#Also disintegration is so extreme they must really be going through it

[thelesbianthespianposts]

I love that the yeerks in the army are starving. I love that they’re probably usually bright green and they’re only gray because they’re starving. It’s clear the yeerks need kandrona much more than every three days. They literally disintegrate if they don’t feed by three days. The yeerk homeworld has constant kandrona exposure. If you take a plant out of the sun for long enough it’ll wilt, even if you put it back in the sun periodically, it’s still gonna suffer. It would have been interesting to see the peaceful yeerks or Aftran talk about this as an internal issue for the yeerks.

[p5x-theories]

P5R Collab Chapter 1 Summary

(last updated 1/11/25)

Usual disclaimer: Please keep in mind this game still has no official English translation, so this summary uses a mix of what happens visually, what I understand of the Japanese dialogue, and Google translate for the Chinese text, in order to get the broader picture here. This will be focused on summing up everything that happens overall, without getting into a line-by-line translation.

Contrary to this blog’s name, this post is going to have as little speculation as possible, and stick to confirmed facts.

This post will cover the first chapter of the P5R Collab, also called the “Laboratory Chapter 1”. One part of this has been fan-translated elsewhere already, so I’ll link to a video where applicable.

Part 1-1

The first thing we see is a cutscene- outside Shibuya station, what looks like ashes float through the air, and Shun and Riko's bodies lie motionless on the ground. Ruferu's voice asks if that's Shun and Riko, then exclaims in shock as they start to disintegrate.

The view pans over to Wonder holding Motoha's motionless body, but she disintegrates as well, and Wonder seems to panic, crying out. He clutches his head screaming, then falls to the ground in front of him, slamming his fist down repeatedly. Frantically, Ruferu's voice wonders what he's seeing, and why this is happening. It couldn't be, is he... is he-?!

Ruferu wakes with a start, waking Wonder up as well with his alarmed noise. He flies over to the edge of the bed as Wonder sits up, still a bit disoriented from what he just saw. He mutters that it must have been a dream, but it felt so real...

Wonder asks him what happened, and Ruferu quickly reassures him it was nothing. His voice drifts off a bit as he adds that it was nothing, just a dream, and yet... he feels so unsettled... could it be that he's the one who brought ruin upon them...? Wonder's thought bubble notes that Ruferu seems really shaken, which is unusual. He shifts to sit on the edge of his bed, and Ruferu flutters over to the nightstand.

Wonder suggests they take a breather/go for a walk, and Ruferu asks if he's worried him, muttering that he still can't seem to calm down. He admits that he had a bad dream, and agrees that a walk sounds nice, maybe around Shibuya? He wants to see with his own eyes that everything is the same as usual there. Wonder nods, and they head out.

Sure enough, everything is normal in Shibuya, to Ruferu's relief. Perhaps it really was just a dream.

Wonder asks about the dream, but Ruferu hesitates, and instead asks Wonder a question. He claims it's just a what-if question, but, "If I led the Phantom Thieves to ruin, what would you do...?" Wonder's response options are "That's impossible" or "No matter what, you're still my companion". If the latter is picked, Ruferu awkwardly reminds him this is just a what-if, but admits he's happy to hear him say that; he's always so kind to everyone.

Flying out of Wonder's bag and landing on the railing nearby (not the one behind Wonder in the above screenshot, the one just off screen in front of him), Ruferu apologizes for asking a weird question and making him more worried. He's grateful that Wonder brought him to Shibuya; he just needed to get away from everything for a bit, even if their work as Phantom Thieves is very important.

At that moment, Wonder gets a weird feeling, and the screen kind of distorts a bit, turning black-and-white with a blur around the edges for a moment. Wonder wonders what that was, then pulls out his phone, and notices the MetaNav icon is shaking for some reason. Ruferu flies over and lands on his shoulder, asking if something happened. Wonder can mention that the MetaNav is being weird, but Ruferu reminds him that it's just the two of them here right now, so it'd be dangerous to-

The MetaNav, sounding extremely glitchy, cuts him off, saying something like "Desire connection confirmed... beginning forced navigation...", and Ruferu exclaims in surprise as the MetaNav starts itself up. The screen glitches, and the P5R collab opening then plays (0:15 - 0:33 of this video).

After the opening, the regular distorted circle transition that signals entering the Metaverse plays, and Cattle and Wonder find themselves standing in a Metaverse location they don't recognize. Cattle immediately wonders where they are, though they seem to be somewhere in the Metaverse, while Wonder looks around, and notes that it seems to be a construction site. Cattle replies that whatever it is, it doesn't look like the entrance to Mementos, then asks aloud if, perhaps... He walks a few feet over, and discovers a barrier, similar to the previous collab chapters. Turning back to Wonder, he says some forgotten memories are starting to come back, and asks if Wonder feels that as well. Wonder nods.

From there, Cattle speculates that they'll run into the Phantom Thieves from the other universe again, suspecting they were pulled in unexpectedly as well. It's strange that the MetaNav activated completely on its own, so it must have been triggered by something... but whatever the reason, it's just the two of them here right now. Wonder either suggests they keep moving forward, or look for Joker and the others, and Cattle agrees, but still seems a bit hesitant. Wonder attempts to reassure him, and Cattle apologizes for making him worry again, then warns him to be careful as they move onward.

They head over to the front gate of the not-Palace, and get a better look at it. Cattle can't figure out what type of building it's meant to be, but he still gets the same ominous feeling from it that he does from a normal Palace... he also senses both humans and shadows inside. Wonder suspects the humans are Joker's team, and Cattle agrees that's likely, but admits that his abilities of perception seem a bit off today.

Becoming a bit nostalgic, he mentions it's been a while since it was just the two of them in the Metaverse. A series of flashback images from the start of the game's story play: the two of them standing on the first floor of Mementos, the two of them entering Kiuchi's Palace for the first time, the two of them crafting Wonder's grappling hook. Wonder's responses both imply a bit of nostalgia for back then as well. Cattle reflects that he kind of forced Wonder into all this at the start, but didn't expect Wonder to stick with him this long. But thanks to Wonder, the public is starting to regain their desires, and they've found more trustworthy companions. He thanks Wonder for all his hard work; he really found the right person that day.

Cattle admits he was feeling a bit down before, but this discussion has cheered him up, and thanks Wonder again for staying with him. Then, he turns back to the gate, and suggests they keep their spirits up as they head into the building. Wonder hops over the gate, and they approach the building's entrance, taking the elevator up into the building.

At first impression, Cattle is surprised by how strange this place is, all decorated in white. It's another "Palace-like" place, like the previous times, but this one feels a bit different... Wonder can ask what he means, or agree. If the former is chosen, he struggles to find the words, but explains that while normally a Palace is built from a bad person's distorted cognition, he doesn't sense any malice or excessive desire. The "voices of the heart" that he hears (which he's previously used to locate Palaces and other things in the Metaverse, in the main story) only seem to want to save others.

Wonder thinks to himself about "the desire to save others..." and recalls that before they were pulled in here, all he was thinking about was how to cheer up Cattle. Did the MetaNav act strangely because of that? Pulling him out of his thoughts, Cattle says that, regardless, they'll have to keep investigating in order to escape, but he senses a powerful shadow in here, and they're at a disadvantage with just the two of them. If they could just find the others first...

An unfamiliar female voice interrupts them, announcing "I found you!"

The camera pans to the top of the stairs, where a girl now stands, pointing a sword down at them. She accuses them of being the shadow that trapped "us" here, to Wonder and Cattle's confusion. She asks them not to play dumb, and says they look suspicious. Wonder asks what she's talking about, and the girl, slightly confused now as well, says he looks like a human. But the thing next to him looks like...

Cattle interrupts, asking her to calm down. They didn't mean to come here. The girl, nervous, replies that he's trying to get her to drop her guard so they can get closer to her, isn't he?! If that's how it's going to be, there's no other option, she'll have to challenge them! Wonder and Cattle react with alarm, and the girl jumps to the bottom of the stairs, then swings her sword at them, and there's the sound of metal hitting metal as the screen goes black.

However, after a moment the scene comes back, revealing Joker has deflected her blade with his dagger. Confused, the girl says, "Senpai...?!" Cattle recognizes Joker, and Joker tells the girl- Violet- that these two are not their enemies, asking her to sheathe her sword. Violet apologizes, and immediately does so.

Joker turns to face Cattle and Wonder, and apologizes, explaining Violet is his friend, but she seems to have some misunderstandings. Wonder asks if she's a Phantom Thief, but Joker's not quite sure how to explain. Mona's voice calls out, interrupting them, and the camera pans to reveal him standing confidently at the top of the stairs where Violet just was. Similar to her, he jumps down to the base of the stairs, then poses confidently, saying as he expected, "you guys" are stuck here, too.

He greets Wonder (long time no see!), and... the tarsier. Cattle, offended, says he should be apologizing, since his friend just tried to attack them! You cat-like jerk! The two growl at each other, while the others move on with the conversation awkwardly.

Violet sincerely apologizes for misunderstanding the situation and acting so aggressively, but Wonder doesn't seem to have taken it too badly. Still, she says she had no idea they were acquaintances of her senpai, and that was extremely rude of her. Joker explains that she's still new to the Metaverse, and not very used to it. They were also pulled in unexpectedly, and Wonder takes a moment to explain how he and Cattle got here.

Violet then properly introduces herself, and says that due to current circumstances, she's working with Joker and Mona. She then apologizes again for earlier, but Cattle, who stopped fighting with Mona sometime during the explanation, assures her it's fine. Besides, it was his fault for approaching the situation so casually. Still, he seems a bit offended that he was mistaken for a shadow, but Wonder tells him to brush it off.

Mona explains that Violet isn't a member of the Phantom Thieves, and thus, isn't really familiar with shadows. Wonder asks about this, and Violet explains that she admires her senpai, but didn't join the team. Joker is her senpai at school, and gives her advice, while Mona is, uh... her helpful Metaverse senpai, right? Joker fills in that the three of them entered the Palace that this place is based on once before, by accident, and that's when Violet awakened her Persona. Violet says the reason she didn't join isn't that she hates everyone in the Phantom Thieves, she just has other things to focus on right now.

Cattle agrees that you shouldn't force people to join your phantom thief team... then mutters that it's a shame he can't recruit her to their team after seeing her skills, though... Mona comments he never learns his lesson. Anyway, Mona continues, for now, she has a temporary codename, and they'll all need to work together to get out of here. Violet says she looks forward to working with Wonder-senpai and Cattle-senpai, to their surprise. She worries she was rude again- she was just thinking that they're also her seniors, here in the Metaverse- but Cattle says it's fine, he's just not used to it, admitting it feels kind of good.

Heading up the stairs and changing the subject, Cattle looks around again, and wonders aloud what cognition this strange Palace reflects. The three of them have been to the real Palace before, right? Joker says yes, but... and Mona finishes, it was only once, by accident, and he's not even positive it's a Palace. Wonder asks what he means, and Mona explains that he doesn't know why the MetaNav brought them into the Palace in the first place, and they didn't have any intention of causing a change of heart. After Violet awakened her Persona, they quickly left, because they didn't mean to be there in the first place.

Cattle takes this to mean this place is pretty much unknown to them as well, and they nod. Joker adds that it does feel a bit different from before, and Mona points out that if Wonder and Cattle are here as well, the Palace they briefly saw may have been mixed with something from their world in this place, like the previous times.

Violet sighs, and when Wonder asks, she says this is her fault. She's been troubled lately, and ended up near this building, accidentally triggering navigation. She was a little scared, and called Joker before she knew it. Mona says they were just exploring Niijima's- ah, another Palace, and were on their way home when this happened. They rushed to Violet, and ended up here. Violet apologizes again, but Joker assures her it isn't her fault, and he's been wondering what's going on with this place, anyway. Mona agrees- they don't even know who the Palace ruler is, so this is a good opportunity.

Cattle summarizes- none of them know what this place is going to be like, but it should be business as usual. They'll likely just have to find the Core to escape. Mona declares they'll have to form an alliance again; Wonder says he looks forward to working with them again, and Joker echoes this sentiment. Violet says she'll do her best, and Mona announces the Phantom Thief Alliance is beginning their exploration! From here, the player can explore the entrance area a bit more, then the part ends. Interestingly, one of the things the roaming shadows in this not-Palace say when you get close is "Sleep forever!", rather than the usual comments about intruders.

Part 1-2

Heading further into the not-Palace, they explore more, but quickly encounter...

Something similar to the mind-control lights from Akashi's Palace (though notably, the light is purple, not red), guarding a treasure chest. This chest itself isn't particularly notable, and the switch to turn the light off is nearby, but it's evidence of what they suspected, that elements of both universes' Palaces would be mixed together here.

Pressing onward, they encounter a shadow that's different from the others so far- Mona notes it has some kind of dark miasma around its body. He thinks they'll have to beat it to move forward.

Violet, however, hears that this is a shadow, and asks if that's really true. It looks completely different from Cattle-senpai... Cattle, surprised, asks why she thinks he's supposed to look like a shadow, and Violet, confused, says that shortly before she ran into the two of them, Mona-senpai told her...

We flash back to a scene with just Joker, Violet, and Mona standing together, near top of the stairs from Part 1-1. Mona says it's decided, her temporary codename will be "Violet", and reminds her to call him "Mona" and the other guy "Joker" while they're here. They'll need to figure out why they're trapped here, but if Violet sees a shadow, she should tell them immediately, since she's not used to fighting in the Metaverse. Violet says she understands, but... what do "shadows" look like? Mona thinks, then replies that they resemble a "hooded, owl-like guy, similar to a tarsier". Joker makes a noise of confusion.

We return to the present, and Cattle stomps angrily, saying it's all your fault, you damn catlike guy!! Mona sheepishly looks away, and says it all turned out well, because they met up safely, right? Violet awkwardly asks if this means Cattle doesn't look like a shadow, and Cattle is insulted she even has to ask.

Wonder turns to Joker ("Joker..." or "Just tell her no..."), but Joker turns away, muttering "No comment..."

The group finally turns back to the strange shadow they encountered, and Cattle says to forget all that, they need to deal with this shadow.

Once it's defeated, Cattle checks in with Violet to make sure she's okay, but she assures him there's no problem. She also gushes over how cool it was to see Joker and Wonder working together. Wonder can thank her or say it's thanks to Joker; Joker credits Wonder for this, but then wonders why they work so well together. He says he's felt this has been the case from the first time they met, which prompts Wonder to think back to the first time he met Joker, when he saved Wonder and Cattle in Mementos. Wonder wonders about what was going on with that Joker, but notes that he himself feels like he's experienced that rescue "countless times".

Laughing, Mona suggests that maybe they work well together because they're so similar. Violet says she gets it- it's because they're both the leaders of their own phantom thief teams, right? They're interrupted by the sound of a door opening next to them, previously blocked by the shadow.

They proceed through it, and this part ends when they reach another door, stopping to discuss. Mona says he smells a shadow on the other side, and Cattle agrees, adding that it's powerful. He suggests they rest for a moment before proceeding.

Part 1-3

They head through the door, and down a hallway, ending up in a large room. Mona reiterates that there's a powerful shadow ahead, but adds that it feels different from the shadow they fought earlier. Cattle insists that whatever the case may be, they shouldn't take this lightly.

They explore the area, and eventually reach the powerful shadow in question. The door locks behind them, trapping them in the room with it. Cattle suggests that defeating it might open the way forward, but Violet notes that this one seems more unsettling than the other shadows, and then, unlike the other shadows in this not-Palace so far, it talks to them.

"I'll teach... you... I'll teach... you... the desire... to escape..." it says, in a low, slightly offputting tone, different from the usual, more humanlike manner of speaking that shadows usually have (though with the same distortion). Violet repeats "Escape...?", and Cattle seems to react as well, but Wonder asks if they're okay/tells them not to listen. The shadow then makes a pained (?), sort of screamlike noise that isn't really words, and attacks.

After the fight, Mona cheers that they won, but Cattle wonders what the nonsense it said before the fight meant. Violet, turned away from the group, also seems troubled, and Joker asks if she's okay. She turns back to everyone, and says she's fine, apologizing for being distracted. Cattle then realizes that, despite defeating the shadow, nothing unlocked or otherwise changed in here. Mona mentions he also hasn't smelled any Core yet, despite how long they've been here. Cattle agrees that, regardless of how reliable this catlike guy's sense of smell even is in the first place, he hasn't sensed a Core yet, either. Mona mutters that he always has to get the last word, then reiterates that neither of them have any idea where the Core might be.

Violet clarifies that they need to find the Core to leave, and Joker confirms that's been the case up to this point. Cattle explains that he thought he might get a sense of it if they explored further... but, Mona finishes, it'd be a bad idea to act rashly when there's still no sign of it. Joker asks what they do now, and Wonder and Cattle begin to think.

Looking around, Violet then raises her hand, and says she has a suggestion. When she joined a club, during team competitions, they often found themselves distressed about what to do next. It turned out that changing the topic, and thinking about something else for a bit, could help you think of something unexpected. To that end, she then asks if she can talk about something personal that's unrelated to the current issue. Wonder allows it, and she continues.

She admits that, even though they're trapped right now, she's actually a bit happy about it. It may be weird to say, given they were brought here against their will, but she feels more relaxed here than she does in her everyday life right now. She thought about why this might be the case, and has a theory: she only got third place in her last gymnastics competition (Wonder congratulates her, but she explains her school expects first place, and will revoke her scholarship if she doesn't get it; Cattle doesn't think that's a good way to encourage results), though she feels that if she can get back to her previous form, she can take first place next time. On top of this, her peers think she gets special treatment because of her scholarship, and treat her differently because of this. Due to all this, being at school made her chest feel tight... but now that she's away from it all, she can relax a bit, even if running away from her problems won't solve them.

Mona and Joker both express their sympathy, and Violet apologizes for bringing up such a heavy topic so casually. Wonder reassures her it's fine, and she admits she does feel better after talking about it. However, her stomach then growls, and she sheepishly says that this serious conversation seems to have made her hungry. She asks if Joker is willing to go with her to the diner in Shibuya after they get out of here, and he agrees, though Mona brings up her large appetite. Violet insists it's nothing, and she only eats five times after exercise. Her slender frame but big appetite remind Cattle of Closer, and Violet recalls they mentioned that's a member of their team. She says she'd like to visit the diner with Closer someday, too! Wonder agrees that Closer would like that.

Cattle then attempts to listen for the "voices of the heart" again, and hears an indistinct whispering, with a bit of a high-pitched, ear-ringing-like noise. He apologizes for cutting off the conversation, but he senses a powerful shadow nearby. Mona smells it as well; it's not the Core, but it's suspicious. Joker suggests they check it out since they don't have any better leads, and Wonder nods.

As they continue to explore, they eventually find a mechanism to escape the room, and head in the direction of the powerful shadow. On the way there, they run into another shadow in their way that talks to them; this one says "Obtain salvation... through dreams... Give affirmation... to escape..."

After defeating that shadow, the part ends.

Part 1-4

The continue heading in the direction of the powerful shadow that Cattle and Mona sense.

Eventually they reach it, and Mona and Cattle agree that it feels different from the other shadows. Cattle suggests that maybe defeating powerful shadows is how they get out of here this time, rather than stealing a Core.

The shadow itself ends up being a Lilith and two Baphomets, but the group doesn't have long to celebrate after beating them, as an alarm goes off, and all the doors close. Violet panics, but to her surprise, Joker and Wonder are both very calm. Joker guesses that he's used to it, and Wonder says this happens a lot. Mona grins and adds that it's a common emergency for a phantom thief. Even Cattle smiles, saying that calmly reacting to an alarm going off is an important skill for a phantom thief. Violet is very impressed.

Looking around, Mona catches the scent of another powerful shadow. Cattle believes it appeared after the alarm went off. Joker announces they'll go after that one next.

Part 1-5

Continuing on, Cattle senses the powerful shadow is somewhere above them. Violet wonders how they'll get up there, but Mona assures her it's not a problem for a phantom thief.

Up in the catwalks, they find the next shadow, already in the form of an Arahabaki. Violet wonders why it looks like that, and Cattle speculates that it's meant to make its desire obvious- it's already sensed the intruders. He asks Wonder if he's ready, and Wonder can either reply "Let's go!" or "Are you ready, Joker?". If the latter is picked, Joker replies that it's showtime.

