#i got stressed for a sec that there was stuff from the outline of this scene i hadnt got to but like i probably dont need them bc i | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

aeempress · 3 years

Text

Apritello Express Evidences, part 3

Apritello, my dear friends, is really all hints, devil in details, little pieces that, in the end, become a huge picture.

I can't say that there are a lot of episodes with April and Donnie spending quality time together, no. But all episodes are important to understand how their relationship are involving, growing. If you have sharp eyes and think about all of this even a little bit, you will be surprised how gracefully their relationship changes and grows, how characters evolve.

Dear passengers, we're about to start. Mind the gap!

Episodes “The Gumbus” and “Mrs. Cuddles”.

I think it would be appropriate to analyze these episodes in bunch, because they have common situations of spooky supernatural stuff and reactions of characters to this.

When you watch these two eps in raw, it's easy to see how alike are reactions of Donnie and April in some scary, really odd situations.

Adrenaline ‘n’ reclessness

April is really into all spooky things in “The Gumbus”, she's not afraid of some creepy stuff and she's really brave girl who easily copes with stressful and life-threatening situations.

Donnie is incredibly calm and collected when alive doll talked to him.

But still, April was frightened about plush rabbit because it was really unexpected for girl, she wasn’t ready to realize that plush doll that she’d worked with is alive fear-eating monster who will hurt and intimidate to get their precious screams. But point remains: Donnie and April share crazy fearlessness, which turns into an adrenaline addiction.

And here I am, a science guy, who tell you: adrenaline is a big deal for our body. This hormone can even provoke an onset of romantic feelings. Chemistry and anatomy come to fill the gaps: when a person is afraid, their pulse quickens, a cocktail of hormones is releasing into the blood, which sharpen the senses and reflexes. It will create a strong emotional bound, that's important for maintaining romantic kind of feelings. The more impressions there are (even negative ones), the higher the chance that person will remember his|her partner, and want to see them again – the body gets hooked on adrenaline, like a drug.

That’s why D&A have so strong, unshakeable boundaries. They are so alike: their attitude to scary things, the way Donnie and April cope with them, the adrenaline addiction their share. They even express feelings the same way.

And one tiny detail: April and Donnie start the teasing Raph for his fear of mrs. Cuddles. So they become the first victims of plushie.

Friendly reminder: they were the 1st victims, and what’s happened with them we don’t know, because it wasn’t shown due to not ruin the atmosphere of suspense.

But we have a beautiful quote of mrs. Cuddles and this precious shot which explain everything

Raph: Where’s Donnie?

Cuddles: In a happy place where he’ll scream and I can grow forever and now you’re gonna join him!

In a happy place, huh? Tied up with April in Splinter’s bedroom, a really happy place. Hold a sec, are they -

And after that Donnie’s responding is killing me.

Donnie:[OS] I'm afraid of togetherness.

Yep. All normal here. We should continue.

"Operation Normal" even though doesn't show a lot of interactions between April and Donnie, however continues the general outline highlighting the topics that were mentioned earlier in the show.

Firstly, April's relationship with her classmates. We're able to see how poor her scholar life is in "Hypno Part Deux" and "The Purple Jacket". She has no "normal", human friends except some strange remora guy, more like acquaintance than friend, though. But still, having "be normal" kick she's fine with Donnie's weirdness ( Mikey is always beyond all normal comprehension, Raph goes weird while he's alone, without brothers, and his fear of miss Cuddles is no big deal to fam, Leo didn't show any weird stuff during the series, like, reeeeal weird, m'kay?).

Conversation between April and Donnie at pizza spot

Really interesting and smooth scene. We’ve got Donatello who stares at April while he’s waiting his favourite pizza, no big deal.

And his legs.

If a person is interested in you, during a conversation, they will put their right foot forward (a left-handed person is more likely to put their left foot forward) in order to close the distance between you. - Check.

being in company, peson will point the sock at the most pleasant interlocutor for them. - check.

April’s legs are ponted at Donnie. Checkmate.

Yeah, April is hanging out with Donatello and Leonardo, but the main focus of hers is on Donnie.

All these scene makes me think that Donnie, knowing about how badly sometimes April wants to be normal, is up to help her overcome this. Fight fire with fire: fill up her life with all of this weird, mystic stuff so it will be normal with time. Regular people go to pizza spot to spend some quality time together, so we have pizza restaraunt here, in Hidden City. Make all odd normal, and problem will solved.

Donnie really tries his best, look at his face. Dee’s fine with all this bizzare things what happens to April, he’s fine with her. But still he fails, because April’s concept of normalcy differs drom Donnie’s.

And again, for Donnie it’s not a problem at all. He’s always was at the opposite side of normalcy and it doesn’t matter for him if April is in the same boat with him. Cause, as I said, Don’s fine with that.

Second, how much Donnie knows about April.

- Scoff! Are you really still on this whole "I want things to be normal" kick?

- Yes, what big city girl doesn't have a kayak and has hazmat suit?

Interesting detail here: this line launches Donnie’s flashback (because the first scene is from “Purple Jacket”, it’s Dee’s episode, obviously). And Don, as far as I can tell, has in his flashback moments with April when she did something reaaally impressive. His face is way more louder than any words.

- Short answer: no. Long answer: nnooooooooo.

- Oh, no! You know how April freaks out around the cosplay wizards!

These tiny lines are containing a lot of background, stories, intimate conversations that April and Donnie share. This show always does the same trick: we never see a direct action, we are only able to see a result or statement of the result. But series do a great work telling us with such small and imperceptible gestures that their bonding at this point is mutual. Not only D tells April about his inventions, family and fam's issues he has and even his falls, mistakes and failures. April does the same thing, sharing with Donatello one of the most important things to her. Problem that really bothers her.

C'mon, he'd even memorized Sunita's name, though April messed up with this situation a bit. It seems Donnie memorizes facts about April - he remembered the wi-fi password from old April's work as we can see in "The Longest fight" (he could hack it easily, he's a genius, why he's been keeping in mind some piece information that useless for a year? It doesn't make any sense)

Oh, and that. Just a coincidence, I guess?

Just alike suits, no big deal. Plus, the whole family has it (and something tells me that guys have suits at the behest of Don, so probably April does). But Donnie and April has a lot in common like emotional expressions, reaction about some kind situations, fight style and even tastes in fashion.

Also, it seems like Donnie's been watching April for sometimes.

While Leo was hiding in trash can, to not catch anyone's eye rather than April. He definitely couldn't know who was passing by, but there was Donnie to observe from above. That's why he was hanging down the stairs when Leo spoke to April.

It’s not the first time Donnie dress up as old lady to monitor April’s day.

Leo: Why do you always make us dress up as old ladies? Donnie: №1: confort, №2: to blend in as we monitor April’s day for max normalcy.

3. Even when D took away this cosplay wizard, he's still keeping eye on her.

Oh no, you don’t. Grandmas here!

Donatello changes his foe to save April exactly. He fought all evening with Brutus, but when April slightly gets in danger, Donnie just attacked anyone who has intention to hurt her and ruin her evening.

Is that a flying turtle in an old purple dress?

April, who all evening was trying to look “normal”, hiding her real friends because they are mutant turtles and pretending that nothing unusual happens here, finally gives up when Sunita mentioned Donnie. Even though new April’s friend has asked her before about Leo.

His eyes.

Donnie is really impressed but what he saw, and the reason - April O'Neil.

The episode "Warren & Hypno, sitting in a Tree" is another incredible piece of whole picture.

Turtle tank is decorated for April birthday in purplish scheme, definetely Donatello's work.

Dee's nonverbal speech.

• He seems more interested and softer than usual looking at April. It's easy to say comparing him with brothers. Mikey is in anticipation of fun mode, Leo relaxed and show his "whatever it will be fun" attitude, Raph is listening carefully, but still, Donnie could just turn his head in April's vouce direction, not a whole body.

• Warren felt Don's gaze while talked with April, so worm made the remark. Pay attention to the construction of the frame of neighboring scenes. The second frame is April's perspective. And Don is looking namely at her.

Indignation. Disappointment. Spark, storm, madness (i love this russian meme, sorry not sorry)

• Donnie seems sincerely sorry for this situation with April's b-day. And again, this soft gaze and "Raph, shut the shell up, your nonsense is upsetting her"-eyes.

• Donatello is kind of person, who’s avoiding a proper confrontation, so he rarely stands up for someone. He were remaining silent, when Raphael tried to cheer April in the most radiculous way, but when Hypno tried to play with April’s feelings, Donnie blew it.

He’s obviously in wrath as D emote that expressively. Yeah, he had much on his plate at April’s birthday, but it’s her b-day on the line, not his pride.

Warren used April, playing with her fan feelings. Her idol betrayed her, she was locked up in a cage, and now we have Hypno who wants to use her again by pitting and pushing for her compassion, because, it’s obvious - boys would do everything she said.

And Donnie tries to keep Hypno away from her, protect her feelings from another betrayal.

As he’s already stated - “For you, anything”.

The show always tells us: if you wanna trigger Don, bring April in.

Hypno tried to turn this thing around, Leo did the same in “Al be back”.

If Hypno-tamus did that accidentally as he found out that April O’ Neil is a birthday girl, so her wishes that day were laws, Leo did it on purpuse.

Leo is good at manupulating and pulling some strings, plus he knows his twin as back of his hand. That’s why Leo mentioned April in the end as she was always the most powerful argument, the reason and motive for Donnie. At second he’s even panicked, but remained calm. He almost blew up his coolheaded image because of one certain girl in yellow.

• Donnie is really happy to present Warren's arm to April. He even holds it like a rare, priceless treasure. D is really proud of himself right now: he saved the day, after all. The emotional reaction of hers is exactly what Donnie wants to get. And then, his final pose, while April is on 9th cloud from happiness - that's really territorial gesture, D claims his supremacy and confidence, telling "See? That's my happy birthday girl".

Leapfrog with a composition

Donnie and April are more and more eager to be together in the frame. Composition’s boners, m’kay.

Special ride for April

Yeah, Donnie used to offer his battleshell to give April a special ride. It even has a seat and handlebars for her comfort. She can control the flight as well as Donatello, they are like co-pilots. But he never carried her on his back before.

Usually, April is carried by Raphael, on his neck/shoulder, and she’s fine with it. Raph is strong enough to carry her without any difficulties or slowing down.

It’s not Donnie’s weak to carry her - no, he strong enough to carry his battleshell with a lot stuff in it everyday, Don can carry Splints on his shoulder without any apparent difficulty. He strong enough to hold the weight of his battleshell+April. Oh, c’mon, D assembled the Turtle tank only by himself and this for sure requires a lot of physical strength in order to engage in auto mechanics. Try lifting the wheel with tyre, and you'll see what I mean. Of course, there is a jack, but it will not solve all the problems. Don could use hydraulics and Archimedes ' laws, but I'm sure he did most of it with his own hands. Lifting and carrying, all by himself.

Not the strengh what’s matter but another point.

The sequence where Donnie carries April on his back doesn’t last long, it’s pretty easy to miss, while Raph openly do that with April on him.

Plus April’s gaze: she’s staring right at us with her “ninja-eyes” as if they were caught in the middle of something. The duration and length of the sequence, the way it is made all of this arouse certain thoughts.

It’s like nobody should see this. Too personal. To be more specific - too close and intimate?

Donnie stated a few times that he’s not into togetherness, tactile interaction and phisical side of contacts. Although he's fine with his brothers, don't forget that April is a girl. Even if she feels like part of family, she’s not his relative. She’s not his sister.

Some people tend to avoid physical contact with the objects of their interest. And this behaviour fits in Don’s character. He’s anxious type with a lot of psychological and emotional issues. Yeah, he tries to cover it up, built a shell to protect himself, behave as confident extravert but he’s nothing like that. Sometimes D tends to distance himself from his family, to hide in his shell, and we've seen that throughout the show.

Don hangs by his phone quite often, he addicted to this as his comfort zone, his peaceful cave, where everything is much easier,

Don pretends he’s so busy with his science stuff to ward off his brothers (ep. Mind Meld),

Don went to the lab to work on his projects, while he could hang out with April and the brothers (ep. Mrs. Cuddles). And he left for what? To work on self-cleaning tooth pick, or the titan bust of himself? It’s seems like lame excuse to be alone. He’s definetely an intovert, who sometimes needs some space and time with himself.

All his cocky behaviour is showing off to hide insecure, diffident and vulnerable creature, softshell purple turtle. Yeah, Donnie has confidence in what he’s great in: tech, science stuff, where he’s only one is capable of. But if someone steps on his domain or doubts his authority, his true colours exposed.

And, once again, “Mind meld” is a great evidence of that. Would callous, unsumpathetic guy without heart have a wall with pictures of his fellows? I’m afraid not. Donnie has a soft, caring heart.

There’s an alley of his the dearest moments, because photos - are always memory, precious moments we want to keep.

1 - from “Minotaur Maze”. Don loves good pizza, loves his brothers, and they have a little adventure together. Yeah, this photo isn’t on champ wall, but still.

2 - from “Mascot melee”. Important day for bros as they show themselves to people at daylight to rescue Raph and their operation to buy a new robe for his father. It’s their joint brothers dance, and D is loving to dance, remember? Definetely special occasion.

3 - from “Mascot melee”. Splints was really glad to receive a gift from boys. And Donatello, as we know, is always eager to achive for pop’s approval. This for sure must be in his precious moments collection.

5, 7 - from “Donnie’s gifts”. He even keeps a dorky photo, which Raph uses as profile pic at Donnie’s number.

8, 9 - “Down with the sickness”. It was funny to survive all the 7 stages to achive what boys wanted. They failed, but still.

10 - from “Al be back”. Who knows that Splints is so good at singing?

4, 6 - from “The Fast and the Furriest”. Strange choice, cuz, you know, photos ten seconds before his collision with April bat?

And yeah, he HAS April’s photo here. And at this pic it’s April, and April alone,without his brothers.

Don’s a real softie, see?

And avoiding physical contact is a way to protect Donnie’s already shattered self-esteem. To not cause any doubts in front of girl which he’s interested in. That’s possible reason why we did not receive any heartwarming hugs in “The Purple Jacket”.

But Donnie carries April, because it’s her birthday. On the one hand, the girl claims that her b-day is cursed, and Donnie could, by any chance, do something nice for her, and on the other hand - any request of the bithday girl - is the law, as we could see earlier.

Gift for birthday girl

There is no Donnie in the scene after Draxum throw off Warren's arm. While Raph comfort April about her birthday, Donnie was looking for it to present it to April.

He knows the best what is the most precious gift for her. Warren Stone, her idol, goat of making news; she have been in Stoneheads fanclub for 9 years. Also, it seems that Donnie is the one of turtles, who collected info about this worm.

Also, he stopped immediately when April stepped between them and show no disappointing (remind you about Donnie's sadistic science guy nature). The reason is April.

And another cute detail: their glasses are the same form.

Another episode "Mystic library" has slightly touched D&A interaction. But were talking about Apritello, it's all hints but quality.

When Mayham trapped in the mirror and Raph, Leo and Mikey obviously are not coping, April decides to call Donnie to clear situation up.

Donnie, mister "I ruin everything", she's going to call for help. I repeat this. April calls for help Mr. Science to solve mystic problems with her pet. MYSTIC PET.

And he AGREES.

Turtles dissuade their friend from calling Donatello but after a while, April returns with Donnie, and sees the bathroom in ruins.

I'm gonna clear this moment.

1. April haven’t called Donnie.

2. Some time later she returns with Dee.

3. Our girl is pretty shocked to see her bathroom in ruins, argo she didn't see/hear Raph chose to solve problem with smashing.

It must mean only ine thing: April went for Donnie by herself. We don't know where was he, we don't know what the reason April brought Donnie with her by herself, 'cause we know that if she call Dee, he will definitely get to her immediately.

Something is definetely off.

By the way, April changed Don’s profile pic.Yeah, the first one is very informative since Donnie is a turtle and he’s purple and he has bandana. Seems like April have done it by herself, editing the photo of real turtle. She didn't put a lot of effort into this, this image doesn't show her real attitude towards Don. But second is more personality-tinged. Sleeping Donatello in all his gear - this detail can tell us about only one thing - he was photographed when he fell asleep after his sleepless night(s) working hard at something - is something she can catch or receive by boys (namely speaking, it’s Leo, according to Ben Schwartz stated in an interview, that if Leo had an Instagram account, that 60 to 70% of his photos would be his brothers caught sleeping or slipping on things). And still. April has a dorky and little embarrassing pic of Donatello and this is... Interesting and cute?

This profile pic remind me about ROTTMNT: Sound off! (2nd issue)

The next station is “The Purple Game”.

Another episode in which the interaction of the characters is small in timing, but great in content.

And once again: they have a lot in common. I’d never tired of repeating this thing ‘cause the series do the same trick, showing one thing from different points of view. April and April shares the same taste in games, the same attitude, the same mojo.

But the most important thing here is how D&A interacrions are shown in this episode. Unlike other episodes, the interaction here is indirect, is provided by gaming.

Their customized avatars reflects their personality. I mean, the colour schemes (though Donatello has never shown any interest in yellow, he used it for customization of his persona), the way their avatars looking. Game even refering to Sherlock_Corn as “she”, albeit it’s impossible to refer to her avatar in female pronoun. Because, you know, design and nickname?

And the in-game interaction of the avatars resembles D&A irl relationships. Bootyyyshaker 9000 don’t like togetherness, he’s looking like Donnie’s expectation of himself (cool and tough guy, as D sees himself in his own dreams)

Their dialogue

Actually. Actually, Donnie and April are not able to hear each other as game has no voice chat, but their lines make an perfect dialogue nevertheless.

April:Bootyshaker9000? Donnie?

Donnie:April? You’re the last person I need to destroy to achive rank №1!

April:Ditto!

Both:There can only be one!

Donnie said the cheat combination, so April would know for sure what he is supposed to do, but she has no idea.

So, once again: their sync is incredible.

And can we talk about that?

April’s attack

As it seems, attacks may be customized by players. Bootyyshaker has attack that refers at Donatello main feature - superior intellect.

And this attack isn’t effective, because REAL April O’Neil has a resist towards it. She has known D for years, she knows what he’s capable of, she’s aware of his nerd side. April’s immune to it, so Sherlock_Corn is.

Sherlock_corn has a default attack - kernel cannon. It’s nod to her nickname: kernel, corn, the same book. But her second atteck is something reflecting her personalitiy. Plus, April is aware of Donnie’s “fear” of togetherness. All’s fair in love and war, right?

April took a lot of BS9000 hp by her “friendly hugs”. And, by the way, his sweet reaction for hugs.

So:

The selection of the final opponent. It might be literally anyone, but we wouldn’t be able to see Dee’s obsession in that case. Yeah, he’s already had a demon possesion ™, but it was too easy to him to win. No challenge. No “kill or be killed”, “It’s me or you” mojo. He needed some tough gamer for challenging, to develop his character, push him too far. And April, actually, is an excellent choice to reveal the character of certain purple turtle.To expose his true colours. And April do a great job: they know each other, so battle will be spicy, they are both compepitors, they are so alike, so it would be intersting to watch Donatello vs April. And it will, ‘cause In-game April and In-game Don is somewhat different than them usual.

April is Don’s slayer for sure. She’s good at gaming, her last attack was almost fatal for him. So he had to to cheated on her.

Captain Cuddlecakes. Yes, she know about his afraid of togetherness. And there’s lovey-dovey attack animation with this cuddling and Donatello’s persona behaves like him. And it was SPECIAL RUN, so... I haven’t the foggiest why. Cute detail, I mean.

Just look at it. Isn’t it cute?(at least we got their hugs somewhere... kinda. kinda.)

“Snow Day“, albeit being family episode, shows a lot about D&A relationship through “family war”.

First of all, the same taste in films.

Donnie’s already shown the same attitude to fashion, scary things as Cap O'Neil, April shares the same gamer’s mojo as Donatello, but now? We have Donnie and April that are loving the same movie.

For love of purple supernovas, of all the Jupiter Jim’s movies (and there are more than 60 of them), that's a convinient coincidence, they like the same movie.

It stated in series several times that Dee is fond of Atomic Lass. He had crush on her when he was child, he admires her by all his heart, so it will make sense if films with this character he would be his favourite. It’s logical, isn’t it?

Atomic Lass, even if she is part of JJ-universe, however, isn't in every movie. Leo described "JJ: Pluto vacation IV" and there is no sights of Atomic Lass. Like, at all.

Nevertheless, April’s claimed that “PV-4” is the best movie of the time, and Don agrees.

April:What the whaaaat? Hold up, Skip. “Jupiter Jim Pluto Vacation 4″ is the best JJ movie of all time.

Donnie:Ranked, by us, just now. So it’s basically official, no arguing.

And they do this thing again. Reflecting each other. Facial expressions, intonations, poses and etc. Haven’t I mentiones that? Mirroring is natural way to build communication. People, who communicate enthusiastically, who have sympathy to each other, feelings of certain nature, unconsciously copy each other's poses.

Direct reflection and close contact have a strong effect. This is used between lovers, people with close relationships or interested in each other.

And you can see that during not only episode, but through the whole series.

Poses, gestures, facial expressions they share constantly. Even if they are apart, they are mirroring each other, showing their bound. Because Apritello is not always about sitting close, holding hands and blushing. Apritello is about staying together even if they are not. It’s about solid foundation, about synergy, about chemistry Donnie and April share. And all of these are not always so obvious and clear, evident. But so realistic nevertheless.

And that’s why they splitted off the fam - they are too close and alike.

I stated it before but DonniexApril team is way more effective than Donniexbrothers team. Donatello and April are equal, worth each other. They are comfortable with each other, their teamwork is amazing.

They are always near, close to each other for the entire episode. Stand up for each other, side by side. They have no need to do team-building, because their sincronization is incredible. April works well together with Donnie, their skills compliment each other.

I love that April in a first place look at Donnie to check is everything alright.

And a cherry on top?

This inviting gesture. Donnie just watched all along how his brothers and April try to throw some cold water on this situation (khem, it slipped). But when April call him with this inviting gesture, he’d like to help.

In other words, he was waitng when April requests for his help.

Composition’s boners

Sometimes it happens during the show, but this episode beat hte score at this point. I say only one word: physics. Or, more precisely, the force of attraction. Or, maybe Mayham.

... Anyway.

Fitting in the type

April can play not so nice against her enemies, she got steady hand and meanness, merciless and reclessness. She’s passionate and kinda badass, sassy - in a positive way, she’s baddest girl who can kick your butt if you mess with her, and she really good at this.

She has a fire, and Donnie likes that. Dee never stated that directly but miss O’Neil impressed him so many times and in different way so it’s kinda pretty obvious.

Just look how Donatello reacted the way April took Raph down a peg. Her actions are elegant, relaxed but really sly. She almost dare Raph to put his flag on top only to bring him down to Earth in really painful way. She destroyed Bros’ team so easily just by waiting a bit and by calling Mayham.

She’s definetely got some pepper.

Pretty cute but baddest, don’t you think?

And Donnie was impressed for sure, he admitted it - “That is fun for me”. He don’t even stand a chance, c’mon: she’s smarass and elegant, she can be mean and cute at the same time.

Even though that’s it for season 1 analysis (the last series is more appropriate to review as part of 2nd season, plus it was a reaally big post, I need some time)

You can refresh this whole situation in the car 1 and the car 2 or follow the hashtag #apritello express as you please. It’s a pleasure of mine, keep in touch :)

87 notes · View notes

theres-an-impulstor-among-us · 3 years

Note

I’m back! With more oneshot suggestions! Woo!

Please, if you have the ability to, supply me with alter brainrot. Here’s a basic plot outline (I always come prepared lol):

BadTimes has finally been banned. After years of antics with his counterpart, he finally stepped over the line. He doesn’t know what he did, all he knows is that it was too much. He gets dragged out of the void by EX and Hels, who also want to apologize to their counterparts. The three set out on a short flangsty journey of misunderstood-ness and attempts at proving themselves worthy of forgiveness.

;)

Now THIS was a lot of fun to write! Ended up being very long tho so I’m sorry about that, but I hope the quality is still good. I also hope you like the ending, even though it went off in a different direction than I originally intended :)

...

“He’s there! He’s right there! Just grab him!”

“It’s harder than it looks, okay?! Back off!”

He gasped as he felt himself get wrenched back into existence. Stumbling as his feet touched the ground, he pitched forwards and would have fallen over if he hadn’t been caught by a pair of strong arms.

“Easy, man,” came a British-accented voice. “Easy. Just breathe, alright? Breathe.”

He took in a few gulping breaths, his oxygen-starved lungs drinking in the fresh air, and closed his eyes against the dizziness that was threatening to topple him. He widened his stance slightly, his shaky legs strengthening by the second.

Finally, he opened his eyes and found himself looking at two people. One was wearing a familiar helmet and the other was dressed in full armour. They both looked almost exactly like two people he knew very well.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“You first,” said the helmeted one, identifying them as the British-accented one who had caught him earlier.

