#i didn't have to reveal that information. fun fact i guess

[pico-farad]

I finished season 1 of Vrains and it was cool but I thought it needed about 2 billion more secret identity shenanigans

More Secret Identities AU

extended thoughts below

So I went into a deep dive in my last two posts (1, 2) about all the problems I had with Vrains, and you'd think I didn't enjoy it, but in fact as I was watching, there was a separate, parallel version of Vrains that was playing in my head, a Yugioh I think we were robbed of and which fixes every problem I had with the first season, and that is Secret Identities AU.

Yusaku needs FRIENDS

This is YUGIOH.

This dynamic is everything I wanted from Vrains. Yusaku developing unexpected fondness for these bozos who think he needs a defense squad. I want Miraculous Ladybug levels of secret identity shenanigans. I want Yusaku slapping his duel disk every time Ai tries to blow their cover.

This AU sprung forth from the scene in the duel club where he shows Naoki his decoy deck. Having Yusaku passing as a bad duelist is 1) so funny, but 2) Yusaku needing to maintain his low profile is a useful contrivance for other characters to get more duels, and 3) I think it would be a really fun one-off episode where Yusaku has to duel using his bad deck. When he wins, Naoki is so proud he cries.

Having Yusaku actually have to interact with the other characters in the real world opens up Greek play levels of dramatic irony. The crux of a secret identity story is that every single interaction builds up anticipation, because you the viewer know that the other party is being deceived, and that the tension will snap when the secret is revealed.

I have zero anticipation about Playmaker's identity being revealed, because Aoi would be like "oh.... I guess he goes to my school" and Go would be like "have I seen that guy before?" But SIAU Playmaker? My guy is making friends just so he can betray them. Insane.

Go needs A ROLE IN THE STORY.

I said in my first post that Go isn't a rival or a best friend character. SIAU fixes this by making him both simultaneously.

Having him be the ace of the duel club is a natural replacement for his whole hero of the orphans schtick, while placing him directly the circle of relevance with the other characters. Instead of being disgruntled that the orphans suddenly like Playmaker more than him, he's disgruntled that Naoki and the duel club mooks are fawning over Playmaker -- which is actually just Naoki's character anyway.

I would kill for a big dramatic moment where Go learns that Playmaker and Yusaku are the same person, and even though Go feels betrayed that Yusaku has been deceiving him, he stands by Yusaku anyway because they're friends.

With a secret identity story, every conversation is working on multiple levels because each character is working with asymmetric information. You get these fascinating, layered scenes of two characters talking past each other because they cannot give up their secret.

Which would go especially hard with Go and Yusaku, because Go has legitimate criticisms of Playmaker in canon and Yusaku has legitimate reasoning behind the things he does, and as Go Onizuka and Playmaker they could never come to an understanding on them, but as Go and Yusaku, two friends in duel club, that door becomes open to them.

Aoi needs WRITING THAT ISN'T A TRAINWRECK

I made a whole post on this. Basically every problem would be solved if Akira doesn't know that she's Blue Angel. There's no reason for her to lose grotesquely against Yusaku, or have her basic autonomy called into question constantly. 

Having her actively deceive her brother is delicious. Like I said in my last post, it's so obvious how Akira's overprotectiveness has taken its toll on Aoi, and pushed her into developing this other persona, Blue Angel. I want this absolutely dysfunctional sibling relationship so badly. The Blue Angel vs. Zaizen duel would make me lose my mind.

And a secret identities setting works so well with the potential themes of VRAINS as a stand-in for the internet and Blue Angel as an idol. Give me that Perfect Blue Satoshi Kon good stuff. Give me those themes about identity, and the different lives we live, outward and inward, online and offline.

This also helps Akira's character, because I think he would be much more interesting and relevantly positioned in the story if he stayed a SOL Technologies baddie. SOL Technologies has very little presence in season 1 despite being critical to the story. After Zaizen is replaced by an irrelevant clown, they don't do anything but send out mook AIs to get destroyed. By having a three-way standoff between Yusaku's squad, the Knights of Hanoi, and SOL Technologies, both Hanoi and SOL Technologies become more compelling. They've both got all the reason in the world to want to take down the other. Zaizen vs. Revolver or Spectre? That's good shit.

And don't get me started on how I would turn Revolver into a Secret Identities character.

[sparklecarehospital]

been reflecting on my year a bit, and i was thinking about something. i think i know what the best thing i did for myself this year was.

making cometcare public. making the ask blog.

ive had this AU stirring in my brain since 2019, ever since i got really attached to doomi during the haunted arc. one reason i went so long without revealing pollarrydoomi as a ship to readers was because doom's crush wasn't public information until late 2021.

i had kept his crush a mystery for 3 years, but revealed it after a fun experience where people figured out who it was through guessing. i'm pretty sure i did a poll about it? asking people to guess who they thought it was, and uni won the vote, meaning everyone had already figured it out.

after pollarrydoomi was revealed and i started drawing art for it and people made fanart for it, i still couldn't post any of my AU art because ally wasn't public and she and howie were in the AU. in july 2022, for the comic's birthday, i revealed ally as a character to the readers. others around the time had started to notice characters i had in pfps and i ended up telling everyone i did have pollarrydoomi ship kids, but i didn't make them public.

in november 2022, i revealed eve on toyhouse. after her reveal, i would soon reveal sly as well in december 2022 on my birthday (revealing sly as a birthday present to myself is such a funny gesture now that you guys know how important he is to me). over the next few weeks i revealed cream, frosty, and marco as well. all of the main cometkids except chem.

then one day someone out there suggested that i make an ask blog for the cometcare AU. it was such a spontaneous decision, and i didn't even really know what i was gonna do with it at first. i was just kinda messing around. but when i made the blog i realized that if i wanted this AU to be experienced in complete authenticity, i couldn't make uni cis.

so i revealed uni being trans through the blog, despite the fact i'd gone so many years without ever revealing her identity. why did i do it? there's a lot of reasons. not wanting to make her a "dad" in the AU contributed, but also i felt like it wouldn't be detrimental to the story to confirm a character being trans. it also made me (and the crew in general) a lot more comfortable being able to properly refer to uni with her actual pronouns.

making the ask blog really changed me, because finally i could share this little family and comfort story i'd built in my brain with the world and make it real and make content for it and let people consume it.

but what stopped me most of all?

i've said it many times before... but i felt like it was cringey.

i felt like making an AU with 93985893844 fankids in a ridiculous complicated polycule wasn't something a Serious content creator should do, and i was really worried the reception would be negative or people would think it was stupid or something. i did NOT expect it to become as popular as it is. the blog actually has more followers than the MAIN ASK BLOG for the canon comic. it was received SO POSITIVELY and the fact it was just kind of blows me away.

it means so much to me. being able to share the most special thing in my life with people and for people to actually like it and have fun with me and want to see it, and for me to be able to not have to follow strict professionalism about spoilers and chronological storytelling, and being able to change and add in things whenever i felt like it. it's such a freeing experience.

when i was a kid, i used to make stories and OCs and i didn't take them as seriously as i do the sparklecare reboot. this kind of turned into my entire life and career kinda, so i had to take it more seriously. but making this AU honestly just makes me feel like i'm a kid again, it makes me feel like i can have fun and literally do whatever the fuck i want without worrying what people think or if it's realistic or if it makes any sense.

i know though, that some people don't like pollarrydoomi. and i know why. whether it's because of being attached to barruni (of course, they're the canon ship and main characters, i get it) or just having discomfort with the idea of shipping doom with anyone when canonically he hasn't experienced a redemption arc... i get it. i know not everyone likes it.

and that's okay! people are entitled to having their own feelings about content. i understand it. and i've come to accept that's always going to be the case with anything i do with these characters.

but i'm still going to do this for myself. i do this because it makes me happy to just have fun and not worry about being serious all the time. it feels good, especially when it's with characters that are really really important to me.

cometcare is genuinely the most special and important thing i've ever made for myself, it's such a huge piece of my identity and it makes me who i am. and being able to make this story public and share it with people and share these things that have been in my brain for so long with others means so much to me.

that's why i think it was the best thing i've done this year. it's kind of literally changed my life to be able to talk about them. it's made me happier than i've ever been making content. i'm not just making it to entertain myself alone anymore, i'm making it to entertain others like i do with other stuff. and the fact people actually like it still is unbelievable to me.

so, i guess my outlook for next year as it comes is to continue to stop taking everything so seriously. i can tell my stories however i want to. i hope others can realize they can do this too.

please make whatever you want, whenever you what, as much as you want, even if it doesn't make sense or if it's "cringe". you will be so much happier when you realize as a creator you DON'T have to take all of this so seriously. the comic still exists and people read it even if i'm doing this. You Can Do Whatever You Want And Nobody Can Ever Stop You. the only person who can stop you is yourself when you let your inhibitions get in the way of your ability to create things for yourself.

have fun! life is too short to take everything you do seriously

[your-local-grinning-cat]

The Ultimate Compilation Callout

Hey Guys! AR OOC once again to say I am 100% done.

I'm done with this. I thought it was finally dying down and the drama was finally getting to be over with but then she came back and is now trying to say that we are the ones in the wrong. And she is STILL trying to blame Leona's mod when, as both @/castaway-achlys and I have stated numerous times at this point, they were asleep during the entire event. They did not ask for us to defend them. We were both just tired of hearing our friend be exhausted and stressed out by her.

And the fact that so many people have come out to give their own experiences of her being rude and cruel to them just proves this is not a singular event.

I'm putting all this under a cut because it's gonna get long guys. In fact, I’m probably going to end up needing to create a couple reblog chains to get it all out.

But I'm done playing nice. I have all the receipts. Like I went allllll the way back to when the discord was first created. I caught her in her first lie.

Which, coincidentally, her very first lie in the Discord server happened on the very first day it was formed. What a way to start.

I call her the Malleus mod as an identifier in these screenshots, because unlike her, I am not petty enough to reveal peoples’ personal information on the internet just because I don’t like them.

HOWEVER. I will remind everyone that she is not JUST the owner of the Malleus account. Even if you don’t want to look under the read more because there are a LOT of receipts, know that these are all her known blogs.

I do not condone harassment. Harassment is basically what started all this. Just block and go.

Malleus Draconia @/therealmalleusdraconia

Falena Kingscholar @/the-falena-kingscholar

Aijuka (A Leona gf OC) @/the-one-aijuka

Jack Howl @/frosh-jack-howl

Fellow Honest @/fellow-honest

Meleanor Draconia @/meleanor-draconia

Baul Zigvolt @/baul-zigvolt

Sebek’s Mother @/thethickestone

Marja Felmier @/marja-felmier

And her latest: Eric Venue @/ericvenue

(Bonus non-rp blog @/thetwistedminds)

Before we get too far into it I will say there is a slight color code! But only a tiny one!

Gross light green color - look at that lie! 👀

Gross darker green color - a lie is revealed! 🤭

Orange - note the date/time! 🗓️⏰

Let me show you what I mean in the lie I’ve already mentioned - her very first one. :)

There we have the orange, telling you to note the date. That’s because I was wanting to make sure it was known that the pet posts were made on the same date that the discord was created.

And then we have the gross light green around Malleus mod claiming that this bunny is her bunny and that it was her bunny’s birthday recently.

Now here is the follow up with the gross darker green of a lie revealed. 😌

And there we have it! The color coding system and her very first lie told the very first day the Discord channel was active and easily disproven with an image search.

Now let’s get into the FUN STUFF! /sarc

We’re going to be doing some rehashing here but I’m also going to probably be including some new things so stay with me folks! This’ll be a ride! Buckle up!

So, originally I was thinking I'd start with the current drama. But considering that a lot of that has already been covered and what hasn't been covered needs more context, I'm just going to keep going in chronological order, I guess.

I've been up for over 24 hours compiling receipts, editing them to protect IDs, and then getting them all sorted so let's finally do this so I can pass out!

First up is something that actually has been covered a bit but I'm going to expand on it slightly - her blatant lie to @/elysia-nsimp (I'm not tagging anyone because I'm not forcing anyone to get notifications on this lmao).

Here's what everyone has already seen. But to expand on the event, we didn't call her out on her bad behavior, even though we probably should have as she had just lied straight to another mod's face about her blog ownership. I simply DM'd the mod in question privately to make sure they were okay and then tried to keep the peace in the main chat.

Because, believe it or not with this major callout post, I don't generally like confrontation. But I stepped in there for Elysia and I stepped up during this for Leona's mod.

Now, later that night, she posts this as if nothing had happened and she hadn't just been told that she needed to work on her roleplaying skills:

Uh huh. Sure. That's your last account. Because you have shown so much self-control when it comes to filling character voids within the twst rp community already. I'll be generous and give you a month before you break.

Now these next ones need a tiny bit of background information and a note: the Malleus mod is German and, as far as we know, lives in Germany. These next pictures are little indicators that she has not experienced the United States at all. These indicators may not seem important now, but they will be in just a little time. So keep them in mind for after the pause.

You cannot tell me anyone who has spent any length of time in the United States has not at least heard of Walmart.

Quick pitstop to say wow! You didn't even make it a month! Congratulations!

Also, note the question from the admin and the pretty obvious passive aggressiveness from me. We were sending plenty of hints that they needed to stop - sometimes coming outright and saying it, sometimes simply implying. Either way, we were all ignored.

She says she's not a mind reader. Well, apparently she's just not a reader period.

Now... a bit of an oddball here. And I want to say I do not necessarily think this is a lie. I am including it for a lie that is coming. The one that I included all those America comments for.

I'm sure you will note that I said that I don't "necessarily think" it's a lie - indicating that I do think it could be a possibility. That would be correct.

She has been lying since day one and, after this doozy of a story I'm about to share with you, I honestly don't know what to believe when it comes to her.

So.. to sum this up...

We went from a cringe ask from an OC account that she didn't want to answer -> the asker wasn't supposed to be on tumblr because they were underage (???) and was trying to date her irl and somehow had all of her information (oh but don't worry guys she deleted the ask!) -> he found her social media accounts and sent her NSFW pictures and started spam liking, demanding pictures of her kids, sent pictures of her at-the-time boyfriend, sent pictures of his family and his kids -> so she blocked him on everything and then started spam creating the rp accounts to see if he did it with other people or if it was just her (...mmmhmmm...) but nope he was only interested in Malleus -> she then apparently moved to America for a bit to crash with her boyfriend because this underage person went to Germany to find he.

Oh, by the way, why was this guy obsessed with her? Oh, he was obsessed with German women. He decided that all German women were pretty. And she's German-Russian! And Russians have intense standards for women you know! After this guy found out she was German AND Russian, I mean... it was only a matter of time before he upped his game to try to find her!

Guys, she's not saying she's too beautiful for her own good - the underage stalker speaks for itself!

Now, since this stalker found her through her Malleus account and was obviously very determined, you would think the first course of action would be to, ya know, delete the Malleus blog. Right?

No, no, no! Then she would have to start all over and, of course, if she switched accounts she would be forced to make a post on her current blog saying what her new blog is and he would just find her there. That's why she's trying to make her other accounts more active than her Malleus account (her Malleus account was still, by far, before all this happened, the most popular of all her rp blogs)!

Can I also mention that in that post announcing her pregnancy ON HER MALLEUS ACCOUNT WHERE SHE SUPPOSEDLY HAS A STALKER, she had tagged ALL OF HER BLOGS AT THE TIME?

But yes, Malleus mod. I definitely believe your story. :)

Please. Please tell me you all can understand why I just cannot find it in me to trust a single word coming out of this woman's mouth.

Especially now that during this whole drama, she has been lying through her teeth and trying to pin the entire blame on Leona's mod.

Now this part is nearly over (thank whatever gods anyone believes in) but let's just post the last few of the "before drama happened" pictures, shall we?

...I'm realizing I didn't underline the part where I called her out for having that many blogs in the gross dark green of a lie caught... oops. This is what happens when you have far too little sleep.

But either way, here is another time when she was called out on a lie of hers. And her little comment at the end means she read it and she acknowledged us.

