#Poh's positivity talk

[painterofhorizons]

I had ✨A Moment✨ on the conference this week.

My presentation was, broken down to its core, basically questioning if what we do in my field with a specific thing is ethically cool, so to speak.

And there was a Big Name researcher from my very specific field that I've been citing for a decade now, he attended as a listener and after my presentation he basically told me

"I don't have a solution but thank you for addressing this problem"

Guys. I was playing it cool on the outside but on the inside I was ✨flailing✨.

[violethowler]

I am firmly of the opinion that the idea behind the New Seven Hearts in Kingdom Hearts 3 makes perfect sense and is entirely consistent with the themes of the narrative. In a series that consistently hammers in the message that light and darkness cannot exist without each other and must ideally be in balance, and how there is always darkness in every heart, the idea that there are at least seven people at a time who are naturally devoid of any darkness whatsoever throughout their entire lives from birth to death sticks out as contradictory to this messaging.

So the idea that it’s a temporary position that’s passed on from person to person without requiring the previous holder to die first makes a ton of sense in light of the symbolism behind what light and darkness represent that I’ve talked about multiple times in my Constructing Kingdoms videos: Light in KH fundamentally represents focus on others and darkness represents focus on yourself, with the conflict between the two representing conflicts like selfless vs selfishness, community vs isolation, conformity vs individuality, etc.

In that context, the idea that being a heart of pure light is a temporary state works as a potential metaphor for how even the most selfless people who are constantly doing things to help others around them still naturally have to take time to take care of their own needs – physically, mentally, and emotionally – or else they’ll ultimately burn out. (There are also a few meta elements when you factor in the workings of the KH universe when it comes to the Disney worlds, but I’ll save those for later so i don't get distracted lol).

However...

I do think it's a missed opportunity that we were introduced to the idea through the Organization going after new Princesses in KH3, rather than through BBS dropping the bombshell that Minnie was a PoH in the pre-KH1 era.

Think about it.

In her KH2 escort mission she exclusively light-based magic, and her attempt to seal off the Disney Castle audience chamber demonstrates a knowledge of how to ward off darkness, similar to how six of the Seven Princesses in KH1 were able to hold back the darkness coming out of the Final Keyhole using their own power until Sora returned to seal the Keyhole. Her sealing of the audience chamber not being effective at keeping out Heartless could even be retroactively explained by her Light magic being weaker after she gave up her PoH power.

A single mention of Minnie being a PoH in the BBS era would be enough to plant the possibility in players’ minds of more Princesses outside of the 7 we’d already seen without taking away screentime and narrative focus from the Wayfinder trio’s story.

Nomura has talked about how he likes giving players things to think about and speculate over when it comes to the story in the games that he's been involved in, and the fact that Minnie is obviously still alive in the present-day narrative would’ve given fans tons of questions to speculate over as we waited for KH3:

Did this mean that Princesses can pass on their pure light status without dying the way that similar mantles commonly work in a lot of fantasy media? Or is she still a PoH in the present day and there were always more than just the seven that Maleficent needed to open the door to Kingdom Hearts in KH1?

Would we be seeing new Princesses in KH3? And if so, would it be a new set of seven, or will some of the PoH we know be keeping their positions a little longer?

If we do get new Princesses in KH3, would we get to see the transition happen or would it just happen off-screen between games? Did the ones who passed their mantle on already do so and we just didn’t know it?

Would any of the new Official Disney Princesses be Princesses of Heart if or when they appeared in KH? If so, which ones?

If not the new Official Princesses, what about Mulan, Ariel, Tinkerbell, or Esmeralda – the few Official Princesses (the latter two of which only formerly) – to appear in KH but not be a PoH? Would any of them become one in the future? Or were they former ones who had already passed on their mantles like Minnie had?

And since Alice’s inclusion in KH1 means that being an Official Disney Princess is not a prerequisite for PoH status, what other iconic female characters from Disney properties – both those that had already shown up in KH and those who had yet to appear – might be candidates for former or future PoH?

Imagine how excited people would've been if Larxene's line in the KH3 trailers about Elsa being one of the New Seven Hearts was confirmation of theories that the fandom had been debating back and forth over for almost a decade, rather than introducing a whole new concept that most fans had never thought of before.

[anonymousfoz]

The Earth, Stars and Moon (Part 6)

Taglist: @quinnharperwrites, @holdmyteaplease, @yesireadbooks, @teacupsandstarlight, @vite-poh, @theoracleofgiana, @writeblr-of-my-own

Part 5 | Part 7

The gang had been travelling for days now. Neptune was quickly getting adjusted to the new life, but the heat was too much today. No towns had tried anything, meaning their warning had worked and they would be available to stay in Mexico with Wolfie's family. Brother Bear had went ahead leaving Sister Wolf and Neptune behind.

"Give me a minute." Neptune stopped to catch her breath. Sister Wolf didn't have the patience, but she knew this was what she was like years ago.

"The longer you keep going, the better you get." Neptune looked up, using her hand to block the sun out of her eyes. "It's what helped me when I was in your position."

"I know." Neptune took a sharp, but deep breath before continuing to talk. "I just am not built for the heat, despite my dad's job. I prefer to stay in the water or cool of Mexico. When it was cool." Sister Wolf went quiet before picking Neptune up. The teenager quickly got confused before Sister Wolf began talking.

"We would never get anywhere with you slowing down... besides, I too miss the cool of Mexico. The nights of cool or spending the hot days by the coast at mi mama's casa. That's where we are headed now."

"You know your mother?"

"Yes. She's going to adore you like she does to Beary. I don't talk about mi familia mucho, but I care about them. They just don't fully understand what I do. Like, they are mostly supportive, but they don't get it other than I'm killing gringos who keep stealing our people."

"Shouldn't you be happy then?"

"I should, but some family members have issues with it. Issues with me not being catholic anymore and speaking mainly English. They make me choose a life, when I want to balance both, mi hermano Juan is one of those people. He hated me since I came back. He believes I ran off, when I was taken. It's hard to have a family member hate you. It's another for it to be your hermano. He doesn't get along with Beary."

"Does the rest of your family get along with him?"

"To them, he is one of us. No matter what he was raised as or where he was raised. He's pretty much just another hermano to me. His Spanish could always use work. I think he understands it, but can't choose the correct way to say what he wants."

"Dad was like that in Mexico trying to raise me, we had to stay at this large house by the shore. He didn't speak Spanish, he could write and understand it. I would work for one of the older children while he raised the sun and then at night he would help cook and clean. He just can't form the words he wants to say. Takes him a while to think about it, when he can just write down what he wants."

"I never knew that he knew Spanish."

"He is fluent in French but he typically keeps quiet about it." Neptune looked up to the sky before pushing hair out of her face. "He always talks about how he would speak french to Mother Moon back when she was nicer. Do you know what changed her from that?"

"Conflict." Sister Wolf voice took a quick tonal change to one that was more serious than before. "There was a third with your father and Moon. They were always jealous of Moon's relationship with your father and tried to kill her to get to your dad. It caused the tribes to fight and to get others involved. Moon was never able to get rid of them, they are out there somewhere. Doesn't excuse anything she done, but it sometimes makes me feel sad for her. She had to act serious until one day she was no longer acting, she became a hollow vision of her past."

"I never knew that, I always assumed she just changed one day. That makes thing more... complicated. Do you know anything about the third person?"

"Only the myths, they vanished or got turned into a star. Only person who fully knows is your father, since the two were on good terms after the wars. Your father after all was the negotiator, Moon just isn't one who ever forgave people. The story could always be wrong, I only know parts I was told from Beary and Moon. I don't trust her side of it."

"You don't?"

"The tribes she said fought never existed. One did, but they claimed to had never been in a war since they are a peaceful society. Makes me think she's hiding something, she always is. But that's a story for another day, besides we are getting closer."

"You're just a fast walker."

"I been doing this for years and have to deal with a pack of wolves." Sister wolf stopped as she hit a fork in the road. She could either take the shortcut which would have salt spray and unpredictable waves or take the longer path which was safer but they would be there by sunset. "Are you okay with waves?" Neptune got off Sister Wolf's back and walked towards the water.

"Of course. I love the ocean." Sister Wolf smiled and the two began to walk.

Brother Bear walked to the back of the casa. Mamá had told him that someone was there for him, it was strange but he didn't seem to mind. Walking through the large lit home filled the grisly man with a sense of belonging and warmness. He walked through the doors and went onto the porch where Sapphire was waiting. She looked much different since the last time the two had met.

"Sapphire? What's going on?" Brother Bear joined her looking over the coast. The crashing of waves seemed to captivate Sapphire. "Sappy?"

"Would you still... love me even if I wasn't who I said I was?" What? Brother Bear stood confused for a minute, he didn't even noticed she was looking over at him. He thought about it for a minute before realizing that he really didn't know a lot about Sapphire, compared to Father Sun or Sister Wolf. Yet, she was the one he wanted to spend the rest of his life with. It raised a lot of questions he hadn't thought of before but he had to respond.

"It depends. I fell in love with you for being yourself, just depends how much of yourself is truly you." Sapphire let out an exhale before her gaze returned to the waves, always rising to crash before receding in an endless cycle. "Maybe tell a story? I love stories. They tell a lot about a person and makes you feel better."

"Long ago..."

Three gods lived in peace. One controlled the rays of the sun, his personality shone as bright as the celestial ball of fire. He brought the day, shining light over all before setting it. He was a gentle god and well beloved, but also taken by his counterpart. His counterpart was a lovely woman who was in charge of the night, protecting the innocent sleepers and guiding lost wanders with the stars she placed in the sky. She was know for being sweet, but cruel and manipulative. Her relationship with the gentle god was healthy but signs of conflict arose with the third god. The third god painted the sky with clouds and washed the earth with rain. All weather was in their control, no matter if it was a wispy cloud or a violent hurricane. The third god and gentle god were as close as siblings, something the second god couldn't understand, she grew envious over their close bond. She decided something would have to change to keep the gentle god to herself. All she wanted in her life was the one thing she never had, control. She set a trap, started a war and removed the third god from history; Myths remain, but only her side of the tale while the third god was casted out. Hidden with the aid of the gentle god, one day things would change and vengeance would be gained. But until then, the third god remains in the background casting storms to help the people they cared about.

Brother Bear looked up at the sky as clouds had suddenly formed during the story, he remained silent from all the new information. The story seemed familiar but he couldn't remember where he heard it from before. More questions arose but it was for a later time. Brother Bear went over and hugged Sapphire, holding her in his hands and refusing to let go. Time seemed unimportant to the two as they stood on the porch overlooking the shore. The silence meant the world to them as they would never have another moment like this where they would remain fully alone. No missions, no murder, just them and the shore.

"Do you have to go?" He already knew the answer. "I- Uh... te q... te-te am.. te amo, mi amor."

"You need to work on your Spanish, Beary." Sapphire kissed his cheek and like that she was gone. All that remained was Brother Bear and the misty clouds in the sky.

Sapphire walked through the hills of sand before seeing a bright glow of light.

"A little dimmer next time, Aelius?"

"It's Father Sun to you, besides you looked like you needed a light." Sapphire let out a smile before he continued. "Don't worry, I told her you had a favor to run for me. You can take your time… but you know she's going to find out eventually."

"I'm surprised she hasn't yet." The two began walking, their marks leaving prints in the sand that soon would disappear. "I want to escape but, I don't want to leave Beary."

"Faking your death, would leave him alone. Is it because you two have feelings for one another?"

"There is romantic feelings between us, but I don't know if he loves the true me or the side that has to be present. I want to tell him, but at the same time… I cannot."

