#every time i see his full body art i ZERO in on those bad boys

[normal-thoughts-official]

Conversations You Can Have While Your Partner Ties You Up

Tom and Andy try shibari without supervision for the first time, and Andy is nervous.

Tom uses his best soothing technique: running his mouth.

Fandom: It Lives (Visual Novels)

Relationship: Andy Kang/Tom Sato

Additional Tags: Humor, Crack, Fluff and Crack, not smut!, not that there's anything wrong with that i just want to be clear, so no one's disappointed lmao, it's just the two of them bantering while andy ties him up, Tom Sato Has Strong Feelings About Yogi, Established Relationship, BDSM, Good BDSM Etiquette, because apparently bad bdsm etiquette is a tag and fuck that noise, dom andy kang, sub tom sato, altho again we don't really get into that but idk best to tag, way too many puns, they are very in love and it's disgusting, i am on my bullshit again, Almost No Beta We Die Like Uhh Bigender People

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It's the first time they're trying out shibari without an instructor supervising, and Andy is nervous. Tom can tell that Andy is nervous because his eyes keep darting to the safety shears way too frequently, and also because he whispered "God, I'm nervous" to himself several times while he was setting the gear.

Tom prides himself greatly in his Andy-reading skills.

Andy barely breathed while he was setting up the sleeve, making sure every single strand of rope was several inches away from the smallest articulation, checking and rechecking that he could put two fingers under the rope, and asking whether or not it was too tight every five seconds. All while holding his breath. Tom was scared he'd pass out from oxygen deprivation or something.

Getting to the harness part was a little better. For about ten seconds. The knots there are mostly decorative, but wouldn't you know, turns out Andy's perfectionist streak decided to kick in right then.

He's redoing the same knot for the third time when he starts to mumble. "Ancient Japanese art of being a pain in my ass..."

Ah yes, Tom thought to himself, grinning. A prime opportunity. "I thought it was you who was supposed to be the pain in my ass," he says.

Andy groans.

"Oh, come on, it was right there!"

"I realized my mistake as soon as it left my mouth"

"Me when you suddenly stop fucking my face."

Andy snickers, and Tom considers it a win. "Shut up," he says.

"Yes, dud- Sir."

"Were you about to make a BDSM joke and call me dude?"

"No. Yes. Maybe. Shut up!" Tom laughs, "In my defense, the horny and clown signals have been getting a little mixed up the last, like, five seconds."

"Why did that make me imagine you in a sexy clown outfit?"

"I'm just gonna go ahead and veto that idea right now."

"What, you don't want to explore clown kink?" Andy puts on his best Dom voice, "Honk for me, slut." He starts giggling.

"Andy, I swear to god, my dick's gonna go soft."

"Don't you dare!" Andy yelps, "I've been training for months to be able to tie you up like this and I will fuck you in Shibari, god damn it!"

"Yeah, no, nevermind, you're really hot when you're determined."

Andy smiles, "Oh, stop. Is that too tight?"

Tom tries to give him a thumbs up, then remembers that he can't and shakes his head instead. "No, it's good."

Andy nods in acknowledgement, then grins at Tom again. "Cool, so… Back to sexy clowns?"

"No clowns are sexy. They're terrifying."

"You willingly went into a haunted town."

"Yeah, and you know how many clowns there were there? Zero."

"So that's the criteria for our sexy costumes? Is, like, sexy zombie bear still on the table then?"

"I'm gonna ask you to take a moment to consider the words that are coming out of your mouth."

"I've never done that in my life and I'm not going to start now." Andy says, casually, then frowns. "Can you help me with this one?"

"Heh," Tom smiles, "sorry dude, my hands are tied."

Andy groans. "Will you stop making puns, you ass?"

"Heh, ass-"

Andy ignores him. "I meant, lift your hip a little bit."

"Aye aye, captain."

"This is virtually the same as 'yes, Sir', yet so different."

"Ooh, do I smell pirate roleplay?"

"You know what? We could get those old hats we used when we were kids-"

"Do you know where to get a sword? I very much want swords."

"Ooh, knife play but long."

"I need to make a swordplay pun right now."

Andy gives a little laugh. "Do you?"

"I'm just not inspired enough. Guess I gotta get better with my wordplay..."

This time, Andy full-on laughs. He needs to stop focusing on his knots for a second. Tom's grin is way too proud.

Andy bites his lip. "Come on, this is gonna take forever at this rate. Help me out for a sec."

"Sorry, my hands are-"

"Okay, if you make that pun one more time, I'm not letting you cum at all tonight."

"You promise?"

"Ugh. Punishing you is so hard. Let me rephrase that. If you make that pun one more time, I am letting you come tonight, just once, and then calling it a day, like this is vanilla sex or something."

Tom gasps. "Evil."

"Or maybe I'll make you say that Yogi is not that bad."

"You'll never take me alive."

Andy gestures to Tom's immobilized body, smiling. "Pretty sure I already have you."

"Oh no, I had the instinct to say something incredibly sappy and disgusting."

"Were you going to answer 'always'?"

"I will neither confirm nor deny."

"Well, that's a shame. 'Cause if that had been the case, I'd have said, 'same'."

Tom pretends to swoon as best as he can, considering he's almost completely immobilized. It mostly consists of tilting his head. "And they say romance is dead."

"You gave me finger guns when I first said 'I love you'."

"And you think I should be the standard?"

"Well, who else is it gonna be? Me? When you first said 'I love you', I said 'sweet'."

Tom smiles, softly. "It was pretty sweet, if you ask me."

Andy bites the inside of his cheek. "Shut up. I'm almost done, by the way."

"Nice."

"Not thanks to you."

"Okay, look, I know I'm not supposed to say that my hands are tied anymore, but in this case it's just, like, literally true."

"Doesn't mean you have to keep distracting me."

"Ooh, I'm distracting?" Tom wiggles his eyebrows, lifting his hips up a bit.

Andy laughs. "You know that, in this case, you're getting in the way of us having sex, right?"

"I don't know, man. I'm tied up, my dick is hard, you're touching me, you're smiling, that's a win in my book."

"You're only partially tied up, which is exactly my point."

Tom makes his best impression of Akon in I Just Had Sex, "Still counts!"

Andy snorts, but tries to compose himself. "So, what, once I'm done with this I can just leave you tied up and call it a day?"

"I mean, that'd be hot, yeah."

"Ugh, you're impossible."

"You love me."

"Don't change the subject."

Tom grins. "So you admit that you love me."

"I'm your boyfriend of three years."

"Don't change the subject."

It's Andy's turn to grin. "Of course I love you, you dork. Now shut up so I can finish tying you up."

"Aww, I love you too."

"Thanks, man."

"I'm sorry, did you just say 'thanks, man'?"

"Well, my hands are busy, so I can't finger gun."

"Will you let it go?"

"Very funny thing to say while I'm tying knots around your dick."

"Ah, you're right. In that case, tie me up harder."

"How am I supposed to tie you up harder?"

"I don't know, I just think it sounds sexier when you add a 'harder' at the end."

"Like, 'honk harder, clown'?"

"Now you're just trying to upset me."

Andy smiles at him, slyly. "Maybe I think you need a little punishment."

Tom grins in a way that makes Andy regret everything he's ever said. "Aww yeah, baby, I better start singing La La La, 'cuz I've been a Naughty Boy."

Andy can't help it. He bursts out laughing. "You dork!" He wheezes, face falling on top of Tom's shoulder as he laughs. Tom grins.

"See, that's the Andy I know and love, laughing at every stupid shit I say."

Andy giggles for a few more seconds, holding onto Tom's shoulders, before shaking his head to try and focus. He still lets out a little laugh every once in a while, though. "I swear, it's like you don't want me to fuck you in shibari," he grumbles.

Tom looks appalled. "This is slander."

"Then, like, get into ropespace and stop talking or something."

"I can't get into ropespace when I know you aren't, either," Tom grumbles.

Andy freezes. "What?"

Tom bites the inside of his lip, turning in the other direction. "You were nervous," he says. Then he nods in the direction of Andy's hands, "you've been a lot calmer since we started talking. You're almost done."

Andy looks down, actually realizing that Tom's torso is almost entirely decorated with knots at this point. "Oh. You're right."

Tom grins again. "So, see, by distracting you with my dumb shit, I actually helped us finish this quicker. And they say running your mouth isn't a talent."

Andy smiles. Lets the rope go. Throws his arms around Tom's neck and gives him a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you, love," he says, peppering kisses in his face. Tom laughs.

"You're welcome. Now finish tying me up so we can get this show on the road," he says, way too innocently. Andy grins, and pulls his hair.

"You're in no position to make demands, slut."

Tom's eyes flutter in bliss. He smiles again. "Yes, Sir."

[runolllo-fanboygirl]

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I'm going to start by clarifying that these are messages I got in response to my post here /// LINK /// After this, I'm not replying to messages about this kinda thing in a long time. Talking about sexualization and such other topics is important but I'm not in a state to be made the center of it. Please, don't come to my inbox asking for discourse, go and create your own posts if you want to raise awareness or vent.

And now to answer to these new asks:

FIRST OF ALL: while I love the way Murata draws men, robotic stuff, monsters... I actually HATE the way he draws ladies! I prefer their proportions in the OPM anime and games. Murata is literally SO BAD at drawing women compared to the level of expertise he has drawing men, and it's all ‘cos he keeps drawing ladies "the h0rny way". We all know this, let's move on.

"He's drawing all the monster girls sexualized" Did the fact that Manako's genre reveal deconstructs the trope "the default is male" totally go over your head? That Psykos's reveal as a woman running the whole MA was a big deal for this same reason as well? There are a bunch of female monsters… you just assume they're all male unless you see big b00bs and then complain about that very fact. They literally made a whole point about this specifically!

"He changed Mizuki's shorts to p4nties to please fanboys" I liked the shorts better too (just because I find her whole character design a bit more balanced that way) so that change bothered me as well, but the "p4nties" are actually standard athletic wear for competition. Shorts are not. Technically, she’s drawn more accurately now.

"Sports Bras don't work that way he just wants to draw b00bs" neither do the shirts and bodysuits the guys are wearing. You can see all their muscles and manb00bs and cr0tch lines, just as much as with Fubuki and Tatsu's hero outfits and Mizuki's top.

"But when the boys are drawn that way, it's not to please the ladies, it's male power fantasy" THERE IS NO HETEROSEXUAL MALE POWER FANTASY BULLSHIT THAT CAN POSSIBLY EXPLAIN THE WAY MURATA DRAWS GAROU, FLASH, SONIC, STINGER AND SOME OF THE OTHER GUYS. The fact is that the way he draws eye candy of them appeals to other collectives other than the cis het men and he knows exactly what he's doing. Period.

"He constantly draws sexualized art of Mizuki to please the fanboys" Why exaggerate so much? This is simply not true. She's a woman in athlete wear, most of the time she's either standing up talking or fighting, no weird angles or anything. There is like 1 sexy cover of her, the back cover with all the girls in bikinis and then that infamous watermelon sequence. That's all the sexualization you are talking about.

"Mizuki only gets so much screen time because of how much p0rn of her there is" oh yeah Mizuki got a grand total of, like, *drum roll* 1 chapter and a half dedicated to her! Wow! Which is NOTHING taking into consideration how dense Garou's arc is and the fact that they will need at least 2 seasons of the anime to finish it.

But think about this: OPM desperately needed more female presence, in special with the prospect of finishing Garou's arc in the anime. Making anime is hard and COSTLY. Most of the people who is going to watch the anime haven't read the manga and they'll be like "what the heck there are no female characters in this anime for like 3 seasons?" and there is no team that's going to risk it working with such prospects. We know why.

Of all the expansion that Garou's arc got in the manga adaptation (and later in the anime), one of the most sensible and balanced decisions was to add more ladies. They put all those monster ladies for season 2, and then for season 3 we get Manako and Mizuki having some strong presence, Shadow and Kamaitachi there a bit in the back too. It benefits the pace and balance of both the manga and the future season 3 so immensely because Fubuki, Tatsumaki and Psykos take a LOOONG while to be relevant during Garou's Arc… in special with all the filler the manga put in between (but all that filler is of the S-Class boys getting development and a reality check which is kinda important too lol).

Point is: the screentime Mizuki got was VERY necessary to balance things in between of all the relentless Garou fights and the boys being boys. Sure Mizuki is beautiful and sexy and all, but really EVERYONE was waiting for a new female character that was relevant, likeable, fun… and on top of everything, it's so rare to see a strong 2m tall girl in fiction in general, not even just anime. Everyone got instantly excited about her because she's exactly what we needed AND MORE. And sure, people draw p0rn of her like they do with most other popular characters, what did you expect.

"The ladies are always more sexualized-" YES, in the OPM manga, the ladies are a little more sexualized than the men –but not by much AND not during plot stuff. By that I mean that most of the so called "sexualizing the girls" happens in the covers, back covers and promotional art very exclusively, and not during the story itself. HOWEVER, a lot of the sexy men bits do happen during the story, curiously.

 In the anime though, there is almost zero ladies fanservice (which makes sense since there is almost no female presence in the first 2 seasons anyway). Yet it's full of naked dudes, sometimes for a good reason, but mostly just so we can look at them being sexy and silly.

 I personally don't care if the man candy and ladies fanservice is not perfectly even in Murata's manga adaptation, because there is enough of both in his work, as well as other official OPM stuff like the anime and games to bring a very nice balance in the s3xy department.

 "The way the women are dressed-" Most of the background ladies are wearing skirt uniforms and shit, but all the relevant ladies primarily dress in nothing you can call "sexualized" except for maybe Tatsumaki with her strong leg game. To recall:

 Lilly wears the same as the men of the Blizzard Group; Twin Tail just dresses like a jester; Mizuki is the first to show so much skin, but she's still wearing real standard competition wear for athletes. All the other sportwomen (Hornet and Swim) and martial artists (Shadow, Suiko, Lin Lin) wear standard clothes for their respective professions too. Sure we've seen Shadow wearing some, uh, ninja bikini thing under her ACTUAL work clothes, but for actual fights she's fully dressed and surprisingly not stuffed in a tiny nylon bodysuit that rips like stocking, like all the ninja men in the series do lmao.

Fubuki and Tatsumaki are, like, the only ones wearing dresses and they can because they use psychic powers anyway. Fubuki doesn't even show ANY skin, ever! She just happens to have big b00bs! Kamaitachi is the other one wearing a "skirt" but it's similar to what Japanese martial artists would wear, too.

So, again… all this sexualization we are talking about is not even happening anywhere except in Murata's covers and some promotional art. ONE is famous for treating ladies very fairly, even if Murata tries very hard to exploit the sexy out of every single of the ladies ONE creates. All these ladies have their own agenda and personality that have nothing to do with being pretty or f*ckable. In fact, in-universe, no one ever mentions if the heroines are beautiful or sexy and no one ever talks about liking them for those reasons (except for Lilly and Erika who are gay for Fubuki and Tatsumaki respectively, amazingly enough no hetero characters mention it). I think the first time we've ever seen a relevant character talking about dating another relevant character is when Suiryu told Saitama and Suiko to date (but Suiryu is the resident h0rny fuckboy of the series, if someone was going to say something so stupid for all the wrong reasons, it was going to be him).

For being an adult series, a seinen that parodies shonen tropes and all, OPM is seriously very tame in the sexy ladies department. For this series, the sexy is just a luxurious accessory, just one more little thing. It's always pretty weird when people get so angry and disappointed about a new sexy girl cover or a couple of compromising panels, like they don't know what to expect.

 "He only draws that way to please the h0rny fanboys" Murata IS a h0rny fanboy himself and draws shit that appeals to him as much as he feels he’s allowed to insert in the series. Please remember he's the insane fanboy that reached up to ONE to beg him to continue One Punch Man and offered to make a manga adaptation to promote OPM.

From the moment Murata started drawing OPM, the tone of the manga was set and never changed: lots of blood and guts, comical and non-comical nudity, irreverence, sexy angles, Genos ripping his shirts off, ninjas in body suits that rip like they are nylons… people in shirts, tanktops and dresses so tight you can see all their muscles, boobs and even belly buttons whether they are men or women or otherwise… h0rny chapter covers, stupidly h0rny monsters…

Just reading the manga to the point where Genos and Mosquito Girl first appear, you know what you are in for with OPM. I don't know what some fans are expecting to see in OPM next, but I'm going to take a wild guess here and say: you should expect more of the same.

 At the end of the day, the manga is Murata's work with ONE, and if he likes drawing h0rny ladies more than boys, that's how things are! This is just 2 guys with their passion project. I don't expect of them the same as if there was a bigger team with a big budget behind the series, like it happens with many games and shows. In this last case, I would be a lot stricter about all this, because with more resources you're expected to do better things.

[xfadingstarx]

A Bleach Retrospective: In defense of Bleach

These are opinions, please respect that.

_______________________________

My Journey with Bleach (please skip if you want to go straight to the analysis):

On September the 8th, 2006 YTV’s weekend evening anime programming block (Bionix) aired the first episode of Bleach. I, unfortunately, did not catch this episode, instead, I caught the second episode on September 15th the following week. I was ten and from then on, Bleach fascinated me. It had an interesting concept, tight pacing, catchy music, a good story, and unique character designs. I also really enjoyed how Bleach lacked the same kind of emotional labour that Naruto demanded (as child who survived off of constantly seeking validation from others because of absentee parents, Naruto is way too much work).

My fascination with Bleach got me started in the fandom communities of yesteryear, for I was a child with zero internet supervision. My introduction to fanfiction was because I loved Hitsugaya Toshiro.

Bleach was my entry into poetry (poem at the start of every volume).

But alas, all good things were not meant to last and by the summer of 2009, I was officially done with Bleach. It had felt stilted for some time before then. Over the years, I would gradually revisit bits and pieces of Bleach, but I would not read it in its entirety until months after its finish, about a decade after I had first saw Bleach on my TV. Between the time I stopped reading and the series ended, I became friends with people who didn’t think highly of Bleach and I also started seeing criticism I had made about Bleach in 2011 being repeated by fans on the internet, I started to think that maybe Bleach was bad, but I knew what bad writing looked like —I started reading fanfiction through Bleach fanfiction AMVs on YouTube — and somehow Bleach didn’t sit right with me in the “bad writing category”. 

I sit back now, a decade and ahalf later from when I first started and ask, “was Bleach really that bad, and if so, why do I keep coming back to it?”

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What Made Bleach So Good?

Unique story and aesthetics: When Bleach first started in 2001, it was one of the first manga series to talk about souls and death in a poetic way and with such coherence. Bleach clearly knew what it wanted to say about life and death. It also had a very unique aesthetic, very similar to that of “The World Ends With You” or “Persona 5″ — an urban Japanese take on R&B kind of vibe. Also, Bleach had the most ���realistic” and minimalist art style amongst the Big 3.

Cool Music: Bleach had cool music, from very solid rock’n’roll and R&B style songs in its OPs and EDs to very funky OST music with lots of pizzazz. Many singers feature by Bleach ended up successful (to varying degrees) outside of anime, eg: Orange Range, UVERworld, YUI, sid, etc.

Versatile tone: Bleach was edgy, there’s no doubt about that. It was willing to show a lot of blood and bodily violence, especially in the manga (eg half of people blowing up and bits of bone still attached). Despite this though, it was not pretentious about its edginess — it didn’t revel in it. To contrast the edginess, there is a lot of humour in Bleach with character interactions. It was able to be laid back enough with its strong characters that it would rely on the characters’ relationships for comedic relief. The post-credit skits and the fillers really helped to add to this overall feel as well.

Maturity of the Story: Bleach was very willing to handle topics that made people think. For example, the Ulquiorra - Orihime subarc was treated with a sense of carefulness about it, as if to reflect Ulquiorra’s own cautious curiosity about the heart. A less emotionally mature story would’ve gone for the cheap rape/torture porn, but instead we are treated to determined strong Orihime, who has found strength through the heart after the death of her brother, clashing with the nihilistic hollow who wants to know if there is happiness outside of emptiness. It’s a very loaded question and one that requires both perspective and life experience to fully understand both parties. As well, Bleach always knew what it wanted to say about life and death as the final conflict of Bleach is between Ichigo, who has accepted his transient life and Yhwach, who is scared of death. And ultimately, underneath all that action, Bleach produced takes on its themes that were hard to relate to unless the reader themselves had a certain level of emotional maturity (eg: 12 year old me got nothing out of the Ulqui-Ori arc, but 20 year old me spent a good 10 mins crying after)

Strong characters: Contrary to popular belief, Bleach does have quite solid characterization. In fact, Bleach is the journey of Ichigo as a character, from grappling with his weakness and pain to finally accepting all the parts of himself and his history in order to defeat Yhwach and protect those he cares about. Even the secondary characters of Bleach receive a sizable amount of backstory and/or development. Bleach also managed to have more proactive female characters. Even the damsel in distress Orihime stands up to Ulquiorra and slaps him. As a result of these strong characters, Bleach was able to rely on them and their relationships to drive aspects of the story (eg Ichigo crying in the Fullbringer arc).

