#Why did they change the chapter count in the official English translation? I was so confused when I was looking for quotes.

[volann]

Everyone in tgcf is a foil character

Part 3: Ghost city

(pt 1; pt 2; pt 4)

Thanks to the Internet Archive I can now use quotes from the official English translation, yay! Also for the most part this isn’t analysing foil characters, you can consider this my attempt to remember how to write this thing, hopefully the next one will be more on theme. I planned to also include Fangxin guoshi arc here, but Tumblr said the post is too long, so it's in part 4, which leaves this part without any characters, sorry

The Ghost city arc mostly introduces characters (well, Wind Master did appear before, but not for a long time, and it’s technically the first time we see Hua Cheng as Hua Cheng) and the information in it isn’t  enough to write about anyone. So the things I’ll discuss in this part are the details of the worldbuilding and the location itself that connect to the main themes of the story. I mean technically it’s the same as finding foil characters, right? All I’m doing is looking for similar characteristics… It makes sense in my head.

Firstly, the whole thing with Shi Qingxuan and Ling Wen being worshiped as a woman and a man respectively is brought up in ch 35 of web serialization:

“You were whatever people believed you to be. Appearances could be a million miles off the mark from the real thing, and people would still see what they wanted to see.”

While this is said about worshiped gods in particular, it also connects to the fact that many characters are not what the public thinks they are and many legends don’t represent the truth, this applies to both Xie Lian and Hua Cheng. I won’t go into more details and examples since there were some already in the previous parts and will definitely be in the future.

Secondly, the Gambler’s Den shows the concept of exchanging people’s lives, present in many parts of the book (let’s use Banyue as an example since I already analysed it) quite literally. Even though gambling doesn’t work like that, the people still bet something that’s of the same value as the thing they want, and they still decide that the thing they want is more important to them. And people’s lives can be on both sides of this not-exactly-exchange. So in the end the people betting are deciding what a certain person’s life is worth.

Thirdly, there’s a man who bets years of his daughter’s life and the fate of her marriage. Here’s a part of his description:

Although he was a living human, he resembled a ghost more than any of the ghosts present.

That reinforces the idea that it doesn’t matter whether you are a ghost, a god or a human. Also his bet is a perfect example for my previous point.

That’s all I wanted to say about the Ghost city, so. Fangxin guoshi arc. As I said in the beginning, it's in a different post, which makes this part even more weird than it was before splitting it into two.

[tarotcard0]

So, I have now officially beaten every NES Dragon Quest (Dragon Warrior) game. I'm currently playing Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, and I'm almost at the end, but I have to wait for the switch to recharge before tackling Chapter 8.

In the meantime, I want to write down some of my thoughts on Dragon Quest here.

Dragon Warrior 1 (NES) - Dear lord, just play one of the Remakes, the original is so tedious. There's a remake for Gameboy, there's a remake for Mobile, there's a remake for SNES, there's even a fan made RPG Maker Remake. Any one of those is a better choice than the original. Only play the original if your curious, or for studying purposes. Oh, on that note, the SNES version is Japan Exclusive, so you'll have to get a patch to translate it to English.

Dragon Warrior 2 (NES) - Not only is this the best game of the NES Quadrilogy, it's just the best Dragon Quest game I've played. How did they do so well on their second try!? It's so hard to describe the feeling I got playing this and realizing "Oh! This is the game all those other RPGs are referencing!" Now, I'm biased. I liked drawing my own maps and taking my time with that, so if you don't I also recommend going to the remakes. Again, they're available for Gameboy, SNES, and Mobile. Again, the SNES version is JP exclusive and has an English translation patch.

Dragon Warrior 3 (NES) - It's hard to describe why I felt a little disappointment with this one... Dragon Warrior 2 was just... So good! Like, how do you follow that? For some reason, everything in 3 felt... slower. Despite several quality of life changes, things like re-organizing my inventories felt more tedious than it did before, and when the story reached the Second Act (I'm not sure I used that phrase right) I fell into that same emotion that I had while playing persona 5 where the game just felt like it was dragging on. And because I can probably beat Dragon Warrior 3 4 times over in the time it took me to beat Persona 5 once, I have reason to believe this has to do more with the context of the plot, than the runtime of the game itself. I guess I'll go ahead and recommend playing he GBC or SNES remakes again, they certainly sped things up.

Dragon Warrior 4 - This game SUCKS! It's easily the worst of the NES quadrilogy. It's not the worst Dragon Quest game (Dear god it's not the worst), 9 takes that dishonor (At least, of the ones I've played so far), but the baffling decision to have all party members except for the Hero controlled by AI once you gain control of said Hero, makes it a very close second. I can't even recommend the remake, because I can't get very far in it. Once we enter the Remake dimension for this game, we exit Dragon Warrior and enter Dragon Quest, where the development team thought it would be a great Idea to transcribe everyone's accent to a ludicrous (and sometimes racist) degree. And, surprising no one, RPGs are just slightly impossible when you can't read.

---

I can't do another "Keep Reading" break, so those 3 dashes will have to do.

Well, now that I've beaten all 4 of the OG Dragon Warrior games, I'm wondering what I should do next (After beating TTYD of course)

Should I keep on with the series and go to Dragon Quest 5, or should I start on the NES Final Fantasy games (Of which, I've only beaten FF2)?

I'll end this post with a Poll.

Of course, I'm biased in favor of Dragon Warrior 2, but I'd like to hear what reasons others have for liking the ones they do.

Oh, and just to make sure this gets a decent sample size; the remakes count. If you've played Dragon Warrior GB, but not Dragon Warrior NES, then you've played Dragon Warrior.

[moonlightchild-otome]

Ikemen Vampire - Jean d’Arc Route Summary Chapter 10

here is the tenth chapter!

to clarify again, I’m not very good at japanese so if anything is wrong or weirdly translated everything is on me.

of course there is going to be some spoilers so do not read if you don’t wish to know jean’s story yet.

*also little bonus at the end about Jeanne d’Arc real story! of course you don’t have to read it to understand his route in the game but it’s very interesting :)*

The Count tells MC the history of the war between France and England, also known as the Hundred Years’ War...

【 Comte 】  Jean was a soldier who led the French army during the Hundred Years War.

Jean fights for his country, France and defeats the English army. Jean d’Arc, soon after the defeat of the enemy, becomes a true hero for his people.

However, such glory won’t last for Jean :( 'The most tragic end of the world's heroes', as they say.

In the course of the battle, Jean was captured as a prisoner of war by the enemy. The King didn’t want to help him for some reason. 😡

And of course... 🙄

【 Comte 】  Jean was convicted of heresy and it has been decided that he would be sentenced to fire.

After Jean's death, the king ordered a re-examination of his treason and found him to be innocent, and he went down as a hero of France.

The fact that Jean never knew went down as a hero after his death and this won’t change the fact that he died as an innocent. The protagonist is angry because it doesn't make any sense.

From the bottom of my stomach, I feel a mixture of anger and frustration.

Here, the MC asks the Count a question. “Why did he bring him back to life after such a death?”

There's something different about the Count returning the great men of the mansion and Jean.

The MC wonders if Jean really wanted the Count to bring him back to life. Before the Count can answer, Jean appears, interrupts him, takes the MC by the arm and leads her away.

【 Jean 】  One look at this man's face is enough. I don't like it. Let's go, woman. 

As soon as they arrived in the library, Jean seems to have calmed down a little lets go of the MC's arm.

The protagonist apologises for trying to find out about his past without his permission, but Jean says that's okay. Jean says it's okay, because his life has been written about in books anyway. However, he says that he doesn't want the Count to tell her about it.

【 Jean 】  ...It's not enough to say I hate it, it's too much.

Jean says that he is not a hero and that he is no different from the children's book he used to read, The Ugly Duckling.

it hurts me so much that this is the way he perceives himself when he deserves all the love in the world </3

Jean's gaze fell on the book 'The Ugly Duckling', which was still on the table.

That’s it for chapter 10!

here is some real background info about the real Jeanne d’Arc! She is such a brave and interesting historical figure. The epitome of a real badass, fearless and powerful woman.

so, the hundred years' war, if we summarize as much as possible is a series of armed conflicts that began in 1337. which opposes the kingdom of france and the kingdom of england.

in 1328 at the death of king charles iv, the question arises as to who will inherit the french crown.

one then has the choice between the cousin of the preceding king philippe de valois and edward iii the king of england who by his mother isabelle is also a descendant of the french throne.

you can imagine putting an english king on the french throne, wasn’t seen very well. 

edward not happy, which led to a succession crisis, which lead to the hundred years' war.

obviously this conflict, quickly overcomes a simple succession crisis.

it's a mess.

what you have to remember, is that the english are gradually invading part of the kingdom of france.

in 1415, after the battle of azincourt and the english victory, the english king henry v controls much of the north of the kingdom of france, including paris for that matter.

but it is far from being the only concern.

what you have to keep in mind is that the king of france at the time, charles vi, is reached at rather regular intervals of madness.

this obviously prevents him from administering the kingdom properly.

as a result, in parallel with the conflict with the english, a real civil war breaks out.

to find out who between his son the heir charles and his cousin the duke of burgundy will be able to take back the reins of the kingdom; the duke of burgundy is supported by the burgundians who will end up allying themselves with the english and the son of the king the heir charles is supported by the armagnacs.

but during this time, charles is betrayed by his own father who disinherits his son and after his death, gives the crown to the english.

i warned you that it was really messy.

and it is in this incredible mess that our jeanne arrives.

and where exactly does jeanne come from? from domremy.

she is also often called the virgin of orleans.

she is associated with the city of reims, but jeanne was originally born in domremy.

and where exactly is this place? domremy is this little town to the west of the city of the vosges department, on the banks of the meuse river.

isn't it pretty?

this is jeanne's birth house,

she would have been born around 1412. the building classified as a historical monument since 1840 includes in addition to a cellar, three large rooms originally used to house the whole family, her parents and four siblings.

according to jeanne's trial, it is here that she would have learned to sew or weave which were two occupations of the young girls of the time.

her father was a ploughman, so she often had to look after the animals.

and since she is very pious she spent a lot of time praying.

she went on pilgrimage at least once a week, for example in the notre dame de bermont chapel, about three kilometres (as the crow flies) from her birth house.

and jeanne d’arc, as you may have guessed, wasn't always called jeanne d’arc.

no, in history she has had different names and official nicknames.

there are of course the best known ones: the virgin of orleans, jeanne the virgin or even just the virgin and in the vicinity of domremy she was also called the jeannette de rommée, in connection with her mother's name. she has even signed several letters with the name jehanne.

and it's even more complicated if you're interested in her surname “d'arc”.

which was originally written darc, without the apostrophe. here again there have been many variations, and i'll mention a few of them: tarc, dars, darx and even d'ailly or daly according to the phonetic transcription of her name, with a lorraine accent. from there we move on to duly, then du lys.

when the king ennobled jeanne and her family, it is written on the deed, la dame du lys in reference to the royal coat of arms.

this is the magnificent bois-chenu basilica, which was built between 1880 and 1940 in honour of jeanne.

and for the record, this incredible basilica was sometimes considered to be the place where jeanne would have heard voices.

however if we refer to the trial, it is in her father's garden, near the house, that jeanne would have started hearing voices, celestial calls, coming from saint catherine of st. margaret's and the archangel saint michael.

the divine mission entrusted to her was very “simple”.

she was only commanded to be a cavalier, to cross a kingdom occupied by the english to go and find the future charles vii and convince him that she is the one sent from heaven.

to help him to take his place on the throne by her coronation in reims.

to show him how to liberate the kingdom of france, of the english presence.

it seems to be an easy enough mission for me. 😅 (nope)

so obviously you can imagine that the people didn't take her seriously right away. it took a few years before she managed to convince the world that she wasn't completely crazy.

- jeanne?

- yes?

- this is the voice.

- is someone talking to me?

- you are the chosen one, jeanne, join me.

- yes, i'm coming.

- i hope you like human barbecue. (ok i'll stop :/)

how is the legend of jeanne forged? how does one go from being a peasant girl eager to help, to jeanne of arc, heroine of the kingdom of france?

this is le centre d’interprétation (the interpretation centre), which is just behind jeanne of arc's birth house and retraces her youth and adventures.

her journey is incredible, at 17 years old, jeanne can't stand not doing anything anymore, she has been hearing voices urging her to act for four years now.

so she decides to return to the châtellenie de vaucouleurs, to meet captain robert de baudricourt, one of the king's faithful followers and after several vicissitudes, she manages to convince him. it wasn't easy, i remind you that her main point was that she hears voices. but yeah, he finally agrees to send her with an escort, join the heirn in chinon.

the journey is quite long and above all risky, we are talking about more than 500 kilometres and in this period of turmoil, the dangers were quite present especially if you look at the map, one realizes that the small expedition crosses areas not controlled by the enemy coalition.

fortunately, everything went well for jeanne, who arrives at her destination on march 1429 and gets an audience with the heir two days later. he was quite suspicious of this young woman at first, who claims to hear divine voices but according to the story she made a revelation to him that we don't know which eventually convinced him.

for the entourage of the suitor of the throne, it's not that simple and you can understand them, betting on jeanne is a little bit like a poker game. so they insist that she will be given a few interrogations, she is questioned about her life, about her morals and finally confidence is established, she is equipped with military equipment. she then undergoes mini combat trainings and here we go, her dream is about to come true, she joins a supply convoy in blois and on april 22nd, with more than 4000 men, she is headed for orléans.

the arrival of jeanne of arc changes many things.

her faith, her confidence in victory gives hope to the soldiers and to the inhabitants, who are filled with new energy. they manage to win in less than 10 days, 10 days and the english are obliged to give up their plan, which consisted of taking the city and then attacking the south of the loire.

jeanne who comes out of this battle with this image as a victorious, ultra badass woman and just earned her nickname... la pucelle d'orléans (the virgin of orleans).

thanks to her victory in orleans, jeanne thus becomes a kind of national heroine. she represents by her fame and her qualities, a not insignificant asset for the heir in his fight against the english and the burgundians.

but what makes a real difference is less her qualities as a war strategist and more her ability to charm and to galvanise the troops and the inhabitants along the way.

it's quite simple, before jeanne's arrival, the english had a reputation for never losing their invincibility.

and jeanne achieves the feat of restoring confidence in a possible victory.

it gives the impression to the troops that they are going to receive a kind of divine help and it changes everything in the soldiers' minds, all the more so because before her arrival there was a prophecy, who said that a virgin would help defeat the english so when jeanne arrives, everyone thought "it's ok, we're saved"!

jeanne persuades the future king to start a ride to reims who is in the middle of enemy territory, to be crowned.

jeanne thus succeeded in carrying out one of the following missions which were supposedly entrusted to her by the voices she hears; in other words, since she has succeeded, she is necessarily an envoy of god, and that for the mood of the troops, it makes a huge difference.

unfortunately after the time of victories comes the time of defeats.

after the coronation, the king and jeanne no longer really agree. she is convinced that her mission is to keep the english out of france.

the king, for his part, is longing for a little rest.

for example, he does not feel at all capable of taking back paris, while jeanne, a little bit stubborn, goes there anyway and suffers a failure.

on top of that she is wounded, she gets a crossbow arrow in her thigh, moreover, she breaks her sword which had for all victories...

it's a bad sign.

some people think that the virgin is abandoned by god. some time later jeanne went to compiègne, a city besieged by the burgundians and by some english contingents and once again it goes wrong, she is taken prisoner in may 1430, by the burgundians.

she tried to escape, but all her attempts failed and in november of the same year, she was sold to the english. jeanne is then taken to the castle of rouen, where members of the church judge her for heresy.

the trial was to say that charles vii was crowned thanks to a witch, she is also blamed for everything and anything, for dressing in men's clothing,

for deferring directly to god's judgement without going through the church, for hearing the voices of demons and not of saints.

jeanne really plays her life on each of her answers, in addition, she faces accusers totally committed to the english cause on her own when she was only 19 years old.

moreover, the witnesses are obviously not chosen at random, everyone who could speak up for jeanne is under pressure. everything is being done to ensure that she is condemned. finally, she ends up at the stake, on the market square, and we make sure there's nothing left of her body, to prevent it from being turned into holy relics.

and then after the end of the hundred years' war, i.e. almost 25 years later, the church reverses this first court decision. king charles vii wants to wash away the insult that was done to him through this trial and he pushes jeanne's family to ask for a review. pope calixtus iii agreed and jeanne was rehabilitated in 1456. the investigations carried out are more serious, many of jeanne's contemporaries jostle to plead in her favour and even people who had once spoken badly of her finally return to saying good things about her.

the first judgement is broken and the young woman's memory is rehabilitated.

an unusual little fact in the end - many people have not been able to admit that the story of the virgin ends up on a pyre. for them it was impossible, this story was too beautiful, this too extraordinary woman.

and it went far enough that people found stories of women, who a few years later claimed to be the real jeanne.

just imagine them saying stuff like "oh yeah, yeah it's me i didn't burn at all, my face has changed a little bit but it's me, i assure you, believe me, really".

a certain claude des armoises is said to have pretended to be her, in the metz region. after having acquired a certain renown, having been given gifts by former relatives of jeanne; she even went so far as to meet two of the virgin's brothers, who (hold on because it's completely insane) believed her.

they really believed it was their own sister who had died at the stake.

it's a crazy story!

well, we don't really know if they really believed it, or if one pretends to believe it for financial reasons for example.

in any case, this woman, who was talked about everywhere, is unmasked by the king himself, so that this fraud can be stopped.

in the end, i find this story quite unusual.

here are the friends!

i hope it wasn’t too long to read (it probably was) and that you have learned two, three little things on our dear jeanne d’arc. after all, she is one of the most famous women in history!

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

Comic buff with a thought, I notice the P5MM art and composition is more striking and closer to p5's art and style than the other manga, which is fine, but kinda... flat. (I find myself thinking there's something missing when I read it, then I look back at P5MM and I notice how there's more clever paneling, imagery, and stylistic choices akin to the games in it (like that one goro panel ya had a rant about) and I realize what's missing) That could be why P5MM is brought up more, just a guess. I dunno how you feel about all that though, I'm curious.

Under the cut cause it gets long cause of pictures:

I am very big on art style and visual presentation. I do actually judge a book by it's cover (manga, game, movie, show, yadda). If I find something pleasing to my eye I'll read it.....even if the contents are trash. Domestic Girlfriend is one, horrible manga (didn't finish, was holding out for Momo, aka best girl, and getting closure for her....then I bounced). Didn't watch the anime (didn't need to I was way ahead in the manga I think), but I know that opening is wasted on it. ldskfjaf Don't invest your time into it, it's not worth it, you would probably learn better morals from P5.......probably. But yeah I found the art style pleasing enough to try it out (I's not amazing by any means, but I like looking at it....or did.....that writing man....dat was bad ;w;).... *waves hands vaguely in air* yeah.

Fun fact, it's why I got into Persona. I happened across an ad for P4 on the PS2 in the Gameinformer magazine, it showed a screenshot from an animated cutscene plus one of the fully body art for the chars and I was like "Yes this is my jam!" (which only doubled down when I read what it was about, and it was a murder mystery and the article also talked up "the mystery of the glasses" which fakldjsalkfs yeah). So yeah it really clicked for me.

Tbh it's why I'm probably going to get back into freaking Bleach, and it's why I got into it and Naruto over One Piece (I don't think I'll ever read ON I'm sorry). Tite Kubo has sexy art what can I say? Can't trust a thing that man writes now but eh. It's also the reason I read a lot of Shojo (and now Yuri) manga, cause their art style is usually what I find very appealing (even if I've read the same gd shojo love story just by a different name for the 1000th time, give me the flowers and sparkly eyes! they are my life blood!)

And I've mentioned I really like Saito's art style. I've (attempted) to color some of his pieces on top of animate some manga frames (most of which I haven't actually published......I...I should....get around to finishing those up....haha...aha....haaaa). I really like his art, it's pleasant. But even with good art, I can still see past it and see what BS it's peddling and it can hamper my enjoyment of it. If I don't look at the context of the scene or the words on the page, I can be down with it. But when I'm reading.......I get annoyed. I balk at anything with Goro. I guffaw whenever Makoto's on screen (cause Saito nails her from P5, she acts useful but really she's useless but the narrative views her as useful it ironically makes her useless......it's the weirdest thing I've ever witnessed >.>). Like Saito really.....gets P5 it seems, down to it's flaws even (tho he can actually make the good parts of P5 shine, or at least parts that P5 failed to execute....execute in a way). But he also makes the flaws.....shine that much harder for me.

Now the Reg manga? it's nothing special art style wise, in fact it starts off VERY wonky, and while still wonky, has gotten a lot....better/cuter (esp Ryu). Not like shojo cute just.......I wanna squish their wittle faces cute (at times when it's not serious).

Like when it comes to Reg Manga these are the two pieces that have appeared in it that I feel kinda hit the P5 mark in terms of style:

(look at Mona, coming into this world like the pustule that he is 8U)

Which isn't much, but it's something. At least Reg's AOA is better looking than the anime. 8U

But I dunno, as the chapters go on, the Mangaka allows for more cuter expressions, and I just like their neat:

(btw I colored that page)

I dunno, it's not as overtly cutsey as Saito:

But they are still charming in a more simple way (without out having them go full chibi), it subtle but it gives it flavor. "Silly why are most, if not all those pics of Ryu and Anne?" I dunno guys maybe you should ask them how their backs are doing, cause they're the ones who are carrying the Reg manga when it comes to this! 8U

Tho I do think the first ch or two of Reg does a better job capturing P5's feel than the rest of the chapters, I think the mangaka is just.....bogged down by exposition and the game's BS that a lot of text on their pages so it almost reads like a novel:

ALots of text, not the most dynamic of framing with the panels. It's kinda eh. I haven't really read the manga past the 2nd dungeon tbh (I mean......as the residential #1 Makoto hater, I think that's fair.....that I'd start to zone out during my least fav dungeon....and then continue zoning out during my 2nd least fav dungeon askfdjaflk)

But during the first two dungeon arcs, I liked how.....bad the PT were at thieving, I liked how green they were. It was obviously a learning process. I also like some of the fight choreo (Saito did the best hand to hand one in the series in P4U's Yu vs Sho....which I actually animated....spoiler.....no I have no released that...my dumbass wants to tempt fate and see if I can redo it in color even tho it took me 4 days non stop to get that animated in just black and white.....but I am a fool so alas 8U). I mean it's not mind blowing, but it was simple and decently thought out, which is more than I feel like we usually get (esp with the anime shows....or at least P4/5's).

