John
I was so relieved to hear another of my friends speak freely, I momentarily forgot where we were. Luckily for me, Cremator didn’t.
She strolled up to Schmidt, grabbed the batpony by both shoulders and dragged him forward until their noses were nearly touching. Schmidt’s front hooves dangled beneath him, not touching the ground.
“Gah!” Schmidt exclaimed. His eyes were wide and his front legs flailed to try and escape in terror at being so close to a fearsome dragon. “Nein! Nein!”
Cremator gave the batpony a hard shake. “Schmidt! Fokus! Englisch nicht Deutsch!”
“Wha… What?” Schmidt stammered, fear still clutching at him as confusion crept in at the feminine voice coming from the dragon.
“Short version,” Cremator stated firmly. “You’re a pony with bat wings now. And I was William when human.”
Some of the fear in Schmidt’s eyes seeped away as he squinted, searching Cremator’s reptilian face for any sign that this dragon was speaking the truth. “William?”
“Yes, it’s me,” Cremator replied. “We need you to help us. We have to find Jackie and Jacob! Remember what they changed into?”
“J-Ja,” Schmidt nodded. “Yak und… und…”
He looked to one side, his face screwed up in thought, tinged with disbelief. He looked at Cremator again and, with his memory kicking into gear, firmly stated, “Und unicorn!”
Cremator suddenly yanked Schmidt forward, pulling the rather confused batpony into a fierce hug. “Good to have you back, buddy!”
Schmidt grunted a breath as Cremator gave him a particularly strong hug. “I— I have questions. Ja, many questions.”
“Ask them later,” I said, keeping my eyes and ears moving in search of threats. Where had Boo got to? Hopefully Iron Lock hadn’t hurt her since having the helmet forced onto his head.
Our rest was brief. Not that it really was a break. For through our little huddle charged two yaks and a minotaur. All wore mind-controlling helmets. And each of them brought their brute strength to bear.
Of us all, Schmidt was the surprise packet. Unlike Cremator who tested herself before daring to try something, Schmidt took flight immediately. He twisted and turned, tucked in his wings and lashed out with his hooves; front and back. He took to his new form like a duck to water. He also fought with a ferocity I had never seen in him before.
It definitely took the minotaur by surprise.
I also wish I could have relied on Cremator more in that moment. When the attack came, like Schmidt, she took to the air and that was when I lost her. Maybe I was watching Schmidt too closely, or perhaps it was the distraction of two yaks with massive horns bearing down on me, but I could have sworn Cremator just disappeared.
I dived out of the way of the yaks. One of them clipped my rear right leg and sent me tumbling across the hard ground. I shook my head, trying to stop the world from spinning, as I rolled onto my stomach. I could hear the thundering of hooves but I was so disoriented, I couldn’t tell which way they were coming from.
Glancing to my side, I felt my heart sink. I knew those horns and the stringy black and grey fur. I was there when they had come into being. Jacqueline…
Now, the yak she had become was charging at me, his helmeted head down ready to crash into me. Send me flying. I was scared, yes. But not for myself. I couldn’t lose control again. This was my sister.
As the yak was about to hit, I squeezed my eyes shut and cringed my whole body down, waiting for the inevitable. The inevitable that came in the form of a shower of dirt and tiny rocks.
The ground rumbled and shook. Hooves slammed down nearby and around me. The clatter and clash came with deep, masculine grunts and snorts. And, strangely, a primal feminine yell.
My eyes snapped open. I knew that yell as well and somehow dreaded it all the same. Daring to lift my head, I was treated to the strangest sight. That of the yak bucking and bouncing this way and that. He was doing everything he could to dislodge…
I stared in absolute shock.
Cremator?!
The emerald green dragon who had been my former friend William was hanging onto the horns of my now male yak sister for dear life. At least I thought she was doing so for her life. It was a little hard to tell with the whoops and laughter Cremator was letting out.
With every jolt and thrust from the yak, Cremator held on with one hand. The other was busy trying to unhook the helmet. It took several attempts and, I had to roll out of the way a few times or be crushed, but eventually, Cremator let out a shout of triumph, pumping at the air with the hand she had used to hold onto the yak.
