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dragonrajafanfiction · 4 years ago

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Dragon Dancer IV: Monsters of the Ice Cellar

I watched through the porthole of my cabin as the bright lights of Tokyo faded into the distance. The other rooms had descended into silence. I was exhausted, but felt strongly that someone should keep watch tonight.

I tucked my baby daughter into the small clothes bureau, leaving it cracked open for ventilation. Once I was sure she would stay asleep, I took Spider Fang and Tongzi and walked out.

I opened the door to a darkened hallway and looked right and left. There was no sound. I made my way down the corridor, following the route I had memorized, until I reached the metal stairs leading up to the deck. It was so nice, smelling the sea air as it washed away the stench of garbage and rust.

Empty shipping containers were stacked on one side of the ship. It was a tight squeeze between them, but my body was small and I pushed my way in as far as I could manage while still having a good view of the outside. Then I settled in for the night. I saw two men come up from below deck and walk around the captain’s bridge towards the front of the vessel, but otherwise no one moved.

I yawned and rested my head against the container. I heard the sound of buoy bells clanging in the distance but other than that there was only the rumble of the engine and the sound of the ocean lapping against the hull. The wind was picking up and the waves were getting increasingly rough. The rush of water and the rock of the boat made my eyes heavy.

I startled awake and rubbed my eyes. I fell asleep so quickly! I wanted to stay up and watch but I wasn’t the best at it. A dense fog had settled over the ocean and I could no longer see the ocean waves around us.

I blinked. Someone was coming up from below deck?

The man stopped and looked around briefly, then checked his watch. He looked up.

I lifted my head at this suspicious behavior and grabbed my swords. He strolled toward the back of the ship, closer to me, but hadn’t noticed me. I carefully slid closer to the mouth of the gap I’d squeezed myself in to watch him.

He was heading to one of the life boats. There were six orange fiberglass vessels hung on pylons on the side of the ship. I saw him pull out the manual and began to read.

I slipped out of the hiding spot and moved silently to intercept. As he reached over to operate the wench that would lower the boat into the sea, I drew Tongzi and pressed it against his back.

He tensed up and reached for a weapon.

I pressed the blade harder, piercing his clothes. “Don’t even think about it. Who are you? Where do you think you’re going?”

“Carli?”

“Mingfei?!”

Mingfei turned and looked at me. His eyes wide.

“What are you doing here?!” We both asked at once.

“I’m keeping watch! Why are you taking a life boat?” I asked, my voice shrill with confusion.

“Shhh..” He said, looking nervously towards the bridge.

“Don’t shush me!” I said in a harsh whisper. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“I...” I watched his eyes shift as he tried to think of some way to explain.

“Are you leaving us?! Why? Does Nono know about this?!” I asked him.

“No. She doesn’t. Look. I need to find out what I am. I have to go alone.”

I squinted in growing confusion. “What?! Why? Mingfei, I understand you have questions but that doesn’t explain...”

“I got in contact with my father. At the bookstore.” He said.

The pain in his eyes only confused me further. “Your father? How do you know he was really your father?”

“Because he knew things only my father would know. The silly things we used to say when I was really young. My first childhood friend. The kids in our neighborhood. He knew it all.” He cleared his throat and swallowed. “It’s really him.”

I shook my head in denial. “No... No, Mingfei this is a trap. Why would your father call you at a bookstore, now of all times...? Mingfei, he abandoned you to Cassell. All this time has passed and he never called you once. Never!”

Mingfei lowered his head and sighed. “Look, I’ve gotta go...”

I grabbed his arm and yanked as hard as I could to get him away from the life boat, snarling through my teeth. “No, you do NOT. You listen! Listen!” I fought to keep eye contact with him. “That man... doesn’t care about you. He’s made that clear. He works for Cassell. Just like he has every day since you were a child!”

“I know... but...”

“Mingfei, you’re not this stupid. You’re not this stupid!” I raised my hands up and grabbed his face, forcing him to look at me. “They’re going to lock you up. Bare. Minimum. And all of this is going to be for nothing!”

Tears ran down my cheeks as I looked into his eyes and just saw sad resignation. Did he know it was a trap and wanted to go anyway?

His hands circled my wrists, bringing my arms back to my side.

“You.. can’t...” I whimpered.

“This doesn’t concern you.”

“This doesn’t concern me?” I laughed a little between quiet sobs. “What? Mingfei you’ve all I’ve got! You’re all I’ve got...”

I steeled myself, forcing the tears away. “I’m not going to let you go. You’re not being rational. Is this a death wish? Like Chisei? Are you okay with dying?”

“I could be a dragon king, Carli.” He whispered.

