#‘……….well azure should know that this is ALSO something that is wrong w you.’

[chryzure-archive]

very neat that not even jacks, chrysi’s singular fate + her best friend, knows what chrysi’s fated powers are. he jst knows she can make fates like gavriel + she has something else wrong w her. and then, once she’s out of the card, what he thinks is her fated power turns out to be her witch powers, so he is very concerned!!!!

#memorie.txt #chrysi raises an entire graveyard of the dead to life and jacks is like ‘is this your fated power?!?’ #only for chrysi to go ‘no. azure says there’s something wrong w me but this isn’t it.’ #‘……….well azure should know that this is ALSO something that is wrong w you.’ #i’m also thinking abt how i want chrysi and jacks to reunite… i almost want azure and chrysi to spend enough time together to fall in l*ve #and for jacks to still be semi-obsessed w tella……… #like what if gavriel finds chrysi before jacks??? brings her to the party + has the apothic sew up her mouth??? #keep her silent and trap azure and leave jacks in the dark—all to torment chrysi for abandoning them?? #and then there’s something to consider in the vein of jacks not getting her out of the card sooner… #chrysi sacrificed herself for him and took his place in the card.. then frm her pov he LEFT HER THERE. he left her behind!!! #he ended up becoming the heir and he didn’t get her out of the deck!!! #and once she DID get out jacks didn’t find her!!! azure did instead!!! #jacks kept abandoning her left and right and she doesn’t trust him anymore #i think jacks would try to help chrysi w her sewed mouth—only for her to flinch away frm him.. ohhh he would be so upset :) #this is unclear and rambling because i jst woke up frm anxiety. do not mind me #s.chrysijacks

[darkicedragon]

darkicedragon how does kentas deal w if hes actually pissed m off? bc werewolves probably just fight it out and then move on, but m holds Grudges and trust needs to be built up again after a fuck up (theres maduke, but he also probably held a grudge BECAUSE he couldnt just fight it out w muzaka and get the result he wanted) and asking m to fight after upsetting him is just going to upset him more so kentas is just ono???? ococo They would probably need intervention Cause both of them deals with it differently And to be honest i dont think Kentas is smart enough to realize that M is holding his issues in XD They probably gonna have a big fight To the point kentas thinks that they have broken up darkicedragon or that its his fault. oh no 'hey, you seem kinda grumpy/down today. wanna spar to perk you up?' o3o 'are you FUCKING serious??' '.....yeah? thats why i asked?'

ococo Cause M would def say something like "I dont want to see you, and I dont want to hear your fucking voice" ococo Yess Franken and Muzaka would have to middle darkicedragon muzaka just like OHO 'oi, kentas. here, NOW!' kentas just like O-O??? while frankenstein steps in to go distract m before m goes for kentas' throat 8') azure honestly, if M got angry at Kentas Kentas done fucked up for real bc I can't imagine M like being upset with something small, or annoyed esp when M would be the type to take a loooong ass time to trust someone so Kentas would've had to fuck up BIG to break M's trust and get him angry ococo Yup Probably kentas deserves to be kicked in the ass XD azure imagine they go searching for M's past and they find out that some/all of the M series ppl were like criminals and Kentas is like "good, they deserved their fate 😤 " and he meant well, like criminals need to be punished but M is livid darkicedragon maybe m is v much 'want to be left alone rn' vibes, but kentas cant read that, which keeps making m more annoyed bc pushing ms comfort boundaries is going to make him vvv techy darkicedragon oOOOH BOIIIIIIII ococo OH MY GOD darkicedragon could depend, bc kentas prob flips between the warrior mentality and 'well. almost all the ww warriors were also criminals so...' ococo HE NEEDS TO BE SLAPPED ON THE FACE azure if M would stop and think, he'd understand why Kentas said that but he's angry Kentas said that about what was like his family ococo And I like the concept! M "are you saying that I also do deserve to die?" azure M would get cold bc there's one thing getting angry at an enemy who you know is gonna attack you and it's something else when it's someone you trust back stabbing you ococo Ohohohohoh 🤤 darkicedragon m just stops interacting w kentas completely blanks him ococo Kentas screwed up Muzaka would also tell him in the face That M needs space and he better give it to him azure gets worse when they find out M was actually a criminal himself had to serve some good years for something bad darkicedragon kentas trying to figure out how to make up and muzaka just shooting them down 'so i should go spar w him?' 'no' '?? talk w him?' 'no' 'but.... what do i do?' ono 'keep out of his way and dont try ta force your way back in. yer LUCKY hes still letting you even see you rn. hes not a ww, so he doesnt act like one. remember that' ono azure bc M realizes Kentas thinks he should pay for his crimes as well ococo M starts to feel as awful as when he was first adopted.. feeling that he is not worth the second chance, and his boyfriend thinks the same darkicedragon 'i guess i should have just stayed in the union where i belong...' ococo Qwq T2 if they exist in this au they would very much be like hisssssss at Kentas too azure Kentas not understanding what he did wrong bc subtle things like these just... don't cross his mind he's v straight forward ococo He thinks M already redeemed himself but it sounded like if M didn't get the chance to be at frankens household that he also ought to deserve whatever happened to him darkicedragon kentas' thought processes are like 'hes at frankenstein and muzakas house and accepted here. hes strong now. past is in the past' and thats all that matters 'me helped me realise the other ww warriors were shit and move on from that, so i should do the same' not realising theres a difference between ww warriors and being experimented on bc of past deeds (that they dont even remeber) azure Kentas going to ask Franken and Muzaka what's wrong bc he simply doesn't understand and they ask him what he said or what their convo was Kentas tells them and Muzaka goes 😬 and >^> at Franken bc Franken goes =_= "While I do understand your line of thought, Kentas, you must understand you said that about what was practically M's family. At the same time, it sounds like you think M does not deserve redemption." "You are not wrong to think one must face the consequences of their actions and punishment for their wrongdoings, it's not always a black or white matter. There are grey areas." ... what would M be convicted of? 🤔 I'm thinking fraud or theft or like maybe some criminal activity stuff darkicedragon gang member? òvó azure yesss ò0ó darkicedragon basically a smaller version of the union w no experimentation 'hah... it would explain why i took so well to the union...' azure >w> and finds out he was a target bc he was an orphan who was taken in by the gang so no one would miss him so no family in the first place, except for the gang that used him darkicedragon so even no past in his past >w> or his gang also got destroyed bc they were trying to encroach on the unions turf azure yesss òwó Franken will prolly advise Kentas to think from M's perspective and understand why it hurt him so and to talk to him

#noblesse #skype conversations #madameazzure #ococo #m21 #kentas #kentasm21 #muzaka #frankenstein

[wyverian-lady525]

Can I get headcanons of the waifus reacting to the Rider who trained their Tigrex to fly? Like, straight up HTTYD style where the Tigrex can't fly 10 feet in the air on its own but with it's rider in the saddle, they can keep up with an Azure Rathalos.

Sure!💖

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

The Waifus (Kyle, Reverto, Cheval, Alwin, Lilia, Ena, Kayna, and Avinia) React to the Rider who Trained Their Tigrex to Fly

Kyle

-Kyle thought that he had learned so much, nothing else could practically surprise him. However, hearing that your tigrex can fly, well that makes him laugh. But then you show him, and boy Kyle is stunned. Apparently, being a flying wyvern, tigrexes are capable of flight (horrible thought), but they need assistance. You have a special saddle that helps your monstie to soar the skies alongside Ratha. The only thought that enters Kyle's mind whenever he sees that is that he's glad your tigrex is on his side.

Reverto

-Reverto is terrified that your tigrex can fly like a full-grown rathalos. However, he's more afraid of the fact that they are capable of this. It really opens the hunter's mind to the impossible that he wishes wasn't possible. What really terrifies him is that, with your help, your tigrex could fly as fast as an azure rathalos. Minus the fire, thank everything. However, from a rider’s viewpoint, he can see where this could be useful. But as a hunter, the image scares him more than anything.

Cheval

-Like probably everyone else, Cheval would never think such a thing to exist. However, he isn’t stunned or terrified like everyone else. He is simply wowed by your skill and compassion, helping your tigrex fly like that. Cheval would help out with your training, having Rathi fly alongside your monstie. But he is a little cautious of wild tigrex now, even though he knows they can’t do it on their own because of their biology. He’s just impressed by your ingenuity, learning the mechanisms needed to achieve this.

Alwin

-Alwin is just stunned. He tries to approach this from a rational point of view, saying how this can’t be physical possible. But the more and more he witnesses you flying your tigrex, the more his rationality goes out the window. Alwin feels like he’s living in this fantasy world, but it’s real. However, he’s learned to embrace the impossible, so he should learn to embrace this as well. That doesn’t mean he has a panic attack every time your tigrex flies alongside Shaulk. It fills him with a sense of unease.

Lilia

-Of course, Lilia the all-knowing would declare this as impossible. A tigrex cannot fly because of their biology. It’s never been documented, end of story. Then you come in exclaiming your tigrex can fly, and she laughs, humoring you by asking to show her. Imagine her reaction when she was proven wrong on something she was certain about. It would fill her with a sense of awe and dread. After all, a tigrex can fly, but it cannot do so without the help of a rider. The whole thing sounds like a storybook, a young rider helping a tigrex to fly.

Ena

-Ena is always open to the impossible, or what seems impossible. When you told her that you think your tigrex can fly, she was with you all the way. The wyverian might not be a rider, but she helped make you a saddle that would achieve such a goal. Low and behold, your tigrex can fly, and not only that, but it could keep pace with the other flying wyverns. It was kind of a goofy sight, considering it hasn’t ever flown before, but Ena was supportive all the way. She never once doubted that this was possible.

Kayna

-Kayna humors you when you say your tigrex can fly. I mean, she doesn’t want to believe that a fearsome monster like that can traverse the sky. She laughs, waiting for you to say that it can swim as well, but your serious expression shuts her up. That’s when you show her its newfound skill...and speed. She’s in shock, that’s for sure, but soon gets over it. In fact, she even wants to ride with you and see this from your perspective. Also, Avmar gets a tad jealous that he doesn’t have wings and can’t fly.

Avinia

-She just downright doesn’t believe you, thinking you are trying to pull a fast one on her. Avinia doesn’t like to be fooled, so she just ignores you. That is until she sees you on your flying tigrex with her own eyes. It’s stunning, majestic almost, but she refuses to apologize for not believing you. Even when you give her a smirk while flying beside Frostfang, she continues to be strong. Eventually, she begins to show interest in how you learned that or figure it out. It’s not an apology, but it’s all you’re getting.

#monster hunter stories 2 #monster hunter stories #mhst #mhst2 #kyle #mhst2 kyle #monster hunter stories 2 kyle #reverto #monster hunter stories reverto #cheval #monster hunter stories cheval #mhst2 cheval #alwin #mhst2 alwin #lilia #monster hunter stories lilia #mhst2 lilia #ena #msht2 ena #kayna #mhst2 kayna #avinia #mhst2 avinia #headcanons #kyle headcanons #reverto headcanons #cheval headcanons #alwin headcanons #lilia headcanons #ena headcanons

[chryzuree]

i’m on a huge horror movie kick rn soooo… top 3 chryzure horror AUs? :3

TOP THREE???????????? this is so difficult for me…….

well, my izombie au has slowly shifted to be something more canonical, but that in between stage still counts? i wound up taking insp from the possession of hannah grace and the mortuary assistant, along with general other horror elements from various shows/movies—but essentially, azure is killed by his ex and brought back Wrong ((i’ve since rewritten this to be chrysi bringing him back wrong, but it’s an expression of love frm her instead of an expression of obsession <3)) and morwyn requests chrysi take azure in to work in the morgue w her… demonic possession of dead bodies ensue, and unfortunately for everyone involved, azure is also technically a dead body!!! VERY unfortunate situation!!!! but i also include more of a “monster of the week” format when thinking on this au, so :)) it rules!!! i think abt it a lot!!!

my conjuring au is jst so romantic…. less abt the horror and more abt how chrysi and azure protect each other despite dealing w hauntings and possessions as their career…… i love thinking abt that second movie, where azure throws himself into danger (as opposed to chrysi normally doing it) and chrysi’s forced to reckon with how much heartache she’s caused azure by doing that exact same thing. OH, and that third movie were azure’s being controlled. but instead of their love breaking the curse, chrysi jst led him to the altar and made his super-possessed-magic-strength destroy it. azures both offended and impressed by her solution. and yes, azure has a locket w a photo of chrysi in it 🫶🏻 romance!!! ((added bonus of bg simeonluna in these aus!!!!!!!))

OH GOD, MY CHRYZUREJACKS ZOMBIE AU WHERE THEY ALL WERE PART OF THIS GROUP THAT WOULD GO INTO INFECTED DEAD ZONES AND CLEAR THEM OUT/GRAB VALUABLES FOR PPL….. it’s more of chrysi’s job, but jacks tagged along because he didn’t rlly know what else to do w his life after the zombie apocalypse came knocking, and azure joins up in order to document their exploits as a photojournalist!! but then there’s an outbreak in one of the towns they’re staying at (well, more like a small city… i looooove playing w zombie apocalypses post-everyone finding a “new normal”…. yes, i got super into zombies during the pandemic, what makes you ask that?) & meredith gets infected.. since she’s a witch & she knows azure’s a witch, she bites him (before she turns entirely) and claims him as her own. they become a new breed, babey!!!! azure fakes like he hasn’t been infected until he’s made sure chrysi and jacks have gotten to a safe zone, then he locks them in and leaves to go succumb to the illness <//3 years down the line, chrysi and jacks get together because, like. what other option do they have… they’re missing azure so much and only they understand the pain of that…. UNTIL ON ANOTHER RUN, CHRYSI GETS KNOCKED INTO AN INFECTION ZONE & jacks is terrified he’ll lose her again!! but no worries…. a zombified azure still has control over himself and he saves chrysi :)) also he’s the only one that can tell them that meredith (also zombified) is planning on putting their outpost under siege. problem is, azure can’t remember anything from his life and he can barely speak. ruh roh!!!!

^ clearly i go insane over this au, so maybe this should b my top au…..

#.asks #m.kat🫶🏻 #s.chryzure #i could go on for ages for so many different zombie aus. constantly thinking abt zombies and chryzure and zombies #azure is literally zombie coded idk what to say!!!

[zackcrazyvalentine]

Can i request the twst first year noticing something on the fem crush's neck. They think its a hickey but its just a mosquito bite. I want them all together in one fic but if you cant do it then it's fine, it can be separated.

Ah, ah~ another fun prompt to see in fandoms! Lends itself for very funny situations

Which I attempted to portray here :b

Go on an enjoy!

Title: “Who was it?!”

-- -- --

P.E. classes always had students sweating their skin off; Vargas was a relentless teacher whose head could not understand his harsh training was hard to keep up with.

It was normal for students to remove the top part of their coverall sports uniform and zip off or roll up the long pant legs to allow fresh breezes to cool them off.

[Name] decided to partake on this today, it was burning and the professor was as demanding as ever to push everyone to their limit. She normally kept the top of her uniform to prevent unwanted gazes to her body.

It so happened that a group of first years was hanging out in the sports field too. “Ah, those guys are here as well. Maybe I should go say hi to them.”

Five boys were arguing about something or other, Sebek, Ace and Epel appeared very fired up at the discussion.

“Hey, guys! What are you all talking about?” They all jumped at the sound of her voice. “Boys can be so weird…”

“Ah! Eh… Nothing...important…” Ace delivered nervously.

“Uhm, sure.” She brushed it off, “Anyways, mind me joining you guys for a while?” Before they could answer, [Name] sat down along the group’s formation and began fanning herself to alleviate the heat and dry off the sweat.

The boys continued speaking with themselves, albeit a little robotically.

Being the closest to the ground where she sat to the [ x ] year, Epel was the one to notice it…

A red spot of considerable size on the girl’s beautiful neck.

Right then, the Pomefiore student got a flashback of those hentai manga he sneaked glances at in his hometown’s secluded library.

“The pact… They broke the pact!” He became enraged.

He exploded, “Which one of ya fuc-?!”

The pact… of not making a move on [Name] until she herself spoke out to any of them if she had a crush on someone, one of them, or anyone in general.

To the small 1st year’s knowledge, she had yet to speak about anything romance related.

Felmier tried to swallow down the even bigger urge to scream. “W-Which one of you… d-did it?! We had… a pact, you-! You dishonest buffoons!” It was hard to keep up the posh and proper Pomefiore student front when all he wanted was to punch their faces.

“Epel!!” The boy was cut off by Vil yelling at him from a distance. Everyone flinched at the stern callout.

Seems like the dorm head decided to have his yoga session outside. How inconvenient.

Jack was the first to speak, “What are you talking about? Do what? Why would you think someone broke the pact?”

Ace followed, “Are you delirious?!”

Sebek nodded, booming voice amping his statement. “I must agree with Trappola this time. You’re pointing fingers unjustly! How do we know it was not you who broke the pact?!”

Before Epel could defend himself, Deuce exclaimed, “Sebek’s right! Your sudden outburst is suspicious! No one knows what you’re blaming us for except you!”

“ ‘T fuck ya mean by that, city boy?! ‘Tis clear as day, a damn big red mark on her neck!” Epel snapped at the accusation, but a heavy glare at the back of his head corrected his speech, "Ahem… I-I mean… There's clearly a distasteful bruise marring the...pristine skin of her neck! The culprit better confess now!"

"Mark on her neck?" Jack questioned, coming closer to the sitting girl.

"Woah, what's going on? Whose neck? What mark? What are you guys even getting angry about? What pact?" The [dorm] student was full of doubts and ready to push away anyone that dared come too close.

With a shaky sweet smile, the lilac haired instructed, "Dear [Name], can you please turn your head to the side for a moment? Just...to check for something."

She hesitated, but complied no less. The Heartslabyul duo's surprised reactions worried her, "What? What's wrong?! Why are you acting so weird?"

"Look at the size of that! Well, clearly Epel couldn't do it, he's too small." Ace thought out loud, which gained him a ferocious death stare from the mentioned boy.

"Ace, didn't you have a study session alone with [Name]?" Deuce questioned, voice holding a threatening tone.

The other half-of-a-whole-idiot opened and closed his mouth, unable to speak. He resorted to winking and giving finger guns.

"Ya bastard! It was you all along!" Epel and Deuce accused.

Trappola protested, "Hey, I wasn't the only one having alone time with her! You also had a private lesson with her, Deuce! And Jack, I saw you hanging back with her after practice!"

"Woah! Look at it! It has small dots surrounding it!" The shortest boy of the group pointed at the strange mark on [Name]'s neck.

The human trio remained silent while Jack sighed, knowing where this would lead to.

"It's one of you two! With your sharp fangs and whatnot!" Accusing fingers were directed at them.

Sebek was the one to defend himself first, "I have not been able to meet [Name] this whole week for our scheduled reading session! Don't even dare point blame at me!"

"You guys are insufferable, why would either of us bite down on the one we fancy without going all out?" The wolf growled.

"Exactly! Howl speaks the truth! Coupling and the like are serious matters to us fae! ...and beastmen!" Zigvolt backed the claim.

They continued arguing intensely as a very weirded out [Name] watched in horror and confusion.

"Are they referring to me? What even is the thing they're talking about?" She pondered, her own hand traveled up to feel at her neck. "Itchy...very itchy…" So she did what instinct said and scratched the spot.

"What has gotten into their heads?" Grim suddenly approached the sitting one.

The [color] haired sighed, "Something or other about breaking a pact and a mark on my neck." She turned to look at the cat-monster, "Say, Grim, can you do me a favor and tell me what exactly is on my neck? I just know it itches and feels slightly hotter than the rest of my skin there."

Round azure eyes examined the spot he was told to. "Oh! It seems to be a mosquito bite!" The feline spoke loudly.

"Seriously?! You have those here too?! Uuugh, what a drag!" [Name] groaned at the news.

The yelling suddenly stopped.

"Come...again?" Sebek, for once in their whole friendship, spoke in a low voice.

Grim repeated himself, "What [Name] told me to look at in her neck, it's a mosquito bite… Maybe she got it while sleeping."

Everyone took a good look at the red bump again, letting a small "oh" after realizing their mistake.

"Ahaha… so, uh… guess it was all a misunderstanding…" Ace said, bringing an awkward silence afterwards.

"Anyways, guys," The girl stood up, "Care to explain what was all that about a pact and worrying who did this to me? What about that thing of biting down on the one you fancy?" Peeved [eye color] looked between all of them as she crossed her arms.

"N-Nothing to worry about much, [Name]! I-Its just..!" Deuce began.

"Dumb teen boy things, don't e~ven worry! Ahaha..!" Ace seconded.

Jack cleared his throat, "Something, uh… Leona wants me back at the dorm at this hour. See you around." The tan boy fled the scene.

"Y-Yeah! The Young Master must be soliciting my services! I must go. Farewell." Sebek followed.

"I-I believe Vil called for me earlier!" Epel ran as fast he could, in the complete opposite direction to where the dorm leader was exercising.

"Dumbasses, bunch of dumbasses…" The [hair color] sighed. "They all have a crush in me, don't they?"

Ace and Deuce looked at each other before laughing nervously, "Yeah, we, uh…"

"Have to feed the flamingos!"

"Indeed! Can't let them feed themselves!"

"So~... We gotta go, get changed, into the pink clothes, else they will...b-...b-..."

"Bite! Yeah, they bite and peck very hard!"

"Oh, yes! Aha… So… See ya 'round!"

"Bye for now!"

"That they do...that they do…" Grim confirmed.

[END☆]

Anyways~ hope this was a fun read! ( ＾▽＾)/

-- -- --

Epel, dear, you shouldn’t be on that section of the library...

Thank you for the request~

#March 2021 special #request pavilion #twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland x reader #1st year gang #Ace Trappola #Deuce Spade #Jack Howl #Epel Felmier #Sebek Zigvolt #zack writes #fun times

[teyuuka]

i definitely agree abt a lot of romance manga having that petty/immature aspect >__< in that regard, do u have some other good romance manga recs? where relationships feel more mature n all? i feel like u know some gud stuff 👀❤️

also non-related but i started watching uramichi-oniisan recently. loving it so far but i find it esp funny that nakamura san and sugita san were specifically the seiyuus casted to be the two buddies in their mascots. i end up subconsciously associating them w their characters/ imagining that it's actually them in the show LMAO -🐔👔

oooh boy do i have many [sweats]

(you can read most of these legally, mostly for free, on Line webtoon/pocket comics/comico/kakaopage/tappytoon/tapas/crunchyroll!)

