Hi. I know I should be working on the RWBY quest, but I just got a plot bunny that wouldn't...
No Rose Without Thorns [YJ/SI]
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Prologue
- Location
- Home
Hi. I know I should be working on the RWBY quest, but I just got a plot bunny that wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it.
This is not my first attempt at a Young Justice SI. But I think/hope this one will be better than the last one that turned into a mess for a variety of reasons I'm not going to get into here. Hopefully this one will be better.
This is likely going to be updated very infrequently, as it is currently my second priority to my RWBY quest, but I will try not to just randomly abandon it.
This chapter is kind of a mess. It's very stream of conciousness and show don't tell, which was kinda intentional as the SI is tunnel visioning. Also the grammar is likely horrendous as this was not beta-read by anyone by myself after I wrote it in a burst of plot bunny.
I hope you are at least intrigued by the insane mess you are about to read.
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I woke up to the worst hangover I have ever had in my entire life.
Well, worst and only hangover I have ever had in my entire life, because I've never been drunk enough to have a hangover. I'm not, like, one of those people that want to put prohibition back in place or anything, but I just can't bring myself to drink enough alcohol to get drunk. It's too bitter and kind of makes me want to puke. Same reason I can't drink coffee, though coffee is nominally lest disgusting. What was I thinking about again.
I try to move my head and the hangover hits me all over again with pain. Oh, right that.
The strange thing is that I don't remember drinking anything last night. All I was doing was writing my essay because midterms were coming up and for once I didn't want to be stuck in the grueling hell of essay writing that was midterms for English majors, doubly so if you also minored in classics and mythology like I was. I took a break last night to rewatch one of my favorite cartoons, Young Justice, alternating that with the latest season of subtitled Pretty Cure that I could finally get my grubby little mitts on. Stupid school laptops and their restrictions that don't make sense. I was alternating between the two and then-and then-?
Nothing, I don't remember anything after that.
My blood runs cold as I finally gain enough presence of mind to look around at my surroundings. I am at a park in the middle of the city. My black and purple rolling backpack that I had in high school sits next to me, complete with all my anime pins and where the zipper started to breakdown. I have on jeans and my mint green hellogoodbye t-shirt. That calms me down slightly. Yeah, it's not what I remember wearing last night, and yeah, I did wear it in both middle school and high school, but I'm super petite and I still wear it now.
I have my school hoodie from high school wrapped around my waist in the same way I remember doing it from back then. It even has the same stains on it from where I dropped avocado on it. I'm wearing a pair of gray sneakers and my curly hair is in a ponytail. I reach up and feel my cherry blossom clip that I got from an anime convention in it, and around my neck I wear a pink plastic light up Disney princess necklace. A familiar floral purse that I got from my mom for my 13th birthday is slung around my pathetically short torso like a messenger bag. I carefully open up the front pocket and want to sigh in relief because my current smartphone is in there, glittery case and all and not the crappy model I had back then.
The rest of the contents are not as relief inducing, being filled with pencils, pens, and my pink glasses case with my old blue and brown glasses inside, and a square covered in yellow plastic that can only be my pads.
My heart has sunk beyond all belief as I open my backpack and look inside. Binders, and folder, an old graphing calculator and a worn-down graphing calculator are what great me, along with one of my stuffed animals, curiously enough. It's a rabbit or cat looking thing that I jokingly named Ryo-Ohki after the cabbit from Tenshi Muyo. My oldest sister had gotten it at a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans and thought I would like it.
The thought of my sister makes me tear up a bit. I'm not dumb. I know I'm not lucid dreaming, and that the chances of me being kidnapped along with all this stuff is infinitesimal. I've read enough Self Insert Fanfiction and Asian Light Novels to know where this is going.
I'm almost certainly trapped in another world.
It's one thing to read about a plot. If something is written competently enough you are going to sympathize with the characters. You can feel bad for them going through absolute hell and celebrate with them when they triumph against their circumstances, but it's another thing to actually live a plot out yourself.
That wasn't something I think I ever truly realized until I was sitting on a bench in another world, dressed in clothes from my high school years and clutching my ratty backpack as I cried for those that I didn't think I'd see again.
I was sobbing big ugly cries, gulping tears. I knew the first thing you were supposed to do when you arrived in another world was to keep your head cool and be alert to your circumstances, but at that moment I couldn't do that. I couldn't think about the adventure or how cool it might be. All I could think about was how much and how many people I'd lost.
So, when a dirty maroon minivan pulled up on a street next to the park and a woman with short brown hair with graying roots got out. I didn't think. I wasn't thinking about traps, or power, or what I might have to do to change the world. I just grabbed the woman who looked like a younger version of my mom in a tackle hug and started sobbing into her shirt in relief, much to her unadulterated shock.
"Hey Lola, what's going on sweetie are you all right?"
I didn't care that I was stuck in another world, or younger, or anything, at all. I didn't care that my mom wasn't quite calling me by my own name.
I only felt warm and comforted, like everything would somehow be alright.
This is not my first attempt at a Young Justice SI. But I think/hope this one will be better than the last one that turned into a mess for a variety of reasons I'm not going to get into here. Hopefully this one will be better.
