#more like ruby blathers

[stevebabey]

s3 post mallfire angst just hit 5k words and steve has only just started crying everybody say wahoo

#nobody told me #actually i shoulda figured it out but #nobody told me that it would be so hard to get the characterisation right on a character that has never cried in canon before #tryna analyse other parts of his personality to see how he cracks #while making it realistic that he'd cry to you??? but also including the angst of being surprised someone has stayed??? #TIS A FINE LINE I'LL TELL U #oh man and the request has confession as well dear god it'll be long #but if ur like me 5k+ of suffering steve + hurt/comfort that shit be DELICIOUS #WAHOO! #im having fun tehe #i got back from holiday and immediately sunk my teeth back into this #this is scrummy im having fun writing it #ruby talks #more like ruby blathers #idk this is my way of letting ppl know i am indeed writing <3

[cherrieguroo]

Animal crossing new horizons headcanons for the nerd bunch

Steph

- normcore I think that's what people call it but it's basically just like. a normal town with no specific style. but her house is decorated to her liking and she has her villager's home in a forest she planted herself. she also has mods and she has just a part near the top of her island where there's just a shit ton of bells just dropped on the floor.

-steph definitely gives me black tulip door wreath vibes.

-steph's favorite villager is cherry and she changed cherry's catchphrase to 'bitch' so now she says stuff like "Yeah, go for it, bitch. This oughta be good…’

-steph has a room in her house purely for 'summonings' after she found out if you combine a specific wall and flooring you can create a summoning circle.

-steph refuses to pay tom nook, so her house isn't upgraded that much.

-steph set up a small space in her island for the nerds to fool around in whenever they visited. that space now mostly consists of pit falls and stumps. someone also left a switch there and steph didn't even try to figure out who put it there and just kept it as decor for her house. also Steph has green mums outside her house which she says is supposed to be a weed farm.

Grace

-grace definitely has meticulously designed her island and it's fairycore. rip star fragment trees grace would have loved those. her island has a shit ton of pink tulips everywhere too. grace has a part of her island which is just a forest with a lot of flowers. she also has those like custom design paintings in said forest that read 'god is good' or some shit and she thinks every island should have a god forest.

-grace has the pink wedding event door thingy.

-grace has two tricycles she put outside of nook's cranny that she pretends belong to timmy and tommy

-favorite villager is ruby sorry

-grace loves the wedding event items and her island and house are full of them

Ruth

-her island is a mess to me lmao. her island tune is the iconic part in careless whisper and tiffany is her favorite villager. none of her island is actually decorated btw. and she constantly wears one of those custom design dresses that make it look like the villager has a bikini. ruth collects gyroids after she was taught how to get them by Richie. she just collects the little guys and has them outside her airport as a welcome thingy. ruth uses the effects feature a lot, mainly putting hearts on stuff. only decorating Ruth really did on her island is make a rainbow flower field which she and the rest of the nerds call the gay flower trail. ruth seems to be eternally broke. Richie offers her money and she accepts and ten minutes later she somehow managed to waste it all on the most useless decor

Richie

-his island is littered with references to animes. he has two godzilla statues outside his house. has definitely gotten much more advancements than the others. wishes he could have started out on a modded island but it's too late. his house is made to be his dream home and his room has custom designs of anime posters on the walls. he completed his museum and probably has most furniture items in his catalog. he also completed happy home designer and has a lot of amiibos. richie redecorated all of his villager's homes, both interior and exterior. richie made a crab rave on his beach. richie also collects gyroids and uses them to decorate. he also likes setting up little songs with them for specific rooms in his house.

richie's island flag is this.

Pete

-somehow the one with the best looking island. it's five stars somehow and each villager gets custom personalized yards. pete is really into flower breeding. he's also trying to complete the museum but keeps forgetting to catch some seasonal creatures and fish. pete NEVER skips blather's fun facts. in fact he writes all of them down and annoys Ruth and Richie with them. he's even memorized some for the more common fish and bugs that especially pissed Richie off when he was collecting everything (like sea basses)

petes house has the highest happy home academy rating

#starkid #hatchetfield #npmd #nerdy prudes must die #hatchetverse #team starkid #stephanie lauter #steph lauter #peter spankoffski #pete spankoffski #ruth fleming #richie lipschitz #grace chasity

[imichelle-l-rigby]

Reflections: Cillian Murphy’s Limited Edition

Series 3, episode 2

———————————————————————

*I am a music prof (predominantly classical vocalist), and I LOVE listening to Cillian’s music choices! That being said, sometimes I won’t like a song simply because of a vocalist (it’s a professional hazard - sorry!) 👩‍🏫

** The following are my own observations/opinions. We may not agree, and that’s ok! That’s what makes music fun! 😊

*** I wouldn’t say I’m well-versed in Cillian’s music preferences, but I do enjoy them (for the most part). I always wind up adding to my own playlists after listening to Cillian’s recommendations.

———————————————————————

And now for episode 2…

🎵 Set 1 (Gonna Be - Sun King)

Gonna Be: an interesting beginning! I like the layers of motivic play from low, mid, and high parts of the texture. Fun instrument and sound effect choices, as well!

Come Home: harmonies are dense, but so wholesome and satisfying. It reminds me of a lot of Americana material.

Sun King: I LOVE THE BEATLES SO UNIRONICALLY 😍😍😍😍. Also, Abbey Road had its birthday this past week! 😊

🎤Talking Break

“Blathering blindly”

“Bus stops along the way”

He sounds more chill this time than last week? His voice is giving serious ASMR vibes

“Treash”

His love of close harmonies is so valid 👌

That’s adorable him asking his dad about the faux Italian in “Sun King” 😂

🎵Set 2 (SpongeBob -

SpongeBob: I promise you that this is the last thing I think of in association with SpongeBob! 😅 while this is objectively good, it’s not my cup of tea. I do like that I can understand/follow the lyrics. Well done and well constructed.

Officina stellare: I like this! A fun, atmospheric piece.

I’m not sure why this and SpongeBob go together, but the juxtaposition is striking.

🎤Talking Break:

Italian pronunciation should be: oh-fee-chee-nah steh-lah-rey

“Brilliant atmosphere of doom” ok… way to bring down the vibe, Cillian! 😅

🎵Set 3 (Weird Lullaby - Nite Owl)

Weird Lullaby: I do enjoy some good, original jazz. Swing era, and an unorthodox use of scat. I looked up Babs, and I need to find more of his stuff. He’s got an enjoyable voice, and approaches harmonies in a beautiful way.

Nite Owl: even though this is also an “oldie,” it is a STRONG difference compared with the previous!!! But I like this - what a feel good song! Good use of what is now called a “twang” vocal technique (twang isn’t just for country music).

🎤Talking Break

Now I need to listen to Frank Zappa’s Jukebox…

Joke’s on you, Cillian! First time I listened to this I was NOT “headphoned up!” 😂 I know, I’m such a rebel! 😂😂 Jk I was too lazy to go get my AirPods

🎵Set 4 (Trees, etc. - A Slice of the Top)

Trees, etc: well, it’s certainly better/more enjoyable than “Revolution 9” - that is one trippy, scary song! But I’ll be honest, I expected more “sound directionality” when he said to “headphone up,” like when you can hear the direction of the sound change from left to right. Regardless, this is a cool concept piece.

A Slice Of The Top: more jazzy, for sure. I’m loving the different riffs! Something about it sounds like Afro-Cuban jazz, but idk why? Maybe it’s the background rhythms? Fun dissonant harmonies, though!

🎤Talking Break:

“There is some coherence… somewhere”

🎵Set 5 (Dr. Ring Ding -Jack Ruby)

Dr. Ring Ding: the intro is so weird 😅 but no, this is a cool song. Again, I always appreciate some good riffs/solos!

Jack Ruby: same artist!! Wow! And man, I just wanna dance listening to these songs!💃

🎤Talking Break

A Cork specific question!

I saw somewhere someone was asking what a “boogie” is supposed to mean. I *think* (?) it’s just a jam session or performance of some kind??? At lest that’s how I’m interpreting this story.

A pub called Snotty Joe’s?! 😂😂😂

Ejected from establishments 😂😂😂😂

Corkonians

“Brilliantly sound self”

🎵Set 6 (Gone Daddy Gone - Downtown Train)

Gone Daddy Gone: ok, this is a boogie, if I say so! The instrumental track is fun, though repetitive. The vocal line is fairly monotone. Idk why monotone songs work, but they do (Mr. Brightside is a great example of monotone done right)! And a marimba solo?! Yes, please! 🤩

Downtown Train: ok… Tom Waits’ voice is not my favorite. That being said, this is a good song. It’s not something I would listen to often because of the vocals, but it’s definitely got merit. And something about this is so nostalgic?

🎤Talking Break

Aretha!!!!! 😍😍😍😍😍

Yay archive material!!!

“Baby, baby, baby”

🎵Set 7 (Baby, Baby, Baby)

Baby, baby, baby: I have no words. Aretha has SUCH a lovely, effortless-sounding voice! And her songs are so soulful! Perfection. 💯

🎤Talking Break

Thoughts on Bill: he’s eclectic. But his description is vague and I wish he’d be more specific.

🎵Set 8 (Free’s - Weird Sisters)

Free’s: the melody isn’t ambitious (almost like a recitative), but his voice has a nice, rich quality to it! And the instrumentation is fun! Almost like a little jazzy flute riff along with atmospheric backing.

Weird Sisters: enjoyable song! Definitely enjoying the slow build in texture - well done.

As a voice teacher, I want to double check some vocal production techniques of his. I’m not sure if some of the vocal anomalies I’m hearing are purposeful or not. I think they’re done on purpose, but if not, he should go visit an ENT (the doctor, not the talking tree). TLDR: vocal health is important.

🎤Talking Break

Oh no… not more weird dude from Yorkshire 😅

I’m still so confused.

Ok… an introduction to the next artist.

🎵Set 9 (Micael)

Micael: I like this song a lot. Guitar is haunting, atmospheric, and repetitive. The other instrumental and sound effects in the back are nice additions! The vocal line and it’s layers just keep adding to the strangeness of this song. It’s a puzzle, and I think that’s why I like it - it keeps you on your toes!

🎤Talking Break

An exclusive! 🙀

Oooh… a book reading!

Comments on Jarvis: yes. Music is a magic trick! His French is good. *the tingle* - yep! So important!

“Pop music was real music as far as I was concerned” - I do disagree with this point. All music is real. You may not like it, but that’s a different subject 🤷‍♀️

🎵Set 10 (Black Magic)

Black Magic: why is this such a banger??? 😎😎😎 the bell line is a really nice touch, and I like it’s unique and unexpected melody compared to the more predictable vocal line and chorus.

🎤Talking Break:

“Thank you, Jarvis”

🎵Set 11 (Harmoniser Dub - The Smoke)

Harmoniser Dub: for something with “harmonize” in the title, there isn’t much harmonizing… (I know, I’m being purposefully obtuse) 😂 but a fun use of electronic sounds and non-vocal music!

The Smoke: I like this a lot more than the previous song! Lots of unexpected rhythmic pauses, and the mysterious vocal line is cool 😎 I like how this song is constantly morphing and borrowing styles to form a whole.

🎤Talking Break

Love remixes!

“No let’s not play the ident”

“Friends”

🎵Set 12 (Lwonsome Tonight - All Souls)

Lwonsome Tonight: now I have a complicated relationship with her voice. She purposefully sings in a thin, unsupported style and in a difficult portion of her range to create a specific haunting/folksy effect. I get it, but I don’t care for it. Good storytelling, and the vocal melody has an interesting contour.

All Souls: a strong contrast with the previous song! I like the electronic distortion and sub-pulses. 👍 the piano line is reminiscent of some of the driving pulses in funeral marches, so that’s a cool touch. I would say I prefer this song to the other one featured.

🎤Talking Break

I do love covers

🎵Set 13 (PinkMoon - Paprika Pony)

Pink Moon: I like this! Fun electronic components, and a pleasant head-dominant vocal production. This is such a vibe! ✨

Side note: isn’t AURORA featured in Frozen 2?

Paprika Pony: WHOA what a contrast! This is all clear-cut edges where the previous is all soft and fluffy. I know that has nothing to do with musical qualities, but that’s how I’m hearing it tonight.

I guess this set is tied together by alliteration? 😂

🎤Talking Break

“Anthemic” - I did not know that was a word!

🎵Set 14 (Stand Anthem)

Stand Anthem: I’m sorry, Cill, but I don’t like this. I enjoyed the first 20 seconds? It does have a “We Are The World” vibe, but it’s so repetitive. I think it’s the “stand” portions I dislike most - they don’t go anywhere. There’s no sense of build or momentum, and I’d really like to have that featured, especially in an anthem!

🎤Talking Break

Yay! Irish music!

Set 15 (Foreign Fleas)

Foreign Fleas: dude, this sounds dark and scary! 🫣 but that’s not a bad thing! I’m just a wimp 😂 but there are some nice, crunchy, dissonant harmonies in the vocal line. 👍

🎤Talking Break

“Brave and moving act of communication”

“Multitudinal”

What’s a Wally???

“Mind yourselves”

🎵Set 16 (Become the Earth - Distant Sky)

Become the Earth: oddly enough, I would describe her voice as “earthy” 😂 the simplicity of this song is nice. Heavily produced stuff is nice, but so is something like this. There’s still some post-production parts, but it’s not overwhelming. I did like that descending and ascending slide in the backing vocals! That was cool!!!

Distant Sky: Nick Cave is one of those artists who has such a gift when it comes to storytelling. However, his voice isn’t my favorite. That being said, what he adds instrumentally and through storytelling outweighs his vocal production (which is also a choice, I believe). And the juxtaposition of Nick and Else Torp is just wow! Overall, this is a beautiful song, and I’m happy the show ended so strongly with this gorgeous piece.

———————————————————————

And that’s episode 2! Honestly, I’m surprised I was able to get this out by Friday - this week has been hectic! 😂😅

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed! Feel feee to share/comment! 😊

Tag List:

@iammrsrogers @deliciousnutcomputer @mariamoonie @brownskinsugarplum76 @look-at-the-soul @kj-davis @neverroad @teapothollow @thepurplearmyposts @possessedmarshmallow

#cillian murphy #Cillian Murphy’s limited edition #music

[howlingday]

Ruby: Ugh... Where am I?

