Hakdog

Riddle was observant. It was a fact known by the entire school.

But he did not need said observation skills to see Ace attempting to enter the Ramshackle dorms holding a casserole.

One leg was inside the window, the other was out.

The two stared at each other in awkward silence.

"......This isn't what it looks like," Ace stammered. Riddle simply looked at the casserole.

"..Then what is it?" he asked, crossing his arms accusingly, and watching Ace run ideas in his head to think of a convincing lie.

"..A burglary?" was his answer, as apparently Ace would rather be caught stealing from the local broke prefect than admit that he was trying to sneak in food to their dorm.

"Need I remind you that you are clearly, and currently, bringing food INSIDE the building?" Riddle pointed out, exasperated.

"...A REVERSE.. burglary?" Ace suggested with an awkward smile, attempting to be charming while slowly exiting the window.

"I can explain," Ace mentioned, while Riddle stared in obvious disappointment.

"In my defense, we are unable to tell Yuu," was his first explanation. When Riddle stared at him with even more confusion and disappointment, Ace clarified, "They always say no when we try to bring them food.. so.."

"..So you resorted to breaking into their dorm?" Riddle asked, pinching the bridge of his nose. Ace stared back before mumbling that he wasn't "exactly" breaking into their dorm since the prefect "said he was always welcome."

"Besides, I can't use the door because Grim will hear the door creak." Ace added, confusing Riddle for a split moment.

"And why can't Grim know?" Riddle asked, while Ace had to explain either Grim will scream about food the moment he sees it, or tell on them to the prefect.

"And then?" Riddle prompted Ace to continue.

"Then Yuu finds out, and THEN they refuse help because they 'feel bad' and then they go starving because they HAVE to feed Grim more than they need to SURVIVE, and now.."

"We are forced into crime." Ace explained.

Riddle had never in his life, heard such a touching, yet horrible logic.

"And.. who else is involved?"

Ace seemed to be offended by his question, before answering, "Everyone."

"Everyone?" Riddle repeated, and Ace answered, "Yeah, all the first years."

"Including Jack?" Riddle asked, incredulous.

"Especially Jack."

"Why..?"

"He can carry more," Ace answered as if that was obvious.

And as if on cue, the bushes rustled, only to reveal Deuce emerge while carrying three separate grocery bags.

"..."

"..."

"..DUDE I TOLD YOU NOT TO BRING SO MUCH AT ONCE- YUU WILL FIND OUT-"

"HOUSEWARD- SHUT UP ACE! They seemed hungry!"

Riddle dragged out the remaining patience that he had left in himself to ask what Deuce was holding, only to hear, "....Soup."

Riddle stared at the three enormous bags, and asked.. "Only soup?"

"..I mean.. there's vegetables.. and eggs.. and some instant ramen.."

"I see.." Riddle responded, trying to process this information.

Another bush moved, only to reveal Epel crawling out of it like a military soldier.

Holding a loaf of bread. With his mouth.

"..Did we get spotted?' Epel asked, getting up and trying to dust himself off, staring at Ace as if he was the bane of his existence.

Ace dramatically pointed at Riddle and stared at Epel in shock, asking, "YOU THINK?????" "OK DAMN, I WAS JUST ASKING!"

No one moved, and no one made a sound.

And then Jack appeared.

He wasn't even in a bush. He'd clearly decided he was too big to hide in a bush either way. He walked over while holding a bag of groceries, which were all clearly full of protein.

"You too, Jack?"

"What the-" Jack looked at Riddle, as if shocked he was even there.

"..So we're caught.." Jack muttered, glaring at Ace, saying, "I told you we should have taken turns."

"WELL EXCUSE ME-"

"You're excused."

"YOU BITC-" Ace attempted to say, only stopping when he saw Riddle glare at him.

Riddle ignored Ace's comment, feeling like he was in a whole new dimension.

And then Sebek shouted somewhere behind a tree.

"I OBJECT TO THIS ENTIRE OPERATION!!!!!" His voice boomed across the place enough to make a few leaves fall onto the ground.

Ace shouted back.

"YOU'RE THE LOOKOUT."

"I DID NOT AGREE TO THIS POSITION."

"WELL BOOHOO-"

Ortho floated down from the roof, clearly the other lookout, as he quickly said:

"THE PREFECT IS ON THEIR WAY!"

The entire operation exploded, with Epel yelling something along the lines of, "SCATTER".

Ace dove behind a potted plant nearby.