Willingness to Deal with Emotion: Given that Ichigo is an internally motivated character, it was obvious Bleach would deal with emotion at some point in time. Making Ichigo just a normal high school boy also relives the previous edginess. Bleach also clearly too the time to make its readers feel in its early years. We are treated to beautiful panelling and very real displays of strong negative emotions. Bleach is also very good at giving its characters room to breathe and be sad. Eg: moping Orihime, moping Ichigo, etc. As well, Kubo went to extraordinary lengths to break Ichigo down during the Fullbringers Arc.

Interesting Character Designs: Every character in Bleach feels vibrant and unique with their personality showing through in their designs. For example: Shunshi’s sloppily tied up hair, visible stubble, and overcoat-hidden-haori show that he is both easy going and not looking for a fight; meanwhile Byakuya’s neatly pulled back hair and neck covered by scarf show that he is both someone who likes structure and is conservative.

Poetry and Symbolism: Kubo manages to weave poetry into Bleach in the beginning of each volume. The poem was said by the character on the volume. It gave the reader insight to this character and it gave Kubo a chance to flex his poetic chops. Further proof of this is the fact that many people don’t realize that the name “Bleach” refers to the bleaching of soul that is key to the story. Kubo loves to use rain to set sad scenes. It rains when Ichigo fights Grand Fisher, Zangetsu tells Ichigo that he hates the rain, etc. Kubo also specifies that he wishes for the reader to read certain volumes on stormy, rainy nights.

Panelling: Many people like to criticize Kubo for the lack of effort with the Bleach manga, but Kubo has stated that he uses negative space (i.e., foregoing backgrounds) to focus more on his character’s expressions. This not only further proves that Bleach cares a lot about its characters, but it’s done well enough that the average reader likely doesn’t notice the lack of background on the first read through. As well, Bleach has very cinematic panelling. Kubo uses the format of manga well, utilizing the human mind’s ability to fill blanks in with clever panelling to create tone and build tension and the feeling of movement through a scene.

In fact, in finding pages for this analysis, I found myself noticing that Bleach panels very similarly to slice-of-life shoujo but with a boy MC manga like "Horimiya": focus on expression through intimate angles and use of panels and breaks to create mood and the feeling of cinema; whereas something like DBZ panels like a shounen action manga with many hard lines and action shots, instead of a focus on subtle details and emotions.

Some Examples:

Notice now in Chapter 197: The approaching danger, Kubo uses a gradual zoom to build tension and the black background to add intensity and signal to the reader that Hitsugaya is relaying important information.

Here in Chapter 234: Not Negotiation, the immediate close up to Ulquiorra’s eye from the full body shots creates a sense of intimidation and unease with its sudden intimacy. As well, the immediate zoom in from Ulquiorra’s side full body shot to his facial profile creates tension and the change from the dark background to the white face with Orihime releases this tension (very fitting with considering the line for this panel is “but not you”). (This scene also ties into Ulquiorra’s central dogma of “that which is not reflected in my eyes does not exist’.)

Again in the same chapter, this gradual zoom in on the two creates tension that is then release in the next panel and summarily cements Ulquiorra as a terrifying BAMF.

In Chapter 262: Unblendable, Kubo uses the negative space to create a feeling of isolation, similar to how Orihime is supposed to be feeling.

In the same chapter, notice how Kubo creates a sense of intimacy (not in the romance sense) with the relationship of Ulquiorra and Orihime. He creates tension gradually with the zooming into Orihime’s eye and releases it with the zoom out to Ulquiorra. Through this scene, Kubo has shown us that Ulquiorra and Orihime have a tense relationship and with the implication of eye contact through the shots and panel breaks creating both the intimacy and showing Orihime’s defiance.

(Interestingly, I’ve noticed that Ulquiorra and Orihime have a lot of these intimate zoom shot-reverse-shot eye panels)

___________________

What are the Bad Parts of Bleach?

Okay, so by now, you’re probably thinking that I’m ignoring the massive amounts of critique that Bleach gets and don’t get me wrong, while Bleach does have a very special place in my heart, I’m also not maudlin enough to pretend that Bleach was all good.

Pacing:

Pacing in the First Half of Bleach (Karakura Town - Arrancar)

When Bleach first started out the pacing was excellent. Kubo showed great mastery of pace to control the tone and highlight the emotions throughout the first two arcs. Mid-way through the Arrancar arc, the fatigue sets in and it was hard to keep up with, especially since Kubo would interrupt one exciting fight set up to go set up more plot elsewhere (eg Fake Karakura town right as Ichigo and Ulquiorra were about to battle). Whilst looking back and reading it all at once does help with the pacing, it was frustrating if you were reading/watching on a weekly basis.

Pacing in the Anime:

I don’t ascribe to a simplistic belief of “fillers bad” simply because I think that sometimes fillers can be a good thing, for example, since every chapter is ~15-20pp, some character interactions have to be cut for the sake for space, so filler is a great opportunity to add those moments back into your story. For example, a lot of early Bleach fillers are just the people of Karakura town just hanging out. That being said, Bleach does have an unfortunate amount of fillers, with some of them even interrupting tense fights (eg the Beast Sword Arc interrupts Ichigo’s battle with Ulquiorra). However, the padding that the fillers provided did wonders for the transition between Soul Society to Arrancar Arc in the anime. Ultimately, the Bleach anime adaption was a long-running anime made for syndication and that’s okay.

******* Brief Aside: many people like(d?) to point out that Bleach has a very cyclical plot structure. I used to think this way too; however, this is not the case. There are many other long running stories that repeat similar goals. The problem lies not in the idea, but the execution. The main complaint about the Orihime rescue was not that it was uninteresting, but instead that it felt a rehash of the plot of the previous arc. This is largely because the story was not given enough time to breath between similar character arcs. For example, in One Piece, Luffy and Co have to save Nami and by extension, her home village so she can join them; however, the next time a Straw Hat needs to be saved is 227 chapters (2 whole story arcs) later. In between saving Rukia and Orihime, there is only a really an arrancar encounter, a bit of training, cheering up Ichigo, and a Grimmjow encounter before Orihime goes with Ulquiorra, thus making the goal of this arc “save Orihime” in only ~59 chapters vs 227. These two similar arc goals so close to each other does indeed create the sense of repetition.

Pacing from Fullbringer to End:

This is where Bleach really lost a lot of people. If you weren’t gone after the Ulquiorra fight, you probably were by this arc.This arc went at breakneck speed, and ngl, during my first full read through I almost gave up here too. I mention earlier that Ichigo had been broken down in this arc, but it was hard to feel his despair and the weight on his shoulders because there wasn’t enough for the reader to take a beat and breathe. The Thousand Year Blood War, similarly suffered from sloppy pacing, with many readers feeling like story lines of Squad 0 and the Soul King were anti-climactic. As well, this arc started with a massacre and feature the deaths of many fan-favourite characters, and unfortunately due to the pacing, their deaths were not given a sense of gravity.

Missed Opportunities and Forgotten Story lines: Many people felt that Kubo forgot about a lot of his characters after the Aizen arc. Many thought the Fullbringer Arc was going to be a Chad/Orihime Arc. Whatever happened to Uryuu lolol? We all just collectively forgot about him for a large portion of the last half of Bleach. At one point in time, there was a rumour going around that Kubo had written out the story for Bleach and lost it. Idk if there is any credibility to it. However, in a 2017 interview, Kubo did say that he did end the series exactly the way he wanted to.

(If anyone wants to see me write an entire ass text post about Orihime and her treatment in Bleach, please let me know because I will do it)

Too mature:Even though above, I praised Bleach's mature handle on its themes, an unfortunate side effect of this is forgetting that the characters are only 15 at the beginning and for the first half of Bleach. This unfortunately, leads to some readers feeling disconnected from Bleach.

Epilogue: THE DESTROYER OF SHIPS!!! A lot of people hated this ending. Many people felt like the romance was shoe-horned in, others didn’t like the pairings, and there were some people who actually liked it. Personally, I didn’t like it too much, but it was a cute conclusion nonetheless. Since it didn't add anything to the story except for a "where are they now" look and because of that, I low-key felt like it was unnecessary, but w/e.

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

Perspective

Making a long-running weekly serialized story is hard and doing it for 15 years is gruelling (obligatory “fuck capitalism” here). Like many artists of long-running manga, Kubo destroyed his health for the sake of publishing Bleach weekly. Kubo on his health after Bleach (photo from AshitanoGin on Twitter):

Given this insight, I think it’s only fair to be respectful and grateful for Kubo’s contribution to the anime-sphere. Also, through his work, Kubo seems to be a very understanding person and artist. I’m sure he knows better than anyone where Bleach went wrong, but there’s nothing that can be done now. Despite him having a twitter, he is not Joanne and doesn’t feel the need to constantly hemorrhage out word of god info about Bleach (and thank god for that).

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

Final Thoughts

It’s hard to forget my happy memories when I think about Bleach. It had my first adolescent crush and first OTP. As a result, I think the best way to enjoy Bleach is to take what you want out of it. People always think that something has to be 100% without flaw for it to be good, but that is not true at all. It is totally okay to just like the parts that you like without engaging with anything else. It’s special to you for a reason, you know? 

There’s no use in fretting over what Bleach could’ve been, besides, very rarely is the reality better than the fantasy in your head.

I do think though that a lot of Kubo’s issues could’ve been fixed if he planned the story better but not all of us can be “I've been planning One Piece since elementary school” Oda Eiichiro.

Other voices on this issue: here

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

Wow. I can’t believe you made it this far down. Congratulations! Thanks for reading my 2:30am non-sober take on Bleach (it only took me 7 hours to write). Here's a cookie <3

[thanksjro]

More Than Meets the Eye #19- Ambulon and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

We got a major reveal at the end of last issue, and now it’s time to put the rest of the pieces together so we can finally understand the mystery that is the Ultra Magnus situation.

So back when Magnus’ seemingly lifeless body stole a shuttle, fucked off into space and landed on the moon, Tyrest was there to greet him.

And by “greet him”, I mean punch through the windshield and carry him bridal style, as if he weighed no more than a baby bird, into his moon base.

Pharma did his thing with his crazy new hands, Magnus was saved, and he woke up shortly after his lifesaving operation. Then Tyrest punched Magnus in the face, because fuck the healing process. He’s an engineer, not a doctor, he doesn’t deal with the SOUL and FEELINGS or anything like that.

In the here and now, Rodimus is still trying to comprehend the fact that his SIC isn’t dead, and is also actually another, much smaller guy with a mustache. Minimus Ambus attempts to explain just what the hell is going on, and we get back to our flashback.

After some good old-fashioned face violence, Tyrest showed Magnus around the place, specifically the terminal he’d set up for his on-the-fly, real-time law amending. With how many war crimes the Cybertronian race has committed in the last several million years, I’m sure it was needed.

Dang, wonder who pissed off Big Brother.

Magnus is more concerned about how it is exactly he isn’t dead right now, and also why his boss looks like a swiss cheese party platter.

Turns out that Tyrest isn’t actually mad at Magnus, just disappointed. He went and read his diary while the operation was happening, and in the 18 months that the Knight Quest has been running, Tyrest has deemed the work done to be unsatisfactory. Instead of arresting criminals, Magnus had been handling infractions so minor, most people wouldn’t have even noticed them. Tyrest doesn’t know where he went wrong.

Well, Tyrest, it was probably the anxiety that manifested itself as OCD, because you picked someone without factoring what the end of the war might do to them. Magnus needs structure to flourish, and if he cannot find it, he will make it himself. I mean, look at all this:

No wonder he was struggling on the chaos engine that is the Lost Light.

Still, Tyrest wants nothing to do with someone who’s cracked under the pressure (lack of pressure?) and the deal was that Magnus only got to be Magnus if he did what Tyrest wanted. Tyrest divests him with the literal push of a button.

Good grief, he’s naked!

As Minimus Ambus mourns over the loss of his stature, both literal and position-wise, we get back to the present, in a double-page spread no less, as Minimus tells everyone about the storied history of the Magnus Armor. Ultra Magnus was originally an actual person, but then he died, and Tyrest was kind of bummed out about that, so he decided to make up a lie (lying, while perhaps morally dubious is not illegal, so he’s allowed to do that) that Magnus faked his death, and then built the armor. There were at least a few wearers of the armor prior to Minimus, some of who were even known by the other crew members. Whenever someone got offed, their hand would spasm and press a recall button in their palm, which would bring the Magnus Armor, and the dead body inside, back to Tyrest.

You can tell he’s still real shaken up about losing the Magnus Armor, because he’s truncating his words. Poor guy.

Minimus asks what exactly happened after he got stabbed, seeing as he was too busy dying to really pay attention to the Overlord plot. Rodimus tells him it’s been handled. Brainstorm jumps in, wanting to know about the other things on Minimus’ resume, which leads into Minimus revealing the fact that he is a Point One Percenter, and something known as a Load Bearer. Load Bearers circumvent that niggling little issue that we saw presented in the “Shadowplay” arc, where spark strain due to not being able to handle a different frame type would outright kill you. Minimus doesn’t have that problem.

Tailgate wants to know how exactly it is that Minimus isn’t dead, seeing as he was clearly on his way out prior to his grand theft auto. Tailgate may have a personal interest in that sort of information, what with still being terminal and all.

Everyone’s real handsy this issue.

Minimus lets Tailgate know that Tyrest’s medical equipment is off the hook, and we get a reminder that Tailgate’s got basically a day left to live. Harsh, Roberts.

Back in Minimus’ flashback, Tyrest sort-of apologizes for punching him in the face, and laments on the loss of one of his greatest Enforcers of the Tyrest Accord.

Oh, so you DID know that this was a possibility, and instead of ordering your subordinate to go make that follow-up appointment with the only therapist on Cybertron- which, while being borderline sectioning, would have at least kept Minimus from sending emails to Rodimus about how he was spiraling- you just let it happen. The Vector Sigma pulse wave went all over the galaxy, there’s zero possibility you didn’t hear about the end of the war before Magnus loaded up on the Lost Light and didn’t call for a year and a half.

Anyway, so Tyrest’s got a new Enforcer lined up, seeing as he’s going to retire the Magnus Armor after all the shenanigans Minimus got dragged through while wearing it. Let’s see what we’re working with.

I thought we were supposed to have separation of church and state, what the hell?

In the present, Rodimus has questions, mainly about why there are so many people in this prison cell. Minimus admits that he asked to be put in here, to try and prove Rodimus and friends’ innocence on the charge of harboring a criminal, by recording their conversation and proving that they had no idea what SKIDS deal was.

Yep, Skids did a bad, and Tyrest wants him in jail.

Minimus also drops the bomb that everyone else in this cell is going to get he death penalty for that whole “crimes against creation” thing. I mean, all Tyrest has to do is wait for a little while and Tailgate will be dealt with, no sweat.

Minimus pulls a device out of his hip compartment, uses it to disrupt the electro-bars of the cell (it’s cool, he was an undercover cop for this whole thing and can therefore break out of prison without it being a crime), and goes to have a chat with his boss about all the weird new stuff he’s shoved into the Autobot Code in the last year and a half. Rodimus doesn’t really want him to leave, but there’s no time for that, because the cell just got a little more full.

Uh oh, Swerve’s badge has gone missing again. Rung, why don’t you slap yours on his crotch, that way Minimus won’t try to murder him when he gets back?

While this is happening, Whirl and Cyclonus are standing on the rim of a smelting pool, absolutely not having a dick measuring contest.

Luna 1 said Bi Rights.

There’s a structure built over the pool that looks an awful lot like living quarters, but is probably actually a prison that violates the Geneva convention. Whirl suggests they find some weapons and go hog-wild, but Cyclonus is more concerned about finding something. When Whirl asks what in the hell he could possibly be looking for in this sort of crisis, Cyclonus turns into a moody teenager.

Well, at least he’s respecting Tailgate’s wish to keep his looming demise under wraps. Not that Cyclonus tells anyone anything anyway.

Over in the Luna 1 medibay, Ratchet is being subjected to having his very fucking soul threatened with a paring knife. Pharma’s having what probably an inappropriate amount of fun, especially since he’s realized that Ratchet took his goddamn hands after the shitshow that was Delphi.

It turns out that every single piece of tech that Ultra Magnus ever repossessed is floating around on Luna 1, even the stuff that really ought to have been destroyed. This is why they were able to save Magnus from certain death at the start of the issue. Somehow I’m not surprised that Tyrest kept all those toys for himself. Corruption of an authority figure? In my Cybertronian Justice System? It’s more likely than you think.

Some of the little art quirks in MTMTE are added in by Milne- see Brainstorm holding any handgun ever if you’d like an example- but I know for a FACT that Pharma humping Ratchet’s headless body was specified by Roberts.

Ratchet, unimpressed and likely mildly queasy by the display going on before him, proposes that Pharma’s afraid of failure, which is why he hasn’t taken his hands back. Pharma disagrees, and a wager is set to see who the better doctor is- winner gets to keep the hands.

Over with the fly boys, alarms are going off in a deserted building, as Whirl struggles to open a door with his claws. Cyclonus takes over on door duty, and asks why Whirl hasn’t gotten his shit fixed yet.

Whirl’s worried that if he gets help for his trauma, he’s going to lose a huge part of himself as a person, and then where will he be? Of course, he says it in a much more Whirly fashion, full of vitriolic self-blame, but reading between the lines is fun. Whirl fires the “let’s get into each other’s personal issues even though both of us hate talking about ourselves and also each other” missile right back at Cyclonus. He wants to know about Cyclonus’ facial situation.

Cyclonus doesn’t like this question.

Then he gets stabbed with a sword.

Back with the docs, it’s apparently much later, as Ratchet’s just woken up from surgery and has a body again. He gets up from the operating table and finds that Pharma’s gone ahead with setting up their gentleman’s wager.

First Aid seems less than pleased with the current situation. Ambulon’s arms are long as hell in this panel, and he doesn’t seem entirely present in the moment. Maybe he’s practicing Rungian Re-Experience Therapy.

Pharma wants to cut both of the boys in half to see who can put the pieces together back the fastest. Ratchet tries to deescalate the situation, because he’s usually pretty good at it, but Pharma’s set on using his chainsaw attachment on someone today.

Ratchet attempts to console his coworkers, saying that their Springer-on-Pova treatment be over soon, and they’ll get a nice lollipop at the end for being such brave little robots.

Then Pharma cuts Ambulon in half, in a way that Ratchet hadn’t accounted for.

We’re gonna need a little more than some bandaids and a kiss to make it feel better for this one. It’s amazing what censorship laws will let you get away with when the blood isn’t red.

Speaking of blood, Cyclonus is more or less okay with being stabbed, because Whirl did him a solid and chopped his assailant in half- lengthways- with a super sweet sword he found in the armory they just opened up. Cyclonus pulls the blade out of his midriff and we finally find out what happened to the Circle of Light.

Back in the prison cell, Perceptor’s been given the job of doctor, even though Rung, Swerve, and Chromedome are all here and at least somewhat closer to being general practice doctors than our science sniper.

Seems like Swerve filled everyone in on the situation on the Lost Light off-panel, which is good, because they’ve been in the dark up to this point.

Chromedome hypothesizes that the reason Skids is a wanted man has to do with that mysterious gun he was holding when he fell out of the sky all the way back in issue #2. This is the point where Skids wakes up from his stabbing and admits that this is probably what happened, even though he still has no recollection of ever stealing the gun or even it existing up until he entered the story, but he apologizes for the trouble anyway.

Shh.  Someone’s coming down the corridor. It’s Star Saber, and he’s brought yet another prisoner to stuff in this cell.

And there’s something else. Can you hear it?

Is… is that music?

Are those the beginning synth riffs of “Tainted Love" by Soft Cell?

Over with Minimus, we’re treated to a taste of Tyrest’s personal brand of disinterest, then get a quick run-down of the birds and the bees. The forging process is a little more convoluted than originally implied, needing Primus to send out a pulse wave through Vector Sigma in order for the Hot Spots to be ignited.

Then the pulse waves started to slow down, Nova Prime had a little freak out, and cold construction was invented to prevent the Cybertronian race from becoming an endangered species.

Minimus of course knows all of this, because he, like basically half of the cast of MTMTE, is old as shit. What he DOESN’T know is that cold construction isn’t managed the way that anyone thought that it was, because there was a government coverup going on about the whole thing. You don’t splice sparks to make a new one, you use the Matrix to create new life.

I know, it’s crazy.

