#i mean the event was still decently fun but ive been looking forward to seeing them for a while:(

[siroofington]

well the spring break meetup i thought id see some of my friends at was a total fail…

[the-ss-zemyx]

PVP(umpkin Spice Lattes)

Zexion and Arpeggio are Discord friends. They chat in private messages, raid in Verum Rex together, and may or may not have feelings for each other.

Ienzo and Demyx are college roommates. They hate each other, for the most part. At least they can both agree on pumpkin spice lattes.

Happy 2nd Zemyx Day of 2020!!

Specifically for today, the S.S. Zemyx Discord Server hosted a collaborative fic-writing event! Over the course of the past five days, four of our writing members teamed up on a Google Doc in one glorious, inspirational, chaotic, frankenstein-esque fic-writing bonanza! That's right, the fic you're about to read is the product of -four- people's efforts!  Enjoy!! :D

(A HUGE thanks to my co-writers: Aliceslantern, Ennarcia, and Carbonpixel. This was a hell of a lot of fun to do and I'm immensely proud of us!! - Mod Arxsia)

Also available on AO3!

__________

      Demyx hated his roommate. Okay, no, hate was a strong word, and Demyx did his best to be a friendly, outgoing sort of guy, so ‘hate’ was definitely too strong a word. He liked to make friends. Having friends was nice. Having friends was very nice, and so, he tried to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. But his roommate was a different story, and Demyx did not like his roommate very much at all.

At least he was easy on the eyes, because everything else about him got on Demyx’s last nerve. His name was Ienzo, but his name might as well have been "Jerk," with a capital J. When he wasn't hogging the Internet bandwidth doing God-knows-what on a chunky Alienware laptop, he was lecturing Demyx on the virtues of keeping the floor free from dirty clothes and giving empty soda cans a proper burial in the plastic wastebasket by the door. Lame. Also, he was a little condescending. That jerk . 

One day, Ienzo burst into their dorm room with the gusto of a hurricane aiming to speak to a manager about a botched coffee order. He swung his laptop bag onto his mattress. It bounced when it landed. "Out," he commanded.

Demyx looked up from his phone. He sat with his legs crossed on his own bed, his Discord app open to a private message thread on his phone. In a few minutes, one of his server friends, a guy with the display name "The Cloaked Schemer" but going by his Discord handle, Zexion#1309, would be starting a voice call with him. It was kind of a big deal--they had been chatting in their shared server for almost a year, and in private messages for almost as long, but they had yet to actually speak to each other. "I'm actually busy," Demyx said.

"I don't care. Out."

It turned into an argument, of course, neither yielding and probably disturbing their neighbors with the yelling. Yep, Demyx didn’t like his roommate one bit. 

He ended up in the lounge by the kitchen, utterly fuming, cursing his idea to “go rando” with a roommate all the while. It’s the best way to make friends, Demyx , his mother had told him. What better friend than a roommate?

Very funny.

At least he’d been able to grab his phone. Of course, Zexion was wondering where the hell he was. 

The Cloaked Schemer: Do you need to reschedule?

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: roommate’s being a dick and kicked me out. Sorry!

The Cloaked Schemer: Ah, I too am having roommate troubles. I can sympathize. I know too well what it’s like when one’s privacy is denied.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: he’s driving me NUTS! 

The Cloaked Schemer: Have you tried talking to him about it?

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: He didn’t exactly uh seem receptive to talking

The Cloaked Schemer: It’s always a good idea to try for maturity first.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: I did! Not my fault the guy wasn’t having it.

Anyway. Id hate to let that guy take up any more time.

Hru?

The Cloaked Schemer: Doing as well as I can, I suppose. I’m enjoying my classes so far. It seems a little easy, but then again, it is only one of the first weeks. Things should pick up more by midterms.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: ure too smart zexy. And didnt you skip a grade?

The Cloaked Schemer: A year, yes. I don’t think they call them grades in college.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: Considering some of the people ive met, couldve fooled me.

The Cloaked Schemer: If I’m hoping to have a grad degree within five years, I have to fast track it. I’d rather not spend much more time in undergrad than necessary.

Though I am especially resentful that, despite the fact that I am technically a sophomore, I’m considered enough of a freshman to still be required to dorm.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: That blows

But dude, ure here. Might as well try to enjoy the journey, yaknow?

The Cloaked Schemer: Oh, Arpeggio. Your naivete is too obvious sometimes. It’s sweet, I think.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: har har

The Cloaked Schemer: I am disappointed though. I was looking forward to meeting you--in a manner of speaking. You’re probably one of the most sane people from our Verum Rex server.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: Issa game, bro. Some of them, idk, take it a little too seriously

The Cloaked Schemer: Well, aspects of it are worth being taken seriously, but I understand what you mean.

Though the ship wars are grating.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: ha! Yeah.

The Cloaked Schemer: We’ll have to find some other time, then.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: Mann i was hoping to see if you sound as smart as you type

The Cloaked Schemer: You flatter me.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: Do you think if we lived near each other we would hang out?

The Cloaked Schemer: If it’s all the same, I’d prefer to keep my location anonymous.

At least for now.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: I know. Just a hypothetical question

The Cloaked Schemer: I’d like to say yes.

But for all I know, you’re actually a forty year old serial killer who lives in his mother’s basement.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: harsh

You listen to 2 many true crime podcasts 

Anyway, I g2g. See if the roomie will let me back in. Got homework.

The Cloaked Schemer: Enjoy your night, Arpeggio.

Hopefully one of us has a good one.

Demyx closed the app and repocketed his phone. He flopped back on the lounge couch, eyes squinting at the fluorescent lights above and his limbs ragdolling in uncomfortable directions. A good night, huh? It’d be better if he could spend time in his own room without having to engage in guerilla combat whenever he wanted to exist in his own space. Wishful thinking, he thought.

__________

      Ienzo stared at the chatlog open on his computer screen. The circle next to Arpeggio’s icon turned a dull gray, and the remaining bits of Ienzo’s hope for decent conversation dulled with it. He had finally caught up enough with his classwork to have some free time to spend, finally arranged to voice chat with Arpeggio, finally gotten Demyx to leave the god-forsaken room so he could have the one conversation he’d been looking forward to for weeks , and now… nothing. All that planning, gone to waste. Another wave of irritation hit him, and suddenly he was out of bed and grabbing his keys. He needed some tea.

Ienzo didn’t get tea at the coffee shop, despite his plans. The alluring, hipster scent of pumpkin spice hit his nose instead, and he caved before he could stop himself.

The college employed students as baristas in the campus coffee shop, as part of the work-study financial aid, so it wasn’t uncommon to see one’s peers at the shop. “Hey, Ienzo,” Riku said. It was getting late; chairs were already on top of all the tables. They’d met in Ienzo’s anthropology class.

“I’m not too late, am I?”

“I can bend the rules for you.” He went back behind the counter. “What’ll it be? Your usual?”

He blushed guiltily. “Pumpkin spice. Please.” Curse that glorious, wonderful scent.

He smirked. “Coming right up.”

“I know it’s dreadfully popular.”

“Yeah, cause it’s good ,” Riku said. “As long as you’re not one of those “half-caff, no whip, vanilla and almond, five shots” type of people.”

“Why complicate coffee so much?”

Riku handed him the paper cup. “At that point, just drink coffee-flavored syrup.” There was a pleasant lull for a moment. Riku began cleaning the espresso machine. “So why are you out so late? Don’t you have an early class tomorrow?”

Ienzo grimaced. “My roommate and I got into a fight.”

“...Again?”

“We are not well suited for each other.” A sigh. “I went to the Residence Life office to try and apply for another room, but the period for that is over. I was told, and I quote, “unless he’s hurting you, tough it out.””

Riku chuckled. 

“He is simply-- obnoxious ,” Ienzo continued, the pressing need to vent taking over. “Slobby, loud, and always around at precisely the most inopportune times. I was supposed to have a call with a good friend of mine, and it took some doing just to get him out.”

“Right, your Discord friend.”

“You have a good memory.” Ienzo swished the coffee around a little; it was slightly too hot to drink.

“The one you have a crush on,” Riku said with a grin.

Ienzo flushed painfully. “I do not have feelings for him,” he said.

“Dunno. You managed to bring that call up in almost every conversation we’ve had. If he was really just your friend, would you be that excited? Enough to hype about it for weeks?”

Ienzo shrugged. “I do not know where he’s from, I don’t know his real name, I don’t even know what he looks like. For all I know, he only uses he/him pronouns online.”

“And?”

“I just… see no reason to desire something I cannot have.”

Riku wiped at the counter. “Oh, don’t be so doom and gloom,” he said. “If the call matters so much, it’s going to happen eventually.”

“I know.” He smiled. “Well, thanks for the tea and sympathy. Er, coffee and sympathy.” 

“Any time.”

“Enjoy the rest of your night.”

“You too. Play nice.” 

“Just promise to bail me out if things go awry, will you?”

“Ha, on my salary?” Riku winked.

Ienzo left the coffee shop. He didn’t want to return to the dorms yet, but the fall night was calm and quiet. He checked his phone (maybe Arpeggio was free? Though he did say he had homework…).

As a stroke of luck, he had a message waiting for him.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: I have a room again! \o/ 

the jerk was gone when I got back!

The Cloaked Schemer: How fortunate for you. I assume you’re flying through your homework now?

Mel0d10us N0cturn3: nope! :p 

this science paper is kicking my ass!

Im really no good at this sort of thing

The Cloaked Schemer: Do you have any tutors available? Ordinarily I’d love to help but it might be easier and more private to go there instead.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: \o/

We actually do have one of those tutoring centers I think! Thanks for the idea!

Don't want you to waste your special brain-powers on little ol’ me lol

The Cloaked Schemer: I’d hardly call helping you a waste of my “special brain powers.”

It’s not a bad idea to check your local resources though.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: o7

Don’t think I’m gonna make any progress on this paper tonight tho lol

The Cloaked Schemer: Giving up already? I didn’t have you pegged for a quitter.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: Awww, come on! Don’t guilt meeee

My poor brain!

It’s mush!

;-; will you not spare some mercy for my poor mushy brain?

The Cloaked Schemer: I suppose just this once, provided you use your resources and go to the tutoring center.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: o7 Yes sir !

First thing in the morning!

My mushy brain thanks you for your mercy and endless kindness!

Ienzo’s cheeks grew warm, but whether it was from the message on the screen or the sip of pumpkin spice coffee currently running down his throat, he neither knew nor was willing to explore.

Despite the late hour, there were plenty of students milling about campus, taking up their little spaces. It had taken him some time to find an empty bench to sit on, but one eventually caught his eye and he claimed it immediately, sitting down with his coffee in one hand and phone in the other.

The sky was inky black, dotted with stars, the sun long gone by now. Nights were starting to grow just a tad chilly, the beginnings of autumn seeping into the atmosphere. It was Ienzo’s favorite season and the aroma of pumpkin spice wafting past his nose was just what he needed to make up for the disappointment of having his voice call with Arpeggio abruptly cancelled.

Well, maybe not entirely. He’d been really looking forward to hearing Arpeggio’s voice for the first time, but this did nicely enough, he supposed. It was better than sitting around stewing in annoyance over his damned roommate anyway.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: so what are you up to right now?

The Cloaked Schemer: It’s a lovely night out. I needed some tea. Got coffee instead.

What is it about pumpkin spice that’s so irresistible? 

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: Never wouldve pictured YOU as a devotee of the PSL.

The Cloaked Schemer: Guilty pleasure. 

