In Crimson Resolve, Hikaru tells Ao that she's 13. However, the Magia Day 2022 event revealed that Hikaru is actually 14.

This means that either Hikaru was 13 when she met Ao in CR, but had a birthday sometime during Arc 2, or she decided to tell Ao a totally pointless little lie for no discernible reason

the mercs realize it's your bday and you didn't tell anyone because your family doesn't do birthdays

I’m so sorry this is a mess between British and American english. I have an American parent and a Canadian one so it messed me up lolll

if didn't include a Merc you wanted, feel free to request and I'll try and add them :]

includes: Miss Pauling & offense classes

cute platonic, gn!reader

warnings: n/a, this is basically all fluff

You'd rather not make a big deal of it being your birthday, even though it is you were taught that birthdays aren't a big deal and your family never really did them.

You kind of wish someone would care but you feel guilty about that so you choose not to tell anyone about it

The only one of these who actually knows it's your birthday is Miss Pauling, who’s seen your personnel files

Miss Pauling

She knows it's your birthday, and instead of ignoring it she decides to at least discreetly make it a good day for you

She arrives on base for a routine inspection, clipboard in hand, but once she's done with the main thing, instead of leaving, she comes to your room

"I saw that it's your birthday today. I don't know if you celebrate, or anything, but, uh, I thought you'd like a gift. Maybe."

She hands you a box, inside are some candy bars and a plush of a bear

"I know it's not exactly the nicest thing, and I know it's kinda... stereotypical... but, y'know, I thought you'd like something. So, happy birthday. From me.” She’s really shy about it, you get the feeling she didn’t--probably still doesn’t--really get to celebrate birthdays either. 

She offers you a ride on her motorbike, something nice, on the open road--away from this base for a little while. You accept, taking a seat behind her, enjoying the open air--though it is pretty hot out. You guys talk, just enjoying the time.

She smiles at you as you get back. “Happy birthday. You deserve it.”

You thank her and even give her a hug. It’s nice that you got this for once. 

Scout

He has no idea whatsoever that it’s your birthday. He’s interacting with you like usual, teasing you, just hanging out. You’re happy as you talk that day; he’s always good at making you laugh and smile.

At some point he notices that you’re a little down, as much as you may try to hide it, he can tell. You’re his friend, and even though he might act like he doesn’t care sometimes, you know he does. A lot.

You tell yourself you don’t want anything on your birthday, that it’s easier if no one knows, but secretly, you do.

“Hey, what’s up? C’mon, ya know I can tell when something’s wrong.” 

You tell him it’s nothing. 

“You sure? Really? You’re kinda… I dunno, sadder than usual.” After he asks a few times, you finally come out and tell him. You don’t say much. Just “It’s my birthday.”

“No kiddin’? Well, why didn’t ya tell me?” He comes off pretty strong. You feel kind of apologetic for mentioning it, and look away from him. “Aw, hey. Y’know what--it don’t matter. I’m gonna throw you a party like you ain’t never seen, believe me.”

You try to tell him you don’t want a party--well, you do. Maybe. No you don’t. Well, sure. But not a big one. He’s really sweet and enthusiastic about it. “Someone like you deserves a big birthday--but if you don’t want it, dat’s okay. Ya know, we could just hang out, or somethin’. You n’ me, yeah?” 

You tell him you’d like that a lot. You both find a quiet spot in the base where you can just talk. He messes around, too, and pops in a Tom Jones record. 

He’s a little shy, a little embarrassed, but he even sings happy birthday to you. He just seems glad no one can hear him. He doesn’t have a gift handy for you, but he ends up scribbling you a quick doodle of him telling you happy birthday. It’s misspelt, but the drawing is cute, and you keep it. “I hope ya had a good day. I’m just sorry I didn’t know sooner.” You tell him that it wasn’t his fault, how could he have known? 

After all is done, he gives you an awkward hug. You smile and return it.

Soldier

He’s a little crazy so he’s just hanging around base, today he had the idea to strip and cover himself in honey, so everyone has had to convince him to please not do that, and now he’s just moping around, muttering about how anti patriotic this all is.

You sit next to him and mope as well. Unlike him, no one knows the reason you’re moping. To anyone else’s point of view, you’re just comforting him--for whatever weird reason. But he sees that you’re just as sad as him.

“What’s wrong, maggot? Is there someone who needs to see my fists meet their face?”

You tell him no, no one did anything. You’re a little intimidated by him, and you don’t see much reason to tell him anyways. But it’s nice sitting with a friend. 

“If it’s not a person, then… it must be an object! Give it to me and I will destroy it immediately.” He’s being as sweet as he can, you smile and shake your head.

You sit there for a bit, smiling as you watch the other mercs come and go. Today isn’t a bad day, just a little sad. Later, you plan to find some kind of sweet treat to eat alone.

Soldier stands up, at attention, and points at you. “MAGGOT, AS YOUR SUPERIOR AND SENIOR, I ORDER YOU TO TELL ME WHAT IS WRONG!”

With a sad smile and a chuckle you finally tell him.

“Your birthday?” Soldier seems genuinely surprised. He places a hand on his chin and thinks. “We cannot go without celebrating! This is momentous!”

Although you try to protest, he turns to the base, stating to every other merc, “LISTEN UP! IT IS Y/N’S BIRTHDAY AND WE WILL CELEBRATE!” 

He makes it his personal mission to decorate for a party that very evening, even gets a cake and everything. He makes every other merc sing happy birthday with him. Maybe this isn’t so bad.

You give him a big hug, and he is surprised at first, but proceeds to give a gentle laugh and hug back.

Pyro

You see Pyro colouring with crayons and coloured pencils on their break, and you sit by them. You don’t really understand what they’re saying a lot of the time, but you enjoy hanging out with them. It’s a long period of silence before you join them in colouring. Regardless of your artistic skills, they’re impressed and encourage you, and are very happy when you show them what you’ve been working on. 

After a little while you get kind of bored and sad. You’ve tried to enjoy this day but it’s another bittersweet birthday. You’re happy to hang out with Pyro though, even though they don’t know what day it is.

Pyro notices that you’ve stopped colouring with them, and that you’re looking at the ground instead, messing with the cracks in the floor.

“Huddah hrmmf mmmrph?” You don’t understand what they’re saying exactly, but you smile at them. They seem to be asking what’s wrong, why you stopped, why you seem so sad.

You hesitate for a moment before finally confessing. They seem to mostly understand what you mean, and they lean back, thinking. 

After a few seconds, they stand up and help pull you off the floor. They point to their room, and you follow them. It’s an odd combination of scorch marks, colourful drawings, weapons, and art supplies. They lead you to a wardrobe and pull out a box. 

Surprisingly, you can see that it's fully wrapped. Did they somehow know it was your birthday? Do they keep these gifts on hand for the mercs?

You won’t get an answer, but they excitedly push it out and offer it to you. “Huddah hmmph!” They sound almost like they are smiling behind the mask. You take the box and open it. It’s got crayons, pencils, and… wow, that’s a drawing of you and them.

You smile, almost ready to tear up, and thank them. You give them a hug, and you notice that they’re hugging you back even harder. Maybe they don’t really understand, but this is sweet.

I saw your asks about Vax'ildan in the tlovm tag, and I just want to say: #1, when a lot of these characters were created in late 2012-2013, no one involved ever thought anyone other than the (originally 9) people at that table in Matt Mercer's house, and they started because Liam (Vax) wanted to play D&D with his friends for his birthday. Allura, and Fince are named/look like that because they're characters from the 2 years in between the start of their game and the start of streaming in 2015, and Fince is a moon elf, who looks like that in D&D, and Allura looks how she was repeatedly described

#2, the thing to remember about TLOVM is that all of the executive producers are also the VA cast, and they are all playing characters that each of them created and embodied for 5 years, and the show is telling a story they created with their close friends/family, these characters and stories are extremely important and personal to them and the people they care about, including their fans, who they have always listened and responded to, so anything involving a main character and their storyline will be treated with the utmost respect because there's no one above them to override their wishes. Also, Vax is not the only LGBT+ character in Vox Machina. Keyleth is demisexual, Scanlan is pansexual, Vex'halia is very likely bisexual, Allura is bisexual, Lady Kima (the halfling on the council voiced by Stephanie Beatriz) is a lesbian, Gilmore is gay (all of these are confirmed by the cast/creators of these characters, and these are only the character we have met in these 3 episodes. In future storylines, there is a nonbinary monarch who uses they/them pronouns, and the main party is joined by a gay man, I can go into more details but I don't want to overly spoil future plot points) and Liam O'Brien and Talesin Jaffe have both come out as bisexual.

There are probably a lot of valid criticisms of TLOVM and CR as a whole, but homophobia and a lack of respect for characters are not among them.

Hi, anon! Yeah, for previous asks, I did more research to discover it was originally a D&D campaign, and I mention that in previous asks to say it came before VLD. I'm not sure where your concern about homophobia and a lack of respect for characters comes from? It was really easy to tell that the show had a lot of LGBT diversity that didn't hinge on just Vax, and I don't believe any of my asks brought up a criticism of homophobia, nor did I ever once accuse the show of homophobia. It's very clearly got LGBT rep across several characters even from the 3 episodes that have published. Please do not put words in my mouth. 

I can't help that after 4 years in VLD fandom, when I hear the name Allura, I associate other wizardry-type characters with circlets with the name. And someone mentioned that a visual association with the 1984 Allura character might be intentional, but I really don't know much about that. As I previously mentioned, Lady Allura in CR certainly does have a different personality and function within the story, and I do like her. In previous posts, I also mention that the characters of TLoVM all feel memorable and distinctive to me, and that they appear to have those found family vibes that I really have craved out of other shows.

Regarding concerns about Vax'ildan spoilers, again I did mention that it is a TV-MA show that operates under different parameters than a Y7 show. So I actually stood up for Critical Role and for watching it according to its own terms? I've said in previous notes that there's interesting plots here. Even the ask I received mentioned that perhaps some of their fear about this particular issue may stem from Voltron trauma. (There’s been a lot of heartaches with Voltron and how different storylines about death were executed, which has certainly made it more difficult to accept or buy into certain plot twists, if that makes sense.) 

I guess I'm publishing this ask just in case any of my followers had concerns, in which your note could provide additional background information regarding the show creation history and cast's LGBT representation.

I do know there have been some Voltron spaces hating on the show just for its animation/design, which I have never done. Once I got through some bumpy/shocking places in episode 1, I actually liked the show. And to other Critical Role fans, I've previously stated that I look forward to watching more.

In fact, a lot of really nice CR fans have reached out to me, and I've really enjoyed talking to them and hearing their additional insight into the show. 

If you still have particular concerns or something, feel free to message me.

Considering how much you love the saporian au, I have a I guess alternative pitch to ask about. In Rapunzel's Return, if it was revealed that Cass was Saporian instead and still goes through with crossing the line in canon. So when Rapunzel and the gang gets home, do you think the Saporian invasion fight would've gone differently with this new information brought to light for her, especially since Varian is working with them now? Do you have any input on this?

why yes i do

so to start. let’s skip back to like august/september of 2019, which is when the tts hyperfixation kicked in but before s3 started to air. at this point in time my thinking was:

the separatists are definitely coming back in some capacity because the series made a point of putting their symbol on the book in RDO, signaling that andrew was not a one time deal.

there’s a press release that says raps will encounter an old enemy when she returns to corona and while it might be varian, my money is on the separatists.

cassandra encountered zhan tiri behind the door in the shell house and learned or saw something that soured her pretty hard on corona

i have been theorizing that cass is saporian since the first time i watched under raps, like, a year ago

i have also been theorizing that zhan tiri is saporian since she was introduced, mainly because it’s fun and it ties two great antagonists together

if cass IS saporian, and the separatists ARE the threat awaiting rapunzel in corona, these two things are probably going to end up intertwining down the line in s3.

sigh. [puts on my clown shoes]

a big part of the appeal of saporian!cass to my mind is that it gives cassandra an excellent reason, completely unrelated to rapunzel, to return to corona after she takes the moonstone. right? in my head, before s3 aired, my theory was kinda: zhan tiri got into her head and drew a connection between cassandra’s individual feelings of being neglected/overlooked/treated unfairly, and the systemic problem of saporians being oppressed/cast aside/treated unfairly.

and cass wants so badly to be a hero. she wants to be admired. she wants to be a protagonist, basically, and if cass is saporian that positions her perfectly to become the hero of the saporian separatist movement after she takes the moonstone. it fits so well!

so if, beyond just cass being saporian, this were the direction the series had gone with cass being saporian—and taking into account that this is a disney princess show and it is going to be pro-monarchy at the end of the day, and trying to stay within those bounds—i kind of imagine it playing out like this: 

1) cass takes the moonstone and angrily lashes out at rapunzel, telling her about what zhan tiri told her in the HOYT (which boils down to ranting about how saporians in general and cass in particular are treated badly and she’s not going to take it anymore and this is my destiny, rapunzel). then she leaves, with CtL going exactly as it does in canon. 

2) reeling, rapunzel returns home—only to find that it has been taken over by saporian separatists. talk about a punch in the gut! and then to make matters worse, varian is working with them. i think “rapunzel’s return” can still end with victory over the separatists in this version, but the separatists aren’t imprisoned at the end—they escape, swearing that it isn’t over. [the conflict itself plays out similarly, except for preference the separatists aren’t trying to glass corona, they’re just trying to stay in charge / drive team corona out. this allows for escalation later with zhan tiri and also doesn’t paint. people fighting back against their oppressors as pure evil,]

2a) varian and rapunzel still have their emotional conversation and sort-of apologies, but! varian doesn’t turn against the separatists yet, and when they escape, he goes with them. however, fundamentally their cause isn’t personal to him, and he’s now all conflicted because rapunzel doesn’t hate his guts like he’s been telling himself she must. 

3) rapunzel frees quirin from the amber despite varian’s continuing betrayal, because it’s the right thing to do and also because she’s desperate for SOME sort of victory after all this. varian doesn’t find out about this until after his redemption.

4) the separatists continue to cause problems in B-plots throughout the first half of the season. someone (probably eugene?) tries to broach the subject of cass with rapunzel in the context of cass potentially joining the separatists and throwing the power of the moonstone behind their cause. rapunzel brushes this off on the grounds that no matter what cass is still her best friend. meanwhile we keep getting cass stingers, with cass struggling to control the rocks and zhan tiri helping her, except instead of driving her into rages at rapunzel, she’s focused on radicalizing cass to the separatist cause (although she does not spell this out at first).

5) BVA kicks off with zhan tiri dropping the bomb that she wants cass to join the separatists. cass is shocked (she knows how extreme and violent they are—and she’s not like that, is she? she hasn’t hurt anyone!), which triggers the burst of red rocks. 

5a) in corona, the red rocks cause varian to have horrific visions of his father/all of corona trapped in amber, confronting him with his own guilt. he’s been sticking with the separatists mostly out of fear of being rejected if he tries to return to corona now—after all, rapunzel gave him another chance, and he threw it back in her face. but the visions are too much for him, and after he sees that they’re capable of petrifying people, he rushes straight to corona, sneaking in through the tunnels to warn rapunzel. she decides to trust him again, and they set off to the demanitus chamber to stop the red rocks a la canon.

5b) as varian and rapunzel emerge and see that their efforts paid off, rapunzel assures him that she’ll make sure everyone hears how he put himself in danger to warn them, and how he saved the day... and as varian is thanking her, he hears a very quiet “...son?” from behind them. he turns around, unable to believe his ears. it’s his dad. his dad is free. for a second he’s terrified this is some sort of lingering effect of the rocks but rapunzel explains that she found an incantation that she used to free quirin, and there is a BIG EMOTIONAL MOMENT as he reunites with his dad. because varian realizes quirin must know everything he did after his dad was trapped in the amber, and he’s so afraid his dad will be ashamed of him, but quirin is just like. no, son, you may have gone to a very dark place but you found your way back all by yourself, and you did the right thing, and i’m so proud of you. tears, and so on. 

5c) BVA ends with cassandra and zhan tiri, rather than eugene and rapunzel, debriefing. cass reveals that she felt rapunzel’s fear of her during their moment of connection, and she is upset because even though cass hasn’t done anything, rapunzel seems to see cass as just as violent and dangerous as the separatists are, perhaps even moreso. and zhan tiri comes in with “they’ve already written you off as a monster” and “what do you think forced the separatists to such extremes? they tried to be reasonable, and they were persecuted just as you have been” and “really, what do you have to lose?”

6) and that is how cass gets on board with zhan tiri’s joining the separatists plan. [if cass doesn’t already know at this point, i think this would be the part where zhan tiri mentions that she’s saporian, too]

7) then we hit pascal’s dragon, and this is the episode where rapunzel starts really considering what cass being saporian means, basically using LBB as a proxy for working out her feelings about cass and ultimately coming to a sort of hopeful conclusion that maybe... cass being saporian is important to her and maybe—just like the enraged dragons that destroyed nigel’s village—the separatists have valid reasons for their anger... but also that a peaceful resolution can be reached if rapunzel doesn’t let fear consume her.

8) islands apart, then, becomes a little more focused on rapunzel trying to get the whole story out of the captain; how did he end up with a saporian kid, what do the separatists want beyond blowing corona up [he’s the captain of the guard, he must have dossiers on these people], and most importantly, what options are there for compromise? fresh off her own commitment to meet cass halfway, the conflict between rapunzel and the captain vis a vis fountain cass can also be nice and sharp. 

9) in cassandra’s revenge!!! we just scrap the entire eugene surprise birthday proposal subplot. the first half of the episode is cass cruising into the separatist camp in the woods with the moonstone and ghost!ziti. she and andrew are immediately at each others throats because both of them want to be in charge but cass ends up winning by dint of a) having a magical rock with enormous destructive power at her disposal, and b) having a clear plan. she steals the scroll to distract everyone while the separatists in to steal [insert magical saporian artifact macguffin here] from the palace vaults, with the intention of using it to free zhan tiri. 

10) cass’s part of CR goes very similarly to how it does in canon: team corona turns up to rescue varian, rapunzel tries to talk to cass about finding a viable compromise on the saporian issue, and cass, not wanting to hear it, goes berserk and attacks her. partly this is venting her very real personal anger at rapunzel (i like the idea of rapunzel reaching for her burnt hand being the thing that sets her off) and partly she’s just furious because rapunzel still doesn’t really get it. “nobody has to get hurt? saporians have already gotten hurt! i have already gotten hurt!” <- that kind of thing

10a) also!!! a “nothing left to lose” where varian is saying “i worked with the separatists and it wasn’t worth it!” and cass is saying “don’t you get it? i’m not like you, i don’t have other options, i’m saporian” would be sooooo goooood

11) in any case cass gets yeeted off the tower and injured, as in canon. team corona leaves. the separatists come back, find the tower in ruins and cassandra crawling back up from her ledge. they help her up, treat her injuries, and then reveal the bad news: the macguffin they were after, the one they need to free zhan tiri? it’s gone. corona sent it to the keeper of the spire for safe keeping. 

12) race to the spire! is about cass and the separatists trying to retrieve the macguffin from the spire. and it is also about an extremely shaken rapunzel talking to xavier about all of this, realizing what the separatists were probably after when they broke in, freaking out (cass joining the separatists is one thing, but bringing zhan tiri back?!) and reluctantly turning to edmund and adira for help... because she thinks she knows where cass is going to go next. 

12a) cue crazy cass + separatists + ghost ziti vs team corona + brotherhood battle at the spire. with all the canon insanity of the weird ass artifacts getting thrown into the mix. cass and the separatists win, possibly because ghost ziti advices cass to grab and threaten calliope to force rapunzel to cooperate and cass does it. 

13) TOTS is now the freeing zhan tiri episode. and the gothel disciple backstory episode. because turns out! none of them really know how to do the actual jailbreak with the macguffin, so... they need gothel’s old research, from when she and the other disciples used the same artifact to free zhan tiri last time. rapunzel is in the cottage with a similar idea: she’s trying to learn more about the sundrop and its connection to the moonstone. loredumps, idk. maybe all this takes place in the ruins of the tower instead; i like the idea of gothel having a creepy little laboratory in the cellar or something. 

14) rapunzel pleads with cass to think about what she’s doing. the separatists have a point—does zhan tiri? what is zhan tiri after, what’s her agenda, what is she, even? and it nearly works, she nearly gets through to cassandra, but then... cap shows up, and cass does not react well. cap is there to try to apologize for their last altercation, but she does NOT want to hear it and the whole situation escalates. team corona gets driven out of the valley, cass and the separatists do the ritual to release zhan tiri and wow things are really bad now aren’t they!!!

15) flynnposter... idk. cap recuses himself from the whole fighting cassandra thing because he cannot handle it and because everyone agrees he’ll be more effective at getting through to cass if he’s not showing up in the captain’s uniform, eugene gets put in charge... and zhan tiri is out to cause problems. i just think she should get an episode of zany hijinks all to herself. she deserves it. to keep the plot relevancy going let’s say she’s impersonating eugene-as-flynn because a) it’s funny and b) it masks her real agenda, which is, let’s say, wiping corona off the map, stealing the sundrop, and using it to plant/grow a new great tree on the ruins of the city. seems like a fitting vengeance against both demanitus (for banishing her) and rapunzel (for destroying the great tree), yes? 

16) once a handmaiden. with zhan tiri now fully out and about cass has been sort of demoted to second in command and she is struggling with that, because it’s making the inferiority complex bubble up and bringing with it doubts that this is really the right thing to do, or even really what she wants. she slips away to clear her head, perhaps even using the cloak to disguise herself so she can wander around corona... and finds the nasty little magical traps zhan tiri planted earlier. she realizes that whatever zhan tiri has planned for the eclipse, it’s a lot worse than she’s letting on. (maybe some of this is connected to gothel’s research: gothel wanted to retrieve the sundrop from rapunzel, and cass recognizes ritual prep for that from gothel’s notes and is like. oh no.)

17) so... at a loss for what to do, she impulsively goes to rapunzel to try to... warn her? apologize? take her up on that offer to negotiate? cass is really not sure, and seeing herself in wanted posters and of course demonized in feldspar’s play does not. help. this part of the episode can go pretty similarly to canon, except that when cass is confronted by zhan tiri it’s a lot more cutting, with zhan tiri focusing how even now she feels like she needs to serve rapunzel at cost to herself, needling her about her lack of conviction etc etc, in addition to goading her with the news about project obsidian. cass angrily rejects her and goes to talk to rapunzel, publicly reveals herself on purpose because a) sometimes she’s not smart and b) striding onto the stage in the second act of feldspar’s terrible play to tell everyone in the audience that corona is in grave danger really seems like a good idea at the time and ziti is lying about project obsidian so everything will be fine right!!!!

18) everything is not fine 

19) cass gets shot in the back with project obsidian courtesy of panicking guards and a teeny tiny bit of help from zhan tiri and, crushed by the realization that rapunzel must have authorized this, cass does the “no you know what? fuck you, i see all that talk about negotiation was just pretty words after all” thing and wrecks the place, while zhan tiri stands by watching like >:) 

20) PLUS EST EN VOUS. im sorry anon this has gotten way longer than i thought it would. but i am Passionate About Saporian Cass. the situation is now dire! everyone in corona is hunkered down in old corona, frantically trying to draw up battle plans or like, any plans at all. corona itself is in ruins. it really looks like cass/the separatists have won... but rapunzel keeps thinking about how cass tried to warn them of some greater danger. she can’t give up on cass just yet. 

