#Which I know is Japanese for cake

[cerbreus]

baking never feels more like science to me than when i'm trying to cobble together an intricate multi step recipe together from several different recipes and tutorials online because the recipe I'm imagining doesn't exist....

[cheezyratz]

Leo: 何それ?

Mikey: ピザとケエキ

Leo: 😰

[morporkian-cryptid]

Welcome to the wonderful world of Arsène Lupin Copyright Shenanigans

Have I ever told y’all about the absolute madness that is the legal issues around the Lupin franchise ? Probably. Can I find the post in question ? No. Am I going to tell you again ? You fucking bet !

The year is 1905, and detective stories are all the rage. Maurice Leblanc, a young writer, is commissioned by the magazine Je Sais Tout to write a short story on the same model as Sherlock Holmes. Maurice Leblanc says « Screw this detective shit », and creates the character of Arsène Lopin, gentleman thief.

No, this is not a typo.

Arsène Lopin, a municipal advisor in Paris, hears about it and contacts Leblanc. « You are not fucking writing a story about a thief who shares my name. » To which Leblanc replied, « Lopin ? No no, you misunderstand, this is Arsène Lupin, completely different person. »

And he gets away with it.

Leblanc writes a bunch more stories about Arsène Lupin, they get popular, and he decides he wants to write a crossover with the famous British detective, Sherlock Holmes. A crossover in which, of course, Lupin will win and Holmes will be humiliated.

Arthur Conan Doyle hears about it, and is not thrilled. He contacts Maurice Leblanc with a message along the lines of « You are not fucking writing a story where my Amazing-Original-Character-Do-Not-Steal gets bested by a thief. » To which Leblanc replies, « Sherlock Holmes? No no, you misunderstand, this is Herlock Sholmes, completely different person. »

And he gets away with it.

The years pass, more Lupin stories are written, they’re translated and exported outside of France, and wouldn’t you know it, Japan takes a strong liking to the « gentleman thief » archetype in general and to Arsène Lupin in particular.

The years is 1967, and mangaka Kazuhiko Kato, best known by his pen name Monkey Punch, is commissioned by the magazine Weekly Manga Action to create a manga for their first issue. He reads 15 of Leblanc’s stories, and creates Lupin the Third, a character who is the grandson of the famous gentleman thief. He does not bother asking the Leblanc Estate for permission, as Japan doesn’t give much of a crap about French copyright laws.

(For the record, Weekly Manga Action was the first manga magazine for an adult audience (outside of erotica), and Lupin III was published in its first issue, effectively making it one if not the very first adult manga in the history of manga.)

The Lupin III manga gets popular, is adapted into an anime, the anime gets popular, it gets translated into other languages and exported to Europe…

And then the Leblanc estate rears its head. «You are not making an anime about our character without paying us fucking royalties, » they say to Monkey Punch. To which Monkey Punch, channeling the spirit of the deceased Maurice Leblanc into his very soul, replies : « Lupin ? No no, you misunderstand, this is Rupan, completely different person. »

And he fucking gets away with it.

(Arsène Lupin became public domain in France in 2012. Before that, Lupin the Third took many different names in European releases, among which Rupan, Wolf, and in France, Edgar de la Cambriole (Edgar of Burglary).)

Additional tomfuckery :

The year is 1982, and science-fiction animated series are getting extremely popular. TMS decides to try and get a slice of the cake, and begins the development of Lupin VIII, a sci-fi spinoff about Lupin III’s descendant. The anime is being produced in France, and the Leblanc Estate once again rears its head. « Sure, you can make that anime, » they say, « but pay us fucking royalties. » TMS, as previously established, does not want to pay the Leblanc Estate diddly squat, and so they scrap half of the project, recycle the other half, and go « Lupin VIII ? No no, you misunderstand, this is Inspector Gadget, completely different person. »

The year is 1930, and famous Japanese writer Tarō Hirai writes The Golden Mask, a novel in which his detective character Kogoro Akechi goes up against none other than Arsène Lupin. Hirai’s pen name was Edgar Allan Poe- wait, wait, no, sorry, it’s Edogawa Ranpo, completely different person.

(Later, Gosho Aoyama names his character, Detective Conan Edogawa, after Arthur Conan Doyle and Edogawa Rampo (and the anime is distributed by TMS).)

(More than fifty years later, the Lupin III anime makes a tribute to Ranpo’s Gold Mask with the double episode The Imperial City Dreams of Thieves.)

The year is 2021, and Capcom is releasing the video game The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, in which famous detective Sherlock Holmes plays a central role. Unfortunately for them, a few Sherlock Holmes stories are still under copyright, and the Conan Doyle Estate is about as stubborn and greedy as their French cousins. « Pay us fucking royalties, » they say.

In the English release of the game, Sherlock Holmes is renamed to, you guessed it...

...fucking Herlock Sholmes.

[swampjawn]

Soooo…. what ever happened to the puppets from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer? And why was Santa such a grumpy bastard?

Well, the answer to that first question ended up being a much more complicated story than it first appeared, even complete with a twist ending. And while researching it, I stumbled across the tale of a forgotten Japanese animation pioneer who revolutionized animation industries in Japan AND China, made a whole bunch of propaganda during WWII and the Chinese Civil War, and then created the Rankin/Bass "Animagic" animation style and animated all those classically American classic stop-motion Christmas classics that we know and love. Tadahito "Tad" Mochinaga (持永 只仁).

That's right, Rankin/Bass was an anime studio!

Born in 1919, Mochinaga was inspired by early Walt Disney shorts to become an animator. Much like Disney, he built Japan's first ever multi-plane camera rig,

Ari-chan (アリチャン, 1941)

before being contracted to make war propaganda.

Ironically at the same time he was working under Mitsuyo Seo (瀬尾 光世) on Momotarou's Sea Eagles (1943)—a delightful picture about a bunch of cute little animals triumphantly bombing the shit out of those fat, stupid Americans at Pearl Harbor—his biggest inspiration was working on his own exciting propaganda cartoons from the exact opposite side of the same conflict.

But it was during his time working under the Chinese Communist Party that he inadvertently popularized stop-motion puppet animation in east Asia.

Tasked with making a puppet film that satirized the Nationalist Party's leader, but also dealing with an extreme shortage of film in the country, Mochinaga realized that if he stiffened the joints of the puppets, posed them manually and shot them frame-by-frame instead, he could use only the exact number of frames necessary.

He would continue to refine that stop-motion style after returning to Japan,

and eventually catch the eye of an American producer, Arthur Rankin Jr, who had just started a studio with his friend Jules Bass.

The story continues in much greater detail in this video, which completely obliterated my other plans for the month, and which I promise, does actually answer the question at the start of this post. I really didn't expect this project to balloon into an epic that spans an entire century, but in order to understand the ending, you have to start at the beginning!

Seriously though, I think this is the best video I've made yet and you KNOW I spent an absurd amount of time learning 3D modeling/rigging/texturing/animation to make what amounts to just some stylistic icing on the cake, but it's a bit different from what I usually make and youtube can punish you for that so if you do find the video interesting and feel like sharing it with someone you think would also be interested, I will personally show up at your house with an old satchel bursting with deliciously ripe oranges and squeeze all that sweet, sloppy nectar by hand, one-by-one directly into your expectant, gaping maw.

[lovelyiida]

Imagine Bakugo does overseas promotions in the west and you’re the only one that he can tolerate.

previous :D

ENGLISH: These interviews are so stupid.

JAPANESE: こういうインタビューは本当に愚かだ

JAPANESE: もう一度言ってもいいでしょう

ENGLISH: You could say that again

You and Katsuki sat side by side as you snuck a snide remark to one another. The both of you are in attendance at yet another boring interview.

And what pissed Katsuki off was that no one was asking him any questions. And what tops your cake on that?

There were no damn bagels!

"So (hero name), I'm sure you've seen a couple of looks at all the heroes from around the world recently. Tell me; the sight is quite revising ain't it?"

Oh, just your luck.

Misogyny is served hot today.

It's not like a hero of your caliber was here anticipating any questions based on your quirk, or your job as a hero. Nope, just beauty, romance, and what horse you're waiting to ride...

Katuski watching your temper run short at whatever question was asked. He watched as you cleared your throat and tried your best to throw on whatever coy smile you could pull out of your brain and onto your face.

"Yep, a sight for miles."

You answered flatly, Katsuki looked at his side and watched the other heroes in the vicinity quietly chuckle at the scene unfolding, which made Katsuki want to shove a bagel down the interviewer's throat.

Dry.

"And lastly, Dynamight?"

As Katuski glanced back at the interviewer once more, his attention was diverted from the snickering heroes. Raising an eyebrow, he waits for a response.

"Does he have a translator?" The interviewer asked behind him quietly before you jumped in. "No, it's okay. I can interpret for him," you say with a smile.

They let out a hum before continuing with the question. "So, Dynamight, what's it like being in America so far?"

That's it?

The 10-hour flight, multiple language classes, and interview rehearsals...for that? He hasn't been asked a single question since his stay, and when they finally give him the time of day...

ENGLISH: He just asked you what it's like being in America

JAPANESE: 彼はあなたに、アメリカにいるのはどんな感じか尋ねました…

Katsuki wanted to be calm and collected, he had a reputation to maintain for not just himself, but for his country. But he only had those thoughts after you were able to successfully rip him off of the interviewer after one swift lunge and 10 minutes of the most vulgar words you've ever heard in Japanese.

and approximately 30 seconds in English as well.

That's gonna be a lot of paperwork to fill out.

"You're an idiot, you know that?"

After 3 hours of paperwork and convincing the interviewer not to press charges. This left you to babysit the pro hero, with an ice pack in hand.

Katuki winced as you pressed hard on the knot on his temple. "You're an idiot" Katsuki spat back. You knew enough anime to know what he said back to you, which made you press harder on the bruise.

"How are we gonna go through the rest of this week without you lunging at people you slightly disagree with? Are you always like this?"

Katsuki didn't respond.

This makes you travel down a little rabbit hole...

Katsuki Bakugo, also known as Dynamight is known for his hot fiery temper which coincides with his explosive quirk. He may not be the nicest of all the heroes, but he's got the quirk to back up his mouth.

[This was pulled from the official UA Alumni Magazine]

"Wow, what a legacy."

Maybe it's because of the language barrier, but from most of the videos you've seen of him. He doesn't act like that around you. He seems quiet and reserved.

And a tad flirty.

"Well, I think that will do the trick." You placed the ice pack on the side of your bed before sitting next to him. Katsuki gave you a look before rising from the bed and heading towards the door.

"Hey!"

Katsuki turns as you yell loudly at him. Turning around he sees that damn phone. Grabbing it, he reads the message.

ENGLISH: Stay on your best behavior!

JAPANESE: 最善の行動を続ける!

"Whatever..."

yeah... this isn't gonna be a series<3

— lovelyiida

TAGLIST: @bleedingredridinghood , @burymeinside , @queenpiranhadon , @minssecret , @mochimommy2002 , @renerini , @djlance-rock , @bookcluberror, @yeehawgiddyup , @guitargirl420 , @awesomeshadowcrow-blog, @camilo-uwu, @gold24fish

[imagionationstation]

Something I was thinking about today:

The claim that Splinter “never feeds his sons human food” and they have to discover it upon reaching the surface is a curious one.

It makes sense given common information.

Let’s use our big brains. Reason out some more info.

Info like… Splinter must have looked up information about turtles before buying four baby turtles.

However, after getting turned into a rat and ending up a father to infants on the run from aliens, he probably never got the chance to go to the library or use the Internet to look up information on how to feed a half-human half-turtle hybrid baby.

(Not that the Internet had forums for that yet. Was the internet prevalent in 2012…?)

So he just. Fed them turtle food and hoped for the best.

(The Japanese are know for eating insects. And algae is commonly used in all kinds of their recipes. For Americans, it sounds crazy. For Splinter, it was just an adaption of his own diet in the hopes of providing his mutant children with safe, normal turtle food.)

By the time they were kids, they’d probably just gotten used to a routine. We really have no proof that algae and worms is bad for the turtles. Tastes yucky? Maybe. But humans eat plants and bugs too.

Splinter was likely just working with what he knew.

But I don’t think they only ever ate algea. Don’t get me wrong-

The theory is totally understandable. I was onboard for this claim for a while myself. Then, I rewatched Lone Rat and Cubs. (Bebés 🥰🥰)

And he definitely introduces them to foods.

I’m seeing noodles, gyoza, (bamboo stick?), and he also throws down something yellow that I can’t recognize. We also see him collecting bread for them and dangling food over the little piranha children.

He continues to collect products for them. Maybe not the healthiest because he’s literally raiding trashcans but… He’s trying.

And then we have some popcorn proof that he’s still introducing them to human foods when they’re kiddos, with Mikey happily snacking on some while they’re in the dojo.

During the series, we see very little new introductions to foods. They eat romen, icecream, popcorn, and drink milk, tea, and other human things without so much as batting an eye.

Ergo, they’ve had human foods. They’ve just never had pizza.

Why do they act like such goobers when introduced to pizza?

BECAUSE THEY’RE GOOBERS, YOUR HONOR!!!

Though- they actually act similarly when introduced to pizza gyoza.

They hesitate. And then something explodes with how tasty it is.

But because this list is far to short to be a proper analysis, there’s also the point to be made for the first episode where they have an entire kitchen set-up going around them.

And I’m no New York Subway expert, but do they normally have kitchens set up within them? Probably not.

Which means that Splinter (and/or his sons) must have set this up. Why set up pantries, a fridge, and a stove if you did not intend to house foods or make foods to cook on them?

After all, the food on the plates appear fresh and raw.

They have an algae pool for harvesting in the lab. Why would they need to create an entire kitchen set-up simply to prepare them?

Also, they know how to use chopsticks for big and small foods. If they’d spent their entire lives eating small foods, it would be a teenie bit difficult to change the method of picking up a fatter breading than a tiny greenery or worm. Especially with mutant hands.

But they don’t hesitate. As if they have picked up larger foods before.

Also, also, they know what a cake is. What it’s supposed to be made out of. Hence why Leo knows what “icing” is.

I’m not normally that excited to taste something that I’ve never tried before (unless someone is hyping me up). It feel implied that they have and that’s why they’re disappointed that Mikey made one of not-cake substances and why Mikey looks like he has regrets.

Also, also, also- considering Splinter eats the algae and worms too, I don’t believe that he has the turtles on a purely algae based diet because he’d have to stick himself on one too. Man’s not a fan.

And he knows that other foods exist. So. Why would he?

In other words, my favorite analogy:

I hate Spinach salad. My mother used to make us eat Spinach salad.

Were there better things to eat than Spinach? Yeah.

Did mom even listen to that point? Nope.

But was it still technically good for me so I was forced to stomach Spinach salad until I was old enough to design my own diet?

You betcha. And I hated every minute of it 👍

So, to end this, I have to say that while algea and worms could have been (at maximum) a common meal for the turtles, I don’t think it was their only meal option. I’m not necessarily saying it was the best idea or the tastiest meal for a birthday-type celebration, but the turtles definitely had outside food exposure.

Do with this knowledge what you will.

[croquis-el]

Naruhodō doesn't find being a lawyer difficult

I've been thinking about writing about this for a long time, but I doubted that I would find confirmation of this in the Japanese version

I had no reason to doubt it, and now I’ll tell you in more detail why I came to this conclusion.

