#i mean she was all but bullied and chased out of the spotlight at one point and yeah she made it back but

[ilostyou]

it's just ... so interesting to me that of ALL people, taylor swift's team is choosing to go with the "it's just a joke and he just likes eliciting reactions" angle given how taylor and her team know exactly how damaging something like that can be

[bearmemesreviews]

Spontaneous Spotlight: Silent Hill's C. B.

Sometimes you don't have enough time or material to make a full series of reviews on something, so when that happens I'll pop out a Spontaneous Spotlight review to cover any short topic that has recently come to my attention. Today we're talking about Silent Hill!

I have debated on whether or not to list SH on my "To-Do" list of franchises to review the creatures of, but those guys have been picked apart so much that I don't have anything new to say. However, new SH content is set to release in the coming years, so that means fresh pickings for me - starting with the face of our newest surprise entry: Silent Hill: The Short Message.

SMG is meant to be a free and easy entry into the Silent Hill Franchise for modern gamers. Reintroducing the surreal, heavy-handed themes and imagery of the series to hint towards what future titles may hold. Taking place in post-Covid Germany of all locations, we follow a girl named Anita as she searches an abandoned apartment complex named The Villa for her friend - a popular street artist named Maya.

Obviously meant to pick-up where P. T. left off, the game is a very blunt suicide prevention PSA which, controversial opinion, really harkens back to the heyday of SH. Corny dialogue from a tortured protagonist with the most perfect art direction in the world with a sick-ass monster design.

Yeah, there's only one monster and it's mostly just for chases, but my god what a monster.

TW: Discussions of Suicide, Suicidal Ideation, Self-Harm, Child Abuse, Bullying, and Body Horror. Spoiler Warning for Silent Hill: The Short Message.

Design: There is no true name for the Monster but the artist who designed them has acknowledged the fan nicknames of "Sakura Monster" and "Cherry Blossom". Cherry Blossom is what I'm sticking to because it ties into the twist of the game, which we'll get to later. Cherry Blossom is a humanoid with nearly accurate proportions to a teenage girl. In fact, it has completely humanoid legs from the thighs to the ankles.

Cherry Blossom is named after the flowers that every Anime nerd knows by memory, the bright pink tree foliage clumps together in a large mass that obscures all skin besides the aforementioned legs. The flowers sprout outwards from the head, making it resemble a bush from the neck up, and grows down the front of its chest (as if it's growing wherever skin would be exposed for someone wearing only a jacket with the front unzipped) and across its waist - making a skirt out of the plants. Miles of black wire seems to be used to secure the flowers onto the creature's "head", limbs, and torso. It appears to be wearing a hoodie, but the fabric is almost too moist to be real clothing. Both its hands and feet deteriorate into jagged potentially wooden spikes which is its main form of attack.

The artist specifically mentioned that they wanted to avoid using blood on this monster, opting instead to incorporate beautiful imagery into something distorted and unnerving. And I think they succeed, it's quite an unnaturally pretty monster but its body plan is so unique and effortless in its execution.

Say what you want about PT's take on the gameplay, but what it severely lacked was a monster that screamed "Silent Hill" while being its own thing like Cherry Blossom. It rivals Pyramid Head in its iconography.

Which makes sense since CB was designed by Masahiro Ito, the designer of old Triangle Hat himself. Check out the guy's twitter, his insight into the workings of Silent Hill's design is awesome. [X]

There he also posted a scrapped monster concept who shares a few details with Sakura Head, especially the way its humanoid legs distort into pegs it walks on like stilts. It's almost like a humanoid with an organic skirt that becomes an indescribable mess of viscera and wires. From a distance some of the loose barbed wire make an almost eye-like shape, with the messed up "upper body" acting like a pupil. It's shoots some of its body mass forward, or maybe it's an oddly shaped proboscis.

The game itself has stellar art direction, especially for the middle chase sequences that play around with the game's industrial motifs due to the protagonist being an artist. I especially love the usage of eyes for one of them, I genuinely suggest playing it just for that one chase in the photo maze. Also remember the corny wall messages written in blood saying "this is hell", they're back.

Symbolism: Anita, our protagonist, is revealed as unsubtlety as the franchise is prone to, to be a survivor of childhood abuse from a mother who saw her children as a curse for existing. Her mother was eventually arrested after her neglect led to Anita's brother dying, the police later finding his body hidden in the fridge. They discovered it after the clear was given to remove the kids from the home (CPS had already been investigating beforehand). Anita would later become friends with Maya and another girl named Amelie, but her trauma led to her growing abandonment issues.

(Pictured Above: Maya, a teenage girl of Asian Descent.) As a child, art was an escape and the only positive connection she had with her mother, but Anita felt upstaged by Maya due to her friend being a popular street artist named Cherry Blossom. CB's art was a combination of beautiful imagery used to express the hidden struggles and wants of teenage girls, which explains why the Sakura Monster looks the way it does.

See this original design for CB, where the hoodie and skirt are more obvious as clothing being worn by the monster. The body was made more organic looking to both increase its monstrousness, but to also make the connection to Maya more abstract. Cherry Blossom is a looming figure born from the art of someone who has everything Anita wants, it's a constant reminder of Maya and how much of a threat she was in Anita's mind. This is combined with how much Anita admired Maya, which only fueled her jealousy when she believed that Maya was trying to steal Amelie from her.

However, it's not Maya reanimated. It's a manifestation built from Anita's subconscious, much like Maria, that exists to torment and corral Anita into facing her issues head on. And I do mean torment and corral, because the game soon reveals that Anita cannot die. Whether it's purposefully ending her life, or failing to escape CB in a chase, if she dies, she's forced to return to a part of The Villa with the memories of her death.

The game plays into this with having in-game deaths be reversed like VHS tapes, with the game's trigger warning page reappearing every time she has to start the entire game all over again. It's later revealed that Anita came to The Villa, not to meet with Maya personally, but to visit the spot where she leapt to her own death years ago. This leads to her making several attempts on her own life to follow Maya's stead, but The Villa refuses to let her escape in any way besides what "it" wants her to do. How the games end once you finally confront all of Anita's traumas and guilt over Maya's suicide, well, I'll leave that to you to find out. However, as an overall experience it really feels like a better reintroduction than the travesty that was Ascension. I feel like, since PT's been deleted for a while now, its gameplay is less intolerable than when every indie game wanted to do PT again in the 2010s and the set pieces make up 70% of the experience. And these are some damn fine set pieces.

This game is all around just beautiful to experience, but you might be left wondering how this ties into Silent Hill...after all, I did mention this taking place in Germany. Silent Hill F, another upcoming game, seems to be taking similar cues to SH:SMG by not only using beautiful imagery for grotesque body horror, but also taking place somewhere away from our fog covered tourist spot.

In-game we are told about "The Silent Hill Effect" through a newspaper clipping, which seems to imply that in the world of Silent Hill the town the game's named after is not as uncommon of an occurrence as we thought. It's definitely its most famous, but the fog seems to venture outside our favorite cultist stomping ground. I would love for SH to take the Biohazard(Resident Evil) route of taking its core concept and expanding on it into new settings. Especially if it means less Bobblehead Nurses and Pyramid Head appearances in the future, put those guys in the retirement home my god.

My theory is that the human consciousness itself can manifest pockets of Silent Hill's phenomenon as long as enough people in one space compound their traumas and miseries into a monster creating mist, further supported by the fact that the original town already had a history of supernatural events and cult activity before the events of the main games.

I guess Silent HILLS isn't completely dead and buried.

[shihalyfie]

The meaning of the Beast Spirits in Frontier, and what it means to control it

(On request by @digitalgate02​.)

When you think about it, Frontier can be framed as a story of outcasts or misfits having to accept the idea of “changing themselves” in order to become better people, both literally in the sense of embracing physical transformation, and metaphorically in the sense of making attempts to do better. Implicitly, it speaks a lot as to how quickly these kids accept the idea of turning into something else -- perhaps implying as to how ostracized they’ve felt that such a thing instantly sounds appealing -- but it also adds some interesting layers to the concept of the Beast Spirit and how the difficulty of “controlling it” ties into each character’s personal story.

I think a lot of it has to do with the idea that these kids did have inclinations of being selfish or shallow at the beginning -- while they were full of potential to become heroes, they definitely started off as unlikely misfits at the beginning. In that respect, you can see the Beast Spirits arc as a sort of lesson that great power must be used wisely and responsibility...

Believe it or not, our biggest clue to all of this comes from episode 16, Izumi’s episode. It’s not directly stated in words, and the abstract summary of “determination” is passed off as a joke, but looking at the context clues around the episode indicates that’s actually not far off.

The thing is that Calmaramon is depicted as having the hardest time with her Beast Spirit compared to practically about anyone else in the group, and one of the recurring themes about it is that it’s partially because her personality is downright terrible. If you look at the context clues behind the prior episode (15), you’ll notice that while her looks are briefly brought up as an issue there and in this episode, the part that’s really freaking everyone out (and is making everyone worried Izumi will turn out to be the same) is that they actually saw it have an impact on her personality, where she was clearly conscious and able to talk but also indiscriminately destroying everything and enjoying it. At least in the case of Kouji, Takuya, and Junpei, they can be forgiven because they all did their best to keep it under control after the initial fallout, but Ranamon changing into Calmaramon had also involved her becoming someone actively reveling in senseless destruction. When everyone worries that Izumi might turn out like that, they don’t even bring up looks at all, and they all recoil when she does start showing signs of being destructive anyway.

The thing is, the entire rest of the episode puts a massive spotlight on Izumi’s actions of standing up for the Gomamon and empathizing with their loneliness (which, given the contexts added about Izumi’s background and backstory in episodes 8 and 26, are most likely her feeling that the concept of “being isolated from others no matter how much you want to reach them” hit way too hard for her) to the point she puts her foot down to override the boys’ prior plan of chasing the Toucanmon and their Digivices. She actually faces quite a bit of protest from the boys on this issue, and even admits she’s not sure if her own plan will work, but focuses on the idea of doing her best to undo the whirlpool with her abilities -- that is to say, using her power to protect and help others.

This sentiment of “I have to protect everyone” drives Izumi’s actions for the rest of the episode, to the point it’s the only thought consuming her head right before she finds and claims her Beast Spirit. So to make it clear, at the time she claimed it, the thought of “protecting others” was desperately, single-mindedly consuming her head...

...and the contrast is immediately apparent when Shutumon emerges, and the only thing Ranamon cares about is looks.

In other words, the reason the Beast Spirit wasn’t working out for Ranamon/Calmaramon is that she only wanted the Beast Spirit’s power for the sake of pride, vanity, and dominating others, and because of that, she had difficulty controlling it because it resonated with those feelings -- after all, although she wanted to “control” it to the extent of not carrying her all over the place, she was perfectly fine with the part about causing wanton destruction. Izumi, on the other hand, is clearly holding herself back even after her first evolution to Shutumon -- trying to keep a calm head -- and, after all, her entire motivation had been driven by “helping and protecting others” for the whole episode, so she doesn’t want to let this fail on her now, and she keeps that calm head all the way throughout the rest of it.

When we get to the next episode (17), you’ll also notice that one of the first things Blizzarmon (Tomoki) does is actively attempt to restrain himself. If you look back at what Tomoki’s character arc is about, he’d spent the better part of his past being bullied by others and tossed around, so “overpowering the weak” is the last thing Tomoki ever wants to do (especially given the events of this episode, as well). So, having witnessed the potential consequences of the Beast Spirit with the other boys, it stands to reason that Tomoki would want to avoid “hurting others” so much that restraining this would be a strong priority for him. While it’s commented that it does take his personality out of control a bit, the worst it ever gets is that he seems to be overly elated and cheerful about his defeats, but that’s also in line with Tomoki constantly having been pushed down so much during his life that you can imagine he’s enjoying the opportunity to finally be strong and have the spotlight.

But because he hates the concept of bullying and pushing others down so much, it stands to reason that he wouldn’t really have as much of a problem with that.

So when you look back at the prior episodes with the Beast Spirits with this context, you can see it applying there as well. In episode 14, Junpei was spending the better part of the first half of the episode livid at what was happening to his friends -- absolutely pissed at Grottomon for taking Izumi's spirit (and, despite Izumi's doubts, it's pretty apparent he actually does care about it beyond just having a crush on her), and then upset at the idea of being a sitting duck while Agnimon and Wolfmon are getting tossed around. While Junpei initially has trouble keeping the Spirit under control, the exact moment he gets a grip on himself is the moment he reaffirms his determination to fight for the sake of his friends.

Looking back at the other two episodes about rampaging Beast Spirits in episodes 10 and 12, you can also see why the concept applies there as well. It’s interesting how the “worst” rampage shown among the main protagonist Beast Spirits was not the first one obtained (Garmmon) but the second one (Vritramon), and if you look at the circumstances surrounding them, it doesn’t seem to mean as much about Takuya having any particular stronger tendency towards condescending violence as much as the sheer circumstances that went on behind them:

Kouji obtained his Beast Spirit under the circumstances of already knowing that he needed to protect Gotsumon with that power (and, moreover, having spent the end of the prior episode and the duration of the beginning of this one mulling on Ophanimon’s warning that he’d need to “grow” before he could obtain it). Therefore, “using this power for the desire to protect others” was a huge thought in his head from the very beginning, even though -- presumably partially because this was a first time for everyone -- it threw him off just enough for him to end up exhausting himself.

Takuya obtained his without warning and without proper understanding of what he was dealing with, having had it practically forced on him after Shamamon-as-Vritramon’s defeat, and so, with no context of purpose and no real depth of what he was about to get into, he ended up on a complete destructive rampage. He was snapped out successfully by the need to not hurt someone (Tomoki), and spent the rest of the episode agonizing and mulling over the risks and meaning of having such power before he eventually evolved into Vritramon without too much issue the second time.

So the point is made clear: the “destructive” and “uncontrollable” impulses associated with the Beast Spirits will be sent out of control if the user doesn’t have a strong desire to use it with proper purpose. For Ranamon/Calmaramon, she had the worst time with it because she was the single most obsessed out of the Legendary Warriors to use it to stroke her own ego and vanity, whereas at least the other three Cherubimon-allied ones (besides Duskmon -- see below) were at least capable of using it towards a greater goal, and the remaining five went through the proper outlets of thinking about how this power should be used and how it shouldn’t be used lightly.

While the issue of the Beast Spirits being inherently difficult to control isn’t as prominent as we go later into the series, we do actually see shades of it when we get to the tale of Kouichi/Duskmon/Velgrmon, because while part of it can be chalked up to the power of darkness being consuming, Kouichi, during his first transformation to Velgrmon in episode 30, is only able to talk barely coherently and is really just venting his rage and anger out, presumably because his entire state of mind is locked into all of that, making the rampage even worse. (Also keeping in mind the theme of embracing the idea of changing yourself, you can also think of this in terms of how Kouichi is getting so consumed by his own emotions of anger that he’s become almost completely unrecognizable from his original self.)

Once we get his first “proper” evolution in episode 33, however, Kouichi is abundantly aware of what he’s done and has all of the proper determination to never let such a thing happen again -- so it’s not surprising that his evolution to KaiserLeomon happens with relatively little incident.

[drabbles-of-writing]

Adopted AU

I know you said not to get you started on it but when King changed his name? (also his Hunter already legally a Clawthorne or are you going extra fluff route and having Eda deal with TWO of her three kids chasing their last names)

King was the first kid to even Think about legally changing his name. Luz was the first to know simply because King just had a Revelation with her in the room and jumped up like "I could change my name!" and Hunter found out right after. Hunter bluescreened for a second because he literally forgot you could Do That but was all for King doing so. the three of them teamed up to get the legal adoption papers and also help King sign all of them up until the paper that Eda had to sign. Hunter said "yo what if we just forge her signature and she just has no idea so we can just Casually bring it up one day to fuck w her" and Luz conked him over the head with his own staff. King was a mess of nerves and excitement leading up to telling Eda and Hunter was bullying him the entire time while while Luz fended him off. Luz did at one point just wonder aloud "hey, Hunter, what is your last name?" and Hunter. realizes he has no idea. his certainly doesn't remember his parents last name, or if its even valid anymore, and he's got NO idea what Belos's is. that was a fun time

more under the cut

Hunter also noticed Eda sneaking off a lot, and he was in the stands of the race with Eda when she suddenly darted off. he was hella suspicious but couldnt find where Eda went off to so he stayed at the stands and eyed Eda like "and where were you off to?" meanwhile Eda is trying to not have a breakdown. race ends, King gets his video to try and reach his dad, then he pulls out the adoption papers and Eda starts crying. Hunter tried to escape when all of them were getting emotional but he got dragged into the family hug. after the whole ordeal he noticed Eda was a lot more. morose for a while and she stopped leaving all the time. he was suspicious but decided not to comment on it.

anyway, because of all That with King, Hunter had quite the time going round in circles going "huh. i wonder if i could change my name to Clawthorne" but there are 3 problems with that. 1) he doesn't even know if he can legally change it due to. you know everything and Belos would probably find out 2) he doesn't want to take the spotlight from King and 3) he and Eda have been dancing around calling each other family for YEARS. they obviously care a Lot about each other but due to Eda's insistence on being alone (save for the 2 kids she just Happens to leave out of the equation when she says so) in the beginning of S1 and Hunter being fairly similar it caused them to mostly just love each other Internally. plus, both of them did Not have good relationships with their bio family, Hunter especially. Hunter both had an aversion to calling anyone family after his experience with Belos, as well as Eda worrying about calling him her kid because of said issues with previous family. it was absolutely infuriating for anyone to watch these two love each other through thick and thin but then immediately pretend that No they aren't Family you see-

this also tacks onto Hunter very obviously thinking of King and Luz as his siblings but struggling slightly with calling them as such. Eda he had a tougher time with because of his previous shitty parental figure and now he's got a Much better parental figure, he didn't have any sibling-figures before this. anyway, this all cultivates in Hunter waiting a while before like, Right before some battle or important scene, basically the worst possible time and him getting the "well guess its now or never and im not letting either of us die with regrets" mindset and whirling around back to Eda like "could I be a Clawthorne? I mean, it'd probably only be honorary since I have no idea if I can even legally change my name what with Belos and all. and adoption papers are probably gonna be even Harder to come by but. yeah I wanna also be a Clawthorne is that cool" and Eda is trying (and failing) So Hard to not cry she loves this kid so much.

[whichpercydoyouthink]

The one where Qing Ming is kind of like Robin Hood but is also the adopted father of numourous children and Bo Ya just wanted his job back... or something

So it’s been brought to my attention that The Yin Yang Master (2021) is based on the video game and The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity (2020) is based on the novel which makes sense now that I’ve watched the former and seen how different they are. I wasn’t aware of this before I watched it, though, and as a result, I couldn’t help comparing it a lot. Which was a mistake because despite sharing the characters Qing Ming and Bo Ya as well as their fictional universe, they are very very different movies with different strengths and weaknesses (apart from their shared beautiful visuals and soundtrack, ofc). During this rant/rave unfortunately I won’t be able to stop myself in the comparisons as that is how I experienced the movie but I will try my best to separate them as much as possible.

BUT, before I do anything else, a summary: we start with a glimpse in the past in which Qing Ming is caught betraying the Yin Yang Bureau (yeah, so apparently there’s an entire BUREAU which explains a lot) and after killing some guy called Ci Mu, and escapes using a Thor-worthy teleportation spell. Skip some years and we have Capital Guard Bo Ya who encounters the rogue Qing Ming when he hijacks the transportation of some tributes and generally annoys the heck out of Bo Ya. When Bo Ya is suspended as a result, he goes on a journey to find Qing Ming in the Monster Realm and arrest him. Along the way he meets a girl called Shen Le equally eager to find Qing Ming. As they find Qing Ming, the pair get caught in a conflict between Qing Ming and literally everyone else, eventually being swept up in a battle to save both the human and monster worlds from the clutches of the great evil wanting to take over the world. Feat: Qing Ming’s dark past and a boss lady called Bai Ni.

One of the things that really stood out in this movie (for me at least) was the rich and colourful world it explored. Seriously, it’s like something out of Star Warsor Guardians of the Galaxy except without the space, and magic instead of guns/lightsabres. There were so many interesting monsters and places to see. I loved Qing Ming’s home and the little world it contained with all his familiars. I also loved the monster city and the Spirited Away-esque bridge thing, that was really cool. It was just so entertaining to see the characters interact with this world even some of them were also discovering with us and it felt big and detailed and creative. This world-building is something I feel this movie did better than Dream of Eternity, if only for the fact that the world felt bigger, and we got a lot more information on things that weren’t necessarily needed for the plot but were still cool to see.

