#tbenotes

So, uh... I don’t know if anyone else follows me here anymore (I know I haven’t been updating Romance Dawn but that’s on its way, 2020′s just been a shite year) but if you’ve followed me for a while, you know I’ve talked a TON about how my ideas in One Piece actually manifested itself into the canon, YEARS after I initially conceptualized them. I can’t talk specifically about that because it’s spoilers, but one thing I can talk about is the reveal of Bakugo’s hero name.

Obvious chapter 293 spoilers.

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If you’ve never read any of my stories before—hello, I’m Kana and I write stories here. My BNHA story hasn’t been uploaded formally yet because I’m still in the editing process, but I’ve written a lot of posts about it here, here, and here.

I woke up early today to do some schoolwork and I saw a Tweet that discussed this upcoming weeks’ spoilers, which included Bakugo’s hero name. And imagine my surprise when I first read the comments, then the panel. Turns out, I was actually able to guess Bakugo’s hero name almost a year and a half ago.

(Yes, she has a lot of nicknames for them).

On the right hand side, the created date shows July of 2019 and that’s the earliest record I have for calling Bakugo ‘Dynamite’. The regular font (such as ‘Small Might’) shows some minor, fun nicknames that Kana calls the boys, whereas the bolded ones are the ‘real’ nicknames she addresses everyone by. The fact that the MAIN nickname Kana always called Bakugo by ended up becoming his actual hero name in the canon BLOWS MY MIND and I’m so happy because I think it can be used in a significant way in the story.

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So in my last post too, there were a bunch of (omitted), and that’s because I was hiding parts of the plot and Bakugo and Kana’s nicknames for each other. In this one, I actually use ‘Dynamight’ instead of ‘Dynamite’. It’s not clear in the Japanese since both sound the same, so we’ll have to wait for the official translations to find out which one it’s going to be. I initially started off by calling Bakugo ‘Dynamite’, and then ‘Dynamight’ later on because I was debating on which one suited him more. Now, I won’t have to wonder because I can just go with whatever Hori decides to make canon!

The first screenshot is showing the part of the chapter that I wrote in my post:

(and as you can see, the created date is August of 2019—I unfortunately no longer have the modified dates for the chapters since I re-edit all my chapters constantly).

And the second part that was completely omitted in the post is here:

Please excuse the god-awful writing, this is why I never post drafts ( ; ω ; ). There’s a SHITTON more examples I could potentially show, but I’m sure you can tell that my editing skills aren’t the best and I think you get the point. When I search up ‘Dynamite’, all the chapters on the left sidebar have moments where Kana’s called Bakugo ‘Dynamite’—and it’s a lot of chapters.

(I hadn’t realized I even had a chapter called ‘Dynamite’...)

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I even talked about this AS RECENTLY AS LAST WEEK with a friend on Discord.

My username ‘rkyky’ is ‘rakuyokoyo’ without any of the vowels and I can’t modify anything on Discord without there being an ‘(edit)’ next to the message so you know at the very least, this is true and not modified after the spoilers.

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So yeah. I know this isn’t that special and I’m sure somebody somewhere else has also come up with the same nicknames, but as someone who writes and thinks about these characters 24/7, watching headcanons become ACTUAL canons is something that’s exciting and a bit frustrating at the same time, because it would’ve been INSANE if I’d published it first. But alas, my slow writing cripples me as always (ಥ﹏ಥ)

The new hero movie about the Three Musketeers also gave me a heart attack because I thought their theme was going to overlap with mine, but it didn’t. There’s a specific team name I’m going to use to address a team consisting of Kana, Deku, Todoroki, and Bakugo that starts with J and ends with ts. Feel free to guess!

I hope this was somewhat of an interesting read for you guys! My Koyo Predicts also seems to be going well, so I guess we’ll see what ends up sticking or not. To be COMPLETELY honest, I kind of wish his hero name was Ground Zero or something else, because I wanted Dynamite/Dynamight to be personal between Kana and Bakugo, not to mention how I’m sure every BTS fan will now equate Bakugo to the song, Dynamite... but I guess I’ll take what I get.