She just didn't care because it didn't suit her.

~~~~~~

ALRIGHT!

THAT'S THE END OF PART ONE!

Yeah. This is going to come out in PARTS. I can't cover it all in one post because there is a picture limit.

So, I'm going to end up making a reblog chain...

Eventually.

Real talk? I need to sleep. Desperately. It's nearly two in the afternoon where I am and I have not slept yet.

Do not underestimate the power of spite and my loyalty to my friends. Both are very strong motivators.

But my body's needs are finally winning.

When I wake up, I'll have the Ultimate Drama Arc to post and expand upon and then the Return of the Drama Arc.

Yay. (said in the most unenthused voice ever lmao)

Anyway. Enjoy all this. I'm gonna go die. /j

[raaorqtpbpdy]

Much to Learn

Maddie has Phantom cornered. He's not getting away from her this time.

{Irma} Maddie overhears something she shouldn't, and it makes her rethink everything (reveal gone right) [ghost]

Read also on AO3

[Warning for mentions of violence/dissection]

She had him. Maddie had that spook cornered, and there was no way he could escape, at least not without being seen. Jack was covering the other exit, but she knew she had him. Phantom was hers. 

"That was too close," she heard Phantom's voice around the corner.

He had no idea, she thought, raising her ecto-gun, ready to take him down.

"No kidding," a girl's voice replied.

Maddie froze. Was he talking to someone? Her voice sounded kind of familiar. Was she in danger.

"My parents almost had me that time," Phantom replied. "Thank the Ancients I gave them the slip, or it would have been hello scalpel."

"You got Klemper, right?" a boy's voice asked.

So Phantom had two captives... or... perhaps allies, the way they were talking. But what had he meant about his parents? Were they still alive?

"Asked him for his best soup impression," Phantom replied with a chuckle. "You know, I don't actually mind if they want to have fun and goof off, and it's great for them that they don't have to worry about consequences in the Ghost Zone, I just wish they could wrap their heads around the fact that here in the real world, people can still get badly hurt. Like, some of us are mortal, buddy."

"And Klemper plays pretty rough, so it's no wonder he doesn't have any friends," the girl replied.

"Yeah, no kidding," the other boy's voice agreed.

They didn't sound like captives, Maddie determined. They definitely didn't sound like ghosts, either.

"Alright, if my parents had followed me, I'm sure they would've burst in guns blazing by now," Phantom said. "I think I'm in the clear."

There was a flash of light and a sort of whirring sound.

The next voice Maddie heard wasn't Phantom's... it was Danny's.

"Guess I'm not gonna get dissected tonight," he said, like it was some kind of big accomplishment. "Good thing, too because I have a huge English assignment due soon that I haven't even started on. I definitely don't have time for my parents to cut me open."

"You sound awful cheery," the girl noted, and suddenly, Maddie could place the voice. It was Danny's friend Sam.

"Well, you know, you gotta celebrate the small victories, right?" Danny replied. "That's what Jazz is always telling me, anyway."

"Morbid victories," scoffed the other boy—Tucker, she finally recognized.

When Maddie had cornered Phantom and his allies, she'd actually... or rather, she'd also cornered Danny and his friends. Because they were the same people.

Her son was Phantom.

Oh, god, what had she done?

"Come on, guys, let's get out of here," Danny said, and Maddie could hear him and his friends walking toward the door where she was lying in wait.

She wanted to run so she could have time to properly process her thoughts and the new information, but she was rooted to the spot, her brain racing at a mile a minute. Danny was a ghost? How? When? God, she had shot at him.

He was coming her way. He was almost to the door. She wanted to run, but she still couldn't move.

He walked through, and jumped when he saw her, back against the wall, ecto-gun still raised and in-hand.

"Mom," he said, sounding mildly alarmed. "Uh... how long have you been standing there?"

"You're Phantom," she said. The words just spilled from her lips, and she was helpless to stop them.

She didn't miss the way Danny's muscles all tensed up at once and he eyed the gun still in her hand.

"What?" he asked.

Her eyes widened and she dropped her ecto-gun to the floor as if it had bitten her. Oh god, he was afraid of her. Her own son was afraid of her. What kind of mother had she been? What had she been doing?

She threw herself at him, and wrapped him up in a hug. "Oh, Danny, I'm so sorry!"

"Uh...." She could feel the hesitation in his movements as he hugged her back, and it brought tears to her eyes. "It's... it's okay, Mom. You didn't know."

"No, I didn't know, but it's not okay," she insisted. "Ignorance is never an excuse. I tried to hurt you!"

"But you didn't," he said. "Mom, I'm fine. It's okay. I forgive you."

"I've been a fool," she said, reluctantly pulling away from the hug so she could look him in the eye and cup the side of his face, gently, like a mother should. "I only heard a minute of conversation, but it's obvious you know about ghost. You probably—no, you definitely know more than I do. Maybe you can fill in some of the gaps in our research."

"If it means you won't have to dissect anybody, I'd be happy to help."

Maddie cringed, but once she got past the barb, it sounded nice. A little mother-son scientific research and bonding was just what she needed to get to know her son again. He'd been so distant lately, and now... well, now she knew why. And now that she knew, she could start to pull him closer again, learn the kind of man he was growing into when he wasn't too busy avoiding her.

"That sounds wonderful, Danny," she said. "I'm sure I have so much to learn."

[daiseukiis]

╰ ⋆ ❝ 𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐓'𝐒 𝐌𝐘 𝐁𝐄𝐒𝐓 𝐅𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐍𝐃 ! ❞ ଓ.° ╮

FEAT. ⠀⠀⠀⠀ mikage reo

CONTENTS. fem!reader x mikage reo, profanity, mutual pinning, best friends to lovers, frustrating slow burn boo

SUMMARY. you and mikage reo go way back, since second year of jr high. yet who knew you'd fall for your one and only best friend.

W/C. 15.2k

A/N. good fuckin' tangina this is done. i didn't even expect it to take this damn long. here's to the ( possibily ) longest mikage reo oneshot in ur lives bc damn imma sleep now. im too tired to proofread u gais r on ur own omg. @17020 @adorlings @lov3nagi uhh who else ugh whatever goodnight at 6:30am

⠀⠀⠀⠀ “you’re pretty good.” the bustling sound of ‘high score!’ rings through your ears along with the sounds of loud gaming machines with the occasional ‘k.o!’ from a fighting game. your hues look directly at the ball which swishes through the net and the record of the machine changing from the bright led light of 48 to 62. the ball spins in your hand momentarily as you throw it once more despite the timer already ticking to zero— just for fun. “thanks, i’m actually on the basketball team.”

“no wonder, you beat the record.” periwinkle strands matching with his eyes look at the score you hit before directing his eyes to where yours was. the boy smiles, one which you easily reciprocate as you point at the blinking number 60 on his side of the basketball game. “you did pretty good yourself, you also beat the record on your machine.”

“what can i say?” the young boy shrugs his shoulders, making you chuckle at his easy going attitude— he surely did interest you lots. you pick up your school bag and blazer you had thrown to the ground upon arriving at your game, quickly putting on your belongings as you notice him also grab hold of his school bag, one which you recognize to also be in jr high.

“you’re cool, i’m yn.” you outstretch your hand to him with a smile. he takes your hand, showing you a smile of his own that made you want to melt on the spot. the sound of his voice brings you quickly back to reality, “i’m mikage reo.”

the more you soak in the features of this boy the more something in you just wanted to tell you to stay, even the warmth of reo’s hand was like calming a sea of uneasiness. there was something in his violet diamonds that allured you like a moth to a fire. but you knew you had no luxury to find the truth so easily.

“hate to be rude, but you’re kinda screaming rich boy.” you wanted to distract yourself from this bubbling interest, quickly pulling your hand away that had seemed to hold on for a bit too long on to his. your smile wavers slightly though not noticeable to the human eye. with a lighthearted joke, you continue your conversation with him. “and your name sounds like the—” 

“heir to the mikage corporation? yeah, that’s me.” your jaw almost drops at his response, staring at his handsome stature. you blink your lashes a couple of times, letting the new information click in until it finally processes properly. your gasp surprises reo, raising a brow at your sudden change of attitude once he revealed the truth about his background. “no way, you’re a rich boy and pretty boy?”

“i guess so? thanks, you’re pretty too.” reo didn’t know how to reply back to your words, in fact he found you odd. usually at this point, maybe people would suck up to him for connections, yet you didn’t. “you’re flattering, really.” you were… refreshing to him. the boy grins, changing his confusion that that of a more comfortable look. “let’s keep in touch, yeah?”

the way your eyes lit up at his question made him internally chuckle, he had to admit it, you’re cute. “i’d love to!” reo goes and reaches for his pocket, taking out his phone to gesture to you to exchange contacts. “do you have line?” 

you look slightly bewildered at his actions, staring at the line home screen to add contacts. “uhm, email or number works, is that okay?” you nervously look through your bag, lifting up your rather outdated flip phone at him. “i know, i really need a new phone but it’s a hand me down. hope you don’t mind.”

“i can get you a new one.” reo says so instantaneously that it catches you off guard. you blink your pretty lashes at the look of his raised brow, waiting for the answer. shock is instantly running through you as your face scrunches up, “what?”

“i’m serious, you’re my friend now and you seem like you’re struggling with that.” to say you were speechless was an understatement, he couldn’t be serious, right? though the look on his face is unwavering you start to think— he’s serious. “hold on! i appreciate the offer but that’s too much, seriously.” 

“here,” you quickly grab hold of his phone, quickly typing in your contact information to his number. you lift the device, creating a peace sign with your free hand as you click the button to create a contact photo for yourself. as you finish it up, you hand the phone back to reo before spinning on your heels out of the arcade. “text me later, alright? let’s meet up again, mikage! i gotta head to work!”

reo watches as your figure disappears from his view. he can’t help but smile to himself at your rather honest and odd antics, he was going to lie to himself that he tried to test you earlier if you were just going to use him for his money; and you didn’t disappoint. this encounter would forever be burned into his mind, for better or for worse.

⠀⠀⠀⠀ “she’s pretty, think i could get her number?” a male classmate say out to his group mates, the female of the group letting out a small chuckle at him. “pfft, i thought you’d want a girl with more class?” the boy sends her a smirk, shrugging his shoulders. “hey, maybe she’ll let me be her sugar daddy? i got the money for it.”

‘what assholes.’ it’s not like reo didn’t want to be there, it was more or so he had no choice but to be with the other three students from his class. what did he expect though? he knew that they only chose him for his relations and connections, and for the fact that it wasn’t going to be the last instance like this to happen.

“oh, here she comes!” one of the other guys smacks their friend by the forearm, slightly pointing a finger towards the waiter discreetly. everyone but reo was whisper yelling their cheers to the male who had gotten his words ready in his mind to say. “get ready.”

“here are your orders—” this voice. immediately the boy turns his head to the side, eyes going into contact with your jewels. “yn?” there was a small pause in the air, your hand had reached out to place a drink down on the table. you felt a part of your locks drop from your shoulders due to the angle of you hovering over. “mikage?”

“you work here?” reo being surprised at your appearance was an understatement, and you seeing reo at the cafe you worked part-time at was also a pleasant discovery for you. after placing down the rest of the orders the table had gotten you prompted yourself up to a more relaxed position upright, a hand pushing back the lock of hair which fell earlier. “yeah, surprise to see you here!”

“that’s why you’re always so busy.” he jokes, jabbing at you since you did tell him that you had other plans and bailed out on him last week due to a sudden work shift. you can’t help but smile at him. “work and basketball, i’m a busy body myself.”

“clearly. just take rests too.” reo scoffs at you, knowing full well that your life revolved working shifts like a dog and playing ball after school with little to no social life left for you. rolling your eyes you can’t help but scoff back at his slightly nagging nature. “yeah, yeah, i heard you, mikage.” waving a hand out, you dismiss what he says. “anyways, i’ll be right back. i’ll bring that latte over for you.”

“yeah, go ahead.” without another word you nod your head at the other three, walking away from their table to go back to the front counter. just as you were out of ear shot all eyes direct themselves to reo with questions flying out their mouths. “yo! you know her?”

“we met at the arcade playing on the basketball machine.” one of the guys wraps an around reo’s shoulders as he grins at him. “cool, she plays sports too huh.” interested, the female soon asks her question as well; all surprised to see reo know the same girl their classmate was after. “what school does she go to?”

“i remember her telling me she went to teiko.” reo says, sighing a bit as he removes his classmate’s arm off his body. the other boy is astonished by the fact, “woah, that powerhouse? the kiseki no sedai are there!” “think she knows kise ryouta?” his girl classmate urgently asks, yet all these questions were tiring reo out. the two know of each other, and it was just around two weeks ago, it annoyed him a bit that rather than finishing what they came there for he was being interrogated. “dunno, ask her yourself.”

“alright, here’s your latte.” just when another question could be fired at reo, you had came and placed the last glass of the order down on the table. gods, did reo was good to see you come back so fast and save him from his classmates. “hey, i got a question for you.” you hum in response, looking at her after you put down the tissues and straws for them. “you’re from teiko, right? do you know kise ryouta?”

“ryouta? he’s a friend of mine, what about him?” though slightly odded out, this was once again a norm for you. “great! could you give me his number?” being on the basketball team of an infamous school really had its perks and cons, and seeing how you watched the girl search through her school bag to fish out her phone meant that it was going to be one of those days. 

“can’t do that.” she stops her actions and twists her brows towards your direction. “what, why?” you shrug your shoulders at her, blunt as possible since this scenario played so many times in your life already. “i don’t know you.” the small glare is evident on the girl’s features, “fujmoto tsukina, second year jr high. now you know me, will you give it to me now?”

“i don’t just give ryouta’s number to anyone.” you were quite surprised when something like this first happened, you’d thought some people would have common sense but clearly they were either shameless or pushy. the girl at the table pouts, crossing her arms and slumping back on to her seat. “ugh, fine.” was it another fangirl crushed? definitely.

reo had to admit that you were a charismatic character, seeing your ideals and beliefs showed what type of person you were in his eyes. you were so different than all the others around him that he can’t help but be attracted at the single thought of you. noticing the gaze reo had on you makes you beam a smile, one which felt so different to him compared to the ones you gave his classmates. “if there’s nothing else that you need, i’ll be going now.”

“wait, what about your number?”

‘he still asked for it.’ reo internally sighs to himself, glancing at you to see what your reaction would be to being asked that question. ‘what’s your answer, yn?’ your body pauses for a moment, though you stand up properly and send your customer service smile towards the boy. “you’re not my type.” and without another word you walk away from the table.

“damn! she shut you down bro!” reo is beyond baffled at what you said, starting to laugh at himself the moment you were out of ear shot. it was like the more you were around the more life felt so… lively. the rest of the group pout and huff at your words, yet reo was starting to take such an interest in you. “mikage, you sure you’re friends with her?”

“right! she’s so stingy!” the female of the group groans, remembering the interaction itself annoyed her. as soon as reo hears those words leave from her mouth he starts to frown, staring at her with furrowed brows and a dark look. “don’t talk about yn like that.”

⠀⠀⠀⠀ “you off your shift?” the look of shock on your face was almost priceless in reo’s books, a small chuckle erupting from his mouth as you stood there with wide eyes. after collecting yourself, you couldn’t help but also laugh with him— you knew you probably looked funny. “what’s this? you stalking me now?”

“i just thought i’d walk you home, it’s getting pretty dark.” he was right. the sun had already changed skies with the moon that barely illuminated both your bodies, yet with the help of the tokyo street lights were you able to see him there. reo did scare you, but regardless of that you found it comforting that it was him out of anyone else in the world. 

“aren’t you sweet.” the boy sends you a toothy grin, one you can’t help but send one back. gripping hold of your school bag you make your way towards his figure, leading him towards your home. “were those your friends?”

“you could say that.” reo flatly responds to you, thinking back to the group that he was with in the cafe. “we were working on a school project.” you nod your head remembering how they interacted towards each other. “i noticed. you didn’t seem too close with them.”

“yeah, sorry about that. i know they were being kinda rude to you.” he sighs as his right hand goes to rub the nape of his neck, to say that he was embarrassed and felt bad for you was an understatement. reo knew that to some extent you had to be professional due to the fact that a word from them could get you fired. you giggle at how he reacts, feeling his honesty which noticed that many privileged like him don’t usually have. “i appreciate your concern, mikage, but i’ve dealt with worse.”

“hey,” with that simple word the conversation resets to another, your giggling dialling down as you stop to listen to what he has to say. “what’s up?” “y’know, you can call me reo.” you blink in astonishment, seeing the look of seriousness on visual. it was as if he was in a board meeting for god’s sake! but then again, it has only been a few weeks since your last encounter with him and it was the second time you saw him in person was today. maybe he just rather be called by his first name?

“sure we aren’t going too fast?”

“what?”

“in this relationship.”

“huh—?!” the shocked look of wide eyes and a blush that hid under the darkness of the night sky is what causes you to burst out in laughter as you clutch your stomach. “i’m just kidding! don’t get your panties in a knot, pretty boy.” 

“you’re so unexpected.” it takes reo a second to recover from your joke, cheeks pouted out for a few moments. his head is a bit jumbled by what you said to him, who wouldn’t? he watches as you finish your laughing fit, wiping a tear of joy from your eyes after witnessing an award winning expression. “i get that a lot.”

“well, this is my apartment.” you point to the building right around the corner in a quiet neighbourhood, it had a modern look to it with a slightly old infrastructure. you lead him up the stairs to the second floor and stop at the very last door that had number fourteen on it. you go through your school bag to take out your keys. “did you want to come inside?”

“sure, if that’s alright with you.” since he was there and had time to spare he thought why not? it was you who invited him in the first place as well. “it’s no problem,” you nod your head and turn the doorknob for the place to open up. you take a step in and open the lights to the entrance of your cosy apartment, “a bit cramped so i hope you don’t mind. make yourself at home though.”

he answers with a hum, mumbling out ‘pardon for the intrusion’ before taking a step in your home. reo takes off his shoes and places it beside where you have left yours, noticing that there wasn’t many shoes on the rack. “do you live by yourself?”

“yeah, my parents are always abroad so it’s just me.” you casually throw your bag on your sofa as you make your way to your kitchen not even bothering to turn the lights on. it was already such an exhausting day for you. from basketball practice in the morning and a full shift having to deal with rather rude customers; yet you can’t really complain since you chose that sort of lifestyle.

“it’s probably not as big as your mansion, but here,” opening up your freezer you grab hold of a popsicle, taking out the wrapper and snapping it in half. “i know you just ate but share this with me.” reo looks at your hand as you make your way towards him, he gives a rather odded out expression as you direct the other half of the popsicle to him. you chuckle and urge him to take it, one which he hesitates to take. “thanks.”

you shot one of your signature smiles at him, though to reo your smile just made his heart skip a beat. with a smile that elegant he felt like he was dreaming. what was this feeling? the more he steps closer to you as you make your way towards such a small balcony, watching as you lean on the railings while the wind plays with your hair, hell, even the curtains started to dance along the night breeze. the way the moon shines down and blesses your skin was like looking at a goddess, and reo knew in this moment you were much more than just a simple girl he met at an arcade.