"I see. So you put up with her, to spend time with him? He is really worried, he tried to tell me something Moonie does to you. I assume it's not good due-"

"It's not." Sapphire interrupted. "He doesn't want to ruin your relationship with her, he doesn't know how bad it already is. I can deal with it until Neptune gets accepted by a tribe."

"Because of the prophecy? I mean it's the only reason Moon does anything anymore out of fear."

"I doubt it's true anymore, that was set thousands of years ago. But if true, we will have to see." Sapphire had the strangest feeling they were being watched, but Father Sun reassured her.

"Moon isn't listening. And if she sent someone, no one really is as loyal to her anymore. It's a shame how much she changed, but the signs were already there." The disappointment in Father Sun's voice was heavy. "I always think that I had a chance to stop everything, but I was slow to noticing until it was too late."

"It's not your fault. No one could had known what was coming, not even oracles knew." The rest of the walk was more cheerful but these were all thoughts Sapphire had. The walk was enjoyable and very therapeutic as Sapphire loved long walks in the night. Eventually she reached her destinations as she had to a favor for Father Sun, one she was happy to do. It was a perfect night, like the ones Brother Bear used to be scared of, summoned a shovel and began to dig as the rain began to pitter patter on the sand.

[daylighteclipsed]

not sure if you’ve ever talked about this before, but what do you think about the theory that part of why Kairi acts so weird is because she’s a princess of heart and, because she has no darkness in her heart, she literally cannot feel negative emotions? I personally have never really believed it because A. I think that gives the writing staff too much credit for her terrible writing, B. She’s definitely shown to have some ugly emotions before and C. The other princesses in question definitely have negative traits but. I still find it really interesting as a concept at least; maybe not taken to the full extreme of “no negative emotions,” but the idea that something about her makes it difficult for her to express or identify those

I say nothing’s out of the question, but it does feel like we’re giving the writers too much credit here. Like you said, we’ve seen other Princesses of Heart feel and express negative emotions before.

I personally don’t subscribe to the idea that there are any hearts in the KH universe that are all light or all dark. I think that goes against one of the series major messages about the nature of people. Xehanort’s attempts to create a heart of pure light fail because it’s just not possible. A heart is both. It needs both. So. Until we get a canon explanation, I see PoH as either A. people with abnormally large amounts of light but no less darkness than the average person, or B. people with abnormally bright light making it seem as though there’s more light than darkness in their heart when they have the same ratio as everyone else. The light just shines so bright that it conceals some (or most) of the darkness.

B makes the most sense to me. It’s the only way Elsa can be a PoH despite her nearly falling to darkness. And it might give us some insight as to how the power of love works in the KH universe. “So love has filled both [Anna and Elsa’s] hearts with light.” I think it’s easier for a PoH to use the power of love to create miracles than the average person because they have this naturally bright light. But that power’s not inaccessible to everyday people, just harder to use. When a heart is full of love, when someone is wishing and believing with all their heart, for just a moment, their light shines as bright as a PoH, and they make the impossible possible.

That said, we can argue the brightness of the light may affect how a PoH processes their emotions because so much love and positivity is needed for a heart to shine so brightly for a moment, let alone all the time (generally speaking). So negative feelings are maybe less likely to impact a PoH as much as the everyday person. Maybe the PoH feels these emotions less, so it’s much harder for darkness to overwhelm them. The brightness of the heart’s light acts as a buffer for things like resentment or despair… It’s an interesting idea for sure.

But it doesn’t excuse Kairi having as much character as a piece of cardboard lol A girl less prone to negativity than her peers could be really interesting if anything was done with it. Especially because we know experiencing pain, negativity, helps us understand others better — that’s the lesson from ReCoded… Imagine having so much love and compassion for people but not being able to understand their feelings… Someone’s dog died a week ago and you don’t understand why they’re still crying because when your dog died you only felt sad for a day. You know what I’m saying?

When taken to an extreme, that’s what I imagine angels are like. These creatures that feel so much love for humanity but struggle to actually understand humans because they don’t experience negativity (or at least aren’t supposed to)… I think we see a little bit of that in the BBS-generation Keyblade wielders. They’re raised to love and champion everyone, but they don’t really understand people or themselves individually because darkness and negativity are so shamed and demonized. Aqua senses darkness coming from Cinderella’s step-mother and sisters and thinks breaking in to destroy them with her sword of light is an appropriate first course of action aghdheudhshs

Maybe that’s intentional. KH is rife with Christian mythology. Maybe that’s what the lights within the 7 PoH are supposed to be like: angels, hanging out in these hearts until it’s time to move on. Kairi’s got a bit of angel symbolism in her white-winged team attack with Sora…

You could also — at least with the first set of 7 princesses — see it as commentary on the portrayal of classic Disney princesses/women, like those from the 1940s and 50s, and how they weren’t allowed to be angry. They were certainly allowed to weep and despair (for a little bit, as long as it looked pretty), but they couldn’t yell, couldn’t rage, couldn’t hate. I’m thinking of Giselle from Enchanted being surprised (and excited) the first time she experiences anger lol Maybe the lack of anger in Kairi feels unnatural because it is unnatural; these princesses have angels hanging out in their hearts. Iirc, the first time we see Kairi angry is in MoM. The first time! It takes the death of Sora for Kairi to express something even close to hatred.

Do I think Kairi’s written like this on purpose? Because she’s a PoH? Probably not. She has such minimal screen time, it’s hard to say. But there’s a lot in canon to support such a theory.

Edit: I forgot Jasmine and Belle are part of the og 7 PoH. My bad

[ryqoshay]

Contact Names

Primary Pairing: ShikiMei Rating: G Words: 408 Fandom: Love Live Superstar Parent Fic: N/A (for now) Time Frame: Sometime during S2 of Superstar Event: Promptober 2022 Event Source: Idol Fanfic Heaven channel on Discord Prompt: Cattywampus

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Author’s Note: Primary entry for Oct 5th

Summary: Mei sees something strange on Shiki’s phone

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“Ne, Shiki.”

“Yes, Mei.”

“Did you see the latest pictures Natsumi took of us?”

“I have not.”

“Here, let me send them to you.”

“Alright.”

The two girls were spending the afternoon in the science clubroom since idol practice had been cancelled due to the weather. But that was fine, Mei figured. Shiki could get overwhelmed by the hustle and bustle of the idol club… and perhaps Mei could as well sometimes. Either way, a nice relaxing time with just the two of them was just what they both needed.

Still, not to lose out on idol time altogether, Mei had decided to scroll through the pictures Natsumi had recently taken.

Shiki’s phone pinged and she picked it up.

“There’s a really good one of you, Shiki.” Mei said, standing and moving behind the other girl. However, in doing so, she noticed something odd. “Ne… Shiki…”

“Yes, Mei.”

“What is Cattywampus?”

“Your contact name.”

Mei furrowed her brow. “Let me rephrase that. Why is Cattywampus my contact name?”

“It suits you.”

“And why does it suit me?” Mei could feel her frustration growing. “Just what the heck is a Cattywampus anyway?”

“Cattywampus. Adjective. Meaning askew or awry. Positioned diagonally or cater-cornered.”

“So again, how does that apply to me? Are you saying I’m askew?”

“Yes. Particularly your vision. However, one may also use the term to refer to how you react to seeing certain insects, e.g., stag beetles. Additionally…”

“Wait, hold on…”

“The term could mean savage or destructive, or refer to a wild beast.”

“So I’m a wild animal now?”

“Your idol icon is a paw print.”

“Yeah, but…”

“Still, I suppose Mei is too cute for that.”

“C… Cute…”

Mei knew Shiki knew her distaste for being called cute, yet she continued to do so. However, maybe… just maybe… Mei was starting to like it. Maybe. Just a little. And only if Shiki said it.

“Would you prefer Kittywampus?”

“Wha?” Mei balked. “That’s just subbing Kitty in for Catty. Am I a cat now?”

“Mei does have cat-like eyes.”

“I do?” Mei had never thought of her eyes that way.

“They are very cute.”

Of course, Shiki would say that. Mei sighed. She was already losing steam.

“Whatever. Just… just don’t show anyone else that, alright?”

“Very well.” Shiki agreed.

Mei then leaned over Shiki’s shoulder to touch the link she had sent. “Here is the pic I was talking about.” Back to focusing on idols.

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Author’s Note Continued: I guess I’m writing Superstar fics now. Never mind that I’m still on episode 10 of Season 1 and have only seen clips of 2. Mind you, the YouTube algorithm learned very quickly that I was intrigued by the interactions between Shiki and Mei, so I’ve probably seen most, if not all of their interactions so far.

I’m sure as I start actually watching Season 2, I will start getting more ideas and will eventually start a collection for Superstar in the vein of HtHaH, HL and TA. Which of course means figuring out where in the timeline to include them. And then decide if I should retcon them into UW; I already have a few ideas for working them into PoH.

As always, so much to write, so little time...

[rockbell1003]

Cuddles

A new Mallory and Kaito fic! I’ve been working on this installment on and off for a few months, not entirely happy with it but I thought what I ended up with was cute. So here we are!  As always I hope you enjoy reading about Mal and Kai and feel free to message or send me asks if you wanna know more about them :)

I was surprised when it happened. 

Kai had invited me over for dinner, an anime that he was cast in got picked up by a cable channel and we were going to live-tweet during the episode. I took a nervous breath before I knocked on his door, this would be the second time I’ve been to his apartment. The first being the night when I drove him home from the bar and wrote my number on his forehead before leaving. We had gone out a few times after that and we saw each other at work, but this would be our first ‘home date’. Right as my knuckles rapped against the door, it swung open revealing Kaito. He was dressed nice, jeans and a flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up to expose his arms, his hair was brushed back revealing his forehead and to my secret pleasure, his nose seemed a little pink.

“Hi,” he said, smiling before opening the door wider, “come on in,” 

I smiled back and entered, “hi,” I replied, still feeling a bit nervous and awkward, I walked further into his apartment, stopping to set my purse down by his coffee table. 

“Your place is really nice,” I said, turning back to him. 

Kaito shrugged and made his way towards me, “thanks, make yourself at home. Do you want anything to drink?” he asked as he made his way to the kitchen. 

“Sure,” I replied following him, “could I have water?” I asked as we reached the kitchen, it was small and sparse as if he didn’t use it often.

Kai nodded, “is tap alright?” he asked as he grabbed a glass from one of his cabinets.

“Yep!” I replied, my attention caught on the oven and the smoke that started to come out of it.

 “Kai, were you cooking something in the oven?” I asked worriedly, reaching for an oven mitt. 

“Shit!” he exclaimed behind me but I was too focused on removing what looked like some sort of casserole out of the oven. I set the now burnt dish on top of the stove and turned off the oven before turning back to Kai who was holding my glass of water and looking extremely embarrassed. 

I couldn’t help but giggle, “not much of a cook are you?”

Kai sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, “no,”

“When you invited me over for dinner I asked if you wanted me to bring anything,” I smiled, “but what is it you said?” I paused and brought my hand up to my face in a thinking position, “ah! I remember now, ‘no don’t worry about it, I can cook dinner.’”

 I smiled at Kai who was now frowning. Worried that I took my teasing too far I stepped closer, “I’m just teasing, I’m not upset, if anything,” I took the glass of water out of his hands and set it on the counter, “it’s actually endearing that you can’t cook.” I smiled and gently,  in what I hoped was cute or flirty action tapped his pink nose. 

Almost immediately Kai turned away and raised his arm up, “heeISHOO..uh,” 

“Bless you,” I replied as I watched him succumb to another sneeze into his elbow, “sorry,” I added a bit sheepishly. 

Kai raised his head and scrunched his nose as if he was a rabbit, “why are you apologizing?” 

