, their eyebrows tiling up as they too begin to tremble slightly. Steve notices as they try to say that it’s fine, but all that comes out is more faint guttural sounds. They begin to gesture at the direction their house is in, trying to get Alex’s mind off of their accidental mistake.

“Oh? Well...... I mean like I am in pretty bad shape huh?” A weak laugh comes out of Alex, as they finally seem to be aware of their wounds.

“Go right ahead, I’ll be right next to you!”

“EHH!! Er!!!!” Steve says as their eyebrows fly up, seemingly shocked at the thought of Alex walking in the condition they are in. They begin to gesture towards them the idea of carrying them over there, but Alex shakes their head, showing that they’re still capable of walking on their own.

The two of them stare at each other for a little bit, as a bit of awkward tension forms between the duo. Steve is the first to start leaning towards the path home however, and Alex begins to follow as well, although their small grunts of pain while walking started to deeply perturb Steve.....

[cat-26]

Sooooooooooo, out of curiosity, what’re your thoughts on Hermitcraft so far? Please feel free to ramble cause I like reading.

I love to ramble!

I am fairly new to mcyt, and Minecraft in general. When I started Hermitcraft, I didn’t really know what to expect. All I knew from Hermitcraft is that they were mainly builders, some were really good at redstone, and that they had a civil war in a previous season. So I started watching Grian’s seaosn 7. And yes, they are great builders and some of them are great at redstone, but HC is so much more. I found a great group, they have a system (that works), respect each other’s builds and chests. 

Okay I’ll add a cut here because I like rambling too much and this got long...

My first introduction to SMPs was SMP Earth, then Dream SMP. In Techno’s SMP Earth streams, I saw that nothing was sacred; people broke into each other’s bases, tried to be sneaky and steal (and Tommy and TimeDeo even tried to glitch into Techno’s base, and refused to pay the compensation, breaking the rp completely). Dream SMP is worse, because they didn’t even have the factions to protect anything; they see anything and everything as fair play. Then I see Hermitcraft, where people have shops where people actually respect prices, leave diamonds alone. There is a huge tower of dimaonds in the middle of the shopping district! And no one touches it! (I know it gets stolen, but you know what I mean.)

Another thing is that, in HC, they actually play the game at its full potential: they have (almost) unlimited resources, farms for everything. Take Dream SMP: I know most farms aren’t allowed, but even then, they are pretty inefficient with what they do have. (It makes sense when you see how the server works, since nothing of value lasts more than 2 streams... the only nice base is Awesamdude’s, which is really far from spawn, and even that one looks pale compared to anything on HC) But still. The dragon was killed in the first few episodes and it was an non-event, just a step to get elytras. I repeating myself, but they have such a functioning system! Just look at the system of portals, and the shops, and the signs. The fact that they manage to keep everything working is amazing.

I am loving Season 7′s plotline, and I know I’m not even in the best bit yet. I love the little games they have with each other (see: the button, hermit challenges, head hunting...). The whole idea of sharing among all of them, I love their sense of community and mutual help. I love how they plot and scheme, but it’s always in good fun, they don’t go too far (again, they respect each other, and each other’s builds and boundaries and efforts). The most griefing I have seen is putting mustaches on other’s builds. Or maybe Grian changing a few blocks in Mumbo’s base every time he doesn’t notice the last one (which is so dumb I love it). 

I haven’t watched a lot of it this week, but I did watch the mayoral race results! And.... neither Mumbo or Grian voted for Mumbo?? Hahahha that was amazing. (I’m going to be honest, I don’t know much about the rest of the candidates, I only know what I saw from Grian’s POV and from MCC). But Scar won!! And the first thing he did was start removing mycelium.... I’m starting to see what will happen now.... 

The last episode I saw had a whole music video in it (ep 32), why does Grian keep insisting I have a song stuck in my head for days? First the “Mumbo for mayor” songs, now “gotta work, work all day”...

Grian’s base is so majestic. I love how he has a really big massion and only uses a portion of it, while the rest is an empty shell (which makes sense because of the size). But I still find it so funny that he keeps expanding and adding more things every episode... will this base be over by the time the season ends?

But yeah, in summary: I am loving it, I’m scared at how much content there is, can’t wait to see what happens next!

[bomberqueen17]

today kicked my ass

but, all the broiler chickens on the farm have been processed. that’s 3000 chickens for the season. almost all of them are already sold. [and none too soon, there’s a very hard frost projected for later in the week, below 25 degrees, which is a disaster for the water lines for livestock-- a light frost sometimes means the tubes freeze and it’s a hassle getting them flowing again before anybody gets distressed from lack of water, but a hard frost like that means things will break as the ice expands, so you have to replace a lot of water lines in order to get everybody able to drink again. The livestock that overwinters has much simpler watering systems, most of which haven’t been set up yet for the season. The older hens still need to get indoors...]

all that went smoothly, it’s just a long day.

in the evening we had pizza, and VegMan had made a pair of sweet potato pies, to compare the regular orange sweet potatoes vs the white-fleshed japanese sweet potatoes, to see which one made a better pie. i was so tired i couldn’t tell the difference.

after dinner, after dessert, after shooting the shit, everyone went their separate ways, and veg man finally got his turn in the bathroom. (the apprentices who live in the cabin use that bathroom, which is also the only bathroom attached to his part of the house, which is also the hallway that connects his house to the main house. it’s a multifunction room...)

I was doing the dishes and dealing with the dishwasher and general kitchen cleanup. The part of the kitchen with the sink in it (the kitchen is three rooms... listen it’s complicated) is directly adjacent to the bathroom door.

One of the cats, Whiskey, who used to hang out with me in the yurt a lot, had been in the bathroom when VM went in to take his shower. She’d come out to visit her food bowl, but then had wanted to go back in; apparently she likes to hang out in there while he showers, he explained to me, and it’s kind of a routine. but he’d already shut the door. So she kept giving tiny pathetic mews at me, expecting me to open that door for her. Like, girl, I’m not opening the bathroom door on a man taking a shower, that’s rude. (Probably he had not locked the door and I could have opened it a crack to allow her in? But also definitely that would be like. Over the line. he’s basically family but he is not precisely family. I would open the door on my sister like that; I would not on my brother in law. So, now we know the boundary.)

Anyway I told her several times, as she pleaded with me in increasing little kitty desperation, that I could not open the door for her and she was just going to have to wait.

Just as I was finishing with the dishes, VM opened the door and peered down at her, and she pranced into the room in great tiny-kitty delight. “Another ritual we have,” he confessed to me, “is that after I floss my teeth, she gets to play with the floss.” Which must mean he holds the other end for her, because there’s never discarded floss lying around. What a cutie.

[real-jaune-isms]

RWBY Volume 8 Chapter 7 Review/Remix

Last episode before the holiday break. The long long long holiday break. And here I am only posting my review the night before we come back... I was having a lot of fun playing my new video games, okay? Let’s just get right into this with the joke everyone has already made. War: What is it good for? Actually a lot, if you can believe it. Only in this specific context though, because the warfare in the American streets these last few days is disgusting and emblematic of what has been wrong with the country for a while. A government leader sending his followers into the nation’s capital on a mission of rage and personal catharsis? Ick. At least in RWBY the tyrant isn’t attacking members of his own population... Oh wait, Mantle. :P

For a moment you might be fooled into thinking we’re starting back in the farmlands of Mistral, maybe getting another look at Oscar’s earlier life or seeing a little more of Nora’s mysteriously tragic past before she and Ren met. But no, these are the wheat farms on the outskirts of Atlas and Sabyrs are charging through like raptors through the tall grass in Lost World. A battalion of Atlesian soldiers, human soldiers I might add, stand armed to meet them. But even if they’re armed they are by no means ready. Monstra keeps coughing up a new wave of Grimm, and I do mean a wave, every minute or two and Atlas is pretty damn whelmed in the face of it. There are some big bots with guns standing in straight lines, but the majority of the defense put up by Remnant’s supreme authority on military power and strength is mortal men with fear in their hearts rather than expendable robot soldiers. And the big bots seem to be lined up in a way that the ones in the front block the ones in the back, so that’s just poor planning too. It’s just a concerning sight all together, and they are not efficiently handling the coming enemy. We cut up to Ironwood in his office, and it seems he is not dealing with this situation well at all. We know he’s under a lot of stress from all the recent events, but they are in fact mostly his own fault due to his poor decision making skills in times of crisis, and his single minded drive he calls a Semblance. Speaking of the eternally expanding list of Ironwood’s bad ideas, he decides to evacuate all the civilians into Atlas’ below ground subway tunnels. Fun fact: There were Apathy among the Grimm Monstra has been spitting out. Second Fun Fact: Apathy were last seen thriving and murdering in an abandoned underground tunnel system beneath a well. If one is familiar with fantasy television pop culture of the last decade, the Crypts of Winterfell might pop into your mind as a similarly poor place to hide all your unarmed women and children. Y’know, cuz in Game of Thrones they were facing a guy who could raise the dead as his minions and crypts are just tunnels full of corpses. Just saying, this could end up being a non-birthday massacre. Whatever captain of lieutenant Ironwood was talking to is hesitant to go along with this idea, but Ironwood puts his foot down by putting his fist down. And so his voice comes on over the city-wide PA system to tell everyone they need to get down into the subway for their own safety. Compared to the organized marching and relative calm of the poor folks down in Mantle, these rich fat cats practically trample each other to run and scream down the stairs. A father is concerned his daughter is going to get snatched up by a swarm of Lancers, but seems even more upset by the squad of airships swooping in to combat them. 

Speaking of airships, we cut to the one Marrow and Harriet are flying. The Ace Ops have arrested YRJ, because of course they did, and they all hear radio chatter as pilots are reporting in about how Monstra is too tough for them to pierce from the outside with any of the weapons available to them. Winter checks in over comms to report her team’s limited successes, and Ironwood tells her to stay on jailor duty for a bit. Yang snarks at Winter for continuing to follow orders despite the circumstances, but conversation is stifled by Monstra coming into view for the group. Jaune laments that the beast now serving as Oscar’s confinement is larger than they had imagined from a distance, and Vine continues to be rigid in his assertions as to just what Grimm can and cannot do. “Grimm don’t take prisoners” he says, as if that’s an irrefutable fact. It’s not like any Grimm have done anything new or unheard of recently, like talk or grow wings or exist within a river of evil sludge or shoot up miles into the air as a geyser or have gravity Dust crystals in their underbelly to fly, or as you are witnessing right now belch out ponds worth of sludge from with waves of Grimm are emerging to fight your ground troops. Yep, we definitely know every single thing a Grimm does, especially one brought here by the mistress of the entire Grimm collective who is commanding most of them here. You sure are smart, Vine... Yang continues to be riled up and ask they be let go to help, but Elm and Vine hold her in her seat. Ironwood is heard giving the Manta jets new orders and reveals Command is working on a solution for Monstra. Winter, naturally wanting to be kept in the loop, asks what that might be. He reveals the science team is putting together a bomb that might be able to take the whale out if detonated inside it. That means Winter and the Ace Ops will be delivering it into the literal belly of the beast. I don’t know if he intends for it to be a suicide mission with the bomb going off as soon as they’ve got it inside, or if it’s just incredibly risky to try and get inside Monstra at all, but Winter pales at this news and her eyes go wide before sadly drooping closed again. She composes herself and grows determined again as she accepts the new marching orders. Jaune and Yang are again audibly against these plans due to the risk to Oscar’s safety, but they are subdued as needed, though we see Winter’s act isn’t absolute and her hands are shaking.

