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#also..if you notice that scenes i teased are mysteriously missing no you dont <3
marriedzukka · 2 years
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Real Enough to Get Me Through (14/16)
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Summary: A month after Iroh passes, Zuko reaches his breaking point. As he navigates the path through grief he meets a kindred soul, and begins to heal in more ways than one.
[Image ID: A photo of a man labelled "Zuko" mowing a lawn. In the far distance, a tornado labelled "grief" is heading in his direction. /End ID].
[Rated M, 193k words so far]
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★ READ CHAPTER 14 HERE ★ OR
★ START FROM THE BEGINNING ★
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cayouno · 7 years
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Phan  Ghost Smut
   So this is suppppppper late. I really wanted to write this for Halloween but procrastination and life got in the way. I hope that you guys still enjoy it even if its a months late. =(
My Turn
Summery: Phil is dared by some classmates to sleep a whole night at the abandon house down the street. The word is that many years ago some one got murder in that house and since then no one has been able to live there. Phil may be superstitious  but not to the extent of believing in ghost or so he thought.
warning : none on part 1. the good stuff comes later !  ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
part 1/4
Phil browsed the inside of his blue bag pack  making sure one last time he was well prepared.
flashlight : check 
zip-lock bag of cereal for snaking: check
 Buffy comics to spend the time: check 
Fully charged phone: check 
His pillow and sleeping bag:check
Last but most important his camera: check
 He pulled his brand new red Nikon camera out from the other contents and zipped the bag right after. This object will the only true witness  tonight . Phil turned on the camera and faced it straight in front of him to see the outline of his wavy brunet hair friend. 
“ You dont have to do this Phil. ” PJ said in low tone that only the two boys could hear as he stared at Phil adjust the setting of the cam. “This is stupid. I bet not even one of them would dare to do this.” He added upset while he took a moment to look around and make sure nothing would pop out from the darkness that surrounded them . Phil could now see his friend perfectly after he figured out how to put the camera on night mode for the first time. Pj had his arms crossed along his chest.  
“Its going to be fine”, Phil peeked from behind the camera making eye contact with his friend’s green eyes. “ Just focused on the fact that tomorrow  we will have enough to finally buy two copies of that game we want and left over cash for what ever else. Easy money. ” Phil smiled at PJ who by now knew that Phil was not going to back out no matter how much he complained.
 " Fine but call or come over to my house if anything happens no matter what time it is. We will meet with you here in front of the gate at 9 am. ok?“ Pj undid his arms and put his hands inside the pockets of his green hoodie. After he nodded back at Pj ,Phil took a deep breath as he placed his free hand on the old rusted metallic gate. It was time, he thought when he turned towards the house that they stood outside this whole time. With an easy push the gate swung open reviling what look like the beginning of  stone path that after a few feet disappeared into grass tall enough to reach his own knees. 
“wish me luck!“  Phil said as he verged in the path that he couldn't  even see in the camera’s night mode. As he made it to the house porch he never looked back to see if PJ was still there to witness him do something no one in their town had dared to do. Don’t get him wrong he was not doing this because he had THE BALLS to do it. Phil hated confrontation of any kind but if people picked on his friends it was a different story.
   When some of those snobby wanna  be posh kids from high school picked on Pj Phil  "unleashed the beast”. Which snowball into them daring him to stay few hours during the day at the abandon house but Phil was so over them he was going to show them once and for all. Like an idiot in the heat of the moment,  he up them by saying that he would stay at the house the whole night.  Not even the  dark edgy goth kids of their senior year  would  set foot at in this house at that time.
Phill reached the porch steps and carefully tested each step before he put his whole body pressure on them. The wood creaked violently as if they going to break at the slightest touch .After much teasing, he walked right up to the door. “ENTER IF YOU DARE!!” was vandalized right under the house number door.Phil hit the red record button caught the red spray paint as his first scene.
“This is the 278 the abounded house down our street or like the entire population of the school  calls it the haunted Howells. My name is Phil Lester  and if you find this well I am dead.” Phill laughed at his own comment  as he reached for the door knob. Just like the old gate the door swung open as if the years of wear from nature had lighted the weight of it. “ According to the word on the street this house as been empty for a long time.The housed was own by the Howell family who mysteriously left it and no one has been able to live here since due to supernatural events. Also, there is a rumor that after visiting the house some people have gone missing.”