“My name is BadTimesWithScar,” he said. “You can call me BadTimes, or just Bad.”

Bad could see a spark of interest in the helmeted person’s eyes, even through the visor. “You’re GoodTimesWithScar’s evil counterpart?” They circled Bad, looking him up and down. “I guess I should’ve expected that, huh? Considering you look almost exactly like him.”

“In that case, am I to assume you guys are Xisuma and Welsknight’s evil clones?” said Bad.

The helmeted being nodded. “Sure am. I’m Evil Xisuma, but you can call me EX.”

“Hi, I’m Helsknight,” blurted out the armour-clad one. “I like rap battles and medieval-style architecture.”

Bad stared at him.

“I’ve been making him do group therapy,” EX explained tiredly. “He was utterly obsessed with violence and destruction when he got here. It got a little too much to handle after a while.”

“Speaking of which, where is “here”?” Bad asked, staring around at the blank world they were standing in.

EX shrugged. “It doesn’t really have a name. It’s the place I ended up after I got banned by Xisuma.”

“B-Banned?! Wait a sec…” Bad frowned as memories came back to him. “How did I get here?”

“Well, I pulled you out of the void,” said EX. “That’s where people go when they get banned.” They jerked their thumb at Hels. “I fished him out of the void too a few weeks ago.”

“I tried to kill them,” said Hels helpfully.

EX nodded wearily. “He did.”

“Wait, wait.” Bad stared at the two in shock. “Does this mean… I’VE been banned?!”

“Yup.” EX spread their arms wide. “Welcome to the banishment club.”

“What did you do to get banned?” Hels asked eagerly. “Did you destroy stuff? Kill someone? Try to take over the server? I did that, by the way.”

“I…” Bad hesitated, his shoulders drooping. “I don’t know.”

Frowning, EX and Hels exchanged a look. “How do you not know?” the former asked slowly. “Surely you must have done something bad enough to get flung into the void permanently.”

Bad shook his head. “Look, you guys are legendary on the server. So legendary I didn’t even believe you existed. Everyone knows the evil stuff you guys did to get banned, but I’m not like that. I like spreading mischief and pranking people. That’s what I exist to do; it’s literally what Scar created me for. So the fact that I’ve somehow crossed the line without even realising what I did is beyond worrying.” His eyes widened in fear. “Oh no, did I hurt Scar?! Oh no, oh no… I gotta… I gotta go apologise to him!”

EX caught him by the wrist as he tried to dash off. “Hold on, there. You’ve been banned, remember? You can’t just waltz back onto the server.”

“There has to be another way!”

“There is, there is.” EX gave him a serious look. “But it’s risky. Going back to a server you’ve been banned from can be more trouble than it’s worth. If someone sees you before you get the chance to talk to Scar… Well, let’s just say there’s worse punishments than just being banned.”

“I have to see Scar,” said Bad determinedly. “I have to find out what I did and apologise for it. Are you two gonna help me or not?”

After a moment, EX said, “I’m up for sneaking back onto Hermitcraft. I’d like to apologise to Xisuma for… uh… the incident that got me banned. What about you, Hels?”

“I just wanna have another rap battle with Wels,” Hels said.

Bad frowned at him. “Are you… you know… alright? In the head?”

Hels stuck up both his thumbs. “Nope!” he said cheerfully. “Thinking about rap battles and medieval-style architecture is the only thing keeping my taste for blood at bay.”

A pause followed his words.

“Wonderful,” EX sighed. “Remind me to join you in group therapy next time; it doesn’t seem to be working all that well. Anyway, time to sneak back onto Hermitcraft. Let’s get going.”

…

“Are you sure this is the right way?” asked Bad, unable to see even his companions in the pitch black tunnel. “Who even put this tunnel here? And where does it lead?”

“I’m not taking questions about secret tunnels and whether or not I know where I’m going,” came EX’s voice from the front of the group. “Something tells me the answers won’t alleviate your fear.”

Thoroughly unnerved by this, Bad leant forward slightly to address Hels, who was walking between him and EX. “Hey Hels, what are you gonna do when we get back to Hermitcraft?”

“I’m gonna apologise to Wels for trying to take over the server, explain to him that group therapy has helped me calm my bloodlust, and then destroy him in a rap battle.”

Bad sighed quietly. “Well… at least you’ve got a plan.”

“Up here,” called EX after a few more minutes.

Light was starting to shine through the end of the tunnel. As Bad followed EX and Hels out, blinking against the light, he recognised the place they had ended up.

“Wait, is this the Mycelium Resistance headquarters?” he said.

EX shrugged. “Don’t ask me; I’ve never been in this world before. I got banned on the last one and I’ve never had a reason to sneak back. That being said, what on earth is the Mycelium Resistance?”

“Oh, it’s a loooong story. But the good thing is nobody uses this base anymore, so we should be safe down here if we need to flee from an angry mob of Hermits. Which we will.”

“That’s the spirit,” EX responded wryly. “So which way out?”

Bad led the other two towards the giant hole in the wall. “We can get out this way. I remember Scar brought me down here to show me the excellent work he and his government buddies did at destroying the rebel base.”

“Government?” repeated EX confusedly.

“Oh, yeah, Scar’s the mayor. You didn’t know that?”

EX shook their head. “Like I said, I’ve never been in the Season 7 world. Not properly, anyway. Not enough to know the ins and outs of what’s going on.”

The group made it to the surface of the shopping district. Bad could see the town hall nearby. “Okay, I’m gonna go see Scar.”

“Good luck,” said EX. “I’ll wander around and see if I bump into Xisuma.”

“I’ll take you to his flower farm,” Hels offered. “I went there once to hide from Wels and steal some flowers. Didn’t work; he caught me and banned me.”

“Well, hopefully history won’t repeat itself.”

Bad left his new friends behind and headed to the town hall, keeping a wary eye out for any Hermits nearby. He didn’t see anyone around, but that didn’t mean nobody was there.

But thankfully, he made it to the town hall undetected and entered quietly. He found Scar just inside, polishing the diamond throne. The mayor glanced up, his eyes widening when he registered his evil clone standing there. “Bad? Oh my gosh, I… What happened to you? Where’s your hat?”

Bad’s hands flew to his head, realising for the first time that he didn’t have his hat anymore. “It must have fallen off in the void. Scar, I got banned and I don’t know why.”

“You were banned?! And you still came back here?!” Scar shook his head. “You need to leave before Xisuma finds you.”

“But I-!”

“No, just go! Before we get into trouble.”

“I just want to know why I was banned,” said Bad desperately. “Then I’ll go right back to where I came from and I’ll never bother you again. I promise.”

Scar hesitated, a conflicted look on his face. Finally, he said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t actually think X was gonna do it.”

Bad frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Back during the war, I was under a lot of stress. I did things I’m not exactly proud of. Eventually, I realised that what I was doing… was making me more like you. I couldn’t handle that, so I went to Xisuma and asked if he could get you out of the way so people didn’t notice I was turning into you. I didn’t-.”

“Wait, wait, wait…!” Bad waved his hands to stop his counterpart. “Let me get this straight… You got me banned because you were afraid you were becoming evil, like me?”

Scar nodded slowly. “I swear, I didn’t think he was actually gonna ban you.”

“What else did you expect the server admin to do?!” snapped Bad.

“I don’t know! I’m sorry, Bad, really!”

“If you’re really sorry, then go to Xisuma and explain you want me unbanned!”

To Bad’s surprise and dismay, Scar shook his head. “I can’t do that. I’m sorry, but I’m the mayor; a good mayor now. A good mayor can’t have an evil clone of himself on the server anymore. I really am sor-.”

“Oh, stop saying you’re sorry!” Bad’s voice cracked. “I can’t believe this! After all these years of funny pranks and harmless shenanigans, you’re just tossing me aside?”

“Bad, you’re not harmless,” Scar snapped back. “You don’t realise it, but you’ve caused some real damage over the years. You’ve destroyed things, killed people, upset people, caused irreparable damage to the server. The only reason Xisuma hasn’t banned you sooner is because I kept standing up for you. Did you seriously never notice the fact that I was the only Hermit who ever had kind words for you? You never noticed the other Hermits glaring at you in the shopping district or walking the other way when you came by?”

Bad stared at Scar in shock and horror. “N-No, I… I didn’t… Scar, I… I never meant to cause bad things.”

“Your name literally contains the phrase “Bad Times”!”

“I-I can change, Scar!” Bad was almost physically begging at this point. “I can change, I promise! I can be worthy of forgiveness if you give me a chance.”

Scar firmly shook his head. “You’re an evil Hermit and you always will be. I’m sorry, but there’s no place on the server for you. Not anymore.”

Red hot anger started to build inside Bad. “No, you… you can’t do this to me. After everything we’ve been through, you can’t just decide I don’t belong here anymore!”

Scar took a step back, away from Bad. “Just get outta here before I call Xisuma to deal with you.”

Bad hesitated.

In the ensuing pause, a loud crash sounded from outside.

Seizing his chance, Bad snatched the hat from Scar’s head and dashed out of the town hall. When he got outside, he found Xisuma and EX locked in a battle just outside the building. Xisuma appeared to be winning.

Bad dashed down the stairs and slammed right into Xisuma, sending the admin tumbling to the ground. Before Xisuma could recover, Bad grabbed EX’s hand and pulled them back towards the shopping district.

“Where’s Hels?” Bad demanded.

“I sent him back to the tunnel. Whether he’s still there, I don’t know. Bad, what happened?”

“I’ll explain later.”

The two jumped down the secret entrance to the base and rushed back towards the entrance to the tunnel.

“Hey, guys.” Hels emerged from one of the rooms, holding an armful of mycelium. “They have purple grass here.”

Letting go of EX’s hand, Bad beckoned to Hels. “C’mon, we’re getting outta here.”

“Can I bring the purple grass?”

“Will it help distract you from, as you put it, your bloodlust?” EX inquired.

Hels beamed. “Yes.”

“Alright, then, yes. You can bring the… uh… purple grass.”

As the evil Hermits made their way back through the tunnel, EX eventually decided to break the silence. “So… Long story short, Xisuma didn’t forgive me. How’d it go with Scar?”

“Scar got me banned because he was afraid of turning into me,” replied Bad shortly. “And he refuses to get it reversed because he’s afraid having an evil clone whom everyone on the server hates will damage his image as mayor.”

A pause followed.

“Oof, that’s rough,” EX remarked sympathetically. “What are you going to do now?”

“There’s nothing else I CAN do. I’ve been banned and the only person on the server who might stick up for me is refusing to do so. I guess that means I’m stuck with you two permanently.”

Another pause.

“I didn’t even get to have another rap battle with Wels,” said Hels sadly.

“Hey.” EX stopped at the very end of the tunnel, turning back to face their friends. “Let’s all quit moping. We tried asking for forgiveness and it didn’t work. No more grovelling, no more trying to change, no more stupid group therapy. We’re evil Hermits, right?”

“Yeah!” cheered Hels.

“And evil Hermits want to spread chaos and destruction, right? We should be who we are, without worrying what our counterparts will think of us. They’ve rejected us, so now they think we’re no longer their problem. Let’s show them how wrong they are. Let’s show them how evil we can really be.”

“YEAH!” Hels whooped, his red eyes flashing dangerously. “BLOODLUST!”

“We’re not straight-up murdering people, though, Hels,” added EX sternly. “That’s not the kind of chaos we spread.”

“Oh.” Hels settled down. “Okay. Fair enough.”

Chuckling quietly, EX turned to Bad. “What do you say?”

After a moment, a grin spread over Bad’s face and he swept Scar’s hat onto his head. “I say let’s do it. If Scar says I’m evil, who am I to deny it?”

“Exactly.” EX slung one arm over Bad’s shoulders and the other over Hels’s, grinning at their evil compatriots. “It’s time to be the evil Hermits we were created to be.”

#hermitcraft #evil xisuma #helsknight #badtimeswithscar #xisuma #goodtimeswithscar #welsknight #long post #Vaunna writes

51 notes · View notes

dizzyingflicker · 3 years

Text

frigid air (fic commentary)

literally no one asked for this but hello! hi! if you didn’t know, i wrote a 11 chapter fic called ‘frigid air’ a few weeks back. the fic started as jayhoon centric, but it kinda got off the rails from there hehe

the birth of the idea

so the bri from a few weeks ago was already thinking about writing a lengthy enha au.

i just finished writing a jakehoon one shot and wanted to try my hand at writing another ship! at first, i thought of typical au ideas that were college themed. those are the most fun to write and read imo, bc it’s so grounded in reality. and also bc the jakehoon one shot i wrote was a lot heavier and angsty, which was something i think i’m better at doing! there’s this really great fic i read that inspired me to try my hand at some lighter themes!

after reading that au, i was like “hmmmm im gonna try writing some romcom type of stuff.” i always ALWAYS write angst, so this was a really nice and fun change!

yes, back to the college au ideas. i then began to think about what majors the enha kids would do if they went to college. my notes for the first outline kind of went like this:

Jay - fashion major, new addition to the dorm, is rich but doesnt want anyone to know, is kind despite being taken advantage of in his hometown, just wants a normal family

Heeseung - music production major, has a soundcloud lowkey but doesn't let anyone know, is going thru his first real heartbreak and is using music to deal with it

Jungwon - hasnt decided on a major, came to uni w a full ride taekwondo scholarship, secret boyfriend, coming to terms w sexuality

Jake - australian exchange student, architecture major, maybe gets a weird stalker?

Sunoo - beauty school, wants to be a hairstylist, kinda eccentric, knows everyone’s business

Sunghoon - figure skater, doesnt go to school, is close to getting on the national team, lives in a dorm to avoid his tiger parents, softspot for his younger sister

Niki - dance major from japan, is a little too clingy, feels lonely away from his family

in hindsight, the characters here seem a lot more deeper and fleshed out as compared to what i ended up writing, but i realized that if i kept all of this in - it would’ve been really overwhelming for the reader. i had to remind myself that this was a jayhoon centric fic LMAOOOOO

after writing this, i was like “WAITTTT A HOT SEC” this sounds a lot like hello my twenties! which btw, is an amazing show on netflix that you should definitely watch. i watched this show with my girlfriend and man, the way it handled all of the a,b,c, etc plots was so fantastic.

every character had their own stories and that’s what i loved. usually in fics or aus, a lot of the side characters sort of fade into the background. they also do this thing where their main reason for existence is to lift the mc or main ship up in the story. i wanted to avoid that, so taking inspo from hello my 20s, i decided to give every character a story. whether it be something big like sunoo’s stalker or something small like heejake’s and jungniel’s development, i wanted to give them all something to tell. in hello my 20s, each of the girs living in that house had their own unique stories that fit them really well. whether i did it as well as the writers of the show - that’s something else to unpack, right?

the characters and their developments

so this is something i’m not sure if i did well in or not. the original plot was to have jay and sunghoon not get along at all. with jay’s abrasiveness and sunghoon’s surface coolness, i thought it would be fun to see them butt heads. but i realized that it wasn’t so realistic because they don’t really see each other enough to butt heads that much. i thought making sunghoon shy and reserved (thus standoffish) while jay tries his best to make sunghoon open up was a lot more cuter.

jay is a lot more bold in this, even through his embarassing moments. he’s self-assured, determined and open to pretty much anything. he’s generous and friendly. the only weakness jay has is he’s too presumptious sometimes and assumes stuff without any real basis, as seen with him assuming that ryujin and sunghoon were dating bc of a passing remark from jake and some yt comments. i gave him a dead dad at the end of the fic bc hello we’re projecting but also to explain why he’s super close to his mum and why he’s just a tad bit behind everyone else his age. i wanted to expand on this a little but sadly, i kinda ran out of words to talk about this. if you know what i mean. tbh, jay doesn’t have much of a development in this. that’s something i really want to improve on in my next au, giving my mc some actual development instead of getting carried away with other side characters.

sunghoon is, as i said, shy and reserved. he has a lil trauma from being rejected by seon years ago. you can tell that his experience was not pleasant at all - so he keeps feelings of attraction and want farrrrrr away from him. sunghoon is sorry he’s an anti-romantic, if you will. throughout this fic, you see him open up to jay and realize that not every guy he’s attracted to will reject him painfully. he also learns that he doesn’t need to keep people at an arms length away and that opening himself up to more people will bring about very nice things! very cliche but hey, it iz what it iz.

jungwon was a fun one to write! not bc i feel a little of what he feels, but bc he’s adorable with daniel and having him be unsure was fun to write. jungwon is pretty self-assured in this fic, but with daniel, he’s not really sure what he’s doing.

heeseung feels secure enough with jake that he’s willing to sing in front of him, which is something he doesn’t do. jake is very naive about relationships and hee’s feelings for him, but heeseung kind of brings him down back to reality with the scene from han river. heeseung is getting over a breakup and that stuff takes a while, so that’s why i didn’t let them get together too fast. hee knows how jake feels about him and he doesn’t want to ruin it by jumping into things so fast.

sunoo is super friendly and too trusting with people, which is both a blessing and a curse. niki and him have been attached to the hip since their friendship started and niki sees sunoo as a very very dear friend to him. bc who else lets him sleep in his bed and who else buys him taiyaki everyday? that’s right, it’s his sunoo hyung. sunoo also cares for niki a lot and they’re just very sweet.

what i did well and what i didn’t

okay this is debatable, but i did like how i wrote the developing relationships in this, mostly the ones that weren’t the main jayhoon arc. i liked the way i wrote jungwon and daniel’s little friction and i loved heejake’s confession scene.

the humour in this was a little weak for me, but it was my first attempt at writing it so it’s forgivable.

i just wished i wrote the main relationship better. i feel like it took a while at the beginning and suddenly went from 49 to 27403 real quick. if i were to rewrite it, i’d give them a lot more time to pine as that stage before friends and maybe insert more conflict.

i’d give jay a stronger conflict other than trying to befriend with sunghoon. his character felt very 1d for me and i didn’t like that. i needed to develop him more tbh LMAOOO

music!

anti-romantic by txt

perhaps love by eric nam ft cheeze

love poem by iu

give love by akmu

hope ur ok by olivia rodrigo

only yoou by yand da il

references for sunghoon’s ice skating

sunghoon’s white outfit in the youtube video with ryujin

sunghoon’s black outfit in nationals

the reference pic jay draws of sunghoon (which seon sees)

if you read the fic, i’d like to say thank you! i had a lot of fun writing this and seeing everyone’s reactions to the plot twists was super fun hehehehe i genuinely loved doing it even tho it gave me a lot stress! thank u for reading this if u read it too LMAOOOOO

#woundinsalt thots #frigid air #enhypen au

10 notes · View notes

clumsyclifford · 3 years

Note

hi my love i’m hope not too late but i would like you to tell me about my loves jewish cake, anything you want to but specifically baker calum 🥰 thank you i love you

of course you aren’t too late!!! ESPECIALLY to talk about jewish cake oh my goodness meg i shall die for you i love you. alright let’s see what i can dig up

ha’ahava hazot shelanu + it’s so simple

a cut, per usual

so let’s start WITH:

ha’ahava hazot shelanu

jewish cake was a labor of love for myself. little known fact about me is that i am in fact jewish! :) and around christmas time i always get a little prickly about the surplus of christmas spirit and in this case the amount of fic for it. and i’d sort of had this hesitant idea to write a jewish fic in the back of my mind for a long time, but it felt like a really big divergence from the Cast of Characters that was for some reason a lot more dramatic than any other circumstances into which i could place them, so i’d basically been hesitating for several months. in november we had a brief conversation about it in the club which looked like this

but the idea still made me a little nervous and so i kind of talked myself out of writing it, as always. and THEN, middle of december, iba sent me this 1d fic out of nowhere with this accompanying message:

and i kinda lowkey almost cried!! it was such a jewish fic. i read the word kvetch and i almost lost it. the fic was just so unabashedly jewish. and i was like...well. that’s what ive been wanting to do. so now i have no reason not to do it.

in the ao3 notes i talked a little bit about my internal debate over How Jewish To Go with the fic because on the one hand i really do understand that it can feel alienating going into a fic with zero understanding of the culture but on the other hand since it was MY fic i wanted to make it jewish the way i’m jewish. which is like...............very. i don’t think i ended up striking a balance so much as just deciding to say fuck it and write it the way i would want to read it, but i definitely think that was the right decision for me.

there was actually one more motivator for writing this fic, especially the WAY i wrote it, in eight chapters, and that motivator was that i wanted to break 400k on ao3 before the year ended. i just wanted to have an even number and 400k was a good goal. which i did achieve thanks to jewish cake fic being the 13.6k beast that she is! so that was also part of it

NOW! as for the PROCESS. i created the doc on december 22 and i originally kind of thought it was a little bitchy to write a hanukkah fic after hanukkah had already ended but was reminded that most christmas fic is neither written nor posted on actual christmas which reassured me well enough. i had already had the idea to divide it into eight chapters for the eight nights of hanukkah and i thought that would be a nice way to showcase different aspects of the holiday (seeing family, playing dreidel, opening presents etc) and also in certain cases (like the third chapter where they do some baking) some days that weren’t necessarily hanukkah-driven but just a nice natural consequence of being on break for hanukkah. i wanted it to feel like hanukkah feels to me!! normally i don’t like people seeing the way my outlines look but this one i don’t mind sharing so here’s what i had at the top of the doc for reference while i was writing. not everything in that first list got included but most of it did !!!

i’m not really sure how this fic ended up being cake. i never used to default to cake but for some reason as i was diving into this one it just felt right. that’s all i can say about that. meg you have genuinely shifted my approach to fic i DO default to cake sometimes now and that’s on YOU.

the very first thing i ever wrote down for this fic was this part that ended up going in the summary:

“Happy Hanukkah,” Calum says, smiling at Luke as their fingers intertwine.