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: theyre so good. I can’t have that many of them cause caffeine makes me SLEEPY

The Cloaked Schemer: Somehow, that doesn’t surprise me at all.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: whats that supposed to mean?

The Cloaked Schemer: Nothing derogatory, I assure you.

Though the idea of you being hopped up on caffeine amuses me.

You seem like one of those people who has energy all the time.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: i wish

The Cloaked Schemer: I should--begrudgingly--head back to my room.

You should try working on that paper.

I mean it about the tutor.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: yeah, yeah. I hear ya

Hopefully your roommates not being a dick anymore

The Cloaked Schemer: Fat chance. M3l0d10us N0cturn3: enjoy your coffee~~

__________

      Demyx sat for a long time looking at that exchange. He could’ve heard Zexion say those words. He was just so painfully smart, but Demyx could listen to him say anything. About anything. For hours.

He showered and got ready for bed, hoping that Ienzo would stay gone. But as it was, he was back. Ienzo scowled in greeting.

“Nice to see you too,” Demyx muttered. He noticed the coffee cup Ienzo had set down. Ienzo seemed to live on caffeine and spite. 

“I needed to clear my head, as I do not have the luxury of privacy.”

“Well I gotta sleep somewhere,” Demyx said. He crawled into bed. Ienzo rolled his eyes. Demyx saw him grab his own shower caddy and head out to the communal bathroom. He thought he smelled--he blinked. Slowly, ever so slowly, he got up, crossed over to the cup, and sniffed it.

Of course he likes pumpkin spice lattes, Demyx thought bitterly. Ugh.

He went back to bed and fell asleep listening to music.

__________

      The universe thought it was just so funny. Demyx had taken Zexion’s advice and the tutor he’d met with was his jerk of a roommate. At least Ienzo was unhappy too, if the scowl on his insufferably nerdy face was anything to go by.

“What are you doing here?” Demyx blurted before he could stop himself.

“I work here,” his jerk of a roommate answered in response, “as a tutor, for my work study. I take it your procrastinating finally caught up to you and you need some last-minute help?” Did he really have to be so damn condescending though?

Demyx hiked his backpack strap a bit higher on his shoulder and rapped his fingers on the tutoring center's reception desk. Ienzo could glare daggers at him all he wanted from his seat at the computer behind the desk, but the curious eyes of the other tutors and students around meant that he would have to maintain decorum. They both would, lest Ienzo lose his job and Demyx lose his tutoring privileges. He took a deep breath. "I need help with a biology paper."

Ienzo's expression tightened. "Would you like to make an appointment?"

"No? You said it yourself: this is last-minute." Demyx tapped on the desk. "I need to talk to the science tutor on duty, please."

"It seems like we're both out of luck tonight, then," Ienzo replied dryly, absently clicking at something on the computer monitor. "I'm the science tutor on duty at the moment."

"You? Gross." 

"I'm not particularly happy about it right now, either."

Demyx considered his options, and cringed at his conclusions. His paper was due in two days, and it was only half-drafted. Without a passing grade on the assignment, he would set himself up to fail the class. Petty squabbles were not worth the hit to his GPA. He sighed. "Well, can you help? I'm kind of desperate, here."

Ienzo returned the sigh. "Fine. Follow me."

Demyx followed Ienzo around the reception desk to a square table in the far corner, a plastic chair on each side. Ienzo alighted onto the seat closest to the wall. "This better not be a waste of time."

Demyx pulled his laptop out of his backpack before sitting down across from Ienzo. "Has anyone ever told you that you have excellent people skills? Because if they did, they lied to you."

Ienzo rolled his eyes. Yep , Demyx thought, amazing people skills. They were off to a great start. Getting through this paper was going to be agony. "I'm paid to tutor, not practice social niceties."

The laptop screen lit up as Demyx swiped one finger over the trackpad. A screenshot from one of his more memorable raids in Verum Rex guarded the rest of his files behind his login password. Demyx typed his password as quickly as he could, shooing the image of his and Zexion's avatars away before Ienzo could ask any unwanted questions. Evidently, he did not type fast enough. 

“Verum Rex? You're familiar with it?” 

Demyx nearly jumped, shoulders tensing. He knew Ienzo was there; that shouldn’t have startled him as badly as it had.

“Duh? It's only the best MMO on the market right now. Not that you would know, since you're so committed to the whole 'smug asshole' thing,” He snarked on reflex, feeling slightly guilty about it afterwards. Ienzo was being friendly for once, or was at least making something of an attempt at it. Yikes. Demyx wasn't usually one to make low blows like that. He opened the Biology folder on his computer and selected the draft of his paper, making an effort to get along with Ienzo while they were forced to sit together. "Please help me with this? If you would be so kind, please?" Demyx made praying-hands in Ienzo's direction in apology.

Eyebrow rising - was it just one, or both? - Ienzo shot him a look, obviously unamused in the slightest. “If you’re trying to be cute, it’s not going to work.”

Demyx pouted and opened up his biology paper, turning the laptop toward Ienzo. “Fine, fine, just help me?”

Rolling his eyes yet again, Ienzo was just about to lean in to read what Demyx had so far, when the familiar sound of a Discord ping had Demyx scrambling to turn the laptop back toward himself. Shit. He’d forgotten to close his Discord window before showing up at the tutoring center.

While Demyx closed the Discord app, Ienzo watched him carefully, contemplative. “You use Discord?”

Turning the laptop back, Demyx gave him a look, half in disbelief because surely Ienzo was too much of a nerd, but not in the cool way, to know what Discord was, and yet he did. Shit, it would be really awkward to end up in a server together. “Yeah, who doesn’t use Discord these days? I mean, especially if you play games or are into, I dunno, any fan community stuff.”

For a moment, Ienzo said nothing, slowly turning to look at Demyx’s biology paper on the screen. “Alright, let’s see what we have to work with so far, if anything.”

Demyx sighed. Asshole.

__________

      Was this some kind of joke? Ienzo was being pranked, wasn’t he? Any moment now Demyx would start laughing about wasting his time and walk out, like the lazy slacker he was. Halfway through, he half collapsed on the table.

“This is impossible,” Demyx whined. “You don’t really understand this stuff, do you? You’ve gotta be lying.”

Ienzo felt his eye twitch. “Not all of us are lazy fools who give up after 15 minutes. Why are you even here?”

“Because my friend said I should, and I trust his advice. He never leads me wrong, so even if I have to spend time with you , I’m gonna do this.” 

"Your friend sounds like he has the sense that you very much lack," Ienzo deadpanned, scrolling through Demyx's paper. He took stock of the misformatted section headings, missing in-text citations, and the off-center data table in the middle of the mess. The topic of the paper did not appear in any of Demyx's written work. "Can you tell me what this assignment is supposed to be? I can't tell from what you've given me."

"It's…" Demyx shrank back in his seat. "I don't know what it's supposed to be. My professor gave us all a table of data-results-things and told us to organize and analyze them. I don't know what he wants, exactly."

Ienzo huffed, and almost slammed Demyx's computer closed on the spot. Thankfully, his better faculties kept him from breaking Demyx's laptop. "There's your problem. You can't complete an assignment if you don't know what the assignment is . Email your professor for clarification and request an extension. If you do it early enough, they might grant you leniency."

"Really? That's your advice? Beg my way out of it?"

"Not begging. Requesting. It shows forethought, self-awareness, and emotional maturity, even if you don't actually possess any of those things. The adage of faking proficiency to gain proficiency has some truth to it." Ienzo pushed the laptop over to Demyx. "Is there anything else I can help with?"

Demyx's arms crossed, and his expression took on the quality of a betrayed toddler. "You didn't even help me with what I came in for, asshole."

Ienzo waved away Demyx's indignation with a dismissive hand. "There's only so much I, or any tutor, can do without having a good idea of what your professor expects. Emailing is the best advice I can give right now."

"So if I email my professor, you’ll help me?” 

“I give you my word.” A promise made in haste, if only to appease the barest responsibilities of his job. Hopefully Demyx wouldn’t make him live to regret it.

Not long after Demyx was gone, Ienzo checked his Discord app, surreptitiously on his phone behind the reception desk, to find a message from Arpeggio.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: Zexy, this worst thing ever just happened!

My roommate is my tutor!

Save meeeeeee

The Cloaked Schemer: That is peculiar. Though colleges are small worlds, so I hear.

What did he have to say re: the paper?

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: Ugh he couldn’t even help

Because I had licherally no idea what the professor wants

I mean, the dude has an F on ratemyprofessor so

He said to email and beg for clarity and an extension

The Cloaked Schemer: ...That is sound advice, actually.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: Youre taking his side???

The Cloaked Schemer: Not exactly.

But in academic situations, it always looks good on you to take the initiative and seek help when you need it.

I guarantee the professor will work with you, and perhaps be able to refine that same assignment in the future.

If he’s worth his salt, he’s seeking to improve himself the way you are.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: I GUESS

You wanna do a raid tonite? 

The Cloaked Schemer: Alas, I, too, am a college student with coursework.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: RUDE

Ienzo leaned back in his chair in the campus library. How coincidental, he thought. He’d just given Demyx the same advice. Then again, college papers--especially in the sciences--were not always diverse on the gen ed level. He recalled Demyx’s paper; he should’ve asked him to see the email, or post, or handout with the assignment on it. Chances are the moron had merely misunderstood.

Demyx liked Verum Rex. Perhaps they could have this to talk about. Ienzo wondered who he mained. Probably Yozora, he thought with a sneer. 

The Cloaked Schemer: Actually, I can do one raid.

ONE. Brief. Raid.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: Thats more like it! \o/

One raid turned into two, then Ienzo ended up staying in the library, at the tutoring center, until it closed.

__________

      Demyx begrudgingly took Ienzo’s advice. After his marathon raid session with Zexion, he sent a brief email--agonizing over the wording--to his professor, who responded almost instantly with an apology. Several students had already asked him about the assignment, it turned out, so he was going to extend the entire class’s deadline. But if Demyx needed a few days after that, he could have it.

“You were right,” Demyx murmured out loud, as he read the email the next morning. 

“Of course I was,” Ienzo said, not looking up from his desk. “See? All it takes is a little maturity.”

The irony. Demyx grimaced. He looked over at him. “So you’ll help me?”

“When--and only when--I am on duty,” he said. “I have a life outside of work, you know.”

Demyx wondered how true that was. Ienzo spent a lot of the time in the room if he were not in class or in the library. Did he have friends? Did he go to societies? He nearly asked. Then he looked at him, really looked at him, for the first time in weeks. He had bags under his eyes, and was washed out, books spread in a circle around him. “Outside of studying, too?”

Ienzo opened his mouth, then shut it. “I am not here to socialize. I am here for a degree.”

“But don’t you… have any friends?”

“Of course I do,” Ienzo said, just a little too quickly. 

Like he would honestly tell Demyx. “Sure,” he said, shutting his laptop and tucking it into his bag. “Well. I got class. I’ll see you at the center later?”

“Much to my chagrin,” Ienzo responded evenly.

Demyx’s day was ordinary other than that. After the professor clarified what he wanted in class (and, to Demyx’s immense relief, it was much less daunting than what he’d thought), he stopped by the library to check out some books which might point him in a vague direction. Ienzo could tell him if they were any good. He stopped by the coffee shop to grab a croissant and a coffee, and, on impulse, got one for Ienzo as well. The idea of it made him nervous. Maybe I’ll say they made an extra by mistake, he thought. He already knew Ienzo drank them.

There Ienzo was, sitting in the office. “It’s you,” he said in an unreadable tone.

