#plot stuff

[sonic-gladiator-au]

Imma introduce the main character of this AU as well as introduce the setting.

Including some of the art that was on the previous ask blog

Miles Prower is a young Mad scientist known to the Frankenstein's arena audience for his family's history succeeding with their creations. Now on his own Miles sought a gladiator to enter into the arena…

Miles is currently 17 years old. He spends pretty much all of his time experimenting and developing material to improve his chances in the arena. He also does repairs and sells trinkets on the side making work pile up a bit sometimes. If it weren't for Sonic this boy wouldn't be using a bed or eating properly. Workaholic at its finest.

Miles can be snappy and harsh but does secretly care about his creations and sometimes others. He enjoys creating and the praise that comes with succeeding. He's a self sufficient mad scientist... But he's still just 17.

Note Miles does not like to be called "Tails" and considers it an insult.

Setting information:

Frankenstein's arena is practically the center of this dystopian society. (Named after the one who designed the arena and its games.) The rules are rather simple. A scientist or a team of scientists will enter a Gladiator to the arena. Gladiators are creations put together by the scientist in their own creative ways: organic, robotic, modified, etc. There are many different types of battles but the gladiators will typically go against each other and the winner is moved up the bracket.

Gladiators, as long as they are in the arena, can die and be brought back at the end of the match. Time works differently on the floor of the arena. This hasn't been explained to the audience nor participants but there are still plenty seeking to understand the phenomenon.

While there is one large main arena there are plenty of smaller arenas clustered around the Frankensteins arena that operate with similar rules. Though still very brutal they're decidedly less lethal. Can't be brought back in those arenas so death matches are ruled out outside of the Frankensteins arena. Unless a group wishes for those kinds of stakes.

Fighting in the arena(s) and winning fights will win you different prizes. Plots of land, money, gifts, those sorts of things. There are plenty who make a living off of their gladiator fighting.

Miles Prower's family was like this. Well before they all died in unfortunate and strange ways leaving Miles alone to inherit the labs. Knowing the land could be taken away and given to another winner at any time (dystopian society laws are pretty wild) Miles decided to enter a Gladiator. Though maintains his side business doing repairs and selling small electronics as he didn't actually plan to make his living off of Frankenstein's arena.

Sonic... Was not actually created by Miles. He comes from a different scientist known for his chimeras... And his reclusive tendencies. While once known and respected in the arena he stopped participating ages ago though still makes strange creations. Most of which he leaves haphazardly around his property most dying without proper care. Needless to say Sonic was taken in by Miles.

Miles has since made his own adjustments and improvements to Sonic so he can be entered into the arena.

[indieyuugure]

Hi! I don’t know if you were already asked this but I was wondering if there is going to be a brain worm plot line in your Indie tmnt comic? I’m really looking forward to when you start posting the actual comic and am loving the little bits we are getting so far!!

Hm, not currently, but I added your idea to the mini plots list!

TeChNiCaLlY it doesn’t qualify because I requested no angst, or lasting repercussions for these, but I’ll add it anyway ;]

[the-better-wizard-council]

[Humm thinks for a moment, then looks at the mimic.]

Wait... I haven't been here too long... Were you the one who got me off of that damn island?

…

Sure.

Yes that was. Uhh. Definitely me. Totally.

[ask-vio-the-purple-link]

A look to the past {Vio's remorse/ The little Bard}

When he was young Vio had made to many poor choices. And in retrospect this one was the worst, only seconded by that time he'd tried smashing the dark mirror while incognito. But that couldn't be helped, he'd made his choices and now he was stuck here.

Looking at the small village below his eyes show a hint of remorse. After it had just been rebuilt after the burning from Shadow's dragon, but here he was to destroy it yet again. As Vaati found the noise from it a bother. So per his orders Vio had to destroy it, no choice of refusal of course. If Vio didn't do as told the other three and Zelda would be targeted and he wasn't going to have that at all.

Lifting up his currently working hand a flame lit on his fingers and he directed the horde of undead behind him towards it. Taking a breath through the mask he trailed behind them. Two of those flying eyes of Vaati's monitoring his every move. Maybe if he was lucky he can ditch them, and have even just a chance to talk to anybody at all.

It wasn't long until the screams began as the redeads and gibdos attacked the civilians. Causing panic to set in around the village with people running about and just egging on the monsters sent in.

After a bit of going around and acting in ways that wouldn't set off those creatures tailing him Vio finally got away from them. Only to end up following the sound of crying on instinct. Soon enough he comes up on a boy no older than five or six years old at a glance.