Even at the very beginning of the game, we are told how Chihiro (Mia) characterizes Naruhodō. And although she jokes about the fact that with his experience the defendants will face a guilty verdict, she still throws out one short phrase that shows Naruhodō’s true abilities

…彼は天才よ

… kare wa tensai yo”

...He's a genius"

天才(てんさい) [tensai] - genius; prodigy; natural gift

まさに 《恐怖のツッコミ男》 と いったところかしら

masani “kyōfu no tsukkomi otoko” to itta tokoro kashira

He is able to "strike fear into the hearts of his opponents."

Chihiro literally says: He's talented.

And this is not surprising, because Hodō began studying law and preparing for the exam in 2012-2013. How this is confirmed: Hodo himself says that he made this decision after reading an article about Mitsurugi in the newspaper (he also became a prosecutor at the age of 20 - his first trial was on September 10, 2012). Plus Case 3-1, where it turns out that he meets a lady in the courthouse library in August 2013 (the day the lawyer was poisoned in the cafeteria) and talks about his determination to help his friend.

And already on August 3, 2016 he stands behind the defense counter. Considering that in Japan, judicial practice is mandatory for all lawyers for 1-1.5 years, this skill machine was able to achieve enormous results in just 2-3 years.

どうすれば証明できるの! あの人が、灰根さんだ、って……。

dōsureba shōmei dekiru no! Ano hito ga, Hai ne-sanda, tte…….

How can you prove that that person is Haine-san...

だいじょうぶだよ。カンタンな方法がある。

daijōbuda yo. Kantan'na hōhō ga aru.

Don't worry. There's a simple way to do this.

Repeatedly during court hearings, he says the phrases: “It’s easy to prove,” “The answer lies on the surface,” “I know that I’m right and I’ll prove it.” Hodo has very well developed logical thinking, which he skillfully operates with (which, by the way, Mitsurugi was impressed with - show him the evidence in 1-4 in the detention center after the first day of the trial and see for yourself)

(ファイルを調べるのが メンドウなだけじゃないか････)

(fairu o shiraberu no ga mendōna dake janai ka)

(It's not that difficult - just study the files).

Even a brief comment about working with documents shows us his attitude towards work.

___________________________________________

And then - the cherry on the cake. Dialogue with Odoroki in 4-1.

一晩中、最悪のカードを配られても 勝てる、ただひとつのゲーム････

hitobanjū, saiaku no kādo o kubara rete mo kateru, tada hitotsu no gēmu

The only game you can win even if you're dealt the worst cards all night...

････それがポーカーだ。

sore ga pōkā da.

... that's poker.

ポーカーの本質は、 心理を “読み合う ”ところにある。

pōkā no honshitsu wa, shinri o “yomi au” tokoro ni aru.

The essence of poker is to "read each other's minds."

･･･そうだな。ある種、 法廷戦術に通じるものがあるね。

sōda na. Aru tane, hōtei senjutsu ni tsūjiru mono ga aru ne.

That's right. It's kind of similar to courtroom tactics.

ポーカーが････法廷戦術!

pōkā ga hōtei senjutsu!

Poker like...courtroom tactics!

相手が何を考えているかを、知る。それができれば、勝つ。

aite ga nani o kangaete iru ka o, shiru. Sore ga dekireba, katsu.

Know what your opponent is thinking. If you can do that, you'll win.

そりゃそうですけど。

そんなコト、できるハズが････

sorya-sōdesukedo. Son'na Koto, dekiru hazu ga

That's true. I mean, it's not like I can do that...

できるんだよ。

dekiru nda yo.

You can do that.

人間の思考・感情というものは ････かならず。ningen no shikō kanj�� to iu mono wa kanarazu.

Human thoughts and emotions are... always...

身体から“情報”として 発信されている。

karada kara “jōhō” to shite hasshin sa rete iru.

...sent out as "information" from the body.

Naruhodō literally compares court hearings to a game of poker and gives advice to carefully listen to the words of witnesses and opponents and try to predict their next action. And this comparison is very much in the spirit of Hodō: bad cards = bad evidence (which must be used correctly); opponents trying to deceive = witnesses who give false testimony; a dealer who was bribed = a prosecutor who pulls the judge to his side. It may seem like he's only setting up Odoroki to use his ability (to find people's nervous habits), but he puts a share of his three years of experience in court and seven years of experience at the poker table (whatever, he acted the same there) into it. It is impossible to compare something that you have not experienced.

Yes, Naruhodo is nervous, worried, and faces difficulties in court and beyond, but for him this is not something that can disturb his inner harmony. He knows his worth and always does what he is capable of (and sometimes demands the impossible from himself).

[mono-blogs-art]

Did you know that NHK has officially published recipes from Tsukutabe?

Cuz I sure as hell didn't. I happened to see an announcement from them in anticipation for season 2 of the series (which starts tomorrow!!) and I wanted to share! The official website of the drama series gives recipes for many of the recipes from season 1 of the show (most of which are the same dishes or very similar to the original manga). They're all in Japanese, but you can get pretty reasonable instructions with a translate tool. Here they are!

Nomoto-san's Giant Lu Rou Fan (braised pork over rice) from episode 1

Nomoto-san's Giant Omurice from episode 2

Nomoto-san & Kasuga-san's Grilled Riceballs with Sendai Miso from episode 2

Nomoto-san's Whole Pumpkin Pudding from episode 4

Nomoto-san's Kinchaku Eggs (eggs in fried tofu pouches) from episode 5

Nomoto-san's Harako Meshi (salmon rice topped with salmon roe) from episode 6

Nomoto-san's Stollen-style Pound Cake from episode 7

Nomoto-san's Roast Beef from episode 9

I'm really happy I found out about these, definitely gonna recreate some of these!! I already made the miso riceballs once when I was rewatching the show with my roommate, and we just used some recipe we found online. Now we have the legit version :D Definitely wanna make the pumpkin pudding someday. I'm super happy this exists even though it doesn't have all the recipes from the show, like for the udon that Kasuga makes for Nomoto, or their homemade gyoza. I hope they'll continue releasing recipes for the dishes of season 2 as it airs as well!

[candychasse]

Hiii! I asked this question on the ‘Osana’ Reddit and you said you had more, SOOOO: What are all of your headcanons for the Male Rivals?? General Headcanons pretty pretty please :3

Haiii! Good to see you on here ^w^ & ofc!

(Also ignore the fact half of them don't get fun pictures or a gif I'm posting from the app lol xD)

General Male Rivals Head cannons!

Osano Najime

He is stupidly good at playground games (like rock paper scissors, go fish, etc) to the point where nobody wanted to play with him as a kid because they knew he'd win.

Favorite Pixar movie is inside out.

He actually is really good friends with Hanako. They both spend a ridiculous amount of money on blind bags together. And whenever Osano goes to the store he keeps an eye out for ones Hanako would like.

And Hanako has made him a friendship bracelet, which Osano being the tsundere he is, promptly pretended to hate it but still wears it as an anklet to this day.

Has helped organize fund raisers for local animal shelters and veterinary emergency rooms.

I feel like he has contact lenses and wore glasses in middle school. Whenever he's doing his judgemental stare his friends if he's put his contacts in that day.

He gets really into decorating and customizing his phone, like changes his whole layout, stick, phone charms, pop socket, app overlays, wallpaper, depending on what season it is.

Reads shojo manga but pretends to hate it.

^ his favorite is fruits basket

Amao Odayaka

One time he was at his great grandma's house making sourdough bread, and he accidentally slammed it on the old wooden counter so hard that he made a hole which the dough fell through to the cabinet shelf below. So not only did he break a counter he also had to scrap the whole batch. That memory haunts him and keeps him up at night.

Impulsively buys every apron he sees. He has a whole section of his closet purely dedicated to aprons.

Favorite movie is ratatouille, naturally.

He is uh, a little dense when it comes to social cues. He's nice don't get me wrong, just he isn't very good at getting sarcasm.

His favorite deserts to make are macarons and pound cake.

He has a love-hate relationship with the Gordon Ramsay show 'Hell's Kitchen' because he gets ridiculously mad at the condition the kitchens are always in. But he loves seeing the before and afters.

He runs the cooking club like a pirate ship tbh, he usually has to break up fights between the members. Except for Saki because she minds her own beeswax.

Kizano Sunobu

He has played many, many, roles in theater such as: The Wicked Stepmother From Cinderella, The Phantom of the opera, The Rat King, King George the third in Hamilton, and many more.

He can sing quite well, and took gymnastics lessons as a child so he could very much be considered a quadruple threat. (Singing, Acting, Dancing, and Acrobatics.)

Went to a preforming arts high school, but due to his family moving he had to transfer to Akademi.

His favorite animated movies are Leap! And Anastasia. Although he does have a love for old Disney aesthetics.

He has quite sensitive skin, being allergic to glycerin, so he has to be very particular about what products he buys.

Kizano plans on becoming a Broadway actor once he graduates, and because of that he is fluent in both Japanese and english, and is working on learning Spanish.

He really appreciates the club members who are stage hands, always making sure to thank them after every show.

While he is cocky, egotistical, and down right self centered at times, he does truly appreciate his club members.

He has some, interesting opinions on the other club leaders...

He likes and appreciates Amao, mainly because they both have an unyielding passion for their respective fields.

He hates and despises Asuo, because he finds him too relaxed and annoyingly positive.

He in fact does not know Oko exists.

Oko Ruto

Is very good at sewing due in part to the fact he likes to replace the button hole embroidery on his white shirts to a beige tone and the buttons to match his eyes, making it look like his buttons are eyeballs. Also because sewing comes in handy for occult/supernatural shenanigans.

Likes to visit graveyards to see if there's any intriguing tomb stones. Like funny last words, statues of the dead, intriguing ways a person died, ect.

^ he is very respectful though, only really approaching graves that are particularly old.

The occult club does more than just stalking students and summoning demons. they also practice ways to tell the future, speak to ghosts, birth chart and palm readings, and alien investigation night. (Held every other Tuesday.)

He watches BuzzFeed unsolved supernatural. Because weirdly enough true crime gives him the creeps but not ghosts and ghouls.

His favorite animated movies are, Spirited Away, Alice in wonderland, and Paranorman.

His father was a paranormal investigator, but has major Dale Gribble vibes so safe to say he runs an occult goods shop with tarot cards, oujia boards, future reading tea and eggs, and more now after being 'encouraged to retire'.

His mother is a practicing psychic who was actually brought in to help solve the murders at Akademi. She now runs an in store future reading service. Personality wise she's very much so like Jessica Rabbit, sweet charming, and a showman at heart.

Asuo Rito

This man seems like a golden retriever and he is, but sweet Lord does he not actually process his emotions. Everytime he gets upset over something he just throws himself further into training regiments.

Has like seven dogs currently and overall in his life he's had twenty.

Enjoys all sports but knows he should be focusing on just one, but he just can't pick. He enjoys track and field best, but that could just because that's what he wins the most medals for....

Took one martial arts lesson when he was ten and Budo accidentally broke his nose. Swore off martials arts ever since.

Speaking of which, childhood friends with Budo, although at first they didn't like each other because they were on opposing soccer teams.

He in fact does not know Kizano has one sided beef with him. He thinks of all the club leaders as his friends, except Kaga, he finds him creepy.

Favorite animated movie is the Incredibles.

Man is his and his teams own cheerleader, doing full on chants and cartwheels at swim meets.

^ has accidentally cartwheeled into the pool, DURING A RACE.

Mujo Kano

This man would make a better mortician than a nurse! He always gets hung up on fixing patients hair rather than filling out important paperwork.

Studying to be a pediatrician, specifically specializing in infants.

Has an unhealthy build a bear problem. He builds a bear every week and they have invaded his couch, bed, and shelves.

He is a walking disaster. Someone save him.

Osoro Shidesu

Chain smoker, no further elaboration.

He's weirdly stoic, like definitely not a party person, despite being a delinquent hooligan he reminds sorta like an old timey knight.

Rbf to the max, man came into this world with a scowl. There's not a single picture of him in his childhood where he doesn't look like a hell spawn.

Good at cooking in the same way a shady Denny's chef is good at cooking. Like cigarette in hand, cussing under his breath, while making the best funfeitti pancakes known to man.

It brings joy to his grinchy little soul to see a slug bug. Like in ironically giggles when he sees one.

Also thinks clowns are hilarious. In another life he'd be a shady circus owner.

He either has the cutest softest smile known to man, or the creepiest smirk ever.

Favorite animated movie, Up and lady and the tramp.

At his core he does believe in fairness. If a guy is harassing a waitress he won't hesitate to take him outside iykyk.

Hanako Yamada

Has gotten his arm stuck in an arcade machine after trying to just grab the plushie he wanted. The fire station was called and had to help get him out.

Wears keychains on his belt loops of his favorite characters like Keroppi, Hello Kitty and Mimi, and Happy from fairy tail.

Is actually not that social around those he doesn't know, personally I like to think he has some form of social anxiety which prevents from getting close to many people.

The reason why he dresses so cutely is that he figured that even if people stared at him, at least he'd know why rather than just being clueless.

Favorite animated movie is the toy story saga which he cries to every time he rewatches.

Really enjoys playing matchmaker with people he knows, for example in middle school he introduced his aunt to his homeroom teacher, leading for them to get married three years later.

Loves playing animal Crossing (and spending a ridiculous amount on leaf tickets in pocket camp)

Has an absurd amount of plushies, except he does know how to stack them properly to make it seem like he only has a few.

Is studying to be an architect or interior designer, he hasn't quite decided yet but he hopes to someday make homes that'll reflect his clients essence.

Has two pet hamsters, Hamtaro and Hamantha.

Megamo Saikou

Denser than cement when it comes to how much things cost. Not like business expenses because he's been trained for that, but he does think a loaf of bread costs twenty bucks.

Was a premature baby and had a heart problem causing him to be rushed into surgery nearly immediately after being born.

Would be studying to be a brain surgeon if he wasn't set in stone to inherit the company.

Actually rather appreciates the arts, such as art galleries and musical theater.

Favorite animated movie is sleeping beauty.

Likes to people watch, he finds it amusing to see how others live.

Is a horrible cook, like cannot make box Mac n cheese.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

I remember in the game, like during Riddle's flashback, Mama Roseheart says that a food was full of something that would make him smarter. But that kinda sounds like something from a factoid. Do we know if she's actually a qualified doctor?

Mrs. Rosehearts is a licensed medical mage. We have no reason to believe she isn’t, especially not when Riddle cites her occupation as a reason for her being well-respected in their community. Why would Riddle and their entire hometown perpetuate a lie and revere a woman if she’s not in such a powerful position?

I don’t think the scene you brought up is as much of a “gotcha” as it may seem to be. It might give the impression that Mrs. Rosehearts is one of those pseudoscience peddlers, but only if you take her dialogue at face-value and consider no other context.

Firstly, it’s important to note that Mrs. Rosehearts claiming the birthday cake has lecithin-rich ingredients, which will “make [you] smarter” occurs in the Japanese text.

The localization is more specific and has Mrs. Rosehearts instead claiming that the lecithin will “improve cerebral function”. Between JP and EN, EN actually provides the more nuanced wording this time.

The reason she says this is because lecithin DOES play an important role in cognitive function. It is necessary to make choline, an essential nutrient to then make acetylcholine. Acetylcholine, as it happens, is a neurotransmitter that conveys messages between the neurons and all cells in the body. In the simplest terms, lecithin is vital in brain function and memory development. If Riddle doesn’t get enough lecithin, it could legitimately impede with his studies, since the brain wouldn’t have what it needs to support optimal learning.

