I've hit 3K views!

You guys are nuts.

I haven't reached my anniversary yet I've already hit 3K!

That's amazing - thank you so much! <3

I've got a few things in store for the anniversary this August.

I hope you all look forward to it! :) 

(ps: don't forget to vote hark-ness over here!)

Flipside: Until We Meet Again

Good evening, guys!

So I just posted a challenge entitled 'Until We Meet Again', which was given to me by Giselle. Her challenge was for me to write my OTP in another belt. Whether they visit they another belt or exist in another belt I couldn't understand, so I understood it as them existing as the same people but in another belt. Now, you may be thinking - what the ruddy hell are belts?

No, they're not what you wear to keep your pants from sagging. 

Until We Meet Again

It was just a regular night in New York City, with the brightly-lit bar about to close. A brunette calmly wished customers ‘good night’ as they walked out, others staging drunkenly, the female bar singer ending her song of the night. A Japanese came out from the backroom and asked the bartender for a quick fix, and the other employees set up their belongings and wished the head ‘good night’ before departing as well. In the venue remained two other customers, one with a scotch in his hands and the other with his legs crossed and reading the local paper.

As the door closed with a soft click, the female finished her song and the head bartender swiftly walked to the door, locking it and switching off the lights on the side, shutting down the lights on the outside, signaling its’ close. He then flipped the sign so it read ‘Come back tomorrow’, and pulled the indoor shutters down. Once this was done, he turned towards the four remaining people on the inside and cocked a brow.

“So what’s tonight’s agenda?”

The reign of Kira had continued since its start in 2003. Attempts to stop this man called Kira were unsuccessful, commonly resulting in death. The only people to ever come close were former members of the SPK, who had later died as a result. After that event, no one ever dared to stop the killer. People started worshiping, the nations’ leaders bowed down to him, and they were at his utter mercy.

Cold Nights and Silver Bows

If there was something A utterly detested, it was waiting.

The woman drummed her fingers across her lap and sighed loudly, frowning as she glanced at her phone from time to time. Over and over she hoped that she’d receive a message with a smiley and two words, but the time hadn’t come yet. She had ten minutes until the call would come, but after thirteen days and a large number of hours, minutes, and seconds, waiting seemed to overwhelm her, seemed like too much for her to handle.

She felt like throwing her phone against the wall, but resolved to keep it in her fumbling hands. Over and over she looked, and sighed upon the sight of no such text yet. The wallpaper flashed repeatedly, a picture of a young ginger man and his laughing British girlfriend, she in his arms over at the park. A had forgotten who had taken the picture for them, but she did remember her boyfriend grinning and tickling her sides just before the kind person snapped the picture.

It was a beautiful memory and she wanted to relive it once more. If she recalled rightly, it had occurred around two months or so ago, and they were on their nth date. She had lost count, to be honest. But he remembered, and that made her smile slightly. They had gone to a small café, had a light dinner, and then he surprised her with dancing and a trip to the ice cream parlor. She had asked for a walk in the park and he agreed, soon sliding his jacket onto her shoulders upon seeing her shiver at the cold weather.

And then she remembered his gentle kiss on her cold, chapped lips. 

He tasted like vanilla ice cream when they kissed-

The black iPhone buzzed, and she immediately pressed ‘answer’, holding the device to her ear excitedly with slightly shaky fingers.

“Matt?”

All those days and minutes and seconds seemed so long. 

“Hi babe,” came his voice. She felt herself redden. “You doing alright over there?”

“Y-Yeah, I’m fine,” she replied, sinking into the sheets. “Never mind me, are you okay? Did anything happen? Is Matsumoto bossing you around again?” she could hear him laugh and a disgruntled voice speak from the background, who she assumed was the Japanese. “Tell Matsumoto I can here him from here.”

