#and i really wanna focus on the manga for the next two chapters

[claire-starsword]

In preparation for the upcoming manga chapters I've translated every scene with Cain, come think about this man 24/7 like me

The attack on Guardiana Castle (had already posted this one but whatever, it is the guy's debut.)

The ambush in Alterone (this one also has every scene with Khris, who was completely changed in the english version too)

Fighting Cain in Dragonia aka the reveal you were supposed to get

Cain in Prompt, possibly the most emotional one, definitely the one i'm most mad about

And lastly, the Tower of the Ancients (this one also has the scene with Alef and Torasu joining, which is not a big deal but still has notable differences if you like these characters)

[piracytheorist]

Episode 32 notes!

Starting off right in the middle of action, right where we left off!

And some great animation there, too!

The thing about Anya is that her plans are so innocently silly that thanks to her young age, they actually work.

She's right there in front of Yor, acting like she doesn't recognize her, and Yor accepts that because a) it's easy and b) well Anya is a little kid, isn't she?

The fact that Anya is visibly sweating and has a very nervous expression shows that she's worried her plan won't work, and the entire family could come apart right there. She knows it's a risky plan... but because of the circumstances, it works perfectly not only to cover Yor but also to cover Anya's knowledge of Yor's secret.

I love her.

Also, a great way to take the fear of exposure away from Yor and help her focus on the fight! Worth waiting the entire week for!

I also love how excited the entire crowd was about seeing two people "play" with what seems to be lethal weapons. They'd do numbers as WWE fans.

The camera focuses on Yor as she's starting to question herself.

Yes you are! You're hesitating to get close because you fear you'll get hurt and you know that will make Anya and Loid sad! (And of course because you'll have no excuse to tell them but okay yeah)

Anyway. I just like how in comparison to the manga, we see her expression there during her inner monologue.

Yor comments about how professional the guy is with the chain, but then she has no problem using the chain's momentum to wrap it around his wrist and then his torso. Some excellent animation there showing the small details of her control of the chain!

~YOU'VE BEEN HIT BY-

YOU'VE BEEN STRUCK BY-

THE THOOOORN PRIIINCEEEEEEEESS~

She even used his immobilized body to make him bow. She's an absolute legend.

I've talked before that this isn't even a five-year-old roleplaying. She's actually getting involved with actual enemies of the state, helping their plans without them knowing, and having a blast. Her moral compass may be a little unhinged but by god is it steadfast XD

And then. The Grand RevealTM

WHITE ASS LEGS

I love him your honour. How did he even combine all that, I don't wanna know. The rainbow-tinted glasses is what ended me.

Anya Forger, professional heart-breaker.

Again. Talking with a guy who believes humans will never understand each other and who wants to wage another war, while Twilight has his own war trauma? No big deal. Anya calling him uncool? THE SHOCK AND DESPAIR OF HIS LIFE.

And off to the next chapter! Great transition in the anime - I can usually notice when they jump onto the next chapter, but this time I was surprised with how smoothly they took it from one to the next.

Turtleneck guy says he can't pick up Yor's scent? Even though he seems to have extraordinary smelling abilities?

Is that another reason why Yor is so good at sneaking up on people? She did sneak up on Twilight, after all...

"The bones" mentioned above... is that Loid talking about the skeleton keychain? There was, after all, a hidden bug in the store Loid and Anya were in...

Some things never change.

I can't wait for the moment he realizes how soundly she sleeps on his arms because she trusts him and he makes her feel safe, just like his mother did for him :)

Zeb! I finally get the name of the guy! I won't lie that calling him Furseal felt so weird, like, apologies if your name is Furseal but hey.

Anyway. His outburst felt so real. This man doesn't belong in crime.

And of course, Olka is way too desensitized to such violence, having grown up in the family, after all, and I kinda like how she goes like "Yo snap out of it". Endo really doesn't hold back from having women tell men off huh. I also love the baby talk she used with Gram. So cute.

This scene has the very same music used in the first episode where Twilight has his flashback and remembers what his reason to become a spy was. I feel kinda sad hearing it here because I'd thought that this melody would be used as [redacted]'s leitmotif, but its meaning seems to be connected with how people broken by war can find the hope in humanity needed for peace. Or something.

McMahon berates Yor for going near the door earlier even though she didn't hear their secret knock, but in reality it wouldn't matter - unless the assassin heard their voices from outside the door - because the assassin shot anyway. It would have been the same if she had protected Olka from the first moment and then tried to assess how to attack the guy. So maybe calm down, dude.

The moment Zeb was like "How are we supposed to sleep like that?" I was certain we'd see him sleeping and snoring deeply. I was not disappointed XD

Me when proper trigger discipline: 🥳💯👀🥳👌💯👀👌👌👀🎊👌🎊💯

First, good ol' focus on the ring on McMahon's finger. Second, I'm confused by the translation here in comparison to the manga. Here it says "as long as people continue to be people" while the manga says "as long as people are the way they are", and that can have a different meaning. The former sounds like conflict is in the nature of humans and that it's something we can never avoid, which doesn't seem to follow the story's ideal. It's what Donovan Desmond beliefs are based on, after all. The latter sounds like people are currently very focused on matters that cause conflict, and have a chance of reaching peace if taught differently.

I think, depending on the interpretation, it can tell a lot about McMahon's character. I will wait to see the rest of the arc to make up my mind.

And after he says that they're soldiers even in time of peace, the manga treats us to a panel of a pensive Yor, but the anime doesn't.

Stop robbing us, anime team!

Yor tells the others they should keep their shoes on - nice detail, btw - and Olka looks very familiar with such a concept, while it's Zeb who is a little surprised but accepts it. It's interesting what a character not reacting to something can tell about them!

As expected, Yor and Olka are vigilant, while Gram and Zeb sleep like babies. Let them rest XD

Some brand new music there! There's a lot of new music in general. And then THIS!

THIS IS THE FUTURE LIBERALS WANT ETC

The way Yor widens her eyes when she realizes what she just imagined! AAAAAAAAAHHHH!

And BOY we talk a lot about Loid's denial but the way Yor is still going like "No, no, no, priorities!" though. THE WAY SHE THINKS OF YURI BEING PROUD OF HER, THEN BEING AN INDEPENDENT MAN SHE MANAGED TO RAISE WITH A FEW ISSUES, AND THEN THE HAPPY FACES OF LOID AND ANYA EATING HER FOOD I WILL GO FERAL

Someone hug her omg she deserves the world 😭😭

Neither Twilight nor Yor are the only people neck-deep in denial though.

"The man decided to live for his job" yeah right. He sees one (1) pretty woman pay him some attention because of Bond and he's like "Well imma adopt a dog then". Bond's doubtful and rejecting reaction was priceless XD

This is so fucking funny to me for some reason aadshadfhsdgh. Look at him. Brought into despair by one (1) five-year-old.

I kinda love how he admits that he does fear the unknown, and has been simply trained to overcome it and try to deal with what he has in front of him.

And currently, his fear is for Anya's emotional state.

Having no idea that she's actually having the time of her life, even though she hasn't realized how deeply dangerous her situation is.

Anyway, I love that she brought Mr. Chimera with her on the trip <3

LOID HAVING HIS VERY OWN OH MAH GAH MOMENT I LAUGHED SO HARD

He is very seriously focusing on how he can make Anya happy. He thinks she asked to go for mini golf because she likes it, so he followed along, he saw her upset with how she lost, and believed she needed to experience winning in order to feel fulfilled, so he was determined to stay there until she won.

Anya takes him to the library and of course he's read everything. And even if he hadn't, he has photographic memory and can practically read through an entire tome in minutes.

But still, he's focused on her happiness, and he's satisfied that Anya is having fun reading comics. She goes for the puzzle (btw I love the idea of having a big puzzle available and leaving it to passersby to solve it. I once visited a school where they had one on a table in the halls and students would sit and try and solve it during recesses) and he analyzes it, thinks he can solve it quickly. Anya reacts in shock, and we hear a tiny hesitant "Oh" from him, because he noticed her sudden change in reaction.

Oh no. Twilight is rubbing off on her a little too much. You're five, darling. Enjoying yourself is your job!!

Just like with the bullet in butt date, Loid cannot understand why Anya looks so angry now after having spent an entire day having fun - and he cataloguing what she seems to be having fun with.

The way that he ends his internal monologue with his fear of the Forgers breaking apart and Operation Strix doesn't cross his mind once, tells a lot about how his priorities are starting to change enough to even silence his "For the Mission" talk. My mans falling hard.

Anya sees how worried Loid has gotten... and maybe she reads even deeper and realizes how genuine of a worry it is? That he's not worried for her as an asset of Operation Strix, but as a kid that deserves to have fun and be happy. And she steps up to reassure him.

And oh, how his face changes! T_T

And the way he alternates between "Loid voice" when he speaks and "Twilight voice" when he thinks. Have I congratulated Takuya Eguchi for this feat yet?

And by the way, he "justifies" Anya being so upset of missing her mama because she's still a "small child". Because of course only small children can miss their mothers, right? Twilight definitely doesn't miss his, right?

Forget neck-deep denial, this man is deep down the Mariana Trench of denial.

And the "Small Daily Life" track from the soundtrack plays, with the beautiful family leitmotif...

I love them. He can be so sweet with Anya, I can only imagine how he'll end up post-identity reveals and especially post-feelings realization.

The final few hours before Olka, Gram and Zeb get safely transferred! I think you can see the tension on their entire faces.

Also some intense, new soundtrack there! Interesting! The composers have done a lot of job this season, carefully mixing up tracks from the previous season with new ones to create the respective mood.

And that's it for this week! I foresee way more action on the next episode! :D

[shiro-s2e2-erukinzu]

Anime only watchers and people who aren't caught up with the Manga, BEWARE... Cuz I'm about to discuss Spy X Family Mission 90... You have been warned...! 👌

[SPOILERS AHEAD FROM THIS POINT ON]

What an adorable little chapter today!! It sure was a sweet one...!! 🤗

Honestly, nothing too crazy happened in today's chapter, but there is still quite a bit that I wanna talk about...!! 😁 So let's get to talking about it, shall we...? 😊

The chapter begins with Anya tagging along with Yor, who's taking Bond for a walk...!! 😁

AND THEY'RE GOING TO THE SAME PARK THAT THEY CUT OUT OF THE ANIME THAT ONE TIME...!! 👌😆

Once there, Anya's having the time of her life until she overhears some kids talking about this old man...:

And when I first saw this man, my theorist brain started thinking of all the possible people who this man might be...! 🤔

Is he possibly one of the scientists that experimented on people and animals to give them powers? (Like Anya and Bond... 🤔)

Does he have powers like Anya? (Maybe to read minds or something else...! 😲)

Is he a long lost relative of one of the Forgers? (Most likely to Anya, but Yor and Loid are also possible...! 😌)

Honestly, out of all the possibilities that I thought of, being a long lost relative to one of the Forgers is what I think is the most plausible...!! (But for now, he's just a random old man.)

Anyway, because of what those kids were saying about him, Anya thought that the old man was a spy, but he just wants to go home to his wife...!! 💗

So, Yor, Anya and Bond decide to help the lost old man find his home...!! 😊 But since he mumbles a lot, Anya uses her powers to, um... Varying degrees...! 😅

OH MY GOD ANYA!! 🤣That is NOT at all what the old man was thinking...!! 😂

Yor, Anya and Bond take the old man to the market because he remembered that he was gonna go do some shopping...! 😄 And as they walk through the market, the old man remembers how it was during the war... 😔

Every time when I see stuff about the war that took place in this story, it always makes think about all the horrible conflicts that are happening out in the world right now and how I hope that one day no one will have to suffer through things like war ever again...

...

Anyway, Yor, Anya and Bond try to figure out where the old man lives, but they end up back at the park...! So they try again and...:

THEY ACCIDENTALLY RUN INTO SOME THUGS THAT START SHOOTING AT THEM...!! 😱

After running around some more, they stop near a place that sells waffles and the old man offers to buy Anya one...!! Then, Yor has a thought:

Oh, my heart... 💔

Honestly though, this is probably my favorite moment in this chapter...! 💗 Just the fact that Yor thinks about if Anya misses something that she never had, it makes me wonder how Yor will feel when she finds out that Anya didn't really have anything until the Forgers came to be...

Then, the gang gets a lead as to where the old man might live thanks to a coupon that fell out his pocket and Anya recognizing where it's from...!! And then...:

They end up at their apartment building...!! But, all is not lost because this IS where the old man lives!! 😆 We see Twilight helping the old man's wife with moving because they are going to be living next door to the Forgers...!! 😊

Lastly, the old man and his wife properly introduced themselves as Sigmund and Barbara Authen...

...and two of them get real lovey dovey with each other after being reunited...!! 💗🤗💗

And that was Mission 90, and it was such a sweet little chapter...!! 🤗 I am loving the recent focus on showing more of Yor and Anya (and Bond) together, their relationship just makes me so happy...!! 💗 Something else that I'm wondering is if whether or not Sigmund and Barbara are gonna show up again in the future (and if they'll have a secret connection to Anya in some way) because I both love them and are quite intrigued by them (especially since they were actually given names...!! 😌) I also wonder if the Authens' relationship is a possible hint as to how Loid and Yor will be like to each other in the future...!! 💗😏💗

Something that I just realized is that ten chapters from now, we'll be at Mission 100!! 😆 I don't know if Endo will do something special for this milestone, but I sure do hope that he does!! 😊

Anyway, that's pretty much all I wanted to say about this chapter...!! 😁 So until the next Mission... Take care, be safe out there and be kind to one another...!! 👋😄

[h-worksrambles]

I wanna talk about Sasuke Uchiha

As someone who looks back on Naruto as one of their gateway anime and manga, I have a lot of very fond, but very complicated feelings about it. I remember so well the thrill of watching the highs of the Land of Waves or Chunin Exam arcs and even once we got into the highs and lows of Shippuden/Part 2, it still had plenty of moments that spoke to me. But there is one aspect of the series which I have incredibly mixed feelings about: one who unfortunately just so happens to me integral to the entire series. That being the character and arc of Sasuke Uchiha, one of the most famous parts of the series, and one of the most frustrating bits of missed potential.

Back in Part One, Sasuke begins with a great deal of promise. He, Naruto and Sakura are all immediately set up with distinct personalities. The tree climbing chapter is a great early moment that allows Sasuke to act beyond his stoic character trope and behave like the child he still is, in turn allowing for more natural chemistry with Naruto (remember that, it’s gonna be important for later). Moments like his sacrifice to protect Naruto from Haku or his panic during the fight against Orochimaru in the Forest of Death help to humanise and develop him further. As we learn more of his backstory and the traumatic loss of his clan, you come to better understand him and you can see the dynamic starting to form between him and his teammates. Their relationship is still very much early days but at this point it’s easy to get excited to see how they’ll develop together and grow a compelling bond….

And then the next arc seperates them. And here’s where the problems begin.

From where, Naruto is separated from his teammates during the search for Tsunade. Itachi returns to the narrative, and forces Sasuke to confront the sheer gulf in power between him and the brother he intends to kill, but this also leaves him bed ridden and out of commission for the rest of the arc. And Sakura…gets nothing for this whole arc because this manga has a Women Problem but I digress.

The result is that the very next arc is the fabled Break-Up TM, where Sasuke’s lingering trauma and jealousy of Naruto’s growth lead to his heel-turn to villainy on Orochimaru’s side. His motivations make sense and this arc is full of legendary moments. But when we get to Naruto and Sasuke’s showdown at the Valley of the End, the core issue emerges.

For being the core relationship that this series revolves around, and the focus of more Yaoi fanfiction than any one mind could comprehend…Naruto and Sasuke‘s bond is surprisingly underdeveloped. The manga made the…unique decision to split the core trio up for two arcs just when it had made the first breakthroughs to start to build a dynamic between them. The Chunin Exams should have been the start of the bond they’d build, one that would tragically fall apart due to Sasuke’s need for revenge. But their relationship development stops there, and the Sasuke Retrieval arc tries to cash in on a payoff it hasn’t earned. It’s hard to care when Sakura begs Sasuke not to leave because they barely have a relationship. And Naruto and Sasuke aren’t much better. Naruto barely understands Sasuke or his reasoning, so his appeals to bring him back ring hollow. Five arcs in and Naruto still barely really knows him. It’s telling that this is where Kishimoto starts inserting in more flashbacks to reveal the two did in fact interact more often as kids. Like the story knows this moment is happening to soon, and has to frantically back fill to convince us that these two are in fact best friends.