“So what?!” I hissed. “The idea that Dragon Kings are inherently anti-humanity is what Cassell tells us!” I licked my lips leaning closer to him. “Here’s what I believe... I believe you have the Dark King in you. You’re higher than every other Dragon King. Could that make you more dangerous? Sure! But it also means you have ultimate control over what happens in the dragon war!”

I looked into his eyes, willing him to understand. “Mingfei... you can change it... but you have to live.”

Mingfei’s head suddenly lifted and he looked around.

I looked around too. “What is it?”

“We’ve stopped.”

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Sure enough, the ship engines were completely silent. I looked left and right, but no one was on deck. I got butterflies in my stomach. Mingfei walked around to the front of the ship. I looked into the windows of the bridge. There was no one inside.

“Do you smell that?”

I took a sniff. “Gasoline?”

Mingfei walked over to the edge of the ship and looked down over the side. I stood and waited, keeping an eye out for anything else that might happen. He returned, his expression grim. “The water is full of fuel. And the anchor has dropped.”

“Oh god...” I whispered. “Are those the only life boats?”

Mingfei nodded over my shoulder and I turned to look. On the other side of the deck there were similar pylons to the ones the other boats were attached to, only these pylons had no boats attached. “I think Mr. Aliyev doesn’t care about his family as much as Crow thinks he does.”

I stomped my foot in frustration. “I knew it! I knew this would happen! And it still happened!”

“You can get us out of here right?” Lu Mingfei asked.

“Yes! I just have to wake Nono and Zihang!” I turned and ran back around towards the staircase.

As I came around the building of the bridge, I skidded to a halt. Someone was climbing up the stairs! He looked like a man in a rubber diving suit!

“Enemy!” I shouted summoning a spear of light into my hand.

The intruder dove to the ground and the spear over shot him. He crawled on his hands, low like a crocodile, his golden eyes staring into mine. He transformed into a massive snake before my eyes.

“Look out!” Mingfei pushed me aside and I felt a sharp pain in my ear. I squeezed my eyes shut, feeling hot blood on the side of my face. When I opened them again, Mingfei was wrestling with the serpent who was now a man again. He locked him into a strangle hold, cutting off circulation to his brain. In seconds, the man was out cold.

I stood stunned as Mingfei let the man drop. “Are you alright?” He walked up to me. “Let me see it.”

He pulled my hand away. “It’s alright. It’s not deep and doesn’t seem to be poisoned.” He turned to look at our attacker.

“An assassin?” I asked.

“Probably. The way he moves is weird.”

“He turned into a snake.” I said.

Mingfei shook his head. “No, it’s a soul skill, Snare of Affliction. It causes you to see visions when you look into his eyes.”

“I’ve never heard of it.” I continued to put pressure on the side of my head.

“It’s a high level skill of the Light King descendants.” Mingfei walked back over to the fallen diver and kicked him over. “It’s been only recently discovered.”

“He’s from Hydra?”

Mingfei picked the man up. “Let’s go.”

We made our way back downstairs.

The hall was now filled with a strange blue mist. It seemed like the place should have been a sauna, but the mist was cold! As I approached the cabins, I could hear Ru’Yi crying!

I whimpered deep in my throat and opened the door, rushing to the chest of drawers where I had hidden her. “Shhh... shsh sh...” I wrapped her in her fleece blanket and put a hat on her head for extra warmth.

I settled her on my back, wrapping her tight to me. I couldn’t dare leave her in the room alone. Not with assassins about.

“Zihang? Nono!” Mingfei called.

I stepped out of the room.

Mingfei came out of Nono’s room, still dragging the body of the man in the divers suit. “They’re not here and there’s signs of a struggle. We have to find them!”

I followed him down the foggy hall. As soon as he was any distance away, he disappeared in the cold mist. I only knew where he was by the sound of his breath and his footsteps on the metal floor.

“Where is this mist coming from!” My clothes were wet and stuck to me. Ru’Yi started mewling again.

The sound of gun shots rang out from below us!

Mingfei broke into a run.

As we descended lower in the bowels of the ship, the hall became more and more cluttered. I had to be careful not to trip over boxes and crates full of random items like food, clothing, and a bootleg dvds.

I nearly ran into Mingfei’s back. Ahead of us, a heavy door was shut. He glanced back at me and I nodded, backing away further into the hall and drawing Tongzi.

Behind the door, I heard a strange chanting, like a chorus of voices all saying the same words, but slightly out of sync with each other, like a resounding prayer. It was a singing so beautiful that my heart lifted and instinctively, I looked to Mingfei with admiring eyes as he lowered the unconscious diver to the ground.

It was the Soul Skill Imperium, the Royal Speech of the Dark King. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever heard. Tears sprang to my eyes. I wanted to sing along but my throat closed. I was carried away by the magnificence of this ancient voice in my mind.