I also enjoyed the fresh characters this movie presented around Bo Ya and Qing Ming. It was kind of like watching an alternate universe but that was also an awesome experience in itself because I got to see Bo Ya and Qing Ming in a different way, in different situations and I got to fall in love with more characters. I thought Shen Le was cool and I loved the sibling-like squabbling she and Bo Ya shared as it filled the Bo Ya and Qing Ming partnership-shaped hole in my heart. Same goes for badass Bai Ni and her more mature old friends-turned-enemies relationship with Qing Ming. The character who became my new favourite was the Red Ghost, though, like seriously, that ability of his was freaking awesome and made him practically indestructible. He also, like, ditched his bully captors and saw Bo Ya as worthy of being his master so he obviously has good taste. In addition, despite what I’m gonna say about the movie’s villains later, I will say that the Snow Lady/Queen was interesting. Her airy voice-thing was slightly annoying, but her powers were cool and it was awesome to see her in a fight scene. She was all swish swish, bendy bendy, ‘join my master’. I definitely liked her better than he-who-shall-not-be-named-but-will-later-be-described (I hope others who have watched are able to guess who).

I gotta say, I really mourned the loss of Bo Ya and Qing Ming’s chance to properly work as a team and bond. I mean, they did reach a place where Qing Ming was amused by the angry child chasing him and Bo Ya grudgingly respected the mischievous Yin Yang Master, but I wanted more scenes where they worked together. I felt they barely had any moments where it was just them. Oh well. That’s just me comparing it to Dream of Eternity too much, I guess.

To be fair, in pushing away Dream of Eternity from my mind, I did really like the new take on both Qing Ming and Bo Ya’s characters. Qing Ming definitely had more of a rule-breaking outcast vibe, and I thought the actor did a fantastic job. Bo Ya was adorable but in a younger, less experienced way. To that end, the relationship between Qing Ming and Bo Ya was less as equals and more of an older/ younger friendship. Which, I guess, isn’t too strange considering in this one, Qing Ming was undoubtably the main character, with less of a chance for them to share the spotlight.

Ok, so, I don’t like to complain, and I don’t say this to warn people away from the movie BUT I can’t deny that (to me) the first half of the movie definitely felt better than the second half. I don’t know, maybe that’s just when the plot really starts to kick in and for me, the plot kind of felt like the let down of the movie. It just didn’t captivate me as much and with kind of terrible villains, it just wasn’t as good for me. I love movies with a good antagonist, particularly one that doesn’t look quite so… ridiculous. Maybe it was just me but the flowing red hair, reindeer horns and giant spider hand-thing didn’t really impress me as much as an immortal snake man who actually has an emotionally driven motivation. The bridge battle didn’t really feel as high stakes as they tried to make it, I don’t know, maybe that was just me. And the way Qing Ming took down the bad guys and the way it ended? Wasn’t really satisfying to me. I guess it leaves room for a second movie? I’m not really sure. (I’m trying really hard not to spoil anything if you can tell.)

No but don’t let that dissuade anyone. Seriously, it’s still a good movie in my eyes and I enjoyed it, especially as it definitely answered a lot of the questions Dream of Eternity left me with. Yes, the plot kind of sucked but the worldbuilding was fantastic and the different realms were interesting to explore. Maybe if you plan to watch both movies, watch this one before Dream of Eternity. That way you will be able to enjoy it without comparing the plot/characters so much AND you’ll be able to go into Dream of Eternity with some knowledge of the world already and maybe come out with less questions. But seriously, they’re good movies separately. So, give it a go, I guess. If you want, that is.

Completely irrelevant side note here (screenshot below) but did Qing Ming in that scene make anyone briefly think of Inuyasha or was I the only one who was reminded my that while watched? No? Just me? Ok. I haven't even watched the anime wth why did I think of this.

[prurientpuddlejumper]

Well This is Strange and Unexpected [Toshinori x Reader] [Part 2]

<- Part 1 | Part 3 ->

Summary: Toshinori struggles with your unfavorable opinion of his heroic alter-ego, but tries his hardest to impress you on a second date! Now… how do people date again?

4,537 words | SFW

“Wh-wh-what are you saying? You don’t like All Might?”

“I am just so tired of how everybody loves him! ‘I got the All Might special-edition action figure.’ ‘Well I got his autograph,’” you parrot in a mocking tone. “Whoop-de-friggen-doo. And he’s such an annoying showboat—like, I appreciate the crime he stops, but half the time he’s just striking a pose in front of news cameras shouting some dumb catchphrase. Go catch a bag guy and quit bragging about it! But you know what pisses me off most of all—all the swooning and fangirling. Why are so many women even into him?! All those beefy muscles are so ugly, he’s like an upside-down stack of potatoes! Who likes that?”

Toshinori is just staring, slack jawed, at you. Like you kicked his puppy.

“Sorry for going off like that, I shouldn’t tear apart something you obviously like.”

Is what you should have said.

Instead, you inhale, and, “Another thing! He’s not even edgy, or interesting—there’s no depth there, he’s just… all powerful and perfect? It’s so boring! All flash and no substance. If I was going to root for a hero, it’d be someone like Eraserhead. So dark and gruff, never putting himself in the spotlight, letting the work speak for itself.”

“I�� I’ve gotta go.” He stands robotically and walks toward the door. Oh, shit. Your heart sinks.

“Wait!” you run after him and grab his arm. “I’m sorry. I was being mean. It’s just, All Might stuff is everywhere and it feels like I can’t escape it,” you laugh. “But if you’re a fan, that’s OK. I won’t make fun of him. I really am sorry.” He finally turns around to face you.

“I meant the phone call. I gotta go. Emergency.” He holds up the glowing screen.

“Oh.”

He smiles and pats you on the head. But he’s more subdued than he was a minute ago, and there’s a pain in his eyes when he looks at you that wasn’t there before. He probably did take it really personally when you insulted his hero. Idiot.

“Do you really think All Might is ugly?” he asks quietly, gathering his things by the door. “There’s nothing appealing about him at all?”

“Like I said, you’re my type.”

He lets out a quiet, almost melancholy breath of a laugh. He turns to you, and wraps his long arms around you, pulling you into a gentle embrace. It’s not a particularly passionate hug—his touch is so light, he’s barely making contact at all—but he’s tall enough to rest his chin on top of your head.

“You’re a strange one,” he whispers.

You close your eyes and breathe him in. He smells a lot like iron and convenience-store floor, actually, could be a lot more romantic. But you feel content so close to this scarecrow, with his soft bangs hanging down and brushing your skin. You almost let out a whine when he finally pulls away.

“So, will I see you again?” You ask, nervous about the answer. He couldn’t have been that serious about that All Might stuff, right? But if you chased him off, at this point, it might break your heart.

“Definitely.” A wide grin splits his whole face as he strikes a heroic pose. “My debating skills cannot be defeated! Next time, I’ll convince you All Might is the greatest hero!”

“Oh my god, get out of my house.”

 ****

Toshinori couldn’t believe it. Today of all days. First he wore himself out doing hero work in the morning. Then USJ was attacked and he pushed past his limit to rescue his students, nearly died, and once again reduced the amount of time he can remain in his muscle form. On top of all that, now, today of all days is when a couple of everyday bullies decide to hassle him.

He just had to go for a walk instead of getting a cab straight home. Had to stop to pick up medicine, even though it was already getting dark. Were such simple things really so hard for the number-one hero now?

He would laugh if it weren’t so pathetic.

It wasn’t like this had never happened before. Every once in awhile some delinquent singles him out, expecting a weak target, but even in his weak form, on a normal day, he would easily dodge and evade them, quickly diffusing the situation.

But today. Today he was done. He had already gone beyond what he had to give, and gone beyond that again, and he was out.

There were plenty of witnesses in the store, but nobody was going to stop to help, just pretending they couldn’t see. He was practically invisible in this form. Nobody cares what happens to some creepy, worn-down old man. It’s better this way, anyway. What kind of hero would he be if someone got hurt rescuing him?

This was really going to happen. He was really going to have his ass kicked by some random jerks. How had he fallen so low?

Then you appeared.

There was nothing he could do to stop you from putting yourself in danger: he could barely move. That kick caught him right in his weak spot, the old wound Nomu had already agitated earlier that day. A sickening, warm gurgling of fluids squished in his lungs, making each breath a battle against the encroaching darkness.

Run away. Just run away!

You obviously weren’t a hero, you didn’t have any training, that was clear in the way you carried yourself. But you were brave. Brave enough to piss those guys off. You just kept telling them off like you had no sense of self-preservation, until—he saw one of them about to throw a punch at you, and his nostrils flared in anger. He would have to—have to force himself to transform, no matter how it would hurt him, no matter how many people would see. He couldn’t let this happen—

Then you did something his pride would never have let him consider: you just started shrieking.

It worked. You saved yourself, and him, though it was even more humiliating than letting himself get beat up. There he was, suffocating on his own blood where anyone walking by could see what a helpless weakling he was… and now there was a girl bawling loudly on that same floor, drawing everyone’s attention to the intensely embarrassing scene.

Time to crawl into a hole and never show his face again?

He had to hand it to you though, you knew what you were doing. You forced all the silent spectators to admit they were paying attention—forced them to get involved. You had the heart of a hero, all right.

Everything after that seemed to happen so fast. Losing consciousness, learning that you had risked your well-being once again for him with your quirk. The shame he felt, seeing you suffering the same symptoms he was. Then suddenly, you were asking him out?

He was used to getting attention all the time in his muscle form, but in his true form, he was so invisible he could transform into All Might in public and nobody ever noticed. Like there was nobody standing there before All Might magically showed up.

His head swam dizzily when you said that he was your type. How could you be serious? But it seemed you were, even though he had been nothing but helpless. Even though you were coughing up blood because of him. What in the world were you seeing?

You were so boldly affectionate with him—though every time you did something unreserved, you started turning red and shaking, like you were acting with your heart before your head could talk you out of it. Even his hideous scar, and the frustrating health issues he doesn’t like to burden others with, you accepted without even a moment of disgust or fear. You reached out and touched it without thinking, and then blushed. It was so cute.

Being adored and praised as All Might was easy to brush off, but this? He had never had someone pressed against his body so affectionately as this drained husk. As the thing he was slowly becoming, permanently. There was at least one person who still saw him. He could get used to that feeling—that warmth in his chest. 

Then his phone rang—that custom ringtone he recorded himself! For a moment, he thought you were putting it together: the blond hair, two long bangs, the eyes, the voice.

But no, instead he got an even bigger shock. You don’t like All Might?!

How can he go out with someone who doesn’t like All Might? He is All Might!

Obnoxious? Ugly?? SHE PREFERS AIZAWA?!?!

Nope. That’s it. That is more than he can take.

But then there you were, pulling at his arm with those puppy-dog eyes, apologizing. You didn’t mean anything against him. You just didn’t know. You couldn’t know. He can’t blame you for having an opinion about a public figure. Even he had to admit his public persona could be a little… much.

He checked the caller before dismissing it. It was Nezu, so it probably was important. Not exactly a lie. It’s a shame to leave early, but he didn’t want you to know how shaken he was.

To be honest, he’s been starting to resent All Might a little, himself. He used to be that brawny, handsome hero, but now… now it’s just a mask he puts on. A flashy act for the crowds, and they eat it up, while his real self is overlooked and treated like a punching bag. Of course he resents it, just a little.

It’s actually kind of tickling that you prefer him this way. Pretty soon, it’s all he’ll be.

But he is All Might, too! If you only knew him better, you would realize how awesome he is! After all, All Might is the same person you had a wonderful evening with, laughing and watching movies—the same person you wanted a second date with. Yes, he’s sure you would like all of him if you got to know him! He’ll win you over!

 ****

“Next time, I’ll convince you,” he said. Next time.

After 15 minutes, you get a text from Toshinori’s number. “Oh good, did he make it home safely?” you wonder.

It’s a short essay about All Might.

Ping!

Another text from Toshi. Also about All Might.

Ping!

Did you know crime rates fell by over 20 percent since All Might debuted?

Ping!

His confident demeanor isn’t just showboating, it’s about instilling confidence in—

Ping!

Look at this video of All Might rescuing puppies! PUPPIES!!

You shake your head and laugh, a warm smile on your face. Hero fanatics may be annoying, but Toshi is kind of adorable. It’s so wide-eyed and innocent how much he loves—

Ping! Ping! Ping!

Yeah, never mind, it’s annoying. You text back a single message:

lol.

You can practically hear his internal screaming from across town. You snicker. He was right, you are a little devious.

*********************************************

Toshinori was as busy as he said he’d be. After the flurry of texts, it was over a week before you heard from him again. You thought he might want to watch the U.A. Sports Festival together, since he was such a fan of hero stuff (and All Might would be involved this year—eye roll), but he said he had too much to do.

You wondered if that was true, or if he could hear your eyes rolling through the text message. Maybe your snarky response to his hero obsession had spoiled things, and he’d keep on making excuses until you took the hint.

But a day later, he called back (yes, called—who does that?) and apologized so vehemently, you knew he meant what he’d said all along. He was just busy. But he was going to have some free time over the next week, and wants to see you again!

He shows up at your door with a bouquet of pink, white, and periwinkle flowers in his hands, wearing an oversized blazer and tie. It’s like he’d watched an old Fred Astaire movie to figure out what people on dates are supposed to look like.

“Aww, Toshinori!” you clasp your hands under your chin. “What did I say about marriage? You’re not here to propose, are you?”

He looks down at himself, then at your casual attire. “I overdid it, huh?”

“You don’t do anything halfway, do you?”

“I’ve been told it’s a problem of mine,” he scratches the back of his head, giving a lopsided grin.

“No, it’s adorable!” You take the flowers, brushing your fingers against his, and bury your nose in the fragrant petals. You look up at him with a sultry, playful gaze. “Though… I might need to change into something more formal now, or it’ll look like I hired you.” A fountain of blood shoots from his mouth.

You drop the bouquet and throw your arm under his shoulder in case he falls, the other hand instinctively placing itself over his scar, the source of his affliction. He jumps back with surprising agility, as if evading an attack.

“Don’t,” he warns. “Don’t use your quirk on me again. I’m much better today—the bleeding is always going to happen, so don’t push yourself.”

You hold your hands up in surrender. “OK. I wasn’t going to. Probably. I definitely won’t now. It’s really a regular issue?”

He nods. “I’m sorry if it bothers you.”

“No, no, I was just curious.” You take his hand and lead him inside. He explains his condition, while you find a vase for the flowers. He takes off his jacket and tie, folding them over the arm of the couch. With just a white button-up, he immediately comes down to a more casual level, better matching your outfit. He throws his arms wide to ask, “What do you think?”

You think he looks slender and gorgeous, and just disheveled enough that you want to comb your fingers through his hair, and just dapper enough that you want to undo one more button.

“Perfect!” You throw finger guns at him, “Just a couple of slobs out for a date!”

 ****

Unfortunately, he has a reservation at a fancy restaurant. Very fancy. One of those places where the floors are marble and everyone wears black. Now you feel way under-dressed, and wish he’d warned you that’s why he was dressed so nice. You don’t even want to look at the prices on the menu.

You had hoped this date would be more exciting, considering the first one started with a brawl. That was a real ice-breaker. Here, the atmosphere is so quiet and formal, you’re almost afraid to speak, and a tense silence builds between you. Toshinori doesn’t seem to be having a great time either.

“You’re barely eating anything,” you note him lethargically picking at his plate. “Do you not like the food?”

“No, I just can’t eat much at once, so…”

“But the portions here are really big! Why would you want to come here?”

“It… seemed like the kind of place you’re supposed to go for a date!”

“Are you kidding?” you shout, half standing up from your seat, too loudly for the restaurant, whose more dignified customers glare and scoff. You sit back down and cover your face with your hand. And you just start laughing. A quiet chuckle at first, but soon you can’t even contain it, your shoulders wracking, and your head tossed back.

“Wh-what’s so funny?” Toshi looks scared.

“I hate it here!” you spurt out, still laughing. “This is the worst! It’s way too stuffy, and you can’t even eat the food.”

“I hate this place too! I just thought women like this sort of thing.”

You sputter and howl, slapping the table. “What are we even doing here?”

“We’re getting the bill!” He calls the waiter over, who is happy to shoo you ruffians out of the fine establishment.

 ****

Out in the fresh air and sunlight, you feel like you can finally talk to each other. He apologizes for being too old-fashioned, and, frankly, having no idea what he’s doing. You link arms, and decide to go for a stroll around the city, stopping at a street vendor for pork buns, which Toshi can eat one at a time at his own pace.

However, out in the city, All Might’s unsettling grin was inescapable, watching from every billboard and gift shop. It’s not long before Toshi starts on his favorite subject: prying into why you are the one person on earth who doesn’t adore him. You would be just as happy to let it go, but since he insists, you wind up in a heated back-and-forth.

“…and he’s always like ‘Detroit smash!’ ‘Texas smash!’ but it’s just a bunch of punches.”

“Th-that’s not true at all! Detroit Smash is when he punches downward to create a shockwave, and Texas Smash is when he punches so hard it blows villains away, and—”

“Yeah, that’s just a bunch of punches.”

Choking noises escape his throat. His entire world has been destroyed. Good job.

He hangs his head with a defeated sigh. “So, you really hate All Might.”

You squeeze his arm. It hurts to see him so down, even though it’s silly that he cares so much. “It’s not that I hate him. At the end of the day, I’m glad he’s running around saving lives. The problem is hero culture in general. There’s so much focus on their ‘brand,’ on their market value. I guess I can’t even blame individual heroes for grandstanding, considering their income depends on their popularity, but honestly—they’re public servants, the same as the police. Did you know the police are still responsible for stopping more crimes than heroes, when you take into account all the non-quirk-related crimes they handle, and the detective work used to locate villains in the first place? But you don’t see their faces all over posters, and commercials, and t-shirts!” You point your finger in a random direction, and it lands on a perfume ad in a store window with Uwabami’s face. Amazing, not All Might this time.

“And your hero All Might is the worst one, with that dumb flashy smile, and big inspiring speeches, like he’s gotta make sure everyone knows he’s the greatest.”

Toshinori has been listening silently this whole time, deep in thought. From the solemn frown he was wearing, it seemed some of what you said hit home. But at that last part, he raises his piercing blue eyes to yours.

“You’re wrong… All Might’s smile isn’t about his own ego. He smiles so that people in trouble know everything will be OK. So they don’t feel scared. As long as the hero is still smiling, you know he’s going to win in the end. Being the symbol of peace isn’t about him, it’s about giving the world hope!”

Your heart flutters. It’s not so much the words he said—you’d heard the same line a million times—but the fire in his voice as he said it. Naive as they may be, you can’t help but admire his convictions.

He catches the smile in your eyes, and gives you the biggest, doofiest, triumphant grin. You try to think of something cynical to say to burst that bubble of optimism. You can think of a few: People shouldn’t be symbols, they should be people. That smile is so forced; it’s obvious he’s hiding pain, and you’d rather face the honest truth, no matter how hard, than have hope that’s a lie.

Eh. Maybe you’d tell him later. Right now, you just want him to keep smiling.

“I know!” He rubs his hands together. “Come on, I’ve got something to show you—this way.”

“You cannot take me to a hero museum for a date!” you grimace.

He laughs, grabbing your hand and leading you, “Don’t worry, it’ll be good!”

 ****

The sun is orange in the sky over the ocean, painting the clouds with striking purple and yellow streaks reflected in the waves below. A warm breeze blows your hair back, ruffling Toshinori’s long bangs, and swaying the spiky parts like a field of barley.

“Wow,” you breathe, leaning over the railing of the boardwalk. He leans next to you.

“Better than the restaurant, huh?” he nudges you with his elbow.

“You could’ve at least chosen one of those fancy restaurants where the dishes are tiny, instead of a place you couldn’t eat!”

“Yeah, I really bungled this date thing,” he laughs, hand on his forehead.

How soft would his hair would feel if you twined your fingers through it right now, you wonder? The urge to grab him, and smash your lips against his coils inside you like a spring. But… you’re not sure if he would want that. He’s just so cute!

He offers his arm in a gentlemanly fashion, tipping his head at you. You take it, and stroll together down the steps into the sand and along the beach, the sounds of crashing waves and sea birds like music around you.

“You know, this whole beach used to be covered with trash until about three months ago.

“You know, this whole beach used to be covered with trash until about three months ago. This was never publicized, but it was cleaned up by an aspiring hero who was inspired by All Might. Not everything heroes do is for fame and glory. Sometimes it’s just about helping the community.”

“Then how did you find out about it?”

He blanches. “Huh?”

“If it was never publicized, then how do you know who did it?”

A bright red river ejects from his lips, and he doubles over, hacking. That’s one way to change the subject. You rub his back as he recovers, but instead of helping him relax, he grows rigid and more on-edge.

“What’s wrong?”