♥ - my faves

that sweet, sweet Unresolved S*xual Tension:

Raise wa tanin ga ii ♥ (pls read this, feMC’s super badass)

Unlovable replacement ♥

Devilish romance ♥

Revenge wedding

Locker Opener (WELL technically not romance but goD the protag and the villain should just fucc I SWEAR aggghhh)

The senior and junior who broke up three months ago

Kowloon generic romance

The double agent

check this out if u like GL

cute and vanilla?? u bet

It's hard to love an otaku/wotaku ni koi wa muzukashii ♥

My cute beast

Is it wrong to get done by a girl ♥ <<< :^) i luv this v much

Futari ashita mo sore nari ni

The noble girl with a crush on a plain studious guy bla bla bla (title too long, but the author is tosaka yuuma! i love how feMC's just unabashedly affectionate at the male lead)

Answer me, my prince!

Please show up!

The ice guy and his female colleague

Majou-senpai nichijou

Honnou switch

Pochi kuro

my beloved, badass, smart feMC:

The huntress and her love prey ♥

Undercover Empress ♥

Empress Cesia wears knickerboxers ♥ (i love the empress so much aaaaaa SCREMS)

Unholy blood (action genre! luv the male lead tho)

The knight and her emperor ♥

Adonis

May I please ask you just one thing? (kind of action? MC's OP but she's badass ig)

Kusuriya no hitorigoto

Daybreaking romance

if u love something more dramatic... :

Like the wind on a dry branch ♥ (you'll love the smart male lead in this one, trust me)

Love of Kill/Koroshi Ai ♥

Beastars

Azure and Claude ♥

The moon that rises in the day (my first impression reading this was the male lead is so complex, wow)

It was all you

The blood of madam giselle

The spark in your eyes

Blue flag/ao no flag

Liar (arguable, they are kinda toxic but it's a mature story regardless)

Things I don't know about you

Watashitachi no shiawase na jikan ♥

Sweet spooky darling (kinda hit or miss tho)

Sadistic beauty :^)

Black winter

Shimanami tasogare (LGBT but i guess not really romance-centric)

Noragami ♥

cracking that cold/unloving guy open... :

His devilish new hire ♥

A bittersweet couple

Your voice/Kimi no koe

To love your enemy

Is everyday life not possible?

The bond that ties us (kinda hit or miss sometimes)

The Missing O :^)

non-serious/comedy:

A pervert in love is a demon ♥

Lethal romance ♥ (this is so stupid but ahgsdjfsljsk)

Act like you love me!

Devil number 4

When scientists fall in love/Rike ga koi ni ochita no de shoumeishitemita

Lofty flower, fall for me!/Takane no hana nara ochitekoi! ♥

Kanako's life as an assassin

Fujimi lovers (this is finished but i enjoyed it a lot tbh)

The virgin witch

bonus: PLEASE, please read "koroshiya datte mimamoritai" you won't regret it i promise ♥♥♥

#long post #replies #Anonymous #recs #i straight up listed down like 90% of the stuff on my reading apps jksdghfslkla

[fandomdumpsterfires]

Monstienapped - chapter 2

((Had to rewrite this whole thing cuz i accidentally posted it when it wasn't finished and i was unable to copy it all down at once cuz tumblr is a bitch hhh... ;w;))

((Also, final boss spoilers for those who haven't beaten/gotten stories 2 yet!!))

"...monsties are mysteriously dissapearing all over the place, and the first one was taken from your home village, philip."

The scrivener's lodge fell silent, with the only sounds being soft footsteps and distant conversations.

"..what??" Philip gasped, eyes wide at the news lilia had just given him.

Lilia let out a small sigh "..yes, it is rather alarming news...we are hard at work at trying to find the reasonings behind these dissapearances, yet have only been able to find very vague clues." She replied.

"..Could this manelger guy be behind these dissapearances?" Kyle wondered, looking at the girl. Lilia shook her head "it is very unlikely, however, if that is the case, then that would mean he is working with the people who are capturing monsties." She replied.

"Why are they capturing monsties?" Philip asked. Lilia turned to her desk and picked up a few papers, looking and reading through them "well, as i said before, we know very little about their motives and reasoning..yet, some of us fear that they mey be doing this to try and resurrect oltura..."

Philip froze at the mention of oltura, memories of the cradle of destructions' disasterous rampage flashing through his mind...along with the death of guardian ratha..

Kyle and lilia looked at philip with mildly worried expressions. Kyle reached his hand out towards the other riders' shoulder, stopping when lilia cleared her throat, causing him to drop his hand "you two should go to mahana village and make sure nobody was harmed, me and the scriveners will inform you on any new information we find on our culprits." She said.

Kyle nodded and looked at philip once again growing worried for him "hey phil..you ok?" He asked. Philip suddenly snapped from his thoughts and looked at kyle, blinking a few times as he returned to reality "what? O-oh, yeah, i'm fine..." he replied "um...l-let's just go get our monsties and head towards hakolo island already.." he turned around and walked through the doorway.

Kyle knew something was wrong with his companion with the way they stuttered and hesitated. He followed them out of the scriveners' lodge and walked beside them, looking at their face. Their blue eyes lost most of their cheerful sparkle, and it almost looked as if almost all the color in their skin had been drained away..

Turning to his monstie, he was suprised to see a group of small kids playing with razzar and feeding him donuts, the azure rathalos looking both happy and a little overwhelmed, despite being just as hyper as they were most of the time. "Hey, i wouldn't feed my rathalos donuts if i were you. They aren't good for him, and he's already pretty hyper without the extra sugar." He said to the kids, who looked up at him with nervous stares "o-oh, s-sorry mister..." one of them said.

Kyle sighed "it's fine i guess, just make sure you ask before you act." He got up on razzar's back, the azure rathalos taking to the skies after ratha and philip, who had been waiting for them above the town.

The two los riders soared across the ocean, kyle once again worrying about philip. They had slipped back into their thoughts as they flew, ratha also seeming to be able to sense that something was amiss with its rider.

"Philip..you sure you're ok?" Kyle speaking once again snapped philip from his thoughts. The rider clad in zamtrios armor looked at his partner, having the same confused look in his eyes as before "um...y-yeah? Why do you ask?" He replied.

"Somethings' bothering you, ever since lilia mentioned oltura, you've been acting a little strange..." kyle said. Philip sighed, fidgeting with the handle of rathas' saddle "it's just...after seeing all the destruction and death oltura caused and learning about my grandfather..i don't want to lose anyone else..." he said.

Kyle furrowed his eyebrows as philip spoke "listen phil, we will stop these guys from taking any more monsties, and stop this manelger guy from controlling monsters too." He said to them in a soft, confident tone "and if they do succeed in bringing back oltura, we'll deffeat them just as we did before; with the power of our kinship." He clutched the hand with his kinship stone on it into a fist and pointed it in philip's direction.

The other rider listened to Kyle as they spoke. He processed their words for a few moments and, with a confident grin, he copied kyle's hand gesture, their fists bumping together "you're right, those monstienappers are no match for the power of kinship!" He said with a grin.

Kyle chuckled softly, a soft pink hue dusting across his cheeks "heh, there's the philip i know." He said, going back to holding onto razzar's saddle with both hands "wanna race the rest of the way to hakolo?" He asked.

Philip grinned "you're on, but don't expect me to go slow and easy like on your flying lessons~" he teased, causing kyle's face to turn red from embarrassment "h-hey! Atleast by the sixth attempt i was able to some-what steer blister!" He retorted. Philip laughed, causing kyle's heart to skip a beat "yeah, some-what...let's go ratha!" He leaned forwards on his rathalos, ratha roaring as he flew forwards with a sudden burst of speed.

Kyle was stunned by the shockwave of air from ratha's wings "oh no you don't! C'mon razzar, let's show these guys who's fastest!" He said to his monstie, razzar roaring in response before flying in the direction of ratha, flapping his wings as hard as he could to keep up with the slightly larger rathalos.

"Heh, told ya i was getting better-AGH!!" Kyle said once he caught up with philip, about to lean back on his monstie when a sudden spray of seawater hit his face. He whiped the water off his face and rubbed his eyes as they stung from the salt, face turning red when he heard philip's terrifieingly adorable giggle ahead of him "you're getting better at flying, but you still have a lot to learn about staying alert!" They said, ratha flapping upwards to rocket into the sky, causing more seawater to splatter into kyle's face, also onto razzar.

Kyle groaned as he shook the seawater out of his hair and flew upwards after philip, the two riders flying together in a long spiral before diving downwards. They looked at eachother as their monsties flew back-to-back, and while philip was able to lift up from the sea right before they hit it, kyle was sent crashing into the water.

Kyle coughed and groaned as he struggled to shake most of the sea water off, razzar letting out an irritated growl as he did the same. Philip giggled "like i said, always stay alert." He said "oh shut up..." kyle pouted, crossing his arms and looking away from his companion.

Finally, the two riders made their way to hakolo island. They let their monsties rest down by the beach to dry off from splashing eachother during their flight and to recover some energy before walking into mahana village. The place looked fairly roughed up, with chunks of the boardwalk missing and many of the buildings torn to shreds, there was also, strangely, many large scorch and bitemarks, meaning that whatever attacked breathed fire and had a nasty habit of biting things.

"Philip!" A familiar voice called philip's name, and before he could react, kayna enveloped him in a tight hug "i'm so happy to see you again, newbie!" Philip let out a small wheeze from how tight the hug was "thanks kayna, my factured ribs are happy to see you too-"

Philip gasped as he caught his breath, really forgetting how strong kayna truely was (buff kayna supremacy, bitches) "..a-also, i'm not a newbie anymore." He said. Kayna giggled "heh, i know, but i still like to call you that sometimes." She replied, stepping aside as chief gara approached.

"i see that you have continued to grow stronger, along with making a new ally." The wyverian said, philip smiled "yup! Me and kyle are best buds!" He replied, resting his arm on kyle's shoulder, despite being a little shorter than they were.

Kyle mildly blushed at the gesture, but kept his focus on kayna and mahana village's chief "we came here after hearing that mahana was attacked from lilia, was anybody hurt?" He asked "afew, yes, and the village took a pretty good beating too, but for the most part, we're pretty sturdy." Kayna replied "well, minus the fact that all of our monsties were stolen..." she sighed.

"..do you know what attacked and took all the monsties?" Philip asked "it was an anjanath, but unlike any we've previously seen, as its body was clad in a powerful metallic hide." Chief gara replied "the last we've seen of it was near the pona grasslands after an odd gem on its snout was cracked by kayna's kinship attack. The beast went on a sudden rampage, the monsties ran away out of fear, never returning ever since."

"Don't worry, we'll find that anjanath and make sure it doesn't hurt anyone else." Philip said, determined. Chief gara slowly nodded "be careful, that beast is different from any other anjanath you may have faced." He replied.

Kyle and philip walked out of the village and towards the pona grasslands, choosing to let their monsties rest a little longer, they went their on foot. kyle looked around, the grasslands were completely normal, the aptonoth grazing without a care in the world "guess it went somewhere else.." he said, arms crossed "if i where an anjanath with wierd mind-controlling armor, where would i hide..." philip mumbled, his right thumb and pointer finger resting on his chin as he thought about where the brute wyvern might've ran off to.

The two riders continued their investigation, following their scoutflies when they picked up the monsters' trail, the glowing green insects dissapearing into the darkness of the entrance of guardian ratha's den.

"Guess it's in there.." kyle huffed, looking at philip, who was once again beginning to look nervous. He blushed lightly as he reached out his hand, gently holding the other riders' hand "there's nothing to be afraid of, we've faced worse monsters than an anjanath, and even if we don't have our monsties with us, we'll stop it no matter what." He said.

Philip looked at kyle as they spoke, also blushing when they held his hand. He nodded, not letting his fear control him, and, with a few deep breaths to calm his nervous heart, he took the first step into the guardian ratha woods.

Chapter 1

#monster hunter stories #monster hunter stories 2 #monster hunter stories: wings of ruin #mhs2 #oc: philip #oc x canon #oc x cc #mhs oc #philip x kyle #ratha #razewing ratha #rathalos #azure rathalos #lilia #kayna #chief gara #buff kayna. buff kayna. #als yes i had to throw in that httyd reffrence- #monstienapped

[monst]

T’is the season Day 30

Day 30 Shoveling Snow

               Wow we’re already on day thirty O.O It’s really gone by quickly. I’m excited that I finally get to write for flame daddy ^.^ And, my girl Yaomomo :D and, I guess yay for Sero to…. Jk He’s great :3 Warnings: Dirty jokes and innuendos Without further ado Amari’s TDS presents:

Yaoyorozu Momo

               You were sweating. In below freezing weather! Why were you outside sweating in such weather? Well because of her. You really hated how you could never say no to her.  Her cute smile and her adorable excited bouncing had gotten you hook line and sinker. It would have dragged down others, but they seemed to be busy. Your mood was beginning to sour with every pile of snow you moved over to the side.

“Why the fuck is her driveway so damn long.” You hissed under your breath.  You loved Yaomomo you really did but you were going to murder her.

“Hey, (Name) I got us some hot chocolate.” She beamed. And, suddenly it wasn’t as cold out…..

               You took the thermal she held out to you and smiled. She really could get away with anything. You were honestly whipped for your friend. Friend being the key word. You thanked her or the warm drink and sighed.

               “Something wrong?” She asked her brows furrowing.

               “No, Just wished there was a faster way to do this.” You half-confessed. “I’m freezing”

Yaoyorozu frowned, she hadn’t noticed how much of a burden this could have been for you. She really felt as if she had been selfish. She began to remove her coat and your eyes immediately caught the action.

“Momo! What are you doing?!?” you shrieked. “Put your coat back on you might get sick!!” You fretted.

She didn’t, instead you saw her produce some strange gun ray. You looked at her in confusion but, backed up when she motioned for you to do so. With a squeeze of the trigger all the snow surrounding the driveway was cleared. It was easily melted away with the hot temperature the ray emitted.

“Woah” You gawked. “Why didn’t you do that earlier?!?!”

“I-I’m sorry?” She teared up. You began to panic. But before you could say anything she held her hand up in interruption. “I was being really selfish, In all honesty the hired help usually does this but.. B-but I just wanted to spend some more time with you and, I didn’t know how else to ask. I’m so sorry. Now your probably going to get sick and then you’ll hate me and, I don’t know If I-“

You cut off her rambling by moving closer to her and buttoning her coat. You didn’t say anything as you continued your task.

               “(N-Name)?” She stuttered. And you sighed, moving your gaze to her dark eyes.

“Momo for someone so smart you can be pretty dumb.”

Sero Hanta

               You were ecstatic. You had been shoveling snow since the first flake fell trying to earn some extra cash. You were saving up to take Sero on a date! You had been crushing on the hero since the two of you met but, you’ve always been to shy to ask him out. However, you weren’t a child anymore and with enough pushing from your friends you had gained the courage to ask him out.

Well that was until you realized you didn’t know how to ask people out…. So, you thought up the next best thing. You were gonna invite him out and make it seem like it was just a normal quiet sober friend thing. Your current job didn’t leave you with any splurge money, so you had decided to gain some change doing what you were doing. Moving snow.

That was until said man walked down the street and spotted you. Sero was a bit confused as to why you were shoveling snow when you could have been home all warm and cozy preferably cuddling with someone. And, as you were his friend he decided to go and say hi.

“Someone’s working hard.” His grinned watching as you jumped in fright.

“Hanta!” You squeaked the shovel in your hand swerving upwards making the snow on it fly off and smack him across the face. “Oh shit! I’m so sorry.” You apologized. But you were more amused than sorry and couldn’t help the snort that escaped your lips.

“Oh, you think that’s funny now?” He grinned moving to grab an armful of snow.

“No, W-wait!” You pleaded “Look you can get me back for it later, but I really need to finish this yard.”

“Oh? Speaking of which what’s this about?” He asked motioning to your shovel and the lawn.

“I’m saving up.” You smiled feeling butterflies churn in your belly.

“What for?” He mused “Must be important if your out here freezing your ass off.”

“I-It is.” You stuttered. “I’m saving up to take the guy I like out.”

“Oh.” He muttered. “Sounds like your real serious about him, if your doing all this work.”

“Yeah.” You smiled.

“Hmm maybe we can double date!” He grinned.

“W-what?” You asked incredulously. He couldn’t be saying what you thought you heard.

“Yeah, I’ll bring my girlfriend and you can invite this guy.” He smiled flicking snow of his shoulder.

“You…..you have a girlfriend?” You asked hesitantly.

“Yeah, what? Thought I couldn’t get one.” He teased. “What day were you planning it?”

“Friday.” You mumbled dejectedly. “You know maybe I shouldn’t ask him.”

“Nonsense (Name) You’re a pretty great person I’m sure he’ll say yes.” He encouraged. “Or do you not want me to tag along.”

You didn’t say anything. You could feel your throat tightening in the telltale sign of impending tears. You didn’t want him to see you cry. And, here you thought that your feelings were obvious. They we’re probably nothing but a burden. Maybe this was his way of turning you down….

“Earth to (Name)” he waved his hand in your face. “So, see ya Friday?”

“W-wait!?!” He didn’t give the chance to speak as he used his tape to propel himself through the air. “I…Guess I’ll come clean on Friday.”

Come Friday you walked to his house in trepidation. You just wanted to call him and tell him you were sick but then you’d never get over it. You figured you needed to rip the band-aid quickly. So when you stood at his door you knocked before you could pussy out. The girl who opened the door was everything you feared. She was undoubtably beautiful.

“Can I help you.” Even her voice was lovely.

“H-hanta Sero.” You squawked.

“Oh Han! Your girlfriend is here!” You heard her yell.

“Shut up Hana!” You heard him call, then heard the sound of him tumbling down he stairs. Once he was at the door he smiled at you and narrowed his eyes at the woman at the door. “You can leave now.”

“What aren’t you going to introduce me?” She grinned….A very familiar grin. He tried waving her away. “No? Tsk Shitty little brother have it your way. (Name) was it? He humps his pillow at night crying out your name.” She scoffed walking up the stairs.

“T-that’s a lie!!” He shouted up at her. You rose a brow all nervousness gone.

“So ‘Han’ where is your girlfriend.” You teased a bit pissed at how he went about things.

“Well I thought she’d never show but she’s finally here.” He joked with a shaky grin on his flushed face. “And where’s your ‘crush’”

“Right in front of me looking like a tomato….”

 Todoroki Enji (Endeavor)

               He sighed when he noticed you outside of his agency building. You really didn’t know when to leave well enough alone. You were hard at work using your quirk to clear the area of natures jizz. You were always within view and in all honesty, he was tired of your ridiculousness. You had tried everything to get his attention and he was not willing to give it to you. At least not at the beginning of the….Endeavor…..

               You wanted his attention. Craved it. You wouldn’t lie to anyone you were obsessed with the beefy redhead. You wanted him to notice you. So, you did everything in your power to get that. It was the reason you worked so hard to be able to make it into his agency. But he didn’t give you the time of day…. It was in the cold elements that you began to reevaluate your choices up until that point.

               Was it really worth it? It was clear that he didn’t need you or want you. Hell, the man was trying to fix his issues with his kids. Should you really be meddling. These were your current thoughts as you ditched your snow clearing task and went for a walk. ‘It’s not like he’ll notice I’m skipping work.’  You thought walking further and further. On your walk you began to question your feelings. ‘Why do I like him? What does he mean to me? Can I continue wasting my efforts on someone who looks to me as if I were nothing?’

               When the pro hero looked outside his window, he expected to see your smiling face gazing up at him. He was looking for your waving hand and your curved-up eyes. He didn’t see any of those things. Instead he saw something red staining the snow. His azure eyes widened, and he disregarded the window and hopped out of it. When his feet hit the ground he quickly took off towards the red stain. He followed the trail until he turned the corner and saw-

               A child dropping his Kool-Aid pouch onto the snow…. Well at least it wasn’t you he mused as he wondered about where you could have gone. ‘Maybe it’s a ruse.’ He sighed thinking that it was a new tactic of yours to get his attention. He figured that you were probably around the corner laughing and gushing at how cool it was that he jumped out a window for you.

Except that, that wasn’t the case. And you were nowhere to be found. You also weren’t picking up your phone…. He was worried. It was beginning to grow dark and he was still out looking for you. He’d check every single place you had claimed to be your favorite. He had raced to your apartment. He asked your neighbors. But it was like you just vanished… Or worse. You could have been actually harmed or nabbed by villains.

               By now he was frantically yelling your name desperate for a reply. It was when he turned to run past a playground that her caught sight of your form. You were sat at a bench looking at the pigeons that had gathered for the bread you had brought in a convenience store. He had never been so relieved.

               “(Name)” His hoarse voice gasped startling the birds. “*Sigh* I finally found you. You had me- Everyone worried.”  You looked over in confusion.

               “Endeavor?” You looked at the breathless hero up and down. “What are you doing here?”

               He was taken back by what you called him. You had never called him by his hero name. It was always ‘Todoroki-Sama’ I public or ‘Enji-kun’ when you were alone. It felt strange and cold. He didn’t like it.

               “What am I doing here?” He scoffed “What do you think your doing here?? You think you can just skip out on the job?” He seethed.

               “Does it really matter.” You sighed in your feelings.

               “What?!” He sputtered his face growing red with anger. He had looked for hours, he was worried for hours and here you were as if it wasn’t a big deal!! “This is unacceptable an employee of mines should never-“

               “Then fire me.” You sighed. “I’d be out of your hair like you want..”

               “….I…That’s not what I want (Name)..*Sigh* you have no idea how worried I was, I thought something horrible happened. I don’t know what I would have done if something did happen to you..” He confessed. You gawked at him. And with wide eyes and a slack jaw you spoke:

“Nani!?!?!”

Banner will be up later this shit is about to die and i’m at work with no charger!!

#Amari's TDS #bnha ficmas #bnha christmas #mha christmas #yaoyorozu momo #yaoyorozu x reader #yaomomo #yaomomo fluff #sero hanta x reader #sero fluff #sero hanta #sero x reader #bnha endeavor #endeavor x reader #enji todoroki #enji x reader #todoroki x reader #enji Todoroki x reader #bnha fluff #enji fluff #????

[jaybear1701]

Scylla's so engrossed in the latest issue of the American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology that she doesn’t notice Tally enter her office until she plops herself in a seat on the other side of her desk.

“Good morning!” Tally greets.

“Morning.” Scylla smiles, closing the journal. “You’re up bright and early.”

“Couldn’t sleep. I think we might have a break in the Windpipe murders,” Tally waves a manila folder and Scylla grits her teeth that Raelle’s anatomically incorrect nickname is spreading. Even the news media has picked it up in their coverage, much to Scylla’s chagrin. “Thought maybe Raelle would be down here so I could share the news.” 