21) so, desperate, rapunzel turns to the separatists. she takes... varian, because he knows them, and lance because he’s good at talking to people, and eugene, because she needs him with her. and she walks into the separatist camp and says look, i know that ultimately what you want is for saporia to be free to be its own country. that you only took over corona and tried to destroy it because you thought you had no other choice. and maybe under my dad’s rule, that was true. but i’m the queen now, and i can accept a declaration of saporian independence if i want to. so i’m going to do that right now, no strings attached. saporia is free. 

22) and the saporians are like holy fucking shit

23) what brought this on???

24) rapunzel is like cassandra is my best friend. and i didn’t treat her well, and i made her feel like she couldn’t talk to me about how she was hurting, so she did all this. she’s angry and she’s right to be angry, but more importantly, she’s hurting and scared. and i want to make it right. and also i’m terrified that zhan tiri is going to hurt her, because she said something about zhan tiri going after the drops?

25) and like the best she’s hoping for here is for the separatists to drop out of the conflict and go build their kingdom back up again, but they huddle up and decide that a) cassandra is their friend / one of theirs, and if she’s in danger they’re gonna side with her over zhan tiri, and b) if they team up with rapunzel now and it turns out rapunzel was lying and this was all some elaborate set up to attack cass while she’s without allies, then they will be there to help cass hold the line

26) there are ABSOLUTELY NO MONKEY SHENANIGANS 

27) cass sort of miserably is going along with zhan tiri’s plans but she’s also just kinda hoping rapunzel doesn’t show up for the eclipse. 

28) rapunzel shows up for the eclipse with a bunch of separatists and cass is like rapunzel what the fuck

29) there is...an attempt by rapunzel/cass/the separatists to get everyone’s story straight which is interrupted by zhan tiri doing the “traitors to saporia pay with their lives” thing and just. going ballistic on the separatists and cass. and also rapunzel, except she needs rapunzel to not be smushed like a bug until after she retrieves the sundrop so she’s a little gentler.

30) cass and rapunzel team up to protect the separatists: with both of them using the full power of the drops, they can hold their own against zhan tiri (she is VERY POWERFUL and she PROVES IT during this fight by going toe to toe with both of them without breaking a sweat)... but things go from bad to worse when the eclipse hits, because the sundrop goes dormant, and zhan tiri pounces. gets the sundrop, and now it’s just cass trying to solo this demonic sorceress lady before the eclipse ends and zhan tiri gains the power of the sundrop. It Is Not Looking Great For Our Heroes.

31) zhan tiri stomps cass into the curb and is about to land the killing blow when the rest of the coronans + the brotherhood charge in (they were waiting on the mainland on rapunzel’s orders, not wanting to escalate the situation if it could be solved via talking, but it is now very obvious that rapunzel needs back up). zhan tiri deals with them pretty handily too, but her distraction is enough for rapunzel to shake off her depowered exhaustion/pain and help cass back to her feet. 

32) raps, cass says, i’m so sorry. i never meant for any of this to happen, i just—

33) and rapunzel says, i know, it’s okay. i’m sorry too, for taking you for granted. i love you.

34) cass, tearing up, is like, i love you too. and i’m gonna stop this.

35) rapunzel is like ??? but there’s no more time because zhan tiri has finished smashing/immobilizing everyone else and cass is already charging at her, no longer trying to attack or defend, just get close enough. 

36) as the eclipse comes to an end and the sundrop wakes up again, cass latches onto ziti, grabs the sundrop. and slams it against the moonstone still embedded in her chest. there’s a huge explosion, and when the dust clears... cass is in the epicenter, very dead, and there’s really nothing left of zhan tiri but a bunch of spasming vines and shadowy magic, burning slowly away in the brilliant light of the unified power. everyone else is pretty damn battered too.

37) horrified, rapunzel crawls out of the wreckage, grabs the unified drop. revives/heals everybody (except zhan tiri, rip), ending pretty much goes as it does in canon. except i like the idea of the epilogue / ending sequence of life after happily ever after (reprise) also being a montage of both corona and saporia being rebuilt, the countries now equals and allies... and also cass, when she leaves, is explicitly going out in search of saporians whose ancestors were displaced by the conquest, both to invite them to return to their ancestral home if they so choose and also to reconnect with her own heritage. 

38) THE END!!!

chapter one: double deuces

chapter one of book three, of course ;)

"tell me a story (will ya, will ya) a real good story (I won't leave till ya) spill your guts old man; leave out any secrets, hiding in the... any skeletons, and all your other sins any skeletons, in the closet! any skeletons, any misfortunes any skeletons, hiding in the closet! any skeletons, any skeletons in the closet!"

“Happy birthday, my dear friend.”

Aurora had taken Sam out to that Vietnamese restaurant for lunch on her birthday. Twenty two years old and she could feel the very essence of age over her head. In New York for two years and it all felt like a blur and the clear real thing all at the same time. In a year's time, she would be on the brink of her mid twenties: it all felt so ephemeral and so quick at the same time. It felt so odd to think that not even four years ago she was still in high school and she had gone into a strange brand new place in the meantime.

Four years felt like a lifetime ago, especially since she looked on at her black hair and she swore it was growing lighter over her temples. It could have just been the reflection of the glass in the mirror for all she knew, but when she went to brush her hair, she swore there were some light tendrils near the crown. As long as it didn't turn into a striking pearly white silver color, she knew she would be fine.

Aurora raised her white china tea cup for a toast to her. The soft aroma of the green tea comforted her, and she followed suit with her own cup.

Ever since she and Emile had gotten together, and ever since she had gotten that dress for Kirk's wedding the next weekend, Aurora had been dressing up more nicely: at the moment, she had a rich deep purple velvet sweater wrapped around her body and a little red rose tucked behind her ear. Despite the bitter New York cold, she started wearing more floral print tights to go with her skirts; Sam had to take a second look at her face to make out the sight of the black eye liner about the smooth edges of her eyes.

Sam herself meanwhile found herself drawn more to black—Aurora said it was because of her hanging out with Testament the past couple of weekends as well as Joey on certain days after school.

“I think it could also be because I'm in the arts,” she told her the day before. “Marla wears a bunch of black and Belinda has been wearing a lot of it, too.”

“Hangin' around the arts and hangin' out with a bunch of heavy metal dudes,” Aurora chuckled.

The art scene seemed so far away from her given she was a student and she even began to struggle with classes in recent days. Indeed, the thought of forfeiting college itself to live down in the real bohemian side of New York City was more tempting than ever to her. But she had nestled in the Bronx, three floors over Frank and down the block from Charlie and Marla. It was either pick up and go live alone in another part of town or stay there and continue to do what felt like spinning her wheels day in, day out. Sam tried to not let her thoughts cast a shadow on her own birthday, but she couldn't help but look at her own reflection in her tea cup and frown.

“Maybe it's all the doing stuff after school that's getting to you,” Aurora told her. “We haven't really seen Marla in the past few weeks.”

“No, we haven't,” Sam confessed as she gazed out the window at the snow drifts along the sidewalk.

“Well, if it's any comfort, I've been getting antsy myself,” Aurora said. “Emile wants me to move in with him but it's gonna be hard to do it especially if it's just him who's helping me with the move.”

“And you're going from Long Island up to the Bronx, too,” Sam added, “it was bad enough for me to get my bed up the stairs in that building.”

“It was tricky for me, too,” Aurora continued. “And you and I also moved across country, too.”

“And how—from around the same area, no less. Well, San Diego is way further south in comparison to Lake Elsinore, but it's near the same range, though.”

“It's all within range of L.A., that's for sure. L.A. and Riverside.”

“Hey, if Greg, Eric, and Louie can talk nonsense while they're in the studio, we can, too,” Sam pointed.

“Makes sense—Southern California exiles, the both of us.” Aurora raised her cup again to her and they clinked them together before they took a sip in unison.

“When's your birthday, by the way?” Sam asked her as she held her cup close to her mouth. “I can't remember if you told me or not.”

“May twenty ninth.”

“Oh, I see. I kept thinking it was in October for some reason.”

Aurora chuckled at that. “Well, I haven't really made it much of a point because my parents always treated birthdays different in comparison to that of American culture. I always wanted an American style birthday party growing up in San Diego but that's probably the one thing they brought over from the Korean peninsula is the way birthdays are treated.”

“And how's that?”

“When we reach a certain age, they have different celebrations for them. Like your first birthday is 'dol' or three hundred sixty five days since you were born, and that came from the fact Korea didn't have as good of protection on their newborns as we do here: so when you made it to your first birthday, it was significant. The family says a prayer for the kid and then they eat rice, seaweed soup, and rice cakes—my mom has a photo of me from my 'dol', I'll have to show it to you if and when we go out to San Diego together. They have cake and candles just like Americans, but the cake is far different—it's a lot more savory than it is sweet. And on New Year's, they eat a soup so they can finish up the age they are for the certain year. So you're actually considerably older on the peninsula than you are here. If you're ten years old, in Korea, you're considered eleven or twelve.”

“Wow.”

“And when you reach fifteen years of age, and you're female, you're considered an adult. That said, I'm glad I'm a born American because I can't imagine coming to New York City as a fifteen year old.”

“I can,” Sam said.

“You can?”

“As a boy.” She thought about Alex right then.

“Now, boys have to wait 'til they're twenty before they're considered adults.”

“So Alex would still be considered a boy right now?” she asked her. “Being eighteen?”

“Yes!” Aurora then burst out laughing and clapped her hands at that. “Oh, god, I just pictured him in the traditional horse hair hat that boys have to wear on their twentieth birthday, and I also just pictured him picking up a giant rock and lifting it over his head, too.”

“How giant are we talking, exactly?”

“One that dwarfs his entire body.” Aurora raised an eyebrow at that.

“I dunno, Aurora,” Sam confessed with a shake of her head, “—he's pretty thin but he's also got that little bit of baby fat left on him. He looks pretty soft.”

“Bet you he's way stronger than he looks.”

“Joey is,” Sam continued as she brought her cup back up to her lips.

“Joey is!”

“Mr. Hockey Player—yeah, that boy's tougher than nails.”

“Well—we are going to be in the Bay Area next weekend,” Aurora pointed out. “A whole weekend of doing stuff while Kirk and—Rebecca, I think is his fiancée's name?—while they're getting married. We all can just hang out and be a bunch of genuine friends together for a couple of days.”

Sam squinted her eyes at that.

“What do you have in mind?” she asked her in a low voice.

“You'll see. And maybe Exodus and Death Angel will want in on the fun, too. Fun with the 'little four'.” She flashed Sam a wink as she sipped from her tea once again. Right then, the sole waitress in the restaurant showed up at their table with their bowls of pho: chicken for Sam, vegetarian for Aurora. One more toast and they both dipped into their bowls of fresh hot soup.

At least that night she was to have cupcakes courtesy of Marla, forty dollars courtesy of Belinda, and a jovial phone call from her parents that night. Nothing more, nothing less, but at the same time, she wished for more and she knew that her flight back out to California that next Friday was the start of something for her. Something big and grand, like that next weekend in the Bay Area. It would take place on a day that wasn't her birthday, but it would be something.

Since it was Wednesday, after lunch, she headed back to school for the rest of the day and then back to her place in the Bronx. She stepped in through the front door: the first thing she noticed was the vase of yellow tulips on the table. They had lasted so long, and for so long in the heart of the first winter following Cliff's passing, but she noticed the wilt as it began to settle in on the yellow petals.

She would keep them there on the table until the pure yellow color vanished and they lost their smell, much like with the black hat Cliff had given her.

Sam took her seat on the couch with her drawing pad rested upon her lap. She was an artist in New York City, and yet she lived so far from the actual art scene. The boots still on her feet and yet she had no means as to how to look for it outside of her school work. Marla and Belinda had their way, for sure, but there had to be something more. There had to be, especially since she began to put her head down and put more work into her art for her classes. The struggle still came down on her, even as she gave her fish tails more scales and her humans more of a shading around their heads. It all seemed to slip away from the in between her fingers.

Everyone seemed to be doing better: her classmates received more praise, even Belinda who, at one point, admitted that graphites were a challenge for her as well. And yet, when Sam drew a self portrait surrounded by roses and water lilies, one of the comments Miss Estes left for her on the back side of the heavy grained paper was “lots of effort.”

She was eager for the flight out to the Bay Area by the time that early Friday morning rolled around, and she and Zelda were seated next to each other. She had packed that copy of Siddhartha with her but she had no idea as to when she would get to crack it open over the weekend.

Zelda had put on a plain white T shirt and fitted black jeans, and she had combed her short bob of black hair back for the flight. Apparently all she had packed with her were white shirts and black jeans.

“Don't you wanna look nice like at Cliff's memorial?” Sam asked her with a chuckle.

“I've got some suspenders and a tie to go with them,” Zelda replied. “It's a wedding for a friend of ours, and he said that we can wear whatever we like. So I told him that I'm gonna be full punk chick there. I'm guessing you'll be the artist?”

“Of course,” Sam replied, “the full black, baby.”

Zelda raised a hand to her for a high five and the light for the seat belts flickered on right then.

“I'll tell you this, Zelda,” Sam began.

“What's that?”

She peered over her shoulder to make sure Marla and Charlie paid no attention to them, given they were right across the aisle from them. Sam then gestured for Zelda to move in closer to her: beyond her and outside the window, she noticed the first few flurries of snow against the pane. She hoped they would take off soon.

“I'm getting kind of bored of New York,” she whispered to her.

“Really?” Zelda raised her eyebrows at her.

“Yeah. It's just—falling into the whole 'same old, same old' thing. I'm an artist, I should be able to go places with it all.”

“Absolutely, absolutely.”

“And I just—” Sam shook her head. “It's a great big city but I feel like there's nothing for me there anymore. Two years there and I'm not feeling it anymore. I'm glad we're going back out to the Bay Area for just this one weekend because I feel myself slowly going insane.”

“And why are you telling me this in a whisper?” Zelda asked her in a soft voice.

“Because—I don't know how to break it to Marla yet, or Belinda for that matter. Aurora kind of knows, but not in that sense, though. I made note of it to her but she didn't really suggest anything to me.”

“You can come to Providence,” Zelda suggested, “there's tons to do in Providence. Narragansett and Natick, too.”

“I guess what I'm trying to say is I feel trapped. Two years ago, I came here to the Northeast for a change of pace and it feels like it's trapped me sideways. There's no way out unless I really genuinely leave. The downside of course is—leaving you ladies behind and leaving Anthrax behind.”

“Yeah, and—we kinda like you, Sam. I do, especially. And I know Aurora does, too. And Marla.”

“Aurora is one of my best friends. Her and Frankie. They're my best friends. I don't know how I would handle leaving them both behind for a change of pace. I feel me and Marla drifting, if I'm honest. Can't really blame her, though—school's getting hard on her.”

“Well—whatever you do, Sam,” Zelda started again, “I'll support you on it. If nothing, you'll get the full support from me.”

“Thank you, Zelda. That—that means a lot to me.” Sam showed her a friendly smile.

Zelda shrugged. “I'm from Rhode Island,” she replied. “Moreover, I'm a punk rocker from Rhode Island. We look out for each other more so than these metal boys.”

They touched down in the Bay Area at five in the morning, and right as the sun began to rise right behind them. The thick fog surrounded the airport and Sam thought about the one and only Christmas she and Cliff spent together.

“Looks like San Francisco,” she muttered. “Feels like it, too.” She closed her eyes as they rolled up to the gate. She and Zelda stepped out of the airport first and she breathed in that marine air. She swore that New York was in fact her one true home, but there was just something about California that brought her more so into that feeling. That feeling that she needed to be there. All the fleeting thoughts led up to that moment there on the sidewalk.

Cliff's remains were not very far away from there, either.

She, Zelda, Marla, Aurora, and Belinda all stood at the curb as Charlie and Emile fetched their rental cars. All those men awaited them not too far from there, and Sam was eager to see Joey again given he flew in from Syracuse. That morning in which he and Belinda woke up before her and flirted with each other went through her mind every now and again. She never realized how much she wanted him until he put his arms around her and they locked eyes with each other. She needed to at the very least see him again: he also promised her a birthday gift.

Within time, Emile showed up with the little black car for himself and Aurora, while Charlie rolled up to the curb in a short dark green van. The four remaining girls piled inside away from the damp cold; Sam wanted to refer to him and Marla in the front seat as “Mom and Dad” again but she decided not to as she shivered under her jacket.

It wasn't New York, but Sam had forgotten how cold San Francisco could feel once the winter time set in.

“Okay, so we're going to a place called Marin Heights,” Charlie told them. “I think that's where the guys—Metallica—got the loft for us.”

“I've heard of it,” said Belinda from the middle seat.

“Me, too,” Sam added from the way back; Zelda huddled next to her and shook her head about. Sam had no idea as to why she didn't bring a jacket with her given it was winter in California. But instead, she peered out the small notch of a window to the Bay itself. She remembered that Testament were to film a music video out in Alcatraz, and those cold yellow lights from the island itself pierced through the foggy darkness. She wondered if they had finally wrapped up the recording of their first album since she wasn't able to sit in with them over the past couple of weeks because of school. She also wondered if she would receive any credit on it like with Stormtroopers of Death.

Charlie wound through the city until they reached the freeway, which in turn brought them up to Marin Heights, nestled back in the hills on the north side of town: they reached a switch back on the hillside so Sam was able to see the very top of the Golden Gate Bridge as it rose through the fog. The clouds themselves split apart so as to let the first rays of sunlight through and the metal of the bridge shone that bright amber color with the sunrise.

No wonder Cliff loved it there.

She sighed through her nose and turned her attention back to the road ahead of her as it turned away into the hills. Within time, they reached the top, and a small villa of little brick two story houses nestled back in the trees. She wondered if the wedding was going to be there as Charlie pulled up to the gravel driveway and stopped before the one closest to the street.

“I think this is us,” he informed them. “Or it might just be check in, I dunno.” He climbed out and then Sam and Zelda followed suit. The latter raised her lanky arms over her head and closed her eyes. Meanwhile, the former spotted a tall lanky boy with long black hair perched on a stone post on the other side of the driveway. He faced the other way but she knew those rich jet black curls anywhere.

“Joey?” she called out.

“Hm?” Zelda asked.

“Joey's over there.”

Zelda peeked around the rear end of the van and she nodded at her.

“Yeah, he is! Go get 'em!”

Sam then ducked around the end of the van and hurried over to him.

“Joey!” she called out. “Joey!”

He turned to face her with his eyebrows raised. He had lost a little weight so his waist was rather slim like Joey's, and the black hair dye held up, but she knew those deep eyes anywhere.

“Oh, hi,” she greeted him as she skidded to a stop before him.

“Hi,” Alex replied back to her with a thoughtful look on his face. “What's happening?”

“I thought you were Joey for a second.”

“You thought I was Joey?” he laughed at that.

“You have similar hair to each other.”

“His has more of a pile, though. Like right on top of his head. That big pile of ringlets atop his head.” He gestured to the crown of his head. “Even though I'm sitting down, I think he's a little bit shorter than me, too?”

“I think so?” Sam shifted her weight right there. Stray strands of his black hair lifted off of his shoulders in the wind and he ran his hand over the back of his head. He shivered from the feeling over his skin.

“God, it's cold out here,” he muttered as he adjusted his jacket.

“Yeah, it's pretty nippy. Not New York, but it's that California cold, though.”

“You know, both my parents are from New York,” he said.

“Oh, yeah?”

“Both obscenely smart Ivy League professors. They came out here before I was born to teach over at Berkeley.”

“Is that why you had the gray streak?” she asked him.

“Nah, I have no idea where that came from.” He shifted his weight yet again on that post. He seemed uncomfortable sitting there but Sam had no idea where to go right then. Charlie's voice behind her caught her ear and she peered over her shoulder at his talking to James.

“Happy birthday, by the way,” Alex told her as he shifted his weight a fourth time. “Aurora told the five of us last week that it was her assistant's birthday and she didn't know what to get you.”

“Aw, thank you—it was back on the twenty first, though.”

“Happy belated,” he corrected himself, and she swore he winked at her. Someone called his name and he looked off to the distance.

“Hang on—” he said, and he darted past her towards Charlie.

“Sam?” Zelda called out to her, and she jogged back to her. Aurora had climbed out of Emile's car right next to them and she shivered inside of her windbreaker.

“What's up?”

“Apparently the wedding is today,” Aurora announced.

“Today?” Sam was stunned.

“Yeah. Three o'clock. I guess Kirk's lady couldn't wait for it a second longer so they're doing it today.”

“So we get a full weekend of good ol' fun,” Zelda added as she clasped her hands to her upper arms.

“Exactly!”

Sam turned her attention to Alex, who was talking to Charlie about something. His black hair twirled in the cold winter winds. Even from a distance, he had such a grave expression on his face that it made Sam think he was much older than in reality.

Belinda had the right idea: he was very precocious. But now she had a little bit of insight into the boy in that he was raised by intelligent parents. It was a start with Alex and she could only wonder from that point onward.

Aurora and Emile led her, Zelda, and Belinda into the cabin behind Charlie and Alex, and once they stepped inside of the cozy foyer, Zelda was eager to turn on the heater.

“Terrible idea not to pack a coat,” she muttered as she hurried down the front foyer in search of the thermostat, “terrible idea not to pack a coat!”

Sam and Belinda meanwhile took to the narrow stairwell in front of them, and they made their way up to that second level: to the right stood a couple of rooms, while to the left was the bathroom and two more rooms. The door at the far end stood slightly ajar, such that when they reached the top, they spotted that head of black curls outside the doorway.

“Hey, Joey,” Belinda greeted him. That lopsided grin and those big brown eyes returned the favor, and Sam's heart skipped a couple of beats at the sight of him. He didn't appear to be ready for a wedding at all with his plain white shirt, extra tight blue jeans, and ragged white socks.

“There are my girls,” he said as he padded closer to them.

“Oh deary me, you're gonna be down the hall from us?” Sam teased him.

“Yup, me, Frankie, and Charlie and Marla. We're gonna be all here at the end of the hall if you need anything.”

“You know the wedding is today right?” Belinda told him.

“Oh, shit, is it really?” Joey raised his eyebrows at that.

“Yeah, Aurora just told us,” Sam added, and her heart sank at the thought of him barely being in the know of these things. “Three o'clock. So Bel and I are gonna get settled in and get dressed.”

“Oh, damn, thank you,” he told her, and his brown eyes sparkled at the sight of her. Cold as the earth and as engulfing as venom. He doubled back to his room and Sam pushed open the door in front of her. Inside stood a small bunk bed and a heavy wooden dresser underneath the window.

“Top or bottom?” she asked Belinda.

“You're older and got way more inside, so top,” she replied as she lay her purse down on the faded blue comforter upon the bottom bed. Even though they had plenty of time before the wedding, Sam wanted to clean up, and change her clothes and look her best. She hadn't been to a wedding in what felt like forever: there was one from when she was three years old, but she had no memory of it and she had no clue as to who even got eloped then, either.

Belinda offered to curl her hair and do it up extra nice, but she promised her there was very little to actually do up given her hair sat flat on her head. If only she could make curls into a crown like with Joey, but she had what she had in the form of a red wine colored dress and a thin black sweater over the top: the dress was a bit snug around her hips but she need not obsess over something as trivial as that when she remembered what Joey wanted to give her.

She was about to head on back inside of their room when she spotted him on the other side of the hallway with the five men from Death Angel, if she recalled correctly. Once again with the quintets and she would learn all of their names in the meantime. But he had a box wrapped in old faded red wrapping paper tucked under his arm and she hoped it wasn't just a wedding gift, especially since he still hadn't gotten dressed.

He laughed at something one of them said and he turned around.