This is likely going to be updated very infrequently, as it is currently my second priority to my RWBY quest, but I will try not to just randomly abandon it.
This chapter is kind of a mess. It's very stream of conciousness and show don't tell, which was kinda intentional as the SI is tunnel visioning. Also the grammar is likely horrendous as this was not beta-read by anyone by myself after I wrote it in a burst of plot bunny.
I hope you are at least intrigued by the insane mess you are about to read.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I woke up to the worst hangover I have ever had in my entire life.
Well, worst and only hangover I have ever had in my entire life, because I've never been drunk enough to have a hangover. I'm not, like, one of those people that want to put prohibition back in place or anything, but I just can't bring myself to drink enough alcohol to get drunk. It's too bitter and kind of makes me want to puke. Same reason I can't drink coffee, though coffee is nominally lest disgusting. What was I thinking about again.
I try to move my head and the hangover hits me all over again with pain. Oh, right that.
The strange thing is that I don't remember drinking anything last night. All I was doing was writing my essay because midterms were coming up and for once I didn't want to be stuck in the grueling hell of essay writing that was midterms for English majors, doubly so if you also minored in classics and mythology like I was. I took a break last night to rewatch one of my favorite cartoons, Young Justice, alternating that with the latest season of subtitled Pretty Cure that I could finally get my grubby little mitts on. Stupid school laptops and their restrictions that don't make sense. I was alternating between the two and then-and then-?
Nothing, I don't remember anything after that.
My blood runs cold as I finally gain enough presence of mind to look around at my surroundings. I am at a park in the middle of the city. My black and purple rolling backpack that I had in high school sits next to me, complete with all my anime pins and where the zipper started to breakdown. I have on jeans and my mint green hellogoodbye t-shirt. That calms me down slightly. Yeah, it's not what I remember wearing last night, and yeah, I did wear it in both middle school and high school, but I'm super petite and I still wear it now.
I have my school hoodie from high school wrapped around my waist in the same way I remember doing it from back then. It even has the same stains on it from where I dropped avocado on it. I'm wearing a pair of gray sneakers and my curly hair is in a ponytail. I reach up and feel my cherry blossom clip that I got from an anime convention in it, and around my neck I wear a pink plastic light up Disney princess necklace. A familiar floral purse that I got from my mom for my 13th birthday is slung around my pathetically short torso like a messenger bag. I carefully open up the front pocket and want to sigh in relief because my current smartphone is in there, glittery case and all and not the crappy model I had back then.
The rest of the contents are not as relief inducing, being filled with pencils, pens, and my pink glasses case with my old blue and brown glasses inside, and a square covered in yellow plastic that can only be my pads.
My heart has sunk beyond all belief as I open my backpack and look inside. Binders, and folder, an old graphing calculator and a worn-down graphing calculator are what great me, along with one of my stuffed animals, curiously enough. It's a rabbit or cat looking thing that I jokingly named Ryo-Ohki after the cabbit from Tenshi Muyo. My oldest sister had gotten it at a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans and thought I would like it.
The thought of my sister makes me tear up a bit. I'm not dumb. I know I'm not lucid dreaming, and that the chances of me being kidnapped along with all this stuff is infinitesimal. I've read enough Self Insert Fanfiction and Asian Light Novels to know where this is going.
I'm almost certainly trapped in another world.
It's one thing to read about a plot. If something is written competently enough you are going to sympathize with the characters. You can feel bad for them going through absolute hell and celebrate with them when they triumph against their circumstances, but it's another thing to actually live a plot out yourself.
That wasn't something I think I ever truly realized until I was sitting on a bench in another world, dressed in clothes from my high school years and clutching my ratty backpack as I cried for those that I didn't think I'd see again.
I was sobbing big ugly cries, gulping tears. I knew the first thing you were supposed to do when you arrived in another world was to keep your head cool and be alert to your circumstances, but at that moment I couldn't do that. I couldn't think about the adventure or how cool it might be. All I could think about was how much and how many people I'd lost.
So, when a dirty maroon minivan pulled up on a street next to the park and a woman with short brown hair with graying roots got out. I didn't think. I wasn't thinking about traps, or power, or what I might have to do to change the world. I just grabbed the woman who looked like a younger version of my mom in a tackle hug and started sobbing into her shirt in relief, much to her unadulterated shock.
"Hey Lola, what's going on sweetie are you all right?"
I didn't care that I was stuck in another world, or younger, or anything, at all. I didn't care that my mom wasn't quite calling me by my own name.
I only felt warm and comforted, like everything would somehow be alright.
Knockout Rose 1.1
- Location
- Home
The plot bunny continues to jump around in my brain and not leave me alone until I write more. Here's the first real chapter. Completely unbetaed, I tried to be a little less stream of consciousness this time, but there are a few rants or just where I go on for a few paragraphs about something in way more detail than is needed. I hope you guys enjoy it still, I had a lot of fun writing it.
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I stand in a garden of roses, my gown brushes the earth as I walk, the roses seem to reach up to me like a cat that wants to be petted. I oblige it and it shivers in delight. I am about to move on to the next one when a royal guard approaches me.