I shook my head, “nevermind,” I glanced back at what was supposed to be our dinner, “how ‘bout I cook dinner?” I smiled. 

Kai rubbed his nose with his fist, turned to me and looked almost embarrassed, “I’m not sure what I have-” he trailed off. 

I shrugged, “why don’t we take a look.” I began opening the cabinet right across from me, it was empty minus a colander and two pots. I closed it and moved onto the next cabinet which was much like the first, bare with only a few essentials. I turned back to Kai, “you really don’t cook much do you?” 

He laughed and rubbed the back of his neck, “not really no,” he paused to sniffle and subconsciously rubbed his nose with a finger, “I’m ashamed to admit that I tend to get take out on my way home from work.” 

Finally, I opened a cabinet that contained food, “no shame in that.” 

I paused as I took in all that he had, boxes of mac and cheese, ramen, and a variety of other snack-like food. “When I first moved in with Mia all she ate was take out,” I snagged a box of mac and cheese and moved on to his freezer. 

“I just really love cooking and baking, it might be weird but I find it fun,” I opened the door and scanned his frozen food collection until I found what I was looking for. 

“Cooking is just a skill I do..huh..snf..n’t seem to hih..huh..poh...poh..hah-SHIEEWW...ugh,” I glance behind me to see Kai’s face buried back into his elbow.

“Bless you!” I exclaim. 

“Snf….sdf...ugh, exguse be,” Kai replied, “Cand you had be a dissue? Nexd do you.” 

I turned back to the counter and saw a box of kleenex next to his salt and pepper shakers, grabbing a few I handed them over. 

“Thangks,” he smiled at me before turning away and blowing his nose. 

“It’s no problem!” I smiled, really no problem at all. “Also how does mac and cheese and chicken nuggets sound for dinner?” I asked, holding up the goodies I found. 

Kai glanced at me his hands scrubbing his nose with the tissues, “are you sure?” he asked lowering the tissues and exposing an irritated pink nose, “we can order-” 

“What are you talking about?” I interrupted, “mac and cheese and chicken nuggets are the food of champions,” I leaned in and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “Now if you had dino nuggies then we’d have the food of the gods but,” I smiled at him, “guess we just gotta make do.” 

Kai laughed, “Then I’ll just have to make sure I have dino nuggies next time.” 

I felt a warmth in my chest, next time! There’s gonna be a next time! “Sounds like a plan. Now hand me a pot.” 

**

“HePSHOO..ihh-HIXTCH-uh..sngk”

I looked over at Kai as he set his dinner down onto his coffee table and reached for his tissue box, “bless you.”

Kai crumpled the tissues into his hand and picked up his bowl of mac and cheese, “thanks.” 

“Are you alright?” I asked, taking a bite of my chicken nugget. Kai had progressively gotten sneezier and not that I’m complaining but I was starting to get worried. 

He sniffled and scrunched his nose, “I’m fine,” 

“Are you sure?” I asked. 

Kai took one look at my face and smiled, “I’m sure,” he reached over and poked my forehead, “but thank you for being worried.” 

I turned to look at my bowl, “of course I’m worried about you, I-” really like you, I shoveled my last bit of food into my mouth to muffle the last bit of what I said and set my bowl down. I glanced over at Kai who was watching me with a smile and I felt my face flush. His smile only grew bigger and he reached over to take my plate.

“I’m going to put these away, can you turn on the show? It’ll start soon.” 

I nodded and snagged his remote while Kai took my bowl as well as his own and walked into his kitchen. 

“HEPCHOO...heh..hih..giTCH-uh” he sneezed from the kitchen. 

“Bless you!” I called out from my spot on his couch, scrolling through the channels until I found the station I was looking for. 

“Thangk you!” Kai called back, his voice sounding congested.  He made his way back and sat down next to me, grabbing another tissue from the box on his coffee table. He brought it up to dab at his nose, keeping it crumpled in his fist. 

The show had begun playing on the television and Kai had taken out his phone, already tweeting out reactions and replying to fan tweets. My full attention however, was on Kai. The way he would subconsciously bring up the crumpled tissue and dab under his nose, or how after he sniffled, his nose would scrunch up, as if ensuring he chased away a tickle. 

“huh...hih..hepTCHuh,”

“Bless you!” I exclaimed, nervously turning my attention to the show we were supposed to be watching. I hoped that he hadn’t noticed that I was staring. 

With a wet sniffle Kai reached forward to the coffee table to grab another tissue, “thangk you, agaid.” He smiled at me. 

I felt my face heat up, “you’re welcome.”

 I was curious if he was suffering from allergies or a cold, but didn’t want to say anything. He had already said that he was fine and I didn’t really wanna push the issue. Kai blew his nose and the two of us fell into a comfortable silence as we watched the show. Kai sat relaxed in the corner of his couch, one hand holding his phone while the other rested on the back of the couch. I sat next to him with enough room that we weren’t quite touching. 

Kai’s character on the show was just about to learn a new power when I felt his touch. I froze and turned my gaze back to him. I watched as he moved my legs so they draped across his lap. I was too shocked to say a word and Kai was completely absorbed in the show, his eyes never leaving the screen as his fingers grazed against my legs. His touch was warm and comforting, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Just as much as I was surprised that he seemed to be touching me subconsciously. Kaito Scott did not seem like a cuddler. So I just watched him. Watched as his expressions changed depending on what happened in the episode, as his hands changed from rubbing my legs in a comforting motion, rising up to rub his irritated nose, or resting warm and still on my shins that lay in his lap. 

I bit my lips as a smile made its way onto my face, as I gazed at the man next to me. I already knew it would be inevitable, but damn I was falling for him, hard.

[smartzelda]

Okay, so now that that's out of the way, here are all my thoughts on the khmom

So starting out, I know some were hoping this was the big Kairi game, and I'm sad it didn't live up to my hopes in that regard, but we also have to remember that Nomura said in interview before it came out not to expect too much, and then we learned that the story mode is an average of 10 hours.

As a fandom we need to remember that KHMoM was never advertised as "the big Kairi game", so while you can be sad that the game didn't live up to your hopes and dreams, Nomura did not "basically" tell us we were gonna get a big Kairi game and then let us down. With all due respect, this game is only a "Kairi game" in the sense that she's on the front cover and the story cutscenes at the end show her side of searching for Sora. Even the advertisements and interviews about this game were mostly focused on the rhythm game aspect, so besides cutscenes, the only talk about Kairi was the change from Chirithy to her doing narration

Now let's continue on keeping in mind that this is all my opinion and analysis, and there are various opinions out there.

Let's start with Kairi, since most of this game is about her. I haven't played the game myself yet (I watched cutscenes for now), but although it's sad Kairi herself wasn't part of any teams (which honestly makes sense since she wasn't a main character focused on in any of the games as much as those chosen for teams. KH1, CoM, and KH2 really were Sora, Donald, and Goofy, Days really was our sea salt trio, wayfinder trio was obviously the main protagonists for BBS, and even though Sora was in DDD, Sora is already on a team and Riku got a bigger charactsr focus in that game, so why not include the dream eater pals. And then honestly kh3 was Donald and Goofy and Sora again), at least we get her in the end. And her getting a small playable section at the end honestly makes sense considering the cutscene portion is the part of the game about her/following her/focuses on her, and she's been getting better as a keyblade wielder.

Now, this section shows us the pink flower thing from remind, and I'm even more convinced that it isn't her heart. For one, in remind, it was used in kh2 fashion, like an object to create a pathway to the next world or in this case Kairi herself. Then, in this game, while she's sleeping and in the final world, she finds it and it breaks apart. If it was Kairi's heart, would it make sense for it to break apart inside of her and not have an affect on her or her body? And what convinces me more is that after you collect all these pieces of the flower with Kairi, she clutches her head and has a memory moment.

What is the pink flower thing, then, you wonder? Well tbh I wonder too, but I had a thought. It's not essential enough to her state of being to be her heart, but it's definitely a part of her or a representation of part of her. My thought is that it could be a semi-physical representation of her memories or a physical metaphor of her state of being at the time it shows up. For example, in remind, it could have been scattered pices of her memory, because we remember that in kh3 they learned that a person (like Roxas, Xion, etc) couldn't completely come back or wake up from wherever their hearts were until their memories were returned to them too. So if the flower is representative of her memory, it then would make sense why it needed to be gathered, why it made Sora feel Kairi, and why it can also act as an object related to Kairi that can pave a path to her. It could also be a metaphor for her state of being at the same time since just like the flower, Kairi's body is shattered. This also makes sense for KHMoM, because if it's partly a metaphor representation of Kairi's state of being, then her "state of being" in this case refers to her repressed childhood memories and the links in those chains of memories that have broken apart. And so if the flower is representative of her memories, it would make sense that when she gathered all the pieces she remembered these memories because it brought these repressed memories to light and essentially pieced them back together when she gathered the heart pieces. If not because the flower has to do with her memories, at least in this case, why else would she remember repressed memories after gathering the flower pieces?

Continuing on from here, when Kairi holds her head and begins to remember, we get this interesting turn of the camera that flips Kairi and her reflection in the water before transitioning to the memories. I don't know much about camera techniques, but it definitely symbolizes or means something.

So we get the memory of Apprentice Terranort taking young Kairi (I honestly laughed when it showed him reaching for her just because of that "gimme your phone" meme) and it transitions to showing the scene with Kairi in one of the pods. This scene tells us a few things. For one, somehow, Apprentice Terranort knows about "unreality" or what's essentially a parallel universe to the KH universe, you can somehow get there with a strong enough connection to it (like using someone who's from there like Riku did or your heart resonating in some way with someone there. For example, if Kairi's poh heart resonated with a keyblade wielder from the alternate universe instead of Riku on Destiny Islands). It also may tell us that it's possible that Apprentice Xehanort knew the stuff we learned in the kh3 ending with the Luxu reveal would come to pass. Obviously Xehanort knew by doing what he did with Kairi that he would cause Sora's disappearance, but since we know (from Dark Road I think?) that the ancient wielders went to another world and all that, we know the stuff with Kairi was his final plan, and we know Xehanort got his peaceful death, I don't think Xehanorts final plan with Kairi was a ploy for him to do more summon kingdom hearts or a petty go at removing Sora since he might win. More than likely this "final plan" has to do with preventing a possible future and setting things up accordingly. Apprentice Terranort told 4 yr old Kairi her mission as if it's success would affect the future of the universe. And on one hand it makes sense because they needed a keyblade wielder to defeat the heartless and restore the worlds and lock their keyholes, but what if it's double meaning is that making sure the worlds last past that is dependent on making sure "the keyblade wielder" would also be in the position to prevent a future crisis? Because I doubt Quadratum is gonna only be important for getting Sora and coming back. This place is gonna have some significance, and if preventing or battling the crisis also hinges on the Keyblade wielder going to the alternate universe as Xehanort's backup plan to balance the worlds or keep them safe, then the foretellers, Luxu, the box, and that whole thing are more connected to what's happening in the alternate universe as we would've thought. Anyways, to sorta summarize that, I think that Sora had to have ended up in the Alternate universe to give our main crew a chance of dealing with something big, and if Xehanort couldn't make a new world with the keyblade, he at least had to make sure Sora could be in the right place to make sure things happen as they should to save all the worlds.

Then we get Kairi faced with the man in a cloak who's revealed to be Xehanort. This part also honestly made me laugh because we knew it would be Xehanort, but also on behalf of those who insisted it was MoM (no offense to them btw because I get their thought process. It just kinda made me laugh). I liked this sequence in the khmom trailer (especially in og Japanese because what Kairi says there is better put), and I like it because it essentially serves as Kairi facing her fear and the one who changed her fate head on, channeling all those thoughts and feelings and letting them out. So, whether or not this Xehanort is real or fake, Kairi takes him head on.