Meanwhile, please feel free to check out my One Piece story, or the movie spinoff of my BNHA story called Torch:Bearers!

Till next time,

My BNHA story, TBE, is currently on hold. However, I am planning on releasing a Heroes:Rising oneshot on FanFiction.net with my OC incorporated in it.

It’s been almost two weeks since I’ve last seen the movie but I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it so I’m going to write a series of notes + reviews on Tumblr, as well as an eventual oneshot (story acronym will be T:B). 

[MAJOR SPOILERS—this post will spoil the entire movie!]

I don’t ship BakuDeku in BNHA (or any other pair except KamiJiro) but Heroes:Rising will definitely be a treat for those who do and for those like me who simply love their rivalry.

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[Climax Transcript] (note: I’ve never learned Japanese so the translations may not be 100% accurate).

B: Bakugo, D: Deku, YB: Younger Bakugo, YD: Younger Deku, N: Nine

B: “This will be the end of your dreams.” D: “That’s fine. There’s no other choice. And even if it’s All Might, he would say that it’s okay [to pass down One for All] if it’s you. ...If it’s you, who shared the secret with me... if it’s you who’s always admired the same person as me... if it’s you—”

YB: “All Might really is cool!” YD: “He’s a really... cool hero!”

YB: “No matter how bad of a pinch, in the end he always—” B: “—I will win!” YD: “No matter how many people are in need of help... with a smile—” D: “I will save!”

N: “Don’t make me laugh!” D: “Detroit... smash!” N: “What... what is that power?! Don’t stand in my path!” D: “Let’s go, Kacchan!” B: “Huh? Don’t order me around!”

[Fight continues]

D: “This will be my final... my final... SMASH!”

D: Goodbye... One for All... thank you.

This is pretty bare-boned considering the sakuga, pacing, and soundtrack makes these lines quite epic, but I really wanted to break down the first few lines as well as Deku’s last inner monologue.

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‘Deku’ and ‘Kacchan’: There’s been a lot of rumours on Twitter/Tumblr on what Bakugo says to Deku with some of it blown way out of proportion or just simply untrue (though I have heard that the novelization of the script may be more BakuDeku heavy. I do have the book with me but there’s no furigana, so I unfortunately can’t translate it).

But the first line that Bakugo says, “This will be the end of your dreams” really got to me in the theatre. I may be self-projecting, but I think it’s a line that’s both accurately culminated their relationship thus far as well as an acknowledgement of Deku by Bakugo.

I absolutely love the latter simply because he’s one of the most consistently-written characters I’ve seen in anime who’s not just a mindless, senseless jerk, which makes his growth very organic and fun to watch.

What’s significant about that line is that if he really doesn’t care about Deku (and objectively speaking, there really hasn’t been a lot of moments in the canon where he’s shown to care for Deku’s wellbeing—only a gritty rivalry), he wouldn’t care about the fact that he got One for All.

I’m not quite sure if Bakugo’s ever expressed his desire to get One for All, but I’d argue that he wouldn’t want it because he wants to surpass All Might, which is something that the non-canon character, Tokuda Taneo, also echoed in the recap episode of Season Four. Basically, Bakugo is the type of person to say ‘I don’t need your stupid power because I’m going to be the best hero with my strength alone’. The voice actors of Midoriya and Bakugo have also noted that their fight at the end of Season Three was due to a series of ‘why’ questions from Bakugo: why was I the one who ended All Might? Why am I now chasing the back of someone who was always behind me? Was the way that I admired All Might wrong? (I will be writing a separate note on this episode in the future).

But what changed with the line “This will be the end of your dreams” is that there’s a lot of hidden nuance behind it. This is solely my opinion, but in the movie it felt like Bakugo was (1) acknowledging Deku as his rival, (2) feeling sorry that his dream has ended in this manner, (3) pitying him instead of absolute loathing, like he usually does.

The reason why I believe this to be true is because the first half of the movie opens up a lot with Bakugo watching Deku and really seeing what he’s like as a person who aims to ‘save to win’. He eavesdrops on a conversation between Deku and Katsuma (the little boy), a scene that does a really good job portraying the type of person that the hero Deku is. He’s empathetic, patient, understanding, and kind to someone that Bakugo can get irritated by, and this impatience is almost fatal later when Bakugo almost hangs up on Mahoro when the villains attack, thinking it’s another prank. Basically, the first part of the movie does a good job showing both the audience and Bakugo what sort of person Deku really is.