But I think what draws me in is....it's lack of P5 style. P5 style has them being still oh so cool despite being new at everything. It's tired me out. P5's how identity is style. It's....style over substance (gonna rile some feathers with that....Cvit(?) vid title). But P5 is overtly stylish, to the point it......weighs on me. Drags me down. Tires me out. I don't think they're cool, I'm bored with it. Ironically, Reg manga lacks that, which......def would make someone (and me usually) give it much of a passing glance. It's very basic I guess. But.....consider me, being in P5 hell, surrounded by all it's nausea inducing stylishness, sees a small break in the hellish hurricane to see.......normalcy. It kinda makes me connect better with the kids (kinda, it's still P5).

They feel like normal kids, trying to do their thing (sometimes trying to look/act cool and failing), and.....it's just the absolute antitheses to P5's brand......and I think that's why I like it. KLFJDSAFLKJA;

Anyway, who knows, maybe when I catch up on Reg in english and re-read MM with the official translation I might change my mind about a few things, or at least how I rank them. But for post length sake, and my sanity sake, I think I should keep the anime and mangas out of the "Which entry do you hate least" post......because I should just make another post where I go into both mangas as well as compare and contrast the anime! :D I'm just delaying some insanity for later haha....

Wait.........I just remember Day Breakers exists......and I liked it....still do....don't have much issue with it. Well shit, that is probably the one entry I hate the least. fklsdjfalkjdfkla;jsL;FJljsfdlskafaj *sobs* nO NO, I committed, and that's just a sad loophole. fdklsajflakfj *sobs* I still need to the game thing, cause let's be honest, the games are where it counts.

So right now my ranking for manga/anime is:

Daybreakers>Reg manga> MM>>>>>>>>>>TV Show Anime and it's OVAs (may the burn in the hell fire from which they spawned)

Oh, one last thing, forgot to put it in but I dunno where to put it now. I like how the manga tones down the pervyness some:

I mean Ryu is a fellow monkey. u_u .......but it's for the best I don't have to see his ape expression. ;w; (iirc the pyramid scene was a lot shorter/faster, but that's by the grace of reading and books rather than animation I suppose).

[kingofthewilderwest]

princesstokyomoon replied to your post ... ... ... can we see the list?

kovu was the first crush baby me ever acknowledged i had, so seeing simba on this list is very validating lol

[high fives] Disney made those lions way too hot for their own good. Kovu would probably be on my list if I had watched the second Lion King movie more recently. It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, but I remember being gripped by him when I was younger. So if he magically appears on that list later...... a rewatch happened.

writingstellar replied to your post ... ... ... can we see the list?

-is queer -has a type -that type involves dark hair and eyes ...my dude do you also like them kinda damaged? Because I think we have the same taste lmao

Bruh. Bruh. I wasn’t going to admit it in the tags, but TOTALLY. When they’re damaged is when my heart melts. I relate to their struggles and issues, I yearn to care for them, I feel for them, I love them. [high five on the same taste]

maski1 replied to your post ... ... ... can we see the list?

"Elizabeth Hawkeye" ? I think it was stated her name really is "Riza" ? When I watched ATLA when I was little I didn't like Zuko. Now he's my favorite character XD Gotta watch The Dragon Prince but before, I have to watch TLoK (and before that, read the chapters that were never adaptated). I'm curious, why Aladdin? Linguini is underrated

I started replying to you in the comments of the original post, but you always have such fun conversations, so I had to hop onto here and expand!

1. Regarding how I present the names on my list, I try to give a character’s full name, so long as there is strong evidence-based canon that gives or implies their name. In a few rare cases, like Elizabeth Hawkeye, there are fans who would dispute me on this, but I can give a very good account based deeply in canon for why I have the name listed as it is. If people want to agree or disagree with me at the end of the day, I don’t mind either way.

Regarding Riza... there are two types of scenarios she is called “Elizabeth” in Arakawa’s writing. One scenario is when everyone in Team Mustang is given code names. I imagine zero fans care about that as evidence. Havoc’s code name is Jacqueline, and that obviously isn’t his real name. Riza being called “Elizabeth” on the phone when Roy is disguising his operations by fake flirting doesn’t count for proof by itself. But the other instance is Roy calling her “Elizabeth” to Madame Christmas. I think most fans read that as Roy simply extending the code name for anonymity reasons. However, given Madame Christmas knows a ton about Roy’s emotional investment in Riza, and I’ve encountered some..... translational difficulties that the official English versions have with names... I think the latter’s a good cue.

Riza in older English translations and older merchandise was legitimately named “Liza,” and Liza is a common nickname for Elizabeth (especially for the time period Fullmetal Alchemist is roughly evoking). I talk about the translation weirdness here in much better depth. As you may know yourself, given your own language background, this would not be the first time the English translators made stupid mistakes with FMA names. Viz Media initially gave Xerxes the clusterfuck spelling ‘Cselkcess’ before they realized what the word was supposed to be. Ling Yao’s name has danced between Ling and Lin, despite Arakawa herself putting the Romanized spelling of his name in some drawn panels. I have seen Ranfun, Ranfan, and Lan Fan all within official FMA merchandise. Viz Media couldn’t even get a kid’s name “Kyle” down right in their translations... originally he was called “Khayal,” because at that point in time, they didn’t have a good grasp of the world (and ergo name base) that Arakawa was drawing from. Jean Havoc’s name should have been given a French pronunciation rather than sounding like ‘Gene,’ and if you wanted to Anglicize his name one step further, you could’ve named him John Havoc more accurately than what we got in the anime dubs.

With all that said and done, a character named Liza who is sometimes referred to as “Elizabeth” seems to me a logical enough indication she would have been born as “Elizabeth Hawkeye.” In any other circumstance, if I met someone who was called Liza but at one point got called “Elizabeth” by people who knew her in her past, I would conclude she was named Elizabeth. So yeah. Some people may disagree with my logic, but that’s the short of why I have it. XD

If other people are curious: another character whose name might disputed on my list is Rufus from Deponia. There’s some information in the obscure Deponia roleplaying book that says his father used to be named Landgull. Rufus was offended when his father changed his name from Seagull to Landgull to distance himself from Rufus (ergo, it wasn’t a first name change, which would’ve been irrelevant to disowning your blood relation to someone); Captain Seagull was always referred to by a title which usually goes with a last name; and ergo it’s likely Rufus could’ve grown up as Rufus Landgull. Even though the games never ever ever actually call him that.

2. NOW GOING ONTO THE ZUKO THING. Dude, I feel you. When I watched Season 1 of ATLA, I hated Zuko. By Season 3, I loved him and he was my favorite character. They did a magnificent job not just creating the character and giving him an arc, but allowing his personality to be increasingly revealed to us as audience members.

3. Why Aladdin? As a kid, I was obsessed with Aladdin. Now that I’m older, I still think his cheeky, adventurous, charming, but genuine yearning spirit are appealing. And he has sUCH pReTTy eYeSSS!!! So yeah. 

4. Linguini is VERY underrated. What a dear.

[rigelmejo]

random thoughts:

i want to do a guardian print novels comparison lol.

i have a simplified edition which in some ways is excellent: it has the kunlun prequel text, all of the extras, the chapters are edited in a way that clearly indicates priest polished it up to make the story ‘better’ (priest changed chapter 1 from Guo Changcheng seeing a random guy with no legs to Zhu Hong’s tail and fainting, adds details to a lot of chapters). The only thing its missing is the explicit sex scene (I think - it might even have it for all i know, but i’m guessing not since that’s usually cut out of simplified print novels i think?). But like in general - my simplified chinese Guardian novel seems to be the most complete version of the novel as far as final edits/extras. This isn’t necessarily the link I bought from, but this is the simplified print version I have (aliexpress does have a lot of priest books for sale).

I just got the traditional character version of the books (which is so beautiful WOW the covers and inside looks so nice). So far, its chapter content is more like the webnovel (so no scene edits/details added like my simplified version, no Kunlun prequel). There are a few edits of wording on small things (suddenly versus abruptly, next/then, that kind of thing). I don’t think it has any of the extras, so its not the original traditional published version with the shen san extra (i thought it was?). So upside is my simplified copy does seem to be the most complete, and the traditional one i have matches the webnovel most if i wanted to compare differences. Downside is i’m surprised the traditional version has so little content? This is the traditional print versions I bought, volume 1 and volume 2. That site can be ordered from in english, worldwide.

feeling the urge to do something with japanese again but i don’t know what. logically, doing nukemarines memrise decks is... probs the most effective thing to do. i don’t feel like doing flashcards though.

i kind of feel like listening to japanese core 6k or japaneseaudiolessons, just because i can just play them in the background (easier mentally than flashcards). maybe reading japanese audio lessons basically textbook - but that’s if i feel like reading? 

also just kind of. feel like playing a video game - maybe kh2 since i know the game well enough i can still ‘speed play’ if i don’t want to slow down and read everything on screen (whereas persona 3 and crisis core took 1 hour to get to save points since i had to slow down and read everything). i read some scripts yesterday in japanese... and watched some shows yesterday (though that hardly counts since they had eng subs). my mind just wants to ‘do’ things, not really do flashcards lol. so like? listening, watching, playing - my brain thinks it sounds fun! but reading lessons/doing flashcard drilling of study materials, i feel tired lol...

i also kind of. just want to do some challenge for myself like: do clozemaster japanese for 1 month and see how much i get through/how much i improve? or do japaneseaudiolessons for 1 month and see how far i get etc.

chinese wise: i officially re-did all 12 chapters of Guardian with Listening Reading Method step 2 with the other audiobook by wheat. Now I’m officially on a new chapter 13, with avenuex’s audiobook, and going back to doing step 2 AND step 3 (for vocab). Again, as SOON as i switch to avenuex its easier to follow what’s going on without looking things up - i think part of it is the way she narrates sort of... slows down and speeds up depending on the emphasis in the sentence? so its easier to catch exactly what’s key info/characters interacting versus description. and also her voices for everyone are more different, and she edited in guardian drama music so a lot of the scenes i bet have some ‘ingrained’ memory from when i watched the show helping me recognize the scene that’s going on. i imagine for ‘comprehensible input’ this version just has a lot more i ‘get.’ also just in general i love her audiobook ToT. 

though wheat’s is really nice! i like wheat’s voice and would love to talk like them. For shadowing, I find wheats is really good because the audio is mainly just voice, and a deeper voice (which i both would rather sound like and find easier to identify the words clearly as far as for repeating), and all an even speaking speed except dialogue - so i can repeat after what wheat says in small phrase bursts without falling behind too much. So for listening in the background, more general listening practice, and for shadowing practice i plan to use wheat’s more. 

while step 3 is more focus intensive, i think doing it once minimizes how many words i have to look up in step 2 and how many times i feel step 2 would benefit me. when i skip step 3 i feel like i could do step 2 for 3-4 times and keep picking up a lot of new words. so to speed up progress, probably just going to do step 3 then step 2 again (or step 2 then 3 we’ll see).

L-R method has really helped my vocab for guardian ToT i have no problem reading the traditional version now. i also have far less trouble reading new chapters for the first time (still have words i need to look up, just its not enough to prevent me from following the main idea and details). I’m really glad I decided to try L-R method with guardian. I’m really excited how this is going to affect reading other priest novels later (or L-R tian ya ke, sha po lang, mo du). Because i can already notice it making Mo Du a bit easier. and i’m only 13 chapters in out of 100+ plus extras. I notice it makes reading and listening skills better. I don’t know about its claim from some of “from A1 to B1″ in 30 hours (which is what someone did with Italian, with some previous romance language study). Because I was probably like a A2 or weak B1 when I started trying this? (Idk I was like HSK4 with a smattering of extra passive knowledge that didn’t line up to HSK 5-6 exactly, so i could read Xiao Wangzi and watch Shan He Ling etc but only knew like half the words on HSK 5-6). So I don’t know if for a beginner, if L-R method for chinese would get them very far, or how many hours it would take. I’d say for a beginner-intermediate learner though, it will boost your listening level quickly (vocab a bit slower but i do notice progress now). And since listening level can fall behind reading, that’s a nice thing. 

I read about someone who’d done L-R for mandarin for 300 hours though with less progress made though and i’m still curious why. Because i’ve done about maybe 30 hours and seen a lot more - idk if just having a base in chinese first helps a lot (like i got the 300+ hours basic learning done before i even tried L-R method and they just need to get through their hours to hit milestones too), or if they do something different. But given that experience, i do think if L-R isn’t giving small noticeable progress at least every 5 hours or so (and reasonably noticeable progress like easier listening comprehension of previously studied chapters or learned some handfuls of new words in 10 hours) then it makes sense to switch it up or try something else. like for me - switching to a literal word for word text using pleco dictation-translate tool has been much more effective. i would guess in part because its word for word so i don’t have to put in mental effort to re-arrange sentence grammar to the words i’m hearing in the audio (but more effort to know chinese grammar so not as helpful as a beginner in some ways unless u understand the story beforehand with step 1 reading the text in a language u understand). and in part because it keeps my translation synced to the audio so i don’t lose my place, can replay portions, and don’t therefore waste time being as mentally drained or confused. and doing step 2 in pleco (or anything with a quick click dictionary) so i can see some definitions with step 2.

still kind of want to just binge the videos on “learn korean in korean” youtube channel. he just makes such good lessons even though i’m not really studying korean. 

also... mmm... korean clozemaster... mmm (i would probably learn nothing because translations do not tend to be literal for many asian languages on there so chinese and japanese only work for me cause i know enough words/grammar already to catch when things are not literal/outright wrong)

[elains]

BOOK REVIEW: HOUSE OF EARTH AND BLOOD, Crescent City Book I, by Sarah J. Maas.

First off, my sincerest thanks to @scraphim, who listened to my comments and rants with the patience of a saint and encourage me to put them down. Second, english is not my first language, so my apologies if there's anything confusing or awkward.

General Rating: ★★ 1/2

THERE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A CUT HERE OUT OF COURTESY BUT TUMBLR MOBILE IS BEING ITS IMPOSSIBLE SELF SO DO MIND THE RATING BEFORE CONTINUING.

Congratulations, Sarah J. Maas. You got me to sit down and write a review for a book, something I hadn't done (officially, anyway, might as well count the endless conversations with my friends) in a long while. Unfortunately, House of Earth and Blood was one more disappointment in an ever-growing list, and this review was born not out of pure, simple enjoyment, but of how much reading this bothered me.

Let me start by saying that I wanted to like this book. I did. I don't buy books which I don't think there's a chance I will not enjoy, I have way too much to do with my life and little money to spare on that. I hoped Sarah would go back to the early days of ToG, when the writing wasn't so choppy I kept questioning what is her problem with commas and when the characters weren't more and more of the same. Or perhaps that she would go back to ACoMaF, which at the time I loved reading.

Silly, silly me. The thing about having an eye-opener to something is that you can't go back. It's not so simple to close your eyes and pretend the bad doesn't exist, doing so feels irresponssible. I'm not sure her books have changed much, perhaps it was just me, the reader, whose perspective changed.

Let's go into the detail, then. Warning for spoilers of her previous books:

• THE LENGTH. It. Is. Ridiculosly. Long. I would say that length itself it's not necessarily a bad thing, something can be long but engaging. HoEaB's problem is that it drags on, to the point I had to put it down I don't know how many times out of frustration that nothing relevant happened. The infodumps do not help AT ALL, making the whole experience even more tiresome. I'll talk about worldbuilding separately, but jesus, so much unecessary information whose only purpose was to add to the wordcount and could have been woven into the story more organically. Readers are not dumb, they can make simple inferences, you don't need to explain every little detail.

The story only picks up and runs like the devil itself is chasing it in the last like, 20 chapters or so. Considering there are 97 of them... Yeah. It could have been a shorter, more direct and overall just more engaging.

• THE WORLDBUILD. I'll give Sarah J. Maas a point: it is more elaborate and refined compared to ToG and ACoTaR, whose worldbuilding are in general quite shallow and in the later's case, nearly nonexistent. However, the use of names blatantly lifted from real-world mythology and places bothered me to NO END. In a book which is built around those mythologies as their main source of inspiration, I can understand. Not here. Look, Maas can come up with original fantasy names, there are even some in HoEaB itself. But unless it's meant to be purposeful and Crescent City is to be Earth All Along, it's just jarring and feels lazy. It's not something new— refer back to the Illyrians and the Myrmidons.

Archean? Valbara? Pangera? Hel? REALLY? And those are just place names. Might as well name something Proterozoic. Or Laurasia.

The Roman inspiration, which was supposed to be a big thing from all her talk felt extremely loose and barely there. Oh sure, there are legions, a governor, the SPQR/M, and some names which to me, a portuguese speaker, where so cringy I had to laugh (Like Gelos and Cervo. You know, literally Ices and Stag or in that case Hind), but they did not feel Roman to me, naming aside. You could literally have named them anything else and it'd still have worked.

We studied Rome (mostly the government and the legal system) in our first semester of College and it might be the student in me, but I kept wanting to see more of the government structure, the politcal system itself. In a book that dealt with law enforcement and figures in places of power, this was a part of the worldbuilding that felt lacking, and a wasted opportunity to expand on the Roman inspiration.

What gets me is that some interesting concepts could have been explored better. I kinda like the idea of the Asteri, the rifts, the summoning salts.

• HUMANITY'S PORTRAYAL. Ahahaha. Where do I even begin with this one? In KoA, I hated that Aelin loosing her human side was seen as such a big sacrifice when the Fae were repeatedly shown to be "superior": stronger, more beautiful, immortal, the list goes on. Aelin herself preferred the Fae-side, so it felt a completely pointless sacrifice. In Crescent City, it gets even worse. Humanity is oppressed, trying to fight for their freedom and their inherent rights as sentient beings, and the books keeps going on and on about the Vanir.

Forgive me, but I'm supposed to be sympathize with the Vanir? To see the Vanir main-characters go on and change the world and make it better for everyone? I'm sorry but I'm not here for that. Bryce's mother and stepfather and Briggs aside, the HoEaB could have definetely used a human PoV or just. You know. ONE THAT DOESN'T FAVOR THE VANIR IN EVERYTHING. So yeah, I'm here cheering for the humans.

• THE CHARACTERS. I like Ruhn. He read like a concerned older brother, I could relate to that, not a possessive alphahole and I was baffled when Bryce kept insisting that. Oh, he has his flaws, but overall, I like him and his friends. They're nice. Danika, too. I would have liked to see more of Juniper and Fury, and them together, instead of using their relationship as kind of a surprise. Hypaxia is another Yrene/Sorscha. I also liked Lehabah, she was a sweetheart (Also I'm sorry am I supposed to think Bryce witholding the news on her freedom to throw a party WASN'T a WTF move? That Lele just knew because she looked at the documents???)

Now, to our main duo. I found Hunt boring. Simple as that. There was nothing in him that I found captivating, nothing new in terms of SJM's Love Interests. How he kept sexualizing Bryce in the most inappropriate of moments pissed me off. His and Bryce's relationship felt to me as Rowaelin 2.0, just as they themselves read as another versions of them, and not very different ones. He is not supposed to be an "alphahole" but... I didn't feel it. Hunt felt as just more of the same.

Now, Bryce Adelaide Quinlan.. Is it so much to ask for a main character who isn't gorgeous, super special, and super-powerful? I get the appeal of the trope, I'm no so hypocritical as to say that I've not indulged in it myself, but with Sarah, it feels overdone. When all characters are beautiful, special, so powerful it... kinda loses its meaning. However, that's not what bothered me about Bryce, no, it's the fact that she could be read as PoC (Golden, Tanned skin, two very ambiguous terms. My white cousin gets golden skin when she stays too long outdoors ffs), and as a PoC myself, reading her into those situations bothered me so, so much I cannot even begin to tell you.

Her curvy, sensual, bug boobs and butts are easily one of the more sought after where I live. People would go to great lengths for such a body and no, it will not hinder your dancing career. We have a word for it roughly translates to Hot, but having men call you that as something laid out on a table for their pleasure, objectifying you is horrible. And that's what most characters do in HoEaB: sexualize Bryce again and again, playing into harmful stereotypes.

My skin crawled reading those passages. I felt uncomfortable. And it wasn't even just the nameless, countless side-characters: it was Hunt himself. Every single move Bryce made was sexualized and I hated, hated it. "She's a Queen who owns her body and doesn't care for anyone else's thoughts" is all well and good, but women like me already have the stereotype of whores, sluts, homewreckers, and it was handled in such a tone-deaf way that it touched ALL of my wrong buttons. It was just uncomfortable, and cringy.

Two and a half stars, like those bad movies we still watch god knows why.

[recentanimenews]

FEATURE SERIES: My Favorite One Piece Arc with Maffew

  I love One Piece and I love talking to people who love One Piece. And with the series going on 23 years now, there is a whole lot to talk about. As the series is about to publish its 1000th chapter, a true feat in and of itself, we thought we should reflect upon the high-seas adventure and sit down with some notable names in the One Piece fan community and chat about the arcs they found to be especially important, or just ones they really, really liked.