“It’s me.” He cleared his throat. “Um…” He thrust out the coffee without saying anything else.

“Is this for me?”

“Uh, yeah.” He felt his face heat--though why? 

Ienzo took it, looking confused, and sniffed the small hole in the lid. “Oh,” he said softly.

“I wasn’t sure if you liked--”

“No. I do. That was kind of you.” He blinked, his expression odd, slackened; Demyx realized it was without malice. “Let’s get to work, shall we? I don’t want this to take any longer than it has to.”

Ienzo helped him structure the paper, and reviewed proper citations with him. It would take a little work, but seeing it outlined, Demyx felt a lot less overwhelmed. Something he thought was a mammoth project would maybe take an hour or two to write.

“Once you have it written, come back and I can help you with grammar and syntax,” Ienzo said.

“Awesome.” He took a deep breath. “I feel… a lot better now.”

“One typically does when one stops procrastinating,” Ienzo said. He leaned back in his seat. For a second--but just one--he sounded like Zexion, all firm and proper, genteel without being rigid.

__________

      "You got your grade back already?"

Demyx beamed as he held his laptop screen-out, his browser logged into the university's online grading system. One score was listed under BIO 101, labelled "Paper 1." The percentage displayed next to the assignment name was higher than Ienzo expected from Demyx. "I didn't completely fail!" he practically cheered.

"So you didn't," Ienzo agreed, nodding slightly at the number from his desk. "It's amazing what a bit of work will do."

Demyx dropped himself onto his bed and turned his laptop. He bounced on the mattress a few times while he looked at the number. "This is the best news I've gotten all semester and it's the best feeling. Is this what it's like to be a genius and get good grades all the time?"

Ienzo returned his attention to his own laptop, where a half-drafted essay mocked him with its blinking text cursor and nonsensical thesis statement. He clacked another line of bullshit into the document. It was for English class, he reminded himself. Any answer was correct if it could be argued well. "No, not really. You get used to it."

"I… I should thank you," Demyx said, after a beat of silence. "For your help. I wouldn't have had anything to turn in at all if you hadn't told me to email my professor."

Another line of bullshit trailed across the screen. Ienzo squinted at it, unsure of what he had typed. "Don't mention it. It's my job."

"But still. Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Ienzo could hear Demyx shuffling on his bed. "So… you play Verum Rex?"

"Fairly regularly, yes."

"Do you do raids or multiplayer at all?"

Ienzo shot Demyx a warning glance. "I already have a raiding group. I'm not looking for another one."

Across the room, Demyx had tucked himself into bed, his Star Wars sheets pulled all the way up to his chin. He blinked at Ienzo unceremoniously. "Jeez, forget I asked. No need to be snippy about it."

Demyx's head disappeared under the covers, and Ienzo returned his attention to his essay. At least, he tried. The Discord notifications in the corner of his screen kept distracting him.

Eventually, Ienzo admitted defeat and opened Discord. All of the messages were from Arpeggio.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: hey, do we have an opening on our raiding party?

Zexion?

Oh nvm he said no

What are you up to?

I'm taking a victory nap after getting a good grade on that paper I had to 

write a while back

My roommate is typing something and he's so loud

What is he writing that makes him so angy

The Cloaked Schemer: I am also typing angrily at something

It is a universal collegiate experience

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: still so angy tho

Are you angy atm?

The Cloaked Schemer: I am… frustrated

I'm meant to be dissecting the themes in a short story but I feel like I'm only spewing garbage on the page

Perhaps if I present the garbage with enough conviction, I will be able to maneuver through this class

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: if youre writing it, it's definitely not garbage :P

you need to have more confidence in yourself, Zexy

The Cloaked Schemer: Ha. I think my roommate would disagree

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: well then he's a bum

Tell him that

Arpeggio says so

Ienzo looked back at Demyx, cocooned in spaceship bed sheets and doing who-knows-what under the cover of bed linens. He thought he saw the flash of a phone screen through the fabric, but the light disappeared as quickly as he caught it.

The Cloaked Schemer: I'll pass. He seems busy.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: Busy doing what? Bum things?

The Cloaked Schemer: I certainly hope not. We're in the same room right now.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: oh. Awkward

The Cloaked Schemer: I’ll say.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: so you know ive been thinking

The Cloaked Schemer: Have you? What a concept.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: ha ha.

Its been a while since we tried voice chatting

Maybe we could try again?

The Cloaked Schemer: You would want that?

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: I want to hear your voice. To see if youre actually as smart as you write

Maybe youve got, like, a transatlantic accent, or something. Thatd be cool

Ienzo blinked, staring hard at the screen. His heart beat a little faster. It was so hard to determine tone through text. 

The Cloaked Schemer: Maybe I’m not as cool as I seem.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: highly, HIGHLY doubt it

Youve kept me sane

I really appreciate our

Ienzo saw him type “thing” and then frenetically edit to “friendship.” He swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry.

The Cloaked Schemer: The feeling is mutual.

A long, long pause. Ienzo did not know what else to say. His face was burning.

The Cloaked Schemer: Normally I’d rather be caught dead than admit this.

But it does get somewhat lonely here.

It’s nice to have someone to talk to.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: I know what u mean

Sometimes i feel like i dont really know who i am

And like college is supposed to be about finding that

But its hard.

The Cloaked Schemer: You don’t have to tell me twice.

Part of why it’s so easy to exist in online spaces, in games. Appearance doesn’t matter. It’s like being a more concentrated version of oneself.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: Do u feel like a more concentrated version of yourself?

The Cloaked Schemer: When I talk to you.

Ienzo’s heart was pounding. He thought he heard Demyx sigh across the room. Was he typing too hard?

Arpeggio started and stopped typing several times, just making Ienzo more nervous. What is he going to say? Did I push it too hard? Was I too forward?

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: Me too, Zexion

I wish we knew each other. Like, irl

Getting to do raids in person

That would be so fun

And i dunno, maybe do other things

Go out to eat. Go to the movies. Maybe go dancing.

Do u like clubs?

The Cloaked Schemer: I’ve never been.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: it takes some getting used to

But the energy of a crowd is electric

Especially with people you know

Oh god oh god oh god , Ienzo thought. His hands were trembling. 

The Cloaked Schemer: Where would we go to eat?

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: anywhere you want

Well. on a college students budget anyway

-laughs in poor

The Cloaked Schemer: Ah, so, five star cuisine, then.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: Just dont order the lobster

In all seriousness. We need to vc sometime

The Cloaked Schemer: Yes.

There’s going to be a raid event on Saturday. Perhaps then?

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: Depends on if i have the room :/ 

Wanna say yes so bad

The Cloaked Schemer: I know the feeling.

I suppose if I get desperate enough I can rent out a study cubicle in the library.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: Awww you’d do that for little ol’ me?

The Cloaked Schemer: Yes, I

His finger slipped, hitting the enter key a moment too soon before he could even finish the thought in his head. His hands felt almost clammy, the inner mechanizations of his mind working on overdrive, as if trying to race against the pitter-patter beat of his heart. Shit. Perhaps… Riku was right after all? Had Ienzo, usually so level-headed, actually developed a crush on Arpeggio? It was utterly nonsensical, and yet he couldn’t deny that he felt a comfort with Arpeggio that he didn’t feel with anyone else he knew, online or offline. Was it possible to fall- ...to develop a smattering of feelings for someone based on typed text alone?

Well, wasn’t that a theme in literature? Two people falling in love over written letters? For all Ienzo knew, there could very well have been instances of it happening in real life, in the days of old, long, long before the age of technology and the internet. A pair of penpals, miles and miles of distance between them, communicating through the written word; it could happen, couldn’t it?

Hold on. When the hell did he turn into a sap ? Frowning, Ienzo ran a hand over his face, feeling like a lovestruck fool.

No. No, this couldn’t be a crush. Just because it was so easy to talk to him, just because they’d been talking for a year or so by now, it didn’t mean-

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: Zexy?

You ok?

Shit, how long had he zoned out for? 

The Cloaked Schemer: Sorry. Got distracted.

But regardless, I think we should aim for Saturday.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: Great!

Hoping we don’t get interrupted by our dick roomies

The Cloaked Schemer: Quite. It’s a date, then.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: Yes :3

Ienzo took a deep breath. Regardless as to whether or not this was practical, it seemed that Arpeggio reciprocated his flirting.

Wait. Ienzo looked at the screen, cheeks heating up as he realized he’d typed the word ‘date,’ and Arpeggio said ‘yes .’ He couldn’t deny the little flutter of his stomach in that moment.

__________

      Demyx set his phone aside, his heart beating heavily in his chest, his face bright red. He swallowed. There was no way sleep would come easily now, and it probably wouldn’t be until Saturday.

He thought about the nature of crushes. He’d never seen Zexy’s face, or heard his voice, but he was so adept at weaving words in the way Demyx wanted to be with music. He tried to imagine him, what he might be like.

He rolled onto his back. Ienzo’s frenetic, noisy typing had stopped. Demyx sat up, rubbed his eyes, and pretended he’d been napping the whole time. “You good?”

Ienzo shut his computer quickly, like he’d been doing something questionable. “Yes. Fine.” He was a little out of breath. What the hell had he been writing?

Demyx blinked. “I’m gonna go get a coffee,” he said instead. “Want me to bring you one back?”

“Sure,” Ienzo said, his face flushed.

Demyx shook his head. Well. If Ienzo needed to take care of that he had at least a few minutes now. “Cool.”

The whole time he was at the coffee shop, he kept thinking about Zexion, all their little conversations. It was evolving, and evolving fast. Demyx knew from brief experimentation with dating apps that just because a person sent you some flirty words didn’t mean anything would come of it. For all he knew, Zexion lived in New Zealand, or something.

That didn’t stop him from wanting it.

He drew a deep breath, exhaled. Well. Saturday he would find out.

Demyx wasn’t going to let Ienzo ruin his chances of meeting Zexion. He decided to strike preemptively, pausing at the door of their dorm room and sucking in a breath, steeling himself. He could do this. He could ask his roommate for the room for one night, and he wouldn’t take no for an answer. “Hey, so, I have a thing Saturday,” he said vaguely. Okay, so maybe he wasn’t coming off as strongly as he intended, but he could still try. “Mind if I hang here alone for a few hours?”

Ienzo glanced up. The flush was gone, and he seemed much more composed. “Yes, that’s fine. I was going to go study anyway.”

“Study? Don’t you ever have any fun?”

“Perhaps I find studying fun,” Ienzo said.

“Suit yourself.” As he passed on his way back to the bed, he saw out of the corner of his eye that Ienzo had Discord open.

__________

     Friday night, Demyx barely slept. He wasn’t sure why he was so nervous. Crushes didn’t usually… hit him this hard. It’s dumb. It’s so dumb. His loneliness was getting to him. Even Saturday morning, there were some hours until the events started. He looked at his DM history with Zexion. They’d spoken briefly, only to confirm a time and place for their characters to meet and chat. He sat at his desk, his hands trembling, as the game booted up.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: You ready?

The Cloaked Schemer: Of course.

M3l0d10us N0cturn3: Cool.

My mic isnt like great

But you can still hear me

He was shaking. He was shaking. “Get it together,” he muttered to himself.

The Cloaked Schemer: You’re a broke college student. I’m not expecting a professional setup here.

Though I will say my booth is pleasantly soundproofed.

Let me connect.

And Demyx thought his heart might stop. I’m so gay, he thought. A second later he heard that familiar call connection. He twitched a little, and his mic clattered loudly on the floor. Shit!