That line is basically saying ‘I may not like you, but I’ve seen you grow up next to me. I know how much you wanted this and how hard you’ve worked for it—that’s why you’re my rival, no matter how much I despise you. But this isn’t how I want to see your dream end.’

There’s no love lost between the two but just that one line made me positive that Bakugo was fully willing to work with Deku (something he’s either always refused to do or has done so extremely begrudgingly) not simply because Nine was too powerful, but because the entire premise of the movie and Deku’s decision to end his dream just to save Katsuma has once again shown that his once Quirkless, crybaby of a childhood friend really is a hero that he must acknowledge as well.

He knows this wasn’t an easy decision to make and one done out of pure desperation, but the interesting thing is that he asks this question after the power has already been transferred.

As if to ask, ‘Do you really think I can have this, even if it means that your dream will end?’

More surprising to me was how quickly and affirmatively Deku is willing to pass OfA to him. Over the series, he’s said multiple times of how unlikeable Bakugo can be, but he was the person who he respected the most growing up, because Bakugo was someone great that was always near him, unlike All Might.

“If it’s you, I trust that you’ll be able to recognize both our dreams.”

Deku doesn’t even give Bakugo a chance to hesitate, quickly listing out all the reasons why he was willing to hand down One for All—and his dream—to his childhood friend.

I don’t think the movie showed a lot of new sides for Deku, but that one line from Bakugo really made me feel that he cared for his childhood friend in an unexpected or different way than other typical shonen rivalries. It’s different from Kageyama/Hinata’s in Haikyuu!!, or the brother-like relationship between Sasuke and Naruto, or the one between Asta and Yuno in Black Clover, where both sides acknowledge their strengths even if others don’t.

Deku has fought so hard for so long, chasing something impossible despite all odds and actually gained the opportunity to realize his dreams. He’s gone through every roadblock, none of which were easy or handed to him, and deep down, I think Bakugo’s always acknowledged this. But I think it’s only from this fight that can really see that he needs Deku.

All Might told them that they will become the greatest heroes if they can both win to save, and save to win. I’m not sure about Deku, but the ‘save to win’ part probably never registered in Bakugo until he began to see Midoriya as a true rival.

But now, with this seemingly endless fight, Bakugo is about to witness his other half—as a friend, a rival, and as heroes—take his final stand. But unlike Kamino, he can fight with the person that he respects this time, rather than just watching from afar like he had to with All Might.

—

Heroes:Rising was emotional for me for many different reasons, but this line really got to me (although I will once again say that I may just be projecting my own feelings). The rivalry between Midoriya and Bakugo has always been filled with so much conflicting feelings such as envy, pride, antipathy, fear, admiration, and rejection (All Might, chapter 63), but this fight felt like those emotions could now culminate into one of pity, acknowledgement, rivalry, trust, equals, and acceptance. Which made the fight even more bittersweet for me.

Thanks for reading this stupidly long post—it’s been on my mind for days now and I just had to spit it out somewhere. I don’t know if I could even call them ‘friends’, but I really love watching their relationship grow in unexpected ways.

Haven’t really had the time to write any more notes on Heroes:Rising, but I’ve written quite a bit since then. Here are some quick snapshots of what’s to come! (Note: some titles will be acronym’ed so not to spoil them!)

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Romance Dawn (One Piece): quick hiatus (you can read the latest chapter here) -Just a really hard chapter to write emotionally and it’s a turning point in the story/arc so I want to make sure it’s as accurate as possible -There’s like 8 different ways to portray how Falco’s feeling right now but I’m not sure which one would be the best for her -Amare was a great buffer to start conversations between Ace and Falco, but now that she’s gone, it’s hard to write about them :(

TBE (BNHA): no releases scheduled for now, title subject to change -Still in the process of figuring out how I’m going to write this. Hit 170k words (!!) this week and yet I still can’t figure out how to solve one major problem involving a group of OCs. -The OC count is huge (25-26 so far) and while I know exactly what to do with 14-15 of them, there are 11 that I’m not sure how to implement. The manga looks like it’s about to hit a HUGE arc and Hawks is a critical character to TBE, so depending on his fate in these next few chapters, the direction of TBE and these characters may change drastically.

