#EDIT!! : lost some quality but the animation should always play now | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

bestiesenpai · 4 years ago

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youtuber Sukuna

I beg you to read the shitposts I made about this, they are delicious. You don’t have to of course but...if you loved me you would :) s/n = screen name, and I hope you chuckle at Sukunas screen name

Content warning: uhmhm lowkey incel shit(mean internet comments and whatnot)

part two --- part 3

Name: Sukuna. Age: 25. Height: 6 foot 5 inches. Occupation: toxic Youtuber, fitness trainer and hot guy.

Sukuna wasn’t exactly known for being kind. He wasn’t nice to others, rarely having anything good to say about anyone, and he’d made a successful Youtube career out of it. First starting as a fitness trainer at his gym, through encouragement from his clients and the notion of a quick cash grab, he started Youtube.

He didn’t care about it and that reflected in the quality of his videos and editing. He didn’t have consistent uploads, just filming and posting videos whenever he wanted, analytics be fucked. But somehow, that worked out for him, and he quickly found himself with over two million subscribers just frothing at the mouth for his next video.

And those subscribers were some of the worst people. Sukuna didn’t care about fostering a safe space online for others, not in the slightest. His comment sections were atrocious, both on his Youtube and his Instagram. It was full of toxic men one-upping each other constantly and dragging on each other for not being able to work out as much as Sukuna did.

Sukuna was a large part of why his fanbase were so toxic. He himself often made bad comments about others, whether fellow creators or people that happened to appear in the backgrounds of his videos, and on more than one occasion he’d been ‘cancelled’. None of that mattered though, all he cared about was shitting on other people and making money.

Sometimes he played video games and posted it, but not too often. Sukuna often stated he wasn’t so much of a fucking lonely loser that he’d play video games all the time, and so the gaming videos he did post were few and far between. He played angry shooter games and GTA, mindless button clicking he could get lost in for a few hours for a video.

Laying in bed one night after uploading his most recent video, one where he rages at 12 year olds on GTA online, Sukuna was just scrolling through his phone mindlessly. After he uploads video game content, like clockwork, he gets recommendations for gaming channels. He only watches a few of them, mostly leaving mean comments saying what losers they are, but one catches his eye.

He’s never been recommended this kind of video before. The thumbnail is light and bright with some pink aesthetic lights in the back. But the most enticing thing is the person in the middle, cute pink cat ear headphones on and a bright smile.

“Let’s see…” Sukuna mumbles to himself, mindlessly clicking the video. He hasn’t even read the title, he only clicked it because they were cute, and here he is nearly blinded by the bright setup they have.

“Hi everyone, it’s (Y/N) here and I’m really excited today! We’re going to be playing this new game I found!” Sukuna is immediately enraptured by the sound of your voice, watching how your face changes as you talk. His eyes drift off to the decor behind you, cute plushies and healthy plants, and some twinkling fairy lights. There’s books as well, and your chair is one of those ergonomic gamer chairs he has as well but in pink.

Sukuna watches the video dumbly, totally in the dark about whatever you’re doing, but loving it all the same. All he knows is that he likes the sound of your voice, and when you laugh and smile at a funny part in the game, it makes a light flush come to his cheeks.

It only takes one video for Sukuna to spiral into more of your content. He watches a video on your gaming setup, and he’s surprised that so much technology can come in pink. He watches a video on how you edit, a few of you cooking in your kitchen, and even a few vlog videos.

He quickly subscribes to your channel, and when you plug your social media, he immediately goes there. Pulling up your Instagram, he stares at your profile picture and almost audibly coos at you for being cute.

Your profile is just as cute as your videos are and Sukuna barely remembers to follow you before he’s going through your whole feed, liking every picture he sees. Sometimes he leaves comments, only one word though, ‘cute’. He’s never liked something so outright cute before, it wasn’t who he was and it definitely didn’t fit with his brand.

Falling asleep after following you on every platform, Sukuna wakes up thinking about you as well. And he also wakes up to hundreds of comments from all his accounts, bombarding him with questions and screenshots from last night.

‘SUKUNA WHY WOULD YOU LIKE THIS SHIT?!’

‘OMG Sukuna liked (Y/N)s posts!!’

‘Sukuna is so gross and toxic, you better stay away from (Y/N)!’

‘SUKUNA YOU GAY NOW’

‘EW why the fuck do you like this bitch?’

There were hundreds of comments that he waded through. Most were from his fans, expressing disgust at how many photos of yours he’d liked and wondering why he, Sukuna, most heterosexual alpha male on the planet, would like a pretty in pink Youtuber who had bubbly intros and whined when their animal crossing villagers wanted to move away.

Other comments were from your fans, some in awe that he would like you considering how much he said he hated overly cute things. Other fans expressed concern, worried what this might mean for their favorite Youtuber. Did Sukuna want to cause problems, potentially hurting you? He did have a reputation of bullying others, so this wasn’t far fetched.

Checking your Instagram, you didn’t make any comment about it. There wasn’t any update or anything, but on his end he was being tagged in endless Twitter threads with screenshots of him liking your posts and commenting under them.

“For fucks sake.” He grunted, clenching his phone in his hands. The amount of notifications he was getting were starting to upset him and he nearly threw his phone to get them to stop.

Ignoring his phone for the rest of the day, Sukuna went to the gym like he always did and trained with his clients. Some of them brought it up to him, asking him if he had a mind break last night and forgot what he was doing. Sending them harsh glares, Sukuna refused to talk about it.

“Oh my fucking god.” Sukuna nearly wailed when he got home, finally checking his phone. His name and yours had begun trending, and the hashtag #protect(Y/N) was also. Muttering angrily under his breath, Sukuna turned on Instagram live.

“Okay what the fuck!” He shouted, seeing the live become instantly flooded with people all screaming about you and him. “You’re all fucking annoying, you know that?” Glaring harshly at the camera, he read some of the comments that went by.

‘WHY’D YOU LIKE (Y/N)S POSTS FROM 2017’

‘Are you two secretly dating??’

‘COLLAB!’

“Who gives a shit why I liked their stuff, you’re a fucking weirdo for keeping track of me. And we aren’t secretly dating, dipshits.” Rolling his eyes, Sukuna scoffed as more comments came in begging for a collaboration. “And think about it you morons, why would we collab? Our shit is too fucking different, what would we even film about?”

Sukuna stayed on Instagram live for nearly an hour answering questions asking about you. Every time he had to answer that you weren’t secretly dating, he got a little more annoyed. Not at the comments themselves but at the fact that it was true; you didn’t even know he existed.

Ending the live in a huff, Sukuna didn’t feel any better than before, and it was made even worse by the fact that everything he said was being relayed to Twitter, and you were tagged in every tweet.

“These idiots!” Staring at his phone, Sukuna couldn’t believe what he was seeing. On your Instagram stories, you’d posted a q&a for your followers, and nearly all of the comments were about Sukuna.

“Hi everyone! No, me and Sukuna aren’t dating!” You said, laughing a little to ease how uncomfortable you were. “To be honest, I’ve never even heard of him before! As you know, my content is very...different from his, so our circles don’t exactly intersect. But I’m always happy to have new followers and potential friends!”

“Fuck me.” Sukuna groaned, cringing at how uncomfortable you looked having to address the sudden onslaught of questions. For once he wished he’d actually given a shit about his online presence, so that maybe one day your circles could intersect. He knew he scared you, he scared a lot of people, and this was just proof.

“Uh, Sukuna if you see this, hi it’s nice to meet you!” You said in the next slide, puffing out your cheeks and waving cutely at the camera. It made Sukuna blush, and he hated it. “Thank you for following me and liking my content! I was very surprised that you found me!”

“Of course I did, idiot, you’re fucking cute.” He muttered under his breath.

“I know a lot of people are asking for us to do a video together and I know our content is really different, so don’t feel pressured to respond or anything, but the offer is open! If you’d like, we can collab on something.”

“On what?” He asked like you were there.

“I cook sometimes, and I know you cook too! Maybe we can make a cooking video? You can teach me how to make healthy food or something!” Sukuna could tell a fake laugh when he heard one, and you definitely had one right now. “Anyways, thank you! Bye Sukuna!” But hearing you say his name cutely like that made him not care.

He nearly responded right away, accepting the collab offer now that you’d spoken about it, but he didn’t want to seem desperate. He watched through the rest of your Instagram stories, going back and replaying the parts where you talked about him over and over and his heart clenched every time when you said his name.

In the dead of night, Sukuna DM’s you after watching your latest video and leaving the simple comment ‘check your DM’s’.

“Fuck, what should I say?” He’s suddenly stumped as he looks at the keyboard. Typing and retyping a message, in the end all he can say is hi. He doesn’t expect a reply, ever, but when he gets a vibration on his phone two seconds later he jumps to read it.

(S/N): hi Sukuna! :)

(cursedgod): hey

Real fucking smart, repeating what he just said.

(S/N): is there something you wanted to talk to me about?

(S/N): I hope you haven’t been annoyed at all the notifications you’ve been getting!

(cursedgod): No it’s okay

(cursedgod): we can collab if you want

Good Sukuna, good. Play it cool, don’t let them know that your fingers are actually trembling because you’re nervous.

(S/N): do you want to?? I don’t want to pressure you! I know we’re pretty different haha

(cursedgod): yeah, let's do it. Cooking?

(S/N): sure!

Looking around his home, he was suddenly assaulted with the fact that he didn’t have any furniture. He barely had a proper bedroom, just a mattress on a bare frame and a dresser. His lounge room was the same with his computer setup in one corner and then nothing else. There was only a couch, a mounted TV and a fold out table and chairs for his dining room.

(cursedgod): I know a studio kitchen we can use, I’ll send you the address

Thank god he’d done promo work for a brand in a studio one day, otherwise he’d be fucked.

(S/N): awesome! I’m free next Saturday!

And just like that, it was a date. Well, a meeting. Sukuna knew it wasn’t a date, but his heart still thumped like it was one. Confirming the time, he ended the conversation with a curt goodbye and obsessed about it throughout the night.

When the day to meet you came, Sukuna nearly ran late trying to pick out his clothes. He’d never cared about looking good or presenting himself well in front of others, whatever version of him he turned up in was what they got. But for you, he wanted to try a little harder.

Waiting outside the studio space, Sukuna rubbed his hands together nervously. You’d messaged a day or two ago offering to put the video on your channel since it probably wouldn’t fit his aesthetic, so he didn’t have to bring his shitty camera equipment.

“S-sukuna?” Snapping his head up, Sukunas mouth fell open looking at your curious face a few feet away, an Uber driving off behind you. You were even cuter in person, just his fucking luck. How was he expected to act like a normal person when his recent obsession was here looking better than he could have imagined.

“Hi.” What comes out is a grunt, not the smooth word he’d hoped. He can see you eyeing him up, taking in all the thick and corded muscles of his body. It made his chest puff out a little, he worked hard for this physique and to have you so openly looking at him made him happy.

“It’s nice to meet you!” Sticking your hand out, you smiled politely at him.

“Same.” Shaking your hand with a firm grip, Sukuna could feel the difference in your palms. Yours was soft and nicely moisturized and he had callouses everywhere and a few cuts and scrapes.

Opening the door for you, Sukuna led you to the studio space he’d rented out. It was a clean and modern kitchen, not unlike his own, but it had appliances and looked actually lived in. Helping you set up a few camera angles, Sukuna felt a pang of nerves hit him in the stomach.

“Sukuna, can we take a picture together?” You asked before starting, and Sukunas brow furrowed deeply. Why would you want to take a picture with him? His expression must have scared you, because you quickly backtracked. “F-for promo for this video, on Instagram and stuff!”

“Sure.” God, did he feel bad or what. He shouldn’t have made that face at you, now you wouldn’t look him in the eye. Crouching down to get the right angle for you, Sukuna watched you pick a cute animal filter.

“Just do what I do.” Throwing up a peace sign, you cutely tilted your head from side to side and smiled. Sukuna tried to do the same but he looked awkward, and most of all he was blushing pretty bad.

You snapped a multitude of pictures, some at different angles and some with different filters, and in all of them Sukuna was blushing at least a little. He managed to smile more as it went on, even laughing at one of the filters.

“Thanks! I’m going to post these really quick and then we can get started!” Giving him a brief smile, you turned back to your phone and set about editing some of the pictures. Looking over your shoulder, Sukuna could see that he looked like a blushing high schooler meeting their idol for the first time and not a grown man.

Once the photos were posted and you tagged him in everything, it was time to start. Setting up your marks on the floor, you took a generous drink of water and cleared your throat.

“Are you ready for the intro? I’ll start it and introduce you, okay?” You’d actually prepared a script for yourself, and showed Sukuna as well.

“Okay.” Stepping in front of the camera, Sukuna bristled at feeling you so close to him. Your arm brushed his casually as you were fixing your shirt, and Sukuna was glad he’d worn his most expensive cologne for this.

“Hi everyone, welcome to today's video! As you know, I’m (Y/N), and today we have a special guest today!” Throwing your arms in the air, you motioned to Sukuna.

“Hi.” He nodded, barely cracking a smile. He could feel you looking at him like you wanted to say something, but he didn’t look.

“So, many people have been asking for us to do a collaboration and it’s finally here!” Clapping your hands lightly, you rocked on your heels and nudged his shoulder with yours. “Do you want to tell them what we’ll be doing today?”

“Uh-” The playful nudge you’d given him was enough to make Sukuna short circuit. “I-I-” He suddenly couldn’t remember how to speak. “Rice?”

“Let’s try that again.” You laughed. “Do you want to tell them what we’ll be doing today?” This time, you didn’t nudge him with your shoulder.

“We’re gonna…” the words were on the tip of his tongue, they wanted to come out and be spoken but he couldn’t do it.

“It’s okay, it’s okay!” Nodding reassuringly, you took a deep breath in and out, and Sukuna shakily copied. “One more try?” When he looked at you, Sukuna expected to see a hint of annoyance in your face, but there was none. You were just smiling softly at him, waiting for his answer.

“Yeah. I’ll uh, I’ll get it next time.” Stepping away from the camera, Sukuna took a drink of water and cleared his throat. Cracking the bones in his neck, he took a deep breath and came back. “Let’s do it.” No more fucking embarrassments.

“Do you want to tell them what we’ll be doing today?” You asked for the third time, slightly swaying your body side to side this time.

“We’re gonna make katsudon today.” Finally, the words he wanted to say came out.

“That’s right! As you can see, Sukuna is really fit!” You immediately hopped in, giving his arm a brief squeeze. “And he knows how to make a ton of healthy meals!”

“Mhmm.”

“So I asked if he could help teach me, and all of you at home, how to make it!” Smiling at the camera, you waited a few seconds before relaxing and turning it off. “Did you like that? We can refilm it if you want.”

“No, it’s okay.” Running a hand through his hair, he pointed to the bag of rice he’d brought. “Let’s get started on this shit.”

Taking fifteen minutes to film the two of you filling up the rice cooker, when it was over, you set about getting aesthetic shots of the other ingredients. Sukuna tried to seem casual off to the side on his phone, but he was really watching you.

Getting started on chopping the ingredients, Sukuna somehow managed to say the things he was supposed to without stuttering too badly. He was amazed that you could make the things he was doing sound so interesting, your narration as you held the camera and tried to do things yourself was impressive to the man that barely knew anything about cameras.

“Sukuna, I need help cutting the meat.” You whined, tapping the meat on the cutting board with a knife. “I don’t remember how you showed me.”

“Here.” Without thinking, Sukuan grabbed your hand with the knife in it and moved it for you. “You just have to move your wrist more, it’s not that hard.” Doing it a few times, when Sukuna felt your chest expand with air against his, that’s when he realized how close the two of you were. “S-sorry.” Immediately jumping back, he stared at the floor.

“Thanks!” Giving him a smile, you kept at it.

“I’ll fry the meat.” Stepping in as soon as you were done, Sukuna already had the hot oil ready. He was eager to cook and do something with his hands instead of - what he felt like - was awkwardly watching you off to the side.

“Okay!” Grabbing the camera, you focused on the pan. “You’re really good at this, Sukuna!”

“T-thanks.” Staring directly at the pan, Sukuna didn’t look away. Even with the hot oil popping up from the pan a few times and burning his fingers, he didn’t flinch at all.

“Ow!” But you did. Your hand had gotten too close, and when Sukuna flipped the meat, some of the oil had gotten on your hand.

“Shit.” Abandoning the pan, Sukuna was ready to drag you over to the sink for some cool water.

“I-it’s okay, it was only a little.” Shaking your stinging hand, you point to the food. “But I think the meat might burn.”

“Shit!”

Narrowly avoiding disaster with the meat, when it came time to cook the eggs, you made a joke about how you liked your eggs in the morning and Sukuna burnt them almost immediately. While not an overtly sexual comment, the implications of the words still affected him.

Somehow, he managed to make the dish come together and while his plated dish didn’t come out the best, yours looked at least halfway decent with overcooked meat and burnt eggs. The only things not messed up were the rice and vegetables, and even then Sukuna was surprised.

“We did it everyone, we made katsudon!” Holding up the bowls, you smiled big and nudged Sukunas shoulder again. “You saw we had a few mishaps along the way, but that’s okay, that’s what made it fun.”

“Yeah, it was fun.” Sukuna chuckled. Despite him being more nervous than he’d ever thought possible, he had fun cooking alongside you.

“Sukuna, will you try mine? I made it super pretty and everything.” Holding your dish up to him, Sukuna wasn’t expecting you to do that. Now he felt bad that his looked so ugly and like a teenaged boy made it; he almost said no.

Eating yours though, somehow it tasted better than he was expecting. It must have been how you prepared it, and the fact that you cared so much about the presentation. Eating it in silence, he let you eat in peace as well for a few minutes and compliment the food to the camera.

“Alright, that’s the end of the video!” Putting your bowl down, you turned to Sukuna. “I had so much fun today, thanks for filming this with me.” Now was his chance to make everything better. Putting his bowl down and bolstering himself with confidence, Sukuna threw his arm over your shoulder and pulled you close to him.

“Thank you (Y/N), I really did enjoy today. I hope we can film again soon!” He squeezed your shoulder and smiled really big at not only you but the camera as well. He knew he was blushing, he knew that even the tip of his nose was a nice rosy shade, but he didn’t care. If people teased him for it, then so be it. But he wanted you to know how he truly felt.

“R-really? You want to?” You asked, looking up at Sukuna from your place smooshed against his body.

“Really.”

“Aww, well you heard it here first everyone! Sukuna wants to shoot another video with me!” Clapping your hands a few times, you waved at the camera. “Okay, bye everyone!”

“Bye.” Sukuna waved too, waiting a few seconds before letting you go and turning off the camera.

“Sukuna, did you really mean it? You want to film another video with me?” You were in utter disbelief. All this time, he’d just seemed very standoffish, if not a little awkward around you. You were happy to film this video with him, he had way more followers than you and it would help boost both your channels, and to hear him say that just made it even better.

“Yeah, I was serious.” Sukuna spoke around stuffing his mouth with the food he still had left. He was more hungry than he thought, the nerves doing a good job of twisting his stomach during the video. Now that it’s over, he can finally relax.

“That makes me really happy.” Eating the rest of your food as well, you leant against the counter. “This is gonna sound kind of mean, but I was really scared to film with you today. I thought you were going to be really mean.”

“Shit, you did?” He grimaced, letting out a sigh. “Sorry I had you worried.” He could already imagine the comments you would get from his fans.

“It’s okay! You’re actually way nicer in person, I was surprised!”

“That’s good.”

“And you’re really buff, you have muscles in places I didn’t even know were possible!” You laughed bashfully at that comment, and avoided looking at him when he stared at you in shock. “I couldn’t help but notice…”

Were you checking him out? Had you been checking him out this whole time and he didn’t even realize? He had seen you eyeing him up when you first met, but were you looking at him like that at other times as well? Now he’d really have to watch your video to see if it was true.

“Thanks, it’s my job.” Could he have said that any lamer? “My job outside of all this, I mean. I’m a trainer at this fancy gym downtown.”

“Oh, I’ve seen some of your videos at your gym! I know which one you’re talking about.”

“You do? You’ve seen my videos?” If he wasn’t surprised before, he was now.

“Yeah, you know I had to do a little research beforehand.” You nodded, beginning to clean up the dishes around you. “And I know you’ve already watched almost all of my videos, so it only seemed fair.”

Did you have to bring that up? Now Sukuna was embarrassed again.

“Y-yeah, I did.” Clearing his throat, Sukuna helped gather the dishes. He took up washing them, another task he could do to get his mind off you. As you took down the camera equipment, he nearly broke several dishes and utensils from scrubbing too hard.

“I’ll call you an Uber.” He said when all was said and done and you were back at the front of the building.

“You don’t have to, it’s okay.”

“No, I want to.” Quickly calling you a ride, Sukuna fiddled with his phone a little more. “Uh, could I- could I-” His voice kept leaving him, and he had to cough a few times. “Can I get your number? I really liked your camera shit and I want to improve mine.” Okay, it wasn’t a total lie. He did like your setup and wanted to make his just as good, but he really wanted your number to potentially talk to you more about things outside of Youtube.

“Sure! Go ahead and type it in.” You were quick to give him your phone, a cute pink phone case on the back of it. Typing it in, he can’t help but notice the little devil emoji you add by his name. He wants to ask, but your ride is already pulling up.

“Bye!” Setting all your camera gear inside the car, you turn and wave goodbye.

“See ya.” Just as you’re about to close the car door, Sukuna gets a burst of confidence. “Text me when you get home, okay?”

“Okay!” And off you go. Sukuna watches the car drive off until he can’t see it anymore. He takes his time getting to his own place, eagerly awaiting your message with every step. But even when you do message him, all he can do is send a thumbs up back and nothing else.

It’s about two and a half days after that that you text him again, letting him know you’re done editing and that you’re going to post the video soon. It wasn’t a very long video to begin with, so the editing was simple enough. Sukuna replied with what appeared to be a lackluster ‘can’t wait’, but on the inside he was shaking. He’d already screenshot all the pictures the two of you took together and added them to a folder.

“Here we go.” As soon as the video went live, Sukuna watched it. He was mortified as soon as it started at the blush so evident on his cheeks, and how it stayed throughout the whole thing. He groaned at the part where he helped you cut up the meat, he almost wishes you’d cut it out. Every little detail that made him embarrassed was there, every little nuance of his actions you’d managed to capture and make it cute.

(Y/N): How do you like it??

You texted him after twenty minutes, eager to hear his thoughts.

(Sukuna): it’s good, good editing and stuff

(Y/N): yay! I’m going to read comments in a few hours, you should too! I bet people will be really shocked!

(Sukuna): yeah no doubt

Oh, he was definitely going to read the comments. Whereas you were going to wait for a fair few to come in before commenting, Sukuna frequently refreshed the page and read the new ones as they came in. You were right, a lot of people were surprised, but he also saw a lot of his fans as well.

‘Ew Sukuna really cooked for that bitch? They can’t do it themselves?’

‘Yeah, why do they have to rely on him? Useless as fuck lol’

‘Sukuna only did this to get laid, (Y/N) looks like an easy fuck’

All of those comments, and many more, made his blood boil. Usually, he wouldn’t care at all about the comments, letting them fester in his comment section and spiral out of control. But for you, it was different.

‘Fuck off and die you pieces of shit. Leave (Y/N) alone or say it to my fucking face’

Sukuna sent that message, along with a variety of other threats, to all the people that insulted you. He didn’t care that this wasn’t his channel and that you would deal with it in whatever way you wanted to. He needed to defend you against the unwanted audience he’d brought you.

Luckily, after seeing Sukunas messages, all of his fans backed off. They knew how serious he was about his threats and there were many rumors that he actually did go and beat people up who said things he didn’t like. No one wanted to be on the receiving end of his torment.

With Sukunas name attached to the video and his heavy presence in the comment section, the video easily went viral. It was easily the most viewed video on your channel, getting on the trending pages of several different platforms.

(Sukuna): hey

It’s nearly a week after the first video that Sukuna messages you, and the hype is still going strong, and your follower count grows greatly from it.

(Y/N): hi! What’s up?

(Sukuna): do you want to film a video for my channel now? We can play a game, I have a few

(Y/N): sure that sounds fun!

Oh how wrong you were. The game Sukuna chose was a scary game, a shooter game with scary zombies and a lot of possible jumpscares. He doesn’t tell you either, so on the night of filming - he insisted on it being nighttime to get the full scary effect - you were caught off guard.

“I don’t know about this.” You whined once you saw the title. The two of you were video calling alongside playing the game together, and Sukuna’s eyes flicked to your figure on the screen.

“It’ll be okay, I’ll carry you, don’t worry.” He had started filming as soon as he’d set up the game, and you were filming yourself as well for him.

“You promise it won’t be too scary?”

“If it’s too scary just close your eyes and I’ll protect you.” Smiling softly at you, he started up the game. The beginning was fine, just a quick introduction to the game, but as soon as things started to get moving, you were scared.

“Sukuna a zombie is eating me!” You screamed, frantically pushing buttons in an attempt to get it off.

“It’s okay!” He quickly got rid of it, and made sure to stay close to your character as the story progressed.

“(Y/N) stay by me, there’s about to be a whole lot of them.”

“Close your eyes there’s about to be a jump scare here.”

“Don’t worry about getting that item, I’ll grab it for you!”

Sukuna nearly forgot he was being filmed, saying sweet things to you to help encourage you and make sure you weren’t overwhelmed. There were many parts where you screamed in fright and Sukuna was there to coo at you and tell you it was okay. He made sure that your character never died, making sure to keep you close until the end of the game.

“Sukuna, that was so hard!” Squishing your cheeks in your hands, you looked at him through your phone.

“It was fun though, wasn’t it? I had fun with you.” Completely abandoning the game, he stared down at his phone with a soft smile on his face.

“Yeah, when there weren’t so many zombies.” You stuck your tongue out at him, and it made him laugh. Leaning his head into his hand, Sukuna grinned when you yawned.

“Aw, are you tired? Better go to sleep soon.” His voice dropped to a lower volume, like you were right next to him.

“I will.” You yawned again and it made Sukuna yawn as well.

“Get off the phone and go to bed, you’re making me tired too.”

“Fine.” Whining out the word, you waved sleepily. “Goodnight Sukuna, I’ll send you the video files in the morning, okay?”

“Night.” Waving back, Sukuna waited until you hung up to turn his stuff off as well.

In the morning, Sukuna was ready to edit. What usually took him a week to edit out of laziness, he took only a day to edit this video with you together. Rewatching the footage, he nearly gagged at seeing how soft his face got when he looked at you, and most of those parts were left in because he couldn’t stand to watch them and fix them.

(Sukuna): videos up

The next day, he messaged you. Once again Sukuna patrolled the comments, swiftly deleting any that said even a hint of a bad thing about you. There was less this time, what with Sukuna adding a warning at the beginning of the video threatening anyone that talked down at you.

This video, like the first, went viral. But for a much different reason. Since Sukuna was emotionally unable to deal with how sappy he was and edit those parts out, everyone got to see how soft he was for you. If the comments weren’t mean, they were screaming about how you and Sukuna must be dating now, because why else would he look at you and talk to you like that?

And much to Sukuna’s dismay, there were also fancam edits of you two together. Any clippable moment of him being sweet on you in the videos you’d made together along with the photos you’d posted on Instagram were edited together and posted on Twitter. You both were tagged in every single one, making sure Sukuna saw all the videos of you and him together. He saved all of them too, delighting in the way you looked with him with all those pretty filters.

By the end of the day, people were trying to put a ship name together for the two of you and he’s seen you repost a few fancams with cute messages of thanks as well. Seeing you receptive to the fans screaming about the two of you made him happy, even if he was still too nervous to text you about anything outside of Youtube.

As more comments came in, people on Twitter were begging him to do a vlog with you. You had quite a few on your channel, going to cafes or filming what your day or week was like. Sukuna had watched them all and was jealous of every single person that appeared alongside you.