Tyrest was on the team that fiddled around with the Matrix until it started spitting out robot zygotes, and he’s now convinced that they bled the Matrix dry. Nobody tell him what happened to the thing after the war ended.

Wait. If the pulse waves have stopped, and the Matrix is busted beyond repair, doesn’t that mean they can’t make any more Transformers? Once they finish up on their stockpile of sparks, that’s it. No more. The Transformers are a protected species now, we’ve got to treat them like giant pandas.

One of his team members stole the Matrix and hid it in the black market, so its strange, mystical baby powers could never be used again. Except someone obviously found it later on, because we have half of it on the Lost Light. Minimus isn’t sure why any of this is actually relevant to the current situation, or why Tyrest feels guilty about pulling a Eugenesis Fulcrum and finding out where babies come from.

Tyrest is convinced that by draining the Matrix, his team somehow corrupted it, and all the sparks made by this corrupted Matrix are straying further and further from Primus. This is why Rodimus and friends have been charged with crimes against creation- some of their party were created in a way that predisposes them to crime. Or so Tyrest thinks.

I thought we were supposed to have separation of church and state, what the hell? This is still the same guy who was appointed as Chief Justice by the space pope because of his levelheadedness, right?

Yes, actually, but this sudden flip in priorities and personality has been induced by the guilt he felt during the Aequitas trials. Tyrest turned to self harm to deal with the weight of it all, and one day tried to go for what in most species would have been a suicide, by drilling with his drill fingers into the spot between his eyes. Instead, he most likely gave himself a lobotomy and became a religious zealot, fully believing that the gods are real, and he can go visit them by using his super-cool space portal.

Outside the moon base, Whirl and Cyclonus have freed the Circle of Light, and everyone’s ready to kick some ass. Both the fly boys have found themselves a Great Sword to play with, further cementing Cyclonus as our replacement Drift. Rodimus will be so thrilled.

Dai Atlas, the leader of the Circle of Light, tells our boys that there used to be a lot more of his group, but a lot of folks ended up being used to build Legislators.

Hm. I’m sure that’ll never be brought up again, and won’t paint future events in a much darker light. Nope. Absolutely not.

Cyclonus thinks that they need to get a move on, because if that sort of horrific shit can happen to the Circle of Light, it can also happen to Tailgate and the others. He does specifically name Tailgate in his dialogue, but it’s not like he actually cares about the guy, right? Feelings are for nerds.

Then the Legislators show up and it’s party time.

Wonder how that’s going to work out for you, Whirl.

Back with Tyrest, it’s revealed that Tyrest’s plan has a small snag- only people completely absolved of their guilt can go to Cyberutopia to hang out with Primus and the gang, and Tyrest is feeling awful guilty. Not about his weird space-eugenics thing, but about inventing cold construction. Now, how in the world is he going to handle this?

By committing a genocide.

Minimus is, understandably, not a fan of this plan. Tyrest had anticipated that the Universal Killswitch wouldn’t be universally appreciated, and has some of the new law come into play.

And that’s a series wrap on Minimus Ambus! Let’s give him a hand, folks!

[mountphoenixrp]

We have a new citizen in Mount Phoenix:

               Timothée Valère Iver, who is known by no other name;                                          a 20 year old son of Hodr.                                   He is a student, figure skater and                       museum guide at Phoenix Library & Museum.

FC NAME/GROUP: hwang hyunjin of stray kids CHARACTER NAME: timothée valère iver AGE/DATE OF BIRTH: 29/05/2000 PLACE OF BIRTH: mouthe, doubs, france OCCUPATION: student at phoenix university (arts major), figure skater, part-time museum guide at phoenix, library & museum HEIGHT: 1.83m DEFINING FEATURES: he has collected a gallery of scars over the years, most of them on his legs from training, but the most evident one is across his hipbone where he took a (gracious) ice skate blow. he really loves tattoos, but given he has to wear revealing clothing, he could only get two: a gemini constellation on the inside of his right foot and an anchor on the inside of his left foot. he has his ears pierced multiple times (and changes his earrings quite often), has a small navel piercing (that he does not wear at competitions), and wears fake face piercings at times (like septum rings, lip rings, eyebrow barbell, etc.).

PERSONALITY: he is an unpredictable winter: one that could get too cold, too fast. one that could unleash its full potential if underestimated. he is a determined, and hard-working person – he strives for perfection, maybe to his downfall. he is incredibly artistic – in every way possible. because of that, he could have odd and unexpected reactions to certain things. sometimes, he is hard to approach, especially if he had a bad day. but overall, he is quite friendly, really funny and easy to talk to. he thinks humour is the only thing that keeps him sane sometimes. he is vengeful – do not step on his toes, it might be the last thing you do. he is easy to anger, but quick to calm down if pushed the right way. he is a young adult, naturally, he likes exploring and experimenting – sometimes, he does dangerous/stupid things just because he is curious about how things will play out. he has a good eye for pretty things, and could be a little bit of snob. he has strong opinions, and can be stubborn – he usually wins debates. he cannot control his feelings or powers. he appears intimidating because of his good looks and ‘popularity’, but those who know him are aware he has a goofy side.

HISTORY: tw: implied physical violence, sexual innuendo i. first snow ;

the bitter cold has a tendency to get under people’s skin – and even if snow is beautiful, the cold can be unbearable. not for her, she was born on ice – she enjoyed every single thing about winter: its glitter, its cold presence, its icy breath. that was why she fell for him, a god made of ice and snow, a god who perhaps loved her back.

mouthe, france – she went into labour while out with friends. a man, much older than her, was holding her hand and smiling at her. she found him at the ice rink, he was her instructor – and now, the man who will be her baby’s father. it was a long, hard and cold labour – when he was born, he was so cold they thought he died in the process. his fingertips were purple, and his little legs almost crumbled when touched. a cry made them breathe out relieved – the boy was born healthy. and the first thing he did was touch snowflakes – and thus his life began.

paris, france – they moved to paris from marseille, they knew it would be best for their child. paris offered opportunities that other towns did not, especially the opportunity to become the best in anything they wanted him to be. maybe that made him strive harder, be a little arrogant, look down at people who did not try as hard as he did. or maybe the fact that his mortal parents stopped loving each other had everything to do with why he was such a hard-headed kid. ii. blizzard ;

he has never been the best with conflict – a little easy to anger, hard to calm down. like a blizzard, or maybe like an avalanche. once a stone is tipped, he will come falling down with all he has. there is no telling how many fights he got into, how many throats he held in his rage. maybe, he just felt misunderstood – or maybe, he was just evil. he harboured love for finer things in life, a little less for people – he did not see love in his parents’ eyes, he only saw ‘do better’.

with feet bruised, and knees scratched – he pushed forward. maybe he thrusted back and forth, who would not? blessed with a pretty face that did betray his lust, and a perseverance that scared even elite athletes – he was truly a masterpiece. if observed from afar – absolutely gorgeous, if put under a microscope – terribly faulted. he was a dichotomy – hot and cold, pushing and pulling. there has never been a stable ground – and when he stepped on ice, it knew who its master was. and they knew too, because they screamed his name every night – timothée. iii. under snow ;

one conflict too far, and one outburst too much – he used his powers for the first time on a mortal boy who stepped on his trust. with zero tolerance for one of the most faulted qualities in humans, he froze the boy’s throat until he lost his ability to speak. surprised by the newfound power, timothée started questioning his heritage – how he did not look like his father, and was not really like his mother either. if they were not who they said they were, and he was not who he knew he was – then who was he?

the journey led him back to mouthe, where he found traces of his father. information he coaxed out of his mother after he won the nationals – his biological father was a stranger his mother met in mouthe, someone she did not see again after their union. a big, strong man with a foreign accent – one she felt attached to, and loved by until the moment he left. he begged the snow and the ice to tell him his name, and then he heard it. hodr, god of winter. iv. winter is here ;

as expected, choking someone’s voice out was not tolerable. he almost tarnished his reputation – they wanted to take his titles away. he had to go away, somewhere the snow told him to go: mount phoenix. he was only eighteen when he decided he was old enough to be by himself, fairly convinced that where he was going was home.

PANTHEON: hodr CHILD OF: norse POWERS: he is deeply connected to winter and ice. he feels at his strongest (and his happiest) in a cold environment, with a lot of white, despite having a sensitive eye-sight. he established some sort of odd communication with ice (and snow) over the years, sometimes he swears they answer him back. he can manipulate snow and ice in the presence of any form of water (sold, liquid, gas). when people annoy him, he freezes their sweat as a form of revenge. his body temperature is low, and it rarely if ever increases. thus he has a high resistance to the cold weather. naturally, he dislikes heat (sometimes feels like olaf in front of a fireplace). he gets uncomfortable if he stays in a warm place for too long, and hesitates a little when interacting with extremely warm people (whether personality wise or body temperature wise).

STRENGTHS: lithe (has quick feet), well-balanced, can navigate without sight (and often does), sharp hearing, high stamina

WEAKNESSES: little control (impulsive, and quick to anger), weary of heat (and of summer), sensitive skin and eyes (easily bruised/burnt/injured), easily overwhelmed (especially in places where there is a lot of movement), lacks concentration (sometimes sporadic)

[shellheadtmark2]

@auntlarb if I was to start reading comics for 616 Tony, which comic would you recommend to start with? like I have zero idea how comics work or where to even begin

honestly, and this isn’t really a good answer, but it’s the honest one, it depends on what you want to know.  because otherwise the answer is everything.  every single scrap you can because...well, to be absolutely real with you, shit from one panel from one comic fifty years ago will be referenced in a comic now and the only footnote you get in explanation is something like “AS SEEN IN INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #5! - EDITOR” when invincible iron man #5 was published in 1963.

i’m also going to really preface this in general for anyone reading this and also be incredibly real and say if anyone that wants to start reading iron man comics and goes in expecting anything at all like mcu tony - you’re gonna be disappointed.  mcu tony is as different to 616 tony as ultimates tony is to both of them, which is to say...they’re different characters.  or, rather, very different takes on the same character.  the mcu is something like what if 616 and ultimates had a baby and that baby grew up to marry thanos.  616 tony is less cinnamon roll too good for this world and is literally charred cinnamon roll, crunchy, been through hell and back, throw him in the trash.  i love him a lot tho.

alright, that’s my expect something completely different disclaimer.

the problem with reading guides in general is that they don’t...you don’t get the full picture.  with comics you have to jump around, read an issue here and there of a title you wouldn’t normally do so with (as i wait patiently for wednesday so i can read loki #2 and find out why tony’s wearing armor on the cover he logically shouldn’t - assuming that’s even addressed).  there’...honestly i’d argue there’s no perfect place to jump in, you just pick a spot and start reading, and if you get to the end of an issue and it says “contined in [some other comic title and number]” you hunt that down and read it, and then bounce back to what you were reading.  so you get the full picture.  you read  a lot of comics - and i mean a lot - digging out every scrap of one storyline.  

which is a lot of words to say pick a spot and just dive in.  but it’s true.  i can, however, offer suggestions for runs that i personally enjoy and think give good groundwork for how 616 tony feels different from mcu tony, and eases you into it being less jarring because of that difference.  

iron man: extremis director’s cut (2005) will never not be on my recommended list.  it shows you how extremis works in 616 and why tony would do that to himself.  it’s also one of those comics that gives you a little bit of a sense of how 616 tony’s brain works.  be warned tho, it’s...it’s dark.  and gory.  i can tell you right now most of the iron man comics on this list are going to be both of those things, because that’s just how iron man rolls.  there’s no happy endings for tony, y’all.  this is one comic i reference a lot.

invincible iron man (2008) is another favorite.  it’s a little bit director of shield, a little bit of a mandarin face off story, a little bit of yanking tony out of the armor, a little bit of getting involved in asgard’s bullshit, a little bit of a detective story.  this is the run with the brain thing.  also gory.  also, at times, dark.  it does not shy from the body horror of what tony does to himself.  but it’s a solid look at tony’s world, i think, from tony’s point of view.  also i can verify you can read this one without having read others because @gwinnetts did it for reasons and furthermore and didn’t have any trouble.

invincible iron man (1998) is another good run, though it’s one that...goes for a long while.  the mandarin shows up, you see bits and pieces of tony’s ridiculously bad love life, he’s secdef for a while, there’s all kinds of weird horror shows going on, it’s dark, it’s gritty, it’s the golden age of iron man comics, in my opinion.  also a good place to start because it’s post heroes-reborn so everything’s new and shiny and you can follow along right through it.

avengers (2013) requires some prerequisite reading and some intermittent reading of other stuff (AXIS, superior iron man, new avengers, infinity) to get the full picture by the end, but good lord it’s a beautiful avengers run.

because that’s the thing.  you can’t just read iron man comics, you gotta start dipping in all over the place to understand what’s going on.  

new avengers & young avengers (2005) is okay in the set up to civil war.  you’ll get to see characters like luke cage and spider-man, stature and patriot, as well as jessica drew and wolverine, and it starts laying that foundation.

civil war is super! super! important to tony, even if he doesn’t remember it anymore firsthand.  and there are so many tie ins to civil war like...you could spend forever just here.  on top of the seven issue run, i also highly recommend fallen son, the confession, and what if? civil war for maximum tony stark manpain.  because civil war fucking wrecks me.  it’s been fifteen goddamn years almost and it still fucking wrecks me.

demon in a bottle, because tony being a recovering alcoholic is such a huge part of his character development, and demon in a bottle is crucial to that.  to add on to that, in invincible iron man runs in the early 80s help fill in the blanks from this nicely.

iron man legacy is incomplete, but it’s so so good.  so good.  it gives you a taste of homeless tony in a modern sense, as well as how inventive his brain is when he’s armorless.  well worth the read and it won’t even take that long.

the armor wars (both of them) are another set that definitely deserve a skim through, because it shows just how out of hand shit gets sometimes, and how far tony will go to get his shit back.

iron man: viva las vegas is also incomplete, which is a goddamn shame, but it’s another quick read that gives you and idea of tony doing tony things.  it was also a great little plot, killed before its time, and the art was, imo, solid, in the same style as iron man: extremis.

iron man: fatal frontier is hooo boy.  it’s sure a thing that happened.  think mining boomtown.  on the moon.  with tony as the sheriff.  who’s also suffering from a metal poisoning that’s making him megalomaniacal because “tony knows best”.  it’s good.  if anyone doesn’t agree, we can meet in the pit, i love fatal frontier.  i have lots of feelings about fatal frontier.

fantastic four/iron man: big in japan is great to lighten things up again.  kinda gory but in a cutesy...way?  it’s hard to explain, this comic is just wild as fuck.  also hilarious.

captain america: man out of time is probably a weird choice outwardly to put here, but it’s about the avengers finding cap from cap’s perspective, and how badly tony was mancrushing on him.  the start of the unnecessary touching.  tony wiggling in excitement to take steve rogers out.  tony’s dual identity.  it’s all here, and from steve rogers’s perspective.

anyway this thing is...really long, and this is a good start.  it gives (i personally think, anyone else is welcome to disagree / make suggestions) a good comparison for just how different 616 tony is.  you’ll both hurt for him even more?  and feel pretty unsympathetic to some of his bullshit by the end of it.  but what you will see is a lot of nuance that’s missed just because the mcu couldn’t develop these kinds of layers in the time it had.  tony’s complicated, and that’s putting it...extremely mildly.  he’s so so good, but he’s willing to throw himself on the pyre and nail himself on the cross and it fucks him each and every time he does it.

[raccoonskoodilypoopdungeon]

“The Firebird Trilogy” by Claudia Gray: A Review from an Eighteen Year-Old Teenager Doing a Bachelor’s in Biology

"So does destiny create the math, or does math create our destiny?" "Insufficient data," Paul said.  

How did I get here?

So, my friend and I were talking, as friends do, and we went through this rabbit hole involving Powerpuff Girls Z and Zenith. And we came to the topic of A Thousand Pieces of You.

In short, we don’t like it. She stopped at this book. I continued because I was interested enough. That was a mistake. An generous 2/5.

And this isn’t like a thing where all of my friends disliked it. Only the two of us disliked it. Everyone else liked it.

I know I’m not the demographic. I’m not a white girl doing a Bachelor of Fine Arts. I’m asian doing a Bachelor of Science. But whatever.

Imma go into a full review.

Spoilers under the cut.

Good Things:

1. Dimensional Travel. It was the only thing that kept me reading.

2. A sort of exploration of Jean Paul Sartre’s Existence vs Essence

3. The cover art is really nice. It so good. Its like home decoration to me it’s so good.

4. Says “Capitalism is bad.” I like that.

Bad Things:

1. The Characters: Paul and Theo really like Margarita

- Marguerite Caine: I’m not like other girls

Margarita is our protagonist. She’s not like other girls.

We’re pretty different, for sisters—she’s average height while I’m tall; she’s athletic while I’m anything but. She inherited our parent’s love of science and is following in Dad’s footsteps by becoming an oceanographer; I’m the odd duck in the family, the artsy one. Josie’s laid-back while I freak out about every little thing.

She has no interest in science. In a household... where everyone is a scientist. As someone who’s lived in a household where everyone’s a doctor, all of my siblings and I are in some sort of science background. My sister’s a medical doctor, my brother’s a Master in Psychology, and I’m doing a Bachelor’s in Biology. I have no doubt it can happen. But it happens a lot in young adult. I’m tired of humanities main characters. I love the humanities. I don’t know why but everyone I know in science has some sort of humanities background. Everyone in my family can play instruments and paints and does photography. 

And can I just say how pretentious that ending was? Here’s my painting its a unique perspective from seeing my alternate dimension selves. She plagiarised herself. She basically plagiarised her alternate dimension selves. I’ll save those in later

- Paul Markov: Nerdy Love Interest

Love interest. Also Russian. Don’t know who he is.

- Theo Beck: Nerdy Love Interest 2: Bad Boy Boogaloo

Love interest. French(?). Does drugs to stay in bodies because idk.

- Henry Caine: Dad

Like the Beatles.

- Sophia Kovalenka: Mom

Depressed without dad.

- Josie Caine: The pretty one

The pretty one. Died in an alternate universe.

- Wyatt Conley: I see why you like Josie

Rich. Villain. Oh... but he’s in love with Josie. Oh no.

As you can see. The characters are well fleshed out. I have headcanons for all of them. Margarita hates sciences because her sister is good at it and she has to be good at something in her family so she pursues the arts. Paul and Theo have no reason to like Margarita. She’s whiny and really unlikeable. But here we are.

2. The Science: So that science huh?

This is a science fiction novel with a murder mystery element. It should something I should be gushing and loving it.

But the science is, uh, meh? 

So, there’s this thing called a Firebird. And this miracle baby lets you travel between dimensions. I’m no physicist. The best of my physics knowledge involves how organisms abuse the universe’s physics engine.

The most unrealistic thing about the science here is... the fact that these people got funding. The firebird’s supposed to revolutionise modern science. And I can see how, steal info from other dimensions. But no one with enough funding would be interested. And I get that Wyatt would be interested because he could be funding from Capitalist Dimension. I get that. Okay. Fine.

But the explanation. The Firebird is made of materials that easily move between dimensions, can grab onto consciousness, and leaves a dimensional trace. What material? How does it grab onto the consciousness? What is the dimensional trace? We don’t know because Margarita doesn’t know because ALL THE SCIENTISTS WON’T TELL HER BECAUSE SHE WON’T UNDERSTAND?!?! Anyone with a PhD in science is a nerd that will jump at any opportunity to tell you how something works. You might not understand but they will try their damned hardest. AT LEAST GIVE US PHLEBOTINUM!!

There’s this whole thing where Paul explains how universes are formed because of an asymmetry and that sort of let’s us travel between dimensions and that lets us save dimensions being destroyed. Oh yeah, there’s a plot where the Capitalist Dimension wants to destroy universes to get all the fragments of Josie because that’s how consciousness works. I don’t know how it works. These people do. Whatever. But it feels like... how do you get enough energy to create enough antimatter to destroy entire universes? I don’t know but they’ve probably done enough research and experiments. Fine. How did they invent the solution though? They didn’t have the time to do any experiments or research. Oh well.

Also consciousnesses apparently show up in CT scans. Which means they’re altering the brains of these people. That’s a human rights violation. Never mind the highjacking free will thing. This would never, and I mean never, be approved. I had a research proposal where I would feed Tilapia feed that had little bits of microplastics to see how microplastics affect growth and everything. That was not approved due to ethical reasons. They’re even stricter on humans. Shocking.

3. Existence vs Essence: Does that mean I fell in love with every Paul, everywhere?

Now Claudia Gray has the idea there. But it really falls flat and the potential it had made it worse. If you want a young adult series that handles this idea well go read The Monogatari Series by Nisioisin. Its not in the entire series but in one of the books, Kabukimonogatari. 