He opens his mouth and the only sound that comes out is
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP
I pop open my eyes, wrested from my dream by the most annoying sound in existence.
My alarm clock.
I groan as I try desperately to hit the snooze button from underneath the warm blanket of my cocoon. Unfortunately, someone put it out of my immediate reach and I have to stick my head up from underneath my pleasantly warm cocoon and stretch my body over to reach it.
The button turns off with a satisfying click. My victory over my evil clock won, I am about to roll over and burrow into my warm cocoon again when the glowing red numbers of my clock penetrate my eyes.
7:15
My bus leaves at 7:30.
Now shocked awake by the terror that only comes from the possibility of being late to something, I flee into the shower for five minutes to wash my face and wet my hair and then spray on my deodorant and brush my teeth. My toiletry stuff done I race back to my room to grab a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, a bra, and shoes, before picking up my backpack and purse and racing downstairs for breakfast.
7:22
Crap. My bus stop is at least a five-minute walk. In lieu of actually eating cereal, I hurriedly pop a piece of bread in the toaster and nervously waited for the toast to pop out.
7:25
No time to wait. I hefted my backpack over one shoulder and stuck the toast in my mouth as I made a mad dash out the door for school.
"I'm late, I'm so late."
My name is Lola Stehling. I'm a perfectly normal 16-year-old girl. I have three older siblings all of whom are either in college or working, and I live with my Mom and Dad and our two cats.
I run up to the bus stop just in time to see the yellow monstrosity closing its doors. I hurriedly wave in the mirrors to get the bus drivers attention and dash to the front as the doors reopen. Relieved, I finally race through, hurriedly thanking the bus driver, and plop my butt down in the back row, spitting out my toast to eat it.
Well, I would be normal if it weren't for one thing. I'm not actually from this world.
I was a 21-year-old college student before being mysteriously transported to a parallel version of my world where it's only 2010, and there's superheroes from DC comics everywhere.
Honestly, one of the few really cool things about this is getting to live in DC comics. I always liked DC better than Marvel, I mean I liked marvel too, the MCU is the bomb and Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes and Spectacular Spider-Man were both great cartoons, but it never had the same hold on my heart that DC did. I mean I grew up watching the DCAU. I have distinct memories of sitting down to watch B:TAS with my dad, and I was obsessed with both Teen Titans and Young Justice. Even shows like The Batman stuck with me for a very long time. With Marvel on the other hand, I didn't really discover it till later and the themes and characters by and large never resonated with me as much.
Now did I still wait in line to see almost every MCU movie the same day it was released. Yes. Did I agree that the MCU is better than Snyder's DCEU other than Wonder Woman, up to when I last saw the movies? Also Yes.
But I'm getting off topic. Somehow, I arrived in a world where everything's the same, except I'm younger and there are actual superheroes.
Everything's basically identical after that. My family lives in Keystone City instead of where we lived before, but the actual events of my life and the people around me are all the same.
It's nice to be able to still live with some version of my family, even if they're not the exact ones I left behind.
The school bus pulls up to the drop off circle and everybody files out. I grab my bag and follow the rest of the students.
Repeating high school isn't that bad either. I mean, it's not great, and the fact that I'm actually 21 doesn't actually help me all that much because I either haven't looked at the information in a while or it's essay writing and you can't memorize the answers, but my high school years weren't so bad.
I went to a school that had a lot of focus on academics and fine arts and put so little focus on sports that we didn't even have a football team. It has a very small class size and there's very little bullying from the multiple hours of homework every night to even think about being mean to others.
By the time the day ends I am extremely happy to get out of there, and I race towards the bus to go home.
I'm lucky to be early enough today to snag my favored seat in the front. I set my backpack behind me and pull out my phone to read fanfiction.
Today I'm reading superhero RPF fics. It's highly amusing to read fanfiction about superheroes when the writers don't actually know who they are. I stop at a prime example of a hilarious one.
After being bitten by a radioactive bat, James Charles must manage his new powers to clean up the back alleys of his beloved Gotham City. But before he can fully put his attention on to stopping crime, he can't help being distracted by the dark and mysterious Kal-El, an alien from the planet krypton with almost god like power. Kal-El's one problem, his heats turn him on only to the brooding James. Will these two superheroes ever find love?
I mean what the hell? That's at least a little bit funny right?
As I settle down to read, a hair slips from my ponytail to the front of my face, annoyed I try to push it back in only to brush against the clip in my hair.
Right. That's the other weird thing.
Three items things that I had with me the day I was transported to this world, my cherry blossom hair clip, my Disney princess necklace and my stuffed animal Ryo-Ohki, can't be put away somewhere. If I try to put them farther than a five-foot radius from me for more than thirty minutes, they automatically teleport back to me.
I don't know what it means or anything, but I do know that if you are transported to another world and an item you were transported with refuses to leave, that item's probably important.
By the time the bus nears my stop I'm surprisingly engrossed in James and Kal's romance. The author is a much better writer than I thought they would be and I'm a bit reluctant to take a break.