He shut the door behind him and took a first glance into the living room from the camera’s night vision. Phil pull out the flashlight from his bag, he couldn’t rely on the night mode alone. Living Room was empty no furniture what so ever. There was a lot of leaves, empty beer bottles left behind from the uni jocks that dare each other to stay in the house a few hours during the day and lots of spider webs. Phil made his way to the kitchen and just like the living room it was empty, dusty and dirty.
“well the first floor seems completely empty. It looks like no one is been in the house for a long while but I am still going to look around the house before I settle somewhere. Just cause I am a nerd that believes more in aliens that in ghost that does not mean that there could be a serial killer hiding  ready to kill me. So lets go upstairs.” Phil began his ascend to the second floor of the house. He was not being that silent as he climbed up the steps. This was really a joke. To him this is just an empty house that was just too old to get sold that is all. His mom might have made him slightly superstitious but not enough to believe in other worldly spirits. The stairs led to a hall with four doors. Phil tried to open the first door to his left but it was locked .
 Actually, most of the doors were shut closed and they wouldn’t event budge except for the last one on the right that was wide open. Phil first peeked in the room for safety reasons. This room was quite different from the rest of the house it had furniture. one full wooden framed Bed with a spotted mattress and one  wooden dresser covering a window on the adjacent wall but that was not all. The room was not as dusty or dirty like the rest of the house. Plus it seems as no one ever came up here for there was not even a single piece of trash. Phill walked right up to the bed.
“well guys this looks promising. ” Phil said as he presses against the mattress. Obviously, the top layer of filth bounced up the air and made Phil sneezed that’s when he noticed that the black dots he thought where dirt begun to move.“ lol nope lets not ” He quickly walked away from the bed to the dresser and started to look inside the draws. Three of the four draws were empty but the last one had a few sheets of papers in it. Phil pulled them out and proceeded to close the room door.
��ok so this is where I am going to be staying for the night. Let me pull out my sleeping bag  and then ill read you guys what I found in the dresser.” So Phil put down the camera on top of the dresser  facing him and the flashlight so it illuminated the room some what. He placed the sleeping  bag and his pillow on the other side of the room  far away from the bed as possible. Once settled he faced the papers to the camera . “ ok so in the far corner here if the camera focuses you can see the letters D H, probably initials. All three papers have it. The first paper  is a music sheet which letters have been written over the notes. Maybe there were learning to play an instrument. The second sheet seems like some math homework that was never finished. Last  sheet sais” He stopped and looks around before he reads the rest  ,“I killed all my family  and you are next !“  To wich Phil looks at the camera with his eyes wide open with fear just to laugh after a few seconds.
” It doesn’t say that. what it actually sais is. ’ I had a bad day today Matt canceled on me again. I think he might be getting tired of me but I love him. Also, mum and dad aren’t making it any easier by sniffing around every second . Maybe they are catching on to what is happening between Matt and I. I hope not I couldn’t deal with Matt’s rejection as well as my parents.’ well, D H that quite the romantic drama. is that it ?“ Phil flips the paper to see alittle bit more written in the back of it.  “oh no there is more ’ some times I wish I was in control of all this. When will it be MY TURN?’ “  His last words come out like a whisper. After a half second of silence he put the paper down with the rest  “Same D H same. Well, I hope where ever you are now you are better off. Anyway, now I am just gonna read some of my comics and eat my snack !”
Phil took the camera from down from the dresser and placed it  on the  red wood floor far enough to where you could see the whole sleeping bag.  He was set. The intended plan was to re-read his buffy comic collection book , snack and try to stay up. Two hours went by of him just sat on his sleeping bag reading away and snacking on a bunch of mix cereal because he couldn’t decide on flavor when he packed. Every so often he would laugh get up and walk to the camera to show it something he found funny or he thought was cool. 