Meanwhile, Salem is having the time of her life doing her best Mickey Mouse impression. Classical music plays as she conducts the waves of Grimm sludge out of Monstra’s mouth like the Sorcerer’s Apprentice playing conductor to the stars themselves. Emerald watched from a distance, and seems less than thrilled about the whole thing. She heads down the halls and has to use her Semblance to keep a Seer from noticing her and potentially reporting her going where she doesn’t need to be to Salem. And where she’s going is the door outside Oscar’s torture room. He’s coughing up blood, and Hazel is still insisting he start telling the truth before Salem loses her patience and just kills him despite how futile it’d be. Instead Oz starts asking some questions of his own: Does Hazel know why Salem sought to recruit him in particular? It turns out she approached him with the promise of making a new world order where there won’t be any kingdoms or Huntsman Academies. Oz just has to laugh at that naiveté. When Salem gets the 4 Relics, there won’t be a world at all. She’s been around for so goddamn long, all she wants is for it to end, and she thinks taking the whole world down is the only way to get it anymore. This just frustrates Hazel, and we learn why. He’s pretty damn sure Salem can’t die at all, because when she first approached him about working together he spent the better part of a day killing her over and over and over again. This man, whom we know from the Battle of Haven to have massive reserves of Aura and strength to endure and keep fighting, kept fighting until he was too worn down and exhausted to lift his fists again. And in that time of weakness and awe at her power, Salem made her sales pitch that even if he couldn’t kill the one leading the Grimm he could at least have vengeance on the establishment sending young people to their deaths against her. Oz points out that that’s exactly why she went to him, because she could make him believe this was the right way, that it would bring him closure. It’s what Ozpin deserves, Hazel argues, and Oz does not disagree. But does Oscar deserve it? Do the innocent people who haven’t been affected by Salem or Ozpin yet?  No, this isn’t for justice, this is personal. Because Salem said it would help Hazel. Has it?

We don’t get an answer to that, instead going back up to Weiss’ room in Schnee Manor where she’s reapplying Nora’s bandages. Still mostly unconscious, Nora mutters “Now what... am I good for?” I can think of a great many things Nora is useful for outside of her great strength and straightforward approach to combat, but its a damn shame no one has actually bothered to tell her that before now. Before Weiss has a chance to offer any, Blake and Ruby enter the room with cups of tea. I’m not ashamed to admit I initially thought they were hot chocolate cuz I’m not used to tea being that sort of amber color. Weiss admits that she’s done the most her limited medical knowledge can offer, and Nora needs more than that. Blake expresses her concern for the other half of their group, but almost slips up and says... well we’re just not sure, but we like to assume she was gonna say she’s especially worried for someone in particular. The shippers can fill that in how they like. Their moping is interrupted by May entering the room with some less than stellar news from Fiona and the others down in Mantle. They haven’t seen Yang’s team in a while, and with everything going to hell like this a search party is at the bottom of the priority list. She’s about ready to get back on the airship and head back down to Mantle, but Weiss protests and this sparks a debate. May points out that Mantle doesn’t have the luxury of the Atlas military protecting them so Ruby’s group and the Happy Huntresses are the only thing keeping the people safe from the chaos of the invasion, but Weiss argues that there are still people suffering up her and I have to agree. Just because a police force is around doesn’t automatically mean they’re doing the best job of keeping everyone safe. But Weiss pushes the wrong button by asking about May’s family. The Marigold’s were ashamed of the way their “son” acted, wanting to help the suffering down in Mantle. And so May would no longer let herself be called that, she became a woman proudly working as part of the Happy Huntresses for the service of the people. She kicked her Marigold name and reputation to the curb and her cousin Henry stepped up as the socialite snob instead. 

This cannot have been an easy scene for Kdin to record, but we all need to give a standing ovation for her performance in it. Powerful words that likely hit very close to home. What a queen.

May is sure Weiss gets where she’s coming from with their families casting them aside in favor of a more obedient heir, her being replaced by Whitley after her outburst at the charity concert. Weiss wants to voice her disagreement, but May questions whose side she’s on in all this. Blake doesn’t like that, they’ve heard this talk about taking sides before and judging by her tone she’s none too happy to be hearing it now. May is about to give her a strongly worded piece of her mind too but Ruby stands between them to remind everyone there are no sides. All of humanity needs to be united, and Salem is the one creating the tension that’s dividing them so their real enemy is her. The only question now is how do they get out of this problem? The solution might be hiding just around the corner, literally. Whitley has been listening from behind the door, and he seems a little inspired.

Meanwhile Oz seems to have just finished telling Salem’s dark cursed backstory to Hazel, and it seems her final plan really is to have the world so divided and ruined that when the gods are brought back to judge it they will deem Remnant a failure and destroy it and hopefully her with it. Hazel seems less than inclined to believe this story though, he still holds a damn hard grudge over his sister. Oz is getting nowhere so Oscar asks to be put back in the lead, and so he is just as Hazel is about to wallop them again. Oz is willing to trust him so he can earn Hazel’s trust in return. So he goes right ahead and tells the big guy Jinn’s name and that it’s how you summon her for one last question. Hazel seems mad that Oscar gave up the info so effortlessly after all that, but Oscar asserts that he’s not telling Salem. He’s telling Hazel, and letting him decide what to do with the knowledge and the chance to gain deeper knowledge still. Pretty rad strategy. Wouldn’t you know it though, Emerald is still listening outside the door and heard everything. She goes to tell Mercury, but he’s busy packing a duffel bag for a trip to Vacuo. Guess Salem doesn’t need him here right now so we’ll get to see him again in Volume 9 or 10. He’s less than convinced that they should try and use this behind the scenes knowledge to go against Salem, cuz if Hazel couldn’t do it then why would he change his tune now? And why would they risk their necks too? It’s not like Oz was telling the truth, right? Salem isn’t really gonna destroy the world! But the teens get another surprise lecture from Uncle Tyrian: Of course Salem plans to destroy Remnant!! You couldn’t tell from the start? Everything about her screams end of the world, and it is beautiful! And if you thought she’d do anything different then you must really be crazy... Bold worlds from a psychotic serial killer, but we already know he’s unhinged. Mercury doesn’t much like getting this rude awakening though, especially since Tyrian will be the one going with him to Vacuo. Merc and Em share one last sad look, but he’s made his bed and now he’s resigned to lie in it. Bye bye Mercury, see you after Emerald has probably switched sides and will have to face you as an enemy...

Speaking of ships soaring through the air, we go back to the Ace Ops and YJR heading for Monstra. Yang is protesting the bombing plan since Oscar is still inside, but Vine insists they can’t afford to wait and risk further death and destruction. Jaune offers a side plan, send the three inside Monstra ahead of the bombing squad to scope things out for them and try to rescue Oscar while they’re doing recon. Marrow is shocked that they’d be willing to go into the literal belly of the beast alone, but Yang asserts he’d do the same for one of his teammates if they were in this position, right? He doesn’t have an answer for that. Elm argues that trading their lives just for one other person is stupid, but amazingly it is Ren who objects. Oscar is their friend, and they will do whatever it takes for someone they care about like that. A real turnaround from his attitude of closing himself off emotionally, but I guess he’s realizing how ridiculous it sounds coming from other people? Harriet gets out of her seat to do what she does best and start talking down to someone as naïve and wrong. Feelings are stupid, the job is what matters. When you lose someone you just replace them and forget about them. We find out that Winter is indeed meant to be the new leader instead of Clover, and before Marrow there was apparently a member of the team named Tortuga, but Ren is not about to let anyone tell him that someone is replaceable. You don’t say that to Team JNPR, and we definitely don’t say that about Ren... Not now. In his outrage, Ren suddenly finds... clarity. He starts seeing the world a little differently. In less cryptic terms, his Semblance seems to have evolved and he now sees people’s emotions swirling around them as colorful bursts of flower petals. Harriet is actually furious about losing Clover, she’s lying to herself and trying to suppress her feelings. She does not like being called out like that, but the rest of the squad needs to be put on blast. As opposed to Hare’s red petals Marrow is surrounded by blue that I guess would mean sadness or depression, Elm has orange and some red, and Vine is clouded with green. The meanings of the last two are a little less clear, but they’re all definitely feeling some strong things that they’re trying to hide under a calm façade. This is the reason the Ace Ops lost to RWBY, they’re all held back by trying not to connect with each other so unity and team bonds never formed. Elm does not like being told she’s a loser because she won’t make friends, but at least it’s a a reaction, which means he’s absolutely right. She’s about to deck Ren in the face but Winter steps in to get everyone calmed down. She looks these three “fugitives” over, and makes a decision. She’s going to trust her sister’s friends. They will get the teens in close and give them a small window of time to try and get in and out before the Ace Ops need to bring in the payload and blow it all away. Harriet is pissed Winter is giving these “traitors” a chance, and questions her decision thusly. But you’re outranked, you boob, and you can’t do a damn thing to stop her from showing human decency. They have a very tight schedule to attempt this rescue, and Jaune accepts that fully. The three get uncuffed and are given their weapons back as the ship lands at the front lines. Ren tries to appeal to the doubt and regret he can see in Marrow to get him to switch sides while the getting’s good. Marrow wants to, but he sticks to the job for now. Yang and Jaune head out first, while Ren lingers to tell Winter he knows she doesn’t want to be a part of all this anymore either, and we see a rainbow of many emotional petals around her head. Either she has a balance of many emotions in check and is the most levelheaded of the Ace Ops, or she has the most emotions repressed and her mind is a tempest of feelings that aren’t being addressed and may spell her end... take your pick.

As this militant Schnee considers her options, we go homeward to see Weiss and the others heading for the front door. May isn’t keen to stay her any longer than needed, and the kids need to make a choice about where she’s dropping them off. Either they go to the front lines here in Atlas or back down to Mantle to help with the chaos there. No other options, and especially no breaking their jailbirds out for an assist. May doesn’t have the optimism and heroic hope that Ruby still holds dear, she won’t entertain the idea that this can become a complete victory all around. This isn’t that kind of world. Either they help one place, or they help another. And even then, that’s no guarantee wherever they go will be successful at stopping the invasion. It’s very depressing, and it’s on these kids to accept the facts and make the hard decisions. If you take a look at the last few Volumes, Ruby does seem to have a bit of a habit of ignoring the dreadful possibilities/facts in favor of pursuing a hopeful and bold plan that could fix everything immediately so she doesn’t have to cope with reality and actually grieve her mistakes and losses... I’m not saying it makes her a bad character or that she’s wholly wrong for trying to see a bright side whenever possible, just that this is an unhealthy strategy for a leader with so much on her shoulders. But before anyone has time to make a decision right now, there’s a hard knock on the front door. Everyone draws their weapons and approaches slowly, before Weiss cautiously opens the door. In a most definitely welcome surprise, she is greeted by Klein!!! She missed him dearly, and apologizes for whatever fault she had in his being fired, but while cycling through personalities he assures her she has nothing to be sorry for since it’s all Jacques’ fault, the bastard. Turns out, Klein is here to use his medical knowledge to treat Nora. What, didn’t you know all butlers to heroic millionaires have field medic training? Alfred Pennyworth set the gold standard, I dare say~ But of course, Weiss didn’t call him and none of her friends know his number so who told him to come?... Would you believe it, Whitley is responsible and we could not be more proud of him! Weiss certainly is, and she gives him what might be his first genuinely loving hug in years. Klein heads upstairs to begin treatment, while the rest of the group share a hopeful moment. But this silence too comes to a crashing halt as there is further ruckus outside. This time Ruby answers the door, to see a smoking crater in the front driveway. RWB rush outside and kneel at the edge of the crater as the smoke clears. Penny has crash landed, and lies there in a pool of what we can only presume to be her green synthetic blood. All she has the strength left to do is apologize before she passes out and the screen darkens with her. There lies the end for the next 6 weeks, and we were left to panic and speculate all the while. Too bad I’m a lazy bugger who only got this review out now and there’s no tension left before the thrilling continuation comes tomorrow morning. So lets all get one last panicked sleep in before the living nightmares come for our girls! Penny is totally gonna be under Watt’s control, the Hound is coming, it’s all gonna be a huge damn mess... Can’t wait, can you?~

[inkykeiji]

Random Minecraft world update you didn’t ask for but it was going great, I had a cute lil world then my cousin called me on discord and I told him abt it then he just constantly was like “Kaz, invite me.. just let me play, I won’t even play near you in the world” so I invited him only for him to force me to expand my little hut, kill my cows and put farms everywhere....

I just wanted to have a cute little hut and a little garden and some animals .. but he did give me flowers to decorate so that was nice but he also almost drowned me in lava so that was not nice.

Also, if reader plays games on her phone or something handheld, Touya is absolutely laying behind her with his head on her shoulder and his hand under her(it’s his) shirt with a hand on the titty.

If Touya plays games, I know he has the whole 3monitor set up and all that and he lets reader sit in his lap and while he plays and just kinda keeps his chin on her shoulder. He also will lowkey bite her if he dies.