  Welcome to the next article in the series "My Favorite One Piece Arc!"

  My next guest in this series is Maffew, creator of the popular pro wrestling web series Botchamania. For my chat with him, he chose the Alabasta Arc, in which Luffy and his crew not only have to save a desert kingdom but also topple Baroque Works and its powerful leader Crocodile.

  A note on spoilers: If you haven't seen the Alabasta arc yet, this interview does contain major plot points. Watch the Alabasta arc starting RIGHT HERE if you'd like to catch up or rewatch!

    Dan Dockery: So I guess my first basic question is, let’s say for some reason, I got to the end of Drum Island and I said “Well, One Piece ends here for me. This seems like a good finale.” What would you tell me to keep me going into the Alabasta Arc in one sentence?

  Maffew: Well, after Chopper has made all the kids cry, you’ll need pickin’ up.

  That’s pretty good! What was the impetus for you getting into One Piece? What made you want to jump into an anime that’s nearly one thousand episodes long at this point?

  I think I tried watching it on YouTube back in 2009, and I just couldn’t get into it. At that point in my life, I wasn’t ready for a character like Luffy and his adventures, and I couldn’t wait for the villains he fought to kill him. So I dropped it. A year later, I’m in Germany and this wrestler ACH was doing a Q&A panel for this German wrestling organization called WXW. And ACH is a REALLY big One Piece fan, and even dresses up as Luffy in New Japan and Ring of Honor. And I was like “Hey, you watching JoJo?” because that was my thing at the time, and he was like “No, no. Just One Piece.” I said, “What else are you watching?” “Just One Piece.” And I’m like “Wait, what? Just the one?” But he was sellin’ it to me like he was a One Piece ad on QVC. And guys like Steve Yurko are so passionate about it, and if one person tells ya to watch something, you’re like “Eh, whatever,” but if five people tell you, you start to pay attention. So I’m gonna blame ACH and my good friend Steve Yurko for this.

    What do you like about this arc in particular?

  You get so much wonderful worldbuilding. They go to Alabasta, meet up with Mr. 2, and it’s one of those cool interactions where they’re meeting, but they don’t know who they are meeting exactly, like when they meet Blackbeard in Jaya. So later on, they’re like “Oh, it’s THEM!” There’s a real sense of everything not being really pre-determined at this point. It’s building everything through a bunch of pirates just doing stuff. Ace shows up, knocks out some assassins so he can get his royalty checks.

  That’s such a funny way to put it.

  Then we get Kung-Fu Dugongs, and they’re a pretty pure expression of One Piece. They’re all synchronized, they’re adorable, they play their part amid all the serious stuff, and they’re completely ridiculous, but they work anyway. And it’s with Alabasta that Eiichiro Oda starts to perfect the tropes that he puts into place throughout, with the new islands, the new leader who everyone loves but is actually a bad person, the crew having to deal with him and the Navy, them having to help put someone back in their position, etc. And even though, on paper, it reads like “Well, he’s gotta beat this dude and this dude and this dude,” it’s so much more chaotic and less formulaic than you’d expect. It keeps things interesting. 

  I agree. I like how he takes all of these pieces and he’s consistent with them, but Oda always plays around with how he sets them up.

    But it’s all a foot massage before the real reason to watch Alabasta: Sir Croc. 

  Are you a big fan of him? That dude is so cool, conniving and powerful. He’s kinda the perfect villain. 

  Back when I was being miserable and first watching One Piece, I really liked him. I like the design, the sand powers that could actually pose a threat. I always appreciate it when a villain provides actual tension. It’s like why I think Goldeneye is still the best James Bond film. Because Alec Trevelyan is constantly reminding Bond “Remember, I could kill you. I’m from the same place as you. I can take your exploding watch and just, eh, I’ll stop that then. Thank you.” And Luffy loses twice to him in the three-match structure that really works here as it did for wrestling in the 70s.

  How so?

  So you’d have somebody like champion Bruno Sammartino and someone like Ivan Koloff or one of the Wild Samoans or Stan Stasiak. They’d have one match where the hero would beat Bruno by disqualification. Bruno’s still around to fight, but he’s lost. Luffy survives being thrown in the sand, but he’s been beaten. Then they have the second match, where Bruno would win because the villain would just give up and leave and get counted out. Luffy attacks Crocodile with water, but it’s not enough, and Crocodile just kinda leaves Luffy thinking it’s all done. And then Bruno would be like “Oh no ya don’t. Next time, you won’t be able to escape, because we’re gonna be in a cage match.” And then Bruno wins, just like Luffy wins by punching Crocodile up through that giant enclosed space. He escapes the cage.

      It’s just so satisfying and that’s a great way to describe it. So, villains in the series have had extensive crew members before, but they haven’t been as recognizable and colorful as Croc’s crew, Baroque Works. Do you have a favorite member?

  They’re all good in their own way, but at this point, I’m gonna go with Mr. 2. Eh, that’s probably too obvious an answer…

  Mr. 2 is a lot of people’s favorite member. 

  Oh, who cares. I’ll go with Mr. 2. I like how Mr. 2 interacts with everyone, having fun with the boys and fighting Sanji with kicks but respecting him. 

  So, in this arc, there’s a lot of government intrigue and a revolution is about to happen, and everyone’s dissatisfied with their perception of the monarchy. How did you react to all of this political drama in One Piece? 

  Well, it’s great because you have Vivi, and you get to learn her motivations and because she’s on the crew, it gives you a reason to care for the crew and how all of the political intrigue affects them. Without her, you’d just hear about a war and say “Oh, sorry about that. Hope it goes well.” And with all this lore being thrown at you because you have Vivi and that connection, it’s adding to the main conflict, rather than distracting.

  Yeah, Vivi really grounds it all with a personal attachment. Because otherwise it’s just savin’ the kingdom, which is cool and they’re good for it, but it doesn’t have the same impact. So, they did this back in the Arlong Park arc, but what returns here is the kind of 1 vs 1 match structure, where a member or members of the enemy crew are matched up against a Straw Hat or Hats. Mr. 1 has knife body parts, so he’s obviously gonna fight Zoro. Mr. 2 kicks and Sanji kicks, etc. What do you think about that kind of matchmaking, because it’s also a little wrestling-esque.

    Yeah, right, like if you have D-Generation X fighting the Nation of Domination, you can’t just have The Rock fighting Triple H. Ya gotta have D’Lo Brown vs X-Pac and The Godfather vs Billy Gunn. I like it because the characters feel like they have to prove themselves, like Zoro’s a swordsman, and he’s gotta test himself against another swordsman. And Usopp does it when he fights Mr. 4 and Miss Merry Christmas with Chopper, because they have a weird dynamic and they’re fighting two people and they have no clue what they’re up against. 

  So, at the end of the arc, they do the iconic “We can’t let Vivi become associated with pirates so we’ll hold up the X symbols on our arms in solidarity” pose. What did you think about that? Because it’s one of the most famous images in One Piece, and it’s hard to avoid it, even if you’ve never watched the series. Was that your first time seeing it?

  It actually was. And I’m glad you brought this up because I was watching it and I thought “Wait, they’re just going? They’re not even keeping the duck?” And then they do that with the X and the original opening starts playing and I get goosebumps just remembering it. That really hit me. Because it finally got me really emotionally invested in the series. Made me feel a bit cheeky. 

      ONE PIECE LIGHTNING ROUND!

  So, considering you’re such a huge pro wrestling fan, your lightning round is gonna be a bit different. I’m gonna say a Straw Hat that’s in the crew at this point and you tell me which wrestler they’re the most like. You can also tell me what time period they’d fit the most in, since wrestler personalities tend to change. So, Luffy?

  Gotta be Cena. Specifically? With Luffy’s attitude? Probably 2015 defending-the-United States-Championship John Cena.

  Zoro?

  He’s all business, he likes to fight. So I gotta go with Cesaro.

  Sanji?

  Going with Eddie Guerrero.

  Usopp?

  That character is all over wrestling - the underdog who isn’t very good and uses every trick in the book to win. Gonna go with MJF. He had one of my favorite matches of this year against Cody Rhodes and he just had to use EVERYTHING to beat him - brass knuckles, distraction, chairs, everything he could to get that win. But he could be MJF, could be The Miz, could be Mikey Whipwreck from ECW, take your pick.

  Nami?

  Hmmm. Becky Lynch. 

  Chopper?

  KeMonito 

  Robin?

  Oh, she shows up after being booed for ages and you’re supposed to like her, so 2019 Charlotte Flair.

      Stay tuned for the next installment of "My Favorite One Piece Arc" as we speak with One Piece's official English manga translator Stephen Paul on his favorite One Piece arc: Skypiea!!

      Daniel Dockery is a Senior Staff Writer for Crunchyroll. Follow him on Twitter!

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: Daniel Dockery

[inkjam-moon]

Colors  Chapter One - Red

Summary: You’ve jumped through time all your life, but this jump seems to have put you in an entirely different reality as a nurse in the midst of World War II.

Pairing: Jeongguk x Reader

Genre: Fluff, angst, smut

Word Count: 13.2k

TW: Talk of war and violence associated with such and event, talk of racism, fist fight, medical/hospital talk, blood mentions, wound mentions, virgin sex

A/N: Click here to see what I based the dancing scene off of.

You always thought it was a glitch, a dream; anything that wasn’t reality. But then it happened again, and it kept happening, more and more, for longer periods of time, only changing for the drastic. You can’t control it. You don’t even really know what ‘it’ is. All you know is that when the haze arrives, there’s nothing you can do to stop it.

The first time it happened you were seven years old. You were in the car with your mom, driving to the mall. When the light at the intersection turns green, your mom pulls out, and is t-boned by an oncoming truck. As soon as the truck hits your car, suddenly, you’re surrounded by some sort of fog, and then, as if by magic, you’re sitting at the red light again; same cars around you, same song on the radio, everything is exactly the same. Did you imagine the crash? You look up to see the light turn green, but as your mom lifts her foot off the break you scream.

“Wait!”

Your mom slams her foot back down on the break just as the truck runs the red light and plows through the intersection in front of you, mere inches from the front of your car.

You mom looks at you in amazement. “H-how did you know the truck was coming?” She asks as she pulls forward and crosses the intersection, pulling into the lot in front of the mall and parking.

“I saw it.” You state. “I think it was a dream.”

Your mom simply shakes her head at you as you both get out of the car.

You never really understood what’s wrong with you; why you spastically jump through time, but you do, and you have absolutely no control over it. You manage to maintain your memories through every jump, and nothing you do seems to have any impact on the future.

But this time is different. You’re twenty two now, and your latest jump has put you so far out of your comfort zone, you swear it’s a dream.

The first thing you hear is soft swing music playing on the radio. That’s odd. You didn’t think you turned the radio on before you went to bed, although your radio is pretty old and sometimes comes on by itself, but swing music?

You open your eyes and the first thing you see is red; the paint on the walls that surround you. This isn’t your room? You sit up and look around, realizing that you have no idea where you are. Your bed is the only one in the room, so it must be yours, right? You stand, letting the silken floor length nightgown that adorns you fall around your legs. You look around for a purse, a bag, anything that might help you place where you are, but you can’t find anything.

You grab the robe that hangs on the back of one of the doors in the room and slip it on before opening the door. Nope. Bathroom. You try the other door and it leads you out into a long hallway with three other doors and a staircase. Staircase seems like a good place to start.

You tiptoe down the stairs as quietly as you can and sneak across the hallway at the bottom into the kitchen. The radio is on down there too and a few girls sit around a table sipping coffee and eating breakfast as they chat and listen.

“Today President Franklin D. Roosevelt met with joint congress and officially declared war on the country of Japan after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in the state of Hawaii yesterday. Today the true extent of the carnage is still unknown to officials who say it could take some time until they discover exactly how much damage was done.”

Pearl Harbor was yesterday? What the fuck. Does that mean it’s… it’s 1941?? What the-

“Is Y/N still asleep? It’s not like her to sleep in this late.” One of the girls, a blonde with perfectly pincurled hair and bright blue eyes mumbles.

“I don’t blame ‘er.” Another girl, the redhead with a thick country accent says. “She was up all night tendin’ to those poor soldiers.”

Soldiers?

“I’m glad she did. Better her than me. I don’t want to heal those assholes.”

“They’re still people.” A third girl chimes in. She has straight, stark black hair, almond eyes and tan skin.

“Yeah, people that bombed us.” The first girl states before turning to see you’ve arrived in the kitchen. “Y/N! Finally. We’ve been waiting for you.”

“G-good morning.”

“Are you alright honey?” The second girl asks.

“You don’t look the best.” The first girl adds.

“Clara!” The third girl scolds.

“Well, it’s true!” Clara, the blonde, defends.

“I’m not really feeling like myself this morning.” You explain.

“Don’t listen to her Y/N.” The third girl rolls her eyes. “She’s still shaken up from yesterday.”

“Aren’t you the one that just got her hometown blown up Kono?” The second girl asks.

“Shut up Bits.” The black haired girl, Kono snaps. “Anyway, Y/N, you should go get dressed, we have to leave soon.”

“Leave?”

“For work?” Bits, the redhead reminds you, as if you should know what they’re talking about, but technically, maybe you should.

“Your uniforms out on the line.” Kono says sweetly. “I’ll get your coffee.”

“Right. Okay.” You nod before heading out the door in the kitchen that leads to the backyard where Kono pointed.

You look at the clothes line to see a nurses uniform is the only garment left hanging. Shit. You’re a nurse? God, you hope you know what you’re doing. You grab your uniform off the line and head back inside. Just as you leave the kitchen you hear Bits whisper to the others.

“What’s her problem?”

“You have to remember, Y/N’s parents are from Korea.” Kono responds. “And Japan basically took over the country. It’s probably scaring her that they’re seen as enemies; she might be-”

You head up the stairs, not wanting to listen to the rest of that conversation. You go back to your room and get dressed, looking yourself over in the mirror as you pin your cap into place. You don’t really look like yourself, while there was make up in the bathroom, it’s all old fashioned and you have no idea how to use it. You’ll just have to go barefaced until you get the hang of things. Maybe you can ask Kono? She seems nice. When you deem yourself presentable, you head back down the stairs and start your day in this new life.

You all take a cab to the hospital, although, you’re not sure you can really call it a hospital, it’s more of a tent really. When you arrive, you follow Kono into the tent and are immediately overwhelmed by the view you’re greeted with. Men, dressed in military uniforms, are laying in cots. They all have various stages of injuries, some missing limbs, some wrapped head to toe in bandages, some even look as though they’re barely clinging to their lives.

Everyone around you is rushing to get their work done, tending to each and every soldier, although, you notice the soldiers in tan uniforms aren’t getting as much care as the ones in green.

“Y/N,” Kono turns to you. “Can you get some of the Japanese soldiers they just brought in over there?” She points to the far back of the tent. “You’re the only one that doesn’t seem to mind helping them.”

“O-of course!” You grab the stethoscope she hands you and head over to where the majority of men are wearing tan uniforms, the ones the other nurses seem to be avoiding.

You walk up to the first one you see. He looks panicked, but otherwise, relatively okay, no obvious wounds except for a small laceration on his temple. Using the bit of Japanese you know, you try to calm him down; he’s obviously terrified of being treated by the enemy, but you explain that you’re just trying to help him. Once he calms down a bit, you take his vitals, they seem normal, though you have no idea how you know that.

You write them down on his chart and then move onto the next man who seems to be in a lot of pain. You check him over to see he has a large wound on his abdomen. You clean it and then pack it tightly with gauze before calling over a doctor who takes the man away into a seperate tent for what you assume is going to be surgery. The next few men all seem relatively okay, and you explain to them the best you can that they’re alright, take their vitals to make sure, and then move on.

The day moves quickly; you work right through lunch and before you know it, it’s time for dinner. Clara is the one who comes over and pulls you away from your patient, leading you out of the tent and into another one across the way where the food is served. You grab some soup and bread before going over to sit with Clara and Bits. The three of you chat while you eat, you find out ‘Bits’ is short for Bitsy; and honestly you’ve never met someone who fits their name more. You’re just about to ask where Kono is when she comes bursting into the tent, looking around frantically until she spots you.

“Y/N!” She exclaims. “Come quickly, I need your help!” She tugs you up out of your  chair. You drop your spoon and follow behind her as she tugs you back into the hospital tent.

“What’s going on?”

“A soldier just came in from the harbor, he’s been trapped under rubble this whole time and he’s in shock. He’s got a bad laceration on his left leg. I’m pretty sure he’s Korean, I need your help translating.”

She leads you through the back of the tent and into where the doctor took your patient earlier. Your ears are immediately assaulted by the screams of a man as Kono hands you a gown, mask, and gloves which you put on before walking through a doorway and into a makeshift operating room. The sight before you is heart wrenching; there’s a man on the operating table, screaming in pain. The nurse is trying her best to hold him down while she screams at him in english to stay still.

You can hear him swearing and sure enough, it’s a language familiar to your ears. You rush to his side, pushing the other nurse out of the way before grabbing his flailing hands.

“Sir, sir I need you to calm down please.” You coo in your sweetest voice. He stills when he realizes he understands the words coming out of your mouth.

“Y-you speak Korean?” He stutters.

You smile at him. “I was born in Gongju.”

“Busan.” You watch relief spread across his face before pain overtakes it again. You move to soothe him and then try to distract him.

“What’s your name?”

“J-Jeongguk. Jeon Jeongg- Ah!” He cringes as the doctor prods at his leg, his eyes closed in agony.

“Okay, My name is Y/N, I’m going to be your nurse. Mr. Jeon, Do you have any allergies?”

“N-no.” He grits.

“How old are you?”

“Twenty o-one, and please, c-call me Jeongguk.”

God he’s so young. Only a year younger than you. “Alright, I’m going to figure out what’s going on and then I’ll let you know, okay?” He nods and you turn to the doctor. “What’s going on Dr. Evans?”

“He’s got a twelve centimeter gash on his calf. It’s pretty deep.”

“What did you find out?” Kono asks you.

“His name is Jeongguk, he’s twenty one years old, he doesn’t have any allergies. What’s the plan?”

“It’s pretty bad.” Dr. Evans states. “We might have to amputate.”

“Amputate?” You gasp. “Really?”

“I don’t see any other options. We’re going to sedate him now. Can you tell him?”

“S-sure…” You turn back to Jeongguk who thankfully is too focused on the pain to notice the worry on your face. “Jeongguk, listen to me. We might have to amputate your leg-”

“What?” He sits up straight. “No! No, I need my legs! I can’t-” he grimaces in pain before continuing. “No! You can’t take my leg, don’t let them take my leg Y/N, please! I need it for work, to support my parents!”

“I-I’m going to sedate you now, okay?” You grab the syringe of phenobarbital and prep it, making sure there’s no air in it before pressing it into his arm, injecting his vein with the drug. It’ll only be a few seconds before he falls asleep.

“Y/N don’t let them… My leg… Please…” Those are the last words he says before he drifts off into induced sleep.

You feel terrible. Absolutely awful. You can’t let them take his leg. You can’t. You have to do something. “Dr. Evans. Do we have to amputate? This man needs his leg.”

“There isn’t enough tissue left here to close the wound. Without the tissue, it won’t heal properly.”

“Can’t we take the tissue from somewhere else?”

“Somewhere… else?” He looks at you confused.

“Yeah, can’t we get the extra tissue from his arm or his other leg? Or even his… his behind?” You think you saw that on Grey’s Anatomy once.

“Oh my god.” Dr. Evans looks at you, stunned. “That… That might actually work. Alright, Kono, Emily, you both stay to assist, everyone else, you’re free to leave.” He shoos everyone else out and Kono thanks you as you walk out back into the main part of the hospital. You discard your gown, mask, and gloves before heading to the bathroom outside.

As soon as you close the door behind you, you rush to the sink and splash water on your face, before heading into one of the stalls and locking the door. You sit on the toilet, trying to calm yourself down the best you can. That poor soldier, if you weren’t here, he would’ve lost his leg for sure. You can’t even imagine… You just hope Dr. Evans can save it.

It’s about an hour later before someone else comes to use the bathroom When you hear the door open, you try to make yourself presentable again before opening the stall door to see to see Bitsy standing there, touching up her makeup in the mirror.

“Y/N! Where have you been? We been lookin’ everywhere for you!”

“Oh, I-I’ve been… In here.” You confess.

“Aw honey, have you been cryin’?” She drawls, taking in the sight of your puffy red eyes.

“W-what? No, of course not, I-”

“Oh darlin’, what’s got you in such a fuss?”

You sniffle as you wash your hands. “It’s nothing Bits, don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.”

Bitsy eyes you curiously, her lips pursed. “Are you ready to go home then?”

“What?”

“It’s quittin’ time.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“I’m- one of my patients is in surgery.” You explain, gripping the sides of the sink.

She laughs at this. “So what? The next shift will take over for ya.”

“He’s Korean. They’ll need me to translate when he wakes up.”

“Oh, Is it that poor boy Kono’s workin’ on?” She asks. You nod. “Oh bless your heart sweetie, he won’t be out for another few hours at least. Dr. Evans is frankensteining him up.” Bitsy pauses to think for a minute. “Alright, if you won’t come home, how ‘bout I take you to the oncall room they set up? That way you can at least get some rest. Sound good?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“Okay, let’s go girly.” Bitsy leads you out of the bathroom, past the cafeteria to a small building that looks like one of the portable classrooms your high school had. She leads you into the brick building and you’re surprised to find it’s empty except for the cots that line the walls. She takes you to the one in the far back corner. “This one is the least noisy.” She states, gesturing for you to sit.