Luke murmurs, “Chag sameach, ahovi,” and Calum’s face is aglow in the candlelight.

that was The Moment for me. i didn’t even write the rest of that scene until later but i had those two lines written down straight out the gate and i knew they were gonna close out the first scene because it just Felt Right. and i was right! very cool and fun for me

now the nice convenient thing about having this fic separated into eight discrete scenes/nights/chapters was that i didn’t have to write it in order, and i didn’t. i DID write the first night/chapter first, but then over the course of maybe a week, i wrote (deep breath get ready): the first half of chapter 2 (hemmings family) > the beginning of chapter 5 (the dreidel game) > most of the scene in chapter 7 > the beginning of chapter 3 (where they bake) > finished writing chapters 2 & 3 > started chapter 4 and finished chapter 5 > finished chapter 4 and wrote the rest of chapter 7 > all of chapter 6 > all of chapter 8 aka the proposal. i deliberately saved the proposal for last because i don’t think i could have written it exactly right without knowing the events that came before it but everything else was all over the place as you can see.

a problem i ran into a lot, and i talked to my sounding board and fellow jew sam about this among many other things, was that i had a lot of trouble characterizing very obviously Not Jewish people in a way that made them Very Jewish. not even like, Jewish But You Can Ignore It. i wanted them to be front-and-center jewish like i am and that was hard for me to navigate because obviously my speech patterns and vocabulary as an american jew are extremely different from 5sos’s as australian goyim (non-jews) like i do use hebrew words in my day-to-day communication all the time and i somehow had to keep their mannerisms but also insert mine BUT not insert so many of mine that the fic became incomprehensible and it was just. a Challenge. here’s some insight into THAT crisis

and then again writing the other characters in other chapters

i sent sam the doc when i was mostly done writing it, mainly just to be reminded that at least one person was going to appreciate this fic, which worked out nicely because she very very much did. genuinely i cannot stress enough how insecure i was to write and share this fic. like i’m gonna be really straight up with you meg, i think part of the reason i had calum and luke baking sufganiyot was because to me that felt like a sort of bribe? i basically wrote what felt to me like the least appealing fic ever and then my mission from there was to add stuff in that would convince people to give it a shot anyway. i was trying to make it worth everyone’s while. the baking was my trade-off, i was like “well yeah it’s a jewish fic but maybe she’ll be happy enough that it’s cake and they’re baking that she’ll forgive it for being a jewish fic” yes i realize how kind of hilariously tragic this sounds but !!! you never get jewish fics!!! and you especially don’t get them in fanfiction for obviously non-jewish bands!!! anyway. we’re not gonna get into this whole thing but like. even though objectively i knew that i had been told again and again people would appreciate the fic i still had doubts and knowing something and feeling secure in it are very different things.

also, i didn’t remember this, but apparently i had a lot of problems with writing the proposal! here’s a sneak peek into that mental breakdown

don’t actually think the fic specifies (making life easier for myself) but they have already had dinner in that scene. so now you know.

i could choose to not get this elbows-deep in the details of Crises I Had While Writing This Fic but instead i am choosing to go all out. here’s another thing i had trouble with:

(i did end up using transliteration obviously but i DO think actual hebrew would have been a cool flex)

and as for the title, ha’ahava hazot shelanu is the name of an ivri lider song that i love, and it translates to “this love of ours” and i realize titling the fic in hebrew was a Choice but i did talk to sam about this as well and that went roughly like this

by the way here is the song, i absolutely love it and i cannot recommend it enough. also i’m not sure how glaringly obvious this is but the chapter titles on ao3 are just hebrew numbers. like the first chapter is echad which literally means one. and so on. are they the correct genders? i don’t know ! fuck gendered language.

one more thing and then ill move on but an unfortunate natural consequence of writing a hanukkah fic (at least the way i wrote this one) is that it necessitates presents. so i had to come up with presents for these dumb boys to give each other. and to be completely honest with you i don’t remember how i did!!! the ones calum got for luke were trickier because they were actual things. for some reason this luke was always a version of luke that just kinda like, wore makeup, so that was just a question of figuring out an eyeshadow palette that would be Nice but not obscenely schmancy (i did ask the club for help since i know nothing about makeup but as usual i ignored their replies). but that by itself didn’t feel like enough of a gift, and so i tried to think of something that would be more than just the gift of an object. like, something that would maybe enable luke to spend more time on something he loves. piano music made sense to me because it wasn’t just a thing by itself it was a thing that encouraged luke to play piano and even to improve at it and to learn songs that he could be excited about. so! that was that

the trip to israel gift was a little bit of a retcon situation i really liked the idea that luke had been planning to give that “gift” to calum for a hot sec that he’d have had it ready, but i’d already written the scene where he and mali talk about israel, so i went back to it and edited it a little to hint at the idea (luke plays it off very casually because he is a clever boy) but i thought there was something very romantic in the idea of the israel trip, of luke planning a future with calum and a trip to a place that means so much to him (to me yes maybe luke and i are the same blah blah) and getting to drag calum around to falafel places and teach him words in hebrew and it just seemed like the appropriate trip for these two cute jewish boys to plan so i rolled with it.

okay moving on slightly!! to baker calum <3 baker calum was more of a cameo in the hanukkah fic, in the chapter i wrote with you in mind, but i can talk about it’s so simple here as well because i fucking adore that fic.

it’s so simple

so the inspiration behind the fic came from the “kitchens are for lovers” rhetoric and the realization that that would be the perfect...sort of thesis to build on for a fic for you in specific, because you are, in my mind, a very kitchen-based person, given your baking habit. it actually just worked out pretty nicely for me honestly because i’ve been wanting to write a big Kitchen Romance type fic for a while and you just gave me the perfect opportunity. here’s what i had at the top of the doc for the fic for you

and then once i sort of landed on the idea for the fic, it just made a lot of sense to make it jewish cake because, well, im gonna be real w you, because i identify very strongly with jewish cake and the kitchen-romance aspect felt like a very bella thing in the same way that jewish cake felt like a bella thing. and so i wanted to be able to romanticize these kitchens to share the way that i, bella, feel about them, and that was easy to do when the characters were so similar to me. not to mention this cake already existed in my head as a very settled, domestic duo, and they had their own home and had already had a kitchen-romance scene in the hanukkah fic and the whole thing just fell together perfectly. i had this sentence in my head and it was: “Shabbat in Luke and Calum’s kitchen looks something like this.” the kind of thing you would read in a fic summary right? and especially having it take place on shabbat felt like an extra layer of domestic easy romance to me so that was kind of my guide

here was my "outline” for this:

Romance :)))

obviously calum was going to be the one doing most of the cooking/baking because he had been established as the Kitchen Boy between the two of them and maybe i realized in the course of writing it that while i was luke, you were very much calum. so the goal was then basically to romanticize (1) the kitchen and (2) luke as much as humanly possible for you (see: message sent to helen and ainslee)

unfortunately i was unable to do baker calum justice as much as i would have liked because i could not have him baking anything complex because i can’t bake anything complex and if i had tried to describe him baking something complex and then described it wrong i would have died of shame so that is why he is only baking brownies BUT they have chocolate chips which hopefully makes up for it. also i just stumbled across this which i think pretty well represents the crisis i had regarding baker calum

:)))

re: the soundtrack (so to speak), i wanted to include some songs that i associate with you meg but you see the situation is that some of those songs are 5sos/mali/atl songs and so i couldn’t include those, for obvious reasons, which did narrow down my choices somewhat. fortunately i think the mcfly worked pretty nicely i mean yeah it’s a little obvious that i was forcing mcfly into the story but they deserved to be there. i think i’ve mentioned this but i genuinely have a memory of listening to star girl on a loop in my kitchen at home and in my head the hood-hemmings kitchen looks like my kitchen because i have zero imagination so it felt to me like these songs just belonged in kitchens. and that they’d be inherently romantic. woah i think my brain is short-circuiting i’m not sure i’m making sense anymore. point being i hoped that you would appreciate it nonetheless.

a note about the short introduction, because it’s very unlike anything i’ve put in any other fic to my knowledge. i kind of wanted it to feel like the prologue to a fairytale, almost. i wanted it to feel like the beginning of a movie, when the camera is slowly, slowly zooming in from a Big Picture down to one house on one street and then through the window into the kitchen while the voiceover is very serenely describing the scene. i wanted it to feel like we were in the kitchen before even calum was and that we were standing against the fourth wall watching the fic unfold. and also, i wanted to make the fic romantic as fuck, from the get-go. there was to be no confusion: this fic was going to romanticize the living daylights out of the hood-hemmings kitchen.

(also you may have noticed that despite having “london” in the list of Meg Things at the top of the doc, the fic never actually specifies that they’re in london. that’s because this fic was really an exercise in “how much can i hint that they’re in london without outright saying it so i don’t establish a canon that i may later regret” which went as far as me asking helen what her kitchen floors and counters are made of. like. if you want it to be in london then hell yeah it’s in london but i didn’t wanna lock myself into that decision just in case so i never actually said it but i hope it kinda felt london-y anyway lmao)

so...............i THINK that’s all i have to say. “all” as if i havent just written an entire dissertation but at least it’s done now. i sure did say a lot! that was a lot!!! but also a very very fun and interesting dive into the ~process~ of writing these jewish cake fics. also, for what it’s worth, the way hanukkah fic was received basically calmed all my fears about writing jewish fic, which was a relief for me. so thank you for loving it, i don’t think you know how much that means to me!!!! i love YOU so very much

#kaleidoscopeminds #ask #answered #christ go off i guess????????#i honestly have Nothing to say in the tags because i said so fucking much in this answer #fgldkhgsdflj #here are some other questions i asked helen the resident london expert:#'you guys don't have saturday morning cartoons do you'#'what do you call french toast' to which i was informed that you (brits) don't HAVE french toast #and then i decided to ignore that information and include it anyway because jewish tradition trumps british absence of food #and french toast is jewish CULTURE #'do you guys say suck-up or is there a different thing you say'#i did NOT like the answer to that one #also 'do you guys have dishwashers'#'do you guys do april fools'#helen litearlly went and took a photograph of her counters so that i could see what they looked like. THATS love baby #the fact that i said i had nothign to say and then i continued to say things anyway #thats pretty on brand for me #meg #director's cut #okay im posting this now. FOR REAL #dunno what happened before that was very unsexy but this time for real

4 notes · View notes

sidebyside-withafriend · 4 years

Text

Told You You’d Kill It (Romione)

Hermione is stressed about her upcoming history presentation; Ron provides his usual comforting presence. And cookies.

Muggle high school AU, almost entirely fluff, 1474 words

read it on AO3 or read it here!

“Ugh.” Ron shoved his books to one side and ran a hand through his hair, making it stick up in all different directions. Hermione hid a smile as Ron drew his hands inside his jumper sleeves.

Through a yawn, he continued, “I’m done. I’m so tired.” Probably from his basketball training, but schoolwork was also a struggle for him, she knew. And they’d been studying in the library for several hours now. No wonder he was exhausted.

She glanced at the document on her laptop. “I’m nearly done. Do you mind if we stay here a little longer?”

Ron yawned again. “Sure thing, ‘Mione.” He set both hands on the table and stayed there for a second, then pushed his chair backwards and hauled himself to standing. “On one condition.”

“What’s that?”

He walked around to the other side of the table. “Can you stand up for a sec?”

She wasn’t quite sure what he had in mind, but he was hard to say no to like this, all sleepy and soft. So she stood up and he planted himself in the chair. Realising his meaning, she smiled.

“This way you can work on your presentation, and I can hug you,” he explained.

She settled herself on his lap. His arms went around her waist from behind, sending a delightful shiver up her spine. She adjusted the position of her laptop and set to typing again. Her presentation was still a week away, but it was an important one.

Ron lifted an arm from around her. She hadn’t realised how warm his embrace was until his arm had moved, leaving her waist oddly cold. With his now-free hand, he started to rub slow circles between her shoulder blades, and she turned her head slightly as though to try and see what he was doing.

“You’re stressed, ‘Mione. You’re all tense,” he said. “What’s going on?”

“This presentation is big. I have to get this script right.” She hoped he’d understand. His attitude towards such things was a little more blase, but…

“You’re going to kill it.” His hand kept tracing those gentle circles on her back. “I know you will. You’re amazing at history.”

Hopefully. Hopefully she could convince the moderating teacher of that, too.

Ron returned his arm to her waist, locking his fingers in front of her. “How much left to write?”

“A couple of paragraphs.” She knew it, but glanced at her outline just to be sure. “Then a conclusion, and then I’ll be done.”

“Ok. Smash out those paragraphs. Kick their butts. Whatever. You got this.” He let out another barely stifled yawn.

“I’ll try to be quick.” She smiled.

Ron leant his head against her shoulder and shifted a little, settling into a more comfortable position. He was so warm, and she almost felt like she was disappearing into his long arms. Not that she minded. Having him right there at her back loosened some of her tense muscles. His was a solid, comforting presence. She let go of her clenched jaw—he was always reminding her not to do that—and gave her laptop a determined stare. These last two paragraphs would be manageable. And they would be good.

He’d started snoring, a soft rumble that she both heard and felt. Normally she complained about any noise while she was trying to study—Ron could definitely attest to that statement—but somehow this sound was cosy, almost homely. In the otherwise silent library, just behind his snoring, she could hear his heartbeat too, a steady pulse against her back.

Trying not to move too much, she typed a sentence, erased two words, added a clause, wrote another sentence. Then another. And another.

He ran a hand through his hair and realised he hadn’t properly cleaned up after that flour bag had exploded in his face. Leaving food tech class messy was pretty normal, but still. He swiped at it again and returned his attention to the numbers on the classroom doors. Hermione was giving her presentation in D34, he knew, but he hadn’t been in this part of the school very much, and he couldn’t see D34. D12, 13, and 14, yes, but no D34. He could picture her, 5’2” of passion and brains as she lectured the class on African history. That was her favourite part of the class, so of course she’d chosen it for her presentation. He’d seen her in the corridor briefly this morning and she’d been visibly stressed; some of her fingernails had borne chewed edges, and she hadn’t been able to stand still. The topic meant a lot to her, he knew. But he also knew that she was going to kill it; she could lecture on a subject with a single-minded drive that he found both terrifying and kind of hot. And she knew her material back to front. She knew everything back to front. When he’d called her the other night she said she’d been practising with her parents and another friend, and that she hoped it was enough. He knew it would be. He’d heard the speech too, and it was awesome. The teachers were going to love it.

“Ron!” The voice came from behind him and he spun around. Hermione was pelting up the corridor towards him, her curly hair flying wildly out behind her. Most importantly, she was smiling broadly, and he grinned too. Her expression could only mean one thing.

When she reached him, he swept her into a hug so excitedly he lifted her off her feet. Laughing, she clung to his shoulders.

“See,” he told her, still holding her firmly around the waist, “told you you’d kill it.”

“One of the teachers, he said some really nice stuff to me on my way out,” she said. “And all the class seemed to like it and I can’t be a hundred percent sure but I think that has to mean—”

“That you did an amazing job? Yes.” He set her down. “I knew that already. Because you’re amazing and you’re super smart.”

Her eyes sparkled. “Thanks. I guess I found it hard to believe until I’d done it. I was a bit stressed.”

“Really?” He straightened her uniform collar. “I had no idea.”

She laughed. “Sorry. I hope I didn’t drive you too crazy.”

“Nope. You’re smart and you want to do well. Don’t ever dumb yourself down for me. I love you as you are.” He bent down and kissed her forehead. “I love you, ‘Mione. Even when you’re stressed and a little out of it.”

“I love you too.” She threw her arms around his waist. “Thanks for believing in me.”

He grinned. “I know how absolutely incredible you are. Even when you forget.”

She pulled back a little and, with a small smile, said, “You have chocolate on your nose.”

“Whoops. Food tech.” He rubbed his nose.

“Here, let me.”

He crouched obligingly down and let her clean the chocolate off. “We made cookies. You want one? They’re reserved only for people who killed their presentations.” He swung his bag off his shoulder and rummaged in it for the warm box.

Hermione took two; she shoved one right into her mouth and let out a small sigh of happiness. “These are amazing,” she said, once she’d swallowed. “Thank you.”

He also happened to know that sometimes when she got stressed her appetite disappeared, so he always tried to bring her food after the stressful event. It was important to make sure she ate enough. “I was wondering if you wanted to take this afternoon off studying,” he suggested. “Go see a movie?”

“Little Women?” Her eyes lit up. She’d wanted to see that movie for weeks, but hadn’t found the time or the headspace.

He grinned. “Yep. I got us tickets.”

She opened her mouth, looking mildly conflicted.

He cut her off. “No studying this afternoon. You’ve earned an afternoon off.”

“I suppose there were only one or two things I was going to do today…” she admitted.

“Do ‘em tomorrow. Nothing’s due for like a month, right?”

She smiled. “No. No due dates coming up soon.” He might not have had her head for memorising historical dates, but he knew her assessment calendar as well as he knew his own. Possibly better. It was important that he be able to plan his cookie baking.

He returned his bag to his shoulder and jokingly offered her his arm. “Shall we?”

“Where are we going?”

“Shopping centre where the bus stops.”

She nodded and slipped her hand into his. “Thank you. Again.”

He was going to suggest she could call it repayment for helping him with his English a couple of weeks ago, but really he was just as excited about this as she was. Spending time with his incredible girlfriend was his favourite thing to do.

#romione #ronmione #ron weasley #hermione granger #fluff #oneshot #harry potter #fanfic #fanfiction #romione fluff

76 notes · View notes

mlinkwell · 5 years

Text

Model Student (part 1)

Pairing: Johnny Suh x OC/Reader (fem)

Genre: uni!au/bf!au // lil angst/lil fluff (smut in future parts)

Word Count: 2.4k

Warnings: strong language, mentions of sex, descriptions of nudity/nude images. This is a work of fiction. Please do not send nude photographs irl. Can go hella wrong.

AN: I just started my senior year of college (holy fuck)! To celebrate, here is *the* Johnny fic that I’ve been hinting at for so long. It’s my first original story on this blog. I’m so excited to continue this angsty ass tale very soon. PS, pairing says OC/Reader because while the protagonist has a name and description, parts from her pov are written in second person.

You moved from your shower to your bedroom, goosebumps appearing on your skin as you move from the small, steam-filled space to your air conditioned bedroom. You shivered ready to pull on some clothes and get in bed.

You were over the whole school thing before you even got off campus. You knew that you needed to get organized now or you would have a rough month - and probably semester - ahead. However, you wanted nothing more than to call your boyfriend over and lay with him for the first time in weeks. You had let school get in the way of your relationship, and you missed Johnny desperately.

After getting somewhat accustomed to the chill of your room, you took the towel off and used in to squeeze some water from your hair. You moved over to where your phone was charging on your nightstand. You sat on the edge of your bed, careful not to let droplets from your hair soak your sheets. The screen of your phone showed a missed call from Johnny. He had called you during your shower and sent you a text soon after.

Johnny (3:24): Just wanted to chat for a sec. I miss you babe

Johnny (3:24): Busy today?

You smiled to yourself, the reassurance that he missed you too warming your heart. Your smile turned to a sly smirk as you looked at your phone. You couldn’t deny how many ways you missed him, and you were hoping you could get him feeling the same way.

You moved so that your knees were resting on your mattress, wet hair pulled over your shoulders. You took the towel and positioned it over you just so: one hand holding it over the middle of your chest with the rest of it gathered between your thighs. The sides of your breasts, stomach, and waist were still visible, the towel only cover enough to leave him wanting all of you. With your free hand, you held your phone up and away from you, getting as much of your body in the frame as you could. You excluded the top of your face from the image, only allowing him to see the way you bit your lower lip along with the way water dripped down your bare body from your hair. You snapped the picture and sent it to Johnny.

Yena (3:41): Sorry I missed your call. Just got out of the shower.

Yena (3:41): [image]

Yena (3:42): Can we be busy together tonight? I miss you, too

With that, you moved off your bed and to your closet for something to wear. If Johnny wanted to see more, it would have to be in person. You pulled on some underwear and grabbed one of Johnny’s shirts that you’d stolen over a year ago. Before you’d even finished pulling it over your head, you heard your phone ring.

———————————————————————————————————–

Johnny walked up the stairs toward the door, backpack slung lazily over one shoulder. His last professor for the day professor dropping a completely new schedule out of the blue had sent the entire class into panic. Everyone, including Johnny, would have to rework whatever plan they already had for the semester around Dr. Young’s new outline. The walk from his final class to his house seemed miles longer than normal, every step spent trying to figure out when he would even have the time to sit down and accommodate his routine for this new course outline. He was far too exhausted for it to only be the afternoon, but uptight professors had taken a toll on him these past few weeks. He was stressed to say the least.

Not to mention that he’d barely had the time to see the one person he knew would help him keep his head on straight during all the confusion. Johnny already felt too wrapped up in the problem to step back and solve it. Head down and phone in hand, he began typing out a - probably desperate sounding - message as he pulled the front door open.

“Johnny!” His name was shouted as soon as he walked through the door. He looked up to see Yuta sprawled out on a couch in the living room. Yuta sat up as his friend and fraternity brother walked through the door. From Johnny’s posture and the look on his face, Yuta could tell something was wrong.

“Hey, Yuta,” Johnny replied a little less enthusiastically than usual and forced a smile. Yuta watched as Johnny tossed his backpack down and slump into a recliner. He looked at him for a few seconds longer before standing and hitting Johnny’s knee as he passed.

“Are you done for the day?” Yuta asked.

“Yeah,” Johnny breathed out.

“Come eat with me,” Yuta said. “We just got pizza. My treat.”

“Who is we?” Johnny asked as he followed along. He was in a bad mood, but not bad enough to pass up free food.

“Mark, Doyoung, whoever else wanders in before it’s gone,” Yuta explained as he led the way to the kitchen.

“Give me one sec,” Johnny called to Yuta as he moved towards the stairs. “I’m gonna put my stuff away.”

“Hurry back!” Yuta called back.

Johnny moved up the stairs and to his room. He carefully took the camera bag in his hand and set in on his desk before less gracefully dumping his backpack on the floor. He took his phone out of his back pocket, looking over the message he began typing out before Yuta’s pizza invite. He changed the wording of his message, however he quickly changed his mind and retyped the old message. He went back and forth between drafts. After landing on his original message again, he decided to delete it and call you instead.

He kept the phone tight in his hand, stress level raising lightly when he was sent to your voicemail. He was thinking of what to say when a loud knock on his door startled him, causing him to promptly hang up.

“Hey!” Yuta said through the door. “Food’s ready. How long does it take to put away your things?”

“I’ll be right there,” Johnny groaned. He shoved his phone back into his pocket as he bound down the stairs to the kitchen. As he made his way in, he found Mark and Doyoung already sitting on the table with a plate of pizza in front of each of them. Yuta was at the counter, loading up a plate for himself. Johnny followed Yuta’s lead, grabbing a few slices of his own before turning to the fridge for a bottle of water. Before he could turn around, Yuta was taking the water out of his hand and replacing it with a beer.

“Yah!” Johnny exclaimed as Yuta closed the fridge and pushed Johnny towards the table.

“You’re done for the day, aren’t you?” Yuta asked with a smirk.

“Just because I’m done with class doesn’t mean I’m done entirely,” Johnny clarified.

“We both know one beer isn’t going to get you too drunk to do your homework,” Yuta rolled his eyes as he settled beside Mark, who had been gushing to Doyoung about some new song he’d discovered.

Johnny took his pizza and beer and sat next to Doyoung, although he barely chimed into the conversation. He slipped his phone from his pocket, deciding to follow up his phone call with a quick text since he hadn’t left you a voicemail.

Johnny (3:24): Just wanted to chat for a sec. I miss you babe

Johnny (3:24): Busy today?

Every few minutes, he found himself checking his phone to see if you had tried to call him back or answer his texts. Eventually, he accidentally tuned his brothers out entirely, aimless scrolling through social media in the hopes of seeing a notification from you as soon as it popped up. He only looked up to grab his pizza, taking a large bite before returning to flipping idly through his phone.

“Yah. Johnny.”

Johnny looked up from his phone, suddenly confused and embarrassed as all eyes were on him. He moved his gaze from Mark and Doyoung’s stares to the source of the voice. Yuta was sitting across from Johnny, his soft expression in contrast to the loud voice he’d used to get Johnny’s attention.

“What’s going on?” Yuta asked, voice now matching expression.

“Just eating,” Johnny replied. Yuta chuckled softly.

“You know what I mean,” he said. “You’ve seemed down ever since you walked in the door. What’s wrong?”

Johnny sighed, tossing his phone on the table as he tried to find the words to explain what all was troubling him.

“Is it Yena stuff?” Mark blurted out, making all eyes move to him instead. His face turned red as he said, “Sorry, hyung. I, I wasn’t thinking before I said that out loud.”

“Does Mark being an idiot make you feel better?” Doyoung spoke up. The smooth delivery of his comment made Johnny and Yuta burst into laughter and a tomato-red Mark put his head down on the table.

“I mean, he’s totally wrong,” Johnny laughed out lightly. The other three died down their laughter quickly, looking to their friend with concern written across their faces.

“Oh shit, for real?” Yuta asked.

“I mean, we’re okay I think,” Johnny explained, “We’re not fighting or anything, but I haven’t even seen her enough to argue with her lately.”

“What’s stopping you from seeing her?” Doyoung asked.

“School just hit me really hard the past couple weeks,” Johnny groaned out. “My professors can’t make up their minds on our schedules and now I can barely keep my shit straight from reorganizing my plans.”

“And you’re not getting that stress relief from Yena?” Yuta teased, attempting to lighten the mood with a suggestive eyebrow raise as he tossed back more of his beer.

“Yeah, to be honest,” Johnny muttered loud enough for the others to hear.

“Wait! What?” Mark jerked his head up.

“I mean,” Johnny stretched his words out with a cocked head and a playful shrug. “I haven’t even heard from her today, so we definitely haven’t had time for other things.”

“Woah, woah, hyung,” Mark said through awkward laughter. Beside him, Yuta was almost red with laughter.

“Hey,” Yuta laughed out, “if you’re used to fucking all the time, a few weeks feels like a damn lifetime of celibicy.”

“Yah!” Doyoung interjected. “Stop. Mark’s a baby.”

His teasing only made Mark more embarrassed and the older boys laugh even more. Johnny finished off his pizza and beer, and he moved from his seat to clean his plate in the sink. Yuta slipped his plate in for Johnny to wash, a small fee for free food. Johnny quickly scrubbed down the plates before placing them in the drying rack.

“So, Johnny-hyung,” Yuta turned to Johnny, who was now leaning against the counter with another beer in hand, “why don’t you just, you know, ask Yena if you can..?”

“Nah, you guys told me girls don’t like that,” Mark interjected. “I thought you couldn’t lead with wanting sex because they’ll think that’s all you want from them.”

“They’ve been together for two years!” Yuta quipped. “It’s a little different after you’re committed for this long. They’re both without right now. It’s not like Yena will care.”

“Yeah I don’t think she cares,” Doyoung said, an awkward twinge to his phone. His eyes wide and looking down at Johnny’s phone, the screen illuminated from its place on the table. “Hyung, you, um - you got a text.”

His statement and demeanor drew the attention of the other two at the table. Both sets of fresh eyes went wide, an “oh shit” coming from Yuta’s mouth and a red tinge appearing on Mark’s ears to match Doyoung’s cheeks. Yuta was the first to tear his eyes away, snapping out of whatever trance the boys were in and covering the phone with his hand. “That’s not for us to see.”

“What is it?” Johnny asked as he reached for his phone. Yuta moved his hand away, not daring to look back at the device now that Johnny had come closer. Johnny held the phone up, his notifications displayed despite the locked screen, images included. Taking up most of his screen was a string of messages from you.

Yena (3:41): Sorry I missed your call. Just got out of the shower.

Yena (3:41): [image]

Yena (3:42): Can we be busy together tonight? I miss you, too

In between the two text messages was a photo of you. One hand was holding the camera far enough away to get a full shot of your body, which was only covered by the towel your other hand was pressing to your chest. Wet hair and skin, you were obviously fresh out of the shower when you sent it, and you were obviously just as needy for Johnny as he was for you.