The entire series is filled with fauxlosophy on this whole thing from Jean Paul Sartre. Admittedly I’m no philosophy major. I took a college philosophy 101 class. That’s my whole thing. I got an A in that class. Those are my credentials.

But Margarita keeps asking if she falls in love with one Paul is it all the Pauls? And if someone in an alternate universe is a murderer does that make her a murderer. But, and this is important, we learn that Firebirds don’t actually find alternate versions of you but a genetically identical version of you that isn’t already in that universe. You see where I’m getting at. They even have a conversation with all the Margaritas she’s ruined in the Sextuplet Universe where she’s sextuplets Osomatsu-san style.

Her questioning was pointless especially since it continues after this point. And she tries so hard to be like, “but if my circumstances were different I’d be Murderer!Margarita.” And Mob Psycho 100 by One deals with this concept really well. Mob gets transported into an alternate world, with no memories, and spends six months there being bullied with no friends or anyone to confine to. He ends up evil. And the villain goes on to say like, “see, you’re only good because of your circumstances!” when Mob gets his memories back. And Mob goes, “that’s right. i’ve been shaped by the people around me and my circumstances. I should be grateful!” 

Claudia Gray’s solution is basically Paul goes like “don’t worry because you guys are mathematically close but different so you guys are fundamentally different.” Which is like, no. They’re arguing that essence comes before existence. Which is kinda supported by the fact that every incarnation of her is an artist. Like, not a single Margarita likes science in the multiverse. That makes zero sense. Like what?

In conclusion please do not read this. Or do. Lots of people like this.

[fucking-zawa-sensei]

Skyscraper

Title: Skyscraper

Rating: T

Word Count: 2k+

Categories: fluff, high school

Notes: This one is for @yaycreamymancakes who is so awesome and I adore their art so much. They make me smile a lot with their shenanigans on discord, even if I’m mostly a lurker around those parts. They requested some highschool erasermic, in which Hizashi as a growth spurt over summer break and Shouta just can’t keep his eyes off him.

Read it on AO3 here

Skyscraper

The teachers had warned them that the summer before their senior year would be difficult, but as Shouta pulls out the seat of his desk and flops down onto the hard surface, watching as his classmates sink into their chairs in much the same, defeated way, he’s thinking their teachers could have been a bit more serious when they’d tossed the advice out into the air like they were saying something as trivial as, “it’s hot today.”

These internships were nothing like the short, almost laughably simpler ones of their first and second years.

Shouta’s back still aches from all the nights he’d spent hurling himself across rooftops, trying to keep up with his pro hero mentor, while simultaneously coming to the realization that he had years to go before he’d truly master his capture weapon.

Tensei comes into the classroom with a soft smile on his face that almost makes Shouta think his family had taken it easy on him when he’d continued to choose their agency for his studies, but the weak wave the boy gives Shouta before sitting down says otherwise.

Shouta groans and folds his arms on his desk, dropping his head down to rest atop them, blocking out the chatter of his classmates as they wait for the last students to trickle in before homeroom. He’s almost about to doze off when he hears a few people nearby let out little gasps. Unable to shove away the curiosity itching at the back of his mind, he lifts his head just enough to peak out from underneath his long bangs.

The student in front of him shifts to the side and he can see what everyone is staring at.

Or, rather, who they’re all staring at.

Hizashi was always an attention grabber, with his bright hair, styled to stand up, his even brighter glasses, and usually many bracelets, rings, or other accessories adding pops of color to his otherwise standard uniform. Being best friends with the boy, Shouta had gotten used to all the exciting decorations, all the extra pizzazz Hizashi put into every outfit and movement, always talking with not just his hands, but his whole body.

Most of his other classmates had gotten used to it by now as well, having spent the past two years in class together, but those aren’t the thing that is catching everyone’s eye now.

What’s different about Hizashi is not something he’d put on, it’s his height.

It’s his towering, immense height.

Hizashi had been rather small before, perhaps even a little more than usual for his age, a few inches shorter than Shouta if his hair was down.

Now, Shouta isn’t standing up, so it’s hard to tell, but Hizashi looks several heads taller than him.

He looked like a skyscraper, dragging his long legs over to the desk beside Shouta’s.

Shouta can’t help the way he sits up, watches with wide eyes as his friend walks behind him before pulling out his chair and sitting down. Shouta doesn’t miss the way Hizashi’s knees bang the bottom of his desk when he first scoots his chair forward, apparently not used to his new height yet himself either.

When Hizashi turns toward Shouta, he panics, dropping his head back into his folded arms, turning the other way, pretending he wanted some extra sleep before homeroom. It wouldn’t be hard to believe. He’d done this before when he had spent too much time training or just hadn’t been able to sleep well the night before. After the first few times where Hizashi had asked if he was feeling unwell, the other boy had learned to just give Shouta his space and he’d usually recover enough to have lunch with Hizashi and their other friends by the afternoon.

Shouta hears a soft sigh behind him and Hizashi’s chair creak a little as he shifts his position.

He wasn’t sleepy right now.

If Hizashi could see his face, he’d see that it was a vibrant, bright pink.

Shouta’s eyes were wide where he hid them behind his arm.

Somewhere along the lines last year, Shouta had realized he had a crush on the other boy, but had been doing what he thought to be a damn good job of hiding it. Now, though, now, with all that extra height, with those long limbs and sun kissed skin, apparently having spent a large majority of his internship outside during daytime, Shouta can’t keep the heat off his cheeks.

Hizashi looked damn good.

Shit, shit, shit, Shouta curses inside his mind.

It felt like being dragged back to ground zero, like he was realizing his feelings for the other boy all over again, the same way he had the first time, when Hizashi had fallen asleep at the kotatsu during one of their study sessions and Shouta had draped a blanket across his shoulders with a softness he’d never treated anyone else with before. He remembers the moment so vividly, staring down at Hizashi’s peaceful, sleeping face and realizing this boy was someone he could never imagine being without.

Yet, with their internships sending them to separate cities, demanding all their free time, he hadn’t seen the blond all summer break, and had apparently missed quite the change.

“Shit, Hizashi, look at you!” he hears Tensei’s voice trail behind him, as the boy comes up to talk to Hizashi.

“Haha, yeah. Turns out I’m a late bloomer or whatever,” Hizashi laughs out.

Shouta keeps his head tucked safely away, but tilts it just enough to not muffle his ear.

“I’ll say! You must be taller than me now!”

“You? No way!”

“Stand up, let’s see!”

Shouta hears Hizashi’s chair screech as it’s pushed back and the other boy presumably stands to compare his height with Tensei.

“Oh, wow, guess I am!”

Shouta bites his lip.

He’s taller than Tensei?

His face gets impossibly hotter.

At this rate, he’d have to keep his head buried for all of homeroom.

Hell, at this rate, he wouldn’t be able to look at Hizashi ever again.

“How does it feel?” Tensei asks. “Hit any lamps?” he jokes.

Hizashi laughs again and Shouta hears more shuffling and the chair creaks again.

“Ah...I don’t know. I’m still getting used to it. It kind of hurt when it happened, to be honest. Growing pains,” he says, with his tone dismissive. Shouta frowns, his mind switching tracks as he picks up the uneasy lilt to Hizashi’s words, his concern for the other boy overriding his crush.

He lifts his head, turning to look at Hizashi, his flush having disappeared. Hizashi’s eyes widen and it takes Shouta aback for a second, seeing that green gaze uninterrupted by his glasses, which have been pushed back onto the top of Hizashi’s head. The blond’s thumb and forefinger are still pressed against the bridge of his nose, where he’d apparently been rubbing before Shouta had decided to join the conversation.

“Ah, hey, Shouta!” Hizashi smiles, dropping his hand away from his face and pulling his glasses back into place. “How was your summer?” Immediately, Hizashi’s voice has ticked up back to its normal, happy pitch.

Shouta feels the heat resurfacing along the back of his neck and quickly tries to shake off the thought of, he’s happy to talk to me.

“Exhausting,” he answers. It’s the truth. He was still tired and sore from the weeks of training.

Tensei hums his agreement from where he stands above them.

“I feel that,” he says. Tensei rubs at his arms, just below where his engines are. “I thought I was going to lose a limb a few times there. At least with my internship being with my family, I didn’t have to explain when I almost fell asleep at dinner a few times.”

Shouta snorts and Hizashi full on belly laughs at the imagery of Tensei passing out into his salad.

“Yeah...sleep was hard to come by,” Shouta comments, resting his chin against his hand. He’d worked with an underground hero, knowing by now that, that was the path he’d be going down, and while he’d thought adjusting to no sleep at night would be easy for someone like him, he’d collapsed on his bedroom floor a few times coming home after work, not making it to the bed.

“How about you?” Tensei asks Hizashi.

The boy shrugs.

“Ah...the internship really wasn’t so bad...but my quirk got pretty out of control when my growth spurt happened. That wasn’t fun,” Hizashi admits, rubbing the back of his neck and looking at his desk.

“Sorry to hear that,” Tensei says, placing a hand on Hizashi’s shoulder. “It’s better now?”

Hizashi shrugs and Shouta is about to open his mouth, try to say something, anything to get the smile back on the blond’s face, but their homeroom teacher walks through door, calling their attention to her.

Tensei moves back to his seat and before Shouta can say anything, they’re thrown quickly into the first day’s classes.

It’s not until lunch that he gets the opportunity to say anything to Hizashi, but by then, the other boy already seems to be in a better mood, and they’d promised to meet Nemuri at one of the benches outside the school to catch up now that she’d graduated. Shouta walks beside Hizashi as they make their way to the meeting place, unable to stop himself from continuously glancing at the other boy, letting his eyes roam up and down his towering body, still not used to having to look up to see his face.

“It’s weird, huh?”

Hizashi’s question throws him for a loop, making him stumble a bit in his gait.

“W-what?” Shouta asks.

“Me being so tall, it’s weird, isn’t it?” Hizashi asks again, looking down at Shouta with a small, almost insecure smile.

“No,” Shouta insists.

“I see the way you keep looking at me,” Hizashi says. He pauses his step, and Shouta casts a helpless look over his shoulder as Tensei keeps walking on ahead of them, leaving them alone.

What was he supposed to say to that?

Yeah, you’re right. I can’t keep my eyes off you?

“Um…” Shouta mumbles, looking to the side.

“Is it my clothes? I know they’re kind of awkward now...they don’t fit right. I had to get bigger ones, but now these are too big…” Hizashi says, pulling at his shirt. Now that he mentions it, Shouta could see how Hizashi’s clothes sag around him in ways they never did before, obviously too large for his slim frame.

“I guess they think that if you’re tall, you’re also really muscular or something,” Hizashi says. “Not me, though, I still got these sweet, sweet chicken legs,” Hizashi jokes and rolls his eyes, but Shouta hears how his tone is too dark to really be considered funny. It’s too self-deprecating.

Was he really feeling bad about the way he looked now?

“What? No!” Shouta says. “You look…” Shouta runs his hands through his hair. “You...the reason I keep looking at you is because I think...I think you look really good. I think…well I just...like it...I like the new you.”

This time, when the blush comes creeping onto his cheeks, he doesn’t hide it. There isn’t any way for him to cover up his face anyway.

“You like it?”

Shouta nods.

“You like…”

Shouta lifts his head, looking at Hizashi, only to see the blond is also flushed.

“Me?” Hizashi finishes his sentence and Shouta’s heart takes off, immediately kicked into overdrive.

His mouth feels incredibly dry. He opens it, but nothing comes out. There are no words in his head, and now he’s just standing there, wide eyed and slack jawed in front of his friend.

Hizashi waits, but as Shouta continues to not respond, he chuckles a little awkwardly and starts turning.

“I...uh...sorry…I guess I got the wrong idea...I-” Hizashi starts mumbling as he moves to walk away, but Shouta grabs his arm.

“I do.”

Hizashi looks back at Shouta and he holds his breath.

“You do...what?” Hizashi asks.

Shouta can’t believe he’s going to make him say it.

“Like you. I do. I do like you.”

Just like that, Hizashi’s grin bursts onto his face, and Shouta’s heart flutters.

“Good! Great!” Hizashi shouts and steps closer to Shouta, laughing. “Good! Because I do too! I like you too!”

“N-no way…” Shouta whispers.

“Yes way! I like you a lot! I was so worried...when you turned away this morning…” Hizashi’s gaze shifts down to the ground. “I thought you didn’t like the way I looked now...or that something had happened over the summer and you didn’t like me anymore…”

“No, never,” Shouta says, moving his grip down from where he’d been holding Hizashi’s wrist to grab the blond’s hand instead, intertwining their fingers. “I’ve liked you for a while now, since last year. Nothing has changed. Well…”

“Well?” Hizashi asks, squeezing his hand.

“I guess you got a bit hotter…”

Hizashi’s face goes pink.

“Shouta!”

He smirks as the blond pulls his hand away from Shouta’s and uses it to cover up his face, flustered by Shouta’s comment.

“Are you two love birds going to join us anytime soon or are Tensei and I just going to eat by ourselves?” Nemuri shouts from where she’s waiting on the bench with Tensei.

Shouta had almost completely forgotten about lunch, and by Hizashi’s shocked expression, apparently so had he.

Hizashi smiles down at Shouta and offers his hand again, which he takes, and they begin walking toward their friends to undoubtedly answer a whole lot of questions Shouta really didn’t care to talk about.

It’s okay, though, he’s sure Hizashi can give them all the details.

He was good at talking.

More than that, he was good at understanding Shouta’s needs, the way he wouldn’t want to share everything that had just happened between them, wouldn't want to gush over the fine details like Nemuri was bound to.

Hizashi squeezes his hand and Shouta looks up at him.

“I’m so happy,” he says.

Shouta smiles and the words come out easy, “Me too.”

[redditnosleep]

There Was A Series Of Unexplained Deaths In My Town In 1988

by crystakat

In the winter of 1988, bodies began appearing on the border between my town and the surrounding woods. A group of campers had stumbled upon a man in his early thirties, completely nude and almost perfectly preserved by the cold weather. By the end of the day, two more had been found within a quarter-mile radius. All three were naked, found lying on open ground as if there’d been no attempt to hide them. One woman and two men. None bore any visible wounds.

The news exploded. It was a little backwoods town where not much happened, so when three strangers turned up dead hardly a mile off of Revell Street, it became all anyone could talk about. I was just a kid then, a few months into sixth grade, and the rumors that spread around school were ridiculous.

Family breakfast that morning was quieter than usual. Mom was horrified, poring over the newspaper as she wondered aloud if it was safe to send my eight-year-old sister and me to school by ourselves.

“Jesus,” she said, gesturing at the paper. “Look at this, Michael. They put their photos in. That’s just not decent.”

Dad glanced over. “I’ll bet you it’s drugs, and this whole fuss is for nothing.”

“Can I see?” I asked, reaching out to take the paper from mom.

She pursed her lips. “Fine, but don’t show Mandy.” I grabbed it and looked it over: three grainy pictures of nondescript faces. It was kind of disappointing, though I didn’t dare say that out loud. While mom was washing the dishes, I let my sister have a peek.

Mandy stuck her tongue out as she looked them over. “That one looks like William,” she giggled, pointing at the leftmost photo, a man with dark hair and a rasp of stubble. “He’s a boy in my class.” It was so innocently morbid that I couldn’t help but laugh. I got up to help mom with the dishes, though even as I occupied myself with chores, I couldn’t help but linger on the strange deaths.

My dad insisted there was a logical explanation for it all. Three young people, drunk and stumbling lost in the woods on a below-zero night… well, he said, you can imagine what happens next.

In the following week, he was proven wrong. The autopsy was published: no trace of drugs, medicinal or otherwise, in their blood. No alcohol either. The cause of death couldn’t be ascertained; there had been no physical trauma, no blood loss, no pre-existing medical conditions. The article in the newspaper declared it most closely resembled death by shock: a sudden, massive rush of adrenaline essentially stunning the heart into inaction. That only seemed to open up more questions. One person might have been explainable, but three? What’s enough to shock three people like that?

A chunk of the woods had already been put under police patrol when a new body turned up, nude yet unharmed like the others. It’d been snowing pretty heavily that winter, blanketing the woods in a thick white layer, and at night I’d lay awake and think of how awful it was to die like that, freezing and alone with only the shadows of trees stretching over you.

Before the week was over, there was a fifth body, sprawled in almost the exact same spot. Somehow, nobody had seen where it’d come from. One police officer interviewed by the press said he’d been passing through the area just minutes prior, and in the time that he was gone, it was like it'd just “blinked into existence”.

A fresh wave of rumors emerged at school, though now they were less nervously excited, more tinged with fear. Though the evidence was frustratingly nonexistent, the unspoken consensus was that they had to be murders.

When a sixth body popped up, a 10 pm curfew was imposed on adults and children alike. If I remember correctly, that was around the time the FBI caught wind of the case. The whole stretch of forest had already been cordoned off with police tape, the perimeter constantly surveilled by a flock of solemn-looking officers who made sure no one got in or out. I’d used to play in that forest all the time with my friends, and seeing it suddenly made into the site of six bloodless deaths was surreal, to say the least. That was what the media started calling it: the Bloodless Murders. Sometimes the bodies came in pairs, sometimes alone. By the tenth or eleventh, there was a definite pattern: while they varied in ethnicity and sex, they were all relatively young, twenties to forties, and all found nude. Some even looked as if they’d had clothes on minutes before, with the indentation of a watch or waistband still etched into their skin at the time of discovery.

Have you ever been in a room where everyone’s holding their breath? Every person just waiting for the ball to drop, the silence so bad that you could almost drown in it? Now imagine a whole town.

You want to know the strangest part about all this? Weeks dragged on, and none of the bodies were ever identified. Their fingerprints were intact, but there were no known matches. DNA testing came up empty. A public campaign to find the identities of the Bloodless victims turned up nothing. It was like these people had emerged from nowhere. Deprived of their names and backstories, the victims went unmourned, blurred into one murky entity.

Shit really hit the fan about a month into the case. Some up-and-coming journalist—a guy by the name of Walton, I think—claimed to have uncovered the truth behind it all, and wrote a tell-all article divulging the details that hadn’t been released by police or FBI. Apparently, the Bloodless Murders weren’t so bloodless after all. It was true that most were found untouched, but four of the dead practically had had bites taken out of them, whole sections of their bodies just gone. One guy was missing almost half his right side, and one of the women was short an arm. “Bites” might be a little misleading, though. The missing pieces had been removed cleanly—almost too cleanly. In Walton’s words, they looked as if they’d been “scooped” out, or simply magicked away.

Walton claimed he had the records to prove the area was under even more intense surveillance than most would’ve guessed. Besides hundreds of cameras that had been covertly installed in trees and rocks throughout the forest, there were also loads of temperature data loggers and state-of-the-art recording equipment, along with a whole host of other devices that I couldn’t even wrap my head around. Stuff that measured radiation and minute changes in the composition of the air. If he was right, it must’ve cost a ton. Supposedly the data showed “climatological deviations”—basically weird spikes and dips in temperature corresponding to the times that the bodies were found.

If Walton was right, there was a good chance that the FBI was in possession of video and audio recordings showing the origin of the bodies. It sounded like a crazy conspiracy, even though Walton hadn’t been able to come up with a solid theory for the reason behind the cover-ups. That was the part that drove me crazy. I must’ve re-read that article a hundred times.

What happened next was total lockdown. The newspaper was pulled from publication in the blink of an eye. Walton publicly apologized for having made fabricated claims and trying to make a spectacle out of the deaths. Not much was heard from him after that. The case was under the full jurisdiction of the FBI, according to my parents, and local police were all but shut out of it. I don’t know what happened, exactly, but suddenly the media coverage dropped to zero.

At school, the teachers gave a talk about it, how we were all safe and there was to be no further spreading of rumors. I remember thinking about the weirdness of that whole day. While Mr. Russell was going on and on about the importance of following the curfew, there’d been a team of adults who quietly escorted kid after kid out of the room, ushering each one back in about ten minutes later. One of them was my friend, Sophia. After the assembly, I quizzed her about what had happened over a lunch of stale pizza.

“It was really weird,” she said, picking halfheartedly at her food. “They took a sample of my spit, and some of my hair and nails too. You think they’re checking for diseases?”

I didn’t know how to answer her. The whole thing left a sour taste in mouth, and I felt helpless and scared. The parents must’ve been encouraged not to talk about it either, because whenever I brought it up to my mom and dad after the whole Walton fiasco had gone down, they shut me down fast.

In hindsight, I probably never should have attempted the plan. On a Friday night, I snuck out after curfew, armed with only a handful of granola bars and a flashlight. I biked down to the woods. It didn’t take long; it was one of those childhood routes that you know by heart. I wasn’t even sure about what I was hoping to find. Chalk it up to mix of curiosity and senselessness.