(Y/N): hey I’m doing a live on Instagram if you want to join me! I know people really like us together lol it’ll be great for views

(Sukuna): sure

Did you want him to join now? He’d just gotten out of the shower and thrown on a pair of sweats, he wasn’t exactly decent. But he didn’t want to waste time getting ready only for you to end the live.

“Hi Sukuna!” You smiled and waved when he appeared on the screen.

“Hey.” He waved back, not caring about the angle he was holding the camera in. He saw hearts begin to fill up the screen and comments started to fly by, almost all in caps about the fact he was shirtless talking to you.

“Guys, don’t be weird! Who cares that Sukuna is shirtless?” You tried to stop them, but it was clear you were flustered as well. You weren’t looking at him, peeking at him through the screen a few times.

“God you’re all thirsty as fuck.” Sukuna finally looked at himself on the screen. He was shirtless and in bed, hair slightly damp and tousled on his pillow. Reading a few comments, he shot up. “Of course I’m wearing pants, you nasty fuck!” Storming out of bed, he stood in front of the only mirror in his house that wasn’t in the bathroom and turned the camera around. “See, look!”

“Oh.” Gasping softly, you were glad Sukuna didn’t notice you screenshot the live. Clad in only gray sweatpants, Sukuna’s freshly cleaned skin gleamed in the light of his bedroom and every single muscle and edge of his body was on display.

“There, told you I wasn’t fucking naked.” Rolling his eyes, he flopped back down on the bed. None of the comments had gotten any better, all of them talking about how hot he was and how you were so lucky to know him in real life.

“L-let's talk about something else.” You stammered, not showing your face on camera for a few minutes. Sukuna laughed at the comments teasing you for being embarrassed, agreeing with some of them under his breath.

“So, what the fuck are you all doing here?” Sukuna posed the question at the chat, but at you as well.

“Well before you came everyone was talking about you...and you know how everyone has been begging for us to vlog?” You started off slowly, peeking an eye at his face.

“Yeah?”

“I wanted to call you to ask how you felt about that?” How he felt? Why did you want to know?

“You couldn’t have texted me that?” That wasn’t necessarily what he wanted to say, but it made you chuckle, so it was okay.

“No! I wanted to ask so everyone could know!”

“I don’t mind it.” If you wanted to vlog with him, he would do it in a heartbeat.

“So…” Worrying your lip, you looked off camera for a few seconds before looking directly at Sukuna. “Would you like to be in a vlog with me, at a cafe? It’s outside the city, kind of far, but we can rent a car or-”

“Yes.” Sukuna interrupted, nodding his head quickly. “I’ll come. We don’t have to rent a car, I’ll drive.”

“Really?” The comments were just as shocked as you were. Sukuna never filmed anywhere but his home and the gym, this would be a monumental occasion.

“Did you want me to say no?”

“No!” You screamed immediately, nearly dropping your phone. “I just- I wasn’t expecting you to say yes!”

“Well I did.” Sukuna bit his lip, running a hand through his hair and flexing his arm. “So I guess it’s a date, huh?” His normal asshole confidence was back now that you were appearing through a screen and not right next to him. A surprised sound came from the back of your throat, and you nearly dropped the phone again.

“Y-yeah! A date!” It felt good to have you flustered for once and not Sukuna. Laughing heartily at you, Sukuna smirked at the comments.

“Was that all you wanted to ask me or was there something more?”

“No, that was it!”

“Alright.” Licking his lip and letting his tongue hang out of his mouth a little, Sukuna watched you bite your lip as well. “Well I’m gonna go, I got stuff to do, but I’ll text you later (Y/N).” Dropping his voice as he said goodbye, Sukuna left the livestream.

“Holy fuck.” As soon as his phone was off, Sukuna let out a breath he’d been holding in. His heart was pounding hard despite how confident he was in his actions. Flirting was nothing new to him, but with you it felt different and like he’d never done it before in his life.

He watched the rest of your livestream while he finished getting ready for bed, laughing at the comments still teasing you about getting flustered with him. The notifications for Twitter were going off as well, and he knew for sure that there were new fancams for him to check out later.

(Y/N): Sukuna!! You’re so embarrassing!

Texting him after your stream, your cheeks were still burning at the memory.

(Sukuna): hey, you said it would be good for views and it was

(Y/N): I know…

(Y/N): did you really mean it, about coming with me?

(Sukuna): of course. If I didn’t want to I would have said no

(Y/N): that’s good lol!

There was a lull in conversation, and Sukuna nearly fell asleep waiting for you to either text him again or for him to figure out what to say next.

(Y/N): so, a date huh? Are you going to bring me flowers?

Now he was awake. He didn’t expect you to bring that up again, and his eyes flew open. Sukuna’s fingers hovered over the keyboard, mind going blank on what to say.

(Y/N): lol just kidding! I know you only said that for the stream! I’ll text you later about the details, I’m about to knock out

(Y/N): goodnight :)

Well shit. Now he definitely wanted it to be a date.

#jujutsu kaisen #ryomen sukuna #sukuna x reader #jujutsu kaisen fluff #jujutsu kaisen fanfic #jujutsu kaisen imagines #jujutsu kaisen scenarios

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waatermelon-sugaar · 4 years ago

Text

Under My Skin: Chapter 1

Series masterlist

Word count = 4,6 k

Chapter Warnings = swearing, canon-typical violence, bad writing

Summary = You hate Poe Dameron. Simple, right?

Edit = Cross posted to AO3

Part 1 of 4 (I think)

Poe Dameron didn’t like you and you didn’t like Poe Dameron.

“Because!” You grouse to Rose as you make your way to the cantina, “he thinks he’s so much better than everyone else, no one could ever come close to his skills, and he always gets the best missions, and he’s good, but he’s not that good, he acts like he’s god's gift to women - no scratch that - to the galaxy, and he’s so arrogant!” You’re growling in frustration as you round the corner, suddenly lowering your voice as much as you can because Dameron is right there at the end of the corridor, deep in discussion with General Organa and Finn.

Rose’s only response is to whack you over the head as she walks through the swinging doors in the centre of the corridor. You’ve never been so glad you don’t have to walk past Dameron in your life. “What was that about?” You hiss as you catch up with Rose, grabbing your own tray and helping yourself to dinner. “You didn’t have to hit me in front of General Organa.” Rose snorts. “Yeah the General was the one you were worried about.”

Trays full, the two of you spot an empty booth and hurry towards it, sitting opposite each other. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You won’t shut up about Poe.” She jabs her fork at you, causing bits of potato to fall to the table. You can only gape, words escaping you momentarily.

Momentarily.

“What! I won’t - Dameron - he - he and I - urgh! - never in my life - he’s annoying!” You settle on finally, fully aware that you’re now whining. “He frustrates me!”

Rose raises an eyebrow, “Well maybe you need to work out those frustrations.” You shake your head, deciding to ignore her for now as you concentrate on eating. “You do need to get laid.”

You yelp, coughing when you try to swallow too quickly in shock. And then- “I can help with that, sweetheart.” You whip round, eyes narrowing when Dameron’s behind you, his flight suit tied around his waist, exposing his dirty vest and irritatingly strong arms. The only person who can beat him in arm wrestling is Finn - you can no longer count the amount of times he’s beaten you.

You take another scoop of dinner before talking with a full mouth. “Ok, one, I’m not your sweetheart, and two, Rose is wrong, and even if she was right, I definitely don’t need your help with-” you pause, swallow, and gesture vaguely in his general direction. “That.”

This, annoyingly, only seems to make him grin more. “That? You’re not gonna call it what it is?” You lean back, pulling your most unimpressed look onto your face, as he continues, still smirking, even having the audacity to wink at you. “Hot, animal sex.”

Rolling your eyes, you scoff, turning back to your dinner. “Whatever you say, Dameron.”

“Does it make you feel better, being mean to me?” Dameron asks as he squeezes onto the small piece of bench next to you. You huff, moving up so that you’re not touching. You don’t like him, but you’re not rude.

Ignoring his question, you deflect. “Where’s Finn? Don’t you want to sit with him?” It takes more effort than it should to sound like you’re asking out of interest, and not because you want him to go away. Which you do.

“He’s still talking to Leia.” Your eyes flick to Rose, and she knows what you’re thinking. You twist your body to face Dameron, bringing a leg up under you. “Is this about the mission?” Her voice is low as she leans across the table, forgetting about the rest of her dinner.

The last few days have been hell. Rumours have been flying around base, centered around a box full of Jedi crystals. Kyber crystals, you’d told Rose the other day, not that the name cleared anything up. You’d poked around the base’s library on your datapad when you had the odd chance, but the Jedi were now the stuff of legend, just stories told to children about ‘the good old days’.

The rumours made things worse - you’re not sure how much of it to believe - there were so few people who were even Force sensitive but as far as you were aware there were no Jedi left. Luke Skywalker was lost, and therefore probably dead. And even if Jedi did still exist, weren’t they supposed to be the good guys? Why hadn’t they come to help fight along with the Resistance?

But Dameron decides to play dumb. “What mission?” His eyes are too wide to be innocent and it annoys you. “Finn’s talking to Leia about…” he pauses, eyes desperately searching the cantina as he tries to think of a good excuse. “The quality of the food!” Turning to you, his eyes are intense. “I know you want more chocolate pudding.” You ignore how he knows that, instead focusing on glaring at him. “Dameron do you think I’m a good pilot?”

“Look,” he turns to face you, ignoring his own food even as you continue to eat, “it’s nothing to do with your skills as a pilot.” He pauses, but you interrupt before he can give you some empty platitude. “I think it is - otherwise why am I not being included?”

“Hey, will you listen,” he turns to you, poking his finger at you for emphasis. “This mission is top-secret and the risk of the First Order finding out is high so-” This time you properly interrupt, flicking his finger out of your personal space.

“So you just decide to talk about it in the corridor by the busy cantina, where everyone and their mother will see you?”

This shuts him up.

The two of you are looking into each other's faces, inches apart. And it’s annoying because Dameron is unfortunately handsome. Why? Why is he of all people so good looking? Rose coughs obnoxiously loud, causing the two of you to break eye contact and turn to look at her. You lean back from him, trying your best to look thoroughly unimpressed as he stands, picking up his tray and when he speaks, huffing, his voice is sharper than it was before.

“Look, I only came over to say that we’re going to have a mission briefing tomorrow at 6. Ok? So, just-” He leaves, mumbling the rest of the sentence under his breath as he walks across the cantina towards Rey, leaving you with your mouth hanging open, looking and feeling like an idiot.

“Well,” you say as you turn back to Rose. “That’s why I hate him.”

“You’ve got a mission, aren’t you pleased about that?” You can tell you’re annoying her now, but you roll your eyes. “Yeah, with Dameron. He’s just going to be hanging over my shoulder and passing judgement whenever he can. I’m not getting my hopes up.”

Every time you came back from a mission Dameron was there. Always. Just waiting to tell you what you should have done, how you should have flown, how he would have done it. As though the only reason he hadn’t done it was because he was too important.

You knew you didn’t fly how most people did, it had cost you marks in your final exams at school, and it cost you a place in a higher squadron, but it was hard to find the will to change when the poster boy for the Resistance saw nothing but incompetence when he looked at you. Bastard, you couldn’t help but think as you stabbed the last of your greens, wishing it was his face.

***

Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.

The mission had been going so well. You’d dropped into the planet’s upper atmosphere, bypassing the planet’s security, got inside the compound, obtained the uber-secret box (your briefing hadn’t quite covered what was inside, annoyingly) and you’d been about to sneak out when you’d decided a bit more snooping was necessary.

The box had been in the centre of a library/museum set-up and even you could tell that these were rare books. So you’d told Dameron to inspect the objects while you scanned the books, pulling out a few that caught your eye.

The first warning you had been given was a blaster grazing your arm, causing you to yelp in pain, dropping the books and duck to the floor as another shot had ripped through the shelves - an inch or two above where your head had been. So a crap shot then.

Paper had fluttered down around you as you looked for Dameron. The shelves would provide good cover but unfortunately it also meant you couldn’t see your shooter. Pulling your blaster out from its holder, you aimed a couple of returning shots into the darkness at the edges of the room as you looked for Dameron.

You found him near the exit, standing over a number of droids. He’d been holding the box with one arm, the other bleeding heavily, but you’d managed to escape, tangling with another droid who’d punched you as you left the way you came, avoiding the crap shooter on your way out. You didn’t want the First Order to know who’d been there.

So now you and Dameron were walking back to the ship, cutting through undergrowth as you desperately tried to remember the way, face throbbing in pain. Dameron had fallen quiet very quickly, and you were alarmed to see how much blood he had lost so far. His face was pale and all you could think was that it was your fault. If you hadn’t’ve tried to poke around and look for other useful bits and pieces, you would have got out with no trouble.

Oh shit.

You were definitely lost now. You’d taken a gamble on the last turn and this was wrong. There should be a stream somewhere to your left which led back to the ship. Where was it? This was so wrong. And how were you going to admit this to Dameron? “Fuck, fuck, fuck!” You swore under your breath.

“What’s wrong?” Dameron’s voice wasn’t right. He’d lost a lot of his power, and you turned to face him, watching as a small drop of blood fell to the floor. You don’t want to say it, you know he’s going to hold this over your head later, your first truly important mission and you’ve fucked up so bad. “I -” you hesitate, mouth open, so unwilling to say it, especially to Poe, you have to force it out. “We’re lost...I don’t know the way back.”

And...oh god, you’re not going to start crying are you? You can feel the familiar burn on the back of your eyes so you blink, looking away from him. But Dameron starts struggling, using his injured arm to try and reach down, looking for something. You move closer, grabbing his wrist and forcing him to stop moving, to stop aggravating his injury. “What are you doing?” And your voice is mean and you don’t know why but his skin is cool, cooler than it should be causing your heart to skitter out of control.

Dameron looks up into your face and his eyes are a little unfocused. Shit. “Looking for a tracker - the ship -” His voice doesn’t sound normal. But you have to be the calm one, you have to be the one in charge so you push the panic down, trying to speak normally. “Where is it? You shouldn’t be using that arm.”

“In my pocket, I -” But you’re one step ahead, unceremoniously dropping his wrist and reaching in, pulling the tracker out. A thin disc with a central button, which you press, and a red light spins around the edge before settling a direction to your left, forcing you to turn about 45 degrees.

You set off, pushing through the undergrowth and snapping branches from trees, kicking any debris out of Poe’s path as he stumbles behind you. Panic is still rising in you, you can’t be the reason the Resistance’s best pilot dies. Oh fuck, oh fuck, fuckin’ motherfucker, please, please, plea-

You pause for a second, trying to get your breathing back under control, even as it skitters away from you. You glance back at Poe, who nods at you.

BB-8 is waiting back at the ship, preliminary checks before take-off having been completed. You help Poe lift into the co-pilot’s chair you’d been occupying earlier and squeezing into the pilot’s chair. You don’t remember the flight back, don’t remember dodging the planet’s security as you took off, all you remember is how pale and quiet Poe is. He watches you the whole way which would normally annoy you, but you don’t think his eyes are fully focused.

You’ve done better landings when you get back to the base, but you don’t really care, Poe’s breathing is different, you can’t stop the panic rising in you, and the second you’ve opened the door you’re yelling, voice already hoarse. “Medic! Medic! I need - I need a medic!” People swirl around you, when did they get here? But you don’t want to let go of Poe, one arm around his back, his uninjured one around your neck while you keep a tight hold of the box.

You fight as someone tries to unfurl your fingers, Poe’s weight disappearing and you’re crying now, hardly able to open your eyes. You don’t feel the sharp sting of the tranquilizer, instead blindly fighting the rising darkness inside you, unable to recognise it for what it is. Voices are all around you, muffled like you’re underwater and lights are appearing in bright spots above your head. You’re floating, falling backwards, further and further, until everything turns black.

***

The debrief was not fun.

Barely out of the medbay, you’d relayed to General Organa what had happened, how it had been your idea to stay back, how you’d got lost in the forest after, how you made a mess.

Due to your injuries, it had been just you and her, and even now, safely in your bunk, you couldn’t decide if that was better or worse than having to tell a whole command room. Sure, you’d been spared public humiliation, but at the cost of having General Organa’s full attention on your failure.

You’d pulled your curtain across your bunk, and you felt as though you might have to stay buried under your covers for at least a week to emotionally recover from the whole ordeal. The worst part of it was that General Organa hadn’t even seemed disappointed, or angry, just...like she expected it.

And Dameron was still in the medbay. It was coming up to 4 days later, but you’d maintained your distance, not sure your fragile heart could stand the pain of knowing his condition was your fault, no matter what anyone said.

You wanted to see him, to apologise, but at the same time the idea of facing him made you feel sick. It was your fault he was in the medbay, you should have prevented it. In fact, the only reason you even knew he was still in the medbay was because you assumed there would be some kind of announcement or celebration when he was better.

A knock on your door made you jump, and then frown, however the door began to open before you could respond which you supposed was kind of your fault, you should have locked it, now you were going to have to talk to someone-

And General Organa walks into the room.

You stand up so fast, you get a rush of blood to the head, your vision going black slightly at the edges. “General, I-” you start talking before you even know what you’re going to say, so shocked to see your hero in your room. Your eyes flick over to the mess of clothes you haven’t bothered to wash in the last week, tissues on the floor, half eaten snack bars and their wrappers littered around as you wished the room was a lot tidier.

“I wanted to check how you were getting on.” Her voice is soft, but still carries that familiar authority as she pulls out the chair from your desk and sits on it.

Your mind goes blank. General Organa...wanted to check...on you?

You manage to pull yourself together, sitting back down on your bed with a suddenly excellent posture. “Good, thank you General.” You can hardly look at her, it’s like she emits light, and it’s too bright, too much.

You’re hyper-aware of your every movement, this is the first time you’ve properly talked to her, you want her to like you, and oh my god she’s in your room? Her eyes never leave you, so you stare at your hands, fingers twisting in your lap. “Call me Leia.” She pauses, but it’s not enough time for the implications of that to sink in. “It’s understandable if you’re still feeling rough.” Oh stars you’re going to cry.

Your eyes are watery and you know looking down only increases the chances of them falling, but if you look up, she’ll see. “I wish I’d done things differently.” You say, and your voice sounds rough.

The room is swimming when you finally look up, but General Orga - Leia is smiling softly at you. “I think about every second of that mission and for every decision that I made, I wish, I wish I did the opposite thing.”

“Why?” The question is asked so simply, and there are so many answers, they crowd your mind. “You were successful, weren’t you?” Still you can only gape at her. Successful? Dameron is still in the medbay-

“I know what it’s like to blame yourself for a mission going sideways.” Leia continues, “But you retrieved the box, you’re both alive, Poe is healing well, the medics say the bleeding has stopped and his stomach is on the mend now.” His stomach? You frown, his stomach wasn’t injured, it was just his shoulder, but Leia mistakes your frown for further dissent.

“I know you think it was your fault because you said let’s stay behind, but what if you had found something important? And Poe agreed, didn’t he? It’s not just on you. You just have to learn when the risk is worth the reward.” With that, she stands, so you do too. “I’ll formally debrief the two of you together when Poe’s out of the medbay, but I thought you needed to know this.” You nod, unable to speak again, but this time for an entirely different reason.

It’s almost too late before you can speak again, Leia halfway out of the door, but she turns back when she hears your voice. “Thank you.” And you mean it. Leia didn’t say much, and nothing new, but she was right. The mission was technically a success. Things went wrong, but you were both alive.

Sitting back on your bed, you feel lighter, more like normal. And a part of that normality is annoyance towards a certain pilot. He was injured in his stomach? The more you think about it, the more a cold fury rises in you. Why wouldn’t he say? He was carrying that heavy box and - you let out a growl, surprisingly loud in the quiet room.

You make your way to the medbay, becoming angrier and angrier with each step. No wonder he had so much blood loss! How dare he not say anything! How could he not tell you? Did he not trust you?

You ignore the signs that tell you visiting hours are over, and maybe it’s the look in your eyes that stops any medics from reminding you as such when you march up to the front desk. “I need to see Poe Dameron, which room is he in?” You feel a tiny bit bad for being so demanding to an overworked medic, but you can’t think past how Poe Dameron lied to you.

You’re shaking as you walk to Dameron’s room, not bothering with pleasantries as you bang open the door. He’s lying in the bed, BB-8 charging in the corner and had you been calmer you would have noticed how Dameron jerked awake when you slammed his door shut. You ignore how he’s hooked up to various machines and drips, bandages covering his body.

“You were shot in the stomach?” Your voice is mean again.

Dameron just blinks groggily at you, a combination of drugs and tiredness, but you push down any pity, letting righteous anger flood your veins with fire. “What?” His voice is hoarse from misuse and sleep.

“You were shot in the stomach?” You repeat, keeping hold of that cold fury as you look down at his face. This extra minute is all Dameron needs to wake up properly and realise why you’re so upset. “No- just, just stabbed.”

“Just!” - and it’s like you’re watching yourself, no control over your actions and even to your own ears you sound hysterical, the volume of your voice rising.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” You demand as he presses a button, lifting the top half of his bed up. Tears are once again pricking your eyes, but this time you will not be crying, so you wipe them away quickly, past caring.

“Because,” Dameron huffs, realising that's not a full sentence. “I don’t know - you...you had enough on your plate, I didn’t want to add to it.”

“You should have told me.” Your voice is dangerous now, your whole body thrumming with an unshakeable anger, even as you stand completely still. A strong undercurrent continues to carry you onwards in the conversation, and you know you’ll need to leave before it runs out. “You carried that box for fuck knows how long, and what? You were just hiding your injury? You just wanted to be a hero, or embarrass me?”

Dameron stays silent, glare heavy in his eyebrows. It’s too much, you want, you need answers.

“ANSWER ME!” You roar, lashing out in defence.

“I had to!” He’s shouting now too, pushing against the bed with his strong arm. “It was hard enough to snap you out of it when we were in the compound - I wasn’t going to add to it - I had to know you could fly us home!”

His words are like they punched you, a heavy exhalation, and it’s as though all the anger was tightly held in your lungs. “I flew us home.” Your voice sounds small as you take a step back. Dameron’s found the one chink in your armour again, just like he did when you first met, the one weak spot of your insecurity and smashed it to smithereens.

There’s silence in the medbay, pushing against your eardrums as though to emphasise just how the loud the two of you were. There’s a brief flicker of curiosity in the back of mind, wondering why the nurses haven’t intervened yet.

You can’t look at Dameron anymore, instead taking in the number of different machines he’s hooked up to, watching the drips, how his heart rate starts to lower as he forces himself to calm down. “So you didn’t trust me?” You don’t want the answer, but you can’t stop the words.

He takes his time answering again, but you still don’t look at him, hands playing behind your back with the hem of your jumper. “If you don’t trust me - you should have asked Leia to switch me out!” Shut up, shut up, shut up, why can’t you stop talking, you stupid-

“Maybe I should’ve!” His voice doesn’t change, there’s no difference in his heart beat, although it’s on the high side of normal, matching yours, but something changed. There’s a split in the room, a chasm separating the two of you that wasn’t there before.

“Well why didn’t you?”

“Because I felt sorry for you!” Your eyes snap up, looking at his face in terror. “I wanted to give you a chance! I didn’t think you’d fuck up like that.” If Dameron’s earlier words were a punch to your gut, these sent you sprawling. Short of an atomic blast inside you, any feeling left inside you was obliterated. Hot embarrassment crawls up your arms and you want Dameron to feel the same pain.

“Fuck you.”

The words hang there, each second an eon. Poe instantly regrets his words, knowing he’s gone too far. He opens his mouth to apologise, but the words don’t come.

Neither of you say anything, glares still spitting red-hot fire, when you suddenly want to leave. You don’t want to see Dameron’s face again, not for a long time. So you clench your jaw, throwing up your middle finger and slamming the door behind you.

***

Isolating yourself doesn’t seem quite so appealing once you’ve left the medbay, so instead you make your way to Rose’s room, grabbing a bottle of firewater from the cantina as you pass. You need a drink.

When you arrive, you’re not sure you want to talk about the recent shitstorm your life has recently become so the first words out of your mouth when Rose opens the door is- “Do you like Jannah?”

It’s a little mean of a conversation to spring on your friend, but you’re a lot of things, and blind is not one of them. You’ve seen how the two mechanics look at each other. Especially when they think the other won’t see. Holding up the bottle as a peace offering, Rose smirks at you before leaving her door open as an invitation.

Rose denies having a crush on Jannah as you work through the bottle, only conceding on the point that Jannah is very pretty. You’re probably a little too quick to agree, blaming it on the drink that’s currently making you feel like you’re floating a couple of inches above the ground.

Comfortable silence falls on the two of you as you sit there, the floor a little cold under you, leaning against Rose’s bed.

“I’ve been thinking-” Rose starts but you interrupt before she can get any further.

“Dangerous.”

Rose doesn’t dignify this with a response, instead waiting until you wave a hand at her to continue.

“We’ve got a coordinating day off next cycle, if you wanna go to Sanctuary III. They’ll have a festival then, I can’t remember which but it should be good fun.” You can tell she’s keen, so you’ll go with her, but you find it hard to inject any enthusiasm into your voice.

Rose picks up on this, sighing as she refills her glass. “Alright don’t seem too keen on the idea.”

Your shrug, not really wanting to talk about the real reason you can’t find any excitement. “Sorry. I’ll go with you. It’ll be fun.”

“What’s wrong?” Her voice is gentle, and her hand is on your arm, and it’s so reassuring, so warm, your skin sings under her palm.

You talk to your feet as you tell Rose what Dameron said. “-and he - it was horrible, Rose,” you sniffle, tears springing into your eyes again. “And I - we’ve never got on, he’s, y’know, annoying, we’re always bickering, but I just - I never thought that he actually - it’s my fault he’s injured, and maybe he does hate me and-”

You stop your tirade and for the first time, just let yourself cry and breathe for a second. Rose’s arm comes around your shoulder and you lean into it, slightly. “It’s fine - I mean I never liked him anyway, now I can just move straight into the dislike section, maybe even hate I dunno.”

“Ok you should know that that’s not healthy first of all.” Rose’s voice floats out from above your head. “Second, I’m sure he didn’t mean it, and anyway, who cares what he thinks? Leia thought you did well. And third, this is all the more reason to do something on our day off!”

You give a weak chuckle and nod. You spent the rest of the night, playing cards and chatting about lighter topics until both of your eyes start to burn and you make your way to bed.

***

Thanks for reading! Reblogs and comments mean the world to me 🥰🥰🥰

Chapter 2

#poe dameron x reader #poe x reader #...eventually #Star Wars #poe dameron #fanfic #please be nice lol #so nervous I'm grinding my teeth #but I couldn't look at this anymore it was just getting worse by the second #if anyone wants to listen/know about the playlist I made for this let me know #I have a problem with both italics and commas #who knew #I physically feel sick posting this oh god #should be writing my uni essay instead #if I missed any warnings/triggers please let me know

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andmaybegayer · 4 years ago

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Last Monday of the Week: 2021-03-01

First Monday of the Month. My boss just quit at work which means I'm now the only formally trained engineer left who has any particular specialization in embedded systems. This week is going to be a doozy.

I also wrote a Very Long set of media updates because I’ve been consuming some stuff that makes me think a lot. Never a good sign.

Listening: I spent all of Saturday playing Minecraft after talking with some friends about it during the week on IRC. Practicing what I preach with regards to my Large Biome Supermacy policy, which does involve a lot of walking. Hence, I started catching up on The Adventure Zone: Graduation again, I'm like ten episodes behind.

https://maximumfun.org/episodes/adventure-zone/the-adventure-zone-graduation-ep-32-by-a-haircut/

I don't really enjoy Travis' DM'ing style. It's very loose and he has a tendency to let players run wild without much structure which is a tricky thing to handle. He does a lot of worldbuilding and character design but doesn't seem to plan much in the way of arcs. That pays off sometimes (returning to the school to realize they broke a promise they made a few sessions earlier and had to deal with consequences, for example) and when it does, it’s really good, but it's finnicky. I know DM's who can do that, but, well, actually I know One Single DM who can do that well and she's absurdly smart.