A light casts over Ozpin as he smules. Around him, screen flash to life around him, featuring videos, scripts, and images of countless content. The man spread his arms wide.

Welcome to the Schnee-Net! Have a look around.

Anything that brain of yours can think of can be found.

Ozpin waves an arm to one side, showcasing an image of a woman slaying a Grimm. With his other arm, an image of the same woman and the same Grimm in an entirely different role.

We've got mountains of content. Some better, some worse.

If none of it's of interest to you, you'd be the first.

---------------------------------------------------

Weiss: What in the world- Ah!

Another light flashes before Weiss, as her father stood before her. A seat tripped her backwards into it. Jacques Schnee lifted an arm to show recent Dust developments, and with the other a photo of very familar toes.

Welcome to the Schnee-Net! Come and take a seat!

Would you like to see the news or any famous women's feet?

Weiss struggled to stand, but found herself stuck. Bound by some invisible restraints, she was trapped. Her father chuckled, waving his hands out to reassure her.

There's no need to panic. This isn't a test.

Just nod or shake your head and we'll do the rest.

---------------------------------------------------

Jaune: Yang?

Yang: Jaune? What is going-?

The two spun as they were bumped into by two running figures. Professor Port and doctor Oobleck stood across from each other, and tipped their hats to the blondes. The doctor gestured to a Pro-Faunus petition board, while the professor gestured to a Blather post about "human scum."

Welcome to the Schnee-Net! What would you prefer?

Would you like to fight for equal rights, or bleat a racial slur?

The two danced in a circle as images of Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren came to life. Nora was ecstatic, with stars in her eyes and cheeks in her palm. Pyrrha chewed her lower lip as her eyes burned into whatever her gaze fell on. Ren's face was red with cheeks puffed and eye twictched.

Be happy! Be horny! Be bursting with rage!

We've got a million different ways to engage!

---------------------------------------------------

The four men danced around Blake as she whirled about in confusion. Screens came to life around them all. Information and lights flooded the black room, nearly overloading her sight and hearing. Mundane to morbid, the blood of the Cross-Continental Communication Network flowed endlessly.

Welcome to the Schnee-Net! Put your cares aside.

Here's a tip for straining pasta! Here's a twelve-year old who died!

The variety of the information ranged as ceaselessly as the numbers themselves. Blake was offered it all, right in front of her, and she didn't know how to respond. One second, she was looking at fantasy Grifball teams, the next, she was watching a trailer for a new Pumpkin Pete movie, and the next, she was staring crudely drawn fan art.

We've got movies, and rabbits, and fantasy sports!

And a bunch of colored pencil drawing of Red Versus Blue characters fucking each other. Welcome to the Schnee-Net!

---------------------------------------------------

The team was reunited, but all trapped in seating. They simultaneously moved through the flickering screens, with a large screen in front of them all. Ruby shut her eyes at the first image, along with everyone else. Jaune dared to peek, only to regret it when worse images followed. All the while, the men's song continued in the background.

Welcome to the Schnee-Net! Hold on just a sec!

Here's a random guy who just sent you photos of his dick!

They're grainy, and off-putting. He just sent you more!

Don't act surprised, you know you like it, you whores!

#rwby #ruby rose #ozpin #bo burnhan #welcome to the internet #welcome to the Schnee-Net #inside #weiss schnee #jacques schnee #jaune arc #yang xiao long #nora valkyrie #pyrrha nikos #lie ren #bartholomew oobleck #peter port #blake belladonna

[the-named-anon]

WHITELIST (please tag me in these types of posts:)

Posts about bugs (could be art or photos, just no unnatural bug death ((squishing, bug spray, etc)) normal bug death ((like being eaten by another bug/animal, natural death of old age, etc)) are okay)

Posts about cats (*same criteria as above)

Posts about loaches*

Posts about amphibians/reptiles*

Posts about any animal really that you think I’d like*

Posts about Minecraft

Posts about sdv

Posts about any fandom you’ve seen me talk about really

Posts about mothman

Posts with cool art

Posts that I might find helpful (art hacks, tips, etc)

Cool aesthetic things

Writing about a character/fandom you know I like

Something you make for me

Something you request to someone else for me

Something cool you want to show me

Uhh yeah!! That’s all I can think of right now!!!

Edit: also these characters:

Papyrus from undertale/deltarune

Tenya iida from bnha

Mirio togata from bnha

Fat gum from bnha

All might/toshinori yagi from bnha

Spock from Star Trek

Worf from Star Trek

Data from Star Trek

Odo from Star Trek

Rung from transformers mtmte/ll

Ratchet from transformers prime or mtmte

Knuckles from sonic

Luigi from super Mario bros

Alphonse from full metal alchemist

Muriel from the arcana

Garnet (and/or Ruby/sapphire) from Steven universe

Peridot from Steven universe

Harvey from sdv

Juminos from sdv

Chow from acnh

Deerdrie (?) from acnh

Antonio from acnh

Cyrano from acnh

Filbert from acnh

Ellie from acnh

Stitches from acnh

Brewster from acnh

Blathers from acnh

Main trio from dhmis

That’s a lot but I’ll probably add more to it haha

#nanon rambles #adding this to my pinned post

[cyberxilophone]

Museum Maintenance (Blathers TF)

When receiving a package in the mail, Ruby finds that besides all the band merch she ordered, there's a strange bow tie on the bottom. After putting it on, her air-head brain starts to morph into something more… knowledgeable.

Did she always know that much about bugs? And was the place she staying in an apartment or a museum?

After the fifth doorbell ring, Ruby knew she wouldn’t be outplaying the mailman today. She hated interacting with those jittery, sweat-drenched messes all the time. To have to endure talking to them while they handed her damp clipboards with jittering hands was the closest thing she could compare to torture. She didn’t know why almost all of the mailmen she interacted with were like that. Simply put, the woes of online shopping—alas—were unavoidable. The only thing she could do was try her best, and most of the time, that wasn’t enough. 

 “I’m coming, jeez! Can’t you just wait for a few minutes?! Maybe they would pay you guys more if you actually”—she swung the door open, ready to continue her verbal lashing with all the energy in the world, only to be met with nothing but a package on the ground—”did your joooooo…”

Well damn. Maybe she did outplay him this time. The slim, thin bunny looked around the hall to make sure that she wouldn’t accidentally run into him. The coast was clear, from the looks of it.

Putting the cardboard box on her bed, she happily sliced it open, taking the most recent batch of merch from her favorite band and laying it out on the bed. She paid good money for the limited edition. It was from scalpers, but that didn’t matter to her! She was just happy to have the clothes in the end!

“I finally have them aaall!” She squealed, grabbing the clothes in her hands. “I’m gonna take soooo many pictures later. My followers are gonna love them!” She left her phone on the nightstand—a simple white model with no drawer or anything ‘gaudy’ in her eyes. She was a fan of minimalistic design, which meant that most of her furniture didn’t have many features.

She put on one of the three shirts she received. It fit around her frame perfectly—enunciating all her curves and the rest of her perfect body. 

Amidst giggling, she picked up the box to store it in her closet. Right when she was about to place it on the pile of similar boxes, she heard something be knocked over inside the package. “Oh, crud! Did they send something extra? Oh, let me see…”

There was something there—just not the kind of thing she was expecting. Instead of a coupon or a one-in-a-million badge, she found… a dorky-looking bowtie. It was large for an accessory—width long enough that it would touch her shoulders if she was to put it on. 

“What the hell… this isn’t band merch! Did some weird nerd put his clothes in my precious box! He said that it was unsealed!” 

It was surprisingly smooth in her hands. Ruby expected it to reek of sweat and overwhelming body odor, but it carried an odd floral aroma instead. It wasn’t like the hundreds of perfumes she had stored in her second closet—a walk-in closet—but instead smelled like real flowers. It was almost like a garden.

“Guess it’s not from a weirdo… maybe it was just left by someone in the mailing company?” Tracing her finger across it, it almost felt like a plushie with how soft it was. “Maybe it’s not so bad… and what if it is band merch? I’d be throwing it away!”

She clipped on the bowtie. Checking herself out in the full-body mirror, she couldn’t help but cringe at how it looked on her. In the case that it was band merch, she’d keep it tucked in her third closet—a storage closet—with the other ugly clothes she kept out of obligation or pity.

“Eugh, gross.” She was about to take it off when she noticed that her hand had suddenly changed. Her soft, cream fur had turned a deep brown. She stared at the reflection for a long time, turning her hand around. 

A hallucination? No, it was definitely real. She could feel a strange buzz on her hand. She was wondering if it was a strange infection she could’ve gotten from the package, but that thought was dashed away when her hand started to swell. Ruby let out a banshee-esque scream, tumbling back as she clenched her hand in agony, only for the other hand to begin experiencing similar changes.

“WHAT IS GOING ON?!” 

Ruby helplessly stared at the changes continuing to spread through her body. She ran up to her bathroom and started spraying tap water across her hands, hoping that it would stop the infection. The running water did nothing as her pinkie and ring finger stretched outwards while the other three digits remained unchanged. Her once pristine, petite hands had transformed into odd-shaped arches that jutted out forward. 

“W-what is this?!” She tried seeing if closing her hand into a fist was possible, but she regretted it almost immediately as her unevenly long fingers rolled up like slugs curling up under salt. “No, No! Grossssss!”

As she opened them back up, Ruby saw that now her entire arms had turned brown, but that wasn’t the only thing that had changed. She had spent hundreds on fur products to make them as smooth and luscious as possible, and what she was seeing on her body was the total opposite of that; scraggly, uneven shapes that lacked any consistency. Just like her hands, they abruptly pushed out forward instead of being a series of silky strands that moved down her body.

“Are these feathers—” 

She pressed her ‘hand’ against her mouth. Her heart stopped for just a second as a harrowing thought passed through her mind. What she had heard was definitely not her voice, hers was pretty and soft, and what passed through her ears was scraggly and high-pitched. Slowly moving her palm down, she looked at her reflection. Almost her entire body sans her face was brown, but that didn’t matter to her at the moment. Her sole focus was her voice and the changes to it.

Just… to check. There’s no way that a voice like THAT came from someone like me.

Ruby took her hands off her mouth, prepared to say something simple like ‘hello’ to check. All plans crumbled as soon as she saw that her muzzle had somehow been thoroughly replaced with a beak. It hung open, hands shaking as a shriek built up in the back of her throat.

“WHAT IS THIS?!”

As her scream echoed through her bathroom, her shirt burst open from her chest to her stomach. Buttons went flying, hitting the mirror and dropping on the sink. Her shoulders and neck shared the same color, but her stomach had instead turned beige with strange diamond-shaped patterns weaving through her frame.

“What in the…” 

Her panic regarding her morphing hands, fur color, and voice had engrossed her attention completely. Only now as her clothes gave out under the constant stretching by the pulsating mass of her body, did she finally realize that her entire being had changed—and not for the better.

The athletic, slim build she had paid thousands of dollars in gym memberships and plastic surgeries had been thoroughly obfuscated by a layer of pudge that had grown around her body. Her curves—her hourglass figure—her flat stomach; all gone.   

“N-no! What is this?! I’m fatter than Arion Vulgari!” As the words left her mouth, the image of a chunky, fat slug was burnt into her eyes like a flashbang exploding in front of her. 

Ruby stumbled back, crashing against the wall. Why did she know that? She hated bugs—they were gross and slimy, and the thought of getting close to one to even smash it always made her wretch. 

“How… Bugs… How do I…” 

Her fly became undone as her rounding out stomach finally grew wide enough for her pants to give out under its girth. The pant legs followed as a myriad of tears and rips appeared all across the denim cloth, leaving a trail of holes so wide that the garment now looked like nothing more than patched-up rags.  

“Bugs…?” More and more images flashed across her mind. Not just of bugs, but of plants and fishes too. It was like being assaulted with the contents of dozens of encyclopedias all at once—all the information forcing its way into her brain like a giant, wriggling parasite slithering across her mind. “What… Why do I know… so much about…”

Her toes stuck together; big toe and index, the middle left alone, and the ring and pinkie joined together. The three mounds turned yellow, gaining a grainy texture. One by one, a sharp claw appeared at the end of the yellow ‘fingers’. In the blink of an eye, her paws had suddenly turned into sharp, clawed bird feet.

“I feel… so dizzy…”

With her wing against the wall, Ruby slowly walked out of the bathroom to call… someone. Her friend? Who was her friend? Did she have any friends? Her immediate thought was yes, but when she tried thinking of any of them, her mind drew a blank. 

She was popular… right?

“Mgh, crud! Something’s going on, something bad!” She looked around the room—vision fading in and out—as she searched for her phone. “Nightstand!” 

And there was a phone., just not hers. Instead of the latest model of smartphone, she found an old-looking rotary phone. Her phone wasn’t underneath it, nor was it inside the drawer.

“Wait.”

When did her nightstand get a drawer? Not just that, but did it always look so old? She had bought it a few months ago, yet it and the phone that rested on top looked ancient—probably fifty years old at the least. 

“Oh, nono! When did this get so dirty?” Walking over to the cleaning closet—she had one of those, right? Yeah, she definitely did—she grabbed a duster brush and began cleaning away the dust. “I’ll just make this quick and then I’ll make that call…”

The moment the coat of grime was swept off, it was like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders. Ever since she moved out of her parents’ house, Ruby had always asked a cleaning lady to do all the chores for her, but maybe cleaning for herself wasn’t that bad! She could even do the entire…

“Apartment?” That didn’t feel right. Looking down, it certainly didn’t look like an apartment. Those floorboards could only belong in a place as pretty as her home; the museum! “What am I thinking? I’m probably just overworking myself…”

The flood of information across her brain continued, but her mind had almost become acquainted with the uncountable quantity of textbooks memorized. All the data flowed across her brain not as a tempest pushing her to a sensory overload, but instead like a calm river weaving through her thoughts.

As she pushed the dust into a bag, the phone began to ring. “Hello?” She asked, her voice still as squeaky as ever.

“Blathers! It’s Isabelle, from the town hall?” 

Isabelle! Yes, she was one of her friends. Ruby let out a sigh of relief—perhaps it was just a lack of sleep and exhaustion from work that had been causing all the weird, confusing thoughts she’s been having lately.

“Yes, yes! Sorry for opening the museum late, Miss Isabelle!” She apologized. “It will never happen again, promise!”

“Oh, no need to worry, Mister Blathers! A man like you is probably really busy preserving nature!”

