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absolutebl · 3 years ago

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Inspired by a recent question...

10 BLs Most Like Their Yaoi Roots

So I’m picking my favorite BLs that are not necessarily yaoi adaptations, but instead reference origin tropes, archetypes, interpersonal dynamics, setting, and filming techniques.

Seven Days (Japan) - OF COURSE IT’S FIRST. Japan’s faithful story adaptation of the original manga of the same name (and possibly my favorite BL of all time), although the 2 movies actually use more yaoi framing and style in their live action than appear in the original manga. It’s the opposite case for the semi/uke dynamic, which is much stronger in the manga. Still, there’s very very little wrong with this adaptation. It’s damn near perfect.

Semantic Error (Korea) - I haven’t read the original webtoon but I can tell you this is a pristinely flawless yaoi brought to life. Every trope is perfectly hit but not stressed, and occasionally subverted. It is the best that Korea can do with this genre in its purest form. Without question.

Color Rush (Korea) - if Semantic Error is perfect uncut primal yaoi, Color Rush is what happens when it gets experimental and discovers complex story structure. There were a few manga’s back in the day that managed this, although it’s definitely the exception not the rule. Story structure and high concept are not yaoi’s strong points and most webtoons have only made this worse. Color Rush figured out how to hit it out of the park short form and using every yaoi filming technique in the book. It’s a masterclass in style and substance (chemistry = not so much, but then, that’s were a lot of sweet yaoi failed back in the day, too.)

Light On Me (Korea) - Korea does high school yaoi in a VERY Korean way but never forgetting the style and color palette of the source material. It’s a beautiful cinematic journey, but while the framing and staging is on point, it’s wardrobe and lighting that carries this show beyond.

Utsukushii Kare AKA My Beautiful Man (Japan) - this is actually what a lot of early yaoi was like to read - rough going, hella kinky, questionably queer, pushing borders of consent and bullying and messing with our minds/hearts because of the ache behind all the fuck ups. I consider the second half of this BL an absolute masterpiece, but I was raised that way.

Cherry Magic AKA 30 Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard AKA 30-sai made Dotei Da to Mahotsukai ni Nareru rashii (Japan) - the one that pulled Thai BL fans back into Japanese BL. This is soft. This is the light side of yaoi that we used to only get from those 1990s innocent high school set short runs, like Desire. You remember those? Anyway, this one took that and informed (I think) by the success of Ossan’s Love set a sweet BL in the office with a magical realism component and two incredibly charismatic leads. Like Ossan it also got a long treatment (for Japanese BL) and we are all extremely grateful.

Cherry Blossoms After Winter (Korea) - everything about this show is monumentally traditionally yaoi from the height difference, to the on screen behavior, to the backstory and emotional journeys of the characters. It touches on old school themes like stepbrothers and cohabitation, uncontrolled urges and irresistible cuteness. The filming style is more atmospheric than framed, but that only adds to the nostalgic feel.

Kieta Hatsukoi AKA Vanishing My First Love AKA My Love Mix Up (Japan) - the cringy cheesy chibi slapstick side of yaoi brought to blatant, lurid, and endearing life. These characters are cartoons of themselves, but so earnest about it. It watches like anime in terms of performance and plot (if not filming style), full of hijinks and very lovable characters.

Cutie Pie - Thailand finally (and very consciously) tackled yaoi. I talk about the fact that Thai BL is, generally, one of the least likely to reference Japanese manga, because Thailand has a different history with the genre. But with Cutie Pie they really went old school - story, style, characters, filming, framing... everything. Some Thai BL stans found this shocking, but if you’ve watched any Japanese BL or read any yaoi, you were probubly pretty delighted with this one rather than surprised. I definitely had a sensation of “finally.” I think it’s the content but also, in large part, the director.

Love Stage!! - The Thai version is a great adaptation, but it is a very Thai interpretation. It doesn’t bother with the staging or filming style, for example. It’s an imposition of Thai BL’s style, aesthetic, modern treatment, and brightness, onto a yaoi manga series that happens to be particularly suited to a synergy. It is interesting to compare it to the Japanese live action version which, IMHO failed in all ways except style. I like Thailands Love Stage!! for what it managed to do: traditional yaoi content in an entirely modern Thai BL way. (But please don’t let Thailand get ahold of Given.)

Others of interest:

Risutato wa tadaima no ato de AKA Restart After Come Back Home

This is filmed in classic Japanese high cinematic style (think more Kurosawa than slapstick) and so it seems to not come from a yaoi at all. Other BLs done this way include His the movie, and Life: Love on the Line. These are all good, but stylishly they are pretty removed from yaoi.

HIStory 3: Trapped

This is the closest Taiwan has ever come to a yaoi manga adaption, it isn’t one, but it makes no case for it. Even the quirks in the hair are there. It reads a lot like a really well done late 90s style yakuza yaoi (without the kink but with the high heat) and the filming style is almost there. Certainly all the tropes are present, and the side couple has a standard seme/uke dynamic.

There is also the documockery Zettai BL ni Naru Sekai VS Zettai BL ni Naritakunai Otoko AKA Absolute BL AKA A Man Who Defies The World of BL parts one and two. It is informed by and doing a pastiche of a lot of the reasons I chose my top 10. And if that sentence sounded meta, it’s because it is.

Can I Get a Do Over?

Love Stage!! has spoiled me.

Given redone by Korea

This was Japan’s BL to lose, and they lost it. It’s not terrible, but it’s not good either. I think Korea should get a crack at it. They have the talent and they have the music industry and they could make this one work real well if they gave it a slightly longer treatment, like Light On Me, and made it an indie Kpop band/thing, like Wish You staring idols.

Silhouette of Your Voice AKA Hidamari ga Kikoeru AKA I Hear the Sunspot redone by Thailand

Almost no one knows that Sunspot got an adaptation. And the live action actually starts out really well. It almost got there but sort of ended prematurely or something? Anygay, it’s a truly GREAT manga series that could really be served by a Thai approach. Longer form, university set. It’s something Thailand doesn’t tackle normally either, broken seme with a disability. It’s almost TinCan esk, this dynamic, although the seme is more depressed and withdrawing from society than just a spoiled rich arse. All that to say, this could be really really good if handed out to a pair that could handle the nuance. So... someone like OhmFluke.

Docchi mo Docchi AKA Same Difference redone by Taiwan

Japan’s most direct and faithful manga adaptation. This 2014 movie is a manga brought to life in every way, it’s practically a storyboard. All they did was cut out the sexy bits which it turned out were... erm THE STORY. This choice drastically effected our understanding of plot is some really weird ways and caused the whole thing to fall apart. Just hand this off to Taiwan. They keep doing office set stuff these days anyway, they would do a GREAT job with an actual story structure to follow.

I also really want MaxNat to do a redo of Cherry Blossoms After Winter just to see more of those two characters and to get a long form adaptation of that series. I think it would suit them (and Thailand) perfectly, and with the possible exception of Lovely Writer, Thailand really hasn’t given us much of the stepbrother trope. I want them to go there.

This post as of April 2022, more may come but Tumblr may not let me update this. So if you have some to add, leave a comment.

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quibblesandscribbles · 3 years ago

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Centaurworld Rewrite: A Serious Adventure AU - S1E1 Outline

I’m doing rewrite outlines, prepare for some AU. That being said, I still like several parts of Centaurworld a lot, namely Rider, Horse, Wammawink, and whatever the hell is going on with the Nowhere King, and hope there’s a second season to watch (which I will if Netflix doesn’t ruin our hopes and dreams).

Anyways, here’s like, a rewrite or whatever. I will probably post the outlines as I go, episode by episode. Will I get to them all? ADHD-willing, we’ll see. Also feel free to use these ideas/outlines? I don’t mind.

Also assume there are songs in this even if I don’t specifically mention all of them. Also I guess this rewrite kinda chains the 1st and 2nd episodes together as a two parter? Maybe, idk.

Also I’ll preface this with this too: I ship Wammahorse, yes I SHIPSHIP it. Moving on.

Some headcanons before we start:

Warworld (*the world Rider and Horse are from) is a Low Fantasy Setting, there IS magic, but it comes in two variations, either very subtle low-powered but relatively uncommon, or Terrifyingly Powerful and so extremely rare to the point that it’s not very well known and “just myths” (usually for Big Baddies)

Ideas for Horse’s Degree of Sapience Prior to Worldhopping:

A: Horse was just a regular, non-magical horse, and their exposure to the Artifact and Centaurworld has essentially made them a Fully Uplifted Animal. - This is interesting, but ultimately a difficult idea to convey because it would require a lot more setup and wouldn’t exactly fit Horse’s characterization without some rework. This is an amazing idea, but I won’t be using it because it would slow things down too much.

B: Horse is a low-fantasy magic steed raised as warhorse/war asset, who is much smarter than your average animal steed/companion similar to a DND Ranger’s pets, or Mabari from Dragon Age, or a Ranger Horse from John Flanagan’s ‘Ranger’s Apprentice.’ The combined exposure to the Artifact and Centaurworld could account for her gaining speech and her body expressing limited physical adaptation to Centaurworld’s different physics (her body’s new extended range of motion for example) but of course I’ll be limiting this because having stakes make it more fun imho. This is my favorite, I’m using this.

Horse would’ve been considered a very valuable war asset (trained warhorses are like, historical ferraris, expensive as hell, i can only imagine what low-magical smart warhorses would be valued at), though still ultimately expendable for the war effort like anything else

Let Horse have horse behaviors (*can you tell I haven’t really left my horse phase behind lol)! Nipping and grooming behaviors as affection or warnings, ear positions to indicate mood, grazing to eat, laying down only when truly relaxed, sleeping standing up. COME ON.

Centaurworld is a High Fantasy world with an Absurdist bent but with darker undertones, similar to how Adventure Time is, with an extremely high saturation of magic, maybe you could even theorize that due to the Splitting of the Two Worlds that all the magic is being Dammed up in Centaurworld like a river or reservoir, this could be a future plot thread that could be picked up in a later season.

Basic Changes:

Durpleton, Glendale, Ched and Zulius are supporting cast, not main

Durpleton is less stupid and more of a Kronk-expy: a little dim but ultimately kind/means well, has at least 1 life skill he’s good at buried in there though for the life of me I can’t think of one right now.

Glendale’s Narrative Framing: Glendale is amazing, but the kleptomania will be allotted ONE (or two) joke mentions but narratively isn’t treated like one after, somehow establish that her kleptomania is directly intertwined with her anxiety levels. Are there other denizens of the Valley that know the Herd? Are they mad at Glendale for stealing things? Does Wammawink have to constantly run interference to cover for Glendale? Probably.

Make Ched look like less of a pointless asshole: Have him show concern for his friends’ safety and his suspicion of outsiders, AKA Horse. If he’s going to be a jerk, at least let it serve a purpose.

Zulius can stay roughly the same - Zulius is great okay, just don’t tell me there’s backstory and then NOT TELL OR SHOW US ANY CLUES about what said backstory/history IS! (other than forcing us infer/project the headcanon[?] that him and Splendib might’ve been exes, from how they act around each other without any other context/visual/or confirming exposition we literally know nothing other than Splendib and him split/had a nasty falling out and Splendib took the glittercats and the career in the divorce.)

S1E1: Hello Rainbow Road

Opening scene in Warworld

If these episodes were allowed to be longer (shuddup it’s my AU), have the scene open with Horse sees Rider comes running out of some underground castle ruin catacombs and ominous roaring and clanging behind her as she deliberately sets off a dungeon booby trap (arrows or fire) she must’ve avoided while dungeon crawling earlier, and Horse runs towards her and circles at a canter and then Rider does a Running Mount (mounting a horse while the horse is in motion) and shoots an arrow at that flies offscreen

Smash cut to the DRAWBRIDGE door falling and Rider and Horse come galloping out while dodging some javelins and arrows and 1.5 seconds later 1-4 armored minotaurs (the lizardmen?) riding some coursers (swift horses or horselike creatures idk have fun) gallop behind in hot pursuit.

WARWORLD CHASE/FIGHT SCENE

Rider and Horse take out 2 of the pursuers on the run have Rider stay on horseback, dodge and make 1 pursuer shoot/javelin another 1 into a nasty-looking fall, and then Rider nails another 1 right through the helmet visor with an arrow. Have Rider throw a smoke bomb or something at the 2 remaining ones trying to catch up.

2 Enemies left but Horse is forced to skid to a stop as the suspension bridge approaches, then a tense moment forced to walk in order to escape safely across the suspension bridge which Rider cuts once they’re across. Maybe have 1 of the minotaur pursuers having been on the bridge somewhat behind them before Rider had to cut the line, sending the enemy hurtling down below. The remaining minotaur scout stares at them ominously from the other side before leaving.

Have Rider breath a sigh of relief

Smash cut to Horse and Rider traveling across a wartorn landscape, start Horse’s internal monologue narrative until they finally get to the hill and see the ruins of their village

Everything from this point to Horse getting transported to Centaurworld is the same as canon

Not Actually a DREAMVISION SEQUENCE:

Shot/Animated from Horse’s 1st Person POV: Darkness, the sound of whooshing Horse falls, shimmering flash colors [if this were an actual show pls put a Epilepsy warning at the beginning of the ep], then a loud Splash as Horse falls into Dark Water. POV looks down and we see Horse’s front legs and a bottomless abyss below and a then flash of green and off-white from deep below, then look up to see blue light, see the swimming motions of Horse’s front legs and getting closer to the Blue Light

Horse wakes up, blinking, alone (no Durpleton)

Horse gets up looks around, doesn’t see Rider anywhere and starts makes Whinnying sounds (specifically, Whinnying is a social horse call, like specifically going, “Rider where are you!?” in IRL horse)

“And what are you supposed to be?” the “camera” wheels around to see Ched who has landed on Horse just within reach of her tail so Horse lets out a startled squeal (the Horse noise, not the human one) and does that thing where horses use their tails to swat away insects which sends Ched FLYING as Horse’s squealing morphs into her Talking/Yelling “what the heck is going on?!”

Horse does what panicked horses do, she runs

Horse stumbles into meeting Durpleton, who freaks her out more

Meeting kinda the same as canon but with less constant emphasis on reminding the audience that the writer’s can’t write comedy

Wammawink and Horse meet, Ched flies in and goes “hey that asshole kicked my a-I mean attacked me, but I totally beat ‘em.”

Horse tries to leave, discovers the Barrier, tries to get through, fails multiple times, but only 3-4 attempts shown with time passage show by the time of day changing, have Horse’ talking to herself a bit about how utterly weird the talking words thing is, that this is a “human” thing why is this HAPPENING she needs to get back

Waste less time on the visual gags of the Barrier repelling Horse, also get rid of the Tree Catapult scene because it doesn’t jive with Horse being a horse, why do they know how to make a catapult? Also because I hate how it basically shows us that Horse has no physical danger or chance of injury from being FLUNG around like Pokemon’s Team Rocket.

Have the rest of the centaur Herd come up to and talk to Horse while Horse is trying to get through the Barrier, and Horse talks about the outside and her world and doing things, squeeze in some convo about how there’s no (current) war in Centaurworld and how Horse thinks that that “freedom must be nice.” Anyways these conversations are what has Glendale, Zulius and Durpleton at least considering the ups of leaving.

Durpleton: Durpleton approaches Horse alone and asks about where she’s from, what’s home like, expositiony bits for Warworld and how much Horse needs to get herself and the Artifact back to Rider; Horse should say something offhand, like how she dreamed about exploring the world with Rider after the War seeing new things together, to which we’d cut to a shot of Durpleton looking thoughtful, before asking a completely unrelated question before Horse asks to be left alone. He doesn’t go originally, but gets distracted by something (butterfly?) and trots off.

Wammawink, Ched & Glendale: Atop a hill, Wammawink looks up to see stormclouds gathering off in the distance and comments that they’re going to be in for some rough weather, then goes over to offer Horse food, but gets distracted by some other Valley Denizens who are mad suspicious that Glendale is responsible for something of theirs that’s missing. Leaving Wammawink to go off and have to run interference leaving Glendale to approach Horse alone. Horse will learn that there’s no (current) war in Centaurworld but there was one historically, and Glendale will offhandedly mention that they’ve stolen everything from everyone in the Valley at least 4 times and with the unspoken implication of boredom. Ched will butt in and heckle Horse like, “could you leave any quieter?” and Horse sniping back, ears pinned back and animated horse stress behaviors. And Horse’s last failed attempt at passing the Barrier has them drop the Artifact, and we get a shot of Glendale spotting and eyes widening at seeing the Artifact unattended on the ground, then we get a smash cut of Glendale getting herded away by Ched.

