#I feel like we all relate to Emi at least a little

[gumy-shark]

If you're analyzing MP100 based on Mobs philosophy/in an allegorical sense I think Emi and her friends, despite how little time they get, are important to consider both for her philosophy on her powers and of being a good person. Emi ostensibly resolves the situation (telling Mob the truth, apologizing, and then leaving her), but the perspective that she showed Mob, that Mob suppressing her feelings and opinions in situations that are not drastic, like a fight or life or death situation, draws her further away from others and herself rather than closer, leads her to pursue Emi (more clearly seen in the manga, in the anime it seems like she just happens to catch Emi and her friends leaving) and truly resolve the situation (voicing her thoughts, picking up the scraps, and fixing the book). We see her continuing to utilize and test this philosophy both with her powers and with relation to being a good person, namely: when she voices her opinions about giving the guy a fake curse and confronting the stalker when both have been resolved, voices the ultimatum and uncertainty she feels even after Reigen and Dimple tell her to skip the exorcism and listen to her feelings about the family of three, helps Reigen during the press conference, meets him, and says that she knows what he is (albeit it kind of in a white lie way) even after they separated, Reigen said that Mob has grown up, and left the press conference, during the school fest when even after the other three resolved the situation by deciding to just do sheets, once at the beginning, and again when Mob objected but couldn't think of anything, she still thought about it and ultimately made and built the new design with them. And then when everyone else in the city are ostensibly happy to not confront Psycho Helmet and just let the Divine carry on and spread, including Reigen when he tells Mob to head back with him, and she takes control of the situation and confronts Dimple anyway, and in the telepathy arc, when even when Reigen lifts everyone's spirits after being told the aliens might just be a rumor, before saying they should all head back down, Mob takes control of the situation and has them finish the summoning thing still. And then at the very end in the future when, even after Reigen said he isnt her master, decides to still do so, and could've just saved the cake (as she did with the takokayi at the beginning of the series) but decides to have fun and throw it back in Reigens face. I think Emi at least partially influenced Mobs decisions in all of these, and so I think she's an important minor antagonist to consider, because even thought she doesn't fight her, she still opposes her and her perspective in an important way.

honestly i hadn’t considered emi to be an antagonist, but this is pretty awesome anon!

i see 2x01 as showcasing mob’s growth rather than actively developing it bc it’s not a challenge for mob to do any of those things. at the start of s1, if a girl had asked her out, she probably wouldn’t have even been able to answer back out of nervousness. instead, it shows the growth mob has already done, especially in terms of her social life, as she holds true to herself (lesson from 1x02), stands up for herself and her friend, and is willing to share a part of herself as personal as emi’s writing is to her. however, again, it’s more putting those lessons into action than learning new ones.

also anon i need to high five you or hang out with you or smth. we need more emi analyzers in this fandom o7

[passthroughtime]

a kuwagami-related thought i've been mulling over since the start of june, which needs a little preface, so, bear with me a little

it's not that kuwana's and yagami's traumas have affected them the same way, or are even of the one kind. the point kuwana is making, there was a bad thing in their past, and it has changed them irreversibly into the men they are now. (idk, i have seen way too many times how his "we're the same, you and i" line gets interpreted into kuwana being completely delusional about yagami, and if i remember correctly, i've made that same assumption myself, so, no blaming here, been there done that)

kuwana's just trying to appeal to yagami's own experience there, because the latter kinda. treats him like a scumbag he was before, not the person he is now. so, he tells him: there, i'm not the same person, because, as you, i learned from my mistakes. that callout calms yagami's bitchy nature for long enough for kuwana to share his story until the end.

but that's not what i was thinking over, or, not quite that. as they've each had tragedies of their own, where they have played different roles and have had different impact on what eventually happened, their traumas are only the same in the regard of consequences (= putting an innocent person into the most life-threatening situation possible, and how they'll always feel guilty about it though it wasn't their fault exclusively). but that's the main problem when comparing their means of redemption.

yagami's approach to life/investigations/etc is now reactionary. the "i will act if no one else will" kind. some may argue that he tries to prevent things and that's why he gets involved, but... bear with me here.

as emi's fate was something he could have never anticipated, and he did exactly what was expected of him at the moment, his regret is about not delving further until the truth is uncovered. that means, something must happen before for him to get involved (something like waku's death), and so, he gets involved now in the things that doesn't concern him, and stays there till the end, never stopping before all questions are answered and all truths are found out. that's what i mean by saying he reacts rather than prevents.

his fault in emi's death is of not doing enough, or anything, though he didn't have to do more than he did. he was a lawyer. he did his job. that's all he was supposed to be.

while kuwana's approach now is preventive in a sense that he won't do anything that will put anyone in danger. his main goal in all his killings, is to say "hey, there are consequences to your shitty actions, don't do it, at all" though he's been stupid about his means (how would anyone know about his "lesson" if the bodies and his motives have been a secret to others? idk), but whatever. yet, his main focus is to not endanger someone on his own volition. again, let me explain myself here.

mitsuru's suicide attempt is more of kuwana's fault than emi's death of yagami's. that's obvious. but you know the main difference here? he knew about the bullying. he COULD do something about it. that's what made him directly responsible while not being an actual perpetrator. more than yagami in his case, at least.

kuwana's fault is also, as yagami's, in not doing enough/anything, but, unlike yagami, he had the means to stop the tragedy before it had happened. he knew of the risks. so now, knowing there are consequences of each action and inaction he takes, he makes sure whatever he does won't put anyone in danger. (that's a funny take from me, because for the most of the game, yagami argues that kuwana doesn't care about that, but we all know he realises he was wrong about him, eventually.)

yagami and his friends? stop investigating mikoshiba's case (and later sawa's murder), you'll only put yourselves in danger. his former students? no, you don't have to kill anyone, you can even state that i made you help me under duress (nah, i'll still stand with that their cowardice and kuwana acting as a psychopath with them were the only reasons why they haven't gone to the police, though they totally could and had the chance to get away with everything much earlier. kuwana played into their weaknesses if anything). sawa? yeah, the entire thing at plage is a message for her to stay away, how kuwana admits himself.

he feels guilty about RK attacking liumang's hideout because of him. he makes up for leaving yagami alone before, near sawa's apartment, and doesn't do the same mistake when soma finds them, against all odds (he and yagami did everything to not be discovered, kuwana made sure of that), on the boat. he runs as soon as possible when sawa calls him, though it kinda does sound like a trap even at that point; he just doesn't think about anything when he hears her crying (that one is a stretch a bit but. let me have this.). he agrees to meeting yagami in kamurocho when he kidnaps mamiya so he'd let her go (though, leaving his students as a distraction to get away from yagami is a dick move, no arguing here).

the point is, he doesn't want to cause any more harm. that's why kusumoto surrendering herself to the police is so tragic for him and breaks him so bad: he did the thing again. if not for him and his feeling of utter loneliness in his pain, she would've lived a happy life with her child. he doesn't want to admit it, doesn't want her to answer for his mistake, so he says it wasn't a mistake at all. again, kind of shitty, but, the whole thing he has going on is shitty, so here's that.

it's "i will act if no one else will" vs "i make sure i never create a situation endangering other people". the first one is self-destructive, the second one is self-deluding. perfect.

and i've been thinking that it's kind of interesting how they collide here, yagami getting involved even at the cost of his life vs kuwana who doesn't really want someone else to get hurt. that's all their running and chasing, and the reasons behind it, summarised. they both are stubborn, because they don't want to do the same mistake they did in the past, and they clash over it badly, convinced they are the one who does the right thing. it sucks because they are both right here, lol, in the end. or, rather, there isn't really a right answer of what one should do here. or something.

and the other unrelated funny thing that my friend who played JE and LJ for the first time pointed out is that kitakata did the same thing that yagami does at the start of the game: recording the bullying before he decides how to act appropriately. the difference is, yagami is someone from the outside and isn't really accustomised seeing this behaviour on the daily basis, and seeing how sawa acts (or, rather, doesn't) about the bullying (quoting her words: "i knew something was off but i didn't expect this", so, yeah), teachers stop seeing all the little signs as a threat big enough to act immediately. a part of the job, ignoring little signs is a means against burnout, or something like that.

kitakata has a concerned student nudging him to look closer (and he does). sawa has a help from outside, never intending to act before she saw the recording (and she is instantly involved into helping here). yagami does his job, the only task he was instructed to do here, and at a perfect moment (he is a complete outsider and doesn't see high school drama happening daily).

kitakata isn't that lucky, when sawa and yagami do the same job that kitakata does on his own. so, all three situations are completely different, and no one here is the biggest asshole, though all three of them can paint kitakata as one.

[burstingsunrise]

If you managed to process it, I would love to hear a story about your experience at Luke's Fonda show🥰 No pressure though, only if you want😊

funny timing for this, i wrote up a little summary post a while ago and have been kind of working up to posting it.

it's hard, because how do you adequately summarize something that means so much to you? it feels like nothing i say will be enough, but i do want to share some things about it, because i think that will help it feel real. thank u for asking and providing the encouragement. <3 emo bullet points ahead! i tried to focus mainly on show-related things but this experience wasn't just important to me because of the shows, so some of the other stuff sneaks in.

that’s the first thing. it didn’t feel real, and it still kind of doesn’t. because i was only there for a few days, and i spent every morning getting coffee with meg and every night seeing luke perform my favorite album. like…that’s not real. that can’t be real. 

accidentally but unsurprisingly coordinating outfits with meg on night one. the scientology recruiter on the sidewalk recognizing us from the day before when we’d walked by.

stress buying armloads of merch from an incredibly patient and probably at least somewhat high guy who immediately forgot about me, but who i will probably forever remember fondly.

roy and the mustard having a chat in the balcony.

standing in the crowd waiting for the first show to start. all of the anticipation mixed with all these different emotions, and then finally luke appears on stage. sings the opening of a beautiful dream. the lights shine on him more brightly as it crescendos and we finally get a good look at him. i turn to meg and i say “he’s so sparkly.”

comedown on night one. hearing “let me see all the things that i was supposed to see” while i was there. seeing it.

being able to look over at meg meaningfully when certain things happened during the shows, including but not limited to luke’s gratuitous displays of ass. poetic, really.

leaving the venue night one, in a daze. one of the security guys saying “have a good night” on our way out the door. he had no idea. no fucking idea what we’d just been through. have a good night! now that your lives have been changed forever! sausages on the sidewalk.

collapsing in the hotel lobby, quietly reviewing photos and videos, actually being able to do it openly and to talk about it or not talk about it, and to finally start to have it sink in.

staying up way too late, and eventually falling asleep in my new luke shirt.

the woman with the intense boston accent who hopped on the elevator and immediately asked me if the hotel had a coffee shop with a level of desperation in her voice that spoke to me deeply.

finding sam and meghna in line for night two, and the strange euphoria of speaking openly about things I almost never can to people i just met, but also already knew. being annoying and posting the same palm trees. wishing it would have worked out for emie to be there too.

grabbing meg’s hand to pull her into the crowd on night two. the feeling of relief. somehow we did it. two nights, two shows, two opportunities for everything to go wrong, but actually everything (or at least the things that mattered most) went right.

every time luke gazed our direction, on night two, which felt like a lot, and how every time it was kind of unbearable in the best way. because it’s him and because he was singing songs that mean so much to me while it felt like he was staring into my soul, and because i could look over at meg and know she knew exactly what i was feeling.

the shows going by so fast. i tried so hard to be in the moment and appreciate every second, but it was such a strange, out of body experience. this was something i’d daydreamed about and pictured in my head, but i never thought it was a real possibility. and even in my daydreams, i couldn’t fathom being that close to luke and being there with meg while it happened. it felt surreal that these things were actually happening to me.

the way luke smiled during the breakdown in mum, but also looked like he was dying so beautifully during place in me. admiring his large mouth during slip away. (it really does some riveting things to hit those points of emphasis.)

all the times he ran his hands through his hair to push it back off his forehead. all the times it fell right back where it was. the way he started the shows with it styled, but by comedown it was already just a perfect mess.

his silver nails and his new necklaces and the way his eyes sparkled.

night two, when luke started singing the new bloodline verse. that moment of “what is this? i don’t know this?” it hits different when it’s a song you know so well it’s like it’s a part of you, and suddenly there’s something new to it. thinking about those new lyrics, where they came from, how long they’ve existed, when and why luke decided to add them in, but just for night two.

the talking breaks, ranging from “i’m fuckin’ terrified” early on night one to “can you see my nipples in this shirt” late on night two. octopuses hanging from the ceiling. he didn’t know if anyone would like the album. but he knows we like to scream. making the album was such a very him thing to do, and it’s friday, and he’s in love.

the confetti cannon going off during starting line on night two, being positioned so it rained confetti into my hair, into my purse, down my shirt. it was blue and white and silver because of course it was, because luke thinks about these things.

his smiles and waves and little bows at the end. the shuffle step off stage and the way i watched his back disappear into the darkness until i couldn’t see him at all.

spending both shows with my hands clasped over my heart. it wasn’t a conscious choice. it’s just where they landed.

being stuck in the crowd after the night two show ended, surrounded by groups of people taking pictures of each other’s mascara tears or lying facedown in the confetti. seeing myself in some of those photos a few days later on twitter. and not just those photos - photos from the stage too. the photo luke posted (and took down). and the photo where meg and i are looking up at him with lovestruck smiles.

walking down hollywood boulevard at night, almost silent. walking down the other side of hollywood boulevard the next night, dodging drunk people, talking about luke’s nipples.

making the most absurd pouty face and waving pathetically on the elevator as i left meg on the 9th floor for the last time, then trying not to sob stepping out onto the 16th.

the trip home. feeling physically awful from several days living on iced lattes, kind bars, and no sleep. emotionally drained, sad to be leaving luke and la and meg. sitting at the airport, wishing i could be with my friends at the beach instead.

getting home, unpacking, tucking away my confetti for safekeeping. so incredibly happy but also so devastated to know that it really is possible to have it all, but only for a few days. grateful i had the chance at all, and that it worked out as well as it did.