“I-I’m sorry, Blathers? Is that what you just said?”

“Um… yes? It is your name, isn’t it, Mister Blathers?”

Mister Blathers… It slid right in like a puzzle piece. Considering the day that he’s had, the fact that his identity momentarily slipped out of his grasp didn’t surprise him in the slightest.

“Yes, of course!” Blathers smiled. “I’ll be going to open the gates at once! I’m more than happy to welcome all the villagers who wish to expand their minds and horizons with knowledge!”

#gender transformation #transformation #furry writing

[intoxicatiing]

reblog and put in the tags what your muse’s favorite animal crossing villager is!

#ooc #answered meme #just for fun #jane's is sherb hands down. he's cute and blue and friendly #ruby's more of a blathers fan but she likes whitney and goldie too

[alcinadimitrescuwu]

What do you think about: a fic about alcina getting upset that men got in the castle and she gets super protective & worrying over her children. She gets stressed and her beginning to trust maiden who she is becoming informal with gives her a massage & Alcina is kind to her.

Alcina is pacing on her balcony like a caged animal. There were not many things in this world that could deeply unsettle Alcina, but the thing that terrified her more than anything else was losing her precious daughters. She had come very close to that, when some foolish man-things who fancied themselves bounty hunters had attempted to invade the castle. She and her daughters had made short work of them, but Daniela had gotten badly hurt in the process. She had gotten exposed to the cold and would have succumbed to its effects if Alcina hadn't gotten there in time.

Alcina takes a shaking hand and tries to flick the switch on her lighter but the flame is refusing to catch.

"Dracu," she swears to herself. She hated feeling this way, the way those worthless man-things had managed to unsettle her. Scenarios run unbidden through her mind of her daughter's limp bodies lying broken on the floor. A sob tries to force its way out of her throat, but Alcina shoves it down. She can't show any weakness. Not now.

"My Lady?"

Alcina turns and can't help but smile in relief as she sees you make your way towards her. The two of you had struck up an easy friendship over the past couple of months, and she had started to let her guard down around you. There was something about your presence that made her feel calm and secure.

"If I may, my Lady?" You offer your hand to take her lighter. She gives it to you and you flick the switch and the flame catches. She moves her dark head closer to you to light her cigarette and you catch a whiff of her gardenia perfume. You take in her perfect pin curls under her hat and her stunning golden eyes framed with long lashes. Her laugh lines indent slightly as she catches you stealing glances at her and you blush scarlet, ducking your head quickly in apology.

Alcina takes a grateful drag off her cigarette and smoke wreathes her beautiful face. It is then that you finally work up the courage to ask the question that's been on your mind.

"My Lady, how are you feeling?"

She looks over to you from where she was gazing out over the balcony with a surprised look on her face.

"Um, I might not be able to help much, but I'm a good listener," you say lamely.

Alcina gives you a weak smile. "You are a good listener, my dear. If you don't mind hearing the blatherings of a worried mother of course."

Alcina gestures to a garden table and the both of you sit down together, Alcina sitting in the larger chair that was obviously custom made for her.

"Those men," Alcina mutters while angrily balling her hand into a fist. She takes another drag off of her cigarette before continuing. “I’ve killed many men in my life before that tried to lay a hand on my darling daughters, but this was different.” She takes a shuddering breath. “I wasn’t even in the castle when they arrived this time. I keep wondering if I had gotten there a second later what would have happened to them. They could have done away with my daughters and I couldn’t have done a single damned thing about it.”

“But you did manage to arrive in time,” you say soothingly, feeling bold enough to put a hand on her shoulder. You feel her muscles bunch up with the tension she has been holding in for so long. “You were able to slaughter the lot of them before they could do anything else.”

Alcina chuckles and she almost seems surprised by it. “I did end up creating a lot of work for you and the other maids to clean up the mess. Do forgive me for that, pet.”

You’re in shock. Lady Alcina Dimitrescu is apologizing to you? And then you realize your hand is still on her arm. You blush furiously and try to take it off but Alcina holds your hand in place. “Tell me, dear, are you good at giving massages? My body’s been feeling rather strained of late.”

You move your chair so it’s behind her to give you a good position for her massage. You take off your working gloves and you move her capelet aside to reveal the exposed skin on her back. You press your thumbs in the area beneath her shoulder blades, moving your right thumb clockwise and your left thumb counterclockwise. Alcina leans her head back, sighing in contentment. “Oh, that is lovely,” she purrs.

As you continue your massage, she says, “I don’t know what it is about you. I feel like I can talk to you about anything and fear no judgement. There is something deeply calming about your presence, something comforting.” She reaches behind her and takes your hand in hers and presses the back of it to her ruby lips. “You are a treasure, my dear.”

You feel your face turn scarlet as she gets out of her chair to face you. She pulls your face close to hers and gently caresses your jaw. You lean into her touch and you see her face getting ever closer. Her lips brush lightly against yours.

“Mother! Daniela’s finally awake! Stop making out with the maid and get over here!”

Alcina smiles indulgently at Cassandra before turning to you. She inclines her dark head to yours again and whispers something in your ear.

She has already ducked under the lintel into the adjoining room before you realize what she has just whispered in your ear.

I love you.

#alcina dimitrescu #lady dimitrescu #re8 village #lady alcina dimitrescu #lady dimitrescu x reader #alcina x maiden #alcina x reader #lady dimitrescu x female reader #re8 fanfiction #re8 fanfic #bela dimitrescu #cassandra dimitrescu #daniela dimitrescu #alcina dimitrescu x reader #lady dimitrescu x maiden #ask #fic request

[dastardlydandelion]

my thoughts on fear street 1666 now that i finished scrubbing all the toilets, got to go home and watch it

holy shit. that movie. wow. 

it wasn’t as fun as the other two. didn’t employ the same campy tropes. didn’t present itself in a flourish of period typical style. while i enjoyed the first two films paying homage to classic horror tropes and making the most of the stylish side of their respective environments, i am v grateful and relieved that 1666 *wasn’t* as fun as the other two and actually presented the horror of puritan fanaticism and witch accusations more srsly. imo it portrayed that grave, twisting dread that the subject matter calls for. i appreciate that bc i think i would’ve been uncomfortable if they attempted to do smth more campy with the time period given what we already knew abt the circumstances of sarah’s death even before the film. 

more of me blathering on and on abt fear street 1666 under the cut: 

the twist actually worked on me this time. they actually got me on this one, u guys. i rly watched this franchise believing sarah fier was possessing ppl and wreaking her vengeance on the town, but this whole time it was the fuckin’ goodes. nick, i never liked u, i think ur more interesting than i did before before when u were a generic as generic gets asshole, so now ur somewhat more interesting but even bigger of an asshole than i gave u credit for. ur literally the worst asshole of assholes, ur a walking infected hemorrhoidal rectum of a human being. 

don’t get me wrong, i always thought sarah was going to be portrayed sympathetically. i never doubted that. my theory was that sarah was going to be a sympathetic villain. i thought 1666 would’ve revealed why she cursed shadyside. i figured she would’ve cursed her townsfolk for turning their backs on her, maybe, or hurting/killing hannah, or using her for her witchcraft and then getting angry if it backfired on them, or smth like that. i thought we were going to watch a story abt sarah’s descent into darkness and while she’d defo be a tragic villain, she rly would be the person behind the possessions...but it wasn’t even her. she and hannah were just vulnerable to the town’s suspicion and persecution bc they were queer women who didn’t behave the way society wanted them to behave. and they were blamed for evil actually wrought by heterosexual men in power, and when sarah realized there was no way out of it, she took the blame upon herself so hannah was spared and she cursed only the goode family?? 

THAT IS SO MUCH BETTER. FUCK. THAT IS SUCH A BETTER STORY. kudos to this trilogy for being more intelligent than it ever had to be, when it could’ve just skated on the notoriety of the fear street series, the style, and billing notable cast members. 

so yeh, i defo 100% appreciated the goode men from wealthy sunnyvale being revealed as the true villains. i actually got my wish of nick getting killed in the face. i love that sarah possessed deena to do it herself!!! and deena!! oh man, i love deena so much. she was wearing a homebrew vest to protect herself made of fear street novels + duct tape, u gotta love it. ig she wanted to prepare herself since sam stabbed her at the end of 1994. on that note, she’s v active in this film for someone who has a fresh abdominal stab wound and i mean, the situation defo calls for it, but i hope she remembered to properly dress it and take a couple ibuprofen or smth. shit, i’m gettin distracted again. okay!! 

i loved errything that went down in the mall. i adore that josh and adult ziggy got more time to shine. i was so! so! happy at martin’s inclusion on the action. he deserved that after the way nick treated him in 1994. our occupations are also p similar so i defo relate to martin on that front. i loved it all the neon and blacklight stuff at the mall. that part was v stylish, that was p cool. spraying the killers with the blood so they kill each other!! yes! that was perfect!! it was incredibly practical and enjoyable for me, as a gore fan, to watch. 

i liked the sticky note on the wall at the end from deena and josh’s dad, that he had a job interview. i wonder if this is bc the curse of shadyside has been lifted with the end of the goodes?? 

yk, i feel like now knowing what we know abt the actual evil, i gotta wonder how much re-watch value there is to be gleaned from this trilogy. for example, in 1978, nick liked ziggy and didn’t want her to die. he performed cpr on her even tho she’d been stabbed a fuck ton of times and tbvh, the chances of success of resuscitation depending on what exactly it is was ziggy succumbed to seem v slim. at first i attributed this to a suspension of disbelief bc this is fiction (and to be fair crazy do happen sometimes irl, ykw, sometimes reality can surprise u) BUT now i’m sittin here like...was the cpr successful bc nick’s deal with the devil gave him the power to do that?? did his bargaining of others’ souls and offering them up for possession grant him the ability to have some control in that situation somehow? at least more than a normal human being should?? idk. it’s a thought. 

what else, what else? 

i feel like outta the three, 1666 had the most tension overall. i was p gosh darn emo abt the relationships. deena and sam’s relationship i’ve cared abt since the beginning but the contrast of them getting the opportunity to have it and be together, in parallel to the way sarah and hannah’s ended just moves u. or, it moved me at least. sarah tells hannah they’ll go somewhere and kiss in broad daylight before kissing her in almost total darkness, and then the film ends on deena and sam kissing in the sun. i was also glad deena and josh’s sibling relationship got touched on a lil bit more. thought it was cute that she tried to cook for him and produced smth that just dead ass looks inedible. i also thought it was sweet that ziggy reunited with nurse lane. she can do that now, she can leave her house without fearing the return of the curse, and she deserves it. <3

i’m impressed with the trilogy overall. each movie easily could’ve been an r-rated goosebumps episode and imo all were certainly better than that. i feel like each film was better than the previous, but personally enjoyed each one. some things were p predictable but i think much of that is intentional. 1994 and 1978 were clearly paying homage to classic slashers and familiar horror tropes. i personally didn’t find the predictability off-putting bc i recognized what they were trying to do, and felt the quality in the other elements made up for it. i was genuinely shocked by the actual villain reveal, i personally didn’t predict that. again, i always thought sarah was going to be sympathetic and i never liked nick at all, but i didn’t suspect sarah was just. dead ass *not* going to be a villain or that he was going to be the big bad. 

really dug the style of these films. loved that we got an interracial lesbian couple who made it thru the trilogy without either the predatory lesbian trope or the byg trope happening. i liked most of the characters we got to know and the only character who *rly* grated on my nerves was the villain who got stabbed in the eye. 

gosh, i want more fear street movies!! if i had to pick one outta any of the slashers featured, i’d want to see ruby lane’s story. i would like to see this production team milking the most outta the environment in the 50s, the style of the 50s, music, and whatnot. i enjoyed nurse lane even tho she was super bad at murder, so it’d be cool to see her again and who she was before her daughter got possessed and killed 7 ppl. also, ruby sings when she kills?? 

that’s weird and creepy and neat. totally down for it. 

#fear street spoilers #fear street 1666 #fear street #sarah fier #deena johnson #nick goode #sam fraser #josh johnson #ziggy berman #ruby lane #nurse lane #martin p franklin #gosh u guys #i rly dug this movie #i rly dug the trilogy as a whole #i was hype to begin with but it exceeded by expectations #i want more

[rwbyvein]

Firen Lhain:  Chapter 808:  Coffee:  Part III / III

"So tell me?," Taj asked from the cockpit, "what is your plan, here?"

Both Mercury and Emerald looked to Cinder. "Oh?" Cinder asked, "Find a place to disappear."

"Well, Vacuo is certainly the place for that." Taj stated. "You're headed for the lower Athabasca, which is even easier to hide in."

"And that means?" Mercury asked.

"Badlands." Taj replied.

"What's it like in Vacuo?" Emerald asked.

"Oh?" Taj asked, hit a couple buttons, and turned back, "Where did you grow up, again?"

"Vale." Emerald quietly voiced.

"Growing up as a street rat in Vale might seem like it's rough, and the end of the world, but Vacuo is SO much worse. The government of Vacuo has two purposes, keeping armies out, and keeping Grimm out, and for the latter, they just help pay for Grimm bounties. If things get a little hot, they might send out a lawman to calm things down. You might think your life didn't mean much in Vale, but in Vacuo it means zip."

"Strength is the only thing we have." Mercury added.

"Good thing we have enough to spare." Cinder said with a bright smile that Emerald got lost in.

"Problem, though," Taj said, and they turned to looked at him, "you guys don't look like your the type to build your own home."

"If?.." Emerald nervously asked, "the Kingdoms doesn't... how do they feel about drugs, prostitution, theft?.."

"Oh, well, in theory," Taj stated, "it's all illegal. Well, except the prostitution part. The most they really do for the others is pay bounties." Emerald looked down until something occured to her. She then looked at Cinder whom had a wicked grin looking at Mercury. Emerald looked to Mercury who had the same look.

"Is that what we're doing?" Emerald asked. "We're going to be bounty hunters?"

"We kill the drug lord," Mercury stated, "take his money. Take the body into the authorities and get more money. Everything we do is nice and legal."

"Then all we'll have to do," Cinder added, "is find someone to build us a nice, lovely, giant house."

"I recommend you go underground," Taj stated, "Vacuo can get pretty hot during the daytime."

"Maybe something hidden in a badlands?" Cinder asked, and Emerald looked at her with shock. She breathed in deep.