Zulius: Goes over to ask about Horse’s avante garde accessories (her bridle, saddle & armor[barding]), makes comments on her style/aesthetic and asks where he could find some. Horse loses her patience, and says that she Needs to concentrate on getting back to someone they care a lot about and could you please just go away?

Horse: (voiced as a rhetorical question) “Haven’t you ever wanted to go back to someone you loved before?”

Zulius gets a Look on his face, then he’d puff up, cover up the Armor Piercing Question’s effect on him with more bluster and then turn away as it gets later

Around sunset, Horse finally gives in to go ask Wammawink what’s up, and how can they leave.

Wammawink tries to feed them and convince them to stay, but Horse waves her off and moves away while muttering something about coming up with a plan

Speaking of plans, the Herd excluding Wammawink (& Ched) start talking about being bored, and mention Horse saying stuff about exploring the world (taken out of context, deliberately)

Wammawink, smelling the ugly head of discontent, sighs in defeat at not being able to recruit this new outcast in the Herd and approaches a grazing Horse and says she’ll help her through it with her magic(not admitting that the Barrier is her magic working in the first place because it’s not relevant right now okay) but then we get the “What’s magic?” bit from Horse and the rest of the Herd butts in with the Song. They wander off to go to bed afterwards, and Horse wants to go Now but Wammawink says that she’ll help Horse leave the Barrier but only in the morning because “you look tired”

Horse: “That doesn’t matter.” *awkward silence*

Wammawink, sadly: “Of course it does.” *Horse has already walked away*

The sun finishes setting as the wind blows the plants and through Wammawink’s fur (ominously) and she shivers, going back to the campfire

DREAM SEQUENCE: It’s dark, then we get a flashback dream of a younger Rider and Horse, idk a memory of something to showcase them either while in training or really show their Bond okay? End with them sitting around a campfire with other young soldiers and horses, someone is humming something (the first few bars of the Nowhere King’s Lullaby, no actual words yet). Then Dream!Rider turns to face Horse and asks, “how could you?”

Horse: “How could I what?”

Dream!Rider: “How could you leave me behind?” (The humming grows louder, there’s a lute being played, growing discordant)

Then Horse starts calling into the darkness/void, “I’m coming back for you, Rider! Just hang on, alright?!”

Rider: “Oh Horse, it’s already too late for me.”

“Rider!” Horse yells as they jolt awake, standing, because horses typically sleep standing up.

It’s dawn but the wind and stormy weather signs are picking up but not here yet, Wammawink walks Horse to the edge of the Valley barrier and tries to convince Horse to stay here where it’s safe, but Horse refuses to be deterred

Brief shot of Glendale hiding a bunch of things from her Tummy Hammerspace in order to simulate the feeling of stealing things again later, including the Artifact which falls on the ground

A shot of Durpleton seeing and picking up the Artifact and spotting Wammawink and Horse some distance away going toward the barrier’s edge

Wammawink hangs back on a hill, glowy hands and the magic wall flickers and disappears, and Horse immediately breaks into a gallop and disappears into the forest, Wammawink sighs and turns away

Indeterminate amount of time later, Wammawink recasts the Barrier, and Durpleton misses breakfast so Wammawink enlists Ched to help her look for him because Ched can fly

Cut to a shot of Horse dropping from a canter to a trot on the Rainbow Road, it’s grown darker and the stormclouds are in the sky. Distant thunder booms overhead, and a few scattered raindrops start to fall

“Heyyyy! You forgot your necklaceeee!” a shout from behind

Horse looks back and sees a running Durpleton holding the Artifact, and stops, he catches up to Horse and is gasping, “Wow, you run fast, hoooo, *deep breaths* you’re really *another gasp* athletic! Anyways you forgot your Necklace.”

Durpleton ties the broken string into a necklace around Horse’s neck and Horse thanks them and wishes them a safe journey back to the Valley, but as this happens the rain gradually falls harder. Then the sounds of the Rest of the Herd finally catching up happen, and Wammawink mother hens Durpleton and wants take everyone back home but then a loud BOOM of thunder and lightning overhead, and then it starts to Pour down rain, forcing Horse and co to find shelter until it lets up. Maybe have someone mention something about landslides being a possibility? Durpleton asks how they found them so fast, dim remember, then brief flashback.

FLASHBACK: Wammawink and co searching and calling out for Durpleton everywhere in the Valley, and realize that he must’ve followed Horse for some reason when Zulius FINALLY shows up and mentions that he remembers Durpleton saying he was gonna give Horse back her necklace. The recast Barrier is brought down and they leave the Valley to bring back their friend.

Back to the present where the group has taken shelter as the storm picks up more, and thunder booms overhead, Horse has some nervous horse body language going on, then we get to hear her mutter-singing or humming the “I never fear the drums of war” to calm herself down, but with more stanzas please, when asked she says it’s a battle hymn that Rider sang.

If Horse was humming, Wammawink could ask why she doesn’t sing, she’s sure that Horse has a lovely voice

Horse goes “I’m a horse, I don’t sing.”

Wammawink tries to be encouraging, Horse is resistant

Wammawink invites her to eat (AGAIN) but Horse still turns her (love and affection) down (AGAIN!) and says she’s fine with grazing and Glendale pipes in excitedly that they have decided that they want to travel with Horse (Ched pipes up that he didn’t agree to this) but pls help us convince Wammawink and Horse protests but someone points out to ask “do you even know where you’re going” and they have a point

Horse acknowledges this and relents, states some stuff about how she’s not going to slow down much however. Then Glendale, Zulius and Durpleton rejoice, Ched acts tsundere, but Wammawink looks nervous and wrings her hands together and relents that “they’ll go with Horse as far as the nearest Shaman” and Ched will go, “hey don’t you know he-” and Wammawink shushes him quickly with a gigglecake

Wammawink doubles down on the mother henning behavior

Horse doesn’t eat Wammawink’s gigglecakes but grazes by herself nearby, occasionally answering a question or two when engaged by the others (not Wammawink) and Wammawink mentions how the weather probably won’t let up for very long and they should take it slow and that Horse should bundle up

Horse disagrees but its bedtime and a bedtime song occurs in the backdrop as a restless Horse struggles to stay alert and awake but eventually falls asleep

VISION SEQUENCE: A shimmer of soft blue light, then shots of Rider ducking and weaving, her sword flashing as she tries to weave her way through a horde of enemy soldiers, blood spatters, then an enemy archer takes aim at a fleeing Rider, and Horse calls out a warning.

Rider turns her head with a surprised look on her face suddenly just enough that the arrow buries itself into her shoulder instead the middle of her back and then she stumbles, one of her arms going limp, but everything goes dark before we can see if she fell

Everything goes dark and the din of war fades away, we get a shot of Horse’s hooves splashing and making ripples into dark water but the camera doesn’t follow her, we hear Horse’s cries for Rider fade, growing further and further away

Still dark, but in the silence we hear distant sound, drip, drip, drip, drip.

Then the episode ends and the credits roll.

#centaurworld #centaurworld spoilers #centaurworld wammawink #centaurworld rider #centaurworld horse #centaurworld headcanons #centaurworld au #centaurworld rewrite #centaurworld a serious adventure au #wow I suck at naming things #centaurworld season 1 #fixed the ending scene order #your welcome

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duhragonball · 2 years ago

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BOCR

Holy shit, I can’t believe I’m finally posting my Blood Rubies arc. I’ve had this rattling around in my noggin for at least two years, and now you, dear reader, can finally see it for yourself! Well, the first two installments, anyway. I’ll post the rest of it this week.

As always, you can check out my fanfic on this very blog, or on AO3. But if you’ve already done that, or just want to know what the heck is going on, I’m going to talk about it a bit under the cut.

Okay, just to recap for anyone super-new to this: I’ve been writing a fanfic about the ancient Super Saiyan from 1,000 years before Goku. I called her Luffa, blew her up real good, then flung her into the future where she could join the Time Patrol and live out the events of Dragon Ball Xenoverse 1′s story mode.

For the last two years, I’ve been in that Time Patrol leg of the story, and I always thought it would be fun to play around with, because the whole concept of the Time Patrol is to send new characters into the lore of Dragon Ball. My basic plan was to follow the story mode of XV1, and in a sense you could call Chapters 142 to 210 a sort of novelization of the video game. But I always wanted to go beyond the game and add in some new material. Chiaotzu wasn’t a playable character, so I did a PQ mission where Luffa has to fight Chiaotzu. Android 19 and Semiperfect Cell aren’t in the game, so I made sure to use them in an arc as well.

I also wanted to play around with some of the movies. The Xenoverse games already do this with Broly, Cooler, and so on, and the Dragon Ball Heroes franchise seems to make use of a lot of second-tier movie guys, but I wanted to go a little deeper, and that led me to the very first movie, Curse of the Blood Rubies.

If you haven’t seen Curse of the Blood Rubies, that’s understandable, because I think it’s somewhat obscure. There wasn’t a proper North American release of the movie until 2010. Also, I tend to think of the first three DB movies as being overlooked by most of the fandom. Nobody really talks about King Gurumes or Lucifer, and the third one doesn’t even have an original villain.

Also, Curse is easily confused with other Dragon Ball media. As the very first movie adaptation of the franchise, it premiered in 1986 under the title of Dragon Ball. Later, as more DB movies were made, it was rechristened as “Dragon Ball, the Legend of Shenron.” Along with the unspecific title, the movie was largely a re-telling of the first story arc from the manga. Goku meets Bulma, they search for the Dragon Balls, befriend Yamcha and Oolong, yadda yadda. In 1986, that was probably a good way to promote the franchise, but now it makes CoBR kind of forgettable. The 1996 film Path to Power, for example, follows a very similar plotline, so it’s very easy to see a clip from one movie and think it came from the other.

What makes Curse stand out are its original story elements: The Blood Rubies (aka Rich Stones), King Gurumes, Pansy, Pasta, and Bongo. Unfortunately, these don’t get a lot of development. The new villains are just sort of there to move the story along, and Pansy’s hanging out with the Dragon Ball gang, but she feels like a random character who wandered into the shot. Then there’s the Blood Rubies. They’re all over the movie, but we never really get a sense of what their deal is. King Gurumes was supposedly mutated by them, but Yamcha stuffs a bunch of them in his shirt and it doesn’t seem to do anything to him at all.

So the movie has long since frustrated and intrigued me because of its... incompleteness. I’m not sure if that’s the right word to use, but that’s how I feel whenever I watch it. The original stuff and the adaptation stuff get in the way of each other. I don’t run into this as much with Sleeping Princes in Devil’s Castle, for example. That one starts out as a re-telling of the anime, but it quickly diverts into a whole other direction, and Lucifer’s motives feel adequately explored by the end. So I picked Curse as something to dive into for a Luffa arc.

And one thing that struck me early into the planning phase was how the movie really does feel like a Time Patrol mission. This isn’t just a retelling of Dragon Ball with a new bad guy. A lot of thought went into subtly changing up the story. When Bulma runs into Goku, it’s because he’s distracted by Pasta and Bongo’s plane, and Bulma meets him a lot further from his house than in the original story.

Bulma also only has one Dragon Ball instead of two, like she does in the manga. That’s because Pasta and Bongo already found the five-star ball before the movie started. Bulma has the two-star ball, which is the one she found in her parents’ storehouse. Master Roshi still has the three-star ball, but the rest have all been collected by Pasta and Bongo, which is why we never see Aru Village, Frypan Mountain, or Emperor Pilaf in the film. This isn’t like Path to Power, where the Dragon Balls just happen to be in different locations. I think the writers were trying to suggest that they were in the same locations, and Pasta and Bongo just beat Bulma to the punch.

So, in a way, this movie looks like someone changed history, diverting Goku and Bulma to a confrontation with King Gurumes instead of Emperor Pilaf. But who would do that, and why? And does that means that there’s a canon version of Pansy and King Gurumes? Are there canon Blood Rubies too? Why aren’t they causing any problems?

These are the kinds of questions I want to delve into with “Blood of the Cursed Rubies”. It’s a mystery, and Luffa has to solve it, but she’s not exactly known for her keen investigation skills. I’ve always had this lingering dissatisfaction with the movie, so this little tribute/expansion I’ve written will hopefully satisfy my own craving. And I hope you all enjoy it as well.

#luffastuff

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shijiujun · 4 years ago

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hey so uh, it's 110% Not Your Job, but can i ask for like a crash course on these chinese bl series that are everywhere around me but i don't know them. like i'm familiar with the untamed or however many names it has but i'm seeing two or three more???? help please if you can thank you

hello!! oh no worries, i happened to be looking for a distraction too so this was timely hahaha although it’s a pretty broad question since there are so many new live adaptations coming out (and some which have already come out which are featured as bromances), but let me see if I can like round this up for you a little.

*i may be giving you a bit more than you need or like irrelevant stuff, but i guess i’m bound to hit something hahaha

Okay so the chinese BL series you’re talking about is The Untamed, and since you said you’re familiar I won’t get into it in detail, BUT just for like flow’s sake:

The Untamed (Chen Qing Ling) is based on the danmei (BL) novel written by MXTX, called Mo Dao Zu Shi (and yes however many like English translations to this title there is), or MDZS for short. You watched the live-action, and there’s like a lot of other versions of it e.g. the anime, the chibi anime, audio dramas etc. etc. the list goes on. In case you still haven’t seen any of those, just glance through this masterpost made by @the-social-recluse - In any case, right now everything is sort of already out EXCEPT:

MDZSQ - chibi donghua, cutest shit you’ll ever see

More MDZS merch

Some teasers from MDZS mobile game which has been one year and developing

Now moving on to other BL series floating around so frequently - MDZS is the second book that MXTX wrote. So there’s SVSSS (The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving-System), which is also called lovingly by others in the fandom by Scumbag System/Villain in short, this is MXTX’s first danmei novel. Right now if you’ve seen this on Tumblr, it’s the anime (donghua) version - 10 episodes only for Season 1, available on WeTV with subs, finished airing like a few weeks ago. Translations of the novel are definitely out in full somewhere.

An absolute mess, but an organized one

Tried to do a manhua but failed

Everyone thought the donghua wouldn’t air on time either (it has a history of dropping development halfway) but it did

Would probably be the most entertaining if ever dealt with a live-action

And then there’s arguably, the most beloved child out of all three novels (at least right this moment) - TGCF (Tian Guan Ci Fu, or Heaven Official’s Blessing). This is the third and so far last (???) danmei novel MXTX has written, main pairing invented love. Strawhat-wearing scrap collector smiley angel with devoted kid-turned-adult-turned-ghost-king who follows smiley angel for like many years because he loves him. Anyway, if you’re seeing this, once again on Tumblr a lot, it’s the donghua version you’re seeing. Still airing, I think we’re midway through the whole season, the yelling starts Saturday (Asia time zone) and then extends into Sunday, sometimes Monday.

There’s like a god-tier Eng translation in full for TGCF by Suika

There is a manhua for this as well, only like 45 chapters in, but the time Jan/Feb 2021 rolls around, the donghua would have overtaken the manhua progress on the storyline HAHAHA

Apparently the director/production team who did CQL/The Untamed managed to get the rights to filming its live-action, but heh nothing much about that just yet aside from casting rumours and fans worrying that the casting will be done wrongly and also that they won’t be able to do justice to the story.