With the helmet released, the yak gave a final flick of its head, sending both the helmet and Cremator soaring into the sky. His hooves hit the ground one final time as he then stood panting from the tussle. My eyes never left the face of the huge yak, even if his eyes were hidden under the unruly mass of stringy hair.
“What?” he grunted. He let out a gasp, possibly shocked by the sound of his voice. “What’s happened to me? I sound…”
“Jackie?” I gently asked, doing my best to stand, my sore leg and stinging back not particularly wanting to oblige.
The yak’s attention snapped to me. At least, I think it did. His head sure turned to face me.
“Who?” he asked.
“That’s going to take a lot of explaining,” I replied, doing my best to ease into the complex issue I needed to discuss with my former sister. “I’m your brother, by the way.”
Jackie shook his head and grunted again. It was so hard trying to tell what he was thinking with his eyes so obscured. “Jon-Jon?”
I did my best to smile and nod. I was about to speak more but got interrupted.
Cremator suddenly landed between us, heavily, on one hand and knee, crushing Jackie’s empty helmet into the ground beneath her. Seriously?! She just did the superhero landing. Truly, William was alive and well within Cremator. Only now she could show off in far more fantastic ways!
Cremator clapped her hands together to get the dust off her claws as she stood up, looked at both me and Jackie, gestured with a thumb over her shoulder and said, with an unnerving lack of urgency, “Weird family reunion later, we need to move.”
“Right,” I agreed and looked to Jackie who nodded hesitantly. We could discuss our odd situation later. Safety first.
With Cremator leading the way, we had only moved about ten paces, admittedly I wasn’t travelling the best after that last hit, before another helmeted attacker confronted us. With a glimpse of his mark-less flank, greyish, deep blue coat and shockingly white tail, I knew who it was. I opened my mouth to shout at him.
“Jaco—” My scream died in my throat as I suddenly became as still as a statue. I could see everything before me, my eyes couldn’t even blink. While the battle around us continued, Shield Breaker stood before us, defiant to the attack. His horn glowed white, as did what little of the magical glow I could see holding Jackie, Cremator and myself in place.
Schmidt tried to dive bomb Shield Breaker from the side, but he was simply snatched by the unicorn’s magic and held in mid-air.
I mentally cursed myself. We were so close to saving everyone! Then I cursed unicorns and magic in general. It was such a cheat!
The smoky cloud swirled past, slipping around Shield Breaker. For a moment, I thought I saw the face of Sombra, the dark unicorn, coalesce inside the smoke. He appeared to be whispering to Shield Breaker. There was a flash and four new helmets blinked into existence, floating in the air above the smoky being that was Sombra.
The smoke swished towards us, wrapping around our frozen bodies. The smoky façade of Sombra coalesced once more, this time right in front of my face. It was a hissing drawn-out voice which brushed my ears, yet it seemed disconnected from the ethereal smoke.
“Little deer,” Sombra said, doing his best to sweeten his voice, trying to make me listen. “I underestimated you.”
One of the helmets floated up next to Sombra’s disembodied head. If I could, my eyes would have widened in fear.
“You would make a fine soldier.”
I wanted to scream. I needed to run. I had to defy what the dark unicorn wanted of us… of me. But, Shield Breaker’s magic held us fast.
Then I glimpsed it and was so very glad I couldn’t move for it meant I could never give away what I saw. The sight of the plain pegasus, Boo.
She moved like a cat. Her head low, her body graceful. Her hooves not adding even the slightest sound to the chaos going on around us. Her attention remained fixed on her target, her ears twitching to listen for any surprise attacks. And, when she felt the moment was right, she bundled up her body and launched herself forward.
She was so fast and silent. If it could have moved, my jaw would have dropped in awe. Springing forward with her wings open wide, she shot over the length of Shield Breaker’s back. Her hooves collected him at the base of the helmet. Only as the helmet started to move, did Shield Breaker turn his attention to try and confront his attacker.
It was too late.