"Of course you had this planned." Emerald shyly said to her, "You're plans always work."

Cinder gave her a bright smile for a moment. "Thank you. They do." she said, and Emerald gave her a shocked look. "The only question was what I wanted?"

"Apparently a mansion in the Vacuan badlands." Taj added.

* * *

Yang and Weiss walked down the stairs. "Nora, Ren." Weiss greeted, and Nora jumped up. Ren quickly stood up behind her.

"I believe it was going to be Blake and Weiss?" Ren asked.

"They had to do... something?.." Yang asked. "Instead of Ladybug you got Freezerburn." she stated, and Neo looked at her questioningly.

"Ruby and Blake are Ladybug." Weiss stated as they walked up, "Yang and myself are Freezerburn."

Again, Neo looked at them questioningly. "Because I'm hot," Yang said, and looked at Weiss, "and she's..."

"An ice queen." Weiss said neutrally, causing Yang to develop a surprised look. Weiss was flushing both light and dark blue. "I have learned to accept my role as the team's wet blanket."

"You're RWBY's Jaune!" Nora exclaimed, and Weiss looked at her with uncertainty for a moment.

"Yes?" Weiss asked.

"Someone has to keep us from jumping in head first." Yang said.

"If that is at all possible?" Weiss neutrally asked.

"So?" Yang asked, "Anything interesting happen?"

"Oh?" Nora asked, "Jaune came in, hugged Neo, and told her how he feels her pain or something."

Weiss lookded at Neo, "Indeed?" she asked. Neo glared at her for a few moments before finally nodding.

"That does sound like him." Yang added.

"He did walk in and just pull my sister into a hug." Weiss said.

"That does sound like Leader." Nora added.

"Really makes me jealous." Yang stated.

"Of Jaune or Winter?" Ren asked, causing Yang to flush orange. "We will take our leave." Ren finished, and then grabbed Nora's hand, gently tugging her to a stairs. Yang walked up to the hole in the cell while Weiss walked over to the crates before elegantly sitting up upon one.

"So, tell me?" Yang eagerly asked, and Neo looked at her curiously. "Jaune's hug. I know they can come and go in an instant, but in that time, it feels like time stands still, doesn't it?" she asked, and Neo's face softened. "So, warm, wrapping all around you, firm, but yielding, like it knows what you want."

Neo started to shift about.

"If he talked about feeling your pain," Weiss stated, "he probably meant to try and take it away. He has made all of our burdens so much lighter. And you would be mayhap not the first ne'er-do-well we've reformed."

"That's a fancy way of saying," Yang added, and Neo sneered at her, "he likes helping the helpless" Yang paused and hung her head, "Like me." This caused Weiss to let out a loud scoff. Yang turned her head up to look at her. "Let's face it, you're an ice queen, but I'm just broken." Yang reached her left hand over to grab where the right had been cut, but couldnt' seem to find the place. "The hell?"

"It seems your break has been mending." Weiss said, and when Yang looked over, Weiss was standing right in front of her. She grabbed Yang's hand and looked up into her eyes, though a couple of things did make that a bit difficult. "Despite my flaws, I find myself getting lost in you, and I can assure you that you are the same. We are not one, but five." Neo gestured with her hand to make fun of the blather, and Weiss turned towards her. "Oh, really, you have not found anyone to lose your flaws in?" she asked. Neo blushed and then looked around. She looked back to Weiss, giving her an evil gaze. "Glower all you want, it simply proves my assertion to be true. I assume that when Jaune ripped the bars off of your cell, he was expecting to no longer need them." Neo jumped up to the other side of the opening, and stood Augustly. Unfortunately, her minute frame was not especially intimidating.

"Uh-huh?" Yang asked, as she stepped up, "Look me in the tits and say that."

Weiss let out a scoff, and Neo developed a neutral expression as he looked between the two. "Must you be so crass?" Neo developed a mild smirk before quickly quashing it.

"She's the one trying to eye me down from tit-height." Yang said to her.

"Perhaps we could talk about this?" Weiss said to her.

"Over coffee?" Yang asked.

"That does sound lovely."

"I didn't mean..." Yang said, but Weiss had moved in to kiss her on the cheek. Before Yang knew it, Weiss was back up the stairs.

* * *

"Weiss?" Jaune asked as she walked into the kitchen.

"We have decided to discuss this over coffee." Weiss stated, and Jaune stepped back to let her pass.

* * *

Weiss walked out of the kitchen with tray with coffee in hand.

"Are you not concerned?" Ren asked, and Jaune turned around to pull him into a hug.

"This is fantastic!" Jaune exclaimed.

* * *

Weiss placed the tray on a crate, poured two cups, before elegantly sitting up on another crate. Yang sat on the ground with her back to the crate, and they both momentarily enjoyed their coffee. Neo tried to give them an evil look, as satisfied looks appeared on their own faces, but instead it came across as jealous. "Did you want some coffee?" Weiss asked.

Yang took another sip, "It's really good coffee."

Neo continued to look on them with jeaslousy.

"You simply have to ask." Weiss simply stated. Neo looked at them for a moment longer before turning around, sitting down, and crossing her arms in a huff.

Yang moaned as she took another sip. "Really good coffee." Neo briefly looked over her shoulder before looking back.

"The way I look at it," Weiss said, causing Neo to look over her shoulder, "you could either let Jaune-dear hug you, or spend the rest of your life in prison." Neo turned her upper body to glare at her. "Oh, feeling agrieved are we?" Weiss asked, "Then why exactly are you here?" Neo turned back away. "You could have gone anywhere. You could have done anything, but instead you hired mercenaries and came to join us here?"

"We could have turned you over to General Clank, and you would probably be put in a hole, never to be seen again." Yang said, and then took another sip of her coffee and letting out another moan. She then turned to Weiss, "You really make good coffee, Linnet."

"Thank you." Weiss replied, and Yang leaned over to kiss Weiss' leg. She then turned to Neo, "Remember, you are here because Jaune-dear thought it was good to do so. General Ironwood would have simply had you tried, and with the plethora of evidence, no doubt convicted."

"You know why you're in a cage, don't you?" Yang asked, and Neo turned to glare at her. "Because you wanted to. Ladykiller gave you a choice, and you wanted to hide back in your little box."

Neo turned to give them a questioning glare. "If you are wondering why we are guarding you is because you made the choice to stay our enemy." Weiss simply said to her.

"If you want to come out, we'll give you some of Linnet's wonderful coffee." Yang said enticingly.

"Or, perphaps?" Weiss asked, "We could call the General?" Neo huffed and turned away, every few seconds turning back to glance at them. She eventually breathed in deep, walked over to the hole in the cell, and just stood there. "Yes?" Weiss asked. "Did you want something." Neo crossed her arms with a huff, looking away. Eventually she looked Weiss in the eyes, nudging her head to the coffee. "Very well." Weiss stated, and jumped down from her crate. Weiss poured the coffee and looked at Neo, "Cream or Sugar?" Neo nodded and held up two fingers. Weiss stirred them into her cup and then walked towards the hole in the cell. "Now, if you promise to be on your very best behaviour..."

"No stabbing." Yang stated.

"Then we can let you out of your cell."

Neo looked at her questioningly for a moment before looking at and reaching for the coffee.

"Very well." Weiss said. Neo grabbed the coffee and turned back into her cell.

* * *

Hildegard Bont walked into James Ironwood's office. Ironwood stood up and rushed over to close the door, "Do you have any idea how inappropriate it is for you to see me outside of the council?"

"Does the chair of the judiciary have any idea how inappropriate this is?" Hildegard asked, "I'm here because I have something important enough to say." James walked back around to the other side of his desk, and sat down, leaning hard upon his desk with both of his hands. "Easy, James." she said to him. "You've had to have seen this coming?"

"I was just doing..."

"What you thought was right, yes." Hildegard said to him. "What you could to save Remnant, and by closing the borders, you made yourself vulnerable to everyone who's ever had a grudge against you, and to everyone that you're in the way of."

"Do - you think I?.." James asked.

"If you will let me say what I came here to say?" Hildegard asked, and he breathed in deep.

"Go - on." James stated.

"There's no way that Bluebonnet did not know what was going on."

"Do you think I don't know that?" James asked.

"No." Hildegard replied, "But now you know we're on the same page."

#rwby #firen lhain #faunus #pollinated knight

[summer-of-blossoms]

Founder Trio Festival, Day 4: Tōrō Nagashi/Estrangement

Warnings: Anxiety attack, mentions of death (not of the trio)

It should have been the three of them, standing there on the riverbank. It had been them over the past years. And even though one of them had refused to join in the past couple of years, it still felt incomplete.

Kaoru gazed out at the floating lanterns, only half focused on the soft light as he tugged a sleeve of his yukata. He couldn't help the glances he shot to his left and right. The empty spaces. One that would remain empty, and one that should have been filled by now.

Kojiro was late. Which wasn't surprising, to be fair. He'd said he'd pick up the lanterns. Kaoru's bag sat by his feet, containing his brushes and ink, ready to decorate whenever the moron decided to show up.

The lanterns blurred, and his head spun. He twisted the fabric between his fingers, trying to draw in a full breath. What if, like Adam, Kojiro had decided he was done with their little group? Was a pair of people even considered a group anymore?

Right around the time that his hands started to shake and his legs were threatening to give out, a pair of hands were under his jaw, tipping his head up.

And there was Kojiro, a halo of lanterns lit in the background around his body.

"Hey." He gave Kaoru a soft smile. "You're going to bite that lip ring out one day."

Kaoru sputtered, swatting away the hands and turning his back, sitting by his bag, cheeks burning while Kojiro went to retrieve the lanterns that he had hastily set on a stone ledge.

"As if," Kaoru muttered half-heartedly. "I'm fine."

"I mean, there's a lot changing lately. Nothing wrong with being anxious." Kojiro sat beside him, placing the lanterns on the pavement in front of them. And after a long pause where he stared out at the water while Kaoru set out the brushes, he added. "You were thinking about him again, weren't you?"

"No!" Kaoru snapped, fingers fumbling over the cap of the ink bottle. "W-why would I be thinking about that… that…" he couldn't even come up with a good insult for Adam.

"I miss him too."

"No one asked you." Kaoru sighed in relief when the cap finally came free and he set the ink between them. Whenever Kojiro focused on something, he was usually quiet. When he snuck a glance, Kojiro had his tongue poking out, laying out lines of black on one panel of his lantern, blessedly quiet, and so he turned his attention to his own lantern. He should think of his ancestors, not a living friend. Though he supposed, in a way, the Adam they'd boarded with in their teens was gone.

As if reading his thoughts, Kojiro reached out and placed a hand on his shoulder. "He should have been here with us."

Kaoru should argue. Deny it vehemently. But Kojiro's hand was warm through fabric, holding firm and grounding him. As always, Kojiro's mere presence made him more comfortable, so instead, he took a deep breath.

"Yeah, he should be," he agreed, looking back over at Kojiro's lantern when his hand fell away. "Who's name is that?"

"Hmm?" Kojiro looked up and Kaoru laughed at the streak of ink along his jaw.

"Once a clumsy gorilla," Kaoru whispered, tugging up the sleeve of his dark yukata to wipe at the streak. Kojiro's eyes met his, and Kaoru's breath caught in his throat. This close, and in the low light, Kojiro's eyes seemed to waver between soft red and hard rubies, and Kaoru had to turn away. He clung to his lantern and forced his mouth to form words. "So, that name?"

"Oh, that's a great aunt," Kojiro muttered. "Dad told me she passed away recently. And, well…" He was hesitating. That was never a good sign.

"Just spit it out."

"She left all the cousins some money. A good sum of money," Kojiro blurted.

"Money?" Kaoru's head whipped over. Kojiro was looking out to the river, at the sky, the pavement, anywhere but at Kaoru. "Then that means…"

"I can go to culinary school now."

"That's great!" Kaoru's voice clearly said the exact opposite of 'great.' "Are you going to the one you showed us?"

"The one in Italy? Yeah, probably."

"So then…" Kaoru didn't want to ask. Didn't want to think of how much or how little time they had left together. Or how Kojiro would leave him, just like Adam did. Though that wouldn't be correct. They still got along. Kojiro hadn't changed. He didn't want to ask, but he had to know. "When do you leave?"

"Before the month is out. I've been looking at dorms and stuff."

Kaoru's entire body locked up, and he nearly snapped the brush. He focused on his breathing, trying his hardest to keep it steady. And was failing miserably as his breaths kept coming quicker and shorter.

"Hey, hey. Kaoru. Look at me."

But Kaoru couldn't. He stared down at the brush in his shaking hand until it blurred. It was late summer. He shouldn't be this cold.

"I said look, Pinky." Hands came back to his jaw, surely streaking him with ink as well. But the black smudges distracted him just enough, and he focused on Kojiro's face until it came into focus.

"Thanks. Wait. Pinky?" Kaoru brandished his brush. "Why I ought to…" he trailed off as Kojiro started laughing. He caught Kaoru's hand, thumb resting on his palm with a squeeze, holding their hands together as best he could with a brush in the way.

"Gotcha out of your head, didn't it?"

"Idiot," Kaoru mumbled, trying to jerk away, but Kojiro held tight.

"Listen to me, Kaoru. Just because I'm going away, doesn't mean we have to stop talking. You've got my number. Call me day or night. Whenever you're on the verge of an anxiety attack. Or if you just want to call me names. Even if you want to blather on about whatever. Ok? I don't want you to feel like you're alone."

"I forget how much of a sentimental sap you can be." Kaoru bit down on his lip ring, willing his eyes not to tear up. "Fine." He tried to spit the word in Kojiro's face, but it came out gently, making Kojiro break into his sappy soft smile that Kaoru absolutely didn't love. No, sir. Not one bit. "Thanks." And for once there wasn't a trace of sarcasm.

"Besides," Kojiro turned away, going back to his lantern. "I bet you anything that we'll all wind up together again someday, and it'll be just like the old days. You, me, and Adam. We'll skate together again someday."

#foundertriofest2021 #sk8 the infinity #kaoru sakurayashiki #kojiro nanjo #sk8 adam #cw anxiety #a little more rg a little less b #not sure if this can really count for the day #but an effort was made and i like how it turned out

[inthedayswhenlandswerefew]

Eccentricity [Chapter 2: You Can Run Around Infinite In My Head]

Series Summary: Joe Mazzello is a nice guy with a weird family. A VERY weird family. They have a secret, and you have a choice to make. 