It isn’t pseudoscience, it’s real science and you will find numerous studies that back this up. The only reason it comes off as “fake” is because Mrs. Rosehearts grossly oversimplifies the explanation in her dialogue. This most likely happened because 1) adults tend to talk to children this way, especially to make less desirable food sound more appealing (which is the case for Riddle’s mom) and 2) the Twst writers know that most of their general audience don’t want to sit through a long lecture about how lecithin is converted to other substances to support the brain.

Mrs Rosehearts doesn’t actually mean that she believes Riddle will magically become smarter if he eats food with lots of lecithin in it. She most likely means she wants him to eat ultra healthy in general because the alternative, junk food, won’t give him the nutrients he needs for the high amount of studying he does.

[yumeka-sxf]

Spy x Family merch updates and manga hiatus

I wanted to post about some recent fandom news, starting with the good news: while I mentioned in my 2-year anniversary post that we've been in a dry spell lately as far as SxF content, we just recently got a bunch of new merch/designs! (mostly from various Jump Festa vendors) I'll start with my favorite of the new designs, from HMV's Jump Festa set - Forgers in winter outfits ❤️

Next is the "French casual" set from Chara-Ani~ Bond's little red beret looks so cute!

Another winter outfit set, from Animate. Gah, this one's so adorable, too 😭

Next is merch from Ichiban Kuji. Not sure if it's for Jump Festa as well, but either way, I want the acrylics and the plate!

And lastly, Ensky's merch for Jump Festa - Forgers baking cakes/cookies!

Again for those who don't know, Jump Festa is a yearly event held in Japan in late December that's dedicated to Shonen Jump IPs. SxF will have its own panel with the four Forger voice actors in attendance. We've always gotten exclusive announcements and content at past Jump Festas, so fingers crossed it will be the same for this year! I'm gonna try my best to get some of this merch when it goes on sale in late December. And of course, if I'm able to make high quality scans of these new designs, I will post those as well!

Now onto the bad news, which most of you probably heard about already: the hiatus for the SxF manga has been extended to December 23rd. I believe this is the longest hiatus the series has had so far, and what makes this one concerning is not only that the date kept changing, but also the noticeable silence from Endo and other official outlets.

In the Japanese version of the manga, the last page of each new chapter typically notes the date the next chapter will come out. In the case of the most recent chapter, 107, it said it would release on November 25th, meaning Endo would be taking a break from the bi-monthly schedule, which isn't uncommon. But then, just a few days before the 25th, official English manga outlets like MangaPlus updated the release date to December 9th. It was disappointing since we had all been waiting longer than usual for the new chapter, but again, a second postponement wasn't too alarming...what was alarming though, was the third one that came just yesterday, only a few days after the last. People started noticing that official manga outlets had, again, changed the date for the next chapter to December 23rd this time.

The fandom got stirred up quite a bit when this happened, mostly out of concern for Endo's well being. What made me particularly worried was the fact that, while these hiatuses had been going on for the past month, Endo hadn't posted anything on his Twitter account, which is very unusual considering every month prior he's posted at least a few unique illustrations. Not only that, but the last thing he posted was this oddly cryptic image on October 19th, with text that says "Don't look for me." And he then deleted it soon after, which makes it even stranger.

But thankfully, Shonen Jump must have noticed the pandemonium happening in the fandom, because just a couple hours later, they made this statement on the official Jump+ Twitter, apologizing for the delay and confirming that chapter 108 will indeed come out on December 23rd.

This to me was good news, since their official statement about it makes it unlikely they'll change the date yet again. But some sort of explanation would have been nice, even a vague one. I'm not someone to spread rumors, but my own personal speculation (which could be totally wrong) is that there was some dispute between Endo and Jump. This is the only explanation I can think of as to why his Twitter would suddenly be barren for a month after he posted consistently for so long - my guess is that he has to get approval from Jump for all the illustrations he posts there. I don't know much about the inner workings of the manga industry, but I would assume he has some contractual obligations where he can't freely post stuff on social media without some sort of publisher's approval. It is possible he's just been too busy with Jump Festa and other things, but he's still posted at least a couple times a month even when he's sick or busy, so I don't think that's the main reason. Again, this is just my speculation that could be completely wrong. There's also the fact that they so quickly changed the release date to the 23rd, the day right after Jump Festa ends, which could indicate that Endo's been busy cooking something big to be announced there. Regardless, I'm happy we finally have a new chapter release date that's pretty set in stone now, though I won't feel totally better until we get clear acknowledgment that Endo is okay, either from himself on his own Twitter or somewhere else official.

Anyway, despite this setback, I'm relieved that SxF is still going strong with all the hype for Jump Festa and season 3. Between that and the new chapter right after, we'll be eating good this Christmas!

[glamatron3000]

The Unofficial Malto Family Cookbook

I was inspired by the longing of @ihatebrainstorm for Alex's cooking to do a deep dive into just what Earthspark's best dad was making, so here it is! The Unofficial Malto Family Cookbook!

Just a note, I am in no way familiar with Filipino cooking (I mostly cook American, European, and Japanese-inspired food in my day to day) but I'd like to think I am a skilled practitioner of Google-Fu, so here's what I was able to find!

These dishes were either shown or mentioned, sometimes both, in season 1 and the first half of season 2. I believe I got them all, but I did pan through the episodes pretty quickly, so let me know if I missed any!

Embutido

First up is the main dish from episode 1, which already sent me on an adventure trying to identify because it was never named. After poking around a few Filipino recipe sites I managed to identify it as embutido, which is described as a Filipino meatloaf. Dot mentions that it is her favorite dish.

Lumpia

The side dish of Dot's celebratory new job meal is lumpia, Filipino egg rolls! This dish appears regularly in the Malto family's meals, seen twice again in the first half of season 2.

Pandesal

Okay, so technically this is probably just a store-bought dinner roll, but why not try to find if there's a Filipino recipe it could be? Our boy Alex seems like the type of guy to pull out all the stops when it comes to feeding his family. The closest I could find is pandesal to round out our episode 1 meal.

Breakfast Burrito

In episode 2, we see Robbie lure Alex out to the barn with a picnic of breakfast burritos. Now surely there's also a Filipino style recipe for this, yes? Yes!

Longganisa

In episode 3, we see Alex frying up a pan of sausage for breakfast. Could be store bought, but it's also possible that it's a traditional Filipino pork sausage called longganisa.

Tortang

Here's our first one that was only mentioned and not shown. In episode 4, Alex tries twice to coax Bee into frying tortillas with his stingers. At first I thought he meant just regular flour or corn tortillas, but the way he was talking made it sound like a main dish and not just an ingredient. So after a bit of digging I found a dish called tortang, which is sometimes referred to as tortilla from what I can gather (citation needed -- I am a dumb American). Unlike the sort of tortilla you would use in a wrap or burrito, this dish is closer to an omelet. Those with more knowledge of Filipino cooking please feel free to correct me if I got this wrong.

Bibingka

Another only mentioned in episode 4, this is the dish Robbie would have picked to have for dinner for a week if he'd won the weekly chore race. Of course a child would pick a sweet dessert for dinner if he could.

Spam Steak

Okay, this was another mystery for me, particularly because of the way everything is stylized in the show. In episode 5, we see Alex frying up another breakfast food. I thought maybe it was a kind of french toast, but the browning texture didn't look quite right for that. So I browsed through the breakfast section of the recipe website I've been using and the closest I've found is this crispy spam steak recipe. Apparently spam is pretty popular in the Philippines, so it's possible! Again, if anyone more knowledgeable has another option, please correct me.

Snickerdoodles

In episode 7, Alex makes bagged lunches for Mo and Robbie's first day at school. While we don't know what's in those lunches, Alex did mention that he included his homemade snickerdoodles. Snickerdoodles originate from Dutch/German immigrants who settled in New England, and since there's a lot of Dutch/German heritage in Pennsylvania where the Maltos live, I'm fairly confident this is something Alex picked up in America. But just for fun, I did find an interesting Filipino/Mexican-inspired variant of this classic cookie, so you get a two for one deal with this one!

Unfortunately, Tumblr won't let me post more in a single post, so the rest will have to be in a Part 2 reblog!

[alexa-fika]

Sponge Cake (Thatch x child!lunarian!reader)

A/N okay I ‘m not sure how I feel about doing three for one, im both sure I paid attention to both ideas enough so please let me know what you think! Please note that since this is a lunarian they are brown skinned. I tried not to mention the hair since there is so much variety there but I did mention the skin. Also I decided gn since the requests were both female and male.

Reader here is replaced by Dokucha which stands for reader in japanese for the enjoyment of both reader and oc character readers!

Dividers by @/firefly-graphics

“What’s the occasion, Dokucha?” Ace questioned as he watched the tween pull out a pan from the oven, wings flapping in what he guessed was excitement

“I just wanted to make something for you guys!” They exclaimed as they took hold of the pan, flying their way over to the table that their brothers sat at

“Watcha make pumkin’?” Thatch asked as he took a peek at the pan. 

“I made cake!” They called as they attempted to cut said pastry 

“Ah, darlin’, please lemme me cut it,” Thatch called as he gingerly took the knife in his hand.

“I -I can do it, Thatch-nii! I’m nine!” They fussed, trying to get the knife back

“I know, but I don’ wanna risk you gettin’ hurt,” they called, waving them off as cut the cake with ease, pulling one of the pieces into a nearby plate.

“I’m a Lunarian Thatch-nii,” they scoffed, finding it outrageous that a mere knife could even nick their bronze skin, much less go through it.

“Here, ya can have tha first pie…ce?” 

“What’s wrong-yoi?” Marco asked as he noticed Thatch’s frozen position

“Thatch-nii! I couldn’t reach the sprinkles. Can you help me get them?” They begged, pulling at his white uniform

He glanced at them, a knowing smile on his face as he straightened himself and nodded.

“Of couse,” he drawled, placing the utensil down and following after the child. The flame behind them moving brazenly, giving away the kid’s nervousness.

“You have to keep quiet about it, Thatch-nii,” they hissed when they determined they were out of earshot.

“Sponge Cake? Really?” He teased 

“Shut up! None of them noticed! You’re the head of the cooking Division, so obviously, you would have noticed the difference. I didn’t know you were joining them,” they frowned, stomping their feet. Their wings mirror their mood as they angrily flapped behind them.

“So whatcha ya put in it?” He questions, Browsing through the upper cabinets for their excuse.

“H-How did you know?” They gaped

“Cause you, pumkin’, are an absolute menace to everyone on this ship, ain’t no way you would have stopped with the sponge,” he mused, pulling out the container of sprinkles and handing it to a Shellshocked dokucha

“Wasabi… I put wasabi over the sponge to make it look like mochi,” they mumbled.

“Ya not gonna prank me for the rest of the year.”

“Why would I agree to that?” 

“Because if ya don’, imma go tell ’em, and then YOU are goin’ to be grounded for the rest of the year for nothin’.”

“Ung”

“Checkmate pumkin’ remember you learned to be a menace from even bigger menaces,” he stated smugly.

“Fine!” They pouted 

“Pleasure doin’ business with ya, darlin’,” he grinned, his attention being drawn by the loud sound of gagging, gasping, and spitting.

“Ya better go before the wasabi hits,” he laughed, watching as the Lunarian opened their wings and hightailed out of the Kitchen and to the Deck, letting out a squeal as they avoided a sudden Flash of blue

“Hi Marco-nii! You look a little red!” They cackled, taking in the very red and pained face the first mate wore on his face

“Come here.” He called launching themselves at them with a flap of his own wings letting a groan as they simply ducked under him

“Bye Marco-nii!” They laughed as they closed their wings, allowing gravity to take them closer to the only man who would save them right now

“Hi Papaw! Love you, Papaw!” They hurriedly called as they ducked behind the man, popping out of them to let one final goodbye to the commander as they pulled at their eye and stuck his tongue out at him.

What do you think? I’m kinda effy about this one, idk feel like I should have included the rest of the characters more and much more lunarian ish ? ahhh im overthinking!

Taglist:

@Imaginarydreams

@amethystviolin

@h0n3y-l3m0n05

@hannahbarberra162

@epochal-oracle

[jujutsukgojo]

My gifts to you

feitan portor x reader

Summary: You knew him for years for only moments at a time. Yet, you take it upon yourself to love and mourn him anyway, even when the world won't. tw: light smut, slight yandere feitan, spoilers, mentions of murder, light angst, fluff(?), injuries, cheating, time skips an: didn't mean for it to be this long. Feitan is a bit tricky for me but oh well :) kind of inspired by criminal minds 'no way out'. 10.8k

“If you tie it like this, it should stay, okay?” You tap the boy’s foot. Although he is smaller than you in height, his feet are bigger. It’s quite comical but you don’t dare laugh. In this blasted city, you’d be bound to die for such a thing. Especially if you laugh at someone with crazy hair and carries a baseball bat wrapped in barbed wire.  

  He says something in a foreign language that you can’t understand. If you are correct, it may be inverted Japanese. In the books that one kid collects, there is a country, Japan, where the common language originates. Since the common language isn’t his mother tongue, it makes you wonder where he’s from and why he’s here. 

  The boy stands up to his full, but short, height. You sit on random rubble and look up at him, waiting for what he’ll do next. Will he call over Phinks or even bring Uvogin? He hangs out with Phinks mainly but who knows these days. 

   Instead of swinging the bat at you or calling over his friends, he pats your head awkwardly. You don’t make any sudden movements or noises. The boy leaves right after. A sigh escapes your lips after he leaves you behind.  

   What's his name again? Feitain? 

__________

  In your hut, you slightly stir the food that sizzles in the pan you found. It’s rare to come across tomatoes and eggs but you managed this time. The smell is mouth watering. You hope no one else can smell it. 

As much as you want to live elsewhere, this is what you settle for at the moment. In another world, you’d be out of this city and somewhere clean and safe. Like the church or something. No, even better than the church. You’ve heard of the outside where there are bright flashing lights and diamonds and pearls on people’s necks. There are flowers of all colors out there. Different shapes, smells, and meanings, they’re all beautiful. You hear that food isn’t scavenged but bought or given to people without a price.  

   People said they’ve seen the safety of children your age that play without a care. There are parents for the lost kids and doctors for the injured. Clean clothes and showers on the regular. You can even see the sun clearly and the big, round moon that doesn't bring out the wolves in men. 

There are pastors and priests that don’t turn people away, either. Hell, you have even wondered if there were schools there that allow everyone to get in. You're sure that you are reading and doing math wrong. How embarrassing.  

Finally done, you place the food on a plastic plate you found. You made sure to wipe the grime off the plate and rinsed it with clean water before using it. Even though you can just eat out of the pan, you want to seem sophisticated like the outside. They don't eat out of pans or use dirty plates. 

  The food steams and is welcoming. Without a lot of utensils, you pick at it with your hands. It burns at first but you’re too hungry. The flavor bursts in your mouth. Even without the proper seasonings, it’s still heaven. You haven’t eaten in a while so you’ll take what you can get.  

   Suddenly, the boy, Feitan, enters your hut. You gasp and protectively cover your food. He brings his foot out. His shoe, which he stole, is untied again. You swallow the substance and point out, “I taught you how to tie them.” 

“Tie.” 

“I taught you.” You set your plate down.  

“Tie.” You roll your eyes and pat your thighs. He walks over to you and places his dirt caked shoe on your lap. Slowly, you tie them.  

“There, see? Come on now, you need to learn. A little boy can’t grow without tying his shoes.” 

“I’m not little boy.” You give a breathy chuckle. “Of course you are, honey.” 

  He leans in close to your face. “I’m older than you.”  

...He does hang out with Phinks, who is a couple years older than you. In fact, it is rare to see them apart. Is it possible that it’s true? Is Phinks the type to be friends with someone who is younger?

