#gave her the tie he has in the manga because she deserves it | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

masterhandss · 3 years ago

Note

Who do you think katarina will end up with?

Anonymous asked: Who do you ship katarina the most with ?

I got these two questions consecutively, I'm assuming they are coming from the same person so I'll combine them to a single reply, if that's okay.

People who have been following me since the first season can probably tell that I really like Geordo x Katarina (GeoKata) the most out of all ships. At first it was mostly just because I have an unintentional biases towards characters with blonde hair, which is why favorites were GeoKata and MariaKata, but then when I slowly got into the series more, my biases permanently shifted to the G-boy.

I'm not really a fan of laying out why I like certain ships through test to be honest. I usually get super frustrated when zine mods ask contributors to explain why they like a character or ship for contributor spotlight graphics because I can never really say everything I feel correctly hgdsjsdgfj, which is a good thing someone had already asked me a similar question before so I'll just copy paste my response here if that's okay :DD

TLDR; I ship Katarina with Geordo (Maria, Sora and Cezar behind him), and I think Katarina will end up with Geordo :))

You didn't really ask why but I'll give it anyways :)) -> major light novel spoilers, by the way <-

I'm not really the most deep person, if a ship has the bare minimum of something that I like (a trope or a hair color combination) then I stan it hard. That's why I used to be so equally adoring to both Maria and Geordo, because hurrdurr blonde hair hurrdurr. But the more I read the books and got into the community, I eventually liked him more than Maria. I didn't understand how or why at first, since Geordo and Maria are undergoing a very similar character arc: both characters wants to become better people in order to become worthy of Katarina (Geordo emotionally, and Maria physically? magically? in terms of her position/social status? I can't think of a right word but you get it). Again, Maria and Geordo's struggles are similarly written but one of them is more compelling to me. I feel like Maria's problems are easier to solve (her inability to rely on people, her attention seeking and her desire to be more magically powerful) imo, since she's already a well-liked figure in the Ministry and she's already a high-level magic user. Geordo's though; the series doesn't put too much attention on it, but despite the fact that Katarina gave his life color, he still somewhat sees the world in a desaturated light even post-childhood according to the novels and his lack of empathy still prevents him from completely absorbing all the colors. He's still learning how to see and he is happy that Katarina is always there to help him learn how.

I just love the irony that Katarina sees Geordo as a Perfect Prince and feels that she is inferior and unworthy of him, but then Geordo also seems himself as flawed, inferior and unworthy of Katarina and sees her as someone perfect. Geordo constantly wants to be better for Katarina (and for the people around him), and in time, maybe he could become a motivation for Katarina to be better too (on Katarina's side though, because on Geordo's she doesn't have to because she's already perfect the way she is). Geordo, while being self-centered and aggressive in his pursuits, isn't always selfish and thinks about what Katarina wants too. He'd fight tooth and nail for her and will do whatever he can so that Katarina will love him in the same way, but that doesn't mean he wont respect her decision if she falls in love with someone else, he just wont lose without a fight that's all (and fight, he'll give that's for sure).

Geordo is crazy in love with her; wants to protect her happiness, keep her safe whenever he can, and is even willing to both fight to become king and throw away the life he currently knows if it means he can live a life where he and Katarina can be together wherever she is most content and happy. He wouldn't lock her up in the castle like a caged bird like what Keith and some fans of the series thinks, whenever he does have thoughts like that like in Volume 6, its his internal response to the lack time they can have together alone, rather than being indicative of how he wants to treat her (like in his desire in Book of Desires, he conjured up a literal honeymoon because a honeymoon is the only time where he can spend it with her alone without someone butting in! It's weird and exaggerated, but his desire is simply to just be able to spend a day with her and be able to pursue her romantically without the threat of people like Keith and Mary).

Katarina sees him for himself, and she extends her hand of friendship to him despite all her fears of her bad ends involving him. She knows he's a "sadistic prince" but doesn't always tie him to that title. Out of everyone, Katarina has just as bad, if not worse, initial impression of Geordo compared to almost everyone around him (Others sees him as a Perfect Prince while she sees him as a Sadistic Prince and Future Murderer), and yet she accepts him and wants to learn more about him. She supports him and wants him to find happiness in love with Maria, even if it means she'll get exiled to another country or to a far off farm! (i'll edit this with citations later)

I can't help but want that for him, someone who there for you through thick and thin, who supports him despite everything she knows about her future involving him. Katarina is everything he would ever want in a partner: someone who isn't disturbed by his past, can see through his fake smiles, constantly cares for him, sees him beyond his princely façade, is one of his first friends who has helped him create friendships with other as well that prevented him to wallow in isolation and hate of the version of himself that society created for him, is genuinely interested in him as a person, is endlessly fun to be around and unpredictable, and is overall beautiful inside and out.

Again, a lot of Maria and Geordo's struggles are very similar to each other, but I'm more interested in Geordo's side. I find it more compelling. Geordo's scenes always almost provides something new, we get to see him angry, flustered & embarrassed, scheming/conniving, possessive, grateful, sad & frustrated and so much more. Maria has that too (we get to see her sad and thankful), but this might be my own perspective of reading the novels, but Maria's scenes kinda feel the same to me. It almost always starts with Katarina helping her and her realizing time and time again how much she loves her and become more motivated to be a better version of herself. I mean its unfair to say that they are all the same but that might just be me. (Maria: wow I'm so grateful for everything Katarina has given me, I want to be with her forever (rinse and repeat for the next 5 books))

Yes I know it's beautiful to see Maria falling deeper and deeper in love with Maria, but I'd rather see moments of someone who is trying to advance on those feelings rather than someone who is still trying to understand what they feel. Declarations and descriptions of love are beautiful in literary works and it always gets my heart fluttering, but I can read fanfics if I want to see that be written in 8 or more ways. Give me some action, some internal conflict!

It also doesn't help that it makes me really really happy for Geordo that he's made a dent in Katarina's baka shield? Katarina's heart skipped and fluttered for a second when Geordo was patting her head, and it makes me want to root for him even more! (Yes, go break the bubble! You can do it!!)

It's not even the same doki-doki as when she gets charmed at how pretty Maria is, to me its different in a way that my small vocabulary can't explain.

And besides, it really is just a battle between the protagonist that almost ruined her life (Maria) and the love interest that almost ruined her life (Geordo). Keith is part of that equation too, but he was never a threat after they became close (narratively, its seriously just Maria vs Geordo vs Keith, ignoring the changes to that narrative by FL2). It's always about Geordo (and Maria), everything she's doing in the Fortune Lover 1 Arc is because of Geordo (and arguably, Maria & Keith too) and the consequences of where he decides her future to would lead to.

It has to be Geordo, in my opinion, to show her that things aren't the same as the game (and he already kinda has, just a dent though) (If not Geordo, it should be Maria). He, who she feared and yet cared for so much

(I know Fortune Lover 2 basically removes that importance of Geordo and Maria specifically to Katarina's narrative by making her an active problem in all routes, finally becoming loyal to the title "All Routes Lead to Doom", but its not like the story is digging into Katarina's brain that she's sword training for the purpose of fighting back against all the boys, its still just Geordo, so idk I still count that in my shipper brain)

It also also helps that Geordo is basically the poor bullied animal in the hamefura community's eyes, regardless of how far he is into the battle (like in the reddit discord lmao). Yeah he has the best chances which is why many people both in and out of the series find it so fun to drag him under because of his unfair advantage, which is fair, but just like how you feel when you see a small wounded animal, you can't help but want to help someone who has the whole world against him (there's literally a canon manga page with that joke lmao), which is how I eventually felt over time. He's so misunderstood and bullied by people despite the authors dedication to flesh him out more beyond being a possessive prince fiancé of Katarina because of the anime's adaption, so I'd rather give my biases to someone who needs (and deserves it) rather than other contenders who are already overflowing with love and support. Also who doesn't love a perfect guy who breaks when his beloved is harm/who opens up to the person he cares about most?

I know people will read this and find it unfair that Katarina is giving so much to Geordo, but he isn't really giving anything to her. One thing I'll agree that Maria has over Geordo is that Maria makes Katarina want to try and work hard. Seeing Maria improve her magic wants Katarina to do the same, and whether or not it's from motivation or fear of getting left out depends on the reader. So far we don't really have anything like that for Katarina with Geordo because most things involving Geordo intimidates her, compared to Maria who is surrounded by mysteries and adventure (though arguably it's Katarina and not her lmao, but Kat doesn't know that).

Katarina is already the most well-adjusted character in the story even as a child so the only thing to really explore from her is mostly just her relationships and skewed sense of reality. That's why I hope that Geordo will not only help her realize that she can be loved by her peers romantically despite her self-perceived position/role, but also be one of the persons to make her completely realize that she isn't living inside a game. I mean like I said a few paragraphs ago, he's already kinda doing it by constantly confessing his feelings to her, reminding her that he is a person with his own feelings and not a character programmed to fall for a heroine.

So yeah, I ship Katarina with Geordo for those reasons and believe they should end up together for those reasons.

If you ask me who I think would she end up with objectively, I'd still say Geordo. The author's focus jumps between Geordo and Maria so that really depends on who you're asking. It also doesn't help that Geordo is always in the marketing with Katarina in the books and games, which pretty much cements his Male Lead status to Katarina's Female Lead status lmao

Thank you for the ask lmao, I'll be updating this with more thoughts and possibly citations later :))

#mh ask #hamefura #my next life as a villainess all routes lead to doom #my next life as a villainess #geokata #geordo stuart #katarina claes #i want to add more but i'll do it later :))#I just copy pasted this so i'm srry for the typos ;;w;;#bakarina #destruction flag otome

91 notes · View notes

hei-ch0u · 4 years ago

Note

The thing I’m irritated with is I don’t think mikasa deserves jean (if it’s him) - he would always be 2nd best ? And she showed him no interest before. It’s all eren so what? If it is jean, it’s not it for me.

I understand your point of view and I will agree partially on that notion. I’m all for Mikasa x Happiness, at the end of the day because she deserves that and I’d like to see what she did with the life Eren gave her to live. I always gravitated towards Jean being the better choice for Mikasa, simply because I felt Eren appeared very “aromantic” throughout 95% of the manga and given the fact his mind was seriously warped by the founding/attack titan combination, this would make sense as he’s one of the few characters who isn’t shown to have some form of romantic attraction to people.

However, jeankasa could have found happiness together in the time they spent together after Jean returned to paradis. This is highly possible as things were very different by this point and as I stated in my previous response to an ask about what I thought of the potential jeankasa leak - jean wouldn’t be a bad partner for her to have. They both went through everything together, Jean was there more than Eren was with her by the end and he also shared a moment with Eren. A moment that could have entailed Eren telling Jean to look after Mikasa. It may not have been romantic at first though because let’s face it - Jean went on looks with Mikasa when it came to his attraction to her, but it could have formed that way over time. As I don’t think Mikasa would move on that fast and I don’t think jean would want her to. They both loved Eren in different ways and I think Jean of all people would understand she’d never forget about him - because he wouldn’t himself.

But I think people fail to understand that people can move on after their loved one dies and it could come in the form of being with someone who’s been around all along. We don’t just necessarily have 1 fixed partner for life, it doesn’t always work out that way for most and to expect Mikasa to stay loyal to Eren after his death is quite remarkably selfish of the fandom. He literally told her to forget about him and live on. She’s doing that. No..she didn’t need a man to define her. She could have stuck it out as a single gal for the rest of her life, but she didn’t need to either. She would have the opportunity to experience everything life has to give her. Love. Career. Travel. Passion. Marriage. Children. Grandchildren. Old age. All parts of human life. She chose to take it and own it. Yes she won’t forget Eren, that’s a given. But, this doesn’t mean she speaks about him everyday or looks at the man she is with wishing it was Eren or even visits his grave every minute of the day. Time is the biggest healer, these would become very spaced apart to the point she probably would only visit on his death anniversary with others.

The whole point of Mikasa’s culmination story is that she broke her bond to Eren and recognised they weren’t going to be and her biggest test to break the tie was to ultimately end Eren’s life for the greater good. She chose not to forget him, but she also chose to live on without him in this life. That didn’t mean she was going to remain alone the rest of her life.

#snk 139 #aot 139 #snk manga #snk spoilers #snk leaks #jeankasa #eremika #jean kirschtein #mikasa ackerman #eren jaeger

42 notes · View notes

twelvedy7 · 3 years ago

Text

Twisted - One shot

warning: sensitive topics (drugs).

I just wanted to write something a bit different. It might be a bit OCC but I thought it might be a great fit for the manga universe. This story won’t be published anywhere else than tumblr so feel free to save the story if you like it.

Oh and also english isn’t really my native language so sorry if there are incoherences.

Takano had no sense of self-control. From a very young age he has been a witness of the sheer harshness of his mother and the complete indifference of his father towards their family. Despite how much he tried to convince himself of his difference he inherited from most of their flaws, which filled him with anger every time he thought about it.

No wonder that whenever he met someone bright, kind, generous and appreciated he became more aware of his whole dark gloomy personality. That was the case with Ritsu he was still viewing today as the 16 year-old teen he used to be a decade ago.

No wonder that when he met this bright, kind and generous highschool kid he had become more aware of his dark gloomy personality. He was still viewing Ritsu as the 16 year-old teen he used to be a decade ago and yet he couldn’t understand for the life of him the reason why such a lovable person would waste their time with him rather than finding another likeable person that would be such a better companion than him.

If all the open rejections from the brunette could make him believe he hated him, he was at least smart enough to read between the lines and see what the other tried so hard to conceal under feigned anger and flustered reactions.

What seemed to be like a bitter-sweet genuine love story from two ignorant teenagers who lost each other from a foolish misunderstanding was driving him straight into madness. Ritsu was constantly on his mind, invading his thoughts at any time of the day, reminding him of the terrible person he was and how he will never be nowhere near enough for him. Even in the poorly credible reality where the younger one would actually build up the courage to admit his feelings, he knew that their relationship was sealed to failure.

One day Ritsu would mature and realise how incompatible they were and how idealistic they’ve been this whole time before leaving him to find another person that could offer him the support and love he needed. Maybe one day Ritsu would find the man of his dreams, different from senpai in every way, to finally live the blissful life he aspired to. That’s what broke his heart the most: they were not made for each other. No matter how hard he tried, it will never be enough because they were simply not meant to.

He imagined Ritsu’s soulmate to be fun, social, caring, communicative and considerate which would make him forget all the turmoil he went through for all this time. His parents might be so enchanted by their personality that the fact they weren’t An-Chan wouldn’t even bother them.

The truth is he was physically and emotionally drained. He couldn’t feel a thing if it wasn’t his love for Ritsu and sometimes he felt as if that was his last tie with sanity. There were times where he would shut down his emotions. When it became too difficult to confront their inevitable fate, he would put himself in a semi-automatic mode working up to 15 hours straight without paying attention to anything or anyone, only accomplishing what he ought to.

Over time, he came to accept that he wasn’t able to love anyone without causing them a great deal of pain and suffering. That’s why he decided to distance himself from the few people who actually cared about him in his life and managed to bring him some split meaningful moments of happiness. It was like a lightning bolt shaking him from side to side, making him surrender to the hope of one day being able to spend the rest of his life with Ritsu and recovering from his long-lost friendship with Yokozawa. He hurt them both and didn’t deserve to be part of their lives.

His phone vibrated. He broke off his thoughts to center his attention on the alias displaying on the screen: “Taisho” along with a message “I’m here.”