The moment the helmet was struck from his head, the glow holding us vanished and, those of us who lost momentum in the frozen moment and were now off balance, we tumbled to the ground. And trust me, it hurt. My chin and chest could testify if need be.
Even Cremator hit hard. The other empty helmets clattered to the ground around us, the smoky form having dissipated. Boo was only on the ground again for a moment. She twisted her body and kicked off again, darting back behind Jacob to kick another attacking pegasus in the side of the head.
We didn’t stay grounded for long. Jacob didn’t even get a chance to ask any questions before Boo had him under wing and started rushing him to the edge of the battle. The rest of us weren’t far behind.
Scrambling to get out of the way, we all dodged this way and that. A mixed group of six different creatures, only half of them ponies, hurried across the battlefield until we started up the slippery slope. When a ground pony charged at us, I heard my sister give out a deep throaty yelp of surprise. I turned to help, only to witness my former sister rear up and crack the pony so hard in the head, not only did the pony fall, but his helmet split in two.
Clearly, Jackie could handle things, even when in a far more brutish form than I was used to seeing. The group clambered on, everyone slipped every now and then, even me. And I was supposed to be sure-footed. I witnessed many other things in that climb, the one that stuck out most to me was the one that made me remember why I was friends with William in the first place.
She may be unpredictable, even more so now that she was a dragon, but when I heard Cremator grunting, I couldn’t help but smile. She was behind my now yak sister, her back pressed against Jackie’s furry rear end, doing her best to help force Jackie up the rocky slope.
When we reached the peak, I saw Boo hurl Jacob to the other side. It startled me until I bounded over the top to find Jacob now sprawled on the ground behind a small solid rock ledge. Boo stayed at the very peak, ushering the others over. She waited until all of us were safely down then, looking back to the battlefield one last time, she dropped down to join us.
“Would someone please tell us what is going on?”
I looked to Schmidt. I guess this was as safe a place as any right now to try and explain a few things. I glanced at Boo. She was doing her best to monitor the action happening in the battle.
“You all remember landing in that cage and meeting the unicorn, right?” I asked tentatively. Hoping they would so it could save some time. All three frowned in thought. At least Jacob and Schmidt did. Jackie was impossible to read.
When they nodded, I was about to continue but Cremator cut in.
“Ooh! Can I tell it seeing as you don’t have a new name?” Cremator asked, exuberantly holding up a clawed hand as if I were a teacher and this was my classroom. “Miss John Doe?”
I shot her a flat glare. Cremator simply grinned and I shuddered at the sight of her vicious looking teeth. The others looked at me rather dumbfounded.
“Fine,” I said, sitting back. “Go ahead.”
“Yes! I was William, but my name’s Cremator, now,” the emerald dragon declared, her grin never fading. “You got new names from that unicorn too.”
I sighed and gave Cremator an exasperated look. “Really? That’s how you handle it?”
Cremator shrugged. “Gives them the option.”
When I didn’t respond quickly enough, she lightly punched me in the shoulder. I say lightly. She probably thought it was light. Thing is, dragons are strong and, judging from Cremator, rather boisterous. Deer are the exact opposite.
“Tell them their new names,” Cremator urged.
I drew in a breath and let it out in a long sigh. “Fine. Not that you needed to interrupt, I was getting there.”
I looked at the others and tried to explain further. “When the unicorn put the helmets on you to control you, he gave you all new names.”
Cremator, being my long-time friend and someone who clearly knew when tact was needed, leaned against my side, wrapped an arm around my shoulders and proceeded to point at each of the three in turn and announce their names. All while grinning, I might add.
Although, with Schmidt and Jacob, the ripping off the sticky bandage approach went over surprisingly well.
Schmidt shrugged and said, “Sounds good to me.”
Jacob simply nodded so fast he appeared to be vibrating.
I blinked away some of my astonishment, pointed at them with a hoof and asked, “You sure?”