But, earned or not, the fight concludes, Sasuke elects to spare Naruto, wanting to remain a better person than his brother even as he takes revenge on him. A nice moment that tells us Sasuke has a moral compass even as he goes rogue, and even if I feel the manga hasn’t earned the idea that Naruto is his closest friend, the significance of Sasuke not wanting to kill him, despite all that bravado, isn’t lost on me.

And so, we move into Part Two, and at this stage, I’m mostly fine with Sasuke’s plotline. His post-timeskip reintroduction and subsequent heel-turn from Orochimaru, refusing to condone the latter’s actions any longer, sets him as a rogue element, unaligned but with his own ethics. And it builds to the genuinely excellent confrontation with Itachi. Unfortunately that problem of Team 7’s underdeveloped relationship really starts to become an issue here. So much of this part of the story is filled with Naruto and Sakura insisting that there’s still good in him, that they still love and accept him, defending him to ever other character. Despite the fact that they still barely know what he’s been through, why he’s doing what he’s doing, and only ever got scraps of affection under the only the direst of circumstances when he was around to begin with. But then we get the truth of Itachi’s motivations, the formation of Taka, and Sasuke joining the Akatsuki to take revenge on Konoha.

And the thing is, I actually really like this moment (sort of) and feel Taka Sasuke gets a lot of flack for the wrong reason. His downward spiral is honestly really compelling. Watching him break his ‘No kill’ policy and commit more extreme acts to root out the corruption in Konoha is a good watch. A lot of people focus on his motives ‘not making sense’. But considering the ideas at play in Sasuke’s story, that revenge is a dark path that will never satisfy you, or how loneliness and trauma from a young age could twist someone’s way of thinking, I honestly believe, from a motivations aspect, this is fine. Sasuke got his revenge, but it proved unsatisfying, and after chasing this for years, it feels hollow. So the second he has someone new to blame, something to fill the void, he’s off on the warpath. Sasuke has lived only for revenge, he needed it to give him purpose. It sets Sasuke up to learn that no amount of revenge will ever undo what he went through. Hell, I could even see a ballsier version of Naruto that, instead of going for a simple but effective ‘revenge bad’ plot, accepted that Sasuke kind of has a point, and that Konoha as an institution is kind of vile, like all the ninja villages. Even by the time we get to the Five Kage Summit, while his actions are deplorable, you can still see how his desire to punish the world for making his life hell, his need to find someone to blame and punish for his suffering, are all driving his actions. I like how he keeps looking for someone to blame and continues to finding that revenge unsatisfying, even when facing someone who pretty clearly deserves it. Yes, it avenges the horrific genocide of the Uchiha, but it doesn’t bring back everything Sasuke lost, or bring him peace. All it ends up doing is taking a greater toll on his psyche and I think it’s very well done.

Here’s my gripe with it though. Instead of doing anything interesting with those ideas of revenge, or questioning if maybe Konoha does deserve justice for the atrocities it’s complicit in, the discussion in the text around Sasuke’s journey becomes this very trite sentimental hand-wringing. A lot of Naruto and Sakura shouting ‘there’s still good in you! You’re our friend!’ Despite the fact that, as I brought up before, Sasuke’s never really had much of a believable relationship with them. They don’t really work as his moral compass because there was never enough of a connection there for that to work. You can’t hinge so much of Sasuke’s character around his relationships, when he’s so constantly stoic and never really forms much of a dynamic with anyone because he’s so utterly devoted to his mission. It’s empty. And it takes focus away from the things that actually do make Sasuke interesting. So much of the drama of Sasuke’s character comes from the fact that he’s alone. That his struggle with trauma and single minded fixation on his mission prevents him from making any connections, in stark contrasts to Naruto, who learns and grows alongside everyone he meets. The problem is that the manga still tries to extract drama from Sasuke’s relationships without putting the time in to earn them.

The story spends a lot of time telling, rather than showing us, that Sasuke is still redeemable, even as he remains coldly committed to increasingly extreme acts of violence. A lot of Naruto and Sakura telling us he still cares, rather than Sasuke showing he still does. By the end, the story is not about Sasuke understanding the pointless cycle of revenge, and making peace with his trauma. It’s about how Naruto and Sakura loved Sasuke hard enough to redeem him. With very little internal reflection or growth on Sasuke’s own part. It turns his arc into a weak ‘I can fix him’ that robs Sasuke of the chance to grow on his own terms.

To me, this is largely an issue of characteristion. Notice how so much of my discussion has been about Sasuke’s backstory, the theoretical beats of his arc, and the ideas around him. I’ve spoken much less about his personally and character traits and therein lies the issue. He doesn’t really have much of one. From Shippuden on, Sasuke largely has two modes, cold stoic focus or violent blood rage. He just doesn’t really have much personality, and that makes it incredibly hard for him to bounce off other characters and form a rapport. And this is especially bad during his interaction with team Hebi/Taka, who are not only incredibly flat and underused characters, but who have absolutely no chemistry with Sasuke at a point where he is carrying the story for large periods of screentime. I don’t really believe his relationships with other characters, and the moral event horizon of him betraying them. The Five Kage Summit arc frames what he does to Karin in particular as a shocking betrayal that shows how low he’s sunk. But…why? When did he ever give a shit about Karin? When did they have any kind of relationship that would make this betrayal particularly shocking or tragic? Before, the manga was willing to let Sasuke be scared, petulant, expressive, in a word, a child. Now, there is an expectation that Sasuke needs to be cool. So the story is utterly scared to let him emote beyond his character trope. And this unfortunately comes at a point where we really need to be able to empathise with Sasuke. We need to understand his conflict and inner turmoil over his actions to know that there’s still good in him. We need to know that he still cares for his old teammates beyond a token ‘I didn’t kill them that one time’.

It results in an emotional core that feels painfully one sided. Naruto’s love for Sasuke comes across far more like an expression of loneliness, and a desire to hold onto one of the first people he built any attachment to, rather than this bond being uniquely deep. All for a person who barely seems to even like Naruto, because they were wrenched apart before the story could organically develop their relationship. As a gay man who has a lot of Thoughts TM, about the underlying homoeroticism of Shounen rivalries (and how it intersects with the misogyny in the genre and lack of development of female characters, including love interests) it frustrates me that one of the most famous and most widely-shipped rivalries in the genre feels so flaccid. Because one side of this duo is so routinely given the bare minimum of stoic, flat characterisation, while the main protagonist spends far more time building organic, compelling friendships and relationships with other characters than his supposed ‘best friend’. Hell, if you view their relationship through a romantic lens, I actually think it becomes even worse. To prove that, I need only look at his ‘romance’ with Sakura, where you can basically take all my points about how one sided and forced Naruto and Sasuke’s bond is, and multiply it by 10. In some ways, it’s worse with Naruto because it’s so much more important to the story. Sakura’s fixation on Sasuke just amounts to a poorly written romance. It’s bad, but it doesn’t really have much narrative impact, frankly. But Naruto’s bond with Sasuke is the emotional core of the entire manga. If that doesn’t work, (and in my opinion, it doesn’t) then the entire story collapses.

There are those who argue that the series would have committed to making these two and item if they’d been different genders, and there’s a whole other discussion about how shitty it is that many Shounen manga still shy from making queer relationships their emotional core despite revolving so much around the bonds between male characters. But I still believe that if Sasuke or Sasuke had been written as female character, Naruto would either have been seen by fans as a simp to a creepy extent or there would have been even more criticism of how weird and abusive this dynamic comes off as, and how much it feels like Naruto is expected to ‘fix’ Sasuke, in a way that hurts both their character development.

This really comes to a head in the Five Kage Summit where the drama between these three feels more painfully forced than ever. On paper, I like the idea of watching Naruto and Sakura deal with difficult internal conflict over their feelings for Sasuke and what he’s done. I just wish their relationships with Sasuke weren’t so underdeveloped so that these scenes felt earned. We’re still not given enough time in Sasuke’s head for me to ever really buy that he grew to care for them, and still does. His interactions with every other character are so incredibly sterile. I think the reason people talk about Naruto over reacting or being irrational when it comes to Sasuke is because the story didn’t do a good enough job getting folks invested in their ‘bond’. Many readers/viewers walk away thinking Sasuke’s just not worth it and that Naruto and Sakura both deserve better.

While we saw enough to understand Sasuke core motivations , we needed more insight into his headspace and his conflicted feelings across the story. That moment in chapter 699 is one of the only times we really get to go behind the stoic exterior and see clearly what he’s really thinking. It injects some much needed humanity into him, and makes him feel more like a person, rather than an archetypal shorthand to build themes around. If more of that was spread across the story, I think his redemption would be more believable. As it stands, the moment where he reveals he cared about Naruto all along, feels like a last minute plot twist. Because his headspace was constantly kept at arm’s length from the reader, and it was barely reflected in the calculated stoicism or ultra crazy face that are Sasuke’s only two emotions at this point in the manga.

This storyline could have been a deeper insight into Sasuke’s inner world. Allowing us more into his perspective and headspace to watch him accept that, ultimately, he’s just trying to fill a void that’s been there ever since he lost everything. It could, alternatively, have been more of an ethical quandary that pointed out that Sasuke, who is the last survivor of a literal genocide, actually has every reason to demand justice. Exploring how to fix a broken, bloodstained system. What we got was a direct appeal to sentimentality, hinging Sasuke’s character and sympathy on his relationships, which were always ill defined at best.

Sasuke’s story was good on paper. I think he works really well as a commentary on the unhealthy effects of holding kids up as gifted, the dangers of isolating yourself, the effects trauma can have on a young mind and the unsatisfying and bloody cycle of revenge. The beats and ideas are all there, but was let down by flat characterisation and his redemption was yet another casualty of the messy ending. I have little interest in hand-wringing fan discourse about whether Sasuke is a war criminal, or how much his trauma excuses his actions. This is an idealistic story about forgiveness, brotherhood and breaking cycles of violence. It was inevitably going to end this way, and it would have been tonally bizarre if it hadn’t. The question is whether it builds believable relationships to tell that story, and I don’t think it does. Even as a case study in queer-coded rivalries, Sasuke feels underwhelming. Not only do I think there are more believably queer rivalries in Shounen manga, I think there are better ones in Naruto itself (shout out to Madara and Hashirama who, as intentional parallels to Naruto and Sasuke, end up exploring many of the same themes better AND with more convincing homoeroticism).

Maybe this would have worked if Part One was longer and Team Seven had more time together. Maybe it would have worked if Sasuke had more consistent opportunities for an internal monologue and more opportunities to express his internal conflict. Maybe if the manga was more willing to go further with the flaws of Konoha as a system, we could have taken Sasuke’s character in a more compelling, less trite direction. But what we got was ultimately a let down. One that leaves Naruto as a series with an unfortunately weak emotional core.

[drinkintrashjuice]

personally with this new chapter, I’m not mad that Fujimoto included a scene like this in the manga. Csm has done situations like this time and time again. While as much as I think they’re handled horribly, most fans look past it so I just follow the fellow sheep and keep reading. But GODDAMN this chapter man😭

Ik Fujimoto is most likely going to make a payoff in the next chapter, but my main thing here is why didn’t we do that as the exact same chapter that happened here. For me, what makes these scenes uncomfortable and what makes me feel the characters pain is showing less. When it comes to sexual scenes, less genuinely is more

I’m gonna use punpun as an example so bear with me for a sec lol

In the second book of punpun (I forget which chapter forgive me) punpun’s uncle Yuichi I think his name is has sex with his girlfriend in front of a minor that he almost had sexual interactions with. This chapter is deeply disgusting, but it doesn’t take up the entire chapter. It’s really only a few panels, but you can still feel the guilt and fervor Yuichi feels during and after the event. You wanna know why? Because it goes away just as fast as it comes. And it’s drawn and written so beautifully you can’t take your eyes off it. It also just feels like a hazy dream in a way, which is what I’m sure both Asa and Denji felt like it was, which is why it confuses me why it’s so drawn out. We then focus on the aftermath of the event, which is exactly what I think chapter 167 should’ve focused on.

we don’t need 11 fucking pages of the sexual assault, I’d rather have a page or two and then see how this affects the characters. We already know because of going through exactly what he had a breakdown about, Denji will start to reject humanity more and give in to the chainsaw devil (if I’m not sounding delusional rn) I want to see more of that, I want to see more of Asa’s reaction, I want to feel the tension. But I don’t feel that. Not at all.

I wanted a story, if I wanted to see two people get assaulted, I’d go to twitter. I don’t feel the disgust Asa is feeling. I don’t feel how confused and how much in a daze Denji is in. I didn’t even feel whatever that man wanted me to feel the other chapters where gross shit happens. I feel like I’m reading some comic an edgy 14 yr old made whose favorite YouTuber is turkeytom. I feel like I’m reading Fujimoto’s poorly disguised fetish comic every fucking time this shit happens. Sometimes the payoff to me isn’t fucking worth it either.

I’m gonna keep reading because it genuinely is a good manga, just not when Fujimoto tries to be edgy and different, because it’s not entertaining or funny or interesting to me it’s just gross.

[eleni-cherie]

a thief's end ✨ || bts • myg - chapter 1.0

"so eager to be in a headlock again?" "only if it's by you."

he thought he was done with the criminal life and ready for some peace and quiet. but his plans collapsed in the form of a strange girl who was in trouble.

© 2023 | eleni_cherie

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masterlist: here

— genre: thief au, gangster comedy, adventure, romcom, humour, angst, fluff, sexual tensiON, slowburn, mutual pining, strangers to lovers s2l

ALTERNATIVE UNIVERSE. CHARACTERS NOT NECESSARILY LIKE THE REAL PERSONS. ALSO VERY UNREALISTIC PLOT LOL - JUST PRETEND READING A MANGA/COMIC OR WATCHING A FILM, REALLY.

SUGGESTIVE THEMES. MENTIONS OF VIOLENCE & BLOOD (BUT NOTHING TOO GRAPHIC, IT'S STILL A COMEDY!)

»»»

"Seeing anything yet?" "Just a bunch of high-class, low-life fat cats, all cleaned up for prom," Taehyung mumbled, seeing a white laborghini lining up next to ferraris and porsches in the grand forecourt of the meditarranean mansion in the distance. "But no sign of anyone we care about." Yoongi sighed, grabbing another pair of binoculars and took a look himself. "Well, that will change when we get there" Jimin said, taking a look at the mansion's blueprint instead. Making sure to check every possible escape route. "Looks like the office room is in the building behind the manor.. You see it from up there?" Taehyung left his seat on the grassy rock and stood up. Focusing the binoculars on the back buildings instead, spotting a spire. "Just the very top of it.." "Wonder what they got tucked away in there," Jimin lightly chuckled, only earning a side-eye from Yoongi who simply laughed under his breath realising his friend would probably never change. 

Once a thief, always a thief.

"Let's just focus on finding Soyeon for now." "I don't know.." Jimin mumbled, glancing up at Taehyung, "You don't wanna pick up something for the wife?" Taehyung huffed a laugh, his eyes leaving the mansion to peek at him. Not actually taking his propose seriously. "That's cute.. But just keep it simple."

"Right. Simple." Jimin sighed disappointed and dusted off the work clothing he was wearing over his smoking. A precautious measure so their outfits wouldn't get dirty and raise suspicion at the party. "I'll be on my way then to sneak in with my charms. You two wait for my sign."

The two hummed, watching him walk down the path between the trees they had come from. Their gaze focusing back at the sun-colored mansion then.

The plan was for Jimin to use his skills and wits to get inside and schmooze his way right through that party, change security system up a bit, unlock the window in that office room and let them in. Solozzo would most likely be there and recognise Yoongi, so he didn't have any other option but to sneak in.

Half an hour of waiting later, the older guy lowered the binoculars, getting tired of watching luxury caey one after another driving up the serpentine road to the mansion.