Against his better judgement Vio goes over to the little boy, removing his mask to speak. Trying to hurry that way the boy could at least have a future.

"Kiddo you need to get out of here! Hurry!"

After making sure the little boy got out of the village as discreetly as he could Vio sighs. He may get in trouble for this, however it would be worth it. While his hands weren't clean of what happened to the village either time. At least someone got out.

Little did Vio know at the time the young boy would meet him again in the future, marked to learn from him no less

[thecreditsroll]

In my plot the Autobots have a high level prison, not the kind you're picturing, underground, relatively nice, Optimus is an empathetic guy plus if he shows that Megatron is living in comfort while he's detained, well it'll be harder for the Decepticons to cry torture or whatever and cause trouble,

Ultra Magnus is the obvious pick for warden but I want him to be more involved with Rodimus when he becomes Prime, same thing for Prowl

I'm more familiar with the cartoon/toy version of Fortress Maximus so maybe i can make Cerebros the warden

And The prison can in theory transform into an artificially created titan, probably put together by the science team during the war

[emerson-grimes-apologist]

Skin-Taker and his weird philosophy about death

CW: trauma, death/murder, some su1c1dal 1deat1on-sounding stuff (I mean, just death in general being spoken about in a positive way, but be warned)

I headcanon that Skin-Taker's belief of death and killing people not being bad came about as a coping mechanism for Red Mary killing all his close friends.

Like, he made himself believe that Red Mary's betrayal wasn't a big deal, and that everything could go back to the way it was. As the ship was burning, he was running around and collecting his crewmates' body parts, hoping to use death magic to resurrect them, or at least be able to communicate with them.

(I'm not sure if or how this worked out. Maybe Lillian was like, "Thade, we need to get off the ship now. Stop trying to remove people's skin" and he wasn't able to do death magic on them after all.... Anyway, regardless of how it worked out, he still ended up believing death was okay. Like... all that changed is that his friends are ghosts now. And that isn't so bad! (according to him))

The idea of death being no big deal comforted him, but also made him afraid of himself because, according to his logic, killing people was okay, too. This is why he left Lillian and Auburn. He was worried about how his beliefs were changing and that he may eventually snap.

He was right about this. By the time Red Mary came back and killed Lillian, his philosophy was almost what it is now, and seeing Lillian dead is what pushed him over the edge. This is why he tried to kill Auburn at first. (This was him being like, "Well, murder probably isn't so bad. I'm going to kill this random girl just to try it out and see how I feel about it.")

I think his reasoning is something like, being dead is better than being alive? Like, when you're alive, you can get sick and injured and feel pain, and you need to eat and sleep and do a bunch of other stuff, but when you're dead, you can just be a ghost and vibe. But I'm still figuring this out.

And the reason he's always targeting Percy specifically and trying to get him to kill people and stuff is because he recognizes him from the Tarantula Crew, and he sees how scared and anxious he's become since Red Mary's betrayal. And he just wants him to realize that death (the root of all Percy's fears) isn't anything to be afraid of, so that he can find the same peace that Skin-Taker found.

I do want to figure out how death and the afterlife work in Candle Cove's universe. Like, for all I know, Skin-Taker could be RIGHT. If it's not just an illogical fantasy he believes in to cope.

[a-gaggle-of-colors]

"Now where did I put that bag of clothes for after grubs be pupating?"

>Rhovia sighs as she packs for her visit to Varville. Ekirsh has informed her of the sudden appearance of grubs and has called for a family meeting to discuss the situation. She's asked Tirimor to go with her, Baizza and Yuluwe for support. Yuluwe is currently helping Baizza pack some things to do for the trip.

[nobodieshero-main]

okay so i was thinking about ahuru, as one does, and i was thinking about how much i don't want her death to just. be keika's backstory, yknow??

like i don't want to reduce her to just the main characters motivation, which is why i try to give her so much life in any scene she's in. but i think i wanna like- so, ahuru's death literally shapes nobodies hero, right? there'd be no story to tell if she hadn't been killed. and that's kind of a Big Deal to me.

so i think i'm going to symbolise the fuck out of birds. foreshadowing or whatever.

like when keika first meets mattie- he's in priah and he still doesn't have his memories back. he decides to go for a walk, just wandering through the mushrooms and the woods and then all of a sudden a game bird gets shot with an arow right in front of him. and when he looks up, he sees mattie with a bow and arrow, and that's how they meet.

and then in the next book it's revealed that Mattie is, technically, responsible for ahuru's death. it wasn't personal, in the same way hunting that bird wasn't personal, it was just...self preservation. they just shot an arrow and watched it land.