“She can hear you, idiot,” Matt called and continued laughing. “I’m alright, don’t worry. Nothing bad happened, and yes, he’s bossing me around.” She smiled, pleased, but began to worry upon the short silence that came between them. “…love, I’m not sure if I can come any time soon.”

“…what?”

“It’s getting tricky, and we might have to move soon.” She could hear him shift in his seat. Matsumoto had either gone away or was really, really quiet. “Are you okay with that?”

“…yeah, sure. Totally okay,” she lied, feeling a large wave of disappointment. “So when are you coming back?”

“It’s going to take until next month, baby. I’m sorry.”

A month.

One more goddamned month.

But she was used to that, she could take a month.

“I see,” she spoke softly, tugging at a lock of her hair. “I can just work and I’ll be able to handle myself over here. Really.”

“I know you can.” From another place, Matt smiled slightly to himself. “I ordered something for you, by the way. Has it arrived yet?”

“Nothing came in the mail so far. What is it?”

“I’m not going to ruin that surprise,” he laughed. “Find out for yourself.” She felt like smacking him in the face and was about to retort back when the doorbell rang. “Was that the doorbell, love?”

“Yeah, I think so. Hold on for a bit, I’ll see if it’s that surprise you got me.”

“Alright, don’t rush.”

He smirked and listened as she left her phone on the bed and walked out of the room, Matt shifting slightly and tucking his hands into his pockets. He set the phone down for a moment and merely looked forward, brushing his hair back from his blue eyes.

“…it’s almost ten o’clock, why would he have something delivered at this time?”

The door opened and Matt grinned, opening his arms for a hug.

There was a large bow on top of his head, shiny and silver.

Self restraint seemed non-existent as A pulled him into the house, launching herself into his arms as the door swung and closed gently, clicking from the inside and signaling that it was locked.

A surprise indeed, she thought, finally sealing her lips against his smirking own.

An Alternate Chapter of The Shoujo Parallels: Eri

When the sky and earth collide,

Lightning watches on the side.

Chapter 20 of The Shoujo Parallels: Eri

~~Arzen Venura~

How would you feel if your ex-best friend – or still best friend – told you more than you wanted to hear? More than you ever wanted to know, even though you asked for it?

How would you feel if she said all those things without giving you a chance to say anything in return? If she just talked and talked while a Setomion kept its freezing hand on your mouth so you wouldn’t interrupt?

How would you feel if her last words to you were ‘I’m really, really sorry’? If you couldn’t say anything back because the next thing she did shattered you even more if that was possible just made you look on in horror?

How would you feel if she threw herself off the dam?

Announcement Regarding TSP: Eri

So I don't know if I should be revealing this now, but as the title states, I have an announcement regarding The Shoujo Parallels: Eri! Well. I don't know how to announce this, but...I'll let you guys have a sneak preview of what's been going on in my documents folder since around a week ago:

So, do you guys have a clue yet? *grins* 

Yes, I've been asked to write one chapter of TSP: Eri by Giselle, the main author of the whole thing. I really wasn't expecting it and am definitely excited to see how you guys are going to react to what I'm going to write. *insert evil cackle here* I've been assigned to Chapter 022, and something really big happens there, something to do with two certain people in the story. 

I think it's going to be obvious that I wrote it, as Giselle and I really have different writing styles. *shrugs* But either way, I hope you all look forward to it! Who knows, I might be destroying the story and I won't even know about it. 

That's all. c: I hope you guys are excited as I am.

Spoiler alert: It gets really emotional. For both of the characters. I think.

Flipside: From One Belt to Another

Hello and good evening, guys! Here is a Behind the Scenes special regarding a short I just posted, entitled 'From One Belt to Another'. I had asked Giselle for a prompt for a certain character, and she gave me this: Alpha!Arzen meeting Beta!Arzen. Complicated, eh? I was able to find a way to make this happen, a random one at that.

 

Before anyone wonders, the Alpha!Arzen is basically pretty much me = Arianne Maxine.

 

This is going to be full of explaining so we need for a read more button. Without further ado, let's get straight to the point!