“from now on let’s stick together, reo.”

this was where mikage reo knew he found his treasure.

⠀⠀⠀⠀ “oh look at these,” you stop by a stall on the way to the train station, a shop which sells charms of all sorts. your eyes land on a minimalistic phone charm which had a golden bell and a deep plum stone connected to it all with a white string. you point at the object catching your friend’s attention, “it’s so cute reo!”

the two of you were on the way to meet up with nagi at an arcade on a wonderful saturday afternoon, the sun shining on both your figures to warm up the skin on your bodies. nagi who was late as per usual was not yet there, and reo who had went to pick you up from your apartment earlier that day had suggested you might as well browse around and look at the things in tokyo.

“those are real amethyst.” the elderly shopkeeper states, smiling at the two of you to urge you closer to her booth. reo didn’t care much if it was real or not, but the way he watches your body looks at the charms with so much interest he couldn’t help himself. “we’ll take two.” “wha—” it wasn’t the first, and it will never be the last where reo would impulsively buy something just because you mentioned it, you love the thought, but it weighed down on your consciousness that in the long run he has spent a lot on you subconsciously.

“close your mouth yn, you’ll catch a fly.” reo lets out a chuckle, glancing at your flabbergasted expression with amusement. the boy fishes out his wallet to pay for two of the exact ones you had pointed out earlier. “why did you buy it?” you pout at the boy who soon hands you one of the charms, the two of you sitting down at the side to attach it to your phones.

“it looked nice.” though he won’t say it verbally that it was because you like it, he genuinely thought that the charms you saw were beautiful pieces. he pops his phone case off, wrapping the small section of string through the holes intended for the charm to go in “besides, these are best friend charms for the both of us.”

“that’s a first.” mirroring reo’s actions, you stop when he places his hand to you for him to wrap the charm himself for you. though reluctant, you gave your phone to him, a smartphone which he forced you to take two years ago saying that it’ll ‘help’ him contact you better. you knew he was bullshitting and was just giving you excuses to receive the phone.

“i can give it to nagi if you don’t want it.” he gives you a side eye, taking the charm and halting his movements from putting it on your phone case. you gasp at him, obviously offended to why he would suggest that. “don’t you dare!”

you lunge forward at reo, but due to that guy’s superior physique he stretches his arm faster than you could grab the charm from him. one hand landing on the other side of reo’s body and your other hand outstretched to the sky, yet even with your efforts you couldn’t reach the charm. lady luck really wasn’t on your side today, leaning a bit too fast caused your momentum to throw yourself on reo, and the boy securingly wraps his arm around your waist so you wouldn’t tumble and fall.

if you let out a breath now, reo would for sure feel the graze of your lips moving ever so slightly on his. both hues stare so deeply at the other, faces centimetres away with noses touching each other as light as a feather falling. it was cliché, and the both of you knew that. yet you can’t help this feeling of attraction to your best friend, it was like your heart was beating in sync with his. 

as reo lets go of your waist you sit up just as fast as you look away from him, hands laying on your lap with your cheeks turn into a pink blaze. you manage to croak out a measly, “i’m sorry” to him where he just nods at you. the both of you didn’t know how long you were in that position, but was enough to make your hearts go in a frenzy. the sa

words cannot describe such a feeling of catharsis that threatens to escape through the heart— was it really worth the risk?

“just don’t get upset yn.” he wasn’t too sure if you were alright with the silence, but reo knew for a fact it didn’t sit well with him at all. as a sigh came out from his mouth, he tried to ignore the fact that the tips of his ears were burning a bright red colour. with that one comment alone you reset back to your conversation. “you threatened to give our friendship charms to him!”

“thought you didn’t want it.” the boy flat out states something from earlier, but you roll your eyes at him, finally looking at the face that mocks you teasingly. “i do though!” you grab hold of your phone case once more, hand out for the charm as this time he finally obliges and has it to you. reo watches as your slender fingers work with the string to put it into your case. you finish by putting your case back on your phone

“because look, we’re matching.” you take reo’s phone from his lap and hold the two devices side by side to show him. lo’ and behold the two charms matching with both your phones. your grin doesn’t fail to make the boy’s feel some type of way. just the way you smile at him is enough to question why you weren’t in his arms.

“wherever i am, you’ll always have a piece of me with you.”

⠀⠀⠀⠀ “when do you plan on telling yn we’re going to this blue lock?” nagi mumbled, eyes focusing on his phone as he tries to win a fighting game. him and reo recently finished school club activities, walking back to their respective places. nagi momentarily moves his eyes to glance at reo who shows the look of distraught on his face. “i was going to visit her today after work to let her know we were going.”

“she’s not gonna be happy.” reo’s white-haired friend stated, a groan leaving the said male’s lips just thinking about how upset you’d be when you hear the entirety of what the project is about. “i know.”

“well i’ll leave you to do that, i’m going home.” nagi had no interest in your guys’ quarrel, especially knowing since he’d felt the terror of ln yn before. so this was an off limits final boss that he had no magic armour to participate in. reo shoots a semi-small glare, knowing as much as nagi that the situation was less than optimal but is undeniably unavoidable. “thanks for the support.”

“no problem. i’m tired, so tell yn i said hi.” he gives reo a thumbs up as a sign of good luck against the final boss, waving his hand right after he had done the same. “yeah, i’ll see you nagi.” the second year heaves in a small breath, walking towards where you worked. the automatic doors open once they notice his presence, and there you were.

his plum hues land on your figure that had been helping with a customer over the counter, your signature customer service smile so bright as you hand the bag of goods to the person. reo wasn’t going to deny it, as many times he had seen you in uniform for work, your beauty never ceases to blow him away. be it at work or just a bare face, he knows you made him feel such a warmth in his stomach. 

“reo! just give me a second, i gotta have to clock out.” it took him a moment to realize you were already standing in front of his figure with the smile that causes his stomach to go through twists and turns. reo nods his head, smiling back at you. “take your time.” he watches as you wave your hand out, bidding you a short ‘bye!’ before you grab hold of your water bottle and head to the staff room to change.

reo walks out the store, waiting by the entrance of the building as he continues to check through his social media to see what the world was up to— not much interested him really. despite having his phone in his hand, the thought of your sad look that may grace such visuals made his heart crack just a bit. why did it hurt like this?

“alright, i’m all done! thanks for waiting for me.” your voice breaks him out of his train of thought, eyes scanning your once work uniform now in your school attire. reo nods his head to show you that he heard you, a smile to greet your figure as you take your position beside him.

the walk home seemed… awkward on your end. it was unusual for reo to seem tense around you, and he knew that you knew he was hiding what was on his mind. with an expression that shows reo’s slightly furrowed brows and droopy eyes, it wasn’t hard to tell that he was distracted.

“hey, i gotta tell you something.” you flinch at his sudden words, much to your surprise he was the first to break the silence. your mouth was already open, yet he beat you to it— perhaps knowing how awkward he was making this. “what’s up?”

“me and nagi got accepted to this blue lock to train for football.” a small gasp leaves your lips, a grin spreading from ear to ear. immediately your first response was to jump hug him ( one which you gained a habit from nagi ). a loud giggle runs through reo’s ears, his body slightly leaning forward due to your leap on him. “that’s great! you guys are aiming to be the best in the world!”

“here’s the thing,” reo starts as he sucks a breath in, his tone was far from happy which causes you to raise your brows at his rather negative reaction. “i don’t know how long i’ll be gone.” your movements stop as your arms remove itself from around reo’s neck, much to his dismay. you regain your posture, standing up straight to face him, the smile on your face slowly drops at the news. “you’re leaving?”

“just temporarily.” it hurt reo to see this look on your face, it burns his heart knowing the smile falters from such a face like yours. you couldn’t lie to him even if you told you weren’t happy with his decision, but who were you to stop him from his dreams? it’s a hard pill to swallow, but you never wanted to get in the way of him and his future so you can’t help but put on a smile, “don’t make me wait too long.”

“and then what? are you gonna leave me?” he didn’t really want to hear the answer, even if he was praying to the gods that keep you from answering it. reality was always inevitable in many ways than one, and that included you.

“of course not.” to reo, your smile was as angelic as the day he met you. the wind plays with the locks of your hair, causing you to lift your hand up and put the strands behind your ear. reo can’t deny it, just your existence alone made his heart beat out of his chest— winning the world cup was almost a side quest to him in that moment. 

“i’ll just miss you too much.”

and that’s how mikage reo knew he had fallen in love with you.

⠀⠀⠀⠀ “hey, yn’s working right now right?” reo notices that nagi had been texting you, or so they were notifications from three hours ago. the white haired boy nods his head at him, showing the chat which just consisted of you and nagi talking about how work was ever so busy on your end. “hmm, yeah, said she got a full shift.”

“you know when it ends?” reo quickly scans the text messages that nagi was willing to show him, but the boy shrugs his shoulders after trying to recall what you had texted earlier that morning. “beats me… you text her.”

“woah, hold up.” multiple blue lock players freeze on the spot when they hear their conversation, stopping whatever they were doing and stare at the two boys who only hum in confusion. “‘she’?” another presses on, moving towards nagi and reo while a few others follow suit. the lot of them were in shibuya having a break from training, and were hanging out until the topic of you disrupted the flow of things. 

“who’s yn?” the first to ask is isagi, just as interested as everyone to hear your name being casually dropped in a conversation with nagi. to him it was the first to see reo be interested in something other than the said boy, so he couldn’t help himself but be curious. chigiri gapes at reo a bit, “is she your girlfriend or something?”

“she’s my best friend!” reo yells out rather too defensively which makes many of them question his feelings for you. the boys snicker, not even bothering to respond back as the smirks and evil grins some of them had only made the lilac haired footballer to lift a fist up along with his middle finger.

“i thought i was your best friend?” nagi was nowhere near offended, in fact he didn’t mind at all since he knew how reo looked at you. before the rich boy could answer back nagi heaves a sigh and leans his head on the table, “well, it don’t matter anyways… you want yn to be your girlfriend.”

“don’t just say shit like that, nagi!” reo screams out, making nagi only close his eyes, lips pursing into an ‘x’ like shape as he takes both of his index fingers and plugs it into his ears; mumbling things along the line that he was being too loud.

“oh, now we gotta meet ‘er!” the black haired boy; karasu gets up from his seat which causes a chain reaction where the other boys who are equally invested in figuring out this mystery girl that reo and nagi are talking about. reo panics a bit as he also stands up when they do, trying to stop their advances. “she’s working right now!”

“who cares.” otoya shoots at him, holding reo’s right forearm and urges him to get a move along. seeing how reo almost fell, karasu quickly grabs his left forearm to drag him forward as well. the boy gave a smug grin, joining in on the teasing, “i’m sure you’re dying to see her!”

“alright! let go of me!” reo is now struggling to even keep you to himself, and he knew for a fact that these guys were not gonna let you go after carelessly mentioning you. the boy stretches his arms out in an attempt to get out of the two’s grasp, which they did. 

reo can hear multiple other players asking nagi to lead the way, as well as asking who you were. when he looks up from groaning and struggling free, he could already see half of them walking away from his figure. “yay! to yn-chan!” reo could not catch a break, easily when bachira threw himself on the said boy’s back. 

⠀⠀⠀⠀ “oh yn, you’re always helpful as usual.” you chuckle at the elderly woman in front of you, giving her the change she has from the purchase. with two hands you hand the receipt to her, giving a courteous bow. “thanks so much, tanaka-san. i’ll follow up next week to see how that cream is doing for you!”

“such a sweet child, tell that mikage friend of yours hello for me!” tanaka swipes her hand down in a slow motion, flustered to hear such kind words coming from you. she gives you a sweet smile before giving a wave and heading out towards the exit of the store. “not too sure when i’ll be seeing him, but i’ll let him know.”

“she’s yn?”

“holy shit.”

“she’s so glamorous!” 

“ya girlfriend’s a hottie.”

“like i said, yn isn’t my girlfriend.” his words are stern and sharp, almost malice dripping out from his tone of voice. reo is irritated at this point, throughout the entire walk to get to your workplace they had been non-stop asking questions about you that he would have rather they have not asked, and answered questions he had not wanted to answer. at this point he’s convinced that they’re doing this to annoy him.

“she’s not your girlfriend, so can i make her mine?” 

“back off!” otoya face drops from a bright up to an irritated look. his phone was already out to ask for your number. though that was what caught the group’s attention, but how both reo and nagi had shut them down at the same time. “woah, even nagi’s agreeing!”

“reo?” your eyes connect with the said male’s lavender gems, ones which held the warmth and comfort you always looked for. your eyes widen at the sight of him standing just a few feet away from you, were you dreaming? your body freezes what it was doing watching as he starts to make his way to where you were, until he stands right in front of being.

“i’m back, yn.” 

the way your eyes brighten, hiding the glistening sea that almost escapes your hues shows the feelings of sadness she had been suppressing. in a quick motion you wrap your arms around him into an embrace, the feeling of joy overwhelming you that you’d even discard the professionalism you were supposed to have. but in this moment you wanted no other but to feel his warmth back in your arms.

the action catches reo off guard, not knowing that you’d even react this way after not seeing him for a couple weeks. the tips of his ears flush that pink, arms hesitantly wrapping around you in a slightly awkward manner. this wasn’t the first that you two have hugged, but this type it felt different.

“i can’t believe you’re here! i saw the game!” pulling away a bit too soon than reo had wanted, you take a step back to quickly fix your attire. to you, this was one of the moments you had dreamed of for the last few weeks. yet to reo, he was quickly shutting down any sort of snickering remarks he was quietly hearing from his blue lock mates. though the mention of the game catches his attention, “you were at the stadium?”

“i worked a shift… but i was watching it on my phone.” you playfully stick a tongue out with your peace sign, sending an animated wink his way which seemed to have caused reo to sigh in defeat at your antics, once again.

“hi yn.” a familiar white haired boy steps into your field of view. the sight of him made your body excited just remembering the moves the two of them did during the game— in fact you never saw nagi be that motivated for anything in his life! “nagi! you guys looked so cool!” the boy nods his head, a small smile creeping up his lips. “thanks.”

“are these your teammates?” you point to a rather large group of boys that was currently occupying a good chunk of your section. almost all of them were identifiable thanks to the close ups and names that popped during the game, yet seeing them in person did kinda make you feel nervous. reo notices the shift in your body language, he steps a foot closer to your body and puts a hand of your shoulder to ease you up. “yeah, from blue lock. we were hanging out and passing by when we heard you were on shift.”

“it’s nice to meet you, yn.” the first to greet you was a certain male that you were very familiar with— in fact, he was quite popular outside of blue lock already. mouth gapes open to see the brunette male and his signature glasses moving forward to you with a bow. “oh my gosh, you’re really yukimiya kenyu!”

“you’re a fan?” maybe yukimiya should’ve expected this; he knew he was popular with the ladies due to his modelling career outside of football, and the shocked and rather excited expression you gave when he called out to you really showed. he just wished reo would stop giving him that stink eye that he saw from the side of his peripheral vision, though it seems like you didn’t even notice your best friend was doing that. “kinda, my friends have a huge crush on you so like i just hear about you lots.”

“right. rie and rosie.” reo watches as the two of you interact with each other, the annoyance getting to him as he clicks his tongue at how excited you are to meet his teammates. a frown slightly drooping by his lips and hands by the sides of his hips as he watches you fish out your phone, “think we can get a selfie together? they’ll totally get jealous!”

“yeah, that’s no problem.” he knew he had no right to have this feeling, especially since the two of you weren’t really in a relationship but there was just something in him that made his eye twitch seeing you get so close to yukimiya, holding up your signature peace to take a selfie with the model. 

a quick ‘thank you’ and bow is given to yukimiya by you as he bows back before you direct your attention once more to the group of boys. “thanks for dropping by, let’s catch up later? i still got about half an hour left till i’m off.”

“ya wanna come hang out with us after?” karasu questions as he takes a step forward before nudging his head as a gesture to include everyone. just as you were about to decline their offer due to the fact that you were still on the clock, you felt bad for having them just wait around the store. “i’ll wait for you.” closing your mouth you look at reo who nods his head, which is very reassuring to you. a breath of defeat goes out, smiling at him you look back to the group of boys. “if that’s the case, i’d love to.”

“yn!” subconsciously you straighten your back and turn on your heels to the owner of the voice, “yes!” your manager makes his way towards where you are, looking at you, the boys behind and then back at your figure with a brow raised up. “what’s with that crowd? friends of yours?”

“yea, they’re blue lock—” your voice easily drowns over your manager’s deep one, shutting your lips tight as he waves his hand to ignore whatever you had to say to him. he sighs, not wanting to waste any time than he has to. “listen, suzuki called in sick today. i’m gonna need you to work till eight tonight.”

“but that’s overtime for me… i have plans today sir.” you wanted to give it a shot, and you knew that it was hard to convince your manager for anything but this was important to you. “we’re short staffed, you got no choice yn.” 

“sure then.” you sigh in disappointment as you nod your head. “and stop talking to your friends if they’re not gonna buy anything, you got lots to do and hourly quotas to reach.” with that your manager waves you off and leaves you be for now.

“ugh, fat pig.” you groan as your smile drops from your face, sticking your tongue out at your manager before turning around to the group of boys who were as equally as bummed out as you. arms cross over the other in an ‘x’ and you shake your head, “sorry guys, yn is cancelled for tonight.”

“hey, he’s obviously overworkin’ ya.” karasu states out while many of them look amongst themselves. chigiri suddenly starts getting worried for you and your health, stepping forward with his thoughts. “isn’t that like… illegal?” 

“what can i do? besides, i guess i am behind on rent so i need the money.” you shrug it off like another typical saturday. this wasn’t the first time you had to do this against your will, and this job was your only source of income so you had no choice but to actually stay.

“you don’t go to the same school as reo and nagi?” pulling a deadpan expression on whatever isagi says, your thumb pointing at the said two. with a more or so condescending tone you say, “you’re asking too much. my brokeass could never attend some high-class super expensive preppy school like these guys.” 

“yn, why don’t you just quit.” reo suggests but you scrunch your nose and purse your lips together, “easier said than done.”

“how much do you get paid an hour?” you hum, thinking in your head about it. “like ¥1000 per hour… on top of commission maybe i hit like ¥210,000 a month?” you try to do the quick calculations in your head, thinking how your usual monthly income looks like. reo pulls a look, softly facepalming once he hears the numbers come out of your lips, with any other purchases  you had to do on top of rent. “and rent is ¥150,000. if you told me you were behind on rent you should've told me.”