Potentially a better love story than Twilight (we’ll let @killer-queen-xo​ decide when it’s all said and done 😉).

Chapter Title Is A Lyric From: Rome by Dermot Kennedy.

Chapter Warnings: Language, mentions of violence. 

Other Chapters (And All My Writing) Available: HERE

Tagging: @queen-turtle-boiii​ @bramblesforbreakfast​​  @killer-queen-xo​​ @maggieroseevans​​ @culturefiendtrashqueen​​ @imnotvibingveryguccimrstark​​ @escabell​​ @im-an-adult-ish​​ ​ @queenlover05​​ @someforeigntragedy​​ @imtheinvisiblequeen​​ ​ @seven-seas-of-ham-on-rhye​​ @deacyblues​​ ​ @tensecondvacation​​ ​ @brianssixpence​​ 

Please yell at me if I forget to tag you! 💜

Missing In Action

I wish she would stop staring at me.

Lucille sat at the Lees’ usual table and apathetically picked through a heaping salad. (Friday was salad bar day, which I appreciated considerably more than the chicken finger obsession that marred Mondays at Calawah University.) Every once in a while, Rami nudged her and Lucille would spear a cherry tomato with her fork and bite it in half with perfectly even, white teeth. But her large blue-green eyes—they reminded me of webs of seaweed tumbling in the cold, frothing La Push waves—always found their way back to me, strangely focused, inquisitive, perhaps accusatory.

Ben probably told them how much he hates me for whatever nebulous reason and now they all hate me too and I’m going to spend the next two years being death-glared by five ridiculously attractive and somewhat incestuous foster kids.

Chemistry was a three times a week class. Ben hadn’t shown on Wednesday, and I was 99% sure he would skip again today. I spotted him around campus periodically, always from a distance: dropping quarters into a vending machine, clandestinely vaping behind dorm buildings (what self-respecting pre-med student VAPES?!!), browsing YouTube videos in the library next to a tower of unopened textbooks, biology and chem and physics and calculus. He wasn’t home, he wasn’t sick; there was no attempt made to construct any sort of pretext. He was patently avoiding me.

I stabbed moodily at the serrated disks of cucumber in my salad. Jessica was blathering away about the latest season of The Bachelor and ranking the contestants’ eyebrows from best to worst. “...Like seriously, has she never heard of microblading?!”

“For real,” Angela offered, not especially invested but forever a good sport.

Lucille’s eyes settled on me again as she sipped a cup of steaming tea, staring until her forehead crinkled with the effort, staring hard, almost leering.

“What’s her problem?” I muttered.

Jessica shot a glance towards the Lee table and slurped her Sprite. The great mystery surrounding her potential Mormon-ness persisted. “Who? Lucy?”

Only Lucille’s friends called her Lucy. Jessica, a shameless aspiring socialite, presumed she was everybody’s friend unless they explicitly informed her otherwise, which of course no one ever did.

“Yeah,” I answered glumly.

“Maybe it’s your dress.”

“My dress? What’s wrong with my dress?”

Jessica wrinkled her nose and surveyed me as if I were a bug, and not a cute bug like a roly-poly bug or The Very Hungry Caterpillar or whatever. Like a really hideous bug. Like one of those spider-cricket hybrid things that hopped straight out of a hell dimension and into the dark, drippy corners of your basement. “It’s, like, very 1960s. But not in a sexy Woodstock way. In a ‘I’m about to join a hippie murder cult’ way.”

“I got it at TJ Maxx. It was on sale.”

Jessica snorted. “Probably for a reason.”

“That’s it. I’m giving all the hippies in my new murder cult your address.”

She and Angela laughed. Mike and Eric, the missing pieces of our daily lunch puzzle, were preoccupied with a campus protest to convert fried fish day (Thursdays) into tacos day. I sympathized with their efforts, but didn’t feel that my one-week tenure as a Calawah University student gave me much right to go around overhauling the dining hall schedule.

“I doubt she’s actually offended by a dress,” Angela said, nibbling on French fries that shed grains of salt like snowflakes.

Jessica sighed dreamily. “But Lucy’s just so fashionable...and that accent...” She drifted off into some daydream which began—I could only assume—with Lucy’s invitation to go shopping together and concluded with marrying Ben on some lush tropical island in the South Pacific.

Lucille was definitely fashionable, especially today: short black dress with sheer sleeves that ran to her fragile wrists, black polka dot tights, black heeled oxfords, dangling ruby earrings like beads of blood. She would have blended in perfectly at Paris Fashion Week. Rami was wearing a cardigan and khakis, per usual; Joe was in dark fitted jeans and a roomy U Chicago hoodie despite the fact that Forks was at minimum a thirty-four hour drive from the Windy City. What did Angela say his major was? Finance? No, Mathematical Economics. So he’s probably aiming at Chicago for an MBA or Econ PhD someday. Angela had told me that Joe was wicked smart. He better be if he’s entertaining fantasies of grad school at the University of Chicago.

Scarlett had come straight from Fencing Club and was wearing bright pink yoga pants and a t-shirt with the sleeves cut out, sprinkling Hot Cheetos into her open mouth, her blonde hair secured in a tight French braid. You know those girls who are so irrationally, gluttonously, unfairly beautiful that it doesn’t seem possible the genetic lottery could spit out so many winning numbers at once, and you comfort yourself with the certainty that there must be some set of circumstances that would level the playing field—I bet she looks like anyone else without all that makeup, she just has a really good sense of style and knows how to maximize her assets, there are definitely some goofy oversized ears hiding beneath that hair and that’s why she always wears it down—and then one day you run into them wearing sweatpants and a ponytail in the tampon aisle at Walmart and they’re still so perfect it stings you, baffles you, makes you feel like there must have been some divergence in the evolutionary chain because there’s no freaking way you’re the same species? Yeah, Scarlett was one of those girls. Scarlett was the queen of those girls.  

Ben was conspicuously absent from the table.

Scarlett’s pink leopard-print iPhone rang and she answered. “Hello?” She turned to Joe. “Dad says you left your phone at home. Do you need it?”

Joe was gnawing his way through his third slice of pepperoni pizza. “No, I’m good, thanks though.”

Scarlett relayed the message. “Dad says he’s going to bring it by just in case.”

“Oh my god, ScarJo, I’m fine! Tell him not to!”

“Dad says he doesn’t trust you and he’s going to be here in fifteen minutes. He’s also bringing the Game Theory homework you left by the hot tub.”

Joe groaned and rolled his lively dark eyes as Rami grinned at him; Lucille was still watching me and entirely oblivious.

“Isn’t it weird that Ben and Lucille have accents?” I asked Jessica. “That they’re from the U.K.? I didn’t think fostering kids was an international thing.”

“It’s not that weird. Dr. Lee is British too. Maybe there’s some kind of exchange system, I don’t know. But you know what I do know?”

“What?” Now my interest was piqued.

She smiled. “That the British accents are hot.”

“Ugh,” I exhaled involuntarily.

“Please get a hobby,” Angela begged Jessica. “Start a YouTube channel. Make care packages for orphans. Grow marijuana. Adopt a cat. I have a shift at the animal shelter this Sunday morning, you want to come with me?”

“Sorry, can’t. I have a temple thing.”

Temple on Sunday. The mystery is solved. She’s a Mormon for sure. I mentally resolved not to let her set me up with anyone unless I was still single on Valentine’s Day. Which, obviously, assuming I’m not dead in a ditch somewhere, I will be.

I gathered up my trash and slung my backpack over my shoulder. “Okay, well this has been a bizarre lunch to be completely honest, and now I have to go to Chemistry so I’ll see you later and hopefully we can brainstorm some more alternatives to Jessica’s current life trajectory on Monday. Because I am not looking forward to being a bridesmaid in these impending Lee nuptials.”

“Oh please!” Jessica lamented. “He doesn’t even know I exist. You, on the other hand...”

I scoffed. “Yeah, he wants to kill me. I truly have a gift.”

They waved as I left. I could feel Lucille’s eyes on me until I reached the door.

Sure enough, Ben wasn’t in Chemistry. I tried not to notice. I drew my atoms, wrote my equations, took my notes diligently and in my favorite sky blue ink. But I felt the emptiness in the chair next to me like a black hole, like an immense and dragging weight, like a snag in the fabric of all those interwoven strands of physics that orchestrate the universe like an immortal puppeteer. Why can’t I forget this guy? Why do I still feel like I’ve met him before?

Halfway through class, I hauled my emergency sweatshirt out of my backpack and pulled it on over my dress, floral and flowing and golden yellow like the sun, the sun that never shines here in Forks. I had liked it plenty under the florescent lights of the fitting room at TJ Maxx, and I had still liked it this morning; but Jessica’s words hummed around in my skull like wasps. The zipper of the sweatshirt was broken, but it accomplished the task of obscuring my dress well enough.

After Chemistry, I journeyed to the campus library to find a book I was supposed to read and present for a different class. I looked it up in the computer catalogue, spent an embarrassingly long time trying to figure out how the Dewey Decimal System works, eventually wound up finding the book on the highest floor of the library...and, to add a little extra peril to the mission, on the highest shelf. The book mocked me from its lofty, unattainable stronghold. The title was embossed in gold letters down the crimson spine. The Walruses And Me: A Transformative Experience. Idiotic title, I’m aware. It’s about some marine biologist who spent months alone in the Arctic studying the lifecycles of walruses. A noble pursuit, sure, but still a terrible title.

There wasn’t a chair or stepstool in sight. I tested my weight by stepping up onto the second-lowest shelf. The metal immediately squealed and shifted in protest. I retreated back down to the carpet, defeated by gravity. I scowled up at the book and sighed melodramatically. Ugh.

“Need something?”  

I spun around to see Joe in his University of Chicago hoodie and pale flawless skin and intangible magnetism, that bewildering trademark Lee ethereality. I instinctively crossed my arms, clutching the sleeves of my sweatshirt, shrinking inwards like a startled armadillo in the Arizona desert.

“Are you, uh, anemic...?” he ventured.

“Oh no, I’m not cold. I’m just trying to hide my dress. My friend said it was too hippie-murder-cult 1960s.”

I figured he’d laugh, make a snide comment, maybe just blink in confusion. Instead, he glimpsed down at my dress—what could still be seen of it, anyway—and shook his head. “The neckline isn’t right for the 60s. And you seem like you’ve showered at least once in the past two weeks, so definitely not a hippie.”

I smiled, completely unexpectedly. “I didn’t realize Econ majors knew anything about leftist counterculture.”

“Disparaging it is our favorite pastime. Are you trying to get a book or are you just disrespecting university property for entertainment?”

I pointed. “The big red one.”

“The Walruses And Me...?”

“I know, it’s a horrible title. Not my personal preference. It’s for a class.”

“Bestiality 101?”

“Good guess. Marine Mammals.”

“Ahhh.” He glanced up and down the aisle, tapped his chin with agile fingers, pondered something I wasn’t privy to. “Turn around for a second.”

“What? Why?”

He waved his hand mysteriously in front of his grinning face. “It’s a magic trick. I’m going to make your problem disappear.”

“You can’t climb that,” I warned. “You’ll fall and break your neck. Or you’ll knock the whole shelf over and cause a tragic domino effect and the university will withhold your diploma until you pay them restitution.”

“I’m extremely athletic.”

“Are you sure?” I appraised him with exaggerated skepticism for comedic effect. “My dad refers to you only as the spindly annoying Lee.”

Oh my god, WHY did I say that?

Now he would definitely hate me. Now I’d have two mortal enemies on one campus. I mentally calculated how humiliating it would be to transfer to some Florida college, any Florida college, after only one week at Calawah. Hi mom, yeah I’m coming to live with you and Paul, a gang of hot pasty foster kids wants to slaughter me.

Instead, Joe threw back his head and cackled wildly. A librarian—mid-fifties, angry red hair from out of a box, fuzzy cat sweater—glared into the aisle and shushed him.

“Chief Swan...he actually...he calls me that? Really?!” Joe managed, wiping his leaking eyes. “That’s hilarious. I’m so glad my life is in his hands. Okay seriously, turn around.”

“Why would you help me?” I asked suspiciously.

“That’s just what I do. I’m a friendly guy.”

“This friendliness must not run in the family.”

Again, Joe’s cheerful demeanor didn’t falter. “You mean Ben? Forget about Ben, he hates everyone. Don’t take it personally.” Then he added: “Plus, as I’m sure you know, we’re not biologically related. No overlapping genetic material whatsoever. I didn’t get the male supermodel gene, he didn’t get the irresistibly charming gene, life’s not fair but the world keeps spinning.”

“It sure does,” I agreed softly. Unexpected wisdom from my new favorite Lee. I turned away from him. “Fine, I’m not looking, go ahead and dazzle me with your supernatural friendliness—”

“Done.”

“What?” I whirled around. Joe held The Walruses And Me in his hand. “How...did you...?!”

He passed me the book as I sputtered incoherently. “I told you. Magic trick.”

“I don’t....?!” I gawked up at the top shelf, at Joe, back to the top shelf. Sure enough, the space where The Walruses And Me once lived was now just a vacant slit in the row of dusty books. How could he have climbed up there that quickly? How could I not have heard anything? “The shelves didn’t even creak,” I murmured shakily.

“Yes, well, that’s due to my conveniently spindly physique.” Joe winked. “Any other problems I can help you solve at the moment, Baby Swan?”

“No. And don’t call me Baby Swan, or I’ll push this whole bookshelf over and tell the feisty librarian lady you did it.”

“That’s cold, ma’am.”

I liked that Joe didn’t make me feel like Ben did: unworthy, unloved, infuriating. Joe made me feel something else, something lighthearted, casual, buoyant; like the world didn’t have anything in it worth worrying about, regretting, agonizing over. Like unadulteratedly myself was all I ever needed to be.

I heard a muted buzz and Joe slid his iPhone out of his jeans pocket. Dr. Lee must have successfully delivered it. “Whoops, I forgot that Ordinary Differential Equations existed. Got to go. See ya.”

“Bye,” I replied. And then Joseph Lee was gone, very quickly, a little too quickly, the same way that Ben had vanished on that first afternoon after Chemistry.

Forks is weird. Calawah University is weird. And the Lee kids are super fucking weird.

Long Walks On The Beach

“Can I ask you a random question?”