“Oh, there you are!” he called out to her, and he scurried towards her. The tape on the edges of the box and the crooked look of the paper itself told her he wrapped it in a hurry, but she didn't mind at all once she slid her fingers under the edge of the paper closest to her. Careful not to tear it, she unwrapped it and lifted the lid. Inside was a pair of black leather gloves and a red and white knit scarf, the latter of which she ran her fingers over to find it softer than anything she had felt before. It was as soft as a cat.

“It's your own pair of gloves plus a scarf,” he declared. “I just think about how cold you always get upstate.” He shrugged at that.

“I love it, Joey! It's so soft.”

“It's cashmere.”

Sam gaped at him. “Cashmere,” she echoed him.

“Yeah—it was marked down, though. But it's cashmere. I wanted to give you something nice and good and good and nice.”

She slipped the gloves on and they fit around her fingers as if they were made for her. Joey offered to put the scarf around her neck; he stood before her, a country boy in a plain white shirt before a California girl in a dark red dress, and he wrapped the scarf around her.

“You look beautiful,” he whispered to her. “Happy birthday. Double deuces as of ten days ago!”

“Thank you—” She put her arms around him and she held him close. His slender little body was as soft as that scarf, and he smelled of fresh baked bread, something she would be willing to experience as long as he didn't have a drop of alcohol on hand.

Maybe there was in fact something more to life than being in that groove all the time. Maybe she could find a way to break out of her shell, and she could owe it all to him.

And she still hadn't told her parents about him.

Hey guys! Here’s part 1 for the kotlc the 100 au.

Tags (lmk if you wanna be added to the taglist): @vibing-in-the-void @everyonehasthoughts @clearlysokeefe @never-ever-too-many-fandoms

Part 1:

Sophie Foster sat bolt upright as the door to her cell clicked and slid open. Her eyes widened as she caught a glimpse of her mom standing behind two guards.

Sophie’s mom, Edaline Foster, was the head doctor of the Ark. She was also part of the council. And when the council was involved, things hardly ever ended well.

A gaurd marched in and slapped a pair of handcuffs onto Sophie’s wrist. She gasped.

“No! I’m not eighteen yet! I still have another year!” She struggled to escape. It was no use. Sophie was going to die. They were probably skipping the retrial and getting rid of all the criminals now, to save air. Sophie knew that they were running out. That had been why her dad was killed, because he had tried to tell people what was happening.

On the Ark, anyone who committed a crime, even the smallest one possible, like getting into a fight, was sentenced to death. If they were under the age of 18, they would be in prison until their eighteenth birthday, when there was a retrial to see if the criminal was guilty enough to be sentenced to death.

Sophie was marched outside of her cell. She twisted against the handcuffs and the guards holding her arms back.

She felt a needle go into her neck and started to feel dizzy. The last thing she saw was her mom whispering words that she couldn’t quite make out.

-

Sophie’s eyes snapped open. It was dark.

As her eyes adjusted, she realized that she was strapped into a chair, next to a girl with long, shiny black hair. Around them, there were others, all also sitting in chairs, confused.

A voice spoke over some kind of loudspeaker. It was Chancellor Endal. “I am sure that you are all confused about what is happening. My answer is this: All one hundred of you are being sent to the ground,”

There were surprised gasps and a few people started yelling about how they would die the moment they reached the surface.

“... on Mt. Weather,” the chancellor continued, “You will find enough supplies to last you three months. Good luck, and may we meet again.”

There was a click, and everyone was silent. Then, there was the sound of something powering on, and their tiny ship shot off of the Ark.

A boy with strawberry blonde hair had unbuckled himself from the harness and was now floating around the ship.

“What are you doing!” Sophie yelled, “That’s dangerous!”

The boy grinned.

“Hey, aren’t you the one that wasted a month’s supply of oxygen on an illegal spacewalk?” Sophie said.

He held up a thumbs up. “That’s me! Glad to know that I’m known everywhere.”

Suddenly, the ship went almost completely dark, the only light coming from a few emergency lights scattered around the ship.

Then, they crashed.

Sophie stood up and searched for the boy who had been floating around. If he was hurt, she was the closest thing that they had to a doctor. Sophie had been training to be one before she was arrested for knowing that the Ark was running out of air.

The boy had stood up and was now brushing off his shirt.

“You shouldn’t have done that. You could have died.”

He shrugged. “So what? When they sent us down here they basically sentenced us to death.”

A boy yelled something from near the huge door. Everyone’s heads turned to look at him.

A soft voice broke the silence. “Tam?” The girl who had been sitting next to Sophie elbowed her way towards the boy.

The boy’s face lit up and he pulled her into a hug. Sophie vaguely registered them as looking really similar to each other.

“You’re the Songs!” said someone from somewhere behind Sophie, “I’ve heard about you!”

“Yeah,” said the girl, who didn’t look very happy about it.

“Do you wanna be known for something else?” asked the boy.

“Like what?”

“Being the first girl on the ground in a hundred years.”

With that, the boy pressed the red button to open the door. It lowered down, and the girl uncertainly stepped onto it, and then onto the ground.

She stood in the sunlight for a few seconds before yelling, “We’re back!” at the top of her lungs.

Everyone took this as a sign to run out of the ship at once.

Sophie was the last one to leave. She picked up a map on her way out and made her way towards a ridge, where she held the map up and looked between it and the other mountains.

“Why so serious?” asked a boy with messy blond hair and a wrinkled shirt who had snuck up on Sophie.

“That’s Mt. Weather,” Sophie pointed to a mountain on the map, and then to the actual one, “They dropped us on the wrong mountain.”

-

Sophie was not happy to see Wylie. She hadn’t even expected to see him. He was the chancellor’s son, so he must have done something pretty serious to get sent to the ground.

Sophie was busy helping a girl bandage her broken arm when she first saw Wylie. He tried to apologize to her, but she just ignored him and walked away. After all, Wylie was the reason that her dad was dead and that she had been in prison for the past year.

She finished bandaging the girl’s arm. “You should be fine for a couple of days,” Sophie said. The girl smiled and walked away, leaving Sophie alone.

Fitz, a boy who Sophie had seen a couple of times in her Earth Skills class, wandered over to her. “You know where Mt. Weather is, right?”

Sophie nodded. “Yup. It’s just over there.” She tried to point towards it, but it was blocked by a group of trees.

“Great. Can you come with us to get some supplies from there?”

“Sure?”

Fitz led her to a small group that consisted of Dex, the boy who had floated around the ship, Keefe, who seemed to be Fitz’s best friend, and Linh, the girl with a brother.

Sophie unfolded the map and looked at it. “I think we have to go that way.” She pointed towards the forest, and the group set off for Mt. Weather.

They had been walking for thirty minutes before they got to the river. It looked perfectly normal, except there was no way to cross it.

Keefe pointed to a sign across the river that read ‘Mount Weather’ in large letters. “Look!”

Everyone turned to look at what he was pointing at.

“How are we supposed to get over?” asked Fitz.

“That’s easy,” Linh said, “We swim.”

She took off her shoes and socks and started to get in.

“Linh, no. You can’t even swim, and if you could, we have no idea if the water’s even safe. You could get radiation poisoning,” Sophie said, grabbing her arm and holding her back.

Linh twisted away. “I read somewhere that it’s human instinct to know how to swim, and besides, it doesn’t look too deep and I can see a couple of fish. I’ll be fine.” She jumped into the water.

“See! It’s perfectly fine. I’m not dead yet.”

Something dark slithered just under the surface of the water, behind Linh.

“Behind you!” yelled Keefe.

Linh didn’t pay attention until it was too late. The thing must have grabbed her leg, because she was yanked under the water and started trying to get away. Sophie’s eyes widened.

Keefe jumped in to try and get the thing away from Linh.

It must have worked, because after a few minutes, the splashing stopped and Keefe started pulling Linh towards the shore.

Fitz reached over and helped him pull her back up.

Linh coughed a couple of times and sat up on her elbows. Sophie sighed in relief. They had only been on the ground for a couple of hours, but four people had already died and Sophie would do pretty much anything to keep the rest of them alive.

Dex was standing a couple yards away. He called everyone else over. “We could probably swing across on this vine,” he said, “It looks pretty sturdy.”

“Who wants to go first?” asked Keefe. Nobody answered, so he shrugged and grabbed onto the vine.

Keefe got a running start, then jumped up onto the vine. When he got the the other side he let go and yelled “I made it!”

Sophie smiled at Keefe just before something came out of the woods behind their small group and hit him just under his ribs. Keefe collapsed

It was a spear. There were other people on the ground. 

-

Edaline Foster was in the area of the Ark where they were monitoring the 100 through metal wristbands that tracked things like blood pressure and heart rate.

A few of the many screens had gone dark, showing that someone was dead. Edaline scanned the remaining screens and let out a breath when she found Sophie.

Grady Ruewen, another member of the council, who also happened to not like Edaline very much, appeared behind her. “You’re needed in medical.”

Edaline nodded with a tight smile and walked back towards her job. Elwin, her assistant, went up to her.

“There’s a girl here who wants to know about the quarantine in the prison. Says she wants to see her boyfriend.”

The council hadn’t told people about the mission to the ground and had instead said that there was a virus outbreak in the prison and that nobody could visit anyone.

A girl with long brown hair pulled into a ponytail was standing in the waiting area. She walked up to Edaline.

“What was there an outbreak of?” the girl asked.

“Strep,” Edaline answered, “and no, there is no way for you to visit your boyfriend. It’s very contagious.”

“Really? Then why did I see a guard that was stationed there walking around just a few minutes ago? What did you actually do with my boyfriend?”

Edaline sighed. “You’re in engineering, right?”

The girl nodded. “Youngest zero-g mechanic in the history of the Ark. I’m Biana, by the way.”

“Good. Come with me.”

Biana rolled her eyes and followed Edaline.

Edaline led Biana towards an unused area of the ship, where the escape pods were kept. They hadn’t been used in a hundred years, but Edaline figured that Biana would be able to help her.

“Why did you bring me here? All that’s here is a couple of rusty old pods.”

“Because you’re going to help me get to the ground.”

Biana just looked at her. “Are you crazy? The ground isn’t supposed to be survivable for another 100 years!”

“I’m not supposed to be telling you this, but your boyfriend’s on the ground, along with 99 other criminals. My daughter, Sophie, is with them.”

Biana stared at Edaline for a minute. “You’re serious. Is Dex ok? Is the ground seriously survivable?”

“I don’t know, but right now, this pod is our only chance of getting down there. Can you fix it?”

“Yeah, but I’ll need a lot of new parts. This thing is ancient.”

“I can get the parts. Just worry about getting it to work.”

-

Sophie and Dex were the first to make it back to the clearing where the drop ship had landed. They were followed by Fitz and Linh.

Tam ran up to them. “What happened out there? Where’s Keefe?”

“We were attacked,” Dex said.

A few other people, including Wylie, had wandered over.

“By what?” Fitz asked

“Not by what, by who. Everything we thought we knew about the ground was wrong,” Sophie said.

“What do you mean, everything we know is wrong?” Tam asked.

“There are others out there. People. They threw a spear at Keefe and we don’t know if he’s alive or dead.”

“But we’re still gonna look for him, right?” asked Fitz.

Sophie nodded. “We’ll go tomorrow. Right now, we need to focus on finding food and setting up tents.”

-

Edaline was standing over Chancellor Endal, trying desperately to save his life.

One of the guards had found him laying in a hallway after being shot in the chest, and her and Elwin had been doing surgery on him for the past thirty minutes.

“He needs more blood,” Edaline said.

“We’ve already used more than we’re supposed to-“

“I don’t care!” Edaline said, cutting off Elwin, “We just need to make sure he lives long enough to see his son again.”

Elwin sighed. “Whatever you say.”

After they had finished, Edaline was sitting in the waiting area.

“How is he?” Grady, who was sitting a few feet away, asked.

“I don’t know. I hope he’ll be fine. I don’t want to deal with you as chancellor for any longer than I need to.”

Grady raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything. He was the acting chancellor, in case Chancellor Endal died or wasn’t able to be chancellor before the next election.

“We think we’ve found the person who shot him,” Grady said after a few minutes.

“Who?”

“Tam Song,” Grady said, holding out a tablet with a picture of a boy on it, “His sister, Linh Song, was sent the the ground along with the rest of the hundred, and he’s been reported missing from his job as a janitor.”

“So what, you think he shot the chancellor, snuck onto the drop ship, and went to Earth with them?”

Grady nodded. “Yes, that’s exactly what we think.”

“You really think that a seventeen year old kid could have pulled that off?”

“Yes.”

Edaline stood up and left the waiting room. 

Biana was tinkering with the control panel of the pod when Edaline walked in. “Finally! I need a few new parts.”

She stopped talking when she saw Edaline’s face. “What happened?”

“Nothing. We just need to get this to work as fast as possible. What parts do you need?”

2020 BeChloe (Mini)Fic Month - Chapter 2

QUARANTINE

Beca invites Chloe to fly to New York for her grandmother's eightieth birthday. Just before leaving to return home, they find out that two of Beca's younger cousins have measles, and everyone at the party was exposed.

{This picks up from Week 1's prompt "Enemies."}

It's been two weeks since Chloe joined the Barden BAs, and she was perplexed by the text Beca sent out to the team. Chloe hurried to the Auditorium to catch Beca before rehearsal started.

"Beca, why is Friday's rehearsal canceled?" Chloe asked as soon as she saw Beca.

"I won't be in school," Beca said. "Plus, we've got the songs and the routine down. It will be good for everyone to get a break."

"The State Championship is in four weeks," Chloe said. "Aubrey always said we needed to practice up to the actual day so we could avoid any surprises."

"Not to be mean, but Aubrey is not the Captain, I am," Beca said. "We're more than ready, Chloe. We've worked our butts off, and we are going to bring home the State Championship again. I give you my word on that."

"I don't know, Beca," Chloe said. "Maybe I can lead rehearsal in your absence."

"No," Beca said emphatically. "I gave everyone the day off because they've earned it. I swear to God if I come back and find out you had a rehearsal, you are off the team. Got it?"

"Lighten up, Beca," Chloe said softly. "I get it. No rehearsal while you're gone."

Beca sighed and looked at Chloe. "I'm sorry, Chloe. It's just; I know what I'm doing. We've won the State Acapella Championship, and this team is ready to win it again. We have an excellent setlist and some kickass choreography thanks to you, Stacie, and CR. And we know it backward and forward. Take a breather. Enjoy a free afternoon and weekend."

"You're right," Chloe said. She bit her lip and looked at Beca. "Can I ask why you won't be at school on Friday?"

Beca thought about it for a moment before answering. "I'm going to my grandmother's birthday party in New York."

"It's Sophie's birthday?" Chloe squealed. "I always loved your Grandma Mitchell."

"Yeah," Beca said sadly. "She always loved you, too. She, uh, asks about you all the time."

"Really?" Chloe asked excitedly. Chloe's face fell almost immediately, and she looked sad when she asked, "What do you tell her? About why I'm not around."

"The first time I went up there, I told her you were busy," Beca said. "I know she didn't believe me, but she didn't question me either. The second time you weren't with me, I made up some lame excuse that I don't remember. After that, she stopped asking. But, she still asks me how you are almost every time I talk to her."

"Oh," Chloe said. She then got a sad look on her face. "I miss her. She always treated me like I was family."

Beca mumbled, "You were family," and was saved from saying anything more as the girls entered the Auditorium. Everyone was excited about having time off from rehearsal on Friday. They ran the routine a couple of times, and Beca was quite pleased.

Beca had noticed that Chloe had looked at her a few times with a sad smile. Beca thought that Chloe was remembering the times when they were still friends, and she went to New York with Beca to visit her grandmother during the summer.

Beca remembered those times fondly, and an idea popped into her head. She then had a war with herself on whether she should actually verbalize the idea or just forget about it.

"That was great, everyone," Chloe called out, bringing Beca back to the present. "Did you have anything else for us today, Beca?"

"Nope, we're good," Beca said, smiling. "Great job. Get out of here, you nerds."

The girls started saying their goodbyes and left. Chloe was on her way out when Beca called her back.

"What's up, Beca?" Chloe asked. "Did you change your mind about me leading rehearsal while you're gone?"

"Wha? No," Beca said and let out a sigh. She ran her hand through her hair. "Um, okay, so, here's the thing. I was thinking and, um, wondered if you could get permission to be out of classes on Friday?"

"Probably," Chloe said. "Why?"

"I was wondering if you might want to go to New York with me?" Beca said, looking down at her feet. "I mean, us. My dad and Sheila will be going, too. We'll be back on Sunday."

"Seriously?" Chloe asked, her heart beating faster. "You're not pranking me, are you?"

"No, I wouldn't do that," Beca said, looking up at Chloe with a frown. "If you don't want to go, just say so."

"No, no, I do," Chloe said. "I'd love to go, but I'm just a little confused by the offer. I, uh, I thought you weren't ready to be friends again."

"I'm not," Beca said. "Or maybe I am. I don't know. But, hearing you talk about my grandma made me realize how much she asks about you, so I thought it might be a nice surprise for her if you came, too. We always had fun when we visited"

"There's the softie Beca I remember," Chloe said, smiling. "I meant it when I said I'd love to go. I just have to check with my mom and let you know. I'll call or text you tonight after I talk to her."

"Okay," Beca said. "I'll talk to you later."

"Bye," Chloe said and started to walk away. She stopped and called back, "Beca?"

"Yeah?" Beca answered back, looking toward Chloe.

"Thanks for the invitation," Chloe said sincerely. "It means a lot to me."

Chloe looked as if she was going to say more, but instead, turned and left the Auditorium.

Beca watched Chloe leave. She started second-guessing herself and wasn't sure if the invitation was a good idea or a bad idea.

"I guess I'll find out," Beca mumbled before leaving as well.

~~ Quarantine ~~

Later that night, Beca received a text from Chloe saying her parents said she could go to New York. Beca smiled at that and realized she was excited that Chloe was going. It would be like old times. Old times back when they were still friends. This thought made her sad. But then she thought that maybe this was the beginning of a new friendship with Chloe. Something she realized she was not as opposed to as before. And the idea of being friends with Chloe again did not make her sad.

Beca's dad picked Chloe up on Friday morning on the way to the airport. Beca sat back with a smile as Chloe, her dad, and Sheila talked as if no time had passed since Chloe had been around.

Once in New York, Beca had Chloe stand off to the side out of sight when they arrived at Grandma Mitchell's. Beca's grandmother opened the door and squealed when she saw Beca. She pulled Beca into a hug.

"I've missed you, you little shit," Sophie Mitchell whispered in Beca's ear.

"I've missed you, too, you big shit," Beca whispered back, causing her grandmother to cackle in her ear.

"Don't worry about us, mom," Warren said with a smile.

"Oh, hush, you," Sophie said. "Get in here."

Sophie stepped aside and hugged Warren and Sheila as they came in. She looked back at Beca, who was still standing outside the door.

"What are you waiting for? An engraved invitation?"

"No, I have a surprise for you," Beca said, smiling as she glanced over at Chloe.

Sophie furrowed her brow and stepped outside to see what Beca was looking at. She squealed when she spotted Chloe.

"Chloe!"

"Surprise!" Chloe said.

"Come here," Sophie said as she pulled Chloe into a hug. "I'm so glad to see you."

"I'm glad to be here," Chloe said, a bit teary-eyed.

Sophie pulled back and looked at Chloe. "You've become even more beautiful since the last time I saw you."

Chloe blushed and said, "Thank you."

"Let's get inside," Sophie said, pulling Chloe behind her.

Beca watched as Chloe followed her grandmother into the house.

"Just like old times," Beca mumbled before following them inside.

Beca loved when the Mitchell family came together; especially to celebrate her grandmother. That night, most of the family showed up, even though the main party wasn't until the next day.

Beca moved around the house, talking to cousins, and aunts, and uncles, all the while keeping an eye on Chloe. She didn't know why. Even though it's been close to four years since Chloe had visited with Beca, Chloe managed to charm everyone she spoke with.

Beca finally relaxed and was enjoying playing with her cousin Amanda's baby daughter. The baby started crying, and Beca immediately handed her back to Amanda. Amanda laughed, and Beca went off to find Chloe.

Beca looked everywhere but couldn't find Chloe. She saw her father and asked him if he had seen Chloe.

"Yeah, she went off with your grandmother about twenty minutes ago," Warren told her.

"Why?" Beca asked.

"I don't know," Warren said.

Beca furrowed her brow and wondered what that was all about. She let out a sigh and grabbed a soda, taking it to sit out on the back porch swing.

Beca had been out there for about ten minutes when she heard someone come out. She looked up to see her grandmother making her way over to sit next to Beca.

"So, I just had a nice chat with Chloe," Sophie said as she sat.

"Yeah?" Beca said, swallowing and looking away.

"Why didn't you tell me the truth about why you two weren't friends anymore?"

"I didn't see the point. You like her, and the fact that I wasn't friends with her was because of me and my hurt feelings. There wasn't any reason for you to hate her, too."

"Did you tell your father what really happened between you two?"

"No, and it was for the same reasons I didn't tell you. I told him that we had different interests, and we just drifted apart. It was an easy sell since we were starting High School." Beca sighed and looked down at her hands. "I think I couldn't tell anyone the truth because I was hoping that we would work things out and still be friends. But, she stayed by Aubrey's side after everything, and then too much time had passed, and there was no reason to say anything. We hated each other."

"She told me she never hated you. But, the fact that you hated her killed her every time you two traded barbs."

"I had a crush on her, grandma," Beca said quietly. "I think that's why it hurt me so bad. She was my best friend and broke my confidence. But, she was also the one who I thought was the love of my life at that time, and it killed me that she never tried to stop Aubrey from saying the things she did about me." Beca choked up a bit. "And she didn't stand up for me when the bullying started."

"Oh, sweetie," Sophie said, pulling Beca into a hug. "I'm sorry all that happened."

Beca leaned into her grandmother and let the tears fall. Tears she had been trying to keep inside for nearly four years. Tears she swore to never shed over Chloe Beale.

~~ Quarantine ~~

Beca was quieter than usual the rest of the night, and Chloe knew something was wrong but wasn't sure it was her place to ask Beca if she was okay, and it was killing her.

They both went to bed, but sleep didn't come easily for either one. They silently laid with their backs to each other until sleep finally overtook them.

Saturday morning, Beca's grandmother got the girls up and asked them to come downstairs right away.

"What's going on?" Beca asked, half awake.

"Your Uncle Matt is here and said he needs to talk to everyone," Sophie said.

Beca and Chloe followed Sophie, joining Warren and Sheila, where they stood in front of Matt Mitchell.

"Okay, um, it seems Tony and Liza have the measles," Matt said.

"What?" several voices asked.

"Yeah," Matt said. "Anyone who was here last night has been exposed. If you've had the measles before, you should be okay. I just have to inform everyone."

"Um, I've never had measles," Chloe said, getting everyone's attention.

"Really?" Beca asked. "Did you get vaccinated?"

"I, I don't know," Chloe said. "I'll have to check with my mom."

"If you didn't, we could get you vaccinated at their pediatrician's office," Matt said. "It needs to be done within 72 hours of exposure, though. So, you have until Monday; otherwise you'll have to be quarantined for 21 days to make sure you don't have them."

"Twenty-one days?" Chloe said nervously.

"Do you want me to call your mom for you?" Warren asked.

"No, thanks," Chloe said. "I'll do it. I left my phone upstairs."

Chloe turned and went upstairs. Beca watched her go.

"I'll go with her," Beca said before Chloe made it to the top of the stairs.

Beca caught up to Chloe just as she picked up her phone. Chloe looked over at her.

"I thought you could use some moral support," Beca said.

"Thanks," Chloe said and placed the call.

A few minutes later, Beca went downstairs.

"Chloe hasn't had the measles vaccine," Beca said. "She stayed upstairs because she's freaking out a little bit.