“Arpeggio? Are you alright?”

“I just dropped the--”

A long, long pause.

He knew that voice.

“Zexion?” He picked up the mic and set it down.

“Arpeggio?”

“I dropped the mic.” Demyx swallowed.

“You…” Zexion fumbled for words. “Speak a little more, please.”

“Is that really you?”

“Yes.”

“And you’re in a library right now.”

“And you had an event… Saturday.” 

“Ohh my god,” Demyx mumbled. He wasn’t sure what he was feeling, just that he was feeling a lot of it. “Ienzo. You’re Zexion?”

“It’s an anagram,” he said, his tone numb.

“Seriously, this whole time--”

“Evidently.”

He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, but at the same time, there was something warm in his chest.

Wait, no. No. This was Ienzo, and they hated each other--

Demyx realized he was panicking. He also, vaguely, in the back of his mind, realized the call had disconnected.

Demyx spent the next few minutes desperately trying to control his breathing, trying to not focus on how Zexion- No, Ienzo- was so disgusted it was him that he’d immediately dropped the call.

Of course. Of fucking course. The universe hated him. The universe had it out for him, surely. Why else would this have happened? He finally meets this sweet, smart, wonderful guy who takes him seriously and actually likes talking to him, on a regular basis , and then… And then… It turns out to be the very same roommate who hates him. That would just be his damned luck, wouldn’t it?

Grabbing his pillow, Demyx face-planted into it, pressing it furiously against his eyes to stop them from burning, to stop the tears that threatened to spill. Of all the people it could’ve been. Why Ienzo ? 

Demyx had been nervous enough as it was, afraid the person on the other end would think him annoying - his voice, his tone, the way he just couldn’t fucking shut up sometimes when he got excited about something. Alternatively, the filter between his brain and his mouth was immensely weaker than the filter between his brain and his fingers, and he could’ve said the wrong thing, unable to stop himself in the same way his hand can catch itself on the enter key before hitting it, or quickly delete the message before Zexion could read it.

But this was so much worse, because Ienzo already knew him, already had an impression of him, and that impression was far from good. It’s no wonder he disconnected the call so suddenly. He likely couldn’t stand hearing the truth any longer, stomach churning with disgust, head filled to bursting with regret, and not just regret over the voice call, but everything .

An almost entire year’s worth of conversations, soiled now, because Demyx was, well, Demyx . A slob. A slacker. An idiot. He wasn’t worth Ienzo’s time, and now he knew he wasn’t worth Zexion’s.

A sharp ache spread over his chest, cold and numbing, all of him tense with it. He… liked Zexion. He very genuinely liked him, so excited to get to talk to him, his bristling nerves aside. All week he’d thought about it, daydreaming, wondering what the person on the other end would sound like, if he’d love that voice as much as he loved the text on his Discord screen.

It no longer mattered, not when it was now clear that Zexion - no, Ienzo , was utterly disgusted with him.

It was over. It was all over - their friendship, a year’s worth of personal conversations, these budding feelings he was beginning to have, or that he’s been having for a while now…

On the flipside, was Demyx disappointed that it turned out to be Ienzo? He… didn’t know the answer to that, still reeling in the fact that Zexion, his dear friend and crush, hated him. The pillow was starting to suffocate him and he instinctively pulled it away from his face, eyes still burning. He sucked in some deep breaths and just when he was finally on the cusp of calming down, his door swung open so fast Demyx feared it’d break off the hinges. 

Ienzo leveled him with a determined stare. “You.”

__________

      Ienzo sat.

And sat.

And stared, and sat some more.

He was dizzy. Slowly, so slowly, all the pieces clicked together. The coffee. The references to Verum Rex. How they were always just missing each other. The whole tutoring scenario. Good god . So this person he’d been harboring feelings for this whole time was--

He pressed a hand to his forehead. And yet, a small part of him… was relieved?

It could be…

No, it couldn’t be anything! They hated each other! They’d complained to each other about each other more times than Ienzo could count. They had--

Ienzo felt the walls of the study booth begin to close in around him, pushing the breathable air out of the room. His ribcage constricted around his lungs, and his heartbeat pounded at his temples. He gathered his laptop and microphone in his arms and burst out of the room, chest heaving.

He braced himself against the outer wall of the study booth and willed himself to breathe normally, his head tilted all the way back to rest on the door. This was real life, and he was fine. He would be fine, anyway, with a bit of finessing. Okay, perhaps a little more than a bit.

Ienzo retrieved his backpack and stowed his equipment inside as he analyzed the situation. Arpeggio and Demyx were the same person. A strange revelation, but not world-ending. He could find another raiding party. He could join another server. There was more than one person with whom to play Verum Rex.

But--

Ienzo caught himself zipping and unzipping the top pocket of his backpack, more forcefully than necessary each time. A new server didn't sound appealing. A new raiding party, even less so. He would have to chat with new people, learn their idiosyncrasies and fighting styles, learn their pseudonyms and remember how they differed from their usernames. It all sounded so… hard, and boring, and unnecessary. 

He zipped his backpack closed for the last time and held it at his side by its tiny top handle. Its back straps kicked at his calves as he raced out of the study area, through the main lobby, and into the courtyard. His mind was set. His choice was clear. The only thing to do was follow through.

Ienzo made a beeline back to the room. He found Demyx sitting cross-legged on his own bed, his computer accessorized with a small budget microphone and his face awash with something that looked like guilt. His eyes widened when Ienzo crossed the threshold. 

"You." Ienzo's statement rang out like a gong.

Demyx swallowed. "Yeah?"

"We need to talk." Ienzo shut the door behind himself. It slammed closed, though Ienzo had not intended for that. 

"...yeah." Demyx turned back to his computer, fiddling at the USB port where his microphone connected to the rest of the machine. "Ienzo, I--"

"Shut up." Ienzo stalked into the room, single-minded. He stopped at the edge of Demyx's bed. "Shut up and listen, for once."

Demyx's shoulders rose to his ears. He stayed quiet.

Ienzo dropped his backpack to the floor. Though his fingers trembled, his resolve held firm. The moment of reckoning was upon him. "Did you know?"

Demyx shook his head.

"Did you want to know?"

He responded in a whisper, pained and hushed. "I wanted to meet Zexion."

Ienzo's hands trembled faster. He balled them into fists to compensate. "And now that you know," he said, "do you regret it? Wanting to know? Learning the truth?"

A tear trailed down Demyx's downcast cheek. "No."

Something deep inside Ienzo wanted to reach out and wipe away the tears that followed, while Demyx's breath caught in gasps over his laptop keyboard. Ienzo steeled himself. "I… don't regret it, either."

"You don't?" Demyx looked up and met Ienzo's gaze with caution. Aside from the red tinge at their edges, his eyes looked almost hopeful. 

Ienzo softened, relaxed his fists. "I don't want to find a new server, or a new raiding party."

Sniffling, Demyx nodded. "I don't, either."

"I don't want to stop talking to Arpeggio," Ienzo continued, his heart playing timpanis in his chest. "He is a close friend of mine."

"He's also your lazy roommate." Another tear escaped, this time going down the side of Demyx's nose. Demyx wiped at it with the heel of his hand. "Ienzo, I--"

"We've had differences. We've also had commonalities, albeit in virtual space. There's no reason we cannot bring the two together."

"Ienzo--"

"There's no reason we should be at each other's throats. We--"

"Ienzo!" 

He blinked. The drum performance in his chest missed a beat, then started from the top at full speed. "Yes?"

Demyx unplugged the microphone from his computer, sighed, and tossed it to the far edge of his bed. "I don't think that will work."

Ienzo frowned and crossed his arms. He was beginning to remember why he and Demyx didn't get along in meatspace. "Why, pray tell, is that?" he asked.

Demyx swallowed again, more conspicuously than before. "It's just… I…"

Ienzo leaned forward, his head cocked to the side. "You what?"

"I, um, I…"

"Go on. I don't have all night."

Demyx pushed his computer aside and drew his knees into his chest. "I… shit. I had a thing for Zexion." His shoulders hitched with sardonic laughter. "Shit. Fuck. This sucks." He reached behind himself for his pillow and buried his face in it. "This is so embarrassing," he whined, his voice muffled.

Ienzo's budding anger deflated. "You… you did?"

Demyx nodded into his pillow. "Uh-huh. And now you know, too."

Ienzo opened his mouth to respond, but couldn't make the words in his head form coherent phrases. His throat sputtered with half-formed consonants instead. Words. For fuck’s sake, wasn’t he good at words? Why was this suddenly so damn hard?

"This is the worst," Demyx groaned. "Just kill me now. Make it look like an accident. Tell my family I loved them. Don't let my sister take my bedroom at home."

Ienzo's faculties returned in the bumbling, clumsy way that drunkards stumbled home from dank local pubs. "I... don't think that will be necessary," Ienzo managed, through his own confusion.

"No?" Demyx put his pillow back in its place, and faced Ienzo with dried saline clumping in his eyelashes. "What, are you gonna torture me instead? Make me regret being born? Because you're a little late on that front, buddy, I already do."

Ienzo took a deep breath. His crossed arms dropped to his side, then held each other at the elbows. "I may have developed… similar feelings. For Arpeggio." Ienzo's mouth went dry. The drum performance upgraded itself to a full marching band drumline, twenty-five snare drums pounding paradiddles and rolls in synchronized sweeps. 

A silence consumed the space between them, interrupted only by Demyx's sniffling and Ienzo's heartbeat. It stretched into the abyss and the stratosphere in equal measure, and stung more acutely than the idea of never speaking to Arpeggio again.

Demyx broke the silence by clearing his throat. "So…"

Ienzo coughed. "So..."

"Are we…" Demyx unfolded his legs and swung them over the side of his bed. His hands grasped at his mattress, and his head hung from his shoulders  "Are we, y'know… do we still, like…"

"Do you want to be?" Ienzo shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "Friends, cohorts, party members, server mutuals? Or…"

"Or what?" 

"Or…" Ienzo trailed off. Or what, indeed? Friends with benefits? Significant others? Boyfriends? The mere thought made Ienzo's palms sweat. "Or…"

In the moment between Ienzo's efforts to name his emotions and act on them, Demyx had sprung up from the bed and slipped his hands around the sides of Ienzo's face, his thumbs resting just below the apples of Ienzo's cheeks. His breath tickled at Ienzo's nose and lips. "Or… this?"

Heat seared at every inch of Ienzo's face. If he could feel Demyx's breath, Demyx could feel his as well. "...I suppose, yes."

"In that case," Demyx murmured, somehow purring and wavering at the same time, "tell me no." He rested his forehead on Ienzo's. "Tell me no, and we won't. I promise. Things can go back to normal."

A whimper, wholly undignified and unbidden, escaped from Ienzo's higher register. "I can't," he whispered.

Demyx leaned forward, and Ienzo followed. At some point, they met in the middle, and the world's axis shifted two degrees to the left. It was a tentative press of lips, but Demyx’s hands on his face kept him anchored. It didn’t feel like Ienzo thought it would, and self-consciousness invaded. Suddenly Ienzo felt very young and immature; vulnerable .

But… after a moment or so, not so much. Demyx was so warm against him, and Ienzo realized it was a learning curve, one he was picking up with his usual speed. He was shaking a little in disbelief. It was so-- nice.

Demyx pulled away and brushed his fingers across his cheek. "You're trembling."

"Forgive me. I--" He swallowed.

"No, it's cool." Demyx pulled away and smiled, brighter than Ienzo had ever seen someone smile before. "Do you… want to go again?"