Scylla's brows knit together. "Why would she be down here?"

“Because you’re practically joined at the hip,” Tally says matter-of-factly, like, duh.

The blaze on Scylla’s cheeks spreads fast and fierce. “T-that’s not,” she stutters. “We’re not joined at the hip.”

“That’s not what Sergeant Quartermaine says.” Tally shrugs. “Or Abigail. Or Dr. L’Amara. Should I go on?”

And because Raelle has the worst timing in the whole world, that’s when she decides to stroll into Scylla’s office, bright and fresh, carrying two cups of coffee. Because of course.

“Morning, Doc,” Raelle sets one cup down in front of Scylla as Tally lifts one, wholly amused eyebrow. “Tally, this is an unexpected surprise.”

“Wish I could say the same.” Tally smirks. Scylla wishes she could just disappear from this conversation.

“Wha?” Raelle looks confused as she sits next to Tally. 

“Nothing.” Tally eyes Scylla’s cup of shame before pouting at Raelle. “Hey, why don’t you ever bring me coffee?”

“One, you’re usually not in until later.” Raelle ticks off the points with her fingers. “Two, I know Gerit always makes you a snooty pourover, anyway. And, three, well I can’t think of a three. But you can have mine, if you’d like.”

Raelle offers her coffee to Tally, who shakes her head dramatically. “No, it’s fine if you like Scylla more.” Tally winks at Scylla, while Raelle flushes. “Besides, I’ll only stay long enough to share my news so you both can get back to your little coffee date.”

Raelle and Scylla both avoid making eye contact with each other, but neither corrects Tally’s assumption. Scylla’s pulse flutters as she reaches out for her coffee and takes a small sip. Kona, no cream, one sugar. Just like she likes it.

“So,” Raelle clears her throat. “What do you have?”

Tally scoots to the edge of her seat. "How much do you guys know about the history of Salem?"

“Honestly? Not much.” Scylla shrugs. “Which is sad given that my family apparently came over with the early settlers.” 

“Really!” Tally’s brows shoot up. “Let’s put a pin in that for now. How about the Salem Witch Trials?”

"The basics, really. I'm no expert." Scylla’s not sure where Tally’s going with this line of questioning, and neither does Raelle.

“What’s this have to do with the case, Tal?” Raelle asks.

Tally raises a finger. "Patience, my dear Collar. Patience. As you may recall, one of the first victims was Constance Treefine. Another, Benjamin Saint. And yet another was Kendall Swythe."  

"All High Atlantics," Raelle taps the lid of her cup. “Bells and I already questioned their families. Nothing but dead ends.”

Tally nods. "Right, but maybe you're talking to the wrong people. Those tattoos on the victims? They're sigils. Of demons." She pulls out a sheet of paper, and hands it to Scylla. Sure enough, it depicts the markings Scylla found on the bodies. 

"So you're saying, what?" Raelle asks when she gets the paper, tilting her head and flipping the paper.

"What if the killer is targeting people they think are 'evil' in some way. Like those rumored to be descended from the original Salem Witches. People like the High Atlantics." 

It's a common enough tall tale in Salem. One that even Scylla remembers from her time growing up in town, though she always suspected it was a myth perpetuated by High Atlantics themselves to enhance their own prestige. 

"But other victims weren't High Atlantics," Scylla points out.

"Also true! But, on a hunch, I ran a search and all of them are members of the Associated Daughters and Sons of Early American Witches. The name speaks for itself.” Tally pulls out yet another paper from her folder. This time it appears to be a roster, which she passes to Raelle.

Raelle squints at the list. "You're saying the killer is, what, some kind of witch...hunter?"

"I know it sounds crazy, but we're clearly not dealing with a sane person right now," Tally says. "This could be the key we need to find a common thread about who they’ve interacted with.”

“Like someone with access to potent chemicals,” Scylla says, impressed.

“Exactly!” Tally beams.

"This is incredible, Tal." Raelle hands the paper back and pulls out her phone. “I can’t wait to tell Bellweather.”

“I thought she was off today because she had a thing for her cousin’s wedding.”

“She does,” Raelle types out a quick text. “But she’ll want to know about this.”

“You know what we should do?” Tally’s eyes are round, excitement rolling off her in waves. “We should go out to celebrate this weekend.”

“Celebrate what?” Raelle asks. “We haven’t caught the asshole yet.”

“Celebrate our hard work,” Tally explains as if she’s talking to a child. “Boost morale. You know, rah-rah interdepartmental unity! What do you say?”

Raelle fidgets in her chair. “I mean, I’m game if Ramshorn’s in.”

They both turn to look at Scylla--Raelle cautiously optimistic, Tally openly hopeful and expectant. Scylla knows she should say no. But Tally's enthusiasm is utterly contagious, and her heart answers for her.

“Sure.”

***

The pizza parlor is packed by the time Scylla arrives, the air teeming with conversation and the mouthwatering aroma of baked dough, tomato sauce, and cheese. Scylla nervously tucks her hands in her skinny jeans, worrying that perhaps she spent too much time on her makeup and hair and would look like she was trying too hard… and then feeling annoyed at herself for worrying in the first place. It’s just dinner with co-workers. No big deal.

She sees Raelle waving in the distance, beckoning her to a booth tucked in a relatively secluded corner of the restaurant.

 "Glad you made it, Doc.” Raelle smiles, as attractive in casual jeans and a navy flannel shirt as she is in her work suits. “I wasn't sure you'd show up."

The truth is, Scylla almost backed out. Had even dreamed up a fairly plausible excuse to back out. But it’s been several days since she last saw Raelle and, the truth is, Scylla might have missed her. Just a bit. 

“Wouldn’t miss it,” Scylla says as she slips out of her black leather jacket and hangs it on a nearby hook. She feels the heat of Raelle’s azure gaze skimming down the length of her outfit, and Scylla’s secretly pleased she chose to wear her favorite blouse, the one that clings to her curves just right. 

“The others should be here soon." Raelle averts her eyes and polishes off the last bit of beer in her glass. 

Their waitress, a pretty brunette with green eyes, slides up to the table and sets down a basket of breadsticks and a couple of saucers.  “Can I get you another, miss? And something for your girlfriend?” She winks at Scylla.

“Oh.” Raelle’s eyes widen. “Um, we’re not…”

“I’d love a Pinot Grigio, if you have one,” Scylla answers smoothly. The way Raelle’s mouth drops open makes the fib worth it.

“Coming right up!” The server whisks away Raelle’s empty glass and goes to get the rest of their order.

“Sometimes it’s just easier to let people assume,” Scylla says off Raelle’s questioning look.

“Fair game.” Raelle bobs her head. “Well, as your presumed girlfriend for the night, can I say how nice you look?”

“Why, thank you,” Scylla says, appreciating how Raelle’s shirt brings out the blue in her eyes. “You don’t look half bad yourself, Detective.”

“Now, none of that.” Raelle wags a finger. “We’re both off-duty. It’s Raelle or else I’m fake breaking up with you.”

“Okay,” Scylla acquiesces. “Raelle.”

The pleased smile that stretches across Raelle’s face makes Scylla’s stomach swoop.

A cell phone buzzes, and Raelle fishes it from her pocket. “Sorry.” The corners of her lips turn downward. “Tally says she can’t make it. Something came up with her boyfriend, Gerit. And…” Her frown deepens. “Looks like Abigail’s stuck picking out bridesmaid dresses with her cousin.” She glances up at Scylla. “I know what this looks like, but I swear I didn’t plan this.”

Scylla chuckles, even as her heart rate speeds up. “I didn’t say anything.”

So it’s just her and Raelle. Alone. Having dinner. As if on cue, the restaurant dims its lights for the dinner crowd, and they both nervously laugh. 

“So,” Scylla says, racking her brain for something to say that can distract them from the sudden awkwardness that descends on them.

“So.”

"You guys have been busy lately.” Work is always a safe subject, Scylla thinks as she picks up a bottle of olive oil from the table and pours some on her saucer. She tears a small chunk off one of the breadsticks, dips it into the oil, and eats it. It’s soft, garlicky, and deliciously savory, and Scylla nearly moans. 

Raelle tears her eyes from Scylla’s lips and helps herself to the bread, too. "Yeah, we’ve been trying to chase down the leads from Tally’s research. Think we're making headway in the case."

"That's terrific."

“After that robbery, I think Quartermaine will have my ass if we don’t solve the case soon.” Raelle takes a big bite out of a bread stick.

“Probably.” Scylla nods. “Anacostia is nothing if not results-driven. Demanding, but fair.” She takes a deep breath, willing to take a chance with Raelle. “It’s what makes her a great mom.”

Raelle practically chokes, coughing so hard that Scylla wonders if she should start performing the Heimlich maneuver. But the server rushes over to give her a glass of water. “Mom?” She asks after she gulps some water down. “Quartermaine doesn’t have kids.”

Scylla bites her lip. “She was my court-appointed guardian, after my parents died in a car accident.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” Scylla shakes her head. “She kept me out of a lot of trouble back then. Reminded me to hold on to the good in life, and set me down the right path. And when the guardianship ended, she still watched over me, even when she didn’t have to.”

“That’s um…” Raelle frowns, a mixture of shock and a bit of trepidation flashing across her face, cogs cranking at the realization of what she’s done with the woman who’s like a daughter to her superior officer. “That’s… wow.”  

The server returns with their drinks, and Raelle chugs down nearly half her beer. Scylla can’t help but laugh.

“I’m glad this is so amusing for you.” Raelle swipes at her mouth with a cloth napkin. “Got any other bombs you’d like to drop on me?”

“Maybe.” Scylla grins mischievously. “The night’s still young.”

***

Maybe it’s the buzz from the wine, or the comfort of good food and even better company, but Scylla can’t say no to Raelle when she suggests they take a walk together. It’s the perfect fall evening, with just the right amount of nip in the air. They take their time wandering until they reach the waterfront, where ambient light from old street lamps and restaurants glint off the dark waves of the harbor. 

“So, you’re from Salem?” Raelle asks as they stroll side-by-side, close enough that their shoulders brush on occasion. 

“Born and raised,” Scylla confirms. “After my parents passed, I decided to go to Johns Hopkins and never looked back. Apart from Anacostia, there were just too many painful memories here.”

“I get that.” Raelle hooks her thumbs in her pockets. “It’s part of the reason I left Cherokee after my mom died.”

Scylla’s chest aches in sympathy. “What happened, if you don’t mind me asking?” 

“Not at all.” Raelle takes a deep breath. “She was in the military. A combat medic. Served two tours only to be taken out because she tried to help a convenience store clerk being robbed at gunpoint. Rotten luck, huh?”

Without thinking, Scylla takes Raelle’s hand and gives it a gentle squeeze. “She was very brave.”

“Yeah.” Raelle smiles sadly.

“You take after her,” Scylla doesn’t let go of Raelle’s hand, and it feels like the most natural thing in the world. 

Raelle shrugs. “I try my best.” Her thumb brushes the back of Scylla’s hand, and that light touch is enough to spark a shiver down Scylla’s spine. They turn down one of the older piers. The wooden planks creak beneath their feet. They let each other go when they can’t walk any farther. It’s darker further out on the water, but Raelle’s blonde hair seems to glow in the moonlight.

“Scylla?” Raelle asks.

“Hm?”

“Are we… ever going to talk about it?” Raelle’s voice is quiet, unsure, so unlike her usual cocksure bravado.

Of course, Scylla knows exactly what Raelle’s talking about. It’s been hanging over them for months now, unacknowledged and unsaid. She supposes this conversation is inevitable, no matter how badly she’d rather avoid it.

“I honestly don’t know what to say,” Scylla says. “That night, I was trying to, I don’t know, live a little. In the spur of the moment. It’s not something I’m used to doing.”

“Me neither.” Off Scylla’s incredulous look, Raelle adds, “Look, I know there are lots of rumors about me. But they’re not true.” 

“So you don’t have all-nighters?” Scylla tries not to sound jealous. 

Raelle laughs softly. “That’s not what you think it means.”

“Then enlighten me.” Scylla crosses her arms.

“Sometimes the other detectives need someone to cover a stake out for them. And I volunteer in exchange for little favors.”

“What kind of favors?”

“Oh,” Raelle half shrugs. “Like, finding out someone’s favorite coffee order, for example.”

That’s the last thing she expects Raelle to say and, embarrassed, Scylla scuffs her shoe against the pier. “I see.”

“I didn’t think I’d see you again.” Raelle takes a step closer. “And then you show up at a crime scene, no less. And I thought, maybe it’s fate.”

“I don’t believe in fate,” Scylla says, weakly.

“I didn’t either,” Raelle admits. “Until I met you.”

Scylla’s heart throbs against her ribs. “Raelle…”

“Look, I know you don’t date co-workers. And I respect that, but I just want you to know that night wasn’t just some notch in my belt for me. It was special. You’re special. And I…” 

Scylla surges forward and captures the rest of Raelle’s words with her lips. A beat passes and Raelle places her hands on Scylla’s hips to pull her closer. The kiss deepens and it’s as dizzying as Scylla remembers, like the ground has fallen out from beneath them and they’re free-floating in zero gravity. She clutches at Raelle’s shoulders, the flannel soft beneath her fingertips. When Raelle’s tongue traces her bottom lip, Scylla gasps from the frisson of electricity that jolts through her. It’s too much. Too intense. And she has to take a step back and out of Raelle’s arms. 

“Sorry,” Raelle murmurs, eyes glazed but concerned . 

Scylla shakes her head.”No, I’m sorry.”  It’s hard to catch her breath, and she already misses Raelle’s warmth. “I think about that night. Of course, I do. And I panicked that morning and left. I didn’t expect to see you again, either, or that you’d be… you.” She licks her still-tingling lips. “What I’m trying to say is, I’m not very good at letting people in. But you? You make me want to try.” 

Raelle reaches out and cups Scylla’s face with one hand. “There’s no rush.” Her thumb caresses her cheek, and Scylla leans into her palm, eyes closing. “Take as much time as you need. I’m not going anywhere.”

***

Raelle drives Scylla home to her apartment building, and it takes all of Scylla’s willpower to stop herself from pulling Raelle inside right then and there, caution be damned. But Raelle’s a true southern gentlewoman and leans over to give Scylla a goodnight peck on the cheek, making sure she’s safely inside before heading home. 

***

Tally calls her the next morning, awfully curious to know how dinner went. Scylla can practically feel Tally’s glee over the line. 

“I told you, Tally, it was fine,” Scylla says as she presses the phone to her ear. “Just a quiet dinner between colleagues.”

“That’s it?” Tally’s disappointment is palpable.

“That’s it.” Scylla feels bad about lying, but she wants to keep whatever she has with Raelle to herself, for now. It’s too new. Too uncertain. A sprout that needs cultivation and shelter. Her cell beeps from a text as Tally begins to talk about Gerit.

Scylla's heart stops when she reads it.

Raelle Collar: I can’t stop thinking about you.

Affection fills her chest, fuzzy and warm. She types back: I miss you, too. 

***

At work, nothing really changes. On the surface, their normal routine continues and they keep things strictly professional. Raelle drops off a coffee every morning, and Scylla updates the detectives with new autopsy findings when she has them. And, in the rare moments they’re alone, they steal heated kisses that Scylla can feel all the way down to her toes.

Raelle is true to her word, and doesn’t push Scylla for any more than she’s ready to give. They can’t quite say they’re dating, when they have no time to actually go on any. But their pace suits Scylla just fine. Slow and steady.

And their colleagues are none the wiser. Except for Anacostia, who comments at their next lunch, “Something’s different about you. You’re...glowing.”

“I did use a new shampoo recently.” Scylla deflects and flips her hair. “Maybe that’s it?”

Anacostia narrows her eyes. “No, that’s not it.” She spears a piece of kale from her salad. “Collar’s been different lately, too. Calmer. More focused.”

“What does that have to do with me?” 

Humming, Anacostia chews thoughtfully. “What indeed.” 

***

Eventually, Abigail calls Scylla into a meeting with Tally and Raelle. They sit around a table in a small meeting room that’s been serving as the command hub for the Windpipe Killer case. Photographs of the victims are taped to multiple white boards that line the walls of the room, with various bits of evidence, timelines, and potential leads are scribbled in blue dry erase marker. 

Abigail nods at Scylla when she enters, Tally waves her hand excitedly, and Raelle gives her a small secret smile that makes Scylla’s heart skip a beat. 

“How can I help you, ladies?” Scylla joins them at a conference table littered with notes, three venti-sized coffee cups, and half-eaten boxes of Chinese takeout.

“Remember when you told me your family helped settle Salem?” Tally asks, typing furiously on her laptop keyboard.

“Sure,” Scylla says. 

“And did you know that one of your ancestors was accused of witchcraft?” Tally looks up, her brown eyes wide. 

Scylla can’t help but laugh. “What?”

Tally swivels her computer screen toward Scylla. It shows lists of names and several family trees. “From your mother’s side, I traced your genealogy to Sarah Cloyce, who was accused but never indicted by a grand jury during the Witch Trials.”

“We’re working on a theory that the killer, whoever he or she may be, is targeting the ancestors of women and men suspected of witchcraft,” Abigail says.

“Right,” Scylla nods. “Tally mentioned that before.”

Tally snaps her fingers. “Yes, but not just any ancestors. The ones who were accused, but either escaped, were pardoned, or were never indicted.” 

“All the victims fit the profile,” Abigail stands and walks toward one of the whiteboards, scrutinizing the picture of Kendall Swythe.

“Okay,” Scylla says. “So you’re saying the killer is, what, trying to finish the job?”

“Bingo,” Raelle finally speaks up. “I knew you were a sharp one, Doc.”

Scylla shakes her head. “Am I in danger of some sort?”

“No,” Raelle quickly reassures her. “Not at all. Unless you’re secretly a member of a Salem witch society. It’s the one common thread we’ve found among all the victims.” She pauses. “Are you?”

“Of course not,” Scylla frowns. “Then why are you telling me this?”

Abigail turns back around, hands held behind her back. “If the killer is among them, we don’t want to tip them off by questioning folks. We need someone to join that group and be our eyes. Someone who can prove their lineage.”

“Who isn’t from a family of well-known law enforcement officials,” Tally inclines her head toward Abigail.

“You don’t have to decide right away,” Raelle says. “But obviously I’d keep you,” she clears her throat and Abigail rolls her eyes. “We’d keep you safe until we catch this son of a bitch.”

Scylla doesn’t even hesitate. “I’ll do it.”

Raelle blinks in surprise. “Are you sure? If you need some time to think it over...”

“No.” Scylla locks eyes with Raelle. “I’m in.”

#raylla #motherland fort salem #mfsweek #raelle collar #scylla ramshorn #non-magic au

[ichigo777666]

FE3H Characters Ranked

My opinions of all the main characters in FE3H ranked from worst to best in my opinion. These are MY opinions! Spoilers ahead, obviously.

*NOTES*

This does not include any of the DLC characters. This also does not include the following characters since they have limited dialog / appearances within the game: Gwendal, Pallardo, Duke Aegir, Anna, Lambert, Ionious, Metodey, Kostas, Holst, Macuil, and Indech. Any other characters who are only mentioned by name are also not included. And Byleth is also not on this list due to being the player’s character.

Everyone else included in this list has a few interactions or mentions in multiple ending paths so they’re fair game. Not having a lot of interactions is not going to affect placement that much so don’t be surprised if some major characters wind up low on the list…

*The PIT*

Aka the worst of the worst. The characters I would throw into the void.

#54 – Leonie

I absolutely hate this character so much. Her personality is so flat and grating that she drives me up a wall. Her character can be summed up in two words “loves Jeralt” – that’s it. Just about everything about Leonie revolves around impressing Jeralt or being like Jeralt or doing this because of Jeralt ect. I don’t care if she’s useful as a playable character – every time she opens her mouth I cringe. Her support which is only available after Jeralt dies in which she berates you for “not appreciating him enough” is just the epitomny of selfishness. Then PTS she basically turns herself into a second Jeralt, replicting his outfit as best she can and giving herself his title “the blade breaker” and adds a 2. Excuse you, but is ANYONE can call themseleves that it’s Byleth, aka Jeralt’s child, not YOU. But she doesn’t care and does it anyway...

#53 – Rodrigue

Oh boy this is going to be a very unpopular opinion but in terms of a character, Rodrigue is kind shit. Rodrigue earns this spot for being the shittiest living parent in the game. His eldest son Glenn dies and his comment on that is how “he died like a true knight”. His first emotional response is pride not remorse. He never mentions how much he loved him or how he misses him: just how proud he was of him… And this pisses off poor Felix. Felix whom gets left ALONE after this happens because Rodrigue decides he’s got to be Dimitri’s mentor / guardian. So he basically straight up abandons his grieving 13 year old son to be the new father figure of the prince. Dimitri was more important to him that his own child. We can all see what the impact of this was on Felix through the game. And then, in Azure Sky, when Rodrigue joins you as a “mentor” character, he lacks all balls. Dimitri is going crazy and acting like a psychopath and Rodrigue doesn’t even really try to do anything about that – he just stands aside and comments on how he’s “changed”. I mean FRICK MAN – your were his guardian, his mentor. TALK TO HIM! But NOOOOOOO! So yeah, Rodrigue sucks!

#52 – Lord Lonato

Speaking of shit parents, here’s another for you! Yes, Lonato was kind enough to allow Ashe and his siblings to live with him, which is the oddest decision ever considering this came about after Lonato caught Ashe sneaking into his castle to steal from him. “I’ll just adopt this thief child”. Despite that act of kindness, he also chose to not tell Ashe the truth about what happened to his son Christophe; that Christophe was not involve with the Duscar incident but rather had been a part of a plot to try and kill Rhea. Lonato could not bring himself to believe that his son was wrong or had done anything wrong. Despite the fact that his son had decided, for whatever reason, to try and kill someone, Lonato thought that this was okay. He then sacrificed himself for the sake of trying to avenge his true son instead of continuing to care for the children he’d taken in. He basically took Ashe & his siblings in, giving them security for the first time in years, then chooses to follow his only wrong beliefs and thus put Ashe & his siblings back into the world again. He gave them 7 years of security and this just went “oh well, you’re on your own again”.

#51 – Gilbert /  Gustave

And rounding out the “shit parents” section of the list, we have the father that literally abandons his daughter and wife due to own depression. He’s totally alive and out there but just can’t bring himself to give a crap about either or write them any letters. Nope, he’s caught up in his head that he wasn’t there during the tragedy of Duscar, of how he “should have arrived sooner”. I mean, really? It is in now way his fault just because he’s a knight. He wasn’t supposed to be there and he’s got guilt that he wasn’t there? Seriously man?! And then when he finally does reunite with Annette all he does is push her away. Instead of letting Annette decide whatever she wants to be around him again, he chooses for her and denies her attempts to reconnect with him. Yeah, shit father…

*The Bottom of the Barrel*

These characters are bad. They’re not absolute utter garbage like the PIT characters, but they still are awful.