[inu-jiru]

How I'd Write "Outcast of Redwall" - The Name, The Prologue and Book One

So as a Redwall fan, I've seen my fair share of complaints about Outcast of Redwall and why it's the black sheep of the franchise, and while I haven't read the book itself, from what I've heard in podcasts and read on Redwall blogs, I can agree that it's got issues. It's a shame because I believe there was potential in it, and Taggerung was a much better representation of the idea Brian Jacques was trying to tell. I know people have their own ideas of how this book could've been better (and I'm a good 20 years late to the conversation), but I couldn't help but think of my own version since I've been getting back into the series (I've been writing a fanfiction as well that I should probably post here lol). This is going to be long so I'll split this up into separate posts:

THE NAME

For starters, I agree with the common criticism that "Outcast of Redwall" kinda fails as a name when the Outcast in question isn't even born until the 2nd act, if I'm remembering correctly. For the plot I came up with, I figured "The Hunted Ones" would be appropriate, referring to the main characters, Sunflash and Bluefen (yes, she's got a much bigger role this time around), as well as those close to them, and how they're under the constant threat of Swartt and his influence.

THE PROLOGUE

The prologue is a telling of Sunstripe's capture. This is based on the assumption that Sunstripe was about Mattimeo's age (so early pre-teen, if the animated series is anything to go by), when he ran off to fight Verdauga. The prologue starts many days after Sunstripe is defeated by Verdauga. Sunstripe has since wandered far into the northeastern section of Mossflower Country, injured and too ashamed to return to his mother and Brockhall. Wishing to have simply died by Verdauga's paws, Sunstripe leans near a tree and decides to waste away, believing it to be what he deserves for failing to avenge his father. He falls unconscious just as vermin emerge from the woods. These vermin are followers of Wurgg Snarefang (formerly Wurgg the Spinecracker in canon; he is a ferret and Bowfleg's father in this reimagining, the surname comes from Bowfleg's canon insignia), whose camp is settled in the area. Binding Sunstripe, Wurgg's beasts bring their prize to the ferret, who claims Sunstripe as a pet. The prologue ends here.

BOOK ONE - THE ALLIANCE

Book One would mainly follow the growing companionship of Sunstripe and Bluefen, as well and their eventual escape to Redwall.

It begins seasons after the prologue. Sunstripe is now an adult (late-20s, early 30s-ish, in human years). He's lived in captivity for seasons, being beaten and mocked by the horde constantly. A late middle-aged Bowfleg Snarefang now rules in his late father's place, and has gifted the family "pet" to his daughter, Bluefen (who would be close to 18 or 19 in human years). Bowfleg is not a very good father and lives off his father's infamy, growing fat and lazy as a result. He's abusive to his daughter, ordering around like a housewife and ignoring her complaints when he tells her to seek out a good, strong and loyal ferret in the horde to serve as his son-in-law and carry on the Snarefang bloodline. Frustrated and feeling like a prisoner in her own right, Bluefen regularly takes out her anger on Sunstripe, calling him "Scumtripe" as an insult.

Sunstripe, meanwhile, regularly has dreams of Mossflower, his parents, Boar the Fighter, and the mountain of Salamadastron. He regularly feels the pull to escape, to see his mother again and to visit the mountain, but is unable to shake off his guilt. He is also housed in a deep pit lined with smooth stone, making climbing out impossible without outside assistance.

At the same time, an outsider named Swartt Sixclaw arrives from farther north with his small band, "eager" to join Bowfleg's ranks. Bluefen doesn't trust Swartt for a second, but Nightshade, Swartt's Seer, is able to sway Bowfleg's mind with "omens" promising a great future should Bowfleg accept Swartt. Bowfleg, blinded by these false promises, offers his daughter to Swartt as a token of their alliance, much to Bluefen's dismay. Swartt agrees, purely to keep on Bowfleg's good side.

A feast is arranged; Sunstripe is taken out of his prison an made to do tricks. Swartt is allowed to torture him (which he enjoys a bit too much). Bluefen can't bring herself to enjoy any of it and takes off, contemplating if she should simply flee to begin life elsewhere. After the feast, she goes to Sunstripe's prison to try and cheer herself up with her usual bullying, but breaks down due to the anger at her father and the fear of her new husband. Seeing this and being reminded of his mother's pain after Barkstripe's death, Sunstripe shows compassion to his would-be tormentor and consoles her. Bluefen is uncertain of why a beast she mistreated would be kind to her, but does admit that she's being married off to Swartt. Sunstripe can tell it upsets her greatly. They strike up a conversation and the seeds of a bond are planted. While this happens, Swartt takes advantage of a drunken Bowfleg and poisons him with wine, becoming the sole ruler of the Snarefang horde.