After the fight, Mona checks in with Violet, asking if these back-to-back fights are difficult for her. She shakes her head, saying she's fine, and then cheerfully adds that this is a good opportunity to exercise and forget all the worries she mentioned earlier. Mona smiles, and asks if now she'll want to join the team when they get out of here. However, she still turns him down, politely saying she wants to focus on gymnastics right now. Mona grumbles that he thought that would work. Cattle laughs, making fun of the "poaching cat", and Mona tells him to shut up, reminding the "tarsier" of how many times Queen turned him down.

Joker, changing the subject, notes that defeating the shadow doesn't seem to have opened things up. Wonder suggests that maybe there's something else, and Cattle mentions that after they beat that shadow, yet another shadow seems to have popped up.

Part 1-6

They continue searching for the next powerful shadow, eventually reaching it...

And finding, to their dismay, it's actually two this time, an Alilat and a Cerberus. Still, as Violet points out, if they want to escape they have no choice here.

Afterward, Violet cheers that they did it, though Cattle complains it's more difficult to fight two enemies at once. Still, he commends her for how far she's come in combat, and thanks her for her hard work. Violet smiles and says she's doing her best. Cattle pauses for a moment, but when Wonder prompts him, he admits that it's cute how upfront Violet is, to her surprise.

He explains that, on their team, they have a former baseball prodigy, a chef, and an heiress, each with their own personalities, but none of them are very upfront, and they all have weird quirks. Wonder can reply to this with "Really..." or "You're one to talk", the latter of which has Cattle reply in shock that no one's more upfront than he is! Mona mutters that that's not something you can really say about yourself.

Violet, however, laughs, and says she thinks it's great that everyone has their own personality. Quietly, she adds, "Whereas with me, when you compare to her...", and drifts off. Joker catches this, and makes a questioning noise, but she brushes it off as nothing. Changing the subject, she asks if the others heard something open after the fight, and Mona says he heard it as well- it may have been a door. Cattle suggests they head back to the entrance and see what's changed, and the others nod.

On the way back, Mona smells another shadow nearby, and they hear its voice say "Enjoy it... your true meaning...". However, Cattle doesn't think (from what he senses of it) that it's a shadow that they need to beat to escape, so they continue onward.

Reaching the next powerful shadow- a Melchizedek- Mona notes that this guy wasn't here before. Violet asks if that means they're getting closer to escaping, and Cattle says he's not sure, but since they haven't sensed a Core, that seems likely.

After the fight, Mona and Violet both comment on how tough of an opponent it was. However, there's a sudden ominous, foreboding noise (sorry that's vague, I'm genuinely unsure how to describe it), and both Cattle and Mona tense. They both say they felt a "trembling feeling" (Cattle's words) just now. Wonder asks about it, and Cattle explains that it's the strongest shadow he's sensed, by far. Mona thinks it must be the boss here.

Violet then asks if that means they can leave if they beat it, but both of them get quiet. Joker asks what's up, and Cattle admits that he's not quite sure how to say this, but while he couldn't help but shudder, it didn't exactly feel like an enemy. Mona agrees- it's clearly a shadow, but there wasn't any hostility. Joker repeats "Not an enemy...?"

Cattle turns to Wonder, and asks if he recalls what Cattle said that he sensed when they first entered this place. Wonder can reply "The desire to save others?", or "What was it?", with the former being the correct answer. Mona says that if that's true, then that means the Palace ruler must feel that way, but it's hard to think of being trapped in here as salvation. Violet reacts to this, but says nothing.

Mona continues that a phantom thief can't be subjected to any restrictions, they're free! Cattle says it makes him feel uncomfortable to share any of Mona's beliefs, but he absolutely agrees. Joker suggests then head out then, but checks if Violet's okay, as she still looks a bit shaken. She claims she's fine, relaxing her posture.

Part 1-7

You can watch the entirety of this part's story roughly fan-translated to English here. One change between the video and my game experience is that Violet is present in the group shots she's missing from in the video; I'm guessing they added her in a minor fix sometime after Version 3.1 first launched for the mainland China region.

Mona and Cattle agree the powerful shadow they both sensed is ahead, and reiterate this after Wonder approaches it. Mona asks Wonder if he's ready, and when the player selects yes, Violet encourages everyone to give it their all. After the fight starts, the shadow- Macabre- starts to talk, and for the sake of clarity I'll re-translate here since the video's a bit messy: "Why... resist...? You should obviously... dream forever..." Violet asks what it means by "dream", but Joker tells her not to listen, and to stay focused. The video skips over the actual fight, but it may be worth noting that over the course of the fight, Macabre repeatedly summons two minions- a Pale Rider and a Red Rider- who can brainwash a teammate, and reduce the speed at which the team gains Highlight energy at, respectively. After the fight, Violet turns her back on Macabre, saying the fight is over. The Macabre, however, isn't quite destroyed, and mutters to itself, "Why... why do you want... to face... the dream... it is salvation... escape... is the answer..." As it says this, its voice gradually becomes more forceful, and it stands up, summoning back its scythe and charging at Violet. Mona calls out, and Violet turns around, but not fast enough to do anything but watch as it's about to strike her. However, we see a familiar black shoe and white pant leg, then a series of slashes through the air, and the Macabre dissipates. A boy in a red mask (Crow, obviously, but Wonder and Cattle don't know that) stands with his sword out, and says that was a bit careless. Joker recognizes him, saying "You're...", and the boy continues that this is the Metaverse, so you shouldn't let your guard down, even at the end. As he says this, he walks towards them, and we get a slightly foreboding close-up on his face, then the chapter ends.

[vrisrezis]

Hi! Im sure you probably had this request before but if not could you make a rocket x fox!reader where they knew eachother before they join the guardians and after some mutual pinning after awhile they start dating. During infinity war after thanos snaps reader disappears in his arms but is brought back and have a real sweet moment? Sorry if this is to long and feel free to ignore!! Have a great day :)

You and rocket met while he was trying to capture you. Apparently, a warrant was out for your arrest and you had a huge bounty on your head that he was more than willing to take for himself. However, you proved to be extremely difficult to defeat himself, even with groots assistance. He also didn’t know you were… animalistic like him, furry like him, different like him. Something about you made him hold back, and he’s glad he did. He followed you around for awhile after failing to capture you, and you ran away. He found you at a bar, where you pretended not to recognize him and talked over a couple drinks. It’s upon close inspection he recognized some of the metal parts on your back, as well as the writing on your side, it’s in the same spot his is, but his fur was able to hide it well. So was yours, but he was able to casually touch you, move the fur, and see it for himself.

While it did take time to convince you, and quite a bit of physical violence, he was completely set in making the two of you friends due to this connection. And eventually he’d succeed and you’d succumb to his charm and eventually the two of you would be traveling together as friends.

Over the course of your odd friendship, you both had gained feelings for one another. Something even groot had taken notice to. It was never really addressed, since neither of you were willing to confront eachother about your feelings.

It isn’t addressed till after you both join the guardians of the galaxy, shortly after groot becomes a baby. Something about nearly losing both you and groot in the fight with Ronan, had made the raccoon extremely emotional and finally allowed himself to be truly vulnerable and tell you how he truly feels for you.

You of course accepted his feelings.

And all was well for the both of you, for awhile.

But all the very few great things that happen in your life must come to a halt.

You had felt the need to once again save the galaxy, and you were determined to stay by groot and rockets side. For awhile, you were unsure. This was the first time you truly felt hopeless in a fight. Even against Ronan, it felt like there was a small chance of winning. But thanos? There was just no way. You, deep down in the pits of your soul, knew there was no way you’d win.

Of course, rocket tried to ease your worries. “We’re the freakin guardians of the galaxy, we got this babe.”

but as always, you were right.

He watched groot leave him, with his own two eyes. The grief felt immediate, but he had no time to cry, as he saw you slowly disappear too. “No… y/n!” he says, grabbing onto you. You sigh, looking at him. You had a feeling you were gonna die today anyway. You put a hand on his cheek and give him a bittersweet smile. “See ya later, rocket.”

he tries to engulf you in his arms, but your disintegrating body slips through his grasp.

He doesn’t even remember how long he sat there and cried.

5 years passes, and he is completely alone. Or, that’s what it feels like. Even after all this time, he’d think the pain, the anguish and the grief would go away but it never does. He thinks about the guardians, groot, you, everyday. He thinks he’s wallowed in his pain long enough, and he hates how familiar this feeling is. It’s happened so many times he thinks he’d be used to it, but he never is.

He finds himself trying to motivate thor back into shape, or his own version of motivation anyway. It’s almost like he’s talking to himself, because deep down rocket knows he needs to get a grip too.

Eventually all that fighting and pain is worth it. He sees groot again, and all the other guardians that he missed. His one and only family. But now he looks for you. And he finds you.

You wave to him, from a far distance. He comes dashing, and tackles you into a big hug. You smile and laugh, and he wraps his tail around you. “Hey rocket. How much later is it?”

He gives you a choked up laugh.

“Much. Much later.”

[violettelueur]

RYŌMEN SUKUNA || PROUD

| featuring : ryōmen sukuna from jujutsu kaisen

| warnings : grammar errors, swearing and mentions of injuries, blood and death.

| form : imagine

| word count : 1574

| published : 18 november

| request : Aaaa,, I really love your Sukuna imagines! Can I request an Imagine where it’s related to ‘kind hearted’, the reader gets hurt and sukuna gets upset? Thank you so much! Keep up with the great work!! 💞🦦

| barista’s notes : let me admit this, i’m not confident with this imagine ʕ ㅇ ᴥ ㅇʔ i tried changing it a few times but i was really doubting myself every time and this was the result of it, so i’m so sorry if you don’t like it ʕ； •`ᴥ•´ʔ also i’m not really good with fight scenes so if there are any advices that can be given to me, thank you so much ʕ ꈍᴥꈍʔ i hope you love your classic cup of black coffee and come again soon!

To say that you were screwed was more than an understatement. 

Right now wasn’t the ideal situation to be in for any jujutsu sorcerer that wasn’t Gojo’s level.

At this moment and time, standing in front of you was a special grade curse.

What made the situation worse was that Kugisaki was separated from the whole group making the mission more complicated than it needed to be.

“Itadori! Fushiguro! Go find Kugisaki and find the exit to the building, I’ll keep the curse in place!” you demanded, as you knew you didn’t have much time to explain the risky plan you came up with.

“Are you crazy? It’s a special grade there is no way you could defeat it right now!” Fushiguro shouted, trying to know what was going on in your head, thinking that you were utterly crazy for what you just stated to him and his classmate.

“I don’t care! Look, it’s having fun and underestimating us meaning it will use weaker attacks on me, buying time shouldn’t be too hard, just give me a signal when you and Itadori are safe, okay?”

Looking at you with widen eyes, Fushiguro continued to look at you like you had gone completely insane before closing them to clear his mind. What you were saying had much sense in it. Compared to the remaining people in the room, you were the one that had the most potential to defeat the special grade curse if you could, even when you and him were both grade two sorcerers. 

“Okay,” Fushiguro muttered quietly - still reluctant to leave you - before turning around and grabbing Itadori to go along with your plan, leaving you completely alone to defend yourself.

Turning back around to look at your opponent, you reached to the side of your hip to grip on the halt of your katana before slowly pulling the sword out from its sheath. From what you could observe, this special grade wasn’t a normal special grade, there was no way it could be deemed one yet it was. From what was going on around you, the curse hadn’t been able to construct a complete Domain Expansion, more of an Innate Domain at best making you come to the conclusion that it must have eaten a cursed object at best to become as powerful as it is - most likely Sukuna’s finger for one example.

Lifting your sword in front of you, you aimed the pointed tip at your opponent before tilting your head to the side to see what else you could observe from your distance.

“Would cutting your head off look best or would cutting both of your arms first be more sufficient?”

Of course, the curse couldn’t reply to you leaving it to only physically answered you with an immense amount of curse energy forming within the palm of its hand, ready to throw it at you.

“Looks like your arms are the first thing I gotta get rid of,” you answered yourself, as you quickly dodging the attack, only to suddenly appear in front of your opponent, leaving yourself enough space to swing your sword down to fully slash its left arm off as you then went ahead and spun behind its body to slice off the other off before pulling yourself back to gain some distance away from the curse.

However, what you had completely forgotten was that special grade curses were able their curse energy to heal themselves, as the curse’s arms suddenly regenerated as if you didn’t cut them off seconds before.

“Damn, I should have gotten your head first ha?” you rhetorically questioned, before using your free hand to pull a long black chain out of your pocket and attaching one end to the hilt of your katana. “Let’s see how fast you can catch,” you commented, as you then threw your katana while aiming for it’s head, using your curse energy to increase the speed it was going at. However, much to your dismay the curse unexpectantly grabbed onto the metal blade, leaving you no choice but to let your curse energy slowly flow through the chain all the way up to the blade causing a large red orb form at the end, quickly exploding before the curse could even react to stop it.

Swiftly, you pulled the chain back so you could retrieve your sword only to then suddenly see the smoke clearing and a large wave of curse energy coming towards your direction.

“Shit!”

In sheer panic, you use your feet to push yourself to the right to move away from the blast before your whole vision was concealed by the rubble and dust. 

Pain. That was all you felt. Pure pain. 

Were you going to die? Wasn’t you expecting that once you told both your classmates to find Kugisaki and run? You couldn’t lie to yourself, it was too painful to think about death right now. You couldn’t think straight at all.

Once the smoked cleared, all that the special curse could see was your standing figure panting heavily with your left sleeve completely gone due to the blast as blood gushed down your left arm. You had barely managed to get yourself out of the hands of instant death and luckily nothing of your body was disintegrated, just some burns and cuts here and there - to say it was surprising to see you standing was an understatement.

“From our battle so far, you lack the form of curse technique, but you still can pack a punch, ah it hurts,”

The blood loss was getting to you. Yes, having no limbs was not the better option but you could still live with that. What humans couldn’t do was stay alive with no blood and here you were quickly losing your live source the flowed in your body. You couldn’t even cover the wound as there was nothing you could cover it with and even if you did, the wound was too large to be covered. 

You were losing the strength to stand.

You were losing your balance.

You were losing consciousness.

Suddenly, you heard a loud sound of a howl from a distance. Instantly, you knew that Fushiguro and Itadori were able to find Kugisaki and get out. It was his signal. 

However, you weren’t so lucky in that factor, from the state that you were in, there was no way in hell you were able to escape now - but you were okay with that. If the other’s were safe, that was better than not knowing if they made it out alive. Slowly, you were starting to lose the feeling in your legs, causing you to completely losing your balance.

‘Damn,’ you thought, as you felt your whole body suddenly dropping leaving you no strength left to even brace for the impact, leaving you to close your eyes and admitting defeat.

However, just as you were able to fall to the ground, you suddenly felt a pair of arms catching you before you were quickly lifted up bridal style and pulled into a warm embrace surprising you completely from the sudden comfort of what you thought was your lonely end. Who was still in the building? You thought everyone got out, so who was carrying you right now?

From your limited sight, you could slowly make out someone in a dark uniform similar to the colour you wore, meaning it had to be someone from the team. However, the extreme pressure of curse energy that was somewhat suffocating you determined otherwise - no one within the area right now had this much power, no one at all. Unless…..

“Were you the one that caused this?”

Sukuna…

All you could hear right now a shaking tone as well as the couple droplets of water that was within the Innate Domain that surrounded you.

“For a grade two sorcerer, she really blew half of your body up with that little curse technique she used on you, I’m quite proud of my little one,” Sukuna uncharacteristically complimented you, as he gently pressed a little kiss on top of your head before gently smiling at you - knowing you won’t be able to see this rare expression on his face.

“You see, I’ve grown fond of this little human in my arms right now, and for you to do this much damage to her body, really weirdly angers me,” Sukuna stated before he turned around and began to walk away. “Wait there for a quick second would you? I need to take care of this one right now,” Sukuna commented, before gently placing you down at a safe spot to which he then started to use his curse energy to quickly heal your wound once he sat you up straight. 

Brushing away some of the hairs that were in your face, Sukuna placed one last light lingering kiss on your forehead before saying, “I’m proud of you, just wait a little longer, I’ll be back,”.

What was going on?

This had to be a hallucination. There was no question about that. There was no way Sukuna could have saved you let alone kissed you in any way. This was all a hallucination. Wasn’t it?

However, you didn’t have the power to stay awake any longer, resulting you to surrender to the tiredness that was taking over you, letting the darkness invade your whole surroundings, but not before letting out a little mutter under your breath.

‘Proud ha?’

[animalculous]

I refuse to let current events get the best of me. Anyway, you shouldn’t really get into an Actual Fight with Creepypasta Dogs in the Creepypasta Dog Universe because the resulting fight is always going to be metaphysical. In short, the results can not only be harmful but wildly unpredictable -- and potentially psychically damaging as you grasp your place in the world.

The best way to deal with a Creepypasta Dog is use avoidance, practice basic internet safety, and exhibit good moral integrity.

Still, sometimes you do need to fight a Creepypasta Dog. This is a fair and valid action because sometimes Creepypasta Dogs can be real big jerks. So let me pull a few articles from an occult scientific journal.

Please click below for more information.

“Abstract-to-Applied Alchemy: The Anatomy of Cognitocanis from a Calculable, Material Perspective”

To start, Cognitocanis are composed of numbers, shapes, ad nauseum (the abstract objects, not the symbols that represent them) like how we are composed of mundane atoms.

It is why they mainly thrive in the Cyberspace and not much else. All computing and digital systems fundamentally work on binaries, hexadecimals, and other more exotic mathematical sets.

(You may ask. Material reality is calculable. You can apply a number to rocks, you can theoretically do it to all the rocks in the universe. Yet, you do not see the Cognitocanis gamboling in our fields and parks. Why is that so? It may be because Cognitocanis need a certain amount of fundamental “simplicity” in order to manifest. It may be our reality simply has too much “stuff” for them to allow them to do so.)

It is why they can bypass most human digital security with ease. Though, they still need time to process such barriers, like how we do with complicated theorems and math equations.

It is also why they have resurrective immortality. When you subtract a number from another, those numbers do not change permanently. You simply use them in another thought experiment. Or someone else does. Similarly, when you "destroy” a Cognitocanis, they re-manifest back when “needed.”

Cognitocanis are a long complicated string of mathematical objects with self-awareness. You could possibly consider them an algorithm.

---

“Accessibility of General Self-Defense against Cognitocanis Species for Non-Occult Civilians”

or

“How to Fight a Creepypasta Dog”

In short, the best way to prepare way to deal with them is:

1) Unshakeable faith

2) Mathematics

The first part is helpful (as Cognitocanis are still occult creatures).

The second part is extremely important. Understandably, it is difficult to understand at the first glance. So let me lead you through.

Imagine a Cognitocanis as a grossly simple equation set (ex. 2+2=4).

While you can’t necessarily destroy the symbols (2, 4, the plus sign, and the equal sign), you can certainly muck it up. If you managed to disrupt one of the symbols, you can prove the entire equation wrong (ex. 2-2=4, 2+2=5, et cetera).

Having no fundamental font to manifest in, the Cognitocanis must admit defeat and disintegrate. They will be humiliated or morose or explosively angry, but would not pursue any further (there are plenty of other targets, after all). That is how you win a fight against a member of the Cognitocanis .

The Cognitocanis are generally made of stuff immensely more complicated than simple arithmetic additions. However, the point still stands. Disrupting the Cognitocanis’s mathematical integrity is the best, most surefire, way to defeat them. You do not need graduate-school levels of mathematical understanding to fight them (but it certainly helps). Numerology, astrology, and sacred geometry are accessible, if dubious, ways of self-defense.

Ultimately, you just need a simple appreciation of mathematical beauty to defend yourself. Cognitocanis are simple creatures. Despite their otherworldly nature, it would be self-centered to think them a cohesive threat against humanity. Sure, there are many interesting ways to fight a Cognitocanis, but remember this:

1) Simpler is better.

2) Never pick a fight you cannot win.

3) They are similar to you than you think.

Like humans, they also understand the concept of zero.

[c-ptsdrecovery]

“They genuinely tried to be good parents” and “It still wasn’t enough” are statements that can co-exist.

Someone said in a tag that they wished they could hear more about parents that fall in that category, because they feel like what they went through “wasn’t that bad” and that they must therefore be overreacting against their parents. So here’s an example of a parent that tried and still didn’t do well enough: my dad.