“You just paid me $100 for an oil change that took fifteen minutes. You can ask me anything you want.” He grinned, flashing bright teeth and deep dimples.

It was Saturday afternoon. I had shoveled down a Chipotle veggie bowl as Archer changed the 1999 Accord’s oil in a small garage with a cracked concrete floor and the searing pungency of gasoline fumes thick in the air. He had apprenticed all through high school and rented his own shop after graduation. Archer now had a loyal clientele that encompassed virtually the entire Quileute reservation and a growing chunk of Forks...including Charlie and me, of course. Archer was the only child of Larry Foxchild—Charlie’s best friend since they worked together at Dairy Queen as teenagers—and the closest thing to a son my dad would ever have. I guess that made him like a brother to me, something that seemed intuitive now that I’d thought of it.

After the Accord was serviced we drove it down to La Push to walk on the beach, climb the salt-lashed rocks, toss pebbles into the roiling surf, reprise our childhood enthusiasm for poking dead washed-up marine creatures with shards of driftwood.

“Do you know anything about the Lees?” I asked Archer, investigating a deceased green shore crab.

His brow furrowed. He looked so serious like that, suddenly so much like Larry: the same tan skin, jet black hair, umbral eyes like oil wells, strong jaw overlaid with the stubbled shadow of a beard. We really aren’t kids anymore, are we? “The doctor and his kids?”

“Yeah. The foster kids. They’re really pale and strange and half of them are British.”

Archer chuckled. “I know who you mean. They’re hard to miss.”

“Are they...” Just eccentric rich people? Traumatized from abusive childhoods? Government experiments? CIA agents? Secret murderers? The image of Ben in that first Chemistry class came roaring back to me, including the adjective that had flashed red behind my eyes like an emergency exit sign: fierce. Finally, I decided: “Dangerous?”

Now Archer full-on laughed, gripping his belly, shaking his head. Drops of saltwater flew from his short hair. “Seriously?!” he exclaimed. “Come on, they’re freaks but they’re not, like...that kind of freaks.”

“Are you sure?” I was starting to feel better already. Of course they’re not actual demons, you fucking idiot. This is Washington, not The Twilight Zone or Black Mirror. Not goddamn American Horror Story.

“Yeah.” Archer skipped a grey pebble over the water, something I’d never been able to do. “I’ll be honest, I don’t know them all that well. They usually keep to themselves. But I’ve never heard anything bad about any of the kids. And everyone respects Dr. Lee and appreciates him for taking the pay cut to come to some bumblefuck town like Forks. He’s insanely highly credentialed, has degrees from Harvard or Yale or somewhere like that. Super impressive. We’re lucky to have him. I definitely sleep better at night knowing he’ll be the one to fix me up if I ever get a few fingers ripped off on the job.”

“Don’t even say that. Then who would I grossly overpay for oil changes?”

Archer smiled, then sobered as he peered out over the Pacific Ocean.

“What?” I asked, feeling a plummeting in my guts like primal fear.

“Well...okay, so there is one thing that’s always bothered me. You remember Grandpa Foxchild?”

“Yeah, of course.” He had been an impossibly ancient man with long grey braided hair, a low rumbly voice, gnarled arthritic hands, ceaseless wrinkles. I remembered Charlie calling me when he passed away last spring. Renee and I had picked out a flower arrangement to send to the funeral.

“So,” Archer said slowly, like he was still puzzling it out himself. “Grandpa used to say things like ‘That Dr. Lee has been around a long time.’ Which of course makes no sense, the Lees moved here like two years ago. And I’d tell Grandpa that, but he completely ignored me. He would just keep repeating it. ‘That Dr. Lee shouldn’t still be here.’ ‘That Dr. Lee should go on home to where he came from.’ ‘That Dr. Lee isn’t right.’ Creepy shit like that. My dad and I always assumed it was the dementia talking, but...I don’t know. It just bothered me. Because Grandpa...he wasn’t just being gossipy or suspicious. He was angry. And he was afraid. Grandpa was at Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima and he would talk about that no problem, mention landmines or flesh melting off a soldier’s face like it was nothing. He was a tough guy. Immeasurably tough, I’ll never be half the man he was. But if you mentioned the Lees, Grandpa got scared. Why the hell would he be so scared of them?”

I didn’t have an answer for him, not a single word. I just stared at Archer, my eyes growing huge, my heart sprinting, blood pounding in my ears. He knew. Grandpa Foxchild knew there was something off about them, and now I know it too. I don’t know how I know, but I do.

Archer tittered nervously. “Anyway, that was genuinely disturbing. But like I said. It was probably just the dementia.”

“What if it wasn’t?”

“It had to be,” he insisted. “There’s no other logical explanation.”

“I guess,” I agreed, scooping up the green shore crab corpse with my bare hands. I hurled it out into the waves, imagined it sinking through murky water and suspended grains of sand, the body settling into prehistoric silt, the scavengers descending upon it, the inescapable wheel of birth and death and resurrection through those who unwittingly carry our atoms with them into the next generation, into the perpetual future.

That night my dreams were full of pale skin and scorching eyes, Ben and Joe and Rami, Lucille and Scarlett, crashing waves, cold water and bleached bones; and Grandpa Foxchild’s mistrustful refrain: That Dr. Lee has been around a long time.

Benjamin

I soared down the staircase and through the dining room. Gwil was working late at the hospital, Mercy outside tending the animals, everyone else presumably scattered throughout the house. I had to get out before anyone noticed me. I had to get out without Rami or Lucy knowing.

I yanked open the door to the back porch. Rami was waiting there.

“Good evening,” he greeted me in that slow, thoughtful drawl.

“Stay the fuck out of my head.”

“You know how it works, Benny Boy. I can’t ignore the loud thoughts. And you’ve been having some very loud thoughts lately.”

I stared down at my shoes, all black Adidas. Black is good. It doesn’t show stains. For example, purely hypothetically, splatters of human blood and organs. “I can make it quick. I can make it painless.”

Rami’s aura flared maroon; not enraged, no, not quite that, but certainly revolted. I was always finding new and horrifying ways to revolt them, whether I was trying to or not. “She has a family, Ben. A father. You know Chief Swan, you’ve seen him around town. He’s a good person. She’s a good person. You really want to do this? You really want to relapse like this?”

I didn’t reply. I didn’t have to. Hearing thoughts is a tricky thing, and not a gift that I would ever want; unspoken words are rarely a steam and usually a storm, disjointed and twisting, interrupting each other, bottomless layers of whispers and screams. But I was sure Rami could catch the important parts: that I didn’t know the difference between good and bad people, that I didn’t know what to think of people at all, that for me her blood was not a desire but a compulsion. I couldn’t stop envisioning it spilling over my tongue and teeth, down my throat, hot and pulsing erratically and fading. “Why can’t you hear her? Why can’t I see what she’s feeling?”

Rami shrugged, characteristically placid and restrained. It was maddening. “There are seven and a half billion people on this planet. So maybe every once in a while you get one that lives in our blind spots, there’s something chromosomal or psychological that puts them on a different frequency. I don’t know. How the hell should I know? All I know is that you definitely shouldn’t be seriously considering...well. What you’re considering.”  

“Have you ever met someone whose thoughts you couldn’t hear before?”

“No,” Rami admitted; and was that a ghost of unease that crossed his face?

“Please, Rami. Let me go. Pretend you never saw me.” My words come out strained, hushed, like a spilled secret, like a confession. I’ve never wanted anyone’s blood like I want hers.

He heard that; I could see the dismay in his eyes. Now his aura is dark grey, almost black. Disappointment. Resignation. Mourning. “I told you what Lucy saw.”

“What she saw is impossible and you know it.”

Again, Rami shrugged. That blind, mindless faith. I wished I knew what it felt like. “She’s never wrong.”

“Have you told him?”

“Who, Joe?! Of course I haven’t told Joe. He...”

“He wouldn’t believe it either?” I snapped, like it was a victory.

“No,” Rami amended carefully. “No, he would believe anything Lucy saw.” Lucy had visions: flashes of the future, the past, the present. They were rare and unpredictable, often fragmented, snapshots rather than arcs. But they were always true. Or, rather, the other Lees claimed they were. The real Lees. “I don’t know what he would do about it,” Rami said finally. “So I’m waiting it out. And killing one of the primary participants is definitely not waiting it out.”

I seethed as I glared at him, hating him in that moment, hating myself only slightly more; and he heard that too. But then that wispy, fleeting haze around him was a pink like the last threads of sunlight sinking into the Western horizon. Forgiveness. Attachment. Love.

“Come with me, Ben,” Rami said gently, opening the door. “Come back inside. You can beat this. You’re better than this. You’re a good soul. You wouldn’t be with us if you weren’t.”

I tried to laugh. It came out like a snarl. “I haven’t had a soul in a long time.”

#joe mazzello fic #joe mazzelo x reader #borhap #borhap fic #borhap cast fic #twilight au #twilight #supernatural au

[itsclydebitches]

Hello again, everyone! This is a long one so let’s dive straight in. 

We open up on Fox who, like everyone else in this novel, is upset about one thing or another. In his case it's that he wound up watching a club/gambling house (the exact nature of the establishment is murky) with Coco instead of patrolling the more lively restaurant and club district (even though this place, as said, is referred to as a club at time). Which, to be fair to Fox, is a legitimate complaint when you're blind and can't really do the whole "watching" part of the activity. Initially he believes that Coco must have a good reason for choosing him... “Unless he’d done something to get on her bad side." 

In fact, this is such a likely possibility that Fox begins questioning Coco on where everyone is (a convenient way to let the audience know too), what they were assigned to do, and whether that assignment came about due to petty revenge. He complains that Team SSSN has gotten all the "fun stuff"—are you doing a job or goofing off, Fox?—but Coco reassures him that they're not being rewarded and he's not being punished. It's just that any other combination didn't sit right with her. Would Fox have enjoyed going off with Sun? No. If Sun was paired with another would they have wanted to watch Neptune? Not really. Does Fox even trust Sun? Not as of yet: 

"I don’t know Sun yet. Not really. I guess I don’t trust Team SSSN to not mess things up for us. They’re sloppy and off-balance right now.” 

Coco follows this up by saying that Scarlet and Sage get to guard the Academy wall because she doesn't want Scarlet near Sun after their argument at the group therapy meeting, and he himself is "too zealous" about protecting the Academy. So it's just easier not to fight him. “If we don’t want them to get in our way, or worse, raise a big enough stink that we can’t continue our investigation, it’s better to keep them involved in a limited capacity.”

Now, there's a lot to unpack in that statement and I'm not particularly impressed with any of it. First, it bears repeating that we're now four chapters in —about 60 pages in my PDF—and we're still dragging Team SSSN to the shattered moon and back. I'm not claiming that, as Fox says, they're not dealing with stuff right now, or that their emotions are clouding their skills and perception (I called Sun out for that just last chapter), but I certainly question the "friends" who discuss those problems in such a smug manner, rather than wondering if and how they might help. Thus far, the criticism of Team SSSN serves only for Team CFVY to continually paint themselves as the superior group. They assume that, unless handled delicately, SSSN would inevitably "mess things up" because they, at their core, are a worse team than CFVY. These comments exist only to boost CFVY's ego. Thank the gods we're not like that. 

This is the same Coco who thought that she knew something about regaining the trust of her team. But does she extend any sympathy and understanding here? Nope. It continues to amaze me how often RWBY writes characters going through very similar, difficult circumstances and yet so few of them admit to those similarities, let alone act on them. 

Second, in a franchise rife with themes about earned trust and manipulation, it's worth acknowledging that Coco moves everyone around, including her own team, based on pretty unsubstantiated emotions rather than logic. As someone who has done nothing but insult Sun to his face thus far, she hasn't exactly earned his trust either, yet she's willing to prioritize this assertion that he'll "mess things up" over the best choices for this mission. Meaning, Fox initially thinks that Coco, as a brilliant leader, has a persuasive reason for giving him this task. We learn she doesn't. He then thinks Coco gave him this task as a form of punishment. She didn't. So what are we left with? Coco claims she gave her orders based on her and Fox being able to chat (yay telepathy), but her explanation says it’s really about what she thinks SSSN might do, rather than what she knows her own team can do. At the end of the day (or night in this case) we've got the blind guy on stakeout using his telepathy to keep her entertained, rather than taking the mission he's both better suited for and enjoys more. Coco spouts a lot of stuff that sounds like leader-ly strategy, but in the end she made these calls primarily because she doesn't like SSSN. 

So why are they working together again? Because the plot demands it? I wish the novel had done more to justify this partnership other than, 'If we don't let SSSN help they'll rat us out because they're terrible like that.' If the teams hate one another this much just let them work apart. Otherwise, please start the process of having them grow and begin to appreciate one another. As it stands, we have a few buddy-buddy moments that imply they’re “really” friends when the rest of the novel has done little to demonstrate that. It’s confusing at best and uncomfortable at worst, in the same way that watching the group happily invite Oscar to the movies after volumes of ignoring/attacking/using him as an Ozpin scapegoat is uncomfortable. It’s weird. I’m glad it exists, but how did we get here? 

However, this growth isn’t going to happen tonight because Coco likewise ensured that no one is mixing. As Fox points out, "conveniently enough, this way you don’t have to break up our team, or mix them and us.” Nor has Coco broken up the usual partner teams of Sun and Neptune, Scarlet and Sage. Anyone who follows my other metas know that I'm waiting for the webseries to mix up RWBY and JNR more (thank you, Volume 8 preview), or at least have Blake work with someone other than Yang and Weiss work with someone other than Ruby, so I was disappointed to see this same trend not only repeated here, but celebrated by another character. Though not as overt as some of the problems in Volumes 6 and 7, this is what I mean by RWBY introducing conflicts but doing little to resolve them. It's a decent setup to pit SSSN's problems against CFVY's bias—When will Sun apologize to his team? When will Coco acknowledge that her intense criticism of him is born far more from assumptions than proof? When will both teams extend a hand to one another that isn't done in the name of self-preservation?—but thus far it's nothing but setup. And the longer it goes on the less a single scene of growth can stand up against that. The less space we have for that growth, period. This is my problem with many villain redemption arcs: a few episodes of contrite behavior cannot emotionally outweigh whole seasons of horrific actions. It's a presumed redemption based on audience expectations, rather than something we see earned throughout the course of the story. For me, there has to be a certain amount of time and effort put into that change. The worse the actions, the more time and effort needed to, if not absolve them, at least get everyone to a point where they can be set aside. Before the Dawn feels like a very mild case of this, in that I'm wondering how long everyone is going to act this way towards one another before things start getting better. The longer it goes on, the more I expect of the story in order to dig the characters out of it. Though serviceable, a scene like "Then Sun realized he was pushing everyone away and Coco realized she'd been too hard on him, so they both decided to change. Maybe for persuasive reasons, maybe not. The end" isn't emotionally engaging. The disagreeable characteristics across this cast are numerous, yet RWBY doesn't feel like a story where I'm suppose to dislike everyone in an entertaining way—a la Mean Girls. 