The following seasons are rough for Bluefen as she suffers her new husband's cruelty, and his treatment of Sunstripe leaves a bitter taste in her mouth. Swartt has claimed Sunstripe as his steed and regularly brings him out of his pit to ride him around camp. Swartt also schemes to move further south, having heard on the wind that the Thousand Eye Army is long gone and Mossflower sits free for its next ruler. The march begins, and a pregnant Bluefen desires more and more to escape and live elsewhere. Her conversations with Sunstripe continue, and they bond further over how miserable they are. Sunstripe soon decides that, even if his guilt still lingers, he has to help Bluefen, whom he pities despite her past mistreatment of him. Desperate, Bluefen agrees, and they plan their escape.

As Bluefen assists Sunstripe in escaping his prison, she's spotted by Swartt's followers, and they both flee for their lives into the woods. Swartt, taking the lead, attempts to kill Sunstripe, but with some quick thinking, Sunstripe crushes Swartt's arm with a makeshift club. The pair disappear into the woods, and their journey begins. Things are rough, given the winter climate, and both have little experience surviving in the woods, Bluefen especially. They bicker a few times, but Bluefen dares not leave Sunstripe's side, knowing his usefulness in a fight. Things take a turn when Bluefen goes into labor, and Sunflash takes her to a cave which is inhabited by the Lingl-Dubbo families. Kind beasts, the families agree to look after Bluefen and provide both travelers with good food. A healthy baby ferret is born that night. Bluefen names him Veil, due to his mask marking reminding her of the veil she wears. She plans to never tell him of his father or of the Snarefang Horde.

Skarlath, a friend of the families and fancier of cheeses, visits the cave and befriends Sunstripe and Bluefen. He's asked to guide the pair further south to Redwall Abbey, so that Bluefen could provide Veil with a proper shelter and food. While recovering, Bluefen is also taught a bit of how to use a sling, so that she can defend herself and her baby. Veil is a fussy infant, constantly demanding food and attention and it reminds Bluefen of her father and Swartt. Part of her considers dumping the baby entirely, but she decides against it, not wishing to be as cruel and sadistic as the ferret she'd left. The journey continues with the three friends narrowly avoiding Swartt and using guerilla tactics to slow the horde down and lower Swartt's numbers.

As Redwall draws near, Sunstripe sends Bluefen and Skarlath to the abbey while he creates a diversion to keep Swartt away from the innocent beasts there. Secretly, Sunstripe fears meeting his mother, who now resides at Redwall, and he still wants to visit Salamandastron, which is further west. He promises Bluefen that they'll see each other again and Skarlath decides to act as a messenger between them once Bluefen is settled.

Sunstripe leaves and Skarlath informs the Redwallers of Bluefen and her baby. Some are wary, especially when hearing that a horde is approaching the Abbey. Martin the Warrior (and most of the other characters from Mossflower and Legend of Luke) has recently passed, and the only defenders are descendants of the Mossflower Holt and Lady Amber's squirrels. Abbess Bryony is willing to house Bluefen and Veil, but won't hesitate to give them both to Swartt if it means protecting the Abbey. An old Bella of Brockhall argues in defense of Bluefen and Veil due to the ferrets' association with her son, and commands the Abbey defenders to keep an eye on the woods, as well as sending the Skipper and a party of helpers after Sunstripe to keep him safe.

The combination of his rage against Sunstripe and the beasts guarding Redwall force Swartt to focus solely on the badger, leaving Bluefen and Veil safe. The book ends with Swartt and his forces beginning their march west, Skipperjo and his group catching up with Sunstripe and traveling with him, and Bluefen settling into Redwall with Veil.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I feel like, in a book format, this Book One would be pretty long, but it does have to set things up before Redwall gets involved. I wanted Veil to actually be alive in Book One, even if he isn't the main focus, and I also wanted to try and fix up the timeline issues the original book had. It might not be perfect, but I think I did pretty well. I'll write Books 2 and 3 at a later time.

[rodismancave]

Space is cold.

This is a fact, not a theory, not a story spoken by parents to stop their children from leaving.

Space is cold, the void is silent, and everything is so far away and branched and it is so, so lonely. Loneliness that eats at your circuits, that holds you in frozen arms and sings you songs of horrible death, of being alone and of being forgotten, of dying alone and having your body preserved for all of eternity, to possibly never being found, never being laid to rest.