But who was singing? I opened my eyes again expecting somehow to see Mingfei singing to me, but it wasn’t Mingfei. “Nono! Zihang!” He was pulling open the heavy freezer door.

He stopped, silent. Then he pulled a pistol from behind his back. He was immediately surrounded by more of these men in diving suits. They were all chanting the Dark King’s song!

Outraged at their sacrilege, I pulled out a light spear from my hand.

Mingfei raised the gun and fired, point blank, at one of the divers. I startled my light spear vanishing. Even with a Frigga bullet, a point blank shot in the face would cause devastating injury! But this was no Frigga bullet. The man’s skull seemed to explode, his neck rocking back at an impossible angle, like his spine had snapped in two.

But Mingfei wasn’t done. He fired again and again, following the man as he stumbled backwards, yet somehow remained upright. He lowered the pistol and shot him in the chest. Lower still, again, in the kidneys.

The man bent all the way back as though suspended by invisible wires.

Mingfei pulled the trigger again. All I heard was an empty click.

He pocketed the gun and drew his curved knife.

The body of the man snapped back up and Mingfei’s knife collided with claws over a foot long.

These people weren’t human.

The claws swiped at Mingfei, -- once, twice, thrice -- missing by a mere centimeters each time. The other men took on an offensive posture.

I knew that Mingfei had had vigorous training in South Korea, but I’d never truly seen it until now. He took on all of them, even as they surrounded him. Dodging and attacking in a single motion, striking at enemies he could see, and defending blows from behind that he could only anticipate in his own mind.

But these enemies were going to overwhelm him any second.

Before I could even think of rushing into the freezer, Mingfei roared. “Get Nono out of here!”

Mingfei pulled an anti-tank grenade from the pockets of his trench coat! The power of this weapon is greater than a C4 explosive. At the same time, his attacks became more persistent and he started to push his opponents further into freezer.

“Are you crazy!” I heard Nono shout.

Chu Zihang emerged from the walk in freezer, dragging a barely conscious Nono, pursued by two of the divers who had peeled away from Mingfei to stop them from escaping. I rushed forward and grabbed onto the door to close it pulling with all my weight, but a blade managed to get through the gap and pierce Chu Zihang in the back about an inch deep.

More of the monster divers slammed behind the door, but they weren’t really smart. The door needed to be pulled, not pushed.

Their mindlessness stunned me for a moment and I was able to see through the gap as I backed away. Mingfei was completely surrounded and bleeding.

“Idiot!” Nono cried.

I looked at her. She was trailing a long stream of blood. I suddenly understood Lu Mingfei’s murderous reaction to what he saw in the freezer. When I looked back through the gap in the door, I saw him pull the pin on the grenade.

“Get down!” I threw myself to the floor and turned my back to the wall to protect Ru’Yi.

The blast somersaulted the thick reinforced metal door off its hinges and over my head. It slammed into Chu Zihang and Nono.

“No!” I cried out.

Did I just lose everyone?

#Mingfei Lu #Lu Mingfei #Chu Zihang #Johann Chu #Nono #Chen Moutong #Dragon Raja #Fanfiction #Writing

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maddgarbagemonkey · 6 years ago

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DEAR EVAN HANSEN 2018 TOUR THINGS THAT MADE ME CRY

Yep. Back at it again with this nonsense. I saw this show back in November and needed to frantically rant about how much of a MASTERPIECE it is and how in love I am with every single tour cast member. Buckle-up dorks and get ready to read a novel. Its gonna get pretty out of order so yeah, and obviously, SPOILERS for Dear Evan Hansen ahead. :)

So it opens and a bunch of live feed from multiple social media accounts appear on the monitors and screens surrounding Evan's bed and they make little beeping noises whenever there's something new and it was super cool and immersive.

I took like 2000 pictures of Evan's red bed and all of them turned out blurry but I will cherish every single one of them.

The classic Evan rant about sweaty hands and ordering food will forever be my eternal monologue. Ben also said that line so fast I was amazed that he didn't lose his breath and suffocate!

"Ohhh... Good." B A B Y

Heidi (Jessica Phillips) is my M O M. I love her and Cynthia's harmonies were superb.

Ok fam. Real talk. Ben Levi Ross. Best human 2019. Superior to every other person on this planet and I am unafraid of saying so.

I think a lot of people, including me, went into the touring show thinking "That Ben Levi Ross is cute, but I don't see how he could possibly compare to Ben Platt" STOP! STOP THAT NOW! THAT'S NOT OKAY! Because I can swear to you that his performance was one of the greatest things I've ever witnessed in my entire life and I cried so so very hard whenever he opened his mouth.