 

From One Belt to Another

“So, is this the Alpha Belt?”

Arzen Venura looked towards her Canon Parallel, who gave a firm nod as they inspected the school grounds. “It doesn’t look that different from the one in the Beta Belt.” It was uncharacteristically empty for a school day, but Arzen had a feeling that her other version was in there. Somewhere. With other people that were not XD to the XD Power. “Eri, are you sure we landed in the right timeframe? We’ve got only one chance to go here – for now. That’s what you said back in there. Back in that weird room.”

“I’m sure, Arzen.” Replied the taller woman, checking the watch on her wrist before glancing back at the human. “Besides, all we need to do is pose a warning. That’s all.”

“How can we do it without creeping her – me – out?”

“Well.” Eri Blitzschnell glanced up at the building, and then back at her. “We’ll figure that out along the way. I’m sure of it.”

And with that, they began to walk, Arzen leading the duo as they searched from the grade school to the high school. It was like they were back in their own Beta Belt, where the school was surrounded with lush green plants and harboured heat all throughout the year. Except, it didn’t have the familiarity of home. The Alpha belt yelled at her to go back where she belonged, and she really did – except, this kind of mission required her to actually travel there with her Canon Parallel and search for this other Arzen…

She was curious.

Would she be named Arzen as well?

“Eri?”

“Hm?”

“Is she different?” she picked her words carefully. “Different in a sense that her name would be different?” at that, the green-eyed lady paused to think.

“I’m guessing so. Ancient Earth looks different compared to my world,” she noted as they passed by a pond and some wooden benches. “That would be much more than H20, and wood  would be considered scarce. You’d only see it in the museums, and they wouldn’t be as strong as that.”

She kept quiet, walking up a staircase.

Just like the staircase to the different classrooms of the various levels.

“You miss Technika, don’t you?”

“It’s home.” Eri shrugged. “Much colder than this place.”

Ari Rants: Prom Pressure and More

School's coming around the corner and there are lots of things my parents are concerned for, now that I'm an incoming Junior. I've had college talk and grades talk, which was okay with me, I've had talks regarding friends and pressure and whatnot, talks regarding my need to improve with the mathematics department, etc. But there is one topic where I'll always roll my eyes and fold my arms over my chest because Jesus Christ, it's so trivial and unimportant compared to college and Noli Me Tangere and Chemistry.

 

Prom. Bloody freaking prom.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not bitter because I don't stand at 5'8 feet tall and weigh only 110 lbs. I'm not bitter that I don't have a flock of guys serenading me from the balcony of my house or who chase me as I walk through Eastwood aiming for Fully Booked. I'm not bitter or anxious or paranoid that this experience may be a flunk, that it may be a sinking mess in my Junior year. I'm not bitter at all! Trust me. I'm cool with prom. I'm cool with dresses and heels and looking pretty. I'm cool with being short and on the pudgy side, I'm cool with having a few guy friends and not a crowd of stalkers throwing roses at my feet.

 

I'm excited for the planning and the themes and the dress design with my mom. I'm excited for giggling with my friends about it. I'm excited for walking into the room with a date at my side who I feel comfortable with and not who I just handpicked because I needed a date.

 

I'm excited, yes. But I'll be excited at the right time.

 

For now, my main priority are the following: balancing my studies and my duty as the News Editor for the school publication, doing my reading on the subjects to get a good view on what I'm going to learn, trying to finish my book report due in June, and looking forward to finishing this summer on a good note. Perhaps end it with my friends, yes?

 

But I'm not looking forward to spending the remainder of May fretting over dress colors or weight gains or boys or themes or flowers or whatever. I'm not going to let myself fret over that and worry about how many pounds I'll have to shed off by February 2014. Because one, it's not yet time to worry about that. And two, because I'm better than that. I'm not someone who's going to shallowly throw her studies away just to window shop for glittering silver heels in Shangri-La or Greenbelt or wherever fancy mall here in the Philippines. I'm not someone who's going to starve herself just to make sure her dress fits perfectly.