“Shield Breaker is an awesome new name!” Jacob shouted. And, with energy and dexterity I wasn’t expecting, Jacob leapt up onto the ledge, struck an elegant pose, pressed a hoof to his chest and proclaimed, “I am now a unicorn. The most gifted of all the races in—”
Whatever he was going to say was lost when Boo jumped up, wrapped her body around Jacob, Shield Breaker, and hauled him heavily to the ground in our hiding spot.
“Stay down!” Boo hissed, glaring at Shield Breaker.
I looked to Boo. “You’ve been in the guard a while.”
Boo nodded. “Three years.”
“Shouldn’t you help the other guards out there?” I asked, pointing a hoof beyond the ledge.
Boo fixed me with a hard eye. “Keep civilians safe. Lieutenant’s words to me before mission started.”
She eyed Jackie and said, “Yak not easy to hide. Needed big hole.”
Jackie looked a little sheepish at that and did his best to shrink his massive frame.
Boo shook her head and patted Jackie’s side with a hoof. “Not an insult. I understand change can be very surprising.”
She looked over her shoulder at the battle beyond the ledge. “Many more down there. They will be just as shocked to be freed.”
Boo sighed and her whole body drooped. “If they live that long.”
“What do you mean?” Comet Streak asked, his tone rather subdued.
“I have seen many battles,” Boo said softly. “Ponies and others get hurt. Ponies and others die. Mostly because they aren’t ready.”
She looked at the four who had been under Sombra’s control. From Jackie to Shield Breaker, then Comet Streak and, finally Cremator. Her gaze lingered the longest on Cremator. “Were you ready when you woke up? When your helmet came off, were you still a fighter without him in control?”
I watched as the thought struck home in Cremator and she visibly deflated. It was the first time since meeting her properly as a dragon that I truly saw her reflect on an action and have the gravity of our situation really sink in. Cremator didn’t reply. She didn’t need to.
Boo looked to the ledge again. “All of you, you are former humans. I made sure to get you all, help you reach safety. Down there…”
She shook her head. “So many more. I only hope, when they awake, the other guards can stop themselves. This is not their fight. It is not their fault. Some I helped before finding you again. Others…”
She let her head droop. “The loss of any more like us, I will grieve them.”
The mood in our little safety nook grew very sombre. And, though slightly muted, we could hear the continuing clashes of bodies and the explosions of magic on the rocky field below. That was until another sound reached us. It started small and distant but rapidly grew in strength until an all-encompassing roar ripped at the air.
I looked to the sky in question, wondering what it could be. Maybe Cremator saw something we didn’t, because she was the first to react differently.
“Oh wow!” Cremator shouted as she leapt to her feet. Her eyes remained fixed on the sky as she grabbed hold of the ledge. Clearly her energy was back.
I looked up and my mouth dropped at what I saw. Dragons. Several dragons of different colours and sizes swept across the skies of the battlefield. All appeared bipedal much like Cremator. Speaking of Cremator, I glanced back to her as the other dragons joined the fight against Sombra’s winged forces.
“Yes! Yes! Yes!” Cremator chanted in excitement, her tail swishing back and forth while her body bounced from side to side. She even started to pump her fists in the air. I couldn’t help but giggle, Jackie laughed too. Cremator looked so much like a cheerleader dancing about as she cheered on her team.
Daring to know more, the others, ignoring Boo’s warnings, peeked their heads up over the ledge. I quickly joined them. What I saw was truly a sight. Where the wings of the guards had been holding their own against Sombra’s air forces, they now pulled them from the skies, the dragons taking to their task with the greatest enthusiasm.
I heard Boo sigh as she stood beside me. “This battle is done. The other side just needs to realise it.”
Moments later, the strangest thing I had yet seen occurred. All the tents and battlements which had once dotted much of the battlefield disintegrated, bursting into clouds of black smoke. The very same smoke which had taken the appearance of Sombra. The clouds came together and swamped the land in a rush, engulfing any of the continuing fights.
Just as quickly, the smoke washed back, leaving behind those already without helmets and all who had fought against Sombra’s forces. None of the dark unicorn’s current fighters remained. All had vanished within the smoke as it whipped away from the battlefield.
As Boo had said, it was over.