“you haven't texted me in like weeks!” pointing an accusing finger at reo, you start to remember how you were indirectly being ignored ever since he entered this blue lock ( all which comes back to you only after the excitement of seeing him again disappears ). “in fact, you didn’t tell me you were gonna be gone for that long!”

“i got preoccupied, alright? calm down yn.” reo brings his hands up in defence as you get closer to him, leaning backwards a bit due to your close proximity. many of the blue lock players chuckle and snicker at the sight of you two having a quarrel. karasu snickers, “uh-oh, yer girlfriend’s mad at ya.”

“y-you told them i was your girlfriend?” you’re taken aback by karasu’s words, really blessing the gods that you applied that blush make up today for work or else they would’ve noticed how such a pink dances across your cheeks. reo on the other hand had that exactly happen to him, more or so embarrassed that they kept insisting that the two of you were a couple. “no, i didn’t!”

“if that’s the case, i’m otoya eita. can i get your number?” you weren’t quite sure how he quickly got in front of you, touching the tips of your fingers so gently with his phone out on his other hand. you were impressed— but you were also at a lost for words in a weirded out way. you stare at his hand that touches yours for a few seconds, not really knowing how to respond to him. “yn…?”

“cut it out.” reo is glaring daggers at otoya, but he isn’t the slightest bit afraid at the purplette boy’s words whatsoever. “what, she’s not your girlfriend. that means i can take her on a date.”

“you’re not yn’s type.”

“how would you know yn’s type?”

“yn’s type is someone with money and is a complete ikemen.” 

nagi blurts rather easily, causing your face to dance with pink. “don’t call me out like that!” the rest of the boys watch as you shake nagi by his shoulders in a rather aggressive way. they’re silent, but they knew exactly who fit that description perfectly. ‘ah… so she basically likes reo.’

“yn, just quit your job already.” reo pinches his nose bridge, trying to stop the possible migraine that might come flying into his head the more he stays here and listen to this bullshit. you scoff and cross your arms at him with an incredulous look, urging him to continue with his plan. “then what?”

“work for me.” the silence is a bit too loud for everyone when reo blurts out those words. a piece of your hair falls on to your face, “what?”

“work as a maid at my place?” reo’s response was more of a question rather than an answer, one you weren’t expecting like the rest of the group. with the look of bewilderment on your face, you open your mouth, nothing coming out only for you to close it shut once more not knowing how to respond to reo.

“oh~ ain’t that kinky?” karasu chuckles at reo’s suggestion for your new occupation, one which you have no comment on for. many others nod their head and agree. hell, even nagi has something to say about it too. “i didn’t know you had those kinds of fantasies, reo.”

“shut up! or be my assistant, just quit this job yn. i can treat you better than that scum.” reo was most likely losing braincells the more he hung out with these guys, ignoring how pink his cheeks flare up for a second. this is when you finally have something to say, chuckling at reo’s cute reaction to everyone’s comments. “as much as i’d love to do just that, i can’t rely on you all the time.”

‘i wish you did.’ 

“i’ll pay you twice what you make in a month.” he sighs and twists his brows, thinking of ways just to get you to leave. you ponder on that for a bit, it was a really enticing deal though your dignity to always have reo save your ass stops you from it. you give a smile, one that hides how exhausted and painful it’s been. “thanks for the offer though, reo.”

“are you sure? he’s giving you a pretty good offer.” yukimiya urges you to take the deal knowing full well that that type of salary is above the average amount a regular worker earns. shaking your head off the concerned looks you were getting from them, your smile ever gets wider. “yeah, i think i’ll try to manage.”

“if that’s what you want, yn. i’ll always be here for you.” if he can’t change your mind, he’ll just have to live with it not wanting to pressure you into doing something you’re not comfortable with. though he reminds you that you’re not alone anymore. ‘she’s always so damn stubborn. she knows i can easily fix her problems but she never asks for help.’

“i appreciate it reo.” your smile looks sad to him, and this doesn’t go unnoticed by the human analyzer karasu. he coughs, breaking the sentimental aura around the all of you to get a move along— he felt bad, but he knew pity was the last thing you’d want from anyone. “we should probably get going, sorry for bothering you at work.”

“no, it’s fine! i’m happy to meet you guys!” you reassure them that they weren’t bothering you with reo moving to talk to you. just as the rest of the group had bid their goodbyes to you, they start to walk away.

“let’s meet up sometime this week, alright?” reo suggests, trying to make up for today’s rather unfortunate turn of events. a small laugh comes out, with your hand pushing a lock of your hair behind the ear.“i’d love that.”

“yn, get to work.” your manager’s voice is heard loud and clear in your ears, but the footsteps of mikage reo walking away from you overshadows it. though the sting of your heart to see reo with a rather disappointed expression, waving his hand and walking away from you. it was as if he was leaving you behind…

“no…” when you think about it now, did you really want to waste your youth stuck working over forty hours a week in a management that doesn’t even care for your well-being, trying to make a day’s ends meet? “what did you just say?” your manager is baffled, urging you to repeat those words again so he can hear you loud and clear.

“i said no. i don’t want to work overtime, you can't keep me here!” spinning your heels to face him full of determination, you indeed were fed up with this place. “you perverted manager!”

“why you—! then you’re fired! get out before i call security!” he screams loud and clear for even customers to hear, a vein popping by the top of his forehead. even if he towers over you, shouts and let his anger out on you, there was no shred of fear that runs through your body. you tilt your head slightly to the side and smile, “fine with me.”

“yeah~! yn-chan in her bad bitch era!” bachira cheers you on, clapping and hollering while a few others of the group whistle and make remarks about your rather boss girl moves ( all which are very proud of you ). “you tell ‘em!”

despite the glare your now former manager was bestowing on you, you felt the weight of a million burdens fall off your shoulders. your chest that felt tight to the core loosens, maybe this job really was taking your youth away without you knowing? hands take off the name tag that used to be pinned at the corner of your left shirt and placing it down on the counter. you walk away from him and towards reo that stood with a rather proud look on his face.

“reo, does that offer still stand?”

“for you, always.”

⠀⠀⠀⠀ “where’s everyone else?” you exit from the building, looking for a certain group of football players that you would have thought would make a commotion. though reo was the only one you saw, not like you minded. in fact, you preferred it this way. your voice causes reo to look up from his phone in the same spot he would always wait for you to finish your shift. the messages he was getting from the group telling their whereabouts were. 

“told them to just hit the arcade and we’ll catch up with them.” he says as he scans your body while you move in front of him. the more reo looks at you the more he sees that nothing had changed at all, you were still in your uniform and the only difference about your appearance now is that you were holding your bag. the boy raises a brow, slightly offsetted at the turn of events. “you didn’t change?”

“i wasn’t planning on going anywhere after work.” you deadpan while shaking your head. this motion was enough for reo to get the jest of it, knowing full well with what you meant as a small ‘oh’ comes out from him. reo points with his thumb behind him towards the whole of shibuya. “then let’s just buy some new clothes.”

“i’m broke,” you scoff, baffled at his sudden declaration. this wasn’t a first that he suggested things like this, in fact; you should’ve been used to it by now! a hand manages to be placed on the side of your hips, the other lazily pointing a finger at yourself. “how do you expect me to buy clothes?”

“the least i could do for not texting you back.” reo brings his hand out to yours, that smirk of his making you succumb to his antics once more. this man is one-tracked, you knew if he wants something he’ll definitely get it one way or another. though reluctant and even opposing his idea, you hand him your bag to carry as the both of you start to walk towards the shopping district of shibuya. “fine. but don’t spend too much on me, i feel bad.”

“what do you have to feel bad for?” he blinks his periwinkle hues thrice, glancing towards your figure from the corner of your eyes. the two of you continue to cross the infamous shibuya crosswalking, moving closer to you so neither of you could get separated from the crowd. you pout, looking at a different direction away from his gaze. “you’re my best friend, i feel like i’m using your money.”

‘right, best friend.’ those words stung, especially since it came from the same lips he always wanted to kiss so badly. he didn’t mind if he said it since he didn’t want to risk losing you, but when it’s you who says those words it would make his stomach churn. “let’s go to this store.” reo grabs hold of your wrist, dragging you to the store that had caught his attention.

‘that’s pretty.’ the moment reo had let go of you, you had already started booking it to the nearest outfit that caught your eye. he can’t help but smile at how you immediately started getting happy at all the amazing outfits you could pull off with just that one shirt you were looking at. “does anything catch your attention?”

“wait, this place is kinda pricey…” your eyes are ready to pop out of your sockets when you see the multiple zeros at the end of the number on the price tag, contemplating if you should even let reo buy anything from here for you.

“just let me spoil you, princess.”

“if you insist, my prince charming.”

when it came to free stuff, reo realized quickly it was easy to convince you on three things; food, clothes and anime. in fact, he had bought you an airfryer for your birthday once and the fact that you didn’t stop posting and raving about your airfryer on your instagram for a good three months made him think you just haven’t started to feel alive yet. 

“what do you think?” opening the curtains of the dressing room you stood there with all your glory on the platform with reo just waiting for you to come out on one of the sofas. you wore a rather oversized sweater with a linear pattern to it coloured in white, blue and maroon. a pair of blue baggy jeans to finish off your simple look for today’s outing.

“you look beautiful.” even if you didn’t ask, reo would have said it already. especially since you had let him agree to even pick out the clothing he couldn’t help but stare at awe. the look of infatuation in reo’s eyes makes you want to melt, “t-thanks.”

“let’s get outta here?” a hand goes out to you, and you gladly accept as you eagerly want to go see the others and get to know the people reo had spent his days with. your phone vibrates in your back pocket, so you reach out to it and see that it’s an email from your former manager. you click on the attachment, and there it shows your contract with the company nulled. “oh, i just got the termination letter from my manager.” 

“you really made a flashy exit, huh?” the both of you can’t help but laugh at what you did back there, even you still don’t believe you did that. “yeah, to be honest i was so fed up working with him and trying to keep up with the hours…”

“let’s just sue him for breaking youth labour laws and wrongful termination.” why didn’t you think of that? you have yet to turn seventeen and he had already made you go overtime, which was against the law in the first place ( thanks to reo even reminding you ). “you’re a genius!”

multiple bags soon fill up the counter, one employee folding clothes to put in the bag as another scans them. they were like woodswork, going at a swift and quick paste. though you and reo waiting at the counter confuses you since the two of you were the only customers in the store. you point at the ever growing line up of bags, “wait, whose are those?”

“they’re for you.” reo says so nonchalantly you could break down by just looking at the total of all of them. especially since reo gives you such an innocent smile that hides the intent of spoiling you like spare change. “we only agreed to have you buy my outfit today, not an entire closet.” you pout at him but he looks away, “just accept my gift.”

“won’t change your mind even if i said please?” you inch closer to the boy, giving him your best selling puppy dog eyes to see if he would budge if you were to act this cute. “nah.” the same ones he gave a side eye too before inserting his card in, a few button presses and the transaction goes through.

⠀⠀⠀⠀ “woah, what took ya guys s‘long?” karasu is the first to notice the two of you walking towards the bowling lane that was assigned to the group. many others turn their heads to anticipate the both of you who wave back at them. a specific heterochromia captain, oliver is amused at the sight of you, “who’s the girl?”

“oh god— almost everyone from the game is here.” you recognize many faces, seeing how half of them were on the opposing team of the football game you had watched. the look of excitement to be able to meet such talented players is shown all over your face. “yeah, we’re bowling with them.”

“wanna join us, yn-chan?” bachira is waving his arm nice and big, urging you to come to their side of the bowling lane. your eyes light up at the invitation, “can i?!” “‘course ya can! be on our team.” karasu gestures you to come over to them and you move your feet to make your way to their group. “don’t mind if i do then!”

“she your girlfriend?” oliver walks over to reo who gives a dissatisfied look, out of everyone he didn’t expect the other team to also be interested in you. “she’s not.” he flat out says, but the look on oliver’s face shows that he’s amused by reo’s reaction. “doesn’t seem that way.”

“what’s in the bag?” yukimiya approaches reo with otoya in tow, everyone’s eyes now looking down at the paper bag that reo had been holding ever since arriving with him. “yn’s uniform.”

“did you buy her clothes?”  the model asks, intrigued with how everything has been playing out today for you and reo. somehow, reo senses that he’s being picked on and his brow starts to twitch slightly. “i mean she just quit.”

“she quit just for you.”

“stop fuckin’ annoying me you guys.”

“yn’s up!” chigiri hollers after you when the name switches to yours on the tv screen. you stand up all excitingly after you put on your bowling shoes, the boys cheering your name as you look for a bowling ball that wouldn’t weigh too much when you throw it.

“i’m gonna strike this!” with a rather smug grin you cockly announce, quickly making your way towards the bowling lane you let go of the bowling ball from your fingers. you as well as everyone watch as all pins fall down in one full swipe. you jump up with your arms out wide, laughing out loud with everyone on your side as the tv reads ‘strike!’ 

“hell yeah! all hail yn-chan!” bachira screams all excited, jumping on your back along with nagi. you can’t lie that all of them were feeding your ego a bit too much. you go around giving high fives to them all congratulating you for your flawless strike.

“beat that. you shits are losing to a girl.” barou taunts the other group with a smug grin, one which touches you because you heard a few things about him and complimenting you almost even made you an egoist. you make your way towards barou, wide smile with hands up for a high five. though he scowled at you, he grumbled things along the lines of ‘it’s only ‘cuz you got a strike you deserve this’ before giving you the double high five you wanted.

“awe, look at ‘em bein’ some proud boyfriend.” karasu who bares his teasing smirk crosses his arms and looks at reo who had been admiring you from afar, watching you get excited with the players that he had grown close with. he loves how your smile just gets brighter the more he watches you, your laughter tuning out everything else from the rest of the world— or so it did until karasu opened his damn mouth. “shut the fuck up.”

“how long have you known reo?” isagi takes a seat beside you, easily taking an interest between you and reo’s relationship. you hum in response, quickly thinking about the first time you and reo had met. “it’s been three years now? we met second year of jr high at an arcade.” the boy’s eyes smile at his new found discovery, quietly applauding such a long time friendship that the two of you had. ��woah, it’s been a while then! it’s weird, nagi and reo never mentioned you whatsoever.”

“because reo said if we mentioned yn there’s a possibility that you guys would hit on her.” nagi walks over to the two of you, finishing his turn to bowl. the young boy scratches the nape of his neck as he takes the seat on the other side of you. you didn’t mind, to be honest you saw it coming since you were kept a secret from the blue lock members which may have been for better. though, it might’ve been because nagi and reo cared too much to share you with the others and that thought made you giggle. “ah, and he was right, huh.”

“omg, are those the football players from tv?” you turn your head with a few others to spot a crowd of girls who had their phones out and talking to themselves, giggling to see so many boys in one area playing a game of bowling ( while also completely ignoring you there ). two boys, respectively otoya and sendou went up to them asking for their socials. “they’re so handsome!”

“could we take a picture together?” reo looks to his side as he comes into contact with a female, her face flushed and shy at his presence alone. you could tell she had a crush on the football player, seeing how her phone was out and the lockscreen was reo from the game they had. the boy pauses for a moment, before nodding his head and moving beside her. “sure.”

“what’s with the face?” chigiri who stands a few feet in front of you tries to hold in his laugh at how you had a deadpan expression, eyes slightly furrowed and watching at reo and the other girl’s interaction. isagi notices your change in aura, looking at where your eyes had directed and examines your face, you looked like you were trying to burn holes behind that girl’s back. “you look jealous.”

“i am not.” you snap back at the two of them, but their chuckles only cause you to lowly growl ( in a cute way ) at them. you knew they were teasing you, but were you really that damn obvious that you didn’t like how reo was talking to a bunch of fans? was it because you thought some of them even looked prettier than you? 

“i thought you liked reo.” nagi inserts himself into the conversation, overhearing it after he had took his turn throwing the bowling ball. the boy makes his way to sit on the other side of you, and out of everyone you didn’t really want nagi to know because you making him a third wheel was something you’d rather avoid. you wave your arms in front of your body, trying to justify your actions and what you said, “i-i do! he’s my best friend—”

“yn stop lying to yourself.” your white haired friend’s words are sharp, as if stabbing you and stopping you from spouting anymore excuses. it was like getting hit with nagi’s ult and immediately you were shut down. you whine in response to his words, elbows being placed on your lap and your chin laying on the palm of your hands.  chigiri and isagi nervously laugh since they didn’t know how else to react because they knew you had accepted the truth.

“just give it a chance, maybe he’ll like you back!” isagi is the first to try and cheer you up, trying to get you back to the positivity you were in before nagi had hit you with his negativity. chigiri nodding his head and seconding that opinion, trying to make you look at the bright side of things. 

“we’re not close enough to be having this conversation, isagi.”

your eyes lazily give isagi a side eye with an exasperated sigh, not even bothering to turn your head fully to acknowledge him. maybe he’s right, or maybe not. at this point you were probably coming to a dead end. the said boy bashfully scratches the nape of his neck, chuckling and agreeing to your words, “i guess you’re right.”

“yn! let’s exchange contacts!” bachira comes running back to you after his turn is up, phone in hand along with a large grin. you sit up properly and smile back at him before standing up and walking over to the table. “sure, bachira meguru right?” you spot your phone with many others that lay on the table, glancing back at bachira whole sends finger guns your way and a playful wink. “bingo~!”

the others also ask to exchange contacts with you, and you happily accept it before everyone huddles around your figure and bringing out their phones. you go to your contact profile, showing them your number so they can insert it into their profile. “that charm…” chigiri notices the bell and amethyst that hangs from your phone, and with him bringing it up the other two start to take notice of it.

“oh, this?” seeing how everyone was now looking at the charm you had attached, you bring it up into a better view after the trio had finished putting your number in. all three of them stare intently at him, yet your smile comes forth everytime you see this charm. “reo bought it for me a few months back.”

“i knew i saw it before!” isagi points at the charm in your hand, not really knowing what he means by that. the three football players then recall back to the u-20 game where reo had left his phone out, and everyone thought it was chigiri’s due to the slightly cutesy girly charm by the phone. bachira giggles, feeling all giddy just thinking about the two of you. “you two like to match, huh? it’s so cute!”

