Leonard sighed to himself. He was at home watching Mischa and Debora play chess. He seemed to be moping about more than usual. Mischa would sometimes glance at Leonard to see if something was wrong with him, but didn't say anything on the account of him trying to defeat Debora.
"Check," Mischa stated.
Debora took a quick look at the board. Somehow his Rook managed to slip by both her Bishop and her Knight, something she didn't expect. "Okay, I'll admit that was a good move." She quickly looked for a way to counter it.
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Leonard continued to silently watch. He was a bit interested, but he was mostly worried about his own story. A few people he had shown it to told him the characters were way too powerful, even though the plot pretty much had power as a primary focus between heroes and villains. On the other hand, people told him it was far more gruesome than most Horror genre media. He couldn't change the violence however, or it would lose the ability to show how powerful they were. He was in a pickle.
"Okay, you've had that face for a while. What's up?" Mischa finally asked him.
Leonard simply replied by telling him his situation. "I don't know if I should change something or tone it down? I really don't want to though, I like writing what I envision."
"Then don't. Too many books get horribly censored or changed completely because the writer caved to the ideals of others. Don't be one of them," Mischa explained.
Leonard thought about it, then smiled. "You're right, if there's anything I hate in media, it's censorship. Why make it if you are censoring it? Why cover up what the writer intended to be there? It makes no sense at all."
"Exactly my point," Mischa stated, getting himself out of check. "If you are gonna make something, don't let anyone tell you to cover it up. It'll be far harder for anyone to get access to it because the material might give it a high rating or people might not want to sell it, but it won't be tampered with."
"There's still some places that'll sell it. It's just a book, if this was some sort of film you could visually see, they might get a bit pissy. Check," Debora said, putting Mischa in an awkward place again. "But books can get by with being sadomasochistic porn and still be sold at a lot of outlets."
"Sadomasochistic... Oh," Mischa said. "You're talking about Fifty Shades of Gray."Â
"Bingo," Debora said. "Most of the time when people gather to complain about books it's because they have something intelligent to say, or they have gay people. Which is Why Fifty Shades of Gray and Twilight are safe. Of course, there are exceptions. Checkmate."
"Well played," Mischa said. "And you know, if they do try to ban your book it'll just give it free publicity."
"Alright, I'll pay no mind to it until I can get it finished," Leonard said.
Leonard and Mischa arrived at the club together the next day. Kody had arrived first. He was with a couple of people they'd never met before.Â
"Hey guys," Kody said. These are Benny and Lillian."Â
"Pleased to meet you," Benny said.
"Your head is so shiny," Lillian said. She reached up and rubbed Mischa's head.Â
Mischa looked from her to Kody to Leonard. "I'm not sure how to respond to this."Â
"What's going on?" Melanie asked.Â
"These are Kody's friends, apparently," Mischa said. "Benny and Lillian."
"Have you seen how shiny his head is?" Lillian asked. "It's like a mirror, but fleshy."Â
Melanie and Kitty looked from each other to Kody. Kody shrugged. "You get used to her."Â
"She seems kind of... random," Mischa said.Â
"Who's the girl rubbing Mischa's head?" Amanda asked.Â
"Say hello to Lillian," Leonard said.Â
"And I'm Benny," Benny said. "I'm not random but at least I have basic social graces."Â
Lillian finally let go of Mischa's head. "Hey, do I know you from class or something?" she asked.
"No," Mischa said. "We've never met."Â
"Are you sure?" Lillian asked. "You look really familiar. And your head is still really shiny..." Michael moved away from her before she could rub his head again.
"So, what kind of yuri do you guys watch?" Benny asked.Â
"Depends," Mischa answered. "Right now we're watching Yuru Yuri. Not long ago we watched Nanoha Strikers. We usually only watch an episode or two a day and spend the rest of our time just playing around."Â
"Neat," Beny said.Â
"Do you play dress up?" Lillian asked.Â
"Who are these weirdos?" Debora asked.Â
"Hey Debora, you're late," Kitty said.Â
"Now I remember," Lillian said.Â
"Remember what?" Kody asked.Â
"Where I've seen the shiny headed guy before," Tosh said. "He and she were snogging in that nice restaurant." she pointed at Debora.
Leonard took a quick glance after hearing Lillian's statement. "Wat?"
Suddenly the entire club room was beaming eyes at the two, which got a reaction out of Debora as if she was being glared at by a bunch of wolves. Well except Leonard, his statement was about all he could let out before going back to a more indifferent look.
"Kay," Leonard responded, which was a bit anti-climatic to the situation. Everyone else wanted answers though.
"Kody!" Melanie shouted as she ran up to him. "Didn't you say you saw them at the restaurant? Why didn't you tell us?"
"I didn't know!" Kody said defending his innocence. "I just turned around and saw them sitting there. Obviously I missed something, and I apologize for being so slow."
Kitty was more excited than anything. "Does that mean you both secretly say loving and endearing things when we're not around!?"