Cursed to always drift alone, to be consumed by loneliness. A thin blanket on a cold night that serves for nothing but to make you colder, that offers only false hope.

Though it is lonely, it is beautiful. It is the cold, rotten carcass of a whale at the depths of the ocean, cold and dead but not devoid of life. Where creatures feast, shine glory on the carcass. Space is cold, and it is lonely, but it is not dead, and it is the home of your home. The mother, the giver, the taker.

Rodimus likes that space is cold. He enjoys it like a popsicle on a hot day, he loves it like the rush of adrenaline when escaping an enemy. His body runs hot, so hot, and being out in space feels so much like finally being able to feel what cold truly is, to understand what it is like to shiver and crumble and cry. It’s cold, too cold, and Rodimus loves it.

When days seem to blur together and comments finally get to his head, Rodimus likes to walk out of the Lost Light, magma shoes on his feet, and turn off all other safety measures and feel his engines slow, to hear his plating crackle. He likes to shiver until he knows he can’t take it anymore. It feels right, to let his mother embrace him this way. To let her have his way with him. To cradle him in her arms for longer than she usually would her children.

If he closes his eyes, if he lets his Matrix-bound spark sing, he can hear her laugh. He can hear her say, Reckless little thing you are, all twinkly laughter that by no means would ever belong to a living being, now go back inside, dear. I cannot take you now, not again.

A hallucination of sorts, of course. There is no deep vast voice of Space, there is no mother to speak of.

A funny little thing, a strange happening of sorts. Had Rodimus been in any other state of mind, the words would have no meaning. He is not a child, he is not an organic. There is no mother for him to wish to be cradled against, there is no guardian to whisper him to sleep.

There is just him. There is just Rodimus— as there always had been.

When he finally comes to this conclusion, when he his plating starts to tear and his spark chamber begins to hurt and beg and everything in him screams for heat and preservation, he will allow his systems to engage again, he will allow that heat to embrace his frame. And though it’s still cold, it’s not as cold as it should be. As he should feel.

He will stare off into the blank vastness of space (empty, so empty), think about the scolding he will certainly get from Ratchet once he gets back, and finally, after allowing heatless blue fire to roam his fingers like a dancer for a second longer, Rodimus will turn around and walk back into the Lost Light.

[smewduck]

#5 and/or #26 for the wip ask game? :3

woah i ended up rambling

5. What are the main themes?

I would say the main big one would be good+evil/moral ambiguity? I really like looking at morality in stories.. because of this reason I could name very few genuinely 'bad' cats in this story lol

plus whatever theme goes with some sort of corrupt system :] I love those (fictionally) :]

smaller themes like power, death, war, hate/love etc and these are all looked at specifically in context/influence of their little corrupt cat society

26. What do you still need to plan?

a whole bunch of stuff! there's many little plot issues that annoy me that I'd love to fix, the main two big things however are Rainpaw's character arc and the entirety of Part 3. um lots of text under the cut

Rainpaw's my main protagonist, he gets pov throughout all 3 parts but. idk what he's really doing. its hard to get him to the end point of his story because I'm not really sure what would change his mindset to get there? His ultimate job is to restore StarClan after like a year of anarchy (a plot problem in itself because I don't want to portray the downfall of a corrupt government-ish figure as bad lol that's a good thing) but he starts SL totally anti-StarClan in comparison to his Clan. Right now I'm kind of passing it off as the inter-faction conflicts he faces after StarClan's fall make him want to restore the Clans as they were supposed to be when they were formed, but I also don't want anarchy (? for lack of a better word I guess) = chaos because that's boring and kinda shallow in my opinion

WHICH LEADS INTO part 3 because I have the end of it etched into my soul but the rest of it is just everyone. existing. totally unplanned I have no idea what will drive the plot of part 3 yet. I want to explore the conflicts between the different factions that are created after the Clans fall apart so that may drive the plot for Petalclaw and Rainpaw/storm but as for Night? I need to plan what she's doing because her one goal is to destroy StarClan. Once she's done that (end of part 2), idk what will lead her to everything I have planned out for her at the end of part 3, which is again her vs starclan :/ it's like when Night is there but StarClan is not there is nothing driving her actions so I need to figure that out...

WOAH SORRY FOR ALL THAT BUT IT WAS FUN. sorry if it makes no sense... it distracted me from the worst history assignment of all time from hell itself so thank you for the ask! :D

[ambivalence-and-torpor]

Giggles...

“You’ve chased after me for a very long time. Now you’ve caught me, Fox... What will you do?”

Tayashi’s tail was wagging happily, he had finally caught the White Deer!