Alright now that we’ve more or less cleared MXTX and what everyone is hyping over (for good reason), let’s move on to the other CHINESE BL stuff you could be seeing (although I feel like you might not actually be asking about this), and these will all be live-actions (I’m also only clearing SOME of this year’s stuff, so none from before 2020, don’t ask me why I didn’t leave Guardian or SCI up here):

✨✨✨ Already aired, done and dusted or maybe ongoing, just ones I see on my dash and notifs so I definitely am biased ✨✨✨

The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty (Cheng Hua’s Fourteenth Year) - Many episodes, much bromance, base novel is gay af, but live action is cute af. Read more here and full translation is not yet done I think

My Roommate is a Detective - THIS IS A SPECIAL MENTION. NOT BL. Doesn’t even have like a book to go along with it, it’s just I’ve seen people getting into this again and creating content, so idk, imma just leave this here. It ain’t BL but it got the most glaring BL-esque relationship I’ve ever seen in my life. You’ll get what I mean if you watch it

The Lost Tomb Reboot - AGAIN another special mention, because many handsome young-ish men who you know, head into tombs, much bromance. Based on a huge series of novels, totally not BL, but as always with like a lot of men put into one story, ships happen. This year as well, in case you’ve seen it floating around

✨✨✨ Upcoming Chinese BL live-action adaptations, confirmed + casting + filming. You may have seen some of these because like posters were recently released etc. - As far as I know these are all slated for 2021 ✨✨✨

Faraway Wanderers (Tian Ya Ke) - A danmei novel by Priest, filming wrapped up, should be airing soon. Leads are pretty cute, although I’m sure they’ll turn this bromance. One of the male leads is known for a lot of period web dramas, and Gong Jun, the other male lead, is known for more contemporary modern dramas, but damn Gong Jun’s jawline

Winner is King (Sha Po Lang) - Another danmei novel by Priest, filming wrapped up recently as well if I recall? Posters recently released, and this is arguably Priest’s most famous and popular danmei

Immortality (Hao Yi Xing) - A super popular danmei novel called 2ha or The White Husky and His White Cat Shizun by Meat Bun. Filming also... wrapped? I think, because posters came out the next day and everyone from Earth to Pluto went mad, definitely one you should look out for next year spring i think, but I’m pretty sure there’s gonna be a hell lot more teasers, posters etc. coming up and then half of danmei Tumblr will probably go into cardiac arrest

The Society of Four Leaves (Zhang Gong An) - Ehhhh I think this hasn’t yet been filmed but casting was recently confirmed (contentiously). Concept posters are up though. This technically isn’t classified officially as a BL. There are no CPs officially in the novel, but apparently it’s very like idk flirty etc., also slated for next year

*There are a few more by Priest, e.g. Liu Yao, but no concrete news that I’ve seen (by now like at least 60% of her danmeis either have a live-action contract or a donghua contract or both lmao)

✨✨✨ Upcoming Chinese BL donghua adaptations (2021-ish). All by Priest✨✨✨

*Throwing this in just as a by the way thing, because these are also recent news (these two weeks). There might be more but I haven’t seen anything yet personally :D

Imperfection (Can Ci PIn) - Space AU, the novel won like two national literary awards if I recall like last year? Anyway a brief trailer recently came out last week I think, and main lead is handsome af, and once again it’s space and space wars so it’s pretty cool

Silent Reading (Mo Du Zhe) - Novel is called Mo Du, and honestly I think the donghua has been like teasing fans for like idk years, but it looks like we’re finally getting to the donghua as the team previewed the first ep like... two weeks ago live to an audience? Modern crime thriller thing, there’s a masterpost going on Tumblr

Lie Huo Jiao Chou - Another Priest fan favourite, a historical + modern danmei combination. Much angst from what I’ve seen, but donghua teaser looked good also, released also last week

---

anyway hopefully some part of this or at least one part answers your question? if not, just send me another ask or like, DM me hahahaha

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orange-waterfalls · 4 years ago

Text

...Happy New Year?

Darkiplier x gn!reader x Wilford

A/N: I am so disappointed and surprised that I haven’t written anything poly yet are you KIDDING ME. Does it take me 5 months to write a single fic? No. Might take me that long to find motivation and SINCE I don’t wanna be an ASSHOLE who takes requests and then DOESN’T WRITE THEM I’m probably gonna take a bit to think and figure out what I wanna do here with the blog. Uhhh reader is a retail worker who’s just. Tired and stressed. Dark and Wil decide to comfort them because good boyfriends are good! TW: mention of weed. And suggestive phrases? Also cursing. That’s it. Rated T. Enjoy and have a happy New Year everybody!

Word Count: 2.7k

“Do you have to?” Wilford all but whined when you got ready for work. Except he did not whine because he does not whine because he is Wilford Warfstache, thank you. “It’s New Year’s Eve!”

“I’m fully aware what day it is, hon,” You said in a very soft voice because you knew Wilford had to be let down gently or he’d be grouchy for the next few months. “That’s why I’m not working overtime. Hopefully. Maybe I can get Sara to take over my shift, she’s not doing anything tonight. I wish I could’ve taken the morning shift, I do.” Darkiplier appeared next to Wilford, looking just as desperate.

“Can you not just… not… go?” Dark suggested, trying not to sound too needy. He knew that he failed by the look you gave him.

“I have to work, boys.”

“Do you though?”

“Wilford...”

“I can get you money.”

“Are you suggesting illegal activities, Mr. Warfstache?”

“We are not… besides stealing.”

“Wil.”

“We could pawn off Mark’s stuff, it’s probably worth a lot!”

“Both of you, stop it!” You said in a stern voice. They both looked like kicked puppies and you felt a little bad about it. “I’ll get home when I get home. You know I love you. If I never had to leave you, I wouldn’t. But I gotta, ok?”

“Kissies?” Wilford asked, tapping the tips of his fingers together. Darkiplier looked at the motion and back at his own fingers, seemingly trying to replicate it. You stared at his hands for a moment, watching the struggle with a resigned sort of curiosity. Wilford also stared at them until he couldn’t take it anymore and just put his hands over Dark’s.

“Just-Just… stop.” He said gently. Dark lowered his hands and they both looked back to you. You shook your head.

“I’ll be back before midnight. Order some takeout, please.”

“Sure thing, boss!” Wilford saluted.

“Goodbye, darling.” Darkiplier gave a little bow. You smiled warmly, walking over to the two. Darkiplier turned his head and you kissed his cheek. You tried to do the same for Wilford, but he turned his head back at the last second to catch your lips in a kiss. Additionally, he grabbed your face to keep you there. You pulled away and gently smacked his cheek before heading back to the door. Darkiplier glared at him a little. He stuck his tongue out in response.

“Bye! Love you!”

“We love you too, babes!” Wil called, wrapping his arms around Dark’s neck and leaning against him. Dark waved a goodbye to you. You shut and locked the door behind you.

“Wil?” Dark said after they stood like that for a while.

“Yep?” Wil responded with his cheek squished to Dark’s shoulder.

“If you’re gonna cling to me we could at least lay down.”

“Cuddle time?”

“Sure. Cuddle time. Come on.” Dark tried to walk to the three’s shared bedroom, but Wilford wouldn’t let go. He quirked an eyebrow at the reporter. “Wil?”

“Yes?”

“May you… let go?”

“No.”

“Wil.”

“I don’t want to.”

“Wil…”

“No.”

“We can’t cuddle if you don’t let go.”

“Lies. Deception.”

“Wil, please, work with me here.” They looked at each other. Wilford slowly removed his arms from around the other man’s neck. Dark caught one of his hands, bringing his palm to his lips and gently kissing his hand.

“Someone’s feeling affectionate!” Wil exclaimed. Dark intertwined their fingers and gave his hand a squeeze before finally walking to the room.

The bedroom had mostly shades of black, white, and blue decor, apart from the fluffy red pillows you just had to have, along with a few stuffed animals. Darkiplier had his office with his red and black velvet and Wilford had his own… wherever he hung out, so they didn’t mind you choosing the colors. Anything to stop Wilford from painting the walls yellow of all colors.

Wilford turned around and pulled Dark in by his waist, swaying in a little dance.

“What are you doing?” Dark tried and failed to conceal his smile and laugh.

“Dancing with my lover, what does it look like?” Wilford nuzzled their noses together.

“I thought you wanted to cuddle.”

“I do.”

“Then why are we dancing?”

“Can’t we just dance for a bit?” Darkiplier pulled back and looked at Wil, who was currently avoiding eye contact. He sighed.

“Feels a little weird without Y/N?” He asked. Wilford hummed, still not looking him in the eye. “We don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

“I do want to.”

“We can wait until they get home, it’s really not--”

“I do want to…”

“But?”

“Mm…”

“Want to prove you aren’t absolutely whipped?”

“Excuse you?!”

“It’s not a bad thing.”

“I am-- You-- Wilford Warfstache simps for NOBODY!”

“Says Mr. Hundred Dollar Pillows.”

“Listen here you son of a bitch--” Wilford backed away and held up a finger to explain exactly why he was no simp. Dark took the opportunity to push him onto the bed. “Ooh! Frisky!”

“Shut it.” He climbed into the bed next to him. Wilford draped himself across Dark’s chest, nuzzling into him. They sighed contentedly.

“Dark?”

“Mm?”

“What did I do to deserve you two?”

“Me? You were nice and accepting. I still don’t believe either of us deserve Y/N.”

“Oh, come on, there has to be something.”

“Wil, both of us have killed multiple people. I think whatever good we’ve done will get canceled out.”

“...right.”

They lay like that for a bit, enjoying just being there. Suddenly, Wilford picked his head up.

“What’s happening? You have a look? What is that look?” Dark furrowed his eyebrows.

“I have the best idea!” Wilford jumped up and ran to the closet.

“What?” Dark sat up.

“We are surprising our lover with romance!” He threw Dark’s suit at him, picking out his own at the same time.

“...and suits?”

“Yes! Well, your suit. It makes you look sexy.”

“Wil.”

“Their words, not mine!”

“Why are we--”

“It’s New Year’s, Dark! They’re stressed! They’re tired! They deserve a surprise! Where the Devil are my suspenders?”

“Wil, I don’t think--”

“That’s right, Dark. You don’t think. You can just sit there and look pretty while Wilford Lovemaster Warfstache plans it out!”

“Lovemaster?”

“I was due for a new middle name anyways. Chop chop!”

Dark hesitantly put on his suit while Wilford looked for his suspenders. He looked in the mirror, deciding whether he looked… “sexier” with or without a tie. He eventually decided without, even popping a few buttons of his dress shirt. Wilford walked back in, wearing a hot pink button up, yellow suspenders, and a blue bowtie.

“...hot!” He said before walking up next to Dark and taking a selfie of the two. Dark looked over his shoulder and watched him send it to you with the caption ‘your two special boys!’. He caught a look at some previous messages.

“Wil, what’s poggers?”

“New-fangled lingo, don’t worry about it. Do we have roses? Ask Illinois to bring us roses.”

“Wil, what is happening.”

“ROMANCE!” He yelled, exasperated. “Romance is happening, Dark.”

“Romance… right.”

“And suits, precisely. Come on, order Chinese from that place they like.”

“...is this a good idea? Suits and chinese?”

“It’s a fantastic idea, now order the goddamn food.”

Darkiplier and Wilford sat on the couch in your apartment, reading a book they’d found. Wil was leaning on Dark’s shoulder with one leg draped over his. There was a little time until New Year’s, and they really wanted to spend it with you. Dark would never admit it, but he missed you. Quite a lot, actually. You’ve weaseled your way into his heart and now he’s a little dependent. Wil would proudly scream it to the world if he could. Dark would never let him.

Dark glanced up at the clock, seeing the 11:00 time. He scowled, closing the book and tossing it to the other side of the couch. He leaned his head back and sighed. He debated calling you with Wilford beforehand, maybe even just to hear your voice on the voicemail, but he was sure that would be too needy of him. He has a reputation to uphold, thank you very much.

“Miss your other lover, Darkipoo?” Wilfor teased.

“Obviously. I’m used to two heat sources, not one.”

“Oh, am I not good enough for Mr. Darkiplier?”

“I never said that.”

“You were thinkin’ it.”

“You can’t read minds, Wil, stick to your interviews.” He said in a faux-mocking manner. They smiled at each other.

Dark shot up from the couch the moment he heard your key in the lock. He adjusted his suit, squared his shoulders, and cleared his throat. He couldn’t help a smile as he held a white rose, Wilford doing the same as he held a pink one.

So, of course, they jumped a little when you slammed the door behind you.

“Uh. Darling? Are you--”

“I fucking hate EVERYTHING!” You yelled. Dark blinked. He glanced at WIlford, who looked just as surprised. You paced around the living room, looking like you were about to commit murder. He shuffled closer to Wilford, and leaned in.

“Wil, what are we supposed to do?” He whispered.

“Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.” Wilford said in a voice that told Dark he was quoting something.

“Wil, I don’t know what the fuck that is.”

“It-It’s a meme-Do you just not go on the internet? Ever? Nevermind, just follow my lead.” He grabbed the roses, putting them in a nearby cup of water. He walked over to where you were and gently grabbed your shoulders. “Here, darling, sit, tell us about it.”

He led you to the couch and sat you down, sitting next to you. He snapped his fingers at Dark, pointing to your shoulders. Dark hesitantly walked over and started to massage your shoulders. You sighed a little, relaxing. Wil nodded and gave him a thumbs up.

“There were so many assholes today, man.”

“Mm-hm. Tell Wilford about it.”

“There was this guy who kept asking where this one thing that we didn’t have was, this lady kept insisting her coupons were not expired, don’t even get me started on Jared and Melissa.”

“Who are Jared and Melissa?” Dark asked.

“Oh, FUCK Jared and Melissa!” You suddenly got to your feet again and started pacing again.

“Y-Yeah, fuck Jared and Melissa!” Wil agreed. “Who are Jared and Melissa?”

“Hell if I know, just go with it, I’ll get the takeout.” Dark patted him on the back.

“Angel wasn’t even there to talk to today, God, I miss them so much already.”

“Angel is the coworker who…”

“Oh, they have the cats, Socks and Mittens.”

“Oh, so Angie--”

“Angie is Angelo, and he smokes weed in the back. He’s cool too. He was too high to fucking function today, though.”

“So, uh, where was Angel?” Wil looked back into the kitchen and saw Dark loading up their plates with the food. Wil suddenly remembered that he was wearing a pink shirt. He didn’t know whether the stains would be prominent and he did not intend to find out. He snuck away into the bedroom to change. Suits were a bad idea, he should’ve listened to Dark.

He changed into a T-shirt with the design of a suit and some grey sweatpants and somehow made his way back to the living room before you’d finished your first sentence. You noticed this, because you stared at his change of clothes.

“...weren’t you wearing a suit? Like an actual one?”

“No.”

“But-”

“I wasn’t.”

“You sent me a picture.”

“The, uh… suits were… part of a different… situation…” He said, not knowing what the fuck he was actually saying to you. You seemed to get something from it because you said:

“Ah. I see.” Before going back to your rant. Wil looked at Dark as he walked into the living room. He wasn’t wearing the suit jacket, only the black dress shirt. He also had black pants instead of the white ones.

Wilford nodded and whispered “Good choice.” Dark nodded and whispered “I told you so.”, so Wilford flipped him off. Dark sat the plates down while Wil pushed you down by your shoulders. You buried your face in your hands and groaned. Wil rubbed a hand up and down your back while Darkiplier poured drinks. You rubbed your face before leaning back and letting them drop. You looked down at the food. Then at Wilford. Then at Dark.

“Am I… missing something?” You said in a small voice.

“Hm?” Wil tilted his head at you.

“I feel like something was supposed to happen. Did I ruin your plans?” You frowned, starting to feel guilty.

“No, no, darling, you couldn’t ruin anything.” Wilford shifted closer to you and put his arm around your shoulders, rubbing up and down your arm.

“You sure? It feels like something I could do…”

“You could never because anything involving you is perfect.” Dark whispered after he gently took your chin in his hand and turned you towards him.

“Booooooo.” Wil called.

“Wha?”

“That was so cheesy, Dark.” You smiled.

“So sappy. Disgusting.” Wil agreed.

“Shameful.” You both shook your heads.

“Both of you can fuck off.” Dark huffed and crossed his arms. You kissed him, gently holding his face in your hands, making him smirk.

“Hey! How come the edgy one gets a kiss kiss!”

“You tricked me this morning, no kiss kiss for you!”

“Dark! Tell them!”

“You heard them, no kiss kiss.”

“Wh-”

“Hey, I have an idea! Why don’t we eat and watch shitty rom coms!”

“Don’t you wanna watch the clock?” Dark asked.

“Not particularly…” You looked down and the smile left your face. Wilford and Dark gave each other a look before they each took one of your hands and squeezed them.

“Ok. We can do that.”

The three of you laid in bed, you and Wilford cuddling into either side of Dark. Countdown forgotten, already passed a while ago. Dark still had his dress shirt and you were still wearing your work clothes. Dark stared at the ceiling, focusing on the sounds around his.

The fireworks outside.

The clock ticking rhythmically.

The soft and constant breathing from his two favorite people.

He took a deep breath and tried his best to push down all the bad and intrusive thoughts.

What if I hurt them? What if they decide I’m not good enough? What if I’m not good enough?

No. No ‘what if’s. That doesn’t matter. What matters is they love him and he loves them.

He looked down at you, your soft face squished into his arm, and he smiled at the warmth that bloomed throughout his chest. He looked over at Wilford and sucked in a breath when he found him staring at Dark.

“...can’t sleep?” Wilford said in an uncharacteristically quiet voice.

“No, I just…” He took a deep breath. “I just…”

“Wha happened?” You slurred, waking up. Dark flinched.

“Both of you should go back to sleep.”

“Why’re you awake then?” Wilford challenged.

“I was just… thinking.”

“About?” You yawned.

“About… how much I… love you two.” Both you and Wilford froze and Dark’s breathing sped up, scared he’d done something wrong.

