Plastered Paradox

Chapter 18

Roman Torchwick sighed as he let the warm water cascade over him. In an instant, he felt all his fatigue drain away.

"Damn kids…" he muttered to himself.

That was harsh, of course – Roman didn't dislike Ruby and Yang any more than he disliked Neo; in fact, he actually quite liked them, even if they could be a bit too much at times. If nothing else, they were good students – in fact, he'd already succeeded in teaching them how to pickpocket people successfully by having Ruby pretend to fall down on the sidewalk and start crying, then have Yang sneak up on the unsuspecting victim and pluck their wallet as they tried to help Ruby. He had to admit that the two of them had a talent for shenanigans, though he knew Summer wouldn't approve if she learned what they'd been up to.

But he didn't care, because it served her right for dumping them on him with no warning. As far as he was concerned, this was his way of bonding with the two of them, and it was totally worth the inevitable asskicking she was going to give him once she found out about it.

Roman shook those thoughts away, instead reaching for his cigar and lighting it, then taking a long drag.

"Ah, the shower cigar," he mused to himself. "Is there a greater pleasure in the world? I think not."

"I can think of at least a few things," Ozpin interjected.

Roman scowled, then brought a hand up to thump the side of his head. "Quiet, old man. Don't go trying to ruin my tranquility."

"I hate to tell you this, Roman, but I think your tranquility is already ruined."

"What do you mean?"

"Three… two… one."

Right on cue, a portal opened directly under the shower head. Roman yelped and fell backwards, his back impacting against the tile and his cigar slipping from his mouth. From out of the portal came the four people he least wanted to see at the moment.

"Roman, my man," Jaune said, uncaring of how the shower was soaking him and how he was stealing all the warm water. "Got a favor to ask of you."

Roman could only scowl.

"Alright, I'll bite," Roman said as he stood there, a bath towel wrapped around his waist and his hair soaking wet, with the lamp in his hands. "What the hell is this thing?"

"It's a divine butt plug," Raven deadpanned. "You shove it up your ass and it gives you the prostate massage to end all prostate massages. I'm sure you'll love it."

"Ha-ha. But seriously, what is it?"

"It's the Relic of Knowledge," Jaune answered. "All you need to know is that it's an instrument of the Gods and we can't let Salem have it. Also, it attracts Grimm."
Roman immediately placed the Relic on a nearby table.

"Before this goes any further, I'd like to lodge a complaint," Cinder began. "I've seen entirely too much penis in one day. First Jaune, then Roman. I'm starting to wonder if I should call the cops on you people."

"Therapy would probably help with that," Jaune said. "Unfortunately, the only therapist I can think of is Ozpin, and all he did was put on a fake mustache and ask you about your mother. So we should probably look into getting a real therapist for you, since you're most likely going to need it."

"There aren't enough therapists in the world for us," Qrow interjected. "Believe me, I've been looking. I tell them I'm a Huntsman and they all start hyperventilating and then hang up the scroll."

"Welp, guess you're just going to have to deal with it like us men," Jaune said.

"You mean drink myself into a coma, lift heavy weights, and pretend like I don't actually want to kill myself?" Cinder asked.

"Pretty much."

"That's stupid. No wonder you guys have such a high suicide rate."

"That's us dudes for you – we're overachievers at everything, even if it kills us. Anyway, Roman, can we trust you to take care of this Relic for us?"

"I mean, sure," Roman said with a shrug as he lit up another cigar. "Where do you expect me to put this thing, anyway?"

"Oz should have a place for it," Jaune told him. "He moved one of the Relics to a place nobody would think to look, apparently."

"Shouldn't you know where that is?" Raven asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I do, but I'm not going to say it aloud, because the less people that know about it, the better. Hell, you should probably move it somewhere else where even I won't know about it, Oz – I like to think I'm resistant to torture, but even I have my limits, and I wouldn't trust myself with keeping that a secret if Salem ever got her hands on me."

"We'll do it," Roman promised.

"Alright, cool," Jaune said. "Now, you should probably go get dressed. We have some other things to discuss."

"Sure. Wait for me down at the bar."

"Jaune-" Cinder began, only for Jaune to hold up his hands in surrender.

"I know, I know," he said. "I'll tone it down, just for you and Raven. You don't need to worry about me, Cin – I'll cut back from now on."

"Thanks, that's-" Cinder paused. "...Did you just call me Cin?"