“I'd say punish you but what fun would be that? I simply take this as a victory under my belt.. and perhaps demand a favor from you. After all I've been playing so diligently with my new friend...”

The pale Being giggled, rather amused about how happy the Blueblood looked. Truth be told, they had thrown him a bit of a bone, allowing him to catch them in this little game of catch they’d been playing.

“And I am grateful that you have played my game... I will grant you a favor. You may ask whatever you wish... friend... “

Fun was hard to come by for this Being, and company something they had yearned for again and again. It would only be fair to give something in return for the happiness they had gained so far.

“Who are you? I need something of substance to use as my reasoning why I've been gone so long and often from my pack... and who knows perhaps they would be excited to meet you if I tell them of you.”

He really had no clue, did he? Quite a relief, to be honest. Let’s keep it that way...

“Ah... I do hope you haven't gotten yourself in trouble for my sake... I am...”

...

[the-better-wizard-council]

Announcement: I am calling a Wizard Council Meeting.

The meeting is regarding the following:

I am quite concerned about these. I am taking suggestions regarding possible courses of action.

@merakilichfromspace @mystery-mage @hummingbird-hunter @robo-wizard9000 @skulkie @vampy-wizord @ebonshward @wizards-apprentice @interdimensional-revenue-service @thelocalwizardsblog @wizard-cladinsocks @bogglethebogwizard @opalescent-apples @vaguewizard @silver-weaver @squid-wizard

[ask-vio-the-purple-link]

Vaati has Vio right where he wanted him. Captured for his own amusement. Though for Vio this situation is dreadful, he didn’t make if close enough to find Blue. Somehow though he wasn’t scared now....he was Angry.

And now the one thing he’d been able to have agency over had been taken from him by the mage. His hair cut short once again, to reveal the one thing he always tried to hide. A mark burned into his skin by the mage to mark the Hylian as being his, and his alone.

Taunting Vio Vaati scratches at the man with his sharp claws of nails commenting smugly. “ Doesn’t it feel much better now that all of that useless hair is gone? You should be thanking me for ridding you of it Violet. It was just in the way how it was before. Aww are you mad? Well to bad....”

“YOU ARE MINE”

[angstyaches]

A scene that comes before an early-days Shayne/Charlie hunger-related request. It became very long and plot-heavy, so I decided to split it in two, at least for now.

Takes place during the prologue, sometime after Shayne confronts Charlie’s demon and before Shayne visits Charlie at home for the first time. (Note for die-hard readers: “Rin’s Exposition Inquisition” is basically being retconned and no longer canon, because I want to develop her character and story a bit more slowly in the rewrite.)

Hunger/whump happens in part two (hopefully posted later today; if not, it’ll be next week because I’m travelling again this weekend).

CW: mentions of death, anxiety, insecurities, childhood trauma, food mention, horror elements (mentioned).

___

“Hey, Charmander.”

Charlie had been peacefully eating his ham and cheese sandwich when Rin Johnson swept up next to his desk. It was rare to see her without her band of pals these days, but she was alone. 

Before he could even open his mouth to question her choice to call him by a Pokemon’s name, she pulled up the empty chair from the desk in front of Charlie’s, spinning it around to face him.

As she sat, she drew a couple of glances from some of Charlie’s classmates who’d formed little groups throughout the room. It wasn’t against the rules for students from other tutor groups to eat in another tutor group’s base classroom, but it was a little unusual. If people wanted to mingle, they went outside, or to the canteen, to eat. Rin usually went to the latter.

There was also the fact that as far as secondary school social hierarchy was concerned, Rin was considered royalty. Not quite a queen bee, but perhaps a princess.

“Charmander?” Charlie asked.

Rin smiled secretively, propping her lunch bag on an empty corner of Charlie’s desk. “We’re officially friends now, and I have a whole bunch of nicknames I want to try out on you.”

Her floral water bottle was placed on Charlie’s desk, too, while Rin rummaged in her lunch bag. She started tearing into the wrapping on her sandwich.

She hadn’t bothered to tie her hair in its usual space buns today, and it fell in fiery-orange waves around her shoulders. She had a small streak of pink glitter drawn across each eyelid, and she didn’t seem to have noticed that a speck of it was stuck to one of her glasses lenses.

She looked up at him, chewing. “You don’t even want to question me on the ‘us officially being friends now’ thing? I was getting ready to bribe you. I brought Tucs!”

In case he thought she was bluffing, she put down her sandwich, reached into her lunch bag again, and pulled out a snack-sized packet of salted crackers.