 

I'll tell you what I am.

 

I'm a fantastic fifteen-year-old Junior who's got her mind set on college. I'm a student who's focused on getting great grades in Geometry and will do her best to improve her Filipino skills. I'm a young writer who wants to know what she truly wants to take up in college. I'm Arianne Maxine, and I'm not going to let prom be the center of my goddamn life.

 

And there's this other point.

 

Do I need a guy to be happy? Do I need a guy to keep my self confidence and self satisfaction up? Does a guy really have to be the source of my happiness? Do I want a guy to be the center of my life?

 

 NO. I DON'T.

 

Then why do I hear people telling me, "You need to look good for a guy!" or "You need to be slimmer so you'll catch boys' attention!" What the hell. I heard that Junior year was supposed to be college prep, not let the males dominate your life and potentially destroy your chances of getting into your dream university. Well. That's what tends to happen, right?

 

And then there's the media telling me I need perfect baby smooth skin the color of sheen pears, that I need long, smooth and silky jet-black hair, that I need to get rid of my eyebags and have a ridiculous BMI to be considered good looking. That I need to dress like a female to even be considered female or feminine. Excuse me, media and even society. I'm not that fair skinned or have long hair or have a Barbie-like physique. I don't own the entire Forever 21 or Mango stock.

 

I don't need to please you, media-slash-society!

 

I please myself.

 

I like my hair short. I like my skin slightly tanned. I like my non-supermodel figure. I don't mind my eyebags, it proves I can go without sleep because I'm too busy working on something I'm truly passionate about. I like wearing jeans and button-down tops instead of skirts and tank tops. I'd rather wear my converse than wear a pair of glittery pink heels. I like it natural and don't like it when I've got make up caked on my face.

 

There are so many things that get me riled up just from the topic of prom. From unnecessary worrying to pleasing men just with the cut of my dress and the skinniness of my legs to the media's idea of what's beautiful and what's not, what you need to do to be 'sexy' and what you need to stop doing to be considered 'a goddess in the eyes of males'.

 

So.

 

Yes, I'll be going to prom with my short hair and my not so flashy dress and with a nice date who I'm comfortable with. I'll have fun and I'll remember the night because of how fun it was and I won't regret missing out on my studies just because I spent most of the school year shrieking about my hair and nails and the unfairness of shoe sizes.

 

Keep that in mind.

Un Tavolo per Due

“You are looking strangely happy,” Touta noted as he saw a blushing A, who was staring down at her phone with a big grin on her face. “You haven’t been this happy ever since we bagged the Kobayashi case a few weeks back – what’s going on?” to his surprise, she looked at him with a small smile and merely put her phone back on her desk, twiddling with her hair anxiously.

“Well, I may have a date this evening around Tokyo.” She replied with a growing grin. Touta’s expression changed to one of amusement and he ruffled her hair, chuckling. “I’ll get picked up from here and then we’ll go around the city – I honestly have no idea what we’re going to do, but it’s going to be fun nonetheless. I’m excited.” It was his first time to see her giddy and red about something like a date – Touta may have been wed to his work, but even he would appreciate going out once in a while.

“It’s with that Matt guy, yeah?”

“Yeah.” She sighed happily. “He’s great. Even though I thought he was a bit of a prick for running away from me when I first saw him at the warehouse…I’ve got no idea why, but we’ve been sort of attached ever since. Texts and calls here and there, eating at cafes nearby…I think this is our first date. Our official first date, at least.”

The Fallen and the Freak

“I don’t need you to supervise me, Tempesta.” The Fallen Angel spat as they stopped in front of the door. The Queen of the Heavens merely raised her brow, nodding at the two guards and watching as they took the cuffs off the woman’s wrists, stepping back. “Don’t you have more important things to do like reign over your land or whatever – more important than a criminal like me?” a cruel smile twisted itself onto Eri’s face at her own words.