"Yeah. Do you not like it?"

"No, it's… um… it's nice, having a nickname," she admitted, a blush creeping across her face.

"Yeah, that's nice and all, but we should probably head downstairs so Roman can get dressed," Raven interrupted. "Unless you all want to see him naked again."

They all immediately left the room, heading downstairs for the bar.

The instant they made it down to the bar, Jaune became aware of a big flaw in his plans to come back to Vale.

Namely, that he hadn't accounted for Ruby and Yang being here, too.

It took them all of about half a second to realize that Qrow was there, and then they were in his arms, laughing happily and calling his name. Qrow stumbled under the sudden weight, but managed his balance even as Ruby and Yang crawled all over his upper body, like a pair of monkeys on a tree.

Finally, after a few seconds of this, they both took notice of the rest of them, and Ruby looked back to Qrow with wide, confused eyes.

"Uncle Qrow, who are they?" she asked.

"Hng!" Jaune couldn't help but gasp as a hand flew to his chest.

"What's with you?" Cinder asked.

"I didn't expect smol!Ruby to be so adorable… regular Ruby is already basically a puppy in human form, this is just downright unfair. My heart's about to give out from the sheer sugary sweetness of it."

"Hey," Yang suddenly announced. "That woman kinda looks like me."

Raven blinked, then tried to step behind Jaune. He rolled his eyes and stepped away, leaving her exposed.

"Uh-uh," he deadpanned.

"Don't do this to me," Raven begged.

"Raven, come on. You can't hide from her forever. Sooner or later, you're going to have to actually acknowledge her existence."

Raven stared at him in open-mouthed shock, then looked back to Yang. She let out a breath, then brought a hand up to rub at the back of her head.

"I'm… Qrow's sister," she ventured.

Immediately, Yang and Ruby's eyes went wide with excitement. "We have an auntie!" Ruby said excitedly, only for it to die as fast as it came. "But wait, how come we've never met you?"

"Well, you see-"

"Raven's been away on a super-secret mission for the past few years," Qrow volunteered. "She hasn't had time to come to Vale until now. Yang met her once, when she was really young – emphasis on 'once'."

"Qrow," Raven growled through gritted teeth.

"Anyway, that's about it for Raven," Qrow said, unperturbed. "Have you two met Cinder yet?"

Instantly, their eyes went to Cinder. Cinder shrank back a bit, clearly uncomfortable, but Jaune was quick to put a hand on her shoulder.

"Easy, now," he said gently. "They're five and seven. They're not gonna bite."

"Easy for you to say," Cinder snapped. "You have no idea what my last relatives were like."

"Given that you were wearing a shock collar and felt the need to burn their house down, I can guess. Trust me, Ruby and Yang aren't like that."

Ruby cautiously approached Cinder, a thumb in her own mouth. "...Cousin?" she asked carefully.

Cinder looked to Jaune for guidance, and he nodded. She sighed, then turned her attention back to Ruby.

"Yes, I suppose that's about what we would be, though admittedly it's hard to keep track given how weird this family is," Cinder answered.

That was all Ruby needed to hear. She let out an excited squeal, then wrapped her arms around Cinder's legs and began to babble about how excited she was to have a cousin and how they were going to be best friends. She gave Jaune a desperate look of discomfort, but he just smirked at her, and she scowled back.

Yang, meanwhile, was still staring at Raven in awe. Jaune noticed that Raven had again stepped behind him, and gave a small sigh before stepping away from her again.

"Seriously, Rae, she's seven," Jaune deadpanned. "What's the worst that could happen?"

"Aside from Summer finding out I'm talking to her?" Raven whispered to him under her breath.

"Alright, admittedly, that'd be pretty bad," Jaune whispered back. "But come on, would it kill you to just play along for now? We're not gonna force you to tell her anything you don't want to, but the least you could do is indulge her a little bit."

Raven gave him a hesitant look, then sighed before turning her attention back to Yang. "What do you want, kid?"

"What kind of missions do you go on?" Yang asked.

"The kind I can't talk about."

"That's dumb."

"Yeah, well, that's Ozpin for you."

"What's an Ozpin?"

"A creepy old man who has as many secrets as he does hairs on his head. I'd tell you to hope that you never meet him, but you kinda already have, so it's a bit late for hoping at this point."

Yang blinked. "...How do you know Mommy and Daddy, exactly?"