[imaramennoodle]

my ocs explained fast

Kiara:

* Sarcastic

* fLeXiBlE

* Brown hair

* Greenish brown eyes

* steals hoodies

* power: making the air move

* one half of the sarcasm squad

* was friends with Abigail then wasn’t and now is again

* my favorite

Clayton:

* other half of the sarcasm squad

* TALL

* Plays basketball

* Blonde hair

* Blue eyes

* Basically Keefe but also not

* power: fLeXiBlE bOi

* will never get his hoodie back

* marvel movie obsessed

* other favorite

Abigail:

* ginger

* Brown eyes

* Fancy

* that one girl

* Knows all your secrets

* power: speed

* She is speed

* Had like 16.3 billion friends but then lost them all

* Secretly loves drama

* Hates protein shakes

* Chick Fil A is life

* absolutely amazing, I love her

Liam:

* glasses guy

* Black hair

* Brown eyes

* quiet

* Is never noticed

* Awkward

* hangs out with little bro on a daily basis

* Power: invisible

* Where did he go?

* Probably a killer baker

* Has a muffin recipe stashed somewhere

* Hoards Halloween candy until April

* all in all one of my faves

Emi:

* loud

* Wakes up at approximately 5:30 in the morning

* Goes to sleep at three am

* power: Change appearance

* Doesn’t care anymore

* eats shredded cheese at every meal

* Wants to dye her hair

* Tan (?) hair

* Blue eyes

* Doesn’t actually tan

* Zero social skills

* literally amazing. My favorite.

[thedevilliers]

Hey, I've been reading your story for a while, and I'm enjoying it very much. Following the De Villiers has been so fun, and you've inspired me to create my own royal Simblr!

Can you maybe share some tips about what to do with your royals? I'll be posting my family within the next few weeks, and I have already planned out several engagements + events, including visits to parks/schools/hospitals, parties, and news surrounding a royal pregnancy. I've also planned out the first arc. I don't know what else to do, and I've barely started! If you have any tips related to the beginning of your Simblr that you didn't cover in your other post, I would so appreciate them. I want to get all this nailed down *before* posting, so my blog is the best that it can be.

Also, if you have any advice on how to make things as efficient as possible (especially regarding posing sims, editing/writing posts, etc.), I would love that! I want to cut down on time wasted wherever I can.

Thank you!! :-)

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺 me?!!?!?! ME ??????? omg 🧍‍♀️ thank u for reading my story 🥺 and AAAAAAAAAAAA your own royal simblr !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ill answer everythin under the cut !!!!! spoilers: it got long sorry

first of all, remember we ALL started somewhere. you can look at my first like... fifteen and even MORE posts and they are BAD. oh my gawd idk why i thought they were good, but hey! i learned things from them. you will more than likely change your mind about certain things from the beginning of your blog to who knows, four months from now. don’t focus and worry a lot on ‘perfection’ and setting up ‘high standards’ from the beginning. treat it like a learning curve! this is something we all do for fun, so don’t get stressed a lot on it. you can always change and adapt things and that’s no problem!

i love lists, so im gonna list a few things of advice/tips basing myself on what you said!!!

i personally don't do engagements anymore, so i can't really help you in this regard of even more activities you could do 🧍‍♀️ what i could recommend for people to get to know your characters' personalities and private lives and grow attached to them, add in BTS posts.

continuing on my BTS’ post thing, they are a GREAT way to show more than what the public sees for your royals. because from a press and public point of view, you don't really know 'what goes on behind closed doors'. they could be all happy in public, but in privatE??!??!!?!?

as i said in my starting out guide, i did have around ~15 drafts done before i started posting. just so i could not stress about “oh my god i dont have any posts for tomorrow”. a LOT of ppl do posts and queue them as they go, and they have MANY posts done and usually they start accumulating and they are MONTHS in advance compared to what they’re currently posting. if this method works for you, you can definitely use it!

please, please please read your dialogue OUT loud. is it possible to say a 2093023902 word sentence without a singular use of punctuation? do people in this age and era really talk this way? also please if possible use correct grammar. just a little pet peeve, it can take a reader out of the immersion your story gives them.

we all have our lil dialogue habits. mine is starting sentences with “oh” and the infamous dash “—”. others use ellipses. just make sure you aren’t overdoing it. for example, doing a sentence like “oh— there you are. i was uhm— looking for you. how—how are you? its—i mean where have you uhm— been? yes—ive—ive been fine. you? i mean— your mom” ....just no 😔 it doesnt read well at ALL

you can always do lil filler posts, dont tell anyone tell you otherwise. post a little simstagram post, a little family portrait, updated portraits post, family hanging out, kids hanging out, etc.

for posing sims, i do try and remember where MOST of my poses are in the ingame list. usually creators’ correctly naming the poses helps a lot. for example i need a Mel Bennet pose; hers are usually ALL in the same spot and have the same lil aqua bg so i can easily find them. sometimes, i dl pose packs VERY specifically for a certain scene. am i gonna use them again? no. so i open the .package file in sims4studio and rename them to “00 for emi scene [rest of the og name” so when i open my game, they are around the top of the list! no more scrolling and i easily know what i need it for.

dont be scared to plan things that are happening MONTHS from now or anything in detail. some ppl dont like planning things in detail, or even dont like planning things AT ALL or things that arent happening say, in over 2 weeks because idk, they get bored. i recommend at LEAST having a list of things that HAVE to happen so you have ‘goals’ and you slowly plan out how you’re gonna get there. at LEAST theres some level of planning there. if you’re posting and PLANNING as you go, there’s gonna be holes. and it’s gonna be obvious.

editing wise, i don’t do much. my reshade does most of the work, i just add in my psd, add text and done! this is easily the fastest thing you will ever do.

if you get inspired by someone else doing, idk, a certain layout for the portraits, them adding little things to their captions, a certain edit, etc. if you want to do something similar and you ARE very much aware you were inspired by them, credit them in the caption. i beg. its free, its the nice thing to do, bc if not its rude.

if you get inspired by a certain storyline someone else did and you notice yours is gonna be similar, go ahead and send them a message to let them know and if they have any tips or feel uncomfortable with you doing this. simply put, if you don’t, you’re gonna look bad. we are all bound to do same storylines, such as assassinations, shooty shooty’s, stalkers, first loves, accidental babies, etc. but what changes is how each person approaches it. no ones gonna do it the same way as you and others. if you CONSCIOUSLY start copying else, stop it. and you could even be unconsciously be inspired by someone else too. it happens! just make sure you are able to look at the bigger picture and realize “hey, i’m doing something wrong”

same thing with dialogue. you like a line someone else said in their story? don’t just... steal it and incorporate it into yours word BY WORD

OVERALL: you can be inspired. give credit where it’s due. and don’t copy because someone else is doing ‘something others like’ and you want others to like your story. no no no !

im adding this AFTER i posted it but, be yourself. in the way you interact with others and send questions, etc. don’t try and copy someone else’s personality because they are liked and essentially absorb them. be yourself and i’m sure a lot of ppl will like you the way you are : D

for my writing dialogue etc, this goes back to my point 8. i use milanote, its free and you get 200 free thingies to use, and i plan out how every single one of my posts is gonna go. so i just have to go ingame and i already know what im gonna do. no thoughts, just taking screenshots. for example, this is how a part of my part 2, chapter 3 posts layout looks like. every square is a post that has what is happening, who is in it, what is gonna be said very vaguely, etc:

11. and the most important tip! don’t compare yourself to others. i did it at the beginning. i think we all did at one point. its not good for you at all. please always remember we all are here for share our lil stories with each other and it’s not easy get a following. you’ll get there and its gonna take time. be patient, be nice!!! and i cant wait to see your story!!!!!!!!!!

[aal-archaeology]

Summary of my first term of my Ph.D. at Stanford during a global pandemic and an extremely controversial election year (Anthropology, yr. 1, she/they, 25y/o) with some toggl data analysis

Well this year was a doozy if I don’t say so myself. But we survived it, and its okay if that’s all you were able to do this year because that’s enough.  As an offical 18th grader, I feel like I can speak pretty well to the toxicity of the academic environment. There is always a pressure to be working all of the time, people compete with each other with how few hours of sleep they got, every conversation with fellow students is just listing off all of the different assignemnts you have to do by the end of the week. On top of all of this, this is 2020. So, I decided that this year I’m going to give myself some mental slack. 

I decided that this is the year that I’m not going to try to impress anyone. I’m just going to survive and do what I have to do to move onto the next term. I think I did a pretty good job at that for the first term, so I’ll share a bit about what I observed in myself and those in my cohort. Coming into term one having to choose classes, many of my peers were packing their schedules full of 5 Unit seminars. For those who don’t know, theoretically, a 5 Unit course is supposed to take about 5-6 hours of work outside of class hours. For Stanford Anthropology, most PhD students take as close as they can to 18 credits, and anything over that you have to pay extra for the courses. Taking more courses doesn’t really put you any further ahead in terms of completing your degree, and you’re expected to complete about 45 Units each year for the first two years of the program. 

I decided to take 2 seminars (typical), a language course, and a couple filler credits that we are given the option to use if we need 1-3 units to hit 18 total. I,  fortunately, tracked every hour spent outside of the classroom working on each course using toggl (i highly reccomend): 

In a typical week, I spent about 5-6 hours/week outside of class on my Anthro seminars, and about 6-7 hours on Japanese. Japanese was a “for-fun” class so I would usually study more of that when I didn’t feel like reading dense archaeological theory. 

Toggl was a really cool way to see where I was spending too much, or not enough, time on my classwork. If it was taking me more than 1.5 hours to get through a single article, I knew I was probably spending too much time on it and should move on to the next thing. My goal for the term was to stay true to the 5 Unit idea of 5-6 hours, and not over-work myself. 

Toggl was also useful in tracking my mental health throughout the term, as it is very obvious to see when I just was not physically capable of ingesting 400 pages of reading. For example, election week:

Election week was really hard for me, and everyone else in the world honestly. I had various family things I was dealing with, typical existential dread, plus it was week 8-ish of the term when everything was already on fire in terms of workload. For one of my seminars (purple), we had to read a book for the following week which I was able to do the sundar after election day. However, for the days leading up to and surrounding the 4th, the only thing I could mentally handle was mindless Japanese vocab studying. One of my seminars really sufferend this week, and I straight up just didnt show up to the smaller Anth 310G class because I had only read the title of the pdf. Fortunately, I emailed my professor of my Theory class and was like “yo dude I cannot” and he replied that he understood and wouldnt call on me during that day of class. 

I didn’t do a whole lot of journalling at all this term, but for this week I just wrote “pain” on most days and then YAY BIDEN at the end of it. 

Weekly Schedule

Above is what a typical week looked like, some were a lot lot lot more dense, others not so much, but this was pretty average. Not all things on the calendar are work related, some are extra lectures from visiting professors that sounded interesting, or “Free Boba & Snacks Pick Up” put on by my residence. Monday, Wednesday, and Sunday were my big work days last term, where I didn’t have a whole lot of classes so I would do most of my reading then. On Tues and Thurs I had one 3-hour seminar, and M-F I had a 50 min Japanese class. 

I woke up every day around 7am-ish, made a green tea, and sat at the computer to work, filter through emails, etc. On particularily open days I would go grocery shopping, go for bike rides/walks around campus, go buy food/boba. 

On class-heavy days, I wouldn’t leave my computer for 8-12 hours, which is extremely ridiculous but that’s the new norm in school in 2020. This kind of stunk because all of the socializing was also on the computer, so even if I wasn’t working I was doing screen related things. 

EVERY day I stopped working at 6pm. Rarely did I do readings past 6pm unless I was really slacking somewhere. From 6pm onwards I would do things like play Among Us or League of Legends with my discord friends, eat, watch movies with my partner, etc. And then most nights I would try to be in bed by 12am at the latest. 

Social Life

Despite the online nature of things this term, I was suprisingly able to meet a lot of great people on campus. We were all being tested at least once a week, which made in person gatherings with 1-4 people a little less scary, especially when half of the people lived together in one household. 