Reading: Still on Worm, I just got past chapter 8 or so now. It lives in my phone browser so I've mostly been reading it whenever I get some spare time, which is a good sign. If a book doesn't grab me I need to really settle down in a quiet space to avoid getting distracted, but I can read Worm while someone else is on the phone in the same room.

It is a story with a lot of very well-conveyed feelings and events. It's very easy to imagine yourself in it. Characters actually act like they care about what they're doing, I feel like writing this took a lot of care to keep everyone on model.

There's also a certain care given to the superpowers that you'd usually only see in forum posts arguing about an actual superhero story. Everyone always likes to argue about how far you can push a superpower: can you use teleporting to fly? What prevents a speedster from catching fire in the air? Where does the energy for a pyrokinetic ability come from? Worm takes these and runs with them as a way to make absolutely any fight become a series of gambits relying on whether a power can or cannot be used to perform some high-stakes trick.

The world certainly has some underpinning contrivances to explain why no one gets killed very often but I've always considered nitpicking the base contrivances of a setting silly, because that's precisely what they are: contrived, in order to allow the rest of the story to flow from there. Like arguing about Omega’s abilities in the famous thought experi-*I am dragged off stage by the ratblr police for making a by now extremely stale joke*

Watching: I came and edited this section in like an hour before this posts because I keep on forgetting to put it in. I don’t really like watching TV and with my parents stuck at home in Pandemic Times it’s how they pass the time.

I did finish S3 of the Good Place. It’s very funny. I’m glad I’m watching it and I’m going to have to go find S4 because ZA Netflix doesn’t have it for whatever reason. It feels a little like it was written by Phillip Pullman if Phillip Pullman was a comedy TV writer.

I also really enjoyed the PBS Spacetime video about how time causes gravity. Love when an explanation of concepts is good enough that you drawn the conclusion on your own.

youtube

Playing: Visual Novel Hell plus Minecraft.

I spent approximately seven hours in Minecraft over two days. I tend to hop in and out of games for 1-2 hours at a time but there's a handful that can suck me in for an entire day. Minecraft, Warframe, Horizon Zero Dawn, Night in the Woods. Bastion, to a lesser extent. I end up avoiding them because I don't like loosing entire days, but I wasn't really planning on doing anything this weekend anyways.

Minecraft was mostly a long-ass trek to find a saddle, because as previously mentioned, I enjoy playing it with Large Biomes for the sense of scale.

I also completed Act 3 of Psycholonials and Eliza.

Psycholonials is odd. It is doing the thing that Hussie does where it dances around what's ostensibly the story to carry out the actual story. You get used to the trope after your first encounter but it still makes you wonder when the other shoe will drop, and of course, there's no reason it ever has to. The story may remain in suspended animation behind the every growing mess of narrative red tape tying the B-plot together.

Stories about Social Media have no well established norms. I think I might pick up Feed by M. T. Anderson and also perhaps Hank Green's books sometime. See what context they set that in.

Eliza is frustrating to me. It's a game for programmers, by programmers, about programmers. I'm friends with a lot of Capital P Programmers, the types who go to university and get sniped for developer positions at Seattle or Silicon Valley tech companies and who make great and terrible things and then warn you about the deep problems that underpin the slowly rolling ball of venture capital and bloated technology that is the tech industry. But at the same time, it makes me feel like I've burnt out on that conceptually before I even went in. It’s a whole other world that I’m familiar with but very distant from. In fact, that’s kinda how I feel about Psycholonials too. I’m familiar with the social media rat race but I also don’t go there. Parallels!

My cousins (who are halfway to Capital P Programmers, only so much you can do halfway around the world from silicon valley) warned me not to go into CS, because it would bore me, and that's a non-trivial part of why I'm in Engineering. They gave the same advice about Biology and Physics, without that I may have ended up in Microbiology. it’s not my domain, but because of how Engineering is going, you end up a lot closer to programmers than you think. I found out the other day that most of the software developers on my team have no formal tertiary qualifications, which is accepted in CS but of course, right out when it comes to engineering. It’s a whole other world that I kinda expected to skip around. I might go into this another time, since this post is already getting long.

Making: I haven’t done any engineering scicomm posts on here in a while so I started a few blank drafts and finally got one off the ground. With some luck I’ll have that ready this week. What’s it about? Not saying! It might change!

I’ve been doing layout for a custom keyboard, I need to call a laser cutting place and find out what their kerf requirements are so I can adjust the path accordingly. Wouldn’t do to burn a couple hundred rand on an oversized part, I’m paying for this, not my employer like the other times I’ve done laser cutting, so I’m probably not going to spring for getting one of their designers to check my design. At some point I should CAD up a chassis, but at the same time I might just buy some wood and go ham with a router once I get the plates cut.

Computers Slot: I got WeeChat set up properly on my desktop, which technically was just a matter of getting my SSH keys moved over. It’s taking me forever to move in to Cinnabar, in part because Stibnite lost her boot partition and I haven’t bothered to fix it.

So here’s a pitch for WeeChat as a good quality Terminal UI IRC Client. Many of my closest friends live there and it has a good set of tools to help me keep in touch.

WeeChat is very configurable but with perfectly sane defaults, I didn’t configure it for years. The UI is smarter and less arcane than something like irssi, and if you enable mouse support it can be downright modern. Running it remotely like this limits some features but as long as you don’t mind jumping through a few hoops to do filesharing, IRC is really great like this.

One of the big ones is the ability to do that double-pane thing, I can keep an eye on two channels at once (really as many as I can cram on my screen, but usually two) which is great when you want to browse channels while talking in your home channel.

It also has a good array of remote access tools, from what I’m running up there, just weechat running on my server inside tmux connected over mosh for low-latency SSH, to weechat-relay, a relay protocol built in to weechat. At the moment relay only supports android phones and the glowingbear web client, but I’ve never really looked around since both of those cover all my needs. Easily one of the best ways to get IRC on a modern mobile device, barring maybe IRCCloud.

#last monday of the week #galena

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alonely-dreamer · 5 years ago

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Dangerous Creatures | Chapter 21: Burned Creatures

Summary: Mackenzie Alemaund is an unlucky 18 year old teenager whose life changes drastically after she gets kidnapped by two vampires and learns, in the same day, that she is not human.

Pairing: Elijah x OC

Words: 4782

A/N: Please, note that I am French so there might be some mistakes here and there, besides I couldn’t have it edited! I hope you’ll like it!

Masterlist

New Series: The Valuable Sun

Mackenzie had been sitting against the grey cold wall of the storage room for hours. She had been there all night, ever since Stefan had left the house and Elena had gone to bed. She first wanted to warn Elijah but thought better of it when she remembered Esther would be there. She had to wait until morning, or it would raise suspicions. So, instead, she went to the storage room where she had left her car and her mother’s chest before leaving Mystic Falls with Katherine six months ago. She was going through grimoires and old journals, trying to find something, anything that could help her and Elijah stop Esther. She was reading about phoenixes when sunlight appeared from beneath the door.

She wondered if Elena would notice she was gone. She had packed up her things and left nothing behind. She hadn’t thought twice about it. She was done. Elena was a lying hypocrite and she couldn’t bear living in her house, under the same roof as her. She’d have succumbed to the fire and burn it all down.

The fire inside of her hadn’t disappeared or calmed down. On the contrary, it seemed Mackenzie had tamed it. It was animating her, motivating her. She knew what she wanted to do and she would stop at nothing to do it. She had just gotten Elijah back and she wasn’t going to lose him again. She was one of the most powerful creatures on this planet and it was time she started acting like it.

She didn’t even bother to call before showing up at the house. Her bags and her mother’s chest in the trunk of her car. She was relieved to sense that Esther was away. From what she could tell, only three Originals were inside, and she hoped Elijah was one of them.

She hesitated, unsure on how to proceed. How would she even tell any of them that their mother were plotting to kill them all?

She knocked once, then twice and was surprised to receive no answer. It’s not like they couldn’t hear her, they were vampires after all, they could hear anything. Deciding that a door wouldn’t stop her, she entered uninvited and started to look for Elijah in the labyrinth that was the house.

She jumped, startled, as he appeared out of nowhere right in front of her. They were in a hallway, Mackenzie wasn’t sure exactly where. This house was enormous.

“What are you doing here?” he asked with a worried look on his face.

“We need to talk,” she told him, the look on her face and her tone making it clear it was extremely important.

“What is it?”

She hesitated. “Maybe you should sit…” she said, bringing a hand to his arm but he quickly took it in his and stepped forward.

“What is it?”

She sighed, then looked around. “Where is your mother?”

“I don’t know. Mackenzie, tell me.”

“It’s…” she paused. He already knew something was up. He knew Elena had lied last night so what she was about to tell him wouldn’t be a complete surprise, but still… It wouldn’t be pleasant to hear. “I overheard Elena and Stefan last night. She said your mother… she said she wanted to kill you all, she said… she said she signed your death sentences.”

The look on his face confirmed the information didn’t surprise him, but it still hurt deeply. Of course it did.

“What else?”

“Nothing else. It’s all they said, I don’t know any more than that.”

“I think Finn is working with her,” he admitted, he probably had started investigating on his own. “He hates what we are, he always has.”

“Elijah, I’m so sorry.”

“There’s no time for that,” he blinked the tears away, but not fast enough that Mackenzie didn’t see it, “I think now would be the right time to ask Ms. Gilbert exactly what she knows. Do you wish to stay behind?” he asked, knowing this was about to get ugly.

“No,” she said immediately, she didn’t need to think about it. She had readied herself for this. “I said I’d help you, and I will. Tell me what I have to do.”

***

Convincing Elena to come with them had been easy. Mackenzie tried her best to stay calm and appear friendly as the doppelganger smiled at Elijah like she hadn’t signed his death sentence just the night before. She hadn’t even noticed that Mackenzie had moved out. Maybe it was for the best as that would make her ask questions, but she couldn’t help but think that Elena didn’t really care.

Elijah drove them to the woods, explaining he was taking them to a place where he used to go when he was human.

“I forgot how much I missed this land,” he told them as he got out of the car.

“I can’t even imagine what it must have been like a thousand years ago,” Elena replied.

“You know your school was built over an Indian village? Where I saw my first werewolf. The town square was where the natives would gather to worship. Matter of fact, near that there was a field where wild horses used to graze,” he said as he led them further inside the woods. He stopped in front of a series of large rocks and smiled as he approached them.

“Do you know this place too?”

“I do. Below us is a cavern I used to play in as a boy. It connects to a system of tunnels that stretch across the entire area. Nature’s way of providing us with shelter against the savagery of the full moon. My mother said there must be a balance.”

Elena looked down, tucked her hair behind her ear and started to shift from one foot to the other. Mackenzie could see she was becoming uncomfortable. It all probably pricked her conscience.

“Elijah, I should probably go…”

“I admire you, Elena. You remind me of qualities I valued long before my mother turned us. It’s not in your nature to be deceitful and yet when I asked you about your meeting with my mother… you lied to my face.”

Elena opened her mouth but no sound came out of it. Mackenzie wondered what lies she was going to say to get out of this one.

“It’s not true. I told you that all your mother wanted was a new start…”

“Collateral damage,” Mackenzie cut her off, and the doppelganger gave her a distressed look, which didn’t faze her. “I think that’s what you called him. Klaus will die and Elijah is just… collateral damage, is what you said.” Elena’s scared eyes moved from Elijah to Mackenzie, understanding that she was in trouble and that she had no friends around to help her. “Tell the truth, for once.”

“I never wanted this to happen,” she breathed out with an apologetic look on her face.

“What, Elena?” Elijah said firmly as he stepped towards her.

Her eyes found Mackenzie once again but understood from the look on her face that she wouldn’t help her. The elemental was burning with calm rage, the fire like warms running up and down her veins.

“We were told that whatever was gonna be in that coffin was gonna kill Klaus. When we found out that it was your mother, we didn’t know what to think.”

“I am tired of listening to your excuses, Elena,” Mackenzie said. She hadn’t listened to them after she had stabbed Rebekah, she wasn’t going to listen to them now. “Tell us what we want to know.”

Elena swallowed. “When she asked to see me… I… I thought that maybe she could help. That she would find a way to kill Klaus, but it’s not just Klaus she wants to kill.”

“We know that,” Mackenzie interrupted her.

“I’m so sorry, I wish there was something I could do to help.”

Mackenzie scoffed. She remembered the plan and what Elijah had told her about the ground, that it would be easily dissolved into nothing. She fisted a hand, her powers gathering inside her fist, before she let go. The ground before them crumbled before it disappeared, falling into the caves below. Elena gasped as she took a few steps back, then looked up at Mackenzie with wild eyes.

“Be careful what you wish for.”

***

Stepping inside the Salvatores’ house with the intention of threatening them both didn’t scare Mackenzie one bit. Of course, Elijah’s presence was reassuring, but she could defend herself now. She wasn’t the same person she had been seven months ago, when Damon had trapped her against the wall of his dining room, and she had been unable to defend herself. Now, he would be the one at her mercy, if it came to it.

Damon was there, but he hadn’t heard them come in. He was on the phone with whom Mackenzie guessed was Alaric from the sound of it. Elijah sat on the armchair near the fireplace, waiting for the eldest Salvatore to notice their presence. Mackenzie stared at the fire behind him. It burned there like it burned inside of her. It was controlled now, but what would happen if control was lost? If it started to spread?

“What are you doing here?”

She turned when she heard Damon growl from behind her. She slowly took a step towards where Elijah was sitting, resting her arm against the top of the chair.

“It appears we have a problem,” Elijah replied with a calm voice. “Where is your brother?”

“I don’t know.”

“Maybe we should wait for him, then. After all, I’m sure he’d want to know what has to be done for Elena to survive this day.”

Damon opened his mouth then closed it. He frowned as he looked up at Mackenzie.

“What are you doing?” he asked her.

She tilted her head. Wasn’t it obvious? “I’m helping my friends survive this day.”

The vampire grimaced. He was about to say something back when the front door opened, and Stefan appeared behind him. “I can’t find Elena,” he said before he saw the Original and the elemental in his living room.

“They have Elena,” his brother informed him.

“Actually, she’s with Rebekah,” Elijah corrected. “As you can imagine, my sister is just dying to tear her throat out,” he said with an amused tone. Mackenzie didn’t find it amusing, she was too angry for that. But when Stefan looked up at her, she raised an eyebrow, making it clear what side she was on. And it wasn’t Elena’s. “So, if you want to save Elena’s life, I need you to help me stop my mother.”

“I’m a little embarrassed to admit, but when it comes to killing thousand-year-old resurrected witches, I’m a little rusty,” Damon said.

“Yes, unfortunately, even when killed my mother doesn’t seem to want to stay dead. Not with the spirits of nature at her side.”

“So what are we supposed to do?” Stefan asked.

“The witches that released my mother,” Elijah said. “She’s drawing her power from their bloodline. That line needs to be broken.”

“Broken?” Stefan frowned. “You want us to kill them?”

“No,” Mackenzie said. “A dead witch is still a witch.” She knew that all too well, after all, dead witches had tried to kill her not so long ago.

“For the line to be broken, we need one of them to stop being a witch,” Elijah explained. “You know, I’d do it myself, but I have absolutely no idea where they are. Besides, seeing me, they’d immediately know my intent. They won’t expect to be harmed by the likes of you.”

“Wait,” Stefan said. “Who are the witches?”

“My mother is drawing power from the Bennett line.”

“You want us to turn Bonnie into a vampire?” Stefan asked, giving Mackenzie a baffled look.

“I don’t care who you turn,” she replied, finding herself unable to sympathize with a witch, even with Bonnie, especially if she was helping Esther kill Elijah.

“What’s wrong with you? Bonnie is your friend!”

“She would be if she weren’t trying to kill my other friends,” she snarled.

“In any case,” Elijah said as he stood up, “you have until six minutes after 9.”

“Oh, how super-specific of you,” Damon frowned.

“By 9:07 the moon will be full and my mother will have the power she needs to kill me and my family. If you do not stop her before then, Rebekah will kill Elena. So we all have our timeline. I suggest you get started.”

Mackenzie followed Elijah out of the house in silence. What she hadn’t told them is that if they failed to stop Ester, she’d kill them all herself.

***

It was getting late and Stefan and Damon still hadn’t found Bonnie and her mother. Mackenzie had tried a few times to do a locator spell, but it seemed that Esther had managed to find a way to keep herself hidden. As the hour grew late, the fire inside of her grew stronger. Her anger towards them all wasn’t going away and she doubted she’d ever forgive them, even if Elijah survived.

The Original could see something was wrong with Mackenzie. She was quiet and cold. He knew she worried about him. And even though he had agreed for her to come and help, he couldn’t help but worry about her. He had dragged her into a world where she had to do terrible things for him and for herself. Kidnapping Elena and threatening her life was possibly the worst thing she had ever been a part of, and it was all his fault.

How selfish he was.

He knew his brothers were at the Grill and he parked his car near the restaurant in silence. They hadn’t said a word since they had left the Salvatores.

“I’m sorry about all of this,” he said after they exited the car.

Mackenzie looked up at him and frowned. “People are trying to kill you,” she said. “What do you have to be sorry about?”

“I’m sorry I dragged you into it.”

She didn’t reply. She stopped, took his hand on hers before looking up at him. “I’m not. I’m happy to help. I don’t want to lose you again.”

He gave her a small smile. He brought a hand to her face, tucked a lock of hair behind her ear before stroking her cheek with his thumb.

“You’re too good for me.”

She chuckled as she looked down, trying to hide her reddening cheeks. But he slid a finger under her chin and made her look up at him. She forced herself to fight her shyness and look him in the eyes.

“I believe we were interrupted last night.”

She swallowed. “Yes, we were,” she whispered.

Like he had the previous night, he leaned forward, his nose brushing against hers, his breath caressing her face, his lips so close to hers.

But like the previous night, he stopped.

She looked up as she heard him gasp in pain and saw his skin turning grey, as if he had just been daggered.

“Elijah!”

He collapsed to the ground and took her down with him. Mackenzie started to panic, wondering if they were too late, if Esther had started the ritual early, before the full moon had reach its highest point. She took his face in her shaking hands, trying to bring him back like she had that one time after Alaric had stabbed him in the back. But as she sent her magic his way, it faced a wall, as if the door was closed and no magic could bring him back.

“No,” she cried, “no, please, no.”

She felt like her heart had stopped with his. Tears fell down her cheeks as she feared the reason why her magic wouldn’t help was because he was dead. Not daggered dead, but dead dead, with no coming back. She couldn’t bear to look at him, at his desiccated body, his closed eyes, his immobile chest. She felt like she had failed him again. She had been right there, but she couldn’t do anything. She couldn’t stop it.

She cried and begged for what seemed like an eternity. But after a couple of minutes, the door opened suddenly, and her magic reached the original vampire. She gasped as she felt their magic blend, becoming one. And when his heart started beating again, so did hers.

He gasped his way back to life, pain leaving his body as colors returned to it. He barely got the time to sit up that Mackenzie’s arms were around his neck. He was panting and still confused but hugged her back as he heard her cry.

“What happened?”

“I don’t know. You… you were dead,” she said, letting go of him, before she wiped the tears off her cheeks.

“I feel like I was just daggered,” he told her as he got up.

“You’re linked to your siblings, maybe one of them was.”

“The Salvatores are trying to find a loophole, no doubt.”

“It has to be Kol, nobody knows where Rebekah is.”

“Come on.”

They hurried to the Grill where they found Klaus fighting Damon and Stefan in the dark alley behind the restaurant. Kol was still unconscious on the ground. Elijah and Mackenzie arrived just in time to stop Klaus from killing Damon.

“Leave him,” Elijah told him from the top of the stairs. Klaus slowly turned around, obviously extremely unhappy. “We still need him, Niklaus.”

“What did mother do?” he asked, having heard from Damon that he was working with Esther. “What did she do, Elijah?” he asked again as he received no answer.

“You tell me where the witches are or I’ll have my sister kill Elena right now,” Elijah said as he walked down the stairs.

Damon looked up at the town’s clock which indicated 8:30. “You told me we had until after 9!”

“I’m sure Rebekah would be more than happy to start her work early.”

“Mackenzie,” Stefan said as he stood up. “Don’t do this.”

She frowned, wondering why he was asking her for anything. She tilted her head, contemplating her options. Seeing Elijah die again had made her fire burn hotter, stronger. She wasn’t thinking clearly, she wasn’t herself, but she was too furious to even notice. They had daggered Kol, they had hurt Elijah and Rebekah, they were trying to buy themselves enough time for Esther to kill her children. They weren’t listening. They weren’t helping. So she thought if Damon wouldn’t do it for Elena, maybe he’ll do it for his brother.

As soon as Stefan was back up on his feet, he fell back to his knees, screaming in pain.

“What are you doing?” Damon asked, panicked and confused.

She looked down at him from atop the stairs where she was still standing. “Motivating you,” she shrugged. “Answer the question.”

She ignored Klaus’ impressed look on his face, the smile and the nod of approval he sent her way. She didn’t see Elijah’s concerned frown.

“They’re at the witches’ house,” Damon growled.

Stefan stopped screaming.

“Then what are we waiting for?” Klaus said.

“Go, end the Bennett line,” Elijah told the two brothers. “We will stop our mother.”

Damon and Stefan looked at each other before they disappeared. Mackenzie walked down the stairs, crouched near Kol and placed her hand on his chest.

“What is she doing?” Klaus asked.

“Just watch, brother.”

Kol gasped his way back to life, like his brother had done a few minutes ago. He was as confused as Elijah had been.

“How did you do that?” Klaus asked but Mackenzie only shrugged.

She was getting used to the fire in her veins, the burning that had been driving her all day and that was only getting worse. She didn’t realize how much it was changing her. But Elijah saw it, even though he didn’t understand it.

“Go back to the house,” Elijah told her.

“What?”

“It’s too dangerous for you to come with us. The Salvatores will stop the Bennett line and my mother will be stopped,” he explained as he approached her. He took her concerned face in his hands. “We will be fine. I don’t want you to see this.”

“But…”

“Go,” he cut her off. “Now.”

He handed his car keys to her. She looked at them for a moment before she took them with a sigh.

“Be careful.”

“We will be,” he nodded.

He kissed her forehead before he disappeared with his brothers.

***

Kol never came back. An hour after Mackenzie had arrived at the Mikaelson house, Klaus and Elijah had returned unharmed but without their little brother. The hybrid didn’t even acknowledge the elemental’s presence as he walked pass her in the hall where she had been waiting. Elijah was standing in the doorway, waiting for her to follow him outside. There was pain, grief and shame on his face.

“What happened?” she asked once they stood in the driveway.

“Abby Bennett is no longer a witch. My mother and Finn fled. So did Kol.”

“Are you okay?” she asked, concerned by the cold tone of his voice. She stepped towards him, but he stepped away. Whatever her mother had said, it had hurt him deeply.

“Today, I did things I abhor to protect my family. I threatened an innocent girl and had someone turn into a vampire to save us.”

“Elena’s far from innocent.”

“No, she’s not. She was looking out for herself, because we do deserve to die, Mackenzie!” he said with a loud voice that made her jump. “For everything that we did to her. And everything that we did to you.”

Mackenzie shook her head, confused. “What, you… you haven’t done anything…”

“I put you in danger the second I asked you for your help. Then and now. And I’ve seen you change. Today… I didn’t recognize you. When you hurt Stefan I…”

She tried to swallow the lump in her throat. She wasn’t proud of that, but she didn’t regret it either. He had it coming. He had daggered Kol. He had planned their deaths. He was the enemy.

“This is not who you are, Mackenzie. This is who I made you. You should not have to put yourself at risk for me of for my family and you should not have to threaten or hurt anyone for us,” he paused. She couldn’t stop the tears in her eyes or the pain inside her chest. “I don’t want you to become like us. Because my mother is right. We’re monsters. And you… you’re better than that. You are good and gentle and compassionate. And I can’t be responsible for taking that away from you.”

“Elijah, I…”

“My mother made us vampires. But she didn’t make us monsters. We did that to ourselves. You’re better off without us, Mackenzie. You’re better off without me,” he said, taking her face in his hands and wiping the tears away from her face.

“Elijah,” she cried, as she understood what he was saying. “I don’t have anyone else.”

He gave her a sad smile before he kissed her forehead. “You will be fine,” he whispered. “Goodbye, Mackenzie.”

She didn’t get the time to say anything, to stop him, because he was already gone. She gasped like she had just received a blow to the chest. She tried to wipe the tears away from her cheeks before she realized they weren’t tears. It was raining.

She didn’t know how long she stood there, alone, in the cold rain, crying all the tears in her body. She didn’t know if she should blame Elena, or herself, or Esther. She didn’t know if she should blame anyone. It wasn’t fair, she thought. He hadn’t changed her, not in the way he thought. He hadn’t done this to her. She was who is she was, and she had no regret. And she would have told him that if he had given her the chance.

“I told you she could make it rain,” an unfamiliar male voice said from somewhere Mackenzie couldn’t identify.

She jumped, startled. She looked around but couldn’t see anyone, though now that she focused, she could tell there was a witch close and someone else, something else she didn’t recognize.

“Of course she can make it rain,” a female voice replied. “She controls water.”

They both had odd accents Mackenzie couldn’t place. The man sounded British or Australian maybe. The woman had what Mackenzie could only guess was a French accent. Hearing them talk, knowing one of them was a witch, she started to worry. Were they witches coming to kill her? How did they know she could control water? And how did they know she was making it rain? She didn’t even know that herself.

“Where are you?”

She heard the man laugh. It wasn’t a scary laugh or a threatening laugh. It was almost a childish-like. He appeared suddenly, a few feet before Mackenzie, who jumped again, startled by the sudden apparition.

He was a tall, handsome man with a big bright smile on his face. He was wearing odd clothes that looked like they were from the 19th century. A brown suit and a beige shirt. He couldn’t have been older than thirty. The woman appeared next to him, seemingly coming out of nowhere. She probably was one of the most beautiful women Mackenzie had ever seen. She was in her late twenties maybe early thirties. Her clothes were as strange as her companion’s. It was a long bordeaux dress, with a corset. She was wearing a necklace of pearls with the letter B hanging from it. They looked like they belonged to another century.

“You know,” the woman said. “If Aella knew you were crying after an Original, she’d roll over in her grave.”

Mackenzie frowned at the mention of her mother. “Who are you?”

The man chuckled. “Sorry, sorry,” he quickly said. “How rude of us. Of course you don’t remember, you were just a baby when we last saw you.”

Her eyes grew big as she realized who they were, as she recognized them from her mother’s stories. “Oh my God,” she breathed out. “You’re…”

“Alexander Davidson,” he said with a low and elegant bow. “At your service.”

“I’m Heidi Beauregard,” the witch introduced herself, not bothering with a courtesy, which Mackenzie wouldn’t complain about. “We’ve been watching you, Mackenzie.”

“What?”

“When the spell we cast on you was broken, we felt it immediately,” Alexander explained. “We thought you were dead.”

“A simple locator spell led us here. To our surprise, you were living with Elijah Mikaelson.”

Alexander laughed again. They were the exact opposite of each other. Heidi kept her face strict and serious while he couldn’t stop smiling and joking.

“We didn’t dare intervene,” he said.

“We were curious to know if you could fend for yourself.”

“When you ended up in the big bad wolf’s claws, we thought we’d come to the rescue.”

“But then you ended up leaving town with Katerina Petrova, of all people,” Heidi said, like she disapproved.

“But at least she helped you practice your magic.”

“But you are still grossly untrained.”

“So we thought, now that you’re alone, maybe you could use some company.”

“And some lessons. Especially now that you’re letting your fire consume you.”