“Who said I was going to watch over you, Eri?”

“You could have put me with Arashi and Sereno for all I care.” She sneered and rubbed her sore, previously bound wrists. “You aren’t stupid enough to lock me in cuffs that would drain my power.” To prove this, she glanced up at the sky, at the rumbling clouds, but no flash of lightning came to strike them down. “So, why did you bring me here, Storm Angel? Wanted to see my face before you sent me off to my own doom? At least you didn’t ask Cielo to bring me here, she might have ripped my heart out.”

“This isn’t a prison, Eri.”

The black-haired lady raised a brow.

“How surprising. Then what is it – a torture chamber?”

Flipside: A Crack in the Middle of Reality

Good evening, guys! So I just posted a challenge prompt entitled A Crack in the Middle of Reality, and I’m pretty much making a behind the scenes post for it. Yes, you got that right. I’ll be putting explanations, possible spoilers and what not – this will be fairly short, so I’ll keep this without a read more button or whatever. So, I asked Giselle for a challenge despite how crappy I feel (allergies that turn into colds aren’t good) and she gave me this:

“Crossover. The Forbidden Ship decides to go to Cardverse. Write about the possible things that can happen to them. :3”

My initial worry was screwing up the characterization of the Watcher, but she told me to imagine writing as Patrick Darling from The Catastrophic History of You and Me and the Tenth Doctor from Doctor Who. So that pretty much helped as I did the challenge.

Now, let’s get to the lines that need to be understood-slash-explained.

“Says the girl who got stuck with a baby Setomion.”

“Says the guy who has a weird fascination for the word ‘marbleball’.”

This short takes place after the events of TSP: Eri. And hey, remember the Watcher said she could remember the things that happened (he told her this in TSP: Oddette) after they finished their journey? Well in this scenario, she keeps them and the Watcher stays true to his word. Also, I doubt Elaine would forget the Watcher’s slight obsession with the word ‘marbleball’. XD

“Fix it. Fix it right now or I swear to God I’ll stick your head in the blender and turn you into a Watcher smoothie.”

So remember when Elaine held the Watcher against the wall and threatened to bash his brains in during the events of TSP: Eri? In the behind the scenes for that chapter, Giselle mentioned that it had to do something with the Shoujo Trilogy. And guess what? This line does, too. *evil grin here*

“More visitors…that’s impossible. Unless people have accidentally wandered into the tree hole the girls claimed they went through, there can’t have been another hole between worlds.” Outside, the sky rumbled slightly. “I’ve tried everything I could – spells and whatnot, but the barrier remained closed. So why now, of all times?”

Alrighty, so while the events take place post TSP: Eri, for Cardverse, this takes place during the current arc I’m writing (Preparation). Arthur wonders why it had to happen at that time, where all of them – especially the Kings – were busy with things to do and things to accomplish, so on and so forth. Basically, it was like Hell Time for them. Sort of.

“Whose Parallel World is this?”

Watcher ran a hand through his hair.

“This…this isn’t a Parallel World of anyone, Elaine.”

“It’s not?!”

“It can be, but I’ve never seen it throughout my travels.” At that, he actually hesitated. “For once in my life, I have no idea where we are.”

All I can say is this: Watcher lied. He has been there before.

Tired eyes looked at the pocket watch and he frowned upon seeing the same time he did while he was back in her house.

Frozen.

Author’s Note: The Royal Flush exists in its’ own reality-slash-universe, the Royal Flush reality. The Shoujo Parallels exists in its own reality-slash-universe as well. Watcher and Elaine, people from the TSP reality, unknowingly go into the RF reality. This causes his pocket watch to stop. Yes, ladies and gents, his pocket watch is – dare I say it – magical. Like him. It has a connection to the Watcher. When they went into a reality they weren’t supposed to be in, all traces of material objects from the TSP reality stopped working.