Transformation Tea trips, triumphs and tribulations.
Yey! 2 updates in one day
9942141
Speedy story slinging severely scrambles sleep.
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And now I get to rest and watch the end of this year's desert bus for hope donation drive (event now over until next year) while possibly playing some fallout 4 and thinking of how I want to handle the many things needing to happen in the next chapter... from Cremator's perspective. I'm scared.
Update - The test piece doesn't bode well for Cremator being P.O.V. Hope I can find a way for her still.
9942547
Those would be the tribulations.
I was thinking just now, had the ages of our protagonists been established? I dont think the first story mentioned them.
Edit: if I had to guess Jason and Jackie were minors (since it was mentioned William and John were chaperoning them to the con) and around 14-15 years? And John, Willian and Schmidt were on college so I'm guessing late 10's/early 20's?
9944975
You are right. I made them vague, mostly on purpose. Jackie and Jacob are in middle school (13 or 14) while John, William and Schmidt are in later high school years (17 or early 18).
Jacob and Jackie both age up to adult in the transformation, yet Jacob remains a blank flank. This is dealt with in a coming one-shot. William is the harder one to age post-transformation as he becomes a young dragon, similar in age to Smolder.
And, yep, my sister has generously shared her bug with me so it might be a bit before the next chapter. Sigh.
9945072
Heh, I guess I wasn't that far off, 1-2 years it seems. So post-Tf they would all be roughly the same age group as the mane 6 at this point in time? (I might be misremembering, fanon starts to bleed over canon after reading so many fics, but IIRC they were all 17-19 gap in the pilot episode and I remember reading somewhere the first 3 seasons take place in the span of a year more or less)
9945188
It wasn't intended but I think so. We will get an idea of how long this has been happening from other former humans rescued during the battle.
Mentally, I refer to the group at the moment as the Misfit 5.
Hadn't actually heard that theory for the first three seasons but that could make a lot of sense.
Interesting chapter, keep it up
9945239
Heh, the "Misfit 5" sounds fitting
Currently cursing myself while using this down time of being sick to re-read all of the story so far. Annoyed at the silly errors I missed and a continuity error I had to fix.
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It is very much a mess, some of it isn't resolved until the later arc 2, which is why my planning on the next chapter is a bit all over the place. It is getting there though.
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John is very mixed up at this point, but does try. However, the idea from her explanation sounds so weird as she tries to tell it to a soldier, he just brushes her off as being crazy without letting her fully explain it.
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Unfortunately, despite the fact that the story does slow in this point for a discussion, delving too deep into William's reasoning while there are major threats occurring around them stopped the story dead in the draft. As such, it will be coming to light more in a very specific short story. William is actually masking a few things through humour and it isn't making him friends.
Locking them up here is more of a precautionary move, particularly for William, as dragons, even with a coming moment in the story, are seen as wildcards. Spike being a very big exception. The fact they agree to do what is asked of them shows they are willing to prove themselves. Even though it is somewhat done under duress.
What Spears does is more like a form of temporary conscription in part from William and John having first hand knowledge of the teapot and also from him having very limited resources until reinforcements arrive. He is also executing the orders of his superiors who are not on site yet. Although, yes, he can be less of a frustrated jerk about it.
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On both points its not really the thing itself that is bad for them, but how it happens.
For William going by the name Sombra gave him seems like he's accepting a death of the self. If he came up with something himself that he finds appropriate it would be just fine, something I hope he does. For one it would be far more healthy to assert his own self rather than just submit to Sombra.
Spear putting them under guard would be acceptable, but here hes established himself as hostile. He could have simply said that due to them being affected by Sombra's magic they need to be watched for their safety and others, but Spear seems to have just made them slaves. For one he sounds like they've been condemned as bad/evil and they will be punished, and so they are prisoners who will be forced to fight. It would make more sense to try and be amicable, as that would encourage the people who havent actually done any wrong to cooperate but by punishing them he is saying he can't be trusted to have their good in mind. And if he is any indication other humans cannot trust the equestrian army either, given they will likely be made prisoners and sentanced likewise. Honestly he looks to have screwed up there, and unless he fixes that himself it looks like they have good reason to distrust ponies.