I really believe that he loves me and wants to help. But he grew up in an emotionally abusive/neglectful family, and he doesn’t know how to demonstrate love, so I grew up with very little kindness or warmth from him. He is EXTREMELY awkward. There’s a photo somewhere of me cuddled up next to him on the couch, watching TV. It was a rare enough occurrence that my mom took a photo of it. And he doesn’t have his arm around me or anything. He’s just sitting there, awkwardly. Because he doesn’t know how to show love.

He has also struggled with depression a good deal of his life, and is extremely risk-averse. He has a temper, and would blow up on me for little things. He was overprotective: I always asked my mom for permission to do things, because she would say yes and he might not. He is often very self-centered and often seems to forget that I am an independent human being who might want and need different things than he does: he often doesn’t seem to like that I have my own beliefs and opinions. I blew up on him once for buying me a replacement laptop that was not at all what I needed, because he didn’t consult with me AT ALL on what I needed or wanted from a laptop. That might seem like a little thing to get mad about (”After all, he bought you a laptop! Shouldn’t you be grateful?”) but the problem is that it was an event sitting on top of years and years of other experiences where he did what HE thought was best for me instead of what I actually wanted or needed. He ordered a new laptop again for me recently, and this time consulted with me carefully on what I wanted, so he took my criticisms on board, which is good. But the bad experience still ended up in my trauma memories because it was just one more example of him not understanding that I am a separate person with my own needs and wants. He TRIES to give me what I need, but he doesn’t bother to ASK what that is first.

When I was growing up, he also constantly did things FOR me--even when I WANTED to do them myself--instead of guiding me through doing them myself, giving me the impression that he didn’t think I could do them on my own. As I got older, when I turned to him for help, he often left me high and dry. He would refuse--sometimes angrily--to help me when I came to him for help. So he destroyed my self-confidence and made me dependent on him, and then punished me for being dependent on him when he didn’t want to help.

I really do believe that he loves me and that he wants to be a good dad. But he’s NOT a very good dad, and the older he gets, the more stuck he becomes in his ways. He does sometimes take criticisms on board, and if I tried REALLY HARD I might be able to get him to change some of his behavior, or go to family counseling with me, but at this point (especially with the disintegration of my relationship with my mom), it simply isn’t worth my time and effort. I have my own life to live. And that’s sad for him. Because he knows how separated he is from me, and I think he doesn’t like it. I think he knows, on some level, that he’s failed. But at this point, we’re just going to have to live with it.

[mxtangent]

Ben Shapiro Writing an Email - an Epic Tale

"Okay, it's one simple email, you can do it Ben, your wife is a doctor." Ben said as he bagan to type in his Thinkpad X270 laptop.

To whom it may offend,

"Ah no!" Exclaimed Ben, "it's reads as way too desperate..." Ben attempted to mash the backspace button to erase his numerous mistakes, but accidentally backed out of the Gmail website all the way back to a YouTube video named "Ben Shapiro DISINTEGRATES snowflake until they're REDUCED TO MERE ATOMS with his PARTICAL EXALERATOR POWERD RAYGUN." He briefly paused to wonder how many pages back he went, trying to decipher when in the last 18 hours he saw the video before him, as he spent all of them seeing clips of himself to gather up the confidence to write an email.

After 4 more hours of procrastinating on YouTube, Ben finally got back to writing the email

Dear liberals,

If I'm wrong about something, then why does my doctor say my brain is so big? Attached is factual proof from a doctor, (not my wife, which is also a doctor) and as you would agree that facts and logic don't care about your feelings, you will no longer be able to deny that I am extremely intelligent.

Sincerely,

Ben Shapiro, MD('s husband)

He began looking through the files of his old laptop, it taking hours to load each folder, the computer seemingly begging for mercy as each it loads more and more folder filled to the brim with clips of the times Ben was victorious in debates with young collage students. Finally, he found what he was looking for in a folder filled with different photos of Andrew Niel with badly scribbled edits mocking him.

"I should really get to organizing my files by the dwey decimal system sometime soon..." He paused for a second "But not now. Now is the time to destroy those peaky snowflakes once and for all."

Ben dragged a scanned PDF of a diagnosis for a cancerous brain tumor he got a few days back from a medical professional into Internet Explorer, and after the browser opened the PDF instead of attaching it, and Ben going back and rewriting the email, (not aware of the draft folder) he finally wrote the recipient: liberals@gmail.com.

Shapiro hit the send button with great enthusiasm, not before CCing his doctor wife who is a doctor so she could be proud of him for finally sending an email. But he immediately got a response. The email bounced. He didn't understand, the liberals must have a shared email address, otherwise how would they plan their agenda on a Google Docs? He was devistated, crying on the floor in a fetal position. He tried to get back up, but couldn't. Ben started to feel weird, like the world was made of jelly. He couldn't move. His vision going black.

The next day, Fox News held a segment about the recent passing of renouned internet celebraty Ben Shapiro, who died after an intercontinental ballistic tweet sent by the liberal snowflakes has inflicted him with cancel culture. (aka terminal brain cancer)

It is said (by Alex Jones) that the whole nation wept that day. But some whisper of a dark street corner where cheers could be heard. In that street corner, a local folk legend claims, lays the remains of a bus.

[commentaryvorg]

Digimon Savers Commentary Episode 42 - The Burst Mode of Tohma’s Determination

In this episode, Tohma goes to protect his family from the Royal Knights’ attack and his father’s own stubbornness. Many Norstein family issues are aired out and explored, leading to Tohma and his father finally beginning to understand each other.

The nicely short recap focuses entirely on Masaru’s issues in the last couple of episodes and doesn’t even bother mentioning Dukemon. I approve.

Anyway, with Masaru having headed off to another world to prove his dad’s not a mass murderer, we catch up with the invasion in the human world. Royal Knights are casually disintegrating entire skyscrapers with their attacks. I’m still sceptical as to how much good this is doing in terms of destroying the entire planet, which is what would need to happen if Yggdrasil is actually telling the truth about only wanting to avoid the collision. Doesn’t really seem like it to me.

There’s also massive armies of Knightmon, Armour-level (so, basically Adult) Digimon who all work for the Royal Knights, I guess. The narrator – narrating over something that’s not actually recap, which is rare – tells us that they’re invading every city around the world, but I kind of doubt that, too. There’s only like seven Royal Knights that we’ve seen, and even with much larger armies of subordinate Knightmon, I doubt there’d be nearly enough to get to literally every human city ever.

Still, one of the cities they definitely are attacking is Yokohama, naturally. MirageGaogamon, Rosemon and Ravemon are working to fend off the attack, effortlessly taking out individual Knightmon, but the numbers are tough to deal with.

In amongst the battle, Tohma gets a call on his DATS earpiece from Yushima, who’s still hanging out with the Norsteins.

And then there’s an unusually early opening! As this episode’s title already spoils, Masaru’s not gonna be the only one of the crew getting Burst Mode. There’s this one shot near the end of the opening in which only ShineGreymon is seen in his Burst Mode, which might make you think this is one of those (very common in Digimon) times where the most central main character gets to achieve a higher final evolution level than everybody else. But actually, this shot’s misleading! Fair and equal evolutions for all our main cast in Savers, even though this is much less of an ensemble cast and Masaru really is much more the single main character than in any other Digimon series.

We cut back in at an airport, which is having a very rough time of it in the Knightmon’s attack, with flames and destruction everywhere. And yet, one very foolishly reckless plane is trying to take off: the Norstein private jet.

Yushima:  “The man is crazy! He’s planning to take off?! After all I went through to stop him!”

Evidently, Yushima called up Tohma and asked him to come here because his father was about to do something extremely stupid and needed to be protected from his own stupidity. I also appreciate the acknowledgement that Yushima, having promised he’d take care of Relena in Tohma’s absence, didn’t just sit back and let this happen and did try to stop it, but in vain.

A Knightmon shows up in front of the plane’s cockpit, smashing the windows and effectively blinding the pilots. Gawappamon (I do not know why Kamemon is still only in his Adult-level form, more on that later) is there to take out the Knightmon, but the damage is done and the plane careers off the runway, unable to take off. (Which is probably for the best. Better it gets attacked now when it’s still on the ground than while it’s in the air.)

Inside the plane, Franz Norstein, Tohma’s father, is not pleased.

Franz:  “What the hell are you doing?”

What do you think the pilots are doing, Franz, you must know full well that there’s a Digimon invasion going on, including at this very airport. Someone’s very used to always getting his way no matter what.

A worried Relena staggers her way out of the back section of the plane that’s being used as a makeshift hospital room for her.

Relena:  “Father, what happened?”

Franz:  “Stay inside!”

[Relena winces at his shout]

Franz:  “I mean… it’s dangerous.”

Franz is stressed out enough that he snaps at her and kinda freaks her out, then realises his mistake and tries to explain how he meant it in a softer voice. He did mean well and warn her out of concern for her safety, but he’s not great at showing it, especially at a time like this. Not the best at dadding, this man.

Relena:  “Father… why are we leaving for home so suddenly?”

Relena doesn’t listen to his warning and staggers further towards him anyway. I don’t blame her for just wanting to understand what’s going on and why her father’s even putting them in such a dangerous situation right now. Evidently he didn’t bother to explain his Big Important Norstein Reasons to her.

More attacks shake the plane, knocking them both to the ground. Franz gathers up the fallen Relena in his arms, desperately crying out for someone to help them.

Someone does come and help them: MirageGaogamon – or, in other words, Tohma. The big dog-knight effortlessly takes out all of the Knightmon flying around the airport, making the place safe, for the time being at least.

(More points on the using evolved Digimon for transport chart! They really are getting the hang of that at last. But still not evolving him specifically for transport, since MirageGaogamon was already evolved fighting elsewhere.)

Tohma watches with this bitter look on his face as the doctors stabilise Relena in her hospital bed on the plane. She would never have been hurt at all if his father hadn’t been so stubborn and foolish.

Tohma:  “No matter where you run off to right now, the situation will be the same. Please stop exposing Relena to unnecessary danger.”

Franz:  “I must return to Austria and protect our manor.”

That’s Franz’s reason for the reckless attempted take-off, apparently. As if protecting his manor is worth risking his daughter’s life, or as if he even could protect it himself against Digimon whom he has no way to fight. Someone’s sense of Norstein responsibility is extremely strong, to the point of overriding all common sense.

Tohma:  “You *know* that flight take-off is currently prohibited!”

Franz:  “That can be fixed just by mentioning the Norstein name.”

Franz, you absolute moron, it’s not about some arbitrary rule that you get to break because of your power and influence, it’s about the fact that if you take off then you’re going to freaking die because of the turbulence and the Digimon. Franz is clearly extremely used to being able to do whatever he wants and can’t quite grasp the idea of a situation so far beyond his control that he literally can’t.

Tohma:  “That’s not what you should be saying!”

Franz:  “You dare to challenge your own father?!”

Tohma, who kind of hates the Norstein name and everything that comes with it, really cannot stand the way his father is willing to wave it around in order to put Relena in danger, and snaps at him. Franz snaps right back by continuing to cling to his unearned authority based on titles – he’s Tohma’s father, so what he says goes.

Gaomon:  “Master…”

Gaomon’s here too, and though he’d usually be a good dog and keep out of things like this, even he can tell his master’s getting rather concerningly worked up about this.

Tohma manages to calm himself just a little and tells his father that more Digimon troops might arrive, so they should take shelter.

Franz:  “Take shelter? Don’t be stupid. I’ll have another jet prepared to take us home.”

It’s very rich that Franz insists the suggestion to take shelter and not put themselves in more danger is being “stupid”. What does Tohma mean, Franz should change his mind and admit he was in the wrong.

Tohma:  “I just told you, you can’t do that!”

Franz:  “Then you’ll act as our escort.”

Franz really is being very entitled about this. Tohma, one of the few people in the world with a Digimon partner capable of fighting off the waves of Knightmon, happens to be here and happens to be his son, so obviously he gets to make use of that for his own purposes. Tohma doesn’t get given a say in it; it’s his duty as a Norstein, obviously.

Tohma:  “You are really…”

Tohma’s getting absolutely sick of his father’s entitlement to ordering him around and controlling his life like this. He’s grimacing and shaking in barely-suppressed anger and sounds like he’s very close to snapping out some sort of insult.

Franz:  “What? Don’t you at least want to protect your sister’s life?”

And again, here’s Franz, using Relena in order to emotionally exploit Tohma into staying and helping when he otherwise wouldn’t. If he wasn’t putting Relena in danger in the first place, Tohma wouldn’t have any reason to want to do this.

Tohma:  “Then… Then, what about you?”

Franz:  “What?”

Tohma:  “What have you ever protected so far?”

Tohma’s anger here isn’t even specifically focused on this one instance of his father being like this. This particular incident is hitting all the sore spots and turning into a reason for him to let out all of his long-bottled-up frustration about everything his father’s ever done – or rather, not done, as he feels.

We move into a flashback. Little Tohma stands forlornly in his house in Japan, which has been emptied of furniture, holding a funeral portrait of his mother. He’s about to move out to go and live with his father instead.

Franz:  “Let’s go.”

Little Tohma: “Okay.”

Tohma mumbles this reluctantly after a pause, obviously not wanting to leave his home and the memories of his mother behind at all, but what can he do?

On the way out, in the hall, he glances at a wooden beam into which is carved some lines and writing, marking his height at different important days in his life. It’s a cute little ordinary-kid thing that he did together with his mom! Aww. Based on the highest-up birthday listed here, Tohma is currently only six years old. Ouch, that’s young to lose your mother. (This is how I knew to cite that age during episode 15.)

Seeing this, Tohma perks up just a little and heads outside to his father, seemingly wanting to show him and share this cute family thing with him, perhaps something they can start to bond over?

Little Tohma: “Dad, wait a…!”

But his father’s already getting into the car and doesn’t listen, too busy and grown-up to care about silly little sentimental things like that. Tohma’s face falls in disappointment.

…Also, something I can’t believe I only just picked up on while writing this: little Tohma tries to call him Dad here. Yet, every time we’ve seen in the present, Tohma calls him Father. Tohma really did want to have a closer, more personal connection with his father, but Franz’s demeanour and unwillingness to engage forced him to make the whole thing more formal and distant. Gah.

Later, in Austria, inside the gigantic Norstein manor, little Tohma sits awkwardly on a chair in a hallway as he overhears an argument in a nearby room between his father and his grandmother.

Franz:  “Why, Mother?!”

Grandmother: “This isn’t a joke. I have no obligation to meet that child.”

Franz:  “He’s my son! He’s *your* grandson!”

Grandmother: “Only through blood. That boy cannot be called a true Norstein.”

Credit to Franz – and a sign of the way he really feels about Tohma that he’s very bad at showing – he really does want to introduce his mother to his son, just because Tohma’s his son. Never mind anything else about those rules of noble pedigree that says he’s not a “true” Norstein because he’s half-Japanese, which Franz’s mother is very insistent on sticking to.

Something to note is that this conversation must be actually happening in German, and we’re just getting translation convention here – Franz might know Japanese, but there’s no way Grandmother Norstein would stoop to speaking some foreign language in her own home. So I suppose, for little Tohma to be listening in, he must already be fluent in German. Which makes sense; he’s a genius, and his mom might have encouraged him to learn it, because of his heritage.

Little Tohma couldn’t manage to sit still and just listen to the argument; by now he’s peering in through the doors to the room, and his grandmother notices him there.

Franz:  “Tohma!” [he clears his throat] “What are you doing over there? Don’t you know how to greet others?”

Since she’s awkwardly seen him now, the best Franz can do to salvage this and make it seem polite and proper (and to not be an absolute dismissive dick to his son, which he doesn’t want to be) is to have Tohma introduce himself to his grandmother anyway, despite her wishes.

Little Tohma: “How do you do, Grandmother?”

Tohma nervously walks up and greets her, his gaze on the floor, because he overheard and knows full well that she doesn’t actually want him here. His grandmother lifts his chin to look at his face.

Grandmother: “His eyes are just like his mother’s.”

She doesn’t even greet him back. She just immediately comments – about him, not to him – on the physical feature of his that marks him out as not a true pedigree Norstein and the son of some foreign commoner. Being told you have your mother’s eyes is often meant as a compliment, but very definitely not here.

(Awkwardly, they’re literally not his mother’s eyes. Tohma’s eyes are blue, like his father’s, while his mother’s were brown like a Japanese person’s. It seems like the series’ artists finalised Tohma’s character design as someone who looked European without thinking about this relevant point for his half-blood heritage. It’s a shame; it would have been neat if he had blond hair and brown eyes to kind of reflect that. But, shush, please ignore what we can literally see here and focus on the narrative point of his grandmother’s words. I appreciate the spirit of the writers still wanting to go for this narrative point anyway despite that the character design had screwed them over on having it actually make visual sense.)

Grandmother: “I’m sure it must have been easy for you to mislead that young and ignorant exchange student.”

This is all we need to know about how Tohma’s mother and father met. She was an exchange student studying in Austria, and they happened to fall in love and conceive a child – out of wedlock, of course – despite that such a thing is very much not what a true proper Norstein should do in terms of creating offspring and potential heirs. Franz may have tried to do the proper dutiful Norstein thing, but he couldn’t help being driven by his emotions and his love. A little bit like another Norstein we know, really.

Of course, because a Norstein fathering a child in this way Will Not Do, Franz’s lover quietly took her baby back with her to Japan and raised him there. I imagine the Norsteins would have been quite happy to pretend this embarrassment had never happened, and Tohma would have grown up as a (relatively) normal Japanese kid, if things had been different. But then his mother died in that accident, forcing his father’s side of the family to awkwardly take custody of this kid they never wanted to be associated with.

Tohma’s grandmother finally looks straight at Tohma and addresses him directly.

Grandmother: “Listen closely. You are of the Norstein family, yet at the same time, you are not. You’ll do well to continue bearing that in mind.”

Geez, what a thing to say to a six-year-old kid who’s only just lost his mother and has been taken halfway across the world into a new home. If you’ve ever wondered how Tohma can seem full of himself sometimes and yet at the same time have such an inferiority complex? Yeah, this explains it pretty comprehensively. On the one hand, he’s technically a Norstein, which means that attitude of him being More Important than common people would be subconsciously ingrained into him no matter how much he doesn’t agree with it. But on the other hand, he’s not a “true” Norstein, and he’ll never be good enough for his family no matter what he does. Imagine growing up with that hanging over you from such a young age.

Little Tohma, almost on the verge of tears, glances to his father for any kind of support in this cruel disapproval from his grandmother – disapproval that he knows full well is because of his mom, aka the one person in the world he loves and misses dearly. And wasn’t his father supposed to have loved his mom, too? Surely he’d stand up for her?

Franz doesn’t. He’s twisted his entire face away from Tohma, not saying a word.

Seeing his father refusing to defend his mother against such insinuations, little Tohma feels very, very alone.

Tohma:  “I will never forget what you did back then. You insulted my mother, in the most despicable way, through your silence!”

And it seems like Tohma never let that go, for eight years. His mother was the one who raised him and loved him and was most important to him, so of course his first impressions of his father were horribly tarnished by the way Franz seemed to not even care about her. Tohma’s always been carrying that resentment towards his father. And similarly, remember how he brought up his father not helping his mother when she was suffering, presumably from money problems, when they were arguing in episode 34? Though growing up in the Norstein household with someone as uptight as Franz as a father can’t have been fun in general, all of Tohma’s most bitter feelings about it all revolve around his mother. She really did mean so much to him, even though he almost never mentions her to anyone.

Hearing this, realising his son still resents him for this, Franz grimaces and looks away.

Franz:  “You know nothing. Nothing.”

His words indicate that there was a lot more to his actions back then than simply not caring and not wanting to stand up for the woman he loved. It’s that he knew exactly how his own mother would react to such a thing. A Norstein isn’t supposed to care about some commoner, and he was desperate to not disappoint his own parent here any more than he already had.

And it’s very true that little Tohma didn’t take Franz’s point of view on this into account at all back then – but then, how could he have been expected to? He was six. Still, Franz acting like Tohma knows nothing at all of the Norstein family pressures he was under even now is maybe not quite as much the truth as he thinks it is, is it.

Gaomon gets their attention and pulls them out of the family quarrel by pointing out that there’s another squadron of Knightmon approaching outside the plane, just like Tohma predicted.

Franz:  “Do something, Tohma! Since you’re a Norstein, you should be able to do something!”