T:B (BNHA Movie Heroes:Rising AU): tentatively scheduled to be released before Feb. 26(?) -“There is a might in you.” -I’ve been DYING to write this AU ever since I went to Japan to watch the movie but it spoils so much about TBE that I’m not sure if it’s a good idea. I still do want to release it before the official release in U.S/Canada though (Feb. 26) -A final stand on an island with no heroes. Three students and one goal. An irreplaceable bond formed by bravery and courage rather than from love and acceptance. -Bakugo/Deku/Kana-centric, I want this to be a very touching story but it’s honestly so hard to do because the movie was perfect and I don’t want to change anything, not to mention it’s hard to write flashy fights when there’s no sakuga/soundtracks in writing -“Don’t let go. Keep going. Even without me, you have to keep going. I’m sorry—but don’t you dare say you’re sorry. Keep going—you have to. Even without me, you have to keep going.” -“You’re the reason why I could keep fighting. The bad and the good... the joy and the sorrows... every moment with you was as radiant as you are.”

Mightless (BNHA AU): no releases scheduled for now -What if All Might wasn’t able to keep his promise to Inko and watched Deku’s path getting marred by blood? What if Izuku becomes disillusioned to the hero world as he sees more and more people around him get seriously hurt or die? -This is quite an angsty AU set in the near future where both Deku and Kana somehow die, and All Might gets an opportunity to go back in time to never give Izuku One for All and ‘fix’ everything by using a time-travelling Quirk. -“You can fix this, you know. Ask me to turn back time.”

V is for Vantablack (BNHA Villain!Deku, Villain!Kana AU, Sequel to Mightless): scheduled to be released after Mightless -“You cannot become a hero.” -Words that are a death sentence to Izuku, words of salvation to Kana -A Villain!Deku AU where Deku goes missing and attempts suicide, going into a coma. His mother, Midoriya Inko, successfully commits suicide after being struck by grief and remorse after what’s happened to her son. Kana meets him by chance and the two seek to get revenge on the hero society that has rejected one and taken the other as hostage.

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These are some backstories (rather than AU’s) that are directly related to TBE and will likely be incorporated into the story or as a quick standalone. I can’t reveal anything about them but I do have a general idea of when they’ll get released.

-BW: this is probably the hardest one to schedule despite being the most important backstory for TBE. Though the contents of BW probably won’t change that much, where I’ll place it will be very dependent on the current arc (Chapter 258 as of writing this note) as well as a certain character’s fate. -ABBM: to be scheduled somewhere after the Shie Hassaikai arc (maybe before/during the cultural festival arc)

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And finally, some others that haven’t quite been fleshed out, but they’re definitely divergent from TBE and will likely be their own oneshots.

-Spirits of the Sea: Todoroki/Kana AU oneshot -V is for Vantablack: Midoriya/Kana AU that I mentioned above -Untitled: Bakugo/Kana AU oneshot

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So yeah! What was supposed to be a quick, fun, lighthearted story based off of BNHA ended up being my biggest project with a story that already has 170k words, over 20 OCs, and possibly seven different AU’s :)

Days like today, I wish I just sucked it up and published TBE last year. Maybe then I could’ve caught up to where BNHA is at right now (though highkey doubt).

Note: major BNHA manga spoilers, major TBE spoilers

I’ve briefly mentioned a few times about how amazing it was to sometimes see ideas I’ve come up with years beforehand become canon by pure coincidence. In just One Piece alone, an idea that I came up with around a decade ago when I first started Romance Dawn actually showed up with Momonosuke and Trafalgar Law. At first I was thrilled and excited because even though the nuances were slightly different, the main ideas were EXACTLY the same and I’ll point them out once we hit those moments in Romance Dawn.

Something I did not really expect, however, was this to happen with BNHA.