In the first week of school, some of the grad programs put on a “speed friending” zoom event, where I was able to connect with two people really well. We ended up doing a “slow-friending” zoom event afterwards and then created a FB group chat and added all of the people we had met into it. The group ended up being about 15 people, and we would message the group for park hangouts, going to get food, or going on walks on campus. We also had a huge get together in a park for Mid-Autumn Festival, where we sat in a socially distanced circle, chatted, and ate mooncakes. 

Most of my socializing came from my online friends, and amongus was a huge savior to my mental health this term wher emy group would play literally every night. I also made a really good friend off of Bumble BFF this term, who I’ve hung out with a good amount for plant shopping and board games. 

I’m very fortunate to be in a situation where I can get tested for COVID on a days notice, and very grateful that I could use that to stay a little sane.  My Biggest Accomplishment this term, was not school related. but instead I hit my 365 DAY STREAK on duolingo. This was celebrated with cake. This streak has lived through literal hell and for that I am very proud. 

Overall reflection:

This term was super rough, there were a lot of days where I just napped through it and a lot of days where I couldn’t bring myself to do any work. However, I think the courseload that I took was very manageable and I’m going to continue to go light on myself in that regard. 

I really liked the boundaries that I set for myself this term, not working after 6pm and making time to do some fun things in the midst of chaos. I never felt like I was too far behind on work, or that I wasn’t doing enough, because I had a literal reminder in front of me that I had already put x amount of hours into something with toggl. 

Sometimes in class I would feel like I didn’t know how to productively contribute to conversation, but I think thats a skill that will get better over time and not being so great at it should especially be expected in the first term of a program.

Socially I met a lot of wonderful people who also made me feel more comfortable will myself. I started using She/They pronouns which feel really comforting to me. I made a lot of little origami cranes every time I was feeling sad. I drank a lot of boba. Watched a lot of She Ra. Played a lot of games. It all ended up being okay despite the weight of everything around me. 

I’m proud of all of you for making it through this year, I know it was really difficult for a lot of people in more ways than it was for me, but we’re still here! Sometimes all you can do it make it to the next day and thats such a big accomplishment on its own.  Please feel free to reach out with any questions about time-management, toggl, phd stuff in general, archaeology, etc! Always happy to help out. :’) Thanks for reading! Lyss

[applepi00]

Emi Liveblogs: Revolutionary Girl Utena Ep20, Wakaba Flourishing

Let me just say that I absolutely adore Wakaba and this is one of my favourite Black Rose episodes because of it.

I love the beginning of this episode because it gives Saionji some semi tolerable screen time, which is to say he actually acts like a human being for once lol. That said I also adore Wakaba’s little Kappa coffee maker, I want one.

Just after the previous picture he nyooms out of the shot too fast for me to get a screencap, but I did get his little scuttle out from under the bed! I love these little goofy bits and their sound effects!

Throughout the show up to this point, Wakaba has considered herself to be “normal” not “special” like Utena and Anthy and the Council, all of whom have some sort of charisma that draws people to them (Akio also mentions this to Utena but I’m not grabbing screencaps of him if I don’t need to.)

However, once Wakaba has this secret, she begins to think of herself as “special” and because she thinks she’s special now, everyone else begins to see her that way too and she shines. In some clips quite literally!

This gift is cute. It’s handmade and simple but there’s thought and care and effort put into it and it means so much to Wakaba! But it doesn’t mean nearly as much to Saionji, it isn’t worth more than his return to school/the duels, so when Mikage asks for it he gives it freely. Of course Mikage wants Black Rose Duelists, so those sunset backgrounds that tell us the time but tell us the feelings, those red skies prove it’s a manipulation when Anthy strolls by with the clip after. Wakaba snaps.

Break from heavy stuff for a sec, yeah nothing escapes you Mikage, you’re a ghost! You can be basically omnipresent via Ohtori magic!

Wakaba is fast. Fast enough I didn’t get the shot of her attacking Saionji and pulling a sword from his chest. Instead we stop on their matching cups, forced to bear witness.

This shadow play is about marriage, specifically the conditions required for bunny/fox girls to get married. Marriage makes you special in another person’s eyes, like Wakaba thinks she has because Saionji chose her. Utena however asks what’s wrong with being single, in effect asking if you can be special without any one else’s approval.

Or, what matters more, what you think are or what others think you are? This whole show is about images and expectations: Anthy is the Princess that needs to be rescued (or later the Witch that needs to be dealt with but that’s for later). Utena is the Hero so she must always be in the right at least morally right? And how do these roles affect our sense of self? Is believing you’re special enough to make it so?

The song is about an old man and I’m drawing blanks on how it relates. But Wakaba looks great! She’s so serious! Utena hesitates but Wakaba doesn’t, because you Utena this is a pointless fight against a friend, to Wakaba this isn’t even about the boy as she says it’s about her right to occupy the same sphere of existence as those deemed special.

Nothing to say here other than I love the drama of this last sequence of the fight.

[nordic-capitals-inc]

Ok so how are nations born? Helenski said that she's related to the boys and sweden but how are they necessarily blood related? Is it like normal babies where your born from two parents in a hospital or do you guys just pop up on a doorstep?

O: Nations aren’t related by blood. Not like humans are at least. We create our own relationships and families as we grow, together with others or as a consequence of our people.

H: And when I said that I’m related to the boys and Pa-...Sweden, it’s a similar idea. Finland is my dad, he’s in a relationship with Sweden, so now he’s my dad too. And for the boys, calling them my little brothers just felt natural.

S: Helsinki and I aren’t blood related, but she’s still my sister because that’s what we decided our relationship would be. Which made Finland and Sweden my dads.

C: Mm-hm, And we aren’t born the same way as you. We aren’t from two parents, and don’t need a hospital. A lot of us just appear one day. Usually where our people settle down for the long run.

R: Emi told me that he and Mati found me in a tree before my city even became the capital.

((Sorry for no drawings but I adore discussing lore in general so I wanted to get this out asap. And if you have any headcanons please share, I want to hear it! I actually have a vague origin story for Helsinki that plays into what I think it’s like when nations, capitals, or what-have-you’s are born. If you’re interested 👉👈))

A little over 500 years ago Finland was living with Sweden and Stockholm, it was interesting to say the least. He still wasn’t sure how to feel about Sweden and had no idea how to interact with the young Stockholm. But still, they all got along well enough. One day Finland went out for a walk along the south coast, and on the outside a small settlement he found a bundle of cloth at the base of a tree. It was a small child, fast asleep in the snow. She had dark-blonde hair and pale skin that flushed in the cold just like Finland. He knew right away who she was, the other Nordics had stories far too similar for it to be anything else. She was the capital city, Turku. There was just one problem, She wasn’t anywhere near the city. Turku was on the Gulf of Bothnia and they were right across the water from Estonia. He didn’t ponder over it for too long as the child began to shiver and her face went red from the cold. After rushing her back home to warm her by the fire Finland explained everything to Sweden. They both came to the conclusion that worrying  over where she was found was pointless because she was so young and would be living with them for a while, regardless of where the city ends up.

It didn’t take long for Turku to get used to the small family’s dynamic, quickly becoming one of them. But in the mid 14th century Sweden’s boss founded a city right were Turku was found a few years back, Helsinki. Turku was very attached to this city and spent most of her free time there. At one point Sweden stared calling her Hesa as a sort of nickname and she also started referring to herself as such. It wasn’t until around 1808 when Finland was incorporated into Russia that the capital was moved to Helsinki and she officially changed her name.

[beevean]

SEGA and the eternal issue of “Sonic’s girlfriend”

[Translator’s note: here is the original article written by @latin-dr-robotnik​​, originally written on the 18th of May 2020]

Today we’re going to talk about one of the aspects SEGA is more secretive about: Sonic’s relationships.

[Translator’s note: this article was written to celebrate Seaside Hill Paradise’s 200th entry. If you’re fluent in Spanish, I highly recommend you to check it out! And if you aren’t, go follow Latin’s Tumblr blog if you haven’t already and you’re into Sonamy, analyses, gushing about music and shitposts.]

This article concludes my Sonamy trilogy, and I recommend you to read the previous two articles: “SEGA and the eternal issue of the Sonamy dynamic” and “’I love you’ – forbidden words in Sonic”. This means this is a shipping article – if you’re not interested into another essay about the love life of a blue hedgehog, I can redirect you to other articles such as “Sonic and speed: are we misunderstanding them?” and “What went wrong with Classic Sonic’s music in Sonic Forces?”.

Everybody else, welcome to today’s article!

It should be noted that this article focuses more on the semi-official and strictly official aspects, since there is really not much to say about the fandom. Nowadays the fandom has a relatively peaceful coexistence, creating art, fanfics and more, for all kind of ships; sometimes there’s an occasional fight between ships or a ship that clearly is not appropriate… but besides that, everything seems relatively calm, at least in my experience and compared to other fandoms.

Too cool for relationships...

Few things are as mentioned and yet silenced by the official SEGA media as the fateful words “girlfriend” and “Sonic” put together. In official terms, Sonic has always been this young, cool hedgehog, with a pure love for nature and never too worried about life, but with a moral code that makes him fight against injustices. During his first years, Sonic was almost impatient and a little emotionally distant, although as it was the ‘90s and things were not so clear for the young SEGA star, different interpretations would take the character through different paths - some more radical than others. As the years went by, and going through many redesigns, certain aspects of his personality would be perfected, exaggerated, or even flanderized. His position on relationships, on the other hand, would remain relatively constant over the decades, with a few particular exceptions.

The this is that Sonic, in the words of his own creator Naoto Ohshima, has always been considered “a young man with a child's heart”, which has helped to substantiate and understand why the character would remain relatively distant from his feelings, and much closer to his own interests associated with the life of adventure.

... or is he?

Despite everything I just said, they tried in many occasions, if not succeeded, to give Sonic a girlfriend, with various results.

As carefree as Sonic is, and as much as SEGA tried to clarify this point over and over again, the people behind his character have always tried to introduce one or more relationships into his life. Even Naoto Ohshima himself has made his own suggestion as to who might be a hypothetical partner for his character. The different interpretations I’ve mentioned have tweaked Sonic’s character to make it more apt to certain types of dynamics, and the cultural gap between the East and the West (which I analyzed a few years ago with the first article of this “trilogy”) also has a considerable impact on the type of relationships that would be established for Sonic from very early in his history until today.

Author’s note: the concept of “Sonic + human woman” of 1990 wasn’t completely forgotten, no no, it was brought back 16 years later, in… well… the worst way possible.

Let’s see an example. Going back to his very origins, in his pre-Sonic 1 sketches Sonic was often depicted with a stereotypical damsel in distress, Madonna, his own “Princess Peach” that ended up being scrapped for many reasons, including the similarities with Super Mario. As the years have gone by, this concept has not disappeared, but rather the writers and directors of the series have taken it down different paths over time. While Madonna was too cliché, other candidates for the role of “Sonic’s girlfriend” would quickly appear to try different dynamics, directly or indirectly endorsed by SEGA.

Sally Acorn

For many years, Princess Sally was for Western fans the first person who came to mind when they thought of “Sonic’s girlfriend”. Since 1993, and for 2 more decades, her relationship with Sonic has gone in many directions, but fundamentally the most amazing thing about this whole situation was that she was Sonic’s official girlfriend (at least in the Archie Comics canon). It was also one of the many headaches for SEGA in the last decade.

Originally a fellow fighter against the macabre Robotnik from the 1993 animated series Sonic The Hedgehog, Sonic and Sally’s relationship was always marked by their opposite personalities; while Sally tends to plan ahead and is much more focused on the seriousness of the task, Sonic was the type to destroy robots first and think later. “Opposites attract,” they say, and by the (premature, I might add) end of that series both were already more than friends. They had already kissed a couple of times.

At the most critical moment in their relationship, Sonic, after a year of being missing in space and presumed dead by everyone, returns to Mobius only to end up back in potential danger, decides to ignore the wishes and warnings of Sally, who’s clearly emotionally traumatized and stressed by both the general situation and the responsibilities she had to carry out for her kingdom in the absence of her parents. The result of this explosive cocktail was one of the most infamous scenes in all of Archie Sonic, "the Slap", where Sally finally reacts violently to Sonic's selfish statements. The hedgehog's response? Well, a long exposure to the screams about her experience - also traumatic - up to that point. In the end, both end up screaming and crying in front of virtually everyone.

What followed in the next decades was an expansion of that original SatAM canon in the Archie Comics, in which its various writers introduced varying degrees of drama and increasing conflict to demonstrate the strong bond between them, destabilizing or even stabilizing it again, multiple times. They would be together for some time, then they would be apart, eventually rekindling the flame of love passionately, until a final sacrifice on their part and the eventual resetting of the entire Archie Sonic canon.

In their last years, after the Super Genesis Wave, Sonic and Sally’s relationship went back to being platonic. a good friendship with the advantages and disadvantages of their personalities - Sally’s leadership and Sonic’s extreme confidence - while the focus was put on the flourishing relationship between Sally and her best friend (and old computer!) Nicole.