"I'll get her an appointment for Monday to get the vaccine," Matt said. "I'm sorry about this. We didn't know they had the measles until late last night."

"It's not your fault," Sophie said. "We'll take care of Chloe until she can get the vaccine. We need to make some calls and cancel the party."

"Why?" Matt asked.

"If Chloe has been exposed and hasn't had the measles or the vaccine," Grandma said. "She could be infectious. We've all had the measles or received the vaccine, so we'll be okay. It's best if we quarantine until she gets the vaccine."

"Sheila and I need to fly back to Barden tomorrow," Warren said. "We have to be at work on Monday."

"I'll stay here with Chloe until she gets the vaccine," Beca said. "We'll stay in my room until then."

"That's a good idea," Sophie said.

"Can we still have the party?" Warren asked. "I hate to ask, but if Chloe quarantines herself upstairs in Beca's room, everyone else should be okay, right?"

Matt was on the phone and raised a finger, indicating they should wait. He ended the call.

"Chloe can get her vaccine at Dr. Robbins' office on Monday, at eleven," Matt said. "She said if we wanted to have the party, we would have to clean everything down here thoroughly. And we'll have to make upstairs off-limits. If we do that, and Chloe remains in Beca's room, it should be okay to have a small gathering."

"I'll stay upstairs with Chloe if you want to have your party," Beca said, looking at her grandmother.

"Let's start making some calls," Sophie said. "Let folks know about the measles and that we're canceling the party. We'll just have immediate family. That would be us, Matt and Carrie, and your Uncles Joe and Sam, and their wives. I'll suggest they get a babysitter for the kids just to be safe."

"That sounds like a plan," Warren said.

"I'm going to go tell Chloe what's going on," Beca said, making her way towards the stairs.

~~ Quarantine ~~

Beca stood outside the bedroom door and hesitated before knocking lightly.

"Yeah?" Chloe's voice called from inside.

"Hey," Beca said, entering the room.

Beca proceeded to tell Chloe everything that had been discussed about the party and Chloe remaining upstairs during the party.

"I hate to miss the party," Chloe said. "But I'd rather be safe than sorry."

"I'll stay up here with you," Beca said. "And I promise to go down and get us some cake."

"You don't have to stay with me, Beca," Chloe said.

"I want to," Beca said. "I feel like it's my fault. If I hadn't asked you to come, you wouldn't be in this predicament."

"It's not your fault," Chloe said. "If I had been vaccinated, I wouldn't be in this predicament either. It's nobody's fault."

"Why weren't you vaccinated?" Beca asked. "Are your parents anti-vaccination?"

"No," Chloe said. "My mother thought I'd had all my shots, but when she looked at my shots record, the one for measles was blank. I'm surprised I haven't caught it before now."

Beca sat without saying anything. After a moment or two, she broke the silence.

"Are you hungry?" Beca asked. "I could get us some lunch."

"That would be nice," Chloe said.

"Okay, I'll be back shortly," Beca said.

~~ Quarantine ~~

Beca and Chloe spent the party in Beca's room. They watched movies, played games, and Beca went and got them cake when they heard everyone singing Happy Birthday.

Sophie came to check on Chloe once the guests were gone. She knocked lightly and opened the door. She smiled when she saw Beca and Chloe cuddled up together on Beca's bed, sleeping soundly.

Sophie quietly closed the door and made her way to her room.

The next morning, Beca came down to say goodbye to her dad and Sheila.

"Chloe said to tell you guys thanks for letting her come with us," Beca said as she hugged her dad.

"She could have come down," Sheila said. "We're all immune."

"I know," Beca said. "I think Chloe is nervous about having the measles. She's also scared that if she does, she might infect someone."

"I couldn't get you two a reservation home until Wednesday," Warren told Beca. "I've already contacted Chloe's folks to let them know."

"Thanks, Dad," Beca said. "Can you call the school and let them know we'll be out until Thursday?"

"Charlotte and I already discussed that," Warren said. "We'll take care of it."

"Okay," Beca said.

"Oh, I almost forgot," Warren said. "Charlotte said she'd pick you up at the airport on Wednesday."

A horn could be heard honking from outside.

"That's our cab," Sheila said. "We should go."

"Right," Warren said, grabbing their suitcases.

"Have a safe trip," Beca said. "Let us know when you make it home."

"Will do," Warren said. "Happy birthday, again, Mom. Talk to you soon."

"Thank you," Sophie said.

Warren and Sheila finally left, and Beca and her grandmother both sighed.

"I'm going to fix breakfast," Sophie said. "Tell Chloe to come down to eat. It's just us now, so she'll be okay."

"I will," Beca said. "Thanks, Grandma."

Beca ran upstairs to find Chloe lying on the bed, holding her phone on her stomach. She looked over when Beca came into the room.

"Hey," Beca said. "Grandma's making breakfast and said for you to come down to eat."

"I don't know-"

"Stop," Beca said, holding up her hand. "It's just the three of us now, so you don't have to worry about infecting anyone."

"Oh, okay," Chloe said. "I'll be down in a few minutes. My mom texted, and I want to call her."

"Okay," Beca said. "Don't take too long."

"I won't," Chloe said.

Beca left Chloe alone, and Chloe picked up her phone. She found the contact she was looking for and pressed send.

"Hello?" a voice said on the other end of the phone.

"Hey, mom," Chloe said.

Beca entered the kitchen and asked if she could help.

"I've got everything under control," Sophie said. "You can get the bread and make some toast if you want."

"Sure," Beca said and got the bread. "I'll wait a bit until you're almost done before I make the toast."

Beca and her grandmother worked together to put together a breakfast of eggs, bacon, fried potatoes, and toast. When it was almost done, Bece went upstairs to get Chloe.

Beca was just about to open the bedroom door when she heard Chloe speaking loudly.

"I can't do that, Brey," Chloe could be heard saying. "She'll hate me for sure if I tell her that!"

Beca doesn't know what Aubrey was saying, but heard Chloe's voice respond, only in a much softer tone.

Beca moved away from the door, backing up to the stairs. She wondered if Chloe was talking about her. And, if so, what couldn't she tell Beca that would make her hate Chloe?

"Beca?" Grandmother Mitchell's called from downstairs.

"Be right down," Beca said and hurried back over to the bedroom door.

Beca gave a quick knock before opening it and poking her head inside. "Chloe?"

Chloe guiltily turned her head toward Beca.

"I'll call you back...mom," Chloe said hurriedly and ended the call. "What's up, Beca?"

"Um, breakfast is ready," Beca said.

"Thanks," Chloe said and walked over to the door.

Beca allowed Chloe to exit first and followed, wondering why Chloe didn't want her to know she was talking to Aubrey.

~~ Quarantine ~~

After breakfast, Beca and Chloe stayed downstairs with Sophie. Beca was glad that Chloe and her grandmother were too busy talking to notice she had pretty much checked out.

"Beca?" Sophie said, getting Beca's attention.

"I'm sorry," Beca said, shaking her head. "What?"

"Chloe has called your name like five times," Sophie said. "Are you okay?"

"Um, yeah," Beca said, not looking at Chloe. "I'm fine. Sorry."

"That's okay," Chloe said. "I was asking if you were hungry. Grandma M was thinking of making sandwiches."

"Oh, um, no thanks," Beca said. "I'm still full from breakfast."

"Okay," Sophie said. "I'll be back in a bit."

Beca and Chloe both watched as Sophie left them alone in the living room. Chloe turned to look at Beca.

"Did you want to watch TV or something?" Chloe asked.

Beca just looked at Chloe. Beca had to ask Chloe about what she overheard earlier. It was probably a mistake, but she couldn't keep the words from falling out of her mouth.

"Why did you pretend you were talking to your mom when I came to get you for breakfast earlier?"

"What?"

"I heard you talking to Aubrey before I knocked," Beca said. "But as soon as I opened the door, you said I'll have to call you back, mom, before ending the call."

"Beca, I-" Chloe said, stopping to clear her throat. "You must have misheard."

"No, I didn't," Beca said. "I heard you say I can't do that, Brey. She'll hate me for sure if I tell her that! Who were you talking about? Was it me? What can't you tell me?"

"That conversation was private," Chloe said. "And whatever was said is between Brey and me."

Beca's jaw clenched as her brain took in what Chloe said.

"Got it," Beca said, biting her lip and nodding her head. "It's a secret between you and your best friend. And we can't have you spilling a secret that's between you and your best friend now, can we?"

"Beca," Chloe said. "It's not-"

Beca stood and started walking away. "I'm going to see if Grandma needs any help."

Chloe let out a frustrated "Dammit!" as tears came to her eyes.

~~ Quarantine ~~

Later that night, Beca left Chloe in her room and went to sleep in the guest room. Chloe laid alone in bed, wiping tears as they fell down her face, pooling on the pillow beneath her head.

Beca wasn't faring any better in the guest room. She spent the entire night, tossing and turning, before finally falling asleep from sheer exhaustion.

Beca felt as if she had just fallen asleep when her grandmother came into the room.

"Imagine my surprise when I went to get you girls up and only found Chloe in your room," Sophie said, sitting on the side of the bed looking at Beca. "Want to talk about it?"

"No," Beca said, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "I just want to go home. And I would, except I promised that I would stay with Chloe while she was quarantined, or whatever."

"What happened?" Sophie asked.

"I couldn't keep my big mouth shut," Beca said. "And now we're back to square one."

"It can't be that bad, Beca," Sophie said. "Talk to her. And listen when she talks. Communication is the key to any relationship, whether it's friends or something more."

"Talking is what got me to where I am now," Beca said.

Sophie knew how stubborn Beca could be, so she didn't say anything more about it.

"Well, you and Chloe need to get ready," Sophie said. "Chloe has her appointment at eleven, so we need to leave about ten-fifteen."

Beca glanced at the clock and saw that it was already after nine.

"I need to shower first," Beca said. "I'll be down in about half an hour."

"Okay," Sophie said, patting Beca's leg as she stood.

~~ Quarantine ~~

Sophie sighed as they waited for Dr. Robbins to come into the examination room. Since there was a chance Chloe had measles, precautions were taken, and she was immediately placed in the exam room.

Sophie was sitting in the only chair available. Beca was leaning against the wall, staring down at the floor. And Chloe was sitting on the exam table, nervously bouncing her leg up and down.

Chloe cleared her throat and scooted back a bit more on the table. Beca looked up and saw how nervous Chloe was.

"You okay, Chlo?" Beca asked.

"Um, yeah," Chloe said. "Just a bit nervous."

"I don't think you need to be," Sophie said with a soft smile. "You aren't exhibiting any of the symptoms, and you're getting the vaccine within 72 hours of being exposed. This is all precautionary."

"I know," Chloe said, her leg bouncing even faster.

"Do you remember when you cut your forehead?" Beca suddenly asked. "We were about seven, and your mom was watching me. We were playing tag in your yard."

"Yeah," Chloe said with a smile. "You pushed me, and I fell and hit that big stone my mom had around her garden."

"I did not push you," Beca said, mouth agape. "You tripped over your own two feet."

"That's not how I remember it," Chloe said, laughing.

"You have a terrible memory," Beca said. "Anyway, your mom drove us to the hospital, and you were scared, laying on that bed waiting for the nurse to come put the stitches in. I asked you if you wanted me to hold your hand so you wouldn't be so scared."

"I remember," Chloe said quietly.

Beca smiled and held out her hand. "It's all yours if you need it."

Chloe's eyes looked up at Beca, only to see concern and kindness. Chloe took Beca's hand and smiled at her.

"Thank you," Chloe said.

Sophie smiled as she watched Beca and Chloe. There was a light knock on the door.

"Come in," Chloe called out as Beca moved to the side, keeping Chloe's hand in hers.

"Chloe Beale?" the doctor asked as she entered.

"Yes," Chloe said.

"I'm Dr. Robbins," the doctor said. "I have a few questions to ask before you get the vaccine. Okay?"

Chloe nodded, and Dr. Robbins looked down at the clipboard in her hand.

"Okay," Dr. Robbins said. "Your vitals look good. You don't have a fever, which is great. Do you have a sore throat?"

"No," Chloe responded.

"Have you noticed a rash anywhere on your body?"

"No."

"May I check your back?"

"Okay," Chloe said and let go of Beca's hand so she could pull her shirt up.

"Good, good," Dr. Robbins said. "You may put your shirt down."

Chloe put her shirt down and immediately reached for Beca's hand. Beca let her take it and gave her a light squeeze.

"Open your mouth, please," Dr. Robbins.

Chloe opened her mouth, and the doctor used a small penlight to check for tiny white spots, which were a sign of measles.

"All clear," Dr. Robbins said, placing her penlight in her pocket.

Dr. Robbins picked up her clipboard and made some notes on the chart and set it to the side. She picked up a syringe and removed the safety tip from the needle.

"Are you ready?" Dr. Robbins asked.

Chloe nodded and tightly gripped Beca's hand. Dr. Robbins rubbed an alcohol swab over Chloe's arm and injected the vaccine.

Chloe winced, and it was over.

"That should do it," Dr. Robbins said, placing the syringe into the 'hazardous' receptacle. "You don't have measles and should be immune now. But I would highly recommend that you visit your primary doctor once you get home and get another injection within 28 days."

"Thank you, doctor," Chloe said.

"You're welcome," Dr. Robbins said. "Did you have any questions?"

Chloe shook her head, and Dr. Robbins told her she was free to go. She handed Chloe some papers and left the room.

"I don't know about you two," Sophie said as she stood. "But I could use some lunch."

"Sounds good to me," Beca said.

Sophie walked out, followed by Beca and Chloe, who were still holding hands.

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E64 (May 28, 2019)

Another week, another adventure into the the wild and dangerous minds of BWF and his wacky sidekicks. I have to say, the quality of Critical Recap has increased dramatically since it first started. Awesome job, Dani! Tonight’s preroll is the celebration of the birthdays of Laura & Liam, which is today, May 28. For those who don’t know, this shared birthday is why they decided to create twins in the first campaign.

Tonight’s guests: Taliesin Jaffe & Matt Mercer.

Tonight’s announcements: Next Monday, June 3, the episode with Ashley Johnson of Between the Sheets will finally air at 7PM Pacific. Brian says she hates talking about herself, but he got her to open it up. They’re already filming season 3 of Between the Sheets, and that will drop monthly episodes once it begins airing. The My Little Pony oneshot, led by Mark Hulmes from High Rollers, will air this Friday night, May 31, at 7PM Pacific. Roger Craig Smith will be one of the special guest stars on that episode. Tales of Equestria will be loaded to YT on Sunday. Denver Pop Culture Con will be this coming weekend. Limited photo and autograph tickets are still available.

Episode 64: A Dangerous Chase

CR Stats: The phrase “end of the day” was used 11 times this episode. 5 things were invented: “don’t shoot the messenger,” “don’t beat a dead horse,” “par for the course,” the game of golf, and ravioli. Laura held Jester’s astonished look for 15 seconds. CR has now aired over 800 hours in total.

DMing for Colbert was surreal for Matt. It was a week one pipe dream for Matt, which means he was a little afraid it would be a letdown. As soon as they began talking about Stephen’s history, he started feeling more comfortable, but it wasn’t until he saw the first cut the next day where he realized how great it had been. He hopes it isn’t the last opportunity they have to play together. They managed to raise over $100,000 for Red Nose Day.

Caduceus is taking a Mary Poppins approach to talking to people as a way of teaching by example. He hopes people will realize that you don’t have to always use violence to get the information you want. Taliesin, on the other hand, realizes that will never happen. Matt talks about how much he really likes the the impact Caduceus has had on the game, and both Tal & Matt talk about the 3-4 day planning session they had on what high wisdom/low int looks like. “That’s rough, buddy.” “Ahh, that’s exactly what that looks like.”

The M9′s deception during Speak with Dead was a little better than Matt had anticipated, so he gave away a little more information than he’d originally intended. Tal talks about how this must have been something Clay watched happen many times growing up in a funeral home, seeing his family Speak with Dead in order to give peace to a grieving family. It’s an interesting juxtaposition of seeing something his family used a bunch of times growing up being used in a very different way now.

The Charis DC was just because it was a very very high DC--but not impossible. There are people in the world who know about it, but they wouldn’t have reason to cross paths with the M9. It would be like an archaeologist.

The stern Cad during the interrogation was partly an act, because he was trying to perform, but also because there’s a bit of Cad we haven’t seen yet. They all agree that in the cast of CR Ashley is the most actual zen. Everyone agrees Travis isn’t even in the running.

Cosplay of the Week: @graviteacosplay with this nifty Nott cosplay.

Matt was a little surprised they took a path just straight through the Barbed Fields instead of taking a more circuitous, safer route. He expected the rest of the group to protest and was more surprised when they didn’t. They talk a bit about Fjord as an agent of both order and chaos and about how he’s trying to find his place in the world.

The near-death experience has left Cad in a place where he’s not making the best decisions right now. He knows this is dangerous, but he knows they need to check it out, and since they’re “on a mission from God,” everything they do is right. “His risk assessment is a little off right now.” Matt is delighted remembering Sam’s face; BWF points out it’s rare we get one on Sam like that.

The Sorrowsworn are scary because they’re entirely based on emotion. To further develop them, Matt likes looking at their abilities and basing their movement in a horror-film way off that. He knew he would get Travis; he wasn’t expecting to get the rest of the table. “I was very proud.”

Tal has no idea how Cad will process these horror creatures. He wasn’t frightened or freaked out by the grotesque, but he wasn’t really prepared for it, and having Caleb go unconscious was a bit of a fright.

Brian mentions for probably the third time in this show that the next season of Blindspot will be the last one. I’m getting the feeling he’s very ready for it to be done.

When Matt was developing Xhorhas, he wanted to develop all these other societies without the ties to the dark gods. How would they develop with their clan ties? What about as people were assimilated into the clans? What tropes has he seen in other media that he needs to avoid? He talks about how when you build independent areas of your world, it’s a helpful thought experiment to imagine what would happen if they collided. He developed a lot of Xhorhas in pockets and then put it all together.

Tal asks Matt if he was surprised they’d picked up the dodeca. He wasn’t exactly surprised--he’d planned for pretty much all the outcomes of that particular early encounter. He’d meant it more as an exploration of the intro to the Xhorhas world and the Krynn dynasty.

Tal laughs about his very visible reaction to Laura’s Vex voice coming out of Jester this episode. It had nothing to do with his efforts at diplomacy later; he just realized he hadn’t been paying enough attention and had no idea what part of Jester this was supposed to be coming out of.

Fanart of the Week: Just a couple of bugs flyin around, by @_sunsetdragon.

In talking about Clay’s pranks on his siblings, he thinks at some point they at the very least took the bed of an errant sibling out while they were sleeping and put it in a tree overnight.

Matt talks about how if there’s nothing in the books that suits the monster he needs, he just creates one. Tal & Matt start talking about a monster he made for an old campaign called a Dragon Engine; it was designed to build a disease that turned all dragons in a world to crystal, which in turn slowly destabilized the world/planes. Matt took a Dollar Store doll head and covered it in Saran Wrap & hot glue with wings & tentacle bits in odd places. His inspiration was a fetus god boss from the Dark Stalker series. Tal remembers being so annoyed he made this amazing, horrifying creation out of four dollars’ worth of miscellanea. Matt talks about how you can do a lot of amazing things with a bit of hot glue (veins, paint, skinless surfaces).

Cad is aware that the the Xhorhouse is a stationary point in his quest; he is not measuring his quest via distance. He feels okay being stationary right now.

Dunamancy had nothing to do with Caleb; Matt had that inspiration on his own as he was developing the Krynn dynasty. It just ended up working very very well with Caleb’s backstory. He talks about how when he reads theories on Reddit about things linking up, 60-70% of them are actually complete coincidence.

Caduceus has zero interest in the war. At best he doesn’t really like the Empire, but Tal doesn’t think he has the intelligence to formulate a more complex opinion on the war. He has no stake in or understanding of the war in any deeper capacity.

Shakaste’s current location was made up on the spot. Everyone thinks about who Shakaste would main in Overwatch. Matt pulls out the McCree voice. Bastion’s short is Matt’s favorite. BWF loves Reinhardt’s. All three of them start talking about John Wick 3 which I HAVEN’T SEEN YET, GDI, if they spoil that I’m going to weep bitter tears of bitterness. Okay, good, we get out alive.

And we’re done and done! We linger on a shot of Matt & Tal trying to figure out why Episode #69 is funny... (nice).

The Great Ex-Aid Rewatch: Ex-Aid & Ghost, Part One

:grabs the popcorn:

This is gonna be hard, because I wanted to try and do this without in-movie spoilers. I mean, I’ve seen the entire show at this point, and if you’re reading my liveblogs, I’m basically assuming that so have you, so not touching on plot points is a little impossible, especially with my overbearing love for going into meta and theories.

Also, it’s going to be in multiple parts. This first post covers about twenty minutes of run-time over the course of several hours of real-time, and nine pages.

Whoops.

(links to the other parts will go here)

–––

Okay, so. In the first two minutes, we have Dr. Pac-man’s three assistants start shooting up the GenmCorp lobby, and I’m pretty sure that the muscle guy broke a guards neck. And then they go after Kuroto, with a very… glitchy Dr. Pac-Man alongside.

We’re talking ‘pre-bugvisor Graphite’ visual glitching, here. As though he doesn’t quite have enough… I dunno, cohesion to stay intact on his own.

Thing is, Kuroto seems genuinely… if not scared, then at least shocked to see him. The dude’s supposed to be very dead, after all.

And seriously, why do people keep jamming proto-gashats into their bodies?! No! Don’t do that! Stop it! I don’t care if you’re a bugster or not, it doesn’t actually help you at all, it’s just going to make you physically unstable!

–––

And here we have Tougo, victim of the day. I have to say, I’ve never liked him much. He’s… annoying. Also, I’m aware that the choice of color for his school uniform is most likely ‘because Pac-Man’, but that doesn’t change the fact that’s it’s ugly. The girls jacket is a nice dark tan, but the boys have this gaim-awful mustard.

And then the Pac-Viruses attack.

–––

Emu’s such a good guy, helping one of his young patients out in both work and as a sort of mentor-friend. Pity we’re still very early in Ex-Aid, and he’s still a horrible klutz. There’s no time to be tripping over your feet, Emu! We’ve got people to save!

–––

…oh no… It never quite clicked before, but I think Takeru had to repeat a year! He was clearly planning on going to university, if only because he and Akari are/were in the same year of school, and she’d never let him live it down if he didn’t. And here? His teacher, who’s practically mocking him for being six months behind, is asking whether he’s serious about his entry exams or not.

So. Since it’s December now, and it was early April when he came back, Takeru missed the entire last half of what was supposed to be his senior year of high school. So here, he’s probably about three months into what he missed before.

Akari, Onari, please don’t disrupt the class like this, they probably all think Takeru’s weird enough as is without him getting called out for superhero business.

–––

You know, Akari reminding Takeru to be careful, because he’s got a regular body now, implies that he hasn’t been careful. Maybe not as Ghost, but… you know, in regular exertion stuff. (And as Ghost, because there’s probably a number of times he’s had to help Alain with. Like. Less-than-satisfied court members or something over in the Ganma world.)

So, both teams are here at the outbreak site. Team Ghost, consisting of Takeru, Akari, and Onari, and team Ex-Aid, consisting of Emu and Asuna. Both of the lads put on their drivers, and simultaneously notice the other one there.

They didn’t meet outside of the suits in Ghost’s final episode, which was an epilogue to his story and a Bonus Sneak Preview Of The New Challenger, so it makes sense that the drivers – both of which are very distinct – would be how they recognize each other.