There were patrols standing around, but I managed to make my way to a dense copse of trees and snuck in from there, feeling my heart racing a hundred miles an hour as I ducked under the yellow police tape. The sheer stupidity of my idea hadn’t quite settled in yet. If what Walton had written about the surveillance had been true, there wasn’t a chance in hell that I wasn’t going to get spotted, but being a kid and all, I hoped I’d get off with a slap on the wrist. I turned my flashlight on to the dimmest setting and began my trek, praying that I knew the path through the woods as well as I thought.

Time passed differently that night. Maybe I was walking around for thirty minutes; maybe it was three hours. The sky was inky black, and in the darkness, the trees distorted themselves into more and more monstrous forms with each step I took. All I know is, when I stumbled across the body, the world came to a shuddering halt.

Under the cone of artificial light, the body looked fresh, the skin still pink. I remembered thinking if I’d touched him, he might still have been warm. His eyes were wide open, glassy as a river, face set in an expression of determination. There was a tattoo on his bare chest, a sentence written in a shaky scrawl:

IT COMES ON 07.11.2036

[rockmywings]

Korean Crime TV Series Review#2: VOICE (보이스)

THE MAIN CHARACTERS TRIO:

Lead Male (Moo Jinhyuk “Mad Dog”): A veteran detective from Serious Crime Unit, being demoted as a leader of Golden Time Team under Emergency Call Department. 

Lead Female (Kang Kwonjoo “Kang Center”): A profiler who has super hearing ability, The chief of Emergency Call Department.

second lead male Main Antagonist (Mo Taegu “Mr. Mo”): CEO of Sungwun Express, an upper-classman. Psychopath.

PLOT:

Main: To catch the criminal who has murdered both Mad Dog’s wife and Kang Center’s dad and who also committed several crimes. 

Sub: To save a life who is in crucial danger from their emergency call.

OFFICIAL ENGLISH TRAILER:

REVIEW BY GENRES:

1) Various Crimes: There are Serial Killer, Kidnapping/Abduction, Child Abuse, Gangster, Illegal Immigrant, Stalker, Human Organ Trafficking, Corrupted Company, Corrupted Police--so complete. The series touches from individual crime to organizational crime, from marginal society to upper-class community. And the gruesome of crime scene places us in reality how horror the real crime is, why they are deserved to be censored in blur like News do on TV Channel (although it’s bothersome to me who use to see gore scenes in The Walking Dead and violence in any US Crime TV Series). I like how Golden Team looks so smart along with Kang Center herself as the profiler and with a hacking skilled officer to get any information. Though, there’s one staff whose multi-language ability is seriously wasted because what she did most times are similar to the hacker, as she also seeks information through internet. However, because our protagonists come from Emergency Call Center, we see how Serious Crime Unit are always outsmarted, making us wonder if they’re a bit competent in investigating while this one should be their expertise. For example, there’s no forensic or CCTV investigation ever shown here but somehow it makes sense because all of the victims who died here are under the main antagonist’s control who could ask to be covered while Golden Team successfully rescues all victims who made the emergency call.

2) Horror Elements: A part of the success of any popular scary movie is the perfect killer. There’s no other character more interesting in the show rather than the killer himself and I can guarantee Mo Taegu would steal your attention in every of his appearance. Let me explain it: A man wearing a black raincoat with face covered behind hoodie but his devilish grin is walking closer in calm steps, a sinister voice with a gravel-like quality of his jaw cracks then strikes the fear of a tormented fresh-faced woman before brutally murdering her--that’s your first impression of him. But, it wasn’t just a typical random unfortunate person whom a serial killer encounter in the dark street with certain modus operandi, nope!! More the killer is introduced, you realize he’s a type who could appear right in front of your door or behind the window creepily, making a hiss like a dinosaur to enter your room whether he decides to kill or just intentionally scare you--we’d find he did it at least 4-5 times in the series!!! (and my fave is when Kwonjoo met his eyes behind the lookout lens of her door) And behind the mask, there’s a rich, smart, and classy-typed businessman wearing an elegant suit with charming face who enchants everyone--so charismatic. Well, there is one episode that doesn’t really makes sense when he’s brutally murdering Madam Fantasia off-screen. The body is nowhere to be found in the building while he clearly didn’t have enough time to hid it in his car unnoticeable, laundry his suit (I mean, look at how much the blood he spread on floor and wall while he killed her not under his raincoat), peeking on Kang Center who has arrived 10 minutes after the phone call only to see her reaction finding his crime scene, then come back to meeting room he left before. But fuck off the logic, once again, this is horror show; let’s enjoy every killing scene of every bone he’s crushing using his kettlebell, or grotesque art of blood he painted on the wall citing Bible quote, or when he keeps the body wrapped in his house then doing bloodbath like Elizabeth Bathory, it’s all horrifyingly entertaining. Don’t forget that his victims also made a bad move tropes to meet him and give us a death flag. As if it wasn’t enough, Taegu also has some hallucination things, how creepy it is when he stared at the policeman in the car like a supernatural horror and when he’s being murdered on his mind like a zombie scene. Although those all aren’t enough to scare me, I’m sure there are some audiences who maintain to keep watching this show with eyes peeking behind their fingers but you can’t leave it yet to see who he’d murder next and who’d be survived. You’d be surprised when it reveals he commits more crimes through his company and more number of murders he had done for years with many different sizes of his weapon that will freak you out!! And with high status to work with gangster and a certain police to cover it all whom he could just eliminate as his next murdering target if he wanted, I’ll say “Welcome to Sungwun City, Mo Taegu’s World.” He is too complete to be a psychopath, an extremely powerful evil case with intellect brain to know what he does. He could be starring his own horror movie if Voice ever made a prequel. Maybe the only thing he hadn’t done yet (or ever shown) is cooking and eating the victims' meat LOL. But seriously, as the citing bible, doing bloodbath, and keeping body or organs, comes from nowhere (that is kinda different persona from the mysterious killer in eps 1-3); the writer even can add if he was ever cannibal too.

3) The high suspense in every episode: While the main villain is horror enough, the co-villains in some emergency cases also could raise the suspension that makes you hold your chair and grit your teeth. This was the most exciting thing because you could see desperate emotions of the victims transported through the call and how The Golden Team is rescuing them, battle in countdown timer minutes by minutes, second by second. Even after the first two cases that you become to feel every rescue is predictably success, you won’t lose the suspense. Voice is directed in plot-driven like a formula one’s car and once you’re seated there, you can’t stop ‘til finish line. My fave case is the child abuse, we feel so pity and hopeless because the one who makes a call is a little boy hiding in washing machine and bleeding. The least suspense is the rescue of bus passengers as the last rescue case in eps 15, probably I’ve been pretty surfeited of the repetitive rescue (but the case is important to show how crazy Mr. Mo runs his business).

4) Full Packed Action: Well, a premise of a lead male seeks revenge for the murder of the person he loves is cliche and standard in action movies; this how Mad Dog vs Mr. Mo’s confrontation has been lead since the series prolog, we know their final battle should happen. Jinhyuk himself wouldn’t be called “Mad Dog” without reason if this genre were absent. Look how his action is performed throughout the series, especially when he beat up all the gangsters in the meat house—so intense and brutal!! Don’t ever ask his nonstop energy, this is how action genre treats the main hero. Then, I expect a same intense hand in hand combat scene as to how action movie’s climax battle should be handled, main hero and main villain are equal although it’s predictable who’d be the winner in the end. Both Mad Dog and Mr. Mo are canonly brutal, you can see the same of them staring terrifyingly and intimidating when they talked to Nam Sang Tae in different scenes; you see how strong they are. Instead, we just get a short gunfighting?! I don’t complaint the gunfighting, but I mean, can they also make a duel with Jet Kun Do vs Tae Kwon Do as the two actors have the martial art skill for real? The director could make they ran out of bullet, then fight brutally, then the cops stop them to arrest him. It’s a wasted potential because the director even had given Mad Dog’s fight against a South East Asian assassin for two episodes! However, Taegu’s ending in the rooftop scene is still satisfying. Maybe the concept of Mad Dog vs Mr. Mo kinda like Batman and Joker. Despite being evil, of course Joker is powerless compared to Batman’s strength if he ever challenged him in combat. The purpose isn’t about which one is stronger. Same as Joker provokes Batman, Taegu also enjoys provoking Jinhyuk to kill himself even by telling him how he killed his wife, to prove he’s just another monster like him. And although we see how Jinhyuk doesn't hesitate to shoot Taegu four times in the rooftop brutally, he didn’t kill him at the end as he pities his enemy. But audiences would know later how it punishes Taegu in a very cruel way unexpectedly compared to what if he just died in Jinhyuk’s hand as he wishes. And of course, he deserves it.

5) The Drama is about The Victims: As well as how the credit title is presented, it tells us that this show is about the victim’s voice in asking help that used to be abandoned by slow police procedural--including our hero and heroine’s beloved one. But not only that, the profiler’s approach to seeking the Criminal’s motive then trying to calm them, making them tremble, and feeling sympathy really reminds me of Criminal Minds; criminals can be born because they were a victim too in the past--trust me, even you’d pity Taegu in the end!

6) Almost Zero Romance: 

Tbh, I don’t like the cliche that the lead male and lead female eventually hook up in the end (although I’m okay with the possible idea) so I’m glad it doesn’t happen with Voice. Even though they start to work together as a team professionally, they didn’t have to fall into an affair like duo Mulder and Scully of The X-Files. Their relationship is amazingly platonic ‘til the end as you watch them developing trust, teamwork, bond, and care to each other. 

If there’s any romance ever sparking, two Kwonjoo’s staffs in Emergency Call may be hinted. The woman is cool at first while the guy is cheerful and kind of a flirt. An obsessive fan of him is even jealous of her. But as I said, it was just hinted. Their occasional heartwarming interaction may be made for taking a break in all suspense and violent cases. It wasn’t out of place since it’s just a little and eps 9 could give you space to breathe. 

Well, this one depends on interpretation, but Taegu seems to have special attraction/interest of Kwonjoo sexually (of course, in a sick mind only psychopath could describe), for example when he stalked her, caressed her bed, stared at her picture, gave her a gift, happy when she found him, claimed that both of them are different from common herd, and show a disappointment that she doesn’t like it. On her profiling, Kwonjoo said why he’s “soft” at her probably because she reminds him of his mother, the only person he genuinely loves. Their chemistry is something the audiences not expecting before, especially in the rooftop scene as their climax. But I'm sure no one complaints [laughs].

Nah, the only true romance no one can’t debate is Jinhyuk’s love for his deceased wife; how he’s broken, how’s he seeks revenge, and then how he finally let it go.

OTHER POSSIBLE FLAWS:

Voice is an easy story and predictable with those action, suspense, and horror elements (although there’s still a twist); the ending is also clear, not open. The main mystery isn’t something that makes you heavily think to guess who is the culprit or suspect someone. Well, it’s enough to thrill for half series because once Taegu’s character is introduced at eps 8, the focus itself actually isn’t about a conspiracy behind the police/prosecutor institution like TvN Signal or TvN Stranger since the mastermind is the person outside it. Some audience may be fooled or even disappointed about it but I’m not (once again, I said Taegu’s character as psychopath fits more in horror tropes). The procedural pace, the variety of crimes, and the plot-driven won’t make you bored that you probably forget to ask for character development and question the logic; though, sometimes the running clock is too long to make us question if the run really happened just in 5 minutes. 

The lead female’s super hearing ability is the reason why all the emergency rescues success where the title “Voice” comes from, it’s full an entertaining fiction, we know real life isn’t like that. Still, it isn’t without flaw; for example, she could amazingly hear the boy’s slow tap behind the wall through communication but she failed to hear the hitting sound Taegu made when he’s smashing Daeshik’s head in the basement right when she’s entering his house. And her ability might be useless if the criminals were smart enough to make sure there's no cellphone being kept in their victim's pocket to be able to make contacts.  

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

Voice is definitely my fave Korean TV Series so far. It isn’t perfect but somehow I don’t feel this is a Kdrama at all. Look at those three main characters: 

The nuance I feel around the lead female’s department and how she handles the cases is almost like when I watch US TV Series of Police Procedural Dramas (many felt like Criminal Minds mixed with 9-1-1), 

the lead male’s fighting scene is like The Raid, Bourne, or John Wick (also the Surim-dong case reminds me of NCIS: New Orleans’s case “Clearwater”),

the main killer’s approach is like Wes Craven’s SCREAM and his personality is like American Psycho’s Patrick Bateman. 

With these references, I don’t recommend this series to those who can’t stand to watch gruesome violence. The age rating in Korea's Standard is 19+ and if it was measured to my country's rating standard (Indonesia), it'd be 21+.

I haven’t mentioned yet that the actors and the actresses, both leads and supporting, are amazing. I don’t watch much Korean entertainment (movie and show) so this is the first time I’m introduced to them all, and suddenly both Jinhyuk’s actor (Jang Hyuk) and Taegu’s actor (Kim Jae Wook) are added to my fave list for me interested to watch their other projects. I also like the veteran actress who plays a granny in Surim-dong incident; she could act as three different characters!

I’m looking forward to Season 2 aired on 11th August 2018. Now, without Jinhyuk and Taegu’s characters anymore as their confrontation story is over; I wonder if this time The Golden Team somehow ever fails to save a life like TvN Signal and have kind of a sociopath as main villain like OCN Tunnel. Who knows? I still can’t imagine someone more psycho and charismatic than Taegu yet haha. And with a different director, it’s probably not horror as season 1 anymore, but more thriller. But most importantly, I want to see and know more about the heroine, Kang Center, she’s at least need character development since she was the core of “voice”.

[strangcrdoctor]

∞Guardians commentary time, because I was honestly too wiped out to get to it last night but I’m still very up for it now. 

1. So here’s my question about the opening sequence on Morag. If Ronan had hired the people that faced off with Quill in the opening sequence on Morag, was it just the case that Ronan’s men arrived 2.5 minutes too late, like Peter arrived just early enough to beat out Yondu? Because initially my impression was that they were indigenous and guarding it, but I know now that not to be the case because Korath is very much a devotee of Ronan, etc. But even if it is the case that Peter beat Ronan’s people, holy timing Batman. Seriously kudos to Quill for being even if incidentally two steps ahead of even Ronan’s game. 2. Okay one, Nova Prime Irani Rael is a hot piece and two she definitely deserves to be the girlfriend of General Leia Organa you can disagree with me but that makes you a suspect human being. Anyway, Rael making the diplomatic call to the Kree to denounce Ronan was not out of bounds for normal statecraft. Especially with a new and tenuous alliance, she’s not only right in calling bullshit that the Kree empire has said nothing to denounce Ronan, but she’s also right in advising they make a statement to stabilize their early peace because early peace is amazingly fragile. But like way to not maintain an alliance at all Kree Empire. You suck. 3. The actual diversity of felons on the Kyln is pretty neat, I’m not going to lie. Not just interspecies representation but also body type representation. There’s big very obviously non-straight criminals. There’s cool as shit looking alien species. There’s chubby feminine looking criminals! Tell me who they are Marvel! Tell me. 4. Now that Thanos’ real character has been revealed in the course of IW it is no damn wonder why Thanos thought of Ronan as a petulant child. Granted, Thanos’ logic is worse in that it is slightly better, but by comparison Thanos is an overly dire pragmatist were Ronan is very much just a racist bigot with a power complex. Thanos predictably find’s Ronan’s racial shortsightedness pithy, and I really have zero doubt that if Ronan had actually gone to piss on Thanos’ front lawn he would not have lasted long. 5. On the other hand, really Thanos. #1 piece of advice in the universe is don’t torture and dismantle women and then trust them to be complicit. You will die. 6. If anyone doesn’t feel pelvic sorcery during a close listening to Fooled Around & Fell In Love they are definitely soulless. 7. I also really really want to know what the hell they were drinking on Knowhere that got Rocket and Drax drunk (I mean who knows they might both be lightweights but I doubt it.), because Stephen wants some. 8. I’ll come right out and say it it’s a fucking shame that Tivan’s collection gets blown to hell. Not because Tivan isn’t twisted as hell keeping live specimens and slaves to himself, but more on the “holy crap what cool stuff just got destroyed that the universe will never see again” kind of way. It’s like the burning of the Library of Alexandria, only somehow worse. 9. The nods given to Thor: The Dark World and The Avengers are of course interesting given there’s a Dark Elf and a Chitauri, but I’m super curious about what made those particular specimens of each special enough for Tivan to keep them. Tivan deals with the depths and breadths of the universe coming in and out of Knowhere, and he doesn’t just snag one item from every species or race he comes across. So was there something interesting in particular about that Dark Elf and that Chitauri? Was the Chitauri one of the only remaining survivors after the nuclear explosion? Was the Dark Elf one of Malekith’s higher ups? I’m just curious about them, and curious about Tivan’s reasoning for keeping them. 10. Okay but adding to this whole Tivan’s collection tangent, Cosmo the Space dog cracks me up and not just because it’s funny for Tivan to have a doggie cosmonaut in his collection. Cosmo is a legit character in the Guardians comics, and he’s head of security on Knowhere and telepathic. So even if Tivan is keeping him in his collection or is just trying to keep him out of the way for something, just imagine what it’s like having an angry Russian dog thinking at you all the time because you’re getting in the way of him doing his job. 11. Slightly different bend on the Tivan train, but Carina legitimately just heard Tivan talk about how the stone was capable of destroying even a whole group of people who tried to wield it, and she was still willing to take the risk of being incinerated rather than living with her current conditions. Carina wasn’t resolutely making the hero play - she was making a suicide play knowing full well it would end that way if the hero play didn’t work. 12. When Yondu states that Peter doesn’t give a rip about Terra like. Dude. How many fucking references in this movie has he made to Terran culture? Music and movies and art and holy shit would you look at that, he sure as hell talks like a more culturally integrated human than anything else you twat waffle. Great way to piss him off though and get him to play it your way, which granted is what I think Yondu was probably doing the whole time but still. You don’t look at this boy who idolizes Footloose and knows who Jackson Pollock is and tell him he doesn’t care about Earth. Caring about Footloose and Jackson Pollock at all is a labor of love. 13. Speaking of Yondu, how the fuck is that the jewel frog bauble considered by anyone to be worth of the “high end” community? On top of it just hurting me, it does really raise the question of how is trite crap like that so valuable? Does it have some vector of worth and rarity because its origins are weird, obscure, or finite? Are the gems magical artifacts of some kind? Are the wealthy in space that mother-fucking self-ironic? Because if they are I want to know them. 14. Peter Quill, everyone, who makes a dick message to garner trust 15. Not for the first for for the last time will I say this, but Ravager tech is impressive. And I am amazingly intrigued at how Ravagers got such good technology and resources on their hands. True, they steal things and make money off of trades and pilfering. But that isn’t the only way to acquire goods and it’s not the only thing a viable pirating economic model can survive off of. Half the reason the Ravagers succeed is because they run like a business, have clientele, and are clientele for certain sects, right? So what kind of powerful connections do they have that allow them their advanced fleets? That’s the kind of shit I want to know about. 16. Also what the hell are Ronan’s pilots with the weird glowy psychic spheres on the Dark Aster? Is the Dark Aster itself Kree technology, or something Ronan got from Thanos who appropriated it from some other world he’s conquered? Because we know so little about the Kree in the MCU it’s hard to say, but I suppose we’ll have to wait and see if the Kree ever do become a part of canon so we can have more data with which to make a comparison. 17. Guardians does a pretty good job of taking at least some time to portray how terrible aerial dogfighting is on a mass scale because honestly it’s a bloody nightmare. It’s pictured so often and so carelessly in film that it’s not something we often think about, and the only movie I’ve ever seen that addresses how it feels in human terms is Dunkirk, but the intensity and messiness of it in Guardians is still pretty realistic and I give it props for that. 18. It occurs to me that maybe the younger, post-GOTG Groot is so bitter and antisocial for a while because of how giving the elder Groot was, and the seedling felt the sacrifice and his existence was under-appreciated? It was just a thought that crossed my mind. 19. Also Ronan you twat. “Engage Immolation Initiative” is just Big Mean & Fancy for “light ‘em up fuckers,” don’t pretend you’re any cooler than anyone else. 20. I really really appreciate the design that went into the Xandarian cityscape as a fully intergalactic multicultural society that shows it even in the way the city and buildings are assembled. The city isn’t uniform like a lot of science-fiction cities are - it’s got texture. Different sectors have different styles of buildings and different architecture. Like a real metropolitan area, it’s a patchwork of influences and it’s very well done. 21. Kudos to Rocket for identifying that ground-to-air is a super viable defense strategy. One thing that people tend to forget about ground-to-air is that aside from clouds, there’s no obstacles behind which to hide in the sky, so while ground defense might seem clumsy at times, air offense is hugely precarious because there is absolutely no defense mechanism against any attack except maneuvering, and when a defense is fully able to target that weakness it’s pretty damn effective. 22. It’s interesting to me how well superhero movies integrate climaxes within battle sequences? Some people might call it lazy but I call it interesting when when defense lines break, plans fail, and when teams encounter interference to push the plot forward. Plot movement in Marvel movies curry a lot of momentum from these events, but actually they’re pretty interesting replications of how modern society has been built on the results of such events within our own history. History has been moved by these exact same sorts of events, which is why they make sense to us in storytelling. 23. Peter protecting Groot from Rocket’s crash into the into the Dark Aster? Golden. And then Peter immediately going to Rocket from the wreckage? Stellar. Peter Quill you are a gem. 24. I will never forgive Marvel for hurting me as bad with “We are Groot” as Warner Brothers did with “Suuuuuperman” in Iron Giant. Stop giving Vin Diesel more opportunities to rip my heart out of my chest, please. 25. My mom and my uncle, her brother, both adored the entire GOTG soundtrack so much and it brought them so much joy watching it together that it got me into Motown. Even though it was oblique and dorky, Marvel did something amazing with this movie and gave my parents a piece of their own youth back, while giving me a chance to share in their knowledge and experience. It’s stuck with me ever since, especially because fundamentally that experience is the reason I got into Motown music, which I now adore with all my heart.

