Hero Pose

Yup... The Beyblade Hero Pose! You found me!

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A wild blog has appeared...

Super simple! This blog is for progress updates on ao3 works, posting deleted scenes (so they have somewhere to go), and maybe some other random author notes along the way! :D

And speaking of ao3 works, in my corner, you'll find

the Invincible King AU

Salvager

Apocalyptic Tendencies

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Deleted scene - (AT) Short stack

He sat with a huff and gave the mouse a shake. 

Jian waddled over and plopped her hands atop the desk. 

Gosh, Carlo snorted to himself. Her chin barely clears the top.

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Deleted scene - (AT) Wheely chairs

“Why don’t you find the fastest wheely chair in the room?” he suggested to Jian, typing his credentials into the login screen. “Make sure you show it to me so I can verify.”

She giggled, “Okay!” and then scampered away.

Who knew how long that would keep her distracted. 

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Progress update - Apocalyptic Tendencies is back!

Chapter 7 is up!

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Progress Update - Lui Returns

Whoa, is this… a quick turnaround???

Chapter 12 of Stained Glass Windows is up! 🎉

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Deleted scene - (Lui and Free) Definitely not friends

‘Friend, my foot,’ Lui sniffed. He was going to visit Free de la Hoya, who was just about the opposite.

“Excuse me,” he mumbled, angling himself to squeeze between a press of ambling farmers—but then the gap closed and he stood there awkwardly, indecisive over whether or not he should push through.

Free was a knight—probably the best knight—in the kingdom, independent of any squadron and tasked personally with the protection of His Highness Prince Aiger.

Lui had just returned from a year abroad, but he had spent the two years prior to that on his own knight’s training in the capital, where Free was permanently posted. For the most part, the man had remained aloof and acknowledged few, if any, of the trainees. That hadn’t struck Lui as very strange—Free wasn’t affiliated with the soldiers he had trained with, and anyway, the son of a duke had no reason to greet anyone he didn’t want to—much less a young, cursed baron.

Anyway, as might’ve been inevitable, Free had eventually been invited to join them in their drills. And Lui would’ve been lying if he said he hadn’t been thrilled that the man had wound up as his sparring partner. You learn the most from the best, after all, don’t you?

But Free had humiliated him, pounding him—literally—into the ground. Three inches in. He’d been so fast, Lui couldn’t process his movements until he’s already finished, and so strong, he couldn’t so much as defend himself.

The bruises and broken rib had set him back in the training course, which was frustrating, but survivable. The embarrassment, though, was not.

He’d challenged Free once or twice after that, itching with the need to prove—to himself—that he stood a chance against the jerk. He’d lost, of course.

But he was ready now. Leaving Kingdom Baratier hadn’t just been for the sake of his academic pursuits, after all, but for his combat skills as well.

The thicket of farmers passed, and Lui darted across the road.

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Deleted Scene - Infirmary roommates

Shu came to. He was dead.

And still lying on his stomach, he noticed dully, exactly where Glass had left him. But there wasn’t any pain this time, and the chalky, hard-packed ground beneath him had turned to something soft.

Light filtered in through his eyelashes, pure and bright. It was blinding, blotting out his surroundings—if there were any surroundings, anyway. Maybe light was the only thing to see in the afterlife. He squinted, working his eyelids to clear away the glare. Maybe, maybe not—he doubted it. Surely there was something substantial in the afterlife. Or else why work so hard to end up in the good one? Not that he could be sure that was where he’d ended up.

In three hard blinks, his vision cleared, and he saw that he was in a modest room with wood-planked walls and a cobbled stone floor. Nothing fancy. It was plain and largely undecorated. There wasn’t much furniture besides a writing desk and chair, which had been shoved to the corner, and a thick rug unfurled in what was more-or-less the middle of the room. Three arched windows set deep into the farthest wall had been left ajar, shafts of sunlight and a warm breeze tumbling in past the glass.

Shu himself seemed to be laying on some sort of cot. He shifted slightly—or, tried to—attempting to get a better look, when he caught sight of another bed, directly to his left, parallel with his.

On it, laying quietly on his back and staring at the palm of his raised left hand, was a young man with a shock of golden blonde hair. Shu recognized him immediately—who wouldn’t have?—and knit his brows together.

“So, I’m not dead,” he rasped.

Free de la Hoya—the most famous knight in the kingdom; Shu had never met him before, but knew him by sight, just like everyone else—flinched like a startled cat. He snatched his raised hand and shoved it beneath his covers. “Agh! You’re awake!”

Shu wheezed out a chuckle. He hadn’t meant to startle him. Actually, he was a little surprised that he had. “Sorry.”

Free, or Sir de la Hoya, or whatever Shu was supposed to call him, merely grunted, his dark, sunken eyes shifting between Shu’s face and the ground. That was odd. “How do you feel?” he asked, a little belatedly.

“Um,” Shu started. “I don’t really feel anything, actually.”

“Well.” He nodded. “Good.”

“Good?”