Just as I'm contemplating the merits of my fanfiction, an eerie rumble comes from underneath the bus. That's the only warning we get before something explodes right in front of the bus searing my face and rocking me back.
When everything quiets down again everybody on the bus seems to be fine, much to my relief. Not to my relief, however is the fact that the front doors of the bus are fused together, and the Flash and Kid Flash are fighting some sort of gray sludge monster and a flying lady who seems to be able to create minor explosions out of her hands.
The kids at the back quickly pushed open the emergency exit door and sprinted out, with everyone else in the bus attempting to follow them. The bus driver also quickly stood up and walked, over to the door. I was the last person in line and before I got to do the door, my foot caught someone's abandoned backpack and tripped onto my face.
There was an unpleasant crunch as my nose started bleeding, but I desperately pushed myself off the ground as fear and adrenaline shot through me. I ran for the door, but just before I could make it through, another explosion hit the bus, this one hitting the back of the bus and blowing me back so that my head hit a seat with a sickening thud.
When I could open my eyes again, the entire back of the bus was sealed off. I was trapped.
I started to hyperventilate as the reality of my situation sunk in. I love comics, but I've never truly thought about what it's like to live in a world where superheroes fight supervillains every day. When you watch Superman vs Metallo, you would enjoy the fight choreography, it would never cross your mind what it's like to be sealed into a semi-destroyed bus as four metahumans fight each other.
The truth is it's terrifying. I couldn't get enough air through my lungs as the street rocked with every new explosion. I barely didn't puke in the scorching air of the bus as my mind couldn't help but go through scenarios of my death. I knew that in the comics the superheroes almost always win. But right then, it didn't feel like a comic. It didn't feel like a movie, or a cartoon.
It felt real.
Real in the way my head throbbed, and my eardrums rattled from the force of the explosions. Real in the way warm blood dripped down my nose and the back of my neck. I wanted to laugh. I wanted to cry. I wanted everything and nothing at all and to be anywhere but in that melted bus as I just hugged my knees and cried.
Eventually, the sounds of the fight quieted down, seemingly coming to a close, and a little hope fluttered into my chest as I felt that maybe I would make it out of this alive after all.
I was wrong of course. Not the part about making it out alive. The part about the fight being over.
I stood up and tried to look out of the buses massively warped windows to get a look at what was happening, when a grey tendril reached through the bottom of the bus and made a grab for me.
I fell backwards onto my ass, shuffling away from the tendril as fast as I possibly could.
The creature slowly squelched its gelatinous body through the hole it had created, and I got my first good look at the thing.
It was absolutely disgusting. It had about 12 eyes scattered throughout its dripping "face" and large pen mouth filled with fangs, and it seemed to have human shaped body parts scattered everywhere they were not supposed to be. An arm emerged from its forehead and ears and noses covered its middle. It was the grossest thing I had ever seen in my life.
"Sorry girlie, but we need a hostage to keep the Flashes away, and you're the closest one." Even its voice seemed to slosh around, like someone trying to talk with their mouth full of Listerine.
I did what any sane person would do in that situation. I screamed my head off.
Now this seemed to annoy it enough that he backed away from me, so I grabbed a random backpack and threw it straight at it nailing it in the eye.
I got a hit off on it, which was great, but that still didn't solve my issue of having no way out. There was no way I could squish through the hole it came through.
I backed up as far as I could, as my luck finally ran out and it recovered enough to try and grab me.
"I was willing to be nice earlier, but now you've just made me MAD!!!" With that he seemed to grow, the top of his indistinct form reaching the roof of the bus as I rolled to narrowly avoid his goopy tentacle, cutting my forehead on a piece of metal that was sticking out from the wall.
Oh God. I don't want to die. I don't want to die! I Don't Want to Die! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!!!