-fluffy anon(this was a little long for absolutely no reason. Also, apologize for any spelling errors I may have made. AND MAY I SAY, I just loved all of the Christmas fics. They were just *chefs kiss* and I will be sending a separate ask just to gush over them)

TECHNICALLY FLUFFY, technically i did ask for an update ehehehehehe so i’m v glad u came n gave me one!!! okay okay responding to this + your other beautiful message under the cut!! <33

KILL MY COWS AND PUT FARMS EVERYWHERE AHAHAHAHAHAHA oh fluffy i’m so so sorry but this had me howling ehehehehehe

ALSO DROWNED ME IN LAVA SO THAT WAS NOT NICE LMAO PLEASE PLEASE THAT’S AWFUL BUT IT’S SO FUNNY I CAN’T STOP GIGGLING well gosh at least he gave you some flowers for your efforts ahahaha

omg pleaseeeee that’s the cutest thing ever 🥺🥺 but YES like, aaaah maybe this is because it’s something my boyfriend and i do a lot but i love the idea of a couple just kinda chilling with each other but doing their own thing at the same time??? like just enjoying each other’s company and being close without actually speaking etc!! my touya’s also very uhhhh TOUCHY when it comes to the reader—like i wouldn’t say he’s a touchy person but he’s very physically clingy when it comes to her (especially if he’s having a bad day :( SPEAKING OF WHICH IM REALLY HOPING TO GET TO YOUR OTHER ASK TONIGHT but i wanna write some hawks first ehehehe). waaah i’m rambling MY POINT IS, yes absolutely, she’d be all cuddled up against him, maybe even on her side between his leg with her head on his chest while she plays, and he’s busy reading, or doing some sort of business on his phone, or watching a film etc. they just like to be close 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺

WAAAAAAAAHHH FLUFFY PLEASE YOUR MESSAGE LEGITIMATELY BROUGHT TEARS TO MY EYES I’M SO !!!!!!! aaaah thank you so, so, SO much 🥺🥺🥺 <333333 your words are so kind and lovely and i appreciate them more than i can tell you!! eeee ehehe i’m so glad to hear that you like the way i characterize the two of them!! i just see natsuo and touya as SUCH fucking menaces together and as i’ve said a million times, i really do see natsuo as someone who looks up to and loves his older brother very very much. i haven’t mentioned this anywhere in the series yet but i kinda LOVE the idea of natsuo actually working with touya n having yakuza ties too ehehe

my favourite thing about the relationship between natsuo and touya tho, is that at the end of the day touya is still the boss. natsuo’s mean and scummy self really comes out when he’s fucking the reader, but the moment he’s about to cum suddenly he’s whiny and he needs his big brother’s permission <33

i’m so relieved to hear that it felt tense!!! sometimes, as the author, i have difficulty telling if it’s hitting the way i want it to, since the idea’s been bouncing around in my head for so long etc, so your feedback is very important to me!!

YES ehehe in case u couldn’t tell, deserve was the key word throughout this entire series. not only does shouto bring it up a few times, but fuyumi also brings it up to her mother and it kinda compounds that idea that everyone around them can see how unhealthy this relationship is, plus the fact that they’ve known touya for a lot longer than the reader has, and they’ve been there to watch the way this relationship has progressed, the way this relationship has almost infected the reader in a way. BUT!! but, rei does play favourites juuuuust a little bit, and the reason why touya’s words at the sink cut so deep for shouto is because they’re true. he is her favourite. she very clearly has a soft spot for him (like, this is even mentioned in day one where fuyumi’s like omfg touya always gets what he wants 🙄🙄)

AAAAAAH touya’s breakdown is personally my favourite bit out of the whole series and i was so excited to write it n share it with you guys!!! i was so happy to finally get to explore that side of him, and i think his vulnerability really does attest to the amount of (v twisted + unhealthy) love he has for the reader!

THANK YOU I WORKED FOREVER ON THIS STUPID AESTHETIC LAST NIGHT IT STOLE THE WHOLE DAMN NIGHT FROM ME BUT I’M VERY HAPPY WITH HOW IT LOOKS EHEHE and like, as much as i loved the christmas aesthetic, it was the biggest pain in my ass when it came to adding anything anywhere, because tumblr was quite fussy with the amount of lines in the masterlist especially >.>

good god i really rambled here ehehehe but thank you again for such beautiful words!!!! and thank you for giving me a space to just ramble about my own work aaah

[yikeswtfmate]

Strange Times || Ch. 1

main masterlist // Strange Times Series Masterlist // next part

Summary: Mickey Pearson sends Raymond to fetch his sister from the airport. He’s never met this woman, but he soon finds out she likes to play with her food first.

Pairing: Raymond (Charlie Hunnam - The Gentlemen, 2020) x Reader

Warnings: swearing; sexual themes; mentions of violence

A/N: Here it is my lovelies, the fic i’ve been telling you about with Charlie Hunnam’s character whom i fell in love with (it’s the beard....and the glasses....and the hair....and the suits......and the whole righthand to a drug lord thing maybe?). I’m still unsure about posting it here because it’s a different type of Reader that i’m used to write (maybe i’ll just switch her to an OC) and it’s not Bonky. So please let me know what you think and whether i should post the next parts as well (it’s already 5k long) but if you don’t like it, this is a “felt cute might delete later” type of situation so no harm no foul. And for those of you who haven’t seen the movie yet, slight spoliers ahead!

The office is quiet, save for the scratching of a pen on paper and the ticking of a clock that is starting to irritate Raymond to no end. He’s been meaning to either throw it out or switch it with the one that is in the living room, but he knows how his boss would not appreciate the disposal of a five thousand pound clock plated in gold. Raymond personally thinks it’s tacky, but it’s Mickey’s house after all, and he should be concentrating on sorting out the logistics for that shipment that’s supposed to go out to Italy anyway. He turns back to his laptop, intent on fulfilling his responsibilities for the day, when Mickey stops writing behind him and clears his throat, demanding his attention.

“Raymond, I need you to go to the airport tomorrow.”

Ray stands up from his chair at the desk and moves to the table in the middle of the receiving room. He’s learned all of Mickey’s tells during the ten years he’s been his righthand man, and when he stops sorting out his agenda to pour himself a cup of tea, Ray knows he needs to stand to attention.

“Any reason in particular?”

“I need you to pick up my sister and bring her to the estate.”

“Your sister?” Ray is utterly confused, mainly for the fact that this would be the very first time he’ll be meeting this woman.

He was aware that Mickey had a sister back in the States, but even though he knows every aspect of Mickey’s life inside and out, this elusive woman is his boss’ best kept secret. He’s unsure whether it’s just brotherly protectiveness, pure paranoia at the prospect of their enemies finding out there’s still another weak link next to Rosalind, or it’s simply the fact that Mickey doesn’t want to talk about his family back home.

He’s heard she’s been studying for a degree in business at Wharton, but he doesn’t know what to expect, for all the odd comments Mickey and Rosalind make about her when they think he’s not listening. One thing he’s completely certain of, however, is how much Mickey looks after her, considering the sizeable amounts of money that are going into her bank account every month.

Mickey raises an eyebrow over his teacup. “I don’t see why you’re acting as if you didn’t know I have a goddamn sister, Ray.”

Raymond shrugs, deciding that it’s best if he won’t tick off his boss at the moment. He’s been on edge ever since the whole debacle with Matthew Berger and Fletcher went down. Mickey’s decided to hold off his retirement plans until someone comes along with a better offer (preferably none of Lord George’s minions though), so he hasn’t only been stressed about maintaining the value of the goods, but also pissed off that he couldn’t just drink whiskey unperturbed all day in a countryside manor.

“I’ve sent you all the details you need. Don’t be late, I don’t want her left unsupervised for too long.”

Raymond nods, eager to go back to his laptop. It’s time for homework, and there’s nothing he love more than information.

“And Ray?” He turns back to Mickey, but the man’s just looking out the window, a thoughtful expression on his face. “Be careful.”

“Of course, boss. I’ll treat her like a princess.”

“It’s not her I’m worried about, you moron.” He says with a frown. “I meant you. She likes to play with her food first.”

*

The private jet should be a surprise, but when you’re in the line of business Raymond is in, he’s practically seen it all. The charcoal trench coat he’s wearing today is flapping in the whirl of wind so it’s a good thing he foregone the machine gun in favour of an inconspicuous handgun. He’s almost certain nothing would come up on their way from Heathrow to Oxfordshire, but he made sure David fully stocked the car before they left, just in case.

He’s waiting patiently in front of the car, lighting a cigarette, while he watches the airport’s employees fuss around the plane. The airstair is released and Ray stands up from leaning against the car. The smoke that he exhales blind him for a second, but he still needs to blink three more times to assure himself he’s not fucking hallucinating when a woman that he can only assume is Y/N Pearson steps off the plane. She drags a hand through her long curls, moving her head from side to side in what must only be slow motion. Her heels click on the pavement as she makes her way towards him, and Raymond smiles involuntarily.

“I see the money’s been treating you well, Raymond. Although I have to admit, I kind of miss the long hair.” She says before Ray can utter a word. She places a manicured finger under his chin, closing his mouth, kissing his cheek with a smack. “You don’t remember me, do you?” Her eyes are patient, as if exhausted after explaining a child the same exact thing for the past hour. “We’ve met fourteen years ago, when Mickey expanded the business to five farms. You were only an errand boy then, remember? Granted, I was only fourteen at that time, a gangly little thing with braces, of course you don’t remember me.”

Raymond’s mind flashes to a vague memory of a girl in a sequinted t-shirt, a choker that could only be worn with so much seriousness by a teenager, and boots with fur, mated in English mud. She blushed to the roots of her hair when he asked her if she knew by any chance where Mr Pearson was, having to deliver a parcel to him personally. She just pointed with a black fingernail towards her left and squeaked something unintelligible before ducking her head and running in the other direction.

“Ah, there he goes.” She sing-songs as she watches his eyes shift in recognition all over her, but there’s nothing left of her teenage self, having grown into her body, comfortable in her skin, confidence built up with precision and care, together with an appropriate, if rather extravagant fashion sense.

“I can’t believe how much you’ve grown.” He says, realising that he sounds like a cliché when she rolls her eyes.

“Right, that’s what happens in life, honey. Can we please go? We can exchange pleasantries in the car, this wind is ruining my hair.”

Raymond keeps the door open for her, nodding to David who just finished loading the trunk with her luggage and he hops in the backseat next to her.

“I hope we’re stopping for lunch on our way.” She warns. “I’m starving and I couldn’t eat anything since I woke up because of those stupid turbulences.”

“Mickey is expecting us to be there in an hour.” He responds cautiously.

“Mickey can go fuck himself. I want a pizza and I haven’t been to Zizzi in a long time, so you better take me there, Raymond, or I’ll just ask David to kindly move to the passenger seat.”

The man in question looks at Ray in the rear view mirror, awaiting instructions. Ray sighs and nods once again, now starting to realise why his boss felt the need to warn him in regard to his sister. He hopes he won’t have to deal with her for long after she’s safely delivered to Mickey, because for all her beauty, she’s starting to piss him off.

“Oh, don’t look so glum.” She chides, after a few minutes of him plainly ignoring her. “I’m good company, I promise. I’m just cranky because I’m hungry. I’m hangry, Ray. I just need you to feed me.” She flutters her eyelashes, and she rests her hand on his thigh, purposefully ticking him off.

Ray shifts in his seat, trying to put as much distance between them, to which she just scoffs and rolls her eyes. This woman is dangerous, and for all his sinful thoughts that have been going through his mind ever since he laid eyes on her, Ray has to remind himself that this is his boss’ little sister, little as in eleven years younger for fuck’s sake. He’s positively sure that if he even lays a finger on her, his balls would be cut off and fed to the hunting dogs.

They finally stop after a short silent trip, and he helps Y/N into the fairy lit restaurant, leaving David posted in front of the car. He hopes there will be no more trouble like last time, having had his share of adventures for the goddamn decade.

Holding a chair for her, Ray waits for Y/N to take off her coat, and now he suddenly feels the need to swallow hard, as he rakes his eyes over her body. She’s wearing a leather skirt that is too tight to possibly be comfortable, but long enough to almost meet her knee high boots; her sweater is thick, appropriate for the cold January weather in the south of England, yet Raymond can’t help but wonder if her nipples are as perfect as her lips. Speaking of which, they curl up in a patient yet satisfied smile, a raised eyebrow that wants to show him she’s merely allowing him to inspect her so blatantly.