“Awww, he wuvs us!” Wil giggled.

“How much do you wuv us, Dark?” You crossed your arms on his chest, resting your cheek against them and looking at Dark.

“...a lot.” He monotoned, staring at the ceiling.

“Do you wuv us soooo much?” Wilford batted his eyelashes.

“I’m starting to love you less and less.” Dark growled.

“Awwww he does!” You laughed

“Go. Back. To. Sleep. Please.” Darkiplier begged because Darkiplier does apparently beg, who would’ve thought.

“Yessir…” you said, another yawn taking over the word. You got back into your previous position, your arms gripping his and pressed into his side. Wilford took a similar one, just a little further up. You fell back asleep after a little bit, but the other two stayed awake.

“Happy you have both of your heatsources back?” Wilford whispered, a smile evident in his voice. Dark sighed, closing his eyes and focusing on the feeling of both his loves holding onto him like a lifeline. A ghost of a smile crossed his face.

“Yes. I am.”

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canmom · 4 years ago

Text

Animation Night 39 - Ghost in the Shell

It’s time, ladies.

This week, Animation Night is going to take a look in at a couple of iterations of ‘famousest cyberpunk ever’ Ghost in the Shell. I’ve been extremely excited for this one, and looking forward to doing a deep dive into the franchise and its history, but real life was determined to intervene and, like the (still in progress) Lupin post, that’s going to be a weekend job. Picture me like this...

I can at least do a little to set the scene! Ghost in the Shell began life in the form of a manga 攻殻機動隊 (Kōkaku Kidōtai, “Mobile Armored Riot Police”) by Masamune Shirow in the late 80s, in the milieu I discussed back when we watched Akira.

As we discussed back then, by the late 80s, Japan had seen a long period of rebuilding under the same conservative party; the student movements resisting it had given way to a startlingly rapid growth of capitalism and a housing bubble that was drastically transforming the environment. It was a time when science fiction anime and manga, often targeting the otaku subculture (as contentious as this term may be! still trying to work through this v interesting article by Ōtsuka Eiji), in new formats like the OVA.

Into this milieu comes Masamune Shirow (士郎正宗 Shirō Masamune), the pen name of a manga artist with an immense talent for imagining an intricate, geopolitically fraught high-tech near-future world - and make it fun, even if all his subplots have a tendency to get a bit lost in themselves. He writes a number of manga; after GitS, his most famous is probably Appleseed, but there’s also Dominion: Tank Police.

(And yeah, it’s mostly about cops! He uses the angle of a dubious, heavily armed future police force as an angle into this future world I guess you’d say. I am going to talk more about that this weekend).

GitS centres on ‘Public Security Section 9′, a group of heavily armed cyborgs operating with pseudonyms under the command of a wily old man called Aramaki, one of several armed government factions in a thoroughly dystopian future. In all variants, the main character is Motoko Kusanagi (a deliberately absurd pseudonym), an immensely talented hacker and combatant whose characterisation varies between adaptations - in Shirow’s hands, though, she’s presented as v much ‘one of the guys’, including such memorable moments as hacking the prime minister’s brain to make him punch himself in the face. But the rest of the squad - Batou, Togusa, Ishikawa... also get established, and its fun to track how their designs change in each iteration.

Anyway! Here’s a page of Kōkaku Kidōtai to give you a sense of Shirow’s style:

I haven’t fully read through it yet, but here’s something I wrote early on.

Shirow is a fascinating character, as devoted to porn works such as Galgrease as the cyberpunk speculation - a side of him you can see quite often in GitS! (Sadly, the currently in print English translation censored the sex scenes, though not the older Dark Horse printing). As personal and full of life as his manga are, he seems to be quite reclusive in personal life, though there are a few interviews floating around. Here, speaking to Dark Horse (who published the translation of GitS above), he describes his background:

MASAMUNE SHIROW: One way you can look at it is that since I was born in 1961 in Japan, I am a member of the color TV generation; it first appeared and became popular while I was growing up. As for Kobe, it is a long, narrow city hemmed in by mountains and the ocean, at the corner of an industrial region that stretches out from Osaka, Japan's second largest metropolis. Kobe is the second largest port city next to Yokohama, and historically it was an early port of entry for Western culture. In Japan today Kobe has a reputation of being a tourist city. When I made my debut with Appleseed, I lived only a few meters from the breakwater, but I drew Ghost in the Shell while living in a town in the mountains about nine kilometers from the sea, and I continue to live there today.

As far as influences, he cites TV animation such as Gundam; perhaps it’s no surprise then that his work has repeatedly seen adaptation into anime. He seems very humble in this interview, dismissing the elements of GitS as things that have been done before. When he’s asked in another interview about why his manga tend to focus on ‘strong’ women, he plays the socially acceptable “oh i’m a guy so i’m attracted to them” angle, which, well, I’m sure I’ve run that one to ‘explain’ playing women in games before ;) I’m not saying ohh, Shirow’s an egg, all this shit’s complicated, but for whatever reason, this dude happens to make some p #relatable images of cyborg girls, y’know? And on another level I respect the honesty of just like, I draw this because I like it.

Anyway, then the 90s happen! Last week we looked into the story of Mamoru Oshii, and in the early 90s - as Japan’s economic boom ran out! - he got the chance to direct an adaptation of Shirow’s manga. Oshii loves to make contemplative philosophical films, and while Kōkaku Kidōtai was a chaotic manga with many different threads (procedural, action, squad camaraderie), it had an ongoing thread of like, in this future, everyone gets uploaded into “cyberbrains” which can connect directly and be hotswapped between different bodies. GitS was ahead of the curve with that concept, at a time when the internet was a very, very new thing...

Well, Oshii picked that up and ran with it, creating a movie that’s unmistakably in his style, and that turned out to be a great decision. His interpretation of GitS focuses less on the interdepartmental politics of Public Security Section 9, and much more on the whole ‘wow we’re teched up how does that affect our conception of humanity’ angle; but it also makes a fantastic use of the character of the city itself, with some of the absolute best environment design ever shown in anime. Its vision of cyborgs is incredible, just never been matched.

To pull this off Oshii was joined by some immensely talented animators at Production I.G., and the film is full of incredible shots: the classic ‘jumping off a building and activating thermoptic camo’ shot, the chase through the market, the brilliant sequence at the end with the robot tank shooting up the cladogram (hey, it’s an Oshii movie!). Not to mention, Oshii’s composer pal Kenji Kiwai made one of the best soundtracks of his career, leaning on Noh chants; the result is, well, definitive.

The next decade, Oshii made a second GitS film, titled Innocence, which is generally considered to be rather muddled and unsatisfactory. But hey it’s Oshii, I still want it into my eyeballs!

Meanwhile, Production I.G. were working on another, separate-continuity interpretation: the TV series GitS: Stand Alone Complex, which draws out the political, character and action side of Shirow’s manga a lot more explicitly. The series is divided into two strands: the “stand alone” episodes, which feature individual episode length vignettes about life in this cyberpunk future, and the series-long “complex” arc where the characters get embroiled in very postmodern series of hacking related crimes and conspiracies.

There’s so much going on in there: one episode will feature a woman trying to assassinate an oligarch with an arm-mounted money gun, another will see robot tanks acquiring consciousness and discussing Deleuze. Section 9 are like... they’re the viewpoint characters, but I don’t feel we’re expected to see them as universally sympathetic, and their existence and power is put in question in a p interesting way.

And it sure helps that the animation, while the TV budget can’t let it be quite as lush as Oshii’s movies, is waaaay up there also ;)

This weekend, I’m planning to do a deep dive into the like, philosophical and political themes and how the different adaptations treat them; but for now I’m way over time so let’s just leave it there. Tonight I’m planning to show the two movies by Oshii, and also a selection of episodes from Stand Alone Complex.

Animation Night 38 is beginning pretty much as soon as I’ve gone downstairs; I don’t have time to draw a title card right now unfortunately, but I should have one by the end of the first film. Hope you’ll join me for some of my fave movies, head to https://www.twitch.tv/canmom if it sounds like a vibe and we’ll run ghost.sh very shortly ;)

#animation night #ghost in the shell #mamoru oshii #masamune shirow

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merry-kuroo · 4 years ago

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Top 10 2020 Anime

Hello everyone! Its the last day of 2020, and like with every year, here is my top 10 anime list. This list covers anime that aired this year only :) Hopefully you can use this list as a recommendation for something to watch. But tbh this list is for me to remember which wonderful anime made my year a little brighter :D I apologize for any typos lol.

1.) Tower of God

AHHH! I love Tower of God so much!! So, I almost dropped it at episode 1 because I was really confused. But I stuck with it and I’m glad I did. Tower of God gave me HxH vibes, but it was still different enough where I didn’t need to compare the two. The opening and ending by Stray Kids was amazing too.

Because I loved Tower of God so much, I made a Webtoon account and ever since then I’ve been hooked on Webtoons. I’m really glad they partnered with Crunchyroll to bring us this anime!

I read the TOG Webtoon and it explained things a lot better. I highly recommend going to read it after watching the anime!

I hope there is a season 2, but I won’t get my hopes up :( I’m sure this anime was just advertisement for the comic.

So, yeah, go check out Tower of God <3

2.) Great Pretender

WIT Studio has done it again. First with Attack on Titan, then Seraph of the End. They keep bringing me my favorite animes.

I love animes that feature a found family, and cons. Great Pretender brought all of that and more. Great characters, jokes, missions, and music. The music in Great Pretender is fantastic (I mean the ending song is a Queen song!)

I still stand by my opinion that Part 1 was better. I wasn’t a huge fan of season 2 and the ending as well. I think they dropped the ball. But I still won’t let that stop me from recommending it to you! It was still fun to watch :D

I’m going to miss Team Confidence <3

3.) Weathering With You

So, I have been a fan of Makoto Shinkai’s movies for a long time (5 Centimeters Per Second will always have a special place in my heart). So, when I saw that Weathering With You was coming to the movie theater, I immediately purchased a ticket. It was such a surreal experience watching in the theaters.

This was the last movie I saw in theaters before...you know >.> I’m glad this movie was my last too. It makes it even more special.

Everyone, please go see this movie. It’s beautiful. It will make you laugh and cry. I left the theater with tears in my eyes. It was such a amazing experience. I’m patiently waiting for his next movie!

4.) Kaguya Sama: Love is War Season 2

My favorite rom-com returned with a season 2. The opening is still stuck in my head. It always will be lol.

Anyway, this season was not only hilarious, but there was development between Kaguya and Miyuki <3

Miko IIno was also a interesting character. She is so different from everyone else, so I’m excited to see how being on the student council will change her. Maybe she and Ishigami will start to get long lol.

Another thing that made this season special was Ishigami’s backstory, and how Miyuki saved him. I just really love their bromance, okay?

Please go check out Kaguya Sama: Love is War if you haven’t! It’s funny and heart warming <3

5.) Jujutsu Kaisen

I’ve been hyped for this anime for like a year! When it was announced last November, I was like AFJAIOFJAOGLJMAPOGJ

I love the manga, and the adaption is doing a fantastic job so far. I definitely ended up loving Sukuna more due to the anime adaption though lmaooo.

Not a lot to say here except, go watch Jujutsu Kaisen <3 and read the manga!

6.) Moriarty the Patriot

I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this anime or not. I only started watching it because people said Sebastian Moran was Daddy! Kuroo lmaooo

But I have to say...I do like that Albert was like “Oh yes lets bring William and Albert into our home” then William was like “Haha hey Albert do you hate the upper class and nobility too? You wanna murder your brother and parents, burn down the house, and reform society?” And Albert is like “DON’T MIND IF I DO!” (The Moriarty brothers are wild af, my God.)

I liked each individual case, and it got even more intense when Sherlock and John were introduced. Super excited for season 2!

The opening and ending songs are also fantastic. Go give them a listen!

7.) Digimon Adventure 2020/Digimon Adventure Tri/Last Evolution Kizuna

Tfw you go to buy tickets Digimon Last Evolution Kizuna, but all the movie theaters shut down :(

ANYWAY

I was super hyped when Last Evolution Kizuna was announced, and then the reboot of the 1999 anime. I finished up Digimon Adventure Tri...which could’ve been better tbh. I only liked the first three movies, so at least I got some good content out of them lol.

I like the new spin on the new Digimon anime, and I’m excited to see what they’ll do next. I kinda want a reboot of 02 Digimon...and Digimon Tamers and Frontier, but that may be pushing it lmao.

Last Evolution Kizuna was absolutely phenomenal. It was the perfect 20th anniversary movie :)

8.) Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun

Another show I started at the beginning of the year! I read the manga in 2019, and I was happy to hear it was getting a anime adaption! I enjoyed this series a lot, and I really want there to be a second season. I feel like some stuff was left out. But the anime might have been created just to promote the manga.

The opening song, the different wonders of the school, and the art style quickly made this one of my favorites!

9.) Idolish7 Second Beat

Idolish7 is vastly underrated. It’s more than just pretty guys singing and dancing. Every character in the show has gone through their own hardships, and all the characters are fleshed out well.

The second season did not disappoint. It still served me with a good dose of angst, drama, and comedy.

And season 3 was announced!!! I wasn’t expecting that, so that surprise made me really happy <3.

I was really sad when Idolish7 stopped airing back in the spring, but I’m glad they were able to finish up the season this year :D

10.) Haikyuu!! To the Top

Alright, so my excitement deflated when Part 1 aired back in January. I hated the new art style and while Part 1 did have some good character development moments, I was really bored :/

The OVAs were really good though >.> I love Nekoma and Fukrodani so those were fun to watch.

Part 2 was a 100 times better. I accepted the fact that the art style wasn’t going to change and we wouldn’t have those cute breaks where the volleyball players would serve the ball and hit the water bottle. Once I got over that, I found myself enjoying part 2.

The two Nekoma episodes,the episodes focusing on the Miya Twins and Kita were my personal favorites. But overall, Karasuno vs. Inarizaki was fantastic and I enjoyed it a lot!

I need season 5 to be announced already!!!!!!! PLEASE!!!

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anime-grimmy-art · 5 years ago

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Something little cos the end of the anime hit me harder than expected.

I haven’t watched any seasonal anime in a long time, at least not from week to week. And even though I’ve read the manga 2 times before the second episode even came out, I kept coming back to the series.

Now, the anime adaptation....isn’t the best. It is littered with mistakes and wonky frames, which is understandable with everything that’s happening right now. But still, something about the anime was just so charming that I came back. And even if it had it’s downsides, the style in general was just drop-dead-gorgeous. Also, some scene’s where just put together so well that the impact was amazing (e.g., Tsukasa fading into existence in the background, that gave me chills)

And it’s not like the anime doesn’t have its strongsuits. First of, this anime has one of the best and most misleading first episodes ever. The ep itself looks pretty as hell and the comedy and character interactions are amazing. The first ep was what pushed me to read the manga, cos the artstyle, concept and characters drew me in. And with how comedy-heavy the start of the show is the more rewarding the drama and angst feel.

Second thing they’ve done amazingly is the audio. The ED is awesome and the OP is an absolute bop. The OST in general sounds nice, but damn, if the music box didn’t always make me emotional the moment it came on.

But the best thing is the voice acting. I have seen few anime in which the voice acting is this damn good. The performances just enhance the show so much. Like with Natsuhiko’s and Nene’s va, they make funny moments so much funnier. The ones I bow down to, however, are Kou’s va, Chiba Shouya, and Hanako/Tsukasa’s va, Megumi Ogata. Their performance was out of this world. Kou can sound super cute and goofy, but where he really shines are the emotional scenes. I don’t know how Shouya-san does it, but something about his voice just sounds so raw, it sends shivers down my spine. And then Ogata-san. She’s always been a queen, but damn if she hasn’t ascended to goddess. I’ve always really liked her, but just something about how she brought the character’s to life really resonated with me. I mean, she made me love Tsukasa. Mind you, I always thought he was an interesting character and I always enjoyed him popping up in the manga, but just the way Ogata-san adds another layer to him is amazing. Alone the fact that she can make Hanako and Tsukasa sound so different is even more astounding. They have traits they share, but with Tsukasa she just puts on a voice that plays into all his deceiving cuteness. And also, the damn noices she makes. She always adds little sounds into backrgound and that really adds so much.

Anyways, long story short, even if the adaptation isn’t the best, I enjoyed it quiet a lot. If anything, I’m just grateful it introduced me to such an amazing manga and the amazing community behind it.

#jibaku shounen hanako kun #toilet bound hanako kun #fanart #so sad the anime is done #hanako #nene yashiro #kou minamoto #sousuke mitsuba #tsukasa #sakura nanamine #hyuuga natsuhiko #aoi akane #akane aoi #lemon yamabuki #tsuchigomori #yako #mokke

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janetbrown711 · 4 years ago

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Princess Angelina II was never fond of being told what to do.