In his panic at the renewed danger, Franz instinctively clings to two things – his belief in his son’s abilities, and the notion that the Norstein name in particular makes somebody worth more than someone without.

Tohma rounds on him, scowling. Being told that he should be able to help because he’s a Norstein is the last thing he wants to hear right now, after the words of his grandmother’s that he was just remembering.

To his credit, Franz shrinks back a little at that, seeming to realise that that was not the best choice of words under the circumstances.

Doctor:  “Master Franz! Miss Relena is going into spasms!”

(Incidentally, though I’ve been calling Tohma’s father Franz since he showed up in episode 34, this line is the only point in the series at which we actually learn his name. I’m glad we have this, because it’d have been a lot more awkward wording-wise to talk about Tohma’s issues with him, and Franz’s own issues, if I didn’t even have an actual name to refer to him by.)

Yushima:  “Well, then. I guess it’s time to show them how serious I can be.”

Yushima, outside the plane and watching the squadron approach, does a Digisoul Full Charge and evolves Gawappamon into his Perfect-level form, Shawujingmon. I do not know why he didn’t have his partner evolved to his highest possible level earlier. Or, well, I do: it’s because the writers wanted to show off this form by having him evolve onscreen, even though he’s not important enough for a full-length evolution animation.

What I also don’t get is why we didn’t see Kamemon’s Perfect form earlier in the series, back during the ElDoradimon arc, where most of the main cast were already Ultimate-level and most of the Gizmon they were fighting were Perfect. That’d have been a much more appropriate point for it. And then maybe we could have got to see an Ultimate-level form for Kamemon here, like we’ve also seen Satsuma’s partner as an Ultimate? (Okay, yeah, I know, Kudamon’s a Royal Knight so he was always going to be that strong, but still.) It’d make Yushima feel a lot less awkwardly behind the times for someone who’s the Chief of DATS and therefore presumably supposed to be kind of a badass.

Still, even at only Perfect-level, Shawujingmon is more than a match for this army of Armour-level Knightmon, because of course he is.

Relena:  “Brother…”

Back in the plane’s makeshift hospital, Relena’s been stabilised, somewhat, but she’s still clearly in distress, grimacing and mumbling through her oxygen mask. She reaches out to grasp hold of Tohma’s hand as it rests on the railings of her bed. Tohma gasps – that simple gesture’s reminded him of another very important memory of his…

In the Norstein manor, perhaps a year or two later than the previous flashback judging by little Tohma looking a little bit older, Relena’s just been born. Franz and his mother hurry to consult with the doctors about the condition of the child, while Tohma lingers behind, watching from around a corner, obviously not properly allowed to be here even though this is his half-sister they’re talking about.

Grandmother:  “A girl?”

Tohma’s grandmother sounds vaguely displeased at hearing the child’s gender, despite that she herself is a woman and seems to be the matriarch of the Norstein family. I guess that ingrained sexism still runs strong enough that she was hoping for a boy regardless.

Doctor:  “However… both the mother and child were in danger during the labour process…”

Grandmother: “Very well. Do everything you can to save the child’s life.”

…But not the mother’s, apparently? I guess she can be sacrificed, in the name of bringing a new Norstein heir into the world. Presumably, after his, ah, mishap with the “ignorant exchange student” who was Tohma’s mother, Franz was married to a European woman of suitable noble pedigree, and since then they’ve been trying to conceive a child who can be a proper true-blood Norstein heir, unlike Tohma. That’s far more important than said woman’s life, right.

Grandmother: “She is a precious child who has finally been born into the Norstein family.”

Implicit in her words, which little Tohma clearly picks up on in some form as he listens from around the corner, is that he was never a precious child, and they never cared about him being brought into this family.

Sometime a little later, with baby Relena safe and sleeping (her mother presumably didn’t make it, because we never hear anything more about her), little Tohma heads into his sister’s hospital room to see her for the first time, while nobody else is around. He probably isn’t allowed to see her with others around, because he’s not Norstein enough, but how could he not want to anyway?

Little Tohma:  “So you’re Relena.”

The way he phrases this, like she’s so important already, even though she’s just a little sleeping baby, says a lot.

Little Tohma: “Everyone is worrying for you.”

Not stated but thoroughly implied in Tohma’s words: just like nobody ever worries about him.

I get the sense that he’s come here to see her not just because she’s his sister, but because he wants to try and understand what’s so special about her that makes her so much more important to his family than he is, even when she’s just a baby. After all, Tohma’s still pretty young himself, and genius or not, he probably doesn’t entirely grasp the Norstein politics and understand what it actually is that makes him “not good enough”.

Baby Relena, of course, understands all that even less. She begins to cry and wave her arms around, searching for some kind of human contact, and manages to grasp Tohma’s hand as he holds onto the edge of her crib. As soon as she does, she stops crying and chuckles happily.

Tohma stares in surprise. He takes his hand away, experimentally, and Relena immediately begins crying and reaching out for it again. Tohma keeps staring at her, like he can’t believe it. She wants him.

Somebody wants him.

Slowly, Tohma lowers his hand back towards his baby sister, and as Relena grabs hold of it, again she stops crying and becomes happy.

This is exactly what little Tohma needed. Someone who doesn’t care about any of the Norstein pedigree nonsense, and loves him unconditionally exactly the way he is. He smiles back at her, and there’s a kind of subtle determination in it. You can almost see him resolving then and there to do absolutely anything for this little girl.

I love this sequence; it shows so subtly and succinctly just exactly why Relena is so incredibly important to Tohma. She gave him unconditional love when he needed it most, when nobody else in his family would. No wonder he went and devoted his entire life to getting himself a medical license and research degree, all for the sake of curing her. No wonder he pretended to participate in genocide to keep her safe when an evil man put a bomb around her neck.

In the present, Relena’s still holding Tohma’s hand. He puts his other hand over hers protectively.

Tohma:  “I will do something… for Relena’s sake. But I won’t be doing it because I’m a Norstein!”

No matter how he feels about his father’s approaches, he cannot ever say no to protecting Relena. But he can at least do so while making it clear exactly who he’s doing this for, and that it’s not about those Norstein ideals that have caused him so much pain.

With that, Tohma heads out of the hospital section, leaving Franz and Relena in there. Franz calls after him, in vain, and then looks back at Relena, wincing. Seems like Tohma’s words lodged somewhere.

Gaomon:  “Master…”

Tohma:  “It’s all right.”

Tohma says this without looking at Gaomon, speeding up in his exit from the plane as if to prove just how all right everything is by getting straight into the action.

No, Tohma, it’s not. You are clearly not okay right now, with all this baggage that’s being dredged up. Gaomon can tell. (Gaomon, talk to him about his issues! You too-obedient dog, you.)

Outside the plane, Shawujingmon is still taking out Knightmon but is beginning to get overwhelmed by numbers, so MirageGaogamon joins the fray to help out.

Tohma:  “Yushima-san! I apologise.”

Yushima:  “Hm? For what?”

Yeah, Tohma – don’t apologise when you’ve done nothing wrong! I like how Yushima points out that he’s got nothing to be sorry for. Apparently Tohma being around his father and subjected to those ridiculously high standards has made him feel like he needs to apologise for something as insignificant as, I dunno, taking an extra minute to leave the plane and come help because he was dealing with family issues.

After some more fighting, the Knightmon fall back as one of the Royal Knights, RhodoKnightmon, descends dramatically from the storm clouds.

(Guh, thanks to Digimon Frontier, my brain still can’t help but want to call this guy LordKnightmon, which is how his name was romanised in those subs, but nope, I am going to insistently make myself stick to what the Savers subs call him anyway, because Savers.)

RhodoKnightmon: “You will pay for laying your hands on my subordinates.”

[Tohma scowls]

Tohma:  “Let’s go, MirageGaogamon!”

MirageGaogamon: “Yes, Master!”

Yushima:  “Don’t! Tohma!”

Yushima can be seen taking notice in the background upon seeing Tohma’s uncharacteristically fierce and charge-in-headfirst approach. Tohma is not being himself, and Yushima, who’s good at observing interesting people and figuring out the gist of their issues, can tell.

MirageGaogamon, as ordered, simply zooms right up to RhodoKnightmon, who dodges his attack and counterattacks with a super-speed flurry of blows from every angle, sending MirageGaogamon crashing to the ground. That’s the sort of reckless mistake Masaru might make, but not usually Tohma.

Tohma:  “Damn it…”

Yushima:  (His composure is breaking… Just as I assumed, he’s agitated about something.)

Again, I like how Yushima can tell. Tohma’s getting too worked up by his family issues to be thinking straight right now.

Franz:  “I… I…”

Meanwhile, in the hospital section of the plane, Franz is also getting rather worked up with his own issues. He briefly flashes back to all the times Tohma’s snapped at him this episode, perhaps starting to realise that his son might have a point.

We move into another full flashback – this one from Franz’s perspective. It’s not long after Relena’s been born; maybe a few days or so? Long enough for the poor state of her long-term health to have been confirmed by the doctors, at any rate.

Grandmother: “Tohma shall succeed the Norstein lineage.”

Franz:  “What did you say?”

Grandmother: “Because of her weak body, Relena will not do.”

Thinking about this from Franz’s perspective, this has got to have been a slap in the face. He finally goes and does the Proper Thing instead of being led by his emotions, marrying, and conceiving a child with, a woman he presumably didn’t have any feelings for (and even if he didn’t, it’s still got to hurt that she died giving birth). And after all that, it turns out those efforts still weren’t good enough to produce a proper heir after all.

(It’s probably not a surprise that Relena’s so ill, when you think about how much the Norsteins seem to care about proper “pedigree” – her condition may be a result of the rather shallow gene pool available among European nobility.)

Grandmother: “Instead, arrange for a lady of suitable pedigree to become Tohma’s wife. Choose one that will prevent others from talking behind our backs.”

Even though a part of Franz might be happy that his son is finally being recognised, his mother makes it clear that Tohma’s existence is still a stain on their reputation, and he needs to make up for that and cover it up by giving Tohma a suitably pedigree wife. Clearly the “talking behind our backs” remark is referring to what other noble families will be/have been doing about Tohma’s heritage and Franz’s “mistake”.

(Also, imagine how this must have felt for Tohma. You’re a Norstein, except you’re not really. Oh, wait, except you are, but only because you’re the inferior back-up option, now have all these immense pressures and standards to live up to as we decide the rest of your life for you. Gah. It must have been such a relief for him when he ran off to medical school and then also joined DATS, just to be able to get away from all that.)

Franz:  “But Mother!”

Grandmother: “Understood?”

Franz:  “Yes…”

Franz’s expression wavers before he gives in and accepts his mother’s demands. Seen from this perspective, it reads as quite similar to the way Tohma has been protesting his father’s unreasonable demands, and has been given little choice but to accept them and go along with the Norstein Way. It’s not just Franz; every member of the Norstein family imposes these values and pressures on their offspring, until they learn to impose it on theirs in turn. It wouldn’t even be fair to say that Franz’s mother is the sole villain here, because although she’s never presented in a sympathetic light in this episode, she must also have grown up with those same pressures from her parents until she internalised it all. (Especially as a woman leading the family, which it seems like this culture is still vaguely sexist about.)

In short: the Norstein family is messed up as all hell, by its very nature.

As Franz, in the present, clutches his head and grimaces from his own issues and guilt, one of the doctors comes and tells him they’re ready to move Relena back to the airport so that they can transport her onto the replacement jet. (They’re still apparently going with that plan to continue trying to fly back to Austria, although I wonder if Franz would really be so willing to stubbornly insist that’s the best approach any more. But either way, they’ve at least got to move Relena out of this plane.)

Doctor:  “We must do this while Master Tohma is distracting them.”

Franz:  “Tohma…”

Franz mutters his son’s name like he’s worried, or perhaps proud, as it sinks in (not for the first time) just how much Tohma’s willing to risk himself and sacrifice for Relena’s sake.

Out in the fight, RhodoKnightmon gets in an attack on Shawujingmon, instantly devolving him, because of course. MirageGaogamon, while remaining evolved, is taking quite the beating from the Royal Knight too, ending up collapsed in pain on the runway.

Relena’s doctors emerge from the plane, wheeling her bed across the runway as fast as they can while RhodoKnightmon is hopefully not looking their way. Relena regains consciousness and looks over to see her brother rushing to the downed MirageGaogamon’s side. With all the self-preservation of a scared little girl who’s just desperately worried about her precious big brother (that is to say, no self-preservation whatsoever, but let her off, she’s very young), Relena climbs out of the hospital bed and starts running as fast as she can towards Tohma out of some frantic attempt to help him somehow.

Relena:  “Brother… No… Don’t go…!”

Or perhaps it’s not about helping him, but some sense that she’s being taken away in a different direction to him, and so she thinks he’s going to leave her and just wants to stay with him? I’m not sure if this is meant as a warning or as a plea.

Franz sees this from the door of the plane and rushes towards his daughter. One of the Knightmon sees a free target and fires an attack directly at Relena, who freezes up in fear as it approaches.

(Seriously, Knightmon, what a dick move. Of all the exposed human targets you’ve got here right now, you aim right at the defenceless child before anyone else?)

Franz desperately reaches out for his daughter as the attack draws close, but he’s never going to get there in time. He collapses before he can see it hit – and looks up to see Relena safely in Tohma’s arms, with MirageGaogamon kneeling behind them. Despite how injured he was, the good good dog managed to stand up and get there just in time to block the attack, because he would do anything for his Master’s precious sister.

Franz couldn’t do anything to protect his daughter – but Tohma could.

Relena smiles at seeing her brother safe (and is hopefully learning her lesson about feeling like she can protect him in a dangerous situation if that’s what it was, Relena that was sweet of you but please) and passes out in his arms.

Franz staggers closer to both of his children, and then he drops to his knees in front of Tohma, as if begging for forgiveness.

Franz:  “Even I… Even I have acted out of desperation. I always did everything in my power to protect the Norstein family’s name!”

Finally, after seeing what almost happened to Relena and having himself be powerless to protect her, Franz is willing to humble himself in front of Tohma and admit that he’s not perfect. Everything he’s done has also been out of a desperation to live up to those ridiculously heavy Norstein family pressures, but it’s hard, and he’s never been good enough at it, and he’s messed up his own son in the process.

Franz’s voice cracks with emotion as he says this, and he breaks down crying.

Tohma:  “Father…”

This is, almost certainly, the first time Tohma’s ever seen his father cry, or show any real amount of vulnerability at all. This is the first time he’s realising that his father has also been suffering under the Norstein pressures, just like he has. His father’s not such an unreasonable tyrant after all; he’s just a flawed, imperfect human being.

Tohma remembers himself, as a kid, crying alone outside the Norstein manor. We’re not shown why, but surely it must simply have been from all of the pressures put on him and the loneliness it made him feel – this probably happened a lot more than once. That image gets overlaid over the image of Franz crying here and now. Father and son aren’t so different after all. Tohma can understand what his father’s going through, because he’s been through the same kind of thing.

Tohma:  “Father. Please take care of Relena.”

[he hands Relena over to Franz]

Franz:  “Tohma?”

[Tohma stands up]

Tohma:  “I will protect you.”

That seems to be all Tohma needs – coming to some kind of understanding of his father as a person, seeing him be vulnerable – for his protective instinct to kick in towards him, too. Tohma may come across as logical and calculated on the surface, but he really is so deeply driven by the desire to protect those closest to him more than anything else.

Tohma:  “I’ll make sure to protect you. I won’t let them lay a finger on Relena, either.”

[he puts a hand on MirageGaogamon]

MirageGaogamon: “Yes, Master.”

I like MirageGaogamon’s “Yes, Master” here. There’s somehow more gravity to it than most of them, like he understands the resolve his master’s just come to and how important this is to Tohma, and he’s even more determined than usual to support him. Tohma didn’t even give him a verbal order, but he knows exactly what his master wants him to do. Good dog.

With that, he and Tohma turn dramatically to face RhodoKnightmon.

Tohma:  “RhodoKnightmon! You won’t get away with this any longer! With my name, Tohma Norstein, on the line… I will defeat you!”

It sure marks a turnaround that Tohma’s willing to dramatically swear on his name like this. I imagine this is a lot less about the family name in and of itself, given how much pain and grief that’s caused to both him and his father, and more about just Tohma himself. He’s being proud of every single part of him, his sister and his father, because they’re all his family, even if that family’s pretty messed-up.

RhodoKnightmon: “You will defeat me? Even as a joke, that’s quite insulting. Such a sin is punishable by death.”

Oh my god, more ridiculous Royal Knight pompousness. Yes, clearly, simply saying you’ll defeat a Royal Knight is such a terrible insult that you deserve to die for it. Get over yourself, RhodoKnightmon.

RhodoKnightmon flies at MirageGaogamon, who, despite his earlier injuries, blocks the knight’s ribbon-sword without missing a beat, before Tohma even begins to flare up with Burst Mode energy. I guess his partner’s new determination and resolve already managed to give MirageGaogamon a pick-me-up, even without the whole thing being charged through the Digivice into Burst Mode just yet.

But anyway, it’s Burst Mode time for Tohma, as if the title of this episode didn’t already give that away. Look at this unicorn dog-knight with fabulous hair. I think I actually like MirageGaogamon’s Burst Mode form distinctly more than his regular form, while for the other Burst Modes I’m kind of indifferent. Something about the different shape of his body is more appealing to me.

His animation also involves him dramatically pulling his new weapon out of the moon, which makes for some nice duality with how ShineGreymon’s Burst Mode animation has him pulling his flaming sword and shield out of the sun.

Also, as you’d imagine, we get Believer again, which is always a good time when we haven’t heard it since episode 38.

MirageGaogamon’s new moon-flail weapon shatters one of RhodoKnightmon’s ribbon swords. Then RhodoKnightmon’s attack of striking at super-speed from multiple angles, which did a number on MirageGaogamon earlier, is now something he’s fast enough to block every single strike from.

There’s not much else that’s interesting about the fight. It’s not quite won in a single attack, but it’s your pretty standard comprehensive victory brought on by a new evolution. RhodoKnightmon was never an interesting antagonist anyway, so I don’t mind. This episode was about the family issues, not the fighting.

As RhodoKnightmon disintegrates into an egg, a beam of light appears and carries it upwards towards the Digital World. All of the Knightmon’s eggs were just left here, but apparently Yggdrasil doesn’t want to let any humans get their hands on the egg of one of its Royal Knights in particular.

Later, Relena’s sleeping safely in a hospital bed in the airport building. It seems Franz has seen sense and is not about to try and risk her life again by taking off with her in another jet. Protecting the Norstein manor (as if he even could; he’s probably been humbled enough to realise how out of his power that is right now) is not worth that risk.

Franz:  “I see. So you’re leaving.”

Tohma:  “Yes.”

Franz:  “Will it be all right?”

Tohma:  “Set your mind at ease. Relena has already settled down.”

Franz:  “No. I was talking about you. Will you be able to come home safely?”

Aww, Franz. He’s very awkward and bad at showing it, but he really does love and care about both of his children. His strict Norstein upbringing just forced him to always treat those feelings like they were a secondary priority next to whatever he had to do to protect the Norstein family name.

It’s also not a surprise that Tohma initially assumed his father’s question was about Relena, because he is thoroughly not used to the idea that his father worries about him. He stares at his father in shock for a moment as the reality sinks in.

Tohma:  “It’ll be all right. After all… I am a Norstein.”

I am, again, going to assume that this is not about the lofty Norstein pedigree like his grandmother would have meant it. Instead, perhaps he means it in the sense that, well… being a Norstein messes you up, but that also means it gives you the resilience to get through any kind of challenge and still stay standing. His father must understand that too, surely.

(Something that might be worth noting is that we never get any sense that the influence of Tohma’s grandmother is still around in the present day. She may well have passed away by now? …Or, I suppose, maybe she’s just back in Austria, having not joined Franz on his trip to Japan to cure Relena through Kurata’s methods, because she doesn’t care about Relena enough when she’s not the heir anyway.)

Franz:  “I see.”

I kind of like this shot of both of them sitting side-by-side like this. They’re still both so awkward about this communicating and talking-about-their-feelings thing – but at least Franz is now making an attempt, which is significant progress from how he was before.

Tohma exits the hospital room, implicitly leaving his family’s safety in Yushima and Kamemon’s hands. He’s resolved to head out to the Digital World to help Masaru.