After she orders her pizza and Ray asks for a glass of water, clearly showing his disapproval for this unexpected stop. He can feel a nudge on his shin and she smiles at him in a way that he can only describe as charitable.

“You know, I’ve had the biggest crush on you back then.” She says and Ray chokes on his water. “It’s true. You were this tall rugged man with long hair that I wouldn’t have known what to do with then, but would definitely know how to handle now.” She smirks, while Ray raises an eyebrow, silently asking her to stop talking. Mainly because his imagination is starting to go haywire. “The beard suits you. But I kept thinking about licking your jaw all the way here so it’s a shame really that I can’t now. Those were some long 8 hours, Ray, I had to occupy myself somehow.”

“Y/N, you should really stop talking.” Ray would give himself a pat on the back for all the restraint he’s showing at the moment. There’s nothing he would like more than to shove her in one of the bathroom stalls and have his way with her, and by the look in her eyes, she knows exactly what he’s thinking so she’s relentless.

“Why? Afraid Mickey would disapprove? I thought you were a big boy, Ray, who doesn’t have to ask permission.”

“It’s not about permission, and we both know it. Your brother would literally kill me if…”

His words are cut short by the waiter who’s bringing Y/N her food and brazenly ogles her down. Ray can feel his hands involuntarily clench into fists, his jaw set at the man who would not just fucking go and keeps offering her pepper, sauce, or his fucking cock for that matter, because it’s so fucking obvious that’s what he’d actually want to say. Y/N just smiles sweetly, humouring his clumsy flirting, and Ray is more than certain that she’s starting to form a habit of doing things just to piss him off. When she touches the waiter’s forearm, he growls lowly, directing their attention to him. She feigns surprise, but he can read her amusement, while the waiter seems to decide whether to apologise or take his chances and go off. Ray knows that his glasses might put people at ease, making him look approachable, friendly, easy-going at first, but he’s perfected the frown and posture to go with it that puts people immediately in their places. Not to mention that spending over a decade in the business would shape anyone in a ruthless brute if need arises.

“My girlfriend here would like to enjoy her food now, thank you. She doesn’t need anything else, mate, you can go.”

The waiter finally scampers off, and Ray knows he’ll regret saying anything before he turns back to Y/N. She’s smirking like a bloody Cheshire cat if he’s ever seen anyone actually doing it, satisfied beyond belief.

“Don’t.” He warns when she opens her mouth to make a smartass remark, but she raises her hands in surrender and proceeds to eat.

Another battle of restraint and patience, as this woman eats as if she’s in a bloody porn movie, and who the fuck can eat pizza seductively anyway, for fuck’s sake. Raymond takes a deep breath, fishing his phone out of his coat pocket and calls his boss, doing his best to ignore the moans, the finger sucking and the swirling tongue in front of him.

“Hey, boss. Got Y/N from the airport, we’ll just be a bit late.”

“She wanted to eat, didn’t she?” Mickey asks and Ray can hear the exasperation in his voice. Apparently his boss is well aware of his sister’s antics, but it would’ve been better if Raymond were better prepared for the full force of what this woman can get out of him in a short half an hour.

“Tell him to suck a bag of tiny dicks, I don’t need his judgment.” Y/N says between licking a side of her finger and plucking an olive off her slice.

“We’re in Uxbridge, hopefully we’ll be there in an hour or so.” Raymond notifies, choosing to ignore her again.

“Fine. Just…make sure she stays out of trouble. It can stick to her like a fly to shit.” And with that Mickey disconnects the call.

Raymond sighs and puts his phone back. There is an uneasy feeling flowing through him, his instinct telling him to run away in the other direction, to avoid interacting with Y/N at all cost until her return to the States, but there’s another part of him, more primal, more carnal that is drawn to her. He hates it, mainly because there is no logical reasoning behind it, and he’s a very cerebral person, and he can’t figure her out for the life of him. Maybe it’s just the fact that she’s probably the first woman to act like that with him, as if she doesn’t care about the consequences, doesn’t give a toss whether he’ll bite or not. She likes to play with her food first, were Mickey’s words, which make so much more sense now.

Raymond can’t put his finger on it, and although he can have his pick of women anywhere he’d step foot in – he is very much aware of how handsome he is, thank you very much –  there is something about Y/N that demands to be unlocked. Or maybe it’s just that her tits look really great in that sweater and it’s the whole “forbidden fruit” bullshit. Regardless, Ray just wants to drop her off and go back to London where he can drown himself in work so he can forget about her. Or maybe have a night out, pick someone at a bar and pretend it’s her, because he’s absolutely certain by this point that it’s just the novelty of Y/N that lures him in, and definitely not those eyes full of mischief.

***

Taglist: I haven’t tagged anyone in this, as I’m unsure whether you want to read something that’s not Bucky related. Let me know if you do! Toodles!

[roselightfairy]

Fanfic day meme - 5, 6, and/or 12

For this ask meme.

I got asked 5 four times, actually, and 12 once! The answer to 12 can be found here, so I’ll let that stand - but for 5 I’m definitely sharing four different answers. :) Two of the others can be found here and here. (Haven’t gotten to the last one yet.)

5. What’s your favorite headcanon you use in fics?

This is a headcanon I think you might appreciate, since we are both into Very Specific Silvan Stuff. ;) The actual logistics of this headcanon are difficult to parse out, so it might be kind of silly, but I like the thought that wood-elves – or, at least, Legolas’s brand of wood-elves – are essentially free range-only eaters. They will only eat meat when they know the animal lived and died with dignity – which often means only eating meat they’ve hunted or caught themselves. I don’t know if this makes any sense logistically, I’m sure there are plenty of places you could argue with it, but – I think they would really be suspicious of farms and what animals are being fed and the whole notion of being raised solely for slaughter. I like to think there’s some combination biological-spiritual impact of eating something that didn’t live the life it was meant to live that would make them very wary of eating any meat whose source they don’t intimately know. I’ve thrown it into a fic or two, but I’d like to expand on it in more depth sometime. (@deheerkonijn has even included a nod to it in some mod AU worldbuilding!)

6. What’s the detail you wait on bated breath for readers to notice?

This is a hard one and it kind of tends to vary from fic to fic! Sometimes it’s just a joke in the writing itself - I know in Muse I had more than one “that’s-what-she-said” joke that I always hoped someone would notice - or sometimes a little embedded headcanon. Or in Velle, I know there was some stuff in the letters Legolas and Gimli sent to one another that I really hoped people would mention finding amusing. The thing about my writing though is it’s not especially, uh, subtle. If I notice something in the writing, I tend to just kind of lay it out there in the text itself, rather than waiting for the reader to find it. It’s something I’m working on, haha.

Thank you for asking!! <3

[yeats-infection]

@sqvalors tagged me in a lil writing meme... if you’d like to participate please do and tag me! 

ao3 name: fluorescentgrey but i also post some things as drglass (dr. glass is the second song on the fluorescent grey EP by deerhunter, so if i make another pseud it will be likenew, then washoff, etc.) 

fandoms: about two thirds of my fics are harry potter or star wars but there are a lot of random little goodies. currently i have shifted into the terror (2018) mode. 

number of fics: 59 right now... i will throw a party when i get to 69... 

fic i spent the most time on: this is funny because some of these technically took me like six months or more of working on them extremely intermittently... namely, bone machine. the series in the garden has taken me the most time generally... and in that, minuet did take me several months of working really hard while i had a schedule / commute that was not conducive to having a creative practice... 

fic i spent the least amount of time on: hilariously, literally my most popular fic by ninety miles, the witcher PWP that i wrote out of spite in two or three hours. 

longest fic: the source codes series... particularly heelstone which is 102k. i wrote these two stories in a single summer like a crazy person and i hate talking about them because i find them WAY too gooey. honestly, that’s why they are so long. it’s all the gooeyness!!!!!! 

shortest fic: yes, the answer is the witcher porn again (this silly thing is going to be the answer for many other questions in this little meme but i’m just going to stop talking about it while i’m ahead). the west end is just about 50 words longer and is much better and is a much better and more interesting story. 

most hits: we’re just going to pretend it’s sex and dying in high society, which has the second most hits. this is certainly due to the fact that @wolfstarwarehouse hypes this story a lot for which i am endlessly grateful! 

most kudos: recovery position has the second most kudos so let’s go with that one! i have been very touched by the response to this story, though i do personally like the sequel beachcoma a little more... i understand why not everyone wants to read it because it is a little more bittersweet. but it also comes from my soul. 

most comment threads: the two stories in the source codes series are leading here, because i only posted two chapters at a time so that i would get maximal validation, lol. 

most bookmarks: in order to talk about a story i haven’t talked about yet, the rosary has the fourth-most. i think this fic is truly my r/s swan song... i said everything i wanted to say and did everything i wanted to do. it’s a really good mystery/noir story that i didn’t think i could pull off until i did! and i love the OCs in it who have sort of manifested these secret headcanons for me that i may expostulate upon someday. thank you to @piovascosimo for the inspiration to write it. 

total word count: 1,000,478. lol! 

favorite fic i wrote: cannot possibly choose but probably the top five in order of date posted are: desperado, a handful of dust, doom town, beachcoma, jump into the fire

fic i’d rewrite / expand on: i already said all of source codes because it’s way too gooey, i also could make hard time killing floor blues a lot tighter, and a memoir of the flesh deserves a way better ending because i was rushing to make the yuletide deadline...

share a bit of a WIP: i was trying for a while to write a band of brothers AU where they are vietnam vets who start growing cannabis... based on the steve earle song “copperhead road.” this could have been SO good but the plot was too huge and unwieldy so i gave up. my roommate is obsessed with this idea and keeps asking me how it’s going so i may yet finish. but there’s a bit below the cut.

The knock at the door in the night was a sharp shock, bright as lightning, that sent them both back to Khe Sanh and before. Nix ducked. Dick went behind the doorframe. They kept low into the kitchen, where Nix took his old officer’s pistol out from where he kept it hidden behind the fridge. Then they went to the door, keeping to the edges of the hallways.

On the porch was Liebgott. He could have made his own way in likely right onto the couch without either of them noticing, so it was something that he had knocked on the goddamn door. It was particularly something given that none of the boys from Easy should have known about the grow operation, or even about Dick’s farm, being as Dick’s address on file at the V.A. was a post office box in town and Nix’s was still in Jersey. These considerations were nil to somebody who had spent the better part of five years in the bush of Vietnam. He took a last draw from his cigarette and put it out against the rubber sole of his boot, then he put the butt in his pocket. As far as Nix knew, he hadn’t said a word since January 1970.  

“Joe,” said Dick diplomatically. He put his hand out and Liebgott took it. Then he took Nix’s. He had handsome dark eyes, but they were full of a wall. You could tell he saw you, but it was like nothing followed the necessary channels to the brain to spur emotional response. It had been like this even while he was still talking, and after a while you got used to it.

“You comin' in,” said Nix, knowing he probably would even if he wasn’t invited.

Inside, they all three sat at the kitchen table in silence nobody was about to break. Finally Dick got up and went to the drawer where they kept the rollies and their share of the product. He passed a sheaf of papers and a film canister full of bud to Liebgott across the table. Nix understood as well as Dick apparently did that there would be no getting anything over on this kid, who had eyes in the back and sides of his head. He’d probably had a nice tour of the property before coming inside. “You hungry, son,” Dick said.

Liebgott shook his head. He extracted one of the buds from the canister and inspected it. They did look mighty good if Nix said so himself. They looked artful in Liebgott’s hand. There were black scabs across his knuckles and a dark rime of filth under those fingernails which still existed. He seemed satisfied enough with what he saw to take a paper out of the sheaf and start shredding the flower into it.

“Captain Nixon calls it Easy Diesel,” said Dick, like he was trying to pretend it wasn’t the funniest thing in the world.

Liebgott looked up and a smile flashed across his face like the savage golden light of a flare falling over the far hills. His smile was sort of brutal, like the edge of a knife in a barfight, or like a seething animal. Luckily it went away as quickly as it had come. He rolled the joint with a quick grace and lit the business end with his old silver Zippo Nixon hadn’t seen since the war. There was a skull engraved on one side and on the other it read IF YOU ARE RECOVERING MY BODY, FUCK YOU.