One of the reasons why I love this story from a writer’s standpoint is that I’ve never been able to accurately guess what would happen next in BNHA. The ironic thing is, the one point of the plot I wanted to add but didn’t know how ended up matching with Horikoshi’s idea.

Basically, Kana is a character that mirrors the origin trio in many ways. With Todoroki, their views on family and Quirks foil each other, and I love writing about the two because there’s always something so comforting about they way they’re there for each other. With Hawks, he and Kana see Quirks as both a gift and a curse, and their different philosophies of the hero world is (in my opinion) what makes their love so sad and lonely.

Midoriya’s a bit of a basket case for me because he doesn’t foil quite as cleanly as Todoroki, Hawks, or Bakugo, but rather than having perfect foils and parallels, Midoriya is just someone that becomes important to Kana in every aspect of her life. His relationship with others, his sense of self-sacrifice and heroism, and his determination to be the best and not let his Quirklessness stop him from becoming a hero is a major source of inspiration for Kana. He gives her a purpose, something that’s so important for people like her who’s never even thought or desired a future.

And then we have Bakugo. I always have trouble writing about Midoriya, but for the longest time, I had nothing that I wanted to write about when it came to Bakugo. Todoroki, Midoriya, Hawks covered all the grounds for Kana and then some, so I wasn’t sure how I was going to fit him in. 

But as I developed Kana’s character as well as her backstory, the Overhaul arc became a major turning point for her and it became very clear to me how Bakugo could fit into Kana’s life.

This wasn’t intentional, but rather than focusing on the past which is how Kana parallels with Midoriya, Todoroki, and Hawks, Bakugo and Kana also grapple with their present and the future, and I realized how many similar things Bakugo and Kana actually go through. Post-Kamino arc they’re forced to become quite close due to something devastating happening to Kana. And then... chapter 285 leaks came out today.

Basically, once Bakugo and Kana become close, Kana gets a premonition from one of the main antagonists—an OC named Eve who has the power to see the future with multiple restrictions. Unlike Nighteye’s Quirk, Eve’s Quirk shows a possible future. Whether it’s a very likely or very unlikely future depends on how many times her mirror shows that future, and unlike Nighteye’s, Eve’s future predictions can be changed. Its major weakness is that the future in the mirror may not always be accurate (and no one knows how likely or unlikely it’ll be), but it’s advantage is that if there is a bad future, everyone can take precautions to stop it. Eve is a pretty unique antagonist (after all, how can she ever lose if she knows what will happen in the future?) and there’s a few more restrictions on her Quirk, but this is the main idea.

I intended Eve to show Kana a premonition of Bakugo dying, but I had no idea where to include it. When this arc started and I saw a city about to potentially get destroyed, I thought ‘aha! This is the perfect place to squeeze my original scene in!’

Little did I know Horikoshi would ACTUALLY do it in the arc I intended to! I’ve included three excerpts from three different chapters below.

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This chapter was written on August 23, 2019, a year before Chapter 285 was leaked. The title is Beginnings of Endings.

Note: some spoiler names/titles/plot will be omitted with an (omitted).

“(omitted)” She snapped, azure eyes vibrant like those of a fire’s. “Dealing with the (omitted) was my problem anyways! Stop sticking your nose into it!”

“Hah?!” He cried, standing up with fists clenched to his sides. “You’re the one who’s being a dumbass about this! The white-haired brat said it, didn’t she? Her futures are reversible if we make an effort!”

Kana gritted her teeth, drawing a fist back. “Shut up!”

(omitted)

“And?” He asked weakly. “What was going on?”

Kana shook her head. “I don’t know. But there was so much debris around us—probably the aftermath of a battle. You were bleeding out in my arms. I-I don’t know if I’d tried Overdrive and it didn’t work, but your wounds just looked so fatal…”

“Did I say anything?” Bakugo asked, crimson irises locked into azure.

“(omitted)” Kana said quietly.

The two continued to look at each other silently for a few seconds, Kana with tears continuing to fall slowly, while Bakugo gave her a quiet, passive gaze.

(omitted)

Dim, grey eyes flashed, engulfing him in light. When it disappeared, he realized that he was seeing the aftermath of a battlefield. Crumbled buildings scattered debris everywhere, but it was almost deathly silent compared to how loud the actual fight must’ve been.