Iͨ̍͒̔̍͐̀̋̏̽͋ͫ̚͏͉͕͙̙̣̫̺̼̜̗͇͖̮̥͘͢ ̷̧̻̜̤̺̬̥̼̣̹̭̪̆̌̅ͨ̔ͮͦͯ̑͊̾̔ͬͦ̀͗̀͞͞ͅD̶̶̵̶̩͉͙͎̫͎̘̰̗̬͇̻̩̙͗̉ͨ̋͢Ǫ̡͍̙͇̺̯͇̺̰͇ͥ̏̃̈́͋ͥ̆ͯ̆̽͋͐̂͐̌̐ͯ̇͢͝N̡̲̘͔̟̈́̑̎ͤ̈́̈́͘͝'̴͙̭̬͈͎̰͎̘͍̮̱̜̤̞͛ͩ̌̍ͧ̽ͩ̊̓T̨̜̤̭̳͍͇̩̤̫̩̜̱̩̳̙̱̗̻̜̓͊̊ͨ̌ͯ͗́̈́̉̋̀͋̀̀ ̷̡̬̹̺͔̞̼̰̬̘̤̠̘̫̩͛̇̉ͯ̔̕͡ͅͅW̢̾ͥ̋ͤͦ̾̓̂̀͡͏̢̘̜͈̺̤̣A̪̯̮͇͇̒̏͒͒̀̊ͪ͆ͨ͑ͬ̈͗̉̈̀͞N̳̦͓̖̠͊͋͒̀́̀͒̈̓̄̿̓̎̾̕͢T̜͓̥̱̻͎̝̝͎̻̱̱͍̩͉̰͈̊̀̀̈́̈́̐ͤ̏ͪ̃ͧ̍̊̍̂̔ͥ͝ ̘̭͓̩̇̂͊ͫ͂̍͢͞T̵̴͓͕̻̱͖̞͗̈́͛ͨ́̾̇ͣ͊̊͗̃ͯ̈́͋ͦͯO̶̢͌̉ͣ͋͌̐̂͑ͦ͗̎ͨͪ̚͏͏̭͈̺̱̖̳̯̲̯̣̞̜̰̭̖̙ ̴̜̫̙͓̹̜̮̘͙̦͕̦̣̊̀̋ͩ͋͒̆͑͊̄̓̾́̕͘͡ͅD̷̵̰͔̰͕͎̬͉̞͚̠͖͕̯̝ͨ̿͋́̓̿͋͌̓ͣͥ̔ͯ̑̋͑ͯ͟͞͝Ĩ̖̤̳͚͈̬̄̄̽̉͆̐̃̔̀͡E̶̶̤͓̖̳̝͇̦͇̱̊̏͐ͤ̿ͤ̓͛ͥ̉̄͘͝ͅ!̵̱̜̟̯̭̗̰͇͖̻̝̟̟̟̌̆ͫͭ̃̇͛̉́̿ͫ̈́́͝͡!͋ͩ͂̀̚͏̵̳̭̲͕̯̰̯̰̖̱̰͈̠͜͠͝!̨̪̟̬̬̭̗̫̯̩̜͂̔ͫ̂̕ͅ!̵̸̭̠͍̻͈͕̪̳̯͚̣̪̌̂ͯ͒̅ͪ̆̈́̐̎͒̈́͌͑̾͂̓ͨ͘
My mind went blank of anything besides my fear and will to live as my head bent down and a drop of blood landed right onto my necklace and everything went pink.
It was a weird feeling, like lightheadedness, like watching someone else doing something even though you know it's you that's doing it. It's very detached.
After that drop of blood landed on my necklace, I stood up. I stood up calmly.
"What's this, finally accepted your fate and decided not to run away?" The thing moved its tentacles to capture me. But I punched it, the force of my punch splattering it everywhere."
"For even the most beautiful of things can be deadly, and those that look cute can kill, there are two sides to every story, and in this world, there can be no roses without thorns." The words rolled off my tongue like I had known them my whole life.
My hair turned a rosy pink and thorny vines grew up to encircle the pink dress I was now wearing. Rose vines cracked the asphalt of the street and the metal of the ruined bus trapping the creature within.
"Wh-what? What are you? What the hell are you doing to me?"
I ignored his questions as I extended my right hand to the side. A rose vine grew into the shape of a whip.
"I am the one who judges and redeems. She conveys both sides of the story. You have violated the natural laws of this earth, and I am here to punish you."
With that, I slash through him with one strike of my rose whip, ignoring his pitiful screams as he reverts back to a balding, middle aged human.
Instead I choose to stare at the ball of light in my hands, the black having nearly completely consumed the white. I carefully pluck the black from the ball so that it reverts to being completely equal shades of white and black and shove it back in his chest. I then take the excess black and carefully purify it before releasing it into the world, the rose vines disintegrating back into motes of light as the world tilts back into order.
My job being done, my clothes and hair revert back to normal and I slump onto my knees before passing out, overcome by the magnitude of what I had just done.
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Why yes she is a magical girl. This fic is about half a YJ self-insert and half a love letter to magical girl series which were the first type of anime I ever explored on my own. Every other show up to that point had been pretty much picked out for me by my brother and one of my sisters, both who were obsessed with anime.
I hope this chapter wasn't too confusing, if you couldn't understand what was going on please just comment down below and I will try to clear things up.
Comments are a writers bread and butter so just tell me anything, what you liked, what you hated, whether Lola is a Mary Sue, you know whatevs. Thanks for all your support.
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I stand in a garden of roses, my gown brushes the earth as I walk, the roses seem to reach up to me like a cat that wants to be petted. I oblige it and it shivers in delight. I am about to move on to the next one when a royal guard approaches me.
He opens his mouth and the only sound that comes out is
BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP
I pop open my eyes, wrested from my dream by the most annoying sound in existence.
My alarm clock.
I groan as I try desperately to hit the snooze button from underneath the warm blanket of my cocoon. Unfortunately, someone put it out of my immediate reach and I have to stick my head up from underneath my pleasantly warm cocoon and stretch my body over to reach it.
The button turns off with a satisfying click. My victory over my evil clock won, I am about to roll over and burrow into my warm cocoon again when the glowing red numbers of my clock penetrate my eyes.
7:15
My bus leaves at 7:30.