#50 – Dimitri

Yeah, I don’t like Dimitri. What is there to like about this guy? He was traumatized as a teenage when his dad was killed in-front of him and that changed him into a survival-guilt ridden bloodthirsty killer? Jeez, it honestly feels like someone tried to ft a whole bunch of tropes into one cohesive character and failed massively. The whole “brooding” phase in Azure Sky where he’s basically a tantrum throwing 5 year old only makes him worse. Also, I still don’t understand WHY he immediately jumped to the whole “Edelgard is the one who killed my parents” conclusion. The entire Duscar incident had nothing to do with Edelgard, unless Dimitri thinks a teenager with no power could do that. And, if he’s blaming the Empire, why does that extend to Edelgard who was just a princess at the time? I could see if something like the FE was present and that’s why he went crazy after Edelgard but I’m pretty sure the FE didn’t exist back then… so WTF? This is like “my parents were killed by a drunk driver. Hey you, unrelated person who just learned to drive this year, you are drunk therefore I HATE YOU – you killed my parents!” Really, no. NO.

#49 – Acheron

He has a minor role only but you fight him twice and you can get some background from Lorenz. He’s annoying and I guess he’s designed to be so. I don’t like him much. But he’s not as annoying as Dimitri.

#48 – Cyril

Oh Cyril. He’s such an annoying character. He’s a more toned down version of Leonie with his obsession with Rhea. He’s a bit of a jerk during his support conversations and he’s dismissive of his homeland. I think his supports with Seteth best show what Cyril’s all about: he’s devoting himself to repaying Rhea without thought for anything else, even his own future. He has no ambitions and no desires….how can a character be so bland?

#47 – Hannerman

And the obsessive one. ‘Obsession with Crests’ is just the only phrase you need to describe Hannerman. While I can understand why Hannerman as a character wants to research crests, the way he goes about it is just wrong. He hounds Lysithia w/o realizing why she’s avoiding his questions until she basically has to spell out WHY she’s uncomfortable with talking about it. He’s been hounding Seteth for 21 years about his crest and Flayn’s too. 21 fricking years of bothering someone and he can’t understand the answer “no”.

#46 – Arundel

Yeah, he’s a piece of shit but at least he’s interesting. He’s Edelgard’s uncle and yet he basically allowed her to be experimented on. Why? Who knows? He’s associated with TWSITD but why? Power? Conquest? He’s mysterious. His personality “suddenly changed” leaving the option open that he was replaced and the Arundel that exists now is a fake. He’s intriguing but he’s still a piece of crap.

#45 – Dedue

Oh Dedue. I feel like Dedue is stuck playing the “victim” card but without looking for sympathy. He’s from Duscar so everyone looks down on him...and Dedue just takes it. He doesn’t try to defend himself or say that just because he’s from Duscar doesn’t mean he’s evil. He does nothing to try and change anyone’s opinions – he’s content to just sit and take it. But then he talks about wanting to have the world move past the tragedy….so which is it Dedue? In order to have it change, you need to actually DO SOMETHING!!!!

#44 – Thales

The weakest character of the main three. The game tells you almost nothing about Thales...and then you go and read the wiki and find out he’s Arundel….yeah mind telling us that game?! So he’s higher than Arundel.

#43 – Nemesis

Another evil character with no personality or real background. Why did he start his rampage? Was he manipulated or just evil? Who knows….

#42 – Judith

Judith has such a small role unless you’re playing VW. And in VW she’s a bit of a bitch who treats Claude as a misbehaving child even after he proves himself again and again.

#41 – Nader

AKA the Alymrian general you meet briefly in VW and in CF. He’s in for less than a few minutes and he appears to be jolly/happy and has the rep of being an undefeated general. I guess he’s alright. But with no real role I can’t bring myself to feel anything for him

#40 – Annette

When I first played I was on the fence with Annette. I sorta liked her determination and her drive to reunite her family. But then her singing started...and oh boy do I hate her singing. So many of her supports center around that annoying singing! Just STOP already, please! Also WTF is that blue “tab” in her PTS redesign that’s right on her butt? It’s the only one...

#39 – Ferdinand

Ferdinand’s personality is just...annoying. From his meme’d battle line to his constant talk of “being a noble” he just grates my nerves. And why does he act like this? Because his father is not and he’s trying to not be like his father and be a “good person”….

*The Low-End*

These characters are “eh” characters. They’re aren’t too good or too bad...but they lean more towards bad than good.

#38 – Kronya / Monica

This was an interesting idea. I just wish she had been more involved or usable. Like if you’re playing BE house, she becomes a playable member. Something to endear her a bit more other than “this other random character you rescued who acts suspiciously”. Let’s face it, we all knew something was up with her. And then she’s killed off so easily and quickly...

#37 – Cornelia

Okay, she’s a bit interesting and a manipulator. They weren’t afraid to give her an “ugly face”. She’s a schemer and not afraid to flaunt her assets to give her an advantage.

#36 – Alois

Eh. Alois. Loves jokes, very loyal. I guess he’s alright but he’s not spectacular and some of the jokes and just so so so so so so bad.

#35 – Ashe

Ashe is another character that I think lacked development. I mean he just gained a slight bit of confidence and purpose but he’s not one for much change. His personality over all is a bit bland: he likes stories about knights and is worried about his siblings. Oh and he used to be a thief.

#34 – Jeritza

Bland because he’s meant to be bland. His other personality is typical “killer knight”. What saves Jeritza is his support conversations where you get background and you realize why he’s the way he is.

*The Middle Ground*

These characters are right in the middle. Not great but not awful.

#33 – Ladislava

In every ending except CF, you only get to see her once but in CF you can chat with her and learn more about her. She’s the head of Edelgard’s person guard and its heavily implied she had next to nothing before this appointment. She’s fully loyal to Edelgard, even willing to die for her cause.

#32 – Flame Emperor

I listed this character separate since FE is an enigma. I actually liked the design of the FE and the whole mystery surrounding them.

#31 – Manuela

I’m...ambivalent about Manuela. She’s a drunken whiner at time and other time she turns into something sweet and reliable. She’s so worried about her age but she’s NOT that old. It’s a bit trope-y though...to have an older character all concerned about her age.

#30 – Jeralt

Jeralt’s a good dad character albeit a flawed one too. It’s a shame they didn’t give him any support conversations to flesh him out more. As it is most of what we learn about Jeralt comes from others.

#29 – Sothis

I don’t hate Sothis like most. She’s a bit bratty, yes but look at from her way – she’s got no memories, no recollections, and has found herself somehow stuck with this person. She tries to help out Byleth best she can, even if it sometimes leads to near disaster.

#28 – Gatekeeper

A nice wholesome character who always wants to help out and be useful. He’s a nice guy but suffers from lack of characterization.

#27 – Mercedes

First off, I dislike the “breathy” quality of her voice. She’s a very nice girl and very kind...but that’s about all there is to Mercedes...

#26 – Raphael

Ah, the big guy who loves to eat. He’s overprotective but not too overprotective of his little sister. He’s strong, interested in his muscles, and in getting stronger but it’s because he’s shouldering the responsible of taking care of his sister. Still he’s a bit trope-y.

#25 – Lindhardt

Lindhardt make up your dang mind! He talks about wanting to study crests but when he’s offered by two separate people to do just that he complains about how he’s being “tied down”. Really? His laziness and sleepiness also gets tired after a while.

#24 – Ignatz

Ignatz is a character who shows a lot of growth and goes from having no confidence in what he wants to do to finding his path. However Ignatz remains a pushover who gives in to whatever anyone advises even when he knows its wrong. It takes a long, long, long time for Ignatz to learn to have any say in himself...which is why he’s down here.

#23 – Solon

The most developed of the three main TWSITD characters. I feel his reveal as Tomas was ruined by the poorly executed Monica / Kronya earlier. However he was unexpected. Who expects the librarian? It would have been better if they didn’t have him as “suspect” in the whole Flayn is missing part through.

#22 – Randolph

You only really get to know Randolph in CF although he’s got a minor part in AS where we see that he truly cares for his sister and how he feels he must do this, even if he risks dying. In CF, we get to learn more about Randolph. He’s actually a step-uncle to Caspar through his mother marrying into the family. He has no power or clout so everything he earns is done by action. It’s a shame they killed him off so early.

#21 – Caspar

Caspar is a good character in several ways. He’s not depressed about not being the heir to his house and is motivated to find his own way. He knows he’s flawed and in his supports he tries to change only to learn that he’s better off following his own path. It’s his boisterous yelling and charging headfirst into danger is what I don’t like about him.

*The High Side*

These are characters I like. They’re not the best but I like them and can understand them.

#20 – Hilda

Ah Hilda. Hilda’s one of those characters that surprise you. Hilda starts off being this lazy character who doesn’t want to battle and doesn’t want to do chores. Not because she can’t do them, but just because she’s lazy. You see her trying to get out of things in her supports only to either feel guilty or wind up helping someone learn something. But I think where Hilda shines is in VW where she acts as Claude’s “advisor” and some of Claude’s best plans come from suggestions from Hilda. By then she’s come into her own. I also enjoy Hilda’s C support with Seteth greatly where he just lists all the excuses she’s given flat out as Hilda gets more and more nervous.

#19 – Claude

Claude made it up here due to his unprediacbility. Some of his plots/schemes are downright hillarious. Claude is unashamed of who he is and where he comes from – he knows who he is and who he wants to become. And, in a game riddled with characters who struggle with that very issues, Claude’s a bit of a breath of fresh air.

#18 – Fleche

Ah Fleche. She’s a very minor character but she’s got such an impact on the story in AM – this is what path we’re going to discuss. We first meet Fleche when she’s talking with Randolph, her brother, right before Randolph heads out on a mission that will ultimately end with his death. Instead of doing the typical thing for a young girl which is to cry, Fleche goes ‘nah’ and decides to take revenge. She disguises herself as a “maiden” and goes to try and join the Kingdom Army; she’s allowed to by Dimitri. Fleche bides her time and waits until after a big battle and then straight up goes and tries to murder Dimitri. She actually stabs him once and barely fails in her task of killing him. Against Dimitri, one of the strongest characters... a little girl.. Yeah, Fleche is kinda badass.

#17 – Miklan

Okay, so here’s another good sympathetic villain character. Miklan was born with no crest so he was looked down upon by his family. He was the first child however so his family kept him...at least until his brother Sylvain was born with a crest. Then Milan became “garbage” and useless in the eyes of his family and thus was disinherited. He lashed out against his brother multiple times. With no one on his side, Milkan became the leader of a group a bandits and began taking things he wanted, things he felt he should have had, by any means necessary. He later stole the heirloom lance from his family, intent of keeping it and its power for himself. While it’s true Miklan is not a nice person at all, more like a sadist, the reason he became that way was due the treatment of his family.

#16 – Dorothea

I am in the camp of the very few who like Dorothea’s second outfit better than her first – that dress is boss. Some of her supports are downright sweet and her interactions with Ingrid in their paralogue are just adorable. I love how we get to see so many different sides of Dorothea and how she treats each of her aquantinces with the side of herself that’s most appropiate.

#15 – Shamir

The silent Shamir. Unlike so many characters who talk and talk and talk, Shamir only speaks when necessary until she gets close to someone. Her skills are top-knotch, which is showcased in her supports. Her personality is a reflection of her work and the kind of jobs she does as well as her way of protecting herself. She’s mysterious and deadly.

#14 – Rhea

Oh Rhea. I’m often torn in the way I feel about her, going from understanding to becoming frustrated with her within the span of a single conversation. Her desire to see her mother is what drives everything she does – every single thing. She is 100% committed to trying to reach her goal, no matter the cost, and she’s been at it for almost an eon. Outside of that goal, what she’s doing she truly believes is the right thing. She’s trying to guide people towards the right path and away from conflict. She lets no one truly into her innermost thoughts, not even Seteth, and her emotions are all sequested away, so much so that when they do come out it becomes obvious. I mean, for anyone who thinks she’s nuts, let’s take a look at some of the trauma she’s gone through. Her beloved mother, whom she obviously cared for more than anything, was murdered and her body was used to make a weapon. Said weapon was then used to slaughter the vast majority of her brethern who were then in turn alos turned into weapons to be used to kill. She had to then fight the man who had killed her mother to reclaim what’s left of her body and to stop any more pointless killing. Yeah, Rhea’s had it rough.

#13 – Marianne

Ah, sweet Marianne. It was great to watch her change and grow based on her supports with the other characters. Her caring nature towards the animals, espcially the horses, was lovely – she even knows the names of a few of them (the only one to refer to the horses by name). I like how her PTS outfit reflects the changes she’s overcome – even the subtly of making her hair neater.

#12 – Catherine

Badass female knight with a legendary sword. She’s brash, not lady-like, and not afraid of anything really. The way she rushes into combat w/o a though for danger, the fact that she doesn’t try and hide her past from the person whom it affects the most, and her way of testing people. Catherine’s great.

#11 – Hubert

Juts missing the top 10 is loyal Hubert. I’ll admit I didn’t like Hubert at first but he grew on me bit by bit. Hubert’s S-Support with Byleth is like the cutest thing ever – I was not expecting it at all. This is loyalty done in a good way.

*The Summit*

The best characters in the game, IMO. These are the characters I love!

#10 – Petra

I got to admit, I like her not-perfect talking. That’s so much of Petra’s charm. Adding to that is how Petra’s always trying her best and trying to advance herself. She has modest goals she wishes to reach and doesn’t try and sell herself as better than she is. She’s always willing to learn and to help others. When there’s someone with a different opinion, Petra tries to understand why they feel the weay they feel and to try and find common ground.

#9 – Lysithia

Oh poor girl. Lysithia struggles with others seeing her as a child or too childish due to the fact that she’s younger than most of the students. She’s incredibly intellegent and throws herself into her studies. Both of these things lead to others teasing her, either playfully or actually. Instead of taking it stride, this ‘teasing’ causes her temper to show and erupt. She can’t tell them WHY she’s trying so hard, why she’s so desperate to achieve cause that would reveal her secret. She’s burrying all this hurt and anger deep inside that she can’t talk about because can understand what she went through (except perhaps Edelgard). And even though she knows she’s going to likely die soon, she’s not focused on her own life: she’s doing all she’s doing to try and help her family...

#8 – Sylvain

Sylvain quickly became one of my favorite blue lion boys. At first glance he looks like this degenerate womanizer...and then you learn abut him and why Sylvain is why he is. His father views him as a studhorse and that his crest is the only good thing about him; his father literally cannot see Sylvain as an actual person, just a way to further the family. Having a father like this and a brother who hates him for having been born with a crest has greatly shaped Sylvain. In order to have some semblence of himself, Sylvain began to act out, to do ANYTHING and EVERYTHING he could to not be what he was supposed to be. His father wanted a noble son; Sylvain did everything he could to not be that. This got him into trouble again and again but Sylvain didn’t care. Sylvain is willing to do things that make others look down upon him if it helps him try and escape from his life...

#7 – Bernadetta

Aw, Bernie. Bernie’s such a good girl. Based on what she went through, it’s amazing she’s even sane. Her father’s idea of parenting was tying her to a chair and forcing her to remain quiet and submissive for hours, to “teach her to be a good wife” which is the reason she turned into such a nervous wreck of shut-in. He resorted to beating to near death a boy she made friends with because he was a commoner, which terrified Bernie into not wanting to make friends at all. Bernie’s mom seemed to have a little sense and smuggled her out but this is only AFTER she allows this stuff to go on for years – YEARS. Bernie’s had years of psycological trama inflicted on her and then she gets thrust into a school surrounded by people whom she has to interact with. The poor thing. It’s a testament to her professors and friends to see how far Bernie has come; to watch her change and grow as she slowly comes around to adjusting to normality.

#6 – Ingrid

There is something incredibly entertaining about a lady knight who loves to gorge herself on food. Loving eating food is generally a character trait you see on guys (typically big guys like Raphael) so to see it on a chick is a good change of pace. Her whole no-nonsense strict attitude is a great contrast to that. She’s not girly or into very lady-like things such as dresses or makeup or tea parties. Ingrid is a guy’s soul in a girl’s body….and she’s amazing.

#5 – Felix

If you haven’t read the entry for Rodrigue (he’s #53 on this list) go read that first. After all that shit that Felix’s gone through, it’s amazing he’s even still standing and capable. He’s stewing with anger and grief that he’s never been able to work through and it manifests as anger and his stand-off attitude. Poor freaking Felix.

#4 – Flayn

Fishy Queen. I do not get the hate for Flayn. She’s been horribly oversheleted by Seteth in his attempts to protect her so it’s left Flayn a bit naive. Flayn’s usually very cheery and happy which is a bright light in the depressing war times. She’s also a quite capable mage, mainly with healing magic but she can also learn a good bit of reason magic too. Flayn is always trying her best while trying to fit in with the others – she’s over 1000 years old, mind you! It can’t be easy trying to fit in when you don’t understand and when a vast majorirty of those years were spent asleep. She was involved in an ancient battle where she was badly injured (Seteth blames it on her being too young) and requires sleep inorder to heal. Meanwhile everyone else she knew and lived with aside from Seteth was killed. She wakes up an everything she knew and just about everyone she knew is just...gone. Not only her beloved mother but any friends she had too are just gone. It’s no wonder she fears falling asleep when this is what happened. Her obession with fish? It’s Flayn’s coping mechanism for dealing with the loss of her mother. Flayn explains on numerous occassions that she spent lots of time sitting with her mother while she fished and that fish is her favorite food due “to no small part” of this pastime. Fishing and eating fish is Flayn’s way of remembering her mother and dealing with the fact that she’s no longer with her. Flayn’s supports are just great; they all develop her personality more. With Dimitri and Dedue, Flayn’s cooking is explored. Flayn can’t cook although she tries her best. With Dedue, Flayn tries to learn to cook better. With Dimitri, Flayn expresses her disdain that no one enjoys her cookings and how this wastes food, even when she tries her best. Obviously Flayn never cooked before – her mother did most of it. Now there’s no one in her family to cook so Flayn’s trying to learn to try and follow in her mom’s footsteps. With Ignatz and Manuela, Flayn’s exploring things she never has seen or done before: the opera for Manuela and paintings with Ignatz. In Claude’s and Lindhardt’s supports, Flayn sidesteps questions about her heritage and her crests. With Sylvain, we see how Flayn grows and learns to not trust the rumors others say. In Felix’s, she’s trying to help Felix find a purpose after the war ends that still allows him to use his sword. With Raphael’s it’s Flayn who’s being helped by Raphael as she tries to “grow stronger”; she even mentions how she’s frail and how this worries Seteth. And then there’s Ferdinand’s supports where it’s clear Flayn’s been starved of physical affections aside from Seteth. And their supports, between Seteth and Flayn, are a great progression between the two...Overall, I love little Flayn.

#3 – Lorenz

I like noble boy. I will admit, I hated his schooldays haircut with a burning passion...and then man on man did he become HOT pts. Winner of the best boy glow-up. A lot of Lorenz’s character flaws are the fault of his father. His father taught him that all that is important is being nobility and Lorenz ate it up, not knowing any better. His father instilled into him how he neeed to find a wife to further the family’s influence and thus how she must be a noble. This worked so well on Lorenz to the point that he willing to even give up someone he loves if they happen to be a commoner. Lorenz spends a lot of time trying to ‘interview’ girls to find his perfect noble bride, coming off as a bit on an ass – even when he’s confronted by Byleth he refuses to believe he’s done anything wrong since this is what his father taught him to do. It takes a long time until Lorenz starts seeing that he is wrong that what his father taught him is wrong. He starts using his own head and his own eyes to determine what is instead of using the opinion blasted into him by his father. He’s always trying to help other, feeling it’s his obligation as a noble to help those around him, which is a quality that he alone seems to take seriously (despite the school being filled with nobles). He originally dislikes Claude cause he believes that Claude isn’t taking his responsibility as the next Alliance head seriously since Claude is so laid back. He eventually comes to see that, despite appearances, Claude is working on the issues and is capable. His S support with Byleth where he mentions how he has "worked tirelessly to improve" "to become a man truly worthy of (Byleth)" and then is uttely shocked if Byleth tells him he already was worthy shows how dedicated he can be. With Ignatz, he instills confidence in him, seeing talent in Ignatz for art and talking about how there is more to knighthood than combat. His poetry writing comes out with Manuela’s supports and he convinces Hilda through actions to actually throw herself into battle. But I think his best supports are with Marianne. The vast majority of her supports are the others telling her to “be more confident” or “smile more” or other such things where they give her advice on how to improve...but Lorenz is the only one who comes to see that nothing needs to change. He starts by complementing her and then commenting on how she “needs polish” only to realize he was wrong and state she is “becautiful just the way she is”, accepting her fully for who she is without looking to change a thing. He is, essentially, telling her she is perfect the way she is and she doesn’t need to change at all for him to love her...which I find just so utterly sweet.

#2 – Edelgard

Edel gets a lot of hate but I honestly love her character so much. Edelgard is a doer not someone who sits by and does nothing. Due to things outside of her (and her father’s) control, she would up the victim in an experiment, a experiment that killed all of her siblings. Edelgard alone survived although at a cost. That experience forever changed her. Gone was the child and in her place rose Lady Edelgard. Unlike Lysithia who is dealing with her similar situation by trying to provide for her family before her time runs out, Edelgard isn’t. Her goal is the destruction of the circumstances that caused the experiment as well as those who caused the experiment to happen upon her so that this cannot happen again to anyone else. Since the experiment were done to give crests and since Edelgard has obviously seen how some children are treated whent hey have / do not have one, she aims to destroy all of that. Edelgard is literally stomping her foot down and saying ‘no, this isn’t a good or fair system and I’m not going to stand around and let it continue’. She’s willing to sacrifice everything to attain this goal, even if it turns her into a monster or ends in her death. Instead of waiting for the world to change, Edelgard decides to BE the change. She knows she’s going to be responsible for the deaths of a lot of people and she clearly struggles with the idea of this but in the end she decides that if she does nothing than that number will be greater so she persists. She burries her desire for friends and for love because she can’t bring herself to trust or rely on others – her father loved her but couldn’t protect her; the nobles in her father’s court are resonsible for hurting her too. They had her trust and they betrayed it. Her heart has been broken already; I don’t think she wants to risk it breaking again by trusting someone who will betray her, by making friends who can abandon her, by falling in love with someone who doesn’t understand what she’s doing. In CF when you side with Edelgard, you get to see more of that emotion slowly come out. Think on the PTS reunions: Dimitri was in disbelief and then apathetic that Byleth was alive; Claude was slightly surprised but then glad; Edelgard though broke down. Edelgard was the only one to get so emotional over Byleth’s return – someone she had trusted whom had returned that trust wasn’t dead after all; there wasn’t another corpse to add to the pile of people she cared for. And in that final animatic where Byleth falls – she’s clearly so upset. She’s crying, clearly devistated. Devistation which turns into laughter when Byleth revives because she can’t believe it. I stand by my opinion that Crimson Flower is the canon ending for FE3H. It’s the only ending where the endings song is different; all 3 other paths have the same song “Edge of Dawn” but not CF – you get something different. Add to that that EoD is sung by Edelgard. And let’s not forget the symbolism. The game is Fire Emblem. What’s a fire emblem? Crest of Flames. Who posess this crets out of the main cast: Byleth & Edelgard. And in CF you unite. Also notice the same letters. Crimson Flower (CF) & Crest of Flames (CF). That’s not a coincidence.