The plant was approximately two feet tall at best. And Ace, was not. Deuce yelled at him for being stupid and bickered with him while finding his own spot to hide in.

Deuce hid behind a tree, flattening himself the best he could.

Jack stood perfectly still despite being in the middle of the yard.

"DUDE, SERIOUSLY? AT LEAST TRY-" was what Epel said. Riddle had turned around to see where he was.

Epel somehow had managed to squeeze behind the mailbox.

Sebek hid behind a dusty broom.

Ortho simply flied as high up as he could. His method was clearly the most effective one.

"...." Everyone collectively held their breath.

"Could have sworn I heard something.." Yuu mumbled, before rubbing their eyes from exhaustion and heading back into their dorm.

The second the door closed, everyone exhaled loudly from relief.

Riddle stared, shocked. "..How?"

Ace spouted some explanation about how all of them were geniuses at hiding, and Riddle had immediately lost his will to argue right then and there.

"They absolutely saw us," Sebek whispered while Jack nodded in agreement.

"No," Ace whispered back with far too much confidence compared to his hiding skills.

"They looked right at you."

"They looked through me."

"Surprisingly Ace Trappola is correct, the prefect has failed to notice any of us!" Ortho added, flying back down.

"Yeah, and.. what do you mean by surprisingly?!"

"Teehee!"

Riddle sighed, not sure if he found this endearing, or concerning as to how much effort they put in.

Oh well, it was.. touching, he supposed. It was the thought that counted, right?

God, they were so stupid though.

Was really in a rush to finish this.

to give a synopsis of this vignette, while lost in the book, rook discovers a poetry reading event in the city. the goal of the event is to write about the city with tanka, a type of poem consisting of 31 syllables and 5 lines (arranged in 5-7-5-7-7).

while rook is excited for this, he quickly begins to struggle to write something that fits within the confines of the poem. it's not that he can't, but he either ends up going over or under the syllable count when he tries to write authentically, or ends up focusing so much on the syllable count that he loses sight of what he wanted to actually say.

he wants to write something that speaks genuine, but he composes about 10 poems and none of them feel right at all. he's getting tired and can't figure out why it isn't clicking, but after having baymax scan it (and being given a candy since he just. doesn't have a critique feature), rook finally realizes what's wrong

he's been focusing so hard on writing passable tanka that everything he's been writing isn't HIS poetry. the syllable rules of the poem don't allow him to properly express what he wants to say no matter what he writes, and that's why everything he's written feels off.

rook finishes working on his tanka and hands it in before the group reads everyone's poems, getting a bit nervous when the group gets to his for review. when his poem is shown, we can see the route he decided to take: he completely discards adhering to the rules and staying in rhythm altogether, choosing to speak purely from his heart instead

after it's read out, everyone is entirely silent. rook is still on edge, but after a moment, the group erupts into discussion and admiration over the creative choices he took, much to rook's pleasant surprise. he tells them they may interpret the words however they'd like, and remarks about learning a profound lesson.

knowing the context of rook's background, it's easy to see why this vignette is particularly meaningful - rook is someone who we've seen be consistently alienated for his oddities by others. he places a large emphasis on staying true and expressing himself however he can, regardless of the opinions of others. he doesn't adhere to just what people consider admissible forms of expression.

rook's authenticity in being truly himself is often what other people judge and avoid him for. there's a high likelihood that this is also partially why rook was nervous during the review, which is quite rare to see for him (as he says himself). especially since all of these people are entirely strangers to him, he has no way of knowing if or how they'll potentially criticize him.

but in the end, they accept him. instead of judgement, his work is met with intrigue and admiration; rook isn't used to having things like this being so embraced in it's reception, so it makes sense that he'd appear surprised at first to this response.

But you freely admit the system is bad. That it values the wrong things.

a comic I drew last year. I was pretty proud of it :3. I wanted to draw something cute and show how loved Leona is 🧡🧡. I had no idea what his sleepwear was, so I tried something (only added the details to the trouser but I didn't have neither time or motivation to change his top) .

Posting this now cause for his birthday gonna post several stuff I worked all month :3.

(oh yeah, my mistake cause I made him call his sister in law "sister" cause I didn't know he was sarcastic when he called her that way in his birthday boy vignette...)

While drawing doctor riddle, i had a thought about what if deuce got injured while working as a magic enforcer and ace had to bring him to a hospital and they accidentally met riddle again. Cue riddle’s disapproving stare.

rook sketch rook sketch

("drawn on paper, colored in digitally" my beloved)