The Jailbreak Ratio says that there is a certain balance between adhering to writing rules and breaking them. There are certain rules that should be adhered to with rigor, and others that you can play with; I explain which ones in this guide.
Realized I never did promote this server on tumblr-
Anyway!
Writer's oasis is a discord server for teen writers (13-19)!
We've got places to chat, ask for help, receive feedback, and share your writing wips and artwork <3
All sorts of writing is welcome (fanfic/nonfic/fiction/just oc stuff) whatever you want! Everyone is welcome, no matter how long you've been writing, or if you want to learn!
We try to do frequent challenges, daily questions, and we have a sprint bot for those who want to use it (and a few other bots loke pluralkit/tupper/reminders/carlbot)
We're always open to suggestions as well <3
Check out the Writer's oasis community on Discord - hang out with 32 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.
The night was restless back in Toro’s apartment. They don't know the last time they’ve slept peacefully without waking up for the rest of the night to those horrible memories, in cold sweat and in tears. Toro’s time during the wars with Polygon Man had not taken a good toll on them, leaving them in such pain mentally and physically.
Now was another night of a horrible memory and Kuro was out doing whatever he was doing and wasn't around for Toro to go see, leaving them to walk around their apartment to take their mind off such things.
Although it really didn't help as much. Their memory of one of their horrible fights with Mishima Heihachi, their chest and left eye aching like it did back there. As much as they were on neutral terms with him now, as much as they try to be on good terms, these memories were always the worst.
Toro passed by their mirror but only stopped when they noticed something off, they slowly looked over to see the reflection in front of them. Instead of their short white cat appearance as expected, they saw a tall, muscular man with black facial hair and horned hair, with the reflection of Toro’s horrified expression on his face.
Mishima Heihachi, Toro’s old rival, the man who shared a soul with them, the one who caused them so much pain, even with Kuro too. The fact that this man was connected to Toro was just unbelievable for them, no matter how hard they tried to forget.
The reflection looked down at Toro slowly, their eyes becoming more feral than they remembered being. Toro backed up, hugging themselves as they stared at the reflection. Silence covered the tension between the cat and the reflection, only to be interrupted with a sudden movement of an attack, making a primal sound none would recognize from a human.
Toro let out a yelp and fell down, scooting away from the reflection on the mirror, copying their exact movement. Toro’s chest started to hurt more than it was before, curling up in agony as tears continued to fall down.
A glowing aura of blue and teal surrounded them, spiking aggressively around them. Voices of familiar memories from the wars filled the room, becoming more overwhelming for Toro as they covered their ears, pleading for it to stop, to end. All stopped from the glow around them blasting throughout the apartment, leaving Toro in comfortable silence.
Toro took some deep breaths to try and calm themselves down, uncovering their ears and out of their ball, only to see the mirror at their normal reflection and suddenly looking away.
Who was that man in the mirror? Who even were they anymore?
“Ha! Yeah, you be surprised how far I’ve come with my music.”
Toro wanted to visit his friend, Parappa after years apart. They were both hanging out in his apartment room, listening to some of his older albums. They were such interesting tracks to listen to, especially his first collabs with his friend’s band, MilkCan.
Listening to Parappa’s singing was so smoothing, even if 80% was him rapping, it was almost relaxing to listen too, even on the battlefield where he would sing something to comfort Toro after stressful events.
But seeing how Parappa could sing like this for 8 years, and still sound amazingly! Parappa was so talented!! Toro always wished they could be just like him!
“Woah…Toro wishes Toro could as talented as Parappa-san.”
Parappa chuckled and placed his hand on his friend’s head, “I’m sure you can! Music is for everyone, even I can help you with one if you like!”
“WHA?! Really?! I would love you to help! Maybe it can help me become even more human!”
“Heh. Sure buddy. Now, let me set up a beat, then I’ll leave you with the ideas.”
Toro nodded as they sat patiently on Parappa’s bed as he pulled up a computer and an electric bass. Toro watched him as he set up the music, what sounded good and what could blend as harmony.
Parappa was so cool! He was one of the nicest All-Stars Toro met during the wars, although they don’t like to the fact they used to be rivials once, left an icky feeling in their stomach. But seeing how close the two have become, Toro couldn’t help but admire their friend.
Although Parappa was known to be the Rhythmic All-Stars, Toro was amazed by how talented he was, from the amount of habits he has and how he used what he knew about music to support him while fighting was so cool!
He always reminded Toro of another musician they knew back home, Hatsune Miku, they both had a cheery personality and music was their whole deal!
And Parappa was so lovely too! Not just his personality and not to mention, his voice, but Toro always loved whenever he would take off his beanie to let his curly orange hair get some air. It was always so fluffy like a pillow, Toro always liked to touch it whenever he was writing songs.
Toro always couldn’t shake off these feelings they had around him. Was it what humans called “love”? It was so similar from the information they known but they are still unsure of what these feelings could mean.
Toro was distracted from their thoughts that they didn’t realized Parappa tapping their shoulder gently. It seemed he already finished setting up the music!
Parappa chuckled, “You really did seem to be daydreaming deeply there buddy! Here, tell me what you think of this.”
He played his recording, hearing the mixture of the electric guitar and the bass, even hearing some of Parappa’s vocals in the background! Toro was amazed by it all, like how does he do this? It was like magic!
“It’s amazing! You truly did a great job on it, Parappa-san!”
Parappa could feel himself blush from the compliment, chuckling while waving his hand up and down.
“Awww, it’s not my best ones but I do appreciate the compliment.”
Now Toro need to think of what their song should be about. It could be about anything! They thought hard about it, thinking over what sounded like a song that they could be proud of, that everyone would enjoy…
“Ah! What about wishes that become lifelong dreams? Like my wish to be human that became a dream of mine?”
“Hmmm, not bad. We can go with that! You want a certain script or do you have one at mind?”
“Ah…”
“Toro can’t think of anything, if you don’t mind helping with one..”
“Of course! It may take me while, so look around and get something from the kitchen while the time passes.”
Toro nodded as they watched Parappa walked towards his desk, pulling out a sheet and a pencil. Toro walked out of the room to go get themself some water. From the kitchen, they could hear Parappa singing, practicing over what he wrote it seemed, he sounded beautifully, Toro could hear it for hours and never get tired of it.
Toro got their glass of water took some sips as they sat down at one of the chairs at the table, they closed their eyes, into a daydream of the past where Parappa and them would fight alongside each other against those mean Polygon exiles.
The way Parappa would use his microphone to knock those exiles out cold, Toro’s stars supporting his attacks. It was so awesome, Toro could never stop thinking about it. They let out a dreamily sigh, then they turned over to see a sheet of written paper in front of them, it must be the lyrics he wrote for the song!
Reading it through, Toro noticed a little note now at the bottom, it wrote, “I wanted to take some inspiration from you, being the Dreamcatcher out of us all, these lyrics I wanted to be something you see and say ‘hey! That sounds like a me thing!’ Crazy, is it not?
XOXO Parappa Rappa”
Toro felt happy tears filling up their eyes as they looked over to Parappa’s room. They were so touched! A song? Inspired by them? How thoughtful Parappa was, it could make them cry of joy!
Toro walked on over to the room, giving Parappa a big hug the moment they returned the room. Feeling the tears fall down, they couldn’t care less. Parappa returned the hug with a hearty laugh, rubbing Toro’s head gently.
This song would mean so much to Toro, it would a dream that they’ll keep to heart.