Mackenzie stared in silence. The cold rain made her shiver. She didn’t know if she was happy to see them. Of course, she was happy to meet them, and her mother had said they were friends and allies, they were her godparents after all. But meeting them in person was something Mackenzie hadn’t expected. Something she wasn’t ready for. Especially not now and not there. She didn’t know what to think about them spying on her, though she supposed it was reassuring, in a way. At least, they cared about her. They had kept their promises to her mother. And they were still keeping it, nineteen years later.

“So?” Heidi asked, sounding impatient. “Are you coming?”

“We’re a lot of fun, I promise,” Alexander winked as he held out a hand to her.

Maybe it was crazy to even consider it. But as she looked at his hand, she remembered everything her mother had told her about him, about them. About what they did for her, for them both, even before she was born.

And Heidi was right. She was untrained. She had all this power and no idea how to use it.

And she was alone. Again. She didn’t like being alone.

She looked up at her, then at him, before she took his hand.

*****

**********

Thank you for reading! I hope you liked it!

Chapter 22 is available for early access on my Patreon page! You can find me at patreon.com/alonelydreamer ! Any support is highly appreciated!!

If you can’t, that’s okay! Chapter 22 will be posted next Wednesday!

Have a good week!

Tags: @thepoet1975 @nerdysandwichqueen @catchmeupimgettingoutofhere @raegan-hale @captainam-erika-trash @silver424 @monetfatalia @vaniileiinkeks @valeria-winchester @favimag @colie87 @hamiltonmadesomemistakes @s0nh4dorasblog @poemfreak306 @white-chocolate-mocha-fan @thegingerthatwaited @therealwatermelon @dark-night-sky-99@aubri1313 @jardinsecos @gymnastgal1997-blog @thearaviagrace77blog @caelst13 @casedoina

#the vampire diaries #vampire diaries #tvd #the originals #elijah mikaelson #elena gilbert #klaus mikaelson #Kol mikaelson #rebekah x reader #damon salvatore #Stefan Salvatore #oc #fanfiction #fanfic

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tenchiforum · 6 years ago

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For the first time ever, the Toonami versions of OVA1/2, Universe, and Tokyo are available online! On their respective archive.org pages you can access each episode easily.

Watch now: OVA1/2, Tenchi Universe, Tenchi in Tokyo.

For users who keep up with contemporary anime communities, we also have an upload for the entire run available on Nyaa.

It’s been quite a journey in getting these episodes from analog to digital. If you’re interested in reading about the process of how these almost lost-to-time edits came into our hands and how we’ve gone about preserving them before the tapes rot, then sit back and enjoy the story below!

Part 1: Toonami – A Love Story.

Tenchi Muyo! and Toonami are tied together like the red thread of fate often times referenced in many East Asian myths. For those who aren’t aware, Toonami was a programming block on the Cartoon Network channel. Starting in 1997, it did one thing for anime that no other channel in the English-speaking world had ever done: showcased anime during “PrimeTime” (In North America at least, this was 4pm to 7pm Eastern Standard time). Before the internet, having this block of time meant having the most eyes on your product, meaning exposure was huge. Oftentimes whoever got on this block, regardless of the channel, was “made.”

However, it wouldn’t be until mid 1999, with a soft-rebranding, a new host, and an almost entirely anime-focused block, that Toonami would take over the world.

And on July 3rd, 2000, an entire generation was introduced to Tenchi Muyo! for the first time.

youtube

- The now legendary two minute Toonami promo.

Thanks to the efforts of Jason DeMarco, Sean Akins, Gill Austin, Sean Polinski, and the rest of the Toonami crew, the “Toonami generation,” still to this day, is the largest block of Tenchi Muyo! fans. Whether it was Toonami US, UK, or Australia. Tenchiforum is a testament to this fact. I personally would not be here were it not for Toonami, so to say that fans of Tenchi Muyo! hold Toonami in a high regard is an understatement.

I had always wanted to somehow, some way, get the Toonami version of Tenchi up for everyone to see again, but my old Toonami VHS recordings were long gone, and I figured trying to piece together the Toonami version from other people’s tapes would just be too hard with how many episodes were broadcast, that was until… 2012

In mid-to-late 2012, I found out that Pioneer actually released a home video version of what was shown on Toonami. It was simply released as “Tenchi Muyo!” in those big, white, clam shell VHS cases (that most people probably remember for old Disney movies). I felt as though I had struck gold! I was able to get a hold of the first two OVA, and was able to rip them to my computer.

- Vol. 1 & Vol. 5 of “Tenchi Muyo!” – No distinction was made that they were separate series.

Though I was high on my endorphin-induced nostalgia, I ran into a couple of unforeseen problems.

First and foremost, the equipment I was using was not great. I used an old StarTech composite to USB dongle and the software that came with it. While this isn’t necessarily bad at first glance (it doesn’t support Windows 10), I had no experience whatsoever in the field of digital transfer. While I think my rips were okay for the time, I knew even then that they were too low of bit-rate and the quality of the rips suffered for it.

Because I also had no VCR at the time that had S-Video output, I was only able to output from composite, which meant the whopping 240p equivalent VHS tapes look fuzzier than they probably should. (I realize that VHS is technically an analog format, meaning that a 1:1 equivalent digital representation is hard to pin down or that someone might argue that it did technically output 480i over composite, but basically it was 240p.)

Another problem was the software itself, I had no idea about Virtualdub, AmaRecTV, or other helpful capture software, so I only recorded at a lower bit-rate, again producing an inferior quality rip.

I also ran into the problem of showcasing the videos. Funimation (who now owns the vast majority of the Tenchi Muyo! franchise in North America) had finally started really cracking down on people uploading videos to Youtube. Even though my videos were not completely the same, the algorithm immediately flagged and blocked them. This led me to uploading the videos to Facebook. I had to cut them in half because of Facebook’s restriction to roughly only 12 minutes of video. Somehow in the process, some of the videos had audio drop out for a minute or two, and for some the audio dropped out completely.

Arguably the biggest blow though, was when I learned that this set of Toonami tapes was incomplete. Pioneer stopped producing the Toonami version for home video after they finished releasing Universe. Meaning, the only way to get the Toonami version of Tenchi in Tokyo, was hope that someone, somewhere, had taped it 11 years earlier.

While Tenchi in Tokyo has been getting more appreciation from fans as of late – thanks in part to most newer entries in the Tenchi OVA sucking harder than a vacuum – in the year 2000, it was the black sheep of the Tenchi Muyo! franchise. So expecting fans to have recorded any of it, let alone the entire series, was the long shot of all long shots. But even still, I made a post on the forum in 2013 asking if anyone knew anyone that might have anything.

Naturally, no one had any leads, and all of these previous problems meant that this project would, frustratingly, have to be shelved indefinitely.

Or at least, that’s what I thought.

Part 2: Deferred Dreams Don’t Die.

On April 5th, 2019, a person by the name of Talos dropped into our Discord server, and posted an introduction. Like so many, they had gotten into Tenchi through Toonami, but what would change everything, was this.

I couldn’t believe what I was reading, someone actually had it!

Instinctively, I reached out to Talos via PM to ascertain how to go about acquiring these tapes, and admittedly, to see how legit this claim actually was. Because the fact of the matter is, when you’ve been around Tenchi fandom as long as I have, you’ll quickly realize the best bullshitters in the world come from this fandom.

But Talos was more than the genuine article! They sent over pictures and an incredibly detailed analysis of the quality of their tapes, watching through them all again to prove to me that their claim was valid.

It can’t be said enough that this all would not be possible without Talos, their willingness to work with me and send me their own personal tapes that they’ve kept for almost two decades just goes to show how awesome they are and how much they care about the fandom.

So the deal was struck, and the dream that laid deferred for almost six years lived again.

- A time capsule from another era.

But with dreams from the past, come the demons that plagued them way back when. I still only had the setup I once had, and at this time I was really trying to be tight with my finances for a number of different reasons, but this opportunity was too good to pass up, I wasn’t going to let this dream go, even if it wasn’t perfect.

Talos’ tapes showed up, and I rolled up my sleeves.

So I put in the first tape, the first seven episodes of Tokyo, into the old VCR I used to originally rip the Pioneer tapes, a JVC HR-VP650U….

And static…

Or rather, a tape that would play for 3 seconds, then immediately drop to static.

This wouldn’t work.

I then tried my other VCR, a Sony SLV-N50 from the mid-to-late 90’s that I was able to “fix” by removing the old Android Kikaider tape that got stuck in there many years prior.

It worked!…..but…..not all that well.

While it did actually play the tape relatively smoothly, the colors were completely washed out in comparison to the JVC, and it had this weird color flickering that was particularly noticeable when black backgrounds were on screen. (This was not unique to this tape, it did it with everything I put in there.)

As much as it pained me, there was no way I was going to rip it with this setup.

So the hunt began for not just a replacement VCR, but one that was high quality and recommended among enthusiasts for digital transfer. Which meant research and long winding rabbit holes of non-answers and vagueness, and unfortunately, money.

Without a doubt, the de facto list of best VCRs for transferring comes from digitalFAQ.com. This list is not only informative but gives you a broad range of ones to look for in the event you can’t find an “elite” one. However, this list has also become the de facto list used by people who are hawking their sets on eBay to try and get every penny from enthusiasts and new-comers as possible.

After three frustrating weeks of losing bid wars on eBay, someone finally put up one of the good sets, the JVC SR-V10U. I quickly sent them what I thought was a reasonable but not bank-breaking offer….

And they accepted! The beast was finally mine.

Immediately upon unwrapping and testing it, the quality difference between what I had then and what I was looking at now was staggering. The SR-V10U had beautiful color, while having the incredible ability to stabilize the old tapes with its TBC (Time Base Corrector), as well as onboard Video Stabilization option. Combined with the ability to output video via the superior S-Video cable, I now had something that, despite its age and typical old VHS wear, was way better than I could have imagined.

Part 3: No Need for Nostalgia.

You’re probably thinking to yourself “Dagon, why go through the trouble? The OVA has a beautiful Blu-ray release, and Universe and Tokyo have pretty decent DVD releases. Why would you ever want to rip old VHS tapes of an inferior quality release that was in some cases censored?”

- The now famous Toonami “bikinis”.

Because this version of Tenchi Muyo! is a piece of history. Not only is it a piece of Tenchi history, but a piece of Toonami history as well. Being able to preserve this in the best quality possible is being able to point to future generations and say “This is why I’m here.”

For a lot of us it’s about taking us back to a simpler time, grade school, high school, university. Taking us back to a time before the internet was what it is today.

So now we can, after almost 20 years, re-watch the version of Tenchi Muyo! that brought so many of us joy and wonder.

#tenchiforum #tenchi muyo #toonami #toonami promo #cartoon network #tenchi universe #tenchi in tokyo #toonami tenchi muyo #anime nostalgia #90's anime #vhs #vhs anime

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harrisonstories · 6 years ago

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Pattie Boyd and George Harrison - assumed to be from their honeymoon in Barbados (1966)

NOTE: This is the “Something in the Way She Moved” interview Ken Sharp did with Pattie Boyd in 2007. I’ve posted a couple of quotes before and wanted to share the whole thing for Pattie’s birthday. Originally this interview was available through Goldmine magazine, but it seems they’ve changed their website recently, so I used the version from Record Collector . Unfortunately they slightly edited parts of the interview, so what I’ve done is add in as much as I could find from the Goldmine version in brackets. Anyway, hope you enjoy and Happy Belated Birthday Pattie!

Share your memories of first meeting the Beatles on the set of A Hard Day’s Night...

I was working as a model and my agent called me one day to tell me that there was a casting audition to go to. When I arrived there I recognized the director because I’d done some TV commercials with him. Then I went home afterwards and I heard from my agent that I got a part in a Beatles film, which was A Hard Day’s Night. I was a bit stunned by this. I had no desire or ambition to be an actress. They said, “Oh don’t worry, it’s just a walk on part.”

In the film I had to be a schoolgirl. So I turned up at the appointed place, a train station, caught the train and then a little way out of Paddington Station the train stopped. I looked out and saw these four very recognizable people were standing on a platform. It was The Beatles. There was nobody else there. They jumped onto the train, came into our carriage and introduced themselves as if we didn’t know who they were (laughs). They were so charming. We shook their hands, then they went off and filming began. I just thought George was so unbelievably good looking and adorable. They were all so funny and humorous, and seemed to be mucking about all of the time. George and I just hit it off.

I don’t know whether it was by design or deliberation but we ended up sitting next to each other for lunch. I remember feeling so silly because I was still dressed in a stupid schoolgirl uniform. We were both really shy but we enjoyed sitting next to each other and talking a bit.

At the end of the day, the train was headed back to London and George looked at me and said, “Will you marry me?” Because they’d all been so amusing and funny throughout the day I just laughed as if he were joking. Then he said, “Can I take you out to dinner tonight?” I said, “Well, actually I’m going out with my boyfriend (Eric Swayne), but you can come along too.” He said, “No, that wasn’t the idea at all.”

What were the qualities about George that made you realize he was the one for you?

I think it was his absolute charm and endearment. [He was very endearing. He was very easy to be with. He was very soft and lovely.] He seemed to really love my family and got on very well with all my brothers and sisters. He was just eternally sweet to everybody. When we first started going out together he was very quiet. As time went on he gained more confidence. And then there were times it was difficult to stop him from talking.

Did you get a chance to visit many Beatle recording sessions?

No, because really and truly we weren’t really allowed to. We weren’t encouraged to go to the studio. I remember once going through the studio to meet George Martin; I think they might have been doing recording with Mary Hopkin. But I never saw a Beatles recording session. When Yoko came on the scene, she was allowed to but otherwise none of the wives were. It was far better that there were no distractions from us. I mean, girls can be distracting, let’s face it. They wanted to totally focus on their work.

Bring us back to the first time you saw The Beatles in concert.

I saw them for the first time when they played at the Hammersmith Odeon London in 1964. George and I had met and it seemed this show must have happened a few months after that. I was given a few seats right near the front. The audience was screaming all of the time. To me, that was odd, because I didn’t realize that was what happened during their shows. The noise was huge, but the Beatles’ performance was really great.

Was it a different George onstage than off?

Absolutely. He was himself in his professional role of being a musician. Whereas I just knew him as my boyfriend, someone who was great to hang out with, loved my family and really enjoyed to hang out with my friends. So this was very clearly another role that I didn’t really recognize him in.

[Did he feel more comfortable off stage?]

[Yes], I always felt he was never very comfortable onstage. I think it made him nervous. He was much more comfortable being in the company of friends and family and people that he loved.

Through the years, George expressed how he grew tired of Beatlemania fairly early on in the band’s career.

After he and I met, we would have such a great time together. I don’t want to be boastful about it but I think he really preferred hanging out with me and actually enjoying life. Touring got in the way and he didn’t really enjoy it. He didn’t really see the point of touring because just as soon as they walked toward the stage the people would start screaming so loudly. When they started playing the screaming got even louder to the point where nobody possibly could have heard anything. He saw it all as a bit of a waste of time.

But when you watch The Beatles film showing them performing at Shea Stadium, it does seem like they’re having a blast.

Yeah. With Shea Stadium, of course, that was one of their big conquests in America. I remember George saying he couldn’t believe how enormous it was and how many people were there. He was overawed by that [and did enjoy playing that show].

You write in your book that The Beatles were “fearful” of their fans.

Obviously they couldn’t exist without their fans but their fans followed them everywhere they went. Before we had a gate put up outside of our house in Esher, fans would come to the house all the time. On a couple of occasions some of my things were stolen. Depending on his mood, more often than not if fans came to the door he would shoo them away. But if he was in a good mood and they were nice people he would be charming, sign autographs and have a few words with them. But it was an intrusion. He’d rather be getting on with his life than dealing with that.

Unlike many groups of today, there was a real bond of friendship and camaraderie among the Beatles.

[The Beatles were very close and tight and would hang out together.] They all grew up in the same area of Liverpool. Automatically when you grow up with somebody from the same sort of background and experiences, you have a bond. At a very young age they were sent to Germany to work in Hamburg for [very], very long hours, little sleep and little money. They took loads of pills to keep them up all night. That unites people. [It’s very bonding.] Their language to each other was so fast, almost encoded. It was almost a secret language. They were very tight, [very tight].

In the book you state that “The Beatles lived an unreal life and never had to grow up”.

Everything was always taken care of for them. I think they realized they had to start growing up when Brian Epstein died. He was a father figure for them. He enjoyed looking after them and taking care of all their needs. He would anticipate what they would like, when they’d like to go on holidays. Brian taught them the niceties of life, introduced them to fine wines, to London and Theatre.

When he died there was a period where they felt lost but then I think after that they gained their feet and realized they had to take control of their lives. The boys had to disappear and put on long trousers.

After Beatles played their last show in San Francisco, George said that now he was no longer a Beatle. Did he express his relief that their touring days were over?

Yes, he was very happy he didn’t have to go on tour anymore. He really didn’t like it. He was happy that they’d now be able to solely concentrate on working in the studio, which he preferred. That’s where he was happiest.

Did he ever express his frustration about getting his songs recorded?

Yes, George was in a difficult position. In any three-way partnership there’s always going to be one person who feels left out. Ringo didn’t really come into the equation; he was mainly a drummer, not a songwriter. John and Paul wrote most of the songs and I know George felt frustrated that he wasn’t contributing as much as he felt he could and should.

With the magnificent love song Something, he proved himself on par with John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

I don’t think George knew it was a great song, but it was clearly a very beautiful song he’d written and he was very happy that it was going to be a single. He was thrilled.

Knowing it was written about you, how did that make you feel?

Oh, I thought it was the sweetest thing he could have done. I loved it. It’s a wonderful song.

There’s a funny story in your book about your cleaner, Margaret.

Margaret was so funny. She was almost like an older sister/mother figure for George and I. She was a bit radical as well. Whenever John came over she would ask him, “Oh John, can you give me one of those lovely pills?” They were uppers. I always knew when she got one from John (laughs) because she’d suddenly start vacuuming like mad and dusting everywhere. (laughs)

Bring us back to the dinner party where the dentist John Riley secretly dosed you, George, John and Cynthia with LSD.

At about nine or 10 o’clock at night we were dosed. We were furious! I thought I’d be like this for the rest of my life (laughing) and maybe I am. That trip lasted about eight hours. It was terribly surreal. People started looking like animals and they would grow 10 times their height. It was like being in a movie where things come in and out at you.

How did acid change George?

I think it affected him in a positive way. He enjoyed the mind expansion part of it, but then he grew out of it and didn’t want to do it anymore.

You were the one who pointed the way toward transcendental meditation.

I think they were on tour somewhere and a friend of mine, Marie-Lise, saw a little ad about learning how to meditate. We went to London and took these lessons in transcendental mediation. We had our mantra and now we were off meditating. When George came back I told him about it. Shortly after that I think it was Paul who suggested we all go see a lecture in London being done by the Maharishi. I was thrilled because it was his form of meditation that I’d been studying.

The Maharishi couldn’t figure out why suddenly after he’d been coming to England for years doing his lectures that all the press were there. He couldn’t think what had happened because he’d never heard of The Beatles. He quickly realized that The Beatles were important people. So he invited us all to go to Wales where he could teach us privately about meditation.

Ironically, it was in Wales where the Beatles heard that their manager, Brian Epstein had died.

Strangely enough, isn’t life so amazing that Brian would die at a time that they would all learn spirituality from the Maharishi? It was like they were replacing a father figure with a spiritual father figure in a way. That’s how I saw it. It was the saddest day. All of them were just ashen with shock with the news of Brian dying. The Maharishi helped them cope with it. At least we all had the comfort of him to help us deal with our grief.

What are your memories of the trip to India to study with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi?

It was very nice to be a part of that enclosed life. There were probably about 80 people living there. George was very serious about meditation, as was John. But Paul and Ringo not so much. Ringo had a bad time there, especially with Maureen because she couldn’t stand flies. But for us, every day was glorious. There was nothing nicer than being in a very nice and calm environment.

John, Paul and George would play the guitar and write songs. It was absolutely the most lovely atmosphere. We’d meditate for hours on end. The food was delicious. It was lovely to go down to the Ganges when it started getting warmer. It was just a very nice time.

When George returned from India, there was a change in his personality.

Yes, he became more serious. After he returned from India the reality for George and the rest of The Beatles was that they now had to be businessmen and handle everything to do with The Beatles’ slowly growing empire. With Apple, they had to find business partners and then they were all arguing over who should handle them. From being musicians they had to wear the hat of being businessmen as well, and intrinsically that’s not in their nature. They’re artists. They’re creators.

George didn’t like to have to make these business decisions and play that kind of role. So then he started staying in the office or in the studio quite a lot and recording various artists like Billy Preston, Doris Troy and Jackie Lomax. After a few years, George and I grew apart. He wanted to hang onto his spirituality. He started chanting a lot. I think he was desperately trying to reach a nice calm space in his head. On top of everything else The Beatles all started arguing with each other on creative levels as well.

During the recording of Let It Be, George left the Beatles. What did he share with you about his disenchantment?

He came home and told me how he’d left the band. He was in a really bad mood. He said the vibes were so ghastly and that The Beatles were going to split up. I think in a way it was a slow breakup. They all saw it as divorcing each other. Gradually they all let go of being in the band. It was too difficult to sustain.

[Discuss the duality of George. ] On one hand, George was a seeker of enlightenment and spirituality, but on the other he was having affairs on the side.

[George was a human being.] He was human, terribly good looking and very famous. He had his ups and down. Temptations were thrown at him continually. If you’re gonna decide that you’re gonna be a priest it’s very difficult. I think George was far more aware than other people of the continual battle of one’s demons. [We all have demons inside of us. We’re all full of black and white.] He struggled with it. He always wanted to be a good man and do the right thing.

It was surprising to read in your book that George had an affair with Ringo’s wife. How did Ringo react?

Obviously, Ringo was seriously pissed off. But I don’t know whether his anger was directed more to Maureen than to George. Remember, I was going through my own hell at the time. I wasn’t really noting everyone’s pain and anguish. I was going through my own struggles.

Bring us back to when you and George visited Frank Sinatra for the My Way recording session.

We were in LA. I think George was finishing an album. Then we got a message that Frank Sinatra invited us to a recording session. So we turned up with Mal Evans and we were led into the control room. From there we could look through the glass panel and see this very large studio with a full orchestra. Then Frank walked into the studio and I was riveted. Here’s the famous Frank Sinatra. He took the mic and he sang My Way. He was absolutely stunning. All of us in the control room were silenced. Then Frank came into the control room, heard it back again and said, “That’s it!” He did it in one take. Then he said, “Let’s all go out for dinner.”

All these limos appeared and we all went to some restaurant on Sunset Boulevard. There was this huge table and everybody sat down. George and I tried to sit next to Frank but his best friends had to sit next to him, so we were shoved down the table (laughs). George and Frank had a good conversation in the control room and spoke at dinner as well. I think Frank was probably quite curious and wanted to hear about The Beatles.

In 1972, you and George met another legend, Elvis Presley, backstage at Madison Square Garden.

George had total respect for Elvis, he loved him. We were sitting in the audience; suddenly someone came up and said, “Elvis wants to meet you.” We obeyed like little lambs and went down into his dressing room. We went in and asked where Elvis was and they said, “He’s in the bathroom.” Then he came out and he was wearing his white suit. In my mind’s eye he was about 10 feet tall (laughs). He shook George’s hand and they spoke a few words and that was it.

I later met Elvis again with Eric (Clapton). We were in Memphis and Elvis invited us to the cinema to see a movie with him. We walked into the empty theatre and there was Elvis sitting a few rows from the front surrounded by a few people. So we said “Hi” and then we went to sit in the row behind him but his minders said, “No, no, no, you can’t sit there.” We had to sit a few rows back (laughs).

Being a muse for both George Harrison with Something and later with Eric Clapton for Layla and Wonderful Tonight, must have put tremendous pressure on you to be perfect.

You can’t help but think that people will look at you and go, “Oh my God, what is it about her that’s so special that a song is being written for her?” But what a great, great compliment. Maybe I never thought about the joys of it at the time because it was such a beautiful and flattering place to be in.

And you were at the kitchen table when George wrote My Sweet Lord.

I remember it very clearly. It’s a beautiful song and he was so proud of it. I know he wrote it. He didn’t copy it from The Chiffons. It was deeply upsetting and really hurtful when he was called into court in America for supposedly plagiarizing one of The Chiffons’ songs. That song became a bit tainted when we were told he’d have to go to court and defend himself with his guitar. George stopped listening to the radio after that so he wouldn’t be influenced by any music.

Can you remember when Eric first played you Layla?

Yes, of course. He played it for me on cassette. It was so beautiful. He kept looking at me for my reaction. He wanted me to realize that he had written it for me. It was inspired by a book that we’d both been given by a mutual friend called The Story Of Layla And Manjun. It was written by a Persian poet and it’s a beautiful love story. We were both very familiar with the book and story and the song was based on that story. I was totally mesmerized by the song. I still love it.

Eric pursued you for quite some time.

It may have been two or three years before we became involved. Things were going so bad at home, my relationship with George was collapsing. I thought it was best to go off and visit with my sister who was living in LA. I just wanted to get away and work out what I was going to do next. Eric phoned up and said, “Come join me on tour and see what it’s like.” I’d never been on a tour before. It’s really exhilarating and sexy. I thought, this is the life, this is wonderful. I think that was it. I’d made that choice. I was still not sure if I’d made the right decision.

Can you explain how George and Eric were able to maintain their friendship?

Their friendship was mainly based on music. There was a great respect for each other’s music. I suppose that was stronger than the other parts of their lives. I’m sure most people would think it’s surprising that they were civil about it. I mean, what can I say, that’s how it was.

Your wedding reception in 1979 featured Eric, three Beatles (George, Paul and Ringo), Mick Jagger, Robert Plant, Jeff Beck, Ronnie Wood, Jack Bruce, Bill Wyman and others jamming.

It was fantastic. It was an all-star band. It was a moving feast. The lineup kept changing. Everyone you mentioned played and more. There was a constant turnover of players. If a drummer left someone else was waiting in the wings to pick up the drumsticks.

You met with George at your cottage a few months before his death – had he come terms with his imminent passing?

I don’t know if George fully realized that. But on reflection I think maybe that was why he did come over to visit me. He brought me two little gifts and a plant. He had initially gone to see Ringo who lives near me and then just on the off chance phoned to see if I was in too. We had a lovely time.

You say that George’s near-fatal stabbing in 1999 may have weakened his defenses to the cancer that later claimed his life.

I think that is true. To have experienced that sort of seriously vicious attack would freak anybody out forever, and then your defenses are down and one can become vulnerable.

In describing your two husbands, you describe Eric as your “playmate” and George as your “soulmate”.

It was always great fun to hang out with Eric. It was always playtime. But this was when he was drinking and when someone is drinking they just think of the maddest things and the most childish things to do. We were in a lucky position because there were always people to pick up the pieces and look after us and cushion the fall. But then with George he was a true spiritual seeker. We had a very special friendship, a relationship that would last all our lives. [I knew that.] George was always there for me. He was a sweet and gentle person. [So what if he had demons. He'd been trying so hard to be good and spiritual.]

Lastly, apart from Something, Layla and Wonderful Tonight, can you select a favorite George and Eric song?

(Long pause) That’s a difficult question. For George, I have to say that I loved a lot of the stuff that he did with The Traveling Wilburys. I loved that music. And Eric? Oh gosh, that’s a hard one. (Long pause) How about Bell Bottom Blues?

Why that one?

(Laughing) Because I think it might have been about me.

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eggoreviews · 6 years ago

Text

Nintendo Direct Feb 2019 BREAKDOWN

So, that direct was pretty okay right? If you missed it or even if you didn’t, I’m gonna be taking a look at everything announced and giving it a vague excitement rating! Enjoy!

Super Mario Maker 2

This was a pretty great way to kick off this direct. With the promise of a host of new features coming in this entry to build upon the first, including the introduction of slopes (finally) and a new texture pack based on Mario 3D World, I reckon this is definitely one to mark in the calendar. Mario Maker 2 is slated for a, gratefully soon, June 2019 release.