Now shocked awake by the terror that only comes from the possibility of being late to something, I flee into the shower for five minutes to wash my face and wet my hair and then spray on my deodorant and brush my teeth. My toiletry stuff done I race back to my room to grab a pair of jeans, a t-shirt, a bra, and shoes, before picking up my backpack and purse and racing downstairs for breakfast.
7:22
Crap. My bus stop is at least a five-minute walk. In lieu of actually eating cereal, I hurriedly pop a piece of bread in the toaster and nervously waited for the toast to pop out.
7:25
No time to wait. I hefted my backpack over one shoulder and stuck the toast in my mouth as I made a mad dash out the door for school.
"I'm late, I'm so late."
My name is Lola Stehling. I'm a perfectly normal 16-year-old girl. I have three older siblings all of whom are either in college or working, and I live with my Mom and Dad and our two cats.
I run up to the bus stop just in time to see the yellow monstrosity closing its doors. I hurriedly wave in the mirrors to get the bus drivers attention and dash to the front as the doors reopen. Relieved, I finally race through, hurriedly thanking the bus driver, and plop my butt down in the back row, spitting out my toast to eat it.
Well, I would be normal if it weren't for one thing. I'm not actually from this world.
I was a 21-year-old college student before being mysteriously transported to a parallel version of my world where it's only 2010, and there's superheroes from DC comics everywhere.
Honestly, one of the few really cool things about this is getting to live in DC comics. I always liked DC better than Marvel, I mean I liked marvel too, the MCU is the bomb and Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes and Spectacular Spider-Man were both great cartoons, but it never had the same hold on my heart that DC did. I mean I grew up watching the DCAU. I have distinct memories of sitting down to watch B:TAS with my dad, and I was obsessed with both Teen Titans and Young Justice. Even shows like The Batman stuck with me for a very long time. With Marvel on the other hand, I didn't really discover it till later and the themes and characters by and large never resonated with me as much.
Now did I still wait in line to see almost every MCU movie the same day it was released. Yes. Did I agree that the MCU is better than Snyder's DCEU other than Wonder Woman, up to when I last saw the movies? Also Yes.
But I'm getting off topic. Somehow, I arrived in a world where everything's the same, except I'm younger and there are actual superheroes.
Everything's basically identical after that. My family lives in Keystone City instead of where we lived before, but the actual events of my life and the people around me are all the same.
It's nice to be able to still live with some version of my family, even if they're not the exact ones I left behind.
The school bus pulls up to the drop off circle and everybody files out. I grab my bag and follow the rest of the students.
Repeating high school isn't that bad either. I mean, it's not great, and the fact that I'm actually 21 doesn't actually help me all that much because I either haven't looked at the information in a while or it's essay writing and you can't memorize the answers, but my high school years weren't so bad.
I went to a school that had a lot of focus on academics and fine arts and put so little focus on sports that we didn't even have a football team. It has a very small class size and there's very little bullying from the multiple hours of homework every night to even think about being mean to others.
By the time the day ends I am extremely happy to get out of there, and I race towards the bus to go home.
I'm lucky to be early enough today to snag my favored seat in the front. I set my backpack behind me and pull out my phone to read fanfiction.
Today I'm reading superhero RPF fics. It's highly amusing to read fanfiction about superheroes when the writers don't actually know who they are. I stop at a prime example of a hilarious one.
After being bitten by a radioactive bat, James Charles must manage his new powers to clean up the back alleys of his beloved Gotham City. But before he can fully put his attention on to stopping crime, he can't help being distracted by the dark and mysterious Kal-El, an alien from the planet krypton with almost god like power. Kal-El's one problem, his heats turn him on only to the brooding James. Will these two superheroes ever find love?
I mean what the hell? That's at least a little bit funny right?
As I settle down to read, a hair slips from my ponytail to the front of my face, annoyed I try to push it back in only to brush against the clip in my hair.
Right. That's the other weird thing.
Three items things that I had with me the day I was transported to this world, my cherry blossom hair clip, my Disney princess necklace and my stuffed animal Ryo-Ohki, can't be put away somewhere. If I try to put them farther than a five-foot radius from me for more than thirty minutes, they automatically teleport back to me.
I don't know what it means or anything, but I do know that if you are transported to another world and an item you were transported with refuses to leave, that item's probably important.
By the time the bus nears my stop I'm surprisingly engrossed in James and Kal's romance. The author is a much better writer than I thought they would be and I'm a bit reluctant to take a break.
Just as I'm contemplating the merits of my fanfiction, an eerie rumble comes from underneath the bus. That's the only warning we get before something explodes right in front of the bus searing my face and rocking me back.
When everything quiets down again everybody on the bus seems to be fine, much to my relief. Not to my relief, however is the fact that the front doors of the bus are fused together, and the Flash and Kid Flash are fighting some sort of gray sludge monster and a flying lady who seems to be able to create minor explosions out of her hands.
The kids at the back quickly pushed open the emergency exit door and sprinted out, with everyone else in the bus attempting to follow them. The bus driver also quickly stood up and walked, over to the door. I was the last person in line and before I got to do the door, my foot caught someone's abandoned backpack and tripped onto my face.