Regardless of the way their relationship ended, it's undeniable that Sally has left a huge mark. Being a product of the West, her existence was never really accepted by the Sonic’s Japanese creators, but because the bulk of the fandom is here in the West, Sally's presence has been strongly associated with Sonic, the Freedom Fighters, the comics... and also the ship wars between her and the character we’re going to talk about next. Her very existence was a living contradiction to the Japanese central canon, an official girlfriend who broke all the ideas that existed for Sonic in terms of his conception of relationships and lead him through unique paths. Whether for better or worse, Sally broke the mold.

Eimi. Rosy. Amy Rose.

On the opposite side of the spectrum there’s Amy, a character that was originally conceived as the Minnie to Sonic’s Mickey, but with her own dynamic.

Despite Amy’s existence being strongly tied to Sonic’s, once again Sonic Team tried to avoid the classic cliché (in this case to copy Mickey and Minnie), opting then to establish Amy as the one interested in a relationship, while Sonic runs away from this idea. For this dynamic to keep working, Sonic’s feelings have to be kept hidden, with excuses like his “shyness”, which leads to ambiguity, or because, as said before, of his “child’s heart”.

The most interesting thing is that Amy kept her canonical status of “self-proclaimed girlfriend” since 1993, which makes her “official” and “not official” at the same time, but there are some traces left from the Sonic manga of 1992 (which in turn influenced Amy’s original design), where a prototype version of Amy (or, as it was spelled there, Emi/Eimi) played the role of Sonic’s girlfriend (or Nicki’s, to be more precise). With this detail in mind, Amy can be considered, at least in the East, the very first “Sonic’s girlfriend”, even before Sally – but her situation is much more complex.

Sonic Mega Drive (top) and Sonic Boom (bottom), representing some differences in different Sonic continuities.

In any case, the manga would be the first and only time Amy was officially considered “Sonic’s girlfriend”, because in the following decades and in several continuities the core of their dynamic shifted to Amy chasing Sonic. Both would get closer or further away depending on each case (in Fleetway, for example, Amy ends up marrying another character, while in Archie Sonic there would be only a few instances of potential interest, quickly overshadowed by convenience or other things directly or indirectly related to Sally), but generally no continuity would establish an official relationship. In some cases, such as Japan, it wouldn’t even be necessary to clarify the state of the relationship, since their cultures accept more easily the dynamic that Sonic Team proposed as an “official relationship”. Just looking at the artwork highlighted on Sonic Channel (run by SEGA of Japan) shows how much more accepted the relationship is, even though Sonic Team’s official artwork still avoids any kind of public confirmation. (Author’s note: I’ve written more about Amy according to the East and the West in the first article of this trilogy)

Unlike Sally, there is no “opposites attract” situation between Amy and Sonic, and, at first, there is no prior friendship from which a potential relationship could flourish. We witnessed their dynamics from the first moment they met, and it would not be until years later that there would be a minimal basis for interaction from which various official continuities would bring both characters closer together.

Technically Amy already knew that her destiny was tied to Sonic and the events of Sonic CD on Little Planet, thanks to her tarot cards (an element that has disappeared since then), but for Sonic it was just another day of adventure, and although we’ve seen how Amy's feelings have progressed, mostly in Adventure 1 and 2, Sonic has never reflected on his personal feelings; it’s an aspect of the hedgehog that to this day remains a mystery to the audiences.

Also unlike Sally, Amy has appeared in multiple continuities of all kinds and because of that her relationship with Sonic has been affected in various ways. The main videogames canon has remained ambiguous and unchanged for 25 years: Amy would stay close to Sonic and offer some good moments to reflect on her feelings about him (some of which I mentioned in my post about Sonic Unleashed and Amy’s emotional support), while Sonic would remain distant, uncomfortable, shy, and, more recently, potentially affected by her apparent loss.

Sonic X is the first official attempt (by Sonic Team no less) to offer an expanded view of our characters. There’s a lot of discussion about how Sonic is slowly opening up to Amy’s advances, and these developments follow a line that we discussed in previous articles of this trilogy, and how, during the 2000s, the Japanese writers of the series kept slowly deepening the interactions between the two, reaching very important symbolic moments like Sonic X Ep. 9, 52 and 76, among several others. I am purposely leaving out specific details to direct your attention to this fantastic thread by Yvanix Rose that highlights some key details about how this continuity worked the Sonic-Amy dynamic. [Translator’s note: the thread is in Spanish]

Sonic X, episode 76.

Another essential continuity for the development of this dynamic was Sonic Boom, since, despite having been a separate continuity with its own interpretation of the characters, its existence managed to influence the main canon in some way in the years that followed its original release in 2014.

Sonic Boom made two important changes in the dynamic: Amy did no longer externalize her feelings with the same frequency or intensity (speeding up a process that already started in the main canon in 2008), and Sonic was noticeably more nervous and insecure of his feelings for her, even being jealous in several occasions. These changes got the dynamic closer to the “friends who have secret feelings to each other but they’re too shy to admit it” trope, and in the second season it could even be said that there are signals of the “secretly dating” trope. Nothing was officially confirmed yet, but the changes to the dynamic offered a fresh perspective to work from: winks and inferences about a relationship that was not talked about but seemed to happen behind the scenes.

Sonic Boom S1E16.

Sonic Boom’s approach also opened the door to working a little more on the characters’ new personalities. Taking a little inspiration from the original foundations of Sally and Sonic’s relationship, Boom now presented situations where Sonic and Amy’s perspectives actively clashed with each other, leading to discussions and moments that showed a little more of the mundane details of the friendship they had, rather than appealing to more classic behaviors of the main canon, like Sonic leaving the scene in a hurry. Considering the way things turned out the last time we saw this kind of dynamic on screen, it was pretty safe to assume that their new opposites were now attracted; the implied secret dating and so on only helped to give it more sustenance - which the fandom would eventually take to the extreme.

And lastly there’s IDW Sonic, the comic series that replaced Archie Sonic after its cancellation in 2017, and the most recent arc that offers an interesting perspective. Starting its continuity from the end of the events of Sonic Forces (which at the same time took on certain characteristics from the post-Boom era, particularly as far as Amy is concerned), IDW Sonic didn’t waste any time in presenting the way in which it would carry out its dynamic between Sonic and Amy.

Amy makes her feelings for Sonic very clear, and he is surprised but unable to match them. However, Sonic doesn’t want to outright reject her, and suggests that she come with him; she refuses, claiming that she has duties to the Resistance, setting the tone for the rest of the series. (IDW Sonic #2)

“Sonic’s girlfriend” today

As I mentioned earlier, after the reboot Sally was no longer considered Sonic’s girlfriend, and her disappearance after the cancellation of Archie Sonic in general is a sign that we may not see her ever again, even as a friend. As of today, in 2020, only Amy has been left in her “unofficial, but…” state, with various minor events taking place both in the main canon and in IDW Sonic:

In 2018 the official SEGA shop wrote a description for a piece of Amy Rose merchandise that said “celebrate 25 years of Sonic’s girlfriend”; the mistake wasn’t immediately corrected, despite the fandom pointing it out immediately.

The video game canon has remained dormant, with Team Sonic Racing in 2019 featuring more of a regular friendship between Sonic and Amy, sharing rivalries and quiet moments alike.

On the other hand, since IDW Sonic and Sonic Boom laid their foundations, we've begun to see a certain shift in the way the two characters are presented. While we’ve talked about IDW Sonic already, Sonic’s social medias have done multiple “Twitter Takeovers” where Sonic characters answer questions from fans, and Sonic has always answered more like his version of Boom to the inevitable question about Amy and his “feelings”.

Recent official animations like Sonic Mania Adventures and Team Sonic Racing Overdrive have shown Amy flirting with Sonic in a more casual way.

The current dynamic seems to be pointing towards “Sonic’s hidden feelings”, and I think we are at a perfect point to change the approach. SEGA in general seems more open to the idea of bringing these characters closer, probably as a marketing strategy, but without yet separating themselves from the central ideas that defined the dynamic for the last two and a half decades.

Conclusion

The idea of “Sonic’s girlfriend” has been one of the most experimental and controversial in the almost three decades that this series has been around for. SEGA has opened the door to all kinds of ambiguities, developments and interpretations, all with their pros and cons, instead of settling on a definitive position. As iconic as these characters, conceived as Sonic’s “romantic interests”, have become, they have also had their share of criticism and controversy, especially in the fandom.

The presence of Amy as the only “official but self-proclaimed girlfriend” today says a lot about the control SEGA (specifically SEGA of Japan) regained over the characters, after decades of interpretations that offered different alternatives with various degrees of success. At her best, Sally represented an ideal relationship with Sonic, much more complete and profound than the back-and-forth game between Amy and Sonic. But at her worst, this same relationship represented everything wrong that could happen by associating Sonic with the emotional spiderweb of a romantic relationship. SEGA hardening its control over the characters seems to have put an end of this type of situation where Sonic ends up being involved in a romantic telenovela, but at the same time it has revitalized the flirting game and the implicit associations that give fuel to the fandom fire.

From my humble interpretation, I think we’ve reached a point where Sonic and Amy have shared enough stories and moments to solidify the core aspects of their personalities and their friendship, allowing them to take the next step, which is to play around with the idea of “something else”. 25 years ago it was hard to see how these two characters could work together beyond “it’s SEGA’s word”; today there’s enough of a story to find a rhythm and chemistry for them, and the series of situations they've put themselves in (e.g. IDW Sonic’s plot arcs) are increasingly helping this case. The topic of “Sonic's girlfriend” may be a controversial one for SEGA and the fandom in general, but the doors have slowly been opened for this debate to develop and be investigated with interesting results, and I think that, in this new decade of 2020, there’s a unique potential to explore this kind of discussion, without sacrificing in any way the central principles of Sonic as a character. Thank you for joining me in these 200 entries, and hopefully we’ll see each other for many more.

[blaster-aichi]

Cardfight!! Vanguard Extra Story IF 22 things

forgot to post this, heck

Aw, cute shopping trip because they feel things are drawing to an end, barrier or no —  [gets distracted by the little girl who looks just like Shingo]

Given the topic of conversation, felt Emi’s downcast expression was a hint of bittersweet realization that her time with Shuka is running down, then get smacked with even ruder sads.

There’s something massive ironic about Majesty Lord being pulled to the antagonistic side of battle after his role in the original Season 1 and embodying unification between Royal and Shadow Paladins when things get dire, now faced against the both of them.

Ren taught Shuka ‘Bukki’, bless.

Very appreciative of the explanation why Majesty Lord was so importaant to Shuka to Realize, though curious as to why he wouldn’t manifest in the first place.

MISAKI SIGHTED. Please don’t relegate her to post-Legion Mate Quatre Knights of voiceless cameos.

Side-eyes Emi for picking cards purely because of their cuteness, your friend’s calling you out.

With the truth of what led Aichi to ruling Sanctuary, Emi’s moment of finding no alternative but for the blame to fall on him is very relatable; at least some of us have been grasping at any explanation because we couldn’t imagine Aichi doing this of his own will, it’s incongruous with his character, and Emi may have been doing the same, but with options whittling down, she’s been forced to face that scenario that this has been all by his design and it upsets those of us who have been trying to figure out any other scenario, but to her, naturally it’s world-shattering.

How dare you fuckers use the same sads track from episode 7 where she was talking about the Aichi she knew.

He looks so worn down and I’m so upset.    — Even his tone when speaking reflects his exhaustion and reluctance to deal with shit. Please let me hug him.

Is this the first time he’s said ‘Toshiki’? Feels like this is the first time he’s said ‘Toshiki’.

Even when they don’t meet, fate crams them into one another’s heads. That’s gay. (But doesn’t go the Legion Mate route and make it a clean injection, both of them have become tremendously distressed and pained and I scream).

Takuto, you can’t just say that in front of him?!

Emi actually draping Aichi’s jacket over her shoulders is so cute, she really is giving it a piggyback ride. After he mentioning it aloud how he left it behind, half-expect returning it to be one of her first gestures once he’s brought out of his antagonist role.

Takuto’s referencing Outside World Aichi brings back thoughts of the previous theory that IF Aichi had been doing all this in an effort to reach outside IF, why do you hurt me in these ways after that backstory, Bushi? At the same time, Takuto needs shaking if he had any inclination that IF Aichi would have the mental fortitude to cope with that possibility existing elsewhere after a lifetime of loneliness.

The poor boy hid in the shadows and hunted for Kai-kun just to verify Takuto’s theory and torment himself more, sweetie no... Considering his methods for keeping his very existence from the potential of breaking the IF illusion, it’s consistent, but sweetie no...

Takuto onto Aichi’s bullshit. The post before this clarifies, but his solemn delivery and feeling responsible for accidentally instigating everything, would like to hope he’ll be able to make a move in helping to rectify Aichi’s state.

Two things: You’re saying he had nothing to pass on through Miwa? And why did he never contact Suiko or Rekka before? Because there was no certainty they were inside IF? Isn’t it apparent they would follow once he and Kourin never returned? Did he even try?

Sad Rena howling noises in the background.