He would have been wholeheartedly focused on how absolutely breathtaking you were to him, if it weren’t for the fact that you’d taken away the breath of three of his closest friends. He looked back at Yuta, Doyoung, and Mark, all of whom averted their eyes. Johnny could feel a little rage building in him as it sunk in that this is what they’d all stared at far too long. Johnny looked back at his phone, reading your last message again. Can we be busy together tonight?

“You’re all really fucking lucky I don’t have the time to kill you,” Johnny told them, only half-joking, as he walked out of the kitchen and towards his room, calling you as he went.

———————————————————————————————————–

“Hello,” you answered your phone as casually as possible, worried that Johnny would practically hear the teasing smirk plastered on your face if you were too obvious about teasing him upfront.

“Hey, baby,” Johnny’s smooth voice filled your ear. “What, uh - what are you up to?”

“Just got dressed,” you said. You let that statement set it for adding, “I’ll probably start on some assignments in a bit.”

“Same,” Johnny replied, completely ignoring your first comment. “I’ve got some reworking to do to my assignment scheduling.”

“Again?” You asked, genuinely distracted from your little act.

“Again,” he confirmed. “Dr. Young. Again.”

“Well,” you began as you gathered your laptop and notebook and took them to your desk, “Could we work on it together? We don’t have to if you’re too busy, but I really miss you.”

“I miss you, too, baby girl,” Johnny said, the sincerity in his voice making your heart flutter. “Let me gather my stuff up and I’ll be over in a bit.”

“Be safe,” you told him as you opened your laptop, attempting to type with one hand.

“Always,” he assured you. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

#johnny suh #johnny seo #Johnny Fanfic #johnny smut #nct johnny #nct fanfic #nct fic rec #nct smut #nct #nct127 #nct127 fic

229 notes · View notes

muffinlance · 5 years

Note

Your recent ask about struggling with your serious writing projects really hit home, but was also super inspiring. And intimidating. I hope you know I think of you like a writing sensei now. Is sensei the right word? Writing big sibling? Anyway, how do you deal with the anxiety of all those projects? I want to be a Proper Writer too, and I have the ideas and the time, but I always get nerfed by anxiety whenever I try and write original fiction. Any tips on how to stop overthinking?

In light of our shared fandom, dear @captainkirkk, I will accept "Sifu".

Writing tips!

You are obviously solid on writing mechanics and short story arcs (maybe long form arcs too, but I've only had the pleasure of reading your short fics thus far.) So in your case, it is probably just a lack of experience causing most of this anxiety. 'Cause I have found that becoming comfortable with each new stage of writing is an exercise in exposure therapy.

If you're specifically worried about original characters/fics, consider working more OCs into your fanfics just to get more experience with/feedback on them. You'll know real fast if people are reacting well to your OCs, and can tweak things accordingly in the wonderfully low-stress world of fanfic.

As far as anxiety on writing in general, as far as I can tell it never goes away, but there are definitely strategies to lessen it. You'll have to experiment with what works for you. For me, going for long nighttime jogs and just turning ideas over in my head in a low-stress not-even-trying-to-write-right-now environment is super helpful. And if you haven't already, it's Real Big Important to learn to separate the "something is wrong with this story" anxiety from the "I am the worst writer ever and everything I touch becomes ash unto mine eyes" anxiety. I've gotten in the habit of literally trying to write out my anxiety causes. Mock example that's pretty much exactly like what I really do:

(I start with a clear statement of the problem:) Why do I hate this scene, it feels like the literal worst?

(Then I list potential causes:) are character interactions weak? Anything I can do to increase tension/character interplay? More background elements to add depth to scene? Is this supporting the plot enough? Do I even need this scene or can important elements be combined into future scenes? Etc.

Then I work my way through each question, allowing "no this is fine" to be an acceptable answer. And if everything is fine... I might just be in a grr mood where Everything Is Awful and I should take a break because I'm only going to do more harm than good here. Go for a jog, play with the cat, switch to another story for a bit if-I'm-not-grring-at-that-one-too. I actually ran into this with Little Zuko 31; I basically did exactly the above, and ended up scraping about 3k of perspectives-in-the-waiting-room because they were slowing the pacing and coming off as too Zuko-whumpy in a story that doesn't usually drag its heels in depressing bits. My solution was literally "this boy needs a goddamn coat earlier in the chapter so everyone can stop worrying about him and we can get back to the right tone", so I deleted a whole slew of scenes, inserted the early Yue POV, and had her bring him a goddamn coat. And suddenly the chapter was good, great, I-can-work-with-this. But it took a few hours to A) acknowledge that I was writing myself deeper into a pit of this-isn't-working, and B) put my finger on the cause enough to fix it. Sometimes it takes me days to figure that stuff out. Or months. Or years. I've got a novel I just took out of my Grrr Drawer that I hated hated hated, but now that I've got more experience with fixing things, I was able to spot what was wrong and figure out a roadmap for fixing it.

If you haven't already, make sure you've joined some sort of weekly-if-not-daily critique group where you can crit a metric ton of stories and read the crits others have written; it is notably easier to spot mistakes on someone else's work, and many times you'll walk to the fridge and go "...wait a sec, I'm doing that too". I have learned more about story structure from criting works that were almost-but-not-quite working than from reading all the perfectly edited novels in the world. (Critique Circle is an excellent site for this, best I've found, though as with all crit sites you need to know how to work the system so you're getting the most out of your time spent there. If anyone is interested in CC specific tips, shoot me an ask.)

Also, if you haven't already, figure out what stages of your projects you need what kind of feedback on. It took me a Real Long Time to figure out I worked best without input of any kind until I had a draft I personally couldn't improve upon further. When working on my original projects, I no longer show anyone anything until things are finished and polished. Then I invite the crit jackals in (I love my crit jackals, proper constructive criticism hurts so good). Fanfiction has been an interesting experience and a reminder of why I work that way: I am really easily influenced to change things based on reviews. I've now got enough experience writing full novels that I can (mostly) sort out "cool ideas" from "cool ideas that actually work in the broader context of this story", but I still find myself tweaking my outline after reviews. In ways that are hopefully good. But back when I was a less confident writer with terrible outlining skills, oh man I wrote myself down unworkable tangents just because "wouldn't it be cool if..."

So yep. In summary: experiment with anxiety relief strategies and self-care that work for you, acknowledge that the anxiety will always be there and that is normal there is nothing wrong with you, use the anxiety as a tool to address whatever your subconscious is trying to tell you about your story (stop and have a Real Talk with your anxieties--are they trying to tell you something, or do you just need to take a quick brain break?), and know that you're already an amazing writer you just need to practice more on original fics and get them out in the world. <3

Also: sometimes you will get to the end of a project and it... Just didn't work. It's unfixable, or would take more time to fix than just moving on to your next project with lessons learned. I see so many newer writers getting stuck on their "dream story". The one they've been editing and re-editing for years. And it's like, honey, you remember that first clay pot you made in kindergarten? That one that's lumpy and leaning to one side and objectively terrible and I'm pretty sure a mouse crawled inside, got lost, and died in it? Your novel is the equivalent of that. Don't try to fix this pot, go practice making more.

#I still have that pot #it is on the windowsill in my office #it is so terrible but I still love it #much like all these old stories No One Can Ever See #writing advice #ask #writing thoughts

63 notes · View notes

purpleswans1 · 5 years

Text

Family Reunion

Another piece of my Villain!Izuku AU for villain month. The prompt this time is “Enemy of my Enemy,” and it actually takes place after my published outline ends. Sorry if things are confusing here, you should understand things more when you read Saturday’s fic.

Read also on FF and AO3

“Hey, Dabi? Can we talk for a sec?” Izuku asked.

Dabi turned to the de-facto leader of their little villain group. “Sure. What’s up?”

Izuku waited until the others had all gone upstairs before continuing. “I’ve been contacted by a potential new recruit. Because of who he is, I figured it would be best to talk to you before inviting him to move in.

A new recruit? Already? Still, Dabi wasn’t sure why Izuku wanted to talk to him about this. “What’s his name?”

“Shoto Todoroki.”

A baby sleeping in his mother’s arms. A toddler looking at his hands in terror, the right one covered in frost and the left one wreathed in flame. A child trembling in exhaustion and pain. A boy’s face covered in bandages and glaring up with hate-filled eyes.

Dabi took a deep breath. “Endeavour's son?”

Izuku nodded. “If you don’t want him around I’ll understand. I’ll just tell Shoto to stay at UA and act as a spy. But if you could bear with us… I think it would do Shoto a lot of good to get out of that place.”

“Does he know we’re the ones who attacked his father?”

Izuku smirked. “I suspect that was our main selling point.”

Huh. Looks like the kid hasn’t been brainwashed by the old man after all. “Okay, bring him in.”

Izuku looked skeptical. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah. My issue is with Endeavour, not his kid. Besides, it sounds like little Shoto has some daddy issues.”

Izuku pursed his lips, seemingly not convinced. “Alright, if you say so. If nothing else, this will give Shoto a chance to explain himself.”

Dabi smiled -- genuinely enthusiastic for once -- and said, “I’m looking forward to that.”

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

Shoto Todorki felt like a sheep in the wolf’s den. Which did make sense; what was a child of the #1 hero doing around villains? What was he doing asking to join them? Well, that just proved how little they knew.

“Guys, this is Shoto Todoroki. He’s offered to join us,” Izuku said, introducing him to the waiting wolves.

Everyone in the room, with the exception of Izuku and the little girl playing on the floor, stared at Shoto like he was a freak.

Well, they weren’t wrong, but it was still uncomfortable.

“Izuku, wasn’t that guy at the UA sports festival?” one of the girls -- the brunette -- asked.

Izuku nodded. “Yes. Until today he was a hero student at UA, but please listen to what he has to say before you judge him.” Izuku turned to Shoto and motioned for him to speak.

Well, it's now or never.

“My father is Endeavour and I hate his guts.”

That got their attention, but now that Shoto had started he couldn’t stop. It was just like at the sports festival, when he poured his heart out to a stranger her now knew was a villain. Only now, this wasn’t a trickle of hate leaking through the damn; it was the flood he was determined to let loose and share with the world.

“He’s obsessed with beating All Might, and decided to have a successor that would be stronger than him. I don’t know if any of you have heard of quirk marriages, but my father married my mother for no other reason than her quirk. When my quirk came in, father started a brutal training regiment. I was only four years old. It was painful for me, but stressed out mom out even more. She was already cracking under the strain of living with a man she hated, but she finally broke one night when I found her talking on the phone. She screamed that my left side was unsightly and poured boiling water over it.” Shoto reached up to touch his scar, both to indicate that was when he got it and because he was remembering how much it had hurt.

Nobody else tried to speak.

“It hurt, what my mother had done to me, but I knew my father was the one to blame. He’d driven her to the breaking point, and once it was done he shipped her off to a mental hospital and swept it under the rug. At first I was determined to become a hero without using my flames, the quirk I’d gotten from my father, but I met Izuku and he showed me another way. The only reason my father was able to get away with all that he did was because society put him on a pedestal simply for being a strong hero. I want to help you change that aspect of society, and I definitely want to help you kill my father.”

Shoto finished his story, putting his hands in his pockets. Nobody spoke for a long time.

An oddly familiar voice broke the silence. “Well, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Welcome to the Quirk Revolutionaries.” The speaker was a young man covered in burn marks.

The lizard-like man looked at Shoto. “If Dabi thinks it’s fine, then I have no objections. My name is Spinner, by the way.”

The brunette girl came forward. “I’m Ochaco Uraraka. It’s good that you’re able to join us, Shoto.”

“I’m Toga!” the blond said. “Oh, Izuku, I’ve got to try his blood! Can I cut him?”

“Not right now Toga, we should let Shoto get settled in first.” Izuku leaned into Shoto’s ear and whispered, “I’ll explain later.”

Shoto nodded. There was probably a lot he’d need to get caught up on.

The little girl got up from the floor and ran to Izuku. She hid behind his leg, casting a cautious glance at Shoto.

Izuku noticed her and placed a comforting hand on her head. “Do you want to introduce yourself to Shoto?”

The girl was painfully nervous, so Shoto took the initiative. He kneeled down so he was eye level with her. “My name is Shoto. What’s yours?”

“I’m Eri,” she said shyly.

“Izuku found Eri in a bad situation,” the scarred man -- Dabi -- explained. “Since he’s such a sucker for sob stories, we’ve been looking after her.”

Oh. Shoto should have been surprised to find a child in a house full of villains, but for some reason it never crossed his mind.

Dabi clasped his hand on Shoto’s shoulder. “It’s getting late. How about you guys get Eri ready for bed while I talk to the new guy?”

Izuku frowned. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah. Take care of the little princess,” Dabi insisted.

Shoto gave a small nod. He didn’t understand everything that was going on, but he didn’t want Izuku to worry about him any more.

“Well, if either of you need anything, just holler.” Izuku cast one last glance at Shoto before leading Eri up the stairs, with Uraraka, Toga, and Spinner trailing behind.

Once they were gone, Dabi stood in front of Shoto, sweeping his eyes over Shoto’s entire body. It made him feel a little uncomfortable.

“You’ve grown a lot since I last saw you, Shoto.”

That was surprising. “Have we met before?”

“When your quirk first came in, you were so scared. Mom and I both told you to keep it hidden, but Dad noticed anyway and dragged you away to start training.”

Shoto sucked in a breath through his teeth. “Who… Who are you?”

“I’ll admit, I was a little relieved. With you as the old man’s perfect successor, I finally got a chance to have a childhood. For the first time I could remember, I got the chance to spend time with Natsuo and Fyumi and act like a real older brother to them.”

Shoto realized what he was saying. Tears blurred his vision. “Big bro Touya?”

Warm arms circled Shoto in a tight embrace. “I’m so sorry for leaving you behind, Shoto. I needed to get out of that house, but I should've… I knew it would make things harder for you, but I left anyway. Can you ever forgive me?”

Shoto’s arms came up to return his brother’s hug. “Big bro… I thought you were dead. I can’t believe…”

“Shhh. It’s my fault; it was the only way I could think of to get the old man off my back. I know I don’t deserve your forgiveness, but I’m just so glad that you’re here now.”

Tears fell from Shoto’s eyes. “There’s nothing to forgive, big bro. You were just doing what you needed to do. I found my own path, and now we’re together again.”

Dabi -- Touya -- squeezed harder. “Thank you, Shoto.”

The two brothers stayed like that, just holding each other, for a while. That is, until a new voice ruined the moment.

“So, you two are related I take it?” Izuku stood a few steps up, in full view of the brotherly embrace.

Dabi looked up. “Are you saying you expected this?”

“Well, your quirk works similarly to Endeavour's, so I always thought it was a possibility. I heard Shoto’s story long before we met, so I knew that his family had a good reason to hate him as much as you do. Not to mention, your hatred of Endeavour was awfully personal, so it made even more sense for you to know him or Shoto personally.” Izuku explained.

Dabi snorted. “You know Izuku, you’re pretty scary when you do stuff like that.”

“It’s just a part of my charm,” Izuku said. “By the way, there’s a spare bedroom for you Shoto. I should warn you, Eri tends to crawl into bed with whoever’s awake when she gets a nightmare, so don’t be surprised if she visits you in the night.”

“Come on, let’s get you settled in,” Dabi started to lead Shoto up the stairs.

“Thanks, big bro Touya,” Shoto said.

“Eh… I don’t mind if you call me that when we’re alone, but I’d rather you call me Dabi around the others, okay?” Dabi rubbed his neck. “I’ve put a lot of effort into reinventing myself after I got out of that place.”

Shoto considered this. “Maybe I should pick a new name for myself too.”

Dabi laughed. “Sure, kid. You might want to run it past Izuku; he’ll probably have a bunch of ideas for you.”

#villain month 2019 #mha villain au #dabi #touya todoroki #shoto todoroki #todoroki family #bnha #my hero academia #boku no hero academia #abuse tw #myfanfic

14 notes · View notes

ichigopanhpff · 5 years

Text

BNHA Fic: Blink! Ch. 4

Read Ch. 3 | Masterlist

This part takes place near the end of season 3 in the anime. Once we start getting into spoiler territory in the manga (since s4 isn’t out until October), I’ll put a nice warning :D

“Whoa, Ren-Ren. You look tense?” Seri pointed out.

“Do I?” she replied with clenched teeth. Her back was slumped over and her hands were balled up in fists. From an outsider’s point of view, she looked like she was looking for a fight.

The two walked with the masses for the opening ceremony. Tomoe’s voice could be heard not too far back from them.

“Hey, I was calling and—Whoa.”

Tomoe was taken aback by the look on Ren’s face. A light outline of dark circles could be seen under her puffy lower lids.

“Did somethin’ happen?” she asked with a tone of concern.

“Rumor mill says two students from 1-A got into a fight last night,” Ito caught up to their pace and interjected.

“Goddamn it, Ito. You jinxed me,” she huffed out.

“Hey, not my fault the first years hero’s course are so unruly,” the boy swiftly replied in an uppity manner. “And weren’t you supposed to rope them in when stuff like this happens? Some R.A. you–”

She immediately turned around and swiftly grabbed a fistful of Ito’s shirt by the collar. At this point, she was glaring at him with the intent to knock him out cold.

“If you wanna keep your tongue, I suggest you stop using it,” she growled out in a low voice and released him with a shove of her hand before walking away.

“It’s been a while since she’s been in this bad of a mood, huh,” Tomoe noted to Seri, watching their friend walk on ahead by herself.

As the opening ceremony went on, Principal Nezu briefly mentioned the recent change in the hero world with All-Might’s retirement and the elective hero internship before giving the mic to Hound dog-sensei. All he could get out were guttural growls and howls, to which Vlad-sensei had to translate; as expected, it was about Midoriya and Bakugou’s fight last night.

Letting out a heavy sigh, Ren face palmed with eyes on both her and class 1-A. But in reality, it’s not herself or the class she’s worried about, it’s him.

Filing back into their respective classroom, the day went by as usual. When lunch break came about, she told her friends to go on without her. She wanted to be alone for a bit.

“You lookin’ glum there, Ren-chan.”

The girl turned to see a boy’s face phased on the wall. She could only stare at him blankly.

“Mirio-senpai...” she tiredly greeted. “What are you doing?”

“Practicing my walls have eyes joke. Is it working?” the boy happily replied.

“… Not really.”

Mirio’s face disappeared off of the wall and fully reemerged from the classroom through the door to the far right.

“Aw, man!” he sheepishly laughed aloud and came up to her. “Guess I gotta try harder.”

“It’s rare of you to be so free,” Ren casually brought up and placed her hands on her hips. “Don’t you have your internship today?”

“Sir told me to take a day off and go back tomorrow. It is my last year here, so I wanna make the best of it!” Mirio responded and casually flexed his right arm. “So why are you so glum?”

“I’m not.”

The tall blond boy bent down and started poking her on the cheek like a child.

“Yes you are. You’re not smiling.”

“I had a long night, is all,” Ren blurted out from annoyance, trying to swat his finger away in failure.

“Ah I heard you’re an R.A. for the first years’ hero course now,” he suddenly remembered and stopped poking her. “The two underclassmen who got into a fight were yours?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

“Are they strong?”

Ren took in a breath to answer and paused. Her eyes slowly traveled up to Mirio’s usual unsuspecting happy and confident grin, catching onto his real intentions with that question. Her eyebrows immediately raised with suspicion.

“Mirio-senpai. No.”

“What?” he asked innocently.

“I mean it.” She warned again and emphasized it with a pointing finger. “Don’t.”

“I just wanna get to know them.”

“No.”

“But–”

“They’re not on campus, so you can’t see them anyway,” she blurted out to get him to stop talking.

“So that means they’re at the dorms,” he concluded with his trademark smile. “Okay, bye!”

Before she could stop the phasing senior, he ran down the hallway and turned the corner. She growled and gripped her hands to her hair out of frustration and yelled in English, “What the fuck is wrong with everyone today?!”

All could be heard were the dropping of some books further down the hall. Ren slowly turned to meet the shocked face of Present Mic.

“Ah! … S-Sorry, Mic-sensei,” she meekly apologized in Japanese.

“Holy… shit,” was all U.A.’s English teacher could say.

Never in her life had she felt so physically, emotionally and mentally exhausted. The moment class finished for the day, her entire form slumped over her desk. If she had the energy, she would teleport back to the dorms. She was just tired of everything and wanted to curl up in her bed. Heaving a drawn-out sigh, her classmates surrounding her slowly teetered away.

“Rough day for you,” Seri hushed out sympathetically and patted her elbow.

All Ren could do was sigh again. There were literally no words that could be said to comfort her. Dragging her sorry state off her desk, all she muttered out was, “I’m going to the library to study...”

“Damn…” Tomoe let slip. “She really is going through it.”

She could’ve gone back to the dorms and locked herself into her room to do work, but she knew herself best: no work would be done at all, knowing the two delinquents were there. En route to the building, a familiar man’s silhouette wearing a wraparound gray scarf around his upper body could be seen walking toward her.

“Takahiro, just the person I was looking for,” Aizawa greeted. “Come with me for a sec.”

Letting out a heavy breath through her nose, she knew she had no choice in the matter. The two spoke of nothing en route to his office; Ren knew what they were about to discuss isn’t for anyone else to hear. It was also one thing 1-A’s homeroom teacher appreciated her discreet nature. Naturally entering the now empty 1-A classroom, the door silently slid close by the teacher. The girl looked around with a small sense of nostalgia.

“Oh you replaced that seat back there,” Ren noted. “I remember when it got scorched by Hideyuki’s quirk.”

“Right, that happened...” Aizawa recalled, scratching this scruffy chin. “You already know what I want to talk about.”

“Bakugou and Midoriya’s fight at Ground Beta.”

“Can I ask where you were when it happened?”

Not wanting to lie to someone who trusts her, Ren told the truth on her whereabouts last night and summarized it for him.

“This could’ve been done within the dorms. So why didn’t you?” the brooding man asked, clearly annoyed.

“While that’s true, there was something there I needed to show Todoroki for perspective and to help better guide his way to being the hero he wants to be,” she defended.

Aizawa heavily sighed and scratched the back of his head, looking at his former student. Knowing vaguely of Todoroki’s hang-ups about his left side, he could give little sympathy for the road she took to resolve his problems. Quietly analyzing Ren, she looked like she barely had any sleep, obviously stressed about the whole situation with Midoriya and Bakugou. She was the type to take her responsibilities seriously.

As temperamental as she was today, judging by her friends and classmates reactions, he could only assume one thing on what she’s feeling: guilt.

“While I understand your frustration in not being able to help, I hope you won’t do something like this again,” he sighed. “The responsible parties already have their punishments and they’re reflecting on it. And honestly, I don’t think you could’ve done much either without taking down Bakugou.”

“His quirk is exceptionally powerful based on the videos I’ve seen from the Sports Festival. But if he is to be an efficient and reliable hero in the future, he needs to keep his temper and ego in check.”

Ren sighed heavily and threw her head back in exhaustion.

“Is this why you picked me to be their R.A., sensei?” she blurted out. “Other than making me confront close-range fighters to improve my offense?”

“That’s what you thought?” he answered with a tone of surprise. “Well… you’re not completely wrong. The way you strategize fights can help the first years develop their quirks and abilities way beyond what they are now. And to improve your own fighting skills.”

“You think my current style isn’t suitable,” she assumed. “You having Snipe-sensei keep tabs on me?”

“It’s incomplete,” Aizawa corrected. “You’re only using the long range fighting you’re so used to doing. It makes you predictable. You’re copying Togata.”

“It’s only natural since we trained together last year.”

“But the difference is he’s physically stronger to pull off the execution; you let too many chances slip by playing the long game,” Aizawa argued. “It may work as a defensive tactic for rescue missions, but–”

“Depending on the situation, that’ll end up being my disadvantage with a villain,” Ren concluded. “Fair point.”

“Just keep that in mind when you have your next practical. You’re dismissed.”

As Ren grabbed her bag to head out, the black-haired teacher called for her once more.

“If you’re gonna go to your spot, at least do it during school hours. Otherwise, I’ll have to put you on house arrest too.”

“Yes sir,” she sighed and closed the door behind her.

What a day.

–

Three days passed since Beta-gate, as majority of U.A. students dubbed it, Midoriya was now a free boy. During that entire time, he had been lifting weights to keep his body in shape for One For All while fulfilling his cleaning duties and thinking about his written apology to Aizawa-sensei. But what went through his head on repeat were Ren-senpai’s words.

“You’re the ones who have to earn back their trust.”

Those words were like a dagger to his heart. Not only did he and Kacchan act selfishly, they basically threw everyone’s trust out the window. He realized just because he got a little better at controlling One For All, it didn’t mean he could get overconfident about it. It’s a borrowed power, after all. And it’s not like he’s gotten a full understanding of it yet either. He’s still in the midst of his second step. Not only did he need to get physically stronger, his emotional and mental state needed to evolve with it. And he was going to start with putting his all with his fellow classmates.

While he thought today was going to be another day of school, 1-A got the pleasant surprise of being greeted by the Big Three. Ren nearly choked on her lunch when she caught wind of it. As if by instinct, she looked up to see the defeated and sullen faces of the first years filing into the cafeteria.