"You think they caught him?" "Nah, don't think so." "Maybe he got lost then?" Taehyung eyed him with an arched brow, knowing he couldn't possiby mean it as Jimin would always memorize the whole map before entering a building.  "What if -" Yoongi's worries were cut off by Taehyung lightly hitting his chest, catching his attention. "There," he said, motioning at the side towards a balcony. Yoongi heaved his binoculars back and indeed, a light was going on and off in the room. Jimin's sign. "See?"

Yoongi rolled his eyes as he zipped Taehyung's work clothing up. "Just try to keep your tux clean." Taehyung only huffed. Unzipping the collar again as soon as Yoongi turned around. And they got off the rock and into the scrub. The setting sun bathing the building in the distance and scenery into a warm atmosphere.

They made their way through the high grass, eventually reaching the edge of the cliff the mansion was on. It was only a few meters between them and the stone fence surrounding the building that they had to climb. And they had almost reached the top when Yoongi's hand grabbed Taehyung's shoulder, preventing him from going further. "Hold up. I hear someone," he whispered.

And indeed, only a few seconds later the younger guy was also able to hear voices. Two men, probably guards, were speaking in italian further away. Taehyung hadn't heard them earlier, but Yoongi did. Listening intensely despite not understanding anything. They carefully peeked their heads out, seeing the guards holding up some big machine guns, entering a side building then. They waited a few seconds more, making sure the coast was clear. "Okay, we're good." "Damn, did you see him? That guy was carrying some serious heat," Taehyung said as they heaved themselves over the stone, not hiding how stunned he was. He patted his holster under the working attire then, making sure his magnum was still there. "Good thing we came prepared."

Yoongi nodded quietly, shifting his katana's strap on his shoulder. His gaze wandering up to the beautiful building in front of them.

They reached underneath he balcony of the office room, it not being too high as it was on ground level. Taehyung gave Yoongi a leg-up to climb up first before grabbing his reached out hand and climbing up himself. And just as planned the balcony door was unlocked, Taehyung about to enter when Yoongi stopped him once again. "What?" With a look of appeal, Yoongi unzipped his work clothes and took them off. Revealing his tuxedo. Reminding him to do the same. And Taehyung snickered, realising he'd almost entered like this. Quickly, he got rid off the blue work clothing as well, throwing it behind the bushes underneath them.

They entered the dark room then, squinting their eyes to get adjusted when recognising a figure behind the broad wooden desk. "Jimin?" The desk light got dramatically switched on, revealing Jimin sitting in a big puffy armchair with a mischievous grin. "You know what I love about parties with rich crooks? No one expects to get their pockets picked." A golden chain fell from his fingers, dangling and shimmering under the light. The two sighing almost simulataneously. "You really can't help it, huh?" "I could. But it's just too funny messing with rich people," he chuckled and got up. "Let's try to do what we're here for and get outta here instead." "Yeah, ugh about that.." Jimin's voice trailed off as he led them out, cautiously not to stumble into anyone. Yoongi swallowed, not liking his tone. "W-why? What about that?" "C'mon, lemme show you something."

They walked past long carpeted hallways with paintings and statues until reaching the railing of the upper floor balcony, mingling unnoticed with the other guest scattered up there. Looking down at the grand hall where the rest was gathered at. Drinking and laughing over the live band's music.

Jimin pointed at two men who were awkwardly standing at the hall's front, looking into their filled glasses. "Cops. I saw them when I arrived. They must be high-ranking ones from the looks of it. And then this-" His finger wandered behind them. "See that door?" They nodded. A tall guard was blocking its entry. "According to the blueprint it's a small room for stuff members, you know like a break room with no windows. But it got that goon guarding it.." He glanced at them with raised brows. "Suspicious isn't it?" Yoongi's jaw tightened, getting what Jimin was implying. "You think she's there?" He shrugged. "She might. I definitely caught our Mr. Sleezy junior coming out of there and whispering something to the guard's ear. The only way to find out is to get in there."

"You said no windows?" Taehyung questioned, taking a thinking expression. "No windows. But right behind is the wine cellar.." He eyed Yoongi with a suggestive look and it didn't take long for Yoongi to respond with a knowing one.  "But how do I get into the kitchen? The staff will get alerted if they see a random man there and we didn't bring any disguises. And I'd need to also get her out without them noticing." "Jeez, you guys act like you've never spent time in custody," Jimin sighed disappointedly, "If you want something dirty done then you wait.." The others exchanged a smirk. "..for lights out." "Exactly. "Where's the electrical panel for this place?" Descretedly, he pulled the blueprint out of his suit's pocket and showed them a spot on it. "Up here. So we gotta climb up there and kill the lights." "And get inside and past the cooks and servants in the dark." "There'll surely be an emergency generator though." They nodded at Taehyung's concern. Yoongi inhaled sharply. "That'll give us a few seconds of darkness.. It should still work." "You sure?" He nodded with detemination. "Yes. Meaning I'll have to be right next to the door when the lights go out though." "Except there's no way we can get that close without being noticed. There's no one else standing there in a four-metre-radius." A waitress came in that moment, offering them antipasti on a tablet, which only Jimin accepted. "Would you focus?" Taehyung mumbled under his breath as the waitress left to serve the guests next to them. Jimin rolled his eyes, stuffing the small snack into his mouth, nodding at the direction of the waitress. "A waiter wouldn't get noticed." Yoongi's eyes lit up. "That would work. I could sneak into the kitchen from the backdoor then."

"That will work." Jimin clapped his hands excitedly. "Alright, change of plans. Yoongi, you sneak into the wine cellar as a waiter and I'll get to the breaker room, kill the power in the kitchen right on time for you and Soyeon to get out of there." "Alright," Yoongi continued, turning to Taehyung. "And you head to the front, keep an eye on that door, okay? Let us know if anything, uh.. odd goes down." The younger guy nodded vigorously. "Before we go," Jimin said then, grabbing into his pocket. His hand opened then, revealing three in-ear-transmitters on his palm. "We still need these." Everyone picked one, shoving it into their ear before exchanging glances. "We got this."

»»»

It wasn't hard for Yoongi to find a waiter to exchange clothes with. Waiting at the kitchen's backdoor for someone to come out for a smoke was an easy bet. And indeed, only a few minutes later a waiter came out to lighten a cigarette. Giving Yoongi the opportunity to jump off the canopy and knock him down, dragging him behind a storage room.

"You good?" Jimin's voice echoed through the in-ear. Yoongi huffed, shuffling into the dress shirt. "Yeah.. these clothes are just a bit too big for me." "Well, that's the style these days anyway.. I'm almost at the power room. Tae? You good?" "Yeah, not much movement here."

Taking a breath, he entered the busy kitchen, grabbing a silver tablet from the side and mixing with the rushing waiters as if he belonged there. And as expected, everyone was in such a hurry and stressed that no one noticed the new face in their colleague's clothes.  The kitchen was big, perhaps bigger than a restaurant's. Chefs, souschefs and simple cooks yelling among each other while preparing dishes. He dodged a waitress with a plate of soup who almost bumped into him when Taehyung spoke up from the front of the ball room. "I just came across that Solozzo guy. He was talking to some guy about being on stand-by for the boss' 'big reveal'." "Just as we expected, the necklace." Yoongi's jaw clenched until Taehyung continued with irritation in his voice, confounding Jimin's words. "I don't think he meant the necklace though.." "Huh, you sure? What else?" "Dunno. But he instructed the guy to be cautious so it wouldn't escape.. Guys, I think Soyeon's actually the big reveal. Or her and the necklace. But she's definitely involved."

Yoongi's eyes widened. Of course. Now everything made sense. "He wants to expose the thief's identity and also ridicule the cops. That's why they got invited. To show he managed getting his necklace back without the police's help." "Damn, that's twisted." "And narcissistic." "But she wouldn't be the one getting in trouble," Taehyung pointed out then, "While he actually kidnapped her. Isn't he scared of exposing his own crime?" "A rich guy like that? He'd surely pay off police and anyone else if someone found out she wasn't there on her own will." Yoongi almost collided with a cook who was hurriedly passing a saucier to a colleague. Everyone was so busy and rushing around that no one paid attention to the waiter who sneaked into the wine cellar. 

The wine cellar was bigger than expected, similar to the kitchen. Dim lights and lowered temperature for the sensitive liquids, along with stacks and stacks of dark barrels and lined up bottles in shelves, creating an eery atmosphere.

According to the blueprint, the wall to the left was the one connected to the room they wanted to get in. He got his sword out from the back of the dress shirt, the large fit having been quite practical after all, and began to cut a small hole in the wall so that he could look inside carefully, in case there was another security guard lurking behind it.

The room on the other side had a much simpler interior, contrary to the extravagantly decorated rest of the house. Probably because it was supposed to only be a staff members room. He couldn't recognise much else though, so he enlarged the hole. Hearing a quiet: "What the hell?" from the other side which made him instantly smile in relief. Jimin's intuition had been right again. "Soyeon?" "Yoongi?" 

It was silent for a moment, until a feline eye suddenly appeared in front of the hole. Looking right back at him. "How.. What are you doing here?" Soyeon whispered, beaming with joy when unexpectedly seeing him there. "What do you think I'm doing?" he scoffed playfully, an amused grin spreading on his features then. "Go aside, I'll make it bigger so you can fit through." She quickly stepped away, watching the hole crumble more and growing bigger in no time. Dust rose, clouding her vision for a moment and she coughed. Soon recognising Yoongi's silhouette when it began settling. He slid his sword back to its sheath, standing there with a lopsided smile on his face. "Hey, there." Soyeon's lips instantly tucked into a smirk and she folded her arms. "Missed me so much, had to chase me all the way to Italy, huh?" "Something like that," he said, the smile never leaving his face when noticing something sparkling around her neck then. And he frowned. "You wear the necklace?"

Her eyes widened and she looked down, having completely forgotten about it. "Y-yeah, they also gave me new clothes and even did my make-up, as you see.." She tugged at the long black dress and he had to quickly look away when feeling himself staring. Her appearance not only making his cheeks flush. "I don't know why exactly though, I didn't understand a word as they spoke Italian to me.." He hummed, his theory only varifying when he watched her taking off the piece of jewelry and tossing it back into the room. Looking at her dumbfounded to which she simply shrugged. "What? Obviously I don't want it!"

"Guys, I don't wanna interrupt the cute get-together, but something's happening," Taehyung's voice hushed on the other line of the transmitter, "Our guy got on stage and started delivering a speech. Something about wanting to be the one hosting this year for a special reason.. and Solozzo is going in the direction of the door now." "Crap," Yoongi muttered to which Soyeon looked confused. "We gotta go." He grabbed her wrist and led her to the cellar's door, opening it carefully and glancing through the crack. Trying remembering the route back. "Alright, Yoongi, I'm at the switch. You ready?" Yoongi breathed, having spotted the backdoor around the corner from the grocery boxes. "Yeah, let's ruin this jerk's party." 

In an instant, everything turned black. Voices becoming louder and panicked as Yoongi tucked Soyeon past everyone, making sure not to bump into anyone by walking near cabinets and they reached the exit right when the generator switched the lights back on. The two disappearing outside.

Breathing heavily from the adrenaline rush, she propped her hand against the wall. "Damn, that was quite risky!"  He nodded, still holding her wrist. "We're not done yet. Still have to make it out of the property. Okay?" She nodded, catching her breath again and Yoongi tapped at the in-ear. "Guys, how's it looking?" "I'm on my way to the meeting place," Jimin announced. "Well, as for me.." Taehyung whispered, "I'm quietly leaving the hall. Trying getting to the front door. Solozzo just interrupted the speech by whispering something in his ear. I think we all know what. So prepare for sht to go down real quick and them locking everything up." Yoongi hummed. "Alright, going to the meeting place then. Be quick." He turned his focus to Soyeon then. "How well can you climb?" Her eyes widened in alert. "Wh- not very. Why?" He gave her an apologetic look. "I fear we have to. It's only a few meters though." Leading her to the stone fence where he and Taehyung had previously climbed up from, he swung his legs over it. Waiting for her to follow.

Soyeon gulped, taking a look down before backing off. "I know it seems high, but we don't have much time left," he softly spoke up with an apologetic look. "You can do this, okay?" And she bit her lips, nodding. Knowing someone might catch them soon if they didn't hurry. So she gathered the dress' long fabric in her hands, making a knot to shorten it and allow her getting over the fence easier. With a deep breath, she grabbed it's edge as tightly as she could and climbed down. It was indeed only a few meters and yet it felt like a long way to go. Carefully, she set her feet on wherever they touched and followed him. Regretting not having taken off the high heels.

Suddenly they heard someone roaming the area above them. Yelling. Most likely guards looking for them. Soyeon's fingers clutched harder into the rocks as she did her best to keep herself up and not lose balance. The voices soon disappeared and Yoongi gave her a sign to continue.

They reached the end of the cliff, Yoongi being the first to touch ground again. Holding his hands out for her to grab and pulling her up with force. Causing her to collide with his chest and both stumbled, landing on the grass. For a moment they groaned in pain before bursting out laughing. And they quickly got up, brushing the dirt off the clothes when more shouts and noises came from inside the property. And they hid in the high grass, stealthing their way to the front. Tall plants covering them from the sight of the street when Yoongi took a look through the bars of the entrance gate. His eyes spotting the silver mercedes Jimin had hotwired to use for his entrance among the other high-class cars. It was still parked there but no sight of the other and he began worrying, wondering where the two were. The in-ear didn't seem to work either as he was outside and most likely out of its radius. He went closer, seeing the guards in the forecourt were also running into the building to see what was happening inside. Giving him the opportunity to draw his sword and slicing the metal bars, pushing it wide open. They entered the property once again, hurrying to the mercedes while ducking behind the parked cars.

"Stay here and get down," he instructed her then in a low voice when she slid inside the backseat. She grabbed his arm though, her eyes bewildered. "Where are you going?" He sighed, releasing her hand from its grip. "My friends are inside there. I should go check why they're taking so long." "Wait, your friends are actually here? Taehyung and.. Jimin?" He nodded, seeing her brows raising as she sank more into her seat. "Why are they.. why are you..?" She tried comprehending when gunshots were heard from inside the building, causing them both to tense up and look at the direction of the building. It wasn't hard to guess who they were aimed for. His jaw tightened and he swallowed. Brown irises falling back to her with apprehension. "Don't worry, okay?" She nodded and he gave her a small smile before tightening the grip around his sword. Jogging towards the entrance when the door suddenly flew open. Seeing none other than Taehyung and Jimin running out of it while shooting behind them.

"Run, run, run!" "Crap!"

They all ran back to the silver car, reaching it when a bunch of guards appeared at the doorframe, shooting at them like mad. Hitting not only theirs but also neighboring cars, breaking the rare window of a yellow ferrari. "There goes the insurance," Jimin chuckled as he took the driver's seat and started the engine. Taehyung following suit into the passenger seat while Yoongi went to his usual spot in the back, next to Soyeon who was crouching in fear of getting hit by a random bullet. The tires squeaked when Jimin floored the gaspedal and they dashed out of the gates and down the road. Curving every serpentine in a dangerously sharp angle, throwing them from one side to another. Soyeon's elbow accidentally hitting Yoongi's rip at one point.

"Are they behind us?"

"I can see one -" A bullet hit the trunk, cutting off Taehyung. And scowl spread over his eyes as he turned in his seat, leaning out of the window. "Not for long though. Hold the car steady!" he yelled. Jimin huffed, overtaking a truck. "That's easier said then done!" The car swayed again when another bullet almost hit the side-mirror. "Try for two seconds!" And he did. Allowing Taehyung to fire three precise shots, audibly hitting the pursuer. The car behind them swerved, spinning out and leaving it's lane before crushing into the trench on the side of the road. And he fell back to his seat with a content grin. Jimin errupting into a fit of laughs as they left the country road and entered the highway, heading north towards the city. "Damn, that was fun! I forgot how much fun this is!" "You idiot almost got us killed," Taehyung groaned, throwing him an annoyed glare. "I did not. It's not my fault this guy suddenly turned around the corner right when I got out of the vent!" "Why were you there anyway?" His friend rolled his eyes. "It was the fastest way back from the power room, duh." And Soyeon observed them bewilderedly as they joked and teased. It was a hairbreadth escape and they were just laughing it off like it was nothing. "You guys are really used to that kind of stuff, huh?" she faintly giggled. Rising from her crouched position to straighten herself again. "You could say so."