Now the fight sequence has a variation of thoughts on it, and here are mine. For one, I spent this whole sequence being so excited because she was fighting so good and hard to the best of her ability. Second, this is memory Xehanort created from her heart, so I like the explanation that he too is influenced by her personal fears and doubts, mainly an insecurity and doubt in her own abilities. So the reason Xehanort is so easily able to catch her keyblade and dodge hits from her (the first time he grabbed it I honestly thought he would insult her and snap it like Xemnas did with Lea) is because no matter how much she wants to defeat him, deep down she doesn't believe she's strong enough, and so here leads into when she turns into Sora.

Now, to preface, if the literal explanation of this from Nomura is "Kairi isn't strong enough so Sora's sleeping heart sensed her danger and possessed her to do the boss fight for her", then I think this sequence is 1000% bad, unnecessary, and people have every right to be mad. However, my thoughts on this scene is that it also has to do with her memories and anxieties. Remember that memory Xehanort says that everything in this specific version of the final world was created by Kairi's heart. And so if her doubts are on her own strength, my thoughts are that it was these doubts and feelings of inferiority that had her become Sora (or a memory Sora more specifically) because she doesn't believe she can win or beat Xehanort with out him yet. In other words, she still felt dependent on him, so in that moment her heart responded by temporarily turning her into Sora to reaffirm her fears (like when she was losing against xehanort) and beat Xehanort for her. If this is true, then that gives some depth to Kairi's character in how she currently percieves herself as of khmom, and maybe how she believes others view her. And with Xehanort's comment, I think it may reaffirm that this Sora is a projection. Because if Sora came there through his bond to Kairi, then there's no reason Kairi would've disappeared or there's no reason why he wouldn't have talked or just something. So then, Xehanort's line about Sora being where his voice cannot reach them has a double meaning. The first is that this Sora that fights memory Xehanort does not speak (and also he's fighting like a controlled puppet without a will of it's own like, did you see his soulless face?), which affirms to him that Sora is in the alternate universe, and the second may be that he realized it's a version of him from Kairi's heart (just like he himself is), and he being there instead of the real Sora affirms that Sora's bonds in this world have broken and he couldn't have been there himself, meaning he must've been in the alternate universe (if not dead, which Xehanort knows he isn't because he knows his final plan with Kairi).

Side note, also during the earlier battle with Xehanort, Xehanort told Kairi she wouldn't find Sora in her heart and that the key to him is in memories long gone. And part of my reaction to that is that I felt validated and angry, because we've been saying that Kairi wouldn't find Sora through the search of her heart and dudebros and s/ks and the like said that we were thinking about our ship and being misogynistic in thinking Kairi wouldn't have that role, and then Xehanort himself, created from Kairi's heart said "You won't find anything here". My other reaction was to "memories long gone", and it honestly made me wonder if it meant that Kairi had some of Sora's memories in her heart that he lost and they're not there anymore, or that the key to Sora is memories of his he not only lost, but are literally missing and in someone no one can reach currently (like within Yozora or something)

So anyways, Xehanort gives Kairi a clue about how to find Sora through that line referring to the alternate universe (again it being brought up in the future for a different thing is why I think Apprentice Terranort gave his speech as a double meaning in the past), and she finally wakes up where the whole lab crew work it out

As for AtW and crew assuming the alternate universe is fictional, that may or may not be true. They worked it out by saying "The opposite of our reality is unreality or fiction", but we also know that could be referring to a parallel universe, meaning both universes could very much be real. As for Yozora telling Sora "this isn't the real world", I'm not gonna go far into it as others have, but if Sora is theoretically inside Yozora's heart, hence how he can visit him in his dream, then Sora is technically not in the real world, but the alternate universe is in the real world. And if the alternate universe is a fake world, it's not impossible, but it's still odd to me how Yozora would be self aware that the world he was born in wasn't real.

Forward from here, Riku enters, Kairi and Riku have their leads to Sora (tbh one of my hopes was that Kairi and Riku would have a real talk about the odd status of their friendship and how it's honestly not great, but maybe it'll happen in the future), and Fairy God Mother magics Kairi and Riku and herself into the final world (sorry this is a bit passive aggressive, but no, we knew that Riku wouldn't need to dream dive into Kairi's dreams to make it into the final world so they could get to Sora). FGM then starts talking about the final key, alerts the two teens about the hearts in the final world, and takes them to Nameless star. It was about this point I literally had a moment over how beautiful Kairi and Nameless star's respective voices sounded because they both sounded so pretty. This is also where they learn that shibuya in the other universe is named Quadratum (haha another square reference I see, square😂), and FGM says that you can get to the other universe with the power of waking and Nameless Star's strong dream and will. I honestly can't wait until we get to see Nameless star for real and hear her name. It's honestly so sweet that Riku wanted to make her dream come true (in like a "Riku is so nice and sweet" way, not in a shippy way) and was also willing to help her not just because she could lead him to Sora.

Then, FGM informs the crew that this is as far as she goes, and leaves the rest to Riku. This is another widely opinionated section of MoM's story, because here Kairi expresses her wishes to go and is ultimately rejected. I have seen people rant about how Riku is a misogynist and explain this scene as if Riku literally told Kairi "You're too weak", shoved her aside, and called her useless, but here's an analysis of the scene with some of my pov. That part wasn't nearly as bad as people exaggerated it to be. When Kairi expressed her wish to go, Riku literally stuttered, failing to actually say she can't. He didn't even really say anything before Kairi sighed and was like "I know". So to say Riku is misogynistic for that?😬 Also, this is a completely new universe, one where Yen Sid didn't even let Mickey Mouse follow, and as FGM said you have to have the power of waking to get there. Kairi is strong, as memory Xehanort said, but she's not to master level (or at Sora or Riku's level for that matter), not strong enough to deal with a whole new world, especially since her only real experience was being plunged into war just after some training (like Sora and Riku got this whole experience starting with dealing with low level heartless and getting used to it all, and they had been practicing and self teaching themselves how to fight since they were kids, to which Kairi did not), and she doesn't have the power of waking, so no matter how much Kairi wants to go with Riku, as he was trying to tell her and failing, it's not possible for her right now. It's like how Sora wanted so badly to join Riku and Mickey in the RoD on saving Aqua, but he hadn't regained his strength yet and didn't have the Power of Waking. Example one of the Kingdom Hearts fandom's double standards: Sora being denied access to also go to the RoD to save Aqua because he doesn't have the strength or PoW is fine, but Kairi being denied access to also go to the alternate universe with Riku for the same reasons is Misogyny🙄.

And also on Kairi's rejection to go with Riku to the alternate universe, I felt like this moment was a parallel to kh1 that showed that Kairi is beginning her character development. In kh1, Kairi insisted to go with Sora to save Riku, and Sora outright said she would be in his way so she couldn't go (idk what it says in the jp version), and after being told this, Kairi accepts her situation and resigns to wait on the islands for Sora to return with Riku. During this whole time she also makes no effort to train. However, in this moment in khmom, when Riku fails to stutter out "No", Kairi very visibly and audibly is frustrated when she says "I know". She's been here before, but it says something that her being left like this, waiting to the side, isn't something she wants anymore. She wants to go, and she's frustrated that she still can't. And I know this came off to people as "Nomura is just shafting Kairi again", but in my opinion if he wanted to toss her aside, he wouldn't have done this. He would've had her okay with Riku going by himself from the get-go and had Kairi just kind of go "well, back to training with Merlin again". Heck, if he really wasn't doing anything with her, he would have just left her while FGM and Riku met Nameless star in the Final World. But what he did was present us a Kairi that is strong, but knows she needs to be stronger. He gave us a Kairi that is visibly frustrated in knowing she can't help her best friend. And her response after accepting she can't go currently? She takes the initiative to train under Aqua (a real keyblade master), meaning that she really wants to take the steps to get stronger now, and she tells Riku that one day she'll stand by him and Sora (not just Sora). The girl has resolved to take her own path and take real responsibility for her training so she never has to stay behind again. It's showing Kairi's shift from "Sora and Riku are leaving me behind and I'm struggling to catch up so I try to make sure they come back to me or I do the bare minimum to still be around them" to "I take control of my own destiny, and I'm gonna close this gap myself, by my own efforts, not by waiting for them to do something". I'm fully aware Nomura could still shaft Kairi, but I truly feel like this little we got in khmom is the beginning of her development as a character. And I feel this way because while remind at times arguably came off as pandering to people who wanted K to do something, khmom, taking into account all the things Nomura could have done instead of what he did, felt more genuine, and actually made me hopeful and excited for her character and what she does in the future. Also, example two of the Kingdom Hearts fandom's double standards: Riku struggling to tell Kairi she can't go with him (and him not actually saying it) is considered misogynistic by this fandom, but Sora in kh1 bluntly telling Kairi she would be in his way and therefore couldn't go is "UwU he's protecting his love! So cute!"🙄

Anyways, going forward, I'm so excited to witness some actual development for Kairi amd seeing her interact with the wayfinder trio! Like training with Aqua? Yes!

Also, not to be passive-aggressive, but I know a number of S/Rs who would like an apology for being told that believing that Riku would be the one to save Sora was us reaching and being delusional and thinking Kairi wouldn't go is misogynistic🙂

Anyways, besides that, Soriku endgame actually?! Like Sorikus and Riku stans how you feeling about all this? Like, can you believe we were right when we said Riku would go save Sora? Can you believe in the same week we got confirmation Riku would be the one to go save Sora, we learned that there would be three sets of Soriku Nendoroids? Like we just keep on winning and honestly that makes me so happy. I honestly can't wait to see not only Kairi's training and possible future development, but also Riku's journey! This may have just been a bridge game, but I'm so excited!😊

[yo-namine]

Some scattered thoughts about Melody of Memory. Spoilers galore under the cut.

So I want to start by saying that I did read the spoilers ahead of time, and that the reddit leaks made everything sound a bit worse than it actually was. But even after having watched everything in-context... It’s still kind of a mixed bag, lol. And I haven't finished the actual game yet, so this post is mostly just about the twenty or so minutes of story development that I spoiled myself for.

Anyway:

The look on Kairi's face when she realizes she's about to be told to stay behind again 💔💔💔💔 And I'm sorry, but I have to rant about Riku for a sec: Remember when he laughed at Sora for wanting to help save Aqua in KH3, putting him down in front of not only their friends but also the master Sora was still trying to prove himself to? And then Sora had to save him from Anti-Aqua anyway? And then he spent the rest of the game bailing Riku (and everyone else) out of trouble? Did Riku not, I dunno, learn something about underestimating his friends there? And now he's totally fine with Kairi getting left behind yet again because apparently she just isn't good enough to help him? He really thinks it’s better to go into this other world all by his lonesome with 0 backup? Also, what do you want to bet that Riku's gonna get another level reset in the next game and have to relearn everything, meaning he and Kairi would've essentially been at the same skill level anyway? And the irony won't even occur to him? Oi. I’m just really not interested in the next game being Dream Drop Distance 2: No Dialogue for Women Boogaloo. Base KH3 left me feeling like that’s what we’d get next, but I went and let Re:Mind get my hopes up for something better. Bloop. 🤡

And how much more training does Kairi need at this point? Sure, she’s not a master, but I think KH3 showed (intentionally or not) that that title really isn’t worth much. And I know that whole thing was just an excuse for Nomura to spare himself the ordeal of having to write anything substantial for an icky girl, but Kairi was apparently good enough for memory!Xehanort to remark on her skill, and she did solidly kick the real Xehanort's ass in Re:Mind. The only pre-keyblade training Sora and Riku got was smacking other island kids around with sticks, and then miraculously they were both totally capable of fighting full-fledged monsters. Uh???? Anyway, Kairi's essentially right back where she started in KH3. I do like that she specifically asked for Aqua, and I guess it's something that she's at least studying under a real master now, but I'm not going to get my hopes up for anything major coming out of this just because I know this series too well.