“I don’t know how you found us, Joe,” Dick said thoughtfully. “You don’t have to… tell us. But we ain’t exactly keen to have just anybody here.” He paused and looked quickly to Nix, who tried to make it abundantly clear by means of eyebrows that he wasn’t sure they ought to go down this road, wherever it was leading. Dick ignored him. Liebgott was watching them, fully understanding their attempted clandestine exchange. “We ain’t exactly keen to have the DEA here,” Dick said at last.

The cherry at the end of the joint atomized with a crackling hiss. Liebgott looked between Dick and Nix with extreme seriousness sullied only by his exhaling a dignified white cloud out his nose. Then he nodded, once, curtly, demonstrating he understood his orders as they had been relayed.

Nix flashed Dick what he thought was a what have you done type look. But Dick looked totally unbothered. He should have gone into this business years ago for how violently unflappable he was. He said to Liebgott, “I’ll get some blankets and you can make up the couch.”

Liebgott shook his head to say no need. He got up, careful not to scrape the chair against the floor, shook each of their hands again, and in less than a minute’s time he was back out the door with nothing more than what he’d come in with except the joint.

Nix and Dick, on the porch, listening to the crickets, watched him disappear into the darkness.

“Are we hallucinating,” said Nix eventually.

“I sure as hell hope not,” Dick replied. “We’ve got to ship all that product or we’ll starve.”

-

In the morning Nix was in the field, inspecting the plants. Liebgott was standing there at his quarter for god knew how long before he cleared his throat and Nix jumped about six feet in the air. There was a smirk shifting across Liebgott’s face that he would have been better about hiding when Nix had been his commanding officer. He looked like he hadn't slept. Back over there he had looked like that a lot, but it had been different, because of all the uppers they were taking. He cocked his head back over toward the long driveway and then he was off across the dew-wet grass which had already soaked through the hems of his canvas pants and his destroyed shoes.

Nix followed, like a duckling behind a hen. Liebgott still walked as though there were eyes in all sides of his head quickly processing information as he moved. Nix doubted you ever lost that kind of skill, even if in the real world it made you look like a mental patient. He caught up so they could walk side by side through the dew-wet grass. “What did you think,” he asked Liebgott.

Liebgott passed Nix the universal sign of furrowed brow that meant please clarify.

Nix gestured with pinched fingers to his own mouth as though Liebgott were also deaf. “The grass.”

He shaped his hand into an a-ok sign.

“You get any sleep?”

He nodded an infinitesimal nod, like the answer was a secret just for Nix to know.

“Well if you think it could be better just tell me how.”

Nix had had a high school friend whose sister was deaf from scarlet fever and whom he had watched on occasion communicate with her by means of sign language. Early on, back over there, he had sent off to command for a book, but by the time it came he understood it wasn’t that Liebgott couldn’t speak, he just didn’t want to. It was something like how people’s hair supposedly turned white if they witnessed some evil thing, or how people became ascetics in the name of god. If you were really fucked up on drugs or fear or otherwise, or if the natural magical thinking from childhood hadn’t been fully beaten out of you, you might have seen it as the sacrifice he had given to the forest for letting him out without a scratch so many goddamn times. It had been a bit of a trial to explain this to Spiers, who was practical almost to a fault, sometimes.

Liebgott showed another a-ok sign. Then he did a thumbs up which Nix knew meant it was good.

All in all it was smart. If he was still talking, Nix might have asked him, what have you been up to? You been sleeping on the street? You been to the V.A.? What did they tell you? And the answer would’ve been nothing good. Instead they just walked in the cool grass together in the sunshine and the morning was beautiful, and the air was sweet. It was all lovely until Liebgott had to physically stop him, laughing, somehow silently but also hysterically, from stepping right onto the razor-thin tripwire stretched invisibly across the dark gravel.

In the kitchen, Dick was doing the numbers. He took his glasses off when Nix came in and put the coffee on. “He learned a thing or two from Charlie,” Nix said, leaning against the counters.

“Who, Joe?”

“Our driveway is thoroughly ratfucked.”

“Hmm,” said Dick. He put the glasses back on and turned back to the accounting book. He was going to do this whole thing as above board as was humanly possible. The vivid daylight came through the window and struck the lens of his unstylish Ray-Bans and threw a kind of prism of color upon the white paper and the chicken-scratch sums. Nix felt like maybe this was something you would paint if you had the necessary implements and artistic ability. “Maybe we should see if we can get any more help.”

-

He was mildly ashamed to say it, but the doc had always kind of creeped Nix out. He imagined a hypothetical conversation with Dick, who he knew loved the kid, almost like a son: Listen, don’t get me wrong, he’s a good kid, I owe him my life, yadda yadda. But either he’s dropped the brown acid one too many times or the voodoo exorcism went FUBAR.

The doc had arrived on the farm on the heels of Sunshine and Rainbows, aka Mr. Bright Eyed and Bushy Tailed, aka one Edward “Babe” Heffron. Nix had written Babe in South Philly, being as he was a connoisseur of bud and once upon a time had been famed among their company for smoking anything anyone put in his hand, often to his own detriment. The operation was getting big enough that Nix needed another pair of hands, other than Liebgott, of course, who was still fortifying the long driveway whilst giving away his cover by playing Led Zeppelin IV as loudly as was possible. It was a tough calculation, because Babe was a genius of pot, but he couldn’t keep a damn secret, and lo and behold he had dragged along with him a dark shadow in the human form of Eugene Roe. They came up the driveway in a big old Ford pickup that rattled its rust off in the potholes. Liebgott had dismantled the traps specially for their arrival when they had called from Williamsport to say they were an hour out.

“I figured we could use a medical professional to lend some credibility to the operation,” said Babe thoughtfully, sparking a joint on the porch over sweating jam jars of iced tea.

Roe snorted or something but it wasn’t really a normal person’s self-effacing laugh. Winters clapped his back. Nixon knew Roe had dropped out of medical school after two years but there was no need to say anything. Everyone knew that. Now he was working construction and Babe claimed to be working as a mechanic in a garage, but this seemed suspect given the state of the car they had driven up in.

“Well we sure as hell are glad you boys are here,” said Dick magnanimously.

Babe exhaled an opaque cloud that rivaled Nix’s own father’s ability with a stogie. “Can we see the bush?”

They went out all together to the field and ducked between the rows of corn. Babe knelt in the soil. It was damp with dew and quiet in here. It would have been almost like over there except it smelled good. “What’s the cross,” Babe said, inspecting the plants.

“It’s an indica blend…”

“Well, I can tell that,” he said.

“So you’re an expert on the plant now too?”

“I’ve just smoked an awful lot of joints in my life, Captain Nixon.”

Roe snorted again. When they all looked to him he said, “You said in the letter there was some kind of altruistic reason for all this.”

“It’s medicine, Gene,” Babe said gently, but also like they had had this conversation thirty thousand times. Nix filed away for later the intimation that Roe had read the letter he’d sent Babe at home in South Philadelphia.

“I guess you don’t remember the psychic break you had at the Do Lung Bridge.”

Babe waved this remark off, even though Nix remembered it too. It threw a chill down his back, like a water balloon had hit him at the base of his neck. “That was laced,” Babe said.

“With what!”

“I don’t know! Something bad!” Babe turned to Dick and Nix. “Gene’s teetotal,” he said, like this was a big old point of contention.

So that counted out the bad acid. Maybe he was just like this. Maybe he had had those big sad bug eyes as a child or an infant or a fetus in the womb. “Good on you, Doc,” Nix said.

“I ain’t trying it,” Roe said, folding his arms over his narrow chest, “no matter what it does.”

The doc was a tough cookie. Babe had claimed, over there, about as high as the Byrds song, that the doc came from a long line of the kind of folks described in Dr. John’s “Gris-Gris Gumbo Ya Ya” and that, as such, he could heal wounds with his mind. When it didn’t work, as on the night when Jackson died, or the night when Hoobler died, or in the forest when Muck and Penkala died, or the night when Liebgott stopped speaking, he went to sit for a while on the edge of camp until Dick went over and made him eat something. Nix watched them in a state of confused envy, and then he went to write the letters to the families, so that Dick wouldn’t have to.

At dusk, after they ate a light dinner of corn on the cob and rice and beans, he took the boys up into the hayloft with an armful of blankets. “Sorry this is the best we got,” he said. He had said that about a hundred god damn times since they got here.

Roe looked like he wanted to say, you’ve got to stop apologizing for everything. Instead he said, “Where does Lieb sleep.”

Babe perked up. “Joe’s here?”

“You didn’t see him in the driveway?”

Nix sighed. “He’s gonna want to know what he did wrong that you saw him,” he said.

“Does he still — ”

Nix shook his head. “Not a peep.”

In a couple days time, he couldn’t take it anymore, and he was hot and tired and stoned, up to his elbows in earth in the field, showing Babe how to replant the hatchlings he’d grown from seed. “You guys room together or what?”

“Me and Gene?” Babe’s eyes were red in the corners from smoking and from the sun. “What about you and Dick?”

Dick, who had the radio on inside turned up as loud as it would go, so that they would hear it in the field, playing Crosby Stills and Nash doing “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes.” “What about me and Dick?” said Nix.

Babe was a smart kid. He realized this was going nowhere. With muddy hands he popped one of the seedlings out of its little pot and cradled it into the ground. “Well, I think he thinks he’s looking after me, but in actuality, I am looking after him.”

[f107group2]

Time to Flex these Mussels

They say we are what we eat. Bodybuilders must've eaten a lot of mussels then.

Classification

Kingdom: Animalia  

    Subkingdom: Bilateria  

        Infrakingdom: Protostomia  

          Superphylum: Lophozoa  

              Phylum: Mollusca   

                Class: Bivalvia                   

                   Subclass: Pteriomorphia 

                      Order: Mytiloida  

                          Family: Mytilidae  

                            Genus: Mytilus  

                                Species: Mytilus edulis (Linnaeus, 1758) – edible blue mussel, blue mussel (ITIS 2020)

Hanging out with the English

Photo by Guillermo D’Elia (2016)

Just chillin in the northern part of the globe, the Mytilus edulis occurs in the northeast and northwest of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly in Scotland and the British Isles in high intertidal and subtidal zones from estuaries to oceanic waters (CABI 2020; FAO 2020).

Open Sesame: Unraveling the Insides

Photo by DesignPics 

Photo by Rainer Zenz

The main parts of the mussel are its shell and its foot. The shell has 3 layers namely: nacre (mother of pearl) which is continuously secreted by the mantle, prismatic layer, and periostracum which protects the prismatic layer from abrasion. The blue mussel’s shell color is blue, usually purple, and sometimes brown. Its shell is smooth and equivalve (valves of equal shape and size) with concentric lines starting from the hinge. Its hinge line has no teeth but it has 3-12 crenulations under the umbones (Oli 2016).

Photo from: Eggermont et al

Internally, its intestine is continuous to the anus where waste is excreted from the excurrent siphon. It has 2 pairs of gills, each pair resides on each shell valve. Other internal organs include the hepatopancreas, kidney, gonad, and a 2-chambered heart. Its nervous system consists of ganglia or nerve centers because it has no brain or head in their body. Its foot is protruded outside the shell for locomotion and anchoring to substrates (Oli 2016). 

Check out the video below to further know about its anatomy.

Hold On Tahong!

Wonder how mussels are able to anchor themselves?

Interestingly, in the foot of mussels are byssal glands that produce byssal threads. These threads are strong and silky fibers made from proteins and are responsible for anchoring the organism to a substrate. With this, the industrial and medical areas have studied this “glue” which offered on how to create artificial tendons (Kenedy 2019).

Life (and Production Cycle)

Photo from: Science Learning Hub (top), FAO (bottom) 

A bed, not the type you’d sleep on, but reproduction can still happen 👀

As adults, blue mussels are typically found in dense mussel beds. They are broadcast spawners meaning that both have a separate male and female sex and they cast their gametes (sperm and eggs) into the water at the same time and fertilization takes place in the environment. See this video below in which a blue mussel releases its sperm in the water.

The larvae then undergo a series of metamorphosis from planktonic trochophore to veliger until such time it attaches to algae and after some time, joins other mussels.