Ever since she was a little girl, she loved being defiant. However, her parents were strict and had their ways of forcing her to do things anyway, so she adapted. If her parents wanted her to study? Fine, then she would read every book in the library and become far more intelligent than most of her teachers and would “smart ass” them constantly. Of course, her parents disapproved, but Angelina knew they technically couldn’t punish her this way, as she was doing what they asked after all. Still, she was aware that she was treading on thin ice, but she continued anyway, as it felt like the only thing keeping her sane.

It was this mentality she carried with her during her least favorite activity of all:

Meeting Suitors.

The moment Angelina turned 16, her mother began arranging meeting after meeting with different princes and noblemen, all of which she hated. They were always so prideful and stuffy, they never had a sense of joy or humor in them. So, as was natural for her, she never refused to see them, but while they talked she’d always attack their pride and make sure they never wanted to see her again. She had hoped her actions would’ve given her a reputation as an “ineligible princess” but alas, rumors of her beauty and singing kept them coming.

And so today Angelina found herself preparing yet again to meet with another boring suitor, this time a prince who was soon coming of age and was to rule the neighboring kingdom fo Ticktockia. Angelina spent several weeks reading up on the history of the country, as well as learning their customs, and knew she was ready by the time he arrived.

“I don’t want you to play any funny games this time, Angelina. Ticktockia is a very important ally, and I don’t want you embarrassing my good name,” her mother, Queen Angelina Contessa Louisa Francesca Banana Fanna Bo Besca I, was quick to remind her right before the doors of the throne room were to open. Angelina wanted to roll her eyes, but didn’t have the energy or the time, as the doors were opened, and the prince entered.

The prince of Ticktockia was a human, which she had expected. He was a particularly... interesting piece of work. He was growing a mustache, but he was very bad at it, and so it looked wispy and gross. his fashion sense was something else entirely, and he wore a giant clock on his chest, which Angelina recalled as the symbol of Ticktockia (as it was the meaning behind their name).

“Hello,” He greeted her, but didn’t bow. Angelina rolled her eyes internally and curtsied.

“Pleasure to meet you, sir,” She said. He only nodded in response.

This was gonna be fun.

“Well, off you two go then,” Angelina the First waved the pair off, and Salazar held his arm out and Angelina took it, and they went off into the halls of the castle.

“So... Prince... Salad bar is it?” Angelina asked.

“Salazar,” He corrected, snappy. Angelina smirked.

“Right, right, right, my apologies,” She said. “So... where are you from again?”

“Ticktockia, one of Warnerstock’s most important allies..? Surely you’ve heard of us,” He said, annoyed.

“Not really, no,” She shrugged, removing her arm from his.

“Oh please, we’ve made all of your clocks,” He pointed out.

“Oh, those old things? They break every other week, we honestly should replace them all,” She lamented, internally pleased when she saw his anger rise and saw him desperately try to hide it.

“Well then,” he huffed. “Perhaps I shouldn’t blame you, you are just a woman after all. I shouldn’t expect you to know the history of such an important country.”

Oh he did not.

“I can assure you Salazar, I know more of Ticktockia’s history than you do,” she warned. He smirked.

“Sure you do,” He said.

“Who was the 17th king?” She quizzed. Salazar paused to think.

“King... Edmund?” He asked. Angelina shook her head.

“King Raymond the Beloved. He helped create an era of peace in the land and helped create new trade routes for kingdoms all across the lands,” Angelina said.

“Everyone knows King Raymond. I was simply... pretending not to know,” He so obviously lied.

“Alright... who was the 20th king?” She asked. Salazar thought once more, stroking his gross wispy mustache.

“Easy, King Walter,” He lifted his chin in the air.

“Wrong. It’s your father, King Jonathan,” She said with a condescending smile. Salazar glared at her.

“Well I never,” He huffed and crossed his arms.

“Never what? Studied anything in your life? Because that’s something I’d believe. I mean, come on, who doesn’t know their own father?” She snorted. Salazar looked at her with disgust.

“You are very unladylike,” He said.

“It’s an art,” She replied.

“Mhm,” He mumbled, continuing their walk through the castle once more.

“So.. tell me... what about your kingdom do you know?” She asked.

“We’re the number one supplier of clocks in the world,” He stated.

“Right, but other kingdoms are coming up close behind, so I’d keep a close eye on that if I were you,” Angelina pointed out.

“Ridiculous,” He scoffed.

“Oh, but it really isn’t. Your methods are old and outdated and so people from the outside have worked on improving your old designs and they’re only becoming better and better,” Angelina said nonchalantly. Salazar’s eye twitched.

“You know, this really isn’t the way you should talk to your betrothed,” He snarled.

“Betrothed? What on earth makes you think we’re betrothed?” Angelina jumped in surprise.

“I was invited here, no?” He eyed her up and down. “I was promised a bride, and seeing as you’re the prettiest one around and I was invited, we’re betrothed,” he said, placing a hand on her waist, to which she then jumped back and away.

“Hate to break it to you, dimwit, but that’s not how this works.” She outright glared at him.

“Oh please, there’s no sense in fighting it,” He rolled his eyes. “I want you, and so you’re going to be mine. Nobody says no to me.”

“Oh I’m sure they do, you probably just ignore it or are too much of a moron to see it,” She spat.

“I am not a moron.” He raised his voice, but Angelina wasn’t frightened.

“Sure. And my name isn’t actually Angelina,” She rolled her eyes. “Get real, you know almost nothing about your own kingdom’s history, and I’m sure if I wanted to bore myself further I’d discover you know nothing of Warnerstock, and it’s very apparent you haven’t a single clue of manners or decency in front of a princess.”

“I. Am. Not. A. Moron,” He clenched his fist.

“Oh please! If I were to look up the word ‘moron’ in the dictionary, it would have a picture of you. I mean- assuming you’re betrothed to me just because my mother invited you here? My mother may hate my guts, but she’d never do that,” Angelina smirked.

“I can have anything I want, just watch me,” He growled, stepping towards her, and Angelina realized just how much taller he was than her.

“You’re nothing more than an arrogant, stupid, brainless, spoiled baby that hasn’t heard ‘no’ nearly enough in his life,” She defied him, and he raised his hand and struck her across the face so hard, she fell to the floor with a loud thud.

Angelina laid on the ground a moment, realizing what just happened, feeling the sting and burn in her cheek. Slowly, she sat herself up.

“You hit me,” She looked up at him. He dusted off his hand.

“You’re truly a disgusting creature, Angelina.” he scowled. “I showed you nothing but decency, and you lash out like the vicious animal you are.”

Not even wanting to dignify his bullshit, she instead called for the royal guards. Salazar’s eyes widened as four guards came into the room from their posts, and upon seeing their princess on the floor with a newfound bruise and the neighbor prince red in the face with anger, they were quick to separate the two.

“I won’t forget about this Angelina. I’ll be back, and I’ll make sure to give you hell once I’m in charge,” He declared for all to hear as he was escorted out. Angelina shuddered as she was helped up by one of the guards.

“You alright, Princess?” He asked.

“I’m fine,” She said, not wanting to get into it.

Despite the stinging in her cheek, she had done what she had to.

“Just take me to my mother, I’m sure she’ll be delighted to hear about this,” Angelina sighed. The guards nodded and she was escorted to her mother’s private study. She knocked on it once before entering.

“Angelina, why am I not surprised?” Her mother didn’t look up from her paperwork, shaking her head. “What happened?”

“He had to leave early,” Angelina said.

“He just barely arrived,” The queen remarked, before looking up at her daughter’s face and frowning.

“Angelina, what did I tell you? I told you you had to be on your best behavior and you deliberately disobeyed me,” She set down her work.

“Well gee, I’m sorry alright?” She rolled her eyes.

“You and I both know that isn’t true. Honestly Angelina, why do you feel the need to sully the kingdom’s good name like this?” Angelina the First rubbed her forehead and stood.

“Because it’s dumb. All of this is. The suitors, the manners, It’s just so dumb,” She complained.

“Angelina, I’m not having this conversation again,” The queen stated. “These rules and rituals are tradition. You don’t have a choice. One day you will marry a suitor I picked out for you, whether it makes you happy or not.”

“I’d sooner die,” Angelina glared.

“If you had any sense in you, you’d learn to bite your tongue, Angelina. Or do you want to be hit a second time today?” The queen raised her hand with her wedding ring on it and Angelina flinched. The queen smirked a little.

“That’s what I thought,” She said, before sighing and returning to her paperwork.

“We’ll have to reschedule the other suitors I had planned to visit this month until that bruise heals. We can’t have rumors spread,” She said, writing something down. If she had been feeling better, Angelina would’ve smiled. Her mother went silent a long moment, the only noise being the scratch of her quill touching the paper. Eventually her mother looked up at her, with an expression that looked like a mix of disgust, tiredness, and annoyance.

“You can go now,” She said. Angelina curtsied for her mother, and then left.

For a while, Angelina found herself wandering the halls of the castle as she rubbed her bruise lightly. She knew she had done what she had to, but she still felt dazed. Perhaps it was from hitting her head, but she felt... odd. Light headed was the best term she could think to describe it.

It wasn’t too long before Angelina noticed that she had wandered into the garden. That was good. The flowers and fountains did a lot to clear her mind on days like these. Eventually, she made her way to the middle, and sat down on the bench and watched fountain and birds that stopped to bathe in it. She couldn’t be sure of what she was feeling, but whatever it was, it was a lot.

After awhile of just sitting there, a familiar voice called out, and Angelina looked up and felt herself revive a little.

“Angelina! There you are,” William smiled and ran to sit down next to her.

“Hi,” She smiled and scooted over so there was room.

“How was your- oh my... what happened?” William gasped, referring to the bruise.

“O-oh it was nothing, really,” Angelina brushed it off.

“You’re hurt Lena,” He frowned with concern. Angelina took in a deep breath and sighed.

“A suitor visited today- Prince Salazar of Ticktockia. I pushed things a little too far this time and well... he got pretty mad. And now my mother is pissed that I managed to make one of our strongest allies hate my guts,” Angelina chuckled sadly.

“Lena... I’m so sorry. That’s terrible,” William said, his eyes watering. Angelina didn’t know how to respond.

“William- I’m okay. Really. I’m used to it,” She tried to laugh it off.

“You’re used to it?” His concern only grew and Angelina bit her words.

“I-i mean...” She sighed. “You know my mother by now. I’m used to this.”

“Lena, I’m so sorry. Nobody should ever, ever hit you, especially your own mother,” William said.

“Thank you William,” She smiled tiredly at him.

“Lena, I swear to you, so long as I live, I’ll never let anyone hurt you like this ever again,” He held her hand and kneeled on the ground.

“W-william, I-i don’t know what to say,” She sniffled, and realized her own eyes were starting to fill with tears. Quickly, she wiped them away. William then stood and pulled her into a tight and loving embrace. At first, Angelina was hesitant, but she chose to embrace it, and she hugged him back, and found herself quickly sobbing into his shoulder.

“It’s okay Lena, I’m here. It’s okay. I won’t let anyone hurt you anymore,” he promised, and Angelina believed him. She felt safe in his arms, and never ever wanted to let go. She wanted to stay with him forever, safe and happy and secure. She knew he’d never hurt her, ever.

She loved him.

Princess Angelina the Second was in love with William.

She smiled a little and embraced him even more.

No matter what her mother tried to do or who she tried to set her up with, Angelina knew she was in love with William, and nothing was ever going to change that.

#animaniacs #wakko's wish #king william warner #queen angelina warner #yakko wakko and dot parents #my fics #animaniacs fics #janetbrown711 #king salazar #pre canon #fjakdsl;afjsl #I want what william and angelina have #tw child abuse #tw abuse #tw hitting

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the-fourth-knower · 3 years ago

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Diary of a Lost Doe, Part 2

Part 2 is here! Read part 1 here! Left y'all off on a cliff hanger for part 1, so hopefully this part will be worth the wait.

Part 1 is a bit longer, but the first half's length is mostly spacing. This one has more paragraph format and ideally oomph to it.

Note: All Wheatfields belong to @aquillis-main, Eggman belongs to SEGA, and so on.

Diary 2 Entry 56

Fuck my life.

Angelica was gone for most of yesterday, I had to go into the Eggman zone to look for her. When i finally fukin find her she had a fucking mouse with her. Red furred, tan-muzzle/ears. Also tan tuft or fur patch. And I guess a tan tail. Clothes smell a bit like weed.

Angie insists that’s it's Trevor. This time there’s no dissuading her. It might actually be the Wheatfield kid.

She says the kid- is he a kid, he’s not that much younger than me? Fuck it, the guy ran into robots and got screwed. Angie saved him but the dude was beaten up bad or something and has barely woken up since

Angie definitely used her power on him. Even though I told her not to use it except for emergencies, multiple fuckin times

Shit i almost went through the page.

Angie’s been taking care of the guy all night and today. If I can’t get her to lay down she’ll do it all night tonight too.

Why the hell does she need to have a bleedin heart

Also, not sure but I could’ve sworn I saw Guardian guiding me to Angelica...mabye it really is a Guardian Angel for us. maybe

I think we may need to move out of here, things are too hot for my liking. I gotta figure out where we could go.

A stock of our current supplies

217 dollars and change

Quareter of a pallet of bottled water

Eight cans of food

Two bedrolls

Spade/trowel

Water can (could leave it)

Two backpacks

Duffel bag

Three first aid kits, one partly used

Three journal diaries

Half a case of pens

Three small bags of seeds

Quiver with arrows (Angie’s)

Pa’s gift to Angie (Shortbow)

Steel glove (Mine)

Pistol (Mum’s, technically Angie’s now - no bullets)

Haven’t made anything in the past few days. No one wants to hire anyone right now. And I guess I don’t look like bodyguard material. Can’t get a job with that, if I wanted to.

Man I wish Angie thought to grab some of the robo parts, we could have sold them.

Got to get Angie to sleep.

Diary 2 Entry 57, apparently.

Been a while. Finally have time to write again. Shit’s been crazy. We’re in an actual house now, or something.

Where to start.

Well first off. The Wheatfield kid finally woke up and stayed up. Freaked out at first before Angie calmed him down. Didn’t know she had it in her - usually she’s the one freaking out over things. But if she can calm down the kid then that’s a thing I don’t have to worry bout.

Turns out the kid has something the robot army dude - Eggman or Robotnik or whatever - wanted, that’s why he got thrashed in the first place. He also seemed embarassed bout his state, that or that we gave him some of our clothes. And by that I mean Angie did.

I’d been preparing to leave when some of the robots showed up. They wanted to grab the Wheatfield, and he looked like he pissed his pants.

Then Angelica got in the way.

Next thing I know there’s vines bursting out of the ground, just like what must have happened when Angie fought the thugs when we first met Guardian. They popped the robots like balloons, and animals jumped out of them. Why the fuck are there animals in there? Who uses animals in their robots???

I broke a few of them too, the ones that Angie didn’t get. Even the mouse got one that was gonna blindside Angie. So he is good for something.

Just one problem; during the fight our house shack got trashed. Or right when it started.

Well after that we obviously couldn’t stay in our place. So Angie had to say goodbye to another garden - she watered them all before setting the water can down. Or did whatever she does.

I think I’m gonna miss that dumb shack.

Wheatfield wanted to go home. So we went with him after getting everything salvageable. Angie grabbed the water can and used it to store stuff - was pretty sure at first she’d leave it, but I forgot she’s quick to adapt.

I wanna think I helped in that.

Dodged more robots to get to the house. Got attacked by one that seemed to be hunting us. That was after we went into sewers to escape them. Or we just got unlucky. So I decided to get to the bottom of why they wanted the Wheatfield kid anyways.

Turns out it was a fucking letter. A letter. All of this mess over a fucking letter.

I wanted to just throw it away there and then. The kid wouldn’t give it to me at first, so I had to get in his face. He gave it to me then. I was gonna drop

Then Angie butted in and told me to give it back. Which. honestly shocked me I think. she didn’t like me ‘bullying Trevor’ like I did.

Didn’t even touch the guy! And I wouldn’t have done it if he just gave it to me right away. I didn’t “bully” him.

whatever. She pointed out that we couldn’t get rid of the letter and get away with it; the letter wasn’t what the animal-bots wanted but the carrier.

Which gave me the idea to change how he looked. I think they thought I was gonna get rid of the kid at first - like I'd do that, sure I get mad easy but I don't just ditch people! Not sure if he liked what I did instead, but coating the guy with mud helped. I think. At least he wasn’t a red mouse sticking out in the crowd anymore.