It’s a headcanon of mine that things from other realities can actually damage the flow of time and space in other realities. *shrug*

“The last time you were here…you were with someone else.” Arthur looked at him. “A girl by the name of Eli-”

Watcher and Elise Villan have been to Cardverse before. By accident. In the short, it’s his second time there – by accident as well.

“Well, what if I told you that things that weren’t supposed to be could go back?”

Arthur knows that Watcher and Elaine, just like Watcher and Elise, don’t belong there. Unlike the four girls who are from the RF reality, anyone from another reality can simply reverse the process of stepping into the wrong reality. It was that easy, and it’s why the four girls can’t join them and get back to Earth through Watcher and Elaine. If the four girls tagged along, they would be distorting not only the RF reality, but also the TSP reality, causing a major negative.

And finally, the crack in the wall.

I think it’s fair to say that the fabrics of reality are falling apart in the TSP world. With all the travelling Elaine and Watcher have done, don’t you think this can affect the mortal world as well? Hence the crack, symbolising the falling apart of their world and leading into another that shouldn’t be walked into.

Again – this is purely headcanon.

Well ladies and gents, those are all the lines I’ll be explaining! Do know that there are spoilers within the short that go along with The Royal Flush – you’ll have to look hard and know which ones are the right ones. ;) Thanks for reading and have a great night!

A Crack in the Middle of Reality

“It’s the middle of the night and I have a test tomorrow,” Elaine argued as she closed her Chemistry book. The Watcher was merely seated on her bed, a smirk on his face, watching as she put away her study notes for the subject. “If I fail, it’s going to be your fault and I won’t be able to go to Japan this summer.” The brown-eyed girl sent the blonde a glare, but it was evident in her eyes that she was interested in his offer. Half an hour ago, he had appeared in her kitchen, took out some fruit from the fridge, and entered her room without knocking as he munched on the apple.

She was the only one in the house, and it would be that way for around a week.

“Relax, Elaine. We’ll be back by,” he checked his golden pocket watch, “at least three in the morning, if possible. That is, if you don't get yourself into trouble,” the man teased. She sent him yet another glare and folded her arms over her chest. “Unless you don’t want to go and would rather study for your midterms, I can let you do that.” The Watcher turned and headed towards her bedroom door, but chuckled to himself as she grabbed the end of his coat.

“Hell no. I’m going with you.”

Ari Reviews: The Lover's Dictionary

 

A dictionary with select words whose definitions showcase a nonlinear pattern of events in one couple's relationship. That's all you need to know about this book - it's formatted the way a dictionary is, and instead of the literal meaning, an experience is shown revolving around the meaning of the word. Now, let's get away from my serious explaining and onto the reviewing! I won't be putting up a read more because really, there won't be any spoilers. You can't spoil anything about this book no matter how hard you tried, really.

 

The Lover's Dictionary was written by David Levithan, and I've been dying to buy it ever since I read Every Day (which I also reviewed here). After reading that book, I did some research on the author and stumbled upon The Lover's Dictionary, which immediately piqued my attention. Searching was a massive pain, and I was only able to buy it two days ago, when I was having some bonding time with my family over at the mall. Of course I was excited to read it and finished just a few hours ago. Usually, I'd finish a book within a few hours or so, but I wanted the savor this book and just read at my own pace.

 

It goes from A-Z with a number of words here and there. When I was reading the first half, I decided to gather my small post its and stick them in the pages of the definitions I loved, sort of like dog-earing them except with post its. Midway, I realized my post its would have better use in my Junior year coming this June and decided to simply list down the words whose stories I loved.

 

At first, I had forgotten that the book was about one relationship and ended up thinking that each word's experience came from a different couple. Again, it was only in the middle where I realized that it was centered around one and only one couple. So I read on until the end, and put down the book with a bitter disappointment that it was other. It's times like these where I wished I was a slow reader.