Yoongi shrugged nonchalantly, a small grin on his lips, making her laugh under her breath. She leaned forward then, peeking her head between the two in the front. "I remember you, you're the doctor's husband," she smiled and pointed at Taehyung, her head then switching to Jimin. "But we haven't met yet, I've only heard of you." Jimin gave her a brief smile before focusing back on the road. "Only good stuff I hope!" "Of course," she grinned and sat back. Dragging out a sigh then when peeking at Yoongi who was quietly staring outside. Deep in thoughts as it seemed. The airstream tousing his long dark waves. "Seriously, I can't thank y'all enough.. I don't know how to make it up to you." She didn't know why those strangers helped her. Hell, she didn't even know why Yoongi even still bothered. He was often still a mystery to her. And yet he and his friends risked so much for her. And her hand covered his which was laying on his lap. Giving him a gentle smile when he perked up at her touch and looked at her. Returning the smile.

"Food. Food is always a good way," Taehyung grinned, when eyeing Yoongi from the rare view mirror. Winking at him. "But it was nothing, seriously. Don't worry. We've been doing this kind of stuff all the time." "And besides.." Jimin slid his hand into his blaze's inner pocket. Revealing the goldchain he had taken from that rich lady. "I did get my souvenir. Bella's gonna love it."

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next chapter: 1.1 here

Don't forget to like, reblog & leave feedback!♡

It motivates me to keep writing :)

[kamiversee]

Okay so I just read the new chapter and it was the first time I cried while reading the manga, despite knowing what would happen… I’m devastated 😭

Brb, rereading all the tfl Choso chapters and anything else you have ever posted about him (cause you depict his character best in my humble opinion)

I’M MOURNING

(also just discovered you can change fonts hehe :3 )

-🖤

DONT REMIND MY PSLPSLSPPS ☹️ Its not a real chapter guys! Tht was fanmade I swear!! Actually, every chapter from 236 and after is FAKE. ^.^

Yap sesh incoming, semi-important ngl

And actually speaking of Choso, my loverboy, I’ve been doing some thinking & while The Better Brother is something I really wanna work on, the other story with Gojo & Choso (My Love Note) has been screaming at me lately bc I dont think y’all understand how good it is….

Like, before TFL, tht was the first story I ever completed (despite it being written with two different characters) and I reeeeaaaaalllllyyyy wanna rewrite it but with Choso & Gojo……..

But I’m gonna feel bad for not writing TBB since ik it won the poll for my next focus… As a people pleasing author, I am struggling rn 😭

[eternalera]

one thing that i never see people talk about when it comes to why indie animation is more popular than hollywood and what they're pumping out and their animation is one very extremely crucial thing that i think people overlook a lot of the time because you never really realize it.

fandom.

indie animation understands fandom so much better than bigger and more corporate companies ever had, its why netflix keeps cancelling their shows because theyre 'not good enough'. they dont understand fandom at all or how to appeal to it.

whenever something in hollywood gets popular its for two reasons and the second one is almost always something that they do on accident. the first reason is that it's a genuinely good or at least okay movie or show. it doesnt matter whether or not its something that knocks your socks off because the next reason is arguably the more important thing. the second reason is that they appeal to the fandom, they get people crazy over their concept or their movie and then the fandom does all the marketing themselves

the second reason is why so many good or okay hollywood movies just stay good or okay, they dont know how to appeal to the fandom, to get someone to glorify their movie. to make at least one or two characters or a special dynamic that'll make people want more. it doesn't even have to be of the actual plot because guess what? fuck the plot. they want the characters

sure the world and plot add to it but i bet you if you took your favorite dynamic and put them in any setting you'd want that. maybe have them go on a train to another country, bake something together, adopt a dog, people will come for the plot and world but they'll only stay for the characters and indie animation gets this

im 90% sure that almost all indie animation characters have interacted with their fandom in some way shape or form and that allows them to get an understanding of whats working, whats not, what needs to change, and what's popular

actually this is kinda was anime and manga does, especially since chapters are released weekly (depends though) the author can see the fans and how they take in their works and write accordingly to promote their work. not to mention that in anime the main focus of it typically tends to be the characters. in hxh the main focus is of the main group and what they do and the goals they have. in death note its about an egotistic maniac and a detective who both want to challenge each other to prove that theyre greater. in mha its about a kid who wants to become a hero but cant, then he's able to and it goes from there along with learning that the villains themselves have backstories

fandom doesnt get attached to plot as much as it will the characters. sure plot and theories sure as hell help a lot and things such as gravity falls does show this but the characters themselves are also interesting. it doesnt matter how convoluted a plot is and how much of a masterpiece it is if someone doesnt care about the characters

and hollywood doesnt wanna make good characters and its because of this that they dont understand how fandom works and why so many people care dont about their film and such. indie animation on the other hand has interacted with their fans and is still actively interacting with them and seeing their love towards these characters and adding more to it.

honestly i could go on and on about how hollywood doesnt understand fandom and how thats just one of its many major downfalls but this is quite long so... bye!!

[the-silver-peahen-residence]

||A Deadly battle part 20: Post-battle||

Hello, it seems something else has come back from the past. If you remember this drabble, it's 'A deadly battle' a mini series drabble me and my friend demon mun started. Yeah, I got a little spark to write something but it's better than nothing.

So, I think I wanted to add something to it but quick note:

((This is not the ending/Final chapter. Demon mun is writing or is going to write the final parts of this from what I remember so this is still during Sukuna and Ink's fight. This part going to focus around the fractions and their teammates but you'll see. Keep a eye out for the final chapters from demon mun in the future.))

If you wanna read where this is going now; the chapters are down below

~~Chapters so far~~

||Chapters 1-9|| ((Click here))

||Chapters 9-18|| ((Click here))

Chapter 19: The deadly battle begins

((Your reading Chapter 20))

~~Drabble summary~~

The battle between Van ink the dragon and Sukuna is underway while the fractions were watching from the side lines. They were cheering for her to beat him though, Sukuna already was excited for this game. However, seems he wanted to add some new players in the game but it's towards the fractions? What idea is he speaking of? Wanna know what? Read to find out.

~~Warning~~

-Blood will be present

-fighting is seen

-Over use of demonic powers will be present here

-Close encounters will happen here

~~Guests in the drabble~~

Demon mun’s guests

The DBT with some the other fractions, their leaders, and the devils belong to @demon-blood-youths

My guests

Some of the demon fractions with their leaders and some of the devil’s belong to me.

Sukuna Ryomen, Yuji Itadori, Megumi fushiguro, nobara kugisaki, and gojo satoru belongs to the anime and manga jujutsu Kaisen but also to me due to rp them as muse.

((Their will be Grammar mistakes and errors on this drabble but it was written for fun. So please understand okay? With that said, please enjoy <3))

The sounds of destruction and things exploding was heard in the streets of NYC seeing the final battle still going. The king of curses Vs. Van ink the dragon. Two going head to head with one another as they were dashing towards each other trying to fight. Sukuna was enjoying this game a lot, even with the fight and seeing the new tricks Ink has come up with.

He lands crushing a car but moves seeing Ink come down trying to attack. Only for her to crush the car even more from where he was standing.

"Hahahahahaha! Not bad Inky, Not bad! You really know how to make games so much fun! Even with the new tricks you were showing off this is so much fun!" he laughed swiping his claws but she dodges like before looking at him.

"Thanks! At least you can tell I did learn something new during my training!" she grins but keeps a good grip on her greatsword. However, this made Sukuna chuckle.

"Which still impresses me. You really know how to make things fun so keep showing me more! Lets give our audience a good show shall we!?" he laughed still attacking and fighting her while indeed a few was still watching this.

"Lets hope your next course of actions are just as interesting!" he laughed before Ink keeps her guard up to fight him.

~~~~~~~~~

Megumi and Nobara was watching, worried about Yuji since Sukuna was too much. However, Gojo was still keeping a eye on the battle. He had hopes that Ink will keep on her guard or till Sukuna gets bored. But seeing how excited he was, that might be a problem.

He even saw the other fractions still trapped and forced to watch. The leaders trapped in their own spears with the chains holding them down along with one around their necks. As for the teammates, they were in a bigger dome like spear to see this as they were cheering for Ink to beat Sukuna's ass.

"Come on Ink! You can do this!" Navarro shouted.

"YEAH, BEAT HIS ASS!! YOU CAN DO IT!" Echo shouts cheering her one.

"COME ON, COME ON! KICK HIS ASS TO THE CURVE!! COME ON DAMN IT!" even some of the lovely horrors were cheering even with Matt watching from his spear with the other leaders.

"COME ON INK! BEAT HIM AND GET US OUT OF THESE THINGS!! YOU BETTER WIN!" Kali shouted.

"I know Ink can do this. She's really smart and knowing her she will win!" Mouse said nodding to agree.

"It's due to her strength. We know she can do this! She's Van ink the dragon for fuck sake!" Navarro said.

"We know that Navarro but I know she will do this. She can beat him.." Shdwkyz said hearing everyone else cheering for her still. They believed in her knowing she can do it. She just had to!

'I just hope Ink can keep this up. But knowing Sukuna, he might try to make the game interesting. Which is a troubling thought.' Gojo thought seeing the fight.

~~~~In the demon world~~~~~

The Devils were also watching after the fight with Sukuna's minions were done. They were safe for now but in another safe haven. They were in Goa's domain to see this. Everyone was worried knowing it's going to take a few hours for Vanity's domain to self recover. However, they were worried about their heirs.

'Come on Ink....You got this..' Vanity thought watching this.

~~~~~~IN the real world~~~~~~~

Ink swings once more seeing Sukuna laughing again when he kicks her back hard in the gut sending her flying through a building. He rushes taking aim to the building to blow it up but Ink gets out before the building got to that point. He sees her rush towards him again only for him to block her swing of her great sword while he was grinning.

"Now bad Inky, seems you really are putting on a good show aren't ya? This is really so much fun." he chuckled as Ink was holding her ground, her grey eyes glowing with determination to take Sukuna down.

"Thanks...it's all to the training but you know that." she grins back but that's when she heard her friends cheering her on. They would know Ink wouldn't give up. Not a chance! This got Sukuna hearing their cheers too but that's when he smiled to have a idea. A twisted evil idea.

This got her attention to look at him confused, what was he thinking?

"Well, I do feel bad for leaving your friends out of our game!" he said this while shoving her back seeing her skid to hold Wyvern tight in her hands. "But I wonder if your friends would like to join us.." he sneered.

"Hey, this is between you and me, Sukuna. You said you were not going to involve them in-"

"Oh no you misheard me. They are not going to be joining to fight us..." he smiled to look at her.

"Huh?"

"I would let my little friends play with them first......to keep them busy. So I hope they don't mind some new friends to play with." he said to snap his fingers that Ink's eyes slowly widen to look to where her friends are being held.

As the other fractions were cheering, Sid felt something off like something shaking. That's when she looks down seeing some cursed like energy smoke rising as the ground cracks up. "???"

"What's wrong Sid?" Shrika said.

"Everyone, I think we have a problem.." she said as the ground cracks up more making everyone stop to look down. The ground under their feet was cracking up!!!

"What the fuck!?" Navarro said almost losing his footing as the others. The fraction leaders even noticed but got worried.

"What is that!?" Yuuka said worried.

"I don't know! What's going on!?" Jinx said worried for her team.

"I think it's Sukuna. He must have done something!" Willow said as they saw the ground now crumbling more that it started showing things popping out of the ground. They looked to be undead spirits that claws the ground getting out as they howls in a ghoul like tone seeing the members backing up from them. That's when more and more show up now starting to show up around them.

"W..what are these things?" Timmy asked nervous.

"I don't know..but something tells me...they are not friendly." Gerald said nervous too seeing these things surrounding everyone. However, the leaders were shocked seeing the things.

"Guys!" Joshua was worried seeing this.

"W..what is going on?! What a..are those monsters!" Ashley said crying.

"I don't know...from the feeling, those things are from Sukuna.....what is he planning here?" Rex asked.

"I don't know...but it seems like he added some new game to this....and were in it." Matt said.

"Then........what is he planning to do with us???" Jinx asked.

She got the answer when the chains suddenly glows starting to burn the leaders!

Willow, Jinx, Kali, Rex, Matt, Ethan, Yuuka, Fin, Guam, Joshua, and Ashley winces from the burns but steam shows from their before the chains tighten around them. After that, something started filling the spears.

"Uhhh guys?! S..something is filling up in the spears!" Ashley panics seeing black liquid as the leaders saw the same. They begin struggling trying to break free seeing the liquid going up slowly.

"What is this!?" Yuu said looking at the liquid but the other leaders were not sure.

"This must be something curse related from Sukuna. What is he planning on doing with us??" Willow said not liking this.

"Whatever he's planning it can't be good. We need to break out of these spears and help our teams!" Ethan said.

"But the chains have us tight, we need to think of something.." Guam said struggling but the chains or collars around their necks

Now the ground with the teammates were broken up and cracked before the monsters tried attacking the others! Some dodge or deflects the monsters but they had to avoid the holes to fall down. But that was not the worst of it. Seems the holes were getting bigger as most fall more holes open showing some flames down below. Was Sukuna planning on burning them alive!?

~~~~~~~~~

"What did you do Sukuna?" Ink asked as he smiled.

"Nothing much. Just add another game. Besides, your friends will be fine and if they die, I might be nice to bring them back. i Just wonder how long your friends or the leaders can hold their breaths." he chuckled.

"It's a simple game; beat the monsters and it might free your friend leaders..if their quick enough. If not...well...I feel bad if some lose their leaders. Or if they figure out how the game works in time before that happens." he snickered.

"What?!?"

"But enough of that...we still got a game here!" he said fighting her. "Lets focus on us first Inky!"

Now Ink was worried knowing he put her friends in danger again! She had to focus on the fight and hopes they can hold on. She knew they can.

~~~~~~~~~~~

"Stay the fuck back!" Navarro fires one of Echo's bombs at the monster as it screeched at them angry but Echo threw another energy bomb to trap it in some goo. She sees the others fighting off some that was trying to eat or kill them but some was sent flying crashing against the spear.

"We need to get out of here!" Breezy kicks one away while Rust punches it down into the ground crushing it's skull.

"But how!? Were trapped in this dome and we need to help the others and the leaders first!" he said to her seeing everyone else fighting or some that could.

"i don't know..whatever is going on it's not good!" Angel said firing arrows to kill a few. However, as Oblivion was smashing one, she looks noticing the leader's spears.

"Guys?...Guys, what the fuck is that!?" she said as a few looks seeing the leaders but something was filling the spears they were in. Some black thick liquid.

"I don't know. What the hell is that!?" Shdwkyz said but Vivi looks worried seeing that.

"It feels deadly from the looks of it. However, It seems like Sukuna's work. He must be the one doing this." she said as Melinda was worried while Jaron was too. Whatever that stuff was it was filling up the spears a bit fast but not rapidly fast.

"Gojo!? What is that stuff!!" Fosh asked worried.

"That's something Sukuna is doing..I think he's trying to curse them. However, that stuff is not safe. I get the feeling if that fills up, he's planning on either drowning them or taking control of them. You might have to find a way to break those things!"

"WHAT!?" most did not like that as now they were worried for their leaders.

"Matt, don't worry we'll get you out!" Jason said as they tried to smash the dome they were trapped in more of those things got in front of them to prevent that. It seems they wouldn't let them get out even with the leaders in danger.

"Sensei, we have to help them!" Megumi said.

"I know but we can't. Remember, Sukuna warned anyone not to interrupt his game and this is another one he just sets up. If we tried to help them, we are breaking that rule for him."

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME!? IF WE DON'T DO SOMETHING THE LEADERS WILL DIE!" Nobara said.

"I know...I just hope their teammates can help them before it comes to that! Even if we move to help, we'll end up getting them killed." he said but the other two was worried now seeing the fraction team fighting.

"But now it's serious..because the ground is crumbling under them too. He has a bigger plan now.." he said. Some of the leaders were trying to think of a plan and seeing Rex trying to calm Ashley down who was worried but crying now.

"D..Don't cry Ash, we'll get out of this! I know we will!" Joshua said.

"B..but our friends! Those monsters are g..going to kill them! We don't even know what this black liquid is going to do to us!"

"Easy. I don't know either but worrying isn't going to help. We need to stay calm and think of a plan......if only we could use our demonic abilities-"

"We can't.." he looks to see Willow said this. "I think the chains and metal collars nullified our demonic powers. I can't even use my flames to melt the chains or blast the spear." she said.

"What??" the other leaders tried to do something but no luck, were the chains really nullifying their powers?

"Son of a-"

"That's low even for Sukuna! Now what do we do!?" Jinx said angry about this but seeing her team fighting off the monsters but was worried seeing the ground breaking up even more that holes were much larger now.

"Hope that our teams can think of a plan before we are drown.." Fin said.

"But what of the floor, It's breaking up more faster now...."

"I don't know Yuuka but...something tells me that will be bad if it did. They have to stay calm and think of this." Rex said.