Raven was unimpressed. She looked back to Jaune. "Alright, look, I'm willing to play along, but she's just straight-up asking me loaded questions now, and that's bulls-"

"Language," Jaune warned.

"-That's dumb," Raven said, the distaste palpable in her voice. "The kid's too smart for her own good."

"She must get that from the blonde half of the family," Qrow mused, earning a glare. "Oh, come on, you set me up for it."

"Whatever," Raven said. She crossed her arms.

Yang's gaze suddenly drifted to her sword. "Is that your Huntress weapon?"

"First off, I'm not a Huntress. Second off, what do you think it is? And I was just doling out compliments, too."

"Don't mind her, Yang," Jaune interjected. "She's just a little crabby because she didn't get much sleep last night."

"Tch." Raven uncrossed her arms. She looked back towards Yang. "Alright, kid, I'll be honest – I'm kinda new at this whole dealing-with-children thing. I don't know what kids do for fun, and frankly, I don't want to know. Given who's raising you, I probably wouldn't approve of whatever it is, anyway. So, I'm just gonna ask this once – is there anyone you need me to beat up? Because I can do that just fine."

Yang blinked, surprised. "I mean, there's that Cardin kid who lives down the street from us-"

"No wailing on small children," Jaune deadpanned, reaching out to grab Raven's collar as she tried to walk by him.

"He messed with my dau- er, niece, Jaune," Raven pointed out.

"Uh, I said you can't wail on him," Jaune pointed out. "I didn't say you can't egg his house, leave a bag of flaming Zwei crap on his doorstep, and slash his dad's tires."

"Good point," Raven acknowledged. "Excuse me, I need to step out for a few hours."

Raven shrugged her hand off Jaune's shoulder, then stepped outside. Jaune watched her go, but didn't try to stop her this time, because he knew that stopping a Raven that was properly motivated to do violence was impossible.

"Alright, kids," he announced, getting their attention. "Roman, Qrow, and I need to discuss some things, so we're gonna need you all to make yourself scarce for a bit."

Cinder's eyes narrowed. "You're leaving me out again, aren't you?"

"Hey, someone has to watch over these two teeny boppers."

"Neo can do that," Roman volunteered. "Since I've got the other two. And so can the Malachites, for that matter."

Jaune blinked. "...The Malachites are here? Why have I not seen them yet?"

"They were probably busy training or something. How should I know?"

"Alright, well, you can bring them out, I guess – Cinder needs some friends close to her age."

"Do I really?" Cinder asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, you do," Jaune announced. "You're maladjusted enough simply because you're traveling with us. I'm not going to mess you up any further by not letting you make friends."

"But what if I don't want friends?"

"Too bad, you're getting them."

Neo suddenly appeared next to Roman. He put a hand on her shoulder and motioned towards Cinder. "Hang out with her again, would you?" he asked. "And keep an eye on the little ones. Oh, and see if the Malachites are around, too – maybe Cinder can stop them from turning into the complete bitches that Junior's setting them up to be."

"Swear!" Ruby declared.

Roman sighed tiredly, then plucked a lien card out of his pocket and dropped it in a nearby jar. Jaune stared at him, amused, and Roman gave another sigh.

"Alright, I'll admit it – the little ones are rubbing off on me, okay?"

"I thought you hated kids except for Neo," Jaune pointed out.

"I do, but Ruby and Yang are the exception, in addition to Neo… and Cinder, I guess, but only because she's following in your footsteps."

"Good to know." Jaune turned back towards the kids, then waved them off. "Out, all of you. Go do something fun while we discuss boring adult things."

"And that doesn't mean beating up homeless men or stealing things, Neo!" Roman called as she took Ruby and Yang by a hand each and led them into one of the back rooms. The door closed behind them, and once it did, Roman turned back towards Jaune. "Alright, what's going on? I know you need me to watch over the Relic."

"That's true, but what I really need to know is where we can go next," Jaune said. "The plan now is to obtain the rest of the Relics, and also convince the world to cooperate with each other."

Roman blinked, surprised. "...Shit, we really are going all-in on this, huh?"

"You know it," Qrow grunted. "Of course, now that we're done in Mistral, we're at a bit of an impasse. Namely, we're not sure where to go next, because we haven't thought of it, and the reason we haven't thought of it is that I don't think any of us expected we'd actually make it this far in the first place."