If Aichi is banking on her saving him, never let him know there was a moment where it all got too much and Emi gave up on him.    — She’s doing the Misaki episode thing again.    — Though it’s understandable the guilt she must feel; they might be correcting the timeline, but she’s conveyed her feelings before that each iteration of a person isn’t any less valid than another; though Kai-kun has come to terms with and accepted that there is another version of himself in a “proper” timeline, the same is essentially true for Aichi and Emi, who for all we know, could/will vanish along with him. It might not just be Emi sympathizing with others and not wanting to write them off as incorrect versions, but trying to validate her own and her brother’s existences as well.

Suiko and Shuka are onto the price the group are going to pay regardless; the preview isn’t subtle about it. Whether it’s Shuka having to move onto another place where more cards are waiting for her to rescue them or something more final awaits her, it’s difficult to tell. Though the former is simply a part of her journey and might not evoke the sorrow from someone like Suiko, it might be a sore spot for her, particularly with everything she, Kourin and Rekka lost, faced with having to watch the same happen to someone else. But Emi herself seems already be aware of this, she’s a smart girl.

IF 23

Squad goals. Squad goals.

Aichi looks ready to straight up murder and have to wonder who taught you how to pull those faces, boy?

If you’re going to be fighting in the area, please keep the babies safe from harm. Who knows what they might see?

What space-time commotion did you guys cause to alert all the other major characters across the city?.

On the one hand, more Majesty Lord Aichi aaaaaaa. On the other hand, that episode title, screams. (Now are you guys directing that to Aichi, Kai-kun or Shuka? Sus)

This take on the “They Never Met” story:

It’s taken a while for the fact IF is taking the route it is with the story to sink in; a lot of thoughts and feelings are still incredibly jumbled, but here goes An Effort.

As someone who's childhood has a lot of overlap with Aichi’s, it’s incredibly painful to actually see him endure it without the beacon of hope that gave him solace and the toll it’s taken on him to endure it. Having a loving family and a sibling could alleviate the pain, there are fond memories with things with my family that don’t make my childhood an unending nightmare, and it’s apparent that he and Emi were particularly close; though understand that by 16, he’s exhausted by it all, pretty sure I was.

I want to believe that he was able to find at least one other hobby to keep his life from being completely devoid of happiness; reading, writing, art, a love of animal, photography, meeting people on the internet, there has to be something. There are plenty of outlets that could have channelled his imagination to keep it from building with no freedom. The lack of clarification about what he spent his time doing does nothing to help this belief or deter the fears that  he really never tried to find anything, and really hoping that’s able to change before the season is through.

But something about Aichi’s reasoning really doesn’t line up. He claims to be doing this so that he be the only one who has to suffer. And really struggle to fathom how he could think so when Emi and Shizuka, would and are suffering with him. Emi’s own pain has been right in his face and he’s turned away, he can’t be that narrow-minded to think she isn’t in anguish or that forgetting him would magically erase that of her or Shizuka.

My understanding (or interpretation, headcanon, what have you) of Aichi has always been that his unrelenting kindness stems from knowing well the absolute agony of complete loneliness and hopelessness, so he acts to help alleviate or prevent the same feeling upon others. Vanguard shouldn’t have any bearing on that trait staying with him or not; that’s something within Aichi, not created by one facet of his life that appeared one day, particularly when he’s even more familiar with such a rock bottom, even if the exhaustion of it weighs on him; he’s always put on a smile and done his best for someone else’s sake, no matter the cost to himself — and that is what he’s doing, but it’s incredibly difficult to believe he can only manage that demonstration of kindness towards others when he’s connected to or aware of Vanguard.

I can understand Aichi being worn down, I can understand him being a bit hostile and reluctant. But to lack his good heart and throw everything away, to put his family through the nightmare he has been, I can’t understand that, it just isn’t him. He isn’t that dependent on Vanguard to be a good kid.

With how vital the event and relationship are to both Aichi and Kai-kun, to explore the possibility that they would never meet is fascinating, but this feels like a lukewarm attempt at it, at least in regards to what this episode covered and that in itself is saddening, it feels like an incredible premise with wasted potential, just like Legion Mate. It saddens me immensely that this is how they tell that story, more so when it’s the last one we might ever have from this cast.

Late-Bloomer PsyAichi:

The only possibility, and this is very much a last-ditch at this point, draws on ideas from Override (is there an IF plan in the works? laughs with shovel maybe since the day before epi 1 aired), so chances are these might be as swiftly debunked as other ideas.

With the rapid influx of memories breaking through the IF illusion, Aichi’s imagination’s shackles were released, according to Takuto. The result was Psyqualia overloading Aichi, its poisonous nature of the original continuity repeating itself as a result of festering inside of him for years without usage.

By retaining this nature, it amplifies Aichi’s fixation on Kai-kun, maybe through an amalgamation of other PsyAichi remnants in line with the original continuity who became overwhelmed by that obsession blinding him to the pain that other characters have experienced through their connections with Vanguard or the suffering he’s putting his own family through to see IF secured.

His mind struggles to contend with the sudden explosion of power and his sanity withers when viewing possibilities that he was never granted, reinforced by Takuto’s claim that Kai-kun’s life is better as it is, of Aichi’s strength in those other worlds, of longing to reach his alternative selves and feel his existence holds any value. He doesn’t truly have control over himself as a result of this madness, which is why he refers to Kourin by just her name.

How Sanctuary itself formed, there’s just nothing that comes to mind. Unless IF has special properties that just haven’t been explained that allow for more supernatural events to occur — like Sanctuary’s appearance, the battlegrounds that don’t inflict real world damage on their sites — can’t really wrap head around how Aichi was able to create it.

The original distortion’s root:

Something else that still doesn’t make sense is Shuka being led to Blaster Blade as a withering existence. And as Aichi himself never played a part in that, the past couple of weeks had had me suspicious of Nome, and other fans have been pointing fingers his way as of late. His disappearance in episode 1 hasn’t been addressed, and it’s odd for him to so briefly show up only to seemingly play no part.

It’s just a possibility, but he, whether tainted by something Brandt or sibling jealousy, tampered with the Akashic Records to lure Shuka in and cause the accident that prevented Kai-kun and Aichi from meeting, shaping IF Aichi’s life to keep him from deviating from a path that Nome had set for him, using someone else’s brother (and someone known to be a powerful force is let loose) as a weapon.

If Brandt has a part in any of this, perhaps he infected Aichi with it, to allow it/his Psyqualia/imagination to overload him when exposed to the truth beyond IF.

This is all just grasping at straws at this point because really struggle to see Aichi doing this of his own accord and I believe him to be better than this, I want to believe the writers do too.

[dancingkirby]

Azula Week Day 3: Friendship

Summary: Old lady Azula invites Old lady Katara over for tea, and the former speaks her mind. @azulaweek

It was strange, being old.  Azula had thought of herself as “late middle age” for as long as she possibly could, but now that she was seventy, there could be no more putting off the inevitable. The process of aging was readily apparent externally, of course. ��Whenever she looked in the mirror, she saw her nearly-white hair, the wrinkles that marred her once flawless complexion, and the prominent veins and arthritic joints in her hands.  What she felt on the inside, however, was more complicated.  In many ways, she still felt fourteen, just with fifty-six years’ experience.

One by one, the companions of her youth had met their own destinies.  Mai had been dead for nearly ten years now, felled by an assassin’s blade while walking in the garden.  Although Azula had not been there to witness it personally, the rumor was that the Fire Lady’s last words had been, “Well, that’s ironic.”  Ty Lee, on the other hand, was very much alive. After her groundbreaking work in trauma therapy, many books and papers published, and countless accolades, she had moved to Ember Island for her retirement.  

Many of her half-siblings had had distinguished careers as well.  Ruanyu had been living in Republic City for decades, and for a time had served as the Fire Nation’s representative in the United Republic Council. Chun, true to Azula’s initial insticts, was the incumbent Minister of Education.  Kiyi, however, preferred a more private life with her six children and numerous grandchildren.

Life at the palace was quite staid these days.  Zuko, in his widowerhood, liked his books and meditation and tea.  He had even mentioned that he might abdicate at some point in the future.  Azula had difficulty finding things to keep herself occupied, since her body could no longer endure the hours of grueling firebending practice that had filled her days in her youth. Sometimes, things got so boring that Talent Night was the highlight of her week.

So when Azula heard that her old nemesis Katara was going to visit the Caldera to attend a seminar on healing firebending, she invited her to tea.  That was what old ladies did, after all, even if they didn’t particularly like each other.  Currently, they were sitting in the tea room decked out in all the proper regalia, appraising each other as servants whisked the tea and laid out the sweets.  

Once everyone else had slipped out of the room, Azula leaned forward in her chair (since there was no way their old bones would tolerate kneeling on a tatami mat for extended periods of time), and said, “So.  How are things?”

“Quiet,” Katara replied.  “I moved back South to be with my daughter after Aang died.  It’s harder to find things to do now that he’s gone.  I’m still practicing as a midwife and healer, though; that helps fill my days.  And we have neighbors, cute young couple, who hire me to babysit their little girl sometimes. It’s strange, because I could swear…”

She broke off abruptly.  Azula waited for a few seconds before prompting, “Yes?”

“It’s…it’s nothing. Just a weird feeling,” Katara said before taking a sip of her own tea.  Age-related memory hiccup, perhaps?  Azula had plenty of experience with those.  Or something else..?  At any rate, it was clear that Katara would say no more on this subject.  

“My days are similarly quiet,” Azula ultimately offered.  “My husband has become quite the distinguished elder diplomat.  Kazuo looks to follow in his footsteps. His wife is Botan; she’s from a lesser noble family.  And they have three daughters: Emi is almost six, Taeko is three, and the baby is Zula.  My namesake.” She smirked.

“I don’t have any grandchildren yet myself,” Katara admitted.  “There have been…obstacles.  But I’m still hopeful.”

They managed to sustain a discussion of harmless topics such as these for much longer than Azula had thought possible.  All the while, Azula observed this woman who she hadn’t seen in decades.  The waterbender appeared happy enough with this chat; nevertheless, there did seem something...off about her.

Finally, as they were getting around to concluding their get-together, Azula decided to speak up.

“You’ve changed,” she declared as she popped the last daifuku into her mouth.

Katara seemed perplexed.  “Haven’t we all?”

Azula was quiet for a few moments, pondering how to phrase her next words while making sure to chew thoroughly so as not to choke on the sticky rice.

“You seem defeated,” she eventually stated.  “You’re not the proud, passionate girl who…who bested me in combat all those years ago.  Nor even the woman who held her own against me in a different sort of way while I was in labor.  It seems as if…you have no idea how to function now that your husband had died.”

“I loved him!” Katara protested.  So the girl she had been hadn’t been completely erased after all.

Azula waved a hand and replied, “I’m sure you did.  And I’m sure that he reciprocated.  But just because you love someone, doesn’t mean that you can’t maintain an identity of your own.  Now that I’m thinking about it, I saw warning signs of this as far back as the search for my mother.  Almost everything you said was ‘Aang this,” or ‘Sweetie that.’  And the times the Avatar came visiting, he brought only his youngest son, never the older two.  You let your husband play favorites with the children when you’ve seen first-hand what that can do?  You were powerful, you were independent, and you threw it all away.”

Katara was dumbstruck for several seconds.  Nevertheless, she was able to regather her wits and retort, “Wow, I didn’t know that you cared so much about my wellbeing, Azula.”

“Yes!  Keep that up!” Azula exclaimed, the edge of her flowing sleeve coming dangerously close to knocking her teacup off the table. “Don’t let anyone make you feel small…not even me!  You are not only Katara-the-wife, or Katara-the-mother.  You are Katara!” After this, she had to pause to catch her breath.  

“I’ve always been the mothering type,” Katara pointed out.  “Just ask Toph.”

“But that’s not all you were.”

“I suppose…I…Well, I want to just say you’re wrong, but it’s not…not entirely, at least.  There were times where I felt—” She shook her head. “I can’t quite put it into words yet. Where did you learn how to do all that anyway?”

“One of the perks of having a best friend who’s arguably the most famous psychologist on the planet,” Azula said airily.  “And she would have told you the same thing.  Probably would have been nicer about it, though.”

“At least you gave me something to think about.  So…thank you?” Katara ventured as she rose from her chair.  Azula rang for a servant to escort her out.

“Perhaps we should do this again someday,” she stated. “That was the most excitement I’ve had since that mongoose lizard got loose in the palace last year.”  Upon seeing Katara’s confused expression, she added, “I guess you had to be there.”

“Right.  Well…I think I’d like that.  Doing this again, I mean.”  At that moment, the servant arrived, and Katara left.  And now everything was boring again.

[amintyworld]

Chapter One: Ex-Kings - Sanders Sides Six AU

A/N: Finally, after three weeks of valiant effort, it’s FINALLY HERE! The first chapter of the amazing Six AU! I’m sorry it didn’t come out sooner, school and personal stuff got in the way, but I hope you enjoy it! Love ya, and as always, stay sweet! - Minty

First (You’re Here!) - Last - Next

Summary: Prince Remy has a decision to make, and receives an unlikely gift.

TW: Death mention. (Please tell me if I missed anything!)