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Good points and I do agree with you. It is part of my approach to writing which is to let the characters act in the moment, if they realise it then and correct it is fine, but consequences will come from not acting, most of which will be addressed in coming either chapters or shorts. Some of them have made the structure for the coming chapter interesting to plan.
So is that all five of them freed? I don't think the story has ever outright listed the names of all five of them and how they are related. Also, hearing another one of them so gleefully take Sombra's name is just... seriously I hate it. There's no reason to take on the identity given to you by someone who abducted, transformed, and brainwashed you into being a slave. This is probably one of the few times I'll say that yes, you should change that. Reading a protagonist just give up on themselves and die is unappealing in the extreme given how they seem to be acting like this is all fine and dandy.
Now that they're all free (are they? Im not totally sure) they shoukd probably just flee the area entirely. The equestrians have already proven themselves unnecessarily hostile and cruel, not to mention they are also ponies like Sombra, who did mention in the previous story that ponies made the teapot. Based on how things have gone so far ponies in general have been rather terrible, I wouldn't put it past them to attack the misfit 5 once things calm down because they weren't in chains. They really have a huge bridge to gap if they actually want to be trusted, because as is the ponies seem to be almost as bad as Sombra.
Edit: it may seem like a small thing, but the names thing makes me want to drop the fic, because the protagonists just decided to die mentally. Basically that they hit a Bad End so there's no point in continuing reading. The story is fine aside from that.
9956716
Yes it is all five of them.
Jacob is a special case in this. First, he is young so he thinks the name is cool. Second, he is one of the two mlp fans in the group and so is rather excited to be, not only in this world, but a unicorn as well. He and Jackie were the only ones to recognise Sombra back in the cage, and he reacted with appropriate fear then. The helmets stop them remembering anything they did while under control, as evidenced by William waking up, and fogs much of their memory from immediately before the helmet is on, as evidenced by Schmidt's awakening. With Jacob waking up, he is thrown into a major adrenaline inducing moment which ends when gathered with the others and he encounters a child-like fantasy come true for himself. He doesn't yet grasp all the nasty things attached as he is too busy revelling in his discovery.
Jackie is not happy about it all even though she is an mlp fan.
Schmidt has his own reasons for wanting to break from the past. In truth, they all do. But, things will take time to play out.
It isn't the nicest introduction to another world for them and, with the group in total, only William and John have so far encountered both sides of things. In the case of Spears, one person having an incredibly stressful couple of days when thrown into such events with extremely limited believable information, isn't the be all and end all of every person of that race. There are explanations for his actions still to come. Note they are explanations NOT excuses. His actions still have consequences and those will come.
Access to information and point of view are major things in stories I write. We the readers sometimes forget that, when a point of view jumps from character to character, we are the omniscient ones, not the characters. They still deal only with what they have. It is also true for characters who only have access to limited information. Spears, to begin with, only goes on what he has. He does get some from his superiors later, but it is still not complete information and is also given orders to follow and a plan to put into action even though it isn't entirely following his personal ethics. Normally he wouldn't send out civilians on such a mission, but, if they are right about the teapot, they are the only ones not currently mind controlled, who knowingly have information on what the teapot even looks like. Their friends and family members also being a part of it all gives William and John a greater driving force to want to get hold of the teapot.
No story is perfect and I know this one definitely isn't, especially with how it came into being. I am doing much of this on the fly as a challenge to myself to see if I can do it. Yes, there are plans in place, but I still have to take into account that characters can take even the writer down paths unexpected. Spears is just one example of that.
A LOT of what arc 1 is actually doing is introducing everything, including many of the altered elements of the universe (as Jackie and Jacob will be able to note), and setting up for arc 2. The short stories that will come in between actually give us the chance to truly get to know the characters and watch them grow a little outside of the insanity of simply fearing for their lives as they do in arc 1.
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I get that, and its not what bothers me. Though the fact that you'd bring attention to it is a point in favor of you being a bit self aware, I think.