 Curious, you ask, “Then why are you so short?” His eyes widened in shock. Then, strangely, he laughs while patting your head harshly. Studying his face revealed what looks like the beginning of a sinister smile.

  He looks at your plate and sits down in front of you. You’re both on the dirt floor. 

 “Give me.” You scoff and snap at him. “No! Find your own!” 

The little beast decided that the two of you should ‘share’. He smacks on his food, making you want to punch him repeatedly. He’s gaunt and bony, but not really bad like last time. His face has a tiny bit of roundness to it. 

  “Stop staring.” He inhales a tomato. “You look better than last time.”

“Better?” He cocks his head to the side. The remnants of the tomato smeared a little on his cheek.

“Yeah, healthier.” He stares at you for a second. “Thanks.” His accent is thick, and you still can’t place it. Nevertheless, you understand. Afterwards, much to your surprise, he sleeps in your hut now that his belly is full. Satisfied and strangely not afraid, you follow suit. It’s nice to have a friend, however strange.

You are barely awake, sleep still heavy in your eyes, when you see him pop up. Drool is crusted on his cheek, and he rubs his eyes. He yawns and then spots you next to him. Feitan eyes the entry of the hut then back at you. He puts the only cover you have on you then pets your head. 

  Before he leaves, he places his bat in your hand. Feitan secures the entry as he exits the hut. 

_____________

  It’s been years since you and Feitan have talked. You've gotten familiar with him but when Sarasa had died in such a disrespectful and gruesome way, he withdrew. In the meantime, you waited for him and studied a power you discovered. No matter the eyes that were always on you, you didn’t care about the mysterious and hidden audience. 

  You don’t know what it’s called but it started when you witnessed some kid about to get her ass handed to her by some thugs. The man had moved a pair of scissors without using his hands. They aimed right towards her and in a moment of instinct, you rushed to push her out of the way. Unfortunately, the scissors stabbed you in the shoulder.  

  It was then did you feel the rush of a force so strong, that it knocked everyone away from you. A faint white light that glowed from your skin that only your eyes could see. As you looked around in shock, you saw that same glow coming from that man and his friends. 

  You were gasping when you fell to your knees. “I-I’m sorry. I can’t be here!” The girl your age ran for her life and left you behind. In a moment of fear, you call out to her to help you. You were so afraid; you couldn't tell if the screams were hers or yours. Given the situation, you were too rattled, terrified and hurt, to focus.

The men shook for a second then got up to face you. The blood from your shoulder wasn’t stopping its flow. Crimson red stained your clothes and the ground. It was all so strange, such an unusual feeling of adrenaline that you couldn’t help but memorize. Almost as if the world had finally made sense. Every single thing became so much clearer to your dismay.  

  The men came towards you with malicious intent. While putting pressure on your injury, you managed to kick one of their legs, causing them to buckle and hurt his knee. He screamed in agony. 

  “G-get away!” You try to stand. The press of your hand on the wound isn’t helping. Is it supposed to bleed this much? It hit your shoulder, but did it nick something?  

  You need to stop it, to heal and get away from them. In this city, people like you are in danger from men like them. If you don’t get away, you’ll end up like Sarasa. She was never really close to you. She was a nice girl who always looked for video tapes, so you'd help her from time to time. Yet, her death scarred everyone since it was so close to home. And now, you no doubt are facing the exact same situation. Wrong place, wrong time.  

   Same fate.  

You fell back on the ground and looked at the sky. It has always been so dirty, just like the city due to pollution. Still so young, you know you won’t see what it really looks like. In the corner of your eye, you spot something green. A small clover with four leaves. 

  One time, an old man told a story of how four-leaf clovers are a sign of good luck. By the intense feeling and pressure of your eyes, you know it’s not true. Pain in all ways makes tears fall from your eyes. Lips wobbling at how unfair everything is and that you will never see the sun. The outside must really be heaven, and for someone so young who hasn’t committed a sin, you are wondering if you can go.

  Suddenly, flowers that you never knew blossomed around you. The soft petals touched your filthy skin and got rid of the aches. The blood on your shoulder faded from view as well as the pain. A soft and beautiful hum whispered in your ear. You truly believed it to be in your head, an imagination of paradise as you leave. Heaven, they call it. You must be close to the outside world then. 

  This must be it, you thought. There was no pain from a strike or fear. Just closed eyes and peace. Something you know you couldn’t get in the atrocious city.  

It ends. You were shocked as the beautiful flowers disappeared. Heaven, would you reject someone? 

  The men didn’t hurt you. The one whose knee was broken was able to move his leg. His red hair kind of glowed in the sun, and brown eyes were wide. He muttered a soft ‘thank you’ and walked away without a limp. His friends followed.  

   After that, you had realized that your ability wasn’t anything like scissors or something scary. It was to heal and be healed.

Although after immediately learning this, you didn't go out of your way to find the source of the screams in the direction the people went. First was the girl, then the group of men. After what you went through, it didn't seem like a good idea. 

 Feitan, somehow, got wind of it. Now in his later teen years you both estimate, he sits still and points to his arm. There’s a gnarly gash oozing blood. You wonder how he’s not feeling this and if he is, how he isn’t even fazed.  

  You gently pick up his arm and inspect it. He's thin but has clear definition in his arms. You haven’t seen him in so long that you are surprised by his growth. Hell, he’s taller now. Still short, but at least he grew.  

  In a jar, you take a premade petal. This is a way for you to save energy and reach people when you physically can’t tend to. Acting as a pill, you make sure that people can get infections out. For some reason, illnesses and infections are particularly tricky and tiring for you.  

  “Eat this, Feitan.” He frowns. “No.” You sigh. “It’s infected. You need to eat this so I can heal it right.” 

  “It’s not.”   

Rolling your eyes you bring his wound to his face. “This, this is infected. It's literally oozing pus.” How long did this go on? Was he really that hesitant to just come and see you?

  He growls and takes the delicate petal and places it in his mouth. “Stop pouting.”  

“Not pouting. It’s nasty.” He’s not wrong. It has a bitter taste and when chewed, a slimy texture. The color of the disintegrating petal leaves a stain in the mouth as well. If not for the benefits, no one would even bother. They'd be just as offended as Feitan.  

  The pus stops and clears up. “Alright, this’ll leave a scar.”  

You blow on your hand so that flowing blossoms surround him. Beautiful shades of pink and white go through his hair. With a gentle caress, you see the flurries touch his wound. It starts to encourage his own healing.  

  As much as you want to do the full thing, you’re tired. All day you’ve been working and collecting payments. Not to mention facing the disappointment of them being useless. You want to kick yourself for not getting paid first. But the sight of those grateful people and healed kids softens your heart.  

  Soon, it stops once the injury becomes manageable. You’re about to wrap it when a hand stops you. “What’s this?”  

  “Feitan, I'm tired. You caught me at a bad time.” You try to move your hand but he stops you. He's a lot stronger than you remember. “Heal.” 

His fluency isn’t the greatest still.  

“I’m tired! Just let it heal the rest of the way.” No matter how much you try to yank your hand away, his grip is too strong. “Please, Feitan...”  

  Surprisingly, he lets go and from what you can see, the subtle white glow appears and heals him the rest of the way, leaving small flames. “Feitan...what was that?” 

  He rolls his eyes and plops down on a chair. He says nothing and just relaxes, or at least that’s what he’s trying to make it seem like. It has been a while since you’ve seen him, but that doesn’t make you blind to his behaviors…sometimes. 

   “As a transmuter, I can heal a little by using enhancer,” He looks at you suspiciously. “You know nothing about nen?”

“Nen?” You put the gauze and other items in a black bag. It was found in the safe zone by the church. Apparently, it belonged to a doctor from the outside. The bag had all kinds of necessities. Gauze, medicine, some syringes, disinfectant, a thermometer, all kinds of stuff that you’ve had to use sparingly. What you save in the bag, you make up for with your ability. 

  He smacks his lips and calls you a ‘dumb brat’. “You use nen but don’t know it?”

Sighing, you ask, “What is nen, Feitan?” 

“What you do. Use your aura and stuff.” His arms are crossed, and he looks at you expectantly. You gather that he likes knowing things you don’t. It’s like a weak power trip. 

  But it is nice to finally have a name and explanation for it. And that’s what he did this time. Visiting you for a moment just to pick with you while teaching you something you should have known. 

“Wait, if you could do that, why’d you come here?” He just shrugs.

------

When you see him again, he brings his friends along. You immediately recognize some of them. Phinks, who ran with Feitan, the boy who always collected books, and Uvogin, the giant who was always claiming territory and beating people up. 

  Feitan should be twenty now. It’s hard to tell since he looks youthful. He points to his friend, the boy with the books, and orders, “Heal.”

“You can do it, Feitan, remember?” You were in the middle of cleaning when he and the rest of his posse pop up. They look flustered and a little worse for wear. 

  “Heal.” He always does crap like this. You roll your eyes at first. The body they carry tugs on your strings a bit. 

“Fine. Put him on the table.” Thankfully, it’s cleaned, and a new wrapping has been placed on it. Gently, the man is put on it. You spot the cross tattoo on his forehead. Ah, that’s where Feitan has been. Lately, there’s been whispers of the Phantom Troupe. Merciless killers and thieves from Meteor City that have been gaining respect over the years. Your opinion of them isn’t the greatest but it also isn’t the worst. You appreciate them for standing up for Meteor City, but their methods are questionable.

   You sigh and begin to undress the boy with the cross. “Is that necessary?” 

You continue to pull off his clothes, not bothering to answer the question the girl asked. If she can’t understand why you need to remove his clothes, then that’s on her. She scoffs after another female voice answers her question. 

  You finally see his wound. Feitan can heal himself to a degree, but you don’t think this guy can. The gash is deep and sewed with makeshift stitches. There’s no nen involved, surprisingly. Given that Feitan is an avid user, you thought his friends would be keen on it too. 

“He’s a specialist. Enhancer techniques are harder for him.” Phinks spoke. He must've understood your confusion. 

“And the stitches?” You gently investigate the area. It’s an angry red around it and, like you suspected, infected. It wasn’t properly taken care of. You begin to remove the stitches. You wonder what the thread is made of and how long this has been going on. 

“He,” Phinks points to Uvogin. “And him,” He then points to another large man with long ears. “Thought they could do it. Normally, Machi heals us but they were away from her. Her stitches would have helped him but not any infections.”

  “Ah, well this requires more than I thought.” You touch the ground and out comes a beautiful swirl of flowers. Underneath the moving petals is a blooming sunflower. It picks the guy up so he rests on it. The bed of the flower glows softly and becomes warm. His once wincing face is now peaceful. His injury is slowly closing and the red is beginning to turn pink. 

“The downside of this is that it takes a while. It’ll be all healed up in about an hour or so.”

“ An hour?” Uvogin, who has abandoned his afro and traded it for long standing hair. “Feitan, I thought you said she was good? We could’ve gone to that one guy and got it done right then and there.”

“She’s the best. Wait.” His hands are in his pockets and he moves. Feitan looks around and touches whatever he pleases. You try not to focus on his compliment. You wonder if the reason he moved from your line of sight is because he got embarrassed. If so, you won’t tease him. The Troupe are killers, afterall. 

   You start to feel the weight of your nen. This technique requires more effort than the others. Feitan explained it to you but you never did get the hang of it. You just know what to do instinctively. You were proud that you could do any of this without a teacher.

 What you’re sure of is that this man, whatever his name is, is giving you a crap ton of money after this or there’ll be hell to pay. 

   You feel something tickling the side of your face. The wrapper is red and unopened. You take the energy bard gratefully. “Thank you, Feitan.”

A couple of the Troupe members complain about the time. Machi or Mochi or whatever, the pink haired one, especially complains and criticizes for some reason. You have never seen this person before in your life yet here she is pouting. 

  “You okay?” You see the blond boy with big blue eyes study you closely. He moves closer to your face. A smile never leaves his face. Before you can answer, Feitan, who hasn’t left your side since you ate the bar, answers for you. 

“She’s fine. I’m watching her.”

You hear a couple of snickers. Feitan glares daggers at the offenders. You take a deep breath and ignore the friends who decided to crowd inside your hut. The boy with the forehead tattoo lies peacefully. Although you are running out of steam, his wound is healing nicely. One of the women, you believe it’s Pakunoda, comes to you and bends down. 

“Can I get you anything?” You discover that your throat is absolutely parched. “Some water, please.”

  If you remember correctly, the last you saw of her was when her head was shaved and some outsider kid did it. She had always kept it short. And now, it’s on her shoulders and very sleek. Over the years she’s drastically changed.

  You drink the water, which to your surprise, is clean. “Hey, how did this happen anyway?”

  “Don’t ask questions.” Feitan quickly shuts you down. Before you can ask anything more, you notice the entire group of friends are quiet. 

  “It’s nothing for you to worry about, okay?” You nod at the blonde boy with blue eyes and a permanent smile. Completing the hour, the tattoo guy is up. He’s immediately impressed. “My name’s Chrollo Lucilfer. Yours?” He puts out his hand for you to shake. 

  “Yeah, the book collector-theater nerd-kid, right? My name’s-” Before you can even answer, Feitan does it for you. 

  He gives your name and how your Nen works. He’s quick with it, too. You side eye Feitan for a second. “Thanks, Feitan. I, uh, really needed a spokesperson.”

“Ah, I guess it can’t be helped then, Feitan?” There’s tension in the air. It’s thick and heavy. By the looks of it, neither one is backing down. “Um, it’s not a big deal that he answered for me, you do know that, right?”

  Seconds pass through this. You look around for anyone to intervene with this. Whatever the hell is going on, it’s deep. “Since Fei explained it, why not have her join?”

“Positions are filled.” Chrollo still stares directly into Feitan’s eyes. Phinks nervously chuckles, once again trying to defuse the situation. “Fei, come on. No fighting. Right boss?”

  Suddenly, it’s lifted. Chrollo has what looks like a practiced smile on his face. “That’s true. That’s a rule.”

  Chrollo takes a glance at you. “She obviously means a lot to you. Clearly, she’s an asset, too.”

  “I’m right here, jackass.” Feitan smacks you on the head. “I’ll handle her.” 

  The others sigh in relief. Momentarily, you’re a little offended. “It was nice meeting you.”

They exit your hut right after, leaving Feitan behind. “So. those were your friends, huh?”

“Watch tongue.” You smack your lips and roll your eyes. There is blood on the floor and on the table. The furniture is in disarray due to all of his friends having no home training.  “I haven’t seen you in forever and this is how you greet me?”

 He frowns. “I say hello all the time.” You turn to him. “When? I didn’t see you.”

Feitan huffs and kicks the ground lightly. You get up to move the furniture back to place. Your movements are slow and everything seems so much heavier. Everything is swirling right before your eyes. Your head hurts and yet feels so light. Before you meet the ground, Feitan takes you to the couch and lays you down. 

  “I haven’t seen you in so long, little boy…” Those were the last words you say before you drift to sleep. 

Hours later, you wake up at the sound of birds. There is a beautiful blue blanket on you with golden yellow designs. It’s thick and so warm you could stay forever. You’ve never owned anything like this. 

  Slowly you get up and search for Feitan. He’s nowhere to be found much to your dismay. Last night’s conversation still stays with you. He insisted that he says hello all the time. That he sees you regularly, yet, you haven’t seen him at all. 

  The blanket, the wind chime, the medical supplies, the various decorations with stones, paint and if you weren’t smart, you’d say gold. Could Feitan have been the one to give you gifts? Silently watching over you and in his own way, saying hello? You have felt like you were being watched for years. 