You take a seat on the cot and she looks at you for a minute before nodding. “I’ll make sure someone comes to getcha when he’s outta surgery, alright?”

“Yeah, thanks Bits.”

“Of course darlin’, now get some rest.” She turns on her heels and heads back out of the building, giving you one last sympathetic smile before shutting the door behind her.

You sit on the bed for a moment, wondering why this boy is affecting you so much. You sigh as you make yourself comfortable on the bed, pulling the sheet up over you as you try your best to relax. Thankfully, it doesn’t take you long to fall asleep, you didn’t realize how tired you were.

It’s dark out when you feel someone shaking you awake. “Y/N, Y/N wake up.” It’s Kono.

“Kono? What’s going on?”

“It’s John-kook.”

You snort, your tiredness making her mispronunciation funnier than it should be. “His name is Jeongguk.”

“Sorry. He’s out of surgery.”

“Really?” You sit up at this, grabbing your cap off the floor and pinning it back to your hair. “Is he okay?”

“He’s great. Everything went really well.” She explains as you stand up and follow her out of the building. “We managed to keep his leg using some skin from his other thigh, but he’s going to be sore when he wakes up. We need you to explain what we did and how he should take care of it.”

“Of course.” You nod and she explains exactly what he should do as she leads you into the second post surgery room. Jeongguk is the only one in there right now, tucked in a cot in the far back corner as he sleeps. She leads you over to him and then pulls up a chair for you.

“He should wake up soon.” Kono states. “Take his vitals every hour and record them on his chart. If he’s in pain, you can give him some morphine, but only one at a time, okay?”

“Got it.��

“Okay, I’ll leave you to it.” Kono nods before heading back out into the main triage room, leaving you alone with Jeongguk.

He looks so peaceful right now, so much more comfortable than he was when you first saw him. You grab your stethoscope from around your neck and check his pulse before taking his blood pressure. Everything seems good. As you place your scope back around your neck, Jeongguk begins to stir, his face grimacing in pain as his nerves wake up.

“Jeongguk?” You whisper as he comes too. He grunts. “Jeongguk are you in pain?” He nods, so you grab some morphine and inject him with it, watching his face relax almost instantly. “Is that better?”

He nods again as his eyes finally open and he looks around until his eyes land on you. “Noona?” He mumbles. You giggle at the term, letting it slide because he’s still drowsy, until you see his eyes go wide in panic and he tries to sit up.

“Woah, hey, what’s wrong?” You ask.

“My leg! Is it gone? I can’t feel it!”

“Jeongguk, calm down, it’s alright.” You try to soothe him. “You still have both legs.”

“Really?” He sits up on his elbows and looks down. You lift the sheet to show him that both of his legs are indeed there.

“See? Now, I just have to check your nerves, if that’s okay?” He nods, so you walk down to the end of the bed, take the pen from his chart and run it up the bottom of both of his feet. As they should, both feet twitch from the ticklish sensation. “Okay great. Can you wiggle your toes for me?” Jeongguk’s brow furrows in concentration, but it only take a few seconds before all of his toes start moving. “Perfect, that’s good Jeongguk, really good.”

Jeongguk falls back against the bed in relief and you realize that his face is filthy. You go over to the wash station and grab a bowl, filling it with warm soapy water and taking a washcloth back over to Jeongguk. “Do you mind if I wash your face?”

“No, please, go ahead.” He states. “I hate having all this stuff on my face.” You dip the cloth in the water as he continues. “So, what… what did they do?”

You begin dabbing at his dirty face, trying your best to clean him as you explain. “They took some skin from the back of your right thigh and used it to close the wound on your left leg. Everything went very smoothly and your wounds will heal nicely, we just have to make sure they’re cleaned and bandaged correctly, and I’ll explain how to do that when I have to change your dressing.”

“How long will I be here?”

“A week or so, maybe two, depending on how fast you heal.”

“And are you… will you be my nurse the whole time?” He asks hopefully.

You giggle lightly. “I can be, if you want me to.”

“Good.” He huffs. “That other nurse was mean. All she did was yell, as if that would help me understand english.’

“She was just trying to do her job.”

“Yeah I guess so.”

Jeongguk goes quiet while you continue cleaning him. As you scrub the mud and dirt and war paint off his face, revealing his tanned skin underneath, you realize for the first time how pretty he is. His eyes are a deep chocolate brown, wide and doe-eyed with curiosity; his nose is a little big, but it fits the proportions of his face; his bottom lip is fuller than the top, but they both look plush; as he breathes out, you can see his two front teeth, making him seem almost rabbit-like; and his jawline is chiseled, perfectly sculpted as you run the cloth down his neck. He’s truly beautiful, and you wonder how this poor boy from Busan got mixed up in the war and ended up fighting for the Japanese.

When you’ve scrubbed his face clean, you walk back over to the wash station, dump out the water, rinse the bowl, and ring out the towel before tossing it in the trash. When you’re finished, you dry your hands and then take one last look at him before starting to walk back towards main triage, but you don’t get very far before he stops you.

“W-wait, where are you going?”

“I should go see if they need me for anything else.”

“Can’t you-” Jeongguk bites his lip as you watch him struggle for the right words. “C-can’t you stay with me? What if someone else comes and tries to ask me questions? What if I start to hurt again? What if-”

“Okay, okay.” You laugh lightly as you walk back over to him. “I can stay for a bit longer I suppose.” You take a seat back in your chair and this seems good enough for Jeongguk as he relaxes back against the pillows. It’s silent for a few minutes before Jeongguk gets the courage to ask you a question.

“So… Gongju, huh? How’d you end up here?”

“Me?” Honestly you don’t remember. You must have immigrated at some point, but god only knows when. You settle for a vague excuse. “It’s… It’s kind of a long story.”

“I’ve got time.” He smiles at you, and you can’t deny that his smile makes the butterflies in your stomach do backflips, but how can you explain your situation to him? Jeongguk seems to sense your perplexed state and speaks. “You don’t have to tell me, it’s okay.”

“I immigrated with my parents when I was little.” You state. That seems like it could be true. “They wanted to raise me where the ‘American Dream’ was possible.”

“That doesn’t seem very long.” He smirks.

“I left out the details for another time.” You inform him. “For now, you should try and get some rest.” You order, standing up and pulling out your stethoscope to take his vitals again. He sits still as you listen to his breathing and take his blood pressure and you can feel him watching you as you scribble the information down on his chart. “How’s your pain right now?”

“Um… Maybe a five?”

“Okay, that’s about right.” You nod, marking one last note before putting his chart down and walking up to his side. “Now get some rest. I don’t want to come back and find that you’ve been causing trouble.”

“Me?” He feigns a gasp. “Never.” He gives you one last smile before settling back against the cot and closing his eyes.

You spend the next several days tending to Jeongguk, and for lack of an excuse to leave, you ignore your other duties. You stay by his side, keeping him company. You really only leave to go home and shower, you even bring your meals to his bedside, enjoying the rather bland food with him, and sneaking him something sweet whenever you can.

His progress steadily gets better; it’s only a few days before the pain in his right thigh is gone completely. It’s on day four that he decides he wants to try walking again and as you wrap your arm around his waist to support him, your heart rate picks up at the close proximity, it’s the first time he’s actually touched you, aside from the fleeting brushes of his fingers against your hand as you pass him things or check his vitals.

He’s determined to say the least; you actually have to stop him from pushing himself too far the first time when his knees nearly give out under him and you catch him around his waist, supporting his weight until he finds his footing again.

When you bring him back to his bed, he nearly collapses against the cot, his chest heaving with the effort of walking after being bedridden for three days. The pain he must be feeling, you can’t even imagine, but he puts on a brave face and swings his legs back up onto the bed, relaxing against the stack of pillows you’ve piled up for him.

It’s a week later, when the two of you are eating the dinners Kono brought you, that your curiosity gets the best of you and you finally ask him about himself.

“So, you’re from Busan, right?” You ask when you hear a hint of Satoori slip through his words.

He nods. “Yep, born and raised.”

“I’ve always wanted to go to the beaches there. I heard they’re beautiful.”

“They are. You should go sometime. You’d love it.” He says in between mouthfuls of soup.

“Ha, I don’t think I can swing that right now with everything that’s going on.”

Jeongguk looks a bit confused before realization dawns on his face. “There’s a war. Right.”

“Speaking of, I was wondering… How did you get mixed up in all of this?”

He sighs deeply before sitting his bowl of soup in his lap. “The same way everyone else from Korea did. We were drafted, every man over the age of sixteen. We were ripped away from our lives and forced to fight with threats of them killing our families and burning down our hometowns if we didn’t. I got drafted with my brother, but we were separated when missions were assigned. I got sent here and he’s fighting in Germany I think, if he’s still even alive… I’m fighting for a side I don’t believe in because I have to.”

The room becomes silent as your heart breaks for Jeongguk. This poor boy was wrenched from his family and forced to fight for the wrong side.

“Jeongguk, I’m so sorry…” You whisper.

“At least one good thing came out of it.” He mumbles.

“And what’s that?”

“I got to meet you.” He states, his cheeks flushing pink as he meets your gaze.

“O-oh…” Your face flushes the same shade as his as you fumble for words. “I-I, wow I… Um… That’s- You’re too sweet.” You finally mutter, averting your gaze, but he leans over and cups your cheek with his hand, turning you back to face him. He runs his thumb across your cheek lightly, barely ghosting across your skin.

“Y/N, I hope it’s okay for me to say this, and it isn’t too forward, but I think- I think I like you. And after I get better, I was wondering if I could maybe take you out?”

“R-really?” He smiles at your stuttered reply before nodding. “I… Yes.” You whisper in return. As if to solidify your answer, Jeongguk swings his legs over the side of the bed and leans down before pressing his lips to yours in a sweet, but short kiss. When his lips leave, you can’t help but chase after them for more, making Jeongguk giggle when you open your eyes to find he’s sitting upright again.

“I have to say, I’ve never felt like this about anyone before, but there’s something about you noona, from the first moment I saw you.” He offers you a beautiful smile that makes his eyes scrunch up, embarrassed at his own words and you can’t help but smile back.

It’s a week later when Jeongguk’s dressings are officially removed and he’s discharged from the hospital, but having nowhere to go, you offer to let him stay with you until he can make his way back home, with the permission of the girls of course. The two of you have been inseparable since your first kiss, and there have been many more sweet exchanges since then, you even taught him a little bit of english. Jeongguk even went so far as to call you his girlfriend during his lesson yesterday, and the word sent sparks up your nerve endings.

When the taxi pulls up to the home you share with the other girls, it’s pretty early in the morning, they should just be waking up for work. You help Jeongguk out of the car, handing him his cane as he grabs his bag that includes his dirtied and nearly shredded uniform. He’s currently wearing some scrubs you found at the hospital, they’re a bit snug, but they’ll work until you can find him some decent clothes to wear.

Jeongguk follows you up the front walk and you open the door before leading him in. You walk down the hallway, trying your best to be quiet, only to hear the word ‘surprise!’ being shouted at you as you enter the kitchen. You stumble back against Jeongguk in shock before a warm smile spreads across your face. Kono, Clara, and Bitsy stand in the kitchen, holding a cake with Jeongguk’s name written on it in Hangul.

“What’s all this?” You ask.

“We knew Jeongguk was finally coming home with you today, so we made him a cake!” Clara explains.

“We wanted to surprise you both!” Bitsy exclaims, bouncing up and down as she claps her hands together.

You turn to Jeongguk and explain the situation and a beautifully wide bunny smile spreads across his face as he drops his bag and grabs his chest where his heart lies. “Thank you.” He states in perfect english.

“Oh, you’re welcome honey.” Bitsy states.

“Now, we’ve got to head off to work, but we’ll see you whenever we get back.” Kono reminds you.

“Don’t worry,” You giggle. “I won’t wait up.”

“Oh, one more thing.” Kono turns back to you as the others head out the door. “I had my brother bring by some of his old clothes for Jeongguk since he doesn’t have any. I put them in your room.”

“Oh god, thanks Kono.”

“Of course.” She looks up at Jeongguk and then back at you before tossing you a wink. “Have fun kids.”

You roll your eyes as she saunters out the front door before turning to Jeongguk who’s already exploring the kitchen, you can tell by the icing on his finger that he’s about to pop into his mouth.

“Um, excuse me?” You laugh, halting him in his tracks. He stares at you with his innocent doe eyes as you walk over.

“I was fixing it.” He states, pointing down to where his name is spelled out in icing. You realize quickly that it’s spelled incorrectly; it says ‘jeongnun’.

“They tried their best.”

“I know, but eating it will make it better.”

You stare up at him incredulously. “Cake for breakfast?”

He simply shrugs. “Why not?”

Well, you can’t argue with that. You grab two plates and two forks and a knife, cutting you both a piece of cake before heading over to sit at the kitchen table to eat. Jeongguk joins you, but instead of sitting on a chair like a normal person, he sits directly on your available lap.

“Jeongguk!” You squeal with laughter, beating on his back to get him to stand up.

“What?” He feigns innocence as he looks down at you over his shoulder.

“Get off, your giant butt is crushing me!” You tease.

He giggles as he gets off, a forkful of cake already in his mouth as he takes a seat in the chair next to you instead. “So what did Kono tell you? I heard her say my name.”

“Oh, she had her older brother bring by some clothes for you.”

“Really?” His eyes light up when you nod. “Thank god, these doctor pajamas aren’t as comfortable as they look.���

You snort at the phrase ‘doctor pajamas’ before going back to your cake. Jeongguk finishes first, and with how fast he does, you would think the hospital starved him. “Did you even chew? Or did you just inhale?” You chide.

“What? It was good.” He states, smacking his lips for effect before giving you a goofy smile. “So, what do you want to do today?” He asks as he sits up, basically bouncing in his seat from excitement.

“Well, I figured you might want to take a shower first?”

“Are you saying I stink?” He pouts playfully.

“Sponge baths aren’t exactly the most refreshing.” You point out.

He wiggles his eyebrows mischievously. “Are you going to shower with me?”

“Jeongguk!” You squeal, flicking some icing off your fork and onto his face, making him flinch back in surprise. “What kind of girl do you take me for?” You tease, clutching your imaginary pearls.

“A beautiful and smart one.” He whispers, putting his elbow on the table and resting his head in his hand as he gazes at you.

You scoff. “Cheeseball.”

He giggles at this before continuing. “Okay so what do you want to do when I smell like a normal human again?”

“I figured we could just relax? Maybe watch- er, listen to the radio.” You keep forgetting that you don’t have a tv and they won’t really even be popular until 1946.

“But I want to do something.” Jeongguk whines.

“Jeonggukie, you need to rest. Doctors orders.”

“I’m tired of resting.” He pouts, crossing his arms.

“Jeongguk…” You sigh as you grab his plate and yours before standing and walking over to rinse them in the sink. He follows behind you, wrapping his arms around your waist and resting his head on your shoulder. “Do you want your leg to get better?”

“It is better.” He protests.

“Really?” You ask sarcastically. “Can you put all of your weight on it?”

“Yes.” He states.

“Okay.” You nod as you dry your hands. You swipe his cane out of his grip and then walk across the kitchen to the stairs. “Walk to me.”

“Is this necessary?” He whines.

“Walk. To. Me.” You repeat more sternly. “If you can put weight on your foot without any pain, we can go out tonight.”

“Fine.”

Ever the stubborn one, Jeongguk takes a deep breath before stepping forward with his injured foot. A grimace immediately appears on his face, but he muscles through it, putting all his weight on his bad leg as he takes his next step. He continues in this fashion the whole way across the kitchen until he reaches you and nearly collapses against you, whimpering in pain.

“There. Can we go out?”

“Absolutely not.” You scold, exasperated. “Goddamnit, did you really have to do that? You could’ve just injured yourself further for all I know.”

“Can I have my cane back now?” He mumbles, defeated. You hand him the metal stick and wrap an arm around his waist to help hold him up.

“Come on, we just need to get you upstairs and then you can rest.”

He nods, bracing himself as he straightens up before heading up the stairs with you, taking it slow, one at a time to make sure he doesn’t hurt himself again. When you get to the top, you lead him across the hall to your room, opening the door to lead him in. You see a bag of clothing on your bed and lead Jeongguk over to it so he can dig through its contents.

“Pick something to wear while I get the shower started for you.”

“Okay.”

WIth his affirmation, you head off to your bathroom and start the shower. “What temperature do you like?” You call to him.

“Hot.” He calls back. This boy’s going to use up all your hot water, you just know it. You turn the temperature up until steam starts billowing out the top and then you head back out to your room to see Jeongguk seems to have made a selection; a pair of pressed khaki slacks and a soft blue sweater.

“Find something?” He nods, holding the items up to you. “Looks good.” You smile before waving him over, watching him limp towards you and follow you into the bathroom. When he enters he looks around in astonishment.

“You have your own bathroom?”

“Well, not anymore.” You tease, raising an eyebrow at him. “Come here.” You grab the front of his scrubs and pull him closer to you before lifting the shirt off over his head. You toss the shirt to the floor and without even paying attention, you start undoing the drawstring that’s holding his pants up until he grabs your wrists.

“Woah, woah, Y/N. What’re you doing?”

“Helping you get undressed?” You look up at him, confused by his question.

“I can d-do that myself.” He stutters, swallowing hard.

It’s then that you realize your mistake. “Oh gosh, I’m sorry.” You start to giggle as you cover your mouth with your hand. “I went right into nurse mode.” You confess.

“It’s okay.” He smiles, placing his change of clothes on the counter.

As he leans over, you get the chance to admire his shirtlessness for the first time, and you can’t help yourself as you reach out to touch his abdomen, fascinated by how well-toned and muscular he is. You move closer as your hands glide over his chest, taking in every inch with awe.

“Enjoying the view?” He chuckles, snapping you out of your trance.

“S-sorry.” You mumble. “You’re just… you’re really pretty.” You admit, blush filling your cheeks.

“Ah, thanks.” He smiles, rubbing the back of his neck. “Can I shower now?”

“Right! Go ahead!” You scramble to exit the bathroom. “You remember how to wash your leg?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Okay, I’ll be right out here so yell if you need anything.” And with that you shut the door.

You busy yourself sorting through the clothes Kono left, folding them and putting them in a drawer you emptied yesterday so Jeongguk could use it. When you hear the shower turn off, you’re laying on your bed, reading a book you found lying around the house. It takes a few more minutes, but soon enough, the bathroom door opens and Jeongguk limps out, slacks hung low around his waist, sweater in his hand as he ruffles his hair with a towel.

The droplets of water you see dripping down Jeongguk’s torso make you drool inwardly, licking your lips at just how delicious he looks. He tosses the towel back into the bathroom before he makes his way over to your bed. He lays his cane against your nightstand before taking a seat on the mattress next to you, slipping on the cerulean sweater and then laying himself back against the pillows that sit at the headboard.

“I like your room.” He states, holding his arm out for you to snuggle up to him. You accept his request, reaching over him first to turn on the radio before sitting back and curling up at his side, your arm draped over his waist.

“Thank you.” In the time you’ve been here, you’ve grown accustomed to the dark red walls, not that you’ve seen them much over the last week, having spent the nights after your first kiss asleep in a chair next to Jeongguk’s hospital bed.

The two of you lay in content silence for a bit until a familiar song comes on the radio, one that even Jeongguk recognizes.

“He was a famous trumpet man from out Chicago way…”

“I know this song.” He whispers.

“You do?” You tilt your head to look at him.

He nods. “Sometimes at base our radio signals would interfere with American radio stations and it was almost always this song that came on. It was always a nice break. The tuners wouldn’t change the channel until the song ended because it always put us in a good mood.” A wide smile stretches across his face. “I would always get up and dance, and some of the other guys would even get up and join me.”

“I didn’t know you liked to dance.”

“I’ve always loved to dance. It just makes me so happy.” He explains. “My mom and I used to dance around the kitchen when I was little and after that, I just kind of never stopped I guess.”

“Are you any good?”

“I won a swing dancing competition at a club near my house once a few years back.”

“Well, color me impressed.” You state, rolling onto your stomach and laying your arms on his chest, resting your head on your hands as you gaze up at him.

“That’s why I didn’t want to lose my leg. It brought in a lot of money for my parents, so I figured I could win some real competitions here in America and bring the money back home, but then…” He trails off, the smile fading from his face.

“But then you were drafted.” You finish for him.

“Yeah…”

“I mean, once your leg heals, you could still compete.”

“Yeah, but…” He hesitates, running his fingers through your hair. “Then I’d have to leave you.”

“Jeongguk,” You sit up to scold him. “Don’t let me stand in the way of your dream. You never know when you’ll lose the opportunity.” You look down at your lap, remembering all the opportunities you’ve lost because of your ‘problem’. You would hate to get in his way when you don’t even know how long you’ll be here. Your eyes start to grow misty at the thought of ever having to leave him; your first real boyfriend, maybe even your first love.

Suddenly Jeongguk cups your cheek as he sits up, forcing you to look up at him. “You are my dream.”

You break into a smile, your bottom lip trembling as you try to hold back the sad and happy tears at the same time. Before you can say anything, Jeongguk leans forward and presses his lips to yours ever so sweetly. You’re not sure what to do in this era, if it’s normal for you to want to move forward and sleep with Jeongguk so soon, or if you should wait, but then Jeongguk tilts his head to the side and parts his lips, deepening the kiss, and you find yourself unable to resist.