“Yeah. You were in bad shape when they brought you in. Weren’t sure you’d survive. You’re covered in numbing seals—no! Don’t try to get up. They’re probably the only things that kept you breathing.”

Shu had pressed his hands to the cot, about to push himself upright, but stopped at Free’s snap. As far as he knew, the man had never held an officer’s position, but he sure knew how to command like one. Wincing slightly, Shu slumped back and let his arm fall over the side.

Numbing seals.

So that’s why it was so hard to move.

“How bad is it?” he asked.

“The medics don’t talk to me; I’m not sure.”

“Better or worse than yours?”

Free snorted. Then, after a second, he pulled his left hand back out from beneath his blanket. Shu noticed this time that it was bandaged from wrist to elbow and puffing with gauze. “Worse,” he said. “This is all I’ve got.”

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Progress Update - I See Through You (6)

Huzzah! It’s finally, finally, super-finally up! Yayyyy!

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Deleted Scene - Trad and his regrets

Chapter 6 of I See Through You is still coming along! Slowly but surely! Here’s a little outtake for now…

Trad felt sick. When did he ever not these days?

He was a soft man, most people seemed to agree. Too gentle. Too emotional. Too caring. How he’d ever become a knight was anyone’s guess—the profession was ill-suited to him at best, a joke at worst.

He hadn’t always been that way. As a younger man, he had enjoyed the thrill of combat, of pushing himself physically as well as mentally, trading blows, and winning fights. But that excitement of his had dulled with age. And then been destroyed by the merciless twitch of Theodore’s whip.

[writingdose]

being a writer is fun

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Deleted scene - a broken friendship

She bit her lip, dodging around a dip in the field, her fingers drumming along the hilt of her sword.

Free had been assigned to assist this time around—she wondered if that would be a problem. The corner of her mouth edged into a frown at the thought. She didn’t like to admit it, but Free had… changed since his accident. Or since calling off their engagement. She wasn’t sure which event had been the greater catalyst. Maybe both.

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Deleted scene - new officers

Kris took the leather cord from where she’d been holding it in her teeth and wrapped it around the base of her haphazard ponytail, tying her rose-colored hair back—to the near-immediate relief of her perspiring neck. It was setting out to be an unusually warm day. She always enjoyed those. Sighing pleasantly, she let her fingers slide back to her side.

“I passed Second Lieutenant Guten in the hall this morning,” Rantaro—her new first lieutenant—was saying, flicking absently through a sheaf of crumpled notes as he kept stride beside her. “She said—” He cut himself off, yawning and pressing the back of his hand into his mouth. The heat must be getting to him, Kris hummed. “Sorry,” he sighed, pulling himself out of it. “She said that the new training arrangement’s going well. She’s really enjoyed working with the older group, and, from what I’ve seen, they’ve really taken to her. They've grown a lot.”

Kris nodded. “With less trainees to handle at a time, she’s really been able to focus on their individual weaknesses and strengths. They’re improving, and quickly!” She smiled. “I think part of it is that they want to impress her so bad.”

Rantaro snickered. “I wish she’d give me a few pointers.”

“How are you doing with the younger cadets?”

“Oh,” Rantaro yawned again. “Fine, I guess.”

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Deleted scene - Fubuki and the river

This is another scrapped idea from Shu’s section of Detonation. I rewrote his part several times, and, looking back now, these earlier drafts were probably better than what I actually ended up posting in the chapter 😆

“Fubuki!” Shu hollered, his voice breaking, deep and ragged, ripped to shreds by the volume of smoke in his lungs. “Fubuki! Fubuki, please! Wake up!” He was crumpled over the lip of a shattered window, his chest compressing against the sill and left arm stretched to its maximum allowance, gripping his first lieutenant’s wrist as the younger man dangled limp and bleeding, twenty feet above the stone road below.

He’d been blasted out when the ceiling above them had collapsed, breaking open the floor with an explosion--Shu’s ankle dangled over the blazing hole now--and freeing a blast of flames and a gale of ripping hot wind from the rooms below.

“Fubuki!” Shu hollered again. His fingers were slick with sweat and soot. The protective seals he’d painted over his skin were running, smeared and useless. Not fireproof. No shield. No amplified strength. Already, his lieutenant’s hand was slipping through his own. In a few more seconds, despite his best efforts, he would let go. “Fubuki, come on!” he screamed, even as he recognized it wouldn’t do any good--the young man had taken a projectile directly to his brow. His head had snapped back and pinched a nerve in his spinal column. He had been forced unconscious, and he was going to stay that way.

Groaning, Shu flicked his gaze up, looking for a safe place to land. If he couldn’t pull Fubuki back inside, maybe he could direct his fall--or even manage to carry him to the ground. The prospects weren’t looking good, however. The garden below was charred black, crunching and crackling with billows of fat red sparks. The bleak stone road after it wasn’t any more promising. And, beyond that… Shu’s eyes widened.

The river?