One thing I did really like, though, was that scene between Kairi and the memory!Xehanort. The two of them actually getting some dialogue together was exactly what I wanted from Re:Mind to make their battle feel more personal.  And during their fight in MoM, Kairi's actually pretty inventive with some of her moves. Like there are two instances where Xehanort grabs her keyblade, and she escapes by dismissing her weapon and resummoning it to attack. She also makes to strike Xehanort right in the back the same way he did her in KH3, which I thought was a nice detail. But part of their conversation sort of seems to contradict what we learned in Re:Mind, doesn’t it? Xehanort here states point-blank that he "destroyed” her because he knew what Sora would do to save her. So... Which is it? Did he "crystallize” Kairi because she was a PoH that he could use should his main plan fail, or did he really just straight-up kill her to get to Sora? Or maybe Kairi never learned what he actually did to her in the Graveyard, so this memory!Xehanort is just speaking based on what she knows? Hm.

Anyway, Sora then shows up to take Kairi's place in battle after Xehanort knocks her down. And I get that they wanted some big surprise to throw in this game, and I won't lie, it is kind of sweet to see that Sora's still looking out for Kairi despite not physically being with her anymore, but considering the fact that Kairi doesn't get any boss fights in this game? lmfao come on. Why not just have Kairi fight the battle with Kingdom Key instead? That way, the whole point of the scene can stay in-tact without robbing her of a battle that should be hers to fight. As much as I liked seeing Sora and hearing his theme kick in for a second there, none of that should have been at Kairi’s expense. Let the girl have her moment, ffs.

At first, I thought Xehanort’s “Now I’m certain of where your heart is” line was saying that Sora’s heart was within Kairi’s, but I think he’s really talking about Quadratum here. I guess since Sora and Kairi’s hearts are connected, he can show up like that to save her (if she’s in the Final World, anyway) from wherever he is? Or something? But if that’s the case, could her connection to Sora have potentially served as a bridge to Quadratum in the same way Nameless Star did? I dunno, I feel like Sora appearing was a really big deal, but no one even talks about it afterward. It’s weird. Anyway, if it actually turns out that Kairi’s connection to Sora can be used to track him down, that’s going to be hilarious. Imagine Riku getting to Quadratum and then realizing he ditched the one person who was already in touch with Sora.

I do have to say that I really like Christopher Lloyd as Xehanort, though it can be a little jarring at times just because I keep thinking I'm listening to King Graham. And while Hayden Panettiere will probably always be my favorite Kairi VA, I liked Alyson Stoner's voice in this game. Her narrations were nice to listen to.

Other positives things: Uh......... I still love The Final World’s title card. And music.

Oh, and I thought it was really cute how excited Riku and Kairi were to see each other in the lab. The way they hurried toward one another made me think they were gonna hug, but alas. 😞

So, uh. Yeah. I’m still looking forward to playing through the rest of the game, but knowing that it all ends with Kairi getting put on a bus yet again is a pretty lame pay-off. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[joshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh]

War of Underworld 2 episode 10 watched, let’s talk about it.

Before I say literally anything about the actual episode, I just wanna mention that PoH disappearing last episode, something I thought would be done to drag out the conflict even further and shorten the epilogue, turned out to just be like, a teaser effectively. The epilogue wasn’t getting further away, they were literally just giving us a cliffhanger for the hell of it. I’m fine with that, really. I’d rather he just died and stayed dead, but between “he disappears and we immediately resolve it” and “he disappears and we ignore it to focus on the epilogue”, I definitely prefer the latter.

So yeah, actual episode.

Eyyo our girl’s here in the real world! I very instantly wondered if we’d get much in the way of her body being explained, and yeah there are enough lines about it just being a mechanical body, albeit a very human looking one with like, really good and human-like internals. Coolio.

Now they don’t start with like, Alice’s immediate reaction to this completely different world she’s in, which would’ve been cool but it’s not totally necessary, and instead we have like, a Q&A thing where reporters can be all “what the fuck is the implications of true AI” and this one dude asks to open up Alice’s skull so he can take a look, and she responds with basically the same thing as a like “haha fuck you you can’t even prove you’re not a robot”. It’s great. This scene’s pretty slow and not like, that interesting, but Alice is fun in it and its good for wrapping up some of the fluctlight nonsense and ties into the show’s overall themes of virtual connections and worlds being as meaningful as real ones and stuff. It’s cool.

We’re also given a brief idea of what Kirito and Asuna got up to in their 200 years. They became king and queen respectively and just, fought to unite the entire Underworld, basically. Imo, establishing a monarchy is kinda cringe, but I’ll let it slide.

The other thing that happened in the 200 years is that, Kirito and Asuna were aware that they’d have their memories of the 200 years wiped when they woke up, just cause of all that talk about it frying their very souls or whatever, fair enough. However, they both realised that their fluctlights could totally be copied, their human bodies being free of the 200 years of memories while their Underworld bodies would still technically be able to exist. And indeed that does happen thanks to Higa, so the pair actually organised something of a contingency plan between themselves to protect Underworld from outsiders (namely the government) doing fucky shit to it. That’s cool! It’s interesting! Kirito lived for 200 years? Sure, I’ll take it. This plot point does rely a lot on the wider world in a way that I think is pretty neat even if that wider world itself isn’t that interesting. I also think this does actually feel like it could be small enough and is well enough positioned to where, even if it extends the plot in a way that we only have the next episode to resolve, it should still go good.

And then going back to the smaller world of our regular old Kirito, he uh, he looks pretty here. I hate to say that, I always do, but it’s how I feel, so, yeah.

And then wow this is some real fucking despair! Dude’s pretty much wishing away all the happy memories he has with Eugeo and in the entire Underworld because the sheer grief he feels over Eugeo’s death just completely overwhelms him. That’s just sad, that’s sincerely upsetting. Alicization, and specifically this season of it, has done a really great job of humanising Kirito. Well done, SAO.

And shockingly, though I took no screenshots of it, we actually get a scene of Suguha acting like a fucking sister for once instead of just being every other SAO girl who gets wet whenever Kirito’s within 50 feet of them. Plain and simple, she just holds Kirito, and tells him to tell her all about it. All about those two and a half years, the good and the bad. Just letting Kirito confide in her, and let it all out. It’s a nice moment for the two of them, and I wish more of their relationship throughout the show up to this point was stuff like this instead of the, uh, incest.

So yeah, good episode. And that makes me really happy. The PoH tease last episode killed a lot of my faith in what the ending would be, but being told that that was a cliffhanger did a lot to encourage me that it could be good, and yeah this episode has actually succeeded. Poggers.

[painterofhorizons]

Tiny me and my mum, a lifetime ago. 💖

[anonymousfoz]

Lord of Cinder Backstory

Taglist: @vite-poh, @theoracleofgiana, @writeblr-of-my-own, @mfpipecat, @the-mindless

You look at your family, their kind warm faces filled with fear.

"This is what you wanted from me… you casted me away, because my powers aren't… positive" You look down at the burns on your hand. You clench your hands into a fist as one of your loving family members comes closer.

"We can talk it out, it doesn't have to be this way." You cast flame wall around you, pushing them back.

"It doesn't have to be this way? You guys wouldn't feed me for days… disowned me… treated me like the villain." You slowly walk through the flames, the tattered clothes your family had gifted for you, burning and a black suit emerged from the darkness. Their fear quickly turned into disgust and then anger. But did you care? No. You stood there, on the opposite side of your family before you grinned. You began to walk away, every step igniting a flame that would burn down the house. All the memories would burn down, all the abuse, all the loneliness turned to ash. You could hear the yelling of your family trying to get everyone out and save the most important things to them. You head up to the main staircase to watch the chaos unfold. Yet something caught your eye; the youngest member had separated from the family. She was the baby of the family, your little cousin. Her black hair was the only thing you saw through the smoke. She eventually got to the stairs, her little coughs was all that was heard through the now thick smoke. You get up and walk down to her. She quickly hugs you before coughing once more. You sigh and a path clears where there was not flames nor smoke. You pick her up, she hugs your chest before letting out more coughs. You walk out the backdoor so she could get fresh air.

"Baba?" She tugged your sleeve and looked up at you.

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry for how they treated you. You don't deserve that. Nobody does. But… I am here for you, because family sticks together. Right?" Her weak smile meant the world to you. You look back at the burning building before walking off with your little cousin on your shoulder. What to do next? Who knew, but you two would never be separated again.

You wake up, old memories turning into nightmares became more frequent since you expanded your power with witchcraft. You wake up and wash your face with water. The cold winter night in the hut you were living in became as cold as your personality.

While your family was gone, you murdered them all when you began your conquest of your old land.

"Cousin?" You look over at your younger cousin. She appeared to be the same from back then, despite how violent things had gotten she always remained loyal to your side. No matter what got dark, she remained a constant light in your life. "Having the nightmares again?"

"Just the one of burning down the family home." She got up and began to get dressed as she had something to do at sunrise. "I'll be fine. Nothing I can't handle." You could hear her chuckle you came back in the room. You rolled your eyes and went in the kitchen to start cooking breakfast. You would have to do some conquest today while your cousin got to talk to the nearby witches and practice witchcraft. You were fine with it but you felt she was getting bored, she wanted to be by your side battling in the middle of burning villages.

"How much longer do you think it will take till we take over the entire country side?"

"I don't know. All I know is it will go faster once you are by my side." Your cousin hugged you from behind and then left the hut, walking out in the blizzard, a constant norm of the harsher northern environment. Soon you be out of this area and hopefully in a warmer area, you always hated the cold. But those were thoughts for later. You needed to focus on the day ahead. After all, you had just found out one of your siblings had a daughter you never knew about. It was time to hunt them down, if they allied or attacked you was up to them. You didn't care either way. It was all business. With breakfast out your way, you began to layer up on clothes, grab your long sword and old knight helmet, and headed out.

It was a long ride on horse back till you reached a burnt village. This was her last whereabout. You got off your horse and began walking around. It was perfectly quiet and colder than what you were used to. It would be expected she was hiding inside one of the houses that was still intact.

[swankymcgilligan]

Namine and the Nameless Star

I’ve been thinking about the Nameless Star a bit. Most people seem to think she’s Strelitzia, but I really don’t think so. The stuff she says doesn’t really match up imo. For example, she says that the reason her heart was taken away was because it “pines for another”.

Which doesn’t really match up with what happened to Strelitzia. Sure, you could say that she was “pining” for |Player|, but that wasn’t really what lead to her demise. She was killed because Brain wanted to take her position as Union Leader, |Player| didn’t really have anything to do with it. 

I think the Nameless Star is connected to Namine. I don’t think it was just a coincidence that the Nameless Star and Namine were both in the Final World together. There was the reason they were the only two stars with spoken dialog. When I listen to the way the NS talks, it really reminds me of Namine. They’re both soft spoken and gentle-toned, the way the NS giggled even reminds me of Namine’s giggle. And then even a lot of the phrases they use or that are spoken to them are similar: 

1.

Sora and NS in KH3:

Sora and Namine in CoM:

2.

NS about her unnamed friend in KH3:

Namine about Sora in KH2:

3.