The radio plays in the background as you attempt to pull Jeongguk closer, letting him flick his tongue against your lips ever so lightly before you break the kiss and sit up, climbing on Jeongguk’s lap and straddling his muscular thighs, surprising him a bit before you pull his lips back to yours. Not knowing where to put his hands, Jeongguk lets them lay at his side, but you can feel him fidgeting, so you grab his wrists and guide his hands to your hips. He pulls back to make sure it’s okay and you nod, scooting closer so that your chest is pressed to his, gripping his shirt and pulling him back to you.

The two of you make out lazily for a while, enjoying each other, until you start to feel a heat building in your stomach and you accidentally grind down on Jeongguk’s lap and he gasps, breaking the kiss.

“Y-Y/N I-”

“I’m sorry.” You interrupt. “I-I don’t know what came over me.”

“No, I mean… This is great, like… really great, but… wouldn’t you rather wait? Until marriage?” He asks.

You have to physically restrain yourself from bursting out laughing. “O-of course!” You roll your eyes. “That’s what we’re supposed to do, right? Wait until we’re married.”

“U-until we’re m-married?” Jeongguk stutters.

“I just meant ‘we’ in general as people, not ‘we’ us.”

“Right.” Jeongguk nods, though seeming a bit disappointed.

“Is it hot in here? Do you want some air?” You ask, trying to change the subject as you climb off of Jeongguk’s lap and walk over to your balcony, opening the door.

“Air sounds great.” Jeongguk agrees, grabbing his cane and standing up to join you.

You usher him outside and then excuse yourself to the bathroom, shutting the door and then flopping yourself down onto your bed. What the hell was that conversation? Does Jeongguk want to marry you? You know that was the thing to do back then, or… back now, but getting married so young, with someone you hardly know… That can’t be right, can it?

A week later, you have to return to work. You took a week off to help Jeongguk adjust to how things worked around your house, and thankfully, he only accidentally walked in on someone once; even more thankfully, it was Kono and she just laughed it off. The week was quiet, with the other girls at work most of the time, you and Jeongguk just spent the time getting to know each other; playing games, reading books, and listening to the radio, teaching him english, which he picks up surprisingly quickly; but you found the most fun was cooking with each other.

Jeongguk was surprisingly good at cooking, and after eating military and hospital food for so long, he was thrilled to be able to have a home cooked meal. The two of you made food from your childhoods, recreating what you could with american staples you would pick up from the local market, happy to be out in the warm spring weather with each other.

Jeongguk was using his cane less and less, in fact, when he was in the kitchen, he put it to the side and didn’t use it at all, choosing to use you for support instead; his arms frequently found resting on your shoulders, or wrapped around your waist. He’s a goofball, and you have to admit, you think you’re falling in love with him.

“Okay, you remember where everything is?” You ask as you grab your purse off the table.

“Yes.” He rolls his eyes, tired of you asking.

“And you’ll be okay going to the market by yourself?”

“Yes.”

“And you promise to rest? You won’t overwork your leg? I don’t want you to-”

“Noona.” He interrupts. “I’ll be fine I promise.”

“But-”

“I’ll be okay. Go to work.” He says in english, emphasizing his point.

You bite your lip with nervousness, not wanting to leave him on his own, you know how people in this area get with unfamiliar faces. “Okay.” You finally nod, opening the front door. “I’ll see you when I get back.”

“I’ll be waiting.” Jeongguk smiles before sweeping you into a sweet kiss, leaving you dazed for a moment before you walk out to the cab you called and climb in.

“Honolulu Military hospital please.” You tell the driver before looking back, watching Jeongguk wave goodbye as you drive away.

Work is awful. The amount of injured soldiers has slowed significantly since the attack, so you don’t have much left to do expect check the vitals of the few patients you do have; those that had more serious injuries and require a longer recovery time. You suppose it’s a good thing, you can hardly focus as it is, worried about Jeongguk being left at home by himself. What if something happens to him? You spend the better part of your lunch hour thinking of ways Jeongguk could get hurt, and it isn’t until Kono taps you on the shoulder that you even realize she sat next to you.

“Uh, Y/N?”

“Hm? Sorry.” You turn to her.

“I asked if you knew what Jeongguk was going to do when you went back home?”

“Back home?” You repeat, confused.

“You didn’t hear? They’re sending everyone back to the mainland since things have slowed so much here. Almost everyone that was called over gets to go home, except for a few who are choosing to stay.”

“Stay?”

“I was telling Bits earlier that I don’t know what I’ll do, the house will be so empty. So is he going with you? Or is he going back home too?”

“I… I don’t know. We haven’t talked about it.”

“You should think about staying.” Kono urges. “You’re doing really well here.” You nod as the lunch bell dings, signaling that your lunch is over.

The rest of the day goes by surprisingly quickly as you try to figure out what you want to do. You don’t remember much about living back in the continental states, you lived in California somewhere, but that’s as good as you’ve got really. You like Hawaii, you really do, plus Jeongguk is here, and as long as you’re here, he can stay with you.

As the cab pulls into your driveway, you still aren’t sure what to do, or what to tell Jeongguk as you and Kono get out of the car and walk up to the house. As you step over the threshold into the house, a delightful smell tickles your nose; someone’s been cooking. You and Kono both follow your noses into the kitchen to see Jeongguk sitting at the dinner table with Bitsy and Clara.

“You’re home!” Clara says, more out of surprise than happiness. “John-kook made dinner!”

“Really?” You ask, but when Jeongguk doesn’t immediately turn to greet you with that goofy smile, you know something’s wrong. “Kook?” You walk over and put your hand on his shoulder, but he still doesn’t look at you. Clara and Bitsy both have nervous looks on their faces.

“Kook…” You pull the chair out next to him and sit down before tilting his chin so that he looks at you. You gasp, dropping your purse in shock when you see the dark black bruise surrounding his eye. “Oh my god! Jeongguk what happened to you?” You ask, cupping his face and pulling it closer so you can inspect his eye, but he remains tight lipped so you turn to the two girls sitting at the table.

“We didn’t see the whole thing.” Clara states.

“We just caught the end of it.” Bitsy agrees. “Ya see, we were down at the market an’ we ‘eard this commotion.”

“It sounded like a fight and there was a big group of people standing in a circle, so we went to see what was happening and…” Clara continues.

“It was Paul. Him an’ his group a rougheins.” Bitsy growls. “Once we realized it was Kook, Clara ran into the middle of it to stop them.”

“It wasn’t fair, it was five against one!” Clara pounds her fist on the table. “Those racist bastards.”

“She got Paul to back off, but not before they gave ‘em a nice shiner.” Bitsy finishes with a sigh. “We helped him home though and made him rest before dinner.”

“The butcher felt bad and gave Kook a nice steak to put on his eye for the swelling.” Clara adds. “And then he made dinner with it.”

The girls keep talking, but they fade out as your focus is drawn to Jeongguk in front of you. He won’t meet your gaze, seemingly ashamed, that is until he picks up his fork and stabs a bit of meat before holding it up to you.

“I made your favorite.” He whispers. “Please don’t be mad.”

“Mad…?” You ask. “I’m furious, but not at you baby.” You lean forward and wrap your arms tightly around Jeongguk, knocking the fork out of his hands. “I’m just glad you’re safe.” You can feel Jeongguk smile as he returns your hug. You pull back and place a kiss on his forehead before sitting back in your chair. “Let’s eat, I’m starving.”

Jeongguk made bibimbap, your favorite, with perfectly seasoned meat, and you happily eat. After dinner, Bitsy and Clara leave for the night shift, and Kono disappears into her room, leaving you and Jeongguk alone to talk about what happened as you finish cleaning up the kitchen.

“I was just walking down the street at the market when these guys came up and started asking me a bunch of questions I couldn’t understand. When they heard my accent as I tried to explain that I didn’t speak english well, they started pushing me around while they yelled at me.”

“Did they say anything you recognized?”

“Jap.” Jeongguk mumbles as he puts the last bowl on the drying rack. “That’s all I knew. And then the big one punched me so hard I fell over, that’s when your friends found me.”

“Jeongguk,” You cry as you wrap him in your arms again. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault jagiya.” He sighs. “Although, I did lose what I went to town for; they stole it, said I didn’t deserve it.”

“We can go back tomorrow and get another one? What was it?”

“A ring…” Jeongguk whispers, looking up at you, his cheeks a bit flushed.

“A… A what?” You mumble, not sure you heard him right.

“It was a ring, for you.”

“For me?”

Jeongguk chuckles. “I feel a bit stupid telling you this without it, but I was going to propose to you noona. Tonight.”

“W-what?”

“Kono told me yesterday that you might be moving back home, and I want you to know that wherever you go, I’ll go with you, because I’ve fallen in love with you. I know it’s crazy and we’ve only known each other for a month, but I’ve never felt this way before, about anyone.”

“Jeongguk-”

“Noona, will you marry me? I’d get down on my knee, but I don’t know if I’d get back up.”

You’re speechless, you’re definitely rushing into things here, right? But maybe that’s how it should be… You don’t know how long you’ll be here, or maybe, is this where you’re meant to be? “Y-yes.”

“Really?”

“Yes, I will.” You nod as Jeongguk sweeps you up off your feet and spins you around the best he can.

“I love you Y/N.” He states as he puts you back down, pulling you close.

“I love you too Jeongguk.” You smile brightly as he pulls you in for a kiss.

The girls of course are thrilled when you tell them, each of them squealing happily. Bitsy being the sneaky minx that she is, actually manages to get herself invited to Paul’s house two days later and steals the ring back for you. When she returns it to Jeongguk, he happily opens it and slides the ring on your finger; it’s a simple, but beautiful ruby and the weight of it on your finger makes you feel warm inside.

You and Jeongguk decide a few days later to stay in Hawaii, at least for the time being. Jeongguk writes his parents letters daily and has since he arrived at the hospital, about a week after Jeongguk proposes, you receive a letter back from them. They’re thrilled about your engagement, and after weeks of Jeongguk asking, they’ve finally gotten enough money together to move to Hawaii, and should be on a ship within the week and should arrive in another week or two. You and Jeongguk quickly find them a nice house by the bay and eagerly await their arrival from across the pacific.

A few days after his parents letter arrives, you and Jeongguk are relaxing at home, both of you on the couch while the other girls are out, your legs across his lap as you listen to the radio and read to Jeongguk.

“Isn’t this Doris Day?” Jeongguk suddenly asks, turning the radio up.

“Hm?” You listen for a moment. “Yeah, I think so. The song is called ‘Again’ I think, I’m surprised you know that.” Suddenly Jeongguk pushes your legs off his lap and stands up before grabbing your arm and tugging you to your feet with him. “Kook,” You giggle as he pulls you flush against him. “What are you doing?”

“Dancing.” He states, grabbing your waist and beginning to sway you both back and forth.

“So I finally get to see the magical feet of Jeon Jeongguk?” You tease.

“Shhh, just dance with me noona.”

“Again, this couldn't happen again

This is that once in a lifetime

This is the thrill divine…”

It’s nice, a peaceful and sweet moment, with you pressed so close to him as he rests his head on yours while you sway, hand clasped in his, content in just being with him. It makes you sad to think that one day, at some point, life may choose to take him away from you, or more likely, to take you away from him.

“Mine to hold as I'm holding you now and yet never so near

Mine to have when the now and the here disappear…”

“Jeongguk…” You whisper, thinking maybe you should tell him, but you don’t know what happens to the people you leave behind; is some part of you still here, or do you and all traces of you vanish completely, even the parts of you in his memory?

“We'll have this moment forever

But never, never, again…”

“Mm?” You don’t hear him as much as you feel the rumble in his chest.

“I love you…” You say as the song plays its last chord and your dance comes to a stop.

“I love you too.” Jeongguk smiles and leans down, capturing your lips in the sweetest of kisses, making your knees weak. You grip his button up shirt tightly as you pull back, breathing a bit heavier, and you wonder what it’ll be like to have him. All of him. Before you can overthink it, you push Jeongguk backwards so that he falls back down onto the couch.

“Woah,” He exclaims as he hits the cushions. “What’s this about?”

“Jeongguk,” You whisper as you climb into his lap. “Let me show you how much I love you.”

“Are you sure?” He visibly gulps.

“I’m sure.”

Jeongguk hesitates for a second before nodding, his bottom lip caught between his teeth; a sight you can’t resist. You lean forward and press your lips to his, letting his hands fall to your hips as he pulls you closer, his tongue slipping between your lips, and this time when you grind down against him, he doesn’t pull away, instead he groans, deep in his chest, a rumbling that sets your body on fire, but then he pulls away again.

“Um, wouldn’t you rather do this in a bed maybe?” He suggests shyly, cupping your cheek.

“You won’t change your mind?” You ask, suddenly nervous that he’s rejecting you again.

He stares deep into your eyes, smiling a heart wrenchingly beautiful smile. “Never.”

Your chest and stomach flutter at the same time as Jeongguk helps you off his lap and leads you upstairs to your room where he shuts the door before spinning you to face away from him. He grabs the zipper on the back of your shorts and yanks it down, dragging them down your legs before pushing you down on the bed and crawling on top of you; gone is the innocent boy you love so much, in his place is a strong man with a fire building in his sweet brown eyes.

Jeongguk reconnects his lips to yours as he starts working at the buttons on the front of your shirt, carefully undoing them until he gets to the last one and sits back to look. He stares down at your half naked body; your bra and underwear all that’s left covering you.

“You’re so beautiful noona.” He whispers.

He skips unbuttoning his own shirt, choosing to just slip it off over his head and toss it to the floor, leaving him in just his white undershirt and khaki slacks. You pull his undershirt off and reach up, running your fingers over his chest and watching his muscles flex beneath your touch, but not for long. Jeongguk slips your shirt the rest of the way off and leans down to pepper your neck with kisses while he fumbles with your bra. It takes him a few moments, but eventually he gets the hooks undone and manages to slip the fabric off your shoulders, taking his time to caress and marvel at your breasts.

“T-they’re so soft.” He observes, leaning down and burying his face between them as he massages them gently, feeling your smooth skin against his face.

“K-kook…” You gasp when he brushes against a nipple. His head shoots up to look at you, ready to apologize for doing something wrong until he sees the look on your face and the blush adorning your cheeks. He leans up and kisses you sweetly once more before grabbing the waistband of your underwear. He looks at you for approval, which you give, before slowly pulling the fabric down your legs and tossing it to the floor. He sits on his knees, a now obvious tenting in his pants as his hands caress your thighs, seemingly mesmerized by your naked figure, before spreading your legs with a small groan of want.

Jeongguk quickly moves to unbuckle his belt, but once he gets it open, he falters and begins to ramble. “Oh god Y/N I-I’ve never… I never done this before and I don’t know if I’ll be any good. What if I do something wrong? O-or if I hurt you? What if-”

“Jeongguk,” You coo softly. “There’s nothing you can do that will make me love you any less.”

“I love you so much.”

“I love you too.” You whisper, sitting up to pull him into a kiss before you pull back and help him undo his pants the rest of the way, your hands brushing the scars on his thighs after he deposits his khakis on the floor.

“Noona,” Jeongguk calls your attention back up to his face as he pushes you back down against the mattress. “A-are you ready?” You realize he’s now leaning over you, one hand on the waistband of his underwear.

“Yes…” You mumble, suddenly realizing that in all the lives you’ve had, you’ve never had sex before either. “I’m just nervous I guess. I haven’t um… I haven’t done this either.”

“I’ll go slow, I promise.” He assures you, leaning down to give you a kiss before pulling the covers over you both. He shifts on top of you as he removes his underwear and then his knees are nudging at your thighs to open wider for him, and then you feel it. Something warm and hard is pressing against your most intimate of parts, trying to find its way inside your own warmth.

“A little l-lower I think…” You state, trying your best to guide Jeongguk to his destination. He follows your direction, pushing with intent until he finally slips the tip of his cock into you, a little faster than intended, catching you both by surprise as you let out a small cry.

“Are you okay?” He asks, panicking as he stills himself.

You nod, biting back the stinging feeling between your legs. “It just h-hurts a little bit. Y-you’re bigger than I e-expected.”

Jeongguk’s face flushes bright red as he looks down at you, obviously flustered by your comments on his size. “I’m s-sorry. Do… Do you want to stop?”

“No!” You whine, a little too loudly, making Jeongguk smirk just a bit. “J-just… Just go slow.” You mutter.

Jeongguk nods, leaning down to press his lips to yours as he starts moving again. He goes slow, swallowing each little gasp that leaves your mouth until he’s fully seated inside you and a moan escapes both of your lips as Jeongguk’s head falls on your shoulder.

“It’s s-so tight…” He whimpers. “Is it supposed to feel this good?”

“Jeongguk please move.” You plead, needing some sort of friction before you feel like you might burst.

Jeongguk simply groans against your neck as he complies, pulling his hips back before sliding into you again and again, making you feel dizzy and hot and oh so full. He feels so good inside you, brushing against your walls in all the right ways; you’ve never felt this kind of pleasure in your life.

You wrap your arms tightly around his neck and spread your legs wider, allowing him to go deeper as you both moan. The longer you go, the rougher Jeongguk’s thrusts become until you feel like you’re bouncing across the bed with every push of his hips. All of your thoughts are gone, the only thing you can focus on is the blissful feeling of Jeongguk, pleasuring you from the inside out. Suddenly a swirling heat starts building in the pit of your stomach, your senses heightened as you feel like your whole body is tightening.

You need to tell him something’s happening, but you don’t know how. “J-Jeongguk, I-”

“God it feels so good. I feel- hah~ I’m so- Oh god, w-what is- Oh~ Oh~!” Jeongguk thrusts into you one last time with all his might, spiraling you into the most amazing feeling you’ve ever felt in your life, crying out his name as bliss floods your brain and something warm and wet floods your core.

You’re both still as you ride out the feeling and then Jeongguk collapses on top of you, his body spent. He peppers your face with kiss after kiss, mumbling how much he loves before finally sitting up and carefully pulling out of you, both of you wincing. You feel a rush of fluids spilling out of you and you sit up to look, thinking you must be bleeding or something, but instead of red, you see Jeongguk’s white sticky release coating your folds.

“S-sorry.” Jeongguk mutters as he stands up. “Don’t move, let me get you something.” He limps his way to the bathroom and you hear the sink running before he comes back, one hand covering himself, a washcloth in the other. He sits back on the bed and gently swipes up your folds, collecting the mixture of your releases and then tossing the washcloth in your hamper, cheering when he sees it went in before grabbing his underwear and sliding them back on and handing you yours.  As you pull your underwear up your legs, Jeongguk climbs over you and lays on his side of the bed, grabbing your waist and pulling you flush against him, his arms wrapped tightly around you as you both sit in silence, suddenly tired. You start to drift off, and just as you’re about to fall asleep, Jeongguk whispers in your ear.

“I can’t wait to marry you noona. I love you so much.”

“I love you too Jeongguk.”

It’s a few days later, and few more sexual encounters later; you’re both sitting at home when Bitsy and Clara come home from work and Bitsy declares she wants to go out and have a good time before her and Clara head back to the states next week.

Clara rolls her eyes. “Bits, when don’t you want to go out?”

“Just because you’re a big ‘ol buzzkill.” Bitsy retorts, sticking her tongue out. “Y/N will come with me, wontcha Y/N?”

“Me?” You ask, surprised, usually she drags Kono out with her.

“Yeah, you haven’t been out in ages, don’t ya wanna have fun?” She taunts, shaking your arm. “Kook can come too! It’ll be great.”

You look up at Jeongguk as he comes back into the room with some water. He must have heard the conversation because he’s looking at you like a puppy you promised to take for a walk. “Where would we go?”

“Anywhere ya want! Kook, where do you wanna go?” She turns to him.

“Can we go dancing?” He asks hopefully.

“Of course! I’mma get changed, let’s leave in ten minutes, okay?” She squeals excitedly before flouncing up the stairs.

“I guess I should get changed too.” You state, putting your book down and standing up. “Kono, are you coming with us?”

“Yeah, why not.” Kono shrugs. “I think we all deserve a night out.”

“Fine!” Clara bursts. “Let’s go.”

They both stand up and you all head upstairs to get ready. You pick out your favorite red and white swing dress with a white petticoat and some red shoes, finishing your look with a red lip before heading out of the bathroom to see Jeongguk in a pair of khaki swing trousers, a red polo with suspenders, his favorite black and white oxfords and a black fedora.

He smiles when he sees you. “Noona, you look so pretty.”

“So do you.” You giggle, walking over to him. “But I think we can leave this at home.” You reach up and take off his hat, leaving it on the bed.

“Too much?”

“Just a bit.”

You reach up and cup his cheek. “Are you sure you’re okay to go out?”

“Noona I’m fine.” He rolls his eyes. “You promised when I got better we could go out.”

“I know, but-“

Just then you hear Bitsy calling your names from downstairs, telling you to hurry up in a less than polite way, so you grab Jeongguk’s hand and tug him out of your room and down the stairs to where the others are waiting.

“Let’s go!” Bitsy cheers when you’re all gathered. She grabs her car keys and you all follow her out the door and pile into her car; Clara in the front, and you in the back squished between Kono and Jeongguk.

It takes about ten minutes to get to Bitsy’s favorite place in the world; a bar called the Suds, and when you pull up, you can already hear the loud music and laughter coming from inside. Bitsy parks and you all get out, Jeongguk helps you out of the car and then grips your hand tightly as you walk up to the entrance, seemingly nervous. You squeeze his hand in return to let him know it’ll be okay and he seems to relax as you walk inside.

Bitsy vanishes as soon as you get inside, making a beeline for the dance floor, Clara and Kono find an empty table and take a seat while you and Jeongguk go to the bar and get everyone a drink, heading to the table when you’re done. You take a seat and take a sip of your beer, scanning the room. Jeongguk seems unable to sit still next to you, bouncing with excitement as he watches the dancers.

“Jeongguk, go.” You whisper, nodding at the dance floor.