~~~~~~With the devils~~~~~~

"Is he insane!? He's planning on killing our heirs!?" Vanity heard a angry Eigor shout now standing up worried. The others felt the same seeing this madness happening from a giant crystal ball. Seeing their hears fighting or worried of the leaders trapped in the spears filling up with liquid.

"But what is that black substance?" Goa said not liking it.

"....Black death..." the devils look hearing Nagi speak but he was angry while worried.

"Black death?" Goa said.

"A old curse liquid that is found in the lowest parts of the demon realms. Any demon that swallows that will die within moments. Some say that stuff is..alive. It can make you weak if it touches you but it has to be ingested to do real harm. That's why most never bother with it and leave it to where they found out." Nagi said with arms crossed over his chest worried.

"It don't do much to the skin but it makes one feel really weak like it's draining your life force away. I don't know how Sukuna got his hands on that but it's very dangerous because only full blooded demons can survive it. But our heirs..that's a different story. He might have used this to either kill them..or control them." he said worried.

"W..what??" Goa was shocked dropping her fan but quickly looks seeing this.

"But what of the monsters?" Uriprayt asked more worried seeing Navarro and Echo blasting a few away.

"They are just monsters he created out of cursed energy but..I also see some of that stuff in the hole under the heirs. I really am fearful that he's planning on tempting them by seeing how fast they can get out of those spears before...." He didn't want to say that but the other devils were worried.

"Son of a bitch! How dare he!" Ymir said now slamming his fist on the table. "We need to do something!"

"We can't! Even if we are doing this! We are trying to be sure none of those things sent to Vanity's realm find us! Right now, the heirs are doing what they must to fight and stay alive." Cal said seeing his heir Ashley but didn't like this black death rising in the spears. However, he knew Nagi was right.