Since this species is capable of being cultured, instead of settlement on filamentous algae in the wild, they are attached to the ropes and bamboo rafts for the initial settlement during aquaculture and they no longer need a secondary settlement because they are already with other mussels. 

Photo from: GNS Science 

Ecology

If a blue mussels were to submit a resume, it will surely get accepted. Why? They are very versatile!

Blue mussels are capable of withstanding wide fluctuations in salinity, desiccation, temperature, and oxygen tension (FAO 2020). These abilities enable it to occupy a variety of microhabitats and expand its zonation range from high intertidal to subtidal regions, from estuaries to the ocean waters. It can survive in countries with climatic conditions such as mild, subtropical to frequently frozen habitats because they are both euryhaline and eurythermal (FAO 2020)

What’s the Menu to Being the Menu Real Quick

Mussels are often on the seafood restaurants’ menu. But what is on the mussel’s menu? 

They are filter feeders and so any detritus and plankton in the water columns that happen to drift near them can be pulled towards the organism through ciliary actions. Unfortunately, they are not only on the seafood restaurants’ menu but a lot of aquatic organisms also feed on them as well - from sea stars, sea anemones, snails, crabs, fishes,  to diving ducks, northwestern crow, gulls, and sea otters. Maybe their versatility also has its downsides and this is mainly being exposed to a lot of predators.

Photo from: Ruth Foster

However, without mussels that filter the water to take out toxins, algae and debris, the water will not be as clean, and without clean water, fish will have less oxygen causing them to die. Furthermore, they help concentrate the nutrients on lake bottoms and river-beds for other aquatic plants and animals.

Watch this video to see how mussels can help in improving the water quality in terms of turbidity:

Mytilus edulis @ 18: Welcome to Legality

Photo from: British Antarctic Survey 

Most cultured mussels are produced in less than 2 years but in the wild, blue mussels can live up to 18-24 years (FAO 2020), hence its shell growth over the years is a powerful indicator for environmental changes (British Antarctic Survey 2018).

A new study headed by Leca Telesca from University of Cambridge, claims that they have developed a method to accurately describe which specific traits change when facing specific environmental conditions regardless of age, species and other potentially confounding factors (British Antarctic Survey 2018). This is an important feature to track environmental stressors throughout the years.

Connecting with my Hooman

Have you ever tasted a tahong? Umm.. the blue tahong? Cos I haven’t. But they say that the blue tahong’s meat is excellent compared to the green-lipped tahong.  What about you? What KINDS of tahong have you eaten?  👀  

Centuries of Blue Entrée

Mytilus edulis has long been utilized and exploited even way back 6000 BC as scraps of shells were found as kitchen middens (FAO 2020). Blue mussels are harvested as a food source both from the wild and as farmed sources from commercial aquaculture. Blue mussels are a very important food source, especially to the coastal communities. 

DANGER: Toxic Shellfish Ahead

Despite its popularity as a food source, Diarrhetic Shellfish Poisoning (DSP) and Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP) pose a serious threat to the consumers that often leads to long-term industry closures and human health problems (FAO 2020) These poisonings are caused by harmful algal toxins consumed by the mussel.

Aiding the Economy

Blue mussel is an economically important species in the northwest Atlantic and temperate zones both imported and exported in the U.S. domestic fish market. With exported 2,018,000 lbs ($3.86 million) of all mussel species both wild and farmed harvest in 2013-2014 (The Safina Center 2017).

In the Philippines, the volume of farmed mussels continues to increase with 18, 774 metric tons to 26, 302 metric tons harvested last 2016 and 2018 respectively. (psa.gov.ph)  

Interestingly, blue mussels are not that common compared to green mussels in the Philippines! Hmm… No wonder I haven’t eaten one yet!

Fun Facts Time ! ! !

Yes... We know this is your most awaited... 

1. It was just an accident! 

The introduction of the blue mussel in the Philippines is possibly accidental due to shipping activities according to Philstar.com.

2. It’s an engineer! Yep, mussels are!

 Unlike you. . . they’re an ecosystem engineer.

Mussels are considered to be an ecosystem engineer as they can alter their environments for the better. They filter particles and make the water clean that positively affect their ecosystem and everything else that lives within the ecosystem. 

3. Colorful Comparison

The mantles of lady mussels are orange while gents’ are creamy white. 

4. Sorry SpongeBob We Must Side With Plankton

Mussels feed entirely on plankton. To do this they can filter up to 65 litres of water a day.

5. Gandang Natural! Finger Comb!

Chitin from shellfish such as in mussel is used to make “chitosan” which is found in moisturizers, hair-care products, and medical applications such as wound dressings and as a protective coat for wheat seeds.

 6. Mussels do fish!   …What?

Some species of mussels have to “go fishing” in order to get fish nearby to release their larvae for attachment as their life cycle includes fish as a host. Their mussel larvae attach themselves to the gills of fish, where they develop into juvenile mussels before detaching into the stream or river. To attract fish, mussels have developed very ornate lures that resemble small prey fish (Purdue University).

Check out these videos on how these mussel Lampsilis sp. attract fish.

 Reference:

British Atlantic Survey (2018). Blue mussel shape is a powerful indicator for environmental change. Retrieved October 14, 2020, Available from: https://phys.org/news/2018-02-blue-mussel-powerful-indicator-environmental.html

CABI. (2020). Mytilus edulis (common blue mussel). Retrieved October 15, 2020. Available from:https://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/73755#:~:text=trossulus%20occurs%20in%20the%20north,native%20(Wonham%2C%202004). 

Entrepinoys Atbp. Business Ideas Philippines. (2012). Mussel Culture (Tahong). Retrieved October 14, 2020 from  https://ep.franphil.com/mussel-culture-tahong/

FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization). (2020). Mytilus edulis (Linnaeus 1758). Retrieved October 14, 2020. Available from: http://www.fao.org/fishery/culturedspecies/Mytilus_edulis/en#:~:text=Blue%20mussels%20are%20widely%20distributed,%2C%20temperature%2C%20and%20oxygen%20tension. 

ITIS (Integrated Taxonomic Information System). (2020). Mytilus edulis (Linnaeus 1758). Retrieved October 14, 2020. Available from:https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=79454#null 

Kenedy J. (2019). What Is a Byssal Thread?. Retrieved October 14, 2020. Available from: https://www.thoughtco.com/byssal-byssus-threads-2291697 

Oli NA. (2016). Biology of Mussels and Camps. Retrieved October 14, 2020. Available from: https://www.slideshare.net/Nazmuloli52/biology-of-mussels-camps 

Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). Fisheries Statistics. Retrieved October 14, 2020 from  https://psa.gov.ph/sites/default/files/Fisheries%20Statistics%20of%20the%20Philippines%2C%202016-2018.pdf

Philstar (The Philippines Star). (2015). Blue mussels reach Pangasinan coast. Retrieved October 14, 2020 from https://www.philstar.com/business/science-and-environment/2015/12/30/1537711/blue-mussels-reach-pangasinan-coast

Purdue University. (n.d.). Heart of the Tippy. Retrieved October 14, 2020 from https://www.purdue.edu/extension/mussels/more-about-mussels/

The Safina Center. (2017).  Blue Mussel Mytilus edulis.  Retrieved October 14, 2020 from https://seafood.ocean.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Mussels-Blue-US-Atlantic

THAT’S IT FOLKS. BYE!

[darkwingsnark]

FIC WRITER MEME

Tagged by @prince-luffy

AO3 name: DarkwingSnark

Fandoms: ...SEE, I’m in lots of fandoms. Or at least, I’ve written for them during hyper-fixation periods. Let’s see what AO3 says...

Batman: The Animated Series (20)

Batman - All Media Types (7)

Wander Over Yonder (Cartoon) (6)

DuckTales (Cartoon 1987) (5)

Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero (5)

Penguins of Madagascar (3)

James and the Giant Peach - Roald Dahl (3)

Darkwing Duck (Cartoon 1991) (3)

Disney - All Media Types (3)

Dan Vs. (2)

Milo Murphy's Law (2)

Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja (1)

The Batman (Cartoon) (1)

Lady and the Tramp (1955) (1)

Looney Tunes | Merrie Melodies (1)

Winnie-the-Pooh - All Media Types (1)

Alice in Wonderland (1951) (1)

Gummi Bears (TV) (1)

Winnie-the-Pooh (Disney) (1)

.... Honestly, I feel like there’s more that this list isn’t covering. Like Phineas and Ferb isn’t here and I wrote for that show too. And many of these can be simplified and condensed because they belong to similar fics.

Tropes: Depends on the fic. But as a whole, tend to write Romantic Comedies with a lot of slow burn. Mostly because... struggle is funny. People being dumdums and oblivious to the obvious is funny. Aaaaand also because it allows the episodic quality of shenanigans to occur.

Number of fics: Up and posted on AO3? 53. Does not include stuff on FF.net or that’s sitting in google docs begging to be finished.

Fic I spent the most time on: Not sure how to read this. Does it mean active man hours? Or does stuff like having a hiatus in-between count? Because TECHNICALLY ‘Real Value’ was started in high school, and I didn’t rewrite it and carry on the series (with Moonie) until many years later. There are also fics like ‘Growing Love’ or ‘Priorities’ that took a lot of time to do research. Like learning how to build a lawn mower so I could have a character believably break it apart for repairs.

....God I do a lot of research that doesn’t go into the actual fics. Because all I need, really, in the confidence of what I’m doing to be the character and describe an action here or there. 

Fic I spent the least time on: Probably something drabble related? Or maybe the fic I did that was just me venting out emotions because I was feeling guilty? ‘A Mother’s Intuition’ was written and posted within a couple of hours.

Longest fic: Complicated. The longest thing written is technically an RP, NOT a story. (Different, trust me.) ‘What Happens in Gotham’ has a word count of  207,413. But fic wise at 89,022 word would be ‘The Constant Gardener’ . 

Runner up being ‘Priorities’ at little over 87k.

Shortest fic: Drabbles? Uh, let’s see.. Probably from ‘Beauty and Your Worth’, as i think one was literally a paragraph long. ... Speaking of Gummi Bears, I wonder if I still have my notes on the GruffiGusto fic I wanted to write. Something to look into.

Most hits: Apparently ‘Fallen Hard’ at  5354

Most kudos: Also ‘Fallen Hard’ at 518. There... were more fans of Milo Murphy’s Law than I realised. 

Most comment threads: ‘Fallen Hard’, 193 comments. ‘What Happens in Gotham’ following at 185.

Most bookmarks: .... that’s something people care about? I hardly ever bookmark things, since I read it in one go. But... I can look?

Ah.... ‘Fallen Hard’. 63

Total word count: 971,833 Oh hey! Almost a million. That’s something to celebrate.

Favorite fic I wrote: 'Knights of Dobenshire’. Hands down. (With ‘Heart of the Cards’ being very close.) I like writing road trip styled stories. It allows many things to happen within the narrative. BUT, ‘Knights of Dobenshire’ wins because it was such a satisfying conclusion of this build up, you know? Scrooge is finally no longer just putting up with the relationship with Fenton, but fully embracing it. That surprise feeling that hits him when he realizes, dear lord, he IS attracted to Fenton beyond affection. 

It hits me more than a mutual pining because there I KNOW they will get together. But here? While writing with Moonie? I DIDN’T KNOW! I was worried in the end we’d have to write another fic to finally reach that step. Scrooge is stubborn and does what he wants, let me tell ya.

Fic you want to rewrite/expand on: 'Fallen Hard’, ‘Season of Miracles’, ‘Going with the Flow’, pretty much anything that isn’t complete. BUT, not posted, I really want to get back to more of the stories planned in the McCrack series. It was a ship I kinda made from the ground up, with nobody caring about it in the beginning. So it feels very important to see that series through.

Share a bit of a WIP or a story idea you’re planning on:

... Actually, I can share something from 'Donald’s Party (Working Title)’. @swampy-tiefling and I started. Just the first scene to get you guys hooked.

Donald took a deep breath of air from the doorway of the house and sighed, once again pleased to find himself at his home away from home. Traveling the seas and exploring the world with the navy were its own rewards, he supposed, but there would never be anything quite like the countryside-- the middle aged mallard having practically been raised on Grandma Duck’s farm. Donald Duck was happy to be on shore-- his naval carrier being docked for the week in Duckburg as they replenished supplies and took care of whatever repairs that were needed. Whatever excuse his bosses wanted to use were fine by him, he was just happy to not be scrubbing decks for a change!