There was an unpleasant crunch as my nose started bleeding, but I desperately pushed myself off the ground as fear and adrenaline shot through me. I ran for the door, but just before I could make it through, another explosion hit the bus, this one hitting the back of the bus and blowing me back so that my head hit a seat with a sickening thud.
When I could open my eyes again, the entire back of the bus was sealed off. I was trapped.
I started to hyperventilate as the reality of my situation sunk in. I love comics, but I've never truly thought about what it's like to live in a world where superheroes fight supervillains every day. When you watch Superman vs Metallo, you would enjoy the fight choreography, it would never cross your mind what it's like to be sealed into a semi-destroyed bus as four metahumans fight each other.
The truth is it's terrifying. I couldn't get enough air through my lungs as the street rocked with every new explosion. I barely didn't puke in the scorching air of the bus as my mind couldn't help but go through scenarios of my death. I knew that in the comics the superheroes almost always win. But right then, it didn't feel like a comic. It didn't feel like a movie, or a cartoon.
It felt real.
Real in the way my head throbbed, and my eardrums rattled from the force of the explosions. Real in the way warm blood dripped down my nose and the back of my neck. I wanted to laugh. I wanted to cry. I wanted everything and nothing at all and to be anywhere but in that melted bus as I just hugged my knees and cried.
Eventually, the sounds of the fight quieted down, seemingly coming to a close, and a little hope fluttered into my chest as I felt that maybe I would make it out of this alive after all.
I was wrong of course. Not the part about making it out alive. The part about the fight being over.
I stood up and tried to look out of the buses massively warped windows to get a look at what was happening, when a grey tendril reached through the bottom of the bus and made a grab for me.
I fell backwards onto my ass, shuffling away from the tendril as fast as I possibly could.
The creature slowly squelched its gelatinous body through the hole it had created, and I got my first good look at the thing.
It was absolutely disgusting. It had about 12 eyes scattered throughout its dripping "face" and large pen mouth filled with fangs, and it seemed to have human shaped body parts scattered everywhere they were not supposed to be. An arm emerged from its forehead and ears and noses covered its middle. It was the grossest thing I had ever seen in my life.
"Sorry girlie, but we need a hostage to keep the Flashes away, and you're the closest one." Even its voice seemed to slosh around, like someone trying to talk with their mouth full of Listerine.
I did what any sane person would do in that situation. I screamed my head off.
Now this seemed to annoy it enough that he backed away from me, so I grabbed a random backpack and threw it straight at it nailing it in the eye.
I got a hit off on it, which was great, but that still didn't solve my issue of having no way out. There was no way I could squish through the hole it came through.
I backed up as far as I could, as my luck finally ran out and it recovered enough to try and grab me.
"I was willing to be nice earlier, but now you've just made me MAD!!!" With that he seemed to grow, the top of his indistinct form reaching the roof of the bus as I rolled to narrowly avoid his goopy tentacle, cutting my forehead on a piece of metal that was sticking out from the wall.
Oh God. I don't want to die. I don't want to die! I Don't Want to Die! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!!!
Iͨ̍͒̔̍͐̀̋̏̽͋ͫ̚͏͉͕͙̙̣̫̺̼̜̗͇͖̮̥͘͢ ̷̧̻̜̤̺̬̥̼̣̹̭̪̆̌̅ͨ̔ͮͦͯ̑͊̾̔ͬͦ̀͗̀͞͞ͅD̶̶̵̶̩͉͙͎̫͎̘̰̗̬͇̻̩̙͗̉ͨ̋͢Ǫ̡͍̙͇̺̯͇̺̰͇ͥ̏̃̈́͋ͥ̆ͯ̆̽͋͐̂͐̌̐ͯ̇͢͝N̡̲̘͔̟̈́̑̎ͤ̈́̈́͘͝'̴͙̭̬͈͎̰͎̘͍̮̱̜̤̞͛ͩ̌̍ͧ̽ͩ̊̓T̨̜̤̭̳͍͇̩̤̫̩̜̱̩̳̙̱̗̻̜̓͊̊ͨ̌ͯ͗́̈́̉̋̀͋̀̀ ̷̡̬̹̺͔̞̼̰̬̘̤̠̘̫̩͛̇̉ͯ̔̕͡ͅͅW̢̾ͥ̋ͤͦ̾̓̂̀͡͏̢̘̜͈̺̤̣A̪̯̮͇͇̒̏͒͒̀̊ͪ͆ͨ͑ͬ̈͗̉̈̀͞N̳̦͓̖̠͊͋͒̀́̀͒̈̓̄̿̓̎̾̕͢T̜͓̥̱̻͎̝̝͎̻̱̱͍̩͉̰͈̊̀̀̈́̈́̐ͤ̏ͪ̃ͧ̍̊̍̂̔ͥ͝ ̘̭͓̩̇̂͊ͫ͂̍͢͞T̵̴͓͕̻̱͖̞͗̈́͛ͨ́̾̇ͣ͊̊͗̃ͯ̈́͋ͦͯO̶̢͌̉ͣ͋͌̐̂͑ͦ͗̎ͨͪ̚͏͏̭͈̺̱̖̳̯̲̯̣̞̜̰̭̖̙ ̴̜̫̙͓̹̜̮̘͙̦͕̦̣̊̀̋ͩ͋͒̆͑͊̄̓̾́̕͘͡ͅD̷̵̰͔̰͕͎̬͉̞͚̠͖͕̯̝ͨ̿͋́̓̿͋͌̓ͣͥ̔ͯ̑̋͑ͯ͟͞͝Ĩ̖̤̳͚͈̬̄̄̽̉͆̐̃̔̀͡E̶̶̤͓̖̳̝͇̦͇̱̊̏͐ͤ̿ͤ̓͛ͥ̉̄͘͝ͅ!̵̱̜̟̯̭̗̰͇͖̻̝̟̟̟̌̆ͫͭ̃̇͛̉́̿ͫ̈́́͝͡!͋ͩ͂̀̚͏̵̳̭̲͕̯̰̯̰̖̱̰͈̠͜͠͝!̨̪̟̬̬̭̗̫̯̩̜͂̔ͫ̂̕ͅ!̵̸̭̠͍̻͈͕̪̳̯͚̣̪̌̂ͯ͒̅ͪ̆̈́̐̎͒̈́͌͑̾͂̓ͨ͘
My mind went blank of anything besides my fear and will to live as my head bent down and a drop of blood landed right onto my necklace and everything went pink.