"Hm…" Roman brought a hand up to his chin in thought. "The way I see it, you've got three options. The Relic in Vale is safe – Salem is never gonna find it, or so

Oz tells me. So you don't have to worry about that one. That leaves Vacuo, Atlas, or Menagerie."

"Menagerie?" Qrow asked, surprised. "We're going there? They don't have a Relic."

"No, but they're one-half of the people we need to convince to cooperate with Atlas if we're going to call the Gods down and not have them immediately give Remnant a big ol' cosmic enema," Jaune pointed out. "And that's going to be hard to do, since it looks like Sienna Khan's faction of the White Fang is not only accumulating more power quickly, they're also radicalizing quickly, too."

"Well, I suppose that makes your next objective clear, doesn't it?" Roman asked as he lit up a cigar. "If the White Fang are that much of a problem, you're just going to have to put a stop to them before they can really start causing issues."

"Right, but that lets Salem make moves unopposed," Jaune pointed out. "While we're fucking around with the White Fang, she could be advancing on Vacuo or Atlas. And if she does that, well, she won't half-ass it like she did in Mistral."

"That was half-assing it?" Qrow asked, surprised.

"Oh, yes. In my timeline, when she attacked Atlas, she did it herself, leading from the frontlines, and she brought a big fuckoff-huge flying Grimm whale that spawned other Grimm to help her do it. Needless to say, Atlas got absolutely turbo-fucked right up its frigid winter asshole."

"A flying whale, you say?" Roman asked. "Why does that make me want to listen to heavy metal…?" He shook his head. "In any case, if Salem does end up getting a Relic… well, I hate to say it, but we're probably just going to let her have one. Fixing the tensions between Atlas and Menagerie is too important to put off for much longer. If she takes that time to grab a Relic for herself, then so be it, we'll just save that one for when we assault her castle directly."

"Wait, time out," Qrow interjected. "Nobody ever said we'd be doing that."

"That ought to have been implicit when I brought up the concept of gathering the Relics," Jaune said, crossing his arms. "Salem knows we're after them. I doubt she knows that we're aware of their true purpose, but she at least knows we want them and the Maiden powers to go with them. She's not going to sit idly by while we go on a scavenger hunt for them."

"Still, that would have been nice to hear stated outright at some point before now."

"You bitching out on me, Bird-Man?"

"Fuck no, dude. I'm just saying, is all."

"Alright, yeah, I guess you've got a point," Jaune conceded. "Still, I guess that settles it – we go to Menagerie first and pray that Salem doesn't hit us too hard."

"This is gonna be an unmitigated disaster," Qrow lamented. "Four humans, going to Menagerie? That's like… well… four Faunus going to Atlas."

"It's fine," Jaune assured him.

"How so?"

"I still have those cat ears for Raven."

"Fuck off."

"Honestly, I'm surprised that you're willing to deal with them," Cinder said.

Neo simply gave her a smug look over her shoulder, as if to say that she took joy in seeing the young girls make Cinder nonplussed. Currently, Ruby was riding on Neo's shoulders, and Yang was chatting with the Malachite sisters, who were trailing behind them.

"-And then Mom came out of nowhere and shoved her sword right through the Beowolf's skull!" Yang proclaimed, a wide grin showing off two missing front teeth. "What do you think?"

The twins – who Cinder still couldn't really tell apart; all she knew was that one was Melanie and the other was Miltia, and that they were apparently color-coded, though she hadn't bothered to learn which color was worn by which – were barely paying attention to Yang's story, instead continuing to walk dismissively. Yang didn't seem to care, however.

"Ah, well," Yang said with a shrug. "You older girls are no fun. Except for you, Cinder."

"You barely even know me," Cinder pointed out.

"Yeah, but you hang out with Uncle Qrow, so that means you're cool. You're like Neo, only even cooler."

Neo turned back towards Yang, a scandalized look on her face. Ruby reached down and gave her a pat on the head.

"Don't worry, Neo!" she chirped. "One day, you'll get to hang out with Uncle Qrow too, and then you'll be really cool!"

Neo pouted. Behind them, the twins scoffed.

"Whatever," they said in unison.

"Would it kill you two to show a bit of compassion to the literal children we're supposed to care for right now?" Cinder asked.

"Kids are, like, so uncool," the one in red said dismissively.

"Miltia, we should just head back to the club, already," the other one, who had to be Melanie, added. "This is such a drag."

"You can go ahead and do that," Yang stated. "Just know that it means you won't get your wallets back if you do."