He stood up from the floor, came up to the entrance of his apartment and opened the door. A man of average-height in his mid-thirties was waiting for him. At first glance, he gave the impression of being a regular salary-man coming back home to his family after a long day of hard work. However, he came to discover that the man likely had a long history of debt behind him involving matters such as a costly divorce and low paychecks.

Not bothering to greet him, he pulled out 6,000 yen from his pocket and handed it to the fearful looking man who replaced the notes with a small transparent plastic bag containing a white powder.

“Same thing next week?” asked the anxious black-haired man, his light blue eyes too faithful to be a dealer squeezing behind his oval glasses.

“Yeah. See you.”

Without giving him a second glance, he double-locked the door and came back to his dimly lit living room that felt so lonely without Ritsu here. It would take some time, if not forever, to prevent this heavy load in his heart from manifesting every time he would find himself alone without the prospect of his first love joining him any time soon.

It still pained him… Nao came unannounced in the office earlier in the morning and asked Ritsu out for something that too likely looked like a date. A walk in the city center, a restaurant, and a nighttime exposure. That bastard.

The rare times he had managed to take Ritsu out for a date was by forcefully dragging him out of his apartment or bluntly lying by message playing the card of ‘emergency’. He remembered the dull ache he felt in the morning as he realised how easy it was for his “best-friend” to take him out to a full outing while he had to prepare a strategy days ahead just to drink a coffee together.

Opening the tiny bag in his hands, he chased away his dark thoughts and kneeled in front of his coffee table, pouring half of the powder out on its surface and realigned it in two fine lines with the help of an old credit card. He usually didn’t take such high doses in one shot, but tonight he knew that he needed it. The accumulated pain and overthinking were taking a toll on him. Rolling a paper, he brought it to his right nostril and sniffed the first line, ignoring the burning pain in his cavity before passing it to his left one and repeated the action.

A few seconds later he started feeling the tiny molecules flowing through his blood system, noticing the faster pace of his heart beat and the gradual relaxation of his muscles as the drug invaded his mind.

He closed his eyes.

As always, the thrill was exquisite. The far away sounds of ambient city noises echoed and at some point the only thing he could decipher in the absolute silence was his own breath. His body was soft and any psychological pain he felt instantly disappeared. It was as if someone had covered him with a warm fluffy blanket while stroking his hair with a gentle grasp, providing him an endless feeling of comfort and security he so desperately needed.

At that moment, everything stopped and all his troubles went away. Nothing mattered anymore. He was back being a young child pampered by a protective mother he never had with an unconditional sense of love. Pleasurable sensations coursed through his body from head to toes until his spirit went numb and he lost any notion of space and time.

He reached that moment of nothingness that he wished could last forever.

___

“Takano-san!”

...

“Takano-san!”

Who was it?

The voice seemed so far away he wasn’t even sure it was real.

“Masamune!” Why would someone try to break the silent darkness that was surrounding him?

For what seemed like hours, he felt himself trapped in-between the process of gaining and losing consciousness. He didn’t want to be drawn from his deep slumber yet.

He recognized some familiar voices in the background but it was hard to put a name on them as they seemed to continuously echo.

It took him several more minutes to realise that people were present and it shook him. He became hyper aware of his environment.

The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was a bunch of white blouses around him scampering around the room at a feverish speed.

His mind whirled. The world seemed to be going so fast but his brain was so slow.

His golden eyes blinked several times to adjust to the brightness of the room. In an instant he was blinded by the artificial light of the leds on the ceiling.

In the chaos of all the fast-paced strangers around him, he felt a delicate hand fondling with the hair on the short back of his neck and let out a soft tired moan escape his lips.

“Takano-san can you hear me?!”

He groggily stretched out his limbs while burying his head on the petite body frame behind him and looked up to see who was the kind stranger offering him such soft intentions.

Above him were two wide teary green eyes displaying a worried expression. Despite his blurry vision, he could recognize the refined and familiar traits of the man he loved. It looked surreal, having the both of them like this sharing such intimacy in a restless atmosphere.

Next to him was standing Yokozawa in his usual professional attire. He could only watch them through half-closed eyes all the while trying to figure out what they were doing in his apartment in the first place.

“He’s stable now. Overdoses happen regularly when cocaine and other powerful stimulants are added to the equation. That’s what producers do nowadays to boost the effects”. Said a firm feminine voice. He could see the lady in white gesturing around to her colleagues and immediately realised what just happened. She was staring at him, probably trying to jauge how awake her patient was.

“You were lucky Takano-san. This could have been much more serious.”

He saw his friend sitting next to Ritsu, his usual severe expression ruptured by the deep crease in his eyebrows.

“How did you find me?” asked the raven, his voice so weak he wasn’t sure the two others heard him.

The brunette brought his face closer to his ear, petting his forehead as he replied in a shaky shy voice: “Yokozawa-san found you like this…” he heard a sneeze. “The front door was unlocked and your phone was ringing without you answering it. You… You stopped breathing.”

He felt absolutely miserable.

Trying to shift his position to have a better view of his comrades, he caught the look of utter disappointment and guilt from his older friend. He probably thought that he was long done with this dark hazardous period of his life.

“I’m… I’m sorry... I didn’t want to…”

His battle to stay awake was getting harder and harder.

“It’s okay Masamune. Just rest for now.”

The nurse took a hold of his wrist and stuck the intravenous line with a patch.

“We’re going to transfer you to the clinic as you need to take several tests. You’re safe now but your body needs to recover.”

The hand that was playing with his hair resumed and he let his head fall back on his lap. This combined with the liquid in his body led him to a sleep without dreams.

___

When he woke up again, he found himself buried under the sheets of a hospital bed. It took him some time to become accustomed to the artificial lighting of the room. Gathering enough energy to finally keep his eyes open, he gazed at the clock at his right indicating 4:55AM.

The first thing he felt was an atrocious headache that hit him with a massive chest pain undertaking his whole body. He noticed the numerous wires connected to his skin accompanied with the steady regular bips of a machine.

He heard a light snore on his right. Shifting his head, he immediately saw the small fragile figure crawling up into a ball on the couch. A cheap blanket was covering him from toes to his neck. This sight made him feel so terribly selfish. As seconds went by he started getting back to a normal state of awareness despite a fizzy pang at the back of his skull.

With as much strength as he could gather he sprawled a hand towards him and rested it on the others’ laps. He stroked his thigh lightly with the help of his thumb and stared at his seemingly exhausted resting face. He felt so worthless. He knew he had hurt him badly in the past already and the only thing he could think of is that this was too much.

“I’m so sorry Ritsu…”.

After reuniting with his first love following the 10 years they had spent apart from one another he had started to believe in fate. Yet he had been too trustful, using it as a justification for every one of his impatient and inappropriate moves towards the younger one. Everything became painfully obvious. This whole thing they had was destructive and that was mainly his fault. It was time to finally respect the distance that Ritsu wanted and deserved. He could not go back to these college years pretending that nobody cared about him.

Now Ritsu would need him.

Still, they were nowhere near close from getting into a relationship. Too many mistakes had been made. It was crucial for both men to work on themselves first as jumping the steps one more time would only bring them unhappiness.

That day Takano swore he would stop pursuing Ritsu. He’s forever been broken and finally accepting to get help was a start towards a less twisted life.

“It’s okay Ritsu.”

One day they would be okay. They would get the life they both secretly wanted.

#sekaiichihatsukoi #Sekaiichi Hatsukoi #junjou romantica #Ritsu Onodera #Takano Masamune #yokozawa takafumi

9 notes · View notes

snkpolls · 4 years ago

Text

SnK Episode 68 Poll Results (for Anime Only Watchers)

The poll closed with 59 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Please note that these are the results for the Anime Only Watchers’ poll. If you wish to see the results for the Manga Readers’ poll, click here.

Anime only watchers, beware of spoilers if you venture over to the manga readers’ poll results.

RATE THE EPISODE 53 Responses

The response was overwhelmingly positive with 88.7% of responses giving the episode a 4 or a 5. In addition, there weren’t any 1s or 2s this time around. A noted contrast to the previous episode. Suppose Sasha’s death ruined the experience for some.

it epic

I NEED MORE

awesome

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING MOMENTS WAS YOUR FAVORITE? 55 Responses

The scene with the largest amount of reception (18.2%) was the final scene of the episode, where Eren repeats his mantra to himself in the mirror while revealing his new look. Behind that was the reveal that Armin is talking to Annie (10.9%). At a tie (9.1%), people most enjoyed Hange’s eccentric greeting to the Marleyan soldiers and Onyankopon explaining why he believes people are different. At another tie (7.3%), were the scenes where Sasha is enjoying Nicolo’s cooking, and the scene where Eren is washing himself at the sink.

WHAT WAS THE MOST EMOTIONAL PART OF THE VISIT TO SASHA’S GRAVE? 57 Responses

The visit to Sasha’s grave was packed with many tragic moments. According to the responders, the most emotional of those was Connie’s line about losing “his half” (47.4%). Following that we have the scene of grieving Mikasa with 24.6%. In third place is Nicolo’s general grief. Other responses were, in this order, Sasha’s Father agreeing to a free meal from Nicolo, seeing the girl that Sasha saved from a Titan all those years ago and simply Sasha’s family appearing.

AFTER SEVERAL TENSE AND ACTION PACKED EPISODES, HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THE TRANSITION TO SOMETHING MORE CALM? 53 Responses

Ever since the series started, AoT has had a clear contrast between the content of its episodes. Episode 68 of the series notably contrasts with the prior 3-4 episodes. So we wanted to know how the fans respond to these sorts of things. 32.1% stated that they enjoyed the slower paced episode after weeks of chaos. An equal number of responders (32.1%) noted that although they far preferred the action-based content, they understood the need for the slower episodes. A little over 13% said they actually preferred the exposition-esque content, so they were happy with the change and finally, a bit over 11% stated that they were indifferent.

I view exposition equally as important as action.

Watching the show dissect what happened before and after the attack on Marley made everything so clear, I love how they were able to capture the drama of both sequences

I'm definetly here more dialogue heavy epiodes and flashbacks but maybe with a slower pacing. It felt a little messy because the episode was also dealing with Sasha's as well as backstory. I think thst was probably intentional though.

They both have their merits.

Still feels great

WOULD YOU RATHER GET A SURPRISE GREETING FROM EREN & HANGE, OR ARMIN & LEVI? 55 Responses

Marleyan Soldiers got two sets of surprises in this episode. One from Eren and Hange, one from Armin and Levi. The fans would clearly prefer to get one of those from Eren and Hange (78.2%) than Armin and Lavi (21.8%).

ON A SCALE OF 1-5, HOW HAPPY ARE YOU TO BE BACK ON PARADIS? 55 Responses

We recently returned to Paradis Island and according to the responders, it was a much wanted development, with 85.4% giving a 4 or a 5 when it comes to hype about the return to the island.

ARMIN SAYS THAT ONCE EREN INFILTRATED MARLEY, THERE WAS NO OTHER CHOICE BUT TO ATTACK IN ORDER TO PREVENT IMMEDIATE RETALIATION. DO YOU AGREE WITH HIM? 55 Responses

The raid on Liberio is being questioned not only by the audiences, but also by the characters in-universe. Still, when it comes to Armin’s justification for the attack, the majority (69.1%) think that there was no other choice for Paradis, be it because they could afford to lose Eren/Founding Titan or because Marley would have retaliated easily. Others (~10%) think that they either should have made more effort to find Eren before it came to the raid or should have just let him go. 14.5% simply aren’t sure.

They had no choice but to retrieve Eren, but that doesn't necessarily mean a full blown attack. I think Armin is trying to convince himself here.

Yes. Marley could have captured Eren and had Zeke or someone else eat him for the founding powers.

DO YOU THINK IT’S PLAUSIBLE THAT MARLEY WILL FIND A WAY TO QUICKLY COUNTERATTACK ANYWAY? 53 Responses

When it comes to Marley, one could wonder if they will attempt a quick counterattack. 67.9% believe so, 15.1% dissent. And 9.4% state that they have been spoiled. For the write-in responder who feels that we are spoiling via the question itself, we assure you that anything we ask here had once been a matter of debate among manga readers when the corresponding chapters were fresh and we did not know the outcome. We would just like to give anime only watchers the same opportunity to have these debates.

I don't know.

The fleet has been destroyed, but what about the airforce (if they have one)? I doubt Paradis has the mean to counter that.

I'm not really sure honestly

This question is a spoiler itself: if you ask this, maybe it means that's what will happen. Thank you.

WHEN EREN FIRES HIS GUN AT THE END OF EMA’S TALK, IT TRANSITIONS TO SASHA TAKING A BULLET IN THE PREVIOUS EPISODE. DO YOU FEEL THAT THE NARRATIVE IS TRYING TO PIN THE BLAME SOLELY ON EREN? 55 Responses

Eren’s rifle shot was juxtaposed with Sasha’s death, showcasing a possible thread in the narrative. Does the narrative believe that Eren is to blame for Sasha’s death? 38.2% think it’s a yes and 45.5% think it’s a possibility. On the other hand, almost 11% don’t think the story is trying to go for that route.

While I don’t think it’s trying to pin the blame solely on Eren. I think it’s trying to say he shares a large portion of the blame.

He may be partly at fault, but not fully.

Yes. But they shouldn't. Because it was GabBitch who killed Sasha, and GabBitch alone.

DO YOU BELIEVE THAT ZEKE, YELENA AND THE VOLUNTEERS ARE SINCERE IN THEIR WISH TO HELP PARADIS? 55 Responses

Zeke, Yelena and Co. are a set of characters. Are they a trustworthy set of characters? Certainly up to debate. 67.8% believe they’re trustworthy to a degree, at the very least. In contrast to 23.6% who find no trust in them. A select few have been spoiled.

Mmm Yelena & co. maybe...I love Zeke but he's big sus this season

I think they are loyal to Zeke, and his goal is to get the funding titan. At the moment, this means allying themselves with Paradis, but that could easily change.

They are very sus, Yelena is especially loose. IDK who they'll be loyal too.

DO YOU THINK THAT EREN WANTS TO USE THE WALL TITANS AS A SIMPLE DETERRENT, OR DOES HE WANT TO FLATTEN THE EARTH? 55 Responses

The possibility of a Rumbling has been brought up more than a few times throughout the series (mostly this season) and the question remains, “will Eren use the Rumbling to flatten the Earth?” 60% think that’ll be the case, in contrast to almost 11% who dissent. 27.3% were already spoiled about the outcome.

That idiot definetly wants to flatten the earth. Empathy and logic has never been Erens strong suit.

DO YOU THINK THAT EMA HAVE BECOME MORE DISTANT FROM EACH OTHER? 55 Responses

The iconic EMA trio has been together through thick and thin, so something truly must happen for them to “break up”, so to say. Would one say that they have grown apart? 56.4% think so, but only insofar as Eren goes. 25.5% believe that they all have grown apart to a degree. 9.1% dissent to these assertions and a select few have been spoiled.

Even Mikasa and Armin seem distant! They were coping on their own after coming back to Paradis.

I like to refer to them as E MA. lol. Yehhhh anyway- somethings defs off with them.

ARMIN SAID HE DIDN’T SEE ANY NOTEWORTHY MEMORIES FROM BERTOLT WHEN EREN ASKED HIM ABOUT IT. DO YOU THINK HE’S BEING TRUTHFUL? 55 Responses

A whole bunch of people doubt Armin’s statement about not seeing anything useful in Bertolt’s memories (81.8%), though some (14.5%) think the boy’s telling the truth. A select few have been spoiled.