It was a weird feeling, like lightheadedness, like watching someone else doing something even though you know it's you that's doing it. It's very detached.
After that drop of blood landed on my necklace, I stood up. I stood up calmly.
"What's this, finally accepted your fate and decided not to run away?" The thing moved its tentacles to capture me. But I punched it, the force of my punch splattering it everywhere."
"For even the most beautiful of things can be deadly, and those that look cute can kill, there are two sides to every story, and in this world, there can be no roses without thorns." The words rolled off my tongue like I had known them my whole life.
My hair turned a rosy pink and thorny vines grew up to encircle the pink dress I was now wearing. Rose vines cracked the asphalt of the street and the metal of the ruined bus trapping the creature within.
"Wh-what? What are you? What the hell are you doing to me?"
I ignored his questions as I extended my right hand to the side. A rose vine grew into the shape of a whip.
"I am the one who judges and redeems. She conveys both sides of the story. You have violated the natural laws of this earth, and I am here to punish you."
With that, I slash through him with one strike of my rose whip, ignoring his pitiful screams as he reverts back to a balding, middle aged human.
Instead I choose to stare at the ball of light in my hands, the black having nearly completely consumed the white. I carefully pluck the black from the ball so that it reverts to being completely equal shades of white and black and shove it back in his chest. I then take the excess black and carefully purify it before releasing it into the world, the rose vines disintegrating back into motes of light as the world tilts back into order.
My job being done, my clothes and hair revert back to normal and I slump onto my knees before passing out, overcome by the magnitude of what I had just done.
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Why yes she is a magical girl. This fic is about half a YJ self-insert and half a love letter to magical girl series which were the first type of anime I ever explored on my own. Every other show up to that point had been pretty much picked out for me by my brother and one of my sisters, both who were obsessed with anime.
I hope this chapter wasn't too confusing, if you couldn't understand what was going on please just comment down below and I will try to clear things up.
Comments are a writers bread and butter so just tell me anything, what you liked, what you hated, whether Lola is a Mary Sue, you know whatevs. Thanks for all your support.
Crusader Jerome
Subsisting on Supplication
- Location
- My home away from Rome
The events themselves were pretty clear; it's the background, motivations, and such that are unclear. As shown in the chapter, the villains are basically throw-away characters to force the Lola into a combat stress situation. This is not necessarily bad, but having them appear later to play some part in the plot would increase narrative cohesion.
There's a lack of protagonist agency as well. Transformation-induced autopilot is an acceptable trope, but it's unsatisfying if the incident ends with a curbstomp that didn't take any effort. I would suggest having Lola come to before the confrontation ends. There should be some interaction with Flash and Kid Flash as well.
There's a lack of protagonist agency as well. Transformation-induced autopilot is an acceptable trope, but it's unsatisfying if the incident ends with a curbstomp that didn't take any effort. I would suggest having Lola come to before the confrontation ends. There should be some interaction with Flash and Kid Flash as well.
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- She/They
That's your first response to waking up in a park with a headache? Rather than "oh shit I've been roofied."
- Location
- Massachusetts
probably not, but does anyone want to read another chapter mostly filled with tired variations of how impossible this all was and blah blah blah...honestly thats one of the many reasons why reincarnation fics are better than drop in fics when it comes to si's.
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- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- She/They
Oh I don't know, a Shawn of the Dead style opening where you just ignore all the blatant superhero stuff around you would be pretty funny and I don't think I've seen it.
So once you do realize your stuck in a super hero world you would hang out at a pub and drown your sorrows till you die?
This sounds like a completely rational and sane plan /totally serious.
- Location
- United States
- Pronouns
- She/They
Honestly, yeah. It's basically the real world but with more terrorist attacks and you don't have a legal identity. Heavy drinking is probably the most realistic response.