He immediately stands but then turns back to you and holds out his hand. “Dance with  me?” He asks in a perfect english accent.

You accept his outstretched hand with a smile. “Of course.”

Jeongguk immediately tugs you out onto the dancefloor, making Bitsy cheer when she sees the two of you. “It’s about time!” She yells before the man she’s dancing with spins her around. “Show me what you can do Kook!”

Jeongguk doesn’t hesitate at all, grabbing your hand and your waist and pulling you close. The two of you rock step as Jeongguk intermittently swings you out, moving your feet to the beat of the quickstep song the band plays. He spins you around, leading you all over the dancefloor, impressing you with just how good he is, moving you to the rhythm. It isn’t until most people have moved out of the way that he moves onto the big stuff.

When he decides he has enough room, Jeongguk swings you down, lifting his leg up over you and the pulling you up from between his legs before spinning you so your back is against his and then flipping you up onto his back and over, making the crowd around you cheer. He slows down and lets you catch your breath before you jump up on his hip and then he pushes you off, sending you flying in a spin until he catches your hand and stops you, pulling you back to him.

You go back to a rock step until Jeongguk puts his arm around your waist and lifts you, sending you into a jump over and around his back before picking you up and flipping you over his arm where you thankfully land back on your feet.  He spins you once more before grabbing you under your arms and spinning you around, your feet flying out as he steps over them until you land again and fly back into Bitsy who catches you and sends you back into Jeongguk. You jump into his arms, your legs spread and he rocks you back up into the air, you feel like your feet touch the ceiling before you come back down. You come to one side of his waist and Jeongguk quickly swings you to the other, grabbing your legs tight before flinging the top half of you around him, catching you and spinning you before he lets your feet find the floor again. He grabs your arm and spins you one last time before the song ends and he stills you; everyone cheering and clapping as you come to a halt.

Bitsy runs up you, bouncing as she claps. “That was amazing! Y/N, I didn’t know you could dance like that!”

“I didn’t do anything, it was all him.” You state as the three of you walk back over to the table.

“I’m glad we saved your leg, Kook.” Kono smiles as you take a seat next to her and take a swig of your beer. “That was incredible.”

“Thank you.” Jeongguk mumbles, his face flushing from the praise. “I like dancing.”

“He’s won competitions back home.” You brag for him.

“That doesn’t surprise me.” Kono nods. “You could win some serious money doing that.”

“They have competitions here every friday.” Bitsy states. “You should enter one.”

Jeongguk looks at you confused and you translate for him, watching as he breaks into a wide smile and nods. “I’d like to.” He agrees.

“Then you should start practicin’!” Bitsy cheers, pulling Jeongguk to his feet. Jeongguk nods happily before turning back to you and grabbing your hand, tugging you back out onto the dancefloor.

The two of you dance to several more songs, having a great time with each other, but after the next slow song, you have to sit down and you allow Bitsy to take your place. You make your way back to your table and have a seat, watching Jeongguk twirl Bitsy around the floor to the music, until you notice Jeongguk start to limp again. The next time you catch Bitsy’s eye, you point at Jeongguk and then at your leg, and she quickly gets the message, dragging Jeongguk over to the table for you before grabbing Kono and Clara and hauling them onto the dancefloor with her.

“How’s your leg?” You ask Jeongguk as he sits down.

“Honestly I didn’t even feel it until you said something, but it is starting to hurt a bit.”

“Maybe you’ve had enough practice for tonight?”

“Yeah, I have.” He agrees, offering you a smile.

“So, you never told me you could dance like that.” You tease.

He shrugs. “Did you have fun?”

“Fun? You flipped me around so much I didn’t know which way was up! It was great!”

“I can teach you some steps if you want.” Jeongguk offers, his smile growing wider.

“That would be-”

“Well!” You’re interrupted by a loud male voice. “What do we have here? The local Jap couple.” You look up to see Paul, the asshole who beat up Jeongguk the other day.

“What do you want Paul.” You hiss.

“Well I heard you two were getting hitched. Is that true?”

“What’s it to you?” Jeongguk suddenly asks, standing up in front of you protectively.

“Woah there tough guy.” Paul throws up his hands defensively. “I see someone finally learned to speak english.”

“What do you want?” Jeongguk spits.

“I just want to make sure you didn’t put a baby in this here girl of yours,” Paul points to you and suddenly two men lift you to your feet and hold your arms behind your back. You struggle in their grasp, but their grip it too tight. “Cause if you did, I’mma have to knock it back out.” He rolls up his sleeves. “Can’t have you two breedin any babies to fight for the wrong side.”

“Don’t touch her.” Jeongguk growls, grabbing Paul’s arm and pulling it away from you.

“I can do whatever I want.” Paul states, grabbing the front of Jeongguk’s shirt. “I ain’t gotta listen to you, Jap.” And then Paul pulls his fist back, but Jeongguk’s quicker this time, punching Paul right in the side of his jaw, making the man stumble back a few steps from the unexpected hit. “You son of a bitch!” Paul yells, causing the music to stop as he lunges at Jeongguk.

“Jeongguk!” You cry, only able to watch as the man you love is knocked to the floor. Paul kneels down and continues hitting Jeongguk, punch after punch. Tears stream down your cheeks as you watch Jeongguk’s blood drip from his face. It’s then that you feel it; the haze. It surrounds you. No, you can’t leave now, Jeongguk needs you. “Jeongguk! Jeongguk, I’m sorry!” You whimper, slipping from the men’s grasps as you slowly disappear. You see the girls appear a the front of the circle of people surrounding the fight and suddenly see Clara and Bitsy jump into the fray, trying to pull Paul off Jeongguk. The last thing you see is Jeongguk reaching for you, blood dripping down onto his red shirt.

“Jeongguk!” You cry, bolting upright, gripping the blanket in your lap tightly. You begin sobbing uncontrollably as you realize; it doesn’t matter anymore, wherever you are now, whenever you are, Jeongguk is not here with you.

Copyright © Inkjam-Moon 2019

[pomnavi]

Uchi no Musuko wa Tabun Gay / My Son is Probably Gay Vol 2 Ch. 42  (End of Vol 2)

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Chapter 42: Ever-expanding Everyday

Page 1 Bu 1: ....Oh? Bu 2: Haven't you gotten a little bulkier? Bu 3: No way, really!? Bu 4: Yeah, just a little Bu 5: Are you still working out with those dumbells? Bu 6: Y'know there are these really athletic guys from the Kendo club! Bu 7: They taught me some good ways to use the dumbells. Bu 8: Maybe it's because of that!? Bu 9: You'll be more motivated after seeing some results huh Hiroki: Wow~ Awesome! Tomoko: Perserverance is power

Page 2 Bu 1: I'm off~ Bu 2: Oh Bu 3: Good morning Bu 4: Hey Asumi-chan! Bu 5: Our uniform looks nice on you! Bu 6: You look so mature! Bu 7: Y-y-you're surely joking right....! Bu 8: Are you joining any clubs? Bu 9: I'm thinking about it Bu 10: Those two are somehow Bu 12: Getting closer aren't they

Page 3 Bu 1: Hiroki, did you play this yet? Bu 2: I did! Bu 3: It was super scary Bu 4: But I managed to finish it! Bu 5: Wasn't the story amazing? Bu 6: Eh Bu 7: Um.. the story...yeah, it was certainly something! Bu 8: What did you think of the ending? Bu 9: Uh.. well.... I.... Bu 10: The ending Bu 11: It looked like there was no salvation for them Bu 12: But wasn't it the best, happiest ending for the main character? That's what it seemed like to me.

Page 4 Bu 1: Ooh, I thought so too! Bu 2: Did you play it too? Bu 3: I watched Nii-san while he was playing Bu 4: OH! I thought the same thing too! Good for him right! Hiroki 1: Aha~ Hiroki 1: hahahaha Bu 5: Well~ I wonder if I should play it again Hiroki sfx: haha Bu 6: Didn't you say you never wanted to play it again? Bu 7: Wha- No I didn't! Bu 8: Yuuri, what the heck! Box 1: As they encounter all kinds of interests Box 2: My sons' worlds will continue to change and expand Box 3: What they like, and are going to like Box 4: Their choices and lives Box 5: I want to support them.

Omake Bu 1: Yuuri... Bu 2: I actually didn't understand this game's story. Bu 3: Could you explain to me why the story was so amazing? Bu 4: First, let's watch this video explaining the plot. It'll be easier after that. Bu 5: Oh cool, okay! Bu 6: Also, there were probably some event flags that you missed in the game. Bu 7: Wow~ Seriously? Bu 8: The Aoyama family is peaceful today too.

Afterword Bu 1: Thank you for reading "My Son is Probaby Gay" Volume 2. I'm Okura Bu 2: Lately, I've been working on the plank. Bu 3: After the 1st volume came out, but before the 2nd volume, Okura actually came out to his mom. Bu 4: I'm gay, and I've been drawing this manga. Bu 5: The reason for that is that I wanted to show her what I was working on. Bu 6: I did tell them that I was working as a manga artist, but I didn't tell them about the work under my penname "Okura". Bu 7: What magazine is it in? What's the title? Bu 8: It's a web manga? Where can I read it? Bu 9: Are you getting paid? Are you doing okay? Bu 10: You're not working on anything dangerous right? Okura 1: Yeah Bu 11: Of course they're worried.. Bu 12: There's no way I can keep hiding this. Bu 13: Giving them a proper answer meant coming out anyways. Bu 14: I wanted to reassure her, but telling them just brought up new anxieties.... So I couldn't get off that train of thought initially. Bu 15: But thinking about the many people who read and enjoyed my work gave me the final push I needed. Bu 16: I don't know if she has accepted me yet, but she at least understands the situation. Bu 17: After seeing the Okura social media accounts, she contacted me Bu 18: I saw it~ You said you had a stomach ache? Are you ok? Bu 19: Since I'm writing a story about a mom and her son, I hope I'll be able to use this experience too. Bu 20: I'll be counting on your support from here on out too! Thank you! 2020.2.Okura Special Thanks: Watanabe-sama

END

T/n: This is the end of volume 2! I'm glad the series has made it this far :). There are more chapters on Okura's twitter beyond this point in the story, and I'm hoping they get compiled into a Volume 3 (no official announcement as of now). If they don't get compiled into volume soon, I'll make sure to continue translating and releasing them :). Thanks everybody for reading and supporting this manga! I hope you'll make sure to buy a copy to support the author! It's licensed for English release by Square Enix, so be on the lookout for that next year~

[heartfeltheart]

Alchemy: Magic Vs. Science

Chapters: 22/25 Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist/Harry Potter Rating: T Relationships: Edward/Winry, Lan Fan/Ling, and May/Alphonse. Primary Characters: Edward Elric, Severus Snape Additional Tags: Crossover, Teacher!Edward, BrOtp Edward/Severus. Sassy beyond measure. Series: Part 1 of 9. Summary: Magic and Science, are they the same or are they completely different? It just takes one person to point out all up and downs. Along with breaking the stereotypes that come up with being a wizard, alchemist and most of all being human. Thank you, @amynchan! D/C: I do not own Harry Potter or Fullmetal Alchemist. Discord: La Red(Mesh Mash of… stuff.): https://discord.gg/KYjmVAb Alchemy Series: https://discord.gg/DejEYNJ

“English and Edward’s accented voice.” “Amestrian or another foreign language.” “Written notes.” ‘Thoughts.’ First Name: Informal Last Name: Formal (Or used to annoy others)

"Is he okay?"

"He's been like this for the past half month."

"I'm sure he's fine, could be that Professor Severus pulled a prank on him."

"No, impossible. Professor Flitwick was probably the one that pulled the prank on him."

"Even so, Mr. Elric never spent this much time complaining about it. He would get even."

A chorus of agreement ran through the Friday Alchemy class. Which counted being all thirteen students that are studying said subject. For the past half month, they had taken note at how their teacher has been moping around and grumbling under his breath in Amestrian. Whatever the reason for his behavior, it has to be something big.

Edward ran a hand over his face, mentally preparing himself what he is about to say to his class. He was about to announce something to them that will surely spread like wildfire. Even if he was not going to tell them, the old man was going to announce it to the school any other way. The main difference between what he and the Headmaster are that Edward is providing more detail on the matter. "Settle down everyone. I have an announcement."

Once everyone sat in their proper seats and giving the Golden Blonde their full attention, the announcement was made.

"Next week, the Emperor of Xing will be visiting along with a group of Amestris. The Mustang Unit, most of you already know... The reasons for them coming to Hogwarts has to do with politics and other random things that do not concern any of you for now. Emperor Ling main reason to come here is to see how magic works, the id... he is planning on creating a magical in Xing for his country. Don't be surprised if you see him wondering around once he gets them."

"What about the Mustang Unit, Mr. Elric?"

"Continuing negotiations with the Ministry of Idiots, I mean Magic... Plus, Xing and Amestris are in friendly terms. Plus... General Mustang, Doctor Marcoh, my brother, a Princess from Xing and a Mr. Scar will be giving the school a performance in alchemy..."

"They are going to perform Alchemy to the entire school?"

"Why everyone? No one else is learning alchemy but us."

"That's the problem, do you remember how many took the exam? How many of us passed? How many are there left at this point? People are degrading Alchemy for the fact at how Mr. Elric is presenting it. To get more people into it, there has to be some sort of show to get noticed."

"Exactly. That's it!"

"Or they are just coming to degrade Mr. Elric."

"That's a possibility too."

Edward slowly blinked at his class, he couldn't help but shake his head. They were coming up their own theories onto why his friends are coming to Hogwarts. Let thing think and wonder why they are coming. They'll see once they arrive.

-.-

Once Dumbledore announced the fact that an Emperor of far east is coming to Hogwarts. On top of that, a delegation will be coming from Amestris to act as a type of go-between for the Emperor and Ministry of Magic. What really got everyone's attention is the fact Mr. Elric is in charge of taking care of them once they arrive. It came into light that Mr. Elric is very deep connections to both countries to the point he could wave off the fact he knows an Emperor... by a first name base.

Nope. The Alchemy teacher is actually dreading the date that is quickly approaching for the fact he does not want any of them to come. He just does not like any of them in general, something about corrupting his students and taking them away from him.

-.-

"Oooooooohhhhhh! Aaaaaahhhhhhhhh! What is thaaaaaaaaaaaaat?" Emperor Ling Yao jumped all over the Headmaster's office, his expression completely transfixed at everything in the room. It was just so whimsical! He wants it all. The group he came with either shakes their heads at his antics, failing at trying to hide their smiles or just ignoring what he was doing. His group is comprised of Unofficial-Official Advisor/Bodyguard/Future brother-in-law Alphonse Elric, younger sister/princess of Xing/bodyguard/advisor Mei Chang, and the final one the Emperor's bodyguard/unofficial advisor Lan Fan. "Lan Fan! Look at it! It's so beautiful..."

Ling's attention is fully focused on Fawkes, the Phoenix seemed to enjoy the attention. The Phoenix took in the attention he was receiving from the Emperor of Xing.

The other occupants in the room are Dumbledore, the four Heads, the Minister of Magic Millicent Bagnold, along with other government officials and a couple of Aurors. They were either talking among themselves or paying close attention to the fireplace in the office. They are still waiting for the Amestrian diplomats or as Mr. Edward Elric calls them, Mustang Unit. The moment came to be when the fireplace grew and the flames changed color signifying the short arrival of the group.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Curse.

Curse.

Grumble.

Bigger thump.

Squeak.

Pain in general.

Several individuals dressed in blue uniforms fall out of the fireplace, piling one on top of another. The ministry officials and Aurors recognized said pile to be the same group of people that visited the Magical World previously. The only one that did not end up in the pile is Captain Hawkeye, she simply strode out of the fireplace and shaking her head at her team's antics. After her is a man dressed like a monk, a man dressed in a cloak with a hood that hide his entire face, and finally came out is Edward Elric himself.

The Alchemy teacher looked down at the pile with a snort, he grinned when he realized who is on the bottom of the dog-pile. He said something in Amestrian that sounded an insult that resulted with a grumble from underneath the pile.

"Is this everyone, Mr. Elric?" Dumbledore asked the young man, interrupting him from his possible argument slash fight.

"This is everyone that is supposed to come. Hope none of you mind I invited Dr. Tim Marcoh and uh... Jugemu-jugemu Gokōnosurikire Kaijarisuigyo-no Suigyōmatsu Unraimatsu Fūraimatsu Kūnerutokoroni-sumutokoro Yaburakōjino-burakōji Paipopaipo-paiponoshūringan Shūringanno-gūrindai Gūrindaino-ponpokopīno-ponpokonāno Chōkyūmeino-chōsuke... Scar for short." Everyone that did not know the man's name, sweat dropped. That was one hell of a long name and for it to be shortened to Scar? Well... could be for the fact the man has a scar on his face.

"I can't feel my face..."

-.-

General Roy Mustang is a shallow and self-absorbed man. An aura of selfish and narcissistic surrounds him and every word he speaks. Acts just as immature as Colonel Edward Elric. Pushes off most of his work to his Captain, Captain Riza Hawkeye, whom he flirts with every moment he has. (It seems to be one-sided...)

Captain Riza Hawkeye, quiet and collected, serious but courteous. Disciplined and rational, keeps her colleagues on track. Strict, rigid and puts fear into everyone that works with her. It notes her aliases, 'The Hawk's Eye' is just putting it lightly to her talents in marksmanship with her muggle weapon.

Captain Vato Falman remarkable memory.

Second Lieutenant Jean Havoc laid back...

Second Lieutenant Heymans Breda an imbecile.

Sergeant Major Kain Fuery weakest link...

Emperor Ling Yao is a right down childish, idiotic ruler by far we have ever encountered. Extremely easygoing and trust people far too easily, the only problem is his advisors and bodyguards.

Masked Bodyguard #1 keeps to the shadows or right by the Emperor's side at all times. A porcelain mask keeping their identity a secret and it appears they are acting as an advisor or secret keeper to the young Emperor.

Mei Chan is the seventeenth royal princess of Xing, younger sister of the current Emperor. It is noted by Colonel Edward Elric, General Roy Mustang and Emperor Ling Yao that she has a mastery in Alkahestry that rivals in terms of Alchemy. (Turn to page 5 to see what Alkahestry is.) She is currently teaching Alphonse Elric Alkahestry, continuing her mastery of the subject.

Alphonse Elric, younger brother of Colonel Edward Elric by just a year. It is heavily applied by Colonel Elric that they are on par in their Alchemy skills and helps with the Alchemy Curriculum. Something else worth noting is that he is far nicer than his older brother...

Tim Marcoh, a doctor.

.... Scar, a monk.

Dolores Umbridge rechecked her notes she created on the foreigners that arrived at Hogwarts. She is going to need every bit of information in order to go head to head to any of them. The only thing she ends up doing is adding more and more to her notes or revising them. The longer she spends her time with both groups, the Ministry Official wonders about the sanity of everyone. Her every attempt to question any of them are met with far too kind smiles or complete disinterest.

Every turn that was attempted to gain a favor for the Ministry, ended up backfiring. Speaking to the Emperor is like talking to a very, very...very... immature child. The only times he even speaks English is to ask random questions that did not pertain to anything to the negotiations. The only time he got serious is when he speaks to Mr. Alphonse Elric or General Mustang. The former of the two would translate everything for him and Dolores swore... the youngest of the two Elric's is the secret to securing Xing. Now if she could have the Amestrian's to stop blocking her way to him.

"Ugh... why did they bring the pink horror?" Edward grumbled under his breath, just loud enough for Ling, Roy, and Alphonse to hear him. The former of the two men snickered at his set of words, neither of them was fond of the walking pick terror. They would comment on how she looks like a toad, but that would be an insult to their friends that are chimeras. So, they are sticking towards a theme of her hideous wardrobe and sickly sweet words that makes them want to vomit. Oh, how people will act to gain a favor...

"Edward...Big Brother... be nice." Alphonse said warningly, all the while he had a smile on his face.

"Meh... you weren't there the first time I meet that... thing!" Edward pulled a face when he remembered the first time he first saw Ms. Dolores Umbridge. That isn't a pleasant memory to remember. "A warning Al, she wants to know about your exact connection to the Military."

Alphonse's nose scrunched up at his brother's words. Of course, people would want to know about his connection to the Amestrian Military. In Amestris and the Military itself knows that his only connection is his brother who is a State Alchemist. In Xing, it is more or less but that is less and less as time goes by. He made it a point that his only connection to the Military is his friends in said group and his brother. It doesn't control him or give him orders, hypnotically speaking. They could ask him or mention something here and there, but not order him as they do to Edward. "Now they are going to ask my connection to Xing."

"And what exactly are you going to say about that?"

Roy and Edward looked at Alphonse expectantly, waiting for an answer. Luckily for Alphonse, Ling answer it for him. Ling swung an air around Alphonse's shoulder and gave Roy and Edward a closed eye smile. "He's my advisor, bodyguard, future brother-in-law, confidant, best fri-"

"Wait..."

"What?"

Edward and Roy stopped walking and faced Ling and Alphonse. This caused everyone around to also stop walking and glance over at the scene before them. It appeared whatever the Emperor of Xing is informing General Roy Mustang and Colonel Edward Elric are giving them mini heart attacks and looks of complete shock. It didn't help how the younger Elric brother is trying to pull away from the Emperor.

"Marriage!"

"I feel so old!"

"Please let go of me..."

"Once Alphonse marries Mei, you and I are going to be brothers, Edward! Isn't that great!"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Everyone stopped walking at this point and turned their attention to the eldest Elric brother. How said brother is now on his knees blubbering out words that no one could comprehend. It seemed to involved his younger brother and the Emperor of Xing. The only one that appeared not at all surprised by such behavior is Severus. He actually walked over and smacked Edward upside his head. "Behave."