Melanie and Miltia stared at her in surprise. After a moment, they both checked their pockets, then glared at her. Their glares only intensified when Yang reached into her own pocket and came back with a red wallet and a white wallet.

"You little brat!" both twins shouted.

Neo began to silently laugh, and Cinder felt a smirk cross her face.

"Yang, give the twins their stuff back," she said.

"It's not funny!" Melanie stated through gritted teeth.

"I dunno. You two just got pickpocketed by a seven-year-old. That's pretty damn funny, if you ask me."

"Swear!" Ruby shouted.

"Sure, sure," Cinder said. "Yang, toss me some of Miltia's lien. I'll throw it in the jar when I get back to the club."

Yang threw her a one-lien card, which Cinder caught between two fingers and then held up to show the Malachites. "So, what's one lien worth to the two of you?" she asked. "Because I'm bored, and Jaune always says that the best way to get to know somebody is to fight them. Do you two feel like fighting?"

Melanie glared at her. "You're lucky that Junior ordered us to lay off," she growled. "C'mon, Miltia. Let's get out of here."

The twins immediately turned and began to storm back to the club. Yang watched them go before looking back towards Cinder, stars in her eyes. "So cool~" she said.

"But wait, cousin Cinder, didn't your dad want you to make friends with those two?" Ruby asked.

"He's not actually my dad," Cinder explained. "Though I'll admit he's doing a much better job of playing that role than I thought he would. But yes, he did say that, I suppose… he just probably didn't expect the Malachites to be such utter jerks. I'd rather be alone than be friends with them."

"But you're not alone!" Ruby whined. "You have me, and Yang, and Neo!"

"Do I, now?" Cinder asked playfully.

"You do! Right, Neo?"

Neo nodded, then with one hand, took out her scroll and typed on it, then showed it to Cinder.

'You're better with kids than you might think.'

Cinder shrugged. "This is a walk in the park compared to what I dealt with before Jaune found me. I was expecting these two little gremlins to be a lot more horrible than they actually were, to be honest."

"Hey!" Yang protested. "We're not gremlins!"

"What's a gremlin?" Ruby asked.

"It's what you two are," Cinder said. Yang puffed her cheeks out at her, clearly annoyed, and Cinder chuckled. "Come on, you just stole two wallets. If that's not gremlin behavior, I don't know what is."

"If they didn't want to be stolen from, they shouldn't have been such easy targets," Yang said with a huff.

"Wow, Roman is really rubbing off on you two, isn't he?" Cinder asked.

"Uncle Roman's the best!" Ruby announced. "He's like Uncle Qrow, but different! He's so much fun!"

"Don't let your parents hear you call him Uncle Roman," Cinder warned. "I'm not sure how much they'll appreciate that."

'They just haven't met him yet,' Neo typed.

"Yes, and we should probably keep it that way, for his sake."

They all continued walking down the street. Cinder wasn't sure where they were headed, but she didn't really care – Jaune had told her to spend time with these three, so she would, if only to keep him happy.

Out of the corner of her eye, Cinder suddenly saw movement. She instantly turned around, her hand on the hilt of her sword, only to pause when she saw nothing was there.

"Something wrong?" Yang asked.

"Just thought I saw something," Cinder said, pulling her hand off her sword.

Yang rubbed her chin in thought. "Hm… you know, I saw something too, come to think of it…"

"I thought I saw something," Ruby added.

'Same,' Neo typed.

Cinder frowned. "Well, something is going on, here. The only question is-"

She was suddenly cut off by a low sob coming from a nearby alley. Cinder immediately paused, listening in closer. That was definitely someone crying, she realized – a little girl, by the sound of things. Confused, she drew closer to the alley, and was shocked to see a small child wearing little more than rags trying to hide behind a dumpster, and failing miserably.

"You three wait here," she ordered. They complied, and she drew closer to the small girl huddled behind the dumpster.

"Hey," Cinder said. The girl flinched, but didn't react otherwise. "You okay?"

"J-just hit me and be done with it…" the girl managed to get out between sobs. "I deserve it…"

"Why would you deserve it? You didn't do anything."

"I… made you see things," she said.

Cinder blinked, surprised. "Was that your Semblance just now? The thing that made us all see movement?"

The girl let out another small sob, then nodded. Cinder's frown deepened. "Why would I hit you for that?"