Abandoning what’s left of her food, she jumped out from her seat and ran out, her friends calling after her. It didn’t take her long to find the Big Three sauntering down the hallway.

She immediately teleported from her spot and launched a surprise air attack at Mirio, her fist ready to connect to his face. Being the way he is, he caught it just in time as he was saying hi to someone else and then turned around to see a disgruntled pink haired girl dangling from his grip. She looked like a rag doll being held by a limb.

Hadou bursted out belly laughing; Amajiki simply stood stationary and face palmed.

“Did you see that?! Did you see that?!” she cried aloud in between her laughter, smacking Togata’s bicep in the process. “She was gonna punch you and you just took her down instantly!”

“You should’ve known this would happen, Takahiro,” Amajiki blurted out, staring at your vulnerable form. “His sixth sense is monstrous.”

“Hello, Tamaki-senpai. Nejire-senpai,” Ren flatly greeted, still soaking in the flavor of defeat while swinging loosely from Mirio’s grip. “You guys look well.”

“Ah, Ren-chan.” The tall blond boy lifted his arm up so he was face to face with her. “Why were you gonna punch me?”

The vicinity of his face was so close to hers, she couldn’t help but let out a light blush with widened eyes.

“Probably because you beat up the class she’s in charge of,” Nejire deduced. “And she wanted to ask you why you didn’t hold back.”

“Took the words right outta my mouth as usual, Nejire-senpai,” the hanging girl agreed. “Mirio-senpai, if you wouldn’t mind, I’m losing circulation to my arm...”

“Oh! Sorry, sorry.”

Mirio chuckled and set his small underclassman back down on the floor. Rubbing her right shoulder to regain mobility in her arm again, she looked away with a look of grimace. “And to answer your question, I was holding back. No one was unconscious.”

She tried forming words, but none seemed to have come out with the way her mouth was moving. The fact that he used ‘no one was unconscious’ to defend his actions was okay? In a normal situation, that wouldn’t fly. But this was Togata Mirio we’re talking about here. The man who can be the next number one hero.

And the only thing she managed to get out was, “So, why were you guys even at 1-A today?”

“They wanted us to explain the hero internship to them,” the tall boy responded. “Even though it’s not required for them to take it. You’ve got a lively bunch to take care of this year, don’tcha Ren-chan?”

“That’s putting it lightly,” she sighed heavily and put her palm to her face. Her expression right now made her look more like Amajiki.

“Hey, hey. Have you applied to any agencies yet, Ren-Ren?” Nejire asked in her usual perky manner. “If you haven’t, you can always come to mine! I can put in a good word for you.”

She shook her head.

“I wanna make my quirk stronger first before I apply,” she solemnly answered. “I’m no good the way I am right now.”

“Ren-chan, you should still apply,” Mirio firmly stated, making her look up at him. “The practical experience you get is how you’ll get stronger.”

“I haven’t even nailed down a good offensive style and–”

“Are those just excuses you’re making for yourself?”

His honest but harsh statement jolted her head up to meet his blue eyes. Togata Mirio’s determination and resolve always got to Ren. It was also those qualities of his that made him admirable in the eyes of his peers and pro-heroes; she was no exception to that charisma. All she could do is stay silent.

“You’re more than good enough. So why are you holding yourself back?” he gently asked and placed a hand on her shoulder. “It doesn’t matter whether you’re strong or weak.”

“You can’t be a hero in-training forever and hesitate, Takahiro,” Amajiki added bluntly. “Doing that in the field means death. You of all people should know that.”

“Tamaki, that’s going too far,” Mirio pointed out and turned back to her. “But you know he’s right, don’t you?”

All she could do was nod, staring down at the floor and trying not to cry.

“The truth is, I’m scared...” She slowly brought her arms up to hug herself, her shoulders shaking from what she’s about to say. “Scared of what I’ll do when I find him. I… I don’t know if I’ll be able to control myself.”

The three could only look at their junior, trying to find anything to say that’d be helpful. All Ren could do was let out a wry chuckle.

“I came here to punch Mirio-senpai and I get a lecture from the Big Three,” she sniffled and wiped away the crocodile tears before facing them again with a lopsided smile. “Looks like I still got some growing up to do. And I’ll take some time this week to look into some agencies to apply.”

The school bell chimed to indicate lunch was almost over.

“Ah, crap! I held you guys up! And I left my bag with Seri and Tomoe! Gotta go!”

As their junior ran off, Mirio couldn’t help but wonder: what did she mean by ‘controlling herself’?

–

“So I heard you guys met the Big Three today,” Ren casually brought up at dinner time. Tonight’s menu was oyakodon* and miso soup.

“We totally got our asses handed to us,” Kirishima groaned out and winced at the lingering pain on his torso from being punched by Togata. “It was so lame.”

“None of us could even react,” Tokoyami added with a sense of defeat. “We all went down before we knew it.”

“No one except Midoriya,” Todoroki commented and took a bite of his food.

“Seriously?! No way!” Sero exclaimed.

The hetero-chromatic boy turned to their R.A. and asked, “Have you fought any of the Big Three before, Ren-senpai?”

“Well...” she hesitated and swirled her soup with her chopsticks. “Define ‘fight.’”

“When two or more people engage in a physical altercation caused by–”

“I-I was kidding, Todo-kun,” Ren immediately stopped him. “I was being facetious.”

“Oh.”

“’Todo-kun’?” Ashido pointed out with a sly grin, nudging her with her elbow. “Aren’t you two getting cozy?”

“Anyway, back to your question,” Ren ignored the pink girl’s comment and turned back to Todoroki, to which she got annoyed at and fumed. “I technically did.”

“Technically?” Midoriya’s ears perked up. “What do you mean?”

She let out long breath and knew she had no other way in explaining this.

“So Mirio-senpai has this habit of only phasing parts of his body through a surface,” she began. “When he was practicing his quirk to get better at it, he started with his face.”

Midoriya’s face suddenly grimaced, remembering he did the same thing to him a few days ago when he was taking out the garbage.

“I was walking down the hallway one day and he did that to me as I was passing. For some reason, he thought saying hi like that would be fine. And he did...To my right fist...On his face. And I kinda, sorta ended up giving him a black eye he had to nurse for three days.”

Iida, Ochaco and Midoriya faces drained of blood and could respond with a look of horror, mouths ajar and all; Todoroki remained stoic upon the reveal.

“Just how hard did you hit?” the green haired boy blurted out.

“It was a ‘scared to death plus adrenaline pumping in my body’ strength, so… pretty hard.”

Between the four of them at the table, she was sure they made a mental note to not scare their R.A. As dinner ended and everyone cleaned up after themselves, Ren suddenly remembered something.

“Ah, Todoroki-kun, Bakugou-kun,” she called out, prompting the two boys to turn their heads. “Come by my room in half an hour.”

“Why do I haveta go with this half-and-half bastard?” the ash blond boy barked out.

“It’s about your provisional lessons, so please kindly tolerate his presence,” Ren replied with an acidic saccharine tone and a matching smile. “Unless you don’t wanna be heroes, that’s fine too.”

“Whatever,” Bakugou scoffed and made his way back to his room.

With the day winding down, the R.A. sat at her desk, struggling with her Hero Law homework. No matter how many times she’s read the same passage, she couldn’t come up with a concrete way to explain the clause about full-fledged heroes turning vigilante. There were just too many loopholes!

Last time she turned in her assignment about the general dos and do nots of a hero within the word of law, she got chewed out for being too far-fetched with her theory of ‘in the event police are indisposed, the hero can take the law into their own hands and deliver justice.’

Groaning, Ren slumped over her desk and bumped her forehead at the edge of it. A soft rap at the door roused her back up and looked at her clock; it was time for the meeting. Prompting the person to enter, the door opened to show both boys showed up on time. This was the first time Bakugou had seen her room, second for Todoroki.

It was dimly lit with smaller and softer lights glowing from her desk and the shelf by her bed. Piles of school books stacked neatly on her desk with an open notebook with scribbled notes. Floating wooden shelves hung above her desk, holding random figurines, photos and books. Soft instrumental music could be heard playing from the laptop perched on top of an aluminum stand. A small, collapsible floor table separated the three.

She stood from her seat and turned on the main light with a pulling line. The ceiling lamp flickered on, making her eyes flinch from the sudden onslaught of brightness to her orbs and blinked a few times to readjust. Prompting the two boys to sit on the floor, she turned the music off and grabbed some papers from her desk before sitting down across from them.

“Aizawa-sensei gave me a copy of your evaluations from the exam,” she stated. “I’m not gonna repeat what’s already been said, so I want you two to tell me what you think you did right and wrong on and what you plan to do to improve on your shortcomings.”

Todoroki looked pensive while Bakugou had his arms cross, looking agitated as usual. The silence was thick and super uncomfortable.

“O...kay, I guess we’ll do this the hard way,” she sighed. “Bakugou-kun, you had zero compassion during the rescue phase of the test. Not only did you not reassure victims, your aggression towards them was what led you to failing. I get all you wanna do is blow shit up and beat up villains, but there’s a time and place for that.”

“That phase was fuckin’ garbage!” he huffed out and slammed his fist on the table. “If it weren’t for that, I would’ve gotten my license already.”

“But you didn’t, so here we are,” she pointed out tersely. “Let me ask you this: what if your parents were in that disaster zone? Would you still say the same thing?”

Her words suddenly made him look up straight up with widened crimson eyes, her expression unchanging. His anger was slowly stirring his insides. A vein could be seen slowly protruding from his temple.

“Look, you’re obviously not an idiot, but if you can’t do a simple search and rescue with a team, then what kind of hero would you be in the eyes of citizens?” she questioned. “You already have a reputation around U.A. for your shitty attitude and I’d like for that to not go beyond these walls for your career’s sake.”

The usual loud and proud boy was now quiet and reflective; his usual scowling lips formed a small pout. Thinking back on his internship with Best Jeanist and how everyone else had gotten further than him during that one week, he knew he had to change his ways; it was his fragile ego that veiled his eyes and heart from accepting that part about him, the part that’s awkward with approaching things in a non-violent way.

Being used to the status quo, things that made him step out of his comfort zone really scared him. He doesn’t like being taken for a fool or messing things up.

Bakugou Katsuki doesn’t do either one of those options.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean for that to come off lecture-y,” Ren let a short breath out of her nose and rested her arms on the table. “Just… keep that in mind and make baby steps, okay?”

“… Fine,” he muttered, not making eye contact with her and rubbed the back of his neck.

Shocked at his sudden change in demeanor, she quietly thanked him for listening before turning her attention to Todoroki.

“Todoroki-kun, you’re already aware of where you went wrong...”

The bi-coloured hair boy nodded and stared at a random spot on the table, unable to look at her directly.

“Because of my inability to cooperate with Inasa from Shiketsu due to personal reasons, we put the disaster victims and other heroes in jeopardy with our quirks,” he confessed. “Had I realized this sooner and worked with him, we could’ve suppressed the villains and then assist with evacuating the rest of the injured much more efficiently. I will do my best in remedying this during the supplementary classes and work on building a better relationship with everyone. I’ll definitely get my license this time.”

“That’s the spirit,” Ren encouraged with a small smile. “Don’t get me wrong: you’re both capable heroes. You two have really strong, compatible quirks with your bodies and you have full awareness of its power and limitations. But. You need to learn to rely on others,” she emphasized the last sentence.

“There’s only so much you can do by yourself. Everyone thinks heroes are all about the one-on-ones, flashy moves and taking down the bad guys with it. That’s not what makes a hero; they’re heroes because they also do the little things that make a bigger impact.”

The two boys listened intently to their R.A.’s constructive criticism, absorbing what knowledge she could bestow upon them. Even though she was only a year older, the words she spoke made her sound like a sage who’s trained many heroes before them. The clacking of Ren straightening the stack of paper in her hand brought his attention back to the present.

“Okay, I think we’ve covered everything,” she finalized. “Aizawa-sensei just wants me to do small follow ups with you two after each class. Just come on by whenever you can for that.”

Bakugou and Todoroki nodded and stood up, excusing themselves out of the room. The moment her door click closed, she let out a long sigh and leaned back.

“That was easier than picking an agency to intern at,” she said to herself aloud.

*Chicken and egg rice bowl.

Read Ch. 5

#boku no hero fanfic #bnha #my hero academia #mha fanfiction #bnha oc #mha oc #bakugou #todoroki #mha mirio #amajiki #mha nejire #mirio togata #tamaki nejire #nejire hadou #ichigo bnha-fics #bnha season 4 #mha season 4

2 notes · View notes

stuffandsundry · 6 years

Text

Arc 1: The Beat Riders

Premise

Most of the early episodes don't need to change all that much, compared to later--

Ah. Shit. I forgot to address my beef with Kaito. ok gimme a sec uhh. Ok. Okokok so here we go. I'm not gonna do this for all the characters because mostly, character introductions are fffffairly okay. Some are better than others but like, they're all at least workable… except. HIM. Kaito, the most out of all the gaim characters, makes zero sense so im gonna throw EVERYTHING out and try to extrapolate something based off of backstory given from Gaiden and canon and a little bit of real riders. Hope it makes sense. So, recap of backstory: Kaito's family used to be decently middle class and he played near the shrine tree, until Yggdrasil came in and bought them out. Kaito's dad didn't really know what to do after losing his purpose in life and turns to drinking/gambling, and they rapidly lose whatever money they had gotten from the corporation, dad becomes abusive, parents kill themselves and Kaito is left at an orphanage and grows up bitter and vaguely traumatized. Gets into a lot of fights at school, is a history nerd, etc. Cool, that's workable. Extrapolation from that for this scenario (oh yeah also, I did say girl now, it's Keiko now)

Keiko rreally hates Yggdrasil. If they had never moved in, maybe her family could have stayed together.

She's always looking for something to challenge her- she saw her family "give up" early on, and she doesn't want to end up like them. Struggle as proof that she's alive? No sympathy for people who've given up fighting, in her eyes.

Related to Point 2. Believes in a fair fight. There's no use in beating down someone clearly weaker than you, and anyone who does that is a coward and a bully. And if you need to lie to someone to beat them, then that doesn’t count as an actual victory. Wants to be acknowledged as the best by her own power.

A lot of pride. Doesn't like accepting help or depending on others/seeming weak. Talks big but also has a lot of like. Self-worth issues, thinks that people have to be "worth" something to be allowed to live, which comes from being abandoned by family so young.

Listen I know that this is a Very Standard anime rival lone wolf archetype but it didn't get to be a standard because it /Didn't/ Work, also I got really attached to Keiko halfway through typing this just let me have this please, I rarely if ever see it applied to girls,

Actually, the soccer episode also gave me the idea that Keiko would be the type of person that just. Rolls with things, no matter how vaguely ludicrous they are. Re: canon soccer episode. What are you gonna do when you get punched in the gut, sending you to an alternate dimension where the city wasn't destroyed and everyone uses the power of the drivers to play soccer? Clearly, become the best damn armored soccer player ever. That's such a funny trait I'm keeping it. It would be such a good source of deadpan comedy. Example: in high school Keiko was a delinquent who got into fights, how did she end up captain of a dance team? Nobody knows. (Most likely: somebody tried to insult her by saying that she couldn't dance for shit and she decided that the best way to rise to this challenge was to… take over a dance team and make them teach her.) Simultaneously zero chill and weirdly chill. Chill about all the wrong things.

Okay, back to plot. Only minor changes for the first 14 episodes, which I'm collecting into an arc--

Instead of Micchy becoming Ryugen, I wanna say that Micchy shows the rest of the Beat Riders the driver he got from Sid ahead of time and Mai sees her chance and asks him to give it to her. Because on one hand, Mai's grateful that Kouta's staying behind because Yuuya's gone missing and Mai isn't sure that she can handle being the final word of authority in Gaim, but on the other, Mai's kinda annoyed that Kouta stayed behind because it's like he doesn't trust her to be able to protect the team. Just because she's doubting herself doesn't mean that he should! She wants to stand on equal level with Kouta, so the driver. Micchy does give Mai the driver, because he cares a lot about Mai. However, subconsciously or not, he was looking forwards to being the one of the people that the team relied on, so a seed of resentment is also planted here. This colors his decisions in favor of keeping things secret from the rest of the team moving forwards as well.

Within the team, Mai and Micchy more-or-less switch roles, except that Micchy is also finding out a lot of Yggdrasil's-- and his sister's-- secrets in the meantime, so he's still extremely relevant. This way, there's a character arc set up for both Mai and Micchy-- Mai needs to learn that Gaim will follow her (like they did when Yuuya was around) not for her fighting ability or anything, but because she cared about people and wanted to make them happy. Mai realizes that she didn't need to change in order to become a strong leader, because she was already a strong leader and she just needed to trust in herself. On the other hand, Micchy's going to eventually realize that staying quiet about things that upset him is actively working to make his life worse because his friends and family aren't mind readers and they can't tell if they did something to upset him if he doesn't verbalize it. And if his friends and family really, truly care about him, then they'd be upset at THEMSELVES about hurting him, not at him. His secretive martyrdom is a ticking time bomb for everyone.

Ah yeah, one plot change I have to mention here: Keiko doesn't want the other teams to be her vassals because what's the fucking point, Team Baron is the best anyways. (That entire thing was a little. Hm. Idk how much sense it made, man. And it only lasted like two episodes so there was no point to it except to show that Kaito was an asshole even???) So in this 'verse, the reason that she gives Hase and Jo more powerful lockseeds in the first place is because. Gaim is the only real challenger to Baron, which means that theres only one person that she can fight meaningfully and that’s boring as shit. Raid Wild and Invitto still want to fight, they're just lacking the means. The only real surprise is that they come after her with drivers, which she didn't know they had. She has mixed feelings about the sneak attack. On one hand, maybe Hase and Jo are stronger than she thought they were! On the other, those motherfucking SNAKES,

Oh wow I just realized that having Keiko instead of Kaito makes that scene where Mai goes into the forest alone and Baron finds her… really gay. Mai bandaging Keiko's arm and they talk about their childhoods together… Mai remembers that Keiko would always watch her dance and Keiko tells her she was too shy to go up and say hi… Mai's deal wanting to protect those that she holds dear and all that jazz, while Keiko's a cynical SOB. ( By the by, Kouta's not super concerned with Mai being in there until he remembers ah. Mai doesn't have a Lock Vehicle so she can't get out, and the white armored rider is in there, which is when he rushes in like a fool. Except he's on his own while Mai is with Keiko, so it ends up being Kouta who has to get rescued, etc, etc. a lot of early stuff goes this way tbh. Small changes, but overall plot stays same so im not gonna outline it all.)

Takako's thing is a lot more. Okay. Bear with me here. I feel she'd def be far more defensive than Takatora was, because she's got a lot more to prove, and she's pretty isolated-- again, handing out the drivers wasn't her idea, and she's not getting the respect someone else might get at her job level, it's really stressful but Takako's kept going because the people around her-- Ryumi and the other scientists-- say that this is all going to work. Enter Akira. (YEAH. YOU HEARD ME. KAZURABA AKIRA DESERVES A BIGGER ROLE FUCK YALL)

Akira works for Yggdrasil-- she used to be part of a subsidiary, but her last project just got wrapped up, and she was reassigned to Takako's division as junior project manag-- what the fuck. Oh my god?? Is THIS what Yggdrasil's doing? WAIT THAT'S HER LITTLE BROTHER, SHE RECOGNIZES THAT SUIT. If you have Akira and Takako working together I feel that a lot more is viable here, you could compare and contrast Akira's ideals and Takako's. You can def. challenge Takako's ideology that a little risk and loss now is worth the gains that studying Helheim will grant in the future. Akira can act as audience substitute, basically. She's here to yell "SUPERVISOR KURESHIMA, WITH ALL DUE RESPECT, WHAT THE HELL" as takako eventually realizes that… possibly… maybe Akira has a point. She's spent so long chasing the company's bottom line she forgot things like, you know, empathy. The problem is, does she realize this too slowly to do any good? Also, what does Ryumi think about Takako's convictions wavering?

So while we're getting introduced to the main players of the Yggdrasil corporation through Akira, the Beat Rider side asks the questions: Who made these drivers, and why give them out to us? And whats with the strange forest? Which eventually leads us into the Christmas game, and the Yggdrasil base camp incident. Kouta learns considerably less than he did (seriously, how did those scientists not get suspicious) but he does learn: this forest is called Helheim, the scientists here work for yggdrasil, and that the Sengoku is the scientist in charge of this project. And then they realize that kouta isn't a yggdrasil employee and raise the alarm except oh no, that’s the moment that the inves attack and suddenly they have more to worry about. Again, minor changes. Kouta sees his sister at the Yggdrasil base but doesn't get the chance to talk to her, everything else can basically go as it did… incluuuding Hase.

Okay. Hase.

Here's how this works. His driver gets broken, okay, fine. Jo doesn't abandon him right away. Even if he's kind of an aggressive musclehead, they've still been working together for a while. But she's not enough to fight alone, and Hase can see that it's really only a matter of time before Jo's goodwill runs out. So he eats the fruit! And does not turn into a monster right away. Instead, it gives him the power that he was looking for this entire time-- he is able to fight on even level as the rest of the armored riders, even though his belt is broken, and it looks like everything is okay. With this, some of the other Beat Riders are considering eating the fruit too. Why's everyone so worried anyways? Besides, they look delicious… however, Micchy points out that Yggdrasil handles the fruits with the utmost caution, and that just because there are no visible harmful effects doesn't mean that they aren't dangerous, etc.

Kouta and Akira also sit down to have a talk about the driver over dinner one night-- they've both been kind of keeping secrets from each other. Akira tries to convince Kouta to stop using the driver because she knows that it's dangerous but isn't sure if Kouta knows that (remember, last time she saw Kouta using the driver in person was Episode 2 shenanigans) -> Kouta shows his sister that yeah, he knows that this isn't a joke, but he wants to help people like she raised him to do. Right now, they need the drivers to fight. Akira relents because he's right, but promises him that after the immediate crisis is over, they're going to have to have another talk about this. Kouta plans to bring his sister to the Gaim garage so that she can brief everyone on everything she's overheard in her the short time she's been working as Takako's assistant, but that'll have to wait until the weekend when she's free. Meanwhile, important stuff is going on in the rest of the city. Show that the beat riders have been losing their audience because of a sudden string of disappearances in Zawame (caused by ppl eating the fruits), and the police are encouraging most people to stay home. Not a lot of people are willing to go outside anymore-- they're scared, and rightfully so. Inves attacks are growing more frequent.

This is pretty frustrating for most of the Beat Riders, especially because people are telling them to break it up and just go home too. More and more Inves are showing up, too… And then some official or something shows up one day and says that until ZPD solves the mystery of the disappearances, the stages are going to be closed. And this is when Hase snaps. See, Hase has been using the belt for a while, so he's built up some immunity to the Helheim fruit's effects. (He doesn't lose it immediately like Yuuya did) But it's still not enough. He'd been acting erratically. More aggressive, recently. And today's the last straw. Hase gets into an argument with the official, it starts getting ugly, Jo steps in between them and…. Hase transforms into an Inves. People are taking pictures of it and everything-- even though the Beat Riders Hotline shuts down the live camera feed quickly, its not fast enough. And Hase goes after Jo. Kouta and Mai run over to pull him off of her and he runs off and everyones going???????

Hase holes up in a warehouse somewhere and mostly transforms back except for hand and he's terrified, he doesn't know what's going on. Jo finds him first and yells at him HEY WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT, DUDE which, while totally understandable, does nothing for Hase's stress levels. He transforms into an Inves and runs out onto the street, where the others, still searching for Hase, stumble onto him. They end up fighting near Charmant and Oren comes out to see what the fuss was all about, he ends up joining the fight. Hase's lashing out in fear and pain but also he's putting civilians at risk, so the Beat Riders are forced to fight him even though they're well-aware that they can't just like, do a murder. Meanwhile, Keiko gets cornered in Helheim by Youko and Takako, and she is captured. Takako leaves halfway into the battle because she gets word that they've tracked down a Beat Rider that became an Inves and she has to take care of it ASAP. Kouta, Mai, and Jo are still fighting Hase (and also Oren, who doesn't really know what's going on and is trying to kill the inves) without actually trying to fight Hase when Takako shows up. She tells them that that Inves is no longer human and tries to put an arrow right through him, with intent to kill. When the smoke clears…

Jo falls to her knees, because she protected Hase. In the shocked silence afterwards, Jo tells Hase to run. She doesn't know whats going on! And maybe Hase can be kind of a jerk sometimes, and really annoying, he's still her friend, and she doesn't want to see him die. Hase regains some degree of control over his transformation and he backs away, runs off. Takako tries to go after him but is blocked by Kouta, who tells them to get Jo out of there and he'll handle the white armored rider. Spoiler alert: he can't handle the white armored rider, but he bought enough time for the rest of them to get out. Kouta is taken in by Yggdrasil.