Not only should actors NEVER be compared to one another (as they are all their own people with their own incredible talent) but Ben's singing and performing was BEYOND WORDS! You could tell immediately how much of himself he put into Evan and did not doubt for a second that he should be up there instead of anyone else. His singing was so powerful and moving that I physically began shaking and did not stop until I left the theater, which Ben himself even acknowledged but more on that later. He was so incredibly talented it was unreal and I just wanted to take a second and say that he deserved every single moment of applause and cheering times a million. I need a recording of him singing Waving right now. BEN LEVI ROSS, GUYS!!!1!!!

oof, anyways his "Waving Through a Window" killed me. I'm dead. Gorgeous boy. Beautiful.

The way everyone's harmonies mix together and hit you in that song are phenomenal.

Jared, played by Jared Goldsmith, had such a squeaky highschooler voice and the biggest, doofy-est smile which made his stupid comments so much better. I loved him a lot. 10/10. Classic Jared.

Also, I would die for Marrick Smith.

Marrick, A.K.A. Connor was so good at being a broken teenager it hurt! I loved him a lot.

It also opened my eyes because... how do I say this without sounding weird... BOI HE THICK!

Marrick was so tall and swol and gorgeous and sweet and I love him and that's my TedTalk. It also created such a strong physical contrast between Connor, who was tall and strong and scary who processed his emotions through anger outbursts, with Evan, who was skinny and small and shrunk into himself and processed his emotions through hiding or running away, in a way that Ben Platt and Mike Faist couldn't really do. It was different in a good way and I really liked it! :)

Y'all can take Stronk Connor and Skinny Twink Evan out of my cold, dead hands.

In the cast signing scene, Connor was overly friendly and smiley which made the point where it all slowly fades into anger at "You wrote this because you knew that I would find it" so much worse.

The little tug on Ev's arm followed by a subtle "Ow" before signing. <3

"I LoVE JaZZ!"

I love the way Evan sits in chairs by taking up as little space as possible! Its such a cool detail to demonstrate Evan's social anxiety and his need and want to not take up too much space.

I just need to take a second to squeal about Phoebe Koyabe, who played Alana, because she had gorgeous pink hair and I was just all around in love with her voice and her quirky little Alana characteristics.

Here's where things are a bit out of order and blurred because I wrote down my favorite things and then instantly lost the paper so... this is all from what I rewrote later on.

During that line where Alana retaliates to Evan accusing her of using the Connor project for her college application, she became completely hysterical and began crying. That "because I know how it feels to be forgotten" will always be my weak point.

"Connor was OBSESSED with trees!"

"We were partners for our Literature class while reading Huck Finn. He was so funny! He came up with this funny joke where he'd say, well, instead of Huck Finn.... nobody else in our class thought of that!"

OH MY GOD ZOE!

Zoe, played by Maggie Mckenna, was so incredible and loveable it was insane.

Her voice was so deep and melodic that just listening to her speak made you want to curl up with a blanket and just be comfortable. She was also so expressive and good at delivering her lines that you felt and understood exactly what she was going through whenever she spoke. I loved her so much and can relate with Evan's sentiments in "If I could tell her!"

"That's just what you do when you're rich and don't have a job, you get crazy!"

That entire scene before "If I could tell her" was so good! She was so snarky and sarcastic with every line and I fell way more in love with Zoe. I love when she's not played as the angel love interest and more of a real character with flaws and feelings and emotions and Maggie's portrayal really solidified that for me! I love this little Jazz band brat!

I also need a recording of Maggie's requiem, it was beautiful!

There was this heartbreaking moment in that song where Zoe looked at and read through Connor's emails and held them close, but at "That you were not the monster," she crumbled it up into a ball and let it fall to the ground, covering up all her sadness with anger and it hurt me.

That song just hurt a lot all around. Cynthia, Larry, Zoe. Just all of it, all of their God-tier harmonies. All.

You'd also be glad to know that Zoe's star-covered jeans were in full view the whole time along with the ones on her sneakers.

There was this adorable moment in the scene before "Only Us" where Evan freaks out because he thinks Zoe's gonna break up with him and he screams and promises he won't start breaking things and Zoe just has to stop him like "no, you tree-loving twink, I'm not breaking up with you!" And Evan just stands there for a second and then does this sweet thing where he awkwardly bends down and grabs her hands and shakes them with a little "thank you." Then Zo copies his little hand thing as responds "Don't mention it!" They're so cute together and lovable it hurts! Hopefully nothing bad happens between them...

During Disappear, Connor started jumping on Evan's bed during "And even if you've always been-" and it was glorious and Evan just regarded it as a normal occurrence.

They also did this thing where they ran on opposite sides of the stage and then rejoined in the middle where Connor helps Evan put on his backpack and then just puts his hands on his shoulders in a moment of bro trust and admiration and then yeets out of existence at "when you're falling in a forest."