That didn’t, however, mean he was able to rest and relax-- as the duck was startled out of his thoughts as somebody bumped into him. That somebody was his grandmother as she came to, just having caught her plate of cookies before they fell.

“My land, Donald! What in the world are you doing hiding here when you should be meetin’ and greetin’ the guests?”

Donald ignored the woman’s soft glare as he waved her off, using his other hand to steal a cookie in the process. Stuffing it in his mouth, he murmured out a response.

“Phooey, they’re just relatives.”

“Even more of a reason to go out and talk to them.” Before the sailor could argue, Grandma Duck placed the plate of treats into his hands. “And put these out on the snack table while you’re at it. Poor Fethry is looking peckish.”

Donald rolled his eyes, but otherwise did as he was told. Wasn’t it just like life to make him work at his own welcome home party? Walking towards the open yard where the party was taking place, it didn’t take long to reach the table, where his cousins were already gathered around as they chat.

This instantly caught the attention of the lankier duck, his gaze zoning in as he smiled widely towards Donald in greeting.

“Well if it ain’t the guest of honor, with snacks to boot!” Fethry leaned closer, his red hat wobbling with him as he continued to inquire. “Say, cuz, ya wouldn’t happen to know if these are gluten free, would ya?”

Donald gave him an unimpressed look. 

“You’re not going on another crazy diet, are ya?” Though, in all honesty, he was more worried his looney cousin might try to drag him along-- and after months of eating nothing but mush, he would NOT miss out on his first chance to pig out on actual home cooked meals.

"Not crazy at all, actually!" Fethry grinned that goofy grin. "See, it's all right here; Gluten Free; It's the Way to Be' !" he shoved a rather lengthy-looking hard cover book in Donald's face. Donald had no choice but to stare at it, the words all blurring together from its close proximity to his eyes. The offending object remained there for only a second, however, before it was yanked back, the nutty mallard already busy flipping through it.

"Let's see, here, there's a fascinating chapter I think you should-- Don?"

Phew, that had been close. Donald was still in sneaking away mode, and jumped and yelped when he was tapped on the shoulder. Oh no. He'd been caught, after all. He slowly turned, with a forced, toothy grin, to face his fate.

A wave of relief washed over him when he saw his girlfriend, Daisy, smiling sweetly at him, instead.

“And where do you think you’re sneaking off to, Mister? You’ve been gone for so long, and here we are, with you haven’t even given me a kiss ‘hello’ yet.” 

Now there was something Donald didn’t mind doing, as his girlfriend leaned in her face for her reward. Wrapping his arms around her, he planted the biggest of smooches to her temple. 

“Gaww, I’m sorry Daisy. I really did miss you.”

This earned him a soft smile, as it was Daisy’s turn to kiss him on the forehead.

“And I missed you, hun. Now, tell me… why WERE you sneaking around?”

“Grandma put me on entertainment duty.”

“Well, “ his girlfriend began, “it IS your party, after all. They came to see you, seems fair to me.” This made the sailor groan as she looked at him unsympathetically. Rolling her eyes, the reporter sarcastically patted her boyfriend in comfort. “There there. Now don’t go sneaking off for real, the boys will be arriving soon. And Grandma tells me Uncle Scrooge will be bringing along a special guest.”

“Special guest?” Donald asked incredulously. “Like who?” This caused Daisy’s eyes to glimmer all the more in mischief, a look that told him that she knew something he didn’t know. And that something was big news, if he was reading her right.

“Oh, nobody TOO special, I suppose,” Daisy was stalling, and it was driving Donald up the wall. The duck woman continued her teasing. “Nobody except your uncle’s new date friend.”

"Date friend?" Donald practically exclaimed, prompting Daisy's grin to grow all the more smug.

"Yep! You've missed quite a bit since you've been away, you know."

"No kidding...well I'll be..." Donald was shaking his head, but he was smiling. Uncle Scrooge, dating, at his age... it was nothing short of a miracle. It was about time, too!

"Meanwhile, why don't you go say hi to the rest of the guests? I know it's hard..." she rolled her eyes. "but at least make an effort, okay? Thanks, hun!"

Donald's heart fluttered as she smooched his cheek, and left. He glanced out over the yard, and saw quite a few familiar faces; Gus, Ludwig, Gladstone... heck, even Gyro Gearloose had shown up!

He sighed, but this one wasn't a sigh of pure despair. It did feel nice to be home, surrounded by people who most likely cared, and his nephews were even going to show up soon. Not to mention, he'd get to tease his uncle for finally taking his advice on the whole dating thing. 

That alone gave Donald the pep in his step he needed as he threw himself back into the party-- where he knew his crazed family would be waiting for him. 

[antiquecompass]

Untamed Winter Fest Day Seven: Relax

Wherein there are scheduling problems and the fixing of them. (Also on Ao3)

The problem with running a security firm was that everyone, understandably, wanted off for the holidays. A problem many businesses faced, Nie Mingjue could admit, but most of those didn’t also offer 24-hour-protection for clients, who were also traveling for the holidays and needed or wanted a little extra security. He looked at his client list and requests, his current staff and their approved and pending vacation requests, and realized he was definitely going to have to work one of these jobs. Maybe two. Possibly three.

He jumped as his office door slammed open and Meng Yao stormed in, a look of fury on his face and a bag of take-out in his hands. He dropped the take-out on the desk, pulled off his coat and scarf, and then stared Mingjue down hard.

Mingjue glanced at the clock and--oh shit.

“I am so sorry, I didn’t realize it was this--”

Meng Yao put one leather-clad finger over Mingjue’s lips. “Stop talking.” He peeled off his black gloves with ruthless efficiency. “And move. Since you clearly can’t be trusted to handle making this schedule yourself. I offered to help you earlier today, if you recall. And you assured me it would be fine, and yet here we are.”

Mingjue tried to get up but Meng Yao glared at him even harder. “Did I say ‘get up’? No, I said ‘move.’’

Mingjue rolled away from his desk, just enough for Meng Yao to fit. Meng Yao immediately sat down in his lap, and made himself far too comfortable.

“I thought--”

“You’re still not allowed to speak,” Meng Yao said. “Assholes who stand me up because they can’t figure out a basic employee rota when they have an entire team of administrative assistants get to keep silent.” He slapped Mingjue’s leg. “And not try to get a free lap dance out of it.”

Meng Yao was the one who sat down in his lap, but Mingjue knew now was not the time to argue. It was eight-thirty. He was over two hours late for their date. He wondered why Meng Yao hasn’t called and then he remembered he’d left his phone on the counter of his in-office bathroom after the fifteenth picture Huaisang had texted him of his winter wonderland skating date with Xuanyu.

He kissed the bare skin of Meng Yao’s neck and grinned when that was apparently allowed. He could see the hint of a smile on Meng Yao’s face as he clicked through the employee scheduling program. He nuzzled his neck and got another slap to his leg. So, not entirely allowed or close to forgiven just yet.

He still remembered the day Meng Yao had come home, back to the farm, after his last bit of testimony. After he was done with the Jins. Done with it all. He’d come home, crawled into their bed, laid his head down on Mingjue’s chest, and said he wanted a change. It had paralyzed Mingjue with fear thinking that they were done. Again. But then Meng Yao had sat up, tugged on Mingjue’s hand, and asked him if he’d still love him even if he cut his hair.

Mingjue had almost laughed, but Meng Yao was serious, so he’d immediately called Huasiang to arrange for the best hairstylist in the area to take care of it. It was still an adjustment, but Mingjue did love to palm the back of his neck and run his fingers over the soft hair at his nape.

“You need to trust Rebecca with more shifts,” Meng Yao said. “Stop throwing her softballs. She’s new to your company, but she’s not new to the business. She can handle this entire slot of jobs here,” he said.

He clicked through something else. “Alfie wants extra hours, he’ll take this Christmas Eve job and he’ll like it. It’ll give him time-and-a-half.”

Another bit of scheduling magic and the second job Mingjue was going to take was off the roster. “Janice can take the first-half of these and Aaron can take the nights.”

“I had Aaron on the Carson job,” Mingjue said.

Meng Yao shook his head. “It won’t work, not if you want Aaron on his best. You know he normally works late shifts and overnights. Jerome will take the Carson job.”

“Then who is going to cover Miss Mayfield’s request?” he asked.

Miss Mayfield was a sweet, paranoid, old lady who had once worked for something classified and now refused to run errands without some sort of security posing as her grandchild, niece or nephew, so on and so forth. She was one of their first and one of their most regular clients and as much a part of Springfield Security as the rest of them.

“Bethany’s got it,” Meng Yao said.

“That’s the day she comes off light-duty,” Mingjue said. “What if it’s the day Miss Mayfield’s predictions come true?”

“Then Miss Mayfield’s ghost can haunt you,” Meng Yao said. “But it’s the best job to put Bethany back in the field again.”

“Hmm,” he agreed, pressing another kiss to Meng Yao’s neck. This time he got a small smile and a particularly evil grind of his hips in response.

“Behave,” Mingjue said.

“You first,” his little fox shot back.

Mingjue remained quiet as he watched him work, admired that profile and those long eyelashes and fought the urge to pepper him with soft kisses. He only glanced to the computer occasionally, trusting Meng Yao to unfuck the mess Mingjue had made.

“You can’t schedule Amir for two weeks like that,” Mingjue said.

Meng Yao gave him that look that said he could and he would.

“No,” Mingue said, trying not to laugh, feeling truly relaxed for the first time in hours. “I’ll take that first job. You’ve come and worked your magic, like always, my little fox. You can’t punish Amir for the fact he let slip that he thinks I’m hot.”

“I don’t like him,” Meng Yao said, but he saved the schedule and sent it out to his employees. “If I catch him looking at you again like that, I will scratch his eyes out.”

“I know,” Mingjue said.

“The audacity, the disrespect, to say such a thing to me. To me!”

“Yes,” Mingjue agreed, wrapping his arms around Meng Yao and standing. “He is well aware that he fucked-up.”

“And honestly, who says that in front of their employer?” Meng Yao asked as he was carefully placed down on the couch.

“You did,” Mingjue said as he went back to the desk to grab their food and the glasses and wine he kept in one of his desk drawers.

“Yes, well, I wanted to fuck you even when you had that horrible excuse for a mustache on your lip,” Meng Yao said. “That’s love. He is just...pathetic.”

“Horribly basic,” Mingjue agreed as he joined his boyfriend on the couch. “It’s just a crush. He’ll get over it.”

“He better,” Meng Yao muttered as he started to dish out their food.

“Thank you,” Mingjue said. “I really was afraid I’d be working through the New Year.”

“You need more staff,” Meng Yao said. Something he’d advised after his third visit to Springfield Security. “The price of your success means you have to expand. You need more staff and you either need to bump one of your administrative staff up to handle scheduling or you need to hire someone else.”

“Like a partner,” Mingjue said.

“Exactly, like a partner,” Meng Yao said. “Try to convince someone it’s a smart investment--which it is, people will always need protection, and your track record speaks for itself.”

“Someone who would care about this staff,” Mingjue said.

Meng Yao snorted. “Obviously. I mean, if you want to go the silent partner route, fine, but I think it’d be better for you staff if they had another person of near equal authority to come to with their problems or concerns.”

“Someone who doesn’t hesitate to take charge,” Mingjue said.

“Yes,” Meng Yao agreed. “And someone who won’t be intimidated by all the bodyguards.”

Mingjue stopped Meng Yao’s hands and turned his face to look at him. “So, you.”

Meng Yao frowned. “What? Me? No.”

“Yes,” Mingjue said. “You. They’re already terrified of you, you’ve fixed that schedule more in the past five months than I have, you have the money to invest and be a partner of equal standing, and you care about my staff--our staff.”

“I’m already handling your brewery,” Meng Yao said.

“So find a replacement, or work half your time here and half your time there,” Mingjue said. “It’s not like you won’t eventually have your own part of the Nie majority shares.”

Meng Yao choked. “What?”

Mingjue shrugged. “Stick around, my little fox, and you’ll be greatly rewarded.” He reached over him and grabbed one of the boxes. “Are these fries? Awesome.”

“It’s steak frites you--” Meng Yao closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “Are you serious about this?”