I think this is a good place to stop for now, so I'll do more later. Okay, see you around!

#gaim thoughts;

5 notes · View notes

paxignite · 7 years

Text

The Bet

Fanfic – The Bet - 2/??

Summary: Computer Science teacher, Daisy Johnson has to help the new Spanish Substitute teacher get his bearings at Garfield High School.

Rating: PG

Word Count:

A/N: Written for AU – Quakerider as teachers in a High School

ff.net/ ao3

Finally the next chapter! A special shout-out to @quakerider-hell for being an amazing beta reader whom I love to bounce ideas off of, and for also providing constant reminders and motivation to get it done. Lol Hopefully, once finals are over and I have an actual break from work, I will be able to hash out this story in its entirety. I already have it pretty much all outlined out, so fingers crossed that the wait won’t be as long and that it is worth it.Thank you all for your patience. I hope you enjoy. :)

——————————————————

“Ugh how many more??”

“Only fifteen, now relax”

“Remind me that you owe me coffee for the next ten years.”

“Stop being so dramatic..”

“Oh, I’m dramatic? Do your students really need this program?” Daisy complained.

She had to admit she was getting annoyed with herself, but the fact that she had been awake so early had caused her regular irritations to increase tenfold. Helping for the past week and a half trying to input as many programs into the Spanish classroom made her irritable. She was hoping there was an easier way, but unfortunately it wasn’t just a simple “pop in the disc and program installed.” Since they decided on getting the most cost-efficient program, it got a bit time consuming downloading and reinstalling the program into their ancient computers. She knew they were ancient, but actually installing them in another classroom made her realize how lacking the classrooms were in regards to new technology

He finally stopped working on one of the computers and turned to face her: “Ya deja de quejarte…I’m hoping I can get these ready so my students can start using it by the fourth week anyway. So, mientras más callada te quedes, the faster we can get this done which means no more desmadrugadas…”

“Alright I may not know a lot of Spanish, but I know judgment when I hear it, Reyes” she said raising an eyebrow and feigning offense.

He smirked, “And if it was?”

“Then I’m doubling the number of months you are going to buy me coffee?”

Smiling he said “Maybe you should actually be using this program as well to practice Spanish yourself, I mean you live in Southern California—East LA—of all places…I mean… I would have expected you to know some more Spanish.” He teased.

“Hey now! I just—“Daisy tried to retort.

But she didn’t get a chance to finish her rebuttal because she didn’t realize that a student barged in.

“¡Buenos días maestro!…wait…Ms. Johnson??…uhm…Good morning?”

When she took a good look at the student she realized it was Edgar looking on puzzled at their banter. As Edgar was about to rush out, Daisy called out to him, “Good morning, Edgar. Don’t leave. I was just about to lea–wait…what time is it?”

Edgar smiled a bit and as if reading her mind, “Don’t worry Ms. Johnson. I’m here a bit early, so you’re not late” He quickly assured her, “I’m just here to practice my Spanish a bit more,”

“¿Cómo estas Edgar? ¿Todo bien?” Robbie interrupted.

“Muy bien, gracias,” Edgar smiled back.

Quickly forgotten, Daisy observed how Robbie’s interaction was with Edgar and she suddenly saw why Edgar bet on him with such confidence. Robbie seemed like a completely different person while talking with him. It was a complete shift the way they were taking with each other and Robbie’s demeanor demanded respect, but also gave such a brotherly vibe that she felt that she was suddenly imposing on their interaction. Feeling intrusive, she looked away and quietly started walking to gather stuff.

Noticing her presence again, Robbie called out to her, “Thanks Ms. Johnson for all of your help. It’s alright, we can pick up tomorrow morning…”

“Sure…yeah…don’t worry about it. I can also try to finish at lunch so we can get them done.”

He looked taken aback but laughed, “I wouldn’t want you missing lunch, but if you really hate working on these with me in the morning I can get you off the hook with Principal Coulson,”

She didn’t mean that she hated working with him, but after seeing Edgar, she was intent in not cutting into his tutoring time and reflected that for a computer science teacher that loved her students, she was doing a bad job of showing it. She mentally kicked herself and was annoyed with her own actions. She hated to admit that she enjoyed their banter, but now that caused her to be behind as well as cut into student tutoring. She has never been this inefficient.

“See you during the lunch break Mr. Reyes,” She finally said being mindful that Edgar was watching their exchange.

She saw Robbie hesitate, but he just nodded.

As she walked out, Daisy was stressing. Lost in her thoughts she didn’t notice her student calling out to her.

“Ms. Johnson!”

She turned around to see Edgar run after her gasping for air.

“Edgar, didn’t you have a mini-tutoring session with Ro—uh Mr. Reyes?”

“Yeah…I just…um wanted to ask. Um,” Edgar said fidgeting and blushing profusely

“Yes?” Daisy inquired.

“Well…you umm. I know you probably wouldn’t…but I just have to ask…um…you didn’t tell him about the bet…did you?

She had completely forgotten about the bet that students had to get rid of Robbie so soon, and it made her eye Edgar suspiciously, “No…actually I didn’t”

“Oh…okay…like I knew you weren’t like that…but I got nervous for a sec…when you know…I saw you in there,” he stuttered.

Daisy was quick to counter, “You know teachers do also overhear things from students, so he might find out about it anyway” she countered.

“I know but I really hope he knows that he is still welcome you know…and I mean it— bet or no bet—I really hope he stays till the end of the semester.”

Great Daisy, way to be overly-critical, she mentally scolded herself.

“Don’t worry, I will keep it quiet as long as possible. Unless someone specifically asks me about it, I won’t say anything,”

“Okay, cool…Um could you also not tell the others I’m getting tutored. The fact that I’m here this early. They are never gonna let me hear the end of it,” he laughed nervously.

“Your secret is safe with me,” Daisy smiled and assured him.

“Thanks Ms. Johnson. I appreciate it.” After giving her a smile, he quickly turned around and ran back to the class.

As she walked back to her class, she couldn’t help but think about the bet and how Robbie would actually take it. Would a little bet really send Robbie packing? After working with Robbie for the past week and a half, she couldn’t help but smile smugly at the thought that it would take a lot more than a bet for him to leave.

—

After leaving her fifth period class, which was as always beyond energetic, she was looking forward to the break so she could help Robbie. But before she could do that, she knew she had to go get her lunch to be better citizen. So Daisy tried to quickly sneak into the faculty lounge to get her lunch and hurry to Robbie’s class; however, her attempt to avoid conversation didn’t work in her favor.

“So, I hear you’ve been hanging out with Mr. Reyes a lot lately; you don’t even want the coffee from my Keurig anymore hmm…” Her co-worker Jemma teased while watching her from a distance in the lounge.

“ha-ha very funny. He owes me from the spill and for helping him with his programs, but I’m almost done. Actually, that’s where I’m headed now. I told him I was going to help during lunch right now.”

“Interesting…that is a pretty nice deal you have going.”

“Hardly. Making me work on his programs. Why can’t he just teach Spanish the old fashion way? Why can’t they just have some vocab exercises or just have worksheets?” “They all better enjoy those programs.” She muttered.

“Oh Daisy, because if we had to be serious, how well did that strategy serve us as students when we were learning another language,” Jemma argues “I’m actually interested in this innovative and interactive method, and if we are being truly honest, he’s not making you do anything,” Jemma sarcastically answered as she took a sip from her coffee.

Trying to avoid the subject and Jemma’s piercing stare, Daisy turned around to quickly prepare herself a coffee from the infamous lounge coffeemaker: “Alright, alright, whatever, I get it. Enough of me, let’s actually talk about you. Because you know, recently, I’ve heard some little birdies twittering about something going on between a certain physics/engineer teacher and a certain biology/anatomy teacher”

Jemma blushed “Oh goodness. Don’t tell me those birdies are students. How mortifying…I swear I hear rumors every week, but I’m afraid…that this rumor has some truth to it. He actually just asked me out for dinner and…I said yes.”

Daisy nearly choked on her coffee that she barely started sipping. “What?” Her eyes went wide and her jaw dropped. “Since when?! And why haven’t you told me!? I need the details quick!”

“Well…it all started when—” Jemma started but was cut off.

“Simmons, Daisy, how are you ladies today?”

Daisy didn’t want to look around and acknowledge Grant’s unwelcome intrusion.

“Good afternoon,” they both said.

Grant not really expecting or caring about how their actual day was going continued, “Hey Daisy, I’ve been meaning to ask you. You wouldn’t mind coming to my class to fix my computer right; I mean you don’t look busy now. You want to come now?”

Daisy tried to keep a calm demeanor, but preventing an eye roll was taking more effort than usual.

“Sorry I already made a commitment to finish helping Robbie,” she calmly stated while looking at him over her shoulder.

Grant scoffed, “You’ve been ‘helping’ him all week; I think you can spare some time to just help me get rid of a simple glitch”

Officially annoyed but trying to stay civil, she turned to fully face him and smiled.

“If it’s that simple, I think you will be just fine without me,” she answered sharply.

Grant trying to gather his bearings quickly rephrased “What I mean is, you can just check it fast and work through it really quick way before the bell rings.”

Daisy looked at Jemma and Jemma simply shrugged not knowing what to say either.

“Look fine, I’ll go quick, but then I have to leave.” Daisy replied

“Great!” Grant said smiling, but Daisy was just thinking how she was going to avoid his idle chatter. Unfortunately, that was very hard to evade.

“So how is ol’ Robbie handling the transition. I heard a bet going around that they are trying to get rid of him”

Daisy couldn’t help but stutter in her step in surprise, “How did you hear about the bet?”

“Come on Daisy, of course I know. The students are in my class as well.”

“Right, yeah…” Daisy mumbled. Her mind was racing. She couldn’t really pinpoint what her real surprise was. Grant knowing about the bet and being the type who would actually tell Robbie. Or the familiarity that he said “ol’ Robbie” as if they have known each other for quite some time.

Once they got to the classroom and she started to check his computer, Grant seemed to not want to let the topic go: “So what do you think?”

“I haven’t really found the glitch you were talking about. Is your system running slow or something?” She asked confused. Why was he wasting her time with this?

“No, I meant about Robbie! You have been hanging out with him for the past week, so I’m curious about what you think.”

She didn’t look at Grant, but stayed focused on finishing her task at hand. Speaking of Robbie, she needed to get back to his class because she didn’t want him thinking she didn’t want to work with him. She needed to clarify to Robbie that that wasn’t the case. She also made a promise to him.

“Again, I’m not sure why you care what I think. I only came to help you with your computer ‘glitch’ so let’s just cut the chatter and finish this” Daisy answered curtly.

Grant’s demeanor became more stern, and it was clear he wasn’t getting the answer he was looking for. However, he knew just how to unsettle her.

“Care to do a bet of our own?” Grant proposed.

“What?” Daisy turned around to fully face him, annoyed and unsure of where this was going.

“Yeah, tell you what. I bet that he won’t last here for a month. I know for a fact that he is not the best role model and it’s only a matter of time before he does something stupid. So I think, within a month he won’t make it. He never sticks through with anything anyway. Why should this be any different? And if I win, you treat me to lunch.”

“So, you do know him,” she said accusingly.

Grant scoffed, “Well I guess we do have some…history” he said as he looked outside the window clenching his jaw.

Daisy was not one for work politics, but the fact that Robbie wasn’t here to defend himself and the fact that Grant was trying to manipulate her so he could have his date, forced her hand.

“Well it must have been a shock for you to see him back, but I need to remind you he has only been here a week and honestly, he has been able to genuinely help and connect with more students than you ever have. Your glitch is fixed, but I can’t say the same for you.” She stared at him intently and unmoving as if challenging him with that bet.

Grant stood there gaping at her, and as she stared back into his eyes; she saw how Grant’s eyes shifted from annoyance and illustrated a hint of anger, but there was something else.

“Well… we will just have to see how long good ol’ Reyes is here for then,” He said smiling; hollow and sarcastic and not at all happy.

She didn’t know what compelled her to say it, but she responded without missing a beat “You’re right. We will just have to wait and see. And just so you know, if it wasn’t clear,…I’m betting on Reyes.”

As she was turning to leave, she hadn’t realized some students were already in the classroom watching them stare intently at each other. She had no idea when they came in or how much they heard, but it just made her flustered and rush out faster.

She didn’t know what caused her to say it, but she had to defend Robbie. And she just about had it with not knowing the actual story and hearing ambiguous statements. Thank goodness, the bell rang, but that also meant she couldn’t finish helping Robbie which caused her annoyance to become anger because Grant got exactly what he wanted.

While she was watching her students work on their projects during the last period of the day, she was devising a plan to meet Robbie right after class to apologize but to also learn more about this rift. However, it would be just her luck that the seniors who were getting ready graduate had to ask her all of their questions right after class.

Once the last students left, Daisy rushed to his classroom.

“Shit.” She wasn’t surprised he had already left; it was after all 30 minutes after the last bell. However, while standing in the empty class she felt a strong resolve and decided it was time to at least finish what was left of all the computer programs so she could surprise him in the morning. She didn’t understand why, but the thought of surprising him made her smile.

“Alright, Daisy. Let’s get to work”

—

After finishing the last programs, she didn’t have time to feel proud of herself because it was already almost two hours after school and she needed to get home. She had enough of school for the day.

After gathering her stuff, she walked to her car and noticed how empty the school was except for a few cars. She could already imagine it being Principal Coulson and Vice Principal May preparing for the next day.

As she got in her car and started leaving the parking lot, she devised her new plan to talk with him and actually think of ways to ask Robbie the history he has with Ward. However, she didn’t want to be insensitive and was having difficulty brainstorming ways to bring it up naturally.

Lost in her thoughts, she didn’t notice the abnormal amount of white smoke escaping from the tailpipe of her car, and in a matter of minutes white smoke started coming from under the hood of her car and the engine stalled.

“Shit! No, No, No, NO!” Daisy exclaimed and pulled over.

“Why would you break down only two blocks away from school!! I want to get home you stupid piece of junk!!” Daisy shouted at the car as she got out quickly to try to pop the hood, but before she could do that, out of frustration she kicked the rim as hard as she could and instantly regretted that.

“Excuse me, are you alright?”

Daisy snapped around trying to ignore the growing pain in her foot when she noticed a young man in a wheelchair peering at her with inquisitive brown eyes.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I um didn’t know anyone else was around…Um. Did you hear…?” Daisy questioned nervously.

He smiled at her, “No worries. Trust me, I’ve heard worse. Is your foot okay?”

“Yeah. It was just a reaction that I should have thought twice about. I’m sorry for startling you. It’s just one of those days. You know?”

“I hear ya. If it helps, my brother is actually a really great mechanic, and I know he would be more than happy to help you. I can call him right now. I think he should already be at the garage so I think he can come right away.” The boy smiled.

Daisy become overwhelmed with gratitude this kid felt like her guardian angel. Again, she knew she was acting overly dramatic but as the day was going, she needed something positive. “That would be amazing! But are you sure that won’t be too much trouble? Is he picking you up?” She asked hesitantly.

“It’s not trouble at all. I normally take the bus because I get out of Physics Club at this time, and I don’t want my brother to have to drive back and forth from his job to the garage, so I finally convinced him that I can take the bus and it drops me off right by his work. Although he wasn’t okay with it for the first couple of weeks I was finally able to get him to let me go on my own. And now here I am, babbling about my brother, but also simultaneously saving a teacher from breaking her foot” he smirked.

Daisy couldn’t help but chuckle and for some reason looking at his eyes and the way he grinned gave her a weird sense of familiarity, but she didn’t have time to ponder because his comment caught off guard. “How did you know I was a teacher?” Daisy asked in surprise.

“Oh, I’ve seen you around the halls at Garfield, but I also just saw your car leave the faculty parking lot” he grinned.

She scoffed remembering she was still only two blocks away from the school

“Hahaha right. Well I am glad you are saving me too mister….?” She asked inquisitively.

“Oh, haha no need for mister. Just a student helping a professor in need. The name is Gabriel but I go by Gabe.”

“Well, thank you for being my guardian angel, Gabe,” she thanked.

“It is my pleasure miss…??

“Johnson.”

“Alright Ms. Johnson, let me just call my brother, and he should be able to get here in about 15 minutes.”

As Gabe wheeled to the side to call his brother privately, Daisy couldn’t help but be warmed by his kindness. Knowing herself, she would have been more frustrated if she had to call Jemma and get her out of her possible date. Or worse, walking back to campus and having Principal Coulson help her. She shuddered at the thought.

While Gabe was talking on the phone, she started walking to her car and finally opened her hood. As the extreme smoke engulfed the air around her, Daisy started coughing and cursing the universes interesting way of challenging her mental state. But as she briefly overheard Gabe’s voice talking on the phone, Daisy was happy at the mere fact that a student was kind enough to offer his help. And a student from Garfield high school at that. Smiling at the thought, she realized that she should start taking her stuff out of the car. Reaching in to gather her papers, laptop and electronics, she heard a car drive up, and heard Gabe start talking to someone in Spanish. Realizing it must be his brother, she gathered the last of her stuff and double checked the backseat once more before stepping out her stalled and stupid vehicle.

“Daisy?”

She stopped abruptly. Frozen. She didn’t need to look up from her stuff to know that the voice didn’t belong to Gabe. No, she had been working with that voice for the past week and half. She knew that voice already.

Finally looking up, she looked at the man with the same brown eyes as Gabe, back in his leather jacket that she saw on the first day they met.

Well shit.

—-

Translations:

“Ya deja de quejarte” - stop complaining

“…mientras más callada te quedes” - the quieter you are

“Desmadrugadas” - early mornings

“¿Cómo estas Edgar? ¿Todo bien?” - “How are you Edgar? Everything good?

“Muy bien, gracias,” - “Good, thank you.”

AN: Thank you so much for your patience with this AU. I hope you enjoyed it. I had to re-outline some of my main ideas, so it took me a bit longer trying to regroup and outline my expectations for this fic and I want to make sure I finish it and not leave it “in-progress” forever. A special shout-out to @quakerider-hell for being an amazing beta reader whom I love to bounce ideas off of. And for also providing constant reminders and motivation to get it done. Lol Hopefully, once finals are over and I have an actual break from work, I will be able to hash out this story in its entirety. I already have it pretty much all outlined out, so fingers crossed that the wait won’t be as long and that it is worth it. I really hope you enjoy it and I am so thankful to the growth of the quakerider/ghostquake fandom. It was awesome to see the increase in stuff.

Any comments, or reviews are welcome! Thank you again!

#quakerider #robbie reyes #daisy johnson #AU High School Teachers #the bet #pax writes #fanfiction #ghostquake #goodness gracious #long post #this took me a long time to write #i scrapped so much it looks nothing like my frist draft #but i'm satisfied with the direction it is going #quakerider is a saint for being so patient #ghost rider #quake #aos #aos fic: the bet

23 notes · View notes

queenmimi011 · 7 years

Text

Day Two

Sans woke with a start, hand desperately clutching the ribs above his soul. His breathing was quick and panicked, and even after realizing he was in his nest, refused to settle. The nightmare, the horrible mismatch memory, was still fresh on his mind as he attempted to rationalize with himself.

Those things were gone. He wouldn’t ever be placed in the same cubby with them again- he knew that. He had made sure of that.

And though his head knew that he was safe, at least from those two, his soul continued to feel like it would beat out of his ribcage. His entire being felt like lead. His left eye flared a deep blue with his magic, ready for an attack he knew wasn’t coming.

However, while that was true, the fact that they still existed somewhere in one of the cubbies unnerved him.

After a while the distressed light of Sans’s soul began to dim, evening out to it’s usual dull glow. White eyelights returned to his sockets as his magic retreated back within him. Slowly, his breathing returned to normal until his panic attack had completely crashed, leaving the small bitty even more exhausted than he had been before passing out last night.

Before he could begin to consider falling back asleep, Sans jumped at a light knock to the side of his nest-box.

“Sans?” Came a muffled voice from the other side. Sans let out a sigh of relief. It was only Papyrus.

“Yeah?” he called back, making a conscious effort to hide the quake in his words.

“The One just came by and gave us our breakfast. Would you care to join me to eat today?” the slender bitty asked somewhat timidly. Sans felt an ache of need from his soul at the mention of food.

“Gimme a sec. I’ll be out,” he answered after a beat. Would rearranging all of his bedding to leave his nest really worth eating? His soul ached again. Sans started to remove the soft cotton balls away from the entry.

By the time the expectant bitty was finally able to exit his nest, he felt ready to collapse from fatigue. He flopped onto his back in the threshold and let out a groan. This spawn was really taking a lot out of him.

“Oh, Sans! Are you alright?” a concerned Papyrus piped up from his seat near the front wall.

Lolling his head to the side, Sans saw the food pellets in his cubby-mate’s hands before noticing the worry etched onto the other bitty’s expression. Sans sent Papyrus a comforting lazy smile, his eye sockets only half open.

“I’m fine. How’s the grub?” Sans reassured, disregarding his helper’s concern. Papyrus didn’t seem to notice the purposeful change in subject and brightened considerably at the mention of food.

“It’s good! Well, it’s as it always is, but I think the One may have made it special today,” the taller bitty spoke enthusiastically, taking a bite from one of the pellets in his hands.

Noticing the pile of pellets across from Papyrus, Sans made his way over to the practically feasting skeleton and plopped down next to the food set aside for him. Picking one of the pellets from the pile and nibbling off of it, Sans could taste no difference in it from how the food always was. Yet Papyrus was scarfing the largely flavorless pellets with such gusto that Sans had to wonder if his helper’s previous cubby had been fed foul-tasting meals. If the One even gave other cubbies different foods. Sans wouldn’t know.

“Hungry?” asked Sans jokingly as he watched Papyrus finish his rations. The other bitty quirked an eyebrow at his question before raising his hand to his mouth as if to take another bite of a pellet. Seeing Papyrus bite on the air, his brows raising in realization of what he had done, left Sans in a fit of chuckling as his cubby-mate blushed furiously.

“I-I didn’t mean to eat so fast!” the other bitty stammered in embarrassment. Sans wiped away a stray tear from his eye socket as his laughing died off.

“Hey, it’s okay. It happens,” Sans reassured Papyrus, waving his hand dismissively.

“No, you don’t understand! I’ve never eaten in such a manner before in my life!” Papyrus fretted, brows pinching together in worry.

“Well you’ve never spawned before now, right?” the more experienced bitty reminded him. Papyrus’s expression blanked. Then he let out nervous laugh, crossing his arms over his pseudo-stomach.

“I forgot all about it for a second there,” the taller skeleton admitted bashfully.

“Don’t worry,” Sans advised, “You’ll get used to being forgetful. I forget stuff all the time.”

“Oh! That’s right!” Papyrus perked up, reminded of something. “You forgot to eat your dinner last night!”

Sans’s face seemed to fall for a moment before quickly returning to his typical carefree look.

“No, I ate it. Thanks for leavin’ it right outside my nest,” he told Papyrus, who smiled in response.

“Well, as long as you’re eating. The spawn needs nutrients, after all,” Sans’s slender cubby-mate reminded him. Sans could only nod in agreement, taking another bite out of his pellet.

“Say, how far along are you?” Papyrus asked suddenly, head tilting to the side. “I can’t remember if you told me or not, and I don’t think the One ever mentioned it either.”

Sans took the time to chew his food slower than before. Papyrus didn’t seem to notice the shift of pace and waited patiently for him to swallow his food. When the smaller bitty did so, he made sure to make a show out of it, sighing as the chalky substance converted to magic within him. Sparing a glance to Papyrus, Sans could see him waiting patiently.

“I’ve got three weeks left. Not long now,” he informed Papyrus simply, voice sounding sullen and empty.

“Oh, well that’s sooner than I expected. You certainly don’t appear to be so late-term,” the Sans’s helper pondered to himself. Sans only shrugged in response, taking another bite out of his pellet. Papyrus frowned at his cubby-partner’s lack of acknowlegdment for his own spawn’s health.

“Is this normal for you? Being so small this far in?” Papyrus questioned with worry apparent in his voice. Sans nodded, his expression hard to place.

“Yeah, I mean, I’m big-boned to begin with, so spawning doesn’t show up as much on me as it would on other people. It’s fine,” the smaller bitty affirmed, placing his free hand on his ecto-abdomen. With the new pressure stressing the fabric of Sans’s shirt, Papyrus could more clearly see the outline of his cubby-mate’s extended stomach. Perhaps it wasn’t as small as he thought it was, his partner’s baggy clothing did seem to conceal it a bit, but it was still a rather modest bump compared to what his previous cubby-partners had this far along.

“Well, if you say so,” Papyrus began, smothering his doubts. “I suppose I don’t know as much about Sanses as I’d thought.”

“They didn’t go over it in helper-class or whatever?” Sans asked, spirits improving as the conversation turned away from him.

“No, they did, they did. My second cubby-mate once housed with a Sans, and spoke of him often, but his word is really all I know about your kind,” the taller bitty confessed sheepishly.

“That’s why it’s good that I’ve been allowed to have a first-hand experience with one of you, so I can be a better mentor and helper to others that I may share a cubby with one day,” Papyrus elaborated happily, sending Sans a hopeful grin.