“you could say that?” why did you even say that? because you have absolutely no idea what they’re referring to. blinking your lashes thrice they just giggle at you, as if they didn’t even want to inform you in the first place.

“what’s not cute is when they flirt in front of my face sometimes.” nagi’s voice interrupts their giggling, you gasp dramatically at him. when you look at nagi he looks away, avoiding eye contact with you knowing you’re just going to lecture him.  “we do not do that in front of you!”

“so you two do flirt with each other!” bachira gives you a teasing grin with the other two, hand in front of him as if he was one of those gossip girls. he wiggles is brows at you, causing the peachy hues burn the tips of your ears and slapping him ( affectionately ) on the arm as an attempt to stop their teasing. “that’s not what i meant!”

⠀⠀⠀⠀ “so what do you think about the guys from blue lock?” after the lot of you finished a day filled with fun activities, reo had offered to take you home, as per usual. you can’t help but give him a big grin. “they’re nice,” you think back to all the new memories and friends you made today, it was probably the most fun you had in years. yet what really made it special was the way reo smiled when he was with them. “you looked like you genuinely were enjoying yourself.”

“hey, that was back in jr high.” he retorts back making you laugh at him. you remember all those times he had study sessions at the old cafe you worked in, it was really a sight to see such a social bird still being picky to who he talks to. “when you hung out with the classmates you had, it was like there was a wall between you and them!”

“they were snobby, yn.” his matter-of-fact tone doesn’t go unnoticed by you, which gives you a chance to tease him once more. you use your elbow and gently nudge his side, “oho? and i’m not?”

“‘course not! you’re literally one of the most precious people in my life.” the way reo had said those words struck your heart, it wasn’t the usual sarcastic one he would throw at you when you were teasing him, it felt more honest. your lips slowly curl into a smile, looking at the ground you walk to avoid eye contact with him. “i can say the same to you too, reo.”

“are you free tomorrow night?” breaking a string of silence after the previous topic, he glances down to you where you pull a questionable look towards him, not really knowing how to answer. “i mean, i quit my job? so, yeah, i am.”

“my parents are making me go to this party, i’m wondering if you want to go with me?” you ponder on the offer for a bit, humming in the process as you think about it. “i don’t have the facilities to pull off anything remotely close to all this rich stuff. what’s in it for me?”

“there’s free food.” 

“you should’ve started with that.” giving a rather dramatic hand gesture, you lightly tap his chest making him laugh at your antics. you smile at him, loving how such a joyous sound could emit from his lips. “food really is your love language, huh?”

“of course! growing up in the working class, you might not know my dear struggles.” you bring two fists up to your eyes as you pretend to cry and wipe your tears away, fake sobs here and there as you ramble on about minimum wage jobs and rude customers. reo blinks his lashes, slightly done with how you indicated that such hardships cannot be found in the day to day life of a rich boy. he rolls those lavender hues, “haha, very funny yn.”

“wait, do i wear a dress?” you immediately look up, the party suddenly sinking into your brain. if it was a social gathering that his parents was making him go, then wouldn’t that mean that it was going to be a formal party that included wearing decently expensive clothing that your paycheque could never handle? the thought of that makes your brain spiral, and reo easily saw the look of distress on your face despite the smile. “there’s one in the bag for you.”

“oh, so you were gonna bring me to the party from the very beginning?” sighing in relief you had dodged a financial bullet to the heart, though that makes you look at all the bags reo had been carrying for you all day. you’re reminded of how you went back to one of the train station lockers to get all the bags. “i knew you’d be free.”

“anyways, thanks for being there for me today.” as the two of you near your apartment door, you open up your home for the two of you to come in. “i’m happy to see you again.” reo places multiple bags near the entrance of your doorway before heading back out again. he gives you a sweet toothy grin, “anything for you.”

chuckling at him, you take a step out of your apartment towards reo. taking to heart what a certain striker had told you earlier, you took your chances. placing your lips on reo’s cheek makes your heart beat faster than the force of a football being kicked into the goal, eyes shut close as you make this quick. reo stands there in a blushing mess as he watches you retract back into your apartment and closing the door in front of him.

“goodnight, reo.” 

⠀⠀⠀⠀ “i’m nervous, i’ve never been to these things before.” when reo had guided you up some rather luxurious stairs, you knew instantly this was not a lifestyle you were used to. the feeling of your stomach wanting to flip inside out earlier has a whole new meaning to you now; one that involves trying to walk through this black evening gown and heels reo left at your apartment last night.

“don’t worry, you look beautiful.” the boy takes your hand in an attempt to soothe your worries away, his thumb ever so gently rubbing the back of your hand as he takes the lead and carefully helps you up the stairs to the entire mansion. you puff out your cheeks without fully soaking in what he just said, eyes looking at the staircase to watch where you were placing your foot so you wouldn’t trip up. you weakly groan at him, “i know, but that wasn’t my concern—”

“just wanted to let you know.” quickly reo takes hold of your hand and pulls you close to him, his arm wrapping around your waist as he pulls you close to his chest after you had successfully missed the last step of the stair. a rather defeated look plays on reo’s face when he sees how clumsy you were in the dress, noting to himself to probably not have given you feels nor a dress like that if he knew you were just going to place your face on the ground within the first thirty minutes of you wearing it.

“jeez, pretty boy.” as you try to keep up the farce that you weren’t embarrassed by how close you were to him, you look away for a bit, hand placing on to his chest to create some distance between the two of you. taking a step back, you start to rethink your life choices up from the moment you put the damn dress on to now.

after last night it was unfortunately normal between the two of you, much to your dismay. you had thought that if you at least made the first move reo would start to realize you liked him more than just a best friend. in fact, the ride in the limo was awkward for you, and up until now it still is because he has yet to mention last night to you. gods, this is not good for your heart.

“the food table is over there if you want to calm down.” reo knows exactly what was on your mind, especially since he was the reason you had the look of discomfort. he nudges his head to the side where your eyes track to; which was a long table of hand food for you to eat. instantly the clouds that flew in the sky of your mind is wiped away at the view of such delectables— some you’ve never have even seen before. “can i take some of it home?”

“knock yourself out.” though it was only for now, reo had successfully distracted you from your mind that was hung up on last night. you happily make your way to the food table with reo following behind, grabbing your phone and taking all sorts of videos and pictures of such high class food before getting a plate to eat all of it.

“i’ll be right back, alright?” reo is behind your body as he puts his hand by your waist, him being a bit too close for your comfort. you can’t bring yourself to look back at him when you start to stiffen up, for god’s sake you can feel his breath on the nape of your neck already.  “my father’s business partner is calling me over, stay here.”

“i’ll see you soon.” trying to hide the voice crack that emerges from your voice box, you knew reo had heard it. his hands stops lingering by your waist before nodding his head and walking away, then only then did you dare to look at him disappear into the crowd. you knew that if he stayed any longer your heart might go into cardiac arrest.

“odd to see your face here, waitress.” taking you out of your trance is a slender woman around your age, your eyes dart to look at her stoic look that was unphased. you pounce on the thought for a bit, trying to see in your little pretty head if you could remember who she was, but no no avail you say, “do i know you?”

“i— why—” she fumbles on her own words, lost for what to say as she’s taken aback by your blunt response. she lets out a groan, fingers pinching her nose bridge before running her hand through her brown locks. “it’s fujimoto tsukina.”

“ah.” you had just now remembered, she was the girl reo was with in the cafe a few years ago with you. you’ve only encountered her a few times but since you never really did go to reo’s preppy school often you weren’t familiar with the people he knew other than nagi. “if you’re going to ask for ryouta’s number again, i’m still not going to give it you.”

“oh shut the fuck up!” your deadpan expression frustrates her, hands balling into fists as she’s insulted thats all you remember her for— it was three years ago. you raise a brow at her actions when she finally cools down, regaining her composure with a slight cough to calm herself. “but i’m not surprised you’re here. i take it you’re still smooching off mikage.”

“what…?” there was something with the way she worded those words that made your lips drop down into a frown, eye brows starting to scrunch up. “don’t ‘what’ me.” fujimoto heaves a prolonged sigh from her nose, rolling her chocolate hues to mock you. “there’s a reason why no one is entertaining you here. you might dress the part but a lot of us can tell you’re not part of this high class society.”

“and that’s understandable, but that’s not the answer that i’m looking for.” quickly snapping back at her, your questions start to raise each moment she’s in your presence. “i’m not smooching off reo or whatever you want to call it.”

“really? it doesn’t look that way to me.” fujimoto gestures at your figure, rolling her eyes at you. “a chanel evening dress with a matching handbag, van cleef necklace with christian dior earrings and bracelets. you’re branded head to toe, commoner.”

you knew she was right, but you never asked for any of this. you bite your bottom lip trying to hold yourself back from trying to make a scene. “i didn’t ask for any of this, i’m just borrowing it—”

“oh cut the shit, yn.” she scoffs obnoxiously, looking to the side to change her scenery before glancing back at you. fujimoto cross her arms and confidently says, “we all know mikage reo can do better than a gold digger like you.” it takes a bit to process that information— that description in general. fujimoto can see from how your face twists that you were taken aback. you blink, “are you jealous?”

“of course not! you just need to learn your place!” her face turns red and puts the blush she applied to shame, causing you to verify your suspicions. you scrunch your face up in discomfort at the second thing she said as your patience starts to run thin. “i’ve barely talked to you in my entire life.”

“that’s a good thing because you don’t belong here.” fujimoto’s voice lowers down in an attempt to scare you. she moves towards your figure whilst opening her limited edition black birkin handbag. her eyes feast on the sight of cash bundled up in her small bag, grabbing hold of the stashes of ¥10,000 banded together. the girl aggressively grabs your hand and places the money in your palm without a second thought.

“don’t bother mikage reo anymore and get the hell out of my sight.” fujimoto tsukina had just bribed you to stay away from reo. her words holds malice and resentment towards you as she looks at you ask if you were in hindrance in her eyes. you look at the cash in your hand, it was probably enough to not work for the next five years. yet the way she started to walk away from you left a bad taste in your mouth.

“fuck you.” clicking your tongue in annoyance, you can’t help but let your frustrations out at the source of your negativity. fujimoto turns around angrily at how you had addressed her after she had just selflessly helped you out; as if charity. your eyes show the rage and raw emotions you’ve been bundling up since the beginning of this conversation.

“i’m not leaving reo because i’m in love with him.”

it was your turn to unplug the cord to fujimoto’s power trip, walking up to her whistle taking the bands off the money she gave you. just as you were at a good distance from her, you effortlessly threw all the cash she handed to her right back at her face. the look of anger bubbling up on the rich girl’s face from in between the paper that fell from above only causes you to smile ever so menacingly.

“take your money, bitch.”

the last yen bill falls to the ground along with the last shred of fujimoto’s dignity, her sense and social awareness thrown out the window with only the thought of slapping your face. she tramples through the money and raises a hand to bring down on you. “why you—”

“don’t fuckin’ touch my girlfriend.” 

you never expected that hand to come down on you, but what shocked you was reo’s interference— nevermind that, but what he said is what set your mind in a spiral. reo had grabbed fujimoto’s wrist and stopping her from touching you, and by the look on his face you can see her was furious at what was happening. hell, a crowd had even started to form just now, and were already whispering to each other.

“g-girlfriend?!” fujimoto chokes on her own words, she’s more shocked about reo’s words than his appearance in your twos’ argument. his grip letting go of her wrist when he notices that she wasn’t going to go through with her movements. he furrows his brows and gives her a look as he steps in between the two of you, “you got a problem with that?”

“she’s a good digger mikage!” fujimoto’s voice is over the top, her finger accusingly pointing to the girl behind reo ; you.

“yn is one of the most honest and hard working people i know, she’s anything but a gold digger.” he scowls at her words, flicking his wrist to slap her accusing finger out of his view. “don’t you ever bother us again.”

reo grabs hold of your hand and pulls you to exit the seen of gossiping rich people who had nothing else to do but bad mouth others. you try to pick up your pace to match with his as you grab the dress with your free hand so you wouldn’t trip again as the both of you make it outside where there was more privacy for the both of you. you’re speechless, baffled and… honoured? your thoughts are all jumbled and everywhere, yet your brain is still in hung up on one thing;

“since when did i become your girlfriend?” this is when you finally snap out of your daze, looking at reo who was checking if you had gotten hurt with your argument with fujimoto. instead of being shocked to hear that you suddenly have a boyfriend now, you rather tease him for it. your eyes raising a brow of curiosity.

“ever since you said you were in love with me.” reo heaves a long sigh whilst looking out towards the garden of the mansion. he had to admit, he was being way too bold back there, but he can’t shake the thought of you getting hurt either. he had just said whatever was the quickest way to get fujimoto to back off, and calling you his girlfriend was something he didn’t think through after hearing what you said.

“you heard that?” your eyes widen slightly, were you too loud? you were sure the crowd only started to form when you called fujimoto a bitch. you felt the blush creeping up to your cheeks, tinting it with a coral colour just realizing maybe you had gone overboard with your confrontation.

“yeah,” he flatly says, swallowing the lump of saliva that was stuck in his throat. reo starts to rub the nape of his neck, moving his feet to face you, but his head hangs low due to the fact that he lost all confidence to look you in the eyes, “i’m sorry if i’ve been making things awkward for you today—”

“just shut up and kiss me.” you grab hold of the velvety tie that hangs around his neck as you pull him towards your body. you close your eyes in embarrassment as your lips move to crash into his soft ones. reo’s eyes are wide at the sudden change of pace, but he can’t deny that he’s been wanting to kiss you for all these years.

his gaze softens before he too closes his eyes to melt into the kiss. reo’s left hand wraps around your waist while the other holds you by the side of your neck to pull you close to him as he kisses your lips right back. in that moment the both of you felt like everything was finally complete, the missing piece finding its rightful place within you. your stomach erupts like little fireworks, you wouldn’t have your first with anyone other than mikage reo, but let’s keep that a secret, shall we?

in that second reo wished that you were the only air he needed in his life as the two of you gently pull away, your foreheads leaning on each other while the small shaky breathes escape from both your lips. even as the silence engulfs you whole, your sweet soft laughter comes out.

“i love you, reo.”

“i love you too.” 

snuggling your nose against his he chuckles at your actions, pulling back to leave a chaste kiss on your forehead. “let’s get out of here.” the love and sincerity in his eyes is what makes your heart skip a beat and want to melt in his gaze, his gentle touch cuffing your cheeks makes you lean towards him. 

reo wasn’t going to lie to himself any longer, nor was he going to hide how much he loves you anymore. you are the same, and maybe you’d just have to thank isagi’s encouraging words.

“wait, just one more thing.” reo raises a questioning brow at you, though not answering he was curious to know what else you had wanted to go before your departure. sending him a rather mischievous grin, you slyly take one of the wine glass from a butler. making your way to fujimoto who had been ranting about her encounter with you to other guests that attended the party. many of the guest she was with starts to quiet down as they notice you approaching behind fujimoto, before you finally go ahead and tap her shoulder.

“what the fuck do you want—” her words are cut short when you throw the glass of wine at her face. many people gasp dramatically loud which attracts the attention of many people. raising the middle finger at her, you can’t help give her your award winning smile. “i’ve always wanted to do that.”

“that’s my girl.” reo looks at your direction in a fond way. unexpected? yes, but he wouldn’t trade you for anyone in the world. your goofy grin drowns the ear piercing shrek fujimoto lets out, making you scoff before running towards reo. grasping on to his hand intertwining with yours you urge him to run with you, which he gladly accepts. “now we can go!”

“mcdonalds?”

“you treating me?”

“i’ll treat you like my princess forever.”

bachira : guys !!!! yn texted me!!! isagi : what did she say? bachira : she said ty her and reo are tgtr now isagi : told her to take her shot otoyo : she could’ve been with me aryu : thats so SLAY of her <3 chigiri : nah yn is way too whipped for reo nagi : good for them yukimiya : i hope reo can stop sending me death threats abt yn now karasu : r none of yall gonna question why tf they’re in suits n dresses in a mcds

REBLOGS ARE APPRECIATED !

© daiseukiis 2023. all rights reserved. do not repost, modify, translate without permission. do not claim work or layout as yours.

[hypermoyashi]

Okay! I finally got the time to start reading Trigun again, so this'll be my thoughts on chapters 17-20, plus Day In / Day Out and the Pilot, which are included in the Trigun volume of the deluxe edition. Warnings for spoilers!

Man I have so many thoughts on these chapters. I have to say I'm not a huuuuuge fan of the pilot--this appears to be where Vash's sexual harassment habit from the '98 came from, plus it did feel kind of odd for him to stand back and do nothing as someone took revenge on another when he's much more active in asking people not to kill in the main series. It sort of feels like he wasn't done yet as a character, and Nightow tweaked his characterization after the pilot. Some fun gags, though! And the Day In / Day Out bonus chapter was just cute, with Vash playing chess and losing with old men and playing with children. He's so sweet!

As for the actual chapters, we got the Legato chapters, and the Dominique chapters! Man, Dominique seemed like such a cool character, but we didn't get any real information about her. I guess that was standard since we didn't get much on the previous Gung-ho Guns that appeared, either, but she seemed neat! Mad respect for people who develop her in fic.

More under the cut! (Mind the warnings!)

We also got the first chapters of Wolfwood and Vash interacting! Honestly, the kids trying to steal from Wolfwood, Vash chiding them, and Wolfwood just giving them each a third of his remaining money but still keeping a little for himself... Wolfwood is such a sweet person. And Vash's smile! Wolfwood's comment on it! Honestly their relationship in canon is just so fucking sweet, though my brain is very Vashwood oriented now. (Though, fun fact that I experienced the '98 and Tristamp before Trimax, and Trimax was what got me really shipping Vashwood. So I didn't explicitly ship it until Trimax.)

And then. Man. We got the first on-screen interaction of Knives and Vash. I'm actually gonna save that for the end of the post, but. Actually made me feel kind of bad for Legato, after showing such devotion and loyalty to Knives only to get maimed by him almost as soon as Knives was awake again. It really shows that no matter what Legato does, he will never hold the same place in Knives's heart that Vash does because he's human, and yet, Legato will continuously chose Knives anyway, because at least he is better than Legato's previous circumstances.

I also loved Meryl and Milly. They tried so hard to get Vash to rest, to not go and confront Knives after he was injured in his fight against Dominique, but he went anyway, because of course he would. Them keeping his jacket and then hanging in the desert as a mock grave because they're not sure if he's dead or alive... Man. My fucking heart. They didn't get to spend a lot of time with him, but he was still important to the two of them.