“Don’t do it, if that’s what you’re thinking. You have no idea how much it hurts to see you in pain because of me. Promise me you won’t do it again.”

“I…” You almost swear you weren’t going to. That you won’t, ever again. But… “No. I wish I could tell you that, so you can relax around me and not worry, but I’m not going to make a promise I can’t keep. If you passed out again, or if you were suffering in unbearable agony, if… if you were dying… I would use my power, with or without your permission. There’s no way I could let you die, not if I can do something about it.”

“Young lady…” he purrs, stepping in closer, “I like your spirit, but… I don’t want you sacrificing yourself for me. I don’t want anybody else putting themselves through hell trying to be a hero for me.”

There’s a tug on your heart, and before you can stop yourself, you’re up on your toes, hands around his neck, your lips on his. He breathes in, frozen for an agonizing moment. You pull away, bright red, stammering apologies. Then his palm is cupping your jawline, thumb tracing tender circles over your hot cheek. He lowers his forehead, knocking it gently against yours, the side of your nose rubbing against his. His breath, so close, catching. Your eyes close. He angles his head, and kisses you back.

Eventually, you pull away, breathless. Your hands grip his narrow shoulders. “Listen. I appreciate you not wanting me to hurt myself for you. But you can trust me. If I decide to take some of your pain away, it’s because I decided to—get it?”

His face says he doesn’t. You pick up a seashell and toss it into the waves.

“Let me explain. The person this quirk is most dangerous to is its user. The hardest lesson to learn about it is how to say no.

“I was young when All Might debuted, and I loved him back then. His whole noble hero thing—always putting others first, always answering a cry for help, no matter how much danger he was in—I admired it. I wanted to be like that. And when other kids learned that my quirk could take away their scraped knees and bruised elbows, I was in high demand. I don’t think they meant to be selfish—they probably thought I was more resilient to pain as part of my quirk, but I just wanted to smile through it like that dumb bastard on TV. So I just kept taking, and smiling, until I was hooked up to machinery in a hospital bed for two weeks, barely hanging on.”

He grabs onto your hand and squeezes, almost so hard that it hurts. A pained look etches his face. “I’m sorry, I never meant for…”

“Calm down, it’s not like it’s your fault,” you laugh.

He flinches.

“I don’t blame All Might, either. It was my own stupid mistake. That’s how I learned you don’t emulate heroes! Noble sacrifice isn’t. That. Noble.” You poke his chest with your index finger to punctuate each word. “When you have something to offer the world, it’s important to know your limits, and to set boundaries. Because once people learn you’re willing to sacrifice yourself, they’ll take, and take until there’s nothing left.”

Toshinori touches his scar reflexively, fingers spreading protectively, pensively over the destroyed flesh. Then his hand clenches into a fist. “I understand… but still… if someone’s life is at risk, I can’t sit around and do nothing. Someone has to stand up and help, even if it’s dangerous. Someone has to be a hero, so everyone else can live happy lives!”

A smile spreads slowly across your lips. Partly a smile of admiration, from the vestiges of your youthful heart that still loves heroes… and partly the sly smile of a villain just before they dive into a victorious monologue.

“You’re right. That’s why I can’t do nothing if I see you in real trouble. If I decide to use my quirk to ease your pain, it’s not because you asked me to, or because I feel obligated. It’s because I want to. It’s because I weighed the risks, and decided. It hurts me to see you in pain, too, you know.”

His lower lip trembles. Before you know what’s happening, his hand is circling your waist, pulling your hips against his narrow ones, his mouth on yours. His lips are thin and chapped, but warm, making up for their lack of substance by softly giving way as you press against them, parting against yours. You let out a muffled moan. Your hands run over his back, exploring every jagged vertebrae and defined shoulder muscle hidden under his baggy dress shirt, finally coming to rest at the base of his neck, stroking the edge of that soft yellow hair you had longed to feel.

“Are you… using your quirk?” he pants.

“No.”

“Ah. Then this just feels really good.” He holds you tighter.

[theauthorandtheartist]

Cliches

This goes along with the Dannymay day 7 prompt: 2nd chances

I don’t know where I came up with this. I just started writing and didn’t stop. I tried to do a story without using dialogue, and I think I succeeded. I had to write this for a school assignment, so I had to explain the Danny Phantom world a bit because my teacher had no idea what it is. 

Cliches are a wonderful thing. We cling to them like lifelines, hoping for a good "happily ever after" to make everything better. In fact, I'm sure you were expecting a "Once upon a time" to start off the story now weren't you.

Yeah, you were.

Well I'm sorry to disappoint you, but here, there are no cliches. No long-lived and well-loved story arcs to follow, no "good guys" or "bad guys" or save the world scenarios. Here, the princess rescues the prince and the dragon is locked in the tower. Here, the evil stepfather can't get the upper hand over his rebellious teen son. Here, the protagonists are monsters and the villains are heroes.

Probably the only cliche in the whole story is the existence of myself, the narrator, who will shamelessly add my own thoughts and commentary to the story as I please; simply because I can.

Pleased to meet you.

Now, with hasty introductions out of the way, let’s get down to business. I am here to tell you a story, though I’m sure you already knew that. It is my job as narrator, to lovingly guide you through the history, lore, and thrilling storyline that the author has painstakingly crafted for you to enjoy. You’re welcome. 

Let’s just jump straight into it shall we? I’m sure you already know everything there is to know about Amnity Park, and you don’t need me to tell you about their slightly paranormal pest problem. Surely you don’t need me to inform you about the daily ghost attacks, or the ghostly superhero known as Phantom who repeatedly confronts the angry spirit and either persuades them or forces them back across the veil. Assuredly, you know all about Phantom’s tragic backstory, of how he was caught in the veil between dimensions, and was officially turned into Schrödinger’s boy -both living and dead simultaneously. Of course you already know about the struggles of being both a hero and a high school student, missing class and skipping sleep in order to keep his city (and his secret) safe. I don’t need to tell you about the ghost hunters in town, who relentlessly hunt and attack Phantom without warning, oblivious that he is their son. 

No, you already knew all of that. 

Still, it is quite tragic to see a family pitted against one another, even if it is due to ignorance. Danny Phantom is nowhere near being ready to confide in his parents, but progress always starts with a first step. This story is that first step. 

Let’s meet our protagonist, shall we? 

Daniel James Fenton -or Danny, as he prefers to be called- is a good looking kid. Tall and muscular, without the air of privilege or haughtiness that often surrounds such people. His messy black hair and sparkling blue eyes are enough to make any girl swoon, though he does not seek out such attention, preferring instead to mess around with his two best friends. While most boys his age spend their nights drinking or partying, Danny spends his stargazing (or more recently, ghost fighting). He truly is the ideal high school boyfriend -but don’t let him hear me say that, he’s a flustered dork most of the time. He does his best to avoid the limelight, even letting the other kids bully him if it means that he won’t be looked at twice. 

Danny Phantom however, has no qualms with spotlights. In fact, he doesn’t mind them at all as long as they don’t get in the way or result in other people getting hurt. His ghostly form does not look dissimilar to Fenton, swapping black hair for blinding white and blue eyes for toxic green. His normal T-shirt and jeans shift into a full body, black HAZMAT suit with white gloves and the trademark DP logo on the front. It is rather easy to spot, especially when he’s flying around and glowing. 

To hide his alternate identity, Danny created two different personas for his two halves, slipping seamlessly into character whenever it is needed. Phantom is brash and hot-headed, a master at distracting his enemies with witty banter and endless puns. Fenton is cowardly and shy, infamous for being too clumsy to handle glassware. Fenton is terrified of ghosts, Phantom hunts them. Phantom is willing to sacrifice his own safety and wellbeing for others, Fenton gets misty-eyed over papercuts. This way, even if someone had thought that a ghost and a human could be the same, no one would ever suspect the two to be connected. 

It was crucial that the two were never suspected. If the world knew that half-ghosts  existed, Danny’s identity as a human would be overshadowed by his identity as a ghost. Ghosts don’t have rights, therefore Danny wouldn’t have rights. There would be nothing to stop anyone from marching down and kidnapping him for use in loads of painful and most likely unethical experiments. After all, the popular opinion on ghosts was that they were evil, semi-sentient projections who could feel no pain. That doesn’t do much to help his case. 

The people need to be convinced that Phantom was a hero, and that process starts with his parents. The Fentons are the leading ghost hunters in Amnity, and they have dedicated their life to catching and researching ghosts, even if they aren’t very good at it. They are a perfect team. Maddie is thin and slender, and her blue HAZMAT suit does nothing to hide her curves, but she is not weak in the slightest. Her proficiency in martial arts and science is renowned throughout the city, and every thug knows not to mess with the red-haired mother. Jack, however, has the dexterity of a brick wall and the mass to rival an elephant. He looms menacingly over all who approach him, but his childish nature and agreeable personality make it easy for him to interact with others -even if he is a little too passionate about his profession. 

 The Fentons are stubborn, but not bullheaded. They can see reason when they need to, and unfortunately, with the infamous Phantom of Amnity Park bleeding out on their doorstep, they need to reevaluate their theories. 

Phantom lay slumped against the porch railing, eyelids fluttering as he struggled to remain awake. It was a rather gruesome sight, and if Maddie didn’t know that he was a ghost, then she would be furious at whoever dared do this to a child. His right arm pressed hard against his wounded side, soaking the white glove in acid-green, ectoplasmic blood. A nasty gash on his forehead leaked the same vile liquid into his snowy white hair, plastering it against his sweaty, pale skin. In all honesty, he looked like he had brought a toothpick to a knife fight. 

The Fentons frowned at each other, debating their next move. They knew how this happened, news of Phantom’s latest battle against the hunter ghost known as Skulker had been broadcasted on every television for the past three hours, what they didn’t know, and couldn’t figure out, was why Phantom had come here. They were his enemies, for all intents and purposes, they were very loud about their threats to rip him apart. But here he was, bleeding out on their porch, and Maddie found herself fighting between her hunter’s curiosity and her motherly worry. 

Phantom didn’t look older than her own son, Danny. She hadn’t noticed that before, but now it was painfully obvious how young he was. It also struck her that he was a ghost, which means at some point or another Phantom had been alive. She couldn’t imagine losing Danny, and this ghost didn’t look older than seventeen. 

She sighed, and scooped the hero up into her arms. The hunting could wait. It was against the hunter’s code to kill anything that you hadn’t weakened yourself, anyways, best to fix him up and let him be on his way. She could chase him down again later. 

Now I know you’re thinking, “but Mr. Narrator, isn’t the hunter nursing the huntee back to health and becoming friends a huge cliche?” And to that I say, yes. However, that is not what we’re doing here. They do not become friends and instantly trust each other because of this little incident. This is a first step, nothing more. 

After calming her husband’s fears, and assuring him that she was fine, Maddie cleared off the dining room table and laid the ghost on top. He had lost consciousness at some point while she moved him, and his head lolled back as she set him down. She frowned at the ghost, listening to his labored breaths. Ghosts didn’t need to breathe, but Phantom had always insisted. She never knew why. 

Jack walked up the stairs from the lab, carrying a spool of glowing green thread. Phantom’s wounds would need stitches, and the special thread wouldn’t fall out when he used his power of intangibility. Silently, she stitched up his side, flinching at his whimpers he made every time the needle made contact. She had to remind herself that he was a ghost, and therefore couldn’t feel pain. Any reaction he gave was just part of an elaborate ruse. 

You and I both know that wasn’t true.

She nodded as Jack brought her some bandages, holding his head upright in order for her to wrap them around his ectoplasm-stained hair. A neon green stain spread out on the tabletop, seeping into the wood. This was fine, she would just have to clean it later so the ectoplasm didn’t bring any food to life. 

Satisfied that there were no other major lacerations, she once again scooped up the teenaged hero and moved him slowly to the couch. His unnecessary breathing had evened out, and she could feel a faint, slow, rhythmic thump against the fingers pressed on the base of his neck. It couldn’t be a heartbeat. Ghosts don’t have heartbeats. It must’ve been her imagination. 

As you can see, Maddie is not very receptive to new ideas. 

Laying him on the couch, she expertly ignored the slight hiss he made as his stitches stretched. He began to softly snore. She left the room. Jack was not much help when she explained what she’d felt, merely parroting her feelings back to her with a few insults directed at the ghostly species thrown in. “Ectoplasmic scum” was a popular one, along with “spook” and “monster.” Maddie didn’t know why she didn’t agree with those insults anymore. 

A soft groan echoed from the other room, and Jack jumped to his feet to grab weapons. Maddie stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. Phantom was no threat now, maybe she could get some answers out of him. A strangled, frightened yelp called from the living room, along with a loud thump and a groan. Upon investigation, she found Phantom on the living room carpet, curled up into a ball and shaking. A small pool of his green blood had soaked through the bandages and was now leaving little polka-dots on the rug. 

Phantom apologized for the carpet. 

At first, Maddie was taken aback. Phantom was hurt. Phantom had nearly died. Again. And he was apologizing about the stains on her rug. She didn’t expect most humans to be that selfless, much less a ghost. Nevertheless, Phantom was apologizing for the carpet, as a thin line of green dribbled down from the corner of his mouth. 

She sighed and drew closer, eyes softening as Phantom flinched and tried to back away. She continued to advance, slower this time, and murmured words of encouragement as she approached. The ghosts glowing eyes held suspicion, but he did not flinch away this time. His usual witty banter was gone, much to Maddie’s worry, replaced by the soft pleas of a frightened child. A child faced with death, who did not want to die. 

She called Jack into the room, and asked him to grab some bedding from the storage closet. She had made up her mind. Phantom was not a threat. Jack warily nodded and left to do as she asked, and Maddie gently took Phantom up in her arms again, wiping the green liquid from his face. He stiffened at the contact, but made no move to escape. 

Soon enough, Jack returned with a feather comforter and several pillows. With Phantom’s telekinetic help, they made a soft nest and placed him gently inside. Maddie fussed over him as Jack stood to the side suspiciously. 

Needless to say, Phantom was very confused. Why was his parents helping him? They hate Phantom. Did they see him change back into human form? Is that why they're being so nice? No, Maddie kept calling him “Phantom,” if she knew, she would call him “Danny” or “Sweety.” His secret was safe for now. 

That still begged the question of why they were helping him, and when he asked, their only reply was along the lines of “you’re not a threat,” which really did more harm than good when it came to calming his nerves. 

Nevertheless, they had saved him, and so when Maddie asked for an interview, Phantom didn’t decline. Their questions were standard, if a bit rude. They were nothing he hadn’t answered before, and he only had to lie twice, when their questions got a little too personal. He refused to answer how he died. They didn’t need to know that. 

His healing factor had kicked in, rapidly knitting the skin back together and repairing the damage to his muscles. The room had gotten progressively more relaxed as time went on, and Jack was no longer shooting glares at him from across the room. Instead, he was questioning him with just as much zeal as Maddie. However, Phantom could feel his time here drawing to a close. Danny Fenton needed to be back home before curfew, and he couldn’t do that if Danny Phantom was in the living room. 

Hastily making an excuse to leave, he said goodbye to his parents and phased through the door before they could catch him. His head, which had been overtaken by an awful headache, protested as he flew down the street and into an alley, but he paid it no mind. Unwinding the bandages around his head, Phantom felt his transformation overtake him. 

His heartbeat sped up, his temperature rose, and his breathing grew more frequent. Granted, his heartbeat and breathing still weren’t exactly fast, and his temperature wasn’t exactly warm, but he could pass as human and that’s all that mattered. Seconds later, Danny Fenton exited the alley and headed home, walking carefully as not to disturb the stitched side under his shirt. 

When he arrived home, his parents were whispering in hushed voices, glancing over at the couch occasionally. They greeted him excitedly as he walked inside, before running downstairs to the lab to go over what Phantom had told them. What Danny had told them. 

He sighed and scaled the steps, making a beeline for the door to his room. He should start his homework, but then again, chances are the ghosts aren’t going to let him sleep tonight, so he should take a nap while he can. Not bothering to change clothes, Danny flopped onto his mattress, asleep before he hit the covers. 

In the later weeks, the Fentons would continue to search for Phantom. However, now it was for conversational purposes instead of experimental ones.  He even visited on his own time once or twice for a chat. The overall acceptance of Phantom increased as well, because if the ghost hunters thought he was okay, then the rest of the people would follow. It wasn’t perfect, but it was better than before, and that’s all Danny could really ask for. 

Who knew it took nearly dying to repair broken relationships? 

Well, I did, for one, but I don’t count. I already know how Danny’s story ends. I know how his secret is revealed, and how his parents react. I know who will hurt him, who will betray him, and who will make amends. I know lots of things, including this: Danny will not live happily ever after. He just won't. There will always be more ghosts to fight, more threats to his friends and family, and he will not live happily ever after. His life will be filled with struggle and pain, and there’s nothing I can do to stop that. 

His afterlife however...well, that’s another story. 

I should tell you sometime.

[ranma-rewatch]

Episode 10: P-P-P-Chan! He's Good For Nothin'

Hey there everyone, sorry for the one week delay between posts. We are now up to the tenth episode in the first season of Ranma 1/2, and with it the last episode of Ryoga’s introductory arc. Once again, this is an episode that I’m not entirely sure about how it will play out, so I’ll see you all in the next paragraph once I’ve finished the rewatch.

You know, I hadn’t expected the ending to this Ryoga-centric arc would end with a nothing little story about him being kidnapped by a rich family. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, it’s just...underwhelming?

So, what exactly happened? Well, the episode starts right where the last one left off, with the revelation that the tiny black piglet Akane had found is in fact Ryoga under a curse. He tells Ranma how it happened. In chasing Ranma and his dad to China, Ryoga was lost for ages, searching the enormous country for his quarry. He’d almost caught up by getting to Jusenkyo, only to be hit by a red-haired girl running after a panda. The blow knocked him off a cliff and into a spring, cursing him.

To make things worse, the panda later found him and took him to the guide of the springs, who tried to cook Ryoga into dinner. Since then, traveling has become even worse, since his curse frequently embarrasses him or makes his journey more dangerous. Ranma gets indignant, though. Ryoga only blames him for this because he’d gotten there because he was chasing Ranma, but clearly whoever knocked him into the water deserves far more blame, along with the panda that tried to cook him.

Those words barely left Ranma’s mouth when the door to the baths opened and Ranma’s dad, in panda form, entered before noticing there were people there, and left. Ryoga, looking at Ranma’s cursed form, puts two and two together, realizing that Ranma was in fact also the one who cursed him. His rage flares up once again, but to avoid a naked fight Ranma uses cold water to activate Ryoga’s curse, making him a cute and harmless piglet.

Well, maybe not harmless. They fight anyway, and Ryoga runs out to Akane, who defends the tiny animal against the angry Ranma. To Akane, it just looks like Ranma is being a colossal jerk. Oh, and she kisses Ryoga on the snout, because she just thinks it’s a cute animal, unaware she’s kissing a hormone-laden teenage boy. She even takes him to bed with her, cuddling up with him like he’s a stuffed animal. She wonders why Ranma was so angry with this piglet, only coming to the conclusion that maybe he was jealous.

Whether it’s jealousy or not, Ranma is not having any of this nonsense. He sneaks into Akane’s room at night with hot water, ready to force Ryoga to change back and get out of there. But Ryoga avoids that and fights back, leading to Ranma falling onto Akane face-first, almost making it look like he tried to hug her in her sleep. This wakes her up, and after a moment of them just staring into each other's eyes really cutely, she goes ballistic on him for sneaking into her room and night and trying to get in bed with her. Ranma tries to defend himself, but doesn’t do a good job of it, and she sends him flying out the window.

At breakfast the next morning, it turns out everyone heard the ruckus, and assumed it was Ranma sneaking into Akane’s room to, uh, get busy. Nabiki doesn’t seem to have too much of a problem, aside from the noise level, while Kasumi disapproves of them doing that kind of thing while still underage. Their father, however, thinks Ranma doing something like that is a good idea, and gives him encouragement. Ranma is mortified, hating that everyone thinks he was trying to do something that he absolutely wasn’t.

Akane has nicknamed Ryoga in his cursed form P-Chan and basically adopted him as her pet, even taking him to school to show her friends. Ranma tries taking him to get him uncursed so they can talk, but Ryoga runs away leading to shenanigans. Eventually, with Hiroshi’s help, Ranma gets the piglet and hot water’s him, and they talk at the place where their fight had started before. Ranma points out that Ryoga has been so desperate to fight him, but now he’s running away.

Ryoga’s response is pretty simple. This curse has ruined his life, hence his intense anger for Ranma. But with Akane’s affection, and maybe even love, Ryoga is actually happy. He wants to just be P-Chan and stay with her, thinking they have some mutual affection for each other. Ranma tries to disabuse him of this notion, but that just makes Ryoga think Ranma loves her too. This doesn’t get a ‘No’ from Ranma, but instead a “Shut up, fight me!”