____________

  “Do you understand why I didn’t welcome you?”

“No, and I never will. Now please, leave me alone.” You feel convicted by turning a man of God away, but can he truly be one when he left a child to suffer? You were in the cold, wind, and rain, alone in one of the worst parts of the city. All you had was Feitan, and he was there once in a blue moon. After the rejection from the church, you took it upon yourself to care for others as no one had ever cared for you. Although hurt and afraid, you chose not to spread that toxicity. You decided that no matter the size of change, it still works. 

 However, you will not fall prey to the same people. For instance, that girl you saved and this priest. How can he expect your services with no repentance or atonement? You forgive, but like hell will you forget. 

Damn…you were so sure you were over the pain of your past. That the change you made within yourself and how you treat people so no one else suffers like you, would stick. Alas, all it takes is one person to bring it down. You want to kick yourself because of the regression. Then again, the hostility isn’t your fault.

You walk into the hallway with small statues, stone walls, and large windows. The sun shines brightly through them, making the church seem prettier than it is.

“Please-”

“She said no.” Feitan stands with his hands in his pockets, the sun shining on his pale skin. It has been a few months since the incident with Chrollo. You haven’t seen any of them but have felt eyes on you, which you have deduced was Feitan. However, you learned the truth of the blanket. The name stitched on it belonged to an old clan, the Kurta, that was mutilated, tortured, and murdered by the Phantom Troupe. It disgusts you. The blanket is comfortable but still. 

Feitan, the boy who you taught to tie his shoes, gave you a trophy of his crime. You wanted to burn it, or bury it in the memory of the Kurta, yet you couldn’t. It’s a gift from the one consistent person in your life. Your protector and giver. So, you folded it and put it in a box. 

   Now, here he is like he’s done nothing wrong. Defending you and putting the man that’s been with the city for ages in his place. You’re shocked at his behavior. 

  “Feitan, surely you must understand!” 

“Shut up.” Father Rizole took a step back in surprise. Feitan was one of his regulars, if you remember correctly. This must be a surprise for the aging priest. 

You hum at the scene. Even though the rumors of what the Troupe has done bothers you, it doesn’t mean you aren’t opposed to the benefits. The priest backs up and sighs. 

“If you ever reconsider, please, let me know. We could use your help.”

“I could’ve used it too.” You end the conversation there and leave. Feitan soon follows you. He’s silent on his feet and very fast. Feitan was behind you but his quick feet caught up in less than a second. Now, he walks right at your side. 

“So, you just decide when you want to see me?” 

Feitan shrugs. “I don’t know.” 

Sighing, you turn to him and ask, “What do you need this time?” The lower half of his face is hiding under a plain cowl now. His eyes show all of the emotion needed. “I just hang out.”

  The sun is too hot for this nonsense. Sweat trickles down your face and back, becoming sticky. “So that’s why you’re here, right? I’m shocked.”

Before he can say your name, you continue. “Oh! And let's not forget the little massacre that took place, huh? Yeah, being used to heal your friend from that was really fun.”

“I didn’t.”

 You roll your eyes. “No, just that one guy. That’s who to you, again?”

“Boss.” You scoff at his short answer. Then, you think about the possibility. “Your boss? Then…doing that to the Kurta, wasn’t your idea, was it?”

“No, not mine.” His hands remain in his pockets. His hair blows in the wind slightly. You realize he hasn’t gotten a haircut in a while. 

“If you could, you know, go back in time…would you still do it?”

“Yes.” No hesitation, no thought put into the answer. Just a plain as day answer and a tone that leaves no room for an explanation. 

“So whatever he wants he just gets? As long as it aligns with your twisted mind, right?”

  His eyes grow darker. “I save you.”

You point to the church. “No, no you didn’t. That guy wasn’t going to do anything to me. I had it handled.”

Shaking your head, you go to leave until a hand wraps around your wrist. “Boss takes nen. I didn’t let him.”

  Was that what that was? That tension that day that was suffocating? Remembering that day, you start to form pieces. “Would he hurt you if you didn’t go along with his schemes?”

“No.” 

Well there goes that idea. “Nevermind.”

You try to yank your wrist from his grip, but it’s iron tight. “Let me go!”

“I protect you, always. Bad people here, everywhere. I get dirty for you.” His face is indifferent but his words give it away. The plea for you to understand and realize, dare you say, his devotion to his friends. Does this include you?

Is that what it is? What friendship, this connection is? You are aware of the deeds the Troupe do. You understand why they thought it would be a good idea (somewhat anyway). 

“Thank you, then.” He lets go of your wrist which was grabbed painfully tight. He trades that in for holding your hand instead. You are shocked at first, but if you make it a big deal, he’ll stop. You don’t want him to right now. 

  Not when you feel safe. You still want to kick yourself… and maybe throw in a punch.

_____

Apparently, the Troupe have gone their separate ways for now. They don’t cling onto each other for a long period of time after a job. It’s better that way since it has a lesser chance of them getting caught. They still hang out from time to time, though. 

For you, you managed to get out of Meteor City after the argument with the priest. Feitan had gone to do another heist with Phinks, if you remember right. You took that moment to skip town. You never wanted to stay in the trash, anyway. 

  And you were right to! Everything you thought of as a child about the world outside was true! Sure, people can be rude and things can be corrupt, but you’re fed and resting. There are bright lights and kind people. It can be clean and the soap smells so good. Just the other day you got to experience a nail salon. Rather than stealing from you, the lady next to you, Jade, talked about her family. Her daughter is Ruby and her wife is Scarlet. Jade and Scarlet want another child. You offered the name Emerald. 

  In Meteor City, you would’ve had to fight. Now, you are making friends and offering beautiful names. It’s a stark contrast that is fully welcomed. 

  The sun is bright and the moon is sometimes round. It doesn’t always attract evil and can sometimes sing such a beautiful melody. There are pearls and diamonds. There are seasonings that make the food taste unbelievably good. It’s all expensive, but infinitely better than Meteor. 

And Nen is a secret here. In the city, many knew about it and used it without discretion. Here it’s different. Like a secret identity for a hero. Your nen in particular isn’t used as much as it was before. Your ability was so tiring. Pretty and incredibly useful, but exhausting nonetheless. 

  It has been a few years since you saw him, but he’s seen you. He found you quickly, too. When you came home from your office job (which you are still ecstatic about, by the way) you noticed a new painting in your house. It was dull and in black and white. The painting is of a few plants that take the center stage. Actually, they’re your nen plants. In the background is what looks like your old city. Piles of rubbish and polluted air in black swirls. There are clouds above and a dark sun barely poking out. 

  It’s sad. Beautiful, but sad. You have wondered what he meant by it. You open the door to your apartment. It’s not much and one day you want to get a house. 

  The keys make a jingle when you set them on the countertop. The apartment is still dark, so you scramble to flip the switch. “Why you leave?”

You scream at the top of your lungs. Standing there nonchalantly is Feitan, who you haven’t had contact with in a hot minute. His hair is even longer than before. He wears a new cowl that has a skull on it over his face. His trench coat looks a little too big for him but he wears it well anyway. 

  “Uh, because I live here? What are you doing here?” You set your bag down and take off your short heels. Although he’s a murderer, you still feel safe with him. 

 He takes slow strides towards you. “ Why? I looked for you and you weren’t there.”

“You knew where I was. I got your presents,” You point to the painting. He hides his face a little in the fabric. “I like it by the way. Did you do it?”

“Shut up.” You sigh and walk into your kitchen. “I’ll make you something to eat.”

 You begin to wash the rice. Your eyes switch from looking down to taking obvious glances at him. Right about now, he should be in his mid twenties. It’s amazing how long you’ve known each other. You remember him as that kid who didn’t know how to tie his shoes and him teaching you about Nen. Time flies so fast when you least expect it. 

  You crack the eggs and whisk them. The sound of the utensil against the bowl and the sizzle of the tomatoes in the pan is all that is heard. Feitan doesn’t make one sound. He opts to stare at you working and even has a glint in his eye which you think could be satisfaction. 

  “Do you still like this, by the way? I remember you snatching it.” You try not to smile at the memory. 

 “I do.” He hovers in your kitchen, just waiting, watching you do all of the work. Stingy bastard. After adding the seasonings, you could have never gotten in Meteor City, you fix him a plate. He happily accepts it and sits down on the floor. 

“I have a tab-” Oh, the memory. Allowing yourself to smile, you sit with him and eat off of his plate. “We’re sharing. ”

 He gives a slight growl but doesn’t do anything. “So, what brings you by?”

“I say hello.” You hum with a mouth full of food. “Well, hello to you too, little boy.”

He gives you a light kick. The two of you finish the plate. Both full, you just lay back and talk. 

“How long are you staying?” 

“Not long.” You’ll miss him. “Running from the cops again?”

“Need to hide out for a bit.” You nod, accepting his answer and that your connection will probably always be sweet moments. “It’s nice to have you here, even only for a moment.”

  Feitan taps you again with his foot. “I’m always here. I say hello all the time.” You know and are fully aware of what he means. His odd little gifts decorate your house. To bones, to rugs, even a china set he stole. It’s routine for him to give you something, even when you don’t see him. 

“Even though you run.” He kicks you again. The more you watch him, the more your chest tightens. He’s the only consistent thing in your life. Everything is fleeting. Your job is new as well as your relationship with your coworkers. But there is a line with them. Feitan is different.

  “How long are we going to do this dance?”

“I don’t dance.” You roll your eyes and laugh. “I mean you coming by once in a blue moon.” 

  He shrugs. “I don’t know.” You nod. “Figures.”

He frowns. “What do you mean by that?”

“I mean, that this whole thing is tiring. You come and go like some kind of feral cat.”

  “So?”

You sputter, “ So I don’t appreciate it.” He takes off his long coat and reveals his chest, next goes his shoes. “I sleep here.”

“You can’t use me!” He gets up and goes in the direction of your room. “Feitan!” You pick up his clothes and set them aside. “Do you hear me? I wasn’t done talking!”

  On your bed is a sprawled out Feitan. He looks at you with squinted eyes. “Shut up, I’m trying to sleep.”

  Like always, he makes himself at home. You sigh, giving up on trying to talk to him. “Move over.” 

  He scoffs and reluctantly moves out of your way. You feel him tense up as you lay down. “This is my bed. I can sleep here.”

  You face each other as you lay down. Neither of you say anything about how close you are. This is probably the closest you’ve ever been since you helped him tie his shoes the second time. You feel his eyes on you, making you nervous. “Stop staring at me.”

  “Never sleep with someone in a while.” You know. The last time was with you, no doubt. At the time, you didn't think about it, if you remember correctly. It's hard to tell since it's been so long. 

“The couch is that way.” He smacks his lips. “No, you go.” You open your eyes. 

“Like I said, this is my bed.” Feitan doesn’t say anything about your ownership. Instead, he’s honest with you. “I’m tired.”

  Instantly, you start to feel a little bad. In the city, no child was ever able to fully sleep. It was too dangerous, especially in the more dangerous districts. Him being honest about his state, you take it as a step. 

  “If you want to, I’ll be on the lookout.” His hands are next to yours. You grab them, just like he did those few years ago. “You can sleep now, Feitan.” 

  You don’t know when, don’t know how either, but you two do end up sleeping. His eyes are closed and his breath even. Your eyes flutter open and see that he’s got slight dark under eyes and his mouth leaking drool. Feitan looks peaceful, sleepy, like he hasn’t done this in a while. 

  The next morning, he’s gone with no evidence he was even there.

_________________

  You watch on the tv screen above the bank about the attack on York New, a city not too far from you. The attack happened a few days ago but it’s still in the headlines. You don’t blame them, to be honest. It was an insane event that over two thousand people died! 

  You cling onto your boyfriend’s arm. He touches your hand reassuringly. His watch gleams in the moonlight and his suit is perfectly pressed. He's the entire package, he’s perfect. A good job, good manners, an honest man, and treats you well, too. He always holds the chair out for you and gets up when you leave the room. Just like a true gentleman. 

  When you first met, it was a classic coffee shop romance. Then it blossomed into a romantic and expensive dinner, the movies, a nighttime walk in the park, all of the classic dates. In every single one of them he was the perfect gentleman, the perfect man. You like him and how he treats you. How consistent he is. He's the type of man you can rely on. 

  Nevertheless, there is a bothersome voice in the back of your head that reminds you of someone he just isn’t. He’s not Feitan Portor. You don’t feel the contentment Feitan gives when the two of you sleep. You don’t study your boyfriend’s features like you did Feitan.

Dammit, why are you thinking of him? He’s not around and you haven’t seen him in what? Two or three years? So why think of him now. Plus, you haven’t received a gift or a ‘hello��� from him. For all you know, he could be dead.

  “Are you alright?” You wake from your thoughts and look at your boyfriend. His hair is dark, blending in with the night. Eyes kind and green, a Grecian nose, and average sized lips revealing a dazzling smile. Not only is the very essence of him suave, but his looks are also perfect. Tall and handsome, well dressed and a smooth voice. 

It's just that one five foot one pest that won’t get out of your head. 

  “Y-yeah just…it’s all so shocking. York New is literally over there.” You point past the river where more tall buildings reside in the distance.

“I know, I know.” He brings you in close to him. He places a kiss on your head. “Don’t worry, nothing will happen to you.” 

Suddenly, the newscaster stops mid sentence and gasps. Before you know it, the Phantom Troupe have been named the offenders that caused all of this. Two thousand people. Feitan, did you really kill that many people?

“I would like to go home. I don’t feel the greatest.” He rubs your arm, you still being tucked into his side. Your excuse was a lie to cover the gnawing feeling towards Feitan and his deeds. Although the Phantom Troupe’s original intentions were from a decent stand point, it seems they’ve lost their way. Feitan has lost his way. 

  The gifts have stopped coming, him no longer saying hello. After the last time, when you made him familiar food and sat in a comfortable silence, he disappeared. This time, there was something about it that hurt. Like he didn’t want to come around. He didn’t want to say hello anymore. Or perhaps, he died which if confirmed, you would ache beyond help. 

  “The Phantom Troupe is dead.” The newscaster said. The crowd gasped, shocked that the most feared criminals in the world are gone. Did you jinx it? Curse the little boy who needed you to tie his shoes. The boy who liked your cooking and made sure you rested. Had strong faith in you, never doubting. Protected you from the shadows and held your hand. 

  Is he really gone? 

You hide your face in your boyfriend’s jacket. Tears stream from your eyes at the thought of his grave. With the Troupe, his friends dead, you’d be the only one to truly mourn him. To remember his name beyond his violence. 

You clutch your chest. “Are you okay? Does your chest hurt?” He grabs you by your shoulders, making you face him. He’s such a kind, decent man. But he’s not Feitan Portor. 

  “I just need to rest. I’ll call you tomorrow.” You give him a chaste kiss goodbye. Once he leaves, your chest hurts even more. You slide down as you look around at all the menace’s little gifts. The painting, the skull, the windchimes, everything he’s given you. Why, oh why, couldn’t you stay here long enough for your gift, Feitan?

Wait, what could you have given him anyway? He’s a thief that takes what he pleases and has nothing to wish for. 

You lay on your couch and put your arm over your face. The tears refuse to stop for even just a second. You don’t know what you’re crying harder for. Feitan or the confusing feelings for him. Now that he’s gone, you can’t properly tell him. How can you explain it? 