Things went smoother after that. We managed to avoid the robots for the most part. Had to break a few of them. Saw a green orb a few times that led the robots away - came across some smashed up robots with flowers around. Guardian Angel and all, I guess.

Finally got to where the Wheatfields were living now. Near a park. Dunno why I didn’t think bout that. Then again I didn’t know it existed until the Wheatfield kid led me there.

Took Angie aside while the kid ran off ahead; made sure that she would let me handle all the talking. I wasn’t gonna let someone know bout what happened unless I trusted them, not even mum’s and pa’s old friends. She was still mad at me I think, but she agreed. Not that she’d been talking much to me all day, she was too busy making sure the mouse was okay - I guess it made sense. He was her best friend. Is her best friend? I dunno.

If I was rude then I wish I could have captured a pic of their faces when they figured out we were there. The pa of the family, Jackson, looked like his eyes would bulge out - the mum, Emma, looked only slightly more dignified.

After fussing over their kid, they fussed over us. Asked a bunch of questions. “Where’s your parents, are you okay, were you hurt, why are your clothes filthy, when did you last bathe, why are you both so thin”

I like to think that I did a good job keeping the two of us fed and clean. As best as I could anyways without running water and unreliable income - they may have meant me more than Angie. I made sure she was fed as best I could.

I planned to tell them that we would be fine on our own, that they didn’t need to worry bout us.

Then they offered us baths. And Angie just perked up at it.

I couldn’t disappoint her by telling everyone we’d leave. So I said yes, we’d accept.

And now we’re living in their house.

Fuck me, if it doesn’t feel nice. Angie’s even willing to sit next to me again, but she’s been playing with the Wheatfield kids - there’s a second one, younger brother. Solydaster I think. Kinda cute but also a bit of a pest.

Fuck, this is the longest entry I’ve written. Gotta chill now. We’ve all just laid low. The animal bots left. Guess they had something better to do. Or just got bored watching.

Still dunno bout living with them...but Angie’s happy.

If Angie’s happy I should be happy too. So I’ll try.

I can manage it. I gotta manage it. For her.

So why don’t I feel happy

#Knower writes #Sonic #Sonic the Hedgehog #Sonic Fic #Sonic OC #Annabelle Flaches #Angelica Flaches #Trevor Wheatfield #Solidaster Wheatfield #Emma Wheatfield #Jackson Wheatfield

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thefloatingstone · 4 years ago

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Where do you reccomend to pirate sailor moon? You've made me wanna watch ^^

Oh my oh my! This is a very no-no question!

Honestly, I am obligated to say that all 5 seasons have been released on DVD and Blu Ray and are easy to find on Amazon etc etc and that doesn’t help people like me where amazon doesn’t deliver!

You can also IN THEORY watch them on the VIZ website? But again that’s not something I can access from my country!!!

https://www.viz.com/sailor-moon

There’s probably also an official youtube channel where you can legally watch the episodes or something I don’t fukken know because apparently I’m not allowed to do things legally.

SO! Other places you can watch Sailor Moon if you live in an ass-crack country like me and literally cannot access it legally despite being willing to u_u

For the 90s anime!

This is the most iconic of the Sailor Moon media! And the one most people know and are familiar with. It’s usually the first thing people think of when they think of “Sailor Moon”. There’s 200 episodes spread across 5 seasons (the first season, R,S, Super S, and Sailor Stars)

This site has all episodes both dubbed and if you scroll down a little you get the subbed versions as well.

DO NOT WATCH THE DUB!!! This is the original 90s dub and it’s.... not good....

https://sailormoonepisodes.com/

as well as

https://gogoanime.so//search.html?keyword=Sailor%20Moon

You can also find torrents of the show. I haven’t updated my files in a long time but there’s probably been a Blu Ray version uploaded somewhere. I recommend checking Nyaatorrent

For the movies!

If you want to starts with the 3 movies instead just to see if you’d like the show, none of them are as good as the show but it’s how I first got into the whole thing so they can’t be THAT bad! The first one is the most iconic but the second movie (S) is probably acknowledged as the best of the three. They’re kind of disconnected from the show so you need to know very little going in and it doesn’t spoil anything in the show itself nor do you need to watch the movies to watch the show.

You can find the movies subbed here

https://gogoanime.so//search.html?keyword=Sailor%20Moon%20movie

For the manga!

The source material that most adaptations are based on (although most modern versions tend to rely a little more on the 90s anime as... let’s be honest... the anime had much better ideas in a lot of places) There are several places where you can find the manga, however, unlike a mass manga website, I recommend a Sailor Moon specific site which will have given much more care to the translation of the material.

The best place I’ve found is the ever reliable Miss Dream

https://missdream.org/sailor-moon-scanlations/sailor-moon-manga-scanlations/

For the Live action series! (PGSM)

I was a fool for ever thinking the live action series would be bad just because the effects are terrible and the CG is laughable and they made Luna a plushie. It’s turning out to be a GREAT version of the story! I wouldn’t start with this one at all, but I really do HIGHLY recommend checking it out because it’s writing and characters are far better than they have any right to be in all honesty.

PGSM has never seen an official translation.

You can find fan subbed episodes at both Miss Dream as well as Sea of Serenity. They have different translated versions of the show so you can pick which one you like. (I’m watching the Miss Dream subs but I’m following a blog whose watching the Sea of Serenity subs and both are good)

https://seaofserenity.net/drama/downloads/

https://missdream.org/fansubs/pretty-guardian-sailor-moon/

For the Crystal Reboot!

I actually don’t recommend this one, but I’m gonna mention it anyway because it DOES have its fans. (but again... I... I don’t recommend this one at all X’D)

It’s only done the first 3 seasons of the story and honestly only season 3 is considered passable to me. Season 4 is gonna be released next year as a movie (or 2 movies? It’s unclear).

The reboot was supposed to be a manga-accurate adaptation rather than the 90s show which did a lot of its own thing (for better and worse). However, poor animation quality, weird changes to the story, and making the girls lose a lot of their personality and turning Usagi into someone who is more a damsel in distress than anything, it’s not a great version of the story. I’m only mentioning it out of obligation tbh.

Although apparently Season 3 isn’t so bad. But still :/

You can watch the official release on Crunchyroll

https://www.crunchyroll.com/sailor-moon-crystal

You can also find subbed episodes at the bottom of

https://sailormoonepisodes.com/

as well as

https://gogoanime.so//search.html?keyword=Sailor%20Moon

For the Stage Musicals! (Sera Myu)

The Stage Musicals are a funny thing, being not canon to any of the other versions. Sometimes they tell stories from specific arcs in the manga, sometimes they tell story that don’t feature anywhere else, sometimes they’re about the Sailor Senshi fighting Dracula and Adam’s first wife Lilith who want to turn the world into vampires. Dude I don’t even know XD

I wouldn’t recommend starting here either, as these are more like fun bonus content than anything else.

HOWEVER, the Musicals have something that none of the other versions had, which is “La Soldier” which all Sailor Moon fans are required by law to lose their shit over.

(La Soldier is BRIEFLY in the anime but it was not used to its full potential)

youtube

I don’t know if they newer musicals still use La Soldier tho.

You can find fansubbed versions of the Sera Myu shows at Miss Dream

https://missdream.org/fansubs/sera-myu-fansubs/

And Sea of Serentiy

https://seaofserenity.net/

Sea of Serentiy has the more detailed break down of the musicals by year, distributor, and theater/idol group.

I am the least knowledgeable about Sera Myu so I’ll have to leave that over to them. Little to no Sera Myu shows have been released with official subs.

There is also the ice show but that’s been delayed to next year because of the... troubles.

And there’s a bunch of other stuff too like the SNES game and drama CDs and stuff but I think that starts getting off topic.

I know this is a super long explanation to a simple question but I wanted to be thorough because although the 90s anime is generally the go-to, there are people who prefer other versions more.

#Sailor Moon #masterpost #links #video #image heavy #gif heavy #gif warning #long post #the read more function is so broken you're just gonna have to cope with a long pot #Anonymous

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icharchivist · 4 years ago

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Same nonny that you dragged into many things, is the a3 anime good?

👀

it’s a decent enough introduction and it still presents the characters well, but it skips and rushes a lot of things.

Still season 1 is rather okay, at least. The Spring session is rather well adapted (mostly what was cut were seeds for character arcs the characters will have later) for Summer i only remember having issues with the ending of the section (rushed closing night, entirely cut the reason why one Autumn character actually joins) but i haven’t watched this part in a long while. Autumn rushes a lot of things and skips quite a few character beats that are important (also cut the introduction of a winter character that was in it), and Winter made. very questionable decisions adaptation wise which led to just entirely cut the arc of my favorite character and half of the arc of my second character mostly to add scenes about two characters. This i’m biased about whenever or not that was “good” DKJLFDLKFJD i kinda feel like Winter really missed the mark adaptation wise (but Winter are my fav so i’m highly critical too) tho what’s done well is done very well.

and kind of in general the Main Character, Izumi, has a loooot of her personality and involvement being cut down which is a shame bc it’s rare to have such an interestingly rounded Main Character who could have so easily been a blend self insert (and she’s definitly not that).

Regardless to that, the core of the characters are well respected in general, so you’ll get to learn a bit about them all if you start the anime. The opening and ending are songs that aligns with the sort of songs you’d hear in the game so that’s also a good introduction (word of advice: do check the lyrics/translations version on youtube, i know the anime doesn’t sub them but they’re sooooo good). There’s a lot of heart poured into it so it’s still a really nice watch. It still follows the plot beat of the first 4 main story chapters.

Personally i do feel like it works better as a bonus to the game, but i would be curious what would be someone’s first impression on a3 from watching the anime knowing the changes here and there.

Anyway if you want to try a3 i think you’re safe watching the Spring/Summer section of the anime, and for Autumn and Winter i guess just proceed with caution before putting your judgement on some characters i guess?

The anime only covers the 4 first main story chapters as i said, so the game is still ways bigger than that now (after the 4 first main story chapters we got two events a month which added to the plot, and then after one year of that, we got Chapter 5 to 8 of the main plot, currently we’re starting the second year of story events) (and i’m only talking about the English server since the Japanese server is one year and a half ahead of us i think??)

So, this works well as an introduction to the franchise still.

I’ll just say that while the gameplay of the game is rather tedious, the visual novel portion part is genuinely good, using very well the medium in a dynamic way that is very pleasing to read, and on top of the main plot you’ll get backstage stuff which are basically bonus stories about slice of life events happening with the characters. So if you end up attached to any of those characters, i do encourage checking out the game because it’s so rich in little details that are just so neat to play for yaknow?

also i’m sure the main story may be found on youtube eventually (and i sure know i have all the events saved for anyone who’d want to read them)

but if you don’t know if you’ll vibe with visual novels and want to try the anime first, sure! go ahead!

i’d be curious about your thoughts if you do tho :O

i know my reply seem a bit negative but i do like the anime still very much! so if you want to try it sure!

#dkjfhdl i couldn't help but ramble sorry #the anime is honestly pretty good and i think that's why i'm even more upset at the parts where they missed the mark #ultimately it came from trying to squish 4 main story of ~35/40 chapters each - chapters being ~3 to 5mins long on average #in two seasons of 12 episodes of 20mins each #like i think i did the math once and we lose basically 2 or 3 episodes worth of content per troupe with the anime #i feel strongly about the things that were cut so it sours it a bit to me #but for what was kept it does a pretty good job and it's still pretty engaging #hope it answers it :3c #ichafantalks a3 #Anonymous #ichareply

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metalandmagi · 5 years ago

Text

Summer 2019 Anime Worth Watching

Summer is here, and with it brings another new season of anime! In case you’re feeling lost and want to find some new shows to pass the time, here’s some of the anime I think are worth checking out...because some really good shows tend to fly under the radar. I think there’s some genuinely interesting stuff this season, so hopefully you’ll find something you like too.

I also have a Winter list and a Spring list and a fall list now!

And here’s my master list for 2020

New Shows!

Given: A *cough* BL *cough* romance anime in which tsundere highschool guitarist Ritsuka Uenoyama is on the verge of losing his passion for music when he stumbles upon the sleepy-eyed Mafuyu Sato who constantly carries a guitar around that he doesn’t know how to play. Drama and musical shenanigans ensue. This was by far my most anticipated show of the season, because I happen to have read a few chapters of this manga and liked it a lot. The only reason I stopped was because I wanted to hear the music in this music oriented story...so naturally the anime makes me very happy. Not only is it sweet and cute with great animation, but it’s also hilarious. Sato is also basically a human incarnation of a lost puppy, and you just help but fall in love with him and the other characters! AND NOW WE HAVE TWO GAY MUSIC SHOWS THIS SEASON!

Dr. STONE: An action adventure anime that takes place 3,700 years in the future after the world is struck with a mysterious phenomenon that turns the entire human race to stone. Our protagonists: the genius, scientific minded Senku Ishigami and the muscle-y comic relief Taiju Oki, must find a way to rebuild civilization and turn humanity back to normal using the POWER OF SCIENCE! It’s fun, good looking, and way more interesting than I thought it would be. I’m not very attached to the main characters yet, although it’s still early. I’m mainly sticking around for the plot, the comedy, and the answers to the crazy amount of questions I have after watching the first episode!

Fire Force: An action/drama where super powered fire fighters must protect Tokyo from people who are spontaneously combusting while our hero Shinra must find out who started the fire that killed his mother. More than anything, I’d say this show is definitely worth watching for the cinematography and action because almost every second has been high flying dynamic animation that really grips you. It reminds me a lot of Soul Eater, the story and characters have a lot of potential, and you know an anime will be good when the girls have muscles too!

If it’s for My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord: Can you tell it’s based on a light novel? A slice of life set in a fantasy world where an adventurer named Dale stumbles upon an adorable lost little girl in the woods, who happens to be branded as a criminal. So of course Dale basically adopts her and tries to find out how she came to be with him. It’s basically fantasy School Babysitters without the tragic depth to it (but there’s room for potential). Yes, this is definitely the most wholesome show of the season, but it’s to be expected considering it’s basically Japan’s latest attempt to get people to have more babies. Personally, the most interesting aspect of this show is the fact that Dale and his “daughter” can’t speak the same language. Unfortunately, the light novel ends up pulling a Bunny Drop...so I sincerely hope the anime doesn’t try the creepy romance factor. So for now, if you feel like puking up some rainbows, give this one a try.

To the Abandoned Sacred Beasts: An action drama where, during a civil war, one side used “forbidden technology” to enhance their soldiers and basically turn them into badass monsters. The only problem: the soldiers who were turned start to lose their humanity and end up killing humans for the fun of it. Now our protagonist must hunt down his fellow soldiers and kill them before it’s too late. Honestly, this show has some pacing issues and can be a bit stilted in terms of its character interactions, but what kept me watching was the last 5 minutes of the first episode. I was so not prepared for the roller coaster that was the first episode’s ending, and now I’m extremely intrigued. Besides it’s made by MAPPA so I would at least give it a couple episodes to see if it’s for you.

Vinland Saga: The story of a young boy named Thorfinn’s journey to become a great warrior and while the adults deal with going to war. IT’S THE ONE WITH THE VIKINGS!!! It basically feels like a darker, grittier viking version of Moana. I’ve heard literally nothing but praise for this manga for so many years that my hopes skyrocketed as soon as I heard Wit was doing the adaption. And it has definitely lived up to the hype so far! It’s a great action historical drama to fill the void after Dororo. The only problem is no one will watch it because it’s on Amazon Prime.

Kochouki: Wakaki Nobunaga: A fun brightly colored historical anime about the famous warlord Nobunaga when he was a young teenager. I honestly don’t know what the tone of this anime is going to be from here on out, because it’s going to go from “fun thieving shenanigans with pretty boys” to leading people into battle, but it got me interested. I know putting Nobunaga in an anime isn’t exactly original, but this one seems like a fun ride...and it looks gay as fuck.

And I have to shout out some that haven’t premiered yet...just in case...

Try Knights: This one doesn’t come out until the end of July, but you bet your ass I’m going to be watching it because it’s an original anime about PRETTY BOYS PLAYING RUGBY! And I have a feeling it’s going to be very... different from the other resident rugby anime All Out.

Yokai Ningen BEM (Humanoid Monster BEM): Okay, this one’s not out yet either, but the trailer had a really cool vibe to it, so I’m including it anyway. It’s a remake of the 1968 anime in which a group of yokai who look like humans fight crime in the big city. If nothing else, the music is cool, and it’s made by Production I.G, so why not?