NS to Sora in KH3:

Namine to Sora in KH3:

Namine’s origins have always been a bit of a mystery. Even Ansem the Wise was baffled by her existence. Kairi, being a PoH, shouldn’t have really been able to produce a Nobody.  We’ve also never really found out why Namine has blonde hair. We know Roxas got his gold-blonde hair from Ven, but what about her? Where did her platinum-blonde hair come from? There’s also this mysterious file of Vexen’s that Axel found in Days, whose contents still haven’t been revealed:

So I think we’ve had more than enough hints that, rather like how Roxas is part Sora, part Ven, Namine is also not 100% Kairi. Which leads me to suspect that the Nameless Star is in fact the person that Namine got her blonde hair from. So we can rule out Strelitzia and Skuld. And, although we don’t know her hair color, I think we can also rule out Invi, since she appeared in the epilogue. That leaves us with only two possibilities as to her identity:

1. Ava

2. A completely new character

Evidence for NS being Ava:

As others have pointed out, there’s a few similarities between Ava and Namine. They both have a habit of clasping their hands, they both have the power to change their appearance (Namine taking the form of Kairi in CoM, Ava taking the form of another foreteller in KHX), and they both seem to have memory manipulation powers, as I believe Ava was the one who erased the Dandelions’ memories. There’s also the matter of Namine’s almost total exclusion from KH3. She didn’t appear in any of the trailers. She didn’t appear in the opening sequence. She only had a single, optional cutscene where she actually speaks. She doesn’t even appear properly until the end of the game. 

It made me wonder, is this bit of dialog between Xigbar/Luxu and Gula a hint that Ava is the reason that Namine was excluded from KH3?

One final idea I had; NS claims that her name and “everything about her�� was taken away. If we assume that Ava is also Subject X, then that would certainly explain why Saix and Axel were never able to find a single trace of her, even after 10+ years. 

Evidence for NS NOT being Ava/ being a new character:

NS says they took away her name, yet Xigbar/Luxu was able to say Ava’s name at the end. Although to be fair, we don’t really know how this whole “name taking” works, so if Xigbar took away Ava’s name, it might stand to reason that he’d be the only one who could still say it. I couldn’t help but notice that none of the foretellers actually try to say her name out loud... Gula simply refers to Ava as “her”. 

[mrlightgivemegoodmarkplease]

Social Lives Online: Am I alone out there, or am I never alone anymore? Supported and connected, or lonely and isolated?

Ever since I logged onto Instagram for the first time years ago, I have been greeted every day with a constant stream of content that depicts people’s lives, interests and more. At first, my pre-teen self saw this app, and many other social media platforms- such as Snapchat and Tumblr, simply as entertaining outlets to both see what my friends were up to, as well as places to express myself. To be honest, at the beginning I was seeing social media through rose coloured glasses (or perhaps I was merely naive...) because my opinion on these apps has shifted dramatically. Instagram, specifically, started out as nothing more than a fun place to interact with my immediate circle of friends. Then all of a sudden, it altered into something resembling a competitive social sport amongst all of my peers. Along with the number of friends you had at school, likes and followers became a key feature of our adolescent social lives. 

Instagram morphed into a platform where you had to prove yourself, and as a constructed medium it’s central values are based around popularity. This competitive act was, for me, unnecessary stress added to the more common anxieties that came with being 13. With this technological advancement, not only did kids have to worry about their position in a hierarchy at school itself, but online as well. As new-age pre-teens in the age of Instagram we spent our evenings obsessing over things like the amount of comments on our recent posts or the number of group chats that we were a part of. Online comparison with my classmates sparked self- consciousness. It also left me feeling like I didn’t have enough friends, or that the ones I did have were uncool because they failed to get as many likes as the popular girl groups did. During a time period when I was at my most insecure, the comparative aspect of Instagram made me second guess a lot of my friendships and ultimately, my own self-worth.

I started getting caught up in a lack of validation from peers towards my own online social life, noticing that photography I posted wouldn’t get as many likes as a group selfie would. I ended up subconsciously only wanting to meet up with my friends because it would give me something interesting to post about. Hangouts that I used to look forward to for ages suddenly became stressful with the rise of social media amongst kids my age. I would worry more about taking photos for Instagram than about actually having an enjoyable time. I despise that I approached friendships this way during middle school, but I will admit that even now I still catch myself using this detrimental thought process. 

I have detected a similarity between myself and countless others in my generation. Most of the people that I talk to about the toxicity of Instagram relay that they too often feel a complicated obligation towards the app. Many of my teenage peers say that they feel the need to keep up a falsely “perfect” portrayal of their social life on the platform. I find myself feeling forced by society to create an altered construction of my relationships online, one that is usually grander than reality. Often when I attend large social gatherings I notice a pressure that some people feel to post something- a fun photo or silly video, even if it doesn’t actually represent how the event went. I have found that this pressure causes people to be less in the moment, and often ultimately makes them feel disconnected from what is truly happening around them at the time. 

I think that balance is key in terms of maintaining a positive social life both online and off. In the past couple of years, I have remarked that many teenagers have difficulty maintaining this balance. As a matter of fact, many young adults work harder on strengthening their online relationships (with friends, even significant others) rather than cultivating the ones they have in real life. An article written by Michael Poh for Hong Kiat (https://www.hongkiat.com/blog/online-vs-offline-social-life/) hypothesizes that there are two kinds of individuals; “(people) who complement their offline social life with their online one, and the rest who pretty much replace their offline social life with the online one.” I would say that with each younger generation, society is leaning more towards adopting the habits of the latter type of person. Many teens nowadays use the internet as their primary source of social interaction. Personally, I think that this is a problematic shift because social interaction should not only be about what is being said, but also how it is being said.

Throughout my own teenage years, I have noticed the odd effect that social media has on a young person's social life. It makes us feel insecure when we’re alone scrolling, mindlessly looking at others having what looks to be a good time. Then, when it the time comes that we are out ourselves with friends, many individuals focus on presenting all the fun they’re having, rather than actually having it. 

I actively try to avoid worrying about Instagram posts anymore because all it does is breed comparison and insecurity. Although Instagram was created as a social network, I think that all it is ultimately doing is making people lonelier. 

[cfcblogadmin-blog]

Thanksgiving Service | 5/1/19

Hey GoP, 

Welcome to 2019 errybodyyy! Our first service of the year was a Thanksgiving Service in the Thanksgiving Hall ;) where we look back and said goodbye to 2018 by sharing the things that we were thankful for throughout the year. 

Shujing also shared a word on how we should always be giving thanks regardless of the current circumstance and whether or not we have seen a miracle happen yet. 

Feeding of the Five Thousand

But he answered, “You give them something to eat.”

They said to him, “That would take more than half a year’s wages[a]! Are we to go and spend that much on bread and give it to them to eat?”

“How many loaves do you have?” he asked. “Go and see.”

When they found out, they said, “Five—and two fish.”

 Then Jesus directed them to have all the people sit down in groups on the green grass. So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties.Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to his disciples to distribute to the people. He also divided the two fish among them all. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. The number of the men who had eaten was five thousand.     - Mark 6: 30-44

In the story of the Feeding of the Five Thousand, the disciples had had a long day. They were supposed to be withdrawing to the countryside to rest but then were followed by a huge crowd. The massive gathering was unplanned and in the middle of nowhere, with no nearby places to get food. When the crowd got hungry, the disciples were hungry too, yet there were only 5 loaves and 2 fishes to be shared. 

The situation wasn’t looking good at this point, yet Jesus gave thanks for what little they had, before the miracle had happened. In this story, the miracle only happened after thanks was given and in the same way there are situations in life where we need to continue giving thanks despite the situation in faith that the miracle is coming up. 

Shujing also made a comparison between the Feeding of the Five Thousand and the Last Supper. During the Feeding of the Five Thousand, an unfavourable situation had been turned around by Jesus, the powerful, miracle-working teacher. However, at the Last Supper, a festive mood where the disciples were eating a big meal quickly turned sour as Jesus became the suffering, rejected servant. When we follow Christ, we identify not just with the powerful, miracle-working teacher that He can be but also with the suffering, rejected servant that He chose to become for our sake. Therefore, as Christian, we should continue to be tenkful regardless of miracle or persecution.  

Testimonies/Thanksgiving

Carlos (Chozone) 

Firstly, I’d like to thank my cell leader Keith. When I think of what kind of man I aspire to be, it'd be Keith. He's that much of a role model to me. Not because he lifts weights and is super smart but really because of his heart for others. Whenever I share with him what I have on my head or am troubled, he always puts in max effort in replying and giving me advice and doesn't belittle whatever I say, even if its as lame as me being insecure about my braces or who I have a crush on. But more than that, he treats me like a brother rather than some kid who is 8 years younger than him. I really cannot express how blessed I am to have such an amazing leader like Keith. I love you bro even though you're in the US right now, and thank you so much for showing and teaching me how to really be a man of God.

I also want to thank Faithe Poh. The person who tolerates my nonsense the most. My blueticked messages, emo phases and etc. I gave a her a really hard time. But thats why I love and appreciate her so much. She laughs with me and cries with me. When I was going through a really tough season in my life, she just kept encouraging me and praying for me. Honestly, theres really nothing much else I can say about her. She's just amazing. Replying my texts in the middle of her night shift, even if they’re stupid. She came all the way to Toa Payoh to watch and support me during competition, sends me Bible verses, before my school year starts and is just genuinely curious and wants to know about whats going in my life . So, Faithe, thank you so so so much!! Thank you for not making our relationship that of cell kid to leader but as friends, for always being proud of me and loving me even when I've slipped and for showing me that being a leader is more than just the title.

Lastly I want to thank all the other Chozone leaders: Serene, Eli, Jade, Joy, Ben, Lizzy, Angie, Beli and our zone leader Chloe. Thank you for investing the time and effort serving in GOP despite being super busy with school and work. We love y'all and are glad to have you guys as leaders. 

Esther (Chozone) 

I am really thankful for Beli, who was my cell leader this year. She has really been taking care of me. Although sometimes she is busy, she would force herself to text me. I have to admit that in the past when she texted me, I felt annoyed and didn't text her back on time. But she still continued to text me. At the beginning of 2018, I didn’t really like to pray and I told my mother about that.Thank God for my mother, because she told Beli about it. So Beli has always been asking me to pray during cell and share during cell and now I really see the improvement. (now i take initiative to pray and to share!) For devo too, I always do 2 to 3 days late.I dont really like to do devos but Beli always asks me, if  I had done my devo. That made me guilty so I did it. But, I’ve noticed that it really help me spiritually.

I am very grateful for Beli for being my cell leader. And I also want to thank all my other leaders, Ben, Eli, Faithe, Serene, Angie, Chloe, Keith, Ave and Jade for supporting and taking care of all of us. I really appreciate your hard work.

Leah (Chozone)

I am thankful for Ave. I have known her since 2015, when we met at church camp and she brought my friend and I around. Although we were very fussy with her, she still continued and continues to be a shining light by checking up on me, guiding me through tough times and always being there for me as well as not judging me.

I am also thankful for Beiying. As a photographer from VAM, Beiying has been a great leader! She has taught me so much from positioning to camera settings. She comes from a position of friendship instead of a superior which is one of the key points of leadership, she inspires me to be the best photographer, that I can be. 