BEN'S YOU WILL BE FOUND WILL LIVE ON IN INFAMY!

During the panic attack before the song began, starting when Evan dropped his notecards, you can feel it radiating off of him so vividly that everyone in the theater was holding their breath.

First when he fell to pick the cards up you could see the tears swell up and hear his breath quicken and feel the panic swell like "no no no, this can't happen. Not now. Don't do this!" And the second you think he might be able to pull it together and stand up, he slips and hits his elbow so hard on the floor, we all jump. He lets out the most heartbreaking yelp and clutches his arm, abandoning his cards and the speech and all hope of recovering. The tears finally start to fall down his face and they don't stop.

Still holding his arm, Evan pushes his body out of the spotlight and holds himself in the fetal position, refusing to look up and just all around shutting hinself away from everyone watching. AND YOU CAN FEEL IT! You can feel Evan's shame and horror and fear and anger and it's awful. You almost have to look away because the emotions being displayed are so real and raw. More real than any recording or bootleg out there. And that's why Ben Levi Ross was so incredibly perfect in my eyes, because he could so accurately depict and portray Evan and what he's going through to the point where you have to look away to avoid the risk of being pulled under with him and losing yourself to your own habits and its heartbreakingly brilliant! Again, Ben. Fucking. Levi. Ross.

During "You Will be Found" they also display all these younger and baby pictures of Marrick along with present day ones to show little Connor, which was adorable. But then Larry, played by Aaron Lazar, looks up and sees little baby Connor on the screen and instantly breaks down sobbing, the first time ever since Connor died as we hear Zoe say earlier that "he didn't even cry at Connor's funeral." Cynthia has to come over and hold him to prevent him from instantly falling apart.

Evan and Jared also have this awkward high five at that part and its very uncomfortable and great.

There's another just horrible moment in the middle of words fail where one by one the Murphys all run off stage horrified at the news that Evan was lying. First, it's Zoe with Cynthia following after, frantically trying to grasp what happened with tears falling everywhere. Then Larry, who looks disapprovingly at Evan before solemnly following the others. Then, lastly, in what could just be described as the worst thing ever, one of the screens become transparent to reveal CONNOR, looking in dismay at what has happened, tears in his eyes, before also walking away from Evan back into the nothingness. Awful. Beautifully, beautifully awful.

Evan snuggles into Heidi and stays there for what seems like forever during "So Big, So Small" then, he finally lets go and Heidi rides away on the couch, reaching for him.

Okay, fam. That was all the specific things I wanted to scream about during the actual show, but then I had the pleasure of meeting them at the stage door which led to some great hijinks!

I said something really stupid to Jessica Phillips/Heidi when she signed my playbill probably along the lines of like "You were so amazing I might faint. Please catch me" and she SQUEALED! It was the best sound on the planet.

When Marrick Smith/ Connor came out, I was frozen in shock because, not only was he shorter than I thought and his cool hair was tied in a man bun and he was wearing a cool beanie and some hair feel into his eyes like a Myspace profile picture, I was so amazed that he was real and was standing so close to me. I was so amazed that I stood there like an idiot just staring at him and shaking while he smiled at me, an awkward little baby, until my Mom had to physically nudge me towards him to which he responded by giggling and saying "Aw! Don't be scared! I don't bite!" I... I. How? How do I live after that. He signed by his picture and, get this, also doodled a little mustache on Aaron Lazar/ Larry's picture. I am also proud to say that I saw his slightly chipped black nail polish up close in true Connor fashion. Then he thanked me for coming and waved at me. He was SO incredibly sweet and I couldn't stop smiling after that.

When Phoebe Koyabe/Alana came out with her gorgeous pink hair I squealed and told her she was gorgeous to which she kindly smiled and complemented my dress and signed my Playbill. She was a goddess and I love her so much.

Right before Aaron Lazar came out, My Mom without thinking just called out "Daddy" to which my sister and I were horrified.

Lastly, Ben Levi Ross, wearing the best sweater ever, came out and signed my Playbill. At this point my legs were absolute jelly and I was shaking so bad I almost dropped everything, but he was so SO NICE and, as a response to seeing me dying upon seeing him, said "Oh no! Don't shake! You're okay! Everything's fine!" He was so unbelievably chill and sweet and upon my family showering him with all of the complements he deserved was so down to earth and appreciative. It was so incredible to get to meet him and tell him how amazing he was!