“You don’t have to bribe me, Rin,” Charlie smiled. “I already thought of you as my friend.”

She smiled in what seemed to be relief, which was a bit confusing to Charlie. What exactly had she expected to happen?

His gaze was drawn back to the packet of crackers she’d put on his desk. He remembered taking them to primary school to have as a snack, and he was suddenly in the mood to relive his youth. “Although, I do kind of want to open those.”

“Go for it! A bribe’s a bribe, even if it was unnecessary.”

Charlie picked up the packet and split the side of the wrapper. “Share them?”

“Sure.”

“When you really think about it,” Charlie said as he opened the packet, “I’m the one who should have been begging you to be my friend.”

Rin frowned.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Charlie grinned. “You’re so much cooler than I am, Rin. And even if you weren’t… I mean –” Charlie pulled a cracker out and used it to gesture all around him. There were about fifteen other students in the room, all convening at different points and at a considerable distance from Charlie’s desk. “I can’t exactly afford to be picky, can I?”

Rin bit into her sandwich and glanced around too, though she seemed to be looking for somebody, rather than following Charlie’s point.

“Well, we do have something essential in common, you and I,” she said around a mouthful. A conspiratorial look crossed her face as she swallowed and leaned in closer. “Something that binds us.”

Charlie bit back another smile, not wanting her to think he was laughing at her. He adored the way Rin could romanticise the mundane, or make a lunchtime chat feel like he was being indoctrinated to a secret society.

“Okay, well now I have to ask,” he said, crunching down on his Tuc. “What is it?”

“Rejection.” Rin wrinkled her nose, as though the word tasted bad in her mouth. “From the same boy.”

All of the heat, along with the remnants of his smile, left Charlie’s face. What the hell kind of rumours were going about now?!

“What – I haven’t – what are you talking about?”

Rin gave a thin smile and touched the back of Charlie’s hand. “Shayne Devine rejected my friendship, too. Only that was about… wow, I guess it was about twelve years ago.”

Charlie barely had time to settle his frantic heart – friendship, she’s just talking about friendship – before his head started reeling with this new information.

“You knew him twelve years ago?”

“Well, yeah. We went to primary school together.”

Charlie nodded, battling a sudden wave of despair. Of course. That made sense. Rin and Shayne had grown up in the same town. They knew each other from way back. Meanwhile, Charlie had never been in one place long enough to hold down a friendship for longer than a year, let alone know anybody from way back. The only people he knew from way back were family members, most of whom he wouldn’t have anything to do with if he wasn’t forced.

“I tried so hard to get him to be my friend, but he would never even come to my birthday parties.” Rin dropped the remnants of her sandwich back into her lunch bag and pulled a pot of yoghurt and a spoon.

Charlie nodded again. The birthday party thing was a big deal. Ingrid had insisted he go to every party he was invited to, even if he didn’t know the birthday kid for very long. Charlie had always suspected there was a political force behind children’s birthday parties. Like the more birthday parties your child attended, the better it reflected on you as a parent. He tucked that thought away for later interrogation.

Rin peeled the lid from her yoghurt pot and began licking it clean. Charlie realised he wasn’t even remotely surprised that she was the kind of person who did this.

“So, Shayne was always… the way he is?”

Rin tilted her head to one side. “Well, he was always extremely shy…”

Charlie struggled to swallow a mouthful of his food. After the number of insults he’d been handed by the person in question, he wondered how anyone could ever describe him as shy. He took another bite of his sandwich to keep himself from making a shady remark.

“But he wasn’t always so…” Rin glanced towards Shayne’s empty desk, as though it might be listening in and would report back to him later.

“Cranky?” Charlie suggested sheepishly.

Rin flinched. “Sure. Let’s go with that. That only happened after his parents died.”

Charlie nearly dropped his jaw, and a mouthful of his sandwich along with it. Nobody had ever mentioned this before. Charlie had known Shayne was adopted, but he hadn’t known that Shayne had once lived with his biological parents.

“They… died?”

Rin frowned. “You didn’t know?”

Charlie shook his head.

“Oh. Crap. Um, sorry, babe! I’m used to everybody knowing everything about everybody. But, yeah, they died when we were, like… I guess nine or ten.” Rin’s eyes became unfocused for a few seconds. “Well, let’s see. We had Miss O’Rourke as our teacher that year, I think… yeah, we were ten. It messed him up really badly.”

“I can imagine,” Charlie whispered numbly. Judging by the way she had started staring blankly into her yoghurt pot, Shayne’s parents’ death had probably affected Rin in some way, too. “Are you okay?”