Too bad Akane shows up just as the sprinklers come on and turn Ryoga back into a piglet, leading to her once again thinking that Ranma was bullying her pet. In the ensuing chaos, Ryoga runs away and ends up getting picked up by a rich couple, who basically abduct him. They pamper him, but he just misses Akane, who is searching desperately for him. Even though he still doesn’t like the situation, Ranma tries to cheer Akane up. Oh, and the rich couple find out Ryoga is really a teenage boy, but they don’t mind and want him to be their heir.

As Ranma and Akane are walking home from school, Ryoga is trying to escape just as they pass by. Ranma jumps in to stop the servants of the estate from taking the pig back, but they turn out to be quite strong and they have weapons. Ranma struggles a little in the fight, but Akane helps and they win, taking P-Chan back. The rich couple accept this, walking away as they think that they’ll find some cute thing to replace him. In doing so, they pass Ranma’s dad in panda form, who is trying desperately to catch their attention by being adorable, but it doesn’t work.

That night, Ranma wonders why he even got Ryoga back for Akane, considering he doesn’t want him staying there with them. Then he tries sneaking into her room again, but this time she’s awake and alert, quickly knocking Ranma out again. The next morning, everyone is talking about Ranma doing it two nights in a row, and he is still embarrassed. The end.

This feels like a very patchwork episode. It resolved the cliffhanger from last week, introduced a dynamic that will be seen for basically the entire rest of the series (P-Chan and Akane), and then did a small story of him being kidnapped by rich people. There were definitely things I liked about it, but for the ending of Ryoga’s introductory arc, it definitely felt weaker than it should have.

Uh, let’s see...stuff to talk about...Well, I guess the big thing to tackle is something we’ll have going forward. P-Chan is both Akane’s pet and Ryoga Hibiki, and she doesn’t know that. To her, he is just an adorable little pig. Thing is, this feeds into Ryoga’s need for affection which is desperately unfulfilled, and causes him to fall in love with her. Which must be weird for her, because she barely knows him.

Then you’ve got Ranma, who is actually aware of what’s going on. It must be galling for him to have to watch Ryoga, who is normally the unluckiest person in the universe, stumble into what is kind of the perfect set-up. It makes sense that Ranma’s immediate reaction is to reveal Ryoga’s inadvertent deception so everyone knows what is happening. The fact that keeps failing means that he looks more and more like a creep, which just makes it worse for him.

The ethics of all of this are honestly kind of interesting. Is Ranma doing the right thing? After all, he’s going to big lengths to try and unmask Ryoga, breaking into Akane’s room at night, and even if he succeeds it will hurt both Ryoga and Akane in the process. But shouldn’t Ryoga be stopped? Sure, being Akane’s pet is very fulfilling for him, but she doesn’t have full knowing consent for everything going on with that. There is, after all, a good reason he doesn’t want her to ever know who he really is: she could possibly find that breach of her trust unforgivable. It’s messy stuff, and while I don’t necessarily love it, I am seeing more to it than I have before.

That being said, I am not really a fan of some of the conflict this subplot generates. I do not really enjoy Akane and others getting angry at Ranma and calling him a pervert, not believing any of his attempts to explain what’s really going on. I understand why, but as the viewer I know he’s actually right, and that creates a kind of uncomfortability that I’m not really here for.

Part of me likes both the scenes where the family has drawn the completely wrong conclusions to the sounds coming from Akane’s room. It’s funny, and I didn’t expect it. That said, there is some ambiguity to how they talk around what they mean. Do they think Ranma sneaked into Akane’s room so they could consensually bang? Do they think Ranma went up for a secret midnight rendezvous where he tried to talk her into doing sexy stuff? Do they think Ranma was trying to do certain things to Akane, whether she wanted him to or not? I genuinely don’t know, and some of those options are something I find hard to just wave off, especially when Akane’s dad is so supportive.

Hey, first time in a few weeks with a new character getting the focus! Well, not a ‘new’ character per se, but someone I haven’t done a spotlight on before: Akane’s father Soun Tendo. The head of the Anything Goes Martial Arts Dojo is definitely the most tertiary character I’ve covered so far. He hasn’t gotten a lot of development, and while the occasional episode with give him more to do later on, in general Soun is definitely a background character, far more than his friend Genma Saotome.

For voice-acting, both of his actors do a very similar thing, and they do it well. They give Soun this baritone, serious, kind of traditionally masculine and fatherly voice, which they make more humorous by going over the top with how sentimental and affectionate he is. In Japanese he’s played by Ryusuke Obayashi, who hasn’t done a lot of other voice acting work, while in English he’s played by David Kaye, who apparently has played Megatron (I don’t really watch Transformers) and is the announcer on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, which is crazy to wrap my head around.

I don’t actually know how much blood I can get out of this stone. Soun loves his daughters dearly, though he can still annoy them by making decisions without consulting them first. His wife is dead, though how much that contributes to his current nature we don’t really know. He trained with Genma, becoming such good friends to the point where they made the promise to join their families together one day, and doesn’t seem to have any problem hosting Genma and Ranma for free.

Speaking of, he’s really well off, especially compared to his old friend Genma. The guy owns a pretty large chunk of the block, and while there are occasional comments about the freeloaders from Nabiki, it doesn’t seem as though taking two extra mouths on to feed has really affected his finances. I’ve got no clue where his money comes from. Inheritance? Something marital arts related?

Speaking of, presumably he’s a pretty good martial artist himself. Perhaps not as good as Genma, since he doesn’t train as much these days, but you’d think Soun is a pretty strong dude. As far as I can recall, he never enters any fights, which feels like a bit of a waste. In general, I feel like Soun is a bit of missed potential. I enjoy how he’s so comfortable being emotional, especially compared to some of his friend’s toxic masculinity, and there are occasionally moments where it seems like he tries to help mentor Ranma that I like. But on the whole, Soun is mostly a background character. He has been so far, and I don’t remember him really stepping outside of that too much. I can only help my memory is once again mistaken.

Okay, so, where do I rank this episode? Aside from the parts I liked, on the whole this was a bit of a slog. It wasn’t bad necessarily, but the back half especially was so dull for me that I kept mentally checking out, it was difficult to pay attention. That’s why I’d honestly put it at the bottom of what I’ve covered so far.

Episode 7: Enter Ryoga, the Eternal ‘Lost Boy’

Episode 9: True Confessions! A Girl's Hair is Her Life!

Episode 2: School is No Place for Horsing Around

Episode 6: Akane's Lost Love... These Things Happen, You Know

Episode 8: School is a Battlefield! Ranma vs. Ryoga

Episode 4: Ranma and...Ranma? If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Another

Episode 5: Love Me to the Bone! The Compound Fracture of Akane's Heart

Episode 1: Here’s Ranma

Episode 3: A Sudden Storm of Love

Episode 10: P-P-P-Chan! He's Good For Nothin'

Hopefully, next week we get something better as we move on to a new arc, which introduces a character I didn’t think appeared until quite a while later in the series. Come back next time when I’ll be talking about “Ranma Meets Love Head-On! Enter the Delinquent Juvenile Gymnast!” See you then!

[grandducktale]

“All Yet Seems Well” - Game of Thrones, Dexter, YGO, and the legitimately troubling trend and implication of “the problem play’s” re-emergence in pop culture

So first off, spoilers, naturally. Gonna be talking tragedy here. Also, cringe warning. I’m going to use mostly anime here. Kid cartoons, even.  But there’s a point to all this. If you were fans of Dexter or the television series “Game of Thrones”, any show that had more than anything an “unsatisfying finale” you might be able to pick up what I’m putting down.

What is a tragedy? The definitions vary, but it is a troubling or melancholic story with an unhappy ending. 

A Tragic Hero is easy enough to define. Hamlet from Hamlet, and Spike Spiegel from Cowboy Bebop. These two men are tragic because they pass away, and are unable to fully protect what they hold dear. But... I wouldn’t say they’re truly tragic. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t want to be either of them, but Spike Spiegal and Hamlet do to an extent accomplish some of their goals, and go out in a blaze of glory, score a moral victory, something.

(Pictured Above: Spike saying “Bang” as he bleeds out after killing his nemesis and destroying half a criminal empire in a wild one man blaze of glory)

This post is not about those characters. This post is not even about tragedy, necessary. This post is about problems. Problem plots, problem characters, and problematic implications. The title of this post is “All Yet Seems Well”, because the shows and the characters I am about to discuss are highly reminiscient of Shakespeare’s “Problem Plays.”

To start, let me bring up the character of Shouzu Hiiragi from Yu-Gi-Oh Arc-V(a cartoon about children playing competitive card games Konami makes to sell trading cards). Arc-V is basically the “problem play” of YGO, if said play had a caged gorilla break out and steal the spotlight for the last third of the performance. “Problem Play” is a vernacular used to refer to three of Shakespeare’s plays that couldn’t quite be pegged into tragedy or comedy, that provoked discussion either about the plot’s structure, the means used to resolve the problem, or both. For those not even slightly into Shakespeare, I’ve always viewed the operetta The Yeomen of the Guard as Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Problem Play”, so to speak, though Yeomen might as well be a straight up tragedy relative to Gilbert and Sullivan’s other works. 

But what makes a “Problem Play” a “problem play”, precisely? Well, since we’re talking about YGO Arc-V, lets go to Act V of one of Shakespeare’s “Problem Plays”, All’s Well That Ends Well. Act V, scene three, to be precise. 

King: Let us from point to point this story know, To make the even truth in pleasure flow: If thou beest yet a fresh uncropped flower, Choose thou thy husband, and Ile pay thy dower. For I can guesse, that by thy honest ayde, Thou keptst a wife her selfe, thy selfe a Maide. Of that and all the progresse more and lesse, Resoluedly more leasure shall expresse: All yet seemes well, and if it end so meete, The bitter past, more welcome is the sweet.

So to understand the “problem” with the above(besides finding a more contemporary translation and supplementing that with sparknotes, tvtropes, and google), one must understand the gist of the plot of “All’s Well That Ends Well.”

Basically, the protagonist of the play, a common girl by the name of Helena, has just prevailed in her desire to marry the love of her life, the highborne Ward of France, Bertram. The audience and the reader should in theory rejoice in such a moment. Helena was given the ability to choose her husband as a reward for saving the ill King, and though she picked Bertram and stipulated that he did not have to marry her, and though Bertram did not directly reject her but instead provided her with two nigh impossible tasks that required guile, intelligence, and strength to prevail, something just seems off. (Perhaps this is why the King says “All Yet Seems Well)

What is it that is off? Is it that Helena was for whatever reason the only one in France capable of curing the King? Is it that for someone as skilled and cunning  as Helena, telling Bertram he doesn’t have to marry her is pointless? Is it Bertram’s own psychological manipulation, to the point that even if these two people married and truly did love each other, that their happiness is a righteous person’s misery? That doubt, that uncertainty, the vague feeling that runs contrary to the overt, happy plot is what makes up a “Problem Play.” 

Shozu Hiiragi is tragic not because of a vague sense of malice or villainy inherent in his character like Helena. No, in fact, he is an authentic version of the “Noble Commoner” facade that makes Helena so problematic. YGO Arc-V is about a kid named Yuya trying to make it as an entertainer after his father left him at a very young age, vanishing into thin air. Yuya was bullied severely, and his father was supportive and this larger than life figure. Naturally, his abrupt disappearance was a traumatic event for Yuya.

Yuya compensates for this disappearance and his past by playing Pagliacci, a sad clown. The Pagliacci thing aside, the show makes it quite clear in the first three episodes that Yuya holds on so tightly to his identity as an entertainer because of the absence created by his father’s disappearance

Now before I get to Shouzu Hiiragi, I have to talk about Yuzu.  Yuya’s childhood friend and sweetheart is a girl named Yuzu Hiiragi. 

Shouzou Hiiragi is a lifetime friend and operator of Yushou’s entertainer school.  To summarize without being too spoilery, the audience eventually finds out that both Yuya and Yuzu are alot more important than they seem, and that they sort of just... appeared one day as babies. This is where Shouzu starts to become tragic, since we learn that not only did he raise a child that wasn’t his, he did so as a single father

 So Shouzu was second banana to Yushou, but he was an entertainer of some renown. He gave it up so he could raise his adopted child, and later on, act as the operator of “You-Show Duel School”, a school named after Yusho but ran by Shouzu since Yushou disappeared.

Now there’s a lot of issues with Arc-V. A lot, a lot, a lot, a lot. I am focusing on Shouzu but there’s so much to talk about with how this series has a lot of problems that its tone clashes far too hard with. But I’ll show a meme image out of context for the heck of it. 

I focus on Shouzu because he is the legitimate avenue towards Yuya and the show’s main conflict of balancing entertainment with legitimate hurt, dangerous conflict, and immense suffering and pain. He is a man who does good and puts his ambition aside out of alturism to start, but more than that, he is a genuine father figure to Yuya despite all that is on his plate. 

Like his costume of flame suggests, Shouzu is hot-blooded and passionate. As the plot progresses, Yuya struggles with doing what is right, being a good entertainer, preserving his father’s legacy, and a whole bunch of things. The advice of his father, Yusho, and the advice of his mother, Yoko, is to “smile when he feels like crying” 

This advice isn’t bad, but it is a crutch and a mantra for Yuya, one the direction of the show itself portrays as unhealthy and stunted. (When Yuya cries, he tends to wear his goggles so as to not let it show). So let’s analyze a sequence near the beginning of Arc-V’s 140+ episode. Yuya had obtained a special power like any Campbell Hero, but his rival, Reiji Akaba managed to copy said power in a duel against him(Which Yuya won, anyways albeit due to Reiji having bigger things to deal with)

Being bullied and having a traumatic past, then obtaining a special power unique to him that allows him to win duels, and then LOSING that special power, gets to Yuya a lot, even if he is plenty competent as a duelist.

So he runs away in tears.

Shozou hits Yuya with some facts about how naturally, if a technique or special ability in a game was discovered that gave someone an edge, it would only be a matter of time before other competitors used it too. But Shouzou then challenges Yuya to a duel, and instead of telling him to smile instead of cry, instead re-frames Yuya’s situation of losing his unique ability in a postive and constructive manner

A lot goes on in Arc-V, but the pendulum that Yuya swings back and forth on is the legacy of his father and becoming his own person. Shozou, who is Yuya’s de facto father, provides a path towards the latter. 

But... to make a long story short, Shozou is forgotten about. Yuya keeps chasing after his father, and the lesson he learned from Shozou is forgotten. Arc-V, which if you haven’t been able to tell from my essay on the main character’s girlfriend’s dad has an amazing ensemble cast, and spends 50 episodes developing these great ensemble characters.

But in the next 50 episodes, the ensemble characters fade into the background, and Yuya takes center stage only to repeatedly just smile and want to be like his father.

And in the last 50 episodes, the show gets downright mean spirited. A likable ninja character that has the design of a generic henchmen is killed off unceremoniously, an unlikable legacy character manages to shrug off that fate with ease. 

All the while, the show keeps this upbeat tone of optimism and Yuya triumphing.

And Yuya does triumph, he does save the day, but it’s all wrong. 

I am only skimming the surface here, but the reaction I saw and was invoked in me about Arc-V’s ending was the same reaction I saw with Game of Thrones’s ending.

Something along the lines of “I don’t mind a bad ending, so long as it is tonally consistent and not a confused mess!” 

Were this sentiment unique to Arc-V that’d be it. But it is applies to the end of Game of Thrones, Dexter, Netflix’s Watchmen, damn near EVERYTHING that was popular this past decade. This trend of something having a strong beginning and then fading into tonal nonsense, to the point that the viewers either speculate on finding the “true” “hidden” meaning of a piece

, or worse yet, an active desire for a bad or evil ending, so long as that evil at least makes sense

So I have a bad feeling about all of this. Not just because a series I liked went down the toilet, but because, well, remove all these other mainstream series with promising beginnings that nosedove into the ground and crashed and burned, and what’s the most recent universally acclaimed show left?

That’s it. Breaking Bad. A nihilistic story of personal triumph at the destruction of everything else. Which has its place. But with Arc-V, with Game of Thrones, with all these shows, I see a trend of the absurd entering and ruining a show, which leaves people craving order, even if that order is horrible.

I mentioned Gilbert and Sullivan before, so I’ll end this rambling essay with a quote from a song  from the Mikado that was allegedly almost cut from it.

“ My object all sublime I shall achieve in time — To let the punishment fit the crime — The punishment fit the crime; And make each prisoner pent Unwillingly represent A source of innocent merriment! Of innocent merriment!”

The Mikado is a tale about the absurd and chaotic, the same absurdity that seems to be turning audiences to darker, more orderly, things. But the Mikado showcases both the trouble of the absurd, and the genuine opportunity and chance for grace the absurd provides. 

In my opinion, Problem Play Plots are actually tragedies more tragic than regular tragedies. Borderline horror, even. They bring up problems, and the easiest solution to those problems seems to be that of tragic selfish scheming. But perhaps that needn’t actually be the case. That a benevolent and convincing solution to these problem plots exist - one people can accept, and be inspired by, in a good way. 

And if that can’t be done, if the trauma and chaos of these shows serves no point, then the Gordian Knot of problem play plots must be cut. The damage they have done must be acknowledged, the mystery boxes resolved or done away with entirely.

[iceywrites]

Something about your voice (Reader X Sirius Black)

Pairing: Reader x Sirius Black Words: 3.4K  Chapters: 1/? If you want to read it on AO3, click here

A/N: This is my first ever piece of fanfiction (any sort of it). If you have ANY suggestions, please feel free to share. Constructive criticism is appreciated. That’s it! You can scroll down now.

                                                             ***

The crowd cheered as their performance ended. James pointed his hands to the sky, then lowered them in an exaggerated bow while Sirius leaned forward from the edge of the stage and shook the hands of their fans. Remus started pulling out the wires from his microphone and other instruments that they had used in their concert; he just wasn’t the crowd person. Peter stood up from his seat where he was playing the drums and came into the spotlight, trying to make eye contact with everyone of thousands of people who had gathered to hear them sing. It was a wonderful night since it was last one from their world tour.

“Marauders! Marauders!” The crowd cheered for anyone of the four of them to say the magic words.

Sirius smiled a goofy grin. That was his favorite part of the performance. With his electric guitar still carefully balanced upside down on his back along the strap, he went behind a mic stand and removed it from its holder.

“Before we leave,” he paused for dramatic effect, “I solemnly swear,” he positioned turned the mic towards the crowd.

“I’m up to no good.” The crowd completed. The four of them – The Marauders, if you please – stood shoulders to shoulder, giving a final bow to express their gratitude towards the crowd and with that the lights went out. Even Remus smiled when he looked up at the crowds one last time before they left.

They made their way towards the backstage where they were supposed to have a small meet and greet session with about fifty of their fans who were randomly chosen from a crowd of thousands.

They spent about two more hours there with Sirius telling each and every one of them how thankful he was to see them at the tour. Remus was a tad bit more comfortable when there were lesser people. James was casually joking around with them as if they were friends. Peter usually busied himself with selfies and autographs, giving them a specialized souvenir.

When they were done, the boys resorted to the couch to update their social media feeds with their performance that night. Lily, their agent, came in with a bright smile on her face and not-so-unexpectedly, James looked at her as if she was the meaning of his life, which she probably was. Sirius sighed but smiled. There was no stopping to James pinning over Lily.

“Guys, this was a great show.” She smiled, this time more calculative in character like the agent she was. “We definitely have more profits this year.” She looked at them, her eyes turning soft again. “You did it.”

It was their second album, but they had already made the impression that made every singer in the industry know that they were there to stay. They had a dedicated fan base who supported their decisions without question.

It wasn’t easy to build the band. James was the founder of The Marauders. It was his idea to bring together his mates from their music school to build a band. James’ parents, the Potters, were supportive of his decision. Even though both of them were widely known directors, they didn’t mind their son diverging from their field of art.

But that, however, wasn’t the case with Sirius. The Blacks, just like the Potters, were famous directors only because of their scandals. Each and every member of his family was either an actor or a producer or something in that line of art. Sirius just couldn’t. He could always express himself better when he was singing or playing some instrument. When Sirius rebelled, they threatened him saying that he would be disowned. And so they did. Ever since then, Sirius lived with the Potters.

Remus and Peter were from normal families. They had no celebrity in their hereditary and therefore it was understandable that they were apprehensive.

Remus was the last one to join. He had scars on his body that everyone would claim as ugly and there would never be a day when it would be normal for him. He had been severely bullied when he was younger. It was so bad that he had to get stitches on several places on his body. Then he changed his school and found the biggest goofs he had ever met - James, Sirius and Peter – and life just changed its course.