Which… is a bit of a sudden turnaround from the end of the previous episode, in which he promised Masaru he’d stay behind to protect the human world from the Royal Knights’ attack. This does somewhat smack of this episode transparently existing to get Tohma his Burst Mode before he can head off and join the real fight.

But it does make a certain amount of sense for him to join Masaru anyway. As much as they might talk about protecting the human world from attack, there’s just so many Royal Knights (and minions) that there’s very little that one person can do to help, even with an Ultimate-level partner. The only thing that’s really going to make a difference to the fate of the world here is getting through to Yggdrasil, so really, Masaru needs all the help he can get with that side of things. Tohma and the others may have been briefly swayed at the end of last episode by Masaru’s stubborn insistence on Doing This Alone because of his dad complex, but despite the legit argument about staying to protect the human world, following Masaru to help him really was always the best call all along.

Yushima:  “He’d rather face the danger than wait for it to come, is it?”

Perhaps that’s one way of putting it. Tohma’s new resolve found in this episode seems to have also come complete with nudging him to take a more head-on Masaru approach to things.

Overall thoughts

This really is nothing but a Tohma’s Issues episode, but it does still feel reasonably integrated into the plot, being wrapped up with the current crisis, which is nice.

And man, what a good Issues Episode it is. I am very glad to have this to cap off all of Tohma’s other issues and development that we’ve had throughout the series. It’s masterfully done – I love how all these flashbacks tell us everything we need to know to fully explain Tohma’s character and let us realise where every part of him comes from: his inferiority complex and perfectionism, his resentment of his father, his devotion to Relena, everything. All my analysis of Tohma in previous episodes has been done with this stuff low-key in mind in the back of my head, even as I’ve not mentioned it directly, because it’s just so vital for understanding what makes him tick.

I also enjoy that this episode shows us Franz’s issues and humanises him a lot, drawing parallels between father and son in terms of the pressures they’re under. This doesn’t excuse Franz for not having been a great father until now, but it’s for flawed human reasons and not simply because he’s A Bad Person. While he was terrible at showing it, he has always loved his kids, and at least he’s now admitted to his mistakes and shown willingness to try and do better. It’s still going to be awkward at the Norstein dinner table for quite a while, but they’ll be able to get somewhere.

RhodoKnightmon is admittedly barely a character, but also, who cares; he’s just here to be a Villain of the Week to give Tohma something to fight. At least the writing isn’t trying to treat him like we ought to be invested in him – see me side-eyeing next week’s episode.

---

[Dub comparison]

[utilitycaster]

Level 14!

let’s go down the list except Fjord last because there are two paths he can go by but in the long run there’s still time to change the road you’re on

Jester and Caduceus: no additional spell slots, although they can prep an additional spell as they always can upon leveling up (both are now able to prep 19 spells). Eighth level spells show up at L15 and honestly it’s a short list (for those wondering: control weather is very handy but they might not get that in time to battle the takers, antimagic field will be good when they take on Trent at some point in the future but probably not yet, earthquake could be pretty nasty against enemies in the distance, and holy aura grants some great benefits but does require an extremely expensive relic and mostly I just want to know what a 1000 GP relic of The Traveler will be). They do however get improved Destroy Undead (up to CR 3 now), and a slightly better chance at divine intervention (not relevant for 7 days for Caduceus, but maybe Jester will be able to drag Artagan from the bar?)

Caleb: like the other full casters, no additional spell slots. He does get two new spells for free and personally speaking after looking into how antimagic fields interact with concentration I would love to see delayed blast fireball. I’m saving 8th level spell speculation for when they level up to 15 because the wizard list is huge, and more importantly, Caleb gets a subclass feature this level! He is now a master transmuter and can use his stone in four ways: he can transmute a nonmagical object no larger than a five foot cube into a different nonmagical object of similar size and no greater value; he can remove all curses, diseases, and poisons from one creature and bring them up to full HP; he can cast raise dead without a spell slot (diamond still required)(unless it’s Yasha); or he can restore youth, reducing a creature’s apparent age by a minimum of 13 years (3d10 or 13, whichever is higher), but with no lifespan extension. Any of these options will destroy the stone, and he’d need to create a new one, which takes 8 hours, after a long rest.

Veth: She learns a new spell, which can be up to 3rd level, and can be anything on the wizard spell list (as opposed to her usual limitation to the enchantment and illusion list). Also she hasn’t use mage hand to distract people, I don’t think, unless I missed it in last week’s battles, which is a L13 ability that Sam might review upon leveling up. As mentioned, she could take Leomund’s Tiny Hut, but also counterspell, blink, nondetection, remove curse, sending...it’s a good list. I would advise personally against major image just because that’s illusion, so she could take it at any level she gets to learn new spells or swap out an older spell for it.

Yasha: in addition to a zillion HP, she gets the most metal ability of all, Rage Beyond Death. If she is raging and is taken to 0 HP, she does not go unconscious. She still makes death saves as normal - and presumably, if she is hit she still takes a death saving fail (although not an auto-crit since she’s not unconscious) but she will remain conscious until her rage ends, and also she can, as far as I can tell from the wording, be healed despite failing 3 death saves and remain alive as long as her rage has been continuous. L14 is a fun in-between state because at L15 she gets persistent rage, which makes her very, very hard to kill as a result - it pretty much needs to be an insta-kill, like disintegrate or finger of death or being taken to -154 HP, since otherwise she just rages until healed. But at L14 she does have to maintain rage through attacks or damage.

Beau: Beau is now proficient in all saving throws, which means +9 to WIS and INT, +6 to CHA, and +8 to CON which will help a lot against Lucien next time (as she was rolling with just a +3 to CON last week). Her strength and dex saves are unchanged since monks have proficiency in those to start. She also can spend a ki point to reroll a failed save. And finally, her unarmored movement speed is now 55 feet per round, which means with step of the wind she can do 165 ft/round, which is 18.75 mph or about 30 km/h. (note: technically this is not superhuman; Usain Bolt’s record 100 m dash comes out to 37 km/h. However, that was for under 10 seconds. A rested Beau can do this for 14 rounds which is 84 seconds, covering about 700 meters. Using the 800m dash world record, the top speed is about 29 km/h; since it’s not a perfect comparison, Beau is at the very least matched with the (male) world record holder for that distance and possibly a bit faster).

Fjord: Fjord is currently at L10 Warlock/L3 Paladin.

Another level in Warlock gives him two major benefits: a third 5th level spell slot which like his other warlock spells refreshes on a short rest, and a mystic arcanum, which is essentially a once-per-day 6th level spell. The arcanum options are interesting and a few don’t seem very in line with his patron (somehow, create undead, mental prison, or soul cage don’t really seem like great choices) but arcane gate is highly on-brand - it’s basically Now You’re Thinking With Portals (and means that he could essentially allow the whole party to dimension door, with the restriction that it must be somewhere he can see). Conjure fey is sort of the same idea as conjure greater demon except fey, so I don’t really see the benefit; Eyebite is a solid debuffing option; Flesh to Stone lets him petrify people if he can maintain concentration and they fail their saves; Mass Suggestion is exactly what it sounds like (and lasts 24 hours without concentration, although there’s a save and it breaks if you attack the creatures affected); the various elemental investiture spells which could be handy in combat although would make it hard for the other melee fighters in the Nein; scatter, which is also very on brand in that it lets him teleport other people around; and we know True Seeing from the clerics and it’s probably not worth it since he’s got the sword and said clerics can do the same thing.

L4 in Paladin’s main benefits are: gets him closer to higher paladin levels, gets him an extra prepared L1 spell, and he finally gets the ASI/feat the rest of the party got two levels ago. For ASIs, bumping up strength and dex wouldn’t hurt - a higher AC and saves are always nice even if his attacks are with his maxed-out charisma - but the feats look better, honestly. Some that stand out to me are are inspiring leader (he’d have to do it twice to cover everyone, but it would give everyone +19 temp HP); mage slayer which is a feat I really like but also makes sense for Fjord, who is often in melee against spellcasters; spell sniper (which would give him a 240 range with Eldritch Blast, and a bonus cantrip, which he could take from any list although charisma casters are the smartest option); or prodigy, which Beau has and which would give him some extra skills and expertise.

[bbbambam]

Imagine…you meeting the kamaboko squad for the first time♥️. (pt.1)

Note.The kamaboko squad include : Kamado Tanjiro,Kamado Nezuko,Agatsuma Zenitsu,Hashibira Inosuke💗

No.1 : Kamado Tanjiro & Kamado Nezuko

Pairing : Tanjiro or Nezuko (up to you! :D) x [fem] reader

Warnings : none again, just fluff💓 (Ok,does slicing demon’s head count as violent?…If it does-well…might have some violent then -_-)

Note-This two siblings…are just so cute asdfghjkmnz-

Synopsis : You were doing your mission as a demon slayer…which is slaying demons…But there was something-ah no,some unexpected people that you’re bound to meet on that dark day which when the moonlight shone down and the stars were glittering across the black sky…

You were just doing your mission-which is slaying demons as usual.It was raining-hard.And you were standing face to face with a demon you’ve been sent to slew…you were standing all alone in this dark forest with a demon…

You’re panting tiredly…why?Well-if it wasn’t for the battle you had earlier with this hideous creature in front of you who gave these nasty little wounds to you…

You got hurt by some bruises,scratches-but the most hurtful one,was the wide wound on your lower stomach…It draws some blood-you didn’t really care about the blood,but what you care is well,damn-yes,you must admitted that it did hurt much more than you thought…It feels like you were in a slow-but painful torture as the time passed by and as more blood dripped…

Even the demon,was also panting slightly-though you know this wouldn’t last much longer.Its eyes-disgusting eyes,were fixed intently on your fatigued frame…

Its expression look suspicious as if its mind was calculating and guessing your next movement…not to mention that its eyes were also stared intensely-hungrily on your open wound…As if it’s getting more and more desperate to finally savour your flesh and blood…You glared back at it…

Then,you take a quick glance at the night sky,you find it almost impossible to keep your eyes open out of all the exhaustion you felt-It was still dark,which means you still have time…The white-silver moon…shone brightly through this black sky and through the curtains of shadowy clouds along with little pieces of glittering lights called stars…

Though the light wasn’t that much but it still at least-allowed you to see things,which only that is more than enough for you.

When you blinked down to this wretched being again…Its eyes still never leaving you as it hissed and lunged toward you.

In return,you gripped your blade tighter-ready to counterattack as you raised your arms above your head to sliced this demon’s neck.Using (your choice of breathing) breathing style.

The demon snarled widely with its sharp claws ready-dying to finally taste you-and you found yourself holding your breath….

But just as you’re about to swing your blade,the demon’s head has fallen to your feet making you froze for a moment… ‘What did just happen?-but I still didn’t do anything!’ You thought,confused and suspicious-but also,amazed and surprised at the same time.

You could do nothing but blinked several time,puzzled at the the demon’s head between your own feet which start to slowly disintegrate into ashes…

Then suddenly,you heard voices calling in front of you…you quickly shot your head to the owner of the voice all the while-raised your blade threateningly at that person,full on guard if this person happened to be another demon…

Turns out-he was a boy…around your age,his hair and eyes are red…and he wears a checkerboard pattern haori…he also have a quite big wooden box on his back…making you wondered what he was carrying…you observed him silently as you narrowed your eyes at him suspiciously….

“Who are you?” You began carefully,he seems stunned and helpless by your threatened movements as he put both his hands up in defense…that’s when you noticed that he also wears the demon slayer uniform and in his right hand-was a black nichirin blade…that was what make you sheath your sword back into your scabbard…but-you still eyed him suspiciously…ready to knocked him out if he did anything bad…

“I-I’m!um-I’m Kamado Tanjiro from the demon slayer corps!Mizunoto rank!” He answered staunchly while also sheathed his blade back…and your blinked one more time before you start to introduce yourself back, “My name’s (l/n) (y/n),I’m also in the demon slayer corps. (Your rank) rank.” You tell him flatly,he nodded before asked you, “Are you alright?”

There was silent going between you for a while,rain was still falling hard from the sky and as it made contact with your skin…you think you’ve got more torture from the cold and wet feelings…but still,you nodded stiffly back at him

“I’m fine…and thank you for saving me from that demon…” you managed out,though you know fully well that you can handle it yourself.

“Are you sure?…” he asked again,and you forced a small smile to convinced him that you’re fine…even though it hurts like hell…. “I’m alright,maybe you should go back and rest….since it’s already very late.Please don’t worry about me,I can take care of myself…” You tried to controlled your voice to be as normal as you can…but you still didn’t know that even if you don’t speak,he can smell it out by himself…

And as he was scanning your form….his eyes had met with the open wound on your lower stomach…that’s when he know you’re not ok,and he can’t just let you go like this.What if you got hurt more?

You can read his worry expression…so you said, “Oh no-I know what you’re thinking.But like I told you I can take care of myself and more importantly,I’m fine-” “No you’re not” he cut you off sternly, “You shouldn’t even walked,let me help you please and I’m extremely sorry for my bad manners.” He stepped closer and you took a step back,prepared. “Wha-” you started slowly,(like he’ll let you finished your sentence-,of course not,duh 😒) But what he did next has caught you off guard-

He just lifted you up,bridal style.Ignoring all the punches and kicks you threw at him,all your protests and objections.You didn’t have that much strength to push him off from how much you’ve lost your blood and you’re starting to feel dizzy…(He’s a strong boi,pls just let him do what he wants UwU) So he just carried you to the closest shelter he could find to hide from the pouring rain,which was a cave.

-Ooh~Did I have to tell you about how red and flustered you looked?✨Well,maybe not lol😂

When you both have finally made it to the cave,he put you down gently before also put the box on his back down and start to rummage to find things under his haori,probably find some clothes to bind your wound that might help to stopped your blood….

“Why did you do that?” You started,and he suddenly stopped his movement and turn his attention to you. You were staring outside the cave,not even sparing him a glance….“Do…what?…” he answered. “Carried me,or should I asked,Why did you help me?” You turn to look at him,and he blinked before look down “Oh…I…I just…I just can’t leave you like that…” He trailed off,before going back to find things…

You sighed, “You don’t really have to do that,we don’t even know each other” You exhaled. “Sorry…” he answered,his expression fell clearly. “But still…” You started again, “Thank you…for helping me” You smiled a bit at him,at that-he starts to bright up again, “With pleasure!” He cheered, “Oh and here,could I see your wound please?”

You slowly stand up and walked towards him,he immediately run in to help you-though you said almost ten times to him that you’re fine. “You shouldn’t stand up like that!At least give me a word before you do anything!” He scolded you,and you just just laugh. “It’s not funny!” He cried. “Yeah,yeah I know…Whatever,go on.Please help me tend the wound.” You offer him a warm smile,which he sighed-but still returned your smile.

Once you’re sat down and he starts to clean the wound…The wooden bow shook and you both flinched. “What-what was that?” You choked out, “Oh,it’s my sister,she’s a demon” he relaxed, “Oh,a sister…Wait,what?A demon?” You whipped your head from Tanjiro to the box,the box to Tanjiro,until the so called ‘demon’ that Tanjiro called his ‘sister’ came out…

Dear goddesss you almost fainted…His sister,forget the the word ‘demon’. She was so cute and adorable,too much than to be one of those wretched demons.Even with that bamboo tube in her mouth she still looked cute <3.And she just looked at you-to her brother,and back to you.

“Ah-Nezuko!This is my new friend,(l/n) (y/n)!She is a good person,you can trust her.But be careful!’cause she’s get hurt by the demon!And (y/n),this is Nezuko.My sister.” Tanjiro called happily with a bright smile.Nezuko blinked at you and tilted her head to the side,when she saw your wound she immediately rushed in to help her brother tend your wound.She huffed as if she wanna ripped the head of the demon who hurt you and you almost gone to heaven when she did that.

You blinked a few time before smiled at her, “Thank you”.And you can sense that she was smiling back,her eyes were sparkling like she was glad that she can help you.

“Ouch!” You cried out when Nezuko wrapped the cloth a bit too tight around your wound, “Ah!Be careful Nezuko!” Tanjiro stopped and help you. Nezuko,poor baby felt so guilty and sad for hurting you,she’s much more gentle after that…🥺

After tending the wound and your blood finally stopped.Nezuko came and wrapped her arms around you gently while snuggle close to you as an apology for hurting you,careful to not touched your wound again this time,you returned her hug with a warm smile and reassured her that she didn’t do anything wrong and that you’re fine.Tanjiro smiled gently at the sight of you two…

Then,you three sat down close to each other,Nezuko sit on your left as she rests her head on your shoulder,sleeping.Leaving you and Tanjiro talked and relaxing at the sound of rain falling and getting to know each other more…Before you both starting to feel sleepy and slowly drifted off to your peaceful slumber…

But still Nezuko cuddled with you all night until morning came and she has to go back to the box to hide from the sun…She demanded a head pat from both you and Tanjiro before she get in though💞She also hugged you one more time before finally get back in too!Looks like she’s very fond of you~💕

When Tanjiro needs to leave for his next mission, he asks you, “(Y/n),do you want to come with me?-” “(l/n) (y/n) and Kamado Tanjiro!You two must go on your next mission together at the Tsuzumi Mansion!” Tanjiro’s crow suddenly came in and starts to squawking orders. “Looks like you don’t have to ask me now~” You teased him-and he laughed. “You’re right,let’s go on our mission then” He stepped out and start to run to his and your next destination under the bright morning sun,you smiled before you start to run after him…

As you do that…Your mind was racing….you kinda have a special thing for both Tanjiro and Nezuko….What is it?…Damn dear (y/n)….who would you choose?…

Hello!♥️How was it lovelies?Do you liked it?Feel free to comments or give me some criticisms!But pls just don’t be rude ok?💌

Now,now,hope you like it dear @yui-san0 @just-pepperbean and @joykamado (my dear Tanjiro stans😂)

Have a great day and take care pls,ily all so much!💝💓💞✨

-With love,BamBam🦢🌙

The arts are not mine!Credits to the artist!❤️

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Stalker X Stalker, Part 4

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Perma tag: @nathleigh

Stalker x Stalker taglist: @aespades @jayjayspixiepop @blueslushgueen @fan-written @seraphichana @nerd-nowandforever

Marinette almost missed Hawkmoth. Sure, she ended up extremely emotionally repressed, but hey! At least her opponent was stupid, at least she never had to fear losing.

But, yeah, that was why she didn’t notice the fact that chloroform was on the floor. That was way too smart for a villain, in her opinion. Wasn’t Joker supposed to be insane or something? Why wasn’t he completely stupid like Hawkmoth had been?

Those were her last thoughts before her vision blacked out.

She blinked her eyes open one time while she was being transported, but… it wasn’t enough. Her head pounded, her limbs felt like lead. She tried to pull one of her arms away from the five goons carrying her around -- she giggled at how much effort they were going through to keep a half-conscious person down -- but it was too weak to even break their grip. She wasn’t going to be getting out of the situation anytime soon.

She rested her head back against the chest of whoever was carrying her head.

Her eyes fluttered shut without her permission.

It took a while for her to be able to open her eyes again, and when she did she was almost tempted to close them. She was tied up with Red Robin, hanging upside down over a vat of acid. Decidedly not a good situation to be in. Maybe she could ignore it for a little longer…?

She buried her face in the neck of Red Robin’s suit, using the cool material as a kind of cold pack to try and soothe her pounding headache.

… wait... Red Robin!

She had a bit of protection because of her mask covering her mouth and nose and miraculous immune system, but he was a human and both his mouth and nose were uncovered! Shit!

Marinette pulled back as much as she could to check his face and see if he was okay and then cursed the domino mask blocking his eyes from her view. What she could see wasn’t good, though: the skin of his face had broken out into hives where he had come into contact with the chloroform. Ouch.

She tried just poking the good parts of his face with her nose to get him to wake up, but clearly that wasn’t working. Alright, new plan.

“Red Robin?” She whispered.

Nothing.

“Red Robin Red Robin Red Red Red Red Red…”

She was pretty sure she was doing this annoying thing right. She didn’t have siblings, how could she know?

Wait wait wait, what was that one thing that his siblings always said to him?

“Reeeeed Robin, yum~.”

Not even that got a response? Damn, he must really be out of it.

Time for drastic measures, then.

She tipped her head back as far back as it could go and then slammed her forehead against his. This evoked a lot of swearing from both parties. Apparently, headbutting people doesn’t help headaches.

When her head stopped ringing as loudly, she peeked her eyes open. “Sorry, checking to see if you were alive.”