Edward stopped his blubbering and glared at Severus. "You do not understand what is happening... In a couple of years... I will be related to this idiot. My brother is going to marry one of his sisters..."

By this point, Alphonse to make himself smaller and inch away from the upcoming questioning stares. Mei, on the other hand, is blushing heavily but made no way of moving from her spot. She has many sisters and Edward made no mention she is said sister.

"Alphonse is marrying a princess and Edward marrying his childhood sweetheart... You have to step up your game, Boss." Jean sniggered at Roy's look of astonishment and deep realization of several aspects of his life. "They're beating you to the punchline."

"I'm actually surprised Fullmetal did not attack tall, dark and creepy."

-.-

"Have you seen the visitors?"

"Yeah! The so-called Emperor of Ping? What a bloody joke!"

"He's a complete idiot!"

"Shhhh! Didn't you guys know? He has a guard that blends into the shadows and could pop out of nowhere!"

"Naw, that can't be true."

"Don't believe me, ask the Weasley Twins. They're still recovering from that prank they did on the Emperor of Xing?"

"Wait... is that why they are in the Medical Wing?"

"Yes, I was there when it happened."

".... Whoa..."

"I know..."

-.-

"He's so handsome!"

"His smile..."

"How is he even related to Mr. Elric?"

"I know! They act nothing alike!"

"They do have the same eye and hair color..."

"That's where the similarities end."

"I heard he's engaged..."

"WHAT!"

"NOO!"

"Why is it all the good ones are always taken!"

-.-

"She's is... Amazing."

"Adorable even."

"If only we could understand what she is saying."

"That only makes it even better."

"Everyone... She has a bodyguard."

"I thought only the Emperor had a bodyguard."

"The princess has a tiny rat bear cat thing, the demon thing bits or scratches anyone that comes their way."

-.-

"He looks like a potions accident gone horribly wrong, don't they have any sort of healers where they are from?"

"He looks terrifying..."

"Hah! He looks like a freak!"

"True! Hahaha!"

"Hey! Shut up! Don't talk about Dr. Marcoh like that!"

"Yeah, what are you going to do about it, Hufflepuff?"

"Oh I show you, you damn Gryffindor!"

-.-

Let it be noted... All of this occurred in the span of two days...

Permanent Tag List:

@runestarchild​​​ @princesskitomi​​​ @fanfictionpromptsblog​​​ @souleateralicestein​​​ @vixen-uchiha​​​ @okami-knight​​​ @legendaryneckjudgestudent​​​ @weird-homosapien​​​ @justafanwarrior​​​ @vivilakitty​​​ @ravennightingaleandavatempus​​​ @if-you-give-a-chat-a-cookie​​​ @moonwatcher04​​​ @darkshadowguardian​​​ @two-faced-biatch​​​ @kris-pines04​​ @mewwitch​​​ @edwardhatori​​​​ @kuroko26​​​​ @tall-and-angry​​​   @bloody-no-kissu​​​​ @crazylittlemunchkin​​​​ @tbehartoo​​​​ @worlds-tiniest-spook-pastry​​​​ @melicmusicmagic​​​​

[ahiddenpath]

Seven Years of Writing Fanfics

I’m being a little premature- I’ll celebrate seven years of writing as ahiddenpath in September- but I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what I’ve learned.  Please read on if you want to hear about the writing habits I wish I had when I started in 2012, and about the habits I wish I didn’t have back then!

I’ll also be talking about my writing plans in general.  Check it out below the cut!

1.)  Make a story bible.

A story bible is a reference document for your story.  Before you post a new fic, I strongly suggest creating one.  For digimon specifically, this means making some choices before you begin:

Which version of the character names will you use?  Do you intend to remain consistent with this choice?  For example, I’ve seen a lot of writers use Japanese character names and English digimon names.  Will you use official honorifics?  Custom honorifics?  Will you use terminology from one translation of the show, or a mashup?

Make these choices upfront, create reference charts, and remain consistent.  

After that, you can also keep references for topics such as characterization details (if you say that Bob’s favorite drink is coffee in one chapter and tea twenty chapters later, be prepared for a flood of comments pointing out the inconsistency), setting details, and anything that you don’t want to forget.  Spending half an hour hunting down a silly detail instead of writing is a huge bummer.

Growing Up with You is my worst offender of ‘problems a story bible would have fixed.’  It’s got... every issue you can imagine, lol!  For example, pairing Hikari with Gatomon (instead of Tailmon), using ‘digitama’ and ‘digimental’ interchangeably in the 02 arc, using the English terms for evolution stages while using Japanese names for other things, confusing Bakemon and Bakumon, it’s a mess.  It’s so bad that a complete, painstaking edit is the only thing that can fix it...  Which is enough to make me weep, given that the story is over 400K words long.

Organize yourself before you start.  Here’s a link to some printable Digimon Adventure and Digimon Adventure 02 references.

2.)  Avoid Longfics.

I know I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating.  NEVER PUBLISH A NEW STORY WITHOUT HAVING AN ENDING IN SIGHT FROM THE BEGINNING.

I’m not saying you can’t write huge, epic tales.  God knows I’m unlikely to stop doing that.  But, if I could go back in time, I would separate Growing Up with You into four fics.  It would be something like this:

Growing Up with You I: Childhood

Growing Up with You II:  Digimon Adventure

Growing Up with You III:  Liminal Space

Growing Up with You IV:  Digimon Adventure 02

I’m sure some arcs would be longer than others, but this way, I’d have four stories that are roughly 100K words long.  

A lot of folks just... don’t want to read a 400K story.  It’s intimidating, man!  Although it varies by genre, the average word count for a fiction novel aimed at adults is 80K words.  That 400K fic is like FIVE NOVELS, DUDE!!!!  That’s a commitment for readers!

Shorter stories are more reader friendly, but there’s also a huge benefit to you, the writer.  Separating your longfic into multiple stories allows you more opportunities to write towards an ending.  Breaking your story into digestible chunks decreases the writing paralysis that comes with being nowhere near the ending.  It also cuts back on meandering chapters that don’t carry the narrative closer to that ending.  Furthermore, thinking of the story in arcs before you start writing forces you to plan more...  Something I never did in 2012!!!!

Best of all, once you reach the end of an arc, you can take a break before launching the next one.  It’s hard on a writer to continue endlessly producing without a break.  It’s hard on a reader to hit the final available chapter in a fic and wonder if it will ever update again.  But if you complete an arc and take a break to plan and write a few buffer chapters, the tension and impatience is gone for your audience, and you get to breathe.  It’s a win-win!

3.)  Avoid long chapters.

Back in 2012, I often posted chapters that were 10K words and longer!  Here are some benefits to posting shorter updates more frequently:

-Shorter wait times between updates.

Let’s say your planned chapter is 15K words long.  I could update my story once in the span of a month, or I could break the chapter into three parts and update three times in a month!  This keeps readers happy and interested in your work.

Over time, you’ll develop the ability to create sub arcs/movements, finding spots to break them up into separate updates.  This also creates natural moments for cliffhangers, tension, and mini resolutions.  It’s a great way to insert more moods and movement into your narrative.    

-More exposure for your story.

Every time you update your fanfic, it gets pushed to the top of the update list on fanfiction.net or AO3.  The more you update it, the more hits your story will receive, thanks to all the extra time it will spend on the first page of newly-updated fics.

-Easier editing.

I do my best editing when I’m working with 5K words or fewer at a time.  Personally, I can only focus on close editing for about 90 minutes before I start missing mistakes and forgetting details.  I could edit a 10K word update in two sittings, but then it’s possible to forget about details and moods from the previous editing session!  So, unless your story bible is really hardcore, your editing process could benefit from shorter updates.

-More feedback/support

I have a few amazing readers who leave some form of feedback/appreciation for me whenever I post a new chapter.  A supported writer is a happy, productive writer!  More updates means more chances for feedback and support from your readers, which in turn can fuel and direct your writing!  Again, everyone wins!  (Thanks, guys, I love you!).

4.)  Publish your story on both fanfiction.net and AO3.

Why reach one audience when you could potentially reach two?  There are plenty of readers who only use one platform or the other.

At this point, it would be ridiculously difficult to post my 70+ chapter fanfics to AO3...  Do yourself a favor and post to both from the start!

5.)  Remember: writing and editing are two separate processes.

Guys guys guys guys guys.  Lemme be real here.

I used to painstakingly write a first draft, check for spelling/grammar errors on my word processor, and then post it.

Here’s what my process looks like now: word vomit a first draft, do an edit in my word processor, print the edited draft, make edits on paper, transfer edits to word processor, print new draft, make edits on paper, transfer edits to word processor, final read through, post

If my new method looks more time intensive...  In a way, it is, but in a way, it isn’t?  I bang out that first rough draft without a care in the world, where I used to agonize over every word.  Agonizing is not fun.  Word vomiting can produce some, ah, discouraging results, but it feels like creative play.  It’s fun, it’s flexible, it’s fast...  And you can fix it later through the magic of editing.  And if you’re having fun, you’ll keep writing.  If you’re agonizing, you’ll find yourself making excuses to avoid writing.

Plus, my current method produces tighter, more deliberate prose, while maintaining the freedom and energy of word vomiting...  And avoiding the angst and doubt.  This is my best defense against writing paralysis and my greatest weapon in the battle of producing words.

My method can’t be right for everyone, but I do encourage you to try it out, especially if your writing hasn’t been joyful lately.

6.)  Don’t run too many fics at one time.

I encourage writers to have one longer fic open and one shorter fic, preferably of different tones/settings/main characters.  This gives you a way to keep writing when you’re sick of one project without bogging you down.

You will likely have some readers who love everything you do (god bless), but many people have particular genre, character, and setting preferences.  If you have three fics open, then readers of any one story have to wait much longer for the next update while you alternate updating each fic.

And more importantly, having a ton of open stories just...  It feels heavy, guys.  It’s a weight, a pressure.  Trust me.  Forgive me, fanfic gods, for I have sinned.

7.)  Maintain a buffer

Okay, so my Nanowrimo project for 2018 was to write 50,000 words for After August, my current open fic.  By the end of the month, I had a roughly 80% complete first draft of the entire fic.  

Guys!  Guys!  It’s so cool to know exactly where the story is going, from start to finish.  My editing is so deliberate on this piece!  I can spot repetition and inconsistencies, since the draft is printed and sitting in front of me in a binder.  I can tweak emphasis and maintain more balance between character appearances.  It’s a whole new ballpark for me, someone who always wrote one update at a time and posted it upon completion (or worse, wrote ahead and lost the material when I changed my mind about the plot before reaching that future point).

Plus, even if my life gets extra busy or hard, I can still maintain my updating schedule.  I can print out a chapter, take it to work, and do hard edits during my lunch break (I realize that makes me antisocial, but have you ever endured coworkers telling you all of their problems while you try to eat a sandwich in peace?  The editing is much more fun.  I am antisocial, is what I’m saying.  Born into it, baby).

Regular updates are a big part of maintaining steady readership, so having a buffer both increases the quality of your work (since you know where the story is going for sure) and ensures that more people read it.  Awww yisssss.

Okay, well, my concentration is gone now, so that’s the end of my advice!  If I think of anything else, maybe I’ll add it?  

I do want to touch base with my writing plans, though.  Currently, of course, my goal is to complete After August.  If I can post one chapter per week, it will be compete in early March, but I’m going to aim for completing the story in May, to allow for any issues that might come up (for example, Kingdom Hearts III is coming out soon!).

After that, I want to complete Seeking Resonance...  Although I have no idea how long that will take?  I just know that the heavy atmosphere was really starting to weigh on me.

After that... Well, do you remember that survey I made a while back?  It looks like my next project should probably be completing Four Years.  

I might simultaneously work on one of these two stories and Tales of REM, or maybe I’ll alternate between SR and FY for a while?  To be honest, though, I would really like to wrap up SR as soon as I can.

Either way, completion is the name of the game this year.  Please look forward to it!  Let me know if you have any ideas for future fics, or if you have a favorite from my list of potential future projects!

[trinity-blood-translations]

ROM 6 - Chapter 1 Part I (english translation)

Finally the time has come: May I present the first part of Sunao Yoshida’s Trinity Blood - Reborn on the Mars 6 (ROM 6) in english translation. Translator: Roven, Editing: Lamy

In the grave rests the corpse of the fallen black angel. The Lady Saint cries for him as if her soul had been torn. Will she bring it back to life?

The bloody sword, The clever vampires, Two women Lurk the northern kingdom.                                      The Crown of Thorns

                                                Index

                         Chapter 1: The Sacrificial Lamb 13                          Chapter 2: The Queen of the Dead 58                          Chapter 3: The Capital of the Fog 119                          Chapter 4: The Crown of Thorns 203

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

                                            Chapter I                              THE SACRIFICIAL LAMB

                                                                  “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain,                                         to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength                                                                         and honor and glory and praise!”                                                                                                (Revelation 5:12)  Part I —It seems the medicines are working ...   Dr. Lucrezia Ligorio put the stethoscope in her pocket and showed a maternal smile. After the patient who was lying down in bed fixing her nightgown, she carefully took her on the wrist to check the pulse.   —I think the attacks will improve ... You have nothing to worry about, eminence. You just have to rest properly and you will get well.   —I fully trust you, Dr. Ligorio ...   The doctor smiled at her as she stroked the patient's hair with her free hand. The cardinal's face was fascinating even for women. Responding to the smile full of love, Caterina, out of nowhere, asked the doctor who had taken care of her for twenty years:   —So, Doctor... How much longer do I have to live? Please tell me sincerely how long will I last.   —E...eminence!?   Dr. Ligorio had been taking care of the Duchess of Milan since she was a weak and sickly child. Although she tried to simulate tranquility, the way how the color of her face had changed before that question gave a clue about what she was trying to hide. Caterina nodded, laughing:   —I see ... So I have so little left that you don’t even dare telling me.   —The..., the collagenosis, even if it is discovered soon, has a very difficult treatment ...   The doctor still had the same expressionless face, but her professional ethics forced her to respond seriously to her patient. As if she were herself the patient, her voice trembled as she explained:   —This disease is a type of immunologic disorder in which the body interprets itself as an enemy and causes a reaction autoimmune. What is eroding your lungs is neither a bacterium nor a virus. It is your own immune system, eminence. If I had examined you more frequently, we could have detected it earlier...I beg your pardon, eminence.   —You have no reason to apologize, Doctor. All the blame has been mine... Now that you say it: when was the last time you made me a check up?   —Eight years ago..., when the previous Pope died, just before they appointed you as cardinal.   —Oh yeah! Since then I have been so busy that I could not visit you not even once. I've been busy indeed..., very busy... —Caterina sighed, while casting a glance at the moon in the closet that reflected her. In those three months she had lost more than three kilos, but for luck the change was not visible on the face. Even though she had the cheekbones more marked, she could still be praised as the << most beautiful cardinal of the world >>. However, there was no doubt that the disease was progressing inside her body. Even while they were talking, little by little...   —Thank you for coming today, Doctor ... The pain of the lips made the cardinal realize that she was grinding her teeth. She gently addressed the doctor who was looking anxious, trying to relax the expression.   —I'm counting on you for the next visit... Father Tres, the doctor is leaving. Get the car ready.   —Positive — said a short priest. The young man, who had stood still on a corner like a statue during the whole visit, offered the doctor a wallet. After he opened it and showed her the documents inside, he closed it again and gave it in her hands.   —Doctor, what we have talked must remain here at all secret —said the cardinal, indifferently, as if she were talking about the weather, but at the same time with a sharp echo in the voice. —This is only known by you, Father Tres and me. The rest of the world thinks I have just a cold... If someone of Cardinal Medici’s environment finds out, he will use it against me. It is of vital importance that no one gets to know.   —I understand perfectly. —Dr. Ligorio nodded in a mechanical manner at the open door. — But, your eminence, don't lose hope...   Turning towards the patient, who was looking from the bed towards the window, the doctor added with professional but sore voice:   —If you rest and take the medicines, we can still extend your life...   —I know, Doctor. Do not worry, I won't let myself be carried away by the desperation... See you later.   After the priest has closed the door behind the doctor and the cardinal turned her glance from the door back to the window. Spring came soon to the south of Europe. It was still march, but the flowers of the garden in the Sforza Castle showed already all their splendor. The colorful parterres looked like the perfect setting for mischief and fairy dances. Staring at the garden with her eyes Caterina let escape a mocking laugh.   —What an irony... That I, who have no intention of having children, am suffering from  this disease.   Collagenosis was a relatively common disease in pregnant women, whose hormonal system tended to upset the new state. The mechanism that prepared the female body to develop the fetus sometimes caused the organism to interpret its own cells as intruders and the white blood cells were attacking and destroying them. It was literally as if the body was murdering itself.   The beautiful lady coughed and turned to the priest as if she were about to tell him a joke.   —Are not you laughing, Father Tres?" So many times they have tried to kill me and I have always managed to survive, many times escaping miraculously from death. I had always thought I had the fortune on my side... And now it turns out that it is my own body that wants to kill me. You can't escape from this assassin...   —I recommend you to rest, Duchess of Milan...The mechanical and dispassionate tone of the response contrasted with the cynical tone of the cardinal's voice.   —Dr. Ligorio has advised you to reserve the strength so that you can recover. You must take the medicines you have been indicated, feed and rest properly.   —Reserve forces... And then what? I may live a couple of months more, but then what?  — Caterina said, with a candid smile of child.   In fact, afterwards nothing has changed. Whatever she did, there was no way to change the destiny that was awaiting her. Caterina crossed her hands over the blanket. Squeezing the fists up until the blue veins became visible through the white skin, she whispered:   —I do not have time... and I have so much to do. I can’t lose him having pity on myself. I can’t afford that luxury...   As Cardinal, as the Pope's sister and as the last heiress of The house of Sforza, she had much to do. There were disputes to solve, enemies to beat, vengeance to fulfill ... There was no time to lose in lamentations. She had to...  —Eh? Caterina felt a sudden shift in the chest that made her rise the eyebrows, lost. At first she thought it was another attack, but it was not. What were those palpitations? Why were her eyelids trembling? What was the warm liquid that trickled down her cheeks? Tears? The Iron Lady dropped her shoulders and took the pale hands to the face.   —No! —She shouted in a trembling voice that didn’t sound like her own.— I do not want to die yet! Why!? Why me!? I have so many things to do!   Tears ran down her chin and fell on the bed sheets. With her eyes fixed on the trail they left, Caterina was grinding her teeth. There were so many things she wanted to do. It wasn't that she had to do them, but rather wanted to do them. So many things to say... Her mind was filled with those blue eyes like a winter lake. She wanted to look at them forever. She wanted them to always look at her. But... Why? Why her of all people? Why her and not another person!?   —Your Eminence, are you awake?   The sound of someone politely knocking on the door interrupted her lamentations. A female voice asked through the door:   —Can I pass? If you're busy, I can come back later...   —No, no, please come on in, Sister Loretta.   Caterina wiped away her tears with a damp towel. Simulating that she had just woken up, she asked in the most serene tone she could:   — What is it? It's still early for official announcements... Has something happened?   —Well... yes. A telegram from the Professor has just arrived from Londinium... —explained the nun, passing her a paper through Gunslinger. — Since it seemed urgent, I decided to bring it to you immediately... Are you sure that I didn't woke you up?   —No, don’t worry. Thank you... From Dr. Wordsworth? But what... happened ...?   As she casted an eye on the telegram, Caterina’s voice choked. The text was simple with the most concise and simple language possible, but the Cardinal had frozen, as if she had forgotten how to breathe.   —Is there something serious, eminence? —Loretta asked with a small whisper, seeing the beautiful lady turning into a marble statue. —Are they bad news? Has anything happened in Londinium?   —No, it's nothing, Sister Loretta. —The cardinal replied, smiling, controlling the terrible pain that seemed to want to tear her chest.— There has only been a slight setback in the Londinium palace. We have to gather all the possible information... Sister Loretta, warn the Palace Of the Swords to get in touch with the embassy in Albion…. Father Tres… — The cardinal stopped short, waiting for the nun to make her bow and leave the room. Once the door was closed, she addressed with a hard expression to her faithful watchdog:   —Go immediately to Londinium. Abel has gotten himself into a mess ...again. I trust you will know how to fix it. "That" is in the underground. Take it.   —Positive.   The mechanical soldier nodded and turned away quickly. As soon as the echo of his regular steps had been extinguished down the aisle, the Cardinal turned her gaze to the telegram. Without realizing it, she had seized it so hard that she was about to break it. Furious, the beautiful lady pronounced only one name.  —Esther Blanchett...!                                                          ***

[fire-dwelling]

Fire Force, Chapter 104: “Binds of the Fire”

Translated from Japanese to Portuguese to English

Page 2

Narration: “Shinra and Charon fight for Inka! Elsewhere, Hinawa and Vulcan try to hold the line against an army Flame Humans--but then in the middle a Demon appears!”

The caption of the image of a human, their skin removed leaving muscle and bone, with flames emerging from its orifices, says, “Those who lose their bodies and go out of control are called Flame Humans.”

Page 3

The horned Flame Human stands among flames. From a rooftop, Haumea watches.

Haumea: “Excellent--a demon has been born! Someone awoke the Adora Burst after all. They knew that, if we used insects to cause human combustion, a demon would emerge. But it must be hard for them...The firefighters can’t stop these Flame Humans without putting their souls to rest. They get so very attached...”

Meanwhile, someone in a Company Eight nun outfit walks.

???: “Ha ha. I’m ready.”

Page 4

Back at the Flame Human army, Vulcan calls over the radio--

Maki: (on the radio) “The sister is coming--hold on!”