Excitement Rating: YEEHAW

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order

The long awaited third entry in the MUA series, to the surprise of many, is in fact a Switch exclusive. For those who don’t know, this is a hack-and-slash fighting game, of course tied heavily to Marvel comics. This entry seems to be riding in off the back of Infinity War, with Thanos and the Black Order showcased as central villains. Honestly, this game looks like it could be fun, especially with friends, though I don’t think it’ll turn out to be anything special.

ER: Sure, why not!

BOX BOY! + BOX GIRL!

This adorable little puzzle platformer is making its debut on Switch this spring, with the promise of local multiplayer and more levels than ever before. Looks to be a goodun for fans of cute, minimalist art design and box-based puzzles and the like.

ER: Cool! Those boxes can move!

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - Ver. 3.0

Nintendo sort of slapped us in the face with a lovely, welcome announcement of a new Smash update! Oh boy! New features! And then they turn around and say they aren’t gonna tell us what they are.

Oh.

Kind of makes me question the point of putting this in the direct a little, but I’m sure whatever they’ll add will be cool! On top of that, a tentative release window for Joker was given (before the end of April this year) and we got a cheeky look at some of the new spicy amiibos, being Snake, Simon and the Pokemon Trainer lot.

ER: Yay?

Captain Toad Treasure Tracker Updates

Here’s one that definitely caught me offguard, but I’m more than happy with it considering I just picked up the game. Part of the new Captain Toad content is free, adding in proper 2 player co-op where you can both play as Toad. The paid ‘special episode’ stuff struck me as a little odd, considering this game was already a Wii U port that’s now getting even more paid DLC. Regardless, it’s not too pricey and you can even pick up the first DLC course now, with the rest coming March 14.

ER: That’s cool!

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

This not-quite-Castlevania game could easily be mistaken for a knock off of that franchise, but seems to have some defining elements of its own. The art style is bold enough to make it unique and the game seems to have an interesting variety of puzzles and side quests to make this more than just a run of the mill 2D platformer. An obvious choice for those with a Castlevania shaped hole in their hearts.

ER: You go bouncy vampire lady

Dragon Quest Builders 2

What is basically just Dragon Quest Minecraft with a story mode apparently, this oddly charming sandbox game was seemingly popular enough to warrant a sequel. And I won’t lie to you, it got me a little excited. As a fan of Dragon Quest its art style and general building-ness, I think I might have to pick this one up. And it’s got a cool retro map!

ER: I’m not excited, you are

Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age: Definitive Edition

In case you hadn’t guessed, I literally adore Dragon Quest. The bright colours, the developed characters, the expansive world, awesome monster designs, great soundtrack and lame sense of humour, it all just gets me. It just sort of sucks I already own this on the PS4, where I can’t access all this new content. Oof. But yeah, pick this up if you can. You won’t regret it if you’re a JRPG fan.

ER: More like echoes of an exclusive age amirite

Disney Tsum Tsum Festival

Oh.

I won’t lie to you right now, nothing screams ‘soulless’ to me more than small Disney plushes with all the personality taken from them being stuck into totally random minigames. Don’t get me wrong, I love Disney (mostly through Kingdom Hearts but that’s besides the point) but I don’t think this elicited much excitement in anyone.

ER: I guess this exists, huh?

Starlink: Battle for Atlas - Spring Update

This was another one that surprised me. Considering how mind meltingly badly Starlink bombed, partly down to its odd reliance on the whole ‘toys to life’ craze that died out in 2013, I really didn’t think there’d be any further support for the game and they’d just sort of slip it under the rug. But nope, we’ve got some more Switch exclusive missions involving some more Star Fox characters, as well as the introduction of Wolf’s buddies. Honestly, I think Nintendo needs to do themselves a favour and just release a new Star Fox game.

ER: Great, if for some reason you bought this!

Rune Factory 4 Special & Rune Factory 5

Here’s a series I’d literally never heard of until last Wednesday, but the only way I can describe it from what I’ve seen is it looks to be a cross between Animal Crossing and kind of also Dragon Quest. You cook stuff, you farm stuff, you fight things and you can get married if you want, so definitely cool if you’re a fan of the series. But also cool if you’re someone who wished Animal Crossing was a bit more JRPG. Alongside the announcement of a remastered Rune Factory 4 later this year, as well as confirmation of Rune Factory 5 sometime in the future.

ER: Cool! Plants and stuff!

Oninaki

An action RPG with an intriguing premise and a rich, dark colour scheme, Oninaki seems very eager to set itself apart from other JRPGs on the market and still manages to stand out just a bit, even in a direct that’s basically been packed with JRPGs. Oninaki explores themes of reincarnation and grief, following the story of one grey-haired dude saving lost souls from a place called the Upside Down the Beyond to stop them from turning into monsters. Another one to add to the list if you like edgy RPGs!

ER: Edgy and cool

Yoshi’s Crafted World

Another update for this adorably cardboard entry into the long running Yoshi series, we’re finally getting close to actually being able to play it. Nintendo showcased some of the more interesting variants of gameplay, with the use of rafts, cars and planes definitely making this seem that there’s some substance here to go with the style. Alongside this, a demo released on the eshop so go play that if you haven’t already and decide if it’s for you!

ER: Wow, this game has a Labo costume! I’ll definitely grind for that!

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Finally some more info about Nintendo’s latest instalment in their anime Game of Thrones series Fire Emblem, we got a big ol infodump about some of the stuff to do with the game. While the video itself will explain everything better than I can, this time players will be able to interact with three kingdoms and three main protagonists, all of this centralising around one academy the game is set within. Overall, this game certainly looks interesting to play, but one I’m not quite sure I’ll be picking up just yet. Basically, if you’re unfamiliar with the games but love a tactical RPG, this one is a no brainer.

ER: Edelgard’s design is pretty cool. If one of them has to get into Smash, I hope it’s her.

Tetris 99

The game many have been calling Tetris Battle Royale, this is the very first Nintendo Switch Online exclusive offering and it’s totally free if you’re a member. It’s Tetris and you have to win against 98 other people, also playing Tetris. Nice!

ER: Tetris block for Smash

Dead by Daylight

As a game I got for free through Playstation Plus, it should be fairly obvious that this port isn’t one that excites me greatly, especially after seeing the quality of the graphics in the trailer the direct showed us. While the concept of an online match with several survivors and one killer sounds good on paper, it seems as if the quality of this port may leave a lot to be desired. But still, this could still only be early development footage and we really have no idea how it’ll look by the end.

ER: Tentative

Deltarune

Undertale is one of my favourite games of all time, so of course it excited me to find out I’d finally be able to play the sort of sequel, Deltarune, which Toby Fox has taken in the interesting direction of splitting the game into chapters. The first of these chapters will be free (yay I like free) and it certainly seems like the same abstract sense of humour and charm present in Undertale has been carried over to this sequel. Definitely one to watch.

ER: Always excited about cartoon doggo

Daemon X Machina

This mech-fighter has been floating around in various Nintendo directs for a fair while now and it’s encouraging to see the game come close to release. In a commendable move, the producer of the game has offered a free demo of the game allowing you to pilot your own custom mech and experience a boss battle in the demo known as ‘Prototype Missions’. The aim of this to gain feedback from potential players in order to make the game as good as it can be, which is amazing! It’s honestly a bit of a dream world where every game developer and publisher is as open and transparent as these guys, so kudos to them. As well as this, the game looks pretty heckin’ fun so it’s definitely worth picking up the demo off the eshop and giving these guys your feedback!

ER: Big ol’ robots hell yeah

GRID Autosport

As of yet, the Switch has lacked a realistic racing game. Enter Grid Autosport, which seems to be packed with a variety of cars, tracks and game modes, including all DLC from the original release of the game. Not one for me, but I’m sure there’s plenty of Switch owners out there whose racing fix isn’t quite satisfied by Mario Kart.

ER: V big if ur a car person

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice

This game was notably created in collaboration with neurologists and those who experience psychosis in order to properly portray the main character and her mental health struggles. Following the quest of Senua as she fights to save the soul of her dead lover, this game created a huge wave through the industry when it first launched and won major awards for its artistic design and performance. While this isn’t one I’ve had the chance to try yet, it certainly looks as if it provides a brilliant, emotional experience from beginning to end.

ER: A lot

Mortal Kombat 11

This was one everyone basically already knew about, but this direct gave us a reminder of the release date and various features such as custom characters. For fans of this long running, brutal fighting game, get April 23 in ur brains.

ER: Cool

Unravel Two

This adorable puzzle platformer sees you and, optionally, a friend take control of two little creatures made of yarn as they navigate a colourful world and help each other pass various obstacles. For those fans of platformers like the Yoshi series, Unravel is definitely one to consider.

ER: Cool

Assassin’s Creed III Remastered

This is the iconic stealth fighting series Assassin’s Creed’s first outing on Switch, but if this footage is anything to go by, it’s not looking brilliant. While this once again could be put down to unfinished development, the first look at a game is often the most important, and a slow frame rate shown during the direct could mean this game isn’t what fans want it to be.

ER: Tentative

Final Fantasy Release Dates

For fans of the legendary and slightly intimidating JRPG series, several games in the series both new and old will be coming to the Switch in 2019:

Final Fantasy VII on March 26th

Chocobo’s Mystery Dungeon EVERY BUDDY! on March 20th

Final Fantasy IX is out now!

ER: Cloud is my favourite twink

Astral Chain

Admittedly, at a first glance, this title in a brand new franchise didn’t particularly excite me. But after having another look, I can definitely see where all the hype is coming from. This looks to be a hack-and-slash sort of action RPG with all the edgy story elements and setpieces of that ever so popular steampunk genre that players seem to love these days. With all these mechs, explosions and edgy voiceovers, it makes me think that Xenoblade Chronicles and Deus Ex had some kind of torrid love affair. On top of this, with a dev team that has Bayonetta, The Wonderful 101 and NieR: Automata under their belt, this is a game that will almost certainly impress when it finally comes out on August 30. Platinum Games might just have another winner here.

ER: Big yes

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

oKAY, let’s be real, this is the one that really knocked it out of the park. At least for me it did. As the final reveal, this made me scream a little tiny bit. I think we’d all heard the rumours of a 2D Zelda coming to Switch, but I was highly skeptical to say the least. But a wonderfully charming and artistically bloody P E R F EC T remake of Link’s Awakening?? HHHHHH. They even kept all the Mario enemies for some reason! Oh boy, whenever they release this in 2019 apparently really can’t come soon enough.

ER: AAAAAAAAAAAAA

That was all for this direct! I hope you enjoyed my silly, unplanned breakdown of all the cool things that happened. Til the next direct!

Oh and if you’ve got a craving for more game news, be sure to check back on my blog March 1st for the second ‘issue’ (lol) of my monthly viddy game mag!

Stay hydrated my dudes.

#nintendo #nintendo switch #Nintendo Direct #zelda #the legend of zelda #mario #super smash bros #super mario #astral chain #Final Fantasy #dragon quest #deltarune #eggoreviews #gaming

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roseisread · 6 years ago

Photo

My Year in Movies: Favorite Non-2018 Feature Films (Part 1)

I watched a LOT of movies this year. At last count, I had logged 229 features and 126 shorts; and that doesn’t count rewatches--only movies that were new to me.

I set a few challenges for myself as well this year. The first one was to watch at least one non-English language/US release per week--this exposed me to so much world cinema and some really amazing filmmakers. Anyone who avoids foreign films because “I don’t like subtitles” is really missing out, and I found myself craving these narratives from voices I don’t ordinarily get exposed to in my everyday life.

Other personal challenges: Watching as many horror movies as possible in October (with horror defined pretty loosely so I could include entries from silent era and onward, as well as some comedy cult classics that have horror/thriller elements); participating in Noirvember (in addition to attending Noir City in Chicago); crossing off some major blindspots from my list (such as Bicycle Thieves, The Producers, Lethal Weapon, A Few Good Men, Grease, Home Alone 2, Brazil, and Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom); and trying to watch movies and short films from every decade that motion pictures have existed.

In 2019, I hope to do similar personal challenges with a focus on movies made by women, LGBTQ+, and people of color, in addition to filling in the gaps of my classical/canonical movie knowledge.

OK, so that’s enough preamble. Let’s get to the list! For this list, I’m excluding movies that were released in 2018--that’s coming but this is for movies released before that.

50. Linda Linda Linda (2005, directed by Nobuhiro Yamashita, country of origin: Japan)

High school girls recruit the Korean exchange student (Doona Bae, of Cloud Atlas and Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance) to join their rock band a few days before the school talent show. This is just a feel good film, recommended if you enjoyed the likes of Sing Street, We Are The Best!, and The Runaways. Unfortunately, it’s out of print in physical form; but last I checked someone had uploaded it to YouTube so you might want to get on that before it’s removed. You can watch the trailer here.

49. The Blue Dahlia (1946, directed by George Marshall, country of origin: US)

This film noir stars Veronica Lake and Alan Ladd, and like any good noir, it deals with dark subjects including murder, blackmail, political corruption, and PTSD. It’s been on my watchlist for a long time, and thanks to Noir City Chicago, I got to see it on the big screen at the Music Box Theatre. For small screen viewing, you can catch up with it via rental on Vudu, Amazon, iTunes... the usual suspects.

48. Siren of the Tropics (1927, directed by Mario Nalpas and Henri Etievant, country of origin: France)

My dearly departed Filmstruck had a spotlight on the films of Josephine Baker, and this was among them. I fell in love instantly with the lively, beautiful Baker, here playing a woman named Papitou who deals with some super scummy dudes but manages to be herself in the face of all that nonsense. Silent films can sometimes be tougher to engage with for modern audiences, but this one flies by and contains some unexpectedly racy sequences for the time. Its racial politics don’t meet today’s cultural standards, but considering Baker’s parents were former slaves and their daughter went on to become the first woman of color to star in a major motion picture, this is still a landmark film worthy of our consideration. She broke down many barriers and contributed a great deal to both the entertainment world and the Civil Rights movement, and this serves as a nice entry point into her career. It’s available on DVD through Kino Lorber, and hopefully one day soon it’ll pop up on another streaming service that carries on the Filmstruck legacy.

47. I Don’t Feel At Home in This World Anymore (2017, directed by Macon Blair, country of origin: US)

Here’s a film that goes to some unexpected places. I had no idea what to expect from Macon Blair, who frequently appears in the movies of Jeremy Saulnier; but in his debut feature for Netflix, he pulled out all the stops. Hilarious, violent, and intense, with memorable performances from stars Melanie Lynskey and Elijah Wood, this is a movie about getting in over your head and just going for it anyway. I don’t want to tell you about the plot because it’s best discovered through watching--just go to your nearest device and add it to your Netflix queue.

46. Song of the Sea (2014, directed by Tomm Moore, country of origin: Ireland)

Absolutely gorgeous animation from the team that previously brought us The Secret of Kells, and a touching story that combines family and mythology. I adored this one. Watch it on Netflix or rent on the usual streaming sources--for a preview, click here.

45. Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942, directed by Michael Curtiz, country of origin: US)

I always watch Independence Day on the Fourth of July; but in 2018, I decided to mix it up and cross this patriotic musical off the watchlist. I’d seen James Cagney’s gangster movies like White Heat and The Public Enemy, but seeing him sing and dance was a whole new joyous discovery. This movie is entertaining, funny, touching, and full of iconic sequences that other films would go on to borrow from. I absolutely loved it. Pretty sure I saw this on Filmstruck originally, but since that’s no longer possible you should be able to find it at your local public library or you can rent it for a couple bucks on Amazon, YouTube, iTunes, and the like.

44. The Man Who Cheated Himself (1950, directed by Felix Feist, country of origin: US)

This tightly wound noir thriller pits brother against brother against the backdrop of 1950s San Francisco. Lee Cobb plays an aging bachelor and an accomplished police detective who falls for the wrong dame. His younger brother, played by John Dall (Gun Crazy, Rope), has just joined the police force and idolizes his older brother. Trouble strikes when the dame murders her no good husband and needs help from Cobb to cover it up. Naturally, Dall gets assigned to the case and as he begins to piece together the clues, he doesn’t like where they’re leading him. The climactic sequence is one of my favorite endings to a noir film, and I’ve seen a lot of them. Watch it for free if you have Amazon Prime; otherwise, there are a few versions uploaded to YouTube of varying quality or you could wait for it to pop up on TCM.

43. Los Angeles Plays Itself (2003, directed by Thom Andersen, country of origin: US)

This documentary edits together clips from movies of every era that were filmed or set in Los Angeles, and explains through voiceover narration the significance of each location and the history of the motion pictures in LA. That’s it--very simple concept but also fascinating. I split this up over a couple nights because it’s pretty long, but if you’re a film fan or a Los Angeles native, this is well worth your time. The voiceover is kind of hilariously flat in its delivery--kind of a Steven Wright sound actually--but that sort of adds to the charm for me. Get a taste by watching the trailer, and then you can rent it on YouTube for $1.99.

42. A Simple Plan (1998, directed by Sam Raimi, country of origin: US)

It’s been almost two years since we lost Bill Paxton; I don’t know about you but I don’t think any other actor can really fill those shoes. This year I caught up with three films that showcased his talent: A Simple Plan, One False Move, and Frailty. He plays very different characters in each one but in many ways they all start off with a similar premise: Ordinary guy dreams of becoming more. What that “more” is for each character is what sets each film and performance apart, but Paxton provided a great canvas to paint these unique characters onto. He inhabited the ordinary man better than just about anyone.

In this film, which I watched during Noirvember, Paxton plays Hank, a college-educated guy working a blue collar job in a small town, trying to make a better life for himself and his family. He’d like to get away from those small town roots, but his socially awkward brother Jacob (Billy Bob Thornton) relies on him. Unfortunately, Jacob is often accompanied by the hard-drinking loose canon Lou (Brent Briscoe). When the unlikely trio discover a crashed plane in the woods containing a suitcase full of cash, they each have ideas for how to handle the situation. Of course things escalate from there, and the way the movie explores human nature and family ties set this story apart. Available for online rental on the usual platforms.

41. The Iron Giant (1999, directed by Brad Bird, country of origin: US)

Given my obsession with Vin Diesel in the early 2000s, it’s pretty shocking I never saw this movie til now--sure, he and his glorious muscles don’t appear on screen, but he does provide the voice of the title character after all. When the Iron Giant made a controversial cameo in this year’s film adaptation of Ready Player One, I decided it was time I saw the source material for myself.

This gorgeously animated fable unfolds during the Cold War era, and features an ET-inspired story arc of a young boy befriending an unlikely being that the government is looking for. If you’ve never seen it, this is definitely a must-watch. Currently available on Netflix, but rentable on other platforms too.

40. The Unsuspected (1947, directed by Michael Curtiz, country of origin: US)

I adore Claude Rains, star of this film and supporting actor in Curtiz’s more famous work, Casablanca. Here, he plays the host and narrator of a popular radio show that revolves around tales of murder--basically the Law and Order: SVU of its day. We learn early on that he sometimes draws inspiration for his broadcasts from real life criminals. When people in his own life start dropping dead, the plot thickens and he finds himself at the center of the action. A very suspenseful and well-plotted film noir, which is available from the Warner Archive collection on DVD. I got to see it at Noir City Chicago, and loved every second of it.

That’s all for this entry--stay tuned for part two of this list, posting soon!

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four-swords-dub · 7 years ago

Audio

Next up we have our Green bean blooper machine! Riley! (Karen: Riley couldn’t record his answers so I’ve included one of my fav lines of his) Name: rockriled Character(s) you voice: Green Link, Deku Scrub #2, Sound Director/Editor of the FS Dub Project Are you in any way like those characters? I think we’re similar in terms of wanting to help/protect the people we love. As for Green’s personality…probably not? Green is confident, independent, and hardworking while I’m a bag of nerves and anxiety. I could fit into the hardworking area, though. As for the Deku Scrub…we’re both short, squeaky, and flammable? (I’m probably not gonna refer to the Deku Scrub for the rest of this since they only got…four lines, I think?)

Favourite/least favourite thing about voicing your character? My favorite thing about voicing Green is that I can just let loose. I don’t talk much outside of the project due to shyness and how most of my friends live a long ways away, but when I play Green, I can feel powerful and confident even if it’s just for a few minutes.Least favorite thing about voicing Green is that depending on the chapter, he has the most lines. I blame this on my lack of voice-acting experience, but both actor-me and sound-editor-me look through the script and think “dangit, Green, stop hogging the spotlight and let someone else speak!” Which characters did you audition for? I auditioned for Vio first, but I got nervous that auditioning for only one role was rude. I figured I wasn’t cute enough for Red or tough enough for Blue, so I went with Green. How did you react when you got the part(s)? Hoo boy, um…settle in, this is a bit of a story.My self-esteem has always been in the pits—and combining that with my perfectionist needs didn’t help, either. Whenever something cool came up, my brain would go “why bother, you’re gonna fail” and I’d do just that: give up without trying.So when posts about the Four Swords Dub Project started floating around, the same thing happened all over again. Best way I can describe it… Brain: “Don’t even try it. You know you’re not gonna get a part.” Me: “But it’s Four Swords, my favorite part of the Zelda manga series.” Brain: “And? Your voice sucks. Your acting sucks. You won’t even get a minor role. Do you really want to add another failure to your life?” Me: “…look. I’m really interested in this. I don’t know if I’ll actually get a part, but I still want to send in an audition so I can say that I tried.” Brain: “…two main characters? Really? Don’t get your hopes up.”(some time later) FS Dub Email: “Congratulations, you’re going to be our Green Link!” Me & Brain: “WAIT, WHAT?!” It was a total shock. I was so convinced I wasn’t going to get in that it never occurred to me that I could get in. Heck, it’s been a little over two years and I still can’t believe I got a leading role. As for the part of Sound Director/Editor…I can’t remember how, but I somehow got a hold of all the voice lines for all the characters in Chapter 1-1. Even though I have zero experience in editing, I suddenly got curious and started mixing the files with background music and sound effects. I sent a copy of what I put together to Karen (our voice and project director) for fun. Next thing I knew, I was the BGM/SFX guy for the rest of the project! Long story short: this dub’s been full of surprises. ^_^ Who do you wish you could voice? Oof, that’s a tough one. @_@ It’s so hard to pick because everyone’s already perfect as their current roles... Had you read the manga before taking part in the dub? Yep! :D It was around the time the internet became a big thing and when YouTube was first made. Middle-school me spent HOURS scouring Google for Yu-Gi-Oh! content (fell in love with the show in sixth grade) when I stumbled across a website with Legend of Zelda comics It had the manga versions of Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, the Oracle games, and—my top favorite—Four Swords.

FS holds a special place in my heart for not only giving the Links such diverse eyes/expressions, but destroying typical color-personality associations. I’d seen fan-comics of Four Swords with Red as the angry one, Blue as the smart one, and Purple as the newbie or the…um…stereotypically-gay one. Akira Himekawa’s version of the Links blew my freaking mind and I LOVED IT. <3 Any past voice acting experience? At best, the only voice-acting experience I had prior to the FS dub was watching tons of anime and re-enacting scenes via talking to myself. I still do this with anime, TV shows, movies, books, and video games. @_@ I’m not sure if this counts, but I…kinda got voice training in other areas? I yelled my lungs out in Tae Kwon Do for two years, sang alto in a chorus for three years, was moved to soprano for one year, yelled my lungs out again in Judo for one year, and learned classical/opera singing techniques for a few months (a friend’s friend was studying to be a music teacher and they needed a volunteer to practice their teaching skills). They might not count for this question, though… Who is your favourite FS character (if any)? Oh boy...I know younger-me’s favorite was Vio (I blame the eyes and ability to side with both Shadow and the other Links), but these days? It’s hard to pick, thanks to the dub. @_@ How do you warm up/get in character before recording? Big thing for me is how I’m feeling. Currently, I work six days a week (it sucks but I need the money/insurance DX) and I use the commute from work to where I live to figure out my mood. If I’m down in the dumps to the point that music can’t help, I won’t be able to deliver as Green. If I have some energy or so much energy that I can belt/rap to my music, I’m all set. It means I’m all loose and confident to record. As for days when I don’t have work like days-off or holidays, I try to relax and get myself in a Green-y mindset.

Little something I picked up from YouTube is gargling a mouthful of water. I’m not too sure how it works, but I do this right before a recording session and it helps a lot. Favourite chapter to voice so far? Favourite scene? Um…it’s kinda hard to pick a favorite chapter or scene I liked voicing since I had fun with all of them. Can I make this into favorite scene/chapter to do sound stuff for instead? And can I pick multiples instead? >_>;; Favorite Chapter for Sound Editing: Chapter 4. I had to compile different sounds that reflected Green’s desert, Blue’s snowstorm, Red’s forest fire, and Vio’s night in the woods. It was both challenging and fun. :D Favorite Scene for Sound Editing: Every comedic scene, scenes where the background music slowed to a halt, and scenes where I had to improvise sound effects.

The slowed-down songs are in the scenes where Blue and Green fight on the boat, and when Red admits he lost his weapons to Blue in the Ice Cave. Those were tough to do in Audacity (had to slow down the music piece by piece), but it was SO worth it.

As for scenes where I had to use nearby stuff for sounds…there’s a bunch of ‘em.

The door slamming while Erune talks about the missing children = me slamming my bedroom door.

The Gerudo Masseuse’ movements and the Gerudo Elder’s staff = me shaking my wrist while wearing my old belly-dance bracelets.

Deku Scrubs popping out of the ground = me smacking my lips mixed with the deku sound effect from Ocarina of Time.

Green’s sword hitting the labyrinth wall = me hitting a pot lid with a wooden spoon.

Green falling and sliding down the labyrinth wall = me falling and sliding down a bedroom wall.

Eerie shadow raising their sword to attack Green as the moon rises = me sliding a knife sharpener over a kitchen knife.

Shadow walking on clouds = me blowing into the mic mixed with footstep sounds from Ocarina of Time.

Big Poe screaming at Red and Blue = me banging pots, pans, and piano keys mixed with chaotic sound effects I found online.

Big Poe taking Blue’s soul = me breathing into the mic along with heavy editing.

Red clapping at Big Poe = me clapping my hands.

The Four Swords pulsing = me playing a four-note harmony (one for each Link) on the piano mixed with heavy editing and a wind chime effect.

(Karen: This guy is a genius when it comes to sound effects and the dub wouldn’t be half as good without him!)

Lines you dread voicing the most (screaming, crying, etc): As much as I love battle cries, my microphone and its inconvenient ability to make stuff clip bothers me.

And even though the chapter’s long gone, the part where Green remembers when he playing with Zelda as a toddler. I’M NEVER VOICING SMALL CHILDREN AGAIN. DX

What are your biggest worries when it comes to voicing your character? *pulls in with a giant dump truck* um…

#1 – Is my voice too high or too low? Green’s age would be around early teens or so, and with my weird vocal range, I can’t tell if I make him sound younger or older than he is. #2 – Am I getting the personality right? Because of my shy-as-hell nature, it’s hard for me to pick up if my confident-Green-persona sounds genuine or fake. #3 – Is it bad that I can only voice Green with my natural voice? Many voice actors have a HUGE variety of voices they can do (ex. Tara Strong). It’s likely because I’m still new to this, but part of me gets nervous that me voicing Green with my normal speaking voice is a sign that I lack voice acting talent. #4 – (Personal worry but it still bothers me sometimes) How will I sound as Green in the future? I’m a pre-HRT transmale who hates how high his voice is. This year, I’ll be moving out and if I play my cards right, I can start the process to either get testosterone, top surgery, or both. I love this dub to death, but after voicing Green in my non-HRT voice for so long, I get nervous that I could accidentally lower the quality of the dub if my voice changes if/when I start HRT (assuming the editing process for videos will be the same as it’s been). (Karen: i figure I should add this since people might be wondering how we’re going to handle it. As Green is right now I feel his voice wouldn’t hurt if it went a little deeper. However, if Riley’s voice becomes too deep, I’m going to edit the pitch of his lines. Don’t worry Riley, you aren’t going anywhere!) #5 – Do I make too many bloopers? During recording, I either screw up or my mind wanders a lot, and I save ‘em for the blooper reel. When the reel comes out, however, I’ll sometimes see my segment is a little longer than everyone else’s and I get nervous. ESPECIALLY if Green only had two lines and I had nearly an extra 30 seconds worth of bloopers. Would you date your character (if they were of age)?I’m gonna sound horrible, but…I don’t think Green’s personality would stand out enough to me as a possible date. If anything, I think we’d just end up being a weird duo of friends: the strong, confident soldier and the socially-awkward weirdo. *laughs*

Do you have a favourite voice actor on the dub?I don’t have a favorite voice actor, but I do have favorite lines/sounds from some of the cast (this is likely to change as more chapters are released). The way the VAs say these lines, I LOVE ‘EM. For now, I’m only going to list a few of them so this Q&A doesn’t go too long.

