Home Artists Posts Import Register

Content

Another commentary already?  Well, due to poor planning on my part, there was only one chapter left to cover in this story!  (Note to self - all stories must be an even number of chapters from now on.)  (Oh crap, I think my next story is also an odd number of chapters…)

This commentary should be shorter since it’s only covering one chapter, but what a chapter it was!  Chapter 19, AKA The Epilogue, is the cherry on top of our happy ending.  And, to a poor writer with loose ends, it’s the opportunity to show readers what happens next (without actually writing it).

Epilogues are the easiest chapters for me to write, because they tend to write themselves.  (I wish.)  If you think of a story like juggling, you’re juggling so many balls at once while trying to keep the plot points progressing.  When you get to the epilogue though, you’ve already dropped all the other balls on the floor so you only have one left - the one that ties everything up and tells you that you’re a horrible juggler.

I think I also like writing epilogues because this is when we get to see everyone happy and moving on with their lives.  In this case, that means Yang and Blake are officially dating and spending much more time together, alone and with their families.

One thing to note about the card game Blake taught them - the one where you slap people’s hands when they get the card wrong.  I have no idea if this is an actual game or not.  Is it a real game?  I just made it up because it sounded like something Yang and Ruby would enjoy playing.  Trying to cause each other (and their dad) small amounts of pain?  Sign them up!

What’s funny is that Ruby implies that she slapped the table really hard because she missed someone’s hand, which means she wasn’t fast enough to get them.  Sorry Ruby, no super speed semblance in this story!  Mwuahaha…

And then there was Yang having dinner at Blake’s house, where Blake’s mom proceeded to embarrass her even further.  I can only imagine how bad it was.  Poor Blake (I don’t feel bad for her at all).   Ok, now that I’m thinking about it, I have to write this down.

Kali:  “So Yang, where are you thinking of going to college?”
Yang:  “Oh, uh, I haven’t really thought about it yet…”
Kali:  “That’s ok.  I was just wondering so we can prepare ourselves for Blake to insist upon going there too.”
Blake:  “Mommmm.”

**

Kali:  “You know, Blake wouldn’t stop talking about you for years after she switched schools.”
Blake:  …
Yang:  “Really?”
Kali:  “Yes, she kept going on and on about the ‘pretty’ girl who saved her.  She called you her ‘shining knight.’”
Blake:  “Knight in shining - nevermind…”

**

Kali:  “So Yang, what classes are you taking right now?”
Yang: “Um, history, math, biology - the standard stuff.”
Kali:  “I see.  So...no sex ed?”
Blake:  *spits water across the table*

**

Kali:  “Why don’t you stay after dinner and we’ll go through some photo albums?”
Blake:  “Nope, nope.  Thanks for dinner, Mom.  We’re leaving now.”
Yang:  “But...photos?”

**

Ok I’m not going to keep going, but Blake is in for some embarrassment!

In case you noticed, I didn’t give an exact timeline for how long after Chapter 18 this is, but I did give a hint.  The hint is when Blake says:  “I’m glad to see your eye is finally back to normal.”  So we know that enough time has passed that Yang’s bruise has completely healed.  That’s probably a couple or a few weeks, depending on how fast she heals.  I tend to have bruises forever, so I’m sure a black eye would linger multiple weeks for me.

Also, I’m sure you noticed, but Ruby is wearing the squid backpack to school.  We don’t get to see if she started a trend yet, but don’t worry - she will!  (Maybe.)

So Ruby goes to makeout with Weiss in the library - I mean, hang out in the library.  My mistake.  (You know what I said about libraries though…)  But Weiss is waiting to talk to Yang - the moment we’ve all been waiting for!  And it happens in the epilogue since this wasn’t a White Rose story, but we see that White Rose will be a thing in the near-ish future.  Depends on how long it takes Weiss to summon the courage to ask.

And I hope I’m not the only one who found it funny that Yang recycled Ruby’s joke from earlier that morning:

“You know what this means?  We’re gonna be sisters!”

When Ruby said it, Yang blushed.  When Yang said it, Weiss blushed.  One joke, two blushes.  Author high-five!

I forgot that Neptune was in this story until this chapter, but I couldn’t resist the opportunity for him to get one last attempted flirt in.  And I thought it would be funny for him to hit on Blake when he realized she and Yang were an item.  What does he have to lose?  Besides his pride, since he’s now going to be turned down by two girls instead of one. 

Once homeroom is over, did you spot Violet and Trevor?  I only briefly mentioned them here:

Spotting a familiar face, Yang waved to their resident math whiz before two boys careened past them.
“Hey Yang!  Hey Blake!” Trevor called out without stopping.
“Trev!  Dude, wait up!” the second boy shouted while chasing his friend, their backpacks bouncing awkwardly up and down as they ran through the halls.  

Is it just me, or is it adorable to see that Trevor has a friend now?  Plus, he makes sure to say ‘hi’ to Blake and Yang whenever he sees them.  To me, that’s super adorable.  I just want to pick him up and hug him!

In the midst of editing, I saw this comment:

“Yes, just imagine the opportunities you’ll have to tease her,” Blake said, pulling Yang close and waving one arm through the air like she was about to paint a picture in front of them.  “They’ll be nearly endless.  And on her turf, too.” 