#1 – Seteth

I honestly could fill pages on why I love Seteth as a character but for here I’ll try and keep it shortish. I’ll start with his supports. Seteth’s supports are all about his advice to the others and him trying to guide them. For Cyril, he’s talking about how it’s great to repay debts but it is also important to consider one’s future as well; he doesn’t want to see Cyril just waste his whole life in servitude to Rhea but rather to grow into his own. With Catherine, it’s concern over her safety, over how she throws herself into battle without care for the consequences. For Manuela, it starts with a lecture over her drinking habits but turns into something far more personal when his wife and daughter get mentioned. Outside of the paralogue, this is the only time an outside person gets to learn that Seteth even had/has a wife and daughter and it’s Manuela who gets told it, implying a deeper friendship. Hannerman’s involves his investiagtion of Seteth’s crest and how Seteth is constantly refuting him, obviously trying to protect himself and Flayn from others finding out the truth. With Leonie, he teaches her how to relax while fishing while she improves his own skills in the area. For Hilda, he’s trying to improve her work ethic first by confronting her about her excuses, and then by writing a story about her laziness...which does work somewhat as it gets her to work on illustrations. For Ingrid, he’s a voice of reason about the demands of her father and he’s the one who suggests that Ingrid simply talk to him about her issues, something which she didn’t consider. For Felix, he’s trying to help Felix realize his beliefs are holding him back and that he needs to make friends. With Bernie, he helps her build some confidence in her own skills and talents. And of course we can’t forget his interactions with Flayn where he goes from overly protective, to realizing he’s a bit too overbearing, to actual apologizing for that. Seteth acts as a conduit or a spark that helps inspire change in those around him, to wake up potential, or to see things differently. He’s strict and often seems somewhat unreasonable about rules and regulations but its obvious this is his way of trying to protect people. He’s shouldering massive guilt over the events that happened in the last war. He personally blames himself for Flayn being hurt and for his wife dying. This event spurred him on to becoming overprotective of his daughter, of the only thing he had left. Seteth is doing what he’s doing to PROTECT his child (unwilling to see her to come to harm), even if he’s going about it in the incorrect way. He has literally devoted his whole life to protecting Flayn to the point that when she gets kidnapped, he falls apart at the seams and is unable to do anything at all except despair and distress. Flayn has become his whole world and just about everything Seteth does is to protect her or help her. That kind of devotion from a father is incredible, especially in a series where most of the parents kinda suck. I also adore how he breaks the typical “paper-skinned mage” trope. Let’s face it, most of us probably thought the stern chuch advisor was likely going to be a mage – and then we get a wyvern rider with a lance. I could go on and on, but I’ll leave it here. Seteth is just the best character.

...this was 18 pages of writing.....

[miss-writes-a-lot]

RWBY: Team HELL Volume 1, Chapter 6: Let The Game Begin!

As Harlow watched from his scroll as Lucio and the young Sunny Latorre made amends, he sighed, shaking his head. It was just like Lucio to get in his own head. He couldn't be too hard on him, however. He was genuinely trying to take this whole thing seriously and tried helping that Hemlock girl on the flight. But he still had a ton of growing up to do. Hopefully, Haven would help with that.

Leo Lionheart came by with his own scroll, sitting beside the tall man. "Seems to me that everything is going well with this batch of first years. Lucio especially seems to have improved since the entrance exam."

Harlow nodded, running his fingers through his hair. "Yeah, he's been doing pretty well these past couple of months. Been working really hard."

Leo nodded. "It shows."

"How are the others doing?"

The old headmaster sighed, showing him the live feed from the forest. "Well, it seems that our little silver eyes warrior has accidentally partner with Ms. Piscia. Ms. Azure and Ms. Tawny have partnered together, however Ms. Tawny doesn't seem to be all that happy about it and continues to run away. Other than that, things seem to be going smoothly-"

The doors to the hall opened and scared the absolute daylights out of Leo and slightly startling Harlow. They turned to see a young brunette man with glasses walking towards them with determination.

Harlow instantly recognized the figure and stood walking towards him.

"Where is she? She is here, right?" Cassum asked, getting up in Harlow's face.

"How did you get in here?" Harlow asked, "the guards should've stopped you at the entrance."

"Aurora's not the only one who's good at sneaking around. Now, answer the question. Where is she?"

"Harlow, do you know this man?" Leo asked, joining the two men.

"This is the guardian of Aurora Hemlock, Cassum. Cassum, this is Headmaster Leonard Lionheart." Harlow explained.

"You're dodging the question-I want to know where she is!"

"She's fine. She's already at the initiation point and proceeding on fine. We're monitoring her along with the rest of the students there."

Cassum breathed a sigh of relief, his defensive attitude disappear. "Good...that's all I needed to hear."

"Wait, are you trying to tell me you came all this way, snuck pass security, and trespassed onto school grounds just to check is she was okay?"

Cassum shrugged awkwardly. "What can I say? I'm sort of a helicopter parent. And she didn't exactly tell me she was coming here either, so I think I have some kind of right."

Harlow sighed. "I figured as much. Lucio told me you changed your mind."

"And you didn't believe him."

"Of course I didn't. From the way you freaked out when we were at the hospital told you were the stubborn time."

Cassum turned red in embarrassment, crossing his arms. "So you think you've got me all figured out, huh?"

"Mostly. Anyways, since you're here, you wanna watch the live feed with us? I would hate to have you come all the way out here for nothing-even though that was your original plan."

"Are you sure? I thought you would have to throw my ass out by now."

Harlow shrugged, smirking. "Doesn't makes sense to be making you walk all the way back home without giving you a show."

Cassum thought about it for a moment. At least this way, he could make sure that Aurora was safe throughout the initiation. "Sure, why not?"

Harlow walked him over to the bench, sitting down beside him. He pulled out his scroll and switched to the live feed of the forest, "we set some cameras and flew drones around the forest so we can ensure the safety of our students. We can switch the video feed from camera to camera."

"Okay..." Cassum said, glancing up at the lion faunus, "Mr. Lionheart, sorry for intruding and all of that, but I have to ask you something."

"Of course, Cassum. Anything."

He brought his head up, gripping his knees. "Harlow told you about Aurora's eyes, didn't he? He told you about...what she can do?"

The two men exchanged a glance. "Y-yes. Yes he did."

"That's why you wanted her here? To exploit her for her powers?" He asked, defensively.

"Mr. Hemlock, I can assure that is not our intent. We simply believe that we can help Aurora learn to control her powers so it does not cause her harm."

"Sorry sir, but I don't buy it one bit."

"You can trust him, Cassum. Believe it or not, there have been a lot of silver eyed warriors who have come and gone out of these halls and lived relatively normal lives. That is, until they all disappeared."

An unsettling feeling swirled in Cassum's stomach. He knew of the sudden disappearances of those who had silver eyes. He always feared that one dat, when his back was turned, whoever was kidnapping them would take Aurora too.

He shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I can't really trust you right now. Not until I know she's going to be safe."

Leo nodded in understanding. He could understand where Cassum was coming from, especially considering everything that has happen in the past four months.

"Hey, I found the footage with Aurora and-oh...oh man..."

"What? What is it?"

Cassum pulled the scroll towards him, his eyes going wide as he saw a cat faunus girl carrying an unconscious Aurora over his shoulder.

"W-what happened to her?!"

"Guess she didn't have a smooth landing from the plane down."

Cassum turned to the older huntsmen, his mouth open. "YOU DROPPED HER OUT OF A PLANE?!"

"Relax, she's alive! And Evelyn' a strong kid. She'll take care of her."

Cassum sighed, leaning back against the wall.

'This girl is going to kill me...'

----------

"...and then that dumbass cop tried to cop a feel, if you catch my drift and one thing led to another, and I punched him in the mouth!"

Aurora finally started coming to and she could tell she wasn't with Lucio. When she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was a magenta and purple stripped tail.

"A...tail?" She mumbled.

"Hey! You're awake-!"

"Gah!" Aurora jumped and fell out of the stranger's arms, scooting away from her.

"Hey! Hey! Where are you going?! I'm not gonna hurt you!" She exclaimed.

Aurora grabbed the earth beneath her, getting a good look at the person. She was a very tall and voluptuous girl with long platinum blond hair with her bangs and the tips of her hair dyed a light magenta color. She wore a tight magenta leather jacket, blue jeans, black fingerless gloves, and knee high magenta boots.

She was quite beautiful and also quite confused. Her hands were out and she was carefully making her way over to Aurora as if she was trying to calm down a scared dog. "Easy now. I'm not trying to hurt you. I just want to talk..."

"W-what happened? How did we get here?" She asked, still in a panicked state.

"You knocked into me and hit the ground pretty hard after you fell out of the plane. You were in and out for a while. This is the first time I've seen you awake."

Aurora blushed, twirling her ponytail in embarrassment. "S-sorry. I guess I lost control of my semblance half way down."

The faunus girl waved her off. "It's fine. Here, get up."

She grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet. "I guess I should introduce myself again. Name's Evelyn Piscia. Your partner."

Aurora dusted herself off, swaying awkwardly. "I'm Aurora. Aurora Hemlock. I guess I'm your team partner."

Evelyn chuckled. "Relax! Loosen up! If we're gonna be stuck with each other, you gotta relax!"

"Sorry-"

"And quit apologizing! There's nothing wrong with being a bit jittery."

The whole time she spoke she smiled, so Aurora could only guess that she wasn't trying to scold her. That managed to make her smile.

"There's that smile! Alrighty! Let's getting going and get to know each other."

"O-okay."

"So, where are you from?"

"Born and raised in Mistral. Around Argus. And you?"

"Vacuo. You know, the old dusty kingdom."

"I've never been to Vacuo. What's it like?"

"The only way I can describe as is hot as hell."

Aurora giggled. "Really?"

"Yeah. Haven't been there in years because it was just so damn hot!"

"I may soumd dumb for saying this, but I actually really want to go to Vacuo someday."

"Really?"

She nodded. "Yup! I wanna go to Atlas, and Vacuo, and Vale! Of course, there's still the rest of Haven to explore!"

Evelyn became confused. "Wait, what do you mean?"

"I, uh, haven't really left home all that much. I haven't really seen the outside all that much."

"What, have you been living under a rock for most of your life?"

"You...could say that."

Aurora looked down at her wrists, a smile forming on her lips. "Um, sorry, but can I...see your gauntlets?"

"Yeah, sure!"

Evelyn held out her arms, revealing her two magenta gauntlets. Aurora squealed excitedly as she grabbed her arm.

"Dual ranged shotgun gauntlets with-" she gasped once she got a closer look, "with retractable claws! This is so cool!"

Evelyn flashed a toothy grin. "Yup! These two are my prize possessions-Magenta Euphoria!"

Aurora looked up, "you named them?"

She nodded. "Yeah. Everybody names their weapons!"

Aurora looked down at her two dinky little guns, frowning. "My prototypes aren't really that good enough to have a cool name like that."

"Then what do you call them?"

"John and Jane Doe."

Evelyn stared for a moment before bursting out in laughter. "What?! You actually gave them names-like actual people names?! That's fucking hilarious."

Aurora smiled, joining in on her laughter.

This...this feels good. Really good.

"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!"

The two stopped, running in the direction of the screaming. They were about to spring into action, assuming that the screaming was from a girl getting attacked by some sort of Grimm. But instead, beyond the bushes, they found a very tall girl, stomping off from a dainty looking girl.

"Come on! You heard what Professor Clemente said! Once we make eye contact, we're partners!" The dainty girl argued.

"There's not chance in hell I am being partners with someone like you! I'm going to find a real partner!" The taller girl bellowed, turning her attention to the pair, who had been staring from afar the entire time, "The hell are you two staring at?! This ain't a show!"

"Hey, relax! We thought you were in trouble and we came to help!"

"Well, we don't need help, so leave!" She retorted with a scowl.

"You shouldn't yell so loud! You could attract Grimm." Aurora said.

"Shut up! And what the hell are you even doing here? This ain't daycare! Little kids like you shouldn't even be here!"

Aurora shrunk, embarrassed.

"Please, you probably think everyone here looks like a kid, so why don't you-"

A deep growl interrupted their argument. Two ursa minors jumped out of the bushes, sending the group flying back.

Evelyn landed on her feet, activating Magenta Euphoria and cocking it, ready to fire.

The burly girl unfolding her axe and held it tightly as the dainty girl pulled out a crossbow, aiming it towards the two large monsters.

"Looks like we're gonna have save our little squabble for later." Evelyn said, her retractable claws popping out.

To seem useful, Aurora pulled out her two dinky little weapons, inserting two fire dust crystals in to add some extra fire power.

"Alright, Hem," Evelyn said, smiling, "let's see what you've got!"

"R-right!"

Aurora gripped her little guns, shaking in her boots as she dug her feet into the ground.

'Looks like I'm gonna have to take it til I make it! So let's go!'

#rwby #my writing #bri writes #rwby oc #rwby team hell #leticia tawny #aurelia azure #aurora hemlock #evelyn pisica #harlow clemente #leo lionheart

[mysteira6]

Christmas SF: A Franstatic Confession

Inspired by @xxkoichiixx​ on Tumblr. Continuation of A Franstastic Holiday

“I wonder what would’ve happened if I didn’t pass out…”

With his mind fantasising about the many possibilities, Sans’ eyes widened in pure shock. Some of the thoughts swimming in his head were pretty decent, others were…

Oof. He should probably stop agreeing to watch anime with Alphys on his off-days.

“GAAAA! WHAT THE HECK AM I THINKING?!” He hollered, burying himself in his hands in an attempt to shrink himself. His face was a deep cobalt in nothing but embarrassment as the events of last night replayed in his mind.

Meanwhile, downstairs in the living room, Frisk continued to sip her tea, which had long turned cold in her hands. Who asked her to engage in a staring contest with Sans when he wasn’t even looking her a few hours ago? Now it tasted horrible.

Her blush deepened when she heard the skeleton screaming upstairs and instantly remembered how Sans wanted to brew that tea for her that morning. Despite its overwhelming bitterness, she downed the cup to its last drop. “Let’s pretend that I don’t hear anything… ” She muttered to herself as she wondered when Papyrus would come home.

Somehow, after a number of hours, they were still the only two people in the house.

Frisk had opted not to go home despite what her intuition told her, rationalising with the fact that Sans was still slightly sober (after a whole morning? No Frisk, no.) and probably needed someone to help him if he had a bad hangover headache. Especially after considering what he did last night, too.

While she was cooking some lunch for the both of them, the brunette also received a phone call from Toriel, stating that she, Papyrus and some monsters were stuck at Asgore’s house due to a snowstorm last night. It wasn’t very strong, but it brought a lot of snow to the roads, covering the streets with a snow white layer of ice. Undyne, Alphys and Mettaton were safe at Alphys’ house as well. It would take at least a day for all the snow to go away naturally (thank goodness that the sun was up) and even then they needed help to shovel it all away. Guess she was stuck with Sans now.

… Yeah. Stuck with Sans.

Frisk was not one for guilty pleasures, but this was an opportunity she didn’t really want to miss. Yes, she was still embarrassed. Yes, she still dismissed the events that happened last night to be a dream. Yes, she had a gut feeling that he remembered everything he did and was a blushing mess now.

But… what he said last night…

“So Frisk, wanna try calling me ‘cute’… one more time?”

“It feels like you’re underestimating me…”

“And that I’m nothing but a cute skeleton to you… ”

“Then tell me…”

“I wanna hear you say it.”

And, at the beginning… That kiss…

Despite her initial shock, she had to admit; that kiss was sweeter that what she thought. Better than what she had expected from the skeleton. He was lazy, often sleeping and almost never willing to make an effort to flirt with her. Frisk had already loved that about Sans, and with what happened last night, she was falling for him even more.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a moan from upstairs, cueing her to look up and ignore her cooking for a moment. At first, she thought that it might have been from a neighbour, but her guesses were proven wrong when another moan was heard. Must be Sans… She wondered to herself, pouring a glass of water for him. Here comes that bad hangover after drinking all that ketchup. She would never understand how he gets drunk on tomato sauce but that was a question to be answered on another day.

Frisk had intended to walk upstairs with confidence and determination, but it became increasingly obvious that it was not happening. As she climbed the steps, she felt that her heart was in her throat and as soon as she was in front of it, she found that her feet would not dare to step into his room. Her mind just kept walking back to whatever happened in the living room less than a day ago.

Eventually, she steeled enough courage to knock the door. “Sans? You okay in there?” She called out to him.

No response. Maybe he fell back asleep? The brunette had knocked on the door again and repeated the same question but all she got was silence. Not even a scuffling sound.

She eventually gave up and hovered her hand over the doorknob, only to remember that Sans’ room can be really dark and hard to navigate in. The first time she stepped into his room, she could barely find her way around. Instead, she placed the glass near the doorway, figuring that she should probably get him some hangover pills from the medical cabinet in the bathroom.