Remus wanted to join the band, he really wanted. But he just couldn’t convince himself enough that he would be able to handle the negative intensity that would be thrown at him. He would spend nights, tossing and turning around telling himself that he should trust himself and his friends. Every day, those goofs would make leave him little notes like – they are a part of your body and every bit of it is beautiful – or something along the lines of you would create a new scar every time you fight with them. Remus had to admit that they were breaking his resolve. It took him time to understand why exactly was he so needed in that band. It was because the four of them were unbreakable and they hoped to continue it that way.

Sirius had proposed the idea of them having a sort of hieroglyph-ish symbol for each and every one of them. The symbols would tell their listeners about their character and add an element of mystery to their art.

The band was deciding their symbols. James took a stag, Sirius chose a dog and Peter selected a rat. Remus slowly whispered that he would like to be a wolf.

James gave him a toothed grin and said, “Welcome aboard, Moony.” And in that moment Remus understood that they were going to have nicknames too.

Lily told them that they could have a success party but somewhere private where they could be assured that no one was watching them. No one at all. At least not the media. Definitely not the media.

James asked her to join them at the pub they were going where they could have some discretion. She politely refused telling them that it was their success and for once she didn’t want to be a part of it.

Considering them, they got caught pretty easily. Remus had warned them that that place was very crowded and they should definitely not use their Porsche to go to the club and Sirius should definitely not where that jacket which said This is Sirius Motherfucking Black in all possible shades of glitter (which was his patent jacket that he wore at least once to every concert). James waved him off by saying that he was just being paranoid and nothing bad could happen that day. Remus sighed. It would be interesting seeing them face the consequences.

The media was on their heels before they even knew it. This time it was Peter who saw it.

“Mates, that guy right there with the camera has been staring at us for a solid hour.” He whispered.

The three of them slowly turned their head in horror at the man with the camera.

“Lily is going to kill us.” James gulped and Sirius hummed in response.

“I told you – “Remus started but was cut off by a panicked James who was desperately trying to push everyone out of that place.

The cameraman took his clue and started imitating their motions. Sirius eagerly looked over his shoulder to find the man and other such people tailing them.

“We are dead, guys. Lily is going to stab us with her stilettoes.” Sirius said while springing into a run. They had made the very dumb decision of – one - going to the same pub that they had been to a million times before – two – asking their bodyguards and driver to leave because their mansion was close by and they wanted to walk their way home – and three – they were heading to a direction away from their home.

“Why don’t we have alleys here?” Peter asked midst their run.

Remus looked back. They were still chasing them with the cameras and had probably clicked some pictures too.

“Okay, we’re going split. Peter and I are going left and you guys run straight.” They followed him without question because he was the only one who had brain cells among them four.

It worked. The media was totally confused in choosing a more profitable direction. And by the time they decided to split too, The Marauders had found a place to hide. Peter and Remus rushed in a hardware store, which was their only hope considering that most of the stores were shut off in that ungodly hour. James and Sirius found an old and worn out café and rushed in with the logic that the media wouldn’t associate them with a place like that.

You were busy working on your laptop and twirling your pencil. You just really had to complete your project soon as the deadline was rushing close. Your legs were crossed on the table and you balanced your laptop on your lap. You pinched the bridge of your nose and trimmed the video that you were working on, adding filters wherever needed, cropping out unnecessary details and highlighting the moments that were supposed to be important. It was almost done. The music video was meeting your expectations. You made sure that you had completed all tasks that you had made a note of when you were presenting at the site as an assistant director.

You shut your laptop and decided to take a break. You got up from your seat and stretched around a bit. It was 1 AM, so you were obviously caught off guard when two people walked in. And, what was more shocking that they were the bassist and acoustic guitarist of your favorite band, The Marauders. Wow! You stared at them as if you had just met the angels. Your gaze moved from Sirius to James and back again to Sirius.

James looked at your form staring at them and gave you a startled look. Sirius followed his gaze to you and for a moment he forgot that he was supposed to be scared of the fact that you could pretty much blow their cover. How could he be scared? Your eyes were hypnotizing him and he wasn’t against it.

James’ voice brought you and Sirius out of your trance. “Could you help us? Just please don’t tell them that we’re here. Please!”

You smiled. “Hiding from the media, huh?” Sirius could have sworn that he had never heard a voice as angelic as yours.

You walked out of your café and pretended to appear busy. From your peripheral vision, you could see some men with cameras heading towards your direction.

“Have you seen anyone of the Marauders come around here?” A man with a rather gruff voice asked.

“They’re here? Where?” You asked in a squeal. “You have to tell me.”

“Forget I asked.” He said quickly before walking away back to where they came from.

“No! Tell me! Where can I find them?” You pestered as they hurriedly got away from your vision. You waited outside for a few more moments to check if they were heading back. When the coast was clear, you walked inside. Sirius was patiently waiting for your arrival while James’ was in a more panicked state.

“They are gone. You can go, if you want to.” You informed them and James let out a sigh of relief.

“Thank you so much. You’re our savior.” You chuckled and waved it off. You tucked a strand of your hair behind your ear and resumed your editing.

James got up from his seat and started leaving. Sirius was reluctant to leave. He wanted to stay and know more about the stranger that his eyes had caught.

“James, let’s just wait for a while more to be sure that they aren’t coming back around here.” Sirius logically pointed out, buying himself time.

James nodded in agreement and decided to call Remus and Peter to that café as well.

In about fifteen minutes, each one of the Marauders had huddled themselves in the safe cocoon of your café. Remus and Peter seemed a bit apprehensive seeing you there but Sirius decided to tell the valiant story of how you saved them adding his own dramatization. You giggled quietly to yourself when you would know that Sirius was adding extra details and James was shaking his head.

When you were done, you saved your work and looked at the boys. “While you are here, would you like something? I’m sorry I can’t make anything fancy, so please be considerate. Also, I have couple beers with me, so if you want em…?”

Everyone looked a bit hesitant. Everyone except Sirius. He looked like an enthusiastic puppy who was eagerly waiting for his master to toss him something to fetch. Sirius nodded and you tossed a butter beer in his direction. James and Peter joined and you carried the carton along with you for extras. Remus looked hesitant.

“Come on Remus, I can’t poison a canned drink.” You joked and tossed him a can. He gave you a small smile.

You looked around to grab a seat. Sirius slid in, squishing James towards the wall but making space for you. James glared at Sirius but he just looked at you expectantly. You smiled and obliged.

The proximity of having Sirius in your personal space made a deep red blush creep up your neck. You tucked a loose strand behind your ear and bit your lip in hopes to calm your hyped up heartbeat. You decided you start a conversation to distract yourself from your feelings.

“Your performance was great tonight.” You started.

“You were there?” Peter asked.

“No, just saw some videos of people who did go.” You took a sip and continued. “But I was there during your Australia tour. It was phenomenal.” You pointed your can towards Remus. “Your fingers run on those keys as if that is the only religion they know.” Remus bashed away and muttered a thanks.

“What about me?” Sirius asked and James decided to slurp onto his beer a bit loudly. Sirius slipped his drink, fixing his eyes on you.

You looked in some arbitrary direction and drowned yourself in the memories of the concert.

You were standing close to the stage. It was the last song and the crowds were going crazy. You were surrounded by a harmony of screams. In all those voices, you couldn’t even hear yourself. There was a silence among the four of them. Everybody had braced themselves for whatever was to come. The crowd started chanting Marauders like a mantra. And to satisfy everyone’s desires, a spotlight shined on Sirius and he smiled at each breathing soul in that arena. There was something mischievous about that smile but it was subtle enough to not look devious. He was going to open the song with his guitar. His fingers lingered over the strings, playing each chord ever so slowly. And then, his eyes met yours and you felt as if he was going to sing that only for you, like no one else mattered in that moment. You felt your breath being taken away. He winked at you and you swore that your soul had left for afterlife. His fingers went wild on the guitar, resonating its sound in the stadium, making it the most prominent sound over the several thousand screams. Sirius moved his eyes to the next person and you felt yourself come back to your senses. You were feeling dizzy. You shook your head and palmed your forehead, never once letting your smile fade.

Soon James, Remus and Peter came in the spotlight and they commenced their song. You banged your head to every beat and living them as if they were oxygen.

“When you play that guitar,” you said pulling yourself out of your thoughts but not completely, “it feels like the world it only confined to you and your guitar. Like that guitar is your secret language - almost like a mirror - to your inner self. And when you sing, oh God, it’s like everything moving stopped to hear your voice for it is too precious to be missed. I won’t call it an angelic voice, because I don’t know how they sound, but when I hear your voice, everything feels alright. I am in this comfort place where I know that no one can hurt me. Your voice is like therapy to me.” You turned to meet Sirius’ eyes.

Sirius had never heard someone describe him like that. He felt himself loosening up and forgetting there were people around him. It was not the liquor, he was sure. He was just drowning in your words; not because they were about him, but because they were so genuine and pure. There was no want in them. It was just sincere appreciation for his art. Peter and James coughed at the same to bring you both out of your trance. You were suddenly made aware of the people around you. You looked away and cursed yourself for not having a filter. It was obvious that they thought you were a creep and you helped them plant that assumption in their mind.

Sirius eyed each one of his friends, questioning their existence. Remus gulped down his drink to stifle his laughter. James and Peter visibly wiggled their eyebrows suggestively and Sirius only hoped that he could throw all of them away to get a nice moment with you.

James coughed and changed the topic. “And what do you think about me?” He asked, placing his head on his hands and looking at you with faux dreaminess in his eyes.

You shrugged. “Um, well, you sing… good?” James dramatically put a hand on his chest claiming that you wounded him and you felt the need to clarify that you were kidding even though you knew that both him and Sirius were known for being over dramatic.

You didn’t realize how time flew away as you talked to a grey eyed idol and his band mates. You loved how he was so very down to earth when he talked to you. You adored his passion for his art. You admired the way his eyes would crinkle and he would throw his head back when he found a joke particularly funny. You liked when he would look in some arbitrary direction and talk about all the gifts he had received from his fans and how he had a place specially dedicated for those articles.

Over the time, you had learnt to admire the man from his interviews, his voice, his presence, his skills, his looks, his dedication, his passion, his story and whatnot. But now that he was actually sitting beside you, talking to you as if you weren’t a stranger; everything felt… surreal. You had learnt to trust this man and support him no matter what and now that he was interacting with you, you knew that he was real and he had never faked anything.

So, really, it wasn’t your fault that you fell for this grey eyed, long haired Sirius Black.

Sirius wasn’t really far from the page you were on. When he first saw you, he was attracted to the elegance of your form. But when he spent a little more time with you, he realized that there was more than just the outward beauty that he saw. There was more depth and meaning to you and for some absurd reason, he wanted to know it. He wanted to know everything about you. Everything that his brain could contain and more.

What could he say, the mysterious (E/C) eyed beauty just had that captivating aura.

Remus, being the only rational mind among the dorks, suggested – no commanded – that it was past one and they could go home now considering that the media would have gone back a long while back.

They started moving out, thanking you for saving them and sharing your beers. You smiled and told them that they could come around anytime they wanted.

“I open up the café at night only. So, it is pretty safe for you guys.” You said with a friendly chuckle.

When the rest of them had walked a little on the way to their home, Sirius ran back to the café to find you packing up your things.

“I almost forgot,” he said in between his panting, “what is your name?”

You felt a soft blush creeping up on your neck. You tucked a strand of your hair behind your ear and whispered in a soft voice, “(Y/N)”.

Sirius’ lips stretched into a smile as he commented, “Beautiful.”

[besebee]

Alright so I decided I was gonna talk a little about Heroes Rising since I just saw it in theaters. I actually debated going because I don’t like certain directions the manga is taking, but that’s besides the point. Spoilers under the cut.

I want to start off by saying I absolutely adored certain parts of this movie. The fight scenes? Awe inspiring. The camaraderie between all the members of class 1-A? Fantastic.

The premise? Eh... Here’s where my disbelief started to poke through. The idea that UA would send an entire class out onto an island- yes, even one with little to no crime- alone and without any sort of hero supervision is ridiculous. Perhaps with another class in a previous year I could get behind it but this is the class that has had multiple attempts made on their lives. UA is already in hot water with how they’ve handled certain things in the past and whether or not you think they should be, I doubt that the school would want to risk another PR nightmare.

I mean, on top of that the people who work in and run the school obviously want what’s best for the kids and they never want to see them get hurt so why the hell wouldn’t they send at least Aizawa, their homeroom teacher, along with them? Provisional License or not, you have a bunch of students, literal children, on a remote island alone to deal with whatever happens while they’re there.

Alright, so that was a bit jarring but I could ignore it because well, it’s a movie! This is how plot progresses! And to be fair the premise was perfectly fine, I just didn’t find it very believable. It didn’t hurt my immersion in the theater and I was totally enthralled when they got to the island and started doing small heroic tasks like helping people get to the doctor, fixing things, etc. All of these little tasks that showed how well they worked together and how far along they’ve come.

I loved that part. I was grinning the whole time.

Before I get to the villains arriving at the island I want to go over what I thought of them real quick, and I’ll make it fast because we haven’t even gotten to the part I want to rant about yet.

Nine - A watered down AFO. I didn’t mind him, and I actually kind of pitied him? I feel like his character was done well but I wish we knew more about his backstory. There has to be a reason he wants to remake society the way he does. On top of that it is painfully obvious (more so for those up to date on the manga) that he is being taken advantage of. I have no doubt that he was never meant to succeed in his goals and that the Doctor was basically experimenting on him to see what would happen.

Mummy - I loved the music that played in the background whenever he fought. His quirk was super cool and I just found him refreshing since most quirks in this series are physical things? I wish he could’ve stuck around longer like the others but...

Chimera - HIS DESIGN. I LOVED HIS DESIGN. A lot of people from what I’m seeing claim that he is over-powered but honestly given his name I think they did him really well. A being made up of various animals that can breathe fire is what a chimera is, and naturally that means he will be very strong. I will say that they dragged it on a bit long, to the point where him growing in size bordered on ridiculous, but again I loved it. It’s a world full of quirks, some are going to be OP. I can also fully see where he’s coming from with his motivations and I like how he believes in his little group.

Slice - The quirk was something we’ve basically seen before but I love how it was implemented. Her design was top notch and her personality was fun to watch as she handled certain situations. I also love how protective she specifically was over Nine, and I wonder if they have more of a relationship than the movie explored given that they seemed closer to one another than the others.

So moving on to when the villains actually make it to the island. I appreciated that the class split up into teams to deal with each of the villains and I thought the fights were great. I like that we were shown that they were clearly on the defensive as they moved the civilians out of harms way and stood their ground to keep them safe during the evacuation.

The fight with Mummy, however... I didn’t like it. Bakugou seemed to have some kind of plot armor that prevented Kaminari and Kirishima from being able to save him from basically being held hostage and used against them. How? Yeah I’m not sure. Mummy’s quirk works on inanimate objects, and if he wraps his bandages around them he can control them as if they were living beings. Controlling Bakugou’s armor and clothing in order to encase him in this type of ‘minion being’ was a clever idea even if it’s something we kind of saw with the Sludge Monster at the start of the series. One could argue it is with his growth that he was able to escape this similar situation, but I argue that’s completely different. I’m not even sure how he managed to escape Mummy’s hold. I think he might have activated one of his gauntlets but it wasn’t really clear. At least to me.

Lightning Round:

- Mahoro using her quirk to draw attention to their location and the fact that Midoriya needed help was wonderful and honestly the giant Deku was adorable.

- These kids should be dead. I get why they’re not but the amount of damage that they all take throughout the entirety of this movie is ridiculous! If that’s the amount of damage that a teenager can take and still survive, how do heroes end up dying in the field? (I’m just being picky ignore me, I get why they did it and I loved all of the fighting. They all have come so far and it really showcases that.)

- The amount of times someone tells Mahoro and Katsuma to run only for them to stand frozen is... Something else. They are scared kids, yes, but these teenagers are literally almost dying to give you a chance to run so please move!

- Katsuma’s quirk is unique and very interesting so I’m glad it got the spotlight! We haven’t seen many healing quirks!

- Midoriya’s plan was brilliant and I’m glad he got the chance to show off his ability to think things through. His intelligence is certainly something I love about his character and it makes him very formidable as an opponent.

- Todoroki. Killed. Chimera. I know, I know, we have him showing up at the end being led off the island in chains with the others, and Todoroki says “hibernate for awhile” to apply he is asleep, but no. He killed him. There is no way that Chimera could be speared internally with ice while also being frozen over and not die.

- All Might parachuting into what could still potentially be a dangerous situation to make sure his son was okay gave me so many FEELINGS. I actually cried when he cradled Midoriya and they talked.

RANT TIME. I preface this bit by saying: ship whatever you want, like whoever you want in the manga or anime, these are my personal opinions regarding things.

What the absolute fuck was the whole transferring of OFA thing? The minute I saw what Midoriya was about to do my enjoyment of the movie took a sharp nose-dive. Anyone else. Anyone else being given OFA in that situation would’ve been better then Bakugou. I know that Horikoshi has been trying to shoehorn in a bond between the two of them in the manga but in my opinion the whole thing has been poorly handled and feels completely fake and forced.

Bakugou has bullied Midoriya physically and mentally from the get-go. We know it’s been happening since Midoriya was at least five years old and though it can now be very loosely classified as ‘teasing’ for people who really squint, he still does it. He told him to jump off a roof. During their first training exercise in UA, Bakugou severely injures Midoriya despite being explicitly told not to carry through with his attack because it might kill him but he carries through with it anyway because it wouldn’t kill him if he didn’t hit him dead on. That’s quite the gamble to take with someone’s life, especially considering you’re supposedly trying to become a hero.

This is the type of person that Bakugou has been, and the type of person that Midoriya has been dealing with. Midoriya finally, finally, begins to get real friends and realize that he doesn’t have to keep chasing after this one person from his past in an attempt to make things work that will only end up hurting him.

Likewise Bakugou finally began to grow and see his past mistakes and learn from them. He also got friends who he cares about and treats relatively well, and they are so happy to be his friend too.

Both parties became involved in relationships that weren’t toxic and subsequently began to grow and change in ways that made them better people.

...And then Kamino Ward happened. ...And then Midoriya told Bakugou about OFA.

And now they are involved again.

I get that it’s fiction, really, I do, but I don’t think it’s right to have someone who was abused for so long simply... Forgive and forget regarding their abuser. It’s just something that rubs me the wrong way because so many people who have suffered at someone else’s hands are often told they have to forgive to move on which is utter bullshit. These characters were doing just fine as people who recognized their shared past and were learning to deal with each other in situations where they had to be together but would otherwise seek out healthier relationships, and I was all for that! Growth! Growth is good! But for some reason they’re friends again? What?

I wanted to explain my personal beliefs regarding their relationship in order to explain why I think that anyone else getting OFA in Bakugou’s place would’ve been better. For the narrative, for the characters, for everything. Because what you had in the movie was a kid who had been horribly bullied by Bakugou for being quirkless willingly handing his quirk over to him without any regard for himself once again, and then you had that former bully be able to use it instantly.

Showing the audience, showing Midoriya, that everything he has been through in his efforts to cultivate this power, all the things he’s learned and done, have been pointless. If Bakugou can take OFA and wield it at 100% immediately with only his arms breaking with no training whatsoever, what does that mean for Midoriya? That he’s weak? What about his story? And now we have Midoriya seeing his childhood bully take his quirk and use it so much better then he was able to at first and he finds himself back at the question that has haunted him from the very beginning, but even more so after what happened with Sir and Mirio.

Is he a worthy successor?

I didn’t like it. I couldn’t enjoy it. The fight was a beautiful piece of animation, but what had happened just took me out of it. And... I don’t think Bakugou was going to give OFA back. It wasn’t mentioned at all and both of them acted like it was a final thing. Even though the Vestiges said“fuck this” and forced OFA back into Midoriya after the fight (how? magic? who knows) it doesn’t change what happened.

The others are shown to be receiving medical attention and care as reinforcements have finally arrived and we get to see Endeavor hugging a very over it Shoto Todoroki.

...Why? Just why? Like we didn’t need that. It’s just a reminder of another relationship that is being forced into this forgive and forget mold and it just honestly makes me feel sick because of all the things Endeavor has done to his family. I fully believe that he hasn’t changed at all. Instead he looked around once he hit the height of his career, said “oh, I’m alone and everyone hates me and I’m lonely now that I have nothing to work toward” and decided to try and fix things (and I use that term loosely) for his own selfish benefit.

Overall the movie was great. I would totally watch it again, but certain things in the movie just rubbed me the wrong way. Again, this is all my personal opinion, I don’t care if you love Bakugou or BakuDeku or Endeavor, or whatever, you do you, but I just don’t. Oh and to make it clear, if you like any of those characters or things and you support Endeavor trying to get back in his family’s good graces, that’s perfectly fine! I’m not trying to call anyone out or call someone an abuse apologist or some shit, it’s all fiction, I’m just stating my own views.