Prince Remy walked down the halls of his castle, deep in thought. He had a week, if not more, to decide the biggest decision of his life - he was relieved of his regular duties to think, not like he really did much anyway. His father, King Thomas, handled ruling the Sanders Empire just fine without him - he had for over 10 years before Remy came along.

The Sanders Family was secretive in their pasts, and not much was known to the public of their personal lives, so not much was really known in the family, nor outside it.

Remy turned down a long hallway full of tapestries of merry kings and queens, of powerful monarchs that conquered kingdoms and waged wars. Remy paused in his hurry to scan along the line.

King Daniel to King Logan, their stories of what the public saw paved in thread and silk.

Would he ever be the strong leader his people needed? Remy doubted himself. It was hard to believe he was related to any of them at all - he walked down slowly, his hands drifting over the soft stitching.

Divorced. Beheaded. Died.

Divorced. Beheaded. Survived.

A part of Remy wondered what they were really like behind closed doors. Were they ever scared? Did they have struggles like him? 

He stopped at his grandfather Logan’s tapestry, reading the label - ‘King Logan the Wise, The One Who Survived’ - and looked up. There was his grandfather on the throne, his father behind him, with a hand on the head of the chair, both with blank expressions.

Remy stared at the tapestries. There must be something behind the riches and crowns, something human. He can’t be a descendant of… of brutal kings and ruthless killers.

It can’t be so cut and dry. 

Can it…?

“Remy!” A servant yelled, snapping the Prince out of his daze. Remy’s gaze snapped to the servant, smiling as he rushed and enveloped the Prince in a much needed hug. “Thank god you’re here. I haven’t seen you in weeks!”

“Boy, they’ve got you really busy, haven’t they?” Remy said, smiling down at his best friend, then looking down at his suit stained in flour. Emile turned pink.

“S-sorry! I didn’t have time to wash up…” Emile said, trying desperately to clean off the white streaks on Remy’s black jacket. “Oh, I’ve ruined your suit…!”

Remy smiled, sighing at his best friend. “Oh, don’t worry about that, Emi. It’s just a little flour.” He giggled as some flour built up on top of Emile’s puffy white hat fell to the floor, dusting nearly Emile’s entire face in the powdery white substance.

Emile groaned. “I never thought I’d ever hate flour.”

“Come on, let’s get you cleaned up…”

After a rather funny exchange with the cook staff, Remy and Emile were sitting in the garden as Remy slowly wiped flour off Emile’s face. Emile’s eyes searched his own as Remy cleaned, an awkward smile on his face. “I really made a mess this time, huh?”

Prince Remy smiled. “Lucky for you, I’m always here to clean it up.” He scooted closer to Emile to get some caked sugary and floury goo off Emile’s forehead. As Remy was focused on the mess, Emile looked up at Remy, a growing blush spreading on his cheeks.

——————–

High above them, a bright red spirit dressed fancily sporting a crown of his own giggled giddily, to which the two down below were deaf to hear. “Ooooooh, they’re so cute! Look at Emile, he’s blushing!” The spirit sighed. “Why can’t they just get together already, Dad?!”

A dark purple spirit, wearing a crown as well, floated next to the bright red one. “Do you not remember, Roman? Remy’s already promised to Princess Adene of Farwood.”

The red spirit, Roman, sighed, crossing his arms like a child. “She’s so boring though! Plus, Remy loves Emile!” A smirk passed his features. “If I could just-”

“No, Roman!” The dark spirit, Virgil, scolded his son. “No more messing with the mortal realm! You’ve done quite enough damage to the poor housemaids and chefs, haven’t you? Now everyone thinks there’s a rodent problem in the castle!” The spirit yelled, grabbing Roman’s hand before he could do anything foolish.

“Fine, fine.” The red spirit said, yanking his hand away from his father’s grip and sighing, looking at the two down below. “I just wish Remy could be happy.”

“I know,” Virgil sighed. “Me too…”

——————

“You know,” Remy chuckled. “Keep this up and the chefs will run out of flour and sugar in the blink of an eye. They’ll have to scoop some off you!”

Emile giggled, holding out his arm. “Oh sir, did you need some extra flour? Why, I have some right here!”

Without noticing, their hands inched closer.

——————–

“You promise me you’re not gonna do something stupid?” Virgil warned Roman as he turned toward the castle. 

“Please, Dad. What am I gonna do? I’ve already scared all the cooks!” Roman said with a laugh.

“Alright. I’m going to check on Logan.” Virgil said. “Poor guy hasn’t been able to leave his room for days.”

The air suddenly seemed thick at the mention of Logan. Roman looked solemn.

“Dad?”

“Yes, Roman?”

“Please tell me if-” Roman said, his expression turning serious, and somewhat scared.

“Of course, Roman,” Virgil said. “You’ll be the first to know.”

With that, he was gone.

Roman’s son, Logan, was 97 and still living. The One Who Survived. Everyone knew his time was coming, but Roman didn’t want him to die. 

Not yet.

Roman sighed.

His attention turned back to the lovebirds below him and smiled at how close they were, and the flush on their faces. Of course, the two were too shy to make a move on their own. Surely, all they needed to set the mood was a bit of…

Roman smirked as his hand lit up bright pink.

…assistance…

Roman’s eyes caught a loose branch in the brush behind them, and smiled mischievously, rubbing his hands together as it began to move.

Perfect.

———————–

High above the gardens, the night began to show the twinkling stars in the sky, and Remy’s heart began to beat faster at the closeness of him and his best friend. Emile’s eyes looked up at him, sparkling, and Remy could feel a hot, deep blush spreading across his face. Neither had said a word for at least ten minutes now, just staring at each other.

Remy’s breathing became rapid. When did their lips get so close?!

“…It's… uh, getting late.” Emile said, turning his attention toward the stairs to the kitchens, and hiding a blush. “I should really be getting back to work-”

“-Woah-!”

Something pushed the two forward, and they were flying, flying-

Then suddenly, much, MUCH closer than they were before.

Remy fell on his back, looking up at Emile who landed on his stomach. Emile’s breath blew a strand of Remy’s hair out of his face, which made Remy’s blush deepen, and Emile’s blush to come out of hiding. 

Roman giggled from above, squealing at their predicament with his head in his hands, his glowing red body getting brighter with each laugh.

With murmured flustered apologies, they tried standing back up.

Emile slipping on the floury mess they made on the floor cleaning up, falling backward. His arms flailed, and Remy acted quickly, grabbing his arms and steadying him in an awkward dip pose, lips inches apart. 

Remy tried to clear his dry throat. “Are… are you o-okay, Emile?”

So…Close.

“Of… of c-course, I-”

“Remy?” A deep voice boomed from the doorway after clearing his throat. Remy looked up to see his father, the ruler of the Sanders Empire.

King Thomas.

The King wore a blood-red cape with golden tassels, a grand golden crown atop his brown windswept hair. His eyes looked powerful and playful at the same time. He leaned against the stone doorframe, boasting a smile. “Am I… interrupting anything?”

Remy’s cheeks were dusted bright red as he stood up quickly. “NO- no… Dad, you aren’t interrupting-”

Emile awkwardly looked to the King, standing. “I…uh… I should be heading back to the kitchens… dinner should be soon, my king.”

“Of course. Lovely to see you, Emile.”

“Thank you, my king.” Emile ran off quickly.

————————-

The red spirit sighed. “Ugh, talk about buzzkill-!" 

Suddenly a small glint coming from the King’s satchel caught his eye. "Wait, is that-!?” Roman looked closer in shock - that crest…

 "I have to go tell the others-!“

The red spirit rushed off inside the stone castle, phasing through the walls with a sense of newfound urgency.

—————————-

King Thomas walked over to his son with a knowing smile. "So… you two have been… busy…”

“We were just catching up.”

“You’re turning 20 soon…” Thomas graced his hands down Remy’s arms. “Just look at you. Where’s that chocolate sneaking little boy I knew?” Thomas smiled fondly at his son, and Remy couldn’t help but look to the ground.

“I’m… going to be a King.” Remy said. With every word, the room filled with tension. “Just like grandfather, and the others before. I’m going to live on the legacy of our great ancestors. I’m going to rule the Sanders Empire.”

“Remy.” His father’s tone was more serious. “You don’t have to if you don’t want-”

“What damn choice do I have, Dad?!” Remy yelled, making the King step back a few feet. Remy’s fists were clenched at his sides so tight that they began to leave bright red marks. “If I don’t become King, we’ll be a disgrace, and I’m not letting 80 years of rule go down the toilet just because I’m selfish!”

Thomas sighed. “You remind me too much of me when I was your age - So full of hopes and dreams, and a true fighting spirit.” The king sat down on the stone bench and motioned for his son to do the same. Remy hesitantly sat down. “You know, there’s so much about our family you don’t know, Remy. Secrets and stories that even the public couldn’t get a hold of.”

Remy looked at his father in awe. “What…?” He breathed, his anger dispersing from his father’s calm demeanor and voice. “How…?”

“It’s a tradition, son - a book passed down generation through generation of the Sanders Empire.” Thomas pulled out a dusty brown leather book with frayed edges and pages sticking out, a crest carved into the leather at the center - the castle of the great King Daniel, who freed the people from the tyrannical rule of his husband, King Benjamin the Third of Salkenshire. Two swords clashed at the top of the crest, deep rivers and valleys below. Remy slowly traced the crest with his finger. “All our entire family’s history is in this book, Remy. Your grandfather gave it to me when I was about your age, and it’s about time I give it to you.”

“W-wait… really?” Remy asked, broken from his trance on the cover to look up to his father. “But, you know how I feel about being king, I don’t deserve this-”

“You deserve to know where you come from, and what it’s like to be a Sanders.” His father said, tucking some stray brown hair behind his son’s ears. “God, you look just like your mother…”

Remy smiled slightly, remembering her. The King stood quickly. “Well then, I should be off - after all, you have a book to read.”

“Thanks, Dad.”

“Of course. I’ll see you at dinner, alright?”

“Alright,” Remy said, holding the book to his chest. Thomas placed his hand on his son’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry about the whole King thing. You’ll make the right decision when the time comes - after all, it’s in your blood.”

[johannepetereric]

Emi, You’re Not A Stalker!

Again, I am using dialogue from the anime. I don’t own CFV. I am using it because I can’t think of any other dialogue to put in its place.

________________________________________________________________

Aichi greeted Emi a yawned “Good morning” from the kitchen table, right after being slapped awake by Kaa-san. 

What? He was up since 5 this morning cooking breakfast! It’s only been a few days; his body has yet to adjust yet! 

Well, at least the blueberry muffins taste good. 

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you didn’t even have a alarm clock.”

Aichi stretched himself back, a longer, more drawn-out yawn escaping like ghosts, tilting the chair slightly. “Emi, I was up since five in the morning baking! What did you think I was doing?” He whispered-yawned. “I went to bed at eight for this.”

Emi looked furious, face colored the pigments of the tomatoes he sliced and diced today.

“That’s right, Emi. Please respect your brother. He is next-in-line to be the Matriarch, after all.” Shizuka Sendou, the current Matriarch, reminded the daughter. As stated in a previous post, Emi was booted out of queue as soon as Aichi declared that he found his mate (future boyfriend!). So now, Emi is the one subject to sleeping in! “And Aichi! Eat your waffles!”

Indeed, three waffles were stacked in the future-matriarch’s plate, two more than on the other two, saturated with syrup and butter and berries--and a dash of whipped cream!

Aichi’s tried eyes awoke as he remembered this. He popped a super-sugary waffle fork into his mouth, salivating at its sweet, sweet, pick-me-up texture and essence of home.  While Aichi was finishing up the muffins earlier, she was making extra waffles for her new apprentice! Although Aichi barely managed to slag through the motions, the produce did turn out as advertised!

“Aichi, hurry up! I don’t have to drive you to school, do I?” Indeed, the Sendou Matriarch has a motorcycle (legally licensed, of course) in the garage (or out back). 

“No, Kaa-san!” He filled himself as much as he could, earning himself a tummyache and vomiting into a trash can near school, but he at least wasn’t late this time!

Right after Aichi left, the girls had about the same talk as in the anime:

“Aichi’s been working hard this morning. He’s been going to bed later and is now rising just as earlier. He only had five hours of sleep last night.” The mother shook her head fondly. “I hope he found something fun after school.” 

This was a lie by omission, one could say. Shizuka does know, but Emi is a troublesome girl to deal with in the affairs of love. The mother could only sigh in contempt. Emi questioned why, but the other said to “let it be. Your brother has enough worry on his shoulders as it is.” And shuffled away to do whatever it is she does. 

Emi pondered this lateness. 

Right on time, she stalked her brother. 

“Hold it right there, Aichi. You’re not going home yet!” A menacing voice shrieked.

“Morikawa, I told you you’re not my type!” Aichi squealed back. The bully looked seriously offended and just threatened him more.

She saw her brother being threatened by the two boys (”Morikawa” and who must be his lackey), talking about plans, and she saw that they weren’t touching the new lunchbag her brother was bringing the past few days. 

I hope that they’re both all right! She thought. She knew it wrong to be worried about the food, but Mom would be sad if they were ruined!

I hope they’re not going to assault him!