Little did she know that the silence was intentional.

~~~~~~~~

As soon as she stepped into the bathroom, the teenager headed for the large mirror over the sink, opening it to reveal shelves of medicine, bandages and antiseptic materials. She quickly scanned through all the bottles of pills, spotting out the right one she needed. As soon as she reached for the glass bottle and closed the cabinet door, she heard a low voice behind her.

“Kid?”

She froze for a split second before turning around and recognising the figure behind to be Sans, albeit really groggy and out of place. His eye sockets were drooping and there was a frown inscribed on his face. Wearing nothing but a white t-shirt and black basketball shorts, he placed a hand on her shoulder as if to balance himself.

“Sans! You startled me,” She mumbled, trying to support his surprisingly staggering weight. “You shouldn’t be walking around after having so much ketchup last night,”

“Yeah… last night, yeah…” He muttered under his breath, another hand raising to massage his skull. “Sorry kid but can ya help me back to my room? I’m not feeling too good,”

Hearing his voice all low and unsteady made her worried. Maybe he really bit more than he could chew last night. “Sure thing, Sans,” She reassured him, placing the bottle of pills on the table and wrapping his left arm around her shoulders. She could come back for the meds later, but Sans had to be in bed or he’ll end up getting dizzy and disoriented.

In a slow but steady fashion, Frisk managed to get the sleep skeleton out of the bathroom and walk him down the hall. She took extra care not to accidentally spill the glass of water from earlier and entered his dark room.

“Don’t you ever turn on the lights in here, or you know clean up, Sans?” She asked him, avoiding any obstacle on the floor. She wasn’t really expecting a reply, but got one from the semi-asleep skeleton anyway. “Never… had the need to,” He mumbled.

The human shook her head in disappointment as she stepped towards the bed. “What do mean that you never had the need to? I can barely walk or see anything in here!”

“Good… good…” Sans said again, seemingly oblivious to what Frisk had just said. After that, she gave up on trying to maintain conversation with the skeleton, mostly because of his loopiness.

But that was when something unexpected happened. Right then and there, she heard him lean close to her ear and whisper something she was not anticipating.

“If it’s so dark, that means I have the upper hand,”

In the flash of an eye, Frisk found herself being lifted off the ground and tossed onto a soft, cushioned surface. Before she could even comprehend the fact that she was laying down, she found herself face to face with a pair of piercing, pure white eyes, with one of them slowing changing its colour to an azure hue. There was something in the air, like a fizz, similar to the type of magic Toriel would use to cook on the stove. Only this fizz was much less concentrated, dispersed and spread throughout the room, and she could feel it pecking all over her face.

Hovering over her was a familiar yet foreign face, determined, focused eyes that were looking straight at her own. She felt some tension in her neck and dared not to tear away from that fierce gaze coming from the skeleton. She didn’t even know this could happen.

Before another minute could pass by, he leaned in closer to her face, his skull nearing her lips. Her heart was pounding and she could feel her face warming up. She could only widen her eyes in shock as he connected their lips together in a intimate kiss, just like last night.

Frisk could not move, how could she? Worried if a single shake of her hands would trigger a negative reaction, she remained as stiff and still as a statue. Sans sensed this too easily and broke away from the kiss, his eyes softening to form a deep, concerned expression.

Had he pushed it too far?

“Frisk?” He whispered lowly, a name that he rarely called her. Below him was a full-blown red-faced human girl who was biting her bottom lip and shutting her eyes tight, calling forth his deeper instincts. Part of him wanted to continue, and yet another part of him worried if this treatment was too much for the kid. “You okay?”

At this point, Frisk felt like she had been holding her breath for a very long time and at his question, she was finally able to let loose the air in her lungs. Panting, she replied softly. “W-w-w-what was that?”

Sans smiled sheepishly. “Uh…. Too far?” He murmured in embarrassment. “I thought you liked that kind of stuff though,”

“I-well-um…” Frisk stuttered and turned her head to the side in an attempt to dodge the question, which made her look all the more adorable in his eyes. In fact, everything about her right now was adorable. Huh, if she thought he was ‘cute’ last night, perhaps he should return the favour…

“Oh, I see,” He whispered seductively, placing his left elbow down on the bed as his fingers combed through her hair. “You do like this, don’t you?”

Frisk was speechless. Her throat went dry. Her mind kept screaming some words that she wanted to say to him, but her mouth just couldn’t make a single sound. Again, she was captivated by his glowing blue eye, attracted to it like a moth to a flame.

“Yeah, I bet you even dream of me doing this right~?” Sans continued, shifting the weight of his body to his left arm so that he could caress her face with his other hand. His fingers cupped her cheek while his thumb drew closer to her lips as he began to tease her. “Cat got your tongue, huh? Well, I happen to know the best way to make you talk… Unless you tell me not to,”

Ba-bump, ba-bump, ba-bump… Her heart was drumming in her chest, beating faster and faster by the second. She willed with all of her strength to say something, anything to the monster on top of her.

Meanwhile, Sans chuckled, lowering his hand from her face. “Aw, look at that. I barely said a word earlier and you’re all red because of it. Guess I was being real frisky now, wasn’t I?” He smirked as she raised her hands to cover her face. Despite her embarrassment, he still wanted to see her face a little more. With a snap of his fingers, his levitation magic managed to grab ahold of Frisk’s hands and pin them to the bed, giving him full view of her face. “Don’t hide your face,” He ordered gently. “I like seeing how flustered you get when I talk like this-”

“I LIKE YOU A LOT!”

Immediately, Sans stopped talking. He was almost gonna tell her not to interrupt him anymore that day, but her words shocked him. ‘I like you a lot’? Was that supposed to be-

At the same time, Frisk, who had miraculously regained her voice, began to blurt out many things. “I like how you’re always sleepy all the time and you look cute when you fall asleep! I like how you’re always so laid-back and cool without you even realising it! I like how you care very much about me and always looked out for me ever since I was a little kid even till now! I like how you’re always caring towards all monsters and you love your brother so much and-”

“Woah woah woah, slow down!” Sans stopped her immediately after that last bit, now playing the role as the flustered one. ‘Cool’? ‘Caring’? ‘Cute’ appeared again as a descriptor for himself, but this time, he didn’t really mind.

“Are you…. Are you serious, kid?” Sans inquired, shifting over to the left to sit next to the human girl on the bed. “You think I’m… all those things?”

Frisk sat up as well, curling into a ball and hugging her legs to her chest. There was a small awkward silence between them for a while before she spoke again. “Yeah… I know it’s weird,” She admitted.

The skeleton turned to her in slight disbelief. “Well, I mean… It is uncommon for a human to love a monster,” He began. “But I didn’t say that I hate it or anything like that,”

“What you did just now…” Frisk remarked softly. “Tell me, was it on purpose? Or was it because you’re still drunk?”

Silence.

…

…

…

…

“ … No.”

Surprised, she lowered her legs into a cross-legged position and stared at him. “Really?” She asked in bewilderment.

“Yeah, I wasn’t faking it,” He answered, his face slowly forming a smile. “You know I’ve never really been good with words, kid. And trying to kiss you while I am not drunk is actually really difficult. In fact, I might just conk out now,” And with that, his head dropped to her lap, startling her. “Oh!”

He chuckled again at her reaction. “But if I really have to put it in words,” He continued, reaching out for her face again. “I really do care about ya, Frisk. I’m, uh, pretty greedy and I don’t want to lose you to anyone else, if you catch my drift.”

Hearing this made her smile and even in the dark room, Sans could see it. He could also see her leaning down to plant another kiss on his skull as his cheeks turned blue. “You skele-dork,” She sighed. “This is why I love you.”

“And I love you too,” he replied, kissing her again.

Thanks, Frans-senpai for the inspiration! And I’m so sorry for my late fic for your comic...^ ^;;;;

#sf #sans #frisk #christmas #drabble #my writing #frans #sans x frisk #frisk x sans #literature #confession

[dailybestiary]

Patch Has Issues: Dungeon #2

Issue: Dungeon #2

Date: November/December 1986 (Pretty sure my Christmas haul that year was full of dope toys from The Transformers movie/show.)

The Cover:

(Use of cover for review purposes only and should not be taken as a challenge to status. Credit and copyright remain with their respective holders.)

Ah, Clyde Caldwell. He, Larry Elmore, Jeff Easley, and last issue’s Keith Parkinson were the mainstays of TSR’s amazing stable of artists. I have a soft spot for Caldwell. He did the covers for the D&D Gazetteer series, which means his work emblazoned some of my absolute favorite books from my middle school years. (At the time I had the whole series except the two island books, GAZ 4 & GAZ 9 (which I’ve since collected), plus the Dawn of the Emperors box set. My favorites, for the record, were GAZ 3, 5, 10, and 13. I...may like elves...a little too much.) And even as I sit here, other covers demand to be named. The very first Dragonlance adventure, the iconic Dragons of Despair? The Finder’s Stone trilogy? The first Ravenloft box? Dragon #147? Yep, he did those covers too. He was amazing.

But hoo-boy, we also have to talk about the not-amazing parts. Once Caldwell settled on a way of doing things, that’s how he did them. Points for consistency, but man, he had tropes. Even his tropes had tropes. He had a way of painting dragon’s wings. He had a way of painting swords and boots. He had a way of painting jewelry, and belts and coins—ovals upon ovals upon ovals.

And his way of painting women was with as few clothes as possible. Everything I said about Parkinson last entry? Yeah, that goes double for Caldwell. He never paints pants when a thong will do. His take on the reserved and regal Goldmoon—thighs as long as a dwarf and bronzed buttcheeks exposed—reportedly left Margaret Weis in tears. Magic-users (God, I hate that term) famously couldn’t use armor in D&D and AD&D, but Caldwell’s sorceresses pretty much stick to gauze just to be safe. And the Finder’s Stone trilogy I mentioned above? Yeah, the authors of Azure Bonds took one look at Caldwell’s cover art and literally had to come up with in-text reasons why the heroine Alias—one of the most surly woman sellswords in existence—would wear armor with a Caldwell boob hole.

Don’t get me wrong, I love cheesecake as much as the next dude. (Actually that’s not true; I came up in the grunge ’90s—our version of cheesecake was an Olympia brunette in three layers of thrift store sweaters reading Sandman while eating a cheesecake. Hell, that’s still my jam.) But context matters. The sorceress from “White Magic,” Dragon #147’s cover, may barely be wearing a negligee, but she’s also in the seat of her power and probably magically warded to the hilt—she can wear whatever she damn wants; it’s her tower. So no complaints there. But this cover’s pirate queen Porky Piggin’ it seems like an unwise choice. (The friction burns alone from clambering around the rigging…)

It’s clear from reading The Art of the Dragonlance Saga that TSR was trying to turn the ship around when it came to portrayals of women in fantasy, however slowly. And in Caldwell’s defense and to his credit, he definitely delivered women with agency—in nearly every image, they are nearly always doing something active and essential. They just tend to be doing it half-dressed.

Which is all a way of saying I dig this cover—the explosion, the churning sea (even if it does more look like snow drifts than waves), the sailors all running to the rail to look—but yeah, that pirate captain needs to put on some damn pants.

The Adventures: Before we get started, I have to note that though we’re only an issue in, already the magazine feels more noticeably like the work of editor Roger Moore. This is 100% a guess, but it really feels to me like Dungeon #1 was made of adventures that the Dragon office already had laying around, whereas Dungeon #2 was composed of adventures that Roger Moore and the new Dungeon team had more of a hand in sifting through. (He also has an assistant editor this time in Robin Jenkins, which had to have helped.) Even the cartography looks better. Again, I have zero confirmation of this, but the feeling is strong.

“The Titan’s Dream” by W. Todo Todorsky, AD&D, Levels 5–9

PCs visiting an oracle accidentally walk right into a titan’s dream and must solve some conundrums to escape. What an awesome concept this is! (Spoilers for “Best Concept” section below.) It’s a shame I don’t like this more.

First of all, dreamworld adventures are really hard to do well. And for them to work, there usually need to be real stakes—and not just “If you die in the dream, you die in real life!”—and/or a real connection to the PCs in your campaign. The latter, especially, is really hard to pull off in a published adventure; typically it’s only achieved through tactics that critics deride as railroading. (For instance, @wesschneider’s excellent In Search of Sanity does a great job of connecting the characters to their dream adventures...but it does that by a) forging the connection at 1st level, and b) pretty strongly dictating how the adventure begins and how the characters are affiliated. It works, but that’s high-wire-act adventure writing.)

Being a magazine adventure, “The Titan’s Dream” doesn’t have that luxury—it’s got to be for a general audience and work for most campaigns. That unfortunately means the default “Why” of the adventure—a lord with a child, a wedding, and an alliance at stake hires the PCs to chat with a wise titan—is little more than that: a default.

On top of that...I cannot get excited about anything Greek mythology-related. To me, just the fact I’m seeing it is a red flag.

Look, Greek mythology is why I got into this hobby. Hell, it’s why I got into fiction, period. (For some reason I somehow decided I had no use for fiction books targeted to my age, with the exception of Beverly Cleary. Then in 4th(?) grade, I got a copy of Alice Low’s Greek Gods and Heroes, and the rest is history.) But Greek mythology is often the only mythology anyone knows. When people think polytheism, that’s where most people’s minds go. Which is why, if you ever played D&D in the ’80s, I pretty much guarantee your first deity was from that pantheon. (In my first game, my first-level cleric pretty much met Ares and got bitch-slapped by him, because that’s what 4th-grade DMs do.)

So to me, putting Greek deities or titans in your adventure is the equivalent of putting dudes riding sandworms into your desert adventures—you can do it, but you better blow me away, because that is ground so well trod it’s mud. And this one doesn’t do the job.

The format is three dreams, each with five scenes. Parties will move randomly—a mechanic meant to represent dream logic (or lack thereof)—through these scenes, until all the scenes from one dream have been resolved. This is actually kind of fascinating, and I wonder how it would play at the table—I have a feeling observant players will dig it, but others may find the mechanism’s charm wears off quickly, especially if they have difficulty solving the scenes or get frustrated with the achronicity of events. I also like that every scene has a number of possible resolutions, so the PCs aren’t locked into achieving a single specific objective like they were stuck in a computer game.

But...I can’t shake the feeling of weak planning and execution (or even laziness?) that stayed with me throughout the adventure. Like, okay, the first adventure is a cyclops encounter out of the Odyssey. Cool! But then...why does the Titan follow it up with pseudo-Norse/Arthurian encounter? Did the Odyssey not hold the author’s attention? (Nor the Iliad, the Aeneid, or Metamorphosis? Really?) And then why is the third dream “drawn from the realm of pure fairy tale”? Like, were you out of pantheons? Horus didn’t return your calls? Or be more specific—why not German fairy tales, or Danish, or French Court, or Elizabethan? It feels like a class project where one group was on point, one group got the assignment a little wrong, and one didn’t even try.

Again, it’s not even that this adventure is bad—I honestly can’t tell if it is or not; I’m sure a lot of its success is determined at the table. And I could totally see throwing this at a party if I was out of inspiration that week or we needed a low-stakes breather before our next big arc. But the instant I think about it for more than a second, it all falls apart for me.

Have any of you tried this one? Let me know what you thought. And for a similar exploration into dream logic/fairy tale scenarios, I recommend Crystal Frasier’s The Harrowing for Pathfinder.

“In The Dwarven King’s Court” by Willie Walsh, AD&D, Levels 3–5

Willie Walsh is a name we’re going to see a lot more in issues to come—he’s a legendarily prolific Dungeon contributor, delivering quality, typically low-level, and often light-hearted or humorous adventurers issue after issue after issue. His first entry is a mystery with a time limit: A dwarf king is supposed to make a gift of a ceremonial sword to seal a treaty, but the sword has vanished. Brought to the king’s court courtesy of a dream, adventurers must find the sword and the surprising identity of the culprit before the rival power’s delegation arrives.

At first I was going to ding this adventure for its “What, even more dreams this issue?” hook...but here’s the thing with Walsh—never judge his modules until you reach the final page. Nearly every time I’m tempted to dismiss one of his sillier or more random adventure elements, it turns out that it makes sense and works just fine. In this case, the cause of the dream is haunt connected to the mystery, and I feel dumb for being all judgy.

So anyway, the PCs are given leave to search for the stolen object and the thief, but of course it turns out there is a whole lot of light-fingeredness going around. As Bryce (see below) puts it, “It’s like a Poirot mystery: everyone has something to hide.” This castle has as much upstairs-downstairs drama as any British farce, with nearly every NPC having either a fun personality and/or a fun secret (and with the major players illustrated by some equally fun portraits) that should make them memorable friends and foils for PCs to interact with. Not to mention the actual culprit is definitely a twist that will be hard explaining to the king...

GMs should be ready to adjust on the fly, though—a) it’s a lot of characters to juggle, and b) since the PCs are 3rd–5th level, the right spells or some lucky secret door searches could prematurely end the adventure as written. You may want to have some last-minute showdowns, betrayals, or other political intrigue outlined and in your back pocket if what’s on the page resolves too quickly.

Overall though, I’m a big fan of this adventure, and look forward to the rest of Walsh’s output. Also, given the dwarven focus and the geography of the land, this adventure could be a very nice sequel to last issue’s “Assault on Eddistone Point.”

“Caermor” by Nigel D. Findley, AD&D, Levels 2–4

Look at this author’s list of writing credits! Findley was amazingly prolific, and his work was pretty high-quality across the board, as far as I know. I particularly loved the original Draconomicon, one of the first and only 2e AD&D books I ever bought as a kid. I also loved his “Ecology of the Gibbering Mouther” from the excellent Dragon #160, and some of his Spelljammer supplements are currently sitting upstairs in my to-read pile, recently purchased but as yet shamefully untouched.

Now look at his age at the time of his death. Life is not always fair or kind.

(Speaking of unkind, man is the bio in this issue unfortunate in retrospect: “[H]e write for DRAGON® Magazine, enjoys windsurfing, plays in a jazz band, and manages a computer software company in the little time he has left.” As Archer would say, “Phrasing!”)

Anyway, this adventure is simple: An otherworldly force has been murdering the locals. The locals have pinned the blame on a handsome bard from out of town, and their own prejudices and general obstinacy are sure to get in the way of the investigation—that is, if the true culprits, some devil-worshipping culprits and and an abishai devil, don’t get in the way first.

All in all, this is a tight, well-written adventure, so I don’t have much to say about it, other than that if you like the idea of sending your party to help out some young lovers and save some faux-Scots/Yorkshiremen too stubborn to save themselves (and maybe slip in a valuable lesson about prejudice and xenophobia as well), this is the adventure for you.

One thing that does jump out to a contemporary reader, though, is the comically overpowered nature of the baddie pulling the strings in this adventure: Baalphegor, Princess of Hell (emphasis mine). Overpowered, you-won’t-really-fight-this-NPC happens with a lot of low-level adventures, when the writers want a story more epic than characters at the table can handle or are trying to plot the seeds for future evils. But still, any princess of Hell would already be a bit much...but an 18-Hit Dice, “supra-genius”, the Princess of Hell? Like, what the f—er, I mean, Hell?

If you use the adventure as written, the only way to have Baalphegor’s presence make sense is to eventually reveal that the area is an epicenter of some major badness. (Maybe that explains the lost nation of evil dwarves in the adventure background.) For a good model on how to seed early adventures in this matter, Dungeon’s Age of Worms Adventure Path and Pathfinder Adventure Path’s Rise of the Runelords AP, both from Paizo, are exemplars of small-town disturbances that eventually have world-shaking implications.

It’s also fascinating in retrospect to note Ed Greenwood’s massive impact in the hobby. Any article that appears in Dragon has the sheen of being at least semi-official, but it’s clear that Greenwood’s content was a cut above even that. In this case, an NPC from a three-year-old article of his is not just treated as canon, but also supplies the mastermind behind the adventure! It’s no surprise that in the following year his home campaign, the Forgotten Realms, would soon become AD&D’s newest and then its default setting.

Two final thoughts: 1) There’s some fascinating anti-dwarf prejudice in this article. Nearly every mention of dwarves paints them as exceptionally greedy and/or villains. And 2) how did one even begin to balance adventures in those days? This adventure is for “4–8 characters of 2nd–4th level.” There are a lot of difference at the extreme ends of those power scales…

“The Keep at Koralgesh,” by Robert Giacomozzi & Jonathan Simmons, D&D, Levels 1–3

One of the problems of BECMI D&D being known as “basic D&D” is that writers often assumed the players to be basic (that is, younger/new) as well. Which probably accounts for some of the early suggestions to the DM we get at the beginning of this adventure—like some pretty patronizing advice along the lines of not immediately announcing to PCs what the pluses are on their magical swords.

Fortunately, after that the article settles down and gives us Dungeon’s first real D&D adventure. In fact, not just real, but massive: 20 full pages of content—nearly half the issue! It’s a fully fledged dungeon crawl that has the PCs taking advantage of the summer solstice to open a shrine door that will lead them inside a long-ruined keep said to hold great treasure.

Now, I imagine in the coming installments it’s going to seem to many of you like I’m grading D&D adventures on a curve, because of my love for the system and the Known World/Mystara. That’s a fair accusation, but a better way to consider it is that I’m reviewing D&D adventures for what they are—adventures from a separate system, with a more limited rules system and palette of options than AD&D. You don’t go to a performance of Balinese shadow puppetry and compare it against Andrew Lloyd Webber; you look at it for what it achieves in its own medium. Since they appear side-by-side in the same magazine, comparison is going to be inevitable, but that’s with the understanding that AD&D was the kid coloring with the 64-crayon box of Crayola, while D&D was getting by with just eight.

On its own terms then, “The Keep of Korgalesh” is a decent, if not superlative, success. I love that it’s practically module-length and that we get three complete levels—a far cry from the previous issue’s side-trek-at-best, “The Elven Home.” We also get two new monsters, which absolutely fills my inner BECMI D&D player with glee. And I like that what starts as a dungeon crawl/fetch quest evolves into a “kill the big bad thing” and “find out what really happened to this city.”

There are issues, though. If the whole city was destroyed, getting to see some of it besides the keep would have been nice. Some of the ecology for the dungeon inhabitants is questionable. There pretty much wasn’t a single pool or fountain in this era of D&D adventure design that wasn’t magical, and this adventure was no exception. One of the new monster’s names makes no sense except that “tyranna” and “abyss” are cool words (I mean, I guess you could read that as “tyrant of the depths,” but still…) And there are painfully obvious borrowings from other works, especially Tolkien—a door that only opens at solstice, a lake monster, an orc with a split personality that is clearly a Gollum homage, etc.

What this adventure really needs is stakes—just something to give it a bit more oomph beyond the dungeon crawl. (Finding a blacksmith’s lost hammer is the hook offered in the adventure but it’s pretty flimsy.) Perhaps the PCs are some of Kor’s last worshippers, and clearing out the dangers here and resanctifying his temple is one of their first steps toward returning him to prominence. Maybe the PCs’ grandparents were involved in the city’s demise and restoring Koralgesh will restore the families’ honor. Or you could keep it simple and have a band of pirates or a rival adventuring group also trying to clean out the keep, turning it into a race (with the tyrannabyss causing the scales of fate to wobble at appropriately cinematic moments).

So the final analysis is this is a decent dungeon crawl upon which you can build a good adventure. The real reward of this module isn’t treasure; it’s finding out just what happened to Koralgesh. But for that to matter, it needs to tie into the PCs’ pasts, futures, or both.

BONUS CONTENT FOR KNOWN WORLD/MYSTARA NERDS: Kor is almost certainly a local name for the sun god Ixion. The chaotic deity Tram is probably a local version of Alphaks, though Atzanteotl is another strong candidate, especially since deceit was key to the pirates’ success. Koralgesh could be located somewhere on the Isle of Dawn, the northern coast of Davania, or an Ierendi/Minrothad Isle that those nations haven’t made it a priority to rebuild.