DO YOU THINK MIKASA IS LOSING HOPE IN THE WORDS THAT ONCE GAVE HER STRENGTH? 56 Responses

Long ago, Mikasa stated that one must fight, survive and win. If they don’t fight, they won’t survive and will lose. But with some losses drumming up on the plate, could she start doubting this mantra? 46.4% believe that we cannot say one way or another until we see more. 26.8% don’t believe that Sasha’s death will shake her confidence in that belief and it’s just a brief moment of doubt, in contrast to 23.2% who believe that Sasha’s demise will irreparably change Mikasa’s philosophy.

No....? I did't even realise she was that close to Sasha. I feel like if she loses Eren THEN she'll lose hope.

what words?

Mikasa deserves better than emo world destroyer Eren!!! She's too pure.

EREN SEEMED TO BE MISSING WHEN THE SURVEY CORPS WERE INTERACTING WITH THE VOLUNTEERS. WHY DO YOU THINK THAT MIGHT BE? 54 Responses

Eren wasn’t present when the others were interacting with the volunteers. Some believe it is noteworthy, others do not think so. 38.9% simply aren’t certain. 29.6% think it’s the SC decision to keep Eren away from Zeke’s followers. On the other, 20.4% predict that it was Eren’s own choice of isolation. A select few have simply been spoiled.

Didn’t notice this until now

Maybe he had already left for Marley?

ARMIN WAS HOPEFUL THAT THEY COULD SOLVE THEIR PROBLEMS THROUGH DIPLOMACY. EREN FELT THAT PEACE WAS NEVER AN OPTION. WHO DO YOU AGREE WITH MORE? 54 Responses

A noted contrast in Eren and Armin’s beliefs was showcased in this episode. 57.4% find themselves siding more with Eren’s anti-diplomatic measures, while 42.6% support Armin’s more peaceful ways.

WE GOT A GLIMPSE OF ANNIE IN THIS EPISODE. WHAT BEST MATCHES YOUR THOUGHTS? 55 Responses

Annie has been encased in that crystal for years at this point, both in and out of universe. Is she going to get out of that crystal? Just a little over 69% believe so, in contrast to the one person who doesn’t. 23.6% were spoiled one way or another.

Sis is running out of time...it would really suck if her 13 years were up before she even got out of her lil crystal

This has GOT to wake up, surely.

She got a nose reduction surgery

HOW DO YOU THINK ZEKE WILL RATE HIS STAY AT THE HOTEL OF GIANT TREES? 55 Responses

Zeke seemed shocked to find his hotel to be a forest of Giant Trees. An iconic location, seen throughout the series. We asked how you believe Zeke will rate his stay. A plurality (40%) think that he won’t be there long enough to do so. 29.1% believe he’ll give it an average score, in contrast to 23.6% who imagine Zeke loving his getaway! 7.3% have been spoiled.

WHAT BEST DESCRIBES YOUR FEELINGS ABOUT PIXIS ARRESTING THE VOLUNTEERS? 55 Responses

It would appear Pixis detained the volunteers while the SC were away. The majority (52.7%) don’t find it to be a controversial decision, noting that both parties have a mutual understanding between each other. A noted minority (29.1%) thought that it was actually the best course of action, arguing that the Paradisian Military has no way of knowing whether the volunteers are trustworthy or not now that Zeke is here on Paradis. In contrast, 18.2% thought that it was mistake, given how much assistance the Volunteers have provided to the islanders.

WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THE WAY THE PARADISIANS ARE SEEN TREATING MARLEYANS? 55 Responses

We saw some noted mistreatment of Marleyans by the Paradisians this episode. So we asked the responders what their thoughts were on this development. A plurality (47.3%) couldn’t say one way or the other and needed to see more to pass their judgment. 34.5% were open in their condemnation of those actions, in contrast to the 12.7% who were supportive of such activities.

Cycle of haaaate. No one is justified in acting that way but it's understandable that they do

Some good, some bad. Military police doing the worst of course.

An eye for an eye ✌

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE EPISODE?

I don't know what to say anymore. This episode made me question my previous ideologies regarding the characters

In my opinion, this episode has more fanservice than usual, from the ship moments of Levihan and Aruani, and to the display of Mikasa's ass and Eren's abs, but Mappa is not over the top and can still get the plot moving and still have those moments that can move the viewers.

I believe in Onyankopon supremacy

Even though I love Mappa post timeskip designs, the pre timeskip design of some characters seemed a bit off to me (particularly Armin and Eren). It distracted me a bit from the action.

Eren standing Infront of the mirror was way better in manga. Mappa need to put more effort. No hate tho.

Idk, didn't blow me away. I'm seriously concerned for Armin, he's definetly losing it. Appreciated the flashbacks and the new characters too. Onyankopon has captured my mf heart, if he dies, I die too. 😌

Chad Eren

Niccolo x Sasha OTP

What the shit dude…

Gabi will forever be the worst character to me, no matter what the anime tries to do to justify her

WHERE DO YOU PRIMARILY DISCUSS THE SERIES? 54 Responses

Thanks again to everyone who responded!

#snk poll #snk polls #snk spoilers #snk s4 #shingeki no kyojin #attack on titan #snk #aot

7 notes · View notes

quintessence-sentimentalist · 5 years ago

Text

quintessence-sentimentalist Takes on 30 Days of W.i.t.c.h.versary!: Week Three

Week Three already! Days 15 through 21 below the cut!

Day 15 Something that needs a quick fix

Ahaha, well, some 99.9% of things that need fixing with this series can’t be completed quickly, so let me just go with the simplest thing that comes to mind:

The uniform color errors.

In both the comic and cartoon, there are color swaps between the top and bottom, with Irma being the most frequent offender (frankly, I only remember Cornelia’s top being purple on the cover of one of the final Ludmoore arc issues, and maaaaaaaybe Hay Lin got a color swap once too, so basically it was all with Irma). I don’t know if it’s because she and Will might look a little similar in black-and-white or something and that’s why there was confusion over whose top is which color (although if that’s the case then why didn’t it happen to Will too?), but it just kept happening throughout the series. It’s even wrong on the official promo art/opening sequence end card for the animated series.

So yeah. Easiest fix I can think of is to please check which color goes where before inking them in.

Day 16 Something that needs an overhaul

I’m just going to spin the wheel here...

Better executed romantic break-ups/avoidance of shitty break-ups altogether. Consistent lore. All the arcs New Power and beyond. New Power Matt. That one self-indulgent what-if I had about leaving Medina, McTiennan, and Sylla’s memories intact and they basically become the girls’ non-magical mentors and trusted adult figures who help them balance their lives between Guardianship and just being normal girls.

Uh... I can’t choose.

I’ve talked at length about and reimagined a lot of these before (and will do so again, for sure), and those I haven’t people have discussed much more eloquently than I can. And I’m sure I’m still missing some, so I’m not going to get too deep into this and save that all for inevitable rambles later on.

Day 17 Something that needs to be revisited

The Astral Drops, hands down. Why bother sending them off to live new lives of their own, while pointedly leaving them with magical tattoos that will light up when Kandrakar must call on them, if you’re not going to loop back around to that? Honestly, this is something that should have slid back into the narrative in at least some way before things wrapped up.

Day 18 Something that needs more love from the fandom

It’s going to be too predictable if I start chanting “animated series Matt and Will/Matt” (but really, they do deserve all the love), so let’s go for a different angle this time.

Oh... well, I guess since I was already at it, maybe the animated series itself?

Alright, look: I was a comics purist for a solid eight years. I watched the show in full and enjoyed particular (largely season 2) parts, but I still had the frequent complaint that it wasn’t a faithful adaptation and didn’t watch it again for years even when I regularly reread the comics.

But then the English translations of the comic ended, and I was left without any real new material. A couple years later, I was about to go off to college and came across something that reminded me of the cartoon (more on that later on), and I figured what the hell.

It’s still not a perfect or even great adaptation of the comics, and sometimes I still struggle with getting through the first season, but going back to the animated series as a young adult - after years of distance from it and easing up on my rigid stance on comics-only - helped me gain a newfound appreciation for it. The animated series did some things I liked better than in the comics. It had a badass theme song. From a fan creator perspective, I found the cartoon universe a little bit more malleable and full of possibilities than with the comics, partially because it unexpectedly got cut short.

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t necessarily have impeccable taste when it comes to media (I have a guilty pleasure for short-lived and long-forgotten early 00s sci-fi action shows. I unabashedly enjoyed the live-action Birds of Prey series, and that’s even more wildly inaccurate a comic adaptation than the W.i.t.c.h. cartoon). Still, I think about some other animated series that are based on beloved comics/manga but not direct adaptations, and some of those are considered just as good or even better than the originals (and potentially subsequent accurate adaptations). I feel like at the very least, the W.i.t.c.h. animated series could be a guilty pleasure, or even enjoyable AU adventures of the girls as they are in the comics.

Day 19 Something small but unforgettable

Nothing was immediately coming to mind, but then it hit me. I love that the animated series changed the name of Will’s power to quintessence in the second season.

In the comics, her powers were a bit of a nebulous space, while the others’ were clearly defined elements. I remember it being called “energy” or “absolute energy,” which... while not wrong, it’s just such a broad term, and frankly is missing some pizzazz to it. It wasn’t even a consistent name, since oftentimes Will just called out for the Heart, and then with New Power it became “the power to unite them” or something (uh... what?). I just think it’s weird to have one of your main characters without a clearly defined - or simply named - ability, unless it’s intentionally vague to allow for various deus ex machinas from the Heart, with Will serving solely as the conduit.

And that’s kind of what happened with the first season too, where Will was honestly only able to activate the Guardians and close portals and had no inherent offensive ability. So season 2 was great in the respect that they actually gave her a power, but then there was that name!

Seriously, quintessence. Even before you really know what it is, it’s a pretty kickass name, right?? It definitely has the mystical quality to it, and the fact that it literally translates as fifth essence/element makes it just too good. Guys, there’s a reason why it’s in my username.

(Well, that and the fact that seeing the word and its definition again after many years reminded me that I should rewatch the animated series, and that was what kicked off my spiral back into W.i.t.c.h. fandom. It did tie into the “sentimentalist” aspect in the end.)

Day 20 Something you’d always come back to

Hmm, I’m a little unclear on the prompt for this one, whether it means something I’ll reread/rewatch, or some idea from the series that just sticks with me. I’m going go with the first interpretation, which I guess also ties in with the second.

Hardly a surprise at this point, but I regularly rewatch the most pivotal episodes of the Shagon arc - those being L is for Loser, M is for Mercy, and S is for Self. I just love seeing Shagon in the forefront as a villain, and how Will knows how to deal with Nerissa in some respect at this point (staying suspicious - maybe a little bit too much - and learning to out-strategize the ex-Keeper), but goes absolutely ballistic and loses her calculating edge whenever she’s facing Shagon on his own. He knows exactly how to needle into her vulnerabilities, and the two of them engaging in emotional warfare is just so good. Watching these always gets me wondering how the fallout from this arc would have gone had we had more time and the series had a different tone (maybe more along the lines of Young Justice, to borrow a different Weisman show), because I’m firmly of the mind that Matt would have some lingering trauma from the experience (which he’s had to put aside to take on a new role and deal with everything else that came after he was freed) and I would have loved to see that play out.

As for the comics, though, I like to loop back around to the girls’ potential futures from issue 50. Their careers just fit them all so well, and the way their designs and friendship evolved into adulthood just felt right to me. They’re all grown up and more sophisticated now, but they don’t simply look like a slightly older version of their Guardian forms, and manage to maintain a semblance of their styles from their young teen days. And even though they’re no longer active Guardians and are busy with their own lives (sometimes in various other places), thus not being in each others’ back pockets anymore, you can tell their bond is holding just as firmly as it was forged back in the day. I vastly prefer this glimpse into the future over the one we’re shown in the post-New Power era, so I like to use it at least as a basis for when I imagine the girls post-Guardianship.

Day 21 A memorable architectural design

I do love the design of Sheffield Institute. It’s just so elaborate and wildly different than what you’d normally see for a high school, at least from my view and experience. It certainly looks like a place with a rich history, and honestly I think it’s a great parallel to Kandrakar and the castles of Meridian and Arkhanta - not quite as regal or mystical, but still a structure with some elegance.

#30daysofwitchversary #30 days of witchversary #w.i.t.c.h.#quintessence-sentimentalist rambles

15 notes · View notes

kingbaekho · 6 years ago

Text

you’re my home (friends-to-lovers!you x jr)

pairing: nu’est’s jr x you

word count: 2.2k

genres: fluff, slice-of-life, slow(ish) burn, friends-to-lovers

a/n: i truly have nothing to do this summer, so i’ll start writing more!

jonghyun’s the yin to your yang.

whenever people find out that you and jonghyun are best friends, they’re always taken aback. it’s no big deal -- you two are used to it, and you’ve spent multiple long nights rambling about it over facetime.

there’s jonghyun, who suffers from rbf, but once he smiles, turns into the cutest human being alive. he’s a serious introvert whose late nights are spent watching anime, reading manga, or playing video games. on the rare occasion he’s at a party (usually having been dragged to it by you), he sticks to the walls with only soda in his hands, carefully watching to make sure that nothing happens to you as you disappear into the crowd. he’s selfless the a fault -- his friends have regularly pointed out how often people ask him for help without giving anything back in return, to the point where you blew up at a girl in middle of math class for asking him for the answers to last night’s homework for the tenth day in a row. jonghyun doesn’t mind, though. he never does. as long as he can be there to make someone happy, he’s happy as well.

and then there’s you, the virtual polar opposite of jonghyun. if you have to stay at home for even one day, you get restless. when jonghyun can’t find his voice, you do it for him -- hence the above incident. while he’ll never say a bad word about anyone, you’re blunt -- if you dislike someone, you’ll make it crystal clear. you like loud parties, dancing, random hookups -- everything jonghyun doesn’t. hell, you even look like the polar opposite of jonghyun. while he prefers oversized sweaters that, according to you, are a “big uwu”, your hair is dyed platinum blonde, with a closet like an instagram model.

yet, you and jonghyun are the best of friends, like yin and yang (for your 18th birthday, you and jonghyun gave each other yin and yang stick-and-poke tattoos that actually didn’t turn out too badly, especially considering the fact that both of you were tipsy). you coax jonghyun out of his shell, while he calms you down and keeps you safe. you’re up in the sky, but it’s jonghyun who keeps you anchored to the earth. it’s been this way ever since ninth grade, when you were the new student that, when you could have had your pick of popular friends, chose jonghyun to sit next to during lunch. and now, four years later, you two even chose to go to the same college.

except lately, you and jonghyun have been growing apart. jonghyun understands -- you’re both 18 now, almost college students. he wants to give you space to breath, to let you grow into your own without him to tie you down. you two are so vastly different, and it makes since that you would want friends that want to do the same things that you do. jonghyun doesn’t mind. he’ll always be here, waiting for you.

after all, he has his girlfriend now. yena is much more like him, and so being with her feels effortless in a way that being with you doesn’t. as much as jonghyun enjoys spending time with you, your boundless energy can be tiring at times. with yena, he could spend day after day by her side, just watching anime. she’s comfortable, a lovely familiarity whereas you’re the unknown. nowadays, jonghyun just wants to be comfortable.

even though for the past few months, you and jonghyun’s communication has disintegrated into exclusively snapchat streaks with the occasional tagged instagram meme, it’s your number that he dials the night that yena dumps him, after he spends hours sobbing into his pillow.