Ienzo did, very much so. "I'm not opposed, per se, but I think we should… explore our relationship a bit. Perhaps starting with our mutual interest in pumpkin spice flavors." 

“Sounds like a plan to me, Zexy,” Demyx grinned.

__________

      Riku set the pair of pumpkin spice lattes down on the little square table in the back corner of the coffeeshop, glancing at Ienzo, then Demyx, then back at Ienzo, one eyebrow shooting up into his hair. “Is the world ending? Did I miss a memo on the corkboard in the back room?”

Ienzo coughed. He was vaguely aware of the heat rising in his cheeks. Damn it all to hell. Of course Riku was here, why would it have been anyone else? Sighing, he gestured to Demyx, bracing himself for the inevitable bit of humiliation, courtesy of the one friend who knew about his very apparent crush on his Discord friend. “Riku, meet Arpeggio.”

Riku’s other eyebrow shot up into his hair. “You’re shitting me.”

Demyx looked across the table at Zexion, clearly trying to fight the incoming of a shit-eating grin. “You talked about me to people?”

"Only the unimportant ones," Ienzo said, picking up his cup and sipping loudly.

“Psh,” Riku spat with a roll of his eyes. “Yeah, and every damn minute of the day. If I had a dollar for every time you made heart eyes at the ceiling while talking about him, I could quit this job and pay off my tuition.”

Ienzo balked at that, nearly choking on his latte. “It was not that often.”

Waving a hand, Riku corrected himself, looking pointedly at Demyx. “Wait, no, he’s right. I’m forgetting that half the time, he’d be complaining about his horrible room-”

“Shouldn’t you be behind the counter?” Ienzo hissed, glaring at Riku. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Demyx’s gaze flicking between him, like he was watching a game of ping-pong. “Or should I text Sora and Kairi about all those little hearts you like to draw around their names on the garbage receipts every time they come in?”

"Go ahead. I'm ninety percent sure they're both into me, anyway."

Ienzo pulled his phone from his pocket and brandished it at Riku. "Are you willing to test that theory?"

"Make sure you write it down," Demyx chirped, blowing into the hole in his drink's lid. "If you write it down, it's science. I learned that in Biology this semester."

"I'll do more than that," Ienzo said, tapping on his phone screen with both hands. After his phone played a short 'whoosh' sound, he placed it face-down on the table. "Images sent. Now we wait for our results."

Riku scoffed, then balked, then turned beet-red. "You're an asshole," he hissed through his teeth.

"Relax. I was just kidding,” Ienzo said with a glint in his eye that Demyx barely caught.

"Forgive me if I’m a bit skeptical." Riku scowled for a moment, but eventually softened into a smirk. "Whatever. Enjoy your Discord date, Casanova." He knocked on the table once before returning to the checkout counter.

"Discord date?" Demyx asked, taking a swig of his pumpkin spice latte. "I thought we were hanging out in real life."

"Let's not split hairs. We're about to see a show." Ienzo jutted his chin in the direction of the cafe's front door. As if on cue, Sora and Kairi burst through it like a duo on a mission.

“Oh Riiiiiiiiku!” they chorused in sing-song at the top of their lungs.

"Sometimes," Ienzo said, turning back to Demyx, "I like to watch the world burn."

“Yeah, I know. That’s actually kind of hot,” Demyx admitted, taking another sip of his latte. "Remind me not to piss you off again, though."

[kinqemperor]

Hey Nyo sorry to be bothering you but I'm fairly new to this fandom and have read through what there is of translated manga and I was kinda curious as to why Emperor x Gloves works? I really find them cute but how would they find themselves together or even getting into a relationship? Is it their personalities? Really wanna hear your thoughts I don't think anyone else has dwelve into how they would get together (at least from what I've seen) ^^

Oh! First of all welcome to the fandom, hope you enjoy your stay buddy!

Warning, lotsa rambling:!

To answer your question, oooh boi! First lets look at the times theyve met and interacted:

-They met on the mountain before, had a convo, Emperor gave him his dualies (yes, I know, he mostly gave it to him to mess with him in their battle but yknow.)

-Later in the tournament, Emp defeated him and was harsh, Gloves was shook and upset

-Then later again during Salmon Run.

-Durin the new chapters we see them at the same location- doesnt rlly mean anything, but who knows! Maybe they talked!

Okay so, its clearly obvious Gloves sees Emp as an idol and respects him, when he met him on the mountain he was totally surprised and starstruck. My personal headcanon is that he had a lil celebrity crush on him at that time- which just got worse after receiving a new trendy weapon from Emperor. So yeah, I assume til the tournament he was super excited and looked forward to battling Emp (in the mountain chapter we saw Emp being awfully polite, not showing much ego and gifting him a new weapon). After Emp defeated Gloves, we see him completely shocked on the ground,

I dont think I have to explain this scene, but Gloves had to realise his idol wasnt as nice and friendly as he thought. Emp was the complete opposite of the person Gloves met on the mountain (which mightve also been for show, since that was a public tv streamed battle and all that, who knows.)

So after that, Gloves was probably disappointed and upset as fuck, but determined to get better. Some say Gloves hated Emp after that but, ehhh I dont think so. I feel like, even tho he was hurt by his words, they also motivated him to become a better player yknow? If he really hated him, he wouldve thrown away the dualies he gave him, or at least said some sort of bad thing about him. Which he didnt.

Bla bla bla, stuff happens, bla bla Blue defeated Team Emp, Gloves and everyone else watched. Emp went to become a better King aaand,

now the Salmon stuff happens, when they meet again, months after the tournament (talking bout the tournament where emp defeated gloves) and dualie event happened,

We see them fighting and working together,

We see them being dorky,

and most importantly, this scene:

He complimented him, and Gloves seemed to appreciate it quite a lot, he sees it as an honour to receive a compliment from him. Which means, Gloves still respects him, still sees him as someone important, and clearly doesnt dislike him.

All of that makes a decent amount of chemistry already, everything that follows after this is pure imagination and headcanons!

Sooo, their personalities! I love them! I personally think they work together perfectly,

you got this rich, cocky, (pretty clueless) famous dude with a huge ego, and a trend seeking, energetic and dorky cool kid. What more could you ask for lmao.

Ahem anyways, I personally like to imagine Gloves managed to befriend Emp! Whether its through convos during locations they all met at, or somewhere else. They have the usual convo stuff and learn a lil more bout each other, get closer over time, meet up a few times and do fun stuff! Like, turfing, watching a movie, playing video games!

(We see Emp being completely clueless when it comes to basically anything outside of turf, he doesnt even know how washing machines work. So Id like to think Gloves shows him the basics of life lmao. I personally rped this with a friend, it was great! Gloves showed Emp pop tarts ksksks.)

Anyways! Then the usual developing feeelings happeensss,

and theres lotsa awkward momentssss, and theyre both completely obliviouss

and then their first date happensss, and then,

gay happens.

Okay Im so sorry I got lazy at the end but like I said, everything that happens after the Salmon event is interpretation, and you can imagine that however you like! I just love the idea of Gloves showing Emp all this basic life stuff he never experienced, like fucking taking him to Mc Donalds or something, just, showing him fun stuff yknow! Helping him become a better person! AAaa im shit at explaining but i hope you somehow understand why I love these two so much lmao. If I could Id show yall the amazing rps ive done that are full of lovely development of those two, but yknow, private stuuufff!

But yeahHhh, rambling over- this is super long im so sorry!

[hazyheel]

NJPW Best of the Super Juniors 2019 Day 8 Review

From main event to curtain jerking, El Phantasmo took on Ren Narita. Phantasmo quickly overpowered Narita, putting him on the mat toying with him. This was a rough match for Narita. Normally he could kinda hold his own, but Phantasmo was kicking the shit out of him. Narita was able to hit the high belly to belly, but once again couldn’t bridge. The closest Narita got was a bridging german suplex, but only a near fall. This time around, Phantasmo got the win with a big frog splash. Phantasmo: 10, Narita: 0

Grade: C+. Decent match, not a lot of back forth, but this was a fun little extended squash. Not great, but I like seeing Phantasmo being a cocky dick.

Then we had TAKA Michinoku vs. Titan. The two were grappling quite a bit, with both really being able to stand up to the other. The two chopped the hell out of each other, and Taka tied him up in knots early on. Titan got the advantage once he started to speed up the match, using his high flying to keep him on his toes. Taka was able to fight back a bit, forcing Titan to the mat for submissions, but Titan could fight out of it. Titan was actually able to get a quick win with a Michinoku driver of his own, followed by tying his legs for a submission. Titan: 4, Michinoku: 0.

Grade: B-. A weak B-, because of the super weird finish, but they had a pretty good match. I liked how Titan really had to work to create space, while still resorting to his technical wrestling ways to fight out of certain holds. I’m bummed that Taka still hasn’t gotten a win, and this really felt like his most winnable match, so I hope he gets something soon. 

Next up was Robbie Eagles vs. BUSHI. Bushi started with a flying dropkick after his pose, and they were off to the races. Once again, Bushi used the belt to whip Eagles on the outside a little bit, keeping a strong advantage in the early stages. Eagles of course worked over the leg, Eagles fought hard in the match, hitting the turbo backpack, and reversing the kickout into the Ron Miller special. Bushi fought back into the match with a couple codebreakers, and then the MX for the shocking win. Bushi: 4, Eagles: 6

Grade: B. Pretty good stuff, I think that these two are blending together really well. Bushi is getting better and better as a singles star, and this tournament is only proving that more and more. I like how Bushi is resorting to bending the rules more and more to win, and he is getting those wins. This is a big deal for him, given that Eagles is one of the front runners in Block B. I don’t know if Eagles is falling out of one of those top spots, it certainly doesn’t seem like it. But it is exciting to see him lose. 

Into Jonathan Gresham vs. Tiger Mask IV.  The two shook hands, and began on the mat as we all thought they will. Tiger Mask also kept up pressure using quick strikes, and really assaulted his midsection with strikes. Picking up the speed seemed to favor Gresham, but Tiger Mask’s experience allowed him to continue to slow things down with holds. As the two fought on the ground, grappling, Gresham had Tiger Mask in a headscissors when he hooked the leg, and got the pin. Gresham: 6, Tiger Mask: 4.

Grade: C-. I wasn’t too into this. The wrestlers didn’t seem to play much to their advantages, wanting to work a striking angle. I think that this would have been much better if they kept things on the mat. I don’t think Tiger Mask is all that great in a striking contest, but I liked the finish, and I was happy to see Gresham get another 2 points.

Then we had DOUKI vs. YOH. Douki of course attacked before the match, and threw Yoh all around the arena. Douki took a page out of Bushi’s book at one point, choking Yoh out with his own jacket. Yoh really sold his ass off for Douki during his match, making it seem like absolute agony to fight this guy. However, Yoh fought back, focusing on the leg as he normally does. Douki locked in a necktie choke, and he couldn’t really do much to get out of it, not even by tapping. There was an interesting dynamic here as they both looked for a full nelson in order to get their respective dragon suplexes. In the end, Yoh broke out of the suplex de la luna, skinning the cat on the bottom rope for a huge superkick and then a dragon suplex for the win. Yoh: 6, Douki: 2.

Grade: B-. I think this was interesting, but not overly good. I like the dynamic between both guys looking for the dragon suplex. I also think that Douki’s matches suffer from not being brawls, so a match against Yoh wasn’t going to be his best just yet. 