  It’s heavy on your chest and tightens it. You want to feel his body heat no matter how hot the day is. There are no small flutters in your stomach at the thought of him. No, it's something in your heart. You want to stare at him, to memorize every feature he has. To hear his soft voice that is just a centimeter away from a whisper. Just melt in his touch, his presence. Wait, why is this happening? You barely knew him! Does that fact even matter though?

 You slip your hand in your underwear, still staring at the ceiling, sniffling at the news of his death. You imagine the future. Seeing him walk into your house and setting his belongings on the table. Wrapping his arms around you and kissing your back. No matter how long you’ve known him, his stature never fails to amuse you. He’d paw at your body, tearing off your clothes. Feitan wouldn’t hesitate to use his hands for your pleasure. 

  You trace your fingers in the direction you think he’d go. Curling your fingers inside, thrusting them in harshly, knowing that he can only be gentle in his own way. Your back arches from the couch. You swear you can smell him and the faint metallic scent that he holds. The feeling of his ragged breath on your cheek you could swear is real. 

  You moan as you take that jump you’ve searched for. Thinking of how good Feitan would make you feel. You're relentless on yourself, still going as strong as he’d be. Adding another finger, going faster and faster on your clit. Your moaning gets louder as the indiscernible amount of time goes on. 

‘ The Phantom Troupe is dead.’

You crash on the couch with one last gasp. The dream of the two of you ends in flames. The house, the passion, the years that go by in that home. Maybe even a child or two. Seeing him in the morning with a groggy voice is gone. Rubbing his eyes and saying he wants more eggs and tomatoes is no longer there.

  What would your gift be to Feitan? Memories? Sex? Food? Nothing fits. He can have those with anyone. 

  You slip yourself out from your underwear. It didn’t distract you. Perhaps if you thought of your boyfriend, it would have. But the feelings you have towards Feitan went beyond physical. What is this? What do you call this?

  Love? Time stops at the realization. It has to be that. That would have been your gift to him. Love. You cover your mouth as you admit it to yourself. 

'I love you Feitan Portor. I won’t forget you. I love your messed up hair and soft voice. For how you didn’t reject me when the world did. I will do the same for you. I’ll look past your torturous ways and miss you anyway. Maybe the world will curse you, but I’ll mourn you. Bury you so no one can spit on you anymore. I love you Feitan. 

   I’m in love with you Feitan Portor. This is my gift to you. For you to know that you will not be forgotten even though I never got to tell you, to thank you for everything. For leaving the baseball bat with me to protect myself. For painting that picture for me. All of the little gifts you thought I’d like, too. Thank you for protecting me from the priest and the wolves that hunted me every day when we were young.'

You stare at the ceiling till the earliest of mornings. It’s still dark, still heavy with the night sky. There’s some rumbling in the distance, a flash of light in the sky. You don’t bother to confirm anything. 

Just as you close your eyes, the window opens with a creak. You move your eyes to see the figure before you. The darkness covers it, only leaving the silhouette. “Why cry?”

You squint, trying to make out the features.  “Are you real?”

“Very.” It must be a lie. A cruel humor the world has. “Stop crying.” 

“I can’t. Not when you sound like him.” The figure cocks his head, that much you can see with the flash of lightning behind him. “Him?”

“Someone who can’t tie his shoes.” Your lip wobbles again. “I can tie them now.” The moon glows enough to show his face now as he steps up to you. Feitan’s delicate features peek out from his cowl. 

 You shake your head in denial. “It’s not real. It can’t be. You’re dead, Fei.” Your voice is hoarse from your sobs. 

  He looks shocked at your words. The man who looks like Feitan smacks your feet off the end of the couch so he can sit. 

“I’ll miss you Feitan Portor.” The longer you stare at the imaginary man, the more you hurt. “Well, stop.”

  He roughly wipes away the tears. “Ugly when you cry.” His face is close to yours. Since he’ll be gone by the time you come to your senses, you grab his face and kiss him. He sharply inhales, not expecting your sudden decision. 

  He growls against your lips, “Stupid brat.” 

  He feels real. He smells real, familiar too. You tell him such and with furrowed brows and a strong grip of his hand, he grabs your jaw and makes you look at him. “I’m real, you idiot.”

“They said you died…” You comb his hair through your fingers. It’s real, he's real . So, what’s going on? Before you can ask him, he cradles you. “Stop crying or I’ll go.”

  Your lips wobble at his threat. Rather than listening to it, you hug him. He nestles on top of you, hips placed between yours. He’s light, lighter than you thought so it isn’t a bother.

  “You’re so ugly when you cry. Don’t cry.” He holds you closer and kisses your head. Against your ear, you feel his lips move. You can’t tell what he’s mouthing. When the two of you comfortably slept those years ago, that was the closest you’ve been. Now, this beats that record. Face to face, body to body, and sharing breaths. 

  After a few moments of thunder and lightning, he kisses you gently. Not at all like the desperate one like before. Realistically, you know these feelings you have for him seem fake. You’ve only had a few moments with him. So, why are they so significant? Are they with him too? Is it possible that love can blossom quickly?

  Gentle kisses turn passionate, never wanting to separate. Little nibbles on the right places and sucks on all of the best ones. Clothes leave, not wanting to get between the two friends, those who dance around each other. For the first time, they meet. 

His hands reach your throat as he kisses you, making sure to give it a light squeeze. His weight is still on you, not hurting in the slightest. Feitan makes sure his hand reaches below and swirls his thumb on your bud. You gasp, surprised you were right about how he’d do it. Every ministration he does is exactly how it was pictured. Your hands don’t compare to it. Not by a long shot. 

  Despite his size, his hands are still bigger than yours. They reach deeper than you and are thicker too. In no time, you come, the bliss lasting a good minute before he sheathes himself inside. His thickness is more than you thought. It’s a bit of a stretch, but in a good way. 

  His gasps quicken with every thrust. You can tell that you're being loud, way louder than when you touched yourself. Feeling the rush and strength of his movements has you claw his back in ecstasy. He groans at the sensation. Finally, after this time of passion and intimacy, you both hold each other as you fall off of that cliff.

  Feitan looks into your eyes. With a softness that no one in the world could’ve predicted the torturer of the Phantom Troupe to have, kisses you. “Don’t cry anymore. Don’t cry.”

 “It’s hard not to when I know you’ll leave.” Silently, Feitan removes himself from inside you. It’s become routine, so you expect him to walk out. He lays back down, his head on your stomach. You run your fingers through his hair. He needs a haircut. 

--

 You wake up, not realizing that you went asleep in the first place. Before you can get up, you feel pressure on your stomach. Feitan rests on you still, eyes completely closed and his face peaceful. The two of you are naked and the only source of heat is each other. As much as you want to wrap your arms around him, you know he’ll react negatively or at least flinch. 

  Soon after, he stretches and rubs his face against your stomach. Like before, he drooled in his sleep. “Good morning.” 

He grunts in response and sits up on his heels. It takes him a moment to remember the night before. His eyes widen as he looks you up and down, making you highly aware of your current state. You cover yourself with a blanket draped over the couch. 

  “I have to go.” Ah, right. He’s a cat. 

He gets dressed. Once he has his boots on, you see him tie them the way you taught him. “Proud of you. You finally learned huh?”

 “Brat.” You laugh a little at him. Once he’s done you ask, “Will I ever see you again?"

He cradles your face. “I come back.” You nod, holding back tears. He studies your face and settles on your eyes. He must have realized that you were trying not to cry. His hands still remain on your face as he kisses you. He lingers there for a minute. A parting kiss, a meaningful one. 

  Something tells you that this feral cat isn’t going away anytime soon. That he’ll always be constant and you won’t be totally alone. A companion you won’t see everyday and only for a night. 

 This is the gift you’ll give him. You’ll be home for him. 

___________________

Months later, news about the Chimera Ants came out. You had already broken up with your boyfriend and heard he had left town to avoid them. Of course, you followed suit and got the hell out of there. 

  Without any plan, you moved back to Meteor City, where you thought that they wouldn’t be. Alas, that was stupid. You made a home base in the residential area. Not knowing that Meteor City was plagued by the wretched beasts. 

  By God’s grace, you managed to avoid them due to you being in the residential district. News that the Phantom Troupe were home to fight them ran rampant. The thought of Feitan made you nervous and you don’t know why. 

  Suddenly, right as you put away your dishes, the door opened. You grabbed a knife and faced the intruder. Standing there was the Phantom Troupe, who once again, barged into your home like they owned the place. 

  “What the hell?” You shout. The first one is Phinks with a wide smile. “There she is! Fei, I found her!”

  You put your hand on your hip. “Seriously, what are you doing her-you’re dragging in mud, take off your shoes!”

 “It’s only a little.” Phinks pouts. “I don’t care! You don’t live here.” 

Phinks and his friends grumble as they do as they’re told. The last one to enter the house is Feitan, who is notably holding his left arm. Without being told, he removes his shoes. 

  “Feitan…” He hasn’t faced you yet. “What happened to your arm?” 

“I’m injured too, (Y/n)!” The smiling boy with round eyes whines. You have no idea what his name is. Only that he and the rest are in Feitan’s gang. 

  “Alright, let me see.” He lays down on your clean table and says, “It’s all over. I need the full treatment!” 

  “Ugh, fine.” You grumble under your breath about the disrespect and your poor table. Finally, Feitan sits on one of the pushed aside chairs. He says, “I need it too.”

  “Big babies.” 

You heal the biggest cry baby completely. The blond, whose name you now know as Shalnark, stretches. “If it weren’t for you, I would’ve been hurting all day!”

  Rolling your eyes, you turn to Feitan who has been silent. He holds out his arm for you. You take the limb and inspect it. 

 “Completely shattered.” He grunts in agreement. He stares into your eyes and gives you a familiar slight smile. You notice that his friends are quiet, not a sound or word among them. 

“You guys alright?” You ask. The girl shakes her head yes and ‘whispers’ to the rest. “Should we leave them alone?”

  “Probably.” A mummy with boxing gloves answers. You’ve never seen him before in your life. 

“Uh, we’ll check the place out. Y’know, make sure it’s safe.” Shalnark shoos the little kid out and into a separate room, your bedroom. “We’ll clear this out in case you guys need it!”

  You huff and roll your eyes. Feitan’s cheeks are red and he’s glaring daggers at his friends. The girl goes outside with the remaining three to check the area. You and your feral cat are alone. 

“What are they checking for? I’m in a residential area.” 

“Ants.” 

  “They’re here? In the safe zone?” You begin to panic until he grabs your hand. “You’re safe now. They’re not in the city anymore.”

“Wha-how? What’s going on?”

  He pinches you lightly, encouraging you to heal his wounds. “Oh, right, right.” Flowers of all colors circle around. They begin to smooth over Feitan’s wounds. You take a second to wipe the blood off of his lip, letting there be some room for the petals to go. 

“How’s the other guy look?”

“She's toasted.” You smile. “Atta boy.”

  He’s healed, the petals and flowers disappear. You lick your lips at the sight of his bare chest. You didn’t notice before due to the audacity of these heathens barging in. 

  His heart rate quickens. “You leave again.”

You nod. “Yeah, yeah I did. I had to, Fei. the Chimera Ants invaded. I had to run.”

“With your boyfriend?”

You let out a small gasp. “ No. How do you know that?” He crosses his arms and leans back in the chair. “You lie.”

“I didn’t lie to you. I just never said anything.”

  “Words of a liar.” You scoff at him. “I did not lie to you. I lied to him. You don’t have any business with our relationship.”

At first, he was looking at his lap. Those grey eyes of his immediately found a new target to glare at. “You’re not with him anymore. ”

“No. Why does that matter?” He begins to tap his foot lightly. “Why did you break up?” 

  “You hungry?” You start to get up until you’re tugged down. “Why?”

When you don’t answer, he whispers in your ear. “Because I fucked you?” Your face is so warm. 

“If we run, we can still make it out.”

“Why are we running?” A small voice asks.

“Because I think they need the room.” 

“Will you two shut up?!” You are two seconds away from running out of your own damn house. You stand and his hands hold you by your hips. “Tell me why you leave him?”

  “Because of you.” It’s embarrassing to tell him your feelings. Hopefully, he can read your mind or something and shut up. He sighs and stands, walking over to you without a hitch. He kisses you. 

  “That’s what you get for lying.” He’s not remorseful or even boastful. Feitan takes your answer in stride. “No more leaving. Stay so I can find you.”

“You’ll always find me, remember?”

______________

Time after that, you were stuck in charge of Chrollo’s lover or something. She’s not too bad but clearly traumatized. Anytime you’d tell her to go with you, she’d look shocked. Like she was surprised she could leave. You were suspicious of her relationship with Chrollo. Something didn’t sit right with you whenever he or Feitan came up. She’d tense up. She never talked about it either. From what you understand with the little information you have, is that she was a former member that raised an orphan and that Chrollo loved her immensely. Perhaps too much.

  From what you know, there was a big showdown on the Dark Continent and the boat that was taking a voyage to the fake one. The Phantom Troupe were on that one at first, fighting Hisoka Marrow. He was a sore loser that got humbled and decided to attack again. 

  Amazingly, only a few died. You didn’t want to know the details or anything. You can’t go through that again. So, after that news, you and Chrollo’s lover parted ways. She went on to find a kid she raised. You, on the other hand, decided to settle out of Meteor City. This was almost a year ago.

  You have an apartment now in the town where you and your boyfriend lived, right next to York New. It’s basic, not fitting any aesthetic or anything. The good thing about it is that it’s bigger than your first one. It’s two bedroom and has a good price. 

   Feitan hasn’t reappeared. It tore you to shreds. You’ve managed to piece yourself together bit by bit, but you are a hollow version of yourself. Surviving and not enjoying the little things you used to. You even saw Jade, Scarlet, Ruby, and the new child, Emerald. Even that heartwarming moment didn’t fulfill you. However, it was the first time you smiled in a while. 

  You stir the food in the pot. Since it’s a little chilly, you made soup. You put the lid over the pot, letting it cook. There’s a knock on the door. You open it and see the man you’ve waited for. 

  Feitan is in dark clothing and has a large scar on his face. There’s no cowl over him, or a large trench coat. His hands are in his pockets, and he looks at you expectantly. You realize that you’ve just been standing there, you move to let him in. Once again, he makes himself at home. 

  “How’ve you been?” 

“You leave again.” He states bluntly. His eyebrows are furrowed and has a frown on his face. 

“Bold of you, very bold.” You move around him. “Why did you go?”

“Because I’d never stay in that city forever. The Ants were gone, the world settled. So why couldn’t I? That place is gross anyway.”

  He sits on the barstool and cracks his neck. You ask a question right after he sits. “How long you here for?”

You don’t know why you asked that. He’ll only be here for a moment. A while ago, you had made the decision to accept it as your gift to him. To love and mourn him when the world won’t. When news about the Phantom Troupe hit, you couldn’t bear to hear it. Their trip to the fake Dark Continent, then their corrected course to the right one, ended in a battle with them facing Hisoka and Illumi and everything else over there. 

  It was too hard for you to think about. That doesn’t mean you didn’t mourn and that you’ve snapped out of it.

   “For good.” 

You look up into his eyes. For the first time in a long time, he’s smiling with soft eyes. You see that he has a dimple on his left cheek. “W-what about-”

“Done for a while. Maybe forever. I know I’m staying.”

   “But your friends, where are they?” He shrugs even though you see the tension. “Separate. We split for a bit.” 

  He rubs his shoulders nervously. “Can I stay with you?” 

“Wow, you’re asking? Shocked.” You tap on the counter. The weight you’ve been carrying is lightened. “Feitan?”

“Yes?” He gets off of the stool and makes his way around the counter. “You know how you give me all those gifts?”