[quinnybee-writes]

Title: Fire Meet Gasoline

Fandom: Boku no Hero Academia/My Hero Academia

Rating: T+

Part: 4/?

Story Summary: A chance encounter between a villain and vigilante leads to an unwise deal made between unlikely allies; an unwise deal made between unlikely allies ends in a final stand neither would have ever dared to take on alone. Together, though, they just might have a fighting chance.

Part 4 Summary: Purposefully misconstrued dating advice leads to a deal being struck between the villain and the vigilante.

Part 1 on  Tumblr / AO3

Part 2 on Tumblr / AO3

Part 3 on Tumblr / AO3

Part 4 on AO3

Three days later and Aizawa had yet to make contact. Hizashi frowned to himself, watching the dark subway walls speed past the train’s window. He kept having to remind himself to not pick at the cork stoppering the bottle of wine in his lap but his hands grew fiddly and nervous when his mind wandered too far back towards the vigilante’s radio silence. What was the reason behind it? Was he trying to force Hizashi into contacting him instead as some kind of lazy entrapment attempt? Hizashi couldn’t bring himself to believe that. Aizawa was a lot of things but half-assed wasn’t one of them. If he wanted to get to Hizashi he would make sure he did so in the middle of something he could use to nail Hizashi to the wall. If he followed that thought to the logical end, however, Aizawa protecting him made even less sense; it would have been the perfect opportunity to drag Hizashi to the cops by the collar like a self-satisfied house cat bringing its owner a dead pigeon. Why would someone so careful in everything otherwise make such a glaring error and then spend three silent days failing to do anything about it? Aizawa was a mystery of motivation; every time Hizashi thought he’d gotten a handle on the type of person he was, something new came along to prove him wrong. Hizashi grimaced and shook himself mentally as the train slowed at his stop, tugging his thumbnail out of the rut he had carved into the top of the cork. He’d been chasing himself in circles all week, and now wasn’t the time to throw himself back into the spiral.

Standing in front of the apartment door, Hizashi took a minute to center himself with a deep breath and fixed his expression into a relaxed-ish smile before knocking. The chatter of conversation on the other side quieted as footsteps approached. There was a short pause, then the door swung wide to reveal his mother’s elated face.

“Hizashi!” she exclaimed. Before he could return the greeting, her expression fell into one of shocked concern. “Oh my god, what happened to you?”

“Mm? Oh, this,” Hizashi said with a forced chuckle. He cleared his throat and tried to sound nonchalant about his half-healed double black eye and two-inch headwound as he rattled off the cover story he’d been practicing for this moment. “I, uh, tripped over a couple of trash bags behind the studio, ended up clocking myself on a dumpster,” he said, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. “Real graceful, huh?”

“Heavens,” his mother said as she ushered him inside. “You went to the ER and got checked out, right? Head injuries like that can turn nasty out of nowhere.”

“Yeah, Ma, I took care of it,” Hizashi said, giving her an appreciative kiss on the cheek. “Didn’t really have a choice, actually, the night delivery guy found me out cold in the alley and called an ambulance. I think I might have traumatized the poor guy.”

“With a face like that how could you not?” Haru teased as Hizashi came into the kitchen to set down the wine. She took the bottle from him before giving him a quick, tight hug. “Good to see you, Zash.”

“You’re heartless but I love you anyway,” Hizashi replied, squeezing her back.

“Whatever, we both know I’m the cute one,” Haru said. She pulled back and gently prodded him in the chest with her ladle. “Now go mingle, I’ve got a curry to keep from burning.”

“Yes’m,” Hizashi said with a salute.

“If it isn’t everyone’s favorite problem child back from the dead!” Hizashi’s sibling Hoshi said in mock surprise as Hizashi dropped into one of the empty living room chairs. “It’s lucky you showed up, Zash, Hitoshi and I were about to ro-sham-bo for who gets your cat.”

Hizashi turned a grin on his nephew, who was perched on the arm of the sofa next to his mothers. “If you can get Ai-chan to leave the apartment with all your limbs intact, you’re welcome to her, Shortstack,” he said.

“Don’t you even think about it, Hitoshi Shinsou,” his mother Mara said, nudging her son in the leg to reclaim his attention from the video he was watching on his phone. “If I wanted a pet chainsaw, I’d live in a hardware store.”

Hitoshi snorted. “Don’t worry, Mama, I’d rather step on a beartrap than make that cat do anything. Baji can have her,” he replied, punctuating with a “have at it” gesture to Hoshi.

“Yes!” Hoshi said, pumping their fist in the air. “Dibs on the attack gremlin maintained!”

“Are we just ignoring the fact that I’m not actually dead, or…?” Hizashi asked, crossing his arms and trying not to smile as he arched an eyebrow at his sibling.

“I mean, at this point we kind of have to,” his sister Hinako said from the other side of her wife. “Mara and I claimed your TV and that fancy toaster oven Mom and Dad got you for Christmas last year, Haruko gets your new laptop and router, and Hiro beat everyone else out in the tournament for your apartment lease. Ai-chan was the last thing we had to divvy up.”

“You guys are the absolute worst,” Hizashi said, trying and failing to keep a straight face as he said it. “I take time out of my busy schedule of being attacked by trash bags and getting bullied by my cat and this is the thanks I get?”

“Truly, we aren’t worthy,” Haru said from behind him, ruffling his hair. “Time to set the table, busy boy, Mom said Dad’s almost home.”

Dinner with his family was like finally being allowed to exhale after months of holding his breath. Deep down he’d known having to isolate himself from them to prevent them from getting wrapped up in things had weighed on him, but the full extent of it didn’t hit him until here and now. It took less time than Hizashi had expected to get back into the flow of the family conversation, a chaotic blend of speech, signing, and the kind of sweeping gestures that came from being raised by an opera singer and a very emphatic law professor. The constant sting of edginess that kept him from ever really relaxing melted away to nothing, no match for the rapid-fire retellings of weird life moments and accompanying bouts of breathless laughter from around the table.

“Speaking of tired,” his father said, bouncing off the tail end of a story Hiro had told about a toddler at his daycare center who had somehow gifted three other children and one of his coworkers with a combination of chicken pox and flu, “you’re looking a little wilted, Shortstack. High school applications getting to you?”

“Actually, Hitoshi has some news about that he was going to share tonight,” Hinako said. She beamed over at her son, giving him an encouraging squeeze on the shoulder. Hitoshi cleared his throat, the look of someone who had hoped they weren’t going to have to talk in front of people written plain on his face. Hizashi gave a sympathetic wince; growing up as an introvert in a family full of dramatic hams and public speakers had to be a lot to handle when the spotlight was suddenly on you.

“I decided to take the UA High entrance exam,” Hitoshi said, managing a small smile in spite of himself.

Despite his sympathy a moment earlier, Hizashi couldn’t help joining in the excited uproar from around the table that followed Hitoshi’s announcement. “Hell yeah, dude!” he crowed. “Carrying on the family tradition!”

“Does it really count as a tradition if only one of us made it in?” Hiro asked. He seemed to realize how the question had sounded a moment later as Hoshi elbowed him in the side. A strained flicker of sideways glances at HIzashi followed. Hizashi just grinned despite the sudden jolt the words had sent through the pit of his stomach.

“Don’t be such a wet blanket, Hiro,” Hizashi said, shaking his head. “If people are allowed to call things ‘first annual’ then Haru has every right to be a family tradition all by herself.”

“Aww, thanks, Zash,” Haru said, reaching across the table to pinch his cheek. Hizashi swatted her hand away with a snort.

“You went to UA, Aunt Haru?” Hitoshi asked, sounding surprised. Haru preened.

“Sure did! Three years strong in the A-class Hero Course, graduated seventh in my class. Not high enough to get snapped up by one of the famous agencies, but good enough for some solid sidekick gigs,” Haru said.

“That’s right, you’ve been doing temporary assignments at a bunch of agencies, haven’t you? How’s that going?” their mother asked quickly. Everyone seemed eager to sidestep the pit of discomfort Hiro had accidentally opened up, especially Hiro. As everyone’s attention turned to Haru’s newest temp assignment at Loud Cloud’s agency Hiro caught Hizashi’s eye and mouthed “dude, sorry”, grimacing at himself. Hizashi shook his head and signed “no worries” back. The words still burned in his gut, but Hizashi did his best to ignore it and listen to Haru’s story.

Too soon for his liking, Hizashi hit his soft out time, his middle out time, and finally his hard out before the trains stopped running and he’d have to take an overpriced cab home. He said his goodbyes, promising without much hope that it wouldn’t be this long before he saw them all again. As he was putting on his shoes, Haru threw her coat over her shoulders and offered to walk him to the station to make sure he got there okay. Not about to turn down a lingering moment of normalcy before he had to go back to being himself in the morning, he accepted.

“Hey. You okay?” Haru said as they headed up the sidewalk.

“Mm? Yeah, why?” Hizashi said. Haru gave him a Look and Hizashi relented. “I mean, he wasn’t wrong,” he said grudgingly.

“Being right isn’t the same as not being a dick,” Haru pointed out. Hizashi waved a hand as if wafting away the accusation.

“Honestly, Haru, it’s not a big deal. Some of us grow up to be heroes--” Hizashi said, gesturing to Haru-- “and some of us have to make do being the family disappointment,” he finished, gesturing back at himself. “It’s the circle of life.”

“Don’t say things like that,” Haru snapped, surprising him with the sternness in her voice. “You aren’t a disappointment to anyone. Especially me. All right?”

Hizashi smiled at her, shoulders relaxing back out of the sarcastic hunch they had started to reflexively tighten into. “Yeah. Thanks, Haru.”

Haru nodded authoritatively. “So. On to other things, namely this dashing, courageous night delivery guy you mentioned,” she went on, a sly smile creeping over her face. Hizashi tried to ignore the way his face immediately heated up at the implication in her tone.

“What about him?” he asked, amused in spite of himself at the word “dashing” being used for the scruffy, monotone Aizawa.

“I mean, he was gallant enough to come swooping in to your rescue to save you from your own klutziness,” Haru said. “Seems like something you’d want to repay with some kind of favor, don’tcha think? Like one that starts with ‘thank you’ and ends with ‘drinks after work, my treat’?”

Hizashi scoffed, about to blurt out that under no circumstances whatsoever was something like that going to be on the table, but the word “favor” sparked off a half-formed idea in his head. Repaying favors with favors was practically his side business, after all. There might be something in that, though far from the path Haru’s mind seemed to be going down. “You might be on to something there,” he conceded. “I’ll let you know if it works.”

“Make me your best man at the wedding and we’ll call it even,” Haru teased, holding the station door open for him. “Text me when you get back to your place, okay? There’s some bad shit going around right now.”

“Will do. Thanks again, Haru.”

“Just doing my job.” Haru gave him another quick hug-and-hair-ruffling before bidding him goodnight.

Hizashi lay in bed with a very disgruntled Ai-chan snoozing on his chest, burning his eyes with the light from his phone screen. The more he considered what Haru had said, the more the idea appealed to him. The only roadblock now was Aizawa and his apparent determination to freeze Hizashi out. Still, there was more than one way to catch a delivery man, Hizashi thought as he double-checked the station’s equipment budget for this quarter and opened their online supplier in a new browser tab.

It seemed like in aside from “multi-platinum criminal mastermind” and “epicenter of most of the trouble in his life right now”, Shouta could add “compulsive online shopper” to the list of traits Hizashi Yamada was using to intrude on his day-to-day life.

Shouta had done his best to put the confused night he’d helped Yamada avoid arrest out of his mind, ignoring the paper bag of Yamada’s belongings where he’d stuffed it into the back of his closet and getting back to his life. At first Shouta had thought Yamada had either been doing the same, or at the very least avoiding stirring things up while the dust was still settling. Yamada hadn’t made any kind of contact and was keeping quiet about his misadventures in his public life as far as Shouta could tell from the bits and pieces of Yamada’s show he’d caught while on patrol. Instead, however, Yamada appeared to have been just saving up energy for the marathon of attention-seeking he had planned. Nearly every day Asahi Radio was one of his scheduled stops with some new item listed as needing delivered to HIzashi Yamada, signature required. Shouta managed to very calmly beg a few of his coworkers to switch routes with him for the day, making sure to ask the ones with longer routes who would be more than willing to switch him for a shorter day for the same pay. After several days of running unfamiliar routes and going through every willing coworker he had, however, he found himself railroaded back into taking his route back by a politely-worded “friendly reminder” from his supervisor about making sure to get his own work done. Shouta checked his delivery manifest, saying a short, silent prayer to not see what he knew he was going to see down at the bottom: Asahi Radio, three kilogram package for Hizashi Yamada, signature required on delivery. He gritted his teeth, throwing himself into the front seat of his truck and slamming the door behind him. Today was going to be a very long week.

As soon as Chiyaki saw Shouta shuffling through the front door with the box tucked under his arm, they were already hitting Yamada’s extension on their phone. “You got another one, boss,” they said, waving Shouta inside.

“On my way,” Yamada’s voice replied. Shouta was darkly pleased to hear that he sounded almost defeated when he said it, like the week of not getting what he wanted was starting to grate on him as much as his pestering was grating on Shouta. Yamada came slouching out from the back room of the studio. He didn’t look much better than the last time Shouta had seen him; the bruising around his eyes had faded from midnight purple to a sickly pond scum grey-yellow-green and the gash on his forehead seemed to be healing well, but he held neck and upper body stiffly like he was trying very hard not to move too quickly and risk wrenching something. Despite this, his whole posture straightened as he saw that it was Shouta making the delivery today. Shouta sighed internally as Yamada swaggered up to him with a suspiciously cheerful grin.

“Haven’t seen too much of you around here lately,” Yamada said, the barest note of challenge to his tone. Shouta gave him the flattest, most disinterested look he could manage in return.

“We’ve been moving people around,” he said, handing Yamada the clipboard. “Sign here, please.”

“Right, right,” Yamada said. He stamped the bottom of the delivery slip and made to claim is carbon copy. As he started pulling the perforation, he paused as if he’d just thought of something. “Are you allowed to pick up something since you’re already here, or do I have to call in for that?” Yamada asked.

“I can take it for processing if it’s properly addressed, but they’ll charge your account after the fact for the delivery costs. And since it’s Friday it probably won’t get delivered until Monday,” Shouta said. It was technically against policy do it things that way, but a little bit of policy finagling was worth cutting this conversation as short as he could.

“Oh, that’s fine, it’s nothing urgent. Just something I owe a colleague of mine,” Yamada said. “It should still be in the outbox, Chii,” he added, turning to Chiyaki and pointing to a pair of mail trays behind their desk. Shouta collected the envelope from Chiyaki and tucked it under his arm, reclaiming the clipboard from Yamada as well.

“Thanks for your patronage,” Shouta said, already turning and heading towards the door. He tossed the envelope into an empty bin in the back of his truck and was mostly successful in putting it out of his mind.

“Aizawa!”

Shouta halted on the threshold of the employee entrance at the sound of a voice behind him. He sighed, wondering what new impediment was about to be added to his day. When he turned around, however, he was surprised to find Takeshiro, one of the night crew in package processing, approaching him with an envelope clipped to a clipboard.

“Something I can help you with?” Aizawa asked warily. Takeshiro held the clipboard out to him.

“Found somethin’ for you in one of the bins,” Takeshiro replied. “Figured you could sign for it now. No point sendin’ someone all the way uptown for someone who works here, y’know?”

He wasn’t wrong, Shouta supposed, though it seemed strange that someone would be sending him something through the company he worked for. If they knew him well enough to send him things he would have assumed they knew to just use the postal service and save themselves the handling fees.. He set his bag down, having to dig through a few different pockets before he found his spare stamp. Takeshiro watched him with disinterest bordering on impatience. Shouta signed for the envelope and barely had time to tear off his copy of the form before Takeshiro reclaimed the clipboard and bid him a perfunctory good night. Shouta watched him go, eyebrow raised, then shrugged. He would have considered himself a man of few words, but Takeshiro was about as talkative as a tree stump.

Turning back to the envelope, Shouta was somewhat unsurprised to recognize it; the envelope Yamada had gotten him to take for processing earlier that day. Shouta grimaced at the thought that Yamada considered him in any way a “colleague”. The envelope itself was heavier than he would have expected for its size and rattled when he turned it over in his hands. The noise was not encouraging. Shouta slid the envelope into his bag, careful not to jostle it too much as he made his way back to his apartment.

Once there, Shouta dug a filtration mask, a pair of thick leather gloves, and a long-handled pair of chemistry tongs out of the jumble of spare parts and unused equipment in his linen cabinet. It would be somewhat out of character for Yamada to resort to some kind of long-distance assassination via courier package but Shouta wasn’t in the business of being careless around villains. He knelt on his entryway floor, envelope in front of him. Using the tongs he grasped the tab of the envelope and pulled it open. Nothing happened, which was equal parts a relief and suspicious. He took the bottom corner of the envelope between two fingers and pulled the edge of the opening wider with the tongs, sliding the contents of the envelope out onto the floor.

A zip-top sandwich bag full of cash clattered out, landing with a metallic splat. Holding the envelope at arms’s length Shouta peeked inside and saw something square and yellow stuck to the inside; pulling it out revealed a pair of yellow sticky notes stapled together at the top corner that appeared to have been shaken off of the sandwich bag in transit. The note on top read “they took a stupid route and overcharged you”. Dumping out the sandwich bag, Shouta found it contained five thousand, one hundred sixty-nine yen in small bills and change; rounded up, the fare from the hospital to Yamada’s apartment building. A roundabout way of deciding to repay him, Shouta thought, but it showed more discretion that he’d honestly expected out of Yamada. Flipping to the second note, he saw it was an address and a small but detailed hand-drawn map from his apartment to the destination and a meeting time of 8:30pm, signed off with Yamada’s stylized M signature. One step forward, two steps back, Shouta thought as he pulled the respirator mask off with a sigh. The invitation wasn’t a binding agreement, but Yamada had already proved he was willing to go utterly over the top to force Shouta into an interaction. Either Shouta bit the bullet and went now, or he had at least another week of near-constant deliveries to look forward to. At least this way he could return Yamada’s things and not have to look at the accusatory paper bag every time he went to get dressed in the morning. One look at the clock told him he was already destined to be late, but Shouta didn’t bother rushing as he collected the bag and kicked on his shoes to head out again. Whether Yamada waited to see if he was coming or stood him up was the other man’s prerogative.

The address was for a small bistro-style cafe with a rooftop veranda that overlooked the sidewalk. Yamada was hovering beside the door with his phone in his hand, pretending to be engrossed in whatever was on the screen but keeping a sharp eye on passersby. He looked like he had come straight from work, still dressed in the same clothes Shouta had seen him in earlier with a leather laptop bag over one shoulder. The smile he gave Shouta as he approached was as close to genuinely friendly as Shouta had ever seen from him.

“I already got us a table,” Yamada said, nodding to one of the tables on the veranda. He motioned for Shouta to follow him into the restaurant and up a claustrophobically narrow set of stairs next to the door to the kitchen. The two of them sat across from one another at the table, a tension settling between them as soon as they did. Shouta ordered a black coffee without looking at the menu and Yamada requested the server come back in a few minutes to give him time to look things over.

“I’ve never actually been here before,” Yamada admitted when the server left. “I saw it when I was walking home the other day and it struck me as a good place to get some privacy, you know?”

“Hn,” Shouta replied. The veranda was abandoned other than the two of them, with only the tiny staircase or vaulting the safety rail as viable exits. A quiet laugh from Yamada interrupted Shouta’s train of thought. He looked over to see Yamada trying to hide a smirk behind his hand.

“You do that too?” Yamada asked.

“Do what?”

“Tally up every escape route the second you get into a place,” Yamada said. “Hopping the railing wouldn’t be my first choice, but you seemed to be staring at it pretty hard. Bored with me already?”

Shouta scowled at him, trying to ignore the heat in his cheeks at being called out. Instead of answering, he grabbed the paper bag and set it on the table in front of Yamada. Yamada looked at it, then up at Shouta with his head cocked to the side. “I would have returned it sooner, but things came up,” Shouta said, only lying slightly. Things had come up, they were just mostly intangible things like the unmistakable feeling that he didn’t want to see Yamada. Bemused by the roundabout explanation, Yamada unrolled the top of the bag and looked inside. He paused, seeming taken aback when he saw what the bag held.

“So you’re the one who made off with all of this,” Yamada said, not quite managing to keep the surprise out of his voice. He pawed through the bag’s contents and pulled out the tangle of wires and audio parts Shouta had yanked from around his neck.

“I...may have broken that,” Shouta admitted grudgingly. “Sorry. There wasn’t a lot of time.”