Next up was Marty Scurll vs. SHO. Scurll came out with his actual head and neck taped up, from the goddamn ringer that Takagi put him through last night. However, he was faking it, and he attacked Sho before the bell. Sho went to work on Scurll’s arm, ringing it out to soften it up for the armbar. Scurll attempted to keep the match in striking territory, as he could not contend with Sho’s raw strength on the mat. Commentary pointed out that Scurll was not targeting the head or arm here, but rather Sho’s cauliflowered ear. And while Scurll tried to keep things in striking, Sho proved that he can go blow for blow with him. At one point, Scurll hit almost a pumphandle michinoku driver onto the knee for a near fall. At another point, Sho actually fought out of a chicken wing with nothing but his raw strength. Scurll tried to counter the strength by breaking the fingers, but that didn’t stop Sho from using his arms for lariats. Sho was then able to nail a last ride to the knees for a near fall, followed by Shock Arrow for the win. Sho: 4, Scurll: 4.

Grade: B+. Best match on the show up to this point. They did really well together on a stacked card. Scurll didn’t outright cheat during the match, but he certainly didn’t play fair. However, Sho got a second wind, and fought back to win the match. While it is unlikely that Sho gets the actual win for his block, he can still finish on the higher end.

Now, possibly the most important match in the tournament (according to the competitors) Rocky Romero vs. Ryusuke Taguchi. Not only was this for two points in the tournament, but the winner became the head coach of New Japan. I don’t know what that means, but it is important to them. Rocky came out with basketball gear on, while Taguchi was in his classic rugby. The match actually started with Taguchi making a basket in his arms so Rocky could shoot, but the ball hit him in the head, followed by a slam dunk with the ball to the floor. So this was a goofy one. Taguchi beat him up using his ass. The two traded clotheslines and hip attacks running between the corners, the crowd loved it. It took Taguchi a while to go for the ankle lock, despite Rocky’s injured leg from his match with Yoh. Rocky went for the arm in response, and at one point, Taguchi tried to pull Rocky out of an armbar for a powerbomb, but he didn’t have enough strength. Rocky countered the Dodon into a rollup, and after a few counters, Taguchi got the pin. Taguchi: 8, Rocky: 2.

In the end, the two ended up splitting the coach responsibility. They even posed together. This is so dumb, but I’m smiling.

Grade: B. The match was alright, I wasn’t a huge fan of it. I don’t think that they leaned far enough into serious stuff nor comedy wrestling. I think it would have been better if it had gone either way. But it was a fun little match with funny moments that made me laugh.

Then we had Taiji Ishimori vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru. The two had some history from Pro Wrestling NOAH, where Ishimori has never been able to beat Kanemaru. Puts an interesting slant on this match, as Ishimori is still undefeated. Kanemaru jumped before the bell. Kanemaru quickly countered a springboard kick attempt by kicking out the arm, before dragging Ishimori into the crowd. Kanemaru tried to get the same win as last night by chucking a chair at Ishimori to get the countout, but Ishimori jumped it and made it back. Kanemaru continued to bend the rules, constantly using the ref as a weapon. Kanemaru had the whiskey, but Ishimori caught him. Ishimori was going to use the whiskey, but Red Shoes was back up and took it, only for Kanemaru to reveal that he had held onto the whiskey, and spit it at him, and a roleup for the win. Kanemaru: 4, Ishimori: 8.

Grade: B-. This was just shenanigans city right here. Kanemaru just did all his cheating spots until one stuck, and that entertained me. Ishimori’s first loss of the tournament came at the hands of a guy who patently refused to follow the rules, and it serves as some comeuppance, albeit at the hands of another heel. I liked it, although it was too short and one sided to get much more than a B-.

Into Bandido vs. Will Ospreay, a rematch from an Indie show over Wrestlemania weekend that was really good. This was for sure one that I was looking forward to. Started with a handshake, Both fliers were incredibly strong for their weight and speed, which led to an interesting match that included both power moves as well as flying. Bandido hit an awesome gorilla press into a falcon arrow, followed up with a low dropkick to the back of the head. When the two began striking, they were really beating the hell out of each other, with strikes that thundered in the arena. Bandido targeted Ospreay’s neck in striking, and Ospreay seemed to be fighting on the backfoot during this match. At one point, Osrpeay had Bandido up for a powerbomb, but Bandido countered into a reverse rana, followed by a springboard shootng star press to the outside. Another time, Ospreay hit a stundog millionaire, shoutouts to Mark Andrews, an old friend of his. At another point, Bandido drilled Ospreay with a superkick and a spike rana, only for Ospreay to roll through for a near fall. As Bandido went for the 21 plex, Ospreay held on, so Bandido hit a GTS and tried again, only for Ospreay to completely flip out of it. Bandido hit the shooting star slam, but Ospreay grabbed the bottom rope. Finally, in the finish, Bandido went for a moonsault, but Ospreay caught him on his shoulders, and it a stormbreaker out of nowhere for the win. Ospreay: 8, Bandido: 4.

Grade: A. Holy crap this was so so good. This may be my favorite match of the tournament so far. This was awesome. They flew around at crazy speeds, they beat each other into the ground with their strikes, and Ospreay nearly lost, but was able to pick up a shocking counter for the win. Bandido did great too, showing off some of his unbelievable strength and striking. They just clicked super well, and delivered a great match once again. Match of the night.

And in the main event, Dragon Lee took on Shingo Takagi, in another match that I couldn’t wait for. Lee was looking for a handshake, as he had everyone else. Takagi took it, but then pulled him in to start the match. Lee tried to kick things into another gear, but Takagi simply overpowered Lee with a hard slam. Lee wanted to go strike for strike, but interspersed that with fast paced flying. At one point, Lee went for his rana off the apron, but Takagi actually caught him and hit a Death Valley driver on the apron. Lee hit his usual corner dropkick, but it looked so painful as he connected with the side of Takagi’s head. Lee tried to go strike for strike with Takagi, this time with a knee lift and a huge lariat. Lee then hit a suicide dive, emphasis on suicide as Lee launched about 12 feet into the crowd. Takagi was hurting after that, struggling to hit the Noshigami and a pumping bomber, only getting a near fall for a lot of effort. As Takagi went for last of the dragons, Lee countered with a crucifix bomb for a near fall, and then hit a brutal running knee. Lee then hit an awesome combo, of a German off the ropes, a knee lift, a reverse rana and another knee for only a 1, and then he followed up with another running knee for a near fall. Lee almost hit desnucadora, but Takagi fought out and got last of the dragons for the win. Takagi: 10, Lee: 6.

Grade: A. Another great match to end out the night. They destroyed each other during this match, and Lee looked goddamn phenomenal. Even in losing, he came the closest to beating Takagi out of anyone so far. Takagi best the champion, as we thought he would, but he went through hell to do it. Definitely a must watch match.

Overall Grade: B.

Pros: Eagles vs Bushi; Scurll vs Sho; Rocky vs Taguchi; Ospreay vs Bandido; Takagi vs Lee

Cons: Gresham vs Tiger Mask; could’ve used more comedy for coach vs coach

Losses: Taka Michinoku, BUSHI, Ren Narita officially cannot win Best of the Super Juniors 26.

[frostiifae]

fehs problems vs fate go's problems? ive always seen fgo as the superior gacha because its writing is actually decent/sometimes VERY good (camelot!) but i know it has problems so like... which is worse in your humble opinion

well i mean you know already i think fgo is a dramatically better game overall… but idk it’s like, fate grand order isn’t an amazing game probably 85% of the time, 15% of the time it’s Camelot or Babylon or the Kara no Kyoukai collab event (which is fucking awesome, by the way), but the other 85% it’s just a pretty decent gacha game, and that makes it really tragic how short heroes still manages to fall comparatively 

being real fgo has two really serious weaknesses, one is the really inconsistent character design where some of them are awesome but a lot of them are just really gross and awful; the other is the inconsistent writing, which shows in grossness in characters like blackbeard etc and just the general cishet Bad Anime Fan pandering

and then, lesser weaknesses: 

 - the gacha in fgo is really unforgiving with no pity rates and with spirit origins being really hard to get for even big whales - i think you’ve already talked about the good ol’ Sold My Car For Jalter horror story, and others like it - the battle system isn’t super deep and also has some kind of weird idiosyncrasies, like the fact that you can’t see ‘star absorption’ as a stat on servants even though it’s a VERY important stat to understand, or needing to press ‘attack’ to see crit star distribution but not being able to go back to use skills afterward… but some of those things get fixed later in the game’s lifecycle, thankfully 

but compared with heroes… it’s easy to say that heroes has “bad writing” (and it does) but that doesn’t really tell the complete story. like… in my case, marisa was a character i had been looking forward to for a LONG time, even saying i might try to pull for her +10 when she was released (she’s a tempest trial unit, so of course i CAN’T do that, but oh well). once i finally got her, though, i really couldn’t do much with her. just… level her up, give her a skillset that sounded good, and then try to use her in any situation where it felt like she might work. that’s kind of all. it was honestly a let down, and that feeling repeating itself across a few characters contributed a lot to my decision to drop the game.

heroes has a lot of mechanics that compare straight across to grand order; tempest trials are like grand order events, complete with bonus servants vs. bonus heroes - but grand order events have a lot of writing and storytelling, commemorative CEs with charming character art in silly situations/costumes, and give away free welfare servants that are almost universally amazing - ryougi shiki, santa arturia alter, kintoki rider, scathach assassin, even chloe einzbern are all AMAZING top-tier servants that they just GIVE to you for free with max ascension/NP level materials. tempest trials tend to give you lackluster units and you have to spend a lot of materials just to get a +1 merge, meaning they’ll never really reach their full potential compared to a gacha hero. 

hero merit is basically the same as bond xp, except hero merit gives you feathers, but bond xp gives you new dialogue, expanded profile information, saint quartz, and a commemorative Craft Essence for a servant when you max it out. heroes has the accessory system now, which allows you to decorate your heroes with little trinkets you earn from events, while grand order has new arts for every ascension plus there will be event outfits later that you can earn and put onto your servants permanently, and while there are a more limited number of them, they’re designed specifically for that servant. 

there’s a pattern here - heroes just doesn’t really… do anything exciting. it has a lot of the same ideas as grand order, but it doesn’t seem to understand what makes those ideas fun or why players want to play their game at all. there’s no heart to fire emblem heroes. it’s empty and soulless by comparison. 

i worked really hard on my eirika, on my lachesis, on my kagero and my marisa, because they were characters that i really loved. the game only really provided my one way to show that love to them: leveling them and burning very expensive skills through inheritance to make them better. pulling for duplicate copies. it’s unfulfilling. i don’t get anything and the game doesn’t really change to reflect the love i have put into the characters that i care about. 

you can take one look at my support lineup in grand order and understand who my favorite servant is right away. same for ellie. same for you. 

i’m so excited to get jeanne alter’s bond CE. i know exactly who i’m going to Bond 10 after jeanne alter, too! tamamo! i’m gonna grail tamamo to 100, too! because i have that option. i can just pick characters i love and break the game’s rules to make them more powerful. the game gives us mechanics to demonstrate how much we love our favorite servants, and then the ability to show off how devoted we are to them and how much we are willing to invest into them. it fosters a community of celebration and excitement that heroes does not and probably never will have.

yeah, heroes is riddled with problems; pvp is a bad idea for gacha games, the power creep is literally ridiculous, event hero design is bad especially when children are involved, gross pandering dialogue, event heroes almost ALWAYS remark about how uncomfortable they are in their event outfits and people apparently LIKE that, the writing is forgettable at best… but all of those things are secondary to the core failure of fire emblem heroes, which is: it’s heartless. it’s a black hole for you to throw money into in the vain hope of feeling like you’ve done something for your favorite characters. 

maybe they’ll get better at that over time, but honestly, i don’t think it will make much of a difference, and i just don’t think they care enough.