Favorite Carrottheluvmachine/Red line: “Oh! And it [footprint] looks like mine!” Favorite Ashe/Blue line: “so that’s how you want to do this, huh?!” Favorite Swiss/Vio line: “Losing confidence? …it’s because I’m you too, remember?” Favorite Kaenith/Shadow line: “Shadow saying “you’re a creature of darkness now, don’t forget that.”

Asked by Anon: Riley, how do you come up with so many awesome bloopers? Aww, thank you. ^///^ Most of them are accidental, like me not saying a word correctly. Others happen when I try and fail to memorize the script: if I’m struggling with a line, I’ll have a physical copy of the manga and match Green’s facial expression. This helps me get into the mindset, but it does draw my attention away from the script and I’ll end up flubbing a line because I tried to say it off the top of my head.

The mistakes where I either notice something weird either pop up on the fly or something I noticed a while back, and then suddenly remember during recording. The part where I noticed the Four Sword “thrumming” happened when I couldn’t get Green’s “the four sword is pulsing!” line right and I had to keep looking at the manga for the proper face. It was at that point I noticed the weird sound effect drawn in. Also, the blooper where I sang a song from The Heathers as Green flees the Eerie Shadow? That was in my head long before the script for Chapter 5 was out and when the time came to record, I remembered that bit.

Asked by Anon What was the funniest/most humorous line you guys have had to say? Not sure if this counts, but Kaenith had a blooper where they screwed up as Shadow, saying “you’re pretty—UM PRETTY SMART!” They shared it with the staff and it was so funny, Swiss made a joke response as Vio going “I prefer handsome.” I was given the two lines to put together and as a joke, I added some audio of a guy screaming “MAKE OUT!”

The staff liked it so much, they asked me to add Green shouting “NOW KISS!” It took a while to get perfectly, but I had SO much fun with it. ^_^

#legend of zelda #four swords #green link #manga #zelda #askthecast

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definitelynotaminion · 7 years ago

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Alright, send me prompts. Preferably Naruto

And preferably femslash because I’m trying to get Bingo on my sapphic september card but I kind of need a break

PROMPT LIST http://blackkatmagic.tumblr.com/post/176501846800/caydenhathaway-ok-but-you-know-what-trope-i

Accidental sex

“Anything you can do I can do better INCLUDING THAT” sex

“You played a prank on me and now I’m going to play one on you except oops this accidentally got hot” sex

“You made an inaccurate assumption about *insert sexual or sexuality misnomer here* and I’m going to teach you the truth” sex

“You think you’re so smart so I’m going to teach you a lesson” sex

“Do you think I look good/hot/provocative in this? Wait is this turning you on???” sex

“You don’t know what *insert kink here* is and I’m really bad at explaining things and now we’re doing it oops” sex

“I bet I can dance/move/act like that and I don’t even have to be a dancer/stripper/actor/whatever wait are you turned on?” sex

“I lost a bet to you and the circumstances were supposed to be a joke but I took them seriously” sex

“You were joking about something and I took you seriously” sex

“You seem to think that __ won’t feel good and I intend to prove you wrong” sex

“You’re intentionally getting under my skin so I threaten to spank you/playfully spank you and now you look like you just got banged against a wall” sex

“I didn’t know you were a sub and when I called you a good boy/girl you almost cried” sex

“I didn’t know you were a dom and when I called you Sir/Ma'am you almost jumped me” sex

“Playing a prank on our freinds to make them think we’re a couple and now we’re in bed together” sex

“I’m fixing you *insert appliance/furniture/house thing hee* for you and now I’m sweaty and half naked and you’re drooling” sex

“I noticed the way you were watching me eat this popsicle so I purposely started making it an inuendo and now we’re both hot and bothered” sex

“Haha that thing they do in movies/porn/online is so corny like no way that’s actually hot haha oops it is” sex

“Freinds can totally watch porn together and nothing can happen…. no they can’t” sex

“I showed you *insert sexual thing here* as a joke but you’re actually turned on” sex

“You found my sex toys and I teasingly offered to demonstrate them welp here we are” sex

“I started pretending to dirty talk to you an hour ago and it stopped being pretending 58 minutes ago” sex

“All I’m saying is that I’ve been told I’m a good lay, wanna find out?” sex

“You said you don’t like __ but I bet the people you were with just don’t know how to do it, I, however, have experience and bet I could make you like it” sex

“We platonically slept together last night because of circumstances and we both woke up horny” sex

“This started as a tickle fight and it isn’t tickling anymore” sex

“We’re just bros being bros and doing something 100% platonic but somehow we’re turning eachother on because of not-so-burried feelings for eachother and we can’t make it stop” sex

Accidental sex ok?

OR: Other prompts. I’m not picky.

Actually here’s another list from Kat’s blog

Prompt List of Sarcasm

13 September 2018

SOURCE

eternalmikaelson:

“Well, what can I say? I’m a badass.”

“Define normal.”

“Do I get bonus points if I act like I care?”

“Just remember if we get caught, you’re deaf and I don’t speak English.”

“Don’t look for any redeeming qualities. I don’t have any.”

“It’s amazing how fast the world can go from bad to total shit storm.”

“I love you. You enormously stubborn pain in the ass.”

“And you wonder why you’re still single.”

“Remind me to kill you. Please.”

“I’m listening to you. I’m just not paying attention.”

“That’s a little melodramatic, don’t you think?”

“Were you dropped on your head?”

“She’s crazy. And just when you think you’ve reached the bottom of her craziness, there’s a crazy underground garage.”

“She may seem like lollipops and rainbows but I bet behind close doors she’s latex and whips.”

“If my day gets any worse, I’m asking hell if they’re having an exchange program.”

“Sorry. I don’t speak skank.”

“If I survive, can I go home?”

“My middle finger salutes you.”

“This is a whole new level of moronic, even for you.”

“I don’t think I could ever stab someone. I mean, let’s be honest. I can barely get the straw in the Capri Sun.”

“I don’t have enough middle fingers to let you know how I feel.”

“Insanity run in my family. It practically gallops.”

“Oh darling. Go buy a brain.”

“Somebody’s cranky.” “Somebody needs to shut up.”

“Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.”

“All due respect, but that’s a bunch of crap.”

“I am one of the few people in the world who can murder you and leave no forensic evidence behind.”

“Excuse me. I have to go make a scene.”

“What did I tell you about calling her/him the devil?” “That it’s offensive to the devil?”

“I heard that!” “You were supposed to!”

“I need therapy after this.”

“You didn’t get in trouble for lying. You got in trouble for lying badly.”

“I’m not weird. I am limited edition.”

“I turned out liking you a lot more that I originally planned.”

“I think you’re weird.” “I think you’re boring.”

“If history repeats itself, I am so getting a dinosaur.”

“You seem somewhat familiar. Have I threatened you before?”

“I’m afraid I’ve been thinking…” “A dangerous pastime.”

“I’d explain it to you, but you’re brain would explode.”

“Wow, there’s a big surprise. I think I’m going to have a heart attack and die from surprise.”

“I’m gonna hit you so hard, it’ll make you ancestors dizzy.”

“Even when we were kids, I always kicked your ass!”

“Sarcasm is the body’s natural reaction to stupidity.”

“You’re good. A monster pain in the ass… but you’re good.”

“Well, excuse me, psychic wonder!”

“The female of the species is more deadly than the male.”

“Don’t look in her eyes, she might steal your soul.”

“She’s hot, but she’s evil.”

“Do I regret it? Yes. Would I do it again? Probably.”

“I already know that I’m going to hell. At this point it’s really go big or go home.”

“Go on, knock his teeth down his throat.”

“You’re going to burn in a very special level of hell. A level they reserve for child molesters, animal abusers and people who talk at the theater.”

“What’s the point in screaming? No one’s listening anyway.”

“I’m not a damsel in distress. I’m a damsel doing damage.”

“So stick that in your juice box and suck it.”

“Never take life seriously. No one ever comes out alive anyway.”

“This place hold a lot of memories for me. Some bad, some… No. No, no, all bad.”

“A little gasoline… blowtorch… no problem.”

“Good, bad, I’m the one with the gun.”

“I know you can’t kill anybody, ‘cause I can’t kill anybody.”

“You’re insane, but you might also be brilliant.”

“What you call insanity, I call inspiration.”

“Sometimes I question my sanity. Occasionally it replies.”

“Why should we date?” “Because we are attracted to each other.” “I am attracted to pie, but I do not feel the need to date pie.”

“Why does everyone assume the worst of me.” “It saves time.”

“I like you. You’re different.”

“You successfully cured him/her of anything interesting about his/her personality.”

“Neither one us is drunk enough for this conversation.”

“You’re questioning my methods.” “I’m not questioning it, I’m saying it’s stupid.”

“Wow, somebody needs a Happy Meal.”

“I didn’t do it!” “Then why are you laughing?” “Because whoever did it is a freaking genius.”

“Idiots. I’m surrounded by idiots.”

“You couldn’t handle me even if I came with instructions.”

“I care so little, I almost passed out.”

“Well behaved woman rarely make history.”

“You’re so weird.” “You have no idea.”

“The universe may not always play fair, but at least it’s got a hell of a sense of humor.”

“You haven’t even seen my bad side yet.”

“Obviously you have mistaken me for somebody who gives a shit.”

“How’s life treating you?” “Like I ran over it’s dog.”

“Rule number one: don’t bother sucking up. I already hate you, that’s not going to change.”

“Oh God, we’re not gonna have to hug or anything, are we.”

“I’m so glad you could come.” “Cut the crap. Give me a drink.”

“You make no sense to me.” “Welcome to my life.”

“Have fun being deal.” “I will.”

“Damn, you’re strong for a little thing.”

“It’s called thinking. Go with it.”

“I made a new friend today.” “Real or imaginary?” “Imaginary.”

“Where have you been all my life?” “Hiding from you.”

“I’m getting real bored and impatient. I don’t do bored and impatient.”

“The girl is strange no question.”

“Do us a favor… I know it’s difficult for you… but please, stay here, and try no to do anything… stupid.”

“I know most people don’t like me; I don’t care, I don’t like most people.”

“You are a very strange person.” “Well, thanks for noticing.”

“I can tell that you think what you’re saying is funny, but… no.”

“I didn’t steal it. I permanently borrowed it.”

“I’m not shy. I’m just examining my prey.”

“If you pull out my earphones, I will pull out your lungs.”

“I don’t dislike you, I nothing you.”

“Are you crying? No, I’m impersonating a fountain.”

“Ah, he’s playing hard-to-get. That’s cute.”

“You’re kinda anti-social, you know that?”

“I feel like a freakin’ soccer mom.”

“My advice is much more subtle. Stop being an ass.”

“I’m just gonna pack up and go straight to hell now.”

“My ex? Yeah, I’d still hit that. Except this time it would be with a car or baseball bat.”

“She’s complicated like the DaVinci code, you know but harder to crack.”

“And just like everything else we do around here, it’s about to get weirder.”

“Such big evil in such a little thing.”

“Why do I still like you, knowing you’re a total asshole?”

“What does not kill you will likely try again.”

“Oh honey, I would but… I don’t want to.”

“And hello to you too… little homewrecker.”

“I’m gonna make you wish you were dead.”

“I don’t need anger management. I need people to stop pissing me off.”

“What doesn’t kill me might make me kill you.”

“In another life, I think I was in a mental institution.”

“I’m not crazy. I’m just interesting.”

“Don’t make me pop your ten grand sand bags honey.”

“This is fun.” “Seriously, we’re trying to hide a body.”

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xseedgames · 7 years ago

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2017 End-of-the-Year Q&A Extravaganza Blog! #1

It’s time for our first 2017 End-of-the-Year Q&A Extravaganza! We’ve got a bunch of these we’ll be posting over the holiday break, so please look forward to them. Now, let’s roll right in!

We have answers from:

Ken Berry, Executive Vice President / Team Leader John Wheeler, Assistant Localization Manager Nick Colucci, Localization Editor Liz Rita, QA Tester Brittany Avery, Localization Producer Thomas Lipschultz, Localization Producer

Question: Has selling your games on PC worked out for you so far? I know supporting the PC platform is a relatively recent choice for XSEED. - @Nate_Nyo

Ken: Being on PC has been great for us as it allows us to reach anyone anywhere in the world regardless of region or console. We were probably one of the earlier adopters in terms of bringing content from Japan to PC as we first published Ys: The Oath in Felghana on Steam almost 6 years ago in early 2012.

Brittany: I love working on PC. The work involved is greater than working on console, but I feel like it's a bigger learning experience, too. For console, the developers normally handle the graphics after we translate them, and they do all the programming and such. For PC, everything falls on us. I wasn't that experienced with Photoshop in the beginning, but I think I've gotten a lot better with it over the years. We can also receive updates instantly, and since I talk with our PC programmer through Skype, it's easier to suss out our exact needs and think of ideas to improve the game or bring it to modern standards.

Question: What non-XSEED games do you praise the localization for? - @KlausRealta

Brittany: Final Fantasy XII. I love everything about Final Fantasy XII's writing. I'm also a big fan of the personality in the Ace Attorney localizations. I'm still playing Yakuza 0, but you can feel the passion of the localization team in the writing. There are some projects where you can tell the editing was phoned in, and then there are games where it's obvious it was a labor of love. All of these games have a color I aspire to.

Tom: Probably going to be a popular answer, and not an especially surprising one, but I've got to give props to Lost Odyssey. It's hard to deny the timeless quality and absolutely masterful English writing that went into basically every line of that game's massive script, with the many short stories being of particular note. That game really does represent an inspirational high bar that I think most everyone else in the industry will forever strive to reach in their own works.

For a more unexpected answer, I've also got to give mad props to Sega for their work on Monster World IV. As a Sega Genesis game released digitally in English for the very first time less than a decade ago, I guess I was kind of expecting a fairly basic "throwaway" translation -- but instead, the game boasts a full-on professional grade localization that's easily up to all modern standards, brimming with charm and personality. It's really nice to see a legitimate retro game being given that kind of care and attention in the modern era, and it makes it very easy for me to recommend (as does the fact that the game is actually quite fun, and is sure to be enjoyed by anyone who's played through all the Shantae titles and really wants to try something else along similar lines).

John: I played Okami on PS3 earlier this year (before the remake was announced), and I was awed by how skillfully the team handled text that is chock full of localization challenges like quirky nicknames, references to Japanese fairy tales, and regional dialects. I was especially amused to see a reference to "kibi dango," the dumplings Momotaro uses to bribe his companions in that famous story. We dealt with the same cultural reference with STORY OF SEASONS: Trio of Towns.

Nick: My go-to response is always Vagrant Story, because it’s the game I credit with getting me really interested in a career in localization. Before that point, I had enjoyed games for their story and characters, but hadn’t realized just how much the specific word choices and tone contributed to a reader’s perception of a story as a whole. The gents behind VS’s localization would go on to be industry luminaries, with Rich Amtower now calling shots in Nintendo’s Treehouse department and Alex Smith being synonymous with the highly regarded prose of Yasumi Matsuno’s games – including the cool and underappreciated Crimson Shroud for 3DS, and Final Fantasy XII, which as anyone who’s played it can tell you is a stellar localization. Having spent a lot of time with FFXII’s “The Zodiac Age” remaster this year, the care and attention to detail put into the localization still blows me away. The unique speech style of the Bhujerbans (with...Sri Lankan inflections, if memory serves correctly) sticks with me, because I knew that I myself would never have been able to pull off something like that so deftly. I guess you could say Vagrant Story started a lineage of games that’s always given me something to aspire to as an editor.

Final Fantasy XIV, which I’ve been playing this year, also has a very good localization, especially considering the reams of text that go into an MMO of its size and scope. Michael-Christopher Koji Fox and his team have done a bang-up job giving life and personality to the land of Eorzea, and I’ve enjoyed seeing how the localization has changed in subtle ways as time has gone on. The initial “A Realm Reborn” localization sort of cranks the “regional flavor” up to 11 with heavy dialects and vernacular, but in subsequent expansions, they kind of eased up on that and have found a good mix between grounded localization and the kind of flourishes that work well in high-fantasy settings.

And, while I haven’t played it in a number of years, I remember Dragon Quest VIII having a really great localization, too, with ol’ Yangus still living large in my memories. Tales of the Abyss was fantastic as well, and both DQVIII and Abyss delivered some really brilliant dub work that showed me how much richer one could make characterization when the writing and the acting really harmonized. I still consider Tales of the Abyss my general favorite game dub to date. The casting is perfect, with not a bad role among them. I also want to give mad props to Ni no Kuni’s Mr. Drippy, just as a perfect storm of great localization decisions. Tidy, mun!

Question: How hard is it to turn in game signs and words to English for Japanese? Is it as simple as going in and editing text? Or as hard as creating a whole new texture for the model? - @KesanovaSSB4

Tom: We refer to this as "graphic text" -- meaning, literally, text contained within graphic images. How it's handled differs from project to project, but the short answer is, yeah, it involves creating a whole new texture for the model. Sometimes, this is handled by the developer: they'll just send us a list of all the graphic text images that exist in-game and what each image says, we'll send that list back to them with translations, and they'll use those translations to create new graphic images on our behalf. For other games, however (particularly PC titles we're more or less spearheading), we'll have to do the graphic edits ourselves. When the original PSDs or what-not exist for the sign images, this is generally pretty easy -- but as you might expect, those aren't always available to us, meaning we'll sometimes have to go to a bit more trouble to get this done.

John: The best practice is to review graphic text very early in the localization process because it takes effort to fix and can throw a wrench in schedules if issues are discovered too late. On occasion, it is too difficult to change ubiquitous textures, especially those that might also appear in animation. This was the case with "NewTube" in SENRAN KAGURA Peach Beach Splash, which the localization team wanted to change to "NyuuTube" to make the wordplay clearer to series fans.

Question: With the Steam marketplace becoming increasingly saturated and being seen as a greater risk to publish on in recent times, what does XSEED plan on doing in order to remain prominent and relevant in the PC gaming space? - @myumute

Ken: It is indeed getting harder and harder to stand out as hundreds of new titles are releasing on Steam each month. We are working our way towards simultaneous release across all platforms to help leverage some of the coverage from the console version to get more attention to the PC release, so hopefully that's something we can accomplish soon. For PC-exclusive releases it continues to be a challenge, but at least they have a long tail and even if it's not an immediate success at launch we know it can continue to produce sales for years to come.

Question: What was your favorite film that you saw in 2017, and why? - @Crippeh

John: I'm way behind on movies this year (haven't seen Disaster Artist, Phantom Thread, or Get Out, for example), but recently I've enjoyed both Star Wars and Lady Bird. I expect I'll watch my favorite film from 2017 sometime in 2018.

Ken: Wind River. Mainly because of Jeremy Renner's performance and how many quotable lines he had.

Liz: Get Out for horror mindblowing amazingness, Spider-Man Homecoming for genuinely fun comic book movie, and The Shape of Water for Guillermo del Toro. Guillermo del Toro should always be a category.

That’s it! Stay turned for blog #2 later this week. Here’s a preview of the kinds of questions we’ll be answering:

Question: Have you ever considered selling the music CDs for your licenses stateside? - @LimitTimeGamer Question: If possible, would you please consider researching and localizing classic Korean-made PC xRPGs? - @DragEnRegalia Question: Do you have any interest in pursuing the localization of any of the large, beautiful Chinese RPGs that have been hitting Steam? Or are you focused exclusively on Japanese titles? - @TheDanaAddams Question: What inspired you all to do this kind of work in the first place? Also, what’s the story behind the company name XSEED? How did you all come up with it? - @TBlock_02 Question: What was everyone's favorite game(s) to work on this year? - @ArtistofLegacy Question: What's everyone's favorite song from the Falcom games you've released so far? - @Crippeh

#XSEED #Q&A #Localization

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xtremedespair3d · 4 years ago

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HajiKo Anime: Fall 2020

Where was Summer at? We needed to have a line-up as lit as this one, but alas, this cold line-up was pretty refreshing!

Okay, I probably shouldn’t come up with these ridiculous puntastic introductions just for filler and for the sake of using the “Keep reading” tab because these posts are always lengthy, but there’s nothing else I can say, I can’t just simply put the “Keep reading” tab and that’s it!

Also, there were some details on my anticipated shows and I completely forgot about them so I’m going to write them down here because I’m not even gonna bother go editing my previous post and add the things I forgot to say and tell everyone about it, nobody reads my posts anyway.

MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

Before I start this review, I want to say something and it’s probably not for the faint of heart depending on your prefered way of watching anime and mine may not be the absolute best if you’re a “purist,” but it’s very important. On October 1st, as soon as I published my previous Summer 2020 review the day prior and as soon as the Fall season began, HorribleSubs, the anime subs torrent site I’ve been using for a long time, has closed.

Torrenting anime is kind of a gray area for me to say this, but I’m not a shallow anime review site, so who cares? This is my personal blog and might as well say this. I’ve been torrenting anime for quite a few years now, and my go-to anime site to watch the latest shows ripped straight from big-shots like Crunchyroll, Funimation and HIDIVE, is HorribleSubs. I’ve been using random websites before but I moved to torrent anime because the torrent library site Nyaa offers a huge variety of high quality torrent anime, there are so many websites to watch anime illegally and they’re not even that good, the biggest one being KissAnime but on mid-2020, it appears that KissAnime has been closed, a lot of people who used the service are sad, meanwhile I’m laughing my ass off at them since I mainly torrent anime.

Ever wondered how I usually watch anime that aren’t licensed by Funimation, Sentai, etc.? Torrent, that’s why.

The closure of HorribleSubs is quite shocking considering I’ve been using the site for a while, but there’s other sites like Erai-Raws, although not as good as HorribleSubs as they can be very late, but they still get the job done. Sometimes I browse on Nyaa to look for any other sub groups that have the newly released anime I want to watch, but sometimes they can bring pretty awful quality.

I had briefly used Erai-Raws for a while, which was my alternative whenever HorribleSubs was slow, but even Erai-Raws can be very slow at times, so I switched to SubsPlease which at first I had seen torrents from them uploaded on Nyaa and they’re probably the first group to upload torrents of this season’s anime I watched, so I switched to SubsPlease and I gotta say, I’m really really impressed with SubsPlease, they truly are the best website, they really live up on being the better HorribleSubs and Erai-Raws.

Let me give you a quick rundown on why SubsPlease is absolutely better than HorribleSubs and Erai-Raws:

They have a schedule tab on the left page and they waste no time on uploading new seasonal anime, which they are rips from Crunchyroll and Funimation (I don’t know if they rip stuff from HIDIVE too and who knows if they’ll rip Netflix stuff too but we’ll see).

Although on November 19th, for some reason SubsPlease took so damn long on having the latest Guraburu episode, it only took a few hours, but seriously, I do not condone the tardiness and I hope they don’t make this same screw-up or be worse in the future. And then on November 27th, they also took too long with an episode of Assault Lily Bouquet, I don’t watch that series but the tardiness, come on...

The website automatically detects my timezone, even after the daylight saving time, which is really amazing.

And most importantly:

Dark theme! Well, Erai-Raws’ website is dark by default and there’s nothing wrong with it, but since I treat SubsPlease more like a successor of HorribleSubs, having a dark theme on their website is something HorribleSubs always lacked. Dark theme is the future! Not just it’s easier for my eyes, but dark theme is just cool.

I should also point out that on December 9th, Crunchyroll was actually bought by Funimation, this may or may not sound like a win-win situation, it sounds impressive and guess the tables have turned considering their previous team-up which didn’t last long and now they’re back, but I don’t have high hopes for this move overall, just as long as they don’t go too extreme with piracy DMCAs and worst-case-scenario nuking Nyaa or any subs sites like SubsPlease and Erai, I’m okay with it.

Anyways, enough talk with all the anime torrenting, but still, let’s press F to pay respect to HorribleSubs. HorribleSubs closing with the first episode of Higurashi (They were still uploading episodes of ongoing series for a little bit but we don’t count those) sounds like they definitely ended with a bang.

One more thing before I talk about my review for this Fall 2020 season as well as talking about my line-up for Winter 2021, let’s talk about my birthday. So, how was it? It was great, it’s always better when you happen to have friends who make lovely pictures for you, even if it’s usually a day early or some may not always deliver screenshots (Because most of my friends are Japanese and a Filipino who make Custom Order Maid 3D2 content) but at least I get something.

As for the actual day, well, it was alright, it started off quite stressful with reuploading my birthday picture with numerous fixes over and over and played some Among Us with friends, and then I did have fun just going out with my family and have lunch, so that was something.

But to be brutally honest, most of my fun was already taken away the day prior with all of my Japanese and Filipino friends sending me their COM3D2 pictures to me, that’s a big problem, their timezone is like way ahead of me and they lived on October 4th, so everyone pretty much celebrates my birthday so early and as much as I like it, it starts to lose the fun for what I’m supposed to be on my actual birthday.

My birthday should officially be October 5th in their timezones so I would tell everyone in my actual day that it is my birthday, and I should stop having this habit of telling everyone it’s my birthday, I say it’s pretentions but at the very moment I end up doing so anyways.

Actually, the most fun I would have had in my birthday was if Venom: Let There be Carnage hadn’t been delayed if only COVID didn’t exist, that seriously should have been the main thing that would have made my birthday but without it, my birthday has become shallow overall. But whatever, at least I did have a pretty good lunch, only to make my stomach hurt for a week.

So for the future of my birthday, I probably should stay quiet in telling Japanese people about my birthday being in October 4th in their timezone, at least some who don’t know, I’ll start going crazy about my birthday in my actual day. I really hope there’s something really exciting in my birthday and beyond, too bad there’s no movies to watch next year (Although I could wait to see Dune in my birthday since it comes out in October 1st, so it’s kinda close--And my birthday in 2021 is in Monday, lovely...).

Also, we do not talk about the day Travis Touchdown was announced in Super Smash Ultimate as a Mii fighter, the timing, which happened a day before my birthday, and the choice of making him a Mii fighter are the worst thing they’ve ever done and now I’ve 100% lost care for Smash, if I had any care to begin with, I’ll NEVER forgive you, Sakurai! 😡

That is until October 28th that the Switch ports of the first two No More Heroes games have been released! Aah, what a relief! I might have NMH3 next year, but having the first two games on Switch now is an absolute win and the most important thing right now! (SOMEONE GIVE ME A SWITCH!) Actually, now it seems like NMH1 and 2 will be coming out to PC as well, I GUESS I WON’T NEED A SWITCH AT THE MOMENT, THEN!

After I publish this post, please look forward to my New Year post in the next few days as well.

ANYWAYS, let’s start with the reviews!

Fall 2020 Review

(Higher resolution)

Akudama Drive: Call me biased since I’m a Danganronpa fan, but THIS! THIS IS IT! THE ANIME THAT SAVES 2020! THE ONE OF MANY TOOKYO GAMES PROJECT THAT HAS FIRST SOLD ME FINALLY RELEASED AND IT’S ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING I WANTED!