She nodded and cleared her throat. “I guess what I was trying to say is that I get it. He acts like he doesn’t want anything to do with you, but he still sort of… pulls you towards him, doesn’t he?”

Yes. He didn’t trust himself to say it out loud, certain that he’d betray the depth of his feelings if he did. 

He nodded.

“I guess I always thought it was just me.”

Charlie was entranced by how much this conversation seemed to be affecting Rin’s mood, like it was sucking her entire personality away from her. It must have been an extremely sad story...

Charlie stiffened as goosebumps rocketed up and down his body. No. No, it couldn’t be… Someone would have told him… 

Right?

“Uh, Rin?”

She listlessly picked up a Tuc and popped it in her mouth. “Uh-huh?”

Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answers to. Charlie swallowed the fear in his throat. “Shayne’s parents weren’t involved in that… that tragedy that happened at Mulberry, were they?”

Rin’s eyes took on that glassy, faraway look again. Charlie thought she was going to slip into the habit that most people had, of avoiding that particular topic at any cost. He half expected her to tip her yoghurt all over his desk, exclaim about how clumsy she was, and run off to get some paper towels, only to never return.

“They…” She seemed to swallow with some difficulty. “They were kind of unusual, from what I remember. Shayne’s mum was… She was so beautiful and kind, but always carried this air of, like, sadness. But her pies were always the best thing at the school bake sales. I didn’t know much about his dad, but my dad got along well with him. I… I don’t think I stopped crying for a week after they…”

Charlie felt a lump in his own throat. He’d only been able to stomach reading a few details about the incident; he couldn’t imagine what it would have been like to be a kid growing up in a town with a story like that attached to it.

But beneath his sadness, there was a pit of anger bubbling. How had no one thought to mention this to him before?

“Anyway.” Rin drew a circle in her yoghurt with her spoon. “Have you… Have you been out in the woods since you moved in?”

“No,” Charlie croaked. “They give me a weird feeling.”

Rin looked up, her spoon stilling. The absent look fled her eyes, leaving behind what could only be described as... desperation? Like she was teetering on the edge of a cliff, and the only person who could grab her and pull her to safety was Charlie. 

Charlie was just relieved that some of that furtive intensity was coming back to her.

“What kind of feeling?” she whispered.

“I…” Charlie’s heart sank as he tried to gather the words. “I don’t know. It’s…”

Careful. The voice insisted. She doesn’t know.

She might know, Charlie thought, examining the interrogative look in Rin’s eyes.

She doesn’t.

She… kind of acts like she knows.

Charlie…

“It’s kind of like… I’ll walk up to the edge of the garden feeling normal, and as soon as I think about putting my foot over the line, it’s like this huge wave of nausea crashes over me. I look through those trees and it feels like… like I’m staring into the ribcage of some huge… decaying… corpse.”

Rin put down her yoghurt with an air of finality.

“Sorry,” Charlie muttered, placing the last section of his sandwich back in its box.

“No, no, you’re good.” Rin drummed her fingers against the table. “You know, everyone says there’s something weird about Mulberry, but as soon as you start getting into detail, they just...”

Charlie’s heart skipped a beat. Does she know? ... Maybe she knows.

“Crap! I have to go,” Rin exclaimed, glancing at her watch. “I completely forgot there’s a yearbook meeting today.”

She gave Charlie a pleading look, like she wanted to be rescued from something, as she packed away her lunch.

Charlie grimaced. “Um... sorry this turned so dark.”

“Oh – no, don’t be sorry for that.” Rin’s eyebrows knitted together. “You have any idea how much of a relief this was?”

“It… was kind of a relief,” Charlie said. This was the first time in weeks that he’d been given new information, either about his house or about his desk neighbour. He also hadn’t mentioned how much the woods at Mulberry unnerved him to anybody else, and he could feel a new lightness where it’d been weighing on his chest.

He didn’t really know what made it a relief for Rin, but that was what he liked about her company. They seemed to understand each other’s emotions, even if it wasn’t clear how they’d arisen.

I’ll tell her, he realised. I’ll tell her everything. Another time.

“You have my number, right?” he asked.

“I – yeah, I think so.”

“Do you want to come over this weekend?”

Rin raised her eyebrows. “Yes. Please. I’ll text you.”

“Cool.” Charlie watched Rin scoop up her bag. “Have fun at your meeting.”

“With a room of self-obsessed control freaks? How could I not have fun, Charlie Bear?” Rin tilted her head as she stood up. A hint of her smile crept back. “Hey, I like that one.”

[mythicalmagical-monkeyman]

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