[wynndygoon]

1st Anniversary!

This will be sort of a recap post encompassing all of what has happened over this first year. So get ready, this will be a long post!

I started this blog shortly after I got my drawing tablet as a means to try and get better at using the damn thing. Needless to say, I think that it has been more than a success and has also been an amazing opportunity to meet all of you amazing people who have gotten invested in Noma and what she is and who she is as a character. And, while this past year hasn’t been perfect, it has been a wondorous experience filled with laughs and new bonds that frankly, I never would have made otherwise. Same goes to me trying out new things such as streaming, downloading Discord, and just flat out putting my art out there in this world for people to see and hopefully fall in love with.

So this whole blog, and the lady we all know and love, Noma, wouldn’t have been here if it weren’t for chance. If you are new or never read the post explaining her past, the short version is: I had a Blaziken that hatched from an Egg in pokemon Black. It was a female, and I named her Noma, and it turned out that she had a bunch of good EV’s and IV’s, so I used her a lot through the game. Well when X and Y came out, I got the launch event Torchic that had better stats than Noma, so in a stupid move, I wonder Traded her away, hoping that someone else would like her just as much as I did. Fast forward a few months before I started this blog, and one of my friends traded me a bunch of pokemon since he didn’t really play much anymore. Long story short, he traded me back Noma. So while I had this idea about starting a pokemon ask blog, I never knew which pokemon i wanted to use, until Noma popped back into my life. As soon as that happened, I knew I had to make her my character.

So next came the design phase, and while I never was amazing at creating characters, I knew that I had to try and make her look unique to stand out from the crowd. And When I say unique, i think I went a bit too overboard with her, but at least we can still tell she is a blaziken, right? Anyways, I knew that I wanted to make her somewhat Tomboy-ish, while still having her be feminine as to not confuse people. I also knew that one easy way to accomplish this was to make her a little more fluffy and poofy, so believe it or not, I started with her hair design and went from there. I knew that if i could nail the hair, then everything would kinda fall into place. So that is why she has just SO MUCH HAIR, because form a design point, it was necessary. Also, making her wear clothes would help her stand out seeing as many poke-ask blogs leave their characters nude. Speaking of which, I am going to address something about Noma right here: SHE DOESN’T HAVE BOOBS ALRIGHT. I know it looks like she does, but since she has so many feathers and is very fluffy, wearing clothes would be difficult. So what she has to do is stuff her chest fluff into her tank tops, and purely because there is so much of it, it lumps up under the shirt. So all the people asking to see Noma’s “Chicken Breasts” ( those were some real asks BTW), sorry, no luck there.

________________________________________________________________

                   THIS SECTION IS ALL OF MY FAVORITE ASKS AND                                           REDESIGNS OF NOMA

So, now that I have the character created, It’s time to draw her and make a post on here. Im not gonna lie, that first night was nerve wracking. I didn’t have the slightest clue as to what was going to happen, if anyone would see the post, or hell, if anyone would like it.

But here she is, the main attraction in her first appearance on the blog. Happy, inviting, and not nearly as fluffy as what she is now. For some of you newer followers, yes, this is how it all began. Notice that she isn’t as tall, or fluffy, or as vibrant as what you know her as, but yes, this is what everyone saw for a couple of months while I started out. This WAS her design.

So, with this outta the way, it’s time to answer some asks, but to do that, I had to think of her personality. So, I just made her personality be fun. someone who can be sassy, sarcastic, kind, loveable, and genuinely nice. It’s up to you to decide o how well that comes across though.

This ask was: “Why are you such a Boss Ass Blaziken?” and this is where I went into her story in a little more detail and made it feel more like a story rather than a simple explanation of events. It was  the first question I got and I had a lot of fun working on it because at least one person took the time out of their day to send me something.

Here is Noma explaining her Favorite Region that she has been to. And this was kind of a first for the blog since we got to see what she looked like below the crop top. And yes, its just a crop top with her chest fluff stuffed into it. Take note how much shorter she was when I started this blog. Like, I never realized this before, but for a blaziken, she was a midget. Also, can we just ignore some of the glaring anatomy issues here? I was still kinda working on her design here.

And here we reach the first Big re-design of Noma. While not much besides her hair changed, this was the part of her life that she started dyeing her hair different colors to make her design more unique. She also has a bit more of a neck and her hands are also more suited to a blaziken’s with the gray part instead of all red like the first post. In this ask, she was answering what her favorite past times are. Out of all the asks that I have done so far back then, THIS was my favorite to work on, just changing up her hair style felt so refreshing and  honestly makes her look so much different.

THIS. FREAKING. ASK. this was the one that started a bunch of people to harass me to essentially draw nsfw of Noma. At the time of answering this ask, I was midway through a show called Panty and Stocking, go check it out if you haven’t, it’s hilarious and really good. But the ask was: “What is your favorite hairstyle?” So I decided to have a little fun and I started out just drawing the hair to make the reference to Panty and Stocking, but I thought that nobody would actually catch the reference, so I decided to go big or go home and reference the entire character of Scanty. If only I knew what kind of hell I would have unleashed for the next few months. Despite all of the perverted asks and messages I received, this was an insanely fun ask to draw, and it was also a challenge to try and recreate Scanty, but in a Blaziken form. Also, notice how her hands reverted back to red. I never said I was consistent.

So that slightly NSFW ask was the last actual drawing i posted for quite a while because then, I started college and was so nervous and scared and focused on doing well that i just didn’t have time to draw or play video games because of all the stress. I would literally wake up, go to school, go to work, come home, and sleep. and that was it. My next few posts actually weren’t Noma related, so I won’t cover them.

This was the first ask I had for ASK MAGIC which had Noma’s type change to water for 3 asks. Each of these weren’t all that exciting, but I am including this here because it was a milestone for the blog that NO ONE HAS USED SINCE! HINT HINT.

This wasn’t an ask, just a drawing idea I had for Halloween. She is still rocking her crazy hair with 3 different colors now and frankly, I have no idea what I was thinking giving her a rooster comb AND and ponytail, but hey, it works. SO if you couldn’t tell she went as a rooster for Halloween and her hands also magically changed back to red. But she also dyed her chest fluff in the shape of a heart which was another small design change.

HERE SHE IS THE FIRST MAJOR REDESIGN THAT ACTUALLY CHANGED SOME STUFF ABOUT HER. First of all, she doesn’t have the weird red neck that she had that just made her chest fluff look glued on, her fluff is on the entirety of her neck, and her neck is now longer, giving here a taller appearance. I also changed the look of her chest fluff to look like it surrounds her from behind also, and I changed the fluff on her face here too. Sure they may not be the biggest changes, but they made her a hell of a lot easier to draw and i think made her look better overall too.

This is just a better look of her, and is also my icon. See how she looks less like a midget and more graceful? The re-design was for the greater good.

This ask was SUPER fun: “My last ask was mean, but if you could choose any other type, what would it be”. This was when i could encompass all of what made Noma, Noma. The new redesign looks flawless, and we actually got to see an almost full body drawing of Noma. Glaring anatomy issues aside, I still really think that this was one of my better works of Noma.

I had a Thanskgiving ask set aside to put here, but I am really not too proud of that one, and also because it was during the time when I lost my grandmother, so I’m just going to leave it out so I don’t get too emotional about it.

You think I would have learned my lesson about showing Noma in anything REMOTELY NSFW, but nope, here we have her in her underwear. The ask was: “I am liking this new look!”  and yeah, I tried to go for a cheap visual gag, not only in the fact that she isn’t decent, but also in the name of her boxers. American Eagle in the pokemon world would more than likely be Unovan Braviary, like come on, that’s comedy silver at best.

Look at this Eye-sore. I tried to do a candy cane look wit her hair, but I think it fell flat and looks too busy. But the Ask was: “Do you have any jewelry?” While this doesn’t look as good as I hoped it would have, this was certainly a lot of fun to draw.

This was my absolute favorite non-ask post to draw because i used my actual ugly christmas sweater to design hers. I know the perspective is off here, but that is purely because of the angle I took the picture at.

THIS COMIC WAS AN ABSOLUTE BLAST TO DRAW, PLUS IT ALSO INTRODUCED NOMA’S LOVE INTEREST, EM, WHICH IS STILL A PART OF THIS BLOG SO SEND HIM SOME ASKS PLEASE. ALSO I DO NOT OWN EM, HE IS A CHARACTER OF BANANAMUTTBREAD, SO GO GIVE HIM A FOLLOW, HE IS AN AMAZING PERSON.

This was a difficult drawing to do, not because of the characters, but because of the shading and lighting, and yes, I know, its not the best, But I am still very proud of it nonetheless. But, yeah, this is a mash up of Lethal League which is an amazing game and Noma. The reason I chose Candyman to draw, was because he was simple, and because he is a pain in the ass to fight against.

By this point in the blog’s life, I had just bought my dog Bella, and started a new semester at college. With my toughest classes all piled on top of each other, i didn’t have much time to draw, so there wasn’t much to be posted then. However, I did introduce a new character, not a pokemon, but instead a bee character I came up with. Her name is Grain, and she is super cute, so go check out the art i made of her!

With me posting again halfway through last semester, the first ask I got was about Noma’s hairstyle. To be honest, I have no idea what kind of style that is, so let’s just move on.

Oh boy, my first piece i did on stream. This was another small redesign I did just to get back into the swing of redrawing Noma and making sure I could remember how to draw her. also, I tested out a new form of shading that I really like and will probably continue to use from here on out.

[somedaypast-thesunset]

my relationship is going very good for once. admist the chaos we realized that were like each others #1 support and now i feel we both try to go out of our way to include each other in our plans. an that feels normal and comfortable but ive been very anxious about the amount of money hes been spending because that inevitably comes back to me - even when im not asking for money. 

but losing my wallet was a huge blow to the like productivity and steps forward to improve life. it was like 2 steps back essentially. and my roommate is not a great roommate but i dont feel anxiety about him so i dont have anxiety in the place i live now. i definitely dont like alot of things - the mess is becoming too much and there is no common courtesy. i even tried to help by doing the dishes that sat for 2 weeks. i dont think hes a bad person and hes older so these are probably habits hes had for a long time but this morning it had spilled into the bathroom - the one common area i had been tryng to keep decent. on top of that he used all my toilet paper and didnt replace it. i just bought it on friday and now ill have to buy more. 

and the thing is i dont want to get into a big thing about how he should not be doing this -- i mean its obvious he shouldnt. other people live here too. and like i guess if i also did it he probably wouldnt even care but i dont want that. ive become accustom to sharing a bathroom which you keep tidy for the next user. its just courteous. 

but heres the thing - this location is exactly where i want to live. my bedroom is great - it’s big and spacious and dry and has air flow and no weird bugs. my cats choose to live in this room despite having more access probably because its clean an tidy an theyre able to move around. i have free laundry. internet access is good. these are all super important things but not having regular good access to a kitchen is not great. and i regret now giving away my skillet and electric grill because i think i would feel less bothered if i had more options to solve the problem. 