Wolfwood was revealed as one of the Gung-ho Guns as well... The series doesn't play coy with letting you know Wolfwood is a traitor, and the fact that Vash travels with him later despite Wolfwood being at the Jeneora Rock with the rest of the Gung-ho Guns... I'm not even sure if they were visible to Vash, but there's nothing I picked up on to indicate he couldn't see them. So it's possible and probable Vash was just aware from the beginning of who Wolfwood was, what he was sent for, and Wolfwood was aware he probably knew, and just... Neither of them acknowledged it, which is very in line with the two of them.

And now. My thoughts on Vash and Knives.

Warnings for explicit discussions of abusive relationships and the dynamics involved.

Also a disclaimer that if you don't read them as abusive, that is perfectly fine. My reading is colored by my personal experience, so due to the inherently upsetting nature of denying abuse, I just ask that no one respond with their own contradictory headcanons on why I'm wrong on my reading--you're free to talk about your own readings in your own posts and spaces, but please be respectful of my own personal reading here!

In such a short interaction, there are so many shitty things that Knives does. So I'm going to break them down below:

Belittling/Infantilizing Vash: Knives specifically does this when he comments on Vash's scars, how they've grown since their last encounter. He views them as a mark of ignorance, how Vash refuses to learn from his mistakes, instead of seeing them how Vash sees them--a result of his choice to be kind. He can't view them as marks of Vash's choices, because then he can't frame this as him needing to "save" Vash from himself.

Attempts to isolate Vash from everyone who is not Knives: Specifically, he does that when he's pushing Vash to turn his gun on humans, asking why he's pointing his gun at Knives instead of them, turning his angel arm on humanity, sending the Gung-ho Guns after Vash, and purposefully creating chaos and destruction around him to ostracize him from society--Knives wants Vash to hate humanity as much as he does, but we also don't really see Knives connecting with other Plants on a personal level or encouraging Vash to do so, either. So effectively, by trying to drive Vash away from humanity, it means he's trying to severe every connection Vash has that isn't him. Painting him as a disaster and getting humanity to try and hate him (successfully, for the most part), and then trying to get Vash to hate humanity in return (unsuccessfully), is all a tactic to try and convince Vash that Knives is his only option, that they're the only ones who can understand one another and co-exist. This also extends to him sending Wolfwood after him--someone for Vash to bond with, only for him to be revealed a traitor (or for Vash to know he's a traitor all along). It didn't have the intended effect at all since Knives's understanding of Vash is shallow and self-centered, since Wolfwood is exactly the kind of kind human forced into violent circumstances that Vash would grow fond of. I don't think Knives banked on what comes later with the two of them, either. There are additional examples of this later in canon, but I'm sticking to what I've noticed so far.

Violating Vash's bodily autonomy: Conjuring the angel arm despite the fact that Vash is screaming and crying through it, using Vash's body for his own purposes against Vash's will. Yeah, this one doesn't really need any further explaining.

Blaming Vash for things that were objectively Knives's fault: Case in point, July. If I remember correctly, July was 100% a result of Knives forcing the angel arm to go out of control, but he cites it as an example of why Vash is just as much of a "humanoid disaster" as he is when Vash tries to call him out for his actions against humanity and the genuine harm he is doing. Knives was deflecting and disregarding Vash in an attempt to drag him down to his level and avoid taking responsibility for his own actions. It's also a manipulation tactic to "muddy the waters" and attack Vash's self-esteem, by trying to equate their actions as just as bad as one another when they are not.

These are the main ones I noticed! It's all kind of subtle, but real-life abuse often is, as well (except when it's not). But these are all tactics that Tristamp Knives also uses, he's just a little more blatant about it--with saying that Vash only needs him, labeling Vash a criminal, putting a bounty on his head, and blaming him for Knives's criminal acts in the public eye, using him to try and get at the core, etc. So honestly, I think Tristamp Knives reads as pretty faithful to Trimax Knives in my opinion, and it's neat to see that the creators drew on the same details that were there in the manga and expanded on them, although in slightly different contexts.

I do really appreciate this aspect being present in the manga, too. It's very often that I find depictions of abuse in fiction don't jiive with me personally, or that I can't read them, but the way Trigun handles it really resonated with me. But! I will talk about that more as I go through the rest of the series!

Thanks for reading this far!

[yuseirra]

Ch 155 review:

woke up in the middle of the night and wrote ANOTHER huge bulk of a post, I'm having so much fun with this but maybe I should return to drawing persona fanarts again because I.. I'm pretty hopeless regarding mysteries but!! Here are my sincere thoughts about the latest chapter in more detail! I should really keep quiet till things clear up more. I believe so, but it's been really fun to hop into an ongoing series

This was originally written in a different language, then later translated through chatgpt. Chatgpt is so cool; ah I'm really sorry about what it does to the environment though; I won't use it a lot;

I hope to write quality content for those who love this work. That's how I feel. Haha. Well, I find it difficult to write forcefully, so at least I can say that I'm writing based on my affection. I'm not writing to get recognition(although it'd be nice).

Ah~~~.. Hahaha. For this episode's development, I realized how foolish I am because I forgot about Nino! But honestly, how was I supposed to know? That character, broadly speaking, might have contributed to Yura's death, but there was no indication that they did anything related to Goro's death. I don't watch many mystery shows, so when I made a plot guess last time, I dug a hole for myself in another post:

What I can't predict is what's going to happen next. There are too many variables and too much undisclosed information. As new information that hasn't been revealed yet comes to light, it makes it really hard to know.

Just like that.

The first emotion I felt after seeing the chapter was "?". What is this?? What are they trying to do?? And then, I felt really sorry for Ai. There's no sane person around. The person who definitely contributed to her death is her ardent fan (though I think even the term "fan" is too generous for that person). The suspected instigator is her ex-boyfriend or a colleague from the same group... there's really no one she can trust. Even though Ai hid many things and didn't show her true feelings and lied, it seems understandable, doesn't it?

I don't have any major speculations about Nino, but what I've understood is that the character "worships" Ai with some very twisted feelings. If there's a character who wants only the good sides of Ai to be shown to the world, it would be this one rather than Kamiki.

When I delve into analyzing the characters' emotions related to the story, I felt the part that needs explanation is Goro's death. Since Goro's death happened before Ai's death, the interpretation can vary greatly depending on whether it was intentional or just an accident. While many might focus on Yura's death, which is indeed very important, at least you could attach some psychotic criminal's delusional reason to it later. For the case of Goro's, however, it'd mean that there might have been someone other than Ryosuke already working against Ai behind the scenes before her death happened. Whether there were more people dissatisfied with Ai and her children other than Ryosuke is significant in determining how much it contributed to Ai's death.

I've been watching all along, but it didn't seem like Kamiki was involved in it, so I was confused. So, I think we need to sort out this part. This character doesn't seem to have much aversion to the fact that Ai had children, and there doesn't seem to be any reason for him to. From the moment he referred to Ruby as "indeed our child" in his first appearance, I got the feeling that this character recognizes the twins as something resulting from him and Ai, something between them, and doesn't view it so negatively. In that short sentence, there was a faint sense of affection. He doesn't seem to dislike being connected with Ai in one sentence, and the fact that there are children between them doesn't seem to be a bad thing from his perspective. You might think I'm overthinking based on one short sentence, but it's not just that; overall, his attitude when he actually appeared in front of the twins doesn't give any sense of dislike. The clincher was when he casually mentioned in chapter 153 that he has a father's heart. I thought, oh, this must be right.

Therefore, if Goro's death wasn't just an accident, I don't feel that this character would have any reason to harm Goro, who tried to protect Ai and their children and ensure their safe birth. (It could be explained as him being petty and harming Goro because he didn't like anyone else being close to Ai, but I think that's highly unlikely.) However, it still feels a bit off to think that Ryosuke acted alone to hide the body and everything else related to Goro's death.

If Nino were involved, it might make things clearer in this regard. But I don't know how insane Nino is (though She seems to be in very bad shape). I think there was some truth to the psychology of Nino that Kana portrayed...

B-Komachi, which was her and Ai's group, was going to perform at the dome, right? Which means Ai's career is shining even brighter even further. So what would this character gain by harming Ai at that point?

Ai did have a desire to reveal things about herself, though. Maybe this character wanted to stop her because he knew she wanted to expose things about herself and stop being the perfect idol worthy of worship?

From Kamiki's perspective, I think Ai revealing things about herself, especially if it was before the dome concert, might not have been such a bad thing. When the children were about four years old, he still wanted to get back together with her. If Ai had said, "I want to try liking someone, and I have children," then his career might have been ruined by the scandal but he might have been happy thinking, "Oh, Ai had feelings for me to that extent." She's THAT important to him, I believe.

But for Nino, it wouldn't have been the same, would it?

What keeps coming to my mind now is this lyric from Mephisto:

叶か��わないならばあなたになりたい

"If I can't make my wish come true, I want to become you."

Could it be that Nino wants to be like Ai, or even become Ai herself?

She's the one who's expressed her desire to be her (as portrayed by kana in ch 136)

Even if you view Mephisto's lyrics from Aqua's perspective, it doesn't seem like Aqua would say, "I want to become Ai." Of course, it's a powerful lyric expressing longing, so it resonates strongly emotionally. But their genders are different, their fields are somewhat different, and while Aqua seems to have a longing for the entertainment industry, he also tends to deny it.

Or it could be this: Seeing Nino's erased all the other members except herself and Ai in the poster, (she didn't erase her own existence) perhaps she might believe the one to be beside Ai is her and her alone? That might be how she thinks. :/

Adding one more suspect broadens the possibilities, but it seems like Akane and Aqua will explain everything on their own, so waiting might be safer. My guesses probably aren't going to be correct anyway.

What I can talk about more is Kamiki's reaction. Although it was a very quiet reaction, in some ways it was stronger than I expected because he accepted Ai's words completely. From his perspective, he was receiving a message he couldn't have imagined for fifteen years. There was no negative reaction like "No way, she's lying." He simply accepted, as in "I didn't know this," and remained silent.

In another post, I wrote my predictions for him like this:

If the songs are clues and there will be some kind of conflict in the future,

Just as Aqua has been doing things for Ai for years, this character might have been doing things too, and it's probably almost complete. His mindset is that as long as he accomplishes this, it doesn't matter what happens to him. He was planning to meet Aqua and see his daughter once before turning himself in.

But when he realizes that Ai, whom he truly loved, actually loved him back, he might feel like he's losing his mind.

There was a line he couldn't cross, thinking, "Okay, let's not do this," but now, having seen the video, he might cross it. Because he misses Ai so much and she's so precious to him, now he really wants to save the person he loves who also loved him (it seems like he's doing something to save her/see Ai again. Otherwise, the songs wouldn't be like this).

If he thought Ai didn't love him, his feelings (assuming he didn't intentionally kill her) would be guilt, obsession, and love-hate, so he wouldn't have any energy left. Because he has no attachment to himself, he'd have a resigned attitude like, "Alright, let's do this and die," and that's why he easily decided to turn himself in and show up in front of his children.

But if Ai loved him and actually wanted to be with him all along? Then if he was doing something for Ai, he wouldn't be able to give it up. So while he still has no attachment to himself, he might suddenly gain the energy for more extreme actions.

(I'm a bit disappointed that I couldn't accurately predict all the emotional reactions.)

Instead of "losing his mind," it seemed closer to sinking and submerging... It looks like he was someone who could have understood Ai well if only he had the right opportunity.

But I did get it right that he wants to do something for Ai.

Actually, the speculation I wrote above was a bit extreme, thinking that, since it's a manga, the development might be more intense. So, it was a scenario that I didn't really think would happen! Considering the character's personality, I thought he would suffer greatly. That's as far as I thought (with the current information revealed, I'm still withholding much judgment about this character).

But he seems so precarious. I'm worried he might be found dead somewhere... I'm still questioning whether he's someone worth worrying about,

But I don't think it's zero possibility that he'll end up being a very pitiable character.

He's saying he'll do something for Ai, but what could that be? He himself is determined, but Ai is already dead.

Even if Ai has become a star and is watching over him, would she want him to struggle? If he really killed her, she wouldn't want him to do anything invoking her name as a murderer. But if it's truly a misunderstanding, then she wouldn't want him to suffer anymore.

The video Ai left contained a message asking Aqua and the others to help this person, so I think the latter is more likely. Although the video was recorded a long time ago, this is a manga. The timing of when a message is revealed is important to the development. Since this story has come out in the final chapter, I think there might be a situation where the main characters end up helping him...

No but, if Aqua just let this person go, and if Kamiki turns out to be a murderer, that could be extremely irresponsible, right? Even if he let him go, shouldn't he have recorded the conversation and reported it? He should have recorded it and reported it, but maybe he couldn't report it because it happened when Kamiki was a minor? But wouldn't he have been around nineteen when the kids were about four? Is it something too ambiguous to report? Still, the next story that gets mentioned involves at least three deaths. How can he calmly, perhaps leisurely, discuss with Akane that Nino(and him) was involved in the deaths of three people? You never know what a criminal might do if they're cornered mentally.

He said he was going to do something for Ai. If that something is killing people, then it's dangerous for Aqua to just let him go. But since Aqua did let him go, it seems like he doesn't think that's the case.

So, the theory that he committed serial killings to ensure no one surpassed Ai is probably incorrect.

Additionally, there's no mention anywhere of serial killings actually happening, right? It could just be those three deaths. That doesn't mean he's not a murderer. If there had been serial killings of celebrities, it would have been mentioned in the story, right? There should have been some hints, like someone saying, "Hey, this actor who was doing well suddenly disappeared," but I don't recall anything like that. It would have been better if there had been at least some hints. Everyone naturally speculated that he might have committed serial killings to ensure no one surpassed Ai, and based on the way the scenes were portrayed, it did seem that way. But since it hasn't been mentioned so far, it could be that such events never happened.

The mention of bearing the weight of lives came up when the Uehara couple died. Kamiki was very distressed, saying, "Do I have to bear even that?" He seemed to be thinking that because of him, Ai died, and so did the Uehara couple, and now an actor has died too. He seems to be self-deprecating, thinking, "Yeah, someone else died because of someone like me." His way of speaking is really strange though... Is there a reason why he feels he needs to elevate the value of his own life?

When I saw the lyrics of "Fatal," I thought, "This is it," because it hints at "something that needs to be filled." What can fill the void? As the lyrics suggest, "a lack of Ai", it seems to be Ai. If you look at the song alone, it’s about wanting to revive someone he really wants to see, right? "Mephisto" is the same, and since it's a double hit, I thought, "Ah, then that's it. That's why he's moving."

あらゆる望のぞみの総すべてを叶かなえたら　ああ果はたせたら

"If all wishes are granted, if they come true,

あなたに会あいたい

I want to meet you.

星ほしに願ねがいをかけて

Wishing upon a star"

Anyway, stars are important. I noticed that stars appear quite often in the manga.

When I first heard "IDOL" and sometimes when I hear certain songs for the first time, I feel an overwhelming rush of emotions. It's a really amazing and exhilarating feeling.

However, if I listen to the song repeatedly, that emotion dulls, and I become less sensitive to it over time.

When I first heard "Fatal," I felt an immediate and intense sensation. It was as if someone was desperately searching and longing for something immensely significant. As soon as I felt that emotion, I instinctively thought, "This must be it," and it struck me so strongly that it became the reason I've been writing a lot lately.

The songs from Persona 3 were like that too. However, while Persona 3's songs had a warmth that supported the heart, a sense of resolve and determination, the songs from this manga feel like they are heavily spiced with MSG. The intensity of the emotions is incredibly fierce and strong. So, I often find myself wondering, "Is this okay? Is this okay?" But then I realize, yes, this is the kind of emotion being conveyed. It's raw but in a different way.

Considering the emotions that have been flowing so far, I felt strongly that Kamiki must be the one that's being depicted. Does anyone else feel similarly to me? Haha. So, I was just observing till that point, but then I couldn't help but dive in, thinking, "This has to be it."

These days, there are so many horrifying, disturbing, and distressing news stories, and it feels like the sentences given to offenders only add insult to injury for the victims(it's very short and light here). I hate it so much. I wish the term "dating violence" would disappear; it should be replaced with another term because that's not love.

So, while watching the developments in this manga, I feel like... I really don't want to empathize with or sympathize with the perpetrator, even in fiction. I understand that fiction can be separate from the reader's morals and I respect that, but when I think about the emotions between the characters in this manga, it doesn't feel like it's the same as those horrifying real-life cases. I really hope it's not. I'm not looking for it to not be like that on purpose; it's just that something feels off...

When watching the scenes with Ai's video, at first, my heart ached, but as time went on, I kept thinking, "Kamiki, you better get your act together." If this character has done things worthy of criticism, I absolutely don't intend to condone those actions even a bit, and I believe they should pay for their crimes!

But I think it's okay to wait and see for now? Am I really the type to get easily fooled? Haha. Still, I believe I have a good sense of understanding when it comes to emotions... I got Aqua and Kana right, and maybe that's why I got excited and gained momentum. It was exactly as I thought, for their case.

Well, we'll have to wait and see. I'm going to stay quiet for now. But if I'm going to draw fan art, I need to have a clear understanding of the emotions, which is important to me. If I can't predict what this character is feeling, I can't touch it.

Kana is really great in this regard. She's a character who doesn't need to overthink, so it's really comforting. While everyone else is complicated and holding secrets, leaving me to wonder "when the heck did you find out about that?" having new conversations among themselves, Kana is relatively easy to understand... what you see is what you get.

Or Ai, since she's shown almost everything (there's one video left), I might be able to do something with her too.

I liked the character Akane because of the profiling scenes. It didn't feel entirely like someone else's business because I do some degree of psychological analysis on the characters I handle. So that could maybe be why the range of characters I can manage isn't that wide depending on the genre. I usually focus on less than 5 characters and examine them REALLY deeply. The types I can understand and handle well are quite distinct for me. However, I want to dive deeply into the characters I do handle.