Lillian was almost as excited as Kitty, but for different reasons. "Did you cop a feel off her!?"
"Why are you all acting so immature?" Benny asked.
Leonard's eye was twitching for a while, but with all the commotion he was becoming agitated. When the commotion didn't start dying down, he had enough.
"Everyone.....shut your damn mouths before I shove something in them!" Leonard's voice exploded into the room. Everyone knew he had a short temper, but he usually didn't shout at his friends. Then again, everyone was being loud over something as simple as a relationship.
Everyone quieted down, not wanting to agitate Leonard when he was angry.
"Look, he loves Debora, I'm sure Debora loves him. Kitty loves Melanie, and I love Amanda. Why are we suddenly getting so stupid over this? What, because they're a bit more serious than any of us? Because they have a more realistic ideal of a lot of things?"
"Well, we were only confused on why they wouldn't tell us," Melanie answered.
"You didn't have to shout," Kitty said, twiddling her fingers.
"That is a bit odd," Leonard admitted. He stared at his roommate.Â
Mischa gave him a slight smile and shrugged.Â
"It's my fault," Debora said. "I asked Mischa to keep things between us a secret since I didn't want anyone to make a big deal out of it."Â
"How long have you two been together?" Kitty asked.Â
"Does his facial hair tickle?" Lillian asked.Â
"Just a couple months. We got together after finals," Debora said. She glared at Lillian "and none of your business."Â
"Can I kiss him and see?" Lillian asked.Â
"No!" Mischa, Debora, Benny and Leonard all said in unison.
"I'm just happy for you two," Amanda said. "Although I'm a little hurt that you felt the need to go all Xellos with it."
"Sore wa himitsu desu," Mischa muttered.Â
"I knew you two would make a good couple," Kitty said.Â
Debora groaned. She had been hoping to avoid an "I told you so" from Kitty.Â
"I feel kind of sorry for Jennifer," Melanie said.Â
"True," Kitty said. "She's going to be so hurt when she finds out."
Debora shrugged. "That's her own fault for fixating on a guy who's not into her."
"You can't help who you're attracted to," Amanda said.
Leonard sighed. "Sometimes love is just too one-sided for the other person to be able to feel happy. And sometimes love is forceful, as she continues to murder everyone you know until all her obstacles are gone, and she takes you away to love forever."
The group stared at Leonard for a few seconds.
"What? I've been watching Mirai Nikki a bit. Gomen."
"You don't think I'm going to start killing people do you?" Amanda asked.
"Ha, no, you aren't yandere enough for it," Leonard replied.
The group continued, nevertheless, to welcome their two new members. They showed them around the club, showed them all the anime and games they had, and warned them that Leonard often had an Optimus Prime figure around that no one could touch. No one. And that if they touched Mischa's plushies without asking he would be very very upset.
After giving them a tour around the place, Benny asked a question. "Are a good chunk of your members always this excitable and impulsive, or was this just a bad first impression?"Â
"There's nothing wrong with being excited," Mischa stated. "In any case, the irregularly high spirits are mine and Debora's fault. Normally, the only impulsive one would be Leonard."
Leonard delivered a quick "hey" before he continued.
"All our members are quite nice and respect everyones' choices, especially in who they love, hence our official yuri couple over there," Mischa said pointing at Melanie and Kitty.
"Are they our mascots?" Lillian asked.
"Not quite, but they could be just to enforce the point we are accepting," Leonard replied.
"I have the ears for it," Kitty volunteered.Â
"No one gives you any trouble for your standing opinions?" Benny asked.
"Well there's one stupid group who keeps hounding us for what we accept," Deobra replied.
"Come to think of it, I have not seen Tracey and her friends in a while," Leonard said.
"Those types always scarper when you stand up to them," Mischa said. "Unless they think they have a good opportunity. In any case, we don't let bigots dictate what we do or what we stand for."
"We aren't yuri fans because we think it's hot or something," Amanda added. "Everyone here believes that love is beautiful, regardless of gender. If we were to only apply that to media and not stand by it in reality, we'd be... well..."
"Tossers," Debora finished.Â
"That's how it is," Kody said. "If you guys are gonna hang out here you're going to have to get used to the idea of a small but vocal group getting pissy."Â
"What the hell," Benny said, "you all seem nice enough. I'm in."Â
"I am a goddess and I approve this message," Lillian said.Â
"That's great," Mischa said. "Let's watch some anime. Although I should warn you, this episode of Yuru Yuri has quite a bit of Akane."Â
Kitty visibly cringed.Â
"Why is that bad?" Benny asked.Â
"You'll see," Debora said. "And it can't be unseen."
------------------------
Phew, that was a big one. But all the fitting for this "finale" of sorts. This is being put up a day early because I'm going out of town in the morning. Gomen.
Head Writer: Soniczero1993 & ktulu007
Shocking we both worked on one part, isn't it?
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