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Two more weeks in the books and Thanksgiving 2022 in the rearview mirror.  If you celebrated the holiday, I hope you had a wonderful time and ate lots of great food!  If you didn’t celebrate, I still hope you had great food!  Now the holidays are officially underway, and only 4 weeks separate us from the new year.  Can you believe that?  2023 is nearly here.

The last two weeks have been quite eventful for me, writing-wise.  Not only did I finish my first edit of Queens of Remnant, but I also started a new story!  That new story is probably going to mess up my plan to edit Queens of Remnant twice before posting it, but…it’s in pretty good shape already.  Maybe I’ll just speed through it a second time once I lose steam on this new story…

You know how it goes - the idea generation phase should run its course in a week or two.  I’ll write as many ideas and snippets as I possibly can until the flow of them starts to slow down.  I should have a decently fleshed out outline by then, at which point I could possibly take a break.

It’ll be hard to take a break when I’m really excited about it though!  Mostly because of the angst potential.  I must not have written enough angst recently because I have a big appetite for it.

The story is, in a nutshell, a cops and robbers AU.  Blake will play the role of our robber, specializing in cracking safes for the White Fang as they clear out vaults around Vale.  Yang gets to be our cop (well, detective actually), whose first big case is to figure out who the White Fang’s leaders are and take them down.  What happens when they cross paths but only one of them knows who the other really is?

Angst.  Guilt.  Betrayal.  And I love it.  I love it all.

I’m going to try to keep it short and simple.  My estimate is…160k words.  But I’ve already written 25k words of outline and main events, so I’m already 15% done!

If only it actually worked like that…but outline words don’t translate directly into finished story words.

Regardless, there’s a new story in our future.  A lot of hard work lies between me and that future, but I think it’ll be worth it in the end.  Especially when I post the angsty chapters and get to read everyone’s comments…I expect to see lots of “Noooooo”s.  The more o’s, the better.

That’s our upcoming Bumbleby angst though.  Let’s talk about our current Bumbleby quasi-angst.

Does Yang getting hit by a car count as angst?  You knew it was coming though, right?  How many times has Yang pointed out how awesome and convenient driving a motorcycle is while Blake, Ruby, and everyone else points out how dangerous it can be?  Yang keeps saying she’ll be fine, but will she be?

We’ll have to wait another week to find out  What we can talk about though are the moments leading up to that moment.  First, Yang attending Blake’s fancy work party.  Then Yang getting drinks with another random past flame.

The amount of effort she puts into preparing for Blake versus Avery should be a huge clue about her feelings, yet she continues to miss the obvious signs.  She literally bought a whole new outfit and spent hours getting ready to meet Blake at the fancy hotel.  Meeting Avery for drinks?  She throws on the first acceptable outfit and shows up late.

Showing up late is another red flag.  (Lateness is also a huge pet peeve of mine.)  With Blake, Yang plans ahead, gets excited, and shows up early.  Avery?  Eh…Ruby stopped by, so Yang had to talk to her first!

What I love about Chapter 11 (the party) is that we get a glimpse of Blake’s work persona plus fancy dresses.  Fancy dresses gives Yang the opportunity to drool all over how attractive Blake is while Blake gets to pay Yang some nice compliments in return.  And we get to imagine Blake’s thoughts when Yang jokingly suggests they sneak off to a private location together.  I’m sure her imagination didn’t briefly get out of hand at the thought of finally getting somewhere with Yang.

Honestly, the girl is a saint by now.

The best part about this chapter though had to be Ilia’s surprise appearance.  Did you know it was her when Yang first started up a conversation?  Can you believe she actually flirted with Yang?  It was so adorably awkward though…I can’t help but wonder if that would’ve worked on Yang in another setting.  Freed of Blake’s workplace, where everyone is off limits, would Yang have found it endearing enough to engage?

I kind of think that she would.  Mostly because she would enjoy flirting back and watching Ilia’s cheeks reach a record level of redness.

Poor Ilia needs another drink after accidentally hitting on her coworker’s not-girlfriend.  Obviously, Blake talks about Yang at work in a way that makes it crystal clear what her feelings truly are.  Ilia’s probably thinking to herself, “I hope I don’t get fired for hitting on the love of Blake’s life.”  I don’t think Blake has the authority to fire Ilia…but it also seems like she has enough connections that she could make it happen somehow.

Don’t worry though!  Ilia’s safe and sound, albeit mortally embarrassed.  Just imagine how work goes on Monday.  She’s probably worried that Blake will bring it up or scold her for making a pass at her not-girlfriend.  But then she always kind of wants to bring it up and figure out what Blake and Yang’s exact relationship is.  Ultimately, she’s probably just a nervous bean all day and gets nothing done.  Blake, meanwhile, probably thinks nothing of it because she’s still soaring with lovey-dovey feelings from a night of dancing with Yang.