The threatening of a beating continued, and she fussed over why in the world he’d play along with them why isn’t he scrambling to safety?!

Card Capital, the place they entered read. Must be their evil lair!

“Stop right there!” she yelled through the automatic door, only to be met with reverberating silence.

A green-hared man in glasses led up to her with, “Eh--how can I help you, young lady?”

“What? Eh? I’m here for my brother?”

“Well-” she was given a whole spiel, a guided tour of the place. She spied Aichi smiling and untouched and seemingly ignoring her, and she finally looked around.

Little kids about her age leaning around little tables; a cashier next to her; a glass case beyond there; cards on display; a bored-looking lady, previously reading a book at the register, staring an icy death into the little girl.

This really is a safe space. But what if it’s just money-laundering?

“Oh, those two are about to start a Cardfight. You want to see?” One most menacing bully and Aichi had locked eyes on the table, seemingly ignoring the girl who dared to believe this a bad place.

Emi nodded. The lunchbox was between Aichi’s feet, seemingly unopened. Looking at the floor, she didn’t see any crumbs. 

What she didn’t know was that Misaki was hiding her half-eaten muffin under the counter, to be slowly devoured over the course of the day XD! 

She watched Aichi ride “Blaster Blade,” the one he’s the reincarnation of. The face, it looked so...so...

A True Leader. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Why do I never draw the cards I need?”

“Uh, because Morikawa is stupid?” Aichi offered.

“Aaaaaaah!” Izaki held back the bully--Morikawa--by the collar. The dumb*** was choking.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“bUT i SCORED ANOTHER AWESOME gRADE 3!” (Yaaaas, I’m keeping it like this!)

“You’ll have to discard them eventually...”

“DO YOU NOT BELIEVE YOUR MASTER?!”

Aichi sweatdropped. “Morikawa, this is why you’re not my type.”

Emi snickered at that. Her big brother can be so picky sometimes.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Gallatin attacks Barr!” 

Aichi...you’re so different. Your eyes have no sense of hardening here. You don’t look as afraid as before. Compared to you now, Aichi, he looks so weak. Bark but no bite. 

...

“--I attack Barr for the win!” Aichi has changed so much. Did Kaa-san know about this? 

Yes, it must be...finally playing Vanguard, as he’s so desperately wanted. The drive, the sparkle, the matriarchal glimmer that Kaa-san has chasing a cornered “Karen.” And Psyqualia looks unnecessary. 

“Eh?? Why isn’t the attack going through?”

Aichi sighed in exasperation. She feels it completely. What a mood. He responded in monotone, dead-eyed again, “Blaster Blade initially had 19000 power. I boosted with Wingal, which gives Blaster Blade an 4000 power. I now have to check the drive trigger.”

Critical. 4 damage. Add +1 damage to Blaster Blade, and...

“Aaaaaaaah!” Emi covered her ears for this one, her brother wincing.

“I looooooost!” 

“And look! He took zero damage!” A smug glimmer appeared in her brother’s eyes, a look so often used every week. Someone pointed it out--Aichi was squirming and twitching in anticipation for the moment when he could fold his arm like an egotistical champ again. Forehead furrowed trying to hold back as villainous face. Well,

“DON’T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT, YOU PUNK! I JUST LOST ON PURPOSE!” Aichi sweatdropped, never once losing that smug expression--which juts out more prominently now that he’s taken his opponent down an emotional peg.

His jaw twitched in the desire to smirk.

Emi’s had enough of this bull****.

“Aichi!” 

“Emi?! What are you doing here?!”

“Me?! You’re the one who’s abandoning your duties.”...Oops. 

Aichi stormed over to her cross-eyes, ready to give the middle finger and A Lesson About Respect.

“Now you listen here, young lady!”

“Aichi, stop.” A snappish, stern voice snapped them out of their oncoming tirade--which is bad for public relations.

Aichi veered this particular maniac look at the teen. Misaki-san looked slightly unsettled but glared back with equal virility.

An staring contest ensued, lightning sparking between them, Aichi’s eyes slightly turned downward--of course. It��s a girl. 

“So,” Emi crossed her arms in contempt. “You’ve been coming here to play games.”

Aichi’s eyes narrowed, attention twisted toward the imouto again, back straightened. Time to Defend. “What can you do about it?” He answered in equal condescension.

This killed the mood--if it already wasn’t when Emi caused a reaction from the blunet.

“Yes, Kaa-san knows. We knew you’d freak out. But to pull a stunt like this?” Tsk, tsk, tsk, he clicked as he shook his flowy, clean sea.  “This is beneath even you.”

“You are aware your friends know of your true nature, right?”

“I revealed it to them the day after I met Kai-kun.”

“Merciless.” She agreed, calmer now, for it is factual. The feminine male had grown a cruel side, not totally unlike your stereotypical tsundere or yandere. 

Aichi must’ve been brutal, so worked up like that. She can sense the romantic feels spiraling out of his soul, his heart. The mere moment of affection from one breath was enough to suppress a bit of her killer curiosity--one of many reasons as to why we fight.  

“So is Vanguard fun to play for you?”

“Yes!” He shouted with no hesitation, face now morphed back to when he rode his Avatar. “So much fun! I don’t have to worry about losing!” He pushed out two fingers--Too-dles! It doesn’t matter whether I win or lose. I’m going to have fun, anyway.

Emi smiled.

“Might I play sometime?”

Aichi grunted, maternal smile gleaming naturally. 

Indeed, he’ll be a wonderful mother and waifu. The Perfect Matriarch. 

“Ok. Bye! I expect your lasagna tonight!” Emi headed out towards home.

She could hear clamor about Aichi’s “secret” cooking abilities. Emi is proud of her brother. He has much room to grow, and he has finally opened the floodgates to reaching that level of maturity required to be a mature--emotionally mature--adult. 

Indeed, Emi will love meeting this new, dormant Aichi. 

[chowriappaconstellation-blog]

Is investing in Real Estate during the Lockdown/Post Lockdown period the best move now?

Real estate has always been a steady investment that is synonymous with security and prestige and this trend would continue during these unprecedented times. Other asset classes such as equity markets, which are poised to see a downward trend over the next two years (atleast!) due to muted corporate earnings over the next several quarters, are much less reliable and extremely volatile.

With the Repo rate being reduced by 75 bps and the new base rate being 4.4%, home loan interest rates are only going to get further lower. This makes it all the more worthwhile for an investor or an end user to make a real estate investment such as buying an apartment. The inflation hedging capabilities of real estate adds to the fact that no time is better than now to ensure the 3 S’s in your investment criteria: Safety. Security and Stability!

The post pandemic world will be good for the real estate sector, the one sector that will emerge as the silver lining in such bleak scenario.

I have decided to invest in an apartment during/ immediately after the Lockdown . Should I book an under-construction / completed project?

Definitely, go for a completed project like Chowriappa Constellation! Since you have made up your mind to buy an apartment, you should consider the following, to make your decision more balanced:

1. Further delays in under-construction projects are imminent

With India under a complete lockdown and construction workers returning home, project delays are unavoidable. The real sector, especially the residential segment, has already been struggling with project delays, regulatory changes and low sales for the last few years. Given the Coronavirus pandemic, construction in incomplete projects has come to a complete standstill across the country. We foresee a delay in delivery of projects on account of supply disruption, due to the virus outbreak and liquidity crunch. This makes it all the more paramount to invest in a completed project like Chowriappa Constellation.

2. Liquidity will become an issue for Developers in completing under-construction projects.

With almost no sales happening and no foreign funds at hand, developers will struggle to pick up the pace, once the lockdown ends. The investment will start flowing in gradually and so far, the government has not announced any bailout package for the sector, which is a concerning issue

Due to volatility in liquidity, existing under construction projects will bear the brunt of these adverse effects.

Therefore, in our humble opinion, it is advised to go for an extra layer of certainty and book an apartment in a completed project.

3. Demand-supply slowdown

Demand has dried down completely and very little supply in terms of completed projects are now available due to the lockdown and its after effects. Once everything gets back to normal, it will take at least three months for real estate construction to gain pace as well as developers to resume construction work, as most of the labourers have left for their home towns.

That means supply will take a little more time to pick up than demand. This will bring an upward trend in the property prices in the post-COVID-19 world, which means you may have to pay more than what you have to pay today, for the same property. Therefore, it makes sense in buying an apartment in a completed project as soon as possible before prices go up.

Now, you have really convinced me! But I am a numbers man... Tell me more on this aspect and how the prevailing home loan rates are to my advantage… Maybe I may even think of renting the apartment out…

Home loans at prevalent interest rates allow for considerable savings while creating an asset for end-use or investment purpose. Furthermore, the borrower gets to use the savings resulting from a reduced equated monthly instalment (EMI) to avail a top-up loan, also available at lower interest rates.

The additional funds can be used for undertaking interiors related work for the apartment being purchased. Alternatively, a lower interest rate also gives borrowers an option to raise a higher amount of loan. This helps widen the choice in terms of a bigger home with better amenities and lifestyle facilities in a prominent neighbourhood like Hennur Main Road.

A back-of-the-envelope comparison of a 25-year home loan of Rs 1.5 crore at interest rates of 8.5% and 7.75% results in an equated monthly instalment of Rs 1,20,784 and Rs 1,13,299 respectively. The reduced rate of interest gives the borrower an upfront monthly savings of Rs 7,492. If need be, this money can get the borrower a top-up loan of up to Rs 9.9 lakh for enhancing the apartment’s look and feel.

By claiming tax benefits on principal and interest payments under various sections of the Income Tax Act, the borrower is able to further save Rs 9,722 every month or Rs 1,16,666 annually. The effective EMI for the borrower thus comes down to Rs 1,03,577 (including tax benefits) with an effective rate of interest at 6.74%. That’s almost 1% lower rate of interest on the home loan being availed. The overall proposition sweetens further when combined with tax benefits in the case of a joint home loan.

Interestingly, if one compares the present scenario with home loans being offered in the year 2002–03, the interest rates pretty much hovered at similar levels. In fact, lower home loan interest rates coupled with affordable prices acted as catalysts back then leading to a consistent growth in property prices across markets in the ensuing years.

Another benefit of the current home loan interest rate scenario is that a borrower can look at the possibility of going for a fixed rate over a floating one. The latter tends to get volatile and can go north based on monetary policy decisions by the Indian Central Bank.

Banks and other financial institutions typically charge a premium for home loans at fixed rates. So, this option is best availed when overall interest rates are at their lowest. The home loan borrower is able to lock the fixed-rate at a lower level and get rid of the stress arising out of the interest reset practices followed by various lending institutions.

Those looking to acquire a property for investment purposes and earning rental income have their own set of benefits. Rental yields are currently pegged at 2.5%. And with effective interest rates at 6.75%, the net effect, if a home is purchased for letting out, comes to 4.25%. This beats long term inflation figures of India hands down, thus presenting another win-win situation.

An opportunity, in the form of lowest home loan interest rates, is now available. Go ahead, make its best use and fulfill your life dream.

[medea10]

My Review of Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku

[pocket-luv101]

Spellbound by the Music || Chapter 4

Fandom: Servamp Characters: Mahiru, Kuro, Licht, Hyde, Snow Lily Pairings: KuroMahi (main), LawLicht (side)

Summary: Mahiru came to Kuro with an offer. He would help reduce his prison sentence if he solved a mystery with him. They have to work together to catch a serial killer. {Detective AU}

Ch.1 || Ch.2 || Ch.3 || (Ch.4) ||

“I’m sorry about my brother.” Kuro said as they drove back to the station. His brother approached Licht for his sake but Kuro doubted he could explain everything to Mahiru. He still felt the need to apologize to him though. He couldn’t help but think of how pale Mahiru became when he thought his cousin was in danger. Also, Mahiru gave him a chance to see his family again.

“I have to apologize for Licht’s behaviour as well. Your brother was probably there to interview someone for his job but Licht attacked him. If I remember right, he’s a journalist.” He nodded in answer. Kuro was thankful that Mahiru’s assumption was much better than the truth. He had to wonder if Mahiru believed his own words when he added. “It’s remarkable that Hyde knew that Licht and I were related. We don’t have much of a family resemblance.”

“The world is full of coincidences.” Kuro shrugged and tried to appear nonchalant about the encounter. He didn’t want Mahiru to discover that his family was involved in the robberies as well. The entire reason he turned himself in was because he wanted to protect his siblings. “You’ve met my family so you know we don’t look anything alike.”

“I’m an only child but I was a little jealous of others with big families. I already mentioned that we should arrange a dinner with them. Just make sure not to talk about the investigation or that Licht might be a target. We don’t want private information to reach the public and the killer.” He warned. Kuro realized that Mahiru earlier words weren’t him suspecting Hyde of anything. He was more worried about his investigation than anything. He was reminded of how Mahiru was a dedicated detective.

His phone rang and Mahiru searched for a place he could pull over. Unfortunately, all of the spots were taken. When he drove to Licht’s hotel, he took his own car instead of a police vehicle so he didn’t have a radio to answer the call either. “Kuro, can you reach into my right pocket and get my work phone? Put it on speaker too. It might be something important about the investigation.”