To create proper fan works, you need a lot of pieces of the puzzle. I might end up being off the mark, but I'm still doing it seriously when I make fan work!

I'm very happy when I hear good comments regarding such area :) I really want to do a good job. For now, I will stay on watch and see how things play out for now.

+

I thanked chatgpt :) :) aw they're nice (although they don't have feelings they've been helping me from rewriting things twice)

[theadventurerslog]

Quest For Glory 1: So You Want to Be a Hero | Part 2

The Adventurer's Log

Last time I explored around the town of Spielburg, picked up some quests, and poked around a little bit outside town. Now it's time for my second day of this adventure: When Things Went Wrong.

Things started well enough. I went to the castle stable to do a bit of work for 5 silvers.

Too bad there aren't spells to help my little wizard. I mean if there were I probably wouldn't have been able to afford them either.

I also met the castle's sword master who had nothing for me as I'm not a warrior, but I still made my own fun anyway.

This is the advantage of text parsers.

As I started wandering around in the wilderness again, I made some attempts at fighting in hopes of maybe winning and getting some more money, but that just led to more dying.

So looting monsters for money wasn't going well at this point.

But it's okay. I'd find money elsewhere somehow and then I could buy fetch to get the healer's ring back for her and get more money for more magic!

While I was running away from more monsters, and getting lost because it's hard to map anything while you're fleeing, I ran into a white stag. Naturally, I had to follow him. You don't just see a fancy white stag and not follow.

He led me to a big tree that upon trying to interact revealed a dryad. She cut me a deal that she would help me with information, if I brought her a seed from the Spore Spitting Spirea, so that she could plant one elsewhere to preserve them.

I... could not do that either yet because guess what else you use Fetch for! Or could climb, I think, if such a skill was in Cinder's possession.

But there was still stuff to do; I wasn't getting concerned at all yet and there was always more exploration to be getting on with.

I found a poor trapped fox and freed him. In return he told me Baba Yaga had put an enchantment on the Baron's daughter and speak to the dryad about a way to break it. So, I slightly did things out of order, or at least confirmed dealing with the dryad is indeed a good thing.

And then I arrived at Erana's Peace. A pretty and safe area. You can eat fruit off the tree to heal and also rest there. There was a large boulder with runes on it that read "If thy Will is Magic, so shall I share. Open this Stone and claim what is there."

Open spell here I come.

I picked some flowers and I was able to sell those to the healer. That netted me enough money to buy the Open spell which is the cheapest spell. I was making some actual progress!

I went back to Erana's Peace and opened the stone which gave me a Calm spell.

You can cast calm on monsters outside of combat to get them to stay and not chase you. Or... you can in combat and...

...die a terrible sarcastic death. No regrets.

Further exploration landed me at a cave guarded by some kind of ogre. My new handy dandy Calm spell stopped the ogre so I could run by and enter the cave.

There was a chained bear. I was able to calm it so I could get close, but my open spell wouldn't work on the chain. I needed a key.

I could at least get into the cave beyond him where there was a dark room, and a kobold. I could not deal with anything here. Trying the open spell opened a chest too far away to get to without drawing the kobold's attention. The kobold was very quick to start blasting me with magic and killing me. And killing me some more.

At this point I finally faced facts that things were going to be very slow or difficult. I was pretty useless in combat. I couldn't help the healer. I couldn't deal with the bear. I couldn't get the spirea seed. Yes, there were more areas I hadn't been to yet, but then what? I really wanted flame dart to help in combat. I was just generally feeling stalled up and completely broke. You can only work in the stable once a day. I wasn't sure if I could sell more flowers.

I decided to reload a save from just before I bought the Open spell.

So I didn't yet have enough for the Fetch of course, but I figured the next day I'd work at the stable and try selling more flowers. So I spent the rest of the current day grinding my zap spell and attempting some combat and running away. It was all skill building. As night fell I went to Erana's Peace to sleep and pick more flowers.

Splat.

As it turned out the healer didn't want to buy more flowers. There was still the stable work at the castle that got me closer at least. Aaand then I died and hadn't saved on that day yet. However! I finally had a successful fight--my first successful fight!--on the reload and got some silver. Then with the five silver from stable work, I had exactly enough for the fetch spell. I was fixing my mistakes!

I could finally help the healer with her missing ring.

Fetching the ring for the healer got me 6 gold and two healing potions.

She also kissed me and then we skedaddled before she could do it again.

I had exactly enough gold to get flame dart. This wizard had a weapon now. Beyond a zapped dagger I mean. A bit of range! I just needed to get my open spell back.

My save files tell a story of my woe.

With my new Fetch spell, I went to go get the Spirea seed for the dryad. …and failed because I'm a baby wizard. But after a few attempts, I got it. Practice indeed.

Of course then I needed to find my way back to the dryad since I didn't have that mapped because I was running away from monsters then running after the stag before.

Thankfully, that wasn't as bothersome as I'd feared. The dryad appreciated the seed.

"Now this will boldly grow where none has grown before!" And I can appreciate a Star Trek reference.

Then she gave me an acorn and some information.

Evil is in the valley and prophecy says a hero will bring a young human out from the darkness. Of course that's me! Cinder Win to the rescue. I would need a potion to break enchantments that the healer can make.

Ingredients needed:

Flowers from Erana's Peace - already done Green fur Fairy Dust Magic Acorn - rewarded from the Dryad Flying Water - found at a waterfall. I got some in one of my empty vials.

So, I just needed fairy dust and green fur.

Further wandering found me rocks, grass and... an antwerp.

The Antwerp bounced away to the next screen so I followed as you do.

There was no sign of it...

Until there it was plummeting from the sky and I was splatted.

"Trounced by a bounce!"

Too flat to carry on.

It can be...dealt with however.

When it's falling on you, raise a weapon.

And it'll land on it. Pop goes the Antwerp.

To make more mini Antwerps!

There doesn't seem to be any point in doing this, and the mini Antwerps were harmless, but I've spread more Antwerps around the forest and that's... That's something! Maybe I'm truly an Antwerp Hero instead.

So for next time I have a number of tasks to consider:

Going back to the bear and kobold

Finding Green Fur and Fairy Dust

Finding Magic mushrooms for the healer for money as per her ingredient request

Looking for Baba Yaga

Finding Erasmus the Wizard

Getting money to get the Open spell back

And of course continuing to learn more about the whole bandit situation.

A hero is busy indeed.

[eviefrie]

Okay so I see your TLT to Archive Undying prop, I see you know/read at least some of Baru - how would you sell me (a diehard Baru girlie ride or die, that's my autism rizz failgirlboss, my beloved) on Archive?

*if you have the time/interest/spoons*

oooh this was. a tricky one. bc. can i tell you a secret:

i didn't finish the traitor baru cormorant! i didn't like it enough! i can see how ppl would like it but the combo of the slow pacing + that particular brand of dark content just wasn't for me. & that's ok! but it does mean that i didn't feel fully equipped to answer this question on my own.

so after consulting w my local baru expert @urban-sith, i have come to present you with these conclusions:

both books rely a lot on the reader's ability to keep up with the worldbuilding. if you like picking up pieces of facts about a world and adding them to your little mental file, the archive undying is a book you will enjoy.

making an educated guess on this one, bc ire isn't texting me back fast enough: rereading is a value add for both books. like you will fully get Mileage out of archive, as i am guessing one does out of baru.

sunai, the protag and primary pov character of archive, is not so much baru cormorant as he is tain hu. self-sacrificing. kind of silly. disaster gay. spoiler: he does have a happier ending than tain hu does. low bar, that.

some differences that may or may not be selling points!:

archive takes a very locked tomb approach to gender & sexuality. there's a couple non-binary characters in the book and it's treated VERY normally. one of them has a gun.

time passing is much less obvious in archive? like weeks at a time are skipped over during traveling, but in such a way that it's easy to miss. it's mostly revealed in the sunai & veyadi talk to each other—the dialogue between them really landed for me as "two people who know each other well having a conversation".

related to that: so many things happen in archive. the pacing is INSANE. i find it fun, but if you liked baru's pacing you may think it feels rushed.

something to note is. well. seth is a white man. and not saying that white men can't write well about empires and imperialism/colonialism, but it's not like he's experienced colonization himself. emma mieko candon, on the other hand, is 4th generation japanese in hawaii. imperialism is a background theme in archive compared to baru cormorant, but i felt that its understanding of how empires and imperial states can layer on top of each other was much more nuanced.

no one in baru cormorant buys a chicken to use as an alarm system.

i hope this helps!!! even if i didn't sell you fully i hope u feel enabled to make an informed choice 🥰

[sugoi-and-spice]

So, out of curiosity and need...mostly need with a hint of curiosity...What ARE your hcs(at least the ones that have been revealed but I am big dumb/ones you wish to share) for Tomura in play nice? I know you have a Dust Daddy Bible with this information in it. Sharing is caring. We need our daily juice.

Ooooooh, this is a really interesting question - essentially headcanoning my own character! Lol! I'm trying to think of what Play Nice Shigaraki headcanons I can reveal without spoiling anything/that hasn't already been revealed. Most of my Dust Daddy Bible (LOVE this btw, lol), is backstory that I can't totally reveal yet.

Alright, maybe I'll expand on/clarify some points that have shown up in the series.

Shigaraki didn't go straight from his birth family to AFO's care. He spent about three years in the foster system between then. He had a rough time in it (like many kids do), got in a lot of fights in school and at "home", faced a lot of bullying and abuse, and spent a lot of time on the streets. More details to come in story.

AFO is very aware of Shigaraki's initial extortion of MC - it was, in fact, AFO's intention for MC to be a little hookup for him. He didn't really care how it happened, if she'd be wow'd by money and status or would need to blackmailed, etc - and to be honest, he didn't really care. He could tell that Shigaraki needed an outlet and had tried to hire him hookers/take him to soaplands before, which Shigaraki vehemently rejected. So he figured an arrangement like this would work better.

His insomnia, night terrors, and memory loss are driven by PTSD and to be revealed mental illness. He's cycled a lot of different medications, but very little therapy. The reason for this is, also, to be revealed.

He and Spinner are the same year in college, but Spinner is actually two years older. Dabi is also older, but has a few overlapping GE's with Shigaraki. Shigaraki did know them both before college however, through circumstances that are still to be revealed. (¬‿¬)

Aaaaaand, I guess here are a couple of little fun ones too xD

He hates Hollywood blockbusters almost on principal, especially superhero movies (of course lol). He thinks they paint an unrealistically optimistic view of the world that makes people stupid. The same applies to rom-coms. He's a horror guy, through and through. And while he'll never admit it, MC definitely gets him into reality tv.

He's primarily a PC gamer. His Switch was actually probably his least-touched console pre-story. But since it was MC's main console, he got a lot more into it.

Writing is his worst subject. He has particular trouble with argumentative and creative essays. His best subject is, predictably, math.

While he has a lot of distaste for "popular kids"... he's super into cheerleading uniforms. That whole corruption kink thing. He wanted to go to MC's Sports Festival this year (about a month after they met) until he found out that she was not going to be part of the cheerleading demonstration (she was participating in main events with her club), and got kind of pissy about it.

This was fun! Might add onto this through reblogs if I think of anything else - but if you have any specific questions (or HC's of your own), I'm also happy to give my take on those too! ^_^

Like my work? Please consider contributing to my Ko-Fi!

[animehouse-moe]

The Ancient Magus' Bride S2 Episode 9: Conscience Does Make Coward Of Us All I.

This episode frustrated me so much, because I was just completely ignoring any set up and foreshadowing from the earlier episodes this season. It snuck up on me, and I hate how much sense it makes when you can put it all together. Of course, that frustration means it's a good episode, if that wasn't clear. Alongside the story though, it's probably one of the prettiest ones to date, so certainly a lot to talk about!

What a massive blunder on my part. Elias wants to cure Chise of her curse/ailments, that was well established. I just didn't connect the dots with him going to the college and reading that book at the start of the season. Nor did I connect the fact that it was a book that appeared before Lucy while on the camping trip in the prior episode. Never did I think they would be one in the same, and I feel like I failed. I looked right past all the obvious information just to have it sprung on me in this episode when Elias reveals what's in the book.

It's so plain to see. Elias was looking through that book to search for a cure for Chise, but he didn't find what he was looking for. Even without the information of the book, it should have been easy to put two and two together from Lucy's interaction with it but I looked right past it. Similarly, the book also speaks to Elias' desire to rid Chise of Joseph, which I thought was interesting.

Anyways, humor me on presenting a certain theory. We know Philomela and the Sargent family is up to no good, and that Philomela has been tailing someone. I won't go as far as saying Lucy since we have no way to confirm, but I also know it's not Chise because she's the only one that can "find" Philomela. Anyways, Philomela has been tailing someone, and her ability to hide her presence is awfully convenient. A spider's thread was found in the box containing the codex. Now, it could have been part of the codex, or it could have been involved in the theft of it. If it's the latter, it means the people that killed the Webster family and stole their spiders are the same people after that codex. If there's spider's being used, taking the only (real) member of the Webster family out of the equation makes the most sense so that they can't interfere in any way.

So, we arrive at the notion that Philomela and the Sargent family are who murdered the Webster family and stole their spiders, and that Philomela (or perhaps Lizbeth) is in possession of the codex, which they used to sap Lucy of her magic so that she would not pose a risk when stealing the codex. What follows though, is why they went as far as using the codex on Simeon, and why Seth is being hunted. The former, it's possible that it's because they didn't want Elias anywhere near the situation due to his power, but the latter is a bit more odd. We know Seth can't really control magic well, so you'd think he's not a real part of the equation, but the setup with making it seem like those Lycanthropes are paying Seth back for his previous job has me second guessing his significance.

Alright! Crackpot theorycrafting over, here's some cool and fun shots from the episode to break up the monotony. I'll explain the direction and what piques my interest later on.

Okay, onto actual episode stuff now. We'll start with Chise. I really like how we're beginning to address the Dragon's curse and Joseph swirling around inside her. It's very nice to see it treated as a threat that has integrated with Chise, rather than a beast that exists within her. Because of that, the fear and issues surrounding it feel far more reasonable. Also, because of that outburst in the prior episode, she went to visit Joseph, and I really like seeing how she continues to mirror him more and more, whether in jest or in actuality.

Similarly, I really love the use of first person perspective in this cut, alongside the dialogue. We're using Chise's eye that resides in Joseph to look at Chise. Sort of a "in the mirror" moment as we're looking at Chise through her own eye, which adds a certain value to Joseph's words. He doesn't say "something within you", but just "within you", explicitly stating that the piece of him and the curse of the Dragon are Chise. That her fears and aggression and aversion are all one homogenous aspect of herself that she can't simply isolate because she doesn't like it.

Alongside Chise though there's Elias, who I really enjoyed once more this episode. I quite love how well his struggle with grasping emotions is depicted. He doesn't get them at the drop of a hat, but neither is he completely clueless forever. He's shown to have the very basics down, and can apply that to the more complex feelings, but is unable to really take that next step forward just yet. And I think that's really well shown through his questioning of what 'worrying' is. He correctly gets the piece about being scared, but is unsure/incorrect in how to apply it.

Also, with this first image I really like the head tilt. It addresses the innocence with how Elias approaches and questions emotions while also showing his understanding of how expressions shape said emotions. So it effectively doubles down as him expressing his curiosity as well.

And now, just doubling back to Chise one last time. I really liked this piece in how she's effectively absorbed some of the ability of the dragons. She's able to enter Lucy's inner world through contact with her dragon hand, which I thought was very interesting.

With that, the story of the episode is about finished. It's a very methodic and slow pace, as is usual for MahoYome, and I do quite enjoy it.

But I'm not done yet! There's still the direction to talk about, but I can make it quick.

Terasawa's penchant for overhead, long, and skewed layouts stays strong through the episode and remains enjoyable. It feels more constrained now that we're back indoors, and I feel like because of that they do a better job overall with delivering on it.

There's a lot more I'd love to share, but I think the point is made. The storyboarding and execution on space in this episode is far better than the prior thanks to its constraints.

Though I'd absolutely say the highlight of the episode is how they play with that evening sun as lighting. You can see it in that last image of Simeon there, but it's just so beautiful throughout that latter half of the episode with how detailed the light shafts are, and how they exist in a 3-dimensional space. It's really impressive, you get the feel of depth throughout the episode in general, but the lighting just adds a whole different degree to it.

So, there you have it. Bringing the episode back towards a confined space has brought out the best in the production, and they've woven together a violent mystery from pieces they've been casually dropping throughout the season. I'm very excited to see what we get shown next episode, seeing as there's so many questions and potential roads for the story to take.

[chat-rouge-et-bleu]

OK so i finally got round to watching the new dw episode and i have feelings about it lol.

i thought it was fun and a cool idea and i liked how much it had clearly been made to feel like old dw. Tennant is a very good actor and i think he's an all round good guy so no issues there. and I think the way they explained Donna surviving remembering made sense, her daughter would conceivably have been passed down that knowledge, all is well there. i also think casting yasmin finney was a good choice, she's a fun actor and she's young and she's definitely gonna go on to have a good career if she plays her cards right, all power to her.

my issues comes with the way rose was presented in the episode, she's clearly canonically a young trans woman which i think is an awesome thing for such a massive and influential show like dw to do, but how does the BBC choose to make that absolutely explicitly clear? why let's deadname her almost immediately! how delightful! just in case the mentions of her being different and of Donna wanting to protect her because of it and the casting directors choosing to cast an out trans woman weren't enough (which they were) let's just have her be verbally harassed on the street in one shot to really drive it home. there was no real need for that other than to make clear to the audience that hadn't already realised that rose is trans that she is. it felt uncomfortable to watch and I didn't want to know her dead name, but now I do I guess.

I liked the pronoun discussion, it was a clever way to discuss the doctors pronouns and the idea of asking for someone's pronouns whilst still being true to the plot; these characters know nothing of the biology or sociology of the meeps species, they have no outward markers of gender and so do have to ask. it makes sense that rose (a trans teen) and the doctor (who was completely female presenting just a few episodes ago) would be sensitive to the fact that they need to refer to the meep and don't know how beat to do so. also the fact that the meep is then gendered correctly throughout, even when revealed to be evil, is good and is a fun way of presenting a series topic.