"Even now..I can sense their demonic energy is getting drained slowly but they don't know yet. I fear they will have to be quick and figure out how to get out before it gets bad." he said gripping his chair. Now the devils were concerned seeing their heirs now in danger.

~~~~~In the real world~~~~~

The fraction members were keeping up with their battle knowing the monsters were drawing closer to them. However, a few of them were still trying to attack while some was being crushed creating more cracks. However, that's when Shdwkyz and Viv noticed the deep hole down below.

It was filled with something but the others were still fighting. "Shdwkyz, do you see that? Something is under us..and it don't look safe." She saw as he slashes another but looks from a hole. She was right something was down there but when they looked some of the monsters fall in but end up hearing a splash.

The two snake said nothing waiting for the monster to come up but as it did, their eyes widen seeing a skeleton where the monster was.

Yeah, something was down there!

"It's.....that thing became a skeleton. What the fuck is that!?" he hissed.

".....No way...that's Black death..." Vivi said but Shdwkyz looks to her.

"Black what?"

"Black death..it's a dangerous liquid that's only found in the lowest areas demon realm. My devils Nagi and Orochi told me about it. Sukuna must have brought some from there to the real world. If we touch that stuff, we will die within moments. Or worse..." she said but feels a tremor from the ground seeing everyone fighting.

"...The cracks..The floor is breaking up the more we smash these things. We have to tell everyone to not do that before.."

As she was explaining it, another tremor was felt only seeing the ground breaking up even worse. Everyone stumbles now but some moves from the ground that was caving in on it's self to show the black water below.

"What the fuck is down there!?" Luna said shocked.

"Everyone, move from the holes! Do not fall!" Vivi warns moving away keeping near Shdwkyz. "The liquid is dangerous, we are not to fall down! Or we will end up dying!" she said.

"What!?" Everyone shouts seeing the ground breaking more and more. Everyone was stumbling and getting close to one another away from the cracks. The leaders were worried seeing this as they tried to get free to help their teams.

Even the monsters were falling hearing more splashes. This was bad! Really really bad! The floor keeps cracking up as everyone was nervous seeing it was too close. In a second, the ground fully breaks up to send the teammates down into the deep hole with that black water.

"NO!!!" The leaders shouted in shock seeing this.

Some was screaming as they fell but as they did, something catches them or on platforms being invisible. They looked confused seeing this but quickly looks seeing someone holding their hands up.

"Melinda!?" Jaron was worried seeing Melinda glowing but she was using her telekinesis to catch everyone in time now being on platforms to hold a team/fraction.

"Geez, too close.." Rust said nervous.

"Nice one Meli!" Breezy said.

"Not bad...Hey can you can hold it till we get to the top again or near. We can get out somehow!" Shrika said.

"I can try...but the top has no place for us to stand on now. I can bring us up above this pit away from that stuff. We need to think of s..something here or a plan to get out." Melinda said worried since she can only hold the platforms for some time but not forever.

Jaron was worried holding her shoulders but looks down seeing the black liquid bubbling under them. Everyone looks down as well not liking the water but the leaders lets out a sigh of relief seeing they were safe. However, more of those monsters starting showing up.

"Guys! Guys watch out!" Fin shouted seeing the monsters now trying to attack. The leaders can only hope Melinda can hold the platforms for as long as she can. And keep her safe from the monsters that are now attacking them on the platforms she made.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Sukuna, what did you do!?" Ink said swinging her blade sending out more of the Flaming Wyrms. He jumps back to dodge seeing them trying to attack as he was aiming to take them down.

"What??? It's a game. You know I love games Inky. Your friends are very lucky to have someone that can use telekinesis. If not, they would be dead already hmm?"

"Sukuna.." Ink growls but he laughs even more.

"Oh come on, it's not that bad. I gave them some time to figure out what to do. Though, I wonder how long they can keep it up for? Even your friend who has everyone on what they can stand on to keep above the danger." He laughed but Ink knew someone that did. Being serious, she swings her sword again only for Sukuna to flip and dodge.

"Oh oh oh! Seems like I got your attention better now! Lets keep on playing!" he laughed as Ink glares gripping her great sword with her grey eyes burning.

The fight continues but with her friends now on the line. She has to win this to help them!

[dekusleftsock]

I am begging you and every other MHA fan to raise your standards cause Kohei gave everyone a yuri couple only to immediately kill one off.

…how many times has horikoshi faked deaths in this series. Because it’s A LOT. Afo, allmight, izuku losing his arm, bakugou, touya, Ochako literally last chapter, like… the story isn’t done yet my dude.

BUT HEY IF YOU WANNA ACTUALLY CRITIQUE HORIKOSHIS WRITING THEN IM ALL FOR IT HAHA

So how do I think horikoshi has seriously failed mha… hmm…

1: her

Her entire character. Well, not entire character. She GOT a lot of screen time and development don’t get me wrong, especially later in the series, and yes I love the fact that bakugou and dekus relationship was more prioritized than Izuku and Ochakos, but does that mean he prioritized her character? No! Nope! NADDA! Ochako is repeatedly sidelined throughout the story, and is also somehow excluded from a lot of arcs that SERIOUSLY RELATE TO HER CHARACTER.

Imagine if ochako was a part of the stain arc at all. She joined for selfish reasons like iida, he has a blood quirk like toga (which could’ve EASILY been foreshadowing to her not being freaked out by blood like most people), could’ve been a great way to show some nuance to her character….

And yet… AND YET…

That brings me to mistake number 2: Shoto Todoroki

Do I think shoto’s character is written badly or wrong? No! Of course I don’t! The entirety of the todoroki storyline, especially with its connection to hawks and the dirty parts of heroics, is really really good! I think it’s one of the most well handled abusive families in all of fiction. It understands EVERYONE in the family, and horikoshi is still able to show so much character and development in just a few scenes, like Natsuo or Rei.

So what IS my problem?

The fact that Ochako, her story, her CHARACTER AS A WHOLE… becomes sidelined due to horikoshi’s choice to prioritize his character over her’s. Again, it’s a great story and I wish he could balance both of them in mha, but he COULDNT, and he made the choice to sacrifice a woman’s character over a man’s.

Though I will say, a note on how ochako could’ve been in the stain arc: toga as a concept was created later and for ochako specifically, so it does kind of make sense as to why she wasn’t involved. Plans change and writers change, their ideas for their characters and what direction they go will ALWAYS change, and sadly you can’t predict that you won’t change a character or it’s direction at any point. It sucks! But that’s how a lot of these really long manga’s go. They have to write and then draw it pretty fucking fast.

And tbh I don’t really know what id do in horikoshi’s shoes with ochako and shoto! But it is definitely a critique we can acknowledge. It would take some seriously extraordinary writing skills to be able to balance, what, 3 deuteragonists? Katsuki, Ochako, AND Todoroki? Especially since one of those characters has a very complex trauma storyline that involves like five other characters? I honestly wouldn’t know what to do in his shoes!

I just wish he had picked the woman out of the two of them, but I think everyone knows that his manga wouldn’t be half as popular were he to have made it focus on two guys and a girl, instead of three guys, one of which is conventionally attractive and has major main character energy.

Anyway number 3: the overhaul arc

Ugh I have such mixed opinions on this arc. On one hand it has some really interesting storylines… when they’re on their own.

From what I understand, horikoshi did this arc because he wanted to try his hands at a longer arc and he had never really done that before. And while it’s great and very obvious he learned things from this arc, it just… takes up so much god damn space and gives us absolutely nothing long term.

Like yeah it makes a few points, like how high schoolers shouldn’t be involved in all of this and kinda sets up the ending rn where the actual adult heroes are sacrificing themselves for the next generation (ex: the guy that I forget the name of who’s now bakugous heart, allmight for deku, midnight for Mina/all the other kids, Mount lady, Aizawa for deku and all the other kids, Mirko for bakugou, etc etc), where as villains sacrifice the next generation for THEMSELVES (ex: afo and shigaraki, overhaul and eri, the gun arm girl for deku, also afo for dabi, etc etc) which is really good to do!

It’s just. Yk. Done by basically every other arc.

AIZAWA REPEATEDLY SHOWS THIS, ALLMIGHT REPEATEDLY SHOWS THIS, ENDEAVOR REPEATEDLY SHOWS THIS. Like it’s the entirety of Mount ladies arc, learning to be a hero and sacrifice for the next generation. Sacrifice and the fact that we forget 1-A are high schoolers is constantly shoved down our fucking throats; we don’t need this arc that takes so god damn long, only adds more characters that aren’t that important, TAKES AWAY FROM YOUR MAIN CAST OTHER THAN DEKU AND ALLMIGHT, JUST for it to tell you explicitly that “kids shouldn’t be fighting the battles of the previous generation, but they have to”. It just. Ugh.

There’s so much time in that arc fucking WASTED on nighteye or mirio’s character. Do I think the big three are really interesting? Of course! The contrast between mirio to deku is fascinating! It really shows how much deku can’t become allmight.

But you know. We talked about that a season ago mha. Yk. When he learns to use kicks instead of punches. Or yk. Gran Torino’s entire arc surrounds that. Everything about deku is nothing like allmight. That’s the entirety of their characters together. It’s repeatedly shown to be dekus biggest insecurity. He’s not allmight. YOU DIDNY NEED THIS ARC TO TELL YOU THAT AGAIN.

It’s like, everything that matters in this arc has already been shouting at you throughout the entire show, and everything else is never really used again outside of a mention here or there. It’s REALLY CLEAR Horikoshi was just doing this arc to try doing a long arc, not thinking about the long term of said arc.

Hmmm what else is there to complain about…

Eh, I guess the fan service? Which is, yk, in every other shonen anime/manga out there. Sometimes with people far younger than anyone in mha.

Ugh it’s like people like you just want me to be screaming “horikoshi did this! Horikoshi did that!” Every five seconds. I read the manga, I’ve talked about these flaws before on my account. Sorry if I… enjoy the manga???? Wait… omg!

It’s almost like I’m an mha account and it says RIGHT HERE IN MY BIO! Crazy!

Like seriously, what was your point? You were mad at drawings on a screen and someone enjoying that story and just… wanted to make someone’s day worse?

Did you expect me to heave over and be like “yes master anon! Toga is the worst written character in mha and horikoshi is a bad writer!” He’s a capable writer who understands his audience more than people give him credit for.

EVERY story has flaws. Every. Single. One. And because mha is literally everywhere and the fandom can get annoying because, it’s literally everywhere, I can understand getting annoyed sometimes. But you can’t sit here and expect me to solely focus on how bad horikoshi’s writing is because you’re mad at one thing. Toga SHOULD be selfless for ochako, sorry that it means thinking that she’s going to die???? What do you want from me?

I don’t have to “raise my standards” because horikoshi uses a lot of subtext and symbolism. I have other gay media I watch or read.

But like every single lgbtq movement that’s ever happened, it takes BABY STEPS. There aren’t many, if any, gay shonens out there, and if mha wants to be the first one it has to play by the rules. It has to make you think this is every other heterosexual shonen ever.

Shojo didn’t just become gay, it had to have shows like sailor moon censor a lesbian couple to be “cousins” so that other shows could exist. Madoka had to be at least semi subtle about its queer coding.

That whole meme where it shows one show saying “x show walked so that y show could run”, yeah that’s how every gay genre was made. Horror didn’t just become gay, it had to have community and relatability build up over the years, along with those new gay writers remembering where they came from, who paved the way.

My point being: I don’t give a shit if you think horikoshi is an awful writer who you think I can’t criticize. However I DO KNOW that if toga and ochako fully get together you’ll NEVER be able to avoid mha. And that thought makes me smile so much more than just the fact that they’re canon.

[kelmcdonald]

See You at VanCAF

This is copy pasted from my newletter. 

Hey all! My main thing is I'll be at VanCAF which is in Vancouver, British Columbia on May 20&21. They haven't posted con maps yet, so I don't know what my table number is. But I'll be there and it's free to get into. So stop by!

Like I said the big thing this month is going to VanCAF. The rest of the month is mostly keeping my nose to the grindstone. 

This month's full moon movie is The Wolfman again. This time the remake. While watching the original Wolf Man, myself and other folks in the discord talked about some of the stuff that was changed in the remake (stuff like the remake is twice as long.) So I figured doing a back to back would be kinda fun. So if you wanna join, we'll be watching it May 5th at 6pm PST. Join the discord if you want.

As always I'll be streaming art on Twitch. My schedule is currently the following:

Tuesday 8pm-10pm PST

Wednesday 8pm-10pm PST

Thursday 6pm-9pm PST (during the Iron Circus Geekshow)

I mentioned last month that I was redoing the live reading of Fame and Misfortune. My mic worked this time so I've saved it and posted it on my youtube. We go over through the whole story in about 30 mins. Then I answer some questions from fans.

I'll definitely doing something like this for The Better to Find You With. As I'll get to in the next section, I got a lot of stuff on my plate. It will probably be some time in the fall.

I spent a lot of April still playing catching up on things. I was really backed up on my work for Seven Seas. I think I got it handled now, but Blue Moon is still not done. I think that has to be my primary focus this month. I was hoping to get the current chapter of You are the Chosen One last month, but that didn't happen. It's penciled so for the next few Fridays I'll post the pencils of the rest of chapter.

By the time those go up, I'll hopefully be done with Blue Moon and can give You are the Chosen One more attention. I hate to do it, but I have to put something on hold. The City Between being free means it gets me more new readers/attention and You are the Chosen One takes longer. And after I write Blue Moon, I should probably make sure the next batch of You are the Chosen One script are ready for drawing. So here's my to do list/priority:

Write Blue Moon

Keep up with The City Between

Freelance thing that is NDA

Clean up Murky Water to make a book

Finish Chapter 3 of You are the Chosen One

Review next few chapters of You are the Chosen One

Anyway, that's quite a lot.  I barely had time to read or watch new stuff this month. So kinda a short list this month.

Darling by Olivia Stephens - Darling is a Western Horror about a black woman who's living as a werewolf to escape the racism of 1800s America. She meets a black man on the run and the two have an instant connection Olivia art is excellent and rendering makes every page look both beautiful and haunting. It's one of the best werewolf comics I've read. You should all go back it here.

Love is Hard for Otaku - This is one checked out because Mangasplaining did an episode on it. They had a kinda mixed opinion of it, but I was curious to look into it myself. It's about a gal who's a big nerd but is hiding it from her day job because her last boyfriend dumped her for being too nerdy. A nerdy guy friend proposes they date each other because since they are both nerds she won't have to worry about him dumping her for it. There is a manga and an anime. The manga is a little rough. The pacing seems to be kinda wonky. The anime does a better job landing the jokes, mostly because a lot of the jokes involved references to anime. So the joke works better when they can copy the scene from Evangelion shot for shot, rather than translation the animation into a comic. I don't 100% buy the characters as a couple so I'm on the fence about continuing to watch it. 

Nope - This was something that was on my I should get around to seeing this movie since it came out. It was streaming so I made a point to watch it. It's less than a year old so I won't go into details about the plot. But I really liked the point it makes about random chance and nature. I also really liked the relationship between the two main siblings. It was a good mix for conflict, frustration, and affection.

Anyway, thanks for sticking with me through the big workload that's going on. Please back my Patreon if you can. Every little bit helps!

[kusaka6e]

TUTOR

three | four | five

chapter list

———

the next day, you drive over to see your brother after your morning lectures, the cold winter air cutting through your clothes as you approach the entrance

you pull a mask over the bottom half of your face as you enter the building, thankful to be out of the cold.

"hey (l/n)! how are you?" the charge nurse waves from her desk, eyes crinkling into a smile from underneath her mask.

"hi suni, good to see you again."

you make your usual route down the hall, knocking gently when you reach the door.

"hey bub, you awake?"

"hi sissy." he paused his switch, smiling at you from his bed. you sigh, seeing the multiple bags of fluids on his iv pump.

"how come you're hooked up to so much stuff today?"

"the nurse said my platelets went down last night, so they're giving me more today." you nod, trying your best to not let any negative emotion show.

"i brought you something. the book store on campus got more in a couple days ago." you unzip your backpack and produce the next few volumes of a shounen manga your brother had been raving about.

"no way!! thank you!" he smiles brightly, wrapping his small arms around your torso. as you hug him back, you feel how much thinner he's gotten and internally sigh.

"do you like your nurses this time?"

"they're really nice! i don't remember her name, but the one from a few nights ago helped me get vending machine snacks." he's smiling brightly and talking with so much enthusiasm, you almost forget why you're there.

you stay for a couple of hours, playing games on his switch and talking to each other about schoolwork and other random things until he falls asleep.

as your packing up your things, there's a soft knock on the door.

"oh, hi (l/n)! i was just coming to check on him, you guys need anything?" one of the nurses you'd seen before whispers as she comes in

"no thank you, i'm just about to head out. can i ask you a couple questions?"

"of course." she nods away from the room, gently closing the door before facing you.

"is there any update on the waitlist thing?"

"because of his age, he's been made a priority patient on the waitlist; which is great! but, he's taking to this round of treatment fairly well. it has been tiring him out but the tumor isn't growing and there aren't any new ones."

"that's so great, thank you. and, thank everybody here from me, you all have been so wonderful."

"we're happy to help. you take care of yourself too honey, we'll see you next time." you give her a small wave before heading back to your car.

you glance up at your dashboard, cursing when you see '4:18' written on the clock. if you hurry, you'd only be a couple minutes late.

at 4:29 you fly into a parking space, throwing your car into park as you sling your backpack over your shoulder.

thankfully, baji is sitting at the same table you two were at yesterday, so it's not hard to find him once you enter the library.

"what was that you said yesterday about making an entrance?"

you glare at baji as you pull your notebook and a stack of paper from your backpack, brushing your hair out of your eyes. his hair is pulled into a bun, some baby hairs falling around his face.

"didn’t wanna be late." he grins, hearing the same words he said to you yesterday.

"i was looking at the notes you wrote me yesterday and i got confused."

"about?" you were greatful for baji not picking up on how stressed you were, or at least wasn't saying anything about it.

"how to get answers with this avo... ago... avor?"

"spit it out already." you giggle, his face twisted in focus.

"av... avocado's number. i don't know how to use it."

"avogadro's number. let me see the problems."

he noticed you looked stressed, different from your usual collected demeanor. given, this was only the second day he'd actually spent time with you. but, whenever he saw you with mikey or on campus, you always came off unbothered and put together.

"okay, we're gonna do some practice problems. you gotta know this to be good at stoichometry."

"stoich-y what?! i thought this was chemistry!"

"stoichometry is a part of chemistry, dipshit. it's just a fancy way to say dimensional analysis."

"that already sounds fancy, don't make it even more complicated."

"shut up and do the problem."

just like the day before, it takes him awhile, but all the problems get done without any mistakes after a number of tries and a multitude of questions.

"no celebration routine today?"

"not until i don't need your help with anything, remember?" he doesn't look up from having his head tossed back in exhaustion, long eyelashes fanning towards his eyebrows. you let out a small smile, surprised he remembered what you said.

am i blushing ?? ew

"well we've got a ways to go, but you're not doing too terrible."

"wow, thanks for the encouragement." he chuckles, lifting his head to look at you.

"i've gotta go but i'll see you next time, text me when you wanna meet up again."

"bye (l/n)." his eyes stay on you as you exit the library, sighing.

....

"what's got you quiet?" chifuyu raised an eyebrow at baji, lighting the joint in his hand.

"grades. chemistry sucks."

"how's that tutor mikey found for you?" he notices baji tense, smirking.

"she's really smart."

"and...?"

"and what?"

"is she hot?"

baji's lack of an answer makes matsuno laugh, letting a puff of smoke exit his lips.

"so, when are you gonna ask her out?"

"dude!"

"you're not? why don't you give me her number then?"

"i'm not giving you her number!" baji glares at him, jealously kicking in before he can try to keep it under wraps.

"i'm just fucking with you, i'm not gonna mess with her."

"it's not like she'd hang out with me other than tutoring."

"what makes you say that?"

"because she's so like.... together . she never seems stressed or mad, or sad, or anything."

"so? mitsuya comes off that way too, look how quick he is to knock someone out. i don't think you know her well enough to say that yet."

baji sighs, holding his hand out to chifuyu and taking a drag from the blunt.

"i guess it can't hurt to try, right?"