–––

Of course, that gets us into the slight issue of ‘when does Ghost ep 50 take place.’

See, it’s implied in-show that it’s not long after Takeru comes back to life, which puts it in early to mid-April. He has a line about ‘are we really going to celebrate my birthday twice from now on?’, to which the answer was a definitive yes, so it makes logical sense for it to not be on his original birthday in October.

Except for how Emu couldn’t show up for his Big Damn Heroes moment if it were in April, because he didn’t put on the Gamer Driver until October.

So, when Emu comes to try and get the Shakariki Sports gashat from Ayumu, it isn’t quite chronologically possible… unless you take into account who Ayumu is.

He’s Takeru’s son. From the future. Meaning he time-traveled to get there.

It’s not even unprecedented for the season – Takeru’s father opened the portals that brought Takeru and Shinnosuke back and forth from 2005 in the Ghost & Drive movie, after all. So, it stands to reason that the portal ability, which Ayumu also shows, is a familial power.

What I’m positing is that Emu traveled back in time, and probably didn’t even know it.

He goes to the game worlds and battle stages fairly often, and since suddenly being in a different location isn’t exactly new to him… it would only makes sense for him to not realize that he’s in a different month, too. Especially when one of the stages looks just like the forest behind Daitenkuu Temple, and he has all sorts of flashy light effects going on all the time. An eye-shaped portal could totally just be another one of the standard special effects.

Yup, nothing unusual here.

–––

Okay, that aside, nobody actually gets to transform just yet, because the whole group is swarmed by Pac-Viruses before either of them can activate their drivers, with the viruses quickly singling Takeru out and chewing into him.

He doesn’t get hit with the literal fever that everyone else they’ve done this to are suffering from. No, in Takeru’s case… the Ghost Driver disappears. He pulls out his eyecon to try again… and it clicks uselessly.

Onari suspects it might be because he ‘hasn’t transformed lately’, adding more credence to his and Emu’s encounter being more than two months ago.

Since nobody else here can… time for Ex-Aid to make an appearance.

In level one.

Cue Opening Credits.

–––

So, Emu can’t so much as dent the Pac-Viruses, and then two of Zaizen’s lackeys show up. The man, apparently named Kazushige Ryuzaki, uses the Drago Knight Hunter Z proto-gashat to turn into… (quick search of the wiki) the Doral Bugster. Since I don’t feel like typing out his name, and it’s never said in show anyway, I’m just gonna be calling him Doral from here on. Similarly with the woman, Ageha Takeda, who uses Giri Giri Chambara to become the Giril Bugster.

So, you know, of course the one with a sword is the one Takeru faces off against. Why not? Not like he’s probably got some incredibly justified trauma relating to them. Not like it’s not actually incredibly ironic that his first heroic Eyecon arms him with a sword. Why not re-open some old less-than-metaphorical wounds right off the bat?

Doral basically corners Emu into the parking garage that Takeru and the others tried to bring Tougo through. Oh, yeah, they were trying to get that guy out of the area when he collapsed. I didn’t mention it because he’s not a good character, and exists primarily to guilt-trip Emu. So, yeah. Doral and Giril knock both our heroes down, breaking Emu’s level two transformation in the process, and here comes Dr. Pac-Man, being all ominous and glitchy, saying that he’s doing this for ‘revenge on humanity’.

Suuuure, that’s how you wanna spin it. Humanity in general. It’s totally not against a few very specific humans, one of whom you’ve recently had held at machine-gun point, and the other who has no idea what’s going on.

–––

They use the scene of bringing Tougo into CR for a brief exposition dump – which is fair, both in-universe and out. Takeru’s team wouldn’t know what’s going on, and it helps just in case the parents in the audience haven’t been following what their kids have been watching. It just gives us that little bit of elaboration on the bugster virus, enough so that people aren’t completely lost.

Tougo’s – oh, wow, his ‘infection ratio’ is already at 63%. Usually when they get someone in here, they’re only in the 30% range. But, of course, there isn’t any data to define what’s going on, because this isn’t one of the normal bugsters. There’d be no reason for Pac-Man to be programmed into a Genm Corp system.

(Which actually raises the question of how they were able to see an icon for Burgermon in episode 17, since he wasn’t supposed to be a Bugster, either. Then again, he is from a game Genm Corp was developing. But I digress.)

Anyway, Emu’s justifiably confused as to why Takeru doesn’t seem to be having any of the usual symptoms of an infection. Oh, sweetie, if you only knew- :ahem: sorry, distracted.

Takeru says that no, he’s not feeling any sort of fever, he’s doing fine.

Onari reminds him that ‘he’ll only get hurt if he pushes himself’, and Akari feels his forehead to make sure he’s telling the truth.

Once again, we’re getting the implication that Takeru has developed a habit of going too far.

–––

upstairs, we’ve got a conference call with Secretary Hinata, the Official CR team, and the Ghost team. Onari bursts out laughing at Poppy’s last name – and freaks out when she hops out of the arcade cabinet.

Both of these are understandable reactions, but maybe don’t immediately declare this a supernatural phenomenon? You know, since a government official was the one to first address her.

I will always be frustrated at the reverb effect they gave Poppy’s voice in this movie. There was no reason for Toei to do that, it’s just excessive, and it’s not like they did it in any of the promo materials or shorts, to say nothing of the show itself. Actually…

–––

I wonder if some parts of this movie draw from early planning stages of Ex-Aid? Like, there’s no explaining the voice thing otherwise, and Emu was pretty close to freezing up for a long time in here… despite the setting for it being explicitly between episodes 10 and 11, at which point they’ve already faced an approaching pandemic, with what Graphite pulled in episodes 9 and 10. So, either the team just didn’t think of that, or there were aspects that got… left over.

I mean, it’s not nearly as inexplicably different as the entirety of the OOO section of OOO & W, but it’s not exactly fitting with where Emu would be even just in the first few episodes.

And yes, I’m aware that OOO & W was made when they had one whole episode of OOO to go off of, but that’s why I think there might be artifact plot elements in here.

–––

Okay, back to the film itself. Again. Emu – Genius Gamer M – uses his genre savvy to realize why he couldn’t damage the Pac-Viruses. If, like some of the other bugsters, they’re operating on the logic of their game, then the only weakness they would have would be ghosts. AKA, instead of infecting Takeru, they burned out his ability to transform into Ghost, thus removing their biggest threat.

I mean, only some bugsters use their games that heavily. Motors, for one, the bugster from Bakusou Bike, is ‘prone’ to racing, and technically speaking, Emu and Kiriya cleared the game before destroying him, by beating him in a race. And the Doremifa Beat Collabos bugster was using music just like it would have been in the game itself – if you miss the notes, you get punished. In game, that’d just be a bad score. In the real world… painful explosions. Poppy, the actual bugster from Doremifa Beat, can’t sing without a backing track. And then there’s Burgermon, who was cleared in the same method as beating a level in his game – making a burger for him.

So, yeah, the Pac-Viruses might be in that class of bugster.

Anyway, enter Dan Kuroto and Hanaya Taiga.

Taiga’s all “No, I’m totally not here to help you guys, I’m just not letting these freaks run loose.”

Kuroto tells the ensemble that they stole the ‘heavily guarded’ proto gashats.

If by ‘heavily guarded’ you mean you were clearly reading their data out in the open, in your office. Again. And by ‘stole’ you mean “They had two machine guns pointed at me, and a sword, and I’m not immortal just yet! What was I supposed to do?! Just not hand them over?!”

…Yeah, he may be an evil bastard, but he didn’t exactly have a choice even if he wasn’t trying to keep up his ‘benevolent CEO’ facade.

Taiga’s comment of ‘those gashats are very dangerous’ is not only an understatement, but also… it’s foreshadowing. We know that Kuroto’s been using Proto Mighty Action X, and that it’s slowly wearing him down – Parad told us as much in episode 8 or 9. We know that Drago Knight was actually hurting Graphite, and he’s from there.

And, although we haven’t seen it yet, Taiga also has experience using them. Proto Bang Bang Shooting is what he originally used as Snipe, back in 2011. But we don’t know that even outside of the show just yet.

This movie came out in theaters in December 2016. We found out that the proto-gashats were involved during the Snipe Episode ZERO specials… the first of which wasn’t released until April 2017.

So… here, have some foreshadowing, I guess!

Emu asks if Kuroto has any idea who the culprits could be… and Kuroto pauses before saying he doesn’t. There’s a… not a scare chord, but a ‘you should be really, really suspicious right now’ sound effect when he says that.

I can’t tell if Emu looks disappointed or suspicious.

…Disappointed. He didn’t believe Kuroto could be evil until he revealed himself, so… yeah.

–––

At the totally not sketchy base, Dr. Pac-Man and his lackies are planning something. They’re waiting for Tougo’s symptoms to break out – he was the one they were targeting, after all. I think the Pac-Viruses went after Takeru on their own. They’re also working on something called the ‘genome graph’.

Complete with a diagram of a human gene… that starts off normal, and then becomes blocky… pixellated, almost.

So that’s not sketchy at all.

–––

…oh what the heck. The next scene is the next day. How can I tell? Everyone is in different outfits. It’s not just how Takeru is noticeably no longer in his school uniform, and back to his normal wardrobe. Akari and Onari are in different outfits, too, and Emu was wearing his yellow binary shirt, but now he’s on one of his dark blue ones.

How long does this movie take place over?

(No wonder Haruto was able to show up out of the blue! It’s been at least a day, so he’s had time to find out about this!)

Anyway, Tougo (finally) wakes up, and Emu and Takeru both start questioning him as to why the people in white were after him. Well, Emu’s telling him to go lay back down, because he can barely stand for more than a few seconds without wobbling, and Takeru’s asking questions.

Tougo cares not for your platitudes and worrying about his health, he’s got school and game development to do! Both Emu and Takeru take incredibly personal offense to this attitude.

Casual reminder, both of them were 18, the same age as Tougo, when things went wrong. Well, went wrong a second time in Emu’s case, when he went and decided that he needed to focus on his studies after… well, as we find out later, doing almost exactly what Tougo’s doing. Neglecting his own well being in order to do what he loves – games.

…ohhh no Emu is same hatting really hard with this guy.

(Listen, Tougo, as long as you don’t start identifying with the primary game designer in this show, we’re set. Just accept the fanmail gracefully, and everything will go much smoother.)

But, as Hiiro points out, they technically can’t force treatment on him. But also… well. There are some pretty nasty folks after Tougo.

–––

On the roof, Takeru and Emu have a little chat. They’re both basically going ‘how on earth are you handling the Rider thing?’ to each other’s situations.

Pulling out the Ex-Aid Eyecon, Takeru says that he couldn’t have imagined that the rider that gave it to him is a doctor. He was just so incredibly neon. But the fact that ‘Doctor Emu’ is saving lives as both a doctor and as a Kamen Rider… that really impresses him.

(Please note that Takeru consistently uses “Emu-sensei” to refer to Emu both here, and in HeiGen Final. No, there’s no hero worship going on here, what are you talking about? That’s silly!)

Similarly, Emu’s incredibly impressed by Takeru’s resolve to have kept fighting after dying, and speaking as a doctor, can’t even begin to imagine what that takes.

And then here comes Kuroto, asking to see Takeru’s Ghost Eyecon to analyze it, so they can make something that will effect the Pac-Viruses.

Since Takeru agrees, it means that he’s not tied to it the way he was in the series. It’s probably a different Eyecon completely – seeing as in-show, the Ore eyecon was literally him. Technically, the Takeru we saw was almost a projection – his tangibility depended heavily on his emotional state.

(There’s a reason I occasionally joke about Ghost’s Eyecons being ‘Soul Gem Two: Spooky Boogaloo.’)

(Also, Yurusen shares a VA with Madoka, and that just drove the joke home. Turns out Meduka Meguca is the cat, after all!)

–––

Hatesate Puzzle is an Android game – you can tell, because the list of files includes four different .apk files. Also, it’s up to version 7.21.

But the programming screen? Uses the same stupid block of text that all of the programming screens use in this show. Like, it’s even more egregious this time, because it’s shown very clearly, in decent lighting, unlike in Kuroto’s assorted lairs. Also, it talks about game physics such as collision detection for the ground.

This is a match three game.

Anyway, turns out Hiiro’s idea was to allow Tougo to leave the hospital, as long as he was still being observed. There’s a hundred thousand people infected right now, and the people who did it want him. So… Tougo is bait.

Needs of the many, blah blah blah you could have at least run this by someone, Hiiro. I get not telling Emu. But Asuna should have been informed, at least.

Almost immediately after Hiiro takes his leave, letting Emu take over, we hear static as Tougo staggers backward in his seat and passes out.

–––

We come to a busy office – a busy police barracks. Team Ghost waits anxiously on a visitors couch.

“I’m glad to see you’re back.”

Enter Officer Tomari Shinnosuke: Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department (active duty); Kamen Rider Drive (inactive).

Takeru and co had called in a favor, and Shinnosuke was only all to willing to help cover this case. Not only is it rider business now, but they’re threatening the city. Not to mention the police squad they destroyed yesterday – handily confirming that a day has, in fact, gone by – means Shinnosuke really wants in.

Turns out the three they’ve seen the faces of were all researchers into genetic therapy with the Next Genome Institute. Doctor Pac-Man is ‘most likely’ their boss, Zaizen Michihiko. Unfortunately…

They’re all supposed to be very, very dead. They died six years ago, as a matter of fact.

Most of the institute’s data was destroyed when the facility was sealed, but there’s a bit of closed circuit footage remaining of the event. Only a few seconds, but it’s enough to show them standing over an operating table, as orange lights encase and dissolve them, squares of light patterning the floor and walls.

Squares of light eerily similar to what they just say the other day, when people were activating Gashats.

Bugster work isn’t the only sketchy thing they’ve done – there were rumors of the institute working with cloning, creating mutants… basically, as Akari says, mad scientists.

(Anyone want to place odds on them being funded by Foundation X? No? Just me? Okay then.)

–––

Emu and Asuna are with Tougo as he wakes on a bench. THey’d moved him somewhere out of the sun, and he’s… An asshole about it. He never asked for their help, and he’ll die when it’s time, anyway, so why are they bothering?

Doctor Pac-Man, still very glitchy, strolls up. “He’s right. None of you are needed here. Why not just hand him over?”

Running time!

–––

Back at the precinct, Shinnosuke promises that he’ll let team Ghost know as soon as they find where the Next Genome researchers are hiding.

Y’know, except for that part where he’s too late, and they’re already going after Tougo, and by extension, Emu.

Shinnsouke’s fired up and ready to go after them.

Y’know, except for the part where Krim locked all of the Drive tech in his depression garage the Drive Pit at the end of the season, and Shinnosuke can’t transform, which Takeru points out, saying that it’s too dangerous for Officer Tomari to go.

Of course, Onari, logically, tries to point out that Takeru’s in the same boat right now, to which Takeru hurriedly shushes him.

Takeru and his team run off to deal with the situation.

Sad music plays as Shinnosuke laments his lack of belt.

–––

And here’s where I decided I had to cut the liveblog for now! Because again, twenty-some minutes, and nine pages of text. This is going to take a while.

See you next game

Since I’ve been putting it off due to lingering sicky feels, etc.

Here’s the far too long and far too unedited and written at 4am vacation rundown NO ONE ASKED FOR! (huzzah!)

So, yeah. I arrived at the new Amtrak station in the city which is a major upgrade from the trailer park reject of station the old one was. Way roomier. Could use a coffee stand or something but yeah. Improvement. Had to go underground under the tracks and back up to get to the very cold surface, it must suck in the winter.

About an hour, hour and a half into the trip I quickly realized that a.) all I wanted to do was sleep, and b.) that my throat was burning. I assumed this was due to the absurdly cold, non-stop dry ass air conditioning, but no. This bitch got sick for her entire trip. On the plus side I had the seats to myself for the majority of the trip, but still. I barely watched any CR or anything because I was miserable the entire time. Ya don’t wanna be miserable for 10+ hours on a train.

Got to Boston, to @conniecorleone‘s frightening apartment stairs. My bag was way too heavy and she troopered through taking it up them for me without dying. So if you ever need a tank in battle, call Rachel.

Hung out a little. Ordered some Five Guys. Watched a couple episodes of the first season of American Horror Story. I get the appeal but also never needed to see Dermot Mulroney’s ass.

Rach was busy with work stuff a lot early in the week, not helped by some dumbass school shooting threat the week before and kept apologizing while still going above and beyond as a hostess while I just felt guilty for getting snot on her sheets.

Day two I colored a bit. I can do a wicked water gradient with erasable colored pencils, for the record. Hung out. Relaxed. Used a lot of Zicam and Advil. Then we were on way to The Middle East for her conehead space boyfriend.

We waited like, an hour? In the chilly mist outside? The show started like AN HOUR LATE after that. The venue was nice but man, the mood was getting close to dead at points, especially since, again, FUCKIN SICK. But Planet Booty came on and while, a little on the bordering too raunchy side, put on a fucking amazing live show. Dylan has an absurd amount of energy that should be bottled and sold, but if it were it might result in the orgypocalypse. I saw a youtube comment that said he’s ‘very touchy lol’ and truer words never spoken. That man will grind on you and sing directly in your earlobe with his tongue if you are front row and happily, I was not. Yet somehow I still ended up with his sweat on my sweater sleeve thanks to someone being a dumbass and high fiving him after their set and not being able to handle the consequences. Ahem.

THEN TWRP TOOK LIKE ANOTHER GODDAMN HALF HOUR???

But I FORGIVE THEM because they were GREAT and played Daft Punk’s Celebrate in honor of motherfuckin Canadian Thanksgiving so... fine... I guess. My only complaint is they didn’t do The Perfect Product even though I get that’s probably a weird thing to do live. Also minimal keytar and Sung almost decapitated himself but you know... it happens. They DID do Tactile Sensation though which is a fucking jam. And Atomic Karate, ofc. And Meouch broke his fucking bass string which is like? Fucking hardcore? He came down like a foot away from us at one point. It was dope. They’re amazing live and have no right to be for dudes in ridiculous robot costumes playing synth in the year 2018 and rolling around stage on a hoverboard. Sadly I brought minimal memory cardage this year and didn’t get a lot of good video of them.

Afterwards, despite *someone* almost passing out, we hung out in the merch lines and did NOT accidentally cut ahead this time. I got a free signed poster because it was my birthday vacation ayyyyy and bought a couple EPs and the Together Through Time album. Then hopped over the PB’s line and got two hugs from Dylan who hung out and talked to/hugged/got selfies with every single person who got into line there and just? Good dude. Pure dude. Awful stache but... thumbs up human being. I got their Naked album and we headed out back to the apartment and some delivered Dominos (which was the only good Dominos I’ve ever had in my life.)

Day three I accidentally slept until like 4pm. Literally what else did we do that day? I cannot remember for the life of me. We might have went to Dunkin at like 9pm and she showed me a weird omnipotent plastic ear hanging on an electric wire? Was that this day? I have no fucking idea. Her Netflix and supply of Puffs tissues were my best friends this trip okay.

Day four she went to class and I relaxed and intended to walk to the mall. Unfortunately, my sick bleh hit and I didn’t feel up to going until about ten minutes before she got back. So we ended up heading over there together. I made her try Baja Blast, as is customary in my nation, and got her to try some green matte lipstick. Success. I was highkey hoping they would have a Build-A-Bear in the joint but they didn’t. They did have a Newbury though, that had the six-inch Roadhog pop which I’ve had a hard time finding locally, so I said fuck it and bought it.

That night was MST3k live! The theater was old as dirt. The kind of old as dirt where the flooring is bowing in. They had real strict rules on cameras and shit, which I get for the sake of spoilers but c’mon.... c’mon. Their merch sucked unfortunately though, so I didn’t waste any money on anything (for some reason they had 2017 tour stuff? It’s... not 2017?). The show itself was good, though I was wondering before it started how sick they must get of doing the same movie in different towns almost every other night. Pretty quickly realized oh, yeah, a lot of this show was likely pre-riffed. They did pull a kid from the stage at one point so he could guest riff off a script from Joel, which I’m thinking was a clever little insert fraction of the riff they did live between segments. I could be wrong, but on that front, it felt a little cheap. But it was still fun to see the boys and the bots live and have jokes cracked about not being able to afford the villains for the tour. And The Brain itself was........ I don’t know what I was expecting but..... it sure was.... something. The novelty was worth it and I will still gladly marry Crow T. Robot.

We went across the street to a little pub stop that was I think called Rock Bottom after that and got some much needed late night food. For some reason my brain was like “man, I could go for chicken fried steak right now” and don’t you know IT WAS ON THE FUCKIN MENU? WITH GARLIC CHEDDER MASHED POTATOES? Boston, much like with wings, does not know what country gravy is, but it was still everything I fucking wanted and did not expect to find, so A+. Also I was wearing a dress with shorts underneath it and stuck to the goddamn stool. Such is life.

Day five was rainy and miserable. I tagged along to university with Rach and it sucked, honestly. Being on a campus makes me feel awkward and the whole still being sick thing didn’t help. I ended up taking a walk way around the block to a Starbucks and getting the worst fucking frap I’ve ever paid too much money for. Went back around. Sat in the library. Felt even shittier. Started googling food places. Yard House wasn’t far but I didn’t want to deal with crossing a lot of traffic, especially if the rain started back up (it did, with a vengeance). So I ended up back around the block at some Olive Garden-esque fake Italian place with not an Italian in sight called Bertucci’s for some bland chicken-less fettuchini alfredo (because, as I’d reasoned with myself, I had chicken three times the day before). It was dimly lit, I had a booth to myself, and the water had the sweet skullet and braided beard combo I had liveblogged. People kept complimenting my tattoo. It was nice and no one seemed overly bothered that I was clearly killing time until I spent probably way too long in the restroom after trying to look alive. I tipped the dude ten bucks and left in the pouring rain with my umbrella.

From her school we took the world’s longest Uber to Parts Fucking Unknown in awful traffic and rain to find a Double Tree where @freakishlytallaustralian‘s parents were staying for a hot minute during their brief little US tour on their way to Europe. I’ve never met Mandi in person, but I’ve now met her parents who say she’s gotten to know a good bloke. She looks exactly like her mom. They were sweet. Anxious but sweet. And I am a freak who doesn’t talk and was sick trying to seem presentable at the bare minimum capacity.

Back ~home~ we ordered some JP Licks ice cream (BROWNIE BROWNIE BATTER!!! BROWNIE. BROWNIE. BATTER.), I watched CR and some stupid videos on the internet with her. Got some sleep. Sort of. Barely.

Despite Matt Mercer nearly succeeding at lulling me to sleep and eating my dreams, it didn’t happen, and I could not get comfortable for the life of me. The “coughing every five seconds in bed” started this night and was not having mercy. So I opted out of another day of hanging around campus to try and get some more rest. It didn’t really work, but I did eventually get a solid three hours or so, so it was something.

As the day progressed it was onward to the Science Museum to meet Ron the T-Rex. There was a wedding happening. How appropriate, for Bravier funko pops to have come along on the day of a blessed union. Coincidence? I think not. A turtle kept falling off a branch when he was trying to nap. There was some space stuff. It wasn’t great. But I got a little stuffed dinosaur and that’s Important.

From there we hit up the same movie theater we went to the year before and saw Bad Times At The El Royale. Do recommend. Chris Hemsworth as a Charles Manson was not something I ever thought I’d see, and I still don’t understand it, but it rather predictably works for me, so we’ll leave it at that. Good movie, good performances, good pacing and editing that could have easily not been. See it, it’s fun. Not perfect, but fun.