“hey guys. so I really wanted to stay up the whole time but i am too tierd. It was a school day today .. um i mean yesterday  its already like 3 Am. I am going to take a nap you guys are on the look out . My life depends on you. See you  later .”   He made is way back to the sleeping bag and past out as soon as his head hit the pillow.
please leave comments if you like it  
Part : 2&3
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dajoezenone · 7 years
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A Review of “The Devil is a Part-Timer! Volume 4″ (Novel)
Something I like about the whole series of books is how well they flow in and out of each other. Each volume introduces elements that will become important later, follows up on things left unresolved in the last one, and manages to tell a satisfying stand alone story in between.
THAT said though, this particular volume is comparatively worse at telling its own self contained story than the other ones, which should not be the case since this book doesn’t even take place in the same location as any of the other books. Or at least, the main plot doesn’t. It takes them half the book to leave Sasazuka and get to the beach town of Choshi, and then after that the book is nearly over by the time the major plot starts happening. Granted, the slow pacing is something you kinda learn to live with in this series, but in this book it was particularly noticable, as it constantly seemed to be building to having its own story, which ended as soon as it got started. 
Another thing I like about all the books is that its often not said who is speaking when people say stuff. Everyone just has such a unique voice that you just always know who it is, even if its not totally in character for them to say it. It lets the book keep a quick pace when it needs to. idk I like it.
One thing Volume 4 definitely excels at is the illustrations. While there are definitely some I like in the others, the ones I like in this one are absolutely stunning. Like, look at this picture of Crestia Bell holding a sparkler. Its been my phone’s lockscreen for like a month now I LOvee it its beautiful. 
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One slightly disappointing thing about this volume, though, is that it left out some of the extra stuff these novels typically come with. It has a little fold out poster thing, like the previous volume, but previous installments have also had resumes of new characters the book introduced, as well as other things like the floorplan of Villa Rosa Sasazuka appartments, or a blueprint of Urushihara’s computer closet and how he was able to keep cool in that stuffy cramped space inside their non-air-conditioned apartment. You know, fun things like that. This volume has none of those things. It doesn’t even have an afterward from the illustrator this time around. And the one from the author seemed much shorter than the ones in previous books. 
That stuff was just so well done in previous volumes that I came to expect something from it. If there’s one thing I dont like about this volume, is that the lack of effort put into that stuff makes it feel less special. I wouldn’t even notice it were it the first book, but this isn’t the first book, and it wouldn’t work as the first book. So it must be judged compared to the others. 
Still, the fact that the Author’s afterword and other stuff is all nitpicky, no matter how special those things felt in the other volumes. Lets talk about the characters and plot of THIS book.  and, fair warning, I’m gonna get pretty spoilery this time around. I may ruin the book for you a bit, if you haven’t read it yourself. 
The book mainly focuses on Maou answering the question of whether or not he really is going to one day return to being Devil King, and use his forces to conquer the Earth; and Emi answering the question of whether or not she really is willing to work with Maou to defeat the forces that are conspiring against them and Alas Ramus. 
Part of the reason the pacing seems so slow in this book in particular is that a large amount of this book is devoted to people talking about these questions, and the two protagonists continuing to put off answering them, just like they have for the previous few books, until the climax when both have no real choice but to answer. And despite the fact that I already said the pacing bothered me, the discussion was almost all good discussion. Especially whenever Chiho was involved. 
Chiho plays a huge role in this book, and despite not being present in the climax, it feels like a bigger role than she’s had in any of the other three. She’s constantly working to make sure Maou works with Emi, and she’s the one that brings up the fact that one day Maou will reclaim his throne, and return to his warring ways. But after her development in Volume 3, she’s become very accepting of this, and even proudly declares that she’ll make herself so invaluable, Maou will make her a General in his army, something that stuns Maou, despite him unintentionally helping give her the idea in the previous book. 
Maou’s development is really nice in this book. Up til this point its usually been somewhat nebulous how serious he really is about certain things. Here, we get a pretty clear picture that he really does want to rule the earth, but he really doesn’t want to wipe out humanity. In fact, he doesn’t think they’re much different from him, and he really enjoys working with them. Also, there’s a really great scene, or rather, good chunk of the book dedicated to Maou showing off his management skills. Through most of this book, MgRonald’s is closed due to renovations. Instead, Maou and co all get jobs at a beach house down by the beach. And when they get there, they discover its a bit of a dump. Maou basically figures out how to fix what he can, cover up what he can’t, and turn a profit despite having to pay for a lot of what he was fixing. 