The girl didn't say anything. Cinder drew in closer, and she flinched, then pulled her legs into her chest. Idly, Cinder noted that the girl's dark skin was pockmarked with bruises and shallow cuts. "Who gave those to you?" she asked.

"People," came the response. "When I try and… steal from them."

"She's a thief!" Yang called. "Arrest her, Cinder!"

"Yang," Cinder gently chastised as the girl flinched at Yang's tirade. Cinder looked back to her, doing her best to put on a warm smile. It felt unnatural. "What's your name?"

"E-Emerald," the girl replied. "Emerald Sustrai…"

"Emerald," Cinder repeated. "That's a pretty name. Tell me, Emerald, do you have parents we can bring you to? They must be worried sick."
Emerald shook her head. Cinder was unperturbed. "No parents, hm? We have that in common."

Emerald looked up to her in surprise. "You… you're like me?"

"I suppose." Cinder offered her a hand. "Why don't you come with us, Emerald? You look like you could use something to eat."

Emerald shrank back, suddenly panicked. "I can't repay you!"

"It's on me, no need for repayment," Cinder insisted. She offered her a hand again. "C'mon. I'll take you somewhere nice."

Emerald stared at the offered hand, then hesitantly accepted, and her and Cinder stepped out of the alley together.

"Not to say I don't appreciate you doing something nice for the underprivileged youth of Vale, but I can't exactly afford to run a charity, you know," Jaune said.

Cinder glared at him. "She's, like, nine years old, Jaune. That's not much of a charity."

"Cinder, she's already eaten five extra large bowls of ramen. I'm not sure how much more my meager wallet can take."

Cinder looked back towards the noodle stand and took note of the massive pile of bowls surrounding Emerald. Yang and Ruby were watching in awe. She frowned, then looked back to Jaune. "...Point taken," she conceded. "But still, Emerald's not that bad."

"No, she's-" Jaune paused. "...Shit, that really is Emerald, isn't it? She's so small and cute that I didn't recognize her at first, but she's got it all – the green hair, the red eyes, the illusion Semblance… fuck me, I'm really off my game now that I'm relatively sober, aren't I?"

"You know her from your timeline?" Cinder asked, surprised.

"Yup," Jaune said. "And say no more – she's with us, now. Well, more specifically, she's with Roman, because we can't exactly afford to take a nine-year-old with us."

"I don't know if he'll appreciate that."

"You kidding? Emerald is like a kindred spirit to him. I take it you met her when she tried to pickpocket you?"

"That was how she explained it," Cinder admitted. "She tried to distract us with her Semblance, then was going to pickpocket us when we weren't paying attention. Of course, it fell apart because she had to use her Semblance on four people at once, which apparently gave her such a bad migraine that she broke down crying after the first few seconds."

"Yup, sounds like Emerald," Jaune said. "She doesn't have any parents, right?"

"She's wearing rags and was living behind a dumpster," Cinder deadpanned.

"So? Modern parenting is weird. For all I know, that could've just been some really advanced form of training."

Cinder stared at him, and Jaune rolled his eyes. "Oh, whatever. We'll just drop her off with Roman and then head out on our way."

"Are you sure he'll appreciate having another munchkin around to watch over?"

"No, but that's not gonna stop me."

What is up, people? Taking a break from the shitpost one-shots to update my actual ongoing high-effort shitpost for once. How long has it been? Two weeks or so? I can't keep track.

That's not to say that I'm done with the shitpost one-shots. I've actually got another one in the works right now, I think. I'm not super far into it but hopefully I can get it out there sooner rather than later. And it's starring a character I bet none of you will expect, to boot. You can ahead and guess, but I'll give you a hint: It's not Jaune. Like, for real, it's not Jaune.

That aside, I don't have much else. Weird, right? I've been busy with work and other shit this week so I've gotten like no writing done, and when I sat down to do more tonight, I just was not feeling it, so I figured I'd call the rest of this week a wash and get back to it on Saturday or something.

That all being said, I hope you all enjoyed this update, even if it was kind of a filler. There's gonna be a few more of those before the plot picks up again, but it should be fun, I think. See you all next time!

Enjoy my work and want to help me out a bit? You can support me, as well as read more of my writing, over on Amazon. My first original story is available for purchase now, you can find it by going on Amazon and searching for 'I Accidentally Summoned the Demon Queen' by John Haruspex. The story is available now for three bucks in ebook format (or free with Kindle Unlimited) or twelve bucks in paperback format, if you prefer physical media.

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