It was COLD AS BALLS after the movie and neither of us brought jackets or sweaters, so the walk to the train station and back ~home~ was a chilly one. We stopped in, got some warmth, and headed down the road past her old place to a bar. If we didn’t appreciate TWRP and PB enough already, the band she had to pay cover for us to get in for just to pick up food were about 8 upper middle aged men playing every instrument in the book. Afropunk, they said. No, we said. Offkey, we said. This place was dark as shit and loud as shit but you know what? They KNEW WHAT REAL, HOT CHICKEN WINGS WERE and for that, I am appreciative dammit.

Went back, got some more Dominos, and was finally introduced to John Mulaney’s (or two of) comedy specials. He’s genius and I *understand* it now, tumblr. I get it. We ate way too much and did my laundry.

The week had come and gone way too soon and I felt robbed of my good time by how shitty I felt. Hopping on the train the next day (after a godawful uber ride) was just as depressing as the time before. And even though I didn’t feel as miserable as the trip there, and once again had a window seat to myself, I found myself curled up against my hoodie crying trying to fall asleep again knowing I was already headed back home.

Once the initial depression passed, the trip wasn’t bad. The iced latte was good. The Albany stop not as confusing the second time around. The WiFi kept me company. Eventually my aunt texted me asking if I wanted to hit up Stevie T’s on the way home because they were 24hr and neither of us had eaten all night. It was a plan. Get off, get food, come home, faceplant on my own big comfy bed, vow to deal with my dad’s drama in the morning and call it a night.

Then *that* happened. Yeah. Last year? Every stop, regardless of time of night, they made announcements. They came by, checked the marker above your seat, and if you were due off at the next stop told you it was coming up, would help with luggage if needed, and directed you to the correct door to exit the train. This year? Nothing. They decided to stop making announcements right before the Rochester stop, and no one came by in our car to tell us where to get off. Stopped, myself and the other person due off at that stop, a late-teens girl, went to the door at the front of our car where every other stop had gotten off before us. We assumed since no one said differently, and no attendants were around, that must be it. We were idiots. Because by the time we realized hey, they’re not going to open this door and we should go to the far other end of the train, it was already moving again en route to Buffalo.

We found ourselves in the dining booths by the cafe car while the staff made vague remarks and the conductor acted like it wasn’t his problem. My aunt on the phone talked to the Rochester station, we tried to claim I didn’t even have a reservation until about two other people looked up my ticket. They said it was up to the conductor to get us a cab home, he laughed at us, claimed to know nothing about any of that, and asked if were were going to buy the bus tickets the other girl was looking up. The bus for 3am, in downtown Buffalo, nowhere near the station. When we got off the staff at the Depew station was a lot more sympathetic, and said since nothing else was being offered he would put us on the next train back home, but since it was a Sunday morning there was no train to Rochester until roughly 7:45am. It was about 1:30 at this point. I felt awful for encouraging the other girl not to pay for two ubers and a bus ticket with the only alternative being offered to sit alone in an empty, unstaffed station in the middle of the night for hours. And between the situation, being tired and still sick, and dealing with my aunt calling hotels only to get put on hold and lose the room she was trying to reserve - I put my bags in a corner, found the restroom, and had a panic attack. I don’t know why, but those tend to be stupid like that. It’s not even like I was scared, or confused, or that worried myself. I started out very ‘whatever, I’ll just get a room or stay in the station, I’m pissed but whatever’. But something about the constant calls and texts and my battery nearing 0 had me stressed and I was crying like a bitch. I just wanted to fucking sleep, and I knew that wouldn’t happen in a train station with nothing but some benches, a restroom, and a vending machine.

Rach suggested an alternative I felt guilty about taking but ended up going for: Get to her parents house just outside Buffalo, get their spare key, and sleep on their couch while they’re out of town with their blessing. So I called an Uber, and the first one passed me by, with the gps fucking up and saying I should be picked up ON THE TRAIN TRACKS. The second guy was smart enough to come to the cab pickup out front and was really cool. He said he was just thankful I wasn’t a fucked up drunk college party kid and the first all night. He didn’t comment on how I probably definitely looked like I’d just been broken up with in the world’s worst romcom. It was over 20 bucks and I tipped him the max. Found my way inside, set up the couch, and continued my momentarily on hold panic until I eventually passed out. My Aunt came to pick me up in the morning, I got carsick, we had mediocre diner breakfast and what’s after that isn’t news worth talking about. Isn’t it bad enough the tail end of the trip took up like a third of this post?

All in all... it felt like a disaster. I’m not gonna lie. In weird ways the stars aligned that TWRP would end up on Conan the night of their show and have to reschedule to the day I came to town, but I paid for it with otherwise bad timing and my body deciding against me having a good time. Fun was had, don’t get me wrong. The good was good and any chance to get away from... this, is appreciated, but it just seemed like everything went awry. 

Mucho thanks to @conniecorleone again, for letting me crash on the futon and be my usual bland self, even blander while ill, and also buying me expensive cold syrup and a-many ubers.

We’ll see if Massachusetts and I ever cross paths again.

Like we used to

   He couldn’t believe they’d broken up, sure he and Craig had their ups and downs but it still caught Tweek by surprise, to say the least. The blonde sat in his new dorm, apparently Clyde and Token had broken up too so the 4 best friends just did an ‘Ex-swap’ and Clyde would now be sharing his dorm with Tweek, Tweek sighed fishing his old battered iPod out of his bag and stuck in the headphone’s listening to his favorite band 'A Rocket To The Moon’ relaxing into the bed his body still holding its usual tension.   “Dude I didn’t know you could sing” Clyde commented having entered through the window of their first story dorm, he had a habit of taking late night walks now that his insomnia had kicked up again.     Tweek jumped screaming a little falling off of his bed having failed to notice that it was late or that his roommate had returned,    “Oh I-I didn’t hear you man, um…yeah I’ve been singing since like 4th grade remember? Cr-…Put it down” he reminded him still finding it too hard to use Craig’s name.     "Shit Tweek!“ Clyde tripped over the window sill as he rushed to check on his roommate,    "right I remember, people kept killing kids by texting and driving” he said as he helped Tweek sit on his bed.    “I’m alright not bleeding” the Blonde reassured his roommate rubbing the back of his head softly,    “dude are you struggling to sleep again?” he asked taking in the bag under the Brunette’s Brown eyes.   “Is it that obvious?” Clyde asked with an embarrassed chuckle going to their bathroom and looking at the bags under his eyes,   “wow…it is” he sighed rubbing his eyes with a yawn.      “Dude” Tweek looked to his friend’s voice as he stripped to his boxers and rummaged around his bed for his pajamas,   “come here” he skillfully shoved everything to the floor by the foot of his bed and allowed Clyde to change into his Pj’s before dragging the Brunette to his bed and using the dinosaur head grabber to turn off the lights once he was laying on the wall side of his bed he coaxed Clyde into platonic bro-cuddles and plugged his earbuds into the Brunette’s ears turning on his favorite song. 'I can feel her breath As she’s sleeping next to me Sharing pillows and cold feet She can feel my heart Fell asleep to its beat Under blankets and warm sheets If only I could be in that bed again If only it were me instead of him’   Clyde swooned very softly at the soft soothing voice in his ears and allowed his shoulders to bleed out as Tweek rubbed his back with the pads of his fingers while his thumbs rested on the Brunette’s shoulder blades, he moaned weakly feeling the tension leaving his back and tiring him out slowly but effectively until he fell asleep using the Blonde’s muffin top as a pillow.    Tweek smiled as Clyde slowly bled out until he fell asleep in his embrace practically laying in his lap, he laid against his pillows listening to Ginger (the Guinea Pig Clyde gave him as a birthday present) run on her wheel letting the softly sound lull him to sleep along with the familiar warmth of holding another person.    A month had passed since Clyde and Tweek started rooming together and they’d started cleaning, that was how Clyde rediscovered the dance tickets. He’d been planning to surprise Token by taking him to their Junior Winters ball but now it was at the end of the week and he had an extra ticket, he figured it probably wouldn’t hurt to offer Tweek the second ticket.    “Hey, Tweek?” Clyde looked at his roommate as they sat on the now King sized bed that occupied their room where they were doing their homework, seeing as he couldn’t sleep alone anymore Clyde bought this bed cheap off Craiglist and put their twin sized beds in his parking garage.    “Yeah Clyde?” Tweek asked the Brunette currently finishing his homework and starting to make a crown out of the crafting flowers that his parents sent him to replace the lego’s they lost, he wove in Red and Green ones to it as he looked to Clyde.    “U-Um….back when Token and I together I planned to surprise him on….our anniversary with these tickets to the Winters ball” Clyde said softly rubbing his head as he finished his homework,    “do…do you wanna come instead?” he offered showing the Blonde the tickets.    “C-Craig and I w-were gonna go too,” Tweek said softly as he finished adding the flowers and got some vines to add to it,    “I’d love to still go” he smiled putting the crown on the foam head that he had for crowns.   “It’s a Bro-date” Clyde grinned, he laughed when Tweek rolled his forest Green eyes and jokingly hit the blonde with his pillow.       “So that begs the question” Clyde sat back up after Tweek hit him back,     “which of us is wearing the dress and heels?” he asked howling with laughter at Tweek’s expression which was an even mixture of offended and confused.    “Flip for it?” Tweek asked drawing a Quarter from the coin bowl on his nightstand,   “heads you wear one tails I wear one, then again for if the  other gets to pick the dress or not” he flipped it a few times watching Clyde snatch it.    “Deal” Clyde grinned positioning the Quarter on his hand,       “imagine how we’ll look dress shopping” he laughed flipping the Quarter blindly pinning it on the roof of his hand where he and Tweek leaned in to see.    “Congrats man” Clyde beamed showing Tweek the Tails,   “I think you’d look great in a dress dude, you got the hips for it” he told him laughing when Tweek snatched the Quarter away playfully flipping it to see who picked Tweek’s prom outfit.    “I’ll call it,” Tweek told him flipping the Quarter,    “Heads” he called out pinning the Quarter swearing when it came up Tails again.    “Welp let’s get some sleep broseph” Clyde chimed in once he’d stopped laughing at the way Tweek pouted,   “we have fancy clothes shopping to do tomorrow” he smiled changing into his Pj’s as Tweek did so they could do their nightly routine of music and bro-cuddles while Tweek skillfully massaged Clyde’s back.   “Good night Clyde” Tweek smiled as Clyde started to bleed out under his massaging fingers, he laid back and let himself fall asleep while his fingers worked.    “G'night hunny” Clyde slurred as Tweek focused on a particularly tense spot neither noticing the slip,   “Iloveyou” it sounded like 'uh live ew’ as he buried his face in Tweek’s stomach just humming and nuzzling 'his’ blonde while they fell asleep.    Today was the day, and by that, it was sunrise and the two boys were waking up in their bed to Ginger demanding food by running full force on her wheel until it squealed in protest.   “Clyde go feed Ginger” Tweek groaned softly, he snickered when the Brunette shook his head his nose brushing the Blonde’s side as he was essentially spooned despite being on his back.    “Cut that out” he laughed when Clyde had heard him snickering and decided to really bury his face into his side, he snorted and instantly covered his bright Red face.    “Fine, but you owe me” Clyde chuckled getting up patting Tweek’s pudge as he got out of the bed and approached Ginger’s cage,    “easy Princess I’m coming” he yawned filling her scoop and putting it in her food dish while Tweek showered.   “I needed this” Tweek hummed as the hot water lapped at his freckle dusted skin, he scrubbed his hair with the Strawberry scented shampoo Clyde got him after his old stuff started aggravating his scalp. He washed his body while he let the lather rest in his hair, he rinsed off from head to toe then got out and dried off pulling on his boxers before drying his hair and going to his dresser for clothes.    “Hope you left me hot water” Clyde teased Tweek as he discretely admired his roommate’s thick thighs and freckle riddled body, he grabbed his clothes and rushed to bathe while Tweek dried his hair.    Tweek pulled on his jeans before giving a crestfallen sigh as he worked to button up his shirt huffing when he skipped some buttons and buttoned some to high, shaking his head Tweek unbuttoned it and laid on the bed gently pinching his stomach holding the pudge between his thumbs and palms.    “Self-conscious again?” Clyde asked softly as he got dressed and took his blow drier to his hair before combing it,   “I keep telling you that it’s like, the most perfect gut I’ve ever seen” he reminded Tweek sitting by the blonde who released his stomach to drape his arms over his eyes.    “If it makes you feel better you’re my favorite pillow” Clyde smiled laying on his side burying his face in the surface of Tweek’s stomach,    “I bet if I press hard enough I’ll leave a face impression” he spoke against the skin sending Tweek into childish giggles.   “Here let’s get you buttoned up then go prom clothes shopping” Clyde smiled sitting up and helping Tweek sit up before he buttoned the Blonde’s top for him,    “c'mon giggles” he joked claiming the Blonde’s hand and leading him to his car where he took them to their towns shopping district.    “We should try thrift stores first,” Tweek said softly as they parked and got out,   “a lot of people will blow thousands on a dress they only wear once then donate it” he pointed out when Clyde quirked a brow at him.   “Good idea Tweekers” Clyde smiled claiming the Blonde’s hand and walking to the nearest thrift store, the place was full of things like shoes, toys, and coats so they’d probably be getting Tweek’s heels here.   “Let’s split up and look for heels….actually boots might work better for you” he smiled laughing when Tweek took off his Left shoe handing it to him before going off to look at the boots, he watched Tweek for a bit before going to another section of boots figuring that Tweek could at least pick out the boots.    “These look beautiful” Tweek whispered seeing a pair of Earthy Brown thigh high Suede boots, he quickly snatched them from the shelf and slid the left one on beaming when it fit him comfortably. Removing the boot Tweek tucked them under his left arm and hobbled off to show Clyde,    “Clyde I found the pair I’m gonna get” he cheered startling the Brunette who was looking at high heel boots.    “Wow Tweekers these look great” Clyde commented looking at the Brown boots with Gold accents on them,   “let’s get you these and find a thrift store with dresses” he said softly holding his hands out for the boots as Tweek stuffed his shoe back onto his foot.    “I’m the one in the tux so it’s only natural I pay” he winked playfully when Tweek raised a brow but handed him the boots,    “plus they’re only 5 bucks” he smiled paying for the boots before leading Tweek out with the bag in the Blonde’s free hand.   “You gotta search for a tux too” Tweek reminded Clyde as they approached a thrift store that had 'prom sale’ signs all over the windows making that a promising store,    “I’m picking your suit” he grinned releasing his roommates hand to run for the tuxes.    “God I love that spazz” Clyde smiled softly quickly shaking his head before going to the dresses,    “definitely Green,” he said to himself as he looked at all of the Prom gowns.    “Definitely Red” Tweek grinned looking over the old suits,   “and Black pants” he looked around beaming at a Red Tuxedo jacket with a Black lapel and two buttons gently grabbing it. He wandered some more getting a Black bowtie and vest then found some pants having checked Clyde’s sizes while the Brunette was in the shower, once he was sure Clyde wouldn’t catch him Tweek paid for the suit and a Green pin on Corsage Rose and hid the bag in the one with his boots.    “No peeking Tweek” Clyde called out, he’d found a gorgeous floor length mossy Green ball gown with white accents along the chest and those super short removable sleeves. Once he found a nice wrist corsage with Red roses and Baby’s breath (fake of course but they looked real enough for him) on Green ribbons Clyde checked around for Tweek’s sneakers under the racks then paid for the corsage and dress asking the cashier to double bag it so his date couldn���t see it, he was so excited to surprise Tweek with this dress unaware the Blonde was surprising him with a suit   “Welp since we have everything we need do we want to go get lunch and some coffee then go home” Tweek asked Clyde as they held hands out of habit at this point,    “I mean the dance is tomorrow night we’ll want to be rested” he smiled even though they’d literally just woken up.    “Totally, we can get some food then watch movies with Ginger at the dorm” Clyde grinned,   “just a lazy day with my roomie and our girl” he melted at the the thought of snuggling with Tweek and Ginger binge-watching TV or movies on Netflix.    Tweek grinned as they rushed into the nearest McDonalds getting a bag of Burgers, Fries and MnM McFlurries before heading to the car where Clyde drove them home, he was beyond excited for a lazy day with his roommate and Ginger.    Clyde smiled as they parked at their dorm and claimed their bags rushing inside to Ginger and their bed, he stashed the bag with Tweek’s dress in the little safe Token had bought him then went to the restroom giving Tweek time to hide his suit and set his boots on their shoe rack.    “Hey baby girl” Tweek smiled opening Ginger’s cage holding his hand out for her smiling when she scurried into his embrace,    “I missed you too” he soothed her sitting on the bed laying her on his stomach where she laid down.   “I told you that tum makes a great pillow” Clyde smiled getting the small metal trays they used for eating on the bed and sat them up laying out their food before getting comfortable next to Tweek where he rubbed Ginger’s cheek, he smiled contently claiming a Burger sinking his teeth into it melting against the bed as he ate.    Tweek lit up but smiled and ate one of his Burgers while petting Ginger with his free hand,   “I guess,” he said softly relaxing as he ate. It didn’t take long for the warm food, Ginger, and Clyde babbling about all of his favorite scenes of the current movie for Tweek to fall asleep around 6:30 at night.    “C'mere Ginger” Clyde whispered setting his tray over Tweek’s legs so he could get off of the bed and put her away then put away their untouched food for later he put the trays away then set an alarm for 9:00 PM so they could bathe and maybe just have dinner before he stripped to his boxers and laid down in the bed with his head on Tweek’s stomach, as usual, the Brunette hummed softly easily drifting to sleep as Tweek’s arms wrapped around him.    Tweek jumped awake at 9:00 PM to Clyde’s alarm and woke the Brunette gently shaking his roommate until those Milk Chocolate Brown eyes opened,    “your alarm went off” he yawned sitting up ruffling his hair.   “Hey you wanna go somewhere fancy for dinner tomorrow night before the dance?” Clyde asked his roommate as they gathered the stuff for showers and got to work on reheating their McDonalds for dinner sitting back on the bed to eat,    “mind if I bathe first?” he asked Tweek he always felt grimy after eating McDonald’s then taking a nap.    “That sounds nice man” Tweek smiled as he ate his second Burger while giving Ginger dinner,   “you can bathe first I don’t mind” he reassured Clyde laughing when the Brunette rushed to the bathroom. With nothing else to do the Blonde laid on the bed and texted with his other friends, Kenny was going to the dance with Butter’s and this time they were wearing dresses since in High school they both wore Tuxedoes. 'Kenny: Man I can’t wait to see the dress you wear’ 'Tweek: Gah Clyde won’t even let me see it =(’ 'Kenny: Wait, Clyde? What happened with Craig?’ 'Tweek: Idk man, it just….fizzled out, there’s no spark we were just following the daily motions =(. Token dumped Clyde so we swapped roommates’ 'Kenny: Well shit, oop Leo’s up ttyl’   Tweek smiled softly and grabbed his old electric keyboard playing 'Lava’ from the Pixar short singing it to himself, he looked up hearing the shower cut off and greeted Clyde with a full-blown grin when the Brunette came in with his hair wrapped in a towel while a a second was wrapped around his hips.    “I forgot to grab my boxers!” Clyde crowed sending Tweek into hysterics,    “shut up and take your shower” he laughed getting dressed. 'Kenny: Hey Clyde heard you were taking Tweek to the dance’ 'Kenny: You better be good to this kid’    Clyde looked at his cell hearing it vibrating and scooped it up seeing texts from Kenny, he lit up reading them. 'Clyde: Dude seriously?’ 'Clyde: It’s a platonic Bro-Date’ 'Kenny: Dude, I’ve seen how you look at him’ 'Kenny: Talk to him, treat him good’ 'Clyde: Shut up’ 'Clyde: you’ll love the dress I bought him, it’s stunning’ 'Kenny: Perv ;D’ 'Clyde: shut up! 0/////0’    “Everything okay Clyde?” Tweek asked startling his roommate who fell off the bed,    “heh we’re even” he chuckled helping the Brunette up onto the bed.    “I’m fine” Clyde reassured him,    “You wanna just go back to sleep? I’m not all to hungry” he admitted.    “Totally” Tweek yawned,    “bring it in” he smiled holding his arms out for Clyde who beamed nearly flopping on Tweek as he flopped onto the bed.    “I spoil you” Tweek laughed starting to massage Clyde’s back near his ribs quickly turning the boy to putty,    “you know that right?” he smiled watching Clyde roll his eyes and nuzzle his stomach.    “And I worship you” Clyde whispered into Tweek’s stomach listening to him giggle at the vibrations,    “G'night” he sighed as he fell asleep hugging Tweek.   The next day was spent making themselves presentable and secretly preparing the other’s outfit, Tweek hung Clyde’s suit in the bathroom while Clyde laid the garment bag with his dress on their bed.    “We’ll eat then come home to get changed and go to the dance” Clyde smiled as Tweek exited the bathroom,    “let’s go” he claimed the Blonde’s hand leading him to the car while Green eyes focused on the bag.    “I’m so nervous” Tweek let out a nervous whine as they arrived at the Red Robin and were escorted to their booth,   “what if I trip on my dress, or-or your suit falls apart” he gripped his hair softly watching Clyde run out and return with a scarf which he placed on the Blonde and moved his hands to.    “Tweek can I sit next to you?” Clyde asked Tweek,   “everything will be perfect” the Brunette promised sitting next to Tweek hugging him stroking his hair until he calmed down.    Neither of them seemed to notice Craig and Token sitting a few tables away both of them wearing suits,   “I promise you Tweek, nothing will ruin tonight for us” he cupped the Blonde’s cheeks to establish eye contact then brushed their noses before moving to his half of the booth.    “Thank you Clyde” Tweek smiled visibly calmer, he sniffed the air beaming when their server returned with their steaks and soda refills.    “Anything for you Tweekers” Clyde smiled,    “Oh thank you” he smiled at the server who left for the kitchen once they’d started to eat.    “So Tweek I have a small question” Clyde told Tweek after swallowing a mouthful of steak and baked potato,    “do you want to have our pictures taken at the dance tonight?” he asked the Blonde who forced down some potato to answer.    “That actually sounds really nice” Tweek smiled at Clyde,       “You’ll want momentos after you see the suit I picked out for you” he grinned with the same confidence the Brunette almost always wore.   “Figured I’d ask because I know I’ll want a reminder of how amazing the dress I picked will look on you” Clyde grinned back, he passed Tweek his soda seeing the Blonde thump his chest a few times and reach for his empty glass.    “Easy Tweekers easy” he moved to sit beside the blonde and carefully thumped his back with the heel of his hand,    “Jesus, cut your food man” he crowed after Tweek finally forced the bite down.    “Heh sorry” Tweek apologized guzzling the soda before remembering it was Clyde’s,    “awww Clyde your soda,” he said seeing he’d inhaled like half of it.    “No worries Tweekers” Clyde laughed,   “just chew better and cut stuff smaller” he smiled sitting down claiming the empty glass before taking another bite out of his steak enjoying the dinner with his roommate.    “This sure is great isn’t it?” Tweek asked Clyde as he finished his smaller steak,    “thank you for all this” he smiled at the Brunette.   “It is” Clyde smiled back looking for their server, he went wide-eyed seeing Craig and Token but said nothing and flagged her over.     “Could I please get our check and a box please?” the Brunette requested politely as Tweek patiently sipped the rest of the soda,    “ready for the surprise Tweekers?” he asked as the server left for the box and check.    “Of course I’m ready Clyde” Tweek grinned around the straw exposing the tooth gap that Clyde was such a sucker for,    “are you?” he quirked a brow making his friend laugh.    “Been ready baby” Clyde laughed paying for their dinner and boxing up his steak,    “let’s boogie” he smiled taking Tweek’s hand leading the giggly Blonde to the car.    Tweek smiled eagerly as they entered their dorm,   “you have to change in the bathroom,” he told the Brunette as he started unbuttoning his top clearly eager to put on the dress.     “Fine mister bossy” Clyde laughed poking Tweek’s stomach before zipping into the bathroom and stripping, he brushed his teeth quickly before yelping when Tweek burst in to do the same.    “Sorry,” Tweek apologized,    “figured we should see each other at the same time” he admitted as the rinsed and spit together.   “Go go go” Clyde laughed pushing Tweek out playfully, he listened to Tweek’s laugh before opening his garment bag and covering his mouth softly. This tuxedo was perfect, A white dress shirt with a Black vest, a Red tuxedo coat with a black lapel, black pants and a Green and white corsage pinned to the lapel.    Tweek smiled unzipping his garment bag in the main part of the door and had to cover his mouth to avoid gasping too loud, this dress was a gown and it was the most stunning gown he’d ever seen. Moss Green and floor-length this gown had removable shoulder sleeves which he opted to leave on and White accents around the chest, he noted the small box and the note on it. 'I have to open this one for you ~ Clyde’   Tweek smiled putting his gown on before stepping into his boots, looking over at his flower crown the Blonde grabbed it and placed it on his head using his webcam to position it perfectly.    Clyde took his time getting dressed in the amazing outfit Tweek picked out for him, once everything was perfect clothes wise he used some mouthwash then gelled his hair back huffing when a few unruly strands fell in his face but opted to just leave them.    “Can I come out Tweekers?” Clyde asked trying to contain his excitement, when Tweek said yes Clyde eagerly opened the bathroom door and felt his knees go weak.   Tweek stood gracefully in their dorm wearing a crown of fake Red and Green roses with 4 fake vines falling from it 2 framing his face while the other 2 rested behind his head, the gown was surprisingly a perfect fit even without breasts to fill the top it hugged the Blonde’s hips and the top rested flat without bunching up and the boots peeked out shyly from under the hem of the boots.    Tweek lit up seeing the way Clyde stared at him as he tucked a lock of his Blonde hair behind his ear,    “h-how does it look?” he asked offering the Brunette a hand where he slowly twirled him.    “Stunning” Clyde whispered grabbing a tissue gently dabbing the corners of his eyes,    “how about me? I love this entire outfit so much” he gushed allowing Tweek to twirl him in a circle.    “You look astounding Clyde” Tweek smiled at his friend,    “so…what’s in the box?” he asked softly watching Clyde snatch it up excitedly.    “It’s a corsage” Clyde explained,   “our high school didn’t allow same-sex prom couples so you didn’t get one” he opened the box to show the two fake Roses in the bed of fake Baby’s breath on the Green band smiling when Tweek let him put it on his wrist.    “It’s lovely” Tweek smiled,    “Shall we head out?” he asked passing Clyde his wallet since the gown had no pockets.    “We shall” Clyde smiled giving Ginger dinner before offering Tweek his arm,   “the full experience, minus a limo those are sadly too expensive” he said sheepishly listening to Tweek’s laughter as the Blonde took his arm and walked with him to the large hall the dance was in.    “Oh Mr. Donovan you swauve bastard” Tweek jokingly swooned as they walked to entrance each baring a ticket, he laughed at Clyde’s face ignoring the way people stared at him for being in a gown.    “Pictures first” Clyde smiled seeing a flash ahead of the two realized there was an entrance photograph,    “stop fussing with your hair, you’re perfect” he soothed Tweek as they approached the mark for their photo.    “Kenny is that Tweek and Clyde?” Butters’ voice asked from a few paces ahead of them,    “Tweek looks really pretty doesn’ he?” he looked up at Kenny as they took in Tweek and Clyde.   Tweek lit up stepping under the rainbow bubble arch with Clyde’s arm around his waist, he smiled at the camera laughing when Clyde poked his side to make his smile genuine.    “You guys look great” Kenny smiled approaching Tweek and Clyde with Butters on his arm, they were wearing plain old Summer dresses, unlike Tweek and Clyde.     “Thanks” the two spoke in unison, they smiled listening to 'Stereo hearts’ play as the now group of four walked to the photography area where Token and Craig were bsing for their photos.    “You two should be in some with us” Butters smiled at Tweek,     “it’ll be a fun way to remember the night only Clyde wore a tux” he giggled.    “Whaddya say?” Kenny asked Tweek and Clyde,    “up to you guys,” he smiled as Butters dragged him to get their set taken.    “What do you think Tweekers?” Clyde asked,    “some for us then some group shots?” he offered as they stepped up.   “I love the idea” Tweek smiled genuinely at Clyde and the photographer seemed to love that and snapped a shot of them, he lit up when Clyde grabbed his hip and his left hand then dipped him but still smiled at the way the Brown eyes smoldered with passion.    “Care if we cut in?” Kenny grinned stepping in and claiming Tweek in a one-armed hug using the other to hold a confused Clyde at bay while the photographer laughed and took a picture,    “Leo c'mere, all Blonde’s shot” he cheered watching Butters run up and Clyde step out of the shot so the dress baring trio were photographed.    “I got one” Clyde grinned,    “quick carefully lift him” he didn’t need to name Tweek and watched them lift him by the hips and legs.    “Brilliant and now for me” he stepped in kneeling down and clasping his hands so it looked like he was praying to Tweek’s thighs and butt, he listened to the photographer and some students howl with laughter, as some shots were taken then Tweek, was lowered and claimed by Clyde.   “Oh Clyde it’s out bedtime song” Tweek whispered excitedly hearing the first few keys of 'Like we used to’ by A rocket to the moon,     “we should dance” he smiled listening to the music.    “Oh god, it is” Clyde smiled humming a few bars,   “we should, everyone deserves to see you” he rubbed Tweek’s cheek walking the blonde out onto the dancefloor claiming his hand and his hip. 'I can feel her breath As she’s sleeping next to me Sharing pillows and cold feet She can feel my heart Fell asleep to its beat Under blankets and warm sheets If only I could be in that bed again If only it were me instead of him’   Clyde smiled leading Tweek around in a smooth slow circle in rhythm to the song, he hummed along thinking to all those nights of listening to this at night while Tweek rubbed his back.    Tweek smiled letting Clyde lead since he was used to being lead when he danced, he held Clyde’s warm hand in his and let the other one rest lazily on his shoulder. 'Does he watch your favorite movies? Does he hold you when you cry? Does he let you tell him all your favorite parts When you’ve seen it a million times? Does he sing to all your music While you dance to Purple Rain? Does he do all these things Like I used to?’   Clyde gently nodded to Tweek releasing the Blonde’s hip to spin him on 'While you dance to Purple Rain’ placing his hand right back when Tweek had steadied himself,    “this is by far the best night of my life,” he told Tweek as the blonde wove their fingers.    Tweek smiled watching his gown twirl as Clyde spun him on his toes then smoothly fell back into step,    “mine too” Tweek admitted. 'Fourteen months and seven days ago Oh, I know you know How we felt about that night Just your skin against the window Oh we took it slow And we both know It should have been me inside that car It should have been me instead of him in the dark’   Craig and Token watched their Ex’s dance as they 'chilled’ against the wall sipping punch, they didn’t know how to feel but damn the guys looked good.    Tweek smiled releasing Clyde’s shoulder to tuck the 'unruly’ loose hair up with the rest, he laughed when it just fell back into place.    “It was worth a shot Tweekers” Clyde laughed hugging the Blonde who melted into the hug thin lanky arms wrapping around Clyde for a moment before they resumed dancing. 'Does he watch your favorite movies? Does he hold you when you cry? Does he let you tell him all your favorite parts When you’ve seen it a million times? Does he sing to all your music While you dance to Purple Rain? Does he do all these things Like I used to?’   Just like the first time the chorus played Clyde twirled Tweek during 'While you dance to Purple Rain’ adding a soft twist by dipping the Blonde whose eyes sparkled in surprise,    “yo-your eyes” Clyde gaped pulling Tweek back up.    “Wh-what about them?” Tweek asked Clyde, he looked at the Brunette’s eyes and smiled he could see himself in them.    “They’re beautiful” Clyde sighed,    “like, a beautiful forest clearing” he gushed releasing Tweek’s hand to cup his cheek.    “So Green” Clyde brushed Tweek’s temple with his thumb,    “like…Emeralds” he smiled reclaiming the Blonde’s hand and gently turning them in a circle. 'I know love (I’m a sucker for that feeling) Happens all the time, love (I always end up feeling cheated) You’re on my mind, love (Oh darling, I know I’m not needed) It happens all the time, love, yeah’   Tweek visibly lit up, Clyde’s Milk chocolate eyes smoldered as they bore into his while the boy spoke. Nobody had ever talked about his eyes like that, he took his hand from Clyde’s shoulder gently cupping the Brunette’s cheek.    “Your eyes remind me of the Earth,” the Blonde told his roommate just before he was spun,   “whenever I feel scared or like everything is going to fall to shit, I look into them and I feel….grounded” he chuckled softly reclaiming his shoulder after the spin. 'Will he love you like I loved you? Will he tell you every day? Will he make you feel like you’re invincible With every word, he’ll say? Can you promise me if this was right, Don’t throw it all away? Can you do all these things? Will you do all these things Like we used to?’    “You mean that man?” Clyde asked his cheeks just as red as Tweeks,    “that means so much to me,” he said spinning them carefully in a circle.    “I’d never lie about something like that man” Tweek reassured Clyde,     “I think you have, the most beautiful chocolate Brown eyes” he smiled brushing a tear from Clyde’s lashes before he was kissing him. 'Oh, like we used to’    Clyde pulled out of the kiss and gave a breathy giggle,   “I always was a crybaby huh Tweekers?” he asked before plump lips met his again silencing him as Ruth B’s '2 poor kids’ started in the background.