“Like a heart attack,” Mingjue said through a mouth full of fries. “Oh, there’s steak here too?”

Meng Yao took the food away from him. “Eyes on me,” he said.

Mingjue looked at him. “Yeah?”

“Do you understand what you just offered me?” Meng Yao asked. “I could destroy your entire company. My reputation alone is shit now.”

“In Boston,” Mingjue said. “This is Springfield. And like I give a fuck about your business reputation. This makes my life easier. It makes your life easier. It makes everyone’s lives easier. So fuck all the others and let’s just be happy.”

Meng Yao shook his head. “That easy?”

Mingjue laughed, honestly laughed. He took Meng Yao’s face, cradled it in his large hands, and shook his head.

“My little fox, we’re over a decade in the making. A decade of love and joy and hurt and pain and far, far too much sadness and time spent apart. Nothing about this has been easy. Haven’t we earned it?”

Meng Yao wrapped his delicate fingers around Mingjue’s wrist. He leaned into Mingjue’s hold, the sweetest look on his face.

“Okay,” he said. “I’ll call Kenyon and Kenyon in the morning and have the business contracts started.”

“Oh, good,” Mingjue said. “Then you can sign the other paperwork they already have ready for you.”

“The what?”

Mingjue just smiled and relaxed back into the couch, watching Meng Yao get worked up again.

He did so love it when his little fox got his proverbial tail in a twist.

[littlemisssquiggles]

Pinehead Headcanons: Oscar Goes Missing...Again

This headcanon was sparked by @jealouscartoonist​’s illustration for Day 2 of Rosegarden Week. In their image they depicted the concept of what if…Oscar is sent to Atlas Academy on his own while teams RWBY and JNR are off doing their own thing---meaning missions on behalf of Ironwood and the military and what not. I guess you can consider this somewhat my response to that or at least my way of expanding on the thought. As soon as I saw it, it made me wonder a very curious scenario.

Imagine if…Ironwood attempts to separate Oscar from the others through the use of the Academy? 

Technically he is the man with the authority to commit such an act undetected considering that he is both in charge of the huntsmen academy and the Atlesian Military while also having two seats on the ruling council of the kingdom. 

Here’s what I’m thinking. I know jealouscartoonist may not like this idea but I can see Oscar attending Atlas separately from RWBY and JNR a possibility. Technically…wouldn’t Oscar be the equivalent of a first year huntsman student given his current lack of training while the others are pretty much second or third years by now. I know JNR_RWBY haven’t trained under an academy since Beacon but I’d like to think they’d all have advanced to another year of school by this timeline in the story since the plot has progressed over a period of several months to nearly a year since Vale.

 I guess what I’m trying to imply is that if Ironwood wanted to keep Oscar under his firm watch while also tethering his bond with his fellow huntsman comrades, this is one way I can see him doing so within the law, I guess. By having Oscar attend the academy as a beginner student with a different school curriculum than his friends who would be his upperclassman.

In the RWBY V7 Trailer, we glimpsed the RWBY girls dive-bombing from an Atlesian airship down to what I’d assume is a school training mission---Atlas-style, much similar to their first training mission in the Emerald Forest and Forever Fall back in V1.

So perhaps Ironwood would keep RWBY and JNR busy with training missions while Oscar will be off doing his own thing since he wouldn’t be able to join his friends on their missions. It’d be the equivalent of how things were between RWBY and CFVY since they were their second year colleagues.

And if I’m going off of using CFVY’s experience as an example, I guess off-campus training missions to help real life victims is part of the second year of training at the huntsman academies. So what we saw for JNR and RWBY during the V7 trailer, with what appeared to be them going on a training mission to a dust mine---that’s probably part of their training as second year students. Maybe. It’s a hunch at best.

Either way, even if JNR_RWBY and Oscar went to Atlas together, I don’t think they’ll be able to see each other on the same beat like how it was during their travels. I wouldn’t be shocked if their respective times at the academy does create distance between the older huntsmen and Oscar. Sure JNR_RWBY will all be together since they’re all around the same year academically. But Oscar, he might just be on his own or rather segregated from his friends and given special treatment from the General.

I wouldn’t even be surprised if we get a moment where JNR_RWBY are on break in a cafeteria scene and all the while Ruby is scouping out the room in the hopes of spotting a familiar freckled face. But unfortunately Oscar isn’t around. He’s never around and this soon becomes an issue.

I wouldn’t be surprised if, due to Oscar’s predicament with Oz being gone, Ironwood would vouch that Oscar stay close to him all the times so that the two can figure out a way to bring the old soul out of his solitude. 

Heck, I wouldn’t be surprised if Ironwood convinced Oscar to sadly lie to the others about joining them at Atlas Academy when the reality is that it’s all a ruse to hide the fact that Ironwood has been experimenting on Oscar and his aura.

Or…maybe Oscar doesn’t even get to join the others at the academy. Perhaps unlike Ozpin who was willing to bend the rules to allow a 15-year-old huntress to attend his school ahead of her time, I doubt Ironwood would do the same for Oscar regardless of him being a successor to Oz. 

I’m more inclined to believe that James would keep Oscar under his surveillance so that they may figure out a way to bring Oz back or something along those means. One or the other, I suppose.

The overall theory is  to have Ironwood keep Oscar separated from JNR_RWBY. I feel like that is a plot point that could come to fruition canonically.

And y’know what? Is it weird that I actually wouldn’t mind something like this happening. Not just because it can potentially lead into my Pinehead headcanon about Ironwood betraying the heroes by using Oscar as a martyr in his scheme to stop Salem but partially cause, I’d like to think a subplot like this could lend to the golden opportunity to show Ruby strongly missing Oscar.

I think it’d be kind of adorable if as Oscar’s time spent with JNR_RWBY becomes scarce due to Ironwood, this kind of sparks Ruby’s inner mother hen and protectiveness of Oscar to go into overdrive. 

Picture a moments with JNR_RWBY hanging out together, laughing only for Ruby to frown sadly when she noticed the lone empty seat across from her between Ren and Nora where Oscar should be.

Picture Ruby trying to get in contact with Oscar constantly---perhaps our farm boy will finally get his own Scroll while he’s in Atlas prompting moments of Ruby ringing him up or leaving many messages on the hope the two could talk only for her attempts at communicating going to waste. Oscar never answers her. As a matter of fact, it’s like he wasn’t even there anymore (a nice allegory for the threat of the Merge if you will). 

Picture Ruby being teased by the members of FNKI---like Neon Katt for example, who mistake her protectiveness of her friend for an unspoken crush.

Like I’m just imagining Ruby trying to call Oscar for the umpteenth time in about a week of not seeing or hearing from him. Oscar has just ghosted himself from the group and it gets to the point where it starts to really worry Ruby. 

She of course, expresses her concern for her missing freckled farm boy to everyone---JNR, WBY as well as FNKI too--- only for Neon to bluntly ask Ruby if Oscar was her boyfriend (or someone she liked that way) since the red rose’s earnest behaviour reminded the cat Faunus of a love-struck girl hung up over not seeing her partner in some time.

This of course riles Ruby up and we get a hilarious bit where a flustered Ruby tries to awkwardly explain that she and Oscar are ‘just friends’. It’d be even more hilarious if the others joined in on questioning Ruby’s true feelings toward Oscar considering she’s only known him shortly yet acts so caring and defensive toward him.

I know there is no real necessity for the series to have Ruby justify on-screen why she cares so much for Oscar. Then again, this squiggle meister of course wouldn’t mind seeing something like that done if possible.

My hunch has always been that Ruby cares for the Oscar the way she does because she relates a lot to him. Unlike anyone else (besides probably Jaune), she knows what it’s like to be in his shoes---to be the youngest in the presence of older more experienced and possibly better huntsmen than her and have to work harder to prove yourself and show that you have a  right to be there.

 At least in Ruby’s case, she was fortunate to have Yang joining her at Beacon to look out for her and help her open up to others.

But with Oscar, he doesn’t have that luxury. He doesn’t have any immediate family to turn to or watch over him. He doesn’t even have Ozpin anymore. 

Oscar is all alone now so Ruby cares because she wanted to at least let him know that he still had someone there for him. 

That he didn’t just have to depend on Ozpin or Ironwood or handle things on his own all the time. He also had her on her side, looking out for him and standing by him no matter what.

I like the idea of Ruby voicing why she cares so much for Oscar since I can see it sparking JNR forming their own interest in looking out for Oscar. After all, it’s not just Ruby who has been in Oscar’s shoes. All three of them share this. I can see Ruby’s protectiveness of Oscar resonating with Jaune since it might remind me of how Pyrhha used to look out for him too. 

In a way, Ruby is technically Oscar’s version of Pyrhha and this realization could make Jaune see that he’s been where Oscar is as well as an underdog.

The same can be said for Ren and Nora. It was the same for them too. They wouldn’t be where they are currently if they didn’t have each other having their back through thick and thin.

I just think hearing Ruby say why she cares to much for Oscar would be an interesting way to sort of inspire JNR taking an interest in joining Ruby in looking out for the freckled farm boy too since in their own way, they’ve all been where he currently stands and understands the importance of having someone by your side as you go.

Personally I really need the Writers to do better on showing that Oscar is meant to be part of the team on his own bearings outside of Ozpin’s influence while supposedly emphasizing that the others care about him too.

No offense but each attempt they’ve done so far just makes me as the viewer watching feel like all of this is only being done because the Writers write it to be so for the purpose of the plot and not because the plot itself surrounding the relationship between these said group of characters that they’ve built upon thus far supports this development; y’know what I’m saying.

Take V6 C9 for example. I know folksl have heard me rip into this episode many times before and I apologize for doing it again here but…as a Pinehead and someone who’s favourite RWBY character is Oscar, I can’t look past how much the Writers mishandled him for that episode.

The writing decisions for Oscar’s part of that episode’s narrative still bothers me even now that we’re on the brink of V7’s premiere.

I understand that V6 C9 was meant to sort of express that Oscar is officially part of the group and everyone values him in that light and all that jazz, but I’m so sorry guys. That bit felt forced to me (like so many things about that one episode). I didn’t buy into Jaune’s sudden change in attitude towards Oscar or any of his remarks acknowledging him as part of the team since we didn’t really get to see him bond with Oscar in that manner. Hence my eternal disappointment of the CRWBY Writers not killing two birds with one stone by having Jaune and Oscar reunite and reconcile at the Pyrhha statue.

All of my gripes for this episode would immediately disappear if the Pyrhha leaf had led Jaune to finding Oscar standing at the foot of the statue of his former fallen teammate. That to me would’ve been more poetic.

But nah, I guess Jaune meeting the red-haired woman who might as well have been a ghost (since she vanishes immediately out of the story as quickly as she appeared) was a better, more fitting idea given how this subplot started.

 Yep, I guess revealing Oscar’s new huntsman gear in a rather contrived way was far more important than showing him and Jaune actually sharing a genuine heart to heart to help properly discuss and shed any previous animosity and misunderstanding left behind by their previous tense scuff. Yep. Good shit.

But that aside, what I’m mostly trying to say is, if we get another subplot for V7 where Oscar suddenly goes missing again prompting JNR_RWBY to go find him, I hope a better job is done to show how much the others care about Oscar.

If not the whole team then at least, show how much Oscar means to the members of his Golden Circle: Team RNJR. I still stand by my theory that Ruby, Jaune, Nora and Ren are destined to be Oscar’s closest confidants, particular Ruby Rose.

I do think a ‘Missing Oscar Part II’ story is possible to happen for V7 only this time, he’d probably been abducted by the Atlesian military and used as lab rat in Ironwood’s desperate attempt at saving the world pitting our heroes against the General and his forces as betrayal is in motion. And when it goes down, I’m hoping these four---RNJR--- are at the forefront of getting Oscar back---

Ruby as Oscar’s potential best friend (and love interest if romance is in the cards) and JNR as Oscar’s potential huntsmen team and surrogate family.

That’s my theory at least. Besides, if Oscar suddenly disappears again then I’m definitely banking on someone (probably Nora)  making the meta joke about Oscar going shopping. 

‘We need to find Oscar. He’s missing and he could be in danger!’ ‘...You sure he didn’t go shopping again.’

I think that bit is mandatory if we do get that story for V7. But as always, these are just my thoughts, theories and ideas.

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)