The other bitty stared at his partner’s wide smile. He stared as even now, his younger cubby-mate was subconsciously clutching his middle where his first spawn lay safe and steadily growing.

Sans returned Papyrus’s positive expression, but it didn’t reach his eyes. The older bitty could only think one singular thought about his innocent, naive cubby-mate as he unknowningly rubbed circles into his midsection with his thumb.

Papyrus was gonna be eaten alive by the end of this.

#bitty mill #bittybones #undertale #mpreg #skelepreg #my art

17 notes · View notes

greenflamedwriter · 3 years

Text

Angel part five. Final

Lotor found something. Something called oriande and Lance laughed it off, the whole Allura being his distant cousin thrice removed and Lotor being part altean whatever. Until they travelled to the outer solar system Lance sucked in a sharp breath.

"no way."

"Is that a floating skull!?" Hunk cried out

"It's the size of jupitar! what the hell!?"

"It's not really a skull it's just a planet that looks like one."

Later keith’s blade activates when Hunk is in danger, and Keith realised he’s a galra.

Only in highly stressful situations does keith galra out and Hunk is able to calm him down.

Lotor and allura get together he’s actually really sweet and always surprised by allura.

Until she finds out he’s the son of zarkon.

She fumes Lance takes her side and shiro takes lotor.

“Look I’ve besn where you are, I felt betrayed it’s cold and hot at the same time because you feel as if your hearts been ripped out.” Allura blinked tears in her eyes.

“Lotor is a jackass and you din’t need that in your life.” Allura shook her head.

“I really liked him.”

“I know.”

“Allura I can’t change who my father is, but everything I’ve said was not a lie. I like you and I want to get to know you, please give me a second chance I can prove I’m nothing like my father.”

Allura bit her lip “I-”

“Allura can I talk to you a sec?” Lance asked and took her hand leading her away.

Shiro’s shoulders sagged, there went any hope Lotor had, Lance had allura wrapped around his fibger she’d believe anythkngbhe had to say

Both shiro and Lotor saw the pair arguing back and forth, Allura looking more upset as Lance finalky crossed his arms and nodded. Thats it, it was over.

Before shiro can even begin the talk of more fish in the sea.

Although in his case none coukd compare and everything after when you’re sure you met the right one was justsetyling.

(I hibestly don’t believe this I’m jus pairing characters up- life is hard to find the right one maybe you did or maybe the person your with isn’t for you. But if you know it’s not right and the situation feels wrong trust your gut.)

and takes them to the mamoura whom call Lotor a traitor and even call out on Keith-His mother is there and they end up escaping the gladiator ring lotor reveals information about a certain area and thats where we find shiro clones.

Which makes shiro unable to pilot black and keith has to take over. As keiths break up-black-clones plus one ptsd flashback shiro is just done.

He snaps at everyone even lance but later on lance is able to coax him out and they bond. Lance shows shiro dnd and they make out accidently.

Lovely sexual scene bit groping here and there.

After they leave for their mission to take down Zarkon and their alliance with the Mamoura they decide they need advanced technology and minds to beat him (Sam holt+ Slav)+Oriande

On the way their SHiro admits he loved Lance and Lance admits it too and he still did but what Shiro did hurt too much to forgive.

On their way Lotor admits they need to cripple Honerva and they follow him to find the shiro clone place now shiro has an exestetial crises weather he's a clone (Finds footage of Shiro blood loss from having his arm ripped off) Lance saves him by awakening his sword to save Shiro

Lance takes the first step and admits what happened to him with Keith and Shiro and what happened to Ryou (Lance accidentally killed him) Here Keith hugs Lance and tells him that he and Shiro aren't like that- It's an open relationship humans did it all the time it wasn't feeding or even dating it was just friends with benefits.

(Have mission where Keith calms down Hunk they have moments before that also and Lance admits why Keith would make a good leader) Finds clues to celestie by honervas notes and barely escape alive, Keith breaks up with Shiro because the more they were in space they didn't grow closer the mutual pining between shiro and lance made Keith feel like he was second place. He needs someone to treat him better.

After this Lance and Shiro play D&D they get close and personell Lance freaks out (And instead of a misunderstanding) SHiro admits to breaking up and says it's because he's saw Lance shine grow evolved and even now he's still advancing before Shiro's eyes (Basically laying it on thick) And admits how he feels like he's useless) (Since I think the reason the show failed was because Shiro was forced to come back)

Introduce Crux. Anti-Quintescence and see that celsestia hordes Alteans and Galra/Hybrds to make them warriors to fight the greatest threat ever. (The monster Zarkon and Alfor fought the very thing that's contaminating the Galra)

Lotor absorbs it (When Allura was going to) And turns evil knowing she will save him Honerva and Zarkon take him back and he becomes the prince of the Galra and a full out war begins, while Keith turns evil and Lance has to fight him. Then Shiro fights Sendek and defeats him.

Then have celestials come into it and see Allura remember a lesson her other taught her- purification and she saves Keith then Lotor and even Honerva the two work together and manage to save Zarkon but the expelled crux warps together and becomes bigass monster that Voltron takes down.

Celestiel then want voltron destroyed (To close he rift and stop any crux from leading out into the world,) and for Lance to return to celestiel since he's still an angel and could be 'saved.'

They think they're being welcomed then get cast inside a cell (You've been exposed to the quintescence of your lions and voltron. You can be causes of Crux yourself (Full metal alchemist give or take if you make quintescence to balance it out crux is made)

They saw the planet and the others gasped "It's so beautiful." Pidge turned "Right Lance- uh, Lance?" Both Shiro and Lance looked pale both breaking in a cold sweat. It had the others worried.

"Guys, what's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost." Lance trembled and without thinking Shiro's hand moved and even Lance's arm clasped around his shoulder as both seemed to graviatate towards one another.

It seemed freaky but honestly it was kinda reminiscint of Scooby jumping into Shaggy's arms, Keith thought.

"The wings- they- how?"

Both of them were locked onto something- something the others couldn't see. "Guy's you're freaking me out here." Hunk admitted even Keith's hand latched around Hunks and squeezed it once.

"There are wings wrapped around the world." Coran said and showed a visual of a pink outline showing five pairs of angelic wings covering the globe.

"What does that mean?" Pidge asked glancing to Shiro and judging his hand being wrapped tight around lance's.

"It means, that whoever possesses those wings has to be powerful, and wise. They have to be older than time itself and faced so many enlightenments to reach that point but usually with wings that large their mass soon follows. A Celestiel will be born."

"A celestiel?"

Lance swallowed "Remembeer that giant floating decapitating head in space and thousands of ships could fit inside the nose?" Allura nodded then paused.

"No."

The others stared at one another horrified.

"Wait didn't someone say that the giant head was evil and was defeated!?" Hunk cried out "Celestiels can turn evil, like how angels can become demons." Lance said and it was something he was always warned off. Falling and even if you achieve great heights you can still fall. There is no final form or chapter, you simply carry on until you cannot any longer.

Lance fly with me.

Hesitates,

oh right I forgot, *Looks understanding* you're afraid of heights.

Shiro *tenses* What?

the other angel looks up "Oh yeah some demon flew Lance past the earths atmosphere and dropped him. Can you believe that?

Keith looked startled "That really happened?"

"Who would do that?"

"What an asshole." Hunk growled even the others couldn't be surprised by his choice words, Lance practically tried to make himself smaller.

Shiro was sweating buckets.

"Oh what was that demons name again? hmm....Kevin- no Kiero- oh yeah Kuro! That's it it was defiently Kuro."

There was a beat of silence at slowly all eyes turned to Shiro. He looked ahead, no sign he was affected except for the tell sale sign of sweat rolling down his cheek.

The angel kept talking "But honestly Lance, you can still fly- you don't have to go far, just glide and you'll be up there in no time." Lance shook his head "Nah, I'm good. Flying just reminds me that I can't go back to celestia that's all."

Shiro couldn't even look at Lance. He told him he liked heights because it made him forget he had even fallen.

Shiro had no idea he took that away from Lance, he couldn't even look at the others or even know how to fix it, the more he and Lance became closer the more the gap between them grew wider.

"Oh he always talked about you."

"hmm? Who?"

"Kuro. That's what he said that last time we went for a flight-"

"Kinkade," Lance hoped he would stop.

"He said you were beautiful when you flew and he was right, that's how he got me to come over, you were so fast and elegant he said and would never shut up." Lance blinked.

He always compared me to some guy who was fast and a beutiful flyer it's like I was living in his shadow. You're shadow. Keith said that as well- he wasn't lying.

"When he dropped you I thought you both were playing the other angels did it all the time," Lance swallowed. "I...I didn't know..."

Shiro goes with adam and Curtis because they look like Lance.

Lance goes with Ryou because he looks like Shiro.

Show Shiro's arena fights and the stuff he's went through to make it less one sided. (Arena fight where they meet Lotor and the blade! we can go to the confession scene in the lions fro there then after have Keith break up with Shiro because Hunk has been his tability."

Have Lance and Shiro exposed in an arena fight as they both fight together against a robo beast.

Have Keith and Lance have a post break up singing my chemical romance welcome to the black parade and destory shit.

Hunk was nervous

"Guys what do we do?"

"Calm down, we just have to think-"

"-Well think quick, they're going to out us out there in the arena."

..."Shiro you fought in there, what do we do? Shiro...?

-Shiro is currently freaking out-

"Well fuck."

"Paladins…"

-Reveal lotor and antok who talk to the others-

"Who are you?"

"The reighning champion after shiro. I’ve been fighting here since I was a boy."

"I meant You're name?"

"I am Lotor and this is antok."

"Shit a guards coming- shiro!"

Lance shoves himself forward with a growl. He is pissed and will murder everyone for hurting shiro. Years....Shiro was here yearsfighting and starving to death he lost his arm and it takes a lot to scar a demon. Lance was going to kill them.

"Shiro snaps out of it when Lance is take .

"Lance!"

Shiro slames against the gate-

"Don’t attack first- evade and find its weakness!"

(Lotor) "He’s a lost cause he’s facing Urak the worst galra here.

"Goddamit let him out."

-Hunk is freaking out and keith consoles him since Shiro ignored him-

"Oh god they’ve taken lance."

"He’ll be fine Hunk- he flew out a ship to save shiro, remember."

"But this- he can’t fight- he’s terrible at combat."

Lance barely panting breathless with his eye shut to stop blood from dripping into it. Then smirks. Oh he was only messing around waits until the robo beast runs at him. Then uses his grace and wigs out his anger at everythkng shiro’s been through.

I'll become a demon if I have to. (Dissonates)

Shiro was the champion they found another one. He screamed and the tortured him and lance was pissed.

Shiro runs out on the arena lance heveggaze fixated on him burning hatred and disdain and a gun aimed at lance.

"Look out!"

-Lance stared and for a moment Shiro thought he was going to use his grace on him. That did not detour him from running. -He clips lance and they tumble to the ground lance snaps out of it-

"Shit!"

- They run in the panic towards their lions. -

Shiro backhands a galra lance looks impressed -nice one!- and they get their bayards and shit.

The other paladins are outside in space. Lotor Keeps his identity a secret.

He is actually oart of the mamoura and was undercover in the arena being a double agent to zarkon as his champion. And letting the paladins and the prisoners go.

“But what about you.”

Lotor smiled smug and it made lance grind his teeth into dust especially when lotor kissed alluras hand.

“I’ll be fine princess, our paths cross again.”

Lotor helps them and others escape and thankfully no galra are aware they left the paladins and the mamoura help the rebels to a planet to settle down and join the rebellion.

The manourian soies keiths blade and question him Keith tells the truth and te blade tell keith he needs to talk to their leader.

Keith keeps the blade but has a deadline if he cant activate it then the blade gets taken from him moreso to prove he desevrs it and hunk is there every step of the way even Lance and oidge say they can just 3-d the thing Nd give the fake to the mamoura. Keith is against it and wants to prove himself. Lotor finds Keiths mother and helps reunite them then we get an indepth into his story of an abused child then his secret gets exposed Allura and the others are hurt but the mamoura sticks up for him and it slipts the alliance with Keith unable to choose who to side with.

Allura fumes Lance takes her side and shiro takes lotor to the side.

“Look I’ve besn where you are, I felt betrayed it’s cold and hot at the same time because you feel as if your hearts been ripped out.” Allura blinked tears in her eyes.

“Lotor is a jackass and you din’t need that in your life.” Allura shook her head.

“I really liked him.”

“I know.”

Lance glanced back at Shiro and took a breath "But for what it's worth, I think Lotor is a good guy."

"What?"

"I'm an angel I can tell, he really cares and he wasn't lying about the cause."

"You're saying I should forgive him?"

"What no. Well not straight away make him sweat a little, but believe me Allura it's a leap of faith." Allura saw Lance glance back at Shiro and pursed her lips.

"I think you're a hypocrite." Lance blinked "What?"

"If you want me to try, why don't you try with Shiro?" Lance flushed "I-uh...it's...it's really hard." He slumped back and Allura joined him "I know it really is scary."

Lance laughed "How do people do this? like all the time?" Allura shook her head "I don't know how my father did it. But for the people who fall in love are stupidly brave." Lance glanced her way.

"Well I'm stupid, and I think you're pretty brave...want to give one final leap?" Allura pressed her lips together.

"Not yet, not until I know someone will catch me first." Lance glanced back to Shiro and Lotor.

Could he do it again?

Allura bit her lip “I-”

“Allura can I talk to you a sec?” Lance asked and took her hand leading her away.

Shiro’s shoulders sagged, there went any hope Lotor had, Lance had allura wrapped around his fibger she’d believe anythkngbhe had to say

Both shiro and Lotor saw the pair arguing back and forth, Allura looking more upset as Lance finalky crossed his arms and nodded. Thats it, it was over.

Before shiro can even begin the talk of more fish in the sea.

Although in his case none coukd compare and everything after when you’re sure you met the right one was justsetyling.

"no way."

"Is that a floating skull!?" Hunk cried out

"It's the size of jupitar! what the hell!?"

"It's not really a skull it's just a planet that looks like one."

Later keith’s blade activates when Hunk is in danger, and Keith realised he’s a galra.

Only in highly stressful situations does keith galra out and Hunk is able to calm him down.

Lotor and allura get together he’s actually really sweet and always surprised by allura.

Until she finds out he’s the son of zarkon.

She fumes Lance takes her side and shiro takes lotor.

“Look I’ve besn where you are, I felt betrayed it’s cold and hot at the same time because you feel as if your hearts been ripped out.” Allura blinked tears in her eyes.

“Lotor is a jackass and you din’t need that in your life.” Allura shook her head.

“I really liked him.”

“I know.”

Allura bit her lip “I-”

“Allura can I talk to you a sec?” Lance asked and took her hand leading her away.

Shiro’s shoulders sagged, there went any hope Lotor had, Lance had allura wrapped around his fibger she’d believe anythkngbhe had to say

Both shiro and Lotor saw the pair arguing back and forth, Allura looking more upset as Lance finalky crossed his arms and nodded. Thats it, it was over.

Before shiro can even begin the talk of more fish in the sea.

Although in his case none coukd compare and everything after when you’re sure you met the right one was justsetyling.

Which makes shiro unable to pilot black and keith has to take over. As keiths break up-black-clones plus one ptsd flashback shiro is just done.

He snaps at everyone even lance but later on lance is able to coax him out and they bond. Lance shows shiro dnd and they make out accidently.

Lovely sexual scene bit groping here and there.

After they leave for their mission to take down Zarkon and their alliance with the Mamoura they decide they need advanced technology and minds to beat him (Sam holt+ Slav)+Oriande

On the way their SHiro admits he loved Lance and Lance admits it too and he still did but what Shiro did hurt too much to forgive.

Celestiel then want voltron destroyed (To close he rift and stop any crux from leading out into the world,) and for Lance to return to celestiel since he's still an angel and could be 'saved.'

They saw the planet and the others gasped "It's so beautiful." Pidge turned "Right Lance- uh, Lance?" Both Shiro and Lance looked pale both breaking in a cold sweat. It had the others worried.

It seemed freaky but honestly it was kinda reminiscint of Scooby jumping into Shaggy's arms, Keith thought.

"The wings- they- how?"

Both of them were locked onto something- something the others couldn't see. "Guy's you're freaking me out here." Hunk admitted even Keith's hand latched around Hunks and squeezed it once.

"There are wings wrapped around the world." Coran said and showed a visual of a pink outline showing five pairs of angelic wings covering the globe.

"What does that mean?" Pidge asked glancing to Shiro and judging his hand being wrapped tight around lance's.

"A celestiel?"

Lance swallowed "Remembeer that giant floating decapitating head in space and thousands of ships could fit inside the nose?" Allura nodded then paused.

"No."

The others stared at one another horrified.

Lance fly with me.

Hesitates,

oh right I forgot, *Looks understanding* you're afraid of heights.

Shiro *tenses* What?

the other angel looks up "Oh yeah some demon flew Lance past the earths atmosphere and dropped him. Can you believe that?

Keith looked startled "That really happened?"

"Who would do that?"

"What an asshole." Hunk growled even the others couldn't be surprised by his choice words, Lance practically tried to make himself smaller.

Shiro was sweating buckets.

"Oh what was that demons name again? hmm....Kevin- no Kiero- oh yeah Kuro! That's it it was defiently Kuro."

There was a beat of silence at slowly all eyes turned to Shiro. He looked ahead, no sign he was affected except for the tell sale sign of sweat rolling down his cheek.

Shiro couldn't even look at Lance. He told him he liked heights because it made him forget he had even fallen.

Shiro had no idea he took that away from Lance, he couldn't even look at the others or even know how to fix it, the more he and Lance became closer the more the gap between them grew wider.

"Oh he always talked about you."

"hmm? Who?"

"Kuro. That's what he said that last time we went for a flight-"

"Kinkade," Lance hoped he would stop.

"He said you were beautiful when you flew and he was right, that's how he got me to come over, you were so fast and elegant he said and would never shut up." Lance blinked.

He always compared me to some guy who was fast and a beutiful flyer it's like I was living in his shadow. You're shadow. Keith said that as well- he wasn't lying.

"When he dropped you I thought you both were playing the other angels did it all the time," Lance swallowed. "I...I didn't know..."

________________________________________________________________________

Chapter Last one.

“Lance- Don’t go with them!” Pidge cried out but was held back by the angels that covered their face. Lance glanced back and smiled softly “It’s okay, you guys don’t have to pretend anymore.”

Keith brow furrowed “Pretend?” Lance shrugged taking a step back, his voice tight “You guys don’t really need me. I’ve never contributed anything to the team and look- Keith’s back! And Shiro can fly the blue lion, so it’s all okay isn’t it?” The others were stunned stupid, the fact that Lance believed this crap honestly made them speechless.

But their silence only confirmed Lance’s suspicions. He let Kinkade take his arm “Come on-”

Shiro finally snapped out of his thoughts, Lance was leaving him- them.

He stepped forward side stepping the guard.

“That’s bullshit!” Shiro yelled out. Lance flinched surprised and Shiro bold, took another step.

“You’re the fucking reason we’re even out here right now! Why we both found Celestie- because you trusted Lotor,”

“Trust is a strong word.”

“You saved my life countless times,”

“I think you saved me a couple times too-”

“You jumped in front of a freakin bomb and protected all of us- and you were the one to pilot the blue lion first and then the black lion second!” Lance blinked as Shiro took a long breath.

“The lions chose you for a reason. And...I’d like to believe,” Shiro flushed “That is, it was fate that we met again after all of those years, I mean what are the odds that I happen to crash my ship right where you were?” Shiro asked and Lance suddenly stopped breathing.

Shiro wasn’t saying what he thought he was saying- no. He gave up trying to figure out Shiro’s thought process long ago. Which was why he was caught of guard by what the demon said next.

“All this time I made decisions on what you’ve wanted but I’ve never asked you what you wanted. Lance please, we all want you to stay- and I do too.” Lance swallowed, his hands crossing unconciously “Why?” He asked still wary.

Shiro smiled, it wasn’t any different from his usual smiles and yet it made Lance feel his insides turn to goo.

“Because I love you. I always have, it hasn’t changed since I first saw you.”

Lance’s eyes widened before he could say anything else the guards slammed there staff and pushed Shiro back “Enough!”

Lance was suddenly pulled back as more Angels intervined.

“Now we see. You can tempt this Angel no more Demon. All of you manipulating him to fall- now we see he is not to blame.”

“What!?” Pidge yelled outrage even Allura tried to push through “That is not our intention-”

“Enough!” With one snap of the angels finger Lance felt his stomach plummet as his whole world warped and shot towards the sky he panicked grabbing onto the closest thing to steady himself.

Kinkade chuckled “Don’t worry- they won’t hurt you anymore.” Lance’s eyes widened

Shiro looked up as the earth lunged towards the sky the others fell back in a cry as the angelic city suddenly levitated towards the sky and they were now falling into a crater as the earth spilled and they all fell Shiro cried out grabbing onto the others and used his wings to bank their fall a little but it did nothing, the planet swallowed them hole.

“Kinkade, I have to go back.” Lance pleased and saw the surprised look on the angels face “I don’t belong here anymore. I don’t think I fit in.” Lance said self conciously, he noticed the other angels looking at him. Aware of what transpired down below, they knew he consorted with a demon and their looks seemed to convey that he was dirty or broken. He knew where he wasn’t wanted and he’d take his leave but falling from that height would probably deal with a broken arm or something.

Kinkade looked shocked “You can’t go back- look they were like that with me, but once you’re settled down it’ll be before.” Lance frowned glancing at the others he doubted it…

He couldn’t help but feel...off about these angels. Almost as if they were detatched from it all like how he used to be. After being closed of from life and seeing how fleeting it is it’s no different than caring for insects, they eat they live they die. Circle of light that is non impactful. Lance had slowly began to be aware that he did it with help from Shiro he’s able to be grounded. And the angels here...he had a feeling he might lose himself again.

The thought made him panic.

“I need...I need some fresh air.” “Oh...okay.” Kinkade let him go and Lance stumbled towards the other balconies and took a large gulp of air.

Okay- think of earth, Cuba, the beaches the language garlic knots...Shiro and the others, being a family-

But their gone now.

He heard a noise and gasped instantly hiding behind a flower pot as two angels moved outside.

“How long before he forgets about them?”

“Not long, a few years he’ll not care about Voltron.”

“Such a little thing compared to the grand scheme of things.”

Lance blinked, they were talking about him?

“We need warriors to fight the Negative where the numbers come from is irelevent their only collatoral damage anyway.”

“But one’s that are loyal is hard to come by.” The other one had a cold cruel tone “But the desperate ones would give anything to be back in our good graces even if it’s to die by the negative.”

“Not all of them are useless the Negative has weakened over the milenia. If only we had more…”

They began to move their conversation and Lance gasped covering his mouth. What the hell?

He had to get out of there, it was a mistake- if Shiro hadn’t blindsided him with that confession he would’ve figured it out!

Lance finally manages to escape and holds a hand to his halo the fracture still there, after all this years he waited to be welcomed back with open arms by Celestia. But taking away the choice that he couldn’t be with Shiro or the others? It was another cage. Lance had no idea that he outgrew the principles of Celestia and that returning would be impossible but he hoped...he teeters over the edge of the floating palace and gazes down below the clouds floating underneath he shivered and took a breath. He lifted his foot over the edge.

“Lance!” He turned to see Kinkade and felt almost sorry for him, but hey at least some angels can be redeemed he was wrong to think he was a bad guy. Lance smiled as he took a step back and fell his only glimpse of Kinkade running towards him in a panic then the rocky terrain of the floating palace then sky.

What was he thinking!?

Pure terror made him scream and flap like an idiot, why did he could do this the third time!?

The air whipped past as he plummeted he could barely breathe or get any sound in at all. He shut his eyes waiting for the inevitable.

Shiro looked up towards the sky his eyes straining at the someone thing falling from the floating palace and gasped.

Lance.

He had no idea how he knew, but he could feel it, like how he felt the Black lion in his mind and the calming presence of Blue to calm his anxiety.

“Move!” He lunged forward grappling against the guards and they held firm their staffs glowing and Shiro could only snarl as he fought them their holy staffs burning as they slammed against his pelvis.

The more the fought the more demonic he became his horns grew and his bat like wings flapped erratically like a caged animal he began to fly forward and slammed an angel into the wall and the slumped unable to move. At this point, rational thought escaped him. Another angel growled then cried out as more of the outcasts, the nephilm roared and followed Shiro but he couldn’t care less for a revolution his focus was to get to the surface. He began to claw his way through the dirt as the gates would only open for an angel. And Shiro lost his grace long ago.

His hands began to crack and go bloody as he clawed and screamed as he dug his wings catching on rocks and his own body bruised and bloody as he clawed his way through the ground snarling as his hand finally broke free.