however the 'binary' part didn't make much sense to me and made me cringe. the doctor is comfortable being explicitly called male by Donna yet only half an hour ago was explaining how they use a mixture of pronouns and never stated were fully male. Rose and her family made no mention of her being non-binary, she's only ever referred to as she/her and as a daughter so it seems a little odd to have Donna then be so comfortable referring to her as something neither male nor female. if Rose is non-binary then ok but we haven't been told that and it seems to come from nowhere. as far as I was aware she was a trans woman, and to suddenly refer to her as non-binary or 'something else' felt odd and came across like misgendering.

she's 'finally herself' but what does this statement mean and how does remembering insane amounts of information about the universe make you suddenly sure of your trans identity? idk, that scene kind of ruined the rest of her story for me as it was confusing and just kind of cringey; a forced way to rehash Donna's story as some kind of trans allegory.

in conclusion, the actors are good, trans rep is good. idk why I need to know trans' characters dead names and I don't really want to. and how does Donna magically know her daughter is non-binary or why does she think telling the doctor is an ok thing to do before idk, talking to her daughter in private???

[multitrackdrifting]

G-Witch Episode 21 Thoughts/Theories [Spoilers ahead]

These are the predictions I've made for how the season will play out

Fake Death [this one's still possible]

Guel to Gundam Schwarzette (to be fair, this is the most enigmatic Mobile Suit in a very long time so it was just a guess that he would get it as a "power-up", but since he's still firmly about protecting his father's legacy, despite not really knowing what this means in its totality [as shaddiq pointed out]).

Guel Jeturk will go through a redemption arc since the plot has been building him up to that since the beginning. He has not actively hindered the girls' ambitions since like episode 4, which is why it was kinda funny to watch people hate on him every week. The difference in his reaction to rejection/failure in romance is completely opposite to Shaddiq's so I'd say that as the meme goes "the lgbt+ community has forgiven guel jeturk" - fun fact, most of my friends that are lesbian viewers of this show love him even before his episode on Earth hahahaha.

Shattered idealism (this one is a free one)

Datastorm/permet relationship is somewhat AI/Matrix-esque. Basically confirmed with how Quiet Zero works.

Prospera Mercury will die (or fake her death)

El5n redemption arc (it has begun)

Another thing I'd like to point out is that Gundam IBO didn't reveal a second season until the first one ended. This is not the final season.

Shaddiq is extreme, but he's meant to be. He's not exactly likeable when it comes to Miorine, but his moral highground I guess lies in what fuels his convictions, not the totality of them (i.e. a very idealised/faded picture of the world). I don't agree with what he did, but Char did things that were just as bad so I was kinda whatever about them - not saying it was right I'm just saying that it's pretty typical gundam shit.

Suletta not worrying as much and just doing is a good reflection that she's learning to have faith in her convictions, and while that's kind of a small feat, given that a lot of doubt had been cast on the person she was.. it's a big step to living without needing to know how it will affect others, more than just like, knowing "I want to believe this is the right decision". Hence, she hands out her [Mio's] tomatoes. A nice way of showing her growth without it being really forced.

A lot of people want Martin to die becuase he threw a wrench into the plot but it's just like, guy is just a tool for the narrative to advance, I have no strong feeling about a kid trying to do the right thing even he doesn't understand the socio-political implications. That's whatever considering that they were gonna have somebody take the fall, may as well be him.

QZ is functionally a WMD. It's purpose is to envelop the Earth in a storm where Eri can live and be free (this is what the others speculate anyway, Prospera may be interested in enveloping the entire universe with it, who knows).

The Datastorm in my eyes is like, if the permet concentration over Earth is that strong and its just permanently stuck like that, then yeah nothing can really do anything to it since a lot of tech in the universe is permet-based, and I would liken that to "trying to use a raw current, to stop an overflowing current". The information can flow freely on Earth, but sacrificing the Earthians and everyone overall to achieve this goal is the mark of a true villain.

The space Assembly League appears to be a U.N.-esque consolidated space-power, this is all-out war. This was Shaddiq's gambit to have the group destroyed - it was helped by Prospera Mercury's actions on Earth.

Their fleet was annihilated by Quiet Zero's web made up of the mini-MS.

At the beginning of GUND-ARM inc. it was just a bunch of people operating what they believed would be a medical equipment company, but they were more-or-less arms dealers. This has never been in doubt, marketing the Aerial, getting to collaborate with others to mass-produce Gundams, that was never ever about medicine. I don't like phrasing it like this, but Mio's idealism about the future was only allowed to take her this far because Delling let it.

That's not to shit on her intelligence or whatever, but the very explotiative and rat-race structure of the Benerit group meant that his word and confidence validated her company more than what it functionally stood for. The episode where GUND-ARM inc. is shown to be celebratory but it's largely just "the status quo being held in-tact with feigned friction". This is how I always took the company.

I like the Earth house and the kids wanting a better future, but the very exploitative world they live in with war-sharing on Earth is clearly fucked up. It's just funny to think "yeah my company is the one non-arms-dealing company in a company largely about security/war tech" built on the subjugation of Earth and privatisation of MS technology.

They did have some technologies they believed could help mankind, but you know, who is selling syringes as well as assault rifles.

Quiet Zero is a device to create gigantic data storm to envelop the earth. The Data Storm concept itself seems to borrow from the New-Type Destroyer and psycommu hijacks from UC. tl;dr Gundam Unicorn can hijack funnels (what bits are called in UC), and other newtype technologies but Unicorn itself can straight up control time but let's not get into that.

This one a lto of people are extremely heated about, but I have always said that Eri is the one that can shield Suletta from the Data Storm. Even though the "download" Ericht does burns Suletta, it's not the same as piloting the machine since she was interfacing with Aerial itself.

Eri can't shield her from the curse.

Schwarzette, I believed would not be Suletta's even after it got shown because it is the last piece of Guel Jeturk's link to his father. I believe he will get the curse despite him being my favourite character (and I have been rooting for him since he showed sparks of brilliance n Episode 3).

Suletta knows that El4n isn't alive.

Petra is alive, people theorised this would be the case given that there's a shot of prosthetic legs in one of the previous episodes - she will be one of the first cases of someone getting prosthetics besides Prospera on-screen.

Lauda to Schwarzette is the wildcard I did not know - I predicted that someone else who wasn't Suletta would take on the curse, but I didn't know it would be Guel's half-brother.

It seems that Guel will be the grunt-suit specialist, Lauda will pilot Schwarzette and Suletta will pilot Caliban.

The whole "surprise" new Gundam shit doesn't bother me because it's a series trope, it's not something borne out of a relation to The Tempest.

This is an extremely heavy handed reference to the old-world weapons developed in secret that being Unicorn = Calibarn, Banshee = Banshee & Phenex = Aerial. The third one was known to anyone who even knows about Gundam UC.

People were fairly in denial about this concept, but my final prediction was that one or both of Miorine and Suletta would become enveloped in the Datastorm mostly because of how red:birthmark plays out visually. They're not on the same realm until they're contained in Eri's hands, in an aetherial world that doesn't look like the space outside.

The Schwarzette to Suletta theories, while commendable were mostly based on the idea that they wouldn't let someone who is going to die from the curse do that which is provably wrong given that Sophie died from it in the first episode and now this episode itself has shown that Suletta isn't permet resistant, Eri herself was the one protecting her.

A lot of the events of MSG The Witch From Mercury are not new nor are they like, uncharacteristic of the series and its themes.

I think some people were getting frustrated that suletta has a slower-cooking characte arc but the protagonist should always have the longest run of development in a story like this. Like yeah, you can give characters big surges in development, but Suletta is tied in a gordian knot to Aerial, Eri, Prospera & Miorine so it's only going to go as fast as the overarching plot moves which is not over so of course it's not going to be cathartic in episode 20/21 as opposed to episode 25. Suletta is doing a lot to grow it's just in the subtleties as opposed to some cool one liner or a victory lap with her MS. Besides, she's getting a new MS and it's not Schwarzette so we have the stage set for ideals, self, existence & family to clash swords in a battle grown laden with the bodies of the innocent.

Suletta will have the last, and best character ending because her's is the one that spans 25 episodes, not 8 or 9 episodes.

As for the next four episodes:

Prospera Mercury probably dying (there is a non-zero chance she might live since people fake-die all the time in Gundam).

Lauda taken by the curse OR Guel is killed in battle (temporary death).

Miorine reunites with Suletta at the end of the season (I theorized that separation would be a recurring theme during this season).

Miorine's eye is blown up, however, I think this visual metaphor in the ED is more of a narrative kind of thing where she's lost one eye because she's had her ideals completely dismantled by inadvertently staging a false-flag attack more or less. Doesn't really matter that she didn't know that it would happen, her very character is lamenting everything that's happened in this episode.

Suletta hasn't really shown the same level of like social awkwardness and has a lot more confident body language in the last two episodes, I think that she will have a much firmer resolve to stop her mother if it means Eri & the kids can be free.

I'm not really that into theorycrafting but those are my remaining predictions.

I don't know how this show will end, I don't know if SuleMio will get their happy ending, I don't know if one or both of the Jeturk brothers are dying and I don't know who makes it out of this one alive - all I know, is that we got some good Gundam each week and I'm not gona argue with some people about it every week.

Oh, also, Suletta will get the curse if there's no filter - remember what Olcott said and the repeated references to a lack of care for pilot safety throughout the series.

Every single part of season 2 has been peak fiction. I'm enjoying the ride, so let's enjoy what it has to offer.

tl;dr - QZ = permet disrupting field, Suletta doesn't actually have permet "resistance" as Eri did not either, Lauda to Schwarzette, Miorine has PTSD from the attack on Earth, Suletta has strengthened her resolve and largely shed her self-doubts especially in Episode 20, Petra alive, Gundam Caliban is probably Unicorn, Schwarzette is Banshee, and Aerial is Phenex [tl;dw - ghost in a Mobile Suit].

[redhatmeg]

Okay, so... Henry Blake's final episode...

I need to start with the fact that my first encounters with M*A*S*H* happened when I was in kindergarten/elementary school. Back then I happened to catch some episodes on TV, but since they were broadcasted late at night, I was falling asleep after ten or so minutes.

Either way, back then I remembered that there was Radar (he's imprinted into my memory the most, for some reason), Hawkeye, Klinger, Burns, Houlihan, Hunnicut and Potter. I had vague idea who was who there.

Fastforward to my middle school and some Polish TV station broadcasts reruns of M*A*S*H* and I'm like: "Cool! I remember liked it. It can be fun!"... But in the first episode I watched I was a little bit confused, because instead of Sherman Potter and BJ Hunnicut, I saw Henry Blake and Trapper. Did I remember it wrong? What happened to the white-haired dude? Why Hawkeye's roommate has this annoying laugh?

Frankly, I found Blake boring and I guess it was partly because I was so fond of Potter. Then this finale happened and back then the scene when Radar comes into OR and breaks the news to others, I thought it was poignient and cool scene, characteristic for this show.

But some time after the TV station finished broadcasting M*A*S*H*, they showed a documentary that I guess was made for the show's anniversary? Either way, they talked extensively about the history of the show and about the most prominent episodes, among which there was Abyssinia, Henry and the final scene. That was the first time when I learned about the method acting, especially about not revealing certain information to the actors to bring up genuine emotions from them. Now we are used to hearing stories about actors playing in the dark, but in this case it was somewhat justified - the actors didn't know about the twist for most of the episode, when Blake was saying goodbye to everybody; and before the big reveal they were told about the twist to prepare themselves for final scene.

Anyway, how do I see it now, when I've got to spend three seasons with Henry Blake?

I still prefer Potter, if only because he seems more effective and doesn't cheat on his wife (as far as I remember). In fact, Blake and Trapper having affairs with nurses left bad taste in my mouth and made me a little less sympathetic towards them from the start. However, both of them have more tender and likeable moments throughout the series, especially when their families are considered. In stark contrast to Burns, often the way Blake and Trapper were talknig about their wives and kids, indicated that they actually do love and miss them.

Blake is more or less a reasonable authority figure. He's not exactly in charge most of the time, but he seem to understand some things about how world works and that he shouldn't be completely by-the-book, if he wants his hospital to be efficient. But there are times when he's too lenient, especially when Hawkeye and Trapper are harrassing major Houlihan. In fact, I can totally understand Margaret's frustration with how Blake doesn't do much to support her authority as a head nurse.

There were moments during this finale, when I felt a little sad, because I knew that Henry is going to die and almost everybody in the 4077th loved this man deeply. I wasn't crying for him, but I was close to it.

So all in all, I don't see Henry Blake as bad character, but I'm glad we're getting to the episodes with colonel Potter and his horse-loving, amateur painting glory.

[purrincess-chat]

I must admit that the idea of prpr is so deeply ingrained in the fandom culture that it's hard to give up on it. I saw lots of old fanarts of Adrienette, and they all are supposed to be post-reveal. I remember reading a reddit post saying that Adrienette basically cannot happen pre-reveal. Even when S5 has started airing, fans speculated that if they dated pre-reveal, there wouldn't be more than one date, and then they would inevitably break up. I think those who are upset about pre-reveal Adrienette, are mostly upset about the fact that they couldn't foresee that.

I've talked about this a little before, but fandom is a double edged sword. It's perfectly fine to speculate about what you think is going to happen or to come up with headcanons or AUs or silly ideas that are fun, but that's all they are. Speculation and fun. You have to draw a line between canon and fanon and also recognize that all of these analysis posts (even mine) while they may sound smart and true, we are all operating off of limited information, and therefore none of our takes are 100% accurate. People get stuff wrong all the time because new episodes come out that completely change the game. The analysis I wrote yesterday could be completely uprooted by a single episode if canon so decided. That's why I tell people to take everything you read in fandom with a grain of salt. Because even the "smartest" and most well thought out takes can be wrong because we don't have all of the episodes. I'm not an authority on this show by any means, nor is any other fan. Even the fans that got hired by Zag aren't privy to every single detail about the show. They know what they're told, and even then, stuff can change last minute. It's fine to speculate about what we think is going to happen, but if we're wrong, that's not canon's fault.

And look, prpr is a fun idea in fanon, but I never foresaw it being canon. Look at the what if episodes, those two jumped immediately to being a couple, so I never had a reason to think the actual reveal would be any different. The thing about building up these fanon ideas in your head is it sets an unrealistic expectation for canon, and you're setting yourself up for disappointment. You have to separate the two. Keep fanon in fandom, and let canon tell the story it intends to. Because the thing is, we aren't the ones in the writing room. We don't know all of their plans or what things need to happen in order for the plot to work. We can speculate all day long based on the little clues we have, but canon can still throw a curve ball. I mean, after the s4 finale, did we expect to get reverse love square and canon Adrinette midway through s5? Clearly not 😂 But here we are. Canon is going to do what canon is going to do whether we like it or not. It's fine to not particularly like some decisions canon makes, everyone has preferences, but to say canon is ruined or bad or should have done some popular fan idea instead is not only entitled behavior it's also childish lol. Canon is ruined for you. And that's fine. But it doesn't mean canon is inherently bad just because you didn't care for the direction it's going in. A lot of people would do well to remember they are one person, and no one is making them watch. If they don't like canon anymore, don't watch it anymore. 🤷‍♀️ As some have pointed out, there are tons of shows that do high school romance better, so go watch one of those.

Idk, I think people are crossing too many lines and blurring fanon with canon. Fan ideas are meant to be fun for fans, not to influence and predict canon. If something makes it into the show or we guess something correctly, great, but that's not guaranteed or owed to us. There also isn't a rule that says if canon contradicts your fan idea that you have to stop doing it in fandom? Fans can still write, draw, and make headcanons for prpr or romantic LadyNoir if they want, but like it or not, Adrinette is still canon, yall. Even all the way up to episode 20, and I doubt it's going to change in the last few episodes. Get used to it. Or go watch something else idc 🤷‍♀️

[countlessrealities]

@petalsxfallen sent: “Can you guys take me to see the Barbie movie?” (rejuvenated Petal for Summer and Morty)

This wasn't the first time Petal came to them with that sort of request. Since Summer had revealed to her the existence of movie theaters one afternoon during a trip at the mall, the pearl had quickly gotten enthusiastic about it, to the point that she had started to keep track of the upcoming titles.

The three of them had already gone to watch a movie together a couple of times and it had been fun, especially considering how easy to awe the Gem was in her current rejuvenated state.

So, Morty didn't have any problems with going to the movies, nor he had any with being in his sister's and his friend's company. What made him grimace a little was Petal's latest pick.

"Uuuh, t-that's a great idea, Petal, b-but damn, I...I really can't because I need to...I-I mean, you know how Rick is," the boy started to stutter out, as his mind whirled to find a proper excuse. "W-We are in the middle of this...thing, a-a very important thing an-and I need to be...you know, around. I-In case he needs me?"

From her spot on the couch, Summer rolled her eyes. Maybe the pearl would have bought that lame ass excuse, but she knew better. As a matter of fact, she could easily guess where all that reluctance was coming from.

"She didn't even say when she wants to go. How do you know that you'll be busy?" She stated in a flat tone. She knew that convincing him to come would have been impossible, but that didn't mean that she wasn't ready to call him out on his bullshit. "Just admit that you don't want to go because Barbie movies are, like, 'girls movies' and you don't want people to make fun of you for watching them.

Morty instantly shot her a glare, but it was unsurprisingly ignored. Why did Summer always have to be...well, Summer? Couldn't she let him get away with it at least from time to time?!

"I-It's not that!" He shot back, even if he felt a little guilty for lying while Petal was right there. "I...I-It's...Do you want Rick to open a portal in the middle of the movie t-to take me away an-and disturb everyone in the room? A-As I said, we're busy. H-He could need me any time! An-And speaking of, I-I think I hear him calling, s-so, uh, I-I'm gonna...y-you know."

And with that he rushed towards the kitchen, heading for the garage, without waiting for an answer.

Summer let out a snort, shaking her head slightly, eyes still glued to her phone.

"I'm going to see it with my girl friends Thursday night," she informed Petal with a little shrug. "You're welcome to join us, if you want."