And realized something.  Yang won’t just tease Weiss about anything in these classes.  She’ll tease Weiss about Ruby (and their fledgling relationship).  Combine that with Weiss’ blushes from starting a relationship with Ruby, and her last semester of school is going to basically be one constant blush.  Sorry, Weiss.

But then, remember what I wrote in a previous commentary - she convinces Ruby to graduate early so they can stay together.  They’ll be just fine - they always are!  (Unless they’re the focal point of one of my stories, in which case they usually aren’t.)

Know who else is going to be fine?  Yang!  You know why?  Because Emerald finally got kicked off of the boxing team!  And I’m sure we all know how that happened.

“Apparently the school board got letters complaining about what she did, and they were forced to kick her off!”

Do you remember this line from Blake in Chapter 15, right after Yang gets knocked out?

“If you’re in charge of standing up for everyone, who stands up for you?”

Well, know we have an answer to that.  This is Blake’s way of standing up for Yang and making sure she’s not in the position to get hurt again.  Blake isn’t going to punch someone (although I’d love to see that) but she can use her intellect to do about the same thing.

Punched with intellect, as they say.

(No one says that.  I just made it up.)

Now I can’t stop thinking about Blake punching someone for Yang.  That would be an incredible scene, and I’m sure Yang would be just as floored as the dude taking the punching.  I feel like Blake would have to be pissed to do that though.

But back to these complaints the school board received.  What I imagine is that Blake wrote a letter and had her parents sign it.  She then wrote several other versions expressing the same thought and got other parents to sign it.  I’m sure Pyrrha took one home, and passed others around the track team.  Maybe even Weiss got one signed (although I imagine she forges her parents’ signatures rather than asking them for permission).

Blake’s looking out for her girl in her own way!  

Also, did you notice I title dropped on the very last sentence?  I was so proud of that.  You know how hard it is to get a title to show up exactly where you want it to??  What I should do next time is write the whole story without a title, then take the last few words of the last sentence and arbitrarily make that the title.

Now I need to see what some of the titles of my other stories would’ve been…

Rush: But Their Happily Ever After Had Just Begun  (this sounds ominous…)
Boundless:  With No End in Sight  (is it just me, or is this the exact same thing?)
The Fire Within:  Together  (aww that’s cute)
What Defines Us:  They Could Do It Again  (I can’t stop laughing.)

Maybe I should keep coming up with titles on my own…

But, now that the story’s over, I wanted to discuss my motivation for writing it.  Let’s take a little trip down memory lane, shall we?

My mom used to drive me and my siblings to school every morning.  We didn’t live very far - we could’ve walked - but she wanted to see us off in the morning (definitely not complaining because we lived somewhere it snows).  On our drive, we would pass other kids walking to school, and one of them was...Book Girl.

I still remember her clearly.  Tall, kind of overweight, glasses, messy brown hair, and she always had her nose stuck in a book.  She literally walked to school reading.  And we all called her Book Girl.  

She wasn’t in my grade, but I don’t think she had many friends.  Whenever I saw her during school, she was always just reading by herself.  I don’t even know what she was reading because I never bothered to ask.

Now, I’m no Yang.  I’ve always been on the shy and introverted side (firmly on the introverted side now), but I wish I’d been...friendlier?  I wish I’d said ‘hi’ or something instead of just talking about how weird she was behind her back.  What’s ironic is that today most people just read on their phones, so she wouldn’t even look out of place anymore - she’d just be reading her phone like every other kid does.  But this was right before cell phones became popular amongst high schoolers, so that wasn’t really option.

With how prevalent articles on bullying have been recently, I thought about her.  I never bullied her, but I never bothered reaching out either.  So...I wrote a story where Yang is that type of person - the person who I definitely wasn’t.  I guess I hoped that maybe people would read it and be a little more cognizant of those around them.

That’s why I’d say this paragraph at the end of the story is most important:

Offering help didn’t always mean getting into a fight.  It didn’t always mean shouting at someone or trying to put someone in their place.  Sometimes, it meant something as simple as this.

Something like helping someone pick up their school supplies, or just saying ‘hi.’  Unfortunately, I can’t go back and redo high school, but I can be better going forward, right?

Anyway, that was my primary motivation behind this story, and that’s why Blake’s nickname was the same.  I hope it was enjoyable for the fluff and for Yang continuously making a fool of herself, but she still got the girl in the end (she’ll always get the girl in my stories!).  Now that this story is complete, we can move on to the next one:

Dream Theory.


Until next time, 

Miko

Comments

ChaosJess

I thought the card game they were playing was some kind of variation of slapjack! I had no idea you made it up.. so I guess what's next is that you learn slapjack and add your version! I was going to say you should call it slapmiko until I said it out loud so I guess the name will have to be a work in progress.

ZenArcher

The end of another great story... I'm looking forward to whatever comes next! (I can't remember if you already said if it's WhiteRose or Bumblebee) There is a card game I know called Egyptian Rat Screw where during the course of the game some opportunities come up to try and slap the pile.....we had to ban people from wearing rings during the game lol.

mikotyzini

Slapjack! That actually sounds familiar... I don't know if I like the sound of slapmiko though lol

mikotyzini

Next is Bumblebee with a side of white Rose! And wearing rings...youch. That sounds super painful!

Lustigkurre

Another great story. Looking forward to the next one.