“what’s up?” you answer with your usual brazenness.

jonghyun doesn’t know why, but he feels an urge to get out of his house. he needs a distraction from this heartbreak. “are you free?”

“uh, what’s up?” you ask again. jonghyun realizes that it’s a saturday night. of course you’re busy. he sighs.

“don’t worry about it,” he says.

“no, what’s up?” you repeat. “this is the most we’ve talked in months, something’s obviously wrong.”

for as flighty as you are, you have a sixth sense about these things. jonghyun pauses.

“yena and i broke up.”

“i’ll be there in ten minutes.” you hang up.

“jesus, you look like a wreck,” you mutter when jonghyun climbs into your car at 11 that night. you push a box of tissues into his lap before speeding off into the street. neither of you speak until you reach a stoplight, and you look at him for what must be the first time in months. jonghyun notices that you’ve dyed your hair a fiery orange.

“what happened?” you ask, rolling down your window and tapping your fingers against the side of the car. you turn somebody to love up to a fifty.

jonghyun sniffles. “she said she found someone else.”

“christ,” you whisper. out loud, you say, “bitch couldn’t spot a good thing if it hit her over the fucking head,” in your usual blunt style. it does make jonghyun laugh, though. you turn to him with a small smile. “i think this calls for a midnight snack run, yes?”

he nods. once again, you’re off, going at least 10 over the speed limit, as usual. jonghyun really has no idea how you’ve managed to avoid a speeding ticket in all your years of driving.

“what were you gonna do tonight?” he asks to make conversation. he doesn’t like the silence between them, the awkwardness of it can’t help but make him feel guilty for not reaching out to her lately.

you shrug. “minki’s house.”

there’s a pause before jonghyun says, “you didn’t have to, you know.”

you shrug again. “i can party whenever i want to. i still consider you my best friend, jonghyun. i’m gonna help you out.”

you pull into the parking lot of a grocery store, instantly reviving the old memories of whenever jonghyun would sleep over at your apartment and you two would slip out at midnight to run to the the 7/11 on the street corner, giggling and relishing in the rebellion.

and just like the old days, a mischievous smile spreads across your lips. “come on!” you yell into the windy night air, already halfway across the parking lot despite your heels. you throw your hands up in the air, gesturing wildly. jonghyun smiles, too, as he breaks out into a sprint to catch up to you.

you laugh once he catches up to you. “took you long enough.” once you two enter the store, you hop into a cart. “push me,” you demand, pouting playfully until jonghyun acquiesces.

you two spend what seems like eons in the store, racing up and down the aisles, jonghyun putting in the cart whatever you want.

“soju?” jonghyun is already walking over to the bottles, predicting your response.

“yeah, of course.” you wave your hand dismissively, and jonghyun picks up a six-pack in each hand.

“get wine, too!” you call as he’s walking back to the cart.

“i don’t think we can drink this all on our own.” jonghyun raises his eyebrows

“wrong!” you cry. “if there’s a will, there’s a way!” he just shakes his head and fills the cart with as much alcohol as he can carry.

“this is a terrible idea,” he states as he pushes the cart out of the alcohol aisle.

“you always say that,” you reply, reaching for a bottle of soju.

“at least wait until we pay for it!” he protests.

“fine,” you grumble, retracting your hand.

even though this is the first time you’ve talked in months, it’s easy for the both of you to fall into your normal cadence. by the time you two leave the grocery store, with you handing jonghyun your grocery bags with an overly-sweet smile. jonghyun realizes that he hasn’t even thought about yena. sitting in the car as you drive off into the night, humming along to radiohead, jonghyun traces the yin tattoo on his wrist with his finger. no matter what, at the end of the day, it’ll always be you and jonghyun.

you park somewhere along the bank of the hand river, and with soju and snacks in hand, you and jonghyun settle yourselves on the sidewalk along the edge of the river, where the water occasionally laps up and splashes the sidewalk with a small spray. after the shopping trip, the silence between them is now comfortable, punctuated only by you opening a bottle of soju and by jonghyun opening up a bag of cheetos.

“i’m sorry about yena,” you say after a long bout of silence. you take a swig of alcohol and look off into the distance.

jonghyun shrugs. “i guess it was bound to happen at some point. we’re going to completely different colleges, after all.”

“still.” you turn to look at him. “she’s a dumb bitch.”

he just laughs, used to your bluntness. “i mean, that’s just life.”

“i guess, but still,” you say with utter conviction. “you’re a great person, jonghyun. she doesn’t deserve you.”

“i don’t know,” he says, taking the bottle of soju that you offer him. “different people just need different things in a relationship.”

you set down your bottle with a clunk, and jonghyun realizes that you’ve already consumed most of it.

“are you gonna be okay?” he asks, scrutinizing you with concern in his eyes.

“yeah!” you wave your hand dismissively again. “it’s all good in the hood.” but you’re already starting to slur your words.

“do you want me to drive home?” he asks.

“yep.” you nod, leaning back on your elbows. jonghyun rolls his eyes playfully. he didn’t realize how much he’d missed you. it can be tiring playing catch-up with you whenever you drag him to parties, but it’s these moments, where it’s just the two of you on some random adventure, that he misses, no matter how small the adventure is. to him, being with you is thrilling, like a roller coaster. maybe, after the same-old same-old that being with yena was, this is what he needs.

“i’m sorry for not talking to you.” your voice breaks the silence.

“hm?” he turns to you. “what do you mean?”

“i--” you hiccup. “i kind of made a conscious effort not to talk to you.”

he blinks. “why?”

“because of yena.” you take a hard gulp of your soju.

“what do you mean?” jonghyun inches closer to you, and unsuccessfully tries to pry your hands from your bottle. “you’ve had too much to drink way too quickly.”

“it’s mine,” you pout, curling up into a ball to protect your liquor. “anyway, i didn’t like yena.”

“i mean, she just broke up with me, but she was always nice,” he says, sitting back down. “i thought you two got along okay.”

“no.” you shake your head vehemently. “not that. the issue was that--” this time, jonghyun doesn’t stop you from drinking.

“i like you,” you say finally, suddenly sounding sober. “i’ve liked you since the end of tenth grade.” you turn your gaze to the ground.

jonghyun’s taken aback. out of everything he expected her to say, that wasn’t one of them. your dating history consisted of a stream of college boys who only stayed long enough to buy you whatever you wanted before you moved on to the next. never something serious. never anyone like him.

he’s reminded of when he had a crush on you, too. he thought he’d quashed those feelings with yena. but now, in the cool summer breeze, knowing that you like him, too -- he doesn’t know anymore. maybe it’s just the rush of post-breakup emotions. or maybe jonghyun’s realizing that you were what he always needed.

“i...” his voice trails off.

“i know.” this time, when you speak, you sound weary. “you just broke up with yena. you still have feelings for her.”

he nods slowly. “yeah, but i mean... i don’t know anymore. i’ve had a crush on you, too, ever since the summer before junior year. but i didn’t think you’d like me back... and so i dated yena. so now, i don’t know anymore.”

“i see,” you say carefully. “can you... kiss me?”

jonghyun doesn’t know exactly why he accepts, but he inches over to you anyway. despite the strong taste of soju on your lips, kissing you feels so natural. the way his lips meld together with yours makes jonghyun think that you two were made for one another, like puzzle pieces. there’s no awkwardness, no fumbling. it’s plain and simple, and it’s another reminder that maybe, jonghyun had gotten it all wrong that it’s you he’s really been searching for.

“that was nice,” you mumble once you two finally part, your arms still wrapped around his neck.

“mhm.” he nods, looking down at you with a smile.

“so what do you wanna do now?” you ask, looking up at him expectantly.

jonghyun shrugs his shoulders. “i’m not really sure.” your arms fall away, and he sits down, staring at the twinkling lights of the buildings across the river. “but i have a feeling that this will work out.”

“that’s the most un-you thing i’ve ever heard you say.” you smile, moving so that you can rest your head in his lap. “but i like the way you think.”

jonghyun smiles down at you. “maybe you’re a bad influence on me.”

“maybe so,” you hum, closing your eyes.

jonghyun knows that he’s been getting it all wrong. he thought comfort meant similarity, so he chose yena. but it’s not. comfort is the feeling he gets when he’s next to you. comfort is the feeling he gets when he kisses you.

at the end of the day, it’ll always be just you and jonghyun.

31 notes · View notes

aardvark-123 · 6 years ago

Text

Gensokyo Festival day 9: Monster

~Author’s Note~

There are monsters and then there are monsters. Sometimes the monsters look just like you and me. Sometimes the monsters are Touhou fans who don’t have any respect for the world or the characters. And sometimes, very rarely, the people of Gensokyo fight back.

~This One Might be a Bit Creepy, so Read With Caution~

My name is Gary de Sade. Reducing women to blubbering wrecks is my hobby, and my goal is to accomplish this feat seven times in one week. For posterity's sake, I have decided to write a chronicle of my travels in Gensokyo, the diversions I sought therein and the women whose days I ruined.

If you have some kind of moral objection to my pastimes, all I can suggest is that you learn to cope. I care little for the comfort of other people, women least of all. Do not expect me to give up my pleasure for some pitiful notion of "kindness" or "decency".

Monday

I decided to start small with my first endeavour. I snuck into the house of Marisa Kirisame and earned her trust by polishing her shoes, whereupon she allowed me to borrow her alchemical supplies. With those not-altogether-unimpressive resources behind me I was able to brew a bucket's worth of powerful adhesive, more than enough to immobilise one of the locals.

I was not willing to ruin the rapport I had with Marisa just then, so I took the glue out into the forest and poured it out onto the path. Sooner or later, a traveller was bound to walk into my trap.

"I don't believe this." Yuuka prodded the pool of glue with her umbrella. A long, sticky strand clung to the metal tip as she raised it. "Who would be stupid enough to spill sticky stuff in the middle of the road and not tell anybody?"

"I don't know," said Wriggle, with a shrug. "Someone's probably messing around."

Yuuka looked up and down the compacted forest track, but she could see nothing suspicious. "Well, somebody needs to clean it up. And in the absence of anybody else, it looks like 'somebody' is the two of us. Can you run home and fetch me a bar of soap?"

"Okay!" Wriggle turned on her heel and sprinted down the path. About halfway to the Garden of the Sun, she remembered that she could travel much faster in the air.

Yuuka sat down beside the path and winced as a sharp stone pricked her. Something was rustling in the undergrowth behind her, but she paid it no heed. It was probably just a fox or something.

Tuesday

I must admit that I have underestimated the inhabitants of this realm. Apparently a simple glue trap is not enough for my purposes. To add insult to injury, the green-haired woman did not notice the thumb-tack I placed beneath her bottom. If such pain tolerance is the norm in here, it does not bode well for my plans.

Today's little escapade will involve a trip to the Human Village. I intend to slip into the book-rental shop and set light to the contents, driving the shop girl to despair. I can hardly wait to watch her bawl her eyes out.

A bell dinged as the door to Suzunaan swung open. Kosuzu looked up from the monthly manga serial she'd propped against the ledgers and smiled. "Hello, there! Welcome to Suzunaan!"

"Do you have any books on farming?" The newcomer spoke with single-minded urgency. He was tall and unhealthily pale, but Kosuzu wasn't about to let that get to her.

"Of, course, sir! We have plenty!" declared Kosuzu. "What crops are you thinking of growing? I can sell you some paper as well, in case you want to take notes-"

"Rice," said the newcomer firmly. "I'm going to farm a bunch of rices. So run along to the basement and fetch me the book, would you?"

"...It's right here." Kosuzu bent down and pulled out a thick volume from the bookshelf on her right. She laid it down on the counter with a heavy thump. "This is the complete guide to every known variety of rice! All the farmers swear by it!"

"Shit," the newcomer muttered.

Kosuzu's jaw dropped. "What?!" "I said 'this is it'! The perfect book for me! Thank you!" the stranger ground out. "I suppose I'd better settle up. Let me just get me card-wallet... Oh, whoops, a lit match came out of my pocket!"

The match fizzled out with a puff of smoke as it hit the floor.

The stranger began to sweat. "Um..."

"WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!" screamed Kosuzu. She vaulted over the counter, grabbed the stranger by she shoulders and wrestled him out onto the street. "You idiot! Don't you know this is a bookshop?! Don't ever darken my doorstep again!"

Wednesday

I am not pleased with myself. One match is such an unreliable vector to commit arson it is no wonder I failed, and the only one crying was me. Those dirt roads are harder than they look. On the plus side, Marisa made a vegetable stir-fry for breakfast today, and it was delicious. Not as delicious as a helpless woman's tears, but still.

Today I am going to attempt a different tactic. I have heard of a pink sparrow living somewhere in Gensokyo, knowing only fear of a stronger youkai having her for dinner. I wish not to see her devoured, but playing on those fears surely could not hurt...

Mystia had a thumping headache. Rocking out until well past midnight could have that effect, she knew, but it still hurt. Her throat was parched, too. There was nothing else for it; she was going to have to open her eyes and start doing things.

The warm afternoon sun burned Mystia's retinas, but as she grew accustomed to the light she realised she was standing up. She had never been able to sleep on her feet before.

Mystia yawned and stretched out her arms. She felt a pull on her wrists, then something snapped behind her. She whipped around in alarm and found herself face-to-face with a tall wooden pole.

"Well, I never..." Mystia noticed the torn pieces of rope trailing from her wrists. "Is someone having a laugh?! Who tied me up?!" She noticed a shaggy-haired silhouette skulking behind a tree and ran over to it. "Did you tie me to that big stick?!"

The stranger's jaw dropped. He gasped the righteous gasp of an innocent man defending himself from the most craven, outrageous lie. "My dear lady, in the sun goddess's name, you must believe me! I am an innocent, harmless traveler who would never tie anyone up! I did nothing to you!"

"Really?" Mystia tilted her head to one side. "If you say you're innocent, prove it, wolf-boy! Take me on!"

"You want me to take you on?" The stranger gulped. "With those spell-card thingies you people keep talking about? Ah, well, you see..."

"Take... on... me! Take on me! Take... me... on! Take on me! I'll... be... gone! I don't know the rest OF the words!!!" Mystia squeaked, following the tune with partial accuracy.

The stranger took the opportunity to make a wise decision. He scarpered.

Thursday

Up until yesterday afternoon, I had been under the impression that only upper-echelon youkai possessed such superhuman strength. If all youkai are that strong, my choice of victims will be severely limited. I wonder whether the glue trap I attempted on Monday would have worked even if a youkai stepped in it. Would she simply have strode across it without difficulty?

There are humans in this land as well, however, and surely not all of them can be as fierce as that book-lender. My target today is to be a weak, prissy, helpless little maid who has spent all her life working in great houses. The intel Marisa gave me as I plied her with sake last night could be the key to my success...

"Hey, you!"

Sakuya's body language did not show any surprise. She turned on her heel and looked the stranger in the eye. "Can I help you?"

The pale man smiled wickedly. "You wear pads!"

"I... What?!"

"You heard!" the stranger smiled smugly.

"I don't understand! What is...? Why...?" Sakuya cleared her throat. "What do you mean by 'pads'?"

"Padding," the stranger clarified, "in your bra. Because you're embarrassed by your diminutive mammaries!"

"...Listen. I wear a chemise, not a bra. And you have no right to approach me, a complete stranger, and try to strike up a conversation about my body!"