*UPDATE* The first episode finally dropped, and holy crap I’m so into this. It’s basically Durarara mixed with Psycho Pass mixed with Bungo Stray Dogs. The first episode has me completely hooked!

Next seasons and continuations!

As always there are some leftovers from the spring season that are continuing into the summer that I highly suggest!

Carole and Tuesday: The musical sci-fi anime directed by Shinichiro Watanabe wherein a rich runaway named Tuesday meets a streetwise girl named Carole, and the two decide to start a band together. Now Carole and Tuesday must rise to stardom in a world dominated by android created music. It was by far my favorite new show of the spring, and if you can find a way to watch it (because it’s still not available legally anywhere aside from Japanese Netflix apparently) I wholeheartedly recommend it. It’s got the best and most diverse music I’ve seen in an anime in a long time, an interesting setting (apparently it takes place in the Cowboy Bebop universe!?), and very well rounded fun characters. And I'm dying for a soundtrack release with all the songs!!!!

Fruits Basket 2019: Yes, the remake of the classic 2001 anime in which a girl moves in with a family who can turn into animals from the zodiac is getting a full run. And thank God because I just can’t say goodbye to it after only 12 episodes. It is so stunningly beautiful in both animation and story subjects that I don’t know what I would do without it. The characters feel so much more fleshed out, and I feel like I learn a lesson about life each week even though I already know most of what’s going to happen. If you never watched the original because thought you were too “cool” to watch a shoujo anime, give it a chance. Because if you think it’s just a generic love triangle romance show, you couldn’t be more wrong. The reboot is so good at portraying different kinds of love and how the presence of love and family can change lives AND IT’S JUST SO FREAKING GOOD!

Demon Slayer Kimetsu no Yaiba: In case you missed Ufotable’s newest project, this is a shounen anime that follows a young boy named Tanjiro and his sister Nezuko who has been possessed by a demon and their journey to turn Nezuko back to normal while fighting demons along the way. I still feel like this is a pretty basic shounen anime story wise, but I really like the characters, especially the villains. It has some of the coolest fighting/power mechanics I’ve seen in awhile, and the animation is very cool and different!

Ace of Diamond act 2: Our favorite shounen baseball anime is continuing into the summer. And I have very mixed feelings about this season so far. We are getting some fun new characters and some great scenes with the team, but the games are very...choppy and rushed. Apparently this is how it goes down in the manga, and we’re in for some good Sawamura development...but it’s still touch and go for me personally.

That’s it for now. Most of these are available on Crunchyroll, except Vinland Saga, Carole and Tuesday, and Kochouki: Wakaki Nobunaga. Since Try Knights and Yokai Ningen BEM aren’t out yet, I don’t know where they will be available legally.

See you next season!

#long post #anime recommendation #summer 2019 anime #ace of diamond #demon slayer #kimetsu no yaiba #fruits basket #carole and tuesday #try knights #yokai ningen bem #kochouki: wakaki nobunaga #vinland saga #to the abandoned sacred beasts #katsute kami datta kemono-tachi e #if it's for my daughter i'd even defeat a demon lord #fire force #dr stone #given #given anime

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alarawriting · 4 years ago

Text

52 Project #34: The Anadvocate

She sat within a glade full of life, perched on top of death. Here at the equator of the Green World, the heat was intense enough that even she felt it, though shielding herself from the killing heat was instinctive, second nature by now. Rivulets of sweat ran down her dark skin, plastered her long black hair to her naked body. If she wanted to, she could increase her shielding, remove the heat from her person, but she simply couldn't bring herself to care.

Birds chirruped and cawed and cackled all around her. The air was full of the hum of insects and the cries of small reptiles. It lay around her, thick, humid, unstirring. From here she could not see the sky without using farsight-- all around her was green jungle, making the world dim. At the moment it wasn't raining, though that could change any minute now.

The things that lived here were adapted for the heat as Humans were not, as even Theclos were not without using their powers. There were very few mammals here; no need to be a creature who could retain body heat in a place so hot. No Green Worlder Humans, none of the Theclos' protected worshipers, lived within a thousand miles of this place. And while the Theclos could come here, they generally didn't-- too much work, to shield from such intense heat, for so little gain. The life that teemed around her wasn't sentient. If all of it died in a flash of murderous light, it would be no more than the Blue Worlders did to the life of their own world all the time.

It would be a reminder, a reproach to her people. And it would be no less than life deserved, when Istanya no longer lived.

The device seemed to pulse beneath her, a black sun waiting to be unleashed to devour all around it. It was a Blue World invention, a "clean" nuclear bomb. Which was to say, it would make the land radioactive for thousands of years, it would annihilate her and all the land for miles around and make a crater of glass visible even from orbit, it would produce a flash of destroying light that would blind anyone looking at it, but it would not pump fallout into the upper atmosphere and let it spread around the world to poison innocents. It would be her death and the death of the animals that lived in this jungle, no one else.

She had come here unobserved-- or at least, she hadn't sensed any observation, and usually they didn't bother to be subtle with her. So she assumed that, for the moment, no one was watching. Perhaps they'd grown tired of watching. Certainly they'd grown tired of listening-- assuming one could be said to have grown tired of something one had never done. If they'd ever listened, maybe it wouldn't have come to this.

I could do it, she thought, looking out at the jungle around her, feeling the smooth metal of the nuke underneath her, pressing against her skin. If I really wanted to. I could do it in a moment. No one would have time to stop me.

Do I really want to?

So alive, so vital, so vibrant, this jungle. So full of sound and smell and constant motion. And if she acted, if she triggered the bomb beneath her with her mental powers, it would be converted in a second into a giant glass tombstone. Her death would be painted in brilliant light across the sky, seen by thousands of Green Worlders who would look up at the light and wonder. And for thousands of years a crater of radioactive glass would lie in the center of the teeming jungle, visible only to her people, and to the Blue Worlders if they ever came here. A mute testimony to the destruction of a young and shining potential, a reproach to her people of their betrayal, their hypocrisy, a reminder of the danger of the Blue Worlders.

She wasn't entirely sure she wanted this. The grief that coiled blackly through her soul might abate, in a few hundred years-- she knew that. She wasn't foolish enough to believe she would always feel this empty, this lonely, this bitter. In time, she could recover and get on with her life, if she wanted to.

But if she ever recovered from her rage at her own kind, at the stupidity that had condemned those she loved and the hypocrisy that praised that stupidity-- if she could ever come to accept that, she'd be better off dead. They had betrayed everything they'd taught her to believe in. Perhaps it happened as one got older. Perhaps the ideals of one's youth, the belief in the superiority of their species and their moral codes, all retreated into the endless political games. She would very much rather be dead than live long enough for that to happen to her.

And it would be different if she had any hope of changing the system. She'd gladly live with the hypocrites if there was any chance at all she could make them understand what they'd done-- but they wouldn't listen. She was too young, they said. Not objective enough. If she were older, more distanced from the problem, surely she would understand why her father and her sister had had to die. It was a mercy, really. There was no other way. When she was older, she would understand.

Well, she wasn't going to get any older. If it took her death to make her voice heard, so be it. She would die spectacularly, immolate herself in the sight of millions, and leave behind her an eternal silent reproach. Really, what else could she do?

She focused her mind on the bomb beneath her, and prepared for oblivion.

"I wouldn't if I were you."

The voice behind her was that of an elder. So. She had been observed after all. And why should that come as a surprise? "You're not me," she said flatly. If she'd cared more, she might have started in surprise-- she'd never felt the warp of a teleport near her-- but elders were talented, and the truth was, she couldn't care enough to be surprised.

"True. But I'd suggest you shouldn't, either."

"And am I supposed to care what you suggest?" She turned her attention to face the other. He was indeed an elder, a very short man with deep black skin, like coal to her chocolate. She didn't immediately recognize him, but then, there were twelve thousand Theclos, and without being connected she couldn't possibly be expected to remember them all. His face was lined and weathered, his long hair was white and wispy, clouding around his face, and he wore nothing but a knee-length white linen skirt that did nothing to tell her his position of status. Very old, certainly very powerful-- he was hovering, not touching the dirt, and she could feel how effortless it was for him to hold himself there. Her lip curled with sarcasm. "Oh, excuse me. I am supposed to be groveling in the dirt that an elder would grace me with his presence, much less condescend to give me suggestions. Have I committed a social gaffe?"

"I wouldn't worry about it if I were you," he said. "You seem to have bigger things to worry about." The amused tone in his voice made it clear he put little stock in an elder's prerogatives.

"You're quite right. I do. So why don't you go away and leave me to them?"

"Let you annihilate yourself, not to mention all these plants and animals, without trying to talk you out of it? No no no no no. That's not the way I work. You should know better."

She scowled. "There's no people anywhere near this jungle. And Theclos who can murder their own kind have no right to weep over poor poor animals."

"Maybe not, but you are as bound to protect the Green World as the rest of us. That includes not wiping out all the life within miles simply because you feel like killing yourself."

"Fine. I'll go to the desert and finish myself off. Will that satisfy you?"

"Let's take this from the top," he said, floating over and sitting down next to her. She felt him focusing multiple levels of attention on her. The sensation made her uncomfortable, though she did her best to block it. "Why do you want to kill yourself?"

"Why pretend you don't know?" she countered.

"For the sake of argument, of course. I've heard you like to argue. Explain to me in plain, simple terms. What do you hope to accomplish?"

She turned away darkly. "This is stupid. You know perfectly well why I want to do this."

"But I don't, believe it or not. I haven't probed beneath your shields. I consider it rude." He smiled winningly, showing bright white teeth. She wasn't won.

"Doesn't matter. Unless you've sealed your mind and locked yourself in a cave for the past ten years, you know my situation."

“Oh, yes, I’d heard. Tragic, isn’t it.” He turned away from her with a studiedly bland expression. “Half-Blue Worlder, half-Theclos twins born where one of them is damaged, unable to connect to the Heart or draw power. And then the powerless twin tricks the empowered one into giving up her powers. Unfortunately resulting in her being captured on the Blue World and tortured, resulting in both her and her father needing to be put down. I imagine the remaining twin must feel a lot of guilt."

"That wasn't how it was!" Ramasyne screamed, knowing he was trying to provoke her, but unable to keep from being provoked. "I didn't make Istanya cut herself off from the Heart-- I begged her not to do it! I never said anything to make her do it! I never wanted--" She choked off the furious torrent of words, realizing she had walked directly into his trap.

"So you begged her not to do it. And she did it anyway." He shrugged. "Hardly sounds very stable. Maybe we're better off without her."

That one was far too blatant. She wasn't going to fall for it. "Refusing to obey your twin sister is hardly a marker of instability," she said icily.

"So why do you want to kill yourself?"

"Isn't it obvious to you, O Omniscient Elder?"

He shook his head. "Refusing to explain yourself, assuming your audience has read your mind, refusing to state the terms of the argument... bad form, child. Very bad. No wonder the Inquest discounted your testimony, if this is how you argue."

Her eyes narrowed coldly. "I didn't refuse to explain myself to the Inquest. I explained myself in great detail. At great length. A great number of times. And I just don't feel like going through it all again."

"So you're killing yourself because you're tired of arguing?"

"No!" she shouted. "I'm killing myself because they won't let me argue! Because no one wants to listen to me, no one wants to consider for one picosecond that I actually know what I'm talking about, that just because I'm young doesn't necessarily mean I'm stupid! I can't get them to listen to me!"

"And you think that if you kill yourself, they will feel guilty, and consider your final arguments in the light of your death."

She shrugged. "One can hope," she said sullenly.

"One can, if one's naive. If one knows any better, unfortunately, hope is out of the question. Do you know what your death will tell them?"

"That I have an overly developed sense for the melodramatic?"

"Everyone does. You’re a Theclos, it comes with the territory. No. What your suicide will tell them is that you are dangerously unstable, and that they made a mistake in not destroying you along with Istanya and your father. Is that what you want them to know?"

"Maybe it was a mistake," she snapped.

"Yes, but do you want them to know that? So soon? Before you've made them pay for the mistake?" He floated back up, shaking his head. "I assure you, your death won't embarrass the Convocation. Those who stood as Inquestors at the trial will merely observe that your mother’s insistence that you not be cured of your problem until you were nearly fully grown damaged you, possibly even worse than Istanya after what she suffered, and that you should have been put down with her. After all, a Theclos who can contemplate suicide can contemplate murder, can't she? Or genocide, perhaps?"

"I've been tested for genocidal tendencies more times than I care to count. I've come up clean each time."

"True. But emotional damage can take different forms in different Theclos. Can anybody guarantee that the next Theclos to see a sibling tortured won't turn genocidal? Your death will have proven the inherent instability in one who's suffered such a loss-- just as your father's attempt at genocide ‘proved’ that a Theclos whose child is destroyed is unstable and should be euthanized as well. This incident makes future law, you know. The eyes of all Mt. Kethos are on you. And if you kill yourself, you only prove your opponents' points. After all, how could a child who committed suicide have possibly been sane enough to make a logical argument? No, your points can all be put down to your incipient breakdown, and ignored. You could hardly do more damage to your argument if you went out and wiped out the Amerins."

"The Blue Worlders are barbarians," she muttered. "Am I supposed to blame primitives for being primitive? Oh, the Amerins are the worst. They think they're wonderfully advanced, and yet they can do..." Against her will, she remembered how she'd found her sister, what the Blue Worlders in that secret research installation in Ameria had done to her. How could even sick members of any sapient species imagine such horrors, let alone inflict them on another sapient being? "...what they did," she finished, sick at heart with the reminder.

“Sounds rather harsh. Are you sure you have no genocidal tendencies?”

“I’d like to make them realize what they are,” she admitted. “Mock them. Show them what a pathetic, barbaric little nation they really are. But genocide? No.” She looked up at him, her gaze burning in intensity. “It wasn’t Blue Worlders who killed my sister. It wasn’t even the traitor, though they’d never have taken Istanya if it weren’t for Vashtas. It was us. The glorious, powerful, vastly superior Convocation of the Theclos. We killed her-- for no greater crime than the stupidity to get herself captured by barbarians.”

“Stupidity is its own reward.”

“But she didn’t deserve it! She was a kid!” The old man’s expression quirked with amusement that she would so define her twin, when she’d just defined herself as old enough to be heard. “Yes, go on, laugh, but I know it. I am young. And I-- I’ve seen what the Green Worlders can do to each other, and the even more horrifying things that the Blue Worlders can do. I may be young, but I’m not naive. Is it a crime for a young person who’s never seen anything bad happen to anyone who matters to believe she’s indestructible? When for all intents and purposes she was?”

“She gave up being indestructibile. She chose it. She went to the Blue World, she went to Vashtas to block herself from the Heart, because she wanted to know what it was like to be powerless.”

Ramasyne shook her head violently. “She wanted to know what it was like to be me. She never understood--”

“Understood what?”

The girl’s voice was harsh. “All my life people have been trying to get me to resent my sister. Istanya herself didn’t understand. No one ever understood.” She looked up at him again. “I was never powerless. What it meant to be me wasn’t to be powerless. I was a girl with a Human for a mother, and my father and my sister were gods.” The bitterness in her voice brought it close to the breaking point-- but she was still in control. Breaking down would serve her no purpose here. She would stay in control. “Istanya did anything I wanted her to. She never dominated me. I dominated her. She and I had our link, and she was linked to the Convocation... to the Heart. I never thought of myself as being powerless. Never helpless, until--”

After a moment, he finished the statement for her. “Until she left you.”

She remembered the argument. She hadn’t understood why Istanya was so obsessed with this powers/no powers business. Admittedly, it was a nuisance that she had to ask Istanya if she wanted to do anything fun, but Istanya could read her mind, so it wasn’t like it was hard. Theclos children could, on occasion, be vicious to one another, and both she and Istanya were mocked sometimes for having a Human mother, especially one from the Blue World. But for the most part they found their pleasure in picking on those who could present a challenge. No child would dare touch a powerless one, especially not a powerless one whose twin sister was already at full adult strength. Not only was there no challenge-- no fun-- but it could get their butts kicked and get them in serious trouble with their parents. Ramasyne had, in fact, been perfectly free to taunt and argue with children far more powerful than she was, secure in the knowledge that if they got angry and attacked her physically there would be hell to pay. So she never suffered vulnerability, never suffered fear.

But Istanya was convinced that the world must look different to Ramasyne, that by not being connected to the Heart she was somehow… purer. More herself. The Theclos connected to the Heart formed the Convocation, the telepathic body of pure democratic rule within Mt. Kethos, where memories could be exchanged and all information could be shared, instantly, amongst the entire Theclos race. Ramasyne was connected to Istanya, but no other Theclos, not even Father. The incredible powers the Theclos wielded were mostly dependent on the connection to the Heart, and the Convocation; Istanya was sure that by not being connected to the Convocation, Ramasyne was a true Theclos, that the rest of them were… something else. Something she thought might possibly be inferior, for all their power.

