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‘tis the day, etc etc

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When I got this assignment I was hoping there’d be more gambling.

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Patrolling the Mojave almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter.

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When I first started reading xxxHolic I always wondered why Yuko lived the way she did- drinking constantly, smoking like a chimney, attitude like she’s got nothing to gain or lose from any of this-

And then as the series is approaching it’s end we find out there really is nothing. She’s dead, she should have died so so long ago and this existence that she’s trapped in is the closest to hell most people are ever going to get. She is lonely and probably in pain, and waiting for the day she knows is coming, the one which will right the wrongs that kept her alive in the first place. Yuko is waiting to finally be allowed to die.

She knows there’s important work to be done first. She knows there will be a beautiful but achingly sad little boy, as lonely as herself, who has to be loved into reality, and that she needs to guide him toward the people who will help him survive, lest he disappear the same moment she does.

But the drinking, the smoking, the drama she can’t help but be blasé about- those are numbing. They’re distractions and they help to pass the time. At least she gets to leave, I thought. I can’t imagine what would happen if this were a stuck-in-a-tower kind of curse.

But we didn’t have to imagine, because we see it.

Watanuki takes up the mantle.

Yuko didn’t anticipate loving this boy. Most of that has been burned out of her by now, too tired to hope for anything but rest.

But she didn’t expect his eyes to be quite that big, that sad. And when she meets him and the power inside of her reaches (without her permission, as it has always been prone to doing) for a glimpse of his future, she’s struck by the sensation of emptiness. Of nothing. An apartment whose tenant the landlord can’t remember. A desk with no child inside. Anger. A boy whose dark eyes search halls for something he doesn’t know or understand. A family name which carries a legacy that Yuko remembers. Yuko worked so hard to will life into Watanuki, spent so long teaching him the selfishness and the tragedy of his own sacrificial self loathing. He didn’t need to be a martyr, there was nothing he needed to die for. He was a casualty of a war that had nothing to do with him. She tried, over and over and over, to offer him a way out. I think all the time about how she must have felt knowing that Watanuki took on her imprisonment and compounded it, made it that much more intense, made it that much worse. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make them drink. I wonder if it hurt.

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xxxHOLiC + Reductress headlines

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I think one of the interesting metanarrative elements of xxxholic is how the reader gradually grows to love Watanuki along with the characters. I know loving the characters happens with most media, but we meet him at the same time Yuuko does, which is to say, when he is alone. So it feels as if we are becoming the part of the family he's built for himself! And it is very fun also in the sense that I had a similar reaction to you in that Watanuki can be a bit Much in the beginning, and in the same way Doumeki himself feels, until a lot of that is stripped away to pure love for the Noodle Boy

Yes!! Absolutely!

The fact that we meet Watanuki at his most lonely, and we don't even realise it? And neither does he?

And we have to slowly grow to learn what he's about and figure out his journey alongside him? And make all these discoveries about his past and his reality at the same time that he does? It's a very powerful journey to go on with a character!

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hitsuzen

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to the one who is reading this, please survive…

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"Still wanna know if I think you're sexy?"

Happy Christmas to @pierreuse 💚

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Hi! I thought about this game randomly today and decided to download it again, after maybe six years since I last played it. Pity that it isn't no longer updated and that you can't play any of those special event cases. I think I especially liked one with Moriarty that had this great gothic romance atmosphere, but I'm really happy that there's still community around it <33

Some of those special event cases are still available. Under the 'See More' we have:

Teardrops from the Sky (Hercule Poirot 'case')

Secluded Scapegoat (Arthur Hastings 'case')

Happy Wedlock (with cases for Sherlock, John, and James)

Belated Honeymoon (with cases for Sherlock and Sebastian)

Much ado about Baby (with cases for Sherlock and James)

Red Motives (the red riding hood one with cases for Sherlock, John, and James)

Strangely Imaginable (Alice in Wonderland, cases for Sherlock and James)

Fangs of Sorrow (the vampire one with cases for Mycroft and Sherlock)

Haunted kiss in the dark (for some reason these are separate, I don't recall why, but I'm 98% positive this is the one you're remembering with cases for Sherlock, John, and James. James takes you to this gothic mansion that is haunted and you have visions of the ghostly woman)

and a few more, but I'm about to scoot out the door.

It is a shame it isn't being updated, but it always makes me smile to see other's still around as well.

Hope you have a good night!

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There's a trend to replicate the front cover of Sonic Youth's Goo, but this has to be my favourite so far.

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