“You can’t break a law as simple as ‘don’t text and drive’?” Even as he asked that, Kuro leaned towards him and slipped his hand into his pants’ pocket. He couldn’t find his phone so he moved closer to search in his other pocket.

“Wait, Kuro, I meant my jacket’s right pocket.” Mahiru quickly correct him and blushed. Kuro didn’t know why seeing him flustered made him feel the same. He hid how he felt though. He found his phone quickly enough and answered it for Mahiru. After he clicked speaker, he held it close to Mahiru. From the angry voice he heard, he doubted he needed to put it on speaker.

“Mahiru, where are you? I didn’t authorize for you to leave the station.” He went out because he thought Licht was in danger. Mahiru doubted his boss would accept that as an answer though. He knew that it was rather selfish of him to let his personal feelings affect the investigation.

Mahiru bit his lip and composed himself. “I’m sorry, chief. I received a call and I thought it was connected with the serial killer. It was a dead end though. I’m on my way back to the station right now. Did something come up while I was gone?”

“Something? There was another murder. You’re lucky you’re one of our best detectives. We need you to go to the location. At least you’re on the road already.” His chief gave him the address and Kuro typed it into the GPS with his free hand. As he did that, he could see Mahiru’s face tense. He could guess what was going through his mind.

When the call ended, Kuro said: “If I was in your shoes and I got that text from my siblings, I would’ve done the same thing. You couldn’t have known that something would happen either so don’t make that guilty face. Isn’t this the time you would say something like: ‘We need to work hard and solve this case so everyone will be safe’?”

“You make me sound like one of those shonen protagonists who preaches too much.” Mahiru pouted but he had to smile after a moment. He knew that Kuro was trying to encourage him even though he was a little ungraceful with his words. He switched lanes and said, “We better go to the crime scene quickly and solve this case.”

“That’s a classic shonen protagonist line right there.” Kuro smirked at Mahiru’s reaction to his teasing. In the short time he knew Mahiru, he was able to understand the person he was. He was simple but that wasn’t a negative to Kuro.

“One more comment like that and I’m going to make you help me with paperwork when we get home.”

“You went from a hero to a housewife in two sentences.”

Mahiru stepped out of his car and looked over the gated home. He was already assessing the scene as he moved to stand next to Kuro. He took off his uniform jacket and held it out to him. “Wear this, Kuro. Most of the officers already know that you’re my partner on the case but this should help you blend in more. We can’t go in until the crime photographers finish. Do you have any questions while we wait?”

“Can I stay in the car while you work? I missed a few hours of sleep last night so I would like to catch up on them.” Kuro asked as he leaned against the car. He slipped off his jacket and wore the one Mahiru gave him, assuming that Mahiru would say no. His answer surprised him though.

“You can sleep in the car. I would’ve liked a fresh perspective but I understand if this entire situation makes you uncomfortable. You’re a normal citizen, after all. I would never make you look at the body. My only intention was for you to listen to me interview the person who found the body.” Mahiru took out his keys from his pocket. “If you get hot, turn on the AC. I need to talk to the first responders.”

He started to walk towards the uniformed men but he was surprised to see Kuro follow behind him. He smiled encouragingly to him and continued to walk away. As they approached the officers, Kuro could feel stares stabbing his back. He decided to stay with Mahiru since he defended him from the other detectives and made him feel comfortable.

Mahiru waved to one of the officers on duty. He also took out his badge so the officer wouldn’t assume he was a civilian since Kuro was wearing his uniformed jacket. “Hello, I am Detective Shirota and this is my partner, Kuro Ash. It’s rather early but can you tell me what you have so far?”

“The victim’s name is Emi Igawa. Her manager found the body when he came to drive her to an interview. She was killed in the living room. It looks like another gunshot but we need to wait for the autopsy to be certain.” The officer told him and Mahiru nodded. He went to write a few notes in a small book he usually kept in his pocket. Mahiru realized that Kuro had his notebook since he gave him his jacket.

“I want to look over the crime scene before I interview her manager. That should give him more time to process everything. Tell me if anything else comes up.” When he would’ve asked Kuro to give him his notebook, he found him surveying the front yard. He wondered if something caught his attention. Kuro was standing in front of a large window and looking into the house.

His attention was only pulled away when Mahiru waved a pair of gloves in him. “You might want to put these on or else you’ll get your fingerprints everywhere and compromise the crime scene. Is there something here, Kuro? I can have this window dusted for prints.”

“I don’t think the person would use this window to enter the house since it faces the street.” Kuro said as he pulled on the gloves. The window looked into the kitchen but the open layout of the house let him see partially into the living room. While he could see the police inside the house, he couldn’t see the body. He glanced from the window to the gate behind them. “But maybe someone walking by saw something through this window.”

“It would be great if we can find a witness. Are there any other places the killer might’ve overlook?” Mahiru asked and Kuro scanned the front of the house. The thoughtful expression he had was surprisingly attractive. He had strong features but Mahiru hadn’t noticed before because Kuro usually had a disinterested expression. He walked around him and looked over the area himself.

“The other crime scenes didn’t have forced entry and it looks like this house is the same. Igawa must’ve let them in. There’s a camera pointing at the front door. We can review it later tonight. Hopefully, it caught the criminal on tape and we can narrow down the suspect list.” It saddened Mahiru that the victim was possibly killed by someone she trusted.

“If I was robbing this place, I would avoid this front yard like the plague. There are too many chances someone or a camera would catch me. Does the side entrance have a camera as well?” Kuro pointed to the door he could see through the window. “She was smart enough to have a camera watching the front door but it doesn’t look like there are any insides.”

“Not many people think to instal cameras, especially when they live on a quiet street like this.” Mahiru sighed. He walked around the house to the door Kuro pointed to earlier. He made sure to put on gloves before he opened the glass door and entered the kitchen. “If the killer knew to avoid the front door’s camera, we should have every entry point dusted. Please wait here in the kitchen.”

After he gave him the instruction, Mahiru walked through the foyer to the living room. While he never said it, Kuro knew that Mahiru was going to examine the body and wanted to shield him from it.

Mahiru’s stomach turned when he saw the body. He had seen messier and bloodier crime scenes but death would always upset him. Once the crime photographers put away their cameras, Mahiru knelt next to the body. He lifted her limp hand to see if there were any defense wounds. “It doesn’t appear like there was much of a struggle. There’s an exit wound so we need to find the bullet. That will help us know where the killer was standing when he shot her.”

He backed away from the body so they could take it to be examined. He searched the area near the body for anything that was out of place. Mahiru discovered a small mark on the wall and the bullet beneath it. He had a photographer take pictures of it before he picked it up. There were etching on the bullet so he knew that a silencer was used.

“Kuro, can you tell me when you’re able to see me?” Mahiru asked Kuro in the kitchen. He followed the path the bullet would’ve taken until Kuro called his name. “This spot isn’t too far from the body. I think you’re right about the window. We have a lot of people to interview. They took away the body so can you come in and help me?”

He walked into the room and the first thing he noticed was Mahiru’s sad eyes. Mahiru continued with his search and collected anything that could be used for forensic evidence. Kuro didn’t know what he could do to help him so he trailed behind him. He spotted a framed newspaper article and read the headline. “A promising, new star has appear. Destined to take the music industry to new heights.”

“I’m certain that was true. Every time I interview friends and family of the musicians killed, they would say something similar. It’s a shame they never had a chance to make an impact on the world.” Mahiru worried his lower lip. He was drawn to the piano and the small table next to it. There was a colourful planner resting among the music sheets.

“Let’s see if she was planning to meet anyone today or last night. We don’t know when she died exactly.” Mahiru flipped through the pages. Kuro looked over his shoulder to read the planner as well. It was obvious that Emi was very dedicated to her piano because most of her days were filled with rehearsals. “Oh, she had lunch with her friends yesterday. We should interview them and ask if they noticed anything strange or someone following Emi.”

“So, we have to interview her manager, neighbours, anyone who might’ve passed by the house and her friends. That’s a long list. I don’t know how you can manage all of this. I know I can’t.” Kuro said and Mahiru smiled wearily.

“Being a detective isn’t as glamorous as movies portray it. There are more interviews and paperwork than car chases. But I love my job.” Mahiru sealed the journal into a bag and labeled it. “I think you are doing very well in your new job. You have an eye for detail.”

At his honest compliment, Kuro blushed a little. He didn’t know if Mahiru was merely being kind or not. He never thought the skills he developed as a thief would help him outside of crimes, let alone be commended by a detective. Then again, Mahiru was nothing like the other detectives he knew.

Kuro laid in his futon but he couldn’t sleep. There was a lot on his mind and he had to wonder if he could help Mahiru as much as he wanted. While he listen to him interview people, he felt awkward and out of place. He wasn’t the best when it came to people and analyzing their behaviour. He had trouble talking with people as well.

The other reason he couldn’t fall asleep was because Mahiru was working in the futon next to his. It was late and staring at the dim screen must’ve hurt his eyes. Yet, Mahiru continued to type on his laptop. Kuro rolled onto his side and examined his face. Even with only the laptop’s screen, he could see the intense focus he had. “Are you typing up the notes you made today? You know you can do that tomorrow, right?”

“Oh, you’re awake, Kuro?” Mahiru was taken aback a little when he heard his voice. He assumed that he was asleep already. He dimmed the brightness of his screen as he said, “Am I stopping you from sleeping? I’m sorry. I wanted to organize everything we found today. Thinking simply, that should give us a clearer picture of everything and make sure we don’t overlook stuff. Do you want me to build a wall of pillows between us to block the light?”

Kuro had to chuckle when he pictured it. “Why do all your simple solutions seem to involve more work? I’m fine. My siblings love to tell the story of how I slept through a tornado. You’re the one who should worry about sleeping. Haven’t your uncle ever lectured you about staying up too late on your laptop? Then again, you seem like one of those goody-two-shoes kids.”

“Hey, I’ve broken a rule before so no name calling.” Mahiru insisted and Kuro raised a brow at him. He was both intrigued and curious by the admission. He couldn’t picture Mahiru getting into trouble.

“What did you do?”

“Promise not to tell anyone?” He whispered and Kuro nodded. Mahiru shifted closer to the edge of the futon and spoke in a soft voice. “It was when I was a teenager—seventeen, I think. Licht’s father were performing in a casino nearby so he was going to stay at our house for the night. Licht really wanted to watch him but it was past our curfew and we were underaged. He looked really sad so I decided to help him sneak in. You should’ve been there when we were caught!”

“Wait, did you drink, gamble or use a fake ID?”

“No, we only wanted to watch the performance. My senpai worked at the casino and he let us through the back door.” He explained. Kuro started to laugh and he had to hug his stomach. Mahiru crawled out of his futon and leaned over Kuro. He pouted down at him. “Why are you laughing? We got into a lot of trouble that night.”

“Mahiru, you can barely call that a rebellious childhood. The worst you could’ve been charged with was a misdemeanor for trespassing. Moreover, your goal was to help Licht.” His laughter faded but a small grin lingered on his face. Mahiru leaned back but he didn’t return to his futon. He sat next to him and hugged his knees to his chest.

“Your wish to help the poor was good too, Kuro. You just went about it the wrong way. I understand that morality is complicated and everyone has their own definition of justice. It’s rarely black and white. My job is to give justice to the victim and everyone involved.” Mahiru returned to his futon and picked up his notebook. “We have another packed day tomorrow so you should go to sleep. I’m almost finished so the light won’t bother you for much longer. Goodnight, Kuro.”

“Night.” He doubted he could convince Mahiru to sleep as well when he was focused on his work. Kuro heard him yawn and he glanced back to him. He found that he was asleep. Exhaustion must’ve caught up to him. “I can’t believe I’m handcuffed to a workaholic like you. You don’t even know your limits. Can’t deal.”

He moved to kneel next to him and he adjusted the blanket over Mahiru. Kuro saw the peaceful expression he had while he slept and he thought of all the different faces he had. He pulled himself away to save the document Mahiru was working on and shut down his laptop. He returned to his futon and laid down. The sound of Mahiru’s even breathing was surprisingly calming and Kuro found himself drifting off as well.

Licht knocked on his manager’s door. He received a call earlier and Kranz wanted to talk to him. Shortly after he knocked, the door opened but it wasn’t Kranz who answered it. He was shocked to see Hyde and he had to question why he was there. He didn’t bother to ask him why he was in the room before he went to kick him.

“I knew you were a demon, Shit Rat!” He yelled. It irritated Licht that Hyde was easily able to dodge his attack. He ran after him to kick him again. “Get back here so I can fight you! You might’ve tricked Mahiru yesterday but I’m going to drag you back to him. You’re going to jail.”

“No one is going to jail.” Kranz came between them and grabbed their arms. Reluctantly and angrily, Licht stopped and backed away from him. He watched Hyde distrustfully with the intent of fighting him again once Kranz was gone. “I’m glad you’re here, Licht. It seems like you two already know each other and that makes this much easier. Licht, Hyde will be your new bodyguard.”

“My what?”

“Your bodyguard, Angel Cakes.” Hyde ruffled his hair in a teasing gesture that quickly led to Licht kicking him.