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 302: As the Todoroki Turns

Previously on BnHA: 

Today on BnHA: We have a very fun chapter in which (1) Shouto grows up lonely on account of his parents being worried that his siblings will literally try to kill him, (2) Natsu and Fuyu grow up neglected on account of not being special and/or self-destructive enough to attract attention, (3) we get to revisit all of that exciting spousal abuse from chapter 39, and (4) Touya burns to death right on cue, pretty much exactly like we expected it to happen. Thankfully since this is a shounen manga, Horikoshi finds some hope in all this misery as the Todoroki family rallies together, with Shouto getting his long-overdue credit for being a perfect sweet angel who put up with all of this shit for sixteen years and somehow came out of it strong and kind and empathetic and determined. Anyway, so that flashback was a barrel of laughs. But now that it’s over, we can put all of that angst behind us, and move on to... well I guess, probably, more angst. Look, we’re short on variety at the moment. Bear with it.

ouch. we knew this was coming, but still

A+ parenting move there. “ho boy, our eldest just tried to murder our youngest, now what? hmm how about we isolate our youngest from all human contact”

though in their defense, we probably shouldn’t have expected this rabidly strength-obsessed fire man and his wife who was groomed since childhood to obey her family’s whims to have any idea of how to raise stable, well-adjusted offspring

SERIOUSLY YOU GUYS

this is a perfect example of Enji’s tragically self-revolving viewpoint right here. just because being a hero is your entire world doesn’t mean you can just excuse yourself from anything outside of that and act like it’s out of your control. “alas, all I care about is hero stuff and my son can’t be a hero, we are doomed to inhabit two different worlds” no you jackass, it’s called having more than one hobby?? figuring out how to spend some time with your son that doesn’t involve training?? the same exact thing you were telling him to do last week, while ignoring that you’ve never done that yourself in your life??

that said, yet again we have that complexity though because it’s obvious that Enji at least on some level is aware of his own flaws, even though he seems unwilling or unable to confront them. honestly, from what we’ve seen so far, Enji’s obsession with surpassing All Might might be more accurately called an addiction. he literally can’t let go of it even though he’s fully aware of how it’s slowly destroying his life. and so in the same way that a lifelong smoker or alcoholic might tell their child to stay away from cigarettes and booze, Enji tells Touya not to follow down the same path as him, even though he himself doesn’t know how to leave that path. so yes, it’s hypocritical as fuck, but there’s also an element of helplessness there as well because Enji literally doesn’t know how not to be like this

though all the same he sure could stand to put in more than just a token effort. but it is what it is, and we already know how much he’ll come to regret it

and meanwhile Baby Shouto has frozen his sleep bubble with his quirk lmao. so I guess his quirk did come in early. that’s a recipe for chaos right there

once again Shouto is ruining every single dramatic panel in this flashback

this was so dark and intense... and then I spotted the lil bubs in the corner. Horikoshi please control yourself

“some hero you are, running away” and then all of a sudden, “FIVE YEARS LATER” lol what. OKAY THEN

(ETA: love the confirmation that eight-year-old Natsu comes from the Iida school of puberty and is basically a fully grown man, and meanwhile Touya comes from the hobbit school of puberty and has been perpetually eight for the past five years.)

“HEY BIG BRO WANNA COME RECREATE AN ICONIC FLASHBACK SCENE WITH US. WE’VE GOT THE SOCCER BALL RIGHT HERE, BUT HURRY UP OR WE’LL BE TOO LATE FOR SHOUTO TO WALK ON BY AND STOP TO LOOK”

lol and that’s literally the next three panels. but Horikoshi did add this extra bit after Endeavor starts to drag Shouto away

seriously Enji what the hell did you expect was going to happen here. “Touya went nuts and tried to kill his little brother out of jealousy, so let’s make it clearer than ever that Shouto is the important child and all the other children are just rejects. this will definitely not make the problem 100x worse, and will surely lead to Touya giving up and living a happy life, having been emotionally abandoned by the person he admired more than anyone.” good for you pal you figured it all out. no need for that plan b, “we all just go to therapy”

anyway so he’s telling Shouto he can’t play because he needs more endurance training. and meanwhile Touya’s patented Todoroki Drama Genes are going through puberty as well

definitely the face of a happy, emotionally stable child who’s not still plotting to murder his younger brother in his sleep

“WELL ACTUALLY MAKESTE” lol I stand corrected??

apparently during the five year interim Touya actually stopped blaming Shouto and realized Enji was the one at fault. good for him! a bit inconsistent, given what we know happens later, but I assume we’ll get to that in good time

anyway. “yeah man I agree that dad sucks, but it’s the middle of the night and I’m only eight and you’ve been monologuing for the past two hours bro”

LMAO

the manga is making my jokes for me, only better. fine then

looks like someone’s still miffed about that disagreement he had with his baby sister back when she was like four

“Fuyu doesn’t get properly riled up like I want her to so ranting to her is annoying.” okay but having been in Fuyu’s shoes, it really is just a different way of coping, and I can guarantee she’s not as fine with the whole situation as Touya might think. but making your peace with something is often a decision that’s made for emotional self-preservation reasons. and I sure as hell don’t fault her for trying to shut out a situation that she had no control over, and trying to make the best of it, and scrape together as normal a childhood as she could manage

and now in Touya’s defense as well, that is of course easier said than done, and I’m sure if there was a “push this button and instantly get over all of the trauma in your life” switch readily available for Touya then he would have pushed it too. unfortunately it’s not always that simple

so now Rei is pleading with Touya not to go train up on his little emo hill again, but it doesn’t seem like much has changed since he was eight

I don’t think he gives two figs about being a hero; he just wants his father to look at him again with pride. fucking hell, stop doing this to me you damn Todorokis

guh, they keep telling him the same thing over and over again

even if we hadn’t already known he was gonna go melt his jawbone off soon, I wouldn’t have expected a line like that to go over well

yep. fuck

that Todoroki puberty angst, though. nothing else quite like it

“you have a part in this too, Mom” ooooooh man

okay but look, he’s not entirely wrong. like, I’m not saying any of this is Rei’s fault at all! she’s in an impossible situation where she’s afraid to stand up to Enji (who by this point has shown that he’s willing to physically attack her if things get too heated, which is terrifying), and doesn’t really have anywhere to turn for support. her parents aren’t helping much if at all, and Japan in general is just a terrible country to be in when you’re in a domestic abuse situation. everyone’s expected to put on a brave face and deal with their problems all on their own in private. Rei is basically completely isolated at this point, and she doesn’t know what else to do, and so she’s just trying to keep the situation as stable as possible for the kids

but on the other hand, “for the kids” is also where that argument starts to break down a bit, because at this point Shouto is also being physically abused by his father, and the other kids are continuing to be neglected (emotionally if not physically), as they have been for years. so the situation really isn’t stable at all for them. and as a kid, what you end up learning in that type of situation is that you can’t rely on either parent. not the abusive one, certainly, but also not the other one who can’t protect you from any of it. even if they love you and they’re trying, they’re just as helpless as you. Rei is struggling to deal with all of this with one hand tied behind her back, and I get it, and I’m not blaming her at all. but all the same, particularly given that she’s (understandably) putting almost all her focus on Shouto, the end result is that the other kids have basically been left to fend for themselves

so yeah! a shitty situation all around. and one of those cases where it’s not really anyone’s fault (aside from Enji’s), but I can understand the resentment Touya is feeling all the same. and I’m so glad Horikoshi is acknowledging this, because it’s something I probably would have been too uncomfortable to bring up otherwise. as it is it’s still an incredibly heavy subject, and one that I probably have too many personal feelings about

anyway, so once again the whole “we’ll try talking to him and then just shrug our shoulders when it doesn’t work” parenting strategy doesn’t really pan out for the Todoroki fam

sob this boy is Anakin Skywalkering before our very eyes. all that’s missing is AFO to come and start whispering in his ear. any minute now...

“anyway so then he got taller and his fire changed from red to blue”

guess we’re getting pretty close then huh. this is the part of the flashback that I really don’t want to see, but also unfortunately the part that I’m most curious about :/

oh for fuck’s --

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN IGNORING HIM FOR FIVE YEARS DIDN’T ACTUALLY DO ANYTHING TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM” sob. back to the drawing board I guess

I thought he got taller, why is he still only like a third of Enji’s height here

oh fuck me these are armor-piercing feels. this is the heavy artillery right here

ENJI I’M BEGGING YOU PLEASE STOP AND THINK FOR ONE MOMENT IN YOUR LIFE BEFORE DOING SOMETHING YOU’LL REGRET FOR THE REST OF ALL TIME. your child just told you that he still thinks beating All Might is the only thing you care about, and that he believes his existence is a mistake unless he finds some way of doing that for you. please stop for a moment to contemplate that and choose your next words with care and grace and oh who the hell am I kidding

-- OR WE COULD JUST BLAME REI

go on and blame everyone but yourself then!! that’s a great solution!! jesus christ man I know this is Endeavor at his literal worst but still this is fucking hard to watch

POOR BABY SHOUTO IS YELLING AT HIS DAD NOT TO HIT HIS MOMMY THIS LITTLE BRAVE BOY NEEDS SO MANY HUGS OH MY GOD

AND MEANWHILE THE OTHERS ARE HUDDLED IN THE NEXT ROOM TRYING NOT TO CRY AH FUCK

(ETA: Fuyu covering Natsu’s ears cuts RIGHT TO THE CORE OF ME. Horikoshi if you’re really not gonna get these kids some therapy then at least consider giving your readers some. what is this.)

you know it’s bad when you’re starting to think the part where the kid burns to death might actually be a less traumatic thing to cut to right now

holy shit, actual Rei thoughts

“I was the one who ultimately made that choice” well there we go, wonder if that’ll put that whole argument to bed at last. I doubt it, but you never know. actually who am I kidding it’s not gonna settle jack shit lol

oh thank god, they decided it was getting too intense and cut away back to the present to narrate this next (final?) part

get ready to cue up that Alicia Keys. THIS BOY IS ON FIREEEEEEE

yeah I think that’s one thing we can mostly all agree on. neither of them had any clue what the fuck they were doing pretty much at any point. though I will say that the hypocrisy of him being all “WHY DIDN’T YOU STOP HIM” followed by him IMMEDIATELY DOING THE EXACT SAME THING is a bit rich

(ETA: and he still has this problem, doesn’t he? he froze up when Ending snatched Natsuo, and again when Dabi was attacking Shouto. he’s so afraid of doing the wrong thing that he ends up not doing anything, which of course is exactly what led to Touya’s death. damn Enji I guess you’ve still got some additional character development to unlock.)

and of course neither of them could possibly have known how badly it was going to turn out. like, the consequences here were WAY disproportionate even for the shittiest of parenting. no one expects “I didn’t know how to talk to my son” to snowball into “my son burned to death and then somehow came back as a villain and murdered thirty people”

ohhhhhhhh fuck me

LITERALLY INCINERATED THE ENTIRE HILLSIDE. fuck. and I am so not ready for the scene of Enji finding the remains of his jawbone afterwards. at least we were spared anything super-graphic (for now at least)

I feel like the timeline here is off, btw?? wasn’t Touya’s death supposed to happen after Rei got hospitalized? this might be the first actual retcon of the entire flashback. although I think it makes more sense this way tbh

I do appreciate that ten years later Enji is finally reflecting on the fact that if he’d just given up his stupid obsession he could have stopped his family from crumbling apart. that probably sounds sarcastic as fuck, but it’s not. there are countless jerks out there who would have still managed to find a way to blame literally everyone and everything under the sun except for themselves. at least he finally figured out how to take responsibility, even if it came too late to stop his son from dying and being radicalized into a villain terrorist organization

and speaking of, it seems to me we’re missing a third and final part to this little tale of woe, and one which only Touya himself will be able to shed any light on. so we’ll see how that goes

oh man seeing the other kids blaming themselves even though none of it was their fault hits hard af. Rei wasn’t kidding when she said they’d been bearing that burden of guilt far longer than Enji

SHOUTO I SWEAR TO GOD IF THE NEXT PANEL IS YOU APOLOGIZING FOR BEING BORN, I WILL... WELL I’LL BE VERY SAD, I GUESS. SO DON’T DO IT

oh good he’s just being quiet. good. it absolutely is not your fault lil bean. it’s not theirs either, but feeling guilty about things that aren’t your fault is a time-honored shounen tradition

goddammit I braced myself for the angsty Shouto panel a page too early. gotta do it all over again now lol. okay here goes

;_;

well well well would you look at that

imagine that. talking things out with your child before they make a rash decision. looks like the Todorokis’ parenting skills are finally leveling up

OH MY GOD

holy shit. this is the most quintessential moment of father/son Todoroki bonding in the entire series. for me it even tops the “nice scar” scene lol. Enji sobbing at the fact that he still has a chance to set things right. and Shouto offering his hand in what is actually the most mature and selfless gesture I’ve ever seen, and being all “we’ll stop him together” to his dad who he hates, but also doesn’t really entirely hate anymore. and all of that is incredibly moving... BUT ALSO HE STILL REFUSES TO MAKE EYE CONTACT WITH HIM AND HE WOULD LIKE HIM TO STOP BEING SO FUCKING DRAMATIC ALREADY IF YOU DON’T MIND. “WHEN YOU’RE DONE CRYING...” fkjldsk

OH MY FUCKING LORD

(ETA: wouldn’t be a Todoroki drama fest if there wasn’t somebody listening in on the whole thing in secret just around the corner lmao.)

“you think we should have waited somewhere else?” “yeah, probably.” “are you feeling a lot of secondhand embarrassment too?” “god, you have no idea.” STFU HAWKS IT’S NOT EMBARASSING TO BE MOVED TO TEARS BY YOUR FAMILY ALL COMING TOGETHER IN YOUR DARKEST HOUR TO GIVE YOU HOPE THAT YOU PROBABLY DON’T DESERVE BUT ARE NONETHELESS INDESCRIBABLY GRATEFUL FOR

and anyway you chose these guys as your found family, bucko. too late to back out now. next time go get yourself adopted by the Iidas then

AND MEANWHILE NO WORD ON THE WHOLE “HOW DID A THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD SURVIVE A FIRE THAT COVERED HIS BODY WITH HORRIFIC SCARS AND MELTED HIS JAW OFF, AND HOW DID HE SOMEHOW THEN MANAGE TO GO INTO HIDING FOR TEN WHOLE YEARS, AND WHAT HAPPENED IN THAT INTERIM TO CHANGE HIS GOAL FROM ‘SURPASS ALL MIGHT TO IMPRESS MY DAD’ TO ‘KILL ALL HEROES TO MAKE MY DAD SUFFER’.” as if we don’t know the answer to that. but still, would it kill Horikoshi to just confirm AFO’s involvement in all of this already. at this point it’s basically just a formality

so here’s hoping next week we’ll either get that, or more Hawks action, or (DARE I EVEN SUGGEST, I’M AFRAID TO JINX IT) finally cut back to Bakugou and Deku and All Might omg. either way I’m hyped

[gunsforcait]

This has been explained many times since chapter 138 came out, but because even I am having a hard time processing it, I wanna talk about the many reasons why the dream wasn't only Mikasa's, and Eren has loved her for a long time.

The logical reasons: All the subtle hints that have been given through the series that Eren holds Mikasa dearly, and why he was obviously lying at the table scene. (He was an asshole for telling her all of those things but still)

Eren wouldn't lie to her like this if he really hated her, specially not this Eren, specially not after she'd given him the strength to keep fighting and not give up.

When he worried about her broken ribs in ch51, when he looked back at her and thought about getting back his home in rts, when he accepted her emotional support by opening grisha's books together, when he encouraged her to show her hizuru tattoo bc he knew it would be the best thing for her. Moments where he worried about her and supported her.

Then we have the chapter 123 scene. It would not make sense for Eren to ask that "what am I to you?" question if he wasn't seeking for a specific kind of answer. After all, it's been three years and by this point Eren was probably aware that what he felt for Mikasa wasn't just mere affection, and as a last resort before giving in to his future, he sought for something that wouldn't make him hate himself, even if it was just for a moment.

All because he knew that Mikasa cares for him a lot (even if his dense mind didn't know for sure that she loves him)

Then we get Eren and Zeke's conversation. Eren actively asked Zeke about her, wether the fact that she cared for him was something related to her bloodline or something else, because he doesn't believe he's worthy of being loved and cared for like Mikasa does.

Zeke answers that there's no such thing as an ackerbond and tells him that she probably just "likes you so much that she'd snap a titan's neck for you" but by that time, Eren knows it's too late for him, too late for them. So he shrugs it off and tells him he can't do anything about it bc he only has four years left.

This imo is another sign that he wants her to forget him bc he doesn't want to hurt her. He knows now that she loves him, but he cannot be selfish and have a future with her, so for her own sake, he tries his best to try to make her stop loving him or forget him.

It's been shown multiple times in the manga, with the table scene (sigh), when he told louise to throw the scarf away, and in their dream when they hugged and he told her to please forget him when he's gone, basically telling her to move on and live a long, happy life without him.

The memory shards. Normally I wouldn't have paid much attention to them, but the fact that Mikasa is in the biggest one's twice, and is the biggest focus on the third one isn't a coincidence.

(Also I'll just mention how they're shards of two of the most pivotal moments of their relationship but let's keep going)

This scene shows to me that he had a moment of weakness when he saw that innocent and beautiful moment between the two of them again, after so long. I think he understood fully why Mikasa clings so much to that moment for comfort.

And at last we get the shared dream, alternative universe, previous timeline or whatever it was. A different version of events where Mikasa told him she'd be happy by living the rest of his four years together in peace. He accepts her proposal and they run away together.

They spend the next four years getting closer and building their relationship, specially after knowing that they both share romantic feelings for the other. It gets to a point where they're so comfortable with each other that they're basically in a relationship, hence shown by the physical closeness that they show to each other in this dimension with that hug, and the way she held his head as he was about to die.

Which brings me to the main point of this post. This scenario was shared for one main reason: the very first time we see Eren and Mikasa together in the manga.

Not only Eren sees Mikasa saying goodbye to him in that au, but he realizes that her hair has grown longer compared to how it looked two minutes ago in that dream. He saw it. He was part of it.

Now, to Mikasa's pov. We don't know for sure what her headaches meant, but they're most likely related to that dream. Probably caused by Eren, trying to break through her Ackerman lineage to make her see this dream. It was heavily implied in 138.

In this very moment, Mikasa is finally seeing that dream too. She was able to remember everything that happened in it.

And I wanna put emphasis on the fact that this dream is fabricated by both Eren and Mikasa. Things happened the way they did in there because they were both free to choose the events of it, hence why Isayama said it was "Mikasa's ideal". Yes, her answer to his question in the refugee camp in that universe was her ideal. She has shown remorse about saying "you're family" to him. But that alternative answer was what she would've liked to say.

Eren, nevertheless, accepted that answer and ran away with her. He's the one leading their path in this panel which makes me think that he's the one who actually proposed to run away for real.

So, back to our reality in chapter 138, Mikasa has seen everything. Remembers everything. She's experienced four years of "married" life with Eren in seconds. And she knows that Eren has seen it, too. That he loves her back, and that he never hated her.

But she also knows that the Eren in this reality is too far gone. So she ends it. She kills him and ends it all, remembering the moment he died in their shared dream. She tells him "See you later, Eren" and then holds his head in her hands and kisses him goodbye.

She said goodbye to him in the exact same way that she did in their dream.

The Mikasa that hadn't experienced 4 years alone in a cabin with Eren would get nervous any time he got too close to her or get all red when he asked a romantically coded question. If she didn't have that closeness to him normalized, she would have never kissed him like that.

If Isayama had meant for that moment to be gruesome and hard to look at, he wouldn't have made Eren's expression look so peaceful when they kissed. He would've looked more like this.

We know Isayama isn't scared of showing impactful images like that, so if he had wanted to, he would have done it. But that wasn't what he was trying to convey.

In other words, eremika canon. Thanks for reading👍

[bukojuiice]

rose-colored boy

ೃ pairing: (eren jaeger x fem! reader)

ೃ  tags: college/modern au, fluff, humor, love at first sight cliché, mikasa is your cute little sister, armin, sasha, jean, and connie are your besties, and eren is a himbo who works hard and has terrible friends.

ೃ warnings: strong language and mild suggestive content

ೃ part 1/??? of my (eren x reader) college au!

ೃ word count: 3000 words

ೃ  my nav  →  my mha writing masterlist 

ೃ This is my very first snk x reader fic! so i hope you bear with some errors! qwq 

i’ve been following the anime ever since it was released in 2013, and this is the first time i’m  going to be writing for it.  this month’s manga chapter really took me out so why not channel my sadness thru writing an fluff! eren fic? 🤧 i hope you enjoy either way!