Evan (Jarrold Zone)

I’m here to share my testimony on how we should always be faithful and trust God in reaching out to our friends. As yall know, during GOP camp last year, my friend Dhilan got saved so really PTL! I have been reaching out to Dhilan for a really long time- since sec1. Whenever I talked to him about church in the past, he would always be very uninterested and always try to change the subject. Sometimes he would get really mad if I kept asking him if he wanted to come for our parties in church. This lasted till the end of sec 1. In sec 2 at the start of the year, I felt God telling me that in that year, He was going to save a very good friend of mine. When I heard that, I was really excited because I looked at all the friends whom I've been reaching out to in sec 1 and they were quite responsive. So at the start of sec 2, I was reaching out to all these other people but they all started saying no which is like the complete opposite of last year. So during the June holidays, I got to think about what God said a bit more and at that time, I was very confused and disappointed because i thought those people I reached out to in sec 1 who were responsive were going to be more responsive by coming to church for service and not just parties. I told this to OT and he encouraged me to continue to be faithful and trust in what God has told me at the start of the year. So I started thinking of the list of people that I had tried to invite in sec 1 but didn’t come and I thought of Dhilans name. And I didn’t speak to Dhilan about church or Christianity for half a year because I didn’t want to make him feel uncomfortable. But I was reminded that i have already planted the seed in Dhilan and I felt that God wanted me to talk to Dhilan again about church and inviting him to outings. after the June holidays, i started to be more intentional in showing Dhilan God's love by like blessing him with a free drink or helping him more in his weaker subjects. So when we had VS cell on a Thursday, I asked Dhilan if he wanted to come and see what was going on. I already prepared myself for the rejection and was going to say  “Nevermind then" but praise the lord because he said he wanted to come. During that cell he was really quiet, but I knew that God was beginning to let the seed I planted to grow. I started praying and doing fasts for God to continue speaking to my friend and to really touch my friends heart. So when we had our guys ministry outing to Sentosa, I invited him and my other friend who isn’t christian to come along because he was scared it would be awkward. At the end of the day, i was really encouraged because He said that he had a lot of fun and that we were very warm and welcoming. So I knew God was really doing something in his heart and I began to be really excited. 

So finally it was GOP camp and I felt God ask me to invite Dhilan again, and again Dhilan said yes! But he could come only on the last 2 days but in my heart I thought at least he's coming for ps mark's service haha. And true enough, during Pastor Mark's service, he was asking me a lot of questions and I was happy about that because he doesnt usually ask me abt anything I tell him about Christianity. When Pastor Mark gave an alter call, I responded and I was so shocked because I saw Dhilan responding as well and he was kneeling down. At that moment, I felt God tell me to ask him if he wanted to say the sinner's prayer and he said yes immediately. So i brought him to Junwei and after he explained what it means to say the sinner's prayer, Dhilan still said yes. Until now, I’m still really amazed of how Dhilan got saved! I also really want to thank you guys for being so warm and loving to him that I know played a part in him being saved. He even posted about us on his Instagram which is like sooo shocking for me. He said," Hey guys I just want this post to be about how grateful and blessed i am to have been able to be with u guys.. like thanks soo much for welcoming me into the family and everything..u guys are already like my second family :heart: Also um special thanks to Evan for inviting me haha.. it really impacted me so much:heart::heart:" 

No words can describe really how I felt about Dhilan's salvation. Like how He can use me to change someone's life and how he can really speak to people and touch their lives. I would like to encourage everyone that has been reaching out to their friends for a long time or even if you've just started to never give up. Even if you don’t know if whatever you said or did impacted your friends, remember this “For we live by faith, not by sight.”, 2 corinthians 5:&7. Trust in God and continue to be faithful to Him and be the Jesus to His people. I want to end of with a verse that I hope will encourage you, just like how it encouraged me. 

I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. 8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor

-  1 Corinthians 3:6-8  (NASB)

Andrew

I want to honour and thank Kat, my cell leader, cause she has really been there for every step of the way. During Ascension, she really did her best as an IC and I'm really proud and thankful that she really gave her all and I'm really inspired by her testimony about her family and struggles. Seeing her praising and worshiping God despite the problems she faces, really ignited the fire inside me to also give God my all despite my issues. She is one of the best Cell Leaders I could ask for, she is super caring, kind, loving and funny. She would never fail to pray for us or be there for us. Thanks Kat for being there for me!!!!

Kym 

I would like to thank Terryin, like even as a zone leader she really cares for everyone a lot and make sure everyone’s okay. I was talking to her about other things and she just checked on me and asked me how’s my first day of sch and I told her about it and I’ll just say it was really bad, I didn’t like it at all. but she was willing to talk to me about it at 1am+ and made sure I was feeling okay and everything. She even recorded her prayer for me and it honestly helped me a lot so thank you Terryin!

[ryqoshay]

Putting on Hairs - Post Production: Eldritch Cooking

Primary Paring Trio: YuuAyuSetsu Words: ~1.9k Rating: G Fandom: Love Live Nijigasaki AU: Theater, Monsters, Cryptids, Eldritch Creatures Time Frame: Sometime during the main story Event: Femslash Friday Event Source: @femslash-friday-prompts Prompt: Purple

---------

Author’s Note: A quick reminder that in this AU, all of the LL girls are various monsters who can take human form. And instead of idols, many are actors, while the rest work in other positions in the theater or associate with the theater regularly in some way. Yuu is a lamia, Setsuna is a Cthughan (descendant of Cthugha) and Ayumu is a moon rabbit.

This chapter takes place, probably late in the timeline for what I have planned for the main story of PoH. Yuu and Ayumu are already together - no spoilers, as they are introduced as a dating couple - while their friend Setsuna has progressed from frequent guest to an effective status of “roommate who hasn’t actually moved in yet.”

Summary: Ayumu is confronted with Setsuna’s cooking

---------

Ayumu opened the door and immediately smelled something wonderful.

“I’m home!” She called into the apartment.

No response.

“Yuu-chan?”

Is she listening to music with her headphones again? Ayumu wondered as she began to remove her shoes. It wouldn’t be the first time, and it was becoming more frequent as of late, now that Yuu was finding new ways to help around the theater, particularly in composing new music for the next production. Had she finished her work with Chika early? Usually, she would message Ayumu if there was a change in schedules so they could coordinate plans like meals. And on that topic, Yuu was cooking dinner? Strange…

Well, maybe strange was the wrong word. Uncommon was more appropriate. Yuu was fully capable of cooking but was quite content to let Ayumu cook for her instead. An outsider might assume Ayumu was spoiling Yuu by taking on the bulk of the cooking duties, and Ayumu would be hard pressed to deny it completely. However, she truly enjoyed cooking for Yuu, and Yuu insisted on taking care of cleanup on the other end of the meal, so things evened out in the end as far as Ayumu was concerned.

Of course, it wasn’t just for Yuu that Ayumu loved cooking. Over the last couple months, they had been having a third join them,

“S-Setsuna-chan?” Ayumu completed her thought aloud as she turned the corner into the kitchen.

The raven-haired woman at the stove didn’t respond. Instead, she bobbed her head and shifted her shoulders to the rhythm of whatever music was playing through her headphones. Suddenly, Setsuna threw a fist into the air and belted out what Ayumu quickly recognized as the chorus of the opening theme to one of the anime series they had been watching this season.

Ayumu couldn’t help giggling at the adorably geeky display. Yuu definitely got into her music, but few could match Setsuna’s passion when it came to things like showtunes or anime themes.

Ayumu wondered for a moment if she should call out louder, or approach Setsuna to touch her shoulder, or find some other means of getting her attention. She didn’t want to sca…

“Kyaa!”

Ayumu startled at the other woman’s cry.

Apparently, when Setsuna had reached for something on the counter, she had turned just enough to catch Ayumu in her peripheral vision.

“A-A-Ayumu-san! W-Welcome home!” Setsuna fumbled through her greeting. “I mean your home. Welcome to your home? I… because… uhm…”

Ayumu laughed lightly. “Setsuna-chan, it’s fine if you want to think of this place as home. Yuu-chan and I gave you a key specifically so you could come and go as you pleased.” She wondered silently if she should mention that she and Yuu had actually talked earlier that day about when and if Setsuna would actually start using said key.

“And I’m sorry to just start using your kitchen like this.” Setsuna began apologizing. “And for not messaging you our Yuu-san about possible meal plans. I was just so excited to find these ingredients and couldn’t wait to…”

Ayumu shook her head. “You don’t have to apologize for that.” She assured. “I was actually just about to message you two to start planning dinner. But now it seems I don’t have to. And speaking of…” She stepped further into the kitchen to get a better view of the food being prepared. “It smells wonder…”

Why is it purple?

“… ful…” She finished.

“It’s a dish my grandmother made when I was a child.” Setsuna explained, not seeming to notice Ayumu’s confusion.

Was it Ayumu’s imagination, or did something just… move within the pot? Surely that was just her mind finding some coincidental pattern in the boiling bubbles. Right?

Bubbles…

Why was it so hard to tear her eyes away from the simmering stew? The way liquid seemed to almost shimmer with an otherworldly sheen that no food with which she was familiar could do. The way everything in the pot seemed to swirl as if being stirred, despite the fact that Setsuna had set the spoon on a notch in the handle. The longer Ayumu stared, the more it felt like something was scratching at the edge of her consciousness. It was all… very entranc…

“Ayumu-san?”

Ayumu blinked back to reality. “I’m sorry, what were you saying?”

“I was saying that it was thanks to Honoka-san that I found the shop in the first place.”

“Honoka-chan?” Ayumu repeated the name of the restaurateur whose establishment had become a common gathering place for the cast and crew members of the theater.

“Mm.” Setsuna nodded. “She and I were speaking the other day when she was catering another meal for us. I had speculated about an ingredient in one of her dishes. She was a little surprised before remembering that I am a Cthughan and would be more likely to be familiar with such things than most individuals around here.”

Ayumu thought for a moment before recalling that Yuu had identified Honoka as an individual of similar origins as Setsuna, though she could not readily recall her exact nature.

“As such,” Setsuna continued her explanation “she entrusted me with the knowledge about how to find her supplier.” She laughed lightly. “I had no idea it was there. I’ve been in that area so many times and somehow managed to miss sensing its presence. But I found it, and as soon as I entered, I immediately knew what I wanted to get, so I asked the owner if they had the ingredients to make ʍǝʇs ʞɐʇuɐɥs with oƃ-ıɯ pǝɔuıɯ.”

Ayumu’s mind tripped over trying to interpret the last few things Setsuna said.

“Anyway, I knew Yuu-san and Ayumu-san would busy until later today, so I decided I could repay a little of the kindness you two have shown me over the past few months by preparing dinner tonight.” Setsuna waved a hand over the pot to guide the smells toward herself and breathed deep. “That really brings back memories.” She smiled. “I can’t wait to share this with you.”

Ayumu’s gaze dropped back down to the pot. Wait. Wasn’t the broth purple before? It looked more yellow now. She blinked. Green? Were her eyes playing tricks on her again?

Not content with just the smell, Setsuna picked up the sampling dish from the counter and ladled in some of the broth before raising it to her lips. She then hummed approvingly.

Something else caught Ayumu’s attention.

Setsuna’s eyes drifted up above Ayumu’s head. “Is Yuu-san home now?”

Sure enough, Ayumu realized she had instinctively sprouted her rabbit ears to better hear the opening of the apartment door. And apparently Setsuna already recognized the behavior.

“Something smells wonderful.” Yuu’s voice came from the entry. “Oh, Setsuna-chan’s cooking for us tonight?” She asked, slithering into the kitchen, having already changed into her lamia form. She moved over to Ayumu to exchange a quick greeting kiss. “I’ll go set the table.” She decided as she pulled away.

“Oh, I already did that.” Setsuna pointed out.

“Setsuna-chan’s spoiling us tonight.” Yuu chuckled. “Would the chef disapprove of an early taste test?” She reached for the sampling dish still in Setsuna’s hand.

“Of course not!” Setsuna beamed before refilling the shallow dish. “Please let me know what you think.”