Shingeki no Kyojin chapter 90 review (+ theories)

This is it. 

We’re finally concluding the arc beginning with Grisha’s flashback at chapter 71 and ending with the basement’s discovery and the amount of deal-breaking contents, leading us to the last phase of the manga, with this month’s chapter as being the ultimate wrap-up.

Lasting 5 volumes, it would be wise to write an arc review in a separate post, since it covered the unfinished business left from the first volumes: taking back that portion of the territory surrounded by titans, the mystery between Grisha Yeager and the contents of the basement and eventually the truth behind this world. Too bad I wasn’t around when the first chapters have been published because it would’ve been fun to pick every theory around and check which ones were actually closer to the facts; remember people trying to guess the Beast Titan’s identity? Eren using the coordinate to invoke the wall titans during the battle?

But anyway, the point of this post is more about commenting the chapter in an itself and guess what happens next, as always. 

I’ll start by a general commentary: I had... mitigated views about this chapter overall. Not because it felt like a huge letdown for my birthday (because let’s face it, nothing can top Edgetolt) but because it just shows it’s a rather quick wrap-up when we’re preparing the final phase.

I’ll use the MangaStream translation while waiting for the CR scans. It’s not top-quality but the translations are usually on-point (and they seldom mess up bubble order or in this month’s case... PAGE ORDER).

This chapter can be decomposed into 4 phases:

The truth about the titans

Flocke

The ceremony

The timeskip

The ocean and Eren’s resolve

I’ll detail my review under the cut:

The truth about the titans

Historia made her mind and decided to make the information held public... If anything, that underlines the fact the basement was a turning point for the story, despite the sudden influx of information. 

This is huge since it was the point where Eldia stepped out of their cycle of ignorance and progressively started to realize the true nature of this world. As Historia said: this is retribution.

Historia letting Eldia know - Ch. 90

Just wanting to point a funny thing here.

She really looks like her father here - Ch. 66

Since a huge war is coming, it would make even more sense. I still don’t believe in that unity spirit however. While it may be effective in times of war against a common enemy, it’s not in times of peace. 

And according to Roy and Peaure, it’s apparently too brutal to stir an episode of nationalism or more precisely, a feeling of general agreement that the world they lived on was limited to a single huge island, weren’t part of Humanity in general but as a race labeled as “the descendants of Ymir”, that they’ve been the monsters all along and they’ve been isolating themselves from each other, having the rest of the humanity as a common enemy. 

Peaure took note of three types of reactions:

People who accepted the truth as it is

People who think this is a huge joke

Conspiracy theorists who think there’s some Illuminati members in the military

The first category will be easy to rally. The second one needs some time to digest the information or need better evidence. The third one is... well...

While living with the truth seems to make things better and ready for advancement (it’s always better than a situation where people make their growth stagnate), they now realize they’re the target of the rest of humanity who isn’t ready to change their minds. There simply isn’t any room for peace.

And that’s why I’m not feeling particularly salty about the titans being nearly wiped out. Grisha’s logs were the last knee-slapper as their role as mighty oppressors. I’ve said it in a post concerning Bertolt and his role as the Colossal Titan: the same analogy can be applied when they started as being those freakish humanoid looking creatures hellbent to devour humans and forced them to retreat behind walls, decimating anybody who dared to venture in their territory. Then revelations happened:

Humans can turn into titans.

Pure titans actually don’t have a proper conscience and are either trapped in a nightmare or bent on one particular desire.

With titans being humans it means “Humanity” was killing humans all along.

Not every titan can revert back to a human. Only 9 of the whole population can.

The user of the Coordinate can use them as slaves to their bidding.

Titans as well as most humans inside the walls belong to the same people, meaning they were fighting a war against themselves all along.

Titans are only wandering on one island while the rest of the world is free from them.

The wandering titans are actually part of the oppressed minority from another country sentenced for several types of crimes, often unfairly. 

All of this implies the SC was executing already sentenced people of their own kind, essentially finishing Marley’s work.

This whole path depicts them as the mere rank of victims rather than predators. Now that they learned who the real enemy is, titans are all demoted from that position, which makes me not so regretful they were eliminated by the guillotine, not to mention the flashback made sense as to why they were all trapped between Wall Maria and Wall Rose.

Eren’s lifestyle is to hunt predators and he already fixed his next target. Notice how at the end of the chapter he referred to the crawling titan as a fellow instead of an enemy he once sworn to kill? I’ll come back to it later.

Flocke 

One of the nicest part of the chapter was getting a peek from Hitch, eventually giving Marlowe’s death closure. Jean was giving her the classical speech of how brave he was when he fought for the recapture of Wall Maria. It could’ve gone smoothly but the little problem remaining about his honors was...

...Flocke

Flocke was probably the most controversial character from the chapter. Never in the spoilers tag have I seen so much vitriol for a character who started to make himself relevant in the second-last arc. I’m going to make myself clear about him:

He’s absolutely right.

I’ve seen so many fans call him a piece of shit, him thinking too highly of himself (when he called himself a coward?) or him being too harsh but in the situation where the SC is and as a stock-filling recruit, why should he sugarcoat everything when his first operation was one where he had to brave a giant monkey throwing rocks?

He wasn’t lying when he stated those facts about Marlowe. Being honest is still better than putting on a brave face, which made Hitch go ultimate tsundere and cry while missing how much of a self-absorbed idiot Marlowe was.

“Even though Marlowe Freudenberg was only recently recruited to the Survey Corps as part of the emergency listing just like me, he was still able to help unite us all. The Survey Corps were driven into a corner and faced certain annihilation. The situation seemed hopeless. While everyone else was vulnerable and frightened, he alone kept encouraging and inspiring us.” - Ch. 81 (Pic)

“But in the end... I’m sure he regretted ever going to that place.” - Ch. 81 (Pic)

He wasn’t too happy of dropping the truth on Armin either. He wasn’t fond of Erwin but in no way he would deny him a chance to a second life when there’s a way of breaking through the crack that is despair.

Besides, it wasn’t just his opinion. Everybody else wondered why Erwin wasn’t chosen. Erwin was right in their grasp and he was denied the serum. That’s how it happened to an outsider who only read the reports. People think the SC became nuts, and Flocke nailed what the problem was. For people who dedicated their hearts about serving a cause, they let their feelings get the best of them. “Somebody who can’t sacrifice anything can’t change anything.” Flocke used the same logic Armin does and that’s why it resonated with him in that panel.

“Someone who can’t throw anything away... will never be able to change anything” - Ch. 27 (Text)

Armin thinks the “useful evil” is good, which is why it made sense for him and Flocke to bring Erwin back instead of letting emotions getting the best of them.

“The three of you let your feelings get the better of you, took the injection for your own means, and made an irrational choice. In short you just couldn’t let go of someone important to you, could you?” - Ch. 84 & 85 (Pics)

“Eren... You’re one of those people who believe deep inside they’re always right. that’s why you never give up, just like some unreasonable child.” - Ch. 84 (Pic)

“In that regard, Mikasa was the grown-up in the situation. Because when push came to shove did she give up” - Ch. 84 (Pic)

“You people... You didn’t oppose the senior staff, nor did you try to stop Eren and Mikasa. You just stood there and watched.” - Ch. 84 (Pic)

Well, in defense of Jean, Sasha and Connie: the three of them arrived late and Sasha had a shrapnel her arm, so... 

Flocke was mostly narrating what really happened on that roof, which in perspective makes the situation look like a complete dramatic joke, which eventually gives the SC a bad rep where its only members are just a bunch of teenagers who only care about themselves.

Notice the stares from the other officiers oriented in the same direction than Flocke’s. It’s pretty telling the future recruits should watch out for the SC.

On another note, Flocke calls himself a coward. While it’s true he cried about him not wanting to die and not being remembered, he was the only one advocating for Erwin to be brought back before Hange showed up, even standing in front of a Mikasa ready to slice him. He faced Zeke’s attack alongside Erwin and Marlowe, survived miraculously and lost every single one of his comrades in the process. He has the right to have a word in this whole mess.

Armin also nods, making the same disappointed face than the one from chapter 85:

I swear to god, it’s the exact same - Ch. 90 & 85

Armin’s opinion didn’t change since chapter 85: Erwin should’ve lived. Eren this time tried to rile him back in by bringing up the exact same tirade he brought up when he was talking about the outside world, completely cut by his own intentions, associated with a picture of Faye being eaten by the dogs: freedom.

The ceremony

I have no idea why it popped up in his mind but as he touched Historia’s hand and had that detailed flashback with Grisha and Frieda, maybe using trigger words serves as a means to make the memories of a certain person flow through your brain:

When Eren pronounced the word “freedom”, he immediately shifted on Kruger’s perspective, seeing Fay eaten by the dogs.

When Frieda and Grandpa Reiss heard demands about solving the titan problem, the memories of the First King flowed through.

That would explain why Eren began having visions of Grisha and Kruger’s memories: the logs probably contained a lot of trigger words invoking the memories of both men, hence why Eren got a better hold of the coordinate when he couldn’t before.

Thanks to those flashbacks he managed to discover the real key to trigger the coordinate and still hasn’t told anybody about this. Not fully believing to be able to stop the imminent treat, you have two pages dedicated to his self-doubt, him feeling down.

...That expression reverted to anger when he got the full input of Grisha’s memories and perspective. The flashback wasn’t over.

Frieda, as the First King, must have ushered words so powerful they were enough to amp up Eren’s morale to the max. They were also powerful enough to make Grisha lose it, steal the power and make sure nobody from the Reiss family would seize it again. The details apparently made Eren keep the power to himself, as he initially believed the Reiss line was the only one able to defeat the titans with a bit of conviction.

Eren believing Grisha did wrong - Ch. 65

Remember how Kruger and the other restorationists stated how cowardly the King was? That probably what made Grisha lose his marbles and steal the power.

The timeskip

This is where my biggest complaint came from and while it doesn’t represent a huge portion of the chapter (two to thee pages), it was the major detail I was unhappy with. While the way they got rid of titans was understandable, it would’ve been nice to get at least a couple of pictures of everybody’s situation inside the walls during these months. Maybe (and I’m saying maybe) it’ll be used as an opening for next chapter but in any case it feels inappropriate.

Isayama mostly detailed that under the scenes of the seasons in Trost. It at least indicates the Shiganshina battle happened in late autumn/early winter (if that’s any indication for character’s birthdays, because I definitely believe Reiner and Bertolt are born the same year, Annie’s born a year later, the rest is born two years after Reiner and Bertolt and Armin turned 16 between the Uprising and the Battle of Shiganshina arcs). I still find that more underwhelming than having a picture of a ceremony for the fallen, the rest of the titans being wiped out by the military, giving Rico a cameo, Hange falling asleep on their desk after too much paperwork, Levi staring at the window remembering Erwin, Jean/Sasha/Connie paying visit/homage to their families, Armin staring at Eren being concerned but he coordinate shenanigans... All of this could’ve sat nicely on a page, just like this one:

The situation in the walls - Ch. 82

It really feels like nothing important happened and they reached the coast as if it was just the day after, while it’s probably the biggest timeskip of the manga.

Speaking of the ocean...

The ocean and Eren’s resolve

Y’know what? My theory was that the ocean was permanently out of reach because of the tensions inside the walls or it would be saved for the very last chapter. Instead, it was shown in the last chapter of the current arc and the issue was quickly buckled up at the end by Eren’s interruption.

Discovering the ocean also contributed to the underwhelming feeling, but after Isayama posted an entry about it, I’m wondering if closing the matter on six pages and not the ending of the series was actually intentional? The goal of the story was never about reaching the ocean but it felt more like a whim from one character who turned out to be overwhelmed with a major sin at the price of one life that should’ve been selected instead. When Armin reaches the ocean, he isn’t staring at it with the same “dreamy” eyes Eren envied. It’s only after Mikasa stepped in the water he felt joy again.

And of course Eren doesn’t even remotely care. As expected. Instead, he’s focused solely on finding a way to reach Marley and destroy every citizen here. I think that shell Armin found symbolized the beginning of the parting Isayama wanted to illustrate. Armin was probably riddled by survivor’s guilt because of Levi’s choice. Eren told him in this chapter he had to see the ocean he himself already saw but it’s eventually revealed it mattered so little to him. The shell represents Armin’s discovery about things no living Eldian has ever seen before but Eren immediately turns away, preferring finding a future where he walks around and nobody can stop him. It looks like Armin’s actually holding the shell back, isn’t he?

Anyway, that seals my review and I suppose the final arc will be solved on Marley: there’s literally nothing else to do on Paradis and the catastrophe is bound to repeat again. Eren made his mind and follows into his father’s footsteps, knowing how to trigger the coordinate. Getting into Marley is either going to be through infiltration or complete invasion. Since the SC has few members, the former is easier to accomplish if they can hijack a boat.

It’s weird we haven’t heard signs of Reiner or Zeke during these months. They have to be up to something and they’re probably luring the SC into a trap, where Zeke expects Eren to come to Marley by himself. The two of them have to meet in order for chaos to go down, because Marley is ridiculously powerful compared to Eldia. 

For some reason I’m expecting Eren to not only touch Zeke but also eat him as well. There’s many points we need to solve about Marley as well. I’m paraphrasing this post here:

What pushed Zeke to join the Marley warriors?

How were the warriors trained?

Were they several promotions?

Is Zeke actually an exception to the rule (somehow answered with Ymir Fritz dying 13 years after but contradicted by Zeke being recruited at least in his late teens)?

If so how did he manage to have a word with the higher-ups? Was he a vet in a previous war? An experimental test?

Is Marley aware Zeke is the last Fritz?

How was the original promotion of the seven warriors?

How did they organize themselves in two parties, with Zeke being the titan outside and Reiner, Bertolt and Annie as the infiltrates?

How come Zeke only manifested himself after Annie’s crystalization?

How is Marley dealing with their enemies in the East?

What about that Titan Chemistry society?

How come Reiner’s last name figure on the Armored serum Eren swallowed?

Is the fact that Reiner and Zeke share the same birthdays nothing more than a joke?