Best Read: “Caermor.” Nigel D. Findley was a pro.

Best Adventure I Could Actually Run with Minimal Prep: “The Keep at Koralgesh,” as a well-written, straight-ahead dungeon crawl. Every other adventure here relies on a pretty strong handle of very mobile NPCs and their motivations, or a Titan’s dream mechanics.

Best Concept: “The Titan’s Dream,” as noted above. It’s a great idea very worth exploring, even if I wasn’t about the execution we got in this case.

Best Monster: This was actually a monster-light issue. Despite some awesome art for the tyrannabyss, I have to go with the epadrazzil, a scaly ape from a two-dimensional plane of existence that has to be summoned via a painting. All of those details are just so wonderfully and weirdly specific it has to win. (Extra points for anyone who noticed the thoul—a classic D&D monster (though it did make its way into AD&D’s Mystara setting) born from a typo.)

Best NPC: Since this is a role-playing-heavy issue, there are a bunch of contenders, and the final verdict will go to whoever your party sparks to at the table. Obviously King Baradon the Wise should get the nod for [spoiler-y reasons], but I also really like the opportunity the executioner Tarfa offers, thanks to his incriminating goblet and how it might bring the PCs to the attention of a far-off assassin’s guild at just the right level.

Best Map: All together the maps from “The Keep at Koralgesh” form an extremely appealing whole. But for best single map I have to go for the palace of Mount Diadem—that is a bangin’ dwarven demesne.

Best Thing Worth Stealing: Jim Holloway’s illustrations of dwarves. Good dwarf, gnome, and halfling art is hard to find, and even the good stuff often leans stereotypical. While Holloway’s art is often humorous—I have a feeling he and Roger Moore jibed really well, though that’s totally a guess based purely on what assignments he got handed—his dwarves, especially in this issue, are fresh, specific, and unique. You could identify them by their silhouettes alone—always the sign of good character art. If you need an image of a dwarf NPC to show the players, “In the Dwarven King’s Court” is a great first stop.

Worst Aged: Female thong pirates on magazine covers. Also using the actual names of actual mental illnesses in game materials.

What Bryce Thinks: “This seems to be a stronger issue than #1, although half of the adventures are … unusual.”

Bryce actually almost likes “The Titan’s Dream,” confirming my loathing of it. He in turn loathes “In the Court of the Dwarven King.” Like me, though, he is pro-”Caermor” and sees potential in “The Keep at Koralgesh.” (Also credit where it’s due: I might have missed the condescension at the start if he hadn’t called it out.)

So, Is It Worth It?: If you’re a Clyde Caldwell fan, this issue might be worth searching out in print. So much of Caldwell’s work from this era was dictated by product needs, cropped and boxed up in ads, or shrunk down to fit on a paperback cover. So to get this cover in full magazine size, with only the masthead tucked up top to get in the way—that could be well worth a few bucks to you.

Also, if you’re BECMI/Rules Cyclopedia-era D&D fan (or know someone who is), again, this one might be worth having in print. “The Keep at Koralgesh” is a legit, proper BECMI D&D adventure, spanning 20 whole pages and with two new monsters to boot. I would have practically have cried if someone had given 7th-grade me this.

Beyond that you can probably just rely on the PDF. But both “Caermor” and “In the Dwarven King’s Court” have strong bones worth putting some modern muscle and skin on.

Random Thoughts:

The Caldwell cover painting was also used for the Blackmoor module DA4 The Duchy of Ten. PS: I’m not trying to tell you what to do or anything, but if you do happen to run across a physical copy of The Duchy of Ten or and of the DA modules, holla at ya boy over here.

Since this is our second issue, we now have a “Letters” column. Turns out Dungeon had been announced in Dragon #111 with a really detailed set of writer’s guidelines; most of the correspondence is questions re: those. In the process of answering, we get some surprisingly frank talk about payment. The $900 for a cover seemed low until I converted it to 2018 dollars, and ~$2,000 does seem right to my ignorant eye. I then made the mistake of converting my current salary to 1986 dollars and felt a lot worse about myself and what I’ve achieved.

Apologies this took so long to post. I had the issue read by early October and most of this review written with the next week or two after...but then I got involved in dealing with a 4.5 week hospitalization and aftermath...and then a second still-ongoing hospitalization...and even though I only had about four paragraphs left I just couldn’t find time to put a bow on it.

Notable Ads: The gold Immortals Rules box for D&D. (I also still don’t have that one yet, and Christmas is coming. Just saying, guys, if you happen to find one in your attic.) ;-) Also an ad for subscribing to Dungeon itself, starring “my war dinosaur, Boo-Boo.” No, really.

Over in Dragon: Beneath a glorious cover, Roger Moore is the new editor of Dragon #115, three authors (including Vince Garcia, who I like a lot) share credit on a massive six articles about fantasy thieves, a famous article proposing that clerics get the weapons of their deity (people were still talking about it in the “Forum” column when I was buying my first issues two years later), and a look at harps from the Forgotten Realms (notable because behind the scenes Ed Greenwood’s home setting was being developed for the AD&D game for launch in 1987.) A photographic cover and a 3-D sailing ship are served up in Dragon #116, along with maritime adventures, more Ed Greenwood (rogue stones), and articles for ELFQUEST, Marvel Super Heroes (Crossfire’s gang), and FASA’s Dr. Who game (looking at all six(!) doctors). (Incidentally, I had an Irish babysitter around this time who first mentioned Dr. Who to me—I wish I’d explored more but I was too young to understand what I’d been offered.)

PS: Yes, I’ve heard about the upcoming Tumblr ban. It is a terrible idea that will affect way too many of my readers. It shouldn’t affect me much (and I have all my monster entries backed up at the original site), but I will keep you posted as I learn more, particularly if I find you, my readers, packing up and going elsewhere.

#daily bestiary #patch has issues #pathfinder #paizo #3.5 #dungeons & dragons #dungeons and dragons #d&d #dnd #ad&d #becmi #dungeon #dungeon magazine

[artisticflutter]

Enemy is my Friend - Part One

Hey hey, looks like it’s time to post Secret Santa gifts... and hey there @red-rose-draws, I’m your Secret Santa via @mlsecretsanta. You wanted a very square Enemies!AU and I hope you enjoy~

Also if you have an AO3, I’d love to get that so I can post over there too.

Rating: G Genre: Fluff, Angst, Romance, AU, Friendship Pairing(s): Love Square Summary: According to Tikki, Chat Noir was supposed to be Ladybug’s partner, but it’s just Marinette’s luck when that turned out to be wrong, wasn’t it? Warning: Enemies!AU. Also, there’s a second part to be posted from another POV.

According to Tikki, Chat Noir was supposed to be Ladybug’s partner, but it’s just Marinette’s luck when that turned out to be wrong, wasn’t it?

Her first outing as a superheroine all those months ago definitely could’ve been better, but Chat Noir’s declaration of being her enemy was just the cherry on top. She asked Tikki over and over just how this could have happened, but the kwami couldn’t go into details. Rules and all, she had said, much like the rule that required Marinette keep her identity secret from her friends and loved ones. Any one of them could be Chat Noir, too.

It didn’t take long for the reality of this fact to change how she handled situations with extra caution.

Still, looking down at him now, him pinned to the ground, her hand twisting his right wrist to pull his ring off, she didn’t expect their confrontation to come to an end like this.

Akumatized victims by themselves were only nuisance, but add Chat Noir to the mix, and they became competition. While he never had any new powers in battle, he was the destruction to her creation - the counterforce meant to be equal in strength with small differences that covered her battle disadvantages. But although he matched her in nimbleness and just barely surpassed her in sturdiness, her cleverness won out in many of their encounters and she came out on top, leaving the feline villain to slip away to fight another day.

However, she didn’t only chalk it up to just her wit.

As determined as she was to stop Chat Noir and Hawkmoth, Chat Noir didn’t seem to take their battles seriously either. Dare she say he even seemed to be anticipating every bout? Maybe she was reading too much into it, but he did have the powers of destruction.

“Why doesn’t he just use Cataclysm on me?” she asked aloud one evening, her pencil tapping her lip. Her sketchbook sat open before her, the supervillain’s face almost drawn to completion.

Tikki halted her cookie consumption and raised her wide azure eyes, a smile playing on her face.

“I know it’s odd considering he’s your enemy, but he has a good heart. I can tell – and I know he wouldn’t have received the Cat Miraculous if he might use it for the wrong purpose.”

“I would say fighting against us is the wrong purpose…” Marinette sighed, leaning backwards in her chair. “Maybe he thinks he’s fighting for something righteous. Do you think if I asked him, he'd tell me?”

“It wouldn’t hurt to try.”

Tikki resumed devouring her cookie and Marinette continued etching mindlessly along the marks she made already: wild hair that gave him an untamed appearance, bright eyes with oval pupils (part of his transformation she assumed), and round cheeks rarely ever down because he always seemed to be grinning or smirking. His features were still sharpening, though, so he had to be around her age.

The more she drew, the more she considered.

Aside from people being affected by the akumatized victim’s power, Chat Noir didn’t seem to like civilians getting hurt. When Stormy Weather appeared, he had had an argument with Aurore because she’d shot lightning directly at park patrons. He also hadn’t approved of her sweeping people away with gusts of wind outside of the TVi studio tower.

And when she had gone on that ‘date’ with Nathaniel while he was Evillustrator, he seemed to have been watching more intently than needed. Yeah, he’d been on the lookout for Ladybug, but when she – just as Marinette – tried to get Nathaniel’s akumatized pen, he’d jumped in before she could get hurt. He even bothered coming to find her a few evenings later to sincerely apologize. And he’d meant it.

“… Weird cat,” she mumbled, staring back at the beaming image of Chat Noir.

Who was the boy beneath that mask?

She found herself coming back to that question with each subsequent encounter.

Though she should be asking him why they were fighting, it just slipped her mind again and again because there were always new questions. Who was this boy fine with people being akumatized, but not letting civilians be hurt during the rampage? Controlled was fine, but injuries were off the table. Rather contradictory; and then, why keep this chase going? She knew he had better combat skills to bring, but he seemed lax using them. Was he going easy on her? Did he find it fun? What was with all the puns and jokes and – dare she say – flirting on his part? Why did she find herself playing into it too? Was that an effect of the Miraculous?

What did Chat Noir want?

When she finally did recall, Simon Says didn’t give her the time to ask. After Tikki had her break into Gabriel Agreste’s safe (why was there a safe behind that painting?) to take some book and a peacock pin, she had formed a temporary alliance with Chat Noir to save Mr. Agreste’s life.

In that instance, things felt right – as if she’d never fought the black cat and it was scary how well they worked. It had been a whirlwind of events ending off with her meeting Master Fu,so she missed the opportunity to ask Chat Noir yet again. Sure, she did ask Master Fu, but his answer was she was better off asking Chat Noir himself.

Maybe she needed to ask herself why she even cared. He was the enemy and she needed to get the Butterfly and Cat Miraculous.

But why did it feel like taking the ring would make her the bad guy?

The holidays came and went, but something was wrong with Chat Noir.

Ever the perpetual smiler in their encounters, his expressions started becoming strained and there was a new, more aggressive approach in his fighting style. If a battle dragged on long enough, his movements would grow sluggish and predictable. That wasn’t all; paling skin, dimming eyes, and he became thinner and thinner. Despite his worsening condition, he was still the most civil villain. Heck, he got her a birthday present after finding out it was her birthday while her Nonna was akumatized.

Was he sick? Would Hawkmoth push him to keep fighting in that condition?

She didn’t want to think about it, but she couldn’t stop thinking about it when he bowed out of a fight or didn’t participate at all, watching with a hand pressed against his stomach from a distance. It was such a distraction that she wasn’t even paying attention to Luka while André served her ice cream. She was so startled she accidentally swatted it, sending the peach and mint green scoops flying. Marinette apologized profusely, but André didn’t seem too perturbed.

“There is conflict in your heart right now.”

“Huh?”

This time, she paid attention as he made the cone.

“Peach pink like his lips and mint green like his eyes! Eat this, my dear, and your love will materialize!”

“My love…”

Accepting the cone, Marinette stared at it unblinking for a few seconds, focused on mint melting onto the peach. Even as the dregs began to run over her fingers, she stood there, feeling her face flare up.

“Is that it? But I shouldn’t…”

“Uh, Marinette?” Luka’s voice cut through her thoughts and she turned her head. Not only was he staring at her, but so were Alya, Nino, Ivan, and Mylène. Normally, that would embarrass her, but she calmly took a few Euros from her pocket to pay André.

“Thank you for the ice cream. Sorry guys, I have to do something.”

She didn’t wait for her change before sprinting off, scarfing down her ice cream and powering through the brain freeze to make it home.

It just had to be a coincidence - she was thinking too much about that stupid cat, the ice cream meant nothing. Her Miraculous wasn’t helping either. Yeah, she was sure. That dumb boy becoming thin as a rail was not her concern – she didn’t have to do anything about it!

It was just the right chance to take his Miraculous and then go after Hawkmoth!

The akuma had been paltry this evening, but it had assisted her immensely by dealing with Chat Noir on their own, though it didn’t have to throw him away like he was rubbish. He was just tired – yeah, that had to be it; that had to be why he hadn’t bothered trying to get up during the fight.

… Had his arm always been this thin?

He struggled beneath her knee – oh god, she could feel his ribs shifting beneath her leg. Before people arrived, she just needed to take his ring – grab it and be done with one nuisance. Pinching his ring and pulling slowly, her leering eyes darted to his sunken face, taking in wide, pleading eyes watering slightly in the corner, the faux ears on his even messier hair folded flat. No longer was he trying to push her off, but he was trembling, gradually appearing much like a kicked cat he embodied. Teeth gritted, his jaws shifted as though to open, but he refused – why did he refuse to speak?

If this was victory, it felt terrible.

He wasn’t anywhere near his peak physical form; and with him, this wasn’t how she wanted to win.

Beneath her leg, she both felt and heard his stomach rumble loudly.

“… You stupid cat.” He wasn’t eating? Was that really the problem? “You owe me one, got it? And don’t you dare try to take my earrings right now.”

“… W-What?”

Once boisterous voice was soft and very shockingly subdued, and picking him up suddenly had him yelping, but she didn’t comment. Yo-yo out, she allowed it to fly, catching a nearby roof and sending them both soaring across Paris.

Was she really doing this? Was she really going out of her way to help her enemy? Well, she supposed she still felt some responsibility because they were supposed to be partners, but watch her luck – she was going to regret this.

Gosh she’d really like him to say something right now. Maybe she wouldn’t be thinking too hard on it, but he hadn’t said a word.

Landing firmly on the patisserie’s rooftop, she placed him in her lawn chair – alright, she might’ve dropped him in a bit more harshly than she meant - hands going to her hips as he gazed upon her in confusion.

“Listen here, Chat Noir. I know you helped the girl who lives here before and she’s pretty grateful. So stay here and maybe – just maybe – I can convince her to give you something to eat. If I’m going to claim your Miraculous, it’s going to be in a fair fight, understand?”

“What? You don’t need to--”

“You say that, but your stomach says otherwise.”

She noticed him flinch when she cut him off, but didn’t have time to ask what that was about. “Bug out, Kitty.”

She didn’t hear him scrambling to follow her as she leapt down and entered the building. Inside the bakery’s kitchen, she transformed back to Marinette, scowling because again, what was she doing? How ever troubled she was, Tikki was glowing.

“I’m proud of what you’re doing, Marinette.”

“Really? I think I might’ve done something wrong,” the girl replied with a groan. “I mean, I brought him back here to feed him. I’m sure if our positions were different…”

“He would likely do the same,” Tikki interrupted, hovering before Marinette’s face. “Even if he’s working with Hawkmoth, you know Chat Noir isn’t underhanded like him.  Maybe he lets the akuma do what they must to get your attention, but he never directly harms civilians.”

That could be debatable, but Tikki was right. It wasn’t like Chat Noir was the one akumatizing people or giving them targets. Nor did he ever purposely make anyone fall under the abilities of some past akuma – and when they did fight, he didn’t try involving anyone to make her give up her Miraculous; Hawkmoth did. In fact, with him being on the side lines for many of their recent skirmishes, he seemed to observe with a mild grimace.

“… Maybe I could get him to open up about why he’s doing this,” she started softly. “Maybe, but if he finds out who I am, I don’t want him to feel like I deceived him.”

“When the time comes, you’ll do the right thing. I’m sure!” Tikki bumped against her cheek and Marinette giggled. In the back of her mind, she could only hope no reveal occurred anytime soon. It was time to get to the bottom of who Chat Noir was really.

“So, what shall we feed a hungry cat?”

#ml secret santa #mlsecretsanta2k18 #mlsecretsanta #miraculous ladybug #scribbling do #miraculous!au #ladybug #marinette dupain-cheng #chat noir #ladynoir #marichat #mentions of other friends #enemies!au #red-rose-draws #gifting #tikki

[akelyokikagu]

Day two: Unrequited Love

Her feelings

It felt like she knows him since the start because they never needed words to understand each other. Kagura remembers how they met under the cherry blossoms tree, and how they started to brawl on the grass expanse for no reasons. They didn’t need reasons to fight each other either, everything is natural, fluid and absolutely logical.

They fought together a lot, her and Sadist. At this time, she was only fourteen, and she likes his company because he’s insanely strong for a human, and he’s willing to be her sparring partner. Even if cruel words, and insults come along with the mess; she’s fine. The funniest moments she lived, it’s with him.

She notices how much he mattered to her only when he leaves for Bushu. She has always been emotional, of course, but she almost wanted to cry back then. She doesn’t, though, they are not weak, the biggest battle is approaching so they just promise.

She is not supposed to lose against anyone, but him, ever again. And so is he.

Kagura remembers his words, she grows, and she feels like he’s defeating her every time. It’s not a bad feeling or a good feeling, but she keeps his rare smiles and grins into her memory for her to hold on them when night comes. She doesn’t tell anyone, but at fifteenth, Kagura is in love.

Her dreams

She doesn’t see what’s wrong with loving him. Of course, she’s prideful, and she doesn’t want him— or anyone— to learn about her secret garden, but she knows he’s not a bad a guy deep inside, and perhaps he can even be sweet. He’s always sweet when he’s thinking of his late sister, and when she learns about his story Kagura understands that they’re closer than what she initially thought.

Maybe, she thinks, maybe they will be together one day; as in together together. She doesn’t mind keeping their rivalry; however, she wants intimate moments as well. She’s fine with him, how he acts, what an idiot sadistic prick he is, and that he never speaks a lot. He shows, but doesn’t speak, and it’s fine too.

Her stomach feels all too funny. Kagura wishes for a family, and she thinks the Sadist just might be good as a father. Would he be loving? She wonders, would he be a caring kind? Or perhaps, slightly tsundere?

When Gin-chan and Shinpachi ask her why she’s smiling all alone, and so suddenly, Kagura doesn’t explain. She says men are blind idiots.

Them, growing

She waits for when they’re more mature and ready. Her body shows that she’s still a brat at fifteen, and she wouldn’t be able to bear any children at her age anyway; lot of time is ahead for her to enjoy their childish rivalry. As years pass on the Earth— it always go quickly, because really, the Yorozuya always have awesome adventures— she grows.

She’s now a woman, or so everyone deems her to be now. Admiringly, Kagura is beautiful, and as womanly as she wished for. Maybe she just takes after Mami, because she’s got the same model’s body, and a face to be swooned over; long lashes, chiselled face, red lips, and hypnotizing azure eyes. Now, she wants to be noticed by him.

He isn’t much taller than her, but he’s even handsomer than before. His baby-angelic face had left for a manlier Sadist with his hair growing longer. She likes men with long hair so Kagura just likes him even more.

Him, not a prince

She knows Okita is imperfect, and a sadist. The prince of sadists. It doesn’t matter to her when he plays with other women, because Kagura is confident that they don’t mean anything to him and that they never go further than SM plays. He just likes inflicting pain. It doesn’t surprise her when she catches her with a willing M on Edo street. When it happens Okita makes fun of her singleness, she scoffs, sticks her tongue, and then leave them.

She doesn’t need to worry, because if he could have such deep feelings of attachment for Mitsuba or the Gorilla; why would he spoil his first time, and his body with someone meaningless? Kagura nods to herself. She goes to a girl’s shop and buys a pretty Qipao for her to enjoy. She’ll make him see.

When they fight, she knows he’s distracted over her curves. Of course, because they’re not as discreet as before, and she loves feeling pretty to his eyes. She wonders if she should make any moves soon; since he doesn’t make any either. They just fight, sometime eat or discuss together, and separate.

She’s not very patient, so she decides to take the first time when the right opportunity show up.

Her, a rival

Kagura walks onto the streets of Yoshiwara, as she wants to ask Tsukky about her plan to make Okita Sougo definitely grovel at her feet. And maybe proposing, too.

It’s a coincidence when she meets him and a girl entering a hotel. He doesn’t notice, probably because he’s too into ‘it’— the woman with him is really beautiful. She has long wavy honey hair, her eyes are golden, and she wears an equally pretty dark kimono. She seems very sweet, and delicate.

Okita laughs and smiles at her, but not like what he does with Kagura. He looks glad, maybe excited. They enter the hotel, and Kagura is still frozen because she doesn’t expect this to happen in her plan, but she tries to be positive. It may be a woman, an M, since Okita is also a healthy and hormonal man he could be tempted with a pretty girl. It doesn’t mean she have no more chances with him.

The girl is called Miki Sugawara. They met when he saved her from some perverts in the streets, and it’s a coincidence but they have the same preference on sex. Okita says he might be serious this time, because the girl understands him and his desires, and that they have a good feeling together. Besides, he says and grins, she’s more elegant and pretty than any other woman he knows.

Kagura stays silent as he makes fun of her, but the joke is not funny anymore.

She wonders if he only sees her as a rival, and that maybe, when he’s distracted over her body it’s only because she might be challenging in bed, and nothing else. She could only blame herself for reading too much into their bond, but she feels betrayed. She tries to keep the good face still; it won’t do her good to cry in front of him when all hopes are terminated.

“You know, she’s different. She’s an M, but she’s not clingy. She knows when I want to have fun, and when I’m not so I think she’s my ideal wife; or something. I don’t believe in love, but I believe that I hold some affections for her.” He says, and looks at her lost face. “What? Are you jealous because you’re still single China?”

“I’m not!” She argues and gets up. “The Queen of Kabuki-Cho can have anyone; whadd’ya think? It’s just that, well, I’m not like you.”

“What, are you doing to wait for the ‘right one’? You do realize that the perfect prince doesn’t exist.”

“Yes, I know,” she turns her back and bits back a tear, a hesitation. “My perfect prince or whatever, doesn’t exist. Gin-chan’s gonna be worried if I don’t go home. Ja—ne, Sadist!”

Her, disappointed

When she comes to the Yozoruya she’s already spilling all the tears she held down until now. Shinpachi and Gin-chan panick, of course, because she doesn’t cry this much at sixteen. She’s become a fine and a big girl now, but it doesn’t mean she has no weaknesses.

She cries, cries, until there’s no water left to cry. Gintoki and Shinpachi exchange a knowing glance, there may be idiot men in Kagura’s peripheral, but the only one they know is a certain officer. They noticed she has feelings for him, it becomes very obvious with her big grin every time she sees him, and they know it has to do with him if she comes so devastated.

“What’s wrong?” Gintoki pats her head as she trembles on his lap. It’s late night, but he’s ready to hear what happened.

“H-He’s an idiot, Gin-chan! He’s a damned idiot! I-I-I thought we c-could, no, that we w-were something but it’s all wrong. It’s unfair! Why am I the only one in love? Why am I the only one to feel the pain?” He shouts, grips at his kimono. “Never! He’s never seen me like I see him. I’ve been the only one to love, I feel like an idiot.”

“Well, well,” Gintoki sighs. “What should we do Shinpachi? The man must be blind to not fall for our Kagura-chan right?”

“Right, Kagura-chan, he’s an idiot. A big idiot. It’s okay to cry; there’s plenty of other boys in the world! This one doesn’t deserve you.” Shinpachi tries to hold down his hate; because his little sister is crying and in such a state— because of one idiot.

The biggest of all idiots.

“B-But I love him; Gin-chan, Shinpachi, it hurts to not be loved back.” She tries to muffle her hiccups but in the end, she gives up and cries for the night.