He calculated the distance frantically. He wouldn’t get a running start, he would be carrying a dead weight, and height wasn’t necessarily on his side. But I can make it, he swallowed, feeling the sting of smog as it dripped down his throat. I can make it.

Digging his fingernails into his first lieutenant’s wrist, Shu drove his weight backward, kicking off his knees and staggering hazardously to his feet. Mere inches behind him, the gaping maw of the shattered floor loomed, jets of flame licking hungrily at his heels. Meanwhile, his lungs suddenly expanded as he wrenched upright, refilling with air--soupy and black though it was--and his impalation scar began to ache. The soreness was dull and familiar, although not the least bit helpful; he tried to ignore it.

With a grunt, he clamped his fists tighter around Fubuki’s slipping fingers and planted his boot over the windowsill.

Just one jump, he thought, squinting as a gust of burnt air whipped against his skin. His tangled hair flipped and turned, caught in the breeze, and the hundred-or-so shards of glass lodged inside it tinkled together like paste jewels. He ducked his head carefully under the window bay, his eyes locking to the river below, and prepared a burst of Resonance, letting it collect in the soles of his feet. Then, with a roar of effort, he leapt from the building.

It was a rush of confusion and chaos.

He managed to secure his grip around Fubuki’s shoulders.

Golden fire screamed out from behind him.

He thrust down his heels.

The magic there activated, wild and untempered, and propelled him higher.

The wind wailed.

His hair flogged his face.

Shadows and light spun together like a kaleidoscope.

He vaguely registered the fact that he was not simply falling, but flipping, rolling through the air.

And suddenly, the water was there.

He locked his arms to protect Fubuki’s skull.

He managed to catch his own breath.

And then the river split against his back.

CRASH!

A split second of thunder was followed by a sudden, oppressive silence as his ears instantaneously filled with water. He felt the raging swarm of surface-bound bubbles as they billowed past his limbs and the frigid cold as it coated him like a paste. Reflexively, he gagged and the air he’d saved burst from his mouth.

The piercing temperature had a similar effect on Fubuki, who jolted abruptly, his reddish eyes flying wide and mouth breaking open. A storm of bubbles escaped him and Shu, anticipating the worst, dug his shoulder beneath the younger man’s arm and began to kick frantically for the warped, firelit surface. Shafts of orange-gold light struck through the current of the river, making the water strangely bright.

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Deleted scene - they’re both blonde

“He’s okay, Dad…”

“But if it weren’t for his breastplate, I’d have killed him.”

“Did you…” Kris started, and felt as if she were speaking around a rock in her throat. She had been meaning to ask--almost as soon as she’d realized what’d happened, as soon as she’d heard Rantaro scream. “Did you miss? Is that why you hit him?”

Her father shook his head, fingers rooting deeper into his hair.

“You thought he was the Eye?”

At that, he let out a low, choky laugh. “They’re both blonde,” he managed. “I didn’t realize Rantaro… his helmet…”

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Deleted scene - “Well, he spends more than Lui.”

Kris laughed. “Free time,” she repeated, sounding out the words as if they were some hilarious joke.

“Um… yes?” Aiger cocked an eyebrow, stumped. “Why? What is it?”

She gave her head a rueful shake, braid tossing against her pauldrons. “There’s no such thing with you around, Your Majesty.”

He guffawed. “Excuse me?”

“Consider it a testament to your vitality.”

He slumped against his crutch, his hazy indigo shadow mirroring the decompression. “Oh, no. Don’t say that.”

“What?”

“I do give you time off, don’t I? I’m serious. Do you need more? You can have it.”

She snorted, waving away the concern. “That’s not what I meant, Your Majesty. I'm trying to say that, as your captain, it’s my responsibility to worry about you, whether I'm on duty or not. And, as your friend,” she emphasized the word by blowing out her cheeks and Aiger rolled his eyes, “my worrying, frankly, never stops.”

“Even with four grown men constantly babysitting me?”

“Honestly, I don't think Free spends that much time on you.”

“Well, he spends more than Lui.”

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Deleted scene - Duchess de la Hoya

Mostly cuz I liked her outfit description… :D

“That was a lovely dance.”

Kris blinked and turned around. “Duchess?”

And sure enough, standing behind her was none other than the matriarch of the de la Hoya family. Free’s mother. Much like her son, the duchess was tall and lean, and possessed a mane of thick, golden-blonde hair. Hers had been braided back into an intricate, bead-studded weave especially for the ball, and her dress--an elegant red gown with a feathery, cathedral-style train and sleeves slit up to the elbows--had obviously been selected with just as much thought. “Kristina,” the woman bowed, her voluminous skirt swaying forwards like a furling wing.

Kris bowed.

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Deleted scene - Yellow Eye

“Guh—” the Snake gasped. “Buh-Bisuke—yuh-you would betr-tray—you would betray Ashtem?”

The small-statured spy just sneered. “Rih-Rih-Richard,” he mimed, voice pitching sing-song high, his stained-pink eyelids scrunching in a remorseless taunt. “Yuh-you would buh-buh-betray His Majesty?”