“Bakugo!” He heard Kana’s cry. The girl ran towards a bloodied body in the centre of it all. She was wearing a white shirt with her usual thin ribbon and maroon skirt. Her hair hung loosely below her shoulders, and her skin looked marred and injured.

—

This excerpt is from a different chapter called Where Hands Cannot Reach, written on September 10th, 2020 (two weeks ago).

She suddenly stood up and began to run, much to the shock of Tokoyami and Dark shadow. “Kana!”

“GO!” She screamed, forcing herself to face them. “Go and get help! Do whatever—whatever you can to save him!”

“They’re too far, Kana-chan,” Dark Shadow said. “You’re the only medical support around—”

“If I don’t go, Bakugo will die,” she screamed, shaking her head in despair. “Kei—Hawks might have a chance if you can find anyone else.”

“Bakugo will?” Tokoyami said, eyes widening. “Why... how do you know that?”

Dark Shadow looked down at the hero in his partner’s arms with worry. “But his wings—”

“Focus on his life first and not his Quirk!” Kana cried, reaching into her inner pocket and throwing a glass vial towards Tokoyami who caught it with disbelief. “I don’t know if that’s enough—it probably isn’t, but I need to find Bakugo and Midoriya first. That… that should at least keep him alive. Try to get to Momo if you can—she knows basic first aid.”

Kana sprinted, tears rolling down pale cheeks as she tried to grasp her bearings. Bakugo had been surrounded by rubble in Eve’s vision, which likely meant that he was close to Shigaraki.

—

And finally, an excerpt from The Ending We’ll Write, which was written on July 4th, 2020.

“(omitted)” Kana mumbled, looking at the ground awkwardly at the entrance to his room. Her toes dug into the floor and her fingers fiddled around, cloudy azure pupils averting his gaze. The boy stood up from his bed and reached for the gauntlets on the desk, tightening them around his wrists with a quiet click.

“What do you want, (omitted)?”

It was a rhetorical question, but Kana’s mind immediately quickened with the answers. What do I want? I don’t know. I think I saw a future where you die—today—so I want you to stay home. But I know you won’t do that. I want to be able to come home tonight. Eat shabu shabu or sukiyaki with everyone at the end of tonight with all of our limbs attached. I want this to not be the end for us because there’s still so many things I want to talk to you about, and I haven’t even thanked you or repaid you for everything—

“(omitted)?”

His voice was quieter and without the exasperated irritation that usually came from calling her name.

Why are you looking at me like that? She thought, carmine clashing with azure. Don’t look at me like that. Like you’re the one worried about me.

“If you have something to say, spit it out,” he said, the usual coarseness returning to his voice. “Get rid of that pathetic look, as if we’ve lost already.”

Kana bit back a scowl. “I can’t help but worry sometimes, okay?”

He gazed at her quietly. “How many people do you think we’ll lose today?”

“I don’t know,” Kana said softly, “but what are the chances of no one getting hurt and no one dying? Probably slim to none.”

—

I had to hide so much but I hope this can somehow show what I was trying to do. When this arc first started, I saw it as the perfect chance to include Eve’s premonitions, but I’ve written a lot about it even before this arc ever started. And now to see Eve’s premonition (that I intended on it not being true anyways) actually come to life is sort of insane for me.

To be honest, this premonition was supposed to be a bit more about Hawks and Kana, as the second excerpt shows her decision to abandon Hawks to save Bakugo. But hey, if Horikoshi is going to make Eve’s future canon, I’ll run with it.

I highly, highly doubt Bakugo’s injured (much less dead), but it’s just enough angst for me to work with. Seeing my ideas collide in One Piece was frustrating because I wasn’t able to use my ideas (for a hint and some spoilers, something about Momonosuke was supposed to be Falco’s, and something about Law was supposed to be Amare’s), but this time, I was actually able to integrate my plot and what I wanted from Bakugo almost seamlessly into TBE, so I’m absolutely thrilled.

No updates planned at the moment. I’m just having fun writing all these crazy chapters in TBE! Maybe more things will match up in the future.