Vulcan: “Yeah, but it’s not just one typical Flame Human--a demon’s appeared! It's impossible to count them all! Please, hurry!”

The nun stumbles towards Vulcan and Takehisa.

???: “Sorry for the delay--I'm coming! Hahahaha...It just took me a while.”

Page 5

The nun lifts up her habit to reveal she is Tamaki.

Tamaki: “I needed time to change.”

Vulcan: “Tamaki, are you also trained as a nun?”

Tamaki: “Of course! After all, I was at Company One...but this is my first time reposing souls…”

Tamaki steps forward--not noticing that her cloth is caught on what looks like a horn left from the corpse of a Flame Human.

Tamaki: “So I’ll start now--NYAA!”

Page 6

And Tamaki’s clothes fly off.

Tamaki: “Why…?”

Takehisa: “How did you lose all your clothes? And why did only the habit remain?”

Vulcan: “Bikini nuns are fashionable…”

Vulcan then looks nervous.

Vulcan: “But this may make them go to Heaven more easily--”

Takehisa: “Stop talking nonsense!”

The Flame Humans march forward. Takehisa aims his gun at them.

Takehisa: “They’re coming!”

Tamaki: “What will we do if we can’t put all their souls to rest?!”

Page 7

Suddenly, all the Flame Humans are encased in ice.

Vulcan and Takehisa look to the source of this cold.

???: “ Unbelievable, Tamaki...You’re always like this.”

It’s Fulham, wielding his trumpet.

Page 8

Tamaki: “Captain Karim!”

Fulham: “You’re missing some clerics, aren’t you?”

Elsewhere, over the radio, Akitaru hears Tamaki’s call to “Captain Karim,” followed by a call from Takehisa.

Takehisa: “This is Hinawa! We have been joined by Captain Karim from the First!”

Vulcan: “Ah, great timing!”

Akitaru: “But we couldn’t get help from the others in the First, huh?”

Fulham: “Officially, yes. So I asked to offer personal help.”

Page 9

Meanwhile, Shinra is surrounded by Hoods.

Charon: “Pursue the runaway girl.”

Hood #1: “As you wish!”

Shinra: “Wait!”

Page 10

A Hood seizes Shinra from behind, pulling him back while another Hood sweeps the floor to kick Shinra down.

Shinra: “I won’t let you!”

The Hood chokes Shinra and body slams him.

Shinra: “MUGH.”

Page 11

Then the Hoods notice a balloon flying over the smoky city.

Shinra: “That’s…”

Kishiri arrives, blowing a bubble.

Kishiri: “Backdraft Bubblish Gum.”

The gum-bubble in the sky explodes.

Page 12

The Hoods and Shinra are knocked back. Kishiri continues chewing gum.

Shinra: “Tooru Kishiri from the Fifth!”

Kishiri: “I came because I received an order saying you needed help…”

The Hoods are already back on their feet.

Hood #1: “Another one?!”

Kishiri backs up, nervous.

Kishiri: “Um, no...I-I was just passing through…”

Suddenly, missiles on fire descend.

Page 13

And the Hoods explode.

Takeru has arrived.

Takeru: “So dangerous...I’ve arrived.”

Kishiri has calmed down, pulling his gum.

Kishiri: “Wow. Incredible barrage.”

Page 14

Two Hoods rush at Takeru.

Hood #1: “Come on!”

Takeru: “Aiiii.”

Then two more gum-bubbles float to the Hoods--and explode. Flames just persist around them.

Hood #1: “We can’t get any closer.”

Page 15

Through the flames, another missile lands on the Hood’s chest.

Hood #1: “?!”

And the missile launches the Hood into the sky. Takeru holds out his hands to control the missile.

Takeru: “Stay back!”

The missile and the Hood then explode in the sky.

Kishiri: “Good work, Juggernaut! I’ll hold them back, you keep punching!”

Takeru: “Right!”

Charon: “We also need to fight long-distance!”

A Hood forms a flame sphere.

Hood #2: “As you wish.”

Page 16

Shinra is flying over the sky.

Shinra: “I won’t let them take that girl!”

Charon looks up.

Charon: “Shinra Kusakabe...Where do you intend to go? Where Inka was, yes? Yes? That's it, isn’t it?”

Charon then explodes forward in pursuit.

Charon: “Answer my question!”

Page 17

Charon catches up, grabbing Shinra by the neck.

Shinra: “What?!”

Charon throws Shinra forward to the ground.

Shinra: “UUUH--”

Shinra keeps screaming as a building approaches--

Shinra: “UH UH UH--”

Charon slams Shinra through the wall.

Charon: “RAH!!!”

Page 18

Charon pushes Shinra through the house.

Shinra: “Road.”

Shinra flips Charon over--and kicks him back.

Page 19

Charon flips over and lands on a rooftop--before turning back with a smile.

Shinra emerges through the broken wall--and is surprised to hear someone.

???: “Stop! Don’t touch me!”

Page 20

The Hoods have Inka.

Inka: “Get off! Let me go!”

Hood #2: “Silence.”

Shinra: “Hey! Leave that girl alone!”

The money symbol appears again in Inka’s eye as she looks up at Shinra.

Inka: “Don’t mess with me! I refuse to live in a world without this feeling!”

Shinra: “...What is your problem?”

Narration: “The three in conflict! Will the perplexed Shinra be able to convince her? To be continued in Chapter 105: ‘Conclusion’!”

[meiizumi]

Castle of Shikigami: An informal rant nobody asked for about my most obscure obsession to date

STOP i spent like 2 days writing this post and im only posting it on tumblr because it’s the one website i’m a member of that can hold the most text. i wanted to infodump somewhere...... read this to learn something i guess (´･ω･`)

Bad voice acting is the Peak of comedy to me, and while I was looking for something to laugh at one day, I found this game called Castle Shikigami 2 for the PS2. The US version of the game's dialogue is rife with machine translated text that makes no sense, and awkward voice acting to boot. They even have voice actors saying the wrong lines, voice actors speaking implied commands, and a few voice lines are left in Japanese. Apparently, Roger Craig Smith (Sonic the Hedgehog's current voice actor) was in this game but I don't think he's even credited?! I think I know which character he voiced but I’m not exactly sure.

The history behind this game’s localization is REALLY weird. Castle of Shikigami/Shikigami no Shiro was originally an arcade bullet hell shoot em up game. The series was created by Alfa System and it was one of Alfa System’s main IPs. There are three main shmup installments and a text adventure game for the PS2, Nanayozuki Gensoukyoku. Nanayozuki was practically fanservice for whatever number of CoS fans there were back then. Each main game in the series was originally an arcade cabinet, but they were all ported to PC and home consoles. In CoS 2′s case, it came out on the PS2, Gamecube, and Dreamcast, but only the PS2 version got localized. The western publisher, XS Games specializes in publishing quality budget titles such as “Bass Pro Shops: The Strike” for the Wii. I theorize they didn’t care too much about the actual content of CoS 2 and were more focused on selling a game quickly for a low price, so they just machine translated it and adjusted a few things. If you’re wondering if Castle of Shikigami 1 was also translated this badly, the answer is No. XS Games instead removed all the dialogue from the western release of CoS 1, and released it with the title “Mobile Light Force 2″.

“Wait, what do you mean ‘Mobile Light Force TWO’ if Castle of Shikigami 1 is the first game in the series?” If you want to know what Mobile Light Force 1 was, it’s GUNBIRD; another shmup game, but by a completely different developer than Castle of Shikigami. I don’t know why they did that. What really kills me though is that both MLF 1 and 2 use the same boxart, which is COMPLETELY unrelated to the actual contents of either game. AFJQHJFOKLJFDS look at this

There’s more hilarity behind Mobile Light Force that isn’t hard to find so you can search that up if you’re interested. But thankfully, Castle of Shikigami 3's Wii edition got more of a proper localization by Aksys Games.

Now I would bluntly say something like “stan castle of shikigami” but:

1. This series’ lore is insanely convoluted. It’s an essential part of this expansive fictional universe referred to as “Mumei Sekaikan” (I don’t know what this translates to in English) where there’s like, 7 different parallel worlds. There’s more obscure ass games and manga that are tied to this universe, and I think there’s even a tabletop RPG made based off it. Have you heard of “Gunparade March”? Most likely you haven’t; it’s an obscure video game made by Alfa System that also got adapted into an anime, and I feel it can be described as Mechas x Persona. One of the characters in CoS 2 is just one of the GPM characters going undercover to find her senpai who traveled to the CoS world. Or something like that. The 7-world universe isn’t explicitly talked about in the game but they make so many references to it without defining anything that it’s like you Must know about it. There is NO documentation in English about the Mumei Sekaikan I could find on the internet, although there is a wiki in Japanese where I got a ton of knowledge from (GOOGLE TRANSLATE IS MY TRUSTED FRIEND) I feel like I might be THE person in the United States who has the most knowledge on the Mumei Sekaikan, and I could go on another tangent talking about what I know so far (and who this one specific dude Shibamura Yuuri is) but I won’t.

2. The writing isn’t excellent and can be pretty Unwoke ™; the first game came out in 2001 and the third game came out in 2005 if that gives you a sense on what era these writers were in. As far as the games dialogue goes, the characters appear kind of flat. CoS 1 and 2 Kotaro (i refuse to use the official “Kohtaro”) is stupid and driven by JUSTICE to a point where it’s annoying. I can’t tell if Hyuga is trying to be a Ladies Man in CoS 2 and 3. Kim, a religious tae kwon do instructor, spends CoS 2 thinking about how he should atone for his sins, then he turns himself into jail at the end. Sayo’s backstory is that she was a shrine maiden raised as a “human weapon” to have no emotions and her only goal in life was to kill god and then die, something like that. However, after CoS 1, she gets a crush on Kotaro because he actually treats her like a human and Of course that’s what you’d expect from the main teen girl and boy in the series. In CoS 3, Sayo's character is mostly played out to be a major tsundere for Kotaro even though surprisingly HIS character in this game changed a ton compared to 1 and 2 (he had to kill an illusion of his older brother, who he learned actually died earlier, and now he has to kill an illusion of his childhood sweetheart... damb that shit sucks :/). He’s still stupid though

There’s a gag in CoS 2 that I can’t clearly remember where it’s like, Niigi makes Sayo and Fumiko, who are both romantically interested in Kotaro, think that he’s only into little girls? Meanwhile, Fumiko’s magic goes wrong and her appearance turns to that of a child though in response she’s like “hee hee maybe Kotaro will like this”. basically more On-Brand early 2000′s anime unwokeness than average. Speaking of Fumiko, she’s a 400+ year old militaristic witch who constantly teases Kotaro (who’s like 16 or 17) and she wants to marry him for his magical potential since he’s like one of the candidates for becoming God??? From the official CoS 3 character descriptions, “Her hobby is to steal the men from other women. Her second hobby is trampling upon people.” She canonically stole her stepmother’s husband from her stepmother (the 3rd boss of CoS 3). I don’t get how that shit would have worked

3. The game itself is HARD af but to be fair I’m a scrub gamer. I can’t get past stage 3 on easy difficulty without continuing. Yes i bought CoS 1 on Steam, Yes it has a port on steam i feel like i should have mentioned this earlier

4. Besides CoS 1 having a port on Steam, CoS 2 and 3 might be hard to obtain legally. The poorly translated CoS 2 was apparently super cheap back then, but since it’s an old game, its value might’ve increased. When I tried looking up prices for English CoS 3, all the listings were like at least $40 and being broke I wouldn’t want to spend more than $29 for a Wii game in 2019... honestly I just emulated CoS 2. shout out to PCSX2

Last month I was desperate, bored enough, and deep enough in the Shikigami rabbit hole that I tried to find the manga based off of it online. The CoS manga only tells the events of the first two games so I still don’t really get anything about CoS 3, like who Mihee, Batu, and Emilio are supposed to be. However, the plot events also differ. For example, Roger Sasuke exists as a character in CoS 3 but in the manga he literally Dies. There’s 11 total volumes of this; 3 volumes dedicated to CoS 1 and the latter 8 (the “Twisted Castle arc”) dedicated to CoS 2. Only the very first 3 chapters were scanlated to English all the way in 2011. Fortunately, I did find the entire manga uploaded though............... in CHINESE. So you know what I did? I “read” the entire thing using my phone’s Google Translate OCR app to take pictures of each page and comprehend the translations. Of course I still don’t understand CRAP because of the Mumei Sekaikan jargon + machine translation but I understood enough to get emotionally attached to some of the characters. I wish I hadn’t. At least through the manga I learned that the characters DO have some depth and pre-established relationships. For instance, the reason why Roger Sasuke became a ninja is because when he first landed in Japan as a kid, he was getting bullied or something and he didn’t know Japanese then Kotaro saw this and told the bullies to stop. Then after Roy /sorry i mean Roger learned that he was set to home-stay with the Kugas in the first place, he decided to dedicate his life to Japan in order to protect Kotaro back. I think. DO U SEE HOW ABSURD THIS SHIT IS Anyway Nanayozuki takes place between the second and third games and sets things up for CoS 3. There’s a full playthrough of it uploaded to YouTube and I think it contains a lot of juicy lore, but it’s just too much to go over with Shitty Google Translate OCR. There’s also Shikigami no Shiro novels which apparently contain the most backstory, but I have a 0% chance of finding these online for free. Not to mention that these would ALSO be too much effort to Google Translate.

in conclusion: You don’t HAVE to play Castle of Shikigami. Like, I’m not gonna recommend it for the content, but if you love shmups and are looking for a shmup game you haven’t heard of then I will recommend it for the gameplay (old touhou mutuals assemble theres a POWER-UP-BY-GRAZE MECHANIC). I’ve counted like 4 total fans outside of Japan that like this series for the story, and I don’t think that number is going to increase because I doubt CoS 2 will ever get retranslated and ported. I just want you to know that this series exists and that there’s a ton of wacky shit behind it besides the bad Castle Shikigami 2 dub. also if someone knows enough japanese or chinese and has an INKLING of interest in this series umm talk to me and help me decipher stuff

I‘m kinda sad that the series is pretty much Dead though. This is the most recent piece of official Castle of Shikigami art I could find, and this was for the 2018 New Year. The next most recent piece of official CoS art I found was also drawn by the character designer Sonoda Miku all the way in January 2008, commemorating the end of the CoS manga serialization. Alfa System released a spiritual sequel to Castle of Shikigami on the Japanese Switch eShop called Sisters Royale, with character designs I think are still by Sonoda. By “spiritual sequel” I mean that it has some of the EXACT same shot types as CoS and the same mechanic where grazing bullets increases your power and score. This is the closest we’ll get to a Shikigami no Shiro 4. I wonder what the business decision behind that game was but it actually looks like fun and I want to play it so OK Go off i guess

[chromemuffin]

Shoukoku no Altair / Altair: A Record of Battles

Another series I will be liveblogging, this time a wonderfully detailed manga set in a fictional version of the Ottoman Empire/Turkey (and written by a historian! how rare!). I guess Captive Prince got me started on a historical fiction kick, and I’ve been eyeing this manga for over a month wondering if I should read it or wait for the anime that comes out anyway...I decided to pick it up.

There are 18 volumes of this thing, so I suppose I should liveblogging by volume unless the posts start to get way too long. Which they may, if I get my hands on raws. I am a huge language nerd, so.

Chapter 1

First off, after reading the blurb at the end of the fan translated first chapter, I found out that the ‘shoukoku’ part of the title is a word the manga-ka made up. Composed of the words for ‘general’ and ‘country’ (a country run by generals), the translator found the word stratocracy (a government ruled by the military) fit the description best. Which is why the fan translations use the ‘Turkiye Stratocracy’, which is great because there is no confusion if you know what a stratocracy is, or take a second to look it up.

Meanwhile, the official Kodansha version calls it the ‘Devleti of Turkiye’. ‘Devleti’ is apparently Turkish for ‘state’ (so the State of Turkiye). Very different, and both good. I love translation work for this very reason. I think I prefer using stratocracy. It’s true to the original, and clearly distinguishes this story as being an alternate version of Turkish history to those who know the Ottoman Empire was a monarchy. There are already quite a few unfamiliar words around.

But. I also find myself liking Devleti of Turkiye haha.

HM THIS WILL REQUIRE MORE THAN ONE POST. There is so much to talk about before getting to the chapter itself.

First: the cover

all of them are so beautiful. The amount of detail in every article of clothing from the hat to the jewels to the pattern embroidered around the hem. And the sword. I know nothing about Turkish history or culture (and forgot what little my american schooling taught about the ottoman empire), but a quick search for Turkish swords yields some examples of the more intricately decorated ones. The manga-ka is a historian/majored in Turkish history which. is great.

It’s a pity the Kodansha volumes are digital only?? I’d pay for a physical copy (but don’t hate myself enough to buy a Jpn copy...historical stuff has too many complicated kanji)

I wish I knew more about their style of dress because it’s drawn so well. I’ll look that up another time.

I really love the asymmetry with the glove he wears for his golden eagle to land on. It’s not in every illustration, but it even goes up to his elbow as it should for a larger species of bird, apparently. it’s just. so much great detail.

his shoes

He has this like teeny tiny waist that is totally out of proportion with his massive hats. Also: how do you even figure out where all those folds go in those clothes.

Also, it uses the Turkish word for ‘chapter’, faşil. I’m assuming that’s the right one, of course. Manga likes to change up the words they use for chapters depending on the setting.

ANYWAY FINALLY THE STORY

Why is one of the months called ‘sugar’ in Turkish (sheker, or şeker more technically)??

Look at him, striking a cool pose. I find it funny that he strikes all these confident poses, but he’s actually quite tiny next to everyone else. He probably does it because 1) he is confident in his own abilities and 2) he’s still a teenager in a world of adults, and it’s held against him in this chapter. His inability to do anything later frustrates the hell out of him as it is.

AND HERE COMES HIS BIRDIE. my favorite already

the fuck this type of bird was supposedly used to kill wolves

and it weighs 8-11 lbs depending on male/female

This kid is stronger than he looks. Although, his is male (named Iskander, so I assume), and the males weigh less (avg of 8 lbs) but still. I guess that’s why he has a male one. The females are massive and would probably dwarf his tiny self.

How is this not a wonderful shot, though.

Also, thank goodness for katakana or else I’d have no idea how to even approach pronouncing his name.

As for the situation itself, we jump right into things with a national crisis.

He looks younger when caught off-guard.

Tell me you did not carry that 8 pound bird aloft on your arm all the way here.

The official translation forgot Halil’s nickname/title “大都市” (large city/metropolis).

And this is where things get interesting. Usually in the peace vs. war debate, one side will always seem unreasonable no matter how hard the characters try to convince you otherwise, but I like how this one is set up.

On one hand you have the side that wants war, sees the enemy nation as a threat, and even throws in that ‘do you want to make a scapegoat of one of your countryman just to avoid war’, though can’t really tell if that’s sincere sentiment or not.

But then the old guy, Halil just says ‘yes, if it means peace’. Kind of a classic argument? Reminds me of Akatsuki no Yona, and the state of their country before the story starts.

this. just. his face. I needed to show the two together. Zaganos is obviously not impressed.

and therein lies the problem with politics: its not really about what’s right. I mean, everyone in the room can probably guess that their own soldiers weren’t responsible. But for all present except Mahmut, the meeting was never about finding out the truth.

Also, I love how he rants to Iskander, and even asks him a question directly as if he can answer.

o.o don’t ask me i’m just a bird

Halil calls him “Mah-kun” in Japanese, but the English version gets rid of this. It’s a pity, since it shows how close they are.

“You only just became a pasha, and now this. You must be exhausted.”

Dude, if he’s exhausted then what are you. You’ve had this position for 20 years.

And! yay! He’s angry at himself and his inability to do anything, rather than be angry at Zaganos. Shows that he really is more mature than he looks (especially with his grumpy facial expressions and petite self lol)

He looks just like his mother. D: poor baby iskander and mahmut

the amount of detail in this manga. see the rabbits hanging in the corner? 

also about the next panel: holy shit he fucking heard that??? his mother getting killed right in front of him, and he managed to stay quiet. poor terrified child like holy shit. and he managed not to crush little Iskander

I’m not going to show it, but if you look closely you’ll see she was not only stabbed in the chest, but also had a hand cut off at the wrist. wtf

every panel is so pretty jslethasdk the amount of detail in every background

his expression here just kills me. he’s just coming to the horrible, heart-wrenching realization of what has happened and UGH

I just really like his range of expressions. He’s just so damn uncomfortable with his elder, a guy he obviously respects and has a history with, bowing to him like that.

How can your heart not break seeing this. All he has left is his bird, the bird whistle, and the container for holding the bird’s meat.

Oh you conniving bastard- I actually thought the Emperor was in on it until the second read through I’m doing now. It was hard to notice since the panel just cuts from one scene to the next.

TINY CHILD YOU. Mahmut is taller than Halil counting the headpiece but he is made to look so tiny in front of adults. I think he’s supposed to be around 17 at the moment?

Man, he had a plan. How the heck did he have time to prepare the animal blood anyway? What a classy way to deal with your enemies.

I’m also happy that the manga-ka can draw birds so well. Iskander looks lovely.

...And that is actually really fucking scary. Those golden eagles are huge and strong enough to take out wolves.

The subtle expressions are great. As is the exchange between Mahmut and Zaganos here. They will probably clash again in the near future, but it seems they’ve gained a little more respect/acknowledgment for each other.

And now THIS, this is very interesting.

It looks like a statue, and that is clearly Mahmut and Iskander. I won’t make any guess though, I’m usually dead wrong with speculations.

I love the lines in this though, so fluid with Mahmut and straight and angled with the knight guy.

onward →