The stranger folded his arms. "Chemise or not, you still wear pads. You see, Sakuya, I know what lies deep inside your heart. When you look into your mirror, you can't bear what you see. A woman as flat as a panca-"

Cold steel pressed against the stranger's neck. He clammed up in an instant.

"Sir, you've gone too far," hissed Sakuya. Her face was right by the stranger's ear. He could feel her unexpectedly warm breath. "The mistress doesn't like intruders or weirdoes, and neither do I. Incidentally, I can't remember a single day when I haven't been satisfied with my body. Give me one reason not to kill you."

"Um, y-you might get sent to prison? For murder?" the stranger whimpered.

Sakuya pondered that for a few moments. Nobody in the Human Village would be in any hurry to arrest her, she knew, but did she want even more blood on her hands after giving Flandre a bath?

"Would you like me to escort you from the building?" offered Sakuya.

The stranger sagged with relief. "Oh, could you?! I-I'd love that! Please do! Escort away!"

"As you wish." Sakuya loosened her grip a little and began frogmarching him down the hall.

Friday

I am beginning to lose hope. Why do none of these women know how to lose gracefully? By rights, more than a dozen should have shed tears of despair by this point, but instead they fight me and humiliate me at every turn. I deserve better than to be a chew toy.

There is one plan I have yet to try. Marisa has taken good care of me this past week, even believing my cover story when Meiling pushed me through the letter box yesterday afternoon, but she is still a woman, and her tears are mine. Tonight, while she slumbers, I shall clap her in irons and-

"Hey!"

Gary shut his diary with a snap. "Who?! What?! I-I wasn't plotting anything, I swear!"

"Sakuya told me everything, Gary," said Marisa severely. Her hat fell off as she stepped through the narrow door to the spare room.

"Then she came and told me," said Reimu, catching Marisa's hat. "What were you thinking, breaking into the mansion while not being a witch?!"

"There's a perfectly reasonable explanation!" cried Gary. "Which is as follows! You see, I have a psychological disorder known as Mansion Invader Syndrome-"

"Hey, what's this?" Marisa grabbed the diary and started flicking through it.

"No! D-don't!" yelped Gary. "You don't want to see what's in there! Please!"

Marisa ignored him. Her expression grew more and more horrified with every page she read.

"What's he written in there?" Reimu took a glance over Marisa's shoulder. Her eyes widened. "Oh, my gods... You vile, twisted monster!"

Gary exploded. "Come on, give me a break! I didn't ask to be like this! I just love it when women cry! All I've ever done is treat you and all your friends as my playthings! What's wrong with that?!"

Reimu chucked a yin-yang orb at him. His body was never found, although Rumia was reported to have spent the afternoon sleeping off a huge meal.

#Touhou #gensokyofestival #fantasy #satire #Reimu Hakurei #Marisa Kirisame #Wriggle Nightbug #Yuuka Kazami #Sakuya Izayoi #Kosuzu Motoori #Mystia Lorelei #my writing

3 notes · View notes

sireneia-a · 6 years ago

Text

me realizing there’s twenty-one playable child units in fe4 second gen and thus exactly enough to assign each one an arcana in a persona au. you know what this means kids

it’s all under the cut with attempts at explanations. i know this isn’t rlly the most relevant thing to this blog, but i’ve written metas on characters that aren’t actually muses so i’m letting it slide. fe4 spoilers will be briefly touched upon for a few characters. the explanations are specifically for how the arcana are represented in persona, but please keep in mind i’m a persona scrub kdhfkdhfdfkfd so if it ends up being only specific to character arcs from p3, my bad. i’m also sticking to the standard cards and avoiding special ones like aeon. welcome to super self-indulgent hell

i did the order by recruitment order, but here’s a link to just the order of all the characters ( sans explanations ) by the actual tarot in case you just want to see that and be done with it

Seliph: The Fool

Obligatory protagonist role getting this arcana, but the Fool is generally based around one being influenced by others. Considering how Seliph is placed in a role as a liberator as thrust upon him by the people’s expectations due to his lineage, I thought it was fitting.

Lana: Priestess

Who I imagine would be the party’s initial navigator. Regardless, getting away from the strictly Persona gameplay aspects, the Priestess is an arcana given to quieter characters who have untapped potential. I generally just think Lana has the vibe for this as opposed to an actual reason.

Larcei: Temperance

This is one of the leftover ones admittedly. Temperance deals with an inability to balance one’s various life aspects. Larcei tends to be portrayed in adaptations as struggling between her combat as well as her love life, and she’s typically unlucky in the latter.

Ulster: Star

I love you Ulster, but he ended up also being one of the leftover ones as well. The Star is associated with hope and joy. There’s actually a pretty cool quote about this one in terms of bestowing help to others in their time of need but eventually being doomed to fall. Ulster is depicted as being protective of the others ( namely in Seliph’s childhood friend squad ) and is compassionate as well as a big brother type, thus I thought he matched up enough with the idea of bestowing help unto others.

Diarmuid: Strength

The Strength arcana in the Persona universe typically explores characters who have a strength of heart in order to keep going past hardships. Though almost everyone in gen 2 experiences tragedy and tries to overcome it, Diarmuid’s separation from his mother and then his consequent journey through Yied to reunite with his family stuck out to me. Additionally, he always seemed to have a good head on his shoulders even when given bad news in fe5 should you let Nanna fall in battle before he joins Leif’s party.

Lester: Sun

The Sun arcana directly deals with happiness, typically revolving around characters who are faced with miserable situations yet still try and be optimistic; alternatively, the character has lost their initial happiness. A really cool arcana in terms of character arcs, and Lester got it not because I thought it fit him, but because he was literally my last option and I thought the Sun arcana would fit him more than some other remaining ones, and a lot of the characters at this point I was dead set on keeping them locked in to the ones I chose for them. I initially gave this arcana to Lene.

I’d love to meet someone whose fav is Lester sdkhkddf I feel so bad that I don’t have a lot in terms of analysis on him.

Julia: Fortune

The one I knew I’d want the most for this arcana right away: the Fortune arcana revolves entirely around fate. The characters usually have to make a large decision and strive to seize their own destiny. Julia and Julius both have their births completely orchestrated for the sole purpose of furthering the Lopt Sect’s goals, their fates determined by their bloodlines. Julia rises up from what originally seemed like a helpless situation to being the one to restore peace to Jugdral herself. I literally can’t imagine anybody else, sans Julius, who could fit this arcana better out of the second gen cast.

Fee: Chariot

The Chariot arcana places an emphasis on striving towards a goal, holding a determined and willful spirit. Fee is another character I knew I instantly wanted for a specific arcana, as she’s fixated on finding her missing father-- especially when you take FE5 canon into mind and make her father Lewyn. She embodies both the arc ( willing to accomplish her goal no matter what ) but also the personality associated with the arcana.

Arthur: Magician

For starters, giving this arcana to an actual mage is so satisfying. In any case, the arcana is associated with somebody who takes more of a secondary role to the protagonist but still has their own ego. Additionally, great tragedy befalls and motivates the character-- though typically it’s romance-related in terms of arcs, but I ended up omitting that for this. Arthur is a character who exudes confidence, something that Fee suspects might not be well-deserved when they bicker, and his call to action revolves around his desire to reunite with his family. He’s aware terrible things befell his mother and sister and is terribly protective of his sister as a result. Tine honestly might get the shortest end of the stick out of the second gen cast in terms of horrible fates.

The LI manga adaptation also depicts Arthur as a shameless flirt that is a bit of a pervert, which also helps just strengthen the tie between him and the typical archetype for the Magician arcana character in the Persona series.

Iuchar: Moon

Even though you can’t recruit both of the Neir brothers in one run, I’m giving them different arcanas since I personally think that their character arcs in-game are different enough to warrant it and it gets me up to my perfect twenty-one number.

The Moon arcana revolves around illusions and typically involves a character seeing reality not as how it is, some going so far as to blame themself for something that isn’t true. My analysis on Iuchar touches upon the idea that he’s putting up his carefree personality as an act to be able to more easily show kindness upon Isaachians without arousing suspicion from his family; additionally, it talks about the idea that Iuchar blames himself for everything his family has done under the Empire and asks for forgiveness sincerely, not understanding how Seliph sees that Iuchar is blameless and that even if he wasn’t, the people love him already. Iuchar simply can’t see that reality. Though him being the actual canonically flirty character is a good argument to assign him the Magician arcana, I ultimately personally see the Moon arcana as more fitting for him.

Iucharba: Death

The Death arcana is about life cycles and predominantly characters undergoing a great change. Iucharba is a character I personally note for not really being taken seriously by his family as noted in this meta and he undergoes a great transformation throughout the events of Genealogy should you recruit him as a result. He begins as a young man allied with the Empire, a man sorely underestimated plenty, and he ends up developing into this character that suddenly is the heir to the Neir bloodline and consequently is now actually in a position of power within Grannvale-- a position he was nowhere near getting before defecting. Also not really necessary for this arcana, but the fact that you can only recruit him at the cost of killing his brother helps put a literal death association.

Patty: Devil

I actually originally had Patty assigned to the Lovers arcana, but I think this is fitting enough too. The Devil arcana typically deals with characters who commit immoral actions and have difficulty telling that what they’re doing is wrong. They’re led by impulse and temptation but they are also typically dedicated to a cause. Patty is a thief who steals to procure funds for the orphans her and her brother look after. Her compassion is her commitment and though she’s aware what she’s doing is shady, she still believes herself to be partly in the right because those she steals from are terrible people as well. She’s a more mature Dew in a sense. She’s not a perfect fit for the Devil arcana, but she fits it the most out of all the second gen.

Leif: Justice

Leif honestly probably could’ve fit a few, but I decided the Justice arcana is most suitable; the characters associated with this arcana typically are concerned with fairness and can be pretty stoic. Leif’s obsessed with enacting vengeance-- a theme that is just a breath away from justice. He’s the character I think of most in Jugdral that cares the most about karma and seeing people get what they deserve. Additionally, he fits the personality trend in how he attempts ( keyword: attempt ) to suppress his feelings.

Nanna: Empress

The Empress arcana is given to elegant women in high positions of authority. They’re typically a little on the cold side but hold compassion ( perhaps in a sort of motherly fashion ) for others underneath all of that. The second gen are almost all royalty or nobility of some degree, but Nanna especially came off as a princess to me the most out of all the characters. Additionally, God her JP voice actress really nails that refined aura. Nanna’s personality in my opinion also matches the trend in how she can be a little curt ( namely to Finn should he be her father as well as to Homer in his recruitment conversation ) but she ultimately is heralded for being kind and supportive by Leif.

Also gameplay-wise, the Empress personas typically end up having healing skills, and Nanna’s class as troubadour plays into this too.

Ares: Hierophant

Another character I was certain of what arcana I wished to assign them from the start, though I feel like a lot of people would think of different cards than I did. The Hierophant characters typically are fixated on the past and need to learn how to move on from that. Ares’s arc literally revolves around how he’s obsessed with killing Seliph to enact revenge for ( what he believes to be ) Sigurd killing Eldigan. Even Lene attempts to get Ares to stop being tied down to the past and to accept the present and the future.

Lene: Lovers

I went into this really wanting Lene to be assigned to the Sun as mentioned previously but ended up changing her to the Lovers which works out too. The Lovers character is usually someone who is popular and they’re tied between two conflicting aspects of themself. Lene is friendly and charismatic both due to her personality as well as her line of work, and her character explores her maturity as Ares’s confidant in opposition to how she’s fixated on finding her mother no matter what-- something that can be interpreted as a childish fantasy that’s hopeless considering how little of information she has to go on. Additionally, the Lovers personas gameplay-wise are usually healers and associated with wind magic, and though that doesn’t quite fit Lene, it coincides with it enough what with her being a support unit primarily and also both her cipher and her heroes art associating breezes with her.

Tine: Judgement

Judgement arcs explore characters realizing their true calling and gaining absolution and acceptance. Tine is initially allied under the Empire due to her connection to the Friege family, and she lived a very stifling existence until she defects. She’s uncertain exactly what she’s doing as well as who’s “right” at the time that she takes to the battlefield but she comes to realize that Seliph’s liberation army has good intentions. The truth that seemed so muddied before becomes so much clearer by the end. She also is another character who asks for forgiveness from Seliph and ends up being wholly surprised by how easily he gives her it. I feel like this implies that desire for absolution her entire life and it’s over the course of the war that she’s able to feel comfortable in her own skin and voice out her own wishes.

Febail: Tower

Ah, yes, the Edge Lord card. Regardless, the Tower arcana deals with bad omens and doom and destruction. The characters associated with this card are typically characters who have fallen from grace. Febail is unknowingly the prince of Jungby, one of the few playable second gen units guaranteed major holy blood, but he lives his life struggling in an orphanage and as a mercenary who will take any job so long as it gives him the money to provide for the other orphans. He loses sight of his own morality, needing to be reprimanded by his sister that his attempt to slay Seliph isn’t actually going to end in his goal of prosperity for the kids. Though all the kids have taken a tumble in life, I genuinely think Febail captures this concept the best.

Ced: Emperor

If there’s literally any character I think could actually translate super well into a Persona verse more seriously beyond just me assigning arcanas, I honestly think it’d be Ced. Anyhow, the Emperor arcana holds characters who desire to control their environment even if fate gives them trouble in attempting to do so, and the characters typically are suffering from a personal issue that they do not know how to tackle. Ced is a mage who goes out of his way to find his father and along the way, brought on by his own conviction, establishes the Magi Squad to try and help the people suffering in Manster from oppression underneath the Empire. That active role reflects the arcana very well in my eyes, and Ced’s personal conflict with Lewyn as a neglectful father as per FE5′s canon seals the deal.

Coirpre: Hermit

Hermit wasn’t my first pick for Coirpre as an individual character, but I gave him it pretty quickly after I thought about the entire second gen cast collectively as opposed to just standalone cases. I think Coirpre would most likely end up as the second, more powerful navigator character to recruit especially with his ties to the Bragi bloodline and the canonical Bragi connection to prophetic truth.

Coirpre doesn’t have the strongest connection to his arcana, but the Hermit arcana characters typically put themselves in situations where they are hiding away from the spotlight and others. As such, these characters are usually more in background or supportive roles in life. Coirpre is a healer in an extremely militant country, a larger anomaly considering the fact that his father is the Shield of Thracia-- a famed general. Coirpre, upon being locked away as a hostage, adamantly requests to be let go because he doesn’t wish for his father to be forced to fight; he seeks a more discreet way to solve the issue befitting of the arcana and ultimately sought out a calmer solution. Judging by his minor involvement in FE5, he also is more neutral typically in terms of alignment, not caring much for whether or not Leif was a runaway prince but also not offering to join him unlike the other FE4 characters who show up in the midquel. Coirpre keeps himself on the down low until he’s freed by the liberation army and realizes his father and he need to take a stance against the Empire more actively.

Altena: Hanged Man

The Hanged Man arcana explores characters who undergo arcs where they are caught between two extremes or two parties in their life. Altena encompasses this idea best in how she is troubled by her loyalty to southern Thracia due to being raised as its princess and her true lineage as Leonster’s princess. She is at odds due to this conflict, what with both parties being at opposite ends of the battlefield from one another and she’s forced to make a choice between her adopted brother and her blood brother.