When she falls asleep, Gintoki and Shinpachi swear together to beat down the officer the morrow.

Her name

When she wakes up, her eyes are all puffy. She feels dead and tired, but she gets up nonetheless, and tries to think in the solitude of her close; of what to do now. She lost her man yesterday, but it wasn’t the end of her life, and with all the willpower of the world, she tries to think of plans. Maybe, she thinks, she should focus on her career.

Seeing space, fighting aliens of all kind: this should leave her enough time to recuperate from him, and for the scars to be healed. After all, it’s also her childhood dream to follow her father’s steps, and she’s old enough to go and see the wonders of galaxies. She doesn’t want to feel like it’s because of her heartbreak, but it is, and it would be lying to say the contrary. It’s fine, she guesses, to be weak at this kind of times.

Kagura. It’s a prestigious name to be of the Ka— family. She’s born from Kouka, and Kankou, she doesn’t have anything to be complexed about. She’s young, powerful, kind, and pretty so she doesn’t have to envy this Miki.

There are plenty of fishes in the sea, especially in space. She lies to herself, because she knows it doesn’t matter if there are other males in the whole universe; when she wants one especially. An unreachable man, she abandons her ideas with him. They don’t belong together, she understands, and he wants another woman than her so she can’t do anything, but accept.

She tells her closest friends, and Earth family, about her plan. Becoming the best alien hunter there is in the universe; since she’s Kagura. Gin-chan and Shinpachi don’t agree at first because it’s too brisk, and they know why she wants to leave so fast. She convinces them by promising to send them a lot of letters, and that she will come back.

Kagura prepares her bags— there aren’t many— and knows where to start.

She leaves in two days, and tomorrow is going to be her party before she goes up to play with the stars. Anego and everyone plan a big party, but Kagura refuses. She says she wants something less big, and just want to spend fun times before leaving.

Party would mean seeing Okita off, and she doesn’t know if she could take it; if she were to be honest.

Her love, to them

It was a fun day all thorough, everyone is smiling and don’t betray their true feelings. They laugh, they drink, they go to the attraction park, to Yoshiwara and to the pool. Kagura feels like it’s the best day ever, and she won’t be there anymore by tomorrow’s morning. She’s suddenly nostalgic, all these years living on the Earth sure are fun. It’s her favourite, little blue planet, and it’s such a shame she leaves because of one single idiot there.

Love is powerful, indeed.

On the night, they sing songs together at the karaoke. Gin-chan and Shinpachi are grinning with her because it’s not a farewell. It’s …A leave of absence, but she will definitely come back when she would be a recognized alien hunter, as well as when she’ll be able to face a married Sadist.

It’s not ‘Sadist’ anymore, because he’s not hers. Never been hers. He’s Okita, a friend, an ally, and now a regret.

She tries not to think too much of him, or she’ll cry again, and focus back to her family and friends. She’ll remember forever this day.

The morrow, she’s up at six of the morning with all her affairs and Sadaharu, her loyal pet. Everyone but the Shinsengumi’s there for the goodbyes, at the Terminal, she looks brilliant if she believes Gin-chan’s words. They hug one last time— before long— and she goes up on the spaceship with a big grin.

She looks through the windows as Edo becomes smaller, and smaller, until becoming nothing but a stain of colour in the picture. Here is it. She’s really leaving the Earth, her family, her everything, for a new start. She’ll surely learn a lot and gains more experiences in life before she comes back.

She’s saying her goodbye to the big blue planet and wishes for everyone to be well when she returns.

His (un)doubt

Okita thinks he should apologize to China. A week already since they spared last because he wants to deepen his relationship with Miki. They spend the time together, from Edo’s sights and restaurants to shady love hotels together and he feels good. Of course, a bit guilty too because China might just break a building or two if they don’t fight out all of their frustration.

When he comes to the park, at their bench in the afternoon he’s surprised she’s not here. It’s weird because he knows well her routine, and she’s always there— not for him, but sometimes she meets her other friends there or goes to buy Sukonbu. Instead, the wooden door is here and very much empty.

He sighs and comes back to the compound, maybe is she in a request with Danna and Megane. He’ll apologize later. It’s not like China wouldn’t forgive him just because he gave more attention to another girl; they are not anything like that.

He’s back at the compound but turns out Kondo-san is missing, and it’s up to him and Hijikata to go find him. The man’s probably at Boss Lady’s house anyway, so it’s not really a hard task to do. When they arrive, Danna and Megane are beating the gorilla already— probably on Boss Lady’s demand.

“Oi Danna, it’s not that, but we have to recuperate him.” It may be him, but as soon as his words leave his mouth it’s as if the mood tensed. He shrugs it off.

“You should jail him, it’s not our fault if he stalks this gorilla—Ouch! All the time!”

“We can’t do that Danna,” he deadpans, “he’s our chief.” Okita looks around, no red dress in his sight. “Is China not with you? I have to talk to her.”

“Kagura’s gone,” Danna replies dryly, and Okita wonders why he’s suddenly so sour. Men do not have periods. By gone, he doesn’t really understand, is she gone off to a mission? Vacation? Something else?

Kondo-san wakes up and wonders too, “I didn’t hear of the Princess going to any travel, did she visit her family? They’ve made up after all.”

“Kagura-chan is gone for a long time. She left to become an alien hunter a week ago, we don’t know when she will ever come back.”

Her, not here

He learned the news hours ago, but he’s still shocked that his rival’s gone so suddenly. He knows about her dreams, and how she wants to chase aliens in space, but it’s just so unexpected now. But more importantly, there’s something else to this. She didn’t inform him.

She leaves without telling him beforehand; China?

Okita’s not sure on why, or if she just doesn’t care— doesn’t want to bother him? It doesn’t fit her nor sound like something she’d do, and he’s confused. He has mixed feelings about this, it feels suddenly empty to imagine a life without her because he’s so used to her company now that…

He sits on the room, silent, and Yamazaki looks weirdly at him. He feels down because his most important rival doesn’t consider him as important enough to know of her sudden departure, and it hurts for some reasons. If he’s gone to her when he had to leave Edo, why does she not reciprocate?

Hijikata interrupts him with a growl. “You’re the only one not noticing what’s around you.”

“I don’t know what you mean Hijikata-san. Please die. And don’t talk of me.”

“Anyway, what are you doing to do with this other girl?”

“Miki? She’s nice, I’ll keep her for now. Are you interested in my life now, Hijikata-san?” He makes a disgusted face, earning him an even louder growl from the concerned.

“You settling down is a miracle, even if…” He pauses. “Never mind, this Miki girl, are you seriously into her? An officer shouldn’t fiddle around women so easily; it will ruin our reputation.”

“Our boss is stalker Hijikata-san. I’m not into anyone, but this one pleases me enough and can bear me; I don’t see why I shouldn’t settle down with her. I need more time before knowing, but she’s fine.”

Hijikata roses up to his feet and glares at him before closing the door. “I guess it’s not like you need to think twice before choosing now. You can go with this girl.”

Okita stays silent and ponders on what Hijikata-san meant. He doesn’t understand.

Him, missing

Life is less fun when China’s not around to be teased, Okita wonders what she’s doing at the moment; killing some aliens or eating? Maybe both at the same time. On one hand side, he’s still bitter about her not telling him that she’s leaving, and on the other hand, he has his own life to worry about first.

Instead of meeting China, he sees Miki now. The girl is enjoyable to stay with because she doesn’t ask or bother him too much and she knows how to read his mood. He’s not into sweet-looking girls like her, but it doesn’t bother him a bit; since she’s just…Great to be with. Okita doesn’t want a happy-happy marriage life; he just wants to build a family with a comprehensive wife.

She makes a good one but he finds himself less and less glad to meet her. It feels weird to see her face instead of China’s devious grins, dating instead of fighting, it’s as if she’s slipped away from his life without leaving a single trace. Well, it’s wrong. He has traces of her on his body, scars she’s left on him through their rather dangerous sparring.

Miki’s holding his arm, and they’re talking in the main shopping district. He decides to buy a kanzashi that suits her elegant Japanese style, as well as her shiny hair. But he picks on randomly; everything suits her right? He doesn’t need to especially care, and the girl’s happy so no complaints.

He walks with her to a restaurant next, she’s talking of some nice toys she’s seen on the new edition of SM ProMag. She doesn’t even blush at the mention of them; he likes her straight-forward ways with him. No need for PDA.

Straight-forward… China’s still on his mind, and he tries to not remember but the fact she’s not here anymore makes his stomach feels weird and uncomfortable. He apologizes and says he’s not feeling well, pays for the food and leaves.

He notices their relationship, him and China’s is not as good as before. He remembers to be often, if not always, with her and bickering. He wonders when they stopped being this way? Lately she’s always somewhere else, doing something else. Maybe when he started playing around girls.

He’s a bit sour and bitter when he comes to the compound. He feels like he should have enjoyed those moments with her now that she’s not here anymore.

Them, a family

Danna and Megane break into his room. They look angry for unknown reasons, and Okita wonders if Hijikata-san did something, or maybe Kondo-san? If that’s so, he doesn’t know why they broke into his room.

“I’m working here, Danna.”

“The work can wait, you damned idiot.” He’s never seen him so angry, it looks like he could kill him at this instant, and so is Megane. “I just learned from your two bosses that you were playing around a girl.”

“First of all, I’m not playing around her. Second, what’s got you in a bunch Danna? That I’m with a girl? Never knew you harboured homo-homo feelings towards me.”

“You’re…I can’t believe it…” Megane stares hard at him. “Didn’t you know Kagura-chan she…You don’t even deserve to know why she left. Okita-san, we’re going to tell you something. If you ever hurt her ever again, when she comes back, it won’t be settled as peacefully as this time. Gin-san, let’s go, he has no clues.”

“Wait Megane, China? Why did she leave? Wasn’t it to realize her dream?” He asks panicked.

“It’s too late to ask now, you will see when she comes back…If she ever does. But can I ask you a question?” Danna looks at him. “How would you feel if she chooses someone else over you? You know, she’s a pretty girl and surely, she won’t come back alone.”

Before he could answer, both of them were gone.

The question troubles him.

She, changed

It’s only four years later when he sees her in the street, buying Sukonbu of all things.

At first he can’t believe his eyes, that she’s here and standing a few feet ahead of him. He’s mesmerized by her sole presence and stands like an idiot in the middle of the street just to admire her. She’s grown even more but is still shorter than him, and her hair is even longer. There’s only one bun to cover her as the red strands reach her back, on her white dress that shows much of her legs.

She bows to the vendor, an old lady, and upon turning she notices him. China smiles slightly and closes in.

“Long time no see,” her dog barks after. “Okita.”

He feels weird when she calls him like that; he feels distressed over their lack of closeness, but he remembers it’s been four years, and they are not sharing any special bond now. “...Hello to you too, China.”

She looks healthy as ever, but he can’t but notice her eyes that look duller than before. They aren’t as glowing as before, and she bears a calm face that doesn’t suit her at all.

“So...You are back?”

“I thought it was the right time to go visit everyone, but I won’t stay for too long.” He feels like she’s drawing a line between them, and he doesn’t want it. “I still have to see Gin-chan and Shinpachi first, so—”

“Why?” He grabs her wrist and stares, hurt, at her. “You didn’t tell me that you were leaving. You just disappeared like that! Like nothing!”

“You were busy at that time, Okita.”

“But we were...You can’t just leave me outside. We’ve fought countless battles together and against each other. Even if I was busy, I would have gone to see you off.”

China stays silent, she seems mixed before talking again. “It’s not like we would have kept our former rivalry longer, so I thought it wasn’t any use to bother you. Now, I have to go.”

“Can’t we talk more? It’s been four years since I’ve seen you. China. Please.”

“Okita. We are former rivals and friends, but nothing more, and it’s impolite to be so insistent with a girl that’s not your wife. I have important news for Gin-chan and Shinpachi.”

She talks so coldly. He feels the distance between them, and he can’t accept it. He doesn’t want this, after four years; four years!

“Do you hate me? Did I do something wrong back then? Why did you leave?” He feels all the questions he’s been asking with time, but she doesn’t reply.

He feels bad.

“I don’t have any like or dislikeness towards you. For the other questions, I’m not willing to answer.”

“I’ve done something, didn’t I? I know I can be dense when it comes to understanding those around me. Tell me—”

She pushes him away and walks ahead. He feels at loss for any words to describe the inner turmoil he feels at the moment. Something is breaking in his body.

He missed her, but she’s now indifferent towards him, and he can’t understand why.

#gintama #okikagu #okikagu week 2018 #okikaguweek2018 #okita sougo #kagura #fanfic #unrequited love

[sweet-cool-twins]

KyouTen Fanfic: Raimon Jr High Ch 2

Summary: Matsukaze Tenma enrols into Raimon Jr High! Join her on her adventures while she tackles club activities, meet new friends, and fall in love? Plus, the bully, Tsurugi Kyousuke, from her elementary school enrols into Raimon with her! Wait. He's nice now! IEGO Rewritten as a Shoujo High School Romance series. Fem!Tenma, KyouTen and other pairings.FF.net: 

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13237659/2/Raimon-Jr-High

Hm...was it because my upload was on a monday, that’s why there were no notes from tumblr regarding my fic? Well, now I’ve uploaded on sunday, so it should be better! :)

Disclaimer: I seriously, 100%, totally don't even own the charas, their backgrounds, their clothes, their whatever. My name is not Hino and I'm not even Japanese. Lots of genderbend characters. You've been warned.

"You are late, Tenma!" Aoi reprimanded, placing her hands in her hips, after hearing running footsteps coming towards her. They had agreed to meet once break time started. It was already fifteen minutes past that!

"Heh heh...Gomen, Aoi." Tenma stopped in front of the blue haired girl, looking apologetically at her. Aoi continued fiercely staring at her friend before noticing the short brunette girl beside her.

"Aren't you the girl who asked to be the student councilor president's girlfriend just now?" Aoi crouched down to be in the same level as her.

"Yes!"

"You're not embarrassed?" Shinsuke shook her head. Aoi smiled, finding the girl very brave, and introduced herself,

"I'm Sorano Aoi. Nice to meet you!"

"Nice to meet you too, Tenma's childhood friend! I guess you know my name already." Shinsuke rubbed the back of her tilted head while looking down in embarrassment. Aoi smiled back with a wider smile. She stood up and eyed Tenma.

"So how is Tsurugi?" Aoi asked, remembering seeing the bully's name in the class list when they both looked for their new class. She took her friend's hands, worry in her eyes, "Did he demand for your money? Tell me whatever he did to you."

"Eh!? Tsurugi Kyousuke is in our class!?" Shinsuke didn't realize the navy blue haired boy was in the same class as her and Tenma. "Tenma, are you alright?" Aoi looked around, hoping not to spot for any familiar navy blue. She turned back to Shinsuke and placed a finger on her lips, signaling her to soften down her voice. It would be bad if he heard them.

"Ah...he's..." The voice of Tenma lead to the other two girls to face her. Tenma gazed upwards, trying to find a word that best described Tsurugi, "he's changed..."

"Changed?!" Both girls eyes widened, their eyebrows shot up into their bangs. Tenma brought her head back down,

"He didn't do any of those things, the bullying, the beating. He just said hi and then continued on with the lesson." Tenma explained further. Aoi and Shinsuke stared at her for a long time before the blue haired girl touched the brunette's forehead.

"Tenma, don't talk nonsense. This is Tsurugi we are talking about." Aoi said after she removed her hand. She did not seem to have a fever.

"Yeah! It's Tsurugi Kyousuke, Tenma! Is she feverish, Aoi?"

"No. She isn't."

"Girls, I'm telling the truth and I'm perfectly fine! Tsurugi is no longer a bully!" The two stared at her again but their disbelief expression was replaced with worry. Aoi spoke up,

"Tenma, maybe we could let you see a Guidance Councillor at least-"

"I'm telling you the truth! You girls aren't believing in me!" Tenma turned around and briskly stomped back to her classroom. She was mad, how could her friends not believe her!? What she said was true, totally true! Tsurugi seemed to really have changed. She could feel it. Why won't they trust her? Tenma continued down the hallway and was so into her thoughts that she did not hear five girls whispering to themselves as they hid behind a wall, shadowed.

"She's the one, Matsukaze Tenma, big sis!" A short haired girl informed a girl with long, light brown, almost passing for blond, curly hair, and with a pink ribbon headband. The latter was glaring at Tenma with anger stored in her emerald eyes. She seemed to be the leader of the group, judging by the way the short hair girl called her. The leader gripped the wall that her subordinates were sure could break off anytime soon.

"Grrr...curse that girl for stealing my Shindou-sama! I'll make her pay!" The girls around her kept quiet, knowing the next thing she was going to say were orders to get rid of that girl and teach her a lesson for getting close to Shindou Takuto, their idol. The leader grinned, "Lets corner her after school."

Tenma was walking down the hallway after school with her head down, sad about what she had said to her two best friends. She shouldn't have shouted. Who shouts at their friends when they were concerned about their well being? Especially Shinsuke who admires her. Would her image of Tenma still be strong after that outburst? Tenma decided she should apologize.

"Matsukaze Tenma." A voice called from behind. Hearing her name, Tenma turned her head around to find five girls standing in front of her. The four girls at the back and an eye-catching girl, the leader, with curly hair at the front. She had a haughty look on her face as she grinned at Tenma.

"Y-yes...?" Tenma stuttered, something about those five girls told Tenma that she was in big trouble. Very big trouble. The girl's face twisted in disgust, but switched back to her arrogant grin a second later. Tenma guessed this girl does not like her for some reason. That was why these girls were confronting her. Not that Tenma could figure out why. She had never met this girl before.

"Tch. Who do you think you are talking to Shindou-sama!?" S-Shindou-senpai? Were they his fangirls? Tenma did talk to the prince during her break. Were they jealous of her getting his attention? Wait, Shinsuke was there too! She even confessed to Shindou back at the hall. Tenma had to get to her immediately!

"C-calm down. Let's just talk ok?" Tenma was trying to ease the situation while side stepping away from the group to get pass them, but she was cut off by the leader grabbing her uniform.

"No buts girl! You have no right to speak to Shindou-sama!" Tenma shut her eyes, her grip was too tight that it hurt her skin too. Tenma tried to use her hands to remove the grip but to no avail.

"But I-"

"Stop talking!" She threw Tenma to one side, letting her back hit a locker.

"Ah!" Her back hurt, yet Tenma was sure those girl wouldn't let her go just yet. The curly haired leader of the girls bend forward in front of Tenma, and slowly raised her arm back, ready to slap her. Tenma closed her eyes, bracing for impact.

"You'll regret ever getting close to Shindou-sama!" The girl swung her hand down, when a voice shouted,

"Leave her alone!" The palm stopped in front of Tenma, inches away from her face. All of them turned to the voice. A girl stood there, wearing the second year blue ribbon on her Raimon uniform. Her soft and silky pink haired was tied by mint green hair ties to two low pig tails that reached her mid back. Her azure eyes shone under the sunlight, making it looked like the clear blue sea. She stood with her hands on her hips. Tenma's eyes widened. She was the most beautiful girl she had ever seen.

"Tsch. You're lucky, Matsukaze Tenma." The curly haired girl let go and glared at Tenma. She then turned to the newcomer and grinned, "Let's go girls." She flipped her hair and then walk away passed the pink haired girl with the girls following her behind. The pink haired girl ran up to Tenma,

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah...it hurts but I'm ok." Tenma slowly stood up with the help of the second year girl.

"Those girls...They bully any girl who gets is close to Shindou. Even me." The last part was spoken in a harsh and sad tone. The pink haired girl looked down as she said that.

"Eh? They target you too?" Tenma asked, oblivious to the change in the pink haired girl's tone.

"Yeah..." The girl looked back up with a half-hearted smile, trying to get rid of her sad thoughts,

"I don't get why they did this. I've never done anything to steal Shindou-senpai from them. We just met him when Shindou-senpai wanted to apologize to my friend for rejecting her. She's the one who confessed to him in the hall an- Ah!"

"What's wrong?" The pink haired senior jumped from my sudden exclamation. She blinked curiously,

"Shinsuke! My friend who confessed to Shindou-senpai in the hall! She was with me when he apologized to us later during the day!" Tenma explained, "Those girls, they might be targeting her too!"

"You should call her." Her senior replied, but Tenma had already whipped out her phone to dial Shinsuke's number. It rang for a couple of rings before the call was picked up,

"TENMAAAAA! I'M SO SORRYYYYYY!"

"Ah!" Tenma flinched, pulling her phone away from her ear to save her eardrums. She noticed her senior winced as well from the yell.

"I'm sorry for not trusting you! I don't deserve to be your friend! Tenma-san please forgive meeeeeee!" Shinsuke cried from the other line. Tenma smiled. It seemed Shinsuke was not mad at her. And it also seemed that the bullies were not targeting her, but Tenma had to make sure.

"Shinsuke! Where are you right now? Are you okay?"

"Eweh? I'm at home. W-what happened, Tenma-san?" Tenma shook her head, then remembered Shinsuke was not physically here with her,

"Nh hm. Everything's fine now. Some of Shindou-senpai's fans cornered me just now-" She heard Shinsuke taking a breath, about to say something, in which she quickly tried to placate her, "B-but I'm fine, don't worry. A senior saved me." Tenma briefly glanced at said senior, "I was worried they might target you too, so I called."

"Oh. T-Tenma-san, you are so kind!" Shinsuke sounded like she was tearing up. Tenma scratched the back of her head lightly in embarrassment,

"Heheh...It's nothing. That's what's friends do, right? And could you stop calling me with the suffix? I'm not used to that." The pink haired senior grinned at her side, causing Tenma to blush red,

"Tenma-sa-...Tenma. Nhm! We're friends! Heheh." Tenma could almost see Shinsuke's nod. Tenma was so glad she still valued their friendship. "About Tsurugi, I'm sorry for what happened today. I believe in you, Tenma! If you say he's changed, then he has!" Tenma blinked. Shinsuke believed her! She trusts that Tsurugi has changed from his bullying ways.

"Shinsuke...Thank you." Tenma said with teary eyes sincerely.

"No problem, Tenma."

"A-anyway, I have to go now. I'm glad you're alright, Shinsuke. Let's talk tomorrow okay?"

"Of course Tenma! See you tomorrow!" There was a short pause before the line clicked off.

"That's your friend Nishizono Shinsuke right? The one who confessed to Shindou this morning." The senior piped up once the call ended. Tenma nodded,

"I wonder why Senpai's fangirls didn't confront her." Tenma fingered while looking down at her phone, deep in thought. The pink haired tapped her chin in a thinking pose,

"Well I guess the reason why is because Shindou rejected her, so they have no need to target her as Shindou doesn't like her."

"Eh? But Shindou-senpai apologized to Shinsuke after that! That's why they targeted me because they saw me with Shindou-senpai! Shinsuke was there too!"

"Uhm...maybe she was too short that they couldn't see her but only you?" That made both of them burst into laughter. It was true, Shinsuke was very short for a middle schooler, "I see that you can stand well. I'll be going now." The girl picked up Tenma's school bag and handed it over to her.

"Thanks." Tenma took it and the girl dashed off, "Ne, what is your name!?" The girl stopped running and turned around to face Tenma,

"Kirino Ranmaru!"

"I'm Matsukaze Tenma! Thanks for saving me!" A smile graced Kirino's lips, and then she dashed off. Tenma watched her leave, even her name was beautiful. Tenma then turned around and walked in the direction of her home.A little note written by my past self :P, but with some slight edits by my current self cuz some explanations just don't make sense -cries-. My plan was for Tsurugi to save her. I'm trying to follow the typical Shoujo High School Romance cliché, and it's usually the love interest saving the main character from bullies. So Tsurugi would have been the best to interfer. Especially if I wanted to showcase that he's a better person than before. But I wanted Kirino to come in sooner because I love him and also, in my dream (I didn't really state properly before but this entire fic was created from my dream), Tenma somehow knew who Kirino is. So I decided she should appear in here. I did add a bit of a past between the leader of Sindou's fangirls and Kirino. And before you guys think too overboard. They were not friends in the past, they were not fighting each other for Shindou's love and the leader's not Shindou's fiancée. If there's anymore dramatic guesses, no. Thank you all for reading! If you liked this chapter, please leave a review. It would be much appreciated and would really give me the boost to churn out the next chapter :)

#KyouTen #matsukaze tenma #tsurugi kyousuke #fem!tenma #takuran #MasaHika #MinaKura #genderbend #too many pairings to tag #yuutai #inazuma eleven go #inazuma eleven fanfic #Inazuma Eleven #Not Gazelle-sama