Yamada looked it over, running it through his fingers like a jeweler inspecting a string of pearls, then shook his head. “It doesn’t look like it. I worked some break points into it when I built it, like those elastic loops they put in cat collars so they don’t strangle themselves.” He shrugged. “Might be time for an upgrade anyway.” He seemed to catch himself lapsing into thought and shook out of it, holding the handful of assorted technology up like Shouta was supposed to have any idea what he was looking at. “It’s a vocal directional focus,” Yamada explained. “Depending on the combination of switches I use, it activates the speakers to give me a little boost in sending my voice where I want it to go. The only downside is smaller parts burn out twice as fast, and that’s if you’re using them for what they’re meant to do. You can only fight obsolescence for so long.” He shrugged again, setting the gear aside to continue poking through the bag.

Yamada picked up his mask, making a face at the jagged crack across the brow, then his jacket. He inspected the jacket even more closely than he’d looked at his gear, clicking his tongue in annoyance and running his thumb over some deep scuffs on the lapels and sleeves. “A little polish and she’ll be good as new,” he muttered, more to himself than Shouta. As he moved it to the side, something fell out of the pocket and clattered onto the table. Yamada picked it up. “Is this yours?” Yamada asked, holding up a small matte black USB drive between finger and thumb.

“No,” Shouta said, shaking his head. He had quite a few storage drives, but he kept them in a secure pocket elsewhere in his bag from where he’d stowed Yamada’s things.

“Huh.” Yamada looked it over, but from what Shouta could see there didn’t seem to be any kind of label on it. “Do you mind?” Yamada asked, pulling his laptop case up onto the table. Shouta shrugged. Personally he thought the mystery flash drive could wait until Yamada was done with whatever he had called him here for, but Yamada had already packed away his other belonging and was halfway into booting up his computer heedless of Shouta’s waning patience. Yamada’s eyebrows furrowed closer and closer together and he scrolled through the drive’s contents, occasionally making small “hmm”s or “huh”s.

After one especially scathing noise of curiosity, Shouta lost the last of his composure and half-snapped, “Something interesting?”

Yamada blinked, seeming to come back to himself but not looking away from the computer screen. “Possibly,” he said, sounding like he was more thinking out loud than anything. “Looks like the two you chased off were trying to do a little bit of revisionist evidence-planting. Some of these transcripts are mine, but some of them are definitely not. They are very interesting, though. If the night had gone a little differently those two would’ve had a nice feather in their cap.” Saying that seemed to jog him fully back to the present. “Anyway,” he said, pulling the drive out of his laptop and stowing both back in the case. “That actually brings me to what I actually wanted to talk to you about.”

“Which is?” Shouta asked. He couldn’t help feeling relieved that they had finally gotten to the point of this tiresome meeting.

“I wanted to thank you,” Yamada said. His expression was as close to serious as Shouta had seen from him and his voice lacked any of the attention-seeking cheeriness or slick smarm he usually used. “You stuck your neck out for me when you didn’t have to, and things would have broken pretty bad for me if you hadn’t been there.”

“Er. You’re welcome,” Shouta said. The words felt very awkward in his mouth. The corner of Yamada’s mouth flickered up into an almost-smile but it was gone again a moment later.

“That’s only half of why I asked you to meet me, if I’m honest,” Yamada continued. Shouta frowned, a sinking feeling settling into his gut. Of course there was a catch, he thought irritably. When he didn’t respond, Yamada went on without him. “Since I owe you for saving my skin, I want to offer you a deal. It’s something I think will solve this stalemate we keep finding ourselves in,” Yamada said. He was back in his element, posture too languid and his voice picking up a calculating breeziness. The return to status quo wasn’t completely unexpected but was completely unwelcome.

Shouta waited for Yamada to keep talking, but Yamada seemed to be waiting for him to make the next move. Gritting his teeth, Shouta asked, “What kind of deal?”

Yamada’s renewed grin widened at the acquiescence. “It’s nothing too complicated,” he said. He held up a hand, long fingers spread. “The deal is ‘first to five wins.’ Each of us gets to ask the other five favors, no strings attached, no questions asked. The first one to use up all five has to willingly turn themself over to the authorities and never breathe a word about what they know about the other.”

Shouta stared at him, taken aback. He’d expected something sneaky that would keep the scales tipped in Yamada’s favor, but turning the situation into some inane rivalry game was a twist he hadn’t seen coming. As far as he could tell, Yamada was completely serious about the suggestion; he seemed proud of both the idea and the reaction it had gotten out of Shouta.

“You said no questions asked. You mean, no matter what the favor is, we’re required to do it because we agreed to the deal?” Shouta asked. Yamada nodded. “So what’s stopping one of us from saying, ‘do me a favor and go turn yourself at the nearest police station and pretend you never met me’?”

Yamada frowned. “Nothing, I guess, other than a sense of fair play,” he said coolly. “Deals like this require a certain level of trust to work.”

Shouta snorted. “What makes you think I trust you?”

“There has to be some reason for a guy like you to lie to the police and withhold evidence, then let the only other person who knows the truth walk away from you,” Yamada said, shrugging one shoulder.

He had a point, much to Shouta’s annoyance. His choice to let Yamada go that night and then do everything he could to not see him until now was more one of exhaustion mixed with avoidance, but not once in the midst of it had it occurred to him that he might have to worry about Yamada turning him in to the police. He must have been silent long enough that Yamada could sense him coming around to the idea, as Yamada’s grin returned in all its toothy, rankling glory.

“So, is that a yes?” Five strikes for each of us. Well,” he corrected himself, “five and four. I’m guessing I’ve probably already burned one free pass at your good will.”

Shouta shook his head. “No,” he said. “If this is to level the playing field, it’s going to be level. Five for each of us, like you said. What happened before was a...lapse in judgement,” he finished, scowling at himself. His moment of ill-advised altruism had officially overstayed its welcome.

“To lapses in judgement,” Yamada said, extending a hand across the table. Shouta shook hands with him, hating the finality of it. With the rules as they were set out, all Shouta had to do to win this ridiculous bet was hold off on asking Yamada for anything other than some peace and quiet and wait for Yamada to burn himself out. It was too simple of a solution for Yamada to have not thought of it before he offered the deal, and Shouta had a sneaking suspicion that they would end up clashing at the finish line anyway. For right now, though, it seemed like playing along might be his best option.

[joannaofportugal]

JOANNA DE BRAGANZA / / CHALLENGE 004 

eleven tests completed & eleven explainations wrote out. 

SOUL TYPE TEST | the sage

A Sage soul is one whose role in life is collective expression, communicating big ideas with as many as possible. Natural extraverts, playful expression is fundamental to the Sage’s nature, though they are more adept at entertaining an audience than in coming up with original ideas. They are born attention-seekers, very much at home in front of an audience, taking centre stage. The bigger the audience the better, but any audience will do. The natural goal of any Sage is to express the highs and lows of life for all to see, sharing lifes lessons in an appealing way to create shared understanding. All soul types can manifest positively or negatively in any given moment, as the individual chooses. When manifesting negatively, Sages lapse into ORATION, i.e. hogging the spotlight, loving the sound of their own voice. The positive manifestation is COMMUNICATION, being on the same wavelength as the audience. Famous Sages include Mae West, Oscar Wilde, Bill Clinton, Jim Carrey

NOTE: reading through the soul type was very on-par with joanna’s very person, i would class her as a YOUNG SAGE who chases fame as nowdays celebraties do. she hogs the spotlight, the loves the sound of her own voice - what else could she be? 

MBTI TEST : entp-a ( the debater )

The Debater personality type is the ultimate devil’s advocate, thriving on the process of shredding arguments and beliefs and letting the ribbons drift in the wind for all to see. Debaters don’t do this because they are trying to achieve some deeper purpose or strategic goal, but for the simple reason that it’s fun. No one loves the process of mental sparring more than Debaters, as it gives them a chance to exercise their effortlessly quick wit, broad accumulated knowledge base, and capacity for connecting disparate ideas to prove their points.

NOTE: i was surprised, i thought her mbti would come out as something a little more dramatic rather than chasing knowledge or logic in it’s most intense form. i’m not too agreeing with the result, but maybe i can use this information to strengthen her person - and i like the ‘devil’s advocate’ side to it. 

CREEPIEST THING ABOUT YOU TEST: your possessiveness is really uncomfortable

It’s obvious to everyone around you that you feel the need to keep everything just the way you like it, and that insistence often borders on obsession. Your persistence, materialism, and sentimentality can prevent you from ever letting things go, and the more you care about them, the more stubbornly you defend your right to own them forever. Sorry to say, but there are some things, like memories and loved ones, you simply can’t own, and trying to stake your claim over them just makes you seem unbalanced and creepy. It probably wouldn’t hurt to quit being such a hoarder, too - none of your guests enjoy trying to find a seat in a room piled high with reminders of everything you refuse to let die.

NOTE: this is quite onbrand but wouldn’t be the creepiest thing to me when it comes to joanna - though she is posessive i don’t agree that it’s overwhelmingly disgusting.. i’d say it’s her rudest, or need to be right all the time.

TEMPERAMENTS TEST: sanguine 23/24 choleric 18/24 melancholic 05/24 phlegmatic 05/24

Your temperament is sanguine. The sanguine temperament is fundamentally spontaneous and pleasure-seeking; sanguine people are sociable and charismatic. They tend to enjoy social gatherings, making new friends and tend to be boisterous. They are usually quite creative and often daydream. However, some alone time is crucial for those of this temperament. Sanguine can also mean sensitive, compassionate and thoughtful. Sanguine personalities generally struggle with following tasks all the way through, are chronically late, and tend to be forgetful and sometimes a little sarcastic. Often, when they pursue a new hobby, they lose interest as soon as it ceases to be engaging or fun. They are very much people persons. They are talkative and not shy. Sanguines generally have an almost shameless nature, certain that what they are doing is right. They have no lack of confidence.

NOTE: this is a much easier answer for me to digest, though joanna isn’t evil she certaily has a rudness that can come across as evil to some people - or perhaps she truly is just a bully. and the last quote, ‘they havae no last of confidence’ is right on the target! though of course, as a young girl there may be bouts of insecurity.. which may evolve into humility or down-right foolery. 

LAWFUL ALIGNMENT TEST: chaotic neutral

A chaotic neutral character follows his whims. He is an individualist first and last. He values his own liberty but doesn't strive to protect others' freedom. He avoids authority, resents restrictions, and challenges traditions. A chaotic neutral character does not intentionally disrupt organizations as part of a campaign of anarchy. To do so, he would have to be motivated either by good (and a desire to liberate others) or evil (and a desire to make those different from himself suffer). A chaotic neutral character may be unpredictable, but his behavior is not totally random. He is not as likely to jump off a bridge as to cross it.

NOTE: in terms of alignment i think this is the safest option to describe joanna, she is no hero but she is no villain either.. she looks out for herself more than anthing else, though most choices come at random and at various paces.

GREEK DIETY TEST: poseidon

He was god of the Sea and other waters; of earthquakes; and of horses. In pre-Olympian Bronze Age Greece, he was venerated as a chief deity at Pylos and Thebes. Poseidon was protector of seafarers, and of many Hellenic cities and colonies. He is noble and powerful, and is recognized as a figure of leadership.

NOTE: like what happened when i took the same quiz for marius, i lost my first results. my first was aphrodite, which i didn’t necessarily agree with - then came poseidon. i’m happier with this result because poseidon was such a crass and awful man who made hell a lot worse than hades ever could’ve - he killed many whilst at sea, and in my opinion, was one of the most powerful gods of greek mythology. 

ENNEAGRAM TEST: type 7 / 7w8 ( the enthusiast )

People of this personality type are essentially concerned that their lives be an exciting adventure. Sevens are future oriented, restless people who are generally convinced that something better is just around the corner. They are quick thinkers who have a great deal of energy and who make lots of plans. They tend to be extroverted, multi-talented, creative and open minded. They are enthusiasts who enjoy the pleasures of the senses and who don't believe in any form of self-denial.

NOTE: she is certainly a pleasure seeker and planner for distraction and i think this is the closest i’d get to describing joanna though i wouldn’t call her creative due to the fact that she has little skill to anything!

SEXUALITY TEST: 40% heterosexual 30% bisexual 20% asexual 10% homosexual

this needs no description though i will write that of course she hasn’t had sex with anyone yet due to her position? it would be wrong for her to do that as a princess and thus has not experimented with anyone either than taking a few kisses from princes and noblemen. also, she has yet to be awoken to the sense that being attracted to girls is normal, so this quiz is entirely random to the point that it’s made for modern day human beings, not ones from 1455. 

POKEMON TEST: flying type

The Flying type is all about the self. You possess traits that are often sought-after: Confidence, self-respect, and bravery radiate from your being. You are a very self-aware individual, and that knowledge can be employed to great use both alone and socially. Remember, however, to not get too big of a head, Flying-type: Your confidence is good, but empathy is better. Often, you may find yourself at the whimsy of society. You are honorable, but also constantly worried about your self-image remaining pristine. If you allow yourself to become too wrapped up in what others think of you, you may become too flighty and scattered for your own good. Remember to relax, and let your spirit soar!

NOTE: though i find it hard to relate joanna to a pokemon the description is pretty good and i can fit joanna into it - though i’d rather see her as a spoilt and messy jigglypuff. 

TEA TYPE: hibiscus tea

You’re a *lot*. But that’s not a bad thing! You’re unafraid to take up space and make your voice heard. You love being the center of attention and are willing to cause a scene to swivel the spotlight toward you. You’ve got a sharp tongue (you’ve probably been called sassy at least once in your life) and you can use that for good or evil. Your tartness might not be for everyone, but those who get you love your larger-than-life presence.

NOTE: once again it’s pretty lose to joanna’s character and i particaly like the line ‘your tartness might not be for everyone’ 

BIG FIVE PERSONALITY: 

of course i wasn’t going to pay for this quiz so i only have a little information to share: OPENNESS 52% CONSIENTIOUSNESS 10% EXTRAVERSION 100% AGREEABLENESS 21% NEUROTICISM 33%

NOTE: extraversion is a funny one, and i really like the look of this type of quiz but alas i’m poor and i’m not gonna spend money on a made up character! 

and as i did with marius i ended up making a birth chat for her, who was born 29th may, 1438 at 17:39am. 

[hmntxrch]

chase the wind and touch the sky a star’s light shines on long after it dies 

(jake t austin. gnc transman) It looks like JOHNNY STORM has been transported to New York City. HE/THEY is a SIXTEEN year old CANON and the aesthetic associated with them is STARRY SKIES, VIDEO-GAMES, SLEEPING BY THE FIREPLACE, COMIC BOOKS, THE SMELL OF WARM SPICES && GREASE STAINED HANDS.

Johnny was born in Long Island, New York, roughly four years after his older sister. He’s recently been thrust into the spotlight on both the celebrity and super-hero scene as the Human Torch, as a contribute to the android of the same name from WWII, and feels more like he’s a fish out of water than someone living a Hollywood-esque dream. The Fantastic Four as a whole are new to the crime-fighting scene, and they seem more invested towards interstellar affairs, but they’re nonetheless proving to become a quickly adored public image.

But life wasn’t always so fantastic for the Storm siblings. Despite the legacy of their family name, they’ve grown up in a broken home and used to always struggle just to make end’s meat. Their parents, Franklin and Mary Storm, were two renown voices in the science community who left impressions on a vast number of fields. The family had the briefest of idyllic lives. Johnny was little, when their mother tragically died in a car accident. Too young to remember her at all. What he does remember is his father, and how the man quickly grew despondent; burying his grief with alcohol while he gambled away the family’s money. 

He remembers how Sue was also so, so young yet she already had to take on the role of raising her younger sibling. How she started working when she was probably too young, still, to do so. He remembers the times his father would remember they were there, always forgetting because he was too busy drowning. The yelling. The broken apologies. Cutting his tiny hands on glass as he tried to clean up the photo of Mary that he dropped and broke, before dad woke up and saw. Sometimes, Franklin would get mad at him, or something else, and it’d be terrible; especially if after a period of relative normalcy. Don’t tell your sister.

Johnny still found himself waiting for dad to come home, when he seemed to just vanish one day; even though they quickly lost their old home, shoved into a corner of their Aunt Jewel’s boarding house, never quite actually having a home there. Jewel didn’t like Johnny very much, he always thought, with how she was always complaining about how he could never sit still, never talk properly, always getting under foot. While Sue was at work or school, Johnny often found himself alone. He was never good at making friends with other kids. But the old mechanics from a near by car shop didn’t mind having Johnny around– they’d even let him fiddle around, teach him things. Johnny quickly grew to love cars, building things, taking something apart and putting it back together again; their garage quickly became his favorite place to hide after the kids at school were particularly mean, or when he was trying to avoid Aunt Jewel.

Sue was just starting college, moving out of the boarding house to live in some dorm with the plan of coming back during the summers for Johnny, when old Aunt Jewel finally grew tired of him. He’s not sure what it was, exactly, that was the last straw for her– maybe it was how the days he came home from school without bruises were becoming less and less, or how he was in his clumsy preteen years and kept knocking over her vases or dropping dishes. He only remembers her yelling, being forced to pack his few belongings, and having to ride the train over to Sue’s all by himself. Being that poor scrawny little kid crying his eyes out, lost and confused when he came to his stop; because Sue wasn’t there, Aunt Jewel forgot to actually tell her that Johnny was being sent over, and no one could understand a kid who couldn’t stop sobbing and stuttering and whose hands were too shaky to sign.

That’s when he met Reed, the kindest guy Johnny had ever met, who happened to be on his way to campus and had decided to check out what was causing such a commotion. Apparently, Sue and Reed were fast friends, sharing classes together, so of course the genius recognized who the bawling kid was and contacted her. The guy certainly made a great first impression on Johnny.

Then it really was just him and Sue. Sue, who was barely an adult; who couldn’t catch a break from being his caregiver on top of everything else she had to do. They ended up living in a tiny apartment for a bit, and with even more struggle Sue was recognized as his only legal guardian– they didn’t have any other family. None that actually cared or mattered. Johnny was… he always thought he’d be okay, so long as he at least had Sue. School never got easier for Johnny, with the bullying that persisted even into high-school and how he could never quite perform well in a traditional classroom, but he had Sue, and then Reed and Ben, and it helped.

Then the Snap happened, claiming Johnny as one of its victims, and he returned to an older sister who was now a whole decade older than him. Reed’s hair had started to gray prematurely, and Ben was– was still Ben, but Johnny couldn’t help but feel as if he missed more than five years of his life. Something had shifted, while he was gone, something he still can’t quite place. Of course, no one’s told him anything about what they’ve been up to; which is why he ended up skulking around to eavesdrop on their private talks when they thought he was asleep.

He found out about their plans to go into space, about Reed wanting to go ahead and test the ship they’ve been working on together, even though administration hadn’t authorized it for flight yet. It was technically stealing.

So, they stole the friggin’ space ship. Johnny begged to join, because who wouldn’t want to go to space? Also, he didn’t want to risk being separated from Sue again; not that he actually said anything about that, but Ben groused to Reed: “Dammit, Stetch, if it’s as safe as ya think it is, just let the brat come along–” and that was that.

He doesn’t remember much about the brief time spent actually among the stars; but he does recall the crash. Of burning up, inside and out, veins feeling like molten lava as his irradiated body instinctively absorbed the explosion. It’s disorienting and terrifying; he thought he was dying and alone, partially buried under some debris. He went Nova, then, as his vision swam. He blacked out after that. He knows the four of them somehow came to some kind of testing facility, probably a branch operating under SHIELD, and spent a good portion of the following year trying to understand what happened to them, planning what to do next.

Johnny never expected to go from Long Island’s most miserable loser who still mostly wore hand-me-downs from his sis, to practically overnight teen idol and public hero. But it’s his reality now.

Currently, he’s still struggling to get used to all the attention this kind of fame brings; and it’s a herculean effort to not erupt in flames from public anxiety alone. He’s spending this second year mostly still trying to get used to his powers, going back to school, etc.

TRIVIA

In regards to what point of 616 canon he’s up to, he’s roughly post the Mike Snow Incident and Moleman’s introduction.

I depict Johnny as mixed Filipinx like myself, but finding a faceclaim that met the age requirements without being too old was hard as hell; so I settled for someone who was at least mixed Latinx.

Johnny had a terrible stutter growing up, and is still taking speech therapy for it (although it’s no longer as severe as it used to be); he learned basic ASL to help his communication skills.

Johnny has gad, autism, and adhd.

He’s been able to completely overhaul a car engine’s transmission since he was roughly 15 yrs old.

Originally a student at Glenville High; the incident with his former long-time bully Mike Snow has caused him to transfer to Midtown High at the beginning of this school year.