In conclusion, I knew Dear Evan Hansen was incredible and loved it before, but actually seeing it made me feel so many feelings that I didn't know existed. Its such a genius musical and I 1000% recommend! There was not a weak link in the cast! They were all so sweet and talented and just absolutely PHENOMENAL! I would die for all of them! :)

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2tuff · 2 years ago

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drundertalescum · 7 years ago

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Day 15 - Fishing

How about a HUGE stretch on this one? This is such a cheat. I ran out of time to start this so I'm just posting the first half of an unfinished interactions exercise and pretending it's about fishing for anime in the dump.

This will be continued at some point, but probably not as a part of these prompts.

Warnings: Mew Mew Kissy Cutie 2, And it takes place before Mettaton decides to try to become corporeal, so it uses (Papyrus's headcanon of) his ghost name and they/them pronouns.

Alphys sorts through her extensive anime collection, looking for something her new friend will like. She's a little nervous about it, but she has all week to plan. Still, she's not going to sleep until she finds the perfect show!

They claim they don't like anime, but she's pretty sure anyone who says that just hasn't found the right anime! That's the amazing thing about anime: there are so many different kinds! And that's just the ones that have made their way from the surface! Who knows what kinds they have up there that just haven't fallen down yet?!

Thank God for pirates though. Humans bootlegging anime discs are her godsend!!! She guesses they copy the files off the discs, then throw them away to avoid getting caught. Or… or maybe they just forget to label them and their turn away because of that! And of course sometimes they throw down original boxes and boxsets but those aren't unlabeled but they also aren't pirated so she's not sure either theory holds up but she swears they are really good! And after seeing the originals she's started making her own boxes and box sets to loan to people and she designs the covers herself and she's not a very good artist but she thinks she's getting better and she's really good with fonts because she has another friend who… who….

Rambling in her own head! An Alphys classic! (Or… would “An Alphys Original” be funnier?)

She doesn't think anyone could blame her for trying to plan out her future conversations with the ghost from the fanclub. They're… a little chilly. In more ways than one. And it's… it's been a while. Since she had a friend. Or… well… it's…um. It’s not really what she needs to be focusing on! Heh… heh.

She can't find a suitable series. She's not sure what they would like, but whatever it is she ends up showing them, it needs to be good!! So she heads to the dump, and that is where she finds it.

Like a holy grail amongst the rubbish, if the holy grail was pink and box-shaped.

Mew Mew Kissy Cutie 2!!!!!!!!!

She screams.

She didn't know there was a sequel, and she snatches it up and runs back to Hotland faster than her two legs have ever taken her before. She doesn't stay at the dump. There can be no find better than this!

And it is intact. Every disc is pristine. One disc is barely scratched, the others are in mint condition, and she has to wonder what kind of a human would throw this away. Didn't they realize what a treasure they held in their foolish human claws? Was it a mistake? Was it fate???

It’s their loss, and her gain. She burns 4 copies and gets to work on a custom cover, smiling like a madwoman the entire time.

She arrives at the club house a few days later, and it has taken all her willpower not to break down and give the show a watch alone.

The building is abandoned, like it always is, and she's been starting to wonder if they're actually allowed to be here and if someone owns the place. It's pretty close to that side of the CORE soooo… she guesses maybe it doesn't matter. She can imagine a low rumble of a voice saying “those haunts are meant to be haunted” and she chuckles at the joke she just made up, and doesn't let herself get sad about the fact that after all this time, she still imagines really bad puns in his voice.

But she doesn't linger much on any of those thoughts now, focused single-mindedly on the approach of the best anime viewing party ever.

She rushes into the room Hapstablook set aside for their meetings. It's a musty, echo-y kind of old office, but the banners they put up are bright and covered in glitter and she's secretly never felt as welcome outside her own home as she is here.

They stare at her when she barrels in, and when she arrives she has no idea what to say. She's smiling and grinning and her palms are sweating and her hands are shaking and she's holding the boxset as tightly as she can without harming it. And for a moment she forgets that words can possibly exist and that they have absolutely no idea what she's so excited for (and their face says exactly that. They have no idea what she's so excited for.)

Finally she announces at the top of her lungs “MEWMEWKISSYCUTIE2LETSWATCHITITSSATURDAYMEWMEWTWOLETSGO!!!!!!!!”

Somewhere, a window shatters.

“a-alphys, darling��…. are you alright…..?”

In response, she screams, and half-waddles, half-runs over to the television they had set up in the corner. She turns on the DVD player, and screams again when that doesn't work. She presses the button a second time, and screams again when it doesn't work again. She stares at the screen, at the DVD player, at the DVD, and back at the TV.

She screams.

“ALPHYS!!” Happy raises their voice for once and floats over to her, putting themself between her and the television, breaking her line of sight. It calms her down enough for her to focus, enough to realize she just ran in, screamed a bunch of times, and probably looked really dumb while doing it.

Her friend's face confirms that suspicion. She did indeed look really dumb.