He gave about as much of a nod as he could. “It’s… I understand why you had to do it.”

She gave a tentative smile. “Right. Still, sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he assured her, then glanced down to see what they were working with. He bit his lip anxiously. “Ah, that’s not good,” he said after a few moments of consideration.

She rolled her eyes because, yeah, obviously. She didn’t say that aloud, it wasn’t productive, so she said: “I’m going to squirm. See if you can free your arms a little?”

“Do you think I have some kind of gadget in my gloves for every situation?”

“Don’t you?”

He hesitated. “I mean… yes, I do have something that could help us out of the ropes, but we are kinda over acid right now. How fast is your reaction time?”

She tipped her head from side to side with an awkward smile. “Not great.”

“Then maybe we should just wait for backup --.”

“Do you think they’ll get here before Joker does?”

“... you’re right. Start squirming --.”

“Wow, you two hate me that much? I’m hurt,” a voice cooed.

Marinette jumped out of her skin. She craned her neck to glare at Joker for scaring her…

And immediately regretted it. Why was his face not attached to his skull properly? Did he cut his own face off? Who even does that? Ew.

Red Robin scowled at him. “I can’t say we were all glad to hear you were out.”

“Red Robin...” she warned.

“Wow, not even old Batsy was happy to hear the news?”

“Nope. Didn’t say anything, actually.”

Joker’s smile wavered. “He didn’t?”

“Um, Red,” she tried again.

“Nothing,” he confirmed. “Not. A. Word.”

Joker didn’t seem to know what to do about this information. Batman wasn’t even paying attention to him? What was the point, then?

Marinette was also concerned about what was going on, but for a completely different reason. She leaned close to his ear and whispered: “Why are we trying to anger the psychopath?”

He gave as much of a shrug as he could while tied up. “If he’s talking he’s not trying to kill us.”

“And what if he gets angry enough to kill us?”

“He probably won’t.”

She winced. “Okay, I really don’t like your use of ‘probably’ there --.”

With both of their hands forced behind their backs, the only comfort he could really give was pressing his good cheek to hers. It shouldn’t have worked, but apparently life or death situations mess with your emotions.

“Just… trust me?” He pleaded quietly.

She sucked in a deep breath before turning to glare at Joker, who was still having a crisis over the fact that Batman didn’t care as much as he did. Well, she guessed that she had to take out her headache on someone. Might as well be the bitch in ugly clown makeup.

“You know, I don’t even understand why people are scared of you.”

Joker frowned and turned to look at her. “What?”

“I mean, I get why Poison Ivy is feared, I get why Mr. Freeze is feared… I even get Penguin and Riddler since they both have a high enough intellect to make up for their lack of powers… but you’re just… some guy.”

Joker gave her a cold look. “I could kill you.”

“So could a particularly determined cow, you’re not special.”

Red Robin snickered. She smiled, a little proud of herself for making him laugh.

Their grins were wiped off their faces when the rope holding them up dropped.

It caught them again dangerously close to the acid. Red Robin was a few centimeters from getting a new haircut. Marinette wondered, morbidly, whether her suit would go with her if she disintegrated.

“Not going to kill us, huh?”

“... well, I did say probably,” he mumbled, his face a little red.

She swallowed thickly. “If we live, I’m going to kill you.”

“Fair. Want to mess with him if he’s going to kill us anyways?”

“... yes.” She whipped around to glare at Joker again. “I mean, honestly, why aren’t you dead yet?”

“We don’t kill,” supplied Red Robin.

She grinned. “Sure, and I get that. I’m also not fond of murder... but is every citizen in Gotham just agreeing to not kill him? Does Batman spend all his time making sure that civilians don’t do it? Why hasn’t anyone seen him on the street and just tried to run him over?”

“... I mean, Robin hit him with the Batmobile once.”

“See?” She grinned. “And don’t even get me started on Punchline and your goons, Joker. How did you find so many people loyal to you?”

“I love him!” Said Punchline defensively.

“... sweetie, if you want a pasty white guy with green hair just watch 2016 Jacksepticeye.”

Red Robin nodded. “At least he’s kind of funny sometimes.”

“If you need the guy to be evil, how about the evil alter ego he made… what was he called?”

“Antisepticeye.”

“Ha, you’re a fucking nerd,” Marinette teased.

Red Robin blushed (or maybe that was just the blood slowly rushing to their heads from being upside down for so long) and pointedly ignored her: “Look up Antisepticeye. It’ll probably be healthier for you.”

Punchline didn’t have a retort for that. Marinette was deciding that was because she was considering it, not because she probably didn’t know who Jack/Antisepticeye was.

She pushed on: “And, hey, you goons don’t have to give Punchline over there the glory. Stab your boss. C’mon, it’ll be cool. Doubt he’s paying you more than whatever bounty is on his head, anyways.”

“If you’re going to rally henchmen maybe you shouldn’t call them ‘goons’,” suggested Red Robin.

She pouted. “But ‘goons’ sounds cuter.”

He opened his mouth to retort but she’d never know what he was going to say because, at that moment, Signal and Robin came busting in through the skylight.

~

Tim relaxed when he heard the glass shatter. Whether Marientte’s henchmen rallying had somehow worked or their backup had come, it at least meant that Joker and Punchline were distracted from wanting to murder them.

He struggled to crane his neck to see what was going on.

Oh. Damn. Damian was back from his angsting on the weird murder island? And he was here? Nevermind, he’d prefer Joker and Punchline. Damian was never going to let him live this down.

Speaking of Damian, a weight jumped onto their ropes and the three vigilantes became a pendulum. Tim grit his teeth tightly and Marinette let loose a long string of swears as their headaches worsened.

But, apparently, the world wasn’t done with them. Damian sliced the line at the highest point and they went flying across the room. Tim was the unlucky one on the bottom when they hit the ground, which he doubted was an accident.

Damian left them to deal with things on their own from there. Least he could have done was cut them free with his katana, but Tim supposed that was too much to wish for from the youngest brother.

He rested his head back against the cool floor for a second. He could feel Marinette stretch across his shoulder to do the same. They sighed in relief. This was the closest they had come to treating their headaches and wow was it nice.

But, frankly, resting in the middle of a fight isn’t a great idea. So, they wriggled around on the floor until he was able to flick open the tiny knife in the index finger of his gloves and cut the rope binding them without, y’know, cutting one of them instead.

Freedom! What did they do with this newfound freedom, you may ask? Scratch their heads. Turns out chloroform sucks for many reasons and one of those is that it’s a major skin irritant.

He also vomited. Thank god they’d been freed. He’d been only a few seconds away from throwing up on Marinette. He felt especially bad about that when she peeled a hand from her itching to hold his hair away from his face.

The fight was over soon enough. Duke and Damian came over to watch the two of them attempting to peel their skin off layer by layer.

“Pathetic,” chided Damian.

“Don’t be a dick --.” Marinette cut herself off, her hand flying to her mouth. “I swore in front of a baby.”

“I’m twelve!”

“Exactly: a baby.” She reached out and cupped a very affronted Damian’s face in her hands. “Look, you still have baby fat! You shouldn’t be fighting crime!”

Tim couldn’t tell if she was messing with Damian for being rude to them or if she genuinely saw him as a little kid. He wasn’t going to correct her. She’d remember he was a gremlin soon enough.

Damian wrenched his face from her grip. “If I hadn’t come you two would have been burned in acid.”

“Please, we all know Signal probably could have dealt with this entirely on his own,” Marinette waved him off.

Duke rested a hand over his heart like he was touched.

Tim rolled his eyes and pulled Marinette to him, resting his head on top of hers lazily. “We should get a checkup at the cave. Chloroform has… not nice effects and we both rolled around in it a little while fighting.”

Duke and Damian both winced, but Marinette didn’t seem all that concerned.

“I’ll be fine. My immune system is enhanced by --.”

Duke clapped his hands by her ears as loudly as he could. Neither Marinette nor Tim were particularly happy about it.

“Behold: a headache, one of the main symptoms of chloroform. Your face also has some red streaks, so don’t even try to deny that the chloroform is affecting you.”

“I take back my praise, I’ve decided I hate you,” she murmured, massaging her temples.

“I just remembered that I need the siren on my bike on to tell all the other bats we’ll need them at the cave...”

“Wait, no --.”

~

Marinette glared at Black Bat and Spoiler. The batboys had left the infirmary area for her own comfort and that was nice of them but she would really prefer if she hadn’t had to come at all.

Now she sat in some of Black Bat’s pajamas and one of Spoiler’s spare masks as they inspected her.

Her nose scrunched as Black Bat drew blood from her arm.

“This is dumb. I don’t need this.”

“We’ve been told. Humor us?” Spoiler said and, though Marinette couldn’t see her face from where she was, she knew she was rolling her eyes.

“I would if you were actually funny.”

“I think we can definitely put her down for irritability,” commented Spoiler.

Black Bat nodded and dutifully wrote it down. Traitor.

The cool metal of a stethoscope was pressed to her back and she cringed.

“Deep breaths.”

Marinette complied, however reluctantly. Might as well get all this bullshit over with as soon as possible.

… she was regretting that decision, now, though.

She gave Batman a cold look. “You can’t keep me here.”

“You need to stay so we can monitor your state overnight. You could have asphyxiated.”

“But we didn’t,” complained Red Robin, who looked just as annoyed about this as she was.

“We have lives, B,” she said.

“You weren’t going to do anything other than patrols tonight, don’t act like I’m tearing you away from something important.”

“The protection of the city is important,” Red argued.

“Neither of you would be much help tonight in the state you’re in, anyways.”

Red Robin stuck his lower lip out in a pout. Marinette gave her best puppy-dog eyes.

Batman wasn’t moved. “If you need something, Agent A will provide it.”

She blinked, eyes returning to normal in her confusion. “Who --?”

He disappeared into the shadows before she could finish the conversation, something she was, unfortunately, getting used to.

Marinette scowled at where he had last been.

Maybe she should have expected this, maybe if she had been less out of it she would have. They had given her pajamas when she’d had clothes and insisted on cleaning her old ones ‘for chloroform’. The checkup might have been a genuine checkup on her state, but it probably wouldn’t have mattered what the results were. She was always going to end up staying the night in the cold, dingy cave filled with bats.

She sighed and laid back against the stone floors. She heard Red Robin groan and looked up to see he had been locked out of the Batcomputer for the night. He leaned back in his chair and mumbled curses.

She giggled at his distress and, despite himself, a tiny grin poked at his lips.

“Want to race to see who can hack into it first?” She suggested.

He raised an eyebrow at her under his domino. “Think you can win?”

“Considering I don’t know that much about hacking, I’m going to say probably not.”

A wide smile spread across his face, now, and he waved her over. She took a seat on the desk beside the keyboard and he started teaching her everything.

Most of what he said, while technically heard, wasn’t exactly understood. She couldn’t concentrate. It was the first time she had seen him in anything but his vigilante suit and she decided that that was a crime because he looked so cute in the Batman-themed pajamas. Furthermore, the way his long hair was pushed back by a headband to keep it out of the green paste spread over his face to alleviate the chloroform’s rash reminded her of a spa day in all those movies.

And then there was the smile. It made her heart flutter in her chest because she was so used to his grins but this was just a genuine smile. He looked so passionate about the intricacies of cyber crime. She was almost sad about the domino hiding his eyes because she wanted to see the way they lit up while he explained different ways viruses could be accidentally downloaded to devices.

Basically, she was a mess for this random cute guy she worked with. She had never seen him so casual and at ease and it felt far more intimate than it maybe should.

She rested her head on her hand, nodding along as he talked about data encryption versus decoding.

Well, maybe a forced sleepover in the Batcave wouldn’t be so bad...

~

Tim was suffering a lot more than he would ever admit, and only a small part of it was due to chloroform.

He was going to be having a sleepover with one of his idols and he was going to be spending a large amount of the time trying not to throw up. And she could totally tell, too, why else would she be watching him so intensely? Someone kill him, please. He was so glad he had a secret identity because he didn’t know how he would manage if she thought Tim Drake-Wayne was a loser.

Granted, she was going to think Red Robin was a loser... but at least he had a second chance as Tim.

He rested his chin on the back of his chair. He had hacked into the Batcomputer already but it was a relatively dull night out on patrols and he wasn’t eager to be yelled at for showing Marinette some files on top of already hacking into them when he wasn’t supposed to.

“Wanna do something?”

She grinned. “Is there anything to do here other than train?”

“... nothing approved.”

She tipped her head to the side. “And of the things that aren’t approved?”

He matched her grin. “Well…”

And that was how he ended up setting up a movie projector in the cave so they could watch Groundhog Day. Marinette had taken to making them a pillow fort.

Duke stumbled down the steps, half awake, and raised his eyebrows at them from behind his domino. He poured himself a cup of coffee from the pot that they had made and took a long sip before sending the two of them a wary look. “Do I want to know?”

Marinette didn’t look up from her and Tikki’s base construction. “Dunno. Do you want to watch Groundhog Day with us?”

He frowned. “Isn’t that the one where that guy in a time loop stalks his co-worker until he knows enough to make her fall in love with him?”

“Just say you don’t like romcoms and go,” Marinette irritably.

“I’m fine with romcoms, it’s just… a little messed up that he uses the knowledge he gets from being in a time loop to ensure she falls for him?”

“It’s a story about self-improvement,” Tim said, sending his brother a glare. “He grows as a person until he is worthy of her love.”

“Him learning about her is part of his arc. He starts off selfish and he ends it with a deeper appreciation for other people,” agreed Marinette.

Duke held his free hand up in mock surrender. “Fine, fine. Enjoy your stalker movie.”

“It’s not a --,” Tim tried to argue, but Duke was already heading back upstairs.

He huffed a little and finished setting up the computer and projector, then took a seat in the pillow fort. She poured each of them a cup of coffee, put a straw in hers to maintain her identity, and then took a seat beside him.

He took it from her with a bright smile and turned on the movie.

She rested her head on his shoulder as the happy-go-lucky music started up.

Unfortunately for them, they didn’t manage to stay awake for all that long. Duke had drugged the coffee pot.

~

Marinette shifted awake a while later and promptly decided that being awake sucked.

Nothing about her current situation sucked, of course. At some point during the night they had fallen asleep and now she was laying half on top of Red Robin, clinging to him like a koala. He didn’t seem all that upset about it, though, with his arm wrapped around her and his face buried in her hair.

Unfortunately, the time on the bottom right of the Batcomputer’s screen told her she didn’t have much time to enjoy it.

She started the slow process of extracting herself from him. Getting the arm off of herself was easy, getting his face away from her head was much harder (this wasn’t helped by the fact that the paste on his face had stuck to her hair).

There was one scare where she thought he was going to wake up. She pushed herself off of his chest and he took a long breath in. Marinette froze, watching his lips tighten… and then he turned over in his sleep.

Oops, apparently she’d been suffocating him a little in her sleep. Sorry, Red.

Well, at least she was free now.

She slipped out of the pillow fort and glanced at the time again.

Even less time to do what she needed. Because that’s how time works.

She sighed and called Tikki over with a tiny wave of her hand, walking over the edge of the railing. She looked down at the abyss that stretched many feet below.

Tikki couldn’t have looked more disapproving if she tried.

“It’s just a little insurance,” Marinette signed.

This didn’t make Tikki any less upset with her, but she hadn’t really expected it to. She signed for her transformation. She tied herself to the railing with her yoyo as a precaution and then hooked her legs around the railing.

And down she went.

She flexed at an awkward angle, flashlight in her mouth, and stuck a tracker to the bottom of the platform.

And, really, she wasn’t intending on using it. Like she said, it was just insurance. They had drawn blood from her earlier and she knew for a fact that it wasn’t necessary for chloroform inhalation. The only reason that made sense for that was that they wanted to check and see if she had inhaled some but they already knew that so… what did they want with her blood?

She was willing to bet it had something to do with her secret identity. And, hey, she didn’t particularly care if they knew her identity, she trusted them, but if it ever got out because of them revealing then who the bats were would be 1) revenge and 2) a good distraction.

“Hey --?”

Thank the kwamis she had tied herself to the railing because she’d been surprised enough to let go of the platform.

“Shit, sorry!” Said Red Robin.

She pulled herself back up onto the platform with his help and then collapsed on the cool stone. She spat the flashlight from her mouth. “Fuuuuuuck, don’t do that again, please.”

“Sorry,” he said again. Then he glanced back at where she had been and, momentarily, his lips pulled into a frown. “I gotta ask: what were you doing?”

“Hm?”

Shitshitshit.

“Oh, I wanted to see if there was anything down there or if it was just for The Aesthetic.”

“Why not just use your yoyo to go down?”

She shuddered. “The flashlight barely did anything. Would you want to go down into that darkness with no clue even how far down it goes?”

He seemed to accept the answer. “It’s an old iron mine. No one uses it anymore, though.”

She nodded her understanding.

She pushed herself back up to a sitting position and looked at him.

“The bats don’t get back for a while and we’re still on lockdown, so… want to do something?”

~

Damian was the first one to get home. Apparently he had broken a leg on patrol. This was fine (well, maybe he shouldn’t have been driving himself, but whatever).

What was not fine was that he had promptly decided to be an asshole.

Tim and Marinette had been playing Minecraft on the Batcomputer and, like all younger brothers, Damian asked to play.

And, like all older brothers, Tim barely looked up from his controller to tell him: “No.”

Damian looked to be on the verge of a meltdown.

Marinette sighed and sent Tim a tired look. “Red, don’t be mean. He’s just a kid. There’s more controllers, we can just give him one.”

“But…” He started. Damian was a terrible partner to play Minecraft with because he never helped out with anything except for the farm.

However, Marinette was looking at him expectantly. Tim bit his lip, considering.

Damian looked between the two of them and a wicked grin spread across his face and oh no.

Damian took a seat next to Marinette and gave her puppy-dog eyes (a real feat, considering the fact that he was wearing a domino and therefore his eyes were invisible). “Miss Ladybug, can’t you please make him let me play?”

Marinette gave Tim a tired look. “Red, c’mon, just for a bit.”

Damian smirked a little but, by the time Marinette turned back around, he had schooled his face back into a pout.

She handed him her controller. “You can have mine. I’ll find another for myself.”

The two watched her leave and Tim sent his younger brother a glare. “I can’t believe you would embarrass yourself this much just to play a game.”

“Anything to annoy you, ‘big bro’.”

He opened his mouth to retort, but then Marinette came back and all he could do was send him a glare behind her back.

Damian retaliated by sitting himself on Marinette’s lap. She looked down, amusement making her eyes crinkle, but otherwise didn’t acknowledge it. Damian smirked and stuck his tongue out at Tim.

That little shit.

And it continued on for hours while the three of them waited for the rest of the bats to come back. Damian would cling to Marinette in some way and he would become the bad guy for glaring at a child. He was seriously considering breaking the No Killing Rule for this kid.

Finally, though, people started coming back and apparently Damian thought it too embarrassing to do such a thing in front of more than just the person he was trying to annoy because he clambered off her lap to play just a little bit away.

Bruce was the last one to come in and he looked at his kids with the patented Batdad Glare because they had managed to drag Steph into playing with them (without much effort) and Cass into watching (with much more effort). Which meant that there were currently five family disappointments. Yay them.

Tim smiled innocently. “What? We got bored. Maybe you should let us out so this doesn’t happen again.”

“I’m keeping you here for your own safety.”

Marinette and Tim both groaned.

“I have work to do.”

“Me, too.”

Bruce didn’t relent because he was a stubborn asshole.

But that was fine. They really hadn’t expected them to. Tim glanced at Marinette and she twirled her index finger against her flat palm, the sign for ‘start’.

One flash and smoke bomb later, the two of them were running as fast as they could to his bike. He grinned as he helped his giggling friend get on and hopped up himself. Arms wrapped around him tightly and her face buried in his back. They tore out of the cave, giggling all the while.

[bounce-a-coin-off-your-witcher]

Geraskier Ladyhawke AU

I love this movie and honestly it really, really fits our two loveable idiots. Also yes I changed the parameters of the curse but that was only to make room for Ciri.