Alright, done with that. These are... just getting longer and longer I’m sorry guys no one should have ever allowed me to do this. Oh well. Too late to stop me now. Captain America: The Winter Solider is up next, and oh the pain.∞

[neoyeppuda]

Beautiful - Taehyung scenario

Request: a Taehyung scenario based on Ariana Grande’s Moonlight Warning: Suggestive themes Word count: 2,342 A/N: I’m sorry this took long!!! I had a difficult time with some parts but I hope you guys like it!!! :> enjoy~ -Clar

The night air was chilly, causing the man to shiver in his soft and warm wool overcoat. How his hands longed for warmth the gloves he wore couldn’t provide, eyes drifting towards the woman strolling beside him. Her smooth skin glowed under the moonlight, the natural shades of peach colored her cheeks accentuated silky strands of hair that stuck to her skin.

It was more than beautiful. The sight, the woman before him felt unreal. She basked in the silvery moonlight as if she was Artemis herself, it was like a spotlight just for her.

His hands were bitterly cold by now, and the walk home was still long. A sigh left his lips, his hot breath mingling with the cold air to create a puff of mist. “You alright?” the bright voice that questioned him came from the goddess on his right, he met her eyes and it set his heart aflutter. The jewels that were set there looked at him with such love and care it made his knees weak.

He swayed a bit and caught a whiff of a divine scent that seemed to originate from you. He subtly leaned towards you, the same sweet strawberry cream smell blessed his olfactory senses. It was tantalizing, and he wanted so much more. The light traces of the scent along the soft and supple skin of your neck was a beautiful image in his mind, he indugled in the fantasies that came to life thanks to his imagination.

Despite the weather he started feeling hot and bothered, a feeling he couldn’t shake off started growing on him. His mind displayed beautiful and indecent pictures that made him sweat, his mind so focus on your pretty face twisted in pleasure.

“Taehyung?” the voice brought him back from the mini pornhub in his head.

“It’s probably hormones,” he mumbled.

“What?”

“Hormones, (y/n),” he looked at you as if you were supposed to understand. Confusion hit you as hard as puberty hit your best friend and you decided to brush it off with a joke instead, “do you need some estrogen?”

He gave you some of his wonderful sarcasm and one of his delightful punches that was personally delivered to your left shoulder. Silence was then welcomed once again and Taehyung found himself longing for your warmth. His hands were still cold, he felt like they were about to fall off his hand, one by one to the ground. Blowing hot air into his frozen hands, he rubs them together, breathing through his teeth as the cold still insisted on turning his whole body into an ice sculpture.

“Cold?” you raised up an open hand which made him stare at it. He raised a brow, obviously confused, and just blinked at you, expecting an explanation. It was adorable and earned a giggle from you, “your hands are cold right?” He nods, clenching them into fists.

The way he looked at you made your heart skip a beat, he seemed so mesmerized by your every move and you didn’t know why. The guy was your best friend but you never knew he could look like that. You looked at him in the eyes and the sparkle in them sent shivers up your spine, a fire in the pit of your stomach sparked. His gloves were cold and damp when your hand brushed against it, you nudged his clenched hand and he let go.

It felt like a cheesy movie scene as the two of you held hands, your apartment was near and you could already see it in the distance. You didn’t notice the boy constantly staring at your hand in his, “isn’t this,” Taehyung paused, “weird?”

“What do you mean?” your grip on his hand loosened, you had your suspicions and was probably right about it as his eyes travelled downwards. “Aren’t you worried people would think of us as a couple?” he seemed embarrassed to say the word ‘couple’, his voice below a whisper as he finished his sentence.

“I don’t mind if you don’t mind,” you shrugged, “I mean, you’re okay with this right?” A nod was all that came out of him and his grip on your hand tightened, he was smiling. You’ve never seen such a childish smile on his face until tonight, and wondered what made him so happy.

As soon as you opened the door to your apartment and rushes to the couch and grabs one of the blankets neatly folded on the table, “I got the best seat in the house,” he exclaims, grabbing one of the popcorn buckets in front of him.

You roll your eyes at his childishness and took a seat beside him, “which one do you want to start with?” He pondered over it for a moment, there was a wide array of movies to choose from and he had a hard time deciding which one.

“Take your time,” he nodded as he continued looking for a movie.

It took a while before he found one. You were already dozing off, resting your head on the couch’s arm while a blanket wrapped you in its warmth. “(Y/n),” he nudged you, “I’ve made up my mind.” The movie started playing when you woke up from your nap, rubbing your eyes and stretching as you mumbled, “you took years.”

He laughs at you and plays the movie. After dimming the lights you returned to your seat to enjoy the movie. It was an action-comedy movie, of course, with its loud sound effects and clichè jokes it served as a good start. You made a few remarks here and there but he didn’t seem to hear them, his attention was wholly on the movie.

Despite your assumption, you were the only thing on the boy’s mind.

The scent you wore today was intoxicating, and he was drunk on it. Silky smooth skin bathed in the small stray rays of moonlight that infiltrated the dark room. Hair messily tousled and tied, decorated the sweet picture beside him. He loved it so much he couldn’t help but stare. After all, it’s not wrong to admire art.

However he couldn’t shake off this hunger he had. No matter how much popcorn he ate, it still lingered. He looks at you once more, and realized that it wasn’t food he was hungry for. “(Y/n),” he gulped. You hum in response, not bothering to look at him. An empty bucket of popcorn arrived at your lap, “I need more popcorn,” he whined.

You threw it at him, growling, “I need more silence.” With an “okay, geez,” he shuffled to the kitchen and returned shortly.

When you turned to welcome him back with an insult, all you saw was the bucket full of popcorn. “Where is that little bi-” you stopped as arms wrapped themselves around you. It smelled of Taehyung as you felt him nuzzle into your neck. You placed a hand on one of his arms, gripping it tightly, “what are you doing?”

The boy was running his fingers through your messy locks, “you just smelled really nice,” he sighed. You laughed, flattered by his remark, “Jin gave it to me the other day. He-” There he goes again with his wonnderful habit to cut you off. He held your cheek to make you face him, the look in his eyes dark and stern, “don’t talk about other guys.” He words sent shivers down your spine. You were scared of him, yet you didn’t know why his words excited you. You found yourself lost in the deep brown eyes that stared back at you. Foreheads were touching and hot breath was mixing. The atmosphere was too hot and you were a steamy mess. “Hey (y/n)?” he broke the silence. His eyes still gazing into yours as he asked, “what do you think of me?”

You were stunned by his sudden question, yet his gaze was ever so firm. He wanted an answer. “You’re my best friend,” you began, unsure about what to say.The boy clicked his tongue loud enough for you to hear, he wasn’t satisfied by that answer. “(Y/n),” he growled, “what would make you think of me in a different light?” The words that spewed out of his pretty mouth made you shudder in excitement as he whispered them into your ear. It was tantalizing.

And you wanted more.

“Answer me,” he demanded, nuzzling into the curve of your neck. Hot breath tickled your sensitive neck as he lightly nibbled on your skin. You whimpered, throwing more firewood into the fire burning inside him, “what am I supposed to say?” Your body was hot and bothered. Sweat glistened as he continued to work on your neck. “You’re supposed to say you love me,” his deep voice sang.

He had an adorable smirk on his face as he admired his work on your neck. It stung when his warm and wet mouth stopped, leaving your neck exposed to the cold air in the room. You noticed how terribly cold it was when his body left yours. Unconsciously, you grabbed a part of his shirt and he stopped, looking at you with wide eyes. Your expression mirrored his and you let go of the shirt. “It’s cold,” you blurted out in an attempt to explain your sudden actions. It was probably a bad choice of words. You realized that when he pressed himself against you, lips much more closer than before. A firm hand covered your eyes, pressing against your face softly before he pushed you down. “You’re warm,” he mumbles before reducing the distance to zero.

His lips were surprisingly soft, rapidly moving against yours in a gentle manner. “Open your mouth,” he commanded. You heard a small chuckle as he told you that you looked like a tomato. Just as you were going to cover your face he pins your hands down, removing his hand blocking your vision. The boy earlier and now seemed like different people. With his mouth agape he let out small pants. You watched as his chest heaved up and down, “(y/n),” he breathed out. He looked at you, this glint in his eyes that wasn’t there before, “I love you.”

Those words came to you as a shock. Your eyes met his and you were a flustered mess. “I love you,” he repeated sternly, “it’s been two years.” You mind went blank, not knowing what you could say in return. You’ve known the boy ever since middle school, and you’ve watched him fall in love with different girls. You were fine with that, supporting him with any girl he tried to get. All you wanted was him happy with whoever he loved. Now that he was telling you this; what should you feel?

“Why are you telling me now?” you whispered with a shaky voice. He looked taken aback, shyly averting his eyes from you, “I’ve been wanting to tell you, and today was just- you were just-” the boy couldn’t exactly finish his sentences. As you opened your mouth to calm him down, he looked at you with this determination in his eyes. Passionate red painted his face. He looked embarrassed yet he spoke so ardently that it moved you to tears.

“Everything about you is just so beautiful.”

Taehyung watched as glittery tears trailed your skin and fell onto the couch’s cushion. Even as your nose went runny, he still looked at you like you were the most beautiful thing on earth. “The way you look at me,” he plants a kiss onto your lips and works his way downwards, slow and steady. “The way you smile,” he whispers against your skin. The kisses were very soft, tickling your skin everytime his lips would touch it. “The way you insult me with your sarcasm,” he chuckles a bit against your neck, letting your pinned hands go free. His hands then slid down, tracing the outline of your body slowly as if he was teasing you. “I love the way you giggle when you’re happy,” he smiles at you for a brief moment before pressing something solid against you.

“Taehyung!” you yelped, instinctively wrapping your arms around his neck. “The way you whimper and moan isn’t that bad too,” he got off you caught his breath. After that he just sat there. You sat up as well, “I thought you wanted to…” you trailed off. Wiping off his sweat, he throws a wink at you, “you loved it didn’t you.” You shook your head firmly, denying it. His teasing words got you all flustered, avoiding any sort of eye contact with him as he proceeded to add fuel to the fire, “you sounded like you did.” Just as you were about to insult him, his confession popped back up into your mind. Looking away you told him to stop, “I haven’t answered you yet so,” you hesitated about whether it was the right thing to say or not, “please give me time to think about.” Taehyung was a stuttering mess as he replied. “Take all the time you need,” he said, reclining in his seat.

“But you weren’t really planning to do all of that, did you?” You looked at him, biting your lip with an eager glint in your eyes. He tilted his head to the side, looking upwards, “weeeeeell, I just wanted to tease you,” his eyes were now back at you, giving you an understanding look. “Did you want me to tease you more?” the grin on his face smug, moving closer to you on the couch inch by inch. The wanting look in his eyes that enticed you to mumble the words out, “maybe a little bit more.” He seemed pleased to hear that, calling you naughty. “Don’t you like it this way?” you cooed, earning a snicker out of him. You shared a laugh with him before he tackles you, teasing your ear as he whispered into it with his deep voice that ran shivers up your spine.

“If it’s you I’d like it in any way.”

[recentanimenews]

Fire Up The Anime Adaptation Speculation With Ranking Of Year's Hottest Light Novels

Every year since 2004's '05 guide, Takarajimasha publishes Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi! (This Light Novel is Amazing!), an overview of what's new and hot in Cool Japan's illustrated prose. With descriptions of what's on the shelves, it offers top lists of the fan favorites, as selected by online polls. These lists always invite anime adaptation speculation. Sure to fuel this, last year, Re:Zero was topped by The Ryuo’s Work is Never Done!/Ryuuou no Oshigoto!, which is just about to get an anime adaptation.

  There is a look at what made the list for the 2018 guide. See what made the list...

  Bunko Collab Votes Top 10 -via industry votes 1. The Ryuo’s Work is Never Done! 2. 86 3. Infinite Dendrogram 4. Moon, Laika and Vampire Princess 5. Sword Art Online 6. Bokutachi no Remake/Remake our Life 7. Jaku-Chara Tomozaki-kun 8. Gamers! 9. Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? 10. A Sister's All You Need

  Bunko Top 10 - via fan votes 1. Sword Art Online 2. The Ryuo’s Work is Never Done! 3. Konosuba 4. Seirei Gensouki - Konna Sekai de Deaeta Kimi ni 5. Re Zero 6. Classroom of the Elite 7. No Game No Life 8. Seishun Buta Yarou 9. The Irregular at Magic High School 10. A Certain Magical Index

  Tankoubon Top 10 1. Honzuki no Gekokujou 2. I'm A Spider, So What? 3. Saga of Tanya the Evil 4. Overlord 5. Monogatari 6. That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime 7. Mushoku Tensei 8. Yokohama Station Fable 9. Majo no Tabitabi 10.If It’s for My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord

  Tankoubon "Ordinary" Top 10: 1. Honzuki no Gekokujou 2. Overlord 3. Saga of Tanya The Evil 4. Slime 5. Monogatari 6. Mushoku Tensei 7. Kumo 8. Maou no Machizukuri 9. Majo no Tabitabi 10. In a Different World with a Smartphone

  Female top 10

1 Misaka Mikoto 664 points / 240 votes 2 Main (Rozenmain, Honzuki) 288 points / 103 votes 3 Yuuki Asuna 253 points / 144 votes 4 Sakurajima Mai 5 Katou Megumi 6 Yukinoshita Yukino 7 Yuigahama Yui 8 Rem 9 Isshiki Iroha 10 Othinus

  Male top 10

1 Kirito 612 points/254 votes 2 Hikigaya Hachiman 551 points/232 votes 3 Kamijou Touma 496 points/191 votes 4 Shiba Tatsuya 440 points/ 201 votes 5 Accelerator 407 points/ 164 votes 6 Sora 224 points 7 Natsuki Subaru 216 points 8 Ferdinand 208 points 9 Satou Kazumi 200 points 10 Ayanokoji Kiyotaka (196 points)

  Characters top 10

1 Misaka Mikoto 664 points / 240 votes 2 Kirito 612 points/254 votes 3 Hikigaya Hachiman 551 points/232 votes 4 Kamijou Touma 496 points/191 votes 5 Shiba Tatsuya 440 points/ 201 votes 6 Accelerator 407 points/ 164 votes 7 Maine (Rozenmain, Honzuki) 288 points / 103 votes 8 Yuuki Asuna 253 points / 144 votes 9 Sora 224 points 10 Natsuki Subaru 216 points

  Illustrator top 10

1 Haimura Kiyotaka 575 points / 224 votes 2 abec 492 points / 211 votes 3 Mishima Kurone 411 points /195 votes 4 ponkan8 410 points /183 votes 5 Mizoguchi Keiji 6 Kantoku 7 Misaki Kurehito 297 points /137 votes 8 Shirabii

Notable series

Seirei Gensouki - 13

Re Zero - 16

Goblin Slayer - 36

Classroom of the Elite - 19

No Game No Life- 23 Index - 26

Seishun Buta - 20

Irregular At Magic High School - 18

         The Ryuo’s Work is Never Done! is being adapted into a winter 2018 anime. It's offered in English by BookWalker, who describes it

The Ryuo’s Work is Never Done! is a story about a teenage boy named Yaichi Kuzuryu who happens to be the strongest shogi player in history, holding the top title of "Ryuo"(Dragon King). One fateful day, shogi-loving elementary student, Ai Hinatsuru, appears before him claiming that he promised to be her master. But was such a promise really ever made? Thus began their master and disciple relationship!

Originally published by SB Creative, The Ryuo’s Work is Never Done! took the number one spot on the "Kono Light Novel ga Sugoi" 2017 light novel rankings. SB Creative also announced earlier this month that the animated series will air in January 2018.

      86 by Shirabi and Asato is described

    For a long time this country was attacked by its neighbor, the Empire, which created a series of unmanned military vehicles called the Legion. In response to the threat, the Republic successfully completes the development of similar technology and reflects the enemy's attack, having managed to do without casualties. But this is... the official version. In fact, there were victims. Outside of 85 districts of the Republic there was actually another one. "The non-existent 86th district." It was there that day and night continued the battles in which young men and women from the detachment known as Eighty-Six participated—they fought in drones... Sheen directs the actions of young suicide bombers while on the battlefield. Lena is a "curator" who commands a detachment from a remote rear with the help of special communication. The farewell story of the severe and sad struggle of these two begins!

  Infinite Dendrogram by is offered in English by J-Novel Club

In the year 2043, Infinite Dendrogram, the world's first successful full-dive VRMMO was released. In addition to its ability to perfectly simulate the five senses, along with its many other amazing features, the game promised to offer players a world full of infinite possibilities. Nearly two years later, soon-to-be college freshman, Reiji Mukudori, is finally able to buy a copy of the game and start playing. With some help from his experienced older brother, Shu, and his partner Embryo, Reiji embarks on an adventure into the world of Infinite Dendrogram. Just what will he discover and encounter in this game world known for its incredible realism and infinite possibilities?

  Seishun Buta Yarou by Pet Girl of Sakurasou authors Hajime Kamoshjida and Keijo Mizoguchi is described 

"Hey, shall we kiss?" She who was teasing me with these seductive words temporarily disappeared before my eyes. 

There could not be a bunny girl inhabiting a library. Azusagawa Sakuta faced a scene that toppled common sense—he encountered a bunny girl, and she is nowhere a normal bunny girl. She is Sakurajima Mai senpai, a student studying at the same school as Sakuta and a retired yet renowned actress. It was said that starting from a few days ago, those around her could no longer see her anymore, and she came to the library just to confirm this. Is this related to the hit topic on the internet, the unimaginable phenomenon known as "the puberty syndrome"? Sakuta, wanting to know the reasons behind and get closer to Mai, decided to solve the puzzle. However, the situation then developed in an unexpected way?

In the city surrounded by the skies and the seas, the romance story of I and she began. The brand new romantic comedy presented by the Sakurasou combo.

  Remake our Life - Let's time-travel to 10 years ago and renjoy creative and sweet youthfyk days

  Jaku Chara Tomozaki-kun by Yuuki Yaku and Fly is described

This is a walkthrough of life (a shitty videogame)! Life is a bad video game. This cliche phrase is, sadly, a reality. However, life doesn’t have simple, easy rules. What it does have is irrationality and inequality. The strong say that they have a lot of freedom, but the weak have no choice but to live an overwhelmingly disadvantaged lifestyle. Therefore, it’s a shit game. There’s no mistake because I, the best gamer in Japan, declare it to be shit. —However, that person, who is on the same level as me, goes around saying “Life is a great game.” The school’s perfect, strong-willed heroine, Hinami Aoi. Furthermore, “I’ll teach you the rules of life (game)”? … Normally, I wouldn’t believe in those words. However, Hinami Aoi is a character that doesn’t even fit in a normal frame at all! 

    Seirei Gensouki - Konna Sekai de Deaeta Kimi ni by Yuri Kitayama and Riv is described

Amakawa Haruto is a young man who died before reuniting with his childhood friend who disappeared five years ago. Rio is a boy living in the slums who wants revenge for his mother who was murdered in front of him when he was five years old. Earth and another world. Two people with completely different backgrounds and values. For some reason, the memories and personality of Haruto who should've died is resurrected in Rio's body. As the two are confused over their memories and personalities fusing together, Rio (Haruto) decide to live in this new world. Along with Haruto's memories, Rio awakens an unknown "special power," and it seems that if he uses it well, he can live a better life. But before that, Rio encountered a kidnapping that turns out to be two princesses of the Bertram Kingdom that he lives in. After saving the princesses, Rio is given a scholarship to the Royal Academy, a school for the rich and powerful. Being a poor orphan in a school of nobles turns out to be an extremely detestable place to be.