Speaking of Reiner, how come he and Bertolt never mention their family? Orphans? Taken in at a young age?

How did they keep the seven shifters in control?

How did Kruger get his shifter power?

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i have 18 pts within 18 months and i have to take an ADI course and get SR22 insurance, how much will it run on average each month?""

SO confused about this car insurance issue?

ok, due to being in the hospital giving birth, i missed a second payment on my car insurance in one term. i was told by my broker that was it, there was nothing i could do, they would cancel. my insurance company is ING. i said ok so what next? she told me on july 10th that they were sending out a registewred letter that day stating it was cancelled (my payment was late on june 25th). 2 wks later i had not received anything so i called my broker again. this was at 1 pm (they close at 4) and no one called me back. finally, i called back again, she called ING and called me back saying ok they said if you can pay it today it wont be cancelled (i had asked MULTIPLE times if this was an option, i was told no) by the time she told me that, it was 330 pm. I live a 1/2 drive away and by the time i got the baby together, went to the bank etc, it would be after their closing time so i couldnt do that. i contacted another broker who my mother deals with and he told me that they would send me my""

Whats higher in cost car insurance or van insurance at 19 years old?

just a little argument what would cost more car insurance or van insurance

Do i need to have insurance if i don't use a car?

Please tell me - do i need to have insurance when i don't use a car? I'm buying car next week but after that i'm going abroad for a month and nobody will use this car. I would like to know if i can keep car in garage for this time without insurance and buy when i go back? Maybe its comuplsory to have insurance for all time when i'm cars owner?

I want cheap auto insurance?

I am from canada and i want cheap auto insurance from where i will get this.

Baby Insurance at 19?

I doubt it will, but, I am 19 years old and I am still on my mom's insurance plan. So if I were to get pregnant, would the insurance cover my baby's delivery and pregnancy appointments or would I still have to pay the noninsured payments.""

Car insurance for 18 year old lad?

what car can i get the cheapest insurance on im 18 and male.

Car Insurance Groups?

What Insurance Group would a Ford KA (02 Reg) Collection be? And also what Group would a Ford StreetKA be?

How much is car insurance usually in UK?

I live in London and don't have a clue about this thing but I just passed my test at 29 and hope to get a decent looking car that has had a previous owner and don't under all this quote business. I've got about 2670 to spend. So half of that will be for a deposit. How much do most people spend on insurance a year and what would be a cheap price range for me to look for? How much should it be for a month?

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Car insurance?

I am an international student in US and I am going to buy a car. However, I don't know which insurance company has car insurance for international student. Can anyone tell me some infomation about it, scuh as the name of the company or how much it costs?""

How much will my car insurance be? Where should I go?

Hello! I got into a car accident that left my car totaled and my parents kicking me off their insurance plan. I bought myself a car and now I want to get insurance but I want to see a guess of what I'll be paying a month. The accident is listed as my fault with the insurance records. Please don't judge or be mean to me I just honestly need help with this question before I go shop around I want to get a guess of what people will tell me. I'm a 17 year old female, Caucasian. I have one major accident on my record. I live in El Paso, TX I am driving a 91 BMW E30 318i that is in good condition. How much would you guess I'd pay a month for the CHEAPEST insurance? I have a friend with no major wrecks paying on her own with good student discount $50 a month. What's the lowest I may be able to pay and what's the highest I may be able to pay? Thank you so much for your help! Have a nice day :)""

""Im 19 Before buying my truck, insurance, down payment?""

Okay so I'm gonna finance a truck next week with 2,000 down is that too much ? 377 a month! I'm 19. I make 2,000 flat a month pay 250 for rent I live with my prents so 1,750 are for me(: my job is 15 minutes away (: Anyway do I need insurance too take the car home ? Can I get it later ? I asked for a over the phone quote with adranas insurance and it was $200 and they want $300 upfront for the first month that's way to much! Would those $200 a month go down ? And how long do I need full cover on the truck I would buy? I never had an accident never had a ticket or anything my license is clean I got it about 9 months ago! Can I put the insurance under someone else's name ? Like my dad ? Or what can I do ? It's a 2004 silverado v8 2 door! They said I need insurance with 500 deductible what does that mean ? I live in Los Angeles 90018 CA""

Where can i find cheap auto insurance?

i'm paying 150 a month for a 94 ford thunderbird, but i'm looking for something cheaper that i can afford. i'm just wondering how much other people pay for cars like mine...""

Is athem blue cross a good insurance?

Is it really a good insurance?

What do i do with the car insurance?

if my car insurance expires pretty soon but im leaving to mexico for a while do i still need to have the car insured even if its jus going to be parked?? or do i still need to have it insured?

How to lower my auto insurance?

Ok so I bought my 2004 volvo S60 2.5T AWD on 05/11/2011 and the insurance is killing me. I'm 20 years old and had my license for 2 years. I know it goes down when you've had your license for 3 years but that won't help right now. I'm with GEICO right now paying 371.00 a month! I know and this is actually the cheapest insurance company I was able to get!! My last payment will be on 10/11/2011 and then I will have to start a new policy. However I called them and asked them if my rate will go down once I renew with them, and they said no...... Well I did a new quote online and my rate would be $318 a month so I don't know why they keep telling me it won't change!!!!! So my question is can my mom get the insurance even though it's my car?""

Cost of insurance for 2nd gen Toyota Mr2?

Would you pay a higher insurance on this car than a normal car? what about a turbo? I got an online insurance quote and it was about $600/year for liability and $1000/year for collision coverage, does this seem like a fair price? I'm almost 19 years old and have a clean drivers record.""

Who in the world has the cheapest car insurance?? 10 point 4 best ansswer....?

ive searched and searched and searched, after all im being dropped by state farm insurance cause i became a financial risk for them.... its not my fault i had 3 car crashes in 6 months.... anyway the best rates i got so far are.... $200 a month for basic and $553 for full coverage on a 93 chevy van POS.... no im not joking my rates were $130 for full coverage with state farm b4 all these accidents..... god help me im in michigan if that helps anyone else.... i really need a fast answer cause i got 3 days to get new insurance""

Is Landlords insurance much higher than homeowners insurance?

in Philadelphia, PA.. I have my house rented and the homeowners insurance found out and now they are cancelling my policy. I did not even know there was such a thing as landlords insurance..""

Was car insurance affordable before it was mandated by law ?

Why or why not ?

Is there a cheaper way to drive my parents car with insurance.?

My parents won't let me drive their car without insurance (which i understand). To be added to their insurance policy will cost me $100 a month, but I would only use the car once or twice a week. I think its ridiculous to pay $100 when I would barely drive the car. Is there a cheaper way to drive their car just when i need it and still be insured?""

Price of insurance on a scooter for a 17 year old?

Ive been looking at a Pulse Lightspeed 2 125cc Sports Scooter Automatic Twist and Go, is it a good first scooter for a 17 year old and how much is the insurance around. If not a good scooter could you give some examples of good ones in the comments.""

How much roughly would moped insurance cost for a 16 year old in the UK?

i am thinking of getting a moped when i am 16 , i am going to get a 50cc 2 stroke supermoto of some kind. was just wondering how much insurance and tax would cost per year? please can someone help me out""

Car Insurance Question?

I am buying my first car....a pre-owned 2008 nissan altima 3.5 sedan (4 door) I would love to know how much im looking into for insurance and which company would be best for a new car owner/college student Geico Progressive State Farm etc..... Any information would be beneficial

What will happen with my car insurance?

ok so i was driving my brothers car and i have my g1 i went to money mart and back home about an hour later police came knocking on my door asking if my brother was in a car accident so we went down to the station and the officer asked if i was driving his car i said yes , he then said that the other man that was sitting in the station got my plates and said i hit his car and cracked his bumper (very minor crack) so i said no and then officer assumed i was lying and made me write up an accident report. after when i was leaving the station the other guy asked if we could solving this without going through insurance so we exchanged numbers (their was no damage at all to my brothers car & no paint or anything on their car to prove i hit it) the next day they called and said the want a whole new bumper they dont want it patched up and they would get me a price quote they then got me a quote for $1475 for a while new bumper from ford i told them im not paying that much the only way im replacing the bumper is if my mechanic does it he said ok so i went to my mechanic told him the whole situation and he said i shouldnt be replacing the whole bumper for somthing that small but he still ordered the bumper for me i had to put a $400 down payment for the bumper and $300 after its put on. the bumper came in 2 days later and they brought their car for it to be put on when we got there they got pissed off and said this isnt a bumper straight from ford and they dont want it and left ( the bumper was brand new for the same model car and had the exact paint coat match just that it wasnt from ford) they then call me threating to take it through insurance if we dont get it from ford so i lost the $400 down payment for the bumper because they cant return it after its painted so i told my mechanic to order it from ford. but when he called for they said the dont have bumpers for that model anymore, i then call the people back and told them to take it through insurance because my mechanic cant get that bumper. So what will happen to my brothers insurance hes under 25 with his g2, and i had my g1 but it was on private property where they said the incident occurred the officer even said he cant charged me because its private property PLEASE HELP!""

My car insurance and my driver license will be suspended?

Here is my story . Don't be harsh to me because I know my driving is bad I have been driving with this car for 7 months. I paid premium coverage. I did hit a divider myself and then I claimed my insurance in order to get my car repaired ( this time cost like $3000) After that 3 months, I hit a car in a parking lot. Another driver claimed my insurance and the insurance company paid them $600 to fix their car. After that 2 months, I again hit another car in the parking lot. I renewed my insurance in Jan. Before I paid $800 for 6 months, this time I paid $1900 for 1 year policy. Yesterday , I really hit another car on the road. I claimed my insurance again because the other driver's car really bad and I don't think I can pay off. My questions are : Should I pay deductible in order to get my car repaired because my car bad too and the body shop said It would cost 1k to 1.5k( because of the old damage) Will my license get suspended? Im living in CA and never get any tickets and this accident is the only one has police report? How will my insurance increase? Right now Im so stressed and confused about what Im going to ? Please help.""

Home Owners Insurance?

My wife and I are planning on buying our first home and are currently shopping for mortgages. As a first time home buyer I am a little bit confused about a few things and I thought I just ask here :) One of the mortgages we looked at (online, from our CU) listed a Hazard Insurance Monthly in the Prepaids & Reserves section (which is part of the closing cost). - I am aware of the need of Homeowners Insurance, but does that include or exclude Hazard Insurance? - The monthly rate for Hazard Insurance was listed as $1,900. That seemed extremely high to me, so my question is: What is an average amount for Hazard Insurance (or Homeowners Insurance in general)? FYI: The home we are looking at is located in the SF Bay Area and will have a value of approx. $700,000. Any comment will be appreciated...""

What car is cheap to insure for a first time driver?

im learning to drive and need some help in what car to insure. It has to be fairly big ish because im quite a big person. Any ideas. And if so what insurance companies are good for first time drivers

Buying insurance for an old car -- collision option - worth it?

I'm buying a 1995 car for about $3,000. The insurance company said it isn't worth buying collision insurance because the car is worth so little. They also said if in an accident, the repairs needed are more than the car is worth, they won't repair it. Instead, they'll pay book value. So, if my car got in an accident that would cost $4,000 to fix, which is more than the car is worth, would they pay for the car's value at $3,000 or for its value based on how much it's worth after the damage? So, if the car is worth $500 as is after an accident, is that how much I'd get? thanks""

Cheap car insurance?......?

I need to get car insurance to put the title in my name. I am just looking for the cheapest thing out there right now, not too concerned with full coverage right now, just the basics. I will do research and get the one that best suits me later but for right now I just need something fast. Geico's rates were over $100/mo for my car, is that about average? Or is there something cheaper?""

Does your license get suspended for not paying insurance?

Does your license get suspended for not paying insurance?

How much do you think my insurance will cost for my car?

I'm 16 and a female. I'm getting my license in a few days, and my parents are going to add me on to the insurance list. We've never had any accidents, except my dad, but someone hit him on his motorcycle, it wasn't his fault. My car will probably be made around 1998-2008. We have Allstate. What's your rough estimate?""

Dental discounts or affordable insurance in NJ?

I do not have dental insurance for myself and I need a good amount of dental work done, i was wondering if anyone could tell me an affordable dental plan or insurance that isnt exspensive in NJ? Im not applicable for NJ familycare dental""

What is a good type of home owner insurance to get?

I may be purchasing my first home on a land contract from a person that i know that owns the house out right. the land contract would be a five year contract or sooner if i can afford to pay the house off. i have lived in the house at one time, not for sure about a few things on the house. i was wondering if anyone may know of a website or a website that may give an estimate quote on home owners insurance on the home i may be buying. i wanted to get some idea of how much it may be and what home owners insurance covers. i have looked at a few websites, but there are a lot of different things to include in insurance and different requirements that may need to be met before the house is insured. the house is a bit of a fixer upper and needs lots of tender loving care before its decent. its livable but i need insurance if i buy it. the owner who is selling isn't requiring insurance, but i want to be smart and safe and have insurance. any suggestions? i must give an answer to the owner tomorrow, because i know he has others wanting to buy. i don't want to get into something that i have no clue about before purchasing. i am looking and getting the idea, but was looking for tips or more info. thanks""

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https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/cost-ownership-mercedes-benz-class-c-versus-mazda-3-ryan-avery/"

2016 Year in Fic

I really enjoyed doing this write-up last year, and damn, a lot has changed! So I thought I’d do this again and take stock of my writing this past year.

I was ridiculously prolific last year, but due to a variety of factors I really didn’t keep up that volume this year. As someone who doesn’t often feel the spark to write, what kept me going this year were fic exchanges and prompt memes. I feel fortunate to have communities like AO3 and DW to keep me writing even when I’m drained and anxious and feel incapable of it. 

So here are the results:

Fic List

1. Miles High - 1853 words. It’s quite telling about my early-2016 experience that I didn’t write a single word of fic between January and April. Disaster had struck in my work life, but I made the decision to sign up for Smut Swap 2016 anyway, and I was glad for it. This was my first Poe/Finn/Rey fic; we’ll see if I have another in me when Episode VIII rolls around. I just really wanted to write the three of them fucking in a spaceship, okay?

2. Slash: Romance Without Boundaries - 2516 words. I have only the AO3 volunteer community to thank/blame for this pile of trash. They play a game called Slash, in which competitors are challenged to write cracky pairings in weird situations. This led to me writing such pairings as Batman/Grantaire, James Bond/Remus Lupin and Will Graham & Tigger, as well as a very bizarre song parody about Aaron Burr’s encounters with a Drumpf-shaped sex doll. idk you guys. I’m sorry.

3. Bluebeard’s Wives - 1661 painstaking words. I wrote this for Not Prime Time 2016, and I’m really glad the exchange forced me to, because otherwise I would never have written the work I’m most proud of. I wanted to write something dark and twisted and beautiful, and to capture Hannibal’s inner monologue with all its vivid imagery, and somehow I halfway managed it. This was the first fic that ever earned me a place in a fandom spotlight post, and I’m very proud of that. It was my first Hannibal work and will probably be my last, but I enjoyed it.

4. On Not Being Alone - 4103 words. It took me til August this year to write something born purely of the desire to write, not a deadline. I’d been binge-watching Critical Role all summer, and after I reached the scene that precedes this fic in canon, I found myself in a whirlwind of writing. I wrote this near-obsessively over the course of 24-ish hours, and it was incredibly exciting to want to write again. It’s just a PWP, but it was so refreshing.

5. In the Middle of Summer - 2344 words. This was the only Richlee fic I wrote all year, and I’m sad to say it’ll probably be my last. There’s a chance I might pick up interest in participating in the fandom again - and I still get stupid hearteyes over the both of them - but the spark has just waned. I wrote this for a challenge for Richard’s birthday, and without that event I probably wouldn’t have written it. However, I did have fun with one last hurrah.

6. Between the Two of Us - 4584 words. Aand this is where I embraced my trash-goblin self and started writing Critical Role RPF. Even while I was gorging on CR all spring and summer, it never occurred to me that people would write RPF about the cast until I stumbled upon the awesome Five Minute Break. At first I was like ‘ew no’ but then I read it and was hooked. My giant crush on Liam melded with my new-found fascination with sub!Matt and a new fandom obsession was born. This was also my first seriously kinky fic!

7. Girls’ Night - 3218 words. This was partially written because of the criticalkink kink meme, but also because I felt bad leaving Marisha out of the fun in my Liam/Matt fic. It was my first time writing any sort of femslash, and I loved it.

8. I’ll Pencil You In - 3107 words. I entirely wrote this because of criticalkink and the little Liam/anyone reverse-prompt I set up in there. Normally I would never have thought to write Liam/Sam, but I ended up enjoying it a lot, primarily because of how the power dynamic shifted their characters. It was also my first time writing kink negotiation, which was really fun.

9. Break Time - 996 words. Again, this was written for criticalkink. The prompt got into my head and wouldn’t go away. I tend to struggle with writing kissing, so this was a fun little challenge to write a fic that simply consisted of the build-up and the kiss.

10. Like the Bright Morning Stars - 3855 words. This was written for Yuletide. I was scared of this fic for the longest time, because smut is (obviously) my favored terrain and my recipient specifically said they did not want any sexual content. So for once I had to focus on plot and emotions and world-building, and that is HARD, Y’ALL. It’s very easy to churn out some sex; not so much to craft love. But it really paid off, because I loved this and it seems like a lot of other people did as well!

11. Into My Arms - 1843 words. Another prompt-fill from criticalkink. I had a lot of fun writing something simple and sweet and in a position/circumstance I had never written before. I also enjoy a good text convo in fic, so that was fun as an opener.

Total Word Count: (so far) 30,080 words. 

Overall Thoughts: Word-count-wise, I wrote less than half of what I wrote last year, but just as many individual works, which is pretty good. And it’s far, far better than 0, which had been my usual word-count for the past five years before last year. If last year was an exercise in writing for fun, this year was an exercise in pushing myself to write even when I was tired or sad or anxious, and I learned that I’m capable of a lot more than I thought.

Personal Best Story: 100% Bluebeard’s Wives. The vignette style, the imagery, the spare narration, the nuance - I’m proud of every word. If I ever write something better than this, that will be an enormous victory.

Personal Favorite Story: I really like I’ll Pencil You In. It was the first CR RPF story where I really felt like I knew what I was doing, and I really like that even in a scene of bondage and domination, there’s palpable softness, intimacy and sweetness between two friends.

Most Underappreciated Story: I was expecting a lot more traffic on Miles High, because I was writing a really popular pairing in a very popular fandom - but I suppose that when there are a lot of works going up in a fandom at once, it can be even harder to get recognition than it is when you’re writing for a very small fandom. And I don’t think my heart was really in it, which probably showed in the writing.

Most Popular Story: By hits alone, it’s On Not Being Alone, which makes sense, as it’s a simple PWP about a popular pairing in a small-but-growing fandom. By kudos, it’s Like the Bright Morning Stars, which is nice, given that I really didn’t think it was that good until it got such a fervent response. It also wins for kudos-per-hit, with ~19% of viewers giving kudos.

Story with the Sexiest Moment: Girls’ Night, man. Every inch of that is ridiculously sexy to me. The face-sitting, the manhandling, the dualingus... yes. Last year in my response to this question I mentioned that I felt my sex writing was getting a bit stale, and in the latter half of this year I feel I rose to the challenge and really mixed things up.

Most “Holy Crap That’s Wrong Even for Me” Moment: Basically all of Bluebeard’s Wives. There’s gore, there’s murder, there’s twisted relationship dynamics... yeahh. I also felt very wrong writing CR RPF, and continue to feel a bit weird about it - but I love it too much to give it up.

Story That Shifted My Perceptions of a Character: I felt like I really got to know Hannibal through writing Bluebeard’s Wives. I began to understand his way of thinking. I also really changed my perceptions of Sam through I’ll Pencil You In, by exploring him in a completely unfamiliar situation and entering subspace for the first time.

Most Fun to Write: Writing those crackfics for the Slash games was really fun, but also nerve-wracking. It’s hard to say if anything I wrote was purely fun with no worry involved, but I probably enjoyed myself the most writing my two Liam/Sam works, because they’re so good for one another and Sam is just a ball of joy.

Hardest Story to Write: Bluebeard’s Wives was a slog through hell as far as the writing process went. When I was done I was happy, but up until that point I had no clue what I was doing and nothing felt good enough. I considered every single word to within an inch of its life. But it all paid off, I think.

Favorite OC: The only OC I wrote this year was the nameless girl from Bluebeard’s Wives. I liked her, though - she was defiant until the end. She didn’t buy into Hannibal’s shit.

Biggest Surprise: Every moment of my Slash game fics was a surprise. Buffy almost getting the Half-Blood Prince’s book, Batman rescuing Grantaire, Hannibal eating Voldy, “The World Was Wide Enough” being rewritten about a Drumpf sex doll, AVPM!Ron seducing Voldemort with Red Vines, Will Graham shooting Tigger, James Bond kissing Remus, Jack Sparrow rescuing Enjolras... it’s all fucking weird and surprising, and that’s the beauty of the game.

Most Unintentionally Personal Story: I really can’t say any of my works this year ended up very personal. Perhaps what’s personal is how many of my kinks and trash-goblin shipping tendencies I revealed.

Favorite Lines/Scenes:

The morning-after scene in Between the Two of Us feels very true to Matt and Liam’s dynamic, and very tender.

I loved writing kink negotiation in I’ll Pencil You In.

From my Slash fics: “There were many reasons why Buffy always avoided the Hogwarts library. One was that studying was, like, so 1996, and that any sixth-year worth her salt (liberally sprinkled in a circle to ward off whatever) did not bother with books. The other was that creepy librarian who kept telling her it was her destiny to save the world from vampires or whatever. That was super species-ist, for one thing - didn't Professor Giles know that anti-vampire bias was waaay 15th-century? Buffy had hoped the world had come further than that. It was sad enough when that werewolf professor had to quit without her adding to the whole problem. As if.”

From Bluebeard’s Wives: “He cooks a wonderful meal for the three of them. He offers to give up his portion. He washes their hair in the bath. He washes their feet. He sketches Abigail into a copy of Gentileschi's Judith Slaying Holofernes, Bedelia by her side, holding the figure of Holofernes - Hannibal himself, in this copy, although he has never been a self-portraitist - as Abigail slices at his neck. Blood sprays forth in a fountain. Will hangs it upon the wall unsmiling. He brings home a scrappy little spinone, the lovely thing's ears drooping with long fur. Will says the city is no place for a dog. And none of it is enough.“

All of Girls’ Night. Just all of it.

Lines/Scenes I’d Like to Change:

Basically all of Like the Bright Morning Stars. But it seemed to work for readers, so what do I know?

I’d like to let Finn shine more in Miles High; ditto for Laura in Girls’ Night.

The pacing in Break Time could have been a little more leisurely; same for Into My Arms.

Top Five Scenes I Wish Could Be Illustrated:

Vox Machina taking the stage in Like the Bright Morning Stars

Hannibal’s copy of Judith Slaying Holofernes in Bluebeard’s Wives

Basically all of Girls’ Night

James Bond kissing Remus and then being decked by Sirius

The kiss from Break Time

2017 Writing Ambitions:

I just want to keep writing, be it fic or RP or the possibility of non-fannish fiction. I’m not going to set an ideal wordcount, because I’ll end up disappointed, but I just want to write more than 0 words. And I want to write at least one thing I’m truly proud of.

Fic ideas for this year:

Sequel to Like the Bright Morning Stars - titled Like the Rolling Waters and in the works for SFBB 2017!

The last two reverse-prompts from criticalkink: Liam/Matt playful jokeyness and Liam/Laura/Travis threesome (!!!!)

MOAR POLYMACHINA

And whatever the hell I think of next!