many times over the past 2 weeks i thought to myself about the japanese who live in very very small apartments. like their apartments might be the size of my bedroom an they have bathrooms and kitchens in it. they keep pets in it. i mean is it a great way to live? i dont know. im not them. but i also like the idea of tiny homes. even though im complaining about this mess and lack of ammenities right now - i could solve this problem in the future in some way. especially if i get disability. and its not so big i have to move to solve it. its not ideal. its not even really “fair” but at the same time i’ve seen ENOUGH ads that give yu NOTHING for the price im paying but the abilit to sleep in the room. i could just get a hot plate. and that would honestly be fine. it would be good enough to survive. and like if i grew up and told this story, i would focus on the fact i got the rare chance to live in a spot i literally wanted to live in. like walked by and said “i would live there” and its a very nice apartment despite the mess. and i would talk about the room and the upgrade from my previous space and jut add on that i used a hot plate. 

but i like tiny homes. i would live in a tiny home an feel very very content about it. i prefer a room. i legitimately prefer a small space which i am not overwhelmed by and i feel like its my own bubble that i can safely return to and survive. i could feed myself, bathe myself, sleep under a roof. period. thats what im looking for in a place and right now i almost have that. and its very annoying not to be able to use the ammenities right now but its not the end of the world - i could ask atleast 7 people to feed me an they would before i went to a shelter type situation. in reality i proably could ask for 20$ just to buy shit i dont have to cook. so there’s a lot of options here. 

i’m trying to stay positive when things are not amazing right now. right now is pretty low. its mid month and im flat broke with zero prospects. in fact i threw out prospects to save my mental health an it still think it was the right decisions to make but i needed that money. i am trying to fight off deep depression - just sleeping an existing - and it’s not so bad right now. and right now is all that really matters because i cant control later. ive slowed down if not stopped my “extracirrculars” entirely but have all the time in the world for them. it just seems like such a chore. as does bathing. 

i have an event coming up this week that ive planned for almost two months. it’s nothing big - i sold it to my partner that it was a fail-safe; something so simple that we could snap our fingers to do. we both see it as a nice small gathering of friends and friends of friends for a fun seasonal event, like friends coming over for a classy halloween party. my only true responsibility is gathering food & drink supplies. i want to have a small bake sale to raise money for my art group; maybe to buy advertising or something online and i had worked out some kind of budget but i dont think itll be applicable now and i dont even really have the money for it. i think if i sold drinks for $1 and we have 17 people attending, we can make atleast 15$. i want to make cookies and package them in a thing of 2 and maybe sell them for 1.50 or 2$. maybe if i can buy cheap cookie mix i could package 3 and it would be nicer value for 2$. i have to put in the effort todo this though but i think if i could do it really nice and very simple, it’ll be worth it and people will be willing to buy it. it would also be nice to paint a sign or have some flyers but a majority of them were ruined during the last event and i dont want to use more ink/paper from my usual free source. 

i wish life were as simple as this though - making cookies and drinks and selling them to people to make cash to live on but it becomes convoluted in society and youre flash cooking frozen goods and serving drinks in under a minute with a bunch of rules and regulations. i read somewhere that our future would return to mom & pop stores - people would choose aa personal touch over mass produced and i hope that future exists. thats a future i can be in. i dont think ill survive in a high tech everyone is a number world.

though - yesterday i realized ive memorized my welfare ID. 

im upset something as simple as getting a piece of paper signed in a 12 hour period and leaving it available to me couldnt happen. i felt comfort thinking it was in the proces and i had control over my day but i dont. before i take a shower i have to remove all he electronics from the bathroom because im a decent person. and its frustrating to myself that i cant simply reset from these hopes in my day to a new plan. its not like oh well i didnt get this i guess ill do this instead. no, its a lot of ruminating on it. wondering whats best now. 

[noahhernandez]

1. Who was the last person you held hands with? Kenny 2. Are you outgoing or shy? Shy around people I’m not too familiar with in intimate spaces/events. But like at work I can talk to a huge crowd of people at one time and not even care 3. Who are you looking forward to seeing? The cashier at any nearby fast food restaurant and kenny 4. Are you easy to get alone with? along with no alone with no im not a hoe 5. If you were drunk would the person you like take care of you? Um, I’m not sure 6. What kind of people are you attracted to? rich ones. 7. Do you think you'll be in a relationship two months from now? That’s a tough question. 8. Who from the opposite gender is on your mind? idk angel and brit 9. Does talking about sex make you uncomfortable? Yes lmao. 10. Who was the last person you had a deep conversation with? fuck um idk deep like how ?? sharon angel and I are discussing Ware’s father in the hospital 11. What does the most recent text that you sent say? You should [drink] but only if you stay at your cousins 12. What are your 5 favorite songs right now? hm. Woke the Fuck Up, Mercy, Side to Side, ????? idk i need a radio on rn 13. Do you like it when people play with your hair? I guess, but I have little bit of hair 14. Do you believe in luck and miracles? not really  15. What good thing happened this summer? I didnt die 16. Would you kiss the last person you kissed again? Yes  17. Do you think there is life on other planets? yes  18. Do you still talk to your first crush? who is that 19. Do you like bubble baths? too tall for a damn bath 20. Do you like your neighbors? ive never met them 21. What are you bad habits? Smoking 22. Where would you like to travel? new york and the europe-y area 23. Do you have trust issues? Yes 24. Favorite part of your daily routine? going to sleep 25. What part of your body are you most uncomfortable with? All of it 26. What do you do when you wake up? immediately check the time to make sure i’m not late for work 27. Do you wish your skin was lighter or darker? a little darker because I dont like people thinking i’m white because I am latino!!!! 28. Who are you most comfortable around? Michelle, Brit, Angel, Brianna, Keyla, Peter,  Alosa!  29. Have any of your ex's told you they regret breaking up? hmm yes but i do not care 30. Do you ever want to get married? Not really no 31. If your hair long enough for a pony tail? no 32. Which celebrities would you have a threesome with? Shawn Mendes and Ryan Reynolds  33. Spell your name with your chin. no 34. Do you play sports? What sports? hahah 35. Would you rather live without TV or music? TV, i mean i basically do now 36. Have you ever liked someone and never told them? um probably 37. What do you say during awkward silences? smile and leave 38. Describe your dream girl/guy? $$$ 39. What are your favorite stores to shop in? anything  40. What do you want to do after high school? Well considering I already graduated. My original plans were to go to UNT but I am stuck in Houston going to school here renting out a decent apartment and working my ass off to eat some pizza. really i like it though 41. Do you believe everyone deserves a second chance? Depending on the person and the situation 42. If your being extremely quiet what does it mean? I’m thinking- which probably has me being anxious  43. Do you smile at strangers? of course 44. Trip to outer space or bottom of the ocean? space has more of a view 45. What makes you get out of bed in the morning? money 46. What are you paranoid about? not being good enough 47. Have you ever been high? one time i threw up because i was so high 48. Have you ever been drunk? one time I threw up because i was so drunk 49. Have you done anything recently that you hope nobody finds out about no 50. What was the colour of the last hoodie you wore? red 51. Ever wished you were someone else? no 52. One thing you wish you could change about yourself? my teeth 53. Favourite makeup brand? no 54. Favourite store? mcdonalds 55. Favourite blog? me 56. Favourite colour? black  57. Favourite food? anything chinese 58. Last thing you ate? a breakfast burrito 59. First thing you ate this morning? a breakfast burrito 60. Ever won a competition? For what? play competitions 61. Been suspended/expelled? For what? no 62. Been arrested? For what? nah 63. Ever been in love? no 64. Tell us the story of your first kiss? i don;t  like it !! it was in the boys locker room 65. Are you hungry right now? starving 66. Do you like your tumblr friends more than your real friends? dont hav ne  67. Facebook or Twitter? twitter 68. Twitter or Tumblr? twitter 69. Are you watching tv right now? no 70. Names of your bestfriends? god. Michelle, Brianna, Brit, Peter, Keyla, Angel, Sharon, Alisa, my brothers and sisters. 71. Craving something? What? Wings. 72. What colour are your towels? all of the colors 72. How many pillows do you sleep with? 2  73. Do you sleep with stuffed animals? no 74. How many stuffed animals do you think you have? zero 75. Favourite animal? sloth 76. What colour is your underwear? grey  77. Chocolate or Vanilla? chocolate 78. Favourite ice cream flavour? i dont like ice cream 79. What colour shirt are you wearing? black 80. What colour pants? grey sweats  81. Favourite tv show? greys ? 82. Favourite movie? Scream 83. Mean Girls or Mean Girls 2? Mean Girls  84. Mean Girls or 21 Jump Street? Mean Girls 85. Favourite character from Mean Girls? ??? This a mean girls questionaire um idk gretchen  86. Favourite character from Finding Nemo? dont like that 87. First person you talked to today? Kenny 88. Last person you talked to today? Lsat person texted me wwas Kenny 89. Name a person you hate?  ! Ryan from work who got fired for stealing 90. Name a person you love? me 91. Is there anyone you want to punch in the face right now? idk no 92. In a fight with someone? no lol 93. How many sweatpants do you have? like 3 94. How many sweaters/hoodies do you have? like 2 95. Last movie you watched? ... hmm I can not remember 96. Favourite actress? not Jennifer Lawrence fuck her 97. Favourite actor? no 98. Do you tan a lot? no  99. Have any pets?  no 100. How are you feeling? exhausted 101. Do you type fast? sure  102. Do you regret anything from your past? being annoying 103. Can you spell well? yes 104. Do you miss anyone from your past? not at all  105. Ever been to a bonfire party? yeah they r cool i guess 106. Ever broken someone's heart? no  107. Have you ever been on a horse? yes  108. What should you be doing? eating or sleeping 109. Is something irritating you right now? im hungry 110. Have you ever liked someone so much it hurt? no wtf yes lmao 111. Do you have trust issues? YES u asked this 112. Who was the last person you cried in front of? Brittney because our friend Darrell tried to kill himself 113. What was your childhood nickname? it is still Noahita 114. Have you ever been out of your province/state? yes fun cool 115. Do you play the Wii? for my netflix yes 116. Are you listening to music right now? nothing i forgot to put more music on 117. Do you like chicken noodle soup? what a very specific question bc i recently told someone I hate chicken noodle soup 118. Do you like Chinese food? omg yes 119. Favourite book? Freedom Writers  120. Are you afraid of the dark? not really 121. Are you mean? lol yes  122. Is cheating ever okay? Is my boyfriend gonna find out im just kidding no 123. Can you keep white shoes clean? no thats why i wear black shoes 124. Do you believe in love at first sight? no  125. Do you believe in true love? sure 126. Are you currently bored? bored 127. What makes you happy? sleeping 128. Would you change your name? Eli Ian  129. What your zodiac sign? libra 130. Do you like subway? its ok 131. Your bestfriend of the opposite sex likes you, what do you do? u literally know im gay 132. Who's the last person you had a deep conversation with? u asked i said idk 133. Favourite lyrics right now? no 134. Can you count to one million? im not going to 135. Dumbest lie you ever told? I was on a date with a boy who was being really boring and I told him I had to leave because I had to go take my brother to the mall so we could buy funeral clothes 136. Do you sleep with your doors open or closed? both i guess 137. How tall are you? five ten and a half   138. Curly or Straight hair? wavy now 139. Brunette or Blonde? black hair 140. Summer or Winter? fall 141. Night or Day? night 142. Favourite month? october 143. Are you a vegetarian? fuck no 144. Dark, milk or white chocolate? milk 145. Tea or Coffee? coffee 146. Was today a good day? it was alright 147. Mars or Snickers? snickers 148. What's your favourite quote? nothing 149. Do you believe in ghosts? yes