     Honzuki no Gekokujou by Miya Kazuki and Suzuka is described

Reino, a book-loving college student who just got her librarian certification, was just hired to be a librarian at a large university library. Just before graduating and entering the job of her dreams, she was killed by a massive earthquake crushing her underneath a pile of her own books.  Wishing for reincarnation in order to read evermore, she got reincarnated to a world with a low literacy rate and very few books, limited only to the nobility. As she reincarnated as the daughter of a lowly soldier, no matter how much she wants to read there there are no books within her reach.  If there are no books then what do you do? Why, you make them yourself, of course! Her goal is to become the librarian of her own library! In order to live a life surrounded by books, she starts by making books.

  I'm A Spider, So What? by Okina Baba and Tsukasa Kiryuu is licensed by Yen Press

I used to be a normal high school girl but in the blink of an eye, I woke up in a place I've never seen before and-and I was reborn as a spider?! How could something that's nothing more than a tiny spider (that's me) possibly survive in literally the worst dungeon ever? Are there no rules? There should be some rules! Who the hell is responsible for this? SHOW YOUR FACE!

  That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime by Fuse is licensed by Yen Press

Living alone and never having had a girlfriend, 37-year-old Satoru Mikami is dissatisfied with how his life has turned out. But after dying at the hands of a robber, he awakens to a fresh start in a new world...as a slime monster.

    Mushoku Tensei by Rifujin na Magonote and Shirotaka is described

A 34-year-old NEET otaku, chased out from his house by his family, found that his life is reaching a dead end. He then recalled that his life could actually have been much better if he had made better choices in the past.  Just when he was at the point of regret, he saw a truck moving at fast speed, and three high schoolers in its path. Mustering all the strength he had, he tried to save them and ended getting run over by the truck, quickly ending his life.  The next time he opened his eyes, he is reincarnated to a world of sword and magic as Rudeus Greyrat. Born to a new world, a new life, Rudeus decided that, "This time, I'll really live my life to the fullest with no regret!" Thus starts the journey of a man yearning to restart his life.

   Majo no Tabitabi by Jougi Shiraishi and Azuru is described 

In a certain place, there was a traveler witch. Her name was Elaina. Being a traveler, she came across many people and countries while continuing her long, long journey. A country that only accepted magicians, a muscle loving giant, a youth wanting to return the lover from the grasp of death, a Princess left alone in the ruined country, and the story of witch herself up until now and from now on. While meeting unbelievably odd people and experiencing beautiful moments of some, now, even now, the witch keeps spinning the tale of meeting and parting. “Please don’t mind it. After all, I’m a traveler. I must hurry.” The Witch.――Yes, me.

  If It’s for My Daughter, I’d Even Defeat a Demon Lord by CHIROLU and Kei Truffle is licensed by J-Novel Club

Dale is a cool, composed, and highly skilled adventurer who’s made quite a name for himself despite his youth. One day on a job deep in the forest, he comes across a little devil girl who’s almost wasted away. Unable to just leave her there to die, Dale takes her home and becomes her adoptive father. Devil or not, Latina is beyond adorable, and the adventurer soon finds himself head over heels with being a parent. But why was she out in the forest to begin with, and why does she carry the mark of a criminal?

    via  tptrishula

  ------ Follow on Twitter at @aicnanime

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[jiminsbyuns-blog]

Day 74

Featuring: Yoongi, You

Warnings: slight language

Written by: Admin V

Those eyes. Those legs. Those lips. Those hands. Only you would fall in love with a boy just by drawing him over and over again. But you really can’t help it--Min Yoongi is just too, too beautiful.  

This isn’t creepy at all.

You sit at the back of the classroom, sketchbook out in front of you. The teacher and the other students are droning on and on, something that is just a faint buzz to you in the back of your mind.

But there was, in particular, one student that you paid attention to.

You bite your bottom lip as your pen scratches across the paper. For some reason, you just can’t capture his beauty the way that you wanted to. You don’t do him justice.

None of your sketches do.

Guilt burns in your chest as you trace out the faint strands of his hair, flawlessly styled naturally without a single thing done to it all.

Everyday, you force yourself to have some common sense.

It’s just an art exercise.

This means nothing.

Don’t you think you’re being more than a little creepy right now?

You gulp, scanning your paper. Check the number at the top of the page.

74/100.

For the millionth time, you curse yourself. Anybody. You could have picked anybody except for him.

But you just love to dig your own grave, don’t you?

Day 1

“Pick a figure to sketch daily throughout the rest of the semester. It can be anything—a person, place, or thing. At the end of the semester, we will review all of the sketches to track your progress throughout the school year. The point of the project is to capture candid moments in everyday life, not staged ones. Remember: if you are a picking a person to sketch, it is imperative that you do so without being found out.”

You let the assignment sheet flutter out of your hands and banged your head on the desk.

It wasn’t that you hated your Drawing III class. In fact, it was great.

The problem was that you had no idea what to choose.

An object seemed boring and it would get repetitive in only a few days. A place wasn’t too bad, but you would have to travel, and you couldn’t guarantee being able to get there every single day without fail.

That left… a person.

But who?

You looked around at your English class. There wasn’t anybody in particular that struck you as interesting, but…

No, you chided yourself.

There was one boy.

Whereas you sat at the back of class on one side, on the other side opposite you was another student. Black sideswept hair. Grey Twenty-One Pilots hoodie. Purple beanie, topped upon his head.

Yoongi.

You didn’t know his last name, but what you did know was that the guy, for some reason, hated you. Every time the two of you so much as made eye contact, he glared at you. And if you so much as entered a conversation that he also happened to be in, he immediately picked himself up and left. Apparently he wanted nothing to do with you.

Why, you had zero idea.

You were just about to cross him off your list when your eyes glanced down at the paper again.

Remember: if you are a picking a person to sketch, it is imperative that you do so without being found out.

Well, if he hated you, he would never find out, would he? He would never come over here, would never so much as glance at you. Then technically, wasn’t he the perfect person for you to draw? You could sketch him to your heart’s content and he wouldn’t even bat a lash.

A slight smirk tugging at the corner of your lips, you flipped open your sketchbook and uncapped your pen.

Yoongi, it was.

Day 20

It was around here that you started to notice something… different.

It was just like any other day, you swore to God it was. You got up, did whatever you had to get ready, and then headed out the door to class. Spring was on it’s way, which made for splendid weather in the mornings when you went on your walks. Sketchbook tucked underneath your arm securely, you hummed a little tune as you made your way to English.

You had spent the past two weeks drawing Yoongi, and it was when you were in the middle of your sketch that you suddenly jolted.

You weren’t even drawing anymore.

You were just staring at him.

He had a slight slouch to his stance, head rested on his hand. His eyes followed whatever the teacher was saying on the screen, not bothering to take notes despite the Macbook propped open in front of him. His legs were crossed, his left foot slightly pointed inwards. Pigeon-toed.

You cleared your throat and sat up straighter. Shook your head. What were you doing? You were supposed to be drawing him, not gawking at him like some sort of weirdo.

You picked your pen up, sketched quickly for the next five minutes, until you decided to call it quits. You could finish another day. Something was feeling off, and you couldn’t for the love of God figure out what.

You shut your sketchbook and forced yourself to stare at the teacher’s Powerpoint instead.

Not Yoongi.

Day 36

By the beginning of the second month, you could feel yourself pivoting.

The more you sketched Yoongi, the more you found yourself thinking about him. English class suddenly became your favorite class of the day. You loved coming into the quiet, empty room—the first person in the morning—and watching him settle into his workspace from the comfort of your desk.

He would take his bag off his shoulder, sling it neatly onto the ground. Pull out his laptop, always open it and turn it on, even when he didn’t take notes. He would seat himself neatly, a tinge of sleep still evident in his slightly swollen eyes, his lips pursed as he gently peeled open the top of his coffee cup, blew on it for a few seconds, and then took a deep sip.

Your sketchbook was full of Yoongis.

Yoongi slouched over.

Yoongi sleeping.

Yoongi typing.

Yoongi reading.  

Yoongi daydreaming.

There were Yoongis with his head on his hand, his cheek squished up oh-so slightly. Then there were Yoongis with his lips pursed and pouted, as he was deep in thought.

You were beginning to pinpoint his good days, his bad days.

Bad days consisted of him coming into class with a stare that dripped murder. Bad days had Yoongi not saying a single word the whole one and half hours. Bad days had Yoongi ignoring everybody else around him, wrapped up in his own world of whatever horrid thing had gotten ahold of him that morning.

Good days were your favorite. Though bad days were Yoongi’s good modeling days, there was something so completely different about him if he was in a more pleasant mood.

Because on a good day, you got to see Yoongi smile.

Good days had Yoongi getting up, moving around the classroom. If you were lucky, good days had Yoongi even laughing—a rare occasion, and something to be treasured. Good days had Yoongi jabbering in non-stop conversations and good days had Yoongi seeming positively radiant.

You loved good days. Good days were harder for you to sketch, but good days were easy for you on the heart.

What that meant, you had absolutely no idea.

Day 47

It was around your forty seventh sketch when you started to realize just how truly beautiful Yoongi was.

His slight gestures and his slight lisp made him most endearing, but a pleasant feeling filled your chest when you were sketching his eyes, drawing the point of his nose, detailing around the cupid’s bow of his mouth.

Because Yoongi’s got the most perfect eyes, slightly slanted, but still full and round and absolutely doe-like. And if he turned at the slightest angle, you could see how smooth and fine the bridge of his nose was. His lips have the most unique, the most peculiar shape to them, and something you particularly loved was the slight chub he still had around his mouth, just a little puff puff.

And it wasn’t even just his face.

You smiled to yourself as you sketched lower, focusing on the positioning of his hands. You loved his hands, too—almost like a pale gold, with every knuckle of every finger detailed and defined.

He stood up to speak to the teacher, and you can feel your heart flutter like some sort of idiot. Because Yoongi’s legs. His calves were something to marvel at, you swear. If his hands and face were a pale gold, his legs were definitely something of a cartier white-gold.

Sitting at your desk, you thought all of these things to yourself and you had never wanted to slap yourself in the face any more than you did now.

Because you know you’re being irrational, and you’re being dumb, and you’re almost completely one hundred and twenty percent sure that you’re overreacting to everything.

But it’s not like you can just stop sketching in the middle of your assignment, right?

Day 51

“Look at him, isn’t he just so beautiful?”

“You mean handsome?”

“No, I mean beautiful.”

You didn’t particularly like to share your sketches with other people, but you always did with your best friend. And though you knew that you were low-key being a total creeper as you explained in high definition detail the knicks and knacks of Yoongi’s artistically beautiful body, you just couldn’t stop yourself. It was as if it all of sudden just poured out of you, like you had this need to constantly talk about him, almost like if you stopped keeping his name upon the tip of your tongue he would simply cease to exist.

Your friend raised an eyebrow at you.

“Are you sure this kind of attraction is normal?”

“Oh, come on! It’s not like I want to date him or anything. I’m just saying—”

“Or do you?”

“Excuse me?”

Your friend smirked as she fingered through the various pages in your sketchbook. Yoongis decorated the whole entire book so far, so many pen sketches. Over and over again, almost somewhat obsessively.

“I’m just saying, it sounds like you’re totally whipped for this Yoongi guy.”

“I-I’m not!” you sputtered, slamming the sketchbook shut. “I just wanted to show his beauty with you, is all.”

“Right.”

“I’m sure he already has a girlfriend or boyfriend anyways,” you quickly said, ignoring the way your stomach did a flip-flop. You grabbed the sketchbook and carefully stored it back into your backpack. “I think you’re hallucinating.”

“Me?” Your best friend cackled. “Says the person that’s going, ‘Oh Yoongi, his nose bridge is just so perfect! You should see his legs, they’ve got the most spectacular definition!’ Next thing you know you’re gonna wanna see his dick—”

“Oh my god, do you ever shut up?!”

You swatted her with your bag as you stood up and got ready to leave room.

“Be careful, you don’t want to ruin your beautiful sketches of your beautiful Yoongi—”

You slammed the door shut behind you and sigh exasperatedly.

But you gulped nervously afterwards.

Looks like she’s on to you, after all.

Day 52

It’s by complete coincidence that you saw Yoongi walking into the cafeteria.

You were paying for your lunch, getting ready to head back to the studio to finish up another project in Ceramics. It was just like any other Saturday for you: get up at four, get to the studio at five. Work until lunchtime, grab your lunch at the cafeteria and then head back to the studio and work until you couldn’t work anymore. The like.

You were slipping your sandwich into your backpack when you saw him.

Yoongi, pulling open the door to the lunchroom and strolling in.

Heart thundering, you willed yourself to look away. Don’t stare, don’t be weird. But you couldn’t, you just had to keep your eyes glued onto his figure as he searched around the lunchroom. And finally, he found who he was looking for and you could only watch in complete horror as he approached a girl sitting with a book and a salad, could only hear your heart snap as he leaned down to kiss her with a smile on his lips.

That smile.

Those lips.

You zipped up your backpack and left the cafeteria as fast as you could.

Day 53

When you sat back down in English class the next day, you couldn’t help but feel a wave of guilt sinking over you.

You flipped through your sketches of Yoongi, smiling sadly to yourself. What the hell were you thinking? That just through observation, you knew Yoongi already? That you somehow had some sort of stake to him?

It was all in your head, you knew.

It was all just a manipulation of some stupid science—hormones and some shit.

Yeah, you comforted yourself. It was just biology doing it’s thing.

Your heart soured.

What were you going to do now? You couldn’t still sketch him, could you? Not when you were…

You wrung out your hands, trying to settle your anxious breathing. You couldn’t be like this. You couldn’t have a crush on a taken guy. You couldn’t—You weren’t—

At the end of English, when the bell rang, when all the kids piled out of the classroom—

Your page was still blank.

Day 54

You’ll get rid of your crush.

You’ll just draw him—that’s it.

Nothing more.

It was only an art exercise.

Just an art exercise.  

Day 74

Now, you’re stuck in a horrid cycle of torture.

You love drawing Yoongi. Maybe, even on some sort of alternate artistic level—

You even love Yoongi himself.

But you know that you’re ridiculous, so you just force yourself to make bareback sketches. A quick outline here, a squiggle for his eyebrow and another line for his mouth. Whatever, maybe you’ll just say that you were going for that sort of Picasso look—even though it’s more than obvious you’re completely bullshitting your assignment now.

Because it hurts.

It hurts to draw Yoongi every day and it hurts to be able to trace the features of his face in your mind and it hurts knowing that you’ll never be able to get a good look at them up close, ever.

Love from a distance.

Keep your distance.

That’s what you should be doing.

But when the bell startles you out of your depressed reverie, you’re too much of a frenzy to figure yourself out correctly. You stand up too suddenly, you movements are hasty, and then all of sudden your sketchbook is wide open on the floor and shitshitshit, somebody’s picking it up and—

On the ground, you freeze.

You recognize those shoes.

You recognize those legs.

And slowly, almost on the verge of tears, you stand up, shame forcing red onto your face in the most humiliating, mortifying way possible.

“This is yours—”

He must see the sketches, because his voice falters. Halts completely, and you shut your eyes, feel the tears welling up.

You don’t know what to say. You don’t know what to say to make him not hate you for being a total stalker and a creep and you hate this project, you hate it, whoever made it needs to go die—

His voice is quiet.

“...Are these sketches of...me?”

You still haven’t opened your eyes. You just nod your head, biting down on your lower lip, trembling.

The sound of pages turning slaps you in the face.

Seventy four.

There are seventy four sketches in that book and now the cat’s out of the bag.

You wonder if you’ll just fail this project, after all.

“Hey, look at me.”

I can’t.

But you do.

His voice is slightly rough, a raspy undertone to it. You love hearing his voice. It’s the first time he’s ever talked to you. It’s the first time you’ve ever been so close to him, in the perfect vicinity to ogle at those features that you love so, so much.

“Can I show you something?”

You can only dumbly nod your head.

Yes.

You shut the door quietly behind you.

Jitters electrify you as they crawl up and down your skin, your heart beating too fast, your temples sweating.

You’re in Yoongi’s apartment.

What he wants to show you, you have no idea. Maybe he brought you here to kill you. Maybe he’s secretly some sort of axe murderer and whoa, you’re breathing way too fast and—

“Follow me.”

Yoongi’s place is pretty neat, pretty tidy. But there are pickpockets of things here and there that trigger your curiosity: different lighting setups, camera lenses on the table. There are some polaroids tacked up on the wall in the kitchen, but from where you stand you can’t quite tell what or who they are of.

He leads you into what you can only assume is your bedroom, and he gestures for you to take a seat at his desk.

Yoongi fumbles around with something in his drawers, until he pulls out a huge envelope. It’s packed with lord knows what, and you’re starting to fidget.

Maybe it’s drugs. Maybe he’s gonna drug you or some shit, goddamnit this was a bad idea.

You gulp nervously, trying to swallow the huge lump in your throat. Your eyes scan the wall above his desk. There are photos, all sorts of different electronic media pieces, but strangely…

None with his girlfriend.

Yoongi is quiet, doesn’t say a single word as he pulls up a chair and sits in front of you. He hands you the envelope with not even a peep from his mouth.

Your hands tremble just the tiniest bit as you open the envelope, reach in and pull out…

You’re in shock.

Photos.

But more specifically—

Photos of you.

You in the cafeteria.

You walking on your way to class.

You yawning.

You running.

You stretching your fingers out.

You taking a walk from the art studio.

And they’re all so beautiful. They’re not creepy snapshots, no. They’ve got such an artistic flair to them, something you would never fathom even ever being able to do.

You laugh out loud in relief.

Tears prickle at your eyes and you swipe them away with ease, laughter bubbling up from your throat and out into the room.

“And here I thought I was the stalker!”

Yoongi snorts.

He smiles.

He even laughs.

And your heart flutters so ridiculously much it feels like monarch butterflies are migrating in your chest.

You made him do that.

You made him laugh.

“Trust me,” he says. There’s a glint in his eye that you’ve never seen before. “I’m probably even worse than you are.”

“So, why the photos?”

Yoongi leans back in his seat, rests his arms behind his head.

“Photography major.”

You nod in appreciation. “Gotcha.”

“This project has been going on for some time now—I probably know you better than you know me.”

“Oh, really?” You cross your arms and scoff. “Like what?”

“Like how you only sketch with pens, never pencil.”

You wave your hand. “Doesn’t count. Everybody knows that.”

“You only cross your right leg over your left. Left over right makes you uncomfortable.”

He’s correct.

“Well,” you shoot, “you only drink coffee that has two packets of sugar. Any more or any less, and you won’t drink it.”

Yoongi smirks. “Fair enough.”

“You have to stop yourself from biting on your nails during tests.”

“And you won’t ever stop bobbing your knee up and down,” he responds easily.

“You hate humans in the morning.”

“So do you.”

“You…” Yoongi falters.

And then the game seems to take a different turn.

“You don’t take care of yourself enough. You skip breakfast every day and on Saturday, sometimes the only thing you eat is that sandwich from the caf.”

Your cheeks prickle with heat. How the hell does he know that?

“You… have a girlfriend you need to take care of,” you say, trying to root the conversation back down before it can go somewhere dangerous.

“Not anymore.”

Your eyes snap up to his.

“No?”

He shakes his head, sighs. “She, uh… She found your photos. Thought I was a creep. A cheater.”

“But you’re not. It’s for artistic purposes.”

He shrugs. “She studies mechanical engineering.”

You frown.

“Is that why you’ve been having more bad days recently?”

He quirks an eyebrow at you. “Sure. Yeah.”

“You should find somebody better. Someone else who actually understands.”

There’s a quiet droop in the conversation. Yoongi sits forwards, and his face looks a bit more pink than it was just a few minutes ago. He falters over his words, stuttering slightly.

You can only watch in disbelief, your heartbeat stumbling over itself, as he slowly laces your fingers together with his. His hand is warm.

“I…”

He smiles—his gummy one, the one you love.

“I think I have.”

if anybody ever found my sketches i think i’d go and set myself on fire lmao

xoxo Admin V

[cocoachoux]

Pairing: Levi/Eren Rating: General Word count: 4.4k Other Tags: bad boy/punk!Levi, pastel/punk!Eren and awkward encounters

Pastels could actually look nice in leather and piercings… Or maybe it was just Eren who was the exception to the fashion rule. The boy was full of surprises as Levi found out.

Happy New Year everyone! :D I'm starting off this year with a fic that is looooong overdue. This fic is for Maddi, @lillilgirl‘s friend, in return for the lovely art she did for the COMH collab over here (it's the one where Levi's and Eren's noses are touching! ♥). She requested a story with bad boy/punk!Levi and pastel/punk!Eren. I hope I did the prompt justice honeybun! Thank you again for the amazing art! ^^

Levi often wondered if expressing himself through appearances was actually worth it, especially how… loud his clothing choices were.