Ahem, sorry about that, but it’s true, I ABSOLUTELY loved this series.

It’s got really great characters and their designs are great, it’s got kick ass opening and ending themes (Although the OP theme is the most important highlight), the animation is very aesthetically pleasing too, and then... AT LAST WE GET TO SEE A PREVIEW OF THE DANGANRONPA COLLAB ART AND IT’S BEAUTIFUL! THIS IS ABSOLUTELY MY #1 AOTS!!! THEN ON DECEMBER 1ST, THE FULL ART IS SHOWN!!!

Another thing I like about the series are the titles of the episodes which they’re all movie titles, especially the episodes “Mission Impossible” and “The Shining,” especially The Shining because it definitely lives up to its name and goes all out with the most obvious references anyone would know.

As much as I love Akudama Drive, I have some complaints!

First off, in terms of the universe, I kinda wish the characters didn’t go by codenames and it would be nicer if they had real names or have them revealed at some point (Which they didn’t, sadly), this makes me feel like watching Goblin Slayer all over again. I mean, there are some things where I’m okay with the characters just having codenames for varying reasons (Hiding their identities or remain mysterious), but this one kind of doesn’t work a bit.

Another which I may take back is the lack of fan arts, somewhere like episode 4 or something, I thought I wouldn’t see fan art of Akudama Drive which I thought nobody watches the series, but one random person miraculously saved my life by giving this one fan art, not only it’s a good fan art, IT’S A CROSSOVER FAN ART WITH DANGANRONPA, ABSOLTUELY PREDATING THE REVEAL OF THE ACTUAL CROSSOVER ART!

Then I searched through Twitter and Pixiv and there’s quite a lot of decent fan arts! (Especially on Pixiv since it usually has god awful fan art, but not all the Akudama Drive fan arts were all that bad, not perfect, but it was something). Searching for Akudama Drive fan arts on Twitter would be extremely hard, especially when there can be way better fan art but without the Japanese hashtag, but even so, I can still find plenty of good fan arts with the hashtag. If anyone has more good Akudama Drive fan arts, please give them to me.

Well, these are nitpicks that are rather meaningless, the real complaint I have is the heavy censorship on any violent moment, like, the most hardcore bloody scenes or something. This is something I’m never going to understand with Japanese censorship, like, I’m okay with the censorship in porn, but the gore is something that hits close to home for me since I’ve always liked blood and gore but it just feels like whatever people like doing with violent video games, anime and manga, it just feels very limited. Not to mention there’s some weird inconsistency in some Japanese media that some can show gore uncensored and others censored, I’m so confused.

I also wish the ending was a little more satisfactory, even though I’m sad about all the Akudama dying, something about the ending is a little left to be desired and raises a lot of questions.

The healing factor kids are save now, but it came at the cost of our Akudama bros’ lives. 😭

By the way, there’s a manga adaptation that came out when the anime was supposed to come out back in July, it’s monthly and I would absolutely read it legit in this site called Renta and the chapters are quite cheap to rent or buy, which is really nice. I would like to read it but I’d like to buy the full volumes of it whenever they’re gonna come out.

Anyways, after the series ends, I hope we get to see new info in the Kazutaka Kodaka projects with Rui Komatsuzaki character designs soon, and I really hope Kodaka would make more original anime like Akudama Drive (As long as the characters are designed by Rui Komatsuzaki, I can’t look at anything Kodaka without Komatsuzaki character designs, no matter the concept).

Oh, by the way, even Osomatsu-san season 3 promoted Akudama Drive! (I mean, they’re both made by Pierrot, but to see something like this is just uncanny)

Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni - Gou: First of all, the title is actually not “New,” the true title is actually “Gou,” which supposedly this is a brand new entry, this is interesting, the secrecy behind the series and how it was marketed certainly makes for a really great series, but since I’ve never experienced Higurashi in my life, I feel left out. I mean supposedly because from what I hear this isn’t even a remake but rather a new entry, but whatever site I heard that from is probably an unreliable nobody source that I know of, so I’m not entirely sure on that one.

Second of all, before I go into details on my impressions with the series, as someone who never grew up with the original anime nor the visual novels, there’s something I forgot to address in the previous post, Higurashi Gou is animated by Passione, which they impressed me with High School DxD Hero and Citrus. Although sometimes the character designs does throw me off a little, and I saw a comment on Nyaa within the HorribleSubs upload of the episode that the art style reminded of the commentor to Monogatari, which it does look Monogatari-ish and I can’t unsee that now.

Now for my impressions, since I pretty much know the nature of the Higurashi series, I didn’t have that much of high expectations, so there’s not much to say about it. Although even if I’m familiar with the messed up nature, I wasn’t really familiar with the characters and the story, so I guess this is my one way to go with it. As of late, YouTube has randomly been recommending me comparison videos of some moments from the series so far and I’m usually biased towards newer stuff that look cleaner, so I’m definitely take the 2020 side (Which leads me to believe this IS a remake of an adaptation or something).

One thing that did disappoint me, however, is that the Eiko Shimamiya opening theme from the original series was only used once at the end of the first episode, I was kinda sad this isn’t used for the rest of the series, but it was kind of expected to make new theme songs.

If I have the time and desire to do so, I wish I would watch the original Higurashi series and maybe rewatch Gou for like a side-to-side comparison visually and perhaps narratively as well. (And what about the VNs? Eh, I’ll probably never get the mental capacity and time to do so, sorry.)

D4DJ First Mix: Since this is already a new franchise beginning, I thought I would give this an A (just like other Sanzigen titles this year but for varying reasons), but as of the writing of this episode after episode 5 premiered, this series immediately went from A to S! This is my #2 Sanzigen anime of the year, #1 being of course Bandori season 3.

One thing I’d like to point out is that the background characters throughout the series are entirely CG! Looks like Sanzigen has finally delivered God’s work for once! Except there are times when MINOR characters, like the owners of Cafe Vynil and even the Happy Around girls when they were kids are still hand drawn. I don’t know why but I just realized I constantly talk about how much hand drawn characters I have to point out in literally everything Sanzigen makes, so apologies about that.

When I started watching the first episode, I literally got familiar vibes to that of Argonavis with the main character (or in this case, multiple main characters being Happy Around) going to a live concert, but it’s a little different. Instead of the main character being motivated to becoming a musician and go to the concert he went when he was a kid, instead the main character (Being Rinku) went to this concert and remembers WOW WAR TONIGHT, Maho, however, does have the desire of going to the same concert Rinku went when she was a kid.

That kinda sounds more like Argonavis but with more accessibility and well, something that appeals more to audiences because I’m still baffled that out of every Sanzigen title that came out this year, no company, and I mean, NO COMPANY, has officially licensed Argonavis at all! Leaving the series mainly being fansubbed. I think it may be for the better that Argonavis isn’t officially licensed because not everyone would like the series because not everyone is fond of the concept of a male equivalent of Bandori (If it works for Idolmaster, it wouldn’t for Bandori IMO).

Hopefully they’ll make just as many seasons and movies like Bandori if this is going to be Bushiroad’s next big franchise.

Osomatsu-san season 3: After 5 long years, Osomatsu-san continues to deliver some really good laughs and being bizarre.

Wait, it’s been 5 years, why hasn’t Osomatsu-san season 3 addressed a 5th anniversary of sorts? 5 years is an important milestone!

Girls’ Frontline Healing Chapter season 2: Sure, Osomatsu-san season 3 is definitely the better comedy of the season (Which forgot to mention it would top Girls’ Frontline Healing Chapter season 2 along with Uzaki-chan), but that doesn’t mean Healing Chapter season 2 wouldn’t give me a lot of laughs (Which I think it gives me more laughs than Osomatsu-san sometimes).

They definitely improved this season with a lot of things, new characters, extended runtime which they really listened, and G11 now speaks. The first season will always be iconic, but I definitely think this season is beyond better.

However, as much as I loved this season, that is until I watched episode 12 where right before watching it, I just realized we had come this far until the very end of the season, time went flying so fast I felt like this season ended way too soon. Even if the season had a longer runtime for episodes, but for some reason it kinda feels like it didn’t do anything to me. I was pretty confused with M16′s character throughout that episode as well.

Then there was this teaser with 6P62 in episode 8. Was this supposed to mean something or did they just randomly threw this scene out of nowhere?

This finale doesn’t ruin the season overall, like I said, it improves the first season and I had plenty of laughs, but I need to process this. Once I watch the Japanese, I’ll probably get a better impression of it, and yes, the Japanese dub is indeed happening. It is coming in Spring 2021 as well, I wish it would come out in January 2021, like how the first season in Chinese dub started in late July 2019 and then the Japanese dub came out in my birthday, October 4th, I actually saw this coming but I guess the Spring 2021 release is fine, I suppose.

Despite the somewhat weak ending, I repeat, I still think this is absolutely better than the first season.

With the trend of wasting new characters in comedy shows, I absolutely award Girls’ Frontline Healing Chapter season 2 as the one new comedy season that absolutely did not waste new characters like DEFY and Sangvis Ferri! 🏆

Surprisingly there was no surprise Madness Chapter season 2 or anything, which it’s for the best and I guess that’s just to show how that series wasn’t as popular as Healing Chapter, even though it’s supposed to be like an adaptation of the game’s 4koma, but the animation is so cheap and people prefer the more wholesome series like Healing Chapter, which is probably why it’s so popular.

(Although I kinda wish they picked Architect from the villain roster, I like Architect more than pretty much every Sangvis character. Although I guess Hunter, Executioner and Scarecrow are like the most popular characters or they’re important to the story? I don’t know, I just like Architect because she’s cuter)

Hoping for season 3 if the Healing Chapter series continues to grow popular and hopefully the 6P62 teaser can be paid off.

Burn the Witch: I’m still surprised how this adaptation came out shortly after the manga serialization was launched, which means it was on the work for some time, did Tite Kubo give the animators his drafts or early copies of the three chapters of the manga serialization early before it come out or something?!

Anyways, it was quite a great adaptation, I liked it, the animation was clean, I like the performances, etc. Although I do wish they should have adapted the one-shot instead since it’s pretty much the prologue of the story, although one-shots usually aren’t what the actual stories supposed to be, it’s kind of like a prototype of sorts, but this wasn’t a prototype at all, but oh well.

Golden Kamuy season 3: Around November 1st, I randomly read through all my previous Tumblr posts and even talking things out about my retrospective thoughts in stuff I reviewed (Some hold up, some don’t), with the first two seasons of Golden Kamuy, I gave it a B- overall because I was kinda spoiled with some of the hate around it and gratuitously CG animals, but retroactively, it’s still a very good series, the action, the worldbuilding, the characters and especially the bizarre humor are the best part.

Although to be honest, I like the storyline from the first two seasons better, but I’m glad things have turned out well in the end this season.

Munou na Nana: For a show that came out on my birthday, I guess this was alright overall, when I watched the first episode, I was quite surprised with the twist and that’s pretty much what the entire series is. Still, I wasn’t highly impressed, but it was alright at best. Like, I think it was best worth watching the premiere on my birthday, otherwise I wouldn’t be committed on watching the entire series because I usually drop anime that don’t convince me on my birthday.

At first I thought Rena from Higurashi and Nana would be a cute but deadly waifu combo, which they still are but I prefer Rena over Nana because I’m not pretty sure about her as a character before, she’s quite smart but I definitely wouldn’t cross paths with her ever, she at least had some hilarious faces throughout the series too. That is until the last few episodes is where I’m starting to like Nana now?

There’s another thing I liked about the series is that how earlier episodes were character focused, like dedicated to Nana’s victims before Nana kills them, later episodes have become more serialized or something.

Probably the worst thing I can come up with (And I seriously wish anyone else, especially anime journalist sites, the journalists themselves or normies would say this), is that Munou na Nana is basically Among Us the anime. Kyoya always sus’d Nana, and Nana was the Impostor all along. Pink is hella sus. (Yeah, this is stupid, moving on) But then, the final episode came out and... it ended... in quite a shocking fashion, and this is probably the best episode in the series.

If there’s one thing I have to complaint about this series, is that the official Funimation subtitles can be cringey and don’t make sense with what the characters actually say sometimes, what the hell were the official subbers thinking? I wouldn’t rewatch the series but I’m sure fansubbers would do a much better job with the writing in the Blu-Ray rips.

But then, the final episode came out and... it ended... in quite a shocking fashion, and in my opinion this is probably the best episode in the series, although even if I liked the episode very much now after watching it, there are some things I was pretty confused by, but whatever. Now this episode for sure makes me think about the series in retrospect, probably not the best anime to come out in my birthday, the first most of it was decent but this episode delivered quite a punch!

First the series started in a shocking fashion which I had no expectations for the series at the time, now the series ended in a shocking fashion. Who would have thought?

Danmachi season 3: Throughout the middle of the season, I thought this would be my least favorite storyline of the series ever, but I think it turned out pretty good in the end, I usually like beginnings than climaxes. I kinda felt similarly with Golden Kamuy as mentioned above, but both have solid climaxes.

Call me crazy, but I feel like Danmachi doesn’t feel as relevant as it used to be back when the first season came out and it was quite memed a lot, particularly with Hestia’s boob ribbon and the tooth brushing from the opening or something, those were the good old days.

Although I do admire how we’ve come this far with quite a lot of Danmachi anime over the last 5 years, from the first season in 2015, the Sword Oratoria spin-off in 2017, last year’s season 2 and now season 3. There’s this two year pattern but season 3 this year feels different.

Toji no Miko Tomishibi: On November 1st (Día de los Muertos), before watching the latest episode of Munou na Nana (or Talentless Nana as I called the series in the previous post), I knew I was definitely gonna forget about the first part of the OVA, so I watched the first part of the OVA after watching Munou na Nana and I guess it was okay, not really great but not bad either, but there was one thing I immediately noticed is that the character designs in the OVA look completely different than the TV series.

Before (TV series):

After (OVA):

The OVA character designs look a lot less like Yoshinori Shizuma’s art style like the TV series replicated. That is probably because the OVA was made by a different studio than the TV series. The TV series was made by Studio Gokumi and the OVA was made by Project No.9.

But even if they’re both made by different studios, part of the visuals kind of look similar in a way or something? I also noticed the Aradama aren’t CG in the OVA like in the TV series.

I was happy to see Kanami and Hiyori in the OVAs too, I always liked them better than pretty much everyone else, especially the characters from the mobile game which are the main stars here who are my least favorites, so I guess there are some characters I like in a series I’m otherwise lukewarm with.

The second part, however... It didn’t do much service to me, as the animation has gotten really horrible, the writing was terrible (And no, I’m talking about the subs, I’m talking about actual writing), and even if this served as the finale of the OVA, the pacing felt way fast for it being the last half of the OVA.

I’m not sure I should hope for more Toji no Miko anime in the future, I really hope this should be the last and never hear about Toji no Miko again.

Guraburu: This is probably the blandest Cygames adaptation yet. I mean, sure, you could say that it’s nowhere near bad (Same with Princess Connect Re:Dive), but for some reason this series wasn’t really that funny for me, definitely the worst comedy of the season when we have great ones like Osomatsu-san and Girls’ Frontline Healing Chapter. I think the Guranburu 4koma work best when they’re just still images, making an anime out of this just doesn’t work.

Then there’s the animation, I’m very conflicted with it. On one hand, it tries to replicate the art style of the 4koma very well, but when it comes to the motion, it just looks very cheap, almost as if it was animated on Flash, it’s kind of like Queen Bee tier animation. Even gacha 4koma adaptations like FGO’s Manga de Wakaru is does absolute justice to the art, it's hilarious and it's very pleasing to look at.

The subtitles writing can also be a little weird as well, though probably not as god awful as Munou na Nana can get, right? (No wonder people say dubs are usually better written, but I couldn’t care less about dubs in general)

As for the comedy, sometimes it was funny, but I wasn’t really impressed, I don’t think this is a case of “comedy is subjective” (or might be), if the animation were better, I would have laughed along with the jokes.

If you want better examples of anime adaptations based on gacha games’ 4koma, just watch FGO’s Manga de Wakaru instead, like I previously mentioned, and then the upcoming Azur Lane Bisoku Zenshin (If you’re one of those people who hate Azur Lane: The Animation which I hope you’re not).

This was me throughout the series...

(Although this and Lyria’s “See? You just said something nonsensical.” are the only good moments I liked which these make for good reaction images from a series I find otherwise bland.)

I just realized I haven’t put any anime I didn’t like or hated in D or E, so this might as well be the first and ONLY anime of 2020 being D tier! Congratulations! We’ve finally found a bad anime of the year that’s D or E-tier worthy for once! I’m impressed, most of the anime I watched this year aren’t really all god awful compared to last year, all the anime I watched, even the ones that let me down and downright disliked weren’t all god awful, so this year turned out quite a blessing in disguise with my anime experience for an otherwise terrible year for literally everything.

Honorable mentions

Attack on Titan: The Final Season: As of the publishing of this post, we’re literally four episodes into the season and I’d hardly call this as an AOTS in 2020, as the tier on my TierMaker image suggests, this gonna be more like the Best Anime of 2021, there’s no way after four episodes, this season should immediately be AOTY material, or who knows.

There’s one thing I forgot to mention in the previous post and that is the surprising studio change from Studio WIT to MAPPA, at first when I saw the poster of the season, I was very skeptical and confused as to why did they change studios from WIT to MAPPA, before I even noticed the trailer was actually there when this was announced, I was very skeptical, then I saw the trailer and I thought I was impressed, it seemed on par with what WIT did, but upon watching the actual first episode in fullscreen this time, I think it looks alright but it’s got some good parts so far like the rotoscope animation. Some of the character designs look a bit different too, but I don’t know if it’s just me. I just hope it’s not a repeat of One Punch Man season 2 where JC Staff did a horrible job and ended up being my #2 worst AOTY 2019 just for the animation quality alone. That’s not to say I’m shitting on MAPPA just yet, let’s wait until the very end so I can get a better judge of what’s the animation to come.

And then in episode 2, there were flashbacks from the previous seasons with the WIT animation. I think I’ve come at a point where I really started to get fed up with this trend. It’s not just lazy copy and pasting scenes from previous seasons, but it’s just really heartbreaking seeing those clips of the previous seasons done by better studios compared to the actual season we’re watching done by another studio.

The OP and ED are absolute bangers too. As for the OP, it’s still not Linked Horizon but it sounds good, and I love how it has now being parodied to death with footage from World War and even one of 2020. The ED is pretty good too and that one’s actually released in full first, sometimes I listen either the OP or the ED quite a lot Oh, and I found out the band that did the OP made... This. Uh... Okay... (Before you complaint, I don’t think it’s a bad song, but the backstory behind it just makes me feel uncomfortable. Oh and they did the ED theme for season 2 which I didn’t even know and forgot about the song)

The most shocking part is, from what I heard, this season is going to be 16 episodes long. I mean, it sounds a little better than 13 episodes like season 2, but is that even going to be enough considering the manga is nearly about to end? It should end pretty soon but the final season of the anime is ending in March and who knows if by that time the manga would have ended and who knows if MAPPA will be able to catch up by adapting this season with JUST 16 episodes, or they would probably end up making movies that cover the manga’s finale, I DON’T KNOW!

So far MAPPA’s animation has been okay for me, it can be a bit of hit or miss but they’re doing an alright job, but of course, WIT will always be the best, althugh sometimes even seasons 2 and 3 can get a little stale, but WIT will always be better. They pretty much worked hard into the series and lately they’ve been working in a lot of projects, so it must have been very difficult if they were able to work on AoT The Final Season and everything else all at once. Thank you WIT.

Fire Force season 2: After two seasons, Fire Foce is one of the best and worst works David Production has ever done. My thoughts into the story and stuff goes the same if I were to read the manga, I like the story, the worldbuilding, etc. But my biggest criticism in the anime’s part is the animation, sometimes even in the second season can still be a bit slow and poorly paced, but at least it’s not as dreadful as the first season, but even so, there’s still some great sakuga moments.

With that being said about the animation, I hope this doesn’t affect David Productions in the future, such as the upcoming second seasons of Cells at Work and potentially the JoJo Stone Ocean anime. (And whatever else David Production makes but honestly I don’t give a shit)

Hmmm, I feel like I’m missing something, oh yeah, what about the Dragon’s Dogma anime? Well, I wasn’t interested on wanting to watch it. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear it would be shitty, even from hardcore Dragon’s Dogma players.

Arknights Holy Knight Light: This was quite the most surprising thing ever to come out of the 1st anniversary livestreams from the Japanese and English Arknights YouTube channels, the first time I started watching it, I couldn’t help but fanboy out of this with what was happening, this OVA is worth rewatching a billion times as a New Year movie!

Since I don’t have time or not planning to add this into my actual tier lists, might as well say that this is definitely S tier!

(This last honorable mentionis more like a last minute addition since I had planned to publish this post this Sunday, the 27th, which you’re probably reading now. This was written on the 26th.)

Anyways, let’s get into the most anticipated releases of Winter 2021!

Anticipated anime of Winter 2021

Note that I’m not talking about my anticipated anime of 2021 overall, as I’ll be discussing that in the next post which is my New Year 2020 review, so for now, let’s talk about the Winter 2021 releases!

Azur Lane Bisoku Zenshin - January 11th: Over the course of this 2020 after the finale episodes came out, I became extremely bummed out and spoiled on the fact that a lot of people (Especially the Western Azur Lane community) absolutely HATE Azur Lane: The Animation. I mean, sure, the animation kinda got bad at times but that doesn’t make it automatically trash, and neither should the story (Which I think the animation is more troublesome than the story).

I of course had always known Azur Lane The Animation might be hated, at least from the Western community, from the day it was first broadcast, I’ve seen nothing but praise from the Japanese community, and it was going that way for the entire series, that’s what I always relied on and it has beared with me until I started talking to the official Discord server about it and it was quite a shitstorm.

I could go on and on with ranting about why Azur Lane The Animation isn’t garbage for billions of times, over and over, from the many references from the game to fan service at its absolute best. especially that they actually featured official Azur Lane nudity in the Blu-Rays, and speaking of the Blu-Rays, they offered very cool costumes. You might say having exclusive costumes in the Blu-Rays would scream ALTA being a cash grab, shut up, it’s not, people of course religiously buy the Blu-Rays for whatever purpose. Shit animation my ass! Shit characterization my ass! Shit story my ass! Identity crisis my ass! Fuck everyone whoever talks shit about Azur Lane The Animation and even if I were to forget about it for a while, I’m bound to come across someone who’s gonna be like “Azur Lane has an anime too but it’s shit,” and I’m gonna yell at their asses off!

After making animated trailers, not only for Azur Lane but even Arknights too, this is the first major TV series release from Yostar’s new animation studio, Yostar Pictures, but they won’t operate alone, so they’re collaboration with another studio known as CANDY BOX. which seems to be a relatively new studio, but this isn’t the first time Yostar Pictures is collaborating with another studio, they also work with Madhouse for some trailers, including trailer for the third anniversary as well as the Dead or Alive Xtreme Venus Vacation collab trailer. YOSTAR PICTURES COLLABORATING WITH MADHOUSE, HOW COOL IS THAT?! THAT’S A DREAM TEAM FROM STUDIOS I LIKE!

Imagine if Azur Lane The Animation would get a second season (Dear god, please do. I loved this season more than anything, fuck what people say) that is animated in the same style as these trailers, the series could recover and it would be redeemed for the Western community (I may jinx this one out since I said the same thing with the very first animated commercial made by Sunrise, and then ALTAS was animated by Bibury Animation Studio, I’m not really disappointed, though).

What if an Arknights series from Yostar Pictures x Madhouse too? That would be amazing and they even teased about it. Actually, around this Christmas when the first anniversary livestreams were happening, they actually released an OVA which is sort of New Year-themed at the end BUT IT’S SO COOL, I’M GOING TO BE REWATCHING THIS A BILLION TIMES!

Anyways, I’m sorry for going off topic with Azur Lane The Animation instead of what I was supposed to be talking about, Bisoku Zenshin.

It’s been like 2 years since I started following the series, mainly on the Japanese Azur Lane Twitter account and I can’t remember what were the first chapters even like, the only things I remember is this one chapter where Takao actually having animal ears. 2 years later, the English Azur Lane Twitter account is finally catching up with English translations of the 4koma, but the problem is that it’s 2 years and so many chapters behind from JP, going from the first chapter, it may or may not help me remember what were the first chapters like and hopefully they’ll be adapted in the series, I probably should pay attention.

Although from what I’ve seen in the trailers and the character reveals which so far they revealed Formidable, Baltimore, Spee, etc, I’m not really sure if this series is going to actually adapt the 4koma from the very beginning, well, I don’t remember what were the first chapters like, so hopefully once I start seeing the series and try to find the first few chapters, this can be a faithful adaptation. Although, honestly, I wouldn’t mind if this were an original story using the same foundation, I just want to watch more Azur Lane anime with whatever stories they can come up with.

Cells at Work! season 2 and Cells at Work! BLACK - January 9th: What’s better than having a second season of Cells at Work and have an adaptation of the spin-off, Cells at Work BLACK? HAVE BOTH OF THEM AIRED BACK-TO-BACK IN ONE HOUR! That is such a perfect way to celebrate the series with a new season and spin-off! It kinda reminds me of the good old days when I used to watch Danganronpa 3 Hope and Despair Arcs almost simultaneously, just with two days apart, but with Cells at Work and BLACK, we’re getting ONE HOUR!

As previously mentioned in Fire Force season 2, I really hope David Production can keep their shit together with the animation in future shows, most specifically Cells at Work season 2. I’m not animation expert but I’m sure it’ll be pretty much the exact same team of animators who did the first season, so I really hope the series won’t have a very deteriorating tone and direction like Fire Force suffered so badly in the first season last year.

With Cells at Work BLACK, if you haven’t guessed from the title, this is a darker spin-off of the vanilla Cells at Work series. The vanilla series is already violent but it keeps a light spirited tone, BLACK, however, is downright edgy. We’re having quite the Ying and Yang of two series. I’m surprised that David Production isn’t doing BLACK like the vanilla series, although I think it’s for the better because they’ve been working on other stuff like JoJo and Fire Force, and with this different studio doing BLACK, I’m impressed with how the visuals look so far.

And female White Blood Cell is cute.

Quintessential Quintuplets season 2 - January 7th: I’m surprised how long it has been for season 2 to come out, at first I thought it would come out this Winter 2020 but nothing came out of it and I was already thinking it would have been delayed, then a few months later we finally got some info but the most surprising thing is that they actually changed studios to Bibury Animation Studio.

Given that this is Bibury Animation Studio, the same one that did Azur Lane The Animation, like I previously mentioned in Azur Lane Bisoku Zenshin, PLEASE GIVE BIBURY A CHANCE! THEY DID NOTHING WRONG!

When I looked at the visuals and looking at the character trailers, it actually looks quite promising, the first season wasn’t visually the best, so this has potential.

Project Scard: Scar on the Praeter - January 8th: Actually, this 2021, GoHands is going to release two TV series, this first one being an original anime series, and the second one which was supposed to be for April being Tokyo Babylon, an adaptation of CLAMP’s manga series of the same name. Tokyo Babylon was delayed until further notice because apparently costume designs were referenced without permission, that is such an outlandish reason. Besides, what kind of costume references? And permission from who or what? So vague. I could have gotten two GoHands shows in two seasons in a row!

Anyway, let’s first talk about Project Scard which that’s what it’s gonna come out first. I’m happy to see that GoHands is doing more original series, but there’s a problem: This one is apparently not related to Hand Shakers at all!

And no, this is not a case of misleading marketing with the trailers tricking me this could still be secretly a sequel of Hand Shakers like W’z did (Although I don’t think I payed attention to the W’z trailers at all until I started watching the series), I definitely see this series entirely standalone for once based on the characters and the setting, which I’m very disappointed that this isn’t a threequel to Hand Shakers. Everyone hated Hand Shakers and W’z was GoHands’ EXTREMELY worst selling anime, I really loved the series and I liked their stories, the world had so much potential!