  He nods his head. “Well, this is my gift to you, Feitan Portor. You can stay as long as you like.” 

  He wraps his arms around you. He’s hugging you. This time, you aren’t afraid to hold him back and squeeze. Maybe, just maybe, this is what home is? 

  If the Phantom Troupe resurrects, at least you know he’ll always come home. That you two will be a constant force for each other. No matter if it does or doesn't, you two aren't dancing but admitting things you couldn't. This is home, a gift for each other.  

[netbug009]

Corocoro dropped a bonus color chapter promoting the TADC Cafe! It's mostly just the characters going "ooh ahh advertisement yummy food come visit" but from what I can tell using Google Lens, Jax seems to mess with Pomni by implying his pancake is going to be full of blood and guts, after which Zooble cuts it open to reveal Delicious Cake(tm).

(of course if someone who actually knows enough Japanese to do proper human translations wants to that'd be awesome)

[dumb-but-happy]

The Kirby Rant That You All Wanted So Much™

I’m gonna give you all a little plan of what’s gonna happen :

1. The overview of the main games (+1)

1.1. The copy abilities

1.2.1. The bosses

1.2.2. The Soul bosses

1.3. The Star Allies

1.4. The ancients

2. The music

3. The modern era’s themes

4. Anecdotes

Know that once you click on read more,

My one and only Kirby headcanon is that Sectonia is transgender.

So I guess I’m gonna start at the beginning, Kirby’s Dreamland. It’s a simple game with some of the gameplay staples already present, walking, running, inhaling, spitting, swallowing and floating. Recurring bosses also appear for the first time here, with Whispy Woods (a tree), Kracko (where there is a sky, there is a Kracko), and King DeDeDe (technically the only time he’s a final boss) It also has the Extra Mode. There really isn’t much to add, just that it’s a simple game.

Next is Kirby’s Adventure, the first game with copy abilities, making swallow go from almost useless to extremely important. It also adds a new character, Meta Knight, who at that time is neither protagonist nor antagonist.

Now begins the Dark Matter Trilogy, which is something that shaped the rest of the series. Meta Knight does not appear within the trilogy.

The first game of that trilogy is Kirby’s Dreamland 2, which introduces Dark Matter as a whole, specifically Dark Matter Blade (yes that’s its official name). That game also introduces two concepts. The first one is the concept of bad end, which is exclusive to the Dark Matter Trilogy, and happens when you don’t collect every main collectible and locks you out of the true final boss and gives you a teaser of said boss. The second one comes back out of the DMT and it is the concept of final transformation. In this game, the final transformation is the rainbow sword. Also, animal friends first appear here, and those are the most well known, Rick, Kine and Coo.

(Kirby super star came out here, I’ll talk about it when super star ultra though)

The second game of the DMT is Kirby’s Dreamland 3, with other, new and more numerous animal friends, I unfortunately do not know their names (except Chu-Chu) and honestly can’t be bothered to look them up. The final transformation is the Love-Love stick and the true final boss is Dark Matter (singular entity) followed up by Zero (an eyeball). Zero is the boss that makes people say "Kirby isn’t for kids". Also there’s a boss named Ado here.

The third and final game of the trilogy is Kirby’s Crystal Shards, with the first of two occurrences of copy ability combination and also the second appearance of Ado, which now takes the name Adeleine (the name didn’t change in Japanese, this is how we know they’re the same). The eponymous crystal shards are the collectible of the game and allow to unlock Ribbon’s Crystal and the fight against Zero Two.

Now comes what I like to call “The Drought”, it contains either weird games, spin offs or remakes.

And first off, a remake of Kirby’s adventure, Kirby Nightmare in Dreamland. The only difference is that Extra Mode is replaced by Meta Knightmare (you play as Meta Knight).

Alright I’m not going to talk about it but this is when Kirby Air Ride came out.

Now comes Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, which is confusing both in gameplay and in lore; and misleading in its title. The French title is better, it’s “Kirby and the Labyrinth of Mirrors” and that’s what it is, a labyrinth of mirrors. One of the few times King DeDeDe doesn’t appear anywhere in the games. The final copy ability is Master (it’s Galaxia but it didn’t have that name at the time) and the final boss is Dark Mind.

Here comes the weirdest of all, Kirby Squeak Squad, the game that started the joke of “Kirby kills gods over cake”. Forced to tell you the story here, Daroach steals cake from Kirby and puts it in a chest but there’s another chest that contains Dark Nebula and Daroach picks up the wrong chest. Shenanigans happen and Dark Nebula is killed by Kirby using the Triple Star copy ability (Mjolnir that can also do fire and ice). Also, copy ability fusion appears here too, for some reason. I’ll ignore them though, because the requirements are different than usual (I remembered them too late for that).

First, I’ll talk of the things that are common in the two games (except for the sub-games). There are the helpers, which can be summoned if Kirby has a copy ability that isn’t Crash, Paint or Sleep (the first two are screen wipers and therefore single-use and the third is Sleep, which doesn’t do anything) and serve as a player two.

Let’s talk about the Kirby Super Star Ultra sub-games in two parts :

First, Super Star :

The first I’m going to talk about is Spring breeze, a remake of the first game. Nothing to be added here except that it must be completed to unlock the rest.

Next is Dyna Blade, which plays like a normal Kirby game and the final boss is Dyna Blade.

Then, it’s Gourmet Race, one of the three most well known sub-games, where you race against DeDeDe to get the most food and finish first.

Up next is The Great Cave Offensive, where you try to get out of said cave while gathering as much treasure as you can.

After finishing Dyna Blade, you unlock one of the two big sub-games, The Revenge of Meta Knight, where Kirby must destroy the Halberd to prevent the invasion of Dreamland by Meta Knight and his crew. The final boss is Meta Knight (how surprising). Note that this means that the Halberd was destroyed prior to Kirby’s Dreamland 3.

After clearing all previous sub-games, you unlock the second big sub-game, Milky Way Wishes. It has no original bosses on the main planets. On the original bosses however, there is a lot of lore that becomes important later. It’s also half the reason everybody thinks the cute helper in Kirby will betray you (only happened twice). There is a gimmick in this sub-game; it’s that swallowing enemies does not give you a copy ability. Instead, you must find Copy Essences Deluxe; with the notable exceptions of Crash, Sleep and Paint. The penultimate boss is Galactic Nova and it is where the final ability, Starship, is found. The final boss is Marx (Max in Europe for… communist reasons).

After clearing the last sub-game, you gain access to the Arena. Which is a boss rush, not much to add.

There are two mini-games in this game, Samurai Kirby, a test of reflexes, and Megaton Punch, which is where the picture with cracked Popstar comes from.

Now Super Star Ultra (all previous sub-games return), which will be split in two parts :

First, what changed :

Cutscenes are in 3D; Spring Breeze is easier on the first playthrough; there is a dialogue between Meta Knight and his crew towards the end of The Revenge of Meta Knight; and the bosses in Milky Way Wishes have design changes.

Now the brand new sub-games :

There are three new mini-games, Kirby Card Swipe, where you must tap on the correct card first, Kirby on the Draw, where you must tap the target to shoot them, and Snack Tracks, where you must remove obstacles but not the food.

After beating 13 bosses in the Arena, you unlock Helper to Hero, which is a boss rush except that you don’t play as Kirby but as a Helper and the last boss isn’t Marx but Wham Bam Jewel, which is a harder version of Wham Bam Rock.

Next is Revenge of the King, which is the Extra Mode of Spring Breeze and is unlocked by finishing Milky Way Wishes. If you think it sounds like Revenge of Meta Knight, you’d be right; DeDeDe even gives Kirby a hammer at the end, that’s how far the parallels go. You fight harder versions of the bosses (the revenge versions). The final boss is Masked DeDeDe and his now iconic theme.

After finishing Revenge of the King, you unlock Meta Knightmare Ultra. In this game mode, you play as Meta Knight through all the game modes except Revenge of the King. Also, Marx, Meta Knight and Galactic Nova aren’t fought in there however you fight the horror, the Dark Souls boss of Kirby, Galacta Knight.

After clearing everything, you unlock the True Arena, where you fight all the hardest bosses and the true final boss, Marx Soul.

Alright, we’re done with the drought. It might look full, but reminder that the biggest part is a remake. Now begins the Modern Era, which take parts of a cancelled game, Kirby GCN. Each game has a gimmick.

To start off the era, the game that brought back Kirby, Kirby’s Return to Dreamland (and its remake). This game’s gimmick is the Super Abilities, which are transformations that make you feel like god. There are 4 important game modes in the original and 5 important game modes in the remake. The first game mode that you can play is the Main Mode, which is just playing through the game normally, the final copy ability is Landia and make you fight the penultimate boss, Lor and Magolor. The final boss is Magolor, the second half of the fucking joke that only ever happened twice. The second game mode you should play through is the Arena, which is the now usual boss rush. Now here’s the interesting thing, the Extra Mode is the canon mode in this game because the remake has a cinematic that shows us that Magolor Soul is the canon final boss in the Magolor Epilogue (which is unlocked after clearing the Extra Mode). The Extra Mode is also more interesting in terms of lore. The Magolor Epilogue is a mode in which you play as Magolor and try to recover your full power. Finally, you unlock the True Arena, where you fight all the hardest bosses (the epilogue’s bosses are present in the remake) plus Galacta Knight (still the Dark Souls boss of Kirby and the dodge is shit).

Then came out Kirby Triple Deluxe, which I think is a starting point for a lot of people. This game’s gimmick is the Supernova transformation, which makes you feel like god. There are, once again, 4 important game modes. The Main Mode is where you go through the game normally, there is however no final copy ability, instead you fight Sectonia’s final form with Supernova. The second game mode you should play is the Arena (I won’t present it anymore). Then you should play through DeDeDetour! which is like Metaknightmare but with DeDeDe instead. The final boss of this mode (and the reason I even talked of The Amazing Mirror) is Dark Meta Knight’s Revenge (and one of three occurrences of blood in the modern era), but not before having fought Dark DeDeDe. Finally, you unlock the True Arena, with Sectonia Soul as true final boss.

Next came out Kirby Planet Robobot (peak 2D Kirby in my opinion, it is however an opinion). I’m gonna let you guess how many important game modes there are. The first one is the Main Mode, with Star Dream as a final boss (note that it looks like Galactic Nova) with the final copy ability being the Halberd. After that, the usual Arena. Then you should play Meta Knightmare Returns and oh boy is this the reason that the True Arena is so hard in this game. The final boss is a succession of bosses (nothing new) however there are more bosses than ever (see: Bosses section) and the final boss is Galacta Knight Returns. After all that, you get the True Arena, with the final boss being Star Dream Soul OS (the second occurence of blood in the modern era), which is a rare occurence of the final transformation being used in both Arenas.

Then came out Kirby Star Allies. The gimmicks here are the Star Allies and the Allies Power (such as the Friends Wheel). It’s also the second occurence of copy ability combination. The game doesn’t have the same four important game modes (though there are four important game modes). The first is the Story Mode, where the final boss is Void Termina and the final copy ability is Star Allies Sprinkler. Then comes the Ultimate Choice where the levels 1-5 are unlocked by finishing the Main Mode (note that this is this game’s version of the Arena, it is however very weird and I will only talk of levels 8 and 9). Then you should play Guest Star ???? Star Allies Go, where the true final boss is Galacta- wait what’s that butterfly do- HOLY SHIT OKAY. That was my honest reaction to seeing that happen. Anyways the final boss is Morpho Knight and now Kirby fans are afraid of orange butterflies. Now you can go back to the Ultimate Choice, where levels 6 and 7 are unlocked. After doing either of those two, you unlock level 8, Soul Melter, where you fight all the bosses (including Morpho Knight) and the orb form of Void Termina is replaced by Void Soul. In a later update was unlocked Heroes in Another Dimension, which is just a test of your abilities with various abilities and Star Allies. After that, you unlock level 9 of the Ultimate Choice, Soul Melter EX, where you fight the harder versions of a lot of bosses and Void Termina’s orb form is replaced by Void. This game explained a lot lorewise.

Finally, Kirby and the Forgotten Land and, in my opinion, peak Kirby altogether. The gimmicks of the game are the mouthful mode and the abilities upgrade. There isn’t exactly a mode separation here, meaning that everything is canon. First, you go through the normal worlds until the end of world 3, which is where you unlock the Colosseum and the only place you can fight Meta Knight. The first cup is the Meta Knight Cup, with only the bosses and mini-bosses of worlds 1-3 and Meta Knight, giving us a grand total of 6 battles. Then you go back to the normal worlds until the end of the game, with the first final boss being Fecto Elfilis and the final copy ability being Big Rig Mouthful. There, you unlock the Ultimate Cup in the Colosseum, where you fight every boss and mini-boss of the normal worlds. Then comes Forgo Dreams, where you must collect enough fragments of Leon’s soul to unlock the Forgo Land. Here, the final boss is Soul For- WHAT THE HELL? HOW ARE YOU BACK. So the final boss is actually Morpho Knight again. Except he’s canon now. After beating Morpho Knight, you unlock the third and final cup of the Colosseum, the Ultimate Cup Z, with 12 bosses again. The true final boss (which is very much canon) is Chaos Elfilis.

Well that’s it for the game overview. Now the Copy abilities, sorted by order of appearance, alphabetical order and a little bit on each of them.

Kirby’s Adventure :

- Backdrop, which only ever appeared in that game and its remake. You are now a catcher and have a move called Back Breaker.

- Ball, which only ever appeared in that game and its remake. It transforms Kirby into a ball.

- Beam, our first staple, appearing in a lot of games. Absolutely OP against most of Whispy Woods appearances (especially return to dreamland).

- Burning, a transformation that technically still exists, though it fused with Fire. It transforms Kirby into a horizontal Meteor.

- Crash, another staple, starting in this game, and only missing a few like Crystal Shards. It’s a screen wiper, mini-bosses don’t stand a chance, useless against bosses.

- Cutter, the only copy ability I will call Grand Staple, because it appears in every mainline game except Kirby’s Dreamland. It’s got good range and decent damage.

- Fire, a staple, misses a few games. One of its effect is that it’s super effective against Whispy Woods in Star Allies and it inflicts burning damage overtime in Forgotten Land

- Freeze, a transformation that fused with Ice. Creates a ball of ice around, preventing movement.

- Hammer, the transformation you see the most in (True) Arena runs because its jump attack grants invincibility while still doing decent damage.

- Hi-Jump appeared in a few games. It does what it says, jump high while inflicting damage.

- Ice, a staple, allows to breath ice, create an ice ball that has inertia and one of the few transformations that make you invincible when shielding, with the downside of removing the dodge.

- Laser, it bounces off slopes.

- Light existed for this game and its remake. It doesn’t do damage.

- Mike, a staple, three uses (including one screen wiper).

- Needle, a staple that can transform Kirby in a ball of needles.

- Parasol, a staple that was originally the only ability usable underwater.

- Sleep, a useless staple.

- Spark, a staple. It allows to create a force field in two different ways, including a mobile one.

- Stone, a staple that transforms Kirby into a rock impervious to damage.

- Sword, a staple I won’t present.

- Throw, see Backdrop, except it appeared more often.

- Tornado, an uncontrollable staple which transforms Kirby in a tornado that has trouble changing direction.

- UFO, a rare staple, hard to find. In Planet Robobot, you needed the Kirby Amiibo.

- Wheel, a controllable staple which transforms Kirby into a wheel that can turn very easily, though it can’t fly.

Kirby Super Star :

- Bomb, a staple that gives Kirby bombs, I don’t know what you were expecting.