ೃ  please do reblog if you enjoyed!! (feel free to add tags too because i love reading them and my heart swells with happiness when people love my work!)

ೃ  in which (Y/N) (L/N), 20, still in school, and regretfully-unregretfully-her little girl scout sister's assistant, meets eren jaeger in an embarrassing too innocent door-to-door cookie sale whilst a humiliating party was going on.

cookies, suspicious maybe-maybe-not pot brownies, meddling little sisters and friends, “oh my god they were roommates” vine on replay 24/7, homework, tears, and fairy lights bring them together.

“I’m going to enter now.”

“Ahhh yes, please!”

“Shut up, please.” Eren muttered to himself as he tossed and turned around in his bed, but still couldn’t get to sleep. “When will they ever stop doing this?” Why did Eren’s next-door roommate and his girlfriend have to do this five times a day? They had a lot of stamina for 21-year-olds who didn’t have anything better to do.

Eren’s thoughts eventually brought him to his parents.

His parents- did they even exist?

For pretty much 14 years of Eren’s life, they had been out of town or out of the country. His older brother, Zeke, blonde, bespectacled, tall, and sometimes too far up his own ass older brother who Eren is able to confide in from time to time, recently got a girlfriend whom he’s hopelessly in love with (they’re even thinking about getting married which isn’t really a problem since the girl is genuinely nice to his older brother so Eren is good with her.), so… things in the family had been a bit rough and busy to say the least.

Communication with his parents wasn’t always the best.

Eren would study late at night back when he was seven, because no one bothered to help him with homework. Along with the fact that he wasn’t the brightest kid in class, and he knew that very well, but he had ambition and he was determined to make it big in the world. He focused more on sports, particularly Soccer in middle school and high school, and tried to balance that with his studies.  After being granted a Sports Scholarship from Shigashina University, Eren decided to rent and share a flat, living with his batchmates who he met at a mixer party (before Uni started as this whole meet and get to know each other kind of thing) and whom he was so quick to call his ‘friends’, just so that he could get out of the hellhole that was his own house.

But things turned out much worse than expected.

Eren thought that the ‘College Life’ was to focus more on pursuing your future career and make a name for yourself but… it was the other way around.

He thought that after Freshmen year, everyone would take things seriously. Sure, have some drinks, get wasted after finals, or have house parties from time to time. But he was unfortunately, dragged into the wrong crowd. After attending around 5 parties in the first few months of being generalized as one of the infamous and pompous freshman archetypes present in every university, he called it a year and spent the rest of his nights doing homework, projects, playing video games, staying at the school soccer field until 10PM while his roommates were probably smoking crack and not caring about the number of units they needed to take for each of their goddamn subjects.

 He was ~living the life~ and now that he regrets most of the decisions he made in freshman year, the only option that he has left was to wait until his third year and move to a different apartment.  

 Now, here he was, Sophomore year, nearing the end of the semester, and very much eager to get the hell out of here and also study for his upcoming finals on Constitutional Law II, as his professor, Mr. Erwin Smith, was going to throw hands if one of his students score below average on the exam.

 “EREN MICK JAEGER! BROOOO!” Eren winces when he hears the shrieky and annoying voice of his flatmate Thomas Wagner, calling out to him. “Wanna go and party with us?” Eren smiles halfheartedly, shaking his head, “Ah, no thanks. I have a game tomorrow and finals coming up on Thursday.” Thomas smirked and wrapped his arm around Eren, “Oh fuck that, live the college life ya spoon.”

“No, really I have to study.”

Thomas frowned and groaned, “Oh god, you’re such a killjoy. Fine, if that’s what you want. Don’t blame us if we tell you to buy some beer down the block.”

Eren cracked an obviously fake laugh and pushed Thomas away from him, “You’re an ass. That only happened once and that was when we first met. Don’t you even dare try to ask me to buy you shit again.”

“Woah. Woah. Woaaaaaah. That was a joke Eren. Loosen up will you?” Thomas raises an eyebrow, clearly taken aback by the brunette’s sudden aggressiveness. He hums Moves like Jaeger by Maroon 5 as a way to spite Eren whilst passing by him down the staircase.

The brunette shook his head, tying his hair into a bun carelessly and sprinting into his room without uttering another word.

Eren just wanted to study. He really did.

Instead, his roommates, all of them, mind you, were all partying in the lounge and the music was too loud and Eren was too annoyed.

They did manage to bring him out and make him stay in the kitchen where he mindlessly glared at anyone who came in. He sighed and tapped his pen restlessly amongst the insane amount of books on the table.

There was a knock.

His roommate, Floch, came in the kitchen with his girlfriend who Eren couldn’t even name with all the women he has brought into the apartment. She was hanging onto his arm and giggling. Floch’s eyes were red and his speech very slow and lazy. "Eren!" he said with a sly grin.

Eren raised an eyebrow, shooting him an irritated look. "What now Floch? Are you here to tell me to take a shot again?" The ginger-haired’s girlfriend giggled once again and kissed Floch’s cheek. Floch laughed and swatted her away, though he missed by a long shot. "Someone's at the door," a thumb pointing to the den. "wouldchumind ge'in it?" another giggle. The girl nodded sloshily. "Yesss! Erenieee get 'em door, please. Be a dearrrrr."

Eren frowned and stared at them menacingly, earning no reaction from the two as they were mad drunk. "You were just in the den," Floch’s eyes widened. "My lovey wovey-we was in the den?" His girlfriend’s mouth went into an O. "Di'nt notice tha'!"

Eren sighed and stood up. He miraculously got through the throng of bodies and to the front door. "Yes?" he called out exasperated, not knowing who was outside.

"Do you want cookies?"

Eren turned and looked to see a little raven-haired girl, a girl scout no less, a blonde-haired boy pulling on a trolley who looked significantly shorter than him, wearing rimmed glasses, and an overall appearance whom his “friends” would immediately label as a nerd they had to be a few feet away from if they saw him and lastly, a girl who looked very tired and very done with life.

Beautiful (h/c)-colored hair, her eyes looked like the starry night sky, twinkling as he catches her gaze and a smile that looked forced, but warm all the same.  

A girl who was just absolutely fucking gorgeous.

Eren was captivated. His heart was beating like crazy and he could feel his ears turn red. He would make a fool of himself if he looked red as a tomato right now.

"Um," The girl peeked inside and grimaced, squeezing the hand that was her little sister's shoulder and catching Eren’s gaze. "Mikasa, I don't think these kinds of guys would want cookies."

“Unless they're pot cookies,” Eren almost said. Mikasa pouted and widened her eyes at Eren.

The older girl crouched down and frantically covered her little sister’s eyes. "Nopenopenope, Mi, don't pull that on him."

"But (Y/N)!"

(Y/N).

Her name was (Y/N).

Eren smiled sincerely (for the first time today) and leaned back inside to the drawer by the door to grab the extra cash he and his roommates put there for emergency pizza and stuff. "You know what? You're absolutely brilliant at selling cookies. I'll take one."

Mikasa smiled back at him cheekily and tugged her older sister’s hand. "See, (Y/N)?! He wants some! Go get 'em!”

The raven-haired girl then turned to the blonde teen, practically jumping up and down. “Armin look! We sold another one!"

“We did!” The boy who was apparently named Armin, clapped his hands together, then gave the little girl a high five. “You’re a natural at this Mikasa!”

(Y/N) looked at Eren, then Mikasa, and sighed. She grabbed a bag from the trolley Armin was dragging around and pulled out a box of cookies. Eren grabbed them slowly from her, their hands almost touching as he gave (Y/N) a small smile. The (h/c) girl blushed lightly, though not visible enough for the brunette to notice.

"Hope to see you again!" Eren called out when the siblings said their thank you's and bid farewell.

And, this time, even for the slightest moment, Eren’s serotonin levels were going straight through the roof. His heart was still beating loudly, almost in sync with the trash music his roommates were blaring on the speakers. and for a moment, even just for a moment. 

He felt genuine happiness that he hasn’t felt in a very long time.

 The three of you continue to walk animatedly, now that the coast was clear and the guy from earlier wasn’t within earshot, your blonde friend just had to break the silence.

 Armin smiles, pushing his glasses up to the crook of his nose. “(Y/N), you did see how he looked at you right?” The blonde chuckles softly, catching his best friend off guard.

 You blinked. “Him?” You try to stop yourself from smiling, blushing profusely. “Geez Armin, I don’t even know his name yet.”

 “I’ll bet you 100 bucks that he goes to our Uni.”

 “Even if he does, it’s not like we’ll talk to him or anything. Judging from the place he lives in and the people he was hanging out with, we’re in two completely different worlds.” You shook your head in denial, holding Mikasa’s hand, your interlocked arms swinging playfully. Armin gives you a knowing look in response.

 Mikasa continued to wave back at the boy whom they had just sold cookies too. (Y/N) looked over her shoulder and smiled. “Wasn’t he nice (Y/N)?” Mikasa asks her older sister. (Y/N) returned her sister a small smile, “He was.”

 "I hope we see him again!"

"I'm sure we will."

 The day of Eren’s dreaded finals finally arrive.

He has prepared tirelessly for this. Hours upon hours of hard work. But, before he finally gets his well-deserved sleep, he has a few more hours to cram and absorb more knowledge for his exams.

So, what better way to do so than head straight to the library as soon as it opens at 6 AM?

This time, no one was going to bother him. No annoying roommates and no distractions.

Eren heads over to a table near the coffee and snack machines. He puts down his bag on a seat next to him, and begins to study once again. Looking through the course materials and the lessons that he still didn’t quite understand. Eren was so absorbed with studying and relying on his gut feeling that no other student in this university would think of going to the library at 6 AM on the day of finals… then he’s wrong. Very wrong. 

 “Sasha, should you even be eating mashed potato this early in the morning?” Armin asks the brunette worriedly, a huge tone of concern in his voice.

“Armin! Don’t chu worry! I ate heavy breakfast! Bacon, Eggs, and Toast! Did you not see me in the kitchen!?” She reassures her blonde friend, continuing to scoop up the mashed potato on a reusable cup.

“Liar.” Connie hissed, narrowing his eyes. “I was awake since 4 AM. Not once did I see you sneak into the kitchen until (Y/N) woke you up.”

“Atatata. Can we… stop with the negative vibes for a second?” Jean tries to become the mediator by holding his hands up against his two friends who were about to start an argument. “It’s finals week. We have to keep a clear mind, body and soul-“

“Jean, you know that’s BS.” You yawn widely, still practically half-asleep.

“Oh, come on! Can’t you just let me be positive just this once!? If we fail this exam I’m going to blame you!“

The five of you continue to talk mindlessly on the way to the library. Connie pushes the glass door open, very much excited to have this huge library all to yourselves.

Until…

There was someone already there.

Your eyes immediately come into contact with Eren’s. His radiant jade eyes staring into yours, mouth practically agape, his hands holding on to wooden chopsticks as the hot air of instant ramen breezes through his face.

“Oh?” Connie blinks. “Guess we aren’t the first ones here then.” He whistles.

“(Y/N)!” Armin nudges you in the arm in an attempt to tease you. “Guess your wish came true huh? We did see him again! By himself too!”

“W-what am I supposed to do exactly?” You turn to Armin, speaking in a hushed whisper.  

“Say thank you to him! Offer him to go on a boba date or something!”

“You got the Sasha seal of approval (Y/N)! He’s hot!” Sasha motions you a thumbs up and you can’t help but feel yourself already wanting to die of embarrassment.

The four of them slightly push you towards his table. With your friends cornering you like this, there was no way of escaping this.

All you had to do was talk to him and properly thank him for buying cookies from your little sister.

That was it.

No need for any extra ad-libs or poor and bad attempts of flirtation.

Just thank him (Y/N).

You can do this.

You breathe a hefty sigh then approach his table with confidence. The brunette continues to look up at you whilst turning the page of his reviewer that he wasn’t even looking at.

“Hi again! I just wanted to thank you properly for helping my sister and I, out the other day. Mikasa really appreciated the gesture you did for her, and she couldn’t stop talking about you to our parents since we saw you. You see, none of the other girl scouts want to be paired up with my sister because they think she’s an emotionless and monotonous freak. They’re really mean to her but she really wants to continue being a girl scout so my friend and I accompany her whenever she has to sell cookies!”

“It’s N-no problem!” Eren quickly replies, running a hand through his hair. “Why would they say such horrible things to your sister like that? Judging from the way she acted in front of me, she was quite the opposite. In a positive way of course! Those kids are just assholes who are intimidated because another girl their age is seemingly better than them.”

You giggle in response. “Thank you. I’ll tell Mikasa that you said that!” 

There was short silence for a few seconds until you realized that you forgot to say something. 

“Ah! I’m (Y/N) (L/N) by the way!”

“Eren.” He smiles, reaching his hand out to you for you to shake. You grip his strong and calloused hand firmly, and Eren could feel his ears turning red again while you were about to blush as red as a tomato.

You hear your friends snickering in the background and you took this as a sign to go back to your table. “I guess, I’ll see you around campus?” You ask, tilting your head. For, you actually really wanted to see him again after this.

“Yea! I’ll be seeing you!” He grins widely, watching you leave where he was seated. His smile then envelops into a frown as soon as you went away then he goes back to studying.

“(Y/N)! (Y/N)!” Connie whispers loudly, calling you over by waving his hand. Why was this dunce being so painfully obvious? “Ask him if he’s looking for an apartment or if he wants to live with us!”

“Already!?” You ask in disbelief, a bit shocked by what Connie had just said. He scoots to the left, as you take a seat between him and Sasha. “Guys, you’ve known him for like… 3 minutes. Only Armin and I actually interacted with him before this.”

“He has to pass the vibe check first.” Jean shrugs, sipping on an iced expresso. “But, yeah, he does seem alright from a few feet away.”

“Come on (Y/N)! Ask him!” Sasha nods approvingly. “It’s weird that he’s studying alone like this while we’re in another table trying to remain unaware that he looks lonely as hell.”

“UMmMM… maybe he wants to study alone because that’s the only way he can focus? That’s a thing that normal people do, Sasha.” You remark sarcastically, trying to think up of more reasons to not approach him again.

Armin clears his throat, “Look, (Y/N), it won’t hurt to try right? Besides, don’t you feel a tiny bit sorry for him? He does seem lonely and you do have a crush on him so… more ways to interact with him right?”

Your shoulders slump and you breathe a defeated sigh. “Okay okay fine.” You make your way to Eren’s table again but before you do, you turn to your friends. “By the way, I don’t really have a crush on him just yet. I just find him cute okay?”

“Yeah yeah.” They say in unison as you continue to walk back to the brunette’s table.

“Hi again Eren!” You wave and try your best not to fumble or look painfully obvious that you were infatuated by him. He looks up and you try your best not to smile like a weirdo.

“Hm?” He hums.

“Would you like to come over to our table and study with us?”

To be continued.

[lilsocksiswriting]

Table of Contents

Chapter 4 II Chapter 6

Warnings: No Beta

Tendo sniffs the air as the two of you walk to practice. "It smells like it's going to rain."

You stifle a laugh. "What?"

Tendo thinks that you just didn't hear him. That you're in that little world he sees you writing about all time that you won't let anyone, not even him, into.  He repeats himself, "I said it smells like it's going to rain."

"Yea I heard you but how can you smell it? That's some wicked sense of smell if you do. Oh! do you think you can smell if a cat broke a vase or not?"

"If only," his shoulders drop. "Tanjuro has such a freaking cool power."

"It's not really a power, is it? I always thought he just has a wicked sense of smell."

"The dude had the nose of blood hound."

you open your mouth and a loud boom of thunder rings out.

"run."

"Wha-"

a little drop of water plops on your head, followed by another,  then another, then what feels like a hundred more. Suddenly Tendo's wrapping a lanky arm around your shoulder, tucking you as close as he can to his side under his school blazer. A shriek of laughter bubbles past your lips as you dash along with him. You have no idea where you two are heading. You just know that Tendo smells good and his maniacal laughter draws out even more laughter from you. You are only able to catch your breath when you make it into the lobby of the nearest building

"That," you huff.  "That came out of nowhere."

"I told you I smelled it!" he was panting as well. Faint laughter under every deep breath.

"Couldn’t you have smelled it sooner!"

"I'm not Tanjuro Y/N!"

Your laughter finally dies down when both of your phones go off.

You look up from your phone and  ask, “That's it?”

“I don’t want to scare you with all the gory details.”

You scoff then remember that Tendou has no idea about the things that you write let alone that you are a horror writer.  And you’re not sure that you want him to know.  Tendou was important to you. You didn't want to ruin the friendship you two had or present a chance in ruining it because you were the girl who stayed up research and write 'concerning' things. it's happened before and no matter how much Kuroo and Kenma would reassure it's bound to happen again.

So you do what you do best and talk about something else. “So what building is this?”

“The auditorium. I really think we are all alone. The whole theater club went of some big retreat this week.”

“Really?”

Tendou nods. “The guy I sit next to in the homeroom was really excited about it.”

“I mean it does have that empty theater at night vibe to it. OH!”

The redhead jumps at your sudden outburst. You grab his hand and Tendou swears his whole body heats up a few degrees.

“You think that the control booth is unlocked.”

“What? Like a mission command?”

“Like the best seat in the house!”

You had never been inside a control booth but you had seen videos taken from a control booth. Those videos panned over vast rooms of rows upon rows of empty seats facing an empty stage. They were dark videos, not just in their aesthetic and contents but the way that the theaters were only lit by dim lamps hung low along the walls or built into the stairs.  There was an eeriness to these videos that you had always wanted to see in person. Videos were great at helping you describe a scene, but not so much describing the feelings of being in an empty theater.

Tendou lets up pull him along not wanting to sully this hopeful mood of yours. He wonders if you know who cute you're being right now. He wants to know why you're so hyped about a creepy theater. He wants to know more about you in general.  It was like you had this secret that he could never figure out. Ushijima tells him that you're new and it’ll take some time for a shy person like yourself to open up. But the thing is you don’t seem like a shy person. You seem like a girl who’s hiding something,

Through a set of double doors that lead into the empty theater then up a set of side stairs, you are surprised to find that the door to the control booth was unlocked. Someone's forgetfulness has made the two of you lucky. The long open window that looked out over the theater was a lot like the ones you had seen in so many videos. Tendou searches for light while you take in the vast space below, straining your eyes for any shadow that seems out of place.  You had known from the welcome packet that the school was old, too old not to have a few ghosts. 

“Creepy.”

“Right,” you agree without thinking about it.

Tendou sets back a rolly chair and checks the weather on his phone while you soak in every detail of the view. Once you're done you set down in another rolly chair.

“So how long do you think the storm will last?”

He wanted to say something along the lines "hopefully forever" because he likes this private moment you two get to have due to the rain. But he also doesn't want to do a single thing to make you feel uncomfortable. 

“About half an hour. “

“Great,” you tell him and reach over for your book bag you had plopped down on the floor. “I wanted to read more of that manga that you lent me.“

“Reading In a Creepy theater. Sounds perfect.”

And that's what you two did for the next half hour, well Tendou tried. He just couldn't focus on his manga when there was you sitting beside him.  You look so content and beautiful in a place like this. You don't seem at all bothered by how creepy it was. Shiratorizawa was an old school, so Tendou assumed that there was bound to be a ghost or two around here. 

Ushijima was right, he had feelings for you, and that scares him. He knew how this worked out. He knew that when people got closer to him they realized he was a freak and push him away. Sometimes he still didn't believe that Ushijima hadn't thought about ditching him. Having romantic feelings made the whole process a lot scarier because it would hurt a lot more being called a freak by you.  But was that worse than just sitting here and pinning after you? 

eventually, you feel someone staring at you and you look up to meet Tendou's gaze. "You good?"

"Kinda," he shrugs, his whole body language seeming tense. "Just thinking."

"About what?"

Tendoou closes his manga kicks his legs out that his chair rolls into yours. shoulder to shoulder now you can feel how warm he is and the light hue of red in his pale cheeks.  This close you can make out a lot of features of his face. The shape of his hairline, the tiny wrinkles around his eyes, and the long line of his mouth. It all looks nice. Nice enough that you don't only study his face further. It makes you very aware of every body part from the way your tongue rests between your teeth to the inch on your toe. 

Tendou speaks to you in a quiet tone as if he was afraid someone might hear him. "About a really stupid question, I wanna ask you."

"Yea?"

"Y/N....can I-"

The sudden dings from your phones have the same effect as getting caught. You pull away from each other both as red as can be.