As I said before, if isn't what, but how that bothers the hell out of me. Jacob being a mlp fan and taking a cool sounding pony name sounds funny, but how they keep taking the slave names Sombra gave them seems (to me at least) degrading themselves without reason. It just pokes a pet peeve of mine is all.
9957418
Please edit your comments. This story is teen rated and falls under the rules of FiMFiction:
If you don't, I will have to delete them. Some of the language is not SFW. While I have no issue with profanity in every day life, in fact, compound swear words are a specialty in my country, but this is not the place for any of it.
"The words dived and dove are interchangeable as a past tense and past participle of the verb dive. Both verb inflections are used in American and British English; however, dove is an Americanism, and thus tends to be used more in American English."
Wikipedia
One more song
Haah, look at that, the 'Nein, nein, nein!' thing. It's such a cliché thing at this point, I'm not even mad about it. Anyway, that's certainly not a reaction I would expect from a 17 to 18-year-old. This is one of those situations where even I would start swearing.
Wow, that Denglish. I mean, German youth kinda tends to use English (and Denglish, for that matter) a lot, but... not like this. Mixing English and German is quite a lot more common than I make it out to be, but usually, it's either by use of words that don't exist in German, words meant for emphasis, or to sound hip and cool. This just seems like you watched one too many movies with Nazis in it.
"Former" sister? I mean, I'm all for accepting people wanting to be addressed by their new name and the gender they truly belong to, but this just seems wrong. And this is coming from a trans person.
Oh, for *fluffy bunnies* sake, the supremacy thing is even worse.
11016198
Dealing with these two together as the core of them are related:
It is more keeping the rating by not having them swear. That said, I do also substitute for entire other words in other cases though it tends to be character dependent. Regarding the moment itself in the story, Schmidt is trying to re-centre himself with coming off the whole mind controlling helmet. As such he is rather muddled. All while in a hectic situation. The characters all have a lot to process in a very limited amount of time in these two chapters specifically. We are also only getting John's point of view on things (excluding a few from William/Cremator before) up to this point. This changes soon in the chapters soon after.
Just know that I am not offended nor felt it to be an accusation when I say that I don't watch many movies with Nazis in them as they don't interest me. I find more interest in documentaries on a wide array of topics. Most recently was shipwrecks and then learning about nuclear accidents I hadn't heard of before.
This is something I am working on throughout the story. I am striving to show the growth of the characters in these aspects through the story as a whole, especially for John, Jackie and William. I am currently and have been working on these things with my own gender and related topics since before and during the writing of this story. It has been an ongoing adaptation both in the story and with my own situation. In the case of John as a character/person, at this point he/she is incredibly muddled and is mainly thinking along the lines of the physical state of a being. This will change as things settle down. Remember, it has not been an easy time for John to process it all while thinking mostly of survival and safety of him/herself as well as family and friends. This survival and safety drive is a large part of John's core being.
I will have to partly put the following in spoiler tags as part of it is for a future as yet unwritten chapter, but while Jackie does try to come to terms with her new physical state, she does come to the realisation that it doesn't represent how she views herself. I am sorry. This one hurts me too. I know that it will trigger some who have had a similar experience. I do try to make my characters feel as real as I can, even if they are living in such a fantasy setting, but know that I am not doing it with any malice. There are a lot of things which the characters are going through that I have either been through in the past or am currently going through and have placed this particular piece of my burden on Jackie to help myself work through it alongside her.
It is only a short time with this. It is his childishness coming through. Again the character is assessing things quickly, too quickly in fact. This is a large part of his story arc. In the moment of excitement laced with adrenaline, he was mentally jumping through the idea of now being a pony and then he has magic. There is more to it than that but in the simplest way of putting it, he had a bunch of wishes given to him all at once and he processed it as best he could. Unfortunately, to start with he didn't reach the best conclusion. Remember, as a human he is in his early teens and that his mind is still that old in this now early adult body. He will and does grow over the story. I'm actually working on one of the most important parts of his arc in the next couple of chapters that I am actively writing.