- Cook, a screen wipe that gives food.

- Copy, allows Kirby to copy the ability of any enemy, useful in Milky Way Wishes. Only ever appeared in that sub game anyway.

- Fighter, a staple that gives Kirby the power of fighting (seriously are you expecting a surprise), by which I mean punch and kick.

- Jet, a transformation that gives damaging flight and missiles.

- Mirror, which allows for mirror powers shenanigans.

- Ninja, a staple that makes Kirby use the coolest moves I’ve ever seen. Also PARRY!

- Paint, appeared in this game and its remake only. It’s a screen wipe.

- Plasma, same thing as spark, but in green instead of blue.

- Suplex, same thing as backdrop.

- Wing, it’s a staple that gives Kirby a damaging flight and… it’s actually similar to Jet, I’m not gonna lie.

- Yo-Yo, it’s a yo-yo and Kirby looks like Ness that way.

Kirby’s Dreamland 3 :

- Cleaning, which had a number of abilities thanks to the animal friends. The enemy that gives it is a staple, not the transformation.

Kirby and The Amazing Mirror :

- Cupid gives Kirby a bow and arrow, later replaced by Archer.

- Magic, Kirby can now do a roulette that is absolutely OP (in squeak squad, he also does magic tricks)

- Mini, Kirby is now smol.

- Missile, Kirby transforms in a missile, what did you expect.

- Smash Bros., Kirby gets his Smash moveset.

Kirby Canvas Curse : Balloon, where Kirby becomes a balloon (only mentioning this because it’s a copy ability apparently)

Kirby Squeak Squad :

- Animal, the one I hoped was making a comeback in Forgotten Land (it didn’t), Kirby gains sharp claws and the ability to dig.

- Bubble, which allows Kirby to transform enemies into bubbles. Like Bubble Mario.

- Ghost allows Kirby to possess enemies.

- Metal, where Kirby becomes invincible but he’s slow and can’t float.

Kirby’s Return to Dreamland :

- Leaf, which gives Kirby sharp leaves to attack with, from thrown to tornado, and renders him invincible when shielding.

- Spear. Kirby gets a spear.

- Water, where Kirby finally becomes the Avatar, able to control Earth (Rock), Fire, Air (Tornado) and Water.

- Whip. Guess what? Kirby gets a whip.

Kirby Triple Deluxe :

- Archer. Kirby gets a bow.

- Beetle, where Kirby gets a beetle horn and attacks with it.

- Bell, Kirby gets a bell and is like a child with it.

- Circus, complicated, check this to have it all : https://wikirby.com/wiki/Circus

Kirby Planet Robobot :

- Doctor. Kirby makes potions for elements and attacks using medicine.

- ESP. Okay now that’s definitely Ness.

- Poison, which is rather similar to Water in terms of gameplay, except it can also do a cloud and orient the fountain.

Kirby Star Allies :

- Artist, which allows Kirby to paint things to life (like Adeleine, actually).

- Festival, a screen wipe with a cute dance right before.

- Spider, Kirby can now throw webs.

- Staff, look at Sun Wukong and yep, that’s it.

Kirby Fighters 2 : Wrestler, only mentioning it.

Kirby and the Forgotten Land :

- Drill, Kirby digs with that drill.

- Ranger, Kirby with a GUN, OH YEAH!

Jelly exists, apparently.

Kirby’s Return to Dreamland Deluxe :

- Mecha, check this https://wikirby.com/wiki/Mecha

- Sand, he’s gonna put some dirt in your eyes.

That’s done too now. I guess it’s the bosses now. I won’t do them all, only the important ones. The order is not exactly important.

- Whispy Woods : Usually, he or a cousin of his is the first boss

- Kracko : Where there is a sky, there is a Kracko. And also, he hates Kirby like Reverse Flash hates Flash.

- King DeDeDe : The boss that is only Final Boss once, the first game. I’ll talk more about another version of him though.

- Meta Knight, who has been possessed a lot and I mean a LOT of times. Not as often as DeDeDe. After Star Allies, it can be surmised that he trained against mind control because he wasn’t affected by Fecto Forgo.

- Nightmare, the final boss of Kirby’s Adventure, who sure does exist.

- Dark Matter Swordsman, who is a Dark Matter and (WARNING : THIS IS A THEORY) might be a deviant Dark Matter, because of the fact that the manual says that it is jealous of the friends Kirby has, while Dark Matters shouldn’t be able to feel positive emotions (THEORY END).

- Galactic Nova (Nucleus), which is a device made by the ancients to make wishes come true. I’ll talk more about this later though.

- Marx, the devilish buffoon, who tricks Kirby into summoning Nova in order for Marx to take control of Popstar.

- Masked DeDeDe, the version I will actually talk about. First the music is awesome and every time they remix it, it gets better (Masked DeDeDe, DeDeDe’s Royal Payback, Roar of DeDeDe+Masked and Wild D.D.D). DeDeDe put a fucking rocket inside his hammer for more power.

- Galacta Knight. Very little is known about him, but what little is known is absolutely crazy. Could destroy a planet or two on a whim according to Star Dream. (THEORY) Might be a Hero of Iore (THEORY END). The strongest combatant in the universe.

- Ado, later Adeleine, is a Human, a very rare sight in Kirby games and (THEORY) might be the creator of Drawcia, Paintra and Vividria (THEORY END).

- Dark Matter, (THEORY) a primal entity of the universe hellbent on destroying the Light of Joy (THEORY END).

- Zero, the leader of the Dark Matter, attacks using blood and Dark Matter as projectiles. During its second phase, it sheds its protective white sphere.

- Pix is surprisingly important for later, keep it in mind.

- HR-H -> HR-E, a robot created by humans on Shiver Star (which is the Earth, commonly accepted theory by now) left to defend the abandoned underground city. Important for the ancients.

- Miracle Matter, an important Dark Matter (probably a General). It has control over the elements, that’s important for later.

- Zero Two, which, while never confirmed to be a Dark Matter, probably is a Dark Matter. Oh boy, that one will probably have my head on a pike so (THEORY THAT MIGHT PISS YOU OFF ALERT) It is not a reincarnation of Zero in my opinion. While it does have an angelic theming, I think of it as meaning that while Zero might have been strong, this entity, which uses the same white shell as it, is an angel of death (THEORY END).

- Master Hand and Crazy Hand. They’re here, that’s fun.

- Dark Meta Knight, an amplified reflection of the worst parts of Meta Knight.

- Dark Mind, (THEORY TIME) it might be the reflection of Zero in the amazing mirror, which corrupted said mirror and made it so that anyone who looks into it is either corrupted or gets copied with their worst parts amplified (THEORY END).

- Daroach, Leader of the Squeaks, the mice thieves (their mice that are thieves, not people that steal mice). He is akin to a phantom thief.

- Dark Nebula. (THEORY) Probably an ancient Dark Matter Leader. I say this because it can possess people, has a singular eye, has a colour scheme very Dark Matter and can control the elements. And it has probably been stuck in that chest for hundreds if not thousands of years, so it can’t reach full power right away (THEORY END).

- Drawcia, the creation regretted by its creator.

(For the Return to Dreamland Bosses, I will talk about the EX bosses)

- Grand Doomer EX, leader of the Sphere Doomers, entities with the ability to create portals to travel through space time using Another Dimension. It is mentioned that the Sphere Doomers didn’t always look like that. It’s important for later.

- Metal General EX and HR-D3, the reason people think the Extra Mode isn’t canon, (THEORY) I say it’s just a multiverse thing BECAUSE it was supposed to be a boss for a cancelled Kirby Game and it just traveled from a world it existed to a world it didn’t (THEORY END).

- Landia EX, which is Landia drawing too much power from the Master Crown, and going a little mad. It is the keeper of the Master Crown because (THEORY) it is actually, in my opinion, 4 dragons fused into one, so there are 4 minds to corrupt instead of 1 (THEORY END).

- Lor EX and Magolor. The Lor is a ship that is implied to have a consciousness and is corrupted by Magolor. Important for the ancients.

- Magolor EX is (THEORY TIME) actually taking as much power as during the second part of his normal fight. That would make the fact that he transforms into Magolor Soul make more sense (THEORY END).

- Crowned Doomer, see Grand Doomer.

- Master Crown, an item with “infinite” power, the ability to corrupt those who wear it and open portals. In Magolor’s Epilogue, it possesses a tree and becomes the crown without a ruler, as exposed by its theme : “Mistilteinn, Tree Crown without a Ruler”. There is symbolism to be found here, but I won’t go into it.

- Paintra, sister of Drawcia.

- Queen Sectonia -> Flowered Sectonia. She looked like Taranza at first but then, he brought her a mirror, a beautifully cursed mirror, the amazing mirror. She looked into it. She wanted to look more and more beautiful and so she modified her body until she looked nothing like she did. She fuses with the Dreamstalk as an ultimate move to try to become the most beautiful and destroy Kirby.

- Shadow DeDeDe, while not canon, it’s the Shadow of the King after he looked into the mirror.

- Holo Defense API. Remember Pix? Yeah it’s important now, the design is similar, so it can be surmised Haltmann took the schematics and made it a defense system. It’s probably ancient tech.

- Susie, of her true name Susanna Haltmann, is the daughter of President Haltmann, though he forgot who she was after she was lost in Another Dimension. She was lost in there for years (she was a child when she fell into it and was of age to be hired by Haltmann when she came back out) and when she realised her father didn’t recognise her anymore, she strived to be the best in the company and to take away Star Dream from him. She succeeded and lost her father in the process.

- President Haltmann got obsessed with Star Dream after he lost his daughter. When Susie took away the control device of Star Dream, his Mind fused with the Program.

- Star Dream, the result of Haltmann finding the schematics for Galactic Nova. It can open portals, create a countdown to the Red Screen of Death, summon Galacta Knight and has a secret mode activated if it takes too much damage. Important for the ancients.

- The Three Mage Sisters (a developer said it could be religious sisters), Francisca, Flamberge and Zan Partizanne. They were all on the brink of death when Hyness found them. Their lives weren’t kind to them, since Francisca is implied to have been trying to commit suicide (who goes into a snowstorm like that), Flamberge was facing an inferno and who the fuck does that if they don’t want to die, and Zan Partizanne was climbing a tower in desperation so I’d say she wasn’t doing it for fun. Anyways they’re all extremely loyal to Hyness, even with his poor treatment of them. Also Francisca and Flamberge are implied to be in a romantic relationship.

- Hyness. The one and only character that ever mentioned the ancients, being one himself. He was a good person originally (as exposed by the fact that he saved the Mage Sisters) but he started worshipping Void Termina, and he started going madder and madder. All that until Heroes in another dimension, where his heart is finally saved.

- Void Termina, the closest thing the Kirby Universe has to a god. I’ll talk more about Void though.

- Morpho Knight. I won’t talk about him because too little is known.

- Clawroline, of her true name Carol, is a Leopard, close friend of Leongar. She is a general of the Beast Pack.

- Leongar, of his true name Leon, is the Lion Leader of the Beast Pack. He is possessed by Fecto Forgo.

- Fecto Forgo -> Fecto Elfilis. (BEEN A WHILE THEORY TIME) This might be the true form of the Grand Doomer, I say this because of the wings directly attached to the head and the ability to open portals (END THEORY). I say more with Chaos Elfilis.

Now, onto the Soul forms (take everything said here with a grain of salt)

- Drawcia Soul. No idea who she is, but she was first.

- Marx Soul. He’s the form you see in Star Allies because (THEORY TIME) he can be seen absorbing part of Nova in the True Arena and in MetaKnightmare, Nova reassembles itself and is missing a few pieces, implying Marx absorbed those. Therefore, it can be assumed this happened in the canon timeline (THEORY END).

- Magolor Soul. He’s a fun one, because the epilogue shows us that’s the canon final form, therefore making the extra mode canon. He’s also the only one to appear in both the Extra Mode and the True Arena.

- Soul of Sectonia. She’s taken several Miracle Fruits (drugs) and is back to destroy Kirby (she fails). She’s given all she was to beauty and it is now all she has left.

- Star Dream Soul OS. It is activated because of the damage caused by Galacta Knight. It has a bit of Haltmann’s soul left, which is the reason it loses.

- Void Soul. It’s cool. Void is cooler though.

- Void, Astral Birth. It’s the thing that Hyness was trying to summon, and (YOU’RE GOING TO KILL ME FOR THAT ONE) a chameleon god, who acts how the summoner wants him to act. While Kirby isn’t Void or one of his incarnations, he is probably an existence not unlike Void’s (THEORY END).

- Chaos Elfilis. That thing can control dreams (as proven with Forgo Dreams), space (major plot point), minds (Leongar), souls (major plot point) and light (one of its attacks). It is in constant pain and has forgotten who it truly is after absorbing so many souls.

Okay I’m done with that. Now I gotta do the Star Allies (Dream Friends + Elfilin)

- Bandana Waddle Dee (Bandee). Everyone likes him, he’s a little dude with a spear and is extremely loyal to King DeDeDe.

- King DeDeDe.

- Meta Knight.

- Animal Friends.

- Marx

- Gooey. A deviant Dark Matter that is just a goofball.

- Adeleine and Ribbon. They’re cool, okay, I just think there were better picks for Dream Friends than them.

- Dark Meta Knight. He is only there because he wants to be the most evil there is.

- Daroach.

- Magolor.

- Taranza. Still grieving his love, but wants to help his friend.

- Susie.

- The Three Mage Sisters.

- Elfilin. See Chaos Elfilis.

(THEORY TIME)

The ancients. The most mysterious people we know and yet we have so much on them. We know they were split in half (the Scientists and the Mages) and they made some of the most impressive things we know (Lor, Galactic Nova, Lix, etc). I don’t think all the scientists come from the same place. I think some of them come from Shiver Star and some others come from the Forgotten Land. I don’t know much about them.

(THEORY END)

Now the music, I will talk about two of them specifically.

First, Green Greens, THE Kirby song. It’s the song that plays whenever HAL Laboratory wants to hit the nostalgia button. It’s simple, it’s easily recognisable and everyone loves it. (Planet Robobot, both remixes).

Second, Masked DeDeDe’s Theme. Oh boy, this theme. Ever since it first appeared, it has a remix for each game (except Return to Dreamland (present in the remake) and Planet Robobot). In order, there is :

1. The original

2. DeDeDe’s Royal Payback, Triple Deluxe

3. Against a Sword-King, the Dimension to Win, Star Allies

4. Roar of DeDeDe was disappointing, not gonna lie. So imagine my joy when I heard Masked and Wild : D.D.D.. It’s an absolute Banger. Forgotten Land.

The modern era has some interesting themes, actually.

1. Return to Dreamland. Its theme is that if you chase the ultimate power, the only thing you’ll get is suffering (Magolor).

2. Triple Deluxe. If you are obsessed with how others see you, you’ll end up destroying yourself (Sectonia).

3. Planet Robobot. A classic show of Man versus Machine, sprinkled with the importance of family.

4. Star Allies. The power of friendship is the power to jump your enemies.

5. Forgotten Land. Human creations are worth nothing against Nature.

The anecdotes.

Did you know :

Kirby was always supposed to be pink. It’s just that Miyamoto thought he’d be yellow and was pleasantly surprised by the pink.

Kirby has this name for two reasons. For one, John Kirby, who won the lawsuit against Universal. For two, it’s surprising to have a K sound for a being so round.

The anime follows its own plot because Sakurai basically said redundancy is the killer of a good story.

Kirby has killed a child before (Void).

Kirby has yet to wield an axe.

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