Ciri “the Last Rose” of Cintra escapes from a Nilfgaardian prison camp and disappears into the woods in search of help 

She is nearly recaptured by some local nobility’s guards while pilfering food but Geralt saves her along with the help of his trusting hunting hawk

They spend the night in an abandoned barn, and Geralt tells Ciri to stay in the hayloft for her own safety

But she’s a curious little shit

So some time in the middle of the night she peeks down over the edge of the loft and sees... a bard? A young man softly strumming a lute and singing while a huge white wolf lays sleeping with its head in the man’s lap

“Are you okay?” Ciri asks

“Of course, my child,” the bard replies. “Geralt would never hurt me.”

“Where is the hawk?”

The bard smiles sadly but doesn’t answer, so Ciri goes back to sleep to the sound of peaceful lute strumming

In the morning the wolf and bard are gone but Geralt and his hawk have returned (Ciri doesn’t bring it up out of politeness, and also she REALLY needs to hitch a ride back to Cintra)

Nilfgaard comes looking for Ciri and during a fight to escape, Geralt and his hawk are both severely wounded

They rush to a local temple, where the hawk is separated from Geralt and taken care of in its own private chamber, which Ciri finds extremely odd (cause it’s just a bird?)

While Geralt floats in and out of consciousness, he keeps asking about “Jaskier” but Ciri doesn’t know who that is

Ciri sneaks into the hawk’s room only to find the bard there instead

“You must be Jaskier, then. Geralt is worried about you.”

“He does that,” the bard smiles sadly. The only smile Ciri can get out of him is a sad one, it seems

The white wolf returns and allows both Ciri and Jaskier to pet it; although Ciri notices that the bandage on the wolf’s back leg looks suspiciously like the one she just helped tie onto Geralt and-

“Who put this curse on Geralt?”

“On both of us, you mean? I’m sure you must recognize me,” Jaskier teases, flicking his brown hair out of his bright blue eyes

“You’re the hawk! But... how did this happen?”

“I grew up as a nobleman and I was betrothed to a very wealthy sorceress. Unfortunately for her, I was already head-over-heels for Geralt, here. She cursed us to live like this, forever together yet always apart, until I gave in and agreed to marry her or until we could manage to achieve true love’s kiss.”

“So kiss him?” 

“We both have to be human, but it only happens for a split second between the sun setting and the sun rising. It’s impossible, I’m afraid.”

As they travel towards Cintra, Ciri begins to quietly practice using her own powers

She learns to pause the world around her one millisecond at a time until she can get to three whole seconds

Long enough for true love’s first kiss

As they near the border of her homeland (and safety) Ciri turns to her rescuers and explains her plain; unfortunately the sorceress appears and whisks Jaskier away at the last moment

Geralt and Ciri fight their way through her castle, trusting each other and affirming their father/daughter relationship as they go

They rescue Jaskier from the birdcage he’s been trapped in and Ciri waits for he sun to set while the Geralt holds off the few remaining guards

“Here we go, guys!”

She screams out the window at the top of her lungs, holding out her hands towards the horizon and freezing time for just a moment

Just long enough for Jaskier and Geralt to press their both-very-human lips together

The curse breaks and the two men fall into each other’s arms for the first time in over a decade, smooching and crying 

The sorceress is caught in the direct line of Ciri’s incredible power and straight up disintegrates (karma’s a bitch)

Ciri rejoices over the best possible outcome for her plan and leaves to fetch her new adoptive fathers both some better clothes and food

Geralt and Jaskier have a moment alone to touch and caress and talk to each other again

Lots of tears and kisses and gentle touches to be had here, folks

They agree to raise Ciri together since her kingdom has essentially fallen to Nilfgaard and Geralt agrees to train her as a knight/Witcher

And They All Lived Happily Ever After

[enneamage]

Any thoughts related to tommy's role-playing on the dsmp?

Nowhere near as sensational as Wilbur but there's interesting little nuggets lying around.

C!Tommy might not have started out as a character on purpose but I’ve talked before about how he had an era (that may now be coming to a close) of extending his Three Disintegration habits into a stream persona. It’s muddy because it’s a facet of him but it’s also just a bit he does really well, and the difference between Tommy and c!Tommy originated from the fact that flesh and blood Tommy isn’t actually living in Minecraft.

I would say that what you see is what you get with c!Tommy compared to c!Wilbur because c!Tommy is a lot less internal, but then the issue becomes interpreting his actions. I think most people come to the same conclusions, he was a rambunctious dude who wanted to make his mark and was willing to play dirty to achieve that. He was in his overcompensation arc, which wouldn't be out of place for an insecure teen on the internet, and then… I can’t say he mellowed out but he got very sad in character, which did map onto what was going on in his life at the time. He’s going through a lot of changes as we speak and I’m curious how they’re going to show up in the “volume 1” finale of his character.   

For lack of a better word c!Tommy gets woobified a lot and I do understand why, but it seems like a shame to not like someone for the entirety of who they really are. He was very ends-above-means and pretty brutal sometimes, more than he's given credit for depending on what corner of the fandom you're in. He wasn’t often my cup of tea but I could tell what he was going for in the early days.

I haven’t seen a ton of Tommy pov lore, so a lot of my lore exposure is clips and cultural osmosis which I know is dangerous when it comes to inheriting bias. I personally haven’t made many observations about how he thinks / functions from lore but I would say the odds are good that you would be able to. I know that in-character he’s talked about needing a leader so that he wouldn’t have to bear the weight of making his own decisions and directing himself when talking about Wilbur. He’s also talked about holding onto relationships and how he prioritises not being alone. Basically I feel very validated when he deep-talks but I also haven’t seen all of those moments by a longshot.

I will say that c!Tommy is a lot more mentally closed off than cc!Tommy, he takes whatever perspective-taking issues that Tommy might have (or had) and cranks them up to 10. C!Tommy highlights the part of him that gets defensive and self-righteous and goes to black and white thinking under stress, which became increasingly hard to critique as his legitimate trauma piled on.

I did personally check in on exile because I kept hearing how intense it seemed to people, and it was very interesting as the brain child of a pair of Sixes. It felt like the first drops of Tommy steering the ship in a writer way separately from Wilbur, and he was immediately like "Just fuck me up” and Dream said "say no more I got you." They both went to playing with the fear of abandonment and isolation knowing exactly how potent it was. People have talked about how Tommy and Dream ‘yes, and’ each other to new heights (and lows) as a duo when they’ve both got their filters off, but this seems to be the case when they’re playing serious as well; they both want to lean into the dangerous and the extreme.

The behind the scenes dynamic of Tommy and Dream always fascinated me because there’s this civil agreement to be mutually antagonistic. If I’ve got my facts straight Dream asked for permission to start the disc war as something to do in the beginning, and it all kicked off from there. I know it’s not much deeper than the fact that actors aren’t their characters and chat over lunch about their roles, but it must take quite a bit of trust to collaborate on such an intense onscreen dynamic.

I'm genuinely very curious what kind of writer Tommy is going to be in the future. (Shoutout to zombie Tommy, love to see an empowered young villain.) It’s too early to tell what his patterns are but he’s got a lot of intensity and tragedy-loving influences so I’m waiting to see what reflects in his future work.

[anika-ann]

Hell Froze Over - Pt.1

The Good (and Fast) Samaritan

Type: mini-series to a series (part 1 & part 2 & part 3 & part 4),  Avenger!reader AU.

Pairing: Steve Rogers x reader       Word count: 2750

Summary: There’s a new enhanced on a scene, showing up at places of the Avengers’ fights. She’s fast. Really, really fast. And Wanda can’t read her mind.

So far, she has been helping. But surely it’s only a matter of time before she switches switch sides – otherwise she would have approached you instead of speeding away.

You had a problem. And you needed a solution.

Warnings: violence and blood, mention of multiple characters’ death (the Snap), a bit of inuendo and language… oh and extreme fluff

A/N: This part of Melting Hearts’ verse follows after everyone was brought after the Snap. The majority of the story was written after A:IW, soooo, there are no references to Endgame and there’s canon divergence. They somehow saved them all, without building a damn time machine and all that. Just run with it ;)

Previous part of the series II Story masterlist

────── ·❆· ──────  

Aliens. 

Why was it always aliens?

And extremely annoying ones on top of that.

They had freaking tentacles – or multiple limbs, whatever they called it. The thing was, they had four ‘arms’, which made them incredibly handful, pun definitely intended. And what was making it worse? Once you cut off one limb, two grew in its place.

More than once during the fight, in which New Yorkers were being terrorized again, you wondered if these particular creatures, aka Tentacles, had been on Earth before, possibly meeting Hydra. You couldn’t imagine the Nazis’ organization getting the inspiration for their motto anywhere else, Greek myths be damned.

Apparently, these aliens loved going after Captain America too. Then again, they generally didn’t seem to be fond of the group of superhumans standing in their way of invading this planet, so perhaps Steve was not special in that respect.

Pinning two Tentacles to a wall by spray of thick icicles, you allowed yourself to breathe in after a long time. If you were being honest, you wouldn’t mind if Tentacles were the ones whose population would stay with the half of them erased from existence by Thanos. Seriously. They were obviously dickheads.

Taking few more breaths, indulging the feeling of having time to do so, you scanned your surroundings; the fight was definitely going your way, the aliens falling one after another, but the damage to the area was immense. It was a miracle no building had collapsed yet, but you had a hunch it wouldn’t take long. Wanda was helping with removing the civilians out of the harm’s way with her mental powers, but several blocks had been hit. You hadn’t had your eyes on her for a while now.

Hearing a roar by your right, you were immediately back to the highest alert. Tentacle no.39 was not coming your way though; it went after Natasha. You sent an icicle right through the creature’s belly, killing it at instant. Nat just nodded your way and threw herself back into the fight. You did the same.

Your whole body hurt, burning with exhaustion, but you knew you had to keep going. Even when a warning pinch bit the base of your spine; you were getting really fed up with this whole fail-safe trigger, because in moments like this, you simply couldn’t allow yourself to stop fighting in order to be fine. You were supposed to push yourself to your very limits, because lives were at stake.

Unfortunately, you didn’t have a choice.

You slowed down a little, trying to stay closer to Steve who was the nearest. He must have caught up on you pulling back, because he stated fighting with more ferocity – one you weren’t sure where he got from.

You noticed he didn’t have his helmet anymore and it made you bite the bullet and throw yourself back into the fight despite knowing the pain would only grow with time and at one point, it would paralyze you. But Steve had lost his fucking helmet again and he had the armour for reason goddammit!

And then, all of sudden, the battle was over. Car alarms blared all around you, smoke rising to the sky, flames licking anything they reached; you did your best to put the fire out. It was why you didn’t notice it at first – the loud creak of metal tens feet away, but then the concrete started screaming, just like the people.

You snapped your head that way, only to see a restaurant collapsing onto itself.

With people still in it.

You acted on instinct, sending the thickest layer of ice you could summon to slow down the falling debris, seeing a flush of red energy heading the same way. You felt the crushing weight of the building almost on your shoulders.

And the very same moment, you could also see that in a blink, there were no people underneath it.

They were gone; more specifically, several feet nearby, staring as incredulously as you were. Feeling unbearable sting in your back, you allowed yourself to let go, Wanda following your example.

Unlike the civilians, you knew all too well what happened. But your eyelids felt too heavy and you were too tired to be annoyed; in fact, you were grateful, because you didn’t know how long you would have been able to hold the improvised barrier.

You mentally thanked the girl who got all the people out in what seemed like a split second.

Dark spots danced in front of your eyes, your knees getting wobbly. The world threated to sway out of its place and you knew you were about to fold like a house of cards, only to wake up seconds later. It wouldn’t be the first time.

But you didn’t hit the ground. Strong arms enwrapped you securely, pulling you to your Captain’s chest, supporting you as much as you needed. You closed your eyes and breathed through the dizziness.

“Hey, it’s okay, I got you. It’s over, you can rest. But stay with me, alright?” Steve’s voice reached you from a terrible distance, slowly getting closer as you were gradually regaining your strength. The vibrations of his words caressed your own torso and you blinked your eyes open. “There you go, Snowflake. Let’s wrap it up here, okay?”

You just nodded, looking up to his face gratefully. He gave you a small smile in acknowledgement of your wordless ‘thank you for not letting me fall’.

“She was here again,” you mumbled and Steve grimaced as he cautiously let you off his embrace.

“Yeah. I know.”

────── ·❆· ──────  

You all entered the conference room slowly, some of you barely standing on your feet. It was a miracle you didn’t have to drag each other in here. After a long time of scrunching your nose at it, you reached for the energizing drink specially designed for you just like everyone else.

While no one had suffered a serious injury – serious on the Avengers’ scale, things like the cut on Steve’s forehead didn’t count –, you were all ready to just have a shower and go to bed. But no. Being an Avenger meant you couldn’t. It meant that if the work wasn’t finished, you couldn’t get rest.

You dropped into one of the comfy chairs, Steve’s body making a muffled thud as he chose the one next to you. If even Captain America was dead on his feet, things were bad.

You pushed yourself up, sitting up straight to inspect the gash on his smooth skin. It was already healing and you knew he had it treated (by you, at least), but the drying bloody line on his head just wouldn’t let you relax.

Your fingertips carefully brushed alongside it, wary of not applying any pressure. Steve smiled at you faintly.

“Snowflake, it’s okay.”

His hand caught your wrist tenderly, pulling it away.

“How did you manage to get it anyway? How did you lose your helmet again?” you questioned. He bit his lip and looked almost apologetically. Naturally, that had you frowning. “Steve-“

“He was getting too close to--- to them, alright? I admit I didn’t quite see the other three coming-“

You gritted your teeth, torn between admiring his heroics as he defended the civilians and clipping round his ear for having a tunnel-like vision and not looking around properly before jumping to the rescue.

In the end, you just huffed, letting your hand slip from his grasp.

You carefully eyed the rest of the team, glad you found Wanda mothering Vision and Bruce checking Natasha once again, while Tony, Sam and Clint were on the phone. It put a smile on your face as you saw Bucky fumbling with his phone as well – you knew he had started seeing a woman from accounting here and now he was probably wondering if he should let her know he was fine.

“We make a good team. Taking minor risks is worth it,” Steve whispered, straightening in his chair in favour of dropping a kiss to your forehead. You closed your eyes contentedly at the pure and innocent display of affection.

When his lips lingered, his hand brushing your jaw and he inhaled the smell of your shampoo – if there was any smell left after the fight and debris flying around –, his breath faltering, a realization dawned to you.

He hadn’t lost his helmet when defending some civilians, had he?

Steve wouldn’t let himself to be distracted enough to be jumped when protecting civilians. Never. He only lost his focus when protecting the people he loved. Mainly the ones he had lost before, in the Snap or otherwise; if he could help it, his gaze never left you on the battlefield, simply too scared you would disappear in a blink of an eye. He might be getting less anxious about it lately, but it was always in the back of his mind; having your loved ones wiped off by a snap of fingers and seeing them fall to ashes did that to a person.

Not that you would know – you were among the ones who disappeared.

But Steve knew. He saw it happen to you, Bucky, Sam…. And he could only watch. Nothing he could do stop it. You still remembered the burn of in the base of your spine as your powers fought to freeze the process of your body disintegrating, watching in horror as many of your friends did – and that you were about to meet the same fate. Just as helpless as Steve was.

“…I’m just stalling, Steve. I know it and you know it too. I should— I should let go-“

“No! No, Snowflake, you stay and fight-“ he practically growled, gripping your wrists with enough strength to bruise them.  

“I love you, Steve,” you whispered in response, feeling your whole body trembling in both exertion and fear. You didn’t want to leave. You didn’t want this to be your end.

The wild haunted look in Steve’s eye only made you shudder further, a painful twist to your gut.

“No-“

“Please, say it back,” you pleaded, swallowing your tears and the scream that was threatening to erupt from your throat. The burn, fuck, the burn… you couldn’t hold it any longer.

“NO! You fight this!”

Lips trembling, you understood you wouldn’t get the last love declaration you craved. You closed your eyes.

“Goodbye, Steve.”

“NO!” he yelled, pulling you to him, bodies aligned as he wrapped an arm around you, holding you impossibly close. “You--- sweetheart, please. I love you. I can’t-“

“Thank you,” you sobbed, breathing in his scent, feeling the coarse material of his worn uniform, revelling in the warmth of his touch… and you let go.

The last thing you heard was him, choking on a desperate shriek of your name.

The memory and the sheer wonder about what it must have been like for him almost brought tears into your eyes. Again.

Could you really be mad at him for being reckless?

“Thank you for saving me,” you whispered, hearing his breath hitch. You opened your eyes, only to see his resigned ones as he guesses you figured out the truth.

“No ‘you idiot’, huh?”

“No. Not this time. I can see you’re fine. You’re allowed to look out for me as long as you walk away relatively unharmed.”

“Lucky me,” he murmured and kissed you lightly on your lips, tasting after the sickeningly sweet energy drink. You couldn’t say you minded.

“I love you, Steve. I care for you too. Nothing wrong with that,” you hummed lovingly, gazing into his eyes, the rest of the world be damned. “So yeah. Thank you.”

His blues got their vivid spark back, the corners of his lips rising inconspicuously. “Always. And I love you too.”

“You two are sickening,” Bucky noted close to your ear and you honest to god yelped, almost falling off your chair.

Bucky receded with silent laugh and while you clutched at your chest, your heart too frantic in your ribcage, you noticed Steve rolled his eyes at his friend fondly.

“Lefty here has a point,” Tony hummed, making you huff and turn to the big screen as it lit up with news feed.

There were already so many images and videos on the internet that it was scary. Why people hunted down good shots instead of running away?

Unsurprisingly, Tony froze the frame in which a blur of dark blue could be seen. Hint: it was neither you nor Steve in his stealth suit.

No. It was the enhanced girl. The fast one. The one you knew too little about to your comfort.

“Hate to say it, but things could have got ugly without the Rush-girl rushing in,” Tony announced and you scoffed, mainly because you felt like he was nudging your conscience.

It felt like he was blaming you, seeing you wouldn’t have been able to hold the falling debris for long enough. You were sure Tony wouldn’t blame you, since he knew all too well you simply couldn’t beat it; after all he had been the one to install your fail-safe, preventing you hurting yourself. But you also knew he didn’t like the thought of anyone else getting hurt because of it either.

The thing was it always went like this with this enhanced girl. She would show up, help the Avengers and then puff, she was gone. No trace. Except for the people she saved. The ones you might have failed to save unless she had come.

You forced yourself to drift away from the dark thoughts.

“Tony, your nicknames are getting more ridiculous with each try,” you remarked, earning a few hums in agreement from around the table.

“I can go back to naming you if you want… Popsicle. I bet Cap here got the memo and he loves to lick and s-”

“Stark!” Steve lashed out at him, his cheeks getting an unhealthy shade of red. You choked on your own spit.

You were pretty happy with Tony somewhat reconciling with Steve (and you and others), okay, but his jokes were sometimes too much. He really was pushing it.

“Go to hell, Metalbrain,” you muttered under your breath, feeling your ears burning.

Also, yes. Yes, Steve got the memo. So did you. But you didn’t need to talk about it in front of everyone, thank you very much.

“Cute blush you have here. I hit the nail on the head, eh?” Tony continued, earning a murderous glare from Steve, who certainly was sporting a remarkable blush.

“Tony!” you called out, not less horrified than your significant other.

“Trust the advice of the elder – biologically older anyway. Hate to break it to you, but that’s not how you make a kid. Then again maybe that’s the point-“

“Tony, shut your metal mouth or I swear to god I will tell Pepper you’re being a pervert.”

A look of pure horror appeared on his face and you couldn’t help but smile smugly. This always worked.

The thing was Tony would know how to get a girl pregnant; Pepper Potts lived to tell the tale. She was in her twenty-seventh week, after all; and her hormones were misbehaving. Big time. Her emotions were like on a roller-coaster lately and no one with a shred of brain wanted to be on her bad side, ever, let alone now.

Needless to mention Pepper Potts was a strong woman, capable of handling herself, being in control. She wasn’t quite in control of herself now and what was even worse, she always had been the more rational part of the Stark and Potts-Stark duo, keeping Tony’s impulsiveness in check. Once again, not now. And it was driving her insane.

So yeah, threatening Tony with snitching him to Pepper always worked these days. It was even mean of you. Then again, Tony was being extremely pervert today, venting his frustration on you and you did not like it at all.

“Ouch. Low blow, Popsicle, low blow,” Tony said darkly, before his expression turned gleeful again. “See what I did there with the blow--- never mind, I have a place to be. Bye, kids!”