Thus, I'm wondering when we'll actually start the work of getting me to like this group more/getting them to like each other more, as well as how much of that work we’ll see overall. 

Right, I've blathered on about this quite enough. The story (unconsciously I assume) continues to emphasize how expected it is that Coco would give awful jobs to teammates because she's annoyed with them, which doesn't say great things about her leadership, but that at least is something I could easily see a teenager with that kind of power doing. She and Fox round out the list of bad jobs by mentioning that Velvet and Yatsuhashi got stuck with grimm watch, "the duty of the low-rent Huntsmen who worked loosely with local law enforcement to help keep the peace." Given how they discuss this, the implication seems to be that this is an insulting job to give their teammates, which is hilarious considering that these four aren't even huntsmen yet. They're second years! 'What'd they do to deserve a job for low-rent huntsmen?' asks the guy who isn't a huntsmen at all yet. 

We learn though that there has been a rise in grimm across the city. How did Coco get that information? 

Coco laughed. “I snuck into [Professor Rumpole's] office.” 

“Coco!” Fox said.

“Don’t lecture me, Fox.”

Fox smiled. “How dare you do that without inviting me,” he sent. 

I get it. I honestly do. It may not seem at times that I understand that a story about a bunch of students has to find a way to get those students involved, or that these students, as teenagers, will do stupid things, that as humans they’ll even do horrible things... but surely there's a way to achieve all this without having our heroes constantly treat their allies in such a callous, disrespectful manner. Breaking rules is not inherently a bad thing. Some rules are unfair and upholding them does more harm than good. Some rules, while important from one perspective, can be broken without any serious repercussions. I never had a problem with Harry, Ron, and Hermione constantly breaking their curfew because kids sneaking out of bed isn't hurting anyone (overlooking the potential of the magic castle hurting them, but I digress). The rule exists for reasons like "You need enough sleep and are unlikely to get that unless we make you" and "A bunch of 11-year-olds shouldn't be left unsupervised in the magic castle" and "Learning how to follow some simple rules and listen to your guardians helps build basic skills needed for adulthood" but really? At the end of the day the Trio breaking that rule—particularly for good reasons like "We suspect nefarious Dark Lord shenanigans are afoot"— is far from the end of the world. Harry Potter also has the added benefit of making the adults actually useless and/or indifferent a lot of the time. We had a story where the kids, more often than not, were the last line of defense. 

Rumpole? She is not useless or indifferent. Two chapters ago we established that she is conducting an investigation, Team CFVY just decided that wasn't enough because they want to be involved. And breaking into her office to snoop through her desk? That's not a harmless crime! Beyond the fact that Coco is looking for info she's not allowed to have and finding additional information she's not supposed to have, that's a serious breach of privacy. Clearly neither of them have enough respect for Rumpole to care about that though. Casual rule-breaking like that should be reserved for characters who have failed to earn the respect of the characters or the audience, demonstrating a lack of ethics that (arguably) justifies whatever they get. Basically, the Umbridges and the Lockharts of the world, not the Rumpoles who—far as I have seen so far—have done nothing but take their students seriously and adhere to not unreasonable expectations like, "Please don't get involved in something that might get you killed [cough-Sun taking on three goons-cough] and/or don't ruin the investigation I've already started." Or, at the very least, have the characters feel contrite and guilty about what they felt they had to do.

Why do I like these characters again? It would at least be more satisfying if the story acknowledged that the vast majority of our cast has turned into anti-heroes. I'm fine with that story! But not the one that claims it's "necessary" that our "classic" heroes pull stunts like breaking and entering, theft, lying, etc. without actually providing compelling reasons for those actions. Let Coco break into Rumpole's office, but do the work first of convincing me why she should be involved in this in the first place, why this info is necessary, and why doing that to an ally is necessary too. Kindhearted heroes should have a different reaction to unnecessarily breaking their instructor’s trust than laughter and jokes.

In considering how Before the Dawn intersects with the main webseries, I think it's also worth highlighting that casual line about how more grimm are getting into the city: "There’s been a rise in incidents of Grimm wandering into the city lately." That was one of the major conflicts of Volume 7 and one of the things the fandom uses as a means of mapping Ironwood's downfall: grimm were getting into the city and he failed to stop it, ergo he's a terrible leader, ergo he’s a terrible person, shooting Oscar is something I’d expect of him. Yet the same thing appears to be happening in Vacuo and, thus far, the story isn't interested in giving it the same gravitas. How are the grimm getting in? If the situation is bad enough that Theodore is sending both huntsmen and students to deal with it—“So that’s why Theodore’s been sending more students out lately, clearing the immediate area of Grimm"—isn't he a failed leader as well? Either one of these perspectives work, just not both at once. Either grimm attacks are an inevitable result of living in Remnant and the people deal with them without assigning undo blame, or both headmasters should be facing heat for failing to keep this from happening. So I'll be interested to see if this comes up again and, if so, how. Because right now Coco and Fox are treating it like a casual occurrence, whereas Volume 7 painted it as a serious failing. 

We finally learn that Coco and Fox are watching this club because there are two huntsmen gambling inside instead of out doing their job. Except maybe they're off and just like gambling? How do they know there are huntsmen inside to begin with? Or, if they're unsure of that, why are they staking out this specific club? Did they pick one at random because clubs have been associated with the baddies? I feel like I'm constantly playing catchup with this novel. Details are mentioned like Meyers introduced them earlier (he didn't) but then those details still fail to help me make sense of the scene or the characters’ motivations. As I mentioned in the last recap, I never have both pieces of information: what exactly the characters are doing and why they're doing it. Fox and Coco's entire conversation revolves around Fox not know why they're here or what anyone else is up to, but instead of answering his questions we get pieces of information—huntsmen, clubs, grimm attacks, the Crown—that don't easily fit together but are presented as if they do. Then the plot just lands in their lap. Meyers never needs to explain why Coco took the time to stake out this particular club out of an entire city's worth because, of course, it just so happens to be the club where something nefarious is going on. Once they're chasing two baddies it's too late. We've moved on. 

Before we get into that chase though, I'd just like to point out the exceedingly odd anti-huntsmen sentiment in this chapter. subtle, but there. As mentioned previously, we have a potential dig at low-rent Huntsmen and the kinds of jobs they do. Then we're told that 

"Nothing much happened in Vacuo, and when there was an argument or a crime, people tended to sort things out on their own—with their fists. But when it came to Grimm, Vacuans depended on Huntsmen to fight their battles for them." 

This one is admittedly me reading into things a bit (in case anyone missed it: I don't hold this novel in particularly high esteem lol) but "fight their battles for them" is usually a phrasing meant to carry another subtle insult. You need someone else's help and that's bad. Which makes a certain amount of sense for Vacuo's focus on strength, but I wonder why the huntsmen are getting brought into this for... doing their jobs? The explicit purpose of huntsmen is to fight grimm, so it's pretty weird to have a line that implies any negativity for them doing that. Oh, you need huntsmen to fight your battles? How horrible. Even though the huntsmen as an institution exist to fight those battles. It's like saying the first department has to “fight your battles” because you’re not capable of putting the fire out yourself. It carries an implication that, ideally, huntsmen wouldn’t be needed at all. Not because grimm go away, but because people  would be able to fight grimm... even though, again, that fantasy already exists within the huntsmen. It’s just weird. 

Finally, Fox outright theorizes that maybe there are more grimm because “the Huntsmen are getting lazy" and I'm just ????? You want to be?? A huntsmen??? What is this characterization? At best it reads like Meyers forgot that this group playing detectives are training to become a part of the institution they're criticizing. At worst it reads like the team simply believes themselves to be better than other huntsmen for undisclosed reasons. Like there are normal huntsmen doing grunt jobs and being lazy, and then there's Team CFVY who experienced A Battle and consider themselves vastly more experienced as a result (despite others like Scarlet trying to remind them that they're still only students). I doubt Coco and Fox will come to realize this, not unless something in Before the Dawn really knocks them down a peg, but I honestly wonder in these recent installments why most of these characters want to be huntsmen at all. It’s a job that requires adhering to a hierarchy of authority, obeying the laws of the kingdom you're in, and working closely with what allies are available to you. They don't seem to want any of that, but nor do they frame this as a flawed institution that they hope to improve: “Huntsmen do have a reputation for being lazy, but we’ll fix that once we get our licenses.” As it stands, they want to be vigilantes, getting praise for their deeds but being able to break the rules whenever they please. 

Their theorizing is interrupted though when two huntsmen exit the club. How does Coco know they're huntsmen? Huntsmen don't wear uniforms and lots of non-huntsmen folk carry weapons... I simply don’t know. But these two offer to walk one of the gamblers home, considering he's won a fair bit of lien that night. Fox gets interested because their auras are bright enough that he can see them and they're identical, which isn't normal. 

But wait. Back up. 

Can everyone see auras? Obviously we as the audience can, but the RWBY folk in-world potentially can't, not if Coco doesn't see how "vivid" these auras are herself. Fox is the one providing this information and Fox is the one who needs to track the huntsmen when they flee. This ability seems to be unique to him.  

Why can Fox see auras then? That's not his semblance and, far as I can tell, it isn't logically a byproduct of telepathy (like how healing is a byproduct of Jaune amplifying aura). Honestly, it feels like 'The blind character has a special way of seeing the world' trope without actually explaining what that special way is or where it came from. 

Why is Fox emphasizing that he can see the auras? The implication is that they're so powerful he, the blind guy, can actually see them... but how is he 'seeing' them the rest of the time? This isn't the first time Fox has been aware of someone's aura because he informs Coco that they're not normally the same color, but if these auras are unique because he can see them, what's happening every other time he comes across non-identical/powerful/weird auras? Does Fox just feel them somehow? Is it a non-visual sense and strong/weirdo auras propel it into sight as well? I'm very confused by all of this. 

Regardless, it quickly becomes clear that these huntsmen are actually kidnapping the guy. Fox uses teamspeak to call everyone to him... including SSSN. So much for this remaining a secret until Fox trusts them! It would be one thing if Fox was forced to cast a wide net, but far as I can tell there's nothing stopping him from taking an extra two seconds to just contact his team. In the span of about a day in-world we're given two different explanations here. First it's 

Velvet whispered a description of what they were seeing to Fox, avoiding teamspeak for SSSN’s benefit. No one found out about Fox’s Semblance until he trusted them enough to let them in on it.

then it's

Velvet jumped in. “It’s Fox’s Semblance. He’s telepathic. And he likes surprising people with it.”

So which is it? Does Fox treat his semblance as a closely guarded secret in an effort to protect himself, get an edge in battle, all that jazz, or does he just like waiting to spring it on people as a practical joke? Because if it's the former, Team SSSN haven't done anything in the last couple of hours to suddenly earn Fox's trust. Nothing we're shown, anyway. Rather, we just finished a conversation where Coco basically goes, 'You trust Sun?' and Fox's response, though somewhat noncommittal, basically amounts to a, 'Nah.' 

Well, SSSN knows now. Everyone starts heading Fox's way while Coco interrupts the two huntsmen in the midst of their kidnapping. The kidnapee, a merchant, blurts something about not being helpless and Coco threatens to leave him. 

"Coco had a real sadistic streak sometimes. Just one of the reasons she and Fox made great partners."

Hello, friends, family, and people of the internet: am I insane for thinking this is not how you write heroes? It's one thing if you're using "sadistic" as an obvious exaggeration—Coco playfully teases Velvet about her supposedly awful clothes. She's got a real sadistic streak—but threatening to leave someone to be kidnapped because, what? People need to act helpless enough for her to deem saving? Who writes their supposedly classic hero like that and then makes her partner go, 'Haha yeah she's mean. That's why we're friends :D' 

Real badasses are kind and I stand by that. 

Of course, the merchant immediately backtracks and Coco demands his release. Sun and Neptune arrive, recognizing the two huntsmen as the goons that Sun fought. There's some talk about a "She" who they're expected to deliver the merchant to and Velvet—again—brings up the rescue. 

“You mean the ones we rescued Sun from?” Velvet asked. “Come on!” Sun sent.

Recurring jokes like this are only good when 1. The characters are established as actually liking one another (otherwise they're not jokes) and 2. It doesn't come up every other chapter. When the chapters are roughly ten pages each. 

Before a fight can start though the goons give up, dropping the merchant and making a run for it. Fox is sent after them. He uses his ADA machine to navigate his surroundings, which is a detail I really like and appreciate. He's blind. There's no reason why he wouldn't use accessibility tools to assist him. So well done there. 

The goons disappear into an abandoned building that ADA identifies as a former dust refinery. There's also a comment about how tall it is compared to the other buildings in Vacuo. Fox loses them because of the number of people inside—all those auras blending together—and, like the goons themselves, a lot of those auras "seem the same." Velvet and Yatsuhashi arrive to assist Fox... but their assistance amounts to Yatsuhashi trying and failing to cut down the door with his sword?? Then all those potential baddies know they've found the super secret hideout. Well done. 

They're lucky they just asked for a password. Which, of course, the group doesn't know. 

With more time to observe the mass of auras, Fox drops the bombshell that he thinks one of them may be Professor Rumpole's. The group quickly decides that she must be conducting her investigation, but the other obvious possibility that they don't seem to realize (yet) is that she's working with them instead. If Rumpole does end up evil or something I just want to say that my previous points still stand. It’s not okay for the group to twist her 'Don't get involved' into a 'Well, she just doesn't want us to get caught.' Not okay for Coco to sneak into her office and snoop on official reports. Sometimes people will retroactively absolve characters of bad decisions because much later the person who bore the brunt of those decisions turns out to be bad... but the characters didn't know that at the time. The Lockhart and Umbridge examples above work because they were introduced as terrible people who were then later revealed to be even worse than the characters previously knew: Lockhart moves from an inept, overbearing idiot to a con artist erasing others' memories; Umbridge moves from a cruel instructor to a torturer whose rhetoric aligns with the Dark Lord's. Rumpole? Far as the group knows she's done nothing but assist and teach them.  