15 notes · View notes

storyofauke · 7 years ago

Note

So ... I was wondering. You are reading Ayano Yamana for the first time and I've read her for the first time around 12 years ago. And I can't help but wonder: do you think she is good? Storywise? Characterwise? Because I used to really like her. And now I've come to realize that it is her drawing style I like but her characters are weak af (tell me anything about Asami's character, I DARE you) and her stories are very much all over the place.

(Pasting in your other notes:) I’ve read almost everything she has ever published and until someone pointed it out, I never even realized that her Ukes are pretty much all the same character (Takaya - Val) and her Seme’s are all the same non-personality douchebags. I still think Crimson Spell is a valiant effort in giving one of her Seme’s a bit of a character, but in that case the story makes no sense and is super drawn out bc she obviously doesn’t know where she is going with it anymore (which … 10 years woman!)Sensei is sadly not very good at bringing across information without it being exposition or information sheets or something.

Short answer: Yes, I think she’s good. Working within a set of tropes, she still manages to find depth and freshness and has evolved over the years so that she has turned those tropes in her favor–considering that the first chapter was never meant to be the beginning of an extended series, how she has managed to take that beginning and spin it into a believable relationship took skill and imagination, as does the fact that she still uses the influences of that beginning within the story even sixteen years on. Yes, she’s good.

Longer answer: Sure, she isn’t the mangaka for everybody. This isn’t the series for everybody. It is extremely trope-y. Long-term yaoi readers may be looking for something different by this point. Maybe it’s not her; maybe it’s you, is what I’m saying, and I don’t mean that as an insult. Not every story is intended for every reader. And reading tastes change over years. Doesn’t make you wrong. Doesn’t make her wrong.

What you need to consider in order to be fair to sensei is to identify the goal of her work. Has she ever pretended that Finder is anything more than advertised? No. It’s a yaoi, as stated, a hot story of hot sex between a hot crime lord and a hot photographer and the emotional entanglements that entails. Goal achieved.

But I do believe a deeper read is available. Is it War and Peace? Of course not. But there is a complexity to the relationship between Asami and Akihito (and Fei Long, tangentially) that deserves acknowledgment. I don’t think fans would have stayed with the story through sixteen years and nine volumes if there wasn’t something more to the characters than pretty drawings.

Your other points:

Her ukes are the same: Visually, they’re similar, but that is true of many yaoi artists. Vald and Aki share a certain naivete but Vald is almost ridiculously good and pure (which is super tough to pull off in fiction–a flawlessly good character who isn’t obnoxious, which Vald certainly isn’t) while Aki, who is kind, decent and forgiving, is capable of negative feelings, thoughts and reactions that Vald would never entertain. Vald is also far more confident and self-possessed than Aki, who suffers from some self-esteem issues. Aki isn’t nearly as selfless as Vald, either. And you forgot Ranmaru, who is absolutely nothing like either Aki or Vald.

“Tell me anything about Asami’s character, I DARE you” Oh man. Don’t dare me to do stuff. Okay–wait, did you really read this thing? Because sometimes I wonder because it always seems to me like this stuff is there. If you’re looking for it. Sometimes readers read with an agenda already in mind so they willfully overlook what doesn’t fit that agenda. There are plenty of moments that reveal Asami’s character (and this addresses your complaint about sensei not providing information unless it’s through exposition or information sheets.) And since most of the manga is from Aki’s POV so that we rarely get Asami’s interior thoughts, it’s impressive what she manages to convey about a character who is so emotionally buttoned down. The fact that he is emotionally buttoned down is a thing about his character and not a failing on sensei’s part.

Okay, insights sensei has provided to Asami’s character:

- Asami inspires loyalty–even from those who are in positions morally opposed to his.- Asami has a hidden goofy sense of humor, one that we only see flashes of when he’s with Akihito, giving us the sense that there is something Asami sees in Akihito that makes him feel comfortable revealing this side of himself.- Asami is indulgent with those he cares about.- He isn’t always adept at expressing it, though, suggesting a level of social awkwardness he has learned to mask.- Asami, while neat and appreciative of fine things, is nevertheless careless of his surroundings (never changed the decor of the penthouse, frex.)- Though enormously successful and capable of being ruthless, Asami sometimes makes bad errors in judgment (*cough*Sudou*cough*) when he allows emotions to get in the way (*cough*Fei Long*cough*)- Once attached to someone, as he is with Akihito, he fears loss, sometimes to an extreme. (We see this over and over.)- And just take a look at the recent neko extra, a dream Asami had that revealed a great deal about his character. The cool thing about that is how differently Asami views both himself and the relationship as opposed to what we usually get from Aki. Like how Aki is still pretty scared of Asami on some level, while Asami views himself as a caring cuddlebug, at least subconsciously. My meta on the neko extra here. I also found Akihito’s birthday extra to be full of surprising insights. In fact, I think the extras are where you will find sensei feels more free to play with the gentler emotions of her characters and allow them to be more expressive while staying in character.

I could keep going, but this wasn’t the meta I was planning to write today. But seriously, there’s plenty more.

But as an example of sensei’s questioned skill, let’s take a moment to tease apart a scene I find to be brilliantly conceived and deeply revealing of Asami’s character, and it is done without words in three little panels.

Get out your volume seven (or head on over to mangago and look at chapter 48 in volume seven) and look at the scene after Aki is dragged back and Asami ravishes him. A well-fucked Aki is lolling about in bed, having a Scarlet O’Hara moment, pretty much at peace with the turn of events. Asami, meanwhile, is in the shower. If you’re just racing through reading, that might be all you see: Asami standing in the shower. But take a moment and really look:

Notice that Asami has turned off the shower yet he remains in the stall, head hanging, arms braced against the walls, unhappy. Asami is unhappy and very much not at peace. Why? He got Aki back. He just plowed him into the mattress. Aki gave in to him once again. Isn’t that all he wanted?

No. Oh no. Sensei knows her character better than that. In the previous chapter, Asami peppered Aki with questions. “Is there anyone besides me that can satisfy you?” (Oo, one more “thing” about Asami, who may appear super capable but is unsure of where he stands with Aki.) “Why are you confused?” Aki tells him “Why don’t you just tie me up and lock me away if that’s what you want?”

But that’s not the answer Asami wants and so he stands dripping and brooding in the shower. Asami wants Aki to choose to be with him, not to have to drag him back, certainly not to have to tie him up to keep him. He wants a lover who WANTS to be with him.

Think about it. This is a man surrounded by people whose motives are always in question. And this point is brought home in the following scene, when Kuroda arrives to discuss Sudou. Asami’s bitter mood persists throughout the interview. Kuroda even remarks on it. The mood doesn’t lift until Kuroda leaves and Aki comes out to talk to Asami and THIS happens:

Aki reveals he is jealous of Sudou. He gives Asami the assurance Asami so badly needed and Asami even smiles.

So that’s a lot of emotional characterization stuff going on in just this one scene. Is Asami anyone’s ideal mate? No. But I disagree that he’s lacking in characterization.

That’s about as much as I have time for today, but I could go on and on. You can search my tumblr under the tag “you’re my loveprize in viewfinder” and/or “finder series” for more stuff if you’re so inclined. I was doing a chapter-by-chapter thing and got as far as the end of volume three with plenty of stuff to talk about, and honestly, I think sensei has only gotten better. Yaoi has evolved since sensei began this series and I think she has managed to evolve with it without a jarring shift of tone–because after all, this is still a yaoi in the classic sense of the term, and for that, I think Yamane Ayano deserves credit. It is a skill to play within boundaries and yet remain fresh after all of this time.

Since beginning this tumblr, I have read many many more yaoi. Are there better yaoi out there in terms of literary quality? Yaoi that break the mold and cast off stereotypes? Of course. But as an example of what can be done with the core tropes that make yaoi what it is while expanding those tropes without betraying the genre, I think it’s hard to find a better representative work.

(I hope this doesn’t read as harsh. My language tends to get starchy when I really get rolling! I enjoyed thinking about the points you brought up.)

#finder series #you're my loveprize in viewfinder #finder no hyouteki #yamane ayano #asami ryuichi #takaba akihito #melissa goes blah blah blah #Anonymous

26 notes · View notes

psycho-alchemist · 7 years ago

Text

Summer 2017 Anime - First Impressions

The first week of the summer 2017 anime season has ended, and we've got a pretty good lineup! I've finished sampling all of the anime I planned on watching, plus a few extra, so in this post I will discuss my impression of each first episode I watched. Click on the respective picture to see my thoughts in the description! And please share your thoughts as well; I'd love to know what you thought of this first week!

Covered in this post:

Aho-Girl

Ballroom e Youkoso

Centaur no Nayami

Dive!!

Enmusubi no Youko-chan

Isekai Shokudou

Jikan no Shihaisha

Kakegurui

Keppeki Danshi! Aoyama-kun

Knight’s & Magic

Konbini Kareshi

Made in Abyss

Nana Maru San Batsu

New Game!!

Princess Principal

Shoukoku no Altair

Vatican Kiseki Chousakan

Youkai Apartment no Yuuga na Nichijou

Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e

Aho-Girl - First Impression Anime about stupid people are usually an even mix of funny and cringey. You laugh at their mistakes while shrivelling up on the inside from secondhand embarrassment. But you know what? Aho Girl is NOT one of those anime. IT'S WORSE. I wasn't even enjoying her idiocy after a few minutes; I was not only cringing, I wanted to fucking drop kick her and end the episode. Her poor childhood friend deserves better. I can't watch this entire anime. I'll get high blood pressure.

Ballroom e Youkoso - First Impression BeY was one of the most hyped anime of the season. The manga is very popular, and I actually read 4 volumes before the anime started airing! I'm not in love with BeY, but I do think the anime will be fun and intense to watch, if it's anything like the manga. The dance moves and competitions are very fast-paced, and it'll be very cool to learn about ballroom dancing. There's a lot more to it than just romantic, sexy movement! I think BeY does a great job explaining the technical aspects of the sport, and I can't wait to see it all animated! I'll also be promoting this anime a bit extra, since YoI's awful fanbase is attempting to tear it down for being--and I quote--"aggressively het," among other things. (The Tumblr drama is INSANE.)

I wasn't very impressed with this episode. I was expecting something similar to Demi-chan wa Kataritai except with even more demi-humans, but this first episode really fell flat for me. There wasn't much good music, the voice acting felt very bland, and the art wasn't very good. It is interesting to see all the different types of students, but I just...can't seem to care much about them? Something about the show just lacks charm, so I don't think I'll even watch the next episode.

Dive!! - First Impression I wasn't tooo impressed with episode 1. I'm pretty selective about which Yuki Kaji roles I like, and this isn't one of them. But as long as I can learn some technical stuff about diving--and maaaaybe get a little bit of eye candy as well--I'll be happy! Usually these kinds of conflicts happen later in a series once we're already attached to the characters, but I'm hoping that the boys' endeavor to save their club will give us some insight into their personalities. Episode 2 was definitely more promising, so I look forward to seeing how Tomoki improves!

Enmusubi no Youko-chan - First Impression UGH. One of the WORST pilot episodes of the season. I checked out the anime because of the romance tag, but the characters were insufferable, the voice acting was pretty bad, and the plot was just stupid. And the whole "arranged marriage because girls are useless" trope is SO overdone. That's really all I have to say about this one. Not watching anymore.

Isekai Shokudou - First Impression The first two episodes were pretty cute. I was still on the fence after ep 1, but ep 2 pretty much sold me on the anime! I really like the main chef (Junichi Suwabe <3) and the girl who joined as a waitress. It was interesting to hear about the discrimination she faced, and I look forward to seeing if she will be able to regain her confidence by serving customers who are just as odd as she is. I also love seeing the variety of customers who visit, and of course, the food looks delicious!!

Jikan no Shihaisha - First Impression Based on what I saw on the forums, people weren't too crazy about episode 1? But I liked it! I like the two main characters, Victor and Wu. The first episode has already established what they do and why they do it, and I appreciate having that information in the first episode. I also loved the plot twist at the end of the episode; it really got me thinking! As for Koyuki, I thought her struggle with death was very valid. My only complaint is--who just leaves their precious violin on a bench and crosses the street?! You'd never catch me doing that to my violin! And then, who runs across the street without looking both ways?!?! Basically, my complaint is that the actual death scene was pretty stupid. But Koyuki's desire to bring her brother back to life, even if it hurt her in the process, was very valid. Obviously, there are more characters we have yet to meet. There's Mina Putin, who I'm guessing is Wu's sister. And according to MAL, there's also Blaze, Ice Radar, and Snake. I'm pretty excited to meet all of them, since I already like Wu and Victor! They're pretty amusing characters and they have a great dynamic, despite their sad pasts. I hope they can get their revenge against the Horologue that took their mother and cursed Victor!

Kakegurui - First Impression WOW. Of all the season anime I watched, Kakegurui gave off the best impression so far. Episode 1 & 2 were intense and exciting! I loved the soundtrack, the art was awesome, and I especially enjoyed the grotesque facial expressions. (They remind me of Psycho Pass!) In addition, I'm not a big Saori Hayami fan in general, but I was blown away by her voice acting. She did such a great job capturing that insanity that Yumeko flaunts, and I can't wait to see her performance in future episodes!! As for the actual plot, I'm curious to know who exactly Yumeko is. The girl with the blue lipstick clearly recognized her. In addition, the blue lipstick girl seemed to have some kind of quasi-lesbian tie with Yumeko in the OP, so I want to know if they have some kind of connection? And finally, I can't WAIT to meet all the other conniving bitches at this school and watch Yumeko take them all down!! >:D

Keppeki Danshi! Aoyama-kun - First Impression Keppeki Danshi's pilot episode was the most disappointing for me. I may have mentioned in an earlier post that this anime was one of my most anticipated seasonal shows. I expected a fun sports anime with a quirky hero, but instead I got something...kind of in-between. This anime isn't taking the route of an intense sports anime, nor is it taking the route of a pure comedy anime. It yoyos back and forth between the two without really doing a good job at either genre. I didn't enjoy the games, I didn't like any of the characters (minus the obvious comic relief abs guy), and I especially disliked the forced character development Aoyama received at the end of the episode. The scene I'm referring to is when the manager/coach explained how much Aoyama must care about soccer because he was cleaning the soccer balls. I just don't see it at all, and I'm not sure if I'll even watch the next episode.

Knight's & Magic - First Impression I loved this first episode! I try to sample all the decent-looking mecha anime these days, since a lot of people are biased against the genre. I gotta say, I really enjoyed the first two episodes. The three main characters are so much fun, and Ernesti in particular is very interesting! Of course, I'd like to get a better explanation of how he was reincarnated into this magical world, but so far this seems like a pretty light-hearted fun mecha/action anime. It doesn't take itself too seriously, and we can always expect Ernesti to figure out a way to beat the odds. So far Knight's & Magic is one of the highlights of the season so far! <3

Konbini Kareshi - First Impression ...A below average, standard, cliche-as-fuck shoujo anime. I admit that I watched two episodes--mostly for the pretty girls--but I really dislike Towa (the blondie guy). He literally said that when girls say "no," they mean "more." And let me interrupt my anime post to say that NO MEANS NO. Doesn't matter the gender or romantic preference. NO MEANS NO. Anyway, the girls in this series feel very bland so far. And the romance between Towa and Mami feels very forced. Mami clearly dislikes the way Towa acts towards her--and he's not even her type!!--but I already know the show is going to try to convince me that 1) Mami was just embarrassed when Towa called her cute because she also thinks he's hot, and 2) Mami just avoided talking to Towa because other girls would get jealous or something. I'm calling it right now, and it's bullshit. I'm still watching right now though. I'm a hypocrite.