Anyways, I may be sad this isn’t a new Hand Shakers entry, I should at least enjoy this series for what it is, not everyone’s going to like this one for sure since the animation is more akin to Hand Shakers, which would turn many people off.

With what I said about Bibury Animation Studio with Quintuplets S2, people should also give GoHands a chance! THEY DID NOTHING WRONG!!!

I’m honestly feeling more excited about Tokyo Bablyon than this, but we’ll get into more details in the New Year post.

Bungou Stray Dogs Wan! - January 12th: There may not be a new season of the main series as of late, but an adaptation of a chibi spin-off is quite surprising, since I really like Bungou Stray Dogs, I’m of course watching this!

(Now that I think about it, I don’t really think Bungou Stray Dogs a huge part of my life... 🤔)

Promised Neverland season 2 - January 7th: With the manga now ended a few months ago, should we expect future seasons so they would adapt the finale?

Beastars season 2 - January 5th: I always victimize Beastars when criticizing Sanzigen’s syndrome of having hand drawn background characters (Even D4DJ was so close on breaking the syndrome, it has CG background characters but there’s still some minor characters that are still hand drawn, the most baffling part is the main characters when they were kids), but that aside, it doesn’t really affect the story or anything, just ranting.

Yuru Camp season 2 - January 7th: I literally forgot the spin-off series, Heya Camp, existed, and since that one was a short series, I feel like it wasn’t enough, so it’s finally time for season 2 to come out!

I also forgot about the movie, so maybe once season 2 ends, there might be some info on it?

Re:Zero season 2 second cour - January 6th: It hasn’t been long but it still feels weird having to wait a while for the next part of the season, at least it’s not in production that would take forever like Magia Record.

Dr. Stone: Stone Wars - January 14th: A few months ago, I randomly watched a couple of episodes of Dr. Stone, but on the night of December 6th, I have decided to start binging the first season, then I finished it and... WHY DID I SLEEP ON IT IN 2019?! THIS IS GREAT! I was already impressed by the 3 episodes I randomly watched at some point, but after watching the series fully, I couldn’t be more impressed than ever, it’s making me feel like the time I binged Shield Hero and I was just as amazed (which lead to the disappointment of Isekai Quartet 2 wasting the Shield Hero characters hard).

That is it for my Fall 2020 review as well as my anticipated anime of 2021!

Final thoughts on 2020 in anime

I want to give my final thoughts on this overall year in anime: As previously mentioned, I was absolutely impressed that there was almost not a single anime I didn’t like that I would consider D or E, even for a year that has done me more harm than good, this year has delivered quite a lot of good anime, even if some of them disappointed me. BUT! Want to know what are my top anime of the year? You’ll have to find out in the New Year post to see what are my contenders!

Check out my Carrd.

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legitimateluffy · 7 years ago

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Gif Tutorial!

Since I’m sure some of you are wondering how to make some nice gifs (and since I’ve seen a few people want one), I’ve made a gif tutorial! It’s really, really long and that’s probably because I do it an inefficient way but hey it works. So let’s get started!

Before starting off, the programs that I use are VLC and Photoshop CC 17. I’m also using a mac so some things will be found via different means. You don’t have to have the exact version be be aware that some things may be placed just a little differently depending on the version.

Starting off, once you have VLC, open it up and it should look something like this:

You want to go to preferences located towards the top left hang corner after clicking VLC (in bold). Something like this should then pop up:

Click onto the ‘Video’ tab and select where you want your frames to be saved. Next move onto the ‘Hotkeys’ tab and find ‘Take video snapshot’ and ‘Next Frame’, setting them to which ever keys you like. Mine are set to E and ` (for no particular reason)

When making a gif, you’ll obviously need to have a file of whatever you wish to gif (since I’m an OP blog I’ll stick to using OP as an example). The website to torrent these from is nyaa.si. This is what it looks like:

(Me being the horrible OP nerd that I am have all episodes and movies downloaded....)

Once you have the desired episode you want, open it up in VLC.

Once you reach the part you want to gif, click your ‘Take video snapshot’ hotkey. This is what should appear once you do so:

Next, you’ll have to click your ‘Next Frame’ hotkey and go through all the frames, snapshotting the ones you desire. I know it’s a really long and tedious process, especially if you’re doing large gif sets but it helps in the long run. Chuck on some tunes as to not get bored!

All of your frames will save in the desired folder, with the frames being individual images.

Now to put them together! Open up Photoshop and go to File>Scripts>Load Files into Stack.

Don’t go to Import>Load files into frames (or something like that) as this makes the whole process a lot more difficult. When going through this way, you are only limited to 500 frames which can limit what you’re working on (especially if it’s a large gifset with more than 500 frames). When importing through Scripts, it will allow you more than 500 (I haven’t hit a limit yet so I’m not sure if there is one or not but so far I haven’t experienced one).

Click ‘Browse’ and find the folder with your frames, selecting all of the ones you wish to convert into a gif and click ‘Open’ and then ‘Ok’. It should look something like this:

Next, we want to display the ‘Timeline’. To do this, we have to go to Window>Timeline

A grey box should appear on the bottom of your page. Click the little arrow where it says ‘Create Video Timeline’ and click ‘Create Frame Animation’

When done, click on the little box to the right hand side of the timeline window and click ‘Make Frames From Layers’.

Because of the size of the file, it’s too big and is lagging down Photoshop a bit, plus we need to adjust the sizing for Tumblr. To do this, go to Image>Image Size

Make sure that the width is at 540 pixels (not cm, inches, etc.) if you want a standard size. (I don’t remember the exact dimensions for Tumblr but if you want to know, do a quick google search). Also be sure to click the link to ensure it is fitted proportionately and click ‘OK’ once done.

Once again, click the little dropbox on the top right hand side of the timeline window and click ‘Reverse Frames’ (only if your frames have loaded backwards which mine always do although this may be different to you, to check just play through the frames)

Play around with timing to how you wish. I usually have mine at ‘0.08′ seconds. You can change the time down next to the small arrow where it has ‘0.00′ (Make sure all frames are selected if you want all frames to have the same time delay) Remember that when played at 0.00, it may appear normal but once saved it is a lot faster so be sure to change it

Now we want to select all frames in both the timeline and in the layers, this is important for the next step. Once selected, click the small icon at the bottom of the the left hand corner (next to ‘Once’)

Once this is converted to a video timeline, go to Filter>Convert for Smart Filters. This essentially merges all your frames/layers together and still plays as a video in the timeline. It also allows us to edit the batch of frames together instead of going through each individual frame to edit it.

This bit of editing really helps blend colours together which helps in saving them later on. It does get rid of details here in there depending how you apply it. Go to Filter>Blue>Surface Blur and experiment around with the settings.

I usually keep mine at Radius: 5 and Threshold: 10. I recommend not going too far from these numbers.

Because the surface blur has blured the colours together slightly, the defining lines of the character are slightly lost. To fix this we go to Filter>Sharpen>Smart Sharpen.

I tend to keep my radius quite low and the amount relatively low as well, it depends on the gif I’m making.

I tend to see this a lot when people make gifs and that is that they oversharpen their frames which can be quite jarring to the eye and it also doesn’t look very nice. An example of oversharpening is when white pixels surround the black like this:

Less oversharped but still so:

It makes the lines all jagged and unsmooth which is what we want to avoid.

That’s a lot better (and it could be better but notice the distinct lack of white pixels)

Now you can play around with different filters and such! I definitely recommend using some sort of filters, the anime colours are very dull and unsaturated. Once you’re happy, save your gif by going to File>Export>Save for Web

This is what the next window will look like. You can experiment with either Diffusion and Pattern. This is how the pixels on your gif will appear. I usually alternate between the two, depending on what works best with the particular gif I’m making. In this case, I’ll use Diffusion.

When saving, make sure that the size of the gif is no higher than 3mb, that is tumblr’s restriction on the size of gifs (as of making this tutorial). Also make sure that Looping Options is selected as ‘Forever’. Click ‘Save’ when you’re done! And there you go, you have your gif!

Filter 1:

Filter 2:

Filter 3:

Anime:

Notice the different palettes you can create? If you only wanted to make a gif, you’re done! However, if you want to know some more tricks, keep on reading! (I say as if this tutorial isn’t long enough)

This part is if you want your gifs to look more clean and crisp.

If you notice in my example gifs, they all have these square like patterns on there. That’s because Photoshop can only allow 256 colours, so to make up for those lack in colours, it adds pattern/diffusion to essentially replace them (or something like that lol) To fix this, go back to your gif (before saving) and select the lasso tool and select the colours that are most important in the frame.

Once done, click Image>Mode>Indexed Colour (make sure you have the history window ready)

Make sure your settings are set like this (they may be by default but I don’t remember) and click ‘OK’

Now go back and save it as if you were saving it as a gif by File>Export>Save for web. This time, click the drop box and click ‘Save Colour Table’ and call it table. It will ask if you want to replace it, click ‘OK’. Once saved, click cancel and return to your gif.

Click on the history window (if it’s not there, look under ‘Window’) and undo the ‘Indexed Colour’. When we did this, the layers all merged together and the frames have gone, meaning no more motion/movement. Make sure to undo this step!

Click the same little icon when we were saving the colour table and click load table, and select ‘table’. Similar colours will come up however now they are the most important ones. Play through the gif to ensure the colours look nice and look smooth. if not, delete some colours on the colour table by selecting the colour you wish to delete and the little trash can in the bottom right hand corner. To add colours, go to the ‘original’ tab and select the colour picker, clicking the little page icon left of the trash can. This will add the colour to the table.

This can be incredibly tedious but it changes the colours on the gif and makes it look as if it is straight from the anime. Gifs like this one needs a lot of time since the colours in the back change quite a lot.

Before:

After:

It may not look like much to those who don’t make gifs (or any difference at all) but things like these can help increase the quality of the gif. It seems like a really long and tedious process (to which it is trust me) but I think it’s worth it in the end!

For comparisons sake, here’s diffusion (first) compared to pattern (second)

If anyone has any questions regarding this tutorial, feel free to message me and I can try help you out!

If you read this far, thank you so much! I spent a lot of time on this tutorial so I’m grateful if you took time out of your day to read this. Have a good day!!

#gif #tutorial #anime #opgraphics #one piece #monkey d. luffy #GOD #this took 3 hours to make #more than that #I'm lowkey embarrassed #oh well #I hope it wasn't too confusing #but yeah making gifs is tiring #blegh #mine

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avoutput · 7 years ago

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Forced Perspective || The Last Jedi

The Last Jedi had a profound effect on me by the time the curtain closed. Rian Johnson had forced me to reach deep inside and ask a question I had never really thought about when it came to Star Wars. And once that first question had passed through my mind, it turned out to be merely a cork holding back more. Star Wars has always been something I have taken for granted. I was born shortly after Return of the Jedi, and since then I have always known it to be a safe space for all who dare to learn of science fiction. It’s shallow waters, the wading pool, calm, warm, and relaxing. Anyone can enjoy it and did. You can safely discuss it at a mixed party because even if no one has seen it, they are aware of it. Almost like using the force, as it connects and binds us together, you can find a friend just by mentioning its name. But now, out of the shallow waters, I come ashore, bothered by the question that weighs heavy on my mind. I sit on my own Nerd Island, alone but for the internet that connects us all, and I am forced to ponder still, “Do I like Star Wars?”

I am older now, but I grew up with the Skywalkers. It was the kind of series that was almost like a baby blanket; you carry it around with you everywhere, pacifying your insecurities and passing the endless afternoons lost in its embrace. In my tweens, episodes 1 through 3 had arrived, but I was still a bit too young to tear them down or pull them apart or really do anything but watch. I knew it felt off, but so too did the Special Editions. At the time, I thought maybe I just didn’t like change or that I was jaded. When The Force Awakens landed, I was impressed. Mostly because I had come to terms with the prequels in some way and Episode VII returned Star Wars to its roots with a modern visual twist. Now, The Last Jedi, has come to basically tell fans everything they wanted to hear. “You were right. Practical effects don’t need to replaced. All your favorite characters are the legends you have always built them up to be. You deserve to be rewarded for your faith. Star Wars is everything YOU want it to be.” We can look at this film as the Star Wars cannon that exploits everything about its universe for the good of the viewer. But that line of thought all derives from the fan in me. The fan I am now questioning. Because now, this fan is not only an adult, but an amateur film critic.

I had trouble digesting this film. The Last Jedi pushes Star Wars in directions I don’t think anyone thought the cinematic cannon would allow. It is a daring film in its own universe, far more so then its mirror film The Empire Strikes Back. But the more I thought about it, the more I recognized how many choices were made for the sake progressing the story. To be clear, without giving anything away, there are many unexplained transitions. People returning to or ending up in places inexplicably. Though at points glaringly obvious, they deftly move past this, showing us cannon defining consequences for the characters, possibly as a way to divert your attention from their laziness. You can’t help feel that it's all too convenient. The narrative is tenuously held together. Were the audience given much of a chance, they might start asking questions, and the more questions you ask, the more you realize you have been rationalizing the plot for the writers. “How did Rey get there? Oh, she must have…” This seemed to me to have been the bane of science fiction/fantasy stories, especially those that are advanced completely by the characters like Star Wars. Unlike most films in this category, the characters are the focus point and the world revolves around them. Unexplained transition is by far the largest flaw in the film. The original trilogy by comparison had a solid narrative, possibly due to the technology at the time or the sentiments of film and storytelling. A New Hope explained each coincidence or choice along the way, and not always verbally, but visually as well.

Recognizing The Last Jedi’s narrative issues, it was still able to do something films aren’t always able to do. It connects with you emotionally. I had goosebumps, my palms were sweaty, I felt sad, happy, and excited. At this point, I realize I am having trouble viewing this as an outsider. Star Wars is too close to me. Objectively, I would argue that the value of an emotional connection in a story is higher than any flaw found with its execution. It also has the added benefit of being a serialized story, building with each entry. But, if you are able to connect with your audience, through visuals, music, acting, and direction, than you have effectively made a “good” film, even if much of the emotional connection relies on previous entries. Still, this can be a hard torch to pass, it isn’t without its difficulty. Visually, you couldn’t ask for a more satisfying Star Wars. It is ripe with an amazing color palette, physical props, some of the best CGI in the game, and more than enough background fun for fans. The music is a bit more bombastic than in previous outings and at times feels a bit out of place, but it still ranks as some of the most iconic in cinema. The softer songs are so inspired, I can see myself listening to them often in the future. And finally, Mark Hamill gets to be the man we always wanted him to be. Cool. Mark Hamill is finally cool. A brooding old Jedi Master, Hamill brings to life a version of Luke that Hayden Christensen should have been able to manifest in Anakin. It has become my favorite performance by Hamill to date. Oscar worthy? Not by Earth standards, but Star Wars fans might never find better. The late Carrie Fisher was much more comfortable playing Leia than her stilted performance in The Force Awakens. She was commanding, nurturing, funny, and natural. The rest of the cast, Adam Driver (Kylo Ren), Daisy Ridley (Rey), John Boyega (Finn), Oscar Isaac (Poe), and Domhnall Gleeson (Gen. Hux) all play up their characters for bigger laughs and deeper emotional connections this time. Newcomer Kelly Marie Tran (Rose) instantly fell into the ranks without any trouble at all.

This brings me back to director Rian Johnson. I own all of his major releases, Brick (2005), The Brothers Bloom (2008), and Looper (2012). (I only realized this having just looked at his IMDB page.) He has a special eye for detail, the kind of quality that breathes life into anything he points a camera at. The backdrops and surroundings are just as important as the people standing in them, and he has his own spin on this, using clean lines and hyper detail. He also seemed to have a hard on for Anime, like Cowboy Bebop or Macross. All of his talents are at their peak in The Last Jedi. However, there are moments of in this film that seem a bit compromised. Mostly, it’s the forced, unnatural comedy. The film opens a bit like Thor, with a dull, moronic, misplaced joke that might satiate the masses, but it felt so out of place for Star Wars. It’s not that it disturbed the natural order of a sci-fi/fantasy, but it definitely reminds you that you are in a theater, on planet earth, in the year 2017, which is something I am trying to escape from. And these jokes are found throughout the film, quite possibly meant to balance correct the mood of a “Disney” film, but they could have found more natural ways to go about it. In The Force Awakens, the comedy comes from a natural shtick, bumping into things, miscommunication, and dramatic character interactions. Still, Johnson always drew me back in with his love of the characters at the heart of the Skywalker saga. He took care to make sure that every moment on screen advances who they are and conflicts with who they want to be. He drew out an originality in Star Wars I haven’t seen since The Empire Strikes Back.

Having spent the better part of the day thinking about my initial question, I have come to a conclusion. Star Wars means more to me symbolically than any flaw you can find in it as a film. And while my ability to look at the film objectively has caused me to philosophically question my devotion to both film and Star Wars, I have come out the other side able to recognize that some projects, over time, become a part of you. They transcend your ability to be critical of their flaws, because like family, they can be forgiven. I forgave the prequels of all their misgivings because they still gave me more than they took away. I still had hope for them. I still had hope for Star Wars. That being said, The Last Jedi may have problems gluing together its parts, but the parts it is trying to stick together are still powerful and impressive cinema, whether that be the actors, script, set, effects, music, or story. It still sits on the pillars of everything Star Wars was built upon and stands for. It still brings people together both on screen and in the theater. So, do I like Star Wars? Yes. Do I like The Last Jedi? Absolutely. Is it a good film? It depends on who you ask, it has its problems, but from where I’m sitting, it seems the force is strong with this one.

May the force be with you, always.

~* 8/10 *~

(Secret Star Wars Score: 9/10)

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putschki1969 · 8 years ago

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Lisani! 2010 Pamphlet - Kalafina Q&A 50 Translation

Hey! ( ･ω･)ﾉ Yesterday @mistress-of-the-obvious was kind enough to share her scans of the pamphlet and after quickly browsing through these questions, I thought it would be quite fun to translate them so you all know what’s going on ^_^. Of course we know a lot of this stuff already but all in all, the Q&A was quite insightful and there were a couple of new facts here and there. Please enjoy!

1. What was the first CD you bought? "口マンスの神様/Romance no Kamisama" by Hirose Kōmi and "パラシューター/Parachuter” by Folder (W) "BOY MEETS GIRL" by TRF (K) A Destiny's Child album (H) 2. Which song do you have on repeat right now? Kalafina's new song (W) Makihara Noriyuki’s "SPY" (K) Acid Black Cherry’s "Maria" (H) 3. Which artists do you look up to? Celine Dion (W) Ozaki Yutaka (K) DREAMS COME TRUE, Beyonce (H) 4. Who would you like to have a singing session with? Celine Dion, Spitz, Joe Hisaishi (W) KARA (K) DREAMS COME TRUE, Beyonce, Acid Black Cherry (H) 5. Who would you really like to meet? Hayao Miyazaki (W) Girls' Generation (K) Myself from a previous life (H)

6. What’s your favourite anime? All Ghibli works, "Evangelion" (W) "One Piece" (K) CLAMP's work (H) 7. What about your favourite manga? "Honey and Clover", "NANA", "We Were There", "Love★Com", " Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind ", "Oishinbo", "Monster", "Slam Dunk" "Evangelion", "Kyou no Nekomura-san " (W) "One Piece" (K) Works by George Asakura, Hidaka Banri, Mitsuki Kako etc (H) 8. Now your favourite game! My specialty is watching others play but I like "Final fantasy" and "Dragon Quest" (W) "Pokemon" (K) "Nonograms" (H) 9. What’s your go-to song at karaoke? "LOVE" by Nat King Cole (w) "喝采/Kassai" by Chiaki Naomi (K) "未来予想図II/Mirai Yosouzu II" by DREAMS COME TRUE (H) 10. Which songs would you like to cover someday? All the popular oldies (W) Ozaki Yutaka's "OH MY LITTLE GIRL" (K) Song with English lyrics (H) 11. A story hero you look up to? Ashitaka, Kaito Kid, Lupin III (W) Sailor Moon's Tuxedo Mask (K) Mickey Mouse (H) 12. A story heroine you look up to? Nausicaä, Sailor Moon (W) Sailor Moon (K) Sakura (H) 13. What do you most enjoy doing right now? Doing research for my cooking, exploring the city with by bike (W) Doing lives (K) Talking with the other members (H) 14. How do you relax? Reading a book while nestling into my bed (W) Yoga (K) While I am taking a bath (H) 15. What are you doing first thing in the morning? Mute my alarm at least twice (W) Open my curtains (K) I rub at my eyes (H) 16. What would your ideal off day be like? I’d take my time getting up, enjoy a relaxed breakfast, then I’d go see a movie and do some shopping and lastly, I’d have some fun in Disneyland! (W) I’d do some yoga and take a walk, I’d enjoy lunch on my open terrace and at night I’d have dinner with a good friend (K) I’d spend the day sleeping (H) [Surprise, surprise XD] 17. What made you cry lately? I got very emotional while talking to one of my friends (W) When I finally found a solution for something that was troubling me, I cried out of relief and immediately felt refreshed *laughs* (K) During an interview I was talking about our live performances, the thought of all these people coming to see our lives made me incredibly happy and brought tears to my eyes (H) 18. What’s something that surprised you lately? The high quality of children's clothing (W) A friend started to work on her abs and now her midsection is super thin (K) A bug was flying right at me (H) [Keiko as always obsessed with fitness! LOL at Hikaru being attacked by bugs] 19. What’s the most embarrassing thing that happened to you recently? When I tried on the aforementioned children’s clothing *laughs* (W) Eh? Nothing comes to mind... (K) Slipping even though there was nothing on the ground (H) 20. Is there anything you would like to start doing? I’d like to improve my English conversation skills and I would like to start mountain climbing (W) I wanna take cooking classes (K) I’d like to work on my tolerance for spicy food (H) 21. One of the things you like about yourself? I am not shy in front of strangers (W) I am very positive and proactive (K) I think I have a very calm nature (H) 22. One thing you do not like about yourself? I worry too much about everything (W) I don’t think I am very smart (K) I am too indecisive (H) [You underestimate yourself, Keiko!!! You are always eager to learn new things!!] 23. What’s one of your habits? Pinching my nose after yawning (W) Putting on lip balm even though my lips aren’t dry (K) Talking in dialect. (H) 24. What can you not live without? Lip cream and a pair of fashionable glasses (W) Lip cream (K) Afternoon tea (H) 25. One of the “best” moments for you? When I am waving my arms and singing together with the audience (W) When I managed a smash while playing tennis! (K) When the three of us harmonise perfectly (H)

26. What’s something you are very particular about when it comes to yourself? I need to wear my favourite pyjamas when I am sleeping (W) The length of my bangs, down to the last millimeter (K) My eyebrows (H) [I wonder what Hikaru means by that? Does she always take extra care of her eyebrows? Or does she want them to look a particular way? o.O] 27. A daily habit of yours? Gargling (W) I always eat soup and yoghurt (K) Listening to music (H) 28. What’s something “weird” about you? When I am alone at karaoke, I will try to do some strange imitations but it won’t look anything like the original (W) Pretty much all day I am curling my toes. It’s rather troublesome (K) My sense of humour (H) [LOL at all three replies. I wanna see Wakana acting all weird and crazy in a karaoke room] 29. Something you can cook well? Spaghetti aglio e olio, simmered chicken with lemon cream (W) Spaghetti Napolitan (K) Amberjack Teriyaki (H) 30. What is your favourite fashion style? Black tights + shorts + tunic dress + jacket + fur muffler + beret + boots (W) An edgy rock style and a doll-y look (K) Cute + sexy (H) [Yup, Hikaru is always dressed in a very sexy way with all those see-through tops and such. I wouldn’t call her style cute tho. It’s more edgy and casual with a hint of sexiness if you ask me.] 31. Do you have any cosplay you'd like to try? Sailor Moon (W) Ruffy (K) · Cat (H) 32. What did you want to be as a child? Manga artist (w) Radio/TV announcer (K) Singer (H) 33. Where would you like to go on a date? Disneyland or a road trip (W) A place where it’s quiet and cosy with lots of greenery (K) Going to the places we both like (H) 34. What would a perfect proposal sound like? Something simple without being too stiff or too elaborate (W) "I want to cherish you for the rest of my lifetime" I really want someone to say this to me *laughs* “I would love to spend the rest of my life at your side” (H) 35. A place you wanna visit? Egypt! (W) L.A. (US) (K) Switzerland (H) [Yes Hikaru, come to Switzerland. It’s just a short trip to Austria from there XD] 36. Are you more of an “uke/passive” or “seme/active” type? Seme (W) Sometimes seme, sometimes uke (K) Both *laughs (H) [One track mind. All I am thinking of is yaoi/bl XD; I am actually surprised Wakana is the only one who sees herself as exclusively “seme”] 37. You are running late! What’s your excuse? I’ll apologise and come up with a tiny little lie along the lines of, "Sorry! I missed my stop!" (W) “I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I am sorry!” (K) Sorry I am late, I lost track of time looking at cute clothes (> _ <) (H) 38. You just won a hundred million yen in the lottery! What are you gonna do with it? I’ll put half of it aside for my savings, with the other half I’ll buy a house for my family and I’ll travel overseas with the members of Kalafina and our staff (W) I’d buy a plot of land (K) I’d save all of it (H) 39. You are in a tough spot and in need of help! Who do you want to come to your rescue? Doraemon (W) Ruffy (K) My family (H) [LOL at Kei’s and Wa’s answers] 40. What do you associate with the word "Love"? Victory! (W) Patience (K) Doesn’t want anything in return (H) 41. What do you associate with the word "Music"? Kalafina’s song "Ongaku" (W) Being tied together (K) Connections (H) 42. How would you encourage someone who is dealing with a difficult situation? It’s okay, you don’t have to say anything, don’t push yourself too hard! (W) I will be there for you when you are ready to talk (K) I know it hurts right now but things will get better! (H) 43. If you could make one wish, what would it be? I want to be able to fly up into the sky (W) I want peace for everyone on earth (K) Please let me live a good life! (H) 44. If the world were to end tomorrow, what would be your final meal? Gyoza! (W) Chirashi Sushi made by my mother (K) A meal surrounded by all my loved ones (H) [No surprise there at all, Wakana XD] 45. Please share a secret you have never shared before! I am a big old scaredy-cat! (W) It’s a secret (K) Truth is...I have a big mole on the sole of my foot (H) [Why so secretive, Keiko????] 46. What is your best memory in 2010? All our live performances!! Our lives in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka and of course our first Asia Tour!! (W) Having met so many people through Kalafina’s music, I feel like each and every person has become a part of me (K) Being able to meet so many people (H) 47. Describe the year with a single kanji/word! 充実/Completion! (W) 学/Studying (K) 寅/Tiger (H) [No idea how to inerpret Hikaru’s answer o.O Edit: I should have made my troubles clear here. I am aware that Hikaru refers to the Chinese zodiac year, the kanji cannot be understood otherwise but I wonder how to interpret that. Does that year encompass certain things? Obviously with all kinds of zodiac signs, there are certain predictions and such but does she really refer to that? Seems like something Wakana would do o.O ] 48. A brief comment regarding Lisani! LIVE 2010!! Lisani! LIVE is the best! (W) For this final event of the year, we would like to sing for everyone and have fun together so that all of us can feel united! (K) I am happy to be able to participate in such a nice event! (H) 49. A brief message for all the fans who came to see you! Thank you everyone for coming!! Let's make it a memorable day!! (W) Thank you! I feel incredibly happy that I could spend these precious moments together with all of you! Until next time! (K) Thank you for coming to see us! I am happy that I can meet all of you! (H) 50. How are you gonna celebrate the finished event? Karaoke, Disneyland, Onsen! (W) At a restaurant that serves some good and dry ginger ale (K) Anywhere, as long as it’s fun! (H)

#kalafina #my translations #lisani pamphlet 2010 #q&a #50 questions

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