I particularly enjoyed this small line:

“Confident yet careful…that pretty much summed up Blake’s treatment of Yang after all these years.”

Because it’s so true!  Blake knows Yang better than anyone, meaning she knows the topics to avoid and circumstances that will trigger Yang’s massive flight instinct.  At the same time, the more Yang gives her, the more assured she becomes that she is special - more special than any of the other girls flitting in and out of Yang’s life.

This becomes especially true when Yang opens up and shares a memory about her mom while they’re dancing.  That’s the one topic Blake knows not to press on, but it’s the one Yang needs to talk about (if not with Blake, then with a licensed professional!).

I thought it was really important for Yang to start opening up more to show that, even though it’s difficult for her, she is trying to be better for Blake’s benefit.  She promised that she would communicate rather than cause another jealousy-over-Sun incident, so she does make a concerted effort.  She might be dense as molasses, but she is capable of change.

I didn’t want it to be an unhealthy relationship!  Imagine how unsatisfying it would be for them to get together but Yang hasn’t started to come to terms with some of her mental hangups?  That seems like a recipe for disaster.  She’d be anxious about Blake leaving all the time, and Blake would reassure her for a long time until possibly getting tired of it.  Like, ‘How many times do I have to tell you that I’m not going anywhere?  What do I have to do to prove it to you?  We’re already married!’

Yang still has a ways to go, but at least there’s progress!

I just realized that Chapter 12 might be the only chapter that Blake doesn’t physically appear in.  In all of the other chapters so far, she’s shown up for at least a little while.  She should since she’s one of the main characters!

She almost didn’t make it into Chapter 12 at all.  Originally, the chapter was just going to be Yang grabbing drinks with Avery followed by the accident at the end.  Then I both needed more material and didn’t want Blake to be missing for an entire chapter.  So…Blake calls Yang during her date.

And Yang answers.

Because of course she does.  Her girlfriend is calling!  Why wouldn't she pick up?  Blake has to feel a certain amount of glee in that knowledge.  Like, sorry to whoever this girl is, but I call and Yang abandons you at the table.  If that’s not a clear sign of who’s holding Yang’s heart, I don’t know what is.

But first…we should discuss Yang’s new goal of finding a serious relationship.  And, as usual, she’s going about this in the worst way possible.  One, she thinks she can overcome her hang-ups just by snapping her fingers.  Two, she doesn’t tell Blake!  The one person she claims knows her better than herself, who gives expert advice and whose opinion she highly values.  Poor Ruby is like, “Wow, my sister is dumb.”

But Ruby has her own life and relationship taking up most of her thoughts right now.  That’s my excuse for why she’s not poking, prodding, and figuring out what’s going on.  She’s taking Yang’s responses mostly at face value instead.  She’s a little busy trying to think of how to tell Weiss that she loves her to be fixing Yang’s relationship drama too!

Did you notice that I ‘fixed’ the issue of Weiss wanting to spend money on Ruby, buying mountain ranges and whatnot?  Ruby came up with a compromise - Weiss can spend whatever she wants as long as it’s something they can enjoy together.  I can already hear the arguments Weiss is preparing for how that mountain range is something she also greatly enjoys.

She starts small though - renting out an arcade so that she and Ruby can play arcade games.  The big stuff will probably come later once she’s confident that Ruby won’t cause a fuss over the price tag.

Ruby makes a great point though, which Yang actually hears this time - if she loves spending time with Blake so much, why is she going out with other people?  (This is pretty close to just telling her that she should date Blake, but it doesn’t quite have the romantic connotation yet.)  I also pointed out, for our benefit as well as Yang’s, that she wasn’t the only one who lost her mom.  Ruby did, too.  If Ruby can find someone that she loves and is willing to go down that path, then Yang can too!

One of the great parts about this chapter, in terms of Yang’s personal growth, is that this is the first time we actually see her feel guilty about being out with someone else.  Why might that be, Yang?  Why might you feel that way?  Might it be because you were essentially on a date with Blake just a few days earlier, remarking on how beautiful she looked in her ballgown?

If only we could get into Avery’s head when Yang gets back to the table…

It’s kind of a shame because I liked Avery!  She seems like a good match for Yang if Yang didn’t already have the perfect girl waiting for her.  She’s cute, flirty, and…intuitive.  She sees right through Yang’s, ‘Yeah that was just my friend who I left our date to talk to.’  And, kudos to her, she decides that she probably shouldn’t waste too much of her time chasing someone unavailable.  (Also, I didn’t want to write more awkward conversation between them while they sit there sipping their beers.)

They say their goodbyes - Avery shoots her shot just to confirm that Yang’s not going to bite - and then I lowered the boom in the form of car versus motorcycle.

I’m sorry, Yang, but it had to happen.

Well, it probably didn’t have to happen, but I think it works in the story.  You’ll see next week, and in the upcoming chapters!


Until next time,

Miko

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