Made in Abyss - First Impression Episode 1 was pretty nice, but I'm getting nervous. I posted about Made in Abyss on Tumblr, and someone responded to my post by saying that the anime would most likely have to censor some of the gore from the manga. In addition, another post side-eyed the scene where Riko said that getting strung up naked was traumatizing to a young girl. Basically, I get the idea that there will be much more traumatizing events. I've also heard that the manga covers some uncomfortable, discourse-worthy topics. Honestly, I can handle a fair amount of suffering, but one of the things I won't really be able to stomach from Made in Abyss is rape. I don't know if that's a possibility, but hopefully the gore stays away from rape or sexual assault. :( (If anyone does know if that is something that will happen, please let me know! I'd at least like to be mentally prepared!) And this is just my prediction, but Nat (the boy Riko was with) is listed as a supporting character rather than a main one. If you all remember, Manato from Hai to Gensou no Grimgar was also listed as a supporting character, which clearly indicated he was going to die. I expect Nat to die as well too. (Please don't send me any explicit spoilers though!) Long story short: I'm scared of what is going to happen to these kids.

Nana Maru San Batsu - First Impression Ironically, the first two episodes of this anime have been more exciting than the debut of Dive!! and Keppeki Danshi! Aoyama-kun. Even though this anime is about taking quizzes, I truly still classify it as a sports anime. It's about a competitive club, and it requires training and fast reflexes, which makes it sporty enough for me! I had no idea that the quiz takers had to anticipate the question material based on the syllables, and it's been really interesting so far to learn about the nuances of quiz taking! I also love that Shiki gets to participate in a high-energy club, even though he's the type of student who typically wouldn't get to do something like that. My only grievances so far are 1) the panty scene in episode 1 (but the rest of the episode was good enough to overlook it), and 2) Mari's voice actress is clearly VERY inexperienced. She lacks inflection and enthusiasm, and Mari is a pretty dynamic character. I'm all for supporting budding voice actors, but I still feel that Umika Kawashima wasn't the right choice for Mari. She needs more practice using more inflection. Luckily I'm still really liking the anime, but Mari's voice stands out to me often as just not emoting enough.

New Game!! - First Impression A pretty good first episode. I will say right off the bat that I wasn't happy with all the panty/butt fanservice. Can't we just have an anime about female programmers making a game? But aside from that, I liked this episode! The idea that Aoba could be the leade character designer is super exciting, and I can't wait to see what kinds of characters she creates! I'm excited for this season, but I remember how slice-of-lifey and fanservicey s1 got towards the end, so I really hope that doesn't happen this time.

Princess Principal - First Impression A pretty impressive first episode! With these kinds of "cute girls killing people" anime, you can never be too sure until the first episode airs whether the anime will take the dark route or the ultra cute route, and so far this anime seems to be going more for the dark route! Maybe not as dark as MahoIku, for example, but the first episode clearly wasn't trying to be moe at all. I appreciate that. So much... ;_; I really like the characters so far, and I was pretty surprised by the ending! I was impressed by how hard-headed all the spies are, and I Ioved watching them in action. Overall this was one of the strongest debuts of the scene as well, and I'm definitely looking forward to future episodes! ((Maybe this anime won't disappoint me the way Joker Game did :))))) ))

Shoukoku no Altair - First Impression ...This is the one anime that I just can't remember much about from the first episode. It was pretty unremarkable to me. People seem to like the manga, but so far Shoukoku no Altair just reminds me too much of Arslan Senki, except more boring. I'm not going to quit just yet though! I still want to find out if Mahmut will convince that other kingdom that they were framed!

Vatican Kiseki Chousakan - First Impression ...WOW. You know what, this is the dark horse of the season for me. I was not expecting this anime to be so interesting or exciting. I don't know what the anime community is saying about this anime--removing myself from that community has done wonders for my mental health--but I certainly did not expect ANYTHING good from this anime. I don't think I even bothered to put it in my season preview, because it was right at the end and the summary left me entirely underwhelmed. But here I am, singing Vatican Kiseki Chousakan's praises left and right! I can imagine that one issue people might have with the anime thus far is the very strong roots it has in Catholocism. However, as someone who grew up in a Christian home, I'm very familiar and comfortable with all the Catholic references. If anything, I'm glad to see religion discussed in an anime without being the butt of a joke. However, while I can understand people getting put off by all the religion, I think the mystery from episode 1 is genuinely interested. I'd really like to get to the bottom of it, and I'm fairly certain I will continue watching this anime!

Youkai Apartment no Yuuga na Nichijou - First Impression The first episode of Youkai Apartment genuinely wasn't too bad, but it was just...kinda boring? I didn't care for any of the characters, and something about the art style was just horribly average. I don't plan on watching anymore.

Youkoso Jitsuryoku Shijou Shugi no Kyoushitsu e - First Impression This episode was actually not too bad. The colors were pretty (albeit a little odd), and the twist at the end was unexpected. Obviously I don't really like the main character--a lot of people don't from what I've seen--but the premise was pretty cool. It kinda reminded me of Danganronpa, but I'm confused about why the genres are "comedy" and "romance." This anime could easily turn into a drama/psychological anime, so why the comedy tag? If the show ends up being really generic and light-hearted I will definitely drop it, but I'm hoping it'll take a "Lord of the Flies" route! :D

#summer 2017 anime #anime review #anime #p-a reviews #fair warning: this is a super long post #i'm glad i finished sort of on time though! :')

5 notes · View notes

tuxiedjabberwock · 8 years ago

Text

Boiling Point ch2 - a Fairy Tail Fanfiction

Title: Boiling Point Category: Anime/Manga » Fairy Tail Author: Sqydd Language: English, Rating: Rated: T Genre: Romance/Drama Published: 12-10-16, Updated: 01-24-17 Chapters: 2, Words: 11,205

Due to a severe misunderstanding printed in Sorcerer's Weekly, Lucy goes out with Loki to eliminate the idea that she's dating Natsu. How does he feel about it? Well, he rightly went to kick Loki's ass. Or the story in which Natsu reaches his boiling point, because no one steals from a dragon.

Also available on:

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12267597/2/Boiling-Point

http://archiveofourown.org/works/8803069/chapters/21391526

chapter two

in which natsu subscribes to bikini prints

“What’s wrong with you?”

Lucy usually asked that question when he dropped into her home, but this time it was much more warranted and situation appropriate. He was still a little sore from the mission a couple of days ago, where he immediately began avoiding her as soon as they returned to Magnolia, and now she was giving him a scathing look from her writing desk. He only even caved when he realized that sadly, his and Happy’s home had run out of food, and although he could buy some, he wasn’t quite in the mood to fry bacon and boil spaghetti, the fullest extent of his cooking ability.

“I’m hungry?” It didn’t help his case that it came out as a question. Lucy gave him a pretty good imitation of Erza’s Stare, and it even made him gulp in fear of his life.

“Don’t pretend. You and I both know what we’re talking about.”

“Okay… To be honest? I got no clue. Really!” he added when her stare intensified. “Loki was saying some stuff, and I just…lost it.”

“What stuff?”

“Um…” He sat down on her bed, rubbing the back of his neck anxiously. “I don’t think you’ll like it.”

“Natsu, please, just tell me,” she said with a friendlier look. He sighed and crossed his arms.

“Everyone thought that you and I were together and they kept talking about I’m jealous over Loki or some shit. And, I don’t know, Loki made me lose it.”

“Natsu…” Her tone made him look up, then away when the look in her eyes was too much. He felt her soft fingers on his chin as she brought his face back to hers. “Were you jealous?” she asked softly. His eyes went wide, not as much from the question as their proximity.

“What— No, no I wasn’t jealous,” he said, which was the truth. Jealous sounded so pitiful and weak, something felt when Happy stole the last fish from the fire and didn’t share. When he was attacking Loki, he felt enraged, incensed, irked, infuriated…well, you get the picture. But more than that, he felt possessive. “Lucy is mine.” He felt like Loki had stolen something as personal as his scarf or his fire, and deserved death three times over as retribution. Even for someone with emotions as passionate and fiery as himself, Natsu was a little thrown by the thought, and involuntarily shuddered. “I wasn’t.”

“Mm,” she hummed, staring harder into his eyes. After a moment she seemed to find what she was looking for, because she pulled away. “Okay.”

“So we’re good?” he asked. She gave him a smile that was just a little bit shaky.

“We’re good.” It didn’t feel like they were, but he didn’t want to press, especially when he was the one in the wrong. “I made chicken soup. Do you—”

“Yes!” he said immediately, jumping to his feet. “’m starving, Luce.”

“Of course,” she sighed, heading towards the kitchen. He followed on her tail, his stomach thinking of food, but his brain figured that he needed a chat with an expert on dragon business.

“Get out!” was her immediate response as he knocked. He grimaced and knocked again, harder.

“C’mon Porlyusica, do me a favor! Please?”

“No!” She may have kept refusing, but he could stay there and talk the rest of the day, which she seemed to realize, because the door unlocked soon after and he stepped inside with a smug smile. Porlyusica was working on some greenish-brown potion that made his nose itch when he took a whiff. “What are you bothering me with now?” she said after shooing him away from it.

“I got a little problem,” Natsu said. “Well, it’s not really little, it’s more like a big problem.” He tried to explain what happened with Loki but it was hard to put into words. Porlyusica, thankfully, seemed to understand.

“Instincts,” she said. “It’s just your dragon’s instincts.”

“Dragon instincts? I have those?”

“Dragon Slayer Magic makes a human as a dragon, more so over time. The most severe event, you already know of: turning completely into a dragon.” He thought of Acnologia and gritted his teeth. “Igneel significantly slowed the process, but that doesn’t mean it stopped all together. This, specifically, has to do with how the brain works. The fact that you can sense and process all of these different smells and sounds is because your brain evolved to understand them during your training with the Slayer Magic as a catalyst. The evolution continued as you grew, and now it’s come to head.”

“So this is just another gain for me?” he asked. “Like learning a new spell?” Porlyusica nodded. “But that doesn’t explain why I smashed Loki like that.”

“Dragons, by nature, will latch onto a suitable female, and I’m guessing your emotions towards the girl made that instinct stronger,” she said passively, stirring the potion. “Because of that, you saw the Spirit’s advances as a threat, and your first instinct was to deal with it.”

“I don’t see Loki as a threat. He’s sorta annoying when he gets in that flirty mood, but he’s no threat,” he protested.

“This has nothing to do with rational thought. It’s all subconscious.”

“Then how do I stop my subconscious?”

“That depends,” she said, meeting his eyes for the first time. “What do you think you should do?”

He had a pretty good answer to that.

“We’re gonna avoid Lucy?” Happy asked, perplexed. Natsu nodded vehemently.

“Until the end of time. Or until Ice Princess learns to keep on his shirt. Whichever comes first.”

“But…why?”

“Because she’s making me turn into a dragon!” he burst out. Thankfully they were alone in his house with only his junk and memorabilia as witnesses. Happy was even more confused.

“You’re not… Are you hiding something from me? Do you secretly have a tail?”

“I wish, but no. Remember how Lucy started going out with Loki and I was just going crazy over it?” He nodded, following. “Porlyusica explained it to me. She said something about revolving and that it’s got something to do with my brain, but—the bottom line’s that as long as I’m around her, I’m gonna keep pulling dumb shit like that that gets her mad, and neither of us want to deal with angry Lucy.” They shuddered at the thought. Angry Lucy meant a shoulder icier than Gray in the winter, constant flying projectiles, and no food for either of them! “So we just avoid her for forever! Easy.”

“But you never run from a problem, Natsu.”

“Call this a first.”

“Natsu,” Happy protested. “Lucy’s our best friend. You can’t avoid her forever.”

“Sure I can. Just tie me up if I try going to her.” Happy continued staring at him and he finally gave in. “’kay, you’re right, I can’t avoid her forever. But I don’t know what to do either. If I walk in and see her cuddling up to that stupid cat, I’m really gonna beat the shit outta him.”

“I know I joke about it a lot, but do you really like Lucy? Because if you do, I don’t have a problem with that.”

“She’s my friend,” he said, which he knew wasn’t an actual answer. “I dunno, and that’s not my focus right now. I just don’t want to get at Loki like that again.”

“Then he has to break up with Lucy,” Happy said. They had never purposely tried to break apart Lucy and her flings, no matter how annoying they became, but it looked like they had to, for Loki’s sake. Natsu liked to spar with his Guild mates, sure, but what he did—or tried to do—was three steps further from that. He had no doubt that, given enough time, he would’ve smashed Loki into bloody bits, and on top of hurting Natsu, it would make his and Lucy’s friendship vanish. “She’ll probably hate you for it though.”

“It’s better than the alternative. Okay, brainstorm: how can we make this happen?” They rubbed their chins in thought.

“Oh, oh!” Happy exclaimed, dropping his fist in his palm. “Let’s take all Lucy’s fish and blame it on Loki!”

“Uh… Call that Plan B.” Lucy didn’t think nearly as much of her fish as Happy did. Well, eighty percent of Happy’s thoughts revolved around fish anyway. “Something else.” Neither of them were real thinkers, though, and it took a fair amount of time.

“Why don’t you want Lucy to go out with Loki?” Happy asked all of a sudden. Natsu mumbled a complaint, crossing his arms over his chest.

“That’s not where my problem is,” he muttered. “I don’t care what either of them do with their romantic lives—or Lucy’s lack thereof, I guess. It’s that she chose someone else over me, and someone that I’m close to.”

“Well, we can’t make Lucy fall for you—” Natsu sort of zoned out after that sentence. Well, why couldn’t they? What was wrong with him? He thought he was a pretty cool guy, if a tiny bit passionate. “—but we can make her go out with a different guy, a stranger. You never cared when she went out with strangers, did you?”

“Not as much,” he said, still a little sulky. “I guess that’s a fix. But how are we supposed to go out matchmaking, buddy?”

“Let’s not,” he decided after some thought. “Let’s just take Lucy out and let her find a better guy on her own. Where can we find a lot of people?”

“A bar,” he said immediately. “And Lucy’s a good fighter too—I bet she’ll meet tons of guys there! And if things go south, we just pretend like we brought here there to eat. Lucy loves greasy bar food after all.”

“Natsu, that’s a great idea!” Happy cheered. “We should go and take her out right now!”

“Right now,” he repeated, momentarily daunted by the idea of seeing her again. He quickly steeled himself though, because he was Natsu Dragneel and Natsu Dragneel never let himself be put down by any challenge, and he and Happy headed out with spines straight and resolves set.

Happy got the both of them to Strawberry Street in record time, and as Natsu scaled the side of the building he picked up the scent of lavender just fading away. Okay, so she was draining her bath and would be out any second. He pushed her window up and climbed onto her bed. “I’m gonna go see if she bought some more fish,” Happy said, floating off towards the kitchen. Natsu eventually got bored flipping through her manuscripts and was just about to mimic Happy’s kitchen raid when her bathroom door finally swung open.

“Ah that was a relieving— Natsu!” she shrieked in surprise, hands going to her heart. Thankfully, she was already dressed to sleep and not in a towel—it saved him a frenzied attack on her part.

“Lucy, we’re going to a bar,” he announced. She continued staring until her heart calmed down.

“A bar? Why on Earthland?” she asked, frowning.

“Because Happy and I know you like bar food.”

“Where would you even get— Happy’s here too?”

“Yeah, he’s in the kitchen checking for fish. So, are you gonna leave dressed like that, or…?”