She breathes, deeply, and explains, “I brought an anime for us to watch! I-I know you said you don't like them, b-but! This is the sequel to my favorite anime of all time! It's so good! And I think you'd really like it if you have it a chance because it's about this girl and she has cat ears and when she kisses someone she gets to control them and she tries to make their lives better but you see, she learns, well she learns-- uhhh that's a spoiler but I mean… we are going to watch the sequel so i guess it doesn't really matter but i want to make sure you're okay with that and also this has to be about something different right because she already learned that lesson and I don't want to bog you down with too much extra info so you'll be trying to remember everything I said instead of watching because it you do that you won't enjoy the showandidonthaveanyonetowatchwithandshoutingintothevoidonlineisfunbutitslonelyandyourethefirstrealfriendivemadeinalongtimeandidontwantyoutothinkthatimahugedorksoijustwantedtohangoutandwatchandivebeenramblingforeverandyouREPROBABLYSICKOFMETALKINGANDICANTBELIEVEIJUSTS---”

“alphys i have absolutely no idea what you are even trying to say…”

“I…”

Happy floats through and behind her, leaving her with a chill down her spine that, while far from calming, does break her out of the cycle of self doubts she had started down. She turns to see the little ghost drift back, then dive into an old office chair all at once, disappearing from view. The chair moves on its own towards her, and her friend's disembodied voice fills the room.

“Darling, darling, darling… You need to relax…….” and as she hears the words, she does feel a little better. Just a bit. The chair pushes into her from behind, gently, then lowers the seat to allow her easier access. Once on it, she and the chair spin slowly, calmingly, and finally stood, facing away from the television set.

Hapsta leaves the chair and rematerializes in front of her. “if you're worried I'll think you're a dork…… that ship has sailed, my friend. You are the biggest dork I have ever met in all my life.” They smile. “It's part of why I like you so much.”

#My fics #fanfic #alphys #mettaton

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duhragonball · 3 years ago

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Jumping onto the anime split another anon asked about earlier, I have seen some purists and elitists hate the split because they hate that some fans like the Kikuchi Soundtrack for DB but prefer a different soundtrack for DBZ. Never mind that these same purists and elitists didn’t complain about DBZ Kai using a different soundtrack (at least before the “Yamamoto Scandal” lead to the Kikuchi Soundtrack being reinserted in the Saiyan to Cell Sagas).

Good point, Anon. Kai just isn't on my radar, tbh, because it came out in 2009, long after I had already experienced the episodes that Kai was re-editing. I'm aware of Kai having a different score, and I've even enjoyed listening to it on YouTube, but I keep forgetting that there's a whole other cut of DBZ with a different score.

But a lot of younger fans got started on Kai, because it was available on cable TV and in video stores, and so on. So it shouldn't surprise me that there's a schism between "Kai loyalists" and "Z traditionalists."

What does surprise me, is that there's a schism over the BGM for Dragon Ball and DBZ, because Shunsuke Kikuchi did both. I'm assuming this is less about the composer and more about "We had a perfectly good set of songs, and they just ditched it all in favor of this awful new stuff."

I find that humorous, because one of the major bones of contention about the Funimation dub was the Bruce Faulconer score. "Oh, the Faulconer score ruined everything!" they would cry, except half of them probably thought the original score had already ruined everything.

What amazes me is that, in this day and age, you can pretty much watch this stuff any way you please now. I have my Orange Brick sets, and I can watch subs or dubs at will, and I can also watch the dub with the original Japanese score. It's letterboxed, but if I cared enough, I could buy the un-letterboxed editions somewhere. If I liked the Kai version better, I could buy that. If I hated Kai, the Orange Bricks are still available for purchase. If I hated all of the anime productions, I could just buy the manga.

But there are still people who complain! I think this is why we've seen an uptick in fans kvetching about aspect ratios and "faithful" remasterings. In the 90's, subs vs. dubs made some sense, because in the days of VHS you didn't always get a choice, and when you did, the subs were on one tape and the dubs were on the other, and most people couldn't afford to buy both. So I can see how there would be some tribalism over that. But now you can get just about any version you want if you want it badly enough. I think that's why the "purists" gripe about things that aren't likely to ever change. If they get what they want, they'll just move the goalpost, because complaining is all they ever really wanted.

What frustrates me is that so much of this is just gatekeeping and tribalist bullshit. I'm about to go on an old man rant, so maybe I should put a cut here.

Okay, so about me: I'm 44, so I'm old enough to remember the 90's, but I didn't get into anime until about 1999, when I was 22. Before that, I remember in college when I'd go down to the dorm basement to watch TV, and sometimes there'd be a group of people setting up a VCR to play some anime tape they had. It was a whole communal experience back then. Anime was expensive, and you probably needed a circle of friends to share tapes like that. But I can't really speak on that experience because that wasn't my scene. I'd just come down the stairs, see those guys setting up, and I'd give up on any aspirations of watching "Star Trek" that night.