Yuu seemed unaffected by the odd color of the broth, which had apparently having returned to the bright shade of purple Ayumu had first witnessed, and took a quick sip. “That’s delicious!” She declared, sipping again. “Ayumu, you gotta try this.” She held out the dish. “Oops, I may have had too much.” She realized she had drained all but a few traces of the broth.

“I’ll get that.” Setsuna took the dish and ladled more into it before holding it out to Ayumu. “Here you are, Ayumu-san.”

Ayumu swallowed as she accepted the sample. Was she really going to do this? Even the tiny amount in the dish seemed to still swirl under the effect of some unknown force. And the color… Was it blue now, or was that just the effect of it being in the shallow dish?

Ayumu glanced at the two other women in the kitchen, both of whom were watching her with bated breath and anticipation.

Well, Yuu had said it was delicious, and it definitely smelled as such.

It just looked…

Ayumu closed her eyes poured the liquid into her mouth.

Immediately, her eyes snapped open again. What was this… flavor? What was this… sensation?

“Ayumu-san?”

“Ayumu?”

Her mind whirled, faster than the stew in the pot. Her skin crawled. Her vision blurred.

Then it stopped.

And a decidedly pleasant aftertaste was all that remained.

The other two women repeated her name again.

“That was very…” How to describe it? Just what was all… that? “Unique.” Ayumu decided.

“But good, right?” Yuu was the one to press.

“Uhm…” Ayumu hedged for a moment, but quickly realized she couldn’t honestly call it bad, even if it had been overwhelmingly unfamiliar. “Yes.”

“The shop owner suggested possibly adding familiar condiments like shichimi togarashi for those unaccustomed to such ingredients.” Setsuna offered. “Unfortunately, she didn’t carry anything like that.”

“Oh, we got that.” Yuu said, sliding over to the cupboard to retrieve the mentioned spice blend before turning and handing it to Ayumu. “See if that makes it any less unique.”

Ayumu flipped open the shaker side of the cap and sprinkled a tiny bit onto what remained in the sampling dish. Immediately, the liquid thickened and shifted to a reddish shade, making it look somewhat like tomato sauce.

“Well, that was cool.” Yuu commented.

Despite some residual hesitation, Ayumu raised the dish to her lips again for another taste. This time, only a flavor closer to what she would have expected, based on the smell, slid onto her tongue. And the same aftertaste lingered after she swallowed. Altogether, it was a far more pleasant experience.

“Better?” Yuu pressed again.

“Mm.” Ayumu nodded. “That is really good, Setsuna-chan. I can see why you wanted to share it with us.”

The radiant smile that Setsuna displayed had quickly become one of Ayumu’s favorites, alongside the ones she had when talking about anime or when stepping off stage after a successful rehearsal.

“I’m glad you two like it.” Setsuna continued to beam. “If you two want to take your seats, the sides are already there, and I will get this in a serving bowl and bring it out. Oh, but first,” she grabbed a sizable shaker and held it out toward Yuu “will you bring this with you?”

“Sure.” Yuu accepted the container before examining the cryptic text on the label. “What is it?”

“It’s ɥǝʞɥdouƃ pǝʇɐɹƃ for garnish, if you want to try it.”

Yuu unscrewed the cover and stuck out her tongue to smell the condiment. “Interesting.” She held it out toward Ayumu.

“I think I’ll stick with this.” Ayumu indicated the shichimi togarashi she was still holding.

“Right.” Yuu nodded. “Then let’s get to the table. I’m starving.”

“I’ll be right behind you.” Setsuna said, pulling her headphones off and setting them on the counter before picking up the serving bowl.

A couple minutes later, everyone’s bowl had been filled; Setsuna and Yuu’s seeming to almost glow in a perplexing purple hue, while Ayumu’s was morphed into a more manageable maroon with a dash of familiar spice. Yuu proposed a quick toast to the first time she and Ayumu had the honor of experiencing Setsuna’s cooking, to which the other two women at the table happily accepted. And with that, the three began enjoying a delicious, if still a little strange as far as Ayumu was concerned, dinner together.

---------

Author’s Note Continued: First off, I was originally going to write this scene about one of the girls whose image color is purple; Nozomi, Mari or Kanata. This would have likely resulted in a NozoEli, MariKanaDia or EmmaKanaKarin story. And while that would have been fine, deities know I don’t write enough about these ships compared to my flagships, I was reminded of Setsu’s cooking by way of pulling her recently released SR in SIFAS. And I couldn’t help myself. I’ve been wanting to write about Setsu’s cooking for PoH, as well as MA for a little while now, and this was as good an excuse as any.

By the gods, I love this card:

Next, I am currently sorting this chapter into my Post Production collection as even though it chronologically takes place during the main story, I’m not sure if it will fit with what I have planned. This may change later of course, PoH as a whole is very much still a work in progress.

As for Honoka’s monstrous nature, I revealed that in a chapter I wrote for IFH’s Fantastic Departure event earlier this year, Saigo. I intend to write a few parts of that chapter before I move it to the PoH-PP collection. I then expanded on the idea in the PoH-PP chapter, Star Crossed?, where I also reveal Tsubasa’s monster type.

Next up, the shop. I’ve already laid out some notes about a possible chapter about Setsuna brining Yuu and Ayu to the secret eldritch supply shop. And I may want to delve some Backrooms stuff for inspiration for the shops layout and how to access it. It just seems like it might be fun to write and make for some good worldbuilding for the PoH universe.

And finally, shichimi togarashi, or seven-flavor pepper, is a Japanese spice mixture that contains at least coarsely ground red chili pepper, as well as some mix of ground sansho, roasted orange peel, black sesame seed, white sesame seed, hemp sed, ground ginger, nori, aonori, poppy seed, yuzu peel, rapeseed and/or shiso. I have not personally had it, but apparently, my favorite proveor of spice, World Spice, in Seattle, makes a version of it, so I will be adding it to my next order from them. It sounds delectable.

[chatgtp-prompt-marketplace]

Solanart-Solana (SOL) cryptocurrency and what should know about sol.

What Is Solana (SOL)? Blockchain solanart projects have long been talked about in the financial world, but some of them make claims that don’t hold up. One such project is Solana, which makes claims that are not traceable or verifiable through any publicly available data.The idea for Solana began back in 2017, but their official project launch happened in March 2020 at the Swiss headquarters of The Solana Foundation. Solana is a platform that aims to facilitate decentralized app development. It combines the PoH and PoS consensus models of blockchain technology and can be trusted because it uses secure components such as cryptography and digital signatures. A Solana is an innovative new form of decentralized financial system that has big time interest from investment-savvy small-time traders and investors like yourself. Who is the team behind Solana? Anatoly Yakovenko is the founder and CEO of Solana. His professional career began at Qualcomm in 2015, where he climbed the ranks quickly, becoming a senior staff engineer manager in 2017. His job shift led to a position as software engineer at Dropbox later on. Yuri Yakovenko started working on a project in 2017 which later materialized as Solana. He teamed up with his colleague Greg Fitzgerald, and they founded a company called Solana Labs.. In 2020, after releasing the Solana protocol and the SOL token to the public, more former Qualcomm employees decided to join. Does Solana have a future?Experts seem to have wildly different predictions for Solana (SOL) and their price. Coin Price Forecast predicts that the crypto will be valued at $3 by the end of 2025. The website suggests this will lead to an increase in capital value by 236%.What is Solana worth?The Solana Price forecast shows a decline in value over time. The current price is $7,099. There is a 1 day return +3.06%, 7 day return of 38% and 10 day ROI at -3%.Solana is a coin or token?It is Solana's native and utility token that provides a means of transferring value as well as blockchain security through staking. SOL was launched in March 2020 and has strived to become one of the top 10 cryptocurrencies entering the space by means of total market capitalization. Mar 6, 2022What are the benefits of Solana?With Solana's PoS blockchain, it processes many more transactions per second than Ethereum and doesn't charge any fees for transactions - just a small mining reward for validating blocks. This is done with the use of PoH, which was created by Solana. The date on which the token sale will take place is set.Is Solana better than Bitcoin?Solana, a fee-less and scalable ledger for cryptocurrencies, has processed more than 52 billion transactions. Solana ranks high in blockchain rankings, with the fifth-largest DeFi ecosystem and second-largest NFT transaction volume of any layer-1 blockchain.What are the drawbacks of Solana?Cons of SOL: Some in the crypto community believe that there are some significant limitations to SOL, as well as "not enough" decentralization. ... Ethereum has more projects than Solana because it has more nodes than Solana and the network is first-mover. More items... What Makes Solana Unique? One of the essential innovations Solanart brings to the table is the Proof-of-History (PoH) consensus developed by Anatoly Yakovenko. This consensus allows for greater scalability and usability, and boosts solvency. People who have used cryptocurrencies in the past or already use them are drawn to the idea of instant transactions. This provides an incentive that is attractive to a wide audience and could cause many new users and customers in the cryptocurrency space. Solana will offer faster validation times for smart contracts for cryptocurrency transactions because it is a hybrid protocol. It has attracted a lot of institutional interest, both good and bad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jzROE6EhxM Solanart A minimized fee structure is one of Solanart Network’s great advantages, so it can be the perfect solution for both small-time users and enterprise customers. They don’t want to charge you more in fees and taxes than necessary and give you notifications before doing so.The Ethereum protocol is built in such a way that it promises low transaction costs, scalability and its fast processing. Solanart is seventh on the CoinMarketCap ranking as of September 2021! Solana prices surged earlier this year and are currently around $3.3 on the US stock exchange. This came as a result of a bullish run that saw the company's prices spike over 7% since July. The launch of the Degenerate Ape NFT collection sent SOL (NFT) price to an all-time high (ATH) above $60 Solana seems to be a very popular platform, and it's gaining more and more interest over time thanks to its developer activity and the decentralized nature of the project. It is also popular to talk about blockchain, regardless of its current value. The game-changing technology has been said to be in the "industry’s top ten" venture investment trends in 2019 as it gets a high attention. In September 2021, Solana had reached a price of $216 at which point the price fell Solanart Network has received praise for its speed and transaction speeds. They are planning on making a challenge against Ethereum in the smart contract world. During the last week, The Ethereum Network had some problems which resulted in lower availability and lower value of ETH. Users were accusing it of giving priority to investors over customers with unfair tokenomics. In this situation, we expect the price of SOL to drop by February 2022 but a jump in price afterwards. How Many Solanart (SOL) Coins Are There in Circulation? The Solana Foundation has announced that it will have a total of 489 million tokens in circulation. About 260 million tokens have already been released, and the rest will be released gradually over time. The total amount of tokens to be distributed in the initial start up is 42.34% and will be sold to investors for $42,342, 27.47% of the revenue generated during the date will be used to contribute towards the founding sale, 16.23% is dedicated to providing a better membership for those who want it and 10.46% goes towards giving more benefits for members, 12.79% were taken out of the total tokens to make up for expenses and 12.92% was allocated for public sales. The remaining has not been released yet or has already been placed in the market Solanart went up five-fold recently, which is great considering the fact that its value at today's price can be as high as $400,000. How Is the Solana Network Secured? The Solana blockchain is powered by two key consensus mechanisms: Proof-of-History (PoH) and Proof-of-Stake (PoS). The main component of Solana is Proof-of-History. It tracks successful operations and the time that has passed between them. The trustless protocol ensures transactions take place without a third party involved. The proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus is used as a monitoring tool for the PoH processes, and it validates each sequence of blocks produced by it. The combination of two consensus mechanisms makes Solana a unique phenomenon in the blockchain industry. Where Can You Buy Solana (SOL)? You can buy Solana (SOL)on. Binance or Coinbase. Read the full article