Tony took his abrupt escape, disappearing from the room, and you sighed heavily. You massaged the bridge of your nose, feeling your face burning with embarrassment. The rest of the team pretended not to watch you highly amused.

“He’s an actual infant— no, he’s worse,” you stated, your voice a little too high-pitched.

“That’s hardly any news. Now, can we pay attention to the actual problem?” Natasha interjected, switching back to professional mood.

“Sure. Let’s talk more about the Rush-girl,” Clint hummed, a smirk on his lips.

A collective groan was the answer, but you did start working.

────── ·❆· ──────  

Part 2

────── ·❆· ──────  

There we go! 

The first chapter of the last part of Melting Hearts. Hopefully, I will make it worth it your attention ;)

Thank you for reading! Happy Sunday :-*

[king-paimon]

HnK Post Chapter 95 Thoughts: 3 Months later...

Hi guys…. I’m so sorry for being away for so long and delaying this post. I can’t believe March is already almost over. This year is going by way too quickly, but honestly, is that really a surprise? I was working on this post back in January and was planning on posting it then, but life has been more busy than usual for me. I still feel really bad for promising to post this and not being able to keep it. But here it is now! I don’t know how many people will see it since the Houseki no Kuni tags have been pretty quiet, but you know what? I’m kind of glad I didn’t post this post right away because I wanted to properly talk about my feeling about the chapter, the series, and Ms. Haruko Ichikawa herself, and doing that when I was still emotionally charged wouldn’t have done this post justice. And though I don’t think my thoughts overall has changed too much, I’d still like to share my thoughts, if you are interested in hearing them. 

This will be another really, really long post, so be prepared! I’m definitely going to be doing a lot of edits on this one so please bare with me if anything doesn’t make sense. Please let me know if anything I said is too confusing.

Anywhoo~ here it goes:

My view of the story at this point

I had to go over my last post to see if any of my original opinions had changed and, well, for the most part, not too much. Most of the gripes I have with the story is still about the same, particularly the remaining gems becoming lunarian and the many implications that comes with it, though I would say some of my anger has subsided. I’m still bothered by it, though. I understand why the story would go in this direction and why the characters, especially Euclase, would choose to make this drastic decision to change themselves, since that was they ultimately wanted: to no longer live in fear of being destroyed and live peacefully, even if it means changing what they all were. It’s still bothers me a lot, mainly because I can relate this to similar real life events of people erasing their cultural and even racial identity as a means of survival in a different and so-called “better” society. I remember in one of my very first posts in the fandom, I stated how uncomfortable it made me that the first moon gems were totally fine assimilating into Moon society and were wanting to completely change themselves to fit in this society, even if it meant removing what made them who they were. For characters who didn’t like their original identity like Cairngorm (or Welegato but I’m not calling them that), or felt stunted in their original society like Dia, and found solace in Moon society, I can see how this transition as a liberating thing…but only to an extent. The thought of literally going to the extremes of changing yourself inside and out, erasing all traces of what made you “you”, while also destroying all old meaningful relationships in the process, to live in a place you were conditioned to be believe is the better option for you…It hits a little too close to home.

I’m talking about cultural assimilation and cultural destruction, where racial and cultural minorities sometimes go through drastic measures in order to assimilate into the “better” society, even if it means completely erasing their original identities physically and mentally. I’m not saying all forms of assimilation is inherently bad and I’m not saying that you must stick with your cultural upbringing for it’s a part of your identity; that is a toxic view and it’s especially bad if you experienced terrible things because of that upbringing.  I’m trying to talk about the extreme cases of assimilation when these individuals are essentially convinced to go through extreme measures to fit in to the “better” society because their old identity was “bad”, and by completely changing themselves, from their appearance to even their name, then they can finally be happy in the so-called “better” society. I’ve heard of people going through such lengths and it’s heartbreaking. It’s very cultish and that’s how I viewed the transition of the gems becoming Lunarians, with everyone accepting the change with seemingly no issue and especially after Aechmea literally gave Cairngorm that new name. It would have been one thing if Cairn picked that name themselves, but it was all Aechmea.  The lustrous don’t exist anymore and everyone is ok with it. The gem society that we knew, at this point of time, is gone now. It was far from perfect but the fact that it’s gone is sad and disturbing to me.

My view of the key characters of the chapter

Now that I stated how I feel about the gems essentially being erased, the next question is how do I feel about these characters themselves?

Conflicted. Very, very conflicted, and even a bit disappointed and upset, especially with certain characters more than others. But surprisingly, even after seeing how the turn of events turned out for all of them while Phos is stuck on Earth alone… I don’t hate them. Yeah. After everything that has happened, I currently don’t hate the gems… For now, anyways. It all depends on what happens next.

But the one character that I feel the most conflicted with is Adamant, especially after his interaction with Aechmea. Part of me is confused by Adamant’s and Aechmea’s seemingly friendly interaction because of Adamant’s past actions and words, for they don’t seem to belong to someone who would be on friendly terms with someone who they were actively resisting against before. I’m talking about all of the times that Adamant would fight off the Lunarians but also that moment in Chapter 85:

(Chapter 85, Pages 10-11)

After seeing things like this, I just find it odd how Adamant’s interactions with Aechmea are so friendly now. And with the horrifying implication that everything that had happened was planned between them, which also doesn’t make sense, I’m not sure what to think. Maybe Adamant’s changed attitude relates to him being free of his burdens and physical body? This could explain the change in attitude, but it still feels… off. Maybe I’m looking too much into this. I don’t want to hold hope that when he and the other gems were transformed that Aechmea somehow manipulated their memories to make them more compliant, even though it was made clear that memories were going to be lost in the process. Maybe this will be explained more in the next chapter, but I won’t hold my breath for that either. To me, this just made me feel weird about Adamant because remember, I was both sad and relieved when he disintegrated in the previous chapter because I really liked his character. Now though, I’m not so sure. I still don’t hate him or any of the other gems, but I’m definitely on the fence with him more so than the others. I certainly don’t hate Euclase like many other fans; I didn’t agree with their past actions (or rather lack of actions), but like with Phos and other characters, they did what they felt was right given what they knew. Still not excusing it, but I understand why. As for Antarcticite... I’m not sure, honestly. Though I’m glad at least they brought up Phos, I can’t help but feel that their main priority is still Adamant. Out of recently changed characters, Antarcticite is the main character I have the most positive opinion on, but again, that can easily change within the next chapter. 

So yeah, I still have mixed feeling about all that has happened that led to this point in the story, and I do have a more negative view of some of them. But regardless of that, I can’t bring myself to downright hate any of the characters. Disappointed with their decisions is one thing, but to hate them with every fiber of my being? No. I don’t think I can. At least for now. The same goes to the Lunarians, too. Hell, even though I’ve said before that I hated Aechmea for how he manipulated Phos and the other gems for personal gain, once again, I don’t think I downright hate him either (though I still want something bad to happen to him.) Aechmea is such an intriguing antagonist that I love to despise.

My view of Haruko Ichikawa at this point

Since the release of chapter 95, I’ve seen a lot of fans post their criticisms of Haruko Ichikawa herself regarding how she’s writing the story and her treatment of the characters. Someone even commented on my chapter post about how they don’t view her story as ‘amazing’ anymore because of her cruel treatment of Phos and the depressing turns in the story. Even popular commentors like @rinboz posted their criticism about what Ms. Ichikawa is doing with her story. As for me, I can agree with some of the comments made to an extent. Some of the choices Ms. Ichikawa made in the story has had me question her a few times; like the mentioned interaction between Aechmea and Adamant as well as the extremely predatorial relationship between Achmea and Cairngorm. I still think that chapter 95 was extremely rushed, especially going through the previous events that were stretched out into nearly 10 chapters. There are many other smaller issues that I personally have when it comes to how Ms. Ichikawa writes her story and characters, but I think the biggest criticism I’ve seen that I agree with is the concern about the current direction of the story. And at this point, the story can only go in so many directions and most of them are leading to anything but a genuinely happy ending for Phos. And it’s pretty depressing that Ms. Ichikawa has some of us pleading for Phos to die so they don’t suffer anymore. I can’t think of any other story that has me wanting the main character to die, not because I hate, but because I don’t want them to be mistreated anymore. This story is nothing but hopelessness.

But you know what’s crazy? I kind of like that.

Maybe Ms. Ichikawa has made me a glutton for tragic stories, or because I’ve been starving for a unique story, but I kind of like that this story hasn’t gone in the predictable, happy route for everything Phos has gone through. If this story were written by someone else, I can picture Phos somehow regaining their appearance and memories, be surrounded by the people who truly cared about them and their enemies dead, and pretty much having the picture-perfect happy ending with no form of problems whatsoever as an award for everything that Phos previously sacrificed. Yeah, this is the ending I’m sure fans want in some shape or form and to a degree, I do too. But to be honest, I’m kind of glad that’s not the story that we’re getting, at least right now.  In a weird way, it’s sort of refreshing to have a main character who doesn’t always win in the end, especially after all of the things the character sacrificed.

And I also how the story and it’s characters can be so simple and complexed at the same time, like in her anthology series. To me, this makes Ms. Ichikawa stand out from the many mangaka I’ve followed throughout the years. And because of that, part of me hopes she knows what she’s doing and has something extreme planned for the story’s future.

Now, I don’t want to shoot myself in the foot for still thinking highly of Ms. Ichikawa’s writing; there are still things that I think could have been handled differently, like the mentioned pacing and story details. But for now, those gripes are not too irritating for me and I’m not quite ready to downright say that her story is bad...YET. I want to reserve my final opinion of Ms. Ichikawa as a writer until the end of the series, whenever that will be, because despite how the story has progressed for last several chapters, I’m still enjoying writing. I just hope that when the series does come to an end that Ms. Ichikawa gives us a satisfying end. When it comes to ending a series, how an author does so can really affect how fans view the series and the author, and I think this will be the case for this story, though I’m sure there will be criticism regardless of what kind of end Ms. Ichikawa creates. For me, while I do care about whether Phos and the other characters get the endings they deserve, I just hope it will be told well. I’ve seen too many times really good series ending terribly because the creator didn’t know how to end a series properly. I sincerely hope that won’t be the case with Ms. Ichikawa.

From this point forward

I remember seeing a lot of readers who are upset with how the story has progressed thus far, with some even saying that they were going to drop the series because of how depressing it is. I think everyone who felt this way has every right to feel that way; it’s completely understandable. Houseki no Kuni is definitely not a story for everyone, and it can take an emotional toll on you.  I know it certainly affected me that way, and I can’t think of many other series that has done that. It’s been a long since I’ve been so invested in a series and despite the many emotional rollercoasters I’ve felt during parts of the story, I don’t think I will ever say that I regret picking this series up. And despite my mixed feeling about the latest chapter, I want to continue to stick with it. Even if the story continues to spiral in a never-ending pit of despair, I still want to stick with it until it ends. And you know, I think even if this series does have a somber, heartbreaking ending, I think I’d still view the story as overall amazing and I’d still be glad I got into it when I did...Unless Ms. Ichikawa gives us an abrupt, unsatisfying ending. Then that opinion goes out the window.

Until the next chapter comes out... 

Other than being busy, I admit that I’m glad to be taking a break from Houseki no Kuni. Despite my many praises, it still takes a lot out of me and I definitely needed that break. And though I personally don’t mind waiting a bit longer, I can’t wait for it to back. I sincerely hope that Ms. Ichikawa doing alright, especially after all of the chaos happening for the past year, and that she enjoys her time away from the series. I hope she’s staying healthy in body and mind, and I’ll wait with bated breath for the next chapter of this story.

Besides this post, I actually had a few post ideas that I want to work on, but because of my schedule, those will have to wait a while. I wanted to make another story prediction post because even though they are sometimes wrong, they are fun to do. I think I’ll wait until the next chapter to come out to make that one. The other post I’ve been somewhat working on is a bit different from my usual post; it’s somewhat of a character analysis/reflection and it’s on a controversial character that while many justifiably hate, I personally can’t. (Can you guess who that is? I’m sure you can!) Because of how many people hate this character, I was not sure if I wanted to write it. But you know what, I’m going to do it anyways. When that post will be done? I have no clue, but this will be an interesting writing exercise for me and I can’t wait share why I don’t hate this character the way many other fans do.

 The end!

Well, that’s the end of this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I will likely go over this again at some point but it’s getting really late and I need to get some sleep. I hope everyone is doing well and keeping themselves busy during this series hiatus. Maybe unwind by reading/watching a new series. There are some interesting ones that came out last year and this year. I personally stated watching Wonder Egg Priority. It’s really good but deals with a lot of heavy subject matters, so be warned. I’vve also watched lighter stuff like Lupin the Third (I love this franchise so much) and some of the new shows on Netflix. I would like to see some more stuff but I don’t know what to look for. If you have any recommendations, please feel free to leave a comment.

Until next time, I hope everyone has a pleasant week 😊

[tearblossom]

Orbital Station Scene Analysis: Part 3

Lmao here we go again. Ready to fall even deeper down the rabbit hole that is this scene with me!? This one scene functions simultaneously as my source of joy and depression and I watch it more than I would care to admit. So, naturally, I have even more to say about it! It’s going to be long. Sorry.

Part 1- https://tearblossom.tumblr.com/post/645095661644251136/scene-analysis-this-is-just-what-i-personally-feel

Part 2- https://tearblossom.tumblr.com/post/645776311115186176/i-was-thinking-some-more-about-the-final-scene

In this one, I’ll be going into more detail explaining the emotional mask that I believe Takemura is trying so desperately to keep on during this scene (and undeniably fails at several times, with it coming off entirely upon the scene reaching a certain pivotal moment) and also pointing out the instances that I feel the mask slips occur. Honestly, it’s pretty easy to tell for reasons that I will explain. I’m going to reiterate the fact that I am not a facial expression/body language expert. This is just one human being looking at another human being and trying to figure them out. This is just my personal interpretation of this scene. Prepare yourself for many, many screenshots and gifs. Also, I will be using the same video sources as the other two posts because I don’t have my own footage. 

https://youtu.be/ra-Ij1KU8r4

https://youtu.be/PUmQqVOq5oY

I failed to mention before the reason that Takemura even had to put up the cruel facade in the first place because I didn’t want to state the obvious and insult everyone’s intelligence. We all know the reason but I’ll just say it here anyway: Arasaka. 

Arasaka is listening to Takemura’s every word so he literally cannot say shit to V that would hint at any sort of affection for him/her and absolutely nothing that would indicate any growing uncertainty in said corporation. Words mean nothing here. He has to speak through his eyes and expressions because that is all he has to offer, the only cards he has to play. That is why the meaning of this scene can be so easily missed and flies over so many people’s heads. I do not fault anyone that may have missed this on a first playthrough or even those that are still unaware of it whatsoever because Takemura is very, very convincing at first (his face becomes an open book once the contract gets brought out but we’ll get into that later) and besides, to truly understand something that involves emotions as complex as these caused by equally as complex reasons or anything involving subtext really, takes multiple viewings to truly appreciate.

In summary, what I believe is happening here is that during the entire scene up until the contract gets brought out, his mental state is constantly teetering on the edge of a cliff so to speak. He is trying so hard to fight his sentimentality and control his emotional responses not only to V’s misery and pain but also his own wavering faith in Arasaka because they are watching, listening, and monitoring. And he succeeds extremely well at first but it gets harder and harder for him to maintain the mask. The closer he physically gets to V, the harder it is to pretend, to hide. His eyes alone betray him on several occasions but eventually the whole facade just crumbles and he falls. And when the contract comes into play is when he truly, honestly looks at V and the communication through his eyes really begins.

Here is the key thing- it is the most important visual clue to understanding when things happen: When Takemura is feeling any doubt or his emotions begin to overwhelm him or he fears that they might, he promptly averts his eyes to get himself under control and readjusts the mask that has slipped. 

He looks away from V during these moments!

(Just to clarify, I don’t think that every single moment in the scene that he looks away from V has this deeper meaning behind it. When people talk it’s completely natural for them to turn their heads, avert their eyes to look at other things, etc. These are just some moments that particularly stood out to me as signs pointing to my little theory.) 

Okay...let’s start deciphering this conflicted, broken mess of a man.

Scene starts. Takemura is fiddling with the Rubik’s Cube. He puts it down. Expression cold as ice.

mask on full display in all of it’s glory

They talk about Saburo being back in the body of his son and have this exchange of words:

V: “Saw Saburo Arasaka’s back. In Yorinobu’s body.”

Goro: “Yes. Justice has been done.”

And then it happens for the first time...

(Could this be...doubt perhaps? Has justice really been done?)

Moving on- he walks over to stand behind the chair across from V, telling them of their imminent death.

Goro: “I will be blunt - the surgery did not help. You will be dead before winter.”

And then he proceeds to make this face immediately after...

(Lovely, isn’t it? Just full of sympathy. His mask game is strong. But don’t worry though because V wins in the end BIG TIME.)

Understandably, V gets very upset upon hearing this news.

V: “How... how’s that possible? Arasaka’s got the best and the brightest.”

And then something happens again. Whatever could it be, I wonder!

But wait, there’s more!

(He couldn’t even wait until he finished talking before looking away! It’s getting more difficult for him to look at V with a straight face every second! Also, his expression here is the most broken looking yet.) :(

He must not reveal what is hidden behind this emotional wall that he’s worked so hard to build up specifically for this meeting because the room they are speaking in may just as well be made of glass with Arasaka’s unrelenting gaze, an ever-present entity, on the other side of it. He will do so soon though, when he offers V salvation. The contract raises the stakes. The rules change. He feels the wall breaking and there isn’t anything he can do about it and he knows it.

IT’S CHAIR TIME, CHOOMS!

He looks away another 6 TIMES! Leaning more and more over that edge. Feast your eyes...

IT’S CONTRACT TIME, BABY!

Oh, shit!

It’s happening!!

He does look away here but there’s no mask on when he looks back...only despair.

It’s gone.

TO SIGN OR NOT TO SIGN

The disguise is off now. From this point onward, Takemura looks at V with his true feelings on display. This is where the ability to read the emotion portrayed solely through one’s eyes really comes into play because even though he’s not trying to hide anything anymore, he still can’t say what he really wants to say. We have to feel it through his expressions. His thoughts are so loud during these final moments of the scene that we don’t even need words to know what he’s saying.  

REFUSE TO SIGN

SIGN

HOLY GRAIL MOMENT!

(I’m literally going to copy and paste what I have in my part 2 analysis about this section because I explained my thoughts on it about as well as I am able to there and have nothing else to add. My apologies for repeating myself but I feel the exact same way about it so it still applies here.) 

These reactions make perfect sense because we’ve always known that he cares deeply for V and never stopped. He just couldn’t hide it! But even with this treasure trove of emotional mask slips and unintentional displays of affection, I still wasn’t sure exactly how deeply he cared for V. In other words- if he was actually in love with V or not.

Is he already in love or is he still in the process of falling in love? Is it just a friendly love? (hell no! I knew that was definitely not the case but I still had to ask just so I could cross it off the list!)

And then the two of them walked to the door and said their parting words.

V: “Gonna see each other again?”

Goro: “I believe we will.”

V: “So… see you.”

Goro: “Visit me in Kagawa - I will show you what is real food.”

And then…

he proceeded to make these faces…

HOLY

SHIT!

(The mask isn’t just gone now- it’s burned, splintered, shattered, exploded in a million pieces, disintegrated!)

This man just had the biggest revelation of his entire life: the realization that he is in love with V. These are looks of love and I will not be convinced otherwise. I’m not a facial expression expert or anything, only stating my humble opinions here, but are you seeing this!?

He realizes the truth and it catches him so off guard that he has to look away. He contemplates these newfound feelings and tries to sort them out in the few seconds that he has left with V. And he does. He accepts them. He welcomes them. The gentle, knowing look he gives V when he looks back at them is saying just this.

He also knows that he is now fucked because his love for V is going to complicate things so much more than they already were. Now that he is fully aware that he is in love, these feelings are going to directly conflict with his duties to Arasaka later if a situation arises that places V and Arasaka on opposing sides and I think we all know that is most definitely going to happen at some point.

And now he has to see the love of his life die and just leave this place and go on with his day. Damn. This is turning into one of the saddest love stories I’ve ever seen. Something major is going to happen in the dlc that is going to force his hand one way or another: V or Arasaka? I hope that Arasaka somehow fucks up so bad that it makes his choice easier but my heart breaks imagining the amount of conflict and torment that await him.

The Beginning and The End