When I got into anime, it was because of "Toonami" on Cartoon Network. Toonami played it smart, because they ran a lot of American cartoons from the 60's, 70's and 80's, and they would sprinkle a little anime in there too. For me, it was like sneaking cat medicine into a piece of salami to get me to eat it. And they lowered the cost-of-entry. All I had to do was turn on the TV in the middle of the afternoon.

By 2001, I was writing Tenchi Muyo! fanfic, and I saw all these older guys pissing and moaning about the dubs, and Cartoon Network censorship, and this-that-and-the-other. They were mostly complaining about kids and teenager who got into their fandoms through Toonami, but they were also talking about me, a 24-year-old man with a job who understood that Cartoon Network can't show naked titties on TV. Of course they painted swimsuits on everyone in the onsenscene. What the fuck else could they do? Why was there an onsen scene in the first place?

But it was easier for them to cast the new influx of fans as idiot children who hadn't even seen the """real""" version of Tenchi and DBZ, with actual swearing and sexual harassment and so on. One time I bought a Tenchi manga collection at a comic book store, and the guy just assumed I was just as anti-Cartoon Network as he was, because I looked old enough to be on the "right" side. I didn't want to bother telling him that CN was the only reason I was buying the thing.

Over time, I realized that this was more of a cultural thing than anything else. The established fans had to go out of their way to get into these shows--watching bootleg fansubs or buying tapes through mail order-- but the new fans were just channel surfing one day and got hooked on a safe-for-TV edit. The older fans would complain about the edits, the dubs, the music, but those were never the problem. The problem was just that these new fans didn't share the experiences of the old fans. They were watching the same show, but they didn't watch it the same way, which meant they were now bad somehow, or incomplete.

After so many years, I had hoped that the schism would die down. Dubbed DBZ had become a fait accompli, and nobody was interested in spelling "Vegeta" with a "B", and Toonami airs at midnight now, because it's a nostalgia show for kids who grew up with it in the 2000's. But there's still new things happening, and new fans who want to create division. When all those video games came out in the 2000's, I remember seeing GameFaqs dolts arguing over whether the game would run better on XBox or Playstation. So I guess it shouldn't be much of a shock that Dragon Ball Kai is a line in the sand for some people. There's probably some 30-year-old who thinks the only right way to watch Z is to watch Toonami like he did when he was ten.

But the arguments over the Japanese BGM only proves that there's no finish line for this sort of thing. Well, I guess one day, enough people from my generation will have died off, and later generations will just accept that there's multiple BGMs, because Dragon Ball's been around for so long. But by that time, some other division will come along.

And I'm not saying people can't have differences of opinion on things. I think Dragon Ball GT fucking sucks, but I know a lot of people love it (for some reason) and I try to respect that. Some people love Super, others hate the entire thing, and I'm kind of in the middle, because I despise parts of it and love other parts of it. There's room for nuance, is what I'm saying.

But a lot of the cranks I've seen, they aren't interested in nuance. They just want to make blanket statements. "Everything after Episode X is garbage, and if you like it, then you're garbage too." "If you experienced X this specific way, then you're a true fan, but otherwise your experience doesn't count." Just stuff like that.

I think a lot of that is based on this inability to see beyone one's own self. Like, okay, I don't like GT very much, so it would be very tempting to just assume that no one likes it, or that no one can like it. And that mindset--that GT is objectively bad-- would lead me to think that anyone who claims to enjoy it is being dishonest or trolling. That mentality is toxic. I'd go around treating GT-likers as if they were despicable enemies, and encourage others to do the same.

And I think that's where this DB vs Z thing got started, to circle back to the original topic. I can understand where some fans didn't like the Z branding, or the new music that went with it. But loads of people did like it just fine. That doesn't make them wrong or evil, or delusional. It just means there's a difference in tastes. Nothing more.

But the reason I wanted to compare that schism with others is because I want to warn anyone reading this: Don't fall into that trap as you get older. When I was younger, I used to see all these old farts lambast my generation over dumb things, and now I'm an old far and I see so many people my own age criticize younger people the same way. That's bullshit. I had hoped we would all break the cycle together, but no. For some people, they just don't notice that they're even getting older. They just get crankier and more out of touch and they assume it's the rest of the world's fault. That's why you see people treasure the early stuff (like OG Dragon Ball) and hate on the newer stuff (like DBZ). It was like that 35 years ago, and it was like that 20 years ago, and it's still like that today. It'll probably always be like that, but you can make the decision to rise above that sort of elitism.

#ask duhragonball

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