Keith kicked an angel back and cried out as another one lunged on top of him until they suddenly slumped with a surprised expression on their face. Keith glanced back to see Hunk with a grim expression on his face. Keith smiled gratefully and both continued to fight covering Shiro’s getaway from angels that would drag him back. If what he said was true, Lance didn’t have much time.

Shiro rips through the ground and claws through bloody fingers

He looked up sharply and gasped to see Lance falling plummeting with one beat of his wings Shiro shot into the skys his hands outreaching and desperate.

Why? Why would Lance fall from heaven from Celestia when he could have everything he wanted?

But he knew someone had to be their for him- he never was not in the way Lance wanted...but he was beginning to understand.

Lance was afraid to fall in love again, Penelope, Ryou and then Shiro who wouldn’t be apprehensive?

With a beat of his wings Shiro flew faster plucking Lance out of the sky. For a moment they were suspended in time as they floated in between heaven and earth. Lance looked surprised and Shiro had to laugh at the dumb look on his face. Until Lance’s expression crumpled his his hands wrapped tightly around Shiro’s neck.

Shiro would think he was disappointed until he heard Lance’s voice breath against his neck.

“Oh thank god!”

They float for a moment slow gazing looks turning soft, and then they plummet. Shiro gasps his own wings beating weakly but unable to hold them both, he was so focused on getting there he didn’t think what would happen after.

He cried out as he and Lance fell towards the ground as it grew closer he felt Lance’s arms “don’t worry,” Shiro gasped as he suddenly felt feather light and saw Lance’s wings flap once and they shot through the sky the clouds disturbed into a swirl as they both curled and swooped into an arc and saw Lance glide towards the ground where the others were waiting. Lance gave a whoop and Shiro clung tighter it was completely weird being the passenger but Lance’s beaming face as they descended swerving side to side he had to share the enthusiasm.

You may be afraid to fall in love, and you may not want to ever try again, but when it comes to love it’s finding the right person.

...To fall for.

0 notes

andrewdburton · 6 years

Text

How much to spend on an engagement ring

Ahhh! Enough with the same old boring posts about engagement rings!

Yes, we know the diamond industry wants us to spend more. Yes, De Beers is evil, and yes, synthetic diamonds are flooding the market, and yes, I saw “Blood Diamond” with Leonardo DiCaprio. And yes, we know about your aunt’s cousin’s brother who got a ring for $2.59 and they’ve been happily married for 80 years.

That’s great.

But when I decided to propose to my girlfriend, I started doing research — and I found myself getting increasingly frustrated. I had real questions.

What type of ring should I get? Do the “4 Cs” really matter? Is this jeweler going to rip me off? Do I really need to save two months’ salary?

I did a quick Google search and I felt myself getting even more frustrated. The advice on other sites told me to “do my research,” “find out her ring size,” and “pick my budget.”

Uh … I ALREADY KNOW THAT! No one addressed the real questions I had.

So, I did my own research and now I’m going to show you exactly what I ended up doing, including:

The exact word-for-word conversations I had to get on the same page with my girlfriend about the kind of ring she wanted

How I navigated the “cost” issue — including what I discovered about what really matters when buying a ring

What I learned from an NYC Diamond District jeweler who broke the diamond industry down for me

This is the stuff you won’t find in other engagement ring posts.

Hi, my name is Ramit Sethi. I’m the author of a New York Times best-selling book on personal finance. Don’t worry, I’m not going to make you feel bad about wanting to buy an engagement ring (or even spending a lot on it). I don’t have any secret backroom deals with diamond dealers. I just want to show you what nobody else is talking about when it comes to buying an engagement ring.

I spent a huge amount of time learning about the diamond industry and ended up buying a ring that my girlfriend Cass — now fiancée — loved.

Here’s what I knew going into the process: I’d met a woman I loved and I knew that an engagement ring was important to her. She never mentioned size or cost, but I knew she wanted a nice ring that was ethically sourced.

This is my personal experience finding the perfect ring for her with some additional insights from you guys, my readers.

So here we go…

The 1 thing that matters above all else

In my life, I have discovered one solitary truth:

Every single comment about engagement rings focuses on saving money. Always.

In ANY article about engagement — no matter which site, which author, which date — 99.99% of comments will say, “LOL! Buying an engagement ring? I spent $0.32 and we’ve been married for 43 years!”

Guys, there are plenty of ways to save money on a ring. You can find them on 50 million other articles where people race to the bottom of how little they spent, then brag about it.

But I have another view:

Your engagement ring is a unique gift, which you — in consultation with your partner — decide on.

If you want to spend $100 on a ring, great! If you want to spend $50,000 on a ring, and you can afford it, also great. Some people prefer a ring that was passed down from their mother. Others prefer an ultra-modern ring, or a heritage design, or an oval shape. I know a guy who spent $300 and I know a guy who spent $100,000 on his engagement ring. Both have great marriages.

In other words, I don’t believe in focusing solely on the price — I want to focus on the value of your gift, which ultimately only you decide. You should consider what your partner wants, but ultimately you decide. Not your friends, not society, not De Beers, and certainly not some random frugalista commenter on the internet.

So I knew I wasn’t going to focus on finding the cheapest ring. I was going to find the ring that was perfect for my fiancée. Here’s how I did it.

What to do before you buy

Until I got deep in the process, I didn’t truly understand the sales mechanisms that the industry has created to encourage you to spend more. These include creating their own rating system (the 4 Cs: cut, color, clarity, and carat), creating their own governing body (GIA), and even their own set of rituals and phrases (“A diamond is forever”).

Wait a sec. Is this a religion? Or buying a commodity?

As one friend told me, “I didn’t know what I was doing, but I knew I was doing it wrong.”

I realized that 80% of the work is done before you set foot in a jewelry shop. If you just walk in and say, “Uhh, I’m not sure … what do you recommend?” then you’re going to get taken for a ride and end up being one of those guys who gets bitter about the process. Average process, average results.

But if you arm yourself with information, this can actually be fun.

I went a little crazy and mapped out the entire process. Hey, what can I say? I love systems.

The map looked like this:

There are lots of sub-steps beneath each step. But remember the big insight that “80% of the work is done before you ever set foot in the room”? You can see it in the outline: Most of the work — 80% — is done before you ever get to the “Buy ring” step. Get these early steps right, and the rest is just details.

Start from zero

First of all, forget all the bullshit about two months of salary. That is pure marketing nonsense. Look at your own financial situation to decide what you can comfortably afford. I asked more than 1,500 of my readers, and depending on income, people typically spent between 4% and 8% of their yearly income.

Two months’ salary is 16%, by the way. Click to enlarge.

So I started with getting a general price down. It could be “$1,000 to $3,000” (with room to stretch to $3,500), or it could be “around $10,000” or even “$40,000 to $60,000.” Whatever it is, know it and remember it.

This data isn’t scientific. But with over 1,500 results, it gives you a general sense of how much people spend. Personally, these numbers seem low for what I know my friends in NYC spent. But this is the full dataset without regard for geography. Click to enlarge. If you’re having trouble settling on a budget, find your income bracket here for a general benchmark. Click to enlarge.

A general number helps because when you walk into a store, you’re not a mark — you’re in control. You wouldn’t ask a car salesman what kind of car you should buy. You’d do your homework first! Do the same thing for your engagement ring.

Talk to your partner. THIS IS IMPORTANT

Then have the conversation with your partner. (Note: I’m using “her” and “girlfriend” because my fiancée is a woman and I’m a man, but you can apply these same lessons to any relationship.)

Feel free to use this word-for-word script to get on the same page about your engagement ring:

“I really love you and I’m excited to spend the rest of our lives together. I know we’ve talked about marriage already, but there’s actually something I want to bring up that I want to be open with you about: I’d love to talk about the ring. It’s something I’ve been thinking about, and I’m guessing you’ve been thinking about it too.

What kind of ring do you have in mind? Have you thought about the band? I’d love to hear what you think.”

Things I did in the conversation:

I made sure to contextualize the ring as something we were doing together

I also made sure to be friendly and open

I didn’t bring any chips on my shoulder (e.g., anxiety about budget concerns) into the discussion

The big insight here is to actually ASK THE RIGHT QUESTIONS about the ring. Or, frankly, any questions at all! It’s amazing how many guys go into the ring-shopping process without knowing anything about what their partner wants. You knuckleheads create your own stress and anxiety — all because you’re not willing to open up the conversation and ask.

Over time, I came to believe part of the reason we’re afraid to talk it out is that many of us — men and women — absorb this Disney-esque invisible script that everything around the proposal should be a surprise.

Feel free to keep the date of your proposal a surprise, how you’re going to propose, even the ring itself — but the fact that you’re going to propose and the type of ring should not be a surprise. Stop being morons and trying to randomly decide on some of the biggest decisions of your lives together! Here are a few important things to talk about: “Do you want a public or private proposal? What color band? What shape? Let’s get on the same page about finances, because that will affect both of us as we build a life together.”

So, have the conversation. The script above shows the importance of your partner’s feelings to you. You’re asking her what kind of ring she envisions — is it oval? Round? Something passed down from your mom? (During the conversation, it’d be a great idea to ask her what her ring size is as well. Just a simple, “By the way, what is your ring size just so I know it?”) By asking your partner questions, you allow them to lead the conversation and create a really positive experience.

Wrapping up the conversation

“I really appreciate that we can be open about this. I’m going to think about it, but I just wanted to say thanks. It’s great to talk about this and I’m excited for this next step.”

OK, the conversation went well, but I’d also planned just in case it hadn’t gone well. What if she’d told me she wanted some ring that was totally out of my budget? Fortunately, I didn’t have to have this conversation — but I was ready just in case:

The backup plan: “What if she wants a ring that I can’t afford?”

“I want to talk to you about something that makes me a little uncomfortable but want to be honest about: From the last time we talked, it seemed like the ring you wanted was XYZ. Am I reading that right?” (Clarifies any misunderstandings you might have)

“I would love to get you the ring of your dreams … but I also want to be thoughtful about our finances as we build our lives together.” (Reiterates how you’re keeping the relationship in mind)

“Based on our budget, I can’t do the one you want right now. But I heard what you’re looking for and I’m going to do my best to find the most perfect ring to signify our relationship.” (Shows that you’re honest about the situation but also considerate of what she wants. Now begin wrapping up)

“Thanks, this was really great. I’m going to think about a few things. I really appreciate having this discussion. It feels really good to know we can have an honest discussion together.”

Ask your fiancée to send you what they like

After my fiancée and I talked, she proactively sent me an email with examples of rings she liked, rings she didn’t, band preference — everything.

I don’t think that’s weird, I think it’s awesome.

This is a gift she’s going to wear for the rest of her life. I want to know what she wants! I want her to be thrilled with it. Be sure to nudge your fiancée to do the same before you go shopping. Below is the email my fiancée sent. I added the yellow boxes and arrows to showcase what’s happening in the email.

Notice the details: color, shape, level of details, etc. This just helped me narrow down my choices in a huge way. Get this information from your partner!!

Size and bling: The only 2 things that matter

OK, now that you have a rough idea of what your partner wants and you’re ready to start looking, it’s time for some diamond-industry truths.

The diamond industry created the “4 Cs” as a way for you to “measure” the value of a diamond. This is a helpful framework to evaluate a diamond — but as soon as you learn it, you will realize how limiting it is.

Here’s what I learned from my experience: When it comes to the diamond, 2 things actually matter: size and bling (the visual appeal — think “sparkle”). In that order.

People get mad hearing this, but you should ask the experts: people who’ve bought diamonds. I remember a bunch of my guy friends at a bachelor party talking about when they bought engagement rings. “Everyone will say they care about all kinds of different parts of rings, but when it comes down to it, size and the bling are the only things that matter.”

Each married guy — guys who had actually bought diamonds for their partners — just nodded and laughed. They all knew it was true.

There’s a lot to unpack here, but I’m intentionally not getting into the socio-political aspects of diamonds. This post is specifically about what I learned buying a diamond.

In short: Yes, you should do your research on the 4 Cs to get a feel for the terminology that will be used by your jeweler. And yes, it’s good to compare diamonds to each other. But ultimately, size and bling (“sparkle”) are the primary things that matter.

This means that the most important aspects of the ring are purely visual. Now that you know the 4 Cs, forget about them. I’ve seen high-grade diamonds that looked duller than low-grade ones. I’ve seen two oval diamonds, both within $2,000 in price — and one looked about $20,000 more expensive.

“Clarity” is the absolute stupidest one of all. It describes tiny micro-blemishes on the diamond (this is where you use a jeweler’s loupe to inspect it). Guys, let’s get real. The naked eye can’t see these blemishes — and you will never use a loupe in real life — so it’s pointless to weigh this in your purchase.

As one jeweler told me, “You should get educated about the 4 Cs. But using cut and clarity is like buying a calculator based on its length and width.”

Call it the “Instagrammization” of diamond rings. The visual appeal matters more than anything else. If you dig deeper, there are a lot of reasons why: When your fiancée announces the engagement, there will be photos highlighting the ring. The first thing her friends will do is say, “Let me see the ring!” Whether you like it or not, the ring is a social statement. My philosophy is to acknowledge the game being played around you. You can choose whether or not to play, but know the game.

Some people find this distasteful. I found it liberating.

Out of 1,500+ respondents, these are the five most expensive rings. Here they are graphed according to income levels. Click to enlarge.

Think about it — now that I knew the visual appeal mattered most, I could focus my search around the look of the diamond. I could instantly discard most of the nonsense around the “perfect” diamond.

This is an area where you can “capture value,” or save money, since you don’t need to weigh it in your consideration.

So forget about micro-blemishes, the stories you hear about the diamond heritage, and resale value. This is a gift, not an investment. Focus on the two key drivers that people want — size and bling — and get the ring that you and your partner discussed.

In other words:

Use your eyes to judge a diamond your partner will love. Don’t let the 4 Cs lead you astray

In my experience, size and bling (“sparkle”) matter most. Be smart. Don’t buy a big diamond that has no bling. It’s important to balance the two

Above all, be sure you know what your partner wants and loves! Don’t let your preconceived notions (or worse, society’s) guide your decision. This gift is about your partner

By now, you know your budget, the type of ring and band, and you know to focus on size and bling. Time to get the ring.

How I went shopping for the ring

I love the phrase, “Play from a position of strength.” You’re about to make a large purchase — so act like it. Make the salespeople work for you. Be crystal clear with what you want and what you expect. Of course, be polite — but remember you’re playing from a position of strength.

Hey, I know everyone thinks the proposal is all about romance, but I also love LOGISTICS. I’ll show you exactly how I did it.

By now, you’ve had a conversation with your partner about what she’s thinking about when it comes to a ring. You’ve carefully thought about what you want to do and what you can afford. This is amazing — you’re light years ahead of most others.

Now, I’m going to show you how I approached the buying process so you can do a few key things differently.

Step 1: Find 3-5 jewelers and set up appointments

First, I asked a bunch of my male married friends which jewelers I should talk to. The most common response I got was, “I have a guy.” Everyone has a guy. I started to make a short list of jewelers in NYC they had used.

Next, I asked some of my female friends for their jeweler recommendations. Many of them had helped friends shop for their engagement rings. They had different perspectives on the rings, including things to pay attention to if you actually wear jewelry.

I ended up with a list of five jewelers. Four were in NYC and one was in the Caribbean (you call him and he ships the diamonds to a local NYC jeweler). In retrospect, three to five is a good range of jewelers to give you a sense of the different options and prices. Also, you want them to compete against each other.

Here are the jewelers I narrowed my shopping down to in NYC. Note that I have no affiliation with any of them (and also note that the diamond industry isn’t very online-savvy, so most of their sites aren’t great).

David at David S. Diamonds

Pash Daswani at Lucky Jewelers

Sam Dholakia at Adris Corporation

I also want to mention Zameer Kassam, who I met at a business event. He creates custom rings based on your story with your partner. I didn’t go with him but I think his business is fascinating.

Along the way, I was also cross-referencing my friends’ recommendations with Yelp and other online reviews. Online sites are helpful if you don’t have firsthand recommendations in your city, but in my experience, most of the jewelry industry isn’t really online-savvy yet.

Now I planned my visits. In an ideal world, you should start this process six to eight weeks before you propose since it takes time to find the ring. I was running a little late (Cass had told me she wanted to be engaged in “Q1” — yes, I knew she was the girl of my dreams when she used financial quarters to talk about engagements), so I had to accelerate things by getting efficient.

Remember, 80% of the work is done before you get there. I scheduled three visits on the same day. 60 minutes each, 15-minute break in between. Before I visited, I emailed ahead of time (like you would a car dealer) and told them exactly what I was looking for — the shape of the diamond, my budget, etc. — and asked them to have a few samples ready for when I went in. The email from Cass above made this MUCH easier.

Scheduling the visit

Hi George,

My name is Ramit. I’m planning on proposing to my girlfriend around X/X/XXXX and I’m beginning the process of buying a ring.

A friend of mine, NAME, recommended I come in and see you. I’m looking for an oval ring.

I’m free on Wednesday at 1pm or 3pm. Can we schedule an hour for me to visit?

Thanks,

Ramit

Jeweler response

Ramit, it is a pleasure to meet you. Wednesday at 1pm will work fine. Can you tell me more about the ring you are looking for?

George

Sending prep notes ahead of time

Great, looking forward to meeting! I’m including an email below from my girlfriend on the types of rings she likes. I would love to see examples of rings like this (and anything else you recommend) on Wednesday.

Ramit

(If this feels weird or demanding, remember: This is a huge purchase for you and they want your business. They’ll take care of you to make the sale. Play from a position of strength!)

ACTION STEP: Eight weeks before you propose, compile a list of three to five jewelers you can visit and set aside some time during the week to visit them. Plan to spend at least an hour at each one to look over rings.

Step 2: Visit the jewelers

It was funny. When I was a kid, I read “Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” (“too hot … too cold … just right”) but I never thought I’d be living it … while shopping for an ENGAGEMENT RING.

It turned out that one jeweler was on the top floor of a building in a super-luxe office. He brought out drinks, the lighting was stunning, and the diamonds were incredible — and expensive. Another jeweler was on a mid-level floor behind two security doors in a plainly furnished office. A third was on the ground floor, flooded with people, and he had the overall cheapest prices.

Even though I didn’t plan for this, it was great. I learned that the glamour of the office has nothing to do with finding the right ring. Don’t pay for your jeweler’s expensive rent — just focus on finding the ring! Also, broaden your horizons! Don’t just go to cheap jewelers or expensive ones. Get a feel for all price points. You might be surprised by what you find.

Visit 1: When you mention your plans to a few trusted friends, you might find one person who HAPPILY volunteers to help. Take them up on it. Chances are, they love helping people shop for engagement rings and they’ve done it multiple times.

Even with all the preparation, I was new to this entire game. So I asked one of my friends’ wives to come.

This was awesome because she knew my girlfriend, she knew jewelry, and she had helped other guys with their ring purchase. Perfect — I got the chance to get walked through the process by someone I trusted.

Here’s what she told me before we walked in:

“I’ve taken lots of people to buy their rings here”

“He’s going to try to wow you with stories about the heritage of the diamonds. Just ignore it. Cass wants an oval diamond from the pics she sent. Focus on finding that”

“He’s going to show you different rings that are cheaper and more expensive. Some people walk in and throw their budget out the window. Don’t feel pressured to make a decision today. Just learn and compare these rings with the other jewelers you see”

SUPER VALUABLE.

In this first visit (to the Glamorous Guy), the jeweler spent a lot of time educating me about the different types of rings, where to “capture value” (or save money on things that don’t matter), and how to think about diamond rings. Of course he was selling me! This approach is called “consultative sales.” Just take everything you learn with a grain of salt.

Visit 2: I went alone. I wanted time to myself to see the diamonds by myself. This was a quick trip and I only went to one of the jewelers.

Visit 3: I asked my sister and brother-in-law to come. I wanted their perspective since they knew Cass’s style, they knew my budget, and they’d been through the process before. I took them to three jewelers who I’d narrowed my search down to. I purchased the ring on this trip.

ACTION STEP: Invite one or two married friends out to go ring shopping with you. Use our script to send the perfect email.

Step 3: Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate

During the purchase process, one of the jewelers told me something I’ll never forget.

It was the third jeweler I’d visited, the guy on the ground floor. When I walked in and told him what I wanted, he looked me in the eye and said, “OK, I’m going to show you how my business works,” and took out his phone. He then pulled up an app and said, “Tell me exactly what you want — size, color, whatever — and I’ll plug it in here. I can get any diamond in the country here.”

So I told him what I wanted, and he pulled it up on the app. In fact, the craziest thing he did was pull up the exact diamond I had just seen two blocks away — a diamond that I was told was “the product of Flemish diamond cutters” who “have passed the knowledge down from generation to generation.”

He heard all that and said, “I can have that diamond here by tomorrow morning.” Get this: His price for the exact same diamond was $2,000 less!

Why tell you this story? To reiterate the fact that diamonds are a commodity. You can and will be able to negotiate a lower price on any stone you want because of that fact. Forget about the stories your jeweler tells you. Focus on what it looks like and if your partner will like it.

Also, DO NOT BE MISLED BY THINKING ABOUT RESALE VALUE. Your diamond is basically worthless the minute you walk out of the store. Lots of people think they can resell their diamond for a pretty good percentage of the original price — and they are all wrong. You can read a detailed account of trying to resell a diamond here (amazing article), but my personal rule of thumb is that if you ever tried to resell the diamond, you should assume a 15% return. In other words, if you have a $1,000 ring and try to sell it, you might get $150 — if you’re lucky.

In fact, once it’s clear you’re about to buy, you should be open about pricing: Don’t try to beat around the bush or “hint” about negotiation. Be open: Ask for the pricing chart.

Ask how they charge. They expect it, and many of the hungriest jewelers will just show you their pricing and charge you a small percentage over cost.

ACTION STEP: Prepare for your negotiations. For my very best negotiation tactics, be sure to check out my article on the 4 simple rules of negotiations.

Ramit’s big takeaways on buying an engagement ring

My overall insights on buying an engagement ring:

80% of the work is done before you set foot in a jewelry shop. As one of my friends said, “I didn’t know what I was doing, but I knew I was doing it wrong.” The best way to combat this is to intentionally prepare by making a few key decisions before you walk into your first jewelry store. Specifically, get on the same page with your partner, know your general spending range, see multiple jewelers, make them work for your business, and remember that a diamond is just a small part — but an important part — of building a life together. If you follow the steps in this post, you’ll be far ahead of almost everyone else.

The single-most important part of the process is having an open discussion with your partner. Too many people think the engagement ring should be a surprise. Wrong! Your proposal date should be a surprise. How you propose should be a surprise. But you should know exactly what kind of ring your partner wants. Get on the same page about the style of ring she wants. And clarify any questions about the budget using my scripts above.

Know that a ring is a symbol for something greater. Talking about a ring also means talking about your future together — and that’s where the real value of this process is apparent. Where do we want to live? Will both of us work? How do we want to raise kids? Do we even want kids? I consider this the “secret sauce” of this post: It was easy to get fixated on the ring shopping, the proposal, and thinking about the budget. But those were ultimately details. What really mattered was us creating a new chapter of our lives together — and being open about it with each other.

How to spend whatever you want on an engagement ring

The #1 question about engagement rings is almost always about cost.

And as I’ve shown you, I have a different view than most people: If you want a $1,000 ring, great. If you want a $50,000 ring, also great. Again, the real meaning isn’t in the dollars you spend, but in the new chapter of your relationship.

The easiest way to pay for a ring is to have followed the “automatic savings plan” in my book. Just like I wrote there, I’d been saving for a ring for about 10 years — even before I was in a relationship!

As the quote goes, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”

If you’re reading this, chances are you’re ready to pop the question, which means you don’t have 10 years to save up for the ring. That’s fine. I suggest my article on how to make money fast for some ideas on long-lasting ways to have more money to put toward your ring.

But if I’m catching you early, I have the perfect system for you to start saving for your engagement ring: Conscious Spending Plan.

This is the exact same system that my friend uses to spend $21,000 going out to bars and having a good time with friends. This is the exact same system I used to automatically save for the ring, so cost wasn’t a primary issue.

This system — which I’ll show you — lets you:

Automate your finances

Know where your money goes so you’re in complete control of the situation

If you want to learn more on how to automate your finances, check out this 12-minute video of me explaining the exact process I use below.

youtube

Being able to buy the engagement ring you want is only a small part of your journey to a Rich Life. That’s why I want to offer you something my team and I have been working on to help you earn more money to live the life you want: The Ultimate Guide to Making Money.

Download a free copy of my Ultimate Guide to learn my best strategies for creating multiple income streams, starting a business, and increasing your income by thousands of dollars a year.

(Thanks to Derek Halpern, Steve Kamb, Nick Gray, Vasu Vats, and my fiancée Cass for reviewing drafts of this post, and to all the readers who sent along their stories and advice.)

How much to spend on an engagement ring is a post from: I Will Teach You To Be Rich.

from Finance https://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/how-much-should-a-man-spend-on-an-engagement-ring/ via http://www.rssmix.com/

0 notes

samuelfields · 6 years