 

So after reading, I checked out opinions of people regarding the book, and I'd have to disagree with one point made: you have to be in love/in a relationship/be bitter over a recent ex to fully come to love this book. I disagree. I am not in love, not in a relationship, nor am I bitter about a nonexistent ex, yet I still loved the book. Perhaps it's the romantic in me speaking, but whatever. And really, why would you exclude a certain type of people from reading what they wanted? I don't get it.

 

Here comes my outburst: I loved it. And I especially loved that it was nonlinear, meaning that the events shown were not in order. So an experience in section E could have gone after a word in section Y, so on and so forth - it makes you think, what really happened, which came first? After reading the last entry (Zenith), I was momentarily upset at what happened and then remembered it wasn't in order. They were all scattered, as if the person narrative was remembering one random memory at a time and connected them to a certain word.

 

I enjoyed the book very much and will most definitely read it again. And I hope you guys read it, too! Not all parts of the book are about being in love.

 

 

Flipside: One and Seemingly the Same

How long does it take for you to heal?

 

Hello and good evening, dear readers! This will be a Behind the Scenes on my latest post entitled "One and Seemingly the Same", which focused heavily on The Shoujo Parallels series which you can very much read over here. Surprisingly enough, this is not a challenge-related post, but one that just spawned from my own imagination. If you've read it and are familiar with The Shoujo Parallels series, you may be wondering what on Earth? No worries, though, for I'll be explaining what pretty much happened and why I decided to write something like that.

 

The Read More button is there if you're interested.

 

One and Seemingly the Same

The black-haired woman turned around. There wasn’t anything else in the room. The walls were painted white and the floor was as well, making it seem like the room was actually curved, with no corners whatsoever. She was amazed and didn’t notice the absence of her pistol, glancing around her with a gleam in her dark green eyes. It was clean, it was different – it was…peaceful. She let a smile come to her lips. It was peaceful after what had just happened. So many events back at Technika, heartbreaking, soul-crushing, hopeful, blessed events –

“Well isn’t she different from us?”

Flipside: White Dresses and First Dances

Hello and good afternoon to you guys! I posted something a while back, entitled White Dresses and First Dances. It was an OTP Prompt/Challenge given to me by Giselle last night, and I just finished it a few hours ago. This is going to be fairly short since I don't really have much to say, haha.

 

So basically, it's set into the future where Matt and A are already married and have a daughter who has her prom in a month. I kept the setting unclear, as I couldn't decide where to have them live after they would marry (though they'd probably be in England). Alice, currently sixteen in the short, had just told her mother that her prom was in a month...and A didn't know of this. But Matt did. The short includes a shopping trip with the couple arguing, and then the eventual day of the prom itself.

 

A little quirk that somewhat foreshadowed the ending was A saying that she didn't get to experience prom, and neither did Matt. I'm guessing that Matt wanted her to experience it for herself with him as a date, yes? So he just made it simple. Dimmed the lights, have her dress there, put on some slow tunes and a bottle of wine, probably make a nice dinner for them to eat after.

 

I wanted to focus on the relationship with their daughter, but couldn't help putting in some loving at the end part, because after all, it was an OTP prompt. The two even had an argument regarding Alice's dress in the shop, aha. Luckily for them, the section where they were didn't have people in it. Matt wanted the dress to be modest while A preferred something Alice would enjoy.

 

I think it's safe to say that I did a lot of research on this, especially with the dresses. Alice was supposed to be in a long red dress, but I decided to change it after typing A's argument regarding long dresses. Haha! Also, I think this pretty much shows my hopes for my own prom experience. Not that I want my parents to bicker about the dress (my mom already sketched a dress!), but I want it to be fun and something worth remembering, you know?

 

For those wondering, Alice's dress looks like this:

So basically, it was a family-bonding + otp short in one. >w< I was pretty happy with the result. So, I hoped you enjoyed reading the short and this - see you all in my next post! <3

White Dresses and First Dances

“It’s your what next month?”