Father had taught them to be independent-minded, that maintaining their own identity, even against the pressure of the Convocation, was the most important thing possible. Mother, who was Human and had no powers, had taught them both that the worth of a person wasn’t in their power. Both Mother and Father had refused the genetic therapy that could have connected Ramasyne to the Heart in early childhood, the way it happened for most of them; that meant the only option was to wait until her brain was full-grown – adult size, at least, if not fully developed – so that she could be given an implant. Ramasyne had taken this as “powers aren’t all that important and you have value as a person whether you’re powerful or not.” But Istanya had taken it differently.

Ramasyne had mostly mocked Istanya’s obsession with wanting to know what the world was like for her, Istanya’s insistence that it meant something beyond a missing piece of genetics that Ramasyne was her own person, telepathically isolated. She hadn’t thought Istanya would do anything about that obsession… until the day her father had teleported in and told him that Istanya had gone to the Blue World, and subsequently had gone missing.

The powers of the Theclos existed across the gap between the worlds – the Heart was everywhere and nowhere – but connection to the Convocation attenuated with distance. No one could reach Istanya’s mind, and there was no guarantee that any Theclos who went to the Blue World would be able to zero in on her. None of them had ever found the traitor Vashtas, when she’d fled to the Blue World, and they’d cut her connection to the Heart; she was powerless. If Istanya didn’t want to be found, she wouldn’t be.

Unless Ramasyne had a connection to the Heart. Unless Ramasyne had the power she could draw from the Heart, to amplify her connection to Istanya, and a connection to the Convocation, so she could guide the others.

Ramasyne was barely 120, then. Too young for the implant, too old for the genetic therapy even if she’d wanted it. She’d demanded the implant, over and over again. By Human standards, she’d have been the equivalent of an 11 or 12 year old child, barely into puberty by the narrowest of margins.

By now it had become obvious that Istanya had cut herself off from the Heart – something only the eldest leaders of the Convocation, and the traitor Vashtas, knew how to do. Despite this, every Theclos that Ramasyne knew had assured her over and over that Istanya could take care of herself, that there was no reason to think anything bad had happened, that it was her legal right to do this if she wished. While trying to claim that Ramasyne, at the exact same age, wasn’t mature enough to make decisions about her own brain and body.

Ramasyne had known better. Even when her father had tried to reassure her, Ramasyne was sure something terrible was happening. No one thought she could possibly know; no one thought her telepathic connection with Istanya could possibly be working at this distance, when neither of them were connected to the Heart. Her mother had spoken as if she was taking Ramasyne seriously, but advised patience, which was the last thing Ramasyne thought the situation needed.

Finally she’d gotten them to agree to the surgery. She was 125 then. They’d originally told her she’d need to be 150, but she kept having nightmares of what might be happening to Istanya. For the first time, she understood what it meant to be connected to the Convocation and the Heart, understood what she’d been missing and what Istanya had had, all her life-- but it didn’t matter. The powers were a means to an end. She had to find Istanya.

And in the end, she had still been powerless...

Ramasyne glared at the old man. “So if you know that, then why don’t you shut up with the deliberately provocative comments? You’re obviously just trying to rile me up.”

“Seems to have worked,” the elder said. “You’re answering my questions now. Some of them, at least.”

“It doesn’t matter anyway. There will never be any justice. No one’s ever going to pay for killing Father and Istanya. No one’s ever even going to refuse to accept that as precedent; they’re all telling themselves how sadly necessary it is, how a parent whose child is tortured or murdered needs to be euthanized for the sake of the Humans, how this needs to be policy, when it was bullshit when it happened and it’s bullshit now. They think it was Father’s fault, what happened to Istanya. They think that if they put the right controls in place, none of their children or grandchildren will ever suffer… or they’re angry and envious that Father was allowed to procreate at all, and they want to punish Theclos who are given that opportunity.”

“And was it not your father’s fault? What happened to Istanya?”

Ramasyne shook her head. “Mother’s fault, maybe. She never told Istanya enough about the dangers; she acted like the Blue World was a perfectly normal place, like the Green World, not full of power-hungry monsters who could torture a child for five years to try to find the secret of her longevity and powers. Or maybe the entire Convocation, for locking away the important information about Vashtas so Istanya thought the woman was just an exile, not the horror she really was. The only thing Father did wrong was to not let me get the operation as soon as I asked, and I understand it. It’s not normal for a Theclos to need help or protection, not if they’re at full power. Even when they learned she wasn’t connected to the Heart, they were so used to us being invulnerable, it never occurred to them that something was seriously wrong… and I didn’t have my full powers as a Theclos. I don’t even know if I was really sensing Istanya, or if I was just worried and I happened to be right.”

“You don’t blame your father for not listening to you? At all?”

She looked down at the dirt. “What would be the point? He’s dead. If it was his fault, he suffered the ultimate price for it. His daughter was tortured, and murdered by the people who were supposed to save her, and then those people killed him too.”

“Well. You sound like you don’t think it was justified. Was he really going to annihilate that entire installation of Blue Worlders?”

Ramasyne hesitated. The elder took that as his answer. “And could you have stopped him?”

She hadn’t been able to stop him. The people who had worked there, who had been complicit in what had happened to Istanya – those, she wouldn’t have cared if he’d killed. But there were two government agents who were there to investigate, who were as horrified as the Theclos were at what they found, and there were janitors, and IT contractors who had no awareness of what the scientists at the installation were doing, and the people who restocked the vending machines, and people in the mail room, and none of them knew. None of them were complicit, because the secret agency torturing Istanya had classified everything they were doing so none of those people could have found out. They were innocent, and Father would have killed them all.

Who he should have killed were his fellow Theclos, the ones who decided that Istanya was too damaged and couldn’t be rehabilitated and should just be euthanized, like an animal, like someone who wasn’t even a Theclos, wasn’t even a person. The ones who held him and Ramasyne back, the ones who made Istanya sleep and then stopped her heart. But if Father had had the power to kill a group of his fellow Theclos, then Istanya would still be alive, because he would have protected her.

He’d been taking his rage at his daughter’s suffering and death out on the people he blamed for it, because he couldn’t take it out on the ones who’d actually killed her, and if he had limited his blame to only the people in the installation who knew what was going on and chose to work there anyway, and the traitor, Ramasyne would have supported him. But he’d wanted to destroy all the Blue Worlders in the installation, indiscriminately, and might have expanded to destroying as many Blue Worlders as he could reach, if the other Theclos hadn’t shut him down. Ramasyne had tried to stop him, but he hadn’t listened to her. He hadn’t listened to anyone. He’d cradled Istanya’s body, and murdered every Blue Worlder in the room but the two investigators, who Ramasyne had protected. And then the others had overpowered him and killed him.

“If they could knock him unconscious so they could stop his heart without hurting him, they could have knocked him unconscious and brought him back to Mt. Kethos for healing. They could have done the same for Istanya. We’d do that for a Green Worlder. We would never kill a Green Worlder for being a torture victim.”

“Green Worlders don’t have the power we do. We have a responsibility—”

“What, so we can’t ever be weak? We’re so superior that if we’re ever not so superior we need to die? We can cut people off from the Heart! A Theclos without a connection to the Heart could have all the genocidal tendencies they want, and no way to enact any of them! We let Vashtas live, but we had to kill my sister and father?”

“And do you have any theories? About why Vashtas was allowed to live, but Istanya and Rannelosom were killed?”

“Because other Theclos despised my father for taking a Human woman as his partner?”

“Sure, that might have been part of it. There’s also the possibility that Vashtas was arrested on Mt. Kethos, kept in isolation, tried, and her sentence carried out, long before she got anywhere near the Blue World, whereas both Istanya and Rannelosom were on the Blue World in an installation full of Humans. Perhaps no one was confident of their ability to keep either of them subdued long enough to get back to the Green World?”

“You weren’t there,” Ramasyne shot back. “They looked into Istanya’s mind, they saw how angry and fearful she was, and they just… they all agreed that there was no saving her. And Father and I both tried, but I’d had my powers for such a short time, I was no help. It just… all happened so fast.” She trailed off.

“Well.” The elder landed and sat in front of her, his legs in a meditation posture. “It happened and it’s over. So what do you want?”

“I want justice! Everyone who was involved in their deaths is immortal and will be part of the Convocation for thousands of years. Why is it fair that they get to live so long, with no consequences, when they killed my sister and my father? Why does the Convocation give them so much status and power?” Ramasyne stood up, finally, and paced, gesturing with her hands. “We’re supposed to be unified. The Convocation is supposed to be one body. We aren’t supposed to… we aren’t supposed to… We’re more advanced than the Humans. We don’t kill each other! We don’t do political maneuvering to destroy each other. We don’t… we don’t kill someone we should have taken home and taken care of…”

“But you know as well as I do that the Convocation, as it currently stands, does do that. And that the ones who killed your family are of high status, and will never see justice, if the Convocation remains as it is now.”

“And that’s why I planned to blow myself up,” she said sullenly.

“I can see why you thought that was a good idea. But there is a better alternative.”

She looked down at him, sneering. “Oh, I’m all ears.”

“Do you know who I am?”

For the first time in weeks, Ramasyne touched the data store of the Convocation, where all the knowledge held by all the Theclos was kept. “You’re Elder Prullelleh,” she said. “The chief anadvocate of the Convocation… what is an anadvocate?”

Prullelleh’s smile was so big his teeth almost glowed. “I am so glad you asked that,” he said, and she realized she’d fallen into a trap. At the very least, this was what he’d been aiming for when he began this conversation.

“Never mind. I don’t care.”

“You do care. You’re very curious, in fact.”

“I thought you said you weren’t probing under my shields.”

“You’re so focused on your shields. On protecting yourself from telepathy. You didn’t guard your face, Theclos Ramasyne. I saw your curiosity, before you masked it.”

“I saw how much you wanted to tell me, and I lost interest. Anything an elder wants so much has to be a terrible idea.”

“So you have no interest in changing the Convocation? At making us a people more compassionate to our own, more capable of understanding that even Theclos can be weak, and we deserve no less from each other than we would give one of our Green World petitioners? That we are not, in truth, gods, for all our power and all our immortality and all the Green World tribes and clans that look to us as such, but we are in fact biological entities with limitations and needs, just like the Humans?”

She glared at him. “Of course I’d be interested, if it’s a thing that could be done.”

“It is a thing that can be done. It might take five hundred years, but it’s certainly a thing that could be done. But if you’re bound and determined to kill yourself now, you’ll never find out how you could do it.” Prullelleh stood again, floating just centimeters off the ground. His eye level was still below hers, even with that. “The Convocation is like a mind united, correct? When we are in session, when we are all connected to each other, we present our ideas to each other, and they are all supposed to be equal in weight, correct? Ideally?”

“I’ve never seen them be equal in weight.”

“Neither have I,” the elder said. “Those of us who play politics the best, who recruit friends and allies, who rise to high status… their ideas hold the greatest of weight. And those who agree with their ideas are drawn into their circle, sharing in their status. Those who disagree, fall in favor. There may be factions, but even factions hold a received wisdom in common, a shared worldview. And if someone falls outside that worldview, their opinions are nothing.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

“Well, that’s exactly what I’ve come for.” He was now floating directly in front of her. When she tried to turn her head away, he followed her, floating into her field of vision again.

Finally, infuriated, Ramasyne threw her arms up. “Fine! I won’t be free of you until you tell me what you’ve come for, obviously!”

“An anadvocate,” Prullelleh said, “is a Theclos whose role within the Convocation, whose job, is to argue against whatever ideas are presented by the leaders of highest status. To act as a firebreak to prevent us from following some charismatic leader down some horrific, foolish path.”

“Then why didn’t you do something?” Ramasyne snapped. “This wasn’t horrifying enough for you?”

“There were ten of us, in the beginning,” Prullelleh said. “It’s a very difficult job. It cuts you off from the rest of the Convocation. You don’t make friends. Many of us quit and joined the mainstream of the Convocation. We tried to recruit young ones, but… over time, our role’s fallen out of favor. More and more, the Convocation wants everyone to agree. The idea is presented that we should all be in harmony, and ‘harmony’ means that we are all united in thought. Those of us who stand against that harmony, who are the grit slowing down the flywheel of ridiculous ideas… we have been rejected, taunted, looked down on. Eventually it was down to two – Vashtas and me. And you know what happened after that.”

“Vashtas was a member of your little club?”

He shrugged. “It’s one of the potential issues anadvocates face. Many of us who weren’t dedicated enough to being adversarial gave up being anadvocates. And it turns out that some of us who are dedicated to being adversarial… are in fact adversaries. It doesn’t change the importance of the work.”

“And you’re here to recruit me. For a position that was last held by the woman who betrayed my sister and got her captured and experimented on for five years.”

“Vashtas betrayed the Anadvocacy, too.” Prullelleh shook his head. “But the truth is, I had been thinking throughout your childhood that, if you should become what I expected you to be, that you might be the best possible candidate for an anadvocate that I’ve ever seen.”

“You expected my sister to get killed?” Ramasyne asked in a low, angry voice.

“No. Of course not. But I expected that when you were finally old enough to have your surgical implant, you would feel… detached from us. Most Theclos children join the Convocation when they’re ten years old, barely out of infancy. Even the late bloomers come in around fifty. You were a hundred and twenty-five before you joined the Convocation. It was never a part of you, like it was for most of us. Your link to Istanya was a part of you. The Convocation is not, and it never would have been even if you didn’t blame us for your family’s deaths.”

“…I’m part of the Convocation.”

“Of course you are, but it isn’t a part of you. If everyone in the Convocation disagreed with you, would that change your opinion on a matter?”

Ramasyne snorted. “Haven’t we just finished discussing that?” She picked up rocks from her feet with her telekinesis and flung them.

“You’re not worried about those hitting someone?” the elder asked.

“There are no Humans in this rainforest. I checked,” Ramasyne said. “And don’t change the subject, you know perfectly well that right now, everyone in the Convocation does disagree with me.”

“What if they disagreed with you about a matter that didn’t affect you personally? Would you feel uncomfortable, having an opinion that the rest of the Convocation disagrees with?”

Ramasyne laughed harshly. “It’s been the story of my life so far, why would it be any different then?”

Prullelleh grinned. “Yes, that was exactly what I thought. I never expected your sister to die, though. I expected you might come into conflict with her, as the Convocation pressured her into agreement, and that would be your only weak point. With her dead, and the Convocation responsible… you may be stronger than any anadvocate there has ever been, including myself, and I was the one who created the office two thousand years ago.”

“So.” Ramasyne finished throwing rocks and turned back to Prullelleh. “Would I have to argue against everything? What if I actually believe in the thing?”

“You choose the arguments you’ll make. You have no obligation to make any argument you don’t want. But arguing against the positions you believe in can strengthen them. If you are certain that the position you hold is strong, and you believe in the arguments for the position, you can make arguments against the position and be confident that all you will do is prove that the position is correct, because the only arguments against it are plainly weaker than the arguments for, or why would you hold that position?”

“…I’m not certain it will always work that way,” Ramasyne muttered.

“Ramasyne. This isn’t a job, like Blue Worlders have. You don’t have a superior to report to. I will try to mentor you, to the extent I can, but I chose you in the first place because I know you will not be swayed by a bad argument just because someone powerful is making it. If you aren’t moved to argue against a point, then don’t. You’re an adult now, a full member of the Convocation.”

“No one else thinks so.”

“Well, you’re barely a hundred fifty, and some of us are more than two thousand years old. But you have no guardian among the Theclos anymore. You are officially considered an adult and a full member of the Convocation regardless of how the others treat you. You would be my partner and fellow, not my employee or apprentice.”

“And is there any reason I can’t argue for positions I am personally involved in?”

“You’ll be taken less seriously than ones where you’re disinterested, but of course, you can make any argument you wish.”

“…I’ve been doing nothing but arguing against them for twenty-five years… I suppose there’s no reason not to take the position you’re trying to recruit me for.”

“I think you’ll find it will be a far better use of your gifts and resources than blowing yourself up.”

“Yeah.” She almost-smiled, wryly. “Let me get rid of this thing.”

A quick teleport to the top of Mt. Kethos – eleven miles tall, jutting out of the Green World into the stratosphere – to leave the bomb within the secure vault of confiscated Human weapons, and she was back. “Okay, Elder Pru. When do we get started?”

Prullelleh chuckled at the nickname. “I believe that perhaps you’ve already begun.”

#52 project #the green world #theclos ramasyne #tw: suicidal ideation

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