“I’m not going to a bar with you two!” she protested. “They’re loud and obnoxious and, unlike the Guild, full of creepers. Besides, it’s late and I just want to go to bed.”

“It’s not that late.”

“Well, it is when you’re a normal human being.”

“Just—come on, Luce, please?” She gave him a funny look.

“Why do you want to drag me to a bar?”

“I, uh, because I, uh,” he stammered, caught like a deer in headlights. He didn’t even have Happy to back him up, not that Happy was any better at lying on the spot. Lucy crossed her arms over her chest and raised her eyebrows, which didn’t help his case. “Okay, the truth?”

“Yes?”

“I want some food but can’t afford it right now ‘cause Happy blew our job money for the month on salmon,” he said in one breath.

“Then why didn’t you eat at the Guild? It’s cheaper, and even if you are broke, Mira would let you slide.”

“Because, ah, I uh— C’mon, Luce, why’re you questioning me like that?” he said instead, changing paradigms. He didn’t quite manage to throw her off though.

“Because you’re acting weird…er than usual, and you have been since—” She stopped, eyes widening as she touched her lips in realization. “Natsu,” she said in a weird tone. It made him uncomfortable in all sorts of ways.

“What?”

“Natsu,” she said again. “You said you weren’t jealous before, didn’t you?”

“Well…yeah, because I wasn’t. Because I’m not. This isn’t about me anyway.”

“Maybe not, but it will be if you keep acting like this.” She shook her head with a sigh. “I’m not going to a bar with you and that’s final, alright? Now go home.”

“Mph,” he complained, but decided not to press things. “Come on, Happy, we’re leaving.”

“Aye,” Happy said in disappointment, flying from the kitchen with his satchel stuffed full and a half-eaten carp still in his mouth. “You neeb more fishb, Rushii.”

“You need to catch your own!” she snapped back, and he could almost pretend things were fine between them.

“So I’ll see you at the Guild tomorrow.” He already had one foot out the window when she called him back, her voice soft:

“Natsu.”

“Huh?” He turned and saw her watching him expectantly, like she was asking a question only he knew the answer to. He opened his mouth to ask what was she going on about when she suddenly opened her arms. “What? I’m not gonna hug you, weirdo.” They didn’t hug as a typical greeting/goodbye, and besides, he didn’t trust himself too much at the moment.

“Just do it,” she said in her Lucy Kick tone. He gulped and crossed the space between them, and hesitated for a moment before putting his arms around her. She closed the remaining space between them and linked her arms behind his back, pressing her face into his chest so that he could get a good whiff of her hair. It felt…familiar. Homey. Safe.

Natsu didn’t feel particularly sated, staring down at Future Rogue’s body. He was a Dragon Slayer, meant to kill dragons, yeah, but there was no satisfaction in fighting the very same breed that raised him from before he was old enough to even walk. His fists clenched and unclenched at his sides before he managed to relieve some of the tension in a sigh. Dust still coated his lungs from the collapse of the Eclipse Gate, and with it he could taste blood and death in the air. He exhaled slowly as he sensed a presence vanish behind him.

“Thanks for the help,” he murmured under his breath, “Uncle.” He recognized Lucy’s scent even above all the others, and…salt? Was she crying? Before he could ask, her arms went around him, her face buried in-between his shoulder blades.

“Something the matter, Lucy?” he asked. He felt her shake her head in response.

“No… Just…thank you,” she whispered. He turned to face her, met her watery eyes, and pulled her closer. Even though he was warmer physically, she felt like a lit hearth to him, a center, something to keep him safe… Ironic, eh, considering how much he had to fight for her. He threaded his fingers through her soft hair and gently eased her head in the space between his shoulder and neck, feeling her tears dampen the remains of his vest, and closed his eyes. Despite the wreckage all around them and in his chest, he felt entirely whole.

His heart gave a sudden jump and persisted, even though Lucy could surely feel it from how close they were. He took a deep breath and held fast, trying to still it, his hands fisting at the base of her back. Something must’ve happened then, because Lucy jumped back with a start. “W-What? What is it?”

“You started heating up,” she said, calming. “It just surprised me.”

“Oh. Sorry. Well bye!” He jumped from her window before she could say anything else, and thankfully Happy caught him before he could hit the ground like a damn incendiary bomb.

“What happened?” he asked curiously. Then he almost dropped Natsu into the river. “Ow! You’re really hot!”

“I know,” he groaned, wiping his hands down his face. “Happy, I’m in it real deep.”

“What does that mean?” He didn’t answer right away, staring off at something in the distance.

“You know all those jokes you make about me liking Lucy? Well…”

“You like her?” he finished.

“I honestly don’t know—if Porlyusica’s right, and she’s rarely wrong, then dragon instincts are screwing with my brain, twisting things into weird shapes. I don’t know how to stop it either, not if she doesn’t even want to be seen a certain way with me.”

“Natsu…” he said pitifully. “Can I help?”

“Not unless you can fill my head with another girl, any other girl.” He remained silently thoughtful as they return home, then gasped.

“I got it!” Happy announced, bursting through the door. Natsu followed him inside as he started rooting for something. “Gildarts said that these always take his mind off of Cana when he starts to miss her!”

“Eh? Why do we have them?”

“He left them for you the last time he came. Remember, he felt bad for accidently putting you in that mini-coma?” He did not, in fact, remember, but he guessed that to be a side effect of the mini-coma. “I found them!” He flapped away from a stack of Mercurius rubble and held up a stack of glossy magazines.

“Happy, magazines are what got us into this mess in the first place!”

“They should help you though.”

“Okay, fine. I’m pretty desperate anyway.” He took one and opened it. “What? Is this really supposed to help? It looks like the kinda crap Mira does every other week.”

“I dunno, it’s what Gildarts uses,” Happy said with a yawn. “Anyway, I’m going to bed. Goodnight, Natsu.”

“Night,” he mumbled, staring hard at the double page spread. If he magazines couldn’t help him, he could at least use them for fodder in practicing controlling his temperature. As long as shit was happening with Lucy, he was really going to need the practice.

Something odd started to happen around the twenty-minute mark, when he’d fried the magazine to a crisp. He went to a different magazine, one just titled “XXX,” and saw the first page was of a stark-naked woman covered in…frosting? Something like that. He skewed his mouth and twisted the picture all sorts of directions, but he couldn’t find the same appeal in it that Gildarts or Makarov did, perhaps because he saw naked women on a daily basis and he was just desensitized. Then, bored, he imagined several other Guild mates’ faces over hers. First Gray—he had a pretty damn good laugh over it, then Elfman, then Gajeel, Max, Warren, and Lily. He was on the floor with tears running down his face when, damn every god out there, he pictured Lucy’s face on hers.

Maybe it was because he could see her naked body in every detail, or maybe it was because he had such a good sensual memory of her (including touch thanks to that unfortunate incident in the middle of his battle with Future Rogue), or maybe it was because she was constantly on his mind, but that one little idea brought a whole new slew of torture to his poor mind. He felt his magic run into his chest, like a miniature sun, but it also took a different, southern route that…perplexed him. He tried flipping pages, but every picture was now irreversibly of Lucy, and eventually he burned the whole thing to ashes alongside the others. Feeling utterly defeated like never before, he slunk over to his hammock and climbed inside, resigning himself to a sleepless night.

“Wow, Fire Face, you look like shit,” Gray commented as Natsu slid onto the bar.

“Thanks,” he replied dryly. “Mira, can I get coffee?”

“Sure,” she said, passing him a cup. Gray watched him drink with narrowed eyes.

“Okay, spill: what’s the problem?”

“Do you care?” he muttered into his drink.

“Of course I do. Sure, you’re annoying as all hell, but I don’t like seeing you like this.”

“Well, uh…” He made sure Mira was out of earshot before turning to Gray. “I think I’m falling for Lucy.”

“Think?” he echoed.

“Porlyusica said some crap about dragons mating or whatever and it’s messin’ with my emotions, but I really think there’s some truth in it.”

“Dragons mate?” he asked curiously. Natsu shrugged before letting his hands hit his thighs.

“Guess so.” Gray raised his eyebrows and looked back at Gajeel, then at Wendy with a markedly more surprised expression.

“All of them?”

“Look I’m about as new to this shit as you are, don’t go asking me for the gory details. All’s I know is I’ve never hated being a dragon as much as right now,” he sighed. Gray looked pensive as he shifted his eggs around his plate.

“I’m no romance expert either—not that I have a willing test subject,” he muttered with an over-the-shoulder glance at Juvia behind a pillar. Natsu kind of liked her like that: if she had Fire Magic, she would’ve burned Ice Prick to a naked crisp a long time ago. “But I think I have a solution: just ask yourself how you felt about her before all this mess happened. I think that your answer’s gonna be there.”

“That’s…surprisingly good advice coming from you, stripper.”

“Not all of us can be hit and misses like you, Firecracker.”

“Heh… Thanks, Gray.”

“No problem, just… Just don’t go spreading rumors that I’m an expert in this shit. I don’t want unwanted ears catching word.” He shuddered at the thought. Natsu finished his coffee and found that while it did wake him up to normal standards, he still felt like crashing on the grass. Gray excused himself to go check the request board while Natsu remained, trying to focus until the bar’s bottles’ labels swirled back into clear view. Mirajane swept past again and he shook his head slowly.

“What’s the problem, Natsu?” she asked worriedly.

“I uh…” He knew better than to go blabbing about his feelings, especially to Mira of all people—like, half the Guild would know his business by dawn the next day, if he was lucky—so he went with a little safer territory: “Can you put my name down for the next spread of Sorcerer’s Weekly?”

“Sudden interest in tabloids?” she asked. He shrugged a shoulder.

“No. Bikini prints.” Her eyes opened in surprise.

“What? Really?” He nodded and suddenly she leaned in closer, conspiratorially. “Do we need to have…the talk?” she whispered.

“Talk? What talk? We’re talking right now, aren’t we?”

“The talk. The birds and the bees—”

“What do birds and knees have to do with this?” She sighed like she was talking to a particularly dense child.

“What Mirajane is being too nice to say,” Laxus interjected from the other side of the bar with a droll smirk, “is a good long talk about you getting laid with Blondie.”

“Getting laid? What?” It took a few seconds to process, then the rusty gears in his head turned. “Getting laid with Lucy…” His heart again jumped into a frenzy, which despite him keeping his face as still as possible, he was sure every person in the building could hear, Dragon Slayer or not. Laxus’ smirk grew into a full-blown grin that he barely tried to hide behind his beer mug, taking great pleasure in Natsu’s chagrin. “Why in hell would I— She’s a friend, and—well—”

“And—well—why else would you have slugged the lion like that, if not out of jealous?” he jeered. “It’s because you want to get in her skirt, right?” Natsu felt like he was going breathless. He suddenly pictured Lucy naked—well, not pictured, since he had an exact memory of it—but instead of her giving her usual Lucy Kick/Punch/Slap, she invited him to take a closer look, even touched him back with those soft, warm hands of hers…

“I DON’T!” he said much louder than intended, trying to stave off disturbing thoughts. The Guild fell silent as a good number of guys rose from their seats and others took their food to the corners, expecting the usual early morning brawl to start as Natsu got to his feet, but instead he remained in his spot with shoulders shaking as if he would literally explode. He sure felt like it, his Fire Magic building large and hot in his gut and causing the floorboards to burn beneath his sandals. Laxus was facing him with a cocky smirk, still idly drinking his beer.

“You don’t what?” came her voice from just behind him. Natsu froze completely, feeling like he was just encased in Gray’s ice. Similarly, his fire died away in one quick second, mostly from fear of burning her.

“Yeah, Natsu, tell her what you don’t want to do,” Laxus said, sounding utterly like the cat that caught the canary. Natsu gritted his teeth and did the next best thing: leaping on him like a wild animal. And even though he was electrocuted into next week, it felt good to dodge the situation entirely.

He swam back into the world maybe an hour later, although he was too comfy in the infirmary’s bed to open his eyes. He was almost going back to sleep for the day—he didn’t get any sleep the night before, so the bed was like a big fluffy warm cloud—but a voice drifted through his thoughts, rousing him again.

“You big idiot,” someone said, and he could’ve taken it for literally anyone before they continued, “going out of your way to give me all heart attacks this week… Crazy moron.” He couldn’t really smell up to par, not with sulfur still stuffed in his nostrils, but he could feel—wow, he could feel Lucy’s hand on top of his. He would’ve curled his fingers around hers had his body still not felt like it was put through a lightning storm. “I thought we told each other everything, Natsu? Why won’t you tell me what’s wrong?”

Because I might like you, and you certainly don’t like me back, or at least don’t want it to be know what we’re together together, and I don’t want to do anything that’ll make you unhappy, Luce, even though I’m doing exactly that right now by keeping my thoughts hidden… This paradoxical shit is giving me a headache, in short, and I wish I could talk to you, but I can’t, but I should, and—AAGH.

That was exactly why Natsu wasn’t a thinker: it was too damn troublesome.

“Just… ‘m sorry, Luce,” he muttered, peeking up at her. She gave him an annoyed look, but thankfully it wasn’t too severe.

“You’re hopeless, you know that?” she said. He grinned in response, eliciting a smile from her. Then the infirmary’s door opened and the scent of cologne and desperation wafted in. Oh, gods.

“I knew you’d be up—it’s pretty hard to keep you down, Natsu,” Loki said with a smirk, waving at him. Natsu grumbled something in response and turned his back to them, pulling the sheets over his head.

“Natsu, do you mind if I—?”

“No, go. It’s okay,” he said, surprising himself with his even tone. “I’ll just catch some Zs. I’m dead tired anyway.” Lucy gave another apology before turning her attention to Loki.

“8Island?” he offered, and she laughed. What’s the joke? Did I miss something? he groused.

“Sure, Loki. I’ll catch you later, Natsu?”

“Yeah,” he mumbled as they left, closing his eyes, and as he saw Lucy yet again behind them, he was reminded of Gray’s advice earlier. How did I think of Lucy before?

He remembered that burning anger he felt at Jose kidnapping her so long ago. He remembered that blinding sense of panic he felt as he read her goodbye note before it turned out she was just visiting the Heartfilia home, not staying there. He remembered the intense sympathy he felt as she realized her father had passed in the seven-year gap. He remembered the paralyzing grief he felt as she disappeared into the Clock. He remembered that overwhelming sense of concern as she was wheeled away after the Grand Magic Games’ Naval Battle. Most potently, however, was that…emptiness when Future Lucy died. It wasn’t her, but was her at the same time, and regardless, seeing Lucy lying motionless on the ground was… He couldn’t even describe it.

And there was a bit he never told anyone, not even a year and some odd moths after the fact: hearing Lucy’s words about everyone being gone, including him, struck him hardest, because it meant he had left Lucy alone to bear that huge burden herself, and consequently, her death weighed on him as well. More towards his current issue, he couldn’t see any point in time ahead where he wasn’t there by his side. Since forming a team so long ago, he couldn’t see anyone by her side but him. He wanted to be there, wanted to witness her weirdness and unpublished writings and crazy Spirits and extra hard Lucy Kicks. He, in short, wanted to be with her for the rest of their endless adventure. Did that mean that he loved her?

…Even someone as slow-minded as Natsu could see the answer.

#fairy tail #fairy tail nalu #fairytail #natsu x lucy #natsu dragneel #nalu fanfiction #Nalu #lucy heartfilia #fanfiction #romance #Drama #boiling point

6 notes · View notes