So the three are just standing around, wondering what to do and what it all means. Coco calls Fox only for Fox to immediately hang up on her because everyone is already using teamspeak. Why bother to call in the first place? I don't know. But they fill Coco in and she decides not to ruin Rumpole's (presumed) investigation. Which is good! Yes, Coco does it partly for self/team-serving reasons

Coco shut the idea down quickly. “If we interfere in her investigation and blow whatever she’s doing, we’ll get worse than detention. She’ll probably kick us out of Shade. And we’ll have ruined the usefulness of the information she’s gathering. I say we give her time to do her thing.” 

but if fear of expulsion gets them to make a smart call, I'll take it. Besides, as Coco herself points out, they now have some leads to follow. They can continue their investigation without diving headfirst into the danger pool. Like Yatsuhashi apparently wanted to do. Attacking the door with his sword. 

(Seriously what was the plan there? Cut open metal, barge your way inside, and take on a massive group yourselves—two of which you already know attacked Sun? It's an Experience™ to be in the heads of teens who think they're hot shit, but act so, so dumb. Admittedly this is something to praise about Myers' writing: of course the personal PoV of these characters is going to contrast reality. What they think they’re like and what an outsider sees will often differ.) 

Coco goes on to reiterate that the merchant was "rude" about being rescued, threatening to “report us to the headmaster, once he found out we’re only students, not licensed Huntsmen." Which yeah, that's a dick move. Coco was awful for threatening to leave him, but if a bunch of kids saved me from a kidnapping I wouldn't threaten them with punishment because they're not the police. The implication is that he's xenophobic, given that he was a little too interested in how they're from Beacon/Haven and would only talk to Sun. Coco is "smug" about it. 

Note the pattern again: Coco threatens something horrible, later the guy is revealed to be an asshole for unrelated reasons, so she's smug about her actions. See? He deserved what he got. But that's not how this works. If I walk up to someone and randomly punch them, then it's revealed they’re a criminal, I don't get to act all pleased that I spotted an asshole and took action early. I still punched someone without provocation. For anyone, but especially for a hero, ‘They were vaguely sort of mean/rude to me’ is not a good justification for objectively cruel acts. I’m looking at you, RWBY and Witcher. 

More important for the plot, Coco reveals that the merchant doesn't have a semblance and the club owner claims the two goons really are huntsmen—though who can say for sure. With little else to do, Coco makes plans to return to Rumpole's office tomorrow. 

“And snoop around some more?” Fox asked.

“No,” Coco said. “I’m going to ask her some questions.” 

I suppose that's an improvement? I cannot possibly express how not engaging this mystery is though. It's vaguely confusing and feels all-around cobbled together. Every action the group has taken so far hasn't just been unnecessary (I prefer heroes who have a good reason—or at least perceive they have a good reason—for getting involved when others are already working to solve a problem), but it’s also dependent on coincidence to a frustrating degree. Even in a story where I know and accept and welcome some coincidence to move the plot along. But this? Sun gets involved because he follows a woman when he doesn't actually know if she's in trouble or not, but of course she is. Then they stand around a wall until the story drops a crying girl in their lap, because of course a person will have gone missing the second they need a lead and are in the perfect place to receive one. Then Coco seems to pick a club at random to stakeout, because of course that will be the one club where our two huntsmen/goons will be trying to kidnap someone new. None of their intellect, knowledge, or skills lead them to the next phase of the investigation, with the exception of Coco breaking in to steal info about the case. Obviously RWBY is not meant to be a classic mystery, but as a massive Sherlock Holmes fan this is a slog to get through. We have no compelling reason why the group is investigating and the investigation itself isn't teaching us anything compelling about them. This could have been the place to demonstrate how a huntsmen's skills go far beyond just throwing a punch. Instead we see... what? That Yatsuhashi can try to break down a door and say "Ow" about it? At least the webseries gave us two faunus donning grimm masks to sneak into the extremist, faunus-only meeting. Comparatively that's a leagues better investigation than the one we’re getting here. 

Am I surprised? No. Do I still hope that this book will improve? Always. We'll see what Chapter Five gives me. 

Until then! 💜

#rwby #rwde #BTD Recaps #Before the Dawn #mymetas

[12rounds]

O’DONAHUES, 11:21 PM ⇢ @francescos​

“one more,” elliott calls out, whistling to the bartender as he raises his pint. he doesn’t get much time to himself and his thoughts. between his jobs, his ‘missions’ with ruby, and getting closer and closer into the circle of the brotherhood, rest and recreation is a pipe dream for him. the closest thing he’s got to that is this, a few hours on his own at a bar, spending his hard-earned money on booze.

the bartender pours him another pint, and he eyes the television—and some other patron requests to turn up the volume—and he begins to hear some late-night talk show host blather on about mutants and the brotherhood. “all these fuckers say the same thing,” he grumbles and slurs to the television, “just admit that people like you should be scared.”

[noneatnonedotcom]

impossible boy chapter 3

@weatherman667 this is the last part that my muse gave me, now we play the waiting game lol. this is mainly just to show how strange the culture of the kingdoms is to jaune and how out of his element he is as well as an intro to the more aggressive pyrrha and the more competitive weiss

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Pyrrha was by all accounts the perfect knight. She’d worked hard for this reputation, trained till her hands would bleed, given up her own privacy to compete in tournaments. Even become a huntress afterwards all pursuing an ideal.

She didn’t regret it. Not really she liked her life and her friends were nice enough, she just longed for something more than friendship. In truth when she was a little girl she’d become a knight only so she could rescue the charming prince and she could live happily ever after. She’d since outgrown such childish dreams, mostly.

She couldn’t be blamed if somewhere deep down inside she just wanted to find her true love. She could picture him now. Tall, blonde, a regal bearing, she’d like someone lively. And not some little boy with dreams of being hers and nothing else.

That was the main problem, she was the perfect knight and no matter where she went men wanted to be with her. It was disconcerting ,isn't love supposed to be chaste? The stories mentioned that gaining the love of the prince was a challenge for the knight to overcome just the same as the grimm they slew.

Blake and her could at least agree on that, they didn’t want the men who threw themselves at them. For Pyrrah she wanted romance. For Blake, she wanted a challenge. They weren’t truly all that different, save for the fact that she wasn’t after sex. And that she thought men were to be protected not herded like cattle.

Which is why she was so surprised to meet a boy at the headmistress’s office.

He was blonde, he was tall, he was wearing a skirt, no a kilt, he was a highlander. Her own people had stories about them, how their men wore nothing under their kilts and how they’d fight just the same as their women.

There were numerous stories of highlanders being wooed and tamed in minstral. Of them being brought to the light of civilization and how deeply they loved the ones who saved them.

Most of these also went on to talk about how that love translated into the physical acts but Pyrrha had only read a few of those passages, she was a knight after all she couldn’t be thinking about such things. She must be chaste and honorable to match her man.

“Ah Pyrrha, you’re just in time.” said the headmistress “this is lord Arc”

a lord!

Here?!

“He’ll be staying with us for a while and propriety says that he should have an escort. Since his sisters are all back home i needed a woman of the highest moral fiber to watch him” she smiled “I know it’s a great task but would you accompany the young lor”

“I’LL DO IT!” she shouted cutting her off then cleared her throat “er, I'd be happy too i mean” this was just like in the stories the young prince away from his family and scared, the knight sworn to protect him, they’d get close over time and then

“Weel that's mighty brain new ay ye. Ah thank ye dam nikkos fur yer time” he said bowing low

OH!

He was so formal!

And cute!

He was perfect!

“Noo quine schnee was in th' wey o shaw me aroond th' skale, if yoo'd be sae kin' as tae accompany us?”

Oh weiss was here too. Oh well it was well known she wasn’t interested in gentlemen “that sounds grand”

________________________________________________________________

"This is the library," Pyrrha said holding the door open for Jaune to pass through. Jaune's eyes flew open wide as he took in all the books. In fact he was so focused on the sheer number of books that filled in from floor to ceiling a good fifteen feet above, that he didn't notice Phyra letting the door shut on Weiss and the sharp looks exchanged between the two girls.

"Aye. I dinna ken if I eva seen so much knowledge," Jaune said softly as he walked over thick carpet that only served to dampen the sounds that much more. "An I wouldna ken where to even start."

He looked back and both girls jumped away from the other as if they'd been caught with their hands in a cookie jar. He started to frown. He was well used to the aggressive nature of women in general. It looked like the two were about to come to blows, but Phyra shot him a huge beaming smile and crossed to take his arm with her own and pulled him farther into the library.

"Not to worry Jaune. I'll make time to help you catch up," the redhead said smiling over at him.

"Weel," he said reaching up to scratch his head. "That's fine now. Weiss I believe you said you were top of yer class?" He said turning to look back at the girl stalking behind him. "An ye had a good bit of knowledge bout the architecture. I'd be interested in kenning all I could on that."

Weiss's lips twisted up as she shot Pyrrha a smug look. "I'm sure I could clear my schedule to find some time to walk you around Jaune.". Jaune shot her a strained smile when he hear Pyrrha's scoff. Did the lassies not like each other?

Pyrrha quickly shot him another smile. "Come there's a lot more to see? Are you hungry? I could be persuaded to take you for a nibble," she offered a playful light in her green eyes that had a cold sweat breaking out on Jaune's brow. He shot a look back at Weiss but she was looking down at the carpet muttering under her breath. He looked back at Pyrrha. "Aye. A wee bite wouldn't be amiss."

Jaune left Pyrrha pull him along. She blathered about this and that but he only listened with half an ear since he was paying more attention to how narrow the halls were and the zig-zag nature of them. If he wasn't mistaken the whole school was set up with defence in mind.

If anyone would attack the school they'd pay in blood for every inch. He thought about asking Weiss if that was what the architect had originally intended or if it was only the crazy musings of his own inner madman that made this maze make sense, but Pyrrha had already stepped ahead to throw open two large, heavily engraved doors.

Jaune once again felt his eyes grow wide as the dull roar that consisted of hundreds of huntresses all stopping their conversations to stare at him.

"Come along sweetness," Pyrrha cooed.

Jaune and Weiss joined her as she strode between the stacked lunch tables. The moment they passed the whispers started.

"This is the Mess. Everyone comes here to eat," Pyrrha stated grandly. "You'll have to sit next to me of course," she added with a coy look. "As sweet as you are, I can only imagine you'd be eaten alive."

Jaune chuckled as he nodded at the lassies watching him like he was indeed the last sweetmeat on the table. "I didna expect to be quite so popular," he admitted with a smile as he pried one girl's hands off his tartan.

He'd almost swear they were going to lift it. In fact he heard several of the girls asking rather loudly what he had hiding under there.

If they would have asked him directly he could have told them he had more than one knife, his sister had insisted he be armed at all times. He wouldn't forget her lessons anytime soon.

"Yes well. Pyrrha has a knack for drawing attention," Weiss grumbled as she stepped between him and one girl who wasn't taking a hint.

Jaune found himself grinning as she glared frostily down at the girl. "Aye seems like."

Weiss looked over at him her eyes thawing minutely.

"Come along. The line starts over here," Pyrrha said grabbing Jaune's hand and pulling him after her. "I'll introduce you to some of the others that go here. Don't worry Jaune. I'll take good care of you."

Weiss growled at several girls that pushed against her knocking her back. It didn't take long for Phyra and Weiss to both be separated from Jaune by the curious. Jaune slowly gave ground as more and more lassies came forward looking for an introduction.

In fact they had him pinned against another of those heavily gilded walls they seemed to love so much. He'd been less fearful the time his platoon had been ambushed in the wee hours of the morning two days' ride from their nearest settlement. 

Those had been bandits and only wanted his blood. These girls had a similar but completely different light in their eyes.

"Ok ladies," Pyrrha said, voice growing sharper. "Back off. Give him a bit of room to breathe."

Jaune shot her a nervous look that she returned. Weiss on the other hand he noticed had resorted to throwing elbows and wiggling her much smaller frame between women and shoving them back.

Jaune's attention was pulled back to his own dire straits when one girl's fingers yanked his leather throng from his hair letting the golden mass of hair tumble over his shoulders.

"I got his hair tie!"

Jaune cringed. The girls announcement was like a war cry. The harpies descended on him with a vengeance. Jaune did his best to fend them off but it didn't take long for sharp nails to rip into his linen shirt.

Suddenly he fell backwards right into Yang's arms when the wall behind him gave way. She looked down at him in surprise then took in the seething mass of girls descending on them.

"Rubes get him out of here," Yang growled and tossed him back to her sister and leapt into the crowd and promptly started throwing people around.

Jaune brushed some of his hair out of his eyes and into Ruby's glowing silver eyes. "Follow me if you want to live."

Jaune about laughed at her dire tone but that was quickly stifled when she put on a burst of speed and red petals filled his mouth. Together they disappeared down the hall.

________________________________________________________________

so some of you might be wondering why pyrrha is acting the way she is, well she’s copying what she’s seen from other people or heard about. she has no idea how to woo someone and as a result is kinda... bad at it.

at the same time weiss and pyrrha are competing against each other, not necessarily for jaune but just to be able to say that they won. the difference in culture playing a roll here. 

as for the girls in the mess hall, a mob is only as intelligent as its stupidest member once they got going they just kinda stopped thinking. 

glynda will come down on them like a ton of bricks but she’ll also use this as a way to convince sallem to remove jaune from the school. clearly it’s too dangerous for him here 

also you’ll notice jaune trying not to go too into his accent, he still has a little trouble with it but he’s getting better. one day the girls might actually understand what he’s saying lol

as always, let me know what you think

#Jaune Arc #ruby rose #yang xiao long #weiss schnee #pyrrha nikos #rwby au #the impossible boy

[littlerootveggie]

6, 11 & 18 for the ask game :) !

6: im very very happy with my current villagers (phoebe, elmer, daisy, sherb, diana, julian, lolly, ruby, dobie n ribbot) but id like to replace elmer with filbert or stitches 11: flick, blathers, celeste, and the able sisters :] 18: this is a common complaint but more design slots! i havent even filled up yet myself but im getting nervous haha

thank you for the ask!!

#ask #ask game #freshly-delivered-clown