It wasn’t the color that people had an issue with (black was a staple color for everyday wear after all), nor was it because of the material (though, people would raise their eyebrows when they see him strut down the hallways in his leather pants), definitely not. Maybe it was the combination of the two paired along with more than the standard amount of piercings all over his face and his extreme side shave hairstyle that made him look like a walking ’70s fashion show.

Or maybe it was because of his naturally stoic expression that screamed, “Fight me” to every person who passed by. Who knew? He looked great and anyone who thought otherwise could fuck off for all he cared.

He was used to it, though, the staring anyway. He was comfortable in his attire choices and wore them with confidence. People’s gazes naturally gravitate to him and admittedly, it felt oddly satisfying having that kind of power over someone, intentionally or not.

But all that attention came with a price.

See, because of the way he looked, rumors started circulating around the school about how much of a ‘bad boy’ he was, and that he could beat the shit out anybody. And while the last part may be true (with all the training he received from his uncle, high school brats had nothing on him), those rumors earned him the reputation of being the strongest student in the school.

And with that kind of reputation, came with many challenges. Literally.

Not too long after those rumors started spreading through the student population (he had suspected that Hange was to blame for it), guys came flocking to him left and right, challenging him to a fight. ‘Asserting dominance’ or some shit. Levi didn’t know and didn’t care, but it got annoying real fast. It was funny the first few times back when he was a freshman – the look on the seniors’ faces when he was able to pin them down in a few seconds were delightful – but now being a junior (and undefeated), he didn’t have time to play games anymore.

Contrary to his appearance, he was a bright student, taking AP classes with all those high expectations and stress that came along with it. He was halfway through his third, and critical, year in high school and had scholarships to apply for and test preparations to attend to. Top that with having a part-time job and participating in club activities and sports teams, he had a lot of responsibilities to juggle and not keel over from exhaustion. He literally had no time for bullshit.

Which was exactly why he clocked the guy in the face.

Thinking back on it, he really shouldn’t have retaliated the way he did. It wasn’t a proud moment in his life, but he was stressed out and tired from a long and grueling day of classes and studying. He just wanted to go home and sleep until the next year. Suddenly being ambushed by a stranger once he stepped out of school grounds didn’t help his situation at all.

Especially when the guy was sprawled on the ground, not moving.

Shit. He didn’t kill him with one punch, did he? He didn’t use that much strength.

He bent down and gingerly poked the side of the stranger’s face.

No response.

Levi didn’t even bother to hide his groan of annoyance. Great. Just fucking great. This was exactly why Kenny kept lecturing him about thinking before acting: because of shit like this.

He examined the listless person’s face and didn’t recognize him. From a rival school maybe? He wouldn’t be surprised if his reputation spread to Maria High and St. Rose as well since the schools were only separated by mere fences.

Levi sighed. What should he do? Should he bring him into the nurse’s office? But the nurse was probably long gone by now. Besides, he didn’t want to get reported and go sit in the principal’s office for causing a disturbance despite the incident happening off school grounds; it would hurt his chances of getting into his top college choices if it was on his record. Maybe he should-

“HEY!”

Levi raised his head at the new voice to see another stranger storming towards him, eyes blazing, teeth baring and- wait… was that a pink leather jacket?

Not making the same mistake again, Levi calmly stood up as the other person approached. He put his hands in front of him in a defensive stance and stepped away from the guy who was still on the ground, motionless. “He started it.”

All those years of writing brilliantly-worded essays and assignments to pass his English classes didn’t help him in real life when it came to his preferred method of speaking abruptly. He briefly wondered why he even bothered taking AP English Literature and Composition in the first place if he didn’t actually benefit from it.

Even the new guy seem confused by the childish response that came out of his mouth, stopping a few feet away from him and gave him an odd look. “Uh…?”

Levi took the chance to clear his throat. “He ambushed me and I punched him.” Still need to work on speaking better, but at least he got the main point across.

To his luck, the new guy seemed to accept his answer and visibly deflate from the angry expression he had worn seconds ago. “Why am I not surprised?”

Levi barely caught what he mumbled under his breath and crossed his arms. “You friends with this guy?” He nudged his chin to the sprawled body.

He was puzzled when he received a snort from the new stranger. “Kind of, but not really. We just tolerate each other’s existence but we back each other up from time to time when we’re not fighting ourselves.”

“Right.” That sounded like a weird and complicated relationship but the same could be said with him and Hange (well, he might interpret it that way but they probably didn’t).

The new guy (fuck it, he would call him ‘Pinkie’ until he got a proper name) dropped down and placed his hand over his kind-of-but-not-really-friend’s wrist and then checked his breathing. Whistling lowly, Pinkie said in astonishment, “Wow, you knocked him out cold.”

“I can see that.” Levi checked his phone and sighed in frustration when he realized how late it was getting. “Look, I’m really sorry that I retaliated the way I did to your not-really-friend. Do you mind if we take him to my place until he wakes up? I only live a few blocks away from here.”

He honestly expected Pinkie to decline and call an ambulance or something but received a nod instead.

“Okay. I’ll grab this side and you grab on the other. I can’t wait to see his face when he wakes up from getting the shit beat out of him from a single punch.”

*****

It was a long walk to his house.

Normally it would take him a few minutes to get back home from school, but lugging a lifeless body (he decided to call him ‘Horsie’ since the guy was pretty lean and sturdy despite his frame) along wasn’t easy. At least Pinkie was good support and was relatively silent the whole way to his house except for the occasional remarks about how dumb Horsie was to attack without thinking. Hah, he heard that one before.

They finally made it to their destination but before Pinkie reached for the door, Levi stopped him. “Hey, can you hold onto your kind-of-friend for a moment?”

Before Pinkie could protest, he pushed Horsie onto him, watching him stumble from the extra weight before regaining his balance. “Hey!”

Levi ignored him and eyed the door with an intense gaze. He outlined the door frame before he zeroed in on the doorknob. Checking underneath and the sides of it, he finally nodded in approval and carefully opened the door.

He heard Pinkie shift behind him and blocked the entrance with his arms. “Wait.”

Pinkie started to get irritated. “What now, man? Are you going to let us in or not?”

“Hold on for a second. My sister’s not home yet so I have to do it.”

Confused, Pinkie asked, “Do what exactly?”

Not entertaining him with a reply, Levi scanned the wooden floorboards and the walls with the same intensity he did for the door. “Guess he was in a rush this morning,” he mumbled.

Looking at his options, he sighed before he took off one his shoes and the scarf around his neck. He looped one end of the fabric with his hand while the other one tied between the shoelaces. Once secured with a knot, he twirled his makeshift lasso and threw the shoe to the furthest side of a framed picture on the wall and tugged on the scarf.

Pinkie yelped in surprise behind him when the ground beneath them rumbled before it stopped just as quickly as it suddenly came. He pulled back his scarf and shoe and stepped through the door. “Okay, it’s safe now.”

“Safe? Safe from what? What exactly did you do?” Pinkie asked, wearily eyeing the place as he slowly stepped inside the house with Horsie’s arm slung around his shoulders. “We’re not going to die, are we?”

“No, not this time at least,” Levi pressed a few buttons on the control panel that was hidden behind the picture frame before positive beeping sounds came from it. Putting the frame back to how it was before, he turned to see the incredulous look on Pinkie’s face. “What?”

“‘Not this time’?”

Levi stepped towards the living room as Pinkie followed. “My uncle’s in charge of security control for the house and likes to set up different traps depending on his mood. It was just simple floor movement triggers today so it was easy to disarm. ”

“Diff- Are you serious? He does this every day?” At Levi’s nod, Pinkie was even more flabbergasted. “You’re shitting me.”

“My uncle does use some… unorthodox methods for securing the place, but we’ve never been robbed so it gets the job done.” Nodding to the couch he said, “Put your not-friend there. I’ll go get the first aid kit and some water in case he wakes up.” Leaving Pinkie to take care of Horsie for now, Levi stalked off to the washroom and grabbed the kit located in the medicine cabinet before heading off to the kitchen.

When he got back to the living room, Horsie was laying on the couch and Pinkie was checking for any additional injuries. “How is he?”

“Nothing’s broken from what I can tell, just a swollen cheek.” Pinkie accepted the ice pack Levi passed to him and pressed it against the swelling as he turned Horsie to his side. “You sure know to hit clean, though. Not even a broken nose from the force of the punch.”

Levi rubbed the back of his neck at the compliment. “Thanks, I guess. I had lots of practice.”

Pinkie chuckled. “I bet.” Seeing that Horsie wasn’t going to move anytime soon, Pinkie left the ice pack and sat down on the floor, back against the couch. “You’re quite the legend at our school.”

“Really? What school do you attend?”

“Maria High. I’m a freshman and same goes for this idiot here,” Pinkie jabbed a thumb behind him, “He heard about how you were undefeated from one of the seniors and wanted to fight you himself. Didn’t expect him to take off immediately, but it didn’t take long for the victor to be settled, huh?”

Levi plopped on a nearby armchair and rested his chin on his hand. “It’s not the first time something like this happened. The fights slowed down in the middle of my sophomore year, but there are the occasional freshmen who don’t know better and want to see for themselves.”

“You a senior?”

“Junior.”

Pinkie visibly grimaced. “Sorry. You must be doing lots of studying and test prep stuff, huh?”

“Yeah. It’s partially the reason why I hit your not-friend there in the first place. I was stressed out and lashed it out on him. Not that what I did was right or anything, but I didn’t expect to be ambushed after school either so it took me by surprise.”

Pinkie offhandedly waved it off. “It’s fine; he’s used to it. And his name’s Jean. ‘Not-friend’ and ‘kind-of-friend’ sounds really weird in a regular conversation.”

“Are you going to give me your name too, or do I still have to refer you as Pinkie in my head?”

“Pinkie? Why that name?”

“Because it’s the color of your jacket.”

Pinkie looked down to what he was wearing and laughed. “You sure you’re not in elementary school? You’re about creative as one.”

Levi huffed in irritation. “Art was never my strongest subject. So are you going to tell me your name or what, Pinkie?”

Pinkie rolled his eyes, but he was still smiling. “I’m Eren. It’s nice to meet you, Captain Levi.”

“Seriously? That’s what they call me?” Though he shouldn’t really care, he expected a title that was at least more fearsome than that.

“It’s that or the Savage of Sina.”

Ah, that was better.

Levi got more comfortable in his chair now that the fiasco was settled (more or less anyway, Jean still needed to wake up). He eyed Eren who was distracted with his phone and took a good look at him.

The pink leather jacket was what caught his attention first, but underneath was a pale yellow shirt with broken heart prints. He raised a brow at that but then he saw the ripped, mint jeans and the pair of white converse that were absentmindedly tapping on the carpet.

Trying not to be as creepy as possible, his gaze traveled up to Eren’s face and caught the multiple piercings along the ears and eyebrows. Hell, the kid even had anti-eyebrow piercings on each side of his face, too.

He had never met anyone like Eren before – someone who was the same yet different from him, in terms of clothing choices anyway. It was though he took the clothes from his wardrobe and did a pastel color swap and it would be just like Eren’s. He appreciated punk aesthetics but Eren, on the other hand, looked like a cutesy badass if he had to categorize it. A special breed of punk that he has never heard of before.

“It’s rude to stare, ya know?”

Levi blinked when he got caught staring but Eren didn’t even look up from his phone as he continued, “You’re wondering about my clothes, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, sorry. Just wondering where you got them from.” He was curious where one would be able to get mint green ripped jeans plus that leather jacket. No department store or mall nearby would carry that kind of style.

“Isn’t it a bit ironic for you to be asking me that?” There was mirth in Eren’s voice as he put his phone away, giving Levi his undivided attention. Eren gestured a hand to him and Levi looked down to his black leather pants that had zippers in various spots and multiple chains hanging off the loops.

Levi offered him a lopsided smirk. “Heh. I guess so, but black is a common color for us punks, no?”

“That’s true. It’s a bit easier to find our kind of style in black or red.” Eren bent his knees and pulled them close to his chest. “Getting piercings isn’t a problem since many accessory stores have stuff I like, but for clothes, I have to order them online and sometimes it can be a hit or miss since most of it comes from overseas.”

“Yeah, that can be a problem,” Levi supplied, “But why the pastel colors though?”

“Why punk in general?” Eren retorted, “I just like the colors, that’s all. They’re soft and nice to look at. And when it’s matched with clothing that’s the complete opposite of what people expect, it’s fun and unique.”

Levi nodded thoughtfully. “I think I understand. It feels good to break out of a stereotypical mold and be whatever the hell you want to be.”

Eren broke out into a grin at that. “I’m glad you get me. My sister says I should be one or the other, but I like mixing the two styles to have them both.”

“Tell me about it. My sister also tells me that I should tone my style down so I don’t look like a try-hard rock band leader.”

The two laughed about how eerily similar they were and the rest conversation flowed easily. Levi learned that Eren was on his school’s rugby team already despite being a freshman. He said it was because last year’s team composed of many seniors who had graduated so the positions were opened to freshmen as well. Levi still commended him for a job well done by making it on the team, earning his spot because of his dedication to the sport. It was endearing to see the pastel punk boy flush from the compliment.

Levi also answered any questions Eren had about preparing for his junior year – “Enjoy the little time you have left, Eren, before everything turns into shit” – and what his plans were after high school. It was actually nice to vent to an almost-stranger about the ridiculous amount of schoolwork he had to do before his last year of high school and telling shitty customer stories that he had to go through from his part-time job.

He didn’t realize how much time had passed until he heard the front door open and there was a pause of silence.

“It’s safe,” Levi called out.

Shortly after, he saw Mikasa poking her head into the living room. She was about to greet her brother but stopped short when she saw they had guests over. “Eren?”

Levi watched as Eren’s eyes flashed with recognition before breaking into a smile. “Hey, Mikasa. I didn’t know you lived here.”

“You two know each other?” Levi asked.

“His sister’s the female rugby captain for Maria High. Our schools always have mock matches and practices together,” Mikasa explained. Stepping closer, she looked at Jean, who was still unconscious on the couch and whipped her head to her brother. “What did you do to him?”

“My friend started it first, don’t worry about it,” Eren said, “We’re just waiting for him to wake up before leaving.”

Mikasa looked doubtful but there wasn’t anything she could do about it. “If you’re sure. Did you start on dinner yet?”

Levi shook his head. “No, I haven’t. Kenny’s working late and Mom’s out with friends so it’ll be just us tonight.”

“Do you want to stay for dinner, Eren?” Mikasa asked.

Eren perked up at the offer, but sheepishly asked, “Would I be imposing?”

Mikasa smiled at his childish behavior. “No, I don’t mind. And I don’t think Levi will mind either. Besides, I’m sure your friend will be hungry when he wakes up and I’m used to making meals for four anyway. I’ll call you guys when it’s ready.”

When Mikasa left the room, Eren turned to Levi. “Man, your sister’s nice. Isabel usually makes me do the cooking at home,” he said with a pout.

“Is Isabel the rugby captain sister of yours?”

“Yeah. She can be intense but she’s a good person. You should meet her sometime.” Digging for his phone, he added, “Which reminds me, I should call home that I’ll be having dinner here. I should also call Jean’s mom, too. She’s very kind but a total worrywart.”

Once Eren made his calls (and reassuring Jean’s mom that her ‘darling baby boy’ was safe), Levi invited Eren to his room to play video games.

Levi let out a bark of laughter when Eren saw his room with a bewildered look on his face. “Not what you were expecting?”

Eren looked around the industrial-level clean room and the off-white walls that weren’t decorated with posters or pictures. “Not exactly, no.” There was a faint smell of lemon and Eren was willing to bet that Levi cleaned up his room before going to school. The only mess he could see was the stuff in the trash bin, and even then, it somehow managed to look cleaner than his own room.

“I guess we’re both full of surprises, then. Go sit on the bed while I get the console set up. Do you have a preference of what game to play?”

“I’m pretty good at shooters if you have any.”

Nodding, Levi set to work booting up the game system and passed Eren a controller as he seated next to him. They played a quick campaign run to see what the other’s skills were like and then quickly moved on to the 1v1 mode.

“First to five wins?” Levi asked.

“Sure. Winner gets the loser’s share of dessert.”

Levi shook his head but agreed to it nonetheless. He wasn’t really big on desserts anyway, so it wouldn’t be much of a loss if he did actually lose.

Eren took the first two games but then Levi quickly tied the score. Their skill level was nearly on par with each other’s, winning and losing every other game, but Levi was lucky to catch Eren while he was reloading his gun to seal his victory in the end.

“Aw, man!” Eren flopped back on the bed and covered his face with the controller. “I was so looking forward to eating your share in front of your face.”

Levi rolled his eyes and poked the side of Eren’s stomach. “Rude. And to think I was going to offer you my share regardless of the outcome, too.”

Eren suddenly sat up and wrapped his arms around Levi. “Did I also forget to mention that you’re the best? Because you are. So strong and undefeated,” he gushed, nuzzling his cheek against Levi’s shoulder, careful not to rub his piercings on the leather.

The junior stiffened at the contact, unused to this amount of affection from anyone (besides Hange… but Hange was Hange and one must learn how to get used to Hange, fast) let alone an acquaintance. An acquaintance that shared a lot of common interests as him. And if he was being completely honest with himself, an acquaintance who was cute in appearance and in personality.

Ah, fuck.

Levi held his breath, hoping that the embrace would only last for a few more seconds, but it didn’t. If anything, Eren made himself more comfortable and engulfed Levi in a cuddly position. What the hell was he doing? He barely knew the kid.

But if honesty hour was still going, he would say that he didn’t mind the position at all. It was a tad uncomfortable (leather and more leather, what did you expect?), but Eren was pleasantly warm behind him and he felt oddly safe in his arms.

After a few minutes just sitting and being held, Levi couldn’t take it anymore and turned his head to look at Eren. “Are you flirting with me?” Tact. That, he had none of.

Eren didn’t seem bothered by the accusation. In fact, he batted his lashes and lowered his eyelids. “I don’t know. Is it working?”

Levi’s heart pressed against his chest and he could feel his body ran hot and cold at the same time. He hoped that he wasn’t shaking as badly as he thought he was.

Taking his chance, he gently pressed their foreheads together. The tips of their noses touching, and he could feel Eren’s breath fan over his lips. “Cute.”

Eren’s mouth curled up into a smile before he closed his eyes, waiting.

Oh, wow. Eren really was cute.

Levi mentally slapped himself out of it and slowly closed the space between them, pressing his lips against Eren’s softly before pulling away.

It was chaste and it was sweet. Not punk at all.

Eren opened his eyes and chuckled at Levi’s shyness. Taking charge, he held Levi’s chin and kissed him more firmly than their first, holding onto Levi’s waist as their mouths moved against each other’s.

Levi was surprised by Eren’s forcefulness, but he welcomed it just the same. Eren was full of many surprises and Levi enjoyed discovering something that he didn’t expect.

“DINNER’S READY!”

They abruptly pulled apart at the loud voice, faces flushed and mouths parted open. First to scramble off the bed, Levi straightened his jacket and offered his hand to Eren. “Let’s continue another time.”

Accepting the offered hand, Eren replied, “You bet your leather-clad ass we are. And I expect a new number in my contacts list by the end of the night.”

“Wow. Not even our first date and you’re already so demanding.”

Eren tugged on one of the chains on Levi’s pants on his way out and Levi smirked behind him as he followed him down.

Mikasa was waiting for them at the bottom of the stairs and to their surprise, Jean finally woke up. Eren slapped his hand over his mouth to prevent laughing at the dopey expression on Jean’s face with the ice pack still miraculously stuck to his cheek. Levi’s eye twitched from the way Jean was blatantly ogling at his sister while she was on her phone.

Noticing their presence, she looked at the two for a moment before smirking. “Hope I wasn’t interrupting something,” she said teasingly.

Levi flipped her off. “You said that dinner’s ready, sis?”

Mikasa rolled her eyes but decided to let the topic drop, for now. She needed something to talk to Isabel about next time they have their meet. “It has for a while. Go wash your hands and help me set up the table.” She turned her heel and walked back to the kitchen.

Jean let out a low whistle once she was out of ear-shot and shot Levi an appreciative look.

“Dude, your sister’s hot.”

Levi curled his hand into a fist, but Eren turned to Levi to help diffuse the situation.

“Want me to punch him out instead?”

Or not. He and Eren were way too much alike.

Grabbing the front of Eren’s shirt, he pulled the boy down and kissed him right under his anti-eyebrow piercing.

Smiling, he said, “You’re a doll. You do that while I go reactivate the traps.”