A girl of sixteen cringed lightly and glanced at her dad, who remained impassive despite the look on his wife’s face. “Mum. It’s my prom next month. I didn’t want to stress you out about it because of your work, and dad was sort of free, so I told him…” she trailed off, gulping at the shifting expression on her mother’s face. Shock, frustration, anger…a hint of excitement? Finally, the older woman pinched her temples.

Ari Rants: "New" and "Old"

Now, I was raised to respect peoples' opinion, no matter how ridiculous or silly or just plain irritating. But tonight, something struck a nerve and I really got the need to rant about it. It was actually quite silly. I just went on YouTube to listen to two bonus tracks not included in a certain album, and when I peek at the comments, I see all this. A lot of irritating comments that made my blood boil like how water boils when I prepare it for my usual milo, or when my dad asks me to get him hot water for tea.

 

For your information, the album was Paramore's Paramore. The two bonus tracks are Native Tongue and Escape Route, which are pretty amazing in my opinion. I have nothing against Paramore. They're my favorite band and this album is definitely one of my favorites...it's just, people don't agree with me. Before you argue and scream, let me tell you that I have no problem with that. It's just, their reasoning, for me, is utter bull and doesn't make sense to me. It's silly and just...wow.

 

Read more for more ranting.

 

Golden Beams of Apprehension

After receiving my report card last April 6, the idea of being an upperclassman hadn't really gotten to me. I felt like how I always felt - young, goofy, and pretty much the fifteen-year-old I've been since January. However, it was only a day or two ago when our batch representative posted something rather alarming on our batch page. And that, ladies and gents, was a list of things to prepare for as we entered our Junior year. It only consisted of three events, really. The School Intramurals (Sports Event), the Medical Dental Mission, and the highly-feared Prom.

That announcement was a splash of cold water on my face, finally snapping me out of my so-thought fantasy of being relaxed for the whole summer. I realized, that no you cannot be calm. All of it got well, worse when my mom came home on the eighteenth with my schoolbooks. There was a Chemistry book, my Religion book, a book for Programming, the books needed for English and Filipino class...nothing felt more real than that. Than the feeling of the books staring at me as I took them out one by one from the plastic bag. That kind of feeling didn't even make me flinch as I entered my Freshman and Sophomore year.

With a heavy mind, I realize what Junior year would have in store. It would mean having to know what you wanted for college, what kind of dress you wanted for prom, what kind of grades you needed to make sure all the great universities would pick you. It meant having more problems, less sleep, more projects, and more challenges. It meant more subjects, more memorization, more mathematics (and I cringe at the thought of it). Especially in my case, now being the Secretary and News Editor of the school publication club. I was previously warned that everything experienced in Sophomore year would be a lightweight compared to the trials of Junior year.

If this is how I feel right now, then I wonder how the upcoming Seniors feel.

Biology would turn into Chemistry, Statistics into Geometry and Adobe Flash into Basic Programming. On the upside, World History would be a subject I would enjoy in the upcoming schoolyear. But on the downside? A whole lot of business as I would study and study. Not just for my subjects, but for the college entrance exams. It's a whole lot of...well, hysteria.

But then, I have to realize that this is yet another opportunity. Another chance for me to actually make things right and to realize and bring out my true potential. It could possibly give me a chance to explore around and make friends, or to even restore old friendship and burning rivalries or whatsoever. Maybe I can send or receive a sweet promposal (probably not happening) or actually figure out what I want to do after high school.

 

This morning, my parents asked me what course I wanted, and it just occurred to me that I haven't really made a final decision yet. I've narrowed it down to Law or Journalism, but from there I'm definitely not sure which to take. I can only hope that the college talks in third year (if there are any) and the Integrated Field Trip can help me on which one I really, really want to take.

 

And then there's prom, but I sure as hell am not going to talk about that.

 

I'm just hoping that third year will be better.