Some of his special interests are Star Trek, cars, astronomy, Pokemon, Legend of Zelda, Buffy, and film history.

Johnny has persistent nightmares/terrors of the crash; this often results in him burning even the most fireproof bed-sheets as he nearly goes Nova in the middle of the night.

[fellowhuman-being]

Insight on Hollywood - Fifth Harmony Related

So for fans who are “woke”, I think you guys know that whatever you read on articles, what you see on Instagram and Instagram story, or even what your most favorite artist tweets are not all real. @emisonme​ @decoding1432​ and @sun-to-my-luna​ has exposed a lot about it in their page. So you better go there to get deeper understanding about “the men in suit”.

I came across this game called “Choices” where in this game, you can choose your story based on the options given to you. Different options of course lead to different stories, but I guess the ending is still almost the same. So there is this book called “Red Carpet Diaries” in the game. It gives a little hindsight about what happened in Hollywood. If you wanna know the technical things that “the men in suit” do to their artists, you might as well just try this game and you’ll get an idea about how things works with contracts and stuff.

This game tells a story about a new actress, but the technical stuff is almost the same for a newborn singers. I’ll explain about the story a little and highlight important parts that will give you a hint to how “the men in suit” works. This is gonna be a bit long, so bear with me. (For those who don’t wanna get spoiled of the story, I guess you can play on the game first before you read this article).

These are the links to see the big picture of the story. (You can just skip if you’re too lazy and just jump to play the game in your phone by downloading it through AppStore or PlayStore lol... Or you can just jump to my article below)

http://choices-stories-you-play.wikia.com/wiki/Red_Carpet_Diaries,_Book_1_Choices

http://choices-stories-you-play.wikia.com/wiki/Red_Carpet_Diaries,_Book_2

So the story is about an actress whose talent is good and comes to LA for putting a bet on her career in Hollywood. She has a best friend whom she knows from her hometown who currently works as a Junior Agent in a big talent agency. The Book 1 basically shows about how she climbs the ladder and tries to become a spotlight in a big film and (let’s cut to the chase) she made it.

Here I will focus on Book 2 where the whirlwind happens when “the men in suit” tries to control this actress‘ life. But before that, don’t get surprised that “the men in suit” can play really dirty. I will mention it one by one later. For now, I’ll call this actress as “Ms. Queen”.

After all the success that Ms.Queen has achieved in her first film, she became a star and all Hollywood wants to work with her. Her best friend who becomes her agent got an email that a Director wants to take her as a lead in the season’s biggest blockbuster WITHOUT any casting. It’s an action movie where she will play as an agent trying to capture a former agent who becomes a villain. The filming starts with her mostly trying to perfect her hairflips when she comes out of water wearing a bikini. The director says that she will look like a sexy agent.

I remember how this also happened with Fifth Harmony. They came out straight of a talent show with no record label wanted to take them. It was all like a dream came true when Epic took them. No one even knew their songs. In their age as newborn stars, they needed to follow the instructions that sex appeals and here came all the sexy songs.

Yes, everything also seems like a dream come true for Ms. Queen that after the first stage of filming, she got invited to meet the owner of the film. Let’s just call him “Mr. V”. This Mr. V is “the men in suit” who then gives a promise to Ms. Queen to make her a star. But then at the end of the meeting, Mr. V suddenly tells her that she will have a new manager. In other words, her best friend is not her agent anymore and tells her that he has talked to the owner of her best friend’s agency and both have agreed that it’s for the best. She wanted her best friend to stay as her manager, but then Mr.V says “It’s an order!”. Thus, Ms. Queen now has a new manager named “Tad”

With Fifth Harmony, do you still remember when they were under a new management? Correct me if I’m wrong but if I’m not mistaken with the timeline though, it happened in early 2016 and all hell broke loose.

https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6836616/fifth-harmony-joins-maverick-management

Under the new management, Ms. Queen has a really tight schedule with endless appearances on shows, interviews, and so on. Tad (the new manager) also wanted her to “fake” date her co-star to boost the film once it is launced. Then of course after a few weeks the film is released, they can post a “break up”. They need to upload in their Pictagram (which is a replacement for Instagram in the game) through a screen in the management office that looks like a real beach. Then the next day, Tad set up a “fake” date in a fancy restaurant where Ms. Queen will have a candle light dinner with her co-star. He invited press and some photographers from gossip blogs. Tad asked Ms. Queen to “make it look real” so that the photographers who stand by can take a highres pictures and video of them looking comfy and cozy together. They are not even allowed to speak as if they were not couple-y. They need to call each other “honey” and all those cute nickname as long as the press is there.

Now, do you see where this is going? This is also what happened with the girls ever since 2016. All the whirlwind especially with “Lauren’s private life” and now even Camila does the same thing. The whole PR stunts were made as if everything looked real while it’s NOT. I don’t need to talk about which one 1 by 1 here. I think you know what I mean.

The next day, surprisingly Mr.V’s secretary calls Ms. Queen that Mr. V would like to have a dinner in a restaurant. The time has been set. But then at the last minute, before Ms. Queen goes off to the restaurant, Mr. V calls and asks to change the place to his mansion / house. He says that he has some business afterwards that it will be better to have the dinner in his house. Sounds fishy? Well, Ms. Queen is too innocent to notice that Mr. V has something up his sleeves. Apparently, during the dinner, Mr. V asks her to sleep with him. She tries to escape the house but then Mr. V tells her “You’re going to regret this. Remember I am the powerful one here.”

I don’t want to jump to conclusions though but do you still remember the rumour about L.A. Reid being accussed for doing sexual assault? I know the one who brought the case to public is not FIfth Harmony but if something happened to any of the girl, I would NOT forgive him.

https://variety.com/2017/music/news/l-a-reid-accused-sexual-harassment-sony-music-epic-records-1202426625/

The next day when Ms. Queen goes to the set, everything is crumbling. You know there is like a cabin or a container where the actors can rest during the break time, right? When Ms. Queen arrives at the set, hers is replaced with a dirty and stinky one. After that, the Director makes an announcement about the poster and Ms. Queen is not in it. Meanwhile, SHE SHOULD BE THE LEAD ACTRESS. After that, surprisingly the Director also says that Ms. Queen is not needed on set on that day. It’s like Mr. V is punishing Ms. Queen for not giving what he wants.

As if things don’t get worse already, when Ms. Queen arrives at the apartment, she gets a call from her best friend. He tells her about the news that she is bully in high school and the source of the news is anonymous. She tries to open her social media, but she can’t open it. Apparently, the password has been changed by Tad (her new manager). Then, she tries to look from another account into her real account. In fact, there is a posting of an apology from her account about what she did in the past and that she would not repeat the mistakes again. But she never even bullied anyone!

Do you think this is kind of familiar? This happens to Fifth Harmony all the time. They always ruin the girls or one of the girls’ image and build it back again later. I still remember how the image of Lauren being a weed user became viral after the incident where she was caught in the airport before she went to Brazil to sing for a show with the girls.

http://www.tmz.com/2016/12/14/fifth-harmony-lauren-jauregui-arrested-weed/

It was such a stupid news to be honest. I think with someone as smart as Lauren (someone with 5.0 GPA like the fans say), it was so stupid to bring weed in the hand carry. Could it be a punishment as well at that time for Lauren? Unfortunately, we never know....... After all, TMZ was always source of PR stunts.

Of course Ms. Queen was pretty sad with what happened. She doesn’t like the “Queen brand” that Mr. V and Tad make. She wants to quit, but apparenly it states in the contract of the film that she will be fined USD 10 million if she quits! She tries to re-read the contract, and it clearly states like that in fact.

Do you still remember when Lauren was asked about what keeps them going for 3 years and Lauren said “a contract” and the situation became awkward? I honestly laughed really hard at her reaction but she wanted to spill some tea!

You can see the full video here (watch 16:58 - 18:03)

Here Lauren also mentioned about how they performed the same songs over and over again as well as singing songs that they were “given”. At that time, I’m pretty sure they don’t have the “control” that they are talking about. It’s just to give us reassurance that Fifth Harmony is getting better year to year.

After that, Ms. Queen has a coffee meeting with her best friend (her former agent) and he tells her to just forget everything. Like indeed there is “Queen brand” out there but it’s not the real Ms. Queen. It’s for the people out there who don’t really know her. The Ms. Queen that her friends and relatives know is the complete opposite and 180-degree of that being mentioned in the press and even her own social media. Those who know Ms. Queen before all of this will know that it is NOT the Ms. Queen they know.

So, guys what I get from this game is somehow like a “slap” in the cheek, you know? I know I have always been a fan of the girls. All of them. All 5 of them. And I will always be OT5 stan. But this is also an important message for you guys, fans. This is such a reminder that we need to remember how the girls are back then when all hell hasn’t broken loose. We still remember the kind and cheerful Ally, the kind and beautiful Normani, the kind and smart Lauren, the kind and friendly Camila, and the energetic and sarcastic Dinah. That’s the real them. I know people change. But seriously, how is a characteristic changed though? It’s easy to change your habit, but it’s really hard to change someone’s characteristics. That’s why some things never change.

On the next day, Ms. Queen goes abroad to continue the shooting. But all the props are not safe. Ms. Queen tries to protest but then the Director ignores her. He ensures her that everything is safe and will be alright. So they shoot the capturing scene when Ms. Queen is trying to capture the villain by climbing up the scaffolding. In fact, the actor who plays the villain falls over and breaks his legs and ribs. All the crew was shocked including all the actors. The filming production was postponed for some time and all crews were asked to stay silent about what happened. It’s part of the contract and they were instructed there would be punishment if they breaks the rules. Ms. Queen tries to knocks the Director head but then she unintentionally eavesdrops on the Director’s discussion with his Assistant Director. Apparently, Mr. V cuts the budget on the film production so that the crews need to reduce the budget on the props as well, costing the actors’ safety! Since they were tight in budget, they could not hire a stuntman as well. Ms. Queen was angry and she told everything to the biggest Hollywood gossip show by staying anonymous. But, Mr. V knows that Ms. Queen was the source of the leak. So Ms. Queen gets fired.

Fortunately, even if she gets fired, after reading carefully to the contract, Mr. V cannot sue her for the USD 10 million. Instead, after she gets back to LA, Mr. V blocks the entire street of her apartment and she cannot live in her own appartment. Thus, she is homeless for around 3 days.

What I want to expose here is the power of “the men in suit” in controlling their artits, and the part where the NDA contract plays a role here. You can see if the NDA contract is broken, then there will be sort of “punishment” to the related person. I think this is why Dina Lapolt says that Fifth Harmony’s contract is like the worst she’s ever seen.

https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/magazine-feature/7865161/fifth-harmony-2017-billboard-cover-story

The long road to liberation began with 5H hiring outspoken music lawyer Dina LaPolt at the end of 2015. “I sat the girls in a hotel conference room and for five hours educated them on trademarks, copyrights and rights of publicity,” says LaPolt, who soon helped secure them new management with the preeminent firm Maverick (Madonna, U2, Miley Cyrus). “Then I educated them about every agreement they signed, which [were] the worst I’ve ever seen in the music business.”

LaPolt successfully transferred the Fifth Harmony trademark from Cowell to the group, meaning the women now own the name, along with the right to control how it is used and to profit from any deals. (The agreement -- signed in April 2016, months ahead of Cabello’s exit -- doesn’t name Cabello in the “Fifth Harmony Partnership.” “I don’t represent Camila,” is all LaPolt will say.) She then renegotiated 5H’s contract with Epic, which she characterized as “a very adversarial” process.

Even in this game it is said that “The biggest stars are not just people. They are commodities.”, which means that the investor (”the men in suit”) can play around with the stars as long as they get the money, even if that means that the stars should give up their identity to public. After all, the stars can’t do anything against what they want since they are bound with the contract.

I hope this gives a little hints on how it works in Hollywood and how “the men in suits” control their stars. I surely don’t know th content of the NDA contracts though since nobody can talk about it, but that’s how it works and how bad the punishment can be when the rules are broken.

[inhumansforever]

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #34 Review

spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers spoilers

Desperation can cause even the most brilliant among us to make mistakes.  And Lunella Lafayette has made a critical error in her effort to find a solution to preventing her super-powered mind-swapping with Devil Dinosaur.  Things went wrong and it all resulted in Devil D being transformed from a savage tyrannosaurus into a savage nine-year-old boy.  Which is worse?  

From the creative team of Brandon Montclare, Natacha Bustos and Tamra Bonvillain.  Quick recap and review following the jump.

Things have been rather hectic over at the Lower East Side elementary school, PS20.  The new mayor, The villainous Wilson ‘The Kingpin’ Fisk, is threatening to shut the school down unless the students perform especially well on a set of standardized tests; the Kingpin’s adopted daughter, Princess, has enrolled and appears dead-set on making sure these tests are not passed; and now there is an especially odd new student with red hair and crazy eyes named Devin, whom Lunella tries to convince the others is a family friend from Canada.  

Well, Devin may look like a normal little boy, but he is still very much a dinosaur at heart and he knows bad news when he sees it.  Princess approaches and Devin leaps forward to attack her.  It takes everything Lunella has to keep Devin at bay and make sure that serious trouble doesn’t ensue.  

Of course ‘serious trouble’ is among Lunella’s friend, Eduardo’s most favorite things and he decides to set things off by swatting Princess’ backside with an oversized copy of the Fantastic Four omnibus.  

Pandemonium ensues and before you know it, Devin is standing atop the desks roaring king of the jungle style.  It’s good stuff… pretty much how I recall primary school being like...  

Later, Lunella has an after school meal with her grandparents at Yancy Burger.  This apparently is a twice-monthly affair where Lunella gets to send time with both of her sets of grandparents, her mom’s parents and her dad’s parents.  Which should be nice although both Lunella’s grandmothers spend a lot of time arguing over which of their two children Lunella most takes after.  And they’re all confused as to why Lunella has chosen to bring along this poor-mannered redheaded…

Lunella seems rather intrigued to hear that she so reminds her grandparents of her own parents when they were her age.  It’s been so difficult for her to relate to her mom and dad; the idea that they were kind of like her in their youth is quite appealing to her.  

Unfortunately, Lunella cannot stick around to discuss the matter further.  Devin has gone and snuck off and Lunella has to chase after him, making up some lame excuse as to why she needs to bail out.  

Devin has wondered down the street and finds Zoe and Eduardo chatting with Princess.  Princess is especially annoyed that Devin has shown up.   She’s desperate for attention, they had all been talking about her and now Devin has appeared to steel her spotlight.  Not to mention that Devin is always trying to attack her.  

Zoe has an idea as to why this may be.  She’s heard that sometimes little kids will be mean toward other kids because they have crushes on them and don’t really know how to deal with it… they very much want their crush’s attention, but don’t know how to garner it other than by being mean and bullying (she ain’t wrong).  And Zoe adds that this is likely why Eduardo is often so brash toward her…  which pretty much freezes Eduardo in his tracks….   Oooooh!  Eduardo has a crush on Zoe!!

In any case, Princess likes this idea.  Of course Devin has a crush on her.  Who wouldn’t?     Princess’ good mood is once more soured when Lunella shows up to collect Devin.  

Lunella is the one person whom Princess hates the most… she receives all the attention, respect and approbation that princess so covets.  

After Lunella and Devin leaves, Princess asks Zoe and Eduardo why they so like Lunella.  What does Lunella have that Princess doesn’t?  The two explain that Lunella is smart and she’s a super hero, and she saved the city a couple time, saved the whole planet… plus she has her own dinosaur.  hard to compete with that….

Later that evening, Wilson Fisk returns to the mayoral mansion to find his adoptive daughter in a foul mood.  He’s given her everything a little girl could want (outside of actual parental attention) what more could she want?  Princess makes it very clear exactly what it is she wants: her own dinosaur…  

That’s a tough request, yet the Kingpin is used to getting his way and if his daughter wants a dinosaur then a dinosaur she shall have.

The next day, Lunella has discovered that Devin has once more gone missing.  She dons her Moon Girl outfit and uses her specialized tracking device to seek him out.  Unfortunately, her device is meant to track down big red dinosaurs and doesn’t work as well for redheaded nine-year-old boys…

Suddenly she hears Devin’s ersatz roar and chooses the sound into a nearby ally.  Here she finds Devin held in the clutches of the nefarious Wrecking Crew, a team of super powered villains who have faced off against the likes of The Hulk and the Mighty Thor.  They are big time bad news and it appears abundantly clear they have been hired by The Kingpin to get to Lunella and take from her Devil Dinosaur so that he might be offered up to Princess.  Oh boy…

And it is here that the issue comes to its cliffhanger conclusion, with the promise of continuation in the next installment.  As to how Moon Girl will be able to go up against The Wrecking Crew without the assistance of Devil D is difficulty to try and figure out.  Brains beats brawn most of the time, but this is a whole lot of brawn and may very well prove too much for Moon Girl’s brains.  Looking forward to seeing how Lunella navigates through this one!

Yet another fun ride…   Not a good deal of action, but it’s made up for by a lotto fun bits and character development for both Lunella and the books extended cast.

some disjointed thoughts:

Younger kids do indeed quite often have a hard time expressing their ‘liking’ a peer; and this does frequently lead to them being mean or bullying in a clumsy effort to gain their crush’s attention.  And though Devin does not have a crush on Princess, it’s been clear for a while that Eduardo has a bit of a sneaker for Zoe and I hope the ongoing narrative will explore this further in the future.

Lunella’s mom and dad have really struggled in finding a way to relate to their daughter and Lunella’s reaction to what her grandparents had to say offers up an avenue in which they might finally do so.  She seemed to really like the idea that her mom an ddad were like her when they were younger.  Her mom and dad need to stop trying to control Lunella and instead try to better empathize with her.  

Princess is a total brat, but she is not completely unsympathetic.  Her desire for attention and demands to get her way looks to be merely a defense, a stand-in for the parental support and containment she has been denied.  Being orphaned is a pretty traumatic affair and her bratty, near-despotic behavior can be seen as an understandable reaction to such a trauma.  All the things she demands of her adoptive father is merely smokescreen covering up a painfully insecure attachment.  Fisk doesn’t need to get her a dinosaur, he just needs to spend quality time with her and make her feel loved, contained and connected to.  

It looks like The Wrecking Crew has recruited a new member to fill in for Thunderball.  I wonder what her story is...

Taking a step away from the more light-hearted aspects of the issue, I was a little troubled by a certain aspect to the issue... 

So Devin’s wild behavior makes for a fun parallel for kids dealing with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.  And yet it’s kind of a tough one if you look at it in greater depth.  Some cases of ADHD are connected to a neurological situation referred to as ‘hypofrontality.’   This is when there is lower-than-average levels of blood flow and metabolism in the frontal lobes of the brain.   The frontal lobes are sort of the executive branch of cognition… it’s where decisions are made, behavior is planned out, consequences are considered.  

Diminished activity in the frontal lobes can lead to impulsive behavior, difficulties paying attention, troubles resisting distraction.  Psychostimulant medications, like Ritilan or Concerta, act to compensate for the reduced activity in the frontal lobes.  The stimulant effect acts to speed up blood flow and metabolism throughout the brain, including the frontal lobes.  

While medication can be quite helpful for individuals coping with ADHD, I’ve achieved the same effect with many patients by way of cognitive-behavioral strategies and skill-building for executive functioning.   Combining psychotherapeutic skill-building with medication can allow for using a lower dose of the medication for a shorter period of time (which is good since there can be substantial side-effects to these medications).

Anyways, while it’s kind of fun to see Devin Dinosaur act like a kid dealing with ADHD, it’s not really a metaphor I want to get fully behind.  Tyrannosaurs have notoriously small brains, they’re not the sharpest knives in the paleontologic drawer.  Children and adults coping with ADHD and/or hypofrontality are not akin to dim-witted dinosaurs… their brains are not smaller nor less effective - they merely function in a different fashion.  

Sometimes, brain activity can be kind of a hydraulic thing… reduced neurological activity in the frontal lobes can quite often co-occur with heightened activities in other regions of the brain.  It can correlate to heightened activity in the temporal lobes, the parietal lobes, the limbic lobe.  This is why many individuals who struggle with scholastic work due to ADHD can excel in other areas… can be great athletes, awesome at video games, can be super creative and/or highly empathetic and sensitive souls.  

Then again, I guess Devil D is not your average dinosaur.  He’s not the mindless brute more often associated with a tyrannosaurs rex.  He’s intuitive, sensitive, loyal and good guy and very much a hero.  I might be overthinking all this.  I guess it could be fun for a kid with ADHD to see themselves reflected in Devin Dinosaur; and not feel offended that they are presented as akin to an animal.  

I’m rambling…

In any case, a fun read… once more excellently illustrated, beautifully colored… another highly recommended installment.  Four out of five Lockjaws!