It sounds really boring when I say it like that, but the whole series is based on seeing the mundane through the eyes of people from a world without all of what we consider boring and normal. Making that kind of thing interesting is where these books have always excelled. 
Emi’s development is what gets more focus, though. Chiho sort of takes it for granted that Maou will eventually become a fusion of the nice man she knows, and the Devil King she knows he used to be. What she doesn’t know for sure is whether or not they can count on Emi being on their side. Emi and Maou have sort of gotten lucky in the past, and ended up working together out of necessity in circumstances. Chi knows they’ll need each other even more once their enemies work together to really launch a good attack at them, but she also knows that Emi is stubborn and prideful, and will need convincing. 
While I think Emi’s arc in the previous arc was done a bit better, this is a big step for her that flows naturally from the ending of the Alas Ramus story, and clearly needs to happen before the story can move on. What happens is hardly surprising, but still a notable change from where Emi was at the start of the series, reluctant to even share an umbrella with the Devil King, much less allow him, Alciel, and Lucifer to fly into battle alongside her, and tell their fellow Demons that she is under their protection. 
SPEAKING of Lucifer, the best part about this book is that he gets a LOT more character development than he’s ever gotten. This is the first book that I feel like the whole of his character is represented at once. In the first book, he was an antagonist, and kept largely to the shadows. In the second and third book, he was revealed to be a lazy, antisocial brat who’d rather hide in the closet than be forced to interact with anybody. The anime gave him a lot of stuff to do through the second story arc that isn’t in the second book at all. In fact, his portrayal in the back half of the anime is the largest difference between the anime and the books. And as much as I really like what they did there, its not what happens here. 
Anyways, this book follows him for a lot of the story, and really does a nice job of showing both sides of his character. He’s lazy and whiny, but he’s also really powerful, and smart about predicting what their enemies are up to. He’s forced to work through part of the book, and there’s more than one scene where he and Emi interact that I really like. They both have the connection of having traveled with Olba Meyer, and Lucifer starts to worry about him coming back, which leads into Emi’s arc and what she’s going through... Anyways, its good. Lucifer is one of the best characters, and after him being largely absent from the previous book, it was nice to see him be so prominently featured. 
The book also deals with the mystery of who Maou’s landlady is, but we dont learn much, and what we do learn is more about her Niece, Amane, who we meet in this book, than about the landlady herself. Amane is a nice character who I hope shows up again, but we really dont see enough of her for me to be sure. 
The book also introduces a couple more Demon characters from Maou’s old army. Most prominently, Camio, who was Maou’s steward in the Demon Realm while Maou was away at war. In future installments I suspect he will act sort of like Emeralda does for Emi, but working for Maou instead, obviously. 
The villains of the book are Demons too, but they’re all forgettable and only even present in like one scene. 
Lets see, is there anything I’m missing?
Oh yes! The prologue focuses entirely on Emeralda Etuva, giving us much more of her character than I think we’ve ever gotten before. It largely teases that Demons are coming in this book, which they do, as well as hinting at some sweet sweet Ente Isla politics that I think will be important in the next book. I’ve been wanting more of her character since I first watched the anime, and while this didn’t justify her importance as much as I’d like, it sated me until the next book, at least. 
Crestia Bell and Alciel both had VERY little to do in this book. Alciel has always been my favorite character, and if I remember right he didn’t get any real focus in the last book either. So that sucks. Bell meanwhile had arcs in both the last two, so her absence felt earned, and made me appreciate the times when she did say and do stuff much more. Not that I ever disliked her before, but her distance from the important bits of the plot allowed her brief times onscreen to be more relaxed and lighthearted than she usually is. BUT from the Epilogue of this book and the back of the next book, I’ve gathered that Volume Five will heavily involve both of them due to Ente Isla politics and Ashiya’s love interest playing